The Centaur and the Centurion
Chapter 4: Brush Your Teeth!
The ponies emerged into a large clearing dominated by a strangely-shaped tree, complete with windows and a door.
“That’s Zecora’s house,” Apple Bloom quietly told the two others.
The reason why she had said it quietly was because there was a light on in the tree, and a brief shadow revealed the presence of somepony inside.
Amy carefully walked up to a cart that was parked outside the tree. She lifted up the edge of a tarp that was covering the cart’s contents from view. “Books,” she noted. “Lots and lots of books.”
Apple Bloom joined her. “Those are pretty advanced,” she said, flipping over a couple of covers to look at the titles. “Definitely from Princess Twilight’s collection.”
Rory pointed at the tree. “So it’s the Princess?” he asked.
“If it’s the Princess, then who’s maintaining the shield?” asked Apple Bloom. She lowered the hood over her lantern. “Follow me.”
# # #
The exterior of the house seemed pretty intimidating to Amy and Rory, what with the oversized and grimacing mask and the bottles hanging from limbs that seemed to click against each other from unseen winds.
The interior wasn’t much better, with even more masks, flickering candles, and a great big cauldron. There were shelves holding bottles and gourds filled with potions. Some of these had been toppled to the floor, probably by the mysterious visitor, who was audibly searching through various items at the back of the tree.
As they were sneaking past, Rory stopped to peer into the cauldron. He picked up a ladle, and took a taste of its contents.
“Rory!” Amy hissed. “You don’t know what’s in there!”
“Sure I do,” Rory whispered back. “The Doctor’s herbal blend. Told you he stopped here for shopping.”
Once she was sure that her new friends were positioned to help her block all avenues of escape, Apple Bloom stepped out of the shadows to confront the intruder. “Halt!” she cried as she flipped up her lantern’s hood. “What are you doing in Zecora’s house?!”
A light blue unicorn mare cried out in surprise, raising one hoof to cover her eyes. This caused her to lose her balance, stumbling back into a shelf full of empty gourds, which all fell down on her, followed by several dried plants and extracts, and finally a sprinkling of gold dust.
“Colgate?” Apple Bloom asked in disbelief. “How did you get out here?”
“Uh...I’m not sure,” the pony said, removing the various items that had fallen off of her and trying to put them back in their original places, ending with her getting quite a bit of dirt into the small bag that held the gold dust.
Amy and Rory took this opportunity to observe her. There was a jingling sound made every time she moved, which was caused by the satchel full of bits around her neck. Her mane was two tones, periwinkle and dark blue. Combined with her coat color, she looked like the popular brand of toothpaste brought to life. “I think I found a hole in the shield,” Colgate guessed more than said.
“A hole in the shield?” Apple Bloom asked incredulously. “And how did you get past the guards?”
“There were guards?” Colgate asked.
Apple Bloom face-hooved.
“Oh!” Colgate exclaimed, walking past the young mare. “I didn’t see you were with aliens. What are your names? And when’s the last time you had a full dental checkup?”
“I’m Amy, and he’s Rory. And, um...recently. Really, really recently. Honest.”
“Hi, Amy! Hi, Rory! I’m Colgate.” She sat down to shake hooves with both of them at the same time. “Here, take these!” she said, as she used her magic to remove a couple of objects from her saddlebags. This action revealed that her cutie mark was an hourglass.
Amy and Rory looked over their gifts: a pair of toothbrushes color-coordinated to their coats.
“Brush your teeth!” Colgate cried, a too-wide smile on her face.
“Um, sure,” Rory said, moving to put his brush in his saddlebags.
“Right now!” Colgate ordered, a metaphorical fire in her eyes.
A cowed Amy and Rory quickly complied.
“Yay! Clean teeth!” Colgate exclaimed.
