The Creation of Harmony

by Time Ponies are cool

Hall of Heroes

Chapter VII: Hall of Heroes

"Well... This is a bit of an awkward situation, isn't it?" Rarity said after Twilight reported the unfortunate turn of events to Starswirl the Bearded.

Starswirl paced around the circle of light below the skylight. The pile of scrolls he had built up earlier that day had grown twice as large. The other ponies stood in a semicircle around the light, all looking crestfallen, except Pinkie Pie, who jumped into the huge pile of scrolls, saying, "Wheee!" The Doctor had left ponies at the courtyard earlier, not saying what his intention was, only directing them to go to Starswirl.

"Awkward?" Starswirl said, turning towards them, "This is disastrous! Art thou sure thou know of no other way to stop this villain? This Tympanus?"

"He took the only way back to Equestria and the Elements." Twilight said. She scratched behind her left ear. "I'm sorry."

"We're stuck like a rat in a cider barrel." Applejack said.

Starswirl turned away and continued his pacing. The room was silent save for the sound of Starswirl's hooves on the stone floor. Then they heard a voice outside the door recite an incantation, and the Doctor came bursting through the door.

"Alright! Molto bene! I went around the castle and it turned out most of the materials I needed were available. I got a few bits of string, some copper from the blacksmith which he made into a few wires for me, a dragon scale - a source of small amounts of phosphorus - from the walls, bits of the king's mane, which sort of work as a replacement for optic fibres - emphasis on the sort of - and conveniently also contain a good amount of ruthenium, from the royal barber, a hollow stick, some glass, crystallized carbon, and a vial of dragon blood, which contains trace amounts of rubidium hydroxide. All I need now is a drop of hydrochloric acid, which Starswirl has plenty of, and electricity, which unicorn horns are rich in."

The Doctor ran to one of Starswirl's shelves, took a pipette, filled it with acid from a jar and carefully used his mouth to squeeze a drop into a hollow wooden stick he held in his hoof. He then went to Starswirl and asked, "If you could kindly give it a little electric shock, please."

Starswirl used his magic to discharge some electricity into the stick, which then lit up its yellow LED lights. The Doctor had made a rudimentary make-shift sonic screwdriver with all the materials he had at hoof. He then proceeded to ramble on.

"Voila! A sonic screwdriver! Extremely primitive though. It would be able to probe and scan, but that's about it. Can't unlock doors or fix machinery or short circuit electronics, among other things, but it'll have to do. Now, no TARDIS. No proper sonic screwdriver. How are we going to do this? Ally with the other kingdoms to try to find him? No. Monarchs are too stubborn for anything like that. Predict his movements? No. He's too clever for that. And I don't see anything in this time period that he can work with. So he'll leave this time and head for the future. If he goes to the 21st century, he could make his way into the court of Canterlot and seize the throne from the princesses. Oh, but the prophecy said that he'd act within the Five-Hundred-Year War. So he must have a-"

"Doctor!" Starswirl interrupted, "Silence. This burden is not thine to bear. The prophecy spake of these six mares. 'Tis they who shalt vanquish Tympanus and the path shalt be shown unto them."

"Oh, don't be so daft, Starswirl. I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Stallion. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm 906 years old and I'm-"

The Doctor stopped and came to the most shocking realization. For once in his centuries of existence, he was not the one who would save the world from extraterrestrial incursion. The realization stuck his ego and he took a step back with his jaw dropped. After a moment, he closed his mouth and looked intently at the six mares before him.

The Doctor walked up to Applejack, bowed down and said, "The Champion of Truth."

He then walked to Rainbow Dash, bowed down and said, "The Knight of Fidelity."

Next, he approached Rarity, bowed down and said, "The Ever-Giving Jewel."

He came to Fluttershy, bowed and said, "The Purest Heart."

He walked towards Pinkie Pie, bowed and said, "The Light of Joy."

He then stood before Twilight Sparkle, bowed and said, "The Enchanted Power."

