The Birth of Harmony

Part 1

by AugieDog

Trying her best to look like nopony at all, Clover trudged through the backstreets and forced herself not to sigh when the sun reversed course with a screech and plunged back below the horizon. A sound like glass shattering, and the full moon shot into the sky like a stone from a sling, the drifting cotton candy clouds bursting to pink mist.

How long had it been like this? Weeks, maybe? Months? Years?

Her whole life, it seemed sometimes...

She shrugged the cloak closer around her shoulders, winced at a gust of chocolate milk rain spattering into her face, at the cobblestones below her hoofs suddenly going squishy, squeaking like rubber toys with each step she took. She could still remember the time before, though, could remember Princess Platinum standing on this very hill and proclaiming it the site of Canterlot, the city the unicorns would build in accordance with the agreement Clover had put together with Smart Cookie and Pansy: "A shining jewel," the princess had said that day, "and a symbol of this partnership we unicorns have forged with our neighbors, the earth ponies and the pegasi! Together, therefore, let us create our land, our dream, our Equestria!"

That had only been a year ago, she was sure, two years at the longest, the construction going so quickly with the pegasi and earth ponies helping. And she would never forget standing with Cookie and Pansy at the party the princess had called the Grand Galloping Gala, the purple flare of the princess's horn wielding the scissors, Commander Hurricane and Chancellor Puddinghead on either side of her as they cut the ceremonial ribbon across the city gates-

Just as that first drop of chocolate splashed against her snout...

Something popped like a balloon behind her, but Clover didn't look, didn't want to know. She couldn't afford to get distracted, not now, not with so much riding on-

Don't think about it. Don't think his name, don't think about what you're doing, don't give him any reason to cast his foul, bilious gaze in your direction. And while Clover didn't believe as some ponies did that His Capriciousness could truly read thoughts, well, her mentor Star Swirl the Bearded had always said, 'Misdirection is the center about which all magic spins.' Not that Clover had ever been any good at lying, but she'd discovered lately the vital difference between speaking a lie and simply keeping silent about the truth.

She rounded the corner, the stones becoming solid again under her, and ducked into the third building on the left. Seeing the familiar hallway, she puffed a sigh of relief: last week, His Capriciousness had switched this whole block of the city for a different one from across town.

Hurrying down the hall, heart racing, Clover tapped twice against the last bare wooden door and pushed it open, hoping to see-

Pansy staring back, her eyes and wings as usual spread wide with surprise, Smart Cookie on the other side of the shabby table, the only piece of furniture in the tiny square room, the dun-colored earth pony's cheeks thinner than when Clover had first met her during the hard times. Cookie's face lit up, though, when Clover met her gaze, her smile making her look almost like her old self.

They rushed into an embrace, Clover murmuring, "Thank the sun you're both still all right."

"Us?" Pansy's breath ruffled Clover's mane. "This nightmare's been worst of all for you!"

Cookie gave a little laugh, her voice rough. "Time to wake us all up from that nightmare, then. Everything set?"

"Yes." Clover stepped back, tried to keep herself from shaking, looked back and forth between the two. "The others are meeting all around the city right now! There's no way-"

A jagged flap fell open in the wall behind Pansy, Clover choking on her words, that long sallow face leering an all too familiar snaggle-toothed grin at her. "I'm spying on you!" Discord announced.

Wrapping her thoughts as thickly in fear and panic as she could-pretty easy to do, actually-she stammered, "Lord Discord! I didn't-! We weren't-! This isn't-!"

"Oh, now, really, Clover!" Discord slithered through the hole and into the room, a smell of burnt toast wafting up from him. "How many times must I tell you: there's no need to be so formal! We're all friends here!" The grayish-yellowish- brownish stretch of him filled the room like water in a sink of dirty dishes, his grin sharpening, his mismatched eyes narrowing. "All the very best of friends."

Smart Cookie's grin got just as sharp. "Could be that word don't mean what you think it means."

"Cookie, Cookie, Cookie!" Twisting like he didn't have a bone in his body, Discord tapped Cookie's snout with a talon of his eagle claw. "Of course we're friends! You wouldn't have invited me here otherwise, would you?"

Clover couldn't stop her jaw from dropping. "Invited? How could you possibly think-?"

"What?" Discord wheeled, his look of mock surprise always making Clover want to grind her teeth. "How could you possibly forget? After all, it was the three of you who did so!" He snapped the stubby fingers of his lion paw, and the room crumpled like a sheet of used paper, an ice-filled cavern taking its place.

A gasp beside her. "It's us!" Pansy said, and Clover blinked to see the scene exactly as she always remembered it: the princess, the commander, and the chancellor standing frozen, a younger version of herself singing an old ballad with her new friends, both looking just as they had that fateful night all those years ago.

"Why, it is you!" Discord spun in the air above the group. "And don't you all look so sweet, a tiny island of warmth and peace and friendship!" He somehow managed to turn that last word into a sneer. "A fragile little spark glowing and growing amidst all the lovely chaos and misery!" His wings swept the scene aside, Clover's drab rented apartment snapping into place again. "How could I ignore as open an invitation as that?"

