The Pegasus Paradox

Moments after Twilight’s realization, almost as if on cue-the underground came to life with the seemingly endless stream of chitinous life bursting forth from the walls of this makeshift hive-surrounding the group.

“What are we going to do, Doctor?” asked Twilight.

“We fight,” replied Rainbow Dash.

“I could cast a Shielding spell…” suggested Shining Armor.

“No,” whispered The Doctor. “We surrender.”

“WHAT!?” exclaimed the trio in unison.

“But, Doctor!” protested Twilight.

“Listen,” he whispered. “This is the best way for us to find Celestia, they obviously have her captive, but we need to find out where.”

He leaned in close to her ear and whispered a set of instructions as the army of Changelings advanced on the group.

As they got closer, the group stumbled into unconsciousness.

They were in a circular room built from stone with glowing green veins, presumably filled with magical energy coursing through them.

The Doctor awoke first, standing there before him was a large equine form which appeared to be a mix between an Alicorn and some form of insect with a tail and mane that seemed to be made of gossamer with two large viper-like fangs and green eyes with a crown resting atop her jagged, black horn.

The majority of the room’s illumination appeared to be emanating from a different source however, as he looked up to see a large green chrysalis hanging from the ceiling with the same eerie glow.

Squinting up at it, The Doctor could see that inside of it seemed to reside an unconscious Princess Celestia.

Directly across from him and behind Queen Chrysalis was Rainbow Dash, to her left and right were Twilight and Shining Armor respectively, all bound to the wall with an odd mucus-like substance he had never seen before.

“So…where are we?” asked The Doctor casually, as if he were talking to someone off the street about the weather.

“In a hive?” he pressed, observing their surroundings. “Colony?”

“…Conglomeration?” he added, noting the holes in the walls that the Changelings had emerged from earlier.

“You are in my domain-and that’s all that matters.” She replied proudly before turning to face Twilight.

“And oh, look! If it isn’t my old nemesis; Twilight Sparkle!”

This earned her a glower from the young Alicorn.

“I’m sorry…Princess Twilight Sparkle.” She corrected herself, lifting her chin up to meet her.

“Not that it really matters-even your beloved teacher was no match for me as I proved during our siege on Canterlot.”

“You mean with the energy that you stole?” Twilight retorted.

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash cut in. “You only won because you cheated-it wasn’t a fair fight!”

“All’s fair in love and war.” She replied coolly, not taking her eyes off Twilight. “Nobody knows that better than the Changelings.”

“By hiding and stealing emotions for others?” Shining Armor retorted, “Sounds pretty cowardly if you ask me…but I guess that’s to be expected from a group of parasites.”

“Shining Armor…” she replied as a sly grin spread across her face and her eyes moved to meet his.

“I’m curious-have you told your beloved bride of that magical night we spent together before our wedding day?” she asked.

The stallion felt his blood run cold as the questioning stares of his little sister and her marefriend turned to meet him.

“I…I…” he stammered, searching for the right words to convey his feelings and reasons for not telling her-but, being put on the spot like this with his darkest secret revealed and the horrified expression of his sister gave him a newfound sense of hatred for the changeling queen.

Satisfied the distrust she had planted between the two siblings she then turned to Rainbow Dash.

“And then there’s you…you look familiar, but I can’t seem to recall your name-not that it matters anyway-as I recall; you were one of Twilight’s friends and that’s all the justification I need to drain you until your nothing but an emotionless husk.”

Before an alarmed Twilight could vocalize her objection there was a lapping sound coming from the opposite end of the room causing Chrysalis to turn around, facing The Doctor.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

A trail of the glowing green slime from the binding connected to the tip of his tongue.

“Analyzing the substance so I can identify its makeup.” He replied matter-of-factly.

The frown that spread across the Queen’s face signified that she was not amused by The Doctor’s antics.

“Which reminds me…”

Her jagged black horn began to glow with the same eerie green aura as she levitated the Sonic Screwdriver before him.

