One moment Mark was more scared than he remembered ever being, and the next he was falling head first in a haystack. He found himself stuck upside down, his four legs beating the air aimlessly. After rocking his whole body a few time, he managed to roll on the stack, hay still stuck to his coat and manes.
"Doctor?" he asked looking around. He didn't know where he was, and the dark lighting of the large room didn't help.
"Yeah. Right there." the Doctor answered while coming out of a similar haystack across the room.
"What was that?"
"A teleportation spell. And quite a complex one I must say, she is quite something." he answered while trying to shake off the hay for his body. "Teleporting yourself on a short distance is fairly simple. Teleporting others on long distance without following them is a completely different level of magic."
"Thanks for the information, but I didn't mean that." he replied back, slightly annoyed that the Doctor ignored that they almost died a minute ago.
"Calm down. I'm sure we will have..." he was interrupted by a purple flash as Twilight materialized in between them. "... more information soon." he finished with a smile.
"Twilight!"
She turned toward Mark with an angry look. "What have you done?"
He stood there looking at her, too surprised to answer. "Nothing! I swear, I've done nothing!"
"...yet." finished the Doctor with a laugh.
Both Twilight and Mark stared at him. "I don't see how this could be fun Doctor." reprimanded Twilight.
"Alright, sorry." he apologized. "I might know what's happening, but before, what the Princess told you Twilight?"
She looked away. "To follow you..."
"And?"
"It's not important." she countered.
"Twilight, please!" asked Mark.
"Any detail could help at this point." added the Doctor.
"She said to not ask any question."
The Doctor put a hoof to his jaw. "Interesting."
Mark couldn't stand in place, he jumped off the haystack and walked up to the Doctor. "Come on Doctor! Spit it out! Why the Princess tried to kill me?"
The Doctor laughed once again. "She did not try to kill you."
"What?" both asked Mark and Twilight.
The Doctor pointed at Twilight. "You know the Princess more than me, but I'm pretty sure if she wanted him dead, right now, he would be. She could have teleported him on the Sun or simply turn him into a rock. And even after Twilight teleported us away, she could have replicated Twilight's spell with ease and follow us here."
"Alright, then why she brought us to Canterlot?" asked Twilight.
The Doctor hit the floor with his hoof to show the certainty of his affirmation. "To give us a message."
Seeing he wasn’t finishing his line of thought, both Mark and Twilight shouted. "Doctor!"
A wide smile light up his face, seeing how he was pushing them. "The message was in two parts. First, Mark... or us, did something in the past. Something important enough for the Princess to plant clues to awake our curiosity and summon us to deliver this message. Second, that we must not ask questions here and now, as he would influence our choices and judgments in what we are about to do."
"Or did." said Twilight.
"So, she is sending us on a quest, but cannot say what it is... Because we might refuse it?" summed up Mark.
"Or do it differently." finished the Doctor.
Mark thought about it for a minute. "That's pushing it, no?"
"Yet all the clues point toward that. She knew ahead of time what would happen and made sure to let us know that she did." explained the Doctor.
"But I don't understand... Why the display of rage?" asked Twilight.
The Doctor shrugged. "That's easy, to force us to flee and to seek answers. If she was all welcoming, she wouldn't have been able to send us on our way without a barrage of questions."
"Alright." said Twilight. "You convinced me. When do we leave?"
"We?" blinked Mark in surprised. "Aren't you afraid we might do terrible things? Doctor, I had the feeling messing with the timeline wasn't such a good idea."
The Doctor laughed. "In this case, I would say we already did. Or will do."
Mark sighed, as he felt that his destiny was written in stone before he even knew about it. "Ok. First, where are we?"
Twilight walked toward the end of the room and pushed against two massive doors. "Applejack's barn. I put a teleporter beacon in here in case I would need an emergency teleport." The sun light up the inside of the barn, showing haystacks and buckets of apples.
