"Do you have to sit like that?" Bon-Bon asked. "It looks so, painful."
"It is not painful!" Lyra said. "It is the way the humans sat. And you know perfectly well that I love humans." Bon-Bon sighed. This was typical of her unicorn friend. She had been obssesed with humans ever since she had read a book in Twilight's library about them. She had been human-crazed ever since.
"Shouldn't you be going to the library?" Bon-Bon asked, looking at the clock tower, which read, not like this, because it's not digital, but, anyway, 4:58.
"Oh, yeah!" Lyra said. "I've got to go to the library! More reading up on humans!" Lyra left in a rush. 'That crazy pony,' Bon-Bon thought. 'Always on about humans. Can't wait for her to start walking on two legs.'
Lyra ran as fast as she could and opened the door her magic, barreling inside, crashing into a bookshelf.
"Lyra!" Twilight yelled. "Don't do that!" Twilight used her magic to pick up all the books Lyra had knocked off. Lyra got up and ran over to the section of the library labled 'H'. She used her magic to select a book, and began to read. The Doctor looked at Twilight.
"So," he said. "When to we ask her?"
"I don't know," Twilight replied. "I'm unsure about this. What is she says no?"
"Then we're out of luck," he replied.
They continued to talk amongst themselves for a while longer. Lyra began to take notice after a while. 'What are they doing?' she thought. 'They're talking about me, I think. Why? Talking about going somewhere, outside the borders, something about a portal, and... humans. Hmm..., wonder what they're doing. Wait, humans!?' Lyra jumped up, dropping the book on the floor with a thud. "Humans!" she yelled.
"Sh...," Twilight shushed her. "Yes, we were going to ask you if you..." She waited for The Doctor to finish the sentence.
"Oh," he said when he realized what she was doing. "Well, um..., wanted to go with us to a portal outside the borders of Equestria, where there might be human stuff, and we knew that you would want to see the human stuff, so..."
"Oh my God!" Lyra yelled. "Yes, yes, YES!" She began jumping with excitement. She hopped around in Pinkie Pie fashion, looking like a little filly who just got an A on a test.
"Wonderful," The Doctor said.
"Wait," Lyra said, stopping her ecstatic bounce. "When are we leaving?" She looked a bit concerned when she said this, for what reason nopony could ever explain.
"Today," The Doctor said. "Now. As soon as we can possibly leave in this area of time."
Lyra began to bounce again. "YAY!" she yelled.
"Let's go," Twilight said.
"Yeah," The Doctor said.
They left the library and went to the train station, and boarded a train to Fillydelphia, the closet city in Equestria to the portal. The train took off. They sat for hours in complete silence, then The Doctor fell asleep. His snoring cut into the silence like a butter knife into, well, butter.
Twilight hit him on the head to wake him up. He snapped up. He rubbed his head and complained. Twilight grinned. The rest of the ride was done, once again, in complete and utter silence.
They reached Fillydelphia as the moon began to rise. They went to a hotel and slept peacefully through the night. They woke early, packed up what they brought, and left. They then walked all the way out to the border. Twilight pulled out a scrap of paper.
"What are you doing?" The Doctor asked.
"I'm making a map," Twilight replied. "If nopony else has made one of the outside before, then I will." The Doctor groaned at her enthusiasm to go trekking into a place that held many more dangers than any other place The Doctor had been to.
They all took their first steps into a land that nopony had ever explored before. Lyra walked in, then began to panic. She tried to run back, but an invisible barrier blocked her way.
"Wow," The Doctor said. "This is a peculiar wormhole. It won't let you pass back through. The portal must be prevent anypony from going back into the world, or, it's a defense against the creatures out here. Either way, we're trapped."
"A wormhole?" Lyra asked. The Doctor looked at Lyra like she killed another pony. He was wondering why they didn't know what wormholes were. He had never meant a single creature that didn't know what a wormhole was. But, then again, these were talking ponies.
They began to walk foward, as The Doctor followed the trace of the portal with his Sonic Screwdriver, and explained the basic fundamentals of wormholes, at the same time. They walked for hours, but still the trace of the portal grew no stronger.
"What is going on?" The Doctor asked. "We're following the portals trace, but we seem to be getting no closer, even though it says it's not too far away.
"Maybe it's underground," Lyra speculated aloud.
"Underground?" The Doctor said. "Why would it be, you're right! That makes sense! Maybe the ground is made of a material that can't be scanned through by the Sonic! If so, then we've got a really long day ahead of us."
He looked out across the lands plains, stretching on for miles in every direction. Under one acre of that ground, sat a portal, encompassed by a stone building, roof broken apart, ready to be found. They all walked to the west, hoping to find the portal.
"Wait!" Twilight said. "How are we going to find a portal that is buried under the ground?!"
"Remember back in the forest," The Doctor said. "We felt energy when we were near the portal. To find this one, we need to feel the portal, then we can find it."
