The 5 ponies began walking through the forest. Twilight and Rainbow led the group through the dense forest. Twilight told Rainbow all about what had happened after she woke up, including being sent to the Moon, reading Starswirl’s own hoofnotes, the TARDIS, and pretty much everything else in between. She also told her about her handicap of not being able to fly. Rainbow sighed as they continued walking. “I guess I’m going to have to teach you how to fly again, huh?”
Twilight nodded. “I guess so, and I was getting good at it. So what’s happened since we last saw each other?”
Rainbow stopped midflight. “Everything went wrong back in Canterlot. Sombra sent Pinkie and Fluttershy to the dungeons with Princess Celestia. She didn’t look so good with her broken horn and Pinkie had not said a word. Her mane went flat as they carried her away. I couldn’t stop them with my wings. They got rid of me before I had a chance to escape. I was plopped out here in the middle of the forest, and I thought I was going to die, but Zecora found me. She lifted the curse off my wings and I’ve been here ever since. It’s been tough out here, especially with the Forest retaliating.”
“What do you mean?”
“Zecora said that for a while, the Everfree Forest started fighting. She’s seen plants move and the mist from within get thicker. She says something is coming.”
Twilight pondered that for a moment. She knew the Everfree was untamable and free when it came to the weather. “How long have you been here?” the Doctor asked.
Rainbow looked over. “Who are you?”
“I’m the Doctor,” he said.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Doctor who?”
“Just ‘the Doctor’. I helped nurse Twilight back to health, but it was Luna who saved her,” he said. “And I’m sure you know my faithful assistant, Ditzy.”
Ditzy looked over at Rainbow. They touched hooved and laughed. “So this is where you fly off to after your mail runs: off with your coltfriend.”
Ditzy’s face turned bright red. “He’s not my coltfriend. We’re just friends that’s all,” she said.
“Uh huh, sure and Twilight didn’t have a small crush on that guard in the Crystal Empire.”
“Can we stop talking about Flash already? He is just a version of a guy I met while in the other world, that’s all he is to me. There was no crushing and no flirting so quit it!” Twilight barked.
Rainbow laughed. “Oh c’mon Twi, you know I’m pulling your tail.”
The lavender alicorn rolled her eyes. “Sure, and the Doctor is a Wonderbolt.”
The Time Lord smiled. “I actually am a certified Wonderbolt in one of my earlier lives actually. General Firefly and I were really close friends for an awfully long time and still are,” he said. “He has a bit of a drinking problem though, and I take responsibility for that.”
Rainbow looked over. “General who-now?”
The Doctor waved it off. Rainbow shrugged and continued flying next to her friend. “Seriously though, you do have a crush on the guy.”
Twilight made a move to grab Rainbow Dash, but she only elevated a few more feet off the ground. She scowled at the pegasus. “Show some interest with a male for half a second and I never hear the end of it. First Rarity tries to set me up with him and now he is being used against me. Brilliant,” she muttered.
Rainbow laughed as she finally touched ground. The ponies continued walking through the forest, eventually finding the hut of Zecora the Zebra. Rainbow knocked a few times on the door before entering. Everything on the shelves looked exactly the same as the last time Twilight was here. The creepy masks that followed her every step were still hung from the ceiling as a security system. That is probably one reason why nopony tries to enter without her permission. Those masks probably can speak.
Bottles of variously colored liquids lined the shelves. Potions that ranged from simple healing spells to complex incendiary spells and Transfiguration. Rainbow flew up and replaced whatever leftover potions she had in her bag. Twilight had the displeasure of trying a Transfiguration potion once. She often wondered the life of a dog, and when she got it, she was happy to be a unicorn again. It was one experience where she and Spike knew what they were talking about.
In the middle of the room, right next to a giant cauldron of a green liquid, stood the zebra herself. She was muttering an incantation in her native tongue, but when Rainbow landed on the floor, she stopped and turned. She looked weary like she was working non-stop since the invasion.
