The Return of Doctor Whoovesby The BricklayerChaptersFairy Tales Part 2 (Twilight's Reluctance)Fairy Tales Part 3 (Getting Some Clues)Fairy Tales Part 4 (The Book Closes Forever)Interlude (A Royal Date for a Princess)Interlude: (Two Sides of a Tale)Sleep Part 1 (R.I.F.T)Sleep Part 3: (Night Terrors)Sleep Part 4: (Bad Moon Rising)Interlude: (Galaxy Swirls's Really Horrible No-Good Bad Day) (Mature)Primal Instinct Part 1: (Welcome to the Jungle, We got Fun and Games...)Primal Instinct Part 2: (A Warning Given and Double Doctor) (Sir John Hurt Tribute)Primal Instinct Part 4: (The Doctor VS the King of Tartarus: Someone ring a bell)Sleep/Primal Instinct Finale: (End of a Nightmare)Interlude: (When the Levee Breaks)Interlude: (The Doctor, Time Lord, and... Babysitter?)Interlude: (The Doctor's Last Dance)Crimson Woods Part 1: (My Bloody Valentine)Crimson Woods Part 2: (Sunday Bloody Sunday)Crimson Woods Part 3: (End of the Line my Bloody Valentine)Interlude: HomecomingInterlude: (The Reaper of Canterlot... And his Mamei?)Fairy Tales Part 1 (The First Casualties)Sleep Part 2: (Nightmarity) (The Bricklayer's Version)Primal Instinct Part 3: (Angels and Demons AKA when the metaphorical Shark is Jumped)Fairy Tales Part 2 (Twilight's Reluctance)Whitetail Woods Whitetail Woods, normally one of the most peaceful woodland locations in all of Equestria. It was a beautiful place, full of tall snow covered trees that swayed in the wintery winds. Animals ran to and fro while bears slept in their caves for their yearly hibernation. It was a calm day, perfect for a walk, which two very particular ponies were taking right now. One, a mare named Apple Fritter, a member of the Apple Family was yellow furred with an green mane tied in ponytails with apple fritters for her Cutie Mark. Her cousin, Red Delicious, a buttermellow pony with an light blue mane and a bright red apple for his Cutie Mark had joined her on their walk through the snow covered woods. Sadly, they had found themselves lost, and neither was none too pleased about it. "Well, now ya've gone and done it ya idjit!" Apple Fritter exclaimed angrily. She was normally a calm pony, but she was chilled to the bones and lost to boot, so she was understandably displeased with her cousin to say the least for getting them lost and losing the map they had bought from two twin brother ponies named Flim and Flam. Apple Fritter had warned her cousin against trusting them, but he said that they could be trusted like a good apple pie warming you up in the cold of winter. "And now look what's happened!" Fritter thought to herself. "Shame on both of us for trusting them two damn salesponies!" Now Apple Fritter felt a new concern, the pangs of hunger. She wondered if Red Delicious hadn't eaten all the food they'd brought for their picnic in the woods. Her guess was, he probably had. He so loved food after all. To see if her suspicions were correct, she checked the picnic basket. Sure enough, it was empty and barren. "Now look what you've done!" She exclaimed, even more furious than before. " That was for our lunch, and now you've eaten it all, ya big pig! Ah should find you a pig pen so you can eat from a troft like the pig ya are!" "Well, Ah'm sorry, but I was hungrier than a horse!" Delicious argued, now getting angry himself for being blamed for everything that had went wrong today. "Ya are a horse, ya idjit!" Fritter shouted back. Suddenly, as they continued their walk, they found themselves in front of an olden looking wooden house with an old mare, probably somepony's grandmare sitting harmlessly in the rocking chair, a warm looking pie sitting in the table besides her. "Excuse me, but did I hear you two lovely children say that you two were hungry?" The mare asked. She was dark brown furred, with a grey manestyle tied up in a bun with a pie for her Cutie Mark. Youtube Video Both Apple Family members admitted to the mare that they were both feeling hungry, so they were led inside with a creaking of the door handle and found themselves in a warm and inviting household, with a fire burning nicely in the fireplace and food of all kinds sitting on a tablecloth covered table. "Go on, eat up!" The mare said kindly. "But we don't even know ya name." Apple Fritter responded. She, for some reason didn't trust this mare. She had never seen her before, or this house that she lived in for that matter either. But she was feeling hungry, so she and her cousin did sit down and began to eat the food placed in front of them. "Oh, my name's not really important." The unknown mare replied to Apple Fritter. She noted that Red Delicious seemed to be really enjoying the food, especially the Apple Pie. "I see you like my food, it's good eating isn't it?" She said, as Red Delicious responded with a muffled "Uh-huh." caused from the food in his mouth. Then, to Apple Fritter's surprise, the grandmare began reaching for a knife that had been set on the stove and lunged for Red Delicious with surprising strength that no mare her age should have possessed, launching him onto a nearby couch and began plunging the knife into him multiple times splattering the couch and the mare with blood while Apple Fritter screamed "No, no! Please, stop!" and the mare who was currently killing her cousin just laughed and said "Don't worry, this will all be over in a second..." while outside a window, a little mare with a black mane and a red ribbon in her hair just watched the gory scene and smiled serenely.... Ponyville: Now, as anyone who lives in a small town where everybody knows everybody else, gossip travels fast. And so, it was inevitable really that the word about the brutal events that occurred in Whitetail Woods would reach Applejack. There she was, just walking through the streets of Ponyville when she overheard the local flower ponies, Roseluck and Lily Valley talking about it. "...Well, guess we'd better find some funeral flowers." Lily muttered to herself, and Applejack's ears peaked up in interest. "I know... Celestia above. When Applejack finds out..." Roseluck responded, before both ponies realized who was standing next to them. "Finds out about what?" Applejack asked nervously. Hearing the words "Funeral Flowers" and her name mentioned in the same conversation made her worry and go into all sorts of horrific possibilities. "Well... Uh... There's no easy way to tell you this, but there was an attack in Whitetail Woods." Lily began nervously while Roseluck whispered "The horror, the horror!" and about nearly fainted dead away as Applejack's eyes widened. She remembered that Apple Fritter and Red Delicious had mentioned to the rest of her family that they were going on a picnic lunch together in the Woods. "Like something out of Hansel and Gretel. Only much more violent." Roseluck put in. "This seemingly sweet old granny mare chopped up Red and nearly got to Apple Fritter as well! She's in the hospital right now. She's stable, but-" Applejack had already ran off, tears beginning to form in her eyes. But she didn't have time to mourn now. Something was afoot in Ponyville, something strange, and there was only one expert in town on the strange. It was time to meet the Doctor. Golden Oaks Library Youtube Video Rainbow Dash, who had also heard what had happened to Red Delicious through the grape vine, met up with the Doctor and Applejack and almost at once they rushed to the one place in Ponyville where they could find the one pony who was smart enough to figure out what strange events were going on around the small town and exactly why they were happening in the first place. This pony's name was of course, Twilight Sparkle. Knock! Knock! went the Doctor's hoof as he rapped on the door with two sharp, urgent knocks. It unnerved him that even he couldn't figure out why things from fairy tales were happening around town. First the Three Little Pigs, and now Hansel and Gretel as well. "Hey Twi, open up!" Rainbow Dash impatiently yelled to the door in front of her expecting it to open at once. "We need your help!" "Alright already, I'm coming, so just hold your horses!" A very annoyed voice came from behind the door. The Doctor figured Twilight had been interrupted reading a book or something, as that seemed to be her favorite hobby from what the Time Pony had observed. "Yes?" Twilight answered before she saw who was before her. Her face lit up when she saw Rainbow Dash, even more then usual even if she didn't exactly know why. Ever since the events of the adventure that had become known as "Frightmare Night", she had been getting strange feelings every time she was around Rainbow. And then she noticed Applejack, who looked to be on the verge of crying. Twilight almost at once wondered what had happened, as she very rarely saw Applejack like this. In fact actually, she had NEVER seen her friend like this before. Applejack began to immediately explain what had happened, and Twilight felt shock overcome her. A character from a fairy tale reenacting Hansel and Gretel? That was very strange indeed, and now she could she why the Doctor was there as well. Something like this was sure to catch his attention. "Twilight, Ah, no we need your help!" Applejack pleaded passionately with tears rolling down her face as the Doctor stood nearby, along with Rainbow Dash watching as Applejack began to show the signs of breaking down. They both knew she was a tough pony, and almost nothing, except thinking about losing a member of her family made her cry, like she did with her parents when she was just a young filly and now her cousin Red Delicious and almost Apple Fritter as well due to a seemingly harmless old lady straight out of the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" who had only been killed by a stroke of pure luck when Apple Fritter struggled with her and the unknown mare's head landed on the fireplace and cracked open. "I'm sorry Applejack, I really am, but... no." Twilight whispered sadly as she looked away in shame. "I... I just can't help you. N-Not after what happened in... in that town." "But why Twilight?" Rainbow Dash inquired angrily. "Applejack's one of our best friends! She needs your help!" "You know perfectly well why I can't help you! I lost someone very dear to me and you know perfectly well who!" Twilight shouted angrily at her friend. She felt guilty for not wanting to help her friends and the Doctor but she just couldn't. She just couldn't get wrapped up in another adventure with the Doctor and risk losing somebody close to her, maybe this time one of her friends. It may have seemed like Twilight was just being stubborn as a mule, but Twilight had a reason for her reluctance to go on another adventure with the Doctor. It happened more then a year ago. It took place in what was a small town in a part of Equestria during a night in which the wind whipped through the hollows and thunder rolled in the skies as lightning flashed in the night. The Doctor, and his collection of companions for what was originally supposed to be a relaxing trip for the holiday known as Nightmare Night which turned into a horrifying adventure in which the Doctor, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Princess Cadence, her coltfriend and Captain of the Royal Guard Shining Armor along with the stagemare calling herself the Great and Powerful Trixie found themselves faced with what was only thought to be a legend from years past, the Headless Horse. It wanted to exact it's vengeance upon the town and the descendants of those who had killed it and it's lover Ichabod Crane, a simple farmer who wanted nothing more then to love the Headless Horse, then known when it was alive as the mare Blue Berry before she was killed by her father. It took an unexpected team up of the Doctor, his companions, Trixie and Twilight's dearly beloved aunt Cherry Berry to stop the Headless Horse from killing everypony that was ever related to her father. The Horse was stopped in the end, but not without a grave cost, the death of somepony dearly close to Twilight, AKA her aunt Cherry. Sleepy Hollow: Nightmare Night Youtube Video "What do you want?" The Horse hissed in it's raspy voice. "To say something that should have been said a long time ago. To say... I'm sorry." Cherry whispered, but the Horse still heard her. "SORRY!?!" She roared. "Sorry can't make up for what's been done to me!" With that, she plunged her sword into Cherry's chest as the Doctor let out a shout of "NO!" and Twilight heard him and exclaimed "What's happening? DOCTOR!" but Cherry still somehow found the strength to talk even as she coughed up blood. "Maybe it can't, but maybe it can. There's something that should have been done long ago, something that should have been done on the night you first rose from the after-worlds to haunt this town with your curse. You had family, and you still do in me. What your father did was horrible, and a unforgivable act but I still want to make things right. M-My family, your family, forgives you and yet we u-understand you as well. You and I-Ichabod should have had a h-happy life, and i-it was taken from you. For that, me and all those who are descended from your father are very, truly sorry." Cherry coughed up before her eyes closed for the last time but her words had reached the Horse. It felt very, very ashamed of itself, and if it had a head would have been sobbing for all the meaningless deaths it had inflicted, either related to her father by blood somehow or not. And then, with a flash of flame and a final screech it was gone leaving only ashes in it's wake with Cherry's body crumpling to the ground no trace of the sword which had pierced her. "Doctor, what's happening?" Twilight asked again, her mind considering the worst possibilities imaginable. The Doctor closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "It's over, it's finally over. The Horse, along... Along with your aunt are gone. I'm sorry Twilight." He whispered in sorrow. This whole night, it had been meaningless, hadn't it? Had he really achieved anything besides getting somepony very close to one of his friends killed? Twilight knew where his thoughts were heading, and even as she sobbed in mourning for her aunt reassured him. "It wasn't meaningless Doctor, not really. You stopped a curse, and laid a pony to rest." She said and the Doctor chuckled sadly. "No, it wasn't me who did this, it was Cherry. Your aunt, she may have had her faults but in the end she proved to be a pony to be admired... In the end." The Doctor said sadly, and for that Twilight had nothing to respond to. As Twilight explained her story of woe to the three gathered ponies, Rainbow and the Doctor shared nods of understanding. They should have known their friend may not have still completed her mourning process yet, and they felt immediately guilty for wanting to drag her into another adventure that she obviously didn't want to take part in. Applejack on the other hoof felt sorry for Twilight as well, but mostly angry. Here was Twilight Sparkle, somepony who had faced down both Nightmare Moon and the mad chaos god Discord, saving Equestria twice! "Ah don't believe you!' Applejack suddenly exclaimed in anger and fury. "Here ya are, a hero of Equestria and a bearer of the Element of Magic, and yet ya don't want to help mah or the Doctor solve a mystery that's murderin ponies right and left!" She continued with her rant, and Twilight felt immediately guilty, but she, no matter what did NOT want to take part in this adventure, not when she could lose a friend to one of these strange occurrences. "Ah... Ah understand Twi. Ya have yer reasons." Applejack said sadly, suddenly seemingly changing her attitude before she began to walk off sadly. "Come on y'all, if Twilight doesn't want to help us, we'll just have to solve this here mystery ourselves." As Applejack walked out the front door, slamming it shut in anger, the Doctor and Rainbow both looked at Twilight with expressions of pity. She needed time, and they'd give her that. For now though, they had a mystery to solve... Fairy Tales Part 3 (Getting Some Clues)Golden Oaks Library As an angered and furious Applejack walked out the front door, with both Rainbow and the Doctor trailing sadly behind her, Twilight was left to think on their words. As Twilight explained her story of woe to the three gathered ponies, Rainbow and the Doctor shared nods of understanding. They should have known their friend may not have still completed her mourning process yet, and they felt immediately guilty for wanting to drag her into another adventure that she obviously didn't want to take part in. Applejack on the other hoof felt sorry for Twilight as well, but mostly angry. Here was Twilight Sparkle, somepony who had faced down both Nightmare Moon and the mad chaos god Discord, saving Equestria twice! "Ah don't believe you!' Applejack suddenly exclaimed in anger and fury. "Here ya are, a hero of Equestria and a bearer of the Element of Magic, and yet ya don't want to help mah or the Doctor solve a mystery that's murderin ponies right and left!" She continued with her rant, and Twilight felt immediately guilty, but she, no matter what did NOT want to take part in this adventure, not when she could lose a friend to one of these strange occurrences. "Ah... Ah understand Twi. Ya have yer reasons." Applejack said sadly, suddenly seemingly changing her attitude before she began to walk off sadly. "Come on y'all, if Twilight doesn't want to help us, we'll just have to solve this here mystery ourselves." As Applejack walked out the front door, slamming it shut in anger, the Doctor and Rainbow both looked at Twilight with expressions of pity. She needed time, and they'd give her that. For now though, they had a mystery to solve... Youtube Video Was Applejack right? Was she being foolish, or worse, just plain stubborn as a mule? Twilight honestly didn't know which answer was the correct one, but she did know this. Someponies were in trouble, getting murdered right and left and nopony, not even the Doctor himself knew who would be next. Tartarus, for all she knew she could be the next one to fit the part perfectly of some old Grim Brothers fairy tale. She had a grandmare living in Canterlot, and she sometimes took trips there via the Friendship Express to deliver her food and gifts of all kinds. So, for all she knew, the Big Bad Wolf may come after her and her grandmare. So, with that in mind, Twilight finally made her choice. She would help the Doctor, she would help Applejack, she WOULD help Rainbow even if she was the one to be killed horribly during this adventure. Ponyville General Hospital Snow fell softly outside the windows of the Ponyville General Hospital as inside, nurses did their daily duties, ordinary things such as cleaning bedpans, tending to patients. Yes, despite it being close to Hearth's Warming Eve, even now there were patients that needed tender, loving, and nursely care. For example, at one point while trying to help hang up some lights on her friend Golden Harvest's home, a drunk Berry Punch had been electrocuted and was now in the emergency ward given the best of care by doctors and nurses. Another example would have been one poor Lucky Clover having a Hearth's Warming Eve tree fall on him while trying to chop it down for his home and was now wrapped in bandages. Of course, some things were not quite so regular in terms of injuries. Other ailments were just downright on the odd side. For example, a white furred pony with a pink mane and a red cross for her Cutie Mark wearing a nurse's hat named Nurse Redheart was just going about her duties as today's receptionist when she spotted a pony with his hoof stuck in a toilet. "Really, again?" She asked with a mental sigh. She didn't know how, but every two months or so this seemed to happen again and again. By this point, she didn't even bother asking how it happened and had really grown rather tired of it. Of course, her day was about to get even worse (Depending on your perspective.) when in walked in through the front doors, shivering from the cold outside were the Doctor, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. Because of the quick urgency of their quest, they hadn't been able to find the time to go back to their homes and find some winter wear, not even the Doctor with his Fourth self's famously long scarf. Youtube Video "Hello there, Ms..." The Doctor greeted before taking a quick look at the nurse's name tag in front of him. "Ah! Redheart!" He corrected himself before continuing in his own irrelevant fashion. "Might I say, that's a nice name. You ponies always seem to have names that fit the meanings of your jobs or talents don't you?" He rambled on before gesturing to Rainbow Dash with his hoof. "Take my mate Rainbows here for an example. I mean, just look at her mane! Have you ever seen such a prismatic pegasus? It's gotta be one of a kind or something!" He continued while Rainbow then tried to correct the Doctor by saying "Actually, my father-" before swiftly being interrupted by the Doctor. "Ah, now where was I?" He asked, with an embarrassed blush while Applejack facehoofed in the background while muttering "Ah swear, sometimes that stallion..." "OH! Silly me, now I remember!" The Doctor suddenly cried out as he turned back to Nurse Redheart, who was staring on at this strange sight in obvious confusion. "We're here to see one Apple Fritter, you know, the one that got attacked by that dear old, well I wouldn't say dear anyways... That old granny mare?" He requested, and Nurse Redheart looked annoyed at the Doctor. She couldn't just have random stallions and mares go back and just see anypony they damn well pleased! It went against hospital rules, and Redheart would have rather liked to have kept her job thank you very much! "And you are?" She asked in an annoyed tone of voice. The Doctor then dug out his Psychic paper from under Applejack's Stetson, much to her confusion, How had that gotten there? "Doctor..." She growled in annoyance as Redheart looked on. The Doctor stared at the farm-pony and looked offended. "Well, I had to store it somewhere didn't I?" He asked and turned back to Redheart and showed her the paper, and like it's function was intended to do, she saw exactly what she wanted to. "Ah... Detective Crosby. I apologize, if I knew you were coming, I would have been better prepared for your arrival!" She rapidly apologized before gesturing to a doorway. "Right this way sir. She's just down this hallway." But before the foursome could enter, they heard a loud familiar shout coming from behind them and the rapid sound of hoofbeats against the hospital floor. "Doctor! Doctor, wait up!" A lavender mare with a six pointed star as her Cutie Mark called after them as she ran up to them. Applejack and Rainbow both shared a look of surprise before grinning. It seemed Applejack's words had gotten through to Twilight after all. The Doctor and Twilight embraced as the Doctor gave a wide grin of his own before saying "Twilight Sparkle, I knew you couldn't resist an adventure!" "What made ya change yer mind?" Applejack asked in curiosity, though she suspected she already knew the answer. "It was you." Twilight answered as she hung her head in shame. "Your words... they made me realize you were right. I can't just sit around on my flank and do nothing if ponies are in trouble!" "Well, glad ya finally saw sense." Applejack smiled before she looked away in shame. She had some words of her own that she felt she needed to say to her friend. "Now I have an apology of mah own to make. Those words I said... They were in anger, and I should have listened to yer story more and understood. For that, Ah'm sorry." Twilight smiled, there was no need to apologize. She was the one at fault, not Applejack. "No, it was my fault for being stubborn." She said in reply. "I should... I should have... well, you know." "You guys know, you are going to make me sick with all this mushiness if you don't stop apologizing to each other." Rainbow gagged. "I'm sorry, you're sorry, we're all sorry! Now get over it and move on!" The rainbow maned pegasus exclaimed in annoyance of her own. Soon, after everypony was done apologizing to each other, they were led to Apple Fritter's ward where the Apple Family member sat, laying in her bed with blood covered fur, presumably from Red Delicious's murder. "So, what happened?" Rainbow asked in the kindest tone of voice anypony had ever heard her utter. She was normally one of the toughest pegasi you could meet, and the cloud buster normally was a huge braggart, but she was also the bearer of the Element of Loyalty, and that loyalty extended to any member of her friend's families no matter who they were. And so Apple Fritter, crying as she did so explained her story and everything that had happened, right down to the last gory detail. "A-And how did you survive?" Applejack asked in shock, stunned by the bloodiness of her cousin's tale, while in the background Twilight looked a little green around the gills. "A-Ah'm not sure. Maybe it was because Ah hadn't ate as much of that drugged food that mare gave me. W-We struggled, and s-she hit her head on the fireplace and it cracked wide open. Oh mah Celestia, the blood, the blood!" Apple Fritter sobbed, and Rainbow laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll figure out what's going on around here and hopefully catch whoever did this." Rainbow replied, still in that kind tone of voice. Twilight was amazed, she had never heard Rainbow to be this kind or caring for somepony in her life. "Wow... I never knew Rainbow could be like this.' Twilight thought as she felt strange feelings she didn't know how to explain in her heart. It was like her heart beat faster whenever she was around her friend. She wished she knew the answer why she got these strange feelings, but no answer had come to her yet, and for all Twilight knew, one may never would... Youtube Video After leaving Apple Fritter's ward, the foursome walked down the halls of the hospital floor, still not any closer to figuring out what was going on around in Ponyville. Suddenly, out of pure curiosity, Twilight Sparkle found herself looking into a ward where an older stallion, with brown fur and a greying mane wearing a doctor's uniform was reading a book of fairy tales to a teenage mare with a black mane and snow white fur. The mare's eyes were closed. Twilight looked away sadly, this mare, whoever she was, was in a coma. "And so, the hunter cut open the wolf's belly and..." The unknown doctor read before noticing Twilight and walking up to her after putting the book down on a bedside table. "Hello, I'm Doctor Calming Heartbeats, and this is my daughter, Pure Heart." He greeted, before looking towards his daughter sadly. "If I may..." Twilight inquired. "W-What happened to her?" "Ah yes, it's a sad tale." Calming began, a tear dripping out of his eye. "My daughter, she got ahold of herself some bleach when she was very young and drank it. We don't know how she got it, but now here I am, caring for her as best as I can." He explained sadly. Twilight felt her heart go out to Calming, she couldn't imagine what it would be like if she was in the same position, reading fairy tales to her young son Spike. "I-I'm sorry." Twilight apologized, before a tear slipped from her eye. She waved goodbye and left the room, knowing there was nothing she could do for the poor mare or her father. Soon afterwards, she met back up with the Doctor and her friends. "Where were you?" Applejack asked, and Twilight explained what she had seen and whom she had met. "Mah Celestia..." Applejack whispered as a small tear dripped from her eye. The Doctor meanwhile looked thoughtful for a brief moment, a theory coming to his mind, before soon brushing it away. No, it simply wasn't possible. Not possible at all... Later that day, after gathering some proper winter wear, the Doctor, Rainbow and Twilight found themselves wandering through a snow covered Ponyville talking about the mystery of the fairy tales coming to life and what could possibly come next. After all, if the "Three Little Pigs" and the "Hansel and Gretel" fairy tales could come to life and murder ponies, one must wonder what would come next, and how bad things could possibly get before they finally ended. To be honest, none of the three really wanted to know. "You know Twilight, me and the Time Lords have fairy tales of our own. Take the Shakri for instance. Wanted to serve the Tally, a form of intersteller pest control." The Doctor said to change the subject away from the mystery surrounding Ponyville and relate some of his childhood past on Gallifrey and the fairy tales he'd been told when he was just a boy. "You might know it as the Reckoning." "Ever think that you have some weird bedtime stories?" Twilight asked dryly, raising an eyebrow. "I mean really, a creature that just wanted to kill humanity as a form of interstellar pest control?" She deadpanned. "You're one to talk. I mean, a wolf in your grandmare's nightdress?" The Doctor couldn't resist replying in a joking manner. Twilight was forced to concede his point. Then, as they were walking by a house, they saw something very strange indeed. There was a pumpkin, which was odd enough considering Nightmare Night was months ago, but then out of the corner of her eyes Twilight saw two little rats scurrying near the pumpkin. "What the Tar-" Rainbow was about to curse when suddenly, Twilight pushed Rainbow into a bush when she saw a mysterious figure looking at them through the window of the home. "Ya know Twi, if all you really wanted was a good nice roll in the bushes, you could have just asked." Rainbow commented in a manner that made Twilight unsure if she was really joking or not. Blushingly, Twilight shushed her with a hoof and pointed to the window and Rainbow saw the figure as well. "Who's that?" Rainbow whispered curiously. "The evil Wicked Stepmother?" Twilight replied dryly. Just then, all three ponies heard a female's scream from inside the house. With a shout of "Geronimo!", the Doctor ran towards the front door and kicked it in, and found a little cream yellow filly with a white mane chained up to a stove and being beaten and screamed at by an older mare who looked exactly nothing like her. The Doctor at once, sprang into action and pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver, and used it on the chain tying the poor filly to the stove and freeing her at once while Rainbow bucked the older mare into unconsciousness. "And that's enough out of you!" Rainbow proclaimed triumphantly as the Doctor asked the little filly what exactly had happened. "I-I don't know!" The little filly sobbed as Twilight pulled her into a comforting hug and whispering "Shh... Shh, it'll be alright." The little filly started to explain just went on in the past few minutes, still sobbing heavily. "S-She just went crazy and started beating me up and chaining me to the stove, c-calling me all sorts of things like little whore and stuff!" As the Doctor and his two companions took this in, they had no more time to comfort the little filly as just then, a little filly, not possibly older than eight or nine years of age, with pure white fur, a black mane with a red ribbon in it appeared in a doorway to the very right of them. She was translucent, and smiling serenely as if everything was all calm and alright to her, in which in was most certainly was not in the Doctor's, Rainbow's and Twilight's eyes. After all, they had just witnessed, to their explicit horror, a very young filly being chained and beaten by what could only have been the Wicked Stepmother from the "Cinderella" fairy tale. "Who is she?" Twilight inquired, very curious as to what was going on here. "I don't care, but I'm going after her!" Rainbow exclaimed and ran towards the filly only to find her teleporting away to the stairwell in front of her. Rainbow once again chased after her, only for once more for the filly to teleport away, this time into a child's bedroom. The filly, still smiling serenely, vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of her presence except for one thing, a bright red apple sitting in the middle of the floor. As Rainbow picked up the apple in confusion, the Doctor joined her in the room and took it away from her as Rainbow shouted "Hey!" "I'd advise you not to eat that, because if it's what I think it is, I think we just met another fairy tale." The Doctor said grimly, as he scanned the apple with his Sonic Screwdriver. "Aw come on, another one?" Rainbow yelled in annoyance. As soon as the Doctor was done scanning the apple, he turned to Twilight (Who had joined them in the room as well.) and Rainbow, frowning. "What's wrong?" Twilight inquired, knowing from the Doctor's expression that it could be nothing good and then he said two simple words. "Snow White." He growled out before running out of the room with Twilight and Rainbow chasing after him. As soon as they had gotten outside they turned to the Doctor and looked at him with the utmost seriousness. "D-Doctor, what's going on?" Twilight asked. "What is it? If you've figured something out, you need to tell us!" She demanded to him. Suddenly the Doctor shouted "I'm an idiot! A big bloody idiot! It's been staring in front of our faces this whole time and we've never even noticed!" He yelled, cursing himself to Rassilon for his stupidity. "Come on, we need to get back to the hospital. We'll find all our answers there." He said, before dashing off towards the direction of the Ponyville General Hospital with Twilight and Rainbow in hot pursuit... Fairy Tales Part 4 (The Book Closes Forever)Sweet Apple Acres: Sweet Apple Homestead Meanwhile, at about the same time the Doctor, Twilight and Rainbow Dash were dealing with the mare unfortunately turned into the evil Wicked Stepmother and freeing the young filly she had been tormenting along with meeting the ghostly like young filly the Doctor proclaimed to be "Snow White", Applejack was at her homestead in Sweet Apple Acres having dinner with her family. While a part of her wished she could be out there helping the Doctor and his companions, another part knew that they could handle themselves with whatever threat they may be facing right now, and that she had to protect her family from the madness that was currently enveloping Ponyville. She, like Twilight, knew her family had criteria that fit the bill precisely. She, like Twilight, had a grandmare, in Granny Smith. And, she exactly like Twilight was a grandchild of that grandmare who could be snapped up by the Big Bad Wolf at any time. Oddly enough, the Big Bad Wolf hadn't been seen since it's reenactment of the "Three Little Pigs", but a part of Applejack knew it was still out there. She didn't know why that part of her suspected that creature was still out there, but she just did. She felt it in the very pit of her heart, the same heart that knew that if the Big Bad Wolf came a-knockin', she would fight to her very last breath to protect her family and farm. "Big Sis, ain't ya gonna eat yer food?" Applejack's little sister, Apple Bloom asked. Apple Bloom was a young filly, about thirteen years of age or so, with cream yellow fur, a cherry red mane with a bright red bow in it and no Cutie Mark on her flank whatsoever. She was part of a little group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, which was a group of three young fillies consisting of her, Rarity's younger sister Sweetie Belle and a orange flightless pegasus who was always looking up to Rainbow Dash as an older sister/idol named Scootaloo. Together, their goal was to someday find out what exactly their special talents were, and earn their coveted Cutie Marks in the process. So far, they have had no such luck in that quest, but that didn't mean they didn't keep trying. From doing things as simple as baking pies, to putting on something on as elaborate as a heavy metal style show consisting of a custom made theme song for them in the Ponyville Talent Show, they just kept calm and carried on, as Applejack had heard some of the other ponies down in Ponyville say. "Sorry little sis, it's just that..." Applejack trailed off, not wanting to speak of her worries in front of the young filly and ruin the heartwarming moment that came from something as simple as a Hearths Warming Eve Dinner, plus possibly frighten the young filly in the process. "You're worried about the fairy tales comin to life, aren't ya?" Apple Bloom finished for her. Applejack's eyes widened in surprise. She knew the youngest of the three Apple Siblings was smarter than she let on, but not this smart. She thought she'd kept her feelings well hidden, but evidently not. "Yea, Bloom, Ah guess Ah am." Applejack was forced to admit. But something else was bothering her, and the whole family as well. They had planned for a big dinner with the whole Apple Family coming down to eat the food everypony had brought and cooked, but they knew this year that they would be missing two members of the Apple Clan, with Red Delicious dead, murdered by the Witch from "Hansel and Gretel" and Apple Fritter in the Ponyville Hospital because of her. "Ya know what?" Applejack suddenly declared as she sat up from the table and placing her two front hooves upon it, surprising every member of the Apple Clan that could make it sitting there. "Ah've had just about enough of this!" "Nyah..." Granny Smith, a green furred elder pony and the true owner of the Apple Farm, began shocked as everypony else by Applejack's outburst. It wasn't normally like the middle Apple Sibling to be so up-front and center with her feelings about anything, at least to this extent. "What is it?" "Here we all are, sittin' around the table eatin' food when one of our family is sittin' right there in the damn hospital, layin' in bed hardly enjoyin' the holidays like she very well should!" Applejack continued, an idea beginning to form in her mind. "Ah say, we all go down there with all our food and give the Hearth's Warming Eve dinner she deserves!" At this, there were nods from all directions of the table from the various members of the Apple Clan that had managed to make it, upon realizing Applejack was quite right. Apple Fritter shouldn't be just laying there in a hospital bed, while everypony else in her family was enjoying a Hearth's Warming Eve dinner without her. 'Ya know Applejack, that's the best idea Ah've ever heard!" Granny Smith cried in agreement, feeling very proud of her granddaughter on this day. It truly was going to be a Hearth's Warming Day, the way one should be. Together, with family. But before anypony could grab their plates of food and get up out of the table, there was a long low ominous sounding howl coming from the direction of the Everfree Forest. Applejack's eyes widened. She knew exactly what it could be. Not a Timberwolf, but nothing other than the Big Bad Wolf himself, coming to eat up her family for it's own version of the Hearth's Warming Eve dinner. Applejack's mood immediately shifted, from worrying about her cousin missing out on Hearth's Warming Eve, to fear of her grandmare and either herself or Apple Bloom being gobbled up by the Wolf just like in "Little Red Riding Hood". Applejack rushed over to a nearby cabinet and pulled out her late father's shotgun from it, and put two golden birdshot rounds in it and pumped the rifle with a distinct cocking sound. She was ready to protect her kin, even if she herself had to die in the process. "Applejack, what's going on?" Big Mac, Applejack's older sibling, with a bright red coat, a huge build and a Big Macintosh apple as his Cutie Mark asked. He rarely spoke, but when he did, it was likely he knew the situation called for it, and currently that time seemed to be right now. "He's comin'." Applejack growled, with nopony understanding exactly who "He" was before she turned to her family with a fiercely protective look in her eyes. "Nopony ain't leavin' this here house, y'all understand? I gotta go take care of somethin'." She directed before heading for the front door, shotgun in hooves and determination in her eyes. Suddenly, a voice spoke up from behind her as a foreleg tugged at her own. It was Apple Bloom, fear in her eyes. "H-How do you know it's not just a Timberwolf?" The young filly asked, fear in her eyes, as if she didn't believe her own words. Applejack looked her younger sibling directly in the eyes. "Trust me Apple Bloom, it's not just a Timberwolf." She snarled and with those words, she stepped out of the house and into the snow covered fields of Sweet Apple Acres. Another howl came and with it the running of paws against the snow covered grounds, and Applejack immediately looked to her left, unable to tell where the sound was coming from because of all the apple trees surrounding her. Suddenly, in an instant she was blindsided from the left by a huge grey furred wolfish figure and was sent flying into a tree, and saw her attacker for the first time. He stood over her, teeth bared and jaws dripping with drool. "What, ya come here to blow mah house down?" Applejack deadpanned before firing a sharp blast making the Wolf stumble back with a multitude of holes in it's chest from the birdshot rounds. But strangely, it wasn't bleeding like any natural creature should have been from the powerful blast of gunfire. Actually, the Wolf seemed to be only madder than ever and lunged, Applejack rolled away at the last moment before she could be ripped to pieces but then the Wolf caught her by the back foreleg and threw her into the ground behind it. Blood dripped from a cut on Applejack's head, and her shotgun had been sent flying into a tree breaking it in half. (Not that Applejack figured the shotgun would have been of anymore use anyhow.) Applejack recovered, and picked herself up off the ground groaning in pain. So, faced with death literally nipping at her hooves, Applejack did the only thing that came natural to her. She bucked. She bucked as hard as she could and the Wolf was sent flying back through several trees. "Well, that's several more trees we won't be getting back for harvest season..." She mused, even as the Wolf recovered it's bearings and snarled at her eyes glowing in rage. Youtube Video "So, if ya can't shoot it what do ya do?" Applejack wondered before another idea came to her on that day. She knew that there were some kinds of wounds you just couldn't recover from, and she figured even magical creatures probably couldn't recover from the idea she had in mind. Applejack ran for the big red barn that dominated Sweet Apple Acres and with the Wolf following, she hollered after it. "Hey, furball!" She cried. "Ya want some nice big fresh juicy red pony meat? Well, Ah got some for ya right here!" As soon as the Wolf was inside, it found itself faced with an angry Applejack holding a big red treecutter's axe, rage and protectiveness for her kin dominating her every feature. As she stared death in the eyes, the Element of Honesty made a declaration the Doctor himself might have been proud of. "So, ya want to gobble up mah kin, do ya? So, you want to rampage around with nopony to stop you killin' who ya like do ya?" Applejack snarled, fierce determination in her eyes. "You may think yourself a creature who just wants to find his dinner by the end of the day, but Ah say you're just a monster. A monster who needs to be put down like the mad dog he is! Well, Ah say, on this here day your rampage ends here ya bastard!" And with that, before the Wolf had even time to blink, Applejack swung her axe cutting the Wolf's head clean off with the Wolf's body slumping to the floor. The beast was finally dead, and little did Applejack know it, but the madness of the fairy tales that had terrorized Ponyville for the past few days was about to end as well... Ponyville General Hospital: Pure Heart's Ward "Doctor, where are we going?" Twilight panted as they ran through the halls of the Ponyville General Hospital. They had been running ever since they had run into Snow White, who now that Twilight strangely thought long and hard about it, looked uncannily like the young unicorn known as Pure Heart. "To see the pony who's the cause of all this... and her father." Youtube Video The Doctor raced around a corner, and into Pure Heart's ward where her father was sitting, just gazing sadly at his daughter still laying in her bed, the book of the Grim Brothers fairy tales on a bedside table. Snow fell softly outside the windows. Twilight once again felt her heart go out to Calming, no father should have to spend his time like this on Hearths Warming Eve. They should be out drinking eggnog with friends and family, awaiting Santa Hooves to make his yearly delivery of presents, not staying here with one's comatose daughter. But Calming Heartbeats, as Twilight knew, had no other choice. This was all he had left in the world. She'd done some research in the Ponyville Records Office, and found that Pure Heart had gone through two mothers, both dead of natural causes. "Detective Crosby." Calming greeted politely, though with an eyebrow raised in inquiry. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out spending time with friends and family?" "In a way, I guess I am." The Doctor said, with a nod towards Twilight and Rainbow. "But I'm here on a different cause. I think I might just know what's causing all of these fairy tales to come to life all around Ponyville." "R-Really?" Calming stuttered in shock. "T-That's great! But what's the cause?" He asked, and the Doctor's expression turned sad as he gazed towards Calming Hearts, and then a picture on her bedside table, of a yellow furred pony with a pink mane besides a young Pure Heart and her father. This could only have been one of Pure's two mothers, most likely her stepmother judging by the age of Calming in the portrait. "Tell me, did your second wife ever show any signs of... hatred towards Pure?" The Doctor inquired. Calming shook his head in a no manner. "Guess not in public then... or where you could see her." The Doctor muttered, and Twilight's eyes widened as she realized what the Time Lord was getting at and whispered "Oh my Celestia..." "My daughter, she got ahold of herself some bleach when she was very young and drank it. We don't know how she got it, but now here I am, caring for her as best as I can." "Your daughter's stepmother gave her the bleach, I'm sorry but it's true." The Doctor continued sadly, and Calming's gaze towards him turned cold and harsh as the winter snowfall. "You're not a detective!" He snarled, furious at the Doctor's insulations. "Get out of here, before I call the real ones!" But still, the Doctor pressed on not giving in till Calming saw the truth in his words. "Listen, you reading those fairy tales to your daughter has caused her magic to manifest them in the real world!" He exclaimed, trying to make Calming see sense as Rainbow and Twilight's eyes both widened. The Doctor continued, as Calming shook his head in denial. "Listen, I know this cause I've seen her ghost, her spirit! She's crying, reaching out to you!" The Doctor yelled, and at this, the stubborn pony known as Calming Heartbeats finally saw sense and began to believe the Doctor. Because he too had a secret, one which he had never told to nopony, one which he was about to divulge for the first time. "I... I believe you." Calming whispered. "I know, cause I've seen her too. At first, I didn't believe it, thought I was going insane, till she started appearing more and more in front of me. While I was doing simple things while getting coffee, or just reading the morning paper before work, she was there." "Listen, in a way, me and your daughter, we're both alike. Prisoners in chains. Me trapped in another dimension, far away from a world which needs my help and where I have many friends." The Doctor said sorrowfully, remembering all the threats the Earth and beyond had faced. The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, and many more. He remembered the friends he had made. General Lethbridge-Stewart, Martha Jones, Captain Jack Harkness, Sarah Jane Smith... Rose. "Your daughter, she's a prisoner as well. In her own body." The Doctor continued, before laying a hoof on Calming's shoulder. "It's time to let her go." "B-But I-I don't want to." Calming sobbed hard, tears streaming down his face at his every word. The Doctor gazed hard into his eyes, remembering something his Third self had said so very long ago, and something that would apply even now. "Courage isn't a matter of being frightened, you know. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway." The Doctor said before his gaze turned more compassionate. "I know you're frightened, who wouldn't be? But it's time to let your daughter go." And so, with tears dripping from his eyes, Calming pulled the plug on the life support machine and there was the sound of a flatline tone as the Doctor and his companions looked away sadly, unable to watch. Then to Calming's surprise, his daughter appeared before him one last time in her younger form and mouthed "Thank you... Daddy." Outside the Hospital Later, as night fell the Doctor and company met with Calming outside the Hospital, where he had some questions to ask. "Who are you Doctor, really? Cause if you're not a detective, who are you? What are you?" He inquired, and the Doctor chuckled. "Oh, little ole me?" He laughed at his words "I'm... I'm just a traveler. Wandering, learning, helping out when needed. Making friends, sometimes enemies, but always having a grand old time while doing it. After all, I'm just a madman in a box. That's who I am." He said, and while Calming received no true answer to his question, he did get one other thing in return. An offer. "Calming, nopony should be alone on any night, this one most of all. Come with me, join the celebrations. I think you need some happiness tonight. Remember not this night as the day you killed your daughter, but the night you set her free at last." He asked, and extended a hoof. And to the Doctor's great surprise, Calming took it. "You're right, nopony should be alone on Hearth's Warming, and I think it's time I stopped being alone." He smiled, and the Doctor smiled back. And Twilight smiled with them. Even though she fully hadn't gotten over her aunt's death by the hooves of the Headless Horse, she now knew you couldn't just remember a pony by how their life ended, but how they lived it as well. She knew Cherry Berry lived a good life, full of happiness and joy, and it was just now time to let her go... "I... I think I'll be sending a letter to Princess Celestia soon..." Ponyville Town Hall: Hearth's Warming Eve Celebrations It was with grand fever and joy that the Hearth's Warming Eve Celebrations kicked off in grand fashion. As Applejack and her family visited Apple Fritter in the hospital, bringing her gifts and food, back at the Town Hall the Doctor and company along with their new friend Calming Heartbeats enjoyed the spirit of the season. A band, consisting of Octavia Melody on cello, Noteworthy on piano and the Ponytones led by Rarity for the vocals sung a little song as Rainbow danced with her old friend Fluttershy, twirling her around on the dance floor as Twilight looked on sadly. "Guess this is one holiday I'll have to do without the dancing, eh?" Youtube Video The Ponytones, they sung of this tale. Once, a pony found a stowaway upon a ship in Hearth's Warming Day. She asked him of his tale, even though she ought to throw him to the whales and all the stranger in return said was "Come here, let's dance." Twilight listened to the song as she bobbed her head to the song and smiled sadly. The song said of the stranger wanting to return to his lover on Hearth's Warming Day, even as the singer wanted to be with him. "But borrow or steal, I'll be with my lover on Hearth's Warming Day. I'll run and I'll roam and I'll cover the ground, next Hearth's Warming I'll see her around." Twilight sang even as she mused to herself that "Guess I'll have to wait another year to dance with Rainbow on Hearth's Warming." But then, as if a Hearth's Warming miracle shined down upon her, Rainbow noticed her friend's sadness and offered up her hoof. "Want to dance Twi?" She asked flirtatiously with a wink of her eye, and Twilight took the offered up hoof in return. "Gladly." She said and took up the dance as Rainbow smiled. END Interlude (A Royal Date for a Princess)Canterlot Castle: Celestia's Bedroom Princess Celestia, looked up to and admired all across the lands of Equus, even in nations far from Equestria like the Griffin Kingdom and the Zebra Countries for her great wisdom and beauty. She'd lived thousands of years, (She'd long forgotten the exact age.) and sometimes, if she was to be honest it felt like it at times with all she'd been through. From fighting on the frontlines of many a war to losing her love King Sombra to the darkness and learning he'd enslaved the Crystal Ponies of the now long lost Crystal Empire and having to fight him alongside her sister and being forced to banish him to the depths of the icy north and then losing her sister to the spirit of darkness and fear known as Nightmare Moon, and once again, being forced to banish somepony she loved to a place where they'd likely never return. But to her surprise, her prayers had been answered and Luna HAD indeed returned to her side, all thanks to the efforts of her prized student and adopted daughter Twilight Sparkle and her five friends that comprised the Elements of Harmony. "Do you really think you can stop me, Twilight Sparkle? You're just a simple unicorn, while I am a goddess! I am the night itself, and I WILL make it last forever!" A pure black pony with a mane of stars and wearing blue armor yelled at her foe. "And don't get me started on those friends of yours. Newsflash for you. Friendship is. A. LIE!" Twilight glared harshly at her foe, while they stood in the ruins of an old and crumbling castle. Nearby, her newfound friends from Ponyville watched in shock and fear. "No, that's not true. Friendship exists and you know, deep down Princess!" She pleaded, but the incarnation of nightmares and the shadows themselves were not willing to listen. "DO NOT CALL ME THAT! I am not Princess Luna, there is only Nightmare Moon!" The being who was once Celestia's sister roared in rage. The shadows themselves seemed to grow colder and darker, as if they had minds of their own. But that wasn't possible, was it? Twilight ignored them even as they reached for her and charged at her opponent. Nightmare burst out laughing at the sight. "You seriously think that'll work?" Twilight came closer. Nightmare gaped for a second. "...Wow, guess she is serious." She said, stunned. She readied herself but Twilight didn't attack. Instead she slid right under the dark Alicorn goddess and to the chest beyond pulling out it's contents with her magic. "Here, catch!" With that, Twilight tossed the items known in legend as the Elements of Harmony to her friends. "You want a demonstration of friendship, Nightmare? Here, I've got one JUST for you!" Twilight shouted as the Elements charged up and a golden crown with the final element, Magic appeared on her head. Then, six bright beams of light came out and fired, directing themselves towards the Nightmare spirit... Celestia remembered the joy she had felt when her sister returned. For one thousand years she had been alone, with nopony to be by her side in ruling the lands and helping and guiding the ponies of Equestria in their daily lives when they needed it, or protecting them when enemies threatened the safety of her kingdom and her little ponies that she cared for so much. But now her sister was back, and it seemed she was here to stay forevermore. But Celestia also felt another feeling, a feeling of great guilt. If she had just watched her sister and known what she was feeling, the feelings of jealously towards the sun and the ponies that bathed in it's glory and not loved the night for all it's beauty and the grandness and kindness of it's ruler that came along with it that was so harshly and wrongly ignored for HER, she might have been able to stop Nightmare Moon from ever consuming her sister. But she never did, and all the blame for Nightmare Moon's actions rested solely on her and her alone. She had never told Luna of her feelings and guilt, and although she dearly wanted to, she could never quite work up the courage to do so. Celestia honestly felt a bit silly and ashamed of herself. Here she was, a pony who was said to be one of the wisest and kindest ponies in the land, and yet she could never work of the bravery to tell her sister all that she felt. Wanting to find something to get her mind of her complicated problems with the relationship between her sister and her, she turned to her latest communication cube from the strange and yet wonderful alien pony from another universe known as the Doctor. He'd still been sending her letters from time to time when he wasn't off saving the world from whatever threat may have arisen. Dear Princess "Well, hello again! It's me again, the Doctor. (And no, I'm still not telling you my real name no matter how many times your sister bribes you with cake. Yes, I know about your little... obsession. Not exactly like it's the best kept secret in Equestria after all.) Annnnyyyways, where was I? Ah yes, telling you what I've been up to. Been a few stars to the right and to a place they call Never Land. Met the oddest denizens, fillies and colts who never seem to grow up, led by this pony dressed like Robin Hoof and his lovely, if not a tad bit grumpy companion (Somepony been taking cues from me it seems.) Breezy named Tinker Belle. OH! Before I forget, met your favorite author J.R. Manekin and somehow convinced him to sign a copy of his King of the Bracelet novels. Actually, convinced wasn't the right word. He was, and I'm quoting directly here, "Would really be honored to sign a copy of my novels for the Princess of the Sun." Huh, imagine that. I thought it would be harder to get you an anniversary present of our first meeting two years ago exactly. I always seemingly have the worst luck with timing, irony huh? Anyways, you should be seeing me and your signed trio of books whenever I decided to show up for my next visit." Hopefully seeing you soon, the Doctor Celestia smiled, the letters from the Doctor she got always cheered her up and got her mind off her worries, no matter how big or small they may be. They made her feel like a normal pony, away from the burdens of the crown, if only for a little while. Part of her, if only privately, wanted to see the Doctor and get to know him better, get closer to him, and not just meet him when things went to crap as the ponies nowadays liked to say. The Doctor was very wise, seemingly as wise as her and somehow always seemed to know the right things to say to cheer somepony up when they needed it, and she had to admit she was one of those ponies who sometimes found herself needing that very same advice at times, especially now with her feelings of guilt towards Luna and how to deal with them best and work up the courage and fortitude to talk to her about them. Suddenly, just as the Solar Princess was finally getting up out of her bed, groaning to herself in reminder of the surely tiring day of dealing with nobles and paperwork ahead of her she heard a very familiar and very welcomed groaning sound. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! There, appearing in front of her on her personal balcony was the fantastical machine known as the TARDIS, and stepping out of it was the Doctor dressed in a nice suit with a package in one of his hooves signed "To my biggest fan". Celestia's jaw dropped in shock. She certainly hadn't been expecting the Doctor in her bedroom, especially this early in the morning. She hadn't even raised the sun yet for crying out loud! "And here I thought you weren't supposed to be in somepony's bedchambers till the third date." Celestia teased in a flirty manner, her surprise soon replaced with joy upon seeing her best friend. "Weeeeellll...." The Doctor admitted, scratching his head with a hoof after setting the package down on Celestia's beside table. "I DID say I'd try and show up soon didn't I?" Celestia chuckled to herself as she used her magic to levitate her royal regalia onto herself, and use a comb on her unkept bedheaded mane at the same time as well, everything being enveloped in a golden glow of her magical aura. "That you did Doctor, that you did." She conceded. "So what are you here for, besides a delivery from across time?" She inquired, one tired eyebrow raised in curiosity as she stepped out onto the balcony to begin her daily duties of raising the sun. The Doctor watched in awe as the sun slowly rose over the horizon, casting a golden glow over the city of Canterlot. All across the city, ponies yawned as they too, like their Princess began to get ready to start their day. The stars slowly faded from the sky and the night at first became purple colored, before rapidly changing from dark blue to a light blue color as it changed to daylight. The Doctor smiled, he never got tired of seeing this sight. Every day, he awoke a few minutes before Celestia ever did just to see the sun rise over Equestria, no matter what time he was in or where he was. This was one of the ways that truly showed the magnificent power of the royal Princess of the Sun and just why ponies thought of her as a goddess of incredible power and beauty. "Came to ask you on a date. Thought it was about time we got to know each other better outside of... Y'know, world threatening madness and chaos." The Doctor commented lightly and Celestia's head whirled around to face him in shock, a rare showing of emotion to anypony outside her sister or Twilight. It was part of Celestia's nature to keep her emotions closely guarded, just to spare herself anymore pain. "I must admit, the idea of a date with you Doctor does sound... enticing." The Princess of the Sun remarked as she entertained the idea of a date with the Doctor. She had to admit, she had ideas of dating somepony, especially somepony as kind and caring as the Doctor, but the problems of immortality came with the price of you always losing somepony you cared about in the end. But here was a chance, a chance for her to maybe, just maybe find that Special Somepony and not have to pay that awful price in the end. After a few minutes consideration, Celestia finally made up her mind. "Alright Doctor, I accept." Celestia smiled, knowing she could be back to her castle at the very same time she left and nopony not even knowing she was gone, plus withhold off her royal duties for a time, which was the best bit of all of this in her mind. (Dealing with the ones like Blueblood were always a pain in the neck.) "So... Where, or should I mean when shall we go?" The Doctor could only smile. The TARDIS, high above Equus Celestia gazed in awe at the sight in front of her. There she was, sitting in front of the open doors of the TARDIS gazing out at the world of Equus as stars glittered in space and the moon where her sister was once imprisoned orbited it. The closest thing to Celestia ever seeing these stars and galaxies all around her was from a telescope in the Canterlot Royal Observatory, and now here she was seeing it firsthoof. It was a truly beautiful, and awe-inspiring sight to behold. It truly drove home just how fragile, if not wondrous as well, their world was and only deepened Celestia's resolve to protect it from whatever threat may come, and she resolved to be on the front lines of those battles if necessary. "Doctor... I have something to confess." Celestia admitted as the Time Pony's head turned to her in curiosity and concern. He could detect the worry and fear in her voice. Although he didn't know it, Celestia was about to confess all of her worries and doubts that had been plaguing her for months. "I... It's about my sister." Celestia admitted. "You know the story of Nightmare Moon, and how I had to send her there, right there." She said, gesturing to the moon. "I... If I had noticed her feelings of jealously towards me, I might not have made the mistakes I made, and not been alone for all of those painful years." "Doctor..." She continued. "For those first few years, I had nightmares, nightmares of Luna coming back and blaming me, rightfully so I might add for what I did to her. She... She killed me over and over just as vengeance for my sins. I was so afraid... terrified even that these things I saw might come true. I was ashamed as well, for fearing my own sister! Ashamed, Doctor! Can you imagine?" Celestia said, tears streaming down her face. "I... I've been where you are Princess. I've done things I've never been proud of, and will probably haunt me forever. My homeworld... If you could have ever seen it during the last days of the Time War, impossible things coming out of the woodwork left and right, my own government, corrupt and decadent plotting to bring Gallifrey to Earth just to save themselves, all the while the Daleks ravaging the planet. Finally... It... It became too much. It became too much for me. I... I had to destroy my own homeworld. I... I had no choice." The Doctor replied sadly, remembering his time when he dropped the name of the Doctor and went to war, something he swore never to do. Even now, he remembered those very words. "Doctor no more." "By Faust..." Celestia whispered, only now realizing how similar she and the Doctor were as they bared their souls together. "Take my advice Princess, secrets destroy relationships. Tell your sister about your guilt and how you feel... Wait, sorry, that came out wrong. Rassilion above, I sound like Jack!" The Doctor realized in horror before he quickly got things back to a more... mature line of conversation. "Anyways, you get my meaning, Faust awful as I was at giving it." The Doctor said to Celestia and she understood immediately. "Yeah, I think I do." Celestia smiled, her worries gone and her confidence in herself restored. Then a question came to her. "Hey Doctor, can we do this again sometime?" She asked and the Doctor could only smile in response. Later that day, just as Luna was beginning to raise the moon, Celestia approached her. The Lunar Princess noticed her sister's expression. "Sister, does thou have something to talk about?" She asked in concern. Celestia took a deep breath before answering. "Yes Lulu, we do. There are some... things I must confess." Celestia said, and prepared herself for the long conversation to come... END Interlude: (Two Sides of a Tale)Shining's Office, Royal Guard Barracks: Canterlot Shining was nursing a headache, and he knew why. Exactly why, and how something had set it off. Or make that someponies you see. He didn't want to talk about it. But of course seeing as how some deity somewhere hated him he was going to have to tell it anyway as he soon found out. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! Shining's eyes widened and he gave out a distinct groan as he heard the sound. He normally liked it, but not on today of all days as he knew it might just make his headache even worse if that were possible. "Oh no... Don't tell me." Shining murmured. All around him, a great room with many porthole like things in the walls and a round console with a sea green translucent pillar in the center of it and a metal floor around the console itself began to appear taking up the area around Shining and his desk. And at the console fiddling with it's controls was a grey furred stallion with a messy mane wearing a tweed suit and bowtie. A fez sat on his head. "Oh Celestia above, who knew the Neighponeise knew how to party like there was no tomorrow? Well, there would have been if we hadn't saved them, eh Cadence?" The somewhat mad stallion laughed as he spun around in his place. Nearby, a pink alicorn watched with a expression of amusement before her eyes widened on seeing her coltfriend. "Shiny!" She cried, accidently making her coltfriend's headache worse. The Doctor whirled his head around and saw Shining and he looked a bit ticked off. 'You, you think you can just come in my Tardis without asking?" He shouted. "I have rules you know, breaking them is not cool!" "You appeared around me!" Shining shouted back, and the Doctor suddenly looked very embarrassed with himself along with a touch angry as he muttered "Oh, right... Well, in that case..." It was then Cadence noticed her boyfriend's expression and the fact that he had a ice pack on his head. "You alright? Go on, tell me what's wrong." She said in concern and Shining groaned once more as he muttered "I don't want to talk about it..." "No, please do. Maybe I can help." Cadence said as she kissed him on the cheek and rubbed his shoulders making Shining blush. He hated it when she showed her affections in public. "Well, since you asked..." Shining began. A hour before... Shining was in his office, just going over some maneuvers in his head when right at that moment both Blueblood and Lightning Dust barged in making him look up. Now Blueblood was probably normal enough, but I think you're probably wondering what Lightning Dust is doing here. Well, after Lightning helped to take down the rogue Captain Boltstrike she was put on probation instead of being taken back to the psyhicatric ward thanks to Shining pulling some strings. For almost a year now by Shining's count, she'd loyally defended Equestria from whatever threat my had arisen even during the Discord crisis. "What is it?" Shining asked in annoyance. "Tell me, and make it quick. I've got work to do." Both Lightning and Blueblood began yelling angry shouts of accusation and pointing at the other each at the same time making it impossible to tell what was being said. "Okay, let me rephrase that." Shining corrected himself. "Tell me what happened, but not at the same time." Little did the Captain of the Guard know it, but he'd sealed his fate... Lightning's Story: So, there I was at this bar in Canterlot. Very classy. I was just enjoying myself, flirting with other mares and stallions and all that but just for fun. I wasn't being serious about it, I never am. Anyways, I was just about to get up and leave for another bar, you understand I like to bar crawl just to see what else this city's got to offer. ...Damn, I've gotten off topic. So there I was leaving when I heard Blueblood's voice. I whirled my head around, and there he was trying to flirt with the bartender, Berry-Something or other. I never caught the name. "Come on, just one date?" The Prince asked, only for Berry to shake her head and laugh. "Sorry, you've got to defeat me in a drinking contest first. I only go for the ones who can hold their drinks and not bring them back up again. That's just how it works with me really." Berry commented, and Blueblood looked offended. "Is that a challenge? Well then, I say I accept!" He stated proudly. I laughed at this, as I'd seen Blueblood try and drink before. It never ended well. Let me put it to you this way, it was like watching a circus. Only without the bears, lions and elephants and only the clowns. Really drunk clowns. "Well go on then, buy yourselves a few drinks and get to it." I egged on, wanting to see how this ended or to be more accurate how badly. With Shining, Blueblood and Lightning "THAT is not how things went!" Blueblood shouted furiously, with Lightning raising a eyebrow. "Oh, how did it go then?" She asked sarcastically. "Fine then, I'll tell you the real truth and only the real truth!" Blueblood retorted before he began his version of what went down that night. Shining raised a eyebrow, this was going to be good... Blueblood's Story... So there I was, watching Lightning flirt up a storm with the other bar patrons. It was just sad to watch, with none of them looking remotely interested in her. Mind you, I was having better luck with the bartender. Let me introduce you to Ms Berry Punch. She had the most beautiful fur in a grape color and wore a beautiful black dress. Quite possibly, she was the most elegant lady I had- With Shining, Blueblood and Lightning Lightning burst out laughing interrupting Blueblood's tale. "Elegant?" She chortled. "She smelled like hard cider! And another thing, for your information anypony I flirted with looked interested. Some even flirted right back." Lightning snapped. Blueblood rolled his eyes. "...If I may continue." Shining sighed before letting out a "Go ahead..." while in his mind he asked for Celestia or some other powerful deity to give him strength to be able to bear through this. Blueblood's Story... (Continued) Anyways, at one point as me and Berry talked Lightning Dust walked up and started flirting with what I hoped would soon be my marefriend! The nerve of her, right? "You know, with all of those stallions waiting on you foreleg and hoof you would think you'd just have a stab at one of them." I told her. "But nooooo, you had had to go after my date!" Whatever came out of her mouth next I didn't care to listen to. "Blah-blah-blah..." Lightning said over and over in my mind. With Shining, Blueblood and Lightning "EXCUSE ME?" Lightning roared making Shining's eardrums ring. This would later what he thought would have been the start of his headache. Blueblood whimpered at Lightning advanced on him, with the smell of ozone in the air as he tugged at his collar. "Go after your date?" Lightning snarled looking as if she was ready to fire off one of her bolts. "Far as I could see she wasn't interested in you and actually looked a bit annoyed." "Uh, let's calm down now..." Shining tried to placate but to no avail. "And another thing, first you say nopony is interested in me and then you say you saw them waiting on me on foreleg and hoof. You're contradicting yourself Bluey." Lightning almost sneered. "Okay, I admit I may have taken a few liberties but Shining gets the point right?" Blueblood asked nervously and looked towards Shining for help but none was received. Shining wasn't stupid enough to get between a angry mare who could fry you to a crisp if she wanted to. It was then a Royal Guard came in looking rather nervous at the sight of the angry Lightning. Shining couldn't blame him really. "What is it?" Shining asked, eager for something to distract him from this. "Uh, there was this incident at this bar last night... The Prancing Pony I believe." The guard responded, and looked as if he would bolt from the room at any second. "Believe me, I noticed." Shining replied dryly. "Please tell me you have security footage so I can deal with... this." He said, gesturing to both Lightning and Blueblood. The guard held up a tape. On it, Shining, Lightning and Blueblood all saw three ponies drinking up a storm with everypony else cheering them on. The three ponies in question were Lightning, Blueblood and Berry. Berry was wearing a black dress, just like Blueblood said she was but it was covered in cider. "Uh... Both Lightning and Blueblood owe a huge tab." The guard said nervously. Shining glared at both Lightning and Blueblood who gave him sheepish smiles. Shining pointed to the door. Present Time... "...So that's what happened." Shining sighed, as he finished explaining his tale. The Doctor looked as if he were in disbelief while Cadence looked sympathetic. "Aww... Poor baby." Cadence said. "Is there anything I can do to make up for it?" She then smiled seductively and gave her coltfriend a searing kiss leaving him dazed while the Doctor groaned in disgust and looked away. "...That'll do." Shining whispered before falling over. END Sleep Part 1 (R.I.F.T)There are things out there in the big and vast universe nopony understands. Things that would want to gobble you up and swallow you whole without a second thought. And sometimes, those things escape to Equestria, either it being to flee some sort of bigger and scarier thing, or just falling through cracks in space and time. You see, it's a little known fact, but the city of Canterlot was built unknowingly on a rift in space and time. It took a lot of hard work and effort by Princess Celestia to cover up this fact to avoid inciting mass panic, and even more hard work and effort to understand this rift. But that wasn't the only problems faced by the Solar Monarch. Like I said, sometimes things fall through. Monstrous beings so horrible they would give you nightmares that would never make you want to sleep again. Sleep, that's a main theme of this episode. Dreams as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself. What we must focus on is the continuation of the story of the organization formed to stop and contain the rift breaches. Nopony knew when it was first formed, but the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense was formed for this exact purpose. They existed for years, working in secret, capturing and containing the various creatures coming through the breaches. Until, suddenly, the rift closed, with nopony knowing why. (Celestia often suspected the Doctor had a hoof in this, but she never asked.) Without a purpose, the Bureau was shut down and it's secrets laid dormant for years. But that was then and this is now. With the arrival of the Doctor, and the Weeping Angels, along with numerous other threats to Equestria like the Daleks and the Windigos, Celestia knew it was time to revive the organization, under a new name. That name? R.I.F.T. Youtube Video Now: The Bunker "Ugh, do we really have to move and catalogue all this crap?" The former captain of the Night Guard, Galaxy Swirls grimaced, in no way in a good mood. He'd left the Night Guard after the Windigo invasion, citing "Shellshock" as his own personal reasoning. He'd even refused treatment (Threatening to cut their heads off with his scythe, or drain their blood along with other various violent actions. To this day, nopony could actually tell if he was just joking around in his own half-crazed manner or not.) by the good doctors and nurses at the Canterlot Hospital. Both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia knew better, Galaxy was lying about his supposed "Shellshock" and knew that he had recently become very interested in the Para and Extranormal qualities that lay out there in the dark, lying in secret just waiting for them to expose themselves once more. It also didn't help his case that Celestia had noticed the secretive glances the Bat-Pony took towards Sunburst when he thought nopony else was looking. "Well, with what we've been left with... I'd say yeah." Another pony, one with green fur and a crosshairs for her Cutie Mark replied dryly to him as she came down one of two staircases that led to the upper entranceway. The walls were a plain beige color, illuminated by lights in the walls with intricate designs carved into the metal railings on the steps and walkways. "The Bureau didn't do exactly a good job of cleaning up after themselves after everything folded." "Puh! I'll say!" Galaxy chortled as he reorganized some books he'd found in a cardboard box. The books had titles like "Ghouls, Ghosts and Demons, Exorcism for You" and "Monster Killing for Dummies: The Abridged Version". Without his Night Guard armor, Galaxy's finely toned body from years upon years of training in the guard could be seen. He had pure black fur, and a dark brown mane along with pure black wings with a shield with a scythe on it for his Cutie Mark. He took a glance, and then a quick read through of the book he was currently holding, a hardbacked book with a red cover and gold lettering reading "Exorcising Zebrawa Demons, 101 things you may want to know" and sighed. What use was all of this? Demons hadn't been sighted, not even in rumor in Equestria or any other land beyond it for years. It was like the Bureau was just built on over-preparedness, or paranoia as Galaxy preferred to think of it. "Well, look on the bright side, you can put this on your 1,000 things you did before you died". A light grey pegasus with a scroll with a quill over it as his Cutie Mark chirped merrily. His name was Scrabbling Quill, a young pony who Celestia had recruited for his superior organizational skills and kind heartness. However, that wasn't his most glaring trait. That belonged to his constant over eagerness to help out in anyway he could, often to the point of annoyance of everypony around him. "Pretty sure that's not what it's called, Quill." Another pegasi, one with tan fur and a red mane with a pair of glasses set nicely on his face deadpanned as he briefly glanced up from the crossword puzzle that was currently occupying his mind before getting right back to it. His wife, the pony with green fur and a target on her flank gave him a look of annoyance and sighed in resignation. Nothing, it seemed, not even her, could get Sudoku's mind off a puzzle once he started it. This wasn't always a bad thing, but when everypony was supposed to be pitching in and doing their part to clean up and reorganize the new R.I.F.T Headquarters, it really grated on her last nerves. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be helping?" Target Quartermane barked, making Sudoku jump slightly from the sheer loudness of her voice. "Sorry, so sorry, but you know h-how it is with me and puzzles." Sudoku swiftly apologized. In the background, Scrabbling snickered and said "Whipped." before a harsh glare was sent in his direction by Target. "Want me to rub your hooves? You know how much you like that..." Sudoku said flirtatiously and Target gazed upon him with half lidded eyes and stroked his chin, before whispering to him "Hmm, I'll think about it..." in a seductive voice that made Sudoku shudder in anticipation for what was surely to come later. In the background, Galaxy mimed a gagging noise while Scrabbling made kissy sounds earning them both harsh looks. Target groaned, honestly, the stallions she worked with were such idiots sometimes. Just then, she caught Galaxy eying a blade that looked as if it had been made from a jawbone and quickly took it away from him. "Hey, don't touch that! You don't know what kinds of curses might be on that! Could turn you into a demon for all you know!" Target barked, before setting the blade down on a nearby table that had a map of Equus on it before she stormed off, finally fed up with her comrade's idiocy. But when nopony was looking, Galaxy grinned and took the blade and hid it in a pocket of the brown leather jacket that he wore. Then, a thought came to him. "Hey, where's Sunburst?" The Vaults The Vaults, as they were known were only for keeping the most dangerous of artifacts and creatures that fallen through the cracks scattered throughout Canterlot. It had taken the Bureau years to collect everything that they'd found, and keep it safe from dangerous hooves. Inside the corridor, it was dark and dingy, with what little light provided coming from warehouse level lighting hanging from the concrete ceiling. Sunburst walked nervously through the corridors, various creatures roaring and screeching at him from their magically warded cells. At one point, he passed a particularly unusual creature, one that resembled some freakish cross between a bug and a bear, with most of it's body a grizzly bear, but with bug's wings and a bee's stinger attached to the very end of it. "O-Oh my..." Sunburst whispered as the "Bug-Bear" (As nopony had could think of anything else to call it) roared at him, spitting... well spit in his face, beard and glasses. Rubbing them clean with a soft cloth, Sunburst sighed as he looked towards another cell, where the Weeping Angel the Doctor, Shining and Celestia herself had tricked into looking into it's own reflection now sat along with it's icy mirror. Sunburst shuddered, that thing, even when it sat unmoving, still gave him chills. Sunburst, even now, remembered Celestia's very words on the creature. "S-so far as we can see ma'am, it's been dormant. Actually, I d-dare say it might be dead at this point." He explained nervously. Celestia shook her head. "No, Sunburst. Make no mistake, this thing is not dead. Only dormant. It's biding it's time, and you and I both know it. If it weren't for it's reflection in front of it, this thing would go on the rampage and kill us all." Sunburst, on hearing those words took a step or two back. "I... I see. E-Even you, ma'am?" He stuttered. "Yes, even me." Celestia finished. Sunburst swallowed. Even the pay he got wasn't worth this... "Yep, still not worth it." Sunburst muttered to himself as he looked towards another cell, where the statue of Discord, still in his fearful expression from being blasted with the Elements of Harmony sat, after being moved here from the Canterlot Royal Gardens. Celestia's official explanation was that he was a dangerous artifact, and so deserved to be placed here, though rumor had it that it was just really because the statue was freaking everypony out. Sunburst personally believed the latter. It certainly scared him. "Oh great, so we're starting statue collections now?" Came a slightly teasing voice from behind him. Sunburst turned a full 180 degrees to face the voice's owner, a teal blue pegasus with a yellow lightning bolt (Matching her manestyle perfectly) with stardust below it as her Cutie Mark. Yep, Lightning Dust was part of R.I.F.T as well. Her reasoning for being here was because that the Royal Guard didn't quite get the adventure she was hoping for as all it turned out to be was just standing around guarding things half the time, and she'd worked off her community service anyways, so she was free to do as she pleased. She hoped being in R.I.F.T would provide her the adventure she desperately craved, and perhaps a bit of redemption in the process for all the bad she'd done. After all, it was an alien who nearly made her commit her greatest crime against Equestria, help kill Princess Celestia, and therefore she wanted to get back at any other bad aliens who came to Equestria, and be on the front lines of those battlefields. "B-Believe me, those statues are nothing to joke about." Sunburst whispered, gesturing to Discord, whose "Jokes" had become infamous from before he was a statue. Sunburst had done his reading. Before both of the Royal Sisters had harnessed the powers of the Elements of Harmony for the first time, the world was in chaos for one hundred years, nothing making sense. It seemed hopeless, until the Elements turned Discord into a statue for the first time. And that was saying nothing about the high danger level of the Weeping Angel statue. Sunburst probably was being paranoid, but he could swear both of the statues were seemingly following him and Lightning's every move, impossible as it was. Suddenly, there was a snarling sound as a animalistic creature wearing a boiler suit jumped towards the two from it's cell, it's fang like teeth bared and ready to chomp down on the blood-veins of Lightning's and Sunburst's necks before it was suddenly pushed back by the magical warding set up back when the Bureau was still in operation. "Okay, what the Tartarus is THAT thing?" Lightning exclaimed in disgust. Sunburst read the small golden plaque above the cell, which read in bold faced letters "Weevil: Janet". "Okay, so it's called a Weevil... and apparently it's named Janet." Sunburst replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Somepony has a warped sense of humor, if ya ask me." Lightning muttered before she turned towards the big metal door that had a wheel on it that you had to turn to unlock said door. "C'mon, let's get out of here, this place gives me the creeps." The twosome made their way back up to the main level of the R.I.F.T headquarters where they found everything STILL in the middle of being reorganized and checked for curses. Sudoku had stopped working on his crossword and was now reciting a spell from a book to check a pure golden fiddle for any spells laid upon it. Sunburst's eyes widened. He recognized that particular fiddle, it was the exact same fiddle Tirek used as an offering for when he challenged a young Appleloosan pony to a fiddle duel. Through the years, it had made it's way from the pony who'd defeated Tirek through the hooves of private collectors to now here. Nearby Galaxy Swirls was putting a jar filled with an ethereal dark blue mist in a safe and locking it away. Sunburst knew what this was as well thanks to his extensive research. This was the last known remaining essence of Nightmare Moon. He even knew how it had ended up here. "Do you really think you can stop me, Twilight Sparkle? You're just a simple unicorn, while I am a goddess! I am the night itself, and I WILL make it last forever!" A pure black pony with a mane of stars and wearing blue armor yelled at her foe. "And don't get me started on those friends of yours. Newsflash for you. Friendship is. A. LIE!" Twilight glared harshly at her foe, while they stood in the ruins of an old and crumbling castle. Nearby, her newfound friends from Ponyville watched in shock and fear. "No, that's not true. Friendship exists and you know, deep down Princess!" She pleaded, but the incarnation of nightmares and the shadows themselves were not willing to listen. "DO NOT CALL ME THAT! I am not Princess Luna, there is only Nightmare Moon!" The being who was once Celestia's sister roared in rage. The shadows themselves seemed to grow colder and darker, as if they had minds of their own. But that wasn't possible, was it? Twilight ignored them even as they reached for her and charged at her opponent. Nightmare burst out laughing at the sight. "You seriously think that'll work?" Twilight came closer. Nightmare gaped for a second. "...Wow, guess she is serious." She said, stunned. She readied herself but Twilight didn't attack. Instead she slid right under the dark Alicorn goddess and to the chest beyond pulling out it's contents with her magic. "Here, catch!" With that, Twilight tossed the items known in legend as the Elements of Harmony to her friends. "You want a demonstration of friendship, Nightmare? Here, I've got one JUST for you!" Twilight shouted as the Elements charged up and a golden crown with the final element, Magic appeared on her head. Then, six bright beams of light came out and fired, directing themselves towards the Nightmare spirit. All while this happened, as Nightmare screamed "NOOOOOO!" in a mix of pure rage and terror, there was a familiar sound, that in the chaos, nopony noticed. *VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP!* A dark blue box reading "Police Public Call Box" appeared behind a pillar and the Doctor still in his ponified Tenth form stepped out of it holding a jar and as Nightmare Moon's essence evaporated and cleared away to reveal the form of Princess Luna, a small portion of that essence was sucked into that jar that the Doctor held and he slammed the lid on it tightly and turned it and it locked with a click. "So, where were you two?" Target inquired with a raised eyebrow before an amused smirk that would have made Discord proud came to her face, making both Sunburst and Lightning very nervous indeed. "Don't tell me you two were off kissing in a closet someplace?" She laughed, and if you listened closely, you could hear Galaxy Swirls make a small hissing sound of jealously. "N-No, no, anything but that!" Sunburst denied as he and his companion's faces flushed red. "If you say so..." Target singsonged, not entirely believing them before her face turned stern. "Now get back to work you maggots!" Sunburst, as he began to place books on bookshelves and taking them out of their cardboard boxes, mumbled quietly to himself "What did she think we were doing? Honestly, she's worst than that Wonderbolts captain... Oh, what's her name...? Spitfire! Yeah, that's it. All she needs a whistle..." and sighed as he hung his head. Life really sucked for him sometimes. But even as he grumbled away to himself, nopony ever noticed the jar that held Nightmare Moon's essence click and open itself with the mist slipping out through an open window and if you just listened closely, you could hear a small cackle. "At last, my chance to take my revenge has arrived. Soon, those damned ponies who locked me away, especially that "Doctor" shall feel my wrath. And I know just the perfect way to stab them in their perfect little pony hearts. After all, what better way to break a pony's spirit than by the betrayal of one of their own...?" Sleep Part 3: (Night Terrors)Canterlot Castle The stars glittered in the night sky as Luna rose the moon high into the sky, allowing herself a small smile at it' grand majesty. It was a full moon tonight, the last of which it would be until another cycle. There were many myths surrounding the moon, the Mare in the Moon being one of them. Other included wereponies, which to be honest even the most paranormally-minded of ponies consider to be bunk. But then again, everypony considered demons to be bunk for a long while, but as Twilight Sparkle, the Doctor and Rainbow Dash were finding out, some myths, like the Headless Horse before them, are more than fairy tales after all. But we'll get to that later. Right now, we must focus on the present. Tonight the moon was at its largest at had been for centuries, and it was a blue moon at that. Now, the Nightmare Spirit's powers had always been connected to the moon, and with the moon this large and it being a blue moon, they were at their peak, which was what allowed her to possess Rarity so easily and also, the Nightmare was at the highest power level it had been in centuries, exactly over one thousand years to be exact. Not since Nightmare Moon had they been at this level of power. It was going to be a long night ahead for the citizens of Canterlot, and a terrifying one as well, because the spirit wasn't named the Nightmare without VERY good reasoning behind that. From her balcony, as Princess Celestia watched her sister raise the moon, she glanced at the stars. Every constellation, every planet glittered and glistened in the pure black sky. The Big Dipper, the Ursa Minor and Majors, the Archer, they were just as beautiful as they had been for the past few nights. Celestia sighed in bliss as she got ready to get under her covers for a peaceful and tranquil slumber. But then, out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed something. The Draco constellation, it wasn't complete. No, that wasn't accurate. Some of it's stars were missing. And now that she thought about it, one of the planets in the sky had gone completely dark as well. Celestia's eyes widened even as she flashed back over a year before, to the party celebrating the defeat of the Windigo King and his off-spring. One year and two months ago... Outside on the Castle grounds, Celestia gazed up at the stars. She needed some time to be herself with her thoughts. Times had definitely changed. A little over a year ago, she wouldn't have even dreamed of what she'd seen and heard from the Doctor's tales. And now she knew the universe was so much bigger and more wonderful and dangerous then the Solar Princess could possibly have imagined. Celestia's thoughts then turned back to the stars. While she wasn't Luna, she could appreciate the beauty of the nighttime sky and all of its many wonders. She could see the appeal of space and why the Doctor traveled up there. Suddenly Celestia blinked as she noticed something. She could have sworn several stars that were just there, had vanished as if something had removed them in one split-second motion. "Maybe I'm just imagining things..." Celestia murmured as she turned to go back inside. But why did it still bother her so much? Celestia sighed to herself, Luna would probably tease her about being paranoid but then again the paranoid were always the ones who survived and Celestia hadn't lived this long by not being cautious. Back in the present, Celestia's eye narrowed. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her every bone and every sense. Something was putting the stars out. Celestia, using all of her power tried to sense what exactly was going on in the surrounding solar system, but she suddenly felt a block as she reached a very specific galaxy, one named the Medusa Cascade, which was a flurry of blues and oranges of all shades. But she pushed on through, and saw an image she hoped never to see again. A pepper potted shaped figure with a blue eyestalk and two arms, one ending in a plunger, and the other in a laser, with the monster's (As that was the only word for it) entire body coated in red, with it's casing having gold detailing and the bumps on it's body also in gold. It then spoke, in a deep and monotone voice. "NO REPORTS OF THE TIME LORD. WE ARE BEYOND THE DOCTOR'S REACH!" Then, Celestia flashed back to the very ending months of the Griffin/Pony Civil War seventeen years prior... Seventeen Years Ago: Wintergreen Street The Doctor knew as soon as the Dalek stated "Correct", it had figured out both his and its own true identity so when it fired its laser he knew he had to move and was ready for it, dodging the beam just in time before it would have hit and forced him into his next regeneration. He didn't want to go, not yet anyway. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR!" The Dalek cried in it's monotone voice. The Dalek fired blasts wildly going every which way some even hitting guards making them drop dead on the spot. The Doctor knew, every second he spent in the room there was a chance another pony could die in the process. He had to lead his foe away from here, all the while figuring out how to stop it permanently. "Hey Dalek! You want me?" The Doctor bellowed, and the Dalek turned to look at him. "Come and get me!" He cried, before running off with the Dalek following him out of the tent. In the meantime, Shining grabbed Boltstrike by the chestplate with his magic. It was very telling that nopony tried to stop him or pull him away. Meanwhile, the Doctor ran with the Dalek in pursuit even following him down to Wintergreen Street, the main part of the nearby village. Ponies tried to stop it, but only ended up exterminated for their efforts sadly. Nothing but the Doctor could stop the mad creature, and he knew it. He just had to figure out how... "Alright, that's the best you can do? Go on, try and aim will you? I'll bet you can't shoot me in the nose!" The Doctor taunted, only enraging the Dalek further. Now normally, he'd consider this reckless and a good way to get himself regenerated but whenever he faced a Dalek, the killers of his people he generally ignored some of his own advice and only wanted to see the creature in question dead. Exterminated, if you will. