Equestria Noir Case 18 "Back to the Present"by Jacoboby1ChaptersChapter 1 "Meet the Parents"Chapter 2 "963"Chapter 3 "Love Doctor"Chapter 4 "A Little Bit of Courage"Chapter 5 "Love Me So There Is a Tomorrow"Chapter 6 "All Across Time"EpilogueChapter 1 "Meet the Parents"Equestria Noir Case 18 “Back to the Present” By: Jacoboby1 and ShatteredIllusions Chapter 1 “Meet the Parents” “I’m Late! I’m Late! For a very important date! No time to say hello goodbye! I’m Late! I’m Late! I’m Late!” Alice in Wonderland Most ponies ask others to house sit whenever they go away. I think I’m probably the first pony to ever Tardis sit, however. You see about two weeks ago the Doctor said he was going to do some surveying of the area. He didn’t want to move his Tardis for whatever reason, so he left it in the woods. As one of the few ponies in town who knows who he is and what he does I was drafted to look after the thing. I didn’t have much else to do since no cases have come up since Manehattan about a week ago. This is why on this rather nice snowy evening I’m forced to trudge through the snow to look after a blue box with groceries on my back. I walked through the snow and up the hill to where the blue box was. I still had trouble comprehending the whole “Bigger on the inside then it is on the outside” thing. Being a slight sci-fi nut however, I couldn’t help but admire the machine. I reached into my trench coat and pulled out the key the Doctor gave me. I used it to unlock the door and stepped inside. Shaking some snow off me, I set the bags in the center of the spacious interior. The one thing I noticed that were different this time, was that there were clocks everywhere. Alarm clocks, digital clocks, sundials, even a large grandfather clock. With the Doctor you quickly learn not to ask, just go with it. The time was almost 7:00 P.M. So, I still had an hour before I had to make the train. I sat on my haunches and started reading the biography of Starswirl the Bearded, Twilight said I should start looking into books about or by him for answers about Tenacity. So far, looking inside his diaries have proven fruitless. Aside from coming up with several spells in his lifetime, there wasn’t too much information on his life. However, I did see one passage that intrigued me… “Starswirl’s personal life is largely shrouded in mystery. He rarely talked about his past with friends or loved ones. As far as friends went though, he did exchange frequent letters with an astronomer named Eclipse. Records on this astronomer are rare and Starswirl never spoke of the stallion in his lifetime. Outside research however, has uncovered that Eclipse used to live in the area where Manehattan stands today. Eclipse led a rather reclusive life. He had little contact with others and only really spoke to his nephew Nocturne.” Nocturne? My ancestor? Starswirl knew one of my ancestors? Did he have Tenacity? So many questions ringed in my mind as the paragraph went nowhere. It went on to talk about something about Starswirl journeying north, but no more information about Eclipse. Whoever Eclipse was, he had to be important if Starswirl would go so far to hi- I stopped my train of thought when I heard a soft giggle. I looked around for the source of the sound. The Tardis was bare; nopony was aboard aside from me, right? I reached into my trench coat and pulled out Blackbird. After two minutes of looking warily about I only heard the sounds of the clocks ticking and the Tardis’ machinery going. Then I heard the giggle again. I turned and saw a hallway where I saw a flash of magenta turn round a corner. Twilight? No, she doesn’t know about the Tardis. Anyway, why would she hide from me? I walked forward cautiously down the hallway. Just how big was this place? I rounded another corner and heard the giggling again. Then I saw a little head peek around a corner. She was a unicorn filly, with a magenta coat and a long dark brown mane. Those violet eyes…it couldn’t be…this is impossible! She giggled again and ran down another hallway out of sight. I chased after her and called “Hey! Get back here!” She just giggled as I chased her around more and more corridors. Just who was she? Was she the filly from that vision? The one that called me… I rounded one final corner and came into a strange room. It was small, out of the way and the walls were covered with pictures. Probably hundreds of pictures of various ponies on the walls, all of them had names under them. It was like a high school yearbook almost, with each picture having a small caption underneath. I picked one out at random; it showed a rather simple looking earth pony mare with long, striking red hair. The name and caption read “Donna Noble, worst wedding ever, best excuse to miss it.” I guess time travel would be a crazy excuse to miss a bad wedding. Another one, a younger unicorn pony with a blond mane “Rose Tyler, always with you, even across a universe.” You know, it’s impolite to pry into things you shouldn’t. I fell back in shock and saw my horn was glowing grey. I let out a breath of relief as it was only the Tardis talking. A while back I discovered that my magic could somehow allow me to communicate with the blue box. It scared me the first couple of times but I eventually got used to it. I remembered why I came here in the first place and asked “Tardis, did anypony get on you aside from the Doctor and I?” I don’t detect any other life forms. Is something the matter? “I thought I saw a unicorn filly around here,” I said, looking around the empty room. “Bout seven, with a magenta coat and a brown mane.” I don’t see anything on the cameras, are you feeling well? I sighed, it probably was nothing and I was getting paranoid. I looked at the pictures in front of me and asked, “Who are all these ponies?” Well, they weren’t initially ponies. On this wall used to be pictures of other companions the Doctor had. However, when we came to this universe they changed into ponies. I’m guessing since your kind are the dominant species on this world they changed to accommodate. “There’s so many of them,” I observed. “When did he start adding the pictures?” Fairly recently actually, before we came here he just started putting up the pictures for no reason I can discern. I’m guessing old age has made him sentimental. He has lived an incredibly long time, this is his twelfth life after all. There were so many companions here, my eyes fell on two ponies I actually recognized. Ditzy and Lyra were on the wall! They were companions? Riiing!!! I left that thought and ran back to the central chamber. I picked up the receiver with my magic and spoke into it, “Hello?” “Ah Private! How’s the Tardis doing?” “She’s doing quite well,” I said on my end, leaning against the consul. “Now are you going to tell me what’s so important you would leave your Tardis behind?” “I’ve been running around Equestria because something seems a little off. For some reason, time seems to be acting wonky in some areas. I had to leave the Tardis behind because I’m worried it may be a paradox. Hopefully it’s just my imagination. So anyway, when you get the time tonight I’d like you to come over to the Twin Oaks mall.” “What do you need me for?” I asked. “You’ll be in that area for that dinner date you have and I’ll need some assistance. It’s always good to have a second set of hooves.” The nervousness of the dinner with Twilight’s parents came rushing back to me. I was beyond nervous at the prospect at meeting her parents. I hoped I didn’t make a complete idiot of myself. At least I got plenty of time unt- Suddenly every clock in the room went off. They all struck the hour, ringing with loud gongs. I covered my free ear to better hear the Doctor. “Are those the clocks?” “Yeah!” I shouted over the noise. “What time do they say?” “7:00,” I answered. “Why?” “I knew it! They’re all exactly one half hour backwards!” “Wait! Doctor, are you saying it’s 7:30?” I shouted in shock. “Precisely!” “I’m going to miss my train!” I cried, slamming the receiver down on it’s hook. I ran out of the Tardis as fast as my legs could carry me. I wasn’t going to miss this date! I was going to make a good impression! Good luck, Daddy… ________________________________________________________ I barely made the train before it left at its 8:15 departure. I walked into the car and found Twilight sitting in one of the seats. I closed the door behind me with a guilty smile and said, “Sorry, I’m late.” She just smiled back and patted the spot next to her. I sat beside her and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I forgive you, I’ll just tell mom and dad that you arrived early.” “Thanks,” I sighed. “I’m so nervous about this whole thing.” “Didn’t you ever meet the parents of an ex-marefriend before?” she asked. “Only really one,” I explained, “and she only had one parent, this time I have to deal with both parents.” “I’m sure they’ll like you,” she said, at least trying to sound confident for me. “Also, I just got a call, Shining and Cadence are coming as well.” “That’s good to hear,” I said. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen those two, how’s the niece?” “She’s coming along any day now,” Twilight squealed, and almost bounced in her seat. “I can’t wait to see her!” I laughed at her enthusiasm and looked out at the rolling countryside. Twilight saw my expression and asked, “What’s wrong?” “It’s just,” I said, with a sigh, “what if they don’t like me? What if they look at me and say, I’m no good, and you deserve better.” She turned my head with her hoof so our eyes met. She pressed her horn against mine affectionately. “You’re one of the strongest, kindest, and smartest stallions I know. I’m sure you’ll do fine.” I felt better after she said that, I nuzzled my marefriend lovingly and said, “Well, I have you there so that helps at least.” ________________________________________________________ We arrived at Canterlot and Luna’s moon shown in the night sky. I looked over at Twilight as we walked down the moonlit streets of the capital. “So what can I expect from them?” She looked away for the briefest of moments and answered reluctantly, “Private, I’ll be honest with you. It’s not going to be so easy to convince mom.” “What do you mean?” I asked nervously. She rolled her eyes. “When she heard I was bringing home a stallion she absolutely freaked. She kept going on and on about ‘How you’re too young, you got your whole life ahead of you, there’s no need to latch onto the first stallion to give you a second glance.’” “What does your dad think about me?” I asked, more nervous than before. “Honestly, he agrees with mom but that’s not a surprise.” She shook her head. “He always just gives into whatever she wants. I swear he doesn’t have a backbone for anything.” “They just care about you,” I said, attempting to reassure her, and myself. “I just hope we can convince them that we can make this work.” She stared into my grey eyes for a while. “Private, I really believe you’re the one.” “Even though I am the first stallion you’ve been with?” I asked worriedly. “I know it,” she said firmly. “When I look back on these last few months, I can’t imagine them without you.” “I can’t imagine them without you either,” I said, gently nuzzling her. We stopped for a minute, just sat on the sidewalk and nuzzled each other. There was no mare I’d rather be with. I was going to make this work. I wanted to… “Save the clock tower!” I heard a voice shout. I turned to my left and saw a rather lanky looking earth pony stallion with a long ginger mane and deep blue eyes. He held a can in front of me with a slot on it “Sorry to bother you two, but the Canterlot preservation society could use some aid.” “What for?” Twilight asked. “For the Clock tower.” He pointed behind us at the large clock tower. “Lord Nickelworth is funding an initiative to replace the tower. Round 40 years ago a huge lightning bolt struck the tower and it hasn’t been working since.” He continued proudly, “We believe it should be preserved exactly as it is to represent Canterlot culture and history.” I gave Twilight a look which she returned with a shrug. I reached into my pockets and tossed in a few bits in the can. He smiled and said, “Thanks, here take a flier.” He gave me a flier that protested the replacement of the clock. I did it more to humor him than anything else, but there was something about that guy. He seemed, strangely familiar. I just left it at that and walked down the street with Twilight by my side. ___________________________________________________ Twilight’s home was a small two story house on the upper terrace of Canterlot. About a fifteen minute walk from the castle now that I think about it. It didn’t have any extravagant decorations on it, just a rather simple house for a family of four. Granted, I’m pretty sure most houses didn’t have a busted up carriage in the front. A couple of ponies were moving the carriage onto the driveway, it had several busted wheels and a nasty fender bender. Twilight sighed and said, “Ugh, not again.” Before I could ask Twilight walked to the front door and knocked on it. I could hear voices on the inside and I peeked in a window to see what was going on. A rather big looking, orange colored unicorn stallion was talking to an older looking blue unicorn stallion. The big one spoke up, “I can’t believe you lend me that carriage of yours, and then forget to tell me it had a loose harness. I could’ve gotten killed!” “Look, I’m sorry, Graff,” the blue unicorn said rather timidly. “I didn’t notice it had a loose harness.” Twilight opened the door and we walked in, the pair of stallions kept their conversation going. “Now I can assume,” the blue unicorn said, trying to sound a little confident, “that your insurance can cover the damage?” “My insurance?” Graff asked. “Night Light, it’s your carriage, your insurance should pay for the damage.” Night Light didn’t even bother to meet his eyes. “Now where are the reports I asked for?” “Well, I haven’t finished those up yet…” The tie he was wearing got yanked by Graff’s magic “They weren’t due until Monday so I thought.” “Hello!” He conked Night Light on the head. “Think, Night Light! I gotta have time to get them retyped. Do you realize what would happen if I turned in my reports in your hoof writing? I’ll get fired.” He slung a foreleg around Night Light’s shoulder. “You wouldn’t want that to happen right?” Night Light hesitated for the briefest of moments; I could tell he was honestly thinking about it, but one look from Graff put him back to his place. “Would you, Night Light?” “No, of course not, Graff.” He suddenly realized Twilight and I heard the whole conversation. He adopted a business tone with the bigger unicorn. “Now I’ll get those reports tomorrow first thing, all right?” I gave Twilight a look but she just kept looking at her father. I could tell she was trying everything in her power to keep herself composed. I watched the unicorn literally walk up to the Sparkle family fridge and take a beer out of it. “Not too early though, I sleep in on Saturdays.” He stopped when he came to me. I held my steel colored gaze at him. He smirked “What’re you looking at, butthead?” A no good dirty rotten asshole who’s clearly extorting the hell out of my marefriend’s dad, and that’s the teen rated version of putting it. I just held my gaze as he walked out the door. He stopped at Twilight for a minute and said, “Say hi to your mom for me.” When he left Twilight let go of all pretense of composure and stomped over to her father. “Dad, what the hay was that about?” “Twilight, honey,” Night Light said, trying to salvage some dignity. “Graff is my supervisor, there’s not much I can do.” “Only because you let him!” Twilight shouted. “Grow a backbone or something!” “We can talk about this later,” he said, pointing to me. Twilight got the hint and flushed in embarrassment. She walked over to me, and put a foreleg around my shoulder, pulling me in. “Dad,” she said with a smile from him to me. “This is Private, I’ve told you about him.” “Oh yeah,” Night Light said with a nod. “The guy you're seeing?” I extended a hoof. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last, sir.” “Well, he’s certainly polite,” he said shaking my hoof still rather timidly. “Everypony else is upstairs, I’ll get them.” He made his way upstairs leaving Twilight and I alone. “Who was the big guy?” I asked. “That was Graff” Twilight sighed “A real pain in the flank ever since dad was a teenager. Dad caves into whatever Graff wants, it’s really annoying.” “He wrecked the carriage,” I pointed out. “Graff should be the one to pay for the damages.” “I wish that would happen” Twilight said again, “but dad seems to like you at least.” “Wouldn’t want to get off on a bad hoof with them,” I said with a smile. “It helps that you’re so polite.” She smirked a little. “If only they could hear your mouth during rounds of Mare Effect 3.” “Hey, that banshee came out of nowhere!” I retorted. Suddenly I felt a prick in the back of my neck. I looked at Twilight and…oh boy. It was like every flaw I could think of about Twilight just melted away. I was in the presence of a goddess among ponies before me. I gazed into her violet eyes and swam in them like the ocean. Her coat glistened like stars in the night sky. I drank in her every feature and I felt my heart beating like a brass drum. She returned my gaze and slowly smiled as well. It was probably the most beautiful smile, no wait it was THE most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. Both of us shouted at the same time once the effects of the spell were recognized. “Cadence!” “Oh Shining, looks like they found us out.” I heard a voice come from the stairs. Descending the steps was Princess Mi’amore Cadenza, or Cadence for short. She had changed little since last I saw her a few months ago. Except for one tiny detail… “Your stomach’s a melon!” I exclaimed as Cadence came to the bottom of the steps. Her belly was incredibly huge! I swear if it got any bigger they’d have to attach a roller skate to the bottom just to have her roll around. She laughed and looked at Twilight. “I’d love to do our greeting but,” she said as she gestured to her belly. “Your little niece wouldn’t like it that much.” “So is it really any day now?” Twilight asked with sparkling eyes. “Should be,” I heard a masculine voice speak from the top of the stairs. Down descended Twilight’s brother Shining Armor. The alabaster unicorn had recovered from the injuries he’d suffered at Canterlot. Twilight ran to embrace both of them when he made it to the bottom of the stairs. I smiled at the scene and then another face descended the steps. She was a grayish white unicorn with a purple and white colored mane. She had three stars on her flank and her blue eyes were eying me. I felt like a uniform again during inspection. She made it to the bottom of the stairs and Twilight spoke up, “Mom, this is Private.” She gestured to me after getting out of her group hug. “He’s the stallion I told you about.” Twilight went to stand beside me and gestured to the mare. “Private, this is my mother, Twilight Velvet.” “Your both named Twilight?” I asked, in surprise. Velvet nodded. “It’s a family tradition on my side, we name all of our firstborn girls Twilight. It goes all the way back to our ancestor who was just called Twilight.” Could it have been the same Twilight who helped banish Nightmare Moon the first time? It seemed likely, I noticed several similarities between them. Velvet smiled a little and said, “I hope you like Hayloaf.” ______________________________________________________ “I didn’t know you cooked, Private,” Shining said, as I put some more of the food on the table. “I’m glad I’m not the only pony who can cook around here.” “I picked up cooking from my parents,” I explained. “Dad and Mom both were good cooks, dad because it was his hobby, and mom because she needed to know how.” “Sounds like you never had trouble when it came to dinner time,” he said as he took his seat by Cadence who was eating rather liberally of the salad. “So, Private,” Velvet said, “the newspapers have said a lot about you.” I nodded after taking my seat beside Twilight, I couldn’t help but notice an awkward distance between Night Light and Velvet. They sat on either sides of the table, Night Light not looking up from his plate. I decided to move on with the conversation and answered, “I just do my job, which is to protect and serve the ponies of Equestria.” “A very noble and,” she paused for a minute, casting a blue eyed glance at Twilight, “dangerous vocation…” “Mom,” Twilight cut in, “Private has done a lot of good for Equestria. He’s proven time and time again that he can take on any situation.” Shining laughed “Never thought I’d see the day when you would talk about a stallion like that besides me.” Cadence giggled “You have a wife now Shining, you don’t need your sister constantly praising you.” All four of us laughed a little, I let out a nervous chuckle when Velvet didn’t join in. She just turned a glance at Twilight and asked, “So, how’d you two end up together?” Twilight went on to explain about the Big Mac case as we call it now. Then how we eventually realized how much we meant to each other. Velvet’s eyes narrowed as I explained some of the more dangerous parts of the cases. She finally spoke after a few minutes, taking on the worried tone a mother should have, “Twilight, not that I don’t believe you’re responsible or anything, but is it safe to be around him?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked defensively. “I’m just saying,” Velvet replied,“not once but several times have you gotten kidnapped or hurt during his cases. Are you sure you want to put yourself through more of this?” “Mom,” Twilight argued, “I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself!” “Well, your father didn’t need fancy heroics to win me over,” Velvet huffed, looking at Night Light with a smile. “Romance will just happen when it happens.” “There was nothing romantic about it,” Shining complained rolling his eyes. “Grandpa just hit dad with his carriage.” “It was meant to be,” Velvet said stubbornly. Both siblings sighed as she took on a storyteller tone, “Why if your grandfather hadn’t hit you father, I never would’ve met him.” “I still want to know what he was doing in the middle of the street,” Cadence said quizzically. “Bird watching!” Night Light exclaimed hastily. “It was bird watching,” he repeated, a bit calmer. Velvet just shrugged and went on with her story, “Anyway, grandpa got your father and brought him inside the house.” She smiled wistfully. “He just seemed so helpless, like a little lost puppy. My heart just went out to him.” Well, love has come out of stranger circumstances. Pinkie and Swarm could attest to that. Twilight got caught up in the mood of story time and continued “Then you felt sorry for him, so you decided to take him to the…” she paused, “What was it again?” “The Dance on the Ocean Floor,” Shining announced in a dramatic tone, which caused both siblings to giggle. Velvet just chuckled. “Our first date, I’ll never forget it.” She looked over at Night Light and asked,“Dear, don’t you remember? It was during the night of that terrible storm.” Night Light didn’t look like he was paying much attention. I could tell he was a little embarrassed and…ashamed? Velvet closed her eyes. “He kissed me for the first time on that dance floor. It was then I realized, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.” Night Light only gave the faintest smile. I looked at Cadence whom was looking a little green. She got up and gestured to me, asking, “Private, can you help me clear some of the dishes please?” “Um,” I said, not exactly getting why she wanted to pull me aside, “sure.” I wasn’t about to deny royalty or my marefriend’s sister in law. We walked into the next room, levitating the dirty plates while the Sparkle family talked in the dining room. Cadence’s magic faltered a bit and I caught the plates with my own magic. “You all right?” I asked with concern. She let out a breath and smiled a little. “I’m fine, just a little tired is all.” “You’re starting to look sick,” I observed as I put the dishes into the sink. “Did I cook the food badly or something?” “No, it isn’t you,” Cadence replied, casting a violet glance to the dining room. “I just couldn’t bear sitting in there anymore.” “Why?” I asked curiously. “Is it because of Velvet and Night Light?” She nodded and explained, “As the Princess of Love, I have a higher sensitivity to other’s emotions. When I’m around a couple in love I feel better, but when I’m here I…” “Get sick?” I speculated, as we sat down beside each other. “Does Shining know?” “He’s well aware,” she said, casting her violet eyes at me. “You get sick when a couple isn’t in love?” I guessed. “Yes,” she replied with a nod. “It’s terrible here, they don’t even look at each other. It’s so sad when a couple isn’t in love at a time when it should be at it’s strongest. I get sick every time they’re near each other.” “Velvet really was bent on pointing out how dangerous my life is," I pointed out. “How was it when you came here?” “Well,” Cadence replied a guilty look crossing her face, “when Shining and I started dating seriously, Velvet and I may have gotten off on the wrong hoof...” ____________________________________________________ “I’m happy to see that Shining has met such a sweet young mare.” “Thank you so much! I must say you’ve raised a wonderful son!” “Why, thank you.” “He’s such a gentlecolt, so kind, and sweet towards me; Also, he is a very gentle and considerate lover.” “That’s… my boy…” ___________________________________________________________ “Suffice to say, things went downhill after that,” Cadence admitted ruefully. “You really said that to her?” I choked out, trying not to laugh. “She hasn't stopped hounding me ever since!” Cadence complained. “I've had to explain thirty times that I in no way have the power to make Shining fall for me. She got even worse after our wedding! I had to run through an entire history on my life to proof I wasn’t that changeling monster!” “Good to see I’m not the only pony who get’s nervous about these things,” I said with a smile. She returned it and said reassuringly, “In all seriousness, Private, no matter what Velvet says, I know you and Twilight are made for each other.” “The spell only works if the love is there,” I quoted her with a grin. “So…” She said with a sly smile, “when can I expect you two to give my filly a cousin?” I blushed bright red at what she was implying. First dad, then Celestia, now Cadence! This was starting to get… I heard shouting coming from the dining room and looked to see Velvet and Twilight glaring at each other. My marefriend shouted, “You can’t be serious!” “I am,” her mother said coldly. “I just don’t think Private is right for you.” “What’s so wrong with him?” Twilight retorted. “He’s sweet, intelligent, and kind towards everypony! What do you have against him?” “Twilight Sparkle, you are still young,” Velvet argued. “Private is merely the first stallion you’ve let into your life. I don’t want you making a hasty decision.” “Mom, I love him!” Twilight shouted. “Nothing is going to change that!” “Twilight!” Velvet yelled back. “Since you two have known each other, you’ve been held hostage, shot at, and put into far too many dangerous situations!” “You didn’t argue when I fought Nightmare Moon or Discord myself!” Twilight retorted furiously. “That was under assignment from Princess Celestia!” Velvet cried. “She, however, gave you a choice in the matter. You don’t have to run around with a stallion that will only get you hurt!” I debated whether I should defend myself here, but Cadence held a hoof in front of me before I could even think about it. Twilight absolutely fumed, “You don’t care for my safety! You just don’t want me to repeat the mistake you made with dad!” “Twilight Annemarie Sparkle!” Velvet gasped. “How dare you suggest such a thing!” “Twili,” Shining said gently, walking up to his sister and throwing his foreleg over her shoulder, “maybe we should all calm down.” “Forget it, Shining!” Twilight retorted. “I’m sick and tired of mom treating me like her second chance!” “Twili.” “Dad!” she exclaimed as she looked to her father for support. “Tell mom how nuts she is being!” Nightlight gave one look at his wife, then sighed in defeat. “Maybe your mother’s right, Twilight” he offered weakly. “I knew it!” Twilight shouted, tears in her eyes. “I knew this would happen!” She then ran outside and slammed the door behind her. ________________________________________________________ Twilight was sitting on the sidewalk crying when I walked up to her. I put my trench coat over her shoulders and she looked up at me apologetically. “Private, I’m sorry you had to see that.” “I can understand, Twilight,” I said with compassion, “but what if they’re right? Maybe I am putting you in too much danger...” “Private,” she said softly, leaning her head into me as I sat beside her. “I’ve gotten into dangerous situations long before I even met you. When you came into my life, everything just seemed to make sense.” I gently kissed Twilight on the forehead. “I love you but I have an errand to run, why don’t you try talking to your parents again?” She sighed and gave me back my coat. “Just don’t be too long okay? Come back as soon as you can.” I nodded and watched her enter her home. As I walked away, I couldn’t help but feel the sting of Velvet’s words. Was I really messing up Twilight’s life? Did I really cause her so much trouble? Either way, I still wanted us to be together. Maybe even, dare I say it, walking down the aisle together… _______________________________________________________ I went to the mall in question and found the Tardis parked in a deserted parking lot by the Twin Maple’s mall. I used my key to open the door and found myself in the spacious Tardis interior. The Doctor looked up from the counsel and smiled. “Ah Private, good to see you again.” “Hey, Doctor,” I said, walking up to the central control center. “What’s so important that you had to drag me away from a dinner date?” He started running around the consul, spinning various levers and pressing buttons. “I need you to look at that light over on the main screen. I have a hunch that something is going weird and I need a second set of eyes.” I looked over at the main screen and stared at the odd characters on it. Suddenly as the Doctor pulled a switch a bunch of red lights came up on the screen. Hey Doc, there are a lot of lights on the screen,” I announced. “Are any of them going blinky blinky?” he asked in concern. “All of them,” I answered gravelly. “Oh no!” he cried, as he ran around. “This is definitely classified as not good!” I felt the Tardis rumble a bit and asked, “What the hell is happening, Doc?” “A singularity storm is heading this way!” the Doctor yelled as another rumble hit the Tardis. “Think of it like a time vortex on steroids! If that thing gets a hold of the Tardis who know what’ll happen!” “How come I’ve never seen a singularity whatever?” I asked, gripping the railing surrounding the counsel with my hooves. “You can only see it if you travel in a time machine,” he explained, wiping his brown mane with a hoof. “Normally a Tardis uses time vortexes to travel through time to any point in history. This is like being on the ocean in a tiny rowboat, and coming across a hurricane!” I heard more rumbles and cracks as the Tardis got battered from all sides. I held onto the rail for dear life as more lights and sparks shot from the machinery. The Doctor shouted, “The gravity array is down! We’re getting torn apart here!” I felt myself become weightless and I looked behind me towards the entrance. I could see the door outside literally start to give way. I felt my hooves start to slip. “Doctor! I can’t hold on!” I cried panicked. “Private!” he shouted, “don’t let go! Whatever you do!” I couldn’t, my legs started to slip. I felt them give as the door was suddenly ripped open and I saw the Doctor’s eyes grow wide. “That’s not possible…” “Doctor!” I shouted as the last of my strength gave way, and I was sucked out the door like wind in a vacuum. I flew outside the Tardis and into the biggest storm of my life. Blue lights surrounded me as I felt myself being pulled through time itself. Every sense of mine went into overdrive, The singularity was ripping my very core apart. The pain was unbelievable! My horn glowed… A faint bubble formed around me, and I felt my eyes become heavy. The last thing I saw before unconsciousness took me was a pair of concerned magenta eyes and a violet light…. Chapter 2 "963"Chapter 2 “963” “Most people think that time is like a river, that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm…” Prince of Persia I was lying on the grass somewhere. I slowly opened my grey eyes and realized it was still night time. How did I survive getting caught in that time vortex? I tried to get up but pain shot through my legs. They felt incredibly stiff, like somepony had packed me into a box for three days. After about a minute of lying down I stiffly climbed to my hooves, groaning. I was in the middle of a park of some kind. It looked like one of those nature hike areas that you would take school children to. Wherever I was, hopefully it couldn’t be too far from civilization or at least somepony with a phone. I started to walk off the stiffness in my legs, memories of the storm racing through my brain. I hope I’m not too far from Canterlot; Twilight would kill me if I didn’t come back. What time is it anyway? I looked at my watch and raised an eyebrow, “3:00 A.M.? How is that possible? It was just after midnight when I left. Where the hell am I?” After a minute of walking down the trail I felt a slight warmth in my trench coat. I reached inside and pulled out the Tardis key from before. It felt hot in my hooves and I almost dropped it. I picked it up in my magic and I felt my horn pull against my head. It was like something was dragging me because I held the key. I knew weird things happened when the Doctor’s tech met Equestria’s magic but this takes the- Bump! I crashed into something solid after a minute of getting dragged. The key fell to the ground but continued to glow softly. I felt in front of me, there was definitely something there, but I couldn’t see it. I bent down and picked up the key in my hooves. It did seem to be cooler than before. Suddenly a door opened in front of me. I couldn’t see what the door was attached to; it just opened into… the interior of the Tardis! I walked inside and saw the interior was almost completely torn up. I used my horn as a flashlight and looked around. Some of the equipment was destroyed and screens were smashed in. The main consul had several wires ripped out and some of the gadgetry was broken and ripped apart. Somepony was looking for something, but what? I tried using my magic to talk to Tardis again but I got no response. She was shut down, she had to be. But then, I saw a blinking light on one of the intact screens. Upon closer inspection I saw it had a single question on it. “What hat is coolest?” I looked below it and saw that there was a space for a password. It was a riddle, and I needed to figure it out. Well it shouldn’t be too hard… I pulled an intact keyboard and, remembering the typing lessons that dad had me go through, started typing in my answer. Fedoras WRONG!!! Stetsons? WRONG!!! Fezzes…. DING! The screen fizzled to life and I saw the Doctor tapping the screen. “All right, is this working? Right, Private, now you’ve probably got a billion questions.” That’s the understatement of the year… He took a seat and looked directly at me “Now, let’s get one thing out of the way first. You are in fact, standing in Canterlot, but not your Canterlot. According to this newspaper I got from a trash can,” he explained holding up an old newspaper, “We are currently in your year 960 years after Princess Luna’s banishment. In other words, forty years ago.” My grey eyes widened in absolute shock. I was stuck in a time not my own. I’m a time traveler! This is amazing! “Now before you geek out,” he said with a snicker, I flushed in embarrassment, “we have a bit of a problem. You see, according to the Tardis’ scanners, you haven’t arrived yet. That singularity storm sent you to a different point in time ahead of me.” His expression turned grim. “Also, the storm wasn’t natural.” “What do you mean not natural?” I muttered to myself. “Essentially,” the Doctor explained, slipping into full on professor mode, “a singularity storm travels like a normal hurricane would, except it travels through time and space. Under normal circumstances they're easy to predict and the Tardis’ systems would’ve tracked a means to avoid it. However, this one was somehow redirected from its normal course and made a path straight into the Tardis.” I tried to wrap my head around it, but I was suddenly back in high school physics again. Only this time I didn’t have Potso’s snoring to entertain me. “Anyway,” the Doctor continued, “because that storm wasn’t natural I can’t stay as me. I’m going to use this,” he said, as he held up a small silver pocket watch, “to temporarily hide everything that’s Time Lord about me. I’ll just become a regular pony under the pseudonym Clockwork. He won’t know he’s me but he’ll believe he’s lived his whole life in Canterlot. He’ll never leave because he has an abnormal fear of leaving the house he was born in. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find me and once you do,” he said, pointing to the watch, “get me to open this.” I nodded, almost understanding. He could hide his time lord part in that little watch? If the Doctor had to use these means, he was definitely being hunted by somepony. I had to find him. He was my ticket to getting home. “Now Private,” he said firmly, “before I leave, here’s a list of instructions for when I’m a pony. Number one, don’t let me hurt anybody, we can’t have that but you know firsthand…or hoof ha ha, sorry, what ponies can be like.” He went on, “Two, don’t worry about the Tardis, I have her on a setting where nopony can see her. The reason she’s all cluttered is on the off chance somepony finds her and gets in. She has to look abandoned; I’ll fix her up when we meet up again.” “Now four, no…three! Try not to get involved in any big historical events.” His expression softened a little. “Four, don’t let me abandon you.” Then his expression became one of untold fury as he stated, “And five! Private, this is very important! Are you listening to me? Five is that don’t let me eat pears! I HATE PEARS! Clockwork is just a character I made up, but he won’t think that. He’ll think he’s me and he might do something stupid like eat a pear.” His face took on an expression of disgust. “I don’t want to wake up after being a pony with that horrible aftertaste in my mouth!” I stifled a laugh through his whole rant about pears. The way he reacted was completely crazy. At least it was just a silly fruit like pears. Not like pineapples, they are the devil fruit… “Also, last thing, I have all of my gear hidden in a compartment that should open in three, two, one.” The consul opened in front of me and I gave a jump. “Geez!” I shouted. “Didn’t anypony read the memo about the weak heart?” “Anyhow, gotta run and start my new life,” the Doctor said. “Private, whatever you do, be careful. This thing, whatever it is, knew I was going to be at that point in history. Find me as quick as you can so I can repair the Tardis and get you home. Hurry, Private!” The screen blacked out and I spoke frantically to it, “How will I find you? Doctor, where are you?” No video came up and I sighed in defeat. I looked in the compartment. Inside was the famous sonic screwdriver, which I placed in my trench coat for safe keeping, and a wallet. I opened the wallet and saw that the inside only had a blank piece of paper on it. How the doctor expected this to be helpful was beyond me. I stored the second device in my trench coat and walked out of the Tardis. I looked around outside and closed the door behind me. Maybe this was all a dream or something? I’ll wake up and find Tailspin bugging me to watch cartoons with- “Keep yer hooves where Ah can see em pal!” I heard a voice say as I felt a muzzle of a gun being pressed against my back. “I’m not afraid to shoot any crazy alien ponies.” I spoke nervously, “Um, I’m no alien.” “Horse shit,” the gruff voice said, “I saw you come out of thin air. What are you some kind of invader or something?” “May I ask who is holding my life in his hooves?” I asked, trying not to sound too coy. “Name's Cranky,” I heard the voice growl. Cranky? “Cranky Doodle Donkey?” I asked out loud “How’d you know my name?" he shouted. “Turn round so I can see you!” I slowly turned around and found myself gazing at a much younger looking Cranky. His mane was a full brown and his pale blue eyes were glaring at me. I was more focused on the shotgun he was holding in his hooves, however. “How’d you know my name? I’ve never seen you before.” Okay, if this was a dream, it was a very lucid dream with an extremely real gun. I knew Cranky from the present, however. Tailspin had to do some volunteer work for school and he got assigned to the donkey. Tailspin respected Cranky and liked to listen to his stories about travel. Right now though, I had to convince him I wasn’t an alien from the future. Even though I kind of am. “I’m an agent in her majesty’s royal service,” I said, trying to sound convincing. “Agent um, Rider, yeah agent Storm Rider!” His pale blue eyes narrowed in suspicion “What’s an agent doing all the way out here?” “I’m investigating something top secret,” I said, trying to sound official, “I am on very important business for her majesty Princess Celestia and I need to get to Canterlot as soon as possible.” “Well, Canterlot’s just up the road,” he said, pointing with his tail, “a bit of a ride, considering we’re in the forests below the terraces.” That explained the trails down here; they must be alternate roads to get around the area leading up to Canterlot. “However, I’m gonna need to see some proof you are an agent,” Cranky said, his pale blue eyes still narrowed. I was going to flash my badge but for some reason I went for the blank wallet instead. I levitated it out and Cranky examined it. He took a little longer then he should have for a blank piece of paper. He nodded and gave the wallet back to me with an apology, “Sorry, Agent Rider, it’s just hard not to be suspicious of strange ponies on the roads.” I raised an eyebrow and tentatively picked up the wallet. Only the paper wasn’t blank, it had a completely legitimate ID on it. My picture was on there and everything, but then the paper faded to its usual blank state as I put it back in my trench coat. I smiled at the donkey and said, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go to Canterlot.” “I'll go with ya,” he offered, as he gestured to his wagon. “I’m heading that way anyway and its best if we stick together.” So that’s how I ended up walking down the pathways of a dark wood with Cranky by my side. I’ll admit, I never expected this when I got up in the morning. ___________________________________________________ It was early morning by the time I arrived in Canterlot itself. I stopped at the gate and looked at my donkey companion. “This is where we part Cranky; it was nice talking to you.” “Sorry bout pointin' the shotgun at you,” Cranky said apologetically. “Can’t be too careful in this day and age.” “No problem,” I said with a smile. “Where you off to?” “I'm just in town for The Grand Galloping Gala tonight,” he said pride. “I got lucky and landed a ticket from my cousin because he couldn't make it. I can’t wait to go there!” This is where things got complicated. Cranky didn’t know he was going to meet Matilda at the gala. He had no idea what was in store for him after he met her either. I debated in my mind whether I should tell Cranky, but how would I even begin to explain it? I just kept my smile and said, “I hope you have fun up there.” “See ya around, Agent Rider,” he said with a jaunty wave as he walked away, dragging his wagon behind him. “Tonight, I've got a date with destiny.” Destiny and a certain donkey, I felt a little sad that I couldn’t prevent Cranky from having to search in vain for Matilda for all those years. Sadly, there are some things I guess I just had to let happen. I walked down Canterlot Lane and saw several changes. The city was cleaner, and smelled better too. Ponies walked around their business and many of the mares seemed to be fond of rather big hats. I walked by a movie theater that was premiering “Doctor Yes” the first James Pone film to debut outside of Trottingham. Dad would go nuts if he saw that in theaters. He was a big James Pone fan, but don’t tell him I said that. He would firmly deny it and have a legal team ready to cover the fact he clearly does not have a shine hidden somewhere in his study back home. I watched