A Journey Across

Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor

Chapter 4 - Cycle

Present Day

The doctor was still sleeping, when Rose met Jeb directly outside his room. She wondered if he would ever get out of his space suit but she noticed no smell.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him.

He looked at her, obviously thinking hard, and responded only after over a minute, "We need to move the ship."

"Why?" demanded Rose. In her head formed the idea, that these creature had the empathic skills of a spoon. Maybe less.

"Well it's a plane. And it is in a forest. Not the most ideal runway," he commented.

"Oh, yeah haven't thought of that," Rose admitted.

There was a short pause until someone knocked on the doctor room door and his voice was heard from inside, "Rose? You out there?"

"Yes. You need any help?", she asked the door.

The doctor opened the door and trotted out, "I don't really know when I learned to walk on these or adapted the terms 'anypony' and 'what the hay' but it's part of the assimilation I guess."

"So, are you okay again?" Rose's voice was slighty shaking at the look of a ponified doctor, almost falling over on his wobbly legs.

A desperate look appeared on his face, "No. But we need to get back to work." His eyes fell on Jeb for the first time. The astronaut had been standing there, watching the conversation. "How can the doctor help you today, Jeb?" he said.

"As I said to Rose, we need to move the ship, we can't lift off in the forest," he explained, "I suggest we go to Twilight and work out a plan how to do it."

The three moved down the corridor, the doctor almost tripping over his hooves twice. Rose laughed each time as the past encounters with Entropy had vanished from her mind.

"SAM!" exclaimed the young man. His eyes focused on the fellow in front of him. His brother ran to his side, almost awaiting a situation more complicated than ever, just to recognize the least person he would like to see. The gangly man wore a tight black suit and his face looked like it had been dead for a few days from now. He stood there like an immovable force of nature.

"Hello, Winchesters," said the figure, "It is good to see you again." His voice became almost ironic to the end but remained calm.

"I hoped we would never see you again," grumbled the older of the two brothers.

"Well, I feel inclined to just end this conversation. But let's put old trouble aside. We have an important meeting to attend," the figure announced. He straightened his suit, looking like a english businessman who is about to sign a most important contract.

"What meeting?", Sam asked.

The figure hesitated a second until he spoke again, "we will meet most important individuals, including you two, Lucifer" - the two winced at the sound of Lucifer's name - "and a special guest. I will lead the meeting until God arrives."

"What is so important that even God starts hauling his ass over here?" demanded Sam to know.

The man sighed loud and slow. He had lost some of his former confidence.

"The end of the all existence, obviously," answered Death.

Deep below Canterlot

A few hours ago the cave had been completely dark. Then the signal arrived. A small green lamp turned on, bathing the giant cave in it's faint light. The signal was quite strong but out of phase. The computer activated his secondary peripherals. He measured the signal in all depth. Not a single bit of data was missed.

When the measurements were completed it was determined. It was the correct signal, although slightly distorted. The mainframe activated.

The faint glowing of the green lamp, indicating that the computer was running, vanished. If there would be air in the cave you would start hearing the clicking of relays and the zooming of tapes. Instead only a soft grumbling could be heard through the former vacuum. Air had diffused inside over time.

The old machines had been there for over 2000 years. Waiting for the signal. It was never sure when it would actually arrive. Only a small computer was designed to run all the time, waiting for it.

The mainframe checked the data. It was indeed correct. The main lights flickered, as they turned on for the first time in centuries.

They new light showed a mess of cables and casings, arranged in a strange but logical pattern. In the background were six big structures. They looked like oversized darts, but a bit longer. On their side was a big warning symbol. It was a circle, divided in 6 parts; 3 yellow, 3 black. Tubes directly above them lead to the top of the canterlot mountain.

After a quick check all of the tubes, the computer determined them intact. The caps on top, that protected the outside world from the inside, were working and airtight. The computer registered these facts without any emotion.

Big magical monitors turned on, first displaying long strings of text and data. After minutes 15 of them switched to a camera feed. Some cameras had failed over time, only about half of them displayed any picture. Each showed the same place but from a different angle, a city with a big castle in the middle which all were build out of crystals.

A line printer started jerking over its paper. The first line was "First Signal detected and confirmed", the second "Awaiting Second Signal..." The printer stood still again.

The mainframe now concluded that the second signal would arrive soon and waited.