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" The Dalek repeated. The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah, we get it mate. That all you ever say?" He asked sarcastically. Guess what the answer was? "EXTERMINATE!" "Guess that answers my question." The Doctor shrugged. Then he spotted something. Royal Guards moving some magical explosives for the war right in front of him. An idea began to form in his head. A crazy idea and a rather suicidal one at that, but an idea none the less. "Well, I'm the Doctor and you can't kill me with lasers... So what are you going to do now huh?" He asked sarcastically. If this didn't work, well... But the Dalek did exactly as he hoped it would. It engaged it's self destruct countdown. The Doctor smirked, perfect. Then he did something else he'd consider rather mental. The Doctor turned and ran back towards the Dalek, aimed the sonic at it before stopping it in its tracks. He then opened up the Dalek's uppermost head casing, much to its protesting. "ALERT! ALERT! I HAVE BEEN BREACHED!" "Relax mate, just looking for... Ah, there it is! The reverse gear! Say goodnight sweet prince!" He chorused before kicking back from behind towards the explosives. Then, a few seconds later it happened. KABOOM!!! The Doctor watched as the creature of nightmares went up like a rocket and soon was nothing more then memories. "Good riddance..." The Doctor muttered in distaste. "Now, what about Boltstrike...?" He wondered aloud to nobody in particular. And then Celestia found herself back in her bedroom. Her eyes widened. What had happened she didn't know. It was like her consciousness had temporarily left her form and traveled through time and space. "Is this the Doctor's doing? I'll have to ask him about this next time I see him." Celestia mused, before she heard a knock on the door. When she answered it, she found the new Captain of the Night Guard, a female grey furred pony with a dark blue mane and yellow eyes named Ender Night standing before her. "Ma'am, I've just received a message from the observatory. It's the head scientist there, Comet Chaser. He wants to see you." Ender Night commented before her eyes drifted to the Solar Princess's state of dress. She was wearing only a lacy black nightie. Celestia looked down upon herself and blushed, with Ender herself blushing heavily, her red face visible through her stone grey fur. Celestia quickly tossed off the nightie and levitated her royal regalia, consisting of her crown, chest plate and horseshoes onto herself with a golden magical glow and quickly teleported away in a flash of flame. "...Okay, so now I can see why so many ponies have sexual fantasies about her." Ender mused to herself. "Still prefer Miss Luna though." Canterlot Observatory Celestia, with another flash of flame quickly found herself in the top dome room of the Observatory, where already a blue maned pony with a shooting star for a Cutie Mark wearing a hat with planets attached to it like a baby's mobile and a pair of binoculars attached to that hat as well was looking through the giant brown with bronze detailing telescope. Off to the side was Shining Armor, dressed in a pink nightgown (Probably his marefriend's) and a small purple reptilian figure with green fins on the side of his head, that Celestia knew to be her personal student's number one assistant and adoptive son Spike. She vaguely remembered Spike had come here by himself to get away from Ponyville for a little while and to spend time with his adoptive grandmother, and to perhaps learn a bit more about his kind from the books in the Canterlot Royal Library, which had even more books than the Golden Oaks, if you could believe it. "You summoned me?" Celestia asked with a yawn, rubbing her tired eyes. Comet Chaser gestured for her to come over to him with his hoof and peer into the telescopic lens. What she saw made her eyes widen. There, just beyond the hills that Ponyville was nestled away in, was a rapidly approaching dark coated figure. Even from a distance, Celestia could make out the tall stature, along with the horn and wings, and the wispy mane. There was no doubt about it. What was rapidly rocketing towards Canterlot was an Alicorn. "Nightmare..." Celestia whispered just loud enough for everypony in the room to hear. "N-Nightmare?" Spike whispered fearfully. Celestia took another look into the telescope and let out a small swear of "Crap.", a rarity for her. She recognized the features of this particular Nightmare. The purple in her mane, the eyes and the black diamond for a Cutie Mark gave it all away. "No... It can't be." "What? What is it?" Spike asked nervously, tugging at Celestia's left foreleg. "That Nightmare Spirit... It's Rarity." Celestia whispered in horror and hung her head as Spike gasped. She was unable to protect one of her little ponies from the corrupting influence of the Nightmare Spirit, and now it was coming back to bite her. This explained everything, just why Luna had been having trouble getting into Rarity's dreams as of late. The Nightmare Spirit was keeping her out. "I'll... I'll alert the Royal Gu..." Shining began, but never got the chance to finish as he, along with Comet Chaser then felt asleep where they stood and at once began to toss and turn on the floor, already in the throes of a horrible Nightmare. "It's starting." Celestia said. "She's already begun her takeover of Canterlot. Soon, more will follow." Then both Spike and Celestia heard a loud voice come booming into their eardrums. "Celestia, your reign has ended, and the night shall last forever! If you try and stop me, I promise you won't like the consequences." "Come, we must alert R.I.F.T. We haven't much time." Celestia growled before rushing out of the room with Spike waddling after her calling out "Hey, wait for me!" R.I.F.T Headquarters But already, R.I.F.T was having problems of their own. Already, two of their number, Sunburst and Galaxy Swirls had fallen into a deep sleep and were already tossing and turning in their infirmary beds, where Sudoku (Who served as the organization's doctor on-call) had wisely moved them and was even now strapping them to the beds. Nearby, Scrabbling was serving up coffee to himself, Sudoku and his wife to keep them awake and from falling under the Nightmare's spell. "I... I don't understand it." Sudoku mused aloud, wearing a white doctor's labcoat and stethoscope around his neck. "One minute, they were fine, but the next they just dropped to the floor. At first I'd say it's a Vasovagal Response, but the symptoms don't match. No The Exorcist style projectile vomiting, and they didn't seem to feel woozy before dropping to the floor... Plus there's the tossing and turning. I just don't understand a bleeding thing about it." "Okay, spare us the details." Target commented, looking a bit more green than normal as her husband described a Vasovagal Response. "Just tell us your best theory." "That's the thing." Sudoku replied. "I simply don't have one." Then there was a bright flash of flame and Celestia and Spike were in the room with them, with the young drake gazing in wonder at the many strange and wondrous things around him. He, out of simple curiosity, took a quick look inside a wooden rune covered box to find a cut off rabbit's foot used as part of a necklace, but Target quickly slammed the box shut and shook her head before saying "Trust me, that foot, not quite so lucky." "I think I can offer some answers." The Regent of the Sun said before saying two simple words "Nightmare Moon." There was a brief silence in the room after the Princess of the Sun had spoken, just out of simple disbelief. "N-Nightmare M-Moon?" Scrabbling squeaked. "B-But I thought her essence was locked up! The Doctor made sure of it!" "Looks like things may have changed." Target replied dryly before turning her head back to Celestia. "So? Summon the Elements of Harmony so they can kick her ass all over again." Then, she saw an expression of nervousness come across her boss's face, that itself making her extremely nervous. "That's the thing. The pony the Nightmare has possessed... It's Rarity." "Well, ain't that just wonderful... Frigging wonderful." Target muttered even as she turned her eyes back to Sunburst and Galaxy. "C'mon, what thoughts are going through your head right now...?" Inside Galaxy Swirl's mind... Youtube Video Inside the mind of Galaxy Swirls, he found himself, back in his old Night Guard armor, in a castle deep in the forested mountains of the old country, Transalfangya. He knew this castle all too well. It had haunted his dreams for many years. Galaxy slowly took one step forwards down the torch lit hallways where dark blue tapestries of his family crest, which were two bat wings and a scythe lined the hallways along with suits of armor. "No... Not here, anywhere but here." Galaxy murmured nervously to himself. He would never admit it, but even he felt fear. And this was the fear that haunted him most of all. He took a quick look outside the windows, the night sky and stars glistened peacefully in the moonlight night. The moon was a crescent, but unlike most moons of a natural type, this moon was blood red, foreshadowing the things that were about to follow. Then, he heard a distinct buzzing sound in the air along with hissing. Galaxy rushed out to a balcony, and then he saw them, just like he did every night. There they came, insect like creatures with features of ponies as well. Pure black, with holes in their legs and beetle like wings wearing dark blue armor and having big blue fly like eyes. And in the center of this swarm was a very tall breed of this particular species, Alicorn size, and having a green mane and a jagged horn along with a crown consisting of three little baubles on her head. With a mighty tackle, she sent Galaxy flying backwards through a giant wooden door and into another hallway. The leader of the Changeling hive loomed over Galaxy, who, dripping blood from the sides of his face while his helmet lay beside him was trying to crawl backwards to get as far away from her as possible. "No... Not you. Anypony but you." Galaxy Swirls stammered out, showing a side of him he never showed to anypony else. A feeling he kept in private. Absolute terror. In front of him was the monster of a creature that massacred his whole family back in Transalfangya. That monster's name was Queen Chrysalis. "Oh, but it is me dear Swirls." Chrysalis said seductively as she stroked his chin with a hoof. "Look at you now, all badass and a high ranking member of... What is it called? Oh yes, R.I.F.T. But still you remember me." She cooed as she and her Changelings circled him like a lion circling it's prey. "You never told them, did you?" Chrysalis inquired as she smirked. "Here you act all cheery and somewhat weird, but that's just to hide the pain of what I did to you. Killed your wife and kids I did, and you know what?" She asked before getting uncomfortably close to the very afraid Bat-Pony's face. "I. Enjoyed. Every. Single. Minute. Of. It!" Galaxy slowly got up off the floor, his features changing from absolute terror to that of rage. He drew out his jagged bone knife, only to find Chrysalis laughing at him. "What, you think that simple little knife can kill me? There's only one thing in this entire world that can do that, and you of all ponies should know it better than anypony." Chrysalis sneered even as she brought out a jagged sword dripping with green Changeling slime. "But if it's a fight you want, pathetic and hopeless as it may be, you'll get your wish." But to her surprise, Chrysalis saw the jagged jawbone knife morph into a spine like sword, with Galaxy swinging it around like an expert. "It's a dream bitch, anything can happen. That night, that night you slaughtered my family, tonight is not that night anymore." Galaxy snarled even as he and the Changeling Queen charged at each other... R.I.F.T Headquarters "So, what happens if they try to fight their dreams?" Spike asked nervously and Celestia looked at him gravely. "Simple answer... They die." In Sunburst's Mind... Youtube Video In Sunburst's mind, he found himself in a town he knew all too well. It was a small and simple town, located just south of Whitetail Woods, where nothing really happened. It was even smaller than Ponyville, if you could believe it, and everypony there knew everypony else. But right now, the town was empty except for him and one other pony, one with a moderate purple coat and her purple and aquamarine mane tied into two small pigtails. Sunburst's eyes widened. He knew this little filly all too well. It was his best friend since childhood, Starlight Glimmer, and she did not look happy with him. "S-Starlight?" Sunburst stammered out, unsure if what he was seeing was real or not. "Oh, I'm real alright. And look at you, all grown up. Really should shave that beard though. Makes you look a bit too nerdy for my tastes." Starlight answered, and Sunburst's eyes widened. He hadn't even asked the question! "You and I have a lot of things to talk about. For example, you LEFT me!" Starlight suddenly shouted, her eyes glistening with tears. "All to go to that stupid school of Celestia's in Canterlot! And look what happened there! You barely made it through! Huh, isn't that ironic. You got your Cutie Mark for magic before me, and yet you are completely useless with your special talent." "I-I'm not useless... I'm In R.I.F.T, helping other ponies from threats from beyond Equestria! I work as their chief scientist and specialist in magical theory!" "And yet you never gave once a thought to me! You've completely forgotten me Sunny!" Starlight sobbed, and Sunburst winced at the use of his friend's childhood nickname for him. "T-That's not true! I want to find you, I really do, but I just don't know where to look!" Sunburst tried to respond, but Starlight blasted him into a market stall with a blast from her horn. "Oh, don't give me any of that. You don't care about me, and you never have..." Starlight growled, an evil smirk on her face as she approached him... In Shining Armor's mind... Youtube Video Meanwhile, Shining Armor was in a nightmare of his own. He found himself in a forest, with an old and crumbling church behind him and a graveyard nearby. The moon was full, and he was alone. Shining wandered through the grounds, wondering where the Tartarus he was. Suddenly, he saw a figure move in between two trees and out of the corner of his eye, he then saw two demonically red eyes peeking out from behind some bushes. The bushes rustled and out stepped a familiar figure. He didn't have his Royal Guard armor on, but Shining recognized him all right, down to every last detail, from his dark blue fur to his golden yellow mane and his Cutie Mark, which was a pure black sword, with a red pentagram behind it. That was the only difference between then and now. "Surprised to see me?" Boltstrike asked. "A little, but I figured seeing as how this is my nightmare I should have known you'd show up sooner or later." Shining said. No longer was he afraid of his predecessor. He'd conquered his fears long ago. "You know. we never did really get to finish things properly did we?" Boltstrike asked, his eyes glowing a deep blood red as a sword materialized out of thin air and into Boltstrike's hooves. Shining pulled out his own sword, the Stormbringer, the sword only given to the Captain of the Royal Guard. Boltstrike smiled in an almost wistful manner. "Ah, so I see you got my old sword. Still won't be enough to bring me down. You know, you and I aren't so different. We're both loyal to Celestia and her kingdom, and we're both willing to do whatever it takes to protect those we care about." Boltstrike commented. "No, we're not. You tried to have the Princess killed, you and the Master." "But look at you, you hired one of my former partners in crime as a member of your troops!" "Yes, but unlike you she's changed. She's working to better herself. You never did. I protect ponies, not because it's my job. I protect ponies because there are some that can't help themselves, and need somepony to look after them. My name is Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard, and that is my task, to protect those who can't help themselves. So be warned, if you think you will harm them or anypony close to me, you've got another think coming." "Nice speech, but can you back it up? Let's dance." Boltstrike asked, before he charged, using his Earth Pony strength to buck a tombstone towards Shining which he cleaved in half with his sword before firing a bolt of lightning from it making Boltstrike stumble back. The two clashed swords again and again, each matching the other's blows perfectly. "You've improved your skills since we last fought. Back then, you could barely hold me off. Now though, even I must admit I'm impressed." "I don't need any compliments from you." Shining snarled as he whacked his foe with the handle of his sword making Boltstrike scream out "Damn you!" as blood dripped from his broken nose. "No, the only one I think who shall be damned around here is you." Shining replied as he grabbed Boltstrike with his magic and threw him into a tree before walking up to him and holding Stormbringer against his neck. "Go on then, finish it. Take your revenge." Boltstrike coughed, but Shining shook his head. "No, I'm not like you. I don't strike out of vengeance." Shining responded definitively. Boltstrike chuckled darkly. "Shame on you then." He said, before kicking Shining off him and lunging before there was a sharp *KA-BLAM!** and Boltstrike was blown away into a cloud of smoke. Shining looked up, only to see Target Quartermane standing over him holding a double barreled shotgun.* "Miss me?" She asked with a grin. R.I.F.T Headquarters, a few moments ago... "Oh, we've got to find a way to help them!" Target snarled as she slammed her hoof on a nearby table and in rage and frustration, knocked all the medical equipment off it. "I can't just sit here and watch two of my best stallions dream themselves to death!" "And we will, don't worry." Lightning reassured and put a hoof on her shoulder. Suddenly, there was the opening of a door and Sudoku returned, panting and sweat running down his face. In his hooves, he held three yellow flowers. "Where'd you get those? And for that matter, what are they?" Lightning asked curiously. "Dream Flowers, should be able to allow us to enter Galaxy's, Shining's and Sunburst's dreams. All we have to do is just eat them. Got them from that Zebra who lives in the Everfree. Wonderful mare, that." Sudoku commented lightly with a wistful sigh. Long before Rainbow Dash had come around, he had held the record for the fastest long distance flight from one corner of the world to the other, so making it back from Ponyville to Canterlot was a rather easy feat for him. Target's eyes then narrowed as she suddenly picked up on what her husband had said and Sudoku quickly backtracked. "N-Not as wonderful as you of course!" Target smirked before she took one of the flowers and handed it to Scrabbling, looking him directly in the eyes. "You want to be a hero? Now's your chance." Back in Galaxy Swirl's mind... CLANG! CLANG! went the sounds of Galaxy and Chrysalis' swords clashing over and over. They blocked each other's moves expertly, neither giving in. Galaxy tried a spinning kick, but was sent flying back by a blast of magic from Chrysalis's horn. "Did you really think you stood a chance against moi? You didn't then, and you sure as Tartarus now! You don't have magic on your side, while I on the other hoof do." Chrysalis cackled. Galaxy gripped the handle of his sword which was implanted in the floor and pulled himself back up. "Still want to be pummeled? Your choice." Chrysalis sighed in a bored tone of voice. "You really must believe yourself to be crazy to challenge me." Galaxy's wings extended to their full length and he took a running start and flew towards Queen Chrysalis flying left and right to dodge her green magic blasts before he got close to her and with a wide swinging motion from his sword, cut off Chrysalis's horn as she screamed in both pain and rage. "There, you see? Now we're both on the same level." Galaxy commented. Oh, but you misjudged me on one thing Chrysalis... I don't just act crazy, I AM crazy!" Galaxy snarled before with a sickening sound, he plunged his sword into the dream Chysalis's heart as her eyes widened in shock and green blood poured from the wound and she felt to the floor with a distinct thud even as the dream began to fade away and Galaxy found himself coming back to the waking world. Galaxy smirked, even if it was only just a dream, his vengeance had been achieved and his family avenged at last. Galaxy awoke with a start, panting and sweating, even as Sudoku's eyes widened. "How the...? What the?" Sudoku stammered out. "I hadn't even gone into your dream yet! How'd you escape?" Galaxy never answered. There were some things he'd rather be kept quiet for the time being. Just then, Sunburst woke up with a start. "She... She was never real. That's all it was. Just a dream..." Sunburst murmured to himself and both Galaxy and Sudoku raised an eyebrow in curiosity but decided not to pry. Some things were better kept private after all. Sudoku smiled and whispered "Good job Scrabbling." to himself as Galaxy got up off the bed after his restraints were undone and went for his scythe and the First Blade which had been resting on a wall nearby while Sudoku pulled out two colt revolvers. Galaxy gave a flirty grin towards Sunburst. "Ya know, considering that the world may very well be taken over by a mad goddess and all, I say we should all have sex right here and right now." Galaxy commented in a tone that made everypony present unsure if he was joking or not. "...Just when I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse." Sunburst sighed even as Galaxy flew into the Headquarter's vault and unlocked a glass case with a suit of pre-Nightmare Moon era Night Guard armor (The Nightmare Moon timeline armor in the main MLP universe) and pulled the helmet on, it covering his face completely. "Now, let's say we go and kick some Nightmarity ass, R.I.F.T style eh?" He quipped. Sleep Part 4: (Bad Moon Rising)R.I.F.T Headquarters... Galaxy Swirls growled as he fitted the last of his armor to himself, and strapped the First Blade to one of his front forelegs, with his scythe going onto his back. He had some payback coming towards Nightmare Moon, Element of Generosity trapped inside there or not. Making him relive the worst night of his life? There was rarely ever a personal vendetta against those he went into battle against, but this time, Hero of Equestria or not, Nightmarity was going to feel the same pain she'd dealt him in full, and then some. With a growl, he went over to a icebox nearby, and opened up the lid and pulled out a packet of A-Positive blood from his personal stash. Ripping the packet open, he drank every last dollop of blood inside the packet, leaving his muzzle in a bloody red mess. While it wasn't as satisfying as drinking the blood of an enemy direct from the battlefield and watching them collapse and fade away into Death's wings, it would have to do for now. For now, his hunger was sustained. Not all Bat-Ponies needed to drink blood, but in Galaxy's case, it was a necessity. He was of a special sub-species of Bat-Pony, the Thestrals, who needed a gallon of blood everyday to keep themselves alive. It was no small wonder then, combined with Galaxy's already borderline insanity, that everypony under his command back when he was Captain of the Night Guard was afraid of him. Galaxy didn't care. He wasn't in that job to be liked. Meanwhile, nearby, Sudoku loaded special bullets forged with magic into his revolvers. Letting the barrel roll with a satisfying click, Sudoku smirked and pulled on a jacket that had more bullet packets attached to it. Right next to him, his wife was doing the same with her shotgun and pumped it before giving it a kiss and saying "Hello Sweetie." "Sure you're not worried she loves that thing more then you?" Lightning teased as her hooves crackled with lightning before she threw out her forelegs and let out a blast of it towards a stone wall, scorching it and smirking. "Yep, still got it." "Pretty sure... I think." Sudoku replied nervously before glancing at the scorched brick wall and then at Lightning. "You do know that's coming out of your paycheck for the month right?" "...Shit." Lightning muttered to herself. "And I had my eye on this absolutely sexy leather jacket I was going to buy." "You know, maybe we should be starting a swear jar with all the cussing you're doing." Scrabbling joked, and this time everypony in the room looked towards him. "And my dear wife would have to be the one to contributing most of the money to it, considering how many times she curses at us in a day." Sudoku joked before getting a dirty look shot towards him from Target. "You do realize I can hear you right?" She asked in that tone of voice every husband knew that if they didn't stop, they were relegated to the couch for a week. Nearby, Galaxy groaned to himself. "...Mad Goddess about to take over the world and yet here we are still arguing like foals and fillies. Really shows how likely this team is going to end up in the future right? Probably with most, if not all of us dead by some enemy's hooves." He muttered to himself before taking another packet of blood and drinking it dry. "Hey, cool it with the binge drinking. You do know that we don't get more of those shipped in till the end of the month right? Have to conserve our supply. It's not just for your personal pleasure you know." Target remarked and Galaxy smirked back at her. "Right, and I don't see you doing the same with the bottles of Applejack Daniels's Red you keep in that stash under your desk you like to think private yet we all know about." Galaxy sneered and Target was left momentarily speechless for a brief minute. Then, there was the sound of a door opening, and Shining Armor stepped in dressed in full Captain of the Royal Guard regalia with the magnificent golden hilted, blue bladed sword Stormbringer. "You guys and gals ready to do this, or are we going to argue like schoolfillies?" He asked whilst in the background Galaxy muttered "...Exactly what I compared us to..." "So, how bad is it out there?" Target asked, phrasing the question on everypony's minds. "You'll have to see for yourself." Shining stated grimly as Target's expression turned into one of worry. "That bad, huh?" She asked, before turning to Scrabbling and Sunburst as everypony else rushed out the front door with Target soon to follow. "You two, hold down the fort! We'll be back." After Target had left, Sunburst stammered out "W-Why do w-we always get the job of holding down the fort?" Scrabbling threw a foreleg around him excitedly and exclaimed "Hey, it's just us, the two "S"s! We can do anything together!" "...Great." Sunburst muttered to himself. When the agents of R.I.F.T stepped out onto the streets of Canterlot, they were in for a big surprise. Stalls were closed shut, newspaper stands had noponies manning them and lights were out in every building. To put it simply, it was a ghost town. The only ponies about were them and them alone. Needless to say, everypony was getting an eerie feeling to say the least. I see the Bad Moon a-rising... "Okay, I don't like this." Sudoku muttered. "Where is everypony?" "They're all asleep, and in the fits of nightmares that they can't wake up from. Just like you guys were. Got to hand it to her, Nightmarity works fast." Shining Armor observed as the group slowly trodded through the cobblestone pathways of the normally hustling and bustling city. Overhead, the stars had been blotted out by dark clouds. Just then, a thought occurred to Target. "Hey, speaking of Nightmarity, where is she?" Target asked as she watched the skies, searching for any signs of the possessed pony. She heard the sounds of wings flapping and a shadow darted through the clouds, but she was unable to tell any distinct feature of the figure. Then loud laughter reached the ears of everypony present. I see trouble on the way... "Soooooo... Someponies were actually determined enough to escape my little gifts for them?" Nightmarity's voice chuckled from somewhere in the clouds. "Gifts?" Shining asked in anger towards her. "How can you call those dreams you gave us gifts!?!" "Oh, they were gifts alright. Consider this. If I hadn't given them to you, none of you mortals would have even known your worse fears would you? Lightning, you wouldn't have known you still had lingering fears of the Master... Or whatever she calls herself nowadays. Oops, spoilers. Don't think I was supposed to give that little tidbit of information out yet. And Shining... Oh dear handsome Shining, you never would have been able to fight your fear of Boltstrike. We all have monsters under our beds, and I applaud you for defeating yours. And Galaxy... Oh poor Galaxy. Yours was the worst of all. Even I feel sorry for you. Imagine, sympathy from the Devil!" "Did the original Nightmare ever talk this much?" Target whispered as she leaned over to Shining, who could only shrug. "Tartarus if I know. I wasn't there. You'd have to ask Twiley." Shining remarked. I see earthquakes and lightnin'... "You know, I could give you a gift from actually waking up from my Nightmares. Not many have been able to do that. What I'm about to offer you is something rare, so think hard about this. How would you like to actually be lieutenants in my army? I mean, look at dear old Galaxy! He's already got the proper armor! Mind you, a few more jewels would be nice but you get the picture." "You really MUST be crazy if you think we'd ever join you!" Shining shouted. There came a sigh from somewhere nearby. "Oh well... Least it was worth a shot. Shadowbolts, get them!" Then, from out of the smokey clouds came pillars of smoke shooting towards the ground all over Canterlot and the pillars reformed into figures with dark blue windswept manes, flying goggles, demonic yellow eyes and wearing black versions of the Wonderbolts uniforms, almost as if in mockery. Shining couldn't count how many there were, there had to be at least a hundred, maybe more. "See my Shadowbolts? Look how fabulous my little darlings are!" I see those bad times today... "Only thing I see is just some ponies lining up for the slaughter!" Galaxy snarled and his wings fully extended as his eyes glowed a dark yellow in the night, piercing the darkness like headlights through a fog. He pulled out his black scythe with dark blue detailing around the edges and swung it around, the blood red runes on it becoming visible reading in the ancient Transalfangyan tongue "Blood Moon". The Reaper of Canterlot had returned to the battlefield at long last, and he intended to enjoy every minute of it. Everypony else was drawing their weapons as well as a battalion of Shadowbolts charged. Don't go around tonight, Galaxy took the first swing and sliced off the head of a Bolt, covering himself in black blood which he licked off himself and shuddered in disgust. So that's what demon blood tasted like. Not something he'd ever want to try again, he noted to himself. BAM! BAM! went the sounds of Sudoku's Colts as he clocked two Shadowbolts in the head and there was the sound of a distinct KA-CHUNK! as Target blasted another with her shotgun. Meanwhile, Shining had engaged in a sword duel with another one, and was matching blow for blow perfectly until he was able to send his enemy's sword flying out of it's hooves before knocking it to the ground and stabbing it in the heart. Then he heard the sound of wings flapping behind him and Shining whirled around and shoved the tip of Stormbringer into the ground sending electricity arcs towards five Shadowbolts making them explode into clouds of smoke. Damn it Cadence, why'd you have to be off in Saddle Arabia as a delegate on today of all days?" Shining mused to himself as nearby Lightning Dust generated two lightning whips in her hooves and cracked them before grabbing a Shadowbolt's front forelegs with them and hurling it into a shop window sending glass flying everywhere some cutting into her skin drawing blood but she ignored the pain. There were far more important things to focus on right now. Well, it's bound to take your life, "Come out Nightmare!" Lightning challenged, her recklessness, that in one universe would have gotten her flank kicked out from the Wonderbolts Academy and had already got her struck by lightning after she'd decided to hold a heavy metal concert during a rainstorm coming out. "Or are you too much of a coward to face us like a mare?" "Oh no... Tell me she didn't." Target sighed before blasting another Shadowbolt. "Yeah, she did." Shining muttered in response. And soon enough, Lightning's challenge was answered. The clouds parted just enough for a rather large hole in the sky, exposing the city center of Canterlot to the moonlight was opened, and then Nightmarity revealed herself at last. She was now covered in a variation of the original Nightmare Moon's battle armor, only this time in gold and encrusted with only the finest of gems. There's a Bad Moon on the rise, "So, like what you see?" Then, Nightmarity was blasted backward into the Canterlot Clock Tower by two magical beams, one golden in color and the other midnight blue. "Who dares!?!" She roared, only to see both of the Royal Sisters appear in front of her, determined looks on their faces. Nightmarity groaned in distaste even as she picked her mighty form up out of the ruins of the clock tower's roof and took to the skies once more, her horn glowing in a purple magical aura. "Oh, I should have known. The Royal Sisters, always interfering with a pony's day to day duties. Lording over us like Goddesses who think they know all, know what's best for their "Little Ponies" (She said this in a mocking tone) and letting the Elements of Harmony do all the work! Well, I'm here to tell you there's been a regime change! I intend to remake Equestria, and in my own fabulous image!" "Sister dear?" Luna inquired with a curiously raised eyebrow as she gazed upon her dark self's (In a sense) outrageously styled armor. Not even her sister looked that bright and shiny, dare she say gaudy even, in her battle armor! "Did me, as the Nightmare ever have this much of an ego?" "To be honest... I think she does have you beat in... Oh what's the phrase... The hamminess department." Celestia giggled to herself as she cover her mouth with a hoof. "Oh, I'm sorry, but it's true. You were never this amusing as the Nightmare." "Tis' a grand jest on your part, we are sure sister! We are sure we were just as amusing as this fraud!" Luna shot back at her sister. "I WILL NOT BE MOCKED!" Nightmarity roared before blasting a beam of pure magical energy that Celestia and Luna met with their own respective beams and the three battled for dominance before all three beams fizzled out, none of the three overpowering the other as they were equally matched. "Temper temper. Thou really must keep it under control. Not befitting of a lady." Luna teased, and for this she was tackled into several rooftops, shingles flying everywhere by an enraged Nightmarity but Luna blasted her foe off her by flapping her wings and creating powerful gusts of wind. I hear hurricanes a-blowing, Nightmarity created a purple ball of energy in her hooves and fired it at Luna but was met by two golden beams from Celestia which ripped it apart before it could even reach the Princess of the Night. "You shall not hurt my sister!" Celestia shouted in anger before her voice turned to that soft, kind and guiding voice that everypony, everywhere knew so well. That very same voice which made the Doctor fall head over hooves for her. "Rarity, I implore you. You've got to look inside yourself! Do not let this Spirit control you! I know the real you, and she would be ashamed and disgusted at your actions right now." Celestia stated kindly as she and Nightmarity stared each other down, each other's horns crackling with magical energy. "My sister is right! We too have felt the taint of the Nightmare, and we too know how enthralling and seductive it's power is! But all it leaves you with in the end is a feeling of great shame for your actions! We speak from experience, Generosity Bearer, so thou must hear us now! Come back to us, come back to the light!" Luna shouted as she took back to the skies and was now behind Nightmarity. "I... I..." Nightmarity whispered, and just for a moment, there was a trace of the old Rarity. But then it was gone. "I DO NOT ACCEPT YOUR OFFERS! THE OLD RARITY IS GONE, ONLY I LIVE ON NOW!" Nightmarity roared and with twin blasts from her hooves, she sent both Royal Sisters flying to both ends of the city making them land in huge spider-web style craters. I know the end is coming soon... Shining snarled as he beheaded another Shadowbolt. For Equestria! Meanwhile, Galaxy smirked as he knifed another Shadowbolt. "Ya know, if we don't get the old Rarity back, can I take up her job in Ponyville as its resident fashionista?" He asked and Target scoffed. "What the Tartarus do you know about fashion?" She demanded even as she blasted another Shadowbolt. "How many more can there be?" She mused, already exhausted. "Well, for one thing I know Sunburst looks absolutely sexy in that robe of his and that I look kick-ass in this armor!" Galaxy stated in a matter of fact tone and Target groaned even as Galaxy took down another Shadowbolt and sung "Now I'm back in the ring, to take another swing! The walls start shaking, the earth starts quaking!". Why did she even bother reasoning with him? I fear rivers over flowing... In an alleyway, unseen, lurked another pony, this one wearing a dark purple dress and having a short cropped black mane. With a smirk, she pulled out a silver device, with a red glow at its tip and used it on several Shadowbolts turning them back into smoke before vanishing back into the alleyway once more. Fun playing the hero it was, but she'd lingered here too long. The Doctor would eventually show up, as he always did and she did not want to expose herself to him just yet. The time wasn't right, but it would be soon enough... I hear the voice of rage and ruin... Meanwhile, even as Shining and R.I.F.T battled the Shadowbolts in the streets, one lone drakeling wandered throughout all this chaos and as he glanced to the skies, he saw the battle unfold between the Royal Sisters and the mare that he pined for with all his heart. "Rarity..." Spike mused sadly as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Why did this have to happen to you?" He ran towards where Nightmarity was even as Shining saw him and shouted "Spike, stop! Don't be a fool!" But Spike didn't listen. "Oh, what's this? A little drakeling come out to play? Shouldn't you be in bed by this hour?" Nightmarity asked in a mock-sweet tone of voice. "Rarity, please! Listen to me! I know you're in there somewhere! I... I... never told this to anypony else, not even Twilight, but I love you! Remember when we went gem hunting and you were captured by those Diamond Dogs? I rushed to protect you, just as I am now! So please Rarity, come back to me!" Spike pleaded, passion filling his every word. Nightmarity gave him a small smile, perhaps her old self reasserting itself for just a moment, but then it was gone and Nightmarity was back. Well Spikey-Boo... (This usage of her personal nickname for him gave Spike hope, before it was quickly dashed by her next statement.) Touched as I am by your words, I'm sorry, but the Rarity you knew is gone forever!" Time seemed to slow down as every member of R.I.F.T and Shining seemed to rush towards Spike to protect him, even as a purple bolt of lightning rushed towards the ground right towards the young drake with Rarity mentally screaming out "NO!" ,with Shining even throwing up a blue energy shield around him, but it was all for naught as the bolt pierced right through him and then only ashes remained... Well don't go around tonight Well, it's bound to take your life There's a Bad Moon on the rise... To Be Continued... Interlude: (Galaxy Swirls's Really Horrible No-Good Bad Day) (Mature)Canterlot: Nightmarity's Reign, Several Moments before Spike's Death Galaxy Swirls groaned out in pain as he adjusted to his new situation and tried to make out which of his comrades was real and which were just tricks of a dazed brain. Getting one's head slammed into a wall by a Shadowbolt blindsiding you from the left had the tendency to have that affect on you, after all. He shook his head, and the three Sudoku Quartermanes blasting their pistols at the other Shadowbolts went back to just one. Galaxy snarled, and swung his scythe around to decapitate the offending Shadowbolt who had knocked both him and his brain cells further than they normally were. "...Yeah, I'd prefer this town go back to when it resembled a scene from the Trotting Dead. No demons trying to kill you, despite the free food frenzy it offers one. Huh, never thought I'd turn down blood in any form. Ah well, not like Shadowbolt blood is particularly satisfying anyways." Galaxy Swirls mused as he kicked another Shadowbolt out of existence. "You know fair readers, for I know somewhere out there in the multiverse some strange creature, probably one who loves to torture his creations, is chronicling this for his loyal subjects' amusement, this, believe it or not, is not the strangest day I've had in my life. Or the worst. Oh no, there are days that pretty much eclipse that." Galaxy Swirls flashed back to three years prior, back before Luna's return when he was still just a member of the Royal Guard... Canterlot, The Year 999 ANM: Galaxy Swirls groaned as he rolled out of bed. The other Guards in the barrack were still sleeping soundly. (One in particular, who Galaxy soooo wanted to chop off his head, was snoring like a piledriver.) It was early in the morning, so early in fact that Celestia hadn't even raised the sun yet. But Galaxy always preferred getting up at this hour. He wanted to see as much of the night sky as possible before it was replaced by daylight. Not even bothering to gather up his armor and toss it on, Galaxy yawned and stretched his bat wings before taking out a packet of blood from his dresser drawer and ripped it open, drinking every last drop. He smiled, first drink of the day. This one had a serious kick to it, and was pretty much like caffeine to him. Awakened his senses, and got him ready and alert. Galaxy Swirls sighed and muttered some curses that would be pretty much considered blasphemy as his eyes caught sight of a poster on the barrack wall that must have been put up sometime during the night. The poster itself was covered in hearts, and in bright pink letters read this slogan: Come one, come all! Come to the Hearts and Hooves Day Gala! All invited! Bring your partner! Galaxy fumed. He hated this holiday. It brought back all those warm and fuzzy feelings he'd desperately tried to remove from himself after Chrysalis had slaughtered his whole family. What was the point of the holiday for him, if he didn't have anypony to celebrate it with? (Besides, it wasn't exactly like stallions or mares (Galaxy didn't have any real preference to either gender) were lining up outside his barracks to meet him for a night of drunken debauchery, as that was how it always was if you were a Royal Guard on this day. Mares and stallions just loved big, strong heroes.) "Pah! Heroes don't exist, and even if they did, I certainly wouldn't be one of them. I'm a high functioning psychopath. Not exactly prime-date material." Galaxy let a smile come to his face as he stepped out of the barrack and gazed up to the night sky, where the Mare In The Moon cast her light down upon him even as stars twinkled in the night sky. Galaxy sighed and just sat there hour after hour, till the sun finally rose. Little did he know it, but this would be the only moment of pleasure he'd get out of today. It was several hours later Galaxy Swirls found himself, along with his commanding officer, Shining Armor in a rather unusual position to say the least. (Believe it or not, Galaxy actually envied Shining, despite him in his opinion being a dimwitted dork. It wasn't just ANYPONY who got an Alicorn Princess for a girlfriend, and said Princess had to be the Princess of Love at that. Galaxy could only imagine the things they got up to on the bedroom.) Anyways, back to the matter at hoof he currently found himself in. It was an incident that first found itself in the hooves of the CPD, but due to the outright weirdness of the incident Galaxy and Shining found it get handed off to them. There in front of them, was a stallion doing... Things, shall we say to a tree, groaning and panting all the while. The tree of course, could say nothing in response. (Galaxy idly wondered if this could be counted as a rape case.) "Yeesh, I knew that some hippies loved trees, but this was taking it a little too far." Shining muttered as he and Galaxy dragged the protesting stallion away from his new "Lover" and Galaxy knocked him out with a swift blow to the head. It was then both stallions noticed a pink arrow, with a heart for its tip sticking out of the stallion's butt. Galaxy noted Shining's expression. "Something wrong...?" He asked nervously as Shining's eyebrow twitched. Then came something from his mouth that was heard all over Canterlot, and probably beyond. (Galaxy would later keenly note the absence of birds in the area for the next few days.) "CADANNNNNNCCCCEEE!" It was a few minutes later, after Shining had calmed down (With a bit of "Help" from Galaxy, who showed him some magazines of rather... shall we say "Questionable" material. Let's just say they had sexy Neighsian ponies and leave it at that.) that he explained the reason for his scream. "So, earlier this morning, Cadance showed me this costume she'd made up. Made her look a bit like one of those rangers, except in pink and-" "Were you excited by it? Sexually, I mean?" Galaxy asked, and Shining's jaw dropped at his bluntness. Shining's mind flashed back to the thoughts that had been running through his head when his marefriend asked him to see what she was modeling. It didn't exactly matter what she was modeling to Shining, as long as it was sexy. Sexy maid, sexy guard, sexy demoness, sexy firepony, sexy policepony... "...Tartarus, even a sexy construction worker might have been nice." Shining trailed off wistfully with a bit of drool coming from his mouth and Galaxy's mind quickly found itself completely changing. "Scratch that, I don't even want to know what those two get up to in the bedroom." He mused before waving a hoof in front of Shining's face and asking "Hello, Equestria to Shining Armor?" When that didn't work, Galaxy sighed, muttered "Oh, just buck me." (What he didn't know was how true his statement would soon be. Really, he was just providing Fate another chance to kick his ass.) and let a hoof slide down his face before he resorted to the classic standby and pulled out a airhorn. Youtube Video That certainly awoke Shining from his daze and as he shook his head to clear himself, blushing bright red at where his thoughts had gone to and cursing himself for looking like an idiot. "Which isn't very hard to do under normal circumstances." Galaxy mused privately before then he gave him a deadpan stare, which Shining didn't even know was possible for the thestral to do up until that moment. "...As you were saying?" Galaxy drawled. "Er, right... Yes, well." Shining began. "Cadence modeled for me this superhero-like outfit and said she was going to use it to help spread love to all of Canterlot with her special Love Arrows." "Did she say "You have failed this city!" or some other such shit as well?" Galaxy deadpanned in disbelief even as Shining gave him his best death glare. Already, Galaxy could feel the aching pain of 500 laps on his muscles and bones somehow. "This is serious, and not something to joke about! Who knows what kind of chaos this could result in!" Shining shouted, and then there was a loud explosion and both ponies heads swiveled to see a large pink mushroom cloud rise up from the upper-upper-end (As there wasn't a single part of Canterlot that wasn't rich in some way) district before they both heard Princess Celestia's voice in their minds. "My Little Ponies, you must stop this disaster that is rapidly develop-" Celestia's voice said before it turned into an amorous moan much to both Shining and Galaxy's shock. "No shit, Sherlock." Galaxy grumbled even as both ponies rushed towards the scene. And what a scene it was indeed, one that would probably be right out of the mind of one Captain Jack Harkness. In front of them was a virtual sea of debauchery. Ponies, of all shapes and sizes and genders were moaning and groaning, ripping clothes off as they... Well, take a guess. No, really. "...I'm going to need a REALLY cold shower after this." Shining muttered. "I'm going to need Brain Bleach." Galaxy muttered even as he saw what, and whom, Princess Celestia was doing and noted how "Excited" Shining exactly was. "Welp, time to clean this mess up. Yeah, definitely a lot of cleaning." He uttered before there was the sound of a distinct TWANG! of an arrow being let loose and flying through the air and then impacting flesh. Galaxy's flesh specifically, who only had time to say "Well, suppose I should have seen that one coming." before his mind was a blank and all of his emotions left him except for one in particular. When he next awoke, Galaxy found himself in a daze, divested of his armor with a stallion lying beside him, covered in bite marks that could have only come from one particular pony. Galaxy would later learn this event was coined as the "Canterlot Hearts and Hooves Day Grand Orgy Celebration" and that it was only stopped by a strange brown coated stallion wearing a blue suit and brown trench coat using some sort of sonic device to override the Love Arrow's affect. Needless to say, this whole event hadn't improved Galaxy's attitude towards Hearts and Hooves Day in the slightest, with it now reaching brobdingnagian levels of distaste for the holiday. Now: "One day, I'm really going to have to thank the Doctor for that. Might even kiss him full on the mouth." Galaxy mused even as he gripped Blood Moon and sliced, while above him in the sky, Lightning Dust and the Royal Sisters went at it with Nightmarity. "Doctor, Doctor, give me the news, I've got a bad case of loving you..." While all this happened, a new sound filled the air. A wheezing, groaning sound, a sound of hope. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! END Primal Instinct Part 1: (Welcome to the Jungle, We got Fun and Games...)(Pant) (Pant) A blue furred pony, with two double eighth notes for a Cutie Mark ran through the bushes and trees of the Zebrawa Jungle, determined to outrun those ponies who pursued him. No, not ponies, he thought to himself. Those things couldn't be called proper members of ponykind, not anymore. Not after what he'd seen. It was horrible, something out of one's darkest nightmares. Rain splattered his glasses making everything harder to see than normal, and thunder cracked in the distance. The pony took a quick look behind him to see if he was still being followed, but saw nothing. He let out a sigh of relief. He was safe... For now. "Damnit, I had to leave everything back at the hotel, didn't I?" The pony muttered to himself. "Oh yes, come to Zebrawa, the tourist capitol of Equestria. Enjoy the untamed wilderness, the culture, the wildlife... Long as you don't get eaten by it, that is." The pony mused, and chuckled to himself. How was he to know that cave he had took shelter in a few minutes back was home to lions? Lions who happened to have cubs with them. It wasn't like there was some big flashing neon sign that said "Lions live here! Do not enter, unless you are a bloody moron who wants to get mauled!" Really, it was somepony's fault for not warning him of where the lions lived these days. Taking a glance at his right hind leg, the pony nearly vomited. It was mauled very badly, and blood was oozing onto the grass. He was amazed he could even stand up. But that wasn't his biggest concern. He knew those... things, as he couldn't find a proper word to describe them, could track him by the blood. They were like sharks. Put blood in the water, and they would come. The pony grimaced to himself and ignored the throbbing pain that made him want to scream out. He had to get moving, back to safety, back to civilization and find the nearest airship home. "How does that old Copper Airship song go...?" He mused to himself as the rain poured down soaking both him and the thrush around him. "Oh yeah, Now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's heading my way..." And so, the pony picked himself up and ran, and ran, and ran. He was just about out of the jungle and he could see the light of a nearby village ahead of him. He smiled in relief and let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. Safety at last. But then, the pony found himself shoved up against a tree by an unseen force and found himself looking into a Zebra with pure black eyes, no irises or anything. They were just coal black, darker than looking into the pits of Tartarus itself. Fitting really, as that was where this creature came from originally. "Yes, I think you'll do very nicely. Now open wide! You've got a very special VIP guest who wants to take up residence!" The Zebra laughed and kicked Noteworthy in his mauled leg making him scream out in pain and just as his mouth opened, a swirling column of red colored smoke entered him and then Noteworthy smiled. Not his usual calm, friendly smile, but one of pure darkened hate. Hate for anything that wasn't one of his own kind. And then his eyes opened, and they were blood red. "Okay, now that's over and done and dusted, can somepony find me a suit? I really do look rather ghastly in the nude, don't you think? And get me cleaned up. I've got standards to uphold. Knight of Tartarus and all." The Zebra bowed and said "Yes... Milord Abaddon." Youtube Video (Also Starring: Ashleigh Ball as: Rainbow Dash) (Special Guest Star: Mark Sheppard as: Abaddon/Noteworthy) Ponyville: Carousel Boutique The Doctor and his two companions walked through the streets of Ponyville. The Doctor couldn't resist chuckling to himself. Twilight looked as if she was about to burst from excitement while Rainbow looked as if she were ready for an adventure, dressed in that pith helmet and jacket of hers. "So, guess the costume shop was all out of Princess dresses this time wasn't it?" The Doctor snarked, unable to resist getting in a dig as he remembered Rainbow's... displeasure when they were in Sleepy Hollow for the first time (Well, second time for him. That town always seemed to be in trouble whenever he was around. First it was that Dalek and then the Headless Horse.) ...drawn to Rainbow Dash when she came in. The sight of her made Twilight gape in complete shock, though not because of how attractive the costume looked on Rainbow, more due to the fact that Rainbow's costume which was a pink medieval princess costume simply just looked wrong on her. Trixie tried to stifle her laughter, but was mostly failing. "So, I'm guessing they were out of Daring Do costumes then?" Twilight asked dryly. Rainbow gave her a Class-A type death glare. "What? They were all out of costumes except this, the cowboy outfit and what Cadance is wearing." Rainbow said in disgust. "Now nopony laughs, and nopony gets bucked through the nearest window understand?" Rainbow grumbled as she walked off a mix of embarrassed and furious. Once Rainbow was out of earshot, Trixie finally gave up and burst out laughing as she walked off towards the direction of the Town Square. In her mind, she had more important things to do then hang around here. 'Shaddup..." Rainbow muttered to herself as they walked up to Rarity's workplace/place of residence and Twilight politely rapped on the door a few times. She considered the possibility Rarity might not even be up yet, but she was soundly proven wrong when the marshmellow colored fashionista pony answered the door. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every-" Rarity said in her usual greeting, before noticing who it was. The Doctor noted Rarity's expression as she eyed his attire. He huffed to himself. Who was she to criticize him on fashion? He'd been unlucky enough to witness some of the outfits she'd made for the Pony of Pop, Sapphire Shores, and Rassilon above, they made Elvis's, Lady Gaga's, or even Liberace's outfits look tame in comparison! "Rarity, you look terrible." Twilight said bluntly, as she noted Rarity's tired eyebrows and then she noticed something else. Dripping from Rarity's mane, which was still in curlers, and onto her fluffy pink bathrobe was a very familiar sticky substance. Blood. Twilight frowned in worry. How had that gotten there? "Oh sorry dearies, just a bad dream." Rarity replied with a deep yawn. Rainbow raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "And the blood?" She asked, and all three ponies saw Rarity's eyes widen in shock as she felt the sticky substance dripping from her normally perfectly kept purple mane. "Oh... I... I just bumped my head on my headrest this morning, that's all dearies. Nothing to worry about whatsoever." Rarity told them. Twilight raised an eyebrow, The Doctor "Hmmmed..." to himself and Rainbow thought "Okay, I know I'm no AJ, but even I can tell a lie from a truth. And that right there was a big fat one." "But enough about me." Rarity continued, as if she seemingly wanted to change the subject of their conversation. "Where are you three off to this fine morning?" "Oh, us?" Twilight laughed. "We're off to Zebrawa, a little vacation into the bush, to see it's natural beauty. You see, I got curious about Zecora's homeland a few days ago, and so I asked the Doctor about Zebras and their home country, and he thought after all we'd been through together lately, we needed some time off and so he offered us up a little trip. Imagine, the beauty, the wonder!" As Twilight rambled on, the Doctor thought to himself. "Okay, something's up. I've met Rarity before, Tartarus, she helped me when I was first still regenerating from my previous form and generally did a good job about it, sexual jokes aside (The Doctor blushed at the memory of Rarity asking "Anything else he's got two of?") and kept me well until my body was ready. Nothing really seems to stun or rattle her, well except for maybe rats or spiders." The Doctor mentally chuckled before continuing with his train of thought. "She looks almost afraid. Terribly afraid, almost as if somepony was trying to kill her. And then there's the fact that she looks as if she hasn't slept for a week. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was almost as if..." The Doctor thought before shaking his head. "No, but that can't be. I trapped her myself and handed her off to Princess Celestia and let her deal with her. It can't be that. It simply can't be." But then he was reminded of a very famous quote by a certain deerstalker wearing detective. "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." That didn't reassure the Doctor in any way whatsoever. "...The untamed wilderness, the wildlife, the culture!" Twilight continued to ramble before she was cut off by Rainbow placing a hoof over her mouth. "Okay Twi, I think she gets it." Rainbow deadpanned. As Rarity waved them goodbye from her shop door, Twilight mused to herself (After mentally squeeing over the fact that Rainbow had given her a nickname, before then brushing it off as just something done out of friendliness. After all, Rainbow called Applejack "AJ" didn't she?) "Hmm, something's off with Rarity... I just can't quite put my hoof on what it is though. Gah, Twilight, you're probably just being overly paranoid. It's not like Rarity is going to be possessed by some evil spirit or anything while I'm gone. Just sit back and relax and enjoy the adventure." and walked, taking a quick look behind her to see if Rarity was truly alright. She sighed in relief when she saw Rarity shut the door and through the windows, saw her go back to work on sewing something as always, never noticing the dark blue mist floating ominously above the Boutique... "Come on Twi, you're being such a slowpoke! We're going to leave ya behind if you don't pick up the pace!" Rainbow called from ahead of her and Twilight yelled "Coming!" before mentally musing "Zebrawa, here we come!" VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! The TARDIS made it's usual assortment of wheezing and groaning noises as it appeared in the middle of a small village in Zebrawa deep in the Serengeti Plains. The village itself consisted of mud huts with thatched roofs, or occasionally homes made from trees, much like Zecora's hut back in Ponyville. As usual, nopony seemed to take no notice of the TARDIS (Now with the words Pony Public Call Box instead of it's old Police Public Call Box. The Doctor had managed to fix the Chameleon Circuit a while back, although it seemed the TARDIS had grown attached to it's form of a police box. Either that, or the Doctor just couldn't be bothered in changing the time machine's exterior to any great extent. Twilight honestly suspected the latter.) as the locals went about their day, trading things at market stalls and weaving complex baskets with whatever they could find. In the street, a group of dancers performed to a tribal beat set down by some musicians much to the enjoyment of a gathered crowd of tourists. Twilight smiled at all of this as she, Rainbow and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. It was always wonderful to go to a new place, and learn about how the culture differed to that of her home. "Ah, smell that air! It's... It's so fresh and new!" The Doctor cried in a childlike joy, unable to think of any other words to describe it, all the while doing a 360 spin, as if to get a panoramic view of the area. Both Twilight and Princess Celestia had often noted he had a tendency to do this when in places he'd never been before, and sometimes just when he was excited about something, and often at times for both reasons. "Geeze, what a dump." Rainbow stated bluntly only to get smacked upside the head by Twilight causing her to yelp in pain. "Rainbow, don't be rude! This is how they live, we are in no position to criticize them on it! For all we know, if they came to Ponyville, they might think our form of construction strange. I actually quite like it. It's rather simple and makes for a nice change of scenery." Twilight chided, and Rainbow felt as if she was being scolded by her mother. "Spending all that time around Princess Celestia, not healthy." Rainbow mused, although this time she kept her remarks to herself, in fear of another smack to the head. "Thank you young mare. We of this village greatly appreciate you appreciating our way of life. Welcome Twilight Sparkle and friends, we have been expecting you." An older Zebra, who could only be the village leader, judging by his red robes and staff said as he walked up. "Really?" Twilight asked and then the Zebra chuckled before smiling in a very Princess Celestia like way, the kind of way that she often smiled at you before telling you that you had fallen victim to a joke of some manner. "No, we just say that to freak out the tourists." The Zebra smirked while in the background Rainbow muttered "Well then, consider me officially freaked." to herself as the Zebra introduced himself as "Akachi", meaning Faust's Hoof in traditional Equestrian. "Welcome Doctor." Akachi said as he shook hooves with the Time Lord. "I can tell you're a stallion of wealth and taste." Those words set something off in the Time Lord's mind, as he knew he'd heard that particular phrase before somewhere, but he just didn't remember exactly what it was from. Problem was, if you had over 900 years worth of memories, things tend to get lost in them. He at times so envied the BBC version of Sherlock who only remembered the things that were important and his "Mind Palace" ability. Would have come in handy right now. "A-And, uh, you too." The Doctor stammered out, somewhat caught off guard that this Zebra knew his name, along with Twilight's and Rainbow's before he had even brought it up. He was then in for another shock as Akachi then whispered "We need your help _______. Our village is under siege. Do not tell the others of this just yet. It will frighten them, for what you face is not of this plane. I have already given you a clue as to what it is. Do with it as you must." Now the Doctor was really stunned even as Akachi trotted off with a follow me gesture from his hoof. How could this Zebra even know his true name? Not the title he told everyone, but his real name given to him at birth. And what was this threat he talked of? The Doctor's mind was still on this problem even as he and his two companions found themselves on a wagon pulled by a Zebra named Kevin, who made his life's worth providing tours of the surrounding wilderness, with the wagon's sides opened up to the fresh air with only four small pillars to hold the roof up and very crude seats exploring the Plains. "C'mon Doctor, get your head out of the clouds and take a look around, you're missing a lot of great stuff here!" Rainbow exclaimed before pulling out a pair of binoculars and looking through them to see a pair of giraffes eating from the very tops of trees. All the while Twilight was eagerly jotting down notes on a small notepad as she observed an elephant's behavior, only to receive the shock of her life when the elephant sprayed her with water from his trunk. Twilight coughed and sputtered as she angrily looked at the elephant and then at her soaked notes. All the while, Kevin (Along with Rainbow) laughed uproariously. "Do not mind him, he must have thought you needed a bath!" Kevin exclaimed in amusement as Twilight growled and brushed part of her now soaking wet mane away from her face. Needless to say, she did not share his amusement. She quickly dried herself off with a spell and pulled out a spare pencil and notepad just as the wagon neared some lions. "Always prepared, huh, Twi?" Rainbow thought in amusement before she noted how sharp teethed the lions were. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, please tell me they don't want me for a Rainbow Dash sandwich! Daring Do never had to deal with anything like this!" But it seemed, the lions had other things on their minds as the male one slowly got up on top of the female one. "Ewwwww, lion porn!" Rainbow groaned as the Doctor laughed and said "It's only natural! Birds do it. Bees do it. Tartarus, even well educated fleas do it, and I know you certainly want to do it with a certain mare!" making Twilight squawk and drop her notepad and render Rainbow speechless for several moments. But then she got her revenge. "Like you want to do it with a certain Princess?" She snarked and that promptly shut the Doctor up for the rest of the journey. Later that night, the Doctor was still musing on the problem at hand even as he and his two companions turned into bed for the night at the only hotel in town. The Doctor yawned. It'd probably be best to think on this in the morning, when he wasn't tired and his brain was more awake. The Doctor pulled the covers over himself and smiled as he heard Rainbow whisper "Good night Twi." and hear Twilight whisper back in return "Good night... Dashie." before she flicked off the lights. Primal Instinct Part 2: (A Warning Given and Double Doctor) (Sir John Hurt Tribute)Youtube Video The Doctor's eyes shot wide open. The calming noises of soft snoring from both Twilight and Rainbow Dash was the only sound in the darkened room. The Doctor's eyes adjusted to the light and he pulled his Sonic Screwdriver out of his pajama shirt pockets, after rummaging around in them and pulling out a few other things, amongst which was a piece of the Eye of Harmony, "Wondered where that got off to." a banana, "Bananas are good. Great source of potassium. Reason I replaced that weapons factory with a grove full of them. Shame though, I admit that Squareness Gun of Jack's... (Some voice in his mind, sounding suspiciously like the man himself, shouted "There should be a "Captain" in there!") Which I... Er, liberated from the factory before it blew up does come in handy." and off all the things, a satsuma. "Figures, there's always that one stinking satsuma at the end amongst a whole hoard of items." before he grabbed his bathrobe, and pulled on his bow-tie, making him a very odd sight indeed, although it wasn't like anypony was around to see him right now, nor did he particularly care anyhow. He'd long ago dropped caring how people or ponies thought of his fashion sense ever since he wore that ghastly multicolored coat about six or so regenerations ago that looked like it was stitched together from just about any piece of clothing he could find. The Doctor then went to a torch in the room and lit it up with his Sonic, but not brightly enough in a manner that would wake up the two soundly sleeping ponies, who by now had at somepoint in the night, curled up in the same bed together, with Rainbow's wings draped in a admittedly rather cute fashion over Twilight's sleeping form, with their chests heaving softly and the occasional leg twitch from one or the other being the only way to tell that the twosome were still alive. "Best leave them to it, Celestia knows they need to bond some more and hopefully admit those ponely wonely feelings of theirs... Yeah, I've adapted alright if I'm saying her name instead of Rassilon's, not that the man is anything to swear by anymore, considering his actions. I should have started swearing to God or some other deity after the Time War." The Doctor mused darkly to himself. He remembered everything that the bastard who called himself the High Counciler had been planning to do to try and save Gallifrey from it's destruction, bringing it to Earth with the help of the Master as an unwitting pawn in some fashion. Thankfully, with him and the Master now in Equestria... Well, just him now the Doctor thought sadly to himself, the final stages of that plan of Rassilon's would never come into being. Honestly, sometimes he wondered if blowing up Gallifrey was for the best, considering the living Hell it had become in the final stages of the Time War. He was glad the Master got out when he did, and the Rani and Romana as well, considering they probably would have committed suicide if they saw what their planet was turning into and what HE was becoming. "You, no we did what we had to do, considering we are the same being after all." An aged and weary voice said to him from a corner of his mind. The Doctor stopped in his tracks even as he was just beginning to step out of the hut's doorway and into the sand. It was a feature of Time Lord biology that even after a regeneration had passed, they were still able to speak to their future incarnations mentally if they so desired. Some Time Lords, usually the ones with especially powerful mental abilities like the Master and the Doctor had developed whole Mind Palaces and were able to communicate with any and even all of their previous selves in moments of calming peace and tranquility... Which for both the Doctor and the Master were far and few between. "No, there could have been other ways... Other paths we might have taken." Eleven (Well, technically Twelve if you want to be pessimistic about it.) argued mentally with the regeneration he refused to acknowledge, the one who had dropped the name of the Doctor entirely. "Bullshit!" HE snapped back. "You know perfectly well as I do that using the Moment was the only way to end all the fighting!" "And in one simple stroke, I became a god, a god of death. Nobody should have to chose who lives and who dies, then they'd become a monster. And that's what I became in that one single moment, something I've been fighting for millennia. A monster. You know, they say the Valeyard was sometime between my Eleventh and Twelfth incarnations, but I think in that moment we became the Valeyard." Eleven retorted and he could feel his previous self being struck like he was hit in the chest. "How dare you..." War growled out. "Listen to yourself. The Valeyard is a monster with no remorse." War said back in return in a stern tone of voice, before his voice became kinder. "We have remorse for what we did. That's what you've become now. The man who forgets, and now the man who regrets." "And now it seems once more I must go to war once again, as we both know what this town is under attack by. I remember now, what "A Stallion of Wealth and Taste" is from." Sympathy For the Devil, Rolling Stones, Album: Begger's Banquet. Great band by the way, helped them out with their first record, but now is no time for reminiscing." The Doctor mused before adjusting his bow tie and taking one step forwards. And then another. "Time for me to be the Doctor. This town has a plague, and it's high time it was removed." "You should bring your companions along for this. They've always been a great help to you, no matter what form they might take, and you sure could use the help now." War told the Doctor. "Damn Akachi's warnings, you can't walk alone on any path. Look where it got me." War told his successor in a sagely tone of voice. "Be the Doctor yes, but be it in the way you are best, with friends by your side." The Doctor nodded in agreement before heading back into the house, but before he could do so, columns of swirling black smoke appeared from out of the darkness surrounding the Doctor and turning into the forms of the Zebra townspeople and torchlights flickered off in the streets as this happened. "Boss wants to see you... Doesn't say why, but we're not ones to question orders." One of the Zebras spoke. The Doctor chuckled. "Not ones to question orders?" The Doctor replied in a mocking tone of voice. "I'm guessing at your pay grade they don't tell you much do they? Really should start asking more questions... Might end up with less of you to deal with, if you get my meaning." "Shut up!" One of the possessed Zebras snapped before knocking out the Doctor with a punch to the muzzle with another Zebra picking up his unconscious form. "What about the other two?" Another asked, gesturing towards the hut where Rainbow and Twilight where. The lead demon shook his head. "Don't bother, they're no threat to us. All that matters is him. He's the problem. Now all we gotta do is find that damned chieftain and our job will be done here. Who knows, might even get rewarded. Tirek knows there are some pretty, pretty mares in this town for us to go all Gimme Shelter on." The other possessed Zebras chuckled darkly before turning back into smoke and flying off in one particular direction. Youtube Video All the while, unbeknownst to them, the War Doctor had just gotten an unwanted visitor in his mindscape, which was his TARDIS. In front of him was a mare with short black hair and a purple dress. "You, who are you? And how the Hell did you get in here?" "Wellllll, seeing as how old dumbo here has gotten himself knocked unconscious, I slipped in and took a pretty little peek inside his head, and oh my the things I've seen..." The mare grinned in a perverted way. "My my, if Celestia knew the dreams he had about her, she might just change that all so wholesome image of purity and all that crap just for him." "Get out of here! You're not welcome!" War barked but was ignored. "Relax, I'm just here to pass on a message of sorts, and then I'll leave. There's things going on down back in Canterlot, and you lot need to pick up your arses and get the Tartarus over there!" "Considering the state we're in, I hardly think that's possible." War deadpanned before the mare headbutted him and War was greeted with an influx of images. First he saw the rooftop of Carousel Boutique exploding, and the windows shattering outwards sending glass flying everywhere, and Nightmarity emerging and making her declaration of "Oh my stars, do I look gorgeous or do I look gorgeous? This is the Best Possible Thing to ever happen to me! But never mind my looks. The night shall last forever, and it shall be absolutely fabulous! And this time... And this time nopony shall stop me! NOPONY!" . Then, he saw everypony in Canterlot falling into dream states and going into horrific nightmares, the contents of which he could only guess, all the while the remaining members of R.I.F.T and Celestia worked to counter the affect. "So, what happens if they try to fight their dreams?" Spike asked nervously and Celestia looked at him gravely. "Simple answer... They die." Then, when the members of R.I.F.T finally woke up, he saw the battle began between them, Shining, the Royal Sisters against Nightmarity and her Shadowbolts. He smiled when he saw that they were holding them off, but then he saw to his horror, what happened to Spike. *"Rarity..." Spike mused sadly as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Why did this have to happen to you?" He ran towards where Nightmarity was even as Shining saw him and shouted "Spike, stop! Don't be a fool!" But Spike didn't listen.* "Oh, what's this? A little drakeling come out to play? Shouldn't you be in bed by this hour?" Nightmarity asked in a mock-sweet tone of voice. "Rarity, please! Listen to me! I know you're in there somewhere! I... I... never told this to anypony else, not even Twilight, but I love you! Remember when we went gem hunting and you were captured by those Diamond Dogs? I rushed to protect you, just as I am now! So please Rarity, come back to me!" Spike pleaded, passion filling his every word. Nightmarity gave him a small smile, perhaps her old self reasserting itself for just a moment, but then it was gone and Nightmarity was back. Well Spikey-Boo... Touched as I am by your words, I'm sorry, but the Rarity you knew is gone forever!" Time seemed to slow down as every member of R.I.F.T and Shining seemed to rush towards Spike to protect him, even as a purple bolt of lightning rushed towards the ground right towards the young drake with Rarity mentally screaming out *"NO!",with Shining even throwing up a blue energy shield around him, but it was all for naught as the bolt pierced right through him and then only ashes remained...* "I'll... I'll be sure to pass on the message when I get the chance." War whispered after the mental assault on his mind finally stopped coming even as the strange mare waved goodbye and said "Toodles! Nice seeing you again my love, but I've got a battle to get back to!" before vanishing. Meanwhile, with Twilight and Rainbow, the lavender colored mare was slowly waking up when she realized she had heard the sound of voices outside. She suddenly noticed that the Doctor was gone and a torch had been lit in the room. She then felt a warm presence by her body snuggled up comfortably and also felt wings draped over her. She looked to her left and her eyes quickly widen as she saw Rainbow Dash by her side, gripping her tightly like a pillow or a very big plush toy. Oh my Celestia... Is Rainbow actually snuggling me?" Twilight thought excitedly and then the pony that was the subject of her musings slowly returned to the waking world as she murmured "Twilight, just give me five more minutes with ya..." before she slowly brushed her multi-colored mane out of her eyes. "Er, where's the Doctor? Please tell me he's not a sleepwalker." Rainbow questioned and Twilight shook her head and tried to keep her enthusiasm to a minimum. There was Rainbow, sleeping in the same bed as her! "Not as far as I know of, no." Twilight replied before she raised en eyebrow inquistively. "Rainbow, why were you... Uh, hugging me?" "We're in the desert, gets cold at night." Rainbow lied as best as she could but Twilight gave her a deadpan stare in response. "We're in Zebrawa, pretty sure it doesn't get cold here, even at night. See, I can smell your sweat." Rainbow decided not to tell her that wasn't sweat, it was musk. She was right in the middle of the pegasi heat cycle and she wanted to mate with somepony, NOW, and all parts of her brain were screaming "Twilight!" Rainbow just thanked Sun and Moon that she hadn't done anything... rash to put it delicately. "Annnnnyyyways..." Rainbow began, deciding it was best to change the subject as soon as possible. "We should probably find the Doc. Faust knows what kinda trouble he's gotten himself into by this point. Probably wandered into a lion's den or something." Rainbow muttered to herself as she and Twilight got up out of bed. Little did she know it, but Rainbow was more right than she thought... Youtube Video Elsewhere in the small village, at the chieftain's hut, which was made out of a tree much like Zecora's home and the inside covered in masks and other décor, Noteworthy/Abaddon, now in a nice black pinstriped suit with matching tie, both made of the finest materials was being delivered his gift, which was promptly and unceremoniously thrown onto the ground. At first he smiled when he saw the Doctor, but then that smile turned into a frown when he saw two certain ponies were missing. "Ah, ah, I believe we have a sort of... communication issue here." Abaddon said in a completely calm and businesspony like tone of voice. "I believe we're missing someponies." One of the possessed Zebras spoke up. That poor fool. "Sir-(He wilted under Abaddon's glare) Er, sorry, Mister Abaddon, we scoured the whole village and couldn't find hide nor hair of the chieftain. Mind you, we did find some pretty mares for us as a... stress relieving scheme, and I do know how much you like that." Abaddon snarled, and it came out like an almost animalistic, guttural snarl before he pulled out a silver rune inscribed knife and stabbed the demon in the forehead, killing both it and it's host, with blood gushing out of the wound with the demon's eyes and throat lighting up orange and the blood getting onto Abaddon's suit. He grimaced and pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed away at it, but soon saw there was no point. That blood simply wasn't coming off. "Great, now I'll have to get a new suit." He sighed. "When I said we were missing someponies I meant the Doctor's companions! AM I THE ONLY PIECE ON THIS CHESSBOARD THAT DOESN'T UNDERESTIMATE THOSE MULTICOLORED NIGHTMARES!?!" Abaddon yelled, his voice suddenly turning into a loud bellow that made all of the other demons take a few steps back. Abaddon took a few deep calming breaths and used his host's magic to wake up the Doctor. "Wakey wakey, we've got a lot of things to discuss." Abaddon said, back in that calm and somewhat suave tone of voice of his. The Doctor groaned in pain and pulled out a handkerchief of his own from his pajama pocket and dabbed away at his bloody nose. "What, like letting me go?" The Doctor snarked. "Sorry, no dice. Not up for making any crossroads deals today. To be honest, I'm taking your soul right here and right now." Abaddon said bluntly, getting straight to the point. "That is, unless you want to fight for it." "Well, I can go and get a fiddle made of gold. I do know where to get one of those." The Doctor commented lightly. "No, sorry, we won't be doing that. So old fashioned, dunno what the boss was thinking. I prefer to seal my deals with a kiss." Abaddon replied. "That does seem to happen a lot to me... The kissing thing... Not the selling your soul part." The Doctor explained. "Buuuuttt we won't be doing that. We're going to have a little tussle for your soul. The Devil's back in Equestria, will you stand up to the test, or will you let the Devil be the best?" Abaddon sung before he yelled "Open wide!" As two demons forced the Doctor's mouth open, Abaddon let free his host and his body slumped to the ground even as a tower of red swirling smoke poured out of Noteworthy's mouth and right into the Doctor's. "The Doctor" then smirked and adjusted himself to his new form. "Ooh, so many parts, and so many hardly used. Oh my, two hearts, must be beating out a samba in here!" Abaddon commented, before a magical explosion then blew the hut's door wide open shattering it and turning it into splinters going every which way and then when the smoke and dust cleared, there stood Twilight Sparkle, her horn glowing, and Rainbow Dash, wings flared, both with determined looks on their faces. "I think it's safe to say you have a security breach. A massive security breach." Twilight deadpanned. Primal Instinct Part 4: (The Doctor VS the King of Tartarus: Someone ring a bell)"Walking down this rocky road, wondering where my life is leading..." Rainbow's first emotion was shock. Complete and utter shock when Twilight grabbed ahold of her with her magic and slammed her lips onto hers, tongue going right into her mouth and to her even bigger surprise, Rainbow found herself accepting it when she felt her wings go stiff and she heard a loud POMF! sound, knowing exactly what had happened and kissed Twilight back, wrapping her forelegs around her friend's neck and emitting a soft moan as she did so. They were lost in their kiss of undeniable passion, as if nothing else in the world, not even the Hellhounds barking and scratching at the door, was there but then Rainbow pulled herself away from Twilight, panting hard. "Why... Why did you kiss me Twi?" Rainbow asked even as she struggled to get her wings back down from the fury and passion from behind Twilight's kiss. "Rolling on till the bitter end... Finding out along the way what it takes to keep love living. You should know how it feels my friend..." "Last kiss of the damned?" Twilight answered sheepishly. Rainbow muttered "Fair enough" to herself before shoving Twilight against the wall and kissing her furiously with Twilight grabbing ahold of her flanks and rubbing them making Rainbow emit groaning sounds of pleasure and then there came another POMF! Yep, there went the wings again. Twilight and Rainbow kissed again and again, each time more furious than the last, and each time increasing the speed their lips parted and then met again until they were almost suckling on each other's mouths. Months of built of passion released in a single do it before you die moment. Rainbow wrapped her hind forelegs around Twilight's hips as they tumbled onto a nearby bed and began rolling around on it as both mares ran their hooves through each other's manes. "Ooh, I want you to stay... Ooh, I want you today... I'm a-ready for love. Oh baby, I'm a-ready for love. Ready for love. Oh baby I'm a-ready for love, for your love..." "I... I love you Twi." Rainbow whispered as she stopped to take a breather, gasping for air. Both mares were drenched in sweat, and it wasn't because of the nighttime heat. "I love you too my Rainbow." Twilight whispered back before she lunged in for another kiss, neither of them noticing the twin dying howls of the Hellhounds at the door and the distinct sounds of a blade plunging into flesh twice... In the Doctor's mindscape... Youtube Video The mind of the being known only to him as the Doctor, Abaddon decided was complete and utter chaos. Nothing made sense, it was a jumble of memories, each seemingly making no sense to him and each one coming at him in a complete and utter random order, no chronological sense behind them. Of course, the King of Tartarus had a deep sneaking suspicion that was exactly the way the Doctor wanted it. Keeping him off balance long enough for him to mount a counterattack. "Come on out Doctor, grow some balls and face me like a stallion... or whatever the bloody Tartarus you are!" Abaddon challenged, his voice going through all aspects of the Doctor's mind. Then, his head was filled with the sound of a clock ticking over and over, so loudly in fact that Abaddon tried to cover his ears with his hooves. But the sound wouldn't stop, growing ever louder still. "Now now, is that any way to treat a guest?" A voice called out, sounding like it was from Trottingham's West End before a brown coated stallion with a hourglass Cutie Mark and scruffy brown hair appeared before him wearing a blue suit and brown trench coat, along with a pair of 3D Glasses which he took off his face and pocketed in his coat. "You picked the wrong mind to try and take over King." Pony Ten boasted. "I've lived for over 900 years and I know things you don't, oh... (Here, the Doctor looked sheepish.) Sorry, forgot your name already. 900 years, you tend to pick up everyone's name and not remember it from time to time." Abaddon growled, but the Doctor wasn't finished mocking him yet. "You know, I... Weeeeeellll, not me really, but my previous self faced the Devil, or what the universe's original inspiration for the Devil was, and won. Friend of mine, she kicked his sorry arse into a black hole and won. Gotta give my Rosie credit, she can kick flank when the job requires it." Pony Ten continued, while in the real world, Abaddon and the Doctor switched control over their shared body back and forth to continue playing their chess game. So far, it was an equal match. "Give me your soul now!" Abaddon roared and the Doctor shook his head before saying "GIVE ME YOUR SOUL NOW!" in a mocking version of Abaddon's voice. "You know, I don't reeeellly respond well to demands." The Doctor commented in a sarcastic tone before throwing in a tsk tsk for good measure. "Soooo, just for that, punishment! Allons-Y!" Then, the mindscape was filled with the sound of a clock bonging twelve times, in a very loud succession. BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! Once the bonging finally stopped, The Doctor smirked before saying "Gotta go, somepony else wants to greet you. Now I really don't want to go, but... Needs must." before waving good-bye and then Pony-Ten vanished before being replaced by Pony-Eleven wearing his brown tween jacket, white button-up shirt and dark green bow-tie as the mindscape changed from disorganized chaos to the interior of his TARDIS. Youtube Video "Well, how'd you like a bit of my history class? Probably did Discord proud with all that chaos I put you through." Eleven remarked. "Now, down to business. We both have 49% of my body. 2% is blocked off. Whoever wins this little chess match of ours gets that 2% and control over my body. Want me to seal that contract with a kiss?" The Doctor asked before shuddering in disgust. "No... Wait, that'd probably be considered narcissism, considering I'd be kissing somepony who looks exactly like me." The Doctor muttered to himself. "Now, that 49% of my mind I gave you shows you my regeneration abilities, so you know I could just do that here and now and remove you by force and send you back to Tartarus." "Ah ah, but I know you don't have any lives left, so go ahead, stick a knife in your hearts and commit suicide right on the stage if you want." Abaddon retorted. "Leave your love alone crying and weeping for your death and leave the world without another hero. Heroes die so quickly don't you think, and it's always by self-sacrifice." He mused to himself before smirking. "Oh look, I seem to have taken your King. Guess that means I win anyways, so give up your soul. It's mine now." Abaddon grinned before being greeted with a smirk from the Doctor who changed into a man with a black leather jacket, short military regulation hair and very big ears. "Ah. but you see, I was playing two games, not just the one in the physical world. And now for my next trick..." The Ninth said with a Northern accent before Abaddon realized that there had been the First's voice speaking all the while in the background, he just never had noticed it before until now because he was so distracted by the other Doctors. Here is what the First had been saying all the while. "Regna terrae, cantate Deo, psallite Domino qui fertis super caelum caeli ad Orientem Ecce dabit voci Suae vocem virtutis, tribuite virtutem Deo." "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica." "Ergo draco maledicte et omnis legio diabolica adjuramus te. cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque aeternae Perditionis venenum propinare." "Vade, Satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis. Humiliare sub potenti manu dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine, quem inferi tremunt." "Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine. Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos. Ut inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae humiliare digneris, te rogamus, audi nos." "Ut inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae te rogamus, audi nos." "Terribilis Deus de sanctuario suo. Deus Israhel ipse truderit virtutem et fortitudinem plebi Suae. Benedictus Deus. Gloria Patri." The Real World Abaddon roared in rage just as he turned into a swirling pillar of red smoke and swirled up into the ceiling before arching downwards into a rapidly developing hole in the ground which closed itself up as soon as all of Abaddon's essence was gone. "Defeated a Demon King while in my jim-jams. Not bad, very Arthur Dent. Now THERE was a very nice man, quite the kisser. Now..." The Doctor said, adjusting his bow-tie and retrieving his fez. "Can somepony untie me... Please?" With Castiel... Akachi/Castel wiped the black blood of the two Hellhounds off his host's robes and his Angel Blade and grimaced. It was messy work, but it had to be done. Waving his hoof, he un-barricaded the door to the hut Rainbow and Twilight were currently in and opened it only to be greeted with quite the sight. "OH! OH! RAINBOW!" "How do you like me now, egghead?" A blush rapidly came to the Angel's face and he murmured to himself "That... That is inappropriate." before quickly shutting the door. He could wait till they were finished. It wasn't like anything else important was going on elsewhere... right? In Canterlot... Target Quartermane growled as she found herself surrounded by Shadowbolts on all sides, and to her shock, they multiplied. "Oh great, now I'll never remember all your names." She muttered before pumping her shotgun. "Oh well, not like you'll live much longer anyways..." KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! went her weapon as each Shadowbolt went down one by one, Target meeting each one as they came. One came up at Target from behind her, but she whirled around to face it, and blew it's brains out with a shotgun blast. More came, and then Galaxy Swirls ran up and leaped over Target in a spinning motion, all the while in midair pulling out twin knives from his armor and holding one in each hoof before stabbing two Shadowbolts in the foreheads, dropping them and landing behind their dead bodies even as more appeared. "Now I think you've made them mad." Galaxy commented cheerfully as he pulled out the First Blade. "Don't worry, been working on my apology." Target replied before pumping her shotgun once more. KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! (AN: End Black Dog here) Sleep/Primal Instinct Finale: (End of a Nightmare)Rainbow and Twilight's hut... Rainbow and Twilight panted as they lay next to each other, bathing in the warm afterglow of their moment of passion. They both didn't need to say anything. It was no longer a moment of rash do it before you die spurt of the moment type of decision, in hindsight it probably, no it was certainly was something that had been building for a long time now and they just needed something as Fluttershy's mental thought train put it "Something to clobber them over the heads to make them see it for themselves." The twosome had begun slowly gaining feelings for each other since Twilight ever came to Ponyville to stop Nightmare Moon, it was subtle at first but then it began to grow like a wildfire and burn out of control over these last few days since last Hearth's Warming and the incident with the stropping mad homicidal fairy tales coming to life and trying to kill all, as the Doctor might have put it. "Faust above... You have no idea how much I needed that." Twilight whispered as she held her marefriend and snuggled in closer, breathing in her sweaty scent of an athlete. "You tell me, I bet you haven't even made it to third base when you were in Celestia's personal care." Rainbow teased before an evil grin slowly crept onto her muzzle. "That is... Unless you and Celestia were more than mother and daughter for a time. You do seem to practically worship the mare." "I... I... We... did no such thing!" Twilight sputtered out. "And for the record, I did reach third base with a guard when I wanted to... experiment." Twilight admitted. "...Okay, maybe she wanted to experiment as well." Twilight then mumbled quietly to herself. Rainbow raised an eyebrow and then smirked. "What was that? I didn't quite hear you." Rainbow asked in a teasing manner. "I-I said she wanted to experiment as well, okay!?!" Twilight sputtered out. "Basically, I was doing her a favor and cleaning her barracks and said guard remarked how good I'd look in a Prench Maid's outfit." Twilight admitted with a considerable blush rising to her face. Rainbow burst out laughing. "You didn't!" Rainbow cackled. "Okay, maybe I sort of... conjured up a Maid's outfit and things... progressed from there." Twilight muttered to herself, now as red as Big Macintosh. And just when Rainbow thought she couldn't get any redder, Twilight continued with her confession about her act of debauchery with a Royal Guard. "...Of course that's when my brother walked in on us and... Well... You can sorta guess what happened." "Chased her around the compound with a sword didn't he?" Rainbow smirked. "Yeah, he kinda maybe sorta did, while my old foalsitter sat there looking as if she was torn between busting out laughing and congratulating me for getting a marefriend. In the end, the then current Captain, Steel Sentry, had to break the whole thing up and both my brother and the guard got lashings to their backsides, least that's what I heard, Shining did seem to be walking in a rather sore manner at the time for the next few days, as punishment for disrupting everypony's sleep." "Sure it wasn't an afteraffect of Cadance having a bit of "Fun" with him? Celestia knows those two get up to all sorts of fun quite a bit, her being the Princess of Love and all." Rainbow remarked. Twilight then thought about it for a moment before a greenish tinge came to her face, replacing the red. "...I thank you for putting that image in my head Rainbow." Twilight deadpanned, rather not wanting to think about her big brother and her probable future sister-in-law's sex lives. "You're welcome." Rainbow smirked, either missing Twilight's sarcasm entirely or just not caring. Given the shameless manner in which she was smirking, it was probably the latter. It was then they both realized there were no Hellhounds at the door, and they both then realized something else and exclaimed in unison "WE FORGOT ABOUT THE DOCTOR!" Rainbow and Twilight rushed back to the Chieftain's hut as fast as they could, and when they opened the door, they found the Doctor still sitting there bound in golden chain looking supremely annoyed with them both. "Well, took you long enough. I've been sitting here for the last hour and a half with nothing but my thoughts and a whole lot of mes, very annoying by the way if you've ever met some of my incarnations, that one with the big ears is always so broody and don't even get me started on the one with the garish suit, to entertain me... Oh yes, and a bunch of demons trying to possess me." The Doctor stated, and gestured to the pile of dead demons lying all around him. "Akachi showed up, claimed to be an angel of the Lord and slaughtered the whole lot of them and then vanished without saying a bloody word, and left me still here, tied up!" The Doctor whined in a almost childish tone of voice. "Really must give him props, could give Batman lessons in that vanishing act of his though..." "Wait, how do we know you're still... Well, you?" Rainbow asked in suspicion. "I've got an idea." Twilight replied to her before walking up to the Doctor. "Do you think I'm pretty?" She asked and the Doctor burst out laughing. "No." He said simply. "You're too short and bossy, and your nose is all funny." "Good enough." Twilight muttered before she released the Doctor from his bindings, trying not to take offence to the comment he made about her, and remembering his tendency to insult other species when he was annoyed. The Doctor then sniffed them both, ignoring all sense of personal space much to both Twilight and Rainbow's great annoyance and wrinkled his nose before smiling. "Ah, so you're finally together then? Good on you!" The Doctor said gleefully as the threesome walked out of the hut, the sun rising in the distance illuminating the savanna. "I was getting worried that neither of you could get no satisfaction from the other. I was just about this close from shoving you in a broom closet until you started snogging the living daylights out of each other." Then the Doctor turned to them both. "New rule, no snogging or sex on the TARDIS. She gets very worked up about that. Bodily fluids just ruin her inner workings." The Doctor commented offhoofedly. "Soooo.... How did all of this happen anyways? Demons just don't pop out of Tartarus willy-nilly." Rainbow asked. The Doctor frowned, he'd been thinking on that and all the possible answers led up to one great big stinking solution he didn't like. "Witchcraft. Somewhere out there, somewhere in Equestria is a unicorn, very powerful, possibly stroppingly mental and with Twilight's level of power." The Doctor answered. "He... No, probably a she, as mares seem to be more quick tempered... (Both Twilight and Rainbow glared at him and so he quickly backtracked) ...Okay, maybe a he as I'm not sexist, summoned these demons and well... You know the rest. I don't know who though. I don't like not knowing things." The Doctor scowled. "Speaking of demons, sorry about taking so long to get to you, had a bunch of them to perform exorcisms on, had to do them one by one." Rainbow commented. "My awesome marefriend totally kicked their flanks." Twilight blushed red at Rainbow's phrasing of her. "Eh, no biggie about you taking your time. I'm always running late with things, ironically. I once spent a Tartarus of a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow airport. In hindsight, not really sure why." The Doctor shrugged as they stepped into the TARDIS and the Doctor began throwing switches and turning knobs with a greater urgency than both Rainbow and Twilight had ever seen him do before. "Doctor, what's wrong?" Twilight asked in a voice of concern. The Doctor turned to her and gave Twilight and Rainbow a grave look. "One word: Nightmare." Canterlot Rage. Pure undiluted rage. That was the single emotion Lightning Dust felt after seeing the young dragon known as Spike struck down by Nightmarity. She didn't care that Rarity was possessed by a force far more powerful than her, all she cared about was taking down this thing that had struck down a young kid not even in the prime of his life. As the air began to smell with ozone, a powerful lightning bolt formed in her hooves and she flung it at Nightmarity with all the strength she could muster and hit her dead on target, causing Nightmarity to scream out in both pain and rage. Lightning had reached the rare state known as the Pegasi Battle Rage, glowing pure red with magical energy and the former villainous mare intended to use it to it's full effect. "The Royal Sisters are out of the fight, so it's up to me now. I wanted to redeem myself, and taking down something that's nothing but a monster now is the way to do it." Lightning mused to herself and continued flinging lightning bolt after lightning bolt at Nightmarity, not even giving her a chance to strike back even as the being screamed "Stop, please!" in a tone that sounded exactly like Rarity. But Lightning Dust was far too angry to take notice. Finally, her energy all but spent, only having enough to keep herself in the air, and that was only barely, Nightmarity finally got the chance to strike back. "Fool." Nightmarity said simply before flinging a blast of magic from her horn hitting Lightning dead on and sending her crashing into the street. Lightning Dust groaned out in pain, even as blood trickled out from various spots on her body that had taken the worst of the impact. Nearby, Sudoku, Galaxy and Target had been cornered by a pack of Shadowbolts. Target tried to fire off a blast, but found she was out of ammunition. "Shit, I'm out!" She swore, and Sudoku checked and cursed "Damnit, I'm bloody well out as well!" "You see?" Galaxy asked even as the Shadowbolts closed in. "This is why I stick to knives and sharp objects of all kinds. Never run out of ammo when you need it the most, plus I like things up close and personal." Then, it came. The sound of hope. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! Wheezing and groaning, the TARDIS materialized right in front of them and directly on top of the Shadowbolts, dispersing them into nothingness, and the Doctor stepped out, Huey Lewis and the News' song Back in Time blaring from somewhere in the background, in his tweed suit and bow-tie with a walking cane in hoof, with Twilight and Rainbow appearing right behind him. "So sorry I'm late for the party, but now the Doctor is in." He grinned and when more Shadowbolts came to greet him, he whirled around to face them and the top of his cane opened up to reveal a glowing light green light and then with the distinct sound of a sonic device being used, the Shadowbolts were nothing but smoke. "Sonic Cane, never leave home without it." The Doctor bragged, after receiving an odd kiss on the lips from Galaxy who only said "That was for 999's Hearts and Hooves day disaster!" before looking up at Nightmarity. "Now, time to deliver a cure." The Doctor stated before he turned to Sudoku, and looked at him seriously. "You there, tan pony, don't know your name, (Sudoku tried desperately hard not to look offended by that.) can you get me as close to Nightmarity as you can?" Sudoku smirked. "Course I can, but I should feel the need to warn you, she's pretty quick herself." He said, and the Doctor smirked. "Well, then you'll just have to be quicker." The Doctor replied, and Sudoku extended his powerful wings and the Doctor hopped on him, grabbing Sudoku by the neck with both forelegs as Sudoku rocketed towards Nightmarity, Shadowbolts flying from every direction to protect her. The Doctor released his grip on his means of transport and held up his Sonic Cane and his Sonic Screwdriver. "Hey, anypony ever know what happens when you put two Sonic devices together?" The Doctor asked and Sudoku shook his head. "Neither do I! Let's find out!" He cried gleefully and used both devices at once and all the Shadowbolts were dispersed into clouds of smoke by the pure wave of sound that forced everypony around to cover their ears. Sudoku rocketed alongside Nightmarity, but she pulled on a burst of speed and flew right towards the direction of Canterlot Castle. "Should make a great new home for moi, after I redo it of course." Nightmarity commented. "And it shall be FABULOUS!" She declared before she was wrapped in twin sets of golden celestial chains as the Royal Sisters reappeared, looking a little bruised and bloody, but otherwise looking none the worse for wear. "Thou shall not be doing any remodeling tonight, or any other night!" Luna declared before turning to the Last of the Time Lords. "Now, do what you do best." The Doctor smirked, and cried "That's my cue!" before taking a flying leap of Sudoku and latching onto Nightmarity with his hooves around her neck. "GET OFF!" Nightmarity roared, but the Doctor wouldn't budge. "And fall to my death? I think not!" The Doctor replied. "Now, I know you need help, and that's what I'm here for." Then, ever so gently, he locked foreheads with the dark Alicorn and entered her mind... In Rarity's/Nightmarity's mindscape... Dark. That was all the Doctor could see. Complete and utter darkness except for the odd mannequin and Rarity with her head hung low, sobbing quietly to herself in the middle of a ruined Carousel Boutique. The Doctor walked up to her and dabbed away at her tears. "Hey, it's okay." He said in a calming and caring tone of voice, his green orbs glowing with warmth. "I'm here now. Everything's going to be alright." "No..." Rarity whispered. "Nothing's going to be alright again, not after what I've done. I'm useless and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Everypony will leave me in the end. The Nightmare showed me the truth. We're all just specks in a vast universe, waiting to be flicked out like a light switch." The Doctor looked her dead in the eyes, and Rarity saw for the first time how truly old he was, and what he'd seen. "No, nopony's never important. In all my over 900 years of living, I have never met anypony or anything who wasn't important in some way. Look at you, you could be the best fashionista the world has ever seen, you just have to believe in yourself. I know I do. You are Rarity Belle, the embodiment of Generosity and you CAN FIGHT THIS THING!" "You're... You're right." Rarity replied, her confidence in herself restored before she glared at Nightmarity, who had been watching the whole thing in silence. "You." She growled out, her eyes filled with fury for what Nightmarity had made her do. "You, leave. I said... Get. Out. Of. My. MIND!" The world faded into light, and back in the real world, there was a white glow and Nightmarity was no more. But one small problem. Rarity no longer had wings to keep her aloft, and so both she and the Doctor fell towards the ground, it rushing up to greet them as Death opened his arms for them. But it was not to be, as the Doctor found himself captured in a golden glow courtesy of Celestia and Rarity in a purple one courtesy of Twilight, and they were both set down gently on the ground. "Well, that's that. Day saved again, by yours truly." The Doctor said, adjusting his bow tie. Twilight looked around and saw everypony in Canterlot emerging from their homes. But there was one pony, or rather drake she did not see. "Where... Where's Spike?" Twilight asked before she began shouting his name. "SPIKE! SPIKE! Where are you? Come on, this isn't funny!" Shining walked slowly and sadly up to his sister and gave her a heartbreaking look. "Twilight, there's something you need to know." He began, his voice quavering with every word and he looked as if he was on the brim of tears. Twilight looked confused for a moment before realization dawned and she began to sob softly and soon those sobs turned into wails of despair as Shining brought her into a hug. "It's okay little sister, I'm right here, all of us are right here..." END Interlude: (When the Levee Breaks)Ponyville Memorial Gardens 'Well I heard there was a secret chord That Starswirl played and it pleased the Lord." Storm clouds rumbled as the sky became a thick greyish mass, seemingly reflecting the mood of everypony present. You know, it's a cliché in movies or TV when somepony or someone dies that the weather changes to reflect the mood of everypony present. Of course, often times funerals take place on the nicest of days, when the air is warm and the sky bright and sunny, or when it's freezing cold and snow is falling on the ground. But today, that cliché was in full force. Rain began to fall over the funeral procession as four Royal Guards carried a brown and gold casket with a black shroud and a symbol of green fire draped over it down the dirt pathway, which was beginning to turn to mud from the rain drops falling. "But you don't really care for music, do you? Well it goes like this:" The procession slowly preceded down the pathway, the guards flanked by their Captain on one side and Princess Celestia on the other. Shining was in full dress uniform, wearing a black suit and matching tie while Princess Celestia wore a black dress that covered everything, even her Cutie Mark, although even she doubted that a rising sun would lift anypony's spirits today. All over Ponyville, black flags hung from flag poles and the Town Hall's own flag pole, which normally displayed Ponyville's emblem of a seed bursting from the ground and sprouting leaves to symbolize how the small town had grown from a tiny hamlet to a bustling village was today a purple flag with a green flaming scroll raised at half mast. It was a national day of mourning, even if the creature in question was never a national hero, both Celestia and Luna, out of respect declared him to be a creature to be held in as high regard as one for his courage to stand up to the Nightmare, and for all the help he'd given his caretaker over the many years she'd raised him. "The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift The baffled wizard composing Hallelujah" Twilight, with a tear dripping from her eyes and a black veil over her face watched as the casket was lowered into the ground where It would lay forevermore. Her son, dead before he even reached the prime of his life, and who did she have to thank? One of her own friends, possessed by the Nightmare! Rarity! She was at this funeral as well, although why the Tartarus she had the nerve to show her face was anypony's guess. There she stood, by a tree draped in black sobbing into a handkerchief heavily as if she actually cared about Spike! If she had cared, she wouldn't have turned him into dust in the damn fist place! Rarity wasn't the only one Twilight was furious with. The Doctor was there as well, the one who should have seen this coming in the first place and he could have prevented it! "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah..." Twilight snarled when she saw R.I.F.T as well. They were there too, with Target holding her hat to her chest in mourning and not wearing her usual sunglasses allowing her cool blue eyes to be seen and her husband stood by her side with a wing wrapped around her in a comforting manner, tears trickling from his eyes. Galaxy Swirls stood as well, out of armor and wearing a red cape and what looked to be silver armor. The armor of nobility, although as far as she knew Galaxy had never said a word about being a noble. Then again, he never said much on his past to begin with. As far as Twilight knew, only Luna knew of it and she wasn't telling a soul. "Well your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof." "Somepony's going to pay for this. No, make that somePONIES!" Twilight snarled and left the funeral in tears, unable to watch anymore or even listen to Celestia's speech. The Doctor noticed, and so did Rainbow and Rarity. "S-She's not even going to stay for the speech?" Rainbow asked in shock and Rarity sniffled before managing to muster up a reply. "W-Well, to be fair... Spike was like a son to her. Tartarus, he was like a son to all of us!" Rarity sobbed while inwardly the Doctor was cursing himself. "Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya She tied you to her kitchen chair." "Damn it! I should have prevented this! I'm the Doctor, and so I try to save ponies if and when I can, and yet I couldn't even save the life of a young drake who's close to one of my dearest friends!" He snarled mentally at himself only to get a strong rebuke back from his previous self. "You can't save everypony. I've learned that. If we were given the ability to choose who lives and who dies, that'd make us a monster." Ten (The Doctor couldn't be sure which one of them it was) remarked. "To be honest, we already surpassed that status when we blew up our own home planet. HE was right you know, when he said it. When he said those words. Doctor No More." "She broke your throne and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah." This last comment was made out of pure shame, as if the Tenth Doctor had finally accepted his sins and was just awaiting judgement for them when it came. He knew where he was going, and it wasn't to the place in the sky. To be honest, all of the Doctors past War held these feelings inwardly, they just never admitted it, not even to themselves in private. They didn't deserve the title of the Doctor, the man who helped people, they'd broken the promise they made when they took the name. And now at last they'd finally accepted it. Just then, the Doctor was shaken out of his internal musings by Rainbow. "Baby, I've been here before, I've seen this room and I've walked this floor. I used to live alone before I knew ya..." AN: End Hallelujah here "Hey, maybe we should see if she's alright." Twilight's marefriend suggested and Rarity sniffled again and nodded in agreement. "Y-Yes, I think that would be best dearies." She agreed and the Doctor nodded. "Yes, right after the funeral's over. After that. I played a part in Spike's demise and I should be here to give him his last respects, ironic as it sounds." The Doctor stated, and Rainbow laid a hoof on his shoulder. "There was no way you could have known what was going down in Canterlot. You can't be in two places at once!" Rainbow exclaimed. The rain was pouring now and Shining barked orders to his guards to give the 21 Gun Salute as up above, the Wonderbolts flew above them as a tribute to the drake who would now never fly. "But that's just it! I can! I'm the Doctor, I could have warned a previous self of mine, damn the rules about crossing personal timelines as nopony can ever tell them to me as I make them, and I would have broken those rules many times over to avert this and to go and deal with the Nightmare Spirit personally, or at least make sure she was properly locked up!" The Doctor exclaimed in fury with himself and said nothing more on the matter. The Golden Oaks Library Twilight choked back a sob as she held a portrait of Spike in her hooves. In it, the young drake was smiling and grinning at her as if everything was alright with the world. And now it wasn't. It would never be. What kind of world did she live in, Twilight asked herself, if she had to bury her own child? Her own damn child and attend his funeral!?! For a brief moment, she became lost in her memories. "I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel." "Twilight, he just wants to take your order." "Okay. Imagine me with a nice long Fu Manchu-type beard. Or maybe a goatee..." "AAAHAHAHAHAHAA!! This is hilarious! Look at all of you! We got Hairity, Rainbow Crash, Spittie Pie, Apple-tini, Flutterguy, and... Uh...eh...I got nothin'. Twilight Sparkle, I mean seriously, I can't even work with that..." "You know, Pinkie, these two ponies have a bit of a grudge match they're trying to settle, trying to prove who's the most athletic." "Yes! And "grudge" rhymes with "fudge"!" "Yes, it... does? What?" "And I like fudge. But if I eat too much fudge, I get a pudge and then I can't budge." "So... no fudge?" "Aw, no thanks. I had a big breakfast." "Hey, Pony Joe. Another donut." "Don't you think you've had enough?" "Another donut! Extra sprinkles!" "Arrrgh...I've been holding that quill so long, I've got a claw cramp! Good thing we don't have anything to report to Princess Celestia this week. I don't think I could write another word!" "I focused on the pain, the only thing that's real..." Just then, as if to distract Twilight from her own internal musings, there was a soft rap on the door. "T-Twilight?" Rarity's distinct voice asked. Twilight growled. Rarity had a lot of nerve to show up right now. "M-May we come in?" Twilight didn't open the door. "Twilight, please! We need to talk to you!" Rainbow yelled from behind the door, and this time Twilight did open it and her eyes narrowed in pure rage and fury when she saw the two objects of her hatred, the Doctor and Rarity standing there. "Get out." Twilight growled, her horn already crackling with magical energy. "No Twi, we need to talk." Rainbow said firmly, with no room in her voice for argument. "I said get out Rainbow, you don't want to be here for this." Twilight growled, and sent a small magical blast at Rainbow's hooves making her yelp and take a step back in fright. She'd never seen Twilight like this, not even after losing her aunt. Something was definitely wrong. "The needle tears a hole, the old familiar stain. Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything..." "Twilight... For the record..." The Doctor began slowly, tears trickling out of his green eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should have been there." At this, Twilight's emotions finally boiled over and she began to shout and scream at them, magical energy flying everywhere as books lifted themselves off the shelves and flew every which way and the floor began to crack under the sheer magical output Twilight was throwing out. "What have I become? My sweetest friend..." "THAT'S DAMN WELL RIGHT! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE DOCTOR, IF YOU EVEN DESERVE THE TITLE!" Twilight roared, her voice output reaching The Royal Canterlot Voice levels of volume. "I TRUSTED YOU, AND YOU TOOK THAT TRUST AND THREW IT AWAY LIKE AN OLD STUFFED TOY! SPIKE WAS MY SON AND YOU LET HIM DIE ALL BECAUSE OF SOME DAMNED DEMONS, WHO COULD HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH AT ANY TIME YOU VERY WELL LIKED!" "The Doctor..." Twilight snarled bitterly. "The Stallion who makes ponies better. That was your promise wasn't it? Well, you've certainly done a good job in upholding THAT." As the Doctor hung his head in shame and Rainbow gaped at Twilight's audacity, Rarity, now shivering with terror spoke up. "Everypony I know, goes away in the end." "Y-You shouldn't blame him, he had no way of kn-" Now Twilight reeled on her. "DON'T SPROUT THAT SHIT AT ME RARITY!" Twilight roared. "YOU WERE TOO DAMN WEAK TO FIGHT OFF THE NIGHTMARE, AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! YOU KILLED HIM, THE ONE WHO WAS ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU, THE ONE WHO LOVED YOU AND YOU SNUFFED HIM OUT LIKE A LIGHT!" "Twilight, you're not acting like yourself. You need to think rationally. I know you're in pain and grief, but you know perfectly well how powerful the Nightmare is. We've all seen it's temptation and what it did to Luna, an ALICORN for crying out loud!" Rainbow countered. "And you can have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down, I will make you hurt..." "Twilight... Please, it wasn't our fault!" The Doctor pleaded, feeling grief for the death of the young drake. He may not have knew him well, but even he knew how important Spike was to Twilight. "NO!" Twilight suddenly shouted. "BUCK YOU, Doctor, and you as well Rarity! It's your fault that my son's dead, and nothing on this planet can bring him back!" "I wear this crown of thorns, upon my liar's chair. Full of broken thoughts, I cannot repair." With that, Twilight ran out of the room crying as Rarity put her face into her hooves and sobbed. Twilight was right, it was HER own fault that she let herself get possessed by that demonic brute known as Nightmare Moon and killed her Spikey-Boo. And now, she'd lost her chance, perhaps forever, to tell the mare she loved how she truly felt. Yes, that's right. Rarity was in love with Twilight as well. She didn't know how, why or when exactly it started, but she couldn't deny it. Then, all three ponies felt themselves soundly flung out of the Golden Oaks and onto the street with the door to the library locking itself behind them and the Doctor hung his head in shame and openly wept. "I... I suppose they all leave in the end. A-And... it breaks both my hearts." He whispered and walked all the way to the TARDIS, locking the door behind him where he held both Twilight and Shining's keys to it in one of his hooves and flung them both away in rage. He then kicked and screamed at the TARDIS's central console, making it emit sparks with each hit of rage and grief before his energy finally spent, he flung off his tweed jacket and loosened his bow-tie and let it drop to the floor. "Beneath the stains of time, the feelings disappear. You are somepony else, I am still right here." Meanwhile, in Canterlot Castle, Princess Celestia had locked herself away in her chambers and had flung away her royal regalia and was openly sobbing as well, casting aside her carefully crafted mask and letting all of her sorrow for the dragon who she had considered a grandson flow. A great loss had happened today, and the after affects would be felt in the days to come. That, everypony knew. "What have I become? My sweetest friend... Everypony I know, just goes away in the end." END Interlude: (The Doctor, Time Lord, and... Babysitter?)The Crystal Empire: All was silent except for the cold wind rushing through the frozen wasteland. Nothing made a sound, not even a animal. After all, how could they when there was no animals around to make them? Then, there was a sound breaking the silence. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP "Weeellll, that was rather enlightening wasn't it? Okay, so as it turns out Sea Ponies do not like it when you say you've eaten fish at least once. Huh, wonder why?" The Doctor muttered as wind whipped his grey fur and blew his mane in front of his face. He was dressed in what you would almost certainly not wear in cold weather like this. Said attire consisted of a gaudy flower print shirt not out of place from those in Haywaii and sunglasses along with a fez. "Mental note. Spears are not cool!" Now, you may be wondering what the Time Lord was doing here. King Sombra returning? Lizard people coming up from under the earth? Daleks attempting to destroy the Crystal Heart? Well, you'd be wrong on all counts. It was none of those things actually. Quite recently, he'd heard his companion Shining Armor along with that wife of his had become parents. He wanted to congratulate the two. Mind you, he wasn't sure if he landed at the right time and it was entirely possible he'd landed too early and would just end up creating some awkward moment like when he burst out at the wrong cake at a bachelor party when he was looking for Shining to tell him the world was about to end via Cyberpony/Weeping Angel team-up. Long story. "Well, here goes nothing..." He said, as he fixed his tie and fussed with his hair. "Geronimo." "HEEELLLLLOOOO! Anypony home?" The Doctor called as he opened the two large doors that led to the Crystal Palace's throne room. "Huh, I was expecting the guards by now to have been pointing sharp and pointy objects at me. Maybe I should have sent a memo... Nah, surprise visits are cool. Fact." Then he got his wish as guards pointed said aforementioned sharp objects at him. "...Of course, there are someponies who don't share this view but oh heck what do they know huh?" He asked. "Who are you?" One guard asked. The Doctor grinned. "Glad you asked my good sir. I'm the Doctor, also known as the Oncoming Storm, the Predator and Your Worst Nightmare... among others but we shall not go into those eh?" He replied with a manic grin as usual before bowing. The guards weren't very impressed. The captain gestured to two of his men. "Take him to the dungeons. We'll let the Prince and Princess decide what to do with him there." He said, and two guards grabbed the Time Lord much to his great dislike. "Now now, we can talk about this. No need to resort to-Hey, watch it mate! You could hurt somepony with that, like me!" He protested after being poked with a spear to make him trot forwards. "Alright, what's going on here?" Shining Armor asked as he trotted into the room alongside his wife. "I heard shouti-Doctor, what did you do? Actually, for that matter why are you here?" "Well, I was going to congratulate you for the baby but these guys thought I was some sort of villain! Mistaken for a villain incidents are not cool!" He protested and Shining sighed before facehoofing. "Release him. He's a old family friend." "First off, I want to ask are there any threats to the Empire I should know about?" Cadence asked the Doctor. "No offence, but I have heard where you go trouble follows." The Doctor looked somewhat offended. "Oh ye of little faith... I can go places without somepony trying to kill me." He said dryly. "Well you do have a track record." Cadence replied as Flurry cooed. "She wants milk." The Doctor said simply and Flurry's parents looked at him in shock. "I speak Baby." He answered, as if that said it all. Shining sighed and rubbed his temples before muttering "Of course you do..." Flurry cooed once more and tried to reach for the Doctor's tie and pull it off. She eventually decided to just suckle on it. He groaned while Cadence giggled and Shining laughed his head off at the Time Lord's obvious discomfort. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up." He muttered. "Looks like she likes you Doctor." Shining snorted as Flurry cooed again. The Doctor looked down at her before saying "No, I'm not your mommy, she is. No, she's not just big milk thing and no you can't bump her and your dad off and rule the Empire by yourself." He whispered before looking at Shining. "Looks like your kid wants to take the Kylo Ren route and take over. Watch yourself." Shining and Cadence looked at him like he was crazy. Well, crazier then normal anyway. Now the Doctor was the one rubbing his temples. "...Never mind." He muttered as a guard rushed in. "My Lieges, Princesses Celestia and Luna need you in Canterlot! It's urgent." Shining swore under his breath. He knew he'd have to leave Flurry behind and the Royal Babysitter was out sick with the Feather Flu. Suddenly he got a crazy idea and looked at the Doctor seriously who along with Cadence grew rather nervous. "Uh Shiny, what are you doing?" The Princess of Love asked nervously. "Doctor... This may be the most difficult task I have ever asked of you. Will you look after my child?" Shining said seriously and his tone indicted he wasn't joking although the Doctor wished he was as Flurry continued suckling. He didn't know how to take care of a baby, and one who was a magical princess who nearly destroyed the Empire at that. But then he looked at Shining's pleading face and Flurry's admittly adorable features. "Well... She is kinda cute... Oh what the heck? I'll do it!" Yeah, this wasn't going to be too hard. He'd faced down Daleks, Cyberponies, The Master and Weeping Angels among many other things over the years. He could do this! After all, how hard could it be? So that was how a few moments later, the Doctor Last of the Time Lords, Predator of the Daleks and the Oncoming Storm found himself babysitting a young and rather powerful Alicorn Princess. Said Princess's parents had left him explicit instructions on what to do, and what not to do. He thought back to when he was getting them... "Okay, first off she cannot drink anything that has not been prepared by the royal chefs." Shining warned. "Why? Scared she might got poisoned?" The Doctor couldn't help but inquire. Shining chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, she's just very picky." He replied. It was at this point his wife joined in. "Also, she loves to suckle on things." Cadence said. "Yeah, I noticed." The Doctor deadpanned using the skills Twilight had taught him, as Flurry just happened to be doing exactly that with his bow tie once more. Bow ties were cool, but could be made much less so covered in foal drool the Doctor mentally grumbled to himself. So humiliating for him. "Anything else I should be warned about?" The Doctor asked nervously, quite afraid to find out. "Yeah, she uh..." Shining began, but looked rather sheepish while doing so. Cadence shared his expression. The Doctor began to grow even more nervous and felt a impending sense of incoming possibly regeneration causing doom. Okay, maybe not that bad in reality but some of a certain Princess of Friendship's worrywartness had imprinted on him when he had gone to this body. "Well, spit it out. I don't have all day." The Doctor snapped. Some of her patientness, or lack thereof as well. Sadly, the Doctor found out what Shining and Cadence were so worried about when he accidently scared Flurry with his annoyance and she did what Luna was infamous for in her youth. "WAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" Flurry's cries shook the castle and crystals cracked and Crystal Ponies fled into their homes. But it soon stopped as quickly as it came when Cadence held her daughter's favorite stuffed duck in front of her and she suckled on it. "...That." Shining said at last once he had recovered his hearing. "That's what you should be worried about." "Great." The Doctor muttered. Looking at Flurry now, with her cooing at him happily in her crib the Doctor wondered what he was so worried about. He almost considered dropping his guard. Almost. To his left, was a cart the catering staff had brought in with Flurry's personally cooked baby food. Personally cooked? "Bit overkill." the Doctor thought. Then again, if you were royals I suppose you could afford to go a bit overboard. Heck, he had no room to talk really as he came from a family that spoiled their children relentlessly. Him and the Master. Well, it was Missy now but that was besides the point. "Well, you are kind of cute. For a pony, I mean." He murmured to himself and as he reached his hoof out to tickle Flurry, she did what any young foal or child of any species would probably do. She grabbed it in her mouth and suckled. The Doctor sighed, which he suspected he would be doing a lot lately. "Well, at least it's not my tie...." He shouldn't have opened his mouth, as guess what Flurry grabbed with her magic next? The Doctor found a pillar and began beating his head against it. Eventually, he opted for feeding Flurry her baby food. Well, tried and failed would be a more accurate phrase as whatever he did, she only either made a mess of it on her high chair or just spit it back up. "I wonder if the lucky parents are having it any easier?" The Doctor wondered aloud. Canterlot Royal Gardens... "After that thing!" Shining shouted as he, his wife and the Royal Sisters along with Twilight chased after a giant six legged lizard with many spines on it's back. "Foul creature, we shall turn thee into a new purse!" Luna bellowed as the creature screeched at her before spitting a thick gunk at her which covered her and Twilight's manes and fur. "Ugh, this is what the regular ponies nowadays call demeaning." She muttered in disgust before resuming the chase. Back with the Doctor... "Eh, I'm sure they're fine. Now, back to business..." The Doctor said, before Flurry spit up on him again. However, eventually he managed to eat some of her food. But now came something even harder, getting her to bed. "It's okay. This can't be that hard, now can it? She's just a Alicorn Princess. Not like she's a goddess or anything... What is she even the Princess of anyway?" The Doctor mumbled to himself. "Scaring away potential babysitters maybe?" He added dryly as he rocked Flurry. He had to admit, she was rather cute when she was sleepy as she finally drifted off into dreamland. He slowly crept out of her room but then tripped on a toy and fell over. His shout of shock accidently woke up Flurry, and I think you can guess what happened next. "WAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" Oh that was it, the Doctor was about ready to give in. He was going to resort to desperate measures, as the old saying goes. He was going to call for help. "Hmm, I wonder if Derpy's free?" He asked himself. As it turned out, so she was. But the first thing he was asked was "Weren't you a grandfather once?" "I... I forgot a few things, okay? It's been a while! Over 900 years, in fact." He mumbled in embarrassment and hung his head as Derpy cooed at Flurry and helped her drift off to sleep with more rocking. It probably helped that she had experience taking care of a foal with access to magic, namely her daughter Dinky. "Well, that should do it. Let's just not trip over anything and render this whole thing a moot point." Derpy whispered, but then they saw all of the toys in front of them. It was like a potential minefield of things to wake up Flurry. She shared a look with the Doctor, and they both said in unison "Nah, best not." A few hours later, both Cadence and Shining returned covered in some gunk and nervously crept up to Flurry's room rather scared of what they would find. They peeked their head into Flurry's room and both d'awwwed at the sight of the Doctor and Derpy fast asleep next to Flurry's crib, where she was snoozing with a plush Tardis in her hooves. "Well, that actually went better then I expected." Shining said. "Maybe we should appoint the Doctor as our official royal babysitter." Cadence agreed. The Time Lord didn't know why, but he suddenly felt that sense of doom return. END Interlude: (The Doctor's Last Dance)Equestria: 200 Years in the Future Princess Celestia, Former Regent of the Sun and one of the two Royal Sisters was in what could only be described as a living Tartarus. She'd been like this for the past 100 years, and for all she knew, for the rest of her immortal lifetime. She'd been laid low, transformed into something that was undeniably not Equestrian in any sense of the word. It sickened her. Mind you, if she'd been transformed into this new body of hers of her own free will, it wouldn't have been so sickening, but no. HE had forced this upon her, and did the same thing to the rest of her kingdom, and then the rest of Equus. Not that it was called Equus anymore. No, that BASTARD (And even if Celestia rarely cursed, that foul word was the only way to describe him) had even had the outright gall to change the name of her birthplace to Alicornicopia, and change everypony in the land to fit his perfect desire, without even asking if they wanted the change to begin with. And what did this monster change everypony in Equestria to? Alicorns! ALICORNS! He hadn't even considered the possible ramifications, the possible aftereffects of giving ponies who had no right, or the character strength or even the worthiness to becoming physical gods. It terrified her to the power certain ponies like Blueblood held. Before, he and the rest nobility, barring a few like Fancy Pants could just be a minor nuisance, trying to think up laws that would benefit them and only them, but because they could always be held back by Celestia and her sister, there could be no real problems from them. But now, they had power, and were using it to pass bigoted laws and raise taxes as they deemed fit, and Celestia nor her sister could do nothing about it, all because Luna had been sent back to the moon because she was deemed a "Possible Threat" due to her past as Nightmare Moon and Celestia herself had been dethroned and chained up in her own throne room as a symbol of the newfound power her master held over her. And what did this master call himself? The Grand Ruler, that was his name. Although he preferred to call himself Celestal, just to mock her and show her that he held power over her, in EVERY sense of the word. He was scum, but nothing could be done about it as he and his little loyal band (Celestia could rattle them off name by name. Lightning Daze, the ever loyal second in command and a twisted mockery of Celestia's personal students. Star Bright, Lightning's little fan-girl and whore who spread her legs for him every chance she got. Rhymer... Oh him. He may have been able to rhyme alright, but not very well, and that wasn't counting the love spell Celestia KNEW he put sweet Fluttershy under. Artist, the simple artist. Celestia held out hope for him, he never seemed to be as interested in The Grand Ruler as the others. Flower Power, the very definition of the term Green Hoof. Nitro and Glycerin, the insane twins who could probably be classified as anarchists if they weren't under the Grand Ruler's thumb. Brainiac, who despite his name wasn't as intelligent as he seemed if he didn't see what the world was like.) kept order, if only in a loose sense of the word. Anypony who dared speak out, they got sent straight to the prison on Beta Five, where they were kept locked up with no chance of release or even parole. Celestia was in Tartarus and there was nothing she could do about it. "Soooooo... My Little Pony, enjoying the day?" Celestal's snarmy voice asked her as he looked down upon her. Celestia simply spat at him, even as she was chained up in special Alicorn magic canceling chains to what was once her throne. It only added to the indignity of it all. "So rude. I'll have to teach you some manners later. Trust me, you'll enjoy it." "I doubt that very much, you monster." Celestia thought to herself, keeping a straight face even if she wanted to cave in Celesto's own with her fist so badly that he could never smile again. Yes, that's right. I said fist. Celestal, as soon as he came here, changed every creature on the planet to anthromorphics. Mind you, it did have some benefits, as you didn't have to hold a quill in your mouth anymore if you didn't have magic... Although everypony did so that was besides the point. Come to think of it, and Celestia had been doing nothing but thinking over the past 100 years because after all what could she do but think, there really was no point to the transformation except just for Celestal and his kind to show how superior they were like this compared to the old body style of the planetary natives. Celestia could do nothing but sob as The Grand Ruler (She would never, EVER call him by his real name) sat upon her throne. Was this how the rest of her life was to be, chained up and shown off as a symbol of a tyrant's power and used as his plaything whenever he saw fit? She needed hope... But honestly, she doubted that would ever come back to this land. She doubted even HE would return, as the last Celestia saw of him, he had locked himself away in his box and never came out again. But then, the room was filled with what was quite possibly, the most wonderful sound in the world. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! Youtube Video There it came, that wonderful blue box, materializing into existence right in the middle of her throne room. And then, the Doctor stepped out. Celestia noted he was devoid of his usual bow tie and tweed suit. "Well well well... The Grand Ruler is it? So pleased to finally make your acquaintance." The sarcasm in his tone was easily noticeable by even the most dumbest of ponies. "Who the HELL are you?" The Grand Ruler roared and the Doctor simply smiled. "Oh, I think you know who I am." He replied back calmly. The Grand Ruler's features twisted into a rather amusing mix of surprise, rage and glee, if that were possible as realization slowly came to him. "So you're the famous Doctor Sunbutt (Here Celestia was given a firm slap on the rump, making the Doctor emit a tiny little growl) here always cried out for in her sleep. Begging for you to save her, and now here you are." The Grand Ruler remarked with an equally calm tone in his voice and a smug look on his face as he regained his composure. "But I have to ask, how are you going to stop me, when you're just one stallion?" "I don't need an army. You know what I once did? I ended the Last Great Time War all by myself. You are just a little issue compared to that." The Doctor stated, still calm as ever. "And to be quite frank, you look ridiculous. Blimey, I mean, three horns? What, are you compensating for a little certain something between your legs? Although between you and me, out of all the tyrants I've faced since I've made landfall on this planet, you're a heck of a lot better then Nightmarity. I mean, kill off all of her servants with dreams? ...Such a stupid plan." "For once Doctor, you and I are in agreement. That little bitch was a fool. What I would have done was just make them have their greatest desires, in dreams of course, and all the while have them do my bidding never wiser to the fact that they were just puppets in strings." The Grand Ruler remarked. "Alright so we agree on one thing. But attire for your servants... I'm just laughing my head off at you. Really, I must say, Power Ranger like uniforms for your little squadron? I'm sorry, but I cannot take them seriously when they wear attire like that! And I should know a thing or two about garish attire." The Doctor chuckled. The Grand Ruler looked unamused even as the Doctor scanned the throne room with his eyes. The stained glass windows of various important points in Equestria's history had been replaced with various scenes of Lightning Daze and his little band defeating various villains, and to the Doctor's fury, Celestia being dethroned and Luna sent back to the moon with The Grand Ruler taking charge. Yet despite all of this, the Doctor still remained calm and simply raised his Sonic Screwdriver and emitted a loud piercing screech which shattered every window in the room. "There, that's better. Don't have to look at any of those now do we?" The Doctor chuckled lightly. "How dare you... Those were some of my finest moments!" The Grand Ruler snarled. "Finest moments?" The Doctor asked in disgust. "Like forcing ponies to change their entire genetic make-up and changing their very culture and language? They deserve to choose for themselves. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." The Doctor said in a calm, if not somewhat rather dangerously cold tone of voice. "Why are you so calm Doctor?" The Grand Ruler asked curiously. "I could have my elite warriors sent in here and you taken down and your machine taken away for study any time I chose." And so the Doctor gave him his answer. "The only reason I'm remaining calm, and you want to watch that, as being calm is when I'm at my most dangerous, is because I do not want Celestia to see how truly frightening I am when I get angry." The Doctor replied, and now The Grand Ruler was truly furious at his nation and himself supposedly being mocked, and so he sent a magical blast right at the Doctor who simply stepped aside to avoid it. "Oh please, do you really think I'm stupid enough to take you on without a plan? ...Actually, getting back to you. You do look rather pale, have you not been getting enough sun?" At Celestia's frightened look towards the Grand Ruler and the small whimper emitted from her, the Doctor finally pieced things together and let out a snarl, dropping all pretenses of friendliness. "How dare you... I knew you were vile, but rape? That's just a crime I cannot live and let live. I was willing to give you a second chance, find you and your merry little band some uninhabited planet to rule over, but now I've changed my mind. No second chances, that's the kind of stallion I am." The Doctor snarled. "I knew you were coming, it was a fixed point in time after all, so I couldn't change that, but I could still get rid of you somehow. And now I'm going to send you packing!" "And how do you expect to do that you little bitch?" The Grand Ruler laughed. "I knew you were coming as well Doctor, and I came prepared." With that, Lightning Daze along with the rest of his squad appeared in the room in magical flashes of light in various colors. "Oh, a trap you set for me? Has somepony been reading my Christmas List?" The Doctor asked gleefully with a little chortle. "Let me give you some advice, mate. Didn't anypony ever tell you? There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there's one thing you never, ever put in a trap." "And what's that?" The Grand Ruler asked even as Lighting Daze and company closed in and the Doctor smirked. "Me." before he let out a whistle and a very familiar shape appeared besides the Doctor. It was a chimera like creature, with the wings of a bat and a bird, the body of a dragon, a lion's paw and a deer's antler amongst other things. This was Discord, the King of Chaos. "Surprise!" Discord announced. "Bet you weren't expecting moi! The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. Now it's time to see if you can dance. I suggest you better bundle up, because the forecast calls for a real storm of chaos!" The Doctor flashed back as to how he got Discord on his side in the first place... It was the end of the battle with Discord, the Elements of Harmony had been put back to their rightful personalities and were about to dethrone the King of Chaos. Each was boiling with rage with what Discord had done to them. He got inside their very heads, made them think things they would never dare think, twisted their very hearts and souls. And now he was going to pay. "Really Midnight Twinkle, you and your little merry band just don't seem to get the hint. I'm Discord, I've been causing chaos since before you were even in diapers... Which gives me an idea. How would you like to re-live your childhoods?" Discord chortled with a snap of his lion's paw he conjured up diapers and pacifiers, one for each of the Mane Six. Twilight spat out hers and glared venomously at the chimera, who simply conjured up a glass of chocolate milk and drunk it dry before tossing the glass behind him and making it explode, still sitting calming on his throne. "Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing, don't you all agree?" "Not as wonderful as friendship." Twilight spat back. "Oh, this again?" Discord asked in annoyance. "Give that tired old rhetoric a rest already will ya? I've got plenty more ideas in store for the rest of Equestria, and I'm not letting six little ponies stand in my way. Trust me, once you see what I plan to do with Canterlot, you will be laughing your heads off... Or not, seeing as how you can't seem to take a joke." "Can we just shut this here blabbermouth up already?" Applejack asked in annoyance, having had enough of Discord. "Ugh, gag. Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements. Friend me. Just make it quick. I'm missing some excellent chaos here." Discord said dryly. But just as the Elements were about to fire, there was a wheezing, groaning sound and the TARDIS appeared around Discord before vanishing as quickly as it came. "Okay, I think I'm speaking for all of us here when I say what the Tartarus was that all about?" Rainbow demanded while Twilight looked to the sky and sighed before saying two words. "The Doctor." Meanwhile inside the TARDIS... Discord stared down the pony in front of him, not intimidated in the slightest. He looked around the wrecked TARDIS and smirked. "Really need to clean up after yourself Doctor. Got an image to maintain as Celestia's little Prince-To-Be." The Doctor said nothing, and Discord must have mistook this as being stunned. "Yes, I know all about you. I've heard Celestia talk about you, even when I was encased in stone. Doctor this, Doctor that. I must admit, it did make rolling my eyes quite the challenge." Discord remarked and popped his eyes out of their sockets and rolled them like dice before they reappeared back in their proper place before he found himself soundly tackled to the ground by the Doctor, who was now on top of him. "Oh, moving a tad fast are we?" Discord chuckled. "Celestia will be so disappointed when she finds her Prince swings the other way." The Doctor stared Discord right in the eyes. "Now listen well and listen hard. You are going to help me dethrone a tyrant." Discord burst out laughing. "Now what makes you think I'll do th-" He started before the Doctor headbutted him and let Discord see exactly who he was dealing with and what he'd survived. He saw Davros fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child, he saw how millions were killed and brought back to life in a single moment, and he saw the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties and the Could've Been King with his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. Horrors unimagined by even him, absolute chaos even he could not create. He saw Hell. And throughout it all, this man, this Doctor, he survived it all and then blew up his own planet just to stop the madness. When Discord finally emerged, he looked truly terrified. For possibly what was only the second time in his life, Discord felt truly scared. And now he was muzzle to muzzle with the last survivor. "A-Alright, I'll help." Discord stuttered out and the Doctor stared him down once more and Discord felt like he wanted to shrink away into nothingness. "Now, let me make this clear, you leave Celestia and the rest of Equestria alone. It's only The Grand Ruler and his followers I want dealt with. If you even think of double-crossing me, and believe you me, I'll know in an instant, I'll come right back and turn you to stone myself, and no force in the universe will be able to stop me." The Doctor snarled. Now... Discord smirked as he snapped his lion's paw once again and the Doctor, Celestia and the TARDIS were transported outside the castle grounds just as screams of terror began to erupt from inside. What was happening, neither knew nor wanted to imagine. "Doctor..." Celestia began slowly. "I don't even know how to begin to thank you for freeing me. But are you sure Discord can be trusted?" "Probably not, but he's terrified of me. I placed a little something inside his head, and so I'll know if he tries anything funny." The Doctor replied before Celestia then figured out how to properly thank the Doctor and gave him a very passionate kiss on the lips. "I've been wanting to do that for years." Celestia said and the Doctor hung his head, and that earned him a quizzical look. "Yes... Well, sadly you won't get a chance to do it again. I've been doing some thinking, giving the universe a fair-well tour." The Doctor said sadly. "Doctor... What are you saying?" Celestia asked, even though she already knew. "Celestia, I've been doing a lot of running, and I think it's time I stopped. I'm on my last body, no more regenerations for me. Eventually, somepony or something will get lucky, or this body will wear out from old age, and... No more Doctor." The Doctor stated with a tone of sadness and defeat before he threw his Sonic Screwdriver on the ground and raised one hoof before he stomped on it, rendering it to just various small pieces. "Besides... You, your sister, R.I.F.T and the Elements, all of them, they can handle anything. I think it's time for a nice quiet retirement. Who knows what I'll do, maybe become a beekeeper, worked out for that detective after all." The Doctor said and stepped into his TARDIS and Celestia let a tear slip from her eye as the madman and his box time-warped away for what would probably be the last time... END Crimson Woods Part 1: (My Bloody Valentine)Youtube Video Ponyville: The Year 1000 ANM It was late autumn, a few weeks before the events that would become known to the Doctor and company as "Frightmare Night" in Twilight's hometown of Sleepy Hollow, and a few weeks before Pony-Ten regenerated into Eleven and the Master unveiled his final plan and endgame to unleash chaos on Canterlot by taking Celestia and Luna out of the equation by poisoning them with tiny Griffinstonian Steel darts made from melted down Alicorn killing weapons made directly after the fall of Princess Luna and her horrific transformation into the horrific being known as Nightmare Moon. But for now, all was calm and peaceful in the small town of Ponyville. Multicolored leaves in various shades of red, orange and yellow were falling from the trees along the pathways and onto grassy knolls. In a small backyard bordering Whitetail Woods, there was a house belonging to the town's local Mailmare, Derpy Hooves, and her daughter Dinky Hooves. Despite being one of the clumsiest mares around thanks to her wall eyes, Derpy was the one of the town's best mail deliverers and always got her packages to the right pony, never damaging them, even you could never say the same about herself due to flying into things, through things and the like. She never got paid as well as she would have liked to have been, but her payment was enough to make ends meet and to care for both her and her daughter. Speaking of which, the light grey furred, blond maned mare was watching her daughter play with a small ball in her backyard and kick it around the yard back and forth. Suddenly, Dinky accidently kicked it through a hole in the wooden fence and it rolled away into the Woods. "My ball!" Dinky cried and tried to rush after it but Derpy quickly flew towards her daughter and grabbed her. "No, it's getting dark! The other ponies may not believe in that which lurks in the Woods, but I do. HE does exist, your grannymare took quite a few pictures of him and so I know that... that creature exists!" Derpy exclaimed nervously even as she remembered the stories. Foals and fillies had gone missing for years in the Whitetail Woods at night, and some of them had never come back, and the ones that did, well as the rumors went, they were never quite the same. But somehow, Dinky managed to slip out of Derpy's grip and crawl under the hole in the fence and gallop into the woods. With a shout of fear for her daughter, Derpy flew after her, somehow, whether it be to her fear of losing her daughter to that... thing, or just something you couldn't quite explain, she flew perfectly, not crashing into anything for once and managing to keep up with her daughter's every move. She kept her firmly in her sights, but then, Dinky was gone and Derpy skidded to a halt in midair and glanced every which way. "Dinky!" Derpy shouted, and when she received no response except for various animal noises like the chirping of crickets, she shouted again, this time only louder. "DINKY!" This time, there wasn't even the sound of animals. And then she saw IT. A tall stallion, wearing a black suit and tie with a white featureless face and it seemed to have several shadowy black tendrils growing out of it's back. Derpy's eyes widened in horror. She knew what she was looking at, and it's name. "S-Slendermane..." Derpy said, just barely able to get the words out, and out of pure fear she turned and flew away all the way back to her house, to the safety of her yard, and then broke down out of pure shame and guilt. She hadn't been strong enough, brave enough to be able to save her daughter, her little Muffin, her Dinky. She was the Slender's now, and there was nothing she could do about it. Letting out a mournful wail of despair that only parents who had lost a child could recognize which could be heard throughout the town of Ponyville, it reached a certain blue suited, brown furred stallion who was tinkering away in his box and his ears perked up in interest and he looked up from his console and grabbed his trench coat... The Present Time: The Belle Residence In the present day, at the residency of Rarity's parents, the CMC and their friend Twist were having a sleepover while Rarity's parents were out of town for the night. Rarity had already gone to bed for the night, but she had given the foursome explicit warnings to go to bed at 10:00 exactly and not to get too loud and noisy. Of course, fillies will be fillies and not entirely obey the orders of their guardians from time to time. So, speaking in whispering voices. "So, girls, what do you want to do?" Scootaloo whispered in an excited tone. "Ooh, ooh, I know, we could braid each other's manes!" Sweetie Belle squeaked out. Scootaloo gave her a look. "Ugh, too girly." The orange pegasus filly fake gagged. "Puh, if ya ask for mah opinion, you're just afraid of tryin' new things, that's all." Apple Bloom remarked in a dry tone of voice. She and her older sister had used to do each other's manes all the time together. It was something pretty much all sisters did together! Suddenly Scootaloo got an idea and an almost evil smirk came to her face. "Afraid of trying new things eh...?" Scootaloo asked as she looked at Twist. "Hey, Twist, ever heard of the legend of the Bloody Mary?" "N-No, I haven't..." Twist whispered back in confusion. "Scootaloo, don't tell mah you've been listenin' to Rainbow's stories again and fallen for that old chestnut!" Apple Bloom chuckled. "W-Who's the Bloody Mary?" Twist asked, not sure if she really wanted to know. "Well, I heard she was a witch that got convicted of well... evil things I don't quite remember and if you say her name three times in a bathroom mirror while in the dark she'll appear before you and claw your eyes out!" Sweetie Belle said nervously and with a touch of embarrassment for not remembering the legend properly. ''...Well, at least that's what I heard." "So, anypony brave enough to do it?" Scootaloo challenged. "Y-You know what?" Twist said, as she suddenly spoke up surprising everypony in the room, even herself. She'd been tired of being picked on by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon for being a wimpy little coward, and by doing this, something she'd heard even they'd been too afraid to do, she'd prove she was better then them! "I'll do it!" Twist proclaimed, and all three members of the CMC stared at her in shock. Surely they hadn't heard right? "A-Are you sure?" Sweetie Belle asked nervously. "I-I mean, if the legend is true..." "Puh, it's just a legend!" Scootaloo scoffed as Twist walked up to the upstairs bathroom and looked directly in the mirror and said two words, three times, one after the other. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary..." Next thing the CMC knew, they heard a scream come from the bathroom and along with a now awake Rarity, arrived to find Twist laying face first on the floor in a pool of blood, when Rarity turned her over, she was horrified to find Twist's eyes completely missing... Youtube Video Ponyville Mortuary Now, as in any small town, like I said before, gossip travels fast, and so, Rainbow Dash, the premier pegasus flyer in Ponyville and leader of the Weather Team found herself doing something she could safely say she never thought she'd be doing, which was standing over a dead body with its eyes missing on a metal table on Hearts and Hooves day. "So...What happened exactly?" Rainbow asked questioningly and trying to look at any part of Twist except for her bare eye sockets, but always found her gaze drifting back to them. The mortician, one Doctor Bones sitting across from her sighed to himself and thought hard. He was an older pony, at least in his late sixties or so. "Well, it's possible we could have a brain hemorrhage of some type." Bones replied with a shrug. Rainbow stared. "...Eh, yeah, pretty sure brain hemorrhages don't cause eyeballs to turn to soup." Rainbow deadpanned. "You haven't seen what I've seen missy. In my experience, there are a whole lot of things illnesses will do, and a whole lot of them are quite nasty. But still, you may have a point here. Honestly, I've given up on diagnosing this. I just pity the poor sod who has to break this to the family that their daughter's..." He trailed off her and Rainbow finished for him. "Eyes turned into a liquid you could eat with a spoon?" She asked dryly and with no sense of tact whatsoever. The Doctor may have been rubbing off on her more than she would have liked it seemed, or it may have just been Rainbow being herself. Still confounded as she walked out of the Mortuary and across the snow covered pathways musing to herself how this was not how she wanted her Hearts and Hooves Day to go. She had planned to spend it curled up in bed with Twilight reading Daring Do together. But of course, Spike's death and the aftermath of it had derailed those plans. Now Twilight was spending her days as a recluse, letting nopony inside her home, not even the Princesses or even Rainbow herself. Rainbow stifled back a sob, she was a tough mare and tough mares didn't cry. "Celestia above... Everypony's probably having the time of their lives today but me. And now I get landed with this. This is the Doctor's thing, not mine!" Rainbow mentally ranted, and she did try and bring this to the Doctor's attention, but he, like Twilight had shut himself away in his TARDIS, doing Faust knows what. "You alright, dearie?" Rarity's voice asked as she walked up. She was dressed in a purple overcoat and winter hat while Rainbow had opted for the simple scarf and booties combo. "Do I look alright!?!" Rainbow suddenly snapped at her and Rarity took a step back. Rainbow immediately felt guilty. "I'm sorry Rares, it's just..." Rainbow trailed off and her friend put a hoof on her shoulder in support. "I know darling, Twilight's... situation, for lack of a better term is affecting us all. Some of us are hiding it better than others, but you can see it in their faces. We're all missing her friendly voice... that kind smile... and that thirst for knowledge of hers and the ability to sprout off obscure facts on a whim." Rarity replied sadly with a chuckle that Rainbow shared, a tear slipping from Rarity's eyes, and for a moment, just a moment, Rainbow could see love in those eyes. She didn't try to understand it, Tartarus she didn't understand why she fell in love with Twilight herself but she could see it in her friend's eyes. "So, this just a social pep me up call or is there something you need to tell me?" Rainbow asked, changing the subject and getting right back to business. There was something going on in this town, and right now Rainbow was the only qualified pony to solve this mystery, and she planned to get to the bottom of it! "Yes..." Rarity began slowly. "It's... It's about my sister and those two friends of hers, the... Oh goodness me, I seem to have forgotten their little club's nickname." "Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Rainbow suggested as Rarity flushed red. "Yes, them. There seems to be something bothering them." Rarity stated. "Aside from the obvious?" Rainbow deadpanned. "Yes, aside from that. They... Well, it's difficult to explain. It's best you come see for yourself." Rarity told her and gestured for her friend to follow. Rarity led Rainbow to her parents' home, where all three members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were sitting on the floor sniffling with reddish orange shock blankets around them. The upstairs bathroom had been sealed off with crime scene tape with the local police investigating every inch of the murder scene from top to bottom. Rainbow noted how Scootaloo's eyes drifted upwards to the crime scene every so often and she looked away very quickly with an expression that almost seemed guilty. Upon noticing this, Rainbow walked over to her fan-girl and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Hey kiddo, what's wrong?" Rainbow asked softly. "It's... It's all my fault..." Scootaloo sniffled. "Hey, it can't be your fault, you couldn't have killed Twist. You don't have it in you. It's... It's like Pinkie Pie going on a mass murdering spree! It simply doesn't happen!" Rainbow replied reassuringly. "B-But I made her say the name! If I hadn't goaded her into saying it... S-She might still be alive!" Scootaloo blubbered out. "Scootaloo, don't be ridiculous! It couldn't have been HER! It just couldn't have!" Sweetie Belle squeaked out, although it sounded if she didn't believe her own words. Rainbow gripped Scootaloo by the shoulders very firmly and looked her dead in the eyes. "Scootaloo, what name did you make her say?" Rainbow asked seriously and Scootaloo looked up at her, terror filling her eyes and whispered the name in a voice of sheer dread. "Bloody Mary." Ponyville: The Year 1000 ANM Youtube Video The Tenth Doctor had followed the wails of despair to a home outside Whitetail Woods. It was a modest home, nothing fancy and had a muffin painted on the door. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, how curious. He tentatively raised a hoof and knocked on the door and it was answered, after a few moments of the Doctor waiting and hearing nothing but the shuffling of footsteps, by Derpy, who had tears dripping from her eyes. "Ah yes, hello! I'm just the local Neighborhood Watch! Name's Alec Hardy." The Doctor greeted in his usual cheerful manner, before flashing his psychic paper and studying the mare in front of him. He'd never quite seen eyes like that on a pony before. "Heard your wails of despair, and I thought, oh what the Hell, might as well and go have a little-looksee and see what's gone wrong." Derpy studied the rather odd and cheerful stallion with his sticky-uppy mane style and brown trench-coat and blue suit. Alec Hardy, odd name for a pony. Didn't sound like anypony's name she'd ever heard before. Then she took a gander at his "ID" and saw it was just an old and yellowed library card, with the picture of an old and grey stallion on it with balding white hair. She raised an eyebrow and the Doctor took a look at his psychic paper and sighed to himself before muttering "Not again... Always getting these two mixed up." "Alright, so you got me, I'm not the Neighborhood Watch nor is my name Alec Hardy. I'm the Doctor, hello!" He greeted, still in the same cheerful tone of voice. "W-Wait, the Doctor? As in that strange stallion with the Blue Box? The one which you pull ponies into and snog them?" Derpy asked questioningly. "It's... It's not a snog box! And for the record, that has happened only once! And someone did that to me, not the other way round!" The Doctor snapped, affronted and somewhat offended that his TARDIS had been comparing to something as simple as a kissing booth! And it wasn't his fault that Princess Amore JUST happened to fall in love with him! "I'll be the judge of that, sunshine." Derpy remarked before her cheerful demeanor vanished once she remembered what had happened only an hour earlier and she resumed her sobbing. The Doctor put his forelegs around her. "Hey, hey, it's okay. What's wrong? You can tell me." The Doctor said in a calm and comforting tone of voice as he let Derpy sob into his shoulder. For some reason, it just felt wrong to see these normally happy and cheerful ponies sad, and it tugged at his heartstrings more than it did with humans. "C-Come inside, I'll explain everything." Derpy said and led the Last of the Time Lords inside her home. It was messy, disorganized with children's toys lying everywhere, and smelled of freshly cooked muffins, but it was a very nice place to be all the same. "Muffins?" Derpy asked as she brought out a tray of blueberry muffins from her oven and sat them on the kitchen table where the Doctor had pulled up a chair and then retrieved a small wooden box from a nearby table. "So... What seems to be the trouble Miss..." The Doctor asked, suddenly finding himself at a loss for a name. "Derpy Hooves... A-And the trouble is, my daughter's been taken, by this." Derpy answered and opened the box and fished out a couple of pictures while the Doctor calmly bit into a muffin before wincing at how hot it was and blowing on it to cool it off and muttering to himself "Think I burned my tongue..." The Doctor then studied the pictures. In the background of each one, lurked a figure, tall and imposing with a blank sheer white face. The affect unnerved even the Doctor. "He's called the Slendermane. Been around for centuries, possibly longer than Ponyville itself's been around. Some say he's as old as the Two Sisters, maybe even older." Derpy explained, with the Doctor hanging on her every word. "Great! Always love a good mystery!" The Doctor cried, gleefully rubbing his front two hooves together when he saw the look on Derpy's face and remembered what exactly the Slendermane had done and at once felt guilty with himself as Nine mentally smacked him on the back of the head. "So... Uh, where does the Slendermane live exactly?" The Doctor inquired and Derpy gestured outside her window to Whitetail Woods. "In there." She said fearfully, and the next thing she knew, as the sun was setting, she'd somehow found herself and the Doctor at the entrance to the woods. The Doctor stared into the inky blackness and nervously adjusted his tie and fiddled with it. "You know sometimes when you have that feeling to just go for a walk in the woods in the middle of the night? ...I don't have it." The Doctor laughed nervously before swallowing. "Oh well, you know what they say. Nothing ventured, nothing gained..." He said with a shrug before he and Derpy slowly walked into the darkened forest, not knowing what lay in wait for them inside... Crimson Woods Part 2: (Sunday Bloody Sunday)Ponyville: Now Rainbow walking down the snowy streets sighed to herself. It was Hearts and Hooves day, on a Sunday at that, a day she was supposed to be relaxing with her marefriend cuddled up on a bed and perhaps making out and then progressing to having passionate mind-blowing sex and yet here she was, all alone solving a case of murder. And a very odd murder at that. It was strange really. Foals and fillies all over Equestria, and probably beyond it had been playing the Bloody Mary game for centuries and not one of them had been murdered until now. Bloody Mary was just a myth, a shadowy story told at slumber parties just for fun for crying out loud! But as Rainbow had been finding out as of late, myths had a horrible habit of coming true. "We're up the weirdness creek without a paddle. And possssibly a hole in the bottom of the boat." Rainbow mused to herself. "Maybe it's a case of if you believe in the impossible, the impossible will happen. It's all a matter of perspective, after all." Rainbow shook her head, no it couldn't have been that! Believing in something just didn't make it come to life! It was simply impossible! She remembered the Doctor telling her about an adventure with the Slendermane that had taken place back when he was in his previous incarnation, the one with the sticky uppy mane style and the suit, the nice one, not that Celestia-Be-Damned tweed one he wore nowadays, and that face and freewheeling personality that made you just fall head over hooves for him. Tartarus, if she hadn't been nursing a crush on Twilight at the time and knew Celestia had her sights set on him, she'd had gone after him herself! At the time, Ponyville was in a web of fear. They all knew the myth of the Slendermane, it had gone back for a very long time, but nopony ever took much stock in the myth. Sure, there were jokes about not going into Whitetail Woods on certain nights when the moon was right and children did trot into that forest at times and never came back, but Whitetail Woods also happened to be filled with creatures that came out only at night and did love their meat. At about that time, there came a scream from the area that was used as an outdoor recreation center. Rainbow unfurled her powerful wings and took off in that direction... Whitetail Woods: With the Tenth Doctor and Derpy Hooves... "I... I just don't know what went wrong! She was in my sights one minute, and the next she was gone and that... Thing was in front of me!" Derpy whimpered out as the twosome trotted through the dark and misty forest. The Doctor put a hoof on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "Hey, everyon-Sorry, everypony makes mistakes. Still getting used to all these new words and terminology." The Doctor admitted, while getting mental images of Twilight and Shining both shouting the correct word usage at him every time he got it wrong. He groaned, it just gave him a headache. "Anyways, the point is, you couldn't have known that Dinky would have gotten lost in the forest and taken by that thing... if he even exists." Derpy gave him a glare, which was an impressive feat indeed given her cross eyed state. "Of course he exists! I saw him with my own two eyes!" Derpy shouted, quite shocked that the Doctor was even suggesting she was delusional. How could she be, that thing looked as real as anything could ever look! "And how do you know what you saw was real? It's entirely possible that you were drugged and what you saw was what somepony wanted you to think them to see. For all I know, there's something more going... on... here." The Doctor replied, remembering the Sherlock episode The Hounds of Baskerville and how the "Hound" was just something else disguised as a big black dog using a powerful combination of fear, suggestion, and hallucinogenic drugs before his speech slowed down as he spotted something scrawled on a tree not too far from him and ran towards it with Derpy shouting after him. "Doctor, wait!" She yelled and found the Time Lord closely studying a tree with a crude picture of the Slendermane scratched on it and the words "Beware! Turn back now!" below that. "Okay... Interesting. Seems we've been given a warning. Always love an ominous warning. Wants me to keep going further!" The Doctor said cheerfully. Derpy didn't share his demeanor. With a nervous look back at the tree, she followed after the Time Lord. The Doctor took notice of her nervousness once more and gave her a reassuring glance. "Don't worry, we'll find your daughter. Pinkie Promise." The Doctor stated, and did the sacred motions for the Promise, even if he knew in his heart there was a VERY good possibility he couldn't uphold that promise. And what happened when you broke a Pinkie Promise? "Break one of those, and you'll lose a friend foreeeeevvverr!" The Doctor groaned at even thinking of Pinkie. How she defied reality was beyond even him. "Pinkie Promise." Derpy replied, although she didn't sound as confident as the Doctor, who'd just gotten an idea. "Hey, I know what we can do! Singing songs often helps distract one from the problem at hand! Giggle at the ghosties, as Pinkie once put it." The Doctor said, and Derpy smiled. She knew the Doctor had a point. And so the Doctor began to sing a song he'd heard once, and was quite relevant to the situation at hand. "If you ever go back into the Wooley Swamp son you better not go at night There's things out there in the middle of them Wooley woods That'd make a strong man die from fright There's things that crawl and things that fly And things that creep around on the ground And they say the ghost of Lucias Clay gets up and it walks around." The Doctor sung, and Derpy gave him a look. "Not. Helping." Derpy growled out, and The Doctor was sent into another flashback. "Sorry, was I being rude again?" The Doctor chuckled at the memory, and the memory of Donna Noble. Oh, how he'd love to meet her again. "Oi! No stupid Martian is gonna stop me from getting married. To hell with you!" "I'm... I'm not... I'm not - I'm not from Mars." "What's so funny?" Derpy asked and the Doctor smiled. "Sorry, lost in thought for a second. It happens. Anyone ever tell you how scatterbrained I am?" The Doctor asked before shrugging. "Ah well, never mind. Still got a monster to find and a filly to save! Brave heart, Ms. Hooves. Brave heart!" The Doctor continued with a cheerful smile. Stand resolute, that's what Winston had told him once. That phrase never felt so right till this very moment. But as bad luck would have it, (And the Doctor was quite well officiated with bad luck) the Doctor found himself looking up at a pony, yet it couldn't possibly be one, what with it's pure white head, no eyes or mouth to speak of and just the barest trace of a nose and it's Alicorn sized form. It wore a pure black immaculately pressed suit and tie and somehow, despite it having no face, it stared down the Doctor and seemed to peer right into his very soul. "Well, look at that. Didn't take as long as I thought." The Doctor commented before realizing the obvious problem and letting out a small "Oh." "Run?" Derpy asked. "Yes, that." The Doctor responded with a nod and so they did what the Doctor did best. Run like Hell. Ponyville: Now: Rainbow had flown to the source of the screaming, a public bathroom near the outdoor recreation center's Hoofball court. When she got there, she swallowed and winced, holding back her gag reflex if only barely. Just like Twist, there was the body of a teenage pegasus stallion, yellow with a red mane lying in front of her, eyes turned to solid soup. "Lemme guess, he said Bloody Mary three times in front of a mirror in the dark on a dare?" Rainbow asked, and the two stallion's friends, the picture of high school jocks with their jackets and perfectly kept mane and muscles perfect for playing sports nodded in unison. "Celestia above... We told him to do it as a joke! We didn't mean nothing by it, honest!" One of them said, and from the way he spoke and the general shocked demeanor of him, Rainbow could tell at once he was telling the truth. "Well, you did and now look what happened." Rainbow growled, in no mood for this, as her Hearts and Hooves day was already ruined enough as it is with Twilight becoming a shut-in and one murder already having happened. "Alright you idiots, what's this dude's name?" "M-Magic Winds." The other of the two jocks stuttered out. "Okay, good. Now, I have to go talk to Magic's parents and tell them EXACTLY why their son is dead, and you two are coming with me." Rainbow snarled, in a tone that left no room for argument. A half hour later... The Winds Family Home "H-He was so young..." Magic's mother, Tail Winds sobbed out. She was an older mare, with glasses and a red mane and an orange coat of fur. There she sat, sobbing on the couch with her husband trying to comfort her. All around the room, were pictures of Magic and his family smiling happily. "He was just about to make Team Captain!" Tail sobbed and here, the two jocks shared a guilty look. "If it's okay with you, can I go and have a search around Magic's room? See if there was any reason somepony might have wanted to kill him?" Rainbow asked, and although Tail sobbed again at the word "Kill" she nodded and pointed to the stairwell that led to Magic's room. Inside, it was decorated with pictures of famous Hoofball teams and trophies his team had won. There was also a portrait of Magic and a mare, white with a green mane on his bedside table. Rainbow then noticed something, a box that was just peeking out under the bed, hidden away just enough not to be seen unless you were looking for something out of the ordinary. "Hmm, bet this is probably where he keeps his porn stash, and although I'm always in the mood for that, I really want a lead here." Rainbow mused to herself and dragged out the small wooden box and opened it. Inside was not porn, but a pregnancy test. Rainbow's eyes widened when she saw what it read. "Huh, looks like Magic boinked his marefriend a little too hard. Gotta be careful these days. Celestia above... I really hate to break it to his marefriend that her child's going to grow up without a father." Rainbow mused to herself, a tear slipping from her eye and she wiped it away. "Okay, this is interesting, but I don't think it relates to the case. There's just gotta be something I'm missing here..." Rainbow knew there was only one thing to do, and although she shuddered at the thought, it was time to do that most horrible of horrible things... Research. "I really hate today." Whitetail Woods: With the Tenth Doctor and Derpy Hooves... Run! Doctor, run!" Derpy screamed in fear as she flapped her wings as hard as she could, with the Doctor running along aside her as fast as his little Earth Pony legs could carry him. "Oh, trust me, I'm running, in this situation it's kinda impossible not to run is it?" The Doctor snapped back sarcastically. He looked back behind him, and to his surprise the Slendermane was keeping up with them, one minute he was behind one tree and the next, behind another! It was almost like he could... "Teleport! I hate teleporters! That's cheating! I hate those as well!" The Doctor mused to himself and the Ninth commented in his head "Don't we cheat at times as well?" in a dry tone of voice, crossing his arms and smirking in amusement. The Doctor didn't bother to dignify him with a response. Meanwhile, the Slendermane kept getting closer and closer, until right then he was in front of the Doctor and Derpy, and grabbed them with his shadowy tendrils and lifted them up in the air, and then in a hissing guttural tone of voice that shocked both of them, as neither the Doctor nor Derpy knew he could even speak, given he had no mouth and all, he said "Get out of my forest." And then he turned to look at Derpy. "You don't deserve to be her parent, not after what you did." Derpy's expression was a mixture of confusion and bewilderment. What had she done? What had she done to deserve the Slendermane to call her an unfitting parent? But before she could ponder that question any further, there was a bright flash of white blinding light and both ponies found themselves in the Hooves household. "Ugh, have I ever mentioned how I hate teleporters?" The Doctor muttered as he picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off with his hooves. "Dinky... DINKY!" Derpy wailed. "That... That monster has h-her, and I'm never getting her back!" The Doctor laid a hoof on her shoulder and looked at her firmly even as Derpy blubbered to herself. "Don't worry, that little thing the Slendermane just pulled, scare tactic. If he knew what I was capable of, he wouldn't be so smug. I'm going back in there, and I'm going to get your daughter back. That's a Pinkie Promise, and you never break those." The Doctor said with conviction in his tone, but all the while he went over the Slendermane's words to Derpy in his head. There was something more going on here then just kidnapping, and he needed to find out exactly what... Crimson Woods Part 3: (End of the Line my Bloody Valentine)Ponyville: Present Day Rainbow’s first thought was, naturally, to go to Twilight’s to get the books she needed on researching just what exactly was making the Bloody Mary legend come to life. Then she remembered, Twilight had shut her doors entirely to anypony and everypony. Rainbow blinked back tears. Here she was, solving a case that never should have come up in the first place unless somepony was fooling around with spells and not spending time with her marefriend like she should have been! Rainbow faltered for a moment as she realized what she had just thought of. “Wait a moment… Somepony is fooling around with spells! That’s gotta be the only explanation! But what kinds of spells? And why is Bloody Mary targeting these specific ponies? I may not know much about police work or mystery solving in general, but I do know this, there’s always a connection between murders. It’s never random with serial killers. It’s always something small, unnoticeable unless you really look hard enough. Wait a moment, Magic Winds!” Rainbow realized as she flashbacked to when she was investigating Magic Wind’s bedroom. There was also a portrait of Magic and a mare, white with a green mane on his bedside table. Rainbow then noticed something, a box that was just peeking out under the bed, hidden away just enough not to be seen unless you were looking for something out of the ordinary. "Hmm, bet this is probably where he keeps his porn stash, and although I'm always in the mood for that, I really want a lead here." Rainbow mused to herself and dragged out the small wooden box and opened it. Inside was not porn, but a pregnancy test. Rainbow's eyes widened when she saw what it read. "Huh, looks like Magic boinked his marefriend a little too hard. Gotta be careful these days. Celestia above... I really hate to break it to his marefriend that her child's going to grow up without a father." Rainbow mused to herself, a tear slipping from her eye and she wiped it away. "Okay, this is interesting, but I don't think it relates to the case. There's just gotta be something I'm missing here..." “He was keeping his marefriend’s pregnancy a secret from his parents! I’m willing to bet all of my Daring Do merchandise and Wonderbolts memorabilia that Twist was keeping a secret as well! Problem is, what’s the secret? I’m going to do have to a little asking around…” Rainbow mused and then ran off towards the direction of Sweet Apple Acres… With the Doctor and Derpy... The Doctor was not happy. Not happy at all. More often than not, he liked his legends to stay just that, legends. He was a skeptic at heart. He was always looking for a real-world solution to things. He wanted the Slendermane to be just a hallucination brought on by someone drugging the whole area of Whitetail Woods. He wanted the whole legend to be just bunk stirred up by someone trying to use it for some sinister purpose and just kidnapping children to molest them, as horrible as that was. But that just couldn’t be it, could it? Noooo, the Slendermane had to be the real bloody deal. This flew in every scientific fact he knew of in his over 900 years of being alive. Not just that, it came right back to him and slapped him in the face and then mooned him to add to the humiliation of it all. The Doctor groaned to himself, he was really beginning to hate Equestria’s myths and legends and magic in general. It never spelled anything good for him whenever he was around. Cybermen, or Cyberponies he could deal with. Just give them an emotional overload and have their heads explode. Weeping Angels, okay, just grab Celestia and have her burn them to nothing but ashes. Daleks, blow them up with magical explosives. Sontarans, aim for the back of the neck. The Vashta Nerada? Stay out of the shadows. But the Slenderpony? Run, just run. Mind you, it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to running. Hell, he started off his entire adventures through Time and Space just by stealing a Type-Forty TARDIS and running for it along with his granddaughter. Speaking of family, he was very curious as to what the Slenderpony meant by Derpy being an unfit parent. From what he’d gathered around town just by gossip—which by the way was something he also hated, as gossipers generally had nothing better to do with their time besides talk—Derpy was considered to be one of the best parents in Ponyville even if she had to raise her daughter alone. But then again, everyone has skeletons in their closets. You could never tell what someone was like unless you met them for yourself. But that was the issue wasn’t it? He’d met Derpy, and she seemed genuinely scared for the welfare of her daughter. Nopony got that teary eyed over someone unless they actually cared for them. It niggled and nagged at his brain. It was a complete contradiction between what the Slendermane said and Derpy’s demeanor. Still, it was best he double checked, just in case he was wrong. He’d been wrong before about things after all, as today proved. “Doctor, you alright?” Derpy asked in concern as she waved a hoof in front of his face in order to snap him back to reality. “Yeah… Yeah. I’m fine. Just lost in thought for a moment there.” The Doctor replied before he rushed out the door. “Doctor, where are you going?” Derpy asked in fear, hoping to Faust above the Doctor just wasn’t giving up on her. “Doctor… Please! I need your help!” She shouted desperately. The Doctor gave her a smile and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back. I just need to check on a few things to confirm a theory of mine.” Next thing Derpy heard was a distinct wheezing and groaning sound and sunk to the floor in despair and hopelessness, her hooves covering her eyes while she sobbed quietly to herself. The Doctor was giving up on her after all. She wasn’t getting her daughter back… But that’s where Derpy was wrong. The Doctor traveled to a few days before this incident, to an area near Derpy’s household and he quickly ducked behind a tree as his and Celestia’s past selves walked by, with Celestia under a disguise that hid her wings and made her multicolored mane just a solid pink, making her look like a regular, if frankly rather oversized unicorn. The Doctor smiled to himself. He remembered this. “You know, it’s nice to just be a regular mare for once. No nobles complaining their asses off, and no ponies who treat you like a goddess.” Celestia commented, before blushing as she realized she’d used a curse word in public, and ponies expected her to be all prim and proper. “Excuse my language Doctor. I… I just needed to vent for a moment. It’s just... I’m expected to be all perfect and not like normal ponies, with normal problems. I’m supposed to be a role model for them to look up to.” Past Pony-Ten only chuckled to himself. “What’s so funny, Doctor?” “Except you’re not Celestia right now are you? You’re Bright Star, not a Princess, so you’re free to act however you want and just enjoy the day. Hell, you could even go down to the local pub the Prancing Pony and get stone-dead drunk if you so desired.” “No offence Doctor, but I much prefer my vintage malt, and the smell of half of those stallions does tend to offend one’s nose.” Celestia remarked with a teasing smile. The Doctor couldn’t help himself and just burst out laughing. “Yes, quite. It really is quite horrid down there is it not?” Past Pony-Ten said taking on a mock high class accent and causing Celestia to laugh at how bad it was. The present time Doctor smiled as his past self remarked “Come along “Bright Star”, got lots of places to see yet!” before as he and Past Celestia continued their walk and ran towards Derpy’s household and looked in the window. Derpy was merrily cooking breakfast, smelled like muffins before she took them out of the oven and clapped her hooves together in joy. “Chocolate chip muffins for breakfast? Well, who am I to judge?” The Doctor thought to himself as a small pinkish unicorn filly with a yellow mane trotted down the stairs cheerfully. “Aah, and that must be Dinky. Have to admit, she is pretty cute. So far, so good. I can’t really see any parenting troubles here.” He continued to watch for the next hour and a half unseen as Dinky and Derpy went about their day. Nothing untowards happened, and the Doctor could safely say that all was well in this household. But just as he was walking away from the home, he heard the sound of china shattering and went back to the window and saw Dinky looking at the floor where a shattered vase with a guilty look as Derpy looked at her angrily. “I’m… I’m sorry mom! I was just trying to practice my magic!” “Go to your room…” Derpy muttered. That had been her mother’s favorite vase, passed down from parent to child and now it was broken. “JUST GO TO YOUR ROOM!” Dinky ran off sobbing and then the Doctor heard a hissing, guttural sound and saw a tall black figure in the treeline for just a moment before he vanished into the shadows. “Okay, so that explains that. He must have thought Derpy was abusing her own child. Everyone makes mistakes. But the Slendermane has supposedly been kidnapping foals and fillies for a while now. So, what about them?” So the Doctor took a trip to Town Hall, careful not to run into his past self and searched through the Mayor’s files of missing children. It went back decades. Then he saw something. A picture of a younger version of Mayor Mare, with the word “MISSING” stamped below it in big red letters. “So, the Slendermane took the Mayor back when she was a child and then she escaped, or was let go when she was old enough. Can’t tell yet. Need more information.” So he took another trip through time to Mayor Mare’s childhood. He quickly found her house, as he’d gotten ahold of where she grew up from her files and sneaked inside the house, being careful enough to be as silent as possible. Then he heard shouting. “You! You worthless piece of shit! I can’t believe I’m stuck raising you! It’s your own fault your mother’s dead!” A male voice said and the Doctor heard a hoof smacking against flesh and a body hitting the wooden floors of the house and sobbing following that. He let out a growl. Child abuse was about as low as you could get in his book. Hell, if he didn’t have a feeling as to what was about to happen, he would have stepped in and changed the timeline himself and raised Mayor Mare as his own kid. But he wasn’t disappointed, as then he peeked around the corner and saw the Slendermane teleport in and grab Mayor Mare’s father by the neck with a tendril and with a sickening SNAP! Mayor Mare’s father’s head was twisted to the right. The Slendermane extended a hoof, and hesitantly, the future Mayor of Ponyville took it and both were teleported away in the blink of an eye. “So that’s it… I was right! That’s what the Slendermane is. He’s not a monster, he just wants to give kids the childhood they deserve and not the ones they end up with if he doesn’t step in. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually have to admire the stallion.” The Doctor mused before he rushed for his TARDIS… Ponyville: Present Day “Alright, I’ve had enough of this. There’s only one way I’m going to get the help I need to solve this case, and it’s in Twilight’s library. I don’t care if she doesn’t want anypony with her and she’s gone all goth and broody and dressing herself up in black make up and all that crap, these murders need to stop here and now!” Rainbow Dash growled to herself mentally as she kicked in the door of the Golden Oaks Library. She’d just got some information that confirmed her own theory about the Bloody Mary. Just a half hour ago, she’d spoken to the Cutie Mark Crusaders at their clubhouse. “So, any of you think Twist was acting a bit off? Anypony?” Rainbow questioned the trio of Cutie Mark-less fillies. “What do you mean, off?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion, an eyebrow quirked. “Well, keeping secrets. I think the Bloody Mary’s going after ponies who have secrets and are keeping those secrets to themselves.” “Wait, hold up!” Scootaloo put in. “Where’d you get this theory?” “I… I did a little bit of digging.” Rainbow said quickly, not wanting to have to explain to these fillies the birds and the bees just yet. It’d lead to some rather embarrassing questions before long if word ever got back to these three’s relatives that they’d learned about sex a tad bit too early. “Well…” Apple Bloom answered, putting a hoof to her chin in thought. Now that ya mention it, Twist was acting awfully strange whenever Ah was around. She kept blushing red for some odd reason whenever Ah looked or spoke to her.” Rainbow chuckled. “Ah, young love…” She said to herself before saying “Thanks, gotta dash!” and flying out the Clubhouse window leaving three very confused little fillies. “...Well, that was odd.” Scootaloo remarked. “R-Rainbow! What are you doing here?” Twilight asked in shock and took a step back as she saw Rainbow looking down at her from an upper balcony with an annoyed expression on her face. “What, no teleporting up to greet me with a passionate kiss or drag me into bed for a passionate night of sex?” Rainbow teased before her face became more serious. “Two reasons. One, this crap of yours needs to stop. I know you’re in grief, Tartarus, we all are, but you need to get out of your home! Ponyville needs you! It’s not healthy for you to stay cooped up in here with just your thoughts running wild about what you could have done or should have done and just your memories of Spike! Plus, Winter Wrap Up’s coming up soon and we need your organizational skills, also ponies do really want to get into the library to borrow books to read! Secondly…” Rainbow began, not even giving Twilight a chance to speak. “I need your help on finding information on how a fictional being can come into being.” “Wh… What? I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Twilight stuttered out in confusion. “See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about! You stay cooped up in here like a hermit, you miss things, like for example the Bloody Mary coming to life and over the course of the damn day, murdering two ponies, one of which was just a little filly! I need your help Twilight! I need to know how to stop it so nopony else dies today!” “Then go to the Doctor! This is his type of shit, not mine! I’m done! You hear me, done with it all! I can stay in here as long as I damn well please! I’ve got my books to keep me company!” “And what about me? Huh? What about that?” Rainbow snapped. “I love you Twilight, I… I miss your companionship, Tartarus, even your eggheady tendency to spout off boring facts that nopony cares about!” “You’d better stay away from me Rainbow, everypony close to me just ends up dead in the end! Who’s to say you’re not next, huh?” Twilight sobbed/shouted. Rainbow snarled and lunged at Twilight and pinned her to the floor, at look of pure fury on her face at the sheer indifference Twilight was showing. This wasn’t the mare she knew, Twilight would give a damn about these ponies’ lives, and she needed some sense knocked back into her. “I’ve had enough of your bull, Twi. Ponies are dying left and right and you won’t lift a hoof to help me stop it! If you don’t help, you’re just as much responsible for their deaths as they are!” Rainbow shouted, and Twilight looked as if she’d been punched in the gut. But Rainbow wasn’t finished in her tirade. “Now act like the mare I know and GET THE BUCK TO WORK ON A SOLUTION FOR THIS!” Rainbow roared, grabbing Twilight’s chest fur with her hooves before releasing her. Twilight, quite scared of Rainbow right now, rushed over to her many bookshelves and began pulling books off of them like a mare possessed. Eventually, she found what she was looking for. “Ah, here we go. This might be it.” Twilight said, slamming a book down on a nearby table and flipping to a page marked “Tulpa.” and began reading the information off the page. “Belgian-Prench explorer, spiritualist, and Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel observed these mystical practices in early Neighasian countries. She reported tulpas are "magic golems or formations created by a powerful concentration of thought by an accomplished mind." David-Néel wrote that "An accomplished Bodhisattva is capable of effecting many kinds of magic creations, up to ten, or maybe even more, as I can report. The power of producing magic constructions, like say, tulkus or less lasting and materialized and well constructed tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings. Anypony, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself. David-Néel wrote of the tulpa's ability to develop a mind of its own: “Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother's womb. David-Néel claimed to have created a tulpa in the image of a jolly Friar Tuck-like monk which later developed a life of its own and had to be destroyed. David-Néel raised the possibility that her experience was illusory: "I may have created my own hallucination," though she reports that others could see the thoughtforms that have been created.” “...In regular Equestrian Twi?” Rainbow deadpanned. Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Basically, we have a powerful unicorn creating a Tulpa, ie, the Bloody Mary and bringing it to life for some unknown purpose.” “Great, how do I gank it?” “Well, the Bloody Mary must travel from mirror to mirror, but it had to originate from somewhere, and as the Bloody Mary is an old legend, I would have to say you would be looking for a very old mirror with a symbol drawn on the back of it. Destroy that mirror, and you should “Gank” the Tulpa.” Twilight explained. Rainbow quickly realized where this old mirror had to be. There was this antique shop down on a street in one of the older sections of town, and it was filled with all kinds of stuff. Chances were, that’s where that mirror was. Rainbow smirked and flew out the door, smashing it to splinters and destroying the spell on it in the process. If she had stayed a little longer, she might have noticed Twilight picking up a book that read “Crossroads Deals for Dummies”... Youtube Video Meanwhile, Rainbow flew as fast as she could to this district, the Green Leaves district. On either side of the street, were various shops. One of them was a guitar store, the Guitar Station owned by Grape Vine where he sold guitars and taught lessons on how to use them. She smirked when she saw Grape Vine’s bandmate, Lucky Clover shoved into an alleyway by the mare Lovestruck and soon moaning and groaning sounds of pleasure and the sounds of fur and flesh slapping against each other began emanating from the alleyway. She’d always wondered when Lovestruck would realize Lucky liked her. On the other side of the street, was a restaurant that had changed hooves throughout the years, with each owner changing its theme from Jamareican, to a bar themed around the Haywaiian islands of the seas to what was now a Saddle Arabian themed restaurant. But soon Rainbow’s eyes narrowed in on the antique shop she was looking for, which was located right next to the Guitar Station. “Alright, time to end this.” Rainbow growled and entered the darkened and musty store before coughing at the sheer dust level on everything. She sighed to herself when she looked around. There were so many mirrors it was going to be almost impossible to find which one had the Tulpa symbol on it. Almost. Then, she spotted it. Tucked away in a corner was a golden mirror with ancient writing drawn on the back of it. “There you are.” Rainbow smirked and swallowed as she stepped to the mirror. She had a secret of her own. Back when she and Twilight first got together, she hadn’t told her marefriend she was in heat at the time and the guilt was still nagging away at her. With trepidation, Rainbow whispered those fateful words. “Bloody Mary… Bloody Mary… Bloody Mary…” Sure enough, out of the mirror came an old and decrepit unicorn mare. Rainbow snarled at her. “So you’re the infamous Bloody Mary, huh? Don’t look so tough to me. You know what, I think even a filly could take you on. Guess what, I don’t believe in you and I never have. You’re just a bad old bedtime story passed around at slumber parties. So do us all a favor, and DIE!” Rainbow snarled before she with a flying kick, smashed the mirror’s glass and the Bloody Mary screeched as she went out in a pillar of flames. “Well, that wasn’t so hard was it?” Rainbow smirked in a cocky way. “Yeah, that was awesome.” With the Doctor and Derpy… The Doctor rushed back to Derpy’s home as fast as he could. Panting, he opened the door, and Derpy’s face lit up in joy and she embraced him in a hug, eyes sparkling with tears of joy. “I… I thought you’d given up!” “No, I never give up on anything. And now I know exactly why the Slendermane is kidnapping foals and fillies. Weeeeeellll, kidnapping wouldn’t be the right word. More like rescuing them from abusive parents.” “B-But I would never be abusive to my little Muffin, never!” Derpy stammered. “Yes, I know. But you did yell at her for breaking your mother’s favorite vase a few days back did you not? The Slendermane… He misunderstood. He can’t tell the difference between discipline and abuse. We have to make him understand.” “But… But that means…” Derpy squeaked. “Yes, we’re going back into Whitetail Woods. Time to go face to face with Slendy… again.” And so they once more took a little walk in the woods, Derpy trembling all the while in fear of whom they knew they would meet. The misty gloom seemed to wrap around them like it had a life of it it’s own. At this point, the Doctor wouldn’t be particularly surprised if it did. It didn’t take long before the Slendermane showed up again, teleporting in front of them with a look of incalculable rage upon his face. The Doctor swallowed nervously as the sightless creature somehow managed to stare them down. “I thought I told you never to come back here. Especially you, Ms Hooves.” He growled out. “There’s… There’s been a slight misunderstanding.” Derpy replied, mustering up her courage. “Okay, big misunderstanding.” The Doctor put in. “I would never, and I mean NEVER abuse my daughter! That was just a spur of the moment in anger! I never even laid a hoof on her!” “But you yelled at her!” The Slendermane growled and a tendril pinned her to a tree and began choking her. “There’s a difference between punishment and abuse! You need to understand that! I understand what you’ve been doing all these years, saving foals and fillies from ponies who don’t even deserve life, but you were wrong in this case!” The Doctor pleaded, hoping to make the Slendermane understand. “Look into those eyes, the fear, the heartbreak and the concern for her daughter! Does Derpy look like the kind of mare who would ever hurt a child?” And so the Slendermane did as he was asked, and he saw what truly lay in Derpy’s heart. He had scared somepony and kidnapped their child, when they didn’t deserve it. He felt ashamed and disgusted with himself and released her. And then, from out of the forest came Dinky, rushing into her mother’s arms. “I promise my little Muffin, I won’t let anything happen to you ever again, and I’m sorry for yelling at you. I… I lost my temper, and I promise, that’ll never happen again.” Derpy whispered comfortingly and then glared at the Slendermane, her normally crossed eyes staring boring into his soul. “And as for you, if you ever pull a stunt like this again, I will come for you, understand?” The Slendermane nodded, and then walked slowly away into the gloom, but not before the Doctor had one last thing to say. “Before you go, I just want to say how sorry I truly am. You never should have gone through what you did as a child. And I really have to thank you for what you’ve been doing all these years. It’s something to admire. Keep on doing it. But, and only but, if you analyze the situation first. Because if you don’t, Derpy or I will come back for you.” He said in a warning tone. Then, the Slendermane vanished and Derpy turned to the Doctor. “Think he’ll uphold his end of the bargain?” “...To be honest, I don’t know.” The Doctor answered before a thought struck Derpy. “What do you mean you were truly sorry for what he’d gone through?” “Well, think about it. Pony like that, how would you think his parents would have reacted? It’s not always a nice world out there. There are ponies that hide themselves behind a cloak of kindliness, but behind closed doors they can be as monstrous as one can imagine.” And on that ominous thought, he said no more. The TARDIS: Present Day Youtube Video The Doctor sighed to himself. That adventure was the last time he felt he truly helped somepony. No death, nothing of the sort that usually followed him. Everypony lived in that adventure for once, and then the cycle resumed. He brought death and chaos wherever he ran. And now it was time to stop. “I’d be better off in here, spending the rest of my days with my things, never lending a hoof to anypony and sowing death and destruction in their lives. Twilight, that was my biggest mistake. Ever since I attached myself to her and her family, nothing but ruin’s come into it. First Cherry Berry, then Spike… Who next?” He asked himself. Then a familiar voice butted in as a white flash lit up the room. “Now, that’s not the Doctor I know. You keep focusing on the bad, My Little Pony, and never on the good you’ve done. You saved an entire village, remember that? You’ve saved Equestria many times over, but all you think about is what you lose in the process and not what you gain.” Celestia said as she and Derpy teleported into the TARDIS. “But that’s what I am. I don’t have any long lasting companions. That title belongs to death and death alone. I’d be better off joining her. And Twilight… Faust above, every future I travel to, she and her friends hate me. All because of a simple mistake I MADE!” Then, a hoof firmly slapped him across the face. Celestia glared harshly at him. “DOCTOR! This isn’t you and you know it! I’ve seen things, stars going out, I’ve seen the Daleks! They’re coming Doctor, and we need you! And that’s not counting who knows what lays in Equestria’s future. Maybe you’ll make some mistakes, everypony does, even you, but there are plenty of good things. And as for those futures, you can change them. You don’t let anypony dictate the rules, so why should you now?” Celestia asked. “And you’re not alone. Derpy here, she doesn’t hate you. She actually wants to travel with you, and I’ve talked to Rainbow and Shining Armor. They don’t hate you either, so pick yourself off the floor and do what you do best. Save the world, and be the Madman that you are.” The Doctor slowly got up off the floor. He knew Celestia was right. With a quick dash up the stairs, he quickly grabbed a new suit, a plum one and pulled on his bow-tie as the TARDIS generated a new Sonic for him, one laid in silver and had a green glowing tip and it launched into the air and the Doctor grabbed it and caught it in his mouth before pocketing it. With a smile, he turned to Derpy. “All of time and space; everywhere and anywhere, everything that ever happened or ever was. Where or when do you want to start?” He asked and Derpy shrugged and the Doctor gained his old mad grin again. The Madman in his Box was back, and it showed when he grabbed Celestia and kissed her, leaving her in a blush before she smiled at him. No words needed to be said. As Celestia teleported out and the Doctor threw a switch and pressed some buttons, he remembered the future Celestia and what he said to her. “Celestia, watch me run.” END Interlude: HomecomingYoutube Video Thunder rumbled in the distance as dark gray clouds covered the hills and mountainsides that made up the country of Transalfangya. A lone pony grunted as he gripped the side of a clifftop and pulled himself up, his night black fur whipping in the wind. He’d been away from his homeland a very long while, far too long if he was to be honest with himself. “Puteţi să mă ajutaţi vă rog Faust? Give me a good answer why I came back to this place.” Galaxy asked as his hooves touched the ground of the clifftop, feeling the cold stone beneath him as a flash of lightning lit up his unusually unarmored form. Galaxy sighed to himself, he felt exposed without his regular armor, it’d be far too easy for somepony to stage an attack on him from behind and stick a knife into his neck. “Is it really paranoia if there are creatures out to get you? The little buggers want me dead, and while I suspect that’ll happen one day as we all have to go sometime...“ Galaxy thought to himself as he looked at a rock that he could have sworn wasn’t there a few minutes ago. Galaxy pulled out the bone knife he had nicked from R.I.F.T Headquarters and walked towards the rock. His every step was filled with caution, his ears flicking at the slightest sound. A ruffle in some bushes, the sound of wing-beats, even a simple chittering sound from what most would think to be just an ordinary bug set him on edge. The knife plunged down into the rock and Galaxy waited for the shifting of form and the body of a changeling scout slumping to the ground, it’s green tinted blood oozing into a puddle. He waited a few seconds, but nothing happened and he pulled the knife out of the stone. He then strapped it back to his right foreleg. “...Got lucky that time, but all the same, I can’t be too careful. I’m not as young as I used to be, and even if I can handle myself in a fight I can’t afford to be taken by surprise. Not this time around.” Galaxy grunted. “What I’m here for, it could shift the balance of power between two constantly feuding states, and unseat a tyrant from her throne,” “...Faust knows I want to be there when SHE finally goes down, and her horn ripped off and her very life-blood pooling out beneath my hooves. That crown of hers, shattered. After what she did to me, my family it… It would put me at ease. While I’d still have nightmares, it’d bring me great satisfaction to know that her race would have nightmares of their own… Nightmares of me.” Galaxy continued thinking to himself. He knew it best to avoid speaking aloud, as the valley had ears all over. The Queen wasn’t a stupid ruler, she wouldn’t leave behind a few scouts of the nation she’d ripped apart after she’d unseated it’s ruling family. Galaxy admitted that was partially his fault, he’d turned and ran from his birthright after what had happened so many years ago. But the pain of just looking at the merciless slaughter of his family was just too much for him. Îmi pare rău… M-am îndrăgostit de tine my Sagittarius, but I let you be slaughtered and let her drain every ounce of love from you. Not just you, but the little ones as well. And what did I do? I turned and ran, instead of putting this shattered country back together,” Galaxy thought to himself, a tear trickling down his face from his golden eyes as he remembered the screaming and that maniacal laughter. Oh, that laughter. He heard it every time he shut his eyes. “I hope whatever Hell I send you to you insectoid bitch, that there’s a devil waiting just for you. And I know with all the things I’ve done in my life, I’m probably following you. Hopefully, I’ll be that devil.” Galaxy snarled and chuckled darkly to himself, the sheer idea of putting pins and needles in the Changeling Queen’s body as she burned in the fires of her own making just giving him a small hint of a smile. Galaxy continued walking forwards into a dark forest, known infamously as the Hoia-Baciu Forest. The forest covered an area of about 3 square kilometers if Galaxy had to guess. Its southern border began on the ridge Galaxy currently was on which ran from the east to the west side of the area. It had long renowned for paranormal activity, and in the center of the miles of untouched wilderness was a mysterious ring where no plants grew. It was a mystery numerous scientists had tried to solve, but nopony ever had. It was said a dark ritual had been performed here by a mad cult led by the infamous unicorn Spell Nexus, and that this was where Nightmare Moon was truly born. That pure ritual of darkness cut off all light and kept any plants from growing in this inner circle. Galaxy scoffed at this. He didn’t put much stock in that. If it wasn’t in the history books, it didn’t happen. While he did know dark forces overtook Princess Luna in one of her moments of weakness, he highly doubted a dark cult of any sort was behind the creation of those forces. Creatures chittered with every step he made as he disturbed their slumber. His lamp like eyes lit up the forest, and he whirled around as he swore he saw something black and insectoid like with chitin like wings scamper off into the woodland. “So they are here. I knew it.” Galaxy said as he pulled out the First Blade again. Galaxy had always been fascinated by the history of the so-called First Blade, it was said it was used by the father of the great pegasus Commander Hurricane to murder his brother out of pure spite, so he’d get the honor of leading the pegasus tribes into battle. As the years passed, it went through many private collectors until finally it ended up in the storage of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, now known simply as R.I.F.T. At that point, where everything possibly dangerous or cursed was being re-sorted and reorganized, Galaxy had pilfered it. It was said the First Blade could kill anything, even Abaddon himself although personally, Galaxy didn’t put much stock in old mare’s tales. Galaxy continued walking through the forest but suddenly his hooves ground to a halt. In front of him was a small fountain, made out of simple stone and lying in ruin after years of miscare. But Galaxy’s eyes widened at the inscription on the fountain. It wasn’t just a fountain, it was a memorial. Galaxy read off the words, which were written in old Romanian and he smiled sadly. Here’s what they said. “Here lies Lord Scorpius-Tepes, the ruler of the kingdom of Transalfangya and a loving father, till the very end.” Galaxy chuckled and murmured. “So that’s where they think I’m buried.” as he smiled at the loyalty of his subjects, even after their Lord supposedly was killed in the massacre of the Tepes family. Galaxy, or rather Scorpius had ordered his subjects if he ever were to be killed in battle to bury him somewhere far, someplace remote to keep his body from being disturbed. The same went for any members of his family. He knew there were a lot of creeps who would conduct some sort of arcane ritual in order to bring back bodies as Inferi. The belief of life after death, or at least a body without a soul moving about and about was an old superstition that still lingered in these parts. Galaxy continued trudging through the forest for hour after hour, thunder continuing to rumble in the distance, the threat of the oncoming storm looming over him. And then, as he reached the edge of the forest which overlooked a once grand castle, the clouds let loose their deluge. Rain poured on top of Galaxy as he gazed upon what was once his castle, named the Targoviste. A tall grand tower made up the central structure, which was built all around it. A grand hall, once covered and now exposed to the elements was connected to this tower, among others by various walkways over great rifts in the earth. Smaller towers, functioning as emplacements for ballistas were scattered about, some in ruins. Others were left exactly the way they were seemingly untouched by the passage of time. Moss covered and crept up the stonework walls, each with small holes in them for gun emplacements or archers to fire their barrages out of. “I left this place to rot… My father must be looking down upon me in shame. I ran from my past, in fear and terror. ...Now, it’s only guilt out of not going after the Queen who ruined my life, my family!” Galaxy snarled before his very body began to shake and quiver as he sobbed at what he had done, and his part in it. Behind him, two blue insect like eyes watched the former lord of Targoviste break down and let his emotional barriers fall like the castle walls he once defended. The owner of those eyes looked away in sadness and felt a small tear slip from them as the pony-like creature turned to walk away and he hung his head in sadness. “What have we done? We’re supposed to absorb love, yes as that’s the only way for our species to survive but wherever we go we also leave ruins and destruction in our wake.” The changeling, a younger member of his species thought as he vanished into the forest and assumed the simple disguise of a regular bat-pony. “Me and Thorax… We both know there’s got to be a better way than this, there has to be! But not while Queen Chrysalis is in charge. Not right now.” Meanwhile, Galaxy remembered… Twenty-One Years Ago… Youtube Video Galaxy smiled as he watched his two young children frolic and toss a ball back and forth between them in the Grand Hall before they led each other on a game of chase laughing all the while. One, a gray filly with purple hair and another pure black with his own brown mane, an exact image of his father in all but the eyes which were a cool blue. Galaxy smiled as he looked at the stain glass window nearest to him, an image of his father shown and Galaxy let the metal horseshoes which made up part of his pure sterling silver armor clank as they hit the floor with each hoof step. He watched his father, an exact image of him right down to the eyes seemingly look at him with pride at the kingdom he ruled. Suddenly, he felt a soft caressing nuzzle from his wife, a pure gray bat-pony with green eyes and an indigo mane. “Remembering again?” She asked. “Y-Yeah. Adrianna, I have to ask… Would my father be proud of me? It’s been ten years since he passed, and I was only a young foal then when I had to take the throne. I wasn’t ready, and I have never felt like I’m living up to the expectations that he set for me,” Galaxy questioned as he continued watching his father in the stain glass window, whose eyes were now seemingly judging him. “Faust knows he wouldn’t have approved of you. You’re not even of any royal bloodline.” “Well…” Adrianna began. “I don’t think that matters. Bloodline or not, you picked me out of all the other possible suitors your advisors set out for you. Me, a simple farmer!” “Let’s be honest here,” Galaxy said as he nuzzled his wife in return. He never really showed affection to her in public, not while his royal guards all dressed in blood red armor watched. This was a rarity indeed and it surprised his wife knowing how reserved in his affections Galaxy normally was. “All of those… mares, to use the polite way of putting it were just gold diggers who only wanted this castle, not me. No small wonder I fired my advisors when they started lining them up for the choosing.” Adrianna chuckled. She remembered the shouting that could be heard from the Grand Hall that day when Galaxy had gone missing. He would later show up at her family farm dressed in just a simple brown tattered and very worn cloak. At the time, he stated he just wanted to help out. It was only after she had recognized him that Galaxy confessed he wanted to see how the lower classes lived their lives and that he needed to get away from the castle life for awhile. At the time, he didn’t state exactly why but whenever she saw Galaxy overhear and shake his head in pure disgust at the various noble-mares talking about the possibility of being Galaxy’s wife did she figure it out. Then, Adrianna smiled and laid a hoof on his shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about your father being proud of you or what choices you made with what you wanted to do with your life. You’re not him, and you never will be. Your father was a tyrant, always imposing tax after tax. You… When you took the throne you lifted every law he made and tried to make life better for us. That’s all that matters.” “Mă simt bine cu tine,” Galaxy replied. “Tu mă faci fericită, you always know what to say.” Adrianna then wrapped her hooves around her husband and gave him a long lingering kiss before nibbling on his neck. “Now, you’ve been paying so much attention to your kingdom and not me that I’m feeling… left out,” She purred in an almost disappointed tone before Galaxy smiled and nibbled back. “Well, guess we’ll have to remedy that… Won’t we?” Later that night, Galaxy awoke and shot up from his bed, and tossed the sheets off him while his wife murmured his name in her half-asleep state. He pulled aside the drapes covering the bed and rushed to a window and threw it open letting the cold air rush in. A buzzing sound filled the air and the moon was seemingly black as night. But Galaxy narrowed his eyes and as he looked in closer, the moon wasn’t covered by an eclipse at all. The darkness was seemingly writhing and moving of its own accord. Galaxy’s eyes widened as he realized what was coming and grabbed a sword off the wall before he shook his wife awake. “W-What… What’s happening?” She murmured drowsily. Galaxy said one simple word, one which made Adrianna’s eyes widen in terror and her blood run cold. “Changelings.” Galaxy ran out of the bedroom and grabbed another sword off the wall as he shouted for his men to ready the defenses and grab whatever they could. *“Alright then Chrysalis, you want a siege? I’ll give it to you, and then some!” Galaxy snarled mentally as he ran into the Grand Hall and the doors shattered wide open as the Changeling Queen herself, flanked by guards in dark blue armor entered. Chrysalis allowed a smirk to crawl onto her face.* Youtube Video “So, you’re the famous Scorpius-Tepes,” Chrysalis purred as she licked her lips like a hungry animal. “My name is Queen Chrysalis.” “Yeah, I know who you are, you bitch.” “Now, now,” Chrysalis chided as Galaxy prepared his swords and his men flanked him as Chrysalis’s own guards advanced around her in a form of protection, chittering as they did so. “Is that any way to speak to a fellow royal? Must say, love what you’ve done with the place. It’s… elegant. A bit of slime here and there, and I’d feel at home,” Chrysalis remarked as she observed the room. The tension grew all the more thicker. “Which is honestly why I’m here. Inima mea îţi aparţine?” “Sorry to disappoint, but Sunt însurat. Besides, how stupid do you think I am? I know why you’re really here, and you’re not getting it,” “Oh well, a girl had to try. Couldn’t hurt to ask and all that,” Chrysalis remarked cheerfully before she chittered “Wipe them out, all of them. And as for the royal family, well… They’re mine. I can just feel the love for his wife and children oozing off of the Lord here. It’ll be fun to suck it all dry.” The battle began. Bat-pony engaged changeling and sword met sword. Confusion was sown amongst the ranks as changelings used their natural shape-shifting abilities turn into other guards and then throw them off balance before they took them down. Heads fell to the floor with sickening sounds while Galaxy was blasted backwards into his throne shattering it to pieces by a blast of green magical energy from the Queen. Several of her elite guards rushed him but Galaxy quickly recovered and flew over them before cutting one off at the hind leg and then sticking one of his two swords through the guard as it fell to the ground. Another flew towards him but Galaxy slid beneath the changeling and sliced through it’s unarmored belly soaking his armor in green blood. He then leaped into the air and landed a kick to the face of another elite guard sending the changeling flying back and through the stained glassed window of his father. “Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.” Galaxy chuckled before he whirled around to stab the final of the four guards in the chest. He spun his swords in his hooves as more changelings surrounded him. Queen Chrysalis screeched in rage and yelled something in the changeling tongue. He groaned in pain and began to feel weak as the changelings began to absorb his love for his family and toppled to the floor and slipped away into unconsciousness… Galaxy didn’t know much about how long he was unconscious, but when he did awake, he found himself being pulled out of a cocoon slime dripping off him and dragged into the changelings’ main hive. All around him, the walls shifted and moved and eyes peered out of holes in the darkness. And in the center of it all, sitting atop a throne of her own making was Queen Chrysalis herself. Nearby, coated in slime was Galaxy’s family. “Glad to see you’re awake,” Chrysalis cooed as several changelings spat gunk at him to hold his hooves in place. “It was a shame we had to take you prisoner, but... C’est de la vie.” “Now, shall we begin? Where is it? Where’s the remnant!?!” Chrysalis snarled. “Sorry, but you got to Targoviste too late. It got destroyed in a fire long ago, few years before you came here. An accident in the kitchen started it, I think.” Galaxy replied dryly and all the changelings hissed in an odd way before he realized he was being laughed at, in a sense. “Oh… Playing coy are we?” Chrysalis asked. “How cute. Sadly, I’m in no mood for games. I know the perfect way you’ll give it up. STAG!” A female changeling covered head to hoof in dark blue armor advanced and trotted in front of Galaxy’s family. “Now… If you won’t give up the information willingly… Maybe seeing your family have all their love sucked out and getting turned into useless husks will change your mind. Unless… You decided to answer right now, and I’ll spare all your lives.” Galaxy grimaced before he let out a snarl of “Fine. It’s in the church. Can’t miss it, under the grave of the high priest of the moon.” “Good… Now, Stag, if you please?” Galaxy’s eyes widened as what happened next changed his life forever. He had to watch as Stag smirked and then had her squad decapitate every member of his family, wife and children. Their blood spattered his face and Galaxy let out a screech of rage and tried to rush Stag but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. “They weren’t going to be of use anyways. Now, as for you dear Scorpius… You’re not much use to me either, now that you don’t have a single dollop of love in your heart. I’ll let you live, but only with the knowledge that no matter what you could have done, you could never have saved your family,” Chrysalis turned to two changelings. “Dump him somewhere in the badlands. I’m not partial to where, but make it somewhere where he can at least crawl back to civilization. Maybe he’ll find a new life, settle down and I can take it all from him again, but then again maybe he’ll die from dehydration. I don’t care about either outcome.” Now: Galaxy snarled at the memories and shook his head to clear them away as he reached what was once him and his wife’s bedroom. He tapped a brick, and stone walls began moving aside to reveal a secret compartment where a small brown chest lay. Galaxy opened it, and a blue glow reached covered his face from what was inside. He let a sadistic smile crawl onto his face. “Perfect.” Then, Galaxy heard the cock of a shotgun and heard a female voice ask “Where the Tartarus have you been?” END…? Interlude: (The Reaper of Canterlot... And his Mamei?)Targoviste Castle: Lord’s Quarters Galaxy tensed as he heard the shotgun cock and went for the First Blade strapped to his foreleg but then felt the barrels touch his neck. The box he had found he was clutching with his left wing. “Make another move like that, bug, and we’re all going to see what the inside of a changeling’s brain looks like when it’s splattered clean across the wall,” The female voice continued, with a distinct Romaneian accent. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, impersonating my dead son. Sure, he may look about twenty years older and he may have lost the accent but I’d know him anywhere.” “M-Mamei…?” Galaxy asked as his head took a slow turn to face his mother and reached out to stroke her aged white coated face, unable to believe his own eyes. Her dark blue hair may have had streaks of gray in it, but it was her alright. However, his mom flinched and snarled out “Nu ma atingeti!” “It’s me mamei, why can’t you believe that? N-am facut nimic rau!” Galaxy asked putting the box on his bed with a simple move of his wing letting it softly fall to the sheets. The box’s contents rolled off the bed and fell onto the wooden floor with a clinking sound like crystal. “How… How dare you!” Galaxy’s mother screeched with a fury, slapping him soundly across the face. “You claim to be him, but I know Chrysalis, the bitch, she took him and his whole family to her hive in the Badlands! Slaughtered them all!” “They dumped me, left me to die.” Galaxy argued. “I almost did!” “Well, if you really are him I’d say you probably should have died!” Galaxy’s mother snarled out and he flinched as if she’d struck him again. “This whole country, without its leader… It’s fallen into ruin! Chaos runs amuck in the streets, no Royal Guards to keep the peace!” “DON’T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT!?!” Galaxy roared out, his mom taking a step back as his eyes flashed demonic yellow and his fangs bared themselves in his fury. Galaxy, noting how scared his Mamei was of him took at once felt a great guilt hit him and he felt like he should have been struck again. He was going into his “Reaper of Canterlot” mood and if he didn’t calm himself he would strike down the very last member of his family that he had left. “I… I was a coward! I stayed in Canterlot as a member of it’s Royal Guard and then eventually rose to the ranks of the Captain of the Night Guard… I may have left the Guard under the pretenses of “Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome” after the Windigo invasion but… But honestly? I was scared of what had become of this country, and I wanted to come back. At first, it was only to retrieve that,” Galaxy confessed, pointing to the small shard of gleaming blue and red crystal that had fallen to the floor. “As I knew it would be one of the only things that could kill Queen Chrysalis, but now…” Galaxy’s tone took a firmer tone, one of pure outright rage. “Show me what’s become of my country.” He growled out and his mom gave him a look. “Why should I? How do I know you’re not Queen Chrysalis herself in disguise come to finish the job and take that shard for yourself?” His mom accused, her blood red eyes flaring like hellfire not too dissimilar to how Galaxy’s own did when he was enraged. “Please,” Galaxy scoffed. “If I was that bitch of a bug, I would have taken that shard and shattered it, and you would be lying dead at my hooves with your blood pooling out all over the floor,” he remarked. “We both know what that shard is, and who it was once a part of, so we both know what it could do to Queen Chrysalis if I even got a single blow in with it melded into Blood Moon.” Galaxy continued. His mother finally sighed and then pulled Galaxy into a crushing hug sobbing all the while about how her little scorpion had come home at last. “Alright… I’ll show you what’s happened. But first, you need to tell me your side of the story. All of it.” Galaxy's mother requested. No, not a request Galaxy realized, a demand. Galaxy sighed and motioned for his mother to sit down on his bed. “Okay, this will be one of those long stories…” Galaxy’s POV: The Badlands certainly earned their name, that was for sure. Nothing for miles but rocks and sand and creatures that I can’t even name ready to rip you limb from limb. You’d be officially considered insane for even thinking of taking a trip out there willingly, even prepared for what’s out there. How Queen Chrysalis and her band survive out there… Well, that’s beyond me. As for me, well… I didn’t have the luxury of being there willingly. The wind hit my face and sent granules of sand cutting into my fur as I stumbled through one of Equestria’s harshest terrains, the blood of my family still covering my face. What little water I found, I took for myself. I used the rib bones of a fallen creature as a blade to fend off anything that was stupid enough to try and take me out and have my flesh as it’s next meal. How many days I spent out there, I couldn’t count. Time loses all sense of meaning in that particular slice of Tartarus. On one day, I heard a howl cut through a canyon I was passing through. Sand Coyotes, even I’d heard of their ruthlessness and how once they got to you, they never stopped hunting and when you tired out you were theirs. I ran, not caring for food nor water as I was far too frightened of the coyotes to care about those things. Eventually, they caught up with me, and the leader of the pack blindsided me from my left and pounced sending me smacking into a rock. I clutched my chest in pain and went for my weapon. I staggered to my hooves and swung at the beast, it's eyes glowing red and it smacked me aside with one huge paw. It’s maw dripped with drool as it closed in for the kill. But I wasn’t going down without a fight. I knew I was done for, but I intended to take this creature with me and do Equestria a very large favor. I lunged and plunged my weapon into its neck and true to the creature’s name sand began to pour out of the wound before it dissolved back into the sand from whence it was born. I fell to the ground bleeding heavily as the rest of the pack, intent on avenging their leader closed in. I closed my eyes and braced for death, happy on knowing I was about to see my family again. But death didn’t come for me on that day. There was a flurry of arrows and I looked up to see a platoon of Royal Guards led by the stallion whom I would later curse the very name of Thaddeus Boltstrike, his golden and purple adorned armor glinting in the sun. As my eyes closed, I felt soft feathered wings wrap around me and a warm glowing presence all around me as the entire area was turned to ash… Years passed, and I rose through the ranks of the Royal Guard and when Princess Luna returned from her thousand year banishment, I was the first to be selected to lead the newly reborn Night Guard. By then, I’d gained a reputation as the Reaper of Canterlot for my sheer ferocity in battle and never leaving a single opponent alive. I was cruel, sadistic in my ways. O enjoyed the thrill of a battle, and although I hated to admit it, me and Boltstrike weren’t so different. All throughout it all, I kept one thought in my mind, Queen Chrysalis. I thought of how unpleasant it would be for the bitch when I finally met with her again. I would make sure that rats devouring her mane and head as she felt every second and every nibble would be merciful compared to what I planned to do. I would prolong her pain, and enjoy every second of it leaving her begging for mercy although I would have none before I finally granted her death’s sweet release and making sure that she knew I was the one to topple her from her throne. There was no denying it, I was almost completely insane and I knew it. The only thing that made me different from Boltstrike, the ONLY thing, was that I on the other hoof, would never betray Equestria or hurt a child. I would never do that, not after what Chrysalis did to me or how I betrayed my own country for running to Equestria’s open arms. Might not even believe this, but I even took on a student, a young bat-pony mare named Ender Knight. Taught her everything I knew, she became like an adopted daughter to me. When the time came for me to retire, I knew there was only one possible successor. As I handed her my helmet and shield, I said this to her. “Now, what’s the personal creed for the Night Guard?” “United we stand, together we thrive,” Ender repeated and I asked her this. “Now what’s my personal creed in leading the Night Guard? At that moment, I knew Ender remembered what I had told her long ago when she was just a guard in training and I was showing her my helmet. “Now remember the responsibilities of putting on this helmet. Protecting the Kingdom and it's allies, helping those who can't help themselves, and kicking ass and looking damn good doing it. Remember those words, okay? Might save your life someday.” was what I had said. “Fight strong, fight swift and don’t let them know you’re coming. Also,” she began and I smiled as she placed my helmet on her head and her armor gained the distinct golden adornments of a Captain as my ex-troops saluted us both. “Kick ass and look good doing it.” “That’s my girl,” I said with a wink. The times had changed, and now it was up to her to finish what I had started in leading the Night Guard to a new age and defending Equestria. Galaxy’s mom took in his story and swallowed hard before pulling him into another hug. “Oh, my little Scorpion, I never knew you’d gone through so much… Tell me, in that other life of yours, besides a daughter, did you find somepony to make you...Happy?” She asked. “To be honest, yes,” Galaxy said sadly. “Then why do you not seem pleased about it?” His mom asked. “Well, I think he isn’t interested in my advances, might swing for the fairer sex, or if he does swing my way he’s too oblivious to my flirting. I mean, I’ve offered to take small sips of his blood! Galaxy shouted, throwing his hooves up in the air in frustration. “I mean, how much more obvious can I get? What, do I need a neon sign floating above my damn head that says “Sunburst, I want to have sex with you!” His mother actually threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, that’s what stallions are like. Faust knows your father-” Galaxy’s mom laughed and Galaxy threw up a rude gesture with his wing at the mere mention of his father and received a sound slap to the back of the head and a “Show a little respect for the dead!” from his mom before she continued. “As I was saying, Faust knows your father was pretty much oblivious to whenever I was trying to flirt with him, about the only good trait you received from him I thi-” “And here you were lecturing me on showing disrespect to the dead,” Galaxy smirked. “Oh, the hypocrisy.” “Oh no, in this country you remember it’s the son who must show respect. Anypony else is fair game.” his mom gracefully reminded him. “Now, it’s time to see what’s happened to your kingdom since you left, Scorpius.” As Galaxy walked through the cobblestone streets, everywhere he looked he felt as if he was continuingly punched in the gut. Houses lay in ruins, mares of the night just sat on street corners whoring themselves out to any stallion (Or mare) who was up for a good time. A gunshot rang out from somewhere in the once proud city. “Now you see, my son?” His mother asked him. “Yeah… Now I see.” Galaxy snarled in fury before he ground to a halt. There he saw it, the church where he used to pray every night. Its tall spire that held the church bell had been completely blown off and the remnants of the brassed iron bell lay in two pieces in front of him with the rest of the spire being scattered around. Graffiti had been drawn on the sides of the church walls, and the once beautiful age old stain glass windows depicting various events from Equestria’s history now lay shattered. As he walked towards the doors, remembering every time they creaked when he entered and how the bell sang when it rang he left out a short sob. “I caused this. Faust above, I caused this by running and hiding like a coward.” Galaxy thought to himself as he walked past the doors laying in front of him as if they’d been blown outwards by some great force. A hole in the roof allowed the rain to fall in as Galaxy walked between overturned church pews. Then, he heard laughter and a whimpering sound. Galaxy broke off into a gallop and saw three rough and scarred looking stallions pointing a gun at the priest, his white robes stained with blood and a hoof clutching his chest. “Not so tough are you now, old man?” One laughed while another cackled “Faust isn’t going to protect you now, is she?” The priest crossed himself with a hoof. “No matter, for She is with me. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Lady Faust is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1, you might want to read it.” “Please, I stopped praying long ago, you might want to start though old man.” The leader remarked. The priest continued quoting. “Samuel 22:3-4: my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. I call upon the LADY, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. Then everyone present felt a hoof step from behind them and turned to see Galaxy Swirls, Blood Moon in his mouth as if summoned by sheer thought. “Trust me father, Faust was watching,” Galaxy snarled. “As for these poor fools, I really suggest they pray to whatever deity they believe in and hope he or she shows mercy, as I don’t.” “Get ‘im!” One of the stallions roared and all three charged at him. Galaxy tripped one up with a hoof before kicking him right into one of the confessionals before grabbing another in the mouth with the blade end of his scythe and tossing him into a pew. The final stallion threw a punch, but Galaxy caught it and knocked him to the ground with the butt of his weapon and into unconsciousness. Galaxy slammed the blade of his scythe into the ground and as his mother picked up the priest and helped him up. The priest’s eyes widened in recognition and he let out a small gasp. “Tell everypony… That Lord Scorpius-Tepes has come home and he’s here to stay.” Galaxy snarled as thunder cracked in the background and lightning flashed illuminating the thestral’s form making him look like some sort of hellish angel. The Reaper of Canterlot had arrived, and anypony who dared go against him and his kingdom’s laws was about to get a VERY rude awakening. Somewhere in Equestria: Nighttime, the perfect time for ancient rituals. It had always been this way since the days of Spell Nexus and his Cult of the Night. Hooves galloped through the forest and eventually arrived at a long abandoned crossroads. A shovel, enveloped in a lavender glow began to dig a hole and a box was tossed in. “Well well well, this I was not expecting to see. Twilight Sparkle, making a deal with the devil. Well, one of us anyways. Loads of us in our line of business. Bloody surprising I must say,” The Crossroads Demon remarked cheerfully. Twilight knew his form, it was exactly the same as she remembered it. Golden mane, dark blue fur. The only difference now were the pure red eyes, “Honestly, horseshoe’s on the other hoof now. You hated me after I tried to kill your brother when he was just a young colt, and yet now you’re coming to me for help. Oh, I can hear him now,” The Crossroads Demon commented before taking on a mocking tone of Shining’s voice. "You couldn't have possibly brought Spike back from the dead, "Captain". You're just a punk-ass Crossroads Demon. You don't have that kind of power." Boltstrike said in a near-spot on imitation of Shining's voice. 'Ah, bup-bup-bup. Was a punk-ass Crossroads Demon. Now, King of Tartarus baby. Going to try and kill me now, Shiny?’ “You know what I want Boltstrike, so stop beating around the bush. I want my son back.” Twilight growled out, tired of Boltstrike's jokes. “Ah, but there’s a catch. I’m not Boltstrike, not anymore. When he nearly killed your dear teacher and adopted mummy dearest, he gave himself up to me.” “W-Who are you?” Twilight asked, taking a step back in fear as “Boltstrike” stroked her chin with a hoof. “You know my name.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Abaddon.” She growled out and the King of Tartarus clapped his hooves in triumph. “Give the pony a prize! Golden cupie doll, I think. Suits her well, might impress her marefriend with it. Now, shall we seal this deal with a kiss?” Abaddon asked, quite amused. “I shall never make a deal with you,” Twilight growled, her horn flaring up with magic. “Ah, but you will. Think about it, if you back out on this deal, you’ll just have to wallow in misery and sob to yourself knowing that there was a way to bring your dear Spiky back, and yet you backed out of it.” Abaddon commented. He knew exactly how to get to ponies, close deals. He was a businessman at heart and he knew all the tricks of the trade. When Twilight choked back a sob, Abaddon smirked. He knew he had her. “Now, about that kiss?” Twilight sighed before quickly kissing Abaddon on the lips, but he didn’t smile. “See this smile? It’s my “I’m very disappointed in you smile.” I want the full thing, tongue and all. See, go big or go home is my motto.” Twilight was then grabbed by Abaddon and he slammed his lips onto hers, throwing his tongue into her mouth and letting it dance. Twilight quickly pulled away and felt disgusted with herself from the sheer vileness of the actions she had just committed. Moreso, she sobbed as she realized what she had done. There was no backing out now, Abaddon would come for her and she knew it. He knew it as well. “Now, I’ll see you, along with my personal dogs in ten years time,” Abaddon smirked. “I do have mercy with my deals, this isn’t Wall Street after all. A stallion’s got to have standards after all.” With that, he vanished into thin air letting Twilight sob quietly to herself. END Fairy Tales Part 1 (The First Casualties)A Constuction Site in Ponyville... It had been over a year since the events of the adventure that had come to be known as "Frightmare Night", and no threats to Equestria had been seen since then. The Doctor had taken up a period of relaxation that he intended to live to the fullest, but he was unaware and he should have known in fact that his relaxation period was soon to be disturbed by a new threat. It was close to the Equestrian version of the holiday known on Earth as Christmas, here known as Hearth's Warming Eve. So far, everything was calm and quiet, but not for long as three poor construction workers were about to discover... Youtube Video It was a simple construction site in Ponyville that the events which would bring the former Time Lord known as the Doctor out of hiding that were soon about to take place that very night. Three construction workers, brothers actually were having an argument about how to build their projects, a series of homes for Ponyville's newest neighborhood. In order, their names were Quick Build, Wooden Board and Brick Layer. One, Quick Build was brown furred with grey hair and a hammer for a Cutie Mark. His brothers were twins, with yellow fur and a jet black mane. They had respectively, a selection of wooden boards and a brick and mortar for Cutie Marks. Nearby, a sign said "Once upon a time, homes were built this way." and also on the sign was a model home that showed what the homes were supposed to look like when they were done. it was beautifully made, with white paint, green shutters and a brown shingled roof. "I told you bro, those wooden boards you chose are absolute crap!" Brick Layer argued passionately to Wooden Board. "We should have gone with the bricks and mortar like I suggested!" Wooden Board scoffed at his brother's statement. "Oh please, didn't you read the sign?" He asked, pointing to the sign that showed the house, coincidentally built out of wooden boards. "Bricks, mortar, they're so old fashioned!" Suddenly, there was a growling noise from somewhere behind a selection of metal pipes used for the home's future plumbing. Then, from out of nowhere, Quick Build was grabbed by a clawed and hairy arm and dragged behind the pipes. There was a scream, and a shower of blood covered the pipes soon after. "What was that?" Wooden Board asked in fear. "I don't know man, but we better run, or we're probably next!" Brick Layer exclaimed in equal fear and started running. His twin followed, but was soon grabbed by a shadowy figure and ripped from limb to limb, and was dead so fast and so quickly he was unable to scream as his ripped limbs showered some wooden boards with his blood and gore. And then, just when Brick Layer thought he was to be next, the figure vanished into the shadows leaving not a trace he was there except for his dead victims, who were what the Doctor was soon to find out to be the first of many casualties and the start of a brand new mystery for him, Twilight, Rainbow and Shining to solve. Brick Layer sighed in relief, before he began to sob. His brothers were dead, and he didn't even have time to mourn as he didn't even know who, or what killed them. Meanwhile, unknown to him, standing out of sight was a little filly with pure white fur, red blush on her face, and a jet black mane with a beautiful red ribbon in her mane, which was long in style. She smirked, which looked out of place on a filly of her age and beauty. The first of those lined up based on the tales she'd been read as a child were dead, and if anyone was willing to listen to what she was trying to say, no more were to follow... Youtube Video Ponyville: Youtube Video Snow fell on the ground in white flurries covering Ponyville's rooftops and streets in a sheet of white. The Doctor walked through the streets, completely relaxed by all that was going on around him and the snow covered town of Ponyville. He always loved this time of year, even if and when it turned into a crisis like his last few Christmases always seemed to. From the Sycorax invasion on Christmas Eve, to meeting Donna Noble, a runaway bride that suddenly appeared on his TARDIS thanks to some thought to be long extinct particles injected in her, to saving a Titanic replica with a Nuclear Storm Drive engine for power from falling on London and igniting it in a mushroom cloud. He just hoped this Christmas, or Hearth's Warming Eve as it was known here in Equestria didn't turn out like his last few Christmases. All around him, ponies in scarfs or hats, some wearing booties to protect their hooves from the cold winter snow sold their wares in stalls even despite the cold. Some, like a golden furred pony with an orange mane known as Golden Harvest sold things such as poinsettias or another pony, one the Doctor had seen before, one with grey fur, oddly set eyes and a yellow mane whose name was Derpy Hooves sold other things like mistletoe or even Christmas candy for stocking stuffers from a pony with a ruby mane and matching fur known as Berry Punch, who wasn't completely drunk on hard cider for once. The Doctor figured she'd save that for the Hearth's Warming Eve celebrations in a few days. Suddenly, he heard a loud scream of fear. The Doctor's heroic instincts took over just then, just as they always did when somepony was in trouble. He always loved this bit, saving ponies. It always brought him a sense of satisfaction to know that ponies were in trouble, and he was the one to save them from whatever trouble that they'd found themselves in. "Well, as I always say... Geronimo!" He cried, and immediately started running towards the source of the screams. He ran down a snow covered alleyway where he found a pony with jet black fur and a matching mane he knew to be Good Eats, the owner of the restaurant known as the Hay Burger being menaced by a tall hairy figure with grey fur, long sharp claws and glowing yellow eyes. Youtube Video "Well, who are you then?" The Doctor inquired, fascinated by this strange being that looked almost like the Big Bad Wolf from the Grim Brothers Fairy Tale he knew as The Three Little Pigs. Little did he know it, but this was the same exact being that had killed Quick Build and Wooden Board the night before and had nearly killed Brick Layer as well. It seemed this Big Bad Wolf wannabe had a new target, but the Doctor wasn't going to let him claim another victim, not as long as he lived. "Well, aren't you a fascinating sort. You know mate, you almost look like the Big Bad Wolf." The Doctor commented, completely in love with this strange being, just like he was with all the monsters he faced. "What, have you jumped out of a fairy tale and started killing for real now. Well, what's next, Little Red Riding Hood and her dear old Granny?" "Will you stop commenting on this thing and just save me, you idiot?" Good Eats exclaimed in fear and anger at the Doctor's fascination for the creature. "Er, right... Sorry." The Doctor apologized. "But this is so cool! Me, meeting the Big Bad Wolf!" "Just stop gabbering on about your love for this monster and stop the damn thing!" Good Eats yelled at him. But just as the monster appeared, it vanished back into the shadows from whence it came. Evidently, from what the Doctor figured, it didn't want to deal with him, or it just felt outnumbered. But if the Doctor had known it's previous killings of Wooden Board and Quick Build, he might have been of a different opinion. Right now, he honestly didn't know why it left or what the Big Bad Wolf was even doing out of a story book, and the Doctor didn't like not knowing things. "Well, a big fat load of help you were." Good Eats muttered angrily towards the Doctor. "You let the damned thing escape!" 'Weeeellll excuse me, but at least I attempted to save your life!" The Doctor responded. He always hated rudeness, at least he tried to save this very rude pony's life, even if the monster had escaped into the night. "You could have at least attempted to thank me. I mean, rude!" The Doctor continued, quite offended by Good Eats's rudeness. With that Good Eats marched off into the night, still,not even thinking of thanking the Doctor for saving him. "Well... That was an interesting experience, to say the least..." The Doctor muttered. "Still wished I had been thanked though..." he continued, still miffed about not being thanked for attempting to save the pony's life. "Well, there goes my Hearth's Warming Eve I suppose." The Time Pony muttered to himself. "And here I was hoping for a nice peaceful one for once." He continued, before realizing something. "Oh who am I kidding, all of my Hearth's Warming's are like this...." The Doctor, with a long sigh wandered back to the Ponyville streets. Maybe at least he could buy some gifts before the Big Bad Wolf, or something worse popped up to ruin his night any more then it already had. But that just wasn't the way his luck worked wasn't it. He knew he was going to need some help, and he knew just where he was going to get it... (To be continued...) Sleep Part 2: (Nightmarity) (The Bricklayer's Version) In Rarity's Mind... "No... No... Please no!" Youtube Video Rarity was currently in the fits of a terrible nightmare. It wasn't one she'd just had out of the blue either. For the last couple of years, ever since her best friends in the world came together and defeated Nightmare Moon, she'd been having this reoccurring dream. At first, it was just about once a month, but then it advanced to twice a month, then little by little, it kept on coming back, until finally it happened weekly. It had gotten so bad in fact, Rarity had even gone to desperate measures, seeing Zecora, a rather mysterious Zebra from Zebrawa who lived deep in the wild and untangled regions of Everfree Forest, for a Dreamless Sleep Potion. At first it worked, and Rarity's hopes for once-more peaceful nights had been reached and achieved. But then, out of the blue, they were dashed and to Rarity's fright and horror, the dreams came back, despite all of Zecora's efforts being put into the potion. Rarity would have liked to believe Zecora just made a once in a lifetime mistake (It could happen... Right?) and messed up somehow in creating her potion, but in the back fringes of her mind, although however hard she tried to deny it, Rarity honestly believed that wasn't the case. Something more was at work here, and her mind was warning her about it. Now another thing Rarity wondered was why Princess Luna had yet to come and dispel the nightmare like she always had in the past, but it seemed, this time at least, something was blocking her. That scared Rarity far more than the nightmare itself. Now, you may be asking what the nightmare exactly was? Well, every time it was the same. Rarity was at her shop, the Carousel Boutique, designing the newest and trendiest fashions for the movers and shakers in Canterlot, Manehatten or Vanhoover. (The dream varied on the details, as dreams often tend to do.) But one thing, ONE THING always remained the same. Rarity, hard at work at her sewing machine smiled at her latest creation, perhaps her best yet! (Rarity didn't want to brag or overstate, but she secretly thought this was one creation that would never, ever be topped!) a beautiful sky blue dress overlaid with diamonds and ribbons, and to match, a custom hat fit for a southern belle, which was perfect, as Rarity's latest custom order came all the way from Neigh Orleans. It was a big job for her, with a huge payout. If this client got what he wanted, and this client so happened to be related to the Rich Family, Rarity would get money beyond her wildest dreams. That money would be perfect for the plot of land she'd just scored in Canterlot to finally expand her business beyond the simple town of Ponyville and start her on the path to become a world renowned fashion designer. Rarity, wiping some sweat off her brow, smiled and took a glance out the window to the streets of Ponyville. "Today, Ponyville... Tomorrow, the world!" She proclaimed. "With Celestia as my witness, this I swear!" But then she saw it. IT. Or to be more accurately precise, a HER. There she stood, a mare about her age, even looking almost exactly like her except for the green mane and deep purple coat smoozing it up with her friends. Then, as if to add to Rarity's anger, the unknown mare began giving out diamonds and jewelry, far more beautiful than anything Rarity knew she could ever procure. Amethysts, Sapphires, Rubies, Diamonds, the lot. That's what they were all made off. And then, just to top it all of, and seemingly as if to spite Rarity, the unknown mare gave out royal horseshoes, brassards and tiaras, all made in gold and covered with jewels very similar to the ones the Royal Sisters wore and gave one set of each to her friends. "You like them... Darlings?" The unknown mare inquired with an eerily familiar voice that Rarity just couldn't place, but she knew she'd heard it somewhere before... "Yeah, this is awesome! I can feel myself getting 20%, no 50% more cooler just by looking at them!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Ooh, I should have a party just because I got some of these! Princess Pinkie Pie, Princess of Parties!" Pinkie hollered. "I-I must admit, these are actually pretty good." Fluttershy stammered out shyly. "Whoo Doggies, Ah can look mah best while bucking apples off their trees in these here fancy-smancy shoes!" Applejack proclaimed in glee. "Tartarus, who needs Rarity when we got somepony like you, Forsythia?" Twilight asked, and the finally given a name mare chuckled darkly. That last one, that last phrase from Twilight hurt most of all, hitting Rarity like a punch to the gut and as if she had been really punched to that specific area, she tumbled to the floor and hit her head on the floors of the Carousel Boutique, drawing blood from the top of her head and covering her perfectly kept mane in it. Despite all of this, Rarity didn't care one jot. This was the Worst Possible Thing! She had been abandoned, left for dead by her friends all because of this... this newcomer who'd seemingly come up out of nowhere! Rarity couldn't help herself, she broke down completely and began to cry, her so-called friends hurtful words echoing in her mind... Rarity awoke with a start, panting and sweating. What a dream! Despite knowing her friends would never let her down and leave her for real, Rarity still felt very frightened from the dream she had just experienced. What if... Just what if she was wrong about her friends, and if one day, that mare really did come to town and do all the things the dream promised? What then? What would she do next? Fashion was her life, and to have somepony else steal it all away from her would be absolutely dreadful indeed. Then, she heard a soft rapping on the front door, and sighing to herself, quickly using her brush to style her mane just right and toss off her manecurlers, she ran downstairs to meet her guests. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every-" Rarity said in her usual greeting, before noticing who it was. In front of her stood Twilight, Rainbow and of course the Doctor. Rarity gaped at the Doctor's attire, he was dressed in an absolutely dreadful (At least in her mind) brown tweed suit with a bow-tie to match, making him look rather like an old Trottingham style history professor. To top it all off, he had a fez! A fez, of all things! "Celestia above, does he have no taste in fashion whatsoever?" Rarity mused, but kept her thoughts to herself. After all, a lady never says such rude things about one's friends. Then Rarity noted Twilight and Rainbow's attire, they were dressed like they were going off onto an adventure out into the bush, with Rainbow wearing a pith helmet to top off her ensemble, making her look rather like Daring Do. "Rarity, you look terrible." Twilight said bluntly, noting Rarity's tired eyebrows and the blood dripping from her mane. Little did Rarity know it, but something HAD hit her in the gut and knocked her to the floor doing that dream of hers. Something very powerful indeed. "Oh sorry dearies, just a bad dream." Rarity replied with a yawn. Rainbow raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "And the blood?" She asked, and Rarity's eyes widened in shock as she felt the sticky substance dripping from her mane. "How the... What the...?" Were the only thoughts running through her head at that moment. "Oh... I... I just bumped my head on my bedrest this morning, that's all dearies. Nothing to worry about whatsoever." Rarity lied. None of the three ponies standing in front of her looked as if they believed her for a moment. "But enough about me." Rarity continued, wanting to change the subject of her conversation. "Where are you three off to this fine morning?" "Oh, us?" Twilight laughed. "We're off to Zebrawa, a little vacation into the bush, to see it's natural beauty. You see, I got curious about Zecora's homeland a few days ago, and so I asked the Doctor about Zebras and their home country, and he thought after all we'd been through together lately, we needed some time off and so he offered us up a little trip. Imagine, the beauty, the wonder!" As Twilight rambled on about how excited she was and the things they'd surely see, a small voice in the back of Rarity's mind whispered "See, look, they're already leaving you behind." but Rarity pushed it away to the back recesses of her mind, to it's deepest and darkest corners. No, she would not let her dream affect her! Her friends would never do such a thing. It was only natural for Twilight to want to see and learn about new things, and as for Rainbow, Tartarus, she probably just wanted to experience something close to a Daring Do type adventure. Rarity didn't have the heart to tell her such a thing would probably never happen, so she left Rainbow to her fantasies. Rarity though, had to admit, even if it was only to herself she was a tad jealous that she wouldn't get to see Zebrawa, she'd heard the fashions there were absolutely exquisite and if she ever saw them, she might just get a whole new line out of it! She could call it "A Walk on the Wild Side"! "...The untamed wilderness, the wildlife, the culture!" Twilight continued to ramble before she was cut off by Rainbow placing a hoof over her mouth. "Okay Twi, I think she gets it." Rainbow deadpanned. As Rarity waved them goodbye from her shop door, Twilight mused to herself (After mentally squeeing over the fact that Rainbow had given her a nickname, before then brushing it off as just something done out of friendliness. After all, Rainbow called Applejack "AJ" didn't she?) "Hmm, something's off with Rarity... I just can't quite put my hoof on what it is though. Gah, Twilight, you're probably just being overly paranoid. It's not like Rarity is going to be possessed by some evil spirit or anything while I'm gone. Just sit back and relax and enjoy the adventure." and walked, taking a quick look behind her to see if Rarity was truly alright. She sighed in relief when she saw Rarity shut the door and through the windows, saw her go back to work on sewing something as always, never noticing the dark blue mist floating ominously above the Boutique... "Come on Twi, you're being such a slowpoke! We're going to leave ya behind if you don't pick up the pace!" Rainbow called from ahead of her and Twilight yelled "Coming!" before mentally musing "Zebrawa, here we come!" R.I.F.T Headquarters... Meanwhile at R.I.F.T Headquarters, Target was dealing with problems of her own. To be honest, she wasn't really sure over half of the new recruits were even ready for the true strains of a mission that may or may not come up in the near future. All they seemed to care about was how awesome it was to be part of a top secret organization and goofing off. Case in point, behind her, Scrabbling was currently dressed in a Royal Ranger's outfit (A dark green hooded garb built for defending the wildernesses on the edge of Equestria) and drawing an arrow from his quiver before letting out a cry of "You have failed this city!" in what he thought was a deep and menacing tone before drawing his bow back and aiming for a target set up on a table. Unfortunately, he missed by about a mile and hit Target's husband in the flank. "Ow, you bastard! You hit me in the bloody arse, moron!" Sudoku shouted in fury as Galaxy and Lightning Dust shared snickers and Sunburst just looked away in embarrassment. Target groaned and turned back to the magical orb on her desk, in which the face of the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor could be seen. "Idiots, the lot of them. I mean, you saw that, right?" Target groaned as she rubbed her temples in resignation. "Half of them aren't even ready, and Galaxy... Don't you even get me started on him. He's completely psychotic! I mean, first thing he asks when we got here was that did we grab his sleeping coffin from his barracks! I mean, a coffin for crying out loud! How did he even get his way to the top of the Night Guard? Was "Luna forgive me..." Luna drunk on hard cider when he got promoted?" Shining held up a hoof to stop her rant. "No, he got promoted because he's good. Very, very, good. I've seen him in action. Believe you me, he's not somepony you would want to get in the way of." Shining stated, before giving a brief shudder at some of the memories of Galaxy fighting in a brief resurgence of power in the Griffin Kingdom about a month ago. The end result was very... bloody to say the least, and that wasn't even considering what he did to the opposition's leader, mounting him on a stake as a warning to Equestria's enemies and to make sure the current leader of the Griffin Kingdom didn't get any ideas. "And as for Scrabbling, as yes I did see that in the background, it's not the worst thing somepony could do with an arrow. Remember when Cadance got the bright idea to bring love to all the ponies in Canterlot some years back with arrows?" "...I remember alright." Target replied, flushing red when she and her husband had been caught up in what was known as the "Canterlot Hearts and Hooves Day Grand Orgy Celebration". Thankfully, guards had been sent out to stop the mess. But, perhaps needless to say, no interviews or photos were given to the newspapers. A grand disappointment really. "Me and Celestia personally chose these ponies because they're the best of the best at what they do. Because if the world goes sour and the Doctor isn't here to stop it, you can be damn well sure they'll avenge it." Shining said definitively, and that was all he said on the matter before cutting the transmission feed. "Oh, how helpful..." Target muttered to herself in irritation and began to think hard about going down to a local bar for a nice cold one. That Night... At the Carousel Boutique, Rarity once again found herself tossing and turning in a fitful sleep. No, just no. Please darlings, no!" She whispered in her sleep as once again, the scene played itself out in her mind. It was the exact same, in every way. Rarity, hard at work at her sewing machine smiled at her latest creation, perhaps her best yet! (Rarity didn't want to brag or overstate, but she secretly thought this was one creation that would never, ever be topped!) a beautiful sky blue dress overlaid with diamonds and ribbons, and to match, a custom hat fit for a southern belle, which was perfect, as Rarity's latest custom order came all the way from Neigh Orleans. It was a big job for her, with a huge payout. If this client got what he wanted, and this client so happened to be related to the Rich Family, Rarity would get money beyond her wildest dreams. That money would be perfect for the plot of land she'd just scored in Canterlot to finally expand her business beyond the simple town of Ponyville and start her on the path to become a world renowned fashion designer. Rarity, wiping some sweat off her brow, smiled and took a glance out the window to the streets of Ponyville. "Today, Ponyville... Tomorrow, the world!" She proclaimed. "With Celestia as my witness, this I swear!" But then she saw it. IT. Or to be more accurately precise, a HER. There she stood, a mare about her age, even looking almost exactly like her except for the green mane and deep purple coat smoozing it up with her friends. Then, as if to add to Rarity's anger, the unknown mare began giving out diamonds and jewelry, far more beautiful than anything Rarity knew she could ever procure. Amethysts, Sapphires, Rubies, Diamonds, the lot. That's what they were all made off. And then, just to top it all of, and seemingly as if to spite Rarity, the unknown mare gave out royal horseshoes, brassards and tiaras, all made in gold and covered with jewels very similar to the ones the Royal Sisters wore and gave one set of each to her friends. "You like them... Darlings?" The unknown mare inquired with an eerily familiar voice that Rarity still couldn't place, but she knew she'd heard it somewhere before. In a corner of her mind, the voice of Princess Luna was crying out to her. "You know this voice Rarity, you've heard it before! Fight it off! You can do it, just like I-" before the voice was swiftly cut off by some unknown force. "Yeah, this is awesome! I can feel myself getting 20%, no 50% more cooler just by looking at them!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Ooh, I should have a party just because I got some of these! Princess Pinkie Pie, Princess of Parties!" Pinkie hollered. "I-I must admit, these are actually pretty good." Fluttershy stammered out shyly. "Whoo Doggies, Ah can look mah best while bucking apples off their trees in these here fancy-smancy shoes!" Applejack proclaimed in glee. "Tartarus, who needs Rarity when we got somepony like you, Forsythia?" Twilight asked. Youtube Video Rarity let out a heartbreaking sob as then she found herself in a boarded up Carousel Boutique, with a sign on the front of it reading "Closed Forever" and knocked over dress dummies with Rarity in the middle of it all, sobbing into her hooves. Then an almost seductive voice reached whispered in her ear as a blue mist floated around the darkened room. "You know, you can stop this from happening." "H-How...?" Rarity tearfully asked as the mist floated around her. "Take my power Rarity, you can be the best pony you can be..." The voice whispered, and then Rarity at last recognized it. "Nightmare Moon! B-But I thought you were destroyed! I saw it!" Rarity stuttered out in fear and denial. "Oh, my dear, dear, Rarity, true power can never be destroyed completely. I always survive. Now take my power." "NO! I won't!" Rarity shouted even as the darkness closed in around her and Nightmare Moon's voice became more menacing in tone. "Oh, my dear, you don't have a choice in the matter..." She growled, and the mist entered Rarity and she soon found herself being transformed. Her fur became black as night, her horn sharpened to a dangerously tipped point, wings sprouted out from her back and her mane and tail became misty and flowed in an invisible wind with stars and white streaks in it as her Cutie Mark became a black diamond. With a powerful explosion that blew the roof of the Boutique, Rarity emerged, but she was no longer the kind Element of Generosity anymore. She was now the Nightmare Spirit and this time, the night would last forever! "Oh my stars, do I look gorgeous or do I look gorgeous? This is the Best Possible Thing to ever happen to me! But never mind my looks. The night shall last forever, and it shall be absolutely fabulous! And this time... And this time nopony shall stop me! NOPONY!" Nightmarity cackled madly and shot off like a bullet, heading for her first stop... Canterlot City. Primal Instinct Part 3: (Angels and Demons AKA when the metaphorical Shark is Jumped)A few minutes earlier... Twilight and Rainbow trepidatiously stepped out of the hut, all the while Rainbow still fighting her urge to mate with Twilight with all of her willpower, her mare parts aching with pain and her body desperately seeking the need of an act of love. That's right, I said love, not lust. At first, Rainbow suspected her wanting to mate with Twilight was just because she was in her pegasi heat cycle, but now she had begun, in the last day or so, to suspect it was something more. She had thought back to her recent memories with Twilight, her cuddling up to her in the bed, and older memories as well. Hearth's Warming Eve: Ponyville Town Hall Youtube Video It was with grand fever and joy that the Hearth's Warming Eve Celebrations kicked off in grand fashion. As Applejack and her family visited Apple Fritter in the hospital, bringing her gifts and food, back at the Town Hall the Doctor and company along with their new friend Calming Heartbeats enjoyed the spirit of the season. A band, consisting of Octavia Melody on cello, Noteworthy on piano and the Ponytones led by Rarity for the vocals sung a little song consisting of a tale about a pony found a stowaway upon a ship in Hearth's Warming Day. She asked him of his tale, even though she ought to throw him to the whales and all the stranger in return said was "Come here, let's dance." but all the stranger said in return even as they did take up the dance "But borrow or steal, I'll be with my lover on Hearth's Warming Day. I'll run and I'll roam and I'll cover the ground, next Hearth's Warming I'll see her around." Rainbow, even as she twirled with her old friend Fluttershy on the dance floor, both wearing dresses. Surprisingly, Rainbow wasn't complaining. Even she understood that there were certain times one needed to dress fancy. She wore a variation on her old Grand Galloping Gala Dress, except instead of golden laurels in her mane, it was a white poinsettia flower in it and her tail done up differently as well. Rarity who called this creation the Forest Fairy dress, and who happened to be singing this song seemed to be singing with a passion that she and the Ponytones normally didn't. Now normally, Rainbow would have chalked it up to the Heart's Warming Spirit in the air, but lately she had noticed Rarity musing about somepony that she loved, just when she thought she was out of earshot. But that wasn't all Rainbow noticed, she also saw Twilight in a rather attractive red and white dress sitting in the back of the room alone next to a potted plant listening to the song, and Rainbow swore she saw a tear dripping from her eye and heard her mutter "Guess I'll have to wait another year to dance with Rainbow on Hearth's Warming." It was then Rainbow made her choice, and whispered "Sorry Flutters, but I think there's somepony who needs a little bit of help from a Rainbow." and Fluttershy, who wore a dress which matched her butter-yellow fur perfectly except for the bottom which was light blue and had her Cutie Mark (Basically her Equestria Girls dress from the first movie) on it nodded in understanding and smiled to herself. She, being the Element of Kindess and someone who was very skilled with empathy, could often note when two ponies held feelings for each other that were more than just friendship, even if they both needed a good clobbering over the head with a frying pan to see it for themselves. "Want to dance Twi?" Rainbow asked flirtatiously with a wink of her eye as she trotted up and held up a hoof, and Twilight took the offered up hoof in return. "Gladly." She said and took up the dance as Rainbow smiled. But it wasn't just that, Rainbow had also noticed strong feelings when they were in Sleepy Hollow for the Headless Horse Crisis. Sleepy Hollow: Town Hall Even as Twilight and Rainbow ate and drank from the snack table, they along with the Doctor, plus Shining and Cadance who were dancing to the song being played by the band kept a wary eye out as they scanned the crowd. The Headless Horse could show up at any time, and they knew it. Twilight sighed even as she turned to Rainbow. "You know, as much as I'd like to enjoy this party... I... I just can't, not with..." Twilight trailed off, and Rainbow finished for her as she knew exactly what she was thinking. "The Horse? Yeah, I know what you mean." Rainbow admitted. She wasn't going to admit out loud as she considered herself far too awesome for it, but she was nervous as well. Suddenly, Rainbow got an idea, her Element showing itself in concern for Twilight. "Hey, I got a idea that should help you get your mind off things." Rainbow suddenly exclaimed as she pulled Twilight onto the dance floor making her friend yelp even as Rainbow shouted "Hey Crypt-Kickers, give us something to dance to! Something real slow!" The Crypt-Kickers all shared a shrug before they started up another song, and a saxophone began to play setting a romantic mood as a female singer with tan fur and a bucket of white liquid for her Cutie Mark, whose name was White Wash began to croon out a tune. Youtube Video Rainbow began to slow dance with Twilight as the song progressed, and to Twilight's shock as they twirled on the dance floor she found herself enjoying it. "W-Where did you learn to dance like this?" Twilight asked, her face quite flushed from being so close to Rainbow however her lavender fur made it barely visible unless you looked closely enough. Rainbow too was blushing, though thanks to her blue fur it was MUCH more obvious. In the background, Cadance had stopped dancing with Shining and whispered to herself "Just a little closer, please!" in an almost pleading manner. Shining sighed in embarrassment, his marefriend loved shipping ponies a little too much. "Eh, my dad wanted me to become a Class-A dancer instead of a radio DJ." Rainbow admitted before laughing. "You can see how well THAT turned out huh?" Twilight let out a small giggle, before she found herself moving her muzzle closer to Rainbow and Rainbow found herself doing the same. Youtube Video Sadly, that moment had been interrupted with the Headless Horse's arrival. Rainbow, even as they stepped out onto the empty street, snarled at the memory of the creature, remembering how it killing Twilight's aunt drove her into grief for days, and almost kept her from adventuring with the Doctor. "...Something's wrong. I can feel it." Twilight whispered to herself as she scanned the street. It was quiet, too quiet. Now normally, she would have just chalked it up to how late at night it was, but she had seen a few Bat-Pony tourists when they first arrived in town, and Bat-Ponies were much more active at night (With the rare exception, as Galaxy Swirls proved, although that was only because he had to adjust his sleeping schedule because of him working in the Royal Guard.) so they probably would have been walking the streets, but not even they were there. The whole town was empty. "...Like a ghost town." Rainbow muttered and Twilight's head turned to her. "You noticed that too, huh?" Twilight asked. "Well, duh!" Rainbow replied. "I'm arrogant, not stupid. This feels almost like an..." Just then, black swirling pillars of smoke, at least fifty of them swirled around the air and rushed towards the ground and reformed into the Zebra townspeople, and the tourists as well, and when their eyes opened, they were pure black charcoal. Twilight's eyes widened even as Rainbow muttered "...Ambush." and sighed in resignation. Twilight meanwhile, knew exactly what she was looking at, thanks to pretty much having books on anything and everything back at the Golden Oaks. What she was looking at exactly, were demons from the pits of Tartarus. How they got here she didn't know, but she did know how to stop them. "Problem is... Neither of us brought Holy Water or Salt with us. The one time I don't come prepared for everything, and look what happens." She mused even as Rainbow asked "Uh, Twi, how do we deal with this?" "I...I DON'T KNOW!" Twilight shouted in fear, completely freaking out. "Holy water, don't have it! Salt, none of that either, so we can't deal with this!" "Twilight, calm down." Rainbow said, planting a hoof firmly on her shoulder. "Remember, creepy as Tartarus ponies or not, we can handle ourselves. You're the most powerful unicorn in ages, and I'm... Well, completely awesome, so we can kick their asses to Kingdom Come!" "Okay... Okay, you're right." Twilight said, taking a few deep breaths and mentally slapping herself on the forehead. "But remember, they're only possessed, so we can't harm them in any fatal ways. Remember, there are ponies inside those bodies. I don't think they'd be too happy with us if we damaged their bodies too much." "Relax Twi, I know when to restrain myself. I'll try, but I'm not making any promises, you hear?" Rainbow replied. "Get them!" One demon ordered, and Twilight charged up her horn with a purple glow and fired blasts of magic into the hoard and knocked a few demons back even as they charged in full force. Two grabbed Rainbow by the wings from either side, no doubt intending to rip them off completely, but Rainbow threw them off her with her body strength (Still fighting off her heat cycle) while Twilight created a flaming whip from the tip of her horn, a spell taught to her personally by Princess Celestia, and swung her head around lashing the whip forcing demons back and sending the few unlucky enough to be close to her flying backwards in various directions. Rainbow smirked at her friend's badassery, and thought to herself Okay, never mocking Twilight for being an egghead again. Ever." before she got an idea. "Hey Twilight, you think you can outdo me in terms of coolness?" Rainbow challenged. "Well then, watch this!" before she turned to a collection of demons and shouting "Hey, asshats! Try and hold on to something. Believe me, you're gonna want to!" Then, Rainbow showed exactly why she was one of the fastest flyers in Equestria, and flew up in the air and began flying in circles generating powerful rotating gusts of wind even as storm clouds gathered and soon, Rainbow was flying in her own personal multicolored tornado and sweeping up possessed ponies and Zebras alike before they were soon spat out of the whirlwind and sent flying every which way, some landing in trees, and others crashing through hut windows and walls. "Now, THAT's how you deal with demons!" Rainbow boasted, but she shouldn't have spoken so soon, as then more black pillars of smoke swirled down around the twosome and surrounded them on all sides. "Aw come on, how many of these guys are there?" Rainbow asked in disbelief before she and Twilight found themselves thrown telekinetically up against a tree. But then, walking through the hoard calmly and with demons parting out of his way, seemingly in terror was Akachi, his normally brown eyes glowing a celestial blue. Twilight swallowed when she sensed the sheer power coming from this being, but she felt safe as well, as if a warm comforting blanket of energy had wrapped itself around her. "W-Who are you...?" Twilight stuttered out nervously. Lightning flashed, and for a moment, both Rainbow and Twilight could swear they saw Akachi gain two black shadowy wings. "My name is Castiel, I'm an Angel of the Lord." The Zebra stated simply, and from his robes, emerged a silver blade with runes on it. "Do not be afraid, I shall deal with these pit-dwellers. You must go to my host's home, the Doctor is there and needs your assistance." Castiel stated before swiftly stabbing a demon in the neck with his blade, the demon's eyes and throat glowing orange before he fell to the ground, undoubtedly dead, and Twilight and Rainbow found themselves released from their telekinetic hold. "Go, now." Castiel ordered before Twilight and Rainbow ran off towards the chieftain's hut fighting off any demons that dared stand in their way even as Castiel began his brutal work... Now... "I think it's safe to say you have a security breach. A massive security breach." Twilight deadpanned but her eyes widened when the Doctor turned to her, and his eyes were pure blood red. Youtube Video "Oh Faust... He's been possessed..." Twilight whispered in horror. "Hey, freakshow, get your mind out of the Doctor's body!" Rainbow shouted in anger and disgust at the being who dared possess one of her closest friends and a hero of Equestria who'd saved it many times over without even being asked to do so, only doing it because it needed to be done. "The Doctor" sighed to himself and tsk tsked them and gave them a condescending stare. "Really now, is there any real reason for rudeness?" Abaddon asked before flinging the two up against one of the hut's walls knocking masks off the side. "You should show respect to a Knight of Tartarus and its King. Now bow." When Rainbow spat at him, Abaddon bellowed "BOW!" and forced the twosome to hang their heads, making Abaddon smirk. "Much better. See, now that I'm being shown the proper respect a King deserves, we can all get along now can't we?" Abbadon asked in the tone of a gentlestallion and adjusting his bow-tie before muttering "Really, bow-ties, so old fashioned. Went out of style decades ago." in disgust before tossing off the fez off his head and shaking his head. Suddenly, Abaddon's eyes went from blood red back to the Doctor's normal green. "I... I can't keep him back for much longer!" The Doctor shouted as Twilight and Rainbow fell to the floor, released from their hold. "Run, now!" before his eyes went blood red again and he stroked Twilight's cheek. "Oh, I know the secrets you hide... That mind of yours. It's true what they say, it's always the quiet ones, and if you knew what Gay Rights over there was going through, you would gladly accept I think." Abaddon said with a grin making Twilight shudder in revulsion before the Doctor took control again. "No, we're not letting that thing control you! You can fight him!" Rainbow shouted. "You're... You're right." The Doctor said to himself. "I am the Doctor, I'm 920 years old, I'm a Time Lord from the Planet of Gallifrey and I will not, and I repeat WILL NOT let this so called king control me! He wants my life, HE CAN COME AND GET IT!" The Doctor bellowed before turning to Twilight. "Twilight, give me a chessboard. We'll have a little tussle for my soul and mind, and we'll do things on my terms. I've beaten chess champions in games of Live Chess, and I do mean LIVE Chess for a reason. Abaddon doesn't know who he's dealing with." The Doctor grinned, and Twilight, with a shrug, conjured a chessboard and chair for the Doctor to sit in, but not before restraining the Doctor/Abaddon in golden celestial chains. "Hey, what's that for?" The Doctor asked and Twilight replied "In case you're not you right now. Or even if you are – just in case." The Doctor gave a "Fair enough" expression before moving a pawn on his chessboard and answering "Oh, don't worry. Abaddon's hibernating between moves right now. Shh. You have time to run." "Run, why?" Twilight asked in confusion. The Doctor's eyes went blood red again and patted something seen only to him on the head before replying "Oh, did I forget to mention? I have my Hellhounds in here with us. A king never goes anywhere without his guards. SIC 'EM BOYS!" There came two sets of snarls and Twilight and Rainbow made a run for it as something unseen made pawprints in the wooden floor and barked loudly as it chased after them. Both ponies ran through the village and eventually found themselves a hut and Twilight locked the door and barricaded it with whatever she could find even as the unknown number of demonic hounds scratched at the door, their barking being heard from outside. Twilight swallowed in fear as Rainbow looked at her. "We're... We're going to die aren't we?" Rainbow asked, showing visible fear for perhaps the first time in her life. Twilight nodded before thinking to herself "Oh well, if I die today, I might as well die happy." before grabbing Rainbow with her magic and slamming her lips onto hers...
