Chapter XXXVII: The Three Kingdoms
"They did it!" Twilight Sparkle cried out upon seeing the three representatives shake hooves and claws, and Pinkie Pie let out a burst from her party cannon, which she simply pulled out of thin air. Everypony but Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Derpy galloped through the rain of confetti over to Starswirl the Bearded, Queen Ember and Emperor Bluehorn. Dash, Fluttershy and Derpy stayed behind with Rainbow Sword's body. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and the Doctor gathered around Starswirl and praised him for his success in finally bringing the Five-Hundred Year War to an end.
"So how does this world-saving magic of yours work?" Bluehorn asked.
Starswirl cleared his throat and stepped forward with a commanding posture. "That is why we need thee. What we ponies know is merely part of the whole. The prophecy from which we learned of this magic spake of the wisdom of all three kingdoms. We need the knowledge of the Ponies, the Dragons and the Hoofricans to conjure it."
Bluehorn proceeded to turn around and call over Golden Lead and Pyro. The two prominent alchemists came over with smiling faces and bowed down awaiting orders from the Emperor who fulfilled all they hoped from him. Bluehorn said to them, "All-powerful magic, ancient knowledge and wisdom to stop the Apocalypse isn't really my area. So, it's your time to shine and really show the world your worth! You are to do everything the Sorcerer asks of you. I trust you have what it takes."
Golden Lead stood up and replied, "But, Your Highness, we've looked through pretty much everything already. There's nothing we know of that can help. There's nothing from the writings of the Four Sages to my dad's journals."
"All anything says about Tartarus is how it opens and what's inside," Pyro added as he too stood up.
The Doctor listened in on the conversation and walked over to ask, "Was there anything from around eight-hundred years ago? Any prophecies? Sleep-visions? Anything at all? Oh and I'm the Doctor, by the way." He offered out his hoof.
Golden shook his hoof and said, "A pleasure to meet you Doctor...?"
"Just the Doctor."
"Doctor. Well, I'm Professor Golden Lead and this is my younger brother Pyro."
"A pleasure. But really though, is anything little thing at all that took place eight-hundred years ago? Even the smallest, but out-of-the-ordinary, thing that may not seem to matter."
Golden gave it some thought for a few moments, but came to nothing. She shrugged and shook her head. "What's so important about eight-hundred years ago anyway?"
"That's when our prophecy came to Queen Magia. And around the same time there was kind of an event that made a big wibble in the Time Vortex and may have resulted in ponies seeing bits and pieces of other parts of space and time in their sleep-visions. Some others may have had sleep-visions similar to Queen Magia's and could help us."
The Doctor sighed in disappointment and scratched his head, trying to figure out another way to approach the problem. Golden stood there confused, trying to comprehend all the Doctor's talk about time and space.
Just then Pyro spoke up, "There is one thing..."
The Doctor's ears snapped up and turned in the direction of Pyro's voice. The rest of the Doctor's body soon followed.
Pyro continued, "There's an obscure old story about a mad warthog who lived eight-hundred years ago. He stole diamonds from the Emperor's vaults and made them into a cauldron. A cauldron of pure diamond. On the bottom of the outside of the cauldron he carved the words 'Mbaya Mbwa Mwitu.' He became notorious as the only living being ever to have broken into the Emperor's vaults."
"Yup. That's for me," the Doctor said, "'Mbaya Mbwa Mwitu.' Ancient Zwahiri for 'Bad Wolf.' Well then, I guess I was right. Rose did wibble the Time Vortex and cause Queen Magia's prophecy."
He chuckled gently to himself, remembering his times with his former companion, Rose and how she absorbed the Time Vortex to save him from the Daleks. When she did, she spread the words 'Bad Wolf' across all of time and space in order to lead herself to the moment she absorbed the Vortex. He remembered how she used the power of the Vortex to turn the Daleks into dust. Her actions must have caused a significant amount of turmoil in the fabric of space and time.
