//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Doctor Whooves: The Hour of Twilight // by masorin //------------------------------// “Augh my head.” Rainbow Dash’s world was pain unrelenting surges of pain that seemed to increase with every breath. Her rose eyes opened slowly and then Rainbow Dash’s world was expanded to include a second factor, blinding light. Dash hated her world. Slowly, the world began to expand into a blur which gained color, an oddly metal color, and Dash let out a scream as she recoiled. Rainbow was face to face with a Cybercolt's face, but the rest of the creature was gone. A moment of silence passed as Rainbow Dash stared intently at the creature’s head, and it stared back, silent. Slowly, Dash went over the events that had lead her to this crater. She remembered everything that had happened to her and her friends over the last few hours. She gazed up at Celestia’s sun and tried to spread her wings, only to let a squeak of pain as all wind was knocked from her. Dash looked at her wings the right one was fine she could flex it and move it around, but the left hung weakly at her side; it had been sprained, and felt like the fires of a thousand dragons. It was a common sports injury for Pegasi, one that Dash had suffered before in the past, but one that would keep her off her wings for at least a week. “That’s just not fair.” Dash couldn’t get her bearings without her wings; she had no idea where in the Everfree Forest she was, and this forest was not a good place to be alone and lost. There were things in these woods that would eat a young Pegasi for dinner, and right now Dash had lost her best defense. “Okay Dash, stay calm, you just need to find your way back to Zecora’s...” That was the smartest thing she could do; pull herself out of the hole she had dug for herself and get to a place that would have food and medical herbs. She could treat herself and rest easily. She took a step and a rock bumped against her wing knocking the wind from her again. Eventually she figured out how to stop her wing from dragging; using a couple of sticks and some vines, she made a vice for herself. “Just like I was taught back in flight academy.” Dash started walking, feeling only a slight amount of pain from her side now, though she still had several scratches and bruises those could be ignored. It was her wing that worried her the most. “Just need to avoid becoming something's lunch long enough to-” Rainbow Dash was cut off as a large gust of wind whipped several dead leaves into the air. Her mouth dropped open as she watched a big blue box materialize in front of her with a sound that was something like a dying blender and a bright light that seemed to shine from the top of the box. The light was bright enough and it kicked up enough wind that Rainbow actually turned her head, looking away. “What is that!” When the sound stopped Rainbow stared for a long moment at the large blue box that had on it the words “Police Box.” Rainbow had never really heard of a police box, and the box itself seemed like it belonged in a museum as she walked up to it, reaching out a hoof to touch the blue door. It swung inwards, and a tan Pegasus pony’s head poked out. “Ah, Rainbow Dash, there you are! We were starting to get worried. Come along now and get inside. We can have that wing bandaged in no time.” ** “This is… Awesome!” Rainbow called out, looking at the inside of the blue box. “It’s actually… bigger on the inside!” “I love that part.” The doctor said smiling as he watched the equally exasperated group of 6 ponies, a zebra, and a dragon all of which seemed to dumb struck “Um...Rainbow, could you please stay still? I… um need to bandage your wing. It’s only a small sprain, nothing too bad, but...” Fluttershy said quietly as she looked over the sprained wing. “You um... won’t be able to fly for a couple of days… sorry.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “I figured, but this is going to suck!” A few days of being grounded did not sound pleasant. Rainbow practically wanted to scream at how unfair that was, or maybe that was the pain as Fluttershy tied her wings to her sides with a bandage so she wouldn’t be tempted to try flying anyway. . “She took a bit of a crash earlier when I landed in Ponyville, had to let her sit and fix up. It’s called a TARDIS.” Twilight was the first to snap out of her stupor. “What kind of magic does it run off? I mean I have heard of room expansion magic, and clearly it has teleportation enchantments to move, but that’s only theoretical, and this.” she stamped her hoof on the glass floor that formed a catwalk to the central controls, and door. “This is more solid than theory.” “That’s because it’s not magic. It’s technology. TARDIS stands for “Time And Relative Dimensions In Space”. It’s my ship. It’s how I travel.” The Doctor said with a smile, still having fun with the fact that he was literally blowing their minds. “Time? You mean… You mean this is a time machine?” Twilight said. This was just incredible. Time travel wasn’t supposed to exist, and Twilight suddenly found herself wondering why she had never actually heard of the idea. “Where I am from, stories are often told, of this blue box in times of old. A man who travels