Doctor's Shadows

Doctor’s Shadows

Chapter 3: Shadows of the Past

Part one

Luna awoke. The world view was blurry, and a throbbing sensation rocked her head continuously. She tried to move a hoof to her head to check the damage, but found herself bound in chain, with limited movement. What is going on? She began to look around for her sister, who was standing by her at last memory. She saw another shape moving in the dark room. She tried to illuminate the room, finding herself incapable. “Sister? Can you hear me?” Silence. What could have brought this upon them?

At an undetermined time…

Doctor Whooves looked back to the console, noticing a small metal device with a blue light at the tip sitting in plain sight. He smiled, picking it up. It was old. Probably too old by now. There was more than one occasion where he had pushed it past its standard uses. But he had to focus on the matter at hand. He picked the screwdriver up and put it in his saddlebag. He hadn’t thought much of where he was going when he originally entered commands into the console. Now curious as to where they were going to land, he slapped down a handle on one of the smaller panels, and they came to a halt that sounded much like the wheezing of a very old dragon. “Rarity, would you open the door for me?”

Rarity nodded, still unable to find words. Her horn lit up and the door opened up, revealing a busy cityscape. “That’s certainly…not Ponyville. Where are we?”

A quick peek outside revealed even more things about the area. By the Doctor’s estimation, and the fact that the sun was shining, they were in Manehattan, somewhere around…40 years ago. He had been there before. Well, not me. The area was safe enough. Why here though? He always seemed to end up where he needed to be when he was haphazardly travelling. He was certain this would be no different. “Well, Rarity, welcome to Manehattan, 40 years ago. Don’t speak to any cream-colored mares, or anything like that, and we should be fine.”

Rarity gave him an odd look then finally found her words. “You mean to say, we are actually in the past? In another place? During one of the most interesting fashion revolutions of all time, and you don’t want me speaking to somepony who might match one of my dresses perfectly?!”

All she received in answer was a blank stare, followed by a nod. “I’m sure you would want more of an off-white color than a cream color anyways. Let’s go take a look around.”

40 years later…

Rainbow Dash could see Sugarcube Corner ahead of them. It was lit up like a late night club, and was giving out the sounds to match. Honestly, what else could be expected of the party pony? The loud music indicated that she was not the only occupant of the building. Twilight’s head perked up as she heard it. At least she knew Pinkie was still safe, if there was as much going on as that, she had to be.

The door swung open as they reached the steps, revealing the one and only Pinkie Pie, with one of the biggest grins ever seen. She quickly pulled them inside, locking the door, and peeking out the windows. She said something, but could not be heard over the now louder-than-ever sound system. Twilight sat against the wall in mild relief, but Rainbow could not settle herself with all the noise. Spreading her wings, she flew over to the pony behind the wall of speakers, and signaled for the music to stop. The strikingly blue-maned mare frowned a little, but complied.

Pinkie practically flew over to Dash screaming “What have you done!? They could be coming any moment now!” She leapt back over to the window, peering out at the silent streets.

Twilight poked her head back up. “What are you talking about, Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie stared madly between the new arrivals, and they began to shift uneasily. She dropped down to the ground, acting as if she saw someone. “The sun and moon are gone! They’ll come for us next! They have to.”

Rainbow, Twilight, and even Vinyl looked at the pink pony as if she were speaking nonsense, which, really, was exactly what they were thinking. She had snapped. It wasn’t easy to watch when Pinkie’s optimism and happiness faltered.

Vinyl spoke up first, shouting over the silence. “Maybe she’ll feel better with the music back on. She seemed ok before, y’know?” She received a nod from the others, and put the music back on, at a fraction of the original volume. She knew the others had shown up for something important. They needed to talk.

“Hey, Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow gently approached her friend, “We’re trying to find everypony and get them all together, do you know where they are?”

Pinkie froze in place, and then began bouncing around in usual style. “Rarity was with Fluttershy for the day, and Applejack was selling apples in the market!” A loud gasp issued from Pinkie. “That’s where most of the screaming came from!”

Rainbow was already out the window whenever she heard about Applejack. Her friend was perfectly capable of defending herself, right? Still, she bolted out into the direction of the market, leaving Twilight with the other two.

Twilight stood up and flung the door open with her magic. Pinkie bounced out of the room, and Vinyl began packing up her equipment.

“Good luck, girls, I’m taking my bass cannon back to my place.” She carted her cannon out the door, waving as she disappeared into the night.

“Let’s go”. Twilight rushed out the door, followed by Pinkie Pie.

As they stepped into the streets, Rarity took a look back at the mysterious shed, which now looked to have a fresh coat of blue paint. What a poor color scheme. Then out came the Doctor, joining her in her gaze.

“Beautiful, right? She’s called the TARDIS.” He smiled, noting that it had recovered from the time it had spent alone. It just needed me back.

“I suppose if that’s your definition of beauty, it could be…I’ll have to come back to that. Why are we here when our friends are in danger?”

