I concentrated on being alive for a moment. As my eyes adjusted to the dark I could see outside the circle. The earth still looked like a tumbled sea, but it was still. There was silence, almost too quiet after the noise that had preceded it. The earthquake seemed to have stopped.
"What was that?" Luna seemed stunned. They both did. She and Celestia stood staring at me. Their fight, apparently, stopped. At least for the moment. I had to capitalise on that. I wished I could have said that the fight was 'finished' or 'forgotten', but I didn't want to get my hopes up too high just yet.
"That, my dear ladies, was you two working in harmony."
"Working in harmony?" Celestia echoed.
"You said the fate of Equestria was in my hands." I looked at my hands. Where the arc had exited they were a little scorched but that seemed to be about it. Not that they didn't hurt, though. Everything hurt. Every joint ached; every muscle burned; every nerve, it seemed, was on fire. "It wasn't. Not really. Your working together is what stopped the destruction. It's the only thing that could."
"But what did you do?"
"I stopped you fighting. The bitterness between you damaged the harmony in Equestria far more than Discord ever could. When you started fighting here, harmony was totally destroyed. Equestria doesn't only need magic to run properly, it gets its very cohesion through the harmony that exists between you two." I paused for breath and to gather strength to fight the pain. "When you worked together, even when it was against me; even though you might not have truly meant to, harmony was at least partly restored. It's now up to you."
"So... Destroy the harmony and you destroy Equestria?" Celestia queried.
"Exactly. You were fighting over a few hours of sunlight or darkness, and your fight would have totally destroyed the whole of Equestria."
"Oh." murmured Luna quietly.
"We might have killed you." Celestia murmured.
"Yeah. I thought that, too." I grunted. “But if I hadn't stopped you fighting, you would have destroyed Equestria. And that, ladies, would have meant the deaths of friends of mine.”
"You saved Equestria?"
"No, ladies, you saved Equestria. All I did was provide the direction. I couldn't have done a thing without you. Your fighting, your disharmony, was destroying Equestria. I couldn't save Equestria, I don't have that power, that was up to you. All I did was give you something other than each other to focus on. Something that you could come together to fight.
They both looked around, then, and saw the destruction outside where the circle of light had been."Oh, no!" Murmured a stunned Luna. "Did we cause that?" Celestia seemed equally shocked.
"Yes." I said bluntly. "Your fighting caused that. Your disharmony caused more damage than Discord could ever have dreamed of."
"It's just local, right?" Celestia asked with what seemed to be more than a touch of desperation. "Just here in Everfree?"
I shook my head. "Ponyville suffered; a pegasus told me that the towers of Canterlot have fallen and Manehattan has suffered as well. Going by that I would say that the whole of Equestria has been affected."
"The... the towers of Canterlot? Ponyville?" Luna sounded shocked.
"I saw Ponyville for myself, for the others I can only go by what I've been told, princess. Please understand that I haven't seen for myself. A pegasus told me. He could be mistaken." I looked at the expression on her face and felt for her. She obviously cared about her subjects and it was a shame to hear about Canterlot, it had been a rather beautiful place.
"Have... Have there been many deaths?" Luna asked hesitantly.
"I can only imagine, princess. I would say for a certainty that there have been deaths, but I wouldn't know how many."
Both sisters closed their eyes for a moment at this. I could see that it was beginning to register just what the effect of their disharmony had been.
"I thought... I thought the deterioration I saw was Luna's fault." Celestia muttered. "I thought it was because she had removed myself and the sun from Equestria."
"I thought that it was you. That you were tampering with Equestria to get back at me. Especially when the tales started coming in about a ghost pony." Luna responded.
“Well, you did do your best to remove me permanently.” Celestia said harshly, turning on her sister again.
“No.” Luna's voice was adamant. “No. I did not. I only meant to stop you. I was horrified when I realised what I'd done. I...”
“Then why?” Celestia snorted.
“You wanted eternal summer. I had to stop you. I was growing weak and,” she grimaced, “I cast a spell I misremembered.”
Celestia glared at her little sister and the earth quivered. I could see it starting again and I could only wonder what else I could do. I briefly wondered if I could punch both of them hard enough to knock them out, and whether that would work. Fortunately, I had a better idea. “Luna, tell Celestia what you said when I asked if I would help you rule in harmony with your sister.”
“I said that it would be the best result of all.”
Celestia looked at her little sister for a long moment. “Do you speak the truth?”
“I do.” Luna replied, her tone accentuating her sincerity. “Equestria needs the sun, Celestia, but it also needs the seasons. An eternal summer would kill Equestria. In your heart you know that.”
