Way From Home
Way from home.
The TARDIS doors swung open with a slow creak. The Doctor and Twilight peeked out, it was pitch black, there was a smell of damp age that lingered, and made the air thick and heavy.
“Where are we?” asked Twilight.
The Doctor ducked back into the TARDIS, grabbing his coat. “We’re still in the library basement, we’ve moved in time, but not space.” He reached his head into his pocket, popping out with the sonic screwdriver.
“But it seems like no one’s been here in years.” Twilight looked around into the darkness.
“A very likely possibility.” The doctor said around the small tool. “A lot can change in fifty years, Twilight.” he pressed the button on it’s handle, with a ringing sound it sent a small beam of light into the dark.
Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, worktables sat in various stages of decay, half opened books lay open atop them and in piles at various intervals along the floor. Cobwebs hung from everything making patterns against the wall as the light hit them.
“I’d say it’s less a few years, and more a few decades.” the Doctor remarked. He returned the screwdriver to his pocket. He walked over to one of the worktables, running his hoof across the surface, he inspected it, then gave it a lick. “About forty years is a good estimate.”
“Yuck....” Twilight said under her breath.
“Did you say something?” The Doctor raced off before she could answer. “Ah! The stairs, shall we go?”
Twilight hesitated. “Are you sure about this, Doctor?
“Are you?” He asked raising an eyebrow.
“No. I’m not.”
“Good, never be sure about anything, that’s what gets you in trouble.”
“For what?”
“For being sure you wouldn’t get into trouble in the first place.” he hopped up the stairs. “Onwards and upwards Ms.Sparkle!”
She sighed resignedly, and followed him up the stairs.
They climbed through the dark for a while, the Doctor taking the brunt of the cobwebs for having gone in front. Motes of dust floated up around their hooves as they made their way upwards, the old stairs creaked and groaned under their weight. In places Twilight was unsure they were stable, but nonetheless they held.
“Ouch!” the Doctor yelped as they reached the top. He stopped abruptly, Twilight to bumped into him in the dark.
“What is it!?” She said.
“Well,” the Doctor rubbed his forehead with a hoof. “if my skills of deduction haven’t failed me, It appears to be a ceiling.”
“A ceiling? Where’s the door!?”
“One of your many, very good questions.” said the Doctor, grabbing the sonic screwdriver from his pocket. “It appears to be tile, so I should be able to loosen it just enough to...” there was a scrapping sound. “There!” he pushed upwards and the large stone tile popped loose, light spilled down into the stairwell. “Ladies first.” the Doctor ushered Twilight forwards.
She gulped. “Nothing ventured nothing gained.” she stepped forwards, and peeked her head out into the the library.
The first thing that struck her was the size. The library ceiling reached up for several stories into a glass dome, surrounded by the foliage of the large oak in which it was housed. Bookshelves stretched off in all directions, filled to the brim with tomes of all sizes and shapes, they whizzed and fluttered through the air, much like butterflies, re-shelving and organizing themselves faster than Twilight could track. Ponies milled about everywhere, many of whom she did not recognize. The majority of them wore a small wooden box around their necks, from what she could see it was intricately carved with symbols she could not decipher. Each was slightly different from the next, there was a small opening in the front with a glass cover, from which emanated a slight glow. She wondered the reason for the strange boxes before the Doctor shook her from her thoughts.
“Haha! Wow! See what you lot can accomplish in fifty short years?! Amazing!” he hopped out and spun with a flourish. “Smell that, Twilight? Progress! Wonderful!”
Twilight climbed shyly out of the hole. The Doctor remained completely oblivious to the fact everypony in the library was now staring at them. She tapped him on the shoulder.
“Doctor, we’re in a library, shhhhhhhh!!”
“What’s that Twilight, speak up!” he said loudly.
The Doctor jumped slightly at the torrent of shushing that followed.
“Well fine, excuse me for being excited.” he said quietly. “Come along, Twilight, why don’t we take a look at things?” He set off in a random direction. Twilight hastily followed.
They earned a few odd stares from passing ponies, wary of the newcomers who came from the ground. Though they did not voice any objections they may have had. The library was deathly quiet.
“Doctor, are you sure it’s safe here?” asked Twilight.
“What did I say about being sure? In anycase, just walk like you own the place, most of the time, no one questions you.”
“If you say so.” Twilight gazed around the building. It had not only gotten bigger in her absence. Where the floors and walls were once wood, tile and metal now dominated the architecture. “Doctor, what do you think has happened since we left?”
“You’re on fire with good questions today Twilight.” the Doctor remarked. “Let’s find out.” The Doctor darted off down a hallway.
“Wait! I-” Twilight was cut short by shushing ponies. “Sorry...” she said sheepishly. She dashed off after the Doctor.
