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Book 1 - Chapter 1 - A new beginning and the final end
Book 1 - A Journey Across
Chapter 1 - A new beginning and the final end
Situational Report:
Ship Class: ILR Titan Mk.II/Model 7-F214 (Exp.)
Weight: 45.7 tons / 126.9 tons
Engines: 2x R.A.P.I.E.R. Mk.II , 1x EX0-Radio-Thermic Model 2 "Exo"
Thrust: 2x 1290 kN , unknown
Crew: Jebediah Kerman
Fuel: AB: Hydrogen, CS: HydrOxy, 1200 kg antimatter/matter mix
Orbit: H: 2 452 220m, ECC: 0.001331, INC: 0.00012°, VSP: 0.0012cm/s
MET: 12h 02m 34s
Mission:
The Craft is equipped with the new EX0 Radio-Thermic engine. This new engine will revolutionize the space industry if it works. It is based on the Radio-Thermic Exchange Heater (Glowing Uranium Rod) that we used to make athmospheric engines, but the main fuel was exchanged with a Anti-Matter Bomb contained inside a self-sustaining force-field and the design adapted from the Mk.I Rapiers. The Bomb has a total reaction mass of 1.2 tons (~ 27 Gigatons TNT) and was detonated 22 minutes before launch.
The Rapiers in the craft are new test models (Iteration 5 without explosion) by V10-Aerospace. They can be feed throught heat exchange from the Exo.
The EX0-engine has to be tested on acceleration and behaviour. Crew expendable as usual.
If the engine works correctly, secondary mission is to fly a short resupply flight to Jool Deep Space Station (JDSS).
Audio Log:
*crackling*
Mission Control to Jebediah Kerman, radio test complete. Please confirm altitude and engine status
Jebediah Kerman, altitude is 2 452 220 meters ASL above Kerbin. Radar not functional due to height. Experimental Testengine EX0 and all systems on go.
Mission Control to Jeb. Ignition in T-3 minutes. Please confirm computer functionality and destination lock.
Computer gives OK for start and Jool is locked on. ETA for arrival: 18 hours after engine ignition.
Mission Control to Jeb. Your ship was assigned the name "Clara" last minute. Voted ended 5 minutes ago.
'Clara' to Mission Control. Understood. Tell Bob he can have his 20 bucks, but he still is an idiot to suggest this name. Clear for ignition.
* 2 minutes and 49 seconds later *
Mission Control to Clara. Ignition in 10 seconds. Please confirm program on computer. Also Bob says the bet was 30 bucks, if he doesn't get them he said "You know what happens!"
Clara to Mission Control. Just give him money and tell him to shut up. Program 42 is selected and active. Countdown for ignition on 4 seconds.
T minus 2 seconds. 1. IGNITION!
Clara to Mission Control. Engine running at 1%. Shock absorbers at 10%. External Acceleration is 567 m/s squared. All systems normal. Computer gives okay for encounter course with Jool.
Mission Control to Clara. Confirmed. Computers on our side give okay for 100% thrust.
You sure?
Mission Control to Clara. Yes. Please put thrust to 100%
Okay....
...
Clara to Mission Control. Acceleration beyond all boundaries. Visual measuring by computer results in 2399 km/s squared.
Mission Control to Clara. Unbelievable but confirmed.
I am seeing strange effects here. There are lightning bolts shooting from the nosecone and it seems like space is bending in front of us.
Miss....trol to Cl... Confi..... top........ Dange......
Clara to Mission Control. Message not understood. Please repeat. Speed is now 93% light speed. We seem to accelerate even faster.
.... *static* ....
Oh shit. We just passed light speed. This is so cool! Mission Control, can you hear me?
...
Mission Control, please respond.
*static*
Can anybody hear me?
*crackling*
Mission Control, ... are you out there? Engine is still running, it can't be shut down. Speed is registered with 134% lightspeed. Please respond...
*crackling*
Mission Control, I'm scared. The ship is about to collapse. CAN YOU HEAR ME?
*static*
--.- --.- .-. -..- --.-
* Contact to on-board computer of the Clara was lost T+82 seconds after ignition *
* Contact yet to be re established *
* 23 hours, 2 minutes later *
This is the last message of mission control on Kerbin. A huge explosion caused the planetary magnetosphere being wiped. Our atmosphere is vanishing and the Mün was knocked out of orbit, leaving us forever. Our planet is doomed to be a lifeless desert of sand and bones. If anyone hears this, you are the only ones left. Don't come home. End of transmission.
* Total Powerloss in 37 minutes. Autmatic shutdown now. *
Book 1 - Chapter 2 - Mad man with a box
Book 1 - A Journey Across
Chapter 2 - Mad man with a box
The TARDIS suddenly made a loud crunching noise, as if you put in the reverse at 120kmh.
The doctor ran towards the navigation console. "What was that? It can't be. No no no nonononono. Don't do this to me." He stormed around and quickly checked some readings. There was a short pause as the TARDIS and the doctor went completely silent. The TARDIS swoshed multiple times before making a loud crunching noise again.
"Oh no. We will not stop here. What do you want? What's wrong my dear?"
"Doctor?" asked a voice behind him.
The doctor was surprised, "ROSE? What are you doing here? Are you real? Well, sure you must be real, BUT HOW DID YOU GET HERE?"
"I'm not sure. I saw a bright flash and here I am," said Rose.
"Well, it is good to see you again, but... this means bad." The Doctors face looked increasingly worried as he stepped away from the console towards Rose.
"Didn't the walls between the universes close behind us or something?", asked Rose as she slowly walk around the doctor.
"Yes, they did" - he turned around and went to his console again - "and this means we have big problems. And you and your universe are the smaller ones."
Rose sighed, "What did you break this time?"
"I did not break anything," he said annoyed, "Why do people always assume that I cause trouble?"
"Maybe because you do?" Rose answered.
"Oh yeeaaah. Right.... Hmmm...... But this time it wasn't me," he reassured.
"So what is this big problem now?" asked Rose
"The time vortex collapsed completely", said the doctor as he hunched over some green buttons.
There was a pause before Rose responded, "WHAT?"
"Yes. I don't know how but the only thing that prevents us from becoming frozen statues, never to move again is a small time buffer in the TARDIS. If we ration it we could hold out 2 weeks. Maybe 2 and a half if you stop wandering off", answered the doctor.
"Stay focused," she almost yelled at him, "We need to find out what caused this."
He looked shortly at the consoles behind them, "Whatever caused this, it must have broken some underlying rules of the universe."
"What 'rules' do you mean?", Rose was confused.
"For example if you implode a black hole or go beyond the beginning of time. But the problem is, these things need an IMMENSE power. And I mean IMMENSE. Not even all ever existing TARDIS' could have produced that much energy in the lifetime of the universe.", he turned back to the console.
"Wouldn't we notice such a huge explosion?", She was now really worried, not only for the universe but also for the Doctor.
"Doesn't need to be a explosion. But let's see where it came from. The good thing is, the universe is frozen, we can observe," The doctor started pressing buttons, to enable the main monitor. It flickered when it turned on and the TARDIS made a crunching sound again.
"Are you sure, you put the right gear in?", asked Rose with an ironic voice.
"Naah. Hmm. Okay.... Right.. Ahhhaa! It didn't happen here," he quickly ran around to another monitor.
"What do you mean?", she asked.
"It can't be. That is just ... IMPOSSIBLE. Even the creators would have trouble doing THAT," The Doctor had a face expression that spoke of horror.
Rose yelled, "Doctor! what do you mean with `'creators'?"
"This was HUGE. Bigger than anything," he ran off to one of the back consoles, "It ripped right through space-time."
"Doctor, you have 3 seconds to explain" - she stepped towards the centre - "or I look back in the time vortex"
"The time vortex is gone. But okay.", said the Doctor, "In a parallel universe someone or something caused a massive explosion. But the worst part is, that this explosion was huge. The very definition of huge. It must have been bigger than it's own universe and he might exceeded the speed of light."
"But don't we do that all the time?" asked Rose.
The doctor kept explaining, "Yes, but we use the time-vortex to travel. This..... thing.... managed to that while maintaining it's space-time dimensions. The universe where it came from is collapsing. Like humans it does everything to survive. It sucks energy from other universes. Like our time-vortex. And it does a good job. It is very far away. It must be noticeable even in farther universes."
He looked at Rose and saw her puzzled look. He kept explaining, "You see, the more distance between to universe is, the more different they are. This one is basically like ours but some rules are different. The explosion was big enough to rip it apart and now it is a state of ever-collapsing," he seemed to talk without pause, "This collapsing causes energy to be drawn from other universes. The universes near that one must have shrunk to the size of a cherry by now. At least a cherry in this universe. Think of putting holes a football... but not a ball, the universe is not a ball but just assume and you take 100 other balls and connect them all. They will deflate if you don't fix the first one."
"Okaayyy. What can we do about it?"
"We have to flee, I'm afraid. This universe will be frozen and the collapse to. We have to go to a little bit farther universe where we have time to think," he started to pull the necessary levers.
"But the walls are closed, remember? They closed on the day you left me on the beach!" she followed the doctor.
"The explosion ripped these 'walls' apart, Rose. You are from this universe, and that is why you were sucked back," he shortly glanced up to Rose, "This universe is trying to gain energy and you are loaded with it."
"WHAT?" yelled Rose.
"Don't worry, you won't feel anything. At least nothing I am aware of."
"I think I want to hurry to this other universe. I'm not feeling very safe."
"I share that feeling. Allons-y!"
He pressed a little green button right of him. The TARDIS started to work again. It crunched horribly as the inner part of the console started moving.
"Rose?"
"Yes?" she looked worried.
"This could hurt! Hang on to something!"
A short explosions followed by several crunching noises. The TARDIS pulled with her full weight but didn't move. Suddenly something snapped with a loud clank and the TARDIS started to swosh normally.
They heard a single dong. Not a second later flaming pain was inching through Rose's body, eating up any rational thought and clear vision. Thankfully darkness consumed her and extinguished the fire inside.
Book 1 - Chapter 3 - Dawn of Horses
Book 1 - A Journey Across
Chapter 3 - Dawn of horses
Twilight and Rarity were walking on a field towards Applejacks farm. It was apple bucking season again and this time Applejack asked them for help beforehand.
"All this sunlight! It is going to ruin my marvelous hair. I worked hours on it," moaned Rarity.
Twilight sighed loudly before responding, "Why did you even spend hours on your hair if you knew days beforehand that you had to help Applejack on the farm?"
"Well, because I have to look best at all time. You never know who you are going to meet during the day." Rarity was excited at the thought of meeting celebrity. For a moment she was lost in a land of dreams and whishes, where she married some famous prince.
Twilight awoke her from her dreams, "Hmppf. Then stop complaining. We are almost there."
As they approached the farm, they could see Applejack waiting for them on the doorstep.
Applejack noticed them and she waved, "You are very late, girls. These apples won't buck themselves, y'know?"
"I know, but Rarity couldn't stop complaining about the sun and her hair. Sorry."
"My hair is the most important to me and you all know that."
Appljack sighed, "We all know that."
"So, how can we help today, Applejack?" asked Twilight.
"On the southern part we have some apples that need bucking. If you and Rarity could pull these wagons y'all could help me very much. Oh, Twilight, I hoped you could help me with the bucking itself." said Applejack and the she whispered to Twilight, "I don't think Rarity is in the mood to get her hoofs dirty"
"I hope there is no mud around. I certainly don't want any mud on my hoofs," interruped Rarity.
"Told'ya," whispered Applejack again.
Twilight gave her a quick angry stare before turning to Rarity, "Could you please stop whining, Rarity?"
"I am not whining. I'm complaining. If you want to hear me whining I can do that."
"Please not. Can we please go apple bucking? The job won't do itself!" asked Applejack.
They walked over to the southern part of the farm. Applejack got happy at the look of tasty red apples.
"Rarity. Can you come over here with the wagon and I'll put the apples inside."
"Any moment."
While Rarity slowly pulled the wagon, Twilight helped Applejack
with one of the trees, "It's good you asked us for help this time. It's not a big deal."
"I did learn my lesson, after all." answered Applejack, "WHERE IS THE WAGON, RARITY!?"
"I am coming. Any moment, my dear!" said Rarity.
A few hours later, they were finished for the day, there was still a lot to do, but Rarity refused to walk back after sunset.
"It was good to have help. Thank y'all a lot!" said Applejack as she pushed the
last wagon into the barn.
Twilight and Rarity made their way to Ponyville.
About an hour later, Rarity suddenly stopped and asked, "Do you hear that, Twilight?"
"What?" asked Twilight.
"This humming. It is not very loud, I can barely hear it."
"Now I hear it too." - Twilight walked towards the side of the road - "It's more like a screaming and it is coming out of the Everfree Forest."
Rarity took a few steps back, she was uncomfortable with the situation, "It seems to get louder."
Twilight locked worried, "Yes. Hmm."
"We should ask Rainbow Dash if she could fly over and see what it is.", Rarity began walking home.
Twilight noded and followed her, "I agree. We should keep moving, it kind of scares me."
Book 1 - Chapter 4 - Arrival of the beast
Book 1 - A Journey Across
Chapter 4 - Arrival of the beast
The Engines were running up. They humming on base levels went to a screaming as if the devil himself was brutaly tortured. Then automatic failsafe kicked it back to humming levels. Back at base level. Humming up. Screaming. Running out. Repeat.
Jeb awoke lying face down in the dirt. His helmet laid a few meters beside. He stood up, put on the helmet and looked around. A forest. Behind him layed the ship. A quick flash of memory, the ship spinning, a bang and then darkness. The autopilot must have landed the ship after he blacked out.
A shiver ran down his spine. The experiment. The engine failure. He ran back to the ship, opened the cabin door and got in the cockpit. The glass plate on the top was busted out from the emergency escape system that threw him out.
First thing he noticed when he got in the cockpit was the blarping of the master alarm. Several warning lamps were on. They read "Fuel Pressure Low", "Ignition Failure" and "MBA Undervolt". Each one would have meant the end of the ship, but like some miracle, the Rapiers and the EX-Zero did not explode. He quit the Master Alarm. A quick check again.
