Project Harmony

by Mr Khan

In Need of a Champion

Chapter 1: In Need of a Champion

“We cannot hold out like this,” said Commander Gale. “It is well that we have contained the evil, but Discord still holds us captive from his own captivity. My Pegasus Knights are engaged in constant war with the clouds, which have fallen under his command, and we are worn to the bone. According to those who can still keep track of time, it has been 17 months since we started this deadlock, and there is no end in sight. What is to be done?” Commander Gale Force, recently appointed Supreme Commander of the Pegasi of Equestria, was a goldenrod-furred Pegasus mare with a slim white mane and tail and a cutie mark depicting a silver arrow in flight. She had been appointed after veteran Commander Silver Bolt had fallen to madness at the hooves of Discord. He was now imprisoned in Cloudsdale, and the pegasi had been left to face the chaos in the skies under the green new Commander, who suddenly found herself one of the ruling triumvirate of Equestria.

“My people suffer as well,” Queen Amethyst said. “Foals separated from their mothers and fathers as they dedicate themselves solely to keeping the evil contained, fillies, colts, mares, and stallions all spending all their days in magical exhaustion, losing all vigor or joy in their lives as they focus everything on their one task. The Commander is right: is this life any better than if Discord were allowed to roam free?” Queen Amethyst was six generations descended from Queen Platinum, one of the three co-founders of Equestria when she had been a mere Princess. Queen Amethyst was known neither for her boldness nor for her power, but she was deeply compassionate for her unicorns and all the ponies of Equestria. She had a royal purple coat and horn, with a mane and tail of aquamarine and, fittingly, an amethyst gemstone cutie mark that was barely discernible in the color of her coat.

“The earth ponies shoulder their part of the burden, as usual,” Chancellor Radishred scowled. “We work as hard as we can to coax food from the land even as the heavens have gone out of control. We will hold out as long as we can, but conditions are slowly deteriorating to something resembling the chaos that existed before the Foundation. This Discord is going to destroy our way of life, one way or another. We need action!” he added, stamping as his face tinged with anger. “Harmony must be restored, as swift as we can restore it, and that means crushing this enemy of all ponies.” Radishred, elected Chancellor of the earth ponies was the third of the triumvirate that ruled Equestria. He was a real, salt-of-the-earth farmer pony who had fought his way up the ranks of earth pony politics, a terror to anypony who got in his way. He was a stallion with a rusty brown coat, pale yellow mane, and red radish cutie mark.

The Triumvirate had gathered at the Hall of Council, across the plaza from the Unicorn Palace in Canterlot. They stood at a triangular table built for convocations of the Triumvirate. It was not neutral ground, but nobody could deny that the unicorns had the most lavish accommodations of the three tribes, and the leaders had known it would be foalish to be so petty as to move the political center somewhere less fitting out of mere jealousy. Aside from a pair of unicorn guards at the gate, the triumvirate was alone. So much of the commanding staff, dignitaries, underlings, and associates were involved in dealing with the ongoing crisis. “Nobody debates that, Chancellor,” Commander Gale said, “but we cannot afford recklessness. That’s how we lost Commander Silver Bolt, and so many brave knights.”

“You know, if we let our setbacks keep us from action, all the crops in Equestria would be dead by now,” Radishred said.

An odd look came over Gale’s face, but Amethyst interceded before Gale could reply. “We need to think of the ponies, Chancellor,” she said. “All of them. The knights are brave to bear so much of the burden for protecting us all, but it is our job to make sure that even they do not suffer without cause. One of my subjects proposed something that might banish this evil altogether, lessening the risk to everypony. Guards, would you please?”

The unicorn guards’ horns glowed and the door to the chamber swung open. Through the threshold trotted an elderly unicorn mare. Once her coat had been of spring green with a sleek orange mane, and though age had dimmed the color of both, her eyes remained as bright as they had ever been; a deep, aqua blue. Her cutie mark depicted a well, into which a gold coin was being thrown. “You have met my Court Sorceress, Chancellor,” Amethyst said, “but I would like to introduce you, Commander Gale, to Wishwell the Wise.”

“Your Excellency, Your Majesty, Commander,” Wishwell said, bowing. She stood, then fired a blast of orange magic out of the window. The Moon had risen sometime since the convocation had begun, so her magic bolt was easily visible as it traveled away to a glowing dome of white barely visible on the horizon. “Sorry about that,” she quipped. “Have to help keep that barrier up. Anyhoo, let’s get to it.”

Commander Gale arched her eyebrows, noting the sudden drop in formality.

“Don’t worry about it,” Radishred whispered, leaning towards her. “She thinks she’s too old to waste too much time on politeness, but she’s a magic genius.”

