Once the Doctor calmed down a bit, they ventured into the Crystal Empire. By the time they reached the castle, Rarity was fawning over the immaculate structure. He could see the stars in her eyes as she exclaimed, “There are no words!”
There were chuckles shared over that, and the Doctor began to relax.
They entered the castle and traveled up to the throne room. There, they saw a lovely looking pink alicorn with a purple, pink, and yellow mane sitting on the only throne. Her head was drooping and there were bags under her eyes. The Doctor looked at her with sympathy, understanding showing in his golden eyes, even though the princess couldn’t see it. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing gently as if she was asleep.
“Cadence!” Twilight suddenly exclaimed before launching herself down the red carpet and up to the alicorn. The princess opened her eyes at the sound of the lavender unicorn’s voice and smiled. She eagerly scrambled down from the throne and met Twilight halfway.
“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” the two sang when they met, doing a little dance. It kind of reminded him of a special handshake.
Once they were done, the Doctor decided to say something. “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” he greeted. “Or Princess Cadence, as you liked to be called.” That was all he got out, though, before he was literally glomped by the princess in a very un-princess-like way.
“Doctor!” she exclaimed. She wrapped her front hooves around his neck and pulled him into a hug. “I’m so glad you came!”
He was quite surprised that she still remembered what he looked like. It had been years since the last time she had seen him, back when she had still been the foalsitter for Twilight Sparkle. She had been studying about magic, and often spent the evenings divulging in as much as she could. He would often come over, having been sent by Princess Celestia in order to make sure she was actually studying and doing her homework. But then he would end up taking care of Twilight because the little filly would come racing downstairs at the sound of his voice.
He had been featured in a lot of history books, and it was apparent that Celestia’s protégé had read a lot about him.
“Glad to see you as well, Cadence,” he replied as they broke the hug. Shining Armor walked over to Cadence and sidled up to her.
“You know him?” Shining asked the alicorn.
She nodded. “He’s an old friend,” she explained simply.
The Doctor took that time to straighten his top-hat, which had been knocked askew when Cadence hugged him.
The white stallion cocked an eyebrow as the Doctor turned to join the Mane Six as they stood back from the couple. “How old of a friend?” he heard the prince ask playfully.
Cadence suddenly shuddered with a low moan, and the barrier protecting the Empire flickered before settling again. The Doctor sighed. “Not much time left, I see,” he said sadly. He turned to Twilight. “Princess Celestia said that this was part of a test for you. What do you think you have to do, Ms. Sparkle?”
The light purple unicorn rubbed her chin in thought. “Um…well…”
“We don’t know what’s going on. So what do you do when you don’t know what’s going on?”
“Um…” then she brightened. A metaphorical light bulb was switched on in her head. “A research paper!”
Shining Armor was confused. “A what?”
The Doctor smiled knowingly as Twilight went on to explain. “That must be what the Princess Celestia wants me to do!” Celestia’s protégé began to bounce around in excitement; despite the dire circumstances they were in. “She must want me to ask around in order to see what we can do to stop Sombra!”
“Great thinking, Twilight,” Cadence congratulated with a smile before yawning.
“Let’s go, girls! We’ll need to ask some ponies some questions and maybe even find a library!” Twilight exclaimed The lavender unicorn let out a little squeal of delight, probably excited to find an old library that was over a thousand years old. “Coming, Doctor?” she asked as she and her friends began to trot towards the exit.
“I’ll catch up with you,” he replied. Once the young mares were gone, he turned to look at the prince and princess. “How bad is it?” he asked.
Cadence looked about ready to drop, but she leaned on Shining Armor for support as her husband explained. “Cadence’s power is fading. She’s been keeping the protected barrier up all by herself for quite a while, and she can’t get any rest without losing focus. I would help her, but,” Shining Armor stopped and simply gestured to his horn. The Doctor looked up and examined it closely, and noticed for the first time that dark, nasty-looking crystals were sticking out of it.
“Ooh, magic inhibiting crystals? Clever…” Doctor mused while rubbing his chin. “Sombra’s thought of everything, hasn’t he?”
