//------------------------------//
// Chapter Ten 
// Story: The Fantastic Adventures of Dr. Whooves: The Planet Eaters 
// by The-Pony-Librarian 
//------------------------------//


Chapter Ten
In which Ponyville gets some lovely new statuary and Spike screams some more

Deep inside the Everfree forest, safe behind the shimmering, deep green shield she had cloaked her hut in after the Doctor left, Zecora perked her ears up. The Zebra lifted her head and peered out her window, blue eyes widening. Giant parisprites. All of them moving torpidly past her hut, eyes glazed as if entranced by something. Murmuring an incantation under her breath, the Zebra's eyes briefly glowed golden and the shield around her hut thickened and expanded.
Resting her black and white hooves on the windowsill, she rhymed musingly
"Seems like trouble is fast brewing....I hope the Doctor know's what he's doing"
She shook her head and returned to her tea. Outside her window, the bugs continued to lumber towards Ponyville.
It was like nothing Twilight had ever seen. It had taken several minutes for the first to emerge, but now, one by one, the scarisprites issued forth from the forest. The wave of bloated, elephantine bugs flowed sluggishly towards the source of the music, and a shudder ran down Twilight's back. Quickly, she put a shield spell Pinkie Pie. She herself would have to forgo any magical shielding for herself as it would block her spell, but Pinkie would definitely need to be shielded, as she was the bait for the creatures.  
After what seemed like ages, the stream of giant bugs from the forest stopped, and all the awful creatures were gathered in the square  There were at least one hundred, ranging from the size of a soccer ball to a small building, and all clustered in a giant mass about Twilight and her friends. The only thing that kept the bugs from engulfing the group were small blasts from Twilight's horn that she used to herd the terrifying creatures back, leaving a clear patch of ground about ten feet in diameter for them to stand in.
The purple unicorn gave a final check to make absolutely certain that all the Scarisprites had come out from the forest, then, taking a deep breath, she began her spell. Twilight lit her horn, and all around her, glowing magenta light raced along the white lines of chalk, the magic amplifying symbols glowing with brilliant intensity. The piles of herbs and salts spread on the runes burst into blinding points of fuchsia flame as the magic reached them. Twilight was surrounded by a malestrom of dazzling light as he symbols glowed even brighter and tendrils of magic began creeping up her hooves, entwining like vines as they slowly spread up her legs. She opened her eyes, and they glowed a blazing white.
Rainbow Dash watched all of this with stupification. Sure, she had known that her egghead friend was good at magic, but here she looked like she was going to call down the wrath of Celestia to smite them all or something. That wasn't even getting started on the gigantic bug things....and Pinkie playing the polka. The cyan pegasus wobbled a little in the air as she tried to process all this. What the sweet bucking Celestia was going on?
Was Twilight summoning the mega-insects for some bizarre magic ritual? Had her friend gone to the dark side?
Dash grit her teeth. She bet it was because of Turner. That weirdo pony....despite being rather cute.....was totally up to no good! She bet he was using some kind of voodoo sorcery to control Twilight and use her super crazy magic powers do do all sort of dastardly things, like call forth bug armies and take over the world and..... put random blue boxes in fields? 
Rainbow shrugged. Who was she to question the mind of an evil genius?
He must have Pinkie under his control too, Rainbow rationalized. The party pony wouldn't be helping out with this freak show plot otherwise. Maybe he liked polka music as a background for his evil escapades....
Whatever the case, Dash wasn't going to let it stand. She dove towards Twilight, ready to tackle her and shake her out of the mind control trace. 
"I'LL SAVE YOU TWILI- Oof!" Her flight path was suddenly altered as something grabbed onto her tail. The brightly colored pegasus flopped heavily onto the ground.
"Oh no you don't" the Doctor said, spitting out Rainbow's tail and looking over to Twilight "If you interfere with the spell now it could be disaster-"
"You!" Rainbow spat, interrupting the warning. She had already gotten to her hooves again and now was looking at the Doctor through narrowed eyes.
