The Creation of Harmony

by Time Ponies are cool

The Great Unknown

Chapter XXXII: The Great Unknown

Twilight Sparkle quickly opened her eyes and looked around her. She laid on her side on soft cool grass. To her left, she saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack lying next to each other. In front of her was Fluttershy's flank as the yellow pegasus laid on her back. To her right was Rarity with her face flat on the grass. Twilight felt a weight on top of her and looked up to see a bit of curly pink hair. It was Pinkie Pie. She rolled over to get out from under Pinkie and the motion woke her up. She stood and turned around in circles trying to figure out where they had arrived.

All around the six ponies was nothing but rolling hills of lush green grass. Above was a beautiful deep blue sky with clouds scattered here and there. Yet, in the sky there was no Sun. The daylight seemed to be there on its own. A constant relaxing gentle breeze blew from behind Twilight, making the grass bend, and the bending of the grass with the wind made graceful ripples across the hills. Lastly, she noticed that there was no sign of the Void sphere.

"Where are we?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie answered, "Bliss." Pinkie then went about jumping on each pony's back and calling them to wake up. One by one, they all got on their hooves and admired the beautiful landscape around them.

Twilight continued, "I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'bliss.' Do you mean like 'eternal bliss,' or 'Heaven,' as in the place good ponies go when they die?"

"Don't be silly Twilight!" Pinkie answered, "Ponies don't really go to heaven when they die. They're taken to a special room and burned."

Twilight didn't know how to respond to this. She simply said, "Okay...?"

Applejack stood by Twilight and looked out into the distance. She took off her hat and scratched her head. "Well... it ain't the Void. It don't look like it. There's space. And there's time. And some pretty darn good soil by the looks of the grass."

"What happened to the sphere?" Rarity asked.

"I don't know," Twilight answered, "Maybe it can't go here. We're not in the Void, but I don't think we're in the Universe either. I guess that means wherever we are, the sphere can't exist."

This concerned everypony. As far as they knew, the Void sphere was their only way back home. "Does that mean we're trapped here?" Fluttershy asked, "And we can't get home?! We're stuck here forever?!"

"Easy there, sugar cube," Applejack tried to calm Fluttershy, "I'm sure we'll find some other way back. Maybe this 'essence of the Universe' will give us a way."

"Why don't we just explore?" Rainbow Dash suggested, "There's got to be something around here."

The ponies picked a direction and walked on. They walked and walked for hours and hours. They saw nothing but the green hills and the blue sky. They heard nothing but the sound of their talking, their breathing, their hooves stepping on the grass, and the breeze. As they walked, Pinkie explained that "Bliss" was the farthest point in Creation, and beyond was the dimension of the Gods. She did not, however, know how she came to know that. As they continued walking, Twilight stopped them. "Wait! Hold on. Listen."

The ponies became silent and listened closely to the emptiness around them. From the direction the breeze was blowing towards came the faint sound of voices. The voices became louder and louder and more distinct, until finally, a deep loud voice shouted something the ponies could not understand. The voices spoke in a strange exotic language. The deep voice's exclamation may be translated as, "Oh my God!"

The ponies looked in the direction of the voices, but they could see nopony, only the hills and the sky. "I'm scared," Fluttershy whimpered, "What if there're giant invisible monsters out here? What do we do?"

Twilight shakily replied, "I... I-I don't know..."

Twilight then discerned three different voices. One of them, the one that shouted, was much lower than the other two. She could only assume that that voice was male and the other two were female. Twilight then wondered why the voices were not being translated, as the TARDIS was supposed to translate every language in the Universe. But, then again, they were supposedly outside the Universe.

The voices' discussion may be translated as,

"All six of them! All six of them got through now!"

"Hello! Twilight, Pinkie! Can you hear us? Rainbow? Applejack? Fluttershy? Rarity? Can any of you hear us?"

"They can hear us, but they can't understand us."

"Huh. Fluttershy thinks we're invisible monsters."

"Well, what do we do? Pinkie's supposed to be the only one who can get out. What do we do about the others?"

"We can talk to them."

"But they can't understand us. Unless you want to recite the entire script and coding."

"But Tara can speak to them right?"

"Oh, right! Yeah. Go get Tara."

One of the female voices disappeared while the other two continued discussing. The six ponies kept close together and stared off in the direction of the voices, completely clueless as to what course of action to take.

"Maybe we should gallop away..." Rarity suggested.

"Head for the hills?" Applejack said.

"Yeah."

