Amazingly, the earth was still, but then I looked what was in the centre of the circle and what I saw wasn't exactly peaceful.
The two princesses were, as I suspected, fighting even more ferociously than the Six had been. Both fought with everything they had. Magic boiled around them and even as I watched, they both reared, slashing at each other with hooves and teeth, fighting like stallions. Both of them had wounds from the battle and it was obvious that this was a fierce and desperate fight.
“Stop!” I roared, unsurprised when neither of them even looked in my direction. They came down on all fours and both backed off a couple of steps. I knew they were going to use the magic from their horns so, being me, I did what was probably the dumbest thing I could have thought of.
Unfortunately I only realised it was the dumbest thing I could think of after I'd done it. I ran in between the two and grabbed a horn in each hand. The result... well... let's just say it wasn't pleasant. Ever touched an electric fence, or had some serious voltage go through your body? I've had both and what I felt was something similar, only on a far grander scale. I'm reasonably sure my eyes glowed. I know my fur stood up on end. Magic surged through me and every fibre of my body shuddered under the strain. The surge stopped and I somehow maintained my feet, reasonably surprised that I was still alive. It seemed even the princesses' powers were being limited by what was happening, which is probably why they were fighting as they were.
"You fool!" Celestia hissed. "I could have finished her, then."
I gasped and grunted. Then I let it out. All the frustration, all the rage all the feeling that had built up over two and a bit weeks of watching ponies fighting, suffering and dying because of the actions of these two. I punched Celestia in the face, her horn grazing my arm.
"YES!" shrieked Luna as Celestia staggered. "Yes! Victory! Thank you!" She came forward, but I wasn't finished yet. I swung and slammed my fist into Luna's forehead. Blood leaked from my arm as her sharp horn scored it.
She staggered and nearly went down. "You two damned fools!" I roared. "You're destroying Equestria!" I grabbed both of them by an ear and forced them to look outside the circle. "LOOK!"
They looked but it seemed to have little impact. "It's Luna's fault." Celestia screamed. "She's ruined it all."
Even during the moments I'd been inside the circle the outside had gotten worse. The surrounding earth looked as if it had been roughly ploughed. Tumbled earth lay in heaps, fissures yawned wide, and trees swayed and shook. The earth was in constant motion, looking more like a gale-strewn sea than a forest.
"Equestria needs harmony!" I yelled, shaking both their heads. "You are the strongest, most magical beings in Equestria. You fighting each other destroys the harmony. Equestria is fighting itself."
That is what I had realised. That's what gave the Six their power. Harmony. Hell, it was even in the name of the powers they'd been granted. 'Elements of Harmony'. When they operated together, they had been well-nigh invincible.
It was also why Discord was as powerful as he was. He disrupted the harmony between the Six and even the harmony within Equestria itself. That is how he could alter reality; by controlling the harmony. The two princesses were the most powerful beings in Equestria; far more powerful than Discord. When they lost harmony to this extent, dire things were bound to happen.
When I'd been told that I would be the one who held the fate of Equestria, I couldn't help but think that I'd have to choose, somehow, between Celestia and Luna. To somehow influence a conflict or something towards one side or the other. Looking at it that way, I knew that I would have had no choice but to take Celestia's side. If that had been the case, Celestia would have been the only real solution—as much as Luna might hate to admit it—and I would have been forced to help Celestia defeat Luna. But that wasn't entirely it. It wasn't only about rule. It was about the nature of that rule. Equestria ruled by the two sisters in harmony, thrived. But now there was no harmony and it showed. Even the Six; the very representations of the Elements of Harmony, were fighting. Even Discord's power hadn't managed to destroy their friendship to that extent. Certainly, he had damaged their friendship—so I'd found out by talking to Splash—but it had never reached the stage where all Six were fighting each other.
It went even deeper than that, though. The breaking of Harmony was so bad that not only were the Six 'Elements' totally disunited, the very ground upon which they stood was also. As friendships tore themselves apart, so did the very ground beneath their hooves.
