Doctor Whooves: The First Act

by Doctor Disco


Prologue - Another Normal Day

----Prologue----

ANOTHER NORMAL DAY

Normal.

That's what Twilight Sparkle chalked up the majority of that day up to until that point. Normal days rarely ever came for Twilight anymore. She used to be in her library all day, 7 days a week, and only going out for bare necessities.

More often than not now though, she would find herself in the company of her friends. She was beginning to call this life more normal than her previous one. She shuddered at the thought. What could be so important as to put off all her studying and learning? Well, that was an easy answer to a pretty easy question. Friendship. Friendship was the one thing that was possibly more important than her studies. She had been assigned to learn more about friendship by Princess Celestia herself for crying out loud. She then mentally slapped herself for ever doubting the Princess and for thinking such thoughts

Closing her book, The General Guide to Good Studious Ways, she sighed. Twilight floated it to the table beside her and floated up a cup of cooled down yet still warm tea, and took a sip. She smiled at the taste of chamomile and honey. Setting the teacup down, she got up and stretched, giving out a yawn, and heard a knock on the door. Wondering who it could be but welcoming the thought of visitors, she trotted over to the door. She opened it, but found that there seemed to be nopony around. Wondering who could have knocked on her door and gotten away so fast, she almost closed the door, when something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. It was a letter of non-descript quality, with no markings of any kind on it nor was there any indication of who made it.

It just lay there on the doormat, nothing too fancy, and something that a passerby would most likely have just dismissed. It seemed to have no return address nor was there a mailing address either. Somehow though, she knew it was for her, yet Twilight felt that it wasn’t just any old letter. She lifted it with her magic, and brought it inside.

She took a sweeping glance outside once again to see who it could’ve been, but still found nopony there. Closing the door, she locked it. She went to her favorite reading cushion and sat down, slowly unfurling the envelope with her magic. Upon closer inspection of the letter, the letter looked almost ancient. It had a yellowed look and a musty smell, yet it retained it’s crisp and uniform figure. There was a seal as well, which had the image of an odd circular symbol and many more strange figures within the circular symbol itself. When she opened the letter and looked inside, she saw dust and smelt mildew. Unfolding the letter with her magic, she saw it was just as yellowed, possibly even more so than the letter. The hoof-writing was one she didn’t recognize, but was of a cursive and pleasant nature. Finding her curiosity to have risen, she began to read:

To be received on: The 85th of Spring, 1001 C.R. at 4:00 P.M.

That caused her to pause. She looked at the time, and found it at 3:59. Raising an eyebrow with many questions starting to formulate in her mind, she floated out her calendar. The date read 85th of Spring, and the year 1001 in Celestia’s reign. This letter had now somewhat peaked her interest, even though she hadn’t read one real line of the letter yet. Wondering what she might find in this intriguing letter, she continued to uncover its mysteries.

My dear Twilight Sparkle,

You will know when the time comes to read this letter in it’s fullness, but I know you are reading this right now. Many things are in store for you yet Twilight. Just remember to never give up, and to never give in. My adventures with you are only just beginning at this point, and I wish you the best of luck on our perilous but fun(!) journeys. That daft old clock of yours is going to ring right now as well, so I would be privileged to remind you about an appointment you have with Rarity. Happy travels! I will be meeting you very soon, so please, be kind. Off you pop!

What? This letter hadn’t made any sense to her so far, and the letter was two sided so she knew there was more of this absurdity. Yet she couldn’t stop thinking, who could this pony possibly be? What adventures was this pony talking about? Millions of questions began flooding Twilight’s mind, but her thoughts were interrupted when-

GONG! GONG! GONG! GONG! 

Her grandfather clock went off, and the sound of the bell chiming 4 times brought her to the real world.

