An Unearthly Filly

In a grassland field, in another time and place stood a strange miniature barn, colored in blue.  Outside the barn, in the grass, a large, pony shaped shadow loomed.

The shadow belonged to an earth pony. One whose fur and mane was much dirtier, matted, and shaggier than any pony in Ponyville would ever allow.  She stared at the box...

MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC

&

DOCTOR WHO

IN

AN UNEARTHLY FILLY

PART 2

Elsewhere on the plains, a herd of ponies stood around a field that had been grazed mostly free of grass and plants.  These ponies were also big and brawny, their fur and manes rough and shaggy.  Their Cutie Marks were simple, a single image determining their role among the herd.  Those who scout, those who defend the central herd from predators.  Among them, a mare with a Mark showing a head above the rest, was pawing her hoof at the ground beneath her.  In front of her was a mound of soil.

"Where is this food you promised, Ta?" the oldest pony of the herd asked of her.

"It will come!" Ta's stallion said in irritation, but whispered to Ta, "How long is this meant to take?"

"I don't know..." Ta whispered back.  Louder she said, "My father made the food grow."

"And the other herds attacked us and killed him for it." the Old Nag told her, "It is best to walk and graze the lands as we always have."

"How did my father grow food?" Ta demanded of the Nag.

"I never cared to watch him." she said dismissively, "I do not know."

"Then what use are you?!" Ta said angrily.  She reared up, very prepared to just try to trample the old horse.  She barely managed to restrain herself.

"Out of my sight, Nag!" she ordered, then muttered, "Should have died with him."

"Ta will never grow food." the Old Nag said as she trotted away. Ta went back to her planting.

"Pour more water on it." Ta instructed the male.

"The old women talk against you, Ta." the male whispered to her, "They would rather the outsider Mus lead us."

Ta's head looked to her male.

"They say you spend all the time digging at the earth while she finds lands to graze and feed the herd."

"We go hungry if we can not find food." Ta admitted, but vehemently declared, "But if we do not learn to make food, we will die."

"The nags see no further than tomorrow's meal." the stallion cautioned, "They will make Mus lead mare.  My mother will give me to her..."

"Mus is not the leader!"

"The leader is the one who gets food." the male reminded her.

Ta stared in silence at the mount of soil, then began to kick and stamp at it.  She closed her eyes in an effort to keep back the tears of frustration behind them.

"What do I do wrong?  What?!"

* * * * *

Soon after all the movement stopped, Cheerilee came to.  She had falled on a bench placed in the main room of what Perennial had called the TARDIS.  She saw Big Macintosh still out on the floor and shook up awake.  They both looked up to see the Doctor and Perennial looking at the stand in the center of the improbably large room.  The central cylinder that had been moving before was now still.

"We're steady now." Perennial said, reading information from the stand.

"Well, grass, rock formation... Hmm, good."

"So that's it." Perennial said sadly, "We've left Equestria."

"Oh yes, undoubtedly. I'll be able to tell you where presently." her grandfather confirmed, "Zero?  That's not right.  I'm afraid something is not calculating properly... hmm.  Well, in any case the journey is finished.  What are you doing down there?"

This last was addressed to Big Macintosh who had only now woken up enough to pick himself up off the floor.

"What'd you do?" Big Macintosh asked.

"Try to put one over on us." Cheerilee said, feeling less than charitable after that bumpy ride, "Did I hear you say we've left Equestria, Perennial?"

"Just look at the scanner lenses." the filly told her with an enthusiastic nod and grin.  Her grandfather's horn glowed a yellow-orange and some flat crystals on the walls lit up.

"Yes, look up there.  For all the good it will do." He said, addressing Perennial, "They don't understand.  And I suspect they don't want to."

The two Earth ponies looked at the displays.  They saw images of wide open grassland with a few scattered tree lines and mountains. Perennial watched them closely, to see their reactions.

"Well there you are. A new world for you."

"Wide plains?" Cheerilee asked.

"Yes, that's the immediate view outside the ship." he told her.

"Where?" asked Big Macintosh.

"That's what we'll see outisde?" Cheerilee asked, "Grasslands instead of a junkyard?"

"You really are a stubbon young mare, aren't you?"

"I just want some real proof." Cheerilee declared, "Something definite."

"But Miss Cheerilee..." Perennial mumbled.

Cheerilee saw Perennial looking upset at Cheerilee's insistent denial.  She hated hurting the girl, but this was too much.  Grandfather and granddaughter alike needed to see sense.