"But we're surrounded by hills!" Pinkie said, "How can we head for them if their all around us?"

"Well, we've got nothing else," Twilight said, "Let's go!"

The six ponies turned around and galloped away from the voices as fast as they could, but no matter what distance they went, the voices did not sound like they were getting any farther. The ponies went on and on through the hills until they were completely exhausted and could run no more. They stopped, sat down and caught their breath.

"That didn't work..." Dash said.

"You know, whatever's out here, if they wanted to hurt, they would have by now," Twilight said, "Maybe they're friendly."

Just then, the voice that left returned and she was joined by a fourth voice, a female one, and this the ponies could understand. The new voice said, "Hello. Can you understand me?"

"Twilight, that one sounds somewhat like you," Rarity said.

"I know... This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder..." Twilight walked forward and shouted out to the voices, "Hello! My name is Twilight Sparkle! Who are you?"

The new voice giggled and said, "My name's Tara Strong. I'm your voice, Twilight. In your world, I'm known as one of Klassen the Eloquent's muses, Lady Strong."

Twilight gasped and immediately fell to her knees, bowing down as low as she could. "Everpony! Bow! Those are the voices of the Gods!" Fluttershy, being quite literally god-fearing, was quick to bow down. Applejack humbly took off her hat and bowed. Pinkie and Rarity followed. Lastly, Dash reluctantly gave in to this act of piety and bowed. They listened as Tara Strong and the other voices laughed.

Tara spoke again, "It's alright. You don't need to worship us. Come on, stand up."

The ponies heaved sighs of relief and stood. Applejack respectfully kept her hat off and looked out to the voices completely amazed at the thought that she was hearing the voices of the divine. She dared to speak back to them, "Uhhh, pardon me, Your Holiness-"

"Just call me Tara. Please. I'm not sure I'm comfortable being called 'Your Holiness.'"

"Uh, right of course. Sorry. But, just a question, how come we understand you, but the other gods there talk some other lingo."

"Oh, that's because I'm one of the voice actors. Uh, in your world, the Muses of Klassen the Eloquent. We're the source of your voices, so you can understand us when we speak. The other Muses that have to do with your voices, like Dan, your god of song, can also speak to you. The others here are Sabrina, Charlotte and Jim. Um, let me see if I remember what you guys call them... Sibsy the Wonderful, the Jockey Fullerton, and Wooton the Green. Yeah, I think that's it. They're not actors or singers. They don't really have much to do with your voices, so you can't understand them. I think you should also be able to understand Lauren and Jayson since they've got such big roles in production."

As Tara spoke, the other voices reacted, apparently to hearing what they were known as in the ponies' world, since one of the female voices sounded flattered while the other two sounded confused. Tara spoke with the others to explain their roles in the pony religion and the logic behind their names. The ponies listened to the gods with utter incomprehension. Finally, Tara finished and returned to speaking to the ponies. "So, uh, do you mind telling me what you're doing on this side of the Fourth Wall?"

Twilight, eager to make some progress in the mission, quickly answered, "Our world is on the precipice of disaster, Lady Str-"

"Tara. Please, none of that. Just Tara."

"Uh, Tara... we need your help. There's a pony called the Master and he's trying to take over the world. He's trying to open the Gates of Tartarus. We, the Doctor, Derpy, Rainbow Sword and Starswirl the Bearded are trying to stop him by creating the Elements of Harmony."

"Oh great, that guy again. See, I warned the character design team about making background ponies from that show. Well, anyway, go on."

"We've been collecting ingredients to make the Elements and we came here to find the last one, or, at least, I think this is where we're supposed to find it. The final ingredient is supposed to be the essence of all matter and energy in the Universe. We're running out of time. There's probably only a few hours left before the Master opens the Gates. Please, will you help us?"

Tara said nothing for a moment and all was quiet. She then said, "Twilight, I'd be happy to help, but I'm not sure I know what this 'essence of the Universe' is. I've never heard of it before in your world or mine. Although, I'd imagine it's something in the studio if you came to this computer. Plus your entire Universe was created in this studio... Hm, what could it be..."

As Tara tried to think of what the final ingredient could be, the male voice, Wooton the Green, spoke to her. The ensuing conversation between Tara and Wooton the Green may be translated as follows:

"Oh! Maybe Lauren knows."

"Lauren? As in Lauren Faust?"

"Yeah. I mean it all began with her- well, G4 at least. She created 'Friendship is Magic,' so if anybody knows what the essence of their Universe is, it's her."

