//------------------------------// // Chapter three: The city of marble and gold // Story: The RoseLuck chronicles #1: The Madman and his box // by Trixterforrester //------------------------------// As we approached the Doctor's box I watched as he extended a hoof and made a sound with it reminiscent of a twig breaking, a sound that echoed throughout my field and resonated with the TARDIS, causing the doors to swing outwards and allowing us entrance. Now at the time I was in a flurry of emotions and hadn't noticed some of the more 'interesting' quirks of the TARDIS, such as the fact that the interior is roughly the size of infinity while the exterior could fit in an outhouse. "WHERE THE TARTARUS DO YOU THINK YOU ARE RUNNING OFF FOR!" I shouted "THERE ARE PONIES OUT THERE WHO LOOK LIKE THEIR BRAINS ARE MELTING, AND YOU'RE IN YOUR SHED DOING BUCK ALL ABOUT IT!" "I am doing something about it, I accidentally connected to the same frequency as the psychic field connecting them all, so they are currently experiencing a fluctuation in their rate of expulsion of psychic energy, or as you call it 'magic'" he explained as he dashed round the centre column. "Now what I am currently doing is suppressing their connection to the field and forcing them to release all of their magic at one which will either stop the pain or knock them out, either way they will be fine until I can the source of the signal generating the field since it is DEFINITELY man, or in your case horse, made; and because you lot haven't even discovered a way of effectively channeling electricity yet, I'm guessing that it is of extraterrestrial origin, which before you ask is a bad thing 99% of the time." "Oh...is that why you came here then, are you some kind of alien Royal guard or something?" "No, well kinda, it's a long story that involved rhinos and robot salt shakers." He said as he finished dashing between controls to look straight at me. "Now first of all, didn't I tell you to stay back at the party to stop anyone panicking or causing a stampede or witch hunt or whatever it is you do in the face of danger?" "Yes you did; but in fairness, I didn't want you to running off and make things worse, while leaving me behind to deal with a potential alien invasion." "I thought I had already promised not to start any wars" He said with a puzzled look on his face. "Anyway, onto the inevitable second of all, why haven't you done the 'bigger on the inside' bit yet, it's actually kinda creepy that you haven't yet." "What's bigger on the inside?" I asked, prompting him to gesture to the room we where currently in. "Oh..." "Yes?" "It's..." "Yeeeesss?" "Covered in round things..." After I remarked on the Doctors choice in decor he couldn't help but stand their wide eyed at me before saying "but you're meant to say 'it's bigger on the inside', that is the one thing that I always look forwards to." "Well maybe next time chestnut, but right now you where about to potentially cool stuff with signals or whatever." The Doctor thought about this for a second, "while I do really enjoy doing cool stuff, I refuse to do so in front of you until you point out the physical impossibility that is a TARDIS's interior" "Really?!" "Really" I stared him down for as long as I could before realising that being stubborn was a colossal waste of time and gave in to his demands, "fine" I sighed "oh my alicorn, it's so much bigger on the inside then on the outside, how is this possible when only those with unicorn horns can preform magic, my entire limited understanding of technology has been turned up on its head" I said as deadpan as physically possible. "See that wasn't so hard now was it" he said "oh and as for the cool stuff, I had finished all of that earlier." He stepped away from the controls to trot over to the doors and commenced to lean against them, I assume in an attempt to look cool, which wasn't possible while looking like a pony on its hind legs, "now then Miss Luck, welcome to the source of the signal and the collection point for an entire race worth of psychic energy, now before we head out I should warn you that exposure to this much psychic energy can have serious effects on the body and could result in a rapid development of various cancers, the loss of hair and/or mutating into a plant based organism" he started rambling on and on about the dangers of psychic radiation until I got bored and stepped through the doors. "WAIT, ITS DANGEROUS WITHOUT THE PROPER PROTECTION OUT THERE, NO LIFE COULD POSSIB-" it was at this point that the Doctor followed me out to see that we had landed in the middle of Canterlot, "or I could be completely wrong and I'm mistaking it for solar radiation" "Well it's good to know that I'm with an expert" I chuckled "Very funny, now would you like to insult my intelligence or would you like to go and get start breaking things?" "I'd say that the answer's fairly obvious my good Doctor" "That's what I like to hear" said the Doctor as he started grinning, "now then, of we trot." --- As we traversed the streets of Canterlot I decided to ask some of the questions that where still lurking at the back of my mind, and now seemed like the chance to get them answered. "So Doctor" "Yes?" "I know that you don't actually look like a pony, so why do you if you're not a unicorn or a changeling?" "Ah well that is something that confuses me, you see this planet is covered by a perception filter that makes all visiting life forms look like ponies to help them blend in with the locals, tech like that is often found on holiday planets in order to immerse tourists in the residents culture without spooking