as a pony threw a newspaper away. When he passed I picked it out of the trash can and read the date to myself “Saturday, 12th of Neighvember…963!” The Doctor’s recording was made three years ago! He’s been trapped here for that long? He was never going to let me live this down once I found him. First though, I needed some means to find him. I looked to my right and saw a small diner with a sign out front that said public phone available. I stepped inside and heard a loud rendition of “My Coltfriend’s Back” playing on the jukebox. Several ponies were sitting around, just enjoying a lazy Saturday morning with coffee and fountain drinks. I was trying to comprehend a coffee that cost under four bits a mug when I heard the owner speak from behind the counter, “Hey, Detective.” “Who me?” I asked, giving the owner a shocked look. “Your coat,” he said, gesturing with a hoof at me. “What do you think you’re Sam Spony or something?” Close enough, I just shrugged and said, “Well, do I need my detective skills to find the phone or can you just tell me?” He laughed a little and pointed with his hoof. “It’s in the back.” I walked to the phone and dug into the “C” section of the notebook. I scrolled down the list of names and found Clockwork there. There was only one Clockwork in the whole of Canterlot, and that was not even his name. I tossed a few cents into the slot and dialed the number. Nopony picked up, so I sighed and copied down the address. Ripping it out would be kind of rude and I didn’t want somepony to sue me for property damage. I walked back to the counter and asked the owner, a rather stocky, jade green, earth pony stallion, “Can you point me to 1546 Bad Wolf stree-“ “Look, are you going to order something or not?” the owner demanded rather rudely. I sighed and pocketed my notebook, taking a seat next to a blue unicorn stallion. “You got any diet cola?” “Diet?” he asked with a confused blink. “Look if you wanna go on a diet, you shouldn’t be drinking soda in the first place.” I’m guessing that hasn’t been invented yet. I blushed in embarrassment and said, “Just give me some coffee, and be liberal with the sugar.” After last night’s walk I needed all the caffeine I could get. Why the hell would I want diet? “Hey, Night Light, I thought I told you never to come in here!” I heard a voice speak up behind me, a very familiar voice. I turned around and saw a much younger Graff glaring at the unicorn next to me. He stood there with a small gang of ponies; they all appeared to be teenagers. He walked right past me and to the blue unicorn, was this Night Light? They certainly looked the same, although this one was much younger, probably a teenager as well. “I’m talking to you, you little Lyrish Bug.” Night Light looked up at Graff as the ponies surrounded him and swallowed nervously saying, “Oh hi Graff, great to see you.” Graff would have none of it. “Did you finish my homework like I asked?” “Well,” Nightlight replied taking on that familiar look of attempting courage, “I thought, since it isn’t due until Monday I-“Graff conked him on the head. “Hello! Anypony in there?” Nightlight laughed nervously as he got hit repeatedly on the head while the gang laughed. “Think Nightlight, think! I need time to recopy it. If one of the teachers looked at my homework and saw your hoof writing on it, I’d get expelled” He held a steely glare at Night Light. “You wouldn’t want that would you Night Light?” Night Light had a brief moment of hesitation, before he gave in, “No, of course not, Graff.” Graff then caught me staring and asked, “What’re you looking at, butthead?” I’d say what I was looking at, but I knew I wouldn’t feel good about myself if I said it aloud. Mom would glare at me from beyond the grave until I felt eternally sorry about even thinking about it. “He thinks he’s like one of 'em detectives” one of his gang has with a sneer tugging on my trench coat. “Too bad he can’t solve how much of a dork he is.” Luna was about to get some friends to play with on the moon if they didn’t shut up. Graff just looked back at Nightlight and said, “So what about my homework?” “I’ll finish it up tonight,” Night Light replied weakly. “Then I’ll give you it first thing tomorrow morning” “Not too early though, I sleep in on Sundays,” Graff said before suddenly pointing down “Look at that big spider!” SPIDER! WHERE? I leaped over the counter before peeking over again. Everypony in the room gave me an odd look. Graff looked at Nightlight and said with a loud laugh, “That guy’s even more gullible then you are, Night Light.” Smooth, Private… I got back into my seat and stared over at Night Light. The bullies left after having a good laugh at my expense. I just stared at Nightlight for a few seconds. He looked so… young. His long blue mane was straight and kept well. His gold eyes looked down at the cereal he was eating. This was Twilight’s dad, from the past. “What?” he asked, suddenly turning his gold eyes to me. “You’re Night Light,” was all I could say. “Yeah, who are you?” he asked, before returning to his cereal. Suddenly a newspaper hit him upside the head and I looked up. Holding the newspaper was a tan colored mare with a long pink mane and blue eyes. She was clad in a worker’s apron and frowned at Nightlight. “What’s the matter with you? Why do you always let those boys push you around?” Night Light sighed and said sadly, “They are bigger than me.” “Night Light if you let ponies walk on you now,” she replied, taking on a firm tone, “you’re going to let ponies walk over you for the rest of your life.” “I don’t know,” Nightlight mumbled. “Take me for example,” she said, pointing the newspaper at herself, “you think I’m going to spend the rest of my life in this donkey shed?” She then looked at a group of nearby donkeys, “Uh, no offense.” “None taken, Scrolly,” they chorused. She went on, “I may be a waitress now, but I’m going to night school. One day I’m going to make a name for myself!” Scrolly? Wait wasn’t that her name before…”She became Mayare?” I said out loud. The mare smiled at the thought and said happily, “Now that’s a great idea! I could run for mayor!” The owner laughed. “A Mare as mayor, now that’ll be the day.” “You just wait!” she retorted “I’m going to be the most powerful mare in a town one day! I’ll clean it up! Make it look all pretty, and then we’ll see who’s laughing.” “The only town that’ll take a mare as crazy as you is some small farm village ways out in the middle of nowhere.” He laughed “Now, why don’t you start cleaning this diner,” he ordered, tossing her a broom. She caught it and started musing to herself, “Mayare, I like the sound of that…” Farming village? Is that what Ponyville is now? I’m guessing it hadn’t really hit its stride ye- I looked back and saw that Night Light already left. I looked outside and saw him trotting somewhere in a great hurry. Was he going to meet Velvet? This could be interesting, to see love bloom at its very beginning. I paid my tab and ran to catch up with Twilight’s dad. _____________________________________________________ Following Night Light’s trail I eventually came into a small street of neighborhoods. I walked down the street for a bit, kicking myself for losing track of him. Just where did he go? A leaf fell on my nose and I looked up. There in a tree was Night Light with a pair of binoculars around his neck. He didn’t seem to notice me as he climbed out on a branch towards one of the nearby houses. An early morning rendezvous? I followed his binoculars and saw that he was watching a mare take a shower. I looked away just as she was about to push up her tail. My jaw dropped in a bit of disgust “Twilight’s dad is a peeping tom? That might explain Twilight’s rather…through analysis of me in that book she made about me.” Nightlight slipped from his perch and held onto the branch over the road. After a few tentative minutes he couldn't hold on any longer. His hooves gave out and he fell onto the main street, right in front of a speeding wagon heading his way! “Night Light!” I called out as I shoved him out of the way. The ponies pulling tried to stop the carriage but the weight of the carriage continued pushing them forward. I don’t remember exactly what happened next, all I know is that somehow I ended up on the ground, dazed and very dizzy. I heard some voices shouting, and then fell into unconsciousness. ______________________________________________________ I was somewhere comfortable and warm. I felt a pain in my horn from getting hit, but that was only a dream right? It was very dark in here, maybe I’m back home. I unconsciously said, “Mom…” I heard a soft female voice say, “There, there, you’ve been knocked out for almost nine hours now.” I felt something cool being pressed against my horn. It felt nice… “I had the craziest dream,” I said with a smile. “I dreamed I went back in time. It was nuts…” “Well,” the voice said, “at least you’re safe and sound here in 963” “963!” I shouted, sitting bolt upright. The light came on and I saw…. She looked almost as pretty as Twilight. Her mane was a richer color and was tied back in a ponytail with a bow on it. Her blue eyes gazed at me with a worried expression that reminded me of her future daughter. Her grayish white coat seemed to glow in the lamp light. She sat on a bed next to the one I was in, looking worried, but at the same time, intrigued. “You’re Twi…Twil…” was all I could muster up in the shock of the situation. “Yes, I’m Twilight Velvet,” she said, encouragingly. “You’re so…” I fought for the right word, “thin.” “Just try and relax, Carousel,” she said, gently levitating a damp cloth to my horn again. “You got a nasty bruise on your head. You're lucky your horn didn’t break off.” I was suddenly conscious of the fact I was naked. Unlike other ponies I just didn’t feel comfortable strutting around naked. Guess it came from wearing the trench coat all the…”Where’s my coat and hat?” I asked. “Over on the hope chest” she said nervously, pointing. “It was filled with all sorts of stuff, but I didn’t look inside it, Carousel! I respected your privacy!” she babbled frantically. “Carousel,” I asked curiously, “why do you keep calling me that?” “It was on the tag of your trench coat,” she answered. “Carousel Boutique?” “Actually ponies call me…” I couldn’t use my real name; if I did it would be very awkward when I got back home. So, I used the first name that came to mind. “Eclipse," I blurted out, "they call me Eclipse Eye.” “Eclipse Eye?” She tilted her head and said, “That’s an odd name.” It was better than Carousel that’s for sure. Wait, the bed was shifting. I looked over and saw Velvet was sitting beside me on the bed. Her blue eyes giving me an odd look. “Do you mind if I sit here with you?” “Um, I, uh,” I said flustered. That seemed to be happening to me a lot today. She reached over and tried to touch my horn. “That’s a nasty bruise you got there, and your horn is so…” I felt suddenly nervous about the prospect of Twilight’s mom touching my horn that I fell backwards onto the floor. I heard a voice shout from the floor below “Twilight! Are you okay up there?” “Sweet Celestia, that’s my mom!” she said frantically, before getting my trench coat and hat. She levitated the clothing over to me and I started slipping it on. I couldn’t deny the look she was giving me right before she left. I dismissed the thought and went outside once I was fully clothed. _____________________________________________________ Velvet’s mother walked down the stairs before asking, “So Eclipse, are you some sort of detective?” “Uh yeah,” I said, trying to avoid the looks Velvet would occasionally cast my way. We reached the bottom of the stairs and an older, violet colored stallion was behind a television set, doing some tinkering. “Hey, what were you doing out in the middle of the road?” “Just ignore Turner,” Velvet’s mom said with a sigh before walking towards the kitchen. “He’s just in one of his moods.” I walked into the kitchen with Velvet at my side before she took a seat with the rest of her family. Her mother pointed each of the three kids, two fillies and a colt, out “This here’s Raven, Bubbles and Dil,” with a smile she pointed at a crib in the back, "and over there is little Shield Wall.” I looked over at the baby colt and couldn’t believe that this colt, whom was sucking on his hoof, would go on to be the most formidable member of Celestia’s guard. He gave a toothy grin at me from behind his crib bars. “Let’s just say you’ll give criminals… poetic justice,” I mused to myself. “He seems to like you, Eclipse,” Velvet’s mom observed. “I hope you like Hayloaf.” “Listen, I really should go-“I said. Before I could start to leave, my tail got yanked violently and I fell into a seat. “You can sit here next to me, Eclipse,” she said, smiling innocently, as she took her seat beside me. “For the love of Celestia,” her mom called back into the living room, “Turner, get in here!” “I’ll be right there, Barbra!” he called back. “I’ll just leave my tools here, but you’ll be thankful that you get to watch those soaps of yours in color!” “Whether or not I can see Mclaugfity’s mane color isn’t going to help stave off your hunger!” Turner came back in and sat on the seat across from me. He gave me an odd look and asked, “So Eclipse, where you from?” “Uh,” I said, trying not to meet Velvet’s eyes, “Manehattan.” “What are you doing all the way out here?” Bubbles asked in a rather squeaky voice. “Canterlot is a long way from there.” Farther away than you would believe kid. “Well, is there someone we can call for you?” Barbra asked. “Um,” I came up with a half-truth, “actually I’m visiting an uncle of mine, stallion by the name of Clockwork.” I reached into my trench coat and pulled out my notebook. “Could you tell me where Bad Wolf Street is?” “It’s by East Celestia Street,” Turner said. “You go outside and just follow the road and you can’t miss it.” “East Celestia Street,” I muttered to myself, drawing up a route, “that’s not far from East Luna Street.” “Who the hell is Luna?” Turner asked. “Um, mom,” Velvet spoke up for the first time, "since Eclipse doesn’t have anypony else he can stay with, can he stay over for the night?” She gave me a quick glance and her cheeks turned the slightest pink. “I mean, dad did hit him with his carriage.” “That’s true, Eclipse,” Barbra said. “You are our responsibility.” “Well, I wouldn’t want to impose,” I said humbly. “He can stay in my room," Velvet offered as I felt her tail trace the line of my flank. I jumped up suddenly and said, “I gotta go! Thanks for the food, Clockwork is waiting, bye!” I ran out the door and didn’t look back. ______________________________________________________ Man that was weird. Unbelievable that Velvet would say all those things about me in the future. Here, however, she is trying to feel me up under the table like that! I rounded a corner and came to my destination. 1546 Bad Wolf Street, the home of Clockwork. It was a relatively small house with a large garage attached to it. I knocked on the door twice but didn’t get an answer. I turned around and there was the doctor, looking the same as he did normally. I was about to open my mouth when he covered it “Don’t say anything! I want to know absolutely nothing about you!” Suddenly I was dragged inside by him and set down on a chair. The Doctor suddenly began pacing in front of me and said, “Um, you’ve travelled a great distance!” “Yes,” I shouted, “Exactly I-“ “I told you not to tell me anything!” he shouted back, he tapped his hoof on his head as if thinking of something. “You want me to buy a subscription to the Canterlot Post?” “No!” I hollered. “Doctor, listen-“ “Not a word I said!” He waved his hoof in front of me. “Um, Donations! You want me to make a donation to… the Parasprite awareness fund?” “Doctor,” I sighed and then spoke slowly, “I’m from the future. You and I travelled together in your Tardis and only you can fix it. That way we both can go back to the year one thousand and three.” The Doctor blinked, gave me a long stare and then said, “Do you realize what this means?” “Um…” “That Sapina from next door was lying about me being a psychic!” he exclaimed and began pacing around everywhere. “Unbelievable! I knew that mare was lying to me!” “Doctor, listen, you gotta snap out of this,” I said frantically. “You have a time machine to fix!” “Time machine?” he asked blinking at me. “Why would I have a time machine? Sure I make clocks, but that doesn’t mean I can travel through time.” “I’m telling the truth,” I pleaded as he walked away to tinker with a watch. “Look, if you’re not selling anything to me you can get out,” he said, not trying to hide his annoyance. I reached into my wallet and pulled out my badge. “Look at this, issued in 997, thirty years from now!” “Easily doctored or stolen,” he said dismissively. “Doctor, you've gotta believe me!” I pleaded again. “All right, future boy,” he said, looking up at me. “If you really are from the future, then who is princess of Equestria?” “Celestia and Luna” I said without thinking. “A ha!” he shouted. “You must’ve read that crazy book called Mare in the Moon, only a fool would think that future.” “Wait!” I cried as he started to walk out. “The Tardis! I know all about it! You’re not Clockwork! You’re a Time Lord from planet Gallopfrey!” He stopped in his tracks. “You told me last week in my time that you were 1200 years old! You have companions! These names should mean something to you! Rose Tyler, Sarah Jane Smith, the Brigadier! K9, for crying out loud!” He slowly turned to me and asked, “How do you know those names?” “You told me a while back,” I answered. “Now, do you happen to have a silver pocket watch around here?” “You know about that?” he asked in shock, pulling the watch out of his pocket. “Sometimes when I go to sleep I have these dreams. This watch, it told me the names you mentioned…” “Open it, Doctor,” I ordered. Slowly but tentatively he opened it, a flash of light came out and I heard voices come from the watch. The light seemed to enter the Doctor’s eyes as various voices went off. Hello Sweetie, EXTERMINATE!!! Come along, Pond. Doctors, splendid fellows, all of you Hey, watch it, space man! Affirmative! When it was over the Doctor stood there, a slow smile came over his face and he laughed. “Ha Ha! It worked! Brilliant, Private!” “You’re back to normal!” I exclaimed happily. “Well, I should be normal,” he said looking at himself. “Still got four hooves, a nose…still not ginger though.” He frowned. “Blast!” Then he got close to me and cried, “Come on, Private! We got a Tardis to fix!” ____________________________________________________________ “Now the Tardis is mostly a self-repairing vehicle,” The Doctor explained as he was moving some wires under the central consul “I just need to reconfigure some wires here and…boom!” The lights suddenly filled the Tardis interior and various screens repaired themselves like skin over a cut. Well, it is a living being so I guess that’s how it would work. The Doctor came to the central consul and actually stroked it. “Oh, it’s good to see you too, sexy.” “You call your Tardis sexy?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Personal preference really,” he said in his trademark vague tone. “Now let’s see if we can’t head ba-“ He pushed a lever and sparks started shooting all over the place. I ducked as a random piece of machinery almost took off my head. The Doctor swore under his breath as he tried to fan smoke away from his face. “Well, this puts a damper on things.” “What’s wrong with her?” I asked. “Well,” the Doctor replied, sounding a little worried. “Somebody came in here and sabotaged the Tardis.” “How’s that possible?” I asked. “I was the only pony here.” “They may have come before you,” the Doctor said gravely. “The question is, how'd they get in?” “So, can she fly?” I asked. “Well, she can fly, but she can’t time travel,” he explained. “Somebody sabotaged the power supply so that she’s not running right. Have you guys invented the combustible engine yet?” “The what now?” “Answers my question,” he said with a sigh. “Anyway, it’s like you’re trying to start a fire, you have the wood, the kindling, everything you need, except the spark.” He started typing on a nearby computer. “Now we just need to figure out how much power we would need to start up…” His eyes grew wide as he saw the results on his screen “ONE POINT TWENTY ONE GIGAWATTS!” “What the hell’s a gigawatt?” I asked. “It’s a measurement of electricity!” he said, slamming his head on the consul. “There’s no means to create that kind of power in this day and age!” “Why don’t we just take a Pegasus cloud?” I asked. “We can take a storm cloud, zap the Tardis with it and boom! Back to 1003 like you wouldn’t believe.” “The problem is,” he said firmly, “how the hell are we going to explain it to whoever gives us the cloud. Also, neither of us are pegasi so we can’t get one ourselves.” “I guess you have a point,” I nodded glumly. “So what do we do?” “If only we knew a point in time where a lightning bolt would strike naturally,” he mused, crossing his forelegs in thought, “then we wouldn’t have to worry about stealing a cloud. Problem is, lightning is almost impossible to predict on its own.” A light bulb went off in my head; I reached into my trench coat and pulled out the flier “What about this?” I held it in front of the Doctor who took the flier and examined it closely. His blue eyes lit up “This is it! According to this, the lighting will strike the clock tower at exactly 10:43 P.M. next Saturday night!” He started pacing excitedly “We’ll just figure a way to harness the power of the lighting! The channel it directly into the Tardis which will override the sabotage on her power systems and then Allons-y!” He slung a foreleg around me and exclaimed excitedly “Next Saturday! We’re sending you Back to the Present!” “Um, don’t you mean back to the future?” I asked. “You want to break copyright anymore then we already have?” he asked flatly. “No.” “Then we are golden!” He let go of me and sat on the consul, smiling wide. “Oh this is simply brilliant!” “This is great, Doctor,” I said with a smile. “We’ll come up with the plan, see the sights and maybe run into...” The Doctor suddenly got within inches of my face. “Private, it is absolutely imperative that you interact with this time period as little as possible.” His voice was deathly serious. “Now, have you encountered anypony during your time here?” “Well, I met Cranky, but he was on his way anyway.” My grey eyes grew wide. “Twilight’s dad… I met him…I saved him from getting hit by a…” “Private?” he asked, “do you have a picture of Twilight’s family?” “Well, I got a picture of all of us during the Alicorn summi-“ My jaw dropped at what I saw. “Shining’s head, it’s gone,” I cried. Sure enough the alabaster unicorn was headless in the picture. There I stood standing next to him and Twilight. Shining’s head didn’t rub off; it was just like he’s… “Been erased…” The Doctor said, “From existence…” Chapter 3 "Love Doctor"Chapter 3 “The Love Doctor” "Things blossom in their time. They bud and bloom, blossom and fade. Everything in its time." ~Neil Gaiman “Do you seriously have to wear that?” I asked, gesturing to the Doctor's horrendous choice of headwear. “You’re the one who insisted on me blending in,” he retorted stubbornly. “Besides, I’ll have you know the Fez is a timeless piece of cool headwear.” I wasn’t about to get in a debate with him, again. I don’t think the universe could take a battle of such epic proportions. We just walked towards the school the Doctor said Night Light and Velvet attended. It was a rather small public high school with students preparing to go in for Monday morning classes. Who would’ve thought the parents to the Element of Magic would have such humble origins. “Now see, here’s the thing,” the Doctor began to explain as we walked up the steps. “The reason Shining is disappearing from the picture is because you prevented his parents from meeting. If they don’t fall in love, they won’t get married, and they won’t have kids. So, no marefriend for you, and no element of magic either.” “Just how much history did I alter?” I asked worriedly. “Is it like that theory, if you stomp on a butterfly in the past everypony will have two heads in the future?” “What does everypony have against butterflies?” he mused as we entered the building. A few students gave us some looks, but largely went about their business. “Now, we just need to find Twilight’s papa,” he said as he scanned the students for a minute. “Now where is he?” I looked down the hall and slowly pointed. “That’s him…” Night Light walked down the hall carrying his books with his magic. Suddenly a nearby student bucked him in the flank. He laughed and said, “Very funny, guys,” before getting bucked yet again. “Ha Ha!” Another buck from behind. “You guys are being real mature!” he cried, just as I spotted the “Buck me” sign on his back. I facehoofed and the Doctor suggested, “Maybe Twilight was adopted…” “Nope, that’s definitely her dad,” I concluded sadly. “Hold on there,” a booming voice called from behind us. I turned around and saw a ginger maned, tannish brown, pony approaching us. He had a cross look on his face as he demanded, “Who are you two? I don’t remember getting any visitor’s reports. I’m Principal Strict and what are you doing in my school? ” “Hello, Sir,” the Doctor replied, as he pulled out the blank wallet I gave him earlier. “I’m Joey Smithy, royal guard to Sir Eclipse here.” “Sir Eclipse?” I whispered in his ear frantically. “He’s never going to fall for a blank sheet of-“ “May I ask your business here, Mr. Smithy?” the principal asked begrudgingly. “Well, you see,” he put a foreleg around the older gentlestallion, “I'm here, because young Eclipse here wants to see how the normal public lives.” “What exactly are you talking about?” the principal asked. “You see, Sir Eclipse, here is a very important noble from my land,” the Doctor explained in hushed tones. “Sadly, a fellow like him gets lonely and very moody if he’s cooped up in the castle for too long.” “I’m not that moody,” I retorted in my best emo voice. “See what I’m talking about?” the Doctor said with a smile. “So I’m having him just walk around a bit, meet some ponies without having to worry about titles or anything.” “I still would like him to check into the office,” the Principal said. “Oh, we’ll be along in a bit,” the Doctor said with a charming smile, “but right now, I believe a student of yours needs help.” He gestured to Night Light who had dropped all his books after the latest buck. The Principal sighed and went to lecture Nightlight about being a “Slacker”. The Doctor sighed and said, “That was too close.” “That paper,” I asked, pointing to the blank wallet, “what is it, exactly?” “Psychic paper,” he replied, showing it to me. “I just think it and it reads anything I want it to. Try looking at it now.” I held it in front of me and asked, raising an eyebrow, “Royal cake tester?” “Surprisingly, a very challenging vocation,” he mused. “The Princesses like their cakes.” I turned back to Night Light who was picking up his books with a pathetic look on his face. The Doctor sighed and asked, “I’m no expert, but what did Velvet ever see in him? I’ve seen Ood look more excited about life.” “I don’t know,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “She said she felt sorry for him when her dad hit him with their carr…” I blinked in realization and exclaimed, “I got hit by the carriage!” “Where I come from, we call it ‘The Florence Nightingale effect,’” the Doctor said. “Nurses fall in love with their patients and affection develops despite little communication.” He suddenly looked at me expectantly. I sighed and responded to his unasked question, “Yes, we have something like that. Here it's called the Flora Nightingale effect.” “No pony pun?” “Thankfully, no.” “Whelp,” he said, patting me on the shoulder, “I gotta get you legally here, you take care of sad sap over there,” The Doctor walked off and I approached Night Light. He was about to pick up his last book when I levitated it over to him and said, “Hey Night Light, you all right?” “Oh,” he said, as he blinked in recognition, “you’re the guy from yesterday.” “Yeah, I’ve been looking all over for the stallion that saved my life” I said with a wide smile as I helped him up. “Uh,” he eyed me weirdly, “okay?” I started walking away with my foreleg around his shoulder, “There’s somepony I’d love for you to meet.” I spotted Velvet among a group of mares, laughing at some joke she'd told. Target spotted; commence operation, “Save My Marefriend’s Parents So That She Doesn’t Disappear And I Feel Terrible About It Forever," also known as, Operation S.M.P.S.T.S.D.D.A.I.T.A.I.F. I walked over with Night Light by my side and I spoke up over the giggling mares, “Velvet?” She caught my eye and suddenly backed into her locker in shock, exclaiming, “Eclipse!” “Listen, Velvet,” I said, ignoring the giggles coming from the other mares, “I’d like you to meet a good friend of mine.” I said, shoving Night Light forward a little. “This is Night Light.” He gave me a look which I returned encouragingly. He smiled at Velvet and began to talk with her, “Hi, it’s a pleasure to um,” Velvet subsequently walked past her future husband and reached for my head, asking with concern, “Are you feeling better from last night?” “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, as the group of girls walked off, gossiping to each other excitedly. “I was so worried,” she said stroking my forehead gently with her hoof. I fought the urge to race away as fast as my legs would carry me. “I was afraid you got hurt walking around so late at night. Did you make it home okay?” “Yeah,” I answered, swallowing nervously and trying not to look into her eyes. Riing! I am so not going to use that clichéd line. I have more dignity than that, but there was no denying the sense of relief that washed over me. Some of Velvet’s friends dragged her off to class. Before she turned around the corner I swear I heard her say, “Isn’t he a dreamboat?” The Doctor walked to me and said, “Well I managed to get you into the school’s visiting program. It took two file cabinet raids with the sonic screwdriver, a little bit of charm, and I may or may not have gotten a phone number slipped into my pockets. I haven’t checked yet,” he said with a mischievous grin. “So, how did your end go?” “Well, I managed to get him to say hi,” I said in defeat, “but she barely glanced at him.” “This is not good” he said gravely. “It seems, that you’ve won over not only the daughter, but the mother as well.” “You’re telling me,” I asked with an uncomfortable laugh, “that Twilight’s mom has the hots for me?” I was trying very hard to deny the obvious. “I’m afraid so, you dog of a pony,” he said with a smirk. “Man this is insane,” I said, as I shook my head and facehoofed. “What are we going to do now?” “Well, in twelve hundred years of having love blossom in the Tardis, I’ll tell you this,” the Doctor said firmly, “the only way we’d ever get those two to even consider falling in love is if they’re alone together.” We started walking down the halls together deep in thought. “We just gotta get them to interact, in some sort of social environment.” “Okay, what do ponies do on dates in 963?” I asked. “Well, if they aren’t protesting the Griffon wars, they’re out getting high in the woods,” the Doctor quipped. “Nether seems like a great idea in my book.” He looked over at me and asked, “So, what do they like to do together? All those years of marriage ,there must be something they enjoy together.” “None that I can think of,” I said sighing in defeat. Operation S.M.P.S.T.S.D.D.A.I.T.A.I.F. was not going very well at all. “Twilight never mentioned anything they enjoyed doing together.” “Wait!” he cried, as he stopped in front of a poster. “Look at this!” I read it aloud in excitement, “The Dance on the Ocean Floor!” I looked at the Doctor, beaming in joy and exclaimed, “That’s it! That’s where Shining Armor said they fell in love! They kiss for the first time, and the rest is history!” “Right,” he said with a nod. “I’ll worry about repairing the Tardis and getting everything set up. You stick to your future father-in-law like glue and make sure he asks her to that dance.” “Don’t think I missed the father in law comment!” I shouted at him, as he laughed and ran off. Now, time to take a more, personal approach… ________________________________________________________ I walked in the lunch room and found Night Light sitting alone at a table. I took a seat in front of him and gave him a smile. “Hey, Night Light, you remember that girl I introduced you to,” I asked, “that beautiful unicorn by the name of Twilight Velvet?” His golden eyes perked up from the paper he was writing and his eyes found Velvet. I saw a faint line of blush come to his cheeks as he gazed upon her. I looked down in curiosity at the paper he had in front of him and asked, “What’cha writing?” Night Light looked at me for a minute, gauging my trustworthiness. When he saw I was sincere he gestured with his hoof to move closer. I leaned forward to listen in as he whispered, “I’ve never told anypony about this, but they’re um…stories.” “What kind of stories?” I asked. “They’re about visitors from outer space,” he said, his tone of voice gaining excitement as he explained. “Science fiction stories about a guy, who travels around in space helping ponies out.” “Get out of town,” I said, my grey eyes widening in shock. “You’re a writer?” “Well, I’m not that great” he said modestly. “Here maybe I can critique,” I suggested as I tried reaching for his notebook, but his magic swiftly closed it. “Sorry, no offense, but I never let anypony read my stories,” he explained, his ears flattening in shame. “Why not?” I asked, sympathetically. “Well,” he replied staring down at his notebook. “What if nopony likes them? What if they say they’re dumb?” He went back to writing, being careful to keep his story out of sight. “I’m guessing it’s a little hard to understand.” “Not as hard as you make it out to be,” I said, mostly to myself. Then I tapped his notebook to get his attention and said, “Now, about the lovely Velvet.” His gold eyes perked up at the name. I was off to a great start! “She would love to go to the dance with you,” I said firmly. “I was with her a few minutes ago and she would not stop talking about how she’d love for you to ask her. I believe the dance was called Dance on the Ocean Floor?” His gold eyes blinked and his magic dropped his pen. I could tell he was in absolute shock. He cleared his throat and blubbered something along the lines of: “Me? I mean, right now? In the cafeteria?” He then sighed in defeat and asked, “Who am I kidding? She’s probably wanting to go with somepony else.” “Now who in Celestia’s name would she rather go with?” I asked, almost insulted at the mention. He just pointed behind me and I saw Graff sitting next to Velvet. She gave him a look of annoyance and tensed as he ran his hooves along her side. She started squirming in her seat as Graff whispered something in her ears. All I could see at that moment was somepony feeling up my marefriend’s mom. Command execute, kill… “Shut up, Graff!” she yelled, suddenly slapping the big unicorn across the face. “I’m not that kind of mare!” He suddenly grabbed her in his magic, as she looked up in fear at him, he snarled, “Maybe you are and just don’t know it yet.” She glared at him and squirmed in his grip. “Let go of me!” I got out of my seat and shoved Graff off Velvet. “You heard the mare, back off” I suddenly realized in the next two minutes my size compared to Graff. I only came about to his chest. Suffice to say, he had the advantage over me. He stood over me, trying to size me up. He could’ve kneeled and the effect would’ve done just the same. “Look I’m sorry about that,” I said, straitening his shirt with my magic. “Let’s just-“ “You know you’ve been looking for a fight for a while.” Graff said, several of his gang gathering around to look. He shoved me “What’s it to you? You got something on this little bi-” I shoved him back before he could finish that sentence. I put up with Discord, Nightmare Moon, and Chrysalis in my long career! This guy was going to get i- Before either party could punch each other, the Principal gave us both looks. Graff gave an innocent smile and looked at me “Since you’re new here, I’ll cut you some slack,” he said with a glare. “Today only, so why don’t you make like a tree, and get outta here.” Really? Was he really that dense? It’s make like a tree and leave! He sounds like a complete idiot if he says it like that! I turned around as everypony went about their business. I saw that Night Light was gone. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought… ____________________________________________________________ I managed to track down Night Light and I followed him all the way to his home. I ran after him and shouted, “Night Light! Wait up!” He turned around and groaned, asking, “Why do you keep following me?” “Look,” I said, after catching my breath, “you need to go to that dance.” He shook his head and replied, “I can’t go to the dance, I’ll miss my favorite science fiction program.” “You’re giving up too soon!” I fired back at him “Velvet wants to go to the dance with you!” “Hey,” he argued as he turned and began walking up the steps to his home, “I’m just not ready to ask Velvet to the dance!” He turned around for a brief moment as his magic opened his front door, adding, “And not you, or anypony on this planet is going to persuade me to go!” He slammed the door before I could talk some sense into him. This wasn’t good; I looked at the photo again and saw Shining’s body was gone. All that was left was his legs. If I don’t do something, Twilight will be next. If Twilight doesn’t exist, I will have died in that fire that Dinky got caught in. She saved me before I could suffocate from all the smoke. If she disappears, so do I… What was I going to do; nopony on this planet will persuade him to go. I had to… Wait, Nopony on this planet eh…? ____________________________________________________ “Are you sure this is a good idea?” the Doctor asked as we hid in the bushes outside Night Light’s house that night. I looked at him and said reassuringly, “Trust me, if you can convince a principal to let me in, you can handle a self-conscious sixteen year old.” “All right,” he said, “now, we need to approach this carefully.” “Just act like any normal alien you’ve encountered.” I suggested. “Um…” ____________________________________________________ EXTERMINATE!!! DELETE!!! DELETE!!! Are You my Mummy? SILENCE WILL FALL!!! EXTERMINATE!!!! _____________________________________________________ “Maybe that’s not the best idea,” the Doctor said nervously. I hope this works, for all our sakes. _____________________________________________________ Perspective: The Doctor I shimmied up into Night Light’s bedroom window and saw the poor sap sleeping soundly. He snored slightly as I walked up to him. I poked him, trying to get him up, but he was out cold. Time to employ some, rather unorthodox tactics. I pulled out my sonic screwdriver and looked at the settings. I muttered to myself trying to decide, “Let’s see, obnoxious Scottish music? Nah. Obnoxious French music? I don’t want to destroy his brains. Ah ha! Obnoxious American music, never fails.” I aimed my sonic screwdriver at him and tapped the button. Out came a rendition of a song so horrible it could wake anypony from slumber. Nightlight bolted upright and I shut off the music. His gold eyes glanced at me and I smiled and introduced myself, “Ello, I’m the Doctor.” “Doctor Wh-“ Back to heavy metal for you! He shouted as he held his ears at the sudden noise. I had it set so that only he could hear it. I wouldn’t want the neighbors complaining about the noise. I shut off the music again. “Now that I have your attention, I have come from the planet Gallopfrey with an extremely important message for you.” His eyes narrowed a little. “You don’t look like an alien” he said suspiciously. I walked up to him and took his hoof. I placed it over one side of my chest and asked, “What do you feel?” “A heartbeat,” Nightlight answered, "everypony has one." I moved his hoof over to the other side of my chest and asked, “How bout now?” “Another heartbeat!” he exclaimed. “You have two hearts? How is that possible?” “That's possible because I’m not really a pony,” I explained. “I’m what is known as a Time Lord. Like I said before, I’m from the planet Gallopfrey, I’m twelve hundred and two months old, and you, my friend, may just be the most important pony on the planet right now.” He looked at me oddly and asked, “What do you want me to do?” “You know that lovely mare, Velvet?” I answered. “I think you and she are a match made in pony heaven,” I rolled my eyes at the bad pun. I shall never say that again. I continued, “Anyway, I need you to put on a bow tie, walk up to her and proudly declare ‘Velvet! I want you to go to the dance with me!’” “Why a bow tie?” he asked. Doesn’t he know? “Because bow ties are cool” Time to move on. “So, will you ask her?” “I don’t know…” h said hesitantly looking down at his hooves. Okay, time to get serious “Listen here nanny pants!” I shouted in order to get his attention “It is of the utmost importance that you ask Velvet to the dance! The fate of the world depends on it!” I thundered ominously. “What will you do if I don’t ask her?” he squeaked nervously. Time to add a little crazy; I held the sonic screwdriver in my hoof. Which I’d like to add is awesome! I waved it in his face and asked, “Do you know what this is?” “No” he quavered, shaking a little. “This is called the Sonic Screwdriver,” I said, adding a little bit of crazy to my voice, “and if you don’t ask that mare to the dance,” I gave him the crazy eyes, “I shall use it to unscrew your brain! Muahahahahaha!!!!!” _______________________________________________________ Perspective: Private “I think it went well,” the Doctor said to me as we walked off into the night. “You don’t think you were a little too harsh on him?” I asked nervously. “Oh well,” he said waving a hoof dismissively, “somepony had to knock some sense into him.” “So the Sonic Screwdriver,” I asked, starting to sweat a little. “Can it really…?” “No, of course not,” he said with a shake of his head. “Doesn’t hurt, maim or harm, that’s why I like it.” “So what does it do aside from spitting sonics everywhere?” I asked. “It’s really good at opening doors,” he replied. “Opening doors?” I asked flatly. “You’d be surprised how many empires can be toppled if you open the right door. Both figuratively, and literally” I laughed a little bit and he gave me a look. “There’s something I never got to ask you. How did you know some of the names of my companions? I certainly didn’t tell you about Sarah Jane Smith or K9.” “Um,” I said and looked to the side nervously. “Have you been snooping in my Tardis?” he asked accusingly. “It was an accident!,” I said defensively. “I just followed a little filly to your companion room!” “Little Filly?” he asked, tapping his chin in thought. “I don’t know of any children on the Tardis. Dinky comes by occasionally but she was definitely at home with Ditzy at the-“ “Wait, hold on.” I stopped and looked at him. “You let Dinky onboard the Tardis?” “It’s perfectly safe,” he answered. I gave him a look. “Okay, maybe ninety-nine point something or other percent safe,” he admitted. “I’m just friends with her mother is all.” “I saw her picture in the companion room,” I pointed out. “How long have you two been working together?” “Since I arrived at Ponyville,” he replied, smiling at the memory. “She was there to greet me and we went on all sorts of adventures together. Faced giant worms, cyber ponies, hehe, sorry, and all sorts of other crazy journeys.” “What about Lyra?” I asked. “She came on later,” the Doctor explained. “Bit obsessed with humans, which I admit I’m a big fan of myself, but she has a good heart.” “Are they…” I fought for the right words. “Safe? With you?” He looked away for a moment, “To be honest, no they aren’t.” I remembered Velvet’s words back in the present, about how I put Twilight in so much danger. Slowly the Doctor smiled and said, “But you know what? If given a choice, I'd never force them to come with me. I care about each and every companion that comes into the Tardis. They’ve started as ordinary people/ponies and become extraordinary by the time they leave.” His face saddened a little “Sadly, they all leave eventually.” “Doctor…” “Well, enough of that!” He perked up. “Let’s get some sleep before I fall over in the middle of the road and wake up next to Princess Celestia or something.” We were about to turn when suddenly a blast came out of nowhere and almost hit us. The Doctor and I ducked behind a nearby carriage before another bolt could fire at us. I peeked over and saw a pony holding some kind of hi tech blaster. He