//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Doctor Whooves: The Hour of Twilight // by masorin //------------------------------// The sun was rising over the Everfree Forest. And it promised to be a nice clear day over the forest, and for Rainbow Dash this was a very bad fact. As no clouds meant she didn’t have anywhere to hide, no weather she could use, and had clearly underestimated how fast her opponents could fly. Rainbow Dash was pushing herself at this point she had stayed up almost all night with very little sleep, hadn’t eaten in what felt like days, and was now being chased by twelve metal pegasi. Still she was staying ahead of the metal pegasi, but she had been doing this for almost an hour now and she was beginning to slow down. “Okay Dash time to think you got to stay ahead of these metal losers, but how.” in truth Dash already knew what she would need to do to stay ahead of the metal ponies, but getting it done was always the more difficult part. Rainbow Dash changed direction heading upwards her wings beating as fast as they could. “If I can just let gravity do a bit of the work for me.” She spoke threw gritted teeth. The Cyberpegasi were still after Rainbow. Following her every move, but that was what Dash was planning on. If she could time it right then Dash would have ten less cyber colts to deal with. Feeling the chill of the higher altitude she stopped letting her wings fold against her for a short moment, and then unfolded them and gave herself a powerful shove strait down. Her decent was rapid and the Cybercolts stopped as if waiting for her, but by the time she was catching up with them, the mach cone that was forming around her forhooves was already gaining color. “See ya!” There was a moment of silence as she reached the same altitude as the Cybercolts a second that seemed to reach out for infinity the pegasi reached out as if trying to touch her, and then as sound and color blended the sound barrier broke sending forth a shockwave at the perfect level of the Cybercolts one that literally shined with every color of the rainbow. Tearing apart the metal pegasi in a flash of light and sound. Dash was sent soaring into the forest controlling the Sonic Rain Boom's increased speed was usually so easy for dash, but battling mach ten without any sleep or food drained her, and dash was sent strait down. A second colorful and vibrant explosion reaching up from the ground as Dash crashed into the forest floor. The forest shook with and the tree’s bended, kicking up dust in every direction. ** Twilight stopped for a moment as the world shook suddenly. “An earthquake?” she asked wondering what was going on outside of the ship. It was over too quickly to be an earthquake, but something didn’t sit right in the unicorn’s stomach, and twilight suddenly had a very bad feeling. Fluttershy was already uneasy and when the ship vibrated beneath her hooves she practically jumped out of her skin. “What was that?” her voice was a shriek and it almost looked like if one more thing scared the yellow pegasus that she would fall over from a heart attack. Pinkie Pie on the other hoof stood firm bobbing her head as they walked down the corridor to the transporter array controls. Although the bounce in her step was gone she handled this the best of any pony, and even singing under her breath. “When I was a little filly and the sun was going down.” Twilight tried to move past her gut feelings, and regain her focus on the task at hand. They were getting close to the Transporter array, which was their best hope of re uniting the groups once everything was in place, but how the heck was she supposed to find everyone? A tracking spell maybe that could work. The group slowed as they reached a large metal door. Twilight had to wonder what they were going to come up against and her mind ran over a hand full of scenarios. Twilight opened the door and there on the other side would be hundreds no thousands of little Cybermats. They stopped their business as they all turned to Twilight and her friends their metal jaws opening and in an instant they were all over her, and her friends jaws snapping as they bit into the ponies. Fluttershy screamed as the Cybermats devoured her whole. And then there was laughter filling the air as the Cybermats carried Pinkie Pie away to their Cybercolt overlords! “Twilight!” a familiar Pink hoof waved in front of the purple unicorns eyes. “Twilight! Equestria to twilight come in Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight shivered as the horrible images faded from her vision and she was back in the hallway with the imposing door, surrounded by a shaking Fluttershy and a Pinkie Pie that was making faces at her. “Oh um sorry Pinkie. Let’s get this door open.” As Twilight focused her horn began to glow, and eventually the door’s became enveloped in the light of her magic, they were heavy and bolted and twilight had to close her eyes straining to telekinetically break the locks on the