Clover blinked at him. "But...we...you...I...I don't-"

A puff of licorice-scented breath from his nostrils into her face, and Discord turned a bored expression at Smart Cookie. "Perhaps you could explain things to your associate?"

Cookie shrugged. "Near as I can figure, you're the sorta fella who loves a challenge. Us ponies weren't anything like that to you when we was squabbling, but soon as we started getting along, we got real interesting, didn't we?" She grinned. "So you just had to come popping in and pay us a visit, see how we ticked and tocked and made other assorted noises."

"Oh, well done!" Discord pulled a bruised and half-eaten apple from thin air and held it out to Cookie. "Go to the head of the class, my dear!"

"That's OK." She wrinkled her nose at the thing. "Looks like somepony's already staked a claim on that one..."

"Then-" Clover shook, thoughts sparking like lightning bugs through her head. "We summoned you?"

Discord sniffed. "Let's say instead that you created a spot I felt inclined to turn my attention toward." He slipped sideways onto the floor, his body flowing all the way around the walls of the room till his tail came to rest just below his chin. "But that's enough about me. Let's talk about you girls and what you're up to."

Clover couldn't answer, Discord's words so completely unexpected, they took her breath away. Dimly, though, she heard Cookie ask, "What, you don't like surprises?"

His laugh sounded like wind through winter-bare branches. "On the contrary. But while I firmly believe that any ruler who doesn't have at least a dozen rebellions brewing against him isn't worth talking about, I suppose I find it a bit incongruous to imagine you little ponies rising up in any way against my enlightened despotism." He interlaced his various front claws and batted his eyes. "You're all just so gosh darn cute!"

A sigh that Clover recognized as Pansy's. "We might as well come clean, Cookie. Discord, we're planning a birthday party for you."

The silence that followed smelled of hot mustard, then Discord's whooping laugh smacked Clover as cold as a bucket of water on a frozen morning. "Oh, Pansy! And here I thought Cookie was the comedienne in your little trio!"

Blinking, forcing herself to focus on the here and now, Clover looked up into Discord's peculiar eyes, a glint there that she rarely saw in her day-to-day dealings with him. "I'll give your team five points for that answer, however, which moves you into first place!" He swiped his lion paw at the wall behind him, left five jagged slash marks in the wood, then cocked his head, a barbed smile curling his snout, a talon touching Clover's chin. "I've always had such hopes for you, Clover the Clever, and you've always been such a disappointment. I can only imagine Star Swirl shaking his head and turning away in disgust as he watches his greatest student flail about so ineffectively."

He straightened, snapped his lion paw, and vanished with a flash-except for his mouth, floating and still speaking above her. "Once I check in with the other groups I've noticed gathering around the city, I'll come back and let you know how you're faring in our little contest. But remember: it's not whether you win or lose. You can't win, after all!" A wet pop, and Discord's ragged grin disappeared.

In the unscented silence that followed, Clover inhaled for what felt like the first time in minutes. He didn't know! For all his unmistakable power, he didn't-!

"He knows!" Pansy squeaked, cowering on the floor, her front legs covering her face. "He knows, he knows, he knows!"

Cookie stroked a hoof over Pansy's back. "Whether he does or he don't, we got no choice. We hafta-"

"He doesn't!" Clover kept her voice down, and as much as she wanted to grab her friends and start dancing, they just didn't have the time. "In fact, what he said proves we can do this! We can stop him!"

Pansy's eyes wavered, peering out from beneath her hoofs. "You...you mean it, Clover?"

"Then-" Cookie took a step toward her. "Your research? You found what you was looking for?"

"Well, no," Clover had to admit. She fumbled to pull her cloak off. "Sneaking into the archives every night this past week, I didn't find any mention of the magic the three of us summoned in the cave. That means it's nothing Star Swirl knew anything about." Her hoofs were shaking so badly, she couldn't hook the laces tying her cloak on. "Could you guys maybe help me with-?"

The other two sprang forward, caught the ties in their teeth, and Clover felt the knot go loose at her throat. "But Discord said it himself just a minute ago!" she went on, still amazed to have found confirmation of her theory from such an unlikely source. "All of ponydom took a step forward that night, moved past any threat the windigoes could pose to us, but in doing so, we entered into a larger realm, became a target for a larger threat! We need to take another step forward, summon a greater good, create a power of truth and light and peace like we did before, but it's gotta be bigger this time!" Grabbing her cloak, she flipped it off, slapped it flat onto the little table. "We need to create them!"

An indrawn breath from Pansy on her left. "Ummm, Clover? This is just that flag Thimble Spinner put together, and, well, it's already been created. In fact, they were all over Equestria till Discord turned each and every one into a flying ice cream cone. So I don't see how're they supposed to-"

"Not the flag!" Clover reared back and planted her front hoofs beneath the two figures circling the central sun and moon. "These! Larger than the strongest earth pony, swifter than the fastest pegasus, mightier than the most powerful unicorn! The symbol of everything Equestria stands for, our three peoples coming together in harmony and becoming more than any one of us could ever be on our own!" She let her eyes rest on the simple, beautiful images. "We need to make these creatures real..."