"Fuel Pressure Low" was still on. The other two kept quiet. He decided to switch off fuel supply. The humming faded slowly. He checked the fuel gauges. He had 20 liters for the Rapiers. The Exo was exhausted. He wondered how that ever could happen. There was over half a ton of antimatter in the engine. As the engines spun their last round "Fuel Pressure Low" went dark. The only sounds remaining was the breathing of the Life Support, the clicks from switching relays and a slow beeping.
He was stranded, this was not Kerbin and 20 liters of fuel won't get you far nor home. He started the computer up. No reaction. He checked the Power Supply Unit. No dice. But the ship still had power and a blinking lamp indicated why. The autopilot had enabled the emergency battery when the APU's in the back failed. In 5 minutes it would be empty. Only life support and other emergency systems ran. No navigation. No attitude control. No reaction control. No stabilizer.
"This is getting worse and worse," Jeb thought. From outside he heard a voice, "Is there anypony?"
He quickly switched of all remaining systems. The soft clicking of the relays vanished. The last lamp burning was labelled "Emergency Power Enabled" accompanied by slow beeping.
"Either they are friendly or not..." he thought to himself, "Doesn't matter now." After he waited for about half a minute he could hear footsteps from outside. "There are atleast 2 pairs of legs out there. I hope they are friendly pairs," he though and then he yelled, "I'm friendly. Please don't eat my face!"
"Why should I do that? What happened here?" someone answered.
"Well, it seems I crashed and I'm not exactly a local, you never know where
you are in the food chain on another planet," he answered.
"Another planet? You are okay in there, aren't you? Who are you?" asked the voice.
He quickly reassured everything was off, "I'm Jeb from the planet Kerbin, I'm friendly and yes, I'm okay, for now."
"I'm Rainbow Dash and I am from here. You need any help? Your thingy was making noises."
Yeah, I'm on the planet of geniuses, Jeb thought and the answered, "No. I switched everything off in here. Nothing should explode. Just the emergency power system is on. Nothing to worry about."
He took a quick look outside, "Where are you?"
A small horse in front of him answered, "Here. Are you blind or something?" It had hair in rainbow colors and a fur in light blue shade. Strange choice of color from mother nature.
"Whoah. You are a horse?", asked Jeb after he opened his helmet.
"Noo, I'm a pony," it responded, "a pegasus to be more exact, don't you see the wings here? And what are you?"
Now he took of his helmet completely. Better not take off the suit, I have the wrong shorts for this, he thought, "I'm a Kerbal from Kerbin. Name is Jebediah Kerman. You can call me Jeb though."
"Jeb. Hmmm. I'm Rainbow Dash. Best Flyer of Equestria and most awesome pony ever.", the little pony said.
Jeb stepped outside the cockpit. The first time after he woke up, he looked around him. The ship landed inside a forest, although the trees looked a little bit weird, "Where are we and what is Equestria?"
The little equine gave him a puzzled look, "We are in Equestria. Kingdom of the Two Sisters. That is the name of the land here. To be more exact, this is the Everfree Forest."
As Jeb walked away from his ship, he saw where the ship first touched down. Like a giant lawn mower the craft had ripped apart a huge part of the forest. A trail of smoke and fire laid behind, thankfully disguising most damage done. While looking more closely he noticed some animals that were in the way, or to be precise, a few parts of them, "Did you see the crash?"
Rainbow flew up a few meters and looked at what Jeb had seen, "We'll no. But I think I would prefer not to have seen it, if I had. Fluttershy will be upset about the trees. She likes trees," and she chuckled but she immediately stopped as she remembered what happened here, "You really need no help?"
Jeb walked around the craft for a few minutes, inspecting all parts. It was worse than he expected. One wing was almost ripped out, hinging on the remainders of a fuel pump. The left engine had burned out, judging by the black metal corpse nailed on the hull. The outer frame looked like a mutilated body, thousands of wounds, some bleeding out hydraulics or other fluids. The double winged ship had seen worse days. He went back to this Dash-pony thingy, "Well, you have some tape? And I need some fuel. Best would be HydrOxy. But Kerosine is okay too. Ohhh, and if you have ANY antimatter, that would be great!"
Rainbow Dash stopped listening after he heard "tape". No story. The rest was a bunch of unrecognizable words. As she noticed that a answer was requested, she did what she always did in such a situation, and gave her default answer for any circumstances, "Yep, no problem."
"Cool. Okay, don't be shocked but I wanted to say this since I was a child," he answered putting a huge smile on his face, "BRING ME TO YO' LEADA!"
Book 1 - Chapter 5 - Losing Battle
Book 1 - A Journey Across
Chapter 5 - Losing Battle
The darkness was comforting. Noone screamed or did anything stupid. No noise. No problems. No time. But it was inching away. The doctor tried to hold it like a blanket pulled away suddenly. He wanted to keep sleeping. Keep the problems away.
"Doctor! Wake up you useless...", yelled Rose. She had tried to wake him for an hour now without any success, "I need you doctor. Please wake up." Her voice became higher, almost crying.
No, ignore it, thought the doctor, it is not important. Another voice in his head answered, that it was important, but he ignored it. The sleep was so comforting. Sleep? As parts of him woke up, he realised that he wasn't sleeping. He was unconcious and in process to wake up. Panic pulsed through him as he remembered. Something must have went wrong. He heard the slow breathing of the tardis. What he thought was darkness, where his closed eyes.
"Oh god! Why is everything going wrong today?", sobbed Rose as she searched for something to wake the doctor up. Under the main room, she found a bucket full of water. Not fresh cold water, but it would do the job.
The doctor heard Rose. Gears in his head started to turn. He needed a good line when waking up. But his head was like vacuum. Not a single good idea. Before he could think of anything more, a bucket of warm, stinking water was emptied on his head. Time to wake up.
The doctor gasped for air, "hey! This was rude! I was just thinking of what to say when I wake up and now you come around and interrupt me!"
"Well, 'sorry', but I was worried. The TARDIS seems to die," Rose countered as she walked to the console. She know the controls well, not as good as the doctor, but well, "We have landed somewhere strange, I can tell you that."
"How can you tell?"
Rose switched on one of the monitors and showed the doctor, "the outside looks like a cartoon. And if you didn't notice, you look like one too," she pulled up her make-up mirror and held it in front of the doctor's face.
"Oh god, " - he stood up quickly and looked Rose in the eyes - "I look soo handsome. I quite like this universe." He ran to the consoles and stared at the controls, "This is so awesome."
But then he noticed what was strange, "No power?" He flicked some switches and tried to turn on more monitors, "Okay, we are on reserve power. Rose. I need you to do me a favor."
"Yes, what?"
He turned to Rose, "You need to go in the back, follow the third corridor. It is the twentysixth door on the right. Go in. You will see a big red button labeled "Do not press". Press it. Okay?"
His companion looked quite annoyed, facing such a trivial task, well, trivial for a companion. She walked towards the back, "You need anything more? Should I go shopping on the way? Bring some food maybe?"
"Naah, I'm fine thanks," he responded. When Rose had left he quickly moved over to one of the observation monitors and switched on one of the cameras outside. The monitor displayed the outskirts of a thick forest and a small farm of some sort. Various animals peacefully grazed in their pens. When the doctor heard the machines spinning up, as power was restored, he disabled the monitor and prepared the TARDIS.
When Rose came back, the doctor was busy handling the TARDIS. "Everything okay with the TARDIS?", she asked.
He turned around and his face told her before he said it, "No. The TARDIS took some damage in the travel. We can only travel short distances, a few hundred kilometers and all devices used for timetravel have been permanently destroyed. We will not be able to get back, even if the TARDIS heals." The sad look when Rose realized what this would mean for the doctor. No time travels anymore. No fun adventures or saving entire civilizations. He had been cut back to a normal person. The only things that was still different and made him special, were his second heart and the ability to regenerate. The timelord, that called himself the Doctor, sat down, short of beginning to sob.
A loud knocking was heard on the doors of the TARDIS. Startled, Rose whirled around, "What was that?"
"I think someone wants to talk to us. Would you be so kindly and open the door, my dear?" the doctor was back to his old self. His companion looked annoyed again.
Rose walked up to the door and laid her hand on the knob. Another knocking. She looked back to the doctor, who noded to reensure her, and opened the door.
A small pink pony stood there, "Hello, Rose. I'm Pinkie Pie. Can I talk to the doctor?"
Chrysalis shuddered as she walked in a clearing of the Everfree forest. She had taken a quick stroll to get away from her daily duties, building up an army for revenge. But now the forest seemed to have changed around her. The comforting twilight vanished and was replaced by an all-consuming darkness. The path was still lit but there were not soft shadows anymore. Every shadow turned into a monster, lurking in the corner of her vision to jump out and kill her. What had been left of friendlyness in the forest had been grinded of.
The queen of the changelings heard the rustling of someone walking over leaves and branches. She turned around to see who it was, but the path laid empty before her. She relaxed. Just my imagination, she thought.
No second later she felt the hot breathing of a living thing on her back. This was real. Startled she almost jumped a few meters. Whirling around she now saw the most horrible face ever to be seen.
The creature looked like a pony at first glance. But if you took your time you would notice how his form wasn't quite here. Like an unfocused image it blurred slightly around the edges. Most horrible was the face. Instead of a muzzle it had a mouth, reaching from one ear to the other. It was filled with two rows of sharp triangular teeth. Each one was blinding white. As it opened it's mouth, spit was drooling down. Behind the teeth laid a split tongue, almost like the tongue of a snake, but it was black instead.
This monster didn't attack but talked to Chrysalis, "well, well. Let's see who we have here. " - the movement of his mouth didn't match his speech - "A queeeen. And even better. You have an aaaarrmmyy. Tell me Chrysi. Do you want to live?" He stood motionless, awaiting an answer.
Chrysalis was shocked and took a few moments to gather herself, "W... What are you?" She stumbled back.
"If you reaallyy want to know. I am Entropy, the goohd of eeeeevviiil. And you, my dear queen, look like a nice first meal. I had been sleeping for soooo looong," it spoke. Chrysalis paniced at what she had heard, she beliefed him. She turned around and ran.
The thing, that called itself Entropy, didn't follow her. She screamed out for her guards but noone heard her. When she came around a sharp turn, there he stood. Blood was now dripping of his mouth.
"You know, I wanted yoouuu for my first meeal. But I took your armyyy instead. You will be a good desert and stop moving," the mouth of Entropy opened and Chrysalis knew, this would be her last moment. In panic she sent out a cry of help with her magic. The message was sent to a specific recipient, from whom Chrysalis believed to be able to stop whatever this was. She saw the creature jumping towards her.
Entropy did not kill Chrysalis instantly. He liked playing with his food.
Book 1 - Chapter 6 - Unleashed
Book 1 - A Journey Across
Chapter 6 - Unleashed
If you walked up to sugarcube corner this morning, the first thing you would notice is the thing that hang on the door. The blood was dripping on the doorstep, still somewhat fresh. Looking up from the blood you will see what remained of queen Chrysalis.
Her body had been mutilated and then nailed on the door frame. Even that was not the most horrible thing about this, it was the look on Chrysalis' face. The horror had been carved deep into her eyes, still open like her mozzle as if she had lived through what her body had to endure, even though most of the wounds would kill anypony instantly. A silent scream was coming from her body.
If you walked up to sugarcube corner this morning, the first thought you would have would be, "Atleast her suffering was ended."
One pony in the group, staring up at the result of something horrible, suggested, one may inform Twilight but noone really listened, so she ran off herself as fast as possible.
Twilight stood infront of the two visitors, quite nervous she asked, "So, what brought you here?"
The little green one responded first, "Well, my ship kinda crashed here and I met your friend. She told me you could help me repair it." He made himself comfortable as possible, "It needs some tape and fuel. And maybe a welder, but that one is optional."
Twilight gave him a puzzled look and turned to the other visitors, "Errr, so what is your story?" Hope these are not insane, she thought.
"Well hello. I am the doctor, this is my companion Rose. We came here in my TARDIS" - Twilights puzzled look transformed into confusion - "... TARDIS stands for 'Time and Relative Dimension in Space', it is a timemachine that can also travel in space. Something went wrong were we came from, so we had to flee our universe," while he talking he constantly walked around the room, searching for a chair of any sorts, "You have any form of seat here?"
Twilight was now officialy confused, nothing these things said made sense for her. The so called doctor and his companion were definitly humans, but they looked different than the 'Equestria High' humans. She made a mental note to do extensive studies about this. Before she could answer, which took her 10 seconds from now, she was interrupted by the doctor's companion.
"I have a question", asked Rose, "why did this pink ho... pony knew my name and who the doctor is? We are from a parallel universe, she should know nothing." Like a poker player with the ultimate cards on his hand, she had uncovered the logical error that meant all this would be a dream.
Twilight stepped around nervously while thinking for an answer, "Well, we don't know exactly why Pinkie Pie knows the things Pinkie Pie knows. She has this weird 'Pinkie Sense', which allows her to see into the future a bit but I don't know how it works." Embarassed to admit that she didn't know anything about something, she blushed.
The little astronaut, that called himself Jeb, ran out of patience, "Hello? Can anyone care for me? I'm stranded here. Just give me some tape and fuel, then I am out of here."
The princess of friendship was now cornered. She took a deep breath, "We don't have any of these things you are asking for. Maybe the doctor can help you."
Jeb turned to the doctor, with a big question mark in his face, almost demanding an answer, "Well?"
The doctor asked, "What do you need exactly? Could I and Rose help with the repairs?"
Rose gave him a offended look, "You always assume I would help. Isn't there anything else I could do?"
While the doctor gave Rose a quick annoyed stare, Jeb had gathered his thoughts, "At first I need power to boot up all the systems. Second, a bit of tape and a welder to fix the wing and the fuel pump, both have been almost torn out. Third, about 80 tons of HydrOxy, a few extra maybe or testing. If it works out, we need to get a Antimatter bomb with an reaction mass of 1.2 tons. Let me think. Yeah, that is it."
Even Rose understood the last part, as she and the doctor simultaneous stared at jeb with open mouths. The doctor itself was not only suprised but also worried. After both of them didn't answer for a few seconds the little green Astronaut asked, "What's wrong?"
At the exact moment Twilight was ready to start laughing out, the doors burst open. A yellowish pony with purple and blue hair stormed into the room. She broke down in the middle of the room, panting her lungs out.
After a short time she gathered herself and stumbled towards Twilight, "We need your help, Twilight. It is urgent."
