He had little more to ask Harmony. Her motivations seemed simple, and she hadn't actually done anything wrong. "Just one last thing. If you are harmony, as a global thing, why are you in the pony's country, as a pony even when visiting a not-pony?"

Harmony inclined her head faintly. "It was the ponies that created me. It was a different group of ponies that urged my growth. Ponies can be very harmonious. My next agents will be more diverse, this is already in action. I only regret that I have... had... no human agent, but then you came. Will you act?"

That was a hell of a recruitment line. "If it's to be a decent person, I'll do that without prompting."

"Gentle prompts are all I will do," assured the demi-god. "Thank you for coming. She needs you."

Discord hiked a thumb at her even as he turned to go. "What a slave driver."

"I don't think she--" He had faced Discord, then looked back, and she was gone, just the tree remained with no fake-Twilight standing before it. "Hmm. If she asks me to do something I wouldn't do, I won't do it. I feel certain she can still hear that." He turned back for the stairs leading up out of the hole. "I still have questions for you, and a note of thanks.

Discord hiked a brow. "Of thanks?" He easily kept up with Crane's movement. "I thought you were upset about the whole (language) thing?"

"Your sudden action made what could have struck us without knowing into a very obvious effect, for some of us." He glanced towards the quiet servicemen that accompanied them. "Do any of you still know (English)?"

One of the three raised a hand. "(I learned little Ponish,)" he explained as he went.

"Right, can you fix that?" Roland ascended the stairs one after the other, undoing the day's travel. "Just, pop, put English back in everyone's head?"

Discord lifted his shoulders. "There are limits. That magic was already there, already working, and I hurried it forward. That's a lot easier than doing it all myself. My power rush came and left, I mentioned that."

And it had saved little Ponyville from the sting of war, but little else. Roland frowned softly, but could think of no specific argument about how feasible being a godling doing an act of world-impacting magic was. "At least we can preserve it." Without a bevy of technological trickery, at least. "With the war over, are you weak?"

Discord raised a brow higher than his head. "Weak, me? As if. People produce more than enough chaos without a war mucking things up. In fact, your little country is a hotbed of almost constant chaos. Not enough for that rush, but enough to not be worried about losing to Harmony any time soon." As if to display how fine he was, he snapped his fingers and they were not about to head into the Everfree proper, instead they were all emerging from from the forest as if they had just finished the walk, though their watches agreed that the movement had been instant.

"You could have taken us directly to the tree, I assume?"

"I could have." He shrugged softly. "But what's the fun in that? You got to tour the Everfree, a thing few other humans could claim just yet. Besides, using chaos to bring others to Harmony? That hardly sounds proper. Using chaos to bring others from Harmony, now we're talking." He smirked softly with a little chuckle. "Me, a rival... This will be interesting. Well, have fun!" He waved a little before casually winking out of existence.

Paul Goldstein, who was also a changeling, smiled at the room full of people. "I'm glad you could all make it," he started. "Have you ever looked in the mirror and weren't sure who was looking back at you? I've been there, and I'm here to lend a helping hand."

The crowd softly applauded, eager to be there.

"Before we get too far, I want to remind a few people I see already having second thoughts. This class is offered on a sliding scale. We only ask that people give what they can, and not a penny more than that. Now, let's get into the meat of things. The nature of identity." It was certainly a thing he had personal experience, living as a third person in his life.

"We can give you hearing," stated clear electronic words held in the human's hands. The words vanished to be replaced with new ones, "it will require surgery, but we can do it." He swiped the screen the words were on, bringing up a page about cochlear implants.

Sunburst reached a hoof and his horn glowed, bringing the tablet closer to read. "I heard about these," he said out loud, though he couldn't be sure he was speaking it loud enough, or too loud. "But it's not the same, right?"

The man reached to swipe on to the next page that explained the difference between such an implant and normal hearing. "For people with functioning nerves but a damaged ear, this can allow hearing and interpretation of voices." There were a lot of caveats there underneath it, but it was quite confident that it allowed that.

Sun reached up to paw at one of his fuzzy ears. So far as he knew, his nerves were fine, just the inside of his ears were wrecked. Still... "This has to be expensive."

The human swiped a few pages forward to where it proclaimed he could get one at no cost.

"What's the catch?" Sunburst hiked a brow. Humans were many things, but he hadn't known them for being very generous with medical anything.

The man started to gesture slowly. Sign Language.

But Sunburst hadn't learned sign language. "Uh, can you write it down please?" Ponies didn't have fingers to do sign language, which had dissuaded him from even trying to learn it. And humans couldn't do pony sign language, with its many ear and tail motions. The world spoke one language, until you were deaf.

The human reclaimed his tablet and got to tapping at it.

