Zecura could feel the Pegasi. For an unknown reason, it had been growing restless. She could hear it grinding, but each time she opened her eyes, there was nothing there. Why would it be twitching like that? The only explainable reason would be an extremely large source of power nearby, but other than Twilight, who was too tired to move today, and the princesses, it couldn’t be anyone. And the princesses wouldn’t have even left the castle yet.
Zecuras eyes snapped open. Wouldn’t have… or shouldn’t have? What if the princesses had left earlier than expected? That would explain it, but it would leave Zecura with anywhere from one to fifteen minutes to capture the thing. If only she could tell where the grinding was coming from… She really needed Dragoons help right about now, and he was currently about 80-90 floors below her right now.
-T-Minus 5 minutes-
Dragoon and Doctor sprinted through the halls. Dream and Derpy had been left in the safe care of Nurse Redheart, who, after slapping Doctor for putting them through so much, quickly and efficiently began caring for them. Golden Justice tagged along, since he had to make sure that the Princesses were safe.
“Why is it that mothers and nurses always want to slap me? It’s completely bonkers, is what it is!” Doctor complained as they ran along, “And it was your idea to bring Dream along! Why didn’t she slap you too?”
“You’ve been away a while. I helped out Ms. Redheart after a bit of an issue with baked bads a while back. She owed me one, so I guess we’re even now.” Dragoon grinned widely, “Besides, I must admit to enjoying your face after she slapped you.”
“You always enjoy watching me suffer, just because I dropped one, only one, of your cakes. I mean, come on, it wasn’t that special, was it?”
“It was baked in a volcano on top of a lava pit, and filled with the rarest, and most delicious gems known worldwide. The only one of its kind to ever be made. And you didn’t just drop it, you dropped it into an evaporator.” Dragoon gave Doctor an irritated look.
“Yeah, well… Oh! Look! There’s the lift! We could take that up to the top!” Doctor exclaimed, pointing towards a chute in the wall.
“I could. That chute is for Pegasi only. Only way up or down it is through wing power. Actually… I am going to take it. Zecura might need my help, and the sooner I get there, the better!” And he promptly took off through the chute, leaving Doctor alone with Golden Justice.
“Well… Looks like we still have a few dozen stories to go. Allons y!”
-T-Minus 3 minutes-
Dragoon propelled out of the chute straight into Zecura, plastering them both against a nearby wall.
“Hello, mum! Thought you might like a bit of help fightin’ the thing!” Dragoon looked around, “Oh, did you already beat it?”
“I need you to hear, for I cannot, I fear!” Zecura exclaimed quickly. She had overheard a group of guards talking about the princesses early arrival.
Dragoon, hearing the urgency in Zecuras voice, stopped and listened as hard as he could. He could hear the statue grinding in restless ness. Though were it was, exactly… Ah ha! “Quick, follow me!” he said as he took off.
Zecura and Dragoon soon found themselves at a small grate in the wall. “I’m pretty sure it’s coming from in here. Problem is that this path splits into three, which means if we guess wrong, or it decides to backtrack, it will easily get us in there.”
Zecura looked at Dragoon, and smiled grimly, “We must have a lucky guess, or Equestria will become quite a mess!”
Dragoon turned and kicked in the grate, and listened very closely, “Acoustics make this hard… I can’t tell which tunnel it’s in. I’ll be able to tell if I’m in the right tunnel, but that will only let me know one row.”
“Oi! That’s the punk pony who kicked my face in!” Dragoon and Zecura turned at the sudden onslaught, and found them face to face with a group of angry, injured guards.
“Um… Zecura, you might have to get this one on your own. I’m expecting to be busy the next few minutes.”
Zecura shook her head. When push came to shove, it was always up to her to clean up after the stallions. She sighed, and dived through the tunnels, listening with an amused fondness to the cries of ‘FOR SCOLTLAND’ behind her. Those guards didn’t stand a chance.
-T-Minus 1 minute-
Celestia could see the towering spires of Cloudsdale before her. Even though she rarely go to visit it, because of how busy her life was, she truly believed this city to be the country’s greatest architectural work. But today…
“Tell me, sister, do you feel it? Do you feel something is… wrong?”
Princess Luna concentrated for a second. She wasn’t as powerful while the sun was up, so it took her a few seconds, “Yes… it feels like there is something there that shouldn’t be there…”
They stared at each other for a second. Well, they’d be landing in a matter of seconds, so they could find out when they got there.
-Moment of Arrival-
Dragoon once again stood victorious. He was in the middle of the landing bay, where the group of guards had chased him. He had defeated them quickly once he had a fair playing field. He was truly invincible!