Still quite in a shock, Twilight asked, "What is the problem?" The mare seemed to have run here from the other end of ponyville without pause.
"It is queen chrysalis. She is dead. " - she took a short pause to inhale loudly - "She was nailed on the door of sugarcube corner. It is horrible." After that being said, she broke down and fainted.
The whole room was silent for two minutes. The first one to speak was the doctor, "I guess this is not good."
Book 1 - Chapter 7 - Betrayal of the Old
Book 1 - A Journey Across
Chapter 7 - Betrayal of the Old
When the group walked back from the sugarcube corner, some of them still had a visible shock on their faces. Jeb was the only one who seemed untouched. Applejack and Rainbow Dash tried to keep it low, but there was something in their eyes, crying out the horror. Even Pinkie looked sad, her mane deflated and face fixed towards the ground. Following a little behind where Rarity, Rose and Fluttershy, all of them short of breaking down or passing out. The only ones who had grim faces where Twilight and the doctor. But the face of the timelord was far deeper than Twilights. He had seen such horrors before, but he knew that this was no coincidence.
Twilight was the first to speak again, "We need to get Celestia on this. I don't know a single pony, entity or being that could or would do such thing." She stumbled over a rock and for a second the facade crumbled and she sobbed.
The Doctor walked a bit faster to keep up with her, "I can assure you, that I will try everything I can to find the murderer. Even if this Chrysalis was evil, noone deserves this."
"But what about my ship?", asked Jeb, setting a new record on inappropriate behaviour and in the same second killing thousands of readers with this emotional hiccup.
The gears, turning in Twilight Sparkles head for a while now, made a grinding noise and she whirled around to the astronaut, "YOUR SHIP IS AT THE VERY BOTTOM OF MY PRIORITIES!" She took a few steps towards him. He did not even blink, even if that would be possible for him, nor retreat. Twilight cooled down and resumed walking back to her castle.
"Any volunteers to bring the message to Celestia?", asked Twilight.
"I would go, if ya want," responded Applejack as she looked up, "Rainbow Dash could come with me."
When she was mentioned, the rainbow colored pegasus stared at Applejack but then she sighed and aggreed to come with her.
The group parted ways with Applejack and Rainbow Dash running towards the train station to catch the next train to canterlot and the rest trotting back to Twilight's castle.
Jeb had learned his lesson and the party remained silent the whole way. The ponies of ponyville, that watched them, had the feeling this was like a funeral service for Chrysalis and even with the memory of her trying to steal all love in Equestria, they almost wanted to join up.
2 hours later
The group had gathered in the throne room of Twilight's castle. In the last two hours they had been arguing. Noone knew what to do, this was the first murder by psychopath in the last 1000 years, and there were no punishments for murder. Equestria had been a peaceful place.
"Nobody has any idea where the person is that did this. We can't just run off and hope to find him," reminded the Doctor everyone, "and we have to get the victim a proper funeral." He had sat down on Rainbow Dash's throne, while Rose used Applejack's.
"I have an idea." - Twilight jumped up from her throne - "We need to get Discord on this. If it uses magic he will be able to detect it. He did it before, with Tirek... Anypony against that?" She looked around waiting for a response.
"Who is Discord?", asked the Doctor, "And what could he do we could not?"
Twilight sighed, as she remembered that her guests didn't know anything about the history or rules in Equestria, and told them, "Discord is a god of chaos. He tried to convert our world into a domain of chaos twice and is now one of the good ponies. He has great magical abilities."
"Aha," said the Doctor as if he had been told the worst joke ever, "and where is he now?"
"I don't know, I'll just call him here. It worked before." answered Twilight.
She started casting the spell. For some reason it took her almost a minute before the message was sent and she almost fainted from the exertion. When the glimming around her horn dimmed, Discord appeared.
He gave Twilight a furious glance, "If you want to know Twilight, I was already on the case. You really didn't need to call me," Discord was not in the mood for any jokes, "Chrysalis has sent me a distress message."
Twilight had the feeling her face had been stuck puzzled the whole day, "What do you mean?"
Discord stepped forward in the middle of the room, "I know that the being that killed Chrysalis. And I suggest you keep away. This 'thing' is more powerful than Celestia, me and the Elements of Harmony together. The best way to deal with it would be to stay low and hope he doesn't get you. I wish you all luck. Bye!" He attempted to disappear but halfway through it stopped and reversed. In shock Discord whirled around to the closed door, his look more worried than ever, "It is here."
"Weird, I don't remember closing it," mumbled Twilight.
The door was knocked six times. A few seconds noone moved. Before anyone could do something the door burst open and revealed Entropy. Blood was still dripping from his mouth, this time it was not changeling blood. Twilight looked at it for about half a minute, before she noticed. Almost at the same time as all the other ponies in the room she yelled out, "No!"
The God of Evil, standing in the doorframe, wore a very familiar hat. He stepped in the room and spoke, his voice having no recognizable pitch, "Hello, my 'friiiends'. I think we haven't been introduced yet." - A horrible smile grew on his face - "I am Entropy. The murderer of Chrysalis, queeeen of the changelings, and your beloved friend Applejack, Element of Hooonesty. I assure you, I had a good lot of fun with your little friiiieeend."
Book 1 - Chapter 8 - Victory
Book 1 - A Journey Across
Chapter 8 - Victory
The smile of Entropy was like a rift, ripping apart it's face. The blood drips had now gathered to a small pool before his hoofs. After a short pause he stepped in the throne room, "It is a shame I couldn't get her friend. But there is still time. No pressure." A cold laugh came over it's lips.
"What are you?", asked Twilight, she had gathered her courage.
The smile grew even bigger, "I told you. I am the god of evil. Well this is the best description I can give you. It's like the famous question, who was first, god or the universe." He slowly walked in the middle of the room, Discord backing off to the wall.
"Discord, my old friend. Why are you afraid? I made you at last," the thing smirked.
The pupils in Discord's eyes widened as he recognized. As he remembered. Fear replaced any emotion he had, "It can't be. ... No."
"It is time for you to die. You will only mess up my plans," the creature stepped closer and closer to him. Discord found no more room to back up.
Suddenly the hoof of Entropy transformed into a hand. The fingers were elongated with 4 joints. Almost like the hand of a skeleton of inhuman form. He reached out to Discord. When he touched him, Discord began screaming as every part of his body faded out. Not short after, nothing but a few feathers and scales remained. The hand became blurry and flowed back being a hoof.
"Oh god," whispered the Doctor. His face went pale as he jumped up and almost stumbled back. He had never seen anything like it before.
"Aaaahh, we have a volunteer. I believe we have met before? Do you remember? The impossible planet? You killed one of my incarnations. One of the weaker ones," claimed Entropy. He turned to the doctor, "What can I do to break you today? Let's seeeee." - He thought for a second - "Ah. I know. Let's bring a dalek here. Should be fun." His hoof blurred to a hand again and he snapped with three fingers.
A dalek appeared in the room. It's conical form was painted in red and the head was rounded off. Three sticks pointed out of it. Two from the body and one from the head. He turned his head round, to see what was going on. As he saw the doctor he stopped. "Doctorrr! Explain!" it yelled with it's robotic voice.
The doctor was stunned. All blood that had been left in his face vanished.
Entropy started laughing, attracting the attention of the dalek. He pointed his head at it, "Why are you laughing? Explain!"
"You are just so funny. 'Explain!'" he imitated the voice of the dalek and laughed even louder.
The dalek turned his body around, pointing his gun at Entropy, "You will not make fun of the dalek. Exterminate!" He fired his gun. The blast hit Entropy right where his heart should be, with no effect. The dalek was panicking, "What is this?"
Entropy asked the doctor, "do you like this show?" - and moved to the dalek - "This portable bin thinks it is important!"
The dalek was not amused. He fired beam after beam at Entropy, who did not react in anyway to it, except moving closer. Moments before Entropy came close to touch him, the daleks head turned to the doctor, "Help me! Doctor!"
The doctor, who never knew a Dalek knew the word help and didn't ever believ to hear it from a Dalek directed to him, watched as Entropy touched the Dalek, similiar to how he proceeded with Discord. Instead of vanishing the Dalek just screamed. Entropy did not stop, he liked how the Dalek was suffering. After two minutes he turned his hand slightly and all lights in and on the dalek went out. He was dead.
"You liked this show, Doctor? I know you don't like them. You MUST have enjoyed it," said Entropy.
He waited for an answer from the Doctor. As he heard none, he turned to Twilight, "Now it seems my friend here doesn't like my presentation. What about you? Do you like it?" - he stood there short, waiting for any kind of reaction - "You know, you all seem to be quit passive. I mean I just brought you here a creature that was most evil thing where it came from and it atleast tried to kill me. You all stand here listening to me. I must say you are quite boring. Let's make it fun and give our doctor a gun."
In the hands of the doctor appeared a .36 caliber revolver. It's barrel was longer than usual and strange symbols carved in the frame, including a 5-edged encircled star. From the outside you could see that it was loaded. Entropy looked at the doctor, as he inspected the gun, "Go ahead. This colt kills almost everything."
Without hesitation, the doctor raised the gun directly at Entropy's head. He pulled the hammer back five times, until the drum was empty.
Five small holes appeared on Entropy's forehead, each on hissing as if an agressive acid desolved metal. Entropy did not move, but it was clear that the bullets didn't have any effect, "You see, where this gun comes from, it is very powerful. Can kill almost everything. Only the most powerful creatures can resist it. You took your chances." The revolver disappeared again.
"Now, it seems to be quite a one-sided conversation. I'm afraid that I must go now. I have more chaos to produce. Maybe we'll have more fun next time," he said as he started to vanish. Only Applejack's hat remained and fell to the ground. Everyone in the room stared at it and at the blood stains. When Rose looked to the Doctor, she noticed a strange expression. The former calm doctor was gone. Pure rage stormed through him, his anger almost radiating through the room.
After six minutes of staring and silence, the doctor suddenly moved. An idea had sprung in his head, "Jeb, tell me. What happened before you crashed here? What was your mission?"
End of Book 1
Book 2 - Chapter 1 - Hate
Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor
Chapter 1 - Hate
Two weeks ago
The ship jerked below Jeb. The last two hours were nothing but blackness. He had been trying to shut everything off, after the engine almost exploded. With a sudden roaring noise the ship jumped and Jeb almost hit his head on the roof. When he looked up again he could see a planet before him. Mostly green but some blue. He hoped for the best and noticed that the Exo had shut down. Without paying attention to the other indicators, he checked his orbit. Highly eccentric. In 3 minutes he would hit the atmosphere with 4km/s. He activated the reaction control systems, turned the ship around and fired up the Rapiers.
30 seconds before he hit the atmosphere he had slowed down to 3km/s. Not good but better than 4. Once again he turned the ship, this time slightly angled to his direction of flight. This reentry would be hard. He activated the autopilot just for safety.
A sudden rocking of the craft indicated reentry. Flames licked on the cockpit windows. His altitude dropped below 50km and the flames became a raging monster.
The ship now slowed down with over 10 gees. The rocking became more intense.
A warning light blinked up and the blarping of the Master Alarm sounded through the cockpit. "MBA undervolt". At the same time he lost reaction control. The ship started to spin controlless.
Like a meteor it raced through the sky, brighter than most stars. Drawing a line of flames behind, but nopony noticed, as it was deep night.
As the ship slowed down Jeb noticed a triple rainbow in ring form behind him. Strange, he thought and switched the Rapiers into Atmospheric Mode. They screamed as the turbo fans spun up to fast. At fifty thousands rounds per minute the ignition kicked in.
Jeb pulled up the craft only 2km above ground, with what little control was left. The craft zipped over a large ocean at speeds beyond mach 2. Behind it appeared a pair of rainbow rings.
Without any warning the ship dropped a few hundred meters, as one of the wings was bent from the forces acting on it, and Jeb hit his head this time. The last thing he saw was the fire indicator for the left engine light up.
As the autopilot registered that the pilot was unconcious, he took control. Horizontal speed was 650m/s. Vertical speed negative 10m/s. The machine lowered to 1.5km above ground. The radar detected mountains to the right. As the speed dropped further, the left engine failed completely. It had burned out.
At a speed of over mach 1 the autopilot lost control. The generators could not hold the voltage to support attitude control systems. With a ship almost unresponsive, the computer fired up the emergency brake rockets. The ship slowed down at a rate of 89m/s^2. The first trees rubbed it's underbelly as it dropped further.
The craft was suddenly hit leftside by a slightly bigger tree. One of the left wings now hinged only on the fuel pump and the ship dropped like a rock.
It slided about a kilometer before grinding to halt. The pilot was ejected as the computers detected failures in multiple critical systems.
Present day
"CLEAR!" shouted Rose. She stood before the control panel of the Titan. It had been replicated and connected with a big cable to the inside. The last two weeks everyone had been busy fixing the ship. A big blue generator stood beside the ship, feeding it with energy while they repaired it.
The gauges on the panel moved as the right engine started turning slowly.
She pushed the button on her radio, "We still have no go on the ignition. How are you doing Jeb?"
Jebediah Kerman, the little green Astronaut, was inside the ships hull, fixing up the electronics. He didn't mind laying besides powercables and pipes pumping explosive fluids. He grabbed his little screwdriver and adjusted a setting. "How is it now?", he spoke into his radio.
Outside the ship, the engine got kicked up, suddenly reaching over 10000 rpm. "Looking good", responded Rose, "It'll reach POI any second." The Point of Ignition laid at 50000 rpm, if the engine reached it you could switch from Closed System mode to Airbreathing.
As the needle of the gauge crept towards the 50 on the scale, the doctor came out of the forest. Behind him followed Twilight, hovering the left engine. Before Rose could say anything, the critical point was meet and the engine roared up. In the short seconds in which it balanced out, the noice was unbearable loud. The doctor ran besides Rose and started screaming into her ears, "WE GOT THE LEFT ENGINE FIXED! WE'LL HOOK IT UP LATER, OKAY?"
"WHAT?", came back, "WAIT!" The roaring of the engines became even louder before it suddenly faded into a low base humming. Rose turned to the doctor, "So, what's up?"
"I said, that we have fixed the left engine. Twilight will help me hooking it up again," said the doctor calmly. In the background Twilight laid the engine softly on the grass.