“What…is this?” she asked, eyeing it suspiciously as if she were afraid that it was some sort of explosive device.

“Some kind of flashlight?” she guessed, noting the blue node at the end.

“Oh, tatsh mah Shonic Scroodahver.” He replied through a mouthful of the substance.

“Don’t eat it!” exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah, you have no idea where it’s been or where it came from!” Twilight agreed in protest.

“It’s actually really good,” he replied, swallowing it. “A lot like green gelatin.”

“STOP EATING YOUR PRISON!” demanded the Changeling Queen, stomping her hoof for emphasis.

“Oh, sorry…” he apologized. “As I was saying; that’s me Sonic Screwdriver-careful with it-you’ll poke your eye out.”

“What does it do?” she asked, examining the object with a frown.

“Oh, all sorts of things…for example it’s fantastic as a power amplification device.” He replied cheerfully.

“Power Amplification Device?” she repeated quizzically.

“Yeah, I show you…just point the blue end at your horn and press the button on the side.”

She did as instructed, but instead of a vast power surge, green spark burst from her horn as a searing pain surged down it and into her skull, cutting off her magic as the Screwdriver was dropped to the ground and all of her prisoners were simultaneously released.

“NOW!” The Doctor shouted as Celestia fell from the ceiling, Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor stood guard around Twilight as she helped her teacher back to her hooves.

“Twilight…what’s going on?” asked a dazed a Celestia.

“There’s no time to explain, princess-but, you need to come with us right now!” her student replied frantically.

The quartet then began heading through the tunnel from earlier in an attempt to reach the TARDIS as Changelings began filing in behind them.

Shining Armor who was bringing up the rear cast and shield spell to prevent the changelings following from behind, but there were others dropping from the ceiling and holes in the walls ahead of them.

Twilight began zapping the Changeling ahead of them with magical blasts from her horn and Rainbow Dash was covered in the ones that dropped from the ceiling in mid-flight, she slammed against one of the cave walls to scrape them off.

Soon, a familiar blue box came into view.

“Everyone inside!” shouted Twilight as she levitated the key that The Doctor gave her into to the lock.

With the other three were behind her Rainbow Dash continued fighting to keep the creatures away from the Princess as Shining Armor worked on generating a force field.

The tip of his horn gave off a few sparks before the magical energy faded from it, he had wasted too much power on the shield from earlier and unfortunately, the Changelings trapped behind it earlier were beginning to realize that they could use the various tunnels to get around the shield instead of trying to force their way through it.

Celestia wanted to help, but all of the energy the creatures had leeched from her earlier still left her weary and on the verge of collapsing.

The key to the TARDIS which Twilight had levitated to its home was shaking slightly as the chaos surrounding the group made it extremely difficult to concentrate and focus her magic on manipulating the small object.

The lack of proper lighting in the gave also made it difficult to see things in detail and the magical aura around the objects Unicorns and Alicorns manipulated only gave off minute amounts of light.

Click.

Finally, the fruits of her labor seemed to have paid off as the TARDIS door swung open.

“Everyone inside, now!” she shouted.

Shining Armor, Celestia, and Rainbow Dash all filed in before the latter slammed the door shut before pressing her back against it in an attempt to keep the creatures out.

“You don’t need to do that, Rainbow,” spoke Twilight. “I think the door only opened for us because we had the key-they can’t get in.”

“What about that Doctor guy?” she asked, sliding to the ground, with the door still at her back.

“How does he get back in?”

“I…I don’t know…” admitted Twilight. “But, I think he has some kind of special connection to this machine, so it might let him in even if he doesn’t have the key…that’s probably why he gave it to me.”

“What about the Changelings still outside?” pressed Shining Armor. “How is he supposed to get past them without letting any of them in?”

“I’ve known The Doctor for a long time,” Celestia cut in, breaking her silence for the first time since she had been released from her prison.

“He’ll find a way.”