Chapter 9
“Did ya eva find out what critter wuz watchin' you?” Applejack asked. Jacob shook his head.
“I asked Celestia in later a later meeting if she'd ever heard of a creature that could teleport that hunted in tall grass, but she denied any knowledge of such a thing. It could just have been a shy Zebra with magic, or Unicorn, but I doubt I'll ever know for sure. But then, I've seen much stranger things whilst traveling with Doc.”
“Like?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Like pink clouds made of cotton candy that rained liquid chocolate. Apparently at some point in your future the clouds nearly cause a crisis.”
“What?!” Twilight exclaimed. “Discord gets loose again, and in our lifetimes?!” They girls (with the odd exception of Rainbow Dash) all looked at Pinkie Pie, who gave everyone else a confused look.
“What? Why are you all looking at me?”
“No, no. Discord stays a statue. It's just a cloud-crisis. But somepony saved the day without our help. We just found out about it two weeks or so after it happened. All of Canterlot was chocolate-covered, as was most of the rest of Equestria. A few apparently even made their way to Earth, but it was raining on the other side of the Stone Arch Gateway, and the clouds dissolved to nothing.
Pinkie's face lit up at hearing that Canterlot had been covered in chocolate, and begged Jacob to tell her the date. He shrugged and looked at the Doctor. “You know, I can't rightly recall. You, Doc?” He shook his head too. Pinkie gave them a scary glare that rivaled Fluttershy's infamous Stare, but they both frantically repeated that they really didn't know.
“We were vacationing that day, and weren't really interested in an event that we didn't need to help avert.”
Ditsy landed and trotted back in, carrying several bags of both hay fries and french fries in a pair of disposable saddlebags that she'd not had when she'd left.
“Anypony hungry for some non-snack food? I brought ketchup too!”
There were both several nods and shakes of heads, and Ditsy passed around several bags. “So what'd I miss?” The girls summed up what we'd told in Ditsy's absence in between bites of food. “So we're not to the part where we found out Celestia's mother's name yet. Alrighty!” Ditsy made herself comfortable and tossed another mouthful of hay fries into her mouth, smiling while chewing contentedly.
* * * * *
Ditsy stepped first out of the TARDIS, followed by The Shield, and finally, The Doctor, who shut the door behind them. They had chosen to land the TARDIS next to, much to the dislike of The Doctor, an outhouse. First my TARDIS is compared to one of these things by a Human, and now it's parked next to one! Other than a frown and a sigh he voiced no complaint about it. Turning their heads a little to the right revealed the castle that they'd visited in the future. Though just saying future is a bit vague given how far forward we've traveled as far as linear time is concerned. Just saying 'the future' could mean ten minutes, ten years, ten- The Doctor's internal monologue was interrupted as both Ditsy and The Shield pinched their noses (though how Ditsy managed that given that she had no fingers and only used one hoof will forever remain a mystery) and made exclamations of how unpleasant the real outhouse smelled.
“Why couldn't we have parked next to a tool shed or a guard house or something along those lines?!” The Shield asked him in a off-voice.
“Well I could have, but then we'd be more likely to be noticed!”
“Oh, and parking a blue, and obviously better constructed box right next to it isn't as likely to draw attention?”
“Come on, guys!” Ditsy said, trotting away from the two 'boxes'. “The sooner we get away from here, the sooner it'll stop smelling bad!” Unable to argue with her logic, the two Time Lords followed her until they reached a road where they once more stopped and breathed in deeply, savoring the clean air.
“Ah! Much better! Now, let us see if this is in fact the place we are looking for!”
“How could it not be?” The Shield asked. “I'm no expert on Equestrian history, but if I recall correctly only a bare handful of castles were constructed on this planet ever, and we are still in Equestria.”
“I know how we can find out!” Ditsy stated, trotting away from them.
“Really?” The Shield asked. “And how's that?” Ditsy looked over her shoulder at them and rolled her eyes.