Jeb appeared from behind the ship and walked towards the console. He had his usual grin on his face, "It worked. Holy shit, I am a rocket scientist!"
The three others sighed, they knew too well that it was a miracle nothing exploded yet, but Jeb was the only one who knew the ins and outs of the craft.
Before anyone could say anything more, Rose's cellphone rang. She took it out and gave the doctor and asking look, "You know, when you said universal roaming you kind off underestimated it."
She looked back on the screen only to look back at the doctor, "You might want to see this." She showed the doctor.
The screen showed the caller number. It was '666 666 666'. "Answer the call", whispered the doctor, "but put it on speaker."
Rose did as he asked and laid the mobile on the control panel. A familiar voice, without any recognizable pitch, came out of it, "Hello, my friends. I know I'm on speaker, I was just making sure you are okay over there, fixing your ship and everything." There was a good bit of background talking.
"What do you want?" asked the Doctor, "Why did you call us?"
"Oh, as I said, just making sure you're okay. I have a great party over here. I invited everyone important," he answered, "Wait. Someone here wants to give you a sign. I'll give him the phone."
For a few seconds they heard only cracking as the phone was turned over. Then someone tapped on the microphone. tap tap tap tap ... tap tap tap tap . A short cracking later, Entropy spoke again, "You know I think I'll get him over to you. I can imagine what kind of fun you would have doctor."
The doctor's face went pale for the first time in two weeks. Rose picked up the phone, "Why did you call? You certainly don't call us, just to make sure were alive."
"Oh, yes I do. If noone had taken the call I would know you were dead. Can you wait shortly, have to talk to somebody," came out of the speaker. He must have laid a hand or hoof or whatever extremity he had on the microphone. About half a minute later he talked again, "Sorry for the interruption, this thing here wants to leave now. It was kinda busy dying when I saved it. Ohh, and it killed Applejack. What an amusement. Who flushed you out there again? Something with a 'R', Ricardo? Ridlay?" A short hissing was heard, "Ripley! Ah, yes yes. I'll drop you off at Sevastapol later okay? I'm kind of busy. " - he put the phone nearer to his mouth - "I'll call you back. Bye."
The call was ended. "Well, shit," said the doctor seconds later.
Book 2 - Chapter 2 - Death of the Old
Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor
Chapter 2 - Death of the Old
13 days ago
Applejack was running for her live. She slided into a corridor, filled with lockers left and right. The light was flickering. She jumped at one of the lockers, got up and closed it. The slow beeping of the motion tracker told her it was close. She switched it off.
In the same moment the creature appeared. It was about 2 meters high, it's skin shinny and black at the same time. The tail was pulled behind, almost as long as the creature was high. It was an alien and it's prey was close.
The alien stopped right before Applejack's locker. It sniffed. Applejack hold her breath.
She had lost all sense of time, she could have been minutes, hours, month or even years in this labyrinth. She couldn't tell. This weird red pony got her and teleported to here. It gave her a motion tracker and a holographic map. He said, if Applejack reached the end, she could live. Only two more corridors and Applejack would be free.
Suddenly, the creature screamed, ran a few meters and jumped into an air duct.
Applejack got out of the locker. She slowly walked towards the junction. Left and right no monsters. She crept along the wall, as slow and quiet as possible.
As she reached the next intersection, she heard it. It screamed. As she looked behind she knew why: It had found it's prey.
In these moments, the brain releases a huge dosis of adrenaline. It gives you a kick and clears your mind. Your heartrate goes up, oxygen flow is improved and power reserves activated. All muscles are ready to work on 200%. Applejack ran faster than ever before.
After the next turn she could already see the door to freedom. Applejack gathered anything she had and made a last sprint. She was only about 50 meters away. She lowered her head in the urge to pull herself faster along.
*thump* She was only a hoof from the door when she was stopped, as if someone yanked at her chain. There was a sound like someone had punched on wet paper. She panicked, when she noticed that she couldn't move.
There were no feels in her hind legs anymore. Cold was spreading in her body. Slowly she looked down. A big black thorn stuck out of her chest. The creature had struck her just above her tail and directly through all vital organs. Her hat fell down and blood dripped on it. She was so close. She tried to touch the thorn sticking out, but the creature shoved it's tail deeper in her body.
Applejack didn't feel any pain. Her ears were ringing and everything went blurry, as her vision tunneled. She noticed a pale stallion coming out of the wall.
Although the creature screamed in triumph behind and her vision faded, she could hear and see him clearly, "Come with me Applejack. Let go." - The stallion of sickly white color stepped closer to her - "Your friends are safe. Your time is over. ... Let go." She wanted to go and he took her with him. Darkness embraced her.
When the creature pulled it's tail out, Applejack's body fell lifeless on the floor and Entropy walked up to her, "Now you see why your side will lose in the end. Too weak for survival. Atleast it was a good show." He took her stetson and stroked the aliens head as they left the cargo ship. Applejack's remains were left behind in darkness when the lights switched off a last time. The hallways of the Nostromo laid in deadly silence again, only disturbed be the creaking and moaning of metals moving as the temperature sank, conserving the contents of the ship.
Present Day
As Entropy promised, he brought the Master. He still had the form of the former british prime minister, although his hair was white. "Doctor. How long I have been waiting for this? Your final defeat!", he exclaimed. Beside him stood Entropy, the usual rift of a grin on his face. He liked how this turned out.
The two groups faced each other in the streets of Ponyville. Twilight's group, including the Doctor, Rose and the celestial sisters, stood in front of her former library, while Entropy and the Master occupied the entrance to Ponyville.
If you stood inbetween the groups, you would have felt the tension building up. Everypony watching expected lightnings from the static.
The Elements of Harmony were the first to attack. They bundled their power with Celestia and Luna and fired it onto Entropy.
He raised his hoof and a black shield appear between them. The magic hit it with full power. Cracks appeared. It looked like the fight between Twilight and Tirek all over again.
Sparks of magic pinged of the shield and materialized the strangest things. The area around it heated up.
The fight had not taken a minute and the houses left and right went up into flames. Ponies fleed into the houses further back.
The Elements and Celestial Sisters stopped the attack. They had fired all they had.
The giant black shield still stood. The cracks had been growing bigger but in total they failed to break it. The god of evil lowered his hoof.
Midnight! Unmask! Unmask!
Entropy grinned. His hoof had transformed into a hand again. A thick stream of slow, sickly green magic shot out, directly at Rose. After the few milliseconds it took for the doctor to realise, he jumped infront of his companion, catching the full blast with his chest.
"I knew you would do that. You are always one to protect others," laughed the Master, "What do you think of it?" Entropy answered him, with the usual grin, "Well, our beloved 'doctor' here is about to regenerate. I would like to see what form the universe has planned for him now. But we shall find out later. We have won this battle and may win all future ones! Bye my friends!" He grinned wider as he and the Master, who didn't like the thought of leaving the doctor alive, faded out of existence.
All eyes turned now to the doctor, who had gathered a yellow aura around him. "I'm sorry Rose, I couldn't stay longer," he apologized. Rose held his head, "No need to say sorry. It's okay."
"I'm afraid, Rose."
Book 2 - Chapter 3 - Birth of the New
Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor
Chapter 3 - Birth of the New
Present Day (?)
The doctor woke up. No slow transition from sleep. When he looked around, he noticed that everything was white. Walls didn't seem to exist and he was unsure there was even an 'up' in here.
"Hello, doctor," spoke a soft voice behind him. He turned around, now having solid ground under his feet. A white figure stood there, having no form at all. The doctor was unsure how he could see it against the white background.
"Where am I?" he asked.
"Doctor, by now you should know by now, this is not the right question. Another try maybe?" the figure returned.
After a short pause the doctor asked again, "When am I?"
"Good. To answer your question, you are in the Everywhen. I brought you here, to save you," it's voice dropped a little, still sounding like a soft pillow, "You were dying."
Suddenly, the doctor laughed, "No. I was regenerating! I'm a time lord, we transform our bodies when we ..."
"I know," the figure interrupted him, "but you were not in your universe. If you regenerated where you currently are, you would have died. The energy that you need to regenerate does not exist there."
"'Where you currently are'? Am I not here? Is this just a dream? Who are you?" the questions flooded out of the doctor.
"You seem to have many questions. To answer yours, you are not here but this is not a dream. You might figure out what this means. Now, I must tell you something you might not like."
"What would that be? What is this place exactly?" the doctor couldn't stop acquiring more information from this being.
"You have a choice. You can either try to regenerate normaly and die or " - this being of light made a short pause - " you can regenerate as a pony and live. Before you answer, think through the consequences. Your death could mean victory me and the forces of good once and for all," she said in a booming voice. The being of light was uneasy telling the doctor this.
"I'll rather be a pony than dead," he responded.
The being sighed loudly, "Are you sure? Think, your friends might win this..."
"Yes!", he interrupted her.
Without warning she vanished, but he could still hear her voice, "you should keep everyone away during this. It might be dangerous for them."
At the same moment, the world around collapsed, as everything was storming into him. His chest was consumed by the light.
The next thing he noticed, was that Rose held his head. Judging by the yellow aura around him, he was already in the process of regenerating. The doctor was still processing the last words of the being as the pain struck him.
This was not usual. His body jerked wildy. The timelord jumped up, knocking Rose over in the process, and ran as far as possible from everyone. "Keep away from me until it is finished! I don't know why!" he screamed as the pain intensified.
The aura around him changed color, from yellow to a bright green. The doctor lost control over his body and he fell to the ground. The process was painful. Everything in and on him shrunk, his hands and feet transforming into hoofes while a tail was growing on his back.
Rose watched as the aura became blindingly bright. She peeked through her fingers to see what would happen but the light was to intensive. She heard the doctor screaming. This was no ordinary regeneration.
Minutes passed until the light flickered and vanished all of the sudden. Where the doctor had been standing a brown stallion laid, with a hour glass for a cutie mark. He was unconscious.
When the doctor awoke, the first thought he had was, "oh Celestia, what a nightmare."
He was laying in a soft white bed inside a hospital room. A groan left his mouth as he felt pain aching through his body. The regeneration was still working on his new body. He looked around to see if someone was there. The doctor was alone. Something was wrong with his nose.
After a few minutes trying to sleep again, he became bored. He lifted the white blanket on him and tried to sit on the edge of the bed. He was quite wobbly but as he sat there looking down, something in his head tried to tell him something imporant. "Hooves", he mumbled. The thought "Hooves" searched for a connection but found none.
He stood up and trotted to the bathroom. As he sat on the toilet he remembered the talk with the being of light. The doctor flushed and the memory of the conversation searched for a connection but found none.
He walked back to the bed, still thinking about the conversation and "Hooves". Suddenly the memory made a connection to "Hooves".
2 seconds later the doctor screamed his lungs out in panic and fell to the ground.
Rose stormed into the room, "What is wrong?"
"Everything Rose! Every damn thing! What happened?", he exlaimed.
"Calm down first. You need to be in the bed," she commanded him.
The doctor saw no use in resistance so he carefully trotted back to the bed. Rose watched as he tried to lay down without his 4 legs getting in the way. When he figured out a comfortable pose, she explained, "I don't know why you are a pony, but you were hit by this spell from Entropy and instantly started to regenerate but then you pushed me, telling us to stay away. After you finished 'glowing off' you were a pony."
"But this was a nightmare I had, why did it really happen?" the doctor was short of getting a panic attack.
Rose sighed, "It did happen. We were there."
He laid flat down, pushing his pony head into the pillows. "I know. I hoped it would really be just a dream," the doctor muttered.
The regeneration was still taking it's toll, only a few seconds later Rose could hear him breathing softly. He was sleeping again.
"Good dreams, doctor."
Book 2 - Chapter 4 - Cycle
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.
Book 2 - Chapter 5 - Dawn of a new World
Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor
Chapter 5 - Dawn of a new World
Present Day - Canterlot Library
Twilight had been here for days. She pulled out every book about Demons, Evil or Unkown Entities she knew.
She wanted to know. Wanted to see behind that horrible face, seeing what it truly was. A shiver traveled down her spine. What if nobody really wanted to see behind this mask? What if it drives you insane?
As Twilight read through the books she encountered many tales and myths about the evil. Some told about the one and only true evil, some just about a creature that wanted to extinguish life. No tale fit what Entropy did or how he looked like. She took a deep breath.
"Think! Think you stupid little pony! What does he want?" she spoke in monologue, "Obvious, the destruction of everything! Next. How much power does he have?"
She remembered the fight. They had blown the elements plus luna and plus celestia directly in his face at full force. His shield had cracked but it had hold. She thought of Discord and Applejack. He killed them with ease.
Him? Why was she so sure about it? Now that she asked herself that, she wasn't entirely sure how he even looked like. Twilight remembered his mouth. She remembered his hooves turning into these horrible hands. But not what color his coat or mane had. What his eyes looked like. If he was a stallion or a mare.
She decided to ask the others what they thought on this.
Two hours later
"Now that you ask," replied the doctor, "I'm really not entirely sure about him. Or it."
The doctor and Rose had been in the garden infront of Canterlot Castle. The windows high above them belonged to the same room in which Twilight's brother tried to marry a changeling. It was not his fault but the princess still like bringing it up in her conversations with others.
"Me neither," interrupted Rose Twilights train of thought.
"The next problem is, that there is nothing - I mean NOTHING - in any book about him. There are some books on the 'prime evil', but they don't mention anything like him," Twilight was now confused. If books won't help she saw no hope. She dropped her head, looking down and blaming everything on herself.
The doctor hold up her face with his new hooves, "Don't worry Twilight. Evil never wins. If anyone had learned this then it is me. At the end the good ones win."
Twilight was not fully reassured, "But what if he is too powerful? What if he is, like he said, evil itself?"
Something changed on the doctors face. All warmth had vanished, his eyes showing that this thought alone was something the doctor feared. His voice was shaking when he spoke again, "if we are really against the evil itself... I was once on a very impossible planet. You know I was travelling around at that time. The planet itself was in an orbit around a black hole. Do you know what a black hole is, Twilight?"
The princess was uneasy, something in the voice of the doctor told her it was not a happy story, "No. I'm afraid I know nothing about them."