I noticed that Luna was admitting fault, but no more. She wasn't cowed by her elder sister. She was standing tall and proud. True, she regretted what she'd done, but I got the feeling that she'd risk all again if necessary. Speaking—or, more correctly, thinking—of tall, I noticed something else. Luna had grown. She was now as tall and stately as Celestia.
Celestia looked her sister over as if seeing her for the first time in some time. “You're stronger, little sister, than I ever thought you could be.” Again, there was silence as if both princesses were thinking. “You did well, I think, to keep Equestria going as you did.”
I knew what this was. An olive branch. I held my breath, hoping that Luna would see it as I did.
“And I am glad to see you return, Sister. I have missed having you beside me.” She put an emphasis on the last two words spoke volumes. Luna didn't want to be 'little' sister any more. Some might have seen it as petty, but I knew that she was prepared to stand up for herself now, and she wanted Celestia to treat her as an equal. I crossed as many fingers and toes as I could.
Celestia looked around at the destruction around her, before turning back to Luna. “Then let us do that.” she said quietly. “No longer shall you be 'little sister' to me. But we shall rule, in harmony, as equals.”
Luna nodded. “That will be all I dreamed of.” she replied with a small smile.
I breathed a large sigh of relief. Things, incredibly, seemed to be going the right way. Then, overhead, I saw something hauntingly familiar. I hadn't seen it for a while and it took me a moment to realise what it was, but when I did, I smiled; glad to see it and also glad to have something to distract them from their musings. "Ah. Dawn." For dawn it was. The sun wasn't up yet, but the light from it was visible. Care to raise the sun, Celestia? It is your job, I believe." Then I realised another very important fact. Luna had lowered the moon.
Both ponies looked around. Celestia noticed what I had and turned to her sister. “You... you lowered the moon.”
Luna nodded. “It's been up long enough, I think.” she replied with a small smile.
“Did you bring back the sun?” Celestia asked me.
"No, no," I tried a chuckle but it hurt. There again, everything hurt. "I couldn't have that if I tried. It wasn't my power that did it."
"But that's just it. You can't make magic." Luna tapped a hoof on the ground as she looked at me. "I know you can't."
"Like I said, Luna, It wasn't my power that brought back the sun. You're right, I cannot make magic, but apparently, I can channel it—or I could in this instance. It wasn't my power that saved Equestria. I could have done nothing if you two had been determined to fight on."
"So, now harmony is restored, is Equestria?"
"That," I replied, "I don't know. What I do know is that the earthquake seems to have stopped. Whether is resumes again... Well, that's up to you. As you see, the earth is still tumbled, trees are still fallen. I doubt Equestria will restore itself, but it is still able to be restored. I do not think it will be a quick process.” I looked from one to the other. "Wounds—even wounds of pride—take time to fully heal. So, I think, it will be with Equestria. As harmony grows between you, so harmony will grow in Equestria.”
It was then that I thought of something that brought me to my feet. A dread clutched at me. "We have to get back to Ponyville."
I could barely stagger, but I led the way. The rough and tumbled ground made it hard going, as did the numerous trees that had fallen. The two princesses followed, somewhat unsure I thought, behind me. I felt magic around me and the sky began to brighten as the sun rose slowly into the sky.
Suddenly I heard Celestia cry out. "The Tree of Harmony!" she wailed, running over to what had been a very old and rather beautiful tree, now lying broken and uprooted. The ancient trunk had split in half, with each half falling away from the other. I could see that the trunk still bore both Celestia's and Luna's 'cutie marks', but the trunk had split between them. A division that had killed the tree and, very nearly, the entirety of Equestria. I didn't know the full significance of the tree, but by the princesses' reactions it was rather important.
It was then that Luna saw something and drew our attention to it. There, in between the two halves of the ruined tree was a small seedling. Only tiny, about an inch high, but it was obviously a seedling from the Tree of Harmony. We looked down on the tiny seedling in wonder. "Harmony renewed." murmured Luna, quietly. She looked over at her sister, looked around at all the destruction and looked back at Celestia again. "Our arguments seem rather foolish and petty, now, don't they."
"They do." Celestia agreed. “We fought, stupidly, over a few hours of sun and moon. In doing so, we nearly lost everything." She snorted. "It seemed so important then, Didn't it."
"It did." Luna admitted.
The two alicorns came together, not to fight this time, but to gently touch horns. I saw tears roll down their faces. Both of them apologised to the other. I went to look away from this rather private moment and noticed something. When their tears splashed to the ground, the new Tree of Harmony grew. Not much, but it grew. Harmony was asserting itself again. Me? I breathed a sigh of relief. Somehow, it had worked. Things might actually be returning to somewhere near whatever passed for 'normal' around here.
After a few moments we went on. Then it was Luna's turn to cry out. She rushed ahead and soon we came into view of Ponyville. Or what was left of it.