For a moment, Amy had seen an incredible amount of drive in the eyes of the crazed pony before them, but it had quickly faded, and now it didn’t look like there was really all that much going on in that noggin of hers. “It’s nice to meet you, Col—hey wait a second! How did you know that we were aliens?”
“You’re aliens?!” Colgate exclaimed. “Wow! Wait until I introduce you to Lyra! She thinks aliens are just a myth.”
“No, you said we were aliens,” Rory said, trying to correct her.
“When did I say that?”
“Just now!”
“No, I said you were foreigners.” She turned to Apple Bloom with a frazzled expression. “Didn’t I?”
“I’m sure you did,” Apple Bloom said soothingly. “Now why don’t you tell Amy and Rory why you’re here while I gather up a few things.” She slipped into a nearby pair of saddlebags and began carefully selecting containers to put inside it.
“Oh, there’s not much to say,” Colgate replied with a empty-headed grin. “I’m here to help Zecora with the monsters. I come here all the time to get medicine for my headaches. This time, I came to get something to help me save everypony.”
Apple Bloom stopped before a small wooden desk. “What did you come to get?” she asked very carefully. She kept her back to Colgate and slowly opened a small drawer, her body placed so that the blue unicorn could not see.
Amy, noting this, crept closer to her.
“It’s...you know, I can’t really remember,” Colgate said, scratching her head with the edge of one hoof. “It’s really important, but it’s also really drastic. Like I can only use it once, and once I do, I can’t ever take it back.”
From the drawer, Apple Bloom removed an elaborate silver pocket watch, which she placed into her satchel, all while still keeping it out of Colgate’s view. “Oh, I don’t think you need that,” she said with a false air of nonchalance. “The three of us can handle this problem without it.”
“F...ffour,” Colgate said, having some difficulty getting out the word. “I’m coming with you. I need to come with you. Very bad things will happen if I don’t. I...I’ve been having bad dreams.”
Apple Bloom turned to face Colgate. “All right,” she said gently. From the relative postures and tones of the two mares, one would think that the earth pony was the employer, and the unicorn the employee. “I see you brought some books. Did you dream about those as well?”
“No. Yes...maybe,” Colgate said, looking more and more lost with every sentence that passed through her lips.
“Why don’t you show them to Amy and Rory, while I finish up in here?”
“A...alright,” Colgate said with a firm nod. She walked slowly out of the hut, her guileless eyes roaming across everything in sight as she went.
With a silent instruction from Amy, Rory followed her, and soon engaged her in conversation about the books. Amy then closed the door, and walked up to Apple Bloom.
“That’s an...interesting watch you have there,” Amy said in a low voice. “Can I take a look at it?”
“She mustn’t have it,” Apple Bloom said, passing it over. “Ever. She has the most horrible dreams when it gets anywhere near her. I think it might be possessed.”
Amy held the object before her eyes with her telekinesis. As she examined the elaborate carving on its cover, she suddenly recognized it and began hyperventilating.
“She gave it to Zecora for safekeeping soon after arriving in Ponyville,” Apple Bloom said. Then she noticed Amy’s reaction. “Do you know what it is?” she asked.
“I...I never got the full story from the Doctor,” Amy said, her eyes locked onto the slowly spinning object before her. “But I do know about Harold Saxon, and that a watch just like this made an ordinary man into the insane genius that brought humanity to the brink of destruction on two separate occasions, before the Doctor finally stopped him.”
Apple Bloom snatched back the watch and put it on the ground, posing one hoof over it. “Should I destroy it?” she asked.
Amy looked away and snorted in disgust. “If I know how these sorts of things work, you probably can’t destroy it, or throw it away. Just so long as your friend never opens it, we should be safe.”
Apple Bloom nodded, and put the watch back in her satchel. She spent several seconds examining the object inside her satchel before pulling the drawstrings shut. “She doesn’t even remember it exists when she’s not looking at it,” she told Amy.
“Perception filter,” Amy explained. “You run into those a lot around the Doctor.”
“Tell me more.”