One of the many things running through Twilight’s mind was, Am I dead? The answer was obviously no. She was in a huge copper control room with a giant tower of nonsense with a stallion who has no name, a wall-eyed mail mare, and the Princess of the night. The lavender alicorn knew nothing of what was going on, but Luna trusted the stallion.
The room rocked back and forth as the Doctor continued to speak gibberish. It seemed as though Luna and Derpy knew what he was talking about, which was impossible in her case. The Doctor threw a switch, and the entire room began making a noise. A loud screeching noise that raised the hairs on Twilight’s coat. Luna reacted by throwing the same switch back in its original position. “We do not need to obliterate Twilight’s hearing,” she told the Doctor.
“Right, I’m going to have to fix that. I don’t understand, I changed the Extrapolators a long time ago,” he said.
“How long ago?”
The Doctor hit his head on the console. “Um, about a few minutes after you dropped Twilight off,” he said.
Luna face-hoofed. Twilight looked down on the switches. The console was literally littered with bells, whistles, and sticks. Twilight pressed a button to only have the Doctor freak out. “Do you want to open a rift right above Canterlot?!”
Twilight looked up in shock. “A what?”
“A hole in the fabric of reality. A tear where time and space spill into the physical world. Opening a rift and not having the right stabilization could very well contaminate half of Equestria with pure Time Energy, and if a proper defense isn’t in place, that half of Equestria will be lost forever. Do you want a tear in time and space to open up in a dense populated area?!”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “No, not at all!”
The stallion fiddled with a few switches before resuming his work at the console. The entire room shook again as another explosion rocked them. “Grah, they’re hammering us with everything they’ve got. I can’t do anything when one part of the console is on the other side of the room!” The Doctor said.
The alicorn stood there as the Doctor continued to run around the console with his companion in tow. Derpy looked over at Twilight, and pointed to the switch that was shaking. Twilight shrugged to herself and moved the lever. Immediately the room began to stabilize. Twilight could feel her heart beating louder than ever before. The Doctor looked over to where Derpy was, and chuckled. He continued flipping more switches before he stopped.
He was about to rest on a chair, but the room jerked forward again. “Shields are fading fast! I can’t get us out of here! It’s like there is a magical force field surrounding the planet, making it completely TARDIS proof,” the Doctor said.
Twilight looked over. “TAR-what proof?”
“TARDIS. Stands for Time and Relative Dimension In Space. It’s my time machine,” the Doctor said.
Twilight looked at him for a moment. “You’re joking. This cannot be a time machine. That technology is impossible.”
“Yet there are Time Spells in the Royal Canterlot Archives in Starswirl’s Wing,” he rebutted.
“But that’s just magic. You don’t have any knowledge of magic. Unless you are hiding a horn under your mane, you cannot possibly travel through time!”
The Doctor smiled. “I would love to prove you wrong, but right now we need to get away from the Shadow Ponies chasing us. Derpy, what’s the status on the shields?”
“They’re going down fast. The glass thingy is saying 9 power,” she said.
“9% power left? I thought I had more. Oh well, that’s what happens when I have the shield on while playing Bowling for Asteroids. OK, it is obvious that the Shadow Ponies are stopping us from hitting space, but why? Let a blue box escape into the outer regions of the planet. What could it be?”
The mares stayed silent as the room shook. “What’s changed since we came back here?”
Luna searched her mind. “Nightmare Moon’s power could have encased the planet to ensure nothing escapes,” she said.
“That is true.”
“But this is fairly new magic. With a machine like yours Doctor, and with the right maneuvers, we can get past the shield before it completely covers the planet.”
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that. See, when Nightmare Moon first spawned into existence, she distributed so much dark magic into the castle that it latched onto any source of darkness. Her power gave life to the shadows, but that wasn’t enough for them to grow, until…”
“The Summer Sun Celebration a year ago!” Luna shouted out.
“Correct. Nightmare Moon returns, and without Princess Celestia, the night time lasted a good 5 extra hours. Nightmare disbursed her magic all over Equestria, even latching a part of her life force onto a shadow for protection. She knew the Elements would be used once again and plotted against death. Nightmare Moon had secretly bided her time and allowed her own magic to quietly encompass the planet.”
“But that doesn’t help us against the Shadow Ponies,” Derpy said.
“Aha! But it does. Princess Luna returns with renewed ambitions to adapt and accept her role as Princess of the Night, leaving all that dark magic in the hooves of Nightmare. She rose an army against the Elements and soon had enough power to rise again,” the Doctor said. “She grew a new army of living shadows to stop the Sun.”
“They are keeping us from leaving Equestria. The Shadow Ponies must think we are a threat,” Luna said.
The Doctor nodded. Meanwhile, Twilight was trying to build the picture. “Dark magic has encased the planet!”
The Doctor nodded. “And getting past that much dark magic requires an equal amount of light magic. Luckily, we have two alicorns who are both gifted with extreme magical skills.”
