Chapter 5: Secret of the Source
Refuge Cabins, Fort McDonald, Trixus, Regulus Orbit, Autumn, 6609 C.E.
"TWILIGHT!" Spike screamed.
"Quick! Everypony back up and don't take your eyes off that Angel!" Alexander ordered. The Doctor grabbed a hold of Spike and pulled him away from the Angel. A laser blast flew over their heads and smashed into the Weeping Angel, causing the statue to disintegrate into a pile of dust. "Thanks, Chloe!"
A pink, pegasus mare with a laser blaster nodded and aimed her gun to ward off anymore oncoming Angels. The Doctor couldn't help but feel a pit in the bottom of his stomach. Twilight was gone. She had been taken while under his watch. He couldn't help but feel even more guilty when he turned towards the others, who were visibly distraught.
"Twilight," Spike croaked as a tear rolled down his cheek.
Power Room, Fort McDonald, Trixus, Regulus Orbit, Autumn, 6609 C.E.
The Doctor was quick to lock the door to the power room with his Sonic Screwdriver once everypony had made it inside.
"Is everypony here?!" Alexander called. All of the soldiers and scientists were accounted for. The walls began to shake with knocks and groan with scratches. They were surrounded by Weeping Angels and it wouldn't be long until they broke in.
"Doctor...what happened to them: Twilight and Trixie?" Derpy asked.
"The Angel sent them back in time," the Doctor sighed sadly.
"To when?"
"I have no idea, Derpy. It's impossible to determine when and where a Weeping Angel's going to dump you."
The Doctor angrily kicked the ground.
"Don't blame yourself, Doctor," said Spike, who was still wiping tears from his eyes. "I don't blame you."
"None of us do," Applejack added. The Doctor felt like smiling but the pain he had from losing Twilight was enough to keep him from doing so. And then there was Trixie. Sure she had been annoying at first but she had begun to change for the better. She was a bystander who should had never been there. In a split second, he had lost a bystander and a friend to a Weeping Angel of all things.
"This isn't the end," the Doctor stated. "There has to be something! A clue of sorts! Twilight would have known how to contact us in the future!"
"I haven't noticed anything," Derpy admitted. The Doctor looked around the room until his eyes fell upon the power source. It was beginning to slowly fade between its blue and purple colors. Then he remembered what Twilight had said right before she had disappeared.
She had said, "Doctor...the power source...it's-," and then she was gone. The Doctor slowly approached the power source, staring deep into its gaseous body.
"Could the answer to the mystery really have been staring us in the face this whole time?" he asked.
"You look like you're thinking up a hypothesis, Doctor," said Alexander.
"That's because I am. Tell me again, when did the Weeping Angels first arrive?"
"November of 6599, exactly ten years ago."
"And this power source appeared right before they did?"
"Yes."
"Did you notice anything odd in Fort McDonald prior to the power source's appearance?"
"No. It was just like a regular d-"
Alexander stopped as he began scratching his head.
"Yes, Alexander?" the Doctor asked.
"I...I think I heard something right before the power source appeared," Alexander continued.
"The word something is really vague. Could you please elaborate?"
"I was the first one to discover the power source. I remember walking to the power room to check up on some old files, since this was a record room prior to the power source's arrival, and as I descended the steps I remember hearing what sounded like a pair of voices."
"Do you remember what they were saying, by any chance?"
"No...but I think they were female voices."
"Then what happened?"
"I asked if anypony was down here and there was a huge flash of light. I ran in here and found the power source...just sitting here."
The Doctor pressed one of his hooves up against the gaseous surface of the power source.
"Doctor...just what are you going on about?" Derpy asked.
The Doctor turned to answer Derpy's question but then turned back to Alexander and asked, "Has anypony ever walked through the power source?"
"No. It gets incredibly cold inside the power source. Somepony could freeze their skin off if they went too deep inside," Alexander replied. The Doctor pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and smiled.
"Well I have plenty of lives to spare."
"Doctor? What are you doing?" asked a nervous Derpy.
"I'm going to find our friends and stop the Angels!"
The Doctor suddenly turned around and charged towards the power source. He activated the Sonic Screwdriver as he dove into the swirling, gaseous mass.
"DOCTOR!" Derpy cried.
Military Sleeping Quarters, Fort McDonald, Trixus, Regulus Orbit, Autumn, 6599 C.E.
