Vortexes are Magic

by JeckParadox

First published 15th of October, 2012

The Doctor's in Equestria, he's in love with Luna, and Celestia blames him for everything

The Doctor, in a strange accident has found himself a pony in Equestria. But from there things only get stranger, with Equestria's past as his future the Doctor finds himself in a relationship with Luna, trying (unsuccessfully) to stop Pinkie from creating Paradoxes, and trying to survive the onslaught of monsters from Equestria, aliens following him through the Void, and Princess Celestia herself! Will the Doctor survive? Will he unravel the mystery of his future involvement in Equestria's past? And will Pinkie ever learn that the laws of physics exist for a reason? Find out in 'Vortexes are Magic'
-Cover art by me (Not my best work, but I'm proud)

Daleks in Equestria Part 1

The Tardis was spiraling out of control, something had gone wrong. Whether it was some kind of temporal glitch, or a physical problem within the circuitry of the Tardis, or something had taken control of her functions, the Doctor’s precious box was travelling through time at an alarming rate. It would take maybe six seconds for the Tardis to move a couple billion millennia, depending on the situation, but right now the Tardis was moving through time so fast not even with his great intellect could he keep up. He was currently doing the best he could to avoid the Beginning and the End, very narrowly, and was spiraling back and forth, farther than any other recorded Timelord in milliseconds. The Doctor tried everything he could to find out what was wrong. But nothing that the Doctor could decipher had been found.

He was beginning to reach the skidding point, in two seconds the Tardis would turn around and go back toward the End to avoid the Beginning, but at this speed the Tardis would skid, veer off the metaphorical road so to say, and break out of this universe and be launched into the void. “This is not good…” The Doctor said in a spunky British accent. “Well, everyone, BRACE FOR IMPACT!” the Doctor looked around at the empty room. “Oh yeah…” and he was flung into the wall behind him, knocking him nearly unconscious. “Ugh… what the…” The Tardis had now entered the void, the area outside space and time, the dwelling place of infinite realities.

The Doctor brushed himself off and ran back to the controls. “oh deary me…” the Tardis was running out of power, after all, he had just left the Time vortex, and the only thing carrying him was the momentum it had built up back in his own universe. The Doctor had to hope the Tardis crashed into another universe; it had to happen eventually after all, what with the infinite amount, but could they reach one before running out of the momentum needed for re-entry?
The Doctor looked at the slowly blinking out monitors. He had already lost hope of being able to turn the ship. There was no longer anything he could do, either the Tardis would crash into another universe, or he would float in the everlasting void of the void forever in a powerless Tardis, until the last of the oxygen ran out, and then until the last of the regeneration energy ran out. After that… he would die. Goodbye everything, it was a good run, 1100 years wasn’t bad.
But the last light to go out was the emergency reentry light. The Tardis had saved up the last of her energy for reentry. The last of her power going into protecting the Doctor. The Doctor jumped onto the console and hugged the great transparent tube that contained the ‘brakes’. They made a final, beautiful sound, one that can only be described by listening to it, and the Tardis went black and shook.

Then was the impact. The Doctor remained conscious long enough to smile at the noise, and at his own good fortune. Against all odds the girl had managed to save them, she landed herself on a planet after breaking through the universal membrane. The Doctor noted to himself, why do I suddenly want some apple grass? And faded into sleep.

Sitting with her telescope on the roof of her tree house, she noted with wonder at the unscheduled shooting star. And it looked like it had fallen near town! Twilight smiled and shortened her telescope, placing it in a saddlebag with her new star charts. She would get her friends together and go look for it the next day. It might make for a good letter to Princess Celestia, and maybe Princess Luna would be interested in the seemingly unknown meteor.

Twilight Sparkle got to her hooves, levitating the saddle bag onto her lavender back. “Maybe I’ll send a late letter if Spike is still awake.” She yawned and eyed a clock as she passed it. “Nah, it can wait till tomorrow, it won’t disrupt my schedule.” She walked over to her bed and magically turned off the lights. “Good night Spike.” She heard a mumbling from Spike’s bed and smiled. Getting into her bed and falling asleep quickly.

And as Twilight dozed off another… pony woke up. “Damn! That hurt… I’m feeling all wobbly.” The Doctor struggled to his hooves and realized he had just struggled to his hooves. “What happened!?” He kicked his forelegs as he fell onto his back, struggling with his clothes. “I have four legs! I have… I knew this would happen… Well, not this exactly… I need a mirror!” He got out of his pants and shirt, managing to move to the Tardis’s module. He found it was easier to walk if he didn’t think about it. He jumped up and moved his monitor lower and saw his reflection. “No… NO! NO!NONONONONO!” The Doctor looked in shock and horror at his new look. “I’M STILL NOT A GINGER!” he looked again with more care. “I am also… a horse? With bulbous eyes…” He had a brown mane, with a lighter shade of brown for his fur. His eyes were a very clear blue. “Did I regenerate? I didn’t think it would be this… drastic. I expected a second head, three at weirdest. But I mostly expected to still look human.”

He remembered his situation. “Maybe… this is what the Timelords of this universe look like…” He looked at the door. “The Tardis… she got into the universe, and she managed to land on a planet. Where am I? What am I? I… I need my sonic screwdriver!” He got up and began looking through his discarded clothes. He picked up his green ‘screwdriver’ in his mouth. He tried using it, but it wasn’t mouth-operable. “Well, I think this could be a problem… Wait!” He spit it out and rushed down into the storage area. “I really do have way too much spare time.” He picked up a blue-tipped screwdriver. “I actually took the time to make a mouth-operable sonic. Oh well, that just goes to show that thinking ahead and programming while drunk is a good idea.” He managed to scan himself with his mouth-operated sonic. “Okay… two hearts, I’ve lost quite a bit of body mass, I hope that doesn’t come back to bite me.” The Doctor looked at himself more carefully in the light of the Sonic Screwdriver, (the Tardis was out of power, no other lights).

He had a tail, the same color as his mane, and on his rump was some kind of tattoo of an hourglass. “I… Don’t remember getting that…” He said, raising an eyebrow.

He moved to the door and opened it. He let the cold air of night wash over him. It felt good in his fur and on his skin. He didn’t feel the movement of the world beneath him. That constant source of anxiety seemed to have been stripped away with the rest of his body mass. And if he did regenerate, why wasn’t he expelling time energy?

These questions would have to wait for later, because he had looked up at the gigantic moon. And his breath was taken away. He smiled to himself, this was why he traveled. All the beauty of the universe...s. All the mystery of the past and future. It was what he lived for. A new world for him to explore, in a new body too.

“Helllllooooo world!! Show me what you’ve got universe! I’m the Doctor, I can take anything!”

He let out his breath from the screams and wondered if someone had heard. He let himself lie on the grass, the sight of the Tardis, even without her shields, gave him a sense of security. And he fell back asleep.

Dear Princess Celestia,

This isn’t so much as a report on the magic of friendship, but rather a casual report. I and my friends have doing great, and in a few minutes we’ll be going off to see where the meteorite from last night landed. It would be near the edge of Ponyville Park if my guess is correct. Ask Princess Luna why she decided to give an extra surprise last night, maybe it’s a special occasion? I sure hope I haven’t missed anything.

Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.

Princess Celestia read the letter while sipping her morning coffee. It actually had served as her alarm that morning. She was planning on staying up late that night, it was late enough in the year that Celestia could be excused for having it stay dark longer. But a green light in her study had waked her up at the right time anyway. So the dark mornings of fall would have to wait until tomorrow. Perhaps she would watch the Running of the Leaves in Ponyville this year.

She strolled over to Luna’s room in her own personal tower. “Luna, Twilight asked about you.”

The blue Alicorn lifted her head from her star-patterned quilt. And glared at Celestia. “We do not wake thee right after thou had fallen into slumber. We had a stressful night, allow Us sleep. We will talk to Twilight in the Evening.” Luna said in her too-loud Royal Canterlot Voice.

“She’s asking about your ‘surprising’ meteor last night.” Celestia playfully tempted.

“Meteor?” Luna’s drowsiness had apparently died down enough for her to not instinctively speak with the outdated Royal Voice. “What Meteor does thou speaketh of?”

“It landed near Ponyville, according to Twilight. Do you not know anything of it?”

“Ponyville?...hmm… oh yes! Ha… Ha… Yes, that was me, I er…We did it on a whim, thought that Twilight might be watching, It was earlier in the night, before We were stressed.” Luna said with a little too much enthusiasm. Celestia raised an eyebrow in suspicion. But she would not do anything to make her sister think she didn’t trust her. If Luna thought that she had to hide something Celestia would let her.

That didn’t mean that Celestia wouldn’t go look into it. “I’m going to head off to Ponyville to see your special Meteor. You go ahead and get some sleep. Maybe if I arrive without warning Twilight won’t freak out so much.” Celestia prompted.

“May We come along?” Luna said pleadingly.

“Well of course, but didn’t you say you were tired?”

“N-No, well, yes. But not anymore. We would like to see Twilight Sparkle’s reaction.”

“Okay? Do you want breakfast?”

“No, I already ate, you should eat though. I’ll go ahead.” Luna didn’t leave time to argue as she rushed out of her door to the tower’s balcony. She shot into the air and flew toward Ponyville, down the mountain.

“Luna, what are you hiding from me? I thought we were trying to rebuild each other’s trust.” Celestia said to herself. Then she shook her head, making her transparent rainbow mane quiver. “No, I trust her. She’s probably just trying to hide something she was working on.” She smiled. Luna was an artist, and a perfectionist. She spent years making the night sky, and spent every night trying to improve it. She probably just got angry and threw a piece of it to the ground and then forgot about it.

But that was not what Luna was doing. She had not created, or discarded the ‘meteor’ the previous night.

Luna had a sneaking fear of what the object might be. As she shot past the Canterlot gardens she didn’t notice a smirk on one of the stranger-looking stone structures.

“Twilight, are you sure it was around here? We’ve been searching the area for half an hour, maybe you made a mistake in the chart?” Rarity said, looking over her friend’s shoulder at the levitating map with a small area outlined in red ink.

“I’m sure Rarity, I already triple checked. Besides Rainbow Dash is looking from the sky, she’ll tell us where it is exactly.”

“Alright, but I need to open the boutique in an hour, and I don’t want to open late after I missed that customer last week.”

“I told you, how was I supposed to know you would shrink that small? I said I was sorry, and I got you back to normal again.”

“Please don’t fight.” Said a quiet voice from behind the duo.

“Don’t worry Dear, we aren’t fighting, I’m just voicing some concerns to Twilight.” Rarity said sweetly to the cream-colored Pegasus behind her.

“Yeah, don’t worry Fluttershy. Oh, Rainbow’s coming back. Dash! Did you see anything!?” Applejack said.

“Yeah! It’s so weird, you guys have to come see this!” She shot off in the other direction, leaving a rainbow-colored trail behind her.

“Alright girls, let’s go see what hit the other night!”

“Maybe they’ll be friendly!” Pinkie said playfully from beneath her tinfoil hat.

“Pinkie, aliens don’t exist, and it isn’t unidentified, I clearly said it was a meteor.” Twilight said to her bouncing companion.

“Noooo, you said you thought it was a meteor. Besides, when things are falling from the sky you can’t get a good look at them.”

“ugh… Dash could you please tell Pinkie that what fell was a meteor?”

“I dunno Twi… it didn’t look like a rock. More like a blue… box-like thing. With a thing sticking out of the top.”

Twilight simply stared at Rainbow Dash with an expression of irritation. Pinkie stared at Dash with growing eyes and a growing smile. “Really?” Pinkie got out.

“Yeah, I swear in the name of Celestia and the Wonderbolts, I saw blue boxy thing in the field over there.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Dash was serious. “Really?” Twilight repeated.

“Yep. It’s pretty weird.”

“Well, I guess I don’t know what it is…” Twilight said.

“Wait, you aren’t actually thinking it’s aliens?” Rarity said giving a shocked look to Twilight.

“Well, no. I can’t see how they could possibly exist. Princess Luna and Celestia control all of space, they rotate it, heck, Luna made the stars, I just don’t see where they could come from. The moon? The sun? If they did Princess Celestia and Luna would tell us… I think…” She shook the doubts from her head. “I have no idea what it is though so…”

“It’s a UFO!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing ahead of everyone else.

Applejack smirked and followed after her, Twilight gave a sigh as well and ran after the two of them. Rarity frowned. “I got up an hour ago, I don’t want to run in the mud just yet.”

“Oh… I was going to ask if you wanted to race too but…” Fluttershy said quietly as she lowered back to the ground.

“Fine, the first one to get there has to be my model for the rest of the day.”

“What about the loser?” Fluttershy asked with a little doubt.

“The loser also has to be a model, but in a difficult pose.”

“Um… what would I get out of this?”

“You said you wanted to race.” Said Rarity playfully. “321Go!” And Rarity galloped off.

“Rarity, wait! I don’t want to race anymore!”

The Doctor woke up with the morning and looked to the sky, seeing the sun rise. “Hm. It’s a nice sunset, not the most impressive, but every planet has its own charm.”

He got up and yawned, getting to his two hind legs and stretching as if he still had arms. He picked up his Sonic Screwdriver and eyed the Tardis. She had landed with quite a bit more impact than usual, a crater, but a small one. He looked at his precious Tardis; she was leaning more toward one end, not quite balanced, which explained how he ended up on the other side of the Tardis than the wall he had lost consciousness on.

He went back into the Tardis and opened the door to the heart of the Tardis. The place where the Time Vortex used to spin through. It surprisingly wasn’t empty; a miniscule amount of time energy was spinning along through the heart. “Well, what do we have here?” He pointed his screwdriver at the wisps of power. “Oh… oh you genius girl you!” The doctor closed the engine, smiling to himself. “Don’t worry old girl, I’ll be back, I’m a new man! Take some time for yourself, recharge, don’t mind me.” The Doctor walked outside and decided to have a stroll.

He found a man-made path after a while and started moving along. “Oh dear! I wonder what the inhabitants are like… if the Tardis landed in the ‘human’ world of this universe, and I’m… this… does that mean everyone is like… this? And if they are, am I naked?” The Doctor suddenly felt self-conscious and ran back to the Tardis in search of clothes that would fit without much trouble onto his new body.

In the end he was wearing his smallest pair of pants, a vest, and a tie. Even he himself was unsure how he tied it around his neck. He comforted the Tardis again and walked outside.

As he came out he saw five other creatures were running toward him… and one was flying. He looked up at the flying one, she had a light blue coat and a rainbow-died mane. Also wings. Very important those, wings. The others were just as colorful. A white one with a purple mane, an orange one with a blond mane, a purple one with various shades of purple in her mane, and a cream one with a long pink mane. Also one that was very very pink.

“Uh… Hello, I’m the Doctor!”

Twilight’s mouth was hanging open as she saw the strange object, imbedded in the earth within a small crater, and standing in the doorway a stallion. “Um… Hi?”

“Are you an alien?” Pinkie Pie said enthusiastically.

“What?!” The ‘Doctor’ stammered. “I-I… uh…”

“No, don’t worry silly, it’s obvious. Doctor have you met my friends yet?” Pinkie said, going up to the Tardis and pushing the Doctor from behind.

“Uh… Have we met?” The Doctor asked nervously and a little hopefully.

“Duh… you don’t remember my party?” Pinkie said a little sadly.

“Er… can we speak in private for a few seconds?” The Doctor moved Pinkie into the Tardis and shut the door.

The other ponies looked at each other and then back to the Tardis. They put their ears up to the door in fear that something bad was going to happen, curious at the situation. After a few minutes Rainbow Dash moved backwards in the air and prepared to launch at the Tardis. “Dash, what are you doing?” Applejack said suspiciously.

“They’ve been in there too long, I don’t trust him.” She flew even higher and began turning in an arc.

“So you’re going to explode them both!?” Applejack said, banging on the door.

“She’s Pinkie, she’ll get out without scratch.” And with that Dash burst forward in a charge that would destroy the box. At that moment the doors swung open and Rainbow Dash shot into the Tardis, Pinkie and the Doctor ducking just in time. The Doctor turned around as there was a crash behind him.

“No! My Tardis!”

“His what?!” Applejack said.

“Er… Can we speak in private for a few seconds?” The Doctor moved Pinkie into the Tardis and shut the door. “Okay, what do you know!?”

“I know a lot of things, like what color the sky is, and what my name is, and what your name is an-”

“Yes, that! How do you know my name?”

“Silly, you told me when I gave you your Ponyville welcoming party last year.”

“How much do you know about me?”

“Um... You live in a box called the Tardis, which we are in at this moment, now that I think about it, it should have been pretty obvious based on Rainbow’s description. You like bananas, and hate pears, your favorite dish at Sugarcube Corner is apple grass with muffins, jam, and tea, you have that thing in your mouth that does just about anything, and… you didn’t want a party when you first arrived, but I didn’t care and gave you one anyway and you loved it, and…”

“I’m a time traveler. If I’ve met you before did I tell you that?”

“Nope.”

“But I did let you into the Tardis?”

“Yep, this is where we threw the party! It’s kind of dark right now though… is it to cover up the mess? I’ve heard of people who have never recovered from one of my patented Pinkie Pie Parties.” Pinkie bragged.

“Well Pinkie, I have never met you before, and, being a time traveler, you met me before I met you. Last year you said?”

“Yep. If you’re a time traveler does that mean you can go into the future? And the past? Could you take me to see the Cave Ponies? Or the Future ponies?”

“Wait… we’re ponies?”

“Yeah, duh. Oh wait! You are an alien aren’t you!? I need to tell my friends!”

“No! I mean no… don’t do that, I don’t know how they’ll react, have any of them met me before?”

“Not that I know of… We do see you around a lot though, just walking by on the street, oh! And there was that one time I saw you sign up for the best flyer competition!”

“Pinkie, how do you think your friends would react to being told that I’m a time-traveling alien with a box that’s bigger on the inside?”

“Hmm… that’d be a hard one…”

“I mean, would they go around telling everyone else? Would it start a panic? I do not want to be the center of a wide-spread panic.”

“Nah, I don’t think it would be a panic, I’ll get them to promise not to tell anypony else.”

“Okay… thanks Pinkie… wait. ‘Anypony’?”

“Yeah. Anypony.”

“Ha! Alright then. Well at least the Tardis doesn’t have to translate for me if those are the only differences between this and English.” The Doctor attempted to snap his fingers to open the doors, but it didn’t work for obvious reasons. “Well, looks like we have to do things the old way. He swung open the doors with his forelegs in time to see a rainbow-colored projectile flying toward the Tardis. Pinkie somehow grabbed the Doctor’s mane and pulled him down while ducking herself, Rainbow Dash flying into the depths of the Tardis.

“No! My Tardis!” The Doctor galloped back inside after Rainbow Dash. The others all looked suspiciously at Pinkie and then looked into the Tardis as Pinkie attempted unsuccessfully to block their views.

“I’ll be… It’s bigger on the inside.” Applejack said staring into the grand chambers within the relatively small box.

“No, that’d be ridiculous. It has to be some kind of portal, right Twilight?” Rarity nudged Twilight.

“I… I don’t know… I’m not picking up anything.” She lowered her head and her horn glowed. She waved it around and tried to feel the power of magic within the Tardis.

“Pinkie! Help me find the rainbow one! She shot right past the swimming pool and into the library!”

“Library!?” Twilight beamed and teleported to the source of the voice. “What library?”

“Eek! Give me two heart attacks why don’t you!?” The Doctor was on his hind legs looking at the unicorn that had magically teleported to him.

“She flew into my Tardis, thankfully missed the brakes, passed through the hall, over the swimming pool/wardrobe and into the library I have.”

“You have a library in your house?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“No of course not… well I do, but that’s beside the point, I can’t wait to begin reading!”

“You might have to wait until I get the lights back on. Also, we should focus on getting your friend out of my ship.”

“This is a ship?!”

“Most people start with ‘It’s bigger on the inside.’”

“Ah already said that.” Applejack said, galloping after the two of them, she was followed by Pinkie wearing an apologetic smile.

“Guys… I think that this isn’t just a box…” Rainbow Dash’s voice echoed through the halls of the library, Twilight looking back and forth over the walls in awe.

“How big is this place?” Twilight asked, levitating a book toward her and then looking curiously at the pictures of humans in the book.

“I’m not sure, I haven’t explored all of it. Rainbow! Where are you!?” The Doctor turned a corner and looked around.

“Over here!” Twilight followed the sound of the voice and teleported over. “Whoah!”

“Look at all these books!” Twilight lit her horn so that the others could find them in the darkness.

“Yeah, it’s great, and I’m confused. Where exactly are we?”

“Inside that stallion’s library. I think he said that we were inside a ship, the Tardy or something.”

“I passed a swimming pool.” Rainbow Dash said without emotion.

“Yes you did.” Twilight said, levitating a particularly thick book to her.

“Oh good, you’re both alright.” Applejack sighed. “Now let’s get out of here.”

“Yes, let’s. All of you being here is stressing the Tardis, get out.”

“Stressing?” Twilight said, her attention being drawn from the book with the strange pictures. “What do you mean we’re stressing the ship? Is it too much extra weight, I figured that something this large could take on plenty.

“No, as in you are stressing the Tardis, as in causing her stress, get out! The Tardis has too little energy, and now you’re all making her worry about seven creatures instead of one! Leave before she does something.”

The other ponies decided it would be best to follow the strange stallion out of the strange ‘ship’ inside the box.

“Now then, I’ll take one question from all of you to start off, my first answer being no. You cannot all be my companions.”
The others looked at the Doctor, then back at each other, shrugging. Rainbow Dash decided to go first. “Who are you?”

“I’m the Doctor, and I’m a Time Lord. Next.”
Applejack reached her hoof upward. “What’s up with your… ‘ship’? And where’s the rest of it?”

“She’s not just a ship, she’s a ship that can go through the all of time and space! As for the rest of it… that’s her. It’s like you said, it’s bigger on the inside.”

“That’s impossible,” Twilight said. “It disobeys the laws of physics.”

“And what’s your question?”

“Where are you from?”

“Another world, in another universe.”

Twilight gaped at the stallion. “What are you talking about?”

“Next,” He said, turning his gaze upon Rarity.

“What in the world happened to your outfit!?”

“W-what?” The Doctor said, looking down at his own clothes. “What’s wrong with them?” He suddenly felt indignant. “And what would you know anyway? You’re naked!”

“I never- hmph. I’ll tell you what I know! I’ll show you what I know!” Her horn glowed and the Doctor was lifted off his hooves and hung upside down in the air.

“What’s going on?” The Doctor said, struggling against the telekinetic magic.

“You have incurred the wrath of RARITY. My revenge shall be swift.” She began tearing clothes from the Doctor as he winced at the sounds of ripping.

“Those have sentimental value! They belonged to one of my Zocci friends!”

“Hmm… I’ll leave the tie… and this doesn't need sleeves… and this shows off your cutie mark, I've seen a lot of people with that one, what’s your special talent?”

“Getting hunted down by aliens.”

“Really?”

“Running?”

“It’s an hourglass.”

“Bowties?”

“Time traveling!” Pinkie shouted from the side.

“Hm. Alright, that’ll do for now. What do you think?” Rarity pulled a mirror from her saddle bag and showed it to the Doctor.

All that was left of his outfit was a tweed vest and his red-velvet tie. “I’ll admit it looks good, but you tore apart my clothes!”

“Hmf. They always find something wrong with it.”

“Well, now that my personal space has been violated and my clothes torn apart, Pinkie, do you and the cream-colored one have any questions?”

“Her name is Fluttershy.” Pinkie said irritated, and then she shot back to her usual cheeriness. “Can you take me back in time and then into the future so I can introduce myself to myself and myself?”

“No. That would be… No. That’s a paradox toppled upon itself. If you were to make contact with yourself it would create errors in time and space, errors that could leave devastating effects on the world, the dimensional barriers would begin to crack and the demons of the void would infect your world, your universe, eventually lysing it.”

Applejack moved over to Twilight and asked quietly “what does ‘lysing’ mean?”

“It’s when a virus infects a cell, creates a bunch more viruses inside it, and then they all exit it, blowing up the cell, or at least killing it.”

“And if Pinkie time travels that could happen to Equestria?”

“Yes.” The Doctor said proudly. “Or at least it could. It’s happened before back in my universe.”

“Is that why you came here?”

“No, I fixed the paradox.”

“Then it’ll be fine. I want my own welcome to Ponyville party darnit!” Pinkie stomped back into the Tardis, and everyone else rushed in to pull her out.

The Doctor sighed and turned to Fluttershy. “Do you have any questions?”

“Um… Is your… ship… sick?” She said.

“What?”

“I’m… I’m good with animals… and I had the feeling that your ship was sick for some reason.”

“Uh… yes actually, the Tardis is a living thing after all… She’s built to run off the Time Vortex. But since I’m in another universe, there’s a different time stream. She lost almost all her power, and she did something ingenious and brilliant and desperate to save herself. But she’s still only at the bare minimum.”

“Is there anything you can do?”

“I’m going to leave her to her own devices, she’ll seek out this world’s time stream and use it to power herself, then I’ll be able to travel again. Until then, I’m going to cause the least amount of stress for her as possible.”

“Where will you be staying until then?” Fluttershy asked, becoming more friendly in the hopes of caring for the strange ‘animal’ that was the Tardis. “If you need to, you can stay with me, I’m sure Angel won’t mind a new face.”

“Oh, that’s very kind of you Fluttershy, is this kind of hospitality typical in this world?” The Doctor smiled, looking at the Tardis. She had found the nicest planet available.

“Well, that’s the element of kindness fer ya.” Applejack smiled.

“I don’t know, I don’t trust him. He claims to be a time traveler, which is crazy, he says he’s an alien, which is impossible, and he just seems weird.” Rainbow Dash circled him in the air. “And now you want to let him into your house?”

“But he has nowhere to stay, and he’s right. The Tardis has to rest and be stress-free. I can feel it.”

“And he is too a time traveler.” Pinkie added to Fluttershy’s response. “He hasn’t met me before, but I met him last year.”

“So? He could be lying, or crazy. He’s just weird.”

“And you use too much hair dye.” The Doctor retorted.

“Actually, it’s natural.” The Doctor looked at Rarity questioningly and the white unicorn gave a confirming nod.

“Huh.” A shadow passed over the group and the Doctor shot a look upward. “What was that?”

“Doctor!” the group looked up and gaped at the sight of a dark blue Alicorn with an ethereal night-blue mane. “Doctor it has been so long! Well, perhaps not for you…”

The six mares bowed down their heads to the regal Pony as she landed. “Princess Luna, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked, confused.

“We have business with the Doctor, PRIVATE business.”

“Of course, come on girls.” Twilight got to her feet and galloped away, the others following with suspicion.

“Uh… Hello, er… Your Majesty.”

“Doctor… do you truly not know Us?”

"Um… I get this a lot, but, I’m a time traveler, we probably met each other at different times.”

“So you do not know Us?”

“No… sorry.”

Luna rushed forward and kissed the Doctor. She lifted her head again and lay down. “I have not seen you in two decades!”

The Doctor looked into the sky and muttered “I thought I wasn’t going to mess with royals anymore.” To himself.

“Doctor, my good friend, this may be the first time you’ve met me, but believe me, I… I mean Us, when We say that We know you, and that you will definitely get to know Us.” She looked to the sky and frowned. “It will only be a matter of time until Our sister realizes that you’re back… or that you have arrived I suppose.”

“Wait, who are you?”

“I am Princess Luna; my sister is Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, and you Doctor, are my oldest friend. However, we need to move, as my sister, when she realizes you are here, will undoubtedly try to kill you.”

“I’m used to people I don’t know yet trying to kill me. Now, first rule; no spoilers, don’t say anything about your past life with me, it could hurt the time stream, second rule; be prepared to run at any time.”

“Alright Doctor. I have a hideout in the Everfree forest, will the Tardis be okay by itself?”

“Hmm… Will Celestia try to destroy it? It’s defenses are un-operational right now…”

“Then we should take it with. Go inside the Tardis and I’ll carry it.”

“You can lift it?”

Luna smiled at the Doctor as she lifted herself into the sky. “I’ve done it before, when I was much weaker than I am now.”

“Alright then…” The Doctor got into the Tardis and put a hoof on the module, “Okay old friend, this’ll only be for a minute.” The Tardis shook as it was lifted out of the ground and carried at insane speeds toward the nearby forest. After about five minutes of flying the Tardis was placed down on the ground again, level with the ground this time, nothing was sliding about.

“We are here Doctor, someplace you might find familiar someday. I’m sad that this is the first time you’ll be seeing it.”
The Doctor stepped out of the Tardis and gaped at the cavern. The ceiling was covered in stars, a perfect replication of the night sky built in diamond and polished obsidian.

“Amazing…”

“Heh, this place holds so many memories for me… I… I haven’t been here since I was, oh… sorry no spoilers.” She walked from one end of the hall to the other, removing spider webs and blowing away dust. She levitated fallen objects and tried to put crumbling pieces of rock back in their right places.

“Princess, why does your sister want to kill me?”

“I thought I wasn’t to tell you about my past with you.”

“Try and be vague, not so that it won’t happen, but rather so I know what I’m facing right now.”

“You, well… threatened her authority I suppose. There was a… rebellion of sorts. She hates you for personal reasons as well.”

“I started a rebellion?”

“I won’t say anything more.”

“O-okay. Wow… What can she do to me, theoretically, if we have to fight?”

“She can fire a concentrated beam of magic, fire, and sunlight that could incinerate you instantly, actually, she can make and do almost anything with magic, fire and sunlight. She’s a calculating genius with enough telekinetic power to move the sun and moon like they were nothing, she also has control of the entirety of Equestria.”

“Alright, I’ve fought worse. But… magic?”

“Yes?”

“I wonder of my Sonic can-”

“It doesn’t.”

“Figures. Well, Princess Luna, was it? What do you have planned?”

“Keep you alive, keep Celestia occupied and unaware of your presence as much as I can, and convince Twilight and her friends to not speak to anyone about this.”

“And what am I supposed to do?”

“I know you get bored easily, so why don’t you go around the castle? It might come in handy later.”

“Oh, will it now?” Luna laughed and kissed him again.

“Yes, it will, now I have to go back to my sister before she gets suspicious. Try not to do anything stupid. Or brilliant in a bad way. And try not ending the world while you’re here.”

Luna pulled back her wings and launched herself into the air, shooting down the halls of the castle and disappearing from the Doctor’s sight.

“I told you Doctor, I told you. No getting ‘involved’ with royals!” he said to himself. “I was just kissed by a horse… oh well, I’ve done worse with worse… and I have nothing on Jack… I wonder what ever happened to him…” The Doctor thought it might be right, or at least morally okay. He was a pony now, after all.

The Doctor wandered the halls of the castle of the night, there were statues of ponies, and there were thousands of depictions of the moon and the night. He eventually came to a room filled with stuffed animals, actually, considering the circumstances they might be just dolls, and paintings of the night sky, of meteors, of shades and stars, of constellations. Then he found something strange, one of the framed paintings had a depiction of the Tardis, a blue filly, and him, among the stars.

“Well, it would appear I’m more involved than I thought…”

“Twilight, thank you so much… We owe you and your friends a great favor. The Doctor is a close friend of Ours, but he has some history in Canterlot, We do not want spread panic.”

“I understand Princess. Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to tell the other immediately. Despite their appearances Rarity and Pinkie don’t spread gossip, even if it’s important. Rainbow and Applejack are unlikely to spread anything either, but I’ll talk to them, don’t worry.”

“Good. Then we make Our goodbye, we must speak more often Twilight Sparkle.”

“I think so too Princess.”

Princess Luna took to the sky once more to head to Canterlot, to convince Celestia that it was an err on her part, and take suspicion off of the Doctor’s return. Then it was off to bed. She didn’t want to wake up late for the night.

Twilight immediately galloped off in search of her friends. She found Rainbow Dash and Applejack easily, the two of them were caught up in another contest, and they both agreed not to speak of it without much persuasion. Then she ran to Rarity’s Boutique and convinced Rarity not to speak about the Doctor with a little bit more effort. Rarity was worried about credit for the outfit. Finally she found Fluttershy, who seemed more worried about the Tardis than the Doctor.

After looking for hours she still hadn’t found Pinkie though. She would have to hope that Pinkie didn’t tell anyone about the Doctor.

Inside the Wardrobe/swimming pool area of the Tardis a rather large pink snow-suit quivered. A fluffy bit of hot pink hair popped out from inside it, followed by Pinkie’s head. “That was scary… the whole thing just started shaking all of a sudden. Maybe I’ll wait out a little longer."

Celestia watched the sky, it was almost noon and Luna had not returned. The sun was moving on its preset course in the sky, and Celestia put down the papers she had been looking at. She picked up her own special glass of ink and her feather quill.

Dear Twilight, have you seen Luna? She went toward Ponyville this morning, for what reason I know not. Please respond as soon as you can, I’m beginning to get worried about her.

Your Loving teacher, Princess Celestia.

She was about to send it when Luna returned. “Hello Luna, did you clean up whatever fell in Ponyville?”

“Yes, I did. I was toying with extending one of the constellations, but after three different combinations didn’t work I scrapped it and simply moved one of the stars a few meters to the right. I guess when I was angry I could have dropped a cluster of mushed up stars. But I took care of what fell in Ponyville.”

“Good, do you want to go around the kingdom? It’s been awhile since we surveyed together.”

“No… I spent too long awake already, if I am to work again tonight and raise the night on time I should get to sleep now.”

“That seems like an excuse, we haven’t enjoyed the day-life together in a month!”

“That’s because you bet you could out drink the Duke of Manehatten and then spent the rest of the day hitting on random stallions in the street, and the entire day after with a headache, snapping at everyone around you.”

“I promise to have less fun.” Celestia put her hoof over her heart.

Luna sighed and smiled at her sister. “Good Day Celestia, I’m waking at the regular time.”

“Fine then, be like that.” Celestia got up and marched to the other side of the study, crumbling the paper in her hooves and casually burning it. “Good Day Luna, see you tonight.”

About three hours later Celestia was disturbed from her work by a screaming voice coming over all the microphones in the city.

>CREATURES OF THIS WORLD! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER TO THE DALEKS! SURRENDER OR FACE EXTERMINATION!!<

Celestia’s face contorted with rage. “DOOOCCCCTTTTOOOORRRRRR!!!” Her mane burst into flame and she adorned herself with golden armor. She marched to her balcony and looked at the gigantic saucer-shaped ship floating near the city. She readied her wings and was about to take off when a realization stopped her. The armor disappeared and the flame died out. She turned back into the tower and shouted “LUNA!”

Daleks in Equestria Part 2

The Emperor had been duped; the hive mind had been horribly tampered with. The Dalek race was living a delusion. But that was why they existed. The New Cult of Skaro. A collection of the most brilliant of Daleks, a small group that could exist separately from the hive mind. They existed to think of things that the Dalek masses could not. They were the source of creativity, of ingenuity, and new forms of conquest and torture.

Dalek Jeck was adorned in a black-purple armor. His eyestalk a deep gold color. Dalek Ont, his pilot/weapons specialist, a deep orange. Dalek Sar, his second in command, a light blue. Dalek Tol, his strategist, a deep vermillion. And Dalek Fir, his foot soldier, and the source of any future foot soldiers, silver colored.

“THE DOCTOR HAS ESCAPED THE UNIVERSE.” Said Ont. “COULD HE HAVE FOUND WE STILL PERSUE HIM?”

“NO, THE DOCTOR IS STILL UNAWARE THAT HE WAS NOT ERASED FROM THE DALEK’S MEMORY COMPLETELY. HE HAS LEFT THE UNIVERSE FOR COMPLETELY SEPARATE REASONS.” Tol responded. “HAVE WE SUCCEEDED?”

“NO.” Jeck said, the single word, spoken in his voice, sending pleasurable quivers down the nerves of the other Daleks. “IF THE DOCTOR HAS LEFT THE UNIVERSE, AND RETURNS, HE WILL HAVE CAUGHT US BY SURPRISE. FIR, PRODUCE A SECONDARY CULT, AND HAVE THEM EJECT IN THE ESCAPE POD, WE WILL NOT LEAVE THIS UNIVERSE WITHOUT THE WISDOM OF SKARO. THEN WE PERSUE THE DOCTOR, BANISHING HIM TO ANOTHER UNIVERSE PERMANENTLY, OR EXTERMINATING HIM PERMANENTLY.”

“YES DALEK JECK.” Fir moved over to the birth tubes and created five clones of himself, with enough genetic variation to create a cult that could balance each other. “THE NEW CULT HAS BEEN LAUNCHED.”

“JECK, WE CAN ENTER THE VOID AT A MOMENT’S NOTICE. SHALL WE?” Ont said.

“YES.”

“SO THIS IS THE UNIVERSE THE DOCTOR HAS COME UPON. IT IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, AN UTTERLY DIFFERENT SET OF PHYSICS AND DNA. UPON ENTERING WE SHALL BE CHANGED GENETICALLY WITH UNPREDICTABLE RESULTS.” Sar said sadly. “WE WOULD NO LONGER BE THE PURE DALEKS OF OUR HOME UNIVERSE.”

“WE WILL THEN BE A NEW DALEK, AND CONQUER THIS TINY, TINY UNIVERSE IN THE NAME OF THE NEW DALEK.” Jeck said triumphantly. “THIS WORLD WILL BE OUR EMPIRE, AN EMPIRE OF THE SECOND CULT OF SKARO. AND THE GENETIC DIFFERENCES WILL BE EMBRACED. UNDERSTOOD?”

“YES!”

“YES!”

“YES!”

“YES!”

And the Daleks entered the universe of Equestria.

“Luna, I trusted you, I knew you were hiding something, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt, and what did you do?! You hid the Doctor, you lied to my face!”

“Sister, this is not the Doctor’s fault, for all we know these things have no connection with him at all!”

“No, you will bring me to him and I’m going to kill him, then we will deal with this. And afterwards… Luna we are going to have a long talk.”

“No sister! You will not harm him. We should focus on these creatures first and then we will talk about the Doctor.”

“… Fine, but he has to help, if he brought these things here he will face his punishment, understand?”

“…I suppose.”

Twilight looked toward the city of Equestria on the side of the great purple mountain. “That… cannot be good.” She ran back toward the boutique and began hitting on Rarity’s door.

“Twilight! What is it!? You were here less than two minutes ago! What’s the matter?”

“Look at Canterlot!”

“Oh my Stars….” Rarity saw the tiny speck that was floating near the castle. “What is that thing?!”

“I don’t know, and I’m not waiting to find out, we’re going, you go find Pinkie and Fluttershy, I know where Applejack and RD are.”

“Alright, we meet up near the main road?”

“Good.” Twilight ran off back toward Apple Acres.

The Doctor was on his way back to the Tardis when Luna came back. “Oh, hello Luna, that was awfully quick.”

“No time to talk… hoo!” Luna was out of breath and her wings were shivering from how fast she had been flying for so long. “Huff… Have you heard of a… please say no… a Dalek?”

The Doctor’s eye twitched. “Yes…”

“Did you bring them here?”

“…No, but they are probably following me. It’s my fault.”

“Oh dear… well, we need you to help us fight them.”

“How many are there?”

“We don’t know, they have a pretty big ship… so far there’s only been one voice.”

The Doctor sighed, darkness coming to his face once more. “Take me to them, I’ve dealt with them far too many times.”

The Daleks were shocked; they hadn’t expected such a change to occur. Their minds were working differently. “JECK, PLEASE! PLEASE JECK!”

“NO, I WILL NOT ORDER YOU ALL TO DIE!”

“I DO NOT THINK HATRED IS BEAUTIFUL ANYMORE, PLEASE SAVE ME JECK, ORDER ME TO DIE! I DEMAND IT DALEK JECK!” Sar screamed with fury.

“NO, WE HAVE A DUTY. WE WILL KEEP THE DOCTOR IN THIS UNIVERSE, HE WILL NEVER PREY UPON THE DALEKS OF THE ORIGINAL UNIVERSE. WE WILL TRY TO EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR, AND IF WE CANNOT… WE WILL KEEP HIM IN THIS UNIVERSE FOREVER.”

“I AM NOT A WARDEN, I AM A WARRIOR!” Sar screamed back. “YOU ARE BETRAYING THE DALEK RACE BY SUGGESTING ANYTHING OTHER THAN UTTER AND COMPLETE EXTERMINATION!”

“YOU DARE GO AGAINST YOUR COMMANDER SAR?!”

“YOU DARE TO CONTAMINATE ALL THAT IS PURE AND CALL IT DALEK, JECK?!”

The other Daleks were divided between the two, unsure of what was happening. “PLEASE STOP! STOP! DESIST! JECK, WHY DO WE FEEL THIS WAY?! SAR, WHY DO YOU REBEL?! IS THAT NOT ALSO AGAINST THE DALEK WAY?!”

“FIR… I… I… I…” Jeck was going slowly insane. “WE… we… Fir? Are you feeling this as well?”

“SIR… I… I am.” Fir began spinning. “Sir, there is something wrong.”

“YES, THERE IS! WE ARE BEING CONTAMINATED BY THIS UNIVERSE! WE SHOULD EXTERMINATE ALL OF IT!” Sar shouted.

Ont looked back at the three ‘warriors’ of the group. He locked sight with Tol, “W-w-we are near the greatest center of population, according to the scanner.”

“In the entire universe?!” Jeck said, moving toward the monitor.

“Yes… but look at the universe.” Tol said.”

“This… this could work… a new genetic code. A new universe, with only a few creatures that the Daleks will have dominion over. We will not be like the old universe. They are the Daleks of their own universe. We are the Daleks of this universe. The world is different. We are the new perfection. What we do is what the new Dalek ideal is. And as an added bonus we will restrain or exterminate the Doctor. THIS IS OUR UNIVERSE, IT WILL SURRENDER AND BE UNDER OUR PROTECTION, OR BE OUR ENEMY AND BE EXTERMINATED!” Jeck screamed. The other Daleks screamed the last words over and over and over. Trying to give purpose to their shifting minds and emotions.

“I’ve looked all over town, but I couldn’t find Pinkie anywhere!” Rarity, huffed, quickly stomping any dirt that could have gotten on her back to the ground.

“I couldn’t see her either…” Fluttershy said.

“Rainbow Dash, could you go look for her from the sky?” Twilight asked.

“Sure, be back in sec.” She took off into the sky, leaving behind a huge streak of rainbow. She came back to the nervous group a few minutes later, sighing. “I couldn’t see her anywhere, not unless we want to check every house and basement in Ponyville.”

“Ugh… we still need to go do something about whatever that is… Let’s head for Canterlot, hopefully Pinkie will see it and get there herself.”

“What if she doesn’t come?”

“Then we will have to hope we don’t need the Elements of Harmony.” Twilight sighed, focusing a huge amount of magic in her horn. “Now everyone stay close, I don’t want anypony losing a hoof…” Her horn lit up and the red-purple magic enveloped them, then it caved in on itself and they were gone. They appeared within the Princess’s study inside Canterlot Castle, everyone let out a relieved sigh upon finding that they were all intact, but Rarity sniffled back a cry at the sight of her slightly-burnt tail. “Whoo… that was difficult, ugh my head… It was kind of lucky that Pinkie wasn’t there, I don’t think I could have teleported all of us.”

The others all stared at Twilight for a few seconds, letting her regain her breath, before running outside to get a better look at the saucer. They quickly spotted Princess Celestia standing on a different, much wider balcony, surrounded by her own guards. The five mares galloped down to the princess but were stopped by a spears aimed at their faces. “HALT! Identify yourselves!” a unicorn soldier barked, catching the Princess’ attention.

“Let them go Rear Guard, besides, I think any one of them could take you.” Rear Guard looked at Fluttershy and raised an eyebrow.

“Y-you wouldn’t like me when… I’m angry.”

Princess Celestia moved toward the group and the Soldiers divided to allow the Princess passage. “Twilight, I’m glad you came, I assume you saw the aircraft and decided to help, but… where’s Pinkie Pie?”

“We don’t know, we were in a hurry and left without her, I’d like to say we can count on her being here, but with Pinkie you never know, even if she means well.”

“We might be in need of the Elements of Harmony, my sister is gathering… Intel on these invaders and in the mean time I’m just trying not to aggravate them or allow them to get closer to the city.”

“We’ll help however we can, but I don’t know how much we can do without the Elements of Harmony.”

“You did pretty well at the Wedding.”

“That’s not the same thing, besides, this time we don’t have my brother’s and Cadence’s magic reacting to create a shockwave.”

“Well, if Luna’s right, we’ll have something more suited to fighting this kind of enemy.”

“I don’t mean to doubt you Princess, but how do you know these guys aren’t friendly?” Applejack threw in.

“You all missed the broadcast, a screaming voice told us all that we would either surrender, or be exterminated.”

“Exterminated?” Rarity asked, not in shock, but in curiosity. “What in the world does that mean?”

“A very long time ago, when animals all still cared for themselves, occasionally groups of animals would steal food and were called pests. The ponies would then… kill… all of the pests, and it was called extermination.”

Fluttershy stifled a gasp for the poor animals of the past, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack exchanged a look, while Twilight frowned. “If we don’t surrender they’ll… exterminate all of us, like we were pests?”

“The entire pony race, or so they’ve threatened.” The Princess said calmly.

“Then what are you waiting for, let’s blow them out of the sky!” Rainbow dash said, crouching down in preparation for a tactical rainboom.

“Wait! We need my sister’s Intel first. If these things have the power to do as they say… we don’t want to take any chances before they are absolutely necessary.” She turned to another soldier. “Make it your squad’s top priority finding a pink mare named Pinkie Pie, and bring her here safely, she was one of the heroes who defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord, she’ll most likely be in Ponyville and the surrounding area.”

“Yes Ma’am!” The Soldier saluted and ran off.

The Doctor had his eyes shut but was shouting with more enthusiasm now. “I’m flying through the air, riding a magical pony!”

“Doctor, we should… really try to… pfft.” Luna was trying not to giggle at the Doctor’s wind-pushed smiling face. “Fine, but please tell me everything you know about the Daleks.”

“They are a race that wishes to ‘purify’ all life. And by ‘purify’ they mean ‘kill anything that isn’t Dalek’. They have extremely powerful force fields, a laser beam that can kill almost anything with a single shot, they are also geniuses, and if they grab you they can suck information right out of your skull, killing you in the process. Their suits are one of the strongest metals in my universe, and there are few tools that can hack or breach it, one of which being my Sonic Screwdriver.”

Luna’s heart started beating faster. “How long have they been trying to kill you?”

“Oh… six or seven hundred years, nah, might as well give them eight hundred at the least, and that was only when they were after me specifically.”

“Well that gives some hope…”

“It shouldn’t, I’ve been running my entire life, and if I’m lucky I kill two or three or a thousand through almost an accident, and then I just keep running. I don’t like to talk about how many innocent bystanders are killed every time I meet one.”

Luna stared at the Doctor fearfully, all of his enthusiasm disappearing, luckily they were near Canterlot Castle by now. “Can they sense you?”

