//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Doctor Hooves: To Whom Gods Pray // by M1ghtypen //------------------------------// The sun was beginning to set when Luna woke. She was unsure of what had disturbed her, but it was possible that she had just woken up a few minutes early. She lay in bed for a while, listening to the world around her and trying to figure out why she felt so uneasy. There was a muffled exchange in the hallway. Luna ignored it and tried to get a little more rest. One of her guards was probably just trying to turn away a maid; the strange hours she kept were often hard for the staff to adapt to. Light flashed under her door and Luna heard one of her night guards scream. She leapt from her bed, horn glowing with power as another of her guards cried out. At any moment she expected the door to be violently thrown open. She was a little disappointed. A pony she had never seen before calmly opened her door and stepped inside, followed closely by her sister. “Celestia? What is the meaning of this? What have you done to our guards?” “Lose the disguise,” the strange pony ordered. Celstia’s outline blurred as it was consumed by green fire that lit up the room with an unholy glow. “Chrysalis!” Luna snarled. “At last We have the opportunity to personally crush you. We can only assume that this unfortunate soul is your latest conquest?” The blue pony put a hoof to his chest and gasped. “You wound me, dear princess! I’m hardly unfortunate and I’m pretty sure that my soul is a lost cause. Still, it’s very nice to meet you. You may call me Master.” “We will do no such thing. What are you doing here? What have you done to Crater and Crescent?” “If you mean the two guards outside, they’re dead.” The Master tugged a strange metal cylinder out of his collar. “Lasers and ponies don’t mix well. Who knew, right?” Luna lowered her head and snorted threateningly. “You will not find us such easy prey!” “I should hope not,” the Master chuckled. “That wouldn’t be any fun at all. Chrysalis, darling, do you remember the spell I taught you?” Chrysalis nodded. “Good. Fire when ready!” A flash of light extended from the changeling queen’s horn. It struck Luna and harmlessly splashed across her chest. “Did you really think this pathetic imitation of an alicorn would be a match for us?” she asked. “Your incompetence is insulting.” “In that case I’d better do something about it,” the Master said calmly. He twisted a dial on the device he carried and pointed it at the changeling’s horn. “Wouldn’t want to insult the Mare in the Moon, would I?” “Is that some kind of cruel joke?” Luna asked. “We are not amused. You will be taken into custody for the murders you have committed, assuming that We do not kill you here and now.” The device emitted a loud buzzing noise and Luna’s protection spell buckled unexpectedly. Pain lanced through her horn and down her spine, making her cry out and collapse to her knees. Her protection spell violently imploded and threw the room into disarray. Furniture and other debris flew around her, the storm of wild magic tearing everything apart before it finally died down. “Time energy is a wonderful thing,” the Master remarked. “It’s magic with a hint of chaos mixed in, so I have access to both whenever I want. All I need is a way to project it. Of course, I suppose you wouldn’t know much about chaos. That’s your sister’s fetish, isn’t it?” Luna staggered to her feet and struggled against the flow of unfamiliar energy. “What are you talking about?” she demanded, gritting her teeth at the pain. Her horn felt like it would break open if this punishment continued. She noticed that Chrysalis was fairing no better; the changeling queen was shaking on her hooves, drained by the powerful chaos magic that she was channeling. Small cracks were beginning to crawl down the length of her horn. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” the Master teased. He nodded to Chrysalis, who stopped channeling her spell. The painful assault ended, but Luna couldn’t fight back. Her strength had left her and she badly needed time to recuperate. She staggered toward her balcony, blowing the doors open with what was left of her once mighty power. “Where do you think you’re going?” the Master asked. Chrysalis blasted her with a beam of green magic and Luna collapsed, too spent to defend herself. “Actually you don’t need to answer that,” he continued. “I know exactly where you’re going. It’s nothing personal, you understand. I just can’t have you messing up my plans.” Chrysalis bowed her head and gathered magic into her fractured horn. Luna sensed the nature of the spell and gave up on dignity. She begged for mercy, shamelessly crying into her carpet. The Master just watched with his calm, pitiless smile. Luna’s scream was cut short. The moon, its journey across the sky already begun, froze in place without the goddess to guide it. ***** Celestia felt herself growing more