“You’re right, I am.” Wishwell said, popping up between Gale and Radishred. “I’m a link in a tradition of magic dating back to the foundation of Equestria with Clover the Clever and her mentor, Starswirl the Bearded, and I’ve magicked us up a way out of this whole Discord thing: Project Harmony.”

“So?” Radishred grunted, “where is it?”

“Cool yer hooves, earthie,” Wishwell barked back. “It’s not gonna be easy, that’s why I needed to get some approvals over this.”

“Please proceed,” Amethyst said gently. Radishred was correct in that Wishwell was not entirely there in her advanced age, and part of that made her mildly prejudiced against non-unicorns. Her prejudice and cavalier attitude had not mixed well with Radishred’s bellicosity the last time they met, and Amethyst was eager to maintain harmony in her own small way.

“Right,” Wishwell said. “Well, we know the Draconequus works by wresting control over that which has traditionally been controlled by the ponies: our bodies, our personalities, the weather, plants and animals, the sun and the moon. He’s more powerful than anypony, and that’s how he gets away with it. So what we need is a pony more powerful than the Draconequus. Somepony to embody Harmony itself to fight the Draconequus’ Discord.”

“But where does such a pony exist?” Gale asked, confused.

“No,” Wishwell replied. “Even if we had the leisure to choose the finest or strongest pony in the land, nopony can keep everything in Harmony. Each tribe has its own role, so we’d need a pony that embodies all things.”

“But interbreeding doesn’t work like that,” Radishred scoffed. “Even if it did, we’d need two generations to get the three groups mixed.”

“Keep your mind out of the gutter, earthie,” Wishwell snorted. “That’s the part I got figured out, and I’d do it myself, but being Harmony and all, I need help from you and the Commander.”

“How long will this plan take?” Gale asked.

“Sixteen years. Fourteen if we do it right.”

“Sixteen years?!?” Radishred fumed. “It hasn’t even been two yet, and look at how we’re struggling! Surely we could come up with a plan we could execute with hooves on the ground quicker than that!”

“But could we?” Gale said nervously. “If Commander Silver Bolt couldn’t do it… and the enemy has only been getting stronger in his forest since then…”

“Wishwell’s plan would be safer. We have to think of the ponies who would die or go mad at the hands of that monster, what would happen if we attacked with a shred of doubt. It is our duty to them,” Amethyst said. “Any path we choose will be hard, but we must try to save as many as possible from a horrible fate. I support Wishwell’s plan.”

“If it’s a question of endurance, the earth ponies can do it,” Radishred said. “If no-one’s willing to step up for sixteen years, we’ll still be here, feeding ponykind. I’ll support you, for Harmony and all.”

“I defer to your wisdom,” Commander Gale said plainly. “You have my support.”

“Good,” Wishwell said. “Project Harmony,” she added, placing a hoof on the table.

“Project Harmony,” the Triumvirate repeated, placing their hooves on the table in turn.

~~0000~~

“There,” Radishred growled as he and an earth pony mare finished pulling a cart into the chamber. Wishwell had summoned him to the Canterlot Magic Academy, once the center of magic learning in the unified kingdom of Equestria, but now the home of only the few unicorns that could be spared from the barrier, a sadly diminished place. Queen Amethyst and Commander Gale had also gathered there.

Amethyst’s horn glowed, lifting a cloth-bound bundle out of the back of the cart, levitating it for a space before unwrapping it on the floor. “A spread of high-quality earth pony-grown food,” Radishred continued. The spread was all natural, none of the foods being treated or prepared, and none looking any less appetizing for that fact: apples of various hues, golden straw, a rainbow of fresh-cut flowers, carrots, turnips, radishes, beets, celery, lettuce, and cucumber, a small barrel of milk and a larger barrel of water. Amethyst pawed at the floor anxiously; this was much more food than she had had in almost two years, a veritable feast.

“All the foods a pony needs to eat, perfect,” Wishwell said. “Commander Gale, do you have what I asked for?”

“Two feathers from the finest flyers from amongst my knights,” Gale said, producing two Pegasus feathers and setting them beside the food.

“Two feathers?!?” Radishred fumed, stamping angrily. “Do you realize how much work it took to raise this food with the sun and the weather acting like this, and all the pegasi had to put up was two lousy feathers?” Gale hung her head, while Wishwell snorted. The mare with Radishred (his wife, Sour Grapes) stamped along with her husband.

“Please, Chancellor,” Amethyst soothed. “We know it was much to ask of you. This food is much more than anypony is rationed with nowadays, but we need it for Wishwell’s spell.”

