Twilight slowly awoke to an odd sound, similar to scraping the strings inside of a piano.
She sat up and looked over to the guest bed. No doctor. She was curious about the strange noise coming from outside
the library, so she decided to get up and go investigate.
After grabbing a cup of coffee and slipping on a robe, she stepped outside and was even more confused by what waited for her outside of the library.
Twilight saw the Doctor leaning against a big, blue box that had a sign reading "police box".
"Doctor, why... And how did you move a big wooden box to my library?" Twilight said with some drowsiness still in her
voice.
"It's a time machine!" A Doctor said proudly.
"Uh, sure, okay. But what are you going to so with your 'time machine'?" Twilight decided to play along with the Doctor for a moment.
"Your'e going to help me save Equestria! We're going to the Society to make things right!"
"Ok. Sure. Lemme just get things in order in case we don't." Twilight walked past the Doctor, and he looked confused for a bit, but decided to follow the purple mare instead.
Twilight lead the Doctor to the Town Hall where she saw Applejack trying to calm the confused and tired citizens from distant
cities.
"Alright folks, can you just calm down for sec- Twilight! Thank Celestia yer' here! We need you to explain to these ponies our, uh, situation."
"Right AJ, thanks for getting them here." Twilight replied.
She waded through hundreds of ponies to reach the podium at the front of Town Hall. She stepped up to it and pulled a pulled a microphone to her mouth.
"Hello, and welcome to Ponyville!" Twilight's voice boomed across the whole town out of ginormous speakers that were borrowed from the local DJ, Vinyl Scratch. "I bet you're all wondering why your here." Her voice had changed from cheery to dead serious. "A new, yet old Society has risen. They are older than Equestria but have only returned after many years, similar to the Crystal Kingdom. They realized that the last time they contacted Equestria, it was concerning war." Surprised gasps came from the crowd. "Yes, war. And now the Society of All, they call themselves want to finish what they started. That is why we've evacuated all large cities. The society is coming. I know this sounds frightening, but when has Equestria ever failed at doing anything? Be brave, and if they hit hard, we're going to hit back harder." Twilight's serious voice was turning into an inspiring one, making the whole group of ponies that were cowering only seconds ago, cheer and whistle.
"That's right! We will rise and fight! But first, we will need an army. There are Royal Guards, but not enough to face these ponies. We won't force a single pony to fight, but we're very willing to accept volunteers. Now who's with me?"
The majority of stallions raised their hands, and even some mares. That went better than planned. Twilight thought while grinning from ear to ear.
"For Equestria!" The crowd began to cheer.
Twilight scanned the mass for the Doctor. She located his face easily, especially since he was the only one wearing a frown.
After stepping down from her podium, she trotted over to the Doctor.
"What's wrong Doctor?" twilight was puzzled by his negative reaction.
"There's no need for arming yourselves when there's no war! We can still stop this, you know." The Doctor said.
"I don't think so Doctor. They're pretty focused on invading Equestria. It was too late for reason from the beginning." Twilight said as she turned to address the crowd again.
After stepping back up to her microphone, she unveiled her plan. "Okay everypony! If you've decided to volunteer, then listen up! We're going to split up into groups. If you think you have skill in... Precision, you'll be heading to Canterlot. If you're a Pegasus and want to attack from above, you'll head to Cloudsdale. Guerrilla warfare will be positioned in the Everfree Forest. Medicinal work will report to the hospital here. If fighting on the front field is your choice, go to Sweet Apple Acres, its just outside of Ponyville. And if you think you're good at inventing, head to the library where I'll be waiting. Does everypony understand?"
More cheers and hollers came from the crowd.
Just before leaving, an odd figure wearing a cloak approached Twilight.
"Can I get directions to your library?" He asked, his Trottish accent not matching the mysteriousness of the stallion.
"Sure! Lemme just write this down and... Here! It shouldn't be but a short walk from here." She said, happy to help.
"Thanks!" From under his hood, Twilight could see a wide, beaming smile as he turned and walked in the complete opposite direction of her library.
"Some pony's foals." She sighed, face-hoofing.
Twilight checked with her friends on a new communication device she made. Each of her friends would have a roll of parchment that Twilight cast a spell on so that when one pony writes on it, it appears on every other roll.
Twilight made sure that each of her friends were correctly stationed. Rarity was in Canterlot, Rainbow Dash in Cloudsdale, Fluttershy in a small camp set up in the forest, Applejack in her farm, and Pinkie Pie at the hospital.
Each pony was ready to get their volunteers. AJ was armed with party cannons converted to shoot lethal projectiles, rather than confetti and party favors. Fluttershy had daggers and bows. Rainbow had the power of weather on her side. Rarity was developing a more precise cannon than the standard model. Pinkie Pie was at the hospital ready to help any pony in need with a smile. Equestria was ready to fight back.
