//------------------------------// // Unknown Time // Story: Planet of the Ponies // by LightStriker //------------------------------// "There we are." The Doctor claimed after a few more pushes of buttons. "Really?" a skeptical Rainbow Dash asked, "I didn't feel anything. This trip is already lacking some g-force." She flew around the controls. "You sure this thing is working correctly? I didn't feel us moving." Pinkie Pie laughed. "Of course it moved, silly filly!" Her face became serious, "Quite a lot, actually." Twilight ignored the cyan mare and Pinkie Pie being... Pinkie Pie and focused on the Doctor. "So, when and where are we?" The Doctor looked troubled as he kept pressing buttons. Finally, he took some small glasses off his suit's pocket, put them on his nose and continued to examine the different displays. "This is odd. I know where we are but not when. There was a massive temporal disturbance. From the decay, I would say it happened a few weeks ago." "We can always ask somepony the date!" a joyful Pinkie Pie said. Twilight ignored her and asked "So, where are we?" The Doctor pulled a lever and the screens went dark. "From Ponyville, we are on the other side of the Everfree forest, about a day’s walk from the tree line." "So, we’re almost at the gryphons’ kingdom's boarder?" "Why so far away? I thought this was about the Princesses and Equestria?" a puzzled Mark asked, "And did I heard gryphons?" "Of course, it's a country quite friendly to Equestria." Rarity explained. "Wait... wait... Gryphon as in... Gryphon? Body of lion, head and wings of an eagle?" Twilight Sparkle smiled at him. "What else?" Mark rolled his eyes. "This world is full of crazies." he said while walking toward the exit of the ship. All the ponies stepped outside and the Doctor locked the TARDIS behind them. It was a foggy morning on the almost empty plains, as only few trees were cutting through the fog. The only sound that could be heard was the slow beat of Rainbow Dash's wings. She gasped loudly as she didn't really believe in that whole time travel thing. Pinkie Pie bounced past her. "Told you!" As the Doctor walked in the front of the group, everypony could see that he was back in his stallion form. "Where do we go? Walk to the Everfree forest or toward the griffins’ kingdom?" Twilight asked. "With this fog, I doubt we would know which way to go." Applejack countered. "How about we go in the direction the door of the TARDIS was aiming at?" Mark offered. Seeing everypony was staring at him, he continued. "What? At this point, it's as good as any." "Any of you already visited that gryphons’ kingdom?" Mark asked while walking. They all answered with by shaking their head. Mark looked around at each of the ponies. "Any of you ever left Equestria before?" Once again, they all shook their head. "Ponies are quite sedentary by nature," the Doctor explained, "Unlike humans, they don't have those urges of exploration... or the dream of stars." "The dream of stars?" Twilight asked. "Why would you climb a mountain?" Mark asked. Twilight looked at him confused. "I don't understand." "Because it's there." he explained with a smile. "You're not making any sense sugarcube." Applejack countered. Mark laughed. "A man sees a mountain and decides to climb it simply because it's a challenge. He wants to test himself and the mountain is on his path." "Humans do stupid stuff only as a challenge?" Rainbow Dash asked. Applejack poked the side of the flying pegasus. "Look who's talking." "As for exploration... Humans have those urges of learning what they don't know." Mark continued. Twilight smiled. "I can understand that!" They all laughed at the outburst of the purple mare. "When they get a new idea, they must prove it or disprove it at all cost. This include exploration, one would wake up one morning and ask himself; if the world is round, what's the best route around it? That desert to the south, humans would chart it only because it's there and that no one charted it before." Mark explained. "That's quite odd." Rarity commented. "Young ones would leave their family and go explore other countries, just to see what it is like over there. Dream of stars... it's the same thing. Some would gaze at those little dot of distant fire and wonder; what if?" Mark explained, noticing he had his head pointed up at the sky. He lowered it and stared at the road. "I see someone had that dream before!" the Doctor cheered, making Mark blush. "That's why I love humanity so much. Everything in their eyes is new and worthy of going out there. They believe the risks never outweigh what could be gained from learning." Mark frowned. "So why do you stay around the ponies so much?" "You forgot I'm not human?" the Doctor laughed. "I need a pause once in a while and you can hardly find more peaceful species." "Be quiet!" Rainbow