Chapter I - A Trip to Canterlot
~CHAPTER I~
Ponyville,
The 88th of Spring, 1001 C.R.
“-AHHHHHHHHHHH!” the Doctor screamed with a mixture of glee and terror as he and the Cutie Mark Crusaders flew through the air in a rickety cart.
“I KNOW THIS IS A LOT OF FUN, BUT ARE YOU GIRLS INSANE?!” he shouted while the threesome whooped and cheered at the air time they were getting.
“SCOOTS, WHAT ARE OUR INSANITY LEVELS RIGHT NOW?” Apple Bloom yelled. The cart was beginning to lose it’s momentum and beginning to fall.
“BY MY CALCULATIONS, WE’RE TOTALLY INSANE!” Scootaloo yelled back, somehow having pulled a notepad and pencil from nowhere.
“WE’RE DEFINITELY GETTING IN TROUBLE FOR THIS!” Sweetie Belle cried. She adjusted her goggles and peered over the edge of the cart. “BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT!”
The cart and its occupants began to fall to their certain doom below, and...
Wait wait wait, HOLD UP.
How did we get here? Let’s rewind a bit, shall we?
30 Minutes Before…
“Can we borrow a cart, sis?” Apple Bloom asked Applejack. Standing beside her were Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who were smiling suspiciously. Applejack looked the fillies over with narrowed eyes and a raised eyebrow.
“What are you gonna do with it?” Applejack asked, hesitant to let the Crusader’s borrow something again.
“We’re just going to… er-” Sweetie Belle stuttered.
“We’re just going to collect apples!” Scootaloo interjected.
“Yeah! Apples! For our apple collectin’ cutie mark!”
“But didn’t you already do apple collectin’ a while back, Apple Bloom?” her sister questioned. The three fillies darted their eyes from side to side and began to sweat.
“We, uhh…”
“Well…”
“We haven’t… done it with a cart yet!” Scootaloo finally said.
“Yeah! A cart!” Sweetie Belle joined in. Apple Bloom nodded, and Applejack looked them over silently for another moment.
“...Alright,” Applejack eventually said with a hint of skepticism, “But ah expect this cart to come back in one piece. Don’t do anything stupid!”
“Did somebody say ‘stupid’?” Another voice came from outside the barn. The Doctor then stuck his head into the doorframe and smiled.
“It’s ‘somepony’, Doctor, and yes, these three here always get into trouble when out on their ‘crusades’.” Applejack then put a hoof to her muzzle in thought, then turned to the Doctor once again. “Say, can I trust you to watch over these three so they don’t get inta anymore trouble?”
“Sure! Trust is my middle name! Well, maybe not my middle, but I’m certain it’s one of them. Or is it? Is trust one of my middle names? Maybe it’s my last, or maybe it’s…!” The Doctor continued to ramble and walked into the barn, while the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Applejack looked at him in bafflement.
“O-kay then. I expect y’all to come back with my cart in one piece, ya hear?”
“Okay,” said the three fillies in unison. Applejack then smiled and looked to the Doctor, who was still talking to himself.
“Doctor, why are ya here anyways?” she asked. The Doctor stopped and smiled sheepishly.
“I dunno, I thought it would be fun to see what happens in a farm run by ponies,” he said. He then turned to the CMC and frowned a little. “Although, it seems I have just signed myself up for babysitting… Or would it be foalsitting? A foal is the equivalent to a baby here, isn’t it? Or is it some other term? Maybe it’s a different term entirely!”
“Doctor, you’re doin’ it again,” Applejack deadpanned.
“Oh! Sorry, I always do seem to go off on tangents. That’s usually why I get companions, so I have someone to talk to. It get’s really boring listening to your own voice talk to you over time, and-” he stops, seeing the look Applejack was giving him, “-...Right, well, we better be off! Come on children, lead the way.”
“Take care of them, and be safe!” Applejack shouted as they left, and Apple Bloom waved before closing the door behind them.
“Alright, Scootaloo, whaddya have in mind?” Sweetie Belle asked. Scootaloo gave a devilishly mischievous grin. Rubbing her hooves together, she looked at her fellow Crusaders, while the Doctor looked at the trio with piqued curiosity.
“I have just the thing,” she smiled.
The Doctor began to follow them around as they set up for whatever it was they were doing. He could see them hauling the cart into the apple orchards, and smiled as he wondered how they would take the apples from the trees. He, however, didn’t notice the helmets and goggles Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had donned. He began to follow behind them and soon wondered where they were going. After a while, they reached the end of the other side of the orchard and the Doctor raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Uh, girls? Didn’t you say you would be collecting apples?”
“Yeah, we did!” Sweetie remarked.
“And from a certain point of view, we are,” Apple Bloom said.
“But we kind of left out the part where we would be going down a hill that has a bunch of apple trees along the way, where we’ll pick apples while going down it, and then we’re going to go off a ramp that will lead straight into Ponyville where we’ll put our collected apples in one of the Apple family stalls,” Scootaloo explained in one breath. She inhaled sharply right after, and then puffed a sigh. “Whoo! That was a lot to say in one breath.”
“Please don’t tell mah sister!” Apple Bloom cried, and the Doctor could only smile.
“Now, why would I ever do that?” he said, his smile matching theirs. They realized what he had said, and then they beamed at him. “Now, where’s my helmet and goggles?”
Soon enough, they were all loaded in the cart with room to spare for collected apples. They all lowered their goggles, and the Doctor stuffed his hat into his jacket pocket. When the three fillies looked at him in confusion, he stared back at them. “What? I don’t want to lose my hat on the second day in a different universe!” This only prompted them to be more baffled before. As Scootaloo double checked everything was good to go, Apple Bloom began to talk to the Doctor.
“Say, how do ya know mah sister?” she asked.
“Well… It’s sort-of complicated. She… We… Hm, how do I put it? Ah! Yes. I showed her my TARDIS, went on a small wibbly-wobbly temporal trip, and visited the local nebula for gags. Does that sound about right?”
“Uh… Kinda?”
“I guess not. Oh well, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced anyway. I’m the Doctor, master of fun and awesome times, coolest baby/foalsitter in the cosmos! Whaddya say?”
“You’re pretty cool, I’ve gotta say,” Scootaloo said as she then kicked off the ground and jumped into the cart.
“Here we gooooo!” Scootaloo announced, and they raced off down the bumpy hill.
To say it was comfortable would be a lie, because there was nothing but bumps all along the way.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!” the Doctor kept saying as they gained speed. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were now grabbing apples with fast precision even as they gained momentum and speed. Soon, the Doctor calculated that they were now going at least eighty kilometres an hour, and he began to whoop.
“WOOHOOO!” they all yelled together as they then left the apple orchards once more and neared the ramp at the edge of the next hill; which led straight into Ponyville. The Doctor, only now seeing his mistake at letting these fillies go on with their plan, began to shout.
“GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
They launched into the air at breakneck speed, causing them to lose a few apples when they left the safety of the ground.
“YAHOO!” Apple Bloom cried.
“WOOO!” Sweetie Belle shouted.
“THIS IS SO AWESOME!” Scootaloo yelled.
