Chapter 1
Close Encounters with the Future Kind
Gaia; Equestria; Ponyville; Northern Hill; 1026 C.E.
Twilight and the Doctor looked in shock at the two pegasi lying in front of her.
"What could do this?" Twilight asked, mouth agape.
The Doctor was perplexed as well, "I've never seen anything like this." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it to scan the ponies. He looked at his screwdriver with bewilderment. "They're not dead, but their biological functions are... well... dead!" He placed the sonic back into his suit pocket and bent down to get a closer look. "What are you?" he said quietly to himself.
The sound of hoofbeats in the distance brought Twilight back to the real world. "Someone's coming," she said.
"Thank you for spelling it out," the Doctor had noticeable a layer of sarcasm in his tone. Twilight glared back at him.
The sound grew steadily louder as a unicorn mare in a white lab coat, large safety goggles, and a grey wig with a matching false beard approached the two of them. She stopped in front of the pegasi and examined them.
"Damn! I missed it." She turned to the Doctor and Twilight, "You two need to come with me. Now!"
"Who are you supposed to be?" the Doctor asked.
"I'm dressed as Sebastian Cutter. He was the recipient of the 1014 C.E. Equestrian Prize in Magics for his invention of the full-body genetic mitosis spell," the mare answered. "Now, you have to come with me. And bring them with you," she pointed to the pegasi.
The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Actually I wanted to know who you really are," he clarified.
Twilight was examining the unicorn with intense interest, there was something familiar about her. "Who are you really?" she asked curiously.
The mare grinned sheepishly, "I'm... well..." she started, "you, Twilight Sparkle." The mare removed her fake beard and wig to reveal a lavender coat combined with a pure black mane with dark pink highlights. This only helped to put Twilight in shock once again. They stood there in silence for several moments.
"Too soon?" Future Twilight asked.
"Y-you-you ar-are... m-me?!" and Twilight fainted.
"Too soon," the Doctor confirmed.
Gaia; Equestria; Ponyville; Twilight's Library; 1026 C.E.
Twilight groaned and slowly opened her eyes. When she was aware of her surroundings, she noticed that she was lying on the bed in her room of the Ponyville Library. She got out of the bed and down to the floor bafore walking over to the stairs. She could hear talking
"You mean this happened before?" Twilight heard the Doctor's voice coming from downstairs.
"It's been happening fairly recently, but I don't exactly know what's doing it," a different, but familiar voice responded.
"What are the symptoms? All of them."
Twilight came down the steps and entered the room, spotting the Doctor and... herself. "Um," she swallowed visibly, "am I... interrupting anything?"
"Ah, Twilight!" the Doctor motioned for her to join them. They were sitting at a table near one of the side windows in the Library's main room. "Twilight and I were just discussing the half-deaths of different ponies that were occurring recently."
Twilight looked over at the other end of the table and stared straight back at herself.
"So..." her future self asked, "are you still in shock?"
"No," she replied, "I don't think so."
Future Twilight cocked an eyebrow.
Twilight laughed quietly, "Maybe. A little. Yeah," she nodded.
"First trip into the future?"
Twilight nodded again.
"You get used to it eventually." Both Twilights laughed briefly, Twilight halfheartedly and Future Twilight sincerely.
"Alright," the Doctor interrupted, "I think that we need to be seeing these 'patients' that you have Ms. Sparkle," he said, getting straight to the point.
Twilight was confused, "What patients? I don't have any-" she looked to her future self, who was giving her a "Duh!" look. "Oh, right. Sorry," she apologized, "not me."
"It's fine," Future Twilight said, "It happens." She turned to the Doctor, "If you would follow me, please."
Future Twilight led the Doctor and Twilight to the library basement. The room had been converted into a makeshift hospital ward with rows of ten cots each. Out of twenty cots, ten of them were taken up by a variety of colorless unicorn, pegasus, and earth ponies. The Doctor moved from pony to pony, scanning them with his screwdriver.
"How is this possible?" he said after he finished his examination, "They're all in the same condition. Unless..." he spun around to face Future Twilight, "Have there been any younger ponies wearing gas masks asking: 'are you my mommy?'"
"No," Future Twilight replied, "nothing like that."
"Good! I was worried there for a minute!"
