The Creation of Harmony

by Time Ponies are cool

The World Is Mine

Chapter XXXIV: The World Is Mine

Cerberus the Three-Headed Dog was an enormous black hound. His forelegs were thick and muscular while his rear legs were lean and powerful. His chest also was far greater in build than the rest of his body. He had a short tail and his three heads were those of ferocious pit bulls. He stared down at the alicorn standing before him, bared his fearsome white fangs and growled a growl so deep and powerful that it made the ground around him vibrate. He salivated copiously as he had been sleeping for thousands of years without a bite to eat. He sensed that there was a shield protecting the intruder and chose not to attack. He simply stood there, waiting for him to make a move.

Tympanus took out the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, pointed it back at the TARDIS and pressed a button. He extended the extrapolator shield so that it enveloped the Gates of Tartarus. He then extended his magical shield to do the same.

Sensing that the intruder was now unprotected, Cerberus charged forth at him, all three heads barking and snapping his fearsome jaws. He was stopped inches away from the intruder's face as his heads were held back by spiked dragon-scale collars and titanium chains. Cerberus' saliva splattered all over the intruder and his box as the three heads barked and bit at him.

Tympanus walked away from Cerberus and entered the Blue Box. He came out levitating a large barrel.

"Cerberus, you're a tough dog to get to. Really, I had to blow up half a mountain just to see your cute little slobbering face. And then I need to exploit your weakness..."

"Be not ridiculous!" Queen Ember said, "Cerberus has no weaknesses!"

"Oh really? Well, let me point something out for you, Your Majesty: See, Cerberus may be an immortal killer dog from the birth of the Universe, but, nevertheless, he's still a dog. And dogs are just so easily distractable."

Tympanus set the barrel down gently in front of Cerberus just beyond his reach.

"I'll have to apologize to Derpy for this later. She's going to miss these." Tympanus took the lid off the barrel and revealed the many fresh muffins stored inside.

Cerberus instantly stopped barking and eyed the muffins hungrily. He sat down, breathed quickly with his three tongues out and drooled over the jade floor. Tympanus smirked. Just as expected. Ember and her children looked on with shock as Cerberus succumbed to Tympanus' plan. Tympanus levitated the barrel up and moved it right and left, up and down, back and forth in front of Cerberus to further tempt his taste buds.

"Who wants some muffins?" Tympanus teasingly said, "You want some muffins? Do you want some muffins, Cerberus? I've got some really tasty muffins! Right here! They're right here! You want them? You want them, boy? You really want them? Fetch!"

Tympanus tossed the barrel of muffins and sent it flying off into the Salt Flats of Pedwar Draig to the East. Cerberus attempted to chase after it, but was held back by the chains. Tympanus cast a spell and shot a bean of magic at one of the links of the chain. The link glowed red, sizzled in the heat and broke, letting Cerberus loose to pursue the barrel full of delicious treats. The ground shook with each of the three-headed dog's thunderous steps.

Ember tried to stop Cerberus, flying after him and crying out, "No! Cerberus! No! Return to your post! Bad dog! Bad dog! Come back here!" It was not long before he outran Ember and went beyond her reach. The Queen, distraught that Tympanus was successfully breaking through each of the Gates' defenses one by one, tried something that her grandfather, King Cyfiawnder, used in the beginning of the war against the Pony King, Dux I.

She perched on a mountain peak next to Mount Dechrau. She reared her head and spread her wings wide. She opened her mouth as far as she could and focused her all her energy into creating concentrated white fire. Then she let it loose and sent a scorching hot white beam at Tympanus. The alicorn was quick to react and strengthened the spot on his shield that the beam was aimed at with his magic. Ember's white beam deflected off of the shield and went straight for her daughter, Ruby. But Ruby too was quick and let out a burst of green fire to counter and absorb the beam of white fire, saving herself from a painful end.

It was a close call. Her heart stopped for a moment when she saw her beam deflected towards her daughter and nearly killed her. She quickly flew over to Ruby and held her close, apologizing for her recklessness.

