Applejack smiled as the doors opened.
The Earth pony never knew that one day she would be the first pony in all of the history of Equestria to see her home from so far into space. She never knew that out of all her friends, she would be the privileged one to travel on an adventure no pony else could see. She knew, however, the Doctor had done this before, but she didn’t care. Applejack knew that the Doctor took ponies along who probably saw the galaxy where she was born into, and probably thought the same thing she was currently thinking.
What Applejack didn’t know, however, was why she was where she was. Any of her friends were more qualified to journey through the stars. Twilight would be cataloging all of time and space and learning the TARDIS inside and out. Rarity would want to journey to new worlds to study their cultures and, maybe, liberate them of a few rare gemstones. Fluttershy would want to meet every creature in existence. Rainbow would probably want to just fly everywhere. Pinkie would be able to stop wars and bring races together. The question remained: why was she there and not any of her friends.
As the earth pony watched space travel before her, the Doctor was busy at his console. Ever since he had returned from his old Universe, he had been running all kinds of diagnostics and running algorithms nonstop. In fact, he stopped the TARDIS, opened the doors, and told Applejack to look at the Universe while he worked. Applejack would often hear the Doctor mumbling about ‘Gallifrey’ and ‘Trenzalore’. While she didn’t know what he meant about Trenzalore, she knew it was important for him.
Applejack looked back at her friend and sighed. “Ya know, it ain’t fun watching this here galaxy spin if somepony don’t explain nuthin to me,” she said.
The Doctor looked up. “Huh, oh yes! Right, sorry. You know, something you thought you forgot suddenly reappears within your head and you have no say in how you distract yourself from said something is exhausting sometimes,” he said.
“Well, why don’t ya relax fer a little while?”
The Time Lord smiled and left the console. He approached his companion and sat down next to her. “So, Luna didn’t create the stars huh?”
“Well, no. You see, these stars were born with the Universe. Compressed energy and superheated mass creates these stars and they can live for billions of years, maybe more. The stars were always covered up by the mist that the planet still expels, making it so they appear created every night. After the blizzard, the nights were still blank and starless until Luna used her magic to unveil the beauty of the stars. Celestia and Luna have some ancient magic that allows them to still control the Sun and Moon that much is clear. It is amazing what can happen when you are directly related to the original Bearers of the Sun and Moon,” he said.
Applejack looked up at him. “What?”
“You didn’t know? Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are princesses because somepony is already the king and queen,” he said like it was not a big deal.
“They had parents?”
The Doctor nodded. “Everypony has parents, even gods. How else do you bear life?”
Applejack chuckled as she stared back into space. “Ah’ve been here fer an hour and ah’m already getting a headache,” she said.
“Why?”
“’Cause they never had parents. Princess Celestia believes she was born from the Sun. Luna too,” she said.
“Even gods have parents at some point in time. It’s a long line of understanding, and I won’t trouble you with the whole process of it all. Still, I do know the Princesses’s parents. I have tea with them every half century or so,” the Doctor said.
Applejack smirked at him. “Why can’t we see ‘em then?”
Before the Doctor could answer her, they heard a high pitched ringing. Applejack was immediately startled by the sudden noise, but the Doctor had a look of confusion on his face. He searched the room and couldn’t find the source of the noise. Applejack pressed her ear onto the door. “Doctor, it’s here,” she said.
The Doctor spun around. “That’s not a real phone! It came with the design,” he proclaimed.
“What’s a phone?”
“It’s a messaging system that allows you to talk to someone far away. If you and Twilight had phones, you all would be talking right now,” he said. “There are designs that work just for talking, but there are others where you can send messages, but that’s more advanced technology.”
“Spike’s gettin’ replaced then,” Applejack said.
The Doctor laughed. “I forgot that he is the royal messenger when it comes to Twilight.” He walked over and opened a sub-door inside the door. He picked up the phone. “Hello?”
There was some silence. “Oh hello, I was just telling my new companion about you. Yeah, she doesn’t believe me.”
Applejack had a face of shock. He was talking to somepony from far away. Spike’ll be jealous, she thought to herself. “Ok, just send the coordinates to my TARDIS and I should be there 3 minutes ago. You know how to do that, did you forget? Excellent.”