Fairy Tales Part 2 (Twilight's Reluctance)Whitetail Woods Whitetail Woods, normally one of the most peaceful woodland locations in all of Equestria. It was a beautiful place, full of tall snow covered trees that swayed in the wintery winds. Animals ran to and fro while bears slept in their caves for their yearly hibernation. It was a calm day, perfect for a walk, which two very particular ponies were taking right now. One, a mare named Apple Fritter, a member of the Apple Family was yellow furred with an green mane tied in ponytails with apple fritters for her Cutie Mark. Her cousin, Red Delicious, a buttermellow pony with an light blue mane and a bright red apple for his Cutie Mark had joined her on their walk through the snow covered woods. Sadly, they had found themselves lost, and neither was none too pleased about it. "Well, now ya've gone and done it ya idjit!" Apple Fritter exclaimed angrily. She was normally a calm pony, but she was chilled to the bones and lost to boot, so she was understandably displeased with her cousin to say the least for getting them lost and losing the map they had bought from two twin brother ponies named Flim and Flam. Apple Fritter had warned her cousin against trusting them, but he said that they could be trusted like a good apple pie warming you up in the cold of winter. "And now look what's happened!" Fritter thought to herself. "Shame on both of us for trusting them two damn salesponies!" Now Apple Fritter felt a new concern, the pangs of hunger. She wondered if Red Delicious hadn't eaten all the food they'd brought for their picnic in the woods. Her guess was, he probably had. He so loved food after all. To see if her suspicions were correct, she checked the picnic basket. Sure enough, it was empty and barren. "Now look what you've done!" She exclaimed, even more furious than before. " That was for our lunch, and now you've eaten it all, ya big pig! Ah should find you a pig pen so you can eat from a troft like the pig ya are!" "Well, Ah'm sorry, but I was hungrier than a horse!" Delicious argued, now getting angry himself for being blamed for everything that had went wrong today. "Ya are a horse, ya idjit!" Fritter shouted back. Suddenly, as they continued their walk, they found themselves in front of an olden looking wooden house with an old mare, probably somepony's grandmare sitting harmlessly in the rocking chair, a warm looking pie sitting in the table besides her. "Excuse me, but did I hear you two lovely children say that you two were hungry?" The mare asked. She was dark brown furred, with a grey manestyle tied up in a bun with a pie for her Cutie Mark. Youtube Video Both Apple Family members admitted to the mare that they were both feeling hungry, so they were led inside with a creaking of the door handle and found themselves in a warm and inviting household, with a fire burning nicely in the fireplace and food of all kinds sitting on a tablecloth covered table. "Go on, eat up!" The mare said kindly. "But we don't even know ya name." Apple Fritter responded. She, for some reason didn't trust this mare. She had never seen her before, or this house that she lived in for that matter either. But she was feeling hungry, so she and her cousin did sit down and began to eat the food placed in front of them. "Oh, my name's not really important." The unknown mare replied to Apple Fritter. She noted that Red Delicious seemed to be really enjoying the food, especially the Apple Pie. "I see you like my food, it's good eating isn't it?" She said, as Red Delicious responded with a muffled "Uh-huh." caused from the food in his mouth. Then, to Apple Fritter's surprise, the grandmare began reaching for a knife that had been set on the stove and lunged for Red Delicious with surprising strength that no mare her age should have possessed, launching him onto a nearby couch and began plunging the knife into him multiple times splattering the couch and the mare with blood while Apple Fritter screamed "No, no! Please, stop!" and the mare who was currently killing her cousin just laughed and said "Don't worry, this will all be over in a second..." while outside a window, a little mare with a black mane and a red ribbon in her hair just watched the gory scene and smiled serenely.... Ponyville: Now, as anyone who lives in a small town where everybody knows everybody else, gossip travels fast. And so, it was inevitable really that the word about the brutal events that occurred in Whitetail Woods would reach Applejack. There she was, just walking through the streets of Ponyville when she overheard the local flower ponies, Roseluck and Lily Valley talking about it. "...Well, guess we'd better find some funeral flowers." Lily muttered to herself, and Applejack's ears peaked up in interest. "I know... Celestia above. When Applejack finds out..." Roseluck responded, before both ponies realized who was standing next to them. "Finds out about what?" Applejack asked nervously. Hearing the words "Funeral Flowers" and her name mentioned in the same conversation made her worry and go into all sorts of horrific possibilities. "Well... Uh... There's no easy way to tell you this, but there was an attack in Whitetail Woods." Lily began nervously while Roseluck whispered "The horror, the horror!" and about nearly fainted dead away as Applejack's eyes widened. She remembered that Apple Fritter and Red Delicious had mentioned to the rest of her family that they were going on a picnic lunch together in the Woods. "Like something out of Hansel and Gretel. Only much more violent." Roseluck put in. "This seemingly sweet old granny mare chopped up Red and nearly got to Apple Fritter as well! She's in the hospital right now. She's stable, but-" Applejack had already ran off, tears beginning to form in her eyes. But she didn't have time to mourn now. Something was afoot in Ponyville, something strange, and there was only one expert in town on the strange. It was time to meet the Doctor. Golden Oaks Library Youtube Video Rainbow Dash, who had also heard what had happened to Red Delicious through the grape vine, met up with the Doctor and Applejack and almost at once they rushed to the one place in Ponyville where they could find the one pony who was smart enough to figure out what strange events were going on around the small town and exactly why they were happening in the first place. This pony's name was of course, Twilight Sparkle. Knock! Knock! went the Doctor's hoof as he rapped on the door with two sharp, urgent knocks. It unnerved him that even he couldn't figure out why things from fairy tales were happening around town. First the Three Little Pigs, and now Hansel and Gretel as well. "Hey Twi, open up!" Rainbow Dash impatiently yelled to the door in front of her expecting it to open at once. "We need your help!" "Alright already, I'm coming, so just hold your horses!" A very annoyed voice came from behind the door. The Doctor figured Twilight had been interrupted reading a book or something, as that seemed to be her favorite hobby from what the Time Pony had observed. "Yes?" Twilight answered before she saw who was before her. Her face lit up when she saw Rainbow Dash, even more then usual even if she didn't exactly know why. Ever since the events of the adventure that had become known as "Frightmare Night", she had been getting strange feelings every time she was around Rainbow. And then she noticed Applejack, who looked to be on the verge of crying. Twilight almost at once wondered what had happened, as she very rarely saw Applejack like this. In fact actually, she had NEVER seen her friend like this before. Applejack began to immediately explain what had happened, and Twilight felt shock overcome her. A character from a fairy tale reenacting Hansel and Gretel? That was very strange indeed, and now she could she why the Doctor was there as well. Something like this was sure to catch his attention. "Twilight, Ah, no we need your help!" Applejack pleaded passionately with tears rolling down her face as the Doctor stood nearby, along with Rainbow Dash watching as Applejack began to show the signs of breaking down. They both knew she was a tough pony, and almost nothing, except thinking about losing a member of her family made her cry, like she did with her parents when she was just a young filly and now her cousin Red Delicious and almost Apple Fritter as well due to a seemingly harmless old lady straight out of the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" who had only been killed by a stroke of pure luck when Apple Fritter struggled with her and the unknown mare's head landed on the fireplace and cracked open. "I'm sorry Applejack, I really am, but... no." Twilight whispered sadly as she looked away in shame. "I... I just can't help you. N-Not after what happened in... in that town." "But why Twilight?" Rainbow Dash inquired angrily. "Applejack's one of our best friends! She needs your help!" "You know perfectly well why I can't help you! I lost someone very dear to me and you know perfectly well who!" Twilight shouted angrily at her friend. She felt guilty for not wanting to help her friends and the Doctor but she just couldn't. She just couldn't get wrapped up in another adventure with the Doctor and risk losing somebody close to her, maybe this time one of her friends. It may have seemed like Twilight was just being stubborn as a mule, but Twilight had a reason for her reluctance to go on another adventure with the Doctor. It happened more then a year ago. It took place in what was a small town in a part of Equestria during a night in which the wind whipped through the hollows and thunder rolled in the skies as lightning flashed in the night. The Doctor, and his collection of companions for what was originally supposed to be a relaxing trip for the holiday known as Nightmare Night which turned into a horrifying adventure in which the Doctor, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Princess Cadence, her coltfriend and Captain of the Royal Guard Shining Armor along with the stagemare calling herself the Great and Powerful Trixie found themselves faced with what was only thought to be a legend from years past, the Headless Horse. It wanted to exact it's vengeance upon the town and the descendants of those who had killed it and it's lover Ichabod Crane, a simple farmer who wanted nothing more then to love the Headless Horse, then known when it was alive as the mare Blue Berry before she was killed by her father. It took an unexpected team up of the Doctor, his companions, Trixie and Twilight's dearly beloved aunt Cherry Berry to stop the Headless Horse from killing everypony that was ever related to her father. The Horse was stopped in the end, but not without a grave cost, the death of somepony dearly close to Twilight, AKA her aunt Cherry. Sleepy Hollow: Nightmare Night Youtube Video "What do you want?" The Horse hissed in it's raspy voice. "To say something that should have been said a long time ago. To say... I'm sorry." Cherry whispered, but the Horse still heard her. "SORRY!?!" She roared. "Sorry can't make up for what's been done to me!" With that, she plunged her sword into Cherry's chest as the Doctor let out a shout of "NO!" and Twilight heard him and exclaimed "What's happening? DOCTOR!" but Cherry still somehow found the strength to talk even as she coughed up blood. "Maybe it can't, but maybe it can. There's something that should have been done long ago, something that should have been done on the night you first rose from the after-worlds to haunt this town with your curse. You had family, and you still do in me. What your father did was horrible, and a unforgivable act but I still want to make things right. M-My family, your family, forgives you and yet we u-understand you as well. You and I-Ichabod should have had a h-happy life, and i-it was taken from you. For that, me and all those who are descended from your father are very, truly sorry." Cherry coughed up before her eyes closed for the last time but her words had reached the Horse. It felt very, very ashamed of itself, and if it had a head would have been sobbing for all the meaningless deaths it had inflicted, either related to her father by blood somehow or not. And then, with a flash of flame and a final screech it was gone leaving only ashes in it's wake with Cherry's body crumpling to the ground no trace of the sword which had pierced her. "Doctor, what's happening?" Twilight asked again, her mind considering the worst possibilities imaginable. The Doctor closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "It's over, it's finally over. The Horse, along... Along with your aunt are gone. I'm sorry Twilight." He whispered in sorrow. This whole night, it had been meaningless, hadn't it? Had he really achieved anything besides getting somepony very close to one of his friends killed? Twilight knew where his thoughts were heading, and even as she sobbed in mourning for her aunt reassured him. "It wasn't meaningless Doctor, not really. You stopped a curse, and laid a pony to rest." She said and the Doctor chuckled sadly. "No, it wasn't me who did this, it was Cherry. Your aunt, she may have had her faults but in the end she proved to be a pony to be admired... In the end." The Doctor said sadly, and for that Twilight had nothing to respond to. As Twilight explained her story of woe to the three gathered ponies, Rainbow and the Doctor shared nods of understanding. They should have known their friend may not have still completed her mourning process yet, and they felt immediately guilty for wanting to drag her into another adventure that she obviously didn't want to take part in. Applejack on the other hoof felt sorry for Twilight as well, but mostly angry. Here was Twilight Sparkle, somepony who had faced down both Nightmare Moon and the mad chaos god Discord, saving Equestria twice! "Ah don't believe you!' Applejack suddenly exclaimed in anger and fury. "Here ya are, a hero of Equestria and a bearer of the Element of Magic, and yet ya don't want to help mah or the Doctor solve a mystery that's murderin ponies right and left!" She continued with her rant, and Twilight felt immediately guilty, but she, no matter what did NOT want to take part in this adventure, not when she could lose a friend to one of these strange occurrences. "Ah... Ah understand Twi. Ya have yer reasons." Applejack said sadly, suddenly seemingly changing her attitude before she began to walk off sadly. "Come on y'all, if Twilight doesn't want to help us, we'll just have to solve this here mystery ourselves." As Applejack walked out the front door, slamming it shut in anger, the Doctor and Rainbow both looked at Twilight with expressions of pity. She needed time, and they'd give her that. For now though, they had a mystery to solve...
Fairy Tales Part 3 (Getting Some Clues)Golden Oaks Library As an angered and furious Applejack walked out the front door, with both Rainbow and the Doctor trailing sadly behind her, Twilight was left to think on their words. As Twilight explained her story of woe to the three gathered ponies, Rainbow and the Doctor shared nods of understanding. They should have known their friend may not have still completed her mourning process yet, and they felt immediately guilty for wanting to drag her into another adventure that she obviously didn't want to take part in. Applejack on the other hoof felt sorry for Twilight as well, but mostly angry. Here was Twilight Sparkle, somepony who had faced down both Nightmare Moon and the mad chaos god Discord, saving Equestria twice! "Ah don't believe you!' Applejack suddenly exclaimed in anger and fury. "Here ya are, a hero of Equestria and a bearer of the Element of Magic, and yet ya don't want to help mah or the Doctor solve a mystery that's murderin ponies right and left!" She continued with her rant, and Twilight felt immediately guilty, but she, no matter what did NOT want to take part in this adventure, not when she could lose a friend to one of these strange occurrences. "Ah... Ah understand Twi. Ya have yer reasons." Applejack said sadly, suddenly seemingly changing her attitude before she began to walk off sadly. "Come on y'all, if Twilight doesn't want to help us, we'll just have to solve this here mystery ourselves." As Applejack walked out the front door, slamming it shut in anger, the Doctor and Rainbow both looked at Twilight with expressions of pity. She needed time, and they'd give her that. For now though, they had a mystery to solve... Youtube Video Was Applejack right? Was she being foolish, or worse, just plain stubborn as a mule? Twilight honestly didn't know which answer was the correct one, but she did know this. Someponies were in trouble, getting murdered right and left and nopony, not even the Doctor himself knew who would be next. Tartarus, for all she knew she could be the next one to fit the part perfectly of some old Grim Brothers fairy tale. She had a grandmare living in Canterlot, and she sometimes took trips there via the Friendship Express to deliver her food and gifts of all kinds. So, for all she knew, the Big Bad Wolf may come after her and her grandmare. So, with that in mind, Twilight finally made her choice. She would help the Doctor, she would help Applejack, she WOULD help Rainbow even if she was the one to be killed horribly during this adventure. Ponyville General Hospital Snow fell softly outside the windows of the Ponyville General Hospital as inside, nurses did their daily duties, ordinary things such as cleaning bedpans, tending to patients. Yes, despite it being close to Hearth's Warming Eve, even now there were patients that needed tender, loving, and nursely care. For example, at one point while trying to help hang up some lights on her friend Golden Harvest's home, a drunk Berry Punch had been electrocuted and was now in the emergency ward given the best of care by doctors and nurses. Another example would have been one poor Lucky Clover having a Hearth's Warming Eve tree fall on him while trying to chop it down for his home and was now wrapped in bandages. Of course, some things were not quite so regular in terms of injuries. Other ailments were just downright on the odd side. For example, a white furred pony with a pink mane and a red cross for her Cutie Mark wearing a nurse's hat named Nurse Redheart was just going about her duties as today's receptionist when she spotted a pony with his hoof stuck in a toilet. "Really, again?" She asked with a mental sigh. She didn't know how, but every two months or so this seemed to happen again and again. By this point, she didn't even bother asking how it happened and had really grown rather tired of it. Of course, her day was about to get even worse (Depending on your perspective.) when in walked in through the front doors, shivering from the cold outside were the Doctor, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. Because of the quick urgency of their quest, they hadn't been able to find the time to go back to their homes and find some winter wear, not even the Doctor with his Fourth self's famously long scarf. Youtube Video "Hello there, Ms..." The Doctor greeted before taking a quick look at the nurse's name tag in front of him. "Ah! Redheart!" He corrected himself before continuing in his own irrelevant fashion. "Might I say, that's a nice name. You ponies always seem to have names that fit the meanings of your jobs or talents don't you?" He rambled on before gesturing to Rainbow Dash with his hoof. "Take my mate Rainbows here for an example. I mean, just look at her mane! Have you ever seen such a prismatic pegasus? It's gotta be one of a kind or something!" He continued while Rainbow then tried to correct the Doctor by saying "Actually, my father-" before swiftly being interrupted by the Doctor. "Ah, now where was I?" He asked, with an embarrassed blush while Applejack facehoofed in the background while muttering "Ah swear, sometimes that stallion..." "OH! Silly me, now I remember!" The Doctor suddenly cried out as he turned back to Nurse Redheart, who was staring on at this strange sight in obvious confusion. "We're here to see one Apple Fritter, you know, the one that got attacked by that dear old, well I wouldn't say dear anyways... That old granny mare?" He requested, and Nurse Redheart looked annoyed at the Doctor. She couldn't just have random stallions and mares go back and just see anypony they damn well pleased! It went against hospital rules, and Redheart would have rather liked to have kept her job thank you very much! "And you are?" She asked in an annoyed tone of voice. The Doctor then dug out his Psychic paper from under Applejack's Stetson, much to her confusion, How had that gotten there? "Doctor..." She growled in annoyance as Redheart looked on. The Doctor stared at the farm-pony and looked offended. "Well, I had to store it somewhere didn't I?" He asked and turned back to Redheart and showed her the paper, and like it's function was intended to do, she saw exactly what she wanted to. "Ah... Detective Crosby. I apologize, if I knew you were coming, I would have been better prepared for your arrival!" She rapidly apologized before gesturing to a doorway. "Right this way sir. She's just down this hallway." But before the foursome could enter, they heard a loud familiar shout coming from behind them and the rapid sound of hoofbeats against the hospital floor. "Doctor! Doctor, wait up!" A lavender mare with a six pointed star as her Cutie Mark called after them as she ran up to them. Applejack and Rainbow both shared a look of surprise before grinning. It seemed Applejack's words had gotten through to Twilight after all. The Doctor and Twilight embraced as the Doctor gave a wide grin of his own before saying "Twilight Sparkle, I knew you couldn't resist an adventure!" "What made ya change yer mind?" Applejack asked in curiosity, though she suspected she already knew the answer. "It was you." Twilight answered as she hung her head in shame. "Your words... they made me realize you were right. I can't just sit around on my flank and do nothing if ponies are in trouble!" "Well, glad ya finally saw sense." Applejack smiled before she looked away in shame. She had some words of her own that she felt she needed to say to her friend. "Now I have an apology of mah own to make. Those words I said... They were in anger, and I should have listened to yer story more and understood. For that, Ah'm sorry." Twilight smiled, there was no need to apologize. She was the one at fault, not Applejack. "No, it was my fault for being stubborn." She said in reply. "I should... I should have... well, you know." "You guys know, you are going to make me sick with all this mushiness if you don't stop apologizing to each other." Rainbow gagged. "I'm sorry, you're sorry, we're all sorry! Now get over it and move on!" The rainbow maned pegasus exclaimed in annoyance of her own. Soon, after everypony was done apologizing to each other, they were led to Apple Fritter's ward where the Apple Family member sat, laying in her bed with blood covered fur, presumably from Red Delicious's murder. "So, what happened?" Rainbow asked in the kindest tone of voice anypony had ever heard her utter. She was normally one of the toughest pegasi you could meet, and the cloud buster normally was a huge braggart, but she was also the bearer of the Element of Loyalty, and that loyalty extended to any member of her friend's families no matter who they were. And so Apple Fritter, crying as she did so explained her story and everything that had happened, right down to the last gory detail. "A-And how did you survive?" Applejack asked in shock, stunned by the bloodiness of her cousin's tale, while in the background Twilight looked a little green around the gills. "A-Ah'm not sure. Maybe it was because Ah hadn't ate as much of that drugged food that mare gave me. W-We struggled, and s-she hit her head on the fireplace and it cracked wide open. Oh mah Celestia, the blood, the blood!" Apple Fritter sobbed, and Rainbow laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll figure out what's going on around here and hopefully catch whoever did this." Rainbow replied, still in that kind tone of voice. Twilight was amazed, she had never heard Rainbow to be this kind or caring for somepony in her life. "Wow... I never knew Rainbow could be like this.' Twilight thought as she felt strange feelings she didn't know how to explain in her heart. It was like her heart beat faster whenever she was around her friend. She wished she knew the answer why she got these strange feelings, but no answer had come to her yet, and for all Twilight knew, one may never would... Youtube Video After leaving Apple Fritter's ward, the foursome walked down the halls of the hospital floor, still not any closer to figuring out what was going on around in Ponyville. Suddenly, out of pure curiosity, Twilight Sparkle found herself looking into a ward where an older stallion, with brown fur and a greying mane wearing a doctor's uniform was reading a book of fairy tales to a teenage mare with a black mane and snow white fur. The mare's eyes were closed. Twilight looked away sadly, this mare, whoever she was, was in a coma. "And so, the hunter cut open the wolf's belly and..." The unknown doctor read before noticing Twilight and walking up to her after putting the book down on a bedside table. "Hello, I'm Doctor Calming Heartbeats, and this is my daughter, Pure Heart." He greeted, before looking towards his daughter sadly. "If I may..." Twilight inquired. "W-What happened to her?" "Ah yes, it's a sad tale." Calming began, a tear dripping out of his eye. "My daughter, she got ahold of herself some bleach when she was very young and drank it. We don't know how she got it, but now here I am, caring for her as best as I can." He explained sadly. Twilight felt her heart go out to Calming, she couldn't imagine what it would be like if she was in the same position, reading fairy tales to her young son Spike. "I-I'm sorry." Twilight apologized, before a tear slipped from her eye. She waved goodbye and left the room, knowing there was nothing she could do for the poor mare or her father. Soon afterwards, she met back up with the Doctor and her friends. "Where were you?" Applejack asked, and Twilight explained what she had seen and whom she had met. "Mah Celestia..." Applejack whispered as a small tear dripped from her eye. The Doctor meanwhile looked thoughtful for a brief moment, a theory coming to his mind, before soon brushing it away. No, it simply wasn't possible. Not possible at all... Later that day, after gathering some proper winter wear, the Doctor, Rainbow and Twilight found themselves wandering through a snow covered Ponyville talking about the mystery of the fairy tales coming to life and what could possibly come next. After all, if the "Three Little Pigs" and the "Hansel and Gretel" fairy tales could come to life and murder ponies, one must wonder what would come next, and how bad things could possibly get before they finally ended. To be honest, none of the three really wanted to know. "You know Twilight, me and the Time Lords have fairy tales of our own. Take the Shakri for instance. Wanted to serve the Tally, a form of intersteller pest control." The Doctor said to change the subject away from the mystery surrounding Ponyville and relate some of his childhood past on Gallifrey and the fairy tales he'd been told when he was just a boy. "You might know it as the Reckoning." "Ever think that you have some weird bedtime stories?" Twilight asked dryly, raising an eyebrow. "I mean really, a creature that just wanted to kill humanity as a form of interstellar pest control?" She deadpanned. "You're one to talk. I mean, a wolf in your grandmare's nightdress?" The Doctor couldn't resist replying in a joking manner. Twilight was forced to concede his point. Then, as they were walking by a house, they saw something very strange indeed. There was a pumpkin, which was odd enough considering Nightmare Night was months ago, but then out of the corner of her eyes Twilight saw two little rats scurrying near the pumpkin. "What the Tar-" Rainbow was about to curse when suddenly, Twilight pushed Rainbow into a bush when she saw a mysterious figure looking at them through the window of the home. "Ya know Twi, if all you really wanted was a good nice roll in the bushes, you could have just asked." Rainbow commented in a manner that made Twilight unsure if she was really joking or not. Blushingly, Twilight shushed her with a hoof and pointed to the window and Rainbow saw the figure as well. "Who's that?" Rainbow whispered curiously. "The evil Wicked Stepmother?" Twilight replied dryly. Just then, all three ponies heard a female's scream from inside the house. With a shout of "Geronimo!", the Doctor ran towards the front door and kicked it in, and found a little cream yellow filly with a white mane chained up to a stove and being beaten and screamed at by an older mare who looked exactly nothing like her. The Doctor at once, sprang into action and pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver, and used it on the chain tying the poor filly to the stove and freeing her at once while Rainbow bucked the older mare into unconsciousness. "And that's enough out of you!" Rainbow proclaimed triumphantly as the Doctor asked the little filly what exactly had happened. "I-I don't know!" The little filly sobbed as Twilight pulled her into a comforting hug and whispering "Shh... Shh, it'll be alright." The little filly started to explain just went on in the past few minutes, still sobbing heavily. "S-She just went crazy and started beating me up and chaining me to the stove, c-calling me all sorts of things like little whore and stuff!" As the Doctor and his two companions took this in, they had no more time to comfort the little filly as just then, a little filly, not possibly older than eight or nine years of age, with pure white fur, a black mane with a red ribbon in it appeared in a doorway to the very right of them. She was translucent, and smiling serenely as if everything was all calm and alright to her, in which in was most certainly was not in the Doctor's, Rainbow's and Twilight's eyes. After all, they had just witnessed, to their explicit horror, a very young filly being chained and beaten by what could only have been the Wicked Stepmother from the "Cinderella" fairy tale. "Who is she?" Twilight inquired, very curious as to what was going on here. "I don't care, but I'm going after her!" Rainbow exclaimed and ran towards the filly only to find her teleporting away to the stairwell in front of her. Rainbow once again chased after her, only for once more for the filly to teleport away, this time into a child's bedroom. The filly, still smiling serenely, vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of her presence except for one thing, a bright red apple sitting in the middle of the floor. As Rainbow picked up the apple in confusion, the Doctor joined her in the room and took it away from her as Rainbow shouted "Hey!" "I'd advise you not to eat that, because if it's what I think it is, I think we just met another fairy tale." The Doctor said grimly, as he scanned the apple with his Sonic Screwdriver. "Aw come on, another one?" Rainbow yelled in annoyance. As soon as the Doctor was done scanning the apple, he turned to Twilight (Who had joined them in the room as well.) and Rainbow, frowning. "What's wrong?" Twilight inquired, knowing from the Doctor's expression that it could be nothing good and then he said two simple words. "Snow White." He growled out before running out of the room with Twilight and Rainbow chasing after him. As soon as they had gotten outside they turned to the Doctor and looked at him with the utmost seriousness. "D-Doctor, what's going on?" Twilight asked. "What is it? If you've figured something out, you need to tell us!" She demanded to him. Suddenly the Doctor shouted "I'm an idiot! A big bloody idiot! It's been staring in front of our faces this whole time and we've never even noticed!" He yelled, cursing himself to Rassilon for his stupidity. "Come on, we need to get back to the hospital. We'll find all our answers there." He said, before dashing off towards the direction of the Ponyville General Hospital with Twilight and Rainbow in hot pursuit...
Fairy Tales Part 4 (The Book Closes Forever)Sweet Apple Acres: Sweet Apple Homestead Meanwhile, at about the same time the Doctor, Twilight and Rainbow Dash were dealing with the mare unfortunately turned into the evil Wicked Stepmother and freeing the young filly she had been tormenting along with meeting the ghostly like young filly the Doctor proclaimed to be "Snow White", Applejack was at her homestead in Sweet Apple Acres having dinner with her family. While a part of her wished she could be out there helping the Doctor and his companions, another part knew that they could handle themselves with whatever threat they may be facing right now, and that she had to protect her family from the madness that was currently enveloping Ponyville. She, like Twilight, knew her family had criteria that fit the bill precisely. She, like Twilight, had a grandmare, in Granny Smith. And, she exactly like Twilight was a grandchild of that grandmare who could be snapped up by the Big Bad Wolf at any time. Oddly enough, the Big Bad Wolf hadn't been seen since it's reenactment of the "Three Little Pigs", but a part of Applejack knew it was still out there. She didn't know why that part of her suspected that creature was still out there, but she just did. She felt it in the very pit of her heart, the same heart that knew that if the Big Bad Wolf came a-knockin', she would fight to her very last breath to protect her family and farm. "Big Sis, ain't ya gonna eat yer food?" Applejack's little sister, Apple Bloom asked. Apple Bloom was a young filly, about thirteen years of age or so, with cream yellow fur, a cherry red mane with a bright red bow in it and no Cutie Mark on her flank whatsoever. She was part of a little group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, which was a group of three young fillies consisting of her, Rarity's younger sister Sweetie Belle and a orange flightless pegasus who was always looking up to Rainbow Dash as an older sister/idol named Scootaloo. Together, their goal was to someday find out what exactly their special talents were, and earn their coveted Cutie Marks in the process. So far, they have had no such luck in that quest, but that didn't mean they didn't keep trying. From doing things as simple as baking pies, to putting on something on as elaborate as a heavy metal style show consisting of a custom made theme song for them in the Ponyville Talent Show, they just kept calm and carried on, as Applejack had heard some of the other ponies down in Ponyville say. "Sorry little sis, it's just that..." Applejack trailed off, not wanting to speak of her worries in front of the young filly and ruin the heartwarming moment that came from something as simple as a Hearths Warming Eve Dinner, plus possibly frighten the young filly in the process. "You're worried about the fairy tales comin to life, aren't ya?" Apple Bloom finished for her. Applejack's eyes widened in surprise. She knew the youngest of the three Apple Siblings was smarter than she let on, but not this smart. She thought she'd kept her feelings well hidden, but evidently not. "Yea, Bloom, Ah guess Ah am." Applejack was forced to admit. But something else was bothering her, and the whole family as well. They had planned for a big dinner with the whole Apple Family coming down to eat the food everypony had brought and cooked, but they knew this year that they would be missing two members of the Apple Clan, with Red Delicious dead, murdered by the Witch from "Hansel and Gretel" and Apple Fritter in the Ponyville Hospital because of her. "Ya know what?" Applejack suddenly declared as she sat up from the table and placing her two front hooves upon it, surprising every member of the Apple Clan that could make it sitting there. "Ah've had just about enough of this!" "Nyah..." Granny Smith, a green furred elder pony and the true owner of the Apple Farm, began shocked as everypony else by Applejack's outburst. It wasn't normally like the middle Apple Sibling to be so up-front and center with her feelings about anything, at least to this extent. "What is it?" "Here we all are, sittin' around the table eatin' food when one of our family is sittin' right there in the damn hospital, layin' in bed hardly enjoyin' the holidays like she very well should!" Applejack continued, an idea beginning to form in her mind. "Ah say, we all go down there with all our food and give the Hearth's Warming Eve dinner she deserves!" At this, there were nods from all directions of the table from the various members of the Apple Clan that had managed to make it, upon realizing Applejack was quite right. Apple Fritter shouldn't be just laying there in a hospital bed, while everypony else in her family was enjoying a Hearth's Warming Eve dinner without her. 'Ya know Applejack, that's the best idea Ah've ever heard!" Granny Smith cried in agreement, feeling very proud of her granddaughter on this day. It truly was going to be a Hearth's Warming Day, the way one should be. Together, with family. But before anypony could grab their plates of food and get up out of the table, there was a long low ominous sounding howl coming from the direction of the Everfree Forest. Applejack's eyes widened. She knew exactly what it could be. Not a Timberwolf, but nothing other than the Big Bad Wolf himself, coming to eat up her family for it's own version of the Hearth's Warming Eve dinner. Applejack's mood immediately shifted, from worrying about her cousin missing out on Hearth's Warming Eve, to fear of her grandmare and either herself or Apple Bloom being gobbled up by the Wolf just like in "Little Red Riding Hood". Applejack rushed over to a nearby cabinet and pulled out her late father's shotgun from it, and put two golden birdshot rounds in it and pumped the rifle with a distinct cocking sound. She was ready to protect her kin, even if she herself had to die in the process. "Applejack, what's going on?" Big Mac, Applejack's older sibling, with a bright red coat, a huge build and a Big Macintosh apple as his Cutie Mark asked. He rarely spoke, but when he did, it was likely he knew the situation called for it, and currently that time seemed to be right now. "He's comin'." Applejack growled, with nopony understanding exactly who "He" was before she turned to her family with a fiercely protective look in her eyes. "Nopony ain't leavin' this here house, y'all understand? I gotta go take care of somethin'." She directed before heading for the front door, shotgun in hooves and determination in her eyes. Suddenly, a voice spoke up from behind her as a foreleg tugged at her own. It was Apple Bloom, fear in her eyes. "H-How do you know it's not just a Timberwolf?" The young filly asked, fear in her eyes, as if she didn't believe her own words. Applejack looked her younger sibling directly in the eyes. "Trust me Apple Bloom, it's not just a Timberwolf." She snarled and with those words, she stepped out of the house and into the snow covered fields of Sweet Apple Acres. Another howl came and with it the running of paws against the snow covered grounds, and Applejack immediately looked to her left, unable to tell where the sound was coming from because of all the apple trees surrounding her. Suddenly, in an instant she was blindsided from the left by a huge grey furred wolfish figure and was sent flying into a tree, and saw her attacker for the first time. He stood over her, teeth bared and jaws dripping with drool. "What, ya come here to blow mah house down?" Applejack deadpanned before firing a sharp blast making the Wolf stumble back with a multitude of holes in it's chest from the birdshot rounds. But strangely, it wasn't bleeding like any natural creature should have been from the powerful blast of gunfire. Actually, the Wolf seemed to be only madder than ever and lunged, Applejack rolled away at the last moment before she could be ripped to pieces but then the Wolf caught her by the back foreleg and threw her into the ground behind it. Blood dripped from a cut on Applejack's head, and her shotgun had been sent flying into a tree breaking it in half. (Not that Applejack figured the shotgun would have been of anymore use anyhow.) Applejack recovered, and picked herself up off the ground groaning in pain. So, faced with death literally nipping at her hooves, Applejack did the only thing that came natural to her. She bucked. She bucked as hard as she could and the Wolf was sent flying back through several trees. "Well, that's several more trees we won't be getting back for harvest season..." She mused, even as the Wolf recovered it's bearings and snarled at her eyes glowing in rage. Youtube Video "So, if ya can't shoot it what do ya do?" Applejack wondered before another idea came to her on that day. She knew that there were some kinds of wounds you just couldn't recover from, and she figured even magical creatures probably couldn't recover from the idea she had in mind. Applejack ran for the big red barn that dominated Sweet Apple Acres and with the Wolf following, she hollered after it. "Hey, furball!" She cried. "Ya want some nice big fresh juicy red pony meat? Well, Ah got some for ya right here!" As soon as the Wolf was inside, it found itself faced with an angry Applejack holding a big red treecutter's axe, rage and protectiveness for her kin dominating her every feature. As she stared death in the eyes, the Element of Honesty made a declaration the Doctor himself might have been proud of. "So, ya want to gobble up mah kin, do ya? So, you want to rampage around with nopony to stop you killin' who ya like do ya?" Applejack snarled, fierce determination in her eyes. "You may think yourself a creature who just wants to find his dinner by the end of the day, but Ah say you're just a monster. A monster who needs to be put down like the mad dog he is! Well, Ah say, on this here day your rampage ends here ya bastard!" And with that, before the Wolf had even time to blink, Applejack swung her axe cutting the Wolf's head clean off with the Wolf's body slumping to the floor. The beast was finally dead, and little did Applejack know it, but the madness of the fairy tales that had terrorized Ponyville for the past few days was about to end as well... Ponyville General Hospital: Pure Heart's Ward "Doctor, where are we going?" Twilight panted as they ran through the halls of the Ponyville General Hospital. They had been running ever since they had run into Snow White, who now that Twilight strangely thought long and hard about it, looked uncannily like the young unicorn known as Pure Heart. "To see the pony who's the cause of all this... and her father." Youtube Video The Doctor raced around a corner, and into Pure Heart's ward where her father was sitting, just gazing sadly at his daughter still laying in her bed, the book of the Grim Brothers fairy tales on a bedside table. Snow fell softly outside the windows. Twilight once again felt her heart go out to Calming, no father should have to spend his time like this on Hearths Warming Eve. They should be out drinking eggnog with friends and family, awaiting Santa Hooves to make his yearly delivery of presents, not staying here with one's comatose daughter. But Calming Heartbeats, as Twilight knew, had no other choice. This was all he had left in the world. She'd done some research in the Ponyville Records Office, and found that Pure Heart had gone through two mothers, both dead of natural causes. "Detective Crosby." Calming greeted politely, though with an eyebrow raised in inquiry. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out spending time with friends and family?" "In a way, I guess I am." The Doctor said, with a nod towards Twilight and Rainbow. "But I'm here on a different cause. I think I might just know what's causing all of these fairy tales to come to life all around Ponyville." "R-Really?" Calming stuttered in shock. "T-That's great! But what's the cause?" He asked, and the Doctor's expression turned sad as he gazed towards Calming Hearts, and then a picture on her bedside table, of a yellow furred pony with a pink mane besides a young Pure Heart and her father. This could only have been one of Pure's two mothers, most likely her stepmother judging by the age of Calming in the portrait. "Tell me, did your second wife ever show any signs of... hatred towards Pure?" The Doctor inquired. Calming shook his head in a no manner. "Guess not in public then... or where you could see her." The Doctor muttered, and Twilight's eyes widened as she realized what the Time Lord was getting at and whispered "Oh my Celestia..." "My daughter, she got ahold of herself some bleach when she was very young and drank it. We don't know how she got it, but now here I am, caring for her as best as I can." "Your daughter's stepmother gave her the bleach, I'm sorry but it's true." The Doctor continued sadly, and Calming's gaze towards him turned cold and harsh as the winter snowfall. "You're not a detective!" He snarled, furious at the Doctor's insulations. "Get out of here, before I call the real ones!" But still, the Doctor pressed on not giving in till Calming saw the truth in his words. "Listen, you reading those fairy tales to your daughter has caused her magic to manifest them in the real world!" He exclaimed, trying to make Calming see sense as Rainbow and Twilight's eyes both widened. The Doctor continued, as Calming shook his head in denial. "Listen, I know this cause I've seen her ghost, her spirit! She's crying, reaching out to you!" The Doctor yelled, and at this, the stubborn pony known as Calming Heartbeats finally saw sense and began to believe the Doctor. Because he too had a secret, one which he had never told to nopony, one which he was about to divulge for the first time. "I... I believe you." Calming whispered. "I know, cause I've seen her too. At first, I didn't believe it, thought I was going insane, till she started appearing more and more in front of me. While I was doing simple things while getting coffee, or just reading the morning paper before work, she was there." "Listen, in a way, me and your daughter, we're both alike. Prisoners in chains. Me trapped in another dimension, far away from a world which needs my help and where I have many friends." The Doctor said sorrowfully, remembering all the threats the Earth and beyond had faced. The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, and many more. He remembered the friends he had made. General Lethbridge-Stewart, Martha Jones, Captain Jack Harkness, Sarah Jane Smith... Rose. "Your daughter, she's a prisoner as well. In her own body." The Doctor continued, before laying a hoof on Calming's shoulder. "It's time to let her go." "B-But I-I don't want to." Calming sobbed hard, tears streaming down his face at his every word. The Doctor gazed hard into his eyes, remembering something his Third self had said so very long ago, and something that would apply even now. "Courage isn't a matter of being frightened, you know. It's being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway." The Doctor said before his gaze turned more compassionate. "I know you're frightened, who wouldn't be? But it's time to let your daughter go." And so, with tears dripping from his eyes, Calming pulled the plug on the life support machine and there was the sound of a flatline tone as the Doctor and his companions looked away sadly, unable to watch. Then to Calming's surprise, his daughter appeared before him one last time in her younger form and mouthed "Thank you... Daddy." Outside the Hospital Later, as night fell the Doctor and company met with Calming outside the Hospital, where he had some questions to ask. "Who are you Doctor, really? Cause if you're not a detective, who are you? What are you?" He inquired, and the Doctor chuckled. "Oh, little ole me?" He laughed at his words "I'm... I'm just a traveler. Wandering, learning, helping out when needed. Making friends, sometimes enemies, but always having a grand old time while doing it. After all, I'm just a madman in a box. That's who I am." He said, and while Calming received no true answer to his question, he did get one other thing in return. An offer. "Calming, nopony should be alone on any night, this one most of all. Come with me, join the celebrations. I think you need some happiness tonight. Remember not this night as the day you killed your daughter, but the night you set her free at last." He asked, and extended a hoof. And to the Doctor's great surprise, Calming took it. "You're right, nopony should be alone on Hearth's Warming, and I think it's time I stopped being alone." He smiled, and the Doctor smiled back. And Twilight smiled with them. Even though she fully hadn't gotten over her aunt's death by the hooves of the Headless Horse, she now knew you couldn't just remember a pony by how their life ended, but how they lived it as well. She knew Cherry Berry lived a good life, full of happiness and joy, and it was just now time to let her go... "I... I think I'll be sending a letter to Princess Celestia soon..." Ponyville Town Hall: Hearth's Warming Eve Celebrations It was with grand fever and joy that the Hearth's Warming Eve Celebrations kicked off in grand fashion. As Applejack and her family visited Apple Fritter in the hospital, bringing her gifts and food, back at the Town Hall the Doctor and company along with their new friend Calming Heartbeats enjoyed the spirit of the season. A band, consisting of Octavia Melody on cello, Noteworthy on piano and the Ponytones led by Rarity for the vocals sung a little song as Rainbow danced with her old friend Fluttershy, twirling her around on the dance floor as Twilight looked on sadly. "Guess this is one holiday I'll have to do without the dancing, eh?" Youtube Video The Ponytones, they sung of this tale. Once, a pony found a stowaway upon a ship in Hearth's Warming Day. She asked him of his tale, even though she ought to throw him to the whales and all the stranger in return said was "Come here, let's dance." Twilight listened to the song as she bobbed her head to the song and smiled sadly. The song said of the stranger wanting to return to his lover on Hearth's Warming Day, even as the singer wanted to be with him. "But borrow or steal, I'll be with my lover on Hearth's Warming Day. I'll run and I'll roam and I'll cover the ground, next Hearth's Warming I'll see her around." Twilight sang even as she mused to herself that "Guess I'll have to wait another year to dance with Rainbow on Hearth's Warming." But then, as if a Hearth's Warming miracle shined down upon her, Rainbow noticed her friend's sadness and offered up her hoof. "Want to dance Twi?" She asked flirtatiously with a wink of her eye, and Twilight took the offered up hoof in return. "Gladly." She said and took up the dance as Rainbow smiled. END
Interlude (A Royal Date for a Princess)Canterlot Castle: Celestia's Bedroom Princess Celestia, looked up to and admired all across the lands of Equus, even in nations far from Equestria like the Griffin Kingdom and the Zebra Countries for her great wisdom and beauty. She'd lived thousands of years, (She'd long forgotten the exact age.) and sometimes, if she was to be honest it felt like it at times with all she'd been through. From fighting on the frontlines of many a war to losing her love King Sombra to the darkness and learning he'd enslaved the Crystal Ponies of the now long lost Crystal Empire and having to fight him alongside her sister and being forced to banish him to the depths of the icy north and then losing her sister to the spirit of darkness and fear known as Nightmare Moon, and once again, being forced to banish somepony she loved to a place where they'd likely never return. But to her surprise, her prayers had been answered and Luna HAD indeed returned to her side, all thanks to the efforts of her prized student and adopted daughter Twilight Sparkle and her five friends that comprised the Elements of Harmony. "Do you really think you can stop me, Twilight Sparkle? You're just a simple unicorn, while I am a goddess! I am the night itself, and I WILL make it last forever!" A pure black pony with a mane of stars and wearing blue armor yelled at her foe. "And don't get me started on those friends of yours. Newsflash for you. Friendship is. A. LIE!" Twilight glared harshly at her foe, while they stood in the ruins of an old and crumbling castle. Nearby, her newfound friends from Ponyville watched in shock and fear. "No, that's not true. Friendship exists and you know, deep down Princess!" She pleaded, but the incarnation of nightmares and the shadows themselves were not willing to listen. "DO NOT CALL ME THAT! I am not Princess Luna, there is only Nightmare Moon!" The being who was once Celestia's sister roared in rage. The shadows themselves seemed to grow colder and darker, as if they had minds of their own. But that wasn't possible, was it? Twilight ignored them even as they reached for her and charged at her opponent. Nightmare burst out laughing at the sight. "You seriously think that'll work?" Twilight came closer. Nightmare gaped for a second. "...Wow, guess she is serious." She said, stunned. She readied herself but Twilight didn't attack. Instead she slid right under the dark Alicorn goddess and to the chest beyond pulling out it's contents with her magic. "Here, catch!" With that, Twilight tossed the items known in legend as the Elements of Harmony to her friends. "You want a demonstration of friendship, Nightmare? Here, I've got one JUST for you!" Twilight shouted as the Elements charged up and a golden crown with the final element, Magic appeared on her head. Then, six bright beams of light came out and fired, directing themselves towards the Nightmare spirit... Celestia remembered the joy she had felt when her sister returned. For one thousand years she had been alone, with nopony to be by her side in ruling the lands and helping and guiding the ponies of Equestria in their daily lives when they needed it, or protecting them when enemies threatened the safety of her kingdom and her little ponies that she cared for so much. But now her sister was back, and it seemed she was here to stay forevermore. But Celestia also felt another feeling, a feeling of great guilt. If she had just watched her sister and known what she was feeling, the feelings of jealously towards the sun and the ponies that bathed in it's glory and not loved the night for all it's beauty and the grandness and kindness of it's ruler that came along with it that was so harshly and wrongly ignored for HER, she might have been able to stop Nightmare Moon from ever consuming her sister. But she never did, and all the blame for Nightmare Moon's actions rested solely on her and her alone. She had never told Luna of her feelings and guilt, and although she dearly wanted to, she could never quite work up the courage to do so. Celestia honestly felt a bit silly and ashamed of herself. Here she was, a pony who was said to be one of the wisest and kindest ponies in the land, and yet she could never work of the bravery to tell her sister all that she felt. Wanting to find something to get her mind of her complicated problems with the relationship between her sister and her, she turned to her latest communication cube from the strange and yet wonderful alien pony from another universe known as the Doctor. He'd still been sending her letters from time to time when he wasn't off saving the world from whatever threat may have arisen. Dear Princess "Well, hello again! It's me again, the Doctor. (And no, I'm still not telling you my real name no matter how many times your sister bribes you with cake. Yes, I know about your little... obsession. Not exactly like it's the best kept secret in Equestria after all.) Annnnyyyways, where was I? Ah yes, telling you what I've been up to. Been a few stars to the right and to a place they call Never Land. Met the oddest denizens, fillies and colts who never seem to grow up, led by this pony dressed like Robin Hoof and his lovely, if not a tad bit grumpy companion (Somepony been taking cues from me it seems.) Breezy named Tinker Belle. OH! Before I forget, met your favorite author J.R. Manekin and somehow convinced him to sign a copy of his King of the Bracelet novels. Actually, convinced wasn't the right word. He was, and I'm quoting directly here, "Would really be honored to sign a copy of my novels for the Princess of the Sun." Huh, imagine that. I thought it would be harder to get you an anniversary present of our first meeting two years ago exactly. I always seemingly have the worst luck with timing, irony huh? Anyways, you should be seeing me and your signed trio of books whenever I decided to show up for my next visit." Hopefully seeing you soon, the Doctor Celestia smiled, the letters from the Doctor she got always cheered her up and got her mind off her worries, no matter how big or small they may be. They made her feel like a normal pony, away from the burdens of the crown, if only for a little while. Part of her, if only privately, wanted to see the Doctor and get to know him better, get closer to him, and not just meet him when things went to crap as the ponies nowadays liked to say. The Doctor was very wise, seemingly as wise as her and somehow always seemed to know the right things to say to cheer somepony up when they needed it, and she had to admit she was one of those ponies who sometimes found herself needing that very same advice at times, especially now with her feelings of guilt towards Luna and how to deal with them best and work up the courage and fortitude to talk to her about them. Suddenly, just as the Solar Princess was finally getting up out of her bed, groaning to herself in reminder of the surely tiring day of dealing with nobles and paperwork ahead of her she heard a very familiar and very welcomed groaning sound. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! There, appearing in front of her on her personal balcony was the fantastical machine known as the TARDIS, and stepping out of it was the Doctor dressed in a nice suit with a package in one of his hooves signed "To my biggest fan". Celestia's jaw dropped in shock. She certainly hadn't been expecting the Doctor in her bedroom, especially this early in the morning. She hadn't even raised the sun yet for crying out loud! "And here I thought you weren't supposed to be in somepony's bedchambers till the third date." Celestia teased in a flirty manner, her surprise soon replaced with joy upon seeing her best friend. "Weeeeellll...." The Doctor admitted, scratching his head with a hoof after setting the package down on Celestia's beside table. "I DID say I'd try and show up soon didn't I?" Celestia chuckled to herself as she used her magic to levitate her royal regalia onto herself, and use a comb on her unkept bedheaded mane at the same time as well, everything being enveloped in a golden glow of her magical aura. "That you did Doctor, that you did." She conceded. "So what are you here for, besides a delivery from across time?" She inquired, one tired eyebrow raised in curiosity as she stepped out onto the balcony to begin her daily duties of raising the sun. The Doctor watched in awe as the sun slowly rose over the horizon, casting a golden glow over the city of Canterlot. All across the city, ponies yawned as they too, like their Princess began to get ready to start their day. The stars slowly faded from the sky and the night at first became purple colored, before rapidly changing from dark blue to a light blue color as it changed to daylight. The Doctor smiled, he never got tired of seeing this sight. Every day, he awoke a few minutes before Celestia ever did just to see the sun rise over Equestria, no matter what time he was in or where he was. This was one of the ways that truly showed the magnificent power of the royal Princess of the Sun and just why ponies thought of her as a goddess of incredible power and beauty. "Came to ask you on a date. Thought it was about time we got to know each other better outside of... Y'know, world threatening madness and chaos." The Doctor commented lightly and Celestia's head whirled around to face him in shock, a rare showing of emotion to anypony outside her sister or Twilight. It was part of Celestia's nature to keep her emotions closely guarded, just to spare herself anymore pain. "I must admit, the idea of a date with you Doctor does sound... enticing." The Princess of the Sun remarked as she entertained the idea of a date with the Doctor. She had to admit, she had ideas of dating somepony, especially somepony as kind and caring as the Doctor, but the problems of immortality came with the price of you always losing somepony you cared about in the end. But here was a chance, a chance for her to maybe, just maybe find that Special Somepony and not have to pay that awful price in the end. After a few minutes consideration, Celestia finally made up her mind. "Alright Doctor, I accept." Celestia smiled, knowing she could be back to her castle at the very same time she left and nopony not even knowing she was gone, plus withhold off her royal duties for a time, which was the best bit of all of this in her mind. (Dealing with the ones like Blueblood were always a pain in the neck.) "So... Where, or should I mean when shall we go?" The Doctor could only smile. The TARDIS, high above Equus Celestia gazed in awe at the sight in front of her. There she was, sitting in front of the open doors of the TARDIS gazing out at the world of Equus as stars glittered in space and the moon where her sister was once imprisoned orbited it. The closest thing to Celestia ever seeing these stars and galaxies all around her was from a telescope in the Canterlot Royal Observatory, and now here she was seeing it firsthoof. It was a truly beautiful, and awe-inspiring sight to behold. It truly drove home just how fragile, if not wondrous as well, their world was and only deepened Celestia's resolve to protect it from whatever threat may come, and she resolved to be on the front lines of those battles if necessary. "Doctor... I have something to confess." Celestia admitted as the Time Pony's head turned to her in curiosity and concern. He could detect the worry and fear in her voice. Although he didn't know it, Celestia was about to confess all of her worries and doubts that had been plaguing her for months. "I... It's about my sister." Celestia admitted. "You know the story of Nightmare Moon, and how I had to send her there, right there." She said, gesturing to the moon. "I... If I had noticed her feelings of jealously towards me, I might not have made the mistakes I made, and not been alone for all of those painful years." "Doctor..." She continued. "For those first few years, I had nightmares, nightmares of Luna coming back and blaming me, rightfully so I might add for what I did to her. She... She killed me over and over just as vengeance for my sins. I was so afraid... terrified even that these things I saw might come true. I was ashamed as well, for fearing my own sister! Ashamed, Doctor! Can you imagine?" Celestia said, tears streaming down her face. "I... I've been where you are Princess. I've done things I've never been proud of, and will probably haunt me forever. My homeworld... If you could have ever seen it during the last days of the Time War, impossible things coming out of the woodwork left and right, my own government, corrupt and decadent plotting to bring Gallifrey to Earth just to save themselves, all the while the Daleks ravaging the planet. Finally... It... It became too much. It became too much for me. I... I had to destroy my own homeworld. I... I had no choice." The Doctor replied sadly, remembering his time when he dropped the name of the Doctor and went to war, something he swore never to do. Even now, he remembered those very words. "Doctor no more." "By Faust..." Celestia whispered, only now realizing how similar she and the Doctor were as they bared their souls together. "Take my advice Princess, secrets destroy relationships. Tell your sister about your guilt and how you feel... Wait, sorry, that came out wrong. Rassilion above, I sound like Jack!" The Doctor realized in horror before he quickly got things back to a more... mature line of conversation. "Anyways, you get my meaning, Faust awful as I was at giving it." The Doctor said to Celestia and she understood immediately. "Yeah, I think I do." Celestia smiled, her worries gone and her confidence in herself restored. Then a question came to her. "Hey Doctor, can we do this again sometime?" She asked and the Doctor could only smile in response. Later that day, just as Luna was beginning to raise the moon, Celestia approached her. The Lunar Princess noticed her sister's expression. "Sister, does thou have something to talk about?" She asked in concern. Celestia took a deep breath before answering. "Yes Lulu, we do. There are some... things I must confess." Celestia said, and prepared herself for the long conversation to come... END
Interlude: (Two Sides of a Tale)Shining's Office, Royal Guard Barracks: Canterlot Shining was nursing a headache, and he knew why. Exactly why, and how something had set it off. Or make that someponies you see. He didn't want to talk about it. But of course seeing as how some deity somewhere hated him he was going to have to tell it anyway as he soon found out. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! Shining's eyes widened and he gave out a distinct groan as he heard the sound. He normally liked it, but not on today of all days as he knew it might just make his headache even worse if that were possible. "Oh no... Don't tell me." Shining murmured. All around him, a great room with many porthole like things in the walls and a round console with a sea green translucent pillar in the center of it and a metal floor around the console itself began to appear taking up the area around Shining and his desk. And at the console fiddling with it's controls was a grey furred stallion with a messy mane wearing a tweed suit and bowtie. A fez sat on his head. "Oh Celestia above, who knew the Neighponeise knew how to party like there was no tomorrow? Well, there would have been if we hadn't saved them, eh Cadence?" The somewhat mad stallion laughed as he spun around in his place. Nearby, a pink alicorn watched with a expression of amusement before her eyes widened on seeing her coltfriend. "Shiny!" She cried, accidently making her coltfriend's headache worse. The Doctor whirled his head around and saw Shining and he looked a bit ticked off. 'You, you think you can just come in my Tardis without asking?" He shouted. "I have rules you know, breaking them is not cool!" "You appeared around me!" Shining shouted back, and the Doctor suddenly looked very embarrassed with himself along with a touch angry as he muttered "Oh, right... Well, in that case..." It was then Cadence noticed her boyfriend's expression and the fact that he had a ice pack on his head. "You alright? Go on, tell me what's wrong." She said in concern and Shining groaned once more as he muttered "I don't want to talk about it..." "No, please do. Maybe I can help." Cadence said as she kissed him on the cheek and rubbed his shoulders making Shining blush. He hated it when she showed her affections in public. "Well, since you asked..." Shining began. A hour before... Shining was in his office, just going over some maneuvers in his head when right at that moment both Blueblood and Lightning Dust barged in making him look up. Now Blueblood was probably normal enough, but I think you're probably wondering what Lightning Dust is doing here. Well, after Lightning helped to take down the rogue Captain Boltstrike she was put on probation instead of being taken back to the psyhicatric ward thanks to Shining pulling some strings. For almost a year now by Shining's count, she'd loyally defended Equestria from whatever threat my had arisen even during the Discord crisis. "What is it?" Shining asked in annoyance. "Tell me, and make it quick. I've got work to do." Both Lightning and Blueblood began yelling angry shouts of accusation and pointing at the other each at the same time making it impossible to tell what was being said. "Okay, let me rephrase that." Shining corrected himself. "Tell me what happened, but not at the same time." Little did the Captain of the Guard know it, but he'd sealed his fate... Lightning's Story: So, there I was at this bar in Canterlot. Very classy. I was just enjoying myself, flirting with other mares and stallions and all that but just for fun. I wasn't being serious about it, I never am. Anyways, I was just about to get up and leave for another bar, you understand I like to bar crawl just to see what else this city's got to offer. ...Damn, I've gotten off topic. So there I was leaving when I heard Blueblood's voice. I whirled my head around, and there he was trying to flirt with the bartender, Berry-Something or other. I never caught the name. "Come on, just one date?" The Prince asked, only for Berry to shake her head and laugh. "Sorry, you've got to defeat me in a drinking contest first. I only go for the ones who can hold their drinks and not bring them back up again. That's just how it works with me really." Berry commented, and Blueblood looked offended. "Is that a challenge? Well then, I say I accept!" He stated proudly. I laughed at this, as I'd seen Blueblood try and drink before. It never ended well. Let me put it to you this way, it was like watching a circus. Only without the bears, lions and elephants and only the clowns. Really drunk clowns. "Well go on then, buy yourselves a few drinks and get to it." I egged on, wanting to see how this ended or to be more accurate how badly. With Shining, Blueblood and Lightning "THAT is not how things went!" Blueblood shouted furiously, with Lightning raising a eyebrow. "Oh, how did it go then?" She asked sarcastically. "Fine then, I'll tell you the real truth and only the real truth!" Blueblood retorted before he began his version of what went down that night. Shining raised a eyebrow, this was going to be good... Blueblood's Story... So there I was, watching Lightning flirt up a storm with the other bar patrons. It was just sad to watch, with none of them looking remotely interested in her. Mind you, I was having better luck with the bartender. Let me introduce you to Ms Berry Punch. She had the most beautiful fur in a grape color and wore a beautiful black dress. Quite possibly, she was the most elegant lady I had- With Shining, Blueblood and Lightning Lightning burst out laughing interrupting Blueblood's tale. "Elegant?" She chortled. "She smelled like hard cider! And another thing, for your information anypony I flirted with looked interested. Some even flirted right back." Lightning snapped. Blueblood rolled his eyes. "...If I may continue." Shining sighed before letting out a "Go ahead..." while in his mind he asked for Celestia or some other powerful deity to give him strength to be able to bear through this. Blueblood's Story... (Continued) Anyways, at one point as me and Berry talked Lightning Dust walked up and started flirting with what I hoped would soon be my marefriend! The nerve of her, right? "You know, with all of those stallions waiting on you foreleg and hoof you would think you'd just have a stab at one of them." I told her. "But nooooo, you had had to go after my date!" Whatever came out of her mouth next I didn't care to listen to. "Blah-blah-blah..." Lightning said over and over in my mind. With Shining, Blueblood and Lightning "EXCUSE ME?" Lightning roared making Shining's eardrums ring. This would later what he thought would have been the start of his headache. Blueblood whimpered at Lightning advanced on him, with the smell of ozone in the air as he tugged at his collar. "Go after your date?" Lightning snarled looking as if she was ready to fire off one of her bolts. "Far as I could see she wasn't interested in you and actually looked a bit annoyed." "Uh, let's calm down now..." Shining tried to placate but to no avail. "And another thing, first you say nopony is interested in me and then you say you saw them waiting on me on foreleg and hoof. You're contradicting yourself Bluey." Lightning almost sneered. "Okay, I admit I may have taken a few liberties but Shining gets the point right?" Blueblood asked nervously and looked towards Shining for help but none was received. Shining wasn't stupid enough to get between a angry mare who could fry you to a crisp if she wanted to. It was then a Royal Guard came in looking rather nervous at the sight of the angry Lightning. Shining couldn't blame him really. "What is it?" Shining asked, eager for something to distract him from this. "Uh, there was this incident at this bar last night... The Prancing Pony I believe." The guard responded, and looked as if he would bolt from the room at any second. "Believe me, I noticed." Shining replied dryly. "Please tell me you have security footage so I can deal with... this." He said, gesturing to both Lightning and Blueblood. The guard held up a tape. On it, Shining, Lightning and Blueblood all saw three ponies drinking up a storm with everypony else cheering them on. The three ponies in question were Lightning, Blueblood and Berry. Berry was wearing a black dress, just like Blueblood said she was but it was covered in cider. "Uh... Both Lightning and Blueblood owe a huge tab." The guard said nervously. Shining glared at both Lightning and Blueblood who gave him sheepish smiles. Shining pointed to the door. Present Time... "...So that's what happened." Shining sighed, as he finished explaining his tale. The Doctor looked as if he were in disbelief while Cadence looked sympathetic. "Aww... Poor baby." Cadence said. "Is there anything I can do to make up for it?" She then smiled seductively and gave her coltfriend a searing kiss leaving him dazed while the Doctor groaned in disgust and looked away. "...That'll do." Shining whispered before falling over. END
Sleep Part 1 (R.I.F.T)There are things out there in the big and vast universe nopony understands. Things that would want to gobble you up and swallow you whole without a second thought. And sometimes, those things escape to Equestria, either it being to flee some sort of bigger and scarier thing, or just falling through cracks in space and time. You see, it's a little known fact, but the city of Canterlot was built unknowingly on a rift in space and time. It took a lot of hard work and effort by Princess Celestia to cover up this fact to avoid inciting mass panic, and even more hard work and effort to understand this rift. But that wasn't the only problems faced by the Solar Monarch. Like I said, sometimes things fall through. Monstrous beings so horrible they would give you nightmares that would never make you want to sleep again. Sleep, that's a main theme of this episode. Dreams as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself. What we must focus on is the continuation of the story of the organization formed to stop and contain the rift breaches. Nopony knew when it was first formed, but the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense was formed for this exact purpose. They existed for years, working in secret, capturing and containing the various creatures coming through the breaches. Until, suddenly, the rift closed, with nopony knowing why. (Celestia often suspected the Doctor had a hoof in this, but she never asked.) Without a purpose, the Bureau was shut down and it's secrets laid dormant for years. But that was then and this is now. With the arrival of the Doctor, and the Weeping Angels, along with numerous other threats to Equestria like the Daleks and the Windigos, Celestia knew it was time to revive the organization, under a new name. That name? R.I.F.T. Youtube Video Now: The Bunker "Ugh, do we really have to move and catalogue all this crap?" The former captain of the Night Guard, Galaxy Swirls grimaced, in no way in a good mood. He'd left the Night Guard after the Windigo invasion, citing "Shellshock" as his own personal reasoning. He'd even refused treatment (Threatening to cut their heads off with his scythe, or drain their blood along with other various violent actions. To this day, nopony could actually tell if he was just joking around in his own half-crazed manner or not.) by the good doctors and nurses at the Canterlot Hospital. Both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia knew better, Galaxy was lying about his supposed "Shellshock" and knew that he had recently become very interested in the Para and Extranormal qualities that lay out there in the dark, lying in secret just waiting for them to expose themselves once more. It also didn't help his case that Celestia had noticed the secretive glances the Bat-Pony took towards Sunburst when he thought nopony else was looking. "Well, with what we've been left with... I'd say yeah." Another pony, one with green fur and a crosshairs for her Cutie Mark replied dryly to him as she came down one of two staircases that led to the upper entranceway. The walls were a plain beige color, illuminated by lights in the walls with intricate designs carved into the metal railings on the steps and walkways. "The Bureau didn't do exactly a good job of cleaning up after themselves after everything folded." "Puh! I'll say!" Galaxy chortled as he reorganized some books he'd found in a cardboard box. The books had titles like "Ghouls, Ghosts and Demons, Exorcism for You" and "Monster Killing for Dummies: The Abridged Version". Without his Night Guard armor, Galaxy's finely toned body from years upon years of training in the guard could be seen. He had pure black fur, and a dark brown mane along with pure black wings with a shield with a scythe on it for his Cutie Mark. He took a glance, and then a quick read through of the book he was currently holding, a hardbacked book with a red cover and gold lettering reading "Exorcising Zebrawa Demons, 101 things you may want to know" and sighed. What use was all of this? Demons hadn't been sighted, not even in rumor in Equestria or any other land beyond it for years. It was like the Bureau was just built on over-preparedness, or paranoia as Galaxy preferred to think of it. "Well, look on the bright side, you can put this on your 1,000 things you did before you died". A light grey pegasus with a scroll with a quill over it as his Cutie Mark chirped merrily. His name was Scrabbling Quill, a young pony who Celestia had recruited for his superior organizational skills and kind heartness. However, that wasn't his most glaring trait. That belonged to his constant over eagerness to help out in anyway he could, often to the point of annoyance of everypony around him. "Pretty sure that's not what it's called, Quill." Another pegasi, one with tan fur and a red mane with a pair of glasses set nicely on his face deadpanned as he briefly glanced up from the crossword puzzle that was currently occupying his mind before getting right back to it. His wife, the pony with green fur and a target on her flank gave him a look of annoyance and sighed in resignation. Nothing, it seemed, not even her, could get Sudoku's mind off a puzzle once he started it. This wasn't always a bad thing, but when everypony was supposed to be pitching in and doing their part to clean up and reorganize the new R.I.F.T Headquarters, it really grated on her last nerves. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be helping?" Target Quartermane barked, making Sudoku jump slightly from the sheer loudness of her voice. "Sorry, so sorry, but you know h-how it is with me and puzzles." Sudoku swiftly apologized. In the background, Scrabbling snickered and said "Whipped." before a harsh glare was sent in his direction by Target. "Want me to rub your hooves? You know how much you like that..." Sudoku said flirtatiously and Target gazed upon him with half lidded eyes and stroked his chin, before whispering to him "Hmm, I'll think about it..." in a seductive voice that made Sudoku shudder in anticipation for what was surely to come later. In the background, Galaxy mimed a gagging noise while Scrabbling made kissy sounds earning them both harsh looks. Target groaned, honestly, the stallions she worked with were such idiots sometimes. Just then, she caught Galaxy eying a blade that looked as if it had been made from a jawbone and quickly took it away from him. "Hey, don't touch that! You don't know what kinds of curses might be on that! Could turn you into a demon for all you know!" Target barked, before setting the blade down on a nearby table that had a map of Equus on it before she stormed off, finally fed up with her comrade's idiocy. But when nopony was looking, Galaxy grinned and took the blade and hid it in a pocket of the brown leather jacket that he wore. Then, a thought came to him. "Hey, where's Sunburst?" The Vaults The Vaults, as they were known were only for keeping the most dangerous of artifacts and creatures that fallen through the cracks scattered throughout Canterlot. It had taken the Bureau years to collect everything that they'd found, and keep it safe from dangerous hooves. Inside the corridor, it was dark and dingy, with what little light provided coming from warehouse level lighting hanging from the concrete ceiling. Sunburst walked nervously through the corridors, various creatures roaring and screeching at him from their magically warded cells. At one point, he passed a particularly unusual creature, one that resembled some freakish cross between a bug and a bear, with most of it's body a grizzly bear, but with bug's wings and a bee's stinger attached to the very end of it. "O-Oh my..." Sunburst whispered as the "Bug-Bear" (As nopony had could think of anything else to call it) roared at him, spitting... well spit in his face, beard and glasses. Rubbing them clean with a soft cloth, Sunburst sighed as he looked towards another cell, where the Weeping Angel the Doctor, Shining and Celestia herself had tricked into looking into it's own reflection now sat along with it's icy mirror. Sunburst shuddered, that thing, even when it sat unmoving, still gave him chills. Sunburst, even now, remembered Celestia's very words on the creature. "S-so far as we can see ma'am, it's been dormant. Actually, I d-dare say it might be dead at this point." He explained nervously. Celestia shook her head. "No, Sunburst. Make no mistake, this thing is not dead. Only dormant. It's biding it's time, and you and I both know it. If it weren't for it's reflection in front of it, this thing would go on the rampage and kill us all." Sunburst, on hearing those words took a step or two back. "I... I see. E-Even you, ma'am?" He stuttered. "Yes, even me." Celestia finished. Sunburst swallowed. Even the pay he got wasn't worth this... "Yep, still not worth it." Sunburst muttered to himself as he looked towards another cell, where the statue of Discord, still in his fearful expression from being blasted with the Elements of Harmony sat, after being moved here from the Canterlot Royal Gardens. Celestia's official explanation was that he was a dangerous artifact, and so deserved to be placed here, though rumor had it that it was just really because the statue was freaking everypony out. Sunburst personally believed the latter. It certainly scared him. "Oh great, so we're starting statue collections now?" Came a slightly teasing voice from behind him. Sunburst turned a full 180 degrees to face the voice's owner, a teal blue pegasus with a yellow lightning bolt (Matching her manestyle perfectly) with stardust below it as her Cutie Mark. Yep, Lightning Dust was part of R.I.F.T as well. Her reasoning for being here was because that the Royal Guard didn't quite get the adventure she was hoping for as all it turned out to be was just standing around guarding things half the time, and she'd worked off her community service anyways, so she was free to do as she pleased. She hoped being in R.I.F.T would provide her the adventure she desperately craved, and perhaps a bit of redemption in the process for all the bad she'd done. After all, it was an alien who nearly made her commit her greatest crime against Equestria, help kill Princess Celestia, and therefore she wanted to get back at any other bad aliens who came to Equestria, and be on the front lines of those battlefields. "B-Believe me, those statues are nothing to joke about." Sunburst whispered, gesturing to Discord, whose "Jokes" had become infamous from before he was a statue. Sunburst had done his reading. Before both of the Royal Sisters had harnessed the powers of the Elements of Harmony for the first time, the world was in chaos for one hundred years, nothing making sense. It seemed hopeless, until the Elements turned Discord into a statue for the first time. And that was saying nothing about the high danger level of the Weeping Angel statue. Sunburst probably was being paranoid, but he could swear both of the statues were seemingly following him and Lightning's every move, impossible as it was. Suddenly, there was a snarling sound as a animalistic creature wearing a boiler suit jumped towards the two from it's cell, it's fang like teeth bared and ready to chomp down on the blood-veins of Lightning's and Sunburst's necks before it was suddenly pushed back by the magical warding set up back when the Bureau was still in operation. "Okay, what the Tartarus is THAT thing?" Lightning exclaimed in disgust. Sunburst read the small golden plaque above the cell, which read in bold faced letters "Weevil: Janet". "Okay, so it's called a Weevil... and apparently it's named Janet." Sunburst replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Somepony has a warped sense of humor, if ya ask me." Lightning muttered before she turned towards the big metal door that had a wheel on it that you had to turn to unlock said door. "C'mon, let's get out of here, this place gives me the creeps." The twosome made their way back up to the main level of the R.I.F.T headquarters where they found everything STILL in the middle of being reorganized and checked for curses. Sudoku had stopped working on his crossword and was now reciting a spell from a book to check a pure golden fiddle for any spells laid upon it. Sunburst's eyes widened. He recognized that particular fiddle, it was the exact same fiddle Tirek used as an offering for when he challenged a young Appleloosan pony to a fiddle duel. Through the years, it had made it's way from the pony who'd defeated Tirek through the hooves of private collectors to now here. Nearby Galaxy Swirls was putting a jar filled with an ethereal dark blue mist in a safe and locking it away. Sunburst knew what this was as well thanks to his extensive research. This was the last known remaining essence of Nightmare Moon. He even knew how it had ended up here. "Do you really think you can stop me, Twilight Sparkle? You're just a simple unicorn, while I am a goddess! I am the night itself, and I WILL make it last forever!" A pure black pony with a mane of stars and wearing blue armor yelled at her foe. "And don't get me started on those friends of yours. Newsflash for you. Friendship is. A. LIE!" Twilight glared harshly at her foe, while they stood in the ruins of an old and crumbling castle. Nearby, her newfound friends from Ponyville watched in shock and fear. "No, that's not true. Friendship exists and you know, deep down Princess!" She pleaded, but the incarnation of nightmares and the shadows themselves were not willing to listen. "DO NOT CALL ME THAT! I am not Princess Luna, there is only Nightmare Moon!" The being who was once Celestia's sister roared in rage. The shadows themselves seemed to grow colder and darker, as if they had minds of their own. But that wasn't possible, was it? Twilight ignored them even as they reached for her and charged at her opponent. Nightmare burst out laughing at the sight. "You seriously think that'll work?" Twilight came closer. Nightmare gaped for a second. "...Wow, guess she is serious." She said, stunned. She readied herself but Twilight didn't attack. Instead she slid right under the dark Alicorn goddess and to the chest beyond pulling out it's contents with her magic. "Here, catch!" With that, Twilight tossed the items known in legend as the Elements of Harmony to her friends. "You want a demonstration of friendship, Nightmare? Here, I've got one JUST for you!" Twilight shouted as the Elements charged up and a golden crown with the final element, Magic appeared on her head. Then, six bright beams of light came out and fired, directing themselves towards the Nightmare spirit. All while this happened, as Nightmare screamed "NOOOOOO!" in a mix of pure rage and terror, there was a familiar sound, that in the chaos, nopony noticed. *VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP!* A dark blue box reading "Police Public Call Box" appeared behind a pillar and the Doctor still in his ponified Tenth form stepped out of it holding a jar and as Nightmare Moon's essence evaporated and cleared away to reveal the form of Princess Luna, a small portion of that essence was sucked into that jar that the Doctor held and he slammed the lid on it tightly and turned it and it locked with a click. "So, where were you two?" Target inquired with a raised eyebrow before an amused smirk that would have made Discord proud came to her face, making both Sunburst and Lightning very nervous indeed. "Don't tell me you two were off kissing in a closet someplace?" She laughed, and if you listened closely, you could hear Galaxy Swirls make a small hissing sound of jealously. "N-No, no, anything but that!" Sunburst denied as he and his companion's faces flushed red. "If you say so..." Target singsonged, not entirely believing them before her face turned stern. "Now get back to work you maggots!" Sunburst, as he began to place books on bookshelves and taking them out of their cardboard boxes, mumbled quietly to himself "What did she think we were doing? Honestly, she's worst than that Wonderbolts captain... Oh, what's her name...? Spitfire! Yeah, that's it. All she needs a whistle..." and sighed as he hung his head. Life really sucked for him sometimes. But even as he grumbled away to himself, nopony ever noticed the jar that held Nightmare Moon's essence click and open itself with the mist slipping out through an open window and if you just listened closely, you could hear a small cackle. "At last, my chance to take my revenge has arrived. Soon, those damned ponies who locked me away, especially that "Doctor" shall feel my wrath. And I know just the perfect way to stab them in their perfect little pony hearts. After all, what better way to break a pony's spirit than by the betrayal of one of their own...?"