door, and after what felt like forever the door split open. And it reveled a little room completely devoid of all life, but even so Twilight could hear a faint voice as she walked into the room. There were several monitors on the far side of the room, but all in all it looked like a dead end except for a consol against a wall. As she looked up she noticed that the lights all seemed to be arranged in a circle about the ceiling, but her attention was drawn to the monitors. The majority of the monitors showed static, and had no noise, but there was two that were working. One showed a figure that twilight recognized immediately “Zecora she’s actually here!” The zebra was held down by a metal vice, which seemed to hold her legs and body in place. She did seem highly uncomfortable, but in that situation no pony would be happy that was for sure. Twilight wondered where exactly on the ship she was, could she get to her with a teleport spell? And where were Applejack and Rarity? Her mind flooded with questions before turning to the other monitor. The other working monitor showed Spike and the doctor, and several Cybercolts in what she could only guess was the heart of the ship that was the one the voices were coming from, and twilight was quick to make the connections. “Spike and The Doctor have been captured!” ** “Hello what brings you too Equestria on such a nice day?” The Doctor spoke in a cheerful tone for a man who was now at the complete mercy of the Cybercolt Commander. “Scan’s have determined who you are Doctor.” The Cybercolt Commander said more as a matter of fact. Like the others before him he was a damaged Cybercolt cracks and fissures lined his armor, but unlike his counterparts a large glass plate in the forehead of the Cybercolt made him stand out as it reviled the metal ponies brain, which was luckily for it undamaged. “Right well then I guess I can cut to my questions, and I do have a few questions.” He gave Spike a glance the baby dragon was not fairing as well under pressure despite how the doctor had assured him that everything would be fine. “The first of which is what are you doing with this ship? You know it’s beyond broken so you can’t be planning to repair it, and the way that engine piece fell out earlier, it was cut off. So I recon your salvaging it, taking out the parts you can use and putting them to better use, and with the size of this ship I would say it was a scout ship for cyberfleet, so if I am correct in assuming that there are more of you out there, and there is always is with you lot like cockroaches just can’t get rid of ya, that means that you would be making a beacon for the fleet, and now that brings me to my question… are you dropping off or picking up?” “Dropping of or picking up? What does that have to do with anything?” Spike said confused as he turned to the doctor. “Well Spike if they are picking up that means that in a matter of a few hours when they have that beacon up and running they will leave this planet and blow up this ship saving us a lot of work, but if they are dropping off then that means that this scout ship was sent as an attack force, and that would mean that as soon as the beacon was up, your skies would be filled with thousands of cyber ships all wanting to upgrade Equestria. In which case… I stop them.” The Cybercolt commander listened intently to the words of the doctor and companion holding back it’s answer for a moment, and then it spoke. “The beacon will be used to call the fleet, and Equestria will be upgraded, and the Doctor and companion will be deleted.” “Oh you lot would be like that however this time around its not companion, its companions, and at this moment in space and time I would like to remind anypony who would be watching this event that the panel on the far side of the room of a Cybercolt control room are the transport array controls.” His eyes shot upwards making sure that he and spike were standing in the circle of lights. “And that the buttons on the left of that panel will be very helpful once I do this.” The Doctor turned around and pulled out the sonic screwdriver which had hidden under his wing pointing it at the controls of the center of the ship there was a high pitched whistling and several sparks exploded from the console. “Stop him! Delete the Doctor!” The Cybercolt Commander cried out. As several Cybercolts began to advance Spike screamed covering his face with his claws, as a bright light enveloped both the Doctor and Spike, and then in a blink they were gone. ** “, And at this moment in space and time I would like to remind anypony who would be watching this event that the panel on the far side of the room of the Cybercolt control room are the transport array controls.” Twilight blinked as she watched the screen, “He means us? But how does he know where we are?” Pinkie Pie shrugged “Ooooh. He’s good.” Fluttershy on the other hand ran to the panel on the wall looking it over “Um what… um.” She glanced at the controls on the