"Rather than call me a charlatan, what real proof would convince you, hmm?" The elder pony asked.

"Just open the door, Doctor Forelock."

"Eh?  Doctor who?" he asked, suddenly confused.  Cheerilee heard him mutter to himself, asking what she was talking about.

Cheerilee looked to Big Macintosh for support.  He merely shrugged and gestured all round, reminding Cheerilee of how big a difference there is between the inside of the police barn and the outside.  Cheerilee conceded the point with a sigh.

"Well, are you going to open the doors, then?"

"No." the Doctor replied, continuing before Cheerilee could retort, "Not until I'm sure it is safe to do so."

Cheerilee and Big Macintosh watched as the unicorn began to consult the various dials and instruments.  what looked like random lights and dials to them obviously told the older pony and his granddaughter far more.

"Well, the air's good, yes it is.  It's good.  Excellent, excellent... Perennial, you have the background magic counter over there.  What's it read?"

"It's reading normal, Grandfather." Perennial replied.

"Splendid, splendid.  Well, I think I'll take my own counter with me in any case."

The Doctor's horn glowed as he levitated his coat to himself, donning it once more and placing some various objects in the pockets before turning back to Cheerilee.

"So you still challenge me, young lady?"

"Until I see something other than a junkyard outside those doors."

"You're so narrow-minded, aren't you?  Don't be so insular."

Perennial looked nervously between her grandfather and teacher.  She made an attempt to change the subject.

"Do you know where we are, Grandfather?"

"Back in time." he said with a nod, "I will need some samples to make an estimate of exactly which period.  Rock pieces, a few plants... but I do wish this thing wouldn't keep letting me down." he added towards the TARDIS's central stand, "However, it is now safe to go out."

Cheerilee stood in front of the Doctor as he prepared to leave.  Perennial closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Just a moment," Cheerilee said, "So we've not only left Equestia, but now we're back in time, too?"

"Quite so."

"So when we step outside we won't be in Ponyville's junkyard in present day Equestria?"

"Your tone may suggest ridicule, but that's precisely right."

"It is ridiculous!" Cheerilee wailed, "Time doesn't go around and around in circles!  It's not some train ride where you can get off or on at a station somewhen else!"

"Really? Then where does time go, then?"

"What? Why should it go anywhere?  It just happens, and that's that."

"Oh..." Said the Doctor, clearly amused.  He turned to Big Macintosh, "You're not as doubtful as your friend, I hope?"

"Nnn-ope."

"Big Mac, you can't-"

Big Macintosh simply gestured to the whole room around them.  The Doctor gave Cheerilee one final challenge.

"If you could touch the alien sand," he began, "and hear the cries of strange birds and watch them wheel in another sky... would that satisfy you?"

"Yes." Cheerilee said after a moment's thought.  At that point it would have to.  The Doctor operated the same switches that Perennial had when they first entered.  The two large doors the ponies had seen close behind them opened once more.  Cheerilee and Big Macintosh's jaws dropped in astonishment at the sight before them.

"Now, see for yourself." The Doctor said to them, just a bit smug.

"It can't be..." Cheerilee whispered in her shock.  This was impossible.

"Just like on the crystal." Perennial said, a little huff of triumph in her voice as she spoke.

"Well, I've no more time to argue with you." the Doctor said as he levitated some saddlebags to his back and began moving equipment into them, "I must get some samples, Perennial."

"Be careful, Grandfather." she said as the old pony went out first. Big Macintosh was the first to follow.  Soon after, Cheerilee heard him call to come out and look.

"Come on, Miss Cheerilee." Perennial said, givng her teacher a nudge forward to get her outside.

The TARDIS doors closed behind Cheerilee and Perennial as they stepped outside.  Cheerilee looked around and saw all the very same grasslands and plains she had seen when looking at the display inside.  High grasses, mountains far in the distance.  The occasional set of rocks or treelines kept the immediate vicinity from being completely featureless.  Cheerilee felt herself shiver as a chill wind blew in the air, but she paid little attention to it as she was more focused on the sight before her.

* * * * *

Further up ahead, the Doctor looked back at the TARDIS.

"It's still a police barn." he said to himself, "Why hasn't it changed? Dear dear, how very disturbing."