The doctor took a deep breath, "When a big star dies, sometimes, not everytime, they collapse into themselfes. The pressure compresses them. At some critical point they become a black hole. Nothing can escape them anymore. No rocket. No sound. No light. NOTHING. I was quite surprised to see a planet in a stable orbit around it. Normally this is not possible. Someone had gone to great length to protect the planet from being destroyed but also never be able to escape.
"After I landed there with Rose, we lost the TARDIS. There was a human crew that helped us a bit. They wanted to know what was inside this planet and I wanted to know too. Some off the crew died. I was the only one to ever see what laid below.
"It was the devil. Or evil. It was very old. Older than the universe as it told me. And it almost escaped. To this day I fear what would have happened if he managed to do it.
"With the latest events, .... I think we are living the nightmare. Somehow it used the energy created by the explosion from our friend Jeb to escape ... or just wake up." The doctor made a long sigh, as if a burden had been taken away.
Twilight sat down. She was thinking about what the doctor said. After a short pause she asked, "do you think you would have been able to stop it?"
She could see the response in his eyes and Rose did too. The fear that he displayed was like a sickness slowly spreading over to them both. He didn't answer and he wouldn't need to. They knew.
(?)
Applejack was suddenly awake. Still surprised to wake up, she examined her surroundings.
Everything was white. There was not a shade of grey. Not a sign to show where up or down or left or right was. Although this place was thousand kinds of weird, Applejack wasn't afraid. This place was comforting. Warm.
"Hello, Applejack," spoke a voice behind her. It was the audible equivalent of pillows. Soft and warm.
She turned around to see who stood there. The white figure hovered a hoof or two over the ground. She knew it was smiling at her.
"I know there are many questions crossing your mind. Go on. I won't bite you," the white being said.
"Where the hay am I?" asked Applejack.
The white figure laughed, "You are not the first one to ask this question. The last one knew better and still asked it." - she paused shortly - "The question is not where you are but WHEN you are. This is the Everywhen."
Applejack was confused, "How did I get here?"
The figure sighed, "Sit down Applejack." - Applejack did as told - "You are here for multiple reason. I think you already know the first one."
"I'm dead," a sad look crossed Applejack's face.
"Correct. No need for tears my subject. The second reason you are really here and not in the abyss is, that you were killed indirectly by Entropy," it moved closer and held her face up, "and the third, that your body was conserved after death."
"Slow down. The whatnow did what?" asked Applejack confused.
"Entropy killed you. Not direct, but with the help of another creature." - a shiver ran down Applejack's spine as she remembered the alien - "He is sort of my family. Your world, Applejack, got in the middle of a war raging between me and my brother. We fight for the right to rule. Or atleast he does. You were one of his victims. Not because you were important to anything he knew, you were just there," the smile on it's face faded, "but you are important. Very important. And that is why you are getting a deal."
"What deal?" demanded Applejack to know, the thought she would be cheated on this deal crossed her mind.
"Don't be afraid. The deal is simple. You get your body and life back. In exchange I want the permission to once in a while jump in and look if you and your friends are doing good. Maybe talk to them. There is a drawback. I won't be able to heal your wounds. They will take time to close, the physical and the mental ones," the figures voice didn't sound so soft anymore but still the impression of a pillow remained, "I will teleport you to Equestria, the first thing you should do, is covering your wounds. Noone would like to see a gaping hole in you while you walk around. Some people just don't like it."
"I agree, but", said Applejack, "can I ask a last question?"
"Certainly."
It didn't fell right for her to ask this question, "who are you?"
A short pause before it answered, "you can call me Order."
Book 2 - Chapter 6 - Apocalypse
Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor
Chapter 6 - Apocalypse
Present Day - Canterlot
Twilight had the group reunite in the throne room. Jeb, like always, had this grin on his face from which she was never sure if it was madness or just pinkie. Beside him stood Rose and the doctor. The remaining Elements of Harmony had gathered behind them.
She had thought long about what to say to them, but now it was even harder speaking it out loud, "from what the doctor was able to tell me, he once encountered something similiar to Entropy. The bad news first. I believe that he cannot be killed." - Pinkie gasped loudly - "But we have still the plan to repeat Jeb's experiment to atleast stop him. The doctor believes that the same event here may defeat Entropy for a while.
"Jeb's ship will be equipped with a better forcefield to protect this universe from collapsing. The explosion itself should be strong enough to stabilize the other universes. According to the doctor he, Rose and Jeb will be sucked back to their universes. If all of this plays out well we should atleast rob Entropy of his power."
For a while nobody said anything. Suddenly a loud and slow clapping was heard. Not a clapping from hooves or human hands. It was the dry clapping of a 4 fingered hand with elongated digits.
Entropy stood at the entrance, in the form of a human, smiling like he heard the best joke ever. "Great Twilight. Great. YOU figured it out. And the doctor. Such good people..." - the irony in his voice was almost painful - "But there is one teeny tiiny fact you forgot."
He paused shortly to let his presence sink in before he shouted, so loud that even the Royal Canterlot Voice would sound like a whisper against it, "I. AM. A. GOD!" He laughed at the shock in the faces he saw.
Behind him Luna and Celestia stormed into the room, alerted by the loud voice. They stopped in the same instant they saw Entropy.
"Why don't you go to the others, my dear princesses?" his voice drooling with played politeness. Entropy teleported them over to the doctor.
"Now I would like to have a chat with you. But I am kind of busy. I have to find a place to call home" - the last word gave all of them a shiver - "and I think I found one," he looked around as if he was thinking about where to place the furniture.
"You know, I don't like this whole all-white-marble-and-stained-glass-windows thing you did here Celestia," his voice reaching another high point of irony, "I think I have to tear down some walls. Just for fun. I suggest to start running now."
Before anyone could react he pulled out a radio with his creepy hands, pressed the transmit button and spoke into it, "General. You are free to fire on the target in 4 minutes. Continue fire until target is destroyed. Out"
A quiet voice answered, "Yes, sir. Confirmed. T minus 4 minutes. Over and Out."
The radio disappeared. For a few seconds they stood there, not grasping what just happened.
"It's just nice to be able to summon an army at will." - he paused shortly - "You need any help with the running? I won't give you this chance twice," he laughed. His maniac grinning took over his face before he disappeared like the radio.
The first one who reacted was the doctor. "RUN!", he screamed, galloping down the throne room. The others immediately followed. On their way out they alerted as many guards possible to rescue the citizens.
While they ran down the road to Canterlot, only a few ponies followed them. Rose looked at her watch. "We have 1 minute left," she exclaimed to the doctor.
They kept running, fueled by fear and adrenaline.
When the group brought a good distance between them and the castle they heard it. A high pitched buzzing came from the sky. Not a second later the sound stopped and a loud explosion ripped apart the whole Canterlot Castle at once. They heard more of the noises. 27 detonations on Canterlot. Each hit another part of the city. Each detonation was followed by screams of dying or wounded ponies, as they were hit by debris or set aflame by the bombs.
When the bombing was over, nothing was standing. A big hole gaped where the city and castle had been. Nothing had been left.
Celestia and Luna fell down, crying out their pain to the world. Their howling was even heard in ponyville, where the detonations had been seen. They screamed out the suffering, like a animal suddenly struck in the heart, knowing its last moments had come. The ponies who heard it, shared that pain. Many stood on the streets either paralyzed or sobbing.
For Twilight a whole world collapsed, the structures of her mind giving in, allowing madness to fill out the spaces that the bombs tore. Her left eye twitched.
Pinkie was sitting, watching the chaos unfolding, her mane fully deflated and her mind grinding to a halt. She couldn't think anymore. All her happiness was gone. Maybe for ever. Every part of it grinded away.
Rarity fainted, her brain seeking for retreat in sight of the flames and the blood. Nobody paid attention to her. Everyone was busy with himself.
Rainbow Dash had lost her confidence. All the wit in her was vanished. The utter shock of something, that you could call the execution of a whole city, had given her ego a bump. Tears ran down her cheeks. She now knew how small and unimportant she was.
The only three seemingly untouched by the event were the Doctor, Jeb and Fluttershy. Jeb was shocked but couldn't show it. He simply had not the necessary muscles or tubes. If he could he would burst into tears.
The Doctor and Fluttershy had something in their eyes. You could see the same thing in someone who had seen the horrors in war. Something between rage and fear. A beast living deep below, ready to always strike back no matter what happened.
Fluttershy couldn't believe someone would kill that brutaly and that many for no other reason than to build himself a new home or even just for fun. The floodgates in her head, that had caged her in all of her life, broke and revealed something new. The innocence was replaced by something awful. Every fear in her turned to rage. Fluttershy swore to herself that if she would ever get her hooves on Entropy, she would tear him apart. Slowly and painfully. She would make sure it was as long and painful as possible.
Thoughts raced through the doctor's head. He didn't want to see what happened but his eyes were locked on Canterlot. He had seen similiar things before, in the great Time War. In other wars. With the daleks. With the cybermen. But never from a single person just summoning an army, kill everything in sight and then dissappear, all for no better reason than having fun.
It took them over an hours to get moving on, still hearing the screaming and crying of dying ponies. From the thousands of ponies in Canterlot, only 55 survived the attack. 12 more died on their way to Ponyville, defeated by their wounds.
The attack of Entropy on Canterlot had cost 13764 ponies and 1 baby dragon their lifes. Only 2261 died instantly in the explosions, the rest suffered, set afire or hit by debris, just waiting for it to end, alone.
The baby dragon was on his way to get back to Twilight after a 5 week trip through the crystal empire. His body had been ripped apart by one of the bombs landing 30 meters beside him. Even though many of his wounds were fatal, he was conscious for minutes until his heart made a last beat.
Deep below Canterlot
A line printer jerked over paper. It printed multiple lines before coming to a hold and resetting the head to the left:
Second signal detected and confirmed.
- Average Seismic Strength: 4.3, Impacts: 27
Pressure equalization in progress.
Awaiting third signal.
Awaiting secondary signal.
Cryogenic chamber intact. Vital parameters normal.
Somewhere behind the printer stood the mainframe. It's bulky casing connected with hundreds of different cables. A metal plate had been fixed to its front. Words, that had not been seen by anypony for over thousand years, were imprinted in it:
May the gods have mercy on our souls,
not for what we did
but for why we did it.
- Doctor & Rose
Book 2 - Chapter 7 - Ashes to Ashes
Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor
Chapter 7 - Ashes to Ashes
3 days since Canterlot's fall
The search parties stumbled across the ruins. Their job was to search for survivors and identify the bodies. Even after three days the only thing they dug out were lifeless remains of ponies. Twilight participated in the search. Spike had to be back for a long time now and she worried what had happened. She couldn't accept that he may had been inside canterlot.
Twilight breathed heavily under her mask, the air was still toxic and the ash that whirled through the air isn't good for ponies either. She moved the burnt wall of a former house with her magic. Under it laid the remains of a family. A father, a mother and two childs, still clinching to their parents when the wall crushed them.
Suddenly the alicorn princess broke down. Laying on the ground, tears began to drop as she began crying silently. No survivors in the last days. Only ruins and ashes. She still remembered the fire. The whole city stood in flames, burning for over a day. The smoke even reached ponyville, leaving a stench of burnt flesh and blood that noone would forget.
A voice screamed over the silence that laid over the area like a blanket, "TWILIGHT! I FOUND HIM!"
Twilight jumped up. She ran, almost flying, to the pony who had found him. When she saw his body it was worse than she had ever imagined.
Spike's face and upper body were mostly intact. It was definitely him. A big metal truss had impaled him in his belly. Judging by his pose he still tried to pull it out after it struck him. A big pool of burnt blood surrounded him, covering his arms and feet. The truss had doomed him to watch as the fire crept closer until it reached his exposed and unprotected flesh and burned him alive.
Twilight turned around, no longer able to see Spike this way, and ran. Her feet did it on their own. She ran all the way to Ponyville, not stopping on one point. At the doorstep of her castle Twilight broke down, floods of tears gathering in a pond around her. She sobbed for hours.
The sun and moon stood still on either side of the horizon. Since the bombing neither of the Celestial Sisters tried to do their duty. Their pain was still to intense and fresh.
Twilight pulled her mask off, breathing the fresh, unfiltered air. "Why does this happen to us?" she asked. Noone answered.
4 days since Canterlot's fall
The funeral was a farce. Noone could bury all of the victims properly. They were thrown into quickly filling mass graves when their were identified. The others went to Manehattan, were they were preserved until the resources for further investigation were available.
Pinkie played a trompet. Not a smile from her in the last 4 days. Her deflated mane indicated that she had lost all happiness.
She was the only one to play any instrument and the eerie sound of a single trompet, slightly echoing in the cemetery, made them uneasy. The sound was fitting, sad and alone. Every time she played from the beginning to the end of the funeral, only lowering the volume or pausing when someone made his goodbyes or held a short speech.
The Celestial Sisters stood in front of the grave of honour. Both looking down and tears dropping to the ground. The big boulder on the other side of the grave listed 120 names. Like all the others.
The gathering around the grave was small. It became smaller with each funeral. Only the survivors of the attack came to every single funeral. They honoured those who were lost.
Tomorrow would be Spike's funeral. Twilight didn't look forward to it. She still couldn't believe he was dead. He was always there for her, always doing his duty. The castle felt empty without him.
The young alicorn princess blamed herself for Spikes death. She shouldn't have allowed him this trip. He wanted to visit the crystal empire, meet some old friends and participating as ambassador from the diarchy to the peace treaty with the griffon kingdom.
The others stood beside Twilight, not noticing her grief as they were busy with their own. The doctor, Jeb, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy saluted at the end of each funeral.
They all knew it would take them weeks to fulfill this duty and years to forget what happened.
Book 2 - Chapter 8 - The Older Brother
Book 2 - Revenge of the Doctor
Chapter 8 - The Older Brother
7 days since Canterlot's fall
"How many names on the list today, Pinkie?" asked Twilight. Her voice was rasping from the ashes she breathed in. Ponyville was still covered in slight smoke, anypony had to wear gas masks or atleast a small filter.
Pinkie looked at the papers, "173. Fewer than yesterday," she commented.
"Twilight, you need to stop this. You are still in shock and checking the numbers everyday won't help," the doctor nagged. He was sittin on a stool between two thrones in the throne room of Twilights Castle. Five in total had been placed between the thrones to seat the new permanent guests of the room.