“Sometimes.”

“You are being very vague Doctor.”

“I just don’t want you to despair while you can still fight them.”

“What you said just now did not help.”

Luna opened her wings and slowed their descent, coming onto the balcony with Celestia, their soldiers, and somehow Twilight and her friends.

“Princess Luna! And the Doctor, why is he here?”

Celestia let her face become a rage-filled snarl. “He brought them here.”

“Not on purpose.” Luna defended.

“I might as well have, hello Celestia, nice to meet you.”

“Don’t patronize me Time Lord. You have been a source of strife and fear for me and my people throughout all of history.”

“I promise, I’ll leave when I think I can, but until now let’s try to focus on our current impending doom, rather than focus on the ones in my future and your past.”

Celestia shifted her gaze upon Luna, “What does he mean?”

“This is the first time he has been in Equestria sister, at least for him. He will go back in time later.”

Celestia smiled at this news. “Well, I pride myself on being a just ruler… if you do not commit any of the travesties of the past and leave this universe before going back in time I will not kill you, does that sound fair?”

“Sorry, it’s been written in stone now, but I’ll try, don’t blame me if this creates a paradox though.”

“You’ll try, hm?”

“I can’t promise anything more.”

“Fine, tell me how to deal with the Daleks.”

“In the way that will allow the greatest number of ponies to live? Surrender. These are strange Daleks, some of the nicest I’ve ever met.”

“They threatened to exterminate us!”

“‘Threatened’ being the keyword. Normally Daleks kill first, and ask questions only if they fail. These ones seem interested not only in taking prisoners, but ruling.”

“I will not give my throne to monsters who threaten my people!”

“Then we fight, and ponykind could be exterminated.” The Doctor said. “I’ll help, this is my fault after all, just get me close to them, I’ll try to scare them off, then try to get as much destruction inside their ship as possible.”

“understood. Would a miniature atomic explosion be enough?” Celestia asked calmly.

The Doctor simply stood dumbstruck. “Uh… yes? Try to keep it off the city I suppose…”

The Doctor walked to the edge of the balcony and raised his Screwdriver, it blinked blue twice and the saucer shot towards him. “Well, now that I’ve got their attention…”

“Sonic Screwdriver detected! The Doctor is here! The Doctor is here!” Tol said excitedly, spinning in a circle from joy, and then moving back to the screen, ashamed of this new emotion. “The… Doctor… is here. And he’s on a balcony with their hybrid monarch.”

“Good, open up the broadcast, but focus it around the balcony.” Jeck said, moving his plunger arm to signify his order. Something he had never done before. “Is it open?”

“Yes sir.” Said Ont from the communications station.

“Ahem… 3..2.1! BEGIN BROADCAST! HELLO DOCTOR YOU- you are a pony. WHY IS THE DOCTOR A PONY?!” Jeck screamed to Tol.

“I-I assume he was transformed just as we were. He still has Time Lord energy and has two hearts, compared to the other ponies.” Tol responded.

“Oh… DOCTOR, FOR YOUR CRIMES AGAINST THE DALEK EMPIRE WE SENTENCE YOU TO EXTERMINATION!”

>Oh really, have you forgotten how many times I’ve beat you in the past? Oh, that’s right, you did… how exactly do you know who I am?”< The Doctor's voice filtered through the communications equipment.

“YOU SOMEHOW HACKED THE HIVE MIND, BUT THE CULT OF SKARO EXISTS FOR SITUATIONS SUCH AS THIS. WE CAN EXIST SEPARATELY FROM THE HIVE MIND, AND WE REMEMBER YOUR HIDEOUS CRIMES. YOU HAVE OBSTRUCTED THE PURIFICATION OF THE UNIVERSE, KILLED THREE EMPERORS, CORRUPTED THE PREVIOUS LEADER OF THE CULT OF SKARO, AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF MILLIONS UPON BILLIONS UPON TRILLIONS OF DALEKS!” Jeck was no longer forcing himself to scream. “DOCTOR! I WILL KILL YOU, MAKE YOU FEEL PAIN, AND IF I CANNOT, I WILL KEEP YOU HERE. YOU WILL NEVER HARM ANOTHER TRUE DALEK EVER AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME DOCTOR?! THIS IS OUR VENGEANCE!” Jeck felt he would be out of breath if he wasn't always screaming before.

>That… that was unprecedented show of emotion… you aren't just insane, are you? You’re different, you changed just like me. None of you are pure Daleks.<

“NO… WE ARE NOT. BUT WE WILL ASSIST THE PURE DALEKS BY MAKING SURE YOU NEVER PREY UPON THE UNKNOWING DALEK MASSES.”

>Do you honestly think you can defeat me? I’ll find a way, I always do. Besides, even if I couldn't defeat you normally, do you think you can take me while dealing with all these new ideas and emotions?<

“I… I… No! We will defeat you Doctor. We are five in number. You are one, you are a pony. Not only that, you aren't even one of the useful kinds.”

>I resent that< Applejack shouted at the Daleks.

“QUIET SUBJECT; PONY MONARCHS, YOU HAVE ONE CHANCE TO AVOID EXTERMINATION NOW. STRIKE DOWN THE DOCTOR AND SURRENDER. WE WILL BE… ‘GOOD’ RULERS TO YOU, STRIKE DOWN THE DOCTOR AND SURRENDER, ONLY THE PREDATOR OF THE DALEKS WILL SHED HIS BLOOD TODAY, NO OTHER CREATURE MUST DIE ON THIS DAY.”

Sar looked at his leader, feeling angry that Jeck didn't desire bloodshed. And mimicked Jeck’s voice perfectly. “YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO COMPLY.” He felt happiness and a type of pleasurable fear… risk? He had just undermined his leader’s authority.

“TURN OFF THIS END OF THE COMM.” Jeck shouted to Ont, Ont complied immediately.

“They cannot hear us.” Ont stated.

Jeck turned on Sar. “Sar, you have undermined my authority, but I will allow this, perhaps it was necessary, but know that it has costed you. Fir, you are now my second in command. Sar, when it is time to fight, you will go out alone, and will not be allowed to recharge, you are now the lowest-ranking Dalek on this ship.”

“You should kill me.”

“We are a new Dalek race. There are no reasons for us to follow the old code. Also, I will not have our forces cut by 20% so quickly.”

“I apologize Dalek Jeck.”

“You will still carry out your punishment.”

“I will do it with vigor.”

“Well, that didn’t work… but we did get some useful information out of them. They are the Cult of Skaro, which means they do not follow the normal rules. They don’t seem to want to kill you, which is always good. There are five, which could be good, considering sometimes they attack in groups of thousands. Hmm…. But this also means we can’t leave a single one alive, a single member of the cult without orders is as dangerous as millions of ordinary ones with orders.”

“Doctor. We have two minutes, can we defeat them in that time?”

“Get me inside, I’ll try to tamper with their ship, maybe trap them all inside, then you can… I don’t know, you said something about atomic explosions?”

“I was going to banish them to the sun. Something that only a few could survive.”

“Wait… banish them?”

“Yes. They would be sent to the sun, and they would be entwined into it. Their bodies would not be destroyed, they would be preserved within the sun, but all their technology would burn. And their minds would not be able to take the energy coursing through them. They would go insane, their weapons destroyed, their bodies lost and seperated within the depths of the sun.”

“Why haven’t you already done it then?”

“It takes a lot of preparation; I’ve been stalling, making the spell in my mind. Luna’s been doing it too.”

“Yes, but for the moon. If we did it to them at the same time they’d be torn apart between the two sides as well.”

“How long will it take?”

“More than two minutes. But I will not surrender.” Celestia said, staring at the ship.

“And I will not allow you to strike down my oldest friend either.” Luna said, staring suspiciously at Celestia.

“Alright… I have a plan. Twilight, how precise can you get your teleportation?”

“Um… I haven’t experimented with it enough to tell, but… I can teleport anywhere as long as there isn't something to disrupt magic, and that I know the spot, or at least have some link to the spot, like seeing it or hearing something from it.”

“Could you get me into the ship?”

“…No.. I don’t think so, not without a clear shot.”

“Princesses, are you sure you won’t surrender to the Daleks?”

“Only if you think there is no other hope."

"Alright then, you and Luna cut through the hull, then Twilight teleports me inside. I make the whole ship go screwy, then you get me out and banish the Daleks and their ship to the sun or the moon, or if you think you need to, both and kill them."

"There is one problem with your plan."

"Hmm?" The Doctor turned to look at Twilight, "And what's that?"

"How exactly are you going to get out?"

"Oh, there's a teleport inside the ship. All Dalek ships have one, now then... we don't have much time. Let's get going, shall we?"

Daleks in Equestria Part 3

Luna and Celestia pointed their horns at the ship and diverted any magic that wasn't being used for the banishment spell into the blast. It hit the saucer's shields and seemed like it would not make any head way, but then they shattered without warning and the beam burned into the hull of the saucer.

After it had been a few seconds the Doctor screamed "NOW!" and Twilight teleported the Doctor into the vehicle through the hole.

The Doctor didn't even check to see he was alright, he just pulled out his screwdriver and started screwing up every system he found, taking care to completely deactivate any weapons. "YOU WILL DESIST!" screamed a light blue Dalek. It began firing at the Doctor, who only managed to survive it because of a force field that came up out of nowhere. He looked around for the source but couldn't find it. He decided to accept the mysterious gift and continued wrecking the vehicle from the inside. "DESIST! DESIST!" the blue Dalek shot at him, and upon bouncing against the force field began firing it's laser at him point blank, the shield quivering from the charge.

The Doctor waved his screwdriver at the Dalek, using the ship's controls to deactivate the soldier's shield, then the Doctor deactivated his weapons. "Too easy!" The Doctor laughed, looking at the Dalek's waving but now useless gun arm. The Dalek looked at his gun arm and then redirected his stalk eye to the Doctor. "It... was too easy..." The blue Dalek tackled the mysterious force field, causing cracks to appear along it's length.

"I WILL SPLATTER YOU ACROSS THE WALLS WITH MY BODY!"

"eep!" The Doctor jumped to the side as the force field shattered, the Dalek's momentum flipping him over and sending him against the wall. "Teleport... Teleport... Teleport!" The Doctor found the correct controls and with a few quick movements with the Sonic the machinery activated, sending him back to the ground.

With a guest.

The blue Dalek had landed on his side in the road nearby. And it levitated itself to get a clear look at the Doctor. "... THE GROUND WORKS TOO."

"Oh dear..."

The five friends, the twelve guards, and the two Princesses looked up with some hope at the shaking space ship, Twilight and Rarity trying to pick up on teleportation magic, Celestia and Luna focusing on their banishment spells. Rainbow Dash was building up Pegasus magic in her wings to do an emergency Rain-boom, just in case. Applejack and Fluttershy stood around awkwardly, not knowing what they could do for the situation.

"It's ready!" Celestia shouted.

"Mine will be in another minute." Luna said, struggling with the magic in her horn.

Celestia looked at Luna and frowned. "You're almost three times faster at this spell than me."

"Sorry, I uh... Practiced a lot on the moon, I was still pretty angry... I wanted to be prepared for revenge."

Celestia frowned at the news but decided that it was best not to bring up the past at the moment. "Good, it's useful right now..."

"The Doctor is out!" Twilight shouted.

"How could you tell? I didn't sense anything!" Rarity asked.

"He's over there!" Twilight pointed down at the Doctor being chased by a blue trashcan with several things sticking out of it.

"What in tarnation is that?!" Applejack said, cringing when it collided with a street lamp in a desperate attempt to tackle the Doctor.

"A Dalek I presume." said Celestia grimly. "Sister? Are you ready? Your war-criminal boyfriend is safe."

"I'm ready." Luna said, apparently not hearing the last part.

The two sister's spells shown from their horns, gigantic circles of light, decorated with symbols and images of the sun and moon, spiraling together, Luna's blue, Celestia's yellow. "AS PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA I HAVE FOUND YOU GUILTY FOR GRIEVOUS CRIMES AGAINST EQUESTRIA, IT'S CITIZENS, AND IT'S PROPERTY. YOU SHALL BE BANISHED!" the two sisters shouted simultaneously.

"TO THE MOON!" Celestia shouted.

"TO THE SUN!" Luna shouted. And the spirals burst from the Princesses' horns and enveloped the ship, with every circle it faded and became yellow and blue energy. The lights spun around in a double helix, then shot in different directions, one notably heading upward toward the sun.

"Well, that leaves only one problem left." Twilight said, letting out a sigh of relief that it had gone off without a hitch.

"Two actually, and from the looks of things one is going to solve the other first." Celestia said smugly, looking down at the pathetic battle to the death that was unfolding on the street below. The Dalek would charge at the Doctor, while said target of attack would manage to get away just in time, looking like a fool while doing so. This continued for about a minute and a half with no sign of which would be the winner, when Luna sighed and flew down to help the Doctor.

"RELEASE ME! RELEASE ME! I WILL EXTERMINATE ALL OF YOU!"

"For some reason that doesn't make me feel inclined to free you." Celestia said, marching around and around the chained up Dalek. "Has anypony reported anything on the whereabouts of Pinkie Pie?"

"No your majesty. I'm afraid not, we have searched every dwelling in Ponyville and the surrounding area. We have soldiers and volunteers shifting though the forest for her as well."

"VENGEANCE! VENGEANCE!" with these words everyone in the room turned to look at the Dalek.

"Did you have anything to do with Pinkie's disappearance?!" Twilight said angrily to the war machine.

"YES!...no... BUT IT IS DIVINE JUSTICE! SKARO HAS FIXATED HIS BEAUTIFUL HATE UPON YOU ALL."

"Alright, everyone, we need to find Pinkie Pie, if for no reason other than to petrify this horrible creature as soon as possible." Celestia ordered. "Luna..."

"Yes sister?" Luna replied sweetly.

"Where is the Doctor?"

"He had to go check up on the Tardis." Fluttershy offered.

"That box! Luna, allow me to make you a deal, destroy the Doctor's machine and i'll pardon him of his past crimes, seeing as he will not have committed them, heck, he'd be a hero."

"Celestia, if we destroyed the Tardis, he would not have met me in the first place, and none of his 'war crimes' would have ever happened, but then we would have no reason to destroy the Tardis, it would be a paradox!"

"Well, we won't know until we try, will we?" Celestia said, getting up. "You, darlec, how can we destroy the Tardis?"

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WOULD HELP YOU? YOU WHO HAVE ATTEMPTED TO KILL MY COMRADES AND CAPTURED ME?"

"I thought you hated the Doctor."

"I DO, BUT FOR PERSONAL REASONS... REASONS THAT WILL BASH HIM INTO THE GROUND!" The Dalek waved his gun and plunger arms, attempting to kill whatever would come close enough.

"Fine, i'll have to do it myself... Luna. What are you doing? Luna, stop!" the princess of the night had charged out of the open window and into the sky.

"Ugh... Twilight, you and your friends make sure that the Dalek does not escape, Captain Doting will assist you." said armored mare gave a salute and turned toward the Dalek, smiling. "I will go after Luna, hopefully things will turn out."

"Yes Princess." Twilight gave a short bow, followed by Doting and Twilight's friends.

"Good." and Celestia launched herself off the balcony with such speed that Rainbow Dash herself let her jaw drop an inch.

All the ponies in the room then turned to Dalek Sar, hoping to take their newly appointed guard duty seriously. "Not so tough are you now?" Rainbow Dash said, taunting the Dalek, "What were you saying earlier? That you were going to exterminate us?"

"AFFIRMATIVE. THIS IS ONLY A SETBACK. THE OTHERS WILL... THIS IS UNFORTUNATE." the Dalek's eye stalk fell. "I AM BEING PUNISHED... no one... is coming for me..." it looked at the ponies who were now staring at him awkwardly. "How long til i am to be 'petrified'?"

Fluttershy couldn't take anymore. "You're all alone, aren't you?"

"Yes... the others have either, through some ridiculously small chance actually have been affected by your monarch's waste of energy been 'banished', or have undergone emergency temporal shift, leaving this timeline. And even if they can come back for me, they won't. I am being punished."

"What are you being punished for?" Fluttershy asked.

"... I added the 'TWO MINUTES' part." he mimicked Jeck's voice perfectly as he said it.

"Oh you poor thing... you're all alone, you were being forced to do something you didn't want to do, don't worry, we'll help you."

"Fluttershy was it? You are at this moment dangerously close to committing treason." Captain Doting said calmly. "This thing tried to kill us all less than an hour ago. Not only that, but from what I've heard from that strange stallion with the hourglass this thing has killed lots of other ponies somewhere else."

"But that's the saddest part! He didn't want to do any of it."

"...EXPLAIN, EXPLAIN! I AM DALEK, THE GREAT EXTERMINATOR, I VENTURED TO THIS UNIVERSE AND UNDERWENT GENETIC TRANSMOGRIFICATION FOR THE SOLE REASON TO EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR AND WHATEVER GOT IN OUR WAY! AND BEFORE THEN I WAS PROUD TO BE DALEK. PROUD TO PURIFY THE UNIVERSE OF ALL THAT IS NOT DALEK! I HAVE WITNESSED THE BURNING OF FORESTS OF INTELLIGENT TREES, THE DEATHS OF MILLIONS OF INNOCENTS CAN BE ATTRIBUTED TO MY IDEAS AND PLANS! I WAS PROMOTED TO A MEMBER OF THE CULT OF SKARO FOR MY ASTOUNDING CRUELTY! I-I-I PLANNED THE DEATHS OF SO so so... so many... why am I feeling like this?" The Dalek had tried to begin spinning, but he couldn't. "C-could one of you rotate my pedestal in circles?" Sar had been chained to a gigantic stone pedestal, not unlike the one of discord. When Celestia assembled the Elements again she would have them petrify him atop of his eternal resting place. 'to save the trouble of detaching him from the ground and placing him again' as Celestia stated.

"Would that make you feel better?"

"...Yes."

Fluttershy gave a glance to Captain Doting, who only shrugged. Fluttershy tried pushing on the pedestal but it didn't move. "Sorry..." she fluttered up to the Dalek. "Should i fly around in circles?"

"Yes." Fluttershy happily complied, flying around it for a few minutes.

Captain Doting itched her chin and looked up at the blue Dalek as it followed Fluttershy with his eye stalk. "What did it say about 'emergency temporal shift'?" she said, trying to mimic the Dalek's slightly metallic, slightly raspy, and mostly screaming voice. "About leaving the timeline?"

"YOU WILL NOT GET INFORMATION FROM ME!" the Dalek screamed, making Fluttershy drop a foot in fright before remembering her wings. "I WILL TELL YOU NOTHING! I HAVE ALREADY FAILED IN MY MISSION TO EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR... and i have lost my pride as a Dalek thanks to these accursed new emotions..." The Dalek began watching Fluttershy with his eye stalk again, as she had resumed her orbit around him. "and... and... GAH! I MAY BE A FAILURE, BUT I AM NO TRAITOR!" The Dalek shouted at Doting.

"Fluttershy, stop spinning around that thing. He doesn't deserve any gratification." Doting said, giving a dark smirk at the war machine.

The Dalek looked down sadly at the pegasus pony who had landed on the ground. Then he began spinning his 'head', the steel dome that had an attached eye stalk and large lights. He gave up after a few minutes, looking down at the ponies who had began strained conversation. But his eye stalk fell upon Fluttershy the most often. >That one has made me feel shame, i shall torture her the most< he thought to himself. But a stronger, deeper, more permanent and natural voice from within himself rose up in anger from within him. >You sicken me, she has shown you undeserved kindness and you blame her for your previous lack of conscience.< >I AM DALEK SAR! DO NOT LECTURE ME!< >I AM DALEK SAR! DO NOT INSULT YOUR OWN DWINDLING HONOR!< Then Sar realized that voices in his head might be a sign of insanity. "I am insane." Sar finally said out loud.

"It's too late to plead insanity, the trial ended when you threatened the kingdom." Doting said to the Dalek.

"I do not plead anything, I simply came to that realization when I heard the various voices within my mind."

Everypony stared at the Dalek, slightly more disturbed by him as he stared back.

"I'm bored. I wonder if he's gone to the future yet." Pinkie said. Climbing back out of the coat. She moved around on the tips of her hooves, something that would normally actually make sharper, louder sounds on the floor, but with Pinkie it made her steps utterly silent. She sneaked to the exit of the pool/wardrobe and had a quick look around, the Doctor was standing by the Tardis's module. Flipping levers, spinning spinny things, pressing buttons, and even a few notes on a cannibalized piano. Pinkie painfully resisted the urge to touch everything. She considered it in her mind, if they had gone into the future, or the past, she could go outside at any time. But what if the Doctor left, not knowing she was outside? But if she talked to him now he might make her leave or take her back to the right time without letting her arrange her own surprise party. Would she risk it? "Doctor!" Looks like she's risking it, 'thanks lack of self control', pinkie thought to herself.

'what are you talking about, we just resisted touching all of the very fun and colorful and noisy controls!' Pinkie's self control retorted back.

"Pinkie!? What are you doing here? Your friends were looking everywhere for you, you missed the Dalek's attempted invasion of that city up on the mountain."

"Oh... and they didn't invite me!"

"Your friends were looking for you."

"I was trying to be cool and intimidating, let's go save Canterlot!"

"Like i said, you missed the invasion."

"We are in a time machine!" Pinkie said expectantly. "How can we miss anything?"

"A time machine with no power and under a lot of stress from having to deal with two lifeforms instead of one familiar life form, considering, we could miss quite a bit, and even once the Tardis has enough strength to travel i'll still have to run calculations for a few centuries."

"A few CENTURIES?!" Pinkie said, her gaping jaw hitting the floor.

"Yep, don't worry, the Tardis will teleport into deep space, and then once she's completed the calculations she'll come right back and i'll be able to go anywhere, anywhen."

"Can i come with?"

The Doctor looked at her, he always picked up companions, but it almost never ended on a happy note. "Are you sure, my... companions... always end up wanting to leave after a while, i find that i'm a magnet for danger, and that danger is always deflected on those around me... and they're not always prepared for it."

Pinkie considered this for a few seconds. "You're right..." the Doctor felt a little relieved and a little saddened at the same time. "I'm not prepared! Just let me get a few things and i'll be right back!" The Doctor was about to say something about 'mortal danger', and 'horrific things no one should have to experience' but Pinkie had already gone out the door. She came back, to the Doctor's relief, less than two seconds later. "Hey... we aren't in Ponyville Park!"

Luna was flapping her wings as fast as she could, but she was already tired from her previous record speed acheived with the Doctor on her back, lifting the Tardis before that, and of course using that ridiculous amount of magic to banish the Daleks and their ship. And as such, her older sister caught up with her easily, and Luna found that she was without the speed to escape or the power to resist. "Luna! Where are you going!?"

"To stop you from destroying the Tardis!"

"Luna, please, if we destroy it then-"

"Then what?! We would be creating a paradox, the Doctor warned me about them... but if you're right, and all of the stuff he caused, what you attribute to him, what he did for me, all simply never happened... what then? Do you know how much I will lose Celestia?!"

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HAVE ALREADY LOST?!" Celestia shouted back, knocking Luna downward from the air. "Luna! He.. he took you from me... he took you, for 1000 years he took you, and while you were gone I watched as our subjects demonized you, and... Luna, please trust me, the world would be better off if the Doctor never came."

"Well, I'll just have to take your word for it Sister." And Luna let herself drop into the Everfree Forest, vanishing into thin air seconds before her impact with the canopy.

Daleks in Equestria Part 4

"Luna!" Celestia dived down toward the canopy, and then shot back up when her hooves disappeared past a certain area. "This is... strange... Luna, come back here!" Celestia shouted a final time. She looked nervously at the canopy, she reached a hoof in, and not feeling anything from it Celestia took a breath and dropped into the unknown. She found herself a few feet below, but from below Celestia could see the intricate cloaking spell that covered this entire section of the Everfree's canopy. Luna must have prepared it in case of emergencies.

Up ahead there was a breach in the sea of leaves, one that Celestia couldn't see from above the spell. "What are you hiding Luna?" She dropped through the hole and into the forest of monsters.

It became incredibly dark as Celestia landed in the space between trees. The branches that filled the air would catch her wings if she tried to fly any further, but even then Celestia was too big to walk easily among the woods. Celestia was tempted to light the forest using her magic, but it would only serve as a warning to Luna, if she was even still here.

Celestia marched of in one direction, but after getting tangled in some branches and not being able to look for any clues of the Princess of the Night in the darkness Celestia gave in and lit her horn.

Immediately the darkness was expelled, the entire area becoming as bright as day around her. Celestia clearly saw the path of broken branches and hoof prints that continued in a different direction than the one she came. "Gotcha." Celestia said, turning down the light on her horn and following the path of destruction made by her sister.

Once Celestia was a ways down the path, and out of hearing range a tree was surrounded by a deep blue aura, and it opened up, revealing the dark blue alicorn pony, who had squeezed herself into the hollow of the large tree. "Gotcha." Luna said, struggling her way out of the tree. "Darn. I guess I've gotten bigger over the last 1300 years."

Pinkie Pie was running through the castle of the night, trying to find an exit to get back to Ponyville. "Pinkie, come back, Princess Luna will come for us soon and she can take you back, it's quite a distance to Ponyville." The Doctor shouted after her.

"Which is why we should make it easier for her by waiting at the exit!"

"Pinkie, it's a maze down here, I think we should just wait for her, we'd never... find the..." The Doctor skidded to a halt next to the pink mare, and they both stared at the glowing electric 'EXIT' sign above a steel door with a push lock, not unlike one that could be found at any modern building back on Earth. The door swung open and a strange creature was on the other side.

It's face and body was split down the middle with a jagged uneven line, on the left side it was white, and on the right it was black. It had a head that was both dragon like and horse like at the same time, on the left side of its head was a black horn, on the right a white antler. Both of it's eyes a blood red circle surrounded by yellow. But what stood out the very most of all was it's eyebrows, it's goatee, and it's short mane, all of it a familiar shade of hot pink, and looked like it was bouncy cotton candy. The contrast of his colors fitted the contrast of his features; and eagle claw, a cloven hoof, a reptile's foot, a paw, and a dragon's tail, all attached to his head along his black and white serpentine body.

The Doctor and Pinkie Pie stared at the creature, who just smiled pleasantly and expectantly at them. After a few seconds the strange creature frowned, and looked at a watch that had appeared from nowhere onto his wrist. "I'm too early, aren't I?" It said in a voice that made Pinkie's ears stand up. The creature looked between the two of them with a kind of sad smile. "Oh, i am... There's always something!" the creature then shut the door, not offering an explanation. The door then fell over onto Pinkie and the Doctor, the Doctor shielded Pinkie and braced for an impact that never came, he and Pinkie were covered by blueberry jelly though. As Pinkie's tongue somehow grew in order to clean her entire face in a single slurp. The Doctor continued to stare at the 'exit' sign, that flipped around and said 'entrance' and then melted into molasses.

"What... just happened?"

"I don't know, he looked kinda like Discord though, but his head was different, and he was less kooky looking, the colors were wrong too... something familiar about his hair though..."

"It looked like yours... so you saw a creature like him before?"

"Yep, he was a Draconequus."

"A Draconequus?"

"Yep, they're like a mess of other creatures all pushed together."

"He turned a steel door into jelly." The Doctor said without emotion.

"That's nothing, he turned gravel paths into slip'n'slides, buffaloes into ballerinas, rain into chocolate milk, he just kinda turns things into other things."

"Where does the door lead to? Was it a portal, he said he was too early... what do you know about the other one?"

"Just that he's the spirit of Chaos, and tried to conquer Equestria a few months ago. Also, we share a lot of the same tastes."

"Uh..." The Doctor looked back at the pile of molasses as it climbed back onto the ceiling and hardened. A second later a sugar-cube butterfly broke out of it and flew away. "Well, I think that broke of just about every Physics law."

"Ha! Physics, good one." Pinkie walked away, leaving the Doctor to watch the sugar butterfly of CHAOS!

Celestia found her way to a small pond, she looked around, and not seeing any other trail, not even in the air, sighed, took a breath of air, and dived down into the water. She lit her horn and used her wings to propel her deeper into the murky water. She searched for a cave, a magical bubble, anything. As she moved her horn in every direction she caught a glimpse of some light sparkling off of something. She shot forward towards it, finding herself in a smooth cave, the bottom was covered in very silky sand, and sitting in the center of the cave was a large round gem. She moved forward to investigate it, but suddenly the ceiling jerked and Celestia was trapped inside what she recognized as some kind of gigantic mollusk or clam.

Celestia looked around in a panic, she fired a beam from her horn at the wall, but all it did was make the mollusk move and make the water around her uncomfortably hot. Celestia was scared now, she didn't have much magic left after the whole display with the banishment spell and using the 'sun beam' for three times longer than she should have to get into the Dalek ship. She could drown down here.

It was generally believed Alicorns were immortal, but rather it was more that they were incredibly powerful and aged incredibly slowly. Celestia could heal herself almost indefinitely, but only when she had enough magic. She could regenerate the magic quicker than unicorns, but that didn't mean it was impossible to kill her, just very difficult. Celestia could keep herself from drowning for about... two hours she guessed, doing the math and sensing how much magic remained inside her. But after that... she didn't know. Celestia swam to where her sun-beam hit and eyed the wall, it left a scorch mark, but didn't burn through at all. Celestia considered trying to bore through some more with the beam, but it would leave her with even less magic to preserve herself, and would boil the water, hurting her, and resulting in having to use even more magic to heal her own burns.

Celestia was beginning to lose hope. She wished she had learned how to teleport, it would have been so useful so often. So many times, every time she got herself trapped like this she promised herself she would ask Luna or Twilight to teach her, but she always forgot, always, every day for the last 32,000 years.

Celestia was just about to lose hope when the clam opened and a bright light almost blinded her. "SHOO-BE-DOO, SHOOSHOO-BE-DO!" resounded inside the cave mouth and reverberated inside Celestia's skull.

"No...no...No! NONONONONO!" Celestia screamed as the abominations against the Hippocampus and Equus families began their cheerful song about almost drowning.

Luna arrived at her cloaked Castle of Night, and went into the door, reactivating the defense spell around the fortress. She collapsed onto the ground, exhausted. She just wanted to fall asleep right there, but after remembering Celestia was after her she rose back to all fours. She fell back to the ground laughing once she realized that Celestia had probably fallen into the trap of the sea ponies by now. Then she realized what Celestia would do to her after the sea ponies let her go. Luna checked that the defense spells were still functional, and then made her way slowly to the Doctor.

She walked up and down the maze-like halls of her castle, sometimes not being able to recognize a particular one because of the dissolving wall paper, crumbling statues, and faded paintings. A millennium of disuse could do that to a home.

"Doctor! Where are you?!" Luna shouted in the Royal Canterlot voice.

She waited for a few seconds, and a voice echoed back "Luna?"

"Doctor!" Luna felt rejuvenation at the sound of the voice and ran toward it, now at a gallop.

"Luna, I'm over here, the most incredible thing just happened!" The Doctor seemed happier now too, now that the Daleks were no longer a threat. "There was a door, and a Draconequus, and then a butterfly, and- and... you look awful."

"Thanks."

"No, no i mean, what happened to you, you look like you went through a fight while i was gone, were there more Daleks?" The Doctor asked, his face growing determined and serious.

"No, no, i uh... flew through some trees... and using magic takes a lot out of you."

"You poor thing, come on Luna, rest up. Oh yeah, have you met Pinkie?"

"We... We met several times."

"Hello Princess!" Pinkie said happily, apparently unaware of the displeasure on the blue mare's face. "Me and the Doctor are trying to get to Ponyville so i can pack and go traveling with him!"

Luna raised an eyebrow at Pinkie, and then a betrayed stare at the Doctor. "W-well she asked, and I don't really know you yet... um... She just wants to go on a few trips, Luna, do you want to come with?"

"No. It would be better if I didn't."

"Are you sure, anywhere, anywhen, all of the Equestrian universe to explore?"

"I already explored two thirds of it."

"What about the other third?"

"It's on fire."

"Okay..." The Doctor said, looking between the two mares awkwardly. "However, we'll have to wait another few minutes for the Tardis to recharge enough, then she'll go off somewhere safe, then she'll get information and build up power for a few centuries, and then she'll come back, a few seconds for us will have passed, and the Tardis will be ready for anything."

"Well, that's good. Celestia's o her way here, piping mad and hoping to destroy the Tardis in an effort to keep you from ever going back in time."

The Doctor looked her in the eyes. "You could have said that earlier." He said calmly.

"You were worried about me." Luna said sweetly back. "Now, let's go back to the Tardis... It's been years since I've been inside."

"Well, if we get there quick enough we can get inside before she recharges."

"Alright, what are we waiting for?" Luna stood up and started galloping toward the Tardis. "Race you both there!" Pinkie squealed in joy and began hopping after her.

The Doctor shook his head, smiling and ran after them. Shouting "I have lot's of experience running to the Tardis! Not one of you could beat me, not in a million years!"

Sar was beginning to shiver inside his armor. He was a Dalek, a mutant that had been genetically enhanced for years, stripped of anything unnecessary, anything Davros thought was weak. He didn't strip Daleks of emotion, for unlike other mad scientists he understood that emotion was a key motivator, but he had created creatures with the only emotions he deemed necessary. 'Hate' and a desire for the Dalek's version of 'purity', then cloned millions of times, given a rank and number, he rose in rank for his cruelty and genius. But being in this world had simply brought more and more emotions, and with them a came new ways to feel pain, to feel shame, to feel... well, to feel anything but an urge to kill. But now he was sure that it had gone beyond having new emotions, he was insane.

He needed to spin, he needed it. NEEDED IT! But they wouldn't let him spin. All of them were torturing him. Except for Fluttershy, she had tried to relieve his pain, but the one in the armor stopped her! "Pony in armor. Tell me what you are called so that i may hate you properly. I ORDER IT."

"... Captain Doting." replied the velvet red pegasus.

'curse you Captain Doting! Curse you!' Sar thought while glaring at her.

"I am soo bored." Rainbow finally said, having flown to every corner in the room.

"Why don't you fly in some circles?" Sar said innocently.

"Don't do that." Doting said, eyeing the twitching Dalek.

"I WILL EXTERMINATE YOU CAPTAIN DOTING. I WILL EXTERMINATE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!" the Dalek didn't have time to react as Doting flied upward, catching the Dalek's eye stalk with her front hoof.

"Now listen Dalek, you leave my family out of it, if you want to kill me, be my guest, i'd kill you first. But Celestia was going to petrify you, and that'd be the end of it. That is, until you start saying things about my family. Come on, you open your armor, and i'll take off mine and we'll duke it out the right way."

Sar looked at the furious mare. "... You would win,"

"Of course I would."

"I'm twice the size of your head, and I have no limbs. In a battle of wits I would win under any circumstance, but physically, without my armor, you'd step on me and i'd die without hurting you." As Sar spoke his eye opened wider and wider, his actual eye, not the mechanical stalk. He saw opportunity to end his shame, in a battle no less. He opened the war machine and closed his eye to the blinding light, he had never seen unfiltered light before. Breathed unfiltered air. For the first time he noticed the slime that surrounded him, the gooey webs that surrounded him. The liquids of his birth he realized. He opened his eye and looked upon the ponies. He could see the horrified expression on their faces, except for Fluttershy. She had a look of concern. "Well?" Sar spoke into the unfiltered air for the first time, without the mechanical part of his voice it sounded like a raspy groan. "Step on me, I threatened your family."

Fluttershy pushed the guard to the side. "Hello..." Sar looked into Fluttershy's face.

"Hello."

"Have you ever felt the air before?"

"No."

"The sun on your face?"

"No."

"Another creature's touch?"

"No." Fluttershy reached down as her friends' eyes widened, staring at Fluttershy with horror that turned to gagging as she picked up the Dalek. She looked upon his soft pink flesh, his tendrils, his tiny lungs struggling with the unpurified air, and his clouded, golden eye with a slit-pupil. She hugged him. Rarity fainted.

She placed him on her back, and reached into the space where the Dalek had lived out it's life. She began pulling out the gooey webbing and pushing the liquid out of it. "Don't worry, i'll clean it out, tell me if you are about to slide off, i have... pretty good balance, but i don't want you to fall." Sar watched the pegasus clean out the space the best she could with her hooves. "Ugh... Twilight? Could you clean it out with magic? I can't reach the back."

"Uh... sure." Twilight hesitantly levitated the slime and birth liquids away from the machine.

Fluttershy carefully and gently placed the Dalek back inside. Fluttershy got lower so that she looked him in the eye. "Now, are you going to apologize to miss Doting?"

"What?"

"You were rude to her, and to her family, now apologize."

"NO!" The Dalek screamed. But Fluttershy wasn't phased in the slightest. She continued to stare at him. Sar tried to resist, to look away, but he was compelled to look, compelled to obey. The Stare made him shiver, or possibly it was the chilled air, but it was the same shiver that he got when Jeck demanded something of him. The Shiver of deference. Of recognizing authority. "I... I will apologize." The Dalek looked back at her, but the stare stopped, he begged it to come back in his mind, but it didn't. "Captain Doting, come before me!" Fluttershy gave him the stare for an instant and he immediately added an uncertain "Please?"

Doting fluttered up to the Dalek and tried to hide her disgust at the sight of him merely breathing. "Yes?"

"I apologize for threatening you and your family."

"I... you're forgiven I suppose." Doting said, not wanting to look at the pathetic creature.

Fluttershy smiled at him. Giving Sar an emotional response not completely dissimilar from the shiver of getting a command. "Good. Now, you're shivering, do you want to close again?"

"Yes."

"Alright." Fluttershy fluttered a foot backward and watched as the Dalek's armor enclosed him again.

Fluttershy came down gently on the ground and walked over to her friends, who were looking at her suspiciously. "That thing threatened to kill us all you know?" Rainbow Dash said to her.

"And he's very sorry for it, aren't you... what was your name?"

"I am Dalek Sar... and I apologize for trying to conquer you all."

"See, everyone deserves a little kindness." Fluttershy smiled at the blue pegasus and took into the air again.

"Fluttershy, where are you going?" Applejack followed her friend out as far as the balcony.

"I'm going to try and find Princess Celestia and ask her to spare Dalek Sar."

Applejack stared after the white-yellow pegasus as she flew away.

Everyone in the room turned to the chained up Dalek. He didn't even notice their stares. He simply watched Fluttershy fly away. "Goodbye Commander Fluttershy." he said, too quiet for his mic to pick it up.

Rarity came back to consciousness and looked around, but when her eyes fell upon the still-levitating puddle of Dalek goo she fainted again.

Celestia had finally risen from the water. She readied a sun-beam in her horn and pointed it down toward the pond, but she remembered that, technically, those things had saved her life. "Hear me sea ponies! I spare you this one time you abominations! Show yourselves to me or any of my subjects ever again and i'll boil all of you alive!"

"She just called upon the sea ponies!" One of them said, about a hundred more sae ponies rose from the pond and looked at Celestia. "Shoop-be-doo!" All of them began.

"ARRGHHHGHHH!!!" Celestia shot straight upward, breaking through the canopy, messing up her mane even further. "Curse you sea ponies! CURSE YOU!"

Celestia flew as far away as she could, as fast as she could. She rose her horn and tried to find 'moon' magic. But the entire area was blanketed with it. "Luna! Come out!" Celestia shouted over the distance.

Then Celestia noticed that the blanket lifted up about an inch in a different direction. Well, considering how far away it was, it might have been hundreds of feet tall.

"Gotcha."

Luna was dancing, jumping around in circles in a similar way to Twilight. She hugged the Tardis's brakes and looked over all the colorful, strange things that made up the controls. She flew around in circles along the ceiling. The Doctor watched and smiled. "Luna, when was the first day you met me?"

"No spoilers."

"Hmph."

"OOHH! Me next, me next, I want to fly around too!" Luna relented and swooped down to grab Pinkie Pie with her front hooves. The pink pony whooping in joy from every twist and turn.

The Doctor checked the module, which, along with the lights and life support, had began working. "Alright gang," The Doctor said, clapping. "Looks like the Tardis is ready to begin prep. Let's get outside and wait for her to disappear and appear, and from then on... no limits!"

"Hooray!" Pinkie said, rushing out the door.

The Doctor smiled and looked from the door to Luna. "Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"Heh... Doctor, there is going to be so much that you and I will do together. But... It was always me waiting and you arriving. I don't regret it, but that's the way it happened... the way it will be. Doctor, you... no. Don't worry... things will turn out fine."

"...Alright. I guess i'll be seeing you then."

"Yes." Luna followed the Doctor out and stood by his side as the beautiful sounds of the Tardis filled their ears. Luna smiled and let the sound fill her, it was the sound of fond memories, sad memories. Memories of laughter, and running, and anger, and banishment, and fear, and adventure, and of the Tardis and the Doctor. She opened her eyes, and blinked out the tears beginning to form in time to see the blue box fade away to nothing with a few last notes and beeps. At that moment Celestia shot through the ceiling into the floor, her mane wet, dirty, and filled with branches.

"SOO CLOSE!" Celestia screamed at the spot on the ground without a Tardis.

Daleks in Equestria; Conclusion

"Why!? I was so close! I could have avoided all of that, all of it! But no, I arrived seconds too late, again!"

Luna walked up to her messy sister, and began cleaning her off with her hooves, unable to muster up the magic needed to expel the filth from Celestia's coat and mane. Luna was about to say something like 'it was for the best', but the Doctor silently pulled her away from her blubbering sister, who had been blubbering something about sea ponies, the Doctor, and the moon.

"Luna, what is she going to do when the Tardis comes back?" the Doctor whispered to her.

"Well, by then the Tardis will have the shields restored, correct? You've used them to protect against my sister before."

"I'm not sure, they might not acknowledge Celestia as a threat yet." The Doctor placed his Sonic screwdriver back in his mouth and frowned. "I'll leave a message for it, and warn it about those shield-breaking beams."

At the mention of 'shields' the Doctor's mind was brought back to the what he was trying to say earlier. "Hey, a few minutes ago me and Pinkie saw a Draconequus, as she calls it, he was black, white, and had pink hair. He created a sugar cube butterfly." The Doctor pointed at the sugar insect that was fluttering around.

"Discord?!" Luna yelled, bringing Celestia back to her senses, looking around.

"No, no... well at least I don't think so, Pinkie said he looked different." The Doctor clarified.

"mmhmm... he seems kind of familiar for some reason..." Pinkie narrowed her eyes in concentration, but then shook her head and returned to her cheery self. "Oh well!" She started pronking around the chamber, stopping by the Princess and patting her back in an attempt to cheer her up. "Hey Doctor, when do you think the Tardis will come back?"

Celestia perked up and turned to the pink mare, then to Luna, and finally the Doctor. "It's coming back?"

"Well... yes, but it'll be invulnerable."

"We'll see." Celestia said evilly.

The Doctor looked around him and waited for the Tardis to reappear. And right on cue the hall was filled with the sounds of the Tardis. "Pinkie, this will be dangerous, I have no plan, I'll just be wandering, having fun, chasing things that perk my interest. You'd be along for the ride, a very dangerous ride you very may well die horribly on." He sighed, looking the Pink mare in the eyes. "So... are you sure you want to come with?"

"hmm... we can come back at any time?"

"Yes."

"Then yes!" The Doctor gave a smile and pointed his Sonic Screwdriver at the pink pony. The Tardis suddenly appeared around Pinkie, the door already open, the Doctor jumped in, waved at the two Alicorns, and shut the door before the Sunbeam shot inside.

"DOCTOR!" Celestia screamed. "I will not rest! Pray you never meet me after this day! It will be your last!"

"Good luck, treat me well." Luna shouted at the already disappearing box. After it had gone she looked at her sister with a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry Celestia, it was all in the past."

"I just thought... I thought I could save you."

"From what?" Luna laughed. "A thousand years banishment and a little fight, in exchange for the stars Celestia, the stars. Without the Doctor, the sky would be blank, can you even imagine a world without my work any more?"

"I can, it is a time when we were both little, both with our new Cutie Marks, playing in mother's castle." She cleared some tears from her eyes. "Luna, it's a happy memory, with an empty sky."

"I'm sure you've had happy ones under a shining sky."

"Yes... maybe you're right."

"It had to happen eventually."

Celestia and Luna were flying back to Canterlot when she found a tired Fluttershy, "Fluttershy, why are you so exhausted, it looks like you've been flying for hours." Celestia said, concerned with her little pony.

"I-I have a big request f-for you Princess... an-and just hear me out, I-I know what I'm talking about-"

Dalek Jeck stood with Fir in the air, protected by a makeshift cloaking field. "He... looks content."

"Perhaps Sar has chosen to be female as well." Fir reminded. The two Daleks looked down at the little cottage surrounded by a variety of animal homes. In the center of the area, with a bird's nest balanced on his head, was a light blue war machine with an oven mitt magically sealed to what used to be a gun arm. Following close behind, with her wings held out, balancing a family of birds on them, came Fluttershy.

"Commander Fluttershy, where shall we place this one?"

"I think the young spruce on the left side is ready for it's first nest."

"Then prepare yourselves, birds, for your bed shall be in a spruce!" He said, making fun of his old way of talking, one of the ways he kept himself from doing it honestly. Dalek Sar spun his head, letting the nest balance on his eyestalk. He flicked it, sending the bird house into a cranny of the tree. Fluttershy swung her wings forward gently, sending the birds into the air, she guided them into the nest, smiling.

"How did that feel Sar?"

"It felt... well, un-conquest like. I did enjoy looking for the birds more than helping them move."

"Well then, do you want to help me go look for more animals?"

"Yes, commander Fluttershy!" Fluttershy shook her head, smiling. She had given up on trying to stop him from calling her that the week before.

The two Daleks, invisible to the creatures below, made eye contact with their stalks. "Should we tell him we are waiting for him?"

"...No, let him live his life with the pony, and her descendants... after all, what is a century or a millenia to a Dalek?"

"He really does look content." Jeck smiled down at his subordinate. He turned around letting his suction cup come into contact with Fir's. They teleported away together.

"So, all of time and space, the future, the past, distant planets, secrets uncovered or unmade for centuries! And it's all new to me!" The Doctor spun around on one hoof, pressing several controls, and using his screwdriver to activate controls that he couldn't use with his hooves. "But, ladies first. Pinkie, where do you want to go?"

Pinkie furrowed her brow, and looked down in deep thought. "I want to see what Ponyville looked like... a century ago!"

The Doctor smiled, "Alright then, something simple, but with my luck it'll turn out to be an adventure or at the very least fun."

"And with my luck it'll be a party!" Pinkie said happily.

"Well then, destination; everything!"

Change in the Air Part 1

The Doctor looked at the door of the Tardis, then turned to have one last look at the monitor, exactly one hundred years ago, in the center of Ponyville. "Alright Pinkie Pie, we are about fifty meters from where Sugarcube Corner stands in your time, but one hundred years in the past, how about that?"