He put the thought aside and, leaving his granddaughter and Equestrian ponies behind, continued forward to take his samples.  He began to levitate his equipment out of his saddlebags, and was so absorbed in his task he did not notice the shaggy-maned earth pony mare watching him.

* * * * *

"Hmmm."

Exploring the area around the TARDIS themselves, Big Macintosh had dug out what appeared to be the skull of a local creature.  Cheerilee wandered over to take a look herself.  Perennial sat back and watched them.  A grin growing on her face as her teacher and the stallion began to get into the spirit of the exploration.

"Doesn't have any horns or antlers..." she observed, "but bigger than any pony I've ever seen.  Could be anything...  I mean, just look over there.  A police barn in the middle of all this... nothing makes sense anymore."

At this remark Perennial turned back to look at the TARDIS.

"It should've changed." she said in confusion, "Wonder why it hasn't happened this time..."

"The ship?" Big Macintosh asked.

"Yes.  It changes to try and match wherever it goes."

"A disguise?" Big Macintosh asked.

"Yes, that's right... but not this time.  I wonder why not?" Perennial asked out loud, then shrugged and turned to the skull Big Macintosh found, "Do you think this old head'll help Grandfather?  Where did he go?"

Perennial trotted off to find her grandfather.  Meanwhile, Big Macintosh looked to Cheerilee.

"You okay?" he asked her.  He recognized Cheerilee was still trying to work everything out in her mind.  Cheerilee seemed about to try a "stiff upper lip" response, then abandoned it with a sigh.

"I was so very wrong, wasn't I?"

"Eee-yup." He replied, then decided this, perhaps, wasn't the time for his preferred short responses, "I don' get it, either.  Th' inside.  Bein' out here.  What Doctor Forelock says."

"That's not his name." Cheerilee interrupted, "Who is he?  Doctor who?  Perhaps if we knew that much we'd have a clue to all this."

"Cheerilee..." he began, then shrugged, "It's happened."

"Yes it has." Cheerilee admitted.  Much as she didn't want to accept it.  Her thoughts were interrupted by Perennial's return.

"I can't find him." Perennial noted with worry.

"Ain't far." Big Macintosh assured her.

"But... but I've been feeling like we were being watched..." Perennial fretted, then began calling out "Grandfather!"

* * * * *

The Doctor had placed a glass case on the ground and deposited some seeds and plants into it.  With an orange glow from his horn the machine glass began to hum.  Within it, the seeds began to sprout from seed to seedling to full flower in moments.  The older plans bloomed and decayed.

The pony that had been spying on the Doctor had no more need to watch.  With a yell she leapt upon the Doctor.

* * * * *

The sound of a pony's yelling alerted the others to the danger.

"Grandfather!" Perennial cried and immediately ran to the noise.

"C'mon!" Big Macintosh ordered.

When the three ponies arrived, they found nothing but the Doctor's bag and the glass cylinder laying broken on the ground, samples of plants and seeds inside or spilling out.  Green plants seemed to be either transforming into seeds or drying and decaying.

"Look." Big Macintosh said.

"What?" Perennial asked.

"These are his!" Cheerilee declared.

"Grandfather!" Perennial yelled hysterically, "Where are you?!"

Perennial began to run off only to be stopped when Big Macintosh caught her tail in his mouth.

"I have to find him... I have to..." she said while pulling against Big Macintosh's strength.

"Then be careful and come right back." Cheerilee said, giving Big Macintosh a nod.  She was liable to hurt herself or rip out her tail at the roots if she kept pulling the way she was.  Better to let her check and come back.

"Look." Big Macintosh said after Perennial had left.  Cheerilee checked where he was looking and found one of the Doctor's devices.  Cheerilee had heard him call it a background magic counter, a small black box with a needle on it going between white and red.  Though now it had been smashed like the rest of his equipment.

"Not much good now, is it?" Cheerilee said, "You don't think he saw something and went to investigate, either, do you?"

"Nnn-ope." Big Macintosh agreed.  Both doubted he would left all his things behind like this.

"If he didn't just go off to look for something..." she began, thinking of the scream they had heard, "Could he have been taken?"

It was at this point Perennial returned from her own search.

"There's no sign of him!" she reported with a sob, "I can't see him!  Can't find him anywhere!"

Big Macintosh put his front leg over her shoulders to comfort her while Cheerilee told her not to worry.  Once she had gotten over the worst of her crying, Perennial found something on the ground.

"What did you find?" Cheerilee asked as Perennial picked up a book into her mouth.

