Children Of Time

Just then a mare entered the room.  She was young, no more than just a filly, an with auburn mane and kind eyes. "Is that him, Dad?"

"Flare. I am interviewing two dangerous prisoners." He said forcefully.

"Look at them," said Flare plaintively. While looking at the doctor. "I mean they doesn't exactly look dangerous. He doesn't look like them, he looks like us. I don't know about that one, though." She said now looking at me. "He looks kind of shifty." I scoffed and told her jokingly, too beware of the ones who look nice.

"He could be their new weapon. He'll lure into a false sense of security and then attack. Well. I for one won't be taken in by it." He said.

"That thing he was carrying-"

"Screwdriver." said The Doctor helpfully.

"Right," said Flare. "They tested it, it's not a weapon. It's harmless."

"Yes," said The Doctor quickly. "I think we should all listen to her, she is clearly sensible young lady."

"You seem like you're the only one who isn't." I said while shaking my head. The stallion's hands plunged into his pocket and withdrew a small penknife, which he used to cut our bonds.

"Thank you." said Flare.

"Yeah, thanks Dad." said The Doctor. I looked at the stallion and just nodded my head. I wasn't going to thank a pony who was only a few seconds aware from killing us, just because his daughter had came in and saved us.

"You're lucky my daughter was here." was all he said. I scoffed again, which earned me a small glance from The Doctor telling me to let him handle the talking.

"Right, well, intros, I'm The Doctor, and this is The Keeper." said The Doctor pointing to me.

"What do you keep?"The father asked me.

"Secrets."

"And who are you? I mean I can't just go around calling you Dad, unless you want me to, and it looks like that is not what you want, okay." The Doctor said while shutting up with a nervous looking looking face.

"I'm General Sightseerer of the 133rd Platoon."

"Okay, good to meet you General," said The Doctor. "And good to meet you, Flare. Right, I've got a question for you, earlier when you were talking you said that I didn't look like "them." What did you mean by that? Who are they?"

"Thats a good question." I added.

They both looked at us baffled. "You honestly don't know?" asked Flare.

"No." replied The Doctor.

"We are at war." said the General forcefully.

"Hmph, that would explain the state of the city." I said, thinking back to the ruins of the old city.

"Oh yes, one more question, where are we?" The Doctor asked.

"You really are joking now." said Flare.

"Fraid not." said The Doctor. "Just landed randomly, I have absolutely no idea where we are."

"It's a long story." said the General. "C'mon, I'll tell you all about it."

"Good and we can have a nice cup of tea as well. You like tea, right" He asked, but got no reply.

Several minutes later The Doctor sat sipping a cup of tea, looking expectantly from the General and his Daughter. They offered me some but I politely refused. I didn't want to find myself being drugged or something.

"This planet," began the General, "is called Noctura. It's called that because there's no light. The sun burned out millions of years ago. Other than that, the planet is exactly like the equestria. A few years ago it was decided that something had to be done about the population. It was much too high; there wasn't enough food people were dying. That's when we decided to send one third of the pony race here. Not all at once of course, but over a period of two or three years."

"But, how could you live with no light?" I asked. "I mean those buildings out there couldn't have been built in the dark, could they?"

"I'm getting there." said the General. "Before the Ponies could be sent here, they needed a way to make light. It took them a while to think of it, but they did in the end. Across this entire planet are these lamps, sort of like street lamps, but these ones are massive. Hundreds of feet tall, so tall that you can't even see the tops of them. There must be thousands of them scattered around, maybe millions. When lit they create the illusion of a sun, bright enough to light every nook and cranny of this world. If it weren't for the poles they sit on you'd forget they were even there."

"Hold on," interrupted The Doctor again, "How are you lot powering these things? They can't be solar powered and lights that size would use an impossible amount of electricity faster than you could produce."

"A rather genius invention, I must say. We didn't use electricity, thats too pricey.It's been a thousand years since the discovery electricity and ditched it for something else. The poles of the lights run down into the ground, all the way to the earth's core. They harness the power of the constantly shifting molten lava. The power is converted and with a flip of a switch this planet is bathed in light. A natural and renewable resource, perfect. And it was perfect at first. People settled in well, and were getting on with their lives. After about a year is when things went wrong."

At that moment another stallion in a uniform approached the General and whispered something in his ear. "If you will excuse me, there is an urgent matter that I must see to. My daughter can take it from here." said The General, standing.

"Any chance I can get my sonic screwdriver back?" asked The Doctor hopefully.

"Not a chance." replied The General.

"Didn't think so." said The Doctor gloomily.

"Bye Dad." said Flare smiling, as General Sightseerer walked from the room.

"Ball of fun, your Dad." said The Doctor.

"It's not easy for him, you know. He's not really been the same since Mum died."

"What happened?" I asked gently.

"I'm getting to that," said.she  "Now, where were we? Oh, yes, the invasion. They came out of the sky, millions of them. They slaughtered thousands. It happened so fast, we didn't even see them. Everything was just chaos and fire. When the smoke cleared, we heard a voice. I'll never forget what it said 'Resist and you will perish.' That's all it said, over and over again, for hours. When it was finally quiet, when we were sure they'd gone, we came out of where we'd been hiding. The city was wreaked, not as bad as it is now, but pretty close. Of all the attacks that have happened since, none has ever been as bad as that first one. Anyway, Mum was working that day, she was a librarian. She loved books, when I was little she would read to me every before bed, she still did it, even when I got older. I would pretend I didn't like it, you know, but I loved it. I was home alone when it happened. When it was over Dad called to make sure I was alright, and told me not to leave the house under any circumstances. I couldn't stay in the house, I had to find Mum. The library wasn't too far from our house; I ran all the way there. I knew the second I saw the crowd of people. I pushed through and saw it. The building had been hit dead on, there wasn't anything left but rubble, there were no survivors."

"I'm sorry." said The Doctor sincerely.

"It's alright." said the girl. "Everybody's lost someone they love, I'm no different."

"When did all of this start?" asked The Doctor.

"It was a little over a year ago. After about four more attacks, they went for the lights. I don't know what they did, but we've been in complete darkness now for six months."

"Can't anyone fix them?" asked The Doctor.

"We've tried, believe me." She said. "But, whenever we use any kind light they descend, like a swarm. We have to be really careful of the light we use. We're underground right now, it's the only way we can be sure they won't see us. That's why Dad thought you were sent by them, you weren't worried about using light. It's just lucky Dad got to you before they saw."

"Right, sorry about that, didn't realize a little light could trigger an alien invasion." said The Doctor apologetically.

At that moment General Sightseerer appeared at the door, looking serious. "Come with me." he said too us. "I want to show you something."