The newly transformed Alicorn sisters paused to look back at the crater of what used to be the Crystal Kingdom, the jagged earth hole slowly being covered in the forming blizzard. Dark, looming clouds had formed, and the weather was rapidly picking up. There was nothing left that they could do, even the Doctor would not risk crossing his own time line due to the fracture the rift had caused. What had happened was now locked; nothing could be done about it.
There was still the mission, and there was little time before the deadline the Doctor had given Discord.
They were still lacking the complete set of Elements, yet it was possible that there currently were no bearers worthy of them. The group would just have to use the tools at hand; it was time to find Twyll.
~~
Ardith sighed. Rounding up all the changelings in the Everfree and starting the journey across the great wastes had been exhausting, and the Doctor never had returned for her. Her journey had begun under the name Twyll, but just as she had turned from her old ways, she had discarded her old name. She was a new pony now. She was Ardith.
A murmur ran through the hive, one that shocked her into full awareness. It was a faint noise, just a mechanical whir heard by a few of the hive, but she remembered it. The Doctor had returned!
~~
The Doctor opened the door of the Tardis and stepped out into the arid and cracked dirt, squinting in the light of the nearly setting sun. Ardith approached at a galloping pace, taking the Doctor in a hug.
“I am glad you returned safely. What took so long?”
“I wouldn’t say all of us got out without some form of damage... And what do you mean ‘so long’?”
“You’ve been gone a whole week! I thought you gave Discord a deadline?”
“Oops… I showed up on the wrong day, didn't I,” the Doctor muttered to himself. “That’s the thing about time travel—tricky business. We must already have faced Discord in this timeline; we, personally, just haven’t done so yet.”
The Doctor opened his mind to Ardith, sharing the knowledge of what had occurred at the Crystal Kingdom. The silent communication going unnoticed by the sisters.
“I… I see. Let us take the rest of this day to relax before our final conflict. One more matter: when I changed my ways my, old name, meaning deceit, seemed unfitting, so I changed it to one of blessing, one of hope. Ardith.”
Celestia, now slightly taller than Ardith, approached. “Thank you for your hospitality, Ardith. The elements have chosen you, and I accept their judgment. Maybe our people can someday live in harmony.”
Ardith eyed Celestia and Luna’s new appearances. “I see you have taken your true forms children of the sun and moon, but have you had any luck finding the last of the elemental bearers?”
“Nothing new, but I have my suspicion is that one is close at hand.” Celestia replied, giving a quick glance over to the Doctor.
“Maybe they just need to realize it for themselves.” Ardith smiled as the Doctor stood there, unbeknownst that the conversation had become about him.
“Come then, let us eat and rest before our battle.”
~
The evening passed on slowly, and the girls seemed to lighten up considerably. Celestia and Luna even seemed to make friends with Ardith. The Doctor sat on a nearby rock, watching the horizon absentmindedly as the girls giggled away.
~
When Celestia and Luna had gone off, Ardith joined him sitting silently for a time. When she finally broke the silence it was reluctantly, but it was something she felt needed to happen.
“We face Discord tomorrow… The sisters have their rightful bands of power and seem ready, but I fear I will not have strength for the
battle. As promised, we have all abstained from the cultivation of love by falsehood or from victims, but it has left us without the energy to shift or use magic. For us to survive, the few that do find truthful love and mates have been sharing their power. Leading the changelings on this trek has left me little time to search for love, and without any power, I fear I will be a burden. At this point if I leave the hive, I will have energy for only one day without the use of any magic.”
“I see… Can the power of the Elements sustain you?”
“Though they have chosen me, I seem to be incompatible… I can only think of one solution, a ritual.”
“What sort of ritual?” the Doctor asked skeptically.
“One that must be discussed in private, follow me.”
~
And so he did, finding himself in her private tent.
“Doctor, I must be honest with you, but I fear your scorn… I have been in your mind; I have felt your very being. I have heard your anguish and felt the loneliness. Doctor, I… I have,” she paused “I want so badly to help you. My emotions for you have grown daily, even in your absence I find myself longing for your presence. Dare I say that its love? If you would agree to share but a fraction of the love that beats in your twin hearts. If you would take me as your mate Doctor. I care not for the power, I just want you.”
“It has been a very, very long time since someone has professed their feelings towards me, and even longer since someone has tried to approach me in such a way.”
“One must find what joys they can, especially when they have seen so much sorrow. Let me help you to forget your woes, if only for a short while? If you wish, I can even change my form.”
“No.”
“I... I am sorry Doctor. I didn’t mean to-”
He interrupted her, “If we are to do this, you will be yourself, no mask, no façade.” The Doctor paused. “I have held my feelings inside me for so many years to avoid the pain of loss… But what is this life without love?”
Her heart leapt for joy and she felt the subtle bond between them increase as their budding love finally came to fruition. She, in the Doctor's presence could live. Live without stealing false energy and love; live without harming any more ponies, for truthful love would
now sustain her.
~~~