"Oh, you have got to be freaking kidding me!" Carrot Top shouted. She and her friends had finally reached the library after twenty minutes of walking. Or at least, this was where the library was supposed to be. Covering the entire area was an enormous fuchsia dome, made entirely out of magic. From a quick glance, Carrot gave a rough estimate that it was about thirty meters across. Guesstimating it's contents was a bit harder though, considering the interior was filled with what appeared to be a thick black smoke. Carrot let out an exasperated snarl. "Could we get a break today? Just one?! First the mystery plot, then the changelings, and now this! It's like some entity is conspiring against u—"
The rant was interrupted when Derpy limped over and hugged Carrot Top fiercely. "Calm down Carrot," she said quietly, then relaxed her grip to look her friend in the eyes. "You need to have your smarty cap on tight. What's coming up isn't going to be easy, and if we're gonna win, you need a clear head." She smiled then, and her right eye drifted up to the sky while it's partner stared at Carrot.
Carrot Top took a deep breath. "You're right Derpy." She continued to stand there, breathing in heavily through her nose, and exhaling out her mouth. After what felt to her like an eternity, she stopped the exercise and wore a small smile. "Okay, let's find a way in."
They walked around the library, until they came to what should have been outside the front of the building. Barely visible in the low light of the evening was the silhouette of a pony, standing in the smoke. Carrot walked up to the barrier and knocked on it. The figure didn't respond. Carrot Top let out a groan, then banged on the magical construct for a solid half minute. Just as her hoof was starting to get tired, the pony turned and walked up the the edge of the wall. Once she was a hair away from touching the barrier, there was little enough smoke between them that she could see it was Twilight Sparkle.
The right side of her mane was singed black, and she looked...well, the word 'exhausted' failed to do her justice. She looked as if the only thing keeping her upright and conscious was willpower. Willpower and a strong sense of duty. Her eyes widened as they scanned Carrot and her friends in turn. Then they closed, and it seemed as though all her muscles across her entire body tensed at once. For a brief instant, her horn glowed lightly, and a small hole opened in the dome.
Immediately the strange black gas that had been trapped inside began to leak out. It was as it passed by her head that Carrot realized her earlier choice to use the word 'smoke' was a poor one. 'Miasma' worked for better. It didn't have any definite smell, and it didn't affect her eyes or irritate her skin. But as the cloud slithered by her, she knew it was bad. Knew in a way she had never known anything before. Her entire mind and body shrieked at the thing's existence, cried out at it's very nature. So, yeah, 'miasma' then.
After processing that disturbing bit of 'what the buck'-ery, she registered something else. A sound was escaping out the hole as well. It was a clustered, dense sound. It seemed to mostly consist of some kind of bestial screech, with a background patter of fire and a light peppering of groans and cries. It was, Carrot Top quickly decided, in the running for the worst sound she'd ever heard. Easily Top 5 material.
"—are you doing here? Carrot Top! Are you even listening?" It was at that moment she realized that by attempting to analyze the cacophony inside the dome, she had completely failed to realize that Twilight Sparkle had started talking to her.
Carrot shook her head, trying to temporarily dislodge the sound from her brain. "Sorry about that. I don't know if you noticed, but it's kind of loud tonight," Carrot said dryly.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at that then jumped, startled. "Oh! That. Yeah, after hearing it nonstop for the last few hours you learn to tune it out," she said. Vinyl started to talk, but Carrot quickly gave her a stare that brooked no arguments. Twilight looked concernedly at Carrot and said, "You three have to go. Now."
"No." Carrot Top said, her gaze level. "Listen, I understand that something big is going down, and that a lot of pony's lives hang in the balance." She took a deep breath, before continuing. "But we're also on an important task. Somepony is setting up a bomb behind your little dome, and if it goes off you and all your friends will die. Let us through the barrier, and we can take care of it."