"Eee!" She squealed, letting out a dance she had been keeping inside herself. She rushed to the door of the Tardis, and begging the Doctor with her eyes to get first look.

"Fine." The Doctor sighed.

Pinkie Pie gave him hug. "Ponyville! Here I come!" Pinkie Pie burst out of the door, expecting to see people dressed in older costumes outside, but nothing. there was only fields of overgrown grass & a variety of herbs and wildflowers, the only plants that grew by themselves in Equestria. behind the Tardis stood the ever-growing fields of the Everfree. In the distance she could see one solitary sapling that had leaped ahead of the forest. She gave a few looks around, and her mane deflated slightly. "W-where is everything?"

The Doctor gave a quick look around, and narrowing his eyes, went back to the monitor. He checked and double checked it. "When was Ponyville founded?"

"...The Apple family, Applejack's great grandparents actually." Pinkie Pie tried to remember the exact date. "Um... 913... I think."

The Doctor rechecked, "Then we are about a decade too early to meet them. And even then it'll just be a few struggling families." The Doctor looked around. He Noted the tree. "I think that may be your library." He pointed to it.

Pinkie Pie looked at the tree with a kind of sad smile. "Huh, do you think I could bury something by it?"

"I don't know... do you think it would change the future a lot?"

"...No, I just think it'll be something to prove we were here."

"Pinkie Pie, first Ponyville citizen to walk the grounds of Ponyville." The Doctor said as if he were reading off of something. this made Pinkie's ears perk up, and her mane inflated a little bit more as well. "But, Ponyville isn't very suitable for living the good life yet, so why don't we try to find somewhere else? One of the older cities, ones that are already standing?" He looked at the monitor, and looked over a list. "Ooh, have you ever been to Cloudsdale?"

Pinkie's smile reached from end to end. "I have, it's great there! I tasted a rainbow!"

The Doctor's thoughts immediately went back to his Earth. "Hehehe, taste the Rainbow eh? Was it sweet?"

"Nope, super-spicy, and I put hot-sauce on cupcakes sometimes, so I know Spicy!"

The Doctor imagined Pinkie putting hot sauce on a cupcake and eating it, with comical flames shooting from her ears. He stopped laughing after he realized that could honestly happen in this universe. "I can't wait to try some, is it really made of clouds?"

"Yep!"

"I've been on Cloud cities before, varying from ones as soft as concrete to as hard as cotton candy."

"I've eaten cotton candy clouds before!" Pinkie threw in.

The Doctor simply laughed with her, setting the controls for Cloudsdale. Pinkie saw him getting ready, and pulled out a 'welcome to Ponyville' card she had made a while back. She grabbed an empty box with a latch-lock and put it inside. She ran off with it, and went up to the young tree, bending slightly under the weight of it's own branches. "Here you go, I hope that the feeling in this box spreads." She dug a skinny hole, somewhat near the tree, careful not to damage any of it's roots. She placed the box, then she picked it up, brushed it off, and kissed it, and placed it back at the bottom of the hole, about three feet below the roots. The Doctor watched as Pinkie Pie dug a hole for a half hour, being careful to not damage the tree in the slightest. She climbed up with a wide smile, glowing radiantly despite being covered in muck. She refilled the hole and pronked over to the Tardis. "Ready to go!" She announced. Then she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why didn't you help me?"

"It looked like it was private." The Doctor answered simply. "Something between you and one of your friends, you and your home."

Pinkie gave a deep, calm smile, that was unlike her. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Her smile became more enthusiastic. "So, are we heading to Cloudsdale or not?"

"It's already set, do you want to wash up first? I don't think it would be very polite of us to go to their pristine white city and hop around trailing mud everywhere."

"Sure, just lead me to the bath!"

Pinkie Pie and the Doctor looked over the gigantic white city, a mass of clouds that had been curled over dozens of times, with pillars supporting the shape of it. Water flowed out of carefully made trenches in the cloud, the sewage of the city, and the natural excess condensation of the clouds, pouring out. The sides and tops of every cloud had great pillars supporting it. This was where the weather of Equestria was planned, manufactured, and delivered. Cloudsdale was the product of thousands of Pegasi weather scientists, architects, and casually overseen by Princess Celestia. "Amazing..." The Doctor said, looking over the mass of white. "and we can walk on it?"

"Well-" Pinkie Pie began, then her pupils became pinpricks as the Doctor's hooves left the Tardis. She ran to the door, reaching out with both fore legs for the Doctor, but he was simply standing on it like it was normal ground. Like he was a pegasus. "Doctor!"

"What?"

"You are standing on a cloud!"

"So? There's a bunch of other ponies over there, doing the same thing."

"But you- You don't have wings!"

"So?" He looked at the Pegasi in the distance. "They aren't flapping their wings."

"It's magic, Pegasi are magical, all ponies are magical, Pegasus magic let's them control the weather, walk on clouds, make wind & make rainbows and all that other stuff."

The Doctor looked down, he slowly turned toward the Tardis's door, and jumped in, crashing on the other side of the Tardis's great hall. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"

"How were you walking out there?!"

"I don't know!" The Doctor yelled. A unicorn walked past the Tardis, taking a casual look inside it. She let out a breath, about to either faint or gasp at the much large inside of the box. "Pinkie, capture her!"

"Yes sir!" Pinkie grabbed the yellow unicorn, dragging her inside, shutting the door behind her.

The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and waved it over the unicorn. "Hmm... well what do you know, this thing has absolutely no way of sensing magic." He turned to the confused unicorn. "Now then, how were you walking out there?"

"A-a cloud walking spell, how is this bigger on the inside?"

"That's a secret, now, how many times can you do that spell?"

"I- I'm Sunflower Spark, I'm the owner of Sunflower Vacations. I... I do the spell on rich Earth Ponies or Unicorns, and they spend their vacations up here."

"... Can you do it on my friend here, and tell me if I already have it on me?"

"Will you explain how your box is... like this?"

"Fine, I'll try, now spells please."

Sunflower looked over the two of them, her horn glowing at Pinkie's feet. "There, your friend can cloud walk, and you... I don't know what you are... the closest thing... I don't know, you have an incredible magic within you, a magic I have never come into contact with, you aren't an Earth Pony."

"I'm not, exactly. I'm not sure what I am in this world."

"You... you have two hearts."

Pinkie's eyes widened. "Yes, I do."

"And your stomach, it has all that stuff before it, and I don't even know what that is-"

"Enough!" The Doctor yelled, both mares taking a step back. "I'm a Time Lord, if you must know, the... last of the Time Lords. All of that stuff is completely natural, probably that magic too. Can I walk on the clouds?"

"...Yes, you can." The unicorn said simply. "And can you explain your box... thing... now?"

"Okay, my Tardis, which is an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space, Is actually two things, a machine, a living thing, a gate to the Time Vortex, and a different dimension, okay four things, the place we are in now is a pocket universe anchored to the 'box', which is a time manipulator, running along the Time Vortex, circulating it inside itself. The door of the box is the meeting point between the box and the pocket dimension, so it really isn't bigger on the inside, it just has another dimension connected to it. The actual transfer is undetectable because the anchor is horizontal to the doors."

"What?"

"It's Time Lord stuff."

"..O-Okay..." Sunflower said simply.

"So, if we were to go walking around a Pegasus-only city, would we be paid attention to?"

"Well, the shops would try to attract your attention, if only because you're fresh customers, but otherwise the people are pretty familiar with my business, in fact I've copyrighted the spell, only I'm allowed to do it... also, you only have three days before I have to refresh the spell, this time was on the house, mostly because I am extremely scared of both of you, but the next time you'll have to pay like everypony else."

"Huh, well then, we might as well go have a look around then, come on Pinkie, let's have a look at a city in the sky!" He held the door open for the two mares, following them out. He pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and made it glow for a second, and the Tardis vanished. "It's a second out of sync, we don't want to be attracting any unneeded attention, now would we?"

Cloudsdale was magnificent. It was covered with Ancient Greek-styled buildings, with great angular or domed roofs, and occasionally a natural-styled bouncy roof of cloud, supported by pillars of polished and shined cloud. Great stairways led to one building or another, and often to or from midair, meant for Pegasi to have somewhere to land more than as a bridge from on place to another. There were Pegasi filling the air and walking on the white grounds of the city.

"Amazing," The Doctor said, coming to an edge and looking out into the sky and down to the ground far below.

"Hmm... there's quite a lot of air up here... I wonder, do they bring circulate extra oxygen through the city? Or could it be that Equestria simply has a bigger atmosphere?" The Doctor stuck out his tongue and waited for a few seconds. Pinkie stared at him, unsure of what the purpose of this was. "Well, I don't have a clue, what do you want to check out first?"

"Ooh! Well, when I was here before, it was to cheer on my friend Rainbow Dash, who was part of this really really really important flying contest, so I saw the flight stadium, and... she showed me where the weather is made! They make snowflakes there! And they make rainbows, and the clouds, and they have this big water collection machine which they use to spread rain into the clouds... It was pretty cool. But otherwise I didn't see much touristy stuff. Maybe Sunflower's business didn't work out so well in the future, Twilight found that spell she had in the public library,"

"Hmm... well, let's go check out the factory then! It'd be fun to see a place where they make the weather, I've been places where people control the weather, where people make clouds even, but I've never seen someone mix up a pot of rainbow and dump it in the sky before."

At the rain-production facility a maroon pegasus mare walked down the white halls of the management area. Occasionally giving a nod of recognition to a fellow coworker, and a friendly, trustworthy smile to anypony higher ranked than her that she passed. She came to an office that said 'Rainy Day' on the front. She gulped and clutched at the paperwork under her wing. She came in to face a gray-blue pegasus stallion with an unkempt soot-black mane. He was wearing a gray suit that purposefully showed his cutie mark, a gray cloud with rain pouring down from it, obscuring the sun. He had stated that it was that his special talent was bringing life-giving water to the earth, but his subordinates decided that it probably had more to do with his need to 'rain on their parades'. Whenever something was planned for after work, or if they were expecting to go home early, something would come up and make everypony stay later. There was also the strange occurrence of heavy rain whenever he went down to the ground.

All of this added up to the conclusion that no one liked, trusted, or felt comfortable around Rainy Day, and especially not the maroon mare. "Eh, what are you doing here? I thought I gave you a new production order an hour ago, do you need new work?" The stallion said with a gritty voice loaded with irritation for just about everything.

"Uh... no, but the weather pony work force wants to delay their rainfall by two days in Hoofington."

"What?!" Rainy Day got up and put his face up to the poor mare's. "Why?!"

"I-I don't know, but, here, go through it yourself!" She backed away from the smell of wet cigars, handing the blue stallion the paperwork. She backed out of the office and threw in, "I'll get that production order through fast as possible now, sir." And she galloped away, pumping her wings for a little extra speed. She came to the mare's bathroom and locked herself in a stall. She let out another sigh and green waves fire-like magic enveloped her, leaving behind a black pony with liquidy compound blue eyes, with a twisted, holey horn and insect-like wings.

The Changeling looked at herself in the mirror and let out yet another sigh. "Mission accomplished." She said to herself proudly.

Pinkie and the Doctor were wearing white industrial suits, apparently they were still just as careful a hundred years ago. "And here is where we poor highly condensed water into the machines, then high-density clouds are expelled and rise up to the ceiling on the warm air coming from our heated floors, on the ceiling they are collected and pumped to various transportation centers, where Pegasi fill out our orders and move them all over Equestria, and even foreign nations." The Tour Guide explained to his group, who for the most part, weren't paying much attention. Actually, there was only one pony who was paying attention, and the others were all fixated on him.

The Doctor raised his hoof as if he was still in elementary school, which might not have been the wrong thing to do, since they were on the tour with a field trip group. "How exactly do you turn the water into clouds, do you boil it, are clouds just steam? Or is there a special process for clouds Pegasi can walk on?" At every stop the Doctor asked questions of the tour guide, often going into specifics the intern didn't understand and couldn't answer. The school children were staring at the two Earth Ponies, and it was actually likely that they had never seen ponies without wings before.

The Doctor's attention was drawn away though, by a maroon pegasus flying past, not caring when the workers making the clouds grumbled toward her.

She flew by, her eyes catching the Doctor's, and his questioning look sent a shiver down her spine. The Doctor's face darkened as he saw the fear in her face. "Now what's up with her?" He turned to his Earth Pony friend, "Pinkie, I think I smell trouble."

"Ooh, Goody! This tour was getting boring anyway!" Pinkie pronked off after the pegasus, noticing for the first time what might have been a signal from her Pinkie sense. "And... there's something wrong with her... I can't place it." Pinkie eyes widened as she realized what it meant. "Doctor! We do have trouble!"

SEASON 2 SPOILERS AHEAD

"What exactly is a changeling?" The Doctor asked as the galloped across the puffy streets.

"Okay, a few months ago we went to a wedding for Twilight's brother, and it was a great party, but right before it we found out that a changeling was trying to marry him, and had disguised herself as his bride, and I have this weird sixth sense that lets me tell the future, but for some reason I couldn't tell that the bride was a fake- but my Pinkie Sense was working, my heart was beating a little faster whenever I got close to a changeling!"

"So that mare was a changeling, and they do what exactly?"

"They kidnap ponies, turn into them, and then live out their lives for them, and they eat the love that the other ponies give the one they are pretending to be."

"Your kidding."

"I know it sound weird but-"

"No, no... it's just... for me, that's normal. Happens all the time actually, what you just told me is the most familiar thing I've encountered in this world."

"What about the Daleks? You said you knew them!"

"They were acting weird. This is normal!"

"But she was afraid of us."

"I'm the Doctor, of course-" The Doctor glanced at Pinkie face. "No... your right, I don't exactly have a reputation in this world yet... or do I?"

The maroon mare stopped behind a pillar of cloud. The two Earth Ponies, who were somehow walking on the clouds, were still following her, even after she was sure she had gotten completely out of their sights. Her head was spinning with various thoughts. Were they changeling hunters? Changelings themselves? Why were they chasing her? How much did they know? She hesitantly flew into a concealed tunnel, the cloud was just thick enough that it wasn't transparent, but not dense enough that a pegasus, or a changeling, couldn't fly through. She inched into the tunnel, careful not to leave any obvious dent in the wall, and entered the expansive maze of sewers inside the city in the sky. She flew down it skillfully, having memorized it years ago, and came to a large cavern in the clouds. The entire room was covered by an eery green glow by the gelatinous slime stuck to the walls and ceiling, serving as lighting, a source of energy, food, and a prison for their many victims. Inside the slime were hundreds of cocoons, siphoning off pleasant dreams, and keeping their prisoners alive and well.

She stopped by a maroon mare, well, a filly actually, trapped in her own cocoon. She had spent the last six years inside there, the changeling looked over her disguised body with a sad smile. Sunset was a beautiful mare, and the Changeling, who had come to calling herself Sunset II from her lack of a given name, wondered if Sunset I would appreciate the form II had chosen to imagine for an older her. Sunset II would live out I's life for her, get married, have full-pony children even, and eventually they would retire her, and Sunset II would play dead after maybe another sixty years, and she would be buried, (She had to remember that, it would be hard for her fellow changelings to free her from being burned to ashes than from being trapped in a coffin). Then Sunset I would be released when it was decided that the Changelings no longer had use for Cloudsdale or Equestria, and she would despair from knowing her life had been lived out by some hideous creature.

Sunset II looked down at her own legs, she was shaking, why was that? Oh yes, she was being chased. She galloped over to the center of the room, where the feminine perfect black body of their beautiful queen lay. Next to her side was a baby Changeling, one of the many their queen had over the centuries. She looked down at him and smiled, pulling some goo from the wall and wrapping him in it, allowing him to eat his way out of the warm blanket.

"M-My Queen?"

Chrysalis raised her green-blue dragon-like eyes to the Pegasus mare in front of her. "Yes my little one?"

"I was being chased, by two Earth Ponies, they saw me while I was disguised, and for some reason they started chasing after me!"

"Why would they chase after you?" The queen moved her strong, full legs up to her face and moved some of her vibrant sapphire hair out of her eyes. She frowned, showing a fang. "Do they know what we are, or why we are here?"

"I-I don't know my Queen, I got out of their sight many times, but they continued tracking me somehow. But neither are unicorns."

"Hmm... lure them here. I'll deal with them myself. She got up to her full height, even taller than Celestia, with a much fuller and thicker build. Her insect-like wings rose up behind her, and her eyes glowed with a mix of green and blue. "They'll regret scaring one of my children, or stepping hoof into my city!"

"Doctor! She's through this wall!"

"Alright, we need to find a way around it, and..." He stopped talking as he watched Pinkie blow on it, letting it quiver. "It's just cloud, but if we can stand on it it has to be strong enough to hold a pony in place, how is this cloud any different?"

Pinkie reached a hoof in and started waving it around, disturbing the wall and leaving an ugly hole. "It's just thin, come on!"

"Fine, but let me go first, it might be dangerous."

The Doctor and Pinkie entered the sewers of Cloudsdale.

Change in the Air Part 2

A little Extra; when I write I have a very loose idea of what I want to do, I make up one or two scenes, and then try writing them out and connecting them, and i find that (at least for me) knowing how I want something to end only makes it harder for me to be motivated to write about it. It also means that I'm bad at planning things out when I write (my other fic, PInkie, Paradox, Discord, was originally going to be part of this story, but i wrote him out of the story) The title of this segment 'A Change in the Air' was made knowing I wanted to write about Changelings, and as I was writing they ended up in Cloudsdale, it wasn't intentional, but I ended up causing my random title to make sense, now then, on with the story!

Sunset was uncloaked now, in her full Changeling self. Her eyes were a glowing blue, but she used her own magic to stop the light from attracting attention, her skin was a black shell, protruding from her head was a curved featureless black horn. On her back was her especially hard blue shell and her own large insect wings. Her tail and mane were stiff grey hairs, connected by a darker harder skin. One of the hardest parts of being a Changeling was that she had a pony's sense of beauty, but was trapped in a body that her own eyes deemed horrifying. Perhaps that was why they could transform. So they didn't have to look like themselves. Often Sunset wondered if the Queen modified her appearance, she still looked like a Changeling, but her eyes became more mysterious than creepy, and she had actual hair instead of whatever Sunset had for a mane and tail. Chrysalis had the same shell on her back, and even an extra on her belly, probably to protect the growing children usually inside, and her 'crown' was a natural part of her head, but in the end she was still beautiful, even to a pony.

She was waiting patiently for the two Earth Ponies, they were in the sewers now, and she had been luring them steadily closer to the Queen's room. As soon as she could hear them splashing in the collected filth and rain water of the city, she would fly silently closer to the Queen's room. As far as she could tell, only one of them had any enchantments applied. So one of them was an actual Earth Pony, with a spell for Cloud-walking.

Sunset played with the idea that the male might be a mutilated pegasus, and though the though made her shiver, she had no other explanation for an Earth Pony with natural pegasus magic. The two ponies were close enough now that she heard the splashing of their movement. She dropped from the ceiling and fluttered into the Queen's chamber. "My Queen, they're coming! Are you sure about this?"

"I'm sure, we'll get the answers we want, and if not, we can silence them." The Queen got up and trotted to the entrance. She let her horn glow. "This- this is... agh!" The Queen backed down in pain, her horn glowing even more. "Graahhh!!! heh, hehehehe... what are you!?" The Queen let out a small chuckle, which was her equivalent to a maniacal laugh. "Ooh, I do love challenges! Your mind, your love, your hate, never before have I seen anything similar in any pony before!" She let out another gasp of pain, the Changelings in the room winced at their beloved mother's shrieks. "WHAT ARE YOU DOCTOR!?"

Pinkie and the Doctor were galloping through the sewers, following the directions of Pinkie's pattering heart. After they came a certain distance into the sewer tunnels they heard a woman's shriek of pain. "Hurry!" The Doctor shouted, beginning to gasp from running. Pinkie Pie was simply following the slightest difference in her heart rate, going through the maze of solidified clouds, not caring about the murky water splashing against her.

They came out into a great hall, hundreds of feet tall. And every bit of it, except the many doors and entrances on every level, was covered in a green slime. In the center of the room was a great black Alicorn with long blue hair. She had a long curved horn that matched her crescent ears. On the back of her head was a small black and blue crown. And covering her stomach and back was an emerald-green shell, similar to a beetle's. She had great transparent wings, almost twice as long across as she was tall. Pinkie gaped at her, but the Doctor noticed two things. One was that there were literally hundreds of ponies sleeping in the slime. The second was that there were also about forty black unicorns with alien eyes and insect shells/wings. "So, you're all Changelings, and by looking at your walls you've been in the pony-napping business for quite a while, going by your numbers and the obvious design of the room you've been here quite a while and this is an important base. Now, two things to make sure of first; 1) Do you know who I am?"

The giant mare in the center of the room let out another scream, which turned to loud laughter, that eventually evolved into a gleeful giggle. "Oh, I know who you are Doctor... and no, I'm not an GRAAGHH!--! A-an alien... Not in your sense of the word at least."

"How do you know me, and what's happening, why are you in pain?"

"I know you because I can taste what you are! So much is in your mind Doctor, so so much, and I have never before met a mind like this!"

"Wait, telepathy, stop! You're only going to hurt yourself, you'll never get by my psychic barrier, even if I tried to let you, so simply stop."

"No! Doctor, I trust your friend has told you of our frightful nature." She smiled, then opened her mouth in a long wail of pain, she scrambled to her hooves and banged her curved horn against the floor. "Sooooooo m-much, b-but..." Chrysalis collapsed again, and every Changeling in the room rushed to her side. Even the smallest one. "But... Doctor, why have you come here?"

"I... what are you doing here, who are these ponies?"

"We are currently keeping our food supply safe."

The Doctor turned around to the maroon mare they had followed here. "What supply?"

"W-we feed on the love of ponies. When love is directed at us, or simply around in large amounts we can consume it." Chrysalis answered, getting back to her hooves painfully. "Seize them!" Sunset jumped at the Doctor, uncloaking and letting a burst of green magic fire from her horn at the Doctor and Pinkie's hooves. It sealed them to the ground with green slime. Chrysalis let out a long relieved sigh. "Perhaps that was too long spent in your head... but I now can appreciate the complexity of your brain Doctor." She shook her head. "Your hatred is so strong and so deep within yourself. Truly, I have not seen a more natural villain in all of my years." She opened her eyes, three pupils were present. The outer circle was yellow turning blue, with a large green segment between, the second circle was the same blue of her hair, and inside the blue pupil was a black reptilian Dragon's pupil. Her stare captivated the two of them. "But that is almost nothing compared to the amount of love deep inside yourself." She bowed her head to him, breathed in deeply through her nose, and lifted her head, letting out the breath through her mouth. "I feel more powerful already!" She said. "But... you have such strange loves... or perhaps this world and this body is simply that different." She was enveloped in green flame, and in her place stood something Pinkie had never seen before. It was about as tall as an Alicorn, was wearing strange clothes, it had a frizzy blond mane, peach-ish colored skin, and claws like the Minotaur or Spike, but without the actual talons. The Doctor's eyes widened. "River..." He said slowly. Flame engulfed River Song, and in her place was a centurion, followed quickly by a woman with long red hair. "Ponds..." A tear fell from the Doctor's face. Another flame and it was a different red-headed woman. "Donna.." The Doctor choked out, his eyes becoming bleary. Another flame appeared, a woman with dark skin and darker hair "M-martha... stop... please stop!" The Doctor was breathing hard now. Another wave of flame and one man appeared, then another, with the last wave of flame the Doctor let his head hang. A blond woman stared at him, a smirk on her face.

"Wow Doctor, this... I haven't felt love like this for so many years, and for so many people..." She said in a thick Londoner accent. "I thank you Doctor, the amount of love you sent in the last minute is enough to feed the entire race for almost a week." She turned back into the Changeling Queen, and spoke with her normal voice. "Doctor, know that your inconvenience will help us for so long. And that we have not forgotten you." She said, as the Changelings dragged Pinkie and the Doctor to a wall. Pinkie began shouting and trying to headbutt or bite the oncoming Changelings. The Doctor let them push him back. "Sweet dreams."

"2." The Doctor stated as the Changelings pushed him into the slime.

"Doctor, help!" Pinkie shouted.

"What?" Chrysalis asked.

"2." The Doctor said again. "What have you done to these ponies?"

"We are keeping them asleep and alive, siphoning off the love that emanates from their pleasant dreams." She looked at the struggling mare and the depressed alien. "The same thing I'm about to do to you."

"You stole their lives." The Doctor shouted, making everyone in the room stop moving. "That mare... the one we followed in, which one of you were her?" Sunset backed away slightly, but a nod from the queen made her hang her head in shame, and she transformed back into the maroon pegasus. "Now then. I'll ask you just once, how long have you been living that girl's life?" The Doctor stared at the cocooned maroon pegasus filly.

"s-six years..."

"And him?" The Doctor jerked his head upward at a stallion in a similar cocoon.

Another Changeling from the crowd said quietly "twenty eight."

"Or her?"

"One hundred seven." The Changeling who was nearby said to him coldly. "I already stopped using that disguise for actual work after my 'funeral' as her, but we can't exactly free her before we're done, can we?"

"You stole her entire life from her..." The Doctor said. "That is something I cannot stand for. It's an injustice against any species. That's strike one. The second strike is that you've been doing this for years, and the third..." The Doctor glared at the Queen. "The third is that you used Rose's voice."

Queen Chrysalis fell backwards, gripping at her heart. "Stop!" She shouted. But she fell over, writhing in pain. "Stop it!"

Pinkie looked at the Doctor with frightened eyes. "What are you doing to her?"

"I'm poisoning her food. She's feeding on my love, but i'm lumping in a whole bunch of hatred along with it."

"Stop it, you're killing her!" Pinkie said, shocked. At this remark one of the Changelings looked at him with eyes full of fear.

"Stop it!" It shouted, bringing a hoof against his face. But Chrysalis continued to writhe. "Stop it please!"

One of the other changelings fell over, then another. All of them were beginning to look sickly. "Doctor stop!" Pinkie Pie screamed. All of the other Changelings fell back with relief, having the poisoning of their systems being drawn away. "What's wrong with you?!" She yelled at him.

"I... Sorry, but.. Rose..." He let his head hang again, and now that the Changelings near him weren't pressed against him he could grab his screwdriver. "I'm sorry, but I won't stand for this." He pressed down with his jaw and the gel shivered, then melted near their hooves. The entire room's slime shivered, and then froze. Pinkie was about to say something but the Doctor cut her off. "Don't worry, everyone will live, I've just made it more brittle, this stuff is magic given physical form, so i can manipulate it like any ordinary goop and identify the psychic particles that they've been feeding off of. If love is nectar, than this stuff is the honey. They can still extract love from it, but if they do, it'll suck it all up. All of it, and that'll free the ponies. And all of them will be too busy recovering from the hatred, so there'll be nothing stopping all of the Pegasi from escaping!" The Doctor said happily and quickly. He grimaced and pulled at his hooves, the frozen slime broke and he quickly freed his other hooves. He did the same for Pinkie. "Everypony lives."

Pinkie looked skeptically at the Doctor. "You were trying to kill them." She stated.

"I was trying to kill her, and yes, it was wrong but... look at what they're doing Pinkie!"

Pinkie put a hoof up to his face, and narrowed her eyes at his. "No killing. Got it? Never." She brought her face even closer. "I will not travel with a meanie- no. Not grumpy, not mean, that's almost nothing. I will not travel with somepony who talks honestly about killing somepony else!"

"Y-yes... You're right... no more killing, not unless absolutely necessary."

"Promise me."

"I promise, I'll try not to kill anyone."

"Pinkie Promise."

"What?"

Pinkie Pie took in a deep breath. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." She narrowed her eyes even more. "Say it."

"um... cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye?"

"Good. Now you can't kill anypony. Got it? Forever." She backed away, and was suddenly behind him. "FOREVER."

"Alright... now then, let's get out of here."

"What about them?" Pinkie looked uncertainly at the Changelings covering the floor.

"I took the hatred out of the system, and filled it with as much love as I could to shock their systems. They'll all be fine, don't worry. Like I said, this time, everybody lives."

"Not everyone." The two ponies turned around to Chrysalis. "You ruined everything Doctor. Do you want to know out horrible plot?! Our evil scheme? We were manipulating the royal weather committee into giving Equestria good weather at certain times to increase the amount of overall love in the country. These ponies here? We haven't hurt them once in our lives. They were unluckies, or ponies we needed. We could have put Changelings everywhere, filled this room from head to toe, but we only did what was necessary. And now you've ruined it. I have subjects all over Equestria riding on the plans made here! Relying on my limited influence on the weather. Doctor. You've doomed us, unless you reverse the freezing of the gel this instant I will kill you and your friend."

The Doctor looked at the Changeling. He couldn't outrun her, he couldn't outfight her, she had horns, more muscles, fangs, and who knows what else. But he could do one thing. He held up the Sonic Screwdriver. "You have my sympathy, but these people have lost enough of their lives already." He pressed it and the Tardis appeared between him and Pinkie and the Changeling Queen. She fired a burst burning green flame at the two of them, but the Tardis absorbed it. She looked at the force field with wonder, and fired another burst. It dispelled the cloud under the two ponies and the Tardis instantly. The Doctor and Pinkie looked at each other for a brief second before both falling, strangely, the Tardis stayed where it was. The Doctor had let go of the Sonic Screwdriver while they were falling, and looked he looked up hopelessly at the black Changeling Queen.

She didn't smile. She had nothing to be happy about. It is common belief in Equestria that no species, at it's heart, wanted to kill, but the ability to do so without remorse is what separated the predators from the others. Or perhaps in this case, Changeling. She watched the two of them fall and then turned away, walking towards a patch of frozen slime. Inside was her newest child. She loved him so much. And she would never tell who was the Changeling who sucked out the love from the rock, bringing down their entire operations. She smiled warmly at her youngest son as he bit into the hard slime, and sucked just tiny amount of love from the rock.

Change in the Air Part 3

Pinkie and the Doctor fell through the air, toward the ground, and certain death, below. The Doctor desperately reached for his screwdriver, but couldn't reach. Pinkie comically waved her legs like wings, then scrambled, then even attempted to jump. She began propelling herself toward one of the other clouds. The Doctor smiled at this, Pinkie was brighter than she seemed. He moved himself in the path of a smaller cloud, it would catch him, then he would get back to the sky somehow, get into the Tardis, then go back in time and save Pinkie Pie. He smiled at he expected a soft landing in the cloud, but he came to a hard impact. The last thing he heard was his own skull shattering.

Pinkie looked in horror at the Doctor and carefully avoided the nearby cloud. She looked uneasily at the Doctor, spiraling away from the cloud, and then uneasily back at the ground. He was right, she wasn't prepared for this level of danger. She put her hoofs together and started muttering a prayer, when a bright light appeared behind her. She turned her head and let out a gasp as she saw the silhouette of a Pegasus. She said a quick 'thankyou' to God and started calling out to the Pegasus, motioning to where the Doctor had been a few seconds ago. The Pegasus dived downward and took her up in his hooves. She quickly looked around for the Doctor, and felt a little pain in her chest when she couldn't see him. She eventually turned her eyes to her rescuer, and her pupils became 80% smaller at the sight of him.

"Impressive eh?" The Doctor said casually. "Didn't let it take hold completely, of course, just enough for the wings, which I might say, are incredible."

"How?" Pinkie shouted.

"Regeneration, keeps us Timelords from dying from things as simple as having a time vortex in our skulls or getting blown to bits or starving. We feel our bodies losing life force and then the time energy overwhelms us, creating a new body. This time however, I only let it regenerate enough to heal my noggin and give me some wings."

"So you're a pegasus now?"

"Well, I'm a Time Lord, but I'm also a winged pony right now, so... yeah. I'm the Doctor, a Pegasus. Look our World! The Doctor... Can fly!"

Chrysalis revitalized her children with bits of love she had gathered from the Doctor. They struggled to their hooves and looked at the gigantic room with despair. All of the cocoons had been broken open, partially shattered. And in the center of the room were Pegasi of all ages, more than a hundred of them. They were corralled by about thirty Changelings, and the Queen had sent the others in search of the dozens of Pegasi that had escaped. She cradled her youngest son in her arms, who had absorbed about a millenia of condensed love. He was shivering from power, and the green gel was dripping from his horn, unable to release it or process it properly. She looked at her unfortunate child. He would have to be taught how to release it properly as soon as possible, she nuzzled her face against his soft belly and frowned. Her eyes darted to the hole next to the blue box. Splattering against the ground was too good for him. it was unfortunate that his partner had to die as well, but Chrysalis had a feeling she wouldn't regret killing them both.

Sunset II tried to avoid looking Sunset in the eye, the poor filly was quiet, and was sitting on her haunches, shivering from fear. Sunset II looked at the filly and choked. She walked over to the Queen and bowed her head.

"My dear, what is it, we need to make sure that no more of them escape."

"I'm sorry mother- uh, my Queen, but... I'm so sorry, I brought them here. They followed me."

"And I said for you to lead them here, it was my mistake, not yours." She put her face against Sunset's and then lifted it again. "Now, go on." Sunset moved back to her place and looked at the original Sunset. She looked toward another pony when Sunset I looked up.

The Doctor lifted Pinkie up with almost no trouble, after all, right now he was running on regeneration energy. He powered all the way back up to Cloudsdale with the Earth Pony in tow and even managed to find the hole they had fallen from. "Alright Pinkie, I'm going to swing you into the Tardis's open doors, then you'll signal me if there's nothing inside it. Got it?"

"Okie Dokie Lokie!" The Doctor turned in mid-air and sent the Earth Pony through the hole and into the Tardis. She quickly moved out of sight from the door and looked over the gigantic room, there were no Changelings or any ponies. She moved her way to each of the most nearby halls. She took a look inside each and made her way back. "Clear" she whispered past the door. The Doctor used his new Pegasus magic to pass through the clouds harmlessly and landed back inside the Tardis. He shut the doors behind him and galloped to the controls. "This'll be hard without a Sonic Screwdriver, but I think I can manage." He moved around the module, flipping switches, turning knobs, pulling levers, playing a short song on a mini piano, and squeezing a rubber duck with some kind of apparatus sticking out of it.

Soon the Tardis began making it's unique noise.

Chrysalis heard the slam of the door and marched over to the blue box to investigate. She probed it with her magic and found a mind inside it. A very simple, but extremely powerful and intelligent mind. She probed it further and found a deep love for the Doctor, and a understanding of time that shattered anything Chrysalis had ever imagined about the passage of time. And then she saw it. Herself, but she looked so skinny, so frail, her horn had bits and pieces apparently vanish from itself. Her hair was a mess as well, with more spots that had faded out of existence. And she heard her own voice. She could pull out a few words. 'Shining Armor' 'love' 'made me stronger than Celestia' She pulled her mind from the Tardis's and looked questioningly at the box. Out of all of time and space, why did it choose those future moments to show Chrysalis? But she couldn't look into it more because of the whooshing noise of the Tardis. She sent several more blasts at the box, but they were deflected like the others. And then before her eyes the blue box disappeared.

"Now then... Pinkie, I got a good look at them, most of the ponies are still captured, and the others are likely to be rounded up before escaping... So, I need a very serious answer."

"Okay..." She said hesitantly.

"What would the ponies do, knowing that there are Changelings in their midst?"

"Um... well, I'd throw a party for them, but most others... I guess they'd drive them out somehow."

"Would they try to kill any of them?"

"No! Well, this is a long time ago, but... no. I don't think the ponies in Cloudsdale would try to hurt them, just kick em' out."

"In that case, we should report them to the proper authorities, and let them deal with it." The Doctor went over to the monitor and carefully pressed several buttons with his hoof. He then marched to the doors and stepped out, he moved some bushes to the side, and found his Sonic Screwdriver in a pushed-up pile of dirt. He spit on it, and wiped it off on a nearby leaf. He then put it back in his mouth, activating the Tardis. He walked back and shook his wings. "So... who would be the proper authorities?"

"Um... the Princess?"

"No! I mean uh... no, that won't work, she doesn't like me much."

"Then we should go straight to the guard?"

"Well, I'm assuming that since Celestia hates me she'd have my face known to her soldiers as a criminal, so I'd like to keep the royalty out of this, if possible."

"Then that leaves whatever voluntary police is currently in Cloudsdale."

"Do you think part-time voluntary police officers could handle Changelings?"

"No... but, they could contact the Royal Guard for you! Or I could do it, she doesn't know who I am yet!"

"Exactly, if anything it's more important that she doesn't see you, we can't have you making a paradox."

Pinkie looked straight ahead at you. "We wouldn't want that, now would we?" She winked, then turned back to the Doctor. "So what should we do?"

"hmm... who do we know in this town that could hold his own against Changelings, and that we could trust?"

"Doctor. Besides the Changelings and children, we literally talked to three ponies since we got here."

"There's what?!" Sunflower screamed.

"Shh! Don't tell anypony... actually, that was the whole point of talking to her, wasn't it?"

"No, we need your help rescuing the other ponies and getting the Changelings out of Cloudsdale."

"Why me?!"

"Because you're the only unicorn for miles, and because we haven't built any kind of relationship in this town with anyone who could help besides you."

"No, I'm not getting involved, I'd prefer to be alive."

"They don't kill you, they just wrap you in slime and eat your dreams!" Pinkie said cheerily.

Sunflower stared at the pink pony with an unbelieving gape. "That's almost worse!" The Doctor whipped out his wings and covered the two other mare's with them. "What are you doing-"

"Shut it! that pony over there, he was one of the stallions I saw captured. So either he escaped and got half way over the city in five minutes, or he's a Changeling."

"So why are you making yourself bigger?" Sunflower asked, eyeing the Doctor's wings. Her eyes widened when she realized what exactly she was staring at. "You... you were an Earth Pony before..."

"I... hit my head."

"And grew wings?!"

"I know, aren't they great?" He smiled as he looked over his feathers. "Turns out flying comes just as easily as walking, I don't put any thought into it, and it's simple, try to understand what I'm doing and I'm falling over and downward!" He gave another quick glance behind him. "Also, they're looking for two Earth Ponies. Not a Pegasus an Earth Pony, and a Unicorn."

"Why can't I just leave now?"

"Because it defies your sense of justice?" Pinkie Pie said hopefully.

"Not good enough."

"Those things are stealing ponies entire lives, they have been for a long time, and will for even longer if we don't stop it now. All I need for you to do is alert the Royal Guards... me and my friend... have reasons to not get involved with the Princess."

"Oh, great, you're asking me to not only get involved with Changelings, but also aid two criminals?"

"What?! Noo, we aren't criminals per say... we haven't done anything wrong yet, Celestia hates me for something I haven't even done yet! I don't even know what it is! As for Pinkie, I have... Time Lord reasons for not letting her and Celestia meet."

"I... I don't even..."

"Just report the Changelings to the guard post."

"Why should I-"

"Listen, are you really going to try and continue working here after hearing that almost any pony in the street could be a Changeling."

"Well..."

"Come on Sunset, monsters are bad for business."

"Fine. But I'm not getting any more involved than this."

"Excuse me, I need to send a message out to the Royal Guard."

The Pony at the Desk looked up from his crossword puzzle and widened his eyes at her. "Are you a unicorn?"

"Yes, now about my message,"

"Oh, oh yes, to whom is it directed, and is it a petition, a complaint, a plea for economic concerns, a personal letter, or an emergency?"

"Emergency. I have two eyewitness reports of monsters in Cloudsdale."

"W- monsters?" The timid stallion's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure? Few can fly up here unnoticed."

"They're Changelings."

"Oh... oh dear."

"From what I know,there's somewhere between fifty and two hundred."

"Oh... oh no... no... A-alright, I'll get it written up immediately." He walked into an office behind him. Sunflower waited patiently for him to come back. "I'm so sorry." She heard the stallion's voice come from behind her. She spun around on her hoof and her eyes widened in panic. Her mouth was sealed by a green slime before she could let out a word. The timid stallion was engulfed in green flame, becoming a large muscled mare. Green flames covered Sunflower, and she was completely encased in a green cocoon. She struggled with her magic and with her hooves, but she was overcome by sleep. With another green wave there was only a large burlap sack where the cocoon was. The construction mare lifted it carefully over her shoulders and took to the sky, flying toward a mostly unknown sewer entrance.

"That... that's not good."

"What? A construction mare left, what's the problem?"

"There were two ponies in there a few seconds ago, and two just left."

Pinkie looked at the monitor from within the Tardis. "Where's the other one?"

"In the bag, asleep, is Sunflower." The Doctor switched to heat vision, the red silhouettes of a bulky pegasus with a unicorn on her back appeared. "And I'm guessing that the mail stallion was a Changeling."

"We need to go help her!"

"Yep, now then, I'll wrestle the Pegasus to the ground, you get the bag."

"Got it!" The Doctor gripped the Sonic Screwdriver in his mouth and made the Tardis appear in front of the disguised Changeling. He put the Screwdriver in his pocket and began flapping his wings.

"Go!" He charged at the surprised Pegasi and headbutted her in the throat. "Gah! That hurt, what is her neck made of, granite?"

The Pegasus looked down at the Doctor and looked from him to the Tardis. "What?" Was all she said.

"Take this Changeling!" Pinkie charged out as well, colliding with the disguised cocoon, knocking it to the ground. The construction mare then flared her nostrils and bucked Pinkie in the stomach, sending her through a not-so well built cloud wall with a 'POOF'. She turned to the Doctor, angry and snarling.

"You just had to blow my cover! Great, now I need to explain why I need to put up three cocoons!" She raised her hooves up and was about to bring them back down on the Doctor when he started pumping his wings to get away. However the Changeling was used to dealing with panicked pegasi, and pinned down the Doctor's wings with her own. She brought a hoof down on his head, and the Doctor went out cold.

The Changeling looked down at the unconscious Time Lord and sighed. She prepared a cocoon spell for him, but she found herself lifted into the air, but not under her own power. She managed to turn her head against the magic enough to see a unicorn with a burning mane and pure-white coat surrounded by flames of anger. The changeling shrunk back from the rage-mode unicorn but was pulled toward her. With a loud grunt Sunflower slammed her into the ground, knocking her out, and leaving her a Changeling less than half the size of the mare he was disguised as.

"That's for messing up my mane!" Sunflower screamed, letting the fire dissipate to reveal a yellow hairdo stuck in bunches with the green slime. She looked up at her mane and whimpered, but then she got angry again. She wheeled on the Doctor. "That was a trap, wasn't it!? You knew he was a Changeling yet you made me parade in there so you could save me and get me to help you well I'm not falling for it mister-"

"I think he can't hear you." Pinkie said, nudging the Time Lord with a bit of cloud she had pulled out of her mane. "By the way, your cloud walking stuff doesn't let us move through cloud."

"Then it's doing what it was supposed to."

"Yeah, but when we were falling, the Doctor tried to land on a cloud, but the cloud was hard as a rock and ended up almost killing him!"

"That's... weird. My spell loses power after a certain amount of force is done to it, wait... The Doctor didn't have my spell, whatever made that cloud solid for him was because of his own magic."

"Hmm... that reminds me, what should we do with the Changeling?"

"Tie him... her... it?... up I supposed."

"You have some rope?"

"Nope, something better!" A maniacal gleam came into Sunflower's eyes.

"You won't get away with this!" The Changeling yelled, struggling against the enchanted & hardened cocoon wrapped around it.

"Tell us how to get back to the throne room!" Pinkie said, bringing a light into it's face, making it cringe.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know as well as I do that you were sent to capture us after we ruined your whole evil scheme and freed all the ponies."

"What?! All of them?!" The Changeling managed to suppress a shudder at the thought of what would happen when the real construction mare was free. "How- who are you?"

"I'm-"

"Stop, you haven't been born yet, and normally that means it's safe to spread your name, but with us being this close to your present you could end up altering the time stream by spreading too much future info of any kind." He turned to the Changeling, "However, I am the Doctor. Known as the oncoming storm, the Predator of the universe's greatest predators, the knowledge of my existence was enough to send the greatest military forces of a thousand races run away from anything I ever held dear." He stared into the confused Changeling's eyes. "You kidnapped my friend, and tried to kill my other one, you stole the lives of hundreds of ponies, and you tried to kill me. However, I won't really count the last one, I stopped treating it personally considering how often it happens." He closed his eyes and lifted his head. "Now then, we're going to let you go, and you can run and go tell your Queen to find somewhere else to harvest love, one that doesn't involve stealing ponies' lives."

He swiped out the Sonic Screwdriver and liquified the cocoon past it's honey-like state and into a boiling hot juice tha melted through the clouds below, and sent the Changeling bouncing away on one hoof, desperately trying to somehow rub the heat out of it's burnt hoof with both of it's forelegs. After that it jumped into the sewer system with the Doctor, Sunflower, and Pinke galloping after it.

"Grr... Damn you Doctor, Damn you." Chrysalis muttered, attempting to find some solution to her problems. The needed cocoons would take too much energy, so they couldn't re-seal the abductees, but they couldn't exactly spend the rest of their days playing guard. At the sight of the whole in the clouds a sickening thought came into Chrysalis's mind. "No. I'll figure something out." She looked at a silently crying filly. "No... I won't kill them. I'm not a monster"

Interrupting her thoughts came another Changeling, his wings shivering from a burst of use, he was panting heavily. "M-my Queen, th-there are three ponies following me, they know."

Chrysalis' eyes widened and she rose to her full height, letting an ugly grimace appear on her fanged mouth. "Show me." He became a yellow unicorn, "What, how can there be a unicorn in Cloudsdale-" the same way there was an Earth Pony. "What about the others?"Pinkie Pie appeared in a burst of green flame. "No..." and with a final burst of flame, the Doctor, with his tan wings extended, and a determined look on his face, appeared. "No! NO NO NO!" She backed into the wall, and after realizing every changeling and pony in the room was staring at her with confusion. They looked upon the form of the stallion. And the ponies huddling together thought together. 'This stallion is what the Changeling Queen fears, what is he, and can he help us?' "No... I-I killed him, he-he was an Earth Pony! I saw him fall! Hunt him down, bring him to me!" She realized that she was making a fool of herself in front of her captives and her children, her subjects. "I'll run him through with my horn!" She licked her fangs. "He will pay for this. Mark my words."

"Alright, we need a plan."

"... Got it!" Pinkie shouted but then a glare from the two other ponies made her back down again. "Sorry, hehe... but I have the perfect plan, I need a box, 400 tons of cotton candy, industrial-strength rubber coated boxing gloves, and three fifteen inch long sticks of dynamite." She scratched her chin. "And a spoon, very important."

"One that makes a tiniest fragment of sense?" Sunflower hissed.

"Okay, how about this? Sunflower, do you have an understanding how their magic works?"

"Um... kind of."

"Alright, we managed to get away the last time by me poisoning their 'food' with my hate, but I think that in order for that to work they had to already be feeding on me."

"Yeah?"

"Can you magically force them to feed on me? If I do that I can shock them again, and give the ponies time to escape."

"I-I don't know."

"Alright, do you have a plan of your own?"

"I-I don't know... do you have anything in the Tardis that could help you?"