At that word, the Doctor looked back to the brash pegasus....and was met by a tidal wave of pure equine fury.
"YAHHHHH!" Rainbow Dash cried, tackling the brown earth pony. The Doctor was thrown back onto the ground and had to throw his hooves up in front of his face to protect himself from the livid pony's assault.
"Oi! What are you doi- Ow! Stop it!"
"Ha! That'll teach you to put my friends under your sick mind control!" Rainbow Dash laughed triumphantly.
"Mind Control?" The Doctor said, still fending off the tenacious pegasus's attacks "What in the bloody-Ow! Blazes are you talking about?!"
"Yeah, yeah" Rainbow just scoffed "Play dumb all you want. That won't change the fact that I already know about your evil plan and freaky blue box thing!"
"You know about the TARDIS?" The Doctor asked, stunned into momentarily lowering his hooves from his face. Rainbow clocked him straight in the nose 
"Ow! That hurt! What is wrong with you?....crazy phsyco pon-" The pegasus hit him again "Owwwwww....."
"Tardis!" Rainbow said victoriously "So that's what it's called! Then that means....uhhh....that means.....What exactly is a Tardis again?"
The Doctor was too busy clutching his muzzle to reply "I already got hit there with a door!" he whined indignantly prodding the area of his nose that had gotten hit "Ow, ow ow.....Hooves really hurt....I think it might be bleeding"
Rainbow Dash got up, snorting contemptuously "Serves you right for voodoo-ing Twilight and Pinkie! Now if you don' mind, I'm going to go save my frien-oof!"
The Doctor had grabbed her tail again and pulled her to the ground.
"I told you. You can't interrupt the spell without-" he stopped dead as the cyan pegasus whipped her head around, glaring at him with such ferocious intensity that even the great Iorn Will would have run screaming into the Everfree.
"Oh....." the pegasus hissed "It. Is. On!" 
The Doctor barely maneged to get out a "Bloody Hell..." before the pegasus flew at him with the force of a train. 
Meanwhile, Twilight was deep inside her spell. Slowly, bending to her will, tendrils of magic began to reach out from the epicenter of the glowing whirlwind of magenta force. Like questing fingers, they began to wrap around the nearest Scarisprites, turning everything they touched into lifeless rock. Even as that happened new coils were shooting out from her storm of magic entwining about more and more of the hellish creatures and petrifying them on the spot. The little unicorn's eyes grew ever brighter as the field of rushing magic about her expanded further and further about the bugs.
Nearby, both the Doctor and Rainbow Dash looked up, both gaping at the storm of magic. Not taking her eyes off the brilliant display, Rainbow slowly raised a hoof and punched the Doctor in the face.
Twilight's magic continued to expand outward, engulfing all the giant insects. Squeezing her eyes shut and planting her hooves a little firmer into the ground, the unicorn attempted to pour even more of her magic into the spell.  The vortex of light grew even further, becoming nearly blinding. Then the unicorn reopened her eyes and the entire cloud of magic flashed a brilliant glaring white.
Twilight stumbled, panting.  She was surrounded by dozens of stone scarisprites.
The unicorn let the shield around Pinkie dissolve, even the relatively small effort of maintaining the barrier had become exhausting. Then she looked over to the Doctor and....Rainbow Dash?
"Rainbow!" She shouted "Stop that!"
"Sorry, I can't listen to you....You're under his evil influence!" the pegasus shouted while still attempting to accost the Doctor "But don't worry, I'll save you!"
"Rainbow!"
"It's okay! I got this!-Oof!" 
The Doctor looked up to see Twilight standing above the crumpled pegasus with a heavy book in her hooves and an apologetic wince on her face. She returned the book to her saddlemag
"You know, Sparky" the Doctor said musingly from the ground "I once said books were the best weapons in the world....of course at the time I mean it in the whole metaphorical, pen is mightier than the sword, sense.....but it looks like they're pretty good at doling out concussions as well"
The brown stallion looked thoughtful
"Come to think of it though, I did win a sword fight with a pen once. So I guess they both work in a literal sense"
"I think she's unconscious" Twilight said, waving a hoof over her friends face ".....are you okay?"
