One Life to Love

Chapter 13: Enter the Darkness.

The Doctor and Ditzy stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around confused. The view was much more colorful than the dull gray of the future they'd just returned from, but it was also too familiar. Then it hit them, they were back in the abbey where Ditzy had almost married a giant bug.

"Well that's odd," the Doctor started, pulling out the sonic screwdriver he had used to reveal the lorianis that had been at the altar beside Ditzy not too long ago and activating it,"it seems we're back in Ponyville, one month after your almost wedding." The Doctor slid back into the TARDIS and came out, dressed up in a brown coat, which he then placed the sonic screwdriver in it's pocket."Well then, I guess there's no use in wondering about it now, let's take a look around and see what the TARDIS wants from us.

"What it wants?" Derpy raised an eyebrow in confusion at the odd time travelling pony.

"She, what she wants, the TARDIS is a she, at least I think she is. Anyway, she obviously wanted us to come here for a reason, so let's see what that reason is."

Ditzy just followed the Doctor, shaking her head in annoyance at the odd pony as they stepped out of the abbey. They walked through the colorful town of Ponyville.

"Doctor, about the future we just saw, is that actually gonna happen?" The Doctor frowned and walked forward, not sure how to answer.

"It's possible, that version of the future was made possible by something I did in this timeline, possibly even here. The thing is this, time can be rewritten Rose, so much so that sometimes the timestreams can get a bit out of sorts. Obviously a version of me made a bad decision in that stream, but I ended up there as a warning from the TARDIS. The old girl obviously doesn't want me doing anything really stupid." Ditzy rolled her eyes at that remark, something about this pony told her that telling him no to do something stupid would never be very useful.

A sudden ruckus stirred among Ponyville, and the two time travelers watched as ponies all around them seemed to rush suddenly towards the center of the town. Soon enough they were thrown into the ruckus of the crowd and jostled into the mass.

"Rose! Try to stay with me." The Doctor tried to call out to his friend over the throng of the crowd  in vain, and was soon ripped away from his companion.

Then came another voice, one that made the Doctor squirm. He turned around to see a grey pony with a yellow streaks throughout his mane and tail. "Doctor!"

He froze at the sound of his name, almost muttering a prayer as he turned towards its source and nearly planted his hoof in his face. Jumping throughout the crowd in an attempt to get the Doctor to notice him was a grey earth pony with a blonde streak running through his mane and tail.

"Hello Jack," the Doctor started, faking a cheerful persona as best he could,"been a while huh, going on how many years now?"

"About twenty I guess Doctor, though I'm sure it's been less for you, time machine and all."

"Doctor, who is this?", Derpy asked, genuinely surprising the time traveler, who had not been paying attention to the blonde pegasus as she returned.

"Rose, hey, um. . . .this is Jac-"

"Capain Jack Haykness, at your service." The grey pony interuppted the Doctor, taking the pegasus mare's hoof with the hoof that donned his Black K-law and shook it vigorously. The Doctor planted his bare hoof into his face and groaned at the straightforward earth pony. Jack never seemed to change.

"Jack, what in tarnation are you doin'," came a voice from nearby, and the three companions turned to see a big red stallion with a green apple cutie mark on his flank trotting towards them with a somewhat annoyed look on his face. The Doctor recognized the look a different way though, already having categorized it as the look a companion of Jack Haykness will always have when he gets out of control, almost like the look you give a dog on a leash when it misbehaves.

"Ah, Mac, Sorry." Jack looked a bit distraught at the look upon the red earth pony's face. He quickly wrapped a hoof around the crimson pony and hugged him tight, planting a small kiss on his cheek. Derpy's eyes widened, she'd never known any colt-cuddlers until now. Jack continued,"oh, yeah, Mac, this is the Doctor, and his new companion, Rose. Doctor, Rose, this is my coltfriend, Mac."

"Which number is he?" The Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes at the grey pony.

"Why do you have to always ask that question Doctor?"

"Jack."

"103. There, you happy."

"Does he know he's 103?"

"Yes ah do, and ah'd appreciate it if you'd not talk like ah'm not here." Mac announced, interrupting the two ponies' argument.

"You're right, that's not important," the Doctor started, pointing at Mac and then storming off, leaving the others to follow behind quickly,"what is important is this, what is supposed to happen, what is the event the TARDIS sent me here for, and why in Celestia's name is everypony marching toward town square?"