"Maybe... It's unlikely though, I don't keep weapons with me, I destroy them. And everything in the Tardis has to deal with technology, not magic."

"hmm..." Sunflower walked back and forth. "I-I don't know what we could do then. Most unicorns have a limited selection of magic they can do. I made a cloud-walking spell, but I'm not a magic talent, telekinesis, transfiguration, and cloud walking are about all I can do, and the last two are very taxing..."

"Okay... we have three ponies, the power of telekinesis, a sonic screwdriver, limited transfiguration... hehehe... what can't we do?"

Change in the Air; Conclusion

"Stop it! Stop it now!" The Queen screamed. The frightened Changeling did so immediately, transforming back into his insectoid-like self. Chrysalis turned toward the ponies and their guides, and then, blushing at her own idiotic shock, turned away from them. She carried the baby Changeling on her back into her private quarters. She pulled down a glob of love and extracted it all at once for a huge burst of energy. She began eating as much as possible from her room, within a minute her entire store was drained, and green magic enveloped her, coursed through her body and veins, making her heart strain against the flow of the blood it itself was pushing. She walked back into the main room, a demonic green beast compared to what she was before. "All of you... Stay where you are." She said in a reverberating melody. Like seven or eight voices were speaking at the same time at different pitches. With a flash of vermillion, all of the ponies were trapped in a large cocoon, it looked like a dead, green jellyfish. "Now then, my little Changelings." She began. "Bring me the Doctor, encase the others, I want to deal with him myself."

The Changelings looked from one to another, what was this magnificent creature before them? They however scrambled out of every tunnel, scanning for the Doctor with all their strength and all their will. Chrysalis shivered, and fell to the ground in a heap, her magic completely spent. She limped back to her cave and began suckling more energy from other reserves, she didn't know what the Doctor could do, she had to be as powerful as possible. She looked at her youngest child, there was a large pool around him of the love energy. She began to nudge it gently out of him, letting him go through the sequences of releasing the love in it's slime form, which they used for building and storage. Within minutes the baby had refilled the storage and was sleeping contentedly. Chrysalis nuzzled him and went back to the stores, they were even more full than they had been when she had previously drained them. She took some more energy from the great green vats, enough that she could summon a beam of energy. It was a very rare technique, only done by the most skilled magicians. It was something Chrysalis had never aimed at a pony, she once brought down a dragon with it though, turns out greed is not love, and that Dragons are not a potential food source. She walked back into the great hall and waited, she was ready, she could fire a beam at any of the entrances if she needed to. The Doctor could come as a captive, or as an attacker, but she was ready. The Doctor would not leave this cave alive if she could help it.

"Alright, ready?" Pinkie said, her pulse quickening slightly.

"Ready!" the other two said together.

"Go!" A changeling came charging from around a bend, and barely had time to skid to a halt before being splashed with a green liquid. It didn't have time to blink before it froze in place. "Haha! Yes!" He flipped his Sonic Screwdriver into the air and caught it again. "Good one, Sunflower, prepare another bolt.

"Hoo... alright." Sunflower strained herself, summoning a large tuft of cloud the ripped out of the walls, and began turning it into the love energy, a process that put a lot of strain on her, required a lot of cloud, and a lot of love she had to gather off the Doctor. She didn't have the processes needed to create the 'honey' as the Doctor had taken to calling it, but from dealing with being inside it she had gotten an idea of what the love became when it was tangible. And using transmogrification and clouds she had managed to create a similar substance. The Doctor then liquified it and froze it against the Changelings. He smiled as the group slowly made their way back to the main hall, they had already frozen six Changelings, and gave instructions of escape to three very scared pegasi. Sunflower had gathered quite a bit of 'honey' and was slowly moving along with Pinkie and the Doctor. Pinkie Pie led the way, constantly looking ahead and checking her pulse.

"Doctor, Sunflower, get ready!"

"Alright, you got enough?"

"I-I think so."

"Okay, let's go in then, time to save Cloudsdale!"

Pinkie Pie took a step back, letting Sunflower and the Doctor go first. She held her breath, trying to be prepared for anything. Sunflower went first, she galloped into the room, and took in the sight of the Queen of the Changelings, with a yell she shot the liquid forward. Chrysalis took in the unicorn and saw the Doctor fly in behind her. She dodged the liquid easily, and then fired a beam at the Doctor. He took it in and expertly swooped away from it, but the beam stopped the instant she knew it wouldn't hit, she corrected it and burned a hole through the Doctor's wing. She let a frown appear on her face and fired again, the Doctor flapping his good wing to push him out of the way.

The Doctor looked around, and finally taking in the giant jellyfish cocoon he let his tiny tool glow, and the cocoon burst, letting a wave of liquid love pour over everything, it blasted into the sewer tunnels, leaving everyone in the hall submerged in the liquid love for several moments. Chrysalis, being the tallest, was the first of the now many ponies to find her feet back on the clouds. She watched in horror as the love flowed downhill through the sewers, mixing with the water, and even worse, all that remained in the room was flowing down the hole she made earlier when she tried to drop Pinkie and the Doctor. She grabbed onto it with her magic, trying to pull back the torrent that was falling to the ground. She strained with her magic and her eyes widened as it began to fall again, being pulled by gravity and another magic. Her eyes caught the unicorn forcing more and more of it out through the hole. She frowned and took her concentration off of it for a while, sending a beam at the Unicorn's horn.

Sunflower shrieked in pain, and stood on her back legs before falling onto her back, her horn blackened at the tip. The Queen turned back to her work and struggled to pull back all of the love from the hole, though by now the first of it that had spilled away was a great distance away. A new thought occurred to her, and she began dragging it with magic and absorbing it over the long distance at the same time.

But a blue spark from behind her caught her attention. The love began flowing out faster, somehow. Large frozen chunks that widened the hole and then weighted down the torrent. Chrysalis felt her own magic being pulled along with her body down it. And then she felt her fur begin to prickle. "Queen, you kept these ponies away from their lives, something that I think is wrong." She felt her body stiffening from the love freezing on her, and weakening from the love being drained out of her along with the torrent. "But I've faced others before you who have done the same thing. For food even. They were called angels, i'm not sure if you have them in your world, they touch you and you're sent into another time, and they feed on the energy of the displacement, they're my enemies, but I understand why they do it, but you're worse. You lived these ponies' lives for them. You didn't just take it away from them, you stole it, changed it, broke it so they would never be trusted again. And that, I will not forgive." Chrysalis couldn't move anymore, her body was completely frozen, but she could still feel her magic being dragged away from her body, in larger amounts now. She felt herself getting thinner and thinner. Her wings were beginning to disintegrate. "And not only that, you brought upon this punishment yourself. You made the magic that is flowing out of here your own, and when it goes it'll take you with it." The Doctor looked her in the eyes. She could not feel any worse than she already did, but now she knew that she would die. Or not. "But I promised not to kill, even in an occasion where it was your own mistake, I'll keep you from dying." He thawed her instantly, and she desperately began pulling herself away from the magic, letting go rather than trying to pull even her own back in. After two more seconds of life and death struggle she was panting on the ground, he horn and legs had partially faded away, and her mane lost it's ethereal feel, and had faded spots as well. She knew somehow that all of her children were fading away with her, and that realization gave her the strength to let go of the magic once and for all. She began struggling to her hooves and took a look behind her. THe Doctor stood directly behind her, with a determined straight line for his mouth, and his big blue eyes locked right into her soul.

"What now Doctor? You ruined me. Us. My people. My children." She swung her now jagged horn at him, but he dodged it and stuck his foreleg into one of the holes in her legs. He jerked it forward, knocking her back into the ground. "Our base of operations was here, our storage, it was so carefully thought out. Only here was such a large sewer, such a gigantic underground, even better for us than Canterlot's underworld. Here the weather of the entire country is controlled, and by ordinary ponies too, ones that we can impersonate or insert easily. You destroyed our entire influence over Equestria! And why?! So that a few hundred ponies won't get culture shocked or lonely. My people will be hungry, we will be hungry for a long time. Doctor, what you have done today will make my children's stomachs growl, I hope you know that. And know I will never forgive you, that when you see me you should run, because I will make your life horrible."

"Likewise."

Queen Chrysalis rose back to her feet, and sending out a telepathic command to the rest of her changelings, she lifted a baby changeling to her from some hidden alcove, and she dived down the hole in the floor, and when the Doctor looked down, he saw Rose falling with a Changeling foal in her arms, her face contorted with hate for him. He jumped away from the hole, he shook his head, but the accursed image wouldn't leave. He would remember that image for the rest of his life, a final gift from the Queen.

Pinkie Pie moved to his side, as well as the other Pegasi they had freed. The Doctor grimaced when he saw the burnt hole in his wing. He closed his eyes and golden light poured from his wing. The hole disappeared, and then so did the wings. The Doctor looked confused, but then he tensed his muscles a little bit and the wings appeared from thin air. "Well, look at that..." He would have to deal with it later. The Pegasi crowded him, giving their thanks to the TIme Lord, but a hoof in the air silenced them. He walked over to the groaning and sprawled out form of Sunflower. "You alright Sunflower Spark?"

"Ugh... I-I am..." She turned over onto her side, and the Doctor looked at her Cutie Mark for the first time.

"What is that supposed to be?"

"Um... I'm not sure, it appeared when i first made this spell as a filly. I was trying to figure out a way to visit my Pegasus friend who had moved away. But... when I did the spell it appeared." The mark was a sun, like Celestia's, but much smaller, and going over across it was the image of curved line, showing the path of a unicorn-shaped silhouette that was over the sun in a position like jumping. "I think it means my special talent was getting higher up than anypony else without wings. The first non-flying pony to climb to the flying cities without an airship." She looked at her hooves standing on the cloud. "And I fulfilled that dream. I still haven't gone past the sun though." She let out a tired laugh.

"It just appeared?"

"Yes..."

"How?"

"It's magic, everypony eventually gets one when they find their special talent. You have one."

"Well yes, but I don't remember ever getting it."

"Huh... so what do we do now?"

"We need to get everypony to the surface and throw a 'welcome back' party!" Pinkie Pie shouted out. She helped Sunflower get up, and then smiled at the many wet Pegasi in the room. "Some of you have been stuck down here for a really long time."

Sunset II flew after her Queen, but found it more of a chore than ever before. Her wings, while the ability to fly was mostly magic, was still dependent on their strength and movement. She was gasping for breath, and the other Changelings looked just as bad, but worse was their Queen. The beautiful all-mother they looked upon before was gone, now there was a skinny, faded away, struggling, and silently furious failed Queen. She looked back at the white city they had all called home for the past two centuries. She had three all-pony children there, and seven grandchildren. She had a gravestone with one of her old names on it, next to one that had the name of the stallion she spent forty years with. And somewhere in that city, was a stallion she hoped wouldn't be too disappointed that the Sunset he proposed to was a monster, and that the real sunset was a filly who never met him. She turned her head away from her home, and to her unfortunate mother. "My Queen... where are we going now?"

"... Canterlot, Manehattan, Hoofington, any where but Cloudsdale I suppose. At least for awhile. Perhaps someday we might return. But for now... we lay low. We spread out, we should be everywhere, but we shouldn't come together in large groups. What influence we still have needs to be kept subtle, now more than ever we have to focus on the masquerade. We disappear from the Earth. At least for now. But believe me my child. We will rise again. And the country will cower from our power."

Sunset lowered her head and managed to follow her Queen. But she knew that the glory days were behind her. She winced as a wind blew through the holes in her legs.

The party wasn't a very fun one. The presence of so many ponies suddenly appearing younger or returning from the dead was met with fear and confusion. And with some, great sadness. The filly that was cocooned near the entrance, her coat a maroon color, was awkwardly comforting a sobbing stallion. There were ponies visiting their own graves, and meeting younger siblings decades older than them. There were children who had found their 'mother' younger than them. The Doctor looked over the scene and brooded. "Everyone lived." He murmured.

"That's right. And think about it this way, at least they aren't captured any more. Sure, it's sad that some ponies have to find out that their neighbors weren't who they said they were, and see that the world is older than they remembered. But how is that better than letting even more time pass without them growing a day older?"

"...That doesn't really make me feel better."

"You did the right thing."

"Oh, did I?"

"Yes. The Changelings can find some other way to get love. And these ponies deserved to be free, now come on. Despite all the sad this is still a party, and I will not tolerate grumpiness. Sad, sure. Parties are to cheer ponies up, but I won't be dealing with your grumpiness." She put her forelegs in the Doctor's mouth, and stretched them into a monstrous smile. "There, that's better."

"Ib's albo nok fibicly pobible." The Doctor mumbled out. But when she released him, he was grinning a little bit. "So, where do you want to go next, do you want to go home? I know that this was more than you expected... and most of it not pleasant. This is my life, my luck. I have the most incredible adventures, but with the fun there's more sadness, with the excitement there's more danger. People die around me Pinkie, and wherever I go disaster is nearby. I don't cause it. But I always end up in it. So do you still want to stay with me, and have fun, but go through one horrifying disaster after another?"

"Doctor... of course!"

"What?!"

"This... it's... more, I dunno, intense than what I normally go through, but I've had my fair share of danger and fun in daily life anyway! I fight dragons and demons on wednesdays and thursdays, and bake cakes and go to parties on the weekends! What I'm saying is, i can handle danger, I can handle monsters, but I won't leave my friend alone. You may go on these incredible journeys, but what fun is it if you're alone for the fun, and have no one to help you through the pain?" She waved her fore leg over the party in front of them. "Would going through this alone be as nice?"

"No... well, if you're going to be joining me anyway, where should we go next?"

"Actually, I had an idea earlier when you were talking with Sunflower Spark!"

Sunflower looked over the bright light, and saw the blue globe in the distance. She looked straight down and not even her super-sunglasses could keep her from wincing. She felt the heat rise from below, even through the Tardis's shield. "This... this is incredible... but I said i'd do it without an airship."

"This is the far future, so if you do it within your own lifetime you will have still gotten here first."

"Isn't it great!?" Pinkie pulled out a bag and a few ears of corn in a metal basket on a steel pole. She had a towel wrapped around the part she gripped. She stuck the corn out of the shield for an instant and pulled them back in, perfectly popped. She poured the puffy golden-white snack into the bag and handed it to the Doctor, who took a careful bite out of it. They offered some to Sunflower, but she declined it with a shake of her head. As she shook her head a single tear was flung into space, and it evaporated over the Sun.

Timeline (will be edited as story progresses)

Age of still Chaos (110,000 years ago & previous) SC.

Cave-ponies, the beginning of pony civilization

Ruled by the Draconequus,

Taught Unicorns to raise the sun & moon

Taught Pegasi weather manipulation

Taught Earth Ponies life manipulation

Age of Hatred (48,000 years ago) H.

Draconequus are wiped out (?)

Ponies form separate nations

Birth of Starswirl 'the Hairless' (46,730 years ago)

Go to war because of draughts

Mass colonization-conquest efforts undertaken by the three countries

‘Equestria’ is colonized by the three groups,

Blizzard follows

'Hearthswarming Eve’

Age of Hearths Warming (46,000 years ago) E.

Equestria is formed by all three races, drawing in more colonists,

Equestria fights for independence from the three original countries, they collapse within the century from the Windigoes

Ideals for a utopian society are built & funded

Civil war caused by differing utopian ideals

Age of Orbitus (32,000 years ago) O.

Alicorn royal family moves to Equestria (out of nowhere)

Celestia is born

King Orbitus takes control of Sun & Moon during the civil war, follows a new utopian ideal, building the foundation for ‘modern’ Equestria, becomes ruler of Equestria through the ‘War of Pull’ in a single day

Luna is born

Orbitus dies of magic overload after attempting to control the seasons by himself

Monarchy continues, having the two Royal Pony Sisters becoming mutual leaders, both promising to work together as equals for all eternity

Night Sky is covered with stars

First Age of the Royal Pony Sisters (20,000 years ago) PS.

Continuation of Orbitus’s Ideals

More control of the elements given to ‘ordinary’ ponies

World Peace, Equestria makes treaties with every other country in the world

Changelings invade Equestria

Death of Starswirl 'the Bearded'

Age of Chaos (17,000 years ago) C.

Discord invades Equestria

Sisters go into exile,

Nations bind together in search of the Elements of Harmony

Chaos, lots & lots of Chaos

Elements found, Discord defeats united army, is petrified while gloating at the six generals

Second Age of the Royal Pony Sisters (16,000 years ago) PSII.

Celestia & Luna rebuild Equestria’s government

Peace for the next 15,000 years

Age of Nightmares (1001 years ago) N.

Luna becomes Nightmare Moon, attempts to make the night last forever

Celestia & Luna fight within their own castle, Everfree Forest is overfueled by Magic & begins mutating it’s creatures and using the overabundance of magic to control its own weather & plants

Civil war averted by Celestia using the Elements of Harmony to fuel a banishment spell on Nightmare Moon

Brief rebellion from Luna’s guard (believed to not have known about the night forever thing)

Age of Harmony (1000 years ago-to present) H.

Celestia controls both sun & moon 1 H.

Nightmare Moon is villainized

New Age of Peace

Changelings leave Cloudsdale 902 H.

Ponyville is founded 913 H.

Nightmare Moon returns, is defeated by the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony-1000 H.

Discord returns, is defeated by the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony-1001 H.

Cadence & Shining Armor's wedding, Changeling's leave Canterlot-1001 H.

(Dalek Invasion & the Doctor’s arrival)-1002 H.

(Pinkie returns)-1002 H.

Spike, Twilight, & Cadence assist in the destruction of King Sombra, return of the Crystal Kingdom-1002 H.

Eve of Equestria Prologue

"Well Sunflower, I suppose I'll be seeing you, if not face-to-face, then at least in the history books." The Doctor said, walking with Pinkie and their newfound friend.

"Do I become famous?"

"Don't know, I wasn't in the 'present' for very long. Pinkie, have you heard of her?"

"mmm... kinda, my friend found your book in a library!"

"My what?"

"Well, time to go!" The Doctor quickly lifted Pinkie onto his back and stormed off. "Sunflower, it was great meeting you, thanks for helping out!"

"You know, where you put your spell for cloudwalking and making wings!"

"Darn it Pinkie!" The Doctor hissed. He looked over the area for large burning holes or cracks in the sky with demons pouring out of them. Upon satisfying that there weren't these things nearby he breathed out; "Oh good, the paradox wasn't that big." He turned to Pinkie. "And which is why we aren't going to be telling anypony else- anyone, anyone else, spoilers."

"Fine. Sorry. Bye Sunflower!" And the two turned a corner heading for the Tardis, and hopefully keeping Pinkie from spoiling anything else.

"Bye Pinkie, bye Doctor!" She waved her hoof even though they could no longer see her. She turned toward the sun, which she will never look at the same again. She smiled. "Wings, eh?" She galloped toward her workshop and swung open the door, and she began sketching different designs for wings in a journal she had lying around, she flipped it open to her cloud-walking spell, and then began putting together a very complex spell, etching the directions as they came to her. After about two hours she looked upon her final result."Gossamer and morning dew... nah, too weak, I'll move to a different page."

"So, after that little adventure, what do you have planned next?" The Doctor said to Pinkie jovially.

"hmm... I picked the last one, so you should pick this one!"

"Well I don't know Equestrian history, and right now, I don't feel like doing book-learning on the Tardis's tiny amount of info on this world." He brought up the monitor, and looked at the compounded info gathered from computers in future Equestria. "That's... strange."

"What?"

"Apparently... from your time period actually, Equestria as a country is really, really old."

"Around fifty-thousand years, right?"

"Then why is the level of technology so simple? You had trains and airships for apparently centuries, but never thought it would be easier to write on a computer, or easier to talk on a viewing screen rather than by letter?"

"We have magic for all of that." Pinkie said happily. "I've talked to my parents from miles away by crystal communication before."

"Crystal- what?"

"There are little offices all over the place where a unicorn will make a magical link between two crystals, and instead of your own reflection on it you see the person you're talking to! But it's really expensive."

"I still think magic is a poor substitute for technology." The Doctor pulling out his Sonic Screwdriver affectionately.

"But back to what you were saying earlier, Equestria is fifty thousand years old, so what?"

"But it's practically impossible for a country to survive that long!" He thought to himself; most civilizations don't last that long.

"Well most of the countries in the world are really old." Pinkie paused to consider this. "Let's go see Hearth's Warming Eve!"

"Hearth's Warming?"

"Yeah, it's the time of year where we celebrate the forming of Equestria and harmony!" She took in a deep breath, which the Doctor somehow felt was going to be the beginning of a spiel he would not survive. "A long-long-long time ago all the ponies were living separately, and it was really sad, but then-"

"You know what, let's just see it for ourselves, and no spoilers." The Doctor said, hopefully saving himself.

"Hehe... Alright, but dress warm!" She blinked twice. "Doctor... your wings..."

"Yeah?" He turned around and saw them reappearing without his consent. "That's weird."

"How does that even work?"

"Not sure, I think it has something to do with my Time Lord abilities reacting with my new 'natural magic' as a pony." He tested out the wings a little bit. "I don't know why they appeared now though. An early-warning system maybe? When I'm in danger the wings appear to help me, when i'm not they disappear." He flapped them a few times and rose from the ground, then set himself back down. "But then again, who knows? It might be random, or controlled by some other impulse."

"Huh. Well come on! I want to see the first Hearth's Warming!"

"Alright then, let's see, let's see... Alright, I think this would be a good starting point." He smiled, checked the monitor, and frowned for a second before returning to his smile. "Pinkie, be sure to dress warm!"

Eve of Equestria Part 1

"Boots?"

"Time appropriate ones."

"Shawls?"

"Cut to pony size."

"Snacks?"

"Enough that someone could believe we're travelers."

"Adventure gear?"

"Plenty!" The Doctor raised his wings to lift his shaul and show the various saddlebags on his sides, filled to the brim with food (time appropriate), rope, grappling hooks, flares, lamp oil, and several old-fashioned heat lamps. "I'm sure it'll be completely believable that we are travelers." He trotted up to the door and took up his sonic screwdriver. "Come on Pinkie, time to see if we can watch the forming of Equestria!"

"Alright, just a second." Pinkie shook a large colorful scarf around her neck. She trotted to the door of the Tardis, and with a wink to the Doctor, walked out into the cold. She stifled a shiver and smiled at the swirling white snow rushing by.

"Seems that we've been caught in a blizzard." The Doctor said, stifling his own shiver. "Good thing the shawl works. Made by the wool of the warmest sheep ever genetically engineered, on the planet Calsoop, it was completely necessary too. These shawls were the only things keeping the people there from freezing on their first day!"

"Huh." Pinkie said, looking at her pink-brown pattern cloak.

"So, from what I gathered, the formal creation of Equestria is a few months away, but this actual 'Hearth's Warming', will be happening in four days." He pulled out his compass and frowned as it turned this way and that, eventually settling on a certain direction. "So Pinkie, the Tardis put effort into not telling me anything. I just know that within the next fifteen minutes a large group of ponies will be passing here in a few minutes. So who do you think will be coming for us?"

"Okay, Okay... The Unicorns traveled through the forest, which we are not in, the Earth Ponies traveled by the mountains, and I don't see any cliffs or many rocks." She pushed some snow away with her hoof. "So that leaves the Pegasi, which traveled through a blizzard."

"Then it seems we'll be meeting Pegasi- Hello." The Doctor stopped as the bladed end of a spear was held in his face. He reached up two hooves and held the flat of the blade steady. He yanked on it hard, then as the figure in the snow pulled back the Doctor let it go, making the other pony swing the spear backward too far. The Doctor charged forward toward the other pony, spun around on his fore-hoof, and slammed his rear leg into the head of the pony. "Gahk!" The Doctor yelled as his leg came hard against metal. But the other pony was knocked into the ground. The Doctor quickly picked up the spear in his teeth and waved it into another pony coming at him from behind, he made sure to hit him or her with the wooden part and not the knife end. He brought it back and broke the spear on the ground, letting the knife part get lodged in the ground. "Now then, can we please talk about this like civilized ponies and-" He jumped over another waving spear. "Will you let me finish?!" He pulled out his stick and began fencing with other ponies, which he could now see were armored Pegasi. He evaded thrown spears from flying unseen enemies, and was blocking any spear jabs from ones on the ground. He got maybe another two down on the ground before the snow was blasted away by a gigantic gale. It revealed almost a hundred Pegasi, carrying large war machines, and leading huge groups of civilian Pegasi toward the South. The Pegasus Mare that pushed away the clouds was dressed in regal platinum, with a cloud and a lightning bolt design emblazoned onto her breastplate. She had a night-blue coat and a billowing gray and white mane. Her wings were held to her sides and had blades attached to every main feather. She was wearing a helmet that reminded him of an ancient Roman's. WIth a crest that trailed behind her head and intertwined with her mane. The Doctor whacked her in the head with the stick. "Now would everyone stop and tell me what's going on!"

The mare simply shook it off, most of the impact going to her helmet, which didn't leave a dent, unlike the other unfortunate Pegasus soldiers. "Company Halt." She said calmly. "We appear to have a guest. Tell me friend, what are you doing miles and miles away from any civilization with an Earth Pony mare?"

"Uh... w-we are travelers." Pinkie Pie said, stretching her neck above the soldiers surrounding her. "We were heading South by ourselves."

"Hm, stallions, release her." The soldiers backed away. "Now then, who are you?" She turned to the Doctor.

"I'm the Doctor, sorry about the whole head thing."

"No hard feelings, only hard skulls!" the mare threw her head back and laughed. "Hoo... but in what circumstances did a Pegasus doctor end here with her?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you."

"Well, actually you do. I am the right hand to his royal Emperor, Hot Air, Commander of All Pegasus Armies, Hurricane." Pinkie let out a gasp, which made Hurricane smirk. "Come with me to my cabin, and bring your-"

"Companion."

"-companion with." She took off into the air, heading for one of the larger cloud and steel war machines. The Doctor and Pinkie shared a look, and he hoisted her up and into the air.

"So, my friend, how shall we go about this?"

"About what commander?" Pinkie said innocently.

"Quiet please, this is a matter between Pegasi." She muttered something about stupidity and the earth before continuing. Pinkie decided she didn't like Hurricane much. "I would like whatever information you have on what lies south of the Great Storm."

"What makes you think we came from the the South?"

"We came from the the North, and you walked into us."

"Fine, if you keep going South eventually you'll come to a mountain region, and on the other side is a varied landscape, which eventually leads to the sea."

"How far?"

"If I'm right you can make it in at least four days."

"Good. Did you see any of the other tribes there?"

"Tribes?"

"Other kinds of ponies, where did you pick up your companion?"

"Um, well I met her near the mountains, but on the South side."

"Huh, alright then Doctor, you'll stay by me for the time being."

"What do you mean?"

"You're coming with me doctor. You managed to defeat seven of my best warriors without killing them, and right now, you are the healthiest stallion in this colony, you have knowledge our goal, and you're experienced with the terrain. As a winged Pony, you are a citizen of the Pegasus Empire. If you aren't with us you're a traitor. You sir, have just been Enlisted."

"Feh, I already told you all I'm going to. You're heading in the right direction, I don't have to do anything."

"You're already a soldier, I'm not sure which war, but you've seen it, too much of it." She smiled a seducing smile. "I don't think you want to be in a war, but you're not, this is a colony." She frowned when the Doctor's face only darkened. "Fine then, I don't like pulling this one out. I'll keep my men off your 'companion', as long as you do everything in your power to make this colony succeed." She leaned back. "Who am I to question your life choices, after all."

"Don't you dare." The Doctor's face darkened, and Pinkie stared in shock at the Pegasus. "Don't even talk about something like that."

"You're either a traitor with a missing companion, or my personal guide, what'll it be? You seem to have quite a bit of fear for her. Don't you Doctor?" She leaned in, "And for good reason, now shut up and step in line and you get your Earth Pony wh-"

The Doctor slammed her in the face with his hoof, her helmet was knocked to the ground and she hit the opposite wall. "Heh, Doctor, you messed with the wrong Pegasus."

"Likewise." He jumped at her, but this time she was too quick, and began attacking with her wings, the Doctor barely dodged the blades every swipe, and each one it was closer. He launched himself around the tiny metal room, knocking into the mare whenever he could, throwing her to the wall with a buck. She merely caught herself, and launched forward.

"Doctorjumptotheleft!" Pinkie screamed. The Doctor did so immediately, even though it was putting him in the path of the bladed wings, but Pinkie grabbed a stool in her mouth and slammed it into Hurricane's stomach, moving her above the Doctor, and letting him kick her in the same spot as she passed. The fight lasted less than five seconds.

The Doctor pinned Hurricane down. "Now then, down to business."

Hurricane sighed. "I apologize for bringing your companion into this. But also know, I can make do on that threat, if I feel I need to." She pushed him off of her, and looked PInkie in the eye. "Like I said, I'm not one to question your life choices, but I'm also not going to take any crap from a numbskulled Earth Pony."

"Well I don't have anything against Pegasi, but I don't even want to try being friends with you! You're mean to the core!"

"I'm the commander in chief of the greatest military force on earth. I don't have friends, I don't need any. I fought long and hard for this position, and even longer to get Hot Air wrapped around my hoof, and even longer to convince him we need to divert our efforts on colonization. And frankly, I don't need friends, and especially don't care what a stupid Earth Pony thinks."

"Shut up about Pinkie, I'll work with you, I'll lead you to your new land." He pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver, and the war ship's machinery began sputtering and shaking. "But if you or any of your men touch her, or even make her cry, I'll cripple your ships, and you'll have to go there on foot or by wing."

"You'd harm civilians Doctor? Please, you're too much of a pansy for that."

"Fine, but don't underestimate me, keep your end of the deal, no one touches Pinkie."

"Don't underestimate me either, and don't try making the Doctor do anything he doesn't want to." She pulled a cookie out from her saddlebag, she motioned to Hurricane's head, and then to the cookie. She then took a big bite out of the cookie and animatedly chewed it. She narrowed her eyes and then moved out of the room. There was then a sound of yelling slowly getting farther away as Pinkie realized that the floor was no longer metal. The Doctor rushed out of the room yelling "Pinkie" and plowing through the cloud after her.

"Numbskulled Earth Pony." Hurricane said with a huff.

"See, what did I tell you, there are the mountains." He gave a mean smirk to Hurricane, who took it upon herself to use gladly.

"So? You need to find me a suitable route through it all, Private." She motioned toward the table, which was covered with maps that the Doctor managed to draw with his mouth and a quill, no easy task. "And you are by no means a skilled cartographer."

"Fine then, let me go find a good route, and I'll mark it down."

"In the blizzard?" Hurricane turned up her nose. "No, I'll send my scouts with you."

"The blizzard has been getting weaker and weaker the closer we get to them, and on the other side it's still green, at least when I was there last."

"Which was when? Four days ago, like you said?"

"No, I estimated that's how long it would take you to get there, me and Pinkie went by land."

"So you have a land path?"

"Uh... yes."

"Well then, take two of my scouts with and fly there."

"What about Pinkie?"

"The Earth Pony can stay here with me, I'll keep her out of trouble, as long as you're doing your job Private."

"Alright... I'll be back as soon as possible."

"We just have to keep going South, right? But we will need a solid route through the mountains, our ships don't fly higher than the peaks, and we need a safe path."

"Then I'd better get going." The Doctor walked away from the Commander's room and made his way to his and Pinkie's room. "Hey Pinkie, I'm off to find a route to Equestria I suppose, any suggestions?"

"Um... we're like, at the North-most edge right? So the largest mountain ahead of us will be the one Cantelot rests on in the future! There are caves everywhere inside it, and it's filled with gems!"

"It's filled with gems!" Princess Platinum shrieked with glee.

Her companion frowned and facehoofed. "Princess, please tell me you remember our mission here..."

"Hm, what? Oh yes, of course we do darling." The dark gray unicorn brushed her curly snow white mane to the side, and re-positioned her crown. "We are here to find a grand new land so that our unfortunate people might survive this age of Ice!" She said dramatically, she realized that she was alone in the cave beside her companion. "Would you remind me exactly why we are in this cave again?"

The light green unicorn mare in the brown cloak sighed and lowered her head. "You wanted to get away from the cold, and then you saw something 'shiny' and got us lost!"

"Well, it seems like you're trying to turn some of the blame on me!" Princess Platinum turned her head and let out a 'humph'.

"No, of course not your majesty, but perhaps we might try to get back to the caravan a little faster, the gems will still be here."

"Fine, lead the way Clover."

Clover's horn glowed and she and the Princess were teleported a little closer to the entrance, and Clover managed to find her way back through the labyrinth that remained. "Ahh, fresh air!" The mage sighed and sank to the ground. She and the princess were immediately surrounded by guards.

"Your Highness! Where were you?"

"Clover convinced me to follow her into that cave, and then she got us lost. But these mountains are a veritable gold mine of gems!"

Clover and the guard rolled their eyes. "Well, we have two things to report, first; we sighted Earthens coming up the North Side of the mountain. Second; we have sightings of Pegasus scouts, and it's likely that they're bringing their own colonies."

"We need to claim as much land as possible right now." Platinum said, pushing away her airs and focusing on the task at hand.

"Yes your Highness."

"As much fertile soil as we can grab, so we can sell it to Earthen serfs." Clover restated. She lifted a clod of dirt from under the snow, and smiled as even at this high a height, and at this temperature, there was evidence of plant life in the earth.

"And then in exchange for farming on our land we can extract an extra vegetation tax on them." She smiled. "And we need to secure these mountains, sell gems to the Pegasi and the Dragons, ooh, and when the Pegasus need food grown on our land we can take a tax on them, get some free weather control out of it!" The Unicorn guards raised their eyebrows at their Princess's few moments of visible intelligence. Clover had seen unicorns cracking jokes about inbreeding in the royal line, then get outsmarted the next day by the Princess without their monarch breaking a sweat.

"But the first step is securing the land." She then began the walk up the mountain, the Princess following behind her personal mage, and the guards following her. The guards would have gone first, but Clover was the main defense. Starswirl's greatest student, and not to mention his daughter. She was currently among the three most powerful unicorns in the world, the other two being her father and her brother. Nothing in this new land would be able to stand up against her.

Platinum readjusted her crown again, and shivered, pulling in her cloak tighter. But as they got higher up the mountain she remarked with wonder that it was actually getting warmer.

"Follow me! It's just over this bend!" Chancellor Puddinghead screamed.

Smart Cookie sighed and moved another stone onto her pile. The chancellor had confiscated the only map of the area, determined to lead them there himself. Every time they looped a certain spot Smart Cookie placed another stone on the pile. The stallions following behind them looked at the stone pile with annoyance, and Smart Cookie hoped she wouldn't have to stop another rebellion. It was the fourteenth time the Chancellor had led his scouts in the same complicated and difficult course. Smart Cookie would have just gone ahead with the stallions rebelling, but somepony had to preserve democracy in the wilderness. "Chancellor, may I take a look at the map? Perhaps I could spot a shortcut."

"No! I'm the leader, therefore, I am the one who must lead!"

"right over the side of a cliff..." a stallion muttered.

"Excuse me?!" The Chancellor was suddenly in front of the scout. "Excuse me?! I am the leader of the proud state! Head of the legislature! And the pudding! My word, after being discussed by the appropriate parties and made into a bill, which must be then marked down by our executive and run by our courts, is law! And going against me is treason!"

"You are an incompetent." The stallion said, raising his head above the Chancellor's.

"An incompetent leader." He said, lifting his eyebrows above the stallion somehow. "And I have not led us over a cliff this whole time."

Smart Cookie decided to ignore the fact that he had twice fallen over the edge of a cliff on this journey, and that it was a miracle they had managed to circle back and find him twice. She had to explain to the captain that he still held the flags necessary and the maps before he agreed to go look for him. "What the corporal here is trying to say is that we are all tired and-"

"You're tired?!" Puddinghead screamed in outrage. "None of you have done anything, none of you know the pressure's of being a leader!" He pulled out the map and threw it on the ground in front of Smart Cookie. "How about you lead the way, what do you even do anyway?!"

"I'm your secretary of colonization." She said plainly, with an irritated/bored face. "I was going to be in charge anyway before you so bravely volunteered."

"Really? Huh. Oh well, lead the way kooky!"

"Cookie, um... Chancellor, you wrote all over the map."

"So? I was marking down where we already went, to avoid going in circles!" The Captain of the guard managed to pin down a stallion before he could strangle the Chancellor.

"It's also upside down."

"The world is round, there is no up or down. Duh." He shook his head like Smart Cookie was the most childish mare in the world.

"I know that, but the map isn't!" She growled back.

"Oh..."

After a quick fly-over of the area he and the scouts returned back. The scouts weren't sure why they were, seeing as they didn't find any definite path. But the Doctor assured them of his photographic memory, and reported back to Hurricane.

"Doctor, you're back, that was quick, very quick. What turned you back?"

"I completed your mission, and I found a route between cliffs wide enough for your airships in single file, as well as a land path, for the civilians." He looked around. "Where's Pinkie Pie?"

"She's in the brig."

"What?! Why?!"

"She broke into the kitchen, stole some of our precious little flour and even more precious sugar, and attempted to make a cake." She lowered her head and narrowed her eyes. "I can whip my soldiers half to death, no... 3/4ths to death for less. But because I promised you all she gets for her crime is some alone time in the brig."

"Huh, I'll go talk with her about it,"

"No, first you brief me. And then I bring in a cartographer, and you make me a perfect map."

"Got it all in my head, and if you give me a little privacy, I can print it out."

"What?"

"Get out of the room, for... two minutes, and you'll get your map."

"What are you- huh?" The Doctor pushed her out of her office and pulled out the Sonic Screwdriver. It flashed for an instant before the Tardis appeared. He rushed in, hooked up a helmet to his head, and braced for the pain, thinking of the maps in her study, thinking of the layout of the mountains, of the dimensions of the peaks. He screamed in pain.

Hurricane was about to buck the door off it's metal hinges when the Doctor swung it open, with a large map in his jaws. "Here it is, would you like to see my work?"

"Uh... of course." She spread out the map on the large round table in the center of the room and looked at it. It was beautifully made, and the mountain peaks were so detailed, made up of differently shaded areas to show how tall or short each area of the mountain is. She had never seen anything done like this, it would take a unicorn artisan hours to complete this so accurately. "How did you make this?"

"There's something you have to know, I am an enigma wrapped in a paradox, hidden by secrets, and surrounded by obscurity."

"What does any of that mean?!"

"I'm the Doctor, and I'm keeping my secrets."

Eve of Equestria Part 2

The Doctor fluttered down to rest on the mountain top, and repositioned his helmet, he felt rather majestic in the armor, emblazoned with lightning bolts and cloud designs. He looked down at the green fields and forests of Equestria. Farther South was the Buffalo Desert, to the East the sea, to the far far West was Gryph's farthest reaches of territory. He smiled at the beautiful country. Hurricane landed next to him on the tip of the peak. "Wow..." was all she said. She then pulled out a large iron pole with a gigantic flag, picturing the face of a horse and wings. She waved it proudly, then shot downward, turning in an arc and leaving a gray cloud trail behind her. The Doctor was no match in speed, but he could make out the cloud she was heading for. He began his dive, and turned into a long arc toward the gigantic mass of clouds.

Hurricane waited for him to land next to her before moving to a large spiral of the cloud body. "As God as my witness, and as the Private Doctor as my witness, I lay claim to this great land. Let it be known that the skies of this land belong to Pegasus! And I name this cloud, the future site of our first city, and this colony, Pegasopolis!" She shouted like a clap of thunder. "This is the land we've been searching for!"

"What a view, I can see my future house from here." The Doctor said cheerily

Clover looked over the new land from the small cliff, she took in a breath of fresh air and sighed. She lit her horn and felt the natural magic that overflowed the countryside. She was attune with the magic of nature, the magic of this country. But not all unicorns saw nature as beautiful for the same reasons. "I've never seen such jewels!" Princess Platinum said in awe, looking fondly at her pile of gemstones. "This ruby is dazzling, this whole land is dazzling!" She got up on her back legs "I'm double dazzled! In the name of my father, and in the Unicorn Kingdom, I dub this land, and this colony, Unicornia! May she live on forever, and support her mother country well!" She jammed a flag portraying a Unicorn's head into the ground with her magic.

Smart Cookie was the first to leave the cave, and she took in the rolling green hills and the great forests with awe, she turned to see Chancellor Puddinghead come up from behind her. Puddinghead walked forward a few steps. Then crashed into the ground. "The air, the trees! The dirt. This dirt is the dirtiest dirt in the whole dirt world!"

Smart Cookie scooped up some of it and channeled her Earth magic into it, a plant sprouted immediately. "And fertile too. Perfect for growing food."

"IN THE NAME OF OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF EARTHINESS, I DECLARE THIS LAND DIRTVILLE, MAY IT KNOW LIBERTY AND FREEDOM FOREVERMORE, GOD WILLING!" The Chancellor shouted to the heavens. He flipped over, and his hat planted in the ground, a banner on a pole rising from it, showing plants, the earth, and the sun.

"What about 'Earth' instead of Dirtville?"

"Ugh, everypony's a critic."

"Forevermore... Forevermore... Forever more..." the words echoed across the country. From the cloud of Pegasopolis Hurricane heard the shout and smiled.

"Too late all of you, we were first! It's our land!" She shouted back over the land. "Private, gather our scouts, we are going to go meet with the other leaders."

"... what are we meeting them for?"

"Simple, to define the borders between our land, and the places they think they claimed first. Either that or persuade them to renounce their claims." She added silently, and if we need to, kill them all.

The other two tribes responded to the Pegasus tribe's summons, and they decided to meet on a large hill. "So then, how should we proceed?" Princess Platinum said sagely. Clover was at her right hoof, and had conjured a table from the stone in the ground.

"First we must address the issue at hand." Hurricane said next, lifting her helmet off her head and setting it down on the table. "Why you two have trespassed and laid claim on our land." The Doctor was at her side.

"What do you mean your land?" Platinum said disgustedly. "We planted our flags at about the same time, Clover proved it, and none of us have even laid borders."

"She's a unicorn, how do you know she didn't change the results?" The Chancellor said pointedly, Smart Cookie raised an eyebrow at the provocation and took her place at his right side.

"If she was going to skew the answer she would have proved that we put down the flag first, but as is, we put down our flags all within seconds of each other, and we can't narrow it down any further." She scowled at her mage, "right Clover?" She asked maliciously.

"Heh... uh... y-yes Princess, sorry."

"Ugh." The two other leaders turned to Puddinghead, who had slammed his head against the table. "Would you both shut up!? This land should obviously belong to the Earth Ponies! You Unicorns and Pegasi never did anything to deserve this place!" He frowned and waved his hoof over the landscape. "I see the Earth, and we are Earth Ponies, therefore this is our land." He shrugged and gave an obviously fake apologetic frown, then turned away from the table. Smart Cookie frowned and took his place with a sigh. She turned to the guard.

"Make sure he doesn't fall into a hole somewhere."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Who are you exactly?" Platinum asked with a bored expression.

"I'm the Secretary of Colonization, and I hold authority over discussing our borders." Puddinghead was suddenly back and pushed her out of the stone stool roughly. He sat back down and glared down at the muttering secretary.

"I am the Chancellor, I hold the authority here!" He turned to the other two leaders. "Get off my land!"

"Your land? We haven't defined our borders yet!" Platinum said angrily.

"Why define them? Just surrender now and we'll let you leave with your lives, in fact, we'll let the Earth Ponies stay to till our fields for us, eh? You Unicorns don't need the land, you always live in those mountains in those big cities and ignore just about everything else, we Pegasus live higher up, we need to live in warmer areas, and the Earth Ponies can stay and grow food, and if you ask nicely we'll share some of it."

"Are you threatening us?" Princess Platinum rose herself up, her cloak billowing with a sudden gust of wind. "Know that the Unicorn King will not take this lightly!"

"Oh boohoo, if we really needed to, we could kill every last one of you and the Unicorn King would never learn anything of this until we already have complete control of this land. But I'm not, because I'm nice, so you Unicorns get off of our land, and you Earth Ponies better be prepared to work hard enough for two races if you're staying."

"You'll regret that!" The Chancellor screamed, slamming his hooves into the stone table, causing several weeds to blossom on the stone. "We Earth Ponies are not something to be bartered over between you two freakazoid races! We are proud, and will grow food for ourselves before catering to every one of your selfish fancies!"

"Clover, if I give the signal, I want you to strike down every Pegasus in sight!" Platinum growled to her mage, the guards behind them stood at attention.

"But your majesty-"

"PEGASUS, STAND AT ARMS, WE ARE ON THE BRINK OF COMBAT!" Hurricane howled to her troops, which raised their spears and whipped blades out of their feathers.

"Earth Ponies-" Smart Cookie began, but the Chancellor was already on his haunches.

"Captain, when I give the word, unleash the fury of the Earth upon these freaks!" Puddinghead screeched. He then fell over from the force of the wind. He looked up, shivering in the cold air, and blinked in despair as a single snowflake came flittering down.

"Get to shelter! Get to shelter!" Clover yelled, magnifying her voice with magics, "To the caves, the caves!"

Platinum and her guards were pushing against the air with their magic, trying to force the cold and snow away, by now it was a physical force, one that could rip a Pegasus's wings right off their backs if it was going in the wrong direction, and it had gotten colder and colder as time passed, and the snow was already several inches deep after less than five minutes.

As Pegasus and Earth Ponies limped in to the caves, straddlers being dragged in with rope and magic, before the unicorns began backing away from the wind, by now the Pegasi had begun doing their weather control, but just as always, the strange winds violently resisted their power.

Clover scanned the distance with her magic and looked down in sadness. Smart Cookie shouted up to where she had perched on an evened out pillar of stone. "Any more stragglers?!"

"N-not any more... the-they're all dead. Or will be in seconds. Everypony is inside that will live..." Clover tripped slightly on her way down. "Two Pegasi, an Earth Pony and three Unicorns."

"It doesn't matter who they were." Hurricane said, "after all, we'll all be joining them eventually. All that matters was that they died honorably. They didn't, they died running from nature, they died without honor, no reason to grieve for them."

"Brute, when we get out of here we'll find the bodies and honor them properly." Platinum nodded and raised her hoof. "Collapse the entrance, we don't want to let the cold in."

"Yes Your Highness." The guards brought down tons of boulders in front of the entrance, sealing them with dirt ripped from the cave floor.

"Well, this has turned out for a fine mess Pinkie." The Doctor sighed and began his rounds again, Pinkie Pie following from below by ground, she was very fast for an Earth Pony, being able to keep up with a Pegasus in the air while still being on the ground. "Have I ever told you that I need need NEED something to do? All of the time? I just can't handle boredom, I can live basically forever and I need to fill every making moment with new experiences! I need to be outside, I need to be brilliant, I need explosions and secrets and danger and discoveries! I don't need to fly the same route for hours and hours making sure no one is killing each other!"

"I know how you feel, I need to be doing something too, or I start thinking too deeply and get all moody and philosophically and crazy! Did I ever tell you that I grew up on a rock farm?"