Twilight's eyes widened, and she looked from Carrot, Derpy, and Vinyl to the library and back, her body shaking as she did so. She once again locked eyes with Carrot Top, and after a few seconds stood still. "I'm sorry, Carrot," she said, her tone apologetic but firm. "I can't know for sure if you're telling the truth, and even if you are, I can't risk opening the barrier any more than this. The thing in here...can't get out. I'm so sorry." Then, with another titanic strain, her horn glowed, the small hole was filled in, and Twilight walked away.
For a moment, Carrot had no clue how to respond. Chief among her options were futilely punching the construct with her hooves in rage, collapsing from exhaustion, or sobbing inconsolably. Instead she drew in a deep breath, and counted to ten. "Okay," she said quietly. "Let's walk around this thing while I think of a next move." Vinyl and Derpy nodded, and soon the three were trotting along in silence.
They were nearing the other side of the dome when they saw somepony else. Daisy, Roseluck, and Lily were pacing directly outside the barrier. Seizing on the discovery, she immediately ran over to the mares. "What's the situation?" Roseluck started to respond, but quickly caught the glare being sent by Daisy, who nodded to Lily.
"Fine." Lily sighed. "After spending the day running from..." She looked at Daisy, who nodded. Lily continued, "these evil, semi-animate statues, we were surrounded by them. The Doctor, as usual, just yelled 'Run!' and trotted as fast as he could in a random direction. We followed him, and the creatures were right behind us. When we got near the library, there was a blinding flash of light. When we were able to see again, this large barrier was up and The Doctor was trapped on the other side with the creatures. We barely had time to react to that, before that smoke started billowing out of the library, and filled the barrier."
"What about the TAR, I mean, what about the Doctor's machine?" Derpy said, speaking up. Her voice sounded weak.
Roseluck shook her head. "The Doctor's ship is gone. The second we landed it zipped off. He said it was some technological thingamajig he'd turned on recently—"
"Hostile Action Displacement System." Lily interrupted. Roseluck and Daisy stared at her, slack-jawed. "What? I pay attention when he's talking. Unlike some ponies around here—"
"Anyway..." Daisy said, cutting Lily off. "We've got no TARDIS, no Doctor, and no screwdriver. And what's worse, those statues are still in there. With that haze, it'll be near impossible to try and keep steady eye contact."
"Wait, what? 'Statues', 'eye contact'?" Vinyl asked wearily. "Why would you need to stare at statues?" Carrot silently thanked Vinyl for voicing that thought for her.
Daisy started to answer, but was cut off by Derpy, who spoke quickly in a cheery tone that was dampened somewhat by the exhausted pony saying it. "They're called Weeping Pegasi. They look like statues, but they're alive. When they're not being directly seen by a living thing, they can move. Don't blink." All eyes were on her. Derpy looked back, her right eye drifting to the floor. "What? I was just quoting what The Doctor told me."
"Yeah, so basically those things. They've been chasing us all day. From what the Doctor says, tonight is some kind of big event, historically." Roseluck said. This drew some odd looks. "Hey, you wanted to know! But yeah, it was originally kinda like, solid, or something. But because we landed here, the events are a little more loose, and can be swayed in different directions. He thinks the statues want to push it one way, destroying the original timeline and starting a new one."
Carrot stared, her mouth agape. "Why would anything do that? Besides being evil."
"They feed off of time energy normally, the years their victims would have lived. If they can abort an entire future reality, they could feast on it." Lily said. Her audience's response consisted of blank stares. Lily sighed. "And that's bad." Carrot Top hit the ground with her right hoof.
"So, on top of everything else, there's another world-ending cataclysm stepping up to bat." Carrot said, her face and voice entirely deadpan. "At this point, I'm not even surprised anymore." She looked around, to find Derpy and Vinyl looking expectantly at her. "What?"
"Well, isn't this the point where you come up with a plan?" Vinyl asked. Derpy nodded.