Dash suddenly ordered. Everypony stared at her while she looked at the sky, her ears twitching around. After a few second Twilight coughed. "What it is?" "I think I'm hearing somepony flying over us." She raised her right ears as much as she could. "I think... I think they are circling us." "Who could..." Twilight started, but she couldn't finish as a huge net made of heavy rope fell on them, forcing Rainbow Dash to the ground. It was heavy enough to prevent them from walking. "What the...?" Rainbow Dash asked confused. "Let me get rid of that." Twilight offered as her horn started to glow. However, as soon as her horn gained enough magic, it vanished as if absorbed by the net. "Oh!" was all she could say. "I would say we went the right way." the Doctor joked. At this point, everypony could clearly hear the sound of multiple wings and it was indeed all around them. A mass dropped from the fog and landed in front of the trapped ponies. It was a gryphon with its wings wide open. It was wearing blue and yellow armored plates around its neck and body. Its helmet, made of the same metal, was obviously shaped for flying, it was aerodynamic and its long lines were for speed and air control. Two slices in the front let its owner deep blue eyes see while the bottom was bent to cover its beak. Oh my... He is at least four times my size! Mark thought. The gryphon bent forward and removed his helmet with his claw while a dozen other gryphons landed around the net. The other gryphons were not as big as the first and sported less complex and polished armors plating. However, all of them had a golden stylized gryphon engraved in their breast plates. By how he walked and smiled, the big gryphon was obviously the leader as he stepped forward and stopped in front of the Doctor. "What have we got here? I guess we missed the ocean, but we still managed to fish out eight ponies!" All the gryphons started to laugh, but never left their rigid stance, ready at all times to take flight or to block an attack. "They don't really look edible. Maybe we should throw them back in the ocean." offered the gryphon to the right of the leader. On top of his golden gryphon logo hanged two smaller blue wings. The leader looked around and examined each ponies. "Three earth ponies, three unicorns and two pegasi. Quite an odd mix. Let's take them." On that, each gryphon stepped forward and grabbed with a claw a rope that was hanging around the net. Mark noticed that they each had a sheathed sword on their side. As they pulled the ropes back, the net closed under the ponies' legs, forcing them close to each other. With one last pull, the net was closed under them. Each gryphon passed their rope to the next until each had the rope of the gryphon facing them. The leader took flight, quickly followed by the twelve others. As they lifted the net, now working as a huge bag full of ponies, it flipped upside down, the opening now being on the top. The whole maneuver didn't even last a minute, proof that they did it multiple times before. All the ponies fell on each other, upside down and stuck, unable to move. "Whose horn is stabbing my flank?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Sorry! But someone's hoof is pushing my head!" Twilight apologized. "I thought somepony said gryphons were friendly?" Mark asked. "Doctor... you're crushing my wing. Would you mind?" the soft voice of Fluttershy was heard. "Oh my! Deeply sorry." the Doctor apologized as he tried to move around, freeing her wing. "Gryphons are quite friendly. Or will be." Rarity explained. "But those are quite rude." The leader of the gryphons lowered himself to the level of the ponies and shouted. "Silence!" "Why did you capture us?" Twilight asked. "I said silence! And if you don't comply I will start stabbing that big bag of ponies randomly." he shouted again drawing his sword with his right claw. Seeing nopony was answering him, he flew back up toward the other gryphons. Mark was at the bottom of the bag, his legs hanging between the ropes of the net. He would have a good view had it not been for the thick fog still covering the field. However, on the horizon he could see the sun slowly going up above the fog. The gryphons were flying pretty fast toward a huge brown and black mountain. The top was covered in snow. As they got closer, the flying gryphons gained more altitude and went above the mountain's top. Doing such, Mark could see that the mountain was in fact an old volcano, as the top was chopped off and the middle was a deep bowl of almost a kilometer in diameter. Inside, he could see thousand houses and other buildings constructed along the inner flank of the volcano. Gryphons were flying around the city by hundreds as groups of guards were circling the city. A waterfall was slowly flowing inside the volcano's crater from