It slowly descended in the atmosphere of the blue planet, seeking a refuge. It used the planet as a shield against the ray of the nearest star that was now hurting it as its protective shell was gone. It needed a place to regain strength, to heal in order to be able to launch once against in the cosmos. It flew around the planet, searching.
It finally found a place to rest; a place full of food. Coming near it, it found a breach, a fissure in its integrity. It was small, but with its diminutive size, it managed to slip in. Something was already there and without knowing it, they got stuck to each other.
For an entity that never saw, never knew, never felt, the gift of sentience was a surprising one. Its previous life was over, and it was reborn as a new entity with a particular view on the world.
Mark woke up in the middle of the night. He had no idea how many days had passed since his healing. His body felt numb, as if he ran a marathon, but surprisingly the pain was mostly gone. However his right arm and hand refused to move. Removing the bed sheets using his left hand he was surprise to find out that they didn't discard his whole suit but cut off the upper part.
He put his feet on the floor and carefully stood up. His body didn't move for at least the last eight days and standing up wasn't so easy. After a few tries and a few minutes of losing his balance, he slowly walked to the windows. Opening the blind, he looked outside. The town was peaceful and from the look of it, it was almost the morning. The Moon caught his eyes. He stared at it a few minutes before letting out a silent. "Wow."
"Yeah, you sure did quite a mess up there." said a voice behind him.
Mark turned around. "Doctor? I'm surprised you're still around."
The Doctor was standing beside the bed as if he always been there. "What make you say that?"
Mark leaned against the wall, his legs were getting tired quickly. "You sound like the type of guy who doesn’t stand long in one place." he said with a smile.
"Something makes me think it's not over. Beside, I wanted to check something about you." he explained.
"Oh?"
The Doctor crossed his arms. "What you experienced tends to have some nasty side effect."
He remembered what the TARDIS told him. "You mean the disruption of my mind quantum pattern?" he said while pointing his head with his left hand.
The Doctor looked surprised. "What? How do you know?"
"Your ship... she worries a lot about you. You used to talk to her more often." he said enigmatic.
"What?" The Doctor blinked a few time.
He laughed. "I'm surprised how much I enjoy knowing something you don't. You probably feel like that quite often."
The Doctor shook his head. "What?"
"Alright! Twilight saved my body. Your ship saved my mind." he explained.
The Doctor frowned. "Huh... I... what?"
He rolled his eyes. "Come on Doc. I don't know how, but your ship pulled my mind's quantum pattern off my body and... 'stored' it in the realm it lives in. It prevented it from being messed up like my body." Seeing the Doctor was staring at him in disbelief, he continued "How did you say it... 'People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint; it's more like a... big ball of wibbly wobbly... timey wimey... stuff." he frowned. "A ball of wibbly wobbly... Seriously Doc?"
The Doctor laughed. "Actually, the Timelord's shortest paper about how time works is just a bit short of a thousand pages long. And from my experience, 'wibbly wobbly timey wimey' pretty much sums it all."
"Fine, I won't argue with you on that one." he took a deep breath. "Doc, how's Twilight?"
A smile cracked up on the Doctor's face. "She's doing pretty well, considering she got a second magic exhaustion in just over a single week. The doctor Stable is pushing hard to be able to write a paper about all that; earth ponies and pegasi being able to be exhausted magically and the effects of multiple magic exhaustions. I think he got topics for years of medical writing." He looked at the ceiling. "Her horn is in bad shape, but she won't lose it or lose her magical ability. She's an athlete in that field. Well, as long as she doesn't have to fight another big bad monster in the next month."
"How long it has been?"
"Since she finished with you? Almost two days."
Mark walked back to his bed. "I think I'm going to rest a bit." While he sat on the bed, he looked at the Doctor "If you see Twilight and..." He stopped of that word that drastically changed of meaning lately. "and my friends, would you mind telling them I would like to talk to them?"
"Sure." The Doctor turned around and started to leave. "Good night."
"Going toward another adventure Doc?"
He shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. I can feel my TARDIS wouldn't let me leave right now. She’s stubborn like that." On that, he left the room.