"Yeah! Now's the part when you find some clever way around the problem, then you run fast and say clever stuff to the bad guy!" Derpy exclaimed.
Carrot let out a low chuckle, then nodded. "Okay, let's see." She walked up to the incandescent dome, probing it with her hoof and inspecting the ground. After a few minutes of that, Carrot turned back to her friends. "Vinyl, I know it's asking a lot, but could you teleport us through the barrier?"
"No." Vinyl said immediately. "I've got enough magic juice still in me to port one pony over, but I'll probably be too tired to stand afterwards."
They stood in silence for a few seconds. "I'll go through." Carrot said. Vinyl nodded.
"I don't know," Derpy said, her left hoof kicking some loose dirt as she spoke. "Are you sure you can do all this alone?"
"Ha!" Carrot laughed. "Of course I can do this! Earth Pony endurance. I'm barely winded; I've got more than enough stamina finish this!" After a few seconds, Derpy walked over and gave her friend another hug, this one much tighter than the last.
"Don't die, okay?" Derpy whispered before retreating a few yard back. Carrot nodded, reaching with her hoof to wipe a tear away. Vinyl's horn started to glow; first faintly, but slowly building in radiance. Just when it seemed to outshine the sun itself, Carrot's vision blurred. When she could see again, she was surrounded in thick blackness.
As the gas enveloped her, she realized 'miasma' was a spot-on word. This stuff was wrong. Not only that, but that noise from earlier was still filling the air, only cranked up to 11. Looking around, it occurred to her that she was far enough inside the dome that her friends couldn't see her anymore. She let out a breath and fell to the ground. She had lied to Derpy. Even with that magical Earth Pony endurance boost, she was pooped. Carrot Top had spent almost the entire day walking or running, with exception to the hour or so she was unconscious. But as she was still in better shape than Derpy, she was legitimately the better choice. Of course, Derpy wouldn't have agreed with that. In Carrot's humble opinion, that lie might have saved her friend's life. Her eyes again focused on the inky darkness in front of her. "Onwards."
This was getting alarming. Carrot had been walking for nearly a minute, and she'd already run into the barrier twice. With no reference points, all she could do was wander aimlessly. Then, in the miasma to her right, she saw a faint blue light. Hope! She trotted quickly in that direction, and soon bumped into something soft.
"Oof," said the thing, in a somewhat familiar Trottingham accent. Carrot looked down to find herself entangled with The Doctor. He was looking right back at her, and before she had even registered who he was, his own eyes lit with recognition. With that realization he grinned broadly at her. "Well, lookie here! It's Ms. Carrot!"
Carrot facehooved. "Doctor, we've been over this. My name is Carrot Top!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, "it's just been a while since we last met. You know how it is, my head's too full of stuff sometimes to remember details like that."
Carrot's look became absolutely frigid. "Doctor, we talked recently. Today, in fact."
"Oh, whoops!" he said, completely unashamed. "Now that you mention it, you did resemble yourself, somewhat. Anyway, since you're in here, just a random question, do you happen to have a way out of this dome...thing?"
"Sorry, but no. I got in from a one-way teleport spell. I'm as stuck in here as you are." She looked around, eyeing the smoke curiously. "Doctor, you're a smart stallion. Think you could enlighten me on what this miasma is?"
"Miasma!" he said brightly. "Brilliant word 'miasma'! I was there when the first Athenian used it! Course, he may have had a little help with the name. And the idea. Alright, I possibly gave him the entire concept wholesale." Carrot gave him a confused look. "Don't try thinking about that. Stable time loops are tricky things."
"Doctor," she said, trying to keep a cheery tone, "while I do appreciate this banter, you're dodging my question. Again, what is this stuff?"
"It doesn't think, it doesn't feel
It doesn't laugh or cry.
All it does from dusk 'till dawn
Is make the soldiers die."
"Well that was...dark. And highly uninformative." Carrot deadpanned.
