//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 - The Glimpse Forwards // Story: The Timepony’s Journal // by Penny_Shavins109 //------------------------------// The Castle Of Friendship always glowed with a particular kind of powerful radiance. It held an enormous source of mana within it, connected to the Tree of Harmony itself. The tree was a powerful entity in itself, watching over Equestria to balance the Magic of Friendship across the land. Friendship Magic was the most powerful energy known to all pony-kind until cold fusion and dark matter transfer would be discovered. Yet the creature that had writhed its way out of the Tardis console room was still denied that power; to yield the gargantuan strength that it needed so desperately. Only on Equus could Friendship Magic flow naturally and evenly across such a large span of land, linked to the very core of the planet itself. But the source could not be tainted, consumed, or corrupted by any other being.  This is why when the amorphous blob touched the crystal veins underneath the table it was electrocuted and forced back. It radiated negative energy, a sort of inverse to the Friendship magic. As with most forces in nature, the opposite forces of energy highly repulse each other like scared cats. The creature was blown back a bit as well, forcing it away from the power's main source. Licking its metaphorical wounds, the thing would need an alternative route. It crept around the veins of energy like hands surrounding a campfire to absorb the residual energy. Even though the radiation was a mere afterglow of the strong and burning light of friendship, it would have to do. The slimy blob of black mass was able to reform and restore parts of its own memory along with its strength. Only mere fragments of true sentience tugged at the old weary mind triggered by the whispers of memory. Looking through these memories was like staring at ancient globes with faded images peering through. Voices and faces were still muddled but the ideas and concepts were still there. There were bits and pieces of a story that had once been easily read but now only a few chapters could be vaguely made out, a snapshot of the life the thing once lived without any context or meaning. But it saw him, the Doctor, and she saw him often. The creature couldn't understand why, but he held importance in the life and times of old. A time that was still blurry and unable to be remembered. "Soon I'll return to you, my old friend." the beast thought as it began to hibernate once more. Standing inside the console room with a book in her hoof, Twilight slowly moved over the controls. She had to have the utmost pure and absolute concentration for the task. The twelve-dimensional flight was certainly no walk in the park or a piece of cake after all. This was only a test run, a literal five-minute jump into the future, and into a specific room inside her castle. Every single movement had to be tested and executed with clean precision. A button here, a switch there, toggle the two cranks counter-clockwise. Eventually, she wouldn't need the book at all and be able to do this all on her own. She hoped. With hope and a prayer, she pressed down the ignition lever. The central column began to rise and fall repeatedly with a wheezing groaning noise that often accompanied take off.   The Police Barn exterior flickered in and out of existence before vanishing altogether, making that familiar wheezing and groaning noise that happened whenever it took off. The room rocked for a few seconds, which was to be expected since it was meant to be a six pony ship. It required more than just the Doctor or herself to keep it stabilized, a full crew of Time Ponies. It looked so much easier when The Doctor did it, even if he hardly knew what he was doing half of the time. The time ship was once again kind enough to put out the readings and statistics into a much more basic form for her to read. "Perfect timing, same atmosphere, same gravity, and at the very least the same planet. The coordinates don't make perfect sense yet though, they likely refer to the plane of Equus or in some other frame of reference. I'll have to research some maps of Equestria just to be certain I'm correct." Upon opening the door, Twilight was faced with a whirlwind of snow. It was Equus alright, but at what seemed to be one of its poles. She would’ve closed the door immediately and tried again, but something caught her eye. It was old, ancient even, yet somehow completely new at the same time. It was trapped, broken, and battered. The dark and marauding force from the past was threatening to swallow the future. Whatever it was it was corrupted evil in its purest form. The doors slammed shut and the TARDIS ran from the shadow. Coming back to her senses, Twilight got off of the ground not even realizing that she had fallen. She was frazzled, to say the least, but not as scared as she should’ve been. There was something more to it though, like it was shrouded around something like an animal guarding a precious flame to keep warm through a harsh winter. Although there was no way to truly know what was out there, curiosity still lingered behind. No, there are many things in the universe that are best left alone and this was certainly one of them. Trotting down memory lane once more she questioned if she should really be doing this. Meddling in things that shouldn’t be tampered with may have been the Doctor’s specialty but even he knew there were lines that were not meant to be crossed.  