You seem like the kind of pony that would appreciate frank honesty. Performing this procedure on you is good PR. We'll restore hearing to a medal-winning champion of liberty, which is good for us. You get your hearing back, which is obviously good for you.

Sunburst tapped at his chin softly. "I see..." He would be a spokespony for them, just by existing and hearing through their efforts. It did mean it was in their best interest that he hear then, so he doubted they'd mess that up. "So you'll give me the best you have? You want me to say how good it is, right?"

The very best

He typed quickly before turning the tablet back to Sunburst to see.

What a hero deserves.

While he wanted to say yes, he instead raised a hoof. "Have you ever tried this on a pony before? Are our ears exactly the same?"

Your inner ears are the same. This sound will not be the same sound you heard before your sacrifice, but it will be sound that you hear.

Sound that he could hear. That... He felt a drop land on his hoof and realized it had come from his own face. "Sorry." He wiped it away, trying to compose himself. "I... need to think about this."

"In a surprising bit of weather news, a hurricane was entirely avoided." She gestured to the right where a window appeared, showing the trajectory of a hurricane that had been moving towards Florida before curving quite suddenly away. "Pegasi from across the state took flight in a cooperative mission, deflecting the troublesome weather from ever touching the ground."

The window switched to show a pegasus stallion, smiling at the camera. "Don't worry!" he assured with a big grin. "We'll let in just the right amount of rain to keep things happy, no storms."

A mare leaned in off camera. "And we'll make rain when there isn't enough. That's what you pay us for." They performed a high-five, but used their wings, not hooves or hands. "Let's go!" They took off away from the camera and the window closed.

"In other news, a handful of griffons have joined the weather pegasi, insisting they are equally capable of weather control."

Another window appeared, showing three griffons with a pegasus mare pacing back and forth in front of them. "You listen to what I say, do what I do, and I'll have you molding clouds like nocreature's business!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" they barked as one, even if one stuck out his tongue when she wasn't looking.

"In other news, the Internet has reached the Equestrian mainland, with plans already rolling out to expand from there to other countries that reside on the same continent. Equestria now has its own top-level domain, so expect new sites to appear using .eq at the end."

She gestured to the left. "Former president Roland Crane visited the war torn Lutrai yesterday. He was welcomed with open arms."

A new window appeared, showing Roland smiling and waving at cheering otters. A new figure rushed forward to the Secret Service's obvious dismay, but they didn't stop Queen Ruddertail from jumping on him. She hugged him fiercely and though it was hard to hear over the cheers of others, she was saying a lot of things in too much of a hurry.

"He's gone to visit with his family and is expecting to stay for an indefinite time."

The window changed to show Roland facing the camera. "The lutrai lost a lot fighting alongside us. They threw themselves into the effort without a moment of hesitation, and lending a hand in return is the least we can do. I've left my personal projects in good hands for the moment while I see to this equally important matter."

"Mister Crane's linguistic preservation society has been receiving greater attention these days," explained the newscaster, gesturing as a new window appeared showing the website that housed it and also clips of classes. "With a dozen teachers and growing, it is Roland Crane's hope to at least archive English and other languages as best as can be done. Those wishing to learn these dead languages can do so in his school."

The window showed a trio of striped equines, zebras facing the camera. "(We have learned English here,)" stated one.

"(We are honored,)" spoke the second.

"We hope to learn our own, to share it in return. Let it not be alone, A place here to earn." All three of them nodded at the sentiment of getting their native Zebrican language inducted into the linguistic society to be preserved.

The newscaster tapped her papers on the desk. "What a time to be alive. With peace sweeping the globe, outlooks are sunny for the future. Even what we thought were animals are proving to be potential friends." A new window popped into being, showing a tatzlwyrm pointing with its tendrils at various letters and words, communicating with a smiling hippogriff. "Preliminary studies show that tatzlwyrms are likely to be approved for creature status, with all the privileges and obligations that brings."

"Our brave soldiers are coming home! The new council of the minotaurs has succeeded in forming a basic police force. As per the peace agreements, they will have no offensive army, but a modest defensive force has emerged, ready to serve its peoples' needs." A window popped up, showing soldiers arriving home, waving and smiling. A Hoku was among them, waving from beside his two squaddies.

"Do you understand why you lost?" A baleful set of eyes glared at the set of villains. "Why you were destroyed? Why your dreams were snatched from you just when victory seemed to be a sweet taste on your rotten tongues?"

A cloven hoof came down, just barely in view as it slammed the stone. "I'll tell you why!"

Author's Notes:

And.... fin? I feel like that's a fin. The patreon funding this wanted this wrapped up this month, and this sure feels like an ending (With a teaser if ever a sequel were to happen).

The world is safe, for now. Things are growing and healing. Surely nothing will go wrong!

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