"That was more studying than I thought I would do in one seating," Soren complained after studying in the Prance Library. The two stallions were walking through the big city towards the TARDIS.
"At least you have a head start in air magic," the Doctor pointed out. In the beginning of their travels, the Doctor explained to Soren that these Element books are most likely gone by now, so the duo had to travel to the past just to look for them. Luckily they managed to find a book about Air Manipulation in the Prance Library. Soren studied that one book for over four hours and managed to learn quite a few spells that could benefit him. The Doctor also explained to Soren that he shouldn't try to learn every single spell in a book, and that he should focus on spells that would help him the most.
"Do you have an idea for a new location, or am I going to have to do all the work?" the Doctor asked.
"I was thinking about looking in the library in Canterlot, but I don't know what year would be a good time to try," Soren responded.
"Well, think."
"Princess Celestia said that even a pony called Starswirl the Bearded couldn't learn many of the Elements. Do you know what century he was alive in?"
"I believe I do. Let's just get back into the TARDIS." Soren agreed, so he followed his brown companion back to the blue box.
Once they arrived at the TARDIS, they walked inside and Soren couldn't help but smile. He was still excited to be inside the legendary machine. He began looking around the massive control room once again. The brown walls were being lit up with light blue lights that were positioned at certain spots in the room. As the Doctor fiddled with the console, Soren continued to peer at the room. He noticed something grey out of the corner of his eye and turned towards it. Upon getting a closer look, Soren saw that it was a statue, a statue of a pegasus that is covering its eyes with its hooves.
"Hey, Doctor?" Soren asked while stepping closer to the statue.
"What?" The Doctor was still working the console and didn't turn to look at Soren.
"I never noticed this statue here before. Where did you get it?"
"Statue?" Then the Doctor's eyes widened. He turned to face Soren and his face paled upon seeing the statue Soren was referring to. "What ever you do, keep looking at it!" Soren jumped at the Doctor's change of volume.
"Why?" Soren asked. "It's just a statue."
"I'll explain everything when we get this creature out of here, but first we need a plan." The Doctor thought for a few moments as the two of them continued to stare at the seemingly harmless statue. Soren eyes were starting to water but he held his glare.
"Doctor, I can't keep staring for much longer."
"Ok, this is what we will do. We are going to have to take turns staring at it. I'll go first; rest your eyes."
"If you're sure you can stare for a long time. But we still need to get rid of this thing. What is it anyway?"
"This is called a weeping angel, or weeping pegasus in this world. The second we stop looking at it, it'll snap our necks or send us somewhere in time to spend the rest of our lives in while it feeds on the days we could have had."
"How did it get in here, and couldn't it just have killed us earlier before I noticed it?"
"It must have came in when we weren't looking. As for why it didn't kill us earlier, I have no clue, and that's bad news. That means it has some sort of plan; it needs us for something. Switch!" It was now Soren's turn to stare at the weeping pegasus.
"Well I'd rather not give it a chance to complete that plan. What can destroy it? Can't I just use magic to throw it out of the TARDIS?"
"It can't be destroyed by anything, so I highly doubt it could be moved by magic."
"I read that black holes are impossible to escape from. Why not throw into one of those?" The Doctor stared at Soren.
"That could work, but how are we going to get it to the door?"
"You're going to have to trust me. Move over to the console. I know a certain Light Element spell that should help." The Doctor nodded, and the two of them began walking backwards to the TARDIS controls. When they were next to it, Soren's horn began to glow. He pulled the Doctor and hid both of them behind the controls.
"What are you doing?!!" The Doctor yelled, only to be silenced by Soren pointing to the weeping pegasus. The Doctor peeked over the controls to see himself walking towards the TARDIS doors. "Oh, an illusion. Genius." When he blinked, Soren shuddered as he saw the pegasus make a horrifying face when it moved closer to the illusion of the Doctor.
Every time the ponies blinked, the statue moved closer and closer to the illusion until it was right in front of the doors. Seizing the opportunity, the Doctor began handling to the controls and the TARDIS began moving. It only took a few seconds for the Doctor to transport him and Soren into space. The Doctor clapped his hooves together twice and the front doors opened to reveal the darkness of space and the massive black hole devouring stars and planets.