"Good morning." Mark said with his eyes close. The noise of somepony putting a food tray on his bedside woke him up. Hearing no reply, he opened his eyes. A white pony nurse was staring at him, half surprised half scared. "Is something wrong?" he asked.
"I... I..." she only managed to say while slowly walking backward toward the door.
His shoulders dropped, knowing very well he should be used to that reaction by now. "I passed enough time in this hospital for you to get used to my person. Thanks for the food." he said while taking the food tray and putting it over his legs.
"Is it true?" she asked, while being almost outside of the room.
Mark raised his head to look at her. "What is?"
"They say... they say you saved us..."
He raised his eyebrows. "Minute butterfly! I helped, but Twilight did the majority of the work." He looked at his motionless right hand. "And because I was reckless, I almost died and she got hurt while saving me."
"But... they said they will have to amputate your foreleg." Mark noticed that while saying that, she moved a bit in the room. He knew it would come to this, he didn't feel anything from his right arm and he understood quickly that one day they would need to remove it. It wasn't a happy feeling, but he knew it would put his life at risk to stay like that for too long.
He smiled. "I guess that's the price to pay for using magic while not being a unicorn. But I don't regret it, this is my planet too..." He looked at the window. "Or used to be. I would hate seeing it destroyed."
She nodded.
"If you don't mind, what's Twilight's room?" he asked while removing the cover of the tray. It smelled delicious, but right now he didn't know what he would give for some bacon.
"Room one o four." she said while leaving. She stopped and looked back. "And... Thanks."
"If you want to thanks me, get over your fear of me. I know it's silly and I know it shouldn't, but it hurts every time I see fear in some ponies' eyes." He said with a large smile.
"I'll... I'll try." she said while closing the door.
After eating, he stood up and did some stretching. He found out his right arm was getting in the way, flapping around without any control. Using some leftover bandages, he wrapped it against his chest. He was right handed, so everything asking for some precision using his left hand wasn't easy.
His body was screaming for some exercise and he did his best to move as much as possible inside the small room. However, there's a limit to what someone could do inside a small cube in which a bed take most of the space. Looking outside, he saw the day was going to be bright and sunny.
Enough with that. I've been in a room everyday I've been in Ponyville. If I'm to stay in this world, I better know the place.
He went to the bathroom and checked himself in the mirror. They removed the bandages of his face, but the right half was still recovering from severe burns. He hadn't shaved in nearly two weeks and it was showing. He didn't have a shirt, but the bandages on his chest covered him enough.
He exited the hospital without meeting anypony, it was still pretty early in the morning, the sun barely visible above the far mountain line. He quickly warmed up and started jogging slowly toward the village. He was going rather slowly because he wasn't sure his legs could keep up after a week in bed. Also his wrapped arm made his balance a bit harder than usual and the last thing he wanted was to fall.
He found out Ponyville was much smaller than he expected, small houses spread over without much structure. He had a quick view of it when he ran to Sweet Apple Acres in what felt like years ago.
It hasn't been two weeks. Feel like it was a different time... Maybe because it was!
He greeted with his left hands the few ponies that he came across. He got a few salute back but mostly some staring. He didn't mind much, with time they would get use to him, like he is getting used to them.
As his legs got used to the pace, he slowly accelerate.
They must think I'm terribly slow.
As the Sun started to warm his skin, he felt more alive than he has been in years. He wasn't sure what tomorrow would bring, but right now he didn't care. He came across the Cutie Mark Crusader, obviously going to some kind of school by the look of their bags. They cheered as he sprinted pass them.
It only took him an hour to circle the town and be back to the hospital. He was sweating and his hairs were sticking to his face. As he came close to the building, he saw a pony waiting outside.
He waved his arm. "Hey! What's up doc?" he said to the medical pony.
"Where were you?" Stable asked back.
Mark frowned, he wasn't expecting that kind of question. "Running around. I will go crazy if I stay inside. And I need the exercise." he explained while stretching his legs. "Is something wrong doc?"
"You're my responsibility and I..."
"Come on doc! I came too close to death to stay locked up. Beside, since I'm stuck here, I'm not gonna hide anymore." he cut him.
"...and I think your heart is not in shape for extensive training right now. You had a cardiac arrest a few days ago." he finished.
"Oh. Good point. Sorry." Mark apologized. "How's Twilight this morning?"