"Oh my god, you're right. Quick, call her. Get her here right away!"

The other two voices expressed what sounded like agreement and the male voice disappeared. Tara then spoke to the ponies again. "Okay, this news is probably going to be a real big deal for you."

"What is it?" Fluttershy concernedly asked, "You can't help us?"

"Oh, no, no, no. It's not that. We're bringing in someone who can help. It's your supreme all-powerful creator goddess."

Twilight gasped, covered her mouth and took a step back. "Queen Faust... Oh my..." She then smiled with anticipation. The other also were excited to meet the Creator. They all had their doubts about the existence of higher powers, but this encounter at the edge of everything was washing away their skepticism.

"Oh, and it'll be a few hours - maybe a day - for her to get here," Tara said.

The smile was wiped from all the ponies' faces. All simultaneously yelled, "WHAT?!"

"I'm sorry. She's really busy with other shows."

"Other shows?" Dash asked.

"Uhh, other universes, I guess, would be how you'd call it."

"So all this time she's been helping out other worlds but not ours?" Rarity said.

"Is that why she ain't around for us?" Applejack added, "Why our prayers ain't ever getting answered no matter how much and how hard we pray? Why there's evil the world?"

"The world's been plagued by war and terror for centuries, and you, the Gods, haven't done anything about it because Queen Faust is busy?!" Twilight joined.

"That's not very nice!" Pinkie shouted, "You're lousy gods!"

Tara tried to calm the ponies as they faced the "Where is God?" problem. She knew ponies would start experiencing this theological conundrum sooner or later, and this was why she never liked being looked up to as a god. "Hey! Hey! Take it easy! I'm sorry we haven't been the best gods ever, but even we've got our limits. We have our own lives, and life gets... well... busy. Lauren moved on to do other shows- er, other universes - once yours took off. And as for us, well, we just have our individual roles in your universe. I'm just a voice. Sabrina's just an artist. Charlotte's just a writer. Jim's just a director. We don't control every little thing, but we do what we can. I'm sorry if that's not enough for you."

The six ponies calmed down. They realized how inappropriately they had acted. They spoke out of line right in the presence of three gods. They were thoroughly embarrassed and worried that the gods would smite them for their insolence. Applejack stepped forward to apologize. "We're mighty sorry Your Ho- er, I mean, Tara - We didn't mean to get angry at y'all. Please, have mercy on us."

"It's alright," Tara said, "It's not a sin to speak your mind. Not in my book anyway. We do that kind of thing too. By 'we,' I mean we, the gods. We have a god we believe in, and lots of us wonder why He doesn't answer our prayers. Lots of us don't even believe He exists."

This sparked the ponies' curiosity. The gods were flawed. The gods had their doubts and uncertainties. Pinkie asked, "Wait, you guys have a god? Like, a god of a god? Godception?"

Tara giggled. She never in all her life expected that she would ever talk about religion with a bunch of candy-colored ponies. She replied, "Yeah. That's what most of us believe. I mean, there's always some bigger boss out there somewhere. Am I right?"

Pinkie then said, "Your god's called, 'amirite'?"

"No, I mean 'am I right,' as in, 'am I correct.'"

Wooton the Green's voice returned and spoke with Tara. Tara sounded disappointed to hear what he had to say and then reported it to the ponies. "Alright, I'm sorry to break this to you, but Lauren won't be arriving until next week. She has to finish up some work and then she to fly up from somewhere far away. I know this goes way over your deadline, but there's no other way."

The ponies were shocked. They were going to fail to complete their mission in time. In a few hours, the Master was going to open the Gates and by the time Queen Faust would arrive to help them, it would be too late. Twilight fell to her knees while the others struggled in vain to remain composed. She hit her head on the grass out of frustration. Then she stood and pleaded with Tara.

"Please, there has to be some other way! Somepony else who can help us! Or maybe you have some time-controlling god power to make her arrive here faster! Please! You have to do something!"

"I'm sorry, Twilight, but there's nothing I can do. You just have to wait. Maybe, if the Master does open Tartarus, you can still beat him and reseal the Gates when you get back and you can undo everything he does. There's always hope... wow, I never imagined I would say that while not acting..."

Twilight and her friends came to accept that there was nothing to be done. They could get no help in time from the Gods and they could not go back to the Universe to stop the Master some other way. They were completely helpless. The four gods tried to give the ponies what little assistance they could by bringing in another god to turn the world of endless green hills into a gorgeous tropical island with a luxurious beachside villa so that the ponies could at least live in comfort for the next week. This time, the world included a functional sun and moon. No amount, of worldly pleasures, however, could ease their minds of the thought of all the suffering the Earth would be going through. Nevertheless, they did make us of their time and the island to prepare themselves to battle the evil forces of Tartarus led by the Master.