bring him across time and space, and of all the perilous dangers he would face. You, Doctor are a legend among my people.” Zecora said, looking at the Doctor, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Well, I guess. You can’t really travel as often and far as I do without gathering some reputation.” The Doctor answered a little modestly. “So why didn’t yah tell any of us to start with?” Applejack was still glaring at the Doctor. “Well, that’s because you are all important. Twilight Sparkle and her friends, oh stories will be told of you lot for all time, and I try to avoid getting involved in the real important events.” “Well that doesn’t make sense. If you’re a time traveler who goes site seeing, then naturally you're going to get involved sooner or later, and look it’s later!” Pinkie Pie bounced along, laughing a little at her comment. “Well yes, but I try not to. Anyway, we have a more pressing a matter to get back too, and that would be saving Equestria. As long as that ship is around, it’s a threat to us all.” The Doctor’s voice was grave as he got up to his hooves, walking to the TARDIS controls. “Anyone who wants out, now’s your chance to leave.” Everyone stayed where they were. Twilight looked at her friends, and then gave a nod “I don’t think we're leaving any time soon.” ** “Status report.” The Cybercolt Commander stood in the deep underbelly of the ship around him; the few Cybercolts that were left worked busily. Their numbers had so far been reduced to the last handful, but the ones that were left were fully repaired using parts of the broken, and the Cybercolt commander himself was now at full operational capacity. “Beacon is beginning activation. Estimated time to fleet arrival 5 minutes.” The Cybercolt responded, but was suddenly distracted by a sound like a dying blender. “TARDIS materializing in control room!” one of the Cybercolts called out as the blue box began to appear, fading in slowly and then becoming locked in space and time. Silence fell over the room, as the Cybercolts stood still, waiting for the doors to open. The door opened slowly as The Doctor put his face outside, “Hello good to see everyone. How are you all doing now? Fully repaired I see that’s good. You're not the only one who needed some time to get stuff right in the head you know, new body and all.” As The Doctor spoke his wings carried him out of the TARDIS, his hooves staying off the ground. “Flying. Got to love it. Am I right? Of course I am but you lot wouldn’t know anything about that, love and all I mean. Anyway I have decided to give you lot one last chance to leave this world and never return.” The doctor stopped his wings letting himself land on the ground with a light thud. Behind him the other ponies, Dragon and zebra all piled out of the TARDIS. The Doctor gave a confident smile, staring at the Cybercolt commander. “The Doctor will be deleted, his companions will be upgraded, or deleted.” The Cybercolt commander took a threatening step forward, as all Cybercolts turned onto them, surrounding the blue box. “Oh, we have both heard that before!” The Doctor shouted, “Yeah you try and delete me, and then you turn on your little beacon and Equestria dies, and the perfect society is made; no emotions, no love, no hate, I have heard that bit over and over with you lot like a broken record, but do you know what? You never win. So this time… good work.” The Doctor clopped his hooves against the ground. “You win. I am beaten.” “Uh, Doctor.” Twilight said her voice concerned as she saw the Cybercolts continuing their approach. “Are you sure you know what you're doing?” The Doctor smiled. “Actually, yes I do. I am surrendering now, and forever. Equestria is yours. Please go about your way and call in the fleet.” Twilight and company’s eyes widened and suddenly there was a wave of protest. “I thought ya’ll said we were fightin’ this here threat to the world!” “What gives man? Not cool!” “Doctor, you can’t be serious!” “Haha, that was a good joke… you are joking, right?” “Of all the things you could do, this is the worst possible thing!” “After all this you're just going to surrender! My wing is sprained because of you!” “Um… You… could have told us about this, back on the TARDIS. I mean, if that was okay.” “If the Doctor is sincere then he will stand aside and prepare for deletion!” the Cybercolt stood forward and looked the Doctor directly in the eyes. “Oh yes, of course.” The Doctor stepped aside and raised his hooves to the air using his wings for balance. “I surrender and submit myself for deletion.” “The companions of the doctor will be upgraded first!” The Cybercolt commander walked up and the Cybercolts that had the group surrounded began to escort the six actual ponies to the wall for upgrading. “Doctor, why?!” Twilight called out as metal braced around her arms and legs. “Why lead us to here just to give up! It’s not fair!” “Twilight I want you to remember the things that I said, putting your life in the hands of another pony, the magic of friendship, and also what I told you all about the Cybercolts.” “Twilight I feel weird.” Rainbow said as there was a light hissing sound. “Almost lethargic.” “Those are drugs for sedation, they don’t want you to resist none of