The Creation of Harmony

by Time Ponies are cool

Pax

Chapter XXXVI: Peace

Out of the Phoenix Egg flowed a thick black ooze. It stuck to the great metal wall and crept along the pattern of lines carved into the metal. Wherever the ooze touched, there came sizzling sounds and wisps of smoke. The pattern radiated from the indentation where the Egg. The pattern appeared like elegantly curved branches of a tree. The black ooze crept further and further out from the Egg.

"..."

The Master stood there waiting for a few moments, but the ooze was moving ever so slowly. After a minute, it had actually only flowed out several inches. Slowly, the Master's smile turned into a displeased frown. "Well, the Key's taking its bloody time..." He then proceeded to take out from the TARDIS a parasol, a foldable reclining chair, a can of soda, a straw and a stereo system wired to a solar panel. He relaxed on the chair, sipped his soda and played songs by the Beetles, Princess, Led Chariot, the Tumbling Rocks, the Phoenixes, White Saturday, Marevana, the What, Pink Filly, FM/CM, Appleloosa and several more of Equestria's greatest bands. If there was anything the Master liked about the Earth other than the beautiful mares, it was the music of the 20th century. The first song to play was "Ladder to Heaven."

While the Master proceeded to relax and wait, Applejack stood up, moving on from mourning Rainbow Sword. She tapped the Doctor's shoulder and said, "The Elements. We need them now."

"Right! Yes! Let's do that! Aaaannnnnd Starswirl! Oh, we should have brought Queen Magia's prophecy with us when we left the castle... Ah... Well then..."

"Worry not, Doctor," Starswirl the Bearded said, also standing, "I hast the prophecy learned upon mine heart."

"Oh, brilliant you! Molto bene! What does the Queen have to say about putting the ingredients to use?"

"If I rememberest correctly, she wrote that the combined powers and wisdoms of the Ponies, the Dragons and the Hoofricans shall hold the key to unlocking this greatest of all magic."

"Oh, wonderful! We need the cooperation of the other two kingdoms."

"The Queen and the Emperor are here," Derpy said, pointing to Queen Ember, who was having an intense discussion with her children and highest ranking guards, and to Emperor Bluehorn, who, with his alchemists and shamans, frantically read through stacks of books and scrolls. "What do we do now?"

"A very good point, Derpy," the Doctor replied, putting his leg around her shoulders, "So we're going to do what we do best."

Twilight then excitedly said, "Lecture them?"

"Precisely!"

"Wait, hold on now," Applejack interrupted, "Sure, we're glad to be working with them, but you seen those two. They argue like Granny telling a beaver to get rid of its dam!"

"Well, let's focus on the pluses," the Doctor responded, "which I suppose isn't a lot, but we can work with it."

"Besides," Twilight added, "I think I remember from the Legend of the Blue Box that the Elements of Harmony appear and stop Tympanus. This has to be it."

"But it's like the Doctor said," Rarity said, "the history can be changed."

"It has to be worth a try!" Pinkie retorted, "If we don't stop him, that means no more cake! And no more candy! And no more fruit punch! And sarsaparilla and apple cider and zap apple jam and strawberry banana ice cream and blueberry pie and frozen yogurt and chocolate milk and-"

"Alright, Pinkie! We get it!" Rainbow Dash stopped Pinkie by sticking her hoof in her mouth.

"If we're going to talk to them, we should do it now," Fluttershy said, "So, um, who's going to do it? Because, well, I don't want to..."

Starswirl stepped around Sword's body and walked towards a point between the Hoofrican army and the Drakonian Royal Guard. On the way, he stopped and looked back to say, "Normally, 'twould be Commander Rainbow Sword - May the Holy King Thiessen give rest to his soul - who holdeth the duty as leader of the military to conduct this. The next pony the duty passeth on to is the High Sorcerer. I shall do him honor and accept nothing less than complete success."

Starswirl continued and stopped. He looked up at the dark sky, where the Sun remained eclipsed by the Moon and surrounded by stars, and he silently prayed for Queen Faust's blessing. He turned his head to his left, where the Hoofricans were, and to his right, where the Dragons were. He then cast a spell, "Vox clariore," and spoke in a greatly amplified voice. Starswirl's loud words disturbed the Master as he lip-synched to "Hotel Canterlot," so he put on some headphones and plugged it into the stereo. Starswirl was slightly relieved as he found the strange alien music to be very vulgar and uncivil.