"There's just one problem," Pyro said, "the cauldron was returned to the vaults and locked away. It's all the way back in Rhinopolis." The optimistic delight from hearing of something helpful quickly washed away as the Doctor's smile turned to a frustrated frown. He tried to think again. There had to be some way for the Hoofricans to help, otherwise the prophecy would not mention the need for them.
"Actually, it's not," Bluehorn rejoined the conversation with a very optimistic look on his face and he appeared to be resisting the urge to laugh. Golden, Pyro and the Doctor turned with surprise to listen to him. The Emperor took a moment to compose himself before continuing. "It's in the camp. Last year, I was looking through the vaults and found a diamond cauldron and I thought it'd make a nice gift for my chef, who I happened to bring along with me to these mountains. Sorry, it's just funny because my butler Alfalfred insisted that I didn't need to bring the chef, so we made a bet on whether bringing her was a good idea or not."
The Doctor's smile returned and he galloped over to Bluehorn to give him a kiss on both cheeks and a big hug. A guard immediately grabbed the Doctor and pulled him away from the Emperor. Bluehorn then wiped his cheeks and calmly said, "I am going to forget that that happened. Now, Urujuwani!"
A violet-eyed yellow gazelle that Dash recognized as the sergeant she met at the Field of Pink Roses galloped over and kneeled down before the Emperor. She said, "Yes, Your Highness?"
"Get to camp as quick as you can, Sergeant, and tell my chef to bring the diamond cauldron over here immediately."
Sergeant Urujuwani nodded and carried out her orders.
Meanwhile Starswirl and Twilight were discussing with Queen Ember and her children on what was to be done. Just like Bluehorn, Golden Lead and Pyro, the Dragon Queen was out of her wits. She knew nothing remotely related to magic as grand as what Starswirl spoke of, nor did her children nor any of the guards around her. They too found themselves at a dead end.
"But the Dragons art the Keepers of the Gates," Starswirl tensely said, "surely there is something, something we hath failed to notice."
Twilight, overhearing the Doctor's conversation with the rhinos, tried his approach, "Was there anything from around eight-hundred years ago? Any prophecies or stories or writings?"
"There are none that I know of," Ember answered.
"How about you?" Twilight addressed Comet, Ruby, Sapphire and Amber, "Are any of you passionate readers? Dedicated to your studies?"
"You describe Princess Sapphire," Comet replied, "Always her head is in her books."
Sapphire gently punched her older brother in the arm and said, "'Tis only because mother keeps me in my chambers."
Comet chuckled and rubbed his arm. Despite the punch being meant to be a soft one, it actually turned out to be quite hard. He underestimated his younger sister's strength.
Twilight smiled and held her hoof out, happy to meet a dragon who was scholarly like her. She and Sapphire shook hoof and claw. Introductions aside, Twilight began inquiring into Sapphire's studies and quickly became distracted by the new knowledge she was encountering through this dragon.
"So the pony explorer Clipper wasn't the first one to circumnavigate the globe and proved it to be round after all! It was Seren-Dilynwr. Fascinating. Wow, this changes everything!"
Rarity sensed the course Twilight and Sapphire were going off on and decided to put them back on track. "Well, this is all quite nice. Milady, why don't you tell us about what you know from eight-hundred years ago that could help us. I'm sure these riveting tales of explorers and conquerors can wait."
"Ah, right. That. Hehe," Twilight blushed and scratched her head, embarrassed at having allowed herself to be distracted so.
"Eight-hundred years ago... Eight-hundred..." Sapphire went deep into though. She sat down and closed her eyes. She held out one finger and seemed to count off her thoughts in the air, tapping each thought in turn. She scratched her head and then continued counting. Occasionally she tilted her head and whispered ancient Drakish words to herself. She opened her eyes and appeared disappointed. She sighed and said, "There is nothing useful from eight-hundred years ago."