them want you to resist! Right now we are in the heart of a Cybership, which has been turned into a beacon, a beacon which is now operational, and that any minute is going to bring down the force of a Cyberfleet, and I'm sorry, so sorry, but this was the only way. The ship is the beacon, and the Cybership, is what produces the upgrading process. Right now you’re in the heart of it. You can send out any message in the universe to them! But it was dangerous, and I knew that, but if you can’t resist, then everything in Equestria dies!” ** The day was now well under way as Celestia walked through the halls of her castle in Canterlot. The day had started like most others with a quiet breakfast that Luna had prepared, but now as she walked out into the sun of her gardens, it was around noon, so it was surprising to her when she looked up to see hundreds of tiny stars in the sky. The royal guard who were always so in control were staring upwards, their mouths open, Celestia could have sworn she heard one of them utter a profanity. “Luna? Is this some kind of joke?” The words escaped her before she looked down at her smaller sister of the night. Luna was lost in thought, looking up, “Those aren’t stars. There are no constellations.” ** “Resistance is futile!” The Cybercolt commander shouted, as a chest plate began to lower over rainbow. “You will watch, Doctor, your gambit will fail, and Equestria will die.” Another hiss, and suddenly, Applejack stopped squirming. “It’s oddly calming now that ah think about it.” Twilight watched as two of her friends were now on their way to becoming Cybercolts, the idea passing into her mind that she would be next. “I don’t know what to do!” “Fight it! If anyone could overcome this, and choose a message to send, it would be you, Twilight Sparkle! Just think, think of a message powerful enough, that it would make even the most emotionless creature tear up.” Twilight shook her head as another hiss lowered a body plate over Pinkie Pie. “Ha… ha.. I don’t get it.” “I.. I don’t think I can!” Twilight's voice was filled with sorrow, and pleading as she watched her friends one by one becoming less like themselves, and more like the cold Cybercolts. ** All of Ponyville was in the streets for the second time in as many hours as they could think of. All eyes were on the sky; hundreds, if not thousands of tiny stars had appeared in it during the day! And they were getting bigger. “The sky is falling!” in a crowd as tense as the one in Ponyville, that had been all it had taken for the panic to set in, and suddenly the town was alive with panicked and scared ponies, all wanting answers. Some held each other in fear, others ran and screamed, one however, a gray Pegasus with messed up eyes held her two daughters close. “Ditzy, where’s daddy?” “I don’t know Dinky.” Ditzy Do said calmly, reassuring the small unicorn, and the other larger pink unicorn. “But my guess is that he is right where he needs to be.” ** The Doctor took one more deep breath. “Listen to me, Twilight Sparkle, I put you into this position because I know what you're capable of. Now listen closely, Twilight. Your friends are in danger, and they need you! Equestria needs you, and right now Twilight I need you. You said you would have called me a friend? Well right now I think that’s a pretty good deal! I will be your friend if you can just resist this!” There was another hiss as a chest plate was lowered over Rarity “So… drab.” Twilight’s eyes glowed along with her horn, the gravity of the situation kicking in, watching her friends suffering becoming too much for her to handle. The Cybercolts in the area suddenly had something creep into their voice, an emotion? “What is going on!” The Doctor could have cheered. “What do you think is going on? You started to upgrade her friends, and now she is striking back, right where it hurts! She is in agony, and all that emotion in a unicorn, all that power bottled up with nowhere to go. Except oh wait, it does, because you have a beacon set up, and right now every emotion that unicorn is feeling is being broadcast across your entire fleet!” “Error! Error!” The Cybercolt commander screamed, feeling the pain that radiated off of Twilight. The Cybercolt commander collapsed, twitching as the ship began to spark up. Twilight began to glow brighter as Spike let out a cry, “What’s going on!” “It’s Twilight! Her power is tearing this whole place apart!” The Doctor called out over the chaos as bulkheads sparked, and screens began to crack. Twilight let out a scream as the metal around her buckled, and the restraints around her and her friends gave out. ** All over Equestria stunned looks of silence cried out, as the stars, which had appeared in the days sky, began to burst with blinding light, and then spark out. Hundreds of stars dying and exploding, leaving streaks of smoke as gravity pulled them down and the atmosphere burned them up. Celestia watched the display in horror. “What is going on up there?” Luna looked up standing beside her sister, her eyes marked with interest. “I believe they are dying, whatever they were.” ** “Get everyone into the TARDIS now!” The doctor was holding Twilight Sparkle’s unconscious body. The rest were dazed and confused, but at least