The doctor growled looking up at the sky. "She woke up just fine about an hour ago. But my magic specialist is requesting a month of vacation. Bringing Twilight's magic reserve back to her minimum again, really worn her out. I don't know what exactly she did to you, but my specialist had to redo it all over again."
Mark laughed. "Deeply sorry. You can always tell her she managed to bring back in shape a pony that has more magic potential than the princesses."
The doctor was shocked. "What are you talking about?"
Mark bit his lips. "Sorry, is it taboo or something? Don't talk against the royalty in any way?"
"No, no, nothing likes that. But why would you say Twilight has more magic than the princesses?" he asked in disbelief.
"Well, look at the Moon. She wasn't shooting at it, but off it. And yet the leftover turned a good part of it into charcoal. Considering, I'm pretty lucky I survived with only an arm burnt off." he explained while touching his bandaged arm. "Beside, I know for a fact that if she really wanted, she could vaporize this planet." He started walking toward the building's door. "Just saying, don't get on her bad side." He entered the clinic, leaving a speechless doctor outside.
He walked toward Twilight's room. On the way, he encountered nurse Redheart. She jumped back seeing him, but she didn't flee. He gave her his best smile, which she tried to reply to.
Coming in front of her door, he knocked hoping she was still awake. "Come in!" she said on the other side.
He opened the door. "Good morning sunshine!" he said while entering. She was in her bed, he horn once again in bandages. She looked tired, as if she studied a whole night.
"Mark! You're up!"
He smiled. "Yeah, you sure did quite a number on me." he came close to her bed. "You don't look that bad yourself." He pointed at her bed. "Mind if I sit?"
"Go ahead." he replied.
He sat down and stared at his feet. "I..."
Why is it so hard to say what's important?
"I know." she replied with a smile.
"I know you do." he said in a small laugh. "But I got to say it."
"Alright."
"I could thank you for the rest of my life, and it wouldn't be enough to express my gratitude." He took a deep breath. "You're a great friend Twilight." He looked at her with a large smile.
"See? Wasn't that hard?" she replied with a huge grim.
He stood up. "You probably have more experience with that friendship thing. Was it that easy with your first friend?"
She thought about it for a moment. "I guess not."
Mark's eyes drifted away while he took his jaw with his left hand, as if he was thinking very hard. "Hmm."
"What?"
"Since you can't do magic for a while, I would guess you will need some help. And you know, Spike is only one dragon." he explained with a smile.
"You're offering to help?"
He laughed. "Actually, I came to a decision..."
He was cut by the opening door and five "Twilight!" as four mares trotted in the room and one flew in. They stood in circle around the bed, staring at Twilight. Mark leaned against the wall watching the scene with a smile.
"You had us worried, honey! Don't ever do that again!" said Rarity as the four others nodded in agreement.
"Alright! Alright!" Twilight said with a grim. "I won't."
"Pinkie promise?" asked Pinkie Pie.
Mark coughed. "Don't ask her that." He put on his most serious face. "She would risk her life to save any of yours. You would hurt her by asking her to not act when she feels the need to." He smiled. "Have faith in each others."
They all stared at him. "That's deep, sugarcube." finally said Applejack, breaking an uneasy silence.
"Had time to think about it." he explained.
Pinkie Pie bounced around the bed and stopped in front of Mark and stared at him angrily. "And you mister, don't think you can break your promise!"
His eyes widen. "I'm not. I told you I would be back and that you could throw a party." He smiled and looked at Twilight. "You might even be able to do a double one to also celebrate Twilight's recovery."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "All that put aside, were you not saying something about a decision?" she questioned him.
All six mares stared at him. "I... it can wait, you're all here to see Twilight."
"Now what? You got our curiosity, so spit it out." pouted Rainbow Dash.
"Well, it's nothing complicated. I decided to stay in Equestria, maybe Ponyville. I'm sure I can help with some work around, if you want to." he explained. "I got some good mechanics, sciences and writing skills, I'm sure I can find something."
They all six stared at him intensely without replying.
Is it that surprising? Was I mistaken and they don't want me to stay around?
"Hmmm... Dear, what's going on in your pants?" finally asked Rarity pointing at his crotch.