irritable with every step she took. The royal vaults –her royal vaults- had been breached only once before. She had, however, been assured that this time the Elements of Harmony were completely safe. That was the only bit of good news she’d had all day. Now that she had time to investigate personally she was in for a terrible surprise. “You didn’t tell me there were casualties!” Celestia snapped when she reached Canterlot Tower. One of her guards, a mare that had recently been recruited, was being carried out on a stretcher. The four guards following her exchanged unhappy glances. “Just wait here,” she ordered. “I’ll be a while.” Her guards bowed low and sat down to wait, each of them staring at their fallen comrade with pained eyes. Celestia stood over the body of Fateful Pledge and took a steadying breath. She had a total of twenty personal guards and knew each of them by name. Fateful Pledge and Solemn Duty were both new recruits, so she had given them a safe position to start out with. She remembered seeing them making eyes at one another when they thought nopony was looking. It had made her smile on more than one occasion; they thought themselves so clever, sneaking around while off duty to make time with one another. Now she would have to tell Solemn Duty that his friend (or lover, or whatever they considered themselves) was dead. As Celestia trotted further into the vault she found Solemn Duty’s helmet lying on the ground. The rest of him was nowhere to be seen, but the floor had been charred beyond recognition. She wouldn’t be telling Duty much of anything now. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, lifting the helmet in her magic. “I wish I could have been here.” Something clattered to the floor and startled her so badly that she nearly dropped the helmet. “Oops,” a dejected voice said. “Sorry. My bad.” “Don’t worry about it,” came the answer. “Cyberponies are very robust.” Celestia placed the helmet back on the floor and, as quietly as she could manage, snuck closer to the source of the noise. Two ponies were trying to hoist a metal suit of armor back onto its pedestal. “This old thing has been inactive for hundreds of years,” said a brown earth pony with a mane that refused to behave itself. “It looks like an older model. The newer ones weren’t as flimsy.” The grey pegasus helping him sighed with relief when they managed to stand the armor up properly. “How does it work?” she asked. Her friend chuckled dryly. “Why do you always ask how something works? If I tried to tell you that it uses a positronic neural uplink with a chrono-stasis field to prevent pathway desiccation, would you understand?” The pegasus shook her head. Celestia stepped forward, trading stealth for her usual proud posture. There was only one pony in all of Equestria that could talk like that. The hourglass cutie mark and the strange device clipped to his collar cleared up any doubt as to his identity. She politely cleared her throat to make her presence known. The Doctor and his assistant spun around, each looking like they were about to scream. “This isn’t what it looks like,” the pegasus assured her. “Unless it looks like we’re snooping around in Canterlot Tower right after it was infiltrated,” the Doctor added. “In that case it’s exactly what it looks like.” “Two of my guards died only a few hours ago. Now I come to investigate and I find the Doctor and his friend traipsing about with the stink of changeling magic in the air.” “Changeling magic!” the Doctor exclaimed. “I knew I smelled changeling magic! I told you so, Ditzy!” The pegasus quirked an eyebrow. “I never said-” “So we’ve got changelings in Equestria again!” the Doctor continued. “That explains how they got through security; the guards thought the intruder was Celestia herself. They had no reason to think otherwise.” Celestia’s horn began to glow ominously. The Doctor and his friend began to back away. “We should leave,” he said. “You’ve got a lot to take care of. Crimes to investigate, country to run, that sort of thing. Actually there’s a good chance that you’re still angry about the changelings, so it’s best if I just go.” The pegasus bumped into the cyberpony, her flank brushing against the metal C on its chest. A metallic grinding noise that set Celestia’s teeth on edge filled the room. The metal pony didn’t move, but two ports on its flanks slid open. Out came a pair of long metal cylinders with holes in them. They swiveled around to point forward, looking for all the world like a pair of comically misplaced antenna. The Doctor and his assistant both froze. They were standing on either side of the cyberpony, so it hadn’t noticed them yet. “Nopony move,” the Doctor warned. “It’s probably using a motion tracker to scan for signs of life.” The cyberpony turned its head and stared at the Doctor out of the cold, black eye holes in its face-plate. “Of course, it could just as easily hear me talking. I am such an idiot. Everypony