“We ask somepony, duh!” The Shield looked at the Doctor, who was smiling and already moving to follow her.
Ditsy stopped next to a pony at a place where the road split and headed south that seemed to be a patrol pony. His armor was rather simplistic and consisted of wood instead of metal. He as well as two others had seemingly stopped for lunch, and was contentedly munching away at a basket full of dandelions. Ditsy stopped next to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
“Excuse me.” He stopped eating an looked at her, blinking in surprise at her eyes, but not commenting on it or making a face, for which Ditsy was pleasantly surprised. “Can you please tell us where we are? We're new around here.” The guard looked at The Doctor, and then at The Shield, his eyes widening in shock at the sight of the latter, then breaking into a grin.
“By the horn of Mantle, tis' a Human!” His exclamation drew the attention of his fellow patrol ponies who stared in disbelief.
“Her name is Janette, and this is The Doctor. My name is Ditsy Doo! Pleased to meet you!” Ditsy closed her eyes and smiled, looking as adorable as she could. Sadly, the patrol ponies missed the adorable display in favor of staring at a legendary figure. The Shield, feeling a bit uncomfortable, waved and said simply,
“Hi.” The patrol ponies dropped their lunches and made their way to her, then walked around her, looking her up and down, occasionally rubbing their eyes as they tried to confirm that they were in fact, not imagining things.
“Hey Janette, they seem to be ignoring me. Why don't you try asking them?” Ditsy suggested. Still looking uncomfortable, The Shield repeated Ditsy's question. The trio stopped examining her and then all tried to answer her at once. They stopped and looked at each other and then laughed for a few seconds. When they stopped two of them pointed at the shortest of the trio, who then replied that they'd arrived at Alicorn Castle.
“Home of our noble king Mantel, our beautiful queen Elpis, and the king's brother, the wizard Thanatos!”
“Do not forget their children, Celestia and little Luna, Short Stack!” the middle-height pony added. “Little Luna is so adorable!” He made a 'Da'www!' face. The Doctor nodded and looked to Ditsy, who was still a little disappointed that her 'adorable' face hadn't worked. He patted her back.
“On the bright side, Ditsy, we now know that we are, in fact, in the right place!” The pair of earth ponies looked on as The Shield began being asked question after question in a repeat of what had happened in the relatively-speaking near future.
“Should we help her?” Ditsy asked as more ponies on the road joined the growing group surrounding The Shield. The Doctor shook his head.
“Nah! I'd say she's got it under control!” The Doctor turned his gaze to the mountain that Jacob said he'd be at looking for Canterlot, which had not yet been founded. “Besides, we have a magician to go pick up.
The Doctor apathetically left The Shield to be surrounded by curious ponies of several types and together with Ditsy took the TARDIS to the mountain. On their way there Ditsy asked what the names of the Magi-Time Lords meant.
“I mean, I know that a Mantle is a symbol of leadership from an Earth book that I read a year or so ago, but what about Thanatos and Elpis? I've never heard names like that before.”
“Those names are actually part of Human mythology, Ditsy. 'Thanatos' means 'Gentle Death', and was the name of a Greek God. Elpis is also from the Greek culture, and it meant 'Hope'. I suppose it's probably not too much of a stretch to theorize that the Humans that founded the Greek nation were recalling the old history of your two races, and it became twisted over time into something else.”
“Oh, okay!” Ditsy smiled. “But once more question, Doctor?” He nodded. “Who were the Greeks?”
__ __ __ __ __
The Shield grumbled under her breath as she walked towards Alicorn Castle. Though relieved that the ponies had needed to go back to their various other duties, her relief was cut short by her observing that both The Doctor and Ditsy had left her to the questioning-ponies' mercy. Really she supposed she should not really be angry with them. After all they'd not be getting anything done if they had stayed and waited for her since it had taken nearly an hour for them to run out of new questions and finally need to return to work.