Sleep Part 3: (Night Terrors)Canterlot Castle The stars glittered in the night sky as Luna rose the moon high into the sky, allowing herself a small smile at it' grand majesty. It was a full moon tonight, the last of which it would be until another cycle. There were many myths surrounding the moon, the Mare in the Moon being one of them. Other included wereponies, which to be honest even the most paranormally-minded of ponies consider to be bunk. But then again, everypony considered demons to be bunk for a long while, but as Twilight Sparkle, the Doctor and Rainbow Dash were finding out, some myths, like the Headless Horse before them, are more than fairy tales after all. But we'll get to that later. Right now, we must focus on the present. Tonight the moon was at its largest at had been for centuries, and it was a blue moon at that. Now, the Nightmare Spirit's powers had always been connected to the moon, and with the moon this large and it being a blue moon, they were at their peak, which was what allowed her to possess Rarity so easily and also, the Nightmare was at the highest power level it had been in centuries, exactly over one thousand years to be exact. Not since Nightmare Moon had they been at this level of power. It was going to be a long night ahead for the citizens of Canterlot, and a terrifying one as well, because the spirit wasn't named the Nightmare without VERY good reasoning behind that. From her balcony, as Princess Celestia watched her sister raise the moon, she glanced at the stars. Every constellation, every planet glittered and glistened in the pure black sky. The Big Dipper, the Ursa Minor and Majors, the Archer, they were just as beautiful as they had been for the past few nights. Celestia sighed in bliss as she got ready to get under her covers for a peaceful and tranquil slumber. But then, out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed something. The Draco constellation, it wasn't complete. No, that wasn't accurate. Some of it's stars were missing. And now that she thought about it, one of the planets in the sky had gone completely dark as well. Celestia's eyes widened even as she flashed back over a year before, to the party celebrating the defeat of the Windigo King and his off-spring. One year and two months ago... Outside on the Castle grounds, Celestia gazed up at the stars. She needed some time to be herself with her thoughts. Times had definitely changed. A little over a year ago, she wouldn't have even dreamed of what she'd seen and heard from the Doctor's tales. And now she knew the universe was so much bigger and more wonderful and dangerous then the Solar Princess could possibly have imagined. Celestia's thoughts then turned back to the stars. While she wasn't Luna, she could appreciate the beauty of the nighttime sky and all of its many wonders. She could see the appeal of space and why the Doctor traveled up there. Suddenly Celestia blinked as she noticed something. She could have sworn several stars that were just there, had vanished as if something had removed them in one split-second motion. "Maybe I'm just imagining things..." Celestia murmured as she turned to go back inside. But why did it still bother her so much? Celestia sighed to herself, Luna would probably tease her about being paranoid but then again the paranoid were always the ones who survived and Celestia hadn't lived this long by not being cautious. Back in the present, Celestia's eye narrowed. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her every bone and every sense. Something was putting the stars out. Celestia, using all of her power tried to sense what exactly was going on in the surrounding solar system, but she suddenly felt a block as she reached a very specific galaxy, one named the Medusa Cascade, which was a flurry of blues and oranges of all shades. But she pushed on through, and saw an image she hoped never to see again. A pepper potted shaped figure with a blue eyestalk and two arms, one ending in a plunger, and the other in a laser, with the monster's (As that was the only word for it) entire body coated in red, with it's casing having gold detailing and the bumps on it's body also in gold. It then spoke, in a deep and monotone voice. "NO REPORTS OF THE TIME LORD. WE ARE BEYOND THE DOCTOR'S REACH!" Then, Celestia flashed back to the very ending months of the Griffin/Pony Civil War seventeen years prior... Seventeen Years Ago: Wintergreen Street The Doctor knew as soon as the Dalek stated "Correct", it had figured out both his and its own true identity so when it fired its laser he knew he had to move and was ready for it, dodging the beam just in time before it would have hit and forced him into his next regeneration. He didn't want to go, not yet anyway. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR!" The Dalek cried in it's monotone voice. The Dalek fired blasts wildly going every which way some even hitting guards making them drop dead on the spot. The Doctor knew, every second he spent in the room there was a chance another pony could die in the process. He had to lead his foe away from here, all the while figuring out how to stop it permanently. "Hey Dalek! You want me?" The Doctor bellowed, and the Dalek turned to look at him. "Come and get me!" He cried, before running off with the Dalek following him out of the tent. In the meantime, Shining grabbed Boltstrike by the chestplate with his magic. It was very telling that nopony tried to stop him or pull him away. Meanwhile, the Doctor ran with the Dalek in pursuit even following him down to Wintergreen Street, the main part of the nearby village. Ponies tried to stop it, but only ended up exterminated for their efforts sadly. Nothing but the Doctor could stop the mad creature, and he knew it. He just had to figure out how... "Alright, that's the best you can do? Go on, try and aim will you? I'll bet you can't shoot me in the nose!" The Doctor taunted, only enraging the Dalek further. Now normally, he'd consider this reckless and a good way to get himself regenerated but whenever he faced a Dalek, the killers of his people he generally ignored some of his own advice and only wanted to see the creature in question dead. Exterminated, if you will. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" The Dalek repeated. The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah, we get it mate. That all you ever say?" He asked sarcastically. Guess what the answer was? "EXTERMINATE!" "Guess that answers my question." The Doctor shrugged. Then he spotted something. Royal Guards moving some magical explosives for the war right in front of him. An idea began to form in his head. A crazy idea and a rather suicidal one at that, but an idea none the less. "Well, I'm the Doctor and you can't kill me with lasers... So what are you going to do now huh?" He asked sarcastically. If this didn't work, well... But the Dalek did exactly as he hoped it would. It engaged it's self destruct countdown. The Doctor smirked, perfect. Then he did something else he'd consider rather mental. The Doctor turned and ran back towards the Dalek, aimed the sonic at it before stopping it in its tracks. He then opened up the Dalek's uppermost head casing, much to its protesting. "ALERT! ALERT! I HAVE BEEN BREACHED!" "Relax mate, just looking for... Ah, there it is! The reverse gear! Say goodnight sweet prince!" He chorused before kicking back from behind towards the explosives. Then, a few seconds later it happened. KABOOM!!! The Doctor watched as the creature of nightmares went up like a rocket and soon was nothing more then memories. "Good riddance..." The Doctor muttered in distaste. "Now, what about Boltstrike...?" He wondered aloud to nobody in particular. And then Celestia found herself back in her bedroom. Her eyes widened. What had happened she didn't know. It was like her consciousness had temporarily left her form and traveled through time and space. "Is this the Doctor's doing? I'll have to ask him about this next time I see him." Celestia mused, before she heard a knock on the door. When she answered it, she found the new Captain of the Night Guard, a female grey furred pony with a dark blue mane and yellow eyes named Ender Night standing before her. "Ma'am, I've just received a message from the observatory. It's the head scientist there, Comet Chaser. He wants to see you." Ender Night commented before her eyes drifted to the Solar Princess's state of dress. She was wearing only a lacy black nightie. Celestia looked down upon herself and blushed, with Ender herself blushing heavily, her red face visible through her stone grey fur. Celestia quickly tossed off the nightie and levitated her royal regalia, consisting of her crown, chest plate and horseshoes onto herself with a golden magical glow and quickly teleported away in a flash of flame. "...Okay, so now I can see why so many ponies have sexual fantasies about her." Ender mused to herself. "Still prefer Miss Luna though." Canterlot Observatory Celestia, with another flash of flame quickly found herself in the top dome room of the Observatory, where already a blue maned pony with a shooting star for a Cutie Mark wearing a hat with planets attached to it like a baby's mobile and a pair of binoculars attached to that hat as well was looking through the giant brown with bronze detailing telescope. Off to the side was Shining Armor, dressed in a pink nightgown (Probably his marefriend's) and a small purple reptilian figure with green fins on the side of his head, that Celestia knew to be her personal student's number one assistant and adoptive son Spike. She vaguely remembered Spike had come here by himself to get away from Ponyville for a little while and to spend time with his adoptive grandmother, and to perhaps learn a bit more about his kind from the books in the Canterlot Royal Library, which had even more books than the Golden Oaks, if you could believe it. "You summoned me?" Celestia asked with a yawn, rubbing her tired eyes. Comet Chaser gestured for her to come over to him with his hoof and peer into the telescopic lens. What she saw made her eyes widen. There, just beyond the hills that Ponyville was nestled away in, was a rapidly approaching dark coated figure. Even from a distance, Celestia could make out the tall stature, along with the horn and wings, and the wispy mane. There was no doubt about it. What was rapidly rocketing towards Canterlot was an Alicorn. "Nightmare..." Celestia whispered just loud enough for everypony in the room to hear. "N-Nightmare?" Spike whispered fearfully. Celestia took another look into the telescope and let out a small swear of "Crap.", a rarity for her. She recognized the features of this particular Nightmare. The purple in her mane, the eyes and the black diamond for a Cutie Mark gave it all away. "No... It can't be." "What? What is it?" Spike asked nervously, tugging at Celestia's left foreleg. "That Nightmare Spirit... It's Rarity." Celestia whispered in horror and hung her head as Spike gasped. She was unable to protect one of her little ponies from the corrupting influence of the Nightmare Spirit, and now it was coming back to bite her. This explained everything, just why Luna had been having trouble getting into Rarity's dreams as of late. The Nightmare Spirit was keeping her out. "I'll... I'll alert the Royal Gu..." Shining began, but never got the chance to finish as he, along with Comet Chaser then felt asleep where they stood and at once began to toss and turn on the floor, already in the throes of a horrible Nightmare. "It's starting." Celestia said. "She's already begun her takeover of Canterlot. Soon, more will follow." Then both Spike and Celestia heard a loud voice come booming into their eardrums. "Celestia, your reign has ended, and the night shall last forever! If you try and stop me, I promise you won't like the consequences." "Come, we must alert R.I.F.T. We haven't much time." Celestia growled before rushing out of the room with Spike waddling after her calling out "Hey, wait for me!" R.I.F.T Headquarters But already, R.I.F.T was having problems of their own. Already, two of their number, Sunburst and Galaxy Swirls had fallen into a deep sleep and were already tossing and turning in their infirmary beds, where Sudoku (Who served as the organization's doctor on-call) had wisely moved them and was even now strapping them to the beds. Nearby, Scrabbling was serving up coffee to himself, Sudoku and his wife to keep them awake and from falling under the Nightmare's spell. "I... I don't understand it." Sudoku mused aloud, wearing a white doctor's labcoat and stethoscope around his neck. "One minute, they were fine, but the next they just dropped to the floor. At first I'd say it's a Vasovagal Response, but the symptoms don't match. No The Exorcist style projectile vomiting, and they didn't seem to feel woozy before dropping to the floor... Plus there's the tossing and turning. I just don't understand a bleeding thing about it." "Okay, spare us the details." Target commented, looking a bit more green than normal as her husband described a Vasovagal Response. "Just tell us your best theory." "That's the thing." Sudoku replied. "I simply don't have one." Then there was a bright flash of flame and Celestia and Spike were in the room with them, with the young drake gazing in wonder at the many strange and wondrous things around him. He, out of simple curiosity, took a quick look inside a wooden rune covered box to find a cut off rabbit's foot used as part of a necklace, but Target quickly slammed the box shut and shook her head before saying "Trust me, that foot, not quite so lucky." "I think I can offer some answers." The Regent of the Sun said before saying two simple words "Nightmare Moon." There was a brief silence in the room after the Princess of the Sun had spoken, just out of simple disbelief. "N-Nightmare M-Moon?" Scrabbling squeaked. "B-But I thought her essence was locked up! The Doctor made sure of it!" "Looks like things may have changed." Target replied dryly before turning her head back to Celestia. "So? Summon the Elements of Harmony so they can kick her ass all over again." Then, she saw an expression of nervousness come across her boss's face, that itself making her extremely nervous. "That's the thing. The pony the Nightmare has possessed... It's Rarity." "Well, ain't that just wonderful... Frigging wonderful." Target muttered even as she turned her eyes back to Sunburst and Galaxy. "C'mon, what thoughts are going through your head right now...?" Inside Galaxy Swirl's mind... Youtube Video Inside the mind of Galaxy Swirls, he found himself, back in his old Night Guard armor, in a castle deep in the forested mountains of the old country, Transalfangya. He knew this castle all too well. It had haunted his dreams for many years. Galaxy slowly took one step forwards down the torch lit hallways where dark blue tapestries of his family crest, which were two bat wings and a scythe lined the hallways along with suits of armor. "No... Not here, anywhere but here." Galaxy murmured nervously to himself. He would never admit it, but even he felt fear. And this was the fear that haunted him most of all. He took a quick look outside the windows, the night sky and stars glistened peacefully in the moonlight night. The moon was a crescent, but unlike most moons of a natural type, this moon was blood red, foreshadowing the things that were about to follow. Then, he heard a distinct buzzing sound in the air along with hissing. Galaxy rushed out to a balcony, and then he saw them, just like he did every night. There they came, insect like creatures with features of ponies as well. Pure black, with holes in their legs and beetle like wings wearing dark blue armor and having big blue fly like eyes. And in the center of this swarm was a very tall breed of this particular species, Alicorn size, and having a green mane and a jagged horn along with a crown consisting of three little baubles on her head. With a mighty tackle, she sent Galaxy flying backwards through a giant wooden door and into another hallway. The leader of the Changeling hive loomed over Galaxy, who, dripping blood from the sides of his face while his helmet lay beside him was trying to crawl backwards to get as far away from her as possible. "No... Not you. Anypony but you." Galaxy Swirls stammered out, showing a side of him he never showed to anypony else. A feeling he kept in private. Absolute terror. In front of him was the monster of a creature that massacred his whole family back in Transalfangya. That monster's name was Queen Chrysalis. "Oh, but it is me dear Swirls." Chrysalis said seductively as she stroked his chin with a hoof. "Look at you now, all badass and a high ranking member of... What is it called? Oh yes, R.I.F.T. But still you remember me." She cooed as she and her Changelings circled him like a lion circling it's prey. "You never told them, did you?" Chrysalis inquired as she smirked. "Here you act all cheery and somewhat weird, but that's just to hide the pain of what I did to you. Killed your wife and kids I did, and you know what?" She asked before getting uncomfortably close to the very afraid Bat-Pony's face. "I. Enjoyed. Every. Single. Minute. Of. It!" Galaxy slowly got up off the floor, his features changing from absolute terror to that of rage. He drew out his jagged bone knife, only to find Chrysalis laughing at him. "What, you think that simple little knife can kill me? There's only one thing in this entire world that can do that, and you of all ponies should know it better than anypony." Chrysalis sneered even as she brought out a jagged sword dripping with green Changeling slime. "But if it's a fight you want, pathetic and hopeless as it may be, you'll get your wish." But to her surprise, Chrysalis saw the jagged jawbone knife morph into a spine like sword, with Galaxy swinging it around like an expert. "It's a dream bitch, anything can happen. That night, that night you slaughtered my family, tonight is not that night anymore." Galaxy snarled even as he and the Changeling Queen charged at each other... R.I.F.T Headquarters "So, what happens if they try to fight their dreams?" Spike asked nervously and Celestia looked at him gravely. "Simple answer... They die." In Sunburst's Mind... Youtube Video In Sunburst's mind, he found himself in a town he knew all too well. It was a small and simple town, located just south of Whitetail Woods, where nothing really happened. It was even smaller than Ponyville, if you could believe it, and everypony there knew everypony else. But right now, the town was empty except for him and one other pony, one with a moderate purple coat and her purple and aquamarine mane tied into two small pigtails. Sunburst's eyes widened. He knew this little filly all too well. It was his best friend since childhood, Starlight Glimmer, and she did not look happy with him. "S-Starlight?" Sunburst stammered out, unsure if what he was seeing was real or not. "Oh, I'm real alright. And look at you, all grown up. Really should shave that beard though. Makes you look a bit too nerdy for my tastes." Starlight answered, and Sunburst's eyes widened. He hadn't even asked the question! "You and I have a lot of things to talk about. For example, you LEFT me!" Starlight suddenly shouted, her eyes glistening with tears. "All to go to that stupid school of Celestia's in Canterlot! And look what happened there! You barely made it through! Huh, isn't that ironic. You got your Cutie Mark for magic before me, and yet you are completely useless with your special talent." "I-I'm not useless... I'm In R.I.F.T, helping other ponies from threats from beyond Equestria! I work as their chief scientist and specialist in magical theory!" "And yet you never gave once a thought to me! You've completely forgotten me Sunny!" Starlight sobbed, and Sunburst winced at the use of his friend's childhood nickname for him. "T-That's not true! I want to find you, I really do, but I just don't know where to look!" Sunburst tried to respond, but Starlight blasted him into a market stall with a blast from her horn. "Oh, don't give me any of that. You don't care about me, and you never have..." Starlight growled, an evil smirk on her face as she approached him... In Shining Armor's mind... Youtube Video Meanwhile, Shining Armor was in a nightmare of his own. He found himself in a forest, with an old and crumbling church behind him and a graveyard nearby. The moon was full, and he was alone. Shining wandered through the grounds, wondering where the Tartarus he was. Suddenly, he saw a figure move in between two trees and out of the corner of his eye, he then saw two demonically red eyes peeking out from behind some bushes. The bushes rustled and out stepped a familiar figure. He didn't have his Royal Guard armor on, but Shining recognized him all right, down to every last detail, from his dark blue fur to his golden yellow mane and his Cutie Mark, which was a pure black sword, with a red pentagram behind it. That was the only difference between then and now. "Surprised to see me?" Boltstrike asked. "A little, but I figured seeing as how this is my nightmare I should have known you'd show up sooner or later." Shining said. No longer was he afraid of his predecessor. He'd conquered his fears long ago. "You know. we never did really get to finish things properly did we?" Boltstrike asked, his eyes glowing a deep blood red as a sword materialized out of thin air and into Boltstrike's hooves. Shining pulled out his own sword, the Stormbringer, the sword only given to the Captain of the Royal Guard. Boltstrike smiled in an almost wistful manner. "Ah, so I see you got my old sword. Still won't be enough to bring me down. You know, you and I aren't so different. We're both loyal to Celestia and her kingdom, and we're both willing to do whatever it takes to protect those we care about." Boltstrike commented. "No, we're not. You tried to have the Princess killed, you and the Master." "But look at you, you hired one of my former partners in crime as a member of your troops!" "Yes, but unlike you she's changed. She's working to better herself. You never did. I protect ponies, not because it's my job. I protect ponies because there are some that can't help themselves, and need somepony to look after them. My name is Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard, and that is my task, to protect those who can't help themselves. So be warned, if you think you will harm them or anypony close to me, you've got another think coming." "Nice speech, but can you back it up? Let's dance." Boltstrike asked, before he charged, using his Earth Pony strength to buck a tombstone towards Shining which he cleaved in half with his sword before firing a bolt of lightning from it making Boltstrike stumble back. The two clashed swords again and again, each matching the other's blows perfectly. "You've improved your skills since we last fought. Back then, you could barely hold me off. Now though, even I must admit I'm impressed." "I don't need any compliments from you." Shining snarled as he whacked his foe with the handle of his sword making Boltstrike scream out "Damn you!" as blood dripped from his broken nose. "No, the only one I think who shall be damned around here is you." Shining replied as he grabbed Boltstrike with his magic and threw him into a tree before walking up to him and holding Stormbringer against his neck. "Go on then, finish it. Take your revenge." Boltstrike coughed, but Shining shook his head. "No, I'm not like you. I don't strike out of vengeance." Shining responded definitively. Boltstrike chuckled darkly. "Shame on you then." He said, before kicking Shining off him and lunging before there was a sharp *KA-BLAM!** and Boltstrike was blown away into a cloud of smoke. Shining looked up, only to see Target Quartermane standing over him holding a double barreled shotgun.* "Miss me?" She asked with a grin. R.I.F.T Headquarters, a few moments ago... "Oh, we've got to find a way to help them!" Target snarled as she slammed her hoof on a nearby table and in rage and frustration, knocked all the medical equipment off it. "I can't just sit here and watch two of my best stallions dream themselves to death!" "And we will, don't worry." Lightning reassured and put a hoof on her shoulder. Suddenly, there was the opening of a door and Sudoku returned, panting and sweat running down his face. In his hooves, he held three yellow flowers. "Where'd you get those? And for that matter, what are they?" Lightning asked curiously. "Dream Flowers, should be able to allow us to enter Galaxy's, Shining's and Sunburst's dreams. All we have to do is just eat them. Got them from that Zebra who lives in the Everfree. Wonderful mare, that." Sudoku commented lightly with a wistful sigh. Long before Rainbow Dash had come around, he had held the record for the fastest long distance flight from one corner of the world to the other, so making it back from Ponyville to Canterlot was a rather easy feat for him. Target's eyes then narrowed as she suddenly picked up on what her husband had said and Sudoku quickly backtracked. "N-Not as wonderful as you of course!" Target smirked before she took one of the flowers and handed it to Scrabbling, looking him directly in the eyes. "You want to be a hero? Now's your chance." Back in Galaxy Swirl's mind... CLANG! CLANG! went the sounds of Galaxy and Chrysalis' swords clashing over and over. They blocked each other's moves expertly, neither giving in. Galaxy tried a spinning kick, but was sent flying back by a blast of magic from Chrysalis's horn. "Did you really think you stood a chance against moi? You didn't then, and you sure as Tartarus now! You don't have magic on your side, while I on the other hoof do." Chrysalis cackled. Galaxy gripped the handle of his sword which was implanted in the floor and pulled himself back up. "Still want to be pummeled? Your choice." Chrysalis sighed in a bored tone of voice. "You really must believe yourself to be crazy to challenge me." Galaxy's wings extended to their full length and he took a running start and flew towards Queen Chrysalis flying left and right to dodge her green magic blasts before he got close to her and with a wide swinging motion from his sword, cut off Chrysalis's horn as she screamed in both pain and rage. "There, you see? Now we're both on the same level." Galaxy commented. Oh, but you misjudged me on one thing Chrysalis... I don't just act crazy, I AM crazy!" Galaxy snarled before with a sickening sound, he plunged his sword into the dream Chysalis's heart as her eyes widened in shock and green blood poured from the wound and she felt to the floor with a distinct thud even as the dream began to fade away and Galaxy found himself coming back to the waking world. Galaxy smirked, even if it was only just a dream, his vengeance had been achieved and his family avenged at last. Galaxy awoke with a start, panting and sweating, even as Sudoku's eyes widened. "How the...? What the?" Sudoku stammered out. "I hadn't even gone into your dream yet! How'd you escape?" Galaxy never answered. There were some things he'd rather be kept quiet for the time being. Just then, Sunburst woke up with a start. "She... She was never real. That's all it was. Just a dream..." Sunburst murmured to himself and both Galaxy and Sudoku raised an eyebrow in curiosity but decided not to pry. Some things were better kept private after all. Sudoku smiled and whispered "Good job Scrabbling." to himself as Galaxy got up off the bed after his restraints were undone and went for his scythe and the First Blade which had been resting on a wall nearby while Sudoku pulled out two colt revolvers. Galaxy gave a flirty grin towards Sunburst. "Ya know, considering that the world may very well be taken over by a mad goddess and all, I say we should all have sex right here and right now." Galaxy commented in a tone that made everypony present unsure if he was joking or not. "...Just when I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse." Sunburst sighed even as Galaxy flew into the Headquarter's vault and unlocked a glass case with a suit of pre-Nightmare Moon era Night Guard armor (The Nightmare Moon timeline armor in the main MLP universe) and pulled the helmet on, it covering his face completely. "Now, let's say we go and kick some Nightmarity ass, R.I.F.T style eh?" He quipped.
Sleep Part 4: (Bad Moon Rising)R.I.F.T Headquarters... Galaxy Swirls growled as he fitted the last of his armor to himself, and strapped the First Blade to one of his front forelegs, with his scythe going onto his back. He had some payback coming towards Nightmare Moon, Element of Generosity trapped inside there or not. Making him relive the worst night of his life? There was rarely ever a personal vendetta against those he went into battle against, but this time, Hero of Equestria or not, Nightmarity was going to feel the same pain she'd dealt him in full, and then some. With a growl, he went over to a icebox nearby, and opened up the lid and pulled out a packet of A-Positive blood from his personal stash. Ripping the packet open, he drank every last dollop of blood inside the packet, leaving his muzzle in a bloody red mess. While it wasn't as satisfying as drinking the blood of an enemy direct from the battlefield and watching them collapse and fade away into Death's wings, it would have to do for now. For now, his hunger was sustained. Not all Bat-Ponies needed to drink blood, but in Galaxy's case, it was a necessity. He was of a special sub-species of Bat-Pony, the Thestrals, who needed a gallon of blood everyday to keep themselves alive. It was no small wonder then, combined with Galaxy's already borderline insanity, that everypony under his command back when he was Captain of the Night Guard was afraid of him. Galaxy didn't care. He wasn't in that job to be liked. Meanwhile, nearby, Sudoku loaded special bullets forged with magic into his revolvers. Letting the barrel roll with a satisfying click, Sudoku smirked and pulled on a jacket that had more bullet packets attached to it. Right next to him, his wife was doing the same with her shotgun and pumped it before giving it a kiss and saying "Hello Sweetie." "Sure you're not worried she loves that thing more then you?" Lightning teased as her hooves crackled with lightning before she threw out her forelegs and let out a blast of it towards a stone wall, scorching it and smirking. "Yep, still got it." "Pretty sure... I think." Sudoku replied nervously before glancing at the scorched brick wall and then at Lightning. "You do know that's coming out of your paycheck for the month right?" "...Shit." Lightning muttered to herself. "And I had my eye on this absolutely sexy leather jacket I was going to buy." "You know, maybe we should be starting a swear jar with all the cussing you're doing." Scrabbling joked, and this time everypony in the room looked towards him. "And my dear wife would have to be the one to contributing most of the money to it, considering how many times she curses at us in a day." Sudoku joked before getting a dirty look shot towards him from Target. "You do realize I can hear you right?" She asked in that tone of voice every husband knew that if they didn't stop, they were relegated to the couch for a week. Nearby, Galaxy groaned to himself. "...Mad Goddess about to take over the world and yet here we are still arguing like foals and fillies. Really shows how likely this team is going to end up in the future right? Probably with most, if not all of us dead by some enemy's hooves." He muttered to himself before taking another packet of blood and drinking it dry. "Hey, cool it with the binge drinking. You do know that we don't get more of those shipped in till the end of the month right? Have to conserve our supply. It's not just for your personal pleasure you know." Target remarked and Galaxy smirked back at her. "Right, and I don't see you doing the same with the bottles of Applejack Daniels's Red you keep in that stash under your desk you like to think private yet we all know about." Galaxy sneered and Target was left momentarily speechless for a brief minute. Then, there was the sound of a door opening, and Shining Armor stepped in dressed in full Captain of the Royal Guard regalia with the magnificent golden hilted, blue bladed sword Stormbringer. "You guys and gals ready to do this, or are we going to argue like schoolfillies?" He asked whilst in the background Galaxy muttered "...Exactly what I compared us to..." "So, how bad is it out there?" Target asked, phrasing the question on everypony's minds. "You'll have to see for yourself." Shining stated grimly as Target's expression turned into one of worry. "That bad, huh?" She asked, before turning to Scrabbling and Sunburst as everypony else rushed out the front door with Target soon to follow. "You two, hold down the fort! We'll be back." After Target had left, Sunburst stammered out "W-Why do w-we always get the job of holding down the fort?" Scrabbling threw a foreleg around him excitedly and exclaimed "Hey, it's just us, the two "S"s! We can do anything together!" "...Great." Sunburst muttered to himself. When the agents of R.I.F.T stepped out onto the streets of Canterlot, they were in for a big surprise. Stalls were closed shut, newspaper stands had noponies manning them and lights were out in every building. To put it simply, it was a ghost town. The only ponies about were them and them alone. Needless to say, everypony was getting an eerie feeling to say the least. I see the Bad Moon a-rising... "Okay, I don't like this." Sudoku muttered. "Where is everypony?" "They're all asleep, and in the fits of nightmares that they can't wake up from. Just like you guys were. Got to hand it to her, Nightmarity works fast." Shining Armor observed as the group slowly trodded through the cobblestone pathways of the normally hustling and bustling city. Overhead, the stars had been blotted out by dark clouds. Just then, a thought occurred to Target. "Hey, speaking of Nightmarity, where is she?" Target asked as she watched the skies, searching for any signs of the possessed pony. She heard the sounds of wings flapping and a shadow darted through the clouds, but she was unable to tell any distinct feature of the figure. Then loud laughter reached the ears of everypony present. I see trouble on the way... "Soooooo... Someponies were actually determined enough to escape my little gifts for them?" Nightmarity's voice chuckled from somewhere in the clouds. "Gifts?" Shining asked in anger towards her. "How can you call those dreams you gave us gifts!?!" "Oh, they were gifts alright. Consider this. If I hadn't given them to you, none of you mortals would have even known your worse fears would you? Lightning, you wouldn't have known you still had lingering fears of the Master... Or whatever she calls herself nowadays. Oops, spoilers. Don't think I was supposed to give that little tidbit of information out yet. And Shining... Oh dear handsome Shining, you never would have been able to fight your fear of Boltstrike. We all have monsters under our beds, and I applaud you for defeating yours. And Galaxy... Oh poor Galaxy. Yours was the worst of all. Even I feel sorry for you. Imagine, sympathy from the Devil!" "Did the original Nightmare ever talk this much?" Target whispered as she leaned over to Shining, who could only shrug. "Tartarus if I know. I wasn't there. You'd have to ask Twiley." Shining remarked. I see earthquakes and lightnin'... "You know, I could give you a gift from actually waking up from my Nightmares. Not many have been able to do that. What I'm about to offer you is something rare, so think hard about this. How would you like to actually be lieutenants in my army? I mean, look at dear old Galaxy! He's already got the proper armor! Mind you, a few more jewels would be nice but you get the picture." "You really MUST be crazy if you think we'd ever join you!" Shining shouted. There came a sigh from somewhere nearby. "Oh well... Least it was worth a shot. Shadowbolts, get them!" Then, from out of the smokey clouds came pillars of smoke shooting towards the ground all over Canterlot and the pillars reformed into figures with dark blue windswept manes, flying goggles, demonic yellow eyes and wearing black versions of the Wonderbolts uniforms, almost as if in mockery. Shining couldn't count how many there were, there had to be at least a hundred, maybe more. "See my Shadowbolts? Look how fabulous my little darlings are!" I see those bad times today... "Only thing I see is just some ponies lining up for the slaughter!" Galaxy snarled and his wings fully extended as his eyes glowed a dark yellow in the night, piercing the darkness like headlights through a fog. He pulled out his black scythe with dark blue detailing around the edges and swung it around, the blood red runes on it becoming visible reading in the ancient Transalfangyan tongue "Blood Moon". The Reaper of Canterlot had returned to the battlefield at long last, and he intended to enjoy every minute of it. Everypony else was drawing their weapons as well as a battalion of Shadowbolts charged. Don't go around tonight, Galaxy took the first swing and sliced off the head of a Bolt, covering himself in black blood which he licked off himself and shuddered in disgust. So that's what demon blood tasted like. Not something he'd ever want to try again, he noted to himself. BAM! BAM! went the sounds of Sudoku's Colts as he clocked two Shadowbolts in the head and there was the sound of a distinct KA-CHUNK! as Target blasted another with her shotgun. Meanwhile, Shining had engaged in a sword duel with another one, and was matching blow for blow perfectly until he was able to send his enemy's sword flying out of it's hooves before knocking it to the ground and stabbing it in the heart. Then he heard the sound of wings flapping behind him and Shining whirled around and shoved the tip of Stormbringer into the ground sending electricity arcs towards five Shadowbolts making them explode into clouds of smoke. Damn it Cadence, why'd you have to be off in Saddle Arabia as a delegate on today of all days?" Shining mused to himself as nearby Lightning Dust generated two lightning whips in her hooves and cracked them before grabbing a Shadowbolt's front forelegs with them and hurling it into a shop window sending glass flying everywhere some cutting into her skin drawing blood but she ignored the pain. There were far more important things to focus on right now. Well, it's bound to take your life, "Come out Nightmare!" Lightning challenged, her recklessness, that in one universe would have gotten her flank kicked out from the Wonderbolts Academy and had already got her struck by lightning after she'd decided to hold a heavy metal concert during a rainstorm coming out. "Or are you too much of a coward to face us like a mare?" "Oh no... Tell me she didn't." Target sighed before blasting another Shadowbolt. "Yeah, she did." Shining muttered in response. And soon enough, Lightning's challenge was answered. The clouds parted just enough for a rather large hole in the sky, exposing the city center of Canterlot to the moonlight was opened, and then Nightmarity revealed herself at last. She was now covered in a variation of the original Nightmare Moon's battle armor, only this time in gold and encrusted with only the finest of gems. There's a Bad Moon on the rise, "So, like what you see?" Then, Nightmarity was blasted backward into the Canterlot Clock Tower by two magical beams, one golden in color and the other midnight blue. "Who dares!?!" She roared, only to see both of the Royal Sisters appear in front of her, determined looks on their faces. Nightmarity groaned in distaste even as she picked her mighty form up out of the ruins of the clock tower's roof and took to the skies once more, her horn glowing in a purple magical aura. "Oh, I should have known. The Royal Sisters, always interfering with a pony's day to day duties. Lording over us like Goddesses who think they know all, know what's best for their "Little Ponies" (She said this in a mocking tone) and letting the Elements of Harmony do all the work! Well, I'm here to tell you there's been a regime change! I intend to remake Equestria, and in my own fabulous image!" "Sister dear?" Luna inquired with a curiously raised eyebrow as she gazed upon her dark self's (In a sense) outrageously styled armor. Not even her sister looked that bright and shiny, dare she say gaudy even, in her battle armor! "Did me, as the Nightmare ever have this much of an ego?" "To be honest... I think she does have you beat in... Oh what's the phrase... The hamminess department." Celestia giggled to herself as she cover her mouth with a hoof. "Oh, I'm sorry, but it's true. You were never this amusing as the Nightmare." "Tis' a grand jest on your part, we are sure sister! We are sure we were just as amusing as this fraud!" Luna shot back at her sister. "I WILL NOT BE MOCKED!" Nightmarity roared before blasting a beam of pure magical energy that Celestia and Luna met with their own respective beams and the three battled for dominance before all three beams fizzled out, none of the three overpowering the other as they were equally matched. "Temper temper. Thou really must keep it under control. Not befitting of a lady." Luna teased, and for this she was tackled into several rooftops, shingles flying everywhere by an enraged Nightmarity but Luna blasted her foe off her by flapping her wings and creating powerful gusts of wind. I hear hurricanes a-blowing, Nightmarity created a purple ball of energy in her hooves and fired it at Luna but was met by two golden beams from Celestia which ripped it apart before it could even reach the Princess of the Night. "You shall not hurt my sister!" Celestia shouted in anger before her voice turned to that soft, kind and guiding voice that everypony, everywhere knew so well. That very same voice which made the Doctor fall head over hooves for her. "Rarity, I implore you. You've got to look inside yourself! Do not let this Spirit control you! I know the real you, and she would be ashamed and disgusted at your actions right now." Celestia stated kindly as she and Nightmarity stared each other down, each other's horns crackling with magical energy. "My sister is right! We too have felt the taint of the Nightmare, and we too know how enthralling and seductive it's power is! But all it leaves you with in the end is a feeling of great shame for your actions! We speak from experience, Generosity Bearer, so thou must hear us now! Come back to us, come back to the light!" Luna shouted as she took back to the skies and was now behind Nightmarity. "I... I..." Nightmarity whispered, and just for a moment, there was a trace of the old Rarity. But then it was gone. "I DO NOT ACCEPT YOUR OFFERS! THE OLD RARITY IS GONE, ONLY I LIVE ON NOW!" Nightmarity roared and with twin blasts from her hooves, she sent both Royal Sisters flying to both ends of the city making them land in huge spider-web style craters. I know the end is coming soon... Shining snarled as he beheaded another Shadowbolt. For Equestria! Meanwhile, Galaxy smirked as he knifed another Shadowbolt. "Ya know, if we don't get the old Rarity back, can I take up her job in Ponyville as its resident fashionista?" He asked and Target scoffed. "What the Tartarus do you know about fashion?" She demanded even as she blasted another Shadowbolt. "How many more can there be?" She mused, already exhausted. "Well, for one thing I know Sunburst looks absolutely sexy in that robe of his and that I look kick-ass in this armor!" Galaxy stated in a matter of fact tone and Target groaned even as Galaxy took down another Shadowbolt and sung "Now I'm back in the ring, to take another swing! The walls start shaking, the earth starts quaking!". Why did she even bother reasoning with him? I fear rivers over flowing... In an alleyway, unseen, lurked another pony, this one wearing a dark purple dress and having a short cropped black mane. With a smirk, she pulled out a silver device, with a red glow at its tip and used it on several Shadowbolts turning them back into smoke before vanishing back into the alleyway once more. Fun playing the hero it was, but she'd lingered here too long. The Doctor would eventually show up, as he always did and she did not want to expose herself to him just yet. The time wasn't right, but it would be soon enough... I hear the voice of rage and ruin... Meanwhile, even as Shining and R.I.F.T battled the Shadowbolts in the streets, one lone drakeling wandered throughout all this chaos and as he glanced to the skies, he saw the battle unfold between the Royal Sisters and the mare that he pined for with all his heart. "Rarity..." Spike mused sadly as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Why did this have to happen to you?" He ran towards where Nightmarity was even as Shining saw him and shouted "Spike, stop! Don't be a fool!" But Spike didn't listen. "Oh, what's this? A little drakeling come out to play? Shouldn't you be in bed by this hour?" Nightmarity asked in a mock-sweet tone of voice. "Rarity, please! Listen to me! I know you're in there somewhere! I... I... never told this to anypony else, not even Twilight, but I love you! Remember when we went gem hunting and you were captured by those Diamond Dogs? I rushed to protect you, just as I am now! So please Rarity, come back to me!" Spike pleaded, passion filling his every word. Nightmarity gave him a small smile, perhaps her old self reasserting itself for just a moment, but then it was gone and Nightmarity was back. Well Spikey-Boo... (This usage of her personal nickname for him gave Spike hope, before it was quickly dashed by her next statement.) Touched as I am by your words, I'm sorry, but the Rarity you knew is gone forever!" Time seemed to slow down as every member of R.I.F.T and Shining seemed to rush towards Spike to protect him, even as a purple bolt of lightning rushed towards the ground right towards the young drake with Rarity mentally screaming out "NO!" ,with Shining even throwing up a blue energy shield around him, but it was all for naught as the bolt pierced right through him and then only ashes remained... Well don't go around tonight Well, it's bound to take your life There's a Bad Moon on the rise... To Be Continued...
Interlude: (Galaxy Swirls's Really Horrible No-Good Bad Day) (Mature)Canterlot: Nightmarity's Reign, Several Moments before Spike's Death Galaxy Swirls groaned out in pain as he adjusted to his new situation and tried to make out which of his comrades was real and which were just tricks of a dazed brain. Getting one's head slammed into a wall by a Shadowbolt blindsiding you from the left had the tendency to have that affect on you, after all. He shook his head, and the three Sudoku Quartermanes blasting their pistols at the other Shadowbolts went back to just one. Galaxy snarled, and swung his scythe around to decapitate the offending Shadowbolt who had knocked both him and his brain cells further than they normally were. "...Yeah, I'd prefer this town go back to when it resembled a scene from the Trotting Dead. No demons trying to kill you, despite the free food frenzy it offers one. Huh, never thought I'd turn down blood in any form. Ah well, not like Shadowbolt blood is particularly satisfying anyways." Galaxy Swirls mused as he kicked another Shadowbolt out of existence. "You know fair readers, for I know somewhere out there in the multiverse some strange creature, probably one who loves to torture his creations, is chronicling this for his loyal subjects' amusement, this, believe it or not, is not the strangest day I've had in my life. Or the worst. Oh no, there are days that pretty much eclipse that." Galaxy Swirls flashed back to three years prior, back before Luna's return when he was still just a member of the Royal Guard... Canterlot, The Year 999 ANM: Galaxy Swirls groaned as he rolled out of bed. The other Guards in the barrack were still sleeping soundly. (One in particular, who Galaxy soooo wanted to chop off his head, was snoring like a piledriver.) It was early in the morning, so early in fact that Celestia hadn't even raised the sun yet. But Galaxy always preferred getting up at this hour. He wanted to see as much of the night sky as possible before it was replaced by daylight. Not even bothering to gather up his armor and toss it on, Galaxy yawned and stretched his bat wings before taking out a packet of blood from his dresser drawer and ripped it open, drinking every last drop. He smiled, first drink of the day. This one had a serious kick to it, and was pretty much like caffeine to him. Awakened his senses, and got him ready and alert. Galaxy Swirls sighed and muttered some curses that would be pretty much considered blasphemy as his eyes caught sight of a poster on the barrack wall that must have been put up sometime during the night. The poster itself was covered in hearts, and in bright pink letters read this slogan: Come one, come all! Come to the Hearts and Hooves Day Gala! All invited! Bring your partner! Galaxy fumed. He hated this holiday. It brought back all those warm and fuzzy feelings he'd desperately tried to remove from himself after Chrysalis had slaughtered his whole family. What was the point of the holiday for him, if he didn't have anypony to celebrate it with? (Besides, it wasn't exactly like stallions or mares (Galaxy didn't have any real preference to either gender) were lining up outside his barracks to meet him for a night of drunken debauchery, as that was how it always was if you were a Royal Guard on this day. Mares and stallions just loved big, strong heroes.) "Pah! Heroes don't exist, and even if they did, I certainly wouldn't be one of them. I'm a high functioning psychopath. Not exactly prime-date material." Galaxy let a smile come to his face as he stepped out of the barrack and gazed up to the night sky, where the Mare In The Moon cast her light down upon him even as stars twinkled in the night sky. Galaxy sighed and just sat there hour after hour, till the sun finally rose. Little did he know it, but this would be the only moment of pleasure he'd get out of today. It was several hours later Galaxy Swirls found himself, along with his commanding officer, Shining Armor in a rather unusual position to say the least. (Believe it or not, Galaxy actually envied Shining, despite him in his opinion being a dimwitted dork. It wasn't just ANYPONY who got an Alicorn Princess for a girlfriend, and said Princess had to be the Princess of Love at that. Galaxy could only imagine the things they got up to on the bedroom.) Anyways, back to the matter at hoof he currently found himself in. It was an incident that first found itself in the hooves of the CPD, but due to the outright weirdness of the incident Galaxy and Shining found it get handed off to them. There in front of them, was a stallion doing... Things, shall we say to a tree, groaning and panting all the while. The tree of course, could say nothing in response. (Galaxy idly wondered if this could be counted as a rape case.) "Yeesh, I knew that some hippies loved trees, but this was taking it a little too far." Shining muttered as he and Galaxy dragged the protesting stallion away from his new "Lover" and Galaxy knocked him out with a swift blow to the head. It was then both stallions noticed a pink arrow, with a heart for its tip sticking out of the stallion's butt. Galaxy noted Shining's expression. "Something wrong...?" He asked nervously as Shining's eyebrow twitched. Then came something from his mouth that was heard all over Canterlot, and probably beyond. (Galaxy would later keenly note the absence of birds in the area for the next few days.) "CADANNNNNNCCCCEEE!" It was a few minutes later, after Shining had calmed down (With a bit of "Help" from Galaxy, who showed him some magazines of rather... shall we say "Questionable" material. Let's just say they had sexy Neighsian ponies and leave it at that.) that he explained the reason for his scream. "So, earlier this morning, Cadance showed me this costume she'd made up. Made her look a bit like one of those rangers, except in pink and-" "Were you excited by it? Sexually, I mean?" Galaxy asked, and Shining's jaw dropped at his bluntness. Shining's mind flashed back to the thoughts that had been running through his head when his marefriend asked him to see what she was modeling. It didn't exactly matter what she was modeling to Shining, as long as it was sexy. Sexy maid, sexy guard, sexy demoness, sexy firepony, sexy policepony... "...Tartarus, even a sexy construction worker might have been nice." Shining trailed off wistfully with a bit of drool coming from his mouth and Galaxy's mind quickly found itself completely changing. "Scratch that, I don't even want to know what those two get up to in the bedroom." He mused before waving a hoof in front of Shining's face and asking "Hello, Equestria to Shining Armor?" When that didn't work, Galaxy sighed, muttered "Oh, just buck me." (What he didn't know was how true his statement would soon be. Really, he was just providing Fate another chance to kick his ass.) and let a hoof slide down his face before he resorted to the classic standby and pulled out a airhorn. Youtube Video That certainly awoke Shining from his daze and as he shook his head to clear himself, blushing bright red at where his thoughts had gone to and cursing himself for looking like an idiot. "Which isn't very hard to do under normal circumstances." Galaxy mused privately before then he gave him a deadpan stare, which Shining didn't even know was possible for the thestral to do up until that moment. "...As you were saying?" Galaxy drawled. "Er, right... Yes, well." Shining began. "Cadence modeled for me this superhero-like outfit and said she was going to use it to help spread love to all of Canterlot with her special Love Arrows." "Did she say "You have failed this city!" or some other such shit as well?" Galaxy deadpanned in disbelief even as Shining gave him his best death glare. Already, Galaxy could feel the aching pain of 500 laps on his muscles and bones somehow. "This is serious, and not something to joke about! Who knows what kind of chaos this could result in!" Shining shouted, and then there was a loud explosion and both ponies heads swiveled to see a large pink mushroom cloud rise up from the upper-upper-end (As there wasn't a single part of Canterlot that wasn't rich in some way) district before they both heard Princess Celestia's voice in their minds. "My Little Ponies, you must stop this disaster that is rapidly develop-" Celestia's voice said before it turned into an amorous moan much to both Shining and Galaxy's shock. "No shit, Sherlock." Galaxy grumbled even as both ponies rushed towards the scene. And what a scene it was indeed, one that would probably be right out of the mind of one Captain Jack Harkness. In front of them was a virtual sea of debauchery. Ponies, of all shapes and sizes and genders were moaning and groaning, ripping clothes off as they... Well, take a guess. No, really. "...I'm going to need a REALLY cold shower after this." Shining muttered. "I'm going to need Brain Bleach." Galaxy muttered even as he saw what, and whom, Princess Celestia was doing and noted how "Excited" Shining exactly was. "Welp, time to clean this mess up. Yeah, definitely a lot of cleaning." He uttered before there was the sound of a distinct TWANG! of an arrow being let loose and flying through the air and then impacting flesh. Galaxy's flesh specifically, who only had time to say "Well, suppose I should have seen that one coming." before his mind was a blank and all of his emotions left him except for one in particular. When he next awoke, Galaxy found himself in a daze, divested of his armor with a stallion lying beside him, covered in bite marks that could have only come from one particular pony. Galaxy would later learn this event was coined as the "Canterlot Hearts and Hooves Day Grand Orgy Celebration" and that it was only stopped by a strange brown coated stallion wearing a blue suit and brown trench coat using some sort of sonic device to override the Love Arrow's affect. Needless to say, this whole event hadn't improved Galaxy's attitude towards Hearts and Hooves Day in the slightest, with it now reaching brobdingnagian levels of distaste for the holiday. Now: "One day, I'm really going to have to thank the Doctor for that. Might even kiss him full on the mouth." Galaxy mused even as he gripped Blood Moon and sliced, while above him in the sky, Lightning Dust and the Royal Sisters went at it with Nightmarity. "Doctor, Doctor, give me the news, I've got a bad case of loving you..." While all this happened, a new sound filled the air. A wheezing, groaning sound, a sound of hope. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! END
Primal Instinct Part 1: (Welcome to the Jungle, We got Fun and Games...)(Pant) (Pant) A blue furred pony, with two double eighth notes for a Cutie Mark ran through the bushes and trees of the Zebrawa Jungle, determined to outrun those ponies who pursued him. No, not ponies, he thought to himself. Those things couldn't be called proper members of ponykind, not anymore. Not after what he'd seen. It was horrible, something out of one's darkest nightmares. Rain splattered his glasses making everything harder to see than normal, and thunder cracked in the distance. The pony took a quick look behind him to see if he was still being followed, but saw nothing. He let out a sigh of relief. He was safe... For now. "Damnit, I had to leave everything back at the hotel, didn't I?" The pony muttered to himself. "Oh yes, come to Zebrawa, the tourist capitol of Equestria. Enjoy the untamed wilderness, the culture, the wildlife... Long as you don't get eaten by it, that is." The pony mused, and chuckled to himself. How was he to know that cave he had took shelter in a few minutes back was home to lions? Lions who happened to have cubs with them. It wasn't like there was some big flashing neon sign that said "Lions live here! Do not enter, unless you are a bloody moron who wants to get mauled!" Really, it was somepony's fault for not warning him of where the lions lived these days. Taking a glance at his right hind leg, the pony nearly vomited. It was mauled very badly, and blood was oozing onto the grass. He was amazed he could even stand up. But that wasn't his biggest concern. He knew those... things, as he couldn't find a proper word to describe them, could track him by the blood. They were like sharks. Put blood in the water, and they would come. The pony grimaced to himself and ignored the throbbing pain that made him want to scream out. He had to get moving, back to safety, back to civilization and find the nearest airship home. "How does that old Copper Airship song go...?" He mused to himself as the rain poured down soaking both him and the thrush around him. "Oh yeah, Now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's heading my way..." And so, the pony picked himself up and ran, and ran, and ran. He was just about out of the jungle and he could see the light of a nearby village ahead of him. He smiled in relief and let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. Safety at last. But then, the pony found himself shoved up against a tree by an unseen force and found himself looking into a Zebra with pure black eyes, no irises or anything. They were just coal black, darker than looking into the pits of Tartarus itself. Fitting really, as that was where this creature came from originally. "Yes, I think you'll do very nicely. Now open wide! You've got a very special VIP guest who wants to take up residence!" The Zebra laughed and kicked Noteworthy in his mauled leg making him scream out in pain and just as his mouth opened, a swirling column of red colored smoke entered him and then Noteworthy smiled. Not his usual calm, friendly smile, but one of pure darkened hate. Hate for anything that wasn't one of his own kind. And then his eyes opened, and they were blood red. "Okay, now that's over and done and dusted, can somepony find me a suit? I really do look rather ghastly in the nude, don't you think? And get me cleaned up. I've got standards to uphold. Knight of Tartarus and all." The Zebra bowed and said "Yes... Milord Abaddon." Youtube Video (Also Starring: Ashleigh Ball as: Rainbow Dash) (Special Guest Star: Mark Sheppard as: Abaddon/Noteworthy) Ponyville: Carousel Boutique The Doctor and his two companions walked through the streets of Ponyville. The Doctor couldn't resist chuckling to himself. Twilight looked as if she was about to burst from excitement while Rainbow looked as if she were ready for an adventure, dressed in that pith helmet and jacket of hers. "So, guess the costume shop was all out of Princess dresses this time wasn't it?" The Doctor snarked, unable to resist getting in a dig as he remembered Rainbow's... displeasure when they were in Sleepy Hollow for the first time (Well, second time for him. That town always seemed to be in trouble whenever he was around. First it was that Dalek and then the Headless Horse.) ...drawn to Rainbow Dash when she came in. The sight of her made Twilight gape in complete shock, though not because of how attractive the costume looked on Rainbow, more due to the fact that Rainbow's costume which was a pink medieval princess costume simply just looked wrong on her. Trixie tried to stifle her laughter, but was mostly failing. "So, I'm guessing they were out of Daring Do costumes then?" Twilight asked dryly. Rainbow gave her a Class-A type death glare. "What? They were all out of costumes except this, the cowboy outfit and what Cadance is wearing." Rainbow said in disgust. "Now nopony laughs, and nopony gets bucked through the nearest window understand?" Rainbow grumbled as she walked off a mix of embarrassed and furious. Once Rainbow was out of earshot, Trixie finally gave up and burst out laughing as she walked off towards the direction of the Town Square. In her mind, she had more important things to do then hang around here. 'Shaddup..." Rainbow muttered to herself as they walked up to Rarity's workplace/place of residence and Twilight politely rapped on the door a few times. She considered the possibility Rarity might not even be up yet, but she was soundly proven wrong when the marshmellow colored fashionista pony answered the door. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every-" Rarity said in her usual greeting, before noticing who it was. The Doctor noted Rarity's expression as she eyed his attire. He huffed to himself. Who was she to criticize him on fashion? He'd been unlucky enough to witness some of the outfits she'd made for the Pony of Pop, Sapphire Shores, and Rassilon above, they made Elvis's, Lady Gaga's, or even Liberace's outfits look tame in comparison! "Rarity, you look terrible." Twilight said bluntly, as she noted Rarity's tired eyebrows and then she noticed something else. Dripping from Rarity's mane, which was still in curlers, and onto her fluffy pink bathrobe was a very familiar sticky substance. Blood. Twilight frowned in worry. How had that gotten there? "Oh sorry dearies, just a bad dream." Rarity replied with a deep yawn. Rainbow raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "And the blood?" She asked, and all three ponies saw Rarity's eyes widen in shock as she felt the sticky substance dripping from her normally perfectly kept purple mane. "Oh... I... I just bumped my head on my headrest this morning, that's all dearies. Nothing to worry about whatsoever." Rarity told them. Twilight raised an eyebrow, The Doctor "Hmmmed..." to himself and Rainbow thought "Okay, I know I'm no AJ, but even I can tell a lie from a truth. And that right there was a big fat one." "But enough about me." Rarity continued, as if she seemingly wanted to change the subject of their conversation. "Where are you three off to this fine morning?" "Oh, us?" Twilight laughed. "We're off to Zebrawa, a little vacation into the bush, to see it's natural beauty. You see, I got curious about Zecora's homeland a few days ago, and so I asked the Doctor about Zebras and their home country, and he thought after all we'd been through together lately, we needed some time off and so he offered us up a little trip. Imagine, the beauty, the wonder!" As Twilight rambled on, the Doctor thought to himself. "Okay, something's up. I've met Rarity before, Tartarus, she helped me when I was first still regenerating from my previous form and generally did a good job about it, sexual jokes aside (The Doctor blushed at the memory of Rarity asking "Anything else he's got two of?") and kept me well until my body was ready. Nothing really seems to stun or rattle her, well except for maybe rats or spiders." The Doctor mentally chuckled before continuing with his train of thought. "She looks almost afraid. Terribly afraid, almost as if somepony was trying to kill her. And then there's the fact that she looks as if she hasn't slept for a week. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was almost as if..." The Doctor thought before shaking his head. "No, but that can't be. I trapped her myself and handed her off to Princess Celestia and let her deal with her. It can't be that. It simply can't be." But then he was reminded of a very famous quote by a certain deerstalker wearing detective. "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." That didn't reassure the Doctor in any way whatsoever. "...The untamed wilderness, the wildlife, the culture!" Twilight continued to ramble before she was cut off by Rainbow placing a hoof over her mouth. "Okay Twi, I think she gets it." Rainbow deadpanned. As Rarity waved them goodbye from her shop door, Twilight mused to herself (After mentally squeeing over the fact that Rainbow had given her a nickname, before then brushing it off as just something done out of friendliness. After all, Rainbow called Applejack "AJ" didn't she?) "Hmm, something's off with Rarity... I just can't quite put my hoof on what it is though. Gah, Twilight, you're probably just being overly paranoid. It's not like Rarity is going to be possessed by some evil spirit or anything while I'm gone. Just sit back and relax and enjoy the adventure." and walked, taking a quick look behind her to see if Rarity was truly alright. She sighed in relief when she saw Rarity shut the door and through the windows, saw her go back to work on sewing something as always, never noticing the dark blue mist floating ominously above the Boutique... "Come on Twi, you're being such a slowpoke! We're going to leave ya behind if you don't pick up the pace!" Rainbow called from ahead of her and Twilight yelled "Coming!" before mentally musing "Zebrawa, here we come!" VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! The TARDIS made it's usual assortment of wheezing and groaning noises as it appeared in the middle of a small village in Zebrawa deep in the Serengeti Plains. The village itself consisted of mud huts with thatched roofs, or occasionally homes made from trees, much like Zecora's hut back in Ponyville. As usual, nopony seemed to take no notice of the TARDIS (Now with the words Pony Public Call Box instead of it's old Police Public Call Box. The Doctor had managed to fix the Chameleon Circuit a while back, although it seemed the TARDIS had grown attached to it's form of a police box. Either that, or the Doctor just couldn't be bothered in changing the time machine's exterior to any great extent. Twilight honestly suspected the latter.) as the locals went about their day, trading things at market stalls and weaving complex baskets with whatever they could find. In the street, a group of dancers performed to a tribal beat set down by some musicians much to the enjoyment of a gathered crowd of tourists. Twilight smiled at all of this as she, Rainbow and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. It was always wonderful to go to a new place, and learn about how the culture differed to that of her home. "Ah, smell that air! It's... It's so fresh and new!" The Doctor cried in a childlike joy, unable to think of any other words to describe it, all the while doing a 360 spin, as if to get a panoramic view of the area. Both Twilight and Princess Celestia had often noted he had a tendency to do this when in places he'd never been before, and sometimes just when he was excited about something, and often at times for both reasons. "Geeze, what a dump." Rainbow stated bluntly only to get smacked upside the head by Twilight causing her to yelp in pain. "Rainbow, don't be rude! This is how they live, we are in no position to criticize them on it! For all we know, if they came to Ponyville, they might think our form of construction strange. I actually quite like it. It's rather simple and makes for a nice change of scenery." Twilight chided, and Rainbow felt as if she was being scolded by her mother. "Spending all that time around Princess Celestia, not healthy." Rainbow mused, although this time she kept her remarks to herself, in fear of another smack to the head. "Thank you young mare. We of this village greatly appreciate you appreciating our way of life. Welcome Twilight Sparkle and friends, we have been expecting you." An older Zebra, who could only be the village leader, judging by his red robes and staff said as he walked up. "Really?" Twilight asked and then the Zebra chuckled before smiling in a very Princess Celestia like way, the kind of way that she often smiled at you before telling you that you had fallen victim to a joke of some manner. "No, we just say that to freak out the tourists." The Zebra smirked while in the background Rainbow muttered "Well then, consider me officially freaked." to herself as the Zebra introduced himself as "Akachi", meaning Faust's Hoof in traditional Equestrian. "Welcome Doctor." Akachi said as he shook hooves with the Time Lord. "I can tell you're a stallion of wealth and taste." Those words set something off in the Time Lord's mind, as he knew he'd heard that particular phrase before somewhere, but he just didn't remember exactly what it was from. Problem was, if you had over 900 years worth of memories, things tend to get lost in them. He at times so envied the BBC version of Sherlock who only remembered the things that were important and his "Mind Palace" ability. Would have come in handy right now. "A-And, uh, you too." The Doctor stammered out, somewhat caught off guard that this Zebra knew his name, along with Twilight's and Rainbow's before he had even brought it up. He was then in for another shock as Akachi then whispered "We need your help _______. Our village is under siege. Do not tell the others of this just yet. It will frighten them, for what you face is not of this plane. I have already given you a clue as to what it is. Do with it as you must." Now the Doctor was really stunned even as Akachi trotted off with a follow me gesture from his hoof. How could this Zebra even know his true name? Not the title he told everyone, but his real name given to him at birth. And what was this threat he talked of? The Doctor's mind was still on this problem even as he and his two companions found themselves on a wagon pulled by a Zebra named Kevin, who made his life's worth providing tours of the surrounding wilderness, with the wagon's sides opened up to the fresh air with only four small pillars to hold the roof up and very crude seats exploring the Plains. "C'mon Doctor, get your head out of the clouds and take a look around, you're missing a lot of great stuff here!" Rainbow exclaimed before pulling out a pair of binoculars and looking through them to see a pair of giraffes eating from the very tops of trees. All the while Twilight was eagerly jotting down notes on a small notepad as she observed an elephant's behavior, only to receive the shock of her life when the elephant sprayed her with water from his trunk. Twilight coughed and sputtered as she angrily looked at the elephant and then at her soaked notes. All the while, Kevin (Along with Rainbow) laughed uproariously. "Do not mind him, he must have thought you needed a bath!" Kevin exclaimed in amusement as Twilight growled and brushed part of her now soaking wet mane away from her face. Needless to say, she did not share his amusement. She quickly dried herself off with a spell and pulled out a spare pencil and notepad just as the wagon neared some lions. "Always prepared, huh, Twi?" Rainbow thought in amusement before she noted how sharp teethed the lions were. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, please tell me they don't want me for a Rainbow Dash sandwich! Daring Do never had to deal with anything like this!" But it seemed, the lions had other things on their minds as the male one slowly got up on top of the female one. "Ewwwww, lion porn!" Rainbow groaned as the Doctor laughed and said "It's only natural! Birds do it. Bees do it. Tartarus, even well educated fleas do it, and I know you certainly want to do it with a certain mare!" making Twilight squawk and drop her notepad and render Rainbow speechless for several moments. But then she got her revenge. "Like you want to do it with a certain Princess?" She snarked and that promptly shut the Doctor up for the rest of the journey. Later that night, the Doctor was still musing on the problem at hand even as he and his two companions turned into bed for the night at the only hotel in town. The Doctor yawned. It'd probably be best to think on this in the morning, when he wasn't tired and his brain was more awake. The Doctor pulled the covers over himself and smiled as he heard Rainbow whisper "Good night Twi." and hear Twilight whisper back in return "Good night... Dashie." before she flicked off the lights.
Primal Instinct Part 2: (A Warning Given and Double Doctor) (Sir John Hurt Tribute)Youtube Video The Doctor's eyes shot wide open. The calming noises of soft snoring from both Twilight and Rainbow Dash was the only sound in the darkened room. The Doctor's eyes adjusted to the light and he pulled his Sonic Screwdriver out of his pajama shirt pockets, after rummaging around in them and pulling out a few other things, amongst which was a piece of the Eye of Harmony, "Wondered where that got off to." a banana, "Bananas are good. Great source of potassium. Reason I replaced that weapons factory with a grove full of them. Shame though, I admit that Squareness Gun of Jack's... (Some voice in his mind, sounding suspiciously like the man himself, shouted "There should be a "Captain" in there!") Which I... Er, liberated from the factory before it blew up does come in handy." and off all the things, a satsuma. "Figures, there's always that one stinking satsuma at the end amongst a whole hoard of items." before he grabbed his bathrobe, and pulled on his bow-tie, making him a very odd sight indeed, although it wasn't like anypony was around to see him right now, nor did he particularly care anyhow. He'd long ago dropped caring how people or ponies thought of his fashion sense ever since he wore that ghastly multicolored coat about six or so regenerations ago that looked like it was stitched together from just about any piece of clothing he could find. The Doctor then went to a torch in the room and lit it up with his Sonic, but not brightly enough in a manner that would wake up the two soundly sleeping ponies, who by now had at somepoint in the night, curled up in the same bed together, with Rainbow's wings draped in a admittedly rather cute fashion over Twilight's sleeping form, with their chests heaving softly and the occasional leg twitch from one or the other being the only way to tell that the twosome were still alive. "Best leave them to it, Celestia knows they need to bond some more and hopefully admit those ponely wonely feelings of theirs... Yeah, I've adapted alright if I'm saying her name instead of Rassilon's, not that the man is anything to swear by anymore, considering his actions. I should have started swearing to God or some other deity after the Time War." The Doctor mused darkly to himself. He remembered everything that the bastard who called himself the High Counciler had been planning to do to try and save Gallifrey from it's destruction, bringing it to Earth with the help of the Master as an unwitting pawn in some fashion. Thankfully, with him and the Master now in Equestria... Well, just him now the Doctor thought sadly to himself, the final stages of that plan of Rassilon's would never come into being. Honestly, sometimes he wondered if blowing up Gallifrey was for the best, considering the living Hell it had become in the final stages of the Time War. He was glad the Master got out when he did, and the Rani and Romana as well, considering they probably would have committed suicide if they saw what their planet was turning into and what HE was becoming. "You, no we did what we had to do, considering we are the same being after all." An aged and weary voice said to him from a corner of his mind. The Doctor stopped in his tracks even as he was just beginning to step out of the hut's doorway and into the sand. It was a feature of Time Lord biology that even after a regeneration had passed, they were still able to speak to their future incarnations mentally if they so desired. Some Time Lords, usually the ones with especially powerful mental abilities like the Master and the Doctor had developed whole Mind Palaces and were able to communicate with any and even all of their previous selves in moments of calming peace and tranquility... Which for both the Doctor and the Master were far and few between. "No, there could have been other ways... Other paths we might have taken." Eleven (Well, technically Twelve if you want to be pessimistic about it.) argued mentally with the regeneration he refused to acknowledge, the one who had dropped the name of the Doctor entirely. "Bullshit!" HE snapped back. "You know perfectly well as I do that using the Moment was the only way to end all the fighting!" "And in one simple stroke, I became a god, a god of death. Nobody should have to chose who lives and who dies, then they'd become a monster. And that's what I became in that one single moment, something I've been fighting for millennia. A monster. You know, they say the Valeyard was sometime between my Eleventh and Twelfth incarnations, but I think in that moment we became the Valeyard." Eleven retorted and he could feel his previous self being struck like he was hit in the chest. "How dare you..." War growled out. "Listen to yourself. The Valeyard is a monster with no remorse." War said back in return in a stern tone of voice, before his voice became kinder. "We have remorse for what we did. That's what you've become now. The man who forgets, and now the man who regrets." "And now it seems once more I must go to war once again, as we both know what this town is under attack by. I remember now, what "A Stallion of Wealth and Taste" is from." Sympathy For the Devil, Rolling Stones, Album: Begger's Banquet. Great band by the way, helped them out with their first record, but now is no time for reminiscing." The Doctor mused before adjusting his bow tie and taking one step forwards. And then another. "Time for me to be the Doctor. This town has a plague, and it's high time it was removed." "You should bring your companions along for this. They've always been a great help to you, no matter what form they might take, and you sure could use the help now." War told the Doctor. "Damn Akachi's warnings, you can't walk alone on any path. Look where it got me." War told his successor in a sagely tone of voice. "Be the Doctor yes, but be it in the way you are best, with friends by your side." The Doctor nodded in agreement before heading back into the house, but before he could do so, columns of swirling black smoke appeared from out of the darkness surrounding the Doctor and turning into the forms of the Zebra townspeople and torchlights flickered off in the streets as this happened. "Boss wants to see you... Doesn't say why, but we're not ones to question orders." One of the Zebras spoke. The Doctor chuckled. "Not ones to question orders?" The Doctor replied in a mocking tone of voice. "I'm guessing at your pay grade they don't tell you much do they? Really should start asking more questions... Might end up with less of you to deal with, if you get my meaning." "Shut up!" One of the possessed Zebras snapped before knocking out the Doctor with a punch to the muzzle with another Zebra picking up his unconscious form. "What about the other two?" Another asked, gesturing towards the hut where Rainbow and Twilight where. The lead demon shook his head. "Don't bother, they're no threat to us. All that matters is him. He's the problem. Now all we gotta do is find that damned chieftain and our job will be done here. Who knows, might even get rewarded. Tirek knows there are some pretty, pretty mares in this town for us to go all Gimme Shelter on." The other possessed Zebras chuckled darkly before turning back into smoke and flying off in one particular direction. Youtube Video All the while, unbeknownst to them, the War Doctor had just gotten an unwanted visitor in his mindscape, which was his TARDIS. In front of him was a mare with short black hair and a purple dress. "You, who are you? And how the Hell did you get in here?" "Wellllll, seeing as how old dumbo here has gotten himself knocked unconscious, I slipped in and took a pretty little peek inside his head, and oh my the things I've seen..." The mare grinned in a perverted way. "My my, if Celestia knew the dreams he had about her, she might just change that all so wholesome image of purity and all that crap just for him." "Get out of here! You're not welcome!" War barked but was ignored. "Relax, I'm just here to pass on a message of sorts, and then I'll leave. There's things going on down back in Canterlot, and you lot need to pick up your arses and get the Tartarus over there!" "Considering the state we're in, I hardly think that's possible." War deadpanned before the mare headbutted him and War was greeted with an influx of images. First he saw the rooftop of Carousel Boutique exploding, and the windows shattering outwards sending glass flying everywhere, and Nightmarity emerging and making her declaration of "Oh my stars, do I look gorgeous or do I look gorgeous? This is the Best Possible Thing to ever happen to me! But never mind my looks. The night shall last forever, and it shall be absolutely fabulous! And this time... And this time nopony shall stop me! NOPONY!" . Then, he saw everypony in Canterlot falling into dream states and going into horrific nightmares, the contents of which he could only guess, all the while the remaining members of R.I.F.T and Celestia worked to counter the affect. "So, what happens if they try to fight their dreams?" Spike asked nervously and Celestia looked at him gravely. "Simple answer... They die." Then, when the members of R.I.F.T finally woke up, he saw the battle began between them, Shining, the Royal Sisters against Nightmarity and her Shadowbolts. He smiled when he saw that they were holding them off, but then he saw to his horror, what happened to Spike. *"Rarity..." Spike mused sadly as a tear rolled down his cheek. "Why did this have to happen to you?" He ran towards where Nightmarity was even as Shining saw him and shouted "Spike, stop! Don't be a fool!" But Spike didn't listen.* "Oh, what's this? A little drakeling come out to play? Shouldn't you be in bed by this hour?" Nightmarity asked in a mock-sweet tone of voice. "Rarity, please! Listen to me! I know you're in there somewhere! I... I... never told this to anypony else, not even Twilight, but I love you! Remember when we went gem hunting and you were captured by those Diamond Dogs? I rushed to protect you, just as I am now! So please Rarity, come back to me!" Spike pleaded, passion filling his every word. Nightmarity gave him a small smile, perhaps her old self reasserting itself for just a moment, but then it was gone and Nightmarity was back. Well Spikey-Boo... Touched as I am by your words, I'm sorry, but the Rarity you knew is gone forever!" Time seemed to slow down as every member of R.I.F.T and Shining seemed to rush towards Spike to protect him, even as a purple bolt of lightning rushed towards the ground right towards the young drake with Rarity mentally screaming out *"NO!",with Shining even throwing up a blue energy shield around him, but it was all for naught as the bolt pierced right through him and then only ashes remained...* "I'll... I'll be sure to pass on the message when I get the chance." War whispered after the mental assault on his mind finally stopped coming even as the strange mare waved goodbye and said "Toodles! Nice seeing you again my love, but I've got a battle to get back to!" before vanishing. Meanwhile, with Twilight and Rainbow, the lavender colored mare was slowly waking up when she realized she had heard the sound of voices outside. She suddenly noticed that the Doctor was gone and a torch had been lit in the room. She then felt a warm presence by her body snuggled up comfortably and also felt wings draped over her. She looked to her left and her eyes quickly widen as she saw Rainbow Dash by her side, gripping her tightly like a pillow or a very big plush toy. Oh my Celestia... Is Rainbow actually snuggling me?" Twilight thought excitedly and then the pony that was the subject of her musings slowly returned to the waking world as she murmured "Twilight, just give me five more minutes with ya..." before she slowly brushed her multi-colored mane out of her eyes. "Er, where's the Doctor? Please tell me he's not a sleepwalker." Rainbow questioned and Twilight shook her head and tried to keep her enthusiasm to a minimum. There was Rainbow, sleeping in the same bed as her! "Not as far as I know of, no." Twilight replied before she raised en eyebrow inquistively. "Rainbow, why were you... Uh, hugging me?" "We're in the desert, gets cold at night." Rainbow lied as best as she could but Twilight gave her a deadpan stare in response. "We're in Zebrawa, pretty sure it doesn't get cold here, even at night. See, I can smell your sweat." Rainbow decided not to tell her that wasn't sweat, it was musk. She was right in the middle of the pegasi heat cycle and she wanted to mate with somepony, NOW, and all parts of her brain were screaming "Twilight!" Rainbow just thanked Sun and Moon that she hadn't done anything... rash to put it delicately. "Annnnnyyyways..." Rainbow began, deciding it was best to change the subject as soon as possible. "We should probably find the Doc. Faust knows what kinda trouble he's gotten himself into by this point. Probably wandered into a lion's den or something." Rainbow muttered to herself as she and Twilight got up out of bed. Little did she know it, but Rainbow was more right than she thought... Youtube Video Elsewhere in the small village, at the chieftain's hut, which was made out of a tree much like Zecora's home and the inside covered in masks and other décor, Noteworthy/Abaddon, now in a nice black pinstriped suit with matching tie, both made of the finest materials was being delivered his gift, which was promptly and unceremoniously thrown onto the ground. At first he smiled when he saw the Doctor, but then that smile turned into a frown when he saw two certain ponies were missing. "Ah, ah, I believe we have a sort of... communication issue here." Abaddon said in a completely calm and businesspony like tone of voice. "I believe we're missing someponies." One of the possessed Zebras spoke up. That poor fool. "Sir-(He wilted under Abaddon's glare) Er, sorry, Mister Abaddon, we scoured the whole village and couldn't find hide nor hair of the chieftain. Mind you, we did find some pretty mares for us as a... stress relieving scheme, and I do know how much you like that." Abaddon snarled, and it came out like an almost animalistic, guttural snarl before he pulled out a silver rune inscribed knife and stabbed the demon in the forehead, killing both it and it's host, with blood gushing out of the wound with the demon's eyes and throat lighting up orange and the blood getting onto Abaddon's suit. He grimaced and pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed away at it, but soon saw there was no point. That blood simply wasn't coming off. "Great, now I'll have to get a new suit." He sighed. "When I said we were missing someponies I meant the Doctor's companions! AM I THE ONLY PIECE ON THIS CHESSBOARD THAT DOESN'T UNDERESTIMATE THOSE MULTICOLORED NIGHTMARES!?!" Abaddon yelled, his voice suddenly turning into a loud bellow that made all of the other demons take a few steps back. Abaddon took a few deep calming breaths and used his host's magic to wake up the Doctor. "Wakey wakey, we've got a lot of things to discuss." Abaddon said, back in that calm and somewhat suave tone of voice of his. The Doctor groaned in pain and pulled out a handkerchief of his own from his pajama pocket and dabbed away at his bloody nose. "What, like letting me go?" The Doctor snarked. "Sorry, no dice. Not up for making any crossroads deals today. To be honest, I'm taking your soul right here and right now." Abaddon said bluntly, getting straight to the point. "That is, unless you want to fight for it." "Well, I can go and get a fiddle made of gold. I do know where to get one of those." The Doctor commented lightly. "No, sorry, we won't be doing that. So old fashioned, dunno what the boss was thinking. I prefer to seal my deals with a kiss." Abaddon replied. "That does seem to happen a lot to me... The kissing thing... Not the selling your soul part." The Doctor explained. "Buuuuttt we won't be doing that. We're going to have a little tussle for your soul. The Devil's back in Equestria, will you stand up to the test, or will you let the Devil be the best?" Abaddon sung before he yelled "Open wide!" As two demons forced the Doctor's mouth open, Abaddon let free his host and his body slumped to the ground even as a tower of red swirling smoke poured out of Noteworthy's mouth and right into the Doctor's. "The Doctor" then smirked and adjusted himself to his new form. "Ooh, so many parts, and so many hardly used. Oh my, two hearts, must be beating out a samba in here!" Abaddon commented, before a magical explosion then blew the hut's door wide open shattering it and turning it into splinters going every which way and then when the smoke and dust cleared, there stood Twilight Sparkle, her horn glowing, and Rainbow Dash, wings flared, both with determined looks on their faces. "I think it's safe to say you have a security breach. A massive security breach." Twilight deadpanned.
