//------------------------------// // Eve of Equestria Part 1 // Story: Vortexes are Magic // by JeckParadox //------------------------------// "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."