After a few hours, each volunteer had chosen where and how to fight. Twilight could breath a little more easily, seeing that everything was going according to plan.
The Doctor finally caught up to the lavender mare. "Will you come with me now?" He asked.
Twilight sighed. "Sure, fine. Does it have anything to do with that box of yours?"
"Yes, yes it does! We're going back to the Society!"
After walking together back to the library, he pulled a key out of his collar that had a green tie around it. He inserted the key into a lock on the box and opened the door. He began to step inside.
What is he doing? Twilight thought. The she couldn't believe that the Doctor had just walked in. Somehow, he had fit inside! She had no choice but to follow him in.
Twilight pushed one of the two blue doors open, making a creaking noise. She poked her head inside, her jaw dropping at the sight of the interior.
The room she saw inside of the blue box was enormous in comparison to the exterior. The room was dimly lit and had bent and contorted columns around the center console.
The console was the main source of light. It consisted of a translucent, turquoise cylindrical column emitting the same colored light leading all the way into the ceiling. From the cylinder, a conical slate wrapped around it containing levers, switches, and dials protruding from it. A worn cushioned bench seat sat attached to the metal grates making up the floor.
The Doctor noticed her jaw-dropping amazement and bounced on his hooves giddily. "Yes, go on, saaaaaaaay it!"
Twilight stood with her eyes bugged out and jaw slack for about another minute or so, until the Doctor interrupted.
"Erm, well, okay then." He said, his amusement deflated.
"It's bigger on the inside..." Twilight whispered, finally.
"What? What! You couldn't have said that before?" He hung his head for a second, but then perked back up. "Anyways, are you ready for an adventure?"
"Sure, but first, you're going to prove that this is a time machine." The Doctor stared at Twilight, waiting for her to give her an example. "Come on, do something all timey and whatnot!"
The Doctor grinned. "Timey Wimey coming up! But if I may ask for one favor, please step outside of the TARDIS for one moment."
"The what?" Twilight asked, bewildered.
"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space... Before you ask any more questions, let me answer some now!" Doctor smiled.
"Alright, fine. But don't try anything funny, Doctor. I have a horn and i sure as hay know how to use it!" Twilight and the Doctor exchanged stares, and began to crack up. "okay, okay. I'm only doing this because it's bigger on the inside, you know." The unicorn walked out of the room, shutting the door on her way out.
Twilight stood for a moment until she heard the same noise from earlier in the morning and the blue box, or TARDIS fade in and out of existence, until it had completely vanished.
A few seconds later, the TARDIS materialized back were it had left,and the stepped out holding a slip of paper in his mouth.
"How is a piece of paper supposed to prove that your'e a time traveler? For all I know, you have a teleporter, and teleporting isn't really uncommon around here, you know." Twilight said skeptically.
"Yes? Well take a closer look!" The brown colt said.
After further inspection of the paper, Twilight gasped. It was the same piece that she had given to the strange pony.
"It's true..." She said barely above a whisper.
"Yep! Now will you come with me?"
"Alright, but I don't think we're changing any minds." Twilight replied. "Those ponies are really set on war with us."
"Yippee!" Doctor cheered.
"I just need to grab some supplies that are in the library." Twilight turned back to walk into the library. What she would never have expected was a large, round projectile hurl itself towards her, which was exactly what happened.
The Doctor noticed this at the same time she did and yelled, "Duck!"
"Eep!" Twilight squeaked as she did as the Doctor instructed.
The projectile flew over Twilight and narrowly missed the Doctor as he jumped out of the way, and rolled its way right into the TARDIS.
"No!" The Doctor yelled as he jumped to try to reach the object before it entered the blue box. He fell short of catching it as it rolled into the console room. Before he could enter the time machine, the TARDIS shut its own doors as if it had its own mind.
A large explosion could be heard as the ground shook. A moment later, the windows of the box shattered and flames blew out of the rectangular slots.
"No, no no! How could this happen! No!" The Doctor began to scold whatever he thought had caused this as Twilight looked back to where the bomb had come from. There was a motorized carriage, light and quick enough to only be a scout with a slingshot-like device mounted on the side of the cockpit.
Volunteer soldiers arrived armed with swords and bows. Before the carriage could pull out and make an escape, the soldiers were breaking down the door and capturing the assassin.
The soldiers dragged the stallion piloting the car onto the ground where he had his eyes closed tight.
"What do we do with him, miss Sparkle?" One soldier asked.
"Just keep him in a closely guarded house where we can question him later." She answered.
Before the soldiers could get close to him, the driver of the carriage opened his eyes and got a wicked smile, pulling out a smaller version of the explosive from earlier from his leather jacket, striking a match and lighting a fuse on the end.
"Everypony back!" Twilight screamed as the soldiers rushed back to the purple pony's side.
The last of the driver Twilight saw before the fuse ran out was him with his eyes shut tight again, saluting to his Empress.