they were able to move on their own power. Zecora and Spike ushered them into the blue box. Once the doors were closed, the Doctor ran for the controls and hit them as hard as he could. “We need to not be here right now!” ** Outside the ship, the Everfree forest was silent, the noon sun expanding and bright under the continued explosion of stars in the sky, the sounds of birds could be heard, but all was drowned out as the ship exploded. The explosion carried such a shockwave that the few trees not already knocked over by the impact were knocked over, and the nearby town of Ponyville suffered its second earthquake of the day. Miles away from the Everfree forest, in Sweet Apple Acers, a blue box faded into existence. The door opening slowly as a small, shaking dragon fell out of the door. “Too much excitement.” The Doctor smiled as he walked out, gazing up at the sky, the daytime stars were gone, but large streaks like shooting stars filled the sky. “That would be the Cyberfleet. Burning up in orbit.” “Won’t some of it reach the ground? Civilizations and people they could pound?” Zecora spoke as she walked outside, followed by a still dazed Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. “Not likely, Equestria has magnetic poles, most of it will be pulled towards one of those, and anything that actually makes it to the ground will be too small and broken to be really harmful.” Rainbow Dash smiled but blinked as a small white snowflake fell on her as she looked up. “What? Who authorized snow, its not supposed to snow at least for another month!” “That’s not snow, that’s bits of broken metal burning up in Equestria’s atmosphere. It should last for… oh, a few days.” The Doctor’s voice was grave. ** “Are you sure, Zecora?” The Doctor looked at the zebra that nodded back to him. “My home in the forest is gone, and I do not wish to be alone, but I have no desire to travel with you, Doctor. I will stay here in Ponyville where there is still much to work for.” The Zebra smiled and began to walk away. The Doctor on the other hand, turned back towards the other seven. Spike had collapsed in the orchard, and had fallen asleep, while most of the others had recovered all except for Twilight, who was still unconscious. “Ah still don’t get it.” Applejack said muttering under her breath. “I thought you said you were givin' up?” “Rule one when you travel with me, I lie.” The Doctor said looking at Applejack, who looked back offended. “I never meant to give up, but I knew that with the beacon almost finished the only way to destroy every Cybercolt, was with the broadcast.” Twilight wheezed for a moment, her eyes opening, “What… happened.” “We were kind of hoping that you would know the answer to that, darling.” Rarity said, holding an ice pack to her head. “You happened.” The Doctor said in a low tone. “Your mind, your emotions sent out a message while you were hooked up to the Cybercolts ship. One that was powerful enough to cause them to feel it, and Cybercolts are not made to feel emotions. It’s their greatest weakness, but now I have to ask; what was the message?” “I… Don’t really remember, what I do remember is that you said you were willing to be my friend, and everyone else slowly fading away from me. All I could think about is how much I wanted to see you all again, and how much I just wanted to be around… my friends.” Twilight looked up seeing the smiling faces of those around her, and spike snoring softly on the ground. The Doctor smiled. “Friendship, perhaps the greatest power source for impossible things, and when things are at their most dire, that’s usually when the power of true friendship is at its strongest.” The Doctor turned and began to walk towards the TARDIS. “Now that you're all safe I will be on my way.” Twilight got to her hooves. “Wait Doctor, you're just going to leave? But I thought you said that you were going to be our friend.” “I am, and I'll be around, but I travel it’s what I do, I don’t want to sit around Ponyville for another lifetime, I did that once already, no I want to go back into the universe to see it all again, and travel across time and space.” The Doctor’s voice was filled with wonder as he looked up at the box. “But ya’ll must get lonely.” Applejack said, still debating if she was liking the pegasus or not. “Well it does, but its dangerous, today was just a taste of my lifestyle.” The Doctor said, looking at the group slowly. “Then we have to go with you.” Twilight said at last gaining her composure. She looked at the girls, and then to Spike, she already knew what his answer would be, and slowly the nods from the group confirmed it. “Right. We will travel with you, for a little while anyway. Besides, just imagine what we could learn from you. Which reminds me, I'll need to write a letter to Celestia about this.” ** Credits: Written by: Masorin Edited by: Mosobot 64, Breaker, Marie Rie, and Lenai. Ponies are the trademark of Hasbro, and Doctor Who is property of the BBC. Special thanks too Izzy for her support of my idea’s and telling a dyslexic that he should try his hand at writing. Doctor Whooves will return in: Luna’s Republic. Authors note: Luna’s Republic won’t be posted until at least the 28th I am taking a week off for college work