The Whooves Collection Episode Two: Vengeful Hate

by Perceptive Key

Lost... and Soon to be Found

Chapter 5
Lost and Soon to be Found

Gaia; Equestria; Ponyville; Abandoned Dignitary Guesthouse; 1026 C.E.

Twilight began falling towards the closing portal.

"Twilight!" the Doctor shouted. He ran forward as fast as he could, the still present winds slowing him slightly. He leapt over the opening of the portal and was just able to catch her hooves in his and he landed on the opposite side. The portal slowed its closing and stopped with only four feet to go, Twilight being pulled inwards with the Doctor struggling to pull her out.

"Doctor, stop!" Twilight said, "I have to close it!"

"We'll find another way!" he shouted. "I'm not going to lose you now!"

"There isn't another way," Twilight sighed.

The Doctor was now having trouble on keeping Twilight out of the portal and was beginning to be pulled in by its relentless vacuum. "This is going to erase you from all of history! You'll never exist!"

Twilight lowered her head, "It's something I'll have to do to save my friends." A small stream of tears began to slide down Twilight's face. Twilight leaned closer and whispered into the Doctor's ear, "Don't forget me, Doctor," and she let go.

"NO!" the Doctor screamed. He watched as Twilight was quickly pulled towards the portal and fell through.

The portal sparked with electricity and loudly collapsed in on itself with a deafening BOOM! and disappeared. All that was left was a large patch of earth in its place.

The Doctor immediately jumped to his hooves and began digging frantically through the earth. "No no no no no!" he pleaded, "Not this soon!". He began to slow his digging, beginning to realize that the task was proving futile. He sat there in silence for a few minutes, staring at the partially dug up spot on the ground. "Gone," he said to himself, "She's gone." The Doctor lifted his head up, and looked at the ceiling (which was surprisingly still intact). "ONE!" he screamed into the air, "Give me just one chance!" He closed his eyes and hung his head, eyes slowly watering, "Just one."

"Doctor?" the silence was suddenly interrupted.

His eyes opened slowly, refusing to look away from the floor. "Yes?"

Future Twilight came up behind him, "What happened to my past self?"

The Doctor rubbed his hoof over his eyes, "Simple, Ms. Sparkle. Young Twilight just fell through a forced crack in time and space, creating a moment where everything done could be undone. Anything could be erased." The Doctor stared at the open ground again.

"So... I'm gone?" she asked.

"Yes. You're gone. After you fell through, you were deleted from existence."

"I never happened and never existed?"

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed quietly.

Future Twilight abruptly started laughing like a filly that knew something secret.

"What's so funny?" the Doctor wondered, ears perking up slightly.

"For somepony with a brain like yours, you have surprisingly bad perception," Future Twilight chuckled.

The Doctor gave her a confused look. He stared at Future Twilight for a few more moments.

Then it hit him.

The Doctor jumped to his hooves, excited and overjoyed. "You're-?! That means-?!"

Future Twilight nodded. "Go, Doctor," the lavender mare smiled, "go find me."

The Doctor jumped back to his hooves and ran out of the room at top speed, bursting through the TARDIS doors. He ran around the controls and began flipping levers, pressing buttons, and switching switches. He was about to head off, but he realized that he was missing something. He hopped out and approached Future Twilight, now standing in front of the ship.

"Can I have some-"

Future Twilight held out a strand of her mane to the Doctor.

The Doctor grinned, "You are good."

Future Twilight grinned back, "Go on."

He ran back to the TARDIS and placed the hair on the console. "Miss Sparkle, the Doctor will be with you shortly!"

VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP!

Future Twilight leaned against the doorway and watched the TARDIS fade away. "Run, you smart stallion," she said to herself, "run and find me." Future Twilight straightened up and left the guesthouse, starting her walk back to the library. The night had now begun to give way to the early morning and she walked through the town, the streets abandoned, everypony busy resting from the horrors, and joys, of Nightmare Night.

Gaia; Equestria; Ponyville; Twilight's Library; 1026 C.E.

Future Twilight pushed open the door and entered the Library's main room. She now looked around, appreciating everything with a whole new perspective. A near death experience could do that to a pony. She stood around for a while longer before she heard voices in the basement. She smiled widely and ran to the door. When she threw it open, she looked down the stairs and saw everypony that had been affected by the creature to be up and about.

"He did it, again," she breathed, "he did it."

"Twilight?!"

Future Twilight looked in the direction of the voice and was confronted by Rainbow Dash, hovering in the air next to her.

