The Creation of Harmony

by Time Ponies are cool

The First Act of the Goddess

Chapter XIX: The First Act of the Goddess

The Master stood by the TARDIS console manning the controls. He flipped handles, pulled levers and smacked a mechanism with a mallet. He set the destination coordinates for a certain spot in the Great Northern Desert, where there was an enormous yellow tent, the mobile abode of the mercenary dragon, Thorn. There was a vital piece of information he needed to gain from the dragon.

The TARDIS parked and the Master opened the doors. Outside, the Master saw a large purple dragon, Thorn, cuddling on a huge bed of silver and gold coins and jewels with a young dragoness.

"Oh, sorry! Bad timing. I'll come back in a few hours." The Master shut the doors and returned to the console. He set the TARDIS to go forward two hours and opened the doors again. Outside he saw a four gazelle slaves with their horns blunted holding spears pointed at the Master.

One of the gazelle called out, "Master! That blue box with the pony has returned!"

Then, from behind bead curtains, Thorn entered. He was much larger than the average dragon, larger than Queen Ember, even, because of all the possessions he had amassed. His white spines were long and stiff, and his tail ended in an arrowhead shape. He wore a variety of jewels and the most dazzling of them all was the golden cuff on his right wrist, which was adorned with a fang-shaped diamond. One thing he lacked was a pair of wings. Thorn gestured for the slaves to move aside and crouched down to look at the Master in the face. He glared at the intruder with his menacing green eyes and bared his fearsome teeth.

"And to what do I owe the honor of being visited by the king of Ponytopia?" Thorn said with false sincerity, "And you seem much younger now. Are you so vain as to use an age spell on yourself, Your Majesty?"

"We cometh with a deal for thee, Thorn." The Master said, using a royal voice.

Thorn stood up straight again and walked around the TARDIS. "I appreciate your business, Your Majesty. I also notice that your Drakish has much improved since we last spoke. You sound as if you hail from Mount Inferno. Though, I do have questions aplenty. Firstly, why in the name of Faust are you travelling in a little box?"

The Master stepped out from the TARDIS and walked to face Thorn directly, though he stayed within the TARDIS extrapolator shield. After Thorn lowered his head to be face-to-face with who he thought was King Concordius, the Master said, "We are simply here to discuss our business. There art no time for inquiries."

Thorn exhaled heavily out of his nostrils, blowing a plume of smoke at the Master. "And you have certainly become quite rude," he said, "But that matters not. So, what do you wish for and what do you offer, Your Majesty?"

"We seek information."

"Oh, now that is new! What is it you seek?" Thorn walked to his bed and lied down as he listened to the Master's response.

"We wish to know the secret known by all dragons. The secret the dragons hath kept for millenia."

"Why come to me then? Can you not demand an answer out of some other dragon?"

"Thou art a mercenary. Thou hast no allegiance to the kingdom of Drakonia. Thy allegiance lies only with the right price." The Master then took out a heavy sack from the TARDIS and dropped it in front of Thorn. In the sack were the jewels and ornaments worn by King Concordius.

"Well then, Your Majesty, perhaps if you ponies did not mercilessly kill on sight every dragon you come across, you may be able to torture one and force an answer out of him. But, never mind that. This is quite the price you lay on the table. What then is the information in question?" Thorn rested his chin on his claws as he listened to the Master.

"We wish to know the location of the Gates of Tartarus."

Thorn raised his head in surprise. He then stood and glared at the Master. "You insult me, Concordius! I may have no allegiance to any kingdom, but I still have my honor as a dragon. The location of the Gates is the most sacred secret kept by the dragons since the dawn of time. To keep this secret is the duty handed to us by Queen Faust. You know this! Have you lost your respect of the gods? You have even abandoned your duty over the Sun and Moon! And you call yourself a king?"

The Master decided that he would get no farther with Thorn. In matters of honor, no dragon can be swayed. Their sense of honor is immaculate. "Oh, I definitely don't call myself a king, Thorn." He then returned to the TARDIS and spoke to Thorn from the doorway. "You were simply so stupid that you mistook me for the king and then refuse my offer. Well, then, I suppose I should be moving on to the next option."

"What? If you are not the king, then who are you?"