The Doctor stood by Starswirl the Beareded and addressed all six mares.

"Blimey, I never imaged how hard it would be to leave the fate of the world in somepony else's hooves. It's up to you six now. You're the only hope this world has now. I can try helping you, but without any technology, I can't stop the Master. So-"

"Ooh! What about me, Doctor?" Derpy interrupted.

"Sorry, Derpy," the Doctor said, "But you can't save the world either. I'm sorry. The two of us can't do anything."

"Oh, okay!"

Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looked at each other with uncertainty. If they had the Elements of Harmony, they would have had confidence in the power of their friendship, but in a strange land, in a strange time, faced with an opponent from across the stars and without access to the magic that aided them through their troubles before, they were nervous. Fluttershy folded her ears down, daunted by the task at hand. Applejack scratched her head, not knowing how to respond to such a responsibility. Even Rainbow Dash had a concerned look on her face. Finally, Twilight spoke.

"But without the Elements, how can we possibly stop him? Without a way to return to Equestria, there's no chance we can find them. And the only way we've ever been able to stop our enemies before was through the Elements. Except for that time Cadence and Shining Armor defeated the Changelings, but we can't get to them either.

Fluttershy then decided to speak up. "But um... this is just an idea... we did make the Elements appear when we faced Nightmare Moon, right?"

"Yes, Fluttershy, but this is a whole different time we're in. It's before Equestria, before the Princesses, before the Elements themselves even existed. I don't think we can just make them appear this time."

Starswirl the Bearded then had an idea. "These Elements thou speakest of, they sound to be of the magic of royalty. Mayhaps thou needest an alicorn. Come, we shall see His Majesty, King Concordius. Surely he may help us with his wisdom and power."

"We ain't got any better options," Applejack said, "Why not?"

"Yes!" Rarity shouted, "We're finally going to meet the King! Oh, I can't wait to see what the royal wardrobe looks like."

Everypony left Starswirl's library and proceeded down the hall towards the great wooden doors at the central hallway intersection of the castle. A pair of unicorn guards opened the doors with their magic and let Starswirl and the others through. They then stood before the huge silver-lined, ruby-studded, cedar doors. Everypony looked at the magnificent doors with admiration and anticipation for what was beyond it. Starswirl the Bearded touched his horn on a round ruby at the center of the doors with carvings of the Sun, Moon and stars. He recited an incantation.

"Sol et Luna. Die ac Nocte. Lucem ac Tenebras. Pars via. Ostende mihi sedem regiam."

The central ruby split at the center and the doors opened. The sound of the hinges turning rumbled through the hallway. Behind the doors was a magnificent hallway lit by lights of every color. All shades of blues and greens, brilliant reds, oranges and yellows, elegant purples and pinks and so forth. Everypony stared with amazement at the sight.

"Welcome to the Hall of Heroes!" said Starswirl.

And the hall was rightly named. The walls had stained-glass windows all the way down the hall. The windows contained images of great warriors and wizards facing terrible foes and performing feats of great valor. High above the ponies, on the ceiling, was a fresco of the creator goddess, Queen Faust. The depiction of the goddess was like nothing the ponies from Ponyville had ever seen. The goddess was an odd figure that stood on two legs. She had a maroon mane on her head, but no coat on her body. She instead had clothes covering everything but her head and where her hooves should be. Strangest of all, she had no hooves; each of her forelimbs instead ended in a flat shape with five protrusions. The Doctor explained to the others that what replaced her hooves were called, "hands." Queen Faust held a quill on her right hand, which she was using to draw the first pony.

Finally, Pinkie Pie broke their trance by pointing to one of the windows and shouting, "Ooh! Look at this window! That one looks like the bad guy from the Daring Do books!"

Rainbow Dash, hearing Pinkie mention Daring Do, immediately flew over to the window. "Hey, it does! That thing looks just like Ahuizotl! That's so cool!"