a taller peak, providing water to a small lake in the middle. As they got closer, the guards flew toward a larger building with an opening on top. Mark could see the population of gryphons staring at them and he didn't like the angry look he could see in their eyes. What's going on? They are afraid of us. The net was slowly lowered inside the huge tower made of grey blocks of rock. As the ponies hit the ground, the twelve guards landed around them and drew their swords, aiming them at the ponies. Before the leader landed beside a huge wooden door, it opened and let a quite old gryphon enter the room. He wasn't wearing any armor but only a large brown bag on his side. "What are you getting me now? More ponies?" the old one shouted at the leader. "They were deep inside our territory, walking toward one of our city." the leader explained. "Whatever." the old one countered stepping forward. As he got closer, Mark could see he was missing his left eye as a large scar was covering his face. There was no feather around the scar that started above his skull and finished low on his neck. "You could have killed them instead of bringing them here. You know very well what will happen to them." "Exactly, and we need the work force. Now do your job jailer." "Then what are you waiting for? I don't have all day. Get them off the net." he spat back. The other guards came forward and opened the net. Each of them grabbed a pony and placed their sword on their neck. They were lined up in front of the other gryphons. "At least you got some in good shape this time. They might last longer than the others." said the old gryphon as he looked at each of them. He stopped at the first in the line, Rainbow Dash, and he took something off his bag. It looked like two plate of metal linked to each other with a metal cord. Rainbow Dash seeing the device tried to move away but the guard holding her kept his grip firm. The jailer strapped the plates on top of each of her wings and locked the device on her back. As long as it would stay there, she would be unable to open her wings. He repeated the same process with Fluttershy. As he got to Rarity, he took a small metallic ring out of his bag. The guard forced her to lower her head as their new jailor clipped the ring on the grove of her horn closest to her head. By the look on her face, it was obvious she didn't appreciate the feeling. He was about to do the same with Twilight when she started moving back, her eyes fixed on the ring. Her horn started to glow as she started panicking. The leader of the group stepped forward and slapped her face violently with his closed claws. Her horn stopped glowing as her eyes spun from the shock. The old one closed the ring on her horn while she was unable to think or move. Mark saw red from the violence he just witnessed. He trusted his head backward, happy to feel the beak of his guards on the back of his skull. The guard dropped his sword as Mark jumped forward. In two steps he was in range of the leader and he gave him a punch in the face with his right hoof. His helmet was pushed off his face, but it was obvious surprise was painting his face more than pain. To Mark surprised, he started laughing. "Well, look at that. I don't remember ever being challenged by a pony before!" he shouted. He drew his sword with his right claw. Well, that was stupid. The gryphon raised his weapon above his shoulder and was about to trust it down when Mark noticed the old gryphon throwing a small dagger toward him. Without thinking he grabbed it and blocked the leader's swing. The impact made his body shake violently and to his surprised he was left unarmed. He opened his eyes, not noticing he had closed them from the clash of the metallic weapons. The large gryphon stepped back laughing ever louder than before as he sheathed his sword. "You obviously don't know who you challenged small one. But the law is the law and you confirmed the challenge. You have seven days to get ready." With that, he turned around, grabbed his helmet off the ground and left the room. The other guards followed him, leaving the ponies with the old gryphon. Applejack coughed to get Mark's attention. He looked at her as she pointed at his hooves. "Your... hoof." Mark remembered the dagger he was holding and he looked down to his right hoof. To his surprise, the dagger was held by a blue glow in the shape of a human hand, linked to the underside of his hoof. Just as he noticed it, the glow disappeared and the dagger felt to the ground. Still quite confused about the event, he turned around and nodded at the old gryphon that was watching them. "Thanks a lot." The gryphon chuckled. "Don't thank me. I have the idea that you truly don't know what you just did." Twilight managed to make her head stop spinning and she stepped forward. "I agree. That was reckless and stupid." "What?" Mark shouted, surprised she was agreeing with the gryphon. "What exactly did I do?" Applejack stepped beside Mark. "I would like to know too. I just don't know what's going on." Twilight turned toward Rainbow Dash. "Rainbow, I'm sure you know more about their customs them me. Care to explain?" Hearing her name, she stopped messing with the metal sheets that were covering her wings. She looked at the floor, avoiding the eyes of the other ponies. "He put in question his honor. The captain thrust his sword to test if the challenge was valid and by blocking it, you confirmed it." "Captain?" Mark asked. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "The markings on his shoulders identify him as a high ranked captain, of the royal guards if I'm not mistaken." Applejack frowned. "Alright, and what will happen in seven days?" Rainbow Dash avoided her sight once again. "They will fight to the death to see whose honor is right." "That's absurd! How is killing one another will show any honor?" Rarity shouted. Rainbow Dash sighed loudly. "It's an old tradition. In our... our... 'time' it's not used anymore. And if he backs down, the captain has the right to slash his throat open to wash the insult." she explained. "He was about to slash me in half!" Mark shouted. "No, he would have missed on purpose." the jailor countered. "Had he harmed you with his sword right after a challenge was casted, it would have been seen as dishonorable." He stepped forward with a metal ring in his claw. "If you swear on your honor to not use your magic to escape, I will not put a constraint on you. Because I would guess you will want those seven days to train yourself." Mark looked down at the ring, unsure what exactly it was, but it was obvious he didn't want it on his horn. "I swear on my honor." The jailor smiled as much as it was possible with a beak and put the ring back in his bag. "Follow me." he said while turning toward the door. "You're not afraid we would try to escape?" Applejack asked. The old gryphon laughed. "No insult, but I've handled far bigger stallions than you. Beside, even if you were to manage to hurt me, you're in the biggest fortress of this city. It's well guarded." He pointed toward Rainbow Dash and Twilight. "You cannot fly and cannot do magic. It would be pretty stupid of you to try anything." He exited the room. "Now, follow me." The Doctor stood beside Mark. "You sure have a talent to get yourself in some impossible situation." "Thanks Doc. I think I got a good teacher." The old gryphon led them deep inside the fortress, following huge curved stairs. He stopped in front of a cell closed by metallic bars and opened the door. The room smelled like as if something died and rotten for weeks within its walls. "Sorry it's not the best place ever, but you will stay there." The eight ponies entered the room and the jailor closed the door behind them. "If you work well, you will get enough food. It's as simple as that." He looked at Mark. "I will make sure you don't get to the work camp. I imagine the King wouldn't appreciate the show if you were not able to stand on your legs." On that, he turned around and climbed back the stairs. The room wasn't very large and the only source of light was a small window along the back wall. Like the other corridors and room they saw of the fortress, it was made only of grey block of rock. It was dirty, dusty and water dropped from the ceiling at a few places. Critters could be seen moving quickly in the shadows. "Great! I'm as good as dead!" Mark shouted. He turned around and stared at Twilight. "Why did he say you can't do magic? What's that ring?" She was obviously not happy about it. "The metal of the mage, or 'magium'. It's a special alloy, it absorbs magic and turns it into heat. The ropes of the net were also full of it. The more magic you try to use, the hotter the constraint ring would get. If I were to try to do a very powerful spell, it could burn my horn off." "That's terrible!" "In the future, those devices were outlawed after some treaty between Equestria and the gryphons’ kingdom." she explained. "Terrible! This dungeon is terrible! Are we supposed to sleep on those?" Rarity shouted as she pointed some very small stack of dirty hay. "I admit, even my barn is cleaner than this." Applejack agreed. "You're being quite silent Doctor." Mark commented. "Why I have the idea it's not your first time in a dungeon." "I'm silent because I have nothing to say." he replied with a smile. "And yes, been in one a few times." "Any advice on how to get out alive?" asked Mark. "Don't you have your sonic screwdriver?" The Doctor trotted around the room, looking at everything. "I do have it, but the old gryphon is right. Trying to escape not only a cell, but a fortress and a city is something we might not be able to