left. At first glance there were only a few buttons all of them dark and dead, but then, “and the buttons on the left of that panel will be very helpful once I do this!” There was a high pitched whine from the monitors as one of the lights came alive. Fluttershy hit it instinctively and a moment later there was a bright light and the room was filled with the screaming of a baby dragon and a sigh of relief from the Doctor. “Move aside Fluttershy if you don’t mind.” At the command she did. There was another high-pitched whine as the panel exploded with sparks. “There, now they can’t follow us. The controls are locked again, great work you three. And Spike we are safe you can stop screaming now” The baby dragon opened his eyes and instinctively ran to Twilight, hugging her and sobbing into the pony’s shoulder as he did. Twilight returned the hug and turned to the Doctor, “How did you know we were here?” The Doctor shrugged “I didn’t. I just trusted that you were, that’s all.” “You trusted us with your life? Without even knowing who we were, and to the point where you were entirely dependent on us for rescue?” Twilight blinked taken aback, “That’s, that’s…!” “Insane? Is it really now Twilight Sparkle? You’re the one studying the magic of friendship and you’re honestly telling me you’ve never just put your life in another ponies hooves without knowing who they are?” The Doctor’s eye’s narrowed lightly and then he gave a smile. “Good work on the transporter by the way Fluttershy. Thanks for that.” Twilight blinked, thinking over what the Doctor said when her mind snapped back to the other monitor. “Zecora is on this ship!” ** Zecora awoke with her head pounding. She felt like she had taken a hundred volts to the skull and as she looked around slowly her mind started to work, retracing where she was. She had been in her home and then there was that impact which had shaken the earth and knocked everything off the walls of her home. Zecora had been woken at that point. She had gone from trying to fix her home to panicking as two Metal ponies had broken down her door. The ponies looked broken, but she had to say one was far, far worse than the other. They had said something… what was it. Zecora tried to rub her head only to find her legs held down, and suddenly she remembered what they had said to her. They said that she would be upgraded and as she had tried to resist their attack she had been shocked. Her body wracked with horrible pain and she had blacked out. Zecora admitted to herself that she hadn’t expected to wake back up, but she had and she definitely wished that she were still sleeping. The scene around her was completely alien. The walls were made of cold metal. She herself was strapped to a wall and her head was still pounding. The light was hard and artificial and she had no idea where she was. “Zecora!” the yell came from behind a door, but she recognized the voice. “Applejack, in here! Oh please tell me that you can hear!” It hurt to talk and she wanted desperately to have a drink of water, but she needed to call out to make her presence known. “Zecora was that you?” Applejack’s voice called out getting closer to the door. “Oh of course it was her, my dear, who else speaks in rhyme?” Rarities voice chided her, but that hardly mattered to Zecora. Help had come. “In here, past the door!” she wanted to think of a rhyme to finish her thought with but her head was pounding. No, that pounding wasn’t her head, it was the door, as it dented under the powerful assault and then broke under another solid kick. “Years of apple bucking keeps these legs nice and strong.” Rarity raced up to the zebra and looked her over, “Oh my dear you look dreadful. Now don’t worry and we will have you out in a moment.” The white unicorn’s horn glowed and eventually the bindings that held the zebra in place cracked open. Zecora was free and fell forward into applejacks outstretched arms as she stood on her back legs. “Easy there Zecora. We got ya.” “Ponies will be upgraded.” The metal voice sent chills down the group’s spines as they turned to see the only door in or out of the room blocked by two metal ponies. “Aw horse apples.” Applejack said as they looked at the guard. ** “I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t they have upgraded Zecora by now? You said it yourself that they could have.” Twilight asked The Doctor as they galloped faster than Twilight had in her entire life. “You didn’t tell me that she was a zebra. They can’t use her, and they kept her alive hoping that her absence would attract ponies, and I am sorry but I sent two of your friends down there into a trap waiting to be sprung.” The Doctor kept his head down glaring ahead. He deeply regretted splitting up the group now. “If it was a trap why did you send Rarity and Applejack?!” Spike growled clearly. He did not like what was going on. “I didn’t know! I thought your friend would just be another pony. Someone the Cybercolts could use and the Cybercolts are