"What?" he asked while looking down. Something in his pants' left pocket was moving and glowing. He put his hand in his pocket and quickly grabbed the metallic sphere. He had forgotten about it in the last week. As he removed his hand from his pocket, the sphere slipped from his grasped and hovered in front of him.
"It will help you when you will make a choice." He remembered. A choice, what choice? To stay here? To help?
The sphere shot bright ray of lights in his direction, bathing him in a glowing rainbow. He felt himself lift off the ground as if the gravity decided to forget about him. He wanted to scream and to run, but his body didn't answer his call. His mind calmed down all by itself, as if the sphere switched his fears off. He could see the six mares staring at him, too surprised to do anything. He felt himself slip asleep.
Not again! Come on, give me a break!
His eyes closed only for a moments. The next, he was lying on his side on the floor. His body felt weird, as if it wasn't his own. However, the first thing he noticed was the presence of feelings in his right arm.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that!" laughed a voice he knew well.
As he opened his eyes, he saw six mares staring at him with their jaws hanging low and the Doctor in background laughing his ass off. He wasn't surprised to see the Doctor, as he had a gift for showing up from nowhere. Automatically he noticed something was off, the colors and the shape appeared different, brighter and more flat.
"Not fun Doctor. They did something to my eyes! I'm seeing all weird." he pleaded.
Twilight was the first to manage to close her mouth. "Not just your eyes I'm afraid." she said.
"What?" he asked. But as he said that, he noticed his nose. It was longer and wider than before, but more importantly, it was dark blue. Instinctively, he tried to grab it, only to punch himself in the face with something hard. He looked down to what just hurt him and saw what looked to be a hoof. His eyes followed the leg to the body of what appeared to be a pony.
For the first time in his life, he really freaked out. "No! No, no, no, no, no, no... No! Why? No!" he screamed.
He was freaking out on the floor, his legs beating the air, eyes looking around in despair. He was breathing hard and looking around in fear. They all looked at him, not knowing what to say or what to do. It was Fluttershy who moved forward and hugged him. "Calm down. There..."
He felt his mind calm down on his own once again, but his heart was still beating hard and fast. After an eternity or two, he pushed her off. "Thanks. I think I'm feeling better." He looked down at what used to be his arms. He felt the panic come back, but he pushed it away too. He couldn't explain why he lost control like that. He was a grownup, and even if the events of the past six months were hard of his nerves, it couldn't justify his reaction. He was a trained astronaut, ready to face the unknown.
Is it those changes? I know horses of my time were easily scared... Does it mean I can't control myself like I used to? No! My mind is mine and I control it.
He looked up. "Doctor! What the hell was that transformation?" he shouted.
The Doctor took a deep breath. "I'm not sure, but it looked like some kind of quantum restructuration."
Mark felt hope coming up in his mind. "So you can reverse it!"
The Doctor looked away. "Well... without knowing exactly what it was and what it did? I'm afraid I can't."
"Can't you analyze the sphere? It should tell you what they did!" he asked back as he tried to sit down in his new form.
He stared at him. "I'm afraid it disintegrated as soon as it was done with you." he said shaking his head. "Beside, you're kinda cute as a unicorn."
Mark looked up and he finally noticed a small horn standing on top of his head between his silver manes. He was surprised that his hairs didn't change color.
He was about to scream insults to the Doctor but he closed his mouth hard in anger. He couldn't accept that there wasn't a solution to back to normal. He looked up once again. "Twilight! Do you know any spell that could help?"
She looked up at the ceiling, thinking hard. "Well, with magic the problem is different from the Doctor's. I could change your form without knowing what happened, but I simply don't know any spell aimed at changing somepony into a human." She sighed heavily. "And that's just the first part. I could probably change your visual aspect to a human and that kind of spell would only last a short while. For something permanent, I would need deep knowledge of human's biology and years of crafting for the spell. The only other way was if somepony already made such spell."
He closed his eyes in despair. They all stood in silence.
Somepony knocked at the door. "Come in!" shouted Twilight.
The grey pegasus Mark remembered as being his bed neighbor entered. She was wearing a blue cap and a saddlebag with a mail icon on it. She looked around, confused at the scene of six mares, a royal blue stallion sitting in a corner and a human in a blue suit she never saw before. "Huh... Maybe it's not a good time?" she asked.