"His notes!" Perennial said after getting a good look, "He'd never leave his notebook, it's too important to him.  It has key codes for machines on the ship and notes for every place we've been to... oh no... something terrible has happened to him.  I know it has! We have to find him!"

As she said this last she again attempted to run off to search.  This time Cheerilee grabbed her tail and refused to let go until she stopped struggling.

"Perennial, honey, we'll find him." she assured the filly, "I promise you!  He can't be far."

"What'd you see?" Big Macintosh asked Perennial as he gathered the Doctor's things in his own saddlebag.

"Some high grass and bushes." Perennial said with a hiccup, "There's a gap in them... almost like a beaten path."

"Then that's where we'll try first." Cheerilee said.  As they began their trek Big Macintosh stopped suddenly and looked at the ground below them, as if noticing it for the first time.

"Big Mac?" Cheerilee asked.

"Ground's cold," Big Macintosh said, running his hoof through the soil, "Freezing."

* * * * *

Several of the herd's foals played.  One was a predator as the rest frolicked away from him.  The female Ta sat with her stallion away from the group, ignoring them until an one of the elder mares approached.

"Mus says she has often seen food be made to come from the ground." she said to Ta, "That the Fire gives its secret only to the leader."

"Mus lies." Ta insisted, "Her herd died in the cold.  She would have died too, had she not found us.  I'm leader here. The Fire will show me, daughter of the Green Grower, its secrets."

Ta turned away from stallion and mare.  Her father had understood the secret of Green's growth.  But he had never shown Ta herself the secret.  Now, on top of that, Mus had come and, instead of chasing her away, Ta had let her graze with them and be protected among the herd.  Now Mus sought leadership.  Ta realized she may well have to spill some blood to make the her obey her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by some commotion among the herd's outliers.  When she turned to look, she saw Mus arriving.  The large mare had a strange pony creature on her back.  It looked like any other pony of the herd except noticably smaller, with a strange single antler sticking out from its head.  A stone was wrapped around it.  The mark on its end was something Ta had never seen before, a strange object with what looked like sand inside.  Mus hefted the creature off her back and rested it on a large stone in the center of the herd.

"What is this strange creature?" Ta asked, taking a few cautions steps twoard it.

"Does the Green Grower's daughter fear an old horse?" Mus taunted, "Is that fear why the food does not come?"

"The food will come as the Fire wills." she retorted.

"The Fire is for the strong ponies!" Mus shot back, then turned to address the entire herd, "The Fire has sent me this creature, who can make plants grow from nothing!  I have seen it.  The antler filled with the Fire and when it glows the Green appears!"

"Just as your lies grow from nothing." Ta snapped.  She made a much more forceful move towards the new creature, only for Mus to get between them.

"It has strange coverings." Ta said, noticing the black part of its coat that seemed to be separate from its body.

"Ta fears." Mus repeated with a sneer, "She fears the creature just as she would have feared the strange tree it came out from.  Ta would have fled-"

Mus sidestepped just in time to avoid a buck from Ta's hind legs.  With a cruel smirk, she continued her speech to the herd.

"When I saw it grow the Green before my eyes, I remembered Ta, the daughter of the Green Grower.  Wait for her to make your food, the next cold will take you all!  I am a true leader!  My battle with the creature was great, but the strength of Mus was too great for it! I captured it, brought it here to make us all food!"

Ta looked around at the other ponies of the herd speaking and nodding to one another.

"Why?!" she screamed in frustration, "Why do you listen to Mus!"

"YOu do nothing but watch grass grow." an elder mare said, "Ta forgets we must move and graze. You would make us remain in one place and become food for predators for promises that never come."

"Tomorrow I will find us food." Ta swore, "Enough for us all to eat our fill!  I will fight any predators that come for us!"

"I say tomorrow you will stand and stare at dirt, beg the Fire to bring forth the Green.  The smaller creatures will steal what is ours and leave us hungry as the larger ones steal our young and ill."

"What I say I will do, I will do!" Ta declared.

"Hmph!" Mus snorted, "The Green Grower is gone!  You carry little seeds and specks and know nothing of what to do with them! But tonight, I make them grow! I make food!  I am leader!"

"The creature has opened its eyes!" cried a pony from the herd as he noticed the antler'd elder beginning to stir.

"Where's my... wh..."

"Do you want food?" Mus said to the herd, "Or to starve in the cold?!"