“Please Rainbow Dash, if you will come in, please be as silent as a falling pin,” she said.
“Hehe, sorry Zecora, but I found Twilight and some new friends of hers.”
Zecora turned to greet the new friends of Twilight, but when her eyes rested on the Doctor’s, she smiled. “My eyes deceive, it is the Doctor. So long have I waited to enter my front door,” she said.
The zebra inched closer to the Time Lord and grazed his muzzle. “You’ve seen me before?”
“And I fear we will meet some more. Please sit and you will see, there is much to fear in this monstrosity.”
The ponies all glanced at each other before approaching the cauldron. The liquid bubbled from the flame, and before Twilight knew it, an image popped up inside the liquid. She recognized it immediately as the Crystal Empire. From her last vision, Sombra was near victorious against Cadence. The Empire looked dark and sad. The Crystal Ponies were all chained up and forced to and from the mines. The palace was surrounded by living shadows and Changelings.
Twilight focused more into the image. Underneath the palace was the podium for the Crystal Heart, but something about it was different. It wasn’t spinning like it used to. Instead, the Heart was motionless and dark, like all of the happiness and love that was inside was suddenly gone. The surface was cracked like a broken heart is normally depicted.
“Dear Celestia, he won,” Rainbow said.
“I’ve seen something like this before. He may have won, but the war isn’t over yet. They still don’t have it,” the Doctor said.
“Have what?” Twilight asked.
Ditzy and the Doctor exchanged looks. They knew about the artifact she would later find. The Tree and the power within. Twilight looked closer into the image, and noticed a familiar pony standing beside the Heart. A unicorn with purple curls in her mane and a crystalized military uniform. It was Rarity guarding the Heart. Her eyes still green from the dark magic used against her.
“Rarity.”
Zecora nodded. “Dark in mind as her heart, setting her free will play a major part.”
Twilight nodded. “What can we do?”
Zecora put a hoof under her chin. “The answer be a holy key, so where is your Element of Harmony?”
She hung her head. “Broken, but I think we can make it right. We need the Elements to restore it,” she said.
Zecora nodded. “That be done is the easy path, but what happens now against the dark’s wrath?”
“Well, we need to cause a revolution. Something to keep Sombra and his goons distracted, but what can we do?”
“Better not to flee, you may need the Harmony—”
“Free. Harmony free,” the Doctor interrupted. “We must free the agents of Harmony, meaning your friends.”
Zecora glared at the Doctor. “Perhaps another to please your aching heart, but be warned it is one difficult part. A dark lord’s death is the key, to rid us all of the Unholy Trinity.”
That last line directed to the Doctor. “But, there’s 4 of them,” Ditzy said.
The zebra looked over. “I know what I said and I said what I meant, now it’s time to sleep your day is well spent.”
At that point, Twilight yawned as did everypony else. Zecora motioned to a section of her hut that was draped in a large brown cloth. Twilight opened the curtain and two hammocks were in place, one on top of the other. Twilight took the one below while Derpy took the top. Princess Luna looked around and found a spot where she could rest.
Within seconds, all but Twilight were sound asleep. From beyond her fight to sleep, Twilight seemed to overhear an argument between Zecora and the Doctor.
“Interrupt me and make false words, surely your mind has gone to the birds!”
“I know a lot about your magic in potions, including prophecy, but the tree cannot be known. It isn’t time.”
“’Time is not the boss’ are those your words, or have you lied you ungrateful curd?!”
“I need this timeline to progress as slowly as it can. We can win, but without ancient magic. Without the tree.”
“Very well Time Lord I will remember, but now is your time to slumber?”
“Not yet. I’m not ready. Are you sure about ‘A dark lord’s death’?”
Silence. The sound of hooves exiting the hut were all that were left Probably going to get his box, Twilight thought to herself. Twilight fell asleep with a tree in her mind. Tomorrow, the revolution begins.