“Yes, I discovered I had them after I landed just inside the barrier. He must have done it to me when he enveloped us.”
Doctor placed his hoof back on the floor and he began to wonder why Sombra had descended on him as well. Sure, he broke his Sonic Screwdriver…but considering the history he had with the dark unicorn, anything could have happened him during the short time he had been unconscious. He wouldn’t be surprised if he started to hear Sombra’s voice in his head. “The mysteries keep piling up, and I can’t make heads or tails of them,” the Doctor said with a sigh. “I guess the only way I can figure anything out is if I catch up with the girls or go asking around by myself.”
Cadence shook herself awake again after her eyes closed shut on her once more. “Doctor? You speak as if you know Sombra personally. Do you?” her question held a lot of wonder, but she barely had enough energy in order to keep her voice from sounding monotone.
The slate grey pony looked at the two sadly. He didn’t know how the two would take the news of him having been a good friend with the tyrant king at one point. It was a very sensitive subject. “Yes. Yes I used to be a good friend of Sombra’s. Not anymore. I still care for him like a friend would, but he did some pretty unspeakable things at the end of our friendship that makes me wonder if I would have been able to stop him at all. If it weren’t for your aunts, Cadence, I would be dead,” he stated frankly.
She nodded once, her battle against her need for sleep ever apparent in her expression.
Shining Armor’s expression seemed to become even more serious. “I want you to help my little sister the best you can,” he said. “We are counting on her to figure out how to stop Sombra and save the Empire. We don’t have much time before Cadence can’t help but fall asleep, and when she does, the barrier will fall.”
Though Doctor’s face was lax, Shining’s seriousness was reflected in the topaz depths of his eyes. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you down,” he said. “Sometimes I wish I was a unicorn, though,” he added randomly before he turned and trotted to the exit. He disappeared through the open doorway, leaving Shining Armor and Cadence to glance at each other in utter confusion at the Doctor’s parting comment.
Outside, the Doctor descended down the stairs that lead up to the entrance and trotted out into the street. He stopped and gazed about, trying to figure out where the girls may be at this point. He had stayed behind with the Prince and Princess for a little bit, and in that little bit, the girls may have gone anywhere. Were they together, or did they spit up?
He turned to a mare who was slowly making her way down the street. Her coat was a dull pastel blue, and her mane, which lay flat, and her tail, which drooped, were a sad, dull, light grey. Her expression was the same as all the other Crystal Ponies, one of sadness bordering on despair. Her cutie mark was of a green laurel and a butter-yellow heart. She stopped when the Doctor said, “Hello.”
She looked up at him with empty green eyes. “Hello,” she said. “How may I help you?” by her tone, she was having trouble finding the will to speak.
The Doctor smiled comfortingly. “I’m looking for a group of mares. There are two unicorns, two pegasi, two Earth ponies and a baby dragon. Have you seen them?” he asked.
She nodded once before pointing down one of the streets. “They split up, and one of the unicorns went that way,” she replied.
“Thank you,” the Doctor said before he turned and raced down the indicated street. Absentmindedly, he wondered in any of the ponies remembered who he was. When he lived in the Empire, he was the only pony that didn’t glimmer like a jewel.
It took several minutes of intense trotting before he spotted a familiar face up ahead. A navy-purple mane with a purple stripe and a pink stripe next to it bobbed up and down far ahead. Thankfully, there were not many ponies out and about, so in moments he was coming up behind Celestia’s protégé and the baby dragon that rode upon her back. “Twilight!” he called in order to catch her attention and keep her from disappearing on him. He may be old, but he still had the body of a young stallion. That didn’t mean he couldn’t still lose someone.
The lavender unicorn stopped and turned around. A smile appeared on her face when she saw him, and she trotted a little ways towards him in order to meet him. “Hello, Doctor!” she exclaimed.
“Good to see I could catch up to you,” he said cheerfully. “Found out anything interesting from the Crystal Ponies?”