do." He stopped and stared at Mark. "As for you, I would advise you to learn how to replicate what you did with that dagger." "The Doctor is right, if you can't wield a weapon, you won't last long in the arena." said Twilight. Mark's sight passed from the Doctor to Twilight. "You got to be kidding! Are you saying I got any chance of winning this?" He turned around toward the cyan mare that was kicking in disgust a small pile of hay, forcing critters to flee it. "Rainbow! Is there any loopholes in that honor law?" Rainbow Dash turned around. "Not really. It's a pretty straight forward fight to the death. And you know what they say, being ignorant of the law doesn't make you immune to it." All the ponies stopped and stared at Rainbow Dash. "What? I was young and... and... And whatever." Mark wasn't sure he wanted to know what Rainbow Dash did in her youth. That afternoon, the jailor and a few guards came to get the ponies to bring them to the work camps. They all left Mark alone in the cell. He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not, but he intended to use that time to get as ready as he could. Mark got to the cell's door. "Guards!" he shouted. After a few minutes the old gryphon got in front of the bars. "What do you want?" he asked with an angry look. "I was wondering if you had a metal bar or anything I could train with." Mark asked. The old one didn't answer and left. Mark was wondering if he would ever come back when he reappeared with an old rusty sword in his claw. "There. Try to not cut yourself with it." he said as he passed the sword between the bars and dropped it on the floor. "Thanks a lot." The gryphon pouted as he left. "And call me Keeper. Everyone calls me that." Mark looked at the weapon; it was an old and short one hand sword that probably couldn't even cut bread. He tried to grab the sword with his mouth but quickly stopped to spit the terrible taste of rust. How do ponies manage to carry stuff with their mouth? It's disgusting! With his hooves, he managed to push the sword along the floor until it rested in the middle of the room. He placed his right hoof on the handle and focused on grabbing it. After a few minutes without any result, he sat down staring at the piece of metal. He concentrated on the telekinesis spell he trained with Fluttershy. Maybe with something bigger it... His thoughts were cut short when the blade caught fire. He quickly pushed dirt over it to extinguish it before the fire could spread. After stepping on the last bit of flame, he sat back once again staring at the rusty and now burnt blade. The Sun was going down at the horizon when the seven ponies came back. They were all dirty and all in different states of exhaustion. Rarity was supported by Applejack as she brought her to one of the pile of hay and she laid her down on it. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were holding Twilight Sparkle upright and they too helped her to some hay. "What happened?" Mark asked, quite concerned by the aspect of weakness shown by the two unicorns. Applejack turned around to look at the blue stallion. "Unicorns ain't made to do physical work." "That's an understatement!" Rarity said. "I can't feel my hooves!" "What did they make you do?" Mark enquired. "Twilight and Rarity were spinning some wheels to fuel air to a forge." the Doctor explained as he lay on the ground. "Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were carrying basket of ores. As for the earth ponies... we dragged block of rock used to build fortresses." He sighed. "I'm sorry you had to pull harder Applejack. I might look like an earth pony, but I'm not built like one." "Ah shoo. Don't mention it. It only felt like a normal day of work." Applejack countered. "But Pinkie Pie surprised me. You sure have a lot of energy." "Need to! Party is hard work!" the pink mare shouted with a huge smile. "I'm actually a bit envious of Fluttershy. She almost did twice the work I did and she doesn't look tired." Rainbow Dash said as she lay on her side. "Don't beat yourself over that sugarcube. She feeds and takes care of hundreds of animals every day. She's used to continuous physical work." Applejack explained. Fluttershy blushed at the praise. Twilight rolled around and looked at Mark. "What's that burnt chunk of metal?" she asked trying to point at the middle of the room, but she gave up too tired to lift a hoof. "It was a sword... Until I set it on fire." he explained with a small smile. Twilight frowned. "Telekinesis?" Mark nodded. "I didn't manage to replicate what happened with that dagger." The Doctor lifted his head. "What exactly did you feel when you did it?" Mark pondered the question a few moments. "I don't know. An intense desire to not get sliced in half? I guess it just felt like holding a sword with my hand. Everything happened so