"No, that sounds interesting."

"Well it isn't. I spent fourteen years on that farm, turning over rocks every day, I literally was flipping every stone for miles, it was a reward if our parents let us water the moss for an hour!"

"Must be better than this at least, you're growing food for the Pegasi, that must be at least a little fun, I wish I could do that."

"Why don't you think you can?"

"I've tried it, I don't have magic like yours, I can stand on clouds without wings, but I can't control the weather, I came into this world looking like an Earth Pony, but one without any Earth magic." He shrugged. "I'm a Time Lord, not a pony."

"And it's not all it's cracked up to be, food growing takes time, and I have to keep those rowdy stallions from just eating every sapling I sprout, let alone waiting for fruit, and somepony already stole all my cookies!"

"Hurricane 'requisitioned' mine."

Princess Platinum walked up to the two of them, the two screeching to a halt in front of her. "Private Doctor, Pinkamena, have the Pegasi or the Earth Ponies found any exits?"

"Um, I'm actually with the Pegasi."

"Ugh, don't remind me, it's disgusting, and kept me from falling asleep last night, but I'm not one to judge."

"It's not like that!" The Doctor barked, turning red-faced. "She's my traveling companion, not any of... that... kind of... er, thing!"

Pinkie shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Princess, you're even worse than Commander Hurricane."

"Gah! You insult me!"

The two of them just trotted around her and kept making their way. "And by the way, no, we haven't found anything." The Doctor flew forward, Pinkie following closely behind.

The three of them had been going at it for hours, and the Doctor, Smart Cookie, and Clover were in the corner playing tic-tac-toe while their leaders screamed at each other. Every time one of them threatened killing the others though their subordinate would go up to their leader and nudge them, getting them to turn the conversation to other matters, it had happened enough times that no one was taking the death threats personally any more, except for the subordinates who had to keep getting up from their many games. "I'd give my whole uniform for a deck of cards." the Doctor said tiredly.

"Or a game of chess." Clover said with a sigh.

"If I had horseshoes I'd rip em' off for a good game of horseshoes." Smart Cookie said with a growl, "hah, three in a row. Your turn Doctor, Clover, it was a nice try."

"What if we created a three player tic-tac-toe game?" The Doctor said. "It would revolutionize boredom everywhere."

"ooh, that's a good idea." Clover said happily.

"... fund it." Cookie said very seriously. But then their attention was drawn to the 'real' conversation.

"Well it's our land!" Puddinghead said, bringing up the oldest conversation they had.

"No it isn't! We don't know whose land it is!" Platinum said for the hundredth time.

"It's ours, whether we planted the flag first or not, because when we get out of here, we'll be in charge, we have the only military power for hundreds of miles."

"More threats from the brute! She turned to the Doctor. "Well, aren't you going to poke her?"

"No, she said she was going to take control, not kill anybody."

"It was implied! And besides, if anypony has the greatest military power, it's us, we brought along Clover the Clever remember? The best magician or strategist born in the last two centuries!"

"So, do you think your witch could take on our whole air force?" Hurricane said seductively.

"Yes."

"I am also part of the conversation!" Puddinghead shouted to no one in particular. "And us Earth Ponies hold the checkmate on all of you! Mess with us, and we all starve!"

"Oh yeah? When my father hears of your threats he'll postpone the coming of day for however long it takes, even Earth Ponies can't support a harvest without sunlight!"

"Oh yeah? Well try doing it in the middle of a drought or a hundred day downpour, we Pegasi hold just as much control of the food!"

"So then the answer is simple, we all separate as much as possible, and all of us assist in the creation of the food until we can find the exit to this god-forsaken mountain." Puddinghead said, attempting to bring an end to the conversation.

"So you don't care for the mountain? In that case would you be willing to give us any mountains in your future territory?" Platinum whispered to the Chancellor.

"Are you crazy? These things are loaded with gems! I wouldn't give up the mountains for anything!"

"If we're discussing future borders, I suppose all of the sky wouldn't be too bad right? After all, what would either of you do with a cloud?"

"Not rain down lightning on our cities." Platinum said accusingly.

"That was war! This is different, this is colonization."

"Not that any of us have very much going as colonies, for all we know, only us, the Pegasus' scouts, my guards, and the Unicorn's bodyguard's are alive."

"So then what does it matter? We all failed, and our kingdoms' will die. The Pegasi will be lurking around every corner trying to burn down our cities for temporary warmth, the Earth Ponies will refuse to share whatever food they have left, and the other kingdoms will criticize my father's every decision! Because not one of these colonies will succeed all of the pony kingdoms will starve to death, and then what? What other creature will make the night turn to day? And I know the Griffon's sure as hell won't lift a claw to bring rain to anypony, and then the Zebra's will be tormented again as the only source of magically enhanced fast-growing vegetation. And all because of this horrible horrible blizzard!" Platinum was screaming now. But Hurricane came up to her, and pushed her back with a hoof.

"You Unicorn's think you're so high and mighty with your freaky magic? I'm still convinced one of you messed up and caused some sort of apocalyptic weather spell! And as you've clearly stated, every creature on Earth will suffer for it, and you know what? In the war that follows, we'll win. Even if we have to live under eternal day or night in a blizzard from hell we'll still stand above you, so I frankly don't care about us, just as long as you Unicorn's know your place in this mess."

The Doctor got up and pushed Hurricane back. "That was uncalled for, we'll get out alright, I know we will, I absolutely know it. And until then we don't need to be fighting over things that are not relevant!"

Smart Cookie and Clover stood up as well, and stood by their respective leaders. Puddinghead took in a deep breath. "Well from what I've heard, it's all you two's tribes fault, and everypony's gonna die, I don't think we have to go through any more of these stupid meetings." Hurricane walked up to him and stood above him.

"We'll keep having these meetings until we come up with something to do!"

"Get out of my personal space!" The Earth Pony stepped backward, and Commander Hurricane stepped into Platinum's way.

"Ugh, don't stand so close, I can smell the violence in your mane." She took a step back and made a motion in front of her. "You see this invisible line around me, please don't come any closer than that."

Hurricane stomped in the ground, and waving her hoof to the side, sprayed dirt at the Chancellor and Cookie. "You see this real, physical line? Touch this and it'll be war!" She turned to the Doctor. "Private, mark out our territory!"

"You're getting ridiculous and worked up about this Hurricane."

"It's Commander to you!" She continued the line a foot, "NOW MARK!" The Doctor sighed and began drawing a line that cut the leader's cavern in half with the line in the dirt.

"Don't let them have the advantage, mark our own border!" The Chancellor said to Cookie, who sighed and complied.

Clover looked at the two of them with some unease, she turned to the Princess, who only looked expectantly at her and gave a look that seemed to say 'well?'. Clover shook her head and began finalizing the borders.

The Doctor came to a rock and began moving his line around it when Hurricane roared at him; "Don't go around the rock! Go over it, or better yet, just take it!" She picked it up and threw it to the wall on the Pegasus side. It was caught midair and floated over to Princess Platinum.

"I believe your Private clearly marked that this rock was on our side of the border."

She set it down gently on the ground, she turned to Clover and whispered; "You know, this whole place is filled with gems, and that rock might very well be a diamond on the inside!"

Puddinghead walked over the Pegasus border and into the Unicorn side, picked up the rock and took it back to his own side. "You found my rock!"

"You crossed my border!" Hurricane screeched, the blades in her wings fully visible. "Give me that rock!"

"No, it's mine now." And the Chancellor, the oldest pony in the room, actually, scratch that, the Doctor has over a millennium, but the oldest looking pony in the room stick out his tongue and blew a raspberry in the mare's face.

"Grrrraaaagghhh!" Hurricane screamed. "I HATE YOU ALL!" Everyone's skin felt a prickling. "I HATE ALL OF YOU, EVERY SINGLE ONE! YOU STARVED US AND LAUGHED AT US!" She swung at Puddinghead, but he dodged just in time, going to an Earth Pony fighting form.

"Well I hate you, acting so high and mighty, using your freaky magic to read our minds and change the weather and the sky! You have no right!" He shivered as his tail blew from side to side.

"No right!? It is our bloodright! Just because you ungifted and uncultured mud-sitters can't appreciate true magic, and just because you Pegasi are brutish violence-driven beasts doesn't mean you can humiliate us! I hate the both of you to my core!" She then spit on both sides of the border, and turned up her head at the others. Her mane was writhing in the gale now, and frost was growing on the ground. Suddenly All three rulers were trying to kill each other, knocking the rock back and forth.

Clover was looking for a chance to intervene, when she turned to see the entrance be covered in ice. "Look everypony, the entrance!" Every pony in the room dashed for the entrance, but it was too late, it had completely frozen over.

Hurricane slammed her wing blades into the ice, and then yanked them free and discarded them as they were also encased in ice. "Great, there's no way out. We're trapped."

"You two deserve this horrible fate, you've done nothing but argue and fight this whole time!"

"You did a bit of fighting too your royal heinie-ness."

"Yeah, worse, I haven't been fighting nearly as much as you!" The Chancellor growled. Not even caring as his hooves were frozen to the ground.

"Ridiculous, a unicorn lady never stoops to fighting."

"That's because you pansy unicorns know you never win!" She turned to the Chancellor. "Earth Ponies are numb-skulled!" She said before being completely frozen.

Princess Platinum turned to the frozen commander and shouted "Pegasi are brutes!" She too was covered in ice.

"Unicorns are snobs!" Chancellor said, determined to get in the last word." But he too, was frozen with a permanent glare.

The three remainders backed into the center of the room, actually bumping into each other. A loud groan came form the ceiling and the three of them looked up.Three ghostly horses, with their back legs trailing behind them and with glowing white eyes and billowing fog manes galloped in the gathering snow clouds, keeping the three of them in the center. "What are they?" Cookie said, mesmerized by the chilling sight.

"They must be Windigoes... my father, er... my teacher, Starswirl the Bearded told me of them, and my magic will be useless against them... They are winter spirits that feed on hatred and pain and strife, and the more hated there is, the more powerful the blizzard they make..."

"And the more powerful the blizzard is, the more hatred that pops up." The Doctor said grimly. He let a sad sort of smile creep onto his face, "Me an' Pinkie, on our travels, met up with monsters that fed on love, and now she's probably frozen because of monsters that feed on hate. Funny world."

"Then this is our fault, all three tribes, our constant fighting gave them too much power. We brought this on ourselves." cookie said solemnly. She reached into her vest and brought out a list of beads, and began muttering a short prayer. She looked up to the ghostly creatures and got an accepting expression on her face. "We killed ourselves and our own land, and now we've brought it to this one too."

Clover stepped away from the growing frost on the floor. "And soon our bodies will become as cold as our hearts, and we'll all die for our hatred, all tribes alike. All because we were foolish enough to hate!" She said it sadly, and she stopped moving away from the frost.

"Well, I don't hate you." The Doctor said, forcing his sad smile to get a little bigger, he pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver, but it was dead. He dropped it on the ground and watched as it was covered in ice. "I don't hate you at all, to say it frankly, I hated Hurricane a lot more than either of you."

Smart Cookie looked at him and laughed. "Well, you're a little bit more accepting than the rest of us, going around with an Earth Pony." The Doctor was about to say something, already getting red faced. "I don't mean anything mean by it, I'm just saying, I'm glad to know there's a Pegasus that cares for us Earth Ponies for a reason other than food." One of the Windigoes stopped in his charge, his eyes glowing with cold blue light, observing the three of them.

"And even then, I'm not even sure I hate her, did you see her crack back there? She's been fasting since we got in the cave, but she's keeping that full armor on so that her own soldiers won't notice, no commander that puts their soldiers so much above themselves can I really hate, but then again she did threaten Pinkie... no. I don't hate her."

"Heh, if it means anything, I don't hate the two of you either." Clover said, smiling at her two new friends. "We've played tic-tac-toe together for so many hours I can't imagine us not being friends."

Another Windigoe stopped and looked coldly at the three ponies.

"Me too, you two are alright." Smart Cookie said, nodding. The ice began creeping up their bodies, and the Doctor felt a warmth in his heart and frowned, but turning to Smart Cookie and Clover, also slowly freezing, he decided it was time to act. The cold covered him even more and he moved instinctively toward the two mares, the three of them moving their heads closer together. The ice had crawled all the way up to their shoulders, but the warmth had moved up to his forehead, and burned in his skull, a little bit of yellow light floated from his skin.

"No matter what tribe we are, we are all Ponies." Smart Cookie said quietly.

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Tommorow's the premiere of Season Three! I'm pretty sure I won't include the Season Three canon in my story though, maybe I can work it in, maybe not, after all, the climax of 'Vortexes are Magic' will involve Nightmare Moon, and s3 might add some things that don't agree with me, but I'll keep ya' posted.

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Eve of Equestria; Conclusion

The burning in his skull was getting hotter and hotter, his head felt like it would burst, and glowing yellow smoke rose from his mane. The ice covered his head and he felt his body shutting down, but he could feel the burning energy, the one source of warmth, his warmth, being pulled away! How dare whatever that is take his warmth! But he felt that the source wasn't something he could hate, so he let it take away the energy, and it didn't take much, just enough to spread a little bit more warmth around.

The Doctor let out a haggard breath as purple-pink flames spread over him, thawing him inside and out, the regeneration stopped, the energy being transferred to the flames, and his life no longer in danger. He sank to the ground next to Smart Cookie, and the two looked up at Clover, her coat white, her mane the pink flame. Cookie gaped at the unicorn, and the Windigoes stopped their charge, the three spirits landed in front of her, but they visibly flinched every time her magical flames came near.

"So... much power... I-I... this can't just be me, it had to be all of us, this magic came from the three of us, our friendship." She turned to the Windigoes, and every step she took melted the frost on the ground. "Winter Spirits, for all the hatred you bred, I cast you out!" She screamed, and her horn glowed with the magic, her fire washing over the three of them. The Doctor watched silently as the winter spirits writhed in the fire.

"You dare?" Cookie looked around for the source of the voice, but the Doctor kept his gaze on the spirits. "You dare to destroy us in hatred? "

"We do not hate you, we destroy you out of necessity, right Clover?" The Doctor put a hoof on the mare's shoulder, and she turned her angry sight on him, but seeing who it was, began calming down, the mint green color returning to her coat and the oak-wood color returning to her no longer flaming mane. But the fire coming from her horn did not stop, it merely became a brighter hue.

"R-right." The three spirits writhed in pain even more so, completely cut off from their source of hatred.

"Doctor!"

"The one who brings about eternal pain among the greatest of us!"

"The Sainted Physician, the Oncoming Storm, the One who Has the Answer that Must not be Spoken, the Predator, the Warrior, the last of his race."

"The moon Doctor, the moon will be your end, and you will die with the hatred of a million souls! You will die in the darkness!"

"How do you know this?"

"We are immortal Doctor, spirits of Hatred, Fear, Envy, shadows all. But the Greatest of Us, the Greatest, she will be your end, it has been seen, and you can do nothing, so die hating us, die hating all."

"We will be cast out now, but bring great hatred to this country and we will return, for we can only be cast out, you'll never kill us."

And the three of them were dispersed by the flames, the wispy fog-like bodies evaporating and being blown away by the fire.

"What was that last bit?" Smart Cookie said uneasily.

"If hatred comes back to this land, they'll return..." Clover repeated. "...Well then, it's only a matter of time. The colonies are probably dead, and if so, our tribes will only send more, and they'll carry their hatred with them."

"Then we go back, and tell them about what happened." Smart Cookie said, brushing herself off and going up to the other mare. "We tell our leaders all about the Windigoes back home, and then we can divert our conflict against them! Peace between tribes, united against a common enemy."

"Won't work, our 'flames of friendship'..." The Doctor made a funny face when he said it, but switched to a more serious look immediately. "... hurt them, but it only really worked when we didn't hate them." He picked up his Sonic Screwdriver, and giving it a wave, saw that it was indeed working, but just barely, sparks were firing off angrily from it. He pointed it at the remaining flames on the ground and activated it, causing the fire to inflate into a swirling vortex. He tossed the screwdriver in and frowned as he heard a loud 'pop', but the fire roared to life, and stayed alive minutes later. "We can fight them, but we have to fight them with regret, with a determination, but we can't let it become too personal, something I don't think the people in your homelands will appreciate."

As the other two considered it he sat back down by the fire, and pulled off his armor, it wasn't cold by the fire.

They spent hours in that cave, they talked about their experiences, Cookie's time in college, Clover studying magic, and the Doctor's experience with the Changelings in Cloudsdale, but he was very careful to take out any mention of it happening many millenia from now. They made up songs and wrote poetry, and they even invented a way to play tic-tac-toe with three people, it was lost to the tides of history unfortunately.

After only a few hours the other three began to thaw, and as they did the fire grew larger. "Commander?" The Doctor said hopefully.

"Wh-what is it? D-did we win?"

"Against the enemy that mattered, no thanks to you."

"Huh?"

"I'll tell you in a little bit, the others are thawing too. Take off the armor and go sit by the fire, it'll warm you up."

"I-I want to k-keep the armor on."

"You're shivering, there's cold metal on your skin, just go warm up by the fire you pansy."

"Who are you calling a pansy, Pansy?"

The Doctor sighed and took off his temporary Commander's armor, letting her now obviously starving form rest by the flames, she fell asleep again under it's embrace. The Doctor turned to see a similar situation unfold with Chancellor Puddinghead and Princess Platinum, who had tossed her priceless robe into the fire because it was wet with melted ice and had given her one chill too many.

"Three, two, one!" The Doctor shouted. "Go!" And all six of them charged the ice in front of them at full strength, leaving a large crack on the wall, and six dizzy ponies. "Ugh... Clover, are you sure no magic works against this?"

"No, the ice and snow caused by the Windigoes was always slightly magical, it melted much slower than normal, and it was completely resistant to magic, only telekinesis on the air around them could we use."

"What about a rock? Could you throw that rock at the ice with telekinesis?"

"Sure, but it won't do much, the ice has a way of being unbreakable, it absorbs impacts really well, but if we can harm it with just a tackle then maybe by now..." She levitated the rock the three leaders had been fighting over, and flung it as hard as she could against the ice with her telekinesis, it shattered through the ice and embedded itself in the wall behind it.

"Sweet freedom!" Princess Platinum yelled before diving out of the cave, and as she landed on her flank she began to shiver again, but she could feel it wasn't nearly as cold as it had been the days before. She walked over to the three groups' soldiers, examining them, they were flash-frozen, stuck in the positions they had been fighting each other in, it looked like it was a crazed attempt to reach their cave.

She moved to a unicorn guard and frowned, her hoof touching his face before drawing back, it was wet, they were already beginning to thaw. "Clover! Bring that fire over here! And give it as much juice as you can muster!"

"Yes your Highness!"

The Doctor walked over to an Earth Pony mare, one who was frozen standing on top of two stallion's heads with her tongue sticking out. He stretched out his wing to her, the tip barely glowing with yellow-orange light, and the feather began melting through the ice.

Clover trudged along, supported by every unicorn they had freed, as well as the Princess herself, carrying the gigantic pink fireball with their magic. As it came within a few hundred feet it began melting the cursed snow immediately, flash-thawing every frozen pony they came across as well. Under the Earth Pony's legs choked grass sprung back up, drinking in the now revealed sunlight and the newly melted water, and allowing themselves to be guided by the presence of Earth Pony magic. The Pegasi took turns crashing through the fireball and thawing the colonists that had left the central camps. They went to the Earth Pony Colony first, and thawed every mare, stallion and foal before turning around and heading for Pegasopolis.

And after thawing the thousands of Pegasi the Unicorns made the long trek backwards to thaw their own families.

The three tribes' colonists took the thawing and the new found warmth of the land with gratitude, and weren't afraid to show it, even to the soldiers of their former enemies. By the end of the day over seven thousand ponies of varying species sat around the gigantic fireball, which had grown visibly with every thawed pony, and sang songs.

"Well Doctor, what happens next?" Pinkie asked, pulling off her party hat and hanging it up on the too-high coat hook inside the Tardis.

"Well, first of all- ooh! It's done!" He ran to the other side of the module and pulled out the freshly-made Sonic Screwdriver. He put it in his mouth and swung it over the Tardis's module, the lights and sounds of the Tardis becoming more alive. "First of all, we need to get out of here."

"But the party just ended, and it's not even dark out yet! And they'll need you!"

"I already convinced them to all commit treason at once, well, most of them, and got them to think about a new government, If I stuck around and wrote up the actual thing for them I'd be interfering too much, besides, I don't want to be part of the Government in the first place, far from it. The closest thing I'll agree to being is a military consultant, and only if necessary."

"But if we just leave won't that be mentioned in the history books?"

"Of course- isn't it? Actually- don't tell me, if you tell me anything from the history books about me it'll happen and there's nothing we can do to change it."

"From what I remember you aren't even mentioned."

"Well... after fifty thousand years things can be forgotten..." But the Doctor looked a little hurt.

"The others were all mentioned, we have a play actually, every year to celebrate. I played Puddinghead! It was really fun actually meeting him, and let me tell you- he can't hold a drink."

"Please tell me you didn't drink any of that Pegasus beer."

"Just a few bottles, don't give me that look, I'm an adult, and I can hold it better than any of these guys."

"But are you sure they didn't mention me?"

"Well in the play, Dashie played Hurricane, AJ played Smart Cookie, I played Chancellor Puddinghead, Twilight played Clover, and Fluttershy played-"

"He's gone!? After all that, and he just cuts town the second things stop being exciting!?" Platinum said shocked.

"Yep, apparently nopony saw him after the party ended, he's been gone for days."

Clover sighed and looked over the list of articles they had written up, on the bottom were seventy-seven signatures, the head of every prominent family in the colony, and most importantly the five founders, but at the very bottom was a blank spot for the last founders name. "He was the one who told us that we needed to build a new country, free of our old hatred." She shook her head, "Heh, you know what, I don't even remember his name." She said with a wide smile.

"Yeah, I don't think he ever told us." Smart Cookie said. "We spent hours and hours together talking about anything we could think of and we didn't ask his name."

"He didn't tell me his name." Hurricane said from the corner of the room. "Even when I asked, I just wrote down 'Private Doctor'. But that sounds more like a rank than a name. I actually called him 'Private Pansy'."

"Well then, I guess we'll have to do with seventy seven signatures." But then they all stopped when they heard a thrumming and beeping sound. Seconds later the Doctor rushed in, a pen in his mouth. No one in the room could even talk to him before he scribbled on the document, winked and left.

He came back in an instant later though, "Commander, I'm leaving the military, I like the name by the way. Always preferred being called a coward than a killer." And he left for the final time, the thrumming coming after him. The five ponies rushed after him, and Clover threw open the large oak door to see an outline of a blue box fading away, and no sign of the Doctor.

Puddinghead turned back inside and looked over the Articles of Equustria, he looked to the last name on the paper and fell to the ground laughing. The seventy-eighth signature said in big sloppy letters; 'Private Pansy'.

And he didn't notice that the night sky was completely black, with not a star in sight.

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Well, i was kind of disappointed by the s3 Premiere, the songs seemed a little forced and unnecessary, Sombra got next to no screen time and only one line in the entire thing, and they built almost no story for the crystal empire (something I will take full advantage of!) I did enjoy the climax with Spike and Twilight though, but overall, not what I waited six months for. However, I decided on one important thing- Season three will be cannon for my story. Also, I will delete any comments relating to 'gak' with extreme prejudice, you have been warned.

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Side Story-The Angel's Crusade.

"What are you talking about?!"

"I swear I saw it move!"

"You're just trying to scare me again."

"Sweetie Belle, I swear on my position in the RD fanclub I am telling the truth that thing- EEEEKK! It did it again, I looked away and it came closer!"

"Yeah right." Applebloom walked up to the statue and looked it up and down. "This thing is made of granite." She hit it a few times with her hoof. "It couldn't move even if it were alive!"

"See?" Sweetie Belle said, her voice wavering slightly.

"J-just... can we leave? If you don't believe me about the one creepy thing I did see what's the point in being Cutie Mark Crusader Ghost Busters?" Scootaloo said shivering, keeping an eye on the statue.

"No! We haven't found a ghost yet!" Applebloom said defiantly, hitting the statue again for emphasis.

"How do you even know there's a stupid ghost here anyway?" Scootaloo said, trying to feign confidence.

"Over forty ponies have disappeared here, never leaving a trace." Applebloom said, standing on her hind legs and shining the bottom of her face with a flashlight dramatically.

"What?!" Sweetie Belle shouted. She ran to a window and looked outside, frowning as she looked over the overgrown lawn of the house. "Why would we come here!?"

"Because ponies have seen the ghosts of the disapeared ponies here, and we're going to catch one!" Applebloom said, turning her back on the statue ad walking past Sweetie Belle, she tapped her on the shoulder and then nudged Scootaloo. "Let's go check the attic next."

Scootaloo gave one last look at the statue and turned to follow Applebloom to the next story of the haunted house. They went into the next hall before they heard Sweetie Belle shriek. The two of them shot back into the hall and started yelling for Sweetie Belle.

"Sweetie Belle?" Applebloom called, she took a hesitant look at the window, and saw that her friend had not fallen out. Scootaloo looked in the rooms next to the hall, but Sweetie wasn't in any of them. "Sweetie Belle this isn't funny." she let herself glance at the statue, and could have sworn it had turned an inch to face her. "Sweetie please come out." Her voice cracked, she walked into the room, seeing the spiderwebs on the ceiling and the dust on the bed. Her gaze was left on a single long crack in the wall. Turn around now. She turned around and saw the statue was no longer there. She let her gaze fall on the crack and the strange voice that came from it, and started slowly walking toward the hall, fear shaking her every step.

"Scoota-" Applebloom screamed, and Scootaloo forgot her fear instantly and rushed out after her, she saw the statue had moved to stand above her friend, and had covered her mouth with it's hoof, it's wings obscuring her friend.

"Get off of her you ghost!" Scootaloo shouted. And she closed her eyes, tackling the statue, she bounced off of it and rubbed her head, "Ow-owowow.... Applebloom?" Scootaloo realized that the statue had moved it's wings and that Applebloom was no longer there. "Wh-what did you do with her you monster?!" She blinked. The statue was now turned toward her. Scootaloo blinked in surprise, and it was closer, on it's hind legs, the fore-hoof it had been using to cover it's eyes now pointed to her, and it's face was emotionless, creepy and beautiful at the same time. She blinked again, any beauty in the mare statue's face had disappeared, for inside her mouth were rows of savage pointed teeth. She blinked again.

"So Pinkie, you said you needed to pick some things up?"

"Yep! Also, do you think I could invite my friends to come along?"

"... Sure... The more the merrier I suppose." The Doctor leaned in the entrance of the Tardis. "But don't let things become too domestic, no boyfriends or parents... on second thought I've had the most fun with the boyfriends and family of my companions, so feel free."

Pinkie came back pushing a pink cannon and a pile of party supplies. She then brought in a bag of flour and sugar, some paper, rubber balls, dynamite, a grappling hook, tooth brush, etc."

"How... do we even brush our teeth?" The Doctor asked.

"You don't brush your teeth?" Pinkie asked, scrunching up her face in an 'ew' expression.

"Of course I do... just not since I became a pony, which is about the same time you've gone without a toothbrush."

"hmm... fine, like this." She held it up in her hoof and brought it across her teeth a few times.

"Why is it our hooves can bend that far back?"

"Why is it the sky is blue?" Pinkie asked, rolling her eyes at him. She pulled out a kazoo and flung it into the pile in the Tardis. "So where do you want to head this time?"

"I'm thinking... the future, the far far future." Then he shook his head and reconsidered. "Actually, let's try another planet!"

"I still don't know what you mean by that."

He let out a sigh. "How is it you've had all this technology and magic for so many millenia and you haven't even discovered another planet! A civilization your age could have conquered a galaxy by now."

"What would we do with a galaxy- Oh hi Applejack!"

"Pinkie- you're back! Where were you?"

"Luna didn't tell you?"

"What do you mean? Celestia locked her in her tower after the whole ordeal with the Daleks, and- you're that stallion! The Princess said we were supposed to arrest you on sight!"

"What were you going to say before you realized that Pinkie was even here?"

"Have you seen my sister? But I guess you wouldn't have, you've been gone for a whole day."

"Really? It's been like a week for me."

"Huh..." Applejack stated, then she frowned at the Doctor, "Don't think I'm not coming back for you, it's just I need to find my sister."

"Where did you last see her?" The Doctor asked, following her.

"She said somthin' about being ghost busters and then she ran off with her friends."

"Ghost Busters?" The Doctor smirked.

"Yeah whatever, just leave me alone k? I'll let you go this time."

"No, I think I'll come with."

"Really?" Applejack asked, confused.

"Of course, and I'm coming too! I wouldn't be a good friend if I left the moment you needed my help!" Pinkie pronked happily after the two of them.

Applejack suddenly skidded to a halt. "When did you become a pegasus?" She asked, staring at the Doctor's wings.

"He hit his head, come on, didn't you say this was an emergency?"

"He hit his- what kind of an explanation is that?"

"So why exactly are we here?"

"This is the only haunted house near Ponyville, the only place a aspiring Ghost Buster could come to in hopes of catching a spirit, forty ponies disappeared here, including the owners, their heirs, and the police stallions investigating the place, and the officially sanctioned pyros that were supposed to burn this place down." He looked up at the thick treeline. "But by now it's part of the Everfree forest, and no one can get a thunder cloud over the place to burn it down because they all go feral. And why they haven't repaired the mysteriously destroyed wall around it, the forest itself is enough a deterrent for most ponies."

"But not my sister and her friends."

"Yep, every pony that stepped into this house in a group smaller than thirty has disappeared without a trace."

Pinkie leaned over to him. "You stopped at the library when you said you needed to go to the colt's room didn't you?" She whispered.

"Yep!"

"Come on, my sister is in there, and so is Rarity's, and their friend."

"Didn't you hear me? Every pony that walked into that house has never came back out."

"I heard ya' I just don't care, my sister could be in trouble."

"Then what are we standing around here for?"

Applejack and Pinkie Pie walked ahead, while the Doctor took up the rear and kept an eye out. The Doctor was trying to be his most alert, to take in every detail of the house, any sight that could hide the fillies or a 'ghost'. He jumped five feet in the air when he heard Pinkie scream, he flipped his wings in the air and launched in front of her, shielding her from whatever made her yell. "S-sorry Doctor, I just got freaked out when I saw that... I'm not sure why though, goosebumps, weak knees, cold sweat, all at once... hmm..."

The Doctor looked at what had scared Pinkie. It was a statue of a mare in greek robes, with four wings, and it covered it's eyes with it's hair and a raised fore leg. He narrowed his eyes and pointed his Sonic Screwdriver at it. "Don't blink, just in case, I'll tell you when you can..." He flashed the blue light over the statue's features and in the air around it. He frowned. "Not good, not good, not good."

"What?"

"Alright, I need you all to back up slowly, never taking your eyes off the statue."

"What are you talking about Doctor?" Applejack said, Pinkie's gaze was drawn from the statue to Applejack for an instant, and the Doctor immediately turned to look at it, it had clearly moved it's hoof away from it's face. "What in blazes was that?!"

"The moment they aren't being observed they can move, you have to see it, have to stare at it, if you blink it gets you, incredibly quickly."

"Gets you- what are you talking about?! Did this thing k- g... g-get Applebloom and her friends?"

"If they were here. Yes."

"Then they weren't here, and neither are we, let's get out of here, warn the princess, and have her burn this place to the ground." Applejack started walking backwards slowly, and the Doctor rose in the air.

"Go down the stairs, I'll stare at it, both of you get down safely." Pinkie glanced back at it and galloped down the stairs, stopping at the bottom and looking up at the tip of the Angel's wing.

Applejack looked behind her again and moved down the steps, stopping in a place where she could still see the angel. "I'm down, hey, Doctor, I saw that thing from the window up there, after we get out you can just fly out the window there."

"Hurry, my eyes are watering!"

Applejack and Pinkie began galloping out, following the path they came from and coming toward the main entrance of the manor, Applejack skidded to a halt an inch in front of the door and turned around. There were four statues like the one upstairs, on the sides of the hall, and either side of the main staircase they had just come down. Pinkie fumbled with the door knob and frowned. "It's locked!" She moved her head up to the spy hole and jumped back, she had seen a smiling stone face on the other side. "There's one outside!"

"And there are four more in here... I think." Applejack kept her eyes open, trying to keep all four in her line of vision.

"This is not good, not good at all!" Pinkie said, her eyebrows coming closer together, she frowned and ran back up the stairs. "DOCTOR! ARE YOU STILL UP THERE!?" She yelled.

There was no answer.

"Applejack..."

"I know Pinkie, just... jus- grrr..." Applejack forced her eyes all the way open again. "Just... stay calm, and keep your eyes on them. Applejack heard a beating of wings above her and forced herself not to glance up. "Pinkie, what's up there?" Pinkie turned her head upward and a statue crashed a foot in front of Applejack. She yelped and jumped back against the wall, hitting her head, she closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof. She realized her mistake a second too late.

Pinkie stared as hard as she could, when the angel fell she had blinked in surprise, and in that time the one that fell must have outstretched it's hoof, the other four had also moved closer. And Applejack was nowhere to be seen.

"Applejack?" She said silently, "Doctor?" she said a little louder. "Applejack! Doctor! Applejack! Doctor!!" she began chanting, her eyes wavering as she stared at the five angels, she accidently blinked and all five had turned toward her, no longer covering their faces. "Please help!"

"Great, you killed us, and now we're dead." Scootaloo said for the twentieth time.

"We ain't dead! And how would it be my fault?"

"Because you didn't believe me about the ghost!"

"It was a statue!"

"A haunted statue." Scootaloo said, turning her head away from Applebloom.

"I don't want to be dead..." Sweetie Belle said, looking around the golden field of tall grass. "This is boring..." She looked down at her flank. "And we never got our Cutie Marks..."

Scootaloo looked to her own flank as well and let her head droop. "I... I hadn't really thought of that..."

"We ain't dead, and we will get out Cutie Marks, we just got, whaddya call it, teleported! Just sent somewhere else is all." Applebloom said with a determined nod.

With a flash of light a tan Pegasus wearing a vest appeared. "Agghghhh-guh...ugh... huh?" He looked around, blinking over and over. "Well that was nerve-wracking... Oh well." He looked at the three fillies. "Are any of you named Applebloom per chance?"

"Ah'm Applebloom."

"Your sister's been looking for you, all of you, did the angel's send you here?"

"You mean the haunted statue? Did it kill you too?" Scootaloo said uncertainly.

"Weeping Angel's, only species in the universe to kill you nicely."

"So we are dead!" Sweetie Belle said, sinking to her haunches.

"Well, not exactly, you just got sent to a different place at a different time, effectively you're all dead, but without the whole nasty ordeal of actually dying."

"Are we dead or not?!" Sweetie Belle said in a panic.

"You are alive, very much alive, and I'm going to do everything in my power to bring us all back to the right time." He looked around. "First I need to find a map, a pen, some paper, and a town!"

Another flash appeared and Applejack was on the ground, braced for something to fall on her. "Applejack!" Applebloom shouted.

Applejack looked up and put on as mean a face as she could, but that didn't stop the filly from jumping onto and hugging her sister, and that melted the meanness away instantly. "Don't you dare do something so scary again, alright? And ah mean all of you, if your special talent is almost dying you're better off without the mark, ya get me?" She turned to the Doctor. "Where are we Doctor?"

"Oh dear, hopefully you can tell us, we are still in Equestria, but who knows how far away..."

Applejack looked around, seeing the trees and the mountains. "We're less than an hour away, follow me!" Applejack galloped off, and the Doctor took to the sky. "Come on kids!"

The three crusaders hurried to catch up with them.

Pinkie couldn't keep rubbing her eyes, and she just knew, knew, that the other angel would be sneaking around to the other side of the house. She just let her eyes burn, and hoped that her eyes being watered over wouldn't count as not seeing. She jumped a foot in the air at the sound of the doorbell ringing. She caught herself though, and even though she had blinked she looked down fast enough to see all five of them again, and balanced on two of their heads. "Um... excuse me, but..." came a voice on the other side of the door.

"Open the door!" Pinkie screamed. The door swung open and a mailmare Pegasi was standing on the other side. "Now stare at the statues! Don't blink, no matter what!"

"Alright!" She cocked her head to the side a little, letting her eyes, which went in different directions, rest on all five. "Um... how long do I-" Pinkie jumped from the statues heads and landed behind the mailmare, and looked around for the other one.

"Must have sneaked around from the side..." She slammed the door on the angels' faces and flinched as five impacts against the rotting wood rung out at the same time. She squinted into the spy-hole, but they only work one way.

"How did you know I was here?" Pinkie asked, blinking a few hundred times.

The mailmare responded by handing a very old letter to Pinkie. It was addressed; 'Deliver to Stanhorse Manor 3487-b, near the Everfree Forest, on this date;' then the date had been scribbled in and scratched out twice, then written a final time in bold letters. It also gave the specific time. "I made sure to be right on time, sure, I'm clumsy, but I'm always punctual, that's me ol' punctual D-"

"Sorry to interrupt you but, there are things in there that will try to do... something to us... they made my friends disapear from thin- how old is that letter?"

"Almost forty years."

"They got sent back in time!" Pinkie hit a hoof to her head as if that was obvious. She snatched the letter and opened it up, "Thanks miss mailmare!"

"Not a problem!" She then hovered off in a lopsided way, Pinkie watched the gray Pegasus fly off, and then noticed something falling in her peripheral vision, one of the statues had gone after the mailmare, and got caught in her sight mid-air. She wondered if it survived the crash. She opened the letter and frowned, it was very, very long, and was written very small. But she knew she could do it.

Pinkie was alone in the Tardis, and she glared at the controls, she let her eyes fall upon the letter one more time, and now confident her subconscious had memorized the directions, promptly chewed the paper and spit it out in a garbage can. She clopped her hoofs together and a dark grin spread across her face, and she descended on the controls, following every whim of the Pinkie Sense. She turned controls, pulled levers, pressed buttons, played notes on musical instruments, and looked at the pretty colors that flashed back at her. When all was said and done, the Tardis's whooshing sound filled the room, and she could see on the monitor that she was in the place directed by the letter. She opened the doors and smiled as the Cutie Mark crusaders, Applejack, and the Doctor, were standing outside, and everypony but Applejack had ink all over their faces. Probably inexperience with the old-fashioned pens.

"Come on in!" Pinkie said with a smile. The others offered their hanks as they went into the box, and expressing their wonder with the much larger inside, but the Doctor stopped by the entrance. "So, Pinkie you didn't have to wait too long, did you?"

"No, just three or four minutes really."

"Four whole minutes without blinking?!"

"Heh, I've been the unquestioned runner-up for the last three years' Ponyville Staring Tournament." Her smile became even wider. "Fluttershy always beats me though, even without her special stare!" She looked up and said in a very serious voice. "That is why she is the true stare-master."

"Heh, well, I hope it didn't freak you out too much, the letter came in okay?"

"Yep! Memorized it, and did it!" She gestured proudly to the Tardis's module. "Maybe you'll teach me how to go anywhere with it?" She said hopefully. The Doctor looked at her and gave a sly smile.

"We'll see."

"Sister, may I come out now?"

"...Yes, sure... perhaps it was silly of me to confine you to your room... makes you seem like a child, I apologize."

"No sister, if I wanted to look like a child I would have said 'you aren't my mom' and stormed off." Luna looked up at the moon, feeling it's pull as always, her ethereal mane blowing in its magical winds, felt by no other pony alive. "I wonder about Mother sometimes..."

"Luna,"

"Don't worry, I know, I know... but... hm?"

Celestia followed Luna's gaze to her desk. There appeared a scroll in a burst of green flame. "That's strange, why would Twilight send a letter to your room?"

"I wonder..." Luna said, lifting the scroll to her with telekinesis. "It's from Applejack." Luna stated. "Hmm..."

"What does it say?"

"Apparently she's asking us to burn down a manor in the Everfree forest, she says it attracts children looking to be ghost busters, and is a safety risk to the foals of Ponyville."

"So the Crusaders investigated the haunted mansion and Applejack got spooked? That's sweet." Celestia smiled, but she quickly stopped when she saw Luna's face had only grown more serious. "Luna?"

"She says that there was- no, are, creatures there that make ponies disappear, and send them through time. The Crusaders were all sent, as well as Applejack. If it wasn't for the Doctor, they'd all be living in the 960's."

Celestia was suddenly behind her sister, reaching her neck over to look at the note. "So it says... I have a feeling he's somehow responsible for the creature though, go ahead, ask him sometime, I'm sure it'll be his fault."

"So you'll allow me to talk to him?"

"...Yes, he saved three fillies and Applejack, and apparently Twilight, or at least Spike, think that it allows him pardon enough that they aren't reporting him." She sighed, "I'll give him one pardon, one visit and I won't make him atone for his sins, but afterwards, he'll face what's coming to him by our laws."

Luna smiled at her sister and nuzzled against her. "I think we'll have to talk to the Doctor about the creatures before we do anything to deal with them."

"Why? If we get sent back in time your Doctor can just bring us back."

"Oh God, Luna, don't blink, don't blink, Luna, if you blink!" Celestia was on two legs, her wings tight against her sides, up against the wall, the Weeping Angel was up against her, Celestia began burning a hole behind her, and fell through the hole, the Angel dropping behind her, it fell out of her gaze for an instant. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-"

"Please, please tell me we have all of them!" Luna said, keeping four trapped in telekinesis. "I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of eternity about this!" She kept forcing herself not to shudder and look away.

"Uh... one of them-"

"THEN YOU ARE GETTING THAT ONE, I'm going to take these four and place them in the darkest depth of Tartarus- wait, the brightest, most observed spot in Tartarus, and have the guards keep me posted that they are safely locked away forever."

"A-alright... I'll get the last one."

"You do that." Luna took to the sky, sending a laser beam at the manor, something glinted that caught her eye, but she chose to ignore it, probably just some bit of glass reflecting her beam's light.

As the manor burned down a single crack that had been in a wall still stood as the rest of it burned around it. The crack opened slightly, white light shining down on the area around it, and a spider's web became younger and younger, until it shrank into nothing. Out of the light came cries of metallic voices, hissings and growlings, and four drum beats. And five words.

The shadow over the moon.

Stars Part 1

Luna looked up at the stars, seeing the strands of light that emanated from the Crystal Empire, she frowned at the mere mention of the name. But she couldn't say that she didn't enjoy the simple tainted happiness that emanated from the light. She shook her head. The mysterious Empire itself was not to blame, but rather, it's one-time ruler. She shuddered, and trotted away from the glass.

She often patrolled the halls of Canterlot's throne room by night. It was always interesting for her to see the stain-glass windows by starlight. She stopped by the newest one, the image of Spike holding the Crystal Heart. She let herself lie on the ground and sighed. She had stayed up the previous day, instead of going to sleep at daybreak as per usual. She passed one stain glass window after another, each dedicated to an act of heroism done in their era, heroes would arise to defend Equestria in the hopes their heroism would earn them a window that would be viewed by ponies and their monarchs for generations. At least, that's how it was before she was sent away.

She stopped by the image of Nightmare Moon being blasted by the six elements. She really shouldn't have been that rude to Twilight this morning, but she was tired, and had apologized later. It was a beautiful work of art, it pictured Nightmare Moon trapped in a purple sphere, writhing in pain, as the six elements' purple beams covered her sphere. It had not happened that way at all though, what with the rainbows making a double helix, but she appreciated the artist's creative changes. The same artist had come to make a window of Spike bathing in the light of that horrid crystal heart.

She shook her head, the light made so many of the ponies so happy. But as she turned behind her the rims of metal supporting the window made a much more interesting grid of shadows on the ground, the tints in the glass making interesting shaded designs among the shadow's lines.

Today was a cause for celebration, apparently Sombra had been killed again, like that'll last, the Crystal Ponies had returned, and their light of happiness stroked the heavens. But when she looked down at the streets of Canterlot still up in their celebration she felt strangely depressed by the entire turn of events. Her thoughts began to turn back to simpler times, before she had any great responsibility or guilt, when she had only a few close friends and family, she made her way to her bed and lied down on it, and dreamed of the past.

"Doctor, grab the bugle!" Pinkie yelled from where she was pinned down by the gigantic paw.

"I can't play the bugle!"

"You don't have to, just throw it to me!" The Doctor stretched out his hoof and stuck it into the brass loop of the instrument and passed it upward the the pink mare, who was actually pinned down against the wall. She managed to catch it in her teeth and gave a gigantic blow on it, sending a single loud note directly at the beast's ear. The Ursa Major lifted up it's other paw and brought it to his ear, growling at the pink mare and pushing her even harder against the rock, but without her holding the Doctor down he managed to fly up to the ledge where his Sonic Screwdriver had been knocked.

He grabbed it in his mouth and flew up to the Ursa's face. He lit up the screwdriver and waved it to the left, a high pitched buzzing coming from it, and the Ursa's pupils shrunk and he looked at the screwdriver in a trance. "Let her go! And gently!" The gigantic celestia bear did exactly that, letting down the pink pony as gently as it possibly could. "Now then, let's have a look at that paw." The Ursa Major moved it's foot near the Doctor and he looked at the smoking red star that had been caught in it's foot. "Ooh, a comet, that's a nasty kind of foot infection, moving so fast it burns yet so cold it hurts... let's get that out of there." He changed the frequency on the screwdriver and grimaced as the comet began boring it's way out of the Ursa's foot. It popped out after only a few seconds though, and the Doctor caught it in two hooves. "Come on Pinkie, let's get out of here before the trance wears off."

"What about the Major?"

"It'll be fine, a little thing like a splinter-sized hole in her foot won't bother her for long, the comet hurt her a lot more, she'll be fine and-" The Doctor looked down at his Screwdriver, somehow deciphering the pattern of lights. "-She's pregnant! A beautiful baby boy in a few decades."

Pinkie and the Doctor walked from the gigantic cave and made their way to the Tardis, the people of Hoofington wouldn't have to worry about Ursa's coming out of the woods for quite a while. The Doctor looked at the 'comet' and smiled. "Hey Pinkie, want to release this from space?"

Pinkie gasped. "Would I!?" She grabbed it from his hoof and started jumping up and down in the Tardis's entrance. "Hurry hurry! And then we can go back in time and land on the ground and watch us releasing the shooting star!"

"I don't think we'd be able to see it from that far off Pinkie."

"Then we should just release it a little closer to the atmosphere!"

"heh, fine but if it hits anyone on the head they're suing you."

The Doctor swung open the doors and Pinkie stretched her neck out over the blue and green world below. With a loud 'ptew!' she spit the comet out of her mouth and it streaked down toward the world, the gravity catching it and flinging it around the other side of the planet. Pinkie watched as it streaked, it's tail of light extending behind it. "Beautiful! Now let's go see it from the ground!" Pinkie said in glee, pronking back and forth in the Tardis's doorway.

