Part 3
Onwards and Upwards
The sudden screeching that sounded throughout the middle levels of Canterlot Castle sent the guards in an uproar. They scrambled in an urgent, but organized search for the source of the odd sound, while a number of the guards went to inform their captain of the disturbance. In very short order, a group of guards were surprised to find a blue barn, roughly the size of an outhouse, slowly materializing from nothing in the middle of a hallway. The younger guards raised their spears at the strange structure, but the older ones simply rolled their eyes and motioned for them to lower their weapons.
After a moment, the barn fully appeared, and the door opened. From within practically skipped a strangely excited chestnut earth pony in a shabby brown coat. “Here we are,” he said, his Trottinghamish brogue giddy with delight. “Canterlot Castle, circa 1002 C.R., seat of the Equestrian government, home to Princess Celestia and her sister...”
“I know what Canterlot Castle is, Doctor,” a childish sounding voice said in playful irritation as a gray pegasus flew out of the barn, rolling her eyes, though their speed did not match each other. “I have been here before, you know.”
The Doctor shrugged. “Sorry, Derpy. Old habits, you know.”
The hyper pegasus waved at the guards. “Hi guys! Is Captain Armor on the way?”
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Captain Armor? Shining Armor? Oh right, I keep forgetting. The ol' Brig retired. Shame, that.”
An aging red maned pony stumbled out of the barn, her cream colored coat taking on an odd green hue. “I never thought I'd say it, Doctor, but I think you've actually gotten worse at piloting the TARDIS over the years.”
“How can you say that?” the Doctor asked indignantly. “After all, we landed exactly where I was aiming for. Give or take about fifteen minutes and a couple dozen meters.” The last sentence was mumbled under his breath, though it was easy enough for both mares to hear.
“What was that, Doctor?” Wordsmith smirked.
“Nothing! Nothing at all.”
“Stand down, boys,” an oddly easy going voice said from behind the guards. They parted to allow the speaker through. Shining Armor shook his head to get his two-toned blue mane out of his eyes as he stepped forward to greet the Doctor. “You just can't resist making a scene, can you? You do know the Princess has built a private landing dock for you to avoid the commotion, don't you?”
“Ah, Shining, where's the fun in that?” the Doctor asked with a grin. He then leaned in and whispered, “Don't tell the girls, but I was actually aiming for it. I sort of missed.”
With a wide smile, Shining Armor turned to Derpy and Wordsmith. “He says he missed.”
As Derpy and Wordsmith fell over laughing, the Doctor glared at the captain. “That's the last time I tell you anything in confidence.” Still, he extended a hoof, which Shining Armor took. “It is good to see you, Shining. How's married life treating you?”
“Amazing, for the most part. I do wish Cadance warned me ahead of time that she's not a morning mare, though. And Ponyville? How's my sister doing?”
“Oh, brilliant as always. I just spoke with her today, in fact.”
Shining Armor grew serious. “She doesn't know what you really do, does she? Trouble finds her often enough without her looking all over everything for it with you.”
The Doctor raised a placating hoof. “Oh, on that point I totally agree. Her future is already going to be...”
“Going to be... what?” Shining Armor raised an eyebrow.
The Doctor grinned. “Special. Big. That's all I'll say on the matter, but rest assured it's best for all if her history is left alone to play out. Just came by my boring old shop to get her boring old clock repaired. No timey wimey spacey wacy for Twilight Sparkle.”
Shining Armor smiled. “Good to know. Come on, then, Doctor. The Princesses would like to brief you on the situation.”
“Ah well, who am I to say no to the Princesses?” The Doctor was all smiles. His companions, both former and current, shared a chuckle. Even Shining Armor rolled his eyes as he led the Doctor and his companions toward the throne room.
~DrW~
Celestia, Princess of the Sun, smiled as Shining Armor led the Doctor into the small private meeting room behind the throne room. “Doctor, it's good to see you.”
Next to her, her much darker sister smiled as well, though admittedly not quite as warmly. “For me as well, Doctor, though the circumstances are unfortunately not ideal.”
The Doctor found himself grinning. “Oh, Little Luna. You've started getting the hang of modern speech. Kind of a pity, really. I'm going to miss the old Royal Canterlot Voice.”
Luna's smile twitched slightly as she got up off her chair and walked up to the Doctor. Celestia and Shining Armor, used to Luna's sense of humor, both covered their ears. Derpy and Wordsmith followed suit. “WE CAN ALWAYS SPEAK IN THE VOICE IF WE EVER SO CHOOSE, DOCTOR!” Luna reminded him.
“That is quite enough, Luna,” Celestia said, her smile widening and becoming wry. “We do want this conversation to remain secret, after all.”
Luna grinned as she sat back down on her seat. “Of course, sister. Of course.”
The Doctor chuckled even as his ears rang. “It is good to see you've retained your sense of humor, little one.” He couldn't help but laugh.
“Yes, well, I have had some help,” the Princess of the Moon admitted.
The Doctor allowed himself one more huff of laughter before getting back to business. His face grew somber as he reached into one of his coat pockets—bigger on the inside, like many of his possessions—and withdrew the box that contained the shrunken guardpony. “Now that this one's purpose in getting me here has been completed, I trust he'll be given the respect he's due?”
Celestia grew visibly sad. “Yes, of course. Captain?”
Shining Armor stepped forward and retrieved the box. The look on the young stallion's face nearly broke both the Doctor's hearts. “Your first?”
Shining nodded. “Yeah.”
“Never gets easier, mate.”
