Train-Bound Conversations
The slate-grey pony looked up from the book he was reading and looked straight into the purple eyes of the pony sitting across from him with his piercing golden ones. “King Sombra, you say?” he mused aloud, rubbing his chin with a hoof as he did so. “Well, well, well, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia has dumped a large load onto your back.”
The purple unicorn met his gaze and didn’t look away. “Yes. My latest test consists of helping protect the Crystal Empire. Princess Celestia fears that King Sombra has returned as well. He put a curse on the Empire so that it disappeared for a thousand years, just as long as he was exiled,” she told him.
Ah, I know that old chap. Clever old boy, he thought. He adjusted his bowtie and made sure his top-hat was on straight. The train’s whistle blew. King Sombra. I warned him to not dabble in the dark arts.
“I brought you along with my friends just in case we needed a brain that works excellently under pressure—not that I’m saying that I freeze when I’m put under pressure,” Twilight added.
He waved that away. “Don’t worry. I completely understand. After all, it’s been years since I’ve had a good adventure.”
The Element of Magic tilted her head quizzically. “How many years, Doctor?” she asked.
“Lots and lots of years, my friend. So many. I’m not quite sure how many…” he stopped to think, narrowing his eyes in concentration as he filtered through them all. “I think the last time I helped save Equestria was back when Celestia and Luna had to turn Discord to stone.” He nodded, sure of himself. “Yep, it was a long, long time ago.”
Twilight stared at him with unconvinced look on her face, and when he turned to look at Applejack and Rarity, they were wearing identical looks.
“If…it’s actually been that long since you’ve helped save the world…then you should be a bit rusty, right?” Twilight said slowly.
“Darling! If what you’re saying is true, then you’re positively ancient! How in Equestria are you still alive?” Rarity questioned, her unbelieving look softening.
“It’s a…timey-wimey thing…” the Doctor said, looking down at his hooves nervously.
He could literally sense the impending danger where it radiated from up the tracks. He didn’t know how strong the danger was, but if it had something to do with Sombra, which it did since Celestia had told Twilight about him when she was explaining the Crystal Empire, then he was terrified for the safety of the fillies and the baby dragon that he rode the train with. If Sombra managed to get back into the Empire, he’d probably just do what he had done before – re-enslave the Crystal Ponies.
What am I to do? If he wins, the fillies representing the Elements of Harmony will surely be doomed, he thought as he tried to quell the rising panic inside him.
“Doctor, Doctor, Doctor… my old friend! Don’t you see how powerful I have become? The ponies listen to me! They will learn to coincide in peace with Equestria!” the Doctor furrowed his eyebrows and squeezed his eyes shut at the sound of the dark king’s voice. It sounded so…dark…nothing like it had been before he had started to dabble in dark magic.
“Who invented dark magic, anyway?” he accidentally mused out loud.
“No clue,” Twilight answered, causing the Doctor to snap his eyes open when he realised that he had actually said that out loud and not in his head. Whoops.
“Why do ya ask, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
The Doctor merely shook his head with a sigh. “Too complicated. Sombra uses dark magic, so I was just wondering who he learned it from,” he replied.
“You just answered the question, even though you said it was too complicated!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
The slate stallion merely blinked.
“We’ll be reaching the station pretty soon,” Twilight said before the train whistle blew again.
“Good, I’ll be sure to wear my scarf,” the Doctor said, trying to smile. But his mind was on other things. Like Sombra. He could remember the time when they had been friends, when he wasn’t punishing his subjects or trying to kill him. When the whites of his eyes were not green and the irises not red. His irises used to be green, actually. Emerald green. And he didn’t have fangs, either.
The Doctor knew that the Mane Six only saw one option. If Sombra came back, and if he managed to get in to the Empire, they’d have to destroy him. But he wanted to have a talk with the lost pony before it got to that point. Sombra was good once, the Doctor could only hope that the darkness hadn’t consumed him and that there was still some kind of goodness inside him. Something similar had consumed Princess Luna, turning her into Nightmare Moon. With the help of the Elements of Harmony, the darkness within her had been purged, returning her to the status of the Princess of the Night.
The thing is, the Mane Six didn’t bring the Elements of Harmony. This was going to be a lot harder than the battle against Nightmare Moon.
“Tell us something about yourself, Doctor Whooves,” Fluttershy suggested softly in her sweet little voice. Her eyes widened slightly when she realized what she asked. “O-oh! I-if you don’t mind, that is.”
The Doctor smiled. “I don’t mind, Fluttershy, it’s quite alright. What do you want to hear?”
“How about… What did you do before you became Ponyville’s Time Keeper?” Rarity suggested.
“I traveled, a lot, but I always kept in contact with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I was there when Luna refused to lower the moon so that Celestia could raise her sun – I actually tried to help Celestia convince Luna to do so – before Luna became Nightmare Moon…” and they continued to converse. The Doctor hadn’t really opened up to anyone other than the Princesses and Starswirl the Bearded about who he was. He helped Starswirl finish his time travel spell by allowing him to examine several aspects of the TARDIS and a bit of Time Lord technology in order to finish it. Of course, he hadn’t understood half of the stuff the Doctor had shown him since the ponies were not really technologically inclined.
But now he was opening up to the six mares that had saved Equestria countless times. He found he could trust them not to blurt it out to the world that he was actually older than the Princesses of Equestria. Really, he wasn’t really up to answering trillions of questions that would probably center around how he was still alive, since he was only a simple Earth pony.
