The Acts of Doctor Whooves: Act II

~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.