Battles and Espionage
The shouts and cheers of almost two-thousand ponies filled the air as the second round of the Battle Royal was announced to begin shortly, but The Doctor’s mind was still on the tapestry he saw on his first night staying in Canterlot Castle. The image of Starswirl the Bearded’s cutie mark never left the time colt’s mind, and every day more and more questions seemed to find their way into his head. Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer. “Twilight,” The Doctor asked the lavender unicorn, who was trotting next to him on his way to the arena, “do you know anything about Starswirl the Bearded?”
The Element of Magic laughed, a tear rolling down her cheek as she looked at her friend, “Are you kidding me? I know everything about Starswirl! He created over two hundred spells, including the amniomorphic spell. Not to mention he has his own wing in the Canterlot Library, and he was the mentor of one of the founders of Equestria.”
“I thought he mentored the princesses?” the time colt asked.
“He did, a lot of Starswirl’s spells were based around time.” Twilight closed her eyes as she went into (what Spike would call) full-bookworm mode, “I remember one spell of his that I used to go back in time two minutes so I wouldn’t miss my first day as Princess Celestia’s personal student, then there was one time where I went a little overboard during the week and made a sort of fixed point in time...” the lavender unicorn looked over at her companion, only to see his mouth gaping at the mention of a magical pony making a fixed point in time and say she only went ‘a little overboard’, “I’ll tell you about it later. Anyway, a lot of scholars think that Starswirl was able to conjure up a spell that allowed him to travel anywhere in time permanently. That’s the only way most ponies can explain such a long life for a normal unicorn.”
“I’m not sure how normal he was...” The Doctor said under his breath, “Where’s the library exactly?”
“Oh, it’s actually just down the road a bit. It’s a big white marble building like the castle, you can’t miss it.”
“Thanks Twilight, bye!” and with that the brown colt galloped out of the stadium, and thundered down the road. Twilight sighed, half wishing she could join the strange, bow-tie wearing colt, but she knew that she needed to stay. As the student of Celestia took her seat next to her mentor, Twilight’s eyes focused on the battlefield before her. More importantly, they focused on the image of The great and Powerful Trixie entering the arena, with a smirk on her face as she prepared to fight the hulking gryphon before her.
***
The Doctor’s hoofbeats slowed as he made his way to the giant, sprawling marble building that Twilight described. The entrance to the maze like library was extremely ornate, with the flag of Equestria carved and painted into the stone above the archway with great detail. The archway itself seemed to be made of gold, and the doors where a very thick mahogany with images of Celestia and Luna carved into them. The time colt pushed his way through the doors and trotted along the halls, his head swiveling right and left as he searched for the Starswirl the Bearded wing. As he passed the few guards that were positioned here instead of the arena, he nodded to them, not even considering that they might know the location of the wing. The Doctor didn’t want a word of him being here getting to anypony, he had been very cautious of anypony he didn’t know since the incident in Appleloosa.
For now, the brown colt felt he could find what he was looking for on his own. That is, until he found he had made a complete circle around the library and back to the entrance. The Doctor’s eyes grew wide,and he galloped around the library as his eyes darted to the different wings of the massive building. “Cover the Clever, King Beambright, Admiral Typhoon,” the time colt said the wing’s names out loud as he rounded the corner, only to see the two wooden doors to Canterlot once more, “do I have to use some kind of magic, or something? Where the hell is the bloody Starswirl wing!”
“Hey, buddy.” one of the golden clad guards called out, “It’s a library, that means be quiet. Also, look behind ya, stupid Trottingham ponies...” The Doctor turned and saw a room with a large hourglass under a skylight, the sign on the archway read ‘Starswirl the Bearded wing’. The time pony then stared at the sign in disbelief, then he slapped his forehead with his hoof before trotting into the book and scroll filled room.
***
Twilight’s eyes widened as she watched the match begin. Luna and the now sober Prince Blueblood took their positions on the two stone podiums as their students stared each other down. Trixie, as cocky as ever, just smiled at the circling Gilda, the gryphon’s claws extended and looking even sharper than they did the day before. However, this didn’t seem to concern the light blue unicorn, as she let loose a harmless, yet bright, flash from her horn but remained motionless.
Gilda reeled back for a moment, the flash of bright mauve magic burning her eyes slightly. She was quick to recover though, and growled as she eyed the illusionist pony. “You’re dead meat, you little bitch!” the now furious gryphon screeched as she lunged at her opponent, talons bared as she sliced right through the air. Even as the angry enemy neared, Trixie was motionless almost as if...
Twilight gasped, then whispered to herself, “It’s a spell.” just as Gilda’s claws ripped right through Trixie’s clone, causing her mirage spell to evaporate like water. The stunned eagle-lion hybrid turned quickly, keeping her back to the wall as she searched the arena for the now missing Trixie.
“Stay on guard Gilda!” Blueblood yelled from the top of his stone tower, “The little minx is using a cloaking spell. You can find her!” Luna just kept looking as the center of the arena, nodding her head as she let loose a little half smile. She could see her student making her way to the opposite end of the stadium, the horn on the invisible and cunning unicorn’s horn shining bright.
“Where are you, ya little jerk?” Gilda called out, still scanning the flat battle arena with her eyes, “Aren’t you mare enough to fight me one-on-one?”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with Trixie being ‘mare enough’ to do anything, you brute.” the voice of The G&P Trixie echoed in response, “Battles like this are won with brains, and you couldn’t beat an ameba in a game of tic-tac-toe. So, what chance do you have against...” the white maned unicorn slowly reappeared, a sort of wave uncovering her body from the cloaking spell, “The Great and Powerful Trixie?!”