Luna and Twilight both exchanged glances. They silently realized what to do. Luna poured all her magic and energy into her horn, and so did Twilight. Immediately, their horns began emitting large amounts of magical energy. The console began to glow lavender and purple. The Doctor stood back along with his companion. Immediately, the TARDIS jerked forward, but not by the Shadow Ponies. The switches that the Doctor threw were going back to their original positions as the TARDIS accelerated.
Derpy began hovering in the air while the Doctor was taken for a roller coaster ride. The two alicorns continued focusing all their energy into flying the TARDIS, despite the rocking control room. Twilight knew that, in order to focus all magical energy into a complex task, she needed to think happy thoughts. Immediately, her mind reeled back to her first day with her friends. The day after the Nightmare Moon fiasco. Pinkie had staged a more ‘formal’ party welcoming her to Ponyville. She also remembered seeing Princess Celestia and Luna on her first week in Canterlot. She spent an afternoon with Princess Luna and tried teaching her the ways of the new age.
Her mind fast forwarded 8 months when she and her friends saved the Crystal Empire. The after party that Pinkie threw was enough to power the Crystal Heart for an eternity. The festivities were grand, but Twilight spending time with her brother and his wife was enough to make her happy. The week that followed Sombra’s defeat was difficult for Princess Cadence since she used her magic to protect the Empire by herself.
Twilight?
A voice rang into her memories. She recognized the voice immediately. It was Spike. An image of the Canterlot Castle entered her mind. Nightmare Moon was sitting on Princess Celestia’s throne with Spike standing by her side. He was dressed in an old jester’s costume. In his hands was a chest with the 5 Elements of Harmony inside.
Twilight tried to turn away from the image, but then it flashed to Applejack knocking down her own apple trees. She and so many other hypnotized ponies were destroying Sweet Apple Acres. She turned her head away, but found herself in the Crystal Empire. Rarity was there in a military uniform, tearing down the defenses of the Empire. Princess Cadence and Shining Armor had their armies ready to defend, but they were quickly washed up by Sombra’s dark magic.
“NO!”
One of the levers on the console ripped right out of the base, and the TARDIS began to spin. Alarms began to ring as everypony began screaming. All except the Doctor. He grabbed the broken lever and pulled out a silver device from the console. Twilight only got a glimpse of it. It was a silver stick with a blue light coming from the end of it. She saw him hit the underside of the lever with the light before he put it back into its empty slot. He shone the light over the spot before he threw it up. The lever was working again.
He galloped over to a large switch. “And we found it!”
The room stopped shaking. “Found what?” Twilight asked.
The Doctor pushed the final lever forward. “A weak point in Nightmare’s line of defense. We are landing on the Moon very shortly.”
Twilight’s head began to hurt. “I think I’m gonna be—”
Twilight immediately ran into the hallway. The Doctor smiled and continued monitoring the TARDIS controls. “Just gotta park right here!”
He pulled back a switch and the TARDIS stopped. The engines died down as the Doctor grabbed the monitor. “We’re here. The Lunar Ring of Maria,” he said.
Princess Luna froze. “You brought us back to where we were banished?”
“Oh no, a little farther away from there. I’ve parked her in the gardens of your castle,” he said.
Twilight returned with a bucket. “I’ve extended the atmospheric shields to encompass the whole garden. We should be fine once we get inside, am I right?”
“Yes. Once inside the castle walls, there is an atmospheric shell that had allowed myself to breath. We should be safe.”
Twilight smiled. The Doctor motioned everypony to follow him for the time being. He threw up the doors, and Twilight’s eyes couldn’t stop expanding. In front of her was a giant castle in a cave. The castle was made of marble and gold with coats of arms all over the place. The coat of arms were decorated with Luna’s Moon rising over Equestria with shooting stars surrounding it. The cave they were in was beautifully decorated with a memorial to two alicorns. Their faces could not be recognized since they were blank. One of the alicorns were definitely a male given the body structure. Upon looking at the memorial, Twilight felt her heartstrings plucking. The two looked so sad.
The princess of magic found herself stepping onto the surface of the moon. Immediately she felt the foreign history of Luna’s rage build inside her. Her anger and sadness washed over her like a wave. The castle was something to behold. “This is beautiful,” she said.
Princess Luna smiled as she approached Twilight. “We tried to outdo our sister since she had our parent’s castle. It is a remarkable treasure that we keep intact. One day, we may bring the Lunar Castle to Equestria.”
Twilight looked forward to it. The Doctor walked forward with Derpy by his side. “Well then, we can stay here for the time being. We need information on what we are dealing with.”
Twilight nodded. The history that this castle had seen may be what she was looking for. What knowledge could be behind those walls? What secrets could-
“Oh, we just forgot. Our sister sent us some of these weird cookies during my banishment. I never got to eat them. This time, I will remember to find them!”
Nevermind.