Derpy landed on, what she thought, was a soft plane of sand. It seemed as if the sun was beating down extremely hard. Where was she? Certainly not anywhere in Equestria. She stood up and stretched her legs, they were extremely stiff and every joint creaked with every motion. She pushed back, her hind legs on their heels, her front slanting back, and took off, flying gracefully into the sky. She achieved this only because it was a dream. It certainly felt more natural flying now.
She started to fly away from the blinding sun so she wouldn’t have to face it and kill her eyes. She felt a strong wind somehow turn her around, straight to the sun. You can feel weather in dreams? Derpy simply curved and continued her previous trail. This time, the wind blew stronger. Derpy struggled to go back, but the wind wouldn’t let her. At one point, she couldn’t even move. Whatever, the sun didn’t really affect her much. She started on the path the current lead her to.
Derpy went over all the places she knew of that she could possibly be. Was this a beach? Definitely not. Coltifornia was a no. This was definitely not Equestria. What other countries did she know? Saddle Arabia, Japony, Tailwan- wait! Saddle Arabia! This totally matched the description of the deserts there. Why would the Doctor be in a desert?
Derpy looked to the horizon and saw the faint dot of some civilization. The wind pushed her the rest of the way there. She realized that this was a fixed memory and she couldn’t go any further or change directions.
Derpy landed and looked around at the almost empty city that lay before her. All the streets were barren, the mud-brick huts abandoned. The wind nudged Derpy toward the centre of the small village/town. It was a slight push, but Derpy got the idea. She reared back, and took off, floating in the clear blue sky.
The whole town was gathered in a huge town square, right in the heart of the small place. These ponies didn’t look the same as ponies in Equestria. One thing was that they were horses.
Their bodies were leaner, their legs thinner and longer. Their faces were similar to that of an alicorn, only more squished together, their eyes smaller. The colors of these horses were duller, the pinks more pale than the common hot pink found in Equestria; Their hair ranging from dark blue to black to brown to blonde. Their hooves were a separate color from their coats- a shiny black. Not a single horse with wings or a horn was present.
They were all sitting at tables that were circular and wood. They all sat on little embroidered cushions that had designs of red flowers and tropical locations. The most noticeable of all these tables was a large one, right in the middle of the gathered tables. This circle was as big as a large fountain. These horses were all dressed extremely nicely.
They had exquisite saddles that drooped over their stomachs. They seemed to be made of silk or cotton-not the hard, uncomfortable kind you would see around the higher end of Equestria. The “saddles” had fine patterns of the elements of nature and curly figures. Some of the saddles were beaded with bright, vibrant beads and shells. The mares had necklaces of the same material, matching the saddle. The stallions did too, just without beads. The mares had little pieces of cloth that sat upon their heads, also matching the saddles. The stallions had helmets that were in the same color scheme.
There were two horses that really caught Derpy’s unfocused eyes, however; a mare and stallion cuddling each other. The mare was bejeweled in an excessive fashion. She had diamonds running across every bit of clothing she had. The stallion had golden bracelets that covered the bottom half of his leg. He had gold earrings and gold rings in his hair. It must have weighed a lot.
They were all having a banquet of some sort. The food made Derpy’s mouth water. The fresh aroma made Derpy whoozy- though she couldn’t smell anything. She could see the steam rising off of the freshly cooked carrots, the sweetened grass made Derpy’s tongue tingle. Everything a pony could ever want was on every single table. It all seemed oh-so-delicious.
The stallion broke the cuddling and arose from the soft, silk cushion. He made a long speech that Derpy couldn’t even hear. She wished she did, everypony- er, everyhorse- was getting all sentimental over the soundless words. He looked down at the lilac mare and smiled. He pulled out a small bundle he had hid under the cushion.
It was an object wrapped in a shiny pearly cloth that glistened in the sunlight. She gently unfolded it, making sure that her teeth didn’t damage the fine cloth. It was a gigantic gem with the words “Marry me?” engraved upon the red surface.
The mare burst into tears as she rose and stood upon her place mat. Derpy could almost hear the horses muttering. She started a long speech which gave everyhorse strange glances. She then looked down upon her fiancé and sighed.
A green fire enveloped her as everyhorse created a shocked face. Kacoonis arose from the flames and looked around, tears in her solid colour eyes; a few broke her eyelashes and rolled down her black cheek. All the mares started to run around and scream. The stallions stood their ground and drew out weapons. 1/8 of the horses burst into green flames as well and ran out of the city. Some of the changelings were killed with long spears that had feathers dangling off the end of the pole.
The stallion stared at the princess who was being pushed away. She was clutching the large ruby in her chops. He muttered something, something that could only be audible to somehorse close by in all this chaos. Derpy was rather close so she could read his lips mutter, “I love you,” as the princess was taken away. All the horses were running through her, her image flickering each time. This dream seemed so real, that this part was the main reason she didn’t believe she was in reality.
Everything started to swirl. Derpy thought she was going to be sick. She closed her eyes when everything went black.