Now I understand how the legend of Humans stayed alive all that time: we kept dropping into scattered points in time as living proof of their existence! Kind of funny how that worked out. The Shield stopped walking upon reaching an iron portcullis and looked up at the castle whose sturdy stone walls reached up over her head. I wonder if my people's old allies will recognize me for what I am? The Doctor did not, but then again he's from another Reality entirely. Thanatos did not seem to bear me any ill-will when I first met him and he apparently second-met us, but my people are indirectly responsible for their race's near-extinction. The Shield lowered her line of sight and walked under the portcullis and beyond the walls into the castle itself.
She was surprised to find that unlike the Canterlot of the 'present' (the 'present' in her mind being the time in which she first encountered The Doctor and Ditsy) there were almost no guards and she only saw a handful of them. It seemed that in this era the guards were less ceremonious and for more practical use- meaning that they were actually out and about patrolling the roads and surrounding areas.
As with the future of a few hundred years, the castle rooms were rather plain with few decorations other than a bare handful of tapestries and a few childish paper drawings that became more frequent as she drew nearer to the keep.
Crossing into the courtyard she stopped briefly at the two obelisks and once more began reading through the names. As with before, none of them were familiar to them save for the royal family, not that she'd expected anything different.
“I'm sorry.” She said, her voice soft. “I'm so, so sorry.”
“What art thou sorry for?”came the voice of a child from behind her.
The Shield quickly looked behind her to see a small blue Alicorn standing behind her looking up at her with curious eyes. She was only about as tall as the average non-Alicorn pony, eyes twinkling and so full of innocence. Her stubby little wings were in relaxed position against her sides, her tail and mane waving in the air though there was no breeze. “What art thou sorry for?” she again repeated.
“I'm sorry...that I don't know any of the beings these names belonged to?” little Luna trotted forward and tilted her head back to look up at the names inscribed into the stones. She tilted her head to one side, squinted up at them, and then shrugged and turned around again so she could see The Shield once more.
“It is fine! I do not know any of the beings mine self, either! Mine mother and father say that they be the names belonging to the ponies that welcomed and lived with them them when our mother and father and uncle first came to this world and that I and mine sister should not forget them. They never say why, though.” Little Luna's eyes abruptly became very wide. “Oh my! I'm being rude again!” She knocked herself on the side of her head and curtseyed. The Shield found the display rather humorous given that it was a pony that was doing it. “Mine name is Princess Luna, younger daughter of King Mantle, and Queen Elpis of Equestria!” Little Luna rose from her dip and settled back on four legs again. “What beith thine name?”
“My name is The Shield, but most people call me Janette. It is a pleasure to meet you, princess Luna.” The Shield also curtseyed in return. Luna apparently also found her version of it humorous, as she began laughing.
“Doth I appear as silly doing that as thee do?” She quickly covered her mouth. “I apologize.”
“No, no need for that. I confess that you did look a bit silly to me, so I guess its only fair that I looked silly to you. So what's it like being a princess? I've wondered that from time to time.”
“Oh, it is truly a joy!” Luna said enthusiastically, her face lighting up. “Everypony is always so nice to me, and I get to help mine mother craft the night time sky!” Her mother handled star arrangement in this system before Luna did so? Interesting. Truly magic is a power to be reckoned with! “Mine sister is learning how to raise the sun with the help of our father, and mine uncle is always teaching us some new spell when he ist not teaching the Unicorns.”
Luna circled The Shield twice, examining her as the patrol ponies had. When she finished she tried to stand on her hind legs. Luna teetered back and forth a few times, and then finally fell forward on her front hooves again. “How doth thee make that look so simple?”
“Years of practice, princess Luna. It also helps that I was born with only two legs.”
“Canst thee use magic as well?” The Shield shook her head. “A pity.”
“Not really.” The Shield displayed her hands to Luna and wiggled and flexed her fingers. “These, I think, make up for my lack of magic well enough.” Luna watched The Shield's hands with interest for a bit, and then a solid black Alicorn with green eyes joined them.
