Chapter XXXIII: Mount Dechrau
"Well... that was quick."
Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie turned around to find the Doctor, Derpy, Starswirl the Bearded, Rainbow Sword and Gilda the Oracle standing a good distance away, the exact same spot where they stood when the ponies first entered the Void.
Twilight smiled wide upon seeing them once again. She galloped over to them and said, "Alright. We're ready. We're ready to fight all the evils of Tartarus. We're ready to fight the Master. We're ready to free the world from his grip! We're going to send them all back through the Gates and shut them tight and bring harmony back!"
The ponies who had stayed on Earth looked at her with blank faces.
"Um, excuse me," Sword confusedly said, "But what exactly are you talking about?"
"... We missed the deadline, remember?" Dash responded with indignation, "Eclipse happened. Master opened the Gates. End of the World."
The four who stayed looked at each other with bewilderment. Both sides stared at the other as if they were three-headed. Derpy sat down, made her eyes go in circles and scratched her head. Gilda was content with letting the situation go on by itself with no intervention from her. The Doctor attempted to clear away the awkwardness.
"Uhhh... care to explain what it is you're trying to tell us?"
Applejack, frustrated with their failure to get the point, went up and tried to make it clear to everypony, "It's been a week! Ain't you been paying attention, Time Stallion? We didn't stop that darn Master before he opened up Tartarus, so he let loose all that evil and took over the world! We got the final ingredient and we've been training and training out there and now we got to go and fight to save everything! That explain everything for you?"
The Doctor stared at Applejack's angry eyes and made a few quick blinks. After a moment, he opened his mouth wide and mouthed out a long "Ohhhh..." He turned his head down and then back up. He bit his upper lip and looked up with his eyes, evidently trying to find a very difficult set of words. He took a deep breath and quickly exhaled. He slowly stepped back as he said, "Okay... I don't know how you'll take this news but..."
The six listened closely and with much anticipation to what the Doctor was about to say. They all leaned forward and looked the Doctor in the eye. Pinkie fell over on her face from leaning forward too far.
Finally, the Doctor said, "You've only been gone five seconds."
An agonizingly long pause. And then all six together, "WHAT?!?!?" They all followed Pinkie's lead and fell forward flat on their faces against the dry canyon rock. In unison, they groaned. Their entire week of hard training and bitter worry over the world was for nothing.
Twilight looked up and said, "But we were in that other world for an entire week... How could it have only been five seconds here?"
With a good amount of difficulty, the Doctor tried to give a possible explanation for what had happened. "Well, you see, ponies assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a-"
"Stop! Stop!" Twilight shouted, "Just don't. We're not in any mood to hear about time or space or rifts or whatever... Let's just get back to work."
Gilda led the ponies off of the bridge and to an outcropping lit by sunlight. Gilda then flew off and went down into the darkness below. She returned with a white plastic magnifying glass. She flew to the canyon wall above the ponies and felt along a large area of rock. She stopped upon feeling a smooth polished surface. She backed away from the wall and slowly raised the magnifying glass until she felt the warmth of the Sun hit her claw. The sunlight passed through the lens and focused on the polished spot on the wall.
Gilda then said, "Make sure you catch whatever falls down, or else I'm gonna have to kill you," and recited an incantation in Dromedary. "Duu' ashams, taksir assanduuq."
The point where the focused sunlight touched the rock began to smoke and sizzle, until finally the polished rock burst apart. From the explosion, a small wooden crate fell down. It fell past the ponies before they could react, but Dash was quick to swoop down and catch it. She gently put it down among the ponies. It was about a third the size of the ponies. Gilda landed by the crate and said, "Starswirl, at this point, you open the box."
Starswirl walked up the crate and cast a spell, "Aperi." The sides of the crate split and fell apart, revealing the many steel horseshoes contained inside.
Gilda proceeded to explain, "These are high-accelerative horseshoes. I've been collecting them over the years as the rift dropped them off. They let you gallop really really fast. Faster than Dash here on a sonic rainboom, and fast enough to get you to the Gates of Tartarus in time. There should be more than enough for all of you."
The ponies picked up the horseshoes and tried to put them on. They appeared far too large to fit on them, but upon making contact with their hooves, the horseshoes liquefied and morphed into a suitable size and shape. The ponies' steps clicked loudly as the metal horseshoes met the rock floor.
Gilda gathered the ponies around and spoke to all of them. "Now, time for me to finally leave this canyon. Back up to the desert, everypony." Gilda led the pegasi up to the light above the canyon, while the unicorns and earth ponies teleported up along ledges at various heights up the canyon wall.