The Doctor finished with a hint of aggression in his voice, his eyes widening in annoyance. He was baffled as to why the TARDIS sent him here into such a plain point in time.

"Well, Mr. Grumpy Man," started Big Mac, his eyes narrowed in dissapointment at the Time Traveller Jack was always talking about,"today is the day that Twilight Sparkle returns from Canterlot after two months of being away." At the mention of Twilight Sparkle's name, both the Doctor's and Derpy's eyes shot open. Both of them remembered how Twilight Sparkle had suddenly attacked them in the future.

"That is not good, not good at all." The Doctor searched around frantically for a way out of the crowd, turning his head this way and that, only to find no escape. Suddenly, a large carriage appeared pulled by two magicked unicorns. The Doctor gulped audibly and ducked his head in order to truly be lost in the crowd. He mustn't be for the sake of time itself.

***

Rainbow Dash shifted nervously in the darkness of the carriage. She would have to face Applejack's wrath for sure now. Part of her wished she'd been able to leave Canterlot and return to Ponyville a month ago, but then she'd have missed out on way too much fun with her marefriend otherwise.

Speaking of her violet lover, Twilight nuzzled her maw into the cyan pegasus and smiled. Twilight was much more assured about things between her and Dash now than she'd been a month before when the pegasus had appeared on the doorstep of the temporary flat she'd been sharing with Pinkie Pie.

"Awww, how cute." Came the pink party pony's voice from the other side of the carriage. Pinkie grinned from ear to ear at the two lovers, she was so happy for that two of her closest friends were dating, it filled her to the brim with joy.

Rainbow Dash began to speak, but decided against it. She noticed the carriage slowing down and sighed.

"Time to face the music," Rainbow Dash noted. Twilight gave her a kiss on the cheek and wrapped her forehoof around the cyan one's. Dash could only smile at the violet unicorn as the carriage doors opened, and the two of them stepped out, hand in hand.

To the largest collective gasp they'd ever heard.

Both ponies smiled at the crowd awkwardly, searching the crowd for some happy reactions. The most noticeable being Lyra and Bon-Bon's shared 'finally,' moment as both mares raised a hoof to the air in exasperation. The sight of the candy maker and her lover was quite comical to be honest, and it brought a smile to Twilight and Rainbow Dash's faces.

Then, the mood was suddenly ruined.

Applejack stormed towards the two lovers, a look of pure anger in her eyes. She felt and looked betrayed, and she was ready to unleash her feelings towards the two.

"So this is how it's gonna be huh," she started, coming face to face with Rainbow Dash first," after everything we'd done, you'll throw it away for her." Applejack tossed her head towards Twilight and shot her an angry look. Twilight cowered at her friends anger, she wasn't prepared for this kind of reaction. Applejack turned to start berating Rainbow Dash again, but was met with a right hoof from the cyan pegasus. The blonde earth pony fell to the ground.

"Applejack, you're my friend, and yeah, we used to be a thing, but if you ever so much as look at my marefriend like that again, a simple blow to the eye will be the least of your worries." Dash closed up on the earth pony and narrowed her eyes. Applejack cowered away from the rainbow-maned pegasus.

"You know what," Applejack then started suddenly, stomping her hoof upon the ground and facing Rainbow Dash. Ah don't think I can sit here and call mahself yer friend any longer with this." Applejack turned on the spot at her words, when suddenly a burst of light shot from her body and rose into the air, her knees buckled and her front legs bent in pain from the light leaving her. At the peak of its rise, the ball split into two and shot apart in different direction. With that, Applejack ran off, everypony else with everypony else paying attention to the light show. Yet, nopony could understand what the show meant.

Well, almost nopony.

The Doctor, of course, knew full and well what the light show was about. Suffice to say that being the only pony to know made him instantly intrigued about the subject, and soon after the ruckus, he found himself making his way back to the tardis hurriedly, with his three companions following breathlessly behind him.

"Come on Rose, we've got some work to do." The Doctor flung the doors to the TARDIS open swiftly. Derpy barely keeping pace.

"Oh, what shall you be doing Doctor," Jack mused, smiling at the time lord as he trotted in sneakily.

"Oh no Jack, you have to wait, you have to have someone to play babysitter for you, and right now at this moment, your current coltfriend cannot come to the point we're headed too, at least not yet." With that, the Doctor slammed the door in the immortal pony's face. Then the TARDIS whirred a few times and dissapeared, not to be seen again for a while.