"Oh, yeah," Twilight said. She looked across the not-so-proverbial plains, and saw they were in, as The Doctor said earlier, "A long day."
The Doctor surveyed the large tract of land is his vision, trying to determine exactly where the portal was. He blinked as a dirt particle was blown into his eye by a breeze. He stared at the horizon for a few more seconds, then let his head fall.
"Where is it?!" he yelled.
Twilight walked by him, studiously studying the ground.
"Well," she said. "You're not going to find it by examing the horizon, that's for sure."
The Doctor looked right at Twilight. He sighed. He continued the walk down into a valley that they had discovered earlier, but had not yet explored. He was near the bottom when he felt his hoof slip from beneath him. He tumbled down to the bottom of the hill.
"Hooves," he muttered under his breath. "How can ponies get anything done with them?"
Twilight began her walk down, followed closely by Lyra, who was barely focused on anything, just staring into space, her eyes positively sparkling. Twilight and Lyra made it down without a hitch, and The Doctor became slightly angry.
"So, Lyra," Twilight began. "How are you finding the outer borders?"
Lyra failed to answer her head gazing around at the land.
"I can't believe I'm in the land of the huamns!" she exclaimed.
"That's great," The Doctor said. "Except you've said that about fifty times now."
Those words seemed to bring Lyra back down to the ground.
"Oh," she said. "Sorry."
The Doctor sighed. He began his walk across the valley floor. There were hundreds of assorted bushes, each one drained of all life, just fragile, gray plants on the damp ground.
"Hm..." The Doctor said, examing the shrubery. "This is all dead, yet the ground beneath it is damp with water. These bushes appear to be, say, getting their energy drained from them. If my thoughts are organized correctly... then the portal is draining the power from these bushes!"
Just as The Doctor said this, a rumble shook the earth. He fell face-first into the shrubery, and pulled himself up quickly.
"What was that?" he asked. "Sounded big. I love big stuff."
The Doctor began to wildly look around, hoping to find the source of the noise. After a minute of uneventful looking, he gave up. Just as he began to walk across the valley again, though, a laser shot straight out of the earth.
A snake-like creature began tunnel straight out of the hole which the laser made. It had metal-plated skin, which glittered in the mid-day light; spikes protruding wildly from all angles of the metal; eyes that glowed red holes in a slit on a elongated steel face, which tapered to a sharp point at the front.
"Oh," The Doctor said, his voice cracking, giving an obvious call that he was terrified.
The creature unleashed a furious roar and dove downward.
******
A lone cart sat in the middle of Ponyville's town square. The cart had faded blue and red paint, and whatever remained of a detailed face on the side was flaked and grimy. Ponies were crowded around the cart as they tried to peer inside the small windows on the front and sides.
Inside the cart, however, there was an abundance of nice objects. Inside, dozens of small astrolabes were lined up neatly on a shelf; hundreds of spell and history books were stacked side by side on a book shelf; compasses and globes were neatly stacked and placed upon the top of the bookshelf; and in the middle of this well-organized cart, was Trixie.
She hummed to herself as she polished a glass ball, checking her reflection in it every so often to see if it was at perfection. She placed the glass ball next to the astrolabes and turned to the door of the cart. She walked over and slowly drew back the curtain covering the small window. Outisde, dozens of ponies mulled around it, muttering to each other or engaged in all out conversation.
Trixie pulled her head in. She needed some privacy to go to the library! It was all she asked, but there were too many ponies there to just walk out. She turned back to the cart. She walked to her bed, covered with a blanket wearing her face. She turned away.
She no longer wanted the attention. After the autopsy on those two fillies, she had went on to a new town, only to be driven out once more. After that there was not a single town that had thrown her out, and she wanted to redeem herself. It was then she decided to speak to Twilight Sparkle, who could teach her more.
She listened to the commotion outside, and felt herself zoning-out. She stumbled for a moment, then regained her balance. She put a hoof to her forehead, wincing as the headache stabbed between her eyes like a needle.
"Darn it," she said.
She had been having these migranes since the autopsy, and they annoyed the flying feather out of her. The pain passed quickly. She put her hoof back down on the wood floor. Suddenly, a crash came from outside. There were some screams, followed by a metallic ringing.
Trixie ran right out of her cart to find the most disturbing scene she had ever laid eyes on. There were about a dozen ponies lying dead on the ground, some with blood trickling from their mouths, others with blood running down the back of their heads.
She looked to the right and saw a creature unlike any other, screaming EXTERMINATE! at the top of its... Trixie wasn't sure what to call them, for that thing certainly did not have lungs. She shot a bolt of magic at it in blind confusion, then began to sprint away from the creature.
Bolts of blue light shot past her as she ran; screams echoing in the square. She sprinted until she reached a dark alleyway and paused to catch her breath. As she breathed, a figure appeared at the alley entrance. Trixie looked and saw only shadow, highlighted by the light behind it.
It screamed one terrible, horrifying word:
"EXTERMINATE!"