aimed it at me and fired, I ducked just in time to see the blast blow away part of my cover. I aimed Blackbird out of cover and blind fired. The Doctor reached into his pockets and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. While I was distracting the shooter he aimed the device and pressed a button. The end of it glowed bright green and the shooter’s weapon shot out sparks. The shooter said something I didn’t hear and ran off, leaping over a nearby set of fences before I could follow him. Who would be trying to kill us? We’re strangers here and I don’t think we’ve broken any laws… “Private, over here!” the Doctor called, he was standing over the weapon the assailant left behind. He reached down to touch it and suddenly withdrew his hoof after doing so. “What is it hot?” I asked, walking over to him. “No, it’s very cold” he said, running his sonic screwdriver down the length of the rifle. He looked at his screwdriver after scanning it and said to himself “Martian tech, heavily modified by the looks of it to look like a normal pony gun. Why is it nearly frozen?” “How can a gun fire when it’s so cold?” I asked. “It wasn’t firing bullets,” he explained, bending down to get a better look at the weapon “That there was a sonic blast, it took up half my screwdriver’s battery to disable it. You were lucky it didn’t hit you, otherwise who knows what could happen to a pony body.” “Who would be trying to kill us?” I asked. “Any myriad of reasons if you’re me,” the Doctor said, I wasn’t sure if he was joking. “But you, it could be just because you’re with me.” He frowned and said, “I’m sorry.” “It’s not your fault.” I smiled a little but turned back to the weapon. “So, you’re saying this is an alien weapon? Martian tech, you said?” “Yes,” he answered. “Probably salvaged or bought off some black market” He ran his screwdriver over it and picked it up in his hooves. He slung it across his back and said, “I’m going to analyze this when we get back to the Tardis. Maybe the computers can identify where anybody could’ve bought it from.,” “Right,” I nodded, “let’s head back.” “Allons-y!” he shouted, pointing forward. “Allons-y?” I asked. “It’s French,” he explained “It means let’s go.” “Don’t you mean Prench?” I asked, with a raised eyebrow. “Why would I say Prench?” He then understood “Oh, what would a place called France be called on this world?” “Well, we do have a place called Prance,” I explained. ….. I should keep my mouth shut… “Prance!?” He burst out in absolute laughter, falling on his back while laughing “That’s brilliant! So fitting of the French!” He got up and imitated a Prench accent, “Hello, I would like to order some Prench Toast? I feel so pretty and witty because I’m from Prance! I cannot prevent the Prench for Prancing about!” He just kept laughing the whole way home… Chapter 4 "A Little Bit of Courage"Chapter 4 “A little bit of Courage” “There comes a time in every life, where we find the heart we are looking for.” LeAnn Rimes “Okay,” I said to my adversary, “you’ve put up a good fight. I admit you are truly an honorable opponent, but something’s gotta give eventually.” I glared at my adversary and stated coldly, “You’ve been a thorn in my side for all of ten minutes. It’s time you learned that none can match Private Eye when he’s on a mission.” I pinched my teeth around the bottle cap one more time “Just open you stupid thing!” I growled while trying to open the soda I just bought. How in the hell did they open these things? Did everypony carry around crowbars or something? “Eclipse!” I heard a voice call. I looked around and saw Night Light running towards me. His face pale and his eyes frantic. “Eclipse, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” “Hey Night Light, you all right?” I asked, putting my soda down and walking over to him. “You don’t look so good.” “I need to ask Velvet to the dance,” he shouted, but then his ears drooped in embarrassment “but I don’t know how.” “Keep your coat on,” I said, as I levitated the soda pop bottle over to me. “She’s over in the café.” I started twisting the bottle’s cap telekinetically, but no give. “How do you open this da-“ Night Light took the bottle in his own magic, put it over a small handle on the machine and suddenly the cap was open. I gave the bottle a small glare but took it with my magic. We walked down the street a ways before I asked, "So, what made you change your mind?” “Last night an alien, called the Doctor, came down from the planet Gallopfrey,” he recalled, visibly shaken. “He told me if I didn’t ask her out, he’d use his Sonic Screwdriver to unscrew my brain!” Dang, I guess it worked. I patted him on the shoulder and said softly, “Um, I would just keep the whole aliens unscrewing brains thing to myself, if I were you.” He nodded as we rounded a corner. I pointed to the café with my hoof and said with a smile, “There she is.” Velvet was sitting at a table in the café, talking to some of her friends. I slung my foreleg across Night Light's back and said encouragingly, “Now, all you gotta do is go in and invite her.” Night Light looked courageous for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by a look of panic. "What do I say to her?” Geez! Ember was easier to convince then he is! “Just say whatever comes naturally to you,” I said, “the first thing that comes to your mind.” He paused for a minute, and then shook his head. “I've got nothing...” I rolled my eyes and muttered, “It’s a wonder Twilight was even born.” He raised any eyebrow and said, “Huh?” “Nothing!” I said, taking a swig of the soda before continuing, “Look tell her, destiny brought us together. That she is the smartest, most beautiful mare you’ve ever seen in your life. Girls love that kind of stuff.” I looked and saw Night Light copying something down, and asked, “What’re you writing now? The Sequel?” “You’re saying some good stuff,” Night Light said with a smile. “You’re sure this’ll work?” “Yes, it’ll work.” When we got to the café I opened the door with my magic and commanded, “Now get in there, lover boy!” He walked in and just stood there stiff as a board. Velvet didn’t notice either of us entering as she chatted with her friends about some new band coming from Trottingham. I gave him a little shove and sat down at the bar. He slammed his hoof on the counter and said, “Scrolly! Milk! Chocolate!” A big glass of chocolate milk was sent his way and was gone the next minute. All right, the boy had his milk, his words, he was good to go! I watched him walk up, holding his notes in his magic, to where Velvet was sitting. He stood there, shaking a little but tried to sound confident as he said, “Velvet?” She turned her blue eyes to him, her friends wondering what the hell he wanted. “My, um,” he said, in an almost perfect impression of Fluttershy, “My, density has brought me to you!” She blinked and tilted her head, “I’m sorry?” He rubbed the back of his head and said, “Um, what I meant to say was that I um…” “Wait a minute,” she said, leaning forward and looked at him with a small smile. “I know you from somewhere...” “Yes!” he shouted, but then calmed himself down. “I’m Night Light, and I’m your density!” I wrote on my hoof, “Smack face here” and complied with the command. He blinked at his words and said shyly, “I mean, I’m your destiny.” She smiled a little, “Oh, that’s very…” “Hey, Night Light,” a voice shouted from the entrance. I turned and saw Graff with his gang of thugs. “I thought I told you never to come in here.” Night Light looked at him, his notebook landed on Velvet’s table as his confidence went with the wind. “Oh, hey Graff.” “You know it’s gonna cost ya,” he said, walking towards him. “How many bits are you willing to offer?” “Well,” he said in defeat, “how much you want?” I had enough; nopony was going to pick on my father in law on my watch! That’s going to be my job! I stretched out a hind leg and tripped Graff as he advanced on Night Light. Graff fell to the ground and glared up at me. Oh shit, I’ve done it now. He got up and glared down at me, yelling, “All right punk, I have half a mind to-“ “What the hell is that!?” I shouted, pointing behind him. The idiot turned and found a left hook ready to greet him. He fell onto a table behind him as I turned and ran out. I had to get these guys away from Night Light! I ran outside and looked around for some mode of transportation. I couldn’t run forever, I saw a board lying next to the café and got a crazy idea. I remembered experimenting with the concept back when I was learning magic. I levitated the board just inches of the ground. I climbed on it, and stared riding on it with my hind legs. I don’t know how Lyra finds balance walking around like this. Using my magic I propelled myself forward on the makeshift board and moved down the street. I looked behind me and saw Graff riding on a carriage with his goons pulling it. I needed speed! I grabbed with my teeth onto a passing carriage and used it to get the speed I needed. I balanced precariously on the makeshift board and held on for dear life. I passed the café and waved at a shocked crowd. Geez, you’d think they’d never seen a guy hovering around on a board. I looked behind me to see Graff’s crew about to trample from behind me. They were getting closer! I looked forward and saw that the pony driving it was a ginger maned earth pony. I recognized him from the clock tower protest! He aimed a strange weapon at me, the same one from last night! What the hell is going on? I opened my mouth to express my shock and found myself almost getting bit by one of the goons pulling the carriage. Okay, so I go forward and get shot at, or I go back and get beaten up. Or, I just give them all shit… I leapt off my board and flew over the shocked group of goons. The ginger earth pony veered suddenly with his carriage, narrowly avoiding a cart full of… “Shit!” The goons shouted as they crashed into said wagon full of, well you know. The manure fell into the carriage and covered the goons in the most disgusting substance known to pony kind. A large crowd of onlookers gathered around to see what happened, but I saw no sign of the ginger maned pony from before. Where’d he go? I shrugged and tossed the board to an impressed unicorn colt. Who knows, maybe it’ll be a cool toy in the future. ____________________________________________________ We managed to move the Tardis from its place in the woods over to the Doctor’s large garage. It was the best place for it to be as he could keep an eye on it. I opened the door to the interior and the Doctor stood there creating a painstakingly realistic model of the clock tower. He looked up as I entered. “Ah, Private!” He lifted a pair of goggles from his eyes and informed me, “I just finished up with the plan!” “Was painting it really necessary?” I asked, looking the model. “I mean you didn’t have to.” “Think of it as a souvenir,” He said as he set a model of the Tardis in the center of where the park was. “Okay, this is us when we’re ready to go. You’ll be inside the Tardis once everything’s set up.” He then wrapped a cable around the Tardis and attached it to the clock tower “Now, this cable will run inside the Tardis and be connected to its main power supply.” “So, when the lighting strikes,” I asked, pointing at the clock tower, “it runs into the Tardis and starts her up?” “Precisely,” he replied with a smile. “Now, how did the matchmaking go?” “Listen, before we talk about that,” I said, “tell me about that blaster?” “Well,” he replied, walking to a small work bench with the blaster on it “It’s definitely Martian tech, like I said before, but heavily modified. I ran through some search engines and found out only one model matches this one in the whole universe.” “What model was it?” I asked. “It belonged to The Corsair,” he explained as he pointed to an Ouroboros symbol on the gun. “A good friend of mine from long ago. He had this custom made a long time ago when he first visited Mars.” “What happened to him?” I asked slowly “Is he…?” “Yes,” he replied sadly. “He was a time lord, and he died when his Tardis was devoured.” “I’m sorry,” I sad with concern, “I didn’t mean to bring up bad-“ “It’s no big deal,” he interjected, suddenly cheerful. “This just means we have a monkey wrench in the whole system. While you’re galloping about,” he continued, laughing at the pun, “I’m going to investigate why it’s here.” “How many did the Corsair have?” I asked slowly. “Two were made,” he answered suspiciously,“why?” “I think I know the other one’s whereabouts,” I explained. I went on to tell him the events of today and how that ginger maned pony tried to kill me. He blinked in deep thought and mused, “Now, why would he try and kill you? It doesn’t make any sense. Why have it frozen too? It’s not like anypony cares what temperature their weapons are so long as they can fire.” He started pacing “Could it be Martian? No, they discontinued their sonic weaponry after I proved it to be rubbish.” He continued along in the vein until we heard knocking. Both of us walked outside and the Doctor looked through the peep hole in the garage door. His blue eyes turned to me, now pinpricks in shock, and exclaimed, “It’s Velvet!” “How’d she find me?” I asked, my own eyes growing wide in shock. “It doesn’t matter!” He ran to the Tardis and threw a blanket over it. “Help me hide her! There’s no time to turn her invisible!” I threw some more blankets over the Tardis, thoroughly covering her from any onlookers. Once she was successfully hidden The Doctor ran to the door and opened it politely. In stepped Velvet, a saddlebag on her, filled with books, I might add. When she saw me, a blush filled her cheeks. “Hello, Car- I mean, Eclipse,” she said with a nervous laugh. “Uh,” I said, “Hi Velvet, how’d you find me here?” “I, um, followed you here,” she admitted, then spoke frantically. “Not that I was stalking you or anything! It’s just nopony knew where you went after you, I mean…” She blushed even more, very much like her future daughter. “Um,” I pointed to the Doctor and introduced him,, “Velvet this is my uncle, Doc- I mean, Dr. Clockwork.” “An absolute pleasure,” the Doctor said, shaking Velvet’s hoof politely. He then pretended to be occupied with some junk in the corner as Velvet walked towards me. Her blue eyes didn’t meet mine for a second, she spoke nervously, “Um, Eclipse, I know I might sound a little forward,” She looked down at her hooves for a second, “but I was wondering, if you’d be available to go to the dance with me this Saturday?” “The Dance on the Ocean Floor?” I asked, pretending to not be in the know. “Yes, that’s the one,” she said with a nod, smiling widely. I blinked in shock; although not the kind of shock she’s probably thinking I’m feeling. “You mean, nopony’s asked you?” She shook her head a little glumly and said, “No, not yet. I kind of scare other guys away, what with being a bookworm and all.” I noticed her saddlebags were pretty full. Something tells me they weren’t all filled with textbooks. So that’s where Twilight gets that part of her… She noticed me staring and blushed even more, I decided to try and fix history again. “What about Night Light?” I asked. She raised an eyebrow. “Night Light?” She gave it a thought and answered slowly, “Well, he is kind of cute and all, and he did say some nice things back at the café.” She turned her gaze to me. “However, I think a stallion should be strong,so he can protect the mare he loves.” Was this why Velvet had a sour marriage in the future? Was it because of Night Light’s confidence issues? A plan started forming in my brain. It was a long shot, but it could save the future for all parties involved. _______________________________________________________ “I still don’t get it,” Night Light said, as I helped him fold his laundry. “How am I going to the dance with her if she’s going with you?” I explained for the fifth time as I folded some dry shirts, “She really wants to go with you. She just doesn’t know it yet,” I explained, giving him a confident smile. “That’s why we gotta prove that you, are a fighter at your core. Somepony who’s going to stand up for what he believes in. Somepony who’d be willing to fight Nightmare Moon if she tries to hurt Velvet.” “Well,” he said, pulling down a pair of dry coats. “I’ve never picked a fight with anypony in my life. Let alone a mythical monster that gobbles up colts when they don’t eat their carrots.” “You’re not going to pick a fight,” I explained again. “You are going to be the brave hero coming to her rescue!” I said dramatically. “Like a knight in shining armor, you will save her!” I finished folding the laundry and said, “Okay, let’s go over the plan again, 8:55 where are you going to be?” “I’m going to be at the dance,” he answered. “Right and where am I going to be?” “In the carriage with Velvet,” he replied. “Okay, so right around 9:00 she’s going to get mad at me,” I explained. “Wait,” he said, looking at me, “why’s she going to get angry with you?” “Well,” I rubbed the back of my head, “nice girls get mad at guys when they try to um…” I tried to place it delicately, “take advantage of them.” His gold eyes grew wide with shock, “You mean you’re going touch her…” He pointed at his flank. “No, no!” I said firmly. “It’s all an act, right?” “Okay,” he said reluctantly, “So long as she doesn’t get hurt, okay?” “That’s where you come in my friend,” I gave him a light tap on his chest. “Round 9:00 you’re strolling through the parking lot, and then you hear the commotion from the carriage. You walk over and see us struggling.” I pointed at him. “You as the great knight in shining armor say?” I waited for him. He understood and spoke in a semi confident voice at an invisible foe, “You! Keep your damn hooves off her!” He blinked and looked at me quizzically, asking, “Do I have to swear?” “Yes, Night Light,” I nodded firmly. “Celestia-damn it you’d better swear!” I went on with the scene. “You yank me out of the carriage; punch me in the stomach, and I'll go down. Then you and Velvet live happily ever after.” “You make it sound so easy,” he said looking down. “If only I wasn’t so scared.” “There’s nothing to it, Night Light,” I said, smiling warmly. “All it takes is a little bit of courage. A great stallion once told me, that if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish anything, all you need is those ten-seconds of stupid courage, and the rest is history.” “Who told you that?” he asked. “He sounds like cool guy.” “If all goes well,” I said with a smile, patting him on the shoulder. “someday you’ll meet him.” Hopefully as an in law… Chapter 5 "Love Me So There Is a Tomorrow"Chapter 5 “Love Me So There Is a Tomorrow” Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton “All right, that should be everything,” the Doctor said as he finished attaching the wire to the Tardis. The large cable went inside the Tardis’ interior and hooked up to the machinery inside. He stepped out of his box and into the clear night air. “Let’s hope the storm comes tonight,” I said with a frown. I was dressed in formal attire for the evening, leaving my trench coat and hat inside the Tardis, along with most of my gear. The Doctor and I covered up the Tardis so that only the cable could be seen leading up to the clock tower. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” said an approaching police officer. He was also a ginger pony… weird how I keep running into them. “What are you up to Clockwork?” he asked the Doctor. “A bit of a weather experiment,” the doctor replied, flashing his psychic paper. “Here’s my weather permit, in case you were wondering.” The officer actually took a few seconds longer than normal upon reading it. Once he was satisfied, the Doctor and I walked down the street a little. I looked over at him and asked, “Doctor? Why are you coming along?” “Mostly to make sure the plan goes right on your end,” he explained, straitening his bow tie, “That, and I haven’t seen ponies dance in a while. It’ll truly be fascinating.” “Okay, just stay on your best behavior and you’ll be fine,” I said begrudgingly. “I guess it will be good to have you on hoof in case any of those weird ponies show up.” “All right,” he said with a nod. “Allons-y!” He then started giggling. “Prance…” What have I created? _________________________________________________________ Perspective: The Doctor I sat at one of the tables as a band of pegasi played on stage. Ponies of all kinds and colors were dancing together on the dance floor. The music was a smooth jazz that reminded me of New Orleans. I wonder what kind of pony pun you could make with that? I checked my watch and saw it was still quarter of, Night Light wasn’t supposed to go on for a while. I looked up and saw him literally dancing by himself. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little, interesting dancing skills for a race that has two left hooves. “Enjoying the party, sweetie?” No, it can’t be… I slowly turned, there stood a beautiful blue coated unicorn with a long blond mane. Her bright magenta eyes looked over at me. There was no doubt in my mind. “I thought,” I said, not believing my eyes. “That you sucked up all my regenerations?” she asked with a small laugh. “Well, apparently you missed one.” “How are you here?” I asked “This is...” “Impossible? Inconceivable,” she asked teasingly, walking towards me, “or simply delightful?” “All three?” I suggested as we both laughed. Then my blue eyes turned serious. “So, if you’re here, then who else is here?” “Well,” she answered, as she thought for a moment, “I’m pretty sure Jack is somewhere around here. Now don’t give me that look, he knows about us. Aside from that I think I’m the only one who followed you” “All right, now I’d love to stay and chat, but apparently there are crazy ponies running around with stolen weapons and I need to find them,” I said as I tried turning away before I felt my tail get yanked back. Her magenta eyes turned coy as she asked, “Is that all you have to say to me?” “Please,” I replied softly, looked at her with desperate blue eyes, “it’s hard enough just being with you now…” “Must you insist on taking the blame for everything?” she chided. “You really are getting old.” “You know I can’t stop,” I answered, my brow furrowing. “You know exactly why I can’t stop” “I never said you should stop,” she said, her expression turning to one of concern. “I know you’ll run until your legs finally give out.” She slowly smiled and said gently, “Just let somebody be there to catch you when you do give out.” “Why are you here?” I asked. “Can't it be because I just want to dance?” she asked with a smile. “I haven’t seen you in a long time… or have I? I left my journal back at the hotel.” “Well,” I replied, climbing to my hooves and facing her. “The world won’t end if the Doctor dances.” She smiled at me and we walked out onto the dance floor. I then thought to ask, “So, how’d you end up here of all places?” She just took my front hooves, put one of her own on her lips, smiled and said the timeless phrase, ”Spoilers…” ___________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private Eye Our carriage rolled into the now deserted parking lot. It was fairly easy to get one when I knew the Arch Duke of Lincolt. That Psychic paper is really useful. I should ask the Doctor if he has a spare for me to use. I poked my head out the windows and tossed a few bits to the pulling stallions and said, “Thanks for the lift, guys.” They nodded and went off with their newfound earnings. I looked around, the parking lot was largely deserted, and everypony had gone into the dance already. I looked to my left and saw Velvet dressed in a very pretty pink dress. She smiled a little at me. “Well,” I said, clearing my throat, “would you mind if we parked for a bit?” She suddenly blushed bright red. Was it something I said, she looked down self-consciously and replied, “Well Eclipse, I’m, well I am sixteen so I mean I know how it’ll…” Oh. That’s what she was thinking? This might be a little easier than I thought. That’s not necessarily a good thing however… “I didn’t mean it in that way!” I said frantically. “I was just um-“ I noticed she was levitating something to her right. I peeked over and saw it was a book, one of…those books. I blushed bright red at the thought of her having that kind of interest. This was going to get awkward really fast. Her blue eyes gazed at me and she said, “I mean, we are alone together, it’s only natural we should… park.” She started scooting over so her grayish white coat was pressed against mine. It was starting to feel very warm in here. I needed to stop this before Night Light gets the wrong idea when he comes along! “Velvet, you shouldn’t do this!” She frowned and said, “Don’t be such a square, Eclipse, it says in the book we should do this.” Yep, she was definitely Twilight’s mom. “You, um,” I said, as I tried to be responsible. “You might regret it later down the line…” She rolled her eyes and huffed, “You’re starting to sound like my mother.” _______________________________________________________ Perspective: Night Light Get your damn hooves off her! Get your damn hooves off her! Get your darn… Dang it! I just can’t do this! I leaned against the wall as the band finished up playing. The lead guitarist/singer was starting to feel a bit queasy. They were going to take a break. I can’t do this! Velvet will just laugh at my pathetic attempt to be brave! What would she see in a stallion like me? She’s beautiful, smart, and confident, all sorts of things I’m not. What am I going to do? I sat on my haunches in defeat. Maybe I should give up, she’d be happier with somepony like Eclipse. She wouldn’t want a moron like me. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything… Eclipse is right! I can’t just give up! I’ve come this far! I’m not giving up on her. I want Velvet to get to know me, and I want to be with her. I looked up at the clock. It was almost 9:00! Time to go. Time to use those ten seconds of stupid courage… _________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private Eye Where is he? I looked outside for a minute and Night Light wasn’t there yet. Where was that no good, spineless, future father in law? I needed him to get here right now before- “Eclipse, why are you sweating so much?” my carriage companion asked. I looked over at Velvet; I certainly must be sweating by now. I said nervously, “Um, Velvet, have you ever been in a situation, where well, you were supposed to act a certain way, but when you finally got there you weren’t sure about going through with it?” Our eyes met. “Like on a first, um, date?” she asked with a blush. “Well,” I said nervously, “sort of, I guess.” “I think I understand what you mean,” she said with a warm smile. “You do?” If you knew the whole situation I doubt you would say that again. “I think I know what to do in situations like that,” she assured; her head slowly began to move closer to mine. A lot of alarms were going off in my head. This was not good! “What?” I asked, slowly backing away to avoid the advancing unicorn. “Just relax,” she said, then pressed her lips to mine. My grey eyes shot wide open as I tried to get her off me. Holy hay I was kissing Twilight’s mom! I’m never going to be able to look at her the same way again! This was insane, this was… She stopped kissing me for a minute. She broke her kiss and looked at me oddly, “Eclipse, why do I feel… bad for kissing you?” Because I’ve kissed your future daughter more times than I can count? What came out was, “I’m just not the right one for you.” “It doesn’t make any sense,” she paused, taking a quick peak at her book, “When I kissed you, it wasn’t magical or anything. It felt like I was kissing my baby brother good night.” She shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, Eclipse. This really doesn’t make much sense.” “Believe me,” I said with a small smile. “It makes perfect sense.” “Somepony’s coming,” Velvet said, her ears perking up at the sound of hoof steps, several hoof steps… Did Night Light bring an entourage or somethin- Suddenly the door of the carriage was pulled open and I got yanked outside. I came face to face with Graff. He growled upon seeing me, his breath stank of alcohol. “It cost me three hundred bits to fix my carriage! Now you’re going to pay for every cent…” He shoved me and I was grabbed by his buddies. All of them were levitating or holding some kind of drink. I struggled against them but couldn’t break free. These guys had a death grip on me! “Velvet!” I called out. “Eclipse!” she cried, peeking out from the carriage. She glared at Graff and yelled, “You’re drunk, Graff! Let him go!” He smirked upon seeing her. “Well, lookie what we have here…” Velvet’s tail curled up behind her. She knew exactly what he was intending. “You keep your filthy hooves away from her!” I yelled before getting punched in the stomach. I felt the wind get knocked out of me. “Get him outta here!” was the last thing I heard before I fell unconscious. ________________________________________________________________ Perspective: The Doctor They dragged Private away from the carriage. I'd been coming to see if Night Light was all right, but when I came out I saw them ganging up on Private instead. This wasn’t good! I had to get him out of there! I saw them head towards a carriage and lock him in the trunk. I stood as they tried to leave and asked, “What do you boys think you’re doing?” “Beat it, snoop,” one of them drunkenly called. “We’ll kick your ass!” “That’s my friend you just dumped in that trunk,” I said with a smirk. “I think you should let him out.” “Or what?” Another laughed and slurred “You’ll send an army of chickens after us?” They started laughing… Until they saw the pegasi band behind me that is. They glared at the goons and said, “These are the fellas who called us chickens?” There were five of us and only three of them. One of the pegasi was out of commission thanks to contracting the feather flu. However, his buddies were more then a match for these goons. I crossed my forelegs and said, “I’ll give you a piece of advice I give to all of the bastards who try and take me on… run.” They turned tail and fled with all their might. The pegasi tossed swear words and bottles of cider at them. They laughed at their victory and I went to the trunk. “Private, are you in there?” “Yeah!” I heard a voice call from inside. “Get me outta here!” “Hey, Sidewinder,” one of the pegasi said to his buddy, “hand the pony your keys.” “The keys are in here!” Private shouted. “Say that again?” Sidewinder asked in shock. Thank God for the sonic screwdriver! __________________________________________________________ Perspective: Night Light I’m late! Oh very, very, late! I can’t believe I got held up! I had to hurry! Eclipse can’t stall forever! I saw the carriage, it was visibly moving. Geez, Eclipse really wanted to go for authenticity… I straitened the bow tie around my neck and used my magic to yank the door open, yelling, “Hey you! Get your damn hooves off-“ Then I saw, it was Graff. He was on top of Velvet! He had her pinned down! He was going to… I couldn’t move as Graff’s eyes found mine. My legs refused to move. Velvet was crying. He was going to hurt her and I couldn’t move. “Just walk away, Night Light,” Graff snarled threateningly. I couldn’t move, I wouldn’t move. “Are you deaf, Night Light?” he asked again, “I said, walk away!” I should leave. I couldn’t face him. He was bigger then I was, but he was going to hurt Velvet. You just need those ten-seconds of stupid courage and the rest is history…. Ten-seconds, time to put them to good use. I opened my gold eyes and glared at Graff. “No Graff,” I said, trying to sound brave, “you leave her alone right now!” He blinked and then got out of the carriage, shoving Velvet aside. She looked at me with tear stained blue eyes. She was afraid for me. So was I. Graff stood in front of me and growled, “Now, you’ve done it.” Ten… I reached forward and tried to punch him. He caught my hoof in his magic and began twisting it at a very painful angle. Nine… “You’re going to break his leg!” Velvet cried. Graff just laughed! He just laughed at my pain. Eight… I heard his laughter, the laughter I had to put up with all my life. Seven… I looked at Velvet, she looked terrified, not for herself, but for me. Six… I looked up at Graff, his smug face as he caused me pain. Five… No! I refuse to bow to him! Four… Velvet was counting on me! Eclipse was counting on me! I can’t let them down! Three… I braced myself for what I had to do, my horn glowed slightly. Two… I turned my head suddenly and pointed my horn directly at Graff’s chest One… I fired a magical bolt with all my might, sending him flying over the carriage. I felt his magic release my arm and saw him crash into a nearby tree. He fell unconscious as I shook my hoof to relive some of the pain. I stared at Graff, did I just do that? I beat him! I can’t believe it! I beat Graff! Sixteen years of putting up with him and I beat him! I looked over and saw Velvet climb out of the carriage. Her dress had some rips in it and her mane was frazzled, but she was still beautiful… “Are you okay?” I asked as I reached a hoof out to her. She just stared into my eyes. Hers glistened like stars in a night sky. Sparkling with such beauty I couldn’t believe it. Sparkle, that’s a nice name. She took my hoof and smiled at me “I’m fine, Night Light…” We walked together back to the dance, ignoring the crowd gathering around the scene. Tonight, it was just us two. ___________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private “Well, that did it” I said, looking over at the Doctor “That Screwdriver is pretty useful.” I looked back at Velvet and Night Light walking back inside the school together. “Looks like everything worked out,” he said with a smile. Then we heard somepony puking back at the carriage. We ran over and saw the band trying to take care of one of their members. He threw up into a bucket as one of his fellow pegasi patted him on the back. “Hey, what’s wrong with him?” I asked. “Some ginger put something in his drink,“ the drummer said. “Now he won’t stop puking up like crazy.” The Doctor ran his sonic screwdriver over the Pegasi and concluded, “Ipecac Syrup, designed to get you to throw up when you’ve been poisoned, but in the right doses it can cause you to vomit for hours.” The sick member threw up to drive home the point. The cellist gave my friend a look and asked, “He some kind of doctor?” “Close enough,” I answered. “Anyway, how long will it last, Doc,” I asked my friend. “Three hours judging by his medical scan,” the Doctor concluded. “We gotta get our boy to the hospital,” the drummer said again. “We can’t play anymore tonight, his health comes first.” I took a quick look at the picture and saw Twilight’s head was gone! If the band didn’t play… I spoke firmly, “No, you can’t leave now! The band has to play!” “Look, our boy can’t play,” the cellist pointed out, “and we can’t play without him either. So, unless you know somepony who can play the guitar, I’m going to have to call the dance over.” “Actually,” the Doctor spoke up, “I think I can play.” “Where’d you learn how to play guitar?” I asked. “Um…” __________________________________________________ Now listen here Doctor Man, If you wanna get pretty with the ladies, yer gonna have to learn how to play this baby. Thank you for the lessons Mr. Presley, I’m in your debt. Think nothing of it man, just let the music play. ________________________________________________________ “Nopony you would know,” he said with a shrug. _________________________________________________________ Somehow in the process I got drafted to play the violin as well. I stood on the stage looking out at the dancing couples. The Doctor strummed on the guitar with surprising ease. I’m guessing being a Time Lord allowed you to learn things quickly. The Singer smiled out at the crowd and called, “This is for all you lovers out there.” He then began to sing smoothly to the crowd. I was surprised at his level of talent. Man, if only I could sing like that. I looked and saw Night Light and Velvet together on the dance floor. They haven’t kissed yet? Better hurry up Night Light. I looked at the picture I had attached to the head of the violin. Twilight was still there! Thank goodness, I can see her! ___________________________________________________ Perspective: Night Light I looked at Velvet as we danced together. I couldn’t find any words to say to her. She just glowed in the gym’s light. Her blue eyes gazed at me as she said softly, “Night Light?” “Uh, yeah?” I asked, unsure of myself. “I’m, uh,” she said with a blush, “sorry for brushing you off earlier.” “Hey, it’s all right,” I said gently, “to be honest I can’t blame you.” “I just never knew you had it in you to protect me like that,” she gushed, the pink on her cheeks evident. “I really admire that.” I blushed in turn and said modestly, “I only did what anypony else would do.” “I think it was very brave,” she said with a smile, her blue eyes meeting mine. “You came out like a knight in shining armor and saved me from Graff.” “I’m not like Aragore or anything,” I mused. She blinked; I can’t believe I said that out loud! She’s going to think I’m a total nerd! “Aragore? From Lord of the Horn Rings?” she asked. “Yes,” I gasped, my shock evident “How did you…” “I read a lot,” she said, her cheeks turning red. “My friends think I’m weird for liking books so much, but I just can’t put down a good story.” “Me neither,” I said with a smile. “Do you read any science fiction?” “Kind of a guilty pleasure of mine,” she admitted, “I’ve always been fascinated by stars and planets.” She gestured to her cutie mark of three stars and continued, “That's part of the reason I have this.” She likes space too? Unbelievable! Who knew that Twilight Velvet had such a love of literature! I had no idea… Suddenly a ginger maned earth pony shoved me aside. He smiled rudely at me and said, “Scram, Night Light!” He looked at Velvet, I didn’t like the look in his eyes. “I’m cutting in…” ___________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private Eye No! I watched that jerk walk off with Velvet. She struggled a little but I knew she wouldn’t be able to get away. I felt my magic almost fail for a moment and a tightness in my chest. The Doctor looked over at me concerned. I looked to the picture of Twilight, and she was fading! No! She can’t! I looked at my hoof, it was starting to fade as well!. Twilight, I don’t want to disappear! I want to hold you, I want to see you again! I want to stay by your side forever…. _____________________________________________________ Perspective: Night Light Maybe it was all a dumb idea. I couldn’t hold onto her if I wanted too. She deserved better, somepony who’ll care for her. Somepony who’ll stay by her side, who’ll… Care for her grandpa? I looked around; there was a small filly among the crowd. She had a beautiful magenta coat, with long brown hair and the sweetest purple eyes I’ve ever seen. Was this… Grandma loves you Grandpa I heard her say in my head, was I dreaming? Be brave for her Grandpa! Be her knight in shining armor! I nodded firmly and ran over to the ginger. I tapped him on the shoulder and said firmly, “I believe that’s my date.” I shoved him aside with my magic, for some reason he felt squishy. I looked back at Velvet who just stared at me. Our eyes met as I reached up to touch her on the cheek. She reached to touch mine as well. One thing is for sure, I’m never letting her go again! I placed my lips on hers, not sure why I did it. I just wanted to hold her so badly, and never let her to go. I held her tightly to me, not hard, but just enough that I knew she was with me. She held me back just as firmly, kissing back with unbelievable fervor. Was she? She was, we are, in love… ________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private Eye I felt rejuvenated beyond belief. I shot up to my feet and looked out at the crowd. Velvet and Night Light were kissing! They did it! I looked at my picture excitedly. Twilight and Shining came back! Their smiling faces nearly moved me to tears. I felt an old tune come along. Something I think everypony would enjoy. There was a small break between songs. I put my bow on my strings, and just poured my heart into that old tune. Everypony stared at the lone violinist playing that old tune. The Doctor smiled, I guess he knew what I was playing. I swear I heard a small voice sing along. Like a child, so innocent and pure. I looked over and saw the filly from before, singing out loud. Although nopony else seemed to notice. She sang it, as if she knew it by heart… When I am down, and oh my soul’s so weary… When trouble’s come…and my heart burden be, Then, I am still, and wait here in my silence, Until you come, and sit awhile with me… Nopony was noticing that angel singing. Was she really mine? How come nopony was noticing her? She just kept singing as I played… You raise me up! So I can stand on mountains… You raise me up! To walk on stormy seas, I am strong….when I am on your shoulders… You raise me up…to more then I…can be… With that, she started walking towards a blue unicorn mare. She smiled at the young filly. Then she gave a small wave, to which the Doctor returned! He could see them too! I felt compelled to continue, I had a competent singing voice, but I wasn’t singing for points. I was singing to the filly, whom was eager to hear it. You raise me up! So I can stand on mountains! You raise me up! To walk on stormy seas! I am strong…when I am on your shoulders… Your raise me up, to more then I can be… The filly turned around, and we sang at in unison. There is no life, no life without its hunger; Each restless heart beats so imperfectly; But when you come and I am filled with wonder, Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity. We sang together, and it felt so right. I don’t know what was going on otherwise. Here was this little filly, just pouring her little heart in singing with me. Her amethyst eyes twinkled like stars in the night sky… Twinkle… Your raise me up! So I can stand on mountains! You raise me up! To walk on stormy seas! And I am strong when I am your shoulders! You raise me up…to more then I can be… I watched her and the blue unicorn start to leave. I gave one last line to her… You raise me up…to more then I…can be… I blinked and was greeted by a thunderous applause. The Doctor slapped me on the back and said, “You may have introduced that one a little bit early, but nobody here is complaining!” I stared out at the crowd, it felt, amazing to sing like that. Just who was that filly? Why was she with that blue unicorn? Was she? I love you Daddy, I will always love you… Twinkle, what a beautiful name. I was about ready to slip off my violin. Then the Doctor got on the mic and spoke to the crowd, “Hello, I’m the Doctor and before anypony asks, just the Doctor.” Some looked at confusion at the strange stallion. “Thank you all for allowing us to perform tonight, but sadly my friend and I need to leave pretty soon.” “Hey, what about an encore!” some pony shouted from the back. “Yeah!” the drummer said with a smile, “Play something that really cooks!" “Well, if you all insist,” the Doctor said with a smile at the crowd, “now this one is an oldie, where I’m from, anyway. I hope you all enjoy something a bit wilder.” I left the stage as the Doctor spoke to the band. Just what song did he have in mind? Oh boy… The Doctor began playing on his guitar like nopony’s business. He moved his hooves with such ease over the strings you wouldn’t believe this was the pony who couldn’t pick up his screwdriver a few months ago. The band started getting into it too. Moving with the beat that The Doctor had over them. Then the Doctor sang… Deep down Louisiana close to New Orleans Way back up in the woods among the evergreens There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode Who never ever learned to read or write so well But he could play the guitar just like a ringing a bell Ponies in the crowd began to dance like crazy. This was something totally new to them. I felt my own hoof tap the back stage floor as the Doctor continued. Go go Go Johnny go Go Go Johnny go Go Go Johnny go Go Go Johnny go Go Johnny B. Goode I heard a Pegasus calling somepony backstage, “Eh, Arashi!” he called “It’s me, Kurando Bolt! You know that new sound you’re looking for? Well, listen to this!” He held the phone out to The Doctor’s music. I looked out and saw the Doctor was getting a little, too into it. He started jumping around, riffing on the guitar at unbelievable speeds. The band was even in shock to the point where they stopped playing. The Doctor leapt and bounded across the stage and came up to a nearby amp and bucked it over. He performed one last guitar solo and landed on his haunches. He looked out at the stunned crowd and laughed a little. He gave the guitar to one of the band members and said, “Believe me, I had the same reaction when I heard it for the first time too.” I simply face hoofed… ________________________________________________________ “Really, Johnny B. Goode?” I asked, looking over at the Doctor. “Of all the crazy songs you could’ve picked.” “Hey, they liked it,” he said as we started making our way towards the exit. I turned down the stairs and saw Velvet and Night Light waiting for us. I smiled at both of them and said, “Hey, guys.” “Hey,” Velvet said, with a smile, “you two performed rather interesting music.” “Yeah,” I sighed, “some more interesting then others.” “Don’t dis the classics,” the Doctor said, frowning. “Um, Eclipse.” she said nervously, looked over at the stallion beside her. “Night Light offered to take me home. I hope that’s all right.” “Yes, it’s great!,” I exclaimed, but then calmed myself. “I mean, I had a feeling about you two from the start.” “I’ve got a feeling too,” she said, pressing herself up to Night Light, who pressed back affectionately. Yep, they were going to do all right. “Eclipse,” the Doctor said, “I’m going to get the um…experiment ready, I’ll meet you there.” “Sure, Uncle Clockwork,” I said as he left, chuckling a little. “He’s an interesting guy.” “I’ll say,” Night Light commented. Velvet looked at me concerned and asked, “Will we ever see you again?” “I guarantee it,” I said with a smile. “Odds are, you’ll at least run into somepony a lot like me.” Night Light shook my hoof and said gratefully,“Thank you so much for all the advice you gave me. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.” I smiled at him and then checked my watch and said, “I gotta go guys, it’s been an… educational experience.” I was about to turn away but I added, “Hey, if you guys get married and have kids, and one of your son’s girlfriend’s happens to be a princess of love, let’s just say, there’s no spell involved.” I then walked out, leaving behind the two ponies I’ve gotten to know. I got to meet Twilight’s parents in the craziest way possible. They’ll do all right. Now to get to my happily ever after! _____________________________________________________________ The Doctor and I ran into the park and leapt into the Tardis. The cable kept the door from closing fully but it was necessary. Immediately the Doctor went about flipping switches and pressing buttons. “Lighting should hit in exactly five minutes!” he declared. “That gives us plenty of time to hunker down!” “The lighting will override the sabotage right?” I asked, slipping my trench coat and hat back on. “Should, according to my calculations which are always right” He paused then added, “Ninety something percent of the time, anyway.” Hang on Twilight, I’m coming ho- I ducked as a sonic blast nearly obliterated the spot where my head had been. I looked up and saw three ginger earth ponies, two armed with blasters and one unarmed. The blasters were aimed at the Doctor who raised his hooves and asked, “What’s going on here?” “Designation Doctor,” one said in an almost robotic voice, “violator of seventeen thousand time laws, several accounts of meddling in history, altering events, preserving species, and disobeying orders.” “What’s he talking about, Doctor?” I asked. “Remember when I said the Time Lords only wanted to observe history and I broke the rules by interfering?” he asked, his voice deathly firm. “Some weren’t too happy with that.” “Just who are you ponies?” I demanded. “We’re just trying to go home!” “Time stream has been altered too much,” one said, again robotic. “Precautions must be taken. The directive cannot be altered.” “What directive?” I asked. Suddenly the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He pressed the button and, before my very eyes, one of the ginger ponies melted. It melted into this white milk like substance. My eyes grew wide in shock. “Doctor!" I cried. "What are those things?” “The flesh,” he said gravely. “Programmable matter used in dangerous industrial jobs. Used here to create perfect replicas.” “Replicas of what?” I asked. “You must’ve had a progenitor!” I demanded of the clones. “Who is your original?” The one in the middle smirked, reached into his pockets, and said, “I am known as The Preserver, but in this time, I go by another name” “I am, the 13th Doctor.” he announced, pulling out a sonic screwdriver identical to the Doctor's... Chapter 6 "All Across Time"Chapter 6 “All Across Time” Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present. ~ Roger Babson I stared at the ginger time lord. There was no way! This guy was the Doctor too? I looked over at the Doctor who was also staring at the 13th doctor. “Doctor? How is this possible? How can he be you, but you also be him” I smacked my forehead “I’m confused” “What do you have to say, Doctor?” Thirteen asked, his flesh counterpart aiming his rifle at me. My Doctor blinked, then spoke one shocked line, “You’re a Ginger!” “What?” I asked, my jaw dropping. “Of all the things you could possibly say to your future self, you point out that he’s ginger?” “Yes!” he cried as he threw his hooves in the air in frustration “Twelve regenerations and I don’t become ginger until my last one! Unbelievable!” “Besides that,” I asked Thirteen with a glare, “What do you want with your past self?” “Technically, he’s not my past self,” Thirteen said with a small frown. “He’s from this dimension, and he has been shirking his duties.” “So you’re me from a different time line?” the Doctor asked, crossing his forelegs. “What’s so different in your line?” “He’s from an alternative timeline?” I asked, still very confused “Exactly,” the Doctor stated, nodding. “He can’t be from this timeline so, how’d you manage to get here?” He glared at Thirteen. “It’s supposed to impossible to cross dimensions. Now, you’re putting the whole universe at stake” “You are incorrect” Thirteen hollered, pointing at me. “He is the one putting the universe at stake.” “Come again?” I asked, mouth gaping open in shock. “You were never supposed to come here,” he said menacingly. “You were never supposed to obtain Tenacity; you were actually supposed to die in that fire.” “I was supposed…” I said in shock “To… die?” “Don’t listen to him, Private!” the Doctor shouted, slowly backing to the consul. “Why hide the truth from him?” Thirteen asked. “I’ve grown so tired of hiding it from everybody.” “You aren’t me,” The Doctor growled, “I would never believe that history is completely fixed! Time can be rewritten!” “Time has been rewritten beyond the point of repair,” Thirteen retorted. “I plan to fix it by eliminating the perpetrator.” The other thirteen pointed his blaster at me. “What the hell?” I yelped. “By altering history you have broken the laws of the Time Lords,” Thirteen quoted, like I did whenever I condemned a criminal, “you will be punished for doing so.” “Leave him out of this!” the Doctor cried. “He had no idea he was changing history! It was an acci…” He blinked, then narrowed his gaze and said angrily, “No, you knew he was going to end up here.” “Correct,” Thirteen said, “the goal was to eliminate him in a time period where he would so deeply alter history that his elimination would be deemed necessary.” “You set me up!” I yelled “You’re the one who gave me that flier! You knew I would accidentally alter history! That storm was you’re doing, wasn’t it?” “Again,” Thirteen replied with a smirk, “you are correct, but it will do little to help you in the long run.” “You’re not the Doctor!” I yelled. “You never were! He would never agree to something as insane as this!” “I would,” the Doctor said slowly, “if I never came to earth.” “You mean to tell me…” I said, in slow realization. “The man standing there is indeed me,” the Doctor explained “Or at least, a flesh copy of himself that’s also technically me, but he never came to earth. Instead, he stayed on Gallopfrey through a terrible war that wiped out the Time Lords…” His eyes showed deep guilt. Was he responsible somehow? “The war that destroyed all the Time Lords within the universe,” Thirteen said, his tone grave. “The one that spread across countless worlds and universes, but it all ended in hell. Millions of worlds destroyed, millions of species caught in the crossfire, all across time. The worst part? It technically will never end.” “What is he talking about, Doctor?” I asked, looking at him warily. “In order to stop the time war from destroying the universe,” the Doctor said in a broken voice, “I had to put a Time Lock on it. The Time Lords trapped inside are in a constant loop, never to stop the war and the fighting, never to rest, and it’s all my fault.” “Doctor,” I said in shock, as I slowly backed away from him. How could he do that? Force his people to fight forever like that. Was there no other choice in the matter? “As a result of your meddling,” Thirteen said robotically, “you are to be eliminated along with Preventus Phelps Eye, and history will no longer be changed.” “You’re nuts!” I cried. “History will change! It will change for the better! You’re not the Doctor, and you never were!” The Doctor blinked at my tirade “The entire time he was here he thought of only one thing, that was getting me home. This man here has faced down beasts that I could only dream about. He’s faced more then you’ll ever see in your life. The reason I’ll never let you destroy him is, for all the horrible things he’s done, he’s still my friend! He’s done more good in each of his twelve lifetimes then I’ve ever done in mine!” “Private…” the Doctor smiled at me, albeit a little sadly. “Enough!” Thirteen yelled, as he gestured to this blaster wielding self. “Kill them both now!” “Before you do,” the Doctor said with a smirk, “you may want to hang onto something.” “Why’s that?” Thirteen asked, looking confused. “Because the whole time Private and I have been talking with you,” he announced, his smirk becoming a wide grin, “we’ve just been stalling until the lightning hit!” Suddenly the cable lit up with as lightning struck the clock tower. The Tardis roared to life as the sabotage was overridden. I yanked Blackbird out of my trench coat and shot the blaster wielding ginger. He cried in shock but another shot to his chest caused him to fall over. He soon melted into the milk like substance as the Doctor used his own sonic screwdriver on the last one. He too melted before my eyes. The Doctor ran to the controls as I looked at the substance. I was about to touch it when the Doctor cried “Don’t! If you touch it they’ll gain a sample of your DNA and you really don’t want that.” I backed away from the substance as the Tardis began rocking and asked, “We outta here?” “I just got us into the time vortex,” the Doctor shouted, running around and flipping switches like crazy, “but something’s following us!” “Following us?” I cried, suddenly I felt the Tardis rock and I held onto a rail for support. “Who can follow us through time?” “How do you think?” he snapped. “His own Tardis.” “He’s got one?” I asked as the ship rocked again, “What’s he doing?” The Doctor cursed under his breath as he looked at the screen. “He’s managed to salvage some weaponry somehow. He probably got it the same place he got the blasters, off the Corsair’s Tardis” “You’re saying he’s got weapons?” I cried, holding on for dear life as the Tardis banked and flew through the vortex. “Do we have anything to fire back at him?” “No,” the Doctor said, holding onto the consul for support, “my Tardis was a museum model. She was never designed for combat.” “How the hell can you miss a Tardis?” I asked. “Sexy,” I cringed at the name, “probably could’ve detected it, right?” “It’s because it had a perfect hiding place,” the Doctor speculated, frowning. “Where is the safest place in a storm?” “The Eye,” I answered, and then I blinked. “He was hiding in the singularity storm!” “Then he used it to send us back in time,” the Doctor said as he smiled. “That’s brilliant!” “Doctor, not to rain on your parade,” I cried, pointing behind us, “but the milk is moving!” The Doctor and I looked on in horror as the flesh began moving again. It morphed itself in a grotesque creature with slimy skin, sharp fangs and long limbs. The three of them glared at us. “Private, companionship lesson 101,” the Doctor quipped, “when faced with giant scary monsters, RUN!” We both took off into the halls of the Tardis. The beasts were hot on our tails. I looked over at the Doctor and yelled, “Can’t you use your sonic screwdriver on them again?” “The battery’s out!” the Doctor cried as we rounded a corner, narrowly avoiding a slice from one of the flesh. “We’re sitting ducks in here!” We rounded another corner and came to a dead end. We looked back and saw the flesh walking towards us. They hissed threats and sharpened their limbs in preparation for their strike. I looked inside Blackbird. “No ammo, I left most it back in the main area.” The Doctor looked on at the flesh coming towards us, we had nowhere to run. The Doctor looked over at me and said, “Private, I’m going to be a distraction. I’ll charge them, and you run for the exit.” “I’m not leaving you behind!” I retorted. “Private, there’s no room for argument!” he cried. “Go when I clear a way!” “You’re not sacrificing yourself for me!” I shouted. “I can’t live with myself if-“ “You think I can?” he yelled at me. “You think I want to see another friend of mine get killed?” I noticed his eyes were failed with tears. “I can't bear to lose anybody else.” Doctor, you’re afraid to lose me, like you’ve lost so many others. So many people, all came into this Tardis. They left, sometimes because they wanted to, sometimes because they needed to, and sometimes they didn’t have a choice. However, they would do it all again, for you. Which is why, I will not let you die. The chanting began… Tenacity appeared around my neck and a cord of light connected me and the Doctor. Then other cords of light grew out of the doctor. I saw hundreds of ponies surrounding him, all connected by the light cords. The Doctor looked on each of them as we all rose into the air. With a firm nod we both turned towards the flesh. Suddenly the Doctor’s eyes became bright gold, and a golden light surrounded him. The light moved almost like a snake around the flesh, causing them to shriek in agony. Somehow, the light felt familiar… Nobody hurts my thief… Tardis, you’re fighting back too… The flesh was sent out through the halls, wrapped in the golden light. Suddenly they vanished into thin air. The Doctor and I followed the light and came back to the main area. The light opened the door, and outside was the singularity storm. I watched with wide eyes as the light surrounded it, and suddenly the storm vanished forever… The Doctor and I landed softly on the Tardis floor. He cheered in sheer delight, “That was brilliant, Private! Using the heart of the Tardis and the Element of Tenacity together! An unstoppable force and an immovable object! Making the force take out the flesh because it was the weakest! Sheer brilliance!” “Yeah,” I sighed, feeling very tired as Tenacity disappeared from around my neck, “I could use a nap right now.” I fell over just as the Doctor walked up to the consul. He smiled down at me and said, “Now, let’s see about getting you home.” __________________________________________________________ I was lying on something soft. I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes to the light of morning. The radio in the distance was playing some song I didn’t know. I looked up and saw Twilight looking down at me with concerned eyes. “Thank Celestia, you’re awake,” she said with relief. “Twilight?” I blinked. “Twilight!” I cried, as I reached up and embraced my marefriend. She gave a little squeak in surprise at being suddenly hugged, but slowly she returned it. “Private, are you okay?" she asked. "You act like you haven’t seen me in weeks.” I haven’t but she didn’t need to know that. I just gave her my best smile. “Well, it felt like weeks. I had the craziest night mare-“ I looked around; this was not the same house I was in when I left. The house was decked out with art pieces, a piano in the corner, an elaborate fireplace; I was in a rich pony’s house. I blinked and looked at Twilight, asking, “What’s all this?” She raised an eyebrow and replied, “My parent's house.” “When did your parents spruce the place up?” I asked, looking around. “Private, it’s always been like this,” she said, putting a hoof on my forehead with concern. “You sure you’re feeling all right?” “Actually,” I said with a smile, “I’ve never felt better.” The door opened and inside came Shining with Cadence by his side. She was still pregnant, very pregnant. The couple smiled upon seeing us. “Look Shining,” Cadence said, “They’re already playing doctor.” Twilight and I blushed at the thought, as Twilight quickly withdrew her hoof from my forehead. Shining gave me a smirk “You two weren’t involved in any monkey business while we were out were you?” “No!” Twilight retorted, her face a deep scarlet “I get enough teasing from mom! I don’t need you guys to do it too!” Wait, Velvet teases her? When did this happen? “How long was I out?” I asked. “Some stallion brought you here,” Shining explained. “A guy by the name of Time Turner, he said you passed out or something.” Cadence walked to me and asked with concern, “Are you alright, Private? What were you doing last night?” “I was, um,” I replied with a shrug, “running a few errands. I was really tired after them and headed back here.” I rubbed the back of my head. “I don’t really remember much else to be honest.” “As long as you’re okay,” Twilight said with a smile. “That’s all that matters.” The door opened and I saw a couple enter. “Now, Velvet, I think I deserve a rematch.” It was Night Light and Velvet, though they looked much better. Night Light was dressed in a fine suit, and though his mane showed some signs of grey, it wasn't nearly as much as before. Velvet also looked better, her coat was shinier, her mane looked recently styled, and she looked thinner too. She winked at her husband and replied, “You can’t prove I cheated back there.” “I’m just saying that some beautiful mare was wiggling her flank at me,” Night Light said with a wide grin, “and I couldn’t help but take notice, just as I ran into that pole.” “You should just watch where you’re going” she said as she smiled and kissed Night Light's cheek. I fought the urge to faint at the sight of them. “You guys look,” I fought for the right word and settled on, “great!” “Why, thank you, Private,” Velvet smiled and walked towards me. Her smile was a stark contrast to before where she scowled at me every five minutes. Now she was gloriously joyful. She looked over at Twilight and asked, “How is your patient, hon?” “He’s fine, mom” Twilight answered, rolling her eyes, trying to hide her embarrassment. “He did mumble something in his sleep, but he should be fine.” “That’s good to hear,” Velvet said, with a happy smile. “Wouldn’t want my little girl’s sweetheart to get sick now.” “Mom!” Twilight cried, turning red. Cadence giggled at the sight of her. “I’m just teasing, Twilight,” her mom assured. “I think you’ve gotten yourself a wonderful special somepony.” “Thank you, ma'am,” I said, smiling genuinely. “It’s nice to know you approve.” “Well, who wouldn't want their daughter to be with such a polite, sweet and caring stallion.” She gave a small laugh and continued, “If you’re willing to take on Nightmare Moon for her, you’re good in my book.” So I managed to get in good with one parent. Now to see if Night Light is good… “Well, I was planning on taking us all to brunch,” Night Light said, putting a foreleg around his wife. “We’ll just take the carriage up.” “Isn’t it totaled?” I asked without thinking. “What?” they all cried in unison, and made for the door. I looked out and Shining chuckled and said with relief, “Nah, Graff is cleaning it right now.” Graff by contrast didn’t look like he did when I'd first seen him. He was fatter, had a clear hair line and was cleaning the carriage. He smiled and gave a small wave as he went about his business. Night Light called out to him, “Now remember, two coats of wax this time, Graff!” “I’m just putting on the second one now!” Graff answered. Night Light sighed, “Now Graff, don’t try and con me!” He gave a small flash of his magic as a warning. Graff went back to work like there was no tomorrow. Was it a family trait for all of the guys in Twilight’s family to look scary when wielding magic? Night Light just chuckled and closed the door “Graff, what a character.” he said as he walked over to a nearby chair and started sorting through some files. Then he looked over at Velvet lovingly and said, “Of course, if it wasn’t for him, we never would’ve met.” “You’re such a sweet heart,” Velvet said gazing fondly back, before walking over and kissing her husband on the lips. Cadence gave a happy giggle at the scene. Shining smiled over at me and said, “You’ll have to excuse Cadence, she gets like this every time I bring her over.” “I can’t help it, Shining,” Cadence said, bumping him with her flank. “There’s just so much love in the house, I can’t help but smile.” “That’s Cadence for you.” Shining smiled and gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek, just as Graff came in. Graff was holding a package in his magic. “Night Light! It just came in!” He announced, walking over and set the package on the table. “I think it’s your new book!” Book? Night Light finished that novel? Velvet went about opening the package and the family gathered around to look at it. She levitated up a novel which showed a stylized version of the Doctor, with a mare and a stallion sitting across from each other. “A Match Made in the Stars” the title read. Night Light held the novel and said proudly, “When you put your mind to it-“ “You can accomplish anything,” Shining and Twilight chanted, causing both to laugh. “I’m going to fix up that carriage, Night Light,” Graff said, walking outside. After watching Graff leave, I got a better look at the book. I smiled at Night Light’s picture on the back. Night Light looked at me with a smile and said, “You can go ahead and keep it, Private.” “I couldn’t” I said. “Think of it as a welcoming present,” he insisted with a smile. Twilight walked over and pressed her coat against me, “See, and here you were worried about not making a good impression.” I smiled at the whole family. I didn’t change history much. However, I did give Night Light the confidence to follow his dreams. I also saved a marriage from its inevitable failure. All while leaving a good impression with Twilight's parents! Can this day get any better? Suddenly Cadence’s violet eyes grew wide, she looked at Shining and said, “Honey?” “Yes, dear?” her husband asked. “Don’t panic, okay?” “What’s wrong?” Shining asked, suddenly looking panicked. “My water just broke!” EpilogueCase 18 Epilogue Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured. ~Ambrose Bierce It took us about ten minutes to get Cadence to a hospital. The whole time she was screaming in pain as her baby wanted to come out. I kept having flashbacks to the last time I was in the hospital when a baby was being born. I couldn't get the sound of Cadence crying as she was being taken away by the nurses out of my head. I sat on a chair in the lobby, looking down at my hooves. Shining was inside with his wife and the doctors as the baby was being born. Twilight’s parents were nearby, waiting quietly for their grandchild. I felt a gentle rub on my back, I turned to see Twilight’s concerned amethyst eyes. “Private, you’ve been very quiet ever since we got here,” she said gently. “Sorry,” I replied, as my ears flattened a little. “I’m just thinking about my mom.” Twilight wrapped her foreleg around me and rested her head on my shoulder. “It’s all right," she assured me, "the doctors know what they’re doing.” “I know,” I said, returning my gaze to my hooves, “that doesn’t make me any less anxious.” “You’d think it was your own kid,” Twilight said with a little laugh, trying to lighten the mood. “Well, she and Shining are good friends of mine” I replied with a faint smile. “I just want to make sure they come out all right.” Twilight just smiled and pressed her muzzle to mine “I think it's very sweet of you to think about us like that, despite us not being family.” Yet… Suddenly the doors opened and in stepped Princess Celestia herself. Everypony in the room bowed for a minute before Celestia came to speak to Twilight and I, “So, I heard that my dear niece is having her foal?” Twilight nodded in excitement and replied, “Yes Princess Celestia, she’s in there right now!” Celestia laughed at Twilight’s enthusiasm and said, “I’m happy to hear that, she will be lucky to have such a brilliant aunt.” Twilight blushed at her teacher’s praise. I looked around, and asked the question lingering in my mind “Where are Cadence’s parents?” Celestia’s face formed a frown. I felt a little guilty at bringing up a prossibly a sore subject. Finally the princess simply stated, “They’re not with us anymore.” “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, bowing my head in apology. “Your curious nature would’ve led you to find out anyway,” Celestia mused, but then her expression turned serious. “Cadence’s parents ruled a small country long ago. When that country was destroyed I adopted her as my niece. She, however, has family right here for her.” “We’ll be there for her,” Twilight nodded determinedly. “Shining is in there now, she’ll be okay.” “Now, Private,” Celestia said, looking over at me “If you’ll excuse me and my student for a bit?” “Sure,” I replied with a nod. I was strolling down the hallway when Night Light walked up to me. His expression was serious as he asked, “Private, can we talk alone?” I nodded and we headed outside. As we sat down together on a small bench, he asked, “Private, you’ve been with my daughter for a while, haven’t you?” “We’ve known each other for several months now,” I said, with a small smile. “It’s been quite an adventure.” He smiled in turn and said, “I have to ask then, are you serious about my daughter? Would you want to be with her forever?” I thought about it for a moment. Twilight was brilliant, beautiful, sweet, and supportive. She’d make a great wife one day, but the real question I felt, was am I ready? I don’t know yet, I felt like there’s still some things I have to deal with. There was so much I still wanted to learn about Twilight. I decided that my answer was thus: “Yeah, someday,” I said, with a smile on my face. He nodded firmly and spoke honestly, “Private, I’ve read all about your adventures with her. You two do some dangerous things on your cases.” Crap! Time travel also made him responsible! He gave a small laugh and said, “I know you have her best interests at heart each time you take her along, and I know you’ll be there for her. So when you figure everything out, I’d love to have you as a son in law.” I blinked in sheer shock; Night Light said he wanted me as a son in law? I felt my face turn a deep scarlet at the thought of marrying Twilight. I shook my head and asked, “What makes you think I’m the one?” “You remind me of somepony,” he said, almost too himself, “somepony I used to know, a long time ago.” I smiled and said, “Someday I will get the courage to ask Twilight, but I still have some things in my life to figure out before I do.” “I understand,” Night Light nodded. “I wanted to make sure, but I hope you can keep her safe until then.” “I promise I’ll keep her safe,” I vowed. “I love her Night Light, more then anything I’ve ever loved.” “Make it a promise…” he said as he extended his hoof. We shook right then, I felt, confident. Like I could take on the whole world after that. I’m guessing taking on crazy doctors can do that to you. Speaking of which… I looked past Night Light and saw the Doctor leaning on his Tardis. He gave me a small wave and I said to Night Light, “I gotta take care of something, I’ll meet you back inside.” “All right,” Twilight’s dad nodded, “I’ll see you soon.” He walked past me and added in a low whisper, “Son…” That no good, he’s worse then dad is! I’m starting to regret fixing his past. I just shrugged and walked over to the Doctor. He gave me a smile and said, “You’ve really made their lives better, Private.” “That thing you said,” I asked, “about time being rewritten? Was I right to do that?” “I normally try not to change history,” the Doctor answered, “but, in my opinion I think you handled it well.” “What about Thirteen?” I asked. “Did we destroy him?” “Possibly,” the Doctor said, rubbing his chin in thought, “but, the question is who opened the door in the first place? That’s what I’m prepared to find out.” “I wish you luck then,” I said with a smile. “You know,” he said slowly, “I could use a guy like you once in a while.” “Are you asking me to come along?” I asked with a blink. “Maybe not now,” he said, “but someday we might run into each other again.” “I hope so, Doc.” “Don’t call me, Doc,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Makes me sound too weird.” “So where are you off to, Doctor?” I asked. “I was thinking,” he said in thought, “I’ve been to the past enough, time to focus on the future.” “Hook me up when you get there,” I said, as he opened his Tardis. The Doctor was about to enter when he said suddenly, “Oh, keep the key, it could be useful to you.” “You sure?” I asked. “This way you’ll know whenever I’m in the neighborhood,” he said, before walking inside his Tardis. “See you around Private, take care of that mare of yours.” “I will,” I said as the door closed in front of me. I saw the Tardis vanish slowly into thin air. That Doctor, so much I don’t know about him, but, maybe that’s the reason why so many come along. Maybe they wanted to get to know him… Could also be the reason why many choose to leave… __________________________________________________________ It was about two hours of waiting before a nurse finally let us in. I followed Twilight who was following behind Celestia as we rounded the corner into the hospital room. Celestia stayed outside as I entered with Twilight’s family. We got inside and I saw arguably, the most wonderful thing in the world. I saw Cadence lying on a hospital bed, with a small bundle in her forelegs. Her husband was standing beside her, looking down in wonder at the bundle. Twilight ran to Cadence’s bedside and spoke excitedly, “Cadence! What is it? Is it a unicorn? What’s her coat color? What kind of eyes does she-“ “Calm down, Twilight,” Cadence said, looking tired. “You’re starting to act like Pinkie Pie.” Twilight flushed as Velvet stood beside her daughter and said, “So, let’s all see our grandchild.” Cadence gently moved the blanket and I saw the foal for the first time. She was a deeper shade of pink then her mother. Her mane was curly with yellow and periwinkle colors in it. Her big blue eyes slowly opened and she squealed in delight at the sight of her mother. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack from the sheer cuteness she had. Cadence nuzzled her daughter gently, I noticed a small stub of a horn on the baby’s head. She was a unicorn? “She’s beautiful, Cadence,” Shining said, nuzzling his daughter affectionately. The little filly reached her tiny hooves and hugged her father’s muzzle. This caused everypony in the room to sigh in delight at her. Twilight walked to her niece, smiled down at her, and cooed, “Hi there, I’m your Aunt Twilight.” The filly gave a small laugh of delight and reached her tiny hooves for her. Twilight obliged and gently nuzzled the filly. The filly gave a laugh and reached to hung Twilight’s horn, that’s when I saw them… She had wings! Cadence’s baby was an Alicorn! “Congratulations, you two,” Celestia said as she entered. “Aunt Tia,” Cadence cried, “you made it!” Then she looked a little guilty. “I hope I’m not keeping you from anything…” “And miss my niece’s foal being born?” Celestia replied in a mock hurt tone. “Not for all the cake in Equestria.” The memory of her carnivorous habits with the dessert brought a small smile to my face. Celestia walked past us and looked down at the Alicorn filly “And an Alicorn as well? Truly a blessing she is.” The filly gave a smile at Tia, she really just couldn’t stop smiling could she? “So what’s her name?” Twilight asked eagerly. “Well, we thought a lot about it,” Shining said, looking at his sister then at his daughter, “her name is Princess Sklyandea Mi’Amore Armor.” He gave a small laugh. “Skyla for short.” “That’s a wonderful name,” Celestia mused. “Now if you all will excuse me, I have royal duties to attend to.” She turned and was prepared to walk away… Until Skyla did something odd, the little princess was looking right at me. Her blue eyes seemed to, I don’t know, study me. She then reached out a hoof, as if saying she wanted me to come over. I looked over at Cadence, “Are you sure it’s okay? I mean, I’m not one-“ “She wants to see you for whatever reason.” Cadence said, as confused as I was. The she just smiled and said, “I think it’s only right she meet her future uncle.” “Cadence!” both Twilight and I cried at the same time. Everypony else in the room laughed at our reactions. Skyla kept her odd expression; she just kept staring at me. I slowly walked to the little princess and held out a hoof, “Hi there, I’m Private.” She tilted her head then took my hoof in her tiny ones. She then started reaching more. What was she trying to get? She obviously wanted something on me. I moved a little closer until she could reach my chest. Suddenly Skyla’s little horn glowed a sharp blue. Was this something an Alicorn could do at such a young- I felt a weight around my neck, Tenacity was hung on my chest, displaying its eye symbol proudly. Skyla was reaching for it, gently picking up the diamond element in her little hooves. She stared at it with sheer fascination. Was she interested in the Elements of Harmony for some reason? How’d she get it to appear? So many questions bounced around my head as Skyla stared at my element. Then she put the diamond in her mouth and went back to being cute again. Cadence took her daughter back with a light scolding for “trying to gobble up an important artifact” However, it was all taken as kids being kids. Skyla subsequently curled up into her mother’s pink fur and fell asleep, snoring lightly. “She has her dad’s sleeping habits it seems,” Cadence teased. We all just watched the little filly, sleeping soundly against her mother. I gave one last look to Celestia, as she walked away. Her expression… I just couldn’t read it at all. ___________________________________________________________ Perspective: The Doctor I sighed as I leaned against the Tardis consul. That was truly a close one. I was almost afraid Private would be stuck there. Thankfully everything turned out all right in the- I smiled, looked above me and said, “You know, it’s no fun being brilliant if nobody is here looking impressed.” “What if I’m brilliant too?” a voice asked above me. “You don’t count, you were born from me,” I smirked, just as she appeared in front of me. She tossed her blond mane and gave me a wide smile. I ran to her and threw my forelegs around her tightly, “Oh I’m sorry you had to put up that act.” She smiled at me, her horn glowed a little and her coat became the same brown as mine. Her blond mane remained the same, however. She pressed her muzzle against mine and said, “I missed you Dad.” “I missed you too, Jenny.” I said, nuzzling her back. “You were brilliant, we had those gingers taken care of.” I gave her a wink. “Nice touch with the manure wagon there.” She smirked at me and said,“Well, I did learn from the best after all.” She then gave me a light push and walked to the consul, petting it gently. “Hey sexy, keeping my dad out of trouble, are you?” A clank followed by two whirs on the consul was Sexy’s answer, “I know he’s a pain in the ass, but we gotta love him, it’s kind of the rules.” I frowned and said defiantly, “I’m not that much of a pain…” She looked back at me with now green eyes and replied, “Sorry Dad, we kind of outvote you.” “So,” I said, as I walked to her, watching her swing her hind legs as she sat on the consul. “Using a perception filter on little Twinkle to allow her to see her dad without causing a stir?” I smiled at her. “That was pretty clever.” “Not as clever as using River’s personality to mask who I really was.” She frowned and asked, “She’s going to kill me isn’t she?” “Eh,” I replied, dismissively, “she’ll just go on some crazy adventure with me and all will be forgiven.” “I hope so, Dad,” she said, leaning back a little. “So, care to explain what you’re doing with a certain grey Pegasus?” she asked, a giddy smile on her face. “Care to explain what you’re doing with a certain captain?” I retorted. “Nothing’s going on,” she whined. “Jack just was showing me some tech.” “Just so long as that was all he was showing,” I said, slipping into father mode. It happens overtime she comes around, I couldn’t help it to be honest. She crossed her forelegs in defiance, “Fine, but I’ve known you to be eyeing that pegasus’ flank.” She then gave me a light smirk and teased,“getting feisty despite old age?” “It’s not like that and you know it,” I retorted, putting my sonic screwdriver in to recharge. “So, moving on before this conversation get’s any more strange,” I looked over at her and asked curiously, “What do you think?” “Of that detective?” She gave it some thought and then said teasingly, “Not much of a fighter, if I were in there I could break that Graff’s bones like-“ “That’s not what I meant” I retorted. “I’m just kidding, Dad,” she replied with a laugh. “In all honesty, I think this’ll all work out in the end…” I looked over at her in all seriousness and asked, “The future you went to before I found you, what was it like?” “It’s best I show you,” she said, tapping some switches and pulling levers on the consul. The Tardis rumbled a bit and she looked over at me. “Prepare yourself, Dad, it’s not pretty.” I walked to the Tardis door and slowly opened it. We landed on a small cliff that gave us a good view of the area that used to be Ponyville. I say used to be because all that was left of the charming little town was some ruins and the bleak landscape surrounding it. Jenny walked to stand beside me, “We are two hundred years in Equestria’s future…” “What caused this?” I asked, looking out at the dead land before me. Jenny looked over at me, her green eyes meeting my own, and replied, “Something caused the zebra and the ponies to go to war with one another. They fired off all these mega spells at each other. I saw the battle from space, it was horrible. On top of that, somebody swiped my blaster when I landed.” “All of this somehow ties into Private somehow?” I asked. “Yep,” she said with a nod, “something terrible is going to happen.” She looked down, and pulled up a small ruined poster. “Dad, come and take a look at this.” I looked over at her; on the poster was propaganda about “Serving the princess” my eyes grew wide. There on the poster was Twilight Sparkle. She had wings, and her eyes were glowing bright green… Somehow in the future, all this will come about. I looked over at Jenny and asked, “You know how she could’ve gotten this way?” She nodded and answered seriously, “You know that blue mist stuff that almost got you a few days ago? Oh yeah, that’s probably the cause.” “The real question is,” I mused, as I looked at the poster, “at what point in history does Twilight become like this?” “Now you know why I brought Twinkle along,” she said, tossing the poster aside. “She can’t fall, Twilight needs Private.” “So, looks like we gotta keep playing matchmaker then,” I said with a smile. “Well, we have done stranger things,” she answered with a laugh. It was good to have her around again. Jenny may have been in disguise, but what she said was right on the money. I needed somebody to keep me from falling when my legs gave out. The sad thing is, I needed companions around. It gets very lonely in the wide universe but, life will always somehow get you friends in unexpected places. Even out of a hand I don’t have anymore. _____________________________________________________________ Perspective: Voidera Tia and I stood in front of the stain glass window depicting Discord’s third defeat at the hooves of the elements of harmony. Private was in the middle of a circle of elements, displaying his element proudly. I looked over at Tia “You’re sure?” “There’s no doubt in my mind” She said firmly “Skyla’s reaction to Private’s element proves that she does indeed recognize him.” “Nearly a millennium,” I said in reflection, “Lunard will come soon…” “He will be looking for Skyla,” she said with a slow nod. “Sombra will also try and pursue Private as well, to claim what was stolen from him.” “We must do everything in our power to keep them out of either’s hooves,” I stated firmly, “but we mustn’t deny what needs to be done.” “Must they be tested?” Tia asked. “Surely the Element’s-“ “Their power alone is hardly going to be enough anymore,” I replied. “Lunard is going to look for any weakness he can exploit, and he will not be above claiming Skyla as his own.” “Such an innocent creature,” Tia closed her eyes. “Perhaps it was wrong to ask Eclipse to do as he did.” “You know why he stole it,” I replied. “He did it to save…” “I know,” she answered. “That’s why Skyla recognizes Tenacity. It was originally meant to be hers. The true line of the Crystal Kingdom, the children of Aria, is alive through Cadence and Skyla. Sombra will try and seize them.” “This is why we must have Private use Tenacity for a little while longer,” I stated. “I hate to put him in danger, but it’s for the best.” “It shouldn’t have to be this way,” Celestia said, looking at me. “Lunard will-“ “Will not be stopped by just us two,” I interrupted. “War is coming, Lunard knows what we can do now. He will come again…and he will try and take this world again.” “Then we must prepare,” she said, walking to a small book. “I’ve already given Luna everything she will require. Lunard will not use her again, and even with that we will still require more to help.” “What of the Changelings?” I asked “Swarm has helped free them.” “A hive of them,” Celestia pointed out. “Even then you know Chyrsalis will require little persuading to side with Lunard-“ She was cut off at my expression. “Don’t think what I know you’re thinking.” “I know, Tia,” I answered, keeping my expression, “but even still, had I tried to help her more…” “Starbright would still have fallen,” she said with a slow shake of her head. “She wasn’t in love with you Voidera, she was in love with your namesake. That is what destroyed her, not you.” “So where does that leave us now?” I asked. “We will allow the Elements to be tested,” she said firmly, “Twilight most of all.” “You’re still considering-“ “If it means protecting Equestria I’m willing to try it,” she answered. “It’s dangerous,” I retorted. “You and I both know what could happen” “You don’t think I know that?” she yelled at me “My own father is planning on destroying everything we built! The bastard child of a faithful student is planning on taking over the Crystal Empire! Now I have to put another student in jeopardy! You think I want any of this?” I slowly shook my head and nuzzled her, allowing her to dry her tears on me. “No, I know you don’t want to,” I said soothingly. “But it has to be done.” She met my eyes. “I hate putting them in danger.” “As do I, my love,” I answered, “but your subjects are stronger then you think. They will succeed where we failed.” “You will test Private then?” She asked., “I know where to start” I said, looking back at the stain glass window “Also, are you sure Discord will be willing to help?” “He has little love for Lunard himself” Tia explained. “I have yet to see any being fail to be moved by Fluttershy. For all that he has done, his power will be useful.” “It’s slowly recovering,” I explained. “Better to reform him now while there’s still a chance to put him back.” “All of this,” she said, meeting my eyes again, “all of this, will help in the end.” “So long as the Elements remain strong.” I looked up at Private in the stained glass and said, “He is much like Eclipse from the memories I’ve seen…” “Eclipse was a noble pony,” Celestia said with a smile. “He took Tenacity so that young Crystallite wouldn’t have too.” “Let us hope he will be able to face what is coming as Eclipse did, for all our sakes…” _____________________________________________________ Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… Thirteen has gone down… But he is a fool, blind to his duty… Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… The Doctor will try and fix everything, he always tries… Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… But he will lose eventually, Yes he will… Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… For I’m coming… He can’t win this time, I have help… Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… Very, ussseful…help… Indeed…. Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… Bang....Bang...Bang...Bang...