"What's going on?" Rainbow asked.

"And what are we doin' in your basement?" Applejack questioned, trotting up the stairs.

Future Twilight just wrapped both of them up in a hug and felt tears of joy welling up in her eyes. "The Doctor really did it!"

"Wait?!" Rainbow broke free of the embrace. "The Doctor was here?!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah... he was."

Later...

About an hour later, Future Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack were able to get everypony who had been affected by the Hate's minion back to their homes safely. The three of them eventually came up with reasonable explanations as to what everypony was doing in the library basement. They figured that excessive candy consumption was much more believable than being half-dead because of a dragon creature whose main goal was evil and destruction. They returned to the library, and opened the door, but found that somepony had gotten there ahead of them.

"Good morning, ladies." A unicorn stallion with a tan coat, a black mane, and a cutie mark that consisted of a screwdriver and a set of pliers set in front of a sound wave, sat in the far corner of the library. His grey, magical aura enveloped a book titled A Brief View of Equestrian History. He looked up from his book and asked, "How's life?"

Rainbow groaned and her wings flared up, "Why are you here?"

The stallion feigned shock, "Such disrespect for somepony who's saved your lives. On more than one occasion, I might add."

"Just tell us what you want," Future Twilight demanded, "You're starting to sound like Discord... again."

The stallion rolled his eyes, "A being of chaos mixed with a near insane mind is never a good combination. As for what I'm doing here, I saw the lightning over the Guesthouse and figured that the Doctor was here. Simple as that."

"Why?" AJ questioned, "Do ya need to see the Doc, again?"

"No. I just need to know what happened tonight," the stallion's expression became grave.

"It was the Hate," Future Twilight told him straight out.

"The first battle?"

"Can't be a battle if your going to lose, anyway."

"Alright," the stallion breathed, "I needed to be sure." He held his left foreleg up, revealing the leather strap of a vortex manipulator. He looked back at Future Twilight, "Was that what the sensors picked up?"

She nodded in rely before adding, "Tell my brother and Cadence I said 'Hi'."

He smiled, "Can do, friend." The stallion pressed a few buttons on the manipulator and disappeared.

"And tell them I'm sorry." Future Twilight sighed and turned back to Rainbow and AJ. "Who wants to-"

A sudden flash of light made them look over. The stallion was back, and holding a scrap of paper in his right hoof. "It looks like you made it," he let the scrap float to the floor before disappearing again, leaving a wisp of smoke in his place.

Future Twilight walked over to the paper, picked it up, and read it:

'19,15,65,5,42,67,14,25; 3,27,65,5! 19,15,65,5,42,67,14,25; 3;27;65;5!'

Below the numbers, there was a translation written in black ink: 'Somepony came! Somepony came!' Below that, there was another message, obviously added by the translator: 'It looks like you've just met him, friend.'

=All Information Unknown=

Twilight opened her eyes slowly, wondering why she had them closed in the first place. She shook of her mysterious grogginess and looked at her surroundings. She seemed to be in some kind of small room. At least she assumed this, since there was very little light and the space was mostly covered in shadow. When she listened closely, she heard somepony sobbing. Quietly, but sobbing. Twilight got to her hooves slowly and called out. "Is anypony there?"

The sobbing quieted abruptly and a pair of dull grey eyes peered out of the gloom. Twilight saw the way that the shrunken pupils watched her and knew that the mysterious creature was afraid of her.

"Don't worry," Twilight said in a soothing tone, trying to mimic how Fluttershy would speak with her animal friends, "I won't hurt you."

"No, you won't," the creature spoke. It sounded like a stallion to Twilight, and its voice quavered dangerously, "But they will."

"Who?" Twilight asked, a bit worried now.

The eyes darted around, looking through the gloom. "Just stay out of the shadows," the stallion said, "Stay away from them!"

Author's Note:

COMING SOON . . .
The Whooves Collection Episode Three: The Crystal Shadows!

Comments

[Capt TeK]

o.O MORE NUMBERS MASON!!!!

[Perceptive Key]

2458194
Hate: HOW DARE THEE MOCK ME??!!??!!??!!??!!??!!??!!
PercepKey: Calm down, buddy. I'm sure he was only joking.
Hate: *grumbles* I'll be in the time stream...

[Perceptive Key]

2809056
Thanks for the review! Glad to see that you're catching up on this series!

[Hekate Sketch]

the next one has the vashta narada? time to listen to "count the shadows" by chameleon circuit.