“You there!” he said walking up to a red unicorn, her mane was white and somewhat unkempt, she stared at him rather blankly.
“Yes?” she asked.
Twilight caught up with them. “Doctor! Don’t run o-”
“Oh yes you’re right! How rude of me!” The Doctor interrupted. He turned back to the red unicorn. “I’m the Doctor, and this is my companion, might I ask you some questions?”
“Hello, I’m Lore, I’m the daytime librarian, I know every book in this place, ask away...Doctor.” said Lore, frowning slightly at the name.
“Wonderful! First, to test a theory. Do you happen to know the date?”
“June 20th.” she rattled off automatically.
“Good, good” The Doctor put a hoof to his chin. “And the year?”
“The year?”
“Yes, the year, just, you know, to test my theory.”
“Well, last I checked it was thirty eight.” She turned and walked towards a nearby shelf. “What was this ‘Theory’ of yours anyway? Are you a scientist?” she asked, sending several books flapping to their appropriate shelves.
“Of sorts,” he said. “It’s really nothing, just a small idea concerning the calibration of certain temporal eleme-” The Doctor paused. “Did you say thirty eight? “ “Yes, it’s Spring, June 20th, 38.” she walked further down the hall, re-shelving books as she went.
The Doctor and Twilight followed.
“Wait, by my calculations it should be 1050!” The Doctor said walking up to look her in the eye.
“Oh, you’re not from around here, are you? Are you from the colonies? I’ve always wanted to go to the colonies.”
It was Twilight’s turn to speak. “Colonies!? What do you mean colonies!?”
Lore looked at Twilight. “Oh, hello, I’m Lore.” she smiled
“Yes, hello Lore, it’s very nice to meet you.” Twilight said hurriedly. “What this about colonies?”
“The Equestrian colonies, of course!” Several books floated from shelves around the library. “Here, there’s one in Equinopia,” a heavy tome landed on Twilight’s back. “Hoffiny, Lassonon, Clydesland, and...well...everywehre!”
Twilight strained under the weight of the books. “B-but why!?”
“Well,” she leaned in close to Twilight. “I personally don’t like the idea, but according to paragraph five of the third section, line 23, subsection 4 in the Way of Equestria, it is to spread our knowledge and beauty throughout the world.” She shrugged. “Everypony knows that.”
“I’m not everypony!” yelled Twilight. “Why would the Princess do such a thing!?”
“The Princess?” Lore made her way down the hall again. “Oh!? You mean Celestia? Really, where have you been?
“What do you mean?”
“Celestia hasn’t been in power for more than forty years now.”
Twilight froze mid-step. “Then who....”
“Lore!” called the Doctor.
“Yes?”
Twilight noticed the Doctor had stopped following them. He sat a few feet back staring out of a large window.
“Lore,” the Doctor said carefully. “you said you were the daytime librarian, correct?”
“Yep, that’s me, professor.”
“Doctor.” he corrected. “Well, Ms.Lore, if you’re the daytime librarian....then why is it dark outside?”
Twilight looked out the window. It was dim, but not completely dark, the sky was a deep blue, there was no moon or sun to speak of. There was a street leading into the shopping district, along it lights hovered in midair, illuminating ponies of all shapes and sizes milling about, going into to shops, laughing as though it was the middle of the day.
“Maybe it’s just really early in the morning.” Twilight said hopefully.
“Early!?” said Lore, “It’s three in the afternoon!” do you live underground or something? It’s always been like this”
“It’s twilight.” said the Doctor quietly.
“What’s me?”
“Not Twilight as in Twilight the pony, twilight as in the time when the moon is setting and the sun is rising.” He turned to look at the purple unicorn. “It’s an eternal twilight.”
“Of course it is!” Said Lore shelving a few more books. “It’s been like that since year one. Seriously, where are you from? Even the colonist know that.”
Twilight stood in stunned silence. The Doctor took over.
“Oh, us? You were right earlier, we do live underground! Yep, ground ponies, that’s us, we don’t get out much! We just decided to come to your lovely library! We’ve heard a lot about it.” He swung his hoof around. “It’s really....big!” “Oh, thank you!” Lore replied. “I’ve never met ground ponies before.”
“Like I said, we don’t get out much.” He nudged Twilight, who was still staring out the window. “In anycase, we’re rather uneducated underground. Really, our history classes are terrible. Last I heard, ape descendants ruled the planet’s surface, watching things called sitcoms and googling one another.”
Lore looked terrified.
“But of course, I know now that that’s just silly.” The Doctor smiled. “But if you could point us poor ground folks to some of the....highlights of....oh say the last fifty years, we would be most appreciative.
“Oh of course, you poor things! Follow me, the Hall of History should get you up to speed.” Lore paused. “Is she alright?”
Twilight’s mouth hung open, she was still at the window, staring off into space.