Rarity them walked up to look at the window and said, " But that wizard fighting him looks absolutely ridiculous. Just look at his mane-cut. And that cape, ugh!"

"Yonder wizard is myself, in mine younger years." Starswirl said.

"Oh... sorry, I didn't really mean it. I think the cape looks... very unique."

"And yonder beast was indeed Ahuizotl. He sought to usurp the throne and allied himself with the dragons. Alas, due to his old age, His Majesty could not stand against Ahuizotl, but I defeated him and banished him to the distant land of Mexicolt."

The window depicted the young Starswirl as a blue unicorn with a red mane and short beard wearing a dark purple cape covered by patterns of constellations. He stood at the bottom of the window, striking the image of Ahuizotl directly above him with a golden ray of magic and encasing him in a sapphire stone.

"Wow!" Twilight said, "That must have taken some powerful magic!"

"Indeed, madam. But, alas, I hast lost much of the power of mine youth. I am but a frail old pony now."

"Speaking of magic," Rarity said, "I'm a bit confused by the magic you perform. How come you have to use words with your spells? Back in Equestria nopony - hmmpphhff!"

The Doctor stuck his hoof in Rarity's mouth to stop her speaking and said, "Spoilers!" He then whispered to Rarity, "Starswirl uses old magic. Old Magic requires incantations to invoke its power. Don't tell Starswirl how we don't use incantations anymore. New magic that doesn't use incantation is starting to rise among the younger unicorns, but Starswirl is meant to die believing that the old ways will triumph over the new."

"That's terrible." Rarity whispered back.

"Yes, I know. But there's nothing to be done. His death is fixed. Any foreknowledge, any change in his beliefs might alter that and cause a paradox that will rip a hole in space and time."

"Ummm... okay?"

Fluttershy then began, "These widows are scary... There're so many scary monsters and d-d-d-dragons."

Starswirl placed his hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder to calm her and said, "These all art depictions of the marvelous endeavors and feats by great ponies who defeated all manner of terrible beasts and villains who threatened our kingdom."

He pointed to a window depicting a yellow pegasus with huge wings and wielding a magic spear dueling a ferocious white dragon among stormy clouds.

"Vronti Pteryga, who defeated the dragon Llosgi and thus became the first pegasus to tame the sky."

He next pointed to a window containing the image of three earth ponies, one to the left playing a lyre, one to the right playing a flute, and one at the center singing. Around the three ponies was a circle of parasprites.

"The Music Sisters, who, using their melodies, lured away a plague of parasprites that was to devour everything across the land."

The nine ponies came to another huge set of beautiful doors at the end of the hallway. On these doors was a painting depicting a golden alicorn and a dark blue alicorn flying in a circle around a spiraling black mass containing a pair of malevolent green eyes.

"The kingdom’s first king and queen, King Lux and Queen Nox, who, through the power of their love, vanquished the dark lord whose name never shall be spoken and inherited power over day and night from the Old Gods."

"That is so awesome!" Rainbow shouted.

"Now, it taketh two unicrons to open these doors." Starswirl said as he approached the doorm. "Hm, often there be'eth a pair of unicorn guards by the doors. I ponder on where they hath gone. Madam Twilight, prithee, open these doors with me."

Twilight walked up to the doors and Starswirl gave her instructions, "The incantation for opening the doors be this: 'Spondeo ad rex. Quaero servire. Ostende mihi faciem eius.'"

Twilight nodded, "Got it!"

The two unicorns recited the incantation and cast the spell on the doors. The painting parted between the two evil eyes and opened. The sight behind the door caused the Doctor and Starswirl to skip a few heartbeats and everypony gasped.

Comments

[Ms_Fruit_Bat]

Yay a good update.

[Time Ponies are cool]

1416250 Yeah. Sorry this new chapter took so long. College getting in the way and all that.

[PrincessFlutters]

We have all 7 elements. The elements of Loyalty, Laughter, Kindness, Honesty, Generosity, Magic and MUFFINS!!!!!