underdeveloped life forms, but in this case its most likely being used by the guys with the transmitter to hide their presence" he explained "I thought at first that your world was another holiday planet, but if that was the case then it would have been shut down years ago." "And whys that then" I asked, absorbing all of this new information "The level of technology used in the transmitter would be classified as an 'intrusive device', something that is outlawed by the shadow proclamation on all level 3 and below planets, and as I said before you lot haven't even got electricity yet which would classify you lot as a level 2 civilisation" "Now that just sounds considering" "Well it's true, and even if the proclamation made an exception and used this planet as a big lab then there would have been referenced in your history books; no what ever is going on here is very illegal and it worries me" as he said this I looked over to see that he had a sad look in his eyes "Why worry about us?" I said as he turned to me with those sad eyes, "I'm sorry but you have no reason to do anything for us; you didn't owe us anything, heck you didn't even know that this planet existed up until a few hours ago, so why worry about it?" "You know, ask a lot of questions" he sighed to himself before continuing, "I guess I worry because I've seen what happens when nobody - sorry, noPONY does anything until it's too late" He looked off into the distance towards the castle before he turned to me once again. "I've lived a long life Miss Luck and I'm not talking 50 years long, I've lived several thousand years and have died 17 times and I've seen a lot in that time, I've seen war and death and suffering originate from a Yugoslav nationalist, I've seen planets sentenced to burn because of a few poorly chosen words, and I've sworn that I would never be the one to run away from a problem and let the unthinkable be the only option; I guess you could say that saving the day is a talent of sorts." We continued in silence the rest of the way down the streets of Canterlot. --- We eventually arrived at our destination after getting lost 3 times along the way until we reached the royal castle, it was my first time seeing it in personally and I can tell you that it was breathtaking; the marble structure seemed to glow a beautiful red under the setting sun, the court outside was littered with ponies carved from the same marble and gold as the castle that where so lifelike that you could have sworn that they could jump up from their pedestals and start running around, and finally the courtyard itself, that court contained life, life so colourful and vibrant that you could have mistaken it for a Van Goat painting where it not for the flowers swaying in the wind, it was beautiful, serene and utterly breathtaking; I was completely awestruck by the view in front of me, the Doctor however didn't really care much for sightseeing and instead decided to march up to the guards stationed at the front gate. "Hello yes hi, I'm the Doctor and this is my associate Miss Luck, we're here tooooo... " "Fix the plumbing" "Yes, the plumbing, we're Royal plumbers, see here are our credentials" he pulled out a little black note book before flashing it to the guards "Well everything seems to be in order, although this is the first I've heard about it" the guard on the left said as he looked away from the Doctor "Yes well it's a problem with the queens on suite" the Doctor replied "He means princess" I corrected, shooting him a look, "he's from prance and sometimes gets his translations mixed up, to be honest I'd say that he's a bit thick but he is the best darn plumber in all of Equestria so it balances itself out rather nicely." "Let's go with Miss Lucks rude explanation then" The Doctor said as he took his turn to glare at me before the guards let us pass on by into the entrance hall, the hall was nice and all but I preferred the colourfulness of the exteriors garden to be perfectly frank. "You know Doctor you don't need to keep calling me 'Miss Luck', I have got a first name you know" "I know, but I already have a friend named Rose and I don't want to get you two mixed up, I've had this body for a couple hundred years now and I think it's starting to go a bit senile" he chuckled to himself, seemingly forgetting about being annoyed by my comment on his intelligence. "I highly doubt that she was also a pony, she was probably a six legged cow monster knowing you" "Oi! Don't go making assumptions about my choice of company. Rose was a very lovely young lady who did not resemble a cow in any way, shape or form I'll have you know" he said tutting at me "What do you mean by was, what happened to her?" I asked, this question in particular seemed to make him moody all over again. "Nothing major, just life I suppose, she lived herself to death in a parallel universe as the defender of her new home world, hopefully by my side as well" "What's that supposed to mean?" "Again with the questions, come on the signals getting stronger" he said as he speed up ahead "Doctor! Wait up!" I increased my pace until I was next to him again, to which he countered by speeding up again; this cycle continued until we had both reached full gallop and charged through the doors that lead to the signals source, or at least it's strongest point. I looked up from our tumble to see a being who was carved into the hearts of every citizen of Equestria and beyond, a being of pure majesty and beauty, a being filled with more knowledge and wisdom than any other, a being named Princess Celestia. "Hello there my little ponies, are you here about the bidet?"