“Shut up, show off!!!” the gryphon screamed as she flew straight as Trixie, rearing back so that she could attack the smirking unicorn with both her claws and talons. “You wana smile? I’ll rip a huge smile right in your belly!”
***
“This is amazing!” The Doctor called out, then covered his mouth as one of the guards quickly shushed him. “All these spells and theories, this Starswirl must’ve been one of the most knowledgeable ponies in this dimension's history. I... I just can’t believe it.” However, in the back of The Doctor’s mind a question still burned, a question that he knew must have an answer somewhere in Canterlot. “What was this guy? Could it be that he was a...”
“‘Scuse me gents, I need to finish cleanin’ the library ‘fore the fight’s done.” an old, crogetty voice said softly, “Ya’ mind guardin’ the place outside for a while?”
“No problem Mr. Greenhooves, we’ll be out of you mane in a bit.” one of the armor covered guards replied as he, and his companions, made their way out of the maze of a building. As soon as the mahogany doors slammed shut, a grey-brown colt with a large green hat and blue vest entered the Starswirl the Bearded wing and smiled at The Doctor. The time colt couldn’t see a cutie mark on the old groundskeeper, but to him it really didn’t matter.
“Sorry, I’ll get out of here for you.” The Doctor said, quickly putting a few of the scrolls he had gotten out back.
“No need Son of Gallifrey,” Greenhooves said, his voice now deep with a slight accent, “I know what you’re seeking.”
The Doctor paused, then stared right at the older pony, “How do you know what I am?” he asked.
“Simple,” the earth pony replied before he closed his eyes. Suddenly, a flash of golden light filled the room as Mr. Greenhooves became enveloped in a shining light, so bright that the time pony couldn’t look directly at it. The light seemed to grow dim thought, and soon it seemed to mold the older earth pony into a unicorn. After a few moments, The Doctor looked back at where Mr.Greenhooves stood, but in the groundskeeper’s place was a grey unicorn with a frosty, snow white beard and mane. One the unicorn’s head stood an ornate wizard’s hat, and on his back was a cape, decorated with a map of various Equestrian constellations. “I am like you.”
The Doctor’s jaw hit the floor as he wondered at the new unicorn in front of him, the time colt’s eyes went to the old colt’s flank to see what he already knew was there. An hourglass cutie mark, with moving sand. “Starswirl the Bearded.” the brown colt said.
“Starswirl... I haven’t heard that name in a millennia.” the ancient enchanter replied, “However, I do know of you Doctor. I am surprised to see a Time Lord out of our old universe. Tell me, how did you manage the journey?”
***
The battle seemed to have gone on for a week already, and it had fallen into a pattern very quickly. Gilda would attack, and Trixie would dodge the attack and force Gilda to use up valuable energy looking for her, then the unicorn would mock the gryphon, and Gilda would attack. If Prince Blueblood were worried about his student losing steam he didn’t show it, all he did was keep telling Gilda to attack when the time was right and to end it quickly. Princess Luna didn’t say anything, all she did was nod and smile. It was as if she was talking to her student telepathically, which was impossible due to the various wards preventing that.
“It must be some kind of signal,” Twilight said as she kept a watchful eye on the battle, “but what does it mean?”
“I’m not sure Twilight,” Celestia said suddenly, making Twilight nearly jump out of her seat. The sun princess saw this and smiled, “forgot I was here huh?”
“Maybe a little.” the lavender unicorn said with a blush and a smile.
Her mentor smiled back, then turned back to the match, “When our time comes to battle my sister and her student, we’ll need to be careful.”
Meanwhile on the field, Gilda had begun to sweat from the effort of trying to catch Trixie. The gryphon began to pant from pure exhaustion, and her movements slowed to a near crawl.
“Now’s the time to attack.” Luna said out loud, “Trixie, now!”
“Yes master!” Trixie responded, revealing herself and blasting Gilda with enough magical force to knock her into the stands. However, before the now losing gryphon could get close to the various ponies watching, she hit the field’s inner barrier which knocked her out cold. Twilight didn’t even need to hear the official's ruling, she knew Trixie had won the match, and she knew that she needed to beat Fleur.
***
“A very interesting story Doctor.” Starswirl said as The Doctor finished up telling the older time colt how he arrived in Equestria, and his trials within it. “It seems that you’re nearly ready to go back to your dimension.”
“I am,” the brown colt replied, “it’s just that... I like it here. It’s relatively peaceful and the ponies here are amazing creatures, like the humans back on my Earth. I know I’ll have to go back, but why can’t I stay here more often? It should be easy now that my TARDIS is repaired. I can adjust it with the princess’ help so that it can cross over easier.”
Starswirl’s smile turned into a worried frown almost instantly, “Doctor... Do you know why I’m here in Equestria and not in our own dimension?” The Doctor shook his head. “My TARDIS was destroyed by a monster, a monster that you have faced already and defeated.”
The young time colt pondered for a moment, then nodded. “Discord.”
“Yes, and while he has changed over the centuries of imprisonment, I am still stuck in this land of ponies. It has begun to... drain me. I fear I do not have long for this plain, so I am warning you Son of Gallifrey...” the elder pony turned towards The Doctor, holding the brown colt’s face in his hooves, “You may return, but you cannot live here.” With that, Starswirl was once more cloaked in the bright golden light and transformed back into the form of Mr.Greenhooves. “Heed my warning.” he said, then he left The Doctor pondering in the massive, book filled room, alone once more. And once more, The Doctor felt that he was the last of the Time Lords.