The large doors slammed shut behind them, and they trotted down a carpeted hall towards the audience room.
Through the ornamented windows above, the rays of Celestia's setting Sun were coming through.
They continued down the carpet with the colours of the midday Sun in nervous silence, their three hearts thumping wildly, until the traveller from the stars finally broke it.
”Look at the carpet, young one! The yellow brick road!” he chirped merrily.
The mare looked at him like he was crazy.
”Oh, come now, you haven't heard of that here? It's a book and a film on my planet!”
”What's a film?” she asked, but was ignored as the Doctor was singing loudly and bouncing alongside her normal trot.
”Oooh, we're off to see the Princess, the wonderful Princess in there!”
His singing came to a halt once they reached another large door, the final one before the audience room.
The guard this time was a deep gray unicorn, upon whose request Doctor Whooves had stopped singing.
”Ditzy Doo and Doctor Whooves request an audience.” the former said.
The guard let his stern face drop.
”Yes, our glorious Princess and benevolent ruler of Equestria, Riser of the Sun that brings Life, has been foreseeing your arrival at this hour. You may enter.”
He opened the door behind him with an aura of light blue magic.
It was Ditzy's turn to bounce through the door, her wings spread wide.
”See Doctor? I told you I could get us inside!” she chimed with a wide grin on her face.
The colt smiled knowingly.
”Weeeell, she was expecting us, so you technically didn't get us in, since it's my enemy who's causing trouble to her land, so she'll want to speak to me, not you.”
”Besides,” he continued, pulling out something reminiscent of a driver's licence from his pack, ”I've got my psychic paper.”
”Your what? Give me that!” she exclaimed angrily.
She pulled the blank card out of his mouth with an annoyed frown.
”Doctor Whooves, doctor of psychology at the university of Griffonia ….” she read with her good eye, the other looking at her companion, as the blank page sprung to life in her hooves.
”It says whatever your imagination can come up with.” the alien explained.
”Had I not met you, I could have used that to bluff my way through this adventure.”
”Well, this can't go well all the time, so it's a good thing you did meet me, right?”
She puffed out her chest as more words scrawled across the page.
She read them. ”That mare is too smug for her own go- HEY!”
He quickly snagged the item and stuffed it down his pack again.
”That's why I don't use it here, though. You need to focus on the fib. And this world kind of makes my mind wander and my emotions run wild.”
He smiled an apologetic smile at her as they reached their destination:
The carpet, now in the colour of the setting red Sun outside the palace, ended in several small steps going up to a podium, upon which two thrones sat.
The right one was made of ebony, black as the night, with a cresent moon on the back of it.
The left was white, and might had had a sun to complete the contrast.
It was hard to tell, as it was occumpied at that moment.
Princess Celestia sat on her haunches, the slightest of smiles on her beautiful white face at their enroute banter.
The alabaster goddess' wings were tucked in to her sides, and her large horn was controlling her sun, helping it the last way down the sky in a streak of hot yellow magic.
Her faded light green, magenta, and blue mane was flowing despite the lack of wind.
Her royal tiara, gold with an amethyst adorning it, as well as the matching chest plate, was gleaming in the final sunrays, as she raised her white body from the throne, confirming that the back of it indeed had a full sun carved in it, same as the ruler's Cutie Mark.
She looked down at them silently, twice the size of her subjects, and Doctor Whooves and Ditzy Doo instantly bowed down the floor to the Princess.
”Just relax, I know how to handle royalty.” the old colt in the young body whispered.
The mare shot him a wall-eyed look of sceptic disbelief.
”Oh, do you now?” she asked sceptically in the same hushed voice.
”Queen Victoria the werewolf, Queen Elizabeth the First my bedfellow, Queen Elizabeth the Second my --” his whispering list was interrupted when his latest encounter with royalty spoke up.
”Doctor Whooves.” she announced in a pleasant but authorative voice.
”I believe you have come to my castle with urgent news threatening my beloved subjects, among which you now count yourself?”
He nodded firmly.
”Yes, we believe that an enemy of mine is hiding in the mountains east of here and has done so for quite a bit, causing havoc in the shadows.
We need your help, your Majesty, to reveal his identity or maybe just pinpoint the location of his landing point more exact for us. He crashed there at night time a month ago.”
The alicorn shook her head.
”I'm afraid I cannot help you. Now, don't be so alarmed, my little ponies, it's just that since my
dear little sister, Princess Luna, returned to her royal duties, the night and its events has been her domain. She is in the tower raising the Moon, and doesn't like to be disturbed while she does it.
Wait half an hour before going up to ask her.”
”What are we going to spend the time with until then?” Doctor Whooves asked a little grumpily.
Suddenly, Ditzy's stomach gave a loud growl.
”Whoops, tee-hee! I just remembered I haven't eaten since breakfast!” she declared, turning a pink shade of embarrassment.
After her companion admitted he was also feeling peckish, Celestia insisted the pair dined with her in the nearby hall.
”Well, then,” she said upon arrival and sitting at the right end of a long oak table with the couple at either side of her.
”what would you like to eat and drink?”
They looked at each other across the table, then at their ruler with pleading and hopeful expressions.
”Well, I don't suppose you have some ….”
he began, then his travelling partner finished the sentence alongside him.
”Earl Grey tea?”
”Muffins?”
They looked at the Princess of the Day, who smiled as she replied.