The Doctor continued to shout, in terror and exhilaration.
“I KNOW THIS IS A LOT OF FUN, BUT ARE YOU GIRLS INSANE?!”
And so, we find ourselves back in the present…
Presently…
“BRACE YOURSELVES! WE’RE IN FOR A ROUGH LANDING!” Scootaloo shouted over the wind rushing past them. The ground neared ever closer, and Apple Bloom turned to Scootaloo for a split second.
“YA THINK?” she said sarcastically, and began to laugh as she turned her attention back to the ground below.
“HANG ON!” Sweetie Belle shouted.
BrrrcrACkSHACK!
They impacted with the ground, and all of them groaned in pain…
But it wasn’t the end of the journey.
The wheels shattered into splinters, debris flying in every direction, but the cart kept on going. It bounced onto the ground with force, but was launched into the air with what can only be explained as cartoon physics. They began to bounce through the streets of Ponyville, many ponies nonchalantly dodging or hysterically jumping out of the way. When they began to near the marketplace, they saw Applejack there, selling apples. Cringing slightly, the Doctor readied the CMC.
“Quick, get the apples ready!” the Doctor cried. The three fillies bustled around in what little space they had and collected all the apples into one burlap bag, which they then threw to the side. The cart passed the stall with a dumbfounded Applejack, and they watched as the sack flew straight into one of the wicker baskets Applejack had used to carry apples with her.
“Success, my little ponies!” the Doctor shouted. They then heard Applejack yelling something, but were now out of range to understand exactly what she had said. They then hit the ground again, making all of them leave the cart in a second of air time, and then they skidded, leaving an impact trail. The Doctor then realized what they would be impacting into, and shouted out to the fillies. “ABANDON SHIP!”
The four troublemakers jumped out at just the right time as what remained of the cart skidded to a halt. As if matters couldn’t get any worse, Twilight Sparkle opened the front door of her library, screamed as she saw the object about to attack her, and put up a shield reflexively. As if by sheer luck, the damaged cart stopped a centimetre away from her shield.
Twilight gave a cold hard glare to the Doctor and the three fillies.
Applejack arrived not a moment too soon, outraged.
The Doctor, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo all looked at each other with grins before sheepishly smiling at the two mares.
Oops.
“Again, Apple Bloom? Again?!” Apple Bloom’s older sister cried out in a completely justified fury.
After the incident, they had all decided to reconcile in Twilight’s library, the closest building to them that could provide some sort of privacy. Both of them were angry. And currently, both of them were directing that anger to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The Crusaders, having been through countless talks like this, were communicating silently to see if they had their cutie marks. Much to their disappointment, they didn’t.
“Ah thought you were goin’ apple buckin’!” Applejack yelled.
“Well, actually, we were picking our apples, not bucking them,” said Sweetie.
“Not helping!” Scootaloo whispered, but Applejack didn’t hear.
“Applebuckin’, or Apple pickin’, it doesn’t matter. What does matter, is that you could’ve been seriously injured! You could’ve died!”
“It’s not like some dangerous threat doesn’t happen to you guys every week,” Apple Bloom said.
“Girls, we’ve been through this countless times. You can’t just go around doing whatever comes to mind all in the name of finding your cutie marks! It doesn’t work like that!” Twilight told them, and the girls groaned.
“We can try,” said Scootaloo. Twilight facehoofed, seeing as they still did not get the point.
“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” Applejack told herself, “This happens every single day.”
“And you,” Twilight began. Oh boy, here it comes. “You were supposed to foalsit them!”
The Doctor grinned and winked at the three fillies. They winked back. “Well, technically I did watch over them.”
“Well, ya could’ve done better!” Applejack said. “I was hoping you would convince them not to get inta trouble, yet instead you joined them! What kind of responsible foalsitter does that?”
“Whoever said I was responsible?” he smiled. He then tipped his hat, which he had put on shortly after removing his own headgear.
“You’re a full fledged adult, Doctor. I’m pretty sure you know what was to be expected of you,” Twilight said.
“Yet all ya did was act childish and join this three in their shenanigans!”
“What’s the point of being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes, hm?” the Doctor countered.
“He’s got a point you know,” Rainbow Dash said from overhead. They all looked at Rainbow in confusion.
“Rainbow? When did you get here?” Twilight asked, not having heard or seen the door open or close.
“When I saw Scoots and the gang tearing through Ponyville, I thought ‘Hey! There’s nothing better to do, let’s see what’s up!’”
“Well, in any case, you still put the lives of my sister and her friends in danger,” Applejack said through gritted teeth once more.
“Relax, Applejack! There was no danger in the situation whatsoever!” the Doctor smiled. He winced as he flashed back to him asking if the three fillies were insane.
Applejack looked at the Doctor with a flat look. “I’m the Element of Honesty, Doctor, I can see straight through your lies.”
“Okay, so maybe therewas a bit of danger involved, but nothing too serious!” the Doctor explained.
“That was awesome, by the way,” Rainbow addressed the Doctor and the CMC. She extended a hoof out and they all hoof bumped.
“Rainbow! You’re supposed to be reprimanding them, not congratulating them!” Twilight scolded Rainbow. Rainbow reeled back a bit before coughing and putting on a false voice of authority.
“Yeah, guys, that was very dangerous and unsafe. Never do it again.” Rainbow then winked.
“I guess that settles it. Girls, please try and find something better to do other than put your own lives in danger for a cutie mark.”
“Okay, Twilight,” the three fillies said with false regret. They then dashed out the door before anypony could say anything else.
“Hey! Wait! You still have to make up for the cart you said you would bring back in one piece!”
“What was that sis? Sorry, didn’t hear ya!” Apple Bloom shouted back, and they soon disappeared from view. Applejack sighed and shook her head, turning to the two mares and the Doctor.
“Ya know, I love them an’ all, but I just wish they would grow up.”
“Nonononono, if there’s one thing you never want to do, it’s grow up,” the Doctor told them. They looked at the Doctor in confusion.
“And why’s that?” Twilight asked.
“Because when you grow up, you make different choices, you take different paths. When you grow up, Twilight Sparkle, you see the world differently.”
There was a short moment of silence in the room as they all pondered what he had said.
“Well, I guess I’ll be off! Gotta save energy for my next big… thing!” Rainbow Dash whispered, and she dashed away out of the front doors..
“I best be off too, Twilight, gotta fix some of the damage done around here,” Applejack muttered as well, smiling at the two of them before trotting off.
“Don’t worry about the cart! I’ll fix it!” the Doctor shouted, and Applejack tipped her hat in acknowledgement before continuing on her way.
“Doctor…”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Why… why do you act so… rash? Why are you so childish yourself?”
The Doctor stayed silent at this. Giving Twilight a sad smile, he turned around and headed for his TARDIS.
“Doctor, wait!”
The Doctor turned around to face Twilight once again, an eyebrow cocked upwards in curious expectancy. “Yes, Twilight?”
“You said the TARDIS was a time machine, right?’
“Yes, yes I did. Why, is it important?”
“Well… I was wondering whether we could go backwards in time to do some historical research.”