Suddenly, something appeared in the sky that seemed to be falling towards the plateau incredibly fast from the Northwest. It fell and landed at the center of the plateau, just behind Ember and her children. It formed a little crater into the jade, with cracks extending even farther, and from this crater climbed out a grey pegasus with messy yellow hair.

"I'm okay... I'm okay... I landed on my hooves..."

A second later, another object came flying in from between a pair of mountains and crashed into Princess Sapphire, making both tumble across the plateau. This one was a yellow pegasus with flowing pink hair. Both said simultaneously, "Ouch..."

Then, eight other ponies zipped in from the same direction as the first two. They came in at lightning speed and neatly stopped by the crater at the center of the plateau. Shortly, the dust cloud from their gallop caught up and briefly enveloped the area. The dust then dispersed, revealing Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Sword and Starswirl the Bearded standing in a line looking at the Blue Box. The Doctor was at the crater, helping Derpy climb out. Pinkie Pie went to help Fluttershy and Princess Sapphire get up.

"Always tricky, these horseshoes," the Doctor said as he pulled Derpy up, "You've got to ever so careful not to trip."

Meanwhile, Sword drew his blade. "Our journeying has at last come fruition."

"And the Master ain't opening the Gates yet!" Applejack said.

"We can still stop him," Rarity added.

"'Tis now or never!" Sword cried out. Electricity crackled and flowed through his blade and he charged forth with the speed of his high-accelerative horseshoes. He would have instantly been upon the Master with his sword, but it clashed with the shield. He grit his teeth as he pushed harder and harder against the shield. The collision of the two sent sparks flying out from the point of contact and multicolored bolts of electricity were let loose in every direction. The shield glowed blue and purple around the point of contact and rippled. The contest continued for a few seconds until Sword lost. He was violently pushed back in a burst of electricity. His sword was knocked out of his hoof and when he went to retrieve it he found that it was cracked.

"Impossible..." Sword said, "This weapon is unbreakable. My master told me this was unbreakable..."

"Sorry, I can be a bit of compulsive liar sometimes," the Master said, "But hey, at least I didn't tell you that it can break through a combination of magical and extrapolator shielding!"

"What nonsense are you saying?"

Before the Master could answer, the Doctor galloped over to the shield and pleaded, "Master! Whatever you're doing, just stop it! Please, just don't hurt this world! You can fight me all you want. We can go across the stars fighting each other, but please, don't-"

"Silence, Doctor! Give me a moment with my little apprentice!" The Master turned and looked Sword in the eyes. "Do you really not remember me, Ourano?"

"I know not what you speak of. I have never seen you before in my life. And my name is not Ourano."

"Hmmm, I see. Interesting. I'll need something stronger to jog your memory..." The Master entered the TARDIS and came out with a toy. It was an old brown stuffed bunny with a bit of its ear burnt off. The Master tossed the toy out through his shield and it landed in front of Sword. "Remember Flopsy?"

Rainbow Sword looked at the toy bunny intently. He narrowed his eyes. It looked familiar. And then it clicked. At that moment his eyes opened wide. All his memories from before his mysterious arrival to Equites suddenly flooded into his mind. He watched everything zip through his head. His childhood in the cliffside house in Irida. The Hoofrican attack on his home. His enigmatic rescuer. His years of training in the Great Northern Desert. Everything came back to him.

"Hello, Ourano."

"... H-hello... Master."

The Master smiled and gave a little chuckle.

"Commander..." the Doctor began as he took a step towards Sword, "What's going on?"

"This pony was my master. He saved me, raised me, trained me, protected me. Everything I am... I owe to him."

The Doctor quickly took back his step. He turned at looked at the Master with a panicked expression. Then he looked back at Sword. Then back at the Master, then back at Sword. "Rainbow Sword, whatever you do, do not listen to your master. He is not your friend! You cannot trust him, you cannot follow him, you cannot give him any allegiance."

Sword took a step towards the Master, eye locked on him and the TARDIS. "But... I owe him everything. He is my master."