The silence this time felt more than a little uncomfortable, and the "Ummm" came from Cookie this time. "Any idea how we go 'bout doing that?"

"Not a one." Clover lowered herself onto all fours, looked from Cookie to Pansy and back again. "But do you trust me?"

"Always," Pansy answered immediately.

With a chuckle, Cookie nodded. "Well, you gets points for honesty, anyway, Clover."

A warmth washed over Clover. "And do you love me?"

"Always," Pansy said.

For a second, Cookie looked more serious than Clover had ever seen her; then she smiled, stepped forward, and poked her nose against Clover's. "A goof like you, you makes it easy."

The air itself vibrating, Clover wrapped her right foreleg around Cookie's left, reached out her own left to Pansy. "And do you believe in me?"

Pansy took her hoof, her face pure happiness. "Always," she said.

The simple power of the word made Clover feel too big for her skin, and when she felt Cookie press her flank against her, heard her say, "And forever"-

Power burst from her like nothing she'd ever imagined: as clean and clear as that night in the cave, that night she'd first known what friendship could mean, had first realized how she and these two other ponies were the same despite their differences, how they were each wonderfully unique despite their similarities, how together, they added up to much more than three, much more than three thousand, so much more, they were able to warm the hearts of every pony in the world.

But this, this right here and right now, flooding from Smart Cookie and Pansy into her and from her out into the hearts and minds of every pony gathered in Canterlot, every pony hovering in Cloudsdale, every pony huddled in Manehattan or on a farm somewhere across all of bruised and battered Equestria, this power, it swooped through the clouds of Discord's chaos like a rainbow after the actual rainstorms Clover remembered washing through the sky not that long ago, touched every pony's wishes, dreams, and desires, and rebounded to her, came back to her to shape, to build upon, to form into-

A blast of wind, light exploding beyond her clenched eyelids, thunder shaking her from mane to fetlocks, Clover opened her mouth to cry out-

But stillness closed over her, a scent of simple flowing water in the air she sucked in. Opening her eyes, she heard Pansy gasp, felt Smart Cookie's shiver where she still stood pressed against her. But all she could see, all she ever wanted to see for the rest of her life, on the other side of the rickety wooden table with Thimble's flag stretched over it, filling the room with light and electricity and an excitement that crackled like static over Clover's skin-

Three mares, long-limbed, tall, and perfect, their wings huge and unfurled, their horns sparkling with colors Clover didn't know names for. The white one in the center, her cutie mark a sunburst, looked back at Clover with a slight smile, her pink mane flowing down to cover one eye. To Clover's left and directly across the table from Pansy stood a black and dark blue mare nearly as large as the first, her cutie mark a crescent moon, while on the sun mare's other side in front of Smart Cookie, a pink mare a bit smaller than the others blinked, her mane and tail striped with yellow, red, and purple, her cutie mark a cloud with a rainbow behind it.

The silence around them fairly hummed, but before Clover could ask any of the questions rattling through her brain like popcorn, the sun mare exchanged nods with the moon mare, turned and did the same with the cloud mare, then looked back at Clover and said as confidently as anypony Clover had ever heard: "Thank you. Now, we haven't much time, so-"

"Who-?" Pansy began, her voice as quivery as always, but Clover heard amazement dominating any fear there.

"-are you?" Smart Cookie took half a step forward, something Clover wasn't sure she could do just yet.

How were these creatures even fitting into this dingy little room, Clover wanted to ask, but when the three all smiled, the sight so warmed her and filled her with hope, Clover let her every question blow away.

"We are you," the sun mare said.

The moon mare gave a little shrug. "Well, your hopes and dreams made manifest, at any rate."

"So," the cloud mare added, her smile moving sideways into a grin, "if you'd be so kind, you should tell us who we are."

"Celestia," Clover said, the name coming to her as naturally as a breath, and the white mare bowed her head.

"Luna." Pansy was looking at the black mare.

"Cadence," from Smart Cookie, and she gave a grin that matched the pink mare's.

Celestia's eyes twinkled. "And we're very pleased to make your acquaintance. But right now-"

"What's this?" thundered from outside, and the walls of the room exploded into a million sharp, spinning pieces; Clover spread her hoofs and activated her horn, calling up a shield spell, but the three winged unicorns were faster, Celestia flashing fire from her horn to burn every shred of wood, Luna wafting shadow from her wings to extinguish each fire immediately after it had done its job, Cadence whooshing beneath Clover and her friends, lifting them through the ashy air, and setting them safely onto the ground-

The ground? Glancing around, Clover saw the entire neighborhood-buildings, streets, lampposts, everything-had vanished, the whole area for hundreds of yards in a circle around her nothing but bare dirt dampened by the chocolate rain, the rest of Canterlot standing just outside the radius. "Where-?" she started, but a familiar voice interrupted her.

"Well, well, well!" A part of the sky shimmered and cracked, Discord oozing out to float above the hole in the city. "Forgive me for doubting you, Pansy! You are throwing me a birthday party!" His face curdled into a leer that made Clover want to start running. "And three such wonderfully sweet presents you've brought me!"