Primal Instinct Part 4: (The Doctor VS the King of Tartarus: Someone ring a bell)"Walking down this rocky road, wondering where my life is leading..." Rainbow's first emotion was shock. Complete and utter shock when Twilight grabbed ahold of her with her magic and slammed her lips onto hers, tongue going right into her mouth and to her even bigger surprise, Rainbow found herself accepting it when she felt her wings go stiff and she heard a loud POMF! sound, knowing exactly what had happened and kissed Twilight back, wrapping her forelegs around her friend's neck and emitting a soft moan as she did so. They were lost in their kiss of undeniable passion, as if nothing else in the world, not even the Hellhounds barking and scratching at the door, was there but then Rainbow pulled herself away from Twilight, panting hard. "Why... Why did you kiss me Twi?" Rainbow asked even as she struggled to get her wings back down from the fury and passion from behind Twilight's kiss. "Rolling on till the bitter end... Finding out along the way what it takes to keep love living. You should know how it feels my friend..." "Last kiss of the damned?" Twilight answered sheepishly. Rainbow muttered "Fair enough" to herself before shoving Twilight against the wall and kissing her furiously with Twilight grabbing ahold of her flanks and rubbing them making Rainbow emit groaning sounds of pleasure and then there came another POMF! Yep, there went the wings again. Twilight and Rainbow kissed again and again, each time more furious than the last, and each time increasing the speed their lips parted and then met again until they were almost suckling on each other's mouths. Months of built of passion released in a single do it before you die moment. Rainbow wrapped her hind forelegs around Twilight's hips as they tumbled onto a nearby bed and began rolling around on it as both mares ran their hooves through each other's manes. "Ooh, I want you to stay... Ooh, I want you today... I'm a-ready for love. Oh baby, I'm a-ready for love. Ready for love. Oh baby I'm a-ready for love, for your love..." "I... I love you Twi." Rainbow whispered as she stopped to take a breather, gasping for air. Both mares were drenched in sweat, and it wasn't because of the nighttime heat. "I love you too my Rainbow." Twilight whispered back before she lunged in for another kiss, neither of them noticing the twin dying howls of the Hellhounds at the door and the distinct sounds of a blade plunging into flesh twice... In the Doctor's mindscape... Youtube Video The mind of the being known only to him as the Doctor, Abaddon decided was complete and utter chaos. Nothing made sense, it was a jumble of memories, each seemingly making no sense to him and each one coming at him in a complete and utter random order, no chronological sense behind them. Of course, the King of Tartarus had a deep sneaking suspicion that was exactly the way the Doctor wanted it. Keeping him off balance long enough for him to mount a counterattack. "Come on out Doctor, grow some balls and face me like a stallion... or whatever the bloody Tartarus you are!" Abaddon challenged, his voice going through all aspects of the Doctor's mind. Then, his head was filled with the sound of a clock ticking over and over, so loudly in fact that Abaddon tried to cover his ears with his hooves. But the sound wouldn't stop, growing ever louder still. "Now now, is that any way to treat a guest?" A voice called out, sounding like it was from Trottingham's West End before a brown coated stallion with a hourglass Cutie Mark and scruffy brown hair appeared before him wearing a blue suit and brown trench coat, along with a pair of 3D Glasses which he took off his face and pocketed in his coat. "You picked the wrong mind to try and take over King." Pony Ten boasted. "I've lived for over 900 years and I know things you don't, oh... (Here, the Doctor looked sheepish.) Sorry, forgot your name already. 900 years, you tend to pick up everyone's name and not remember it from time to time." Abaddon growled, but the Doctor wasn't finished mocking him yet. "You know, I... Weeeeeellll, not me really, but my previous self faced the Devil, or what the universe's original inspiration for the Devil was, and won. Friend of mine, she kicked his sorry arse into a black hole and won. Gotta give my Rosie credit, she can kick flank when the job requires it." Pony Ten continued, while in the real world, Abaddon and the Doctor switched control over their shared body back and forth to continue playing their chess game. So far, it was an equal match. "Give me your soul now!" Abaddon roared and the Doctor shook his head before saying "GIVE ME YOUR SOUL NOW!" in a mocking version of Abaddon's voice. "You know, I don't reeeellly respond well to demands." The Doctor commented in a sarcastic tone before throwing in a tsk tsk for good measure. "Soooo, just for that, punishment! Allons-Y!" Then, the mindscape was filled with the sound of a clock bonging twelve times, in a very loud succession. BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! Once the bonging finally stopped, The Doctor smirked before saying "Gotta go, somepony else wants to greet you. Now I really don't want to go, but... Needs must." before waving good-bye and then Pony-Ten vanished before being replaced by Pony-Eleven wearing his brown tween jacket, white button-up shirt and dark green bow-tie as the mindscape changed from disorganized chaos to the interior of his TARDIS. Youtube Video "Well, how'd you like a bit of my history class? Probably did Discord proud with all that chaos I put you through." Eleven remarked. "Now, down to business. We both have 49% of my body. 2% is blocked off. Whoever wins this little chess match of ours gets that 2% and control over my body. Want me to seal that contract with a kiss?" The Doctor asked before shuddering in disgust. "No... Wait, that'd probably be considered narcissism, considering I'd be kissing somepony who looks exactly like me." The Doctor muttered to himself. "Now, that 49% of my mind I gave you shows you my regeneration abilities, so you know I could just do that here and now and remove you by force and send you back to Tartarus." "Ah ah, but I know you don't have any lives left, so go ahead, stick a knife in your hearts and commit suicide right on the stage if you want." Abaddon retorted. "Leave your love alone crying and weeping for your death and leave the world without another hero. Heroes die so quickly don't you think, and it's always by self-sacrifice." He mused to himself before smirking. "Oh look, I seem to have taken your King. Guess that means I win anyways, so give up your soul. It's mine now." Abaddon grinned before being greeted with a smirk from the Doctor who changed into a man with a black leather jacket, short military regulation hair and very big ears. "Ah. but you see, I was playing two games, not just the one in the physical world. And now for my next trick..." The Ninth said with a Northern accent before Abaddon realized that there had been the First's voice speaking all the while in the background, he just never had noticed it before until now because he was so distracted by the other Doctors. Here is what the First had been saying all the while. "Regna terrae, cantate Deo, psallite Domino qui fertis super caelum caeli ad Orientem Ecce dabit voci Suae vocem virtutis, tribuite virtutem Deo." "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica." "Ergo draco maledicte et omnis legio diabolica adjuramus te. cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque aeternae Perditionis venenum propinare." "Vade, Satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis. Humiliare sub potenti manu dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine, quem inferi tremunt." "Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine. Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos. Ut inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae humiliare digneris, te rogamus, audi nos." "Ut inimicos sanctae Ecclesiae te rogamus, audi nos." "Terribilis Deus de sanctuario suo. Deus Israhel ipse truderit virtutem et fortitudinem plebi Suae. Benedictus Deus. Gloria Patri." The Real World Abaddon roared in rage just as he turned into a swirling pillar of red smoke and swirled up into the ceiling before arching downwards into a rapidly developing hole in the ground which closed itself up as soon as all of Abaddon's essence was gone. "Defeated a Demon King while in my jim-jams. Not bad, very Arthur Dent. Now THERE was a very nice man, quite the kisser. Now..." The Doctor said, adjusting his bow-tie and retrieving his fez. "Can somepony untie me... Please?" With Castiel... Akachi/Castel wiped the black blood of the two Hellhounds off his host's robes and his Angel Blade and grimaced. It was messy work, but it had to be done. Waving his hoof, he un-barricaded the door to the hut Rainbow and Twilight were currently in and opened it only to be greeted with quite the sight. "OH! OH! RAINBOW!" "How do you like me now, egghead?" A blush rapidly came to the Angel's face and he murmured to himself "That... That is inappropriate." before quickly shutting the door. He could wait till they were finished. It wasn't like anything else important was going on elsewhere... right? In Canterlot... Target Quartermane growled as she found herself surrounded by Shadowbolts on all sides, and to her shock, they multiplied. "Oh great, now I'll never remember all your names." She muttered before pumping her shotgun. "Oh well, not like you'll live much longer anyways..." KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! went her weapon as each Shadowbolt went down one by one, Target meeting each one as they came. One came up at Target from behind her, but she whirled around to face it, and blew it's brains out with a shotgun blast. More came, and then Galaxy Swirls ran up and leaped over Target in a spinning motion, all the while in midair pulling out twin knives from his armor and holding one in each hoof before stabbing two Shadowbolts in the foreheads, dropping them and landing behind their dead bodies even as more appeared. "Now I think you've made them mad." Galaxy commented cheerfully as he pulled out the First Blade. "Don't worry, been working on my apology." Target replied before pumping her shotgun once more. KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! (AN: End Black Dog here)
Sleep/Primal Instinct Finale: (End of a Nightmare)Rainbow and Twilight's hut... Rainbow and Twilight panted as they lay next to each other, bathing in the warm afterglow of their moment of passion. They both didn't need to say anything. It was no longer a moment of rash do it before you die spurt of the moment type of decision, in hindsight it probably, no it was certainly was something that had been building for a long time now and they just needed something as Fluttershy's mental thought train put it "Something to clobber them over the heads to make them see it for themselves." The twosome had begun slowly gaining feelings for each other since Twilight ever came to Ponyville to stop Nightmare Moon, it was subtle at first but then it began to grow like a wildfire and burn out of control over these last few days since last Hearth's Warming and the incident with the stropping mad homicidal fairy tales coming to life and trying to kill all, as the Doctor might have put it. "Faust above... You have no idea how much I needed that." Twilight whispered as she held her marefriend and snuggled in closer, breathing in her sweaty scent of an athlete. "You tell me, I bet you haven't even made it to third base when you were in Celestia's personal care." Rainbow teased before an evil grin slowly crept onto her muzzle. "That is... Unless you and Celestia were more than mother and daughter for a time. You do seem to practically worship the mare." "I... I... We... did no such thing!" Twilight sputtered out. "And for the record, I did reach third base with a guard when I wanted to... experiment." Twilight admitted. "...Okay, maybe she wanted to experiment as well." Twilight then mumbled quietly to herself. Rainbow raised an eyebrow and then smirked. "What was that? I didn't quite hear you." Rainbow asked in a teasing manner. "I-I said she wanted to experiment as well, okay!?!" Twilight sputtered out. "Basically, I was doing her a favor and cleaning her barracks and said guard remarked how good I'd look in a Prench Maid's outfit." Twilight admitted with a considerable blush rising to her face. Rainbow burst out laughing. "You didn't!" Rainbow cackled. "Okay, maybe I sort of... conjured up a Maid's outfit and things... progressed from there." Twilight muttered to herself, now as red as Big Macintosh. And just when Rainbow thought she couldn't get any redder, Twilight continued with her confession about her act of debauchery with a Royal Guard. "...Of course that's when my brother walked in on us and... Well... You can sorta guess what happened." "Chased her around the compound with a sword didn't he?" Rainbow smirked. "Yeah, he kinda maybe sorta did, while my old foalsitter sat there looking as if she was torn between busting out laughing and congratulating me for getting a marefriend. In the end, the then current Captain, Steel Sentry, had to break the whole thing up and both my brother and the guard got lashings to their backsides, least that's what I heard, Shining did seem to be walking in a rather sore manner at the time for the next few days, as punishment for disrupting everypony's sleep." "Sure it wasn't an afteraffect of Cadance having a bit of "Fun" with him? Celestia knows those two get up to all sorts of fun quite a bit, her being the Princess of Love and all." Rainbow remarked. Twilight then thought about it for a moment before a greenish tinge came to her face, replacing the red. "...I thank you for putting that image in my head Rainbow." Twilight deadpanned, rather not wanting to think about her big brother and her probable future sister-in-law's sex lives. "You're welcome." Rainbow smirked, either missing Twilight's sarcasm entirely or just not caring. Given the shameless manner in which she was smirking, it was probably the latter. It was then they both realized there were no Hellhounds at the door, and they both then realized something else and exclaimed in unison "WE FORGOT ABOUT THE DOCTOR!" Rainbow and Twilight rushed back to the Chieftain's hut as fast as they could, and when they opened the door, they found the Doctor still sitting there bound in golden chain looking supremely annoyed with them both. "Well, took you long enough. I've been sitting here for the last hour and a half with nothing but my thoughts and a whole lot of mes, very annoying by the way if you've ever met some of my incarnations, that one with the big ears is always so broody and don't even get me started on the one with the garish suit, to entertain me... Oh yes, and a bunch of demons trying to possess me." The Doctor stated, and gestured to the pile of dead demons lying all around him. "Akachi showed up, claimed to be an angel of the Lord and slaughtered the whole lot of them and then vanished without saying a bloody word, and left me still here, tied up!" The Doctor whined in a almost childish tone of voice. "Really must give him props, could give Batman lessons in that vanishing act of his though..." "Wait, how do we know you're still... Well, you?" Rainbow asked in suspicion. "I've got an idea." Twilight replied to her before walking up to the Doctor. "Do you think I'm pretty?" She asked and the Doctor burst out laughing. "No." He said simply. "You're too short and bossy, and your nose is all funny." "Good enough." Twilight muttered before she released the Doctor from his bindings, trying not to take offence to the comment he made about her, and remembering his tendency to insult other species when he was annoyed. The Doctor then sniffed them both, ignoring all sense of personal space much to both Twilight and Rainbow's great annoyance and wrinkled his nose before smiling. "Ah, so you're finally together then? Good on you!" The Doctor said gleefully as the threesome walked out of the hut, the sun rising in the distance illuminating the savanna. "I was getting worried that neither of you could get no satisfaction from the other. I was just about this close from shoving you in a broom closet until you started snogging the living daylights out of each other." Then the Doctor turned to them both. "New rule, no snogging or sex on the TARDIS. She gets very worked up about that. Bodily fluids just ruin her inner workings." The Doctor commented offhoofedly. "Soooo.... How did all of this happen anyways? Demons just don't pop out of Tartarus willy-nilly." Rainbow asked. The Doctor frowned, he'd been thinking on that and all the possible answers led up to one great big stinking solution he didn't like. "Witchcraft. Somewhere out there, somewhere in Equestria is a unicorn, very powerful, possibly stroppingly mental and with Twilight's level of power." The Doctor answered. "He... No, probably a she, as mares seem to be more quick tempered... (Both Twilight and Rainbow glared at him and so he quickly backtracked) ...Okay, maybe a he as I'm not sexist, summoned these demons and well... You know the rest. I don't know who though. I don't like not knowing things." The Doctor scowled. "Speaking of demons, sorry about taking so long to get to you, had a bunch of them to perform exorcisms on, had to do them one by one." Rainbow commented. "My awesome marefriend totally kicked their flanks." Twilight blushed red at Rainbow's phrasing of her. "Eh, no biggie about you taking your time. I'm always running late with things, ironically. I once spent a Tartarus of a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow airport. In hindsight, not really sure why." The Doctor shrugged as they stepped into the TARDIS and the Doctor began throwing switches and turning knobs with a greater urgency than both Rainbow and Twilight had ever seen him do before. "Doctor, what's wrong?" Twilight asked in a voice of concern. The Doctor turned to her and gave Twilight and Rainbow a grave look. "One word: Nightmare." Canterlot Rage. Pure undiluted rage. That was the single emotion Lightning Dust felt after seeing the young dragon known as Spike struck down by Nightmarity. She didn't care that Rarity was possessed by a force far more powerful than her, all she cared about was taking down this thing that had struck down a young kid not even in the prime of his life. As the air began to smell with ozone, a powerful lightning bolt formed in her hooves and she flung it at Nightmarity with all the strength she could muster and hit her dead on target, causing Nightmarity to scream out in both pain and rage. Lightning had reached the rare state known as the Pegasi Battle Rage, glowing pure red with magical energy and the former villainous mare intended to use it to it's full effect. "The Royal Sisters are out of the fight, so it's up to me now. I wanted to redeem myself, and taking down something that's nothing but a monster now is the way to do it." Lightning mused to herself and continued flinging lightning bolt after lightning bolt at Nightmarity, not even giving her a chance to strike back even as the being screamed "Stop, please!" in a tone that sounded exactly like Rarity. But Lightning Dust was far too angry to take notice. Finally, her energy all but spent, only having enough to keep herself in the air, and that was only barely, Nightmarity finally got the chance to strike back. "Fool." Nightmarity said simply before flinging a blast of magic from her horn hitting Lightning dead on and sending her crashing into the street. Lightning Dust groaned out in pain, even as blood trickled out from various spots on her body that had taken the worst of the impact. Nearby, Sudoku, Galaxy and Target had been cornered by a pack of Shadowbolts. Target tried to fire off a blast, but found she was out of ammunition. "Shit, I'm out!" She swore, and Sudoku checked and cursed "Damnit, I'm bloody well out as well!" "You see?" Galaxy asked even as the Shadowbolts closed in. "This is why I stick to knives and sharp objects of all kinds. Never run out of ammo when you need it the most, plus I like things up close and personal." Then, it came. The sound of hope. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! Wheezing and groaning, the TARDIS materialized right in front of them and directly on top of the Shadowbolts, dispersing them into nothingness, and the Doctor stepped out, Huey Lewis and the News' song Back in Time blaring from somewhere in the background, in his tweed suit and bow-tie with a walking cane in hoof, with Twilight and Rainbow appearing right behind him. "So sorry I'm late for the party, but now the Doctor is in." He grinned and when more Shadowbolts came to greet him, he whirled around to face them and the top of his cane opened up to reveal a glowing light green light and then with the distinct sound of a sonic device being used, the Shadowbolts were nothing but smoke. "Sonic Cane, never leave home without it." The Doctor bragged, after receiving an odd kiss on the lips from Galaxy who only said "That was for 999's Hearts and Hooves day disaster!" before looking up at Nightmarity. "Now, time to deliver a cure." The Doctor stated before he turned to Sudoku, and looked at him seriously. "You there, tan pony, don't know your name, (Sudoku tried desperately hard not to look offended by that.) can you get me as close to Nightmarity as you can?" Sudoku smirked. "Course I can, but I should feel the need to warn you, she's pretty quick herself." He said, and the Doctor smirked. "Well, then you'll just have to be quicker." The Doctor replied, and Sudoku extended his powerful wings and the Doctor hopped on him, grabbing Sudoku by the neck with both forelegs as Sudoku rocketed towards Nightmarity, Shadowbolts flying from every direction to protect her. The Doctor released his grip on his means of transport and held up his Sonic Cane and his Sonic Screwdriver. "Hey, anypony ever know what happens when you put two Sonic devices together?" The Doctor asked and Sudoku shook his head. "Neither do I! Let's find out!" He cried gleefully and used both devices at once and all the Shadowbolts were dispersed into clouds of smoke by the pure wave of sound that forced everypony around to cover their ears. Sudoku rocketed alongside Nightmarity, but she pulled on a burst of speed and flew right towards the direction of Canterlot Castle. "Should make a great new home for moi, after I redo it of course." Nightmarity commented. "And it shall be FABULOUS!" She declared before she was wrapped in twin sets of golden celestial chains as the Royal Sisters reappeared, looking a little bruised and bloody, but otherwise looking none the worse for wear. "Thou shall not be doing any remodeling tonight, or any other night!" Luna declared before turning to the Last of the Time Lords. "Now, do what you do best." The Doctor smirked, and cried "That's my cue!" before taking a flying leap of Sudoku and latching onto Nightmarity with his hooves around her neck. "GET OFF!" Nightmarity roared, but the Doctor wouldn't budge. "And fall to my death? I think not!" The Doctor replied. "Now, I know you need help, and that's what I'm here for." Then, ever so gently, he locked foreheads with the dark Alicorn and entered her mind... In Rarity's/Nightmarity's mindscape... Dark. That was all the Doctor could see. Complete and utter darkness except for the odd mannequin and Rarity with her head hung low, sobbing quietly to herself in the middle of a ruined Carousel Boutique. The Doctor walked up to her and dabbed away at her tears. "Hey, it's okay." He said in a calming and caring tone of voice, his green orbs glowing with warmth. "I'm here now. Everything's going to be alright." "No..." Rarity whispered. "Nothing's going to be alright again, not after what I've done. I'm useless and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Everypony will leave me in the end. The Nightmare showed me the truth. We're all just specks in a vast universe, waiting to be flicked out like a light switch." The Doctor looked her dead in the eyes, and Rarity saw for the first time how truly old he was, and what he'd seen. "No, nopony's never important. In all my over 900 years of living, I have never met anypony or anything who wasn't important in some way. Look at you, you could be the best fashionista the world has ever seen, you just have to believe in yourself. I know I do. You are Rarity Belle, the embodiment of Generosity and you CAN FIGHT THIS THING!" "You're... You're right." Rarity replied, her confidence in herself restored before she glared at Nightmarity, who had been watching the whole thing in silence. "You." She growled out, her eyes filled with fury for what Nightmarity had made her do. "You, leave. I said... Get. Out. Of. My. MIND!" The world faded into light, and back in the real world, there was a white glow and Nightmarity was no more. But one small problem. Rarity no longer had wings to keep her aloft, and so both she and the Doctor fell towards the ground, it rushing up to greet them as Death opened his arms for them. But it was not to be, as the Doctor found himself captured in a golden glow courtesy of Celestia and Rarity in a purple one courtesy of Twilight, and they were both set down gently on the ground. "Well, that's that. Day saved again, by yours truly." The Doctor said, adjusting his bow tie. Twilight looked around and saw everypony in Canterlot emerging from their homes. But there was one pony, or rather drake she did not see. "Where... Where's Spike?" Twilight asked before she began shouting his name. "SPIKE! SPIKE! Where are you? Come on, this isn't funny!" Shining walked slowly and sadly up to his sister and gave her a heartbreaking look. "Twilight, there's something you need to know." He began, his voice quavering with every word and he looked as if he was on the brim of tears. Twilight looked confused for a moment before realization dawned and she began to sob softly and soon those sobs turned into wails of despair as Shining brought her into a hug. "It's okay little sister, I'm right here, all of us are right here..." END
Interlude: (When the Levee Breaks)Ponyville Memorial Gardens 'Well I heard there was a secret chord That Starswirl played and it pleased the Lord." Storm clouds rumbled as the sky became a thick greyish mass, seemingly reflecting the mood of everypony present. You know, it's a cliché in movies or TV when somepony or someone dies that the weather changes to reflect the mood of everypony present. Of course, often times funerals take place on the nicest of days, when the air is warm and the sky bright and sunny, or when it's freezing cold and snow is falling on the ground. But today, that cliché was in full force. Rain began to fall over the funeral procession as four Royal Guards carried a brown and gold casket with a black shroud and a symbol of green fire draped over it down the dirt pathway, which was beginning to turn to mud from the rain drops falling. "But you don't really care for music, do you? Well it goes like this:" The procession slowly preceded down the pathway, the guards flanked by their Captain on one side and Princess Celestia on the other. Shining was in full dress uniform, wearing a black suit and matching tie while Princess Celestia wore a black dress that covered everything, even her Cutie Mark, although even she doubted that a rising sun would lift anypony's spirits today. All over Ponyville, black flags hung from flag poles and the Town Hall's own flag pole, which normally displayed Ponyville's emblem of a seed bursting from the ground and sprouting leaves to symbolize how the small town had grown from a tiny hamlet to a bustling village was today a purple flag with a green flaming scroll raised at half mast. It was a national day of mourning, even if the creature in question was never a national hero, both Celestia and Luna, out of respect declared him to be a creature to be held in as high regard as one for his courage to stand up to the Nightmare, and for all the help he'd given his caretaker over the many years she'd raised him. "The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift The baffled wizard composing Hallelujah" Twilight, with a tear dripping from her eyes and a black veil over her face watched as the casket was lowered into the ground where It would lay forevermore. Her son, dead before he even reached the prime of his life, and who did she have to thank? One of her own friends, possessed by the Nightmare! Rarity! She was at this funeral as well, although why the Tartarus she had the nerve to show her face was anypony's guess. There she stood, by a tree draped in black sobbing into a handkerchief heavily as if she actually cared about Spike! If she had cared, she wouldn't have turned him into dust in the damn fist place! Rarity wasn't the only one Twilight was furious with. The Doctor was there as well, the one who should have seen this coming in the first place and he could have prevented it! "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah..." Twilight snarled when she saw R.I.F.T as well. They were there too, with Target holding her hat to her chest in mourning and not wearing her usual sunglasses allowing her cool blue eyes to be seen and her husband stood by her side with a wing wrapped around her in a comforting manner, tears trickling from his eyes. Galaxy Swirls stood as well, out of armor and wearing a red cape and what looked to be silver armor. The armor of nobility, although as far as she knew Galaxy had never said a word about being a noble. Then again, he never said much on his past to begin with. As far as Twilight knew, only Luna knew of it and she wasn't telling a soul. "Well your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof." "Somepony's going to pay for this. No, make that somePONIES!" Twilight snarled and left the funeral in tears, unable to watch anymore or even listen to Celestia's speech. The Doctor noticed, and so did Rainbow and Rarity. "S-She's not even going to stay for the speech?" Rainbow asked in shock and Rarity sniffled before managing to muster up a reply. "W-Well, to be fair... Spike was like a son to her. Tartarus, he was like a son to all of us!" Rarity sobbed while inwardly the Doctor was cursing himself. "Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya She tied you to her kitchen chair." "Damn it! I should have prevented this! I'm the Doctor, and so I try to save ponies if and when I can, and yet I couldn't even save the life of a young drake who's close to one of my dearest friends!" He snarled mentally at himself only to get a strong rebuke back from his previous self. "You can't save everypony. I've learned that. If we were given the ability to choose who lives and who dies, that'd make us a monster." Ten (The Doctor couldn't be sure which one of them it was) remarked. "To be honest, we already surpassed that status when we blew up our own home planet. HE was right you know, when he said it. When he said those words. Doctor No More." "She broke your throne and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah." This last comment was made out of pure shame, as if the Tenth Doctor had finally accepted his sins and was just awaiting judgement for them when it came. He knew where he was going, and it wasn't to the place in the sky. To be honest, all of the Doctors past War held these feelings inwardly, they just never admitted it, not even to themselves in private. They didn't deserve the title of the Doctor, the man who helped people, they'd broken the promise they made when they took the name. And now at last they'd finally accepted it. Just then, the Doctor was shaken out of his internal musings by Rainbow. "Baby, I've been here before, I've seen this room and I've walked this floor. I used to live alone before I knew ya..." AN: End Hallelujah here "Hey, maybe we should see if she's alright." Twilight's marefriend suggested and Rarity sniffled again and nodded in agreement. "Y-Yes, I think that would be best dearies." She agreed and the Doctor nodded. "Yes, right after the funeral's over. After that. I played a part in Spike's demise and I should be here to give him his last respects, ironic as it sounds." The Doctor stated, and Rainbow laid a hoof on his shoulder. "There was no way you could have known what was going down in Canterlot. You can't be in two places at once!" Rainbow exclaimed. The rain was pouring now and Shining barked orders to his guards to give the 21 Gun Salute as up above, the Wonderbolts flew above them as a tribute to the drake who would now never fly. "But that's just it! I can! I'm the Doctor, I could have warned a previous self of mine, damn the rules about crossing personal timelines as nopony can ever tell them to me as I make them, and I would have broken those rules many times over to avert this and to go and deal with the Nightmare Spirit personally, or at least make sure she was properly locked up!" The Doctor exclaimed in fury with himself and said nothing more on the matter. The Golden Oaks Library Twilight choked back a sob as she held a portrait of Spike in her hooves. In it, the young drake was smiling and grinning at her as if everything was alright with the world. And now it wasn't. It would never be. What kind of world did she live in, Twilight asked herself, if she had to bury her own child? Her own damn child and attend his funeral!?! For a brief moment, she became lost in her memories. "I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel." "Twilight, he just wants to take your order." "Okay. Imagine me with a nice long Fu Manchu-type beard. Or maybe a goatee..." "AAAHAHAHAHAHAA!! This is hilarious! Look at all of you! We got Hairity, Rainbow Crash, Spittie Pie, Apple-tini, Flutterguy, and... Uh...eh...I got nothin'. Twilight Sparkle, I mean seriously, I can't even work with that..." "You know, Pinkie, these two ponies have a bit of a grudge match they're trying to settle, trying to prove who's the most athletic." "Yes! And "grudge" rhymes with "fudge"!" "Yes, it... does? What?" "And I like fudge. But if I eat too much fudge, I get a pudge and then I can't budge." "So... no fudge?" "Aw, no thanks. I had a big breakfast." "Hey, Pony Joe. Another donut." "Don't you think you've had enough?" "Another donut! Extra sprinkles!" "Arrrgh...I've been holding that quill so long, I've got a claw cramp! Good thing we don't have anything to report to Princess Celestia this week. I don't think I could write another word!" "I focused on the pain, the only thing that's real..." Just then, as if to distract Twilight from her own internal musings, there was a soft rap on the door. "T-Twilight?" Rarity's distinct voice asked. Twilight growled. Rarity had a lot of nerve to show up right now. "M-May we come in?" Twilight didn't open the door. "Twilight, please! We need to talk to you!" Rainbow yelled from behind the door, and this time Twilight did open it and her eyes narrowed in pure rage and fury when she saw the two objects of her hatred, the Doctor and Rarity standing there. "Get out." Twilight growled, her horn already crackling with magical energy. "No Twi, we need to talk." Rainbow said firmly, with no room in her voice for argument. "I said get out Rainbow, you don't want to be here for this." Twilight growled, and sent a small magical blast at Rainbow's hooves making her yelp and take a step back in fright. She'd never seen Twilight like this, not even after losing her aunt. Something was definitely wrong. "The needle tears a hole, the old familiar stain. Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything..." "Twilight... For the record..." The Doctor began slowly, tears trickling out of his green eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I should have been there." At this, Twilight's emotions finally boiled over and she began to shout and scream at them, magical energy flying everywhere as books lifted themselves off the shelves and flew every which way and the floor began to crack under the sheer magical output Twilight was throwing out. "What have I become? My sweetest friend..." "THAT'S DAMN WELL RIGHT! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE DOCTOR, IF YOU EVEN DESERVE THE TITLE!" Twilight roared, her voice output reaching The Royal Canterlot Voice levels of volume. "I TRUSTED YOU, AND YOU TOOK THAT TRUST AND THREW IT AWAY LIKE AN OLD STUFFED TOY! SPIKE WAS MY SON AND YOU LET HIM DIE ALL BECAUSE OF SOME DAMNED DEMONS, WHO COULD HAVE BEEN DEALT WITH AT ANY TIME YOU VERY WELL LIKED!" "The Doctor..." Twilight snarled bitterly. "The Stallion who makes ponies better. That was your promise wasn't it? Well, you've certainly done a good job in upholding THAT." As the Doctor hung his head in shame and Rainbow gaped at Twilight's audacity, Rarity, now shivering with terror spoke up. "Everypony I know, goes away in the end." "Y-You shouldn't blame him, he had no way of kn-" Now Twilight reeled on her. "DON'T SPROUT THAT SHIT AT ME RARITY!" Twilight roared. "YOU WERE TOO DAMN WEAK TO FIGHT OFF THE NIGHTMARE, AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! YOU KILLED HIM, THE ONE WHO WAS ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU, THE ONE WHO LOVED YOU AND YOU SNUFFED HIM OUT LIKE A LIGHT!" "Twilight, you're not acting like yourself. You need to think rationally. I know you're in pain and grief, but you know perfectly well how powerful the Nightmare is. We've all seen it's temptation and what it did to Luna, an ALICORN for crying out loud!" Rainbow countered. "And you can have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down, I will make you hurt..." "Twilight... Please, it wasn't our fault!" The Doctor pleaded, feeling grief for the death of the young drake. He may not have knew him well, but even he knew how important Spike was to Twilight. "NO!" Twilight suddenly shouted. "BUCK YOU, Doctor, and you as well Rarity! It's your fault that my son's dead, and nothing on this planet can bring him back!" "I wear this crown of thorns, upon my liar's chair. Full of broken thoughts, I cannot repair." With that, Twilight ran out of the room crying as Rarity put her face into her hooves and sobbed. Twilight was right, it was HER own fault that she let herself get possessed by that demonic brute known as Nightmare Moon and killed her Spikey-Boo. And now, she'd lost her chance, perhaps forever, to tell the mare she loved how she truly felt. Yes, that's right. Rarity was in love with Twilight as well. She didn't know how, why or when exactly it started, but she couldn't deny it. Then, all three ponies felt themselves soundly flung out of the Golden Oaks and onto the street with the door to the library locking itself behind them and the Doctor hung his head in shame and openly wept. "I... I suppose they all leave in the end. A-And... it breaks both my hearts." He whispered and walked all the way to the TARDIS, locking the door behind him where he held both Twilight and Shining's keys to it in one of his hooves and flung them both away in rage. He then kicked and screamed at the TARDIS's central console, making it emit sparks with each hit of rage and grief before his energy finally spent, he flung off his tweed jacket and loosened his bow-tie and let it drop to the floor. "Beneath the stains of time, the feelings disappear. You are somepony else, I am still right here." Meanwhile, in Canterlot Castle, Princess Celestia had locked herself away in her chambers and had flung away her royal regalia and was openly sobbing as well, casting aside her carefully crafted mask and letting all of her sorrow for the dragon who she had considered a grandson flow. A great loss had happened today, and the after affects would be felt in the days to come. That, everypony knew. "What have I become? My sweetest friend... Everypony I know, just goes away in the end." END
Interlude: (The Doctor, Time Lord, and... Babysitter?)The Crystal Empire: All was silent except for the cold wind rushing through the frozen wasteland. Nothing made a sound, not even a animal. After all, how could they when there was no animals around to make them? Then, there was a sound breaking the silence. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP "Weeellll, that was rather enlightening wasn't it? Okay, so as it turns out Sea Ponies do not like it when you say you've eaten fish at least once. Huh, wonder why?" The Doctor muttered as wind whipped his grey fur and blew his mane in front of his face. He was dressed in what you would almost certainly not wear in cold weather like this. Said attire consisted of a gaudy flower print shirt not out of place from those in Haywaii and sunglasses along with a fez. "Mental note. Spears are not cool!" Now, you may be wondering what the Time Lord was doing here. King Sombra returning? Lizard people coming up from under the earth? Daleks attempting to destroy the Crystal Heart? Well, you'd be wrong on all counts. It was none of those things actually. Quite recently, he'd heard his companion Shining Armor along with that wife of his had become parents. He wanted to congratulate the two. Mind you, he wasn't sure if he landed at the right time and it was entirely possible he'd landed too early and would just end up creating some awkward moment like when he burst out at the wrong cake at a bachelor party when he was looking for Shining to tell him the world was about to end via Cyberpony/Weeping Angel team-up. Long story. "Well, here goes nothing..." He said, as he fixed his tie and fussed with his hair. "Geronimo." "HEEELLLLLOOOO! Anypony home?" The Doctor called as he opened the two large doors that led to the Crystal Palace's throne room. "Huh, I was expecting the guards by now to have been pointing sharp and pointy objects at me. Maybe I should have sent a memo... Nah, surprise visits are cool. Fact." Then he got his wish as guards pointed said aforementioned sharp objects at him. "...Of course, there are someponies who don't share this view but oh heck what do they know huh?" He asked. "Who are you?" One guard asked. The Doctor grinned. "Glad you asked my good sir. I'm the Doctor, also known as the Oncoming Storm, the Predator and Your Worst Nightmare... among others but we shall not go into those eh?" He replied with a manic grin as usual before bowing. The guards weren't very impressed. The captain gestured to two of his men. "Take him to the dungeons. We'll let the Prince and Princess decide what to do with him there." He said, and two guards grabbed the Time Lord much to his great dislike. "Now now, we can talk about this. No need to resort to-Hey, watch it mate! You could hurt somepony with that, like me!" He protested after being poked with a spear to make him trot forwards. "Alright, what's going on here?" Shining Armor asked as he trotted into the room alongside his wife. "I heard shouti-Doctor, what did you do? Actually, for that matter why are you here?" "Well, I was going to congratulate you for the baby but these guys thought I was some sort of villain! Mistaken for a villain incidents are not cool!" He protested and Shining sighed before facehoofing. "Release him. He's a old family friend." "First off, I want to ask are there any threats to the Empire I should know about?" Cadence asked the Doctor. "No offence, but I have heard where you go trouble follows." The Doctor looked somewhat offended. "Oh ye of little faith... I can go places without somepony trying to kill me." He said dryly. "Well you do have a track record." Cadence replied as Flurry cooed. "She wants milk." The Doctor said simply and Flurry's parents looked at him in shock. "I speak Baby." He answered, as if that said it all. Shining sighed and rubbed his temples before muttering "Of course you do..." Flurry cooed once more and tried to reach for the Doctor's tie and pull it off. She eventually decided to just suckle on it. He groaned while Cadence giggled and Shining laughed his head off at the Time Lord's obvious discomfort. "Yeah yeah, laugh it up." He muttered. "Looks like she likes you Doctor." Shining snorted as Flurry cooed again. The Doctor looked down at her before saying "No, I'm not your mommy, she is. No, she's not just big milk thing and no you can't bump her and your dad off and rule the Empire by yourself." He whispered before looking at Shining. "Looks like your kid wants to take the Kylo Ren route and take over. Watch yourself." Shining and Cadence looked at him like he was crazy. Well, crazier then normal anyway. Now the Doctor was the one rubbing his temples. "...Never mind." He muttered as a guard rushed in. "My Lieges, Princesses Celestia and Luna need you in Canterlot! It's urgent." Shining swore under his breath. He knew he'd have to leave Flurry behind and the Royal Babysitter was out sick with the Feather Flu. Suddenly he got a crazy idea and looked at the Doctor seriously who along with Cadence grew rather nervous. "Uh Shiny, what are you doing?" The Princess of Love asked nervously. "Doctor... This may be the most difficult task I have ever asked of you. Will you look after my child?" Shining said seriously and his tone indicted he wasn't joking although the Doctor wished he was as Flurry continued suckling. He didn't know how to take care of a baby, and one who was a magical princess who nearly destroyed the Empire at that. But then he looked at Shining's pleading face and Flurry's admittly adorable features. "Well... She is kinda cute... Oh what the heck? I'll do it!" Yeah, this wasn't going to be too hard. He'd faced down Daleks, Cyberponies, The Master and Weeping Angels among many other things over the years. He could do this! After all, how hard could it be? So that was how a few moments later, the Doctor Last of the Time Lords, Predator of the Daleks and the Oncoming Storm found himself babysitting a young and rather powerful Alicorn Princess. Said Princess's parents had left him explicit instructions on what to do, and what not to do. He thought back to when he was getting them... "Okay, first off she cannot drink anything that has not been prepared by the royal chefs." Shining warned. "Why? Scared she might got poisoned?" The Doctor couldn't help but inquire. Shining chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, she's just very picky." He replied. It was at this point his wife joined in. "Also, she loves to suckle on things." Cadence said. "Yeah, I noticed." The Doctor deadpanned using the skills Twilight had taught him, as Flurry just happened to be doing exactly that with his bow tie once more. Bow ties were cool, but could be made much less so covered in foal drool the Doctor mentally grumbled to himself. So humiliating for him. "Anything else I should be warned about?" The Doctor asked nervously, quite afraid to find out. "Yeah, she uh..." Shining began, but looked rather sheepish while doing so. Cadence shared his expression. The Doctor began to grow even more nervous and felt a impending sense of incoming possibly regeneration causing doom. Okay, maybe not that bad in reality but some of a certain Princess of Friendship's worrywartness had imprinted on him when he had gone to this body. "Well, spit it out. I don't have all day." The Doctor snapped. Some of her patientness, or lack thereof as well. Sadly, the Doctor found out what Shining and Cadence were so worried about when he accidently scared Flurry with his annoyance and she did what Luna was infamous for in her youth. "WAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" Flurry's cries shook the castle and crystals cracked and Crystal Ponies fled into their homes. But it soon stopped as quickly as it came when Cadence held her daughter's favorite stuffed duck in front of her and she suckled on it. "...That." Shining said at last once he had recovered his hearing. "That's what you should be worried about." "Great." The Doctor muttered. Looking at Flurry now, with her cooing at him happily in her crib the Doctor wondered what he was so worried about. He almost considered dropping his guard. Almost. To his left, was a cart the catering staff had brought in with Flurry's personally cooked baby food. Personally cooked? "Bit overkill." the Doctor thought. Then again, if you were royals I suppose you could afford to go a bit overboard. Heck, he had no room to talk really as he came from a family that spoiled their children relentlessly. Him and the Master. Well, it was Missy now but that was besides the point. "Well, you are kind of cute. For a pony, I mean." He murmured to himself and as he reached his hoof out to tickle Flurry, she did what any young foal or child of any species would probably do. She grabbed it in her mouth and suckled. The Doctor sighed, which he suspected he would be doing a lot lately. "Well, at least it's not my tie...." He shouldn't have opened his mouth, as guess what Flurry grabbed with her magic next? The Doctor found a pillar and began beating his head against it. Eventually, he opted for feeding Flurry her baby food. Well, tried and failed would be a more accurate phrase as whatever he did, she only either made a mess of it on her high chair or just spit it back up. "I wonder if the lucky parents are having it any easier?" The Doctor wondered aloud. Canterlot Royal Gardens... "After that thing!" Shining shouted as he, his wife and the Royal Sisters along with Twilight chased after a giant six legged lizard with many spines on it's back. "Foul creature, we shall turn thee into a new purse!" Luna bellowed as the creature screeched at her before spitting a thick gunk at her which covered her and Twilight's manes and fur. "Ugh, this is what the regular ponies nowadays call demeaning." She muttered in disgust before resuming the chase. Back with the Doctor... "Eh, I'm sure they're fine. Now, back to business..." The Doctor said, before Flurry spit up on him again. However, eventually he managed to eat some of her food. But now came something even harder, getting her to bed. "It's okay. This can't be that hard, now can it? She's just a Alicorn Princess. Not like she's a goddess or anything... What is she even the Princess of anyway?" The Doctor mumbled to himself. "Scaring away potential babysitters maybe?" He added dryly as he rocked Flurry. He had to admit, she was rather cute when she was sleepy as she finally drifted off into dreamland. He slowly crept out of her room but then tripped on a toy and fell over. His shout of shock accidently woke up Flurry, and I think you can guess what happened next. "WAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" Oh that was it, the Doctor was about ready to give in. He was going to resort to desperate measures, as the old saying goes. He was going to call for help. "Hmm, I wonder if Derpy's free?" He asked himself. As it turned out, so she was. But the first thing he was asked was "Weren't you a grandfather once?" "I... I forgot a few things, okay? It's been a while! Over 900 years, in fact." He mumbled in embarrassment and hung his head as Derpy cooed at Flurry and helped her drift off to sleep with more rocking. It probably helped that she had experience taking care of a foal with access to magic, namely her daughter Dinky. "Well, that should do it. Let's just not trip over anything and render this whole thing a moot point." Derpy whispered, but then they saw all of the toys in front of them. It was like a potential minefield of things to wake up Flurry. She shared a look with the Doctor, and they both said in unison "Nah, best not." A few hours later, both Cadence and Shining returned covered in some gunk and nervously crept up to Flurry's room rather scared of what they would find. They peeked their head into Flurry's room and both d'awwwed at the sight of the Doctor and Derpy fast asleep next to Flurry's crib, where she was snoozing with a plush Tardis in her hooves. "Well, that actually went better then I expected." Shining said. "Maybe we should appoint the Doctor as our official royal babysitter." Cadence agreed. The Time Lord didn't know why, but he suddenly felt that sense of doom return. END
Interlude: (The Doctor's Last Dance)Equestria: 200 Years in the Future Princess Celestia, Former Regent of the Sun and one of the two Royal Sisters was in what could only be described as a living Tartarus. She'd been like this for the past 100 years, and for all she knew, for the rest of her immortal lifetime. She'd been laid low, transformed into something that was undeniably not Equestrian in any sense of the word. It sickened her. Mind you, if she'd been transformed into this new body of hers of her own free will, it wouldn't have been so sickening, but no. HE had forced this upon her, and did the same thing to the rest of her kingdom, and then the rest of Equus. Not that it was called Equus anymore. No, that BASTARD (And even if Celestia rarely cursed, that foul word was the only way to describe him) had even had the outright gall to change the name of her birthplace to Alicornicopia, and change everypony in the land to fit his perfect desire, without even asking if they wanted the change to begin with. And what did this monster change everypony in Equestria to? Alicorns! ALICORNS! He hadn't even considered the possible ramifications, the possible aftereffects of giving ponies who had no right, or the character strength or even the worthiness to becoming physical gods. It terrified her to the power certain ponies like Blueblood held. Before, he and the rest nobility, barring a few like Fancy Pants could just be a minor nuisance, trying to think up laws that would benefit them and only them, but because they could always be held back by Celestia and her sister, there could be no real problems from them. But now, they had power, and were using it to pass bigoted laws and raise taxes as they deemed fit, and Celestia nor her sister could do nothing about it, all because Luna had been sent back to the moon because she was deemed a "Possible Threat" due to her past as Nightmare Moon and Celestia herself had been dethroned and chained up in her own throne room as a symbol of the newfound power her master held over her. And what did this master call himself? The Grand Ruler, that was his name. Although he preferred to call himself Celestal, just to mock her and show her that he held power over her, in EVERY sense of the word. He was scum, but nothing could be done about it as he and his little loyal band (Celestia could rattle them off name by name. Lightning Daze, the ever loyal second in command and a twisted mockery of Celestia's personal students. Star Bright, Lightning's little fan-girl and whore who spread her legs for him every chance she got. Rhymer... Oh him. He may have been able to rhyme alright, but not very well, and that wasn't counting the love spell Celestia KNEW he put sweet Fluttershy under. Artist, the simple artist. Celestia held out hope for him, he never seemed to be as interested in The Grand Ruler as the others. Flower Power, the very definition of the term Green Hoof. Nitro and Glycerin, the insane twins who could probably be classified as anarchists if they weren't under the Grand Ruler's thumb. Brainiac, who despite his name wasn't as intelligent as he seemed if he didn't see what the world was like.) kept order, if only in a loose sense of the word. Anypony who dared speak out, they got sent straight to the prison on Beta Five, where they were kept locked up with no chance of release or even parole. Celestia was in Tartarus and there was nothing she could do about it. "Soooooo... My Little Pony, enjoying the day?" Celestal's snarmy voice asked her as he looked down upon her. Celestia simply spat at him, even as she was chained up in special Alicorn magic canceling chains to what was once her throne. It only added to the indignity of it all. "So rude. I'll have to teach you some manners later. Trust me, you'll enjoy it." "I doubt that very much, you monster." Celestia thought to herself, keeping a straight face even if she wanted to cave in Celesto's own with her fist so badly that he could never smile again. Yes, that's right. I said fist. Celestal, as soon as he came here, changed every creature on the planet to anthromorphics. Mind you, it did have some benefits, as you didn't have to hold a quill in your mouth anymore if you didn't have magic... Although everypony did so that was besides the point. Come to think of it, and Celestia had been doing nothing but thinking over the past 100 years because after all what could she do but think, there really was no point to the transformation except just for Celestal and his kind to show how superior they were like this compared to the old body style of the planetary natives. Celestia could do nothing but sob as The Grand Ruler (She would never, EVER call him by his real name) sat upon her throne. Was this how the rest of her life was to be, chained up and shown off as a symbol of a tyrant's power and used as his plaything whenever he saw fit? She needed hope... But honestly, she doubted that would ever come back to this land. She doubted even HE would return, as the last Celestia saw of him, he had locked himself away in his box and never came out again. But then, the room was filled with what was quite possibly, the most wonderful sound in the world. VWOOP! VWOOP! VWOOP! Youtube Video There it came, that wonderful blue box, materializing into existence right in the middle of her throne room. And then, the Doctor stepped out. Celestia noted he was devoid of his usual bow tie and tweed suit. "Well well well... The Grand Ruler is it? So pleased to finally make your acquaintance." The sarcasm in his tone was easily noticeable by even the most dumbest of ponies. "Who the HELL are you?" The Grand Ruler roared and the Doctor simply smiled. "Oh, I think you know who I am." He replied back calmly. The Grand Ruler's features twisted into a rather amusing mix of surprise, rage and glee, if that were possible as realization slowly came to him. "So you're the famous Doctor Sunbutt (Here Celestia was given a firm slap on the rump, making the Doctor emit a tiny little growl) here always cried out for in her sleep. Begging for you to save her, and now here you are." The Grand Ruler remarked with an equally calm tone in his voice and a smug look on his face as he regained his composure. "But I have to ask, how are you going to stop me, when you're just one stallion?" "I don't need an army. You know what I once did? I ended the Last Great Time War all by myself. You are just a little issue compared to that." The Doctor stated, still calm as ever. "And to be quite frank, you look ridiculous. Blimey, I mean, three horns? What, are you compensating for a little certain something between your legs? Although between you and me, out of all the tyrants I've faced since I've made landfall on this planet, you're a heck of a lot better then Nightmarity. I mean, kill off all of her servants with dreams? ...Such a stupid plan." "For once Doctor, you and I are in agreement. That little bitch was a fool. What I would have done was just make them have their greatest desires, in dreams of course, and all the while have them do my bidding never wiser to the fact that they were just puppets in strings." The Grand Ruler remarked. "Alright so we agree on one thing. But attire for your servants... I'm just laughing my head off at you. Really, I must say, Power Ranger like uniforms for your little squadron? I'm sorry, but I cannot take them seriously when they wear attire like that! And I should know a thing or two about garish attire." The Doctor chuckled. The Grand Ruler looked unamused even as the Doctor scanned the throne room with his eyes. The stained glass windows of various important points in Equestria's history had been replaced with various scenes of Lightning Daze and his little band defeating various villains, and to the Doctor's fury, Celestia being dethroned and Luna sent back to the moon with The Grand Ruler taking charge. Yet despite all of this, the Doctor still remained calm and simply raised his Sonic Screwdriver and emitted a loud piercing screech which shattered every window in the room. "There, that's better. Don't have to look at any of those now do we?" The Doctor chuckled lightly. "How dare you... Those were some of my finest moments!" The Grand Ruler snarled. "Finest moments?" The Doctor asked in disgust. "Like forcing ponies to change their entire genetic make-up and changing their very culture and language? They deserve to choose for themselves. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." The Doctor said in a calm, if not somewhat rather dangerously cold tone of voice. "Why are you so calm Doctor?" The Grand Ruler asked curiously. "I could have my elite warriors sent in here and you taken down and your machine taken away for study any time I chose." And so the Doctor gave him his answer. "The only reason I'm remaining calm, and you want to watch that, as being calm is when I'm at my most dangerous, is because I do not want Celestia to see how truly frightening I am when I get angry." The Doctor replied, and now The Grand Ruler was truly furious at his nation and himself supposedly being mocked, and so he sent a magical blast right at the Doctor who simply stepped aside to avoid it. "Oh please, do you really think I'm stupid enough to take you on without a plan? ...Actually, getting back to you. You do look rather pale, have you not been getting enough sun?" At Celestia's frightened look towards the Grand Ruler and the small whimper emitted from her, the Doctor finally pieced things together and let out a snarl, dropping all pretenses of friendliness. "How dare you... I knew you were vile, but rape? That's just a crime I cannot live and let live. I was willing to give you a second chance, find you and your merry little band some uninhabited planet to rule over, but now I've changed my mind. No second chances, that's the kind of stallion I am." The Doctor snarled. "I knew you were coming, it was a fixed point in time after all, so I couldn't change that, but I could still get rid of you somehow. And now I'm going to send you packing!" "And how do you expect to do that you little bitch?" The Grand Ruler laughed. "I knew you were coming as well Doctor, and I came prepared." With that, Lightning Daze along with the rest of his squad appeared in the room in magical flashes of light in various colors. "Oh, a trap you set for me? Has somepony been reading my Christmas List?" The Doctor asked gleefully with a little chortle. "Let me give you some advice, mate. Didn't anypony ever tell you? There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart. If you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there's one thing you never, ever put in a trap." "And what's that?" The Grand Ruler asked even as Lighting Daze and company closed in and the Doctor smirked. "Me." before he let out a whistle and a very familiar shape appeared besides the Doctor. It was a chimera like creature, with the wings of a bat and a bird, the body of a dragon, a lion's paw and a deer's antler amongst other things. This was Discord, the King of Chaos. "Surprise!" Discord announced. "Bet you weren't expecting moi! The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. Now it's time to see if you can dance. I suggest you better bundle up, because the forecast calls for a real storm of chaos!" The Doctor flashed back as to how he got Discord on his side in the first place... It was the end of the battle with Discord, the Elements of Harmony had been put back to their rightful personalities and were about to dethrone the King of Chaos. Each was boiling with rage with what Discord had done to them. He got inside their very heads, made them think things they would never dare think, twisted their very hearts and souls. And now he was going to pay. "Really Midnight Twinkle, you and your little merry band just don't seem to get the hint. I'm Discord, I've been causing chaos since before you were even in diapers... Which gives me an idea. How would you like to re-live your childhoods?" Discord chortled with a snap of his lion's paw he conjured up diapers and pacifiers, one for each of the Mane Six. Twilight spat out hers and glared venomously at the chimera, who simply conjured up a glass of chocolate milk and drunk it dry before tossing the glass behind him and making it explode, still sitting calming on his throne. "Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing, don't you all agree?" "Not as wonderful as friendship." Twilight spat back. "Oh, this again?" Discord asked in annoyance. "Give that tired old rhetoric a rest already will ya? I've got plenty more ideas in store for the rest of Equestria, and I'm not letting six little ponies stand in my way. Trust me, once you see what I plan to do with Canterlot, you will be laughing your heads off... Or not, seeing as how you can't seem to take a joke." "Can we just shut this here blabbermouth up already?" Applejack asked in annoyance, having had enough of Discord. "Ugh, gag. Fine, go ahead, try and use your little Elements. Friend me. Just make it quick. I'm missing some excellent chaos here." Discord said dryly. But just as the Elements were about to fire, there was a wheezing, groaning sound and the TARDIS appeared around Discord before vanishing as quickly as it came. "Okay, I think I'm speaking for all of us here when I say what the Tartarus was that all about?" Rainbow demanded while Twilight looked to the sky and sighed before saying two words. "The Doctor." Meanwhile inside the TARDIS... Discord stared down the pony in front of him, not intimidated in the slightest. He looked around the wrecked TARDIS and smirked. "Really need to clean up after yourself Doctor. Got an image to maintain as Celestia's little Prince-To-Be." The Doctor said nothing, and Discord must have mistook this as being stunned. "Yes, I know all about you. I've heard Celestia talk about you, even when I was encased in stone. Doctor this, Doctor that. I must admit, it did make rolling my eyes quite the challenge." Discord remarked and popped his eyes out of their sockets and rolled them like dice before they reappeared back in their proper place before he found himself soundly tackled to the ground by the Doctor, who was now on top of him. "Oh, moving a tad fast are we?" Discord chuckled. "Celestia will be so disappointed when she finds her Prince swings the other way." The Doctor stared Discord right in the eyes. "Now listen well and listen hard. You are going to help me dethrone a tyrant." Discord burst out laughing. "Now what makes you think I'll do th-" He started before the Doctor headbutted him and let Discord see exactly who he was dealing with and what he'd survived. He saw Davros fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child, he saw how millions were killed and brought back to life in a single moment, and he saw the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties and the Could've Been King with his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. Horrors unimagined by even him, absolute chaos even he could not create. He saw Hell. And throughout it all, this man, this Doctor, he survived it all and then blew up his own planet just to stop the madness. When Discord finally emerged, he looked truly terrified. For possibly what was only the second time in his life, Discord felt truly scared. And now he was muzzle to muzzle with the last survivor. "A-Alright, I'll help." Discord stuttered out and the Doctor stared him down once more and Discord felt like he wanted to shrink away into nothingness. "Now, let me make this clear, you leave Celestia and the rest of Equestria alone. It's only The Grand Ruler and his followers I want dealt with. If you even think of double-crossing me, and believe you me, I'll know in an instant, I'll come right back and turn you to stone myself, and no force in the universe will be able to stop me." The Doctor snarled. Now... Discord smirked as he snapped his lion's paw once again and the Doctor, Celestia and the TARDIS were transported outside the castle grounds just as screams of terror began to erupt from inside. What was happening, neither knew nor wanted to imagine. "Doctor..." Celestia began slowly. "I don't even know how to begin to thank you for freeing me. But are you sure Discord can be trusted?" "Probably not, but he's terrified of me. I placed a little something inside his head, and so I'll know if he tries anything funny." The Doctor replied before Celestia then figured out how to properly thank the Doctor and gave him a very passionate kiss on the lips. "I've been wanting to do that for years." Celestia said and the Doctor hung his head, and that earned him a quizzical look. "Yes... Well, sadly you won't get a chance to do it again. I've been doing some thinking, giving the universe a fair-well tour." The Doctor said sadly. "Doctor... What are you saying?" Celestia asked, even though she already knew. "Celestia, I've been doing a lot of running, and I think it's time I stopped. I'm on my last body, no more regenerations for me. Eventually, somepony or something will get lucky, or this body will wear out from old age, and... No more Doctor." The Doctor stated with a tone of sadness and defeat before he threw his Sonic Screwdriver on the ground and raised one hoof before he stomped on it, rendering it to just various small pieces. "Besides... You, your sister, R.I.F.T and the Elements, all of them, they can handle anything. I think it's time for a nice quiet retirement. Who knows what I'll do, maybe become a beekeeper, worked out for that detective after all." The Doctor said and stepped into his TARDIS and Celestia let a tear slip from her eye as the madman and his box time-warped away for what would probably be the last time... END
Crimson Woods Part 1: (My Bloody Valentine)Youtube Video Ponyville: The Year 1000 ANM It was late autumn, a few weeks before the events that would become known to the Doctor and company as "Frightmare Night" in Twilight's hometown of Sleepy Hollow, and a few weeks before Pony-Ten regenerated into Eleven and the Master unveiled his final plan and endgame to unleash chaos on Canterlot by taking Celestia and Luna out of the equation by poisoning them with tiny Griffinstonian Steel darts made from melted down Alicorn killing weapons made directly after the fall of Princess Luna and her horrific transformation into the horrific being known as Nightmare Moon. But for now, all was calm and peaceful in the small town of Ponyville. Multicolored leaves in various shades of red, orange and yellow were falling from the trees along the pathways and onto grassy knolls. In a small backyard bordering Whitetail Woods, there was a house belonging to the town's local Mailmare, Derpy Hooves, and her daughter Dinky Hooves. Despite being one of the clumsiest mares around thanks to her wall eyes, Derpy was the one of the town's best mail deliverers and always got her packages to the right pony, never damaging them, even you could never say the same about herself due to flying into things, through things and the like. She never got paid as well as she would have liked to have been, but her payment was enough to make ends meet and to care for both her and her daughter. Speaking of which, the light grey furred, blond maned mare was watching her daughter play with a small ball in her backyard and kick it around the yard back and forth. Suddenly, Dinky accidently kicked it through a hole in the wooden fence and it rolled away into the Woods. "My ball!" Dinky cried and tried to rush after it but Derpy quickly flew towards her daughter and grabbed her. "No, it's getting dark! The other ponies may not believe in that which lurks in the Woods, but I do. HE does exist, your grannymare took quite a few pictures of him and so I know that... that creature exists!" Derpy exclaimed nervously even as she remembered the stories. Foals and fillies had gone missing for years in the Whitetail Woods at night, and some of them had never come back, and the ones that did, well as the rumors went, they were never quite the same. But somehow, Dinky managed to slip out of Derpy's grip and crawl under the hole in the fence and gallop into the woods. With a shout of fear for her daughter, Derpy flew after her, somehow, whether it be to her fear of losing her daughter to that... thing, or just something you couldn't quite explain, she flew perfectly, not crashing into anything for once and managing to keep up with her daughter's every move. She kept her firmly in her sights, but then, Dinky was gone and Derpy skidded to a halt in midair and glanced every which way. "Dinky!" Derpy shouted, and when she received no response except for various animal noises like the chirping of crickets, she shouted again, this time only louder. "DINKY!" This time, there wasn't even the sound of animals. And then she saw IT. A tall stallion, wearing a black suit and tie with a white featureless face and it seemed to have several shadowy black tendrils growing out of it's back. Derpy's eyes widened in horror. She knew what she was looking at, and it's name. "S-Slendermane..." Derpy said, just barely able to get the words out, and out of pure fear she turned and flew away all the way back to her house, to the safety of her yard, and then broke down out of pure shame and guilt. She hadn't been strong enough, brave enough to be able to save her daughter, her little Muffin, her Dinky. She was the Slender's now, and there was nothing she could do about it. Letting out a mournful wail of despair that only parents who had lost a child could recognize which could be heard throughout the town of Ponyville, it reached a certain blue suited, brown furred stallion who was tinkering away in his box and his ears perked up in interest and he looked up from his console and grabbed his trench coat... The Present Time: The Belle Residence In the present day, at the residency of Rarity's parents, the CMC and their friend Twist were having a sleepover while Rarity's parents were out of town for the night. Rarity had already gone to bed for the night, but she had given the foursome explicit warnings to go to bed at 10:00 exactly and not to get too loud and noisy. Of course, fillies will be fillies and not entirely obey the orders of their guardians from time to time. So, speaking in whispering voices. "So, girls, what do you want to do?" Scootaloo whispered in an excited tone. "Ooh, ooh, I know, we could braid each other's manes!" Sweetie Belle squeaked out. Scootaloo gave her a look. "Ugh, too girly." The orange pegasus filly fake gagged. "Puh, if ya ask for mah opinion, you're just afraid of tryin' new things, that's all." Apple Bloom remarked in a dry tone of voice. She and her older sister had used to do each other's manes all the time together. It was something pretty much all sisters did together! Suddenly Scootaloo got an idea and an almost evil smirk came to her face. "Afraid of trying new things eh...?" Scootaloo asked as she looked at Twist. "Hey, Twist, ever heard of the legend of the Bloody Mary?" "N-No, I haven't..." Twist whispered back in confusion. "Scootaloo, don't tell mah you've been listenin' to Rainbow's stories again and fallen for that old chestnut!" Apple Bloom chuckled. "W-Who's the Bloody Mary?" Twist asked, not sure if she really wanted to know. "Well, I heard she was a witch that got convicted of well... evil things I don't quite remember and if you say her name three times in a bathroom mirror while in the dark she'll appear before you and claw your eyes out!" Sweetie Belle said nervously and with a touch of embarrassment for not remembering the legend properly. ''...Well, at least that's what I heard." "So, anypony brave enough to do it?" Scootaloo challenged. "Y-You know what?" Twist said, as she suddenly spoke up surprising everypony in the room, even herself. She'd been tired of being picked on by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon for being a wimpy little coward, and by doing this, something she'd heard even they'd been too afraid to do, she'd prove she was better then them! "I'll do it!" Twist proclaimed, and all three members of the CMC stared at her in shock. Surely they hadn't heard right? "A-Are you sure?" Sweetie Belle asked nervously. "I-I mean, if the legend is true..." "Puh, it's just a legend!" Scootaloo scoffed as Twist walked up to the upstairs bathroom and looked directly in the mirror and said two words, three times, one after the other. "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary..." Next thing the CMC knew, they heard a scream come from the bathroom and along with a now awake Rarity, arrived to find Twist laying face first on the floor in a pool of blood, when Rarity turned her over, she was horrified to find Twist's eyes completely missing... Youtube Video Ponyville Mortuary Now, as in any small town, like I said before, gossip travels fast, and so, Rainbow Dash, the premier pegasus flyer in Ponyville and leader of the Weather Team found herself doing something she could safely say she never thought she'd be doing, which was standing over a dead body with its eyes missing on a metal table on Hearts and Hooves day. "So...What happened exactly?" Rainbow asked questioningly and trying to look at any part of Twist except for her bare eye sockets, but always found her gaze drifting back to them. The mortician, one Doctor Bones sitting across from her sighed to himself and thought hard. He was an older pony, at least in his late sixties or so. "Well, it's possible we could have a brain hemorrhage of some type." Bones replied with a shrug. Rainbow stared. "...Eh, yeah, pretty sure brain hemorrhages don't cause eyeballs to turn to soup." Rainbow deadpanned. "You haven't seen what I've seen missy. In my experience, there are a whole lot of things illnesses will do, and a whole lot of them are quite nasty. But still, you may have a point here. Honestly, I've given up on diagnosing this. I just pity the poor sod who has to break this to the family that their daughter's..." He trailed off her and Rainbow finished for him. "Eyes turned into a liquid you could eat with a spoon?" She asked dryly and with no sense of tact whatsoever. The Doctor may have been rubbing off on her more than she would have liked it seemed, or it may have just been Rainbow being herself. Still confounded as she walked out of the Mortuary and across the snow covered pathways musing to herself how this was not how she wanted her Hearts and Hooves Day to go. She had planned to spend it curled up in bed with Twilight reading Daring Do together. But of course, Spike's death and the aftermath of it had derailed those plans. Now Twilight was spending her days as a recluse, letting nopony inside her home, not even the Princesses or even Rainbow herself. Rainbow stifled back a sob, she was a tough mare and tough mares didn't cry. "Celestia above... Everypony's probably having the time of their lives today but me. And now I get landed with this. This is the Doctor's thing, not mine!" Rainbow mentally ranted, and she did try and bring this to the Doctor's attention, but he, like Twilight had shut himself away in his TARDIS, doing Faust knows what. "You alright, dearie?" Rarity's voice asked as she walked up. She was dressed in a purple overcoat and winter hat while Rainbow had opted for the simple scarf and booties combo. "Do I look alright!?!" Rainbow suddenly snapped at her and Rarity took a step back. Rainbow immediately felt guilty. "I'm sorry Rares, it's just..." Rainbow trailed off and her friend put a hoof on her shoulder in support. "I know darling, Twilight's... situation, for lack of a better term is affecting us all. Some of us are hiding it better than others, but you can see it in their faces. We're all missing her friendly voice... that kind smile... and that thirst for knowledge of hers and the ability to sprout off obscure facts on a whim." Rarity replied sadly with a chuckle that Rainbow shared, a tear slipping from Rarity's eyes, and for a moment, just a moment, Rainbow could see love in those eyes. She didn't try to understand it, Tartarus she didn't understand why she fell in love with Twilight herself but she could see it in her friend's eyes. "So, this just a social pep me up call or is there something you need to tell me?" Rainbow asked, changing the subject and getting right back to business. There was something going on in this town, and right now Rainbow was the only qualified pony to solve this mystery, and she planned to get to the bottom of it! "Yes..." Rarity began slowly. "It's... It's about my sister and those two friends of hers, the... Oh goodness me, I seem to have forgotten their little club's nickname." "Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Rainbow suggested as Rarity flushed red. "Yes, them. There seems to be something bothering them." Rarity stated. "Aside from the obvious?" Rainbow deadpanned. "Yes, aside from that. They... Well, it's difficult to explain. It's best you come see for yourself." Rarity told her and gestured for her friend to follow. Rarity led Rainbow to her parents' home, where all three members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were sitting on the floor sniffling with reddish orange shock blankets around them. The upstairs bathroom had been sealed off with crime scene tape with the local police investigating every inch of the murder scene from top to bottom. Rainbow noted how Scootaloo's eyes drifted upwards to the crime scene every so often and she looked away very quickly with an expression that almost seemed guilty. Upon noticing this, Rainbow walked over to her fan-girl and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Hey kiddo, what's wrong?" Rainbow asked softly. "It's... It's all my fault..." Scootaloo sniffled. "Hey, it can't be your fault, you couldn't have killed Twist. You don't have it in you. It's... It's like Pinkie Pie going on a mass murdering spree! It simply doesn't happen!" Rainbow replied reassuringly. "B-But I made her say the name! If I hadn't goaded her into saying it... S-She might still be alive!" Scootaloo blubbered out. "Scootaloo, don't be ridiculous! It couldn't have been HER! It just couldn't have!" Sweetie Belle squeaked out, although it sounded if she didn't believe her own words. Rainbow gripped Scootaloo by the shoulders very firmly and looked her dead in the eyes. "Scootaloo, what name did you make her say?" Rainbow asked seriously and Scootaloo looked up at her, terror filling her eyes and whispered the name in a voice of sheer dread. "Bloody Mary." Ponyville: The Year 1000 ANM Youtube Video The Tenth Doctor had followed the wails of despair to a home outside Whitetail Woods. It was a modest home, nothing fancy and had a muffin painted on the door. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, how curious. He tentatively raised a hoof and knocked on the door and it was answered, after a few moments of the Doctor waiting and hearing nothing but the shuffling of footsteps, by Derpy, who had tears dripping from her eyes. "Ah yes, hello! I'm just the local Neighborhood Watch! Name's Alec Hardy." The Doctor greeted in his usual cheerful manner, before flashing his psychic paper and studying the mare in front of him. He'd never quite seen eyes like that on a pony before. "Heard your wails of despair, and I thought, oh what the Hell, might as well and go have a little-looksee and see what's gone wrong." Derpy studied the rather odd and cheerful stallion with his sticky-uppy mane style and brown trench-coat and blue suit. Alec Hardy, odd name for a pony. Didn't sound like anypony's name she'd ever heard before. Then she took a gander at his "ID" and saw it was just an old and yellowed library card, with the picture of an old and grey stallion on it with balding white hair. She raised an eyebrow and the Doctor took a look at his psychic paper and sighed to himself before muttering "Not again... Always getting these two mixed up." "Alright, so you got me, I'm not the Neighborhood Watch nor is my name Alec Hardy. I'm the Doctor, hello!" He greeted, still in the same cheerful tone of voice. "W-Wait, the Doctor? As in that strange stallion with the Blue Box? The one which you pull ponies into and snog them?" Derpy asked questioningly. "It's... It's not a snog box! And for the record, that has happened only once! And someone did that to me, not the other way round!" The Doctor snapped, affronted and somewhat offended that his TARDIS had been comparing to something as simple as a kissing booth! And it wasn't his fault that Princess Amore JUST happened to fall in love with him! "I'll be the judge of that, sunshine." Derpy remarked before her cheerful demeanor vanished once she remembered what had happened only an hour earlier and she resumed her sobbing. The Doctor put his forelegs around her. "Hey, hey, it's okay. What's wrong? You can tell me." The Doctor said in a calm and comforting tone of voice as he let Derpy sob into his shoulder. For some reason, it just felt wrong to see these normally happy and cheerful ponies sad, and it tugged at his heartstrings more than it did with humans. "C-Come inside, I'll explain everything." Derpy said and led the Last of the Time Lords inside her home. It was messy, disorganized with children's toys lying everywhere, and smelled of freshly cooked muffins, but it was a very nice place to be all the same. "Muffins?" Derpy asked as she brought out a tray of blueberry muffins from her oven and sat them on the kitchen table where the Doctor had pulled up a chair and then retrieved a small wooden box from a nearby table. "So... What seems to be the trouble Miss..." The Doctor asked, suddenly finding himself at a loss for a name. "Derpy Hooves... A-And the trouble is, my daughter's been taken, by this." Derpy answered and opened the box and fished out a couple of pictures while the Doctor calmly bit into a muffin before wincing at how hot it was and blowing on it to cool it off and muttering to himself "Think I burned my tongue..." The Doctor then studied the pictures. In the background of each one, lurked a figure, tall and imposing with a blank sheer white face. The affect unnerved even the Doctor. "He's called the Slendermane. Been around for centuries, possibly longer than Ponyville itself's been around. Some say he's as old as the Two Sisters, maybe even older." Derpy explained, with the Doctor hanging on her every word. "Great! Always love a good mystery!" The Doctor cried, gleefully rubbing his front two hooves together when he saw the look on Derpy's face and remembered what exactly the Slendermane had done and at once felt guilty with himself as Nine mentally smacked him on the back of the head. "So... Uh, where does the Slendermane live exactly?" The Doctor inquired and Derpy gestured outside her window to Whitetail Woods. "In there." She said fearfully, and the next thing she knew, as the sun was setting, she'd somehow found herself and the Doctor at the entrance to the woods. The Doctor stared into the inky blackness and nervously adjusted his tie and fiddled with it. "You know sometimes when you have that feeling to just go for a walk in the woods in the middle of the night? ...I don't have it." The Doctor laughed nervously before swallowing. "Oh well, you know what they say. Nothing ventured, nothing gained..." He said with a shrug before he and Derpy slowly walked into the darkened forest, not knowing what lay in wait for them inside...
Crimson Woods Part 2: (Sunday Bloody Sunday)Ponyville: Now Rainbow walking down the snowy streets sighed to herself. It was Hearts and Hooves day, on a Sunday at that, a day she was supposed to be relaxing with her marefriend cuddled up on a bed and perhaps making out and then progressing to having passionate mind-blowing sex and yet here she was, all alone solving a case of murder. And a very odd murder at that. It was strange really. Foals and fillies all over Equestria, and probably beyond it had been playing the Bloody Mary game for centuries and not one of them had been murdered until now. Bloody Mary was just a myth, a shadowy story told at slumber parties just for fun for crying out loud! But as Rainbow had been finding out as of late, myths had a horrible habit of coming true. "We're up the weirdness creek without a paddle. And possssibly a hole in the bottom of the boat." Rainbow mused to herself. "Maybe it's a case of if you believe in the impossible, the impossible will happen. It's all a matter of perspective, after all." Rainbow shook her head, no it couldn't have been that! Believing in something just didn't make it come to life! It was simply impossible! She remembered the Doctor telling her about an adventure with the Slendermane that had taken place back when he was in his previous incarnation, the one with the sticky uppy mane style and the suit, the nice one, not that Celestia-Be-Damned tweed one he wore nowadays, and that face and freewheeling personality that made you just fall head over hooves for him. Tartarus, if she hadn't been nursing a crush on Twilight at the time and knew Celestia had her sights set on him, she'd had gone after him herself! At the time, Ponyville was in a web of fear. They all knew the myth of the Slendermane, it had gone back for a very long time, but nopony ever took much stock in the myth. Sure, there were jokes about not going into Whitetail Woods on certain nights when the moon was right and children did trot into that forest at times and never came back, but Whitetail Woods also happened to be filled with creatures that came out only at night and did love their meat. At about that time, there came a scream from the area that was used as an outdoor recreation center. Rainbow unfurled her powerful wings and took off in that direction... Whitetail Woods: With the Tenth Doctor and Derpy Hooves... "I... I just don't know what went wrong! She was in my sights one minute, and the next she was gone and that... Thing was in front of me!" Derpy whimpered out as the twosome trotted through the dark and misty forest. The Doctor put a hoof on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "Hey, everyon-Sorry, everypony makes mistakes. Still getting used to all these new words and terminology." The Doctor admitted, while getting mental images of Twilight and Shining both shouting the correct word usage at him every time he got it wrong. He groaned, it just gave him a headache. "Anyways, the point is, you couldn't have known that Dinky would have gotten lost in the forest and taken by that thing... if he even exists." Derpy gave him a glare, which was an impressive feat indeed given her cross eyed state. "Of course he exists! I saw him with my own two eyes!" Derpy shouted, quite shocked that the Doctor was even suggesting she was delusional. How could she be, that thing looked as real as anything could ever look! "And how do you know what you saw was real? It's entirely possible that you were drugged and what you saw was what somepony wanted you to think them to see. For all I know, there's something more going... on... here." The Doctor replied, remembering the Sherlock episode The Hounds of Baskerville and how the "Hound" was just something else disguised as a big black dog using a powerful combination of fear, suggestion, and hallucinogenic drugs before his speech slowed down as he spotted something scrawled on a tree not too far from him and ran towards it with Derpy shouting after him. "Doctor, wait!" She yelled and found the Time Lord closely studying a tree with a crude picture of the Slendermane scratched on it and the words "Beware! Turn back now!" below that. "Okay... Interesting. Seems we've been given a warning. Always love an ominous warning. Wants me to keep going further!" The Doctor said cheerfully. Derpy didn't share his demeanor. With a nervous look back at the tree, she followed after the Time Lord. The Doctor took notice of her nervousness once more and gave her a reassuring glance. "Don't worry, we'll find your daughter. Pinkie Promise." The Doctor stated, and did the sacred motions for the Promise, even if he knew in his heart there was a VERY good possibility he couldn't uphold that promise. And what happened when you broke a Pinkie Promise? "Break one of those, and you'll lose a friend foreeeeevvverr!" The Doctor groaned at even thinking of Pinkie. How she defied reality was beyond even him. "Pinkie Promise." Derpy replied, although she didn't sound as confident as the Doctor, who'd just gotten an idea. "Hey, I know what we can do! Singing songs often helps distract one from the problem at hand! Giggle at the ghosties, as Pinkie once put it." The Doctor said, and Derpy smiled. She knew the Doctor had a point. And so the Doctor began to sing a song he'd heard once, and was quite relevant to the situation at hand. "If you ever go back into the Wooley Swamp son you better not go at night There's things out there in the middle of them Wooley woods That'd make a strong man die from fright There's things that crawl and things that fly And things that creep around on the ground And they say the ghost of Lucias Clay gets up and it walks around." The Doctor sung, and Derpy gave him a look. "Not. Helping." Derpy growled out, and The Doctor was sent into another flashback. "Sorry, was I being rude again?" The Doctor chuckled at the memory, and the memory of Donna Noble. Oh, how he'd love to meet her again. "Oi! No stupid Martian is gonna stop me from getting married. To hell with you!" "I'm... I'm not... I'm not - I'm not from Mars." "What's so funny?" Derpy asked and the Doctor smiled. "Sorry, lost in thought for a second. It happens. Anyone ever tell you how scatterbrained I am?" The Doctor asked before shrugging. "Ah well, never mind. Still got a monster to find and a filly to save! Brave heart, Ms. Hooves. Brave heart!" The Doctor continued with a cheerful smile. Stand resolute, that's what Winston had told him once. That phrase never felt so right till this very moment. But as bad luck would have it, (And the Doctor was quite well officiated with bad luck) the Doctor found himself looking up at a pony, yet it couldn't possibly be one, what with it's pure white head, no eyes or mouth to speak of and just the barest trace of a nose and it's Alicorn sized form. It wore a pure black immaculately pressed suit and tie and somehow, despite it having no face, it stared down the Doctor and seemed to peer right into his very soul. "Well, look at that. Didn't take as long as I thought." The Doctor commented before realizing the obvious problem and letting out a small "Oh." "Run?" Derpy asked. "Yes, that." The Doctor responded with a nod and so they did what the Doctor did best. Run like Hell. Ponyville: Now: Rainbow had flown to the source of the screaming, a public bathroom near the outdoor recreation center's Hoofball court. When she got there, she swallowed and winced, holding back her gag reflex if only barely. Just like Twist, there was the body of a teenage pegasus stallion, yellow with a red mane lying in front of her, eyes turned to solid soup. "Lemme guess, he said Bloody Mary three times in front of a mirror in the dark on a dare?" Rainbow asked, and the two stallion's friends, the picture of high school jocks with their jackets and perfectly kept mane and muscles perfect for playing sports nodded in unison. "Celestia above... We told him to do it as a joke! We didn't mean nothing by it, honest!" One of them said, and from the way he spoke and the general shocked demeanor of him, Rainbow could tell at once he was telling the truth. "Well, you did and now look what happened." Rainbow growled, in no mood for this, as her Hearts and Hooves day was already ruined enough as it is with Twilight becoming a shut-in and one murder already having happened. "Alright you idiots, what's this dude's name?" "M-Magic Winds." The other of the two jocks stuttered out. "Okay, good. Now, I have to go talk to Magic's parents and tell them EXACTLY why their son is dead, and you two are coming with me." Rainbow snarled, in a tone that left no room for argument. A half hour later... The Winds Family Home "H-He was so young..." Magic's mother, Tail Winds sobbed out. She was an older mare, with glasses and a red mane and an orange coat of fur. There she sat, sobbing on the couch with her husband trying to comfort her. All around the room, were pictures of Magic and his family smiling happily. "He was just about to make Team Captain!" Tail sobbed and here, the two jocks shared a guilty look. "If it's okay with you, can I go and have a search around Magic's room? See if there was any reason somepony might have wanted to kill him?" Rainbow asked, and although Tail sobbed again at the word "Kill" she nodded and pointed to the stairwell that led to Magic's room. Inside, it was decorated with pictures of famous Hoofball teams and trophies his team had won. There was also a portrait of Magic and a mare, white with a green mane on his bedside table. Rainbow then noticed something, a box that was just peeking out under the bed, hidden away just enough not to be seen unless you were looking for something out of the ordinary. "Hmm, bet this is probably where he keeps his porn stash, and although I'm always in the mood for that, I really want a lead here." Rainbow mused to herself and dragged out the small wooden box and opened it. Inside was not porn, but a pregnancy test. Rainbow's eyes widened when she saw what it read. "Huh, looks like Magic boinked his marefriend a little too hard. Gotta be careful these days. Celestia above... I really hate to break it to his marefriend that her child's going to grow up without a father." Rainbow mused to herself, a tear slipping from her eye and she wiped it away. "Okay, this is interesting, but I don't think it relates to the case. There's just gotta be something I'm missing here..." Rainbow knew there was only one thing to do, and although she shuddered at the thought, it was time to do that most horrible of horrible things... Research. "I really hate today." Whitetail Woods: With the Tenth Doctor and Derpy Hooves... Run! Doctor, run!" Derpy screamed in fear as she flapped her wings as hard as she could, with the Doctor running along aside her as fast as his little Earth Pony legs could carry him. "Oh, trust me, I'm running, in this situation it's kinda impossible not to run is it?" The Doctor snapped back sarcastically. He looked back behind him, and to his surprise the Slendermane was keeping up with them, one minute he was behind one tree and the next, behind another! It was almost like he could... "Teleport! I hate teleporters! That's cheating! I hate those as well!" The Doctor mused to himself and the Ninth commented in his head "Don't we cheat at times as well?" in a dry tone of voice, crossing his arms and smirking in amusement. The Doctor didn't bother to dignify him with a response. Meanwhile, the Slendermane kept getting closer and closer, until right then he was in front of the Doctor and Derpy, and grabbed them with his shadowy tendrils and lifted them up in the air, and then in a hissing guttural tone of voice that shocked both of them, as neither the Doctor nor Derpy knew he could even speak, given he had no mouth and all, he said "Get out of my forest." And then he turned to look at Derpy. "You don't deserve to be her parent, not after what you did." Derpy's expression was a mixture of confusion and bewilderment. What had she done? What had she done to deserve the Slendermane to call her an unfitting parent? But before she could ponder that question any further, there was a bright flash of white blinding light and both ponies found themselves in the Hooves household. "Ugh, have I ever mentioned how I hate teleporters?" The Doctor muttered as he picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off with his hooves. "Dinky... DINKY!" Derpy wailed. "That... That monster has h-her, and I'm never getting her back!" The Doctor laid a hoof on her shoulder and looked at her firmly even as Derpy blubbered to herself. "Don't worry, that little thing the Slendermane just pulled, scare tactic. If he knew what I was capable of, he wouldn't be so smug. I'm going back in there, and I'm going to get your daughter back. That's a Pinkie Promise, and you never break those." The Doctor said with conviction in his tone, but all the while he went over the Slendermane's words to Derpy in his head. There was something more going on here then just kidnapping, and he needed to find out exactly what...