"What is it Miss Hooves?" asked Rarity.
"Oh... I received order to deliver a letter to Miss Twilight Sparkle here at..." he looked at the wall clock. "Ten in the morning? Well, about now." she said with a grim.
The six mares looked at each other before staring back at the mailmare. "A letter?" asked Twilight.
"Yeah!" she answered while taking a scroll off her bags and bringing it to Twilight. She dropped it on Twilight's lap and trotted back to the door. "Have a nice day!" she claimed happily while walking away.
They all examined the scroll. "It's the royal seal." simply stated Twilight. Even Mark was surprised by the event and carefully managed to move toward the bed, as he quickly found out walking in his new shape wasn't given.
"Come on! Open it!" almost screamed Rainbow Dash.
Twilight pointed at her horn and looked at Rarity. "Would you mind?"
"Oh! Sure, dear." she said while her horn took a blue glow. She broke the seal of the scroll and unrolled it in front of Twilight.
She cleared her throat and began to read. "To my faithful student Twilight Sparkle. I would like to apologize for being so busy lately and being unable to come visit you while you were recovering. I've heard of your adventure on the moon and of the risks you took to preserve our planet. Everyponies are aware of the courage you showed in face of such danger. I couldn't be more proud."
Of course, Spike wrote her letters explaining everything. thought Twilight.
"I've prepared a little ceremony in your honor in a week from now. I would like you to come with the two stallions that helped you..." She stopped to re-read the sentence a few time. "... in this quest. I'm looking forward to meet this stallion you've been talking about for the last six months. With affection, Princess Celestia."
Rarity brought the scroll in front of her to read it again. The six mares simply didn't know what to say. The Doctor took his jaw with his left hand and hummed loudly.
Twilight finally broke the silence. "That makes no sense! I was very specific that a timelord and a human helped me, not two stallions. And I was very clear in my past letters about Mark species!"
"I think she wanted us to know she was aware ahead of time of the specific event that took place here." the Doctor explained.
"What?" asked the seven ponies.
The Doctor crossed his arms. "She appears to know a lot more than that. When Mark was first brought in this hospital, I overheard the doctor Stable talking about orders he received from the Princess... Orders to take good care of him, he received an hour before Mark arrived."
"That's impossible!" countered Twilight. "I wrote about Mark only after I brought him here."
"And they came in by courier. Which imply she knew hours ahead. Without magic, it takes a few hours for a rapid courier to do the distance between here and Canterlot." he finished.
Twilight thought about it a few moments. "I admit something else is maybe wrong..." she started.
"What?" the six ponies and the Doctor asked.
"Mark stayed in Ponyville a month and it's been almost two weeks since you're brought us in the hospital Doctor. In those six specific weeks, the Princess have been too busy to receive me or to come over here. But the day after Mark left in the desert, she sent a letter asked if I wanted to see each other." she explained. "It never happened before."
"Really? That's weird." said Applejack.
"Wait, wait, wait..." said Rarity, still reading the scroll. "Who is the second stallion she is writing about?"
Mark coughed loudly. "Doctor?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Oh no, no, no. I stay as far away as possible from royalty."
"No choice Doc! You're the second stallion, and you did help Twilight." he rolled his eyes. "I know very well you're dying of curiosity to know what's happening."
As everybody left the room to let Twilight rest, Mark found himself in the corridor with a heart breaking problem; he wasn't able to walk correctly. After falling face first for the fifth time, he stayed there lying on the floor along the wall. His now four legs hurt as they kept hitting each other. Someone who would end up finding him there, but at that moment he didn't care much.
He knew very well it was only the first of a collection of problems he would have to face, some as simply as picking and handling items. He saw ponies take objects with their mouth before, but he was obviously not very fond of the idea.
How such a pretty day could turn out so bad? Why did they do this to me? Why now and not before the trip to the moon, and what does that princess has to do with all this?
He wanted to cry, to scream, to punch a wall, but he simply felt like he had no energy left. He knew he would have to find a way to crawl back to his room. Right now, he only wished the universe would forget about him.
"Are you alright?"