“Oh my!” The Alicorn exclaimed, its eyes wide with surprise. Its voice was female, so The Shield assumed it was queen Elpis. “We hath not seen thine kind since the Dragon war! How hath thine race fared?”
“The Human race has fared well in the Echo Dimension. Dragons are hardly a threat anymore, and their nations are on the rise. In time, they shall become very powerful.” Elpis raised an eyebrow and bore a puzzled expression. She had not missed the wording choice the Shield used.
“You speak as if you are not a part of the Human race, young female. Why is that?” I'm not sure if I should be feeling a 'whoops' moment for that or not...
“It is because I am not, your highness. Tell me, does the word 'Dalek' mean anything to you?”
* * * * *
“There he is, Doctor!” Ditsy called across the control room to the control console. Ditsy was leaning out of the door looking for Jacob manually given that the TARDIS' systems did not all seem to be working the way they were supposed to be. “He's on the very top. HEY, JACOB!” She yelled across the distance separating them from him, waving.
From where he stood Jacob looked up and turned his head, and then waved back and lifted himself from the mountain's peak and rose until he was level with the TARDIS' door. The Doctor stopped the TARDIS in front of him, and Jacob touched down in the door's frame and walked inside, whereupon Ditsy shut the door behind him.
“I take it they are still at the old castle?” he asked, laying his staff on one of the seats. “Wait a minute, where's The Shield? Did you three get separated?”
“In a manner of speaking, but she'll be fine!” The Doctor assured him. “Did you know that Luna is a foal in this time? We're told she's adorable! What say we go see her while we're here?”
While The Doctor piloted the TARDIS back to Alicorn castle Jacob asked Ditsy what the area where Everfree forest would eventually stand looked like. Ditsy, without a moment's hesitation said that it was very, very open.
“There's hardly any houses near the castle, as I'm sure you saw from the mountain there were very few trees near the castle that weren't stumps, though I don't know if you could see the stumps or not.” Jacob shook his head. “There were a few roads, but most of them were just packed dirt from ponies and carts traveling on them every day. What few homes were near the castle mostly seemed to be farmland. There's probably a town nearby, but we didn't see it.”
“There is a town, or at least a few small buildings around one another what I think is about twenty miles away,” Jacob confirmed. “but I doubt that anyone could see it and know it from just a glance from the castle. I didn't know what it was either until I enhanced my vision.”
“Oh. So did you see anything interesting?”
“Nothing much other than some weird animal that was stalking me for a bit.”
“What did it look like?”
“I have no idea. All I saw was a dark patch and a glowing eye. Then when it seemed to realize I was watching it, it just disappeared. It was probably just some animal that dove into a burrow, but I could have sworn that it used magic and teleported.”
“Well we've already seen a huge bird that could give a Dragon a scare. Maybe it was just another one of those creatures that died out before we came along?” Jacob nodded.
“Probably. So why did you and The Doctor leave The Shield behind, exactly?”
“She was surrounded by a bunch of Human-legend enthusiasts. They kept asking her a lot of questions and seemed friendly enough, so The Doctor figured that then would be the best time to go and pick you up. I feel kinda guilty for just leaving her to them like that, to be honest.”
“I'm sure she's fine, Ditsy.” Jacob said, patting her back with a hand. “If it really bothers you that much, you can always apologize to her when we get back, right?” He gave her a smile, and Ditsy nodded.
The TARDIS shook a bit as it once more set down on the ground, and The Doctor brushed his hooves together as if dusting off the hands he did not have.
“There we are! Settled and situated! Shall we go and retrieve miss Shield, then?”
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
I stepped out of the TARDIS and gripped my nose, gagging at the stench coming from what seemed to be a small tool shed. It was not until I got a more thorough look at it that I realized (and felt a bit stupid for not guessing it from the first) it to be an outhouse.
I had grown up with an indoor toilet, and even after coming to Equestria for the first time the toilet was still indoors and enchanted to suppress the resulting foul odors of its use. I knew that in both worlds in my modern era outhouses were still used in places, but I was spoiled, and a description is no match for the real thing. Unfortunately.
