Now, nopony knows how exactly the world of Equestria came into being, or where the two Princesses came from, but we do know is when Equestria was in its early years, the two rulers were fillies.
The elder sister, Celestia, was several years older than the other princess. Celestia at this time was very cautious and could only trust in her sister to do anything, and nopony else, for she was her sister’s guardian and had to look out for her; in an unknown world in which they lived one had to be cautious. She would one day mature and learn all the powers of magic. She would one day have to learn to raise the sun, and that day was swiftly approaching.
Luna, the younger sister, was still a small filly; what we would now consider school-age. She was exceptionally curious and was the first of the two to use magic. Her clever wit and care-free personality made her the sister to discover many of the things that helped them to survive, such as: what foods were safe to eat and where the best place to sleep was. She would one day mature and learn all the powers of magic. She would one day have to learn to raise the moon, and that day was swiftly approaching.
They were not alone in Equestria. Ponies were beginning to settle and were happy. New technologies were being discovered, such as: the wheel, chimneys and baskets. The arts of food growing and harvesting were in their infancy. All of the different pony tribes mostly got along just fine, although there was the occasional argument or mistrust, but they usually sorted themselves out in the end. The sisters would one day rise to lead them, and that day was swiftly approaching
It was the decision of the elder sister to live separate from the tribes, and live in a safe area that was somewhat hilly, had many fruit trees, a lot of open space to see, and was at the base of a mountain. The younger sister enjoyed where they lived, but really wanted to meet ponies from other tribes. Her sister forbade her to even speak with them. The younger sister felt lonely for a long time. That would soon change.
Many years past, and the two sisters lived safely, until one night when there was a storm of the stars, a crash and a pillar of smoke. That is when everything changed…
There was but a single tree atop the tallest hill in what was known to a few and many as: Popper Hills; Little Luna was inside the tree and having a great time taunting her older sister below. “If you want me, you’ll have to climb up here and get me,” she said in a sing-song voice. “Or, you know, you could fly.” Luna flew from her branch a few feet and flapped above her sister. She loved to tease her. Celestia couldn’t fly very well, for she found it rather dangerous and risky to be off of the ground.
“You get down here right now! The sun is about to go down!” Tia shouted at her sister. Luna looked at the sky. Tia was right, the sun had almost set and it would be getting dark soon. Luna thought on this. Although it was rather fun for Luna to tease her sister, the night was best spent either sleeping or looking at the stars; although it was hard for her to leave the spot where she could see the village easily. She decided to let Tia win this one. She flew down to her sister.
“Okay, fine,” she said, “I’m only coming down because my wings are getting tired.” She trotted happily past Celestia, whom shook her head in irritation. She loved Luna, but sometimes she wanted her sister to stop and think about what she was doing; she wanted her to be safe. Safety, after all, was the main concern in an unknown world in which they lived in. So Celestia often wondered how her sister was so care-free, and how she went about it often terrified Tia.
Luna led as they walked. The grass brushed up against Luna’s hoof as she walked, which made her think. She hummed: “Soft grass. Soft grass. Simple, silly, soft grass. Soft grass. Soft grass. Simple, silly, soft grass.” She hummed that to herself until they reached what Luna affectionately referred to as: The Nest, because it reminded her of a bird’s nest.
The Nest was a Hollowed-out oak tree on the border of Popper Hills, that had a slightly flattened, grass pile on which Celestia and Luna slept. There were two clear spots where the sisters slept, the bigger one belonging to Celestia and the smaller to Luna. There was nothing on Tia’s side, but on Luna’s there was a collection of rocks that, she believed, were special. They were shaped in all differently: one a butterfly, one an oval shape, one a diamond, one a lightning bolt, one an apple, and one a star. Neither Luna nor Celestia understood why they felt important to Luna, but they kept them all the same.
Upon arriving at the Nest, Luna ran inside and dove on to the pile of grass. Celestia followed her in and pulled closed the door, which was actually a large piece of bark that closed the opening that led inside. Inside of the tree went mostly dark except for some light that shone through a hole where an owl must have ad its home. Luna snuggled and dug into the pile so that only her head was visible on her side. Celestia smiled. She loved this little filly with all of her heart; and no matter how annoyed with her she was, she would always love that Little Luna. Celestia Made her way to her side of the pile, she made herself comfortable and began to fall asleep. The last sounds she heard were the sounds of Luna snoring gently. Tia closed her eyes and drifted off.