The Doctor put on a stern look. “Twilight, we’ve gone over this, Rule number-”
“Yes, yes, I know. Rule number four: No recording of my adventures with the Doctor. What I meant was, can we go back in time to see if it matches up with what has been recorded as history in the textbooks? There are a few inconsistencies with some particular text, with no record at all being present for a 2 year duration around one thousand seven hundred years ago.”
“Sounds like a mystery to be solved!” the Doctor exclaimed, running to his TARDIS and opening it. He then turned around once more seeing Twilight following him, and pointed his hoof at her. “Rule number four,” was all he said.
Twilight rolled her eyes and followed him into the TARDIS. “We can still arrive back at this exact same point in time, right?”
“Yes.”
“And no time will have seemed to past for everypony else but us?”
“Yes!” the Doctor said, now slightly exasperated. He began to type things into a “keyboard”, from what she had read in the TARDIS manual, and he began to flip several switches and push buttons before stopping at the activating handle.
“Ready?” the Doctor asked with a grin.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Geronimo!” he cried before he said, “No, wait, I’ve already used that one! Dangit!” He then pulled the lever. Without warning however, A cloister bell rang and sparks flew from the console. The TARDIS tilted sideways and shook more violently than it should. The Doctor was thrown off by this, shouting in surprise as he was thrown to the ground. Twilight fell forward and braced for landing, spreading all four legs out so she wouldn’t move much more.
The TARDIS then began its takeoff, dematerialising from the outside view and entering the time vortex. The discs on the ceiling were now spinning again, with the time rotor bobbing up and down. Sparks and smoke began to increase in intensity as they seemed to come from everywhere. They could feel something violently collide with the TARDIS causing them to fly a few feet into the air.
“Doctor! What’s happening?!”
“I don’t know!” was his reply. They then landed on the floor once again, causing the air to be expelled from both of their lungs. The Doctor then crawled on the floor trying to get back to the console. He pulled himself up using the edge of the console as a support and began to edge himself around. He continually had to brace himself against the TARDIS’ tremors and finally reached the activation lever. Using as much force as he could muster, he pushed it forward as hard as he could.
“HnnnghraAHH!” he cried, the lever not budging until it finally did. He then tried pulling it back with both hooves. He strained to do so. Once more, a tremor shook the TARDIS and the resulting movement helped the Doctor pull the lever back. Not expecting the sudden jerking motion, he flew backwards and down the stairs into the floor under. To Twilight’s relief, the shaking finally stopped, and the whirring and groaning of the TARDIS following suit. She sighed, and shakily got to all four hooves. Shaking her head and hesitantly taking a step, she called for the Doctor.
“Doctor? Doctor! Are you alright?”
There was silence for a moment before she could hear grunts of annoyance and pain.
“Oh yes! Absolutely fine! If you define fine as being suspended in a bunch of wires and cords, then yes. I’m fine,” the Doctor’s voice echoed up the stairs.
“Do you need help?” Twilight asked down the stairs.
“That would be much appreciated!” his voice echoed back up. Twilight then walked down the stairs and began to snicker at the Doctor’s situation.
“Hey, this isn’t funny!”
“Mm-hm!” Twilight hummed with disbelief and mirth. Not being as mean as she was acting at the current moment, she began to uncoil the big wires and cords from the Doctor’s legs and body. Finally, the Doctor landed on the floor. He brushed his coat and looked at Twilight with weak anger. He then grabbed his hat from the floor and placed it on his head, it having fallen off.
“I’ll have you know, Twilight Sparkle, that I’m fully capable of handling myself. I just needed a little help, is all.”
Twilight hummed once again and the Doctor couldn’t help but smile himself. His face quickly went dark again however, as he turned his head to look at the stairwell.
“Doctor, is something wrong?” Twilight asked. She then mentally slapped herself, for she knew something must be wrong if the TARDIS shook like that. She knew the TARDIS shook when the stabilizers were off, but this was off the scale insanity shaking.
“Yes, Twilight, yes there is. Also, don’t slap yourself like that,” the Doctor replied, and he began up the stairs. Twilight began to follow, but paused at the last thing the Doctor said. Shaking it off as some other silly random thing the Doctor does, she continued.
They emerged from the underpart of the TARDIS main console room, and the Doctor quickly rushed to the console itself. He slid the monitor to a certain panel on the console, and began to mutter to himself.
“No… that’s impossible… It can’t be!”
“What’s impossible, Doctor?”
The Doctor gravely glance at Twilight. “Something crashed into us as we were travelling in the Time Vortex. It should be impossible, but… somehow it is.”
“And… that’s bad?”
“Yes! Very bad!” the Doctor shouted, before rushing to the other side of the console. He then slammed his hoof down on the console and shouted in anger. “No! No no no no no! Argh!”
“Doctor, what’s wrong?!” Twilight asked, now scared herself. The Doctor now stared blankly at the panel in front of him. His forelegs were spread to the edges of the panel, his body slumped. He then looked at Twilight with a look that scared her.
“Twilight, don’t panic when I say this, but… we’re stuck.”
“Stuck? What do you mean? Can’t you just flip that switch and make us go back?”
The Doctor looked at Twilight once again. She tried to read his expression, but it was impossible. He then sighed, bringing the monitor around to face the both of them. He twisted a knob, and writing appeared on the screen.
“What do you see, Twilight?”
“A date, time, and a place?”
“And what does it say?”
Twilight squinted her eyes, not quite used to looking at an ‘electronic’ screen.
“It reads: Canterlot, the 91st of Spring, 279th year in the Reign of the Two Sisters?” Twilight said, not sure why the Doctor was telling him to look at the dates. “Wouldn’t that be one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine years before Princess Celestia’s Reign?” The Doctor didn’t acknowledge her, but she knew he heard her. He then pressed a few buttons on the console and jimmied a knob once again.
“Now tell me what you see.”
Twilight looked at the changed data on the screen. It seemed to be a bunch of readings, and she struggled slightly to make something out of it. The Doctor backed away as she studied the monitor, and he sighed, sitting on the bench just beside the console. Watching Twilight carefully, he could see several emotions pass by her. Determination, confusion, dread, and then terror.
“We’re…?” she finally whispered. She couldn’t bear herself to finish the question. The Doctor nodded. “In…?” The Doctor nodded once again.
She then drooped herself, her eyes fixated on the monitor. The Doctor then jumped up from off the bench, not wanting to wallow in their situation any longer.
“Twilight, something collided with the TARDIS mid-flight. Not just anything can do that. It also stole nearly all of it’s power reserves, causing fail-safes to kick in and the TARDIS followed it here. We need to find who or what took the TARDIS’ fuel (which is also damn near impossible, mind you) which means…” He ran to the TARDIS doors, and smiled at Twilight, who was now looking at him. “We have an alien to find and, as I said before, a mystery to solve.” he finished with a grin.
“But Doctor… this is the last year in what’s been said to have had no documentation whatsoever recorded. There’s no history for this time period- We have no idea what happens here,” said Twilight. She took a shaky step towards the Doctor, who’s smile grew wider.
“That just makes it all the more fun! I have no idea how any of your history goes, so we’re both in the dark.” He smiled.
“There’s one more thing, Doctor.”
“Yes? What is it, Twilight?”