“Ugh!” I scrambled away from it, choking.
“Oh, don't be such a baby!” The Doctor scolded, pinching his own nostrils shut with a clothespin. Ditsy's cheeks were puffed out, so I assumed she was holding her breath. “It'll fade once we get far enough away from it.”
“Sooner rather than later, please?” I begged, heading away from the TARDIS and the TURDIS as quickly as I could. The Doctor rolled his eyes and followed with Ditsy close behind.
We were stopped at the castle's entrance by a single wooden-armored guard. This one was not the common white Pegasus that I was so used to seeing, but rather an earth pony. Also unlike the stern, immovable guards of the future, he had no poker face at all. He was staring at us, or rather, at me.
“Two Humans in one day! The age of legends truly is upon us!” He declared.
“Um, pardon me,” The Doctor began, stepping in front of me and prodding the guard to attention. “but would you mind perhaps letting us through?”
“Your pardon, citizen, but the king and queen have ordered that none are to enter the castle without his or her authority. Our rulers are discussing a matter of utmost importance.”
“Really? Well I'm a messenger on business of the royalty!” The Doctor reached behind his mane and (I wonder if Pinkie Pie taught him that trick?) and pulled out what looked like a single-fold black wallet. I raised an eyebrow, wondering where he had gotten the identification for such a thing.
The Earth pony looked at the identification The Doctor presented, and then snorted.
“I may not be able to read, stranger, but I do not need to be able to read to see that the paper beith blank. Even if I could read, I hath never seen royal identification papers before and probably would not know them even if I had seen them.” The Doctor froze, and then slowly put it back into his mane and sighed and face-hoofed.
“Psychic Paper foiled by ignorance! I just cannot believe it!” he muttered, barely audible. “Never shown psychic paper to someone or I suppose somepony that couldn't read before! I guess it had to happen eventually...”
“I...beg your pardon?” The earth pony asked. Apparently he'd not heard The Doctor's 'internal' dialog. The Doctor returned his hoof to the ground and I'm assuming broke into a grin because Ditsy did so.
% % % % %
“Yup, he did!” Ditsy confirmed, repeating the same grin she'd put on that day.. “For some reason every time he goes into personal-monologue mode he'll smile or cough, or tell a joke that almost always no one understands to cover it up. Normally whoever he's talking to will give him a strange look, and then seem to forget the whole thing!”
“It's just a social tactic.” The Doctor claimed. Jacob, after having observed the same situation several times, snorted, but did not comment. He didn't need to, as Rainbow Dash said voiced what he was thinking.
“More likely they just want to get the conversation with the crazy pony over as quickly as possible and not bring up him talking to himself.” The Doctor frowned at Rainbow Dash, while Jacob covered a smirk with a yawn.
“Oh hush, you!” Ditsy and the other girls tried not to laugh.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
“Alright, so you won't let us in. How about I give you a message to carry inside, then? Can you do that?”
“Well...I doth not know...the rulers said they did not wish to be disturbed...”
“Or how about my good Pegasus friend Ditsy?” The Doctor asked, grabbing Ditsy by her shoulders and pulling her closer to him. “She's a mail-pony. Could she carry in a message? Delivering letters is part of her job, you know!”
“I suppose...I suppose that would be alright...” He scratched the back of his head, and then stood at attention again and tried to look more authoritative than he had a moment ago. “But you two shalt hath to stay out here.”
“Oh, that'll be fine! We'll just have a look around, see the sights and such! Ditsy, Lighthand, if you two would follow me a moment?”
The Doctor led them out of pony-earshot and then informed them of his quick-thought-of plan to get them inside. “Ditsy, would you happen, by any chance, to be carrying a blank piece of paper and an ink pen in your saddlebags?”
“Well yeah, but what for if it's just a trick? And why bother with that at all if you're just going to have Jacob magic you two over the wall?”