desperate enough that they are using prisoners.” The Doctor tore through the hallways his wings pinned to his sides as he galloped. ** “Ya’ll are in for a world ah pain if ya think I am gonna allow me and my friends to be taken.” Applejack glared at the two Cybercolts, as they began to move, circling her so that one was on her left and the other flanked her right. Applejack had to curse the fact that it was basically two on one, Rarity wasn’t a fighter and would only get hurt if she fought, and Zecora was in no condition to either. This left only Applejack. She was probably the strongest of all her friends, but it was like Rainbow had said hitting a Cybercolt was like hitting a brick wall. Applejack turned hard on her front hooves kicking out with her back legs hard making contact with the Cybercolt to her right, and she felt her legs go numb from the impact. The Cybercolt on the other hand staggered back and was left with two large dents in his armor, but held together. Rarity blinked, looking as her friend recoiled in pain. Fear opened her eyes to the situation. The fashion pony didn’t have the strength of Applejack or the raw magical power of Twilight. Her greatest spell was the gem finding spell and her ability to levitate multiple objects at once, but it was never anything heavy. Rarity gulped feeling well out of her element. “The ponies will be upgraded, the zebra will be deleted.” The unharmed Cybercolt spoke slowly as it took another step forward. Slowly the group found that they were stepping back. “Not today!” Twilights voice rang out through the room as she, Pinkie Pie, Spike, Fluttershy, and The Doctor burst onto the scene. Applejack had to thank the goddesses as the Calvary arrived, but it wasn’t over just yet as the Cybercolts turned to face the new ponies. The one on the most right, reared up onto his back legs and struck out with its hoof at Twilight, but as the Cybercolt was about to make contact she was pushed out of the way by The Doctor who was struck in her stead. It had only seemed like the Cybercolt had trapped The Doctor, but then the charge of electricity passed through him. It was a horrific lightshow that seemed to last several seconds. When it ended The Doctor fell and didn’t get back up. Twilights eyes were wide looking down at The Doctor, that shock had been enough to stop a ponies heart, and for a moment the entire group was struck dumb by the sight of a pony having just been murdered in cold blood. Fluttershy was the first that came back to her senses. Moving to the body, she put her hoof over The Doctor’s chest and began to hit lightly with both hooves. “No! No! Not like that!” Fluttershy’s eyes were wide with panic as she checked him over and began hitting his chest trying to restart his heart only too stop after the second hit. Her eyes now confused as her voice faded, and she mumbled something about impossible under her breath. Twilight recovered second, watching as her close friend seemingly lost her mind as Fluttershy continued to just stare at the Doctor. Twilight turned to the two Cybercolts with eyes of burning anger. Twilight didn’t know any war magic, but as her horn began to glow she knew what she could do. The two Cybercolts stood still. Not because they were waiting but because suddenly they found it very hard to move as their bodies began to glow. And then hundreds of pounds of telekinetic energy was applied to them and their knees began to buckle and then break, and then their metal armor began to crack as they were pushed into the ground. Twilight’s spell hadn’t stopped at merely crushing the two Cybercolts against the ground. When she finally stopped breathing heavily she was met with the worried stares of her friends. “Twilight?” Pinkie Pie said, her eyes wide with concern and her hair considerably less fluffy then it usually was. “Sorry I…” Twilight said as she looked over the two crushed piles of metal and bone. “What… Did I do?” “You defended yourself.” The Doctor said getting up. His head swam in pain as he coughed, his ribs hurting, “Did someone hit me?” Everyone turned to The Doctor. Fluttershy repeated that it wasn’t possible, but it was Applejack who voiced the question first. “How in tarnation are ya still alive!” “Two hearts, the voltage stopped one, but the other survived restarting the other classical… me I guess.” The Doctor gave a shrug with his wings. “What?! How did you? But, What are you?!” this time it was Fluttershy, her eyes now reflecting anger. She had tried to bring him back when she noticed that he still had a pulse, faint but steady. “I guess I have too tell you now, but not here. Twilight can you get us back to Ponyvile? I left something outside of Rarities dress shop, and it tends to make the explanations a lot easier.” The Doctor spoke in a low tone one of resignation. Zecora finally stepped forward looking at the group that had risked their lives to save her. “Yes please let us retreat for now to Ponyville, away from this place’s great evil.”