“We’re in Canterlot, right?”
“Yes, why?”
“Before the two year void in history, Canterlot was just a small back-country town. During those two years, however, it somehow became the gleaming city we’ve come to know today. Yet there’s absolutely no record of how or why the city itself rose in power and recognition. It just… did.”
The Doctor looked at Twilight with a gentle smile and a cocked eyebrow. He then opened the TARDIS doors, which made their signature squeak. Light poured in, and he smiled wider once more.
“Looks like like we’ll have to find out how!” He said, and pointed his hoof out. “Welcome to a whole new world.”
Twilight, taking a small breather, collected herself. “I guess you’re right. Now that we’re here, we might as well enjoy it.” With that, she stepped outside. Almost immediately, all of her fears were banished to an ‘Acknowledge Later’ folder in her brain, and she struggled to stop herself from full on fangirling as she realized all the pros of their situation. The Doctor followed her out, closing the door behind him with a resounding click.
“Here we are, sixteen eighty nine years B. C. R., two seventy nine R. T. S., and a whole new world to explore.”
Twilight stood speechless, taking in her surroundings. Everypony around her was hustling and bustling to where they needed to go. Having landed in a marketplace, she could see many market stalls and countless ponies selling and buying various goods and wares. All around her, she was fascinated at how underdeveloped the city seemed compared to the metropolis it would eventually become. She turned to her left and saw a water fountain with an intricate carving of three ponies. The statue seemed to be composed of polished marble, and the water glistened with the hint of a prismatic effect. She then realized something important. Turning to her right, she kept her eyes on the ponies before addressing the Doctor.
“Doctor?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Won’t ponies notice a random blue box having appeared out of nowhere?”
The Doctor looked at Twilight for a second before quickly studying the surrounding populace. “If your kind has any similarities to humans on Earth, it’s reluctance to acknowledge the unbelievable. Put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of the city and what do they do? Walk past it. When someone, anyone, or in this case anypony, sees something unbelievable, they store it away in their minds and refuse to believe that such a thing could have plausibly occurred.” The Doctor then turned to look at Twilight once again. “However, there is a dividing line between those who refuse to believe the unbelievable, and those who are crazy enough to believe such things. Which one are you?”
Twilight looked around at where she was, looked at the TARDIS, and then looked back at the Doctor. “The latter, I would hope. Especially now that I know things like this are possible.” The Doctor smiled at her happily and then began to walk around. They soon came to notice many ponies looking at them with mild disgust and disbelief. Comparing themselves to everypony else however, solved that mystery.
Everypony was clothed in more than just a jacket and a stetson.
Nopony they could see were as naked as they were. Most mares wore simple dresses with aprons on the front. They also had bonnets, most were a plain color but some had fancy designs. The stallions all had collar shirts with leather vests. They each wore either a baggy hat or a stetson not unlike the one the Doctor wore. Comparing that to Twilight’s nakedness and the Doctor’s casual appearance, they were alien. And they supposed they were. What with being time travellers and all.
The buildings around them were made of brick and wood. Everything had an old-timey feel to it, and it only added to the effect. All the window panes were rather grimy, with visible attempts at cleaning them clearly present. The paved dirt was well packed, barely letting any particles get kicked up when anypony stepped on it. The stalls were all simply made of wood, and many ponies were calling to passerby’s to try and sell their goods. The road they were on was actually relatively full of ponies, with many having to shift to one side or the other to get past the crowd.
Hearing her stomach rumble, Twilight stopped observing her surroundings and turned to the Doctor. A faint blush was evident on her face. “Doctor, do you think we could stop by one of those stalls and grab a snack?”
The Doctor turned to Twilight with a raised eyebrow. “Do you have money?” Twilight felt her face heat up and looked down.
“No.”
The Doctor saw Twilight’s downed expression and frowned. “Well, not to worry, I have something that might work right here.” Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a chunk of gold. Twilight looked at him with bewilderment.
“Where’d you get that?” she asked, dumbfounded.
“I carry a bunch of gold around in case I ever need to buy anything. Usually, I would just sonic one of those A T M’s and get some cash but at times like these, quite literally I might add, we need to go a bit more primitive.” Satisfied by the answer, Twilight nodded and they made their way to a vendor that advertised fresh fruits and veggies. She seemed to be taken by a customer at the moment, so they waited.
“These pears are too ripe!” the stallion buying said. He seemed to be covered in some armor, his helmet currently not worn but still intimidating to look at..
“I assure you, Captain, these are the freshest pears I was able to harvest,” the mare selling assured. She was nervously darting her eyes between the stallion and the product she was selling.
“Can’t you see it’s too squishy? That means it’s too ripe! These are quite possibly the worst pears I’ve ever seen!”
“Please, they’re perfectly good pears!” the mare insisted feebly. She began to cower in fear at the tone he was using.
“And these strawberries… they don’t smell right. You know what? How dare you try selling me these sorry excuses for fruit. I thought I would be able to make a small exception today to go to a different seller because the one I frequent is on the other side of town, but this? I’ll have you know I-”
The Doctor couldn’t take it anymore. Telling Twilight to stay put, he marched right up to the stallion. “Don’t you dare talk to this kind mare like that,” the Doctor growled. Taken aback, the stallion scrutinized the Doctor’s appearance and looked at him with narrowed eyes.
“You dare talk to me like that?” the stallion said sharply. “I am Gilded Sword, Captain of the 3 Spires guard. A lowly commoner like you would take care to-”
“Take care to what? Watch out for my back? To watch my tongue?” the Doctor hissed. “Just because you’re a high-ranking official, does not mean you can talk to females of the opposite sex like that!”
The stallion glared at the Doctor, his anger rising. The Doctor looked him with narrow eyes but held his calm composure. The stallion, finally reaching his breaking point, stuck his head high up, keeping an eye on the Doctor. “You’ve just made a very grave mistake, making an enemy of me, commoner.” He then turned around to join the crowd of ponies moving. “I have better things to attend to than some less-than-adequate produce anyways.” He then tipped a basket filled with carrots off it’s resting place, causing carrots to go everywhere. Gilded Sword soon merged with the flow of the crowd, and the Doctor exhaled.
“Twilight, come help me pick these up,” the Doctor told Twilight. Twilight nodded and began to place carrots in the basket with her magic, while the Doctor scooped them up with his hooves and placed them in. The mare stood frozen, likely in shock due to her encounter with the stallion. Once they had gotten all the carrots back in, they placed it where it was situated before and they went to the front of the stall. The mare then looked at the Doctor with wonder and awe, but also with fear. She then began to tear up and sob quietly as she closed her eyes. The Doctor quickly ran around the wooden structure to hug and comfort the troubled mare.
“Hey, shh…” the Doctor tried to comfort, “Are you okay? I’m the Doctor, that’s my name. What’s your name?”
“Th-thank y-you!” the mare said instead, turning to hug the Doctor. The Doctor smiled and took the phrase in stride.
“Oh, wonderful! I’ve yet to meet someone, or somepony name ‘Thank You’!” he said, and the mare chuckled softly.
“N-no, my name is Cerulean Skies,” she whispered, now with a smile on her face. The Doctor smiled.