Chapter 1 "Meet the Parents"Equestria Noir Case 18 “Back to the Present” By: Jacoboby1 and ShatteredIllusions Chapter 1 “Meet the Parents” “I’m Late! I’m Late! For a very important date! No time to say hello goodbye! I’m Late! I’m Late! I’m Late!” Alice in Wonderland Most ponies ask others to house sit whenever they go away. I think I’m probably the first pony to ever Tardis sit, however. You see about two weeks ago the Doctor said he was going to do some surveying of the area. He didn’t want to move his Tardis for whatever reason, so he left it in the woods. As one of the few ponies in town who knows who he is and what he does I was drafted to look after the thing. I didn’t have much else to do since no cases have come up since Manehattan about a week ago. This is why on this rather nice snowy evening I’m forced to trudge through the snow to look after a blue box with groceries on my back. I walked through the snow and up the hill to where the blue box was. I still had trouble comprehending the whole “Bigger on the inside then it is on the outside” thing. Being a slight sci-fi nut however, I couldn’t help but admire the machine. I reached into my trench coat and pulled out the key the Doctor gave me. I used it to unlock the door and stepped inside. Shaking some snow off me, I set the bags in the center of the spacious interior. The one thing I noticed that were different this time, was that there were clocks everywhere. Alarm clocks, digital clocks, sundials, even a large grandfather clock. With the Doctor you quickly learn not to ask, just go with it. The time was almost 7:00 P.M. So, I still had an hour before I had to make the train. I sat on my haunches and started reading the biography of Starswirl the Bearded, Twilight said I should start looking into books about or by him for answers about Tenacity. So far, looking inside his diaries have proven fruitless. Aside from coming up with several spells in his lifetime, there wasn’t too much information on his life. However, I did see one passage that intrigued me… “Starswirl’s personal life is largely shrouded in mystery. He rarely talked about his past with friends or loved ones. As far as friends went though, he did exchange frequent letters with an astronomer named Eclipse. Records on this astronomer are rare and Starswirl never spoke of the stallion in his lifetime. Outside research however, has uncovered that Eclipse used to live in the area where Manehattan stands today. Eclipse led a rather reclusive life. He had little contact with others and only really spoke to his nephew Nocturne.” Nocturne? My ancestor? Starswirl knew one of my ancestors? Did he have Tenacity? So many questions ringed in my mind as the paragraph went nowhere. It went on to talk about something about Starswirl journeying north, but no more information about Eclipse. Whoever Eclipse was, he had to be important if Starswirl would go so far to hi- I stopped my train of thought when I heard a soft giggle. I looked around for the source of the sound. The Tardis was bare; nopony was aboard aside from me, right? I reached into my trench coat and pulled out Blackbird. After two minutes of looking warily about I only heard the sounds of the clocks ticking and the Tardis’ machinery going. Then I heard the giggle again. I turned and saw a hallway where I saw a flash of magenta turn round a corner. Twilight? No, she doesn’t know about the Tardis. Anyway, why would she hide from me? I walked forward cautiously down the hallway. Just how big was this place? I rounded another corner and heard the giggling again. Then I saw a little head peek around a corner. She was a unicorn filly, with a magenta coat and a long dark brown mane. Those violet eyes…it couldn’t be…this is impossible! She giggled again and ran down another hallway out of sight. I chased after her and called “Hey! Get back here!” She just giggled as I chased her around more and more corridors. Just who was she? Was she the filly from that vision? The one that called me… I rounded one final corner and came into a strange room. It was small, out of the way and the walls were covered with pictures. Probably hundreds of pictures of various ponies on the walls, all of them had names under them. It was like a high school yearbook almost, with each picture having a small caption underneath. I picked one out at random; it showed a rather simple looking earth pony mare with long, striking red hair. The name and caption read “Donna Noble, worst wedding ever, best excuse to miss it.” I guess time travel would be a crazy excuse to miss a bad wedding. Another one, a younger unicorn pony with a blond mane “Rose Tyler, always with you, even across a universe.” You know, it’s impolite to pry into things you shouldn’t. I fell back in shock and saw my horn was glowing grey. I let out a breath of relief as it was only the Tardis talking. A while back I discovered that my magic could somehow allow me to communicate with the blue box. It scared me the first couple of times but I eventually got used to it. I remembered why I came here in the first place and asked “Tardis, did anypony get on you aside from the Doctor and I?” I don’t detect any other life forms. Is something the matter? “I thought I saw a unicorn filly around here,” I said, looking around the empty room. “Bout seven, with a magenta coat and a brown mane.” I don’t see anything on the cameras, are you feeling well? I sighed, it probably was nothing and I was getting paranoid. I looked at the pictures in front of me and asked, “Who are all these ponies?” Well, they weren’t initially ponies. On this wall used to be pictures of other companions the Doctor had. However, when we came to this universe they changed into ponies. I’m guessing since your kind are the dominant species on this world they changed to accommodate. “There’s so many of them,” I observed. “When did he start adding the pictures?” Fairly recently actually, before we came here he just started putting up the pictures for no reason I can discern. I’m guessing old age has made him sentimental. He has lived an incredibly long time, this is his twelfth life after all. There were so many companions here, my eyes fell on two ponies I actually recognized. Ditzy and Lyra were on the wall! They were companions? Riiing!!! I left that thought and ran back to the central chamber. I picked up the receiver with my magic and spoke into it, “Hello?” “Ah Private! How’s the Tardis doing?” “She’s doing quite well,” I said on my end, leaning against the consul. “Now are you going to tell me what’s so important you would leave your Tardis behind?” “I’ve been running around Equestria because something seems a little off. For some reason, time seems to be acting wonky in some areas. I had to leave the Tardis behind because I’m worried it may be a paradox. Hopefully it’s just my imagination. So anyway, when you get the time tonight I’d like you to come over to the Twin Oaks mall.” “What do you need me for?” I asked. “You’ll be in that area for that dinner date you have and I’ll need some assistance. It’s always good to have a second set of hooves.” The nervousness of the dinner with Twilight’s parents came rushing back to me. I was beyond nervous at the prospect at meeting her parents. I hoped I didn’t make a complete idiot of myself. At least I got plenty of time unt- Suddenly every clock in the room went off. They all struck the hour, ringing with loud gongs. I covered my free ear to better hear the Doctor. “Are those the clocks?” “Yeah!” I shouted over the noise. “What time do they say?” “7:00,” I answered. “Why?” “I knew it! They’re all exactly one half hour backwards!” “Wait! Doctor, are you saying it’s 7:30?” I shouted in shock. “Precisely!” “I’m going to miss my train!” I cried, slamming the receiver down on it’s hook. I ran out of the Tardis as fast as my legs could carry me. I wasn’t going to miss this date! I was going to make a good impression! Good luck, Daddy… ________________________________________________________ I barely made the train before it left at its 8:15 departure. I walked into the car and found Twilight sitting in one of the seats. I closed the door behind me with a guilty smile and said, “Sorry, I’m late.” She just smiled back and patted the spot next to her. I sat beside her and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I forgive you, I’ll just tell mom and dad that you arrived early.” “Thanks,” I sighed. “I’m so nervous about this whole thing.” “Didn’t you ever meet the parents of an ex-marefriend before?” she asked. “Only really one,” I explained, “and she only had one parent, this time I have to deal with both parents.” “I’m sure they’ll like you,” she said, at least trying to sound confident for me. “Also, I just got a call, Shining and Cadence are coming as well.” “That’s good to hear,” I said. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen those two, how’s the niece?” “She’s coming along any day now,” Twilight squealed, and almost bounced in her seat. “I can’t wait to see her!” I laughed at her enthusiasm and looked out at the rolling countryside. Twilight saw my expression and asked, “What’s wrong?” “It’s just,” I said, with a sigh, “what if they don’t like me? What if they look at me and say, I’m no good, and you deserve better.” She turned my head with her hoof so our eyes met. She pressed her horn against mine affectionately. “You’re one of the strongest, kindest, and smartest stallions I know. I’m sure you’ll do fine.” I felt better after she said that, I nuzzled my marefriend lovingly and said, “Well, I have you there so that helps at least.” ________________________________________________________ We arrived at Canterlot and Luna’s moon shown in the night sky. I looked over at Twilight as we walked down the moonlit streets of the capital. “So what can I expect from them?” She looked away for the briefest of moments and answered reluctantly, “Private, I’ll be honest with you. It’s not going to be so easy to convince mom.” “What do you mean?” I asked nervously. She rolled her eyes. “When she heard I was bringing home a stallion she absolutely freaked. She kept going on and on about ‘How you’re too young, you got your whole life ahead of you, there’s no need to latch onto the first stallion to give you a second glance.’” “What does your dad think about me?” I asked, more nervous than before. “Honestly, he agrees with mom but that’s not a surprise.” She shook her head. “He always just gives into whatever she wants. I swear he doesn’t have a backbone for anything.” “They just care about you,” I said, attempting to reassure her, and myself. “I just hope we can convince them that we can make this work.” She stared into my grey eyes for a while. “Private, I really believe you’re the one.” “Even though I am the first stallion you’ve been with?” I asked worriedly. “I know it,” she said firmly. “When I look back on these last few months, I can’t imagine them without you.” “I can’t imagine them without you either,” I said, gently nuzzling her. We stopped for a minute, just sat on the sidewalk and nuzzled each other. There was no mare I’d rather be with. I was going to make this work. I wanted to… “Save the clock tower!” I heard a voice shout. I turned to my left and saw a rather lanky looking earth pony stallion with a long ginger mane and deep blue eyes. He held a can in front of me with a slot on it “Sorry to bother you two, but the Canterlot preservation society could use some aid.” “What for?” Twilight asked. “For the Clock tower.” He pointed behind us at the large clock tower. “Lord Nickelworth is funding an initiative to replace the tower. Round 40 years ago a huge lightning bolt struck the tower and it hasn’t been working since.” He continued proudly, “We believe it should be preserved exactly as it is to represent Canterlot culture and history.” I gave Twilight a look which she returned with a shrug. I reached into my pockets and tossed in a few bits in the can. He smiled and said, “Thanks, here take a flier.” He gave me a flier that protested the replacement of the clock. I did it more to humor him than anything else, but there was something about that guy. He seemed, strangely familiar. I just left it at that and walked down the street with Twilight by my side. ___________________________________________________ Twilight’s home was a small two story house on the upper terrace of Canterlot. About a fifteen minute walk from the castle now that I think about it. It didn’t have any extravagant decorations on it, just a rather simple house for a family of four. Granted, I’m pretty sure most houses didn’t have a busted up carriage in the front. A couple of ponies were moving the carriage onto the driveway, it had several busted wheels and a nasty fender bender. Twilight sighed and said, “Ugh, not again.” Before I could ask Twilight walked to the front door and knocked on it. I could hear voices on the inside and I peeked in a window to see what was going on. A rather big looking, orange colored unicorn stallion was talking to an older looking blue unicorn stallion. The big one spoke up, “I can’t believe you lend me that carriage of yours, and then forget to tell me it had a loose harness. I could’ve gotten killed!” “Look, I’m sorry, Graff,” the blue unicorn said rather timidly. “I didn’t notice it had a loose harness.” Twilight opened the door and we walked in, the pair of stallions kept their conversation going. “Now I can assume,” the blue unicorn said, trying to sound a little confident, “that your insurance can cover the damage?” “My insurance?” Graff asked. “Night Light, it’s your carriage, your insurance should pay for the damage.” Night Light didn’t even bother to meet his eyes. “Now where are the reports I asked for?” “Well, I haven’t finished those up yet…” The tie he was wearing got yanked by Graff’s magic “They weren’t due until Monday so I thought.” “Hello!” He conked Night Light on the head. “Think, Night Light! I gotta have time to get them retyped. Do you realize what would happen if I turned in my reports in your hoof writing? I’ll get fired.” He slung a foreleg around Night Light’s shoulder. “You wouldn’t want that to happen right?” Night Light hesitated for the briefest of moments; I could tell he was honestly thinking about it, but one look from Graff put him back to his place. “Would you, Night Light?” “No, of course not, Graff.” He suddenly realized Twilight and I heard the whole conversation. He adopted a business tone with the bigger unicorn. “Now I’ll get those reports tomorrow first thing, all right?” I gave Twilight a look but she just kept looking at her father. I could tell she was trying everything in her power to keep herself composed. I watched the unicorn literally walk up to the Sparkle family fridge and take a beer out of it. “Not too early though, I sleep in on Saturdays.” He stopped when he came to me. I held my steel colored gaze at him. He smirked “What’re you looking at, butthead?” A no good dirty rotten asshole who’s clearly extorting the hell out of my marefriend’s dad, and that’s the teen rated version of putting it. I just held my gaze as he walked out the door. He stopped at Twilight for a minute and said, “Say hi to your mom for me.” When he left Twilight let go of all pretense of composure and stomped over to her father. “Dad, what the hay was that about?” “Twilight, honey,” Night Light said, trying to salvage some dignity. “Graff is my supervisor, there’s not much I can do.” “Only because you let him!” Twilight shouted. “Grow a backbone or something!” “We can talk about this later,” he said, pointing to me. Twilight got the hint and flushed in embarrassment. She walked over to me, and put a foreleg around my shoulder, pulling me in. “Dad,” she said with a smile from him to me. “This is Private, I’ve told you about him.” “Oh yeah,” Night Light said with a nod. “The guy you're seeing?” I extended a hoof. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last, sir.” “Well, he’s certainly polite,” he said shaking my hoof still rather timidly. “Everypony else is upstairs, I’ll get them.” He made his way upstairs leaving Twilight and I alone. “Who was the big guy?” I asked. “That was Graff” Twilight sighed “A real pain in the flank ever since dad was a teenager. Dad caves into whatever Graff wants, it’s really annoying.” “He wrecked the carriage,” I pointed out. “Graff should be the one to pay for the damages.” “I wish that would happen” Twilight said again, “but dad seems to like you at least.” “Wouldn’t want to get off on a bad hoof with them,” I said with a smile. “It helps that you’re so polite.” She smirked a little. “If only they could hear your mouth during rounds of Mare Effect 3.” “Hey, that banshee came out of nowhere!” I retorted. Suddenly I felt a prick in the back of my neck. I looked at Twilight and…oh boy. It was like every flaw I could think of about Twilight just melted away. I was in the presence of a goddess among ponies before me. I gazed into her violet eyes and swam in them like the ocean. Her coat glistened like stars in the night sky. I drank in her every feature and I felt my heart beating like a brass drum. She returned my gaze and slowly smiled as well. It was probably the most beautiful smile, no wait it was THE most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. Both of us shouted at the same time once the effects of the spell were recognized. “Cadence!” “Oh Shining, looks like they found us out.” I heard a voice come from the stairs. Descending the steps was Princess Mi’amore Cadenza, or Cadence for short. She had changed little since last I saw her a few months ago. Except for one tiny detail… “Your stomach’s a melon!” I exclaimed as Cadence came to the bottom of the steps. Her belly was incredibly huge! I swear if it got any bigger they’d have to attach a roller skate to the bottom just to have her roll around. She laughed and looked at Twilight. “I’d love to do our greeting but,” she said as she gestured to her belly. “Your little niece wouldn’t like it that much.” “So is it really any day now?” Twilight asked with sparkling eyes. “Should be,” I heard a masculine voice speak from the top of the stairs. Down descended Twilight’s brother Shining Armor. The alabaster unicorn had recovered from the injuries he’d suffered at Canterlot. Twilight ran to embrace both of them when he made it to the bottom of the stairs. I smiled at the scene and then another face descended the steps. She was a grayish white unicorn with a purple and white colored mane. She had three stars on her flank and her blue eyes were eying me. I felt like a uniform again during inspection. She made it to the bottom of the stairs and Twilight spoke up, “Mom, this is Private.” She gestured to me after getting out of her group hug. “He’s the stallion I told you about.” Twilight went to stand beside me and gestured to the mare. “Private, this is my mother, Twilight Velvet.” “Your both named Twilight?” I asked, in surprise. Velvet nodded. “It’s a family tradition on my side, we name all of our firstborn girls Twilight. It goes all the way back to our ancestor who was just called Twilight.” Could it have been the same Twilight who helped banish Nightmare Moon the first time? It seemed likely, I noticed several similarities between them. Velvet smiled a little and said, “I hope you like Hayloaf.” ______________________________________________________ “I didn’t know you cooked, Private,” Shining said, as I put some more of the food on the table. “I’m glad I’m not the only pony who can cook around here.” “I picked up cooking from my parents,” I explained. “Dad and Mom both were good cooks, dad because it was his hobby, and mom because she needed to know how.” “Sounds like you never had trouble when it came to dinner time,” he said as he took his seat by Cadence who was eating rather liberally of the salad. “So, Private,” Velvet said, “the newspapers have said a lot about you.” I nodded after taking my seat beside Twilight, I couldn’t help but notice an awkward distance between Night Light and Velvet. They sat on either sides of the table, Night Light not looking up from his plate. I decided to move on with the conversation and answered, “I just do my job, which is to protect and serve the ponies of Equestria.” “A very noble and,” she paused for a minute, casting a blue eyed glance at Twilight, “dangerous vocation…” “Mom,” Twilight cut in, “Private has done a lot of good for Equestria. He’s proven time and time again that he can take on any situation.” Shining laughed “Never thought I’d see the day when you would talk about a stallion like that besides me.” Cadence giggled “You have a wife now Shining, you don’t need your sister constantly praising you.” All four of us laughed a little, I let out a nervous chuckle when Velvet didn’t join in. She just turned a glance at Twilight and asked, “So, how’d you two end up together?” Twilight went on to explain about the Big Mac case as we call it now. Then how we eventually realized how much we meant to each other. Velvet’s eyes narrowed as I explained some of the more dangerous parts of the cases. She finally spoke after a few minutes, taking on the worried tone a mother should have, “Twilight, not that I don’t believe you’re responsible or anything, but is it safe to be around him?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked defensively. “I’m just saying,” Velvet replied,“not once but several times have you gotten kidnapped or hurt during his cases. Are you sure you want to put yourself through more of this?” “Mom,” Twilight argued, “I’m perfectly capable of protecting myself!” “Well, your father didn’t need fancy heroics to win me over,” Velvet huffed, looking at Night Light with a smile. “Romance will just happen when it happens.” “There was nothing romantic about it,” Shining complained rolling his eyes. “Grandpa just hit dad with his carriage.” “It was meant to be,” Velvet said stubbornly. Both siblings sighed as she took on a storyteller tone, “Why if your grandfather hadn’t hit you father, I never would’ve met him.” “I still want to know what he was doing in the middle of the street,” Cadence said quizzically. “Bird watching!” Night Light exclaimed hastily. “It was bird watching,” he repeated, a bit calmer. Velvet just shrugged and went on with her story, “Anyway, grandpa got your father and brought him inside the house.” She smiled wistfully. “He just seemed so helpless, like a little lost puppy. My heart just went out to him.” Well, love has come out of stranger circumstances. Pinkie and Swarm could attest to that. Twilight got caught up in the mood of story time and continued “Then you felt sorry for him, so you decided to take him to the…” she paused, “What was it again?” “The Dance on the Ocean Floor,” Shining announced in a dramatic tone, which caused both siblings to giggle. Velvet just chuckled. “Our first date, I’ll never forget it.” She looked over at Night Light and asked,“Dear, don’t you remember? It was during the night of that terrible storm.” Night Light didn’t look like he was paying much attention. I could tell he was a little embarrassed and…ashamed? Velvet closed her eyes. “He kissed me for the first time on that dance floor. It was then I realized, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.” Night Light only gave the faintest smile. I looked at Cadence whom was looking a little green. She got up and gestured to me, asking, “Private, can you help me clear some of the dishes please?” “Um,” I said, not exactly getting why she wanted to pull me aside, “sure.” I wasn’t about to deny royalty or my marefriend’s sister in law. We walked into the next room, levitating the dirty plates while the Sparkle family talked in the dining room. Cadence’s magic faltered a bit and I caught the plates with my own magic. “You all right?” I asked with concern. She let out a breath and smiled a little. “I’m fine, just a little tired is all.” “You’re starting to look sick,” I observed as I put the dishes into the sink. “Did I cook the food badly or something?” “No, it isn’t you,” Cadence replied, casting a violet glance to the dining room. “I just couldn’t bear sitting in there anymore.” “Why?” I asked curiously. “Is it because of Velvet and Night Light?” She nodded and explained, “As the Princess of Love, I have a higher sensitivity to other’s emotions. When I’m around a couple in love I feel better, but when I’m here I…” “Get sick?” I speculated, as we sat down beside each other. “Does Shining know?” “He’s well aware,” she said, casting her violet eyes at me. “You get sick when a couple isn’t in love?” I guessed. “Yes,” she replied with a nod. “It’s terrible here, they don’t even look at each other. It’s so sad when a couple isn’t in love at a time when it should be at it’s strongest. I get sick every time they’re near each other.” “Velvet really was bent on pointing out how dangerous my life is," I pointed out. “How was it when you came here?” “Well,” Cadence replied a guilty look crossing her face, “when Shining and I started dating seriously, Velvet and I may have gotten off on the wrong hoof...” ____________________________________________________ “I’m happy to see that Shining has met such a sweet young mare.” “Thank you so much! I must say you’ve raised a wonderful son!” “Why, thank you.” “He’s such a gentlecolt, so kind, and sweet towards me; Also, he is a very gentle and considerate lover.” “That’s… my boy…” ___________________________________________________________ “Suffice to say, things went downhill after that,” Cadence admitted ruefully. “You really said that to her?” I choked out, trying not to laugh. “She hasn't stopped hounding me ever since!” Cadence complained. “I've had to explain thirty times that I in no way have the power to make Shining fall for me. She got even worse after our wedding! I had to run through an entire history on my life to proof I wasn’t that changeling monster!” “Good to see I’m not the only pony who get’s nervous about these things,” I said with a smile. She returned it and said reassuringly, “In all seriousness, Private, no matter what Velvet says, I know you and Twilight are made for each other.” “The spell only works if the love is there,” I quoted her with a grin. “So…” She said with a sly smile, “when can I expect you two to give my filly a cousin?” I blushed bright red at what she was implying. First dad, then Celestia, now Cadence! This was starting to get… I heard shouting coming from the dining room and looked to see Velvet and Twilight glaring at each other. My marefriend shouted, “You can’t be serious!” “I am,” her mother said coldly. “I just don’t think Private is right for you.” “What’s so wrong with him?” Twilight retorted. “He’s sweet, intelligent, and kind towards everypony! What do you have against him?” “Twilight Sparkle, you are still young,” Velvet argued. “Private is merely the first stallion you’ve let into your life. I don’t want you making a hasty decision.” “Mom, I love him!” Twilight shouted. “Nothing is going to change that!” “Twilight!” Velvet yelled back. “Since you two have known each other, you’ve been held hostage, shot at, and put into far too many dangerous situations!” “You didn’t argue when I fought Nightmare Moon or Discord myself!” Twilight retorted furiously. “That was under assignment from Princess Celestia!” Velvet cried. “She, however, gave you a choice in the matter. You don’t have to run around with a stallion that will only get you hurt!” I debated whether I should defend myself here, but Cadence held a hoof in front of me before I could even think about it. Twilight absolutely fumed, “You don’t care for my safety! You just don’t want me to repeat the mistake you made with dad!” “Twilight Annemarie Sparkle!” Velvet gasped. “How dare you suggest such a thing!” “Twili,” Shining said gently, walking up to his sister and throwing his foreleg over her shoulder, “maybe we should all calm down.” “Forget it, Shining!” Twilight retorted. “I’m sick and tired of mom treating me like her second chance!” “Twili.” “Dad!” she exclaimed as she looked to her father for support. “Tell mom how nuts she is being!” Nightlight gave one look at his wife, then sighed in defeat. “Maybe your mother’s right, Twilight” he offered weakly. “I knew it!” Twilight shouted, tears in her eyes. “I knew this would happen!” She then ran outside and slammed the door behind her. ________________________________________________________ Twilight was sitting on the sidewalk crying when I walked up to her. I put my trench coat over her shoulders and she looked up at me apologetically. “Private, I’m sorry you had to see that.” “I can understand, Twilight,” I said with compassion, “but what if they’re right? Maybe I am putting you in too much danger...” “Private,” she said softly, leaning her head into me as I sat beside her. “I’ve gotten into dangerous situations long before I even met you. When you came into my life, everything just seemed to make sense.” I gently kissed Twilight on the forehead. “I love you but I have an errand to run, why don’t you try talking to your parents again?” She sighed and gave me back my coat. “Just don’t be too long okay? Come back as soon as you can.” I nodded and watched her enter her home. As I walked away, I couldn’t help but feel the sting of Velvet’s words. Was I really messing up Twilight’s life? Did I really cause her so much trouble? Either way, I still wanted us to be together. Maybe even, dare I say it, walking down the aisle together… _______________________________________________________ I went to the mall in question and found the Tardis parked in a deserted parking lot by the Twin Maple’s mall. I used my key to open the door and found myself in the spacious Tardis interior. The Doctor looked up from the counsel and smiled. “Ah Private, good to see you again.” “Hey, Doctor,” I said, walking up to the central control center. “What’s so important that you had to drag me away from a dinner date?” He started running around the consul, spinning various levers and pressing buttons. “I need you to look at that light over on the main screen. I have a hunch that something is going weird and I need a second set of eyes.” I looked over at the main screen and stared at the odd characters on it. Suddenly as the Doctor pulled a switch a bunch of red lights came up on the screen. Hey Doc, there are a lot of lights on the screen,” I announced. “Are any of them going blinky blinky?” he asked in concern. “All of them,” I answered gravelly. “Oh no!” he cried, as he ran around. “This is definitely classified as not good!” I felt the Tardis rumble a bit and asked, “What the hell is happening, Doc?” “A singularity storm is heading this way!” the Doctor yelled as another rumble hit the Tardis. “Think of it like a time vortex on steroids! If that thing gets a hold of the Tardis who know what’ll happen!” “How come I’ve never seen a singularity whatever?” I asked, gripping the railing surrounding the counsel with my hooves. “You can only see it if you travel in a time machine,” he explained, wiping his brown mane with a hoof. “Normally a Tardis uses time vortexes to travel through time to any point in history. This is like being on the ocean in a tiny rowboat, and coming across a hurricane!” I heard more rumbles and cracks as the Tardis got battered from all sides. I held onto the rail for dear life as more lights and sparks shot from the machinery. The Doctor shouted, “The gravity array is down! We’re getting torn apart here!” I felt myself become weightless and I looked behind me towards the entrance. I could see the door outside literally start to give way. I felt my hooves start to slip. “Doctor! I can’t hold on!” I cried panicked. “Private!” he shouted, “don’t let go! Whatever you do!” I couldn’t, my legs started to slip. I felt them give as the door was suddenly ripped open and I saw the Doctor’s eyes grow wide. “That’s not possible…” “Doctor!” I shouted as the last of my strength gave way, and I was sucked out the door like wind in a vacuum. I flew outside the Tardis and into the biggest storm of my life. Blue lights surrounded me as I felt myself being pulled through time itself. Every sense of mine went into overdrive, The singularity was ripping my very core apart. The pain was unbelievable! My horn glowed… A faint bubble formed around me, and I felt my eyes become heavy. The last thing I saw before unconsciousness took me was a pair of concerned magenta eyes and a violet light….