"That's right, Doctor," the Master said, "Commander Sword is practically my son. I took him in. I sheltered him. I cared for him. I fed him. And I gave him drink. I especially fed him and gave him drink." He took out the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at his old apprentice. He pushed a button and Sword immediately stood up straight and completely still, his expression completely blank.

"What've you done?!" the Doctor asked.

"For ten years, he ate and drank nanobots, nanobots that happen to be wired to follow the frequencies of this sonic screwdriver. Basically, I control his every movement."

The Master used the sonic screwdriver on Sword again and swiftly moved to point it at the Doctor. Instantly, Sword took his blade and swung it at the Doctor. The Doctor ducked down. The sword just barely grazed his mane. The Doctor jumped back as Sword took another swing, and another, and another. Sword thrust his weapon towards the Doctor's chest, and the Doctor, using the speed of his high-accelerative horseshoes, quickly stepped to the side. He took the opportunity and kicked the sword out of the Commander's hoof. It was in vain though, as he was quickly able to zip over to reclaim his sword. He pointed it at the Doctor and it crackled and glowed. The Doctor tried to gallop to dodge what was coming, but he galloped at a normal speed. His horseshoes had run out of energy. He turned his head and looked at Commander Sword as he fired a lightning bolt.

Just then, the Doctor saw a flowing blue cape flapping in front of him. Attached to this cape was Starswirl, whose horseshoes had not yet exhausted their power. The old sorcerer had his head down and his horn pointed forward, but he had it more than just pointed at the lightning from the sword. His horn was absorbing the lightning. Sword kept up the assault for a few seconds and all the while, Starswirl took in all of that electricity. Once Sword stopped, Starswirl swung his head up and released all that electricity up into the sky. The great lightning bolt from his horn curved through the air and struck the peak of the nearest mountain. Thoroughly worn out, Starswirl collapsed onto the jade floor.

The Master slowly pointed the screwdriver at Starswirl, and Sword walked forward towards him. He held his blade right by his opponent's throat. He said, "It was always coming to this, Starswirl. Our rivalry. Who would be the greatest pony in Equites? And it would only end with your death..."

"I am sorry, Commander..." Starswirl said, "I am so sorry that thou shouldst come now to murder. That thy fidelity shouldst be broken. That I shouldst hath failed thee."

The Doctor and the other ponies ran to stop Sword, but the Master cast a spell to stop them in their tracks and freeze them as they were. Rainbow Sword stood above Starswirl the Bearded at the center of an arc of frozen ponies, drawing his sword back slowly to strike through the sorcerer's throat.

Starswirl continued to speak as he watched the blade. "His Majesty knew thou hadst a promising career and thou wouldst achieve greatness. His Majesty told me to watch thy progress and protect thee from falling upon a vile path and keep thee within the cause of all that is good... 'Til now, I believed that I was succeeding, and yet, upon the moment where mine success was most vital, I failed... I am sorry."

Right when Sword was about to drive his blade forward and strike, he stopped. His straight mouth came to a deep frown. His pupil on his right eye widened and his eyebrows tilted. He looked at Starswirl with an expression of guilt and sadness.

With all quickness, he turned and swung his sword leg at the Master, sending the sword flying through the air, glowing and crackling. It struck the Master's shield and lodged into it. The sudden unexpected commotion startled the Master and made him lose focus on the spell to freeze the other ponies.

The Doctor, Derpy and the six ran over to Sword and Starswirl, and stood by them. All ten watched Sword's blade colliding with the shield again. Sparks and electricity burst out, and the blade cracked more and more, until finally it shattered apart into a million pieces and the hilt melted down into a deformed hunk of metal.

"Wow..." the Master said as he looked at the remains of the sword, "You've got some serious loyalty issues."

"My loyalty is to the cause of all that is good," Sword replied, "and right now, master, you are the one against it."

"Yes, yes, I know... Bet something like that runs in the family, am I right Dashie?"

"Bother her not!" Sword said, "This is between you and me. She is in no manner involved!"

"Oh, but I think she is. Why don't you tell him Dashie? Tell gramps the truth."