Did Twilight even have the right to do such a thing? The TARDIS finally landed at the correct destination. No more testing for a while. It was starting to get late anyway, and rest was certainly needed at the moment. Looking down the hall one last time, she could see the blue stable was stationary as usual. With a sigh of relief, she closed her bedroom door. “Just what have I gotten myself into?” By the next morning, the black mass had begun to take on a less amorphous shape. Still weak, still incomplete, still missing something. The darkness had begun to fade into a series of monochrome tones and shades. The formation was almost beginning to look like television static. It, no, she was becoming a pony. She started out as a rough outline but slowly gained stability as the seconds ticked by. She had to blend in and at the very least have the same biology as the inhabitants for cover. No more hiding, it was time to leave the crystal table, and enter the light. From the cloud of black mist, a grey unicorn emerged. Her whole body flicked in and out between a solid form like changing the channel on an old TV. One step, two steps, three steps, four. The realization has struck her that she wasn't the same as before, the magic not only giving her strength but removing that corruption. Her mind was still fuzzy but she knew that she was in the wrong place and the wrong time. The equine rapidly dashed out of the castle and went into Ponyville’s town square,as yet without a name or purpose. A mess of a black mane and tail combined with the even worse lack of color made her look weak and frail. Her mind was slipping in and out of consciousness as more emotions rushed into her soul and built upon her inside. She hadn't existed purely on her own for ages, the darkness always controlling her like a puppet. But as a puppet, there was nothing left inside of her, for ages there was just a black emotionless void that sat in her mind. She was like a scared little foal, feeling lost without their mother. Others were staring worriedly about how she wobbled back and forth, finally collapsing with a thump. She breathed heavily, lying on the ground for an unknown amount of time. The mare needed rest, the mare needed... something. Something to fill the void, the emptiness that she'd grown accustomed to during her imprisonment. She awoke a long time later, or so the pony had thought. She could sense that time had passed somehow, like a sixth sense that was part of her being but long since unused. “You alright there dear?” asked Nurse Redheart “W-where am I?” “Ponyville hospital, you took quite the tumble out there.” Trying to get up was futile, every limb wasn't responding like they should’ve been. Another doctor and Redheart rushed to her side to make sure she didn’t get up and hurt herself any further. The pony breathed heavily, hearing a faint heartbeat thump within her chest. It didn't sound exactly like a heartbeat though, much more rapid than what the doctors considered to be normal. Her ears still slightly rang, her vision was blurry and skewed. “You shouldn’t be walking around yet, your body is currently very malnourished and needs a day or two of recovery before we can send you back out.”  “And who are you? Sorry I haven’t introduced myself I’m...” she paused for an odd amount of time. “Doctor Greymare, I’ve been assigned to be your practitioner for the duration of your stay. Please tell me, do you remember anything before you collapsed. Anything possibly leading up to it.” “N-no. I really don’t. I barely remember anything but snow and metal a-and.” “Now now sweetie, don’t stress yourself about it.” Redheart cooed. The mare paused, trying to think of what to say or do in that situation. But she didn't even know what she looked like anymore, only that it wasn't right. None of this was right yet. She looked back up, taking a few deep breaths before answering. “O-okay. I’m sure it’ll all be okay soon. Strange thing though, I can't seem to remember my name.” Meanwhile, back in the TARDIS Twilight was once again struggling to get anywhere she wanted to go. It appeared that yesterday was only a stroke of luck. It was either that or the TARDIS was lending a helping whatever it used help with. The systems might’ve been growing weaker or what happened yesterday was deliberately doing something. The ship did what could only be defined as a tactical retreat or a safety precaution. It was all like a dream that had never happened. In fact, Twilight had a nightmare of a similar fashion the previous night. Black energy enveloping the TARDIS console, sucking the life out of it. The lights dimmed and the cloister bell rang. The danger was imminent. The cloud swirled around her, shrouding her in complete darkness. Suddenly the cry of a young filly called out to her.  “Help me, help me, please! It wasn’t my fault!” “Where are you, what wasn’t your fault?” The darkness raced directly towards her and she woke up. Normally dreams didn’t stick around long for her, but this one did. It all felt too realistic, too frightening to forget. The time wasn’t too far off this time, only by about an hour and a half. The distance was spot on though, and it’d be pretty hard to nail a destination as close to the original like this again. Or at the very least it’d be hard to do it on purpose. It was better not to risk it seeing how unpredictable things could still be. But after opening the doors she discovered that she was about a mile off course in terms of distance. The readings on exact distance appeared to have been false, possibly another fault within the TARDIS's systems. “Just perfect.” Twilight thought to herself. Well at least it wasn’t too far, and it was certainly a nice day out. The pegasi had done a good job on cloud coverage and Celestia’s sun shone brightly down on her through the cracks in the cloudy skyline. It was close to the Running Of The Leaves, after all, so the weather was to be expected. A small walk through town was the least she had to pay for her journey. Locking the door she set out for home. The TARDIS might need to be transported manually back to the castle seeing how unreliable it could be. Just as she turned her head a small crowd had begun to gather in the town square. A malnourished mare that lay on the ground was being treated by those nearby as a medical team was on its way. Twilight wanted to make sure that she'd be alright, ponies don't just faint in the middle of a populated area unless something was wrong. Although something was off about her, the monochrome mare laying before her seemed terribly ill and yet was still breathing perfectly. On the bright side, she was definitely going to be alright.