Luna woke to lights shining into her face. The owl-hole was shining lights into her eyes. They were flashing colors of white, purple and blue. They were too curious, so Luna decided to see what they were. Luna quietly got out from underneath her blanket of grass, crept silently over to the door and attempted to remove it without making any noise; after all, she didn’t want to wake her sister.
Luna managed to open the door undetected and when she left the Nest, she noiselessly put it back and ran out into the field to see what was making all the strange lights. She figured that it would be easier to see them in an open space.
Luna looked up and saw a beautiful show of the stars. The night sky was lighting up and flashing all of its glory upon this small filly. Beautiful colors of purple and blue were flashing across the open space above her and meteor showers were streaming across the sky. Luna had never seen anything so amazing in her life. A feeling of wonder paralyzed her on the spot, for she did not want to miss any of what was happening. She did not know how long she was out there, but she figured it must have been awhile for Celestia came running towards her in a fit of panic.
Tia was yelling at her for being away from home at night, she did it out of concern of course, but Luna did not look away from the sky. Celestia took a breath from her yelling and noticed that Luna was not paying any attention, so she shifted her gaze to the sky where Luna was looking and saw the beauty that the sky offered them both. Soon Celestia too was captivated out of wonder at the sky. She too, was paralyzed.
Soon, one thing stuck out from all of the rest of the commotion that was happening in the sky: a box; a blue box to be exact. It streaked from the tops of the trees that were in the direction that the sisters were facing, made a hard turn left and made its way into the center of Popper Hills. This, not surprisingly, had captured the attention of both of the sisters. They turned their heads to follow the box. The box disappeared behind a small hill. Seconds later, they heard a loud crash.
Luna was the first to run to where the box had gone. Celestia took a second to realize that Luna had run off and began to chase after her.
Luna had never run so fast in her life. The sheer curiosity that overcame her was too much for her to bear. She had to know what that was. She would soon find out. When she came close to the mysterious box, she slowed down to get a less blurry look at it. What she found surprised her.
She found the mysterious, blue box laying on its long end and two doors that were opened inwards. Luna did not know if that was how it was supposed to look; she thought not. Her gaze fell upon a stallion that lay in front of the opening. He appeared to be unconscious. Luna slowly approached him. He was tan and had a dark brown mane. There was a symbol on his flank: it was a shape that had two bulbs on both ends and a really thin middle. She took a closer look at him to see if he was okay. He appeared to be bruised some but nothing to serious; although, there was some stuff coming from his mouth. It was a gold mist…
“Luna!”
The little sister took a step back from the stallion, knowing that Celestia was coming from behind her. There was a new feeling inside of Luna, one that she had never had before. She supposed that it should have a name, so she called it: concern.
Celestia huffed in front of her. “What do you think you’re doing!?!” Tia was furious. She wanted answers.
Luna pointed at the stallion. “I think he’s hurt.”
Celestia looked at the stallion, and then back at Luna. “What would make you think that?”
“Well,” Luna said, “That box fell from the sky and he looks banged up… so the box must have fallen on him!” Luna was satisfied with her answer, certain that it was the right one.
Celestia looked at the stallion. She did not want to help him. That would mean introducing Luna to a dangerous who-knows-what. She thought on what Luna said. “No, if the blue… thing had landed on him, then he would be under it.” She felt that she won this one.
“Oh.” Luna pondered this. She truly wanted to help whoever this was. She knew if she didn’t, she would have an awful feeling inside of her for the rest of her foreseeable future. She considered the facts. “Well, then he must have fallen out of it then,” she said, satisfied. Luna could see the retort growing inside her sister, so before Celestia could say anything Luna retorted, “If we don’t help him, who will? If we don’t help him, he might die!”
Celestia could not deny this. Although she wanted to keep her sister safe, she did have a conscience. She knew if she left the stallion there, she would feel the guilt for days to come. She gave in to her younger sibling. “Okay, fine. What do we do?”