One of the things that really annoyed me was that I'd had the answer since nearly the beginning. I'd even as good as said so when I'd been talking to Luna the first time. I'd asked her how it would be if I could get her and Celestia to work in harmony. Talk about dropping the ball. I'd dropped it on my foot and punted it out of the field. I should have explained to Celestia what Luna had said. Admittedly, I didn't know whether she would have believed me, but it would have been worth a try.
The big question was, what the hell could I do about it. I could stop the two fighting. Probably, but just like leading a horse to water, I couldn't really make them work together. I didn't know how.
They heaved, and pulled free. Well, I hadn't really wanted to hurt them. Well, not really. Sort of.
The two backed off, shaking their heads. “You!” That was Celestia. “You laid hands of violence on a princess?” She was furious. They both were. I bet no-one had treated them like that before.
“Yeah. I did. Want me to do it again?” I growled. At the back of my mind there was a plan. I did wish it would come up to the front of my mind and explain itself because I was winging it, here. I advanced towards them. "Princesses? You call yourselves 'Princesses'? You wouldn't make a princess' horseshoe-nail. Either of you."
Their fury was still there, it boiled in the air like something live. But so did mine. Part of me was screaming 'We're gonna die!' but I didn't care. I really didn't. "You couldn't hold a candle to any princess. You're just two stuck up little brats!"
Their eyes boggled. "Brats!?" They screamed together. "Brats?!" Well, at least they'd stopped fighting. Now, if I could just get them to unite somehow....
"Yeah. Spoiled ones at that. You both deserve to be tossed out and let some other pony run Equestria. Discord, perhaps. Or even Pinky Pie. You sure can't. I wouldn't let either of you two run a pig farm." I continued like this for several moments, watching their anger shift from each other to myself. I had to get them working together, even if it were against me. I didn't matter any more. Equestria mattered. Splash and Aura mattered more to me than I did. I could see that they weren't exactly working 'together' yet, It's just that they were both turning their fury towards me, but stopping them fighting was a start.
Both princesses were furious. Beyond furious, as I continued to taunt them. They lowered their horns and I could see the magic starting to boil off them like steam of hot metal. The voice in the back of my mind was gibbering 'we'regonnadiewe'regonnadiewe'regonna diiiee!' and, to be honest, I thought I would. To be even more honest, I didn't care. As long as what I did worked. I'd made friends in Equestria and I had to do all I could to stop these two from destroying the place.
Magic slammed at me. I took two steps backwards from the blow before stopping and staring at them, defiantly, taunting them. "Is that the best you can do?"
I didn't feel like taunting them, though. I felt like curling into a ball and screaming. It seemed every cell in my body had turned into a Diet Pepsi bottle someone had dropped a whole packet of mentos into. The pain was excruciating. What I'd felt before was nothing compared to this. The 'pressure' within me was growing but I grinned harshly as I saw that I'd accomplished one thing. The two princesses were working, if not in harmony, then to the same purpose.
I don't know what prompted me to do this, but I raised my arms in the air, my clenched fists reaching as high as I could. "We." I gasped, raising my face to the light that still poured down upon us. "We. Have. HARMONY!!!" I roared the last word as I felt the 'pressure' inside me burst.
Blue-white light shot from my fists. Brighter than any arc welder, it seemed to sear the eyes for a moment, but then I could see again. I could feel... something, pouring through my body and out through my upraised arms and I could only think that it was some mutated form of the magic that the two princesses were pouring into me. It shot up the beam of light that poured down upon us. The two beams formed a double helix which twisted tighter and tighter until it merged into one beam some way above my head. I suppressed the sudden and somewhat inexplicable urge to scream "By the power of Greyskull!" at the top of my voice. It's weird what the brain will come up with under high stress levels. Anyway, I didn't have a sword.
Suddenly there was a distant 'buh-whump', more felt than heard, like a distant explosion. A shockwave rippled through my body and the ground jolted hard beneath our feet, causing all of us to stagger, and the light that had been shining down on us went out.
The two princesses stopped; the arcing from my fist ceased and darkness reigned. I sat before I fell.