run!” “You aren’t going anywhere!” Celestia shouted. Her magic grabbed the Doctor and his friend and lifted them into the air. “I want answers, Doctor. I intend to get them.” The metal pony stepped off its pedestal and turned to face her. Its movements were halting and jerky, its joints squealing and complaining with every movement. A shaky, hollow voice echoed from the armor’s mouthpiece: “Your design is unknown. Identify.” Celestia frowned, annoyed that she was being questioned in her own capital. “I am Princess Celestia, immortal ruler of the day and goddess of the sun. Who wants to know?” The cyberpony didn’t seem impressed. Celestia had expected it to be frightened, but instead it clapped a hoof to its chest and then brandished it with authority. “Your design is incompatible. You will be deleted.” “What is that supposed to mean?” Celestia asked. “Look out!” the Doctor shouted. Red light blasted her chest, fired from one of the metal tubes on the cyberpony’s flank. Celestia was more surprised than angry; it had been a long time since anything had dared assault her. Her coat was not even ruffled by the blast, but the attack was the final straw in an evening full of anger and frustration. “Weapons ineffective,” the cyberpony droned. “No defenses detected. Explain. Explain.” Celestia glared with the full fury of a goddess scorned. “I think you and I have very different concepts of immortality.” She considered blasting the impudent creature into tiny scraps of metal, but the explosion might have harmed the Doctor and his companion. Instead she opted for a less dramatic approach. The steel shell that protected the cyberpony turned white-hot in an instant. The creature was reduced to a puddle of molten metal before it could even speak. Celestia turned her glare on the Doctor and noted that his companion was staring at the rapidly cooling metal with wide, terrified eyes. “I didn’t recognize you at first,” Celestia said. “You’ve changed your face.” “I told you that I might.” “Perhaps you did. Who is this? She seems familiar.” The Doctor reached over to place a hoof on his friend’s shoulder. “This is Ditzy Doo,” he said. “She’s my companion. I understand that you’re angry, but she hasn’t done anything wrong. Do whatever you like to me, but please don’t hurt her.” Celestia’s glare softened, but retained the heat of her anger. “You would think that,” she accused. “I would never hurt any of my subjects; she is under my protection. You, however, have some explaining to do.” “Leave him alone!” Ditzy Doo pleaded. “I know what you think of him, but he doesn’t deserve whatever it is that you’re planning!” Celestia tried not to let her pain at being feared by one of her subjects show. “Why does everypony think that I want to take a life tonight? I only want to talk.” “You said you would kill him if you ever saw him again,” Ditzy said. “I’d say that’s a pretty good reason.” Celestia set her down gently but kept the Doctor in her grip. “I was very angry,” she explained. “I said some things that I shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?” “Of course she will,” the Doctor interjected. “Your guards are hoof picked. Each of them is a personal friend that you know for certain you can trust. That kind of loyalty comes at a price and nopony could blame you for being upset when one of them gets hurt.” “May we talk?” The Doctor grinned. “Celestia herself is asking. Who am I to say no?” “Good.” Celestia knelt in front of Ditzy so that they were on the same level. “I am going to speak with the Doctor in private. I promise that I will not harm him. Do you trust me?” “Yes.” Ditzy pointedly sat down to wait. “I’ll be right here when you’re done.” Celestia carried the Doctor away, intending to talk with him in the stairwell. “I’d like it very much if I could walk on my own hooves,” he grumbled after a while. “That is, assuming you really don’t intend to kill me.” “I don’t, but I’m still angry,” Celestia began as she sat him down. He fell into step beside her, two immortal beings of vastly different power. “You knew about the invasion.” “I did, but-” “You could have warned me. My guards –my friends- would still be alive if you had told me what to expect.” Celestia picked up Solemn Duty’s helmet as she walked by. “Celestia-” “You should have warned me!” Celestia was angry, and she had been thinking about she would say for a very long time. “I trusted you, Doctor. I let you build this strange place right in the middle of my capitol city. You told me that it needed to happen, so I let it.” “If you’d just-” “No!” Celestia snarled. “Not this time, Doctor! I’m not listening this time. You made me trust you and then you and then you disappeared! For the last three hundred years every piece of strange technology in Equestria had been locked away in this room because you told me to. You said it was better for my subjects. You said you wanted to help me protect them. Where were you when you could