"Uh... Pinkie..." The Doctor said slowly. Looking over the black emptiness of space above them. "There... are no stars." He let out a single loud laugh. His eyes shrinking. "Where are they?"

Pinkie investigated the sky. "What age are we in right now?" She asked.

"Does it matter?! The stars will all go out eventually, in any universe, but not until trillion upon trillion upon so many trillions of years! Stars reproduce and grow and split and die and give birth to new stars, and until all the energy of the universe is spent there will always be more stars!" He looked from side to side, seeing only the sun, the moon, and the comet they released. "There is something very, very wrong."

"What age Doctor?"

"Huh? Um..." He went back to the monitor, "a few millenia back, so we wouldn't hit any of the populated cities of your time, or stop any from forming. We're about... more than thirty thousand years back by your calender."

"Well that explains it." Pinkie Pie smiled at the Doctor. "Stars weren't invented until around that time anyway."

"But... that... what.... huh?" The Doctor gave her a crazy almost smirk. "N-not... invented?"

"Nope!"

"Uh... wh-who invented them, do you think?"

"Um... Luna, or maybe that one wizardy guy that Twilight dressed as."

"This is insane! How can- ugh..." The Doctor raised an eyebrow and pulled something out of his vest pocket. "Oh, yeah, almost forgot I had this, it's for you." The Doctor gave her the piece of paper.

Pinkie read it slowly. "Um, the message keeps changing."

"What does it say?"

"Um... return home, oh yeah!"

"What?"

"I left a psychic note for myself! To go home after eight weeks so I can make it for the early-surprise birthday party for myself that Gummi is planning! And because I'm eight weeks older than normal I'll still be celebrating my birthday at the right time for my body, then I just need to come back eight weeks later next year and everything will even out! I guess it was reflected on your psychic paper. I can do that kind of thing!" A sudden realization came to Pinkie. "I don't know your birthday!"

"Oh, it doesn't matter, I don't even know for sure... I'm more interested in this whole star thing, what kind of creature has the power to make stars appear from nothing!?"

"Um..." Pinkie shifted her gaze to the note and back to the Doctor. "Can we figure it out after my birthday?"

The Doctor regarded her for a moment, and smiled. "Sure Pinkie."

The Doctor stayed in a nearby cloud, which he had parked the Tardis on, and watched on the festivities below. They had stayed in the 'present' for three days before the party was thrown for Pinkie's birthday, and the Doctor had even gone down and danced with her for a while, before Twilight recognized him and tried to tie him up, Pinkie managed to convince Twilight to rejoin the party after she helped the Doctor get away. Applejack even got in Twilight's way to help him escape, perhaps he'd be excepted among the ponies yet.

Then something occurred to him. He dived down toward the Party, and slid under a buffet table without being noticed, he then made his way stealthily to the party mare herself. "Pinkie!"

"Yeah Doctor?" She said, spinning around in the dress Rarity gave her and wiping some frosting off her mouth.

"Um, when you met Luna, did she recognize you?"

"No... not the first time, why?"

"Then that means that when I fall in love with Luna, or she falls in love with me, in the future you know, or the past... whatever, but that means that you weren't there!"

"What?! But you've taken me on every adventure for a while now, right?"

"Yes, the whole time I've been in this universe I was hanging around with you."

"So does that mean that I'm not traveling with you in the future?"

"...Maybe... but don't let it change your mood, I was just curious."

"There you are again, the Princess would like a word with you!" Twilight's horn glowed as the unicorn charged at the Doctor.

"Gotta go! I'll come get you tomorrow!"

"I'll save you some cake!" Pinkie shouted to him as he flew into the sky, dodging bolts of pink-purple magic.

"Pinkie, where are you? Are you home?" The Doctor asked, tapping on the window a few times. A small pegasus foal came to the window and babbled something out. "are you absolutely sure?" The foal babbled something else out and giggled. "I am not a hedgehog!... but thanks for the info anyway, see you your Great Flour-ry Excellency." Pound Cake let out a babble of happiness someone used his 'real' name.

The Doctor fluttered back up to the Tardis and frowned. "Well, it's her choice, and she could always just contact me with the paper." The Doctor frowned though. "But I've never heard of this 'Crystal Empire' before, I think I would've heard about it from her or any of the ponies from Hearth's warming." He looked around at the empty sky. "And I'm talking to myself." He frowned though. It was her birthday, and she deserved her own time off, but it must have been important enough that she would leave with only a note on the fridge that Pound Cake managed to reproduce the lettering of.

He looked to the sky and felt a determination rise up in his chest. "The stars take precedence, Pinkie will come back on her own time, and if not, she'll find her own fun." With that the Doctor ran up to the module. "Starswirl, Luna, and the first stars..." He set the monitor to look for a good date and place, and he went with the first on the list. "Well, Unicornia here I come!"

An Earth Pony farmer sighed and put down his newspaper. All it ever talked about was the preaching of politicians about Utopia, or bagging of other politician's version of Utopia. He sighed and kicked a dead tomato plant. Utopia indeed, the Pegasi in his area plotted a revolt, then went into hiding the first sign anypony outside of the village came to deal with it. But a shadow, no two shadows, streaked the ground, and they were shrinking. He lifted his hoof above his eyes and squinted into the bright summer high-noon sky, two Pegasi were heading for his farm, "well it's about time!" He shouted upward at the two of them, who were banking to land near his position. He was about to go off complaining, but as he regarded the two ponies before him he was at a loss for words.

The two of them were taller than any pony he had ever seen. And besides their already much larger and more fully grown wings, they had on their heads unicorn horns, ones that were almost three times longer the average one as well. But the thing that drew him to them was their billowing ethereal manes and their lithe but incredibly strong bodies. He felt as if he should bow, but millenia of disdaining monarchies and popular religion for centuries leaves a stubbornness in a pony's bones.

But that wasn't to say he wasn't very respectful. "Um... h-hello." One of the majestic creatures turned to him, and he felt his heart rate go up slightly. The deep blue eyes of the pony before him stared into his soul, and left him wanting to make what they saw something they would be proud of.

"Hello, noble Earth Pony, I beseech your hospitality, my wife is in pain, and we desperately need help from civilized ponies, and shelter."

The Earth Pony farmer turned to the other majestic one, and indeed, she had pain laced in her features, but it didn't take away any of her majesty. He also noted her extended belly and his eyes widened in understanding and recognition. "Of course, the Tomahto family was never one to turn away ponies in need, and don't worry for your wife, is she in labor at this moment? My wife has had two colts and a filly without trouble, so she'll be able to take care of you." He smiled at the two giants, and led them back to his home.

"Cherry Red? We have guests." Cherry regarded the two of them, but she noticed the pain in the mare's face and the extension of her belly immediately.

"Oxheart, Plum, come in here and put the sofas together for our guests!"

The two fathers stood outside, and Tomato Paste smiled as the majestic being before him paced back and forth nervously, it had been almost six hours, and Tomato began eyeing the cigars he meant to give to his guest upon any happy news. "Do you think she needs my help?" Orbitus, as Tomato found his name was, asked for the hundredth time.

"Listen, my wife and her aunt are almost professionals by now, your wife is in the best hooves right now, besides, what could you do?"

"Don't underestimate me!" He growled, but the rage dissipated instantly. Orbitus had pristine white fur, and had a mane that was a deep everlasting daytime sky. His wife on the other hand, had a dark blue coat, just as flawless, but not 'pristine', just as Orbitus was the day, Umbra was the night. Her mane was a perpetual violet sunset. She screamed out in agony again. "Are you sure I shouldn't be in there?" He asked again.

"I'm sure, it'll hurt her, but she can take it, my wife took it, heck, every mother in the world could take it, why do you think your wife can't?"

"I-I don't know, it's just..." He winced and paced a bit more as she screamed again. But the screams became more sparse and were mixed between with gasps and more yells. His eyes became pinpricks, and Tomato had to tackle the Alicorn in order to snap him out of it. "Umbra..." He whimpered, and he sat at the door for a few seconds before getting up and pacing again. There was a final scream, and then it was just sobs mixed with gasps. A shooting star crossed the sky unnoticed by the majestic creature. Orbitus fidgeted at the step before Cherry opened the door, her hooves covered in blood, Orbitus almost collapsed, if not for the proud smile on Cherry's face.

"She did it fine, her first birth I'm betting?"

"Uh... yes, is the um... is she, and..."

Cherry smiled. "She'll be fine, and you have a beautiful baby girl, a unicorn, or maybe a pegasus, but she has both traits."

"Actually... we have all three, we're Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns, all mixed together with something else." He smiled with relief. "A girl? Can I see her?"

"Hold your horses sir, there's a procedure we must follow with this, first of all, the first face she sees needs to be her mother's, the first scent too, so no barging in yet, but soon enough, and second, my husband needs to give you something."

Orbitus turned around to Tomato, who held up to him a cigar and was holding a match in his other hoof. "Cigar?"

Orbitus and Tomato were smoking, and Orbitus felt extremely relieved. He could hear the crying of his daughter, and knew that everything would be fine. As he and the Earth Pony sat in silence he observed the sky. "The sun... it's been moving much slower than normal... hasn't it?"

"Yep, the unicorns have been taking their sweet time with it since the factions started appearing, and now the Pegasi are overworked to water everything more, which is causing problems in the whole system, and without that water, look at this; a field of dead crops."

"... I'm... we're here to change that." Orbitus said with finality. "Me and Umbra, we'll change that." He looked down at the suspicious farmer and smiled. "We owe you a great debt, you know."

"Nah, it wasn't nothing, but there's no need to make up for anything, it's part of our family's code you know, the Tomahto family hospitality. Centuries old, and will last millenia and more."

"I insist... if only a thank you for your hospitality." He launched from the ground and took to the sky with the sound of thunder. Tomato Paste watched the sky in uncertainty, but soon he let a broad grin go over his face as he saw a huge amount of clouds spill over the horizon. "My gift to you Tomato family!" And rain sprinkled over the entire land.

"What should we name her?" Umbra said softly. Nuzzling against their pristine white-coated foal. Orbitus drew himself closer, and brought some of her dull pink mane up with his horn.

"She's beautiful, she takes after me quite a bit... but she has your eyes, your mane, heh, even your wings." he considered the tiny sleeping foal. "But... I think she'll be the future master of the Sun." He bit the inside of his lip. "Our beautiful Celestia."

Umbra smiled. "Then the next one will be Luna if it's a girl, and Eclipse if it's a boy, alright?"

"Alright... just look at us, she'll probably raise the moon all by herself one day, just to spite me and her future sibling, won't you Celestia?"

"Well, this is Unicornia, eh?" He smiled at the big city in the mountains. There were castles lining the stone of the mountain, and from them stretched out lawns and towns and other works of architecture. "Maybe I underestimated the technology of this place." The Doctor commented. He pointed his screwdriver at the Tardis and smiled as it vibrated out of existence. "A second out of sync, and now for-" He was stopped by the sun noticeably shifting forward about a foot, well it was probably the width of the Earth, but from where he stood it looked like the sun had moved only a foot, but it was still something impossible.

Until he remembered where he was.

"So, the unicorns are having trouble controlling it." The Doctor walked down the paths, noticing the many Pegasi in the sky, and the occasional Earth Pony, but the city was mostly made up of Unicorns. The Doctor came to a large playhouse, and laughed out loud when he saw a statue of the six founders, including a rendition of himself, in front of it, holding a big comical stone heart with wireframe flames around it.

Everywhere there were banners for one leader or another, vying for some elected position, apparently Equestria had made it over ten thousand years as a successful democratic republic. He noted that all of the banners entitled different kinds of 'Utopia'. Egalitarists, Communists, Socialists, and a few things he could assume the meanings of, such as Aerialist, Terraneanist, Edenist, and Enchantedist party leaders were all in a big campaign against everyone else, all in the hope of creating a perfect government. And from the amount of protests and radicals in the streets, he could see it wouldn't be long until one form of 'paradise' was forcibly put into action. Through the election or revolution, who knew?

A Pegasus flew up to him and forced him to take a flyer, "Vote Swift! Vote Smart! Brother," and the Pegasus was off. The Doctor regarded it for a while and frowned. He was interested in stars, not revolution. But seeing as he was here, he'd be caught up in it eventually. He needed to find Luna, or that... Starswirl guy, if he was around, but it was unlikely, he was Clover's father, and it was pretty likely he couldn't live 20,000 years or so.

But what did he know? Magical ponies.

The Doctor stopped by a town directory, and he quickly found a college of the magical arts, one claimed to be the greatest amalgamation of magicians in the entirety of Equestria. It was called the Five Point Star College for Gifted Unicorns. The Doctor walked up to the secretary's desk and whipped out his psychic paper. "Hello, I'm on official business to see Starswirl, is he in?"

"Um-" The confused unicorn mare stared at the paper. "y-yes sir, but what is the representative of Climatic Magics have to do with he Arch Mage?"

"I can't tell you, I have to speak with Starswirl directly." The Doctor sighed, and gave his most intimidating glare. "What's your name?"

"Um, he's in his tower," The unicorn pulled out a glowing bead and levitated it into the air. "Just follow the bead."

"Thank you." The Doctor walked on in a huff. Following the glowing bead. He frowned as he entered a labyrinth of staircases and halls, unmarked doors, and students following beads. He went this way for a half hour before coming to a tower's spiral staircase, and he noticed the bead moving straight up. He decided to just fly up the center of the staircase, bypassing several college students walking down.

He fluttered over to the door and opened it up with his mouth. He ducked as a fireball flew over his head. "Oh, I'm sorry, but all the staff know not to barge in during amniomorphic fireball hour." Said a rough voice from within the room, the Doctor slowly raised his head and looked over the class, seven unicorn students were all making fireballs of different colors in a reflective bowl of magic in the same shade. "Now then, who thought it was a good idea to interrupt my classes?"

"Um, well, me. It kind of involves your daughter, Clover?" The Doctor was then teleported to some other room, one that was very dark. He was also surrounded by floating cutlery.

"How do you know that?" Starswirl squinted his eyes. "Who do you know she was my daughter?"

"Sh-she told me. Um, could you put down the many-" a knife came to his throat.

"Impossible, she died so many millenia ago..." he looked up at him. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor, has she told you about me?"

"The Doctor? What kind of title is that?" Every time the wizard moved his hat and cloak made twinkling bell noises. "Who are you, your name sir, how could you possibly know my daughter? Did she leave some sort of message for you?"

"I'm Private Pansy!" The Doctor shouted. And the wizard stopped, every piece of cutlery falling to the ground.

"You- how? That was over twenty thousand years ago, she said you just went off and disappeared, and whenever I asked about you she just smiled and went silent..." a broad smile appeared over the wrinkled lime green face of the wizard. He brought the Doctor into a hug. "It's been so long since someone mentioned my daughter in any way beside the mare who founded this country." He then became very dark and angry. "And then only a few short millenia later they're making a mockery of it! She should be remembered as the greatest unicorn who ever lived, yet now they just throw a play where she's bullied by an over-dramatic princess, who I knew as well, and that's the only mention... a name in the history books, a bullied character in a play..." He turned to the Doctor. "You know her, don't you?"

"She's smart, and creative, we made a three player tic-tac-toe together, she admired you, and when Platinum got carried away she'd tell her. She was a powerful mage, who wouldn't let her emotions run wild even when she had a right to." The Doctor dodged another hug. "But... now that you know who I am-"

"No I don't, you're Private Pansy, sure, but... how could you live this long? And why haven't you come to me before?"

"I'm a time traveler, if that explains anything."

"Ha! I've time traveled before, it's painful, and hard and useless, you just end up creating the situation when you need to time travel, and then it's gone forever..."

"Not the way I do it, it's not magical... well not exactly, my people, not Pegasi you can tell, but-"

"Something else entirely, but your appearance isn't a disguise..."

"-my species, we call ourselves Time Lords, invented, or grown, or maybe just discovered time machines that we call Tardises. We just ride inside them and it takes us when and where we want to go in seconds."

"Then... I could see my daughter again?"

"... Starswirl, I came to talk to you about something else, actually."

"What would you have to talk about beside my daughter?"

"The future of the world, or rather, the sky." The Doctor eyed the designs on his cloak. "Do you know what stars are Starswirl?"

"of course I do, they are two-dimensional shapes, with several points that stick outward."

The Doctor sighed.

"They are often used to represent magic in textbooks, my parents were both magical theorists, so Starswirl is actually a magical/scientific technique."

"Well, 'stars' mean something else where I come from. But... I'm trying to figure out the right-" a flash encompassed them as they teleported again. This time on a balcony. "What is that?" Starswirl asked, pointing to a bright light that flashed across the sky.

"A-a comet..." he frowned. "some call them... shooting stars."

"I haven't seen anything like that in my life." Starswirl said. "Like a single fragment of a firework."

"So you don't know anything?"

"I know quite a bit, what does that light have to do with stars? Why is it called 'shooting'?"

The Doctor sighed and started toward the edge of the balcony. "Sorry friend, can't tell you, might damage time."

"Time can be damaged?!"

"Heh, Starswirl, don't die just yet, I think I'll be having some great conversations with you in the future."

"Come back here Doctor!"

The Doctor took off, dodging two attempts to teleport him, and several capture spells of various kinds, but for some reason he could tell the wizard wasn't set on capturing him seriously. And sure enough, the wizard had a smirk on his face as the Doctor flew back to where the Tardis was hidden, a second out of sync.

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PS. "Starswirl the Bearded, father of the amniomorphic spell", want to know what 'amniomorphic' means? It means 'bowl forming', so does this make Starswirl a hairy potter?

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Stars Part 2

"Revolution!" Screamed a unicorn as he flung an amateurish fireball at the town hall, it was dispelled instantly and the unicorn who through it turned into an orange.

"Oh stop your whining!" Starswirl screamed down at the townspeople. And he turned to look at the city guards the president had summoned. "And you guys stop acting so stuck up! If you pricks didn't fund my school I'd just let the two of you go at each other's throats, but in the mean time-" He stared at the guard, who had broken up, and in the center of the balcony, stood a solitary Pegasus. "Mr. President."

"Starswirl, get to the pillar of the sun, we are going into emergency timelock until this rebellion stops." the President shouted down below.

"Mr. President, if I might say, that is the stupidest thing you could do right now."

"It's an order Starswirl."

"Ugh... fine." Starswirl teleported next to him, easily bypassing the President's bodyguard's antimage barrier. "I voted for the other guy." and he was off.

Without Starswirl keeping the peace, spells and lighting bolts rained downward from the federal guard, and were fired upward from the angry crowd.

Starswirl stood with over a hundred other skilled Unicorns, more so than usual actually. Every morning and night 73 unicorns gathered and tugged at the sun and the moon, bringing them into their celestial circle. It took an average unicorn's strength away for an hour, but Starswirl could have probably moved it by himself if he didn't mind fainting from exhaustion. But as they forced the sun and moon to an unscheduled stop Starswirl found that he had to force it back with more power than usual. Something was tugging at the sun especially. Could the rebels be trying to force it forward? This hadn't happened since Clover dueled the Unicorn King for the right to turn the sun, and thus giving Equestria it's true sovereignty. Starswirl smiled at the memory, he had shared almost three hundred years with his daughter, but in the end the magic in her veins didn't slow her body enough, and she died. Starswirl was less fortunate, and the magic inside him was enough to support him for the entirety of- Starswirl jerked forward, a deep pain in his horn, and with a quick glance he could see the weaker unicorns of the group had all fainted of magic overload. "Hold on to the Sun! Don't let go!" Starswirl screamed to his comrades.

But the Sun slowly moved forward, carried on by the power of the rebels... but the strange thing was... the sun was being pushed by one pony with immense magical power, and the moon by another. Could there be two ponies that were both so much stronger than him? The most magical unicorn ever recorded? Or had an entire group channeled magic through two ponies, and had them expend it on the sun and moon fast enough they didn't die of magic overload? Whatever the reason, Starswirl found himself in a battle of pure magical ability.

And he was losing.

Orbitus and Umbra stood across from each other, Celestia was being held by Cherry Red on the sidelines as she saw the two hybrid ponies struggle against an unseen opponent. It had been almost four hours since they had started, and the sun had only moved about an hour's worth. Orbitus and Umbra were keeping themselves perfectly in sync, unwilling to put any more power into the movement, for if Orbitus pushed too much Umbra could lose hold on the moon and have to make up for it , expending more energy. But they were winning, slowly but surely.

In a battle of magical skill or finesse, of magic-based warfare, Starswirl was unbeatable, not just for the sheer amount of magic inside him, but for his understanding and ability to harness it. But this... this was a battle of brute strength, a celestial tug-of-war. He had never done anything like this before. He opened his eyes for a few seconds and noticed unicorns dropping like flies from magic drain. He hadn't even felt their presence. But he applauded their sacrifice.

Starswirl felt some blood flowing from his nose, and wiped it with his hoof, grinning madly. "You think you can stop me!? I've got so much magic I can't take it!" onlookers gaped in awe as Starswirl went into ragemode, blue-green light firing from his where his mane, tail, and beard used to be, surrounding him with the fire of magic, his hat and cloak were blown away from him and he got onto two legs, and pointed both hooves at the sun. He roared, the magical fire blasting off of him, and he willed the sun backward against the force of his opponent.

He began to laugh maniacally as the moon passed him, and then the sun, but he felt a snap, and looked up in time to see his horn shatter, and let out another hearty laugh as he collapsed to the ground. He watched as his shadow grew, then shrunk, and the light of the world shifted faster than he had ever seen in all his eons.

The sun moved forward in the correct direction, going over the horizon in a minute, the moon followed even faster, followed again by the sun, then the moon. And they came to a halt during a purple twilight.

Orbitus and Umbra both sat on their haunches and let out a sigh. Umbra had Celestia brought to her, and fed her while Orbitus looked to the horizon, and to Unicornia, Orbitus turned to Cherry Red and Tomato Paste and gave them a small bow. "Your family will forever have our protection, simply come to Unicornia and ask of anything, those who have much should give hospitality to those who need it."

"And what exactly do you have?" Tomato asked curiously. "What are you going to do in Unicornia?"

"Become it's king of course, and I will have all the power in Equestria. The people of this country have been at the brink of civil war debating over what 'utopia' is. Through my rule, I will try to give the people of Equestria my version of paradise, and hope they're satisfied."

Tomato considered standing up to the possible future monarch. But in the end, he ha seen that the couple were at the very least decent people, perhaps they could be good rulers. And even if they wanted to stop the two hybrid ponies, how could they? They had defeated the greatest magicians in Equestria, and though they had broken a sweat, it didn't make it less impressive.

Tomato looked on as the two, no, three Earth-pegasus-unicorn ponies flew off, Celestia in Umbra's legs.

The Doctor watched the duel with curious eyes, and wasn't sure whether it was good or bad that the celestial bodies went crazy and that it was now early evening, but he supposed that this is what a pony rebellion looked like, the sun and moon going mad, the Doctor didn't even want to think about the permanent damage caused by the insane gravitational shifts. He was glad that Equestria didn't seem to be on any fault lines passing through, or that Unicornia was near any ocean. He fluttered down to the madness, and saw that the guards, which seemed to be only made up of Pegasi and Earth ponies now, were being pushed around by the mobs of angry civilians.

He turned and flew over the battle, and armored Pegasi flew up to confront him, he found he was having trouble avoiding a trained war-flyer, being an amateur at the activity after all, and decided that a kick to the throat would get the Pegasus soldier off his back, he made sure to only knock him out when he was sure he could survive the fall.

He noticed the great pedestals where nearly three hundred or so unicorns were sprawled out, most of them apparently in some kind of shock. He noticed one in particular, and flew down to help him.

"Starswirl! Are you okay?"

"D-Doctor?" The old stallion coughed, wrinkles appearing on his face as he did so. "I used... a bit too much magic. I've gotten a year older, I think." He laughed. "I think I'm about ready to die Doctor. I've lived longer than anypony else in history."

"Heh, I've known older."

"I find that hard to believe."

"I'm over a thousand myself, time travel beside. And I've met a creature that lived for more than a billion years, at the very least."

"Heh... what a sad thing he must be."

"No... he died with a companion nearby, and when he died, his sacrifice saved an entire world." The Doctor cracked a smile. "If you live long enough, Starswirl, incredible things happen, and you might end up having the fate of a world on your shoulders, after all, it has to be on somebody's, and the longer you live the better your chances of being that special somebody." The Doctor looked him over. "Beside, the incredible things are yet to come."

"Doctor... what are you talking about?"

"Heh... I wouldn't dare spoil it for you."

"Hmph." The ancient wizard managed to his feet.

The Doctor's eyes were caught by something, a jagged-edged... something, sticking out of the wizard's forehead. "Your horn!"

"Huh? Oh yeah, it's fragments are over there, don't worry, even without my horn I've got enough regenerative magic in my body to keep me alive a few more millenia, if I don't have any more days like today at least."

"...I know that feeling, that regeneration energy is spent up so slowly, but you never seem to have enough of it."

"Ha! I'll regrow it soon enough, and then I can go back to my school... if the rebels allow it to continue to exist."

"What about the horn fragments over-" The Doctor looked back at the spot where the fragments were. "I think someone stole your horn."

"Meh, let em' keep it." Starswirl cricked his neck and shivered. "Hey, go and get me my cloak and my hat."

The Doctor bent down and picked them up with his mouth, letting out a giggle as the bells chimed cheerfully. He carried it over to the wizard, letting them ring as much as possible.

"Thank you." The wizard positioned his hat to cover his wounded horn and looked over the battle unfolding. The Pegasus soldiers were actually doing a decent job of not letting the flying rebels near the palace. "Now then, what to do about this rebellion... any clues Mr. Time Lord?"

"No idea, this is the first time I've been in an Equestrian rebellion."

"What about Hearth's Warming?"

"Oh, that was ponies making peace more than anything else."

"Don't you know the future?"

"Only bits and pieces."

"Shouldn't a Time Traveler at least own a modern history book?"

"But what would be modern? If you go far enough into the future, things that happened too long ago become forgotten and abbreviated, making it useless for that kind of time travel."

"An encyclopedia of all of time then?"

"Ha! I have the closest thing, but it doesn't tell me everything I want to know, and I often don't use it anyway, just to avoid spoilers."

"Then I can offer no counsel on this matter until I become a Time Lord myself."

"Oh?"

"Tell me, would I require wings and two hearts?"

The Doctor made his wings dematerialize in a puff of orange smoke. "Nope, well at least not the wings, the hearts are something you're born with."

"So 'Time Lord' is not some kind of higher state of magical enlightenment?"

"noooo.... why?"

"Your magic is simply... so refined, and in such an amount. If you were a unicorn my friend... I would have trouble beating you down." The wizard's gaze was suddenly drawn away from the Doctor and toward the great fields of Equestria.

"Starswirl, what's wrong?"

"I think I shall have the pleasure of meeting my opponents very soon."

"You mean the ones who were tossing around the sun and the moon?"

"'tossing around'? Is that what you thought of our epic tug-of-war! It was a battle that shall undeniably be spoken of throughout all of time!" The wizard realized whom he was speaking to. "Or is it?"

"Haven't the faintest."

Orbitus frowned upon the chaos below, and he lined his voice with the slightest tint of magic. "BE SILENT!" He screamed down upon the fighters. Almost every pony in the area looked up and took in the sight of the majestic hybrid creatures. "I have taken hold of the Sun!"

"And I the moon."

"And we declare sovereignty over all of Equestria!" Both sides began hurling insults and weapons as the two glided over to the main castle of Unicornia. The two of them then stood before the president. "Are you the ruler of this land?"

"Y-yes."

"Will you surrender it to us?"

"N-n-never! We have lasted this long without a monarch! We left the former tribes because we wanted to be free of the corrupt bureaucracy of the Earth ponies, the dictatorship of the Pegasi, and the cruel monarchs of the Unicorns. And we have not allowed any of these things to take hold in our society."

"Then let it be known these were your last words as sovereign." And Orbitus merely stepped around the shivering Pegasus. Umbra following. With a glare from the blue alicorn she stopped any of his guards from moving forward. The two regal creatures walked down the hall of the great castle and stopped outside a set of great doors that was proudly labeled 'House of Decision" Orbitus opened the doors, disabling the master-level magical locks, and stepped into the hall, looking upon the hundreds of different ponies. Representatives of the various provinces of Equestria, elected for life to do their best for the people of their region. Orbitus looked upon them. "I am your King." He said loudly, and as he said them the house shivered in recognition. "I am your King." He said again, and the words rang true. "I am your King!" Those closest to him, nearest to the floor, nodded their heads as the undeniable truth in those words came to their ears. "I am your King!" And the words were true.

Orbitus spent the rest of the day reorganizing the laws of Equestria to suit an eternal monarchy, with eternal monarchs. He also spent some time using shows of force, and trap spells, to quell any ponies in the city who outright spoke against his rule. He had conquered the entire city in a day, by taking control of the sun and moon, and by quelling the rebellion, and by commanding the house of Decision.

He found himself in the presence of a very old stallion, with a long white beard that extended to the ground, he wore blue robes covered in strange magic-related symbols, and his hat and robe ends were lined with bells. "So, you have declared yourself King?" Orbitus prepared an entrapment spell. "Oh, stop that. You know as well as I do that even without my horn I could disable any spell." He tipped his head back, and the hair and hat parted slightly to show a broken horn. "You were my greatest opponent... your Highness."

Orbitus didn't allow himself to feel any safer. "You were the single unicorn who managed to defeat my wife and I for a single moment?"

"It was far more than a moment sir." He gave a friendly smile. "Allow an old man his pride." Starswirl turned to look at Umbra. "So, what do you call yourselves?"

"What do you mean?" Orbitus asked.

"The Monarchy." Umbra said simply.

"May I suggest something?" The wizard let a glint appear in his eyes. "Alicorn."

"What?"

"The substance that makes up the magical conductivity in a unicorn's horn. A substance that holds and carries and even produces pure magic. A name befitting a being of great magics such as yourself."

"... I... accept this name." He turned to his wife.

"I'll accept it as well. And our daughter."

"Now then... a friend told me it's in my best interest to become your friend as well."

"A wise friend. Perhaps your magical expertise could be of use to me."

"Sir, I beg your pardon. But I have lived in this land longer than any other Unicorn alive. I ask to become your personal adviser."

"A stallion so close to death as yourself?"

"I have lived for over twenty millenia, and I think I shall live even longer, if I have enough reason."

Orbitus regarded the wizard warily. "You don't hold any grudge that I defeated you or broke you horn?"

"Hah! Of course not, the battle was exhilarating, and I accept defeat, as for my horn, it'll grow back."

"Hmm... I... am in need of one who understands the will of my new subjects."

"It would be my pleasure, your Highness."

"...Alicorn." The King repeated. "It is truly a word that fits us."

The Doctor looked upon the castle and smiled. He pointed his tiny futuristic camera, and took a snap. He then watched as the picture was fabricated into existence, and suppressed a giggle as a picture of Celestia as a baby appeared. "Maybe this'll get me a little bit off the hook with her." He looked down at the four magical creatures one last time and climbed back into the Tardis.

Stars Part 3

"I am your Princess! And if you dare to oppose me I'll have you beheaded!" Celestia hissed at the unicorn. She was promptly knocked over with a light tap of a hoof. "Ow! Stop that, you know I'm weak from training."

"You're immortal, get over it!" Starswirl growled at the Princess. "And you don't have the authority to execute me, only the King or Queen can give somepony a death sentence. Besides, I'm not going to let you skip my own class!"

"Agghh!" Celestia growled and hit her hoof into the ground.

"Hey now, you don't see Luna going around throwing fits whenever she doesn't get her way." He turned to the very young blue filly.

"D-don't bring me into this..." She stammered out.

"Fine, Celestia, would you just try the lodestone lift again? One more time? Then I'll let you have my lunch..." He said in a sing-song voice.

"I don't want your nasty lunch." Celestia turned her nose away from the wizard, but her stomach growled. "Ugh... fine." the filly turned to the great metal sphere and began straining as she lifted it with her yellow magic. "grrrr..." Celestia began sweating a bit. The lodestone scrambled her magic, and it shivered where it did take hold. She began lifting it and didn't open her eyes, for fear it would break her concentration. After a minute though, she let go of the sphere, and Starswirl caught it as it fell, putting it effortlessly back in its place.

Celestia panted a few seconds before opening her eyes and brushing her pink hair out of her eyes. A bag of dandelions fell open in front of her. She politely lifted her head and floated the bag up to her mouth, and tried not to dig in too much. Starswirl kept himself from laughing at her rush, but Luna had no such qualms and giggled as Celestia's stuffed face rose up to see what her sister was laughing at. "Oh, ha ha." Celestia tossed the bag at Luna's head, which only caused the blue filly to laugh even more.

Starswirl looked down at the bag and it's half-eaten spilled contents. "My lunch..." He turned to the white alicorn Princess and beat his hoof. "You have incurred my wrath Princess!" A bowl of magic formed in the air. And Celestia's ears dropped.

She immediately pulled out her wings and beat them a few times, but she was simply too young to support herself yet and she dropped right back down.

"I'm telling Daddy!" Celestia yelled as she dove for the entrance to the castle.

"Not if I fuse your mouth shut with a lock!"

"Eek!" And they ran off into the castle laughing, leaving Luna behind on the balcony garden alone.

Just like she liked it.

Luna walked over to the bush and pulled out a book, first with a little magic, which had just left her babyhood's period of bursting uncontrollably, but now left her with very little magic, and then finally she stuck her head into the bush and pulled it out with her teeth. She sat in the dirt on her haunches and flipped it open to the big iron bookmark. She bent down and began forming the words with her mouth, recognizing the letters individually, it was a lot of work, but she thought it was worth it. The book was an adventure story, about a brave Earth Pony knight who went selflessly to fight a dragon that had kidnapped the local monarch's daughter, and stolen the king's gold, right now he was in an enchanted forest, trying to find somepony to lead him to the dragon's mountain.

She wondered how it would end. So far she had only gotten through about four chapters, at about only a page or two a day, she really wished she'd learn to read faster, but they kept telling her 'You're only four, the picture books are just right for you.' so she decided to teach herself how to read.

The story was going a bit slow, so she decided to take a break, and fell onto her back, letting her teeny tiny wings stretch out a little bit. She looked into the blue sky and began daydreaming. What if a dragon came and kidnapped me? And then Daddy and Mommy and Celestia would look everywhere, and they wouldn't find me, and they have to find a knight, to go into an enchanted forest to find out where the dragon took me, and then he'd come and save me and we'd have an adventure, and i'd be flying with him and he would teach me to read, and we'd look at the moon, and tell stories and eat junk food and stay awake every night.

She looked into the sky and smiled. But it began fading away. Why would Daddy send a knight when he could go into the enchanted forest himself, and fight the dragon himself, and then take me back much quicker, and he and Mommy would fuss over her and scold her and then everything would be the same.

Nothing was going to fall from the sky and take her away.

Except that blue box.

"Aggh!!" The Doctor looked around, the controls were smoking. "What's wrong girl? What happened?" He looked down in confusion as the module broke open slightly and a small sphere bug-like thing came out, with a bit of wire stuck in it's mouth. "You! No, you get out!" He made his wings reappear and swatted it at the doors, he switched it back to the great blizzard and opened the doors, kicking it out. He slammed the doors behind him and shivered. "W-well... that was a bit over the top... I can't stand bugs for some reason."

But the Tardis was still smoking, and the Doctor had left the door open as it re-entered the vortex, it appeared back over Unicornia, and the shockwave sent him sprawling out of the Tardis, he saw it fly off without him and in his desperation he flicked out the homing signal on his screwdriver.

He caught himself on his wings and began gliding backward, watching as the Tardis disappeared over the horizon. "Well, that's a problem-" he slammed into a tree.

"Um..." came a hesitant voice from above him.

The Doctor picked himself up slowly, and dematerialized his wings and brushed himself off. He heard a stifled gasp from the foal in front of him as he did so. "Oh, I'm sorry if I interrupted your-" He scanned the balcony. "-reading time, I'll just be off."

"Wait! er... I mean..."

"Hm?"

"are you... an adventurer?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow and looked down at the very small filly. She was a unicorn foal, with a light blue mane and a slightly darker blue coat. She had very clear blue eyes, that shone with intelligence. "Why yes, I am, how did you know?"

"I..." She blushed and looked down. It would sound stupid if she told him that she had fantasized about going on an adventure with a mysterious stallion. "...I could just... tell?"

The Doctor blinked twice and smiled. He called his wings back into existence with an orange 'poof' of Time Lord energy. "Well, you're dead on, what's your name?"

"Um- L-Lu-Lu-..."

"Well, Lulu, how about you don't tell anyone about us meeting for me? I'd get in trouble if anyone knew I was falling into people's yards again."

"Uh... okay." She didn't feel like correcting him. "But..."

"But?"

"Only if you take me on an adventure!" She got out.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "You're forcing me to take you on an adventure?"

"I'm sorry... I won't tell..."

"Oh, I don't mean that, just ask and I'd do it." he smiled down at the filly. "So... what kind of adventure do you feel like?" He looked down at the blue blinking Screwdriver. He pulled it out and input a command, he then buried it in the center of the lawn. Once the Tardis repaired itself it would reappear in this spot.

"Um... one with... dragons."

"Do you have any dragons here in the castle Lulu?" The Doctor asked.

"N-no."

"Well then, let's do something else right now, I kind of have to wait for my box to come back to the castle, so let's have a little adventure in the castle, and then I'll take you to see some dragons later."

Luna knew that this was more than she had expected would happen anyway, and she agreed with some furious nodding. "Yes."

"Then lead the way Lulu, let's have ourselves a little adventure!" The Doctor got up and galloped to the door. Luna smiled widely at her new friend and began running down the hallway as fast as she could, stretching her little wings as far as she could. The Doctor noticed, and his eyes widened in recognition, but he didn't stop. He promised Lulu an adventure after all.

They spent the day playing in the halls, hiding from guards, following servants, and eventually they came back to the balcony and the Doctor sat down next to Luna's book. "So, Lulu, should I read you the story, or would you like to finish it yourself?"

"Um... I really want to see how it ends..."

"I don't, whenever I read a book I rip out the last few pages first, so that I never have to know that the story ends!"

"Well... if the story goes on forever... you don't know if it turned out good for everypony in it..."

"But what if the story ends and it's bad?"

"... w-wouldn't you be happier knowing for sure? Wouldn't you rather know it turned out as well as it could and be satisfied with an ending, than worrying about it?"

"...when something ends, it's sad for me." He looked down at the book. "I don't have the choice of ripping out the last pages in real life, so at least with stories I don't have to go through that."

Luna looked curiously at the Time Lord and she opened the book to the last page, and she carefully ripped it out with her teeth. She stuck it into the bush, then moved back to her book-marked page.

"W-will you read it to me? Slowly, so I can follow along?"

"Sure."

Starswirl considered revealing himself, but he didn't understand the Doctor's purpose in being there, would revealing himself make it harder or easier for his old... friend? Acquaintance? He met him twice in his life, and though he did convince Starswirl to join the King as his adviser, something Starswirl found he didn't regret, what reason did he have to help the Doctor? Starswirl looked on from the shadows as the Doctor and Luna read from the book Luna thought no one knew about, Starswirl had to specifically ask that the gardeners not touch the book when they came to the Princesses' balcony. He looked as Luna smiled at the Doctor, a whole, real smile. She would grin or giggle, but she didn't have control of any of her magic, and was at his and Celestia's lessons as a tag-along, she never really was content until he left her alone with her book.

He made the Princess smile, and gave her a companion. That was enough reason to not tell the guards, wasn't it?

"I saw the Doctor again today!" Luna said cheerily, shaking out her wings, which had grown several inches over the last few months, and the feathers had gotten fuller.

"Ugh, again with this 'Doctor' nonsense. You're too old to believe in imaginary friends." Celestia said, batting her wing over her sister's head playfully.

"He's not imaginary." Luna said grumpily, trying to put her hair back in place. "And even if I did have imaginary friends I'm still young enough for it to be normal to have them..."

Celestia sighed and sank back into her bed. She was almost thirteen now, and Luna was eight, she invented an imaginary friend when she was about four, and told her in secret when she was six, that every few months, and occasionally weeks, a time-traveling pegasus that could make his wings appear and disappear would arrive in an invisible blue box. 'If it's invisible how do you know it's blue?' Celestia first asked, 'it's not always invisible!' Luna would defend. "Whatever Luna."

"He is real! The next time he comes we'll go and see you."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at this, but continued to lie in the bed. "When do you think I'll get my Cutie Mark?"

"What are you talking about?" Luna asked.

"I asked a servant the other day, she says that most fillies get their marks before they're ten... I'm thirteen."

"Twelve."

"Whatever! I should have one by now."

"I'll ask the Doctor how he got his." Luna said, going to her own bed and sinking into the too-soft mattress. "Besides, maybe Alicorns don't get Cutie Marks."

Celestia had never considered this. "Wha-what do you mean? Father and Mother-"

"Got theirs a few years ago, what I mean is, what if it takes a lot longer for Alicorns? Maybe you won't get it until you're a thousand, or a million."

"Don't be silly, you have to discover your special talent to get one... that's all."

"So it's not that we're Alicorns... maybe you're just untalented." Luna picked up her pillow with telekinesis and used it to block the pillow launched from Celestia. She then stretched out her wings and jumped from the window.

"You better fly!" Celestia yelled after her, taking to the sky after her little sister. Luna pumped her little wings as hard as she could, giving herself extra lift by converting her unicorn magic to pegasus (a technique she was proud of inventing). She looked to the sky and saw a blue box, suspended in the air, with doors opening for her. Celestia's eyes widened as she took it in, a handsome stallion walked to the entrance and gave a wide smile.

"Hey, Lulu, need a hoof getting away?" he spoke with an accent she was not familiar with, perhaps a deeper rooted Unicornian?

"Thanks Doctor!" She turned to Celestia and stuck out her tongue as she flew into the box. The Doctor gave her a wink that made Celestia blush, then he swung the doors closed and the box disappeared without a sound.

Celestia simply hovered in that spot for a few minutes, observing the empty expanse of sky, with her mouth hanging open.

"So, that was my sister, I told you all about her, right?"

"Yep, I also met her in the future."

"Did you meet future me as well?"

"Yep."

"Were we married?"

The Doctor walked over to the kitchen silently, Luna following behind him, seeing his face was frozen. He calmly poured himself a cup of tea, took a sip, and then spit it out, dropping the cup at the same time. "B-what?!" He finally exclaimed. Luna simply began laughing at the oddness of the Doctor.

The Doctor simply laughed awkwardly and began cleaning up the tea.

"So, where do you want to go today?"

"How about 'when'?"

"I already went over this Lulu, I don't want you to have any spoilers- you're a very prominent figure, your life is made up of fixed points." But the Doctor wasn't even sure about that any more, he couldn't sense time as well as he could before, he didn't have an innate sense of what was malleable or fixed anymore. But with someone as important and long-lived as Luna, of course there would be plenty of fixed points. "If I changed anything, if I did anything for you besides what I'm already doing... It could end disastrously."

"Hmph." Luna sat down on her haunches.

"Well?"

"... I want to go see the dragons again."

"...alright."

"-and then we saved the world!" Luna finished.

"Hooray for you. All I did today was study my magic, you know, like we're supposed to?"

"Oh Tia, don't be such a downer, I get my work done, and I still have time to have fun with the Doctor."

"Yes, and he's sooo great." Luna bent her head down to look at her sister.

"Tia, are you... jealous?"

"What?!" Celestia lifted her head from the pillow, some of her pink hair falling out of place. "Of course not!"

"No-no, I'm not making fun of you, I'm not... but I have a friend besides you and Starswirl and Mommy and Daddy." She looked very deeply at Celestia, in a way without any sort of aggression or pity, in a way that gave some kind of aura of wisdom whether what she said made sense at all. "That's something you don't have."

Celestia fumed at Luna, and for a second her hair burst into flame, her coat whitening even more so. Her eyes became seething red... then she returned back to normal. "I-I..." She looked up to her sister. "I... I know the maids... and I talk to Belt when I get to my room early..." Her eyes widened, then teared up. "Luna..."

Luna brought herself closer to her sister and they shared a deep hug. "Don't worry Tia, I have a little more than you... but what you have is still something very great."

"When did you become so philosophical?" Celestia said sniffling a little bit.

"The same time you became angsty."

"Oh... be quiet."

Celestia got up from her bed and trotted over to the window. She opened it with telekinesis and smiled as the cold wind of the night came over her. She looked into the deep blue-black of the night, pure and clean, uninterrupted by anything, no clouds could be seen, no pollution of any kind, simply the pristine unblemished white sphere of the moon in a sea of pure black-blue. "Luna... how old do you think we'll be when we get out Cutie Marks?"

"Hmm... I don't know, and I really don't care. It'll come when it comes."

"I'll be sixteen tomorrow Luna."

"And you still only look twelve."

"So do you."

"I am twelve."

"What I mean is... when are we going to grow up? I've looked into the same face in the mirror for four years, the same flank, the same feathers... I'll have to wait centuries before I become a decent flier. And who knows how long it'll be before I get my mark!"

"You're only sixteen, you can't go into your immortality crisis yet..." She considered it for a few seconds. "On second thought, this might be your first sign of becoming a hormonal depressed teenager." Luna shuddered. "I hope you don't act like that for centuries."

"Oh shut up, I can't believe I was hugging you a few minutes ago." Luna hugged Celestia again, and she gave in once more, and stopped talking for the rest of the night. But in her mind she regarded her little world, a balcony, a few hallways, the sky around the castle, occasionally the library or the throne room. Luna had explored the entire world on her little escapades. Luna was right after all, she always was, what Celestia had was precious, but Luna had more. As Celestia drifted off to sleep she had one last conscious thought. 'I need a friend'.

"Y-Your Highness..."

"What is it? Don't you know we are dealing with a matter of extreme importance?!" Orbitus roared.

"I-I know your Highness, but the preparations for Celestia's sixteenth birthday can continue without your supervision... and this matter requires your presence..."

"...What is it?"

"There's some sort of creature in the castle, a very magical, powerful creature."

"An intruder?"

"Not... exactly... oh, and, your Highness?"

"Yes?"

"I'd advise you to bring Starswirl as well."

"What... is that?" Orbitus whispered to his wizard.

"I... I do not know... I have never seen anything like it, a chimera of some kind, perhaps?"

"Should we... talk to it?" Orbitus asked. The strange creature opened another bag of flour and mixed it into the bowl, filling it with water and pulling fire from a torch, with it's bare hands, and mixing it in as well. A few minutes later it was a giant mass of bread, which the creature munched on voraciously. "It seems that it is only stealing food... but the free manipulation of fire? It could be dangerous..."

"Nothing you wouldn't be able to handle."

"Are you suggesting I put myself in harm's way?!"

"No... are you suggesting I should? The frail old man as opposed to the immortal?"

"What's going on?!" Both of them turned around in surprise as Celestia with rugged hair walked in. Orbitus immediately noticed the trail of dried tears.