Two for the doctor and Rose, although she prefered to sit on the ground than on the small stools, two for Celestia and Luna and the last one for Jeb. He was the only non-pony in the room to sit comfortable.
"We should discuss how to reorganize our governmental structures," reminded Celestia. Even though she had cried with Luna on every funeral the last week, she always kept formal at the meetings. Luna was quiet. She hadn't talked since Canterlot fell.
"As of now, the highest position that is still intact would be me," responded Twilight, "I know you both are true princesses but at the moment only the bureaucracy of ponyville is still intact. I already posted a few announcements that we seek for more clerks but we have no responses as for now."
Celestia sighed. She had expected this answer. Twilight kept going, "Next point. We have to decide on money. The Canterlot Treasure Chambers have been destroyed. We lost a few million bits of tax money. I suggest we raise the taxes to compensate. We should also pump some money to the families of the volunteers of the search parties. They will need it for medical purposes, the ashes are highly toxic and even the masks..."
She was interrupted by a loud knocking at the door. It knocked three times.
"Well, that was certainly rude to interupt this meeting," Twilight muttered. She stood up and walked to the entrance.
When she opened the doors, she saw the mare she had though she would never see again.
In the doors stood Applejack, covered by a brown coat, missing her hat and with a big but sad smile on her face, "hi, I know you didn't really expect me but..."
She was interupted as Twilight ran towards her and gave her a hug. The princess immediately recoiled, "Wow, you are cold."
It was only then, that she noticed the small ice crystals on Applejacks coat. She took a few steps back, "What are you? What have you done with Applejack?"
"Calm down, Twilight. Let me explain it," Applejack comforted Twilight, "You should have seen me earlier, I was practicly a walking piece of fog." She laughed. Her southern accent everyone had loved so much was almost gone. As if she had forgot it. She noticed how everyone was still sitting there, not jumping up or anything to greet her.
"What happened? We thought you were dead?" asked the princess. She gave Applejack a few sceptical looks.
A sad look replaced the farmers former smile, "Well, technically I am still dead." Before anyone could ask why, she dropped her coat.
Everyone could now see that gaping hole in her chest. It's end laid on her back, slightly above her tail. The certainly fatal wound didn't bleed. It was as if it didn't exist.
Applejack began explaining, "After I went off with Rainbow here to Canterlot we were seperated. This Entropy just grabbed me and teleported me to some strange place. He called it 'Nostromo'. That thing gave me a few instructions to handle some devices and left me there. I noticed pretty fast that I was not alone. There was this... thing... I think he said it was an 'alien'... that started hunting me down" - the memory of the hunt made her uneasy - "Trust me Twilight, you don't want this thing on your back. Now. I was only a hoof away from the door that lead to safety when it got me" - she pulled the coat up again, concealing the wound - "Rammed its tail right through me. Didn't feel anything, was just like sleeping in. Then this strange stallion came out of the wall and 'poof', lights out. Dead."
She walked slowly to her throne. "You mind if I sit on mine again, Twilight?" she asked. Twilight shook her head. They both walked back and Applejack took back her throne.
Applejack continued, "Next thing I know is waking up in this strange white place." - the doctor winced at the mentioning of the room - "This strange thing came up to me and suggested a deal."
"What deal? Tell me!" demanded Twilight.
"I was about to tell you. The deal is simple, I get to live and a quick resumee of the last weeks and as exchange she will once in a while hop into my body to look how's it going," the frown on her face transformed into a slight smile, "She suggested the coat. Just think what would happen if I would walk through ponyville without it."
"Why didn't she heal your wounds?" asked the doctor, "I mean, are you something like a zombie or more like just ignore the fact you are dead?"
"The later. Order, that's the name of hers, explained to me how it works. I just stand up and the wounds will start to heal. It will take a while, maybe a month or two but I'll be in best conditions."
"Why where you so cold?" the doctor had an endless amount of questions, "How did you get here?"
"Slow down, not so fast. I'm cold because I was in some 'space station' and Entropy killed the heater before he left. I think you wouldn't be any warmer if you had been there. After she woke me up and I stretched for a few minutes she teleported me behind Bon Bon's house where I found the coat."
"I still don't trust it," muttered the doctor sceptical, "How can we now it is really you?"
Book 3 - Chapter 1 - Growing Hope
Book 3 - Burning Hope
Chapter 1 - Growing Hope
Deep below Canterlot
The computer prepared for the secondary signal. The timeframe was almost there and the cryogenic chamber had to be prepared. It send out a command, requesting all data on the cardrange 42 for transfer to tape. The according tape spun up, awaiting data.
Failure. Cards 42-A to 42-Z not available.
The command was send again.
Failure. Cards 42-A to 42-Z not available.
The computer tried one last time. The command was accompanied by an request for additional failure information.
Failure. Card 42-A to 42-Z not available.
Extended Report: Failure mostly harmless
If the computer had any feelings, it would panic. Vital informations were missing. The responsible components did not work correctly and returned wrong faul reports. The subject could not be awoken. The primary mission could not proceed. All informations were kept on printcards. 26 in total. All missing.
The computer requested for fallback instructions and reported the error to paper over the line printer.
Failure. Fallback instructions not available.
It had no other choice. The Emergency Protocol was activated. The line printer wasted meters of paper as the various programs were tested and activated.
Sirens blared as the cave system was quickly pressurized. A pink magic shield errected in the back, protecting the peripherals from the rocket engines exhaust. If necessary the computer would execute the main program earlier and then proceed with the secondary mission. It needed somepony that would be able to operate the cryogenic chamber.
Two secret passages opened under the ashes of canterlot. Nopony noticed the clouds of dust rising above the charred ground. A faint red light emitted from both passages, indicating that the rooms behind them were still radiated or did not contain enough oxygen for ponies to breathe.
The big ventilation system had been standing still for centuries. Now the fans turned again, pumping fresh air from the outside inside. The smell of ash and burnt flesh had been filtered out. Magical systems activated, removing the radiation slowly from the ground and air.
A clock started ticking down. It was an old-fashioned digital clock. The digits were printed on black cards seperated in the middle, which fell over to reveal the next digit. Each second a tick, sounding loud and unsettling in the great halls and caves of the system. Above it, a few white words where imprinted on black stone. They read 'Time left until Emergency Procedure: '.
The clock ticked.
30:00:00:00
29:23:59:59
29:23:59:58
7 days since Canterlot's fall / T-29:23:57:20
Anyone in the room stared at Applejack. She let out a deep sigh. Order had told her that they might not trust her.
"I know you can't really trust me. Order might explain it better," she spoke.
For a second it looked like she slept in, her whole body slowly inching forwards, about to fall over, and her eyes closed. Suddenly she jerked up again. Her pupils weren't green anymore, instead they were bright white, still contrasting to the rest of her eyes for some reason.
When she spoke again her voice had changed. It didn't sound anything like the apple farmer before. Her voice was like pillows, soft and warm, "Hello. I know you are still shocked by this. Ask me any question you want."
"What are you?" asked the doctor.
"I'm the sibling of Entropy. I prefer sister, but I don't really have any gender. I'm the god of order and peace, as my name suggests," she answered calmly, "We met before doctor. Don't you remember?"
"What does she mean?" demanded Rose.
"When I regenerated, she gave me a choice to either try a normal regeneration and die or be a pony and live," he answered.
"There are more pressing matters. Entropy is getting himself and anyone ready for the final war. He prepared armies in so many universes and he is about to do the same here. He will never stop attempting to end everything," Order interrupted.
"What will happen exactly if he wins?" asked Twilight.
"The heat death of all universes. All energy sucked out to feed his warmachine and himself. Normally it would have taken him billions of years to accomplish this but when he saw what the race of your Kerbal-friend here did, he changed a few rules. He made the explosion bigger and pumped the energy into himself. Before he was like a sleepwalker, now he is fully capable of destroying everything in his way, as you saw."
"There must be a way to stop him," claimed the doctor, "every villain can be stopped."
Order sighed, "sadly, no. My brother will win at the end. But we can slow him down, throw him back in the state he was before and keep him sleeping a little while longer."
"I assume you already pushed us in that direction, am I right? My ship," muttered Jebediah and stood up, "We didn't repair it for no reason."
"That is indeed correct. I implanted that idea in the doctor's head. You need to fully restore the ship. However, you initial plan would not work. The explosion would never be big enough. You need to fly the ship back, directly in the eye of the storm..."
"...my universe", interrupted Jeb.
"Again, this is correct. The pilot must navigate into his universe and detonate the ship. The changed laws of physics should enlarge the explosion enough to let the universe dissipate. After that the hole in existence will fix itself and stabilize the multiverses," Order said, "I'm afraid that I have to leave now. Good luck to you all."
With that Applejack's body went limp for a second before her eyes opened again, this time in their normal green color. "Can you trust me now?" she asked.
Book 3 - Chapter 2 - The Empire
Book 3 - Burning Hope
Chapter 2 - The Empire
8 days since Canterlot's fall / T-28:20:36:34
Twilight was laying down on the floor. Cold moonlight entered through the windows. In front of her a warm, dimm red fire crackled steadily, almost burnt down. She was in deep thoughts when Fluttershy entered the room.
Fluttershy saw Twilight's face, the sadness and solitude, and approached her. "Twilight? Is everything alright?" she asked.
"No," came to short response.
"Still thinking of Canterlot?" the yellow pegasus asked.
"I was there. Last night. The first night since Canterlot. I wanted to see it again," the princess explained.
"You know that Canterlot is in quarantine now? They won't even let the search teams in anymore," Fluttershy was worried.
"I know, I just wanted to see. But when I was there I had this strange feeling." - Fluttershy got comfortable beside her - "Like I could see everything."
"Hydraulics Failure!" screamed Jeb.
"What had happened..."
Tell me Chrysi.
"IGNITION!" exclaimed Jeb.
"I am Entropy, the god of evil."
"What will happen..."
The computer continued to fire, despite the plane already burning up.
The thunder of running rocket engines echoed through the caves.
"I will accept my fate," Trixie answered.
"The one thing Entropy wants..."
"ANARCHY IN THE EMPIRE!", shouted the revolutionary.
"is Chaos. The problem is, he knows us better than we know ourselves..."
The distant roaring of plane engines was heard over Manehattan.
"That's why I went to Canterlot last night. I had to see it."
"Trixie shall get her Revenge on you, Twilight Sparkle!"
Midnight! Unmask! Unmask!
"The feeling, like everything is connected, like in a big puzzle,"
Discord began screaming as every part of his body faded out.
The alien stopped right before Applejack's locker.
"A long chain of events streching back, before Canterlot's fall. Before all this mess."
"You are the mare in the moon!" exlaimed Twilight.
Twilight fired a giant beam of raw alicorn magic onto Tirek.
"A perfect pattern, laid out in front of me..."
In the hands of the doctor appeared a .36 caliber revolver.
Only Applejack's hat remained and fell to the ground.
"Jeb, tell me. What happened before you crashed here? What was your mission?"
"and we are all trapped by it, even though we think we are free."
"I. AM. A. GOD!"
"This was HUGE. Bigger than anything."
"The end of the all existence, obviously," answered Death.
"So, do you know what is going to happen?" interrupted Fluttershy.
"No," answered Twilight, "it was just a feeling, but I can guess. With the destruction of Canterlot..."
Second signal detected and confirmed.
13764 ponies and 1 baby dragon
"Celestia and Luna are no longer as invulnerable as most ponies would like to think. Somepony is going to do something stupid."
"ANARCHY IN THE EMPIRE!"
"We've been hit! We lost control on the left back wing!" reported Jebediah.
"And when they do things will turn nasty, chaos will prevail."
Third signal detected and confirmed.
The shells hit the frame of the aircraft and ripped it apart.
"DOWN WITH THE DIARCHY!"
"Just like he wants. All he needs to do..."
The distant thundering of the AAA echoed through Manehattan.
"Why Hello there. Sam, Dean, Lucifer, Death, nice to meet you," smiled Entropy.
"...is to give us the final hit and then..."
Fire embraced and consumed the palace.
The Titan was hit by one of the missiles.
Mushroom clouds rose from the ground.
"Failure in life support and navigation," reported Trixie.
"So this was it, wasn't it?" asked Order.
"Their fate is not chiselled in stone. They can change it!" claimed Order.
"Your god is dead!" laughed Entropy.
"Tell me. Do you think this is the end?" asked Entropy.
"Twilight. You shouldn't worry that much. I think everything will turn out alright," Fluttershy claimed assertive, "Besides. I got good news from the Crystal Empire."
"Okay. Tell me then," responded the alicorn.
"They, to be more precise Cadence, will allow us to setup a temporary council until we reestablished our government apparatus back here. The letter says they can allow 7 members as permanent guest in the palace," recited the pegasus.
Twilight noticed the change in her friend. She wasn't as shy as before, instead she tended to be more rude, almost unfriendly at times. Her eyes showed the fires behind. Even though she was calm, rage burnt in her mind, tearing apart anything that Twilight was used to.
The princess had her own problems too. From time to time she had seizures, blacking out and coming back concious in weird places. She couldn't remember what she had done during these episodes and her concerns towered before her. Canterlot had changed them all.
Book 3 - Chapter 3 - The Council
Book 3 - Burning Hope
Chapter 3 - The Council
9 days since Canterlot's fall / T-28:08:00:44
"I have called you all here because we have important matters to discuss," said Twilight, "The Crystal Empire will allow us to send 7 members of a council to temporarily rule over Equestria and decide which way to go in this war."
Rarity shortly looked up when she heard the word 'war', "Darling, are you sure this is a war. Currently we can't even fight. Since this Entropy entered our realm, he caused nothing but trouble. We even tried to stop him and you know all how it went. Personally I would just gather what we have and run."
The doctor stood up, giving Rarity an angry look, "I'm very sure the moment we stop to fight this world is doomed. He is more than just any villain. As far as I'm concerned he is all villains in one. He has powers that are beyond what we know. We have to fight till the bitter end."
"I agree with you, doctor. Now. For the members of the council I have already selected a few of us that need to attend. Obviously Celestia, Luna and I will be the lead of the council. Futhermore, I suggest that the rest of the council consists of the Doctor, Rose, Jebediah and Applejack."
"Why can't I or Rainbow Dash attend?" asked Fluttershy angry.