"Yeah...." the Doctor muttered, getting up and wincing "Just dandy. Did the spell work? Because if I got beaten up by your friend for nothing, I swear..."
Twilight just made a small gesture with her hoof, and the Doctor took a look around at all the bug statues.
After a short while, he said slowly "First you go all super nova when Thornwing ticked you off, and now this" He chuckled "...Remind me to never make you mad."
Twilight didn't seem to be listening, however. She began to walk slowly back over to the statues, looking deep in thought.
"Is Twi okay?" Pinkie asked
"I'll go talk to her" the Doctor said "You stay here and make sure Rainbow doesn't wake up"
The pink party pony nodded and the Doctor totted after Twilight. She had reached the largest Scarisprite and now had a hoof on it's stone surface, an anguished expression on her face. As she sensed the Doctor's approach, she said quietly
"Used on a being that isn't a god like Discord or Celestia, the petrifying spell is virtually permanent" her voice shook slightly "I basically killed them"
"Twilight" the Doctor said softly "You have to trust me when I say that this was the only thing we could have done. Back on earth, I tried everything to stop these creatures from destroying others without in turn bringing about their own end. Everything failed. In the end, this was probably the most merciful way they could have been stopped, no genocide, no destruction, only stone."
Twilight nodded, then she asked "How do you do it, Doctor? How do you make these decisions that could affect so many without hating yourself for possibly making the wrong choice?"
The Doctor's answer was short, but eloquent.
"Who says I don't?"
The purple unicorn turned her head to look at the Doctor, only to find him walking back to Rainbow and Pinkie. She just stood there for a few seconds, unsure what to say.
"Well, come along Sparky!" the Doctor called back, returning to his usual chipper manner "We had best get this mess cleaned up before anybody notices all the new statuary... that would be a bit hard to explain"
Despite herself, Twilight couldn't help but chuckle picturing what Ponyville would think of it's town square's new decorations. With a small smile, she followed the Doctor back to her friends.
Moving the scarisprites was fairly easy. Summoning the last of her reserves and using the magic amplifying runes that were still in place from the petrifying spell, Twilight cast a magnified levitation spell to move the stone bugs to different places in the Everfree forest, clustering the grotesque statues near the more dangerous areas of the forest where they would hopefully serve a duel purpose by dissuading any curious explorers. Then there was just the matter of cleaning up all the chalk runes, which was also easy enough. Twilight and Pinkie just used their tails as dusters and swept the lines away.
Finally, they stood on the edge of a pristine Ponyville square. All three of them looking tired, but triumphant.
"Now we just have to go back to the party" Pinkie said cheerfully.
"Oh yeah..." Twilight groaned "...that"
"Wonderful" the Doctor said dryly
They both exchanged glances then gave twin exhausted sighs
"Bring it on."
Then the eyes of all three ponies flicked over to Rainbow Dash, and all three of them had a moment of simultaneous realization.
"Nose goes for carrying Dash!" Pinkie shouted frantically, putting her own hoof on her muzzle. She looked to the others "Aww, Twilight, you lose"
The purple unicorn sighed, muttering "Alright, alright" 
Walking up to Rainbow, she closed her eyes and attempted to levitate the pegasus into the air. Her reward was a shooting pain in her skull, a sensation she was very familiar with. It was the symptom of too many too large of spells done in too short of a time, and something she had experienced often in her schooling in Canterlot. She probably wouldn't be able to do much besides levitate a cup of tea or turn the page of a book until at least the next day. She was going to have to carry Dash the old fashioned way....and unfortunately, she was a bit larger than Twilight, as well as heavier from all the extra muscle.
With a small huff of annoyance, Twilight bent down and attempted to sling the pegasus over her back. 
"Here, Sparky" the Doctor interrupted "I got it. You're probably exhausted"
A flash of relief passed over the Twilight's face as the Doctor hoisted her friend onto his back, giving a small huff as he lifted her full weight.