“The earth ponies have always had to pull their weight when nopony else did,” Sour Grapes scoffed. “I guess it’s no different now.”

“Ponies, please!” Amethyst shouted. “This is Project Harmony. We all make sacrifices for the good of everypony!”

“So what are the unicorns giving up?” Radishred asked, calmer but more accusatory.

His query hit Amethyst, who shifted on her hooves nervously. “I have to perform the spell,” Wishwell said instead.

Radishred’s face reddened anew, but he seemed to think better of it after a moment, and said nothing, instead changing the course of conversation. “So what else is needed?” he asked, looking over the chamber. Wishwell had a number of items arrayed as if points in an incomplete pentagon. At the far end was a burning torch, next to it a goblet filled with a blindingly bright golden light, and Wishwell levitated the feathers to sit opposite the goblet.

“To create a pony who embodies Harmony between the three races and who can wrest control of the world back from Discord, we need a pony with elements of each of the races; an Alicorn.”

“But Alicorns have existed before,” Queen Amethyst said. “My grandmother was one. The royal family intermarried with previous earth pony senators and great Pegasus knights. Grandmother was a great mare, but not a miracle-worker.”

“Correct, but the different tribes were not in balance in Queen Garnet. Here we have one element from each tribe: unicorn magic to conduct the spell, Pegasus feathers, and earth-pony-made food. All living things are what they eat, so food is needed for the transmutation, and earth ponies have their special bond with growing things to make it uniquely elemental to them. But then I got two more ingredients to make this Harmony-pony truly special. First is that thing,” Wishwell said, indicating the burning torch. “That torch was lit with the Flame of Friendship, the flame that the Founding Heroines lit on the first Hearth’s Warming, and so the fire that was started by ponies’ love for one another will be the spark forming the Harmony-pony’s life.”

“So the pony will be literally born out of Harmony…” Gale breathed.

“Right again,” Wishwell continued. “And then this thing will give the pony her special power,” she said, indicating the goblet. “That’s liquid essence of sunlight, I made it myself. With that as her base, the Harmony-pony will have absolute control over the Sun, and restore normalcy to Equestria even before she’s old enough to defeat the Draconequus. Unfortunately, it means we won’t be able to make more like her; the spell I used can’t be repeated. Well, unless we kill her and take the sunbeam away…”

Everypony looked horrified, and Wishwell backtracked. “Just theory,” she assured. “Anyway, with the sunbeam in her, she’ll be one of a kind.”

“Hold a moment,” Radishred. “You keep saying “she, her,” is this pony gonna be a filly?”

“Yup,” Wishwell said. “And in answer to the unspoken “why,” dear Chancellor, it is because fillies and mares have always been good enough to lead the unicorns, so they’ll be good enough to lead Equestria.”

Radishred scowled, but made no comment.

“So, is all prepared?” Amethyst asked.

Wishwell magically re-wrapped the bundle of food, then levitated it and placed it as the fourth point on the pentagon, and then trotted over to the fifth point. “Now it is,” she said.

The sun set suddenly, the moon shooting up into the sky. “Perfect,” Wishwell said. “The Draconequus’ whims work to our favor. Now hold on to yer hooves!” Wishwell’s horn glowed a fierce orange, while her eyes lit blue. A glowing orb of magic flew from her horn as the other four components floated in towards the center. The food flew into the small orb, compressed into a tiny mass, followed by the feathers. Small flashes appeared of what was occurring at the center of the orb, the food and wings transforming into a barely-visible Alicorn foal, before the Fire of Friendship shot into the orb, quickly joined by the beam of sunlight, joining into an orb blinding enough to be the sun itself come down into that chamber. All ponies shielded their eyes, trying fruitlessly to keep out the light.

There was a squeal, one that extended into the cries of a newborn foal, prompting Amethyst, Radishred, and Sour Grapes to open their eyes first against the light. The late faded, allowing Gale and Wishwell to open their eyes, and all bore witness: a tiny baby foal with white fur, a pink mane and tail, and a horn and wings.

As the foal cried, her tiny horn glowed golden, the moon quickly setting and the sun slowly appearing over the horizon, at a speed nopony had seen it moving in for almost a year and a half; a beautiful sight for the triumvirate, who saw in it a glimpse of hope for the future, for an end to Discord.

“Meet the pony who will move the heavens,” Wishwell said, slowly approaching the crying foal. “Princess Celestia.”

Author’s Note: Bronyism, it’s a beautiful thing, ain’t it? Plenty of writing projects on my plate, and now Project Harmony is one of them. Anyway, good bit going on here, detailing the history of Celestia and Luna, and explaining some other things along the way.

Comments

[Risec]

This is rather fascinating
I intend to see more