Chapter 2 "963"Chapter 2 “963” “Most people think that time is like a river, that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm…” Prince of Persia I was lying on the grass somewhere. I slowly opened my grey eyes and realized it was still night time. How did I survive getting caught in that time vortex? I tried to get up but pain shot through my legs. They felt incredibly stiff, like somepony had packed me into a box for three days. After about a minute of lying down I stiffly climbed to my hooves, groaning. I was in the middle of a park of some kind. It looked like one of those nature hike areas that you would take school children to. Wherever I was, hopefully it couldn’t be too far from civilization or at least somepony with a phone. I started to walk off the stiffness in my legs, memories of the storm racing through my brain. I hope I’m not too far from Canterlot; Twilight would kill me if I didn’t come back. What time is it anyway? I looked at my watch and raised an eyebrow, “3:00 A.M.? How is that possible? It was just after midnight when I left. Where the hell am I?” After a minute of walking down the trail I felt a slight warmth in my trench coat. I reached inside and pulled out the Tardis key from before. It felt hot in my hooves and I almost dropped it. I picked it up in my magic and I felt my horn pull against my head. It was like something was dragging me because I held the key. I knew weird things happened when the Doctor’s tech met Equestria’s magic but this takes the- Bump! I crashed into something solid after a minute of getting dragged. The key fell to the ground but continued to glow softly. I felt in front of me, there was definitely something there, but I couldn’t see it. I bent down and picked up the key in my hooves. It did seem to be cooler than before. Suddenly a door opened in front of me. I couldn’t see what the door was attached to; it just opened into… the interior of the Tardis! I walked inside and saw the interior was almost completely torn up. I used my horn as a flashlight and looked around. Some of the equipment was destroyed and screens were smashed in. The main consul had several wires ripped out and some of the gadgetry was broken and ripped apart. Somepony was looking for something, but what? I tried using my magic to talk to Tardis again but I got no response. She was shut down, she had to be. But then, I saw a blinking light on one of the intact screens. Upon closer inspection I saw it had a single question on it. “What hat is coolest?” I looked below it and saw that there was a space for a password. It was a riddle, and I needed to figure it out. Well it shouldn’t be too hard… I pulled an intact keyboard and, remembering the typing lessons that dad had me go through, started typing in my answer. Fedoras WRONG!!! Stetsons? WRONG!!! Fezzes…. DING! The screen fizzled to life and I saw the Doctor tapping the screen. “All right, is this working? Right, Private, now you’ve probably got a billion questions.” That’s the understatement of the year… He took a seat and looked directly at me “Now, let’s get one thing out of the way first. You are in fact, standing in Canterlot, but not your Canterlot. According to this newspaper I got from a trash can,” he explained holding up an old newspaper, “We are currently in your year 960 years after Princess Luna’s banishment. In other words, forty years ago.” My grey eyes widened in absolute shock. I was stuck in a time not my own. I’m a time traveler! This is amazing! “Now before you geek out,” he said with a snicker, I flushed in embarrassment, “we have a bit of a problem. You see, according to the Tardis’ scanners, you haven’t arrived yet. That singularity storm sent you to a different point in time ahead of me.” His expression turned grim. “Also, the storm wasn’t natural.” “What do you mean not natural?” I muttered to myself. “Essentially,” the Doctor explained, slipping into full on professor mode, “a singularity storm travels like a normal hurricane would, except it travels through time and space. Under normal circumstances they're easy to predict and the Tardis’ systems would’ve tracked a means to avoid it. However, this one was somehow redirected from its normal course and made a path straight into the Tardis.” I tried to wrap my head around it, but I was suddenly back in high school physics again. Only this time I didn’t have Potso’s snoring to entertain me. “Anyway,” the Doctor continued, “because that storm wasn’t natural I can’t stay as me. I’m going to use this,” he said, as he held up a small silver pocket watch, “to temporarily hide everything that’s Time Lord about me. I’ll just become a regular pony under the pseudonym Clockwork. He won’t know he’s me but he’ll believe he’s lived his whole life in Canterlot. He’ll never leave because he has an abnormal fear of leaving the house he was born in. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find me and once you do,” he said, pointing to the watch, “get me to open this.” I nodded, almost understanding. He could hide his time lord part in that little watch? If the Doctor had to use these means, he was definitely being hunted by somepony. I had to find him. He was my ticket to getting home. “Now Private,” he said firmly, “before I leave, here’s a list of instructions for when I’m a pony. Number one, don’t let me hurt anybody, we can’t have that but you know firsthand…or hoof ha ha, sorry, what ponies can be like.” He went on, “Two, don’t worry about the Tardis, I have her on a setting where nopony can see her. The reason she’s all cluttered is on the off chance somepony finds her and gets in. She has to look abandoned; I’ll fix her up when we meet up again.” “Now four, no…three! Try not to get involved in any big historical events.” His expression softened a little. “Four, don’t let me abandon you.” Then his expression became one of untold fury as he stated, “And five! Private, this is very important! Are you listening to me? Five is that don’t let me eat pears! I HATE PEARS! Clockwork is just a character I made up, but he won’t think that. He’ll think he’s me and he might do something stupid like eat a pear.” His face took on an expression of disgust. “I don’t want to wake up after being a pony with that horrible aftertaste in my mouth!” I stifled a laugh through his whole rant about pears. The way he reacted was completely crazy. At least it was just a silly fruit like pears. Not like pineapples, they are the devil fruit… “Also, last thing, I have all of my gear hidden in a compartment that should open in three, two, one.” The consul opened in front of me and I gave a jump. “Geez!” I shouted. “Didn’t anypony read the memo about the weak heart?” “Anyhow, gotta run and start my new life,” the Doctor said. “Private, whatever you do, be careful. This thing, whatever it is, knew I was going to be at that point in history. Find me as quick as you can so I can repair the Tardis and get you home. Hurry, Private!” The screen blacked out and I spoke frantically to it, “How will I find you? Doctor, where are you?” No video came up and I sighed in defeat. I looked in the compartment. Inside was the famous sonic screwdriver, which I placed in my trench coat for safe keeping, and a wallet. I opened the wallet and saw that the inside only had a blank piece of paper on it. How the doctor expected this to be helpful was beyond me. I stored the second device in my trench coat and walked out of the Tardis. I looked around outside and closed the door behind me. Maybe this was all a dream or something? I’ll wake up and find Tailspin bugging me to watch cartoons with- “Keep yer hooves where Ah can see em pal!” I heard a voice say as I felt a muzzle of a gun being pressed against my back. “I’m not afraid to shoot any crazy alien ponies.” I spoke nervously, “Um, I’m no alien.” “Horse shit,” the gruff voice said, “I saw you come out of thin air. What are you some kind of invader or something?” “May I ask who is holding my life in his hooves?” I asked, trying not to sound too coy. “Name's Cranky,” I heard the voice growl. Cranky? “Cranky Doodle Donkey?” I asked out loud “How’d you know my name?" he shouted. “Turn round so I can see you!” I slowly turned around and found myself gazing at a much younger looking Cranky. His mane was a full brown and his pale blue eyes were glaring at me. I was more focused on the shotgun he was holding in his hooves, however. “How’d you know my name? I’ve never seen you before.” Okay, if this was a dream, it was a very lucid dream with an extremely real gun. I knew Cranky from the present, however. Tailspin had to do some volunteer work for school and he got assigned to the donkey. Tailspin respected Cranky and liked to listen to his stories about travel. Right now though, I had to convince him I wasn’t an alien from the future. Even though I kind of am. “I’m an agent in her majesty’s royal service,” I said, trying to sound convincing. “Agent um, Rider, yeah agent Storm Rider!” His pale blue eyes narrowed in suspicion “What’s an agent doing all the way out here?” “I’m investigating something top secret,” I said, trying to sound official, “I am on very important business for her majesty Princess Celestia and I need to get to Canterlot as soon as possible.” “Well, Canterlot’s just up the road,” he said, pointing with his tail, “a bit of a ride, considering we’re in the forests below the terraces.” That explained the trails down here; they must be alternate roads to get around the area leading up to Canterlot. “However, I’m gonna need to see some proof you are an agent,” Cranky said, his pale blue eyes still narrowed. I was going to flash my badge but for some reason I went for the blank wallet instead. I levitated it out and Cranky examined it. He took a little longer then he should have for a blank piece of paper. He nodded and gave the wallet back to me with an apology, “Sorry, Agent Rider, it’s just hard not to be suspicious of strange ponies on the roads.” I raised an eyebrow and tentatively picked up the wallet. Only the paper wasn’t blank, it had a completely legitimate ID on it. My picture was on there and everything, but then the paper faded to its usual blank state as I put it back in my trench coat. I smiled at the donkey and said, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go to Canterlot.” “I'll go with ya,” he offered, as he gestured to his wagon. “I’m heading that way anyway and its best if we stick together.” So that’s how I ended up walking down the pathways of a dark wood with Cranky by my side. I’ll admit, I never expected this when I got up in the morning. ___________________________________________________ It was early morning by the time I arrived in Canterlot itself. I stopped at the gate and looked at my donkey companion. “This is where we part Cranky; it was nice talking to you.” “Sorry bout pointin' the shotgun at you,” Cranky said apologetically. “Can’t be too careful in this day and age.” “No problem,” I said with a smile. “Where you off to?” “I'm just in town for The Grand Galloping Gala tonight,” he said pride. “I got lucky and landed a ticket from my cousin because he couldn't make it. I can’t wait to go there!” This is where things got complicated. Cranky didn’t know he was going to meet Matilda at the gala. He had no idea what was in store for him after he met her either. I debated in my mind whether I should tell Cranky, but how would I even begin to explain it? I just kept my smile and said, “I hope you have fun up there.” “See ya around, Agent Rider,” he said with a jaunty wave as he walked away, dragging his wagon behind him. “Tonight, I've got a date with destiny.” Destiny and a certain donkey, I felt a little sad that I couldn’t prevent Cranky from having to search in vain for Matilda for all those years. Sadly, there are some things I guess I just had to let happen. I walked down Canterlot Lane and saw several changes. The city was cleaner, and smelled better too. Ponies walked around their business and many of the mares seemed to be fond of rather big hats. I walked by a movie theater that was premiering “Doctor Yes” the first James Pone film to debut outside of Trottingham. Dad would go nuts if he saw that in theaters. He was a big James Pone fan, but don’t tell him I said that. He would firmly deny it and have a legal team ready to cover the fact he clearly does not have a shine hidden somewhere in his study back home. I watched as a pony threw a newspaper away. When he passed I picked it out of the trash can and read the date to myself “Saturday, 12th of Neighvember…963!” The Doctor’s recording was made three years ago! He’s been trapped here for that long? He was never going to let me live this down once I found him. First though, I needed some means to find him. I looked to my right and saw a small diner with a sign out front that said public phone available. I stepped inside and heard a loud rendition of “My Coltfriend’s Back” playing on the jukebox. Several ponies were sitting around, just enjoying a lazy Saturday morning with coffee and fountain drinks. I was trying to comprehend a coffee that cost under four bits a mug when I heard the owner speak from behind the counter, “Hey, Detective.” “Who me?” I asked, giving the owner a shocked look. “Your coat,” he said, gesturing with a hoof at me. “What do you think you’re Sam Spony or something?” Close enough, I just shrugged and said, “Well, do I need my detective skills to find the phone or can you just tell me?” He laughed a little and pointed with his hoof. “It’s in the back.” I walked to the phone and dug into the “C” section of the notebook. I scrolled down the list of names and found Clockwork there. There was only one Clockwork in the whole of Canterlot, and that was not even his name. I tossed a few cents into the slot and dialed the number. Nopony picked up, so I sighed and copied down the address. Ripping it out would be kind of rude and I didn’t want somepony to sue me for property damage. I walked back to the counter and asked the owner, a rather stocky, jade green, earth pony stallion, “Can you point me to 1546 Bad Wolf stree-“ “Look, are you going to order something or not?” the owner demanded rather rudely. I sighed and pocketed my notebook, taking a seat next to a blue unicorn stallion. “You got any diet cola?” “Diet?” he asked with a confused blink. “Look if you wanna go on a diet, you shouldn’t be drinking soda in the first place.” I’m guessing that hasn’t been invented yet. I blushed in embarrassment and said, “Just give me some coffee, and be liberal with the sugar.” After last night’s walk I needed all the caffeine I could get. Why the hell would I want diet? “Hey, Night Light, I thought I told you never to come in here!” I heard a voice speak up behind me, a very familiar voice. I turned around and saw a much younger Graff glaring at the unicorn next to me. He stood there with a small gang of ponies; they all appeared to be teenagers. He walked right past me and to the blue unicorn, was this Night Light? They certainly looked the same, although this one was much younger, probably a teenager as well. “I’m talking to you, you little Lyrish Bug.” Night Light looked up at Graff as the ponies surrounded him and swallowed nervously saying, “Oh hi Graff, great to see you.” Graff would have none of it. “Did you finish my homework like I asked?” “Well,” Nightlight replied taking on that familiar look of attempting courage, “I thought, since it isn’t due until Monday I-“Graff conked him on the head. “Hello! Anypony in there?” Nightlight laughed nervously as he got hit repeatedly on the head while the gang laughed. “Think Nightlight, think! I need time to recopy it. If one of the teachers looked at my homework and saw your hoof writing on it, I’d get expelled” He held a steely glare at Night Light. “You wouldn’t want that would you Night Light?” Night Light had a brief moment of hesitation, before he gave in, “No, of course not, Graff.” Graff then caught me staring and asked, “What’re you looking at, butthead?” I’d say what I was looking at, but I knew I wouldn’t feel good about myself if I said it aloud. Mom would glare at me from beyond the grave until I felt eternally sorry about even thinking about it. “He thinks he’s like one of 'em detectives” one of his gang has with a sneer tugging on my trench coat. “Too bad he can’t solve how much of a dork he is.” Luna was about to get some friends to play with on the moon if they didn’t shut up. Graff just looked back at Nightlight and said, “So what about my homework?” “I’ll finish it up tonight,” Night Light replied weakly. “Then I’ll give you it first thing tomorrow morning” “Not too early though, I sleep in on Sundays,” Graff said before suddenly pointing down “Look at that big spider!” SPIDER! WHERE? I leaped over the counter before peeking over again. Everypony in the room gave me an odd look. Graff looked at Nightlight and said with a loud laugh, “That guy’s even more gullible then you are, Night Light.” Smooth, Private… I got back into my seat and stared over at Night Light. The bullies left after having a good laugh at my expense. I just stared at Nightlight for a few seconds. He looked so… young. His long blue mane was straight and kept well. His gold eyes looked down at the cereal he was eating. This was Twilight’s dad, from the past. “What?” he asked, suddenly turning his gold eyes to me. “You’re Night Light,” was all I could say. “Yeah, who are you?” he asked, before returning to his cereal. Suddenly a newspaper hit him upside the head and I looked up. Holding the newspaper was a tan colored mare with a long pink mane and blue eyes. She was clad in a worker’s apron and frowned at Nightlight. “What’s the matter with you? Why do you always let those boys push you around?” Night Light sighed and said sadly, “They are bigger than me.” “Night Light if you let ponies walk on you now,” she replied, taking on a firm tone, “you’re going to let ponies walk over you for the rest of your life.” “I don’t know,” Nightlight mumbled. “Take me for example,” she said, pointing the newspaper at herself, “you think I’m going to spend the rest of my life in this donkey shed?” She then looked at a group of nearby donkeys, “Uh, no offense.” “None taken, Scrolly,” they chorused. She went on, “I may be a waitress now, but I’m going to night school. One day I’m going to make a name for myself!” Scrolly? Wait wasn’t that her name before…”She became Mayare?” I said out loud. The mare smiled at the thought and said happily, “Now that’s a great idea! I could run for mayor!” The owner laughed. “A Mare as mayor, now that’ll be the day.” “You just wait!” she retorted “I’m going to be the most powerful mare in a town one day! I’ll clean it up! Make it look all pretty, and then we’ll see who’s laughing.” “The only town that’ll take a mare as crazy as you is some small farm village ways out in the middle of nowhere.” He laughed “Now, why don’t you start cleaning this diner,” he ordered, tossing her a broom. She caught it and started musing to herself, “Mayare, I like the sound of that…” Farming village? Is that what Ponyville is now? I’m guessing it hadn’t really hit its stride ye- I looked back and saw that Night Light already left. I looked outside and saw him trotting somewhere in a great hurry. Was he going to meet Velvet? This could be interesting, to see love bloom at its very beginning. I paid my tab and ran to catch up with Twilight’s dad. _____________________________________________________ Following Night Light’s trail I eventually came into a small street of neighborhoods. I walked down the street for a bit, kicking myself for losing track of him. Just where did he go? A leaf fell on my nose and I looked up. There in a tree was Night Light with a pair of binoculars around his neck. He didn’t seem to notice me as he climbed out on a branch towards one of the nearby houses. An early morning rendezvous? I followed his binoculars and saw that he was watching a mare take a shower. I looked away just as she was about to push up her tail. My jaw dropped in a bit of disgust “Twilight’s dad is a peeping tom? That might explain Twilight’s rather…through analysis of me in that book she made about me.” Nightlight slipped from his perch and held onto the branch over the road. After a few tentative minutes he couldn't hold on any longer. His hooves gave out and he fell onto the main street, right in front of a speeding wagon heading his way! “Night Light!” I called out as I shoved him out of the way. The ponies pulling tried to stop the carriage but the weight of the carriage continued pushing them forward. I don’t remember exactly what happened next, all I know is that somehow I ended up on the ground, dazed and very dizzy. I heard some voices shouting, and then fell into unconsciousness. ______________________________________________________ I was somewhere comfortable and warm. I felt a pain in my horn from getting hit, but that was only a dream right? It was very dark in here, maybe I’m back home. I unconsciously said, “Mom…” I heard a soft female voice say, “There, there, you’ve been knocked out for almost nine hours now.” I felt something cool being pressed against my horn. It felt nice… “I had the craziest dream,” I said with a smile. “I dreamed I went back in time. It was nuts…” “Well,” the voice said, “at least you’re safe and sound here in 963” “963!” I shouted, sitting bolt upright. The light came on and I saw…. She looked almost as pretty as Twilight. Her mane was a richer color and was tied back in a ponytail with a bow on it. Her blue eyes gazed at me with a worried expression that reminded me of her future daughter. Her grayish white coat seemed to glow in the lamp light. She sat on a bed next to the one I was in, looking worried, but at the same time, intrigued. “You’re Twi…Twil…” was all I could muster up in the shock of the situation. “Yes, I’m Twilight Velvet,” she said, encouragingly. “You’re so…” I fought for the right word, “thin.” “Just try and relax, Carousel,” she said, gently levitating a damp cloth to my horn again. “You got a nasty bruise on your head. You're lucky your horn didn’t break off.” I was suddenly conscious of the fact I was naked. Unlike other ponies I just didn’t feel comfortable strutting around naked. Guess it came from wearing the trench coat all the…”Where’s my coat and hat?” I asked. “Over on the hope chest” she said nervously, pointing. “It was filled with all sorts of stuff, but I didn’t look inside it, Carousel! I respected your privacy!” she babbled frantically. “Carousel,” I asked curiously, “why do you keep calling me that?” “It was on the tag of your trench coat,” she answered. “Carousel Boutique?” “Actually ponies call me…” I couldn’t use my real name; if I did it would be very awkward when I got back home. So, I used the first name that came to mind. “Eclipse," I blurted out, "they call me Eclipse Eye.” “Eclipse Eye?” She tilted her head and said, “That’s an odd name.” It was better than Carousel that’s for sure. Wait, the bed was shifting. I looked over and saw Velvet was sitting beside me on the bed. Her blue eyes giving me an odd look. “Do you mind if I sit here with you?” “Um, I, uh,” I said flustered. That seemed to be happening to me a lot today. She reached over and tried to touch my horn. “That’s a nasty bruise you got there, and your horn is so…” I felt suddenly nervous about the prospect of Twilight’s mom touching my horn that I fell backwards onto the floor. I heard a voice shout from the floor below “Twilight! Are you okay up there?” “Sweet Celestia, that’s my mom!” she said frantically, before getting my trench coat and hat. She levitated the clothing over to me and I started slipping it on. I couldn’t deny the look she was giving me right before she left. I dismissed the thought and went outside once I was fully clothed. _____________________________________________________ Velvet’s mother walked down the stairs before asking, “So Eclipse, are you some sort of detective?” “Uh yeah,” I said, trying to avoid the looks Velvet would occasionally cast my way. We reached the bottom of the stairs and an older, violet colored stallion was behind a television set, doing some tinkering. “Hey, what were you doing out in the middle of the road?” “Just ignore Turner,” Velvet’s mom said with a sigh before walking towards the kitchen. “He’s just in one of his moods.” I walked into the kitchen with Velvet at my side before she took a seat with the rest of her family. Her mother pointed each of the three kids, two fillies and a colt, out “This here’s Raven, Bubbles and Dil,” with a smile she pointed at a crib in the back, "and over there is little Shield Wall.” I looked over at the baby colt and couldn’t believe that this colt, whom was sucking on his hoof, would go on to be the most formidable member of Celestia’s guard. He gave a toothy grin at me from behind his crib bars. “Let’s just say you’ll give criminals… poetic justice,” I mused to myself. “He seems to like you, Eclipse,” Velvet’s mom observed. “I hope you like Hayloaf.” “Listen, I really should go-“I said. Before I could start to leave, my tail got yanked violently and I fell into a seat. “You can sit here next to me, Eclipse,” she said, smiling innocently, as she took her seat beside me. “For the love of Celestia,” her mom called back into the living room, “Turner, get in here!” “I’ll be right there, Barbra!” he called back. “I’ll just leave my tools here, but you’ll be thankful that you get to watch those soaps of yours in color!” “Whether or not I can see Mclaugfity’s mane color isn’t going to help stave off your hunger!” Turner came back in and sat on the seat across from me. He gave me an odd look and asked, “So Eclipse, where you from?” “Uh,” I said, trying not to meet Velvet’s eyes, “Manehattan.” “What are you doing all the way out here?” Bubbles asked in a rather squeaky voice. “Canterlot is a long way from there.” Farther away than you would believe kid. “Well, is there someone we can call for you?” Barbra asked. “Um,” I came up with a half-truth, “actually I’m visiting an uncle of mine, stallion by the name of Clockwork.” I reached into my trench coat and pulled out my notebook. “Could you tell me where Bad Wolf Street is?” “It’s by East Celestia Street,” Turner said. “You go outside and just follow the road and you can’t miss it.” “East Celestia Street,” I muttered to myself, drawing up a route, “that’s not far from East Luna Street.” “Who the hell is Luna?” Turner asked. “Um, mom,” Velvet spoke up for the first time, "since Eclipse doesn’t have anypony else he can stay with, can he stay over for the night?” She gave me a quick glance and her cheeks turned the slightest pink. “I mean, dad did hit him with his carriage.” “That’s true, Eclipse,” Barbra said. “You are our responsibility.” “Well, I wouldn’t want to impose,” I said humbly. “He can stay in my room," Velvet offered as I felt her tail trace the line of my flank. I jumped up suddenly and said, “I gotta go! Thanks for the food, Clockwork is waiting, bye!” I ran out the door and didn’t look back. ______________________________________________________ Man that was weird. Unbelievable that Velvet would say all those things about me in the future. Here, however, she is trying to feel me up under the table like that! I rounded a corner and came to my destination. 1546 Bad Wolf Street, the home of Clockwork. It was a relatively small house with a large garage attached to it. I knocked on the door twice but didn’t get an answer. I turned around and there was the doctor, looking the same as he did normally. I was about to open my mouth when he covered it “Don’t say anything! I want to know absolutely nothing about you!” Suddenly I was dragged inside by him and set down on a chair. The Doctor suddenly began pacing in front of me and said, “Um, you’ve travelled a great distance!” “Yes,” I shouted, “Exactly I-“ “I told you not to tell me anything!” he shouted back, he tapped his hoof on his head as if thinking of something. “You want me to buy a subscription to the Canterlot Post?” “No!” I hollered. “Doctor, listen-“ “Not a word I said!” He waved his hoof in front of me. “Um, Donations! You want me to make a donation to… the Parasprite awareness fund?” “Doctor,” I sighed and then spoke slowly, “I’m from the future. You and I travelled together in your Tardis and only you can fix it. That way we both can go back to the year one thousand and three.” The Doctor blinked, gave me a long stare and then said, “Do you realize what this means?” “Um…” “That Sapina from next door was lying about me being a psychic!” he exclaimed and began pacing around everywhere. “Unbelievable! I knew that mare was lying to me!” “Doctor, listen, you gotta snap out of this,” I said frantically. “You have a time machine to fix!” “Time machine?” he asked blinking at me. “Why would I have a time machine? Sure I make clocks, but that doesn’t mean I can travel through time.” “I’m telling the truth,” I pleaded as he walked away to tinker with a watch. “Look, if you’re not selling anything to me you can get out,” he said, not trying to hide his annoyance. I reached into my wallet and pulled out my badge. “Look at this, issued in 997, thirty years from now!” “Easily doctored or stolen,” he said dismissively. “Doctor, you've gotta believe me!” I pleaded again. “All right, future boy,” he said, looking up at me. “If you really are from the future, then who is princess of Equestria?” “Celestia and Luna” I said without thinking. “A ha!” he shouted. “You must’ve read that crazy book called Mare in the Moon, only a fool would think that future.” “Wait!” I cried as he started to walk out. “The Tardis! I know all about it! You’re not Clockwork! You’re a Time Lord from planet Gallopfrey!” He stopped in his tracks. “You told me last week in my time that you were 1200 years old! You have companions! These names should mean something to you! Rose Tyler, Sarah Jane Smith, the Brigadier! K9, for crying out loud!” He slowly turned to me and asked, “How do you know those names?” “You told me a while back,” I answered. “Now, do you happen to have a silver pocket watch around here?” “You know about that?” he asked in shock, pulling the watch out of his pocket. “Sometimes when I go to sleep I have these dreams. This watch, it told me the names you mentioned…” “Open it, Doctor,” I ordered. Slowly but tentatively he opened it, a flash of light came out and I heard voices come from the watch. The light seemed to enter the Doctor’s eyes as various voices went off. Hello Sweetie, EXTERMINATE!!! Come along, Pond. Doctors, splendid fellows, all of you Hey, watch it, space man! Affirmative! When it was over the Doctor stood there, a slow smile came over his face and he laughed. “Ha Ha! It worked! Brilliant, Private!” “You’re back to normal!” I exclaimed happily. “Well, I should be normal,” he said looking at himself. “Still got four hooves, a nose…still not ginger though.” He frowned. “Blast!” Then he got close to me and cried, “Come on, Private! We got a Tardis to fix!” ____________________________________________________________ “Now the Tardis is mostly a self-repairing vehicle,” The Doctor explained as he was moving some wires under the central consul “I just need to reconfigure some wires here and…boom!” The lights suddenly filled the Tardis interior and various screens repaired themselves like skin over a cut. Well, it is a living being so I guess that’s how it would work. The Doctor came to the central consul and actually stroked it. “Oh, it’s good to see you too, sexy.” “You call your Tardis sexy?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Personal preference really,” he said in his trademark vague tone. “Now let’s see if we can’t head ba-“ He pushed a lever and sparks started shooting all over the place. I ducked as a random piece of machinery almost took off my head. The Doctor swore under his breath as he tried to fan smoke away from his face. “Well, this puts a damper on things.” “What’s wrong with her?” I asked. “Well,” the Doctor replied, sounding a little worried. “Somebody came in here and sabotaged the Tardis.” “How’s that possible?” I asked. “I was the only pony here.” “They may have come before you,” the Doctor said gravely. “The question is, how'd they get in?” “So, can she fly?” I asked. “Well, she can fly, but she can’t time travel,” he explained. “Somebody sabotaged the power supply so that she’s not running right. Have you guys invented the combustible engine yet?” “The what now?” “Answers my question,” he said with a sigh. “Anyway, it’s like you’re trying to start a fire, you have the wood, the kindling, everything you need, except the spark.” He started typing on a nearby computer. “Now we just need to figure out how much power we would need to start up…” His eyes grew wide as he saw the results on his screen “ONE POINT TWENTY ONE GIGAWATTS!” “What the hell’s a gigawatt?” I asked. “It’s a measurement of electricity!” he said, slamming his head on the consul. “There’s no means to create that kind of power in this day and age!” “Why don’t we just take a Pegasus cloud?” I asked. “We can take a storm cloud, zap the Tardis with it and boom! Back to 1003 like you wouldn’t believe.” “The problem is,” he said firmly, “how the hell are we going to explain it to whoever gives us the cloud. Also, neither of us are pegasi so we can’t get one ourselves.” “I guess you have a point,” I nodded glumly. “So what do we do?” “If only we knew a point in time where a lightning bolt would strike naturally,” he mused, crossing his forelegs in thought, “then we wouldn’t have to worry about stealing a cloud. Problem is, lightning is almost impossible to predict on its own.” A light bulb went off in my head; I reached into my trench coat and pulled out the flier “What about this?” I held it in front of the Doctor who took the flier and examined it closely. His blue eyes lit up “This is it! According to this, the lighting will strike the clock tower at exactly 10:43 P.M. next Saturday night!” He started pacing excitedly “We’ll just figure a way to harness the power of the lighting! The channel it directly into the Tardis which will override the sabotage on her power systems and then Allons-y!” He slung a foreleg around me and exclaimed excitedly “Next Saturday! We’re sending you Back to the Present!” “Um, don’t you mean back to the future?” I asked. “You want to break copyright anymore then we already have?” he asked flatly. “No.” “Then we are golden!” He let go of me and sat on the consul, smiling wide. “Oh this is simply brilliant!” “This is great, Doctor,” I said with a smile. “We’ll come up with the plan, see the sights and maybe run into...” The Doctor suddenly got within inches of my face. “Private, it is absolutely imperative that you interact with this time period as little as possible.” His voice was deathly serious. “Now, have you encountered anypony during your time here?” “Well, I met Cranky, but he was on his way anyway.” My grey eyes grew wide. “Twilight’s dad… I met him…I saved him from getting hit by a…” “Private?” he asked, “do you have a picture of Twilight’s family?” “Well, I got a picture of all of us during the Alicorn summi-“ My jaw dropped at what I saw. “Shining’s head, it’s gone,” I cried. Sure enough the alabaster unicorn was headless in the picture. There I stood standing next to him and Twilight. Shining’s head didn’t rub off; it was just like he’s… “Been erased…” The Doctor said, “From existence…”
Chapter 3 "Love Doctor"Chapter 3 “The Love Doctor” "Things blossom in their time. They bud and bloom, blossom and fade. Everything in its time." ~Neil Gaiman “Do you seriously have to wear that?” I asked, gesturing to the Doctor's horrendous choice of headwear. “You’re the one who insisted on me blending in,” he retorted stubbornly. “Besides, I’ll have you know the Fez is a timeless piece of cool headwear.” I wasn’t about to get in a debate with him, again. I don’t think the universe could take a battle of such epic proportions. We just walked towards the school the Doctor said Night Light and Velvet attended. It was a rather small public high school with students preparing to go in for Monday morning classes. Who would’ve thought the parents to the Element of Magic would have such humble origins. “Now see, here’s the thing,” the Doctor began to explain as we walked up the steps. “The reason Shining is disappearing from the picture is because you prevented his parents from meeting. If they don’t fall in love, they won’t get married, and they won’t have kids. So, no marefriend for you, and no element of magic either.” “Just how much history did I alter?” I asked worriedly. “Is it like that theory, if you stomp on a butterfly in the past everypony will have two heads in the future?” “What does everypony have against butterflies?” he mused as we entered the building. A few students gave us some looks, but largely went about their business. “Now, we just need to find Twilight’s papa,” he said as he scanned the students for a minute. “Now where is he?” I looked down the hall and slowly pointed. “That’s him…” Night Light walked down the hall carrying his books with his magic. Suddenly a nearby student bucked him in the flank. He laughed and said, “Very funny, guys,” before getting bucked yet again. “Ha Ha!” Another buck from behind. “You guys are being real mature!” he cried, just as I spotted the “Buck me” sign on his back. I facehoofed and the Doctor suggested, “Maybe Twilight was adopted…” “Nope, that’s definitely her dad,” I concluded sadly. “Hold on there,” a booming voice called from behind us. I turned around and saw a ginger maned, tannish brown, pony approaching us. He had a cross look on his face as he demanded, “Who are you two? I don’t remember getting any visitor’s reports. I’m Principal Strict and what are you doing in my school? ” “Hello, Sir,” the Doctor replied, as he pulled out the blank wallet I gave him earlier. “I’m Joey Smithy, royal guard to Sir Eclipse here.” “Sir Eclipse?” I whispered in his ear frantically. “He’s never going to fall for a blank sheet of-“ “May I ask your business here, Mr. Smithy?” the principal asked begrudgingly. “Well, you see,” he put a foreleg around the older gentlestallion, “I'm here, because young Eclipse here wants to see how the normal public lives.” “What exactly are you talking about?” the principal asked. “You see, Sir Eclipse, here is a very important noble from my land,” the Doctor explained in hushed tones. “Sadly, a fellow like him gets lonely and very moody if he’s cooped up in the castle for too long.” “I’m not that moody,” I retorted in my best emo voice. “See what I’m talking about?” the Doctor said with a smile. “So I’m having him just walk around a bit, meet some ponies without having to worry about titles or anything.” “I still would like him to check into the office,” the Principal said. “Oh, we’ll be along in a bit,” the Doctor said with a charming smile, “but right now, I believe a student of yours needs help.” He gestured to Night Light who had dropped all his books after the latest buck. The Principal sighed and went to lecture Nightlight about being a “Slacker”. The Doctor sighed and said, “That was too close.” “That paper,” I asked, pointing to the blank wallet, “what is it, exactly?” “Psychic paper,” he replied, showing it to me. “I just think it and it reads anything I want it to. Try looking at it now.” I held it in front of me and asked, raising an eyebrow, “Royal cake tester?” “Surprisingly, a very challenging vocation,” he mused. “The Princesses like their cakes.” I turned back to Night Light who was picking up his books with a pathetic look on his face. The Doctor sighed and asked, “I’m no expert, but what did Velvet ever see in him? I’ve seen Ood look more excited about life.” “I don’t know,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “She said she felt sorry for him when her dad hit him with their carr…” I blinked in realization and exclaimed, “I got hit by the carriage!” “Where I come from, we call it ‘The Florence Nightingale effect,’” the Doctor said. “Nurses fall in love with their patients and affection develops despite little communication.” He suddenly looked at me expectantly. I sighed and responded to his unasked question, “Yes, we have something like that. Here it's called the Flora Nightingale effect.” “No pony pun?” “Thankfully, no.” “Whelp,” he said, patting me on the shoulder, “I gotta get you legally here, you take care of sad sap over there,” The Doctor walked off and I approached Night Light. He was about to pick up his last book when I levitated it over to him and said, “Hey Night Light, you all right?” “Oh,” he said, as he blinked in recognition, “you’re the guy from yesterday.” “Yeah, I’ve been looking all over for the stallion that saved my life” I said with a wide smile as I helped him up. “Uh,” he eyed me weirdly, “okay?” I started walking away with my foreleg around his shoulder, “There’s somepony I’d love for you to meet.” I spotted Velvet among a group of mares, laughing at some joke she'd told. Target spotted; commence operation, “Save My Marefriend’s Parents So That She Doesn’t Disappear And I Feel Terrible About It Forever," also known as, Operation S.M.P.S.T.S.D.D.A.I.T.A.I.F. I walked over with Night Light by my side and I spoke up over the giggling mares, “Velvet?” She caught my eye and suddenly backed into her locker in shock, exclaiming, “Eclipse!” “Listen, Velvet,” I said, ignoring the giggles coming from the other mares, “I’d like you to meet a good friend of mine.” I said, shoving Night Light forward a little. “This is Night Light.” He gave me a look which I returned encouragingly. He smiled at Velvet and began to talk with her, “Hi, it’s a pleasure to um,” Velvet subsequently walked past her future husband and reached for my head, asking with concern, “Are you feeling better from last night?” “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, as the group of girls walked off, gossiping to each other excitedly. “I was so worried,” she said stroking my forehead gently with her hoof. I fought the urge to race away as fast as my legs would carry me. “I was afraid you got hurt walking around so late at night. Did you make it home okay?” “Yeah,” I answered, swallowing nervously and trying not to look into her eyes. Riing! I am so not going to use that clichéd line. I have more dignity than that, but there was no denying the sense of relief that washed over me. Some of Velvet’s friends dragged her off to class. Before she turned around the corner I swear I heard her say, “Isn’t he a dreamboat?” The Doctor walked to me and said, “Well I managed to get you into the school’s visiting program. It took two file cabinet raids with the sonic screwdriver, a little bit of charm, and I may or may not have gotten a phone number slipped into my pockets. I haven’t checked yet,” he said with a mischievous grin. “So, how did your end go?” “Well, I managed to get him to say hi,” I said in defeat, “but she barely glanced at him.” “This is not good” he said gravely. “It seems, that you’ve won over not only the daughter, but the mother as well.” “You’re telling me,” I asked with an uncomfortable laugh, “that Twilight’s mom has the hots for me?” I was trying very hard to deny the obvious. “I’m afraid so, you dog of a pony,” he said with a smirk. “Man this is insane,” I said, as I shook my head and facehoofed. “What are we going to do now?” “Well, in twelve hundred years of having love blossom in the Tardis, I’ll tell you this,” the Doctor said firmly, “the only way we’d ever get those two to even consider falling in love is if they’re alone together.” We started walking down the halls together deep in thought. “We just gotta get them to interact, in some sort of social environment.” “Okay, what do ponies do on dates in 963?” I asked. “Well, if they aren’t protesting the Griffon wars, they’re out getting high in the woods,” the Doctor quipped. “Nether seems like a great idea in my book.” He looked over at me and asked, “So, what do they like to do together? All those years of marriage ,there must be something they enjoy together.” “None that I can think of,” I said sighing in defeat. Operation S.M.P.S.T.S.D.D.A.I.T.A.I.F. was not going very well at all. “Twilight never mentioned anything they enjoyed doing together.” “Wait!” he cried, as he stopped in front of a poster. “Look at this!” I read it aloud in excitement, “The Dance on the Ocean Floor!” I looked at the Doctor, beaming in joy and exclaimed, “That’s it! That’s where Shining Armor said they fell in love! They kiss for the first time, and the rest is history!” “Right,” he said with a nod. “I’ll worry about repairing the Tardis and getting everything set up. You stick to your future father-in-law like glue and make sure he asks her to that dance.” “Don’t think I missed the father in law comment!” I shouted at him, as he laughed and ran off. Now, time to take a more, personal approach… ________________________________________________________ I walked in the lunch room and found Night Light sitting alone at a table. I took a seat in front of him and gave him a smile. “Hey, Night Light, you remember that girl I introduced you to,” I asked, “that beautiful unicorn by the name of Twilight Velvet?” His golden eyes perked up from the paper he was writing and his eyes found Velvet. I saw a faint line of blush come to his cheeks as he gazed upon her. I looked down in curiosity at the paper he had in front of him and asked, “What’cha writing?” Night Light looked at me for a minute, gauging my trustworthiness. When he saw I was sincere he gestured with his hoof to move closer. I leaned forward to listen in as he whispered, “I’ve never told anypony about this, but they’re um…stories.” “What kind of stories?” I asked. “They’re about visitors from outer space,” he said, his tone of voice gaining excitement as he explained. “Science fiction stories about a guy, who travels around in space helping ponies out.” “Get out of town,” I said, my grey eyes widening in shock. “You’re a writer?” “Well, I’m not that great” he said modestly. “Here maybe I can critique,” I suggested as I tried reaching for his notebook, but his magic swiftly closed it. “Sorry, no offense, but I never let anypony read my stories,” he explained, his ears flattening in shame. “Why not?” I asked, sympathetically. “Well,” he replied staring down at his notebook. “What if nopony likes them? What if they say they’re dumb?” He went back to writing, being careful to keep his story out of sight. “I’m guessing it’s a little hard to understand.” “Not as hard as you make it out to be,” I said, mostly to myself. Then I tapped his notebook to get his attention and said, “Now, about the lovely Velvet.” His gold eyes perked up at the name. I was off to a great start! “She would love to go to the dance with you,” I said firmly. “I was with her a few minutes ago and she would not stop talking about how she’d love for you to ask her. I believe the dance was called Dance on the Ocean Floor?” His gold eyes blinked and his magic dropped his pen. I could tell he was in absolute shock. He cleared his throat and blubbered something along the lines of: “Me? I mean, right now? In the cafeteria?” He then sighed in defeat and asked, “Who am I kidding? She’s probably wanting to go with somepony else.” “Now who in Celestia’s name would she rather go with?” I asked, almost insulted at the mention. He just pointed behind me and I saw Graff sitting next to Velvet. She gave him a look of annoyance and tensed as he ran his hooves along her side. She started squirming in her seat as Graff whispered something in her ears. All I could see at that moment was somepony feeling up my marefriend’s mom. Command execute, kill… “Shut up, Graff!” she yelled, suddenly slapping the big unicorn across the face. “I’m not that kind of mare!” He suddenly grabbed her in his magic, as she looked up in fear at him, he snarled, “Maybe you are and just don’t know it yet.” She glared at him and squirmed in his grip. “Let go of me!” I got out of my seat and shoved Graff off Velvet. “You heard the mare, back off” I suddenly realized in the next two minutes my size compared to Graff. I only came about to his chest. Suffice to say, he had the advantage over me. He stood over me, trying to size me up. He could’ve kneeled and the effect would’ve done just the same. “Look I’m sorry about that,” I said, straitening his shirt with my magic. “Let’s just-“ “You know you’ve been looking for a fight for a while.” Graff said, several of his gang gathering around to look. He shoved me “What’s it to you? You got something on this little bi-” I shoved him back before he could finish that sentence. I put up with Discord, Nightmare Moon, and Chrysalis in my long career! This guy was going to get i- Before either party could punch each other, the Principal gave us both looks. Graff gave an innocent smile and looked at me “Since you’re new here, I’ll cut you some slack,” he said with a glare. “Today only, so why don’t you make like a tree, and get outta here.” Really? Was he really that dense? It’s make like a tree and leave! He sounds like a complete idiot if he says it like that! I turned around as everypony went about their business. I saw that Night Light was gone. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought… ____________________________________________________________ I managed to track down Night Light and I followed him all the way to his home. I ran after him and shouted, “Night Light! Wait up!” He turned around and groaned, asking, “Why do you keep following me?” “Look,” I said, after catching my breath, “you need to go to that dance.” He shook his head and replied, “I can’t go to the dance, I’ll miss my favorite science fiction program.” “You’re giving up too soon!” I fired back at him “Velvet wants to go to the dance with you!” “Hey,” he argued as he turned and began walking up the steps to his home, “I’m just not ready to ask Velvet to the dance!” He turned around for a brief moment as his magic opened his front door, adding, “And not you, or anypony on this planet is going to persuade me to go!” He slammed the door before I could talk some sense into him. This wasn’t good; I looked at the photo again and saw Shining’s body was gone. All that was left was his legs. If I don’t do something, Twilight will be next. If Twilight doesn’t exist, I will have died in that fire that Dinky got caught in. She saved me before I could suffocate from all the smoke. If she disappears, so do I… What was I going to do; nopony on this planet will persuade him to go. I had to… Wait, Nopony on this planet eh…? ____________________________________________________ “Are you sure this is a good idea?” the Doctor asked as we hid in the bushes outside Night Light’s house that night. I looked at him and said reassuringly, “Trust me, if you can convince a principal to let me in, you can handle a self-conscious sixteen year old.” “All right,” he said, “now, we need to approach this carefully.” “Just act like any normal alien you’ve encountered.” I suggested. “Um…” ____________________________________________________ EXTERMINATE!!! DELETE!!! DELETE!!! Are You my Mummy? SILENCE WILL FALL!!! EXTERMINATE!!!! _____________________________________________________ “Maybe that’s not the best idea,” the Doctor said nervously. I hope this works, for all our sakes. _____________________________________________________ Perspective: The Doctor I shimmied up into Night Light’s bedroom window and saw the poor sap sleeping soundly. He snored slightly as I walked up to him. I poked him, trying to get him up, but he was out cold. Time to employ some, rather unorthodox tactics. I pulled out my sonic screwdriver and looked at the settings. I muttered to myself trying to decide, “Let’s see, obnoxious Scottish music? Nah. Obnoxious French music? I don’t want to destroy his brains. Ah ha! Obnoxious American music, never fails.” I aimed my sonic screwdriver at him and tapped the button. Out came a rendition of a song so horrible it could wake anypony from slumber. Nightlight bolted upright and I shut off the music. His gold eyes glanced at me and I smiled and introduced myself, “Ello, I’m the Doctor.” “Doctor Wh-“ Back to heavy metal for you! He shouted as he held his ears at the sudden noise. I had it set so that only he could hear it. I wouldn’t want the neighbors complaining about the noise. I shut off the music again. “Now that I have your attention, I have come from the planet Gallopfrey with an extremely important message for you.” His eyes narrowed a little. “You don’t look like an alien” he said suspiciously. I walked up to him and took his hoof. I placed it over one side of my chest and asked, “What do you feel?” “A heartbeat,” Nightlight answered, "everypony has one." I moved his hoof over to the other side of my chest and asked, “How bout now?” “Another heartbeat!” he exclaimed. “You have two hearts? How is that possible?” “That's possible because I’m not really a pony,” I explained. “I’m what is known as a Time Lord. Like I said before, I’m from the planet Gallopfrey, I’m twelve hundred and two months old, and you, my friend, may just be the most important pony on the planet right now.” He looked at me oddly and asked, “What do you want me to do?” “You know that lovely mare, Velvet?” I answered. “I think you and she are a match made in pony heaven,” I rolled my eyes at the bad pun. I shall never say that again. I continued, “Anyway, I need you to put on a bow tie, walk up to her and proudly declare ‘Velvet! I want you to go to the dance with me!’” “Why a bow tie?” he asked. Doesn’t he know? “Because bow ties are cool” Time to move on. “So, will you ask her?” “I don’t know…” h said hesitantly looking down at his hooves. Okay, time to get serious “Listen here nanny pants!” I shouted in order to get his attention “It is of the utmost importance that you ask Velvet to the dance! The fate of the world depends on it!” I thundered ominously. “What will you do if I don’t ask her?” he squeaked nervously. Time to add a little crazy; I held the sonic screwdriver in my hoof. Which I’d like to add is awesome! I waved it in his face and asked, “Do you know what this is?” “No” he quavered, shaking a little. “This is called the Sonic Screwdriver,” I said, adding a little bit of crazy to my voice, “and if you don’t ask that mare to the dance,” I gave him the crazy eyes, “I shall use it to unscrew your brain! Muahahahahaha!!!!!” _______________________________________________________ Perspective: Private “I think it went well,” the Doctor said to me as we walked off into the night. “You don’t think you were a little too harsh on him?” I asked nervously. “Oh well,” he said waving a hoof dismissively, “somepony had to knock some sense into him.” “So the Sonic Screwdriver,” I asked, starting to sweat a little. “Can it really…?” “No, of course not,” he said with a shake of his head. “Doesn’t hurt, maim or harm, that’s why I like it.” “So what does it do aside from spitting sonics everywhere?” I asked. “It’s really good at opening doors,” he replied. “Opening doors?” I asked flatly. “You’d be surprised how many empires can be toppled if you open the right door. Both figuratively, and literally” I laughed a little bit and he gave me a look. “There’s something I never got to ask you. How did you know some of the names of my companions? I certainly didn’t tell you about Sarah Jane Smith or K9.” “Um,” I said and looked to the side nervously. “Have you been snooping in my Tardis?” he asked accusingly. “It was an accident!,” I said defensively. “I just followed a little filly to your companion room!” “Little Filly?” he asked, tapping his chin in thought. “I don’t know of any children on the Tardis. Dinky comes by occasionally but she was definitely at home with Ditzy at the-“ “Wait, hold on.” I stopped and looked at him. “You let Dinky onboard the Tardis?” “It’s perfectly safe,” he answered. I gave him a look. “Okay, maybe ninety-nine point something or other percent safe,” he admitted. “I’m just friends with her mother is all.” “I saw her picture in the companion room,” I pointed out. “How long have you two been working together?” “Since I arrived at Ponyville,” he replied, smiling at the memory. “She was there to greet me and we went on all sorts of adventures together. Faced giant worms, cyber ponies, hehe, sorry, and all sorts of other crazy journeys.” “What about Lyra?” I asked. “She came on later,” the Doctor explained. “Bit obsessed with humans, which I admit I’m a big fan of myself, but she has a good heart.” “Are they…” I fought for the right words. “Safe? With you?” He looked away for a moment, “To be honest, no they aren’t.” I remembered Velvet’s words back in the present, about how I put Twilight in so much danger. Slowly the Doctor smiled and said, “But you know what? If given a choice, I'd never force them to come with me. I care about each and every companion that comes into the Tardis. They’ve started as ordinary people/ponies and become extraordinary by the time they leave.” His face saddened a little “Sadly, they all leave eventually.” “Doctor…” “Well, enough of that!” He perked up. “Let’s get some sleep before I fall over in the middle of the road and wake up next to Princess Celestia or something.” We were about to turn when suddenly a blast came out of nowhere and almost hit us. The Doctor and I ducked behind a nearby carriage before another bolt could fire at us. I peeked over and saw a pony holding some kind of hi tech blaster. He aimed it at me and fired, I ducked just in time to see the blast blow away part of my cover. I aimed Blackbird out of cover and blind fired. The Doctor reached into his pockets and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. While I was distracting the shooter he aimed the device and pressed a button. The end of it glowed bright green and the shooter’s weapon shot out sparks. The shooter said something I didn’t hear and ran off, leaping over a nearby set of fences before I could follow him. Who would be trying to kill us? We’re strangers here and I don’t think we’ve broken any laws… “Private, over here!” the Doctor called, he was standing over the weapon the assailant left behind. He reached down to touch it and suddenly withdrew his hoof after doing so. “What is it hot?” I asked, walking over to him. “No, it’s very cold” he said, running his sonic screwdriver down the length of the rifle. He looked at his screwdriver after scanning it and said to himself “Martian tech, heavily modified by the looks of it to look like a normal pony gun. Why is it nearly frozen?” “How can a gun fire when it’s so cold?” I asked. “It wasn’t firing bullets,” he explained, bending down to get a better look at the weapon “That there was a sonic blast, it took up half my screwdriver’s battery to disable it. You were lucky it didn’t hit you, otherwise who knows what could happen to a pony body.” “Who would be trying to kill us?” I asked. “Any myriad of reasons if you’re me,” the Doctor said, I wasn’t sure if he was joking. “But you, it could be just because you’re with me.” He frowned and said, “I’m sorry.” “It’s not your fault.” I smiled a little but turned back to the weapon. “So, you’re saying this is an alien weapon? Martian tech, you said?” “Yes,” he answered. “Probably salvaged or bought off some black market” He ran his screwdriver over it and picked it up in his hooves. He slung it across his back and said, “I’m going to analyze this when we get back to the Tardis. Maybe the computers can identify where anybody could’ve bought it from.,” “Right,” I nodded, “let’s head back.” “Allons-y!” he shouted, pointing forward. “Allons-y?” I asked. “It’s French,” he explained “It means let’s go.” “Don’t you mean Prench?” I asked, with a raised eyebrow. “Why would I say Prench?” He then understood “Oh, what would a place called France be called on this world?” “Well, we do have a place called Prance,” I explained. ….. I should keep my mouth shut… “Prance!?” He burst out in absolute laughter, falling on his back while laughing “That’s brilliant! So fitting of the French!” He got up and imitated a Prench accent, “Hello, I would like to order some Prench Toast? I feel so pretty and witty because I’m from Prance! I cannot prevent the Prench for Prancing about!” He just kept laughing the whole way home…