fast." "Ghost limbs?" Twilight proposed. The Doctor nodded. "That's what I think." Mark looked at them puzzled. "I'm not following." "Your body changed and it's wired differently. But your mind didn't. When your subconscious asked your body to grab that blade, it reacted the only way it could to achieve it." the Doctor explained. Mark thought about it. "So... The only way to make it work would be to not think about it?" The Doctor shrugged. "Who knows?" Mark continued to try to grab the sword, with no success at all. He tried to visualize the attack the captain did, replicating the feeling and emotions linked to that dangerous situation. However, no matter the efforts he put into it, the sword stayed on the ground. He tried to not think about it or to deeply think about it. The disgusting food they got didn't help. The others didn't mind that much the plain grass and flowers but Mark wasn't used to going that deep in the pony's diet. He knew very well horses and ponies of his time used to eat exactly that. He didn't mind much the vegetarian meals he was served back in Ponyville as they never really included grass. As the days passed, Mark grew more and more concerned with the wellbeing of his friends. Each day, they would come back from the work camp more tired and hurt. After the fourth day, even Applejack started to show sign of exhaustion. He tried as hard as he could to focus on replicating the spell, or any spell for that matter, that would allow him to hold a weapon. However, his mind kept drifting toward their difficulties. On the fifth day, Rarity came back with her front hooves bleeding. The Doctor used his screwdriver to remove the constraint ring off Twilight's horn so she could cast some healing spell. But it wasn't that effective as she would have hoped. She was as tired as the others and couldn't perform well the delicate spell. The only good news was that the bleeding stopped and it didn't look like infected with whatever could be caught in a dirty dungeon. "We must escape!" Mark shouted. "Someone is gonna die in here!" "We have been over that already." Twilight countered. "Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash can probably escape by flying away. Twilight, you can escape by teleporting yourself a few time and reaching the outside of the city." Mark explained, feeling useless. Rainbow Dash jumped forward. "I ain't running away!" "I'm not leaving you." Fluttershy’s smooth voice added. "Accept it Mark, we are in this together." Applejack added. Mark shook his head, he couldn't accept them dying for no reason. He wasn't even sharing their pains and efforts while they were forced to work for the gryphons. The week was almost over and at this point he didn't care much about his body being sliced in half as they would all die soon after. "Listen, I got an idea, but you won't like it." offered Twilight. Mark turned around and stared at the purple mare. "Any idea is better than none." A small smile brightened her face. "You win the fight and ask for our freedom." "What?" all the ponies asked. "The captain said the challenge will take place in front of the king. It's a long shot, but you could ask for our freedom." she explained. Mark's eyes widen. "You're mad! I can't even hold a sword!" "Mark! Catch!" Applejack shouted. Mark turned his head around to see what was going on. He saw Applejack taking hold of the rusty sword in her mouth and throwing it at him. It all happened so fast that he didn't have any time to say anything, even less dodge it. He only managed to raise his left leg to protect himself. He closed his eyes awaiting the impact, which never came. After a few moments, he slowly opened his eyes. He found the sword stuck to his left hoof in the same way as he took the dagger five days ago. This time, his mind quickly got in gears analyzing any feelings or emotions he could get from the situation. Focusing on the current feelings, he was a bit surprised to find out he could keep it in his grip. "How did you know?" Twilight asked Applejack. Applejack laughed. "You and Pinkie Pie aren't the only one who can have a hunch you know." She sat down and pointed at Mark. "Last time he did it was while being attacked. A kind of protective reaction?" "No..." Mark started, deep in his thoughts. Applejack banked her head. "What?" He raised his head to look at her. "I tried that already, that feeling of being attacked. It simply never worked. Both times I was focused on defending another pony. It's true both times it happened while I was directly targeted but my mind wasn't thinking about that." He swung the sword a few time, finding his grip to be firm. "It sounds so cheesy. I tried the whole week to focus on the attack the captain thrust toward me, that instinctive reaction of protecting myself." He sighed loudly. "I guess that settles that."