“Well then, Cerulean, what seems to be bothering you?”
She looked at the both of them and sighed. She had stopped crying now, but tears streaks were still evident on her muzzle. “I recognized who that stallion was the moment he had asked me for food.” The Doctor then stepped back from the mare and gave her some space. She then recollected herself before they asked her another question.
“Who was that, anyway?” Twilight asked her.
Cerulean looked at the both of them in confusion. They both smiled at her, expecting an answer. “You really don’t know?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yup!” the Doctor nodded. Cerulean sighed before pointing a hoof to something behind them. She watched as both the Doctor and Twilight turned around to see 3 cloudy figures in the short distance.
“Do you see those spires?” she asked, and they both nodded.
“Those three towers went up about a two years ago, after somepony convinced everypony that she could make Canterlot the de facto capital of Equestria. After six months or something, everypony began flocking here to Canterlot after hearing about all of it’s ‘glory’. Gilded Sword is the commanding officer of the 3 Spires guard, which was set up sometime after Canterlot’s boom in popularity. Everypony that lives here knows who Gilded Sword is, yet nopony knows the name of the mare that actually put those towers themselves up.”
The two time travellers turned their attention back to Cerulean Skies. “Are those towers, spires, whatever you call them; made of clouds?” Twilight asked.
“Yes. That means that in most cases, only pegasi are able to access the towers. Such as Gilded Sword.”
“Well! I think we’ve extended our stay long enough, don’t you think, Twilight?” The Doctor jumped up and joined Twilight at the front of the stall.
“But we still have to grab a snack,” Twilight piped.
“Ah! Yes. Cerulean, how much would two pears and a dozen strawberries be?”
Cerulean fidgeted and looked at them nervously before saying, “Are you sure you want to buy from me? I don’t exactly have the best food… There’s somepony else a few stalls down that-”
“Nononononono, shut up, shut up. We’re buying from you, and that’s all that matters.”
Cerulean looked at the Doctor with surprise, and then gave a small nervous smile. “O-okay. The pears are two bits each, and a dozen strawberries would be four bits.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow at Cerulean. The Doctor, noticing Twilight’s unsurety, looked at her. “Twilight? What’s wrong?”
She turned to the Doctor and whispered. “Pears back at home would only be one bit each. A dozen strawberries would be 2 bits as well.”
Cerulean smile turned forced as she worriedly looked at the duo. They were silently conversing, and she truly hoped it wasn’t about what she was selling. Breathing a sigh of relief when the Doctor turned to her and smiled that warm smile of his, she got a scroll and quill.
“So? What will it be?” she said, uncertain.
“We’ll have what we asked for, thank you!” Cerulean sighed once again before jotting down what she was going to sell and the amount she would be paid for. She then hoofed over two pears and a small pouch filled with strawberries.
“That’ll be six bits- Doctor, was it?”
“Yes, Cerulean. How about I give you this-” he handed over a chunk of pure gold, “-instead?”
Cerulean stared at the valuable piece of metal that was in front of her eyes. She then looked up and at the Doctor, speechless. Her mouth was flapping open and shut, her eyes wide. She kept looking up at them and back down at the gold until her vision started to blur.
“Why? Why give me this?” she asked, her voice cracking in spite of herself. She gingerly picked the gold up in between her hooves.
“Well, why not?” the Doctor asked. He smiled at her reaction.
“This… This must be your entire fortune… Such generosity is unheard of in Canterlot, or anywhere in Equestria… why? Why me?”
“From my impressive skills of deduction, which I obtained from the one and only Sherlock Holmes mind you-” he smile at both Twilight and Cerulean before continuing, “-I was able to determine just how malnourished and wealthy you were. Also, seeing your tired mental and emotional state, you must be taking care of a new foal, yes?”
Cerulean’s jaw dropped at the Doctor’s deductions. Everything he had said was true, and every word he said struck a chord with her emotional well-being. “Yes! I- wha? Yes, yes! Yes.” She began to cry at the thought of her newborn baby foal, and what this would mean to them. Not only that, but the generosity this pony presented… It was too much for her. She closed her eyes and began to thank whoever was listening to her thoughts. Suddenly, she felt a hoof on her shoulder. Opening her eyes, she could see the Doctor holding out a comforting hoof. As if by mere touch alone, her entire physique calmed down, and she herself was surprised. She sniffled.
“Hey, why don’t you take a break and go home? Take care of your foals, how ‘bout, eh?” the Doctor said. Cerulean nodded solemnly, she pocketed the gold and put out a sign on her stall that said something along the lines of ‘Closed for Business’. She then began truly closing shop, and the Doctor and Twilight saw this as their moment of departure. While Cerulean’s back was turned, they began to walk off in the direction of the three spires. Turning around to thank them once again, she saw that they were now already a small distance away from her stall. Praying for their well-being, she called out.
“Doctor!”
The time-travelling twosome turned around to the call of the Doctor’s name. The Doctor raised an eyebrow and waved a hoof. Yes?” he called.
“I hope you’re not going to the Three Spires to poke around,” she hollered. The Doctor smiled at her, waved a hoof, and they were once again off. Cerulean looked at the pair as they soon disappeared from view amongst the stream of ponies that weaved the roads of Canterlot. Smiling the brightest and most hopeful smile she had had in weeks, she turned back to closing her shop down. Whatever the Doctor and that companion of his were up to with the information she had given them, she hoped they would be alright.
“So these towers just popped out of nowhere, eh?” the Doctor asked no one in particular. Twilight took this as an actual question though, and answered.
“Seems like it. (Her name was Cerulean, right?) Anyways, Cerulean said they just popped up from out of nowhere two years ago, which is when this whole ‘void of history’ thing seemed to have started. Do you think it’s a coincidence?”
The Doctor looked at Twilight with incredulity and Twilight blushed, knowing what she had said sounded stupid. “Are you crazy?” This only made Twilight’s face heat up more. “Of course it’s a coincidence!”
“Yeah, I guess you’re ri- wait, what?!”
“You heard me, it most certainly is a coincidence! Who knows? Maybe the mare she was talking about was the alien that we bumped into, and the three spires have something to do with the ship that crashed into us.”
It was Twilight’s turn to look at the Doctor with disbelief. “I highly doubt that’s the case, Doctor. If it was, somepony would have found out by now.”
“Will they have?” the Doctor asked with strong disbelief. “It’s not like these aliens haven’t hidden themselves for over a year now, turning a less-than-stellar village into a bustling trade city of reputable mention, and were somehow smart enough to make it so only pegasi were able to access their hub of alienness and were also able to convince the pegasi that are allowed to access those three spires into thinking that nothing’s wrong at all.” Twilight stopped to think of a better argument, but found she was stumped. Pouting at the thought of somepony actually having trumped her own logic and catching her off guard, she pouted further. When she couldn’t make a better excuse as to why the aliens weren’t found out yet, she began to walk alongside the Doctor again.
“I guess… you’re right.”