“I would hope not.” Shining Armor bowed to the princesses before exiting the room.
The Doctor turned back to the princesses. “Now then, if I'm going to be going on this mad little quest of yours, I'll need to know everything you do.”
“Doctor, that's new,” Derpy noted with surprise. “Usually you just wing it.” Wordsmith barely managed to keep from laughing out loud. “What?” Derpy asked, completely unaware of her own wings fluttering in annoyance.
“Yes, well, usually we just land willy nilly right in the middle of these things. This is an actual royal mission." The Doctor's expression brightened. "Ooh, I rather like the sound of that. Very Double Oh Seven. But enough of this nonsense. Information. Needed now. Yes.”
Celestia nodded and conceded the floor to Luna. “It happened last night at about eleven thirty,” the Princess of the Night began. “The yell of poor Night Shift alerted the other guards, but when they got there, he was already dead, and the statue was gone.”
“Now, here's the thing I don't understand,” said the Doctor. “A shrunken body means, well, quite a lot to me. But you two really have no way of knowing that. And given everything ol' Discord can do, shrinking a pony would just be a talon snap away. Why call me?”
Luna nodded. “You do not know Discord as well as my sister and I. Killing ponies is not his style. He rather likes playing with them instead. Also, his disappearance was a relatively stealthy matter. Had Night Shift not been in the way, we would not have learned of it until the shift change. Had Discord escaped of his own will, oh we would know. He's always been an insufferable showoff.”
“Hmm, yes. And I'd guess he'd either immediately go after the two of you, or the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.” the Doctor squinted a bit in thought. “And seeing as how the two of you are standing before me all calm and healthy, and I not an hour ago had the pleasure of young Twilight Sparkle's company, I can assume he's not done either.”
“Yes,” Celestia agreed. “This all leads us to believe he was taken by some outside force. The problem there is that we stored him in the bottommost levels of the dungeon, with nearly a full platoon of soldiers throughout. And contrary to what some of the newspapers are saying after the wedding fiasco, our Royal Guards are far from useless; they are in fact trained meticulously well. Anypony sneaking through the dungeons would have been found.”
“So, teleportation, then,” the Doctor supplied, choosing not to inform the Princess that he made rounds down there weekly.
“We have defenses in place for that,” Luna responded.
“Of course.”
“Also, our mages have found no trace of teleportation magic anywhere within the dungeons. In fact, even Night Shift left no trace of magical energies.”
“And now the pieces come together,” the Doctor cheerfully stated. “Seemingly magical effects that leave no magical residue? Then it must be technology, right? And no species in Equestria is capable of tech like that. Thus, time for the Doctor to make a house call, is that it?”
“In a word, yes,” Celestia replied with a nod.
The Doctor saluted the Princesses—with the wrong hoof, of course. “Lucky for you then—well, lucky in that it's convinced me to go along on this mission of yours, quite unlucky for any number of other reasons—I gave Night Shift a quick scan on the way over, and recognized the energies used in his demise. This is most certainly a Doctor problem. Mind if we go down to the dungeons for a quick look see?”
Celestia nodded with a smile. “I was hoping you'd ask. Take a few guards with you. I get nervous during your weekly unsupervised visits, and finding good excuses to distract the guards gets tiring after a while.”
~DrW~
Upon arrival at the dank cell which once held Discord, the Doctor immediately put on a rather flimsy pair of glasses, one lens blue the other red. He made his paces around the room, the sonic screwdriver in his mouth buzzing in several different tones. The guard who had accompanied the strange pony, a unicorn named Shimmering Star, turned to the pair of mares who completed the entourage. “What is he doing?” he asked.
“If I were to guess, I'd say he's taking readings of some sort,” Wordsmith supplied. “Though beyond that I never could fathom.”
“With those glasses, I'd guess he's looking for Void stuff,” Derpy posited. “Unless he rewired 'em or something.”
“It's teleport stuff today, Derpy,” the Doctor said around his screwdriver as he continued the paces.
At the guard's confused look, Derpy smiled. “Technical terms. Very technical.”
After a few more moments, the Doctor sat up next to Derpy, removed his glasses, and handed them over to her with a brusque “Have a look."
Derpy eagerly put the glasses on. “Oooh, lot's of teleport stuff in the middle of the room.”
“Yes, consistent with a Gallopfreyan Type VII telepad. An older model, but far more reliable than the Type VIII's—less tinglies and fewer missing tail hairs. Harder to build and maintain, though.”
Derpy slowly turned her head to face the door. “Doctor, there's a small trail of teleport stuff leading out of the cell.”
“That there is, my wall-eyed friend,” the Doctor almost sang. “Let's see where it goes.”
The Doctor led the way with his screwdriver, as the other three ponies followed along. The trail led out into the hall, around a corner, up a small stairwell, and around another corner before stopping. “I would say this was our culprit's entry point,” the Doctor mused. “Do you agree, Derpy?”
“Oh yes. Lot's of teleport stuff,” Derpy agreed. “But, uh, Doctor? There's another path leading around that corner.”
The Doctor felt an eye twitch. “What?” Then he heard the metallic hooffalls from around the corner Derpy indicated. “Oh, that's never good,” he muttered.
From around the corner came what could only be described as a metal pony. It consisted of one color, the color of polished chrome, with blank black eyes that looked in the direction of the four ponies. Upon its flank where a cutie mark should have been was etched a circle with a line cut halfway through it, making a stylized 'C.' “You will become like us,” it said in an emotionless, metallic voice.
“Oh, bugger,” the Doctor muttered.