Twilight leaned to her older self, "What did he mean?"
"You'll find out later," she replied. She returned her attention back to the Doctor. "Is there a cure, Doctor? If so, how do we help them?" Future Twilight asked him.
"As of right now... no. There is no cure. I'd laugh at you if you said love or friendship, since that's all this place seems to be about."
"We have our moments," Twilight admitted.
"Then how do we cure them?" Future Twilight asked again.
The Doctor examined the half-alive ponies for a few more moments. He placed the sonic back into his pocket. "We'll have to find the cause of this first. When, where, and how did you find these ponies?"
Future Twilight walked over to a pair of earth ponies. "These two were found five days ago in the alley behind Sugarcube Corner when I was helping Pinkie Pie -who you haven't met yet, Doctor. I saw them lying there after Pinkie asked me to take out some trash for her." She walked over to a pair of unicorns, "They were found two days ago, lying at the border of the Everfree Forest. I was going to ask Zecora -you don't know her either- if she knew anything about what could have done this to the first two."
Future Twilight told the Doctor and Twilight about the other six ponies, including the most recent two, and added, "The strangest part, is that they're always found in pairs. Any questions?"
Twilight raised her hoof, but the Doctor waved her off. "Now, Ms. Sparkle," he addressed Future Twilight, "has anybody -sorry, anypony- seen anything suspicious in this past week?"
"I've asked around, but only two ponies know."
"Who?"
"Rainbow Dash," Future Twilight said sadly.
"That's great!" Twilight interjected happily, "Where do we find her?"
Future Twilight turned around and walked over to a space in the back of the basement that neither Twilight nor the Doctor had noticed earlier. It was separated from the rest of the room by a large white sheet that reminded Twilight of the couple hours that she spent in that Canterlot hospital back in 297. Future Twilight flipped a switch on the wall next to it and pulled the curtain back, revealing two more colorless ponies.
"You can find them here," she stated grimly.
Twilight slowly approached the two separate cots in the extra room. Lying on the closest one was another colorless pegasus mare, mouth and eyes frozen open in shock. It's once multicolored mane and tail were now different shades of grey and there were scars and burns scattered across her body. On the cot next to Rainbow's, a colorless earth pony mare was lying on her side, wearing the same shocked expression.
Twilight looked back and forth between the two, hoping that what she was seeing wasn't real. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and her vision became blurred. "Rainbow...? Applejack...?" She began to feel tears stream down her cheeks and she sat down, putting her forelegs over her eyes.
"They were... the last to be found, other than the two tonight," Future Twilight said, putting her foreleg around Twilight and wrapping her up in a hug.
Twilight cried into her future self's side, "If this is my future," she sobbed, "then I'm going to change it!"
The Doctor, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up, "There's a chance that you might not be able to. This point in time appears to be- wait..." He looked around the room with interest briefly. "Are there any windows down here?"
"No," Future Twilight said, moving away from Twilight, still crying gently.
"Then, why is there a draft?"
The three of them turned to the stairs and looked upwards. The door was hanging open, and they looked just in time to get a glimpse of a small piece of black cloth disappear from the doorway.
The Doctor raced up the stairs. "Come on you two!" he called back.
Both Twilights ran up the stairs, chasing after the Doctor. The trio ran through the main room and out the front door and into the street. The Doctor looked around franticly, watching the clusters of ponies in their Nightmare Night costumes milling about the town.
the Doctor let out a frustrated sigh. "Now that's just cheating," he whined.
Gaia; Equestria; Ponyville; =Exact Location Unconfirmed=; 1026 C.E.
'First the unicorn that couldn't mind her own business, but now the Doctor?' The cloaked figure paced back and forth in front of the roaring fire, occasionally glancing towards it earnestly. The fire crackled and sparked in the hearth a few times and the figure nodded. "Yes, Master," the figure gazed upon the fire, "I shall remove them."
The fire sputtered as if it was laughing before it sparked and flared again.
"I sensed that, Master. I'll use her uncertainties against her, and I'll do the same for the... Doctor," he spat the name out.
The fire crackled in the hearth for a full minute before the figure bowed slowly.
"Of course, Master. It shall be done." He turned and left the room quickly, his cloak gently flowing behind him. There were important plans to be carried out before the night was done.