“That’s a good girl!” the Doctor exclaimed, and he then began to walk faster. Much to the Doctor’s glee, he found that they were now entering a less densely crowded and populated area of the city. Compared to the bustling roads they had been in previously, they found it felt deserted. Whereas in the centre of the city it was packed full of ponies, they could only spot maybe two dozen ponies on the road they had ventured on. The dirt here was also less packed, with their hoofprints sometimes visible when stepped upon. The houses were also less maintained, more grimy than what they had seen so far.
“I think we’ve reached the part of the city that would be considered ‘the slums’,” the Doctor remarked.
“I concur with that conclusion,” Twilight gulped. She did not want to venture into this area of the city. “Can’t we go a different way?”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“Wha-? Fun?!” Twilight cried, not believing the Doctor at the moment.
“Yes, that’s what I said. Aren’t you listening?” the Doctor said, and he began to walk into the road.
“There’s no fun in danger! It’ll be faster to go straight through the city and to the spires!”
“Well, if you haven’t noticed, there is no direct path to the spires from what I can see. And even if we could barge right in, there’s bound to be pegasus guards that’ll thwart our attempts. Our best and probably safest bet is to take a long, scenic detour.”
Once again at a loss of words, she looked back the way they had come from and then scanned the road until she realized herself that there was no direct path to the three spires. She also saw the crowds of ponies that would, in the long run, just slow them down. Looking back on it now, and applying the Doctor’s logic, she figured it made no sense as to why the Captain of the 3 Spires was wandering about, unless he had positioned himself there.
“...Fine.” Twilight finally huffed.
“There we go! See my logic? Yeah you do. Okay, how about we stop here for now and eat some of the fruits we had bought, hm?” Twilight’s stomach growled in agreement, and Twilight blushed.
“Ahem! I think that’s a lovely idea. Hehe…”
They found a bench just by the side of the road and decided to eat there. He then handed a pear to Twilight, and gingerly held one in his hooves. As Twilight began to bite into her own, the Doctor looked at his pear, uncertain. Instead, he set it aside for later and took it his share of the dozen strawberries he had bought and began to pop them into his mouth. Juicy and a twang of sour, the Doctor had no idea what Gilded Sword was talking about. These were some of the best strawberries he had ever tasted! Twilight, on the other hand, thought her pear was very sweet and somewhat crunchy, which was just how she liked it. Looking to the Doctor after she had reached the core of her pear, she saw his pear was untouched.
“Doctor?”
“Hm?” the Doctor hummed, chewing on a strawberry.
“Do you not like pears?”
“Mhmm!” the Doctor muffled, and then realized his mistake. He swallowed, and turned to Twilight. “I’ve just… had a bad past with them. Don’t know if this body’ll like it or not.”
“You never know unless you try, right?” Twilight said.
“I guess you’re right…” the Doctor mumbled, picking his pear up again. He began to bring it to his mouth, when all of a sudden they two hooded figures run past where they sat. They could see the two figures turn their heads at the odd ponies on the bench, and then turn their heads forward again as they ran away from something. In just a few moments, it was clear what they were running from. Six armor-clad ponies soon rounded the corner of the main street they must’ve been on. Ponies that were on said street looked at the guards with fear and annoyance, but most decided to just leave it be. Spotting Twilight and the Doctor sitting on the bench, they ran up to them and pointed their spears at him. Much to the Doctor’s delight, they held their spears with their wings, which made the Doctor fascinated at how wings really worked in this universe.
“You two!” The guard holding the spear to the Doctor’s throat said. “Did you see two mares in cloaks run into this part of the city?” The Doctor glanced toward Twilight, and they both nodded ever so slightly. Only enough to let either know they agreed with each other.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” the Doctor told the guard. Clearly not believing him, the guard pressed the tip of the spear on the skin of the Doctor’s neck.
“Tell us the truth, lowlifes!” he shouted. The guard (the lead pony, the Doctor assumed) then sneered. Slowly, he removed the tip of the spear from the Doctor and then pointed it at Twilight’s neck. “Or she’s gonna get it.” The Doctor narrowed his eyes at the lead guard. He then looked at the five other guards that had their spears readied and were looking around, and smiled.
“Doctor, just tell them.” Twilight said. The Doctor rolled narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t hurt her and I’ll tell you,” the Doctor told him. He then moved his spear from Twilight to the Doctor again.
“Alright then, where?”
The Doctor smiled even wider at the speartip aimed between his eyes.
“How about this?” the Doctor said, before impaling his pear on the spear tip. He then threw the pear-stuck spear sideways causing it to hit the guard behind him. Said guard wasn’t expecting to be hit, and so he tumbled backwards into another guard. It then became a quick chain reaction where all the guards were now on the ground, and the lead pony was furious. Before he could react any further, the Doctor grabbed Twilight’s hoof and jumped off the bench, pulling her with him.
“Run!” the Doctor yelled, going in the same direction as they had seen the cloaked figures go.
“Why didn’t you just tell them?!” Twilight shouted, galloping as fast as she could beside the Doctor.
“Where’s the fun in that?” the Doctor cried back, and Twilight looked at him with incredulity.
“Seriously? Fun?!”
“Yeah!”
Behind them, they could make out the angry shouts of the lead pegasi scolding his squad for being idiots. They could then hear him angrily shout orders to chase after them while keeping a lookout for the other two ponies they were looking for. Taking this as a motivator, he pushed his legs to go faster. Twilight, being the indoor pony she was, was already tuckered out and began to slow down to catch a breath. The Doctor didn’t notice however, and continued to run.
“Doctor, wait!” Twilight called out, and she slowed to a halt. The Doctor looked behind him and skidded to a stop himself.
“Twilight, come on!” the Doctor insisted. Although he was somewhat vexed at having a companion that wasn’t apt at running as he was, he couldn’t just leave her. He quickly cantered back to where Twilight was catching a breath. Looking behind Twilight, he could see four of the six pegasi guards were nearly caught up with them. Widening his eyes, he pulled Twilight along again, and they were off. Somewhat slowed down now due to Twilight’s now tired state, they were slowly being gained upon. They then stopped abruptly as a spear was thrust in between them and landed ahead of them, startling them. Turning around, they saw that they were caught.
“That was a nice trick, farmer,” the snobby lead guard said, “But this is where you’re little escapade ends.” Two guards joined them from either side, adding their numbers back up to six. “Well? Any sign of them?”
“No, sir,” the one to the lead ponies left said.
“Their trail just went dead, as if they were never here,” the other guard said.
“Blast it!” the leader cried. He then directed his anger at the duo in front of him. Jabbing his spear in their direction, he laughed evilly. “So, we couldn’t find those two rascals. I guess we’ll just have to use you two for our fun.”
“Not on our watch,” a voice said from behind Twilight. Seemingly out of nowhere, the hooded figures they had seen run past them flanked them on either side. The two figures’ faces couldn’t be seen, but the one on the Doctor’s side seemingly had a white coat, while her co-conspirator seemingly had a navy blue. The Doctor, flabbergasted and annoyed, turned to the pony on his side.
“What are you doing?! We were supposed to be your distraction!” he whispered with exasperation.
“Our distraction? You looked like you were about to get yourselves killed!” she hissed back before turning to the six guards in front of her. “You’ll have to get through us before you hurt these innocent citizens!” she shouted.