"I told you. No questions. I was just here for business. Now, good-bye." The Master then shut the TARDIS doors and set the TARDIS on course for a new destination. Thorn stared at the blue box as it vanished before his eyes. He sighed and ordered his slaves to bring him a bowl of topaz.
~~~~~

The Master set his course for the Uruhu Forest, in the heart of Hoofrica. With his attempt to gain information from Thorn turning fruitless, his next option was to seek the help of his followers. He opened the doors and saw outside zebra bowing down before him. The TARDIS had landed outside a zebra shaman's hut deep in the forest. The surrounding woods were wet and dark, and the sound of insects droned endlessly. The only lights came from the TARDIS, the hut and a very few holes in the canopy where moonlight seeped through.

"Master, you told me not that you were coming to my home. I failed to prepare to welcome you as you return from wherever you roam." the bowing zebra humbly said. The zebra was short and skinny, as a result of his ascetism. He wore copper rings around his long neck and had golden ear rings. His cutie mark was a single all-seeing eye.

"Lift your head up, Rundo Ndizi. I have a task for you."

The Master entered into Rundo Ndizi's hut and sat by the table, where Rundo then placed a clay cup of tea for him. As the Master drank his tea, he spoke. "So, you're the one responsible for the Pool of Seeing, am I right? You tend to and use the Pool?"

"You are correct, indeed, my noble lord. The Pool is mine to care, as you have said by every word."

The Master finished his tea and said, "Excellent.Show it to me."

Rundo Ndizi took a bag full of powder and potions led the Master out the back door of the hut and down a narrow trail through the woods lit by jars of fireflies. They walked on for a few minutes and reached a wide hole in the ground. On a nearby tree was tied a rope that led down into the hole, which continued far beyond the reach of light. Rundo stood at the edge and took out a small sack of powder. He emptied the blue contents onto his hoof and sprinkled the powder down into the hole. Moments later there was a flash of light hole and as the two looked down, they saw a light blue glow coming from the bottom. Rundo Ndizi grabbed the rope with his mouth and slowly climbed down into the hole. The Master slowly flew down, following the zebra's lead.

The hole was perfectly cylindrical and straight, clearly not a natural creation, but no pony, dragon or Hoofrican was responsible for it. As the Master observed the hole, he took out the Doctor's screwdriver, which detected major temporal disturbances all over the deep hole. This hole was a gap in the fabric of time and space, where anything from all of time and space can interact with this specific part of the Universe. The gap was responsible for the perfect shape of the hole, and for the magical properties of the Pool down below.

After a few minutes of descending, Rundo Ndizi and the Master reached the Pool of Seeing, a small underground lake glowing light blue. Rundo dropped down from the rope and landed on a cylindrical rock at the center of the Pool. At the edge of the rock was a ladder that led into the water.

"What, Master, is it that you wish to see? Anything, I can show you, so long as it is known to me. I must tell that secrets beyond my knowledge are shrouded behind the veil where all mysteries are crowded."

"Show me the day of Creation. Show me when Queen Faust banished the evils of the world into Tartarus."

Rundo Ndizi nodded and put down his bag. As he took out various sacks, jars and vials, he told the Master the story of Queen Faust's first action upon the world: The Great Cleansing.

"We live now in the Fourth Age, and before this there were three. This is the story passed down from the dawn of this Age and reaches me. The First Age was a time of goodness created by the First Goddess, Bonnie Zacherle. But soon that Age fell and came to the Ages where the gods ruled wickedly. The Second Age was a time of heinous depravity and licentiousness. Then came the Third Age, the worst of all, void of all good and full of revolting wickedness. So great was its evil, few now would dare to speak of its existence. Such is the result of a time where goodness is seen as nonsense."

Rundo Ndizi finished preparing his potion. The potion vial contained a violet liquid of the same consistency as water and smelled like elderberries. He stood at the edge of the rock and poured the potion into the Pool. The violet color spread and the glow also turned violet. As the potion spread, Rundo Ndizi continued the story.

"But, listen now, I say, for hope was not all lost. For then rose the greatest of all the gods, Faust. With a stroke of Her pen, all evil was washed away. The time had come for Her to create a new day. She locked away all the demons, that they may not further continue their crime. She sealed them in an inescapable prison, behind unbreakable doors of Adamantine. Countless evil ponies were imprisoned within the confines of Tartarus. And with that done, she turned to the task of creating us."

Now the whole pool was glowing violet and gently swirled around the central rock clockwise. Rundo Ndizi invited the Master to the edge of the rock and said, "These things came to pass from a time remembered only by word of mouth of we zebras. The beginning of the Fourth Age was eight-thousand twenty-four years before us. These things took place deep in the dragons' kingdom. In there the beginning of this Age had come."

"A very nice story, Rundo." the Master said, "but now I want to see it."

"We must jump, my master, into the pool. Then we shall see the beginning of the goddess' rule."