"Applejack has the connection to Order. If this god or goddess, whatever it is, can give us any further hints I want to hear the directly. You others are free to visit the council on any day and have a vote in any decision we make. But still, the Crystal Empire is financially still crippled and they cannot affort to host more than 7 guests," explained Twilight, "Do you all agree?"
Noone objected Twilight's suggestions, although not everyone was happy with it. The group dispersed, the members of the council heading for the rooms or in case of the Doctor and Rose to their TARDIS.
8 days since Canterlot's fall / T-28:03:04:09
"You sure this thing's gonna fly?" asked Applejack. They had all assembled around the Titan.
Jeb was standing in front of the ladder leading up to the cockpit, "Sure. I've flown machines in much worse condition. If anyone wants to fly with me, I have a copilot seat in the back. Any volunteers?"
Applejack stepped forward, "That would be me. I'm already dead, if anything happens I'd be okay." - She earned a irritated look from Twilight - "Hey, the doctor can fly his TARDIS, you, Rainbow and Fluttershy can fly and Rarity will always prefer first class train ride. What's the worst that could happen?"
Jeb thought a few seconds before answering to the obviously rhetorical question, "Well, you have a set of blades spinning over fifty thousand rounds a minute powered by a nuclear explosion behind you. A failure in any of the major systems and you can paint the walls green with us. Oh, and doctor," - He turned to the ponified timelord - "Thanks for the bomb and clearing this runway with your TARDIS."
"No problem."
Jeb helped Applejack in the Cockpit, seating her in the back. The panels on the copilot's seat allow a basic control over the craft. The apple farmer was clearly uncomfortable with being strapped to a seat in an upright pose.
After a few checkups Jeb disconnected the cables to the outer consoles and closed the cockpit. Twilight and Rarity started moving the equipment to the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose had radio headseats on their heads.
Shortly after closing the cockpit they heard Jeb over the radio, "Okay, all systems on go. We have plenty of fuel, destination on lock. Computers give okay for launch. Copy?"
The doctor lifted a hoof to his head to start transmitting, "Wait, we still have somepony on the runway."
"Hey, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, this is not time for Cutie Mark Crusader Runway Guiders. Please get off there and come to us," yelled the timelord. He waited until the three fillies stood beside him, "You are clear for launch, Jeb."
A clicking noise was heard and the engines started turning. After a short delay the clicking transformed into a roaring as the fuel pumped into the combustion chambers ignited. Inside the cockpit Jeb and Applejack looked at the controls.
When both engines spun at 50.000 rpm Jeb pressed a button labeled "Active Ignition" and the engines literaly screamed as they accelerated beyond the 100 on the speed scale. They stabilised at 120.000 rpm and the loud screaming died down to a background whispering. Even though the engines now running on full power, no exhaust could be seen behind the craft.
"I'll start takeoff in 30 seconds. Just let me play some good music," came Jeb's voice over the radio, "There is a reason this baby was nicknamed 'Orbital Bass Cannon'."
Back at the runway the doctor attempted to break the world record in most annoyed face ever. The astronaut quickly skipped over a few entries before he found the right one, "You ready for this AJ?"
"Sure as hell," came the reply from the back.
The display on the console read "Ap/Pe - Rocketstruck" as Jeb pressed play. He then switched a few options on the panel, "Now the engines will resonate according to the music. Did you know, I'm not allowed to play Dubstep in here anymore? The last time I accidentally blew up the space center with the bass resonance."
Jeb had timed the takeoff computer with the best part of the song. The engines changed in tone giving anyone standing nearby the feeling of the power these engines held. The craft started moving down the runway.
I was caught
In the middle of a launchpad start (Rocket)
I looked round
And I knew there was no turning back (Rocket)
My mind raced
And I thought what could I do (Rocket)
And I knew
There was no help, no help from you (Rocket)
The engines turned faster, reaching the maximum of 160000 rpm. Even though they now screamed louder than anything, the resonance from the song still drowned them out. The plane reached the last 500 meters of the runway with a speed close to 120m/s.
Sound of the drums
Beatin' in my heart
The thunder of thrust
Tore me apart
You've been
The was a short pause in the song as the craft clipped the edge of the runway and dropped a few meters before recovering.
Rocketstruck
When the song ended, the had craft stabilized in air, gained a few hundred meters of altitude and Jeb reported over radio, "All systems still on go. We will turn on course to the Empire in T minus 10 seconds. Applejack is apparently a little bit shocked. How did you like the takeoff?"
The doctor answered deadpanned, "Yeah, it was okay. Next time just try not to blow our eardrums out, okay?"
"No promises," laughed Jeb in the microphone.
Book 3 - Chapter 4 - Turning Point
Book 3 - Burning Hope
Chapter 4 - Turning Point
T-28:02:11:09
Jeb giggled. The plan was perfect. He looked back to make sure Applejack was still asleep. The loud snores she produced, as he looked to the copilot seat in the back, reassured him. He took a deep breath and screamed, "AJ wake up!" while pulling a yellow handle.
The pressure in the cabin sank quickly, leaving a weird feeling in his ears. At the same time the electric sound mufflers disabled and the cabin was filled with the screaming of the engines. Jeb pushed the control stick forward, letting the craft drop fast. The gauge indicated -1,2 Gees.
Applejack screeched as she woke up. Her face couldn't decide if it wanted to go pale or red, as the blood rushed out and got pushed back from the negative gee-forces.
Jeb laughed hard as he pushed the handle back in and pulled the craft back up, "Oh god, this was so totally worth it. Your face was hilarious." He continued giggling.
The farmer gave him a quick death stare of doom. As the adrenaline levels dropped she started giggling on her own. "If you do that again, I'll start pranking back," she laughed, "You shouldn't do things like this if you don't want to put me together afterwards."
Jeb calmed down, "Yeah, yeah. We'll arrive in 5 minutes. I thought, I should wake you up so I could prevent your poor friends from hearing your snoring. And I had to drop altitude anyways and I thought, 'Why not make it funny?'"
Applejack gave him a deadpanned look, "You know, I have a hole in me. I could literally spill my guts." They cabin went completely silent, aside the normal noise, for 2 minutes before they were interrupted by a slow, high pitched beeping. Jeb looked at the panel to figure out what happened. A yellow lamped labelled "Unknown Radar Contact" lit up once a second accompanied by the beep.
He pressed the transmit button on the radio, "Jeb to TARDIS."
After a few second the Doctor's voice came out of the speaker, "Doctor here, anything wrong up there?"
"First, I wanted to tell you that we will arrive in 3 minutes. Second, did you activate any sort of radar in your TARDIS?" Jeb asked.
A short silence before the timelord answered, "Actually, I'm about ten percent sure no. Why?"
Jeb looked confused, "I'm getting a radar contact and they clearly don't have radars here so I figured..." He was interrupted as the slow beeping was replaced by a faster, lower pitched one. Another lamp, this one red, lit up. It was labelled "Radar Homing Alarm".
A deafening silence laid over the cockpit before Jeb screamed in the radio, "WE'RE BEING TARGETED!" He pressed a button and three flashes blinded Applejack before he pushed the joystick rotating the aircraft vertical and pulling it up sideways. The beeping transformed into a steady tone. Jeb panicked and dropped more flares.
Outside the vessel, two short white missiles darted towards the Titan, not irritated by the flares, homing in on their target. The Titan was hit by one of the missiles while the other on missed, quickly running out of fuel and dropping out of the sky before it could turn around.
The Titan was hit on its right broadside, the explosion covering the whole craft for a brief second.
"WE'VE BEEN HIT!" screamed Jeb into the radio. He tried to pull up the craft while the Doctor's voice came out of the radio, drowned in the now screeching and groaning plane. The panel in front of him lit up in mostly red and yellow colors. Some blinking or accompanied by beeping.
The seven big indicators on the top remained unlit, which calmed Jeb a second before also some of those lit up. They were imprinted with "ATTITUDE CONTROL FAILURE" and "MASTER ALARM". Jeb quit the master alarm before further inspecting the panel. It took him multiple seconds before noticing the pattern.
"Hydraulics Failure!" screamed Jeb in the radio. The same second the craft dropped pointing it's nose towards the distant ground. He pulled with all force he had but the craft didn't change course. He looked up at the main panel again, inspecting the light patterns.
After he changed a few settings, Jeb noticed that Applejack was screaming in the back. "Hey, calm down. I'm the best pilot ever and I won't let anything happen to you," he reassured her. She calmed down and he turned back to the panel. The altimeter showed a height of 1,5 kilometers. "AJ, I need you too grab the Joystick and pull up as hard as you can while I try to reenable our controls." The farmer obeyed, pulling the stick as far as she could with her hooves while Jeb tried multiple settings.
Suddenly the craft jerked up again. "I got it, you can let go AJ," yelled Jeb, "The electrics still work," said Jeb as he took control of the craft again.
"What happened?" came the Doctor's voice out of the radio, now finally able to overtone the noise in the cockpit.
"We've been hit! We lost control on the left back wing!" reported Jebediah, "The hydraulics have failed and we are on backup electrics for the other wings." - he briefly looked at the indicators again - "And we just lost our right engine. It's spinning down but luckily not on fire. We will land in roughly a minute and it's gonna be a hard one."
The craft was still flying, although heavily damaged on it's right side. The left side didn't receive the full blast but still the left back wing caught a good part of it. The right engine had breathed in the gases and dusts of the explosion causing it to clog up.
The first contact with the runway was hard, almost breaking off the front wheels. When they finally touched down completely, Jeb ignited the breaking rockets in the muzzle of the craft. 16 seperate solid fuel boosters lit up, decelerating the vessel with 89 m/s^2. Applejack was pushed in the seat belts making her sick, almost wanting throwing up but she kept it down.
The craft had finally slithered to a halt when Jeb saw the Doctor and Rose running towards him. He opened the cockpit and helped a very confused Applejack out, trying to keep her coat over her. The astronaut stepped out of his cockpit and inspected the now damaged and smoking Titan.
"Are you okay?" asked Rose when she finally reached them.
"What the hell was that?" yelled Jeb in response.
Book 3 - Chapter 6 - Rising Phoenix
Book 3 - Burning Hope
Chapter 6 - Rising Phoenix
32700 meters above Equestria
Rainbow Dash was dizzy. The had been flying for about half an hour. The MOST BORING THING EVER. The takeoff was kind off awesome and the short scene where they had to out-fly those missiles was pretty cool.
Jeb told her that it is normal that the ship almost explodes when he did... whatever he did. He said, normally he isn't allowed to do it so close to the ground. To much air or something.
For a brief second the pegasus closed her eyes. The same instance she was fully awake. The pilot seat was empty. Jeb gone. No pilot. She waited for everything to go haywire and explode.
The plane continued to fly vertically. Nothing exploded. Rainbow Dash unbuckled her seat belts and slowly trotted to the pilot seat.
It was like the seat invited her. She made herself comfortable as possible.
And then she felt it. The plane was alive. It breathed slowly and calmly. It had a pulse slowly pumping through the craft, distributing energy. The breathing was heavy. With each breath the pegasus could feel how big it was. It was majestic.
She slowly reached for the joystick that controlled the craft and touched it with one hoof. It was vibrating slightly. She grabbed it fully. The vibrations became stronger.
The ship liked her and she liked the ship. She wanted to love the ship. She was at total peace.
Jeb looked back at the pegasus that was buckled in the copilot seat. His giggles were muffled by the glass of his helmet.
Rainbow Dash had drooled in her fur. Her eyes, half closed, looked at something far away and her limbs twitched randomly every few seconds. She was high. Judging from the moaning that escaped her mouth now and then she had pretty okay hallucinations. If she had any sort of a horror trip, Jeb would have stopped immediately.
"Time for business," he mumbled and reached for the control panel. The astronaut moved the slider responsible for the oxygen levels in the craft back up to normal. It would take about 15 minutes until the pegasus would gain consciousness. He unbuckled and moved in the back of the craft.
A few components of the radio equipment were still not repaired, the most important were the long range commmunication and remote control radio. He grabbed the necessary tools from the storage boxes and began the repairs. He trusted the autopilot to alert him in time for landing.
The reentry had damaged this equipment badly. Unlike most other parts of the craft they weren't as good protected against the reentry-shock. Normally this doesn't matter as the Titan can only manage shallow flights.
He reconnected some cables that had been ripped out. The lights on the long-range-coms flickered. The four control lamps on the front remained black for a second.
The first one came to a greenish life. "PWR"
The second lamp blinked five times before it stayed lit. "SELF TEST OK"
Just before Jeb wanted to turn his head away the third lamp lit up. His face wasn't sure if it should be surprised or fearful. The little label above the red lamp read "RCVIR". Short for "Remote Controllable Vessel in Range".
He jumped up and sat in the pilot seat within a second. Jeb reached for the radio and switched to LRC audio input. The speaker remained silent before emitting a short beep. Every two seconds. The astronaut knew this pattern. Every kerbal did. He confirmed the signature using the computer before he was totally sure.
"Not possible," he muttered.
A kerbal probe was nearby. A "Voyager" probe. Maybe home wasn't that far away...
Everywhen
"Some would think the first thing one does after crashing, is to repair communications," interjected Entropy, "On the other hand, Kerbals are very different from any other species. I think this was about the time we decided to stop him?"
"Certainly," answered Order, "We needed him outside the ship."
32500 meters above Equestria
"Wha... what happened?" mumbled Rainbow Dash. She felt as if she had waken up to soon. Every part of her body was aching and felt heavy as if made of steel. The pegasus reached for her head, mostly because it felt like someone had used her head as punching bag.
The astronaut, who now was in his pilot seat with an open helmet, looked back, "Welcome back to the real world, RD. You had a good trip?"
"W-What?" stuttered the pegasus.
"You were high. I reduced the oxygen in the air..." - Jeb paused at the confused reaction of the pony - "I reduced the air you have to breath which normally leads to hallucinations."
Rainbow Dash's face went from confused to angry, "YOU DRUGGED ME?"
"Relax, it's mostly harmless. Although I have to admit, for you I had to drop the oxygen levels a lot more than usual," explained the astronaut, "AJ took it more humorous than you. As I've been told, you are the prankster under these ponies besides Ms. Pie. Don't like the receiving end, eh?"
The pegasus continued to glare at the kerbal.
"We'll land in 30 minutes," he said, unsure what else to say.