***
Derpy woke up with sweat plastered all over her face. She glance around the Tardis, the Doctor slowly breathing right next to her. He had fallen asleep a few feet from her, but was now cuddling with her. She smiled as she took her blanket and wrapped the Doctor in its warmth. Where was Kacoonis?
Derpy tip-hoofed out of the Tardis and creaked open the rusty doors. Kacoonis was there, her hooves dangling in the pond, her hair shining in the sun. She was holding something with that green aura; it was close to her heart. Her now visible wings were going up and down with each breath. The bug-like holed wings were attached to a sort of armor-ish apparel. It was a gradient plate of blue and green.
“Kacoonis?” Derpy whispered.
Kacoonis came out of her trance with a jolt and hid the object in the folds of a long piece of blue cloth that wrapped around her stomach. “Yeah Derpy?”
Derpy saw a shimmer of red glint off of the hidden object. “I had a dream…”
“I have dreams too. Wow, look at the sun! It must be noon! We better go wake up the Doctor!” Kacoonis said hastily.
“Is that-“ Derpy gulped and ran down the list of reactions from the changeling, “Is that the ruby the chief’s son gave you?”
If Kacoonis’ eyes had pupils, they would have shrunk to pin-points. She slowly turned her head in creaky jerks as she stared directly into Derpy’s misfortunate eyes. “Tell. Me. Now.”
Derpy told Kacoonis of the dream. The dream of two lovers, separated long ago. She then told the tale of the Doctor when he was human.
“Odd. I had a dream of the Doctor last night. It was weird. I’ve been thinking for about an hour over it. It was extremely…
confusing, I suppose? Well, there was the ‘human’ Doctor you described. It was snowing and… weird snowponies… and a female human with dark hair… Ugh! I’m not good at explaining things! Just like you, I couldn’t hear anything, so… Too much stuff happening at once… UGH! All I know is that that was definitely the Doctor. You could just, sort of… tell, you know? He had the bow tie and… It was like his aura was emitting off him… I just knew it was him, okay?”
“Snowponies?”
“Well, not exactly, they were… three spheres of snow stacked on top of each other,” Kacoonis started to draw in the dirt with her foot, “except these were… weird,” She added a smile to the head of the doodle, “They had fangs and evil eyes… and popped out of the ground. I really didn’t understand what was going on at all, but…”
“No need to continue, I understand.” The Doctor said. He had been standing in the doorway listening to everything they had said ever since Derpy left the police box.
“Doctor!” Kacoonis shouted in surprise
“How-“ Derpy questioned, “How did you sleep?”
“Dreamt of your beautiful face, hanging out with ponies when you were a child.”
“Filly.”
“Same thing,” the Doctor said with a yawn. “Let’s go to Appleloosa next.”
***
The next cities went by so quick that Derpy couldn’t even comprehend what was happening sometimes. The only noticeable change was that the kisses seemed to be even more of an act each time. Both ponies were so accustomed to the practice that it seemed to be tedious and not special. Derpy knew that the Doctor didn’t feel anything about it. Nonetheless, she still enjoyed it.
In some cities there’d be one changeling, while in others, there would be five. Derpy’s house began to become so crowded, that there was no vacancy left- Kacoonis already expanded the shield to Derpy’s whole house-, they had to use part of Zecora’s hut.
The dreams became less and less noticeable. Most of the time, it was flashes of faces of ponies/humans that were important to others. The cycle kept changing; Derpy might have had a dream relating to Kacoonis one night and the Doctor the next. They still discussed them, but they only caused minute sentiment. The Doctor philosophized that it was because major parts of their lives had already been shown, so the importance of the dreams had been decreasing.
Then came the day they would finally tackle the city in which they were putting off; the dreaded Canterlot; the heart and mind of Equestria, where the Princess could get you at any moment. “I thought Princess Celestia got rid of all the changelings.” Derpy reviewed.
“She got rid of all the changelings she knew of. Only the ones that were attackers did she banish. No, but she failed to notice some of the females slide in as normal ponies. You couldn’t tell who was who, what with all the chaos. Pandemonium everywhere! We just have to weed out those.”
They felt the familiar rumble of the Tardis. “Ho-o-o-o-w-w ma-a-ny times have we traveled in this thing?” Derpy questioned.
“A record time; we have at least traveled to two cities every day for the past week, plus trips back home. I don’t think this old girl can keep up with this that much. Good thing this is our last city, ‘cause she needs a break.” The Doctor replied
“I’ve never been to Canterlot,” Derpy mused, “I heard it’s a really nice place- well, extremely upscale. I heard that the fountains are made out of gold and that everypony sleeps in a bed of jewels!” Derpy exclaimed.
“Isn’t it the city where the centre of the government is?” The Doctor asked.
“You mean the royal family?”
“It’s a monarchy? Just like Britain… well, sort of. Tell me more of this ‘royal family’.”