The Master nodded and he and Rundo together dove into the glowing violet water. The Master's vision was clouded in violet and later the coolness of the water disappeared and he felt as if he was floating in air. The cloud of violet then vanished and the Master and Rundo were standing on a vast empty white plain. The land was flat and featureless for as far as the eye can see, and the sky too was completely white and blank. There were no clouds, Sun, Moon or stars. Everything was silent. The Master could not hear his own breathing. Even the sound of drums that had been beating in his head for centuries stopped. He looked to Rundo Ndizi, who appeared ethereal and ghost-like. Rundo put his hoof over his mouth, gesturing for silence. The Master looked at his own hoof, which also had a ghost-like appearance.

Suddenly, there was a faint spark of light high in the sky, and shortly afterwards a perfectly straight stream of black liquid poured down from the sky a mile away from the Master and Rundo Ndizi. The Master flew off to get a closer look, and Rundo galloped following him. Upon touching the white ground, the stream simply bore through it. The stream then suddenly stopped, leaving a circular dot on the spot where it poured. Suddenly, the ground trembled and an enormous black rock emerged from the black dot. The rock stood tall and wide, its peak at least twenty times higher from the ground than the tip of the Master's horn.

Then a stream of grey liquid poured from the sky and into the side of the rock. Where the liquid struck, a pair of enormous thick metal doors formed. The doors spanned from the base of the rock to half-way towards the peak. The doors then swing open with an earth-shaking creak. Inside the doors was nothing but empty darkness.

Then there was an sudden deafening bang and the open doors began shaking. The Master and Rundo Ndizi did not feel anything, but the darkness was sucking in everything around it, though initially there was nothing to suck in. Then from beyond every horizon, colorful clouds began flying towards the rock. As the clouds came closer, the Master and Rundo saw that they were in fact great hordes of creatures. Ponies, little dragons, pony faeries, and countless other abominations of the Third Age. The Master and Rundo ducked as the hordes all flew through the doors and were sucked into the darkness. They were all screaming and wailing as they were sent into their eternal confinement. Minutes passed as the hordes continued to be sucked into the darkness. Once they all had been trapped within, the metal doors closed shut with a thunderous thud.

A narrow beam of blinding white light then came from the sky and struck the bottom of the doors at the center. The beam then slowly moved up the center of the doors. The door crack disappeared as the beam moved up until finally it was simply a plain blank metal wall in the shape of a doorway.

After the light vanished, a stream of multicolored liquid poured into the center of the metal wall. Where the stream made contact, an orange and yellow egg formed with an indent on the wall where the egg fit perfectly. Then from out of the egg radiated a pattern of swirling lines of black and white carved into the metal. Then the egg fell from the wall and onto the white ground.

Lastly, a pillar of green fire came down from the sky and smothered the giant rock in its green flames. From the fire formed a magnificently tall green mountain of emerald and jade. It reached high into the sky and seemed to touch the very heavens themselves. Yet, it cast no shadow, as there was no single source of light. On the peak of the great mountain lied the egg.

The Master's vision was once again clouded in violet and he found himself floating in a small lake of glowing violet water. He swam up and took a breath upon reaching the surface. He looked to his left and Rundo Ndizi climbing the ladder back onto the cylindrical rock. He tried to fly out of the Pool of Seeing, but he could not fly with his soaked feathers and the weight of his wet mane, coat and tail. He swam towards the ladder and climbed behind Rundo. As the Master climbed the ladder, the violet water turned light blue once again.

"Is that all you wish to see? Or is there more you want from me?"

"That's all I need for the time being. Now, I must go and, well, learn magic. Should take me ten years, at the most. And there's a certain pegasus whose loyalty I need to secure. For you, of course, it will be just a moment, or maybe a few days. I don't know. But anyway, it won't be long until all our work will come to fruition."

"There shall be much rejoicing when it comes. Great feasting for your victory, we zebras shall prepare in our homes."

Rundo Ndizi took out a small sack of yellow powder and threw some of it at himself, making his body dry instantly. Then he threw some at the Master, making him dry instantly. The Master test flapped his wings to ensure they were dry enough for flight. Then he took off flying up the hole back to the surface and went on to his next move.

Author's Note:

In case anybody gets confused, the size of a dragon is determined by his/her greed and the amount of possessions he/she has hoarded, as we saw happen with Spike in the episode, "Secrets of my Excess." So most of the dragons in this story are not the size of the huge dragons we see in the show, as they are lawful citizens of Drakonia and exercise moderation by not excessively hoarding possessions and are moderately sized. Princess Sapphire, for example, would be about six times the size of Princess Celestia. Queen Ember would be about ten times the size of Celestia. And Thorn would be about fourteen times the size of Celestia. The only dragons in this story that would be around the size of the giant dragons we see in the show are the first Four Dragons, and the Arglwydd.

Comments

[Nolongerposting]

I don't know if im the first or not but id like to say that i think the fact that their god is Queen Faust is fricken hilarious. Any time i see that i can't help but laugh.

[PrincessFlutters]

2364559 I agree. Also, the three other ages are the three generations of the show. I think, anyway.