"Oof" he gave a small chuckle "She's heavier than she looks"
"Comes from her crazy exercise regimen" Twilight said as they began to walk towards the library, Pinkie bouncing along beside them "Flying takes a lot of muscle"
"You should see Applejack!" Pinkie chirped "Once I had to carry her home after a crazy night of partying...it was like a sack of bricks!"
As they approached the library, Twilight said slowly "Wait a second ....We can't just carry Rainbow Dash unconscious through the front door of a party, ponies will think something happened"
"We're climbing up to the balcony again, aren't we?" the Doctor deadpanned.
Twilight sighed "Yep."
"Woohooo!" Pinkie cheered.
Rainbow Dash regained consciousness in the upper floor of Twilight's library, holding her head with a hoof "What the buck happened?" She mumbled, before locking eyes on the Doctort. 
The pegasus startled, jumping almost a foot backwards "You!" she squawked "Why you little-"
"Rainbow!" Twilight scolded "Calm down"
"Why should I?" Rainbow lashed out "That plot-hat has been doing all sorts of fishy things behind everyponies back!  I just saw you guys walk out of some weirdo box, use Pinkie's music to call some ginormous bug army, and then Twilight went all freaky god magic on them! Look, I don't know what you guys are doing or what he's told you, but you've got to snap out of it! This guy is bad news! I can feel it in my feathers!"
Twilight and the Doctor exchanged glances as if she were crazy, and Rainbow grit her teeth, were they really playing stupid?
"Silly filly!" Pinkie chirped "We never left the party...Duh!"
"Well I don't- Wait what?"
"We found you passed out under a table and took you up here out of all the loud noise and music to make sure you were okay..." Twilight narrowed her eyes "Are you sure you didn't have too much cider to drink?"
Something clicked in Rainbow Dash's head.....Party? Check...Waking up someplace with no idea of how she got there? Check....Headache? Check.
Twilight's theory was starting to sound more plausible with every pound of Rainbow's sore head. Was it really just a dream? A freaky, bucked up dream? 
"I don't believe you" Rainbow said weakly "He- he is a bad pony! I just know it!"
The cyan pegasus's chest twisted as she saw the hurt that passed over Twilight's face at her words.
"Dash..." She said "He's my friend. What has gotten into you?"
Dash winced "I- I.......I don't know"
She turned and walked through the door, back into the party.
Twilight watched her go with a pained expression. She hated lying.....But her friend would be safer not knowing. That way, if anything happened, she wouldn't be associated with them. She would be safe. 
Eventually, the trio reluctantly (or in Pinkie's case, cheerfully) made their way downstairs. As they opened the door, they found Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy waiting for them.
Before Twilight could react, Rarity had wrapped her in a hug.
"Oh, Twilight!" Rarity gushed in her usual dramatic fashion "I'm so sorry. I just got so caught up in the moment, I didn't even notice how horrible I was making you feel! Can you ever forgive me?"
Twilight blinked, surprised, then smiled "Of course, Rarity" She said, hugging the fashionista back  "You're one of my best friends. So what if you can get a little carried away sometimes?"
Rainbow Dash snorted "A little? She's like drama-" Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity all gave the pegasus a pointed look. She shrank back, giving a nervous chuckle "I mean......I'm sorry too Twilight. I got carried away too. I jumped to conclusions, and was well....a jealous hothead. I saw your new friend as a threat instead of somepony I could be friends with too. "
Twilight nodded "It's okay Rainbow Dash" She smiled giving her friend "And I would never replace you"
Rainbow Dash smiled, then looked over to the Doctor "Friends?" she asked
"Friends"
For the first time that day, Twilight let herself relax. Everything was okay, her friends were happy, the town was safe, and everything was fine. She leaned lightly against the Doctor, yawning like a cat as she realized just how tired she was.
"Hey guys...Where did you go, I-" Spike walked into the room, talking, then abruptly cut short as he saw Twilight and the Doctor "GAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The baby dragon ran away like Discord himself was chasing him.
Twilight facehoofed.....so maybe she had one thing left to take care of.