//------------------------------// // A Terrible Discovery // Story: On the Fields of Trenzalore // by ElderJones //------------------------------// Twilight and the Doctor ran as the timberwolf gained on them. "Can't you teleport us away?" asked the Doctor, between breaths. "My magic's too weak!" replied Twilight. It took ages to prepare to teleport two people, and my magic is exhausted after doing it!" The timberwolf was getting closer. There wasn't much time left. Then the Doctor had an idea. It's made of wood! he thought, taking a lighter from his pocket and creating a small flame. The flame was nowhere near big enough to cause to timberwolf to catch fire. He reached for his sonic screwdriver, intending to use it to increase the flame, but could not find it. Of course. It was taken by Celestia's guards. The Doctor now had no way to expand the flames, and the timberwolf was almost upon them. Then he had another idea. "Do you think you could create a strong gust of wind?" he asked Twililight. "Yes, but what good will that do?" she replied, "I can't blow it away, if that's what you mean!" "See this flame?" the Doctor said, "I want you to blow a gust of wind at the timberwolf that first passes through this flame." Twilight's horn lit up, as a strong wind blew from in front. The flame expanded backward, all but consuming the timberwolf. When the wind stopped, the timberwolf had become a fireball. Soon, it extinguished, leaving behind a charred corpse, barely recognisable as the creature it had once been. The Doctor and Twilight stopped running, catching their breath. "You said you knew this area, so where exactly are we?" asked the Doctor. Twilight blushed. "Actually, I lost track of our location while running. I knew where we were before, but now we're lost." "Oh." The Doctor sighed, but then he smiled. "I doubt it would help much anyway, unless you knew where to find something which we have no knowledge of whatsoever." Twilight smiled. "I guess you're right. "Unless you have a better idea, I say we go... that way," said the Doctor, pointing in a random direction. "Seems like the best possible course of action," agreed Twilight. They set off. * * * "There's just one thing I don't understand," said Twilight suddenly. "What's that?" asked the Doctor. "I don't understand why Celestia got so... so..." Tears came to Twilight's eyes as she remembered how terrified she had been by Celestia's sudden mood swings. "So angry. I always thought that Celestia was the best pony in the world, I really looked up to her. And now, all this. I just don't understand." Twilight looked at the Doctor with eyes wet with tears. "Is she a bad pony?" The Doctor sighed, "Twilight, I want you to know that Celestia didn't mean to do what she did. She had no control over her actions." "Then why did she do it?" The Doctor had already given away a lot of his secrets, so he figured there was no point hiding anything from Twilight. "There are these creatures called silents. They're aliens as well. When you look away from them, you forget all about them, and you do whatever they told you to do while you could see them. They're determined to kill me the prevent the answering of the question." "Doctor Who?" "Yes. They made Celestia do what she did." "So she's not to blame? She not evil?" asked Twilight excitedly. "She's not." "That's a relief." Twilight's facial expression changed to one of happiness. Then she frowned. "But if you forget about them, how do you know all this?" "I wrote all of the information down while looking at a picture of a silent. Pictures of them have the same memory-erasing effects as actual silents." "But how do you know that the silents did this?" "Whenever see a silent, I mark it on my body." The Doctor rolled up his sleeve, revealing three short, black lines. "I have three marks now, and I had two when we were thrown into the dungeon, so there must have been a silent with us in the dungeon." "How do you know that we actually met a silent just now, and not in the dungeon." "When I was about to be executed; I knew, without being told, that if I tried to run, you would be executed as well as me. There's no explanation for this other than the being told by a silent." "Was that a reason you didn't run?" "What?" "You said that you didn't run because your death would avert an answer to the question, but was it really to save me?" "Twilight, I go through life seeing innocents suffer and die, sometimes even for my sake. Whatever my life. I'm sick of seeing innocent people die. I try to avoid it as much as possible. So yes, that was part of the reason I stayed." The had an expression of sadness and pain on his face. "Oh, Doctor, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset set you. I just-" "It's all right Twilight. Races like yours aren't meant to understand what it's like to be as old as me. To see so much. I shouldn't have mentioned it." Twilight didn't know what to say, so she said nothing. After some more walking, her inquisitiveness got the better of her and she asked a question. "How old are you anyway?" "When you're as old as me you don't tend to remember that sort of thing. Probably at least a thousand years." "Wow, you must be around the same age as Celestia!" "I imagine I am, if not older." "I wonder if that wou-" Twilight stopped talking as she tripped over. She got up and examined the object that had tripped her. It was a small, flat, grey, disc with a large red button in the centre. "What's that?" the Doctor asked. "I don't know. This looks like a button though." To emphasize her point, she pushed the button. There was a sudden flash of light. When the light was gone, they were no longer in the Everfree Forest. They were standing on a bronze coloured floor and there was a stone ceiling above them. The floor stretched on as far as the eye could see, with nothing else to see. The Doctor touched the floor with his hand. It felt cold, like a metal of some kind. He tapped it with his fist and it made a hollow sound. The floor couldn't be very thick, or it wouldn't make that sound. Suddenly, he heard a voice in his head. Hello Doctor, the voice said, it's been a long time. "Who are you?" said the Doctor, aloud. You may not recognise me, but we've met before. Remember the yeti? "It's you!" exclaimed the Doctor. "Doctor, who are you talking to?" asked Twilight. My knowledge has expanded greatly since we last met, Doctor. However, there is one thing I have been unable to learn. A fact that has eluded me. A question that I cannot answer.