The Great Northern Desert was hot, dry and miserable as ever. The Sun and the Moon lied beside each other and were dangerously close. The Moon was a pure black disk in the sky, and already its rim was touching that of the Sun.
The horseshoes made standing on the desert sand somewhat bearable. The Doctor took out the compass and the needle pointed to the Southeast, to the spot where the Moon was directly above. The ponies stood by the Doctor and they all faced Southeast and the great trail that was before them. Gilda then landed in front of them and began, "You have two hours before the Moon totally eclipses the Sun. If everything goes alright with the horseshoes, you should get there in an hour. The Master's gonna use the umbra of the eclipse and the positioning of the stars to break open the Key to the Gates. The Key looks like a phoenix egg and it contains controlled anti-matter, stuff specifically aimed to destroy the atoms of the Gates' locks. You got to stop him before he breaks the Key."
"Do we?" Twilight asked, "I mean, you've seen it. Do we stop him in time?"
Gilda shook her head, "I don't know. That point in time is in flux and there're lots of versions of it. It's all blurry in my head, so I don't really know."
Twilight heaved an anxious sigh. She looked at the Sun and Moon as they came closer together. "So how do we work these horseshoes?"
"You just gallop," the Doctor said, "They're solar powered and just a minute or so in the Sun is enough to get them fully charged up. All we have to do now is gallop to Mount Dechrau and hope we can stop the Master in time."
"We can do it!" Dash said.
"Yeah," Applejack joined, "Ain't nobody gonna stop us!"
Their spirits were boosted. Despite the impending disaster, everything had gone according to plan. They had all the ingredients for the Elements of Harmony, and they had time to go into action. From an optimistic viewpoint, there seemed to be nothing that could go wrong.
"Ready?" Gilda asked, and everypony nodded and gave a grunt in response.
The ponies readied themselves to begin their long and fast gallop. Before they took off, Gilda gave some final parting words, "Good luck, everypony, and kick some butt. I got no doubts that you'll win. You've made it this far and you're not gonna stop now. As for me this is goodbye." Gilda went around, sniffed each pony and embraced them tightly. The last hug was for the Doctor, and as they held each other, Gilda whispered into his ear, "If you win, Doctor, then I should say it now... I'm sorry. I really am so sorry."
The Doctor did not reply.
Gilda approached the cliff into the canyon and was about to jump back down when Dash grabbed her shoulder. "Hold on, Gilda. In case I don't see you again, thanks. Thanks for all of this. And... we forgive you. I forgive you. Remember that."
"Thanks, Dash. You have no idea how much hearing that in the present means to me. Now, get going! You got a world to save!"
Dash rejoined the ponies and altogether, they began to gallop. Then the horseshoes activated and the ten ponies zipped away at an incredible speed, leaving behind an enormous dust cloud trail.
Gilda flew back down into her canyon and felt along the wall for the hole that the explosion earlier had made. She reached in and took out two objects. One was a rug that her zebra apprentice wove under her instructions. On the rug was an intricate and complex design of circles and lines. It was a message written in Gallopfreyan. The other object was a watch-like device with various lights and buttons. It was a time vortex manipulator. Gilda took these two items down to the bridge. She felt buttons of the manipulator and pressed the buttons to enter coordinates. She then rolled he rug up and put the manipulator around it. She pressed a big glowing button and tossed the rug into the air. In the rug crackled with electricity and then vanished, leaving behind a little puff of smoke.
With that, Gilda's mission was complete. Her role was done, and so was one thing vital to her survival besides the energy of the rift: her purpose. With no further purpose, Gilda lied down on the bridge. She closed her blind eyes and took one final deep breath of the air of the world of the living. She exhaled slowly, and let King Thiessen take her spirit away.
~~~~~
The Dragon Queen, Ember, decked in golden armor, perched on the snowcapped peak of the tall and mighty Mount Dechrau in the Gwyrdd Mountains. Many of her Royal Guard circled in the sky around the mountain and many more stood on guard on the slopes of rock, jade, emeralds, alpine grass. The lesser mountains around Dechrau also were made of rock, jade and emeralds and were graced with patches of grass.
In the sky above, the Sun was in the shape of a crescent as the black Moon covered it up more and more. The sky darkened and the stars around the Sun and Moon began to shine.
From the South came an armored blue dragoness, Princess Sapphire. She glided over to her mother and landed on a boulder just below the peak. "Still no sign of him. I have searched through the river plains and all around Purpura Lake. Nothing. Comet, Ruby and Amber also found nothing."