Starswirl spoke in Equinese, the more widespread of the three kingdoms' languages. His words were "I, Starswirl the Bearded, High Sorcerer of Ponytopia, son of Starlight, servant of His Royal Majesty, King Concordius, seeketh audience with the Dragon Queen Ember and the Rhinoceros Emperor Bluehorn upon non-hostile grounds!"

Everyone's heads turned to look at the sorcerer standing at the center of the plateau. Ember blinked a few times and then, after a word of encouragement from Princess Sapphire, she walked over. Bluehorn was slightly more stubborn and had to be pushed by his Guards towards Starswirl, as it was dishonorable in Hoofrica to refuse a request for an audience without good reason. The three stood awkwardly in a triangle. Ember looked at Starswirl with an unwelcoming scowl while Bluehorn refused to look at the other two at all; he simply closed his eyes and held his chin up.

Following international decorum, Starswirl took off his hat, which had stayed on his head through all his ordeals because he cast a spell to keep it attached. He took a long low bow and sat down. He then waited for the other two to do the same.

Ember watched the pony conduct himself with impeccable politeness. She grumbled as she lowered her head, followed by her chest, in a bow. She snaked back up and blew some smoke out from her nostrils. She waited to see if Bluehorn had any manners, but saw him simply standing there aloof. She growled, but then saw Starswirl earnestly looking at her and gesturing for her to sit. She conceded and sat down.

The force of Ember sitting down made the ground shake and startled Bluehorn. He briefly opened his eyes and saw the other two quietly waiting for him to show some propriety, but being betrayed by the Master steeled his distrust of foreigners, so he gave a very audible, "Humph!" and resumed his former pose. A guard walked over and reminded him that he was compromising his honor with his behavior. Finally, he gave in a sat down, mumbling complaints to himself. Then he said in Equinese, "So what do you want?"

Starswirl cleared his throat and began, "I shall strive to be pithy, since thou evidently art loath to be in counsel with each other. The Master is a threat to all of us. We hath a common urgency to stop him. Therefore, I propose that our only chance to do so is through the cooperation of all of us."

"A free pony attempting to be friendly," Ember remarked, "Well, I am certainly surprised."

"Thou hast seen his might," Starswirl continued, "He hath thwarted the efforts of each of us alone. However, mayhaps our combined efforts shall succeed!"

"Why would the Gods entrust the protection of the Gates to the Dragons if they did not believe us to be capable? Can you not see that you hoofers cannot possibly help? Your suggestion is foolish!"

"Tell me then, Thy Grace, why alicorns beareth the power to open the Gates to begin with? 'Tis the will of the Gods that we shall work together. 'Twas spoken in a prophecy from Queen Magia of Ponytopia, long before this infernal war began. She spoke of a magic whose power is second only to that of the Gods, and to conjure it, we needeth the wisdom of all three kingdoms."

"I don't like where this is going..." Bluehorn commented.

Starswirl ignored him and continued, "It is time we ended this war. It is time for peace."

Ember rolled her eyes and began to stand up, "I should have known my time would be wasted. I have no intention of giving up on my grandfather's legacy!"

Bluehorn also stood and turned to walk back to his side of the plateau. "Haha! Very funny, but no thank you! I'm better off just defending my kingdom from whatever comes out of Tartarus."

Starswirl called out and ran back and forth between each of the two monarchs. "Wait! Please! Listen to me! The world shall suffer if we let our grudges hinder us! I beg of thee! Merely listen!" But it was to no avail. Ember and Bluehorn continued, completely ignoring Starswirl's pleas.

The Master turned his head and looked back to see Starswirl with his head down in dejection from having failed to gain the help of the other two. He smiled and proceeded to hum "Another One Sips the Mud."

Princess Sapphire watched her mother returning from the brief and fruitless discussion. She sighed and shook her head. Her mother was still terribly stubborn despite the fate of the world being at stake. She quickly ran up in front of Queen Ember and stopped her from getting any farther away from Starswirl.

"Mother! Please reconsider!"

"Get out of my way, Sapphire."

"Just listen to me."

"I said get out of my way!"

"No, mother! I shall not move from this spot! I ask that you put aside your pride for one moment and listen!"

Ember was surprised by this ardent act of defiance and fortitude. Her daughter was finally showing some of the strength it took to be queen. She relaxed herself a bit and listened.