That was the last thought through his mind as the royal carriage landed on him, throwing him straight into sometime next week. Somehow, neither the guards nor the princesses noticed him. Dragoon probably shouldn’t have chosen the green landing bay. The guards he had just beaten nodded and left, satisfied that this counted as revenge.
At that moment, Rainbow Dash flew up. She bowed deeply, then said, “Heya, Princesses! How Canterlot been for you? Oh, yeah, I’m supposed to be your escort while you’re here.”
Princess Celestia smiled. The cocky nature of Rainbow Dash always reminded her of herself, when she was younger, “Certainly. We had been informed of this.”
A voice echoed from the vent nearby, “I do not mean to alarm you, but evil seems to have gotten through!”
Both Rainbow and the princesses stared at the vent, “Zecura?” Rainbow asked cautiously, “Why are you in the vents?”
Zecura kicked her way out. She had been through all three vents, and found nothing. “An evil being made of stone has entered this room alone. If we cannot find it, the sun will no longer be lit!”
“Oh, you mean this thing?” The Princess said as she levitated the statue in the air. It had been right behind her, with none able to see it, “I felt it from the moment I entered Cloudsdale. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I had left it alone. Thank you for the timely warning, Zecura.” She nodded at Zecura.
The Doctor, who had just entered the room, said, “Well, that was rather anticlimactic. I was hoping for a little more bang and pop than that. Rather boring, really. Oh well, all’s well that ends well!” and left the room just as suddenly as he entered.
Rainbow looked around the room, and noticing an unconscious pony in the middle of the now empty landing area, cautiously approached him. “Excuse me, are you all right?”
Dragoon muttered in his sleep, “No, it’s MAH house! You cannae have it. Stop touching it! STOP TOUCHING IT…. I don’t like it. You can have it.” And he flopped over and began snoring.
Rainbow backed away slowly. She’d had to deal with enough weird stuff today; she just wanted to go back to the competition. Which should be starting in a matter of minutes, now that she thought about it. Time to get to work!
¬_ _ _ _ _
“So, we’ll keep them in a room made of mirrors. Even if they somehow break eye contact, they still have to deal with leaving the room without seeing themselves.” Golden Justice told Doctor as the competition played out behind him. The Doctor and Zecura had been given a seat of honor in the competition, seated with the Princess in reward for saving the whole of Equestria. The offer had been extended to Dragoon, Dream and Derpy, but Dream and Derpy were still fainted away, and Dragoon, upon waking and hearing he’d be seated no where near Rainbow Dash, said something along the lines of, “I have to go and.. uh… Bugfat!” and ran away at full speed.
So, it was only the Doctor and Zecura seated at the highest point of the coliseum. Golden Justice was simply telling Doctor that they’d followed his orders about how to store the Pegasi.
“Actually, Doctor, I have a question about the young Dreamwire. His horn… can he use magic with it?”
Doctor and Zecura stared at each other a second. They had not once seen him use magic through his horn. “Um… I’m not really sure. He seems to not really use his horn too much. I guess he can’t.”
Justice smiled, “Heh, he can still use magic. I should know,” and leaned over to show the pair his own horn. It was split right down the middle. “Took me a bit of practice, but I can at least keep up a little magic now and then. Hmmm… actually…”
Justice walked to Celestia, and bowed, “Princess, I wish to request a favor.” Celestia lifted an eyebrow. Golden Justice had generally never asked for anything. He seemed glad enough to have a job of such high prestige, with his horn issues. “I wish to request being allowed to take the young Dreamwire under my tutelage. His horn, too, is broken. I might be able to help him get his abilities back, at least somewhat.”
Celestia smiled, and then nodded. Justice was truly a good guard, and it would be tough to let him go, but she could see in his eyes a goal. A goal worth accomplishing, at any cost. Justice bowed once more, said, “Thank you, your highness.” And left to go and meet his new student.
_ _ _ _ _
Dragoon met Doctor later, by the landing bay. Derpy was with him.
“I guess this is goodbye for now, huh? It was fun saving the world again with you, Doctor”
“It was fun fighting through rows of the good guys just to defeat the one bad guy with you again, Dragoon. We really should do this more often. It’s fun adventuring with Derpy her, but…” Derpy shrieked and hid behind the Doctor, as a small bird tried to land on her head.
“Oh, wait, never mind! I thought it was the Muffin Devil for a second.”
Doctor and Dragoon stared at each other a second, then burst out laughing, “Well, anyways, it’s time we headed off. It really was nice to see you again, Dragoon. Keep having adventures without me!”
“Will do, Doctor. Will do,” Dragoon said as the Doctor stepped into the TARDIS. The tell-tale sound of time and space bending carried the blue box off to another time, another world. Dragoon smiled, and went to fetch the somehow still unconscious Dream, and his new houseguest, Golden Justice. It was finally time to go home. Maybe, though, the next day could be another adventure… Maybe.