"No, I am not 'alright'!" he screamed. He turned his head around to see who asked. "Ugh... I... I'm sorry Fluttershy." he apologized at the sight of the yellow mare that jumped back from his screaming. The last thing he needed right now was to alienate his friends. She looked about to flee and that sight made Mark felt even worst.
She took all her courage and moved forward. "huh... What's the problem? If you don't mind saying..." she asked with a soft but firm voice.
Mark closed his eyes. "I feel weak, I can't walk, I'm naked... I feel... vulnerable, manipulated." he explained while dropping his head on the floor. "I want to find a hole and disappear."
She stood silent for a few moments. "I fully understand."
"What? How can you..." Mark stopped noticing he was about to scream again.
"I'm not strong like the others." she said with a smile. "I'm afraid all the time." She put a hoof on his shoulder. "Let me help you."
"So, that's where you were the last week?" asked Twilight as the train rocked slightly to its side.
Mark was sitting on the bench in front of her. "Yeah. I stayed a week at her home. She trained me to walk... and to eat." He put a hoof on the table that stood between them. "You have no idea how hard it is to hold stuff with those."
"It's not that hard!"
"You were born with them. I had fingers to grab objects." he explained. "Anyway, she has a lot of patience, more than I will ever have. I was ready to give up about a hundred times, but she kept pushing me to try again."
"And?" she asked.
"And now I can walk almost normally. Don't ask me to run, I will need weeks or months to be able to. Pony's walk cycle and run cycle are really different. And... I can eat by myself once more, but not without dropping stuff once in a while." he explained slightly annoyed.
She thought for a few seconds. "If you were unable to walk, how did you reach her home?"
He rolled his eyes. "She grabbed me and carried me while flying. She is far stronger than she appears."
"Oh my..."
"Yeah, Fluttershy carry an unknown stallion with no cutie mark to her home." He shook his head. "I really hope the town won't gossips or spread rumors." The last thing he wanted was that Fluttershy would be ashamed from helping him. "Anyway, how are you? Your horn is looking much better."
She looked up. "Yeah. It is almost back to normal. A week without magic is pretty hard, I was used to do everything using it." She laughed. "Other ponies write with their mouth, but I never did that. I decided to write a letter to the princess without Spike's help. Not a good idea." She stared at him. "Which make me think, since you got a horn yourself, you will need to learn how to use it."
He sighed. "You make me think when I first saw myself in a mirror. Finding something stuck on your forehead that wasn't there before is pretty weird. As for magic, I'm not sure it's a good idea."
"How so?" she frowned.
"Seeing I had such a hard time to pick up object, Fluttershy thought it would be a good idea for me to learn telekinesis. I think she asked Spike a book about it or something." He shook his head. "A very bad idea. I might look like a unicorn, but normally you're trained from your young age."
She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure to follow, how was it a bad idea? I'm pretty sure learning some magic will help you a lot."
Mark focused on the glass of water that remained from their meals. His horn started to glow in a deep blue color. The same glow bathed the glass. All of a sudden, the water caught in fire.
"Woah!" she shouted jumping back. She stared at the blue flame that appeared to slowly consume the water. "How did you do that?"
"No idea, and that's the problem. I don't know what's going on, and objects tend to catch fire a bit too easily for my taste." he explained. "At least, Fluttershy had the presence of mind to make me try magic outside." he said with a small laugh.
"Well... it could be useful..."
"To light a fireplace." They both laughed at the poor joke. "Why you said the princess might have ideas on how to turn me back to norm... human?"
"She lived for... Well nopony know her real age, but she is at least over a thousand years old..." she started to explain.
"Impressive! Hey! Doctor, how old are you?" asked Mark while poking the sleeping brown stallion beside him.
"You don't want to know." the Doctor answered while turning around and going back to sleep.
"... and if somepony know, it must be her. She knows some old and secret spells, some dangerous." she finished.
Mark stared at the purple mare. "I see..."
"What?"
"You're in admiration." he said.
"Of course, she's my teacher and..."
"And you got a crush on her!" he exclaimed. He noticed that she blushed very hard and didn't deny it right away.
"I don't!" she countered a bit too late.