Twilight hardly felt anything when the Angel touched her. All she felt was a small prick in the back and a gust of hot air. The decaying hallway, the Doctor, and the others disappeared in an instant and were replaced by a nice, white, clean hallway with silver doors. Trixie was shaking with fear and was still holding onto Twilight. Twilight took in a deep breath of air. The hallway smelled like soap and antibacterial lotion.
"It's done, Trixie. We've gone back," Twilight sighed. Trixie broke free from Twilight's grasp.
"You shouldn't have grabbed me! You should have let me go! I could have escaped it. We could have escaped it!" she snapped.
"We can't change what's supposed to happen, Trixie. I have a feeling that things could have turned out a lot worse if we didn't go back in time."
"How so?!"
"We could have created a paradox!"
"I...I know, Twilight. I just don't think I can do it."
"You don't have to do it alone, Trixie. Remember? We're both in this together."
"Have you ever cast it before?"
"No. But I've read enough about it so I might be able to pull it off...that is if you're there to help me."
"I hope we don't screw up."
"We won't. Remember? We already succeeded."
Trixie chuckled a bit and the two mares began making their way towards the power room-to-be.
Record Room, Fort McDonald, Trixus, Regulus Orbit, Autumn, 6599 C.E.
Fort McDonald was certainly a lot more crowded in 6599 than it was in 6609. Twilight and Trixie had a little difficulty sneaking their way downstairs. At one point, they were nearly caught by the stallion known as Jefferson, who would meet a terrible fate at the hands of a Weeping Angel one day. They eventually made their way into the record room which was, thankfully, empty. Twilight and Trixie stood in the center of the room and took deep breaths.
"You ready?" Twilight asked.
"I'm not sure," Trixie gulped.
"Come on! You're the Great and Powerful Trixie after all! This should be a piece of cake for you!"
"Huh. I'd never thought that I'd hear those words come out of your mouth, Twilight Sparkle."
"So? Do you think you can do it?"
"I...of course! The Great and Powerful Trixie can handle anything!"
"This should be interesting."
"What do you think it's going to feel like?"
"Something tells me that it's going to feel like taking a quick power nap. It won't feel like a decade's going by."
"I hope not. Being stuck with you in a floating ball of magical gas sounds like a boring way to spend ten years."
"The feeling is mutual."
"Okay...I'm ready."
"Good! Let's begin!"
Twilight and Trixie faced each other and pressed their front hooves against each other's. They closed their eyes as they began to focus. Their horns began glowing and they could feel their bodies slowly levitating off the ground.
"It's working!" Trixie exclaimed.
"Keep focusing!" said Twilight. The air became extremely cold while their bodies became extremely hot. "Almost there!"
"Is anypony down there?!" echoed the voice of Alexander Cross from upstairs. Twilight and Trixie remained silent. A huge plume of magic shot out of their horns and wrapped around them. There was a bright flash of light and the neat record room disappeared.
Twilight and Trixie found themselves floating in what appeared to be an abyss of blue and purple gases. They could feel the days passing by outside the gas tomb. The days turned to weeks. The weeks turned to months. The months turned to years.
"We're almost there," said Twilight. "I can feel it."
"Yeah...me too," said Trixie. The two mares fell silent. Their tomb of cold magic wrapped around their bodies like living gelatine. "I think we're here."
"Yes."
A small window appeared in the wall of gas in front of them. Two mares were staring straight at them, yet the mares couldn't see them. Twilight and Trixie recognized the mares as themselves. A blue spark appeared in front of Twilight and Trixie before gliding through the window and into the eyes of their past selves. Past Twilight and Past Trixie passed out as the window closed. A few seconds passed before another window opened. They could see a plain of sapphire grass down below. Twilight and Trixie could see their past selves standing in the middle of the plain.
"Time to deliver the message," said Twilight.
"Yeah," said Trixie. The two mares spiritually descended themselves down into the plain, their bodies remaining safe inside the cold, magical tomb.
"It's almost time. It's almost time," Twilight and Trixie said to their younger selves.
"What do you mean?" asked Past Twilight.
"We've slept for so long. We've existed in a never-ending second. It's been a short experience for us and yet we know that we've been here for a long time."
"What are you talking about?!" asked Past Trixie.