“Well, the main line of the family is made up of alicorns,” The Doctor gave her a questioning look, “ponies who are really tall- like Kacoonis’ disguise- and have both magic and flight. They all have ‘special’ abilities. The princess who is the head of our-er government raises the sun in the morning. She used to raise both the sun and moon, but her younger sister isn’t Nightmare Moon anymore, so she raises the moon. Their niece helps spread love through magic or something. I heard that the whole family is great and nice and junk. They are all basically immortal, so it’s good that they are all great leaders.”
“Nightmare Moon?”
“Nightmare Moon used to be an old pony’s tale; it was the tale that long ago, there were two sisters. One raised the sun, while the other raised the moon. Everypony laughed and played in the elder sister’ day, while they neglected the night. The younger sister grew resentful and became evil or something. She was banished to the moon by the eldest, where she would stay until the thousandth year, on the longest day, then, she would be released.
“Well, that actually happened three years ago, on the annual longest day. She appeared in Ponyville because we were hosting the festival that year. She showed up instead of the Princess and said she would cast Equestria in eternal night. Somehow, though I’m sure Twilight Sparkle has to do with this, Nightmare Moon turned into Princess Luna. She’s really pretty and she has shiny hair that seems like the night sky.”
“Twilight… Sparkle?” The Doctor only chuckled this time, he had gotten used to all the little things he found funny. “Who’s that?”
“This pony who is Princess Celestia’s ‘faithful student’. She’s such a jerk sometimes. I feel as if I’m the only one who sees it, but she was so grumpy when she came into town. And she thinks I am crazy or stupid or something, ‘cause she looks down on me, like she’s so great. Humph.” She heaved a heavy sigh.
“I think it’s weird how powerful the princesses are.” Kacoonis said, finally joining the conversation, “I mean, sure, us changeling royalty live for a long amount of time, but we really aren’t that different from all the other changelings; unless, of course, you count the telepathy thing. But we can’t, like, control ponies or anything or change all the forces of nature and control time and… It just doesn’t make sense!”
“We better get going. I want to get this over with and meet this great princess.” The Doctor said, creaking the Tardis’ doors open.
The party was greeted with many ponies’ eyes; mainly unicorns, however, because it was the main race in Canterlot. The Tardis, it seemed, had landed in quite a busy area. It had gathered too much attention. Derpy took in all the crazy fashions everypony was wearing. From hairstyles that towered above others to bejeweled suits with silver lined ties. Everypony here was clearly an aristocrat.
Ponies came rushing down the street. They were tall, white and stallion pegasi. They had golden armor on that made them extremely intimidating. They wore stern looks and stared straight ahead, right at the Tardis. It was strange how they looked exactly the same.
“Why hello there chaps!” the Doctor said to the stallions who had just made way through the crowd. The Doctor stuck out his hoof to shake.
“We are royal guards.” They said in unison, their deep voice booming.
“Why, nice to meet you! My companions and I were just stopping by on this road trip and-“
“Princess Celestia would like to see you. Come with us.” Again, perfectly in sync.
“Her highness shall be gracing us with her presence?! How lucky are we?” The Doctor said, turning to Derpy and Kacoonis.
“Er, very lucky. We should probably lock up our-er- carriage though, right? We don’t want anyone going through it, now do we?” Derpy nudged the Doctor.
“But of course!” Kacoonis and Derpy stepped out and stood in front of the two guards, watching the Doctor pull out his sonic screwdriver. A few ponies screamed as he locked up the Tardis. “That should do the trick!” He said.
They followed the two stallions, getting evil looks as they passed by ponies. The Doctor seemed happy and joyful, skipping with every step.
What do you think they’re going to do to us? Kacoonis’ voice wondered. Oh, I made a psychic link, so you guys can respond.
Why do you think the Princess personally wants to see us, huh? Shouldn’t this be a thing that’s handled strictly by the guards? Why does the Princess have to butt in?! Derpy shout-asked
I was just wondering that myself. You said she’s nice, right Derpy? Maybe that’s only on the outside, just for the public. What if she is a horrible demon in disguise?! Where did the alicorns come from exactly? How come there are only a few? The Doctor replied
I’m just worried about our own safety, what if the Princess wants to banish or execute us? Kacoonis asked in a worried tone.
“We’re here,” one of the guards said.
The castle was the largest building Derpy had ever seen. It was about as large as a mountain, the tallest roof scraping the clouds. The pearly white marble looked quite exquisite, it sparkled in the sunlight. Each different column was a different height, each roof was unique. The roofs were mainly purple with golden lining. Some of them resembled turnips to Derpy; others seemed like just plain roofs. Derpy looked upon the marble stairs which lay in front of her. They led up into the mouth of the whole castle; soon she would be right where the Princess wanted her.
Derpy couldn’t help but take a gulp as she walked up the stairs. They felt like ice, no warmth in them at all. The Doctor ran up next to her and gave a reassuring smile. He seemed to say ‘Everything will be fine’. Derpy closed her eyes and ran into the doorway.