Luna thought on this. She wanted to say the first idea that came to mind, but she knew that her sister would deny it instantly; but the more she thought of other ideas, the more that this one sounded like the best one. “Why don’t we take him into one of the villages and see if there is someone who can help him?”
Celestia’s eyes went wide. “What?” she asked flatly.
“Well,” Luna responded, “There is obviously nothing that we can do for him, and there might be somepony there who can help him.” She knew that it was risky to ask her sister this. Celestia just stared at her; she could not deny this logic as much as she wanted to.
She sighed deeply.
“Fine.”
It was still dark in the small pony village. Most of the occupants of the small houses had not awoken from the many necessary hours of sleep recommended by the local doctor, Thumping Heart, or “Thumper” as many of the townsponies called him. Thumper may have been clever, and had made many discoveries in the medical field, but his interpretation of how much sleep one should get was entirely off. He believed that an average working pony should get about eleven hours of sleep each night at minimum. Whilst many ponies tried to follow his instructions, he being the smartest for miles around, most couldn’t sleep past nine hours at most; but they still tried.
The two sisters walked into the town. It was a brand new place for them; for the younger sister it was a chance to actually meet somepony else and not just watch them. Although for the older sister, it was terrifying to even be close to anywhere like this, and the unconscious pony on her back wasn’t helping.
According to Luna, the pony that was to help them lived in the “round-home” that was the second biggest, but they were all rather small. She learned this from her hours of watching the village from the solitary tree atop the largest hill. She had seen ponies walk in there with a sickness or have had been hurt, and had left looking better. Luna figured that whoever lived here had something to do with them getting better.
The two of them wandered about until they finally found the “round-home” which Luna had spoken of. They stood in front of what appeared to be a door. This presented them with a problem: how were they to go about getting the attention of whoever lived here? Luna thought and remembered seeing several ponies tap their hooves on the door, saying something and being allowed inside. That seemed simple enough, but what should she say? Luna figured that it was like a game that she played with her sister: where one would have to say the special word to get into the Nest. She decided that she was correct.
Luna tapped on the door three times, a feeling of anticipation filling her.
…
No answer. Celestia just stared at her in confusion. Luna tried again, only a bit harder.
…
Once again, no answer. She tried a third time, this time even harder. She got a most satisfactory response.
“What? Who is it?” an unknown voice yelled from somewhere inside.
Luna mustered up her courage and said what she thought was the special word.
“Alakazam!”
There was a pause.
“What?!?” the mysterious voice yelled with a tone of total conation.
“Alakazam!” Luna yelled again, this time with more emphasis on the “zap”.
There was a sound of hoof steps that came closer to the door. Luna prepared herself for whoever was coming to the door. Celestia prepared for whatever dangers lay on the other side.
The door swung open. There, in the doorway, was a stallion. He was a pale shade of orange with a mute yellow mane that was cut short. He had no horn, or wings. He did have a mark on his flank; it was two red sticks, one going up and down and the other going from left to right. Luna looked at his face. It was wrinkly, but not from age, Luna thought, but from being tired.
He gave her a cold, angry stare. “What do you want? Shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“Well…” Luna thought on how to tell this stallion what had happened. “I was out looking at the stars, when I found him unconscious on the ground. I called my sister here,” she motioned to Celestia and she blushed, “so we could take him here to you so that he can get better.”
The stallion raised an eyebrow, and then looked at Celestia. “She’s telling the truth,” she said.
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Bring him in,” she said reluctantly.
Luna was the first to enter. She ran past the stallion and looked about in curiosity. This was definitely bigger than the Nest. She thought that she could fit at least five medium-sized trees in there. “Don’t touch anything!” the stallion yelled. This was when Luna took notice of what was actually inside of the stallion’s home, and not its size. There was a rectangular, wood thing in the middle; a heap of hay to her right, which looked like it had been slept on, underneath a window; some slabs of wood sticking out the walls in the back which had a few strange devices on top of it; and, to her left was a wooden cube that looked like it could open at the top.
While Luna was examining the house, the stallion introduced himself to Celestia, in a rather grumbly way. “I am Thumping Heart. I’m the best and only doctor you’ll find around here. Come on in.” He motioned inside. Celestia walked slowly into the house, both out of caution and because the unconscious stallion was getting heavy.
“Just put him on the table,” he said.
