//------------------------------// // Part 3 // Story: Little Luna and Cynical Celestia, A Doctor Whooves Tale // by SubCinemaProductions //------------------------------// They ran. Up and out of the crator they came. The Doctor, flanked on either side by Celestia, on his right, and by Luna, on his left. Neither of the two sisters could remember a time when they run this fast, or this hard. The Doctor, however, remembered the exact last time that he had run just this fast and just this hard. It had to be... two weeks ago this tuesday. Only then he didn't have four legs like he did now. He thought that he was adjusting to being a pony rather nicely. He was picking up things with his mouth, trotting merrily, and blended in just as much as he did when he was around humans. Well, not now of cousre. He was running for his life, after all. That tends to make one stand out in a crowd. He could hear wings flapping behind him. So the dragon was in pursuit and, judjing by the increase in amplitude, he was gaining on them. They were just entering the partly-damaged village when the Doctor heard a swooshing sound and felt a wave of heat come from behind. He had to act fast. He pointed to the one of many primitive buildings that was the closest. "Quickly!" he shouted to the sisters, "In there! Now!" Luna followed his instuctions and dove into the house. She scrambled in and looked back. She saw the Doctor and her sister run in right behind her. Outside the door from which they had come in, they could see the dragon flying low and passing the building. They were all gasping from the running and leaning on the walls. "Okay," the Doctor began, panting heavily, "We have about thirty seconds before he comes back around." He turned to the elder sister. "Can you take Luna somewhere safe?" She nodded, but Luna objected. "No! I'm not leaving you!" Tia ingnored her and turned to him. "I don't know the way. Can you at least get us to Thumping's house?" He nodded, taking heavy breaths. Luna cried out again. "No! I want to stay with you!" The brown stallion turned to the fily. "Look, this is the only way I can make sure that you're okay. I couldn't live with myself if anypony else got hurt. Especially you." Once he said this, a roar sounded not too far away. He went to the door and looked back at them. "Are you ready?" Celestia nodded again while Luna pouted. The Doctor smiled. "Then let's ride." ~ Thumping led about twenty five other ponies to the edge of the forrest. They each had some sort of weapon, whether it be a large tree branch or some sort of tool that they had brought with them. They had a good mix of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasai. Some of them were murmuring about "how exactly are we going to take down that thing?" Some of them were realizing their loudicrous desicion, but carrying on nonetheless.Thumping also had his doubts. What if the Doctor had already been killed by this thing? Would they then have the ability to take it down alone? What if there was nothing left of their town but a cinder? All of them were floating about in his mind, but one stood out. "Can we recover?" One of the stallions, whom had a near-golden mane and blue hair, turned his head to Thumping. "What was that?" Thumping shook his head. He must be hopeful. The Doctor, however insane he might be, could solve this. He had organized their escape, after all. In an effort to keep his mind off of these things, he turned to the pony who spoke. "What's your name?" "Royal," he said in a stern voice, "Royal Gaurd." They pressed forward, and Thumping replied, "I remember you. You saved the town once from a timberwolf attack. Do you have a family, Royal?" The hardened looking pony focused his gaze forward. "No. If it's okay, I'd rather not talk about it." "That's fine," Thumping said simply. That ended their convorsation. The group had gotten through the last part of the forrest. They were about to come into sight of their home. Thumping was the first to emerge through the last few trees. He gasped. The other ponies came swiftly behind him, wanting to see what his exclamation was about. Once they saw, some of them, too, gasped. Others simply gaped. Royal had taken too the silent approach. They saw the dragon that had attacked them being beaten back by a yellow beam of light coming from somewhere on the ground. It was hitting him square in the chest, making him sceam in anger and in pain. The dragon pushed forward, but in doing so, made the beam hit him directly in the face. There was a roar of pain, a flash of bright, yellow light, and the fell on the town. ~ Celestia, led by the Doctor and dragging an upset Luna behind her, ran through the streets of the small town. Every once in a while, when he dragon came close, they would duck into a building. Because the dragon was catching on the their stategy, they decided that when they did this, they would split up, only to then rejoin in running in the road. She was out of breath from more physical exertion than she was used to. How much longer was it going to take? Would the be safe once they got bac to their home? Could this monster be defeated? More and more of these types of questions ran through her troubled mind. She felt another brush of heat come from behind her and she dove into a shack on the right while the Doctor went left, pulling her sister in with her hoof. The flames rushed past the tiny building and, for a moment only, she was blinded by the light it produced. She sheilded the younger filly with her body, hoping that whatever fire that might've gotten in would land on her instead. There was no need. Soon, the fire subsided. She turned and looked out at the street and looked for the Doctor, waiting for his signal. She saw him leaned up against the doorway of the house across the way. He was panting and out of breath. So was she. It was tiring,but in the end it wuld be worth it, she hoped. He looked at her. He waved his hooves differently this time, looking like he was indicating for her to stay there. The dragon hadn't come out yet, so, cautiously, he ran out of the building down the way they had just came. Tia turned in his direction and, before she could object, he was gone. She poked her head out, confused. The elder sister withdrew her head when she heard the flapping of wings, hoping that he didn't see her. She heard the dragon fly over her, apperently searching for them. They were lucky to have gone into a house with a top this time, for the dragon