After a small meal consisting of a warm soup, the train reached the train station. The Doctor wrapped a light blue scarf around his neck, covering up his bowtie, as Rarity put her own scarf on. The others didn’t bother to get bundled up for the freezing cold weather that could be seen through the windows.
“Spike, please be a dear and carry my things, will you?” Rarity asked the resident and present baby dragon.
The Doctor watched as the dragon, Spike, developed a slight love-sick expression, and metaphorical hearts appeared in his eyes. “S-sure thing, Rarity,” he sighed. He looked happy, until he seemed to snap out of the love-caused daze when he saw exactly how much the off-white unicorn had brought with her.
The stallion blinked in surprise as Spike disappeared under the pile of suitcases. He lowered his head and asked, “Are you alright, Spike?”
“I-I’m fine, Doctor!” the purple fire-breather reassured.
The Doctor cocked an eyebrow. “Alrighty…then…” he then followed the fillies outside, listening to them gasp at the bitter cold of the outside as they stepped outside. He chuckled, but then bit out his own exclamation of surprise. “Blimey!”
There was a wicked wind blowing, causing the ends of his scarf to whip behind him, as did Rarity’s. He grimaced. “Oi! I wonder who has their tail in a knot?!” he said loudly over the sound of the wind, sarcasm colouring his words.
Twilight glanced at him. “Okay, guys. Shining Armor should be here any second to take us to the Crystal Empire,” she told them.
“Uh…Twilight?” Applejack began slowly. “Wasn’t your brother s’pposed to be here by now?”
The lavender unicorn lowered her head and drooped her head guiltily. “Um…yes? Uh…I’m pretty sure he has a good reason for being late.”
Suddenly, a white stallion that was slightly taller than the Doctor approached. He had a black scarf wrapped around his neck, and a pair of goggles on that must have served to block out the glare of the snow. “Twilight!” he called.
“Shining Armor?” the Element of Magic called to the stallion.
The new stallion took off the goggles and balanced them behind his unicorn horn. “Twily!” He went up to her and gave her a hug. “You made it.” He broke the hug and glanced at the others, his eyes resting on the Doctor for a few seconds longer before turning to look back in the direction he had come. A serious look replaced the happy look that had been featured on his face as he said, “We better get moving. There are things out here we really don’t want to run into after dark.” That set an ominous tone to the situation.
Fluttershy gulped and unconsciously sidled closer to the Doctor. “What kind of things?” she asked fearfully.
Shining Armor fixed her with a look that spoke volumes. “Let’s just say the Empire…is not the only thing that has returned,” he said.
“We figured that,” the Doctor said as they started to walk.
“Yeah,” Twilight said. “Princess Celestia told me a lot about the Crystal Empire and talked about King Sombra. We were figuring that he would come back with the Empire because his curse had ended. Maybe it pulled him back when it reappeared?”
That can’t be possible, the Doctor thought. A mage cannot undo the magic he did not do himself…could he?
He was suddenly drawn back to that day, when the Princesses came to liberate the Empire…
~~~~
He watched tiredly from where he stood next to the tyrant. Sombra had taken him up to the top of the tower in order to give him a good view of the Crystal Empire below. The Doctor could barely regester anything other than the pain in his hooves, shoulders, and neck, where the crude collar that tagged him as one of Sombra’s slaves rested. His mane was unkempt, as was his tail. He could barely see through his eyes, which were half covered by his drooping eyelids.
Down below, he could see the slaves working endlessly, though the image was blurred. He was hungry, exhausted. He was wasting away. His ribs and hip-bones were visible. He had to wonder, how could he, the last of the Time Lords, have been captured by overpowered unicorn?
His wondering stopped when he remembered how he had been captured. Because Sombra had been his friend, he had trusted him. He hadn’t distanced himself from the grey unicorn, and now he was paying. Sombra probably felt insecure with him running around unchecked while he tried to rule the Crystal Empire. So he enslaved him as well.
“Don’t you see it, Doctor?” he began. “The Crystal Ponies planned to invade Equestria, but I stopped them. Aren’t you pleased?”
The Doctor shifted slightly. “Nnn…” he began, trying to force the words out while his vocal cords refused. “Naaaaa…” he grunted, and cleared his throat, trying to regain use of his voice, since he had been unable to use it for so long. “Noooooot…plee-pleasss – pleased. Not pleased.”
The king looked at him darkly from the corner of his eye, not even bothering to look at him head-on. “Strange, I thought you wanted the renegade ponies stopped.”
“Not…thiii-thees – this. Not this waaaaay.”
The dark unicorn let out a chuckle that sent a chill running up and down his spine. “What other way was there?”
“There were many ways, Sombra!” a feminine voice boomed from above.
The Doctor recognised it. It was the Royal Canterlot Voice. Very loud, but very affective.
~~~~
“Are ya comin’, Doctor?” Applejack called. He blinked several times and looked ahead to see that they were now several paces ahead of him. He shook his head in order to clear it.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he called before trotting after them.
His mind was still on this flashback, though. He needed to stop worrying over Sombra, and he needed to stop lamenting over the loss of a friend. He needed to focus on helping the Elements of Harmony get rid of Sombra so that Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, and the Crystal Empire would be safe. He wouldn’t mind giving Sombra a piece of his mind in the process, actually. But only if he ran into him.
Suddenly, somehow, this situation became personal.