"When time calls for it, you'll know what to do. You'll know what to cast. You'll know what to cast...and what to hold onto."
Twilight and Trixie then returned to their bodies, allowing their past selves to wake up from the their dream as it slowly became stone around them.
"We're close to the end," said Trixie.
"I know. I can feel it," Twilight said with a smile. A new window opened to show Past Twilight and Past Trixie for one last time. This time their past selves could see them. For a brief moment, their minds and memories interlocked with those of their past selves. A tear rolled down Past Trixie's cheek and Past Twilight gasped. The window then closed, leaving Twilight and Trixie alone in the tomb once again. The gas around them began to shift. The air began to become slightly warmer. "It's all up to us from here. The rest is a complete mystery."
"I hate mysteries."
"At least we won't have to deal with it alone. We have friends. We have the Doctor."
"We're going to wake up soon, I hope."
"Not until those Weeping Angels are sent away."
"How are we going to get rid of them?"
"Our future selves implanted those blue flames into us unknowingly, just as we just did to our past selves. I think we can use that extra spark to use this tomb to our advantage."
"How so?"
"We need an extra spark. A second spark of blue would suffice."
"Could you stop speaking in riddles already?"
"Sorry. Being trapped in a magical ball for ten years does weird things to you."
"I guess it does."
"Ah. Here comes that second spark now."
Twilight and Trixie looked to see a familiar chestnut stallion in a blue suit stumbling through the gaseous wall in front of them.
"Brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"It looks like you found us, Doctor," Twilight giggled.
"It looks like I did! It's a little cold in here!"
"How can you even be in here?" asked a surprised Trixie. The Doctor presented the Sonic Screwdriver to Trixie.
"This helped me get through most of the barriers you've unwillingly set up."
"We need to help the others, Doctor!" said Twilight.
"I know! Do you have a plan that could help rid us of an entire Weeping Angel colony?"
"Trixie and I have a little extra spark inside of us. With an additional spark, we could possibly use the power of our combined spells to inflict some special effects on the Angels."
"I'm sure that you both are thinking the same thing that I am."
"Of course!" Twilight and Trixie replied.
"Okay! Here goes nothing!"
The Doctor activated the Screwdriver and brought it close to the mares. Twilight and Trixie touched the Screwdriver with their hooves. They could feel a feeling of warmth rush from the back of their eyes, through their forelegs, and into the Screwdriver.
"This is it," said Trixie. "Time to end this."
Power Room, Fort McDonald, Trixus, Regulus Orbit, Autumn, 6609 C.E.
The lights began to flicker as soon as the door fell down. The Angels were coming closer and closer towards the ponies and the power source with every passing second.
"DOCTOR! DOCTOR!" Derpy cried.
"It's no use! He can't hear you!" Alexander exclaimed. Some of the soldiers attempted to destroy the Angels with their guns but the attacks were proving less and less effective as the Angels drew closer and closer to the power source.
"What do we do now?!" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Panic?" suggested a frightened Fluttershy.
"Sounds good to me!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie as she jumped into Fluttershy's arms and let out a frightened scream.
"This can't be the end!" said Applejack.
"It isn't the end!" Spike exclaimed. The Angels were extremely close now. They were all smiling evilly by this point. They had won and they knew it. That's when a large explosion of blue erupted from the power source. A wave of blue rushed throughout the room. Derpy could swear that she could hear the Angels scream as the blue shock wave smashed into their bodies. Their bodies became nothing more than piles of dust on the floor. It felt like it took forever for the blue explosion to stop. Then everything was silent. The Angels were gone and all of the ponies were left breathing in large quantities of air.
"What...was that?!" Alexander coughed.
"I don't know...but I think the Angels are gone!" Derpy replied. Everypony began looking at each other with shocked and confused faces.
"They're gone?!" Rarity asked.
"But how?!" asked Alexander.
"Who?!" Pinkie Pie asked. The sound of somepony clearing their throat emanated throughout the room. Everypony turned towards the center of the room and stared with wide eyes. The Doctor was sitting in the middle of a small, black crater in the center of the room that used to hold the power source. His Sonic Screwdriver was held firmly in his hoof and an unconscious Twilight and Trixie were lying next to him. His coat was slightly singed and so were Twilight and Trixie's.
The Doctor gave a weak smile as he asked, "Who do you think?"