The Doctor replied seriously, "That was a children's nursery rhyme from Faerie, a world I visited once. One of the things that attacked back then exuded this same stuff."
"Okay, what are they?" Carrot asked.
"They're...well I don't think they have a real name. At least, not one they gave themselves. Every world they invade gives them a different moniker, so it's really a matter of personal preference. I call them The Voidbringers." He took a deep breath before continuing. "You see, between the dimensions that separate one universe from the next, there's The Void. These things live inside it, no that's not right." He shook his head. "I don't think 'live' is the right word. They just...appear. They appear and invade a world, going through any way they can. They don't conform to any one universe's Laws, and if they fully breach...if they are successful...the world ends. Then they concentrate their resources on another one. Over and over again. They will only stop when existence itself is gone."
"Well that's..." Carrot searched for a word to describe what she'd just been told. "Abysmal."
"Ha!" The Doctor barked. "That! That is the exact word for the situation!"
"Well, do they have any weak points?" Carrot asked, hope bleeding into her words.
"Weeeeeell..." The Doctor said, stretching the word out. "I happen to have a special setting on my sonic screwdriver. The sound drives them absolutely bonkers, and they try to destroy the source of the noise immediately."
"That's...awfully convenient." Carrot Top said. The Doctor began to reply, but the words died on his lips. There was a statue in front of them that hadn't been there a second before. They both immediately jerked their heads around, and sure enough three more statues standing around them in a semicircle.
"Well," The Doctor said, smiling in spite of the fear, "I say we back up slowly while staring at this lot, eh?" Carrot nodded, and the two started slowly walking backwards. After a few steps, Carrot's hind leg banged into something. She instinctively turned her head to see what it was, and saw they had backed into the east wall of the library.
With a start, she remembered the statues and looked forward again. One of the statues was inches from her face, it's body frozen into the tense second before a jump. It's eyes were no longer plain, but instead twisted into a fierce glare. It's mouth was open now, and rather than normal equine teeth it's mouth was full of sharp fangs. "You blinked!" she said accusingly at The Doctor.
He turned his head and saw Carrot's predicament. "Ah! That's not my fault! I thought you were watching them!"
Carrot's mind was racing to find a way out of this, when it hit on something. "Okay Doc, this is might be crazy talk, but you said the thing making this miasma is one of those Voidbringer things, right?" He nodded, his eyes narrowing in concentration. "And your sonic thingy can catch their attention, right?"
"Oh!" He exclaimed, and turned his head to grin fiercely at Carrot. "You are absolutely fantastic! I might have to have you replace Daisy!" He pulled a silver device out of his collar, and started pressing buttons on it, his face set in a determined expression.
Carrot laughed and shook her head. "Sorry Doc, but I already have an employer. As much as the work can aggravate me at times, it's worthwhile stuff. I'm not ready to quit just yet." She paused a second. Did she mean that?
Before she could ruminate on the topic any further, The Doctor turned and said, "It's ready! I'll need you to lay flat on the ground and stare hard at the Weeping Pegasi. If this fails, hopefully you'll find a way out." She did as he instructed, and he hit the button. Immediately the tip of the device shone with a bright blue light, and it filled the air with an astonishing noise, one that drowned out the bedlam coming from inside the library.
It took Carrot Top a minute to identify the odd sound. It wasn't music, for it sounded entirely natural; unshaped by any hoof. It was horrific and radiant, tragic and hilarious, pitiful and perfectly exultant. It contained the funniest moment of irony, the worst twist fate had ever dealt to an individual, and the most touching, unexpected and undeniably happy reunion in history. It was the sound of life.
A roar came from the library, and in that moment Carrot understood why this amazing sound so incensed the monster. The cry that emerged from the building was empty, and mechanical. The thing making the noise had learned nothing. Felt nothing. Was nothing.
