//------------------------------//
// The Angel's Voice 
// Story: Doctor Whooves Episode 18: The Mystery of Colgate 
// by Doctor Perseus 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 5: The Angel's Voice


Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville, Equestria, Gaia, Autumn, 930 C.E.

Annie was obviously confused by Twilight's and Pinkie's reactions to the statue before them. A smile grew on her face as she gave Twilight a friendly slap on the back. "Ha! Is that one of them there fancy unicorn tricks? It's a mighty good one, I must admit," Annie giggled.
"This is no joke, Annie!" Twilight snapped back. "That statue is extremely dangerous!"
Annie's attitude didn't change. Instead she wrapped her forelegs around Twilight and Pinkie and began pulling them towards the orchard. "Come on now. I think a good cycle of zap apple harvesting is just what y'all need at the moment."
Twilight tried to keep her eyes on the Weeping Angel as she and Pinkie were pulled away by Annie. However, both she and Pinkie ultimately found their gazes turned away from the statue. When Twilight looked back, she expected the statue to be closer to them. Surprisingly, the statue had remained firmly in place. Not one inch of it had moved. Strange, Twilight thought. What game are you playing, Mr. Weeping Angel...or is it Weeping Pegasus now? Twilight's focus on the Angel was hastily interrupted by Annie shoving a barrel in her face and giving her instructions to go harvest a particular collection of zap apple trees. When Twilight looked back at the statue a few minutes later, it was still in the same place and still had yet to budge an inch. I've got my eyes on you.

Home of Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville, Equestria, Gaia, Winter, 1002 C.E.

"Say what now?" Applejack asked upon hearing the Doctor's deduction about Colgate.
"How can she be a Weeping Angel? It doesn't make any sense!" Rarity stated.
"You gotta admit that the similar powers are still there," said Rainbow Dash.
"Then how come she doesn't freeze in place when somepony looks at her?"
"Well...she does become as tough as a statue," Fluttershy answered.
"My head hurts," said Spike as he rubbed his temple.
"I'm right there with you on that one," Donna added as she too rubbed her head.
"There are definitely still a few questions to be answered," said the Doctor. "But I have an idea as to where we can get the answers we seek."
Colgate gulped as she took a few steps back. "I hope you're not saying what I think you're saying, Doctor," said the shivering mare.
"I'm afraid so." The Doctor approached Colgate and carefully placed a hoof on her shoulder. "We're going to need to question your Weeping Angel stalker."
Colgate looked at the Doctor's hoof making contact with her dangerous skin and then back up into the Doctor's determined eyes. "You're a very dangerous stallion. You know that?"
A gleam appeared in the Doctor's eyes as he smirked childishly at her. "You bet I know that. In fact, you could almost call me a...madpony with a box."
"Madpony with a box? That's a new one," Donna chuckled.
"Yes it is. But I love the sound of it. Madpony with a box. I'm a madpony with a box!" The Doctor let out a joyful giggle that made him look like a child caught in the middle of a sugar high. "Anyway, back to business. Colgate, Donna, Derpy, Applejack, and myself are heading out." The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver, pointed it at the TARDIS, and activated it. The TARDIS then vanished into thin air. "The rest of you stay here and guard this spot. I don't want any Weeping Angel getting anywhere near my TARDIS. Even if it's a second out a sync, a desperate Weeping Angel can find it. If there's any problems...just scream...loudly."
"I guess the rest of us can count on Rarity then," Rainbow Dash chuckled.
"Are you implying something, Rainbow Dash?" asked Rarity with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe."
"Um...could we maybe talk about that later?" Fluttershy suggested.
"Don't worry, Doctor. We'll keep the TARDIS safe and sound!" stated Spike with a salute. "Just don't forget to bring Twilight and Pinkie home when this is all over."
"Oh come now, Spike! How could I ever forget about Midnight Sprinkle and Berry Cake?" the Doctor asked with a sarcastic grin. Spike laughed and rolled his eyes simultaneously in response.
"So, what do you need me for?" Applejack asked.
"I need somepony who's good with ropes, knots, and lassoing rough creatures."
Applejack smiled and tilted her hat. "Well you've certainly got the mare for the job!"
"Great! Now, my companions, off to Sweet Apple Acres! We've got us a Weeping Angel to catch!"
"This should be interesting," said Donna. Derpy giggled in response.
"Madpony in a box. Madpony in a box. Ha ha ha," the Doctor sang as he trotted towards the door.
Donna turned towards Derpy. "I hope that's not catching on because I'm gonna slap him if he keeps this up."
"What was that?" The Doctor turned back to Donna.
"Nothing!" Donna gave the Doctor an innocent smile. The Doctor shrugged his shoulders and continued to sing. Donna turned back to Derpy and waved her hand. "The palm is ready."

Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville, Equestria, Gaia, Autumn, 930 C.E.

The Weeping Angel was still in the same place it had been when it arrived when Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and the others finished the harvesting for the day. It had been a long day of work and yet they already had tons of barrels filled to the brim with zap apples. Annie was currently busy making her zap apple jam while Twilight continued to observe the statue through the farmhouse window. "Still watching the statue?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Yes. I've been observing it every chance I've had," Twilight replied. "None of it makes any sense. Why has it been staying still all day and why has it taken the form of a pegasus? Last time I checked, Weeping Angels came from the Doctor's universe and were humanoid."
"The Doctor would have a field day with this."
"You're right about that, Pinkie." Twilight's eyes suddenly became as wide as dinner plates and she quickly gave herself a hard face-hoof. "Oh! I completely forgot! I was so busy working with the apples and worrying about the Angel that I forgot about the letter!" Twilight turned towards the table where she had set the letter down hours ago before working and picked it up. "I better get this to Annie."
"Oh no, no, no!" Pinkie warned as she grabbed Twilight's shoulder. "I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
"And why not?" Twilight asked.
"'Cause Annie's in the zone!"
"The zone?"
"Yeah! She's making zap apple jam right now! She's already scolded the bottles for getting out of line!"
Twilight walked over to the open doorway between the living room and the kitchen and took a quick look at what Annie was doing. The young Granny Smith was busy walking around the kitchen with a green helmet on her head. Barrels of zap apples lined the walls and the table was covered from end to end in large glass bottles. "Y'all think ya got what it takes to hold zap apple jam?! Do ya?!" asked Annie as she stared at one of the bottles. A small crack appeared on the bottle and Annie snorted as she picked it up. "You, sir, are dismissed!" She then tossed the bottle into the nearest trash bin. "Now who's next?!"
"Okaaaay," Twilight said under her breath as she slowly retreated back into the living room. Twilight turned back to Pinkie, who was busy rubbing her chin in deep thought. "I see what you mean, Pinkie."
"Maybe it's just biding its time," Pinkie said suddenly.
"Huh?"
"The Weeping Angel. What if it's waiting for the perfect moment to strike?!"
Twilight took a quick glance out at the statue. "If that's what it's doing then why would it wait so long? It's had multiple opportunities to slip away and try to take us and the others down. What's stopping it?"
"Well, when it arrived, everypony was outside working during the daytime. Maybe it's waiting for when it's dark out so it'll-"
"Be harder for us to see it." Twilight and Pinkie gulped simultaneously.
"So what are you two talking about?" asked Map Maker as he walked in from outside.
"Pickle barrel kumquat!" Pinkie replied with wide eyes.
Twilight turned to Pinkie with a raised eyebrow while Map Maker gave a confused look. "What?"
"Oh, wait. That's what I was thinking about. No, Twilight and I were talking about the Weeping Angel."
"The what?"
"Don't tell me you didn't notice the odd, stone pegasus standing outside," said Twilight.
"Oh! That thing!" Map Maker looked out the living room window. "Wait a moment...where'd it go?"
Twilight and Pinkie felt their stomachs turn over as they both ran to the window. It was true. The Weeping Angel was no longer in the spot it had previously been. In fact, it was nowhere to be seen. "Oh no! Oh no, no, no, no, no!" Twilight cried. "This is bad! This is very, very bad!"
"What's wrong?" asked Map Maker. "Somepony must have moved it. Was it one of you? You two have been eyeing it weirdly all day."
Twilight and Pinkie turned back to Map Maker and gasped. "MAP MAKER! BEHIND YOU!" shrieked Twilight and Pinkie Pie together.
Map Maker turned around to see the Weeping Angel standing immediately behind him in the front doorway of the house. "What the hay?!"
"Map Maker! Get away from it!" Twilight ordered. Suddenly, a powerful gust of wind blew into the room and the lamps illuminating the room blew out. "No! Turn the lights back on!" Twilight felt her nerves twitch as a sickening snap rung through the air and was followed by a weak groan of pain from Map Maker. Twilight quickly conjured up an illumination spell, bathing the living room in magical light. Twilight gasped at the scene before her. Map Maker was lying on the ground. His head was twisted at an impossible angle and the front of his neck had been torn open. Twilight's eyes eventually traveled up to that of the Weeping Angel, whose eyes were locked on her and Pinkie. "Oh my Celestia! Map Maker!"