"Wow" was all Soren could whisper as he looked upon the beautiful sight of outer space for the first time. The Doctor edged the TARDIS closer to the black hole and smiled when he saw the statue begin to shake.
"Soren, keep your eyes on the weeping angel! We don't want it getting back in here." Soren nodded and kept staring at the statue. The weeping angel was slowly lifting off the ground now, and pretty soon it was sucked into the vacuum of space towards the black hole. The two of them continued to watch the statue until it flew into the black hole and was completely devoured by the emptiness of it. Once it was gone, the Doctor closed the doors and went to the console to transport them once again.
Soren sat down and started rubbing his eyes.
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah, I'm just...shaken by that whole thing. I can't imagine you fighting those things so much."
"What makes you think I've dealt with them before? Maybe I just knew about them." Soren gave the Doctor a doubtful look. The Doctor began to chuckle. "Alright, maybe I have dealt with them on more than one occasion. They are a nasty lot." The TARDIS landed, so the Doctor walked over to Soren.
"Here we are," the Doctor said. "Canterlot, 300 years in the past. Shall we?" Soren nodded, so the two ponies walked out of the TARDIS to explore the older version of the capital of Equestria.
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Canterlot didn't look that different in the past. It may be missing a few glamorous buildings here and there, but it was essentially the same city. Even the royal castle maintained its beauty and grace. Whereas present day Canterlot had only fancy buildings and clean streets, the Canterlot in the past had a mixture of homes that resembled the ones from Ponyville and it had fewer fancy buildings. Soren was awing at the older Canterlot as he followed behind the Doctor, who was leading them to the public library.
"So why 300 years in the past?" Soren asked the Doctor.
"Have you ever been to the Royal Archives?" he asked. Soren answered yes. "Well did you know that the Royal Archives are a replacement for the old Archives?"
"Shouldn't that be a normal thing? Upgrading books and scrolls as the decades go by?"
"Let me rephrase: The old Archives were abandoned. Those books and scrolls held knowledge beyond belief. Only the royal family was ever allowed in. One day, the Archives were closed off. Royalty would enter the room and never come out. The city was forced to close it off. Some say that ghosts haunt those Archives. Whenever a pony was brave enough to investigate, they never came out and were never heard of again. I have wanted to investigate this for some time now. Since you wanted to go to this particular library, I figured now would be a good time to check it out."
"What could some measly ghosts do compared to what that statue could've done?" Soren replied. "I'm pretty sure we can handle this." The Doctor only nodded in response.
The Doctor and Soren finally arrived at the Canterlot Library. The Doctor said that the plan was to go straight to the Archives without anypony knowing and to use his sonic screwdriver to get inside. When they walked inside, Soren saw that the library was still the same, even in the past. It was still a massive circular room with the librarian's desk in the center. The Doctor noticed that the librarian wasn't at his or her desk, so he began looking around for the pony. Looking at Soren, the Doctor motioned over to the Archives entrance with his head. The two of them casually walked past bookshelves so no one would think twice about them. They were almost to the entrance but were stopped by the librarian. She was a grey-coated unicorn, with a green mane and tail. She also wore half-frame reading glasses and an outfit that covered her cutie mark.
"Sirs, the Royal Archives are off limits," she said.
"Terribly sorry, but why is that?" the Doctor replied, playing along. "We just moved here from Manehatten and this is our first visit to this library."
"Ponies disappear in there," she answered seriously. "They decided to go inside, only to never return."
"Does anyone know why?" Soren asked.
"Some say ghosts, others say spell mishaps when they practice in there. I choose to believe the ghost tale myself, for every now and again, I can hear moans and crying coming from down there."
"Well I'm sorry to persist, ma'am, but we will need to see these Archives for ourselves." The Doctor reached into his mane and pulled out a black wallet. He opened it so the librarian could see. "Manehatten Undercover Police. I'm the Doctor and this is my colleague Soren. Would it be too much of a hassle to allow us inside these supposedly haunted Archives?"
"I'm afraid I cannot stop you two, but be warned: No pony has ever returned from going in there to investigate."
"Thank you. We will be careful." The librarian nodded and walked away. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Soren began walking down the hallway that lead to the Archives.
"You keep your psychic paper in your mane?" Soren asked randomly.
"You never know when it will come in handy. Here's the plan: while I investigate the area, you need to find all the books you can about the Elements, understood?"