have done the most good?” The Doctor stopped trying to answer her. Instead he drew himself up to his full height which, Celestia was only now noticing, was fairly large for an earth pony. “Well?” she demanded. “Two lives were lost that day. Now two more are dead, and here you are-” “I understand how angry you are,” the Doctor said in an even voice. Celestia drew in a breath to continue with her rant, but his eyes stopped her. They were coldly angry, filled with the sort of tranquil fury that Celestia wasn’t capable of understanding. She was the goddess of the sun; her anger was a burning, broiling passion that could scorch the ground into a lifeless wasteland if she didn’t control it. She could not feel cold anger any more than the sun could freeze. “Believe me when I say that I understand what it feels like to lose somepony you care about.” The Doctor’s voice slowly rose in volume as he backed her against the wall with the force of his words. “I’ll gladly explain as much as I can provided that you stop trying to assert your damnable authority over me when I! AM! TALKING!” Before she could even think about what she was saying Celestia’s voice spoke of its own accord: “Sorry.” “I’m the Doctor,” he continued, his eyes still daring her to interrupt. “I’m nine hundred and three years old. I’ve come a very long way from a planet that died hundreds of years ago to protect you, whether you like it or not. I’ve traveled from one end of the universe all the way to the other at entirely ridiculous speeds and I’ve seen things that not even a goddess could imagine. I’m telling you this because I want you to fully understand how totally and completely I mean it when I say that…that I’m sorry.” The anger drained out of him so quickly that he seemed to wilt. “I’m so, so sorry that I couldn’t help you. There was nothing I could do.” Horrible, oppressive silence descended on them. Celestia examined the helmet that only yesterday had belonged to a promising young recruit. The magic that killed him had blackened the metal in some places. “I forgive you,” she finally said. “Can I trust you now, Doctor? Will you help me or will you disappear again?” “I don’t think I’ll be disappearing this time, no. I’ll try my best to help you.” The Doctor raised an ear and listened intently. “Do you hear that?” “What?” Celestia asked. “I don’t hear anything.” The Doctor shrugged unhappily. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be going now, if that’s alright with you.” He trotted over to his assistant and, after a few quiet words were exchanged, they returned to the TARDIS. Celestia watched as the blue box faded in and out of existence for a few seconds before disappearing completely. Now that she was alone the silence of the vault felt depressing. She hurried back up the stairs, stopping to inspect the ruins of the huge vault door she had enchanted herself. Something had aged it into a rusted hulk. A sudden sense of dread made her throat tighten. Celestia felt her link with the sun quiver as a terrible darkness settled over Canterlot high above her. She knew the feeling all too well; it had been the source of countless nightmares. Celestia disappeared in a flash of blinding light, arriving outside her sister’s room to find two night guards lying dead in the hallway. “Luna!” Celestia cried, throwing open the doors and rushing into her sister’s bedroom. Inside she found a warzone. Furniture had been scattered everywhere, most of it smashed to splinters or twisted into bizarre shapes and rendered unrecognizable. Paintings that had once adorned the walls were torn to shreds, lending the mess and odd patch of color here and there. Luna’s bed rested on top of what was left of her writing desk, crushed to bits. Celestia ran to the balcony, stepping over the remains of a pair or ornate doors as she went. Changeling magic hung heavy in the air, tainting the normally fragrant smell of the palace’s gardens. Another scent, the strange mix of order and chaos that made up time energy, further stung her senses. Celestia’s eyes widened as the saw the night sky. The moon cheerfully occupied its usual place, but its face had been marred. The image that had haunted Celestia’s dreams for hundreds of years was now hanging in the night sky for all to see. Luna’s image stared accusingly down at her from her prison. Celestia’s grief made her scream, but the only ponies near enough to hear her were dead. ***** I’m trying to improve my formatting! It’s…a change. A work in progress. It’s…uh, it’s a thing. Same drill as before, let me know if you think I could do anything to make this better. I’m not especially happy with this chapter. Maybe that’s because the Doctor and Celestia are hard characters to write. I don’t think I captured them well enough. What do you think? …*sigh* Put your hand down. That isn’t how commenting works. I like to think that the Master bet Chrysalis that he could get Luna to say "We are not amused."