A frightening silence followed but it was soon broken by a chilling, but familiar, voice. "Hello, Twilight Sparkle," chuckled the voice of Map Maker. Twilight was now as confused as she was frightened. Map Maker was obviously dead...so where was his voice coming from? "No, it is not the stallion who is speaking. It is I." Twilight's ears deduced that Map Maker's voice was coming from none other than the Weeping Angel.
"What?! Weeping Angels can talk?!" Twilight asked in shock.
"I thought they just slept when they were stone!" said Pinkie.
A chilling laugh echoed through the air. "No, we do not sleep in our stone states. We merely wait...as I have all day," said the Angel. "I have watched you, learned your names, and have learned fractions of information about this new world that I have stumbled into." Even though the Angel was still frozen in its statue state, Twilight felt as if its eyes were moving between her and Pinkie. "I am pleased to see that I am not alone in this world. There are more of my kind. I can smell the Angel's touch on you both. You are not of this time." The Angel's voice suddenly became even colder and more threatening. "But I also smell something else. Something powerful...and ancient. I smell...time."
"Time?" Twilight asked. She kept getting the urge to puke each time she looked down at Map Maker's body.
"Yes...you two are no strangers to traveling up and down the stream of time. You have a deadly friend...don't you? A friend who goes by the name of the Doctor perhaps?" Twilight felt her legs begin to shake. "Oh yes. I know of him. All of my kind do. We know of what he has done and what he will do. The Time Vortex is as much our pathway as it is his. So...where is he?"
"I'm sorry. But he is not here at the moment," Pinkie stated.
"You're lying. I know he's here in this world somewhere," chuckled the Angel. "I do wonder what the Doctor would do to keep his companions safe. Perhaps...he'd even risk giving up his delicious TARDIS. Oh yes, I would like to have that very much."
Twilight hastily turned around, magically locked the door leading upstairs to the bedrooms and Annie's sleeping family, and turned back to the Angel. "Sorry. That's not happening," Twilight said as she grabbed Pinkie and pulled her into the kitchen. She then quickly locked the door just before the Angel could follow them.
"What in tarnation is going on?!" Annie snapped. Twilight looked and was surprised to see a few batches of zap apple jam already being made. "I was just about to come in there and see what all that there fuss was about."
"Um...Annie...we've got some really bad news," said Twilight.
"Spill it out! What's happened?!"
"There's a creature from another dimension known as a Weeping Angel in your house right now, it's killed Map Maker, and now it's going to try and hold us ransome so that the Doctor will save us; but the Doctor is currently in Ponyville seventy-two years in the future and the only means we have of him knowing where and when we are is through that letter that Twilight is holding," Pinkie replied in a long ramble.
Annie's eyes became extremely wide with a mixture of confusion, fear, and sadness. "Map Maker's...dead?"
"Do not feel sad, young Annie. I can take the pain away," said the Angel's voice through the door.
"Isn't that his voice?"
"That's not him. That's the Angel," Twilight replied with a gulp. Suddenly, the lanterns in the kitchen blew out and Twilight felt the illumination spell on her horn dying away. "Oh no." The light from Twilight's horn then disappeared. A second later, the three mares heard the sound of splintering wood. "Come on!" Twilight's horn illuminated again. The Angel's hooves were all the way through the door. Twilight's horn flickered. More splintering wood. The light returned and the Angel was now mostly through a large hole that was now in the center of the door. Twilight's horn quickly got into a cycle of flickering on and off. Each time, the Angel drew closer and closer.
"Y'all were right about that statue!" Annie cried. Twilight's horn continued to flicker and the three mares found themselves being backed up into a corner.
Pinkie suddenly grabbed one of the pans that was being used to cook the zap apple jam and threw it at the Angel. "Take that!" she cried. The light faded away just as the pan smashed into the Angel's head. A loud scream of pain suddenly reverberated through the air as several blue, electrical sparks lit up the kitchen for a few brief seconds. Twilight listened as the Weeping Angel ran through the kitchen, smashed through the window, flapped its wings, and took off. 
Twilight quickly illuminated her horn and ran to the window. "It's gone!" she said.
"I wonder what drove it off," said Annie as she breathed deeply.
Twilight walked over to the stove where Annie was cooking the zap apple jam. "Zap apple jam? That doesn't make any sense." She then began to stroke her chin in thought. "Or does it?" The three mares were silent for a moment. "Annie, I need you to gather up all the zap apple jam that's being made right now."
"What for?"
"We've got a Weeping Angel to deal with." Twilight's eyes sadly moved over towards the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. "And a stallion to avenge."