“The what?” Celestia asked, almost out of breath.
“The table. You know,” he walked past her and tapped the wooden square in the middle of the house, “this thing?” He turned to the bits of wood the stuck from the back wall. “Oh, and be-“
THUMP!
He groaned. “- careful.”
Thumping Heart glanced at the unknown stallion, and walked over to the slabs of wood that were sticking out of the wall. He picked up the two most basic items of all that sat upon it: a roll of cloth and a stick. He carried them in his mouth over to the table and set them down. Luna was watching all of this intently.
The mysterious stallion lay on his side, facing the pile of hay on the right side of the room. Thumping put his ear up against the chest of the stallion, grumpy as ever. His eyes widened. “Oh my,” he breathed.
“What?” Luna asked, ever curious. “What’s wrong with his chest? Is there something inside there?”
Thumping Heart went back to his devices in the back of the room. “No. Well, nothing that shouldn’t be there. It’s just his heart…”
“Hearts…” the mysterious stallion said quietly. No pony heard him except Celestia who was alarmed.
“Um… guys?” she said, but no pony heard her either.
“What’s a ‘hert’?” Luna asked.
He remained busy looking through things, and yet still answered Luna. “The Heart,” he corrected, “is the thing inside of a pony’s body that pumps blood through the bo-“
“Blood?”
He paused and closed his eyes, rather irritated. “Okay, you know when you get hurt and there’s that red stuff? The red stuff is blood. It keeps you alive.”
“Ah,” Luna said, now with new knowledge of her own body. It made her feel unnerved.
“Anyways,” Thumping continued, “In order for the blood to be pumped through the body, the heart has to beat. In a fully grown pony, it beats around sixty to eighty times every minute. The problem is: this stallion’s heart is beating wrong. It’s beating like…” He stretched his hoof on to the table. “This.” He knocked four times on the table, four times.
The mysterious stallion moaned again, this time much louder. “Master...” This time, everypony took notice; as a result, they all stood with him facing them. Thumping was in front, Celestia was behind him and Luna peeked out from behind her sister. Thumping shook the stallion a little with a concerned look on his face. “Who are you? What is your name?”
The stallion resisted the shaking and mumbled something; they could barely make any of it out. “Pull the wiggly… eighteen-eighty-four…. don’t do that Romana…” Thumping shook him some more in an attempt to wake him up. He only shook back, like a foal who doesn’t want to wake up. Thumping only shook harder. The mysterious stallion retorted with a violent flail in his direction. “Don’t need help…” he moaned.
“You do need help,” thumping said, obviously baffled. “You’re hurt. I can help you. I’m the doctor around here.”
At this, the mysterious stallion’s eyes opened wide. “No you’re not.” Thumping backed up in shock, but the stallion got up and got in Thumping’s face. “I think it is obvious that don’t have the slightest idea of who you’re dealing with. Who are you to even try to get away with calling yourself that? Have you even heard of me?”
“Uh…” Thumping said, utterly shocked.
“I suppose you don’t then. Do forgive me for that outburst. I figured that I was in a U.N.I.T. base judging by the cold hard table and the rough physician over here; but as I can now see, you are not human. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Doctor. If there is any danger or horrible tragedy, it was probably my fault by accident, but I can fix it!”
The Doctor (as he identified himself as) and Luna were the only ponies who were calm in the room, for Thumping Hear just stood there whilst he tried to process what had just happened and Celestia was backing up towards the wall, taking Luna with her, wrapping her front leg in front of her. Luna squirmed and escaped her sister’s grasp. Celestia tried to grab her and pull her back, but she was already out of reach; Luna had walked up to the Doctor. “Doctor, who?” she asked him.
He just stared at her for a moment, then looked at everypony else in the room, and began to laugh hysterically and uncontrollably.
At this point, seeing the seemingly insane pony laughing it up in the middle of his house, Thumping Heart approached the Doctor with a new sense of duty; although, he found it hard to communicate with the crazy stallion. “You need to- You need to- Stop laughing! You need to lie back down! You have a- I SAID STOP LAUGHING! You have a broken leg! I need to fix it! STOP LAUGHING OR I WILL FORCIBLY CLOSE YOUR MUSSLE WITH MY BARE HOOVES!”