Chapter 4 "A Little Bit of Courage"Chapter 4 “A little bit of Courage” “There comes a time in every life, where we find the heart we are looking for.” LeAnn Rimes “Okay,” I said to my adversary, “you’ve put up a good fight. I admit you are truly an honorable opponent, but something’s gotta give eventually.” I glared at my adversary and stated coldly, “You’ve been a thorn in my side for all of ten minutes. It’s time you learned that none can match Private Eye when he’s on a mission.” I pinched my teeth around the bottle cap one more time “Just open you stupid thing!” I growled while trying to open the soda I just bought. How in the hell did they open these things? Did everypony carry around crowbars or something? “Eclipse!” I heard a voice call. I looked around and saw Night Light running towards me. His face pale and his eyes frantic. “Eclipse, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” “Hey Night Light, you all right?” I asked, putting my soda down and walking over to him. “You don’t look so good.” “I need to ask Velvet to the dance,” he shouted, but then his ears drooped in embarrassment “but I don’t know how.” “Keep your coat on,” I said, as I levitated the soda pop bottle over to me. “She’s over in the café.” I started twisting the bottle’s cap telekinetically, but no give. “How do you open this da-“ Night Light took the bottle in his own magic, put it over a small handle on the machine and suddenly the cap was open. I gave the bottle a small glare but took it with my magic. We walked down the street a ways before I asked, "So, what made you change your mind?” “Last night an alien, called the Doctor, came down from the planet Gallopfrey,” he recalled, visibly shaken. “He told me if I didn’t ask her out, he’d use his Sonic Screwdriver to unscrew my brain!” Dang, I guess it worked. I patted him on the shoulder and said softly, “Um, I would just keep the whole aliens unscrewing brains thing to myself, if I were you.” He nodded as we rounded a corner. I pointed to the café with my hoof and said with a smile, “There she is.” Velvet was sitting at a table in the café, talking to some of her friends. I slung my foreleg across Night Light's back and said encouragingly, “Now, all you gotta do is go in and invite her.” Night Light looked courageous for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by a look of panic. "What do I say to her?” Geez! Ember was easier to convince then he is! “Just say whatever comes naturally to you,” I said, “the first thing that comes to your mind.” He paused for a minute, and then shook his head. “I've got nothing...” I rolled my eyes and muttered, “It’s a wonder Twilight was even born.” He raised any eyebrow and said, “Huh?” “Nothing!” I said, taking a swig of the soda before continuing, “Look tell her, destiny brought us together. That she is the smartest, most beautiful mare you’ve ever seen in your life. Girls love that kind of stuff.” I looked and saw Night Light copying something down, and asked, “What’re you writing now? The Sequel?” “You’re saying some good stuff,” Night Light said with a smile. “You’re sure this’ll work?” “Yes, it’ll work.” When we got to the café I opened the door with my magic and commanded, “Now get in there, lover boy!” He walked in and just stood there stiff as a board. Velvet didn’t notice either of us entering as she chatted with her friends about some new band coming from Trottingham. I gave him a little shove and sat down at the bar. He slammed his hoof on the counter and said, “Scrolly! Milk! Chocolate!” A big glass of chocolate milk was sent his way and was gone the next minute. All right, the boy had his milk, his words, he was good to go! I watched him walk up, holding his notes in his magic, to where Velvet was sitting. He stood there, shaking a little but tried to sound confident as he said, “Velvet?” She turned her blue eyes to him, her friends wondering what the hell he wanted. “My, um,” he said, in an almost perfect impression of Fluttershy, “My, density has brought me to you!” She blinked and tilted her head, “I’m sorry?” He rubbed the back of his head and said, “Um, what I meant to say was that I um…” “Wait a minute,” she said, leaning forward and looked at him with a small smile. “I know you from somewhere...” “Yes!” he shouted, but then calmed himself down. “I’m Night Light, and I’m your density!” I wrote on my hoof, “Smack face here” and complied with the command. He blinked at his words and said shyly, “I mean, I’m your destiny.” She smiled a little, “Oh, that’s very…” “Hey, Night Light,” a voice shouted from the entrance. I turned and saw Graff with his gang of thugs. “I thought I told you never to come in here.” Night Light looked at him, his notebook landed on Velvet’s table as his confidence went with the wind. “Oh, hey Graff.” “You know it’s gonna cost ya,” he said, walking towards him. “How many bits are you willing to offer?” “Well,” he said in defeat, “how much you want?” I had enough; nopony was going to pick on my father in law on my watch! That’s going to be my job! I stretched out a hind leg and tripped Graff as he advanced on Night Light. Graff fell to the ground and glared up at me. Oh shit, I’ve done it now. He got up and glared down at me, yelling, “All right punk, I have half a mind to-“ “What the hell is that!?” I shouted, pointing behind him. The idiot turned and found a left hook ready to greet him. He fell onto a table behind him as I turned and ran out. I had to get these guys away from Night Light! I ran outside and looked around for some mode of transportation. I couldn’t run forever, I saw a board lying next to the café and got a crazy idea. I remembered experimenting with the concept back when I was learning magic. I levitated the board just inches of the ground. I climbed on it, and stared riding on it with my hind legs. I don’t know how Lyra finds balance walking around like this. Using my magic I propelled myself forward on the makeshift board and moved down the street. I looked behind me and saw Graff riding on a carriage with his goons pulling it. I needed speed! I grabbed with my teeth onto a passing carriage and used it to get the speed I needed. I balanced precariously on the makeshift board and held on for dear life. I passed the café and waved at a shocked crowd. Geez, you’d think they’d never seen a guy hovering around on a board. I looked behind me to see Graff’s crew about to trample from behind me. They were getting closer! I looked forward and saw that the pony driving it was a ginger maned earth pony. I recognized him from the clock tower protest! He aimed a strange weapon at me, the same one from last night! What the hell is going on? I opened my mouth to express my shock and found myself almost getting bit by one of the goons pulling the carriage. Okay, so I go forward and get shot at, or I go back and get beaten up. Or, I just give them all shit… I leapt off my board and flew over the shocked group of goons. The ginger earth pony veered suddenly with his carriage, narrowly avoiding a cart full of… “Shit!” The goons shouted as they crashed into said wagon full of, well you know. The manure fell into the carriage and covered the goons in the most disgusting substance known to pony kind. A large crowd of onlookers gathered around to see what happened, but I saw no sign of the ginger maned pony from before. Where’d he go? I shrugged and tossed the board to an impressed unicorn colt. Who knows, maybe it’ll be a cool toy in the future. ____________________________________________________ We managed to move the Tardis from its place in the woods over to the Doctor’s large garage. It was the best place for it to be as he could keep an eye on it. I opened the door to the interior and the Doctor stood there creating a painstakingly realistic model of the clock tower. He looked up as I entered. “Ah, Private!” He lifted a pair of goggles from his eyes and informed me, “I just finished up with the plan!” “Was painting it really necessary?” I asked, looking the model. “I mean you didn’t have to.” “Think of it as a souvenir,” He said as he set a model of the Tardis in the center of where the park was. “Okay, this is us when we’re ready to go. You’ll be inside the Tardis once everything’s set up.” He then wrapped a cable around the Tardis and attached it to the clock tower “Now, this cable will run inside the Tardis and be connected to its main power supply.” “So, when the lighting strikes,” I asked, pointing at the clock tower, “it runs into the Tardis and starts her up?” “Precisely,” he replied with a smile. “Now, how did the matchmaking go?” “Listen, before we talk about that,” I said, “tell me about that blaster?” “Well,” he replied, walking to a small work bench with the blaster on it “It’s definitely Martian tech, like I said before, but heavily modified. I ran through some search engines and found out only one model matches this one in the whole universe.” “What model was it?” I asked. “It belonged to The Corsair,” he explained as he pointed to an Ouroboros symbol on the gun. “A good friend of mine from long ago. He had this custom made a long time ago when he first visited Mars.” “What happened to him?” I asked slowly “Is he…?” “Yes,” he replied sadly. “He was a time lord, and he died when his Tardis was devoured.” “I’m sorry,” I sad with concern, “I didn’t mean to bring up bad-“ “It’s no big deal,” he interjected, suddenly cheerful. “This just means we have a monkey wrench in the whole system. While you’re galloping about,” he continued, laughing at the pun, “I’m going to investigate why it’s here.” “How many did the Corsair have?” I asked slowly. “Two were made,” he answered suspiciously,“why?” “I think I know the other one’s whereabouts,” I explained. I went on to tell him the events of today and how that ginger maned pony tried to kill me. He blinked in deep thought and mused, “Now, why would he try and kill you? It doesn’t make any sense. Why have it frozen too? It’s not like anypony cares what temperature their weapons are so long as they can fire.” He started pacing “Could it be Martian? No, they discontinued their sonic weaponry after I proved it to be rubbish.” He continued along in the vein until we heard knocking. Both of us walked outside and the Doctor looked through the peep hole in the garage door. His blue eyes turned to me, now pinpricks in shock, and exclaimed, “It’s Velvet!” “How’d she find me?” I asked, my own eyes growing wide in shock. “It doesn’t matter!” He ran to the Tardis and threw a blanket over it. “Help me hide her! There’s no time to turn her invisible!” I threw some more blankets over the Tardis, thoroughly covering her from any onlookers. Once she was successfully hidden The Doctor ran to the door and opened it politely. In stepped Velvet, a saddlebag on her, filled with books, I might add. When she saw me, a blush filled her cheeks. “Hello, Car- I mean, Eclipse,” she said with a nervous laugh. “Uh,” I said, “Hi Velvet, how’d you find me here?” “I, um, followed you here,” she admitted, then spoke frantically. “Not that I was stalking you or anything! It’s just nopony knew where you went after you, I mean…” She blushed even more, very much like her future daughter. “Um,” I pointed to the Doctor and introduced him,, “Velvet this is my uncle, Doc- I mean, Dr. Clockwork.” “An absolute pleasure,” the Doctor said, shaking Velvet’s hoof politely. He then pretended to be occupied with some junk in the corner as Velvet walked towards me. Her blue eyes didn’t meet mine for a second, she spoke nervously, “Um, Eclipse, I know I might sound a little forward,” She looked down at her hooves for a second, “but I was wondering, if you’d be available to go to the dance with me this Saturday?” “The Dance on the Ocean Floor?” I asked, pretending to not be in the know. “Yes, that’s the one,” she said with a nod, smiling widely. I blinked in shock; although not the kind of shock she’s probably thinking I’m feeling. “You mean, nopony’s asked you?” She shook her head a little glumly and said, “No, not yet. I kind of scare other guys away, what with being a bookworm and all.” I noticed her saddlebags were pretty full. Something tells me they weren’t all filled with textbooks. So that’s where Twilight gets that part of her… She noticed me staring and blushed even more, I decided to try and fix history again. “What about Night Light?” I asked. She raised an eyebrow. “Night Light?” She gave it a thought and answered slowly, “Well, he is kind of cute and all, and he did say some nice things back at the café.” She turned her gaze to me. “However, I think a stallion should be strong,so he can protect the mare he loves.” Was this why Velvet had a sour marriage in the future? Was it because of Night Light’s confidence issues? A plan started forming in my brain. It was a long shot, but it could save the future for all parties involved. _______________________________________________________ “I still don’t get it,” Night Light said, as I helped him fold his laundry. “How am I going to the dance with her if she’s going with you?” I explained for the fifth time as I folded some dry shirts, “She really wants to go with you. She just doesn’t know it yet,” I explained, giving him a confident smile. “That’s why we gotta prove that you, are a fighter at your core. Somepony who’s going to stand up for what he believes in. Somepony who’d be willing to fight Nightmare Moon if she tries to hurt Velvet.” “Well,” he said, pulling down a pair of dry coats. “I’ve never picked a fight with anypony in my life. Let alone a mythical monster that gobbles up colts when they don’t eat their carrots.” “You’re not going to pick a fight,” I explained again. “You are going to be the brave hero coming to her rescue!” I said dramatically. “Like a knight in shining armor, you will save her!” I finished folding the laundry and said, “Okay, let’s go over the plan again, 8:55 where are you going to be?” “I’m going to be at the dance,” he answered. “Right and where am I going to be?” “In the carriage with Velvet,” he replied. “Okay, so right around 9:00 she’s going to get mad at me,” I explained. “Wait,” he said, looking at me, “why’s she going to get angry with you?” “Well,” I rubbed the back of my head, “nice girls get mad at guys when they try to um…” I tried to place it delicately, “take advantage of them.” His gold eyes grew wide with shock, “You mean you’re going touch her…” He pointed at his flank. “No, no!” I said firmly. “It’s all an act, right?” “Okay,” he said reluctantly, “So long as she doesn’t get hurt, okay?” “That’s where you come in my friend,” I gave him a light tap on his chest. “Round 9:00 you’re strolling through the parking lot, and then you hear the commotion from the carriage. You walk over and see us struggling.” I pointed at him. “You as the great knight in shining armor say?” I waited for him. He understood and spoke in a semi confident voice at an invisible foe, “You! Keep your damn hooves off her!” He blinked and looked at me quizzically, asking, “Do I have to swear?” “Yes, Night Light,” I nodded firmly. “Celestia-damn it you’d better swear!” I went on with the scene. “You yank me out of the carriage; punch me in the stomach, and I'll go down. Then you and Velvet live happily ever after.” “You make it sound so easy,” he said looking down. “If only I wasn’t so scared.” “There’s nothing to it, Night Light,” I said, smiling warmly. “All it takes is a little bit of courage. A great stallion once told me, that if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish anything, all you need is those ten-seconds of stupid courage, and the rest is history.” “Who told you that?” he asked. “He sounds like cool guy.” “If all goes well,” I said with a smile, patting him on the shoulder. “someday you’ll meet him.” Hopefully as an in law…
Chapter 5 "Love Me So There Is a Tomorrow"Chapter 5 “Love Me So There Is a Tomorrow” Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton “All right, that should be everything,” the Doctor said as he finished attaching the wire to the Tardis. The large cable went inside the Tardis’ interior and hooked up to the machinery inside. He stepped out of his box and into the clear night air. “Let’s hope the storm comes tonight,” I said with a frown. I was dressed in formal attire for the evening, leaving my trench coat and hat inside the Tardis, along with most of my gear. The Doctor and I covered up the Tardis so that only the cable could be seen leading up to the clock tower. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” said an approaching police officer. He was also a ginger pony… weird how I keep running into them. “What are you up to Clockwork?” he asked the Doctor. “A bit of a weather experiment,” the doctor replied, flashing his psychic paper. “Here’s my weather permit, in case you were wondering.” The officer actually took a few seconds longer than normal upon reading it. Once he was satisfied, the Doctor and I walked down the street a little. I looked over at him and asked, “Doctor? Why are you coming along?” “Mostly to make sure the plan goes right on your end,” he explained, straitening his bow tie, “That, and I haven’t seen ponies dance in a while. It’ll truly be fascinating.” “Okay, just stay on your best behavior and you’ll be fine,” I said begrudgingly. “I guess it will be good to have you on hoof in case any of those weird ponies show up.” “All right,” he said with a nod. “Allons-y!” He then started giggling. “Prance…” What have I created? _________________________________________________________ Perspective: The Doctor I sat at one of the tables as a band of pegasi played on stage. Ponies of all kinds and colors were dancing together on the dance floor. The music was a smooth jazz that reminded me of New Orleans. I wonder what kind of pony pun you could make with that? I checked my watch and saw it was still quarter of, Night Light wasn’t supposed to go on for a while. I looked up and saw him literally dancing by himself. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little, interesting dancing skills for a race that has two left hooves. “Enjoying the party, sweetie?” No, it can’t be… I slowly turned, there stood a beautiful blue coated unicorn with a long blond mane. Her bright magenta eyes looked over at me. There was no doubt in my mind. “I thought,” I said, not believing my eyes. “That you sucked up all my regenerations?” she asked with a small laugh. “Well, apparently you missed one.” “How are you here?” I asked “This is...” “Impossible? Inconceivable,” she asked teasingly, walking towards me, “or simply delightful?” “All three?” I suggested as we both laughed. Then my blue eyes turned serious. “So, if you’re here, then who else is here?” “Well,” she answered, as she thought for a moment, “I’m pretty sure Jack is somewhere around here. Now don’t give me that look, he knows about us. Aside from that I think I’m the only one who followed you” “All right, now I’d love to stay and chat, but apparently there are crazy ponies running around with stolen weapons and I need to find them,” I said as I tried turning away before I felt my tail get yanked back. Her magenta eyes turned coy as she asked, “Is that all you have to say to me?” “Please,” I replied softly, looked at her with desperate blue eyes, “it’s hard enough just being with you now…” “Must you insist on taking the blame for everything?” she chided. “You really are getting old.” “You know I can’t stop,” I answered, my brow furrowing. “You know exactly why I can’t stop” “I never said you should stop,” she said, her expression turning to one of concern. “I know you’ll run until your legs finally give out.” She slowly smiled and said gently, “Just let somebody be there to catch you when you do give out.” “Why are you here?” I asked. “Can't it be because I just want to dance?” she asked with a smile. “I haven’t seen you in a long time… or have I? I left my journal back at the hotel.” “Well,” I replied, climbing to my hooves and facing her. “The world won’t end if the Doctor dances.” She smiled at me and we walked out onto the dance floor. I then thought to ask, “So, how’d you end up here of all places?” She just took my front hooves, put one of her own on her lips, smiled and said the timeless phrase, ”Spoilers…” ___________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private Eye Our carriage rolled into the now deserted parking lot. It was fairly easy to get one when I knew the Arch Duke of Lincolt. That Psychic paper is really useful. I should ask the Doctor if he has a spare for me to use. I poked my head out the windows and tossed a few bits to the pulling stallions and said, “Thanks for the lift, guys.” They nodded and went off with their newfound earnings. I looked around, the parking lot was largely deserted, and everypony had gone into the dance already. I looked to my left and saw Velvet dressed in a very pretty pink dress. She smiled a little at me. “Well,” I said, clearing my throat, “would you mind if we parked for a bit?” She suddenly blushed bright red. Was it something I said, she looked down self-consciously and replied, “Well Eclipse, I’m, well I am sixteen so I mean I know how it’ll…” Oh. That’s what she was thinking? This might be a little easier than I thought. That’s not necessarily a good thing however… “I didn’t mean it in that way!” I said frantically. “I was just um-“ I noticed she was levitating something to her right. I peeked over and saw it was a book, one of…those books. I blushed bright red at the thought of her having that kind of interest. This was going to get awkward really fast. Her blue eyes gazed at me and she said, “I mean, we are alone together, it’s only natural we should… park.” She started scooting over so her grayish white coat was pressed against mine. It was starting to feel very warm in here. I needed to stop this before Night Light gets the wrong idea when he comes along! “Velvet, you shouldn’t do this!” She frowned and said, “Don’t be such a square, Eclipse, it says in the book we should do this.” Yep, she was definitely Twilight’s mom. “You, um,” I said, as I tried to be responsible. “You might regret it later down the line…” She rolled her eyes and huffed, “You’re starting to sound like my mother.” _______________________________________________________ Perspective: Night Light Get your damn hooves off her! Get your damn hooves off her! Get your darn… Dang it! I just can’t do this! I leaned against the wall as the band finished up playing. The lead guitarist/singer was starting to feel a bit queasy. They were going to take a break. I can’t do this! Velvet will just laugh at my pathetic attempt to be brave! What would she see in a stallion like me? She’s beautiful, smart, and confident, all sorts of things I’m not. What am I going to do? I sat on my haunches in defeat. Maybe I should give up, she’d be happier with somepony like Eclipse. She wouldn’t want a moron like me. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything… Eclipse is right! I can’t just give up! I’ve come this far! I’m not giving up on her. I want Velvet to get to know me, and I want to be with her. I looked up at the clock. It was almost 9:00! Time to go. Time to use those ten seconds of stupid courage… _________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private Eye Where is he? I looked outside for a minute and Night Light wasn’t there yet. Where was that no good, spineless, future father in law? I needed him to get here right now before- “Eclipse, why are you sweating so much?” my carriage companion asked. I looked over at Velvet; I certainly must be sweating by now. I said nervously, “Um, Velvet, have you ever been in a situation, where well, you were supposed to act a certain way, but when you finally got there you weren’t sure about going through with it?” Our eyes met. “Like on a first, um, date?” she asked with a blush. “Well,” I said nervously, “sort of, I guess.” “I think I understand what you mean,” she said with a warm smile. “You do?” If you knew the whole situation I doubt you would say that again. “I think I know what to do in situations like that,” she assured; her head slowly began to move closer to mine. A lot of alarms were going off in my head. This was not good! “What?” I asked, slowly backing away to avoid the advancing unicorn. “Just relax,” she said, then pressed her lips to mine. My grey eyes shot wide open as I tried to get her off me. Holy hay I was kissing Twilight’s mom! I’m never going to be able to look at her the same way again! This was insane, this was… She stopped kissing me for a minute. She broke her kiss and looked at me oddly, “Eclipse, why do I feel… bad for kissing you?” Because I’ve kissed your future daughter more times than I can count? What came out was, “I’m just not the right one for you.” “It doesn’t make any sense,” she paused, taking a quick peak at her book, “When I kissed you, it wasn’t magical or anything. It felt like I was kissing my baby brother good night.” She shook her head and said, “I’m sorry, Eclipse. This really doesn’t make much sense.” “Believe me,” I said with a small smile. “It makes perfect sense.” “Somepony’s coming,” Velvet said, her ears perking up at the sound of hoof steps, several hoof steps… Did Night Light bring an entourage or somethin- Suddenly the door of the carriage was pulled open and I got yanked outside. I came face to face with Graff. He growled upon seeing me, his breath stank of alcohol. “It cost me three hundred bits to fix my carriage! Now you’re going to pay for every cent…” He shoved me and I was grabbed by his buddies. All of them were levitating or holding some kind of drink. I struggled against them but couldn’t break free. These guys had a death grip on me! “Velvet!” I called out. “Eclipse!” she cried, peeking out from the carriage. She glared at Graff and yelled, “You’re drunk, Graff! Let him go!” He smirked upon seeing her. “Well, lookie what we have here…” Velvet’s tail curled up behind her. She knew exactly what he was intending. “You keep your filthy hooves away from her!” I yelled before getting punched in the stomach. I felt the wind get knocked out of me. “Get him outta here!” was the last thing I heard before I fell unconscious. ________________________________________________________________ Perspective: The Doctor They dragged Private away from the carriage. I'd been coming to see if Night Light was all right, but when I came out I saw them ganging up on Private instead. This wasn’t good! I had to get him out of there! I saw them head towards a carriage and lock him in the trunk. I stood as they tried to leave and asked, “What do you boys think you’re doing?” “Beat it, snoop,” one of them drunkenly called. “We’ll kick your ass!” “That’s my friend you just dumped in that trunk,” I said with a smirk. “I think you should let him out.” “Or what?” Another laughed and slurred “You’ll send an army of chickens after us?” They started laughing… Until they saw the pegasi band behind me that is. They glared at the goons and said, “These are the fellas who called us chickens?” There were five of us and only three of them. One of the pegasi was out of commission thanks to contracting the feather flu. However, his buddies were more then a match for these goons. I crossed my forelegs and said, “I’ll give you a piece of advice I give to all of the bastards who try and take me on… run.” They turned tail and fled with all their might. The pegasi tossed swear words and bottles of cider at them. They laughed at their victory and I went to the trunk. “Private, are you in there?” “Yeah!” I heard a voice call from inside. “Get me outta here!” “Hey, Sidewinder,” one of the pegasi said to his buddy, “hand the pony your keys.” “The keys are in here!” Private shouted. “Say that again?” Sidewinder asked in shock. Thank God for the sonic screwdriver! __________________________________________________________ Perspective: Night Light I’m late! Oh very, very, late! I can’t believe I got held up! I had to hurry! Eclipse can’t stall forever! I saw the carriage, it was visibly moving. Geez, Eclipse really wanted to go for authenticity… I straitened the bow tie around my neck and used my magic to yank the door open, yelling, “Hey you! Get your damn hooves off-“ Then I saw, it was Graff. He was on top of Velvet! He had her pinned down! He was going to… I couldn’t move as Graff’s eyes found mine. My legs refused to move. Velvet was crying. He was going to hurt her and I couldn’t move. “Just walk away, Night Light,” Graff snarled threateningly. I couldn’t move, I wouldn’t move. “Are you deaf, Night Light?” he asked again, “I said, walk away!” I should leave. I couldn’t face him. He was bigger then I was, but he was going to hurt Velvet. You just need those ten-seconds of stupid courage and the rest is history…. Ten-seconds, time to put them to good use. I opened my gold eyes and glared at Graff. “No Graff,” I said, trying to sound brave, “you leave her alone right now!” He blinked and then got out of the carriage, shoving Velvet aside. She looked at me with tear stained blue eyes. She was afraid for me. So was I. Graff stood in front of me and growled, “Now, you’ve done it.” Ten… I reached forward and tried to punch him. He caught my hoof in his magic and began twisting it at a very painful angle. Nine… “You’re going to break his leg!” Velvet cried. Graff just laughed! He just laughed at my pain. Eight… I heard his laughter, the laughter I had to put up with all my life. Seven… I looked at Velvet, she looked terrified, not for herself, but for me. Six… I looked up at Graff, his smug face as he caused me pain. Five… No! I refuse to bow to him! Four… Velvet was counting on me! Eclipse was counting on me! I can’t let them down! Three… I braced myself for what I had to do, my horn glowed slightly. Two… I turned my head suddenly and pointed my horn directly at Graff’s chest One… I fired a magical bolt with all my might, sending him flying over the carriage. I felt his magic release my arm and saw him crash into a nearby tree. He fell unconscious as I shook my hoof to relive some of the pain. I stared at Graff, did I just do that? I beat him! I can’t believe it! I beat Graff! Sixteen years of putting up with him and I beat him! I looked over and saw Velvet climb out of the carriage. Her dress had some rips in it and her mane was frazzled, but she was still beautiful… “Are you okay?” I asked as I reached a hoof out to her. She just stared into my eyes. Hers glistened like stars in a night sky. Sparkling with such beauty I couldn’t believe it. Sparkle, that’s a nice name. She took my hoof and smiled at me “I’m fine, Night Light…” We walked together back to the dance, ignoring the crowd gathering around the scene. Tonight, it was just us two. ___________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private “Well, that did it” I said, looking over at the Doctor “That Screwdriver is pretty useful.” I looked back at Velvet and Night Light walking back inside the school together. “Looks like everything worked out,” he said with a smile. Then we heard somepony puking back at the carriage. We ran over and saw the band trying to take care of one of their members. He threw up into a bucket as one of his fellow pegasi patted him on the back. “Hey, what’s wrong with him?” I asked. “Some ginger put something in his drink,“ the drummer said. “Now he won’t stop puking up like crazy.” The Doctor ran his sonic screwdriver over the Pegasi and concluded, “Ipecac Syrup, designed to get you to throw up when you’ve been poisoned, but in the right doses it can cause you to vomit for hours.” The sick member threw up to drive home the point. The cellist gave my friend a look and asked, “He some kind of doctor?” “Close enough,” I answered. “Anyway, how long will it last, Doc,” I asked my friend. “Three hours judging by his medical scan,” the Doctor concluded. “We gotta get our boy to the hospital,” the drummer said again. “We can’t play anymore tonight, his health comes first.” I took a quick look at the picture and saw Twilight’s head was gone! If the band didn’t play… I spoke firmly, “No, you can’t leave now! The band has to play!” “Look, our boy can’t play,” the cellist pointed out, “and we can’t play without him either. So, unless you know somepony who can play the guitar, I’m going to have to call the dance over.” “Actually,” the Doctor spoke up, “I think I can play.” “Where’d you learn how to play guitar?” I asked. “Um…” __________________________________________________ Now listen here Doctor Man, If you wanna get pretty with the ladies, yer gonna have to learn how to play this baby. Thank you for the lessons Mr. Presley, I’m in your debt. Think nothing of it man, just let the music play. ________________________________________________________ “Nopony you would know,” he said with a shrug. _________________________________________________________ Somehow in the process I got drafted to play the violin as well. I stood on the stage looking out at the dancing couples. The Doctor strummed on the guitar with surprising ease. I’m guessing being a Time Lord allowed you to learn things quickly. The Singer smiled out at the crowd and called, “This is for all you lovers out there.” He then began to sing smoothly to the crowd. I was surprised at his level of talent. Man, if only I could sing like that. I looked and saw Night Light and Velvet together on the dance floor. They haven’t kissed yet? Better hurry up Night Light. I looked at the picture I had attached to the head of the violin. Twilight was still there! Thank goodness, I can see her! ___________________________________________________ Perspective: Night Light I looked at Velvet as we danced together. I couldn’t find any words to say to her. She just glowed in the gym’s light. Her blue eyes gazed at me as she said softly, “Night Light?” “Uh, yeah?” I asked, unsure of myself. “I’m, uh,” she said with a blush, “sorry for brushing you off earlier.” “Hey, it’s all right,” I said gently, “to be honest I can’t blame you.” “I just never knew you had it in you to protect me like that,” she gushed, the pink on her cheeks evident. “I really admire that.” I blushed in turn and said modestly, “I only did what anypony else would do.” “I think it was very brave,” she said with a smile, her blue eyes meeting mine. “You came out like a knight in shining armor and saved me from Graff.” “I’m not like Aragore or anything,” I mused. She blinked; I can’t believe I said that out loud! She’s going to think I’m a total nerd! “Aragore? From Lord of the Horn Rings?” she asked. “Yes,” I gasped, my shock evident “How did you…” “I read a lot,” she said, her cheeks turning red. “My friends think I’m weird for liking books so much, but I just can’t put down a good story.” “Me neither,” I said with a smile. “Do you read any science fiction?” “Kind of a guilty pleasure of mine,” she admitted, “I’ve always been fascinated by stars and planets.” She gestured to her cutie mark of three stars and continued, “That's part of the reason I have this.” She likes space too? Unbelievable! Who knew that Twilight Velvet had such a love of literature! I had no idea… Suddenly a ginger maned earth pony shoved me aside. He smiled rudely at me and said, “Scram, Night Light!” He looked at Velvet, I didn’t like the look in his eyes. “I’m cutting in…” ___________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private Eye No! I watched that jerk walk off with Velvet. She struggled a little but I knew she wouldn’t be able to get away. I felt my magic almost fail for a moment and a tightness in my chest. The Doctor looked over at me concerned. I looked to the picture of Twilight, and she was fading! No! She can’t! I looked at my hoof, it was starting to fade as well!. Twilight, I don’t want to disappear! I want to hold you, I want to see you again! I want to stay by your side forever…. _____________________________________________________ Perspective: Night Light Maybe it was all a dumb idea. I couldn’t hold onto her if I wanted too. She deserved better, somepony who’ll care for her. Somepony who’ll stay by her side, who’ll… Care for her grandpa? I looked around; there was a small filly among the crowd. She had a beautiful magenta coat, with long brown hair and the sweetest purple eyes I’ve ever seen. Was this… Grandma loves you Grandpa I heard her say in my head, was I dreaming? Be brave for her Grandpa! Be her knight in shining armor! I nodded firmly and ran over to the ginger. I tapped him on the shoulder and said firmly, “I believe that’s my date.” I shoved him aside with my magic, for some reason he felt squishy. I looked back at Velvet who just stared at me. Our eyes met as I reached up to touch her on the cheek. She reached to touch mine as well. One thing is for sure, I’m never letting her go again! I placed my lips on hers, not sure why I did it. I just wanted to hold her so badly, and never let her to go. I held her tightly to me, not hard, but just enough that I knew she was with me. She held me back just as firmly, kissing back with unbelievable fervor. Was she? She was, we are, in love… ________________________________________________________ Perspective: Private Eye I felt rejuvenated beyond belief. I shot up to my feet and looked out at the crowd. Velvet and Night Light were kissing! They did it! I looked at my picture excitedly. Twilight and Shining came back! Their smiling faces nearly moved me to tears. I felt an old tune come along. Something I think everypony would enjoy. There was a small break between songs. I put my bow on my strings, and just poured my heart into that old tune. Everypony stared at the lone violinist playing that old tune. The Doctor smiled, I guess he knew what I was playing. I swear I heard a small voice sing along. Like a child, so innocent and pure. I looked over and saw the filly from before, singing out loud. Although nopony else seemed to notice. She sang it, as if she knew it by heart… When I am down, and oh my soul’s so weary… When trouble’s come…and my heart burden be, Then, I am still, and wait here in my silence, Until you come, and sit awhile with me… Nopony was noticing that angel singing. Was she really mine? How come nopony was noticing her? She just kept singing as I played… You raise me up! So I can stand on mountains… You raise me up! To walk on stormy seas, I am strong….when I am on your shoulders… You raise me up…to more then I…can be… With that, she started walking towards a blue unicorn mare. She smiled at the young filly. Then she gave a small wave, to which the Doctor returned! He could see them too! I felt compelled to continue, I had a competent singing voice, but I wasn’t singing for points. I was singing to the filly, whom was eager to hear it. You raise me up! So I can stand on mountains! You raise me up! To walk on stormy seas! I am strong…when I am on your shoulders… Your raise me up, to more then I can be… The filly turned around, and we sang at in unison. There is no life, no life without its hunger; Each restless heart beats so imperfectly; But when you come and I am filled with wonder, Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity. We sang together, and it felt so right. I don’t know what was going on otherwise. Here was this little filly, just pouring her little heart in singing with me. Her amethyst eyes twinkled like stars in the night sky… Twinkle… Your raise me up! So I can stand on mountains! You raise me up! To walk on stormy seas! And I am strong when I am your shoulders! You raise me up…to more then I can be… I watched her and the blue unicorn start to leave. I gave one last line to her… You raise me up…to more then I…can be… I blinked and was greeted by a thunderous applause. The Doctor slapped me on the back and said, “You may have introduced that one a little bit early, but nobody here is complaining!” I stared out at the crowd, it felt, amazing to sing like that. Just who was that filly? Why was she with that blue unicorn? Was she? I love you Daddy, I will always love you… Twinkle, what a beautiful name. I was about ready to slip off my violin. Then the Doctor got on the mic and spoke to the crowd, “Hello, I’m the Doctor and before anypony asks, just the Doctor.” Some looked at confusion at the strange stallion. “Thank you all for allowing us to perform tonight, but sadly my friend and I need to leave pretty soon.” “Hey, what about an encore!” some pony shouted from the back. “Yeah!” the drummer said with a smile, “Play something that really cooks!" “Well, if you all insist,” the Doctor said with a smile at the crowd, “now this one is an oldie, where I’m from, anyway. I hope you all enjoy something a bit wilder.” I left the stage as the Doctor spoke to the band. Just what song did he have in mind? Oh boy… The Doctor began playing on his guitar like nopony’s business. He moved his hooves with such ease over the strings you wouldn’t believe this was the pony who couldn’t pick up his screwdriver a few months ago. The band started getting into it too. Moving with the beat that The Doctor had over them. Then the Doctor sang… Deep down Louisiana close to New Orleans Way back up in the woods among the evergreens There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode Who never ever learned to read or write so well But he could play the guitar just like a ringing a bell Ponies in the crowd began to dance like crazy. This was something totally new to them. I felt my own hoof tap the back stage floor as the Doctor continued. Go go Go Johnny go Go Go Johnny go Go Go Johnny go Go Go Johnny go Go Johnny B. Goode I heard a Pegasus calling somepony backstage, “Eh, Arashi!” he called “It’s me, Kurando Bolt! You know that new sound you’re looking for? Well, listen to this!” He held the phone out to The Doctor’s music. I looked out and saw the Doctor was getting a little, too into it. He started jumping around, riffing on the guitar at unbelievable speeds. The band was even in shock to the point where they stopped playing. The Doctor leapt and bounded across the stage and came up to a nearby amp and bucked it over. He performed one last guitar solo and landed on his haunches. He looked out at the stunned crowd and laughed a little. He gave the guitar to one of the band members and said, “Believe me, I had the same reaction when I heard it for the first time too.” I simply face hoofed… ________________________________________________________ “Really, Johnny B. Goode?” I asked, looking over at the Doctor. “Of all the crazy songs you could’ve picked.” “Hey, they liked it,” he said as we started making our way towards the exit. I turned down the stairs and saw Velvet and Night Light waiting for us. I smiled at both of them and said, “Hey, guys.” “Hey,” Velvet said, with a smile, “you two performed rather interesting music.” “Yeah,” I sighed, “some more interesting then others.” “Don’t dis the classics,” the Doctor said, frowning. “Um, Eclipse.” she said nervously, looked over at the stallion beside her. “Night Light offered to take me home. I hope that’s all right.” “Yes, it’s great!,” I exclaimed, but then calmed myself. “I mean, I had a feeling about you two from the start.” “I’ve got a feeling too,” she said, pressing herself up to Night Light, who pressed back affectionately. Yep, they were going to do all right. “Eclipse,” the Doctor said, “I’m going to get the um…experiment ready, I’ll meet you there.” “Sure, Uncle Clockwork,” I said as he left, chuckling a little. “He’s an interesting guy.” “I’ll say,” Night Light commented. Velvet looked at me concerned and asked, “Will we ever see you again?” “I guarantee it,” I said with a smile. “Odds are, you’ll at least run into somepony a lot like me.” Night Light shook my hoof and said gratefully,“Thank you so much for all the advice you gave me. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.” I smiled at him and then checked my watch and said, “I gotta go guys, it’s been an… educational experience.” I was about to turn away but I added, “Hey, if you guys get married and have kids, and one of your son’s girlfriend’s happens to be a princess of love, let’s just say, there’s no spell involved.” I then walked out, leaving behind the two ponies I’ve gotten to know. I got to meet Twilight’s parents in the craziest way possible. They’ll do all right. Now to get to my happily ever after! _____________________________________________________________ The Doctor and I ran into the park and leapt into the Tardis. The cable kept the door from closing fully but it was necessary. Immediately the Doctor went about flipping switches and pressing buttons. “Lighting should hit in exactly five minutes!” he declared. “That gives us plenty of time to hunker down!” “The lighting will override the sabotage right?” I asked, slipping my trench coat and hat back on. “Should, according to my calculations which are always right” He paused then added, “Ninety something percent of the time, anyway.” Hang on Twilight, I’m coming ho- I ducked as a sonic blast nearly obliterated the spot where my head had been. I looked up and saw three ginger earth ponies, two armed with blasters and one unarmed. The blasters were aimed at the Doctor who raised his hooves and asked, “What’s going on here?” “Designation Doctor,” one said in an almost robotic voice, “violator of seventeen thousand time laws, several accounts of meddling in history, altering events, preserving species, and disobeying orders.” “What’s he talking about, Doctor?” I asked. “Remember when I said the Time Lords only wanted to observe history and I broke the rules by interfering?” he asked, his voice deathly firm. “Some weren’t too happy with that.” “Just who are you ponies?” I demanded. “We’re just trying to go home!” “Time stream has been altered too much,” one said, again robotic. “Precautions must be taken. The directive cannot be altered.” “What directive?” I asked. Suddenly the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He pressed the button and, before my very eyes, one of the ginger ponies melted. It melted into this white milk like substance. My eyes grew wide in shock. “Doctor!" I cried. "What are those things?” “The flesh,” he said gravely. “Programmable matter used in dangerous industrial jobs. Used here to create perfect replicas.” “Replicas of what?” I asked. “You must’ve had a progenitor!” I demanded of the clones. “Who is your original?” The one in the middle smirked, reached into his pockets, and said, “I am known as The Preserver, but in this time, I go by another name” “I am, the 13th Doctor.” he announced, pulling out a sonic screwdriver identical to the Doctor's...