“Oh she’s fine, just a bit overwhelmed, normally the only living things she sees are earthworms. Overstimulated, the poor dear.” He gave her a little shove. “Twili-...er.... I mean, Digger, come along now.”
Twilight snapped out of her stupor. “What? Who’s Digger?” she asked blearily.
“You are silly!” The Doctor said quickly.
“No, my name’s Twili-”
“Haha!” he put a hoof to her mouth, leaning over to Lore. “Too much rock dust, not good for the head. Isn’t that right, Digger?” he shot Twilight a meaningful look.
She nodded, and the Doctor removed his hoof.
“Now, what were you saying about this hall of history?”
“Oh, it’s right this way!” Said Lore, turning on her hoofs. “Follow me!”
The three of them set off towards the front of the library. Twilight and the Doctor fell back out of hearing distance.
“Digger? Doctor, I thought you had my name down by this point. And what is going on around here?” Twilight whispered.
“I called you that because, if my suspicions are correct, we’re going to find out what’s going on here, and you’re not going to like it.”
“I’ve already worked it out I think.” Said Twilight worriedly. “Oh....well, I’m sorry, Twilight.”
“Don’t worry, we’ve defeated Night Mare Moon before, we can do it again.”
“It might not be so bad, being a dictato-” the Doctor paused. “Who’s Night Mare Moon?”
“The mare responsible for all this of course! She’s Celestia’s sister, she was in charge of the moon. That is, up until she became too jealous of he sister’s power. She tried to bring eternal night to Equestria, and for it she was trapped in the moon for a thousand years. She got out earlier this year, a bit before you arrived. The others and I defeated her, but she’s the only pony I know who could do something like this.”
The Doctor stared at her for a while. “I see I’m not the only one with busy weekends. But, Twilight, I’m sorry to say I have a different theory. And I really am sorry, so very very sorry.”
“Why? What are you talking about?”
“We’re here!” called Lore cheerfully as they arrived at the the door to the large ornate hallway. “The Hall of History! And of course first up we have a picture of our kind and gentle ruler,” she pointed to the opposite wall with a flourish. “Queen Twilight!”
On the wall hung a large painting of a purple pony, with both the wings of a Pegasus, and the horns of a Unicorn. She wore an lavish dress, covered in runes and gems, she looked out at the trio with the same purple eyes Twilight had, except these were much deeper, much older, and much much darker.
“Excuse us for moment, Lore.” said the Doctor, “It seems this....great painting of our apparent monarch is a bit too much for poor Digger.” he pointed to the unicorn, who was staring up with what could only be described as an expression of either pure horror, or massive amazement. “Let me take her out to get some air before we continue our tour.”
“I completely understand.” said Lore. “Go right ahead.”
The Doctor nudged the shocked unicorn out into lobby.
“D-doctor......” she whispered slowly.
“Yes, Twilight?”
“That can’t be me can it?”
“I’m afraid it can.”
“But I’m right here! How could I be around to grow up into...this?”
“Time is not linear, Twilight,” the Doctor explained. “I took you here, to the future, on accident, but that doesn’t mean you disappeared from the timestream until we reached this destination. I take you back home at some point, then, in around ten years or so, you decide that this country isn’t dictator-y enough and install yourself as monarch. Next thing you know, there’s never a day or night, and everyone’s eating breakfast for eternity.”
“But I would never do that!!” Twilight yelled. Both she and the Doctor jumped slightly as they were shushed from all sides. “I mean,” Twilight whispered . “the most I ever wanted to do was read my books, and study magic. I would never do....this! Colonies? Eternal twilight? This is madness. I wouldn’t...”
“I know you wouldn’t.” Said the Doctor. “I’m a way better judge of character than that.”
“Doctor!”
“Fine.” he leaned in close, looking into Twilight’s eyes. His own, old blue one’s darted around quickly, looking for something. “I’ve seen darkness Twilight, I’ve seen more of it than you, or I for that matter, would care to believe. I know how it sits inside, makes a person hard and cold. The eyes are how you can tell, they become deep, dark eyes, the kind of eyes that freeze with a look, and set terrible things in motion. The kind of eyes that have seen the worst of the world, and barely flinched. The kind of eyes I’ve seen too many times, Twilight Sparkle, and I can tell you, that your eyes, are nothing like the ones in that painting back there. Something must have happened between now and then, something terrible, something to give you those dark eyes, and I intend to find out what it was.”
“How are you going to do that?” Twilight asked.
“Well, a tour’s a good place to start!” The Doctor did a little spin and headed back to the Hall of History. “Lore, Digger’s feeling much better now! Onwards and upwards!”
The three set off once again, down the opulent hallway. Twilight paused at the painting of what was apparently to become her. She looked into it’s eyes, and vaguely, just for a second, she thought they looked like the Doctor’s.
She quickly banished the thought and raced to catch up.