The Doctor smiled at Applejack. “Well, remember when I said I was going to let you choose where you want to go first?”
“Yeah.”
“Well that’s not happening. We have an appointment with the king and queen of Early Equestria, and we cannot keep royalty waiting,” he said as he ran to the console. “You might need to close the doors.”
Applejack did as she was instructed. She walked over to the console and sat down on the chairs. In her previous experiences inside the TARDIS, she only traveled through space with her friends when Sombra brought tyranny before. Time traveling and moving in a blue box were two completely different things, and she was about to experience it.
The Doctor punched in the coordinates on his typewriter and fidgeted with the various buttons on the console. Without a second thought, the Doctor released the brakes and the entire TARDIS started shaking violently. Applejack made a desperate grab for the railing as she clung onto her hat. The Doctor was laughing as he watched his companion cling on for dear life. He remembered when he first stole the TARDIS and how it was difficult to handle it correctly.
Inside Applejack’s mind, the thought of traveling through time was occupying fear. She didn’t feel it, but she knew she was going back decades after decades, centuries after centuries, and so on. After a while, Applejack went from clinging onto the rail to waving her Stetson high in the air as the journey continued.
Her fear returned a second after. The console exploded, scaring both the Doctor and the cowpony. “What’s happenin’?!”
“We’re entering a point in time that should never be entered! The TARDIS is resisting! I can’t land her!” the Doctor explained.
“What?!”
The Doctor steadied himself. “The era we are going to is sealed from time! There was an event in early pony time called the—”
The TARDIS crashed to a halt before the Doctor could finish his sentence. The console smoked as the engines cooled. Applejack’s balance was shaken up and she felt like the room was still moving. “Ah thought time travel’ll be smoother than silk,” she said.
“Well, that would be possible if there were more pilots. The TARDIS is supposed to have more pilots, but it’s only me who can fly her. That, and I failed my test when I was young,” he said.
“What test?”
“A test to see if I can fly the TARDIS correctly.”
Applejack gulped in fear. “I’m not a licensed pilot but they can’t arrest me, they’re dead…I think.”
“Yer people?”
The Doctor smiled faintly. “Yeah, my people. Anyway, you have just traveled back in time. Care to step outside in a different era?”
Applejack’s face immediately lit up as she fixed her Stetson. “So where are we?”
The Doctor threw open the doors. Applejack followed and her eyes immediately expanded 3X’s their size.
In front of the TARDIS was a giant castle. They were standing on one side of what appeared to be a canyon. The castle was on the other side, and the only way to get there was a small bridge at their hooves. In the background of the castle was a waterfall that led to a river heading down the edge of the canyon. Applejack’s eyes and mind tried processing everything at the same time.
“Welcome to the Everfree Kingdom! This is the castle where you found the Elements and the Tree if my memory is correct,” the Doctor said.
Applejack nodded. “Well, the Everfree Forest is the greatest cover for the Alicorn Kingdom afterall. Very few ponies ever came into the Forest because of the royal blood that pumps within. We are in the year 860 B.C., which stands for ‘Before Celestia’ and the very peak of the monarchy. The Alicorn Kingdom is currently 1500 years old right about now with King Cosmos and Queen Solaris leading the ponies,” the Doctor said.
“860?”
“Well somewhere around there.” He looked around for the guards who normally guarded the bridge. “Strange, I don’t see any guards.”
Applejack looked around and noticed that there wasn’t anypony around them. “That’s strange, but I—”
“HALT!”
The Doctor and Applejack turned to be met with several armed alicorns, each with spears raised at their necks. The Doctor noticed their armor quicker than the weapons. They were wearing black armor with glass shields over their eyes. The armor they were wearing had engravings of crests and a Suit of Armors over the center of the armor. The Doctor noticed this immediately and gulped.
“Doctor, who are they?”
“Silence! You both have been found trespassing on royal property after curfew! You are both under arrest!”
The alarm clock in Applejack’s head rang. “Curfew, but that means—”
“Yup, this is 311 B.C., the last year of the Alicorn War,” the Doctor said.
The guards growled. “And they think we’re spies.”