Chapter the Eighteenth – Culmination of Events
The Doctor and Derpy headed out of the chamber to see that things were starting to look better. Instead of being greeted by a mess of weird shapes and colours like before, they now walked out into a sunny beach. Looking behind them, they noticed the stone building had completely vanished. Delicate pink clouds lazily drifted across the pale green sky.
“Well, things appear to be looking up!” The Doctor said happily, walking along the fine blue sand, watching as the violet sea lapped at the shore.
“I wouldn’t lower my guard just yet though,” Derpy cautioned, “Discord’s still running around doing whatever he wants.”
“Yeah, but I’ve just got this optimistic feeling. Nopony’s can get us down now!”
“Okay, that’s all well and good, but now what? Where should we go?”
The Doctor ruffled his mane in thought. “Well, there’s only one logical place I can think to go now.”
“Fun!” Derpy exclaimed. “… Where would that be?”
“Isn’t it obvious? We need to go to Canterlot castle and find Discord!” The Doctor laughed with an audacious expression, galloping away.
Derpy nodded, and dashed after him.
Eventually, the two brave ponies finally arrived back in Ponyville. They hadn’t seen it since Discord had taken reign, and were shocked by what they saw.
“What is this road made out of… croissants?” The Doctor poked the crumbly road of flaky pastry in a strange curiosity.
“And look,” Derpy shouted, “There are budgies eating the houses!”
“There’s no time to lose!” The Doctor declared, “We must hurry to the castle!”
As The Doctor and Derpy ran through Ponyville, they realized that Discord wasn’t as foolish as he looked. He was determined to wreak chaos throughout the land, and after being imprisoned in stone for so long, he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
The heroic ponies galloped up Canterlot Mountain, and finally reached the royal castle. However, they were unable to enter as the palace was spinning carelessly around the peak like a loop-de-hoop. As The Doctor approached the whirling castle, two doors shot up from the ground, with two menacing guards in front of them.
“Hang on,” The Doctor said, “This already happened a few chapters ago!”
“Maybe Discord’s testing the readers?” Derpy Suggested.
The two guards recited the riddle from a few chapters earlier in perfect unison:
Two doors are in front of you. One leads to the inside of the castle, the other leads to a terrible interdimensional hole, but you don’t know which one is which. Two powerful ponies guard each door, one always honest, the other always lies, but both look exactly alike! You can ask only ONE question between them to decide which door to take. What do you ask them?
“Doctor, be careful! We don’t want out whole journey to be in vain!”
The Doctor wracked his brain. Fortunately, he was smart.
“Eureka! I’ve got it Derpy! If the truth of a lie is a lie, and the lie of a truth is a lie, then, according to logic, we need one guard to give us the other’s answer!”
“Huh? Derpy scratched her head.
“Here goes nothing,” The Doctor said courageously, turning to the guard on the left, “If I were to ask the other guard which door goes to the castle, what would his answer be? ”
“Well,” The guard stated, pointing to the door on the right, “the other guard would show you chaos.”
“Wait, I can answer that too,” The other guard spoke, also pointing to the door on the right, “the other guard would show you the inside of the castle.”
Boldly, The Doctor grabbed Derpy and launched himself through the door on the left, and found himself inside the royal palace.