Sapphire continued, "Our best dragons failed to stop that one pony. One pony! Think you that the monsters of Tartarus are any less dangerous? Please, just listen to that sorcerer and work with him."

Ember groaned and said, "I refuse to make peace with the hoofers! Not until we are victorious."

"Until YOU are victorious, mother!"

Ember gasped. "What are you saying, Sapphire!?"

"I am saying that you are being completely arrogant and self-centered and you are thinking nothing of the greater good of Drakonia! You know what is in that prison and what he will do! The Master is going to break the Gates' seals and free Lwsyffar from Tartarus and Lwsyffar shall bring a new Desolation worse than anything he has done before. You know what the legends say he swore before he was banished. Lwsyffar will bring the Apocalypse!"

"Sapphire!" Ember grabbed her daughter's snout and held it shut. "How dare you say his name!"

The Princess pulled herself out of her mother's grasp and kept on going, "I care not that his name is forbidden! I shall speak what is! If you do not make peace with Ponytopia and Hoofrica, Lwsyffar shall walk free upon the Earth once again!"

"Sapphire! Please! Stop it! There is a reason that name is forbidden from being spoken! It is cursed! Whenever that name is spoken an innocent soul shall die."

"Mother, 'tis naught but supersti-"

"It is the truth, for the curse struck down your great great uncle... and it was my fault."

Sapphire was bewildered and was completely silent as her mother continued.

"I said the Arglwydd's name, long ago, when I was but a hatchling, only two years old. I had just learned to read. My mother- she was merely the Crown Princess then - brought me to the Brenhinol Library and I went loose and eager to read every tome. I found a very old scroll and read through what texts I could understand. I came across an unusual name and said it out loud. The next day, my grandfather's brother was murdered by a prince of Hoofrica and millions of lives were lost over the five-hundred years after that. So don't you ever say that name in my presence again."

Sapphire struggled to find the right words. Suddenly, she heard the Master burst out singing, "I woke up in a stable doorway, a policemare knew my name! She said you can go sleep at home tonight if you can get up and trot away! I staggered back to the underground and the breeze blew back my mane! I remember throwing bucks around and preaching from my chair! Well, who are you?"

She and her mother awkwardly waited for the Master to stop before continuing. "Mother... I-I apologize. I regret saying it now... but the matter remains. All three kingdoms will lose if the Gates open. All that will remain is a kingdom of dust and ashes. All our efforts will come to naught. Please make peace, mother. If you care about your kingdom, why do you not choose to protect it from the threat most imminent? If you blame yourself for all the lives this war has taken, why do you not clean up your mess? If millions have fallen, why do you not end it?"

"My grandfather wills that the war be won."

"Was it he who was hurt? Was he the one that the Rhino Prince murdered? Does Cyfiawnder hold the right to bear a grudge to last centuries and cost countless innocent lives?"

"... Uncle Rhyddid does."

"And would he do anything as terrible as this war?"

"... No. He loved the ponies and he was fond of Hoofrica..."

"Then why keep fighting?"

Ember stood still and stared at the ground for a few moments. She recalled her five hundred years growing up and growing old in the shadow of the war. The war took her father's life and it took her best friend's. It drove her brother to insanity and scarred her daughter's face. It made her husband disappear and put her niece in prison. She breathed in deeply and heaved a very long and cold sigh that created a layer of frost on the jade floor. Ember raised her face and looked her daughter in the eye. Then she turned and walked back towards the Pony Sorcerer.

Meanwhile, Golden Lead watched as Emperor Bluehorn made his way back towards his Guard and away from Starswirl. He snorted angrily as he strode across the plateau. She bumped her younger brother with her elbow and gestured with her head to go and stop the Emperor. She and Pyro quickly went over to Bluehorn and walked alongside him.

"Your Highness," Golden began, trying to make eye contact with the Emperor, "with all due respect, I don't think refusal is such a good idea. Whatever magic that sorcerer was talking about is all we have to go with."

"We've looked through everything," Pyro added, "and there's no Hoofrican magic at all that's strong enough to stop Tympanus or stop the Gates."

"You two are just alchemists," Bluehorn brusquely replied, "you wouldn't understand!"

Golden tried to persist and grabbed his shoulder. "Your Highness, you're making a mistake."

"You're letting your pride get the better of you," Pyro said.

"There are bigger things at stake."

"Give peace a chance!"