Crimson Woods Part 3: (End of the Line my Bloody Valentine)Ponyville: Present Day Rainbow’s first thought was, naturally, to go to Twilight’s to get the books she needed on researching just what exactly was making the Bloody Mary legend come to life. Then she remembered, Twilight had shut her doors entirely to anypony and everypony. Rainbow blinked back tears. Here she was, solving a case that never should have come up in the first place unless somepony was fooling around with spells and not spending time with her marefriend like she should have been! Rainbow faltered for a moment as she realized what she had just thought of. “Wait a moment… Somepony is fooling around with spells! That’s gotta be the only explanation! But what kinds of spells? And why is Bloody Mary targeting these specific ponies? I may not know much about police work or mystery solving in general, but I do know this, there’s always a connection between murders. It’s never random with serial killers. It’s always something small, unnoticeable unless you really look hard enough. Wait a moment, Magic Winds!” Rainbow realized as she flashbacked to when she was investigating Magic Wind’s bedroom. There was also a portrait of Magic and a mare, white with a green mane on his bedside table. Rainbow then noticed something, a box that was just peeking out under the bed, hidden away just enough not to be seen unless you were looking for something out of the ordinary. "Hmm, bet this is probably where he keeps his porn stash, and although I'm always in the mood for that, I really want a lead here." Rainbow mused to herself and dragged out the small wooden box and opened it. Inside was not porn, but a pregnancy test. Rainbow's eyes widened when she saw what it read. "Huh, looks like Magic boinked his marefriend a little too hard. Gotta be careful these days. Celestia above... I really hate to break it to his marefriend that her child's going to grow up without a father." Rainbow mused to herself, a tear slipping from her eye and she wiped it away. "Okay, this is interesting, but I don't think it relates to the case. There's just gotta be something I'm missing here..." “He was keeping his marefriend’s pregnancy a secret from his parents! I’m willing to bet all of my Daring Do merchandise and Wonderbolts memorabilia that Twist was keeping a secret as well! Problem is, what’s the secret? I’m going to do have to a little asking around…” Rainbow mused and then ran off towards the direction of Sweet Apple Acres… With the Doctor and Derpy... The Doctor was not happy. Not happy at all. More often than not, he liked his legends to stay just that, legends. He was a skeptic at heart. He was always looking for a real-world solution to things. He wanted the Slendermane to be just a hallucination brought on by someone drugging the whole area of Whitetail Woods. He wanted the whole legend to be just bunk stirred up by someone trying to use it for some sinister purpose and just kidnapping children to molest them, as horrible as that was. But that just couldn’t be it, could it? Noooo, the Slendermane had to be the real bloody deal. This flew in every scientific fact he knew of in his over 900 years of being alive. Not just that, it came right back to him and slapped him in the face and then mooned him to add to the humiliation of it all. The Doctor groaned to himself, he was really beginning to hate Equestria’s myths and legends and magic in general. It never spelled anything good for him whenever he was around. Cybermen, or Cyberponies he could deal with. Just give them an emotional overload and have their heads explode. Weeping Angels, okay, just grab Celestia and have her burn them to nothing but ashes. Daleks, blow them up with magical explosives. Sontarans, aim for the back of the neck. The Vashta Nerada? Stay out of the shadows. But the Slenderpony? Run, just run. Mind you, it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to running. Hell, he started off his entire adventures through Time and Space just by stealing a Type-Forty TARDIS and running for it along with his granddaughter. Speaking of family, he was very curious as to what the Slenderpony meant by Derpy being an unfit parent. From what he’d gathered around town just by gossip—which by the way was something he also hated, as gossipers generally had nothing better to do with their time besides talk—Derpy was considered to be one of the best parents in Ponyville even if she had to raise her daughter alone. But then again, everyone has skeletons in their closets. You could never tell what someone was like unless you met them for yourself. But that was the issue wasn’t it? He’d met Derpy, and she seemed genuinely scared for the welfare of her daughter. Nopony got that teary eyed over someone unless they actually cared for them. It niggled and nagged at his brain. It was a complete contradiction between what the Slendermane said and Derpy’s demeanor. Still, it was best he double checked, just in case he was wrong. He’d been wrong before about things after all, as today proved. “Doctor, you alright?” Derpy asked in concern as she waved a hoof in front of his face in order to snap him back to reality. “Yeah… Yeah. I’m fine. Just lost in thought for a moment there.” The Doctor replied before he rushed out the door. “Doctor, where are you going?” Derpy asked in fear, hoping to Faust above the Doctor just wasn’t giving up on her. “Doctor… Please! I need your help!” She shouted desperately. The Doctor gave her a smile and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back. I just need to check on a few things to confirm a theory of mine.” Next thing Derpy heard was a distinct wheezing and groaning sound and sunk to the floor in despair and hopelessness, her hooves covering her eyes while she sobbed quietly to herself. The Doctor was giving up on her after all. She wasn’t getting her daughter back… But that’s where Derpy was wrong. The Doctor traveled to a few days before this incident, to an area near Derpy’s household and he quickly ducked behind a tree as his and Celestia’s past selves walked by, with Celestia under a disguise that hid her wings and made her multicolored mane just a solid pink, making her look like a regular, if frankly rather oversized unicorn. The Doctor smiled to himself. He remembered this. “You know, it’s nice to just be a regular mare for once. No nobles complaining their asses off, and no ponies who treat you like a goddess.” Celestia commented, before blushing as she realized she’d used a curse word in public, and ponies expected her to be all prim and proper. “Excuse my language Doctor. I… I just needed to vent for a moment. It’s just... I’m expected to be all perfect and not like normal ponies, with normal problems. I’m supposed to be a role model for them to look up to.” Past Pony-Ten only chuckled to himself. “What’s so funny, Doctor?” “Except you’re not Celestia right now are you? You’re Bright Star, not a Princess, so you’re free to act however you want and just enjoy the day. Hell, you could even go down to the local pub the Prancing Pony and get stone-dead drunk if you so desired.” “No offence Doctor, but I much prefer my vintage malt, and the smell of half of those stallions does tend to offend one’s nose.” Celestia remarked with a teasing smile. The Doctor couldn’t help himself and just burst out laughing. “Yes, quite. It really is quite horrid down there is it not?” Past Pony-Ten said taking on a mock high class accent and causing Celestia to laugh at how bad it was. The present time Doctor smiled as his past self remarked “Come along “Bright Star”, got lots of places to see yet!” before as he and Past Celestia continued their walk and ran towards Derpy’s household and looked in the window. Derpy was merrily cooking breakfast, smelled like muffins before she took them out of the oven and clapped her hooves together in joy. “Chocolate chip muffins for breakfast? Well, who am I to judge?” The Doctor thought to himself as a small pinkish unicorn filly with a yellow mane trotted down the stairs cheerfully. “Aah, and that must be Dinky. Have to admit, she is pretty cute. So far, so good. I can’t really see any parenting troubles here.” He continued to watch for the next hour and a half unseen as Dinky and Derpy went about their day. Nothing untowards happened, and the Doctor could safely say that all was well in this household. But just as he was walking away from the home, he heard the sound of china shattering and went back to the window and saw Dinky looking at the floor where a shattered vase with a guilty look as Derpy looked at her angrily. “I’m… I’m sorry mom! I was just trying to practice my magic!” “Go to your room…” Derpy muttered. That had been her mother’s favorite vase, passed down from parent to child and now it was broken. “JUST GO TO YOUR ROOM!” Dinky ran off sobbing and then the Doctor heard a hissing, guttural sound and saw a tall black figure in the treeline for just a moment before he vanished into the shadows. “Okay, so that explains that. He must have thought Derpy was abusing her own child. Everyone makes mistakes. But the Slendermane has supposedly been kidnapping foals and fillies for a while now. So, what about them?” So the Doctor took a trip to Town Hall, careful not to run into his past self and searched through the Mayor’s files of missing children. It went back decades. Then he saw something. A picture of a younger version of Mayor Mare, with the word “MISSING” stamped below it in big red letters. “So, the Slendermane took the Mayor back when she was a child and then she escaped, or was let go when she was old enough. Can’t tell yet. Need more information.” So he took another trip through time to Mayor Mare’s childhood. He quickly found her house, as he’d gotten ahold of where she grew up from her files and sneaked inside the house, being careful enough to be as silent as possible. Then he heard shouting. “You! You worthless piece of shit! I can’t believe I’m stuck raising you! It’s your own fault your mother’s dead!” A male voice said and the Doctor heard a hoof smacking against flesh and a body hitting the wooden floors of the house and sobbing following that. He let out a growl. Child abuse was about as low as you could get in his book. Hell, if he didn’t have a feeling as to what was about to happen, he would have stepped in and changed the timeline himself and raised Mayor Mare as his own kid. But he wasn’t disappointed, as then he peeked around the corner and saw the Slendermane teleport in and grab Mayor Mare’s father by the neck with a tendril and with a sickening SNAP! Mayor Mare’s father’s head was twisted to the right. The Slendermane extended a hoof, and hesitantly, the future Mayor of Ponyville took it and both were teleported away in the blink of an eye. “So that’s it… I was right! That’s what the Slendermane is. He’s not a monster, he just wants to give kids the childhood they deserve and not the ones they end up with if he doesn’t step in. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually have to admire the stallion.” The Doctor mused before he rushed for his TARDIS… Ponyville: Present Day “Alright, I’ve had enough of this. There’s only one way I’m going to get the help I need to solve this case, and it’s in Twilight’s library. I don’t care if she doesn’t want anypony with her and she’s gone all goth and broody and dressing herself up in black make up and all that crap, these murders need to stop here and now!” Rainbow Dash growled to herself mentally as she kicked in the door of the Golden Oaks Library. She’d just got some information that confirmed her own theory about the Bloody Mary. Just a half hour ago, she’d spoken to the Cutie Mark Crusaders at their clubhouse. “So, any of you think Twist was acting a bit off? Anypony?” Rainbow questioned the trio of Cutie Mark-less fillies. “What do you mean, off?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion, an eyebrow quirked. “Well, keeping secrets. I think the Bloody Mary’s going after ponies who have secrets and are keeping those secrets to themselves.” “Wait, hold up!” Scootaloo put in. “Where’d you get this theory?” “I… I did a little bit of digging.” Rainbow said quickly, not wanting to have to explain to these fillies the birds and the bees just yet. It’d lead to some rather embarrassing questions before long if word ever got back to these three’s relatives that they’d learned about sex a tad bit too early. “Well…” Apple Bloom answered, putting a hoof to her chin in thought. Now that ya mention it, Twist was acting awfully strange whenever Ah was around. She kept blushing red for some odd reason whenever Ah looked or spoke to her.” Rainbow chuckled. “Ah, young love…” She said to herself before saying “Thanks, gotta dash!” and flying out the Clubhouse window leaving three very confused little fillies. “...Well, that was odd.” Scootaloo remarked. “R-Rainbow! What are you doing here?” Twilight asked in shock and took a step back as she saw Rainbow looking down at her from an upper balcony with an annoyed expression on her face. “What, no teleporting up to greet me with a passionate kiss or drag me into bed for a passionate night of sex?” Rainbow teased before her face became more serious. “Two reasons. One, this crap of yours needs to stop. I know you’re in grief, Tartarus, we all are, but you need to get out of your home! Ponyville needs you! It’s not healthy for you to stay cooped up in here with just your thoughts running wild about what you could have done or should have done and just your memories of Spike! Plus, Winter Wrap Up’s coming up soon and we need your organizational skills, also ponies do really want to get into the library to borrow books to read! Secondly…” Rainbow began, not even giving Twilight a chance to speak. “I need your help on finding information on how a fictional being can come into being.” “Wh… What? I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Twilight stuttered out in confusion. “See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about! You stay cooped up in here like a hermit, you miss things, like for example the Bloody Mary coming to life and over the course of the damn day, murdering two ponies, one of which was just a little filly! I need your help Twilight! I need to know how to stop it so nopony else dies today!” “Then go to the Doctor! This is his type of shit, not mine! I’m done! You hear me, done with it all! I can stay in here as long as I damn well please! I’ve got my books to keep me company!” “And what about me? Huh? What about that?” Rainbow snapped. “I love you Twilight, I… I miss your companionship, Tartarus, even your eggheady tendency to spout off boring facts that nopony cares about!” “You’d better stay away from me Rainbow, everypony close to me just ends up dead in the end! Who’s to say you’re not next, huh?” Twilight sobbed/shouted. Rainbow snarled and lunged at Twilight and pinned her to the floor, at look of pure fury on her face at the sheer indifference Twilight was showing. This wasn’t the mare she knew, Twilight would give a damn about these ponies’ lives, and she needed some sense knocked back into her. “I’ve had enough of your bull, Twi. Ponies are dying left and right and you won’t lift a hoof to help me stop it! If you don’t help, you’re just as much responsible for their deaths as they are!” Rainbow shouted, and Twilight looked as if she’d been punched in the gut. But Rainbow wasn’t finished in her tirade. “Now act like the mare I know and GET THE BUCK TO WORK ON A SOLUTION FOR THIS!” Rainbow roared, grabbing Twilight’s chest fur with her hooves before releasing her. Twilight, quite scared of Rainbow right now, rushed over to her many bookshelves and began pulling books off of them like a mare possessed. Eventually, she found what she was looking for. “Ah, here we go. This might be it.” Twilight said, slamming a book down on a nearby table and flipping to a page marked “Tulpa.” and began reading the information off the page. “Belgian-Prench explorer, spiritualist, and Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel observed these mystical practices in early Neighasian countries. She reported tulpas are "magic golems or formations created by a powerful concentration of thought by an accomplished mind." David-Néel wrote that "An accomplished Bodhisattva is capable of effecting many kinds of magic creations, up to ten, or maybe even more, as I can report. The power of producing magic constructions, like say, tulkus or less lasting and materialized and well constructed tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings. Anypony, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself. David-Néel wrote of the tulpa's ability to develop a mind of its own: “Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother's womb. David-Néel claimed to have created a tulpa in the image of a jolly Friar Tuck-like monk which later developed a life of its own and had to be destroyed. David-Néel raised the possibility that her experience was illusory: "I may have created my own hallucination," though she reports that others could see the thoughtforms that have been created.” “...In regular Equestrian Twi?” Rainbow deadpanned. Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Basically, we have a powerful unicorn creating a Tulpa, ie, the Bloody Mary and bringing it to life for some unknown purpose.” “Great, how do I gank it?” “Well, the Bloody Mary must travel from mirror to mirror, but it had to originate from somewhere, and as the Bloody Mary is an old legend, I would have to say you would be looking for a very old mirror with a symbol drawn on the back of it. Destroy that mirror, and you should “Gank” the Tulpa.” Twilight explained. Rainbow quickly realized where this old mirror had to be. There was this antique shop down on a street in one of the older sections of town, and it was filled with all kinds of stuff. Chances were, that’s where that mirror was. Rainbow smirked and flew out the door, smashing it to splinters and destroying the spell on it in the process. If she had stayed a little longer, she might have noticed Twilight picking up a book that read “Crossroads Deals for Dummies”... Youtube Video Meanwhile, Rainbow flew as fast as she could to this district, the Green Leaves district. On either side of the street, were various shops. One of them was a guitar store, the Guitar Station owned by Grape Vine where he sold guitars and taught lessons on how to use them. She smirked when she saw Grape Vine’s bandmate, Lucky Clover shoved into an alleyway by the mare Lovestruck and soon moaning and groaning sounds of pleasure and the sounds of fur and flesh slapping against each other began emanating from the alleyway. She’d always wondered when Lovestruck would realize Lucky liked her. On the other side of the street, was a restaurant that had changed hooves throughout the years, with each owner changing its theme from Jamareican, to a bar themed around the Haywaiian islands of the seas to what was now a Saddle Arabian themed restaurant. But soon Rainbow’s eyes narrowed in on the antique shop she was looking for, which was located right next to the Guitar Station. “Alright, time to end this.” Rainbow growled and entered the darkened and musty store before coughing at the sheer dust level on everything. She sighed to herself when she looked around. There were so many mirrors it was going to be almost impossible to find which one had the Tulpa symbol on it. Almost. Then, she spotted it. Tucked away in a corner was a golden mirror with ancient writing drawn on the back of it. “There you are.” Rainbow smirked and swallowed as she stepped to the mirror. She had a secret of her own. Back when she and Twilight first got together, she hadn’t told her marefriend she was in heat at the time and the guilt was still nagging away at her. With trepidation, Rainbow whispered those fateful words. “Bloody Mary… Bloody Mary… Bloody Mary…” Sure enough, out of the mirror came an old and decrepit unicorn mare. Rainbow snarled at her. “So you’re the infamous Bloody Mary, huh? Don’t look so tough to me. You know what, I think even a filly could take you on. Guess what, I don’t believe in you and I never have. You’re just a bad old bedtime story passed around at slumber parties. So do us all a favor, and DIE!” Rainbow snarled before she with a flying kick, smashed the mirror’s glass and the Bloody Mary screeched as she went out in a pillar of flames. “Well, that wasn’t so hard was it?” Rainbow smirked in a cocky way. “Yeah, that was awesome.” With the Doctor and Derpy… The Doctor rushed back to Derpy’s home as fast as he could. Panting, he opened the door, and Derpy’s face lit up in joy and she embraced him in a hug, eyes sparkling with tears of joy. “I… I thought you’d given up!” “No, I never give up on anything. And now I know exactly why the Slendermane is kidnapping foals and fillies. Weeeeeellll, kidnapping wouldn’t be the right word. More like rescuing them from abusive parents.” “B-But I would never be abusive to my little Muffin, never!” Derpy stammered. “Yes, I know. But you did yell at her for breaking your mother’s favorite vase a few days back did you not? The Slendermane… He misunderstood. He can’t tell the difference between discipline and abuse. We have to make him understand.” “But… But that means…” Derpy squeaked. “Yes, we’re going back into Whitetail Woods. Time to go face to face with Slendy… again.” And so they once more took a little walk in the woods, Derpy trembling all the while in fear of whom they knew they would meet. The misty gloom seemed to wrap around them like it had a life of it it’s own. At this point, the Doctor wouldn’t be particularly surprised if it did. It didn’t take long before the Slendermane showed up again, teleporting in front of them with a look of incalculable rage upon his face. The Doctor swallowed nervously as the sightless creature somehow managed to stare them down. “I thought I told you never to come back here. Especially you, Ms Hooves.” He growled out. “There’s… There’s been a slight misunderstanding.” Derpy replied, mustering up her courage. “Okay, big misunderstanding.” The Doctor put in. “I would never, and I mean NEVER abuse my daughter! That was just a spur of the moment in anger! I never even laid a hoof on her!” “But you yelled at her!” The Slendermane growled and a tendril pinned her to a tree and began choking her. “There’s a difference between punishment and abuse! You need to understand that! I understand what you’ve been doing all these years, saving foals and fillies from ponies who don’t even deserve life, but you were wrong in this case!” The Doctor pleaded, hoping to make the Slendermane understand. “Look into those eyes, the fear, the heartbreak and the concern for her daughter! Does Derpy look like the kind of mare who would ever hurt a child?” And so the Slendermane did as he was asked, and he saw what truly lay in Derpy’s heart. He had scared somepony and kidnapped their child, when they didn’t deserve it. He felt ashamed and disgusted with himself and released her. And then, from out of the forest came Dinky, rushing into her mother’s arms. “I promise my little Muffin, I won’t let anything happen to you ever again, and I’m sorry for yelling at you. I… I lost my temper, and I promise, that’ll never happen again.” Derpy whispered comfortingly and then glared at the Slendermane, her normally crossed eyes staring boring into his soul. “And as for you, if you ever pull a stunt like this again, I will come for you, understand?” The Slendermane nodded, and then walked slowly away into the gloom, but not before the Doctor had one last thing to say. “Before you go, I just want to say how sorry I truly am. You never should have gone through what you did as a child. And I really have to thank you for what you’ve been doing all these years. It’s something to admire. Keep on doing it. But, and only but, if you analyze the situation first. Because if you don’t, Derpy or I will come back for you.” He said in a warning tone. Then, the Slendermane vanished and Derpy turned to the Doctor. “Think he’ll uphold his end of the bargain?” “...To be honest, I don’t know.” The Doctor answered before a thought struck Derpy. “What do you mean you were truly sorry for what he’d gone through?” “Well, think about it. Pony like that, how would you think his parents would have reacted? It’s not always a nice world out there. There are ponies that hide themselves behind a cloak of kindliness, but behind closed doors they can be as monstrous as one can imagine.” And on that ominous thought, he said no more. The TARDIS: Present Day Youtube Video The Doctor sighed to himself. That adventure was the last time he felt he truly helped somepony. No death, nothing of the sort that usually followed him. Everypony lived in that adventure for once, and then the cycle resumed. He brought death and chaos wherever he ran. And now it was time to stop. “I’d be better off in here, spending the rest of my days with my things, never lending a hoof to anypony and sowing death and destruction in their lives. Twilight, that was my biggest mistake. Ever since I attached myself to her and her family, nothing but ruin’s come into it. First Cherry Berry, then Spike… Who next?” He asked himself. Then a familiar voice butted in as a white flash lit up the room. “Now, that’s not the Doctor I know. You keep focusing on the bad, My Little Pony, and never on the good you’ve done. You saved an entire village, remember that? You’ve saved Equestria many times over, but all you think about is what you lose in the process and not what you gain.” Celestia said as she and Derpy teleported into the TARDIS. “But that’s what I am. I don’t have any long lasting companions. That title belongs to death and death alone. I’d be better off joining her. And Twilight… Faust above, every future I travel to, she and her friends hate me. All because of a simple mistake I MADE!” Then, a hoof firmly slapped him across the face. Celestia glared harshly at him. “DOCTOR! This isn’t you and you know it! I’ve seen things, stars going out, I’ve seen the Daleks! They’re coming Doctor, and we need you! And that’s not counting who knows what lays in Equestria’s future. Maybe you’ll make some mistakes, everypony does, even you, but there are plenty of good things. And as for those futures, you can change them. You don’t let anypony dictate the rules, so why should you now?” Celestia asked. “And you’re not alone. Derpy here, she doesn’t hate you. She actually wants to travel with you, and I’ve talked to Rainbow and Shining Armor. They don’t hate you either, so pick yourself off the floor and do what you do best. Save the world, and be the Madman that you are.” The Doctor slowly got up off the floor. He knew Celestia was right. With a quick dash up the stairs, he quickly grabbed a new suit, a plum one and pulled on his bow-tie as the TARDIS generated a new Sonic for him, one laid in silver and had a green glowing tip and it launched into the air and the Doctor grabbed it and caught it in his mouth before pocketing it. With a smile, he turned to Derpy. “All of time and space; everywhere and anywhere, everything that ever happened or ever was. Where or when do you want to start?” He asked and Derpy shrugged and the Doctor gained his old mad grin again. The Madman in his Box was back, and it showed when he grabbed Celestia and kissed her, leaving her in a blush before she smiled at him. No words needed to be said. As Celestia teleported out and the Doctor threw a switch and pressed some buttons, he remembered the future Celestia and what he said to her. “Celestia, watch me run.” END
Interlude: HomecomingYoutube Video Thunder rumbled in the distance as dark gray clouds covered the hills and mountainsides that made up the country of Transalfangya. A lone pony grunted as he gripped the side of a clifftop and pulled himself up, his night black fur whipping in the wind. He’d been away from his homeland a very long while, far too long if he was to be honest with himself. “Puteţi să mă ajutaţi vă rog Faust? Give me a good answer why I came back to this place.” Galaxy asked as his hooves touched the ground of the clifftop, feeling the cold stone beneath him as a flash of lightning lit up his unusually unarmored form. Galaxy sighed to himself, he felt exposed without his regular armor, it’d be far too easy for somepony to stage an attack on him from behind and stick a knife into his neck. “Is it really paranoia if there are creatures out to get you? The little buggers want me dead, and while I suspect that’ll happen one day as we all have to go sometime...“ Galaxy thought to himself as he looked at a rock that he could have sworn wasn’t there a few minutes ago. Galaxy pulled out the bone knife he had nicked from R.I.F.T Headquarters and walked towards the rock. His every step was filled with caution, his ears flicking at the slightest sound. A ruffle in some bushes, the sound of wing-beats, even a simple chittering sound from what most would think to be just an ordinary bug set him on edge. The knife plunged down into the rock and Galaxy waited for the shifting of form and the body of a changeling scout slumping to the ground, it’s green tinted blood oozing into a puddle. He waited a few seconds, but nothing happened and he pulled the knife out of the stone. He then strapped it back to his right foreleg. “...Got lucky that time, but all the same, I can’t be too careful. I’m not as young as I used to be, and even if I can handle myself in a fight I can’t afford to be taken by surprise. Not this time around.” Galaxy grunted. “What I’m here for, it could shift the balance of power between two constantly feuding states, and unseat a tyrant from her throne,” “...Faust knows I want to be there when SHE finally goes down, and her horn ripped off and her very life-blood pooling out beneath my hooves. That crown of hers, shattered. After what she did to me, my family it… It would put me at ease. While I’d still have nightmares, it’d bring me great satisfaction to know that her race would have nightmares of their own… Nightmares of me.” Galaxy continued thinking to himself. He knew it best to avoid speaking aloud, as the valley had ears all over. The Queen wasn’t a stupid ruler, she wouldn’t leave behind a few scouts of the nation she’d ripped apart after she’d unseated it’s ruling family. Galaxy admitted that was partially his fault, he’d turned and ran from his birthright after what had happened so many years ago. But the pain of just looking at the merciless slaughter of his family was just too much for him. Îmi pare rău… M-am îndrăgostit de tine my Sagittarius, but I let you be slaughtered and let her drain every ounce of love from you. Not just you, but the little ones as well. And what did I do? I turned and ran, instead of putting this shattered country back together,” Galaxy thought to himself, a tear trickling down his face from his golden eyes as he remembered the screaming and that maniacal laughter. Oh, that laughter. He heard it every time he shut his eyes. “I hope whatever Hell I send you to you insectoid bitch, that there’s a devil waiting just for you. And I know with all the things I’ve done in my life, I’m probably following you. Hopefully, I’ll be that devil.” Galaxy snarled and chuckled darkly to himself, the sheer idea of putting pins and needles in the Changeling Queen’s body as she burned in the fires of her own making just giving him a small hint of a smile. Galaxy continued walking forwards into a dark forest, known infamously as the Hoia-Baciu Forest. The forest covered an area of about 3 square kilometers if Galaxy had to guess. Its southern border began on the ridge Galaxy currently was on which ran from the east to the west side of the area. It had long renowned for paranormal activity, and in the center of the miles of untouched wilderness was a mysterious ring where no plants grew. It was a mystery numerous scientists had tried to solve, but nopony ever had. It was said a dark ritual had been performed here by a mad cult led by the infamous unicorn Spell Nexus, and that this was where Nightmare Moon was truly born. That pure ritual of darkness cut off all light and kept any plants from growing in this inner circle. Galaxy scoffed at this. He didn’t put much stock in that. If it wasn’t in the history books, it didn’t happen. While he did know dark forces overtook Princess Luna in one of her moments of weakness, he highly doubted a dark cult of any sort was behind the creation of those forces. Creatures chittered with every step he made as he disturbed their slumber. His lamp like eyes lit up the forest, and he whirled around as he swore he saw something black and insectoid like with chitin like wings scamper off into the woodland. “So they are here. I knew it.” Galaxy said as he pulled out the First Blade again. Galaxy had always been fascinated by the history of the so-called First Blade, it was said it was used by the father of the great pegasus Commander Hurricane to murder his brother out of pure spite, so he’d get the honor of leading the pegasus tribes into battle. As the years passed, it went through many private collectors until finally it ended up in the storage of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, now known simply as R.I.F.T. At that point, where everything possibly dangerous or cursed was being re-sorted and reorganized, Galaxy had pilfered it. It was said the First Blade could kill anything, even Abaddon himself although personally, Galaxy didn’t put much stock in old mare’s tales. Galaxy continued walking through the forest but suddenly his hooves ground to a halt. In front of him was a small fountain, made out of simple stone and lying in ruin after years of miscare. But Galaxy’s eyes widened at the inscription on the fountain. It wasn’t just a fountain, it was a memorial. Galaxy read off the words, which were written in old Romanian and he smiled sadly. Here’s what they said. “Here lies Lord Scorpius-Tepes, the ruler of the kingdom of Transalfangya and a loving father, till the very end.” Galaxy chuckled and murmured. “So that’s where they think I’m buried.” as he smiled at the loyalty of his subjects, even after their Lord supposedly was killed in the massacre of the Tepes family. Galaxy, or rather Scorpius had ordered his subjects if he ever were to be killed in battle to bury him somewhere far, someplace remote to keep his body from being disturbed. The same went for any members of his family. He knew there were a lot of creeps who would conduct some sort of arcane ritual in order to bring back bodies as Inferi. The belief of life after death, or at least a body without a soul moving about and about was an old superstition that still lingered in these parts. Galaxy continued trudging through the forest for hour after hour, thunder continuing to rumble in the distance, the threat of the oncoming storm looming over him. And then, as he reached the edge of the forest which overlooked a once grand castle, the clouds let loose their deluge. Rain poured on top of Galaxy as he gazed upon what was once his castle, named the Targoviste. A tall grand tower made up the central structure, which was built all around it. A grand hall, once covered and now exposed to the elements was connected to this tower, among others by various walkways over great rifts in the earth. Smaller towers, functioning as emplacements for ballistas were scattered about, some in ruins. Others were left exactly the way they were seemingly untouched by the passage of time. Moss covered and crept up the stonework walls, each with small holes in them for gun emplacements or archers to fire their barrages out of. “I left this place to rot… My father must be looking down upon me in shame. I ran from my past, in fear and terror. ...Now, it’s only guilt out of not going after the Queen who ruined my life, my family!” Galaxy snarled before his very body began to shake and quiver as he sobbed at what he had done, and his part in it. Behind him, two blue insect like eyes watched the former lord of Targoviste break down and let his emotional barriers fall like the castle walls he once defended. The owner of those eyes looked away in sadness and felt a small tear slip from them as the pony-like creature turned to walk away and he hung his head in sadness. “What have we done? We’re supposed to absorb love, yes as that’s the only way for our species to survive but wherever we go we also leave ruins and destruction in our wake.” The changeling, a younger member of his species thought as he vanished into the forest and assumed the simple disguise of a regular bat-pony. “Me and Thorax… We both know there’s got to be a better way than this, there has to be! But not while Queen Chrysalis is in charge. Not right now.” Meanwhile, Galaxy remembered… Twenty-One Years Ago… Youtube Video Galaxy smiled as he watched his two young children frolic and toss a ball back and forth between them in the Grand Hall before they led each other on a game of chase laughing all the while. One, a gray filly with purple hair and another pure black with his own brown mane, an exact image of his father in all but the eyes which were a cool blue. Galaxy smiled as he looked at the stain glass window nearest to him, an image of his father shown and Galaxy let the metal horseshoes which made up part of his pure sterling silver armor clank as they hit the floor with each hoof step. He watched his father, an exact image of him right down to the eyes seemingly look at him with pride at the kingdom he ruled. Suddenly, he felt a soft caressing nuzzle from his wife, a pure gray bat-pony with green eyes and an indigo mane. “Remembering again?” She asked. “Y-Yeah. Adrianna, I have to ask… Would my father be proud of me? It’s been ten years since he passed, and I was only a young foal then when I had to take the throne. I wasn’t ready, and I have never felt like I’m living up to the expectations that he set for me,” Galaxy questioned as he continued watching his father in the stain glass window, whose eyes were now seemingly judging him. “Faust knows he wouldn’t have approved of you. You’re not even of any royal bloodline.” “Well…” Adrianna began. “I don’t think that matters. Bloodline or not, you picked me out of all the other possible suitors your advisors set out for you. Me, a simple farmer!” “Let’s be honest here,” Galaxy said as he nuzzled his wife in return. He never really showed affection to her in public, not while his royal guards all dressed in blood red armor watched. This was a rarity indeed and it surprised his wife knowing how reserved in his affections Galaxy normally was. “All of those… mares, to use the polite way of putting it were just gold diggers who only wanted this castle, not me. No small wonder I fired my advisors when they started lining them up for the choosing.” Adrianna chuckled. She remembered the shouting that could be heard from the Grand Hall that day when Galaxy had gone missing. He would later show up at her family farm dressed in just a simple brown tattered and very worn cloak. At the time, he stated he just wanted to help out. It was only after she had recognized him that Galaxy confessed he wanted to see how the lower classes lived their lives and that he needed to get away from the castle life for awhile. At the time, he didn’t state exactly why but whenever she saw Galaxy overhear and shake his head in pure disgust at the various noble-mares talking about the possibility of being Galaxy’s wife did she figure it out. Then, Adrianna smiled and laid a hoof on his shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about your father being proud of you or what choices you made with what you wanted to do with your life. You’re not him, and you never will be. Your father was a tyrant, always imposing tax after tax. You… When you took the throne you lifted every law he made and tried to make life better for us. That’s all that matters.” “Mă simt bine cu tine,” Galaxy replied. “Tu mă faci fericită, you always know what to say.” Adrianna then wrapped her hooves around her husband and gave him a long lingering kiss before nibbling on his neck. “Now, you’ve been paying so much attention to your kingdom and not me that I’m feeling… left out,” She purred in an almost disappointed tone before Galaxy smiled and nibbled back. “Well, guess we’ll have to remedy that… Won’t we?” Later that night, Galaxy awoke and shot up from his bed, and tossed the sheets off him while his wife murmured his name in her half-asleep state. He pulled aside the drapes covering the bed and rushed to a window and threw it open letting the cold air rush in. A buzzing sound filled the air and the moon was seemingly black as night. But Galaxy narrowed his eyes and as he looked in closer, the moon wasn’t covered by an eclipse at all. The darkness was seemingly writhing and moving of its own accord. Galaxy’s eyes widened as he realized what was coming and grabbed a sword off the wall before he shook his wife awake. “W-What… What’s happening?” She murmured drowsily. Galaxy said one simple word, one which made Adrianna’s eyes widen in terror and her blood run cold. “Changelings.” Galaxy ran out of the bedroom and grabbed another sword off the wall as he shouted for his men to ready the defenses and grab whatever they could. *“Alright then Chrysalis, you want a siege? I’ll give it to you, and then some!” Galaxy snarled mentally as he ran into the Grand Hall and the doors shattered wide open as the Changeling Queen herself, flanked by guards in dark blue armor entered. Chrysalis allowed a smirk to crawl onto her face.* Youtube Video “So, you’re the famous Scorpius-Tepes,” Chrysalis purred as she licked her lips like a hungry animal. “My name is Queen Chrysalis.” “Yeah, I know who you are, you bitch.” “Now, now,” Chrysalis chided as Galaxy prepared his swords and his men flanked him as Chrysalis’s own guards advanced around her in a form of protection, chittering as they did so. “Is that any way to speak to a fellow royal? Must say, love what you’ve done with the place. It’s… elegant. A bit of slime here and there, and I’d feel at home,” Chrysalis remarked as she observed the room. The tension grew all the more thicker. “Which is honestly why I’m here. Inima mea îţi aparţine?” “Sorry to disappoint, but Sunt însurat. Besides, how stupid do you think I am? I know why you’re really here, and you’re not getting it,” “Oh well, a girl had to try. Couldn’t hurt to ask and all that,” Chrysalis remarked cheerfully before she chittered “Wipe them out, all of them. And as for the royal family, well… They’re mine. I can just feel the love for his wife and children oozing off of the Lord here. It’ll be fun to suck it all dry.” The battle began. Bat-pony engaged changeling and sword met sword. Confusion was sown amongst the ranks as changelings used their natural shape-shifting abilities turn into other guards and then throw them off balance before they took them down. Heads fell to the floor with sickening sounds while Galaxy was blasted backwards into his throne shattering it to pieces by a blast of green magical energy from the Queen. Several of her elite guards rushed him but Galaxy quickly recovered and flew over them before cutting one off at the hind leg and then sticking one of his two swords through the guard as it fell to the ground. Another flew towards him but Galaxy slid beneath the changeling and sliced through it’s unarmored belly soaking his armor in green blood. He then leaped into the air and landed a kick to the face of another elite guard sending the changeling flying back and through the stained glassed window of his father. “Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say.” Galaxy chuckled before he whirled around to stab the final of the four guards in the chest. He spun his swords in his hooves as more changelings surrounded him. Queen Chrysalis screeched in rage and yelled something in the changeling tongue. He groaned in pain and began to feel weak as the changelings began to absorb his love for his family and toppled to the floor and slipped away into unconsciousness… Galaxy didn’t know much about how long he was unconscious, but when he did awake, he found himself being pulled out of a cocoon slime dripping off him and dragged into the changelings’ main hive. All around him, the walls shifted and moved and eyes peered out of holes in the darkness. And in the center of it all, sitting atop a throne of her own making was Queen Chrysalis herself. Nearby, coated in slime was Galaxy’s family. “Glad to see you’re awake,” Chrysalis cooed as several changelings spat gunk at him to hold his hooves in place. “It was a shame we had to take you prisoner, but... C’est de la vie.” “Now, shall we begin? Where is it? Where’s the remnant!?!” Chrysalis snarled. “Sorry, but you got to Targoviste too late. It got destroyed in a fire long ago, few years before you came here. An accident in the kitchen started it, I think.” Galaxy replied dryly and all the changelings hissed in an odd way before he realized he was being laughed at, in a sense. “Oh… Playing coy are we?” Chrysalis asked. “How cute. Sadly, I’m in no mood for games. I know the perfect way you’ll give it up. STAG!” A female changeling covered head to hoof in dark blue armor advanced and trotted in front of Galaxy’s family. “Now… If you won’t give up the information willingly… Maybe seeing your family have all their love sucked out and getting turned into useless husks will change your mind. Unless… You decided to answer right now, and I’ll spare all your lives.” Galaxy grimaced before he let out a snarl of “Fine. It’s in the church. Can’t miss it, under the grave of the high priest of the moon.” “Good… Now, Stag, if you please?” Galaxy’s eyes widened as what happened next changed his life forever. He had to watch as Stag smirked and then had her squad decapitate every member of his family, wife and children. Their blood spattered his face and Galaxy let out a screech of rage and tried to rush Stag but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. “They weren’t going to be of use anyways. Now, as for you dear Scorpius… You’re not much use to me either, now that you don’t have a single dollop of love in your heart. I’ll let you live, but only with the knowledge that no matter what you could have done, you could never have saved your family,” Chrysalis turned to two changelings. “Dump him somewhere in the badlands. I’m not partial to where, but make it somewhere where he can at least crawl back to civilization. Maybe he’ll find a new life, settle down and I can take it all from him again, but then again maybe he’ll die from dehydration. I don’t care about either outcome.” Now: Galaxy snarled at the memories and shook his head to clear them away as he reached what was once him and his wife’s bedroom. He tapped a brick, and stone walls began moving aside to reveal a secret compartment where a small brown chest lay. Galaxy opened it, and a blue glow reached covered his face from what was inside. He let a sadistic smile crawl onto his face. “Perfect.” Then, Galaxy heard the cock of a shotgun and heard a female voice ask “Where the Tartarus have you been?” END…?
Interlude: (The Reaper of Canterlot... And his Mamei?)Targoviste Castle: Lord’s Quarters Galaxy tensed as he heard the shotgun cock and went for the First Blade strapped to his foreleg but then felt the barrels touch his neck. The box he had found he was clutching with his left wing. “Make another move like that, bug, and we’re all going to see what the inside of a changeling’s brain looks like when it’s splattered clean across the wall,” The female voice continued, with a distinct Romaneian accent. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, impersonating my dead son. Sure, he may look about twenty years older and he may have lost the accent but I’d know him anywhere.” “M-Mamei…?” Galaxy asked as his head took a slow turn to face his mother and reached out to stroke her aged white coated face, unable to believe his own eyes. Her dark blue hair may have had streaks of gray in it, but it was her alright. However, his mom flinched and snarled out “Nu ma atingeti!” “It’s me mamei, why can’t you believe that? N-am facut nimic rau!” Galaxy asked putting the box on his bed with a simple move of his wing letting it softly fall to the sheets. The box’s contents rolled off the bed and fell onto the wooden floor with a clinking sound like crystal. “How… How dare you!” Galaxy’s mother screeched with a fury, slapping him soundly across the face. “You claim to be him, but I know Chrysalis, the bitch, she took him and his whole family to her hive in the Badlands! Slaughtered them all!” “They dumped me, left me to die.” Galaxy argued. “I almost did!” “Well, if you really are him I’d say you probably should have died!” Galaxy’s mother snarled out and he flinched as if she’d struck him again. “This whole country, without its leader… It’s fallen into ruin! Chaos runs amuck in the streets, no Royal Guards to keep the peace!” “DON’T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT!?!” Galaxy roared out, his mom taking a step back as his eyes flashed demonic yellow and his fangs bared themselves in his fury. Galaxy, noting how scared his Mamei was of him took at once felt a great guilt hit him and he felt like he should have been struck again. He was going into his “Reaper of Canterlot” mood and if he didn’t calm himself he would strike down the very last member of his family that he had left. “I… I was a coward! I stayed in Canterlot as a member of it’s Royal Guard and then eventually rose to the ranks of the Captain of the Night Guard… I may have left the Guard under the pretenses of “Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome” after the Windigo invasion but… But honestly? I was scared of what had become of this country, and I wanted to come back. At first, it was only to retrieve that,” Galaxy confessed, pointing to the small shard of gleaming blue and red crystal that had fallen to the floor. “As I knew it would be one of the only things that could kill Queen Chrysalis, but now…” Galaxy’s tone took a firmer tone, one of pure outright rage. “Show me what’s become of my country.” He growled out and his mom gave him a look. “Why should I? How do I know you’re not Queen Chrysalis herself in disguise come to finish the job and take that shard for yourself?” His mom accused, her blood red eyes flaring like hellfire not too dissimilar to how Galaxy’s own did when he was enraged. “Please,” Galaxy scoffed. “If I was that bitch of a bug, I would have taken that shard and shattered it, and you would be lying dead at my hooves with your blood pooling out all over the floor,” he remarked. “We both know what that shard is, and who it was once a part of, so we both know what it could do to Queen Chrysalis if I even got a single blow in with it melded into Blood Moon.” Galaxy continued. His mother finally sighed and then pulled Galaxy into a crushing hug sobbing all the while about how her little scorpion had come home at last. “Alright… I’ll show you what’s happened. But first, you need to tell me your side of the story. All of it.” Galaxy's mother requested. No, not a request Galaxy realized, a demand. Galaxy sighed and motioned for his mother to sit down on his bed. “Okay, this will be one of those long stories…” Galaxy’s POV: The Badlands certainly earned their name, that was for sure. Nothing for miles but rocks and sand and creatures that I can’t even name ready to rip you limb from limb. You’d be officially considered insane for even thinking of taking a trip out there willingly, even prepared for what’s out there. How Queen Chrysalis and her band survive out there… Well, that’s beyond me. As for me, well… I didn’t have the luxury of being there willingly. The wind hit my face and sent granules of sand cutting into my fur as I stumbled through one of Equestria’s harshest terrains, the blood of my family still covering my face. What little water I found, I took for myself. I used the rib bones of a fallen creature as a blade to fend off anything that was stupid enough to try and take me out and have my flesh as it’s next meal. How many days I spent out there, I couldn’t count. Time loses all sense of meaning in that particular slice of Tartarus. On one day, I heard a howl cut through a canyon I was passing through. Sand Coyotes, even I’d heard of their ruthlessness and how once they got to you, they never stopped hunting and when you tired out you were theirs. I ran, not caring for food nor water as I was far too frightened of the coyotes to care about those things. Eventually, they caught up with me, and the leader of the pack blindsided me from my left and pounced sending me smacking into a rock. I clutched my chest in pain and went for my weapon. I staggered to my hooves and swung at the beast, it's eyes glowing red and it smacked me aside with one huge paw. It’s maw dripped with drool as it closed in for the kill. But I wasn’t going down without a fight. I knew I was done for, but I intended to take this creature with me and do Equestria a very large favor. I lunged and plunged my weapon into its neck and true to the creature’s name sand began to pour out of the wound before it dissolved back into the sand from whence it was born. I fell to the ground bleeding heavily as the rest of the pack, intent on avenging their leader closed in. I closed my eyes and braced for death, happy on knowing I was about to see my family again. But death didn’t come for me on that day. There was a flurry of arrows and I looked up to see a platoon of Royal Guards led by the stallion whom I would later curse the very name of Thaddeus Boltstrike, his golden and purple adorned armor glinting in the sun. As my eyes closed, I felt soft feathered wings wrap around me and a warm glowing presence all around me as the entire area was turned to ash… Years passed, and I rose through the ranks of the Royal Guard and when Princess Luna returned from her thousand year banishment, I was the first to be selected to lead the newly reborn Night Guard. By then, I’d gained a reputation as the Reaper of Canterlot for my sheer ferocity in battle and never leaving a single opponent alive. I was cruel, sadistic in my ways. O enjoyed the thrill of a battle, and although I hated to admit it, me and Boltstrike weren’t so different. All throughout it all, I kept one thought in my mind, Queen Chrysalis. I thought of how unpleasant it would be for the bitch when I finally met with her again. I would make sure that rats devouring her mane and head as she felt every second and every nibble would be merciful compared to what I planned to do. I would prolong her pain, and enjoy every second of it leaving her begging for mercy although I would have none before I finally granted her death’s sweet release and making sure that she knew I was the one to topple her from her throne. There was no denying it, I was almost completely insane and I knew it. The only thing that made me different from Boltstrike, the ONLY thing, was that I on the other hoof, would never betray Equestria or hurt a child. I would never do that, not after what Chrysalis did to me or how I betrayed my own country for running to Equestria’s open arms. Might not even believe this, but I even took on a student, a young bat-pony mare named Ender Knight. Taught her everything I knew, she became like an adopted daughter to me. When the time came for me to retire, I knew there was only one possible successor. As I handed her my helmet and shield, I said this to her. “Now, what’s the personal creed for the Night Guard?” “United we stand, together we thrive,” Ender repeated and I asked her this. “Now what’s my personal creed in leading the Night Guard? At that moment, I knew Ender remembered what I had told her long ago when she was just a guard in training and I was showing her my helmet. “Now remember the responsibilities of putting on this helmet. Protecting the Kingdom and it's allies, helping those who can't help themselves, and kicking ass and looking damn good doing it. Remember those words, okay? Might save your life someday.” was what I had said. “Fight strong, fight swift and don’t let them know you’re coming. Also,” she began and I smiled as she placed my helmet on her head and her armor gained the distinct golden adornments of a Captain as my ex-troops saluted us both. “Kick ass and look good doing it.” “That’s my girl,” I said with a wink. The times had changed, and now it was up to her to finish what I had started in leading the Night Guard to a new age and defending Equestria. Galaxy’s mom took in his story and swallowed hard before pulling him into another hug. “Oh, my little Scorpion, I never knew you’d gone through so much… Tell me, in that other life of yours, besides a daughter, did you find somepony to make you...Happy?” She asked. “To be honest, yes,” Galaxy said sadly. “Then why do you not seem pleased about it?” His mom asked. “Well, I think he isn’t interested in my advances, might swing for the fairer sex, or if he does swing my way he’s too oblivious to my flirting. I mean, I’ve offered to take small sips of his blood! Galaxy shouted, throwing his hooves up in the air in frustration. “I mean, how much more obvious can I get? What, do I need a neon sign floating above my damn head that says “Sunburst, I want to have sex with you!” His mother actually threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, that’s what stallions are like. Faust knows your father-” Galaxy’s mom laughed and Galaxy threw up a rude gesture with his wing at the mere mention of his father and received a sound slap to the back of the head and a “Show a little respect for the dead!” from his mom before she continued. “As I was saying, Faust knows your father was pretty much oblivious to whenever I was trying to flirt with him, about the only good trait you received from him I thi-” “And here you were lecturing me on showing disrespect to the dead,” Galaxy smirked. “Oh, the hypocrisy.” “Oh no, in this country you remember it’s the son who must show respect. Anypony else is fair game.” his mom gracefully reminded him. “Now, it’s time to see what’s happened to your kingdom since you left, Scorpius.” As Galaxy walked through the cobblestone streets, everywhere he looked he felt as if he was continuingly punched in the gut. Houses lay in ruins, mares of the night just sat on street corners whoring themselves out to any stallion (Or mare) who was up for a good time. A gunshot rang out from somewhere in the once proud city. “Now you see, my son?” His mother asked him. “Yeah… Now I see.” Galaxy snarled in fury before he ground to a halt. There he saw it, the church where he used to pray every night. Its tall spire that held the church bell had been completely blown off and the remnants of the brassed iron bell lay in two pieces in front of him with the rest of the spire being scattered around. Graffiti had been drawn on the sides of the church walls, and the once beautiful age old stain glass windows depicting various events from Equestria’s history now lay shattered. As he walked towards the doors, remembering every time they creaked when he entered and how the bell sang when it rang he left out a short sob. “I caused this. Faust above, I caused this by running and hiding like a coward.” Galaxy thought to himself as he walked past the doors laying in front of him as if they’d been blown outwards by some great force. A hole in the roof allowed the rain to fall in as Galaxy walked between overturned church pews. Then, he heard laughter and a whimpering sound. Galaxy broke off into a gallop and saw three rough and scarred looking stallions pointing a gun at the priest, his white robes stained with blood and a hoof clutching his chest. “Not so tough are you now, old man?” One laughed while another cackled “Faust isn’t going to protect you now, is she?” The priest crossed himself with a hoof. “No matter, for She is with me. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Lady Faust is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1, you might want to read it.” “Please, I stopped praying long ago, you might want to start though old man.” The leader remarked. The priest continued quoting. “Samuel 22:3-4: my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. I call upon the LADY, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. Then everyone present felt a hoof step from behind them and turned to see Galaxy Swirls, Blood Moon in his mouth as if summoned by sheer thought. “Trust me father, Faust was watching,” Galaxy snarled. “As for these poor fools, I really suggest they pray to whatever deity they believe in and hope he or she shows mercy, as I don’t.” “Get ‘im!” One of the stallions roared and all three charged at him. Galaxy tripped one up with a hoof before kicking him right into one of the confessionals before grabbing another in the mouth with the blade end of his scythe and tossing him into a pew. The final stallion threw a punch, but Galaxy caught it and knocked him to the ground with the butt of his weapon and into unconsciousness. Galaxy slammed the blade of his scythe into the ground and as his mother picked up the priest and helped him up. The priest’s eyes widened in recognition and he let out a small gasp. “Tell everypony… That Lord Scorpius-Tepes has come home and he’s here to stay.” Galaxy snarled as thunder cracked in the background and lightning flashed illuminating the thestral’s form making him look like some sort of hellish angel. The Reaper of Canterlot had arrived, and anypony who dared go against him and his kingdom’s laws was about to get a VERY rude awakening. Somewhere in Equestria: Nighttime, the perfect time for ancient rituals. It had always been this way since the days of Spell Nexus and his Cult of the Night. Hooves galloped through the forest and eventually arrived at a long abandoned crossroads. A shovel, enveloped in a lavender glow began to dig a hole and a box was tossed in. “Well well well, this I was not expecting to see. Twilight Sparkle, making a deal with the devil. Well, one of us anyways. Loads of us in our line of business. Bloody surprising I must say,” The Crossroads Demon remarked cheerfully. Twilight knew his form, it was exactly the same as she remembered it. Golden mane, dark blue fur. The only difference now were the pure red eyes, “Honestly, horseshoe’s on the other hoof now. You hated me after I tried to kill your brother when he was just a young colt, and yet now you’re coming to me for help. Oh, I can hear him now,” The Crossroads Demon commented before taking on a mocking tone of Shining’s voice. "You couldn't have possibly brought Spike back from the dead, "Captain". You're just a punk-ass Crossroads Demon. You don't have that kind of power." Boltstrike said in a near-spot on imitation of Shining's voice. 'Ah, bup-bup-bup. Was a punk-ass Crossroads Demon. Now, King of Tartarus baby. Going to try and kill me now, Shiny?’ “You know what I want Boltstrike, so stop beating around the bush. I want my son back.” Twilight growled out, tired of Boltstrike's jokes. “Ah, but there’s a catch. I’m not Boltstrike, not anymore. When he nearly killed your dear teacher and adopted mummy dearest, he gave himself up to me.” “W-Who are you?” Twilight asked, taking a step back in fear as “Boltstrike” stroked her chin with a hoof. “You know my name.” Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Abaddon.” She growled out and the King of Tartarus clapped his hooves in triumph. “Give the pony a prize! Golden cupie doll, I think. Suits her well, might impress her marefriend with it. Now, shall we seal this deal with a kiss?” Abaddon asked, quite amused. “I shall never make a deal with you,” Twilight growled, her horn flaring up with magic. “Ah, but you will. Think about it, if you back out on this deal, you’ll just have to wallow in misery and sob to yourself knowing that there was a way to bring your dear Spiky back, and yet you backed out of it.” Abaddon commented. He knew exactly how to get to ponies, close deals. He was a businessman at heart and he knew all the tricks of the trade. When Twilight choked back a sob, Abaddon smirked. He knew he had her. “Now, about that kiss?” Twilight sighed before quickly kissing Abaddon on the lips, but he didn’t smile. “See this smile? It’s my “I’m very disappointed in you smile.” I want the full thing, tongue and all. See, go big or go home is my motto.” Twilight was then grabbed by Abaddon and he slammed his lips onto hers, throwing his tongue into her mouth and letting it dance. Twilight quickly pulled away and felt disgusted with herself from the sheer vileness of the actions she had just committed. Moreso, she sobbed as she realized what she had done. There was no backing out now, Abaddon would come for her and she knew it. He knew it as well. “Now, I’ll see you, along with my personal dogs in ten years time,” Abaddon smirked. “I do have mercy with my deals, this isn’t Wall Street after all. A stallion’s got to have standards after all.” With that, he vanished into thin air letting Twilight sob quietly to herself. END
Fairy Tales Part 1 (The First Casualties)A Constuction Site in Ponyville... It had been over a year since the events of the adventure that had come to be known as "Frightmare Night", and no threats to Equestria had been seen since then. The Doctor had taken up a period of relaxation that he intended to live to the fullest, but he was unaware and he should have known in fact that his relaxation period was soon to be disturbed by a new threat. It was close to the Equestrian version of the holiday known on Earth as Christmas, here known as Hearth's Warming Eve. So far, everything was calm and quiet, but not for long as three poor construction workers were about to discover... Youtube Video It was a simple construction site in Ponyville that the events which would bring the former Time Lord known as the Doctor out of hiding that were soon about to take place that very night. Three construction workers, brothers actually were having an argument about how to build their projects, a series of homes for Ponyville's newest neighborhood. In order, their names were Quick Build, Wooden Board and Brick Layer. One, Quick Build was brown furred with grey hair and a hammer for a Cutie Mark. His brothers were twins, with yellow fur and a jet black mane. They had respectively, a selection of wooden boards and a brick and mortar for Cutie Marks. Nearby, a sign said "Once upon a time, homes were built this way." and also on the sign was a model home that showed what the homes were supposed to look like when they were done. it was beautifully made, with white paint, green shutters and a brown shingled roof. "I told you bro, those wooden boards you chose are absolute crap!" Brick Layer argued passionately to Wooden Board. "We should have gone with the bricks and mortar like I suggested!" Wooden Board scoffed at his brother's statement. "Oh please, didn't you read the sign?" He asked, pointing to the sign that showed the house, coincidentally built out of wooden boards. "Bricks, mortar, they're so old fashioned!" Suddenly, there was a growling noise from somewhere behind a selection of metal pipes used for the home's future plumbing. Then, from out of nowhere, Quick Build was grabbed by a clawed and hairy arm and dragged behind the pipes. There was a scream, and a shower of blood covered the pipes soon after. "What was that?" Wooden Board asked in fear. "I don't know man, but we better run, or we're probably next!" Brick Layer exclaimed in equal fear and started running. His twin followed, but was soon grabbed by a shadowy figure and ripped from limb to limb, and was dead so fast and so quickly he was unable to scream as his ripped limbs showered some wooden boards with his blood and gore. And then, just when Brick Layer thought he was to be next, the figure vanished into the shadows leaving not a trace he was there except for his dead victims, who were what the Doctor was soon to find out to be the first of many casualties and the start of a brand new mystery for him, Twilight, Rainbow and Shining to solve. Brick Layer sighed in relief, before he began to sob. His brothers were dead, and he didn't even have time to mourn as he didn't even know who, or what killed them. Meanwhile, unknown to him, standing out of sight was a little filly with pure white fur, red blush on her face, and a jet black mane with a beautiful red ribbon in her mane, which was long in style. She smirked, which looked out of place on a filly of her age and beauty. The first of those lined up based on the tales she'd been read as a child were dead, and if anyone was willing to listen to what she was trying to say, no more were to follow... Youtube Video Ponyville: Youtube Video Snow fell on the ground in white flurries covering Ponyville's rooftops and streets in a sheet of white. The Doctor walked through the streets, completely relaxed by all that was going on around him and the snow covered town of Ponyville. He always loved this time of year, even if and when it turned into a crisis like his last few Christmases always seemed to. From the Sycorax invasion on Christmas Eve, to meeting Donna Noble, a runaway bride that suddenly appeared on his TARDIS thanks to some thought to be long extinct particles injected in her, to saving a Titanic replica with a Nuclear Storm Drive engine for power from falling on London and igniting it in a mushroom cloud. He just hoped this Christmas, or Hearth's Warming Eve as it was known here in Equestria didn't turn out like his last few Christmases. All around him, ponies in scarfs or hats, some wearing booties to protect their hooves from the cold winter snow sold their wares in stalls even despite the cold. Some, like a golden furred pony with an orange mane known as Golden Harvest sold things such as poinsettias or another pony, one the Doctor had seen before, one with grey fur, oddly set eyes and a yellow mane whose name was Derpy Hooves sold other things like mistletoe or even Christmas candy for stocking stuffers from a pony with a ruby mane and matching fur known as Berry Punch, who wasn't completely drunk on hard cider for once. The Doctor figured she'd save that for the Hearth's Warming Eve celebrations in a few days. Suddenly, he heard a loud scream of fear. The Doctor's heroic instincts took over just then, just as they always did when somepony was in trouble. He always loved this bit, saving ponies. It always brought him a sense of satisfaction to know that ponies were in trouble, and he was the one to save them from whatever trouble that they'd found themselves in. "Well, as I always say... Geronimo!" He cried, and immediately started running towards the source of the screams. He ran down a snow covered alleyway where he found a pony with jet black fur and a matching mane he knew to be Good Eats, the owner of the restaurant known as the Hay Burger being menaced by a tall hairy figure with grey fur, long sharp claws and glowing yellow eyes. Youtube Video "Well, who are you then?" The Doctor inquired, fascinated by this strange being that looked almost like the Big Bad Wolf from the Grim Brothers Fairy Tale he knew as The Three Little Pigs. Little did he know it, but this was the same exact being that had killed Quick Build and Wooden Board the night before and had nearly killed Brick Layer as well. It seemed this Big Bad Wolf wannabe had a new target, but the Doctor wasn't going to let him claim another victim, not as long as he lived. "Well, aren't you a fascinating sort. You know mate, you almost look like the Big Bad Wolf." The Doctor commented, completely in love with this strange being, just like he was with all the monsters he faced. "What, have you jumped out of a fairy tale and started killing for real now. Well, what's next, Little Red Riding Hood and her dear old Granny?" "Will you stop commenting on this thing and just save me, you idiot?" Good Eats exclaimed in fear and anger at the Doctor's fascination for the creature. "Er, right... Sorry." The Doctor apologized. "But this is so cool! Me, meeting the Big Bad Wolf!" "Just stop gabbering on about your love for this monster and stop the damn thing!" Good Eats yelled at him. But just as the monster appeared, it vanished back into the shadows from whence it came. Evidently, from what the Doctor figured, it didn't want to deal with him, or it just felt outnumbered. But if the Doctor had known it's previous killings of Wooden Board and Quick Build, he might have been of a different opinion. Right now, he honestly didn't know why it left or what the Big Bad Wolf was even doing out of a story book, and the Doctor didn't like not knowing things. "Well, a big fat load of help you were." Good Eats muttered angrily towards the Doctor. "You let the damned thing escape!" 'Weeeellll excuse me, but at least I attempted to save your life!" The Doctor responded. He always hated rudeness, at least he tried to save this very rude pony's life, even if the monster had escaped into the night. "You could have at least attempted to thank me. I mean, rude!" The Doctor continued, quite offended by Good Eats's rudeness. With that Good Eats marched off into the night, still,not even thinking of thanking the Doctor for saving him. "Well... That was an interesting experience, to say the least..." The Doctor muttered. "Still wished I had been thanked though..." he continued, still miffed about not being thanked for attempting to save the pony's life. "Well, there goes my Hearth's Warming Eve I suppose." The Time Pony muttered to himself. "And here I was hoping for a nice peaceful one for once." He continued, before realizing something. "Oh who am I kidding, all of my Hearth's Warming's are like this...." The Doctor, with a long sigh wandered back to the Ponyville streets. Maybe at least he could buy some gifts before the Big Bad Wolf, or something worse popped up to ruin his night any more then it already had. But that just wasn't the way his luck worked wasn't it. He knew he was going to need some help, and he knew just where he was going to get it... (To be continued...)
Sleep Part 2: (Nightmarity) (The Bricklayer's Version) In Rarity's Mind... "No... No... Please no!" Youtube Video Rarity was currently in the fits of a terrible nightmare. It wasn't one she'd just had out of the blue either. For the last couple of years, ever since her best friends in the world came together and defeated Nightmare Moon, she'd been having this reoccurring dream. At first, it was just about once a month, but then it advanced to twice a month, then little by little, it kept on coming back, until finally it happened weekly. It had gotten so bad in fact, Rarity had even gone to desperate measures, seeing Zecora, a rather mysterious Zebra from Zebrawa who lived deep in the wild and untangled regions of Everfree Forest, for a Dreamless Sleep Potion. At first it worked, and Rarity's hopes for once-more peaceful nights had been reached and achieved. But then, out of the blue, they were dashed and to Rarity's fright and horror, the dreams came back, despite all of Zecora's efforts being put into the potion. Rarity would have liked to believe Zecora just made a once in a lifetime mistake (It could happen... Right?) and messed up somehow in creating her potion, but in the back fringes of her mind, although however hard she tried to deny it, Rarity honestly believed that wasn't the case. Something more was at work here, and her mind was warning her about it. Now another thing Rarity wondered was why Princess Luna had yet to come and dispel the nightmare like she always had in the past, but it seemed, this time at least, something was blocking her. That scared Rarity far more than the nightmare itself. Now, you may be asking what the nightmare exactly was? Well, every time it was the same. Rarity was at her shop, the Carousel Boutique, designing the newest and trendiest fashions for the movers and shakers in Canterlot, Manehatten or Vanhoover. (The dream varied on the details, as dreams often tend to do.) But one thing, ONE THING always remained the same. Rarity, hard at work at her sewing machine smiled at her latest creation, perhaps her best yet! (Rarity didn't want to brag or overstate, but she secretly thought this was one creation that would never, ever be topped!) a beautiful sky blue dress overlaid with diamonds and ribbons, and to match, a custom hat fit for a southern belle, which was perfect, as Rarity's latest custom order came all the way from Neigh Orleans. It was a big job for her, with a huge payout. If this client got what he wanted, and this client so happened to be related to the Rich Family, Rarity would get money beyond her wildest dreams. That money would be perfect for the plot of land she'd just scored in Canterlot to finally expand her business beyond the simple town of Ponyville and start her on the path to become a world renowned fashion designer. Rarity, wiping some sweat off her brow, smiled and took a glance out the window to the streets of Ponyville. "Today, Ponyville... Tomorrow, the world!" She proclaimed. "With Celestia as my witness, this I swear!" But then she saw it. IT. Or to be more accurately precise, a HER. There she stood, a mare about her age, even looking almost exactly like her except for the green mane and deep purple coat smoozing it up with her friends. Then, as if to add to Rarity's anger, the unknown mare began giving out diamonds and jewelry, far more beautiful than anything Rarity knew she could ever procure. Amethysts, Sapphires, Rubies, Diamonds, the lot. That's what they were all made off. And then, just to top it all of, and seemingly as if to spite Rarity, the unknown mare gave out royal horseshoes, brassards and tiaras, all made in gold and covered with jewels very similar to the ones the Royal Sisters wore and gave one set of each to her friends. "You like them... Darlings?" The unknown mare inquired with an eerily familiar voice that Rarity just couldn't place, but she knew she'd heard it somewhere before... "Yeah, this is awesome! I can feel myself getting 20%, no 50% more cooler just by looking at them!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Ooh, I should have a party just because I got some of these! Princess Pinkie Pie, Princess of Parties!" Pinkie hollered. "I-I must admit, these are actually pretty good." Fluttershy stammered out shyly. "Whoo Doggies, Ah can look mah best while bucking apples off their trees in these here fancy-smancy shoes!" Applejack proclaimed in glee. "Tartarus, who needs Rarity when we got somepony like you, Forsythia?" Twilight asked, and the finally given a name mare chuckled darkly. That last one, that last phrase from Twilight hurt most of all, hitting Rarity like a punch to the gut and as if she had been really punched to that specific area, she tumbled to the floor and hit her head on the floors of the Carousel Boutique, drawing blood from the top of her head and covering her perfectly kept mane in it. Despite all of this, Rarity didn't care one jot. This was the Worst Possible Thing! She had been abandoned, left for dead by her friends all because of this... this newcomer who'd seemingly come up out of nowhere! Rarity couldn't help herself, she broke down completely and began to cry, her so-called friends hurtful words echoing in her mind... Rarity awoke with a start, panting and sweating. What a dream! Despite knowing her friends would never let her down and leave her for real, Rarity still felt very frightened from the dream she had just experienced. What if... Just what if she was wrong about her friends, and if one day, that mare really did come to town and do all the things the dream promised? What then? What would she do next? Fashion was her life, and to have somepony else steal it all away from her would be absolutely dreadful indeed. Then, she heard a soft rapping on the front door, and sighing to herself, quickly using her brush to style her mane just right and toss off her manecurlers, she ran downstairs to meet her guests. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every-" Rarity said in her usual greeting, before noticing who it was. In front of her stood Twilight, Rainbow and of course the Doctor. Rarity gaped at the Doctor's attire, he was dressed in an absolutely dreadful (At least in her mind) brown tweed suit with a bow-tie to match, making him look rather like an old Trottingham style history professor. To top it all off, he had a fez! A fez, of all things! "Celestia above, does he have no taste in fashion whatsoever?" Rarity mused, but kept her thoughts to herself. After all, a lady never says such rude things about one's friends. Then Rarity noted Twilight and Rainbow's attire, they were dressed like they were going off onto an adventure out into the bush, with Rainbow wearing a pith helmet to top off her ensemble, making her look rather like Daring Do. "Rarity, you look terrible." Twilight said bluntly, noting Rarity's tired eyebrows and the blood dripping from her mane. Little did Rarity know it, but something HAD hit her in the gut and knocked her to the floor doing that dream of hers. Something very powerful indeed. "Oh sorry dearies, just a bad dream." Rarity replied with a yawn. Rainbow raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "And the blood?" She asked, and Rarity's eyes widened in shock as she felt the sticky substance dripping from her mane. "How the... What the...?" Were the only thoughts running through her head at that moment. "Oh... I... I just bumped my head on my bedrest this morning, that's all dearies. Nothing to worry about whatsoever." Rarity lied. None of the three ponies standing in front of her looked as if they believed her for a moment. "But enough about me." Rarity continued, wanting to change the subject of her conversation. "Where are you three off to this fine morning?" "Oh, us?" Twilight laughed. "We're off to Zebrawa, a little vacation into the bush, to see it's natural beauty. You see, I got curious about Zecora's homeland a few days ago, and so I asked the Doctor about Zebras and their home country, and he thought after all we'd been through together lately, we needed some time off and so he offered us up a little trip. Imagine, the beauty, the wonder!" As Twilight rambled on about how excited she was and the things they'd surely see, a small voice in the back of Rarity's mind whispered "See, look, they're already leaving you behind." but Rarity pushed it away to the back recesses of her mind, to it's deepest and darkest corners. No, she would not let her dream affect her! Her friends would never do such a thing. It was only natural for Twilight to want to see and learn about new things, and as for Rainbow, Tartarus, she probably just wanted to experience something close to a Daring Do type adventure. Rarity didn't have the heart to tell her such a thing would probably never happen, so she left Rainbow to her fantasies. Rarity though, had to admit, even if it was only to herself she was a tad jealous that she wouldn't get to see Zebrawa, she'd heard the fashions there were absolutely exquisite and if she ever saw them, she might just get a whole new line out of it! She could call it "A Walk on the Wild Side"! "...The untamed wilderness, the wildlife, the culture!" Twilight continued to ramble before she was cut off by Rainbow placing a hoof over her mouth. "Okay Twi, I think she gets it." Rainbow deadpanned. As Rarity waved them goodbye from her shop door, Twilight mused to herself (After mentally squeeing over the fact that Rainbow had given her a nickname, before then brushing it off as just something done out of friendliness. After all, Rainbow called Applejack "AJ" didn't she?) "Hmm, something's off with Rarity... I just can't quite put my hoof on what it is though. Gah, Twilight, you're probably just being overly paranoid. It's not like Rarity is going to be possessed by some evil spirit or anything while I'm gone. Just sit back and relax and enjoy the adventure." and walked, taking a quick look behind her to see if Rarity was truly alright. She sighed in relief when she saw Rarity shut the door and through the windows, saw her go back to work on sewing something as always, never noticing the dark blue mist floating ominously above the Boutique... "Come on Twi, you're being such a slowpoke! We're going to leave ya behind if you don't pick up the pace!" Rainbow called from ahead of her and Twilight yelled "Coming!" before mentally musing "Zebrawa, here we come!" R.I.F.T Headquarters... Meanwhile at R.I.F.T Headquarters, Target was dealing with problems of her own. To be honest, she wasn't really sure over half of the new recruits were even ready for the true strains of a mission that may or may not come up in the near future. All they seemed to care about was how awesome it was to be part of a top secret organization and goofing off. Case in point, behind her, Scrabbling was currently dressed in a Royal Ranger's outfit (A dark green hooded garb built for defending the wildernesses on the edge of Equestria) and drawing an arrow from his quiver before letting out a cry of "You have failed this city!" in what he thought was a deep and menacing tone before drawing his bow back and aiming for a target set up on a table. Unfortunately, he missed by about a mile and hit Target's husband in the flank. "Ow, you bastard! You hit me in the bloody arse, moron!" Sudoku shouted in fury as Galaxy and Lightning Dust shared snickers and Sunburst just looked away in embarrassment. Target groaned and turned back to the magical orb on her desk, in which the face of the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor could be seen. "Idiots, the lot of them. I mean, you saw that, right?" Target groaned as she rubbed her temples in resignation. "Half of them aren't even ready, and Galaxy... Don't you even get me started on him. He's completely psychotic! I mean, first thing he asks when we got here was that did we grab his sleeping coffin from his barracks! I mean, a coffin for crying out loud! How did he even get his way to the top of the Night Guard? Was "Luna forgive me..." Luna drunk on hard cider when he got promoted?" Shining held up a hoof to stop her rant. "No, he got promoted because he's good. Very, very, good. I've seen him in action. Believe you me, he's not somepony you would want to get in the way of." Shining stated, before giving a brief shudder at some of the memories of Galaxy fighting in a brief resurgence of power in the Griffin Kingdom about a month ago. The end result was very... bloody to say the least, and that wasn't even considering what he did to the opposition's leader, mounting him on a stake as a warning to Equestria's enemies and to make sure the current leader of the Griffin Kingdom didn't get any ideas. "And as for Scrabbling, as yes I did see that in the background, it's not the worst thing somepony could do with an arrow. Remember when Cadance got the bright idea to bring love to all the ponies in Canterlot some years back with arrows?" "...I remember alright." Target replied, flushing red when she and her husband had been caught up in what was known as the "Canterlot Hearts and Hooves Day Grand Orgy Celebration". Thankfully, guards had been sent out to stop the mess. But, perhaps needless to say, no interviews or photos were given to the newspapers. A grand disappointment really. "Me and Celestia personally chose these ponies because they're the best of the best at what they do. Because if the world goes sour and the Doctor isn't here to stop it, you can be damn well sure they'll avenge it." Shining said definitively, and that was all he said on the matter before cutting the transmission feed. "Oh, how helpful..." Target muttered to herself in irritation and began to think hard about going down to a local bar for a nice cold one. That Night... At the Carousel Boutique, Rarity once again found herself tossing and turning in a fitful sleep. No, just no. Please darlings, no!" She whispered in her sleep as once again, the scene played itself out in her mind. It was the exact same, in every way. Rarity, hard at work at her sewing machine smiled at her latest creation, perhaps her best yet! (Rarity didn't want to brag or overstate, but she secretly thought this was one creation that would never, ever be topped!) a beautiful sky blue dress overlaid with diamonds and ribbons, and to match, a custom hat fit for a southern belle, which was perfect, as Rarity's latest custom order came all the way from Neigh Orleans. It was a big job for her, with a huge payout. If this client got what he wanted, and this client so happened to be related to the Rich Family, Rarity would get money beyond her wildest dreams. That money would be perfect for the plot of land she'd just scored in Canterlot to finally expand her business beyond the simple town of Ponyville and start her on the path to become a world renowned fashion designer. Rarity, wiping some sweat off her brow, smiled and took a glance out the window to the streets of Ponyville. "Today, Ponyville... Tomorrow, the world!" She proclaimed. "With Celestia as my witness, this I swear!" But then she saw it. IT. Or to be more accurately precise, a HER. There she stood, a mare about her age, even looking almost exactly like her except for the green mane and deep purple coat smoozing it up with her friends. Then, as if to add to Rarity's anger, the unknown mare began giving out diamonds and jewelry, far more beautiful than anything Rarity knew she could ever procure. Amethysts, Sapphires, Rubies, Diamonds, the lot. That's what they were all made off. And then, just to top it all of, and seemingly as if to spite Rarity, the unknown mare gave out royal horseshoes, brassards and tiaras, all made in gold and covered with jewels very similar to the ones the Royal Sisters wore and gave one set of each to her friends. "You like them... Darlings?" The unknown mare inquired with an eerily familiar voice that Rarity still couldn't place, but she knew she'd heard it somewhere before. In a corner of her mind, the voice of Princess Luna was crying out to her. "You know this voice Rarity, you've heard it before! Fight it off! You can do it, just like I-" before the voice was swiftly cut off by some unknown force. "Yeah, this is awesome! I can feel myself getting 20%, no 50% more cooler just by looking at them!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Ooh, I should have a party just because I got some of these! Princess Pinkie Pie, Princess of Parties!" Pinkie hollered. "I-I must admit, these are actually pretty good." Fluttershy stammered out shyly. "Whoo Doggies, Ah can look mah best while bucking apples off their trees in these here fancy-smancy shoes!" Applejack proclaimed in glee. "Tartarus, who needs Rarity when we got somepony like you, Forsythia?" Twilight asked. Youtube Video Rarity let out a heartbreaking sob as then she found herself in a boarded up Carousel Boutique, with a sign on the front of it reading "Closed Forever" and knocked over dress dummies with Rarity in the middle of it all, sobbing into her hooves. Then an almost seductive voice reached whispered in her ear as a blue mist floated around the darkened room. "You know, you can stop this from happening." "H-How...?" Rarity tearfully asked as the mist floated around her. "Take my power Rarity, you can be the best pony you can be..." The voice whispered, and then Rarity at last recognized it. "Nightmare Moon! B-But I thought you were destroyed! I saw it!" Rarity stuttered out in fear and denial. "Oh, my dear, dear, Rarity, true power can never be destroyed completely. I always survive. Now take my power." "NO! I won't!" Rarity shouted even as the darkness closed in around her and Nightmare Moon's voice became more menacing in tone. "Oh, my dear, you don't have a choice in the matter..." She growled, and the mist entered Rarity and she soon found herself being transformed. Her fur became black as night, her horn sharpened to a dangerously tipped point, wings sprouted out from her back and her mane and tail became misty and flowed in an invisible wind with stars and white streaks in it as her Cutie Mark became a black diamond. With a powerful explosion that blew the roof of the Boutique, Rarity emerged, but she was no longer the kind Element of Generosity anymore. She was now the Nightmare Spirit and this time, the night would last forever! "Oh my stars, do I look gorgeous or do I look gorgeous? This is the Best Possible Thing to ever happen to me! But never mind my looks. The night shall last forever, and it shall be absolutely fabulous! And this time... And this time nopony shall stop me! NOPONY!" Nightmarity cackled madly and shot off like a bullet, heading for her first stop... Canterlot City.
Primal Instinct Part 3: (Angels and Demons AKA when the metaphorical Shark is Jumped)A few minutes earlier... Twilight and Rainbow trepidatiously stepped out of the hut, all the while Rainbow still fighting her urge to mate with Twilight with all of her willpower, her mare parts aching with pain and her body desperately seeking the need of an act of love. That's right, I said love, not lust. At first, Rainbow suspected her wanting to mate with Twilight was just because she was in her pegasi heat cycle, but now she had begun, in the last day or so, to suspect it was something more. She had thought back to her recent memories with Twilight, her cuddling up to her in the bed, and older memories as well. Hearth's Warming Eve: Ponyville Town Hall Youtube Video It was with grand fever and joy that the Hearth's Warming Eve Celebrations kicked off in grand fashion. As Applejack and her family visited Apple Fritter in the hospital, bringing her gifts and food, back at the Town Hall the Doctor and company along with their new friend Calming Heartbeats enjoyed the spirit of the season. A band, consisting of Octavia Melody on cello, Noteworthy on piano and the Ponytones led by Rarity for the vocals sung a little song consisting of a tale about a pony found a stowaway upon a ship in Hearth's Warming Day. She asked him of his tale, even though she ought to throw him to the whales and all the stranger in return said was "Come here, let's dance." but all the stranger said in return even as they did take up the dance "But borrow or steal, I'll be with my lover on Hearth's Warming Day. I'll run and I'll roam and I'll cover the ground, next Hearth's Warming I'll see her around." Rainbow, even as she twirled with her old friend Fluttershy on the dance floor, both wearing dresses. Surprisingly, Rainbow wasn't complaining. Even she understood that there were certain times one needed to dress fancy. She wore a variation on her old Grand Galloping Gala Dress, except instead of golden laurels in her mane, it was a white poinsettia flower in it and her tail done up differently as well. Rarity who called this creation the Forest Fairy dress, and who happened to be singing this song seemed to be singing with a passion that she and the Ponytones normally didn't. Now normally, Rainbow would have chalked it up to the Heart's Warming Spirit in the air, but lately she had noticed Rarity musing about somepony that she loved, just when she thought she was out of earshot. But that wasn't all Rainbow noticed, she also saw Twilight in a rather attractive red and white dress sitting in the back of the room alone next to a potted plant listening to the song, and Rainbow swore she saw a tear dripping from her eye and heard her mutter "Guess I'll have to wait another year to dance with Rainbow on Hearth's Warming." It was then Rainbow made her choice, and whispered "Sorry Flutters, but I think there's somepony who needs a little bit of help from a Rainbow." and Fluttershy, who wore a dress which matched her butter-yellow fur perfectly except for the bottom which was light blue and had her Cutie Mark (Basically her Equestria Girls dress from the first movie) on it nodded in understanding and smiled to herself. She, being the Element of Kindess and someone who was very skilled with empathy, could often note when two ponies held feelings for each other that were more than just friendship, even if they both needed a good clobbering over the head with a frying pan to see it for themselves. "Want to dance Twi?" Rainbow asked flirtatiously with a wink of her eye as she trotted up and held up a hoof, and Twilight took the offered up hoof in return. "Gladly." She said and took up the dance as Rainbow smiled. But it wasn't just that, Rainbow had also noticed strong feelings when they were in Sleepy Hollow for the Headless Horse Crisis. Sleepy Hollow: Town Hall Even as Twilight and Rainbow ate and drank from the snack table, they along with the Doctor, plus Shining and Cadance who were dancing to the song being played by the band kept a wary eye out as they scanned the crowd. The Headless Horse could show up at any time, and they knew it. Twilight sighed even as she turned to Rainbow. "You know, as much as I'd like to enjoy this party... I... I just can't, not with..." Twilight trailed off, and Rainbow finished for her as she knew exactly what she was thinking. "The Horse? Yeah, I know what you mean." Rainbow admitted. She wasn't going to admit out loud as she considered herself far too awesome for it, but she was nervous as well. Suddenly, Rainbow got an idea, her Element showing itself in concern for Twilight. "Hey, I got a idea that should help you get your mind off things." Rainbow suddenly exclaimed as she pulled Twilight onto the dance floor making her friend yelp even as Rainbow shouted "Hey Crypt-Kickers, give us something to dance to! Something real slow!" The Crypt-Kickers all shared a shrug before they started up another song, and a saxophone began to play setting a romantic mood as a female singer with tan fur and a bucket of white liquid for her Cutie Mark, whose name was White Wash began to croon out a tune. Youtube Video Rainbow began to slow dance with Twilight as the song progressed, and to Twilight's shock as they twirled on the dance floor she found herself enjoying it. "W-Where did you learn to dance like this?" Twilight asked, her face quite flushed from being so close to Rainbow however her lavender fur made it barely visible unless you looked closely enough. Rainbow too was blushing, though thanks to her blue fur it was MUCH more obvious. In the background, Cadance had stopped dancing with Shining and whispered to herself "Just a little closer, please!" in an almost pleading manner. Shining sighed in embarrassment, his marefriend loved shipping ponies a little too much. "Eh, my dad wanted me to become a Class-A dancer instead of a radio DJ." Rainbow admitted before laughing. "You can see how well THAT turned out huh?" Twilight let out a small giggle, before she found herself moving her muzzle closer to Rainbow and Rainbow found herself doing the same. Youtube Video Sadly, that moment had been interrupted with the Headless Horse's arrival. Rainbow, even as they stepped out onto the empty street, snarled at the memory of the creature, remembering how it killing Twilight's aunt drove her into grief for days, and almost kept her from adventuring with the Doctor. "...Something's wrong. I can feel it." Twilight whispered to herself as she scanned the street. It was quiet, too quiet. Now normally, she would have just chalked it up to how late at night it was, but she had seen a few Bat-Pony tourists when they first arrived in town, and Bat-Ponies were much more active at night (With the rare exception, as Galaxy Swirls proved, although that was only because he had to adjust his sleeping schedule because of him working in the Royal Guard.) so they probably would have been walking the streets, but not even they were there. The whole town was empty. "...Like a ghost town." Rainbow muttered and Twilight's head turned to her. "You noticed that too, huh?" Twilight asked. "Well, duh!" Rainbow replied. "I'm arrogant, not stupid. This feels almost like an..." Just then, black swirling pillars of smoke, at least fifty of them swirled around the air and rushed towards the ground and reformed into the Zebra townspeople, and the tourists as well, and when their eyes opened, they were pure black charcoal. Twilight's eyes widened even as Rainbow muttered "...Ambush." and sighed in resignation. Twilight meanwhile, knew exactly what she was looking at, thanks to pretty much having books on anything and everything back at the Golden Oaks. What she was looking at exactly, were demons from the pits of Tartarus. How they got here she didn't know, but she did know how to stop them. "Problem is... Neither of us brought Holy Water or Salt with us. The one time I don't come prepared for everything, and look what happens." She mused even as Rainbow asked "Uh, Twi, how do we deal with this?" "I...I DON'T KNOW!" Twilight shouted in fear, completely freaking out. "Holy water, don't have it! Salt, none of that either, so we can't deal with this!" "Twilight, calm down." Rainbow said, planting a hoof firmly on her shoulder. "Remember, creepy as Tartarus ponies or not, we can handle ourselves. You're the most powerful unicorn in ages, and I'm... Well, completely awesome, so we can kick their asses to Kingdom Come!" "Okay... Okay, you're right." Twilight said, taking a few deep breaths and mentally slapping herself on the forehead. "But remember, they're only possessed, so we can't harm them in any fatal ways. Remember, there are ponies inside those bodies. I don't think they'd be too happy with us if we damaged their bodies too much." "Relax Twi, I know when to restrain myself. I'll try, but I'm not making any promises, you hear?" Rainbow replied. "Get them!" One demon ordered, and Twilight charged up her horn with a purple glow and fired blasts of magic into the hoard and knocked a few demons back even as they charged in full force. Two grabbed Rainbow by the wings from either side, no doubt intending to rip them off completely, but Rainbow threw them off her with her body strength (Still fighting off her heat cycle) while Twilight created a flaming whip from the tip of her horn, a spell taught to her personally by Princess Celestia, and swung her head around lashing the whip forcing demons back and sending the few unlucky enough to be close to her flying backwards in various directions. Rainbow smirked at her friend's badassery, and thought to herself Okay, never mocking Twilight for being an egghead again. Ever." before she got an idea. "Hey Twilight, you think you can outdo me in terms of coolness?" Rainbow challenged. "Well then, watch this!" before she turned to a collection of demons and shouting "Hey, asshats! Try and hold on to something. Believe me, you're gonna want to!" Then, Rainbow showed exactly why she was one of the fastest flyers in Equestria, and flew up in the air and began flying in circles generating powerful rotating gusts of wind even as storm clouds gathered and soon, Rainbow was flying in her own personal multicolored tornado and sweeping up possessed ponies and Zebras alike before they were soon spat out of the whirlwind and sent flying every which way, some landing in trees, and others crashing through hut windows and walls. "Now, THAT's how you deal with demons!" Rainbow boasted, but she shouldn't have spoken so soon, as then more black pillars of smoke swirled down around the twosome and surrounded them on all sides. "Aw come on, how many of these guys are there?" Rainbow asked in disbelief before she and Twilight found themselves thrown telekinetically up against a tree. But then, walking through the hoard calmly and with demons parting out of his way, seemingly in terror was Akachi, his normally brown eyes glowing a celestial blue. Twilight swallowed when she sensed the sheer power coming from this being, but she felt safe as well, as if a warm comforting blanket of energy had wrapped itself around her. "W-Who are you...?" Twilight stuttered out nervously. Lightning flashed, and for a moment, both Rainbow and Twilight could swear they saw Akachi gain two black shadowy wings. "My name is Castiel, I'm an Angel of the Lord." The Zebra stated simply, and from his robes, emerged a silver blade with runes on it. "Do not be afraid, I shall deal with these pit-dwellers. You must go to my host's home, the Doctor is there and needs your assistance." Castiel stated before swiftly stabbing a demon in the neck with his blade, the demon's eyes and throat glowing orange before he fell to the ground, undoubtedly dead, and Twilight and Rainbow found themselves released from their telekinetic hold. "Go, now." Castiel ordered before Twilight and Rainbow ran off towards the chieftain's hut fighting off any demons that dared stand in their way even as Castiel began his brutal work... Now... "I think it's safe to say you have a security breach. A massive security breach." Twilight deadpanned but her eyes widened when the Doctor turned to her, and his eyes were pure blood red. Youtube Video "Oh Faust... He's been possessed..." Twilight whispered in horror. "Hey, freakshow, get your mind out of the Doctor's body!" Rainbow shouted in anger and disgust at the being who dared possess one of her closest friends and a hero of Equestria who'd saved it many times over without even being asked to do so, only doing it because it needed to be done. "The Doctor" sighed to himself and tsk tsked them and gave them a condescending stare. "Really now, is there any real reason for rudeness?" Abaddon asked before flinging the two up against one of the hut's walls knocking masks off the side. "You should show respect to a Knight of Tartarus and its King. Now bow." When Rainbow spat at him, Abaddon bellowed "BOW!" and forced the twosome to hang their heads, making Abaddon smirk. "Much better. See, now that I'm being shown the proper respect a King deserves, we can all get along now can't we?" Abbadon asked in the tone of a gentlestallion and adjusting his bow-tie before muttering "Really, bow-ties, so old fashioned. Went out of style decades ago." in disgust before tossing off the fez off his head and shaking his head. Suddenly, Abaddon's eyes went from blood red back to the Doctor's normal green. "I... I can't keep him back for much longer!" The Doctor shouted as Twilight and Rainbow fell to the floor, released from their hold. "Run, now!" before his eyes went blood red again and he stroked Twilight's cheek. "Oh, I know the secrets you hide... That mind of yours. It's true what they say, it's always the quiet ones, and if you knew what Gay Rights over there was going through, you would gladly accept I think." Abaddon said with a grin making Twilight shudder in revulsion before the Doctor took control again. "No, we're not letting that thing control you! You can fight him!" Rainbow shouted. "You're... You're right." The Doctor said to himself. "I am the Doctor, I'm 920 years old, I'm a Time Lord from the Planet of Gallifrey and I will not, and I repeat WILL NOT let this so called king control me! He wants my life, HE CAN COME AND GET IT!" The Doctor bellowed before turning to Twilight. "Twilight, give me a chessboard. We'll have a little tussle for my soul and mind, and we'll do things on my terms. I've beaten chess champions in games of Live Chess, and I do mean LIVE Chess for a reason. Abaddon doesn't know who he's dealing with." The Doctor grinned, and Twilight, with a shrug, conjured a chessboard and chair for the Doctor to sit in, but not before restraining the Doctor/Abaddon in golden celestial chains. "Hey, what's that for?" The Doctor asked and Twilight replied "In case you're not you right now. Or even if you are – just in case." The Doctor gave a "Fair enough" expression before moving a pawn on his chessboard and answering "Oh, don't worry. Abaddon's hibernating between moves right now. Shh. You have time to run." "Run, why?" Twilight asked in confusion. The Doctor's eyes went blood red again and patted something seen only to him on the head before replying "Oh, did I forget to mention? I have my Hellhounds in here with us. A king never goes anywhere without his guards. SIC 'EM BOYS!" There came two sets of snarls and Twilight and Rainbow made a run for it as something unseen made pawprints in the wooden floor and barked loudly as it chased after them. Both ponies ran through the village and eventually found themselves a hut and Twilight locked the door and barricaded it with whatever she could find even as the unknown number of demonic hounds scratched at the door, their barking being heard from outside. Twilight swallowed in fear as Rainbow looked at her. "We're... We're going to die aren't we?" Rainbow asked, showing visible fear for perhaps the first time in her life. Twilight nodded before thinking to herself "Oh well, if I die today, I might as well die happy." before grabbing Rainbow with her magic and slamming her lips onto hers...