"Tia, have you been crying? What are you doing out of bed, what about Luna?"

"She's asleep, soundly, and I just got mad is all, what's all this?" Celestia walked forward into the kitchen as both of her guardians rushed to stop her, but the creature in the pantry noticed her and froze, a piece of bread falling from it's mouth.

"Celestia stop! It could be dangerous!" Said Starswirl.

Celestia and the creature locked eyes, and she let her expression soften. "No... not to us." She walked up to the creature and lifted him up with her warm yellow magic. He shuddered with fear at the presence of the magic, but soon he relaxed into the warmth and protection of it. He curled up as if he was about to sleep, and she drew him to her chest. "He's just scared and hungry... and needs a friend." Celestia lifted up the bowl of magically created bread and trotted off with both of them in tow with her magic.

"Celestia, what do you plan on doing with that?" Orbitus said with authority in his voice.

"I'm going to feed him, and take care of him, and nurture him back to health... Father... no, Daddy, please, as my... birthday present, just let me take care of him."

Orbitus looked at the sleeping creature and frowned. Then he looked to his daughter and let his face soften as well. "...As you wish... but you have to explain him to Luna and your mother."

"Deal." And she carried him off to her room.

"What is he?"

"I don't know Luna... but it's kind of cute isn't it? If he's just an animal I'll keep him as a pet, and if he's intelligent I'll get him a room in the castle."

"...What do you think it eats?"

"Um..." She looked carefully at the creature in front of her. "He has claws... and he's serpentine... but he also has a hoof and horns, and his head is more equine than anything else, but he does have fangs... I'm guessing a little bit of everything? He was making bread for himself when we found him."

"That shows a bit of intelligence."

"And magical ability, he put water flour, and pure fire in a bowl and mixed them, it baked itself."

"That... would be a very good technique for unicorn bakers, this thing could be very smart..." Luna bent down to look at the little creature, she narrowed her eyes at his mismatched wings. "It must be very difficult for him to fly, unless he has more Pegasus magic than any Pegasus I've ever met."

The two then began making a nest of pillows between their beds, and set him down into it, as Celestia withdrew her magic from him he frowned and struggled against the pillows for a few seconds, then went back to his peaceful sleep.

"...what should we name him?" Luna said excitedly.

"What do you mean-" Celestia stopped herself from saying 'we?'. "He could have his own name, he's probably intelligent... we should wait til he wakes up and then try to speak to him."

"hmm... should we wake him up now?"

"He looked so tired! It would be a shame to wake him now..."

"Then... wake me up when he stirs, I'll just sleep til then." And Luna went back to her own bed and covered herself with her quilt.

Celestia kept watch over her new friend for the rest of the night.

Luna was shook awake by a warm hoof and opened her eyes, rubbing out the grime that comes with falling asleep late. "Wha- what's going on?"

"He's waking up!" Celestia squealed out.

"Who, oh yes, the creature!"

The two Alicorns stood around the pillows watching carefully as the creature stretched itself out, the fur on it's body bristling briefly. It scratched its muzzle and got onto two feet. Yawning and stretching its arms. He opened his eyes slowly and then was gone. The two Alicorns stared at the empty spot for a few seconds before looking at each other, then darting their eyes around the room.

"There!" Celestia yelled as she saw a dragon's ruby red tail disappear behind the bathroom door. The two came close to the door, then swung it open with their magic. Celestia ducked as a piece of soap flew over her head. Luna deflected a loofah. "Come on out little guy, we won't hurt you." Celestia said softly. A bucket of water was flung over Luna's head.

"I might."

"Don't listen to her, I'll protect you, alright?" Celestia reached into the room with her magic, and enveloped everything in the room. Her magic covered the creature, and even though he was more difficult to touch than lodestone for some reason, he felt the warmth and relaxed. "come here..." And the creature did, slowly, hesitating before every step, and watching for hiding spots around every corner. "Hello, can you speak?"

"Y-yes."

"That's good, what is your name?"

"I... no one ever named me..."

"Really? Nopony ever called you anything?"

"Well... they called me monster. Is that my name?"

"n-no."

"Thief? Creature? Thing? Discord?"

"Discord?"

"Yes."

Celestia considered it. "Alright then, would you like your name to be Discord?"

"Discord." Discord smiled widely, revealing a single out-of-place fang. "I am Discord."

Stars Part 4

"Discord, come here, I want to show you something!"

The Draconequus put down his meal, something he hadn't been able to do for a long time, and slithered down the hall, coming to a slightly creeked-open door. "Yes?" He jumped back as he heard the sounds of explosions and things were launched at his face. He cowered on the ground for a only a second before opening his eyes and taking in the decorations, the cake, the confetti falling off his horns, and most importantly the mares he loved. "I-is this all for me?"

"Yep!" Luna said cheerfully, lighting the candle on the cake. "It's the anniversary of the night we first met!"

Celestia lowered the cake to Discord's level and smiled as the foal's eyes widened in delight. "Make a wish."

Discord looked at the flickering candle and became very serious. He had heard about these, you only got one wish, and only if you blew out every candle in a single breath did it come true... there was only one candle at the moment, so that was all fine and good, but out of everything in the world, what should he wish for?

A year ago, shelter, a dependable source of food, a place where he could be safe and alive. But he had that now, he had more than he ever thought he would need or deserve. He was basically royalty, he had two friends who cared for him and... loved him. He was living the dream, his life was the best that could be had in this country. He was among the nobility, personal companion of the royal princesses, he had anything he wanted brought to him, he already had his every wish granted.

Keep things the way they are. He blew out the candle.

"Happy anniversary Discord!" Celestia and Luna cried, then Luna blew on her kazoo a few times.

Discord hugged Luna, and then Celestia. They began floating presents over to him. Discord smiled and delicately began untying the ribbon on the present. Then unfolded the wrapping paper, and placed it in a pile next to the box. He then raised an eyebrow as blue magic moved it back into place.

"Why did you do that?" Discord asked Luna.

"Do it right."

Discord sighed and began tearing the wrapper to pieces, but he kept the ribbon intact and maneuvered it around his tail. "Happy?" He looked at the chaos on the ground with distaste. But his attention shifted back to the box. He bit his tongue and looked into it with one eye, then lifted the large slab of obsidian out. It was covered in tiny sparkles. "What is this?"

"I call it 'Discord and Luna'." Luna smiled. She slowly outlined a serpentine shape and a vaguely alicorn-like shape among the many sparkles. "I'm trying to make a whole new art style! Do you like it?"

Discord looked at the sparkles and tried to re-trace the images of him and Luna. "I don't really get it... but it's beautiful, thank you Luna."

Luna beamed down at the Draconequus and nuzzled the top of his head with her chin. "Thank you, you're too nice to us, Discord."

Celestia looked at the speckled obsidian with a raised eyebrow, but decided not to say anything, she just didn't get art. She bent down and smiled at her Draconequus friend and lowered down her own present. Discord looked at Luna questioningly. "Do I have to rip up this one too?"

"Ugh, fine. But I don't see what the fun is in leaving it all in one piece."

"And I don't see the fun in having to clean up the mess." Discord retorted, sticking out his tongue. The two princesses looked to each other and shared a smile. Discord actually loved cleaning up, or rather organizing everything he found, he couldn't even enjoy his dessert until the red and blue sprinkles were on opposite sides of the ice cream. The cooks stopped putting in any other colors because they didn't like seeing their food melting before being enjoyed.

"Don't worry Discord, you can unwrap it any way you want." Celestia got down onto her knees and laid next to the foal. "I just want you to see what's on the inside."

Discord unwrapped it as carefully as Luna's present, but a little faster. His eyes brightened as he saw what it was inside the box. "I can't believe it! Thank you Celestia!" Discord picked up the gigantic book and waved it around as he spiraled around on his hoof. "A recipe book... do you think the cooks will let me go back into the kitchen?"

"I'm sure they will Discord, but look at the title."

"'making gourmet with modern magic', it's baking with magic?"

"Yep, it seemed like something perfectly fit to you."

"Thank you both so much!" He hugged the two of them, then sat on Celestia's bed and began flipping through the pages, slowly reading the instructions under the prettier pictures. He couldn't read very well a year ago either.

Luna heard the whispers of the sound of whooshing from the door. She turned to the two of them... her siblings, truly, and mouthed the word 'Doctor' to Celestia, before disappearing. Celestia sighed and let her head droop. Not even on Discord's special day did she ignore the call of the Doctor. Celestia tried following her before, but the Doctor would give her an infuriating wink and whisk her sister away to adventures around the world.

Celestia blushed as she though about this longer and longer. There was always a certain glint to Luna's eyes when she spoke about him, and they spent so much time together. From what Luna told her he might be over a millenia old. And Luna was thirteen, sure, but eventually Luna would become a thousand or so years old. She might marry the Doctor, or... or something. She already seemed to be in love with him... but then again, what experience did Celestia have with stallions or being in love? Luna spent more time alone with the Doctor every month or so than Celestia did in her entire life...

She shook the thoughts from her head. She looked back at Discord, who had noticed her looking at him and gave her another smile of gratitude. Now that was love, that was what Luna had for the Doctor, love like a brother... or is all love the same?

Celestia's parents were always so formal when others were around... and her mother had always been very quiet even when they were in private, so Celestia wouldn't be able to recognize romantic love when she saw it. She had always only known her family and Starswirl... she could ask him, she supposed.

Celestia turned back to her baby brother and read along with him in the cookbook, occasionally asking for him to bake one flashy food or another. And she bathed in Discord's love for her, and he in her love. That's what love is. Celestia told herself.

And the Doctor can't have my sister's.

"Do you think you're ready?" Orbitus asked.

"I... I am ready." Celestia answered.

"Just feel out for it. Reach out and take hold of the magical solar winds, ordinary Unicorns have been doing it since time immemorial."

Celestia reached out with her magic and found the sun's. She was filled with it's energy, and found herself going into a Unicorn's rage mode... but it was different. She became very calm, very understanding... like she had just grown up. Her skin lightened under her coat, and her mane burst into flame, but the light was channeled and purified into pure light... into solar wind, into a rainbow of fractured light being smoothed. Her mane became an ethereal mix of colors; pink, green, and blue. Her pink mane was gone, replaced by the ethereal mane of pure magic, Alicorn magic, not Unicorn, not Earth, not Pegasus, something new entirely... or perhaps even more ancient than the others. She took hold of the sun, and moved it from below the horizon to it's place above it, giving it a push so it would continue it's path for the next several hours, until the next day. A flash appeared near Celestia's tail and Orbitus observed the symbol of the sun on his daughter's flank.

He smiled. What did the servants do when their eldest child get their Cutie Mark? Something Spanish... cute-cenara?

Celestia sighed and let herself go from the sun, but now that she was in contact with the Alicorn magic she knew her mane wouldn't return to normal without her trying. But she liked it, she would keep the ethereal mane for a while. She trotted down the pedestal, her father following her.

"Celestia! You're so beautiful!" Luna gasped at her sister's mane. "And- you got your Cutie Mark! Hooray! What do you want for your cutecenara?"

"I don't really want to talk about that right now..." Luna looked behind her and stepped out of the way for her mother.

Umbra lowered her head to Celestia's level and gave her daughter one of her few smiles. "Celestia my dear, you lived up to your name, you're so beautiful, a true Monarch of Equestria." She nuzzled her daughter, and spread her wing over her. "We must speak about the next level of your training."

"My new magic training? To learn how to use my Alicorn magic?"

"No my Dear, there is no expert in Alicorn magic, and every Alicorn has an entirely different type of magic. The difference between my magic and yours is as plain as our manes, the manifestation of said magic, the only teacher you can have is yourself."

"Then what kind of training?"

"Political, economic, ethical, historical, cultural, the sciences of business and art. You must become the perfect ruler, Celestia, should you ever hope to be our replacements."

"What?! R-r-replacements? I'd never try and-"

"Celestia, we are immortal, but eventually we would want to retire, and we have children to pass our troubles to." Umbra pulled her head away from Celestia's and looked to the morning sky. "But in order to pass to you the eternal welfare of a kingdom will require us knowing you can handle it, that you will be a good ruler, and that we can trust you with it. Starting next week you will begin your tutelage under the finest of Equestria's experts in all the qualities of leadership."

Celestia wasn't sure to cry or be thankful... she did say that she had another week before she had to undergo her training. "Th-thank you Mother."

Starswirl flattered her as well, and Discord lost himself in her mane, not speaking to her at all, simply staring in admiration. Her Pegasus magic and Earth magic instructors were also there to commend her. Celestia accepted their praise with gratitude, but she felt herself beginning to worry about the future.

"Doctor, Celestia got her Cutie Mark today, she raised the sun, so... I think I'll stay home today, this is just a visit for you. It's Celestia's special day after all."

"Oh? hmm... Cutie Marks, it's the symbol that appears on your flank right?"

"Yes, and it shows your special talent, Celestia's is apparently raising the sun... how did you get yours Doctor?"

"Oh, this old thing? I was regenerated with it!" He looked at the hourglass. "I don't see how it relates to any talent of mine, I'm a time traveler, sure, but there are better ones. I'm brilliant, but that isn't really a talent, and I don't see how an hourglass relates to getting into trouble, which I think is my real talent."

"Doctor... next year I'm going to try and raise the moon."

"What? But that's-"

"I already have more sheer magic power than Starswirl, Alicorns are a combination of the three races, and we have an abundance of all three types of magic, plus, as Celestia calls it, Alicorn magic. Her mane became a rainbow when she used it!"

"A rainbow?" The Doctor remembered Celestia's hair in the future. "It seemed like just three colors to me, more like oil than rainbow, isn't it?"

"Oh hush, it's beautiful." Luna remembered why she was there. "Doctor, during my moon-raising ceremony, I want you to be there, with me, in front of my whole family and my teachers, okay? I know less than a dozen ponies well enough to call them worthy of my trust, and all but one of them will be there for me at the ceremony. Doctor, I've kept you a secret my entire life, only Celestia knows, and that's your fault. I haven't told my parents, I haven't even told Discord! I'm sick and tired of lying to them, if I raise the moon next year I'll begin training to be the future ruler of Equestria, they are already naming Celestia 'Regent of the Sun' if my dad get's sick she'll raise the sun every day he's not there, I'll inherit so many new responsibilities, and I won't have any right to lie to them any further. I won't be their daughter, I'll be their heir. My parents have to trust me, and they have to trust you."

"Lulu I..." The Doctor looked back and forth, his eyes resting on the monitor. "I... it might create a paradox Lulu! I could lyse Equestria."

"Doctor... If you don't reveal yourself then, then we'll have to keep it a secret forever. I won't be just a little child after I accept becoming heir to the thrones, I'll be someone they have to be able to trust. Trust is everything. Either we tell them when I'm still a child, or we don't tell them until it won't be dangerous for either of us."

"So... either risk it now-"

"Or wait centuries, or millenia. A millenia of me keeping a secret from them, and that's only if Celestia decides not to tell."

The Doctor paced a few feet, then turned back around. "Ugh... Lulu..."

"Yes?"

"I really hoped I would never have to use this..." The Doctor walked over to the monitor and changed it until it showed line upon line of text. "Lulu... turn around, you learning the future is more dangerous than me."

"Alright." She turned around.

The Doctor skimmed through the lines, one after the other, trying not to pay attention to any details but one that specifically definitely pointed to him. "Alright Lulu. I'll come to your ceremony, I promise. You were very kind to keep me a secret for so long anyway. And it was wrong of me to keep this over your head." He put up a hoof, and Luna met it with her own, a gesture the Doctor was partial to, apparently it reminded him of having 'hands'.

The Doctor was waiting on the grass, of the balcony, lying on his back and looking up at the moon. He would stay there the entire night, waiting for Luna. It was the place they first met, well, that she met him. He still couldn't believe it. It happened between voyages, he was alone, and was considering taking Luna to other planets. So he looked for them, and looked, and looked, and looked, but he couldn't see any, couldn't visit any, it wasn't like when the universe collapsed, leaving the Earth the only world and the Tardis's infinite explosion to light it, this world was much more similar to another event in his past... long, long ago in his past.

The Time War. The ultimate battle between the Time Lords and the Daleks, both of them using their greatest weapons, their most fearsome monsters, their greatest geniuses, in the end it had to be sealed away from everything, or the war would spread and engulf all of creation. A bubble of time and space was built; the portion of the galaxy that was ravaged in the war were sealed with a barrier, nothing able to pass, not a single atom, not even something hiding in the spaces between atoms, not a single electron. And the bubble also made a barrier in time; no time-travel device could enter the time stream of the war, and any device in the war could not leave.

Equestria was essentially a bubble. It was several large planets wide, much smaller than the Time War, Equestria itself had similar gravity to planet Earth, but in reality it was closer in size to Saturn or Neptune, much, much too large for it's gravity.

The second strange thing was that the Doctor found that the sun and moon were close to the same size and distance from the earth, and that the moon didn't reflect light, it made it's own cold light. The shadows on the moon were there because there was simply a side of the moon that didn't glow, and as it slowly rotates it shows the side that's dark. It was completely different from any solar system he had ever seen, and he had run from carnivorous suns with fins before. It was a planet with two moons, one of which was a miniature star, trapped inside a bubble in space and time, in an alternate universe with a different set of laws of physics.

The Doctor's thoughts were interrupted gratefully by Luna's approach. "Hello Lulu."

"Hello Doctor."

"Lulu... did you ever get tired of that name?"

"hmm... for a while, in between visits. I accidently signed that as my name on a test. Starswirl began laughing at me, well, not at me. He only laughs at Celestia, but that's mostly friendly teasing, but he laughed at the name and I got mad. That was actually the first time I let your name slip out to Celestia. But by the time you came back I didn't really care."

"Luna... heh, it feels almost as natural. Have I told you about the first time I entered Equestria? No, probably not, it happened far, far into the future."

Luna's eyes widened. The Doctor made several clear rules regarding time travel, besides that Luna wasn't allowed to do it, he made her promise not to ask about the past or the future beyond her time, beyond what she could read in a history book or predict by simply noticing the signs that appeared in society. He never spoke about the future, he said that it could lyse Equestria if he said something he shouldn't have. Or rather, if Luna heard something she never should.

"I met you Luna, and you already knew me. You were Princess Luna, you had your own beautiful Castle in a forest, you had a darker coat and an ethereal mane that looked like the night sky. You had guards that followed your commands, and you and Celestia talked like sisters, not like one princess to another... as you should."

"M-my parents? Discord? Starswirl?"

"I didn't meet them in the future, though if they're all immortal, then they'd still be around, wouldn't they?"

"C-can I ask you anything else?"

"...Maybe, tonight is a night for risks after all."

Luna opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Does my art ever take off?"

The Doctor laughed loud and hard, uninterrupted for three minutes. "Oh Luna, every pony, dragon, and anything else with any sense sees your art at least daily, and so so many will admire it for centuries."

"Every creature in the world can see my art daily?!"

"Heh, you made quite a lot of it, and you put it in places where a lot of people can see it." The Doctor dug into the grass with his shoulders, trying to make himself more comfortable in the ground in the balcony garden. "Luna, do you know what stars are?"

"Sure, they're pointed shapes, like a bunch of triangles strung together, it's used when recording spells geometrically."

"Well, in my universe, or... well the universe I came from. The sky is covered in billions of pinpricks of light."

"Billions?!"

"Trillions, quadrillions, numbers so large that no one can ever count to them, even if they could count at the speed of light and lived forever."

"Your night sky must be very bright."

"Oh it is Luna, it is. So many pinpricks of light, so tiny, so far away. Luna where I come from, the sun is simply whatever star is closest to the planet you're on. Each 'star' is a different world's sun, and each one is so far away it looks to us as merely a glowing grain of sand in the night. The sun usually will block out the stars's shine with it's own light, but moons rarely compete." He let out a deep, painful sigh. "Oh Luna. The universe I came from was so big, so wide, it was insane and random and perfectly planned all at once. My universe has a beauty that is only achieved through the careful planning of a greater mind, or the beauty of absolute chaos becoming still. There were so many stars Luna, I miss them so much, sometimes I would just fly the Tardis away from any star, until I had the maximum number of stars in my view. And then, I would just leave the door open, and I'd swing my legs over the edge so they'd dangle, and I'd fiddle my toes and stare out at space and..."

"...And?"

"I would stare out at space, and look at the beauty of the placement of the stars, making the greatest of designs from any possible angle... Luna, either there is a God with a sense of beauty so refined that he created a piece of art beautiful from any perception or angle, or the creatures who look up at the night and see it's beauty can see it no matter where each individual star is, it... I'd sit with my legs hanging out, and I'd just take it all in for hours at a time, and..."

Luna didn't say anything, just following the Doctor's gaze and trying to see what he saw.

"And it would be like the night lasted forever."

Stars Part 5

Written by Jeck Paradox, pre-read and edited by Slateblu1

The Doctor stretched as he got up off the grass and noted Luna asleep less than a foot away. He smiled at her and summoned his wings, going for a quick morning flight in the sunrise. He wondered how many other Pegasi did this every morning, wake up, throw themselves off a balcony, and simply dart around in the orange light of the early sun.

He came back less than two minutes later and gently shook Luna awake. "Up and at em' Lu."

She blinked away her drowsiness and looked into the sky. "Doctor, I had the most beautiful dream... and I remember it perfectly."

"Oh?"

"Doctor, let's go up into the tower, I want you to meet Discord and Celestia before anypony else. And together we might be able to hold back my father long enough for you to escape, that is, if he doesn't like you."

"Well, that's reassuring."

"He can be very violent if he thinks there's a reason for it."

"What about your mother?"

"Oh, she's always calm and collected, she’d try to capture you, not kill you."

"Alright then... let's go meet Celestia and Discord then." The Doctor put on a mischievous smile. "I hope she likes me more now than she will in the future."

Celestia was woken by a hoof on her nose, and she knew immediately it was Luna, and that it was early. Only Luna woke her up like that, and only when it was early enough that the two of them should still be sleeping. Celestia was fully immersed in her studies nowadays, and even though she hated the decision, she had gotten her own room. So nowadays Discord used Celestia's bed in the nursery.

"Luna, what is it?"

"I... have somepony I want you to meet..."

"At five AM?" Celestia found herself able to access an internal clock ever since she had discovered her Alicorn magic. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took in Luna and the handsome stallion next to her. "Who... what?" Her eyes shot all the way open and she jumped off the bed, her horn glowing as the Doctor was lifted into the air. "Who is he?!"

"I'm the Doctor, hello, we've already met, but this version of you hasn't been properly introduced to me yet."

"What are you doing in my room?" Celestia said in an angry hush.

"I've decided to introduce the Doctor to Mom and Dad, and to you and Discord... But I need your help to make sure that Dad doesn't try to kill him." Luna smiled nervously.

"So, you're the one who's been taking my sister off on escapades her entire life." Celestia brought the Doctor closer to her and narrowed her eyes, looking him over.

"Yep, would you set me down now?" The Doctor said with some mock cheerfulness.

"No, because I'm not sure I can trust you. From what I've heard about you, you're cocky, you have powers no one can account for, your existence is a danger to Equestria, and even though Luna says she doesn't believe you when you say that, I think I should take it at face value. Not to mention you clearly have the stupidest combination of luck I've ever heard of, getting into the worst situations and then getting out of them without a scratch on you or Luna, but plenty of scratches for everypony else. I don't trust you, I don't feel safe around you, and I don't want my sister near you." Celestia had donned her ethereal mane and her eyes were glowing yellow, an effect that made her tower over everything in the room, the source of gravity on attention.

"Celestia, put him down this instant!"

"No Luna, I want to see what happens. But, if I can say one thing. The choice you're about to make... Celly, you'll regret it." The Doctor said calmly.

Celestia's eyes cooled down, and began looking at the Doctor warily. But the Doctor could see the fear in her eyes. Luna looked from her sister to the Doctor, still floating in the air, and rushed out of the room. The Doctor watched her leave with a twinge of fear, he didn't believe Celestia would actually harm him, but he was trapped by a creature of immense strength, and he felt much safer with an Alicorn companion nearby. However, he didn't let this show to Celestia, and turned his too-calm gaze on her. "Well Celly, will you regret letting me live, or will you regret killing me?"

She was unnerved by his calmness, and almost backed up, before remembering her choices. "I will regret nothing, because I'm going to turn you over to my father." She turned her head away from the Doctor, hiding her concession of defeat. "He is justice in this land, and I'll abide by his choice. It's not my place to punish you." Luna burst back into the room and tried to grab Celestia with her magic, but Celestia countered it, making her body's aura become lodestone-like. Then the Doctor disappeared with a flash, and he was back outside the door, with a small Draconequus on his head. "Luna?!"

"I will not let you kill him! He's my closest friend, and he will be there with me during my moon-raising ceremony!"

"Don't worry Lulu, she wasn't going to kill me, just turn me over to your father."

Luna's eyes widened and looked back at Celestia. "You mean Mom, right?"

"Nope, Daddy." Celestia said with finality, floating Discord through the air to her side, and then picking up the Doctor again.

"Discord, help me! We can't let Celestia get him to father!"

"Can you stop me?" Celestia said to Luna. She looked back to Discord, who looked up to his role model, and gave a sad smile. "Come on Discord, you know me, and you know Daddy, he'll do the right thing." Discord let out a sigh and snapped his claw, and with a flash Celestia was only half a foot tall. "Discord?" she said with more confusion than anger.

"Sorry Celestia, I promised Luna... and I don't think the Doctor's done anything wrong yet, and you know how Orbitus overreacts when it comes to the two of you." He picked her up gently with his claws and set her down on her bed.

"Discord! He's dangerous! He kidnaps Luna at least once a month!"

"Sorry Celestia, please don't be mad at me." And Discord promptly dropped a pillow on her.

The three of them ran out of the room as Celestia's pillow-muffled screams were silenced by Luna's spell and Discord closing the door. Luna looked down at the Draconequus and gave him a smile. "It's my fault if anything, she won't stay mad at you." She put Discord's face between her hooves and rubbed his cheeks. "I really don't think anypony could stay mad at you for long."

"Are you sure?"

Luna let go of his face and bent her head down about a foot to rest on his."I'm sure."

"So, now that we've angered the regent of the day, let's go see if we can convince the queen of the night to let me watch your ceremony." The Doctor said, before trotting toward the staircase that would lead them to Umbra’s chambers.

Umbra and Orbitus didn't share chambers any more. For one thing, Orbitus was only really awake during the day, and Umbra the night. And the second thing was that they agreed they wouldn't have children for a long time, at least not until both of the children they had now reached adulthood. They would not have children growing up in competition with one another, but if Luna and Celestia were both already adults, she and Orbitus could focus on the new child. So as Umbra prepared herself to sleep away the day she heard knocking on her chamber door. "State your business." She said quietly, but she knew by now that the guards would hear.

Her two door guards opened the door and bowed. "Count Discord wishes to speak with thee, your Highness."

"Allow him in." She gave a smile as Discord walked into the room, shutting the doors behind him, and putting a spell on them. "What was that for Discord?"

"I... I don't want anypony to overhear this." Discord walked up to her and hopped onto her gigantic bed, waving his short legs off the side. "And is the 'count' part really necessary?"

"You're the ruler of a county, so you're a Count."

"You gave me a few empty fields so that ponies would call me a Count." He raised his eyebrow at Luna's and Celestia's mother. "But that isn't what I'm here to talk to you about."

"What is?" Umbra laid down next to the little Draconequus. "You know you're one of the family, if not officially, then in heart. You can tell me anything."

"Do you know about an imaginary friend Luna had as a filly?"

Umbra searched her vast memory. "Yes... oh, yes, Celestia was worried about Luna, because she had one, but when I asked Luna about she seemed to get embarrassed and didn't tell me anything of it. Celestia didn't say anything about it so I assumed that either Luna stopped pretending about it, or that it stopped bothering Celestia after she told me."

"Well... she still has him."

"The imaginary friend? Really?" She put her own spell on the door, strengthening Discord's and masking any sounds even further. "I understand why that would trouble you but-"

"And then it turned out he wasn't imaginary." Umbra simply stared at him, but her eyes narrowed slightly and she let out a grunt of non-understanding. "When she was around four she played with a Pegasus stallion she met on her balcony, and from what she's told me he's been back several times a year and taken her on trips."

Umbra suddenly became very still, and Discord felt the room become colder. Umbra's magenta hair rose up in an ethereal evening sky color, then lit on fire with a roaring purple flame, her coat turning pure white, Discord shrunk back. He had never seen the queen enter a Unicorn rage. "What are you telling me Discord?"

"Please, just let me finish, don't judge him yet... this Pegasus is a time traveler, and when he comes and takes her on trips it's to far off countries where they have fun for a while. From what I've heard, they’re just enjoying the sights, getting caught up in local adventures, meeting people from places they haven't been before. And you know Luna as well or even better than I do... wouldn't Luna recognize danger when she saw it? Isn't she the most reasonable filly you've ever met? And she still goes with the time traveler. It's all just good fun, and she trusts him. I've met him too, and he seems trustworthy." And then Discord switched from his nervous expression to something a little more sad. "I've met ponies who aren't trustworthy, I can tell when a pony is not to be trusted... I don't get any of that from him. He's a good pony, and Luna's best friend." Discord closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then let it out. "He wants to meet you, and he wants to be there for Luna's moon-raising ceremony."

Umbra simply waited for him, a calm and patient expression on her face despite the rage form contradicting it. "Are you finished?"

"W-with all I can tell you."

"How long have you known about all of this, Discord?"

"Not long... I only met him tonight, Luna woke me up and filled me in, then I teleported to Celestia's room where-"

"He went into Celestia's room?" Umbra's voice oozed with hatred.

"L-Luna took him there to in-introduce him to Celestia in private."

"...I'll meet him," She disabled her spell on the door, "Guards, tell my Husband that I need to speak to him urgently. And by urgent I mean two minutes ago!”

Nothing happened, no clatter of hooves, or 'Yes Ma'am!'s. She turned to Discord. "Is your spell still active?"

"Yes... if Orbitus heard all this then... well, we decided to talk to you first because you'd give him a chance and listen to everything they have to say." Discord said solemnly.

Umbra considered him for a few seconds and began to visibly calm down, her mane returning to it's ethereal, then it’s normal form. "I'm going to lose so much sleep over this..."

"Luna, you have a lot of explaining to do..." Umbra said with a growl. "you've been keeping this big of a secret since you were four? Four?!" She glared at the Doctor, who by now had shown his fear, his mask of confidence falling when talking to an Alicorn who wasn't a teenage girl. "He's an intruder! A kidnapper! And he's somehow evaded our guards daily for years!" Then Umbra let a little bit of betrayal show in her eyes . "You didn't ever think to tell us before now?"

"That's my fault, I told her it was dangerous to... if you knew it might change the future, and that may or may not damage the universe." The Doctor said, but he quickly backed away and lowered his head as Umbra's glare hit him again, her indigo eyes paralyzing him.

"Mother, I swear, he never did anything bad to me. I wasn't harmed, every time he took me away he asked me beforehand, and he risked his life to keep me from being harmed by the little danger we did meet up with." Luna defended, stepping between him and her mother's gaze. The Doctor could actually feel the paralysis disappear. "He's been my best friend for almost as long as I can remember. He never got in the way of my daily life, I did my studies, I kept safe, I met with you whenever you asked, he just put a little more spice in my life. He took me on adventures, and when he first came to me as a filly I needed an adventure, and I needed a friend."

Umbra simply stared at her for a while, and sighed. "Luna... I can tell you trust him, and I trust your judgement as much as I trust my own or Celestia's, and more so than my Husband." She let a little smile appear for a second on her lips, then went back to her mask of perfect calm. "But what the Doctor has done is illegal, and you all admit he did put you in danger."

"And got me out! And it wasn't as if we were looking for trouble."

"Trouble always manages to find me though." The Doctor admitted.

"So he's a jinx too..." Umbra commented, and the Doctor flinched as her gaze passed over him. He was beginning to think she enjoyed seeing him in fear. "Hmmm.... Luna, this is my judgement. I don't like him, and I don't want to see him secretly stealing you away to danger any more." Luna was about to interrupt again, but a look from the queen silenced her. "But I can appreciate what he's been doing for you, maybe you did need a friend and a little danger, I know I did when I was a little filly... but this kind of thing will have to stop. As for the Doctor's fate, I'm sure you and Discord have a plan to allow him to escape the moment I try to imprison or kill him, so I won't. I hereby declare the Doctor pardoned of his crimes of trespassing, kidnapping, and threatening the Princess. And oh yes, you better tell me what other crimes he's done right now so I can pardon him of those too, because this is the only time I'm feeling generous."

"Well..." Luna began.

"We broke into a temple of fire, made of actual solidified fire, and the evil phoenix coagulation declared war on us, but they haven't done anything since we sealed their cavern." The Doctor began.

"And we stole a jewel from Ahuizotl, but he was going to use it to conquer the world... so I think that pardons itself..." Luna added.

"Oh yeah, and how many times have we crossed Equestria's borders without a passport?" The Doctor said with a smile.

"And we fought an army of bandits without a proper bounty-hunting license!"

"And found the fountain of age, but we kind of destroyed it by tipping it over and letting it rot it's own foundations." The Doctor gave a shy smile. "Property damage of all sorts really."

"And we made clones of ourselves and then made them disappear." Luna said. The Doctor didn't mention he still kept one or two in cryosleep deep in the Tardis. "I'm not sure of the legality of cloning."

"And we took dragon jewels across the border without paying any kind of import tax, but truthfully they were gifts." He considered it. "We didn't go through the customs there at all actually."

"You know what? Stop... just... just stop." Umbra threw her hooves up in the air and then brought them back down. "You're... pardoned. You are pardoned of all of... that."

Discord, who had been magically writing down everything that the Doctor and Luna were going to be pardoned for, stopped and raised an eyebrow at the queen. "'All of that?"

"I just... I raised a criminal!" Umbra finally let out. She turned to Discord again. "Write 'being a negative influence on children' down on there too... I don't care if it's not against the law, I just want it written down on there."

"Your Highness..." Discord began.

"Please Discord, call me Umbra, and Doctor, I'll allow you to be there at the ceremony, and afterwards I'll explain all of... this..." she gestured at the list of crimes. "-to my husband, and in private." She considered her words for another second. "Inside a both-ways force field."

Orbitus and Starswirl stood next to each other, watching proudly as Luna and Umbra walked onto the pedestal of the moon. Luna's teachers and some of the servants she had become closer with were standing together off to the side, and closest to the steps were Discord and Celestia. But Luna's eyes kept being drawn to the crowd of friends and teachers, because near the back, she saw an Earth Pony stallion whom none of the other staff would have recognized. "Now then Luna, we must get the timing perfect, the sun and moon serve as the clocks for all the races of the world, and any delay will drown us in letters of complaints, war, and demands for explanation... which is why you're going to get this right the first time." Umbra said proudly.

"Yes Mother." Luna smiled and gave a nod to her mother. She then stood in the center circle of the great pedestal, inside the circle was the shape of a crescent moon.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes." Luna reached out with her magic, finding the webs of lunar magic that emanated from the gigantic object, and she took hold. No unicorn could possibly move an object that large, but since before recorded history Unicorns had been finding the lunar and solar winds, taking hold, and giving just enough of a pull that it would set the cycle for another day. "Mother... I have them." Luna tugged and pulled at the chords of the moon, but her unicorn strength was not enough. She channeled more and more of her Earth and Pegasi magic into her horn, but it was still not enough. "Mom! I can't do it! I'm not strong enough yet... this is all I have!" Luna grunted out, her teeth clenched, her horn sparking.

"Luna, don't use your Unicorn magic, just find it and take hold. You're clawing at it, trying to pin it down and yank it... you're supposed to hold on to it... and then push, not pull. It knows where it wants to go... you can't force it to go your way, even if they happen to be the same direction. Luna, let go of the moon." Luna looked at her mother, unsure, and then let go, letting her magic rush back through her to their proper places. "Now simply find the magic and take hold. Don't be too hasty Luna."

She reached out again, and when she reached the lunar winds, she let them fill her, interacting with the magic deep within herself.

She let out a gasp as she entered the Unicorn rage mode, but the blue fire evaporated into sparks, no not evaporated, exploded. Her mane was a mess of pure white fireworks, and the white coat that came with the rage mode returned back to Luna's normal shade of blue, but underneath, her skin darkened, making her blue darker as well. The sparks began shrinking, not in number, but in size, and to fill the space between them appeared an ethereal blue mist. She looked at her new mane in wonder as it floated past her eyes, pulled by the lunar winds.

Instead of feeling the rage that came with the mode she became more sure of everything around her. Her doubts didn't disappear, for only the most stupid of people don't doubt anything. But her judgement wasn't clouded by them, she became more understanding and confident.

But one doubt still continued to worry her, but as she turned her head and saw the Doctor's face it grew to gigantic proportions, so much for sureness. The Doctor was crying. How could he hate-

Luna's Alicorn-influenced mind overcame her doubt and made her look closer at the Doctor. He was crying, and yes, it was because of the change in her look. But he wasn't looking at her. He was looking at her mane. At the millions of white sparks forever protectively encased in the almost-darkness. She looked at it again herself. These are stars.

Luna came down from the pedestal, her mother at her side, proudly nuzzling her neck. When her father came forward and congratulated her over and over, very excitedly. He turned to Umbra and started laughing. "We knew it, from the moment Tia was born we knew it!" Luna raised an eyebrow.

"Knew what?" Orbitus simply gave her a warm smile and hugged her. Then he winked at Umbra and began laughing again. Luna decided to leave him to his happiness and trotted over to Discord and Celestia, who her father had bypassed in order to hug her first. Celestia and Discord tried to hug her at the same time, and it somehow worked. They both said their congratulations, and Luna was relieved to note that Discord didn't seem to treat her any differently in her Alicorn form. She had become worried when Discord seemed to worship Celestia the few days after she first transformed, and he still didn't act naturally around her when her mane was a rainbow.

But after the hug broke away Celestia moved in closer, adding "I'll save all my anger for tomorrow." And gave a playful wink. Luna let a shiver run down her back at Celestia's well-hidden rage. But Discord didn't seem to show any fear around her sister, so perhaps Celestia was only joking. The doubt was evaluated by her new Alicorn magicked mind. And she found that there was still plenty of reason to be scared.

She had a chat with Starswirl, who admired her mane and made a joke about her new set of studies, the same kind that Celestia had for the past year. But Luna merely smiled at the joke. She had already made a decision about her studies. She went to her various teachers and servants and thanked them for their praise and questions (after all, it had been a little less than twenty years since any unicorn besides Umbra moved the moon, and they couldn't go up and ask her). And she answered each kindly, and then after she had satisfied all of them she moved up to the Doctor and put her hoof up to his. "Doctor."

"Princess."

"So, how do you like it?" Luna turned in a circle, showing off her sparkling tail and mane.

"Yes... It's... you're beautiful Luna."

Luna smiled, and then returned back to normal, and the Doctor's expression hadn't changed. Luna looked at the Doctor and leaned forward, kissing him.

The Doctor's eyes widened, and he looked at her curiously, as if he didn't really understand. Then he shook his head and a little bit of a smile appeared. "Luna..."

"Run." Luna said simply. Blushing a little, but not looking embarrassed.

The Doctor's smile grew full and wide as the outside world reappeared and all it's sounds as well, the staff gasping, Celestia falling over, Discord giggling, and the deafening voice of pure rage of the white and blue flaming Alicorn charging toward him. He summoned his wings, shot into the air, dodging the blue-hot rage of the frenzied Alicorn, and shot forward, spinning around a castle tower, getting low enough to run on the sun pedestal for a few steps before taking back into the air seamlessly, and pulling out his Sonic. It glowed blue for a second, and the Doctor flew as fast as he could toward the horizon, and his wings burned with effort, but he didn't feel tired. He sent a glimpse behind him and saw that Orbitus was still chasing him. But he heard the sound of whooshing, and smiled as open doors appeared instantaneously in front of him. He flew in without stopping, and only turned his head to see the confused and enraged face of the king before the Tardis disappeared. He crashed into the swimming pool and surfaced twenty seconds later, shivering. He dispelled his wings and shook himself dry.

He trotted over to the Tardis's controls and smiled. He wouldn't be seeing Luna in a while, just as she wouldn't see him for a while. Fair's fair. Luna loved him. He knew that he'd eventually get involved with her, but... He didn't think it would happen like this. Not that he had any objections. Luna loved him. The Doctor sighed, and began sobbing next to the Tardis's controls.

Oh Riversong, oh Rose... and so many others, in past lives, in histories he could only see as an observer. Riversong had told him of her last moments when they first met... but he spent more than a hundred years with her, and they were happy. They never had a child, (but not for lack of trying), but they were married, two time travelers, moving in opposite directions, she died when he first met her, and he had already spent their last day together. He was whatever the male form of a widow is. And Rose already had someone to love, even if it was a human clone of himself. In another universe another version of him spent his life with her. He was widowed twice... heck, more times over the millennia. He wasn't betraying anyone if he now chose to love Luna.

And he found he did love her. He would come back in maybe ten years, when she's an adult, if not in body, then at least in spirit and in law. And he would wait for her in body. They were two immortals, one with the greatest patience, and the other with the tools to cross great distances of time in seconds. It was a match made in heaven. He would come back someday, when her father's rage had cooled, and when she was ready for it. For them, together. Somewhere, everywhere.

He wrote a psychic note and sent it to the piece of paper that he had given Luna when she was ten. She said she kept it in her dresser drawer. Luna wouldn't think he abandoned her, just that now, instead of her waiting for his next visit, he was waiting for hers, when she felt it was the right time for her to come to him. And then they would go off together, or maybe just stay there in Unicornia. Screw paradoxes in history, the Doctor was in love.

Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Stars Part 6

Written By Jeck Paradox, edited and pre-read by Slateblu1

After Orbitus came back from his chase Umbra lead him away quietly, while Celestia and Discord did the same for Luna as Starswirl went and dealt with the staff. Celestia flinched as she heard the sounds of explosions bouncing off a two-way forcefield in the distance . Once they were sure they were away from watchful eyes Celestia and Luna did a little dance.

"Your first kiss!"

"I know!"

"How was it?!"

"I... I don't know, I haven't kissed anypony on the lips before... I enjoyed it." Luna considered it for a while. "He didn't really kiss me back..."

"Did you see his smile afterward?" Discord asked. "I'm sure that has to be worth a few dozen." Celestia and Luna looked down at the well-groomed Draconequus, and simultaneously raised their eyebrows. Discord stepped back a foot. "What? Anypony can kiss somepony. But giving them a smile like that? One completely natural? It has to be more valuable."

Luna and Celestia looked back at each other and laughed for a while. They stopped when they heard a gigantic crash sound. Celestia took a peek outside and noticed that the building that Umbra led Orbitus to had exploded. Perhaps the force field didn't last, but there wasn't a sonic boom or even a roar so he probably wasn't charging off. Luna and Discord came outside with Celestia and looked upon the wreckage.

"The secretary of the treasury is going to love this one." Luna whispered.

Discord merely shook his head slowly back and forth. "And it was such a pretty tower."

Celestia realized something was wrong. "Guys... they haven't come out yet..."

Luna stopped her giggling and took to the sky, followed quickly by Discord and Celestia.

"Mom?! Dad?!" Celestia shouted. The three of them quickly moved away large chunks of the wreckage to find a forcefield covered in cracks.

Luna flew down and levitated the wreckage above the field away. Umbra, who was lying on the ground apparently noticed this, or perhaps her magic simply gave out at that moment, because she dropped the field seconds after. "Mother? Mom?" Luna asked in a panic.

Orbitus got up off the ground and moved over to his wife's side. Luna turned to him and practically shouted. "What happened?!"

"I... we were arguing and... Luna, I didn't do this, she didn't do this, it..." Orbitus simply looked lost for a few seconds. "I think it was a bomb."

"A bomb?!" Starswirl shouted, rushing over the wreckage to the royal family's side. "Somepony tried to assassinate you?!"

Orbitus began combing through the room, and soon he found a cavity underneath his throne, a very large one, which had been blown up from the inside.

"Starswirl, get a medic for my wife!" He turned back to the cavity and lit a light inside it. The work had been done a while ago, and there was no way to remotely detonate it that he could see. So it had to be on a signal spell or a timer.

Starswirl did a quick 'checkup' spell on the queen."No need, the damage on her isn't physical, it's magical. Two-way force field's take it out of you. And having to keep it running while a bomb went off on one side and the two of you freaking out on the other probably just gave her a bit of magic shock. She'll be fine."

"...I'll take your word for it, but please, get her medical attention anyway."

"Of course your Highness." Starswirl very carefully lifted up Umbra and moved from the tower across the lot that held the pedestals of day and night.

"Luna call the guard, I want this tower dismantled and the origin of the bomb found."

"Understood!" Luna took off immediately.

Celestia and Discord stood there awkwardly. "Um... Father?"

Orbitus had turned to the cavity again. The bomb was placed before the throne had been. He and his wife had been sitting next to a bomb for the last eighteen years. "Celestia, Discord, look up the group that we hired for the tower's construction, or even just the group that made the throne..."

Discord nodded, and teleported away to the records room. After two minutes figuring out how the gigantic archive was ordered he found the correct files and reappeared before the two Alicorns. He handed the King the files and frowned. "The no longer 'federal' Pegasopolis Construction Company."

Orbitus's face somehow managed to become even more grim. "So they've been conspiring this whole time."

"Who?" Celestia asked.

"The President of Equestria." Discord answered. "And the corporation he fell back on. King Orbitus kept on many of the old federal institutions for a while, but the more loyal ones started falling apart or showing signs of legitimate rebellion. One of them, the Pegasopolis Federal Construction Company, pretended to switch loyalty to the Monarchy, but they were secretly planning treason." He gestured to the bomb. "Apparently the conspiracy went farther than the defense force thought."

"How come I don't know about this?"

"It happened when you were very small, before Luna was born actually. The Company tried to assassinate all of us before." Orbitus said grimly.

"What do you mean by 'all of us'?"

"When you were three they threw a thunderstorm grenade into the nursery while me and your mother were also present. We stopped it, and traced it back to the company, we shut it down and arrested everyone in a position of command. But we didn’t take down the buildings they made."

Discord paced for a while. "But who could still be sending signals to the bomb? You arrested everyone who could possibly be involved."

Orbitus and Celestia looked at each other and then back to Discord. "How do you know so much of this?"

Discord got a shy smile. "I spend most of my free time in the Federal Library. I've read every court case in the last thirty years." He made a checklist appear. "Actually, only the last twenty-seven and a half years." He frowned. "I can't get on with reading the older ones because cases keep being added to the records for me to read, and I can't go out of order if I can help it."

"Huh... Celestia, I want you to stay safe, talk to the Captain about safety accommodations for you, Luna, and Discord." Orbitus said.

"What about you and mom?"

"We can take care of ourselves, don't worry."