The ponies gathered began to cry out for food.

"It is cold... the wolves nip at our herds every day.  Ta will give you to the wolves and to the cold!  Ta paws at the dirt and begs for the Fire to remember him!  My creature has the Fire in its antler! I have seen it.  I, Mus, brought it here.  This creature is mine!"

"Your 'creature' is an old horse covering itself against the cold." Ta exclaimed, "Mus has been with us too long.  It is time she left the herd!"

The two mares locked eyes, and began to circle one another when the elder mare, the mother of Ta's mate, stepped between them.

"Both are right! The Fire is not for mere ponies, but we will die without the food the Fire gives us."

Ta's stallion stepped forward next.

"If this old pony can make the fire come from its antler, create for us food, let us see for ourselves!"

"I am leader!" Ta yelled, "Not nags or stallions!"

"Little Ta tries to talk like a Lead Mare! But does Ta truly wish us to grow food, if she is not the one to make it? I, Mus, will make my creature make our food!"

"I will take it to the Pit of Bones." Ta proclaimed, "And make it tell me the secret!"

"I can help you with food!" a new voice said.  Unnoticed by anypony else, the old horse had fully awoken and had been listening to the last few moments of the confrontations.

"Let me go, and I will get you all the food you want!" he said as he stepped down from the rock he had been placed on.  He other ponies backed away from him, afraid.

"You don't need to be afraid of me.  I'm an old horse.  How can an old pony like me harm any of you, huh?"

"Does he truly say...?" Ta asked, as the pony began to rummage through his coverings.  He also began looking around the cave itself.

"The Green!" the elder mare said, "He says he can make us the Green!"

"He makes me the Green!" Mus yelled, "I give you food! I am the Green Grower!"

"He will do it for me." Ta said, once again locking her eyes to the would-be usurper, "He will do now."

"He will make the Green only for Mus.  He is Mus's creature."

Neither one appeared noticed the that the pony they discussed was still searching through his coverings and growing ever more frantic.

"My time capsule!  My bags!  Where are they?  Must get back to the ship." he turned to the herd of ponies, "Take me back to my ship, and I will make your 'Green' for you!  All the green you want!"

"So it is just lies." Ta said with a smirk, "This old horse can not make the Green come!"

"There was the tree..." Mus said, her voice starting to shake, "The creature came from it, then made the Green appear with Fire from its antler..."

The herd began to whisper amongst themselves, no longer so impressed with Mus.  Mus began to worry.  Ta took this chance to win back her herd.

"You should be strong like Ta, daughter of the Green Grower!" she proclaimed, jumping on top of the rock Mus had rested her prisoner on, "You all heard him.  The Green would come.  There is no Green!  Ta does not lie!  Ta does not say "I will do this thing" and then not do it!  When Ta says 'I will chase the wolves' does Ta leave you to be devoured in the dark?  Do you want a liar for our leader?"

The crowd grumbled their agreement.  Mus saw their attitude shifting against her and pressed her face up to the old horse's.

"Make the Green!  Make it!" she shouted desperately.

"Your own lies expose you, Mus!" Ta's mate said gleefully.

"Oh great, Mus, who fears nothing!" Ta herself taunted, "O great Mus! Save us from the cold! Save us from the wolves!"

Mus grew desperate.  She looked to the old horse.

"Make the Green!" she pleaded, "Show the Fire from the antler, as I saw..."

"I can ignite my horn, but without my supplies I cannot make your plants grow!" the old horse declared.

"Make-"

"I cannot grow your food for you!"

Ta stepped between them, a cruel glint in her eye.

"Let the old pony die.  We'll let Mus do it.  We'll watch "the Great Mus" kill her strong enemy!"

Mus, enraged by this taunting, pushed to the old horse, shoved him to the ground, and had a hoof raised to come down on his head.

"Make the Green!  Make it or I kill you now!" she screamed as Ta continued to mock her.

"Grandfather!"

Just as Mus was about to bring down her hoof, a filly with a short-haired coat and a Mark different from anyone else in the herd charged forward and throw herself at Mus.  She butted her head against Mus's flank and beat on the mare's body with her hooves when that seemed to do nothing.  Two other ponies attempted to join in the fray but the herd, now alert, quickly penned a female pony while a large red stallion required several ponies to pin down.  In the confusion of the fighting, Ta approached the stallion and raised her hoof much the same as Mus had done to the old pony.