"Then that pony is very clever. Our soldiers have scoured the three kingdoms for any trace of him and found nothing. And to worsen our plight, the Hoofricans are interfering!"
Queen Ember pointed to the West where there was the camp in a large valley belonging to a small army bearing the Hoofrican flag, the design of which was a rhino horn, a warthog tusk and a gazelle horn meeting together at the center by their sharp tips, with a background of zebra stripes. One of the Hoofrican tents stood out from the others as the most opulent. It was made of golden silk and decorated with traditional masks, shields and spears. Clearly it was the Emperor's tent.
"That fool Bluehorn arrived yesterday with his army and had the audacity to demand that we leave the Gates for him to protect and accused us of failing to uphold our duty of keeping the Gates safe! I was eager to broil the wretch and feed him to the carrion birds!"
"Why did you not?"
"His alchemists erected a wall to stop our flames. I could have used our Guard to slay them with their claws, but the fools are not worth the effort and the bloody mess. And fortunately for their soldiers, Bluehorn is not so mad as to try to fight us with that meager army of his. So I let them camp away from us for the time being."
Sapphire climbed higher and stood beside her mother and at the same level. Quietly she began, "Mother... there is always the choice of working alongside them against Tympanus..."
"I shall hear it not, Sapphire!" Ember snapped, "'Twas bad enough when you told them of our situation and gave them the information to find the mountain. You will not encourage any further interference. We don't need it. After all, 'tis impossible for the alicorn to break open the egg, for he is just one. It takes two alicorns to accomplish the task."
"But mother-"
"That's enough! You have done enough damage. Just fly about and keep a watchful eye for him."
"Mother..."
"Go!"
Sapphire hesitated, but eventually she took off and joined her siblings who were circling around the mountain. She was hurt. All her efforts to impress her mother had just ended with her disappointment. First it was her deal with Tympanus, and now it was her attempt to seek help from the other kingdoms. Soon enough, the Ponytopians would arrive and further infuriate the Queen. Things seemed like they could not possibly improve.
Ember kept watching from her perch, but her attention was taken by a strange exotic whooshing and grinding noise. She looked down to find the source of the noise. Halfway down Mount Dechrau was a perfectly round plateau of pure jade. On the center of the plateau, an image began to form, as if from the air itself. The image faded in and out and in and out, each time become more distinct. Eventually, Ember realized that the object that was coming into view was a tall blue box. She raised her head and let out an enormous plume of blue, green, red and white fire, and called out, "Everydragon down! The blue box is here!"
The Queen jumped off her perch and dove down to the plateau, and all the dragons around the mountain followed her lead. One hundred armored, white fire bearing dragons gathered all around the plateau, waiting to turn Tympanus into ashes. The blue box had materialized near where the plateau gave way to a perfectly vertical sheer slope, almost like a wall. Its doors faced the slope. The dragons had the box completely surrounded. Queen Ember and her four children landed at the center of the plateau.
After a few seconds, the doors of the box opened and a handsome cream coated, brown maned alicorn stepped out. He looked up and saw dragons glaring at him from the mountain side, teeth bared. He looked to his right and left, and dragons were there too. He walked around the box and looked behind it to see the royal family.
"Ah, good morning! Or is it the afternoon? Evening? Blimey, I may have missed afternoon tea. What a shame... I guess that's the disadvantage of putting the Sun and Moon like this. But anyways, hello!"
Queen Ember stepped forward, reared her head and burst out a ferocious stream of white fire. Her children did the same, and all the dragons around followed. Tympanus and the Blue Box were engulfed in the searing white flames. When the flames dissipated, Tympanus and his box just stood there completely unharmed.
"My, my. You dragons are an impolite lot, aren't you? Didn't I tell you, Princess Sapphire, how great it'd be if I combined this box's extrapolator shielding with a magical shield?"
"We have no time for your jokes, Tympanus!" Sapphire shouted, "Return the egg!"
"Well, at least you go straight to business. Fine, I'll be straightforward too. Ummmmmmm... no."
Tympanus walked over to the five royal dragons until he reached the edge of his shield. Ember walked forward also and stood right in front of him. She then demanded, "How did you find this place? The location of the Gates has been the dragons' most sacred secret since the dawn of this Age!"
Tympanus replied, "Well, it wasn't much of a secret before the dawn of this Age."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It's complicated. Your little brain wouldn't understand. Now excuse me. There's a world of demons and monsters I need to free." Tympanus turned around and faced the mountain. He began to walk away from Ember and approached the wall of jade, emerald and stone in front of the Blue Box.