Dash looked to the Doctor for permission to tell Sword her secret. The Doctor nodded. She took a few steps towards the Commander, looked him in the eye, and said, "I'm one of your descendants, from the distant future, like, two-thousand years or something. I'm your great-great-great whatever many greats granddaughter."

Sword looked at Dash with utter bewilderment.

"Yeah, I know, it's hard to believe, but you got to trust-"

As Dash was in the middle of speaking, Sword dropped to the ground. He lied there completely limp and still with his eye open. The Doctor galloped over and examined him. He then gave whispered something to himself and gave a despairing sigh. "He's dead."

The Doctor looked up and saw the Master teasingly holding the sonic screwdriver. "Hello! Nanobots! They can stop all cell activity in that little bugger like he was a Jakabagataraz snail. Haha!"

The Master turned around the nonchalantly trotted towards the TARDIS, until he heard a sound that he loved to hear: the wrath of the Doctor.

"MASTER!" the Doctor cried out with all his fury, "You just killed my friend!"

"My bad!"

"I've tried. I've tried so many times to help you. I was the only one who ever tried to do anything about your insanity. But I've had enough. I will ask you one last time: stop it now, before I have to stop you."

"Well, good luck with that. The drums are calling me, Doctor, and they are calling me here! The Gates will open and this world will be mine!" The Master resumed his trotting and entered the TARDIS. In the meantime, the ponies gathered around Sword's lifeless body and mourned him.

Through her tears, Dash asked, "Doctor... if he's dead, then how do I still exist?"

"I... I don't know. Time is still in flux here. In any other case, you'd disappear, but right now the timelines undefined."

Afterwards, the deep sound of a horn bellowed through the peaks, valleys and trenches of the Gwyrdd Mountains. The rumbling of the hoofsteps of a thousand soldiers and the heavy wheels of machinery also came forth. The ponies and the dragons all looked to the West, the source of the noise, and saw a number of banner begin to rise from beyond the edge of the plateau.

Ember ordered her Guard to hold their fire as the first of the Hoofricans arrived at the plateau. Several grappling hooks came up and grabbed onto the edge of the plateau. Shortly afterwards, a number of armored warthogs climbed up onto the plateau carrying their kingdom's banners. Then climbed up a few gazelle with iron-spiked horns. They were followed by several zebra shamans and rhino alchemists, which included Golden Lead and Pyro. Then the ground rumbled as a hole opened up on the floor of the plateau and up this hole rose a platform of rock bearing a team of rhino Guards, who used their magic to tunnel through the mountain and rise up on a rock pillar. With them was Emperor Bluehorn.

The Emperor stepped forward towards the TARDIS and began shouting, "Come out Tympanus, you traitorous coward! Come out and face justice! I have an army waiting at the foot of this mountain and I won't hesitate to use it if I have to!"

Ember stepped in front of Bluehorn and blocked his way, "Force me not to say it again, Bluehorn!"

"He's a traitor to me and my kingdom and he's none of your concern, scaley."

"The Gates are under the protection of the dragons alone, so he is the concern of the dragons alone."

"Well, you sure have done a great job with that."

"Leave us now! I shall warn you one last-"

"Would you two quit squabbling like an old married couple!" the voice that interrupted Ember and Bluehorn was the Master. He had come out from the TARDIS and he was levitating alongside him a phoenix egg. "Oh, and I mustn't forget my manners. Good morevenoon, Your Highness, Bluehorn, sir! You arrived just in time to witness my victory!"

"The Egg!" Sapphire called out. She ran forward and reached for the egg, forgetting completely about the shield. She was painfully pushed back and ended up rubbing her aching claw.

Golden Lead then galloped over with her brother, Pyro, and pleaded, "Tympanus! Please, stop! This is Tartarus that your opening up! You don't know what you're doing!"

"It's alright. I know what I'm doing perfectly well," the Master replied, "I'm fulfilling my destiny to take over the Universe."

"You're mad, Tympanus!" Bluehorn shouted as he strode past Ember.

"Tympanus, Tympanus, Tympanus. You're a stupid lot, you know that. Can't even figure out that that might not be my real name."