Twilight slow shook her head with a sigh. “No. They can’t seem to remember anything. They only remember bits and pieces before the Crystal Empire vanished from the map.”
“How unfortunate,” he said. “Must be a side-effect of the curse.”
She nodded once. “Could be. I’m going to ask one more pony before we’re to meet the girls at the base of the castle,” she said, before moving over to a house that sat by the road. It looked like it was made of a large crystal formation. The Doctor shared a look with Spike before they both followed her and watched her knock on the front door of the house with her hoof. The door was answered a few minutes later by a glum grey mare with a droopy purple mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a brown leaf.
“Autumn Gem!” the Doctor suddenly exclaimed, bouncing forward slightly so he was a bit closer to the mare than Twilight and Spike. “Good to see you!”
The only thing that changed on her face was that she smiled—but it didn’t reach her eyes, which still looked empty, and her ears, which still drooped. “Hello, Doctor.”
His expression softened slightly. “We were wondering if you remember anything that may help us stop the impending doom resting literally on the Empire’s doorstep,” it came out more like a statement and less like a question. It was a heavy statement, and it asked much.
Autumn Gem’s expression saddened even more, her smile disappearing. “No, I’m afraid not,” she said.
“Are you sure? Absolutely sure?” Twilight asked gently.
Without any change, Autumn looked at Twilight and replied, “I'm sorry. I wish I could help you. But I... can't seem to remember anything before King Sombra came to power.” She paused, and they watched as she closed her eyes and flinched, as if experiencing a very terrifying flashback. Slowly, she added, “And I don't want to remember anything about the time he ruled over us.” She shuddered.
“I’m sorry,” the Doctor apologised.
“Have we really been gone a thousand years?” Autumn Gem asked, her question laced with melancholy tones.
The Doctor looked down and away from the mare, his hearts suddenly heavy with the fact that the ponies he had lived amongst 1000 years ago had been put through all this, and they were sad because they couldn’t remember anything happy that had happened in their lives because Sombra had selfishly cursed them into remembering only the pain and suffering he had put them through. He was lucky that Celestia and Luna had taken him with them when they took Sombra down. Who knows how things would have turned out if he was reduced to the state that the Crystal Ponies were in. It made him angry, upset.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“It feels like it was just yesterday,” she said, troubled.
“If you think of anything, even the smallest thing...” Twilight urged carefully.
“Of course,” Autumn responded in a monotone. “It’s good to see you, Doctor,” she said, before retreating inside.
The Doctor sighed and turned away from the front door. He walked slowly away, and it was only seconds later that he heard Twilight’s hoofbeats and Spike’s footsteps join his. They were silent for several minutes as they made their way back to the castle. It wasn’t until they were about halfway there that Twilight asked, “So…I take it that you knew her…from…”
“Yes, I knew her,” he said. “She was my next door neighbor when I tried settling down and was a friend of Sombra’s.”
There was a beat of silence where Twilight decided to change the subject, sensing that maybe talking about the life the Doctor have before Sombra became a tyrant was a sensitive subject. “King Sombra's spell must be why their coats aren't... crystally.”
“Maybe,” he said softly. His mind was elsewhere. His thoughts were mostly focused on what to do with Sombra. He wanted to save his friend, but the more he looked at what remained of what was once a proud empire, the more he felt hatred towards the black unicorn stallion. Maybe it was because Sombra and him were so similar in one aspect—the both of them literally destroyed their homes in order to stop a war. The Doctor shoved his home into another dimension, while Sombra enslaved his people then made the Empire disappear. He was still trying to figure out if Sombra had done the same thing he did—did he shove the Crystal Empire into another dimension as well?
Either way, Sombra reminded him of himself—but eviler. Sombra’s heart was blacker than black, but that was because the dark magic had corrupted him. Doctor cursed himself and the decision to regenerate as a Earth pony instead of a unicorn. If he was a unicorn, at least he would have had a chance to purge the dark magic from him. But he wasn’t a unicorn, so the only way he was going to save him was through the power of words. He hoped that that was going to work.
Oh, Sombra, what am I going to do with you?