”You are both in luck, my adventuring heroes. Would freshly baked muffins made from hoof-plucked razzberries by my own chefs do, Ditzy Doo?”
The mare nodded excitedly, her mouth watering already.
Their hostess turned to the pony from the stars.
”I just had a cargo of the finest Trottingham tea flown over by pegasii carriage. I find it nasty stuff personally. I'm more of a coffee or cider drinker myself. Oooh, I think I'll have Apple Acre's cider with a slice of chocolate cake.”
The adventurers grinned to each other at the prospect of their treats and their hostess' giddiness.
Their food came quickly, the Ponyvillians agreeing on having the food and beverage the other was having.
They ate in silence, the mares using their silverware with expertise, while the Doctor still struggled with his new hooves.
The Goddess of Sun stifled a grin before going to help him.
”My, I've seen a lot, but never a dinner guest who couldn't handle his cutlery!”
She rearranged his hooves on the knife and fork before finally letting herself giggle a bit, sounding like droplets of water. He looked down and worked the cutlery in amazed wonderment.
”Ditzy – look! I've got it!” he said proudly.
The mailmare cocked her head slightly, so that her derpy eye looked at the colt, while the other was fixed on cutting the muffin carefully into smaller bits, which she then pierced through with her fork.
She nodded in approval, then continued.
After some small-talk, most of it regarding the origins of the guests and their dinner, as well as astronomy, Celestia looked out the large window on the opposing wall, and her sister's cresent moon peeked back at her.
”You may go visit my sister now. She has raised the Moon high enough to be disturbed for a little bit.”
She nodded to a small staircase to her right, and they walked up it to Luna's tower after thanking their hostess for their exquisite dinner.
When they reached the top of what appeared to be an observatory, they found the Princess of the Night stargazing through a telescope, different starcharts, telescopes, and miscellaneous astronomy equipment strewn around her across the room.
The regal figure had her back to them, her mane and body different shades of dark, with a cresent moon as her Cutie Mark.
She turned to them after a few seconds, her mane flowing like tangible night, and they bowed down instantly.
The stellar figure motioned for them to stand, and she spoke: ”What doth thou require that We may bring thee?”
Doctor Whooves nudged Ditzy and whispered: ”Why is she talking like that? She sounds like one of the pompous crooks on my original home planet.”
”WE HEARD THAT!” the Goddess of the Moon thundered, her eyes gleaming white, and the previously clear night sky behind her was filled with thunderclouds.
The newcomers clutched each other, cowering in fear.
Everything went back to normal as soon as it started, and the alicorn said with a slight grin and a normal speaking voice and tone: ”Good, that was the reaction I was hoping for.”
She bowed her head with a sigh and turned her back to them, gazing upon her starry night sky once more as she related her story to the travellers in a slight Ponyvillian accent (as opposed to her big sister's posh Canterlot accent): ”I spoke like that because you're right; I was a crook. A thousand years ago, I was banished to the very Moon I held so dear. I called myself Nightmare Moon and vowed to bring eternal night. I was defeated by my own sister, and when I broke free a year or so ago, again by her protegé, Twilight Sparkle and her friends. The same who taught me how to speak in present-day Equestrian once I'd seen the error of my ways, got my royal position back, and desired to integrate in society once more. So now,” she finished, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye and grinned slyly at them, ”I just use it to annoy all the guards around here! Heck, sometimes even 'Tia herself, too!”
The trio all laughed.
”Now, to the matter at hoof: What may I help you with?”
The Doctor snickered a bit when the tall mare said ”hoof”, but quickly pulled himself together and cleared his throat.
”We need a map to a specific location, a place in the mountain range east of here.
An object should have crashed there in the middle of the night, about a month back.
And the night, of course, is your excellent expertise area, oh graceful Princess.”
He bowed, so he didn't see her face turn pink.
She put on a serious face just in time for him to stand up straight again.
”Yes, the Hippocampus range.”
The colt snickered loudly, and Ditzy Doo gave him an elbow to the side.
The alicorn shot him a look before turning to her instruments and explaining:
”We call it that because the few ponies who have braved the snowstorms and lived to tell the tale have spoken of a serene, snow-covered field, perfect for soul-searching.”
She fiddled with her instruments for a few seconds.
”Let's see here …. GOTCHA!”
She summoned parchment, quill and an inkwell, and started writing in obsidian ink.
”I locked on to the crashed object's foreign energy signature, and this map should help you find it.
It's containing the coordinates as well.”
The Doctor bowed to the Princess of the Night yet again.
”The TARDIS might be an old gal, but I think she'll understand this!”
He smiled and emitted heat from the sonic screwdriver, which he took in his mouth, drying the parchment instantly, rolling it up and putting it into his saddlebag.
They both thanked the Goddess of the Moon for her help, and soon they were inside the Tardis again.
The captain of the ship put in the coordinates into the console and pulled a green lever with his hoof.
He looked at the screen to his right, depicting outside events.
The alien ship was nearing her destination, when suddenly a loud ”BOING” was heard, and the Tardis materialized in the air, spinning uncontrollably in the opposite direction of the crash site.
”What is happening?!” the mailmare yelled, struggling to keep on her hooves in the shaky console room.
”A force field!” came the hissed reply.
”Sit tight, young one. If I don't get us out of this, we'll crash into the nearest mountainside!”