“We’re hardly innocent now,” the Doctor remarked quietly. He could then feel the cloaked figure beside him glare daggers at him.
“Sister, we have no time for this. Let us dispatch of these corrupted before they do any more harm,” said the cloaked figure to Twilight’s left.
(Since both were wearing different shades of cloaks, I’ll distinguish them by that for now, yes? The one to Twilight’s left is a dark blue cloaked pony. The one to the Doctor’s right is dark brown cloaked.)
“Are you sissies done bickering?” the lead guard announced, and they all turned their attention to him.
“No one calls me a sissy!” the Doctor remarked. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver from within his jacket. Extending it fully, he turned to the ponies beside him and said, “Cover your ears.” Doing so, they hesitantly sat on their rumps and covered their ears with their hooves.
“What are you doing now? Surrendering? Ha! Figures. You’re all just a bunch of-”
“Oh shut up, will you?” the Doctor groaned. He then outstretched his foreleg holding the sonic and gritted his teeth before emitting a high frequency sonic wave. Crying in unexpected pain, the six guards almost immediately crumpled to the ground, and the three ponies covering their ears shouted in pain. Quickly stopping, he retracted his sonic screwdriver. Rushing over to Twilight, he checked to see if she was okay.
“What was that!?” Twilight asked immediately upon uncovering her hooves. She got on all fours once again before gingerly rubbing each ear.
“High-frequency sonic wave. Only works every once in a while, due to the amount of energy it requires,” he then smacked his sonic screwdriver against his other hoof twice before sighing and pocketing it. “Now my sonic can only use its basic functions.”
“I would hate to see what those basic functions would be, if it can knock out six highly trained pegasi,” the brown cloaked pony said. She rubbed her ears as well, knocking her head on the side as if she had a waterlogged ear.
“How does your- your device do that?” the navy cloaked pony said, grunting as she got to her four hooves.
“By emitting sonic frequencies. It can scan things, unlock things, knock ponies out for a good half hour it seems,” the Doctor then frowned as he looked around, “Though it doesn’t work on wood.”
“Something that powerful and it doesn’t work on wood?” the blue cloaked pony asked.
“You say that like it’s a weapon.” The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
“We can only assume such with what you used it for,” the brown cloaked pony remarked. The Doctor frowned further.
“The first thing you’ll get to know about me-” the Doctor began, walking up to the brown cloaked mare and jabbing a hoof at her, “-is that I never, never carry weapons.” Taken aback, she took a step backward. Satisfied, the Doctor then stepped away from her.
“Nor do we, for that matter,” the blue cloaked mare explained, “And we better get going, lest these numbskulls wake up and make trouble for us again.”
“If we’re gonna start trusting you, we’re going to need to know who you are,” Twilight told them. Looking to the Doctor, she saw that he gave her the mark of approval for that question. Since the two cloaked figures were about to lead them, they sighed and turned around. Standing side by side, the brown cloaked mare nodded to her accomplice before they each slowly removed their hoods.
“My name is Solaria,” Solaria introduced, “And this is my sister Lunula.”
Chapter II - Solaria and Lunula
~CHAPTER II~
Canterlot,
1,689 B.C.R., 279 R.T.S
“Solaria and Lunula?” the Doctor asked, somewhat surprised.
“Yes, those are our names. Now, let’s get a move on before more show up!” Luna said. The two put up their hoods once more and they quickly began to canter away from the pile of unconscious guards. With nowhere else to go and no better idea, Twilight and the Doctor followed.
“So, Solaria, why were you being chased by those guards?” Twilight asked.
For a few moments, they cantered on in silence, before they answered. “We have been trying to figure out what has been happening in Canterlot for a while now,” Solaria finally answered.
“We’ve snooped around, trying to get a better understanding on those 3 Spires,” Lunula continued. Twilight glanced at the Doctor, who attempted to shrug with a ‘Hey, would you look at that!’ smile.
“And from what we’ve gathered, pegasi left and right have either been disappearing or volunteering to join whatever it is that’s going on in the cloud towers.”
“So, basically, Solaria and Lunula, you’ve been investigating these strange occurrences on your own?” the Doctor questioned.
“Yep! And we’ve done a pretty good job at it so far,” Solaria whispered. She then ducked to the left into a somewhat hidden alley and slowed to a stop.
“Can I call you girls Celly and Lulu? Those names of yours are just unnecessarily complex.”
“What? No! You can’t call us that!” Lunula said.
“Too late,” the Doctor smirked.
“Ugh! No!”
“Shut up, Lulu, you’re going to attract attention,” Solaria smirked. “Besides, I told you that was a fine nickname.” She then put her horn against the dead end of the alley they were in.
“Can you please shut up about that, Solar?” Luna begged. The illusion holding the image of a dead end lifted and showed a door with an image of a half sun and moon. Solaria, or Celly I should say, removed her horn from a hole in the door that the Doctor assumed held up the illusion, and Celly opened the door. Twilight for a second looked surprised at their ingenious use of magic to hide a door in an alleyway, but quickly regained her composure.
“How about embrace your true identity and accept it?” Solaria said walking into the apartment.
“And degrade myself to the younger sibling that I am? No way!” Lunula argued, and sighed. This caused Solaria to laugh.
“You can’t change how it is, sister,” Solaria grinned, “I came before you.”
“Yeah? Well I still believe I’m the more responsible and mature one of us.”
“Believe what you want, Lulu.” Solaria then unhooded herself and magically closed the door behind them.
“Alright, it was funny at first, but could you two please stop bickering?” the Doctor whispered exasperatingly, “You might even attract attention!”
The two sisters shut up.
“So, you live here?” Twilight asked, looking around at their place. Lunula and stuck her horn into a slot in the wall, reactivating the illusion.
“Yep!” Solaria said as she plopped onto a cushioned chair in front of a table. “You like it?”
“It’s messy, but yes, it’s nice,” Twilight said.
“Well, there’s not much we can do to change habit, is there?” Lunula said.
Looking around, it seemed to only be one big floor, but this was the case with most apartments. Scrolls, quills and inks lay everywhere. There looked to be a small kitchen of sorts, with a few dirty plates and pots in what looked to be the sink. On the table Solaria was sitting in front of, there were a few piles of organized scroll, papyrus and papers. Drawings of what looked to be floor plans and routes. A few pieces of furniture were scattered around, with the most prominent being two mattresses set side by side each other. Seeing a paint-mixing board and mashed up plants that made a variety of colors, the Doctor couldn’t help but wonder.
“You… You’re painters?” the Doctor asked. He looked at an opposing wall and saw a beautifully depicted arrangement of stars, galaxies and nebulas. Gently putting his hoof against the wall and feeling the acrylics and oils, his eyes sparkled.
“I am,” Lunula whispered, taking off her hood. She walked up beside the Doctor and put her own hoof on her starry masterpiece.
“These stars… they’re almost perfect in every single way, from their position to their detail…” He turned to look at Lunula with a raised eyebrow, “How?”
“I honestly don’t know-” Lunula told him as she rested her own hoof on the painted wall, “I just look at the night sky… And my brush just goes.”
Twilight stood back and watched as the Doctor and Lunula began to talk. Looking over at Solaria, she could see her beckoning her over.