“Because we'll need you to scout out the interior of the castle to ensure that we'll have a place unguarded long enough for him to carry me and himself over without being spotted. If the TARDIS were working properly I'd have just used it to get us inside, but with the interference with the scanners I'd rather not risk it.”
“I could just make us invisible for a minute and we could avoid wasting further time. And what are we doing here anyway? I thought we were supposed to be looking for The Shield?”
“We are looking for The Shield. She knew that we'd eventually try coming here looking for the royalty, so it stands to reason that she's already inside, and that she's the one that the royalty are speaking with!”
I glanced at Ditsy, who shrugged.
“He's usually right about these kinds of things.”
“You know, Doc, for being a little pony, you sure weigh a bit!”
“You're probably just out of shape!”
“'Out of shape?' Doctor, I get physical activity almost every day, and using magic takes a lot of energy too. Building up fat is not something I do very easily.”
“Being fat and being out of shape have little to do with one another. Lots of skinny people and ponies are out of shape.”
“Um, Doctor? I think somepony is coming!” Ditsy warned from the edge of the wall, peeking one eye around the corner. “Yup! Somepony is coming!”
“Guard, servant, or royalty?” I asked.
“No idea! Do the servants in this era wear clothes?”
“I don't know. Doc?” He shrugged.
“This is the first time I've been this far back in Equestria's history. Most of the interesting stuff happened during Celestia's solo rule. ”
Ditsy flapped away from the corner.
“We've got to hide, like, right now!”
“There's nowhere to hide!” I objected. “This place is more exposed than a nudist in an open field!” The Doctor stared at me a moment, then stated that he wasn't sure if he should be laughing, or feel disturbed. Ignoring him I told him and Ditsy to flatten themselves against the wall and remain perfectly still. “I'm going to make us invisible, but this version is only an illusion, so stay perfectly still.” They nodded and did so. Ditsy I vanished first, then The Doctor. Finally, and in the nick of time, myself.
A light pink Alicorn that I did not recognize walked around the corner humming a carefree tune and wearing a smile on her face. She passed Ditsy, then The Doctor, and then finally myself. I held my breath as she passed, hoping she was not yet good enough at magic to sense that a spell had been cast. She did not seem to, and as she neared another turn, I exhaled in relief.
She stopped for a moment, looking around in confusion, her eyes scanning the walls.
“Hello? Ist someone there?” She waited for a response, and frowned a little. “Luna, if this be another one of your jokes, know that while father may find it amusing, mother doth not, and I grow weary of having to put up with your pranks.” Again, I held my breath, and the pink Alicorn, which revealed herself to be Celestia in a much younger state, turned away and once more continued walking, less the tune she was humming. When I was certain that she was gone this time I dispelled the illusion and took a new breath.
“Oh my, that is what Celestia looks like as a child?” The Doctor rhetorically asked. “I wonder how she became white and gained an off-color rainbow mane?”
“It's often said that her using the Elements of Harmony did that to her, Doctor.” Ditsy explained. “Apparently when the Elements are used by one being instead of several it leaves something behind. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what I've been told.”
“Maybe her mane and tail are illusions and she just dyes her hide?” I offered.
“Well, whatever the reason, we still need to find The Shield and then speak to her parents.”
“Really? And why would you need to do that?”
“Have you forgotten already? We're supposed to be-” he stopped and we all looked in the direction that Celestia had left. There she stood once more, but we'd not heard a sound.
“Illusions art rather simple.” She explained. “I'm surprised you did not realize that I'd cast one. Actually, I art even more surprised that I did not detect thine illusion. Now,” She jerked her head to one side and my staff was ripped from my hand.
“Ouch!” She then surrounded us all with a pink magical aura, holding our legs to make us immobile.
“Who art thee, why have thee come here, and where doth thou hail from?” She glanced at all of us, and then landed her gaze on me again. “Thee especially. Humans haven't been on this world in a long time.”
“I get that a lot.” I replied.
“We're here to speak to your parents. It is a matter of utmost importance.” The Doctor said, his response more helpful than mine.