Twilight and Starswirl let their heads drop as the most learned dragon on the plateau reported her failure. They went into thinking again. Twilight paced and Starswirl cast a spell on himself to delve into the deepest parts of his mind and memories.
As Sapphire got up on her claws, she remarked, "In truth, everything eight-hundred years ago was peaceful and normal. Certainly more so than the present is. The strangest thing to occur was a line of nonsense in my fire-breathing teacher's aunt's sleep-vision diary."
This caught Twilight's attention, "Say that again."
"A line of nonsense in my teacher's aunt's diary. She, the aunt, kept a record of all her sleep-visions. One day I was alone in my teacher's home and I, curious as I was in my childhood, searched through her books. It was then that I encountered a peculiar set of three words repeated many many times and they were dated in the two-hundredth year of King Obsidian's reign, merely a few years less than eight-hundred years ago. But, surely 'tis nothing."
"Any little thing can help," Twilight insisted, "What were the words?"
"Tap Under Awa"
Twilight repeated the words as she pondered on it.
Starswirl also tried to figure out any meaning to it. "Hmmm... I know not what 'Awa' is meant to be. A name perhaps? Of a dragon or an object or a place?"
"I have looked into it several times over the years," Sapphire said, "The word does not exist in any dialect of Drakish, Equinese, Zwahiri or Dromedary."
"Baffling words indeed," Ember commented, "If it is not nonsense, then 'tis a truly difficult puzzle."
"A puzzle..." Twilight let the words out as she was deep in thought. Suddenly her eyes widened and she made a loud and long gasp. "A puzzle! Maybe that's it! Maybe 'Tap Under Awa' is an anagram!"
"Why... that is brilliant!" Sapphire joyfully said, "We must rearrange the letters."
Everypony and everydragon then began putting their heads together to solve the anagram, but Sapphire solved it in ten seconds. "Pedwar Tanau! Four Fires!"
All were impressed by the Princess' skill and showered her with admiration. Ember was especially encouraging, as she was proud. Her daughter and - unbeknownst to Sapphire - her heiress was quickly proving herself capable of bearing the responsibilities of the throne.
Sapphire continued, "We must use the four fires - blue, green, red and white - to conjure your magic."
"And if we are to use the fires," Ember added, "we must use them at full strength. Let us not underestimate the needs of this magic. Four fires, breathed by four dragons... or perhaps I should say four siblings." Ember nodded to her other three children and they lined up alongside Sapphire. Ember continued, "Comet's strength is in the white fire. Ruby's is in the red fire. Amber's is in the green fire. And yours, Sapphire, is in the blue fire." Her eyes glistened as she looked upon her four children. With Sapphire finally living up to Ember's expectations, all four had finally grown up. At this point, none of them really needed her anymore. It made Ember both happy and sad. "Make me proud. Save the world."
As they waiting for the diamond cauldron to arrive, the ponies, the Dragon Queen, her children, the Rhino Emperor and his alchemists then discussed all together how to arrange the union of all their efforts, how to put together the six ingredients, the cauldron and the four fires. The magic they were about to attempt was a combined magic, a unification of three forms. Such demanded balance and symmetry to reflect the equality between the parts making up the whole. They needed to be careful and make an arrangement as perfectly balanced as possible. By the time the cauldron arrived, pulled on a cart onto the plateau by a pair of rhinos, the discussions were complete.