All of the angry shouting of commands did not help the Doctor to stop laughing. It seemed to Luna that he found Thumping to be… cute. To Luna, Thumping was anything but cute. She was actually scared of what he’d do next.
“What?” the doctor asked between laughs. “You mean this thing?” He took a deep breath as he help up his fore hoof, which was bent a bit funny. “Yeah, I’ll admit: it twinges a bit; but, it’s nothing a little regeneration energy can’t handle.”
Even Luna didn’t know what to make of this. Thumping Heart had the most baffled face that Luna thought was impossible for him or anypony. “W-What?” The Doctor didn’t answer, but instead his fore hoof began to glow a yellow-orange. Before Luna could enquire about this, there was an explosion of light emanating from the arm. Everypony shielded their eyes from the phenomenon that was occurring before them.
The light eventually faded and they all looked at the Doctor, whom was staring at his hoof, which had the light bursting from it not a moment ago, with his mouth agape. “What was that?” Luna asked eyes wide in curiosity. The Doctor did not answer, but just stood there with his face unchanging.
There was an awkward silence.
“Are you okay?” Luna asked.
“I have a hoof.” the Doctor said plainly.
“Mister?”
“Isn’t that the strangest thing you’ve ever seen? Me! A hoof!” He giggled.
“Are you okay?” Luna asked once more, desperately wanting answers.
“Okay?” he wondered. “Of course I’m okay! I’m absolutely giddy! I mean: look at it! I have a hoof!” He began to examine the rest of his body excitedly. “Four! I have four hooves! And- oh! A tail! I have a tail and hooves! How could this get any better?” His answer came with a better look at his flank. “A tattoo? I have a tattoo as well? This is utterly fantastic! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I was a-“
“Mister!” Luna interrupted rather loudly. “I see you’re having a good time looking at your body, but please answer my question! I have never seen a pony shoot light from their hoof before.”
“A pony…” he said, sentimentally.
“Now, who or what are you?” Luna asked desperately.
His expression and demeanor changed to that of a relaxed one. He looked down at the little filly. “What is your name?”
“Luna, don’t…” Celestia began, still against the back wall and still terrified of this crazy pony.
“It’s Luna. Sometimes, my sister calls me ‘Little Luna,’” she said happily.
The Doctor smiled. “Little Luna…” He stared at her for a moment before beginning to address everypony in the house. “You see, Luna here is right. I am no pony.” He giggled again. “Heh, pony. Ahem, anyways, I am a Timelord. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you. Now, where am I?”
“Timelord…” Luna said quietly to herself.
“You,” began Thumping Heart, infuriated, “are in my house. Its dawn and you are standing in my house. You have probably woken up the entire village with all of the ruckus you’ve caused. Now, LEAVE MY HOUSE.”
The Doctor was unfazed. He casually looked at the window above the hay pile/bed. “Tell me, what was your name again?”
“Thumping Heart,” Luna answered him for the angry pony.
“Tell me, Thumping Heart, if it is dawn, then why is it still dark outside?”
The attention of everypony turned towards the window. The Doctor was right, it was as dark as night outside. It wasn’t like a day where there was heavy overcast, but full-fledged nighttime. “How…” Thumping began, but he was interrupted by a loud, whooshing sound, followed by an ear-piercing scream from outside. At this, the Doctor’s attention brought him over to the window quite quickly to see what was outside. At this point, Celestia was close to a nervous breakdown. Luna made her way over to the window as well to see what he was looking at. She stuck her head out and saw a mare in the middle of the street. She appeared to be the producer of the scream, for she was shaking and her eyes had gotten huge. As for what she was screaming at, Luna had no idea. She wanted to find out though.
It was apparent that the Doctor wanted to know the same thing, so they both decided to go out into the street without knowing that the other had decided the same thing. The Doctor, however, decided to climb out of the window; whereas Luna was going to go out the door. When she saw him do this, she gave him a curious look. He saw this, so he explained to her, “It’s quicker and more conventional than the door.” She agreed with him and proceeded to do the same.
When Luna finally got through the window, the Doctor was perplexed. “Why are you following me? Don’t I scare you like the others?”
Luna gave a little smile and said, “You’re too fun to let go running off.”