Chapter 6 "All Across Time"Chapter 6 “All Across Time” Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present. ~ Roger Babson I stared at the ginger time lord. There was no way! This guy was the Doctor too? I looked over at the Doctor who was also staring at the 13th doctor. “Doctor? How is this possible? How can he be you, but you also be him” I smacked my forehead “I’m confused” “What do you have to say, Doctor?” Thirteen asked, his flesh counterpart aiming his rifle at me. My Doctor blinked, then spoke one shocked line, “You’re a Ginger!” “What?” I asked, my jaw dropping. “Of all the things you could possibly say to your future self, you point out that he’s ginger?” “Yes!” he cried as he threw his hooves in the air in frustration “Twelve regenerations and I don’t become ginger until my last one! Unbelievable!” “Besides that,” I asked Thirteen with a glare, “What do you want with your past self?” “Technically, he’s not my past self,” Thirteen said with a small frown. “He’s from this dimension, and he has been shirking his duties.” “So you’re me from a different time line?” the Doctor asked, crossing his forelegs. “What’s so different in your line?” “He’s from an alternative timeline?” I asked, still very confused “Exactly,” the Doctor stated, nodding. “He can’t be from this timeline so, how’d you manage to get here?” He glared at Thirteen. “It’s supposed to impossible to cross dimensions. Now, you’re putting the whole universe at stake” “You are incorrect” Thirteen hollered, pointing at me. “He is the one putting the universe at stake.” “Come again?” I asked, mouth gaping open in shock. “You were never supposed to come here,” he said menacingly. “You were never supposed to obtain Tenacity; you were actually supposed to die in that fire.” “I was supposed…” I said in shock “To… die?” “Don’t listen to him, Private!” the Doctor shouted, slowly backing to the consul. “Why hide the truth from him?” Thirteen asked. “I’ve grown so tired of hiding it from everybody.” “You aren’t me,” The Doctor growled, “I would never believe that history is completely fixed! Time can be rewritten!” “Time has been rewritten beyond the point of repair,” Thirteen retorted. “I plan to fix it by eliminating the perpetrator.” The other thirteen pointed his blaster at me. “What the hell?” I yelped. “By altering history you have broken the laws of the Time Lords,” Thirteen quoted, like I did whenever I condemned a criminal, “you will be punished for doing so.” “Leave him out of this!” the Doctor cried. “He had no idea he was changing history! It was an acci…” He blinked, then narrowed his gaze and said angrily, “No, you knew he was going to end up here.” “Correct,” Thirteen said, “the goal was to eliminate him in a time period where he would so deeply alter history that his elimination would be deemed necessary.” “You set me up!” I yelled “You’re the one who gave me that flier! You knew I would accidentally alter history! That storm was you’re doing, wasn’t it?” “Again,” Thirteen replied with a smirk, “you are correct, but it will do little to help you in the long run.” “You’re not the Doctor!” I yelled. “You never were! He would never agree to something as insane as this!” “I would,” the Doctor said slowly, “if I never came to earth.” “You mean to tell me…” I said, in slow realization. “The man standing there is indeed me,” the Doctor explained “Or at least, a flesh copy of himself that’s also technically me, but he never came to earth. Instead, he stayed on Gallopfrey through a terrible war that wiped out the Time Lords…” His eyes showed deep guilt. Was he responsible somehow? “The war that destroyed all the Time Lords within the universe,” Thirteen said, his tone grave. “The one that spread across countless worlds and universes, but it all ended in hell. Millions of worlds destroyed, millions of species caught in the crossfire, all across time. The worst part? It technically will never end.” “What is he talking about, Doctor?” I asked, looking at him warily. “In order to stop the time war from destroying the universe,” the Doctor said in a broken voice, “I had to put a Time Lock on it. The Time Lords trapped inside are in a constant loop, never to stop the war and the fighting, never to rest, and it’s all my fault.” “Doctor,” I said in shock, as I slowly backed away from him. How could he do that? Force his people to fight forever like that. Was there no other choice in the matter? “As a result of your meddling,” Thirteen said robotically, “you are to be eliminated along with Preventus Phelps Eye, and history will no longer be changed.” “You’re nuts!” I cried. “History will change! It will change for the better! You’re not the Doctor, and you never were!” The Doctor blinked at my tirade “The entire time he was here he thought of only one thing, that was getting me home. This man here has faced down beasts that I could only dream about. He’s faced more then you’ll ever see in your life. The reason I’ll never let you destroy him is, for all the horrible things he’s done, he’s still my friend! He’s done more good in each of his twelve lifetimes then I’ve ever done in mine!” “Private…” the Doctor smiled at me, albeit a little sadly. “Enough!” Thirteen yelled, as he gestured to this blaster wielding self. “Kill them both now!” “Before you do,” the Doctor said with a smirk, “you may want to hang onto something.” “Why’s that?” Thirteen asked, looking confused. “Because the whole time Private and I have been talking with you,” he announced, his smirk becoming a wide grin, “we’ve just been stalling until the lightning hit!” Suddenly the cable lit up with as lightning struck the clock tower. The Tardis roared to life as the sabotage was overridden. I yanked Blackbird out of my trench coat and shot the blaster wielding ginger. He cried in shock but another shot to his chest caused him to fall over. He soon melted into the milk like substance as the Doctor used his own sonic screwdriver on the last one. He too melted before my eyes. The Doctor ran to the controls as I looked at the substance. I was about to touch it when the Doctor cried “Don’t! If you touch it they’ll gain a sample of your DNA and you really don’t want that.” I backed away from the substance as the Tardis began rocking and asked, “We outta here?” “I just got us into the time vortex,” the Doctor shouted, running around and flipping switches like crazy, “but something’s following us!” “Following us?” I cried, suddenly I felt the Tardis rock and I held onto a rail for support. “Who can follow us through time?” “How do you think?” he snapped. “His own Tardis.” “He’s got one?” I asked as the ship rocked again, “What’s he doing?” The Doctor cursed under his breath as he looked at the screen. “He’s managed to salvage some weaponry somehow. He probably got it the same place he got the blasters, off the Corsair’s Tardis” “You’re saying he’s got weapons?” I cried, holding on for dear life as the Tardis banked and flew through the vortex. “Do we have anything to fire back at him?” “No,” the Doctor said, holding onto the consul for support, “my Tardis was a museum model. She was never designed for combat.” “How the hell can you miss a Tardis?” I asked. “Sexy,” I cringed at the name, “probably could’ve detected it, right?” “It’s because it had a perfect hiding place,” the Doctor speculated, frowning. “Where is the safest place in a storm?” “The Eye,” I answered, and then I blinked. “He was hiding in the singularity storm!” “Then he used it to send us back in time,” the Doctor said as he smiled. “That’s brilliant!” “Doctor, not to rain on your parade,” I cried, pointing behind us, “but the milk is moving!” The Doctor and I looked on in horror as the flesh began moving again. It morphed itself in a grotesque creature with slimy skin, sharp fangs and long limbs. The three of them glared at us. “Private, companionship lesson 101,” the Doctor quipped, “when faced with giant scary monsters, RUN!” We both took off into the halls of the Tardis. The beasts were hot on our tails. I looked over at the Doctor and yelled, “Can’t you use your sonic screwdriver on them again?” “The battery’s out!” the Doctor cried as we rounded a corner, narrowly avoiding a slice from one of the flesh. “We’re sitting ducks in here!” We rounded another corner and came to a dead end. We looked back and saw the flesh walking towards us. They hissed threats and sharpened their limbs in preparation for their strike. I looked inside Blackbird. “No ammo, I left most it back in the main area.” The Doctor looked on at the flesh coming towards us, we had nowhere to run. The Doctor looked over at me and said, “Private, I’m going to be a distraction. I’ll charge them, and you run for the exit.” “I’m not leaving you behind!” I retorted. “Private, there’s no room for argument!” he cried. “Go when I clear a way!” “You’re not sacrificing yourself for me!” I shouted. “I can’t live with myself if-“ “You think I can?” he yelled at me. “You think I want to see another friend of mine get killed?” I noticed his eyes were failed with tears. “I can't bear to lose anybody else.” Doctor, you’re afraid to lose me, like you’ve lost so many others. So many people, all came into this Tardis. They left, sometimes because they wanted to, sometimes because they needed to, and sometimes they didn’t have a choice. However, they would do it all again, for you. Which is why, I will not let you die. The chanting began… Tenacity appeared around my neck and a cord of light connected me and the Doctor. Then other cords of light grew out of the doctor. I saw hundreds of ponies surrounding him, all connected by the light cords. The Doctor looked on each of them as we all rose into the air. With a firm nod we both turned towards the flesh. Suddenly the Doctor’s eyes became bright gold, and a golden light surrounded him. The light moved almost like a snake around the flesh, causing them to shriek in agony. Somehow, the light felt familiar… Nobody hurts my thief… Tardis, you’re fighting back too… The flesh was sent out through the halls, wrapped in the golden light. Suddenly they vanished into thin air. The Doctor and I followed the light and came back to the main area. The light opened the door, and outside was the singularity storm. I watched with wide eyes as the light surrounded it, and suddenly the storm vanished forever… The Doctor and I landed softly on the Tardis floor. He cheered in sheer delight, “That was brilliant, Private! Using the heart of the Tardis and the Element of Tenacity together! An unstoppable force and an immovable object! Making the force take out the flesh because it was the weakest! Sheer brilliance!” “Yeah,” I sighed, feeling very tired as Tenacity disappeared from around my neck, “I could use a nap right now.” I fell over just as the Doctor walked up to the consul. He smiled down at me and said, “Now, let’s see about getting you home.” __________________________________________________________ I was lying on something soft. I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes to the light of morning. The radio in the distance was playing some song I didn’t know. I looked up and saw Twilight looking down at me with concerned eyes. “Thank Celestia, you’re awake,” she said with relief. “Twilight?” I blinked. “Twilight!” I cried, as I reached up and embraced my marefriend. She gave a little squeak in surprise at being suddenly hugged, but slowly she returned it. “Private, are you okay?" she asked. "You act like you haven’t seen me in weeks.” I haven’t but she didn’t need to know that. I just gave her my best smile. “Well, it felt like weeks. I had the craziest night mare-“ I looked around; this was not the same house I was in when I left. The house was decked out with art pieces, a piano in the corner, an elaborate fireplace; I was in a rich pony’s house. I blinked and looked at Twilight, asking, “What’s all this?” She raised an eyebrow and replied, “My parent's house.” “When did your parents spruce the place up?” I asked, looking around. “Private, it’s always been like this,” she said, putting a hoof on my forehead with concern. “You sure you’re feeling all right?” “Actually,” I said with a smile, “I’ve never felt better.” The door opened and inside came Shining with Cadence by his side. She was still pregnant, very pregnant. The couple smiled upon seeing us. “Look Shining,” Cadence said, “They’re already playing doctor.” Twilight and I blushed at the thought, as Twilight quickly withdrew her hoof from my forehead. Shining gave me a smirk “You two weren’t involved in any monkey business while we were out were you?” “No!” Twilight retorted, her face a deep scarlet “I get enough teasing from mom! I don’t need you guys to do it too!” Wait, Velvet teases her? When did this happen? “How long was I out?” I asked. “Some stallion brought you here,” Shining explained. “A guy by the name of Time Turner, he said you passed out or something.” Cadence walked to me and asked with concern, “Are you alright, Private? What were you doing last night?” “I was, um,” I replied with a shrug, “running a few errands. I was really tired after them and headed back here.” I rubbed the back of my head. “I don’t really remember much else to be honest.” “As long as you’re okay,” Twilight said with a smile. “That’s all that matters.” The door opened and I saw a couple enter. “Now, Velvet, I think I deserve a rematch.” It was Night Light and Velvet, though they looked much better. Night Light was dressed in a fine suit, and though his mane showed some signs of grey, it wasn't nearly as much as before. Velvet also looked better, her coat was shinier, her mane looked recently styled, and she looked thinner too. She winked at her husband and replied, “You can’t prove I cheated back there.” “I’m just saying that some beautiful mare was wiggling her flank at me,” Night Light said with a wide grin, “and I couldn’t help but take notice, just as I ran into that pole.” “You should just watch where you’re going” she said as she smiled and kissed Night Light's cheek. I fought the urge to faint at the sight of them. “You guys look,” I fought for the right word and settled on, “great!” “Why, thank you, Private,” Velvet smiled and walked towards me. Her smile was a stark contrast to before where she scowled at me every five minutes. Now she was gloriously joyful. She looked over at Twilight and asked, “How is your patient, hon?” “He’s fine, mom” Twilight answered, rolling her eyes, trying to hide her embarrassment. “He did mumble something in his sleep, but he should be fine.” “That’s good to hear,” Velvet said, with a happy smile. “Wouldn’t want my little girl’s sweetheart to get sick now.” “Mom!” Twilight cried, turning red. Cadence giggled at the sight of her. “I’m just teasing, Twilight,” her mom assured. “I think you’ve gotten yourself a wonderful special somepony.” “Thank you, ma'am,” I said, smiling genuinely. “It’s nice to know you approve.” “Well, who wouldn't want their daughter to be with such a polite, sweet and caring stallion.” She gave a small laugh and continued, “If you’re willing to take on Nightmare Moon for her, you’re good in my book.” So I managed to get in good with one parent. Now to see if Night Light is good… “Well, I was planning on taking us all to brunch,” Night Light said, putting a foreleg around his wife. “We’ll just take the carriage up.” “Isn’t it totaled?” I asked without thinking. “What?” they all cried in unison, and made for the door. I looked out and Shining chuckled and said with relief, “Nah, Graff is cleaning it right now.” Graff by contrast didn’t look like he did when I'd first seen him. He was fatter, had a clear hair line and was cleaning the carriage. He smiled and gave a small wave as he went about his business. Night Light called out to him, “Now remember, two coats of wax this time, Graff!” “I’m just putting on the second one now!” Graff answered. Night Light sighed, “Now Graff, don’t try and con me!” He gave a small flash of his magic as a warning. Graff went back to work like there was no tomorrow. Was it a family trait for all of the guys in Twilight’s family to look scary when wielding magic? Night Light just chuckled and closed the door “Graff, what a character.” he said as he walked over to a nearby chair and started sorting through some files. Then he looked over at Velvet lovingly and said, “Of course, if it wasn’t for him, we never would’ve met.” “You’re such a sweet heart,” Velvet said gazing fondly back, before walking over and kissing her husband on the lips. Cadence gave a happy giggle at the scene. Shining smiled over at me and said, “You’ll have to excuse Cadence, she gets like this every time I bring her over.” “I can’t help it, Shining,” Cadence said, bumping him with her flank. “There’s just so much love in the house, I can’t help but smile.” “That’s Cadence for you.” Shining smiled and gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek, just as Graff came in. Graff was holding a package in his magic. “Night Light! It just came in!” He announced, walking over and set the package on the table. “I think it’s your new book!” Book? Night Light finished that novel? Velvet went about opening the package and the family gathered around to look at it. She levitated up a novel which showed a stylized version of the Doctor, with a mare and a stallion sitting across from each other. “A Match Made in the Stars” the title read. Night Light held the novel and said proudly, “When you put your mind to it-“ “You can accomplish anything,” Shining and Twilight chanted, causing both to laugh. “I’m going to fix up that carriage, Night Light,” Graff said, walking outside. After watching Graff leave, I got a better look at the book. I smiled at Night Light’s picture on the back. Night Light looked at me with a smile and said, “You can go ahead and keep it, Private.” “I couldn’t” I said. “Think of it as a welcoming present,” he insisted with a smile. Twilight walked over and pressed her coat against me, “See, and here you were worried about not making a good impression.” I smiled at the whole family. I didn’t change history much. However, I did give Night Light the confidence to follow his dreams. I also saved a marriage from its inevitable failure. All while leaving a good impression with Twilight's parents! Can this day get any better? Suddenly Cadence’s violet eyes grew wide, she looked at Shining and said, “Honey?” “Yes, dear?” her husband asked. “Don’t panic, okay?” “What’s wrong?” Shining asked, suddenly looking panicked. “My water just broke!”
EpilogueCase 18 Epilogue Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured. ~Ambrose Bierce It took us about ten minutes to get Cadence to a hospital. The whole time she was screaming in pain as her baby wanted to come out. I kept having flashbacks to the last time I was in the hospital when a baby was being born. I couldn't get the sound of Cadence crying as she was being taken away by the nurses out of my head. I sat on a chair in the lobby, looking down at my hooves. Shining was inside with his wife and the doctors as the baby was being born. Twilight’s parents were nearby, waiting quietly for their grandchild. I felt a gentle rub on my back, I turned to see Twilight’s concerned amethyst eyes. “Private, you’ve been very quiet ever since we got here,” she said gently. “Sorry,” I replied, as my ears flattened a little. “I’m just thinking about my mom.” Twilight wrapped her foreleg around me and rested her head on my shoulder. “It’s all right," she assured me, "the doctors know what they’re doing.” “I know,” I said, returning my gaze to my hooves, “that doesn’t make me any less anxious.” “You’d think it was your own kid,” Twilight said with a little laugh, trying to lighten the mood. “Well, she and Shining are good friends of mine” I replied with a faint smile. “I just want to make sure they come out all right.” Twilight just smiled and pressed her muzzle to mine “I think it's very sweet of you to think about us like that, despite us not being family.” Yet… Suddenly the doors opened and in stepped Princess Celestia herself. Everypony in the room bowed for a minute before Celestia came to speak to Twilight and I, “So, I heard that my dear niece is having her foal?” Twilight nodded in excitement and replied, “Yes Princess Celestia, she’s in there right now!” Celestia laughed at Twilight’s enthusiasm and said, “I’m happy to hear that, she will be lucky to have such a brilliant aunt.” Twilight blushed at her teacher’s praise. I looked around, and asked the question lingering in my mind “Where are Cadence’s parents?” Celestia’s face formed a frown. I felt a little guilty at bringing up a prossibly a sore subject. Finally the princess simply stated, “They’re not with us anymore.” “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, bowing my head in apology. “Your curious nature would’ve led you to find out anyway,” Celestia mused, but then her expression turned serious. “Cadence’s parents ruled a small country long ago. When that country was destroyed I adopted her as my niece. She, however, has family right here for her.” “We’ll be there for her,” Twilight nodded determinedly. “Shining is in there now, she’ll be okay.” “Now, Private,” Celestia said, looking over at me “If you’ll excuse me and my student for a bit?” “Sure,” I replied with a nod. I was strolling down the hallway when Night Light walked up to me. His expression was serious as he asked, “Private, can we talk alone?” I nodded and we headed outside. As we sat down together on a small bench, he asked, “Private, you’ve been with my daughter for a while, haven’t you?” “We’ve known each other for several months now,” I said, with a small smile. “It’s been quite an adventure.” He smiled in turn and said, “I have to ask then, are you serious about my daughter? Would you want to be with her forever?” I thought about it for a moment. Twilight was brilliant, beautiful, sweet, and supportive. She’d make a great wife one day, but the real question I felt, was am I ready? I don’t know yet, I felt like there’s still some things I have to deal with. There was so much I still wanted to learn about Twilight. I decided that my answer was thus: “Yeah, someday,” I said, with a smile on my face. He nodded firmly and spoke honestly, “Private, I’ve read all about your adventures with her. You two do some dangerous things on your cases.” Crap! Time travel also made him responsible! He gave a small laugh and said, “I know you have her best interests at heart each time you take her along, and I know you’ll be there for her. So when you figure everything out, I’d love to have you as a son in law.” I blinked in sheer shock; Night Light said he wanted me as a son in law? I felt my face turn a deep scarlet at the thought of marrying Twilight. I shook my head and asked, “What makes you think I’m the one?” “You remind me of somepony,” he said, almost too himself, “somepony I used to know, a long time ago.” I smiled and said, “Someday I will get the courage to ask Twilight, but I still have some things in my life to figure out before I do.” “I understand,” Night Light nodded. “I wanted to make sure, but I hope you can keep her safe until then.” “I promise I’ll keep her safe,” I vowed. “I love her Night Light, more then anything I’ve ever loved.” “Make it a promise…” he said as he extended his hoof. We shook right then, I felt, confident. Like I could take on the whole world after that. I’m guessing taking on crazy doctors can do that to you. Speaking of which… I looked past Night Light and saw the Doctor leaning on his Tardis. He gave me a small wave and I said to Night Light, “I gotta take care of something, I’ll meet you back inside.” “All right,” Twilight’s dad nodded, “I’ll see you soon.” He walked past me and added in a low whisper, “Son…” That no good, he’s worse then dad is! I’m starting to regret fixing his past. I just shrugged and walked over to the Doctor. He gave me a smile and said, “You’ve really made their lives better, Private.” “That thing you said,” I asked, “about time being rewritten? Was I right to do that?” “I normally try not to change history,” the Doctor answered, “but, in my opinion I think you handled it well.” “What about Thirteen?” I asked. “Did we destroy him?” “Possibly,” the Doctor said, rubbing his chin in thought, “but, the question is who opened the door in the first place? That’s what I’m prepared to find out.” “I wish you luck then,” I said with a smile. “You know,” he said slowly, “I could use a guy like you once in a while.” “Are you asking me to come along?” I asked with a blink. “Maybe not now,” he said, “but someday we might run into each other again.” “I hope so, Doc.” “Don’t call me, Doc,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Makes me sound too weird.” “So where are you off to, Doctor?” I asked. “I was thinking,” he said in thought, “I’ve been to the past enough, time to focus on the future.” “Hook me up when you get there,” I said, as he opened his Tardis. The Doctor was about to enter when he said suddenly, “Oh, keep the key, it could be useful to you.” “You sure?” I asked. “This way you’ll know whenever I’m in the neighborhood,” he said, before walking inside his Tardis. “See you around Private, take care of that mare of yours.” “I will,” I said as the door closed in front of me. I saw the Tardis vanish slowly into thin air. That Doctor, so much I don’t know about him, but, maybe that’s the reason why so many come along. Maybe they wanted to get to know him… Could also be the reason why many choose to leave… __________________________________________________________ It was about two hours of waiting before a nurse finally let us in. I followed Twilight who was following behind Celestia as we rounded the corner into the hospital room. Celestia stayed outside as I entered with Twilight’s family. We got inside and I saw arguably, the most wonderful thing in the world. I saw Cadence lying on a hospital bed, with a small bundle in her forelegs. Her husband was standing beside her, looking down in wonder at the bundle. Twilight ran to Cadence’s bedside and spoke excitedly, “Cadence! What is it? Is it a unicorn? What’s her coat color? What kind of eyes does she-“ “Calm down, Twilight,” Cadence said, looking tired. “You’re starting to act like Pinkie Pie.” Twilight flushed as Velvet stood beside her daughter and said, “So, let’s all see our grandchild.” Cadence gently moved the blanket and I saw the foal for the first time. She was a deeper shade of pink then her mother. Her mane was curly with yellow and periwinkle colors in it. Her big blue eyes slowly opened and she squealed in delight at the sight of her mother. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack from the sheer cuteness she had. Cadence nuzzled her daughter gently, I noticed a small stub of a horn on the baby’s head. She was a unicorn? “She’s beautiful, Cadence,” Shining said, nuzzling his daughter affectionately. The little filly reached her tiny hooves and hugged her father’s muzzle. This caused everypony in the room to sigh in delight at her. Twilight walked to her niece, smiled down at her, and cooed, “Hi there, I’m your Aunt Twilight.” The filly gave a small laugh of delight and reached her tiny hooves for her. Twilight obliged and gently nuzzled the filly. The filly gave a laugh and reached to hung Twilight’s horn, that’s when I saw them… She had wings! Cadence’s baby was an Alicorn! “Congratulations, you two,” Celestia said as she entered. “Aunt Tia,” Cadence cried, “you made it!” Then she looked a little guilty. “I hope I’m not keeping you from anything…” “And miss my niece’s foal being born?” Celestia replied in a mock hurt tone. “Not for all the cake in Equestria.” The memory of her carnivorous habits with the dessert brought a small smile to my face. Celestia walked past us and looked down at the Alicorn filly “And an Alicorn as well? Truly a blessing she is.” The filly gave a smile at Tia, she really just couldn’t stop smiling could she? “So what’s her name?” Twilight asked eagerly. “Well, we thought a lot about it,” Shining said, looking at his sister then at his daughter, “her name is Princess Sklyandea Mi’Amore Armor.” He gave a small laugh. “Skyla for short.” “That’s a wonderful name,” Celestia mused. “Now if you all will excuse me, I have royal duties to attend to.” She turned and was prepared to walk away… Until Skyla did something odd, the little princess was looking right at me. Her blue eyes seemed to, I don’t know, study me. She then reached out a hoof, as if saying she wanted me to come over. I looked over at Cadence, “Are you sure it’s okay? I mean, I’m not one-“ “She wants to see you for whatever reason.” Cadence said, as confused as I was. The she just smiled and said, “I think it’s only right she meet her future uncle.” “Cadence!” both Twilight and I cried at the same time. Everypony else in the room laughed at our reactions. Skyla kept her odd expression; she just kept staring at me. I slowly walked to the little princess and held out a hoof, “Hi there, I’m Private.” She tilted her head then took my hoof in her tiny ones. She then started reaching more. What was she trying to get? She obviously wanted something on me. I moved a little closer until she could reach my chest. Suddenly Skyla’s little horn glowed a sharp blue. Was this something an Alicorn could do at such a young- I felt a weight around my neck, Tenacity was hung on my chest, displaying its eye symbol proudly. Skyla was reaching for it, gently picking up the diamond element in her little hooves. She stared at it with sheer fascination. Was she interested in the Elements of Harmony for some reason? How’d she get it to appear? So many questions bounced around my head as Skyla stared at my element. Then she put the diamond in her mouth and went back to being cute again. Cadence took her daughter back with a light scolding for “trying to gobble up an important artifact” However, it was all taken as kids being kids. Skyla subsequently curled up into her mother’s pink fur and fell asleep, snoring lightly. “She has her dad’s sleeping habits it seems,” Cadence teased. We all just watched the little filly, sleeping soundly against her mother. I gave one last look to Celestia, as she walked away. Her expression… I just couldn’t read it at all. ___________________________________________________________ Perspective: The Doctor I sighed as I leaned against the Tardis consul. That was truly a close one. I was almost afraid Private would be stuck there. Thankfully everything turned out all right in the- I smiled, looked above me and said, “You know, it’s no fun being brilliant if nobody is here looking impressed.” “What if I’m brilliant too?” a voice asked above me. “You don’t count, you were born from me,” I smirked, just as she appeared in front of me. She tossed her blond mane and gave me a wide smile. I ran to her and threw my forelegs around her tightly, “Oh I’m sorry you had to put up that act.” She smiled at me, her horn glowed a little and her coat became the same brown as mine. Her blond mane remained the same, however. She pressed her muzzle against mine and said, “I missed you Dad.” “I missed you too, Jenny.” I said, nuzzling her back. “You were brilliant, we had those gingers taken care of.” I gave her a wink. “Nice touch with the manure wagon there.” She smirked at me and said,“Well, I did learn from the best after all.” She then gave me a light push and walked to the consul, petting it gently. “Hey sexy, keeping my dad out of trouble, are you?” A clank followed by two whirs on the consul was Sexy’s answer, “I know he’s a pain in the ass, but we gotta love him, it’s kind of the rules.” I frowned and said defiantly, “I’m not that much of a pain…” She looked back at me with now green eyes and replied, “Sorry Dad, we kind of outvote you.” “So,” I said, as I walked to her, watching her swing her hind legs as she sat on the consul. “Using a perception filter on little Twinkle to allow her to see her dad without causing a stir?” I smiled at her. “That was pretty clever.” “Not as clever as using River’s personality to mask who I really was.” She frowned and asked, “She’s going to kill me isn’t she?” “Eh,” I replied, dismissively, “she’ll just go on some crazy adventure with me and all will be forgiven.” “I hope so, Dad,” she said, leaning back a little. “So, care to explain what you’re doing with a certain grey Pegasus?” she asked, a giddy smile on her face. “Care to explain what you’re doing with a certain captain?” I retorted. “Nothing’s going on,” she whined. “Jack just was showing me some tech.” “Just so long as that was all he was showing,” I said, slipping into father mode. It happens overtime she comes around, I couldn’t help it to be honest. She crossed her forelegs in defiance, “Fine, but I’ve known you to be eyeing that pegasus’ flank.” She then gave me a light smirk and teased,“getting feisty despite old age?” “It’s not like that and you know it,” I retorted, putting my sonic screwdriver in to recharge. “So, moving on before this conversation get’s any more strange,” I looked over at her and asked curiously, “What do you think?” “Of that detective?” She gave it some thought and then said teasingly, “Not much of a fighter, if I were in there I could break that Graff’s bones like-“ “That’s not what I meant” I retorted. “I’m just kidding, Dad,” she replied with a laugh. “In all honesty, I think this’ll all work out in the end…” I looked over at her in all seriousness and asked, “The future you went to before I found you, what was it like?” “It’s best I show you,” she said, tapping some switches and pulling levers on the consul. The Tardis rumbled a bit and she looked over at me. “Prepare yourself, Dad, it’s not pretty.” I walked to the Tardis door and slowly opened it. We landed on a small cliff that gave us a good view of the area that used to be Ponyville. I say used to be because all that was left of the charming little town was some ruins and the bleak landscape surrounding it. Jenny walked to stand beside me, “We are two hundred years in Equestria’s future…” “What caused this?” I asked, looking out at the dead land before me. Jenny looked over at me, her green eyes meeting my own, and replied, “Something caused the zebra and the ponies to go to war with one another. They fired off all these mega spells at each other. I saw the battle from space, it was horrible. On top of that, somebody swiped my blaster when I landed.” “All of this somehow ties into Private somehow?” I asked. “Yep,” she said with a nod, “something terrible is going to happen.” She looked down, and pulled up a small ruined poster. “Dad, come and take a look at this.” I looked over at her; on the poster was propaganda about “Serving the princess” my eyes grew wide. There on the poster was Twilight Sparkle. She had wings, and her eyes were glowing bright green… Somehow in the future, all this will come about. I looked over at Jenny and asked, “You know how she could’ve gotten this way?” She nodded and answered seriously, “You know that blue mist stuff that almost got you a few days ago? Oh yeah, that’s probably the cause.” “The real question is,” I mused, as I looked at the poster, “at what point in history does Twilight become like this?” “Now you know why I brought Twinkle along,” she said, tossing the poster aside. “She can’t fall, Twilight needs Private.” “So, looks like we gotta keep playing matchmaker then,” I said with a smile. “Well, we have done stranger things,” she answered with a laugh. It was good to have her around again. Jenny may have been in disguise, but what she said was right on the money. I needed somebody to keep me from falling when my legs gave out. The sad thing is, I needed companions around. It gets very lonely in the wide universe but, life will always somehow get you friends in unexpected places. Even out of a hand I don’t have anymore. _____________________________________________________________ Perspective: Voidera Tia and I stood in front of the stain glass window depicting Discord’s third defeat at the hooves of the elements of harmony. Private was in the middle of a circle of elements, displaying his element proudly. I looked over at Tia “You’re sure?” “There’s no doubt in my mind” She said firmly “Skyla’s reaction to Private’s element proves that she does indeed recognize him.” “Nearly a millennium,” I said in reflection, “Lunard will come soon…” “He will be looking for Skyla,” she said with a slow nod. “Sombra will also try and pursue Private as well, to claim what was stolen from him.” “We must do everything in our power to keep them out of either’s hooves,” I stated firmly, “but we mustn’t deny what needs to be done.” “Must they be tested?” Tia asked. “Surely the Element’s-“ “Their power alone is hardly going to be enough anymore,” I replied. “Lunard is going to look for any weakness he can exploit, and he will not be above claiming Skyla as his own.” “Such an innocent creature,” Tia closed her eyes. “Perhaps it was wrong to ask Eclipse to do as he did.” “You know why he stole it,” I replied. “He did it to save…” “I know,” she answered. “That’s why Skyla recognizes Tenacity. It was originally meant to be hers. The true line of the Crystal Kingdom, the children of Aria, is alive through Cadence and Skyla. Sombra will try and seize them.” “This is why we must have Private use Tenacity for a little while longer,” I stated. “I hate to put him in danger, but it’s for the best.” “It shouldn’t have to be this way,” Celestia said, looking at me. “Lunard will-“ “Will not be stopped by just us two,” I interrupted. “War is coming, Lunard knows what we can do now. He will come again…and he will try and take this world again.” “Then we must prepare,” she said, walking to a small book. “I’ve already given Luna everything she will require. Lunard will not use her again, and even with that we will still require more to help.” “What of the Changelings?” I asked “Swarm has helped free them.” “A hive of them,” Celestia pointed out. “Even then you know Chyrsalis will require little persuading to side with Lunard-“ She was cut off at my expression. “Don’t think what I know you’re thinking.” “I know, Tia,” I answered, keeping my expression, “but even still, had I tried to help her more…” “Starbright would still have fallen,” she said with a slow shake of her head. “She wasn’t in love with you Voidera, she was in love with your namesake. That is what destroyed her, not you.” “So where does that leave us now?” I asked. “We will allow the Elements to be tested,” she said firmly, “Twilight most of all.” “You’re still considering-“ “If it means protecting Equestria I’m willing to try it,” she answered. “It’s dangerous,” I retorted. “You and I both know what could happen” “You don’t think I know that?” she yelled at me “My own father is planning on destroying everything we built! The bastard child of a faithful student is planning on taking over the Crystal Empire! Now I have to put another student in jeopardy! You think I want any of this?” I slowly shook my head and nuzzled her, allowing her to dry her tears on me. “No, I know you don’t want to,” I said soothingly. “But it has to be done.” She met my eyes. “I hate putting them in danger.” “As do I, my love,” I answered, “but your subjects are stronger then you think. They will succeed where we failed.” “You will test Private then?” She asked., “I know where to start” I said, looking back at the stain glass window “Also, are you sure Discord will be willing to help?” “He has little love for Lunard himself” Tia explained. “I have yet to see any being fail to be moved by Fluttershy. For all that he has done, his power will be useful.” “It’s slowly recovering,” I explained. “Better to reform him now while there’s still a chance to put him back.” “All of this,” she said, meeting my eyes again, “all of this, will help in the end.” “So long as the Elements remain strong.” I looked up at Private in the stained glass and said, “He is much like Eclipse from the memories I’ve seen…” “Eclipse was a noble pony,” Celestia said with a smile. “He took Tenacity so that young Crystallite wouldn’t have too.” “Let us hope he will be able to face what is coming as Eclipse did, for all our sakes…” _____________________________________________________ Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… Thirteen has gone down… But he is a fool, blind to his duty… Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… The Doctor will try and fix everything, he always tries… Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… But he will lose eventually, Yes he will… Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… For I’m coming… He can’t win this time, I have help… Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… Very, ussseful…help… Indeed…. Tap…Tap…Tap…Tap… Bang....Bang...Bang...Bang...