"Got it." Soren and the Doctor stepped up to the door; the door had the faded golden words of 'Royal Archives' written on it. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and began unlocking the door. "And she thought not giving us a key would stop us," Soren laughed. The door unlocked and the two colts stepped inside.
Although there was barely any light in the room, these Archives were not that different from the present day version, except for one thing. Instead of a wood circle in the center of the room, Soren noticed that there was a gap in the center that had railings going around it. Soren trotted up to it and looked down. He saw a whole second floor underneath them. It was the same size as the floor they were standing on, and it had the same exact layout.
"I have a bad feeling about this Doctor," Soren said. "This area is blocked off in the future. They did that for a good reason."
"Just be on the lookout for anything wrong." The two ponies walked downstairs and began searching the floor.
After many minutes passed, neither of them saw or heard a single ghost. Soren managed to find books on the fire and earth elements, so he brought them to the center of floor to begin reading them. The center had a circular wooden desk, which had the only light in the entire room via a candle. Soren was just about to start reading one of the books when he began to hear voices. He couldn't understand them since they were whispering, but it sent chills down his spine nonetheless.
"Doctor, do you hear that?" Soren asked. "Doctor?" He looked around for the Doctor and saw him standing still, looking down an aisle.
"Don't blink," said the Doctor. Soren became instantly scared. After grabbing the books he found and putting them in his saddlebag, Soren trotted over to the Doctor and looked down the aisle. It was there that Soren saw the unmistakable silhouette of a weeping pegasus. Soren continued to stand there, shocked that they ran into another weeping pegasus already.
"Sometimes the weeping pegasi steal the voices of their victims so they can communicate with other beings to lure them in," the Doctor explained. "This isn't the only statue in this room, Soren."
"How many do you think there are?"
"Based on the amount of voices, at least six could be lurking around in here. We have to leave right now. Slowly walk to the stairs." The Doctor continued to watch his statue as Soren scanned the room for more. "Soren, we need to be side to side so I can watch behind us and you can look in front of us." Soren nodded and stood next to the Doctor.
Carefully making their way up the stairs, the Doctor and Soren continued to move forward, all while looking at any pegasi that came into view. They made it up the stairs, but Soren froze from what he saw.
"Soren, why did you stop?" the Doctor asked urgently. "There are two more weeping pegasi coming our way." Two more statues appeared from around a nearby corner.
"It doesn't matter because there are three more guarding the exit! We're trapped! Any ideas?" The Doctor was silent. "Doctor, a plan would be great right about now."
"I-I don't have one!" They were both on the top floor. Soren was staring at the three statues guarding the door and the Doctor noticed that his three pegasi were all at the foot of the stairs. After a few seconds, Soren managed to think of a plan, even if it was a crazy one.
"You're going to have to trust me again, Doctor," Soren said. "Follow me towards the railing in the middle of room." They got to the railing but the statues were closing in on them. "Keep looking at your three statues," Soren instructed as his horn began to glow. After he concentrated enough, Soren grabbed the Doctor and threw both of them over the railing. On the way down, the Doctor looked up at the railing so the pegasi couldn't follow them. Right before the two colts slammed onto the desk below, a flash of light illuminated them and the room.
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Soren opened his eyes and found himself in the TARDIS. He called out for the Doctor and the brown stallion immediately responded.
"Finally you woke up!" he exclaimed. "You've been sleeping for a few hours."
"I didn't expect to be unconscious, especially not for that long. I only used a teleportation and an anti-gravity spell to get us here. What were you doing while I was out?"
"I went back to see the librarian and to tell her to never allow another pony in there ever again, for they will die. She asked how we escaped, so I told her about the teleportation spell you used. I then came back and began working on the TARDIS. Are you ready for our next destination?"
"I guess, but Doctor, you seem a lot happier now."
"Something that thrilling hasn't happened to me in quite some time. I even experienced what my past companions have experienced now and again: uselessness. In the Archives, I didn't have a plan, and I felt like it was the end for both of us. But then you came up with something, something that I could never have thought of. This allowed me to understand how my past companions have felt before. Thank you, Soren. I'm glad I decided to go on this little adventure."
"I'm sure Twilight will be even more pleased than you when she learns that you're becoming your old self again." The Doctor agreed and began pulling levers on the TARDIS console to once again take them to another location in Equestria's past.