Bluehorn gently placed the diamond cauldron at the center of the plateau. The cauldron had a smooth polished surface and was rounded in a shape akin to a cider barrel. The craftsponiship was very fine. The warthog who made it was certainly no stranger to sculpting, even with a material very near to being unbreakable; how he made a bunch of diamonds into a cauldron was always a mystery to storytellers. Then Golden Lead and Pyro approached the cauldron. Though they were creating something new, they were still dealing with a Hoofrican-made cauldron and its magic had Hoofrican needs. The most special of cauldrons required the most special of materials and this was clearly the most special of all. The two alchemists each carried a small bowl containing a paste made from water from the ice caps of Mt. Matumaini, minced root from the Tree of Light, ashes from grass burnt down by a wildfire started by lightning and the saliva of a manticore. Golden and Pyro smeared the grey paste on the outside of cauldron, making a series of symbols facing the four cardinal directions. Facing North was a monkey's handprint. Facing South was a falcon talon. Facing East were crisscrossing timberwolf claw marks. Facing West was a turtle shell. Having finished the symbols, the two alchemists stepped away from the cauldron.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie each placed the Seed, the Rings, the Fang, the Flower and the Star evenly in a circle at the bottom inside the cauldron. Twilight put Faust's Pen at the center, as it was clearly the centerpiece of the six, but then she sensed that that was not quite right. If it is a pen, then there must be ink inside, and the cauldron was awfully large to contain those six objects. The largest of the six was the White Dragon's fang, which was placed standing vertically, the curve fitting nicely to the curve of the inside of the cauldron, and the tip of it just barely reached the brim. The ingredients needed a liquid to float in, otherwise they would not need a cauldron. Twilight wondered: is the pen bigger on the inside? She unscrewed the pen using her magic and poured the ink into the cauldron. The black ink poured on and on, letting out gallons. It seemed like the ink was going to go on forever, but Twilight did not slow it down. The flow stopped perfectly right at the moment the ink filled the cauldron to the brim. The six friends then backed away. The Doctor gave Twilight a pat on the back for thinking outside of the box, and Pinkie patted her as well for thinking inside the chimney.
Lastly, Prince Comet, Princess Ruby, Princess Sapphire and Princess Amber gathered around the cauldron. Golden instructed the four not to strike the symbols directly with their fires, so they positioned themselves between the four cardinal directions. Comet stood to the Northeast. Ruby stood to the Southeast. Sapphire stood to the Northwest. And Amber stood to the Southwest. All four were equidistant from the cauldron and from each other, making a square. Comet was to breathe white fire. Ruby was to breathe red fire. Sapphire was to breathe blue fire. And Amber was to breathe green fire. Breathing the four fires separately and then combining them to conjure magic required strong unity between the fire-breathers, so the four dragons in unison recited an incantation to invoke the full and pure power of the fires.
"Gogledd, De, Dwyrain, Orllewin.
Poeth, Oer, Gwlyb, Sychu.
Mor, Tir, Awyr, Nefoedd.
Haul, Lleuad, Ser, Tywyll.
Geni, Byw, Marw, Codi.
Gwyn, Coch, Gwyrdd, Glas!
Tân! Tân! Tân! Tân!"
Energy mustered in the dragons' bellies and then rushed up through their chest and throat. They opened their mouths wide and simultaneously unleashed bright beams of the four fires. The beams lit up the entire plateau and were so bright that every pony, dragon and Hoofrican had to close their eyes and look away. Even the Master was distracted from listening to "While My Lyre Gently Cries." The force of the beams put a strain on the bodies of the four siblings and it took much of their endurance to keep it up until their mother gave them the signal to stop. After ten seconds, Ember called out, 'Enough!' and the four closed their mouths, stopping the beams. They breathed heavily and sat down, exhausted by the exertion.
Everyone on the plateau and the surrounding mountains looked to the diamond cauldron. It stood there unscathed by the power the fires, as if nothing had happened. The jade floor around it, though, had felt the effects. To the Northeast, the floor was melted. To the Southeast, it was covered in soot. To the Northwest it was covered in ice. To the Southwest, grass sprouted from the floor. Everyone anxiously waited for the cauldron to bring about the magic that was to save them all. Every second passed by excruciatingly. Twilight took a quick glance at the Gates and the black ooze was so close to completely unsealing the metal wall. A minute passed and still nothing happened.
Finally, Pinkie broke the silence, "I don't think it worked..."