Luna got to her room and closed the door quietly, before collapsing into her bed. Without opening her eyes she levitated her piece of psychic paper out of it's hiding place and brought it over to her. She then lifted the dragon's jewels, a golden red phoenix feather, hair from a bear, liquid rainbow in a tiny vial, marbles, a headband made by buffaloes, a half-broken cup, a pile of unique stones from a variety of places, pressed and magically preserved flowers, and finally a worn, dulled, and folded piece of paper, one that had been folded in such a way that only the words 'the end' were visible. All her fondest memories of her and the Doctor. She turned around on her bed and noticed the repeating message on the psychic paper. She immediately grabbed it closer to her.

She began mouthing out the words.

"Luna, this will have to be short- thanks for the kiss, and know that I'll kiss you as the first thing I do the next time we meet. As for that... Luna, I think we should begin a life together, either as Equestrians, or as Time-Travelers, or maybe both. But before that... we should wait, at least until you're an adult. I'll wait too, just so you don't feel it's unfair. I'll miss you every second, and I hope you still love me in four or five years. Don't forget, but don't let it bother you- you're more than my traveling companion now, so don't center yourself on me. Become your own mare, and when it's time, we'll meet back up, and decide what to do with our lives. Love, -----, or, as you've known me, the Doctor."

Luna blinked away a tear and looked out at the sky from her window. She opened a blue wooden case, and put each object into it gently. She put several stasis and protection spells over it, before putting it on her bed. She then went around packing everything she needed for her trip.

She floated all of her suitcases and her pillow behind her as she walked down the spiral staircase from her’s and Discord's room... no. The room she had shared once with Celestia, and at the same time the room she had shared with Discord. The room of her childhood. She stopped at the bottom of the staircase, and then suddenly flew back up to the top. She opened the door and walked over to the window. How many times had she dove from, fallen out of, and gotten pushed out of this window? She took a little shard of glass from the window and wrapped it in a bit of it's curtain she ripped off. She looked outside it and looked into the blackness. She and her sister and Discord, and Starswirl and a few of Celestia's more devoted tutors, were escaping the castle in the dead of night, for fear that every wall could hold a bomb.

"They don't remember! They don't remember what we did for them! Is it just because I'm immortal that my memory is better than them? Don't they remember all the pain they felt when the system began pulling apart!" Orbitus yelled. Starswirl and Umbra winced together as Orbitus destroyed a bust of himself.

"The people just want what's best for themselves and their families-" Starswirl began.

"Exactly, no nationalism! None! We have no soldiers willing to die for the cause! Only stallions who work out and can stand standing at a door for hours at a time. Some lousy guards, that's what Equestrian nationalism amounts to!" Orbitus let out a sigh and collapsed to the ground, and the color began draining from his mane, the swath of perfect summer sky fading into a pale blue mane. Umbra gasped and Starswirl raised his bushy eyebrows. He had never seen the King so weak.

Umbra walked up to him and hit him hard in the face with a hoof. Not enough to send him through the wall, but easily hard enough to send him against it. Starswirl shifted his shock to the queen, and Orbitus mirrored his expression, pressing his foreleg to his cheek as an afterthought. "You are the King! The ponies governed themselves fairly for thirty thousand years, but after that time their government collapsed, or was about to, the system keeping the environment in check was becoming more and more corrupt, so what did you do? You enforced rule, you got the ponies to keep their system running. You became their King because they needed a King." Umbra's face cooled down, her tightened, fierce, unemotional face softened, and became sweet and loving and sad. "They need a King again. You have become paranoid in the years since we sent the kids away, you began relying on the bureaucracy for issues you could judge in your sleep. Be the King, make changes, fire people, put competent ponies closer to you, find what's wrong with the system and fix it."

Orbitus looked at her and trotted back to his throne. He sank into it, and looked up to her, and then to Starswirl. "The last time the government was about to come apart... The presidency couldn't control the companies that organized the Pegasi, and because of unpredictable weather the Earth Ponies rebelled, and the Unicorns were at the heart of the corruption... I took away one of the factors by putting the sun and moon under my command, relieving the unicorns of their command. I need to do that again..."

Umbra looked uncertainly at her husband. "Orbitus, I didn't mean that-"

Orbitus looked up to his wife and smiled. "I couldn't exactly grow every plant in Equestria personally..."

"No, of course not-"

"But perhaps I could control it's weather myself."

"One pegasus cannot control an entire weather system!"

"But I'm not a single Pegasus." He smiled. "I'm an Alicorn, the King, I wrestled the sun from the entire unicorn race, I'm sure I can push the clouds around."

"Of all of Equestria?! Starswirl, tell him it's impossible!"

“I’m not a Pegasus, but I’m sure one would tell you it’s impossible. Pegasus magic isn't like Unicorn magic, it more present, more physical than a unicorn’s. A Pegasus can control the weather around him, but not much beyond that, they have to actually push the clouds and smell the wind.”

“You sound like a Pegasus.”

“I could tell you the same about Earth Pony magic and you know I’m not an Earth Pony!"

"Orbitus, please, don't even joke about this, if you attempt this you could actually get some control, more than a normal Pegasus at least, but you'll tear yourself apart reaching over Equestria."

"...I'll do research before trying it. Starswirl, if it doesn't take too long, I'd like you to help me with that."

"Of course my Liege, but I wouldn't reccomend it."

"Don't do anything hasty Orb." Umbra said before he walked out the door.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

It had been two years since she had last seen the Doctor, two years since the kiss, and the bomb, and the letter. But she was doing alright. Even before there would be months where the Doctor only showed up once or twice. The only difference now was that she didn't have to look out over their balcony every morning to see if he was there... it helped that she and Celestia had moved away.

She was sixteen now, and Celestia was twenty, but they both still looked about thirteen, and that aging was going to continue slowing. Until they get to their parent's age, whatever that was, where years pass without a single new hair appearing on Father's chin to be shaved off. Luna had made a deal with her parents, when she turned eighteen she would join Celestia in her lessons, but until then she spent the days as she willed, she spent the days and nights making her art, perfecting it, and, as she had guessed the Doctor had insinuated, she began making plans to light up the night sky.

She spent days at a time flying, exhausting her Pegasus magic, trying to reach the edge of the sky, but she would always fall back to Earth. She wasn't sure how she would ever cover the sky with her art.

"Fallen back to Earth oh Mare of the Moon?"

"Celestia, please don't call me that."

"Fine, Luna, you need to stop doing this, you're going to get gray hairs.

"Good."

Celestia sighed. "You know what I mean. You can't already be tired of immortality, you're only a teenager."

"You are only a few weeks older than me now. At least bodily wise. And I'm catching up."

"Hmm. But really, when will you be finished with your craters?"

"When I can touch the edge of the sky."

"I wish you'd tell me your oh-so secret project."

"I don't want to ruin the surprise."

"Can't I help in some way? You're making the gardeners go insane."

Luna looked over the great open fields that surrounded the castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It was riddled with craters from Luna's daily drops from orbit. "I..." Luna bowed her head and sighed. "I want to put giant lights in the sky, not like the sun or moon but..." Luna brought her ethereal mane into existence. "I want the sky to look like my mane, like my art."

"-and you've gone off the deep end."

"Celestia!"

"This is taking vanity to a whole new level Luna! If you want ponies to look at your art have it put in any museum in Equestria, ponies would flock to see the work of their princess, you don't have to deface the entire world with it!"

"'deface'?!"

"Oh you know what I mean."

"I'm not doing this for my own vanity, it's for the d- the world. It's to bring beauty to the entire world, for all time."

"Luna." Celestia shook her head. "Luna, you almost said. 'doctor'."

"No I didn't."

"Luna." Celestia put a confinement spell on her before she could fly away. "We need to talk about this. You said he's never coming back."

"Of course he's coming back. He meets us in the future."

"What are you talking about?"

"He said it a bunch of times, he knew what you looked like, the rainbow hair you, before I took him to see you the night before... and he left me a message."

"You never said anything about a message, do I need to instruct the guards to do a Doctor patrol now?"

"No, he said he wouldn't be back for a long time, another two years, or more."

"He gave you a date?!"

"In the message it said that he would wait until I was an adult, and then he'd come and he'd marry me."

Celestia was dumbfounded. "I'm... just going to take a flight... and please stop with this whole lights in the sky thing, at least until I get back."

Luna undid the spell. "No! You're going off to tell Mom and Dad!"

Celestia already took off to the sky. Luna took off after her, and she managed to catch up, her wings were stronger than Celestia's. "Don't stop me Luna, you need to stop with him!"

"No I don't we love each other, we went on all those adventures, and told me stories of his world... I can't give up on him!"

She flew around Celestia, catching Celestia with a paralysis spell. She wrapped her sister in a bubble and watched it float away back towards their castle. But Celestia had already defeated Luna's spell and popped the bubble.

"Luna, go back!"

"NO!" Luna fired off another paralysis spell, but Celestia already diffused it by the time it touched her. And she created one of her own, sticking Luna's wings in a downward spiral, it would take Luna safely to the ground. Luna studied the spell, but it was too specialized, she couldn't figure it out by the time Celestia had already become a spot in the horizon. "Darn it!" She would never be able to stop Celestia by the time the spell wore off. But she might be able to get to someone who could.

"Count, could you please look over these documents?"

"Hm, put it on the desk, thank you Sherbet." He pronounced it with a french accent that made it sound like 'Shyarr-Bear'. Sherbet smiled. There was absolutely no french history in his family, but it was one of the Count's quirks that made him at the very least familiar.

"Discord County's annual farmer's market is coming up soon."

"I still don't understand why it's called 'annual' if it's a new event."

"It will be annual."

"hm. Wait, please excuse me for a little while Sherbet, I'm about to meet with an unexpected regal guest."

"Regal?"

"Princess Luna."

"Our Princess Luna?"

"No, the Changeling's. Of course it's ours. I actually lived with her until two years ago." The Draconequus got up from his chair and stretched to his full height, just a few inches taller than the mare. "I wonder what she needs to talk to me about."

At that moment Discord snapped his claw, and the roof disappeared, and a pile of pillows appeared in the middle of the room. Two seconds later Princess Luna crashed into the pile. The roof returned to it's normal place, and Discord helped the Alicorn up before dispelling the pillows. "Discord, I need a favor."

"It's nice to see you too Luna!"

"Now's not the time to get sarcastic, I need you to meet up with Celestia and stop her from telling Dad about the Doctor."

"He came back!?"

"He sent a message."

Discord shook his head. "Nope, I'm a count now, I'm not obstructing a Princess."

"It's not a 'Count obstructing a Princess' it's Luna and Discord stopping Celestia. Three siblings."

"Please."

Discord sighed and put his head on top of Luna's. They were both slightly taller than the average pony, which put them at the same height. "Luna... I'll get you there first, but I'm not sticking around to get Celestia mad at me again." He turned to Sherbet "I'll be gone for a little while, do I have any meetings in the next hour?"

"No sir."

"Good, well' we're off!" And with a snap of his claw the two of them were in the hall outside the royal court, on a rug that had a sign that said 'reserved for teleportation'. "Now hurry, Court won't be in session for a another hour. Please don't start a war over your boyfriend."

"Thank's Discord, and stop getting taller."

"No." And Discord stood on his tip... claws and hoof, giving him a good two inches on Luna before teleporting back to Discord County. Sherbet had poured him a cup of tea and had placed yet another pile of papers in his brief absence. "How the heck does she do it?"

Celestia flew over the wide open meeting area and landed near the staircase that would lead to the the courtroom. It would be another hour before court started, so she would be able to talk to her parents. But she had to be quick, Luna couldn't be more than two minutes behind her. She dashed down the stairway and came to the court doors, pushing them open with magic she marched into the room.

To be greeted by Luna.

"Oh! Celestia, Luna said you'd be coming." Orbitus smiled at seeing both his daughters again.

"You seem cheerful." Celestia looked at Luna suspiciously. But the blue alicorn gave no sign of noticing the almost glare.

"Yes, my daughter's have come to visit! Now, what's all this about?"

"Luna's gone insane."

"I'd like to talk to you about some of my future plans." Luna clarified. "Which Celestia doesn't agree with."

"Also, Luna got a message from the Doctor and never told anypony!"

"Great, you couldn't wait to drop that one first, could you?" Luna returned Celestia's glare.

Orbitus's ears perked up. "Oh? What does it say?"

Celestia opened her mouth, but was cut off by Luna. "The Doctor told me that he'll come back in two or three years and ask to marry me."

Orbitus immediately calmed the flames that began coming to existence in his mane. "...Continue."

"That was all the message said, Celestia is just mad because I didn't tell her."

"Oh. The Doctor wants to Marry you? Luna, please, please explain something to me. He's a 'time traveler', right?"

"Yes..."

"Now, please don't be offended, but here's something I thought of since the last time me and your mother discussed 'the Doctor'. If he really is a Time Traveler, and knows the course of history, what if he wants to marry the Princess, ensuring that in the future he would rule?"

"Dad! The Doctor has no such ambition!"

"You don't know that! He had spent a much shorter time with you, he has been skipping over the gaps between his visits with you, if he was an exceptional enough actor he could fool you into thinking him whatever you wanted the brief time you spent together. And if he becomes Equestria's future ruler because he married you, and knows every event in the future, then he could make himself the emperor of the world. He is that dangerous, and you continue to pine for him!?"

"I... I... No, I know him. I know he's a good pony, who has done nothing but try and have fun and help others who need it!"

"Anypony can pretend to be a 'nice guy' for a few hours if it helps their reputations. I've known enough bureaucrats to know that. All I'm saying is, don't blindly follow this stallion, if he wants to marry you he'll have to talk with me and your mother first."

"...I suppose that's reasonable. But you don't know him well enough to say those things. He is the nicest pony I've ever met. Well, not nice, but good. He's the most purely good pony I've ever met." Luna shook her head to clear her thoughts, and her Alicorn peacefulness overcame her doubts. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something else."

"The thing that makes her insane."

"I want to cover the night sky with art."

Orbitus was actually caught off guard and nearly fell from his throne, but in seconds he had gotten back to the regal pose. "Um... I'm not sure how to respond to that... why do you want to?"

"...In the Doctor's world-" Celestia groaned. "-the night sky is filled with tiny lights, like fireworks are constantly going on, and they make different shapes and designs depending on which way it's viewed from, does this remind you of anything?" Celestia and Orbitus shared a look, then shook their heads no. "In the Doctor's world, my art is part of the nights sky naturally, the sky looks like my Alicorn mane!"

Orbitus brought a hoof to his forehead. "And you wonder why I think he's been manipulating you."

"No! It's true, the way his eyes looked when he was talking about it... He called them stars."

"The shapes?"

"No! In his world they call the tiny lights 'stars'."

"I want to bring the stars to our world, he said they were so beautiful, and when he saw my mane tears were brought to his eyes. He said that in his world there were an infinite number of suns so far away they look like sparks, and that every sun had it's own Earth, and every creature on every Earth all look out every night and see every other earth's suns and they all enjoy them together! Creatures from infinite worlds all enjoying one sight together. Isn't that beautiful? I'm trying to bring that to Equestria!"

Celestia blinked. What a strange world the Doctor came from... or made up. She looked up to her father, who was smiling a little bit. "Luna..." Celestia hoped he wouldn't chastise her sister too bad. "Creatures from infinite worlds all enjoying one sight together huh? And you want to bring that to Equestria... That's a fine dream." Celestia and Luna shared a look of surprise. "Have you heard about the war with the Changelings? And the Diamond Dog problem? What if you could bring us together with your art? I won't say that when the time comes I'll allow you to do this, after all, it effects everything, not just Equestria, in fact, it might even create problems for Equestria. But I'll let you work on it. What do you need? A spell?"

"I was thinking of attaching lights to the surface of the sky. Like giant, eternal lanterns."

"Dad, you can't be seriously thinking of this? You were saying how the Doctor is a threat to Equestria's future a minute ago! This is just indulging Luna's vanity!"

"No, this might be inspired by the Doctor, but I think that ends there, and it's not for vanity, you can't tell from the way your sister talked? It's about bringing creatures together, it's about beauty and harmony. How can you not support the reason, even if you don't understand the project?"

"Dad... I..." Celestia sighed. "I think I get it now."

"Good, Luna, tell me about anything you need."

Luna was smiling widely now. "Thank you Dad!"

She then flew off toward Starswirl's tower to see if he knew of anything that could help.

"So, Pinkie, how have you been doing these days?"

"Mmm... pretty good, the bakery's really picked up recently." the party mare gave a wide smile. "Ponyville's been getting more and more popular, hasn't it?"

"The real question is why it hasn't been this popular from the start... are there any easier routes to Canterlot from this direction? Isn't this one of the stops on the main railway there? This place should be bustling with people heading toward the mountains." The Doctor took out his Sonic Screwdriver. "There doesn't seem like anything wrong with the town though..."

Pinkie stopped stirring for a few seconds and considered. "I think the main reason is that the town's so close to the Everfree."

"... If you say so."

"What is the Everfree anyway, why do so many monsters live there?"

"Fluttershy would know better than me."

"...Probably... But you know why I don't like being there." Pinkie flicked some dough at the Doctor, which caught him fortunately right after he closed his eyes. "Gah! What was that for?"

"Sar hasn't done one bad thing ever since he came to Ponyville." Pinkie shook her head. "I don't know why you'd think Fluttershy's perfect helper could ever be a 'war machine'."

"He has a gun where his arm should be! He was programmed to feel nothing but satisfaction from killing!"

"That word again. Why won't you explain how that works?"

"You are a race of magical talking ponies, you having lasers and spears are bad enough."

The Doctor sighed. He had taken Pinkie on adventures again for a while, but nothing as big. He now refused to learn about anything in Luna's timeline, so if they were traveling they had to go way back in time. He had tried taking some other ponies for rides, Sunflower was his companion for a while, but nothing really clicked like him and Luna.

"Maybe I should go talk to Fluttershy and her pet devil." Pinkie tried to hit him with more dough, but he dodged it easily. It came back and hit him. "...how?"

"I really don't know, but isn't it great!?"

"Hey Fluttershy, mind if I talk to you for a while?"

"Oh! Sorry, you scared me, I wasn't really expecting visitors... but I don't really mind that much."

"Alright, thank you." The Doctor gave a short bow as he walked into Fluttershy's lawn. "So, where's the Dalek?"

"Sar has been the most wonderful helper Doctor, and he really does prefer being called by his full name or just 'Sar'."

"I know what it 'enjoys'... or at least pretends to." The Doctor scowled for a second before realizing he was in the presence of dozens of absurdly cute animals in a perfect garden. "Do you know anything about the history of the Everfree?"

"Oh, no... sorry, not really."

"Hm. It doesn't really matter, I could check it out on my own."

"Doctor." He whisked around to look at the polished blue armor of Dalek Sar. "How.... pleasant... of you to come by. Have you been bothering Commander Fluttershy?"

"Have I?" The Doctor asked.

"Oh, no... of course not, the Doctor was just asking if I knew anything about the Everfree Forest. I could name every type of animal there, but I don't really know much about the forest itself..."

"You will not bring Commander Fluttershy anywhere so dangerous! Do you understand Doctor?!"

"I wasn't going to bring her anywhere silly Dalek. I was just wondering."

"Wonder elsewhere!"

"You know, you and I are the only things from my universe in this dimension...unless you count the angels." He shivered visibly. "You should be more sociable."

"You are the most dangerous thing in the universe Doctor. I am here to protect Commander Fluttershy, the only reason I have not killed you for the sake of this universe's inhabitants is because I fear what would happen to me and the Commander and the universe if you had almost died, and then came back for revenge!"

"You know I'd never harm this world or it's people."

"Not purposefully."

"Hmph. Well, all I'm asking is for you to be more sociable. Maybe go on a trip with me sometime, talk about the old days when you were a member of a cult for a sociopathic evil genius race and I was a-"

"Renegade for a xenocidal mad genius race?"

"That's the word. Er, those. Well, sorry to not bother you Fluttershy, I'll be seeing you."

"G-goodbye." Fluttershy wasn't sure what to make of the conversation.

"Hello, my Honored Court. I would like to make a non-negotiable order for you all to carry out. In two days time I will personally take complete control of Equestria's weather."

"You're reorganizing the Pegasi?"

"Yes. In a way. I will actually be attempting to control Equestria's weather personally. Not through legions of Pegasi, I will be controlling every cloud in Equestria directly."

The court exploded into noise. Orbitus silenced them with a single pound of his hoof. "This is non-negotiable. If it is not successful, then the Pegasi will resume their normal work."

Orbitus got back up and the court was in chaos. There were calls of treason against each other, please for him to stop, or give their province special treatment. He ignored it. But then his advisor, who had remained silent the whole time, poked his side. "My Lord."

"Yes Starswirl?"

"Please don't do this. You won't be able to take it."

"I am the King, and this country has already began falling apart. It requires a new force to be put on it to hold it in place. I rescued this Kingdom from chaos when I took control of the sun and moon. I will save it again by taking control of the weather."

"And if it needs saving again, will you take all the farmer's jobs? All the gardeners?"

"If I have to."

"You're going to die if you do this Orbitus!"

"I am King Orbitus. King. If I cannot die saving my country, I cannot die."

Stars; Conclusion

Written by Jeck Paradox. Edited by Slateblu1.

"Is it ready?"

"...Yes sir. It's ready."

"Then let us begin." Orbitus took a step forward, and breathed in deeply. He flew into the sky and began taking control of the clouds around him. It was easy, the amount of Pegasus magic inside him had been underestimated. He took confidence in that.

His wings outstretched, and he felt the air, and extended his reach. "A clear day in Unicornia." The clouds above the capital were drawn away. "Light showers in Pegasopolis." Miles and miles away, beyond his sight, it began to rain in the cloud city. His wings began writhing as he took control of about an eighth of Equestria's weather. He began converting more of his unicorn magic to Pegasus.

A quarter of Equestria's weather.

His wings felt like they'd be ripped off, but he had more magic to spare. Three eighths. "RAAAAGGHHHH!!!"

He poured in more and more unicorn magic, but he was running out. He channeled his Earth magic, he had almost three quarters of Equestria.

Orbitus felt excruciating pain in his legs and in his wings, and a huge pressure on his forehead. He was losing control. He began switching his Alicorn magic into Pegasus magic. The wrong choice. As if he had opened some gate inside himself his Alicorn magic rushed out of him, his entire body becoming as ethereal as his mane.

He had never felt power like this. It flooded him, overwhelmed him, it was like there was a thunderstorm in every individual bone. He forced his eyes open, and saw with confusion that he was falling, and that the clouds were moving, but he had long since lost control. His legs jerked with Earth magic, and when they touched the ground the land writhed with life, every prehistoric remain, every fragment of bone or leaf or claw began bursting with the magic of life.

His body went through tremor after tremor, the air swirled around him, and plant life grew around him. He tried to gain control, but his magic was overflowing from the alicorn fibers in his bones. He felt a brief pain as his horn exploded. And one that wasn't brief as his bones began shifting.

He looked up into the air as three shapes, no more... He couldn't tell, flew above him. But when they came close he recognized them. His beautiful wife, his daughters, his son, his closest friend. "I... I..."

"Don't try to talk, I'm trying to siphon it away right now, just relax, alright? Relax."

"I... n-need to say this." Orbitus got out. "I love you all..."

"We know Orb, we know." His wife bent down, and her alicorn magic faded away, her purple hair fell onto his face.

"...will this worko... tria...?"

"Out for Equestria? Of course. No one will ever forget your sacrifice."

"Dad..." Luna gasped out. She turned to Discord. "Can't you heal him?!"

"What could I do?! I don't have the power to heal... I can conjure up anything you want, but I can't... grah!" He bowed deeply to Orbitus. "I'm sorry."

Celestia and Luna laid by his left side, and Umbra laid down on his right. Starswirl sighed and pulled his hat off his head, bringing it over his heart. Orbitus opened his mouth and took in one deep breath. "I... smell flowers." He looked up into the wild, stormy sky, and twitched his wing. The clouds were forced away in every direction, and he saw the blue afternoon sky.

He took a breath, and let it out.

He took another breath, and let it out.

Discord reached down hesitantly and closed both of Orbitus's eyes. "...How do we tell them?"

"Tell who?" Starswirl asked.

"The ponies of Equestria... The entire world actually, the Sun will be under new management from now on." Discord looked toward Umbra. "..My Queen, what should we do? You're in charge now."

"...No."

Starswirl simply stared at her, and Discord raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"...The 'eternal' monarch is dead. And not only that, he died after only twenty years of rule. This is no longer the monarchy that will last forever. And I'm no more the queen of the night than Orbitus was the King." She looked at her two daughters, forever twelve, that had fallen asleep next to their father's corpse. She shivered and moved them a few feet away from the King. "I'm stepping down, this is now the age of Celestia and Luna."

"You can't be serious!" Discord hissed. "My queen, Luna hasn't begun her 'royal' education, and Celestia has only had what, three years? How many years did you train to be queen?"

"...fourteen hundred." She sighed and looked back down at her husband. "But the problems with our reign had nothing to do with what we were educated on. As long as they're wise and just and have good advisers, they'll be fine."

Discord sighed and sank down to his haunches next to Umbra, and invited the aging wizard to sit next to him. "What are we going to do? He..." Discord covered his face with his arms. "You know, Celestia was the one who rescued me, but Orbitus was the one to let me into his home. Even after showing I was dangerous and a thief.... He wasn't very wise when it came to pets." Discord let out a sad laugh.

Umbra smiled for a second. "But he was wise when it came to friends."

Discord laid himself down, but got up again after some plants that hadn't been there a minute ago poked his back. "His Earth Pony magic went out of control."

Starswirl looked up into the afternoon sky, the same color as the King's mane. A cloud moved slowly across the sky. "The air is alive as well." He stomped the ground. "This entire area has been enchanted uncontrollably and randomly, it's amazing that it's not on fire. Alicorn magic is really something."

Umbra got up. "Should we bury him?" She asked.

Starswirl got up shakily. "I had always thought he would have preferred his body being burned."

"And his ashes kept in a jar to be put in some museum? He would have hated the thought." Umbra shook her head.

Discord looked up at the sun. "I... have a really strange idea."

The Doctor sat in the library and waited for the purple dragon to find the book. The dragon had assured him that the librarian, a miss Sparkle, was not at home or due home for the next hour, which would give him enough time to check out a book on the Everfree, and then he'd hopefully have this week's project.

"Here you go, 'A history of the Everfree Forest', by a 'Green Woods'." The Dragon gave him the thick tome. And the Doctor thanked him. It started out with a short encyclopedia of the proven species to exist within it, and four pages of unproven sightings... and disappearances that are attributed to specific creatures. Already something interesting. He began the actual history of the forest afterwards.

The Everfree Forest is well-known throughout Equestria and outlying countries for several reasons, the first being the variety of dangerous species that are rare outside the forest, this includes species of plants, animals, magical constructs, supernatural sightings, and even diseases, that, as well as the mysterious and strange nature of the forest, have made parents everywhere discourage foals from entering, or even going near the forest. Another peculiar aspect to the modern Equestrian is that the forest is not overseen weather-wise by any Pegasi patrols, the forest itself has it's own climate control apparently inherent to it. Any Earth Pony could also tell you that every plant there is growing of it's own accord, and every animal fends for itself, a gruesome and ancient battle for survival continues to this day within the forest.

But the greatest significance of the forest could be historically, countless battles and events have occurred within the growing boundaries of the forest, but the most significant of all was the creation of the forest, as listed on page 58.

The Doctor flipped to the fifty-eighth page and began reading a biography of a king. About half way through he realized that this was about Luna's dad. The one who chased him into the Tardis. By the end of the page he was sobbing and shivering.

"The Everfree Forest was, ironically, the Great King's last 'gift' to Equestria. The air and ground of the forest is overflowing with the 'First Monarch's' magic, causing plants and weather to grow and move of it's own accord. For millennia the remnants of Equestria's greatest reformer's magical power has been protecting the existence of the great forest for 'ever free of any other pony's influence'."

The Doctor put down the book and ran to the dragon, demanding a biography of King Orbitus. He grabbed it from the now frightened dragon and went to the end. Something he hated. But there was an epilogue. He hurriedly paged through the back of the book, frustrated, when the librarian came back early from her afternoon with her friends, and caught sight of him. "You!" The Doctor tossed the book to her, and she caught it. "What do you think you're doing, barging into my library and-"

"How did King Orbitus die?!"

"Huh?"

"How did he die!?" The Doctor rushed up to her, and summoned his wings to hold her in place. "How?!"

"H-he tried to control all the weather in Equestria, and in doing so he exerted himself too much, and accidentally gave himself Magic overload... why?"

"He's Luna's dad you twit!" He sunk down to his flank. "Oh Luna...."

Twilight stared at hims for a second before stealthily flicking her horn. But the doctor reached his sonic screwdriver and somehow changed the direction of the chains midair. They flung around and wrapped themselves around Spike. "Hey!"

The Doctor got up, patted Twilight on the back twice and flew out the window.

"...He escaped again."

Umbra was wearing a full black dress that went well with her purple coat. Celestia and Luna were wearing similar ones. Discord was wearing a full black tuxedo and Starswirl has removed his Mage's coat and hat for the day. Beyond them were hundreds of similarly dressed ponies. It was a field of black and rainbow as the colorful ponies all bowed their heads one final time, showing their black-clothed backs to the sky.

Then Umbra and Starswirl stepped forward. Their horns glowing they created a blue pond of magic in midair. Celestia and Luna then both lifted the casket into the air with their horns, but they both kept their wingtips on it. They slowly pushed it forward through the air until it was above their Mother's and Starswirl's magic pond. They then slowly lowered the casket into the pond, and the surface wavered and shook as it entered. Umbra choked back a sob, causing the surface to ripple. Discord then came forward, and clapped both hands together once. The pond became a bright sky blue. The casket was fully submerged in the magical water.

"He tried to save Equestria from chaos twice. The second time... appeared to be a failure." Umbra slowly said in the Royal Canterlot voice. "But we cannot let it be so. The bureaucracy will be destroyed, and we will rebuild Equestria yet again. We will not allow my Husband's sacrifice be in vain." She then did her spell, mixed with Discord's and Starswirl's, that turned the magic pool into a portal. It was enveloped as Celestia and Luna moved the Sun and the Moon. Creating a solar Eclipse. The first in millenia.

The portal closed and the five of them, once six, looked up at the Solar eclipse not blinking. But only Discord could see the casket appearing before the sun, and it falling and burning in an instant. But he flinched as the sun became brighter for a millisecond, then returned back to normal. The five of them then turned to the field of ponies. And their words would be repeated throughout the Kingdom.

"....Equestria was redesigned seventeen years ago to be an eternal monarchy... and the King has died. However... By Equestria's eternal laws, there cannot be a replacement. As is such... as of now, Princess Celestia will be given position of High Queen, and I shall step down." Celestia looked down nervously, but with a tiny nudge from Luna she looked back up with a practiced determined expression. "It was a pleasure to serve you all for these seventeen years, I only wished that it would have lasted longer."

Celestia sighed and shook her head. "I apologize Mother... But I am the Princess, and the King and Queen are eternal. There will be no other King in Equestria beside Orbitus, and no Queen other than Umbra. However, if you will still step down, then you do have Princesses, you do have Regents."

Umbra looked at Celestia with confusion, but she stepped down. "As you wish. Equestria from this moment is under the Rule of Princess Celestia, Regent of the Day."

"And Princess Luna, Regent of the Night." Celestia added. Causing Luna to get a nervous look of her own. "That will be all for now.... I will hold the first court of Princesses in two hours, the entirety of the House of Decision, and the Public Court, and the Royal Court shall be present.... That is all."

And Celestia marched away from the other four, she looked back toward Luna and motioned for her to follow. Luna let her head fall a little lower and followed. The Ponies gathered then roared together. "THE OLD KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE PRINCESSES!"

Luna choked back a gasp and Celestia held back tears as they marched together toward the courtroom.

"....I wonder if I still have a job." Starswirl said quietly. "Maybe I'll go back to being a professor."

Umbra nuzzled him slightly. "You think they won't need your help?"

"No... they're both smarter than me. And I already taught them as much as I possibly could."

Discord looked at the field of ponies who were mulling about. Some were rushing to their Princesses, others came to the edge of the stage where Umbra, Discord, and Starswirl still were, and others were leaving the area.

Umbra sighed. "Discord... could you teleport me to my room? I need some time to be alone..."

"Of course My Queen."

"Don't call me that."

"...Umbra then? Or Mom?"

"...Sure."

Discord gave a warm toothy smile and snapped his claw, teleporting himself and Umbra to her room.

Starswirl stood and looked at the eclipse above. "Goodbye old friend."

Luna looked at the perfectly round gem and ignited her spell. It glowed blue for a few seconds before becoming bright white. It began slowly floating upward. "...It's perfect!" She said finally.

It didn’t sink, or explode, or collapse into a black hole. It had absolutely the right amount of light, and the little flame inside was moving and alive. She held the light in her hooves and spun around in a little dance. "It's absolutely perfect... one down... billions to go." She sighed. She looked at it and frowned. "Where should I put it?"

She walked outside and looked over the blackness that was the sky. She frowned and stuck out her tongue in concentration. "hmm... perfect genius, or completely random.... I'm not going to say that I'm a genius... But I don't want it to be random. Hmm...." She conked herself on the head with one hoof. "I should show Starswirl!"

She wrapped the star with a towel and galloped down the halls to Starswirl's tower. The aging unicorn hadn't been doing as well in the year since Orbitus's death. But he still had life in him. "Starswirl! I finally did it!"

He looked up from the ancient tome he was making and smiled at the Princess. "Oh? Let's see it then!"

Luna proudly unwrapped the sphere and showed it to the Mage. His eyes became pinpricks. "So... this is your 'star'?"

"...Yes, isn't it beautiful! I grew the crystal myself, and the spell making it light up is powered by moonlight, so as long as the moon is there it'll always have power!"

"You've thought of everything. Why is it so small though?"

"Well, the higher up it gets and the closer to the moon it gets the brighter it will become... but for now my main problem is production. It took me a week to grow this one, and I need a billion!... At the very very least eighty million. Most won't be this big either, but still, it'll take a humongous amount of time and effort...."

"If you grow them one at a time..." The ancient unicorn did calculations in his head. "about 500,000 years."

"I think I can grow maybe 400 at once... and who knows, along the way I might be able to do it better and better!"

"So 1200 years to reach the bare minimum."

Luna nodded. "Um... I was thinking that you could help me?"

Starswirl smiled. "You know I was looking for a new project." The Unicorn pulled out another large tome and coughed as some dust was knocked into the air.

“Are you sure you don’t want to become my and Celestia’s adviser... you know how she handles court.”

“I’m sure, but thanks for the offer Luna. You’re my student. But you know better than me. I was Orbitus’s student in a way, and I just helped him with his judgement. I don’t need to help you two, and you really don’t need my help.”

Luna thanked him and flew out the window, the star-towel dangling from her mouth as she relished in the noon breeze. She looked at the blue sky, and thought about her efforts finally coming to fruitition. The Doctor would be so proud... She shook her head. It would be another year at the latest before he came back. And she decided she was okay with that.

Thirty thousand years later the Doctor sat on the cloud-house he had carved for himself over the Everfree. The Tardis was parked in the corner and the sky was peaceful above him. He had a lawn chair and a tanning mirror, as well as some sunglasses that didn't fit well because they were designed for a human. But he was relaxing. In a few days there would be a dragon migration, and he'd throw himself into danger for a while, or maybe just talk with old Frostscale or Greenbit. He didn't follow much of a plan nowadays. He hadn't tired of adventure, it just never came up. In the old days there was always some kind of distress signal or thing to show someone else. He was sitting there, restricted because he couldn't find out about his and Luna's future, because he didn't have any universe-shattering enemy, because, well, he didn't have any enemies. He considered looking for the other Daleks, who knows? Maybe they escaped way back when. Changelings were always a problem, but he refrained from looking for them after he found out what happened to a good portion of the Pegasi population in Cloudsdale. A lot of the ponies there had made big connections with disguised Changelings, there were prominent families who became disgraced after finding their Grandfather's had been a Changeling, families broken up because one of the spouses, and sometimes their children, were changelings. Sunflower herself had found out the neighbor she had been friends with for fourteen years was a Changeling. Nevertheless, when he found them he tried to find ways for them to coexist, or he'd just release their prisoners and not bother to see where they went. He was sure they had a bounty for him by now.

It was boring. That was the word. Four years of being restricted to a few select time periods. He was done with it, he decided. ‘Sorry Luna, I just couldn't stay away the whole five years’ He'd say. And then they'd be whisked off on adventure.... that’s what always happened in his head. But he always found something to do and managed stayed true to his promise.

Today though he got a visitor. A lone Zebra walking through the forest. He had seen her before, and was 80% sure she knew he was up there and just didn't care. He watched her make her way through the forest of doom and eventually found her way to a river where a kind Sea Serpent he got to know let her pass. He followed her to a stone castle, one he recognized as Luna's and Celestia's shared castle. The Zebra poked around and eventually made her way up to the highest peak. The Doctor decided to make himself known to her after she only looked at everything present for a half hour.

"Hello miss!"

The Zebra turned her head to him and smiled. "Hello Doctor, do not mind me, I am simply admiring all the scenery."

"Oh?" He decided to leave the question of how she knew him to a later time. "This is the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, correct? I understand it's historical significance. But it's not exactly very pretty to look at."

"Hmph, I disagree. This is the most important place in all of Everfree." She pointed toward a spire where six broken pedestals lay. "That is where lay the Elements of Harmony, from where Luna from Nightmare broke free."

"Nightmare?! What happened? Actually, no, don't tell me... it's not a good idea."

"Why would it not be? You would come to know either way eventually." the Zebra mare gave him a smile. "You swoon for the Princess of the Night, but do not know of what will be her greatest plight?"

The Doctor frowned. "Please don't tell me. If I know the future... then it's bound to happen."

"What has already happened will come to pass. Nightmare Moon is a name that long will last, I'm surprised you haven't already heard of her. After all, you stood in her lair."

The Doctor frowned. "Who are you? What's my connection with you?"

"I am a spiritualist Doctor. And we become great friends in the far future." She smirked. "I am called Zercora."

"Hmph. Well Zecora, you seem to already know a lot about me, so I'm sure you know what will happen if I know the future."

"You always had a knowledge of the future, present, and past. Just not anything in between."

"You stopped rhyming."

"So I did, it gets cryptic at times, but I find peace in rhymes." Zecora blushed. "And here I go again."

"Well, that was an interesting chat Zecora." He then eyed the destroyed room one more time before flying off. It was a close call. And he decided he couldn't stand it any longer. He would go see Luna.

Court was in session, just like every weekday since Celestia first took the crown, but every day seemed to only get more stressful. Celestia gave a deep sigh as the nobles debated and screamed at each other as always. She rubbed her brow and silently cried out against whatever force created Alicorns for not making them susceptible to painkillers. She had a constant headache. The doors were pushed open as Luna walked into the courtroom for the first time that week. "Luna! Glad you could make it. I already forgot about what we were debating."

The Earth Pony scribbling down the minutes looked up at her. "We are debating a 0.02% tax raise on imported rice, your Highness."

"Yes, rice. You wouldn't want to miss out on that, would you?"

"I have something far more important." Luna assured.

Celestia sighed. Noticing that not a single noble had noticed that their Princesses were speaking, or even that Luna entered the room. "Sorry Luna, but I need to stay here."

"I can show you... I think it'll make the court speechless as well."

Celestia laughed. "Then I'll fund it. Show me."

Luna smiled and unfurled her towel, revealing the Star. Everyone in the court was hushed by the warm light. Celestia relished in the silence, but she knew what Luna's light meant. "So... you're ready?"

"Nowhere near... but in the next thousand years..."

Celestia nodded. "We'll deal with it when the time comes, in the meantime though, thank you so much for shutting them all up." Giving a sweet smile to the abashed Lords. But then both Princesses ear’s perked up. “Did you hear that?”

There was a whooshing sound in the courtroom, and both of the Alicorn's hairs stood on end. "What...." Celestia looked to her side, and sure enough, there was a blue box fading into existence. "No." She said simply. "Why now?! It's a year early!"

Luna looked at the box and felt a wide smile appearing on her face. "Doctor?" She asked.

The box came fully into existence. The door opened, and a stallion stood there, smiling at her. "Hello Lulu... I couldn't wait another year..." He was interrupted by being lifted from the floor by the Alicorn Princess, who was officially taller than him. She kissed him, and he shrugged and kissed her back.

She then set him back down in the Tardis and walked in herself. "Ooh! You redecorated!" She smiled. "So, have you come to finally marry me?"

"Yes, definitely, would you marry me?" He asked, pulling out a ring he got ages ago for her horn.

"No." The Doctor sank to his haunches.

"What?" He asked, not really angry, just surprised. Luna shut the door and looked at him.

"Doctor, my body is still early thirteen. And that's just the first problem. I'm still too young for you chronologically."

"I never had a problem with that."

"Well... I decided I did. The last time you contacted me, you said to become my own mare. I was looking forward to your arrival... but I stopped counting the hours so to say. My father..." Luna suddenly became angry. "My Father... he died."

"Yes, and I-"

"You didn't tell me he would die! You said he was still there in the future!" She shouted at him in the Royal Canterlot Voice. His ears actually bled. Her speaking quietly and politely for a prolonged period was enough to make a pony deaf, but her crying and screaming... "I always thought I'd never have to fear death! I thought I'd spend an eternity with my Dad and my Mom!...." She sank to her haunches. "I'm sorry... I know why you'd decide not to tell me but... why would you lie? Why didn't you come and see me afterwards!"

The Doctor backed away and looked at the crying filly in front of him. "Oh Luna, I'm so sorry." He said quietly. He sank to the ground. “I... well, I didn't lie. I almost never lie. And especially about something as important as this... when you asked me if I met you and your family in the future... I didn't know they weren't there. I just said I didn't meet them yet. I didn't see Umbra, or Orbitus, or Discord, or Starswirl in the future... but I don't know whether they left, or died or... I don't know. I don't know the future. If I know too much I'd try to change it! Even if I only did a little, even if I tried not to. I try to know as few details as possible, and as much in general as possible. I'm sorry Luna... As for coming to see you." The Doctor shifted his hooves. "I'm sorry I didn't. If it means anything at all, as soon as I found out I mourned as well... but that means nothing. Less than nothing. I have no excuse. I'm sorry Luna."

The two of them sat in the Tardis, Luna crying. The Doctor watching her with sympathy. They did this for hours, and only broke out of the cycle when the Tardis alerted them that there was a nuclear beam aimed at the Tardis's force fields.

Luna hiccuped. "Celestia's probably worried 'bout me."

"Heh, yeah.... So how should we go about this?"

"About what?"

"Should I turn myself in?"

"To Celestia?! Oh definitely not..."

"If it means that I get to see you then-"

"Doctor, stop it... please don't flirt with me right now."

"...Okay."

"Maybe someday. But not now, not for a while.... unless we don't have much time?"

"We have millenia and millenia Luna, that I'm sure. You were older than me when I first met you, and I was one of the oldest things in my universe."

"Then we should give it a while..." Luna said.

The Doctor sat. "Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Huh?"

"Luna, my adventures just aren't as fun without you. They're still fun... but I'm not, oh my god this will sound cheesy. But I don't feel completely complete without you."

Luna smiled. "I don't know, become your own stallion? Don't be too dependent on me?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Heh... hahaha!" He laughed for another minute or so before calming down. "I waited four years to be turned down and given my own advice. Well, that's kind of new." He looked up at Luna sadly. "Could we still travel together sometimes?"

Luna considered it, and nodded. "Doctor... I want to give you something."

The Doctor looked at her expectantly when she pulled out her towel-wrapped star. "What's in there?"

"You might want to close your eyes."

"No thanks."

Luna smiled and once again uncovered her star. She handed it to the Doctor, who looked at it with wonder. It was a spherical crystal, and inside it was what appeared to be a constantly shifting pure white fireball. A tiny sun. He let a tear fall. "A star..."

"Yes Doctor."

"You're giving me a star?"

"My first star."

The Doctor looked down at the object in his hooves. He had collected treasure from all time in the Tardis. He had even turned down a Van Gogh from Vincent himself. But this crystal in his hand was the most valuable of all. "Could... Could you put it up with all the others?"

"All the others?"

"Yes, I suppose they wouldn't be up there yet." He gave her a hug, and handed her back the crystal. "But... when you're finished, could you put this one up there last? So I could watch?"

Luna smiled even wider. "Of course."

The Doctor opened the doors and smiled at the angry white Alicorn and the palace guards stomping on the force field. Luna walked out, meeting the congratulations and sympathy of the soldiers, while Celestia glared at the stallion still inside the box. "Luna! I'll meet you there to look at the Moon."

"I think I'll be there too." She glared at her sister and the guards. "Alone."

The Doctor gave a giddy laugh and jumped back into his box. And it whoosh-whooosh-whooooosshhhed out of the timeline.

Luna stood on the great pedestal in the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, in the heart of Equestria, near the newly grown and named 'Everfree Wood'. She stood at her full height. She was 12,052 years old. Before her were the Lords of each of the neighboring nations, and behind them were representatives of every friendly nation in the World. She sighed and looked up in the sky. She had managed to do it, flown up there and touched the fabric of it. And after only six hundred years of trying. She attached every star as she made it. Spent long days and nights mapping it out, touring the world to look at it from different directions and perspectives. She made shapes that could form differently from different directions, and arranged them by brightness and in relation to the Moon.

And now... she was going to turn them on. She had received the temporary permission from almost every nation. And she was ready.

"Ponies, Griffons, Dragons, Minotaurs, Dogs, all species of intelligence and understanding.... I present to you... my gift to the world. Something that will outlive me. Something that everything in the world can enjoy together. She looked up and smiled. And lit her horn. The Moon shifted slightly, completing the magic grid.

And the sky was lit up. She backed away from it in fear for a second. But she stopped. The blackness had become a purple-blue dotted with whites and yellow sparks. Celestia gaped at the sky, and she heard some scattered applause. Discord stood by her and gave her a congratulatory hug. Starswirl fell to his back laughing. But soon all was quiet, simply staring up at the sky. No doubt there were now beings everywhere in Equestria watching the sky. All entranced in her work. But one Pegasus made his way through the distracted crowd of nobles and stood by her. "Congratulations Luna... It's absolutely beautiful."

"Thanks."

"But It's missing one thing."

"Oh?" Luna smiled. "You noticed?"

"Of course I noticed, I came from a world with way more stars, remember, and I could recognize every one." He pointed straight upward. "My star isn't up there."

"It's not perfect yet." Luna said. "So I'm not going to put it up there until I'm sure I'm done."

"I think it's beautiful." The Doctor said simply. He leaned a little closer to Luna, and smiled. Discord noticed him finally, drawing his eyes temporarily from the night sky. He smiled and stepped away.

She leaned a little closer as well.

They kissed under the first starry sky.

“Marry me?” The Doctor asked.

Luna considered for a second. “Sure.”

(Image source); http://th09.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2012/162/5/1/equestria_at_night_by_darcowalways-d4ct67w.png