He returned her exited smile with one of knowing. “That I am. What was your name again?”
“Luna,” she said proudly.
“Well then, come along Luna.” He winked at her and they ran off to help the frightened mare. Luna was now doing what she loved to do best: run.
When they arrived, the mare was still shaking on the ground, hoof pointed in the distance. Her magenta mane was in a mess and she had broken into a sweat. The Doctor observed her, and then bent down next to her. “Are you okay? What’s the matter?” The mare didn’t respond; she only kept pointing across the tops of the houses. He was determined to not look, for he knew that when he did, all hell would break loose and everything would be thrown into chaos.
“Ma’am, calm down. It’s okay, I’m the Doctor. What’s your name?”
She just kept shaking. The Doctor breathed a heavy sigh, and looked in the direction she was pointing. All the while, Luna was watching him. He seemed to have handled situations like this before. When he turned his head towards the direction of Popper Hills, she did as well; and that’s when she saw it: it was big, red and had wings like a bat. It flapped its wings in mid-air, keeping itself hovering above Luna’s home. It was looking towards the village with a savage look. After a deafening roar and a breath of fire, it took flight towards the village.
“Uh oh,” the Doctor said quietly. “This… could be a problem.”
Luna gave a side wards glance to the Doctor, who looked back at her with a sheepish grin.
Meanwhile, at the location where the Captain of the Draconis fleet and his party had landed, Czwell-af, whom had sent his younger brother, Czwell-nor, to go and scout the area, was reporting to his commander. “Sir, I have sent Private Czwell-nor, as you requested. He is now searching for the one.”
“Excellent, Sergeant. Did you also give him the secondary order as well?”
“Yes, sir,” the lower ranking officer replied as official as possible. He recently had gotten promoted, and he did not want the captain to regret his decision. “He is to incinerate any opposing life-forms that interfere with him locating him.”
“Good. Very well done,” the Captain replied, quite pleased. “You are dismissed.”
The sergeant saluted and left to tent with the rest of his duties.
The Captain sat, his talons drummed against the ground, thinking of ways that he would kill his foe. This made his lieutenant, Dorak-mis, nervous. He thought on the recent events: chasing a time-capsule through space, being sucked into a vortex, having all of the matter in his body contorted, and finally arriving in this place only to have his commanding officer disregard basic medical needs of many of the troops that accompanied them. Their company had once had three platoons, each with fifty Dracons in them. Now they had barely enough who had survived without injury to fill a single platoon. He was worried that the Captain was too focused on his mission for glory and vengeance that he was blinded to the fact that the company needed to recover before they proceeded. However, he dare not question of commanding officer, no matter how much he disagreed with him.
The Captain noticed the troubled look on his First Lieutenant. Still with a pleased feeling with himself, he asked him: “What’s wrong with you?”
Dorak looked at him and said: “Permission to speak freely.”
The Captain raised his brow. “Of course. Go right ahead.”
Dorak chose his next words carefully, and after a moment, he spoke. “I am unsure of if how we are proceeding is the best course of action. Our brothers are severely wounded. I advise we return home and come back better prepared.”
The Captain gave out a laugh. “Unsure? My dear lieutenant, we have him right where we want him!”
“But sir-“ the younger of the two began before he was interrupted by his superior.
“Look, when we chased him out into the cosmos and surrounded him, he created that break in the fabric of space, right? You thought it was a trap, right? I listened to you and waited, but now we’re here and there is no trap. That means that he made a last-ditch effort to escape. He is weakened and more vulnerable than ever. We would be fools to not pursue him,” the Captain concluded.
Dorak looked to the floor, or rather, the grassy ground beneath the roof of the tent and he. The Captain had a point. “I suppose you’re right. Forgive me for disagreeing with you,” he said with defeat.
“Don’t be,” the leader said, “It’s natural to be concerned for our soldiers. I would be too, if this weren’t such a high-value criminal.”
Suddenly, the roaring of a distant Dracon sounded through their tent. A smile found its way across the Captain’s face. “Well, well, well,” he said, and air of satisfaction in his voice, “It seems that we’ve found him sooner than even I thought.”
He stood up, a twinkle of success in his eyes. “Today,” he said in a triumphant voice, “the Doctor will be ours!”
To be continued in Part two…