***

It was a tense night in the Apple family household to say the very least. You see, the apple family's patriarch, Red Delicious, was one of those ponies that seemed a bit too happy for decree 63, and the idea of his daughter making such a huge fuss over another filly earlier in the day was not a very pleasing thought to him.

"What did you think you you were doing," Red Delicious screamed at his daughter, his dark brown hair slicked back," Ah told you that ah won't have anything like what I've seen today happenin' with my kin." He stomped his hoof upon the hardwood flooring of the den they'd started this argument in.

Not that one could call it an argument, it was more like a one sided screaming match, with Red Delicious having backed his daughter into a corner verbally and physically. Big Macintosh was in the opposite corner, watching his father berate his sister uncontrollably. Apple Bloom was up in her room, but Mac knew that she could hear every word of what was going on. She always did.

Red's rant kept going, but by now the two older siblings of the family had learn to filter most of his rants down to the basics. He didn't like coltcuddlers or fillyfoolers, them even thinking about such acts was a disgrace to him, and that he was gonna make them stop feeling these unnatural feelings. This time it was different though. This time he'd caught on to his daughter's indifference, and suddenly lifted a hoof to strike her.

Mac was on top of him before he could even try.

The red stallions rolled around the floor, beating each other senseless. Neither cared one bit about the fact that they were family anymore, until a sudden familiar scream caught them both off guard.

At the doorway to the den stood Applebloom, her eyes widened and her mouth agape. Tears were flowing down her face. Seeing her hurt like that, Mac felt sorry for what he'd done, he tried to step towards his younger sister, but to no avail. The young earth pony turned tail and ran into the Apple Family Orchard, which seemed darker that night than any before.

The two elder children ran into the orchard after her, but could not find hide nor hair of her. What they did find came as a bit of a surprise.

During the middle of the night, after a failed search, the two ponies found themselves in the middle of the orchard with what felt like no hope. Then suddenly, the orchard was filled with sound as a blasting whistling echoed throughout.A sudden light appeared nearby, followed by a small blue box, and of course, obnoxiously on time, came Jack Haykness as well, taking his place by Mac and smiling.

Then the doors to the blue box opened up and the Doctor came out smiling.

"Look, I know you don't know a lick about me, well, except for Jack, and maybe Mac," the timelord started," but I think it would be a wise idea if you came along with us." Mac and Applejack looked at each other with Applebloom gone, and there father at home, obviously fuming. Neither option looked very fun, but at least they seemed to be able to trust this strange pony to not hurt them as much as their father could.

They both just shrugged, maybe they might find Applebloom if they came along. They made their way into the blue box.

Into the adventure of their lives.

***

Vinyl took her first few steps into Ponyville with a smile on her face, her glasses were in her saddlebag, and her ruby eyes glistened in the moonlight, from what she'd heard from her friend Rarity, she wouldn't be needing her contacts, and that was a freedom she enjoyed.

It was late at night and she was just on the outskirts of the main hub of town, gazing at the night sky when suddenly a bright white orb appeared in front of her. It circled around her, almost seeming to bounce around her, as if studying her.

"Well hello little guy," the DJ spoke to the orb, generally intrigued by its sudden appearance. It bounced in front of her face at the sound of her voice. Then it suddenly flew straight at her, her body absorbing it. She was filled with a sudden pain that shot throughout her body, making her cringe. She fell over and blacked out, the pain still rushing through her body.

An hour later, she was awoken by two voices speaking over her semi-conscious body.

"Well well, look at our luck, we come here to eliminate the Elements of Harmony, and we find one of their bearers right here." The first voice was rough, as if the body behind it was large and heavy. She couldn't imagine who he was talking about.

"Yeah, and wouldn't  you know it, this one looks like she just had 'er cherry popped." The other voice was as gruff as the other, almost raspy to be honest.

Suddenly the realization came to Vinyl that these two mysterious voices were talking about her, and her eyes shot open to see the barrel of an oddly shaped device pointed at her, it's owner's smiling face shrouded by the night.

"Oh, looks like she woke up," came the voice of the one pointing the odd device in her face," just in time." He pulled an odd appendage back upon some part of the device, and there was a loud bang. A bang that echoed into the night.

The dark ones had come.