He smiled. “I’d like you to notice something. See that city, off in the distance? Canterlot, right?” She nodded, and he continued. “That means Canterlot still exists. Which means we can fix this. So rather than worry about the danger it poses in the future, let’s see what sort of danger could have been posed to it here.”

Rarity took a moment of processing. It was now dawning on her what was actually happening. They were in the past. They had a shot at saving Equestria. Great! But how?

Doctor Whooves suddenly turned and began walking. Quickly. Rarity ran to keep up. He seemed like he’d seen a ghost. He turned around suddenly and pulled out his screwdriver, aiming it at the TARDIS door, which swung shut. He then knocked Rarity off the sidewalk into the back of a carriage, surprising her with the strength of the movement. As she was carried off, he ducked into an alleyway. Rarity looked around to see what could have caused all of that, and she saw the mare he mentioned earlier. A cream-colored unicorn. Her cutie-mark…it looked very similar to his…

Separating from Rarity was…necessary. He couldn’t explain his actions and hide away at the same time. He didn’t want to interfere with the flow of time too much here. It could influence his past and his mission could become skewed. That pony he saw…he wasn’t himself when she was around. Or he was exactly who he should have been. It didn’t matter anymore. He’d never had to deal with his past so directly before. But he remembered what he was doing in Manehattan all those years ago, and he could tell he would be seeing a lot of that mare. As for Rarity…he’d figure it out. He stopped for a breather.

“Could I have missed something last time I was here?” He felt a clutching at the pit of his stomach. The idea that the enemies of his past could be haunting him was too much. And now he was alone again.

The carriage was bumbling down the road at a fair pace. Looking out the window, Rarity could tell the stallions leading it were entirely unaware of her presence. She assumed they may be en route to something important, and to her, this was the perfect place to be. The height of fashion at the time, anywhere in Manehattan was the best of all of Equestria.

The sudden halt of the floor beneath her shocked the mare off of her balance. She fell to the floor, and, seeing the door begin to open, took a deep breath and, in what she thought was the bravest of actions with the worthiest of causes, rolled under the seat towards the back of the carriage. She felt the dust lightly tickling her muzzle, but held her ground. She could not be found if she wanted to find the destination.

“Thank you, kind sirs. Daffodil’s, if you will.”

Daffodil’s? As in the Daffodil’s School for Fashionable Fillies? It was closed down 10 years before I was school-aged. To see it in full operation? What an opportunity! I’m sure I can just…take some time before finding out how to save my friends…they’ll understand.

The ponies above her shifted. “Well, auntie, it certainly was a nice trip. The concierge at the hotel seemed to have quite an eye for you.”

“Oh, hush. You know we have no time for that sort of thing. We have so much to do. It’s been months since we were first asked to come here alone. Not mentioning everything else we’ve yet to do.”

“We have plenty of time. You can’t simply forget that.”

“You know what I mean. Nothing ever lasts…” The speaker fell silent, having trailed off the end. Rarity could hear the two shifting around again, one of them moving to the seat in the front of the cabin, to better face the other.

“Well, we shouldn’t ever forget to enjoy what we can, while we can. Nothing has to last if it’s worth it, you know.”

A sigh issued from above. “Of course, Cadance. Of course. Though you are still much too young to be talking of such, by my standards.”

Rarity almost hit her head on the seat, barely containing herself. She was sitting in a royal transport. She had barely any time to adjust to her excitement before the carriage halted again, and she heard the two preparing to leave. She would have to get out too.

“Well, I suppose we had better get inside. They’ll want you to address them, yes?”

“They always do.”

I guess I’ll have to wait for the cart to start moving and sort of…jump out. I see no other way…

As the two alicorns stepped out, they were swarmed by their subjects. The carriage door swung closed and Rarity gladly rolled out from under the seat, dusting herself off. She waiting for the carriage to move again, and after it obliged, she counted to ten, then leaped out of the window. She felt herself collide with the ground, but quickly regained her balance. She was outside of the crowd, but not far from her destination. She quickly made her way toward the entrance, following the crowd as they trailed the Princesses.

The Doctor was back on the street, and proceeding to hail a carriage. When one finally pulled up, he stepped inside, not noticing the other pony occupying it. He looked up through the window to the stallions carrying it. “Take me anywhere.”

The other pony took notice of him. She had never encountered him before, but felt she must know him from somewhere. She dismissed the thought, if only for the moment, and began to speak to the earth pony. “Then I suppose you’ll be joining me on my trip to Daffodil’s. Celestia will be taking petitioners after her public address, and I’m very anxious to speak with her.”

Doctor Whooves looked toward the speaker, his breath stopping. She was beautiful. A flowing brown mane, the horn that accompanied all unicorns, grey eyes, and…a cream-colored coat. Of course she’s beautiful. She’d have to be, or else she just couldn’t be called…Doctor.

End Chapter 3