"If they die there will be no Green!" the Doctor shouted.

A tense moment followed.  Ta relented, the interlopers were held steady by the ponies of the herd.  Mus personally took a closer look at the red stallion.  She had never seen a pony like this before.  He was nearly as big as the stallions of the herd, but none had such colorings as he or the mare did.  Colors that would stand out in any wilderness.  Nor had she ever seen Marks like these ponies.  Flowers with smiles?  A large apple?  Nopony in the herd had marks so strange.  She wasn't even prepared to try and guess what the elder's and the filly's Marks were.

"Kill him!" a voice shouted.  The herd saw the Old Nag, the eldest pony in the entire herd, who repeated "Kill him!"

Mus began to do just that when Ta stopped her.  They heard the outsiders' mare scream "Big Mac!", but ignored her.

"Wait!" Ta said, "We will not do this thing now!  When the Fire appears again in the sky, when it shines down on us, then they will die!  We will offer them to the Fire, so that the Fire will grant us the Green."

Mus stared at Ta for a long moment but, seeing she was no longer going to win the crowd to her side, she relented.

"Take them to the Pit of Bones." Ta ordered.

The herd dragged the ponies away, the filly screaming the whole way.  Mus and Ta stared each other down once more before Mus stormed away.  Ta, pleased with her victory this day, beckoned to her stallion, only to see him stopped by his mother.

"My son is for the lead mare." she declared.

"Yes!" Ta said, "The stallion is mine."

"I don't like what's happened."

"Old nags never like when new things happen." Ta retorted glancing at the pony the herd actually called the Old Nag.  Her mate's mother stamped her hoof.

"I was a great leader of many ponies." she said.

"Many ponies, yes." Ta replied, "Many ponies that died when the Fire left the sky and the Great Cold was on us.  But the Fire will show us the way again.  It will give me the secret of the green, just as you will give me him."

"Ta will lead this herd." the stallion in question said, "If you give me to her, she will remember and always make sure you are fed."

This seemed to sway the elder, as she walked away to contemplate this.  Ta and her mate went the other way, only to be stopped by the Old Nag.

"The herd had leaders before this talk of making the Green grow.  Growing our food, staying in a single place... this will kill us all in the end.  Better to kill the four strangers.  Kill them now."

"I have said that we will wait until the Fire is in the sky.  Then they die." Ta told her, obviously displeased to have her orders questioned.

* * * * *

The primitive pony herd threw their prisoners into exactly what their leader described; a reasonably deep pit filled with bones.  Cheerilee got herself into a slightly more comfortable position and checked on the others.  The Doctor was getting up and muttering angrily to himself.  Perennial was clearly afraid, but there was a noticeable relief in her eyes as she saw her grandfather was all right.  Big Macintosh was on his side, but like Cheerilee turning himself over to at least be upright.

"Are you all right, Big Mac? Did they hurt you?" Cheerilee asked.  Big Macintosh was big and powerful, but even he would have trouble dealing with ponies with mares not too far from him in size.

"Eee-yup.  And nnn-ope." Big Macintosh replied, "Worried?"

"Yes.  I don't see how we can get out of this."

"We must use our cunning." the Doctor answered for Big Macintosh, "I suppose we should start with trying to climb."

The Doctor suddenly wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"The stench in here.  The stench... I'm sorry.  It's all my fault.  I... I'm desperately sorry."

"Don't blame yourself, Grandfather." Perennial said to comfort him.

"What's that?" Big Macintosh asked, having now gotten himself into a better position to look around the cave.

Three other heads turned to look.  As Cheerilee had noticed, the hole they were in was filled with bones of assorted shapes and size.  The majority of them were recognizably pony.  Cheerilee wondered if this hole was some kind of primitive pony graveyard.  Her thoughts in this direction came to a screeching halt when she saw the skulls.

Scattered among the bones were skulls not far different from what Cheerilee and Big Macintosh had seen soon after leaving the ship.  Given how big this group of Earth Ponies was, Cheerilee realized that the skull they had found initially could well have belonged to one of them.  She also realized something far more horrible.

Every skull in the pit was broken.  Not merely from age or accident, but they all had been caved in from the top.  As if someone had made a deliberate attempt to stomp them flat.

Just as she had seen the Earth Pony primitives about to do to them before the Doctor changed their minds.

"They're all the same.  Big Mac... did you have to point that out to us...?"

TO BE CONTINUED