The Doctor threw the screwdriver at one of the statues, and it stuck between the wing and head of the Pegasus. Before he could dive to the ground a tentacle the width of an oak tree burst from the library and slammed into the angels, knocking The Doctor to the ground along the way. The appendage's tip split into four smaller limbs which wrapped themselves around the angels. The light from the hole in the library allowed Carrot to better see the tentacle. She wished it hadn't.
Unlike the tentacles of octopuses,krakens, and squids she's read about growing up, this one's suckers weren't limited to one side, but instead covered the entire service of the appendage. That wasn't the scary part. No, what really unnerved Carrot was the suckers themselves. Inside the rings, where more flesh should have been, there were instead eyes. They didn't just look like eyes; they were eyes. Well, except for the pupil. Where a pupil was on a normal eye, these things had mouths. Gaping maws, the edges lined with serrated teeth. And from these freakish mouths oozed forth a familiar black miasma. Part of Carrot thought it necessary to say some sort of pithy one-liner, but the rest of her mind was too busy screaming. She came close to expressing the feeling aloud, before she managed to remember that this was a stealth mission.
Despite their freaky appearance, the suckers seemed to function as well as their non-eldritch counterparts. The statues stuck to the mini-tenctacles, and when the arm slithered back in through the window, they went with it. Carrot took a few deep breaths, barely able to steady her mind and body with the exercise. "Well Doc, looks like the plan worked," Carrot whispered as she turned to look at the fallen stallion. She wasn't trained in medicine or anything, but it looked like the Doctor was out cold. "Empty night..." she muttered. She had hoped his assistance could improve her odds of success, but it seemed she was to go it alone. It was days like today that made it seem to Carrot like fate conspired against her at every turn. With such gloomy thoughts dominating her mindscape, she trotted off into the blackness once again.
Carrot had been meandering through the thick black gas for a half a minute. Just as she had realized she like Twilight had grown accustomed to the cacophony permeating the area, she heard a faint beeping. After a little effort triangulating the noise, she pinned down the general direction. Soon she was standing in front of a small metal cylinder. It was as big around as her leg, and at least a meter long. It was generally featureless, though the welding marks stood out of the casing. She turned it around to find a display, one currently reading, "6:23" and counting down. She picked it up the explosive, and turned it over in her hooves. There wasn't an opening of any kind.
"Who are you?" asked a baritone voice from the darkness. Carrot spun around but couldn't see the speaker. Without even thinking, she opened her mouth to reply.
"Sorry Lieutenant, but my mom always told me not to talk to strange stallions." Her heart was racing, but the silly quip calmed her down a little.
The voice was silent for a second. "Interesting. Well then, let's observe the proper decorum. Hello Golden Harvest, commonly known as Carrot Top, my name is Lieutenant Coxa. It's a pleasure to finally speak with you face-to-face, if you'll excuse the expression."
"How do you know my name? And what do you mean, 'finally'?" Carrot said defensively.
The Lieutenant's voice let out a hollow laugh. "Don't be humble. You coordinated a joint effort that saved this village from a foreign power. You even put your life on the line fighting the King one-on-one, just to buy more time. Admirable. Foolish, but admirable."
"Yeah, well, excuse me if I don't sound grateful, but praise from you doesn't do much for me." Carrot said. She didn't understand, why was she cracking jokes?
Another several seconds of dead silence fell. "How have I offended you? I do what I must for my Queen, the same you do for your leaders. Due to my respect for you, I will give you some advice." Off to her right, the miasma gave way to reveal Coxa, not even a meter away from her. He looked just as he had earlier, still in the guard disguise. Something was off about him though, something that made him stand out from most guards: his eyes. They were flat and cool; empty of fear, joy, or friendship. He nodded his head towards the bomb in her hooves before speaking. "As you can see, there is no way you can possibly disarm the device. If you attempt to interfere with our plan any further, then you will die in the resulting explosion along with the Bearers of Harmony. The loss of such a potential asset is pointless. Leave now, and survive. Stay, and die."