“So, you’re his partner?”
“I guess you could say that…” Twilight responded. Solaria raised an eyebrow curiously.
“What do you mean?”
Twilight looked at the Doctor before turning to Celly. “I really just joined so I could find out more about him. He’s so mysterious, so enigmatic, so funny, so weird, and so incredibly wonderful.”
“Sounds like somepony is in love,” Solaria smirked. Twilight made sputtering sounds and a faint blush crept to her face.
“What? I’d never!” she whispered harshly. “Besides, he doesn’t care about anypony. We’re all just small insects compared to him. And that one time I saw him mad…” A shiver went down Twilight’s spine. Solaria frowned at that.
“Looks like he’s somepony you need to watch out for,” Solaria concluded.
“He most certainly is,” Twilight murmured, her eyebrows furrowed as she returned her gaze to the stallion in question.
“Twilight, could you come here for a second?” the Doctor asked. Twilight glanced a look at Solaria before going over to where Lunula and the Doctor stood.
“Do you recognize these star patterns in anyway?” the Doctor questioned as he motioned to a specific area in Lulu’s painting.
“I’ll have to take some time in analyzing it, but I can do it.”
“Fantastic!” the Doctor grinned before frowning deeply. “Oh, dangit! I’ve already used that one!”
“Then why do you keep using it?” Lunula asked, cocking her head to one side.
“I dunno, I just really liked it in my ninth incarnation,” the Doctor said cryptically.
“What is this for, anyways?” Solaria inquired.
“Well, an explorer has got to have a catchphrase, doesn’t he?” the Doctor responded. Thinking it over, the two sisters nodded in agreement.
“What should our catchphrase be, sister?” Lunula asked her sister. Solaria grinned.
“Let them eat CAKE!...?” Solaria answered. Lunula facehoofed.
“Of course you would have us use that as a catchphrase,” Lunula murmured as she shook her head. The Doctor only swiveled his head to look at the bickering duo, recognizing the statement, but he turned his attention back to the task at hand- er- hoof.
“So, have you found anything interesting, Twilight?” the Doctor asked, and found Twilight to be gawking at the wall painting with fascination and surprise.
“These are almost exactly like the stars in my time,” Twilight remarked, running a hoof along the glimmering fresco. “Only, some of the stars are in the wrong position…”
“That is to be expected. After all, we are two-thousand years before your time so the stars would have been in different places back then, er, or right now.”
The two sisters looked at the two ponies before them, and then glanced questioningly at each other. “The way you two talk suggest you are not from this time period?” Lunula inquired, and the Doctor winced.
“Nope! Nothing of the sort! How would you even be able to infer that?” he said, and Twilight facehoofed.
“Sweet Celestia, you’re only making things worse you know that?” Twilight sighed.
Putting a hoof to his mouth, he whispered to Twilight, “I try my best, okay!”
Solaria and Lunula looked at each other again. “Okay…” Solaria murmured, before going back to do her own business. Lunula then took a glance outside and recoiled to see guards rushing around.
“It might be a while ‘til things die down. We must stay here until the time is ripe for us to strike once again.” And with that, Lunula turned away from them, leaving the two time travellers to themselves.
“I just can’t believe we’re two thousand years in the past now,” Twilight said, and the Doctor smiled.
“Well, after having seen the marketplace and the lack of a castle, I think it’s safe to assume that it is very much real,” the Doctor concluded. “I even showed you outer space! How cool was that! You can’t have seen something like that and then go and disbelieve you’ve even time travelled, now can you?”
Twilight cocked her head to the side and sighed. “No, I guess not.”
“I for one know for certain this is in the past. After having seen your stars and heard your language, the linguistics in this time period seem to be drastically different.”
“What? But everypony here speak perfect Equestrian, that makes no sense!” Twilight reasoned.
“And for that exact reason is why you should be suspicious, my dear Twilight,” the Doctor explained. “Do you really think that, being two millennia in the past, the language would be as developed as it is in your time? Or be it the same language at all?”
Twilight thought this over. Now that she humoured the thought, it made sense to her, yet she still did not understand why she could understand. “How am I able to understand anything anypony says, then?”
The Doctor beamed at the question. “Simple, my dear companion! Through the simple use of a translation filter!”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “A what now?”
“Well, it’s pretty self explanatory you see. Basically-”
“Yes, I get that it translates things, but how is the question,” Twilight clarified.
“Oh. Well, the TARDIS establishes a mental link to you, and as long as I am ‘functioning properly’, the TARDIS will always translate any language, written or spoken, to one you understand. Of course, there are a few exceptions, such as if the language is older than the TARDIS can translate, however unlikely that is.”
Twilight pursed her lips. “Huh.”
“Are you two done having quality time together?” Lunula asked, and the Doctor gave her a questioning look. Twilight face flushed a little, but the Doctor didn’t notice.
“What are you talking about? I’m just expressing to her the wonders of my use of transportation, which is annoyingly out of service right now. Isn’t that right Twilight?”
“Huh? Oh! Yes, yes. Of course. After an accident involving flame and a particularly bad crash, we were stranded here and we were just exploring the local area until we met you nice ponies.”
“Is that so? This isn’t some excuse to ‘go away’ for a time, is it?” Solaria suggested, and Twilight blushed fiercely.
“What?! No!” Twilight cried, burying her face in her hooves. Solaria and Lunula shared a laugh while the Doctor looked at the three in confusion.
“Am I missing something here?” he asked, waving a hoof. Twilight groaned into her forelegs further, Solaria muttered what sounded like “Stallions”, and Lunula facehoofed.
“Never you mind, Doctor. Now, we really shouldn’t be sitting around like this, but I thank you all the same for this much needed rest of ours. You have done enough for us now, and you may leave if you so wish,” Lunula said.
“Oh, now I wouldn’t be one to skip out on an adventure! What do you say, Twilight? Let’s join these fine young mares in their quest to take down the big bad!”
Twilight, still slowly recovering and her face beet red, she sighed. “Yes, that sounds nice, I guess.”
“Alright, sounds like a plan!” the Doctor exclaimed, jumping off from where he was sitting. While the Doctor wasn’t looking, Twilight shot the two sisters a dark look, and they chuckled.
“Sorry, couldn’t help ourselves,” Solaria whispered, a wide smile dominating her face.
“You two just looked so cute together,” Lunula added, and Twilight could feel her face starting to heat up again. “Although, I must say he’s certainly a fine colt to behold…”
Solaria hit her sister lightly. “Now’s not the time for thoughts like that, sister. Let’s get a move on, while we still have time.” Nodding, Lunula floated a pair of saddlebags to her flanks. Solaria did the same. They then re-cloaked themselves and were ready in no less than five minutes, waiting at the door with the Doctor as Twilight gathered her things. Finally floating her own saddlebags towards her, she huffed at the door, glaring daggers at Solaria and Lunula while the Doctor stood oblivious to what was going on.
“Ready, everypony?” Solaria asked, and the three ponies nodded. Nodding herself, she knocked her hoof on the door, shattering the illusion and opening them to the world outside once more.
“Make it so,” the Doctor said, and they filed out one by one.