Angered by the alicorn's arrogance, Ember charged forward to tear him apart with her own claws and teeth, but she was met by the shield. Upon touching it, she was pushed back by a burst of blue and purple bolts electricity. She fell to the ground, smoke rising from her body. Her children quickly went over and helped her back up. They all glared at Tympanus as they watched him do his work.
Tympanus stood before the mountain slope and eyed it greedily. He entered the Blue Box and came out moments later levitating a bucket of paint, some paintbrushes and a strange deformed rock. He put the objects down. He opened the paint bucket, which contained what looked like dark red paint, and levitated the brushes to begin making a symbol on the wall. As he painted he spoke, "You know, the last time the Gates were opened was when that pony king and queen - Looks and Nooks were their names I think - they banished your little Arglwydd. I don't think I remember the bloke's name. Anyway, they were only able to do it with the Faust's help. I, however-"
"How dare you speak of the Goddess without proper respect!" Ember snapped upon hearing Tympanus speak of the Creator Goddess in such a casual and irreverent tone.
Tympanus turned to look at her and replied, "Listen, you royal tart, I'm opening the prison of all the evils that Faust locked away at the beginning of the Universe. And you think I'm being disrespectful for omitting her title? Get a little perspective." He then returned to painting and continued, "So, where was I... ah, yes, I don't have Faust's help because why would she want to help me undo all her work? So I'll need a little bit of dark magic."
"Forbidden magic is a better word," Ember said, "That is not red paint, is it?"
"Clever you! You deserve a smiley-face sticker. Yup, good old Rundo Ndizi, he really meant it when he said he'd give anything in service to me. I almost miss him."
Tympanus finished painting and put down the brushes. The symbol was a red circle, with curved lines reaching inwards from the rim and meeting at the center. It was the ancient Drakonic symbol of Death. Ember looked wide-eyed at the it with the utmost dread and breathed heavily. Comet stood by his mother's side and put his arm around her to comfort her. Ruby, Sapphire and Amber then joined him to do the same.
They watched as Tympanus next took the deformed rock. "It's always fun to go searching for meteorites. Maybe I should pick it up as a hobby once I've conquered this galaxy cluster." He levitated the meteorite and then thrust it into the center of the symbol. The force of his magic made the meteorite bore into the mountain until finally it stuck to the wall. Tympanus stepped back and admired his work.
Ember made one more effort to discourage Tympanus from his task. "You shall never reach the Gates without facing Cerberus and letting him through your shield. And you cannot kill him for he is immortal. He shall tear you to pieces."
"Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that."
Tympanus lowered his head such that his horn was pointed directly at the meteorite at the center of the circle. Quietly, he began to recite an ancient incantation, an incantation for a spell to destroy a mountain.
"Genedigaeth, Bywyd, Marwolaeth.
Genedigaeth o Mynydd, Bywyd o Mynydd, Marwolaeth o Mynydd."
He repeated the incantation six times, each time louder than the last until he was yelling it at the jade floor. The symbol began to glow and the meteor lit on white fire. Lastly, Tympanus cried out, "DIWEDD!"
Tympanus' horn glowed white and he charged forward at the wall. His horn struck the meteorite and pieced through it and into the Mount Dechrau. Tympanus then felt searing hot pain on his horn, but he held his composure and resisted the urge to scream in agony.
Sensing what was about to take place, all the dragons who perched on the mountain above the plateau flew off and posted themselves on other slopes. Ember held her children close and covered them with her wings.
Around where Tympanus' horn struck, the mountain cracked. The cracks then extended further and further up Mount Dechrau. Bits of rock, jade, emeralds and other debris began to fall down all around Tympanus as the mountain trembled. Then, the trembling stopped and everything fell silent, but after a brief moment, the mountain exploded. The entire half of the mountain above the jade plateau broke apart and blasted away in a billion pieces. The remains of the mountain was scattered all over the area. Boulders, rocks, pebbles and dust fell down onto the rest of the Gwyrdd Mountains. Then a deep moaning sound echoed through the every peak, slope, cave, valley and trench in the mountain range, as if all the mountains were mourning the demise of their tallest and most magnificent sister.
All that remained of the upper half of Mount Dechrau was a tall outcropping of black rock. Built into the rock was a massive grey metal wall in the shape of a doorway. A pattern of black and white curved and swirling lines was carved into the wall. At the center was a small indentation in the shape of an egg. The wall spanned from the base of the rock to half-way towards the peak. In front of the wall, there was a strange creature sleeping. The creature, upon smelling the scent of intruders, opened its eyes and stood. It was a giant three-headed dog.
"Oh, hello Cerberus."