The Doctor took the lead and walked toward Ponyville. Mark trailed behind deep in his thoughts. Somehow, he was caught once again in a situation that he simply had no idea how he was fitting in. He felt he wasn't a doing a great pony as his hooves kept hitting each other.
At least I'm not falling on my face anymore.
Twilight slowed down and walked along him. "What's wrong?"
Mark kept his sight on the ground just ahead of him. "I feel small, weak, naked, manipulated, caught in a storm of events beyond my control, as if something decided of my faith without asking my opinion."
"At least you won't be alone in that storm." she replied with a genuine smile.
"True. But I'm not seeing you trying to walk on two legs." he said returning her small smile.
She stared at him. "Still bothered by the lack of clothes?"
"And the size, coat, manes, tail, horn, hooves and..." he listed slightly annoyed.
"And?"
He rolled his eyes. "The eyesight."
"What?"
"Ponies don't see like humans do, obviously. Colors are brighter, but now I see fewer details. Everything appears more flat as you got a larger field of view, but less of it overlaps in the middle." he explained. "How would you react if your eyesight just changed?"
"I had no idea."
Seeing she lost her smile, he decided to drop the topic. "And the flappy ears." he joked.
Surprised, she blinked at him . "What?"
"The ears! Pony's ears move around wildly on their own! It's so annoying." he said while moving his ears around. "See? Flap, flap, flap... With enough training I could probably take flight. Maybe if I was to spin my tail it could push me forward?"
Her smile returned. "You're kidding me."
"Only a bit. But I admit that's a lot to get used to at once." He looked ahead. "Hey Doc! Where did you park it?"
The Doctor looked over his shoulder. "Behind the next yellow house." he said nodding in a direction.
As the Doctor went around the house, he stopped in his track. Mark and Twilight almost collided with his rear. "Hey oh, Doc!" said Mark as he moved around the immobile stallion.
"It's about time you get here!" shouted Rainbow Dash.
Mark, Twilight and the Doctor stared at the five mares that were standing in front of the TARDIS. Each of them had saddle-bags, hats and clothes as if they were going on camping. It's Twilight who finally managed to break the silence. "Why are you here? How did you know?"
"Honey, we each received a letter from the Princess just after you left for Canterlot. She asked us to get ready to help you." explained Rarity.
"But you don't even know what it's all about." countered Twilight.
"Sugarcube, since when does that matter?" asked Applejack.
Twilight smiled. "Alright."
"I knew there was lot of things I didn't know or understand... but... I..." said Fluttershy while looking around the control room of the TARDIS with wide eyes.
"Overwhelming?" asked Twilight.
"A bit."
"There's nothing to be afraid of Fluttershy." said Mark trying to reassure her. "Besides, it's not a simple machine, it's alive." Mark didn't think it was possible for her eyes to get even bigger.
"Oooooh... I need one of those." said Pinkie Pie joyfully while bouncing around and inspecting every angle of the ship. "I could throw party everywhere!"
"So, where are we going?" asked Rainbow Dash while flying above the console.
Mark looked at the Doctor. "More like, when are we going?"
"I might just be a farm pony, but you sure sounded like you were talking about time travel." said Applejack.
Mark and Twilight looked at each other with a smile. The Doctor coughed. "The question is valid. When and where are we going?" Everypony turned around to see that the Doctor was back in his humanoid form, standing behind the ship's controls.
Something was whispering in Mark's head, something he knew very well. A little voice he got to talk with for a whole week. He opened his eyes, surprised he had closed them. He looked at Twilight to find she was staring at him. "You heard it too?" she asked.
"Yup." He turned around and smiled at the Doctor. "The TARDIS will get us when and where we need to be."
The Doctor pouted. "I hate when she does that."
"Come on Doc!"
He laughed. "You're right." He started to push and pull buttons, levers and other contraptions in what appeared to be completely at random.
"Allons-y!"
-- End of Book 1 --