swooped low and, as she could see, started looking for them in frustration acroos the street in the house the Doctor had just been in. Suddenly, a hoof covered her mouth. She nearly screamed and swung her hoof around, hitting somepony square in the jaw. Celestia turned and saw the Doctor rubbing his chin with his hoof. Her eyes lit up. She started to appologise, but he shushed her with another hoof-to-mouth. "We've got to get out of here," he said, barely below a whisper. He indicated to the window from which he must've just come in from and they began to slowly creep to the back of the house. Timing was essential, as the Doctor said, so out the window they went and, while the dragon wasn't looking in their direction, they made a mad dash to the next house, hoping to remain undetected. They scrambled as silently as they could into the back door of the next house. Still out of breath from all of the earlier running, Tia ooked out the window to see if the dragon was making his way towards them. Thankfully, he wasn't. In fact, he was actually going in the opposite direction from them. She breathed a sigh of releif. Feeling that they were a safe distance away, she spoke to him. "Is it okay to whisper now?" she asked, barely audible. He nodded. "I think the sonic left his ears more damaged than I had intended. His ears are probably still ringing, poor guy." The elder sister was taken aback. "Poor guy?!?" she exclaimed a little too loudly. Luna shushed her. Celestia lowered her voice. "He's trying to kill us!" "He's just doing his job," the Doctor retorted defensively. "Granted, he could have a better attitude about it." The dragon roared in frustration in the distance. "But if it wasn't him doing it, it would've been another dragon you'd be calling monster." Luna stepped in. "Um, does this matter much?" "No," he answered quickly, slight anger in his voice, "It doesn't." He crept slowly to the front window, Tia at his back. Outside, she could see that one of the houses looked familiar. It was quite a bt bigger than the otheres. "Hey," she whispered exitedly, "That's Thumping's home!" "Yep," he breathed. The Doctor turned to the sisters. He addressed them in a happy solemnity. "Looks like this is where we part." "No!" Luna cried a little too loudly, "I want to stay with you!" "Luna, we discussed this-" the Doctor said a little harshly. "No!" she interupted. This time, Celestia spoke, a little more grown up than usual. "Luna, it had been decided." "NO!" She stamped her hoof, causing a great echo to bouce through the streets of the village. They were each paralysed in fear, hoping that the dragon didn't hear. They waited and held their breath for what seemed like five minutes. Everything was still. "Sorry." Luna looked sheeepish. The Doctor exhaled a sigh of releif. "That," he said, "was close-" There then sounded a great roar. It shooke the very ground beneath their hoofs. They could hear the dragon yelling, "I'VE GOT YOU!!!!" They heard the sound of great flapping wings approaching closer and closer. "RUN!" The Doctor shouted once again. They jumped out of the front window just in time for the roof to be ripped off and ran towards the pony doctor's house. Once they had reached the halfway point between the now roofless house and the medical pony's home, the Doctor pushed them away. Tia looked back at him, holding Luna back "Split up!" he shouted to Celestia, a slight quiver of brave panic in his voice, "Take Luna to safety! I'll deal with Mr.Tear-The-Roof-Off!" He turned to face his mortal opponent while Celestia dragged Luna away from him, the little one kicking and screaming in resistance. "I WANT TO BE WITH THE DOCTOR!" she cried in resistance. "HE'S GOING TO BE HURT WITHOUT US!" "No- Luna-" Celestia stuggled with holding the young filly back. She looked up and saw the dragon hovering in the air in front of the Doctor and the beast inhaled. Celestia knew what was going to happen next. Then, why did she feel a pang of guilt for walking, nay, running away and letting it all be over for the crazy pony? She had been trying to get away from the him the entire time. He had caused nothing but trouble for her and her sister. Based off what he said, none of this would have happened without him; so, then, why did she feel... sad? Luna broke free of her sister's hold. She had gotten distracted in her own moral dilema that she had completely forgotton about holding the filly back. Her eyes swelled in panic as she tried fruitlessly to grab her sister before it was too late. Luna ran up to the Doctor right before the outward breath. The Doctor seemed absolutely shocked that she was beside him. He began to yell at her to run away, but she persisted. Celestia had a split second to decide what to do. The elder sister charged at the flying monstrosity before her. She let out a cry of boundless anger and protectiveness. She felt a litle light headed, sort of like when she was scared to death about Luna's safety combined with the feeling of when she tried to use that magic her sister had showed her countless times before. She paid no mind, for she was on a mission to protect her sister and the raggedy pony beside her. She was prepared to die. ~ As the first breath of flame left the dragon's mouth, it was met halfway with a beam of light. The beam of light, which came from a white pony below, tore through the fire and disapated it as though it were warm butter. This left the dragon shocked and the ponies below rather confused. The dragon, out of his shock, flew towards the small group. The white pony seeing this, too wasted no more time and fired another powerfull beam of her yellow energy at the dragon. It hit him squarely in the chest. Time nearly stopped for all creatures present and most everything moved in what seemed to them to be slow-motion. The dragon, out of more of his dragonrage, screamed and pushed forward, not realizing the consiquences. As he flew, the beam remain going in the same direction and, in doing so, caused it to go up on the dragon's body as he drew closer. Eventually, the energy hit him directly in the head. He gave one final cry and dropped to the ground. A great ammount of dust and debris could be seen flying upwards from where he had landed. Once it had cleared, the small blue filly and the brown stallion saw a fallen heap of white pony, the elder sister, and ran over to her. In he distance, a small militia was moving from the place that the villagers were towards the nearly destroyed town.