He understood his faux pas right away. "I'm sorry, I only meant to tease you. I can understand the attraction, she is quite pretty."
The red disappeared of her face almost instantly. "How do you know?"
"I had the chance to look at her when you blew up the planet." he threw a glance at the sleeping Doctor. "Even if you and her don't remember it. She is much taller than other ponies I saw so far, is it normal?"
"Frankly, I'm not sure anything is normal about the princesses." She rested her head on her hooves. "They are both very old. For what I know, over ten times what a pony is expected to live. They are both pegasus and unicorn, as they have wings and horns, and all other case of 'alicorn' are from their own children. But as far as I know, even their own children don't live as old as them and are not as powerful."
"Sounds pretty amazing. Any idea where they came from?" he asked back.
She sighed. "Well, no. They surely know, but they never said anything to anypony. Scientists of all over Equestria gave all the possible wild explanations you could imagine. We don't know where they came from, how old they are... Or even how they found the elements of harmony. They..."
"Elements of harmony? It's not the first time I hear you talk about that, but I never came around to ask you what it was." he cut her.
"You don't know?" she asked surprised.
"Should I?"
"Well..." she shrugged. "I guess you can't know if nopony tell you. The elements are..." she stopped to think. "They are... Actually I'm not even sure what they are. The best way I could sum them up is, they are powerful artifacts that symbolize harmony. From what I understand, they choose by themselves who weld them. Honesty, loyalty, generosity, kindness, laughter... and magic. I have no idea who made them, where or when they were made... Or even if they were 'made' in some way. There's not much information about them, as their previous users were the princesses a very long time ago."
"Previous?" His instincts were telling him some wild idea that his logical mind couldn't accept. "Would you be the element of magic?" he asked in a playful tone.
"Yes. But how do you know?"
He rolled his eyes once more. "Sorry, I was teasing again, I didn't know. Well... not true, my heart told me about it, but my brain couldn't believe it." He crossed his foreleg, a motion he found to not be as easy as it was with arms. "The other elements... Your five friends? I felt their presence on the Moon, somehow..."
"Exact."
"Crazy stuff." He leaned back on his seat. "Not the first time, and I have the feeling it's not the last, even if I would prefer to stay out of all that."
"You could."
"I haven't been given the chance to bail out so far." He looked out the window. "I think we are almost there." he said as he watched the city made of ivory and gold come closer. "It doesn't look very big, you know?"
"A good part is inside the mountain and other parts of the city are on the other flank. What you see is mostly the castle." she explained.
"Well, time to wake up the sleepy one if we want to get there on time."
"I was sure stallions were bigger than mares." noted Mark as they were walking in the street of Canterlot toward the castle's gates.
"They are. Look at the Doctor." said Twilight.
Mark turned around to stare at the Doctor. "We both know it's not his real appearance. Beside, what I meant is why I am as small as you Twilight?"
"Actually, she's a bit taller." noted the Doctor.
"Whatever!" he shouted. "It makes no sense."
"You're maybe not done growing up?" Twilight said trying not to laugh.
He rolled his eyes and tried to forget about that specific topic that bothered him for the past week. "Is it my imagination but ponies are staring at us?"
"Twilight Sparkle is the student of Celestia, I would guess she is well known." pointed the Doctor.
She shook her head in negation. "No Doctor, I came often to Canterlot, but I'm only one student among many. Sure, I'm the personal student of the princess, but I'm not really known. And trust me, it’s fine with me." She stopped walking and looked around, noticing the ponies' stares. "Mark is right." She turned around and looked at the Doctor and Mark. "Oh."
"What 'Oh'?" asked Mark.
"A stallion of your age... or the age you look like... whatever! A stallion without a cutie mark is obviously a rare occurrence."
He sighed. "How rare?"
"Well, I never heard of something like that before." she answered with a smile.
"Great! They must think I got some kind of sickness, curse or whatever." he replied half angry.
The Doctor shrugged his shoulder. "Let's just move, shall we? You forced me to come here, how about we get over with it."
They followed Twilight up to the gates of the castle. Two stallions in golden armor stopped them at the doors of the royal court. "The princesses are expecting you in moment."
"Princess Luna is here too?" asked Twilight surprised.
The two guards looked at each other. "Yes." finally answered one of them.