The villa came with a little library that Twilight spent her days studying in. She learned many powerful spells and clever strategies to use in their upcoming fight. Dash used the clear open skies to practice flying and each day she broke her personal record for speed and for agility. Applejack trained by bucking coconut trees and kicking coconuts at targets. She improved her strength and accuracy more than she could have expected to in one week. Rarity designed and put together battle armor for each of them, achieving the perfect balance of protection and flexibility. When she was not busy with the armor, she relaxed on the beach and got a very nice tan. Fluttershy went into the island forest and tamed the ferocious jungle beasts she encountered, from tarantulas to black panthers. Before long, she had control of all life in the jungle. Pinkie built a wooden party cannon and made countless of coconut and banana cakes. On the final night of the week, they celebrated their last night of peace with a beach party. They swam in the ocean, played in the sand and feasted on cakes.

At midnight, on the night of a full moon, the voices of the gods came again from the direction of the Northerly winds. This time, there were more gods than the ponies could determine. It was as if the entire host of Heaven had gathered in one place to address the six ponies. The six walked out onto the beach towards the voices and stopped at the edge of the surf. The waves gently crashed onto the sand before them and washed over their hooves as they stood there in a line, waiting to hear the words of the Gods.

First came Tara's voice. "Hi again. Well, it's the moment we've all been waiting for."

"Oh my God! You weren't joking!" A voice that sounded similar to Rarity's burst in, "They're really on this side!"

Rarity gasped in delight and excitedly said, "Ooh! Is that- er, is she my voice?"

"Yeah," Tara answered, "This is Tabitha. Another muse. Andrea and Ashleigh couldn't be with us though. They had other things to worry about."

"Oh, this is so exciting!"

"I know right!" Pinkie joined, "I'm excited too! Are you excited Twilight? How about you, Fluttershy? Or Applejack? Or Dashie? Don't you think it's exciting?"

The voices of the Gods then stopped and all was quiet. Out of the silence, a gentle and beautiful voice spoke, "Hi everybody- er, I mean, everypony. Um, guess who?"

The ponies all stopped what they were doing and looked out to the voices. Twilight whispered, "It's Her..." and the ponies bowed.

"Oh, no, no. You don't have to bow. Get up."

The ponies obeyed and Twilight stepped forward to the water. "It's such an honor to meet you, Holy Quee- er, uh, I'm guessing you'd prefer to be called Lauren, right?"

"That would be less awkward for me. So yes," the Creator Goddess answered. She, like Tara, also did not like being looked at as a divine power. From Her experience with all the universes She worked on, being a god was a tough job. The ponies' universe, however, held a special place in Her heart, so She took the time and went out of Her way to save it from the diabolical evils of the Third Age that She worked hard to imprison. "Now, I hear somepony's trying to open Tartarus and you're trying to create the Elements of Harmony and the final ingredient you need is the essence of the Universe."

"Yes," Twilight said, "you must know what it is. You created the Universe."

Lauren replied, "I'm afraid I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. Your universe is made of lots of things. I can't point out one thing to be responsible for everything."

This news distressed the ponies. It seemed that even the most powerful of the Gods did not have the answer. If Queen Faust could not help, then nopony could. Hope continually faded away from them bit by bit. Twilight would not give up, though. There had to be something. "But you must know. Whatever it is, it has to have something to do with the creation of the Universe. If it's the essence of everything, it had to be involved in creating everything."

"But it's like I said. Many tools, people, and other stuff were involved with creating your universe. Unless this ingredient is the entire studio, I can't think of anything else."

"Please, Lauren," Twilight beg, "There has to be some single thing that was there in the very very beginning. Something that started it all."

"I'm sorry, Twilight..."

As all hope seemed to vanish, another voice spoke up, a male voice. "Wait! I think I have an idea!"

The ponies looked out and held off their despair for the time being. They were eager to hear whatever this god had to offer.

"Uh, hi guys," the voice said, "I'm Jayson. You know me as King Thiessen, God of Life and Death. Kinda scares me that I'm that god. But anyway, I might have an idea as to what you're looking for. Everything in this studio is used to make the show, but the show didn't begin here. These are all just means to create something out of an idea. Like every show, Friendship is Magic started off as a creative thought. And, Lauren, it was your thought. So, I think, this 'essence of the Universe' is your brain!"