Bluehorn abruptly shrugged Golden's hoof off, quickly turned around and answered them both, "You don't bear five-hundred years of history on your shoulders! My mom was a great ruler, and my grandpa, and my great-grandma and so on! My old man made sure I understood that after I was crowned as the heir and I'm not going to forget that and I'm not going to throw away all their efforts because some pony thinks the magic of friendship can save the world! What's at stake here is my honor, my family's honor and my kingdom's honor!"

"Your Highness-"

"Think of the shame!" Bluehorn stomped furiously and cracked the jade floor around his hoof. "I will not be the weakling who gave in to the pressures of the war and gave up our victory! I will not fail my ancestors!"

Bluehorn and Golden Lead stared off for a few moments, while Pyro timidly stood behind his sister. The Emperor then snorted and turned to return to the company of his Guard, He paced back and forth, and then growled upon hearing the Master whistling the tune of "Sand in the Breeze."

He was thoroughly angry at everything, at Starswirl, at Golden Lead and Pyro, at the Master, at the impending Apocalypse, and mostly at himself for trusting the Master to begin with. The betrayal was so traumatizing that it resolved his hatred of the enemy kingdoms. Before, he was rather disinterested in the war, but now he understood why his predecessors were so determined to win. It was because ponies and dragons are evil. After all, the war began with the dragons wrongly accusing Prince Winter Wind of murder and took their false justice into their own claws by putting the Prince to a brutal death in the Battle of Udugu. He looked behind him to see Golden Lead shaking her head.

"I'm disappointed, Your Highness," she said, "I used to admire you so much."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Bluehorn responded.

"It means I thought you were a great ruler, probably the best one we had since Haki III."

Pyro joined her, "You cared about your subjects. They were all you ever cared about as an emperor. From the richest gazelle to homeless beggar warthogs. They were your top priority."

"Now look what you've made of yourself this past week. You're not the same fresh young rhino who rose to the throne with great ideas and a love for his citizens."

Bluehorn had nothing to say in response. He simply stood there silently, looking at all the guards and soldiers around him.

Golden continued, "My grandma told me about a prophecy she heard from a shaman when she was just an alchemy student. The shaman said that rising son who has the courage and virtue to place his subjects above himself is destined to put an end to these centuries of bloodshed. Now, if I remember it right, you said in your coronation speech that you vowed never to let your own desires go before the greater good of the citizens of Hoofrica. So tell me, Your Highness, are you going to turn your back on that vow?"

The Emperor sat down and buried his face in his hooves, heaving a frustrated groan.

Pyro then said, "If the Gates of Tartarus open, the whole world will suffer and those five-hundred years of sweat and toil will have been for nothing. Please, Your Highness, remember your vow."

Bluehorn raised his face and looked up at the eclipse in the center of the sky, then at the Gates, where the black ooze was halfway to completely filling the pattern across the metal wall. He sighed and quietly recited his coronation vow to himself.

"Now let this be clear Hoofrica. I may be Emperor, but in the end what is the Emperor but a servant of his subjects. The Emperor bears the responsibility of leadership, and leadership is not a status or privilege or right. Leadership is a service, a service for whomever follows the leader. And a good servant is one who places his master's needs above his own desires. I am the servant and you, the citizens of Hoofrica, are the master. I say this to you, Hoofrica, that I shall do only what is best for my subjects, that I shall place my subjects before myself, and that I shall live up to the meaning of the word, 'leadership,' and to what it truly means to be the Emperor of Hoofrica. This I swear."

He then stood up and walked back to the Pony Sorcerer.

Starswirl heard Queen Ember's loud footsteps getting closer and he looked up to his right to see her holding out her claw. She said, "'Tis time I cleaned up my mess. I shall help you with your plan."

Starswirl beamed and gratefully shook Ember's massive claw. He then quickly turned upon hearing Emperor Bluehorn's voice say, "And I. I have a vow to uphold. So I'll join you." Starswirl and Bluehorn shook hooves, and then Ember walked over to Bluehorn and shook his hoof.

Starswirl then said the concluding word in ancient Equinese and the other two repeated after him.

"Pax."

"Pax."

"Pax."

Author's Note:

For those ponified band names that may be harder to get:
Princess = Queen
White Saturday = Black Sabbath
The Phoenixes = The Eagles
Appleloosa = Kansas
The bands are not listed in order of how I like them, they're just listen in order of when their ponified name came to me and some bands I did not list as it was more difficult to give a name for them.