After the cleanup of the suicidal attacker, Twilight found the Doctor again, sitting leaned up against his ship.
"Hey," She said.
"Hay is for horses, but hello." The Doctor grimaced.
"What's wrong with the TARDIS? Can't you fix it? I know that you're good with machines." Twilight tried to cheer up her friend.
"The TARDIS can only be fixed by itself. The damage done was close to the heart, so it's going to take quite a while for it to completely rebuild itself. Until then, I'm locked out." Doctor replied, hanging his head low and muttering something to himself about his "sexy".
"How long will it take?" She asked.
"About a year or so."
"Oh."
Twilight couldn't help but feel bad since she had to get her things to leave for the Society. She forgot about her guilt momentarily when one the soldier from earlier came to question her.
"How's your friend, is he alright?" He asked. "I'm also going to need his name for records."
"He's fine," Twilight said. "And his name is-"
"I'm the Doctor!" He interrupted with a grin. "Nice to meet you... wait, judging by your, face Doctor isn't a regular name. I thought I had the whole 'name' thing figured out!"
"His name is, uh, Turner! Time Turner!" Twilight said sheepishly.
"Uh, right. Okay, I'll leave you two alone now." He said and turned to walk away.
After the soldier left, Twilight turned to the Doctor with some worry on her face. "What are you going to do now, Time Turner?"
"Oh, well with no way to get around, I guess the only thing to do is stick around and help out! You, and me, Twilight Sparkle, we're going to make new technology for to win this war! Oh by the way, I do like the name you gave me. Fits me rather well." Doctor, or Time Turner as it is now, was back to his old self.
"Alright, TARDIS or not, you're right, we can do this, but you can't do it without a place to stay. You can stay in the guest bed."
"Thank you, Twilight Sparkle! We've got work to do!"
"Then what are we waiting for?"
Twilight and Time Turner raced back into the library to think of ways to get an upper hand.
After hours of developing, the two inventors had done it. A new, more efficient motor carriage. It was faster, able to move at twice the speed of the old car, lighter, and used less fuel at once.
Twilight lifted her welding goggles off of her eyes and wiped some grease away from her cheeks.
"Well here's our upper hand." She said, satisfied.
"Oh yes! They'll never see us coming!"
"How many do you think we can make?"
"Plenty, we'll just need quite a bit of ponies to help."
"Phew. Well good work. I think I'll get some sleep for a bit, the. The next step is weaponry."
"Oh yes. Right." Turner's mood darkened a bit. "We'll we have to do what we must and right now, they've got some heavy weapons."
"Right... How often do you sleep anyways?"
"Oh only a couple of hours, a Time Lord doesn't need much sleep."
"A Time what now?" Twilight needled. "You look like a pony, you are one, right?"
"Well, in part, I'm a pony. But I am an alien. I'm very similar to a pony, except I can regenerate, changing my whole self whenever I'm critically wounded. Oh, and I have two hearts."
"Woah... Two hearts? That's incredible!" Twilight marveled. "Well, whatever you are, you're a friend now. Do want you want, but I'm going to sleep now."
"Nighty night!" The Doctor cooed.
"Night." Twilight said with a smile.
Twilight walked to her bed where she lifted her magic script with her magic and grabbed a quill. While she slipped into bed, she began to write, checking to see if her friends were still awake.
Is everypony there? There was an attack at the library. Just a scout, but that can only mean that more is coming, Twilight wrote.
Indeed. Canterlot precision work is almost finished with the new type of cannon. A purple font indicated that Rarity was replying.
Loud and clear wrote a familiar rainbow font.
That sounds aweful! I hope that nopony got hurt. came a yellow font.
Ah' hear ya' an' the army seems ready t' go. described by Ponyville's most dependable farm horse.
The hospital is standing by with smiles and lots of sweets! Twilight could almost hear the cheeriness coming from the Party Pony's words.
Okay girls. This is it. We've got all of the help we can get and this is either where Equestria makes its last stand, or where it prevails. Each of us holds the fate of Equestria in our hoofs, not like this is the first time though. Nothing in the past had stopped us, so why now? We have the perfect strategy and the perfect ponies! Twilight still felt the inspiration she felt earlier this morning while giving her speech.
Each of her friends agreed in rally and eventually signed off, having to ready themselves for the battles that would shape life in Equestria forever.
Time Turner trotted upstairs happily as he saw Twilight passed out with her paper laying across her face. He grabbed it and her quill with his hoof (which he would never fully understand how he held the power to do so) and gently placed it on her nightstand. He noticed Spike the Dragon sleeping in his bed and carefully tip hoofed around him. He pulled back the covers to the guest bed and got in. Just before he dozed off, he had one last thought.
Maybe this could be fun, not fighting on the front line and all. He smiled before losing his grip on consciousness.