"..."

The Gods were silent for a moment as their tried to take in what King Thiessen just proposed. Shortly, Lauren answered, 'Uhh, no. I'm not giving them my brain."

"Yeah, I don't think we want to take Her brain," Twilight said.

"But," Lauren continued, "that is a good perspective to look at the problem from. It'd be something to do with when I first started thinking of the show..."

The Gods and the ponies quietly waited and intently listened as the Creator spent a few seconds thinking. Each seconds seemed excruciatingly long as the fate of the Earth hinged on this moment. Then, the ocean shook, the winds gusted and the ground trembled as the Creator shouted out, "AHA! I got it!"

The ponies opened their eyes wide and beamed as they all asked, "What is? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it?"

Lauren answered, "My pen! The pen that I used when I first made notes and sketches for the show! That's the essence of everything in your Universe!"

There was much rejoicing and jubilee among both sides. The Gods cheered and applauded, while the ponies jumped and danced all over the beach. After the brief celebration, Twilight asked, "So how will You get it us?"

"Easy," Lauren answered, "I just have to draw it. Someone get me a pen and paper!"

A moment later there was a great flash of white light above the ponies, and down from the night sky, from beyond the full moon, came a perfectly straight thin stream of black liquid. The liquid poured on the beach sand and stopped, leaving a black puddle. The liquid then moved and formed into a long, thin shape, like that of a short straight stick. On one end was a sharp point and on the other was what looked like a button. The shape then became more detailed and refined as it gained texture. Finally, the shape gained color. Lying on the sand was a plastic ball-point black pen. The six ponies walked towards the pen and stood around it in a circle. Twilight approached it and dared to touch it. She picked it up with her hoof and held it in front of her face. She whispered, "The Ultimate Essence of All Matter and Energy in the Universe."

The six ponies smiled and looked at each other with joy and relief. "We did it..." Dash said.

Applejack reared up and flailed her forehooves. "YEE-HAW! We finally done it!"

"Hooray! We can make the Elements of Harmony now!" Pinkie shouted.

"It's finally over!" said Rarity.

Fluttershy yelled out at the top of her lungs, "yay."

"It's not over yet, girls," Twilight then said, "We still have to fight the Master and send all the evil in the world back into Tartarus!"

It was a sobering reminder. A great and terrible task still laid ahead of them, probably the most difficult task they would ever face. The ponies were quickly taken by the gravity of the situation and they stopped rejoicing. Twilight then faced the first problem to tackle. She turned towards the Gods and said, "So, first things first, we're kinda stuck here and have no way back home. We came here in a ship but it's gone now. Can you help us?"

"No problem," Lauren replied, "We'll get you home straight away. Just give us a moment to get the program going..." She then proceeded to give various orders to the other gods. To the ponies, her commands all sounded very nonsensical and overall just incredibly confusing to follow. The loud commotion among the gods rose up again as they all - or just some, it was hard to tell - went to work.

As the Gods did as Lauren told, the voices slowly became more and more faint, as if they were going farther away. With each passing second, silence took over the sound of the voices. Soon the ponies could only hear Lauren, Tara and Tabitha speaking.

"Alright, you're all set to head home," Lauren said, "It was great getting to meet you. I'm proud of having created you. You've become an incredible bunch of colorful ponies."

"It's a pleasure to meet my character," Tara said, "I've always wanted to have a conversation with one of my characters but none of them ever got through the Fourth Wall... Good luck, Twilight. Good luck, everypony."

Tabitha also gave her last words, "Seeing all of you like this was pretty awesome, especially you, Rarity. But be careful, now. I don't want any of you getting hurt. Good luck!"

The voices faded more and more, and it was almost impossible to hear them when Lauren said, "Goodbye, my little ponies. And... I should tell you this now: I'm so sorry for the loss that..." The ponies could not hear the end of her sentence. The voices vanished.

Twilight tried walking towards where the voices once were, but she knew they were gone and she would likely never hear them again. She turned around and found that her friends had disappeared. She panicked and looked all around her. She turned to face the Gods again, but all that was there was the endless ocean. Then she blinked, and after blinking she found herself no longer on the island. She was with her friends again, and they all stood on a bridge made of dry desert rock deep in a canyon.

Comments

[_CheckMate_]

darn, I was hoping John De Lacie would show up.

[Time Ponies are cool]

2830172 Sorry to disappoint. Can't stuff in too much awesome into chapter.