"What's your name then?" Bluehorn asked.

The Master turned to approach the great metal wall with the Egg. He briefly gave a glance back to answer, "My name is the Master."

He stood before the wall and placed the Egg in the indentation, where it fit perfectly. He took a big step back and looked up at the sky. The Sun was little more than a white sliver of a crescent, as the Moon had almost completely eclipsed it. In the darkened sky around the Sun and Moon, the stars all shone. Forming a circle around the Sun and Moon, and shining brighter than all the other stars were the constellations Cancer, Draco, Cetus, Hydra, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the great celestial monsters whose earthly incarnations were imprisoned in Tartarus. The Sun and the Moon came closer and closer to an eclipse.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" the Master said.

"You shall never harness the eclipse's power," Ember said with a hint of uncertainty, "Not you alone. It takes two alicorns to do so."

"'Tis true," Starswirl agreed, "All the texts concureth."

"Well, that's not quite completely true," the Master said, "Translations over the years probably got it off here and there."

All confidence washed away from Ember's face as she asked, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying: the Egg doesn't take two alicorns to break. It take two alicorn hearts. And guess how many hearts I have! HAHA!" The Master spread his wings wide and pointed his horn straight up to the sky.

The eclipse completed and the Sun was completely blocked by the Moon. At the center of the sky was a black circle with a thin ring of white light as its circumference. The sky flashed white and the Sun, Moon and constellations shone brighter.

Ember looked at the sky and at the Master. She backed away and held her children close as she whispered, "No..."

The Master closed his eyes and began chanting an incantation, an ancient incantation that nopony around him understood.

The Doctor, intrigued by the incantation, said, "It's not getting translated... That's impossible..."

Twilight then replied, "Not quite. The language sounds familiar. I think I've heard it before."

"What!? When? Where?"

"When we went into the Void, we heard voices speaking in this language. The Master's speaking in the language of the Gods."

"The language of the Gods..." the Doctor went into thought as he tried to recall anything he knew about it, "That's... that's English!"

As the Master chanted, the lights from the celestial bodies shifted and focused on the tip of the Master's horn. It appeared like a great cone of light whose tip touched the horn.

The incantation was a piece of poem written by a great god many times older than Queen Faust herself. The Queen merely took the excerpt and infused it to the Key of the Gates in its original language so that She alone and Her chosen ones could use it. Yet, after ten years of searching, the Master came to discover and learn it. The incantation translates as follows:

"Farewell happy fields,

Where Joy forever dwells: hail horrors, hail

Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell,

Receive thy new possessor: One who brings

A mind not to be changed by Place or Time.

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

What matter where, if I be still the same,

And what I should be, all but less than He

Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least

We shall be free. The Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heaven."

As the ponies, dragons and Hoofricans watched the Master chant and harness the power of the Sun, Moon and stars, Starswirl whispered, "We came so far... We achieved so much... And yet we still fail."

The Master opened his eyes and mouth, and they all glowed with a great white light, making three rays of light shine out from his head. The ray of light from the Master's mouth slowly changed shape, as it slowly curled up into a malevolent smile. Then the Master began to laugh.

Bluehorn turned back and returned to the company of his guards. "We're doomed..."

The Master then began to speak, and he spoke with an otherworldly voice, a voice that sounded like the combination of a billion different voices. It was deafening and echoed through the mountains and beyond.

"Can you hear them? They're coming! The drums! They're getting louder and louder AND LOUDER!"

The Master then shot a beam of energy at the Egg mounted on the great metal wall. As the beam poured all that magic and cosmic energy into the Egg, it began to glow inside and vibrate, first gently but growing ever more violent. A little crack then formed, followed by another crack, and yet another.

The Master cackled maniacally as the cracks extended and came to cover the Egg. "HAAAA! HAHAHA! THE WORLD IS MINE!"

An enormous black pulse then shot from the Master's horn and through the beam and into the Egg, and the Egg cracked open.

Author's Note:

The incantation is a little piece from John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, one of the greatest (IMO) pieces of literature ever written.