Book 3 - Chapter 7 - Dark Bird
Book 3 - Burning Hope
Chapter 7 - Dark Bird
5km south-west of Manehattan, 50 meters below ground
The machine had been turned on not long ago. The second the power had began to flow it had perfomed basic self tests. All machines responded. Unlike the mainframe all peripherals were intact and working.
On a small round screen appeared a yellow dot. The computer worked to identify the nature of the magic. The result returned after a few seconds and the dot turned red.
Machines, older than most beings in and on equestria, began to work. Motors cleared the area above the machine, revealing the secret hatch. The hatch slowly opened as the machine grew out of the ground. It was shaped like a mushroom, the stem about 5 meters in diameter and the cap rougly 10 meters wide and 3 high. On one side four little tubes reached out, paired closely in twos and the pairs themselves seperated by about 3 meters. The pointed towards the little blotch on the radar, ready to unleash hell once it was in range.
It waited. It had waited for over 2000 years. It could wait a little longer.
10km north of Manehattan, 10200meters above ground, course 180-0
The pilot had now flown for about 5 hours. His mission was simple. Once above Manehatten, he had to release the bombs and wipe out the city, then return to the former Crystal Empire. The plane was made purely out of crystal and enchanted so it could fly. The four engines roared, pushing the plane forwards to its target.
They had no defense of any sorts. It would be like stealing candy from kids. The two earth ponies in the cockpit smiled. They wouldn't know what hit them.
Central Manehattan
The distant roaring of plane engines was heard over Manehattan. Ponies looked up to the white glinting dot approaching the city slowly. They didn't know what it was. Nopony had ever seen a bomber or knew what it was supposed to do.
The plane continued to roar above the sky, unhindered and free in the endless blue, promising pain for those who stood in the wrong place at the wrong time.
5km south-west of Manehattan, now above ground
The target entered the machines range. Immediately it began to fire. Each tube spat out bullets, rougly 27 millimeters in diameter and 20 centimeters long. Each contained a small explosive charge and was enchanted to reduce drag and increase velocity. The delay between the machine opening fire and the plane suddenly sourrounded in explosions was about 5 seconds.
The optics noticed the small offset in the targeting system and delivered a small correction to the target computers. The distant thundering of the AAA echoed through Manehattan. It was unforgiving and unstoppable, remaining on it's target. The mission was total annihilation.
The shells hit the frame of the aircraft and ripped it apart. The left wing was now completely missing sending the craft into a tumbling dive. It fell out of the sky at more than 300 knots. Noone would survive. The computer continued to fire, despite the plane already burning up. On the radar was the red dot, that represented a magical being still alive up there. The being had been identified as crystal pony and was thus as an enemy.
The explosion continued to echo through the sky. Ponies all over Manehattan stared at this open display of brutal force and destruction. They suddenly saw someone opening a parachute, probably a survivor. Its fall was still fast but slowing down.
Before anyone could think of helping the poor pony the optics registered the parachute. Multiple bullets hit in the direct area, ripping the parachute and the pony apart, before the computer reverted to firing at the plane.
The blotch on the radar disappeared. The machine was satisfied. It retracked in it's secret hiding, switching in standby mode again. Mission accomplished.
The whole scenario had taken place in less than 20 seconds.
The remains of the plane continued to fall towards the ground. By luck, noone was hurt by the debris. They searched the remains but found nothing. The crew of the plane had been wiped out and the remains were to small to discover what it's mission or destination had been.
Below the ruins of Canterlot
The line printer was active again. The mainframe had received a short report from one of it's defensive stations.
Incident-Report 017:
- Defensive Station DS01-MANEHATTAN detected and destroyed 001 enemy target(s).
- No survivors detected.
- Incident match found in database A.
- Timeframe not matching with Emergency Protocol.
Requesting Timeframe adjustment.
Timeframe adjustment authorized.
Execution in T-00:00:00:15.
Timeframe Adjustment: COMPLETE.
Access to Camera 1 detected.
Signal verified. Origin: Tranquility
Downloading flight recorder data from onboard computer.
27 Lifeform(s) signatures downloaded and verified.
Status of Cryogenic Operator confirmed. Current Status: ALIVE/PONY
The cave was filled with the sounds of busy electric equipment. The ticking of relays. The sound of tape drives zooming to the correct positions. The Emergency Protocol had now a reference point in time. It was now clear when the primary mission had to be executed. The third signal had not arrived yet, but that didn't matter anymore.
The subject in the cryogenic chamber was still alive and with the new timeframe, it would still be once the primary mission had been executed. If the computer had emotion it would be reliefed. The subject could now be awoken by the correct people. As planned.
Ponyville Runway Strip
"Doctor, I have something to report to you," said Jeb calmly.
"I'm listening," responded the Doctor. He sat down in front of the astronaut.
Jeb moved around uncomfortable for a few seconds, "While I was busy repairing the radios..."
"AND DRUGGING ME!" yelled Rainbow Dash behind him.
"Yes, and that. Well, I repaired the equipment and picked up a signal. Not only that, I received the signal of something that should not be here," continued the kerbal, "A 'Voyager' probe. Built by kerbals. But that is not the strange thing. After we landed I took a few minutes and analyzed the signal. You have to see, these probes are designed to work for centuries. They are sturdy as hell. At first I thought it had been hit by a asteroid or something. It only reported Yaw and Pitch control and a video feed. Normally these have no video cams on board. Nothing that this thing reported made sense.
"Then I saw the serial number of the radio. You wouldn't believe it." The astronaut held up a medium sized metal casing, "this exact thing is connected to something and it has power. At the same time I'm holding the SAME radio in my hands. Disconnected and offline."
"Maybe we ... time travel in the future?" asked the Doctor, "But the TARDIS has not enough energy. The eye of harmony has been desynced at arrival. How is this possible?"
"I don't know. I only know that this spare part, which I had to deliver as part of my mission, is now active and I can't get it's position," Jeb looked more serious than ever, "But all that is not the unsettling part."
"What is it then?" asked the timelord.
"It's what's on the video feed," he showed the doctor inside the cockpit to a monitor on a side panel, "You see this? A countdown to whatever."
The small display showed a old clock, like you see on some airports, ticking down. The clock displayed '12:23:47:58'. Above the clock where words, imprinted in black stone, 'Time left until Emergency Procedure:'
"What does this mean?" demanded the doctor to know. He was uncomfortable with this feed. It was like the countdown on a bomb, ticking down without hesitation.
"I don't know, but I am sure nothing good."
Castle of the two Sisters
Beneath the castle, where no sunlight reaches naturally, shadows moved. They had been waiting. Waiting to take back what belonged to them. Yellow eyes pierced the darkness.
The strange being, somewhat resembling a pony and at the same time looking like nothing every to walk over equestria, moved out. It stepped in the shadows, although the sunlight didn't harm it.
It entered the big library of the castle and searched for the books. Books of dark magic and blood, nightmares and darkness. It would finally get control over its subject. It would finally rule over Equestria with eternal darkness.
Book 3 - Chapter 5 - Fallen
Book 3 - Burning Hope
Chapter 5 - Fallen
Everywhen
"You didn't have to push them this far," said a soft voice.
"I didn't. There wasn't much interaction from me. I only brought them necessary technology and a very simple idea. Nothing to fancy," replied Entropy.
The two beings sat across a small table. On top of the table stood two teacups and a teapot, all three filled with steaming tea. They hadn't really sat down as both of them took the form of glowing light. Entropy glowed red, while Order glowed white.
"I know. Still, don't you think we should have warned them atleast?" asked Order.
Entropy sipped at his tea before he said anything, "It has been a long time since I had this good Earl Grey. Regarding your question; no. It had to be done. Machines had already been turning their gears, readying for war. They had been since I destroyed their little castle. The timeline has to be maintained. I'm like a surgeon that finished surgery with only one cut. Precise and efficient. And the patient has to live through the pain."
"Yes. You are an expert in manipulation. Quite fitting, except the medical metaphore. At last you have no medical degree, although you liked to pretend you were a doctor in the past," determined the white figure, "Am I right?"
Entropy laughed, "Doctor... who?"
Crystal Empire
"We are lucky the Titan is mostly undamaged," yelled Jeb from the back of the machine, "The left wing and the engine caught the blast. The hydraulics should be up any minute, can you check, Doc?"
"Wait," came the Doctors voice from the cockpit, "this is not so easy with hooves. Wait... Check. Hydraulics up. The console gives green light for takeoff."
A female voice came from the front of the craft, "I'd rather not let this thing take off so soon. It was hit by a missile. No offence to your engineering Jeb, but any normal plane would have spend weeks in a hanger for repairs." Rose climbed up in the cockpit to help the doctor, "I mean, we just repaired this beast in under 6 hours."
"This is a Kerbal Plane. If both had hit I would worry. I guess they had me inside their sights long before they activated their radar and only the little prank at AJ saved us. Although, now that I think of it, this baby may even survive two hits. Am I right, baby?" asked Jeb and hit the right engine with his wrench. A loud bang was heard and Jeb resumed talking, "She agrees."
"Hey, I had a great idea," exclaimed Rose, "This thing needs a new name. We call it Titan or Clara the whole time" - the doctor winced at the mention of the second name - "We should rename it. It has a far more important mission now."
Unheard for both the doctor mumbled under his breath, "I swear this name is stalking me."
"I think I have a name," claimed Jeb, "I'll call it Tranquillity . Name of the first kerbal lander to land on the mun and return. Safely. I believe it was one of the Kerpollo mission. 11 or 13 maybe." He silently stroked the metal casing of the engine.
Rose reached her head out of the cockpit and had to smile at the sight of the kerbal petting his plane, "It kind of worries me how you describe successful missions. Doctor, anything against the name?"
"He can name this tin can however he likes", cheered the Doctor.
Everywhen
"It took them a long time to notice, didn't it?" asked Order between two nips of her tea, "They seem to have been rather ignorant at obvious problems."
Entropy looked up, surprised by the sudden shift in tone, "why do you insult your subjects now? They have been your part of the war and they served you well."
"I didn't insult them, rather I pointed out a problem."
They stopped talking, the silence only interrupted by the noises of them drinking their tea in patience. Entropy interrupted the silence first, "I think he might be wondering what will happen. Should we tell him?"
Order sighed, "no. It is not time for him, or her, to know. Keep in mind that we don't know who he is."
"Indeed correct, my lady," smiled the god of chaos, "but we should jump ahead a little. Give 'em a littl' action."
"Indeed."
Crystal Empire
"What is the fuss all about?" yelled Celestia over the crowd. A large group of ponies had assembled in front of the runway and the TARDIS.
The former Elements of Harmony, Jeb, the Doctor and Rose stood beside the celestial sisters, staring at the mob of angry ponies. A single stallion stepped forwards, his fur orange and his mane sky blue. Judging by his armor he had been part of the royal guard. He wore a rather unpleased expression.
"We have concluded that all of you are not able to protect us any longer. Thus we have banished our supressors from our land. This morning a court of the people has assembled and all of you have the choice. Either imprisonment or banishment. Furthermore, the people of the crystal empire hereby annex this country under a new flag and government," he declared and waited for an answer from Celestia or Luna.
Both were shocked by this declaration but Celestia put herself together and spoke over the crowd, "What do you want we can't give? We have been protecting you for years now. Were is Princess Cadence, I demand to speak to royal authority."
"We no longer comply with royalty. As already mentioned, 'Princess'" - he almost spat the word out - "Cadence has been banished. Our new leader has opened our eyes and gives us the means to protect our new freedom, as you already experienced. I have to ask you to either leave now or follow the guards silently to prison."
"We will no longer listen to such misguided speeches of hate. You are part of the royal guard and will listen..."
"NO! You had your chance. Men, get them and drag them to prison," the orange stallion commanded.
Before any of the ponies behing him could react, Celestia had already errected a giant shield in front of them, "Hurry, get in the TARDIS and the Tranquility. We must leave NOW!"
"Rainbow Dash, you come with me!" demanded Jeb, "The rest goes in the TARDIS! AJ. I don't want you in my plane if anything goes weird. RD can fly off."
The group hurried around following both Celestia's and Jeb's orders. Jeb hurried towards his craft, closing the cockpit once Rainbow Dash was in, "Fasten your seatbelt, my lady, this will be a bumpy ride."
At the same time he heard the TARDIS departing with Celestia and the rest. The shield slowly decayed and Jeb knew this was a matter of minutes.
"No time for anything. Let's show them what real power means!" he yelled as he prepared a jump start of the engines.
The roaring of the engines filled the cabin when the astronaut finished. The crowd didn't go on the runway, they just stood on the side and looked at the strange object, screaming along it. For a short moment Jeb thougth the orange pony would smile at him.
He pulled up the craft before the runway, amazed that they didn't attack them. He was about to sigh in relief when he heard it.
"What the hell is that beeping?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"THEY ARE HOMING IN ON US. HOLD ON!" screamed Jeb. He reached over to the panel. Normally this wasn't allowed so deep in the atmosphere but he had no choice than to activate the thermic-drive.
The thermic-drive is a rather unique invention. Instead of diverting the incoming air to the combustion chamber it is channeled to the middle of the craft, directly above the forcefield containing the explosion. The forcefield itself is altered to allow heat passing through at certain places. The air is heated up and channeled back to the combustion chamber with the fuel.
This heat expands the air enough to allow the craft to fly faster than normally while still using normal jet fuel and intake air. Thermic-drive has only been used on a few planes including all crafts of the Titan-Mk.II-Series and the Hummingbird-Mk.VII-Series up to model 28. The newest model is the Hummingbird Mk. VII/Model 28-F22, that was able of sustained hypersonic flight up to mach 19.
Back in Ponyville, Bon Bon was about to water her plant we she noticed something unusual in the sky. Far of to the north she could see a small rainbow ring slowly expanding.
'Must have been RD performing some trick in the Empire,' she thought and continued to water her plants.
Not a second later she saw up again. This time another ring expanded, but now consisting of two rainbows, entangled in each other. Her jaw dropped almost to the floor as a third set of rainbows appeared, accompanied by a blinding flash.
Bon Bon looked around and noticed other ponies staring at the singularity in awe. Noone of them was able to express their shock as a fourth and a fifth set appeared in the sky. The 'thing' that made them was now dashing throw the sky at impossible speeds, drawing a small rainbow behind it.
It was headed slightly east of ponyville to the Everfree Forest.