"What's wrong Twilight?" asked Mark.
"Well, nothing is wrong. Just that Princess Luna tends to the night court, it's only unusual to see her in the middle of the day." she explained.
Mark shrugged. "You said she was a friend, maybe she just wants to see you."
A smaller stallion in a gold and red suit came to them. "The court herald." Twilight whispered. "I didn't expect it to be an official visit."
"Welcome Twilight Sparkle. It's good to see you again." the herald greeted her with a noble tone. "Who should I announce?" he asked looking at the other two ponies.
"Mark and the Doctor." she answered.
"Very well." The herald turned around and entered the court room.
Twilight looked nervous. "Stay close. Bow down when I do. Let me talk. Alright?" she quickly said.
The Doctor and Mark looked at each other. "Of course." they both answered. From behind the closed door, they could hear the herald shouted their names. At that moment, the two guards pushed the doors open. Twilight didn't hesitate and walked in. They two others followed her a few steps behind.
Mark looked around in awe; the outside of the palace was impressive, but not as much as the throne room. Every column, carpet, wall or ceiling pieces looked different from each other. Each wall was decorated of huge stained glassed that covered them from the floor to the roof, each of them displaying some kind of epic scenery. A dozen guards in golden armor were standing still on each side of the room.
At the far end of the room stood two massive thrones, one in gold with small waterfalls on each side, the other in black marbles with white and blue gems inlaid in it. Both had detailed engraving of leaves, clouds and other patterns Mark couldn't figure out.
But as much as the room was impressive, he couldn't get his eyes off the two massive ponies standing on the thrones. Both were far bigger than the guards, and maybe even bigger than what Mark remembered from the last time he saw them. Their manes were moving along an undetectable wind, one made of pastel colors, the other of a calming light blue.
Twilight stopped in the middle of the room and Mark had to move aside to not collide with her. He stood by her right side while the Doctor walked to her left side. She bowed down with her eyes closed. Mark closed his eyes and was about to do the same when he felt his hooves leave the ground. He opened his eyes in surprised to see that he was in fact floating about a meter off the ground. He looked around and saw that the Doctor was in the same situation.
Mark and the Doctor looked at Celestia as she walked off her throne, her horn glowing the same yellow color that was surrounding them. Twilight finally understanding that some was off, looked up in surprised at the flying stallions. "Princess?" she asked confused.
Celestia was slowly walking toward them, her eyes becoming white and her horn started shooting bolts of energy randomly around. She looked angry, some deep and old rage coming to the surface. One bolt burned off a good part of the carpet while another blasted off a column, making a guard jump back in fear. "After all you've done, you show up here?" she shouted. Her voice was amplified by magic, and the whole room vibrated enough to drop clouds of smoked off the ceiling.
Mark looked in despair at the Doctor. "Doctor, what have you done?"
The Doctor looked back with his eyes wide open. "I've done nothing!"
Mark frowned. "…yet?"
"I'm talking to you, Mark!" shouted the Princess. Mark's head snapped to stare at the angry princess as she kept walking toward him, her eyes locked on him.
"I... I..." he said, unable to formulate a complete sentence.
What's going on!?
The Princess looked away as both flying ponies disappeared in a purple flash. When she opened her eyes again, her horn had lost its glow and her face its angry look. Twilight could have sworn the Princess looked sad as her own horn was losing its own purple glow. For the first time, she noticed Luna was lying on the floor sobbing.
"Go with them Twilight." Celestia said to Twilight in a voice much tender then she was used too, as her shoulders dropped low.
"But..."
"No question, please." she almost whispered.
Twilight wasn't used to the Princess begging her for anything. She focused on the same spell she just used on Mark and the Doctor, and casted it on herself. With a flash she vanished from the court room.
Celestia turned around and walked to Luna.
"Tia... Do you... Do you think she will ever forgive us?" asked the Princess of the night as tears rolled off her cheeks.
The white alicorn looked back where the three ponies were standing. "I... I don't know Lu. Time will tell."
Luna raised her head and stared at her older sister. "But we are sending him to his death!"
"I..." she started, but couldn't finish. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. "I know, but I wish there was another solution. Any other solution. We... we have to have faith in them."