“If thee felt the need to sneak inside, then thee must have already spoken with the gate guard. Mine parents art already speaking with someone. Thee will have to wait. Now again, who art thou?” she repeated, frowning.
“'Ello! I'm The Doctor! This is my good friend, Ditsy Doo, and the Human is a man by the name of Lighthand.”
“I doth not recall seeing any of thee before, nor do I recall that accent.”
“Oh, we're from very, very far away.” The Doctor 'explained'. Celestia frowned and called for some guards.
“Since thee art unwilling to wait patiently, and are unwilling to answer mine questions, perhaps thee would prefer to wait in the dungeons!” Two Unicorn guards galloped around a corner and stopped behind Celestia to gape at us. “Take these three to the dungeons, and keep an eye on them. I shall inform the king and queen about them myself.” The guards bowed, and made shackles out of magic for our legs and in my case, wrists. I looked at The Doctor.
“Doc, I had never been arrested before I met you, and now I've been arrested twice within a twenty-four hour time period.” The Doctor offered me an apologetic smile.
“You get used to it.” Ditsy said, sighing.
__ __ __ __ __
“And that's as much as I can tell you without risking the time line.” The Shield finished. “Even with how much I've left out what I've said will probably have effects that I can't predict.”
The Shield had spent the last hour standing before the Mantle, Elpis, and Thanatos explaining the reason for her being in their kingdom. She also mentioned that she was traveling with several others, and gave their description. Mantle and Thanatos said nothing while they mentally digested The Shield's story. Elpis was a bit more inquisitive, and asked about the Nightmare Moon. Mantle laid a wing on her back, however, and warned against asking too much about the future.
“We already know that our daughters in the end triumph over it. We do not need to know more of it.”
“I know, but they are our children. How can I not be concerned for them?”
“I did not say we should not be concerned.” Mantle corrected. “New that our Echo-race failed to destroy their Daleks and were destroyed themselves is dark news indeed, and for them to have found our home once more when we are no longer around to protect it is darker still.”
“I doth not understand why Celestia ist not going to the aid of Earth, however. I thought thee said they were allies?” The Shield hesitated a moment.
“There is a law in place in the future that prevents Equestria from declaring war on another nation without there being a king or a queen, which can only occur through marriage to another royal. Because your daughters are still princesses, this makes it impossible for her or Luna to declare war without breaking the law. And not just that; Equestria is not made of warriors, and of what few there are, most of the ponies that know combat magic or tactics only use it for sparring matches or mock-battles with objects that aren't weapons at all. Even if Celestia or Luna were able to declare war, they'd be sending their subjects to their deaths, which is why we need all three of you to come forward with us.”
“Thee asketh much.” Mantle said. “Equestria is not young, but this planet is far from being a safe place. Much of our power goes into keeping this solar system hidden from the other advanced races of this galaxy, as well as warding off the more dangerous local creatures from attacking the ponykind settlements and raising and setting the sun and moon. No doubt thee hath noticed the reaction on your 'Doctor's' electrical systems.” The Shield nodded. “The spells we have in place for keeping this planet hidden need to be renewed weekly, or else they begin to decay. While it would likely take more than a year to fail completely, it is a risk that I would rather not take unless you can guarantee me that your Doctor can get us back within a month's time of our leaving. Can you do this?”
The Shield licked her lips. She wanted to say yes, but as she had already witnessed The Doctor was flying a TARDIS that was meant to be piloted safely by at minimum four Time Lords by himself, and it was far from being a smooth ride. In the end, she decided on an evasive response.
“You'd have to ask him that. My star ship has a very limited capacity for time travel, and it has a tendency to short out if I try using it to hop dimensions as well as jump in time.”
“Very well.” Elpis said, rising from the her couch. The others did so as well. “We shalt speak to The Doctor ourselves. In the meantime, please take a seat and remain here.”
The Shield bowed, and settled in to wait. I do hope that he was able to stay out of trouble...