“I’ll start from the beginning.” said Lore, pointing to a large tapestry that hung on the wall. “This is the story of Twilight, and how she rose to power.” she pointed to a large white pony. “Around fifty years ago the princess of the sun, Celestia, was the ruler of all of equestria. She was in charge of both the sun and the moon, and had at that time been so for a little over a thousand years. But, around the year 1005 C.R -Celestia’s Reign- she began to act strangely.” She dragged her hoof over to a smaller, purple pony. “Twilight, being her student at the time, was the first to notice. Celestia started making irrational decisions, leaving the sun up longer than usual, and sometimes refusing to let it set at all. She had lanterns put up around her quarters every few feet, and the castle covered in lights. She would never tell anypony why. Her subjects began to fear she had gone mad. Her sister, princess Luna, stepped up to help her ailing sister and made sure the night came when it was due while her sister stayed inside, apparently terrified of the dark. But soon she too began to act erratic. Full moons when there should have been none, talking to herself and refusing to be alone at night. The fear of the public grew steadily more with each passing day. And in time, Luna too moved into the Lantern covered castle. So, in 1012 C.R Twilight convinced the two of them to give some of their power to her, so that she could take some of the burden. They agreed, and it became her job to make sure the two celestial bodies ran on time. Over time Twilight took on more and more of the royal responsibilities, as Celestia and Luna began to degrade further. It was soon after that, in the year 1 T.R, that the two sisters became completely shut inside the castle. Never leaving the light of the lanterns they had come to see as the only things that mattered.Too terrified to leave, and no longer sensible enough to rule, Twilight had no choice but to use a spell to take their powers away before they could do any harm. Thus installing herself as Queen of Equestira, as it has been for almost forty years now.” She looked at the Doctor and Twilight expectantly. “Any questions?”
Twilight was silent.
“What about the eternal twilight?” asked the Doctor. “When did that happen?”
“Oh!” Lore slapped her forehead with a hoof. “Of course! I forgot that part of the story. That’s embarrassing, normally I’ve got stuff like that memorized, I’ve got half the library up here you know. I’m not daytime librarian for nothing!”
“Yes....” said the Doctor patiently. “Now about the twilight?”
“Oh, of course.” said Lore, getting back on track. “That happened when Twilight took away the powers of the previous rulers. Nopony is quite sure why, but after that the sun and the moon were struck still. They haven’t moved since that day, placing Equestira in a state between day and night.”
“Twilight...” The Doctor said softly.
“Now you’re getting it!” Lore said happily. “Now, if you excuse me, I have to get back to work. Nice to meet you, Doctor, Digger.” she gave them a little nod, and vanished among the books.
The Doctor looked back at Twilight. “Well, now we know what happened at least. Now, do you perhaps know wh-” he stopped when he noticed she was crying. “Oh....” he said. For a while he wasn’t sure how to proceed. He listened to her sob for a while, then sidled closer. “Twilight?....I’m really quite sorry..” he began
She cut him off, grabbing him in a hug and crying into his shoulder. For a moment, he was taken aback. Unsure what to do, he put his hoof on her back.
“It’ll be alright, Twilight. I promise you that. It’ll be alright.”
To Be Continued.
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ALARM DISABLED. STATE OF ALARM CONFIRMED. INQUIRY: HOW? WHAT? MESSAGE TERMINATES.
Super Awesome
Brilliant! Twilight as a companion kind of reminds me of Donna...
And I can't help but think this lantern-castle has something to do with Vashta Nerada
ummm... what the flip just happened?
Maybe this darkness has something to do with the Vashta Nerada, as Baelkaz said. Hmmm...
There isn't any hope...
I think we just entered... The Twilight Zone
... too soon got it.
Alzheimers. That's my verdict.
So the games begins...
Well...... Buck!
Queen Twilight: What did you say?
Dave: Nothing sire, I for one welcome our new purple overlord!
Queen Twilight: Cary On.
Dave: Help Me
i.qkme.me/36fnlc.jpg
505688>>561912Let's see... the bunnies disappeared with out a trace, Celestia and Luna inexplicably started being afraid of the darkness, and they both tried to make it as bright as they could, so there would be no few shadows. Yep, I'd say Vashta Nerada are involved. Now to see if I am right....
Do I sense Vashta Nerada?
2092792 Twilight Sparkle has left the Library. Twilight Sparkle has been Saved.
4202644
When the question is asked, silence must fall.
What could friendship be?
Count the shadows!
651410 slightlywarped.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/3231222-i-see-what-you-did-there.jpg
1655547 not-literally.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/nl_images_fi_river_song_spoilers_10_12_2013.jpg
First time reading!
Personally I think that the toys that Twilight animated have been haunting the Princesses. But yes, the Nerada could be fun too.
After all...
Silence in the Library...