Eep! She had forgotten about a meetup with Rarity at the Carousel Boutique! She had a fleeting thought of how the pony could have possibly known about it, but she quickly dismissed it in her hasty state. It was due to happen in five minutes, and she couldn’t be late! She quickly put the letter back into it’s envelope and put it on top of her stack of papers she needed to organize. She swiftly put a few things into her saddlebags, used her magic to put it on her haunches, and blasted through the door, slamming it shut. The force of the door closing, however, had created a gust of wind that blew over the stack of papers, and the letter was lost in the infinite pile that was Twilight’s loose papers.

~~~

Twilight galloped to Rarity’s as fast as her four hooves could carry her, which is to say pretty darn fast. Yet she felt it still wasn’t enough to reach Carousel Boutique in time. She also didn’t want to teleport to Rarity’s because she felt that would be informal to do so as a friend .in her own weird Twilight-esque way. Coming down the gravel path that lead to Carousel Boutique, she looked at the looming Ponyville Clocktower in the distance. It read 4:04. She would make it! Reaching the doors to the Boutique, she pounded her hooves on it and sat down for a quick breather. In about a few seconds, she heard the sound of Rarity’s hooves, and the twist of the doorknob. The door creaked open, and there stood Rarity. She had her working glasses on (a nice red and fancy design) and her mane looked slightly ruffled, probably the result of her hard work.

“Twilight, darling! I thought you wouldn't make it! Please, do come in.” Rarity motioned towards the inside of the building and Twilight, still recovering from her sprint through Ponyville, walked in. She was honestly very surprised that she could make it to Carousel Boutique in 5 minutes, when she usually took 10 to 15.

“So? How do you do this fine day?” Rarity asked, moving to one of her work tables.

“Weeelll, I was just in my library enjoying the comfort of my books when I remembered about our get together. I was almost late! By the way, thanks for making another dress for me Rarity, I truly appreciate it.” Twilight remarked, looking at the drafts of what her dress would and could look like.

“Sounds like you’ve had a… *ahem* interesting day.” Rarity said, basically lying through her teeth but Twilight didn’t pick up on it. Oh, the naivety that Twilight had sometimes.

“And what are friends for? So, a new dress hm? I’ve already worked on some blueprints of what you might look good with, but hopefully we don’t have to go through another whole fiasco like last time.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it!” Twilight thought out loud, both mares shuddering at the memory with no real reason why.

“Aaanywaaayy, I was hoping to get this over with right away! Something came up and I would really like to get back to it.”

“I guess we should get started then. No point in wasting any more time than we need to. By the way, ahve you seen Fluttershy lately? It seems she-” but was unexoectedly interrupted.

KRAKOOM!

BOOM!

The sound of a loud cracking whip successfully followed by what sounded like a sonic boom stunned the two mares to silence. They just glanced at each other muzzles open, not knowing what in Equestria could have made a noise like that. Getting over their initial shock, they burst through the doors of Rarity’s workplace and home, and galloped toward the source of the noises. As they were running they saw ponies everywhere frantically racing around, trying to get to safety from whatever could have made such a scary noise abs shutting themselves into their houses.

BOOM!

SHWORPFRSSH!

They heard another boom but much more weaker and the sound of shimmering as they made their way through Ponyville. They then saw the wave of rainbow energy emanating from a single place and a streak of color racing towards them. Rainbow Dash had heard the noises from Cloudsdale, which was a whopping half dozen kilometres away from Ponyville, and instantly felt something was wrong because nothing was that loud. Being able to reach a metropolis in the clouds no less and to still be clearly heard, that was unheard of.

Rainbow had speedily made her way to Ponyville, but in the process went so fast as to create a sonic rainboom, but not nearly as loud as whatever the sound she was flying towards was. They also saw Applejack running from the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, and they quickly acknowledged each other as they finally made their destination. Above, several kilometres in the air but still clearly visible, was a shimmering crack. They also saw a trail of deep dark blue which wasn’t visible from a distance trailing a kilometre away from the crack to some unknown destination.
 
Applejack, Twilight and Rarity all stopped to assess the situation, while Rainbow landed next to them, joining them. They all stared up at the glowing crack in the sky, when all of a sudden Pinkie Pie appeared.

“Oooo! Look at the big scary crack in the sky! I wonder where that blue trail leads! Say, Rainbow, that kinda looks like the trail you make when you do a sonic rainboom!”

“Uh… Yeaaahhh I guess it does…” Rainbow replied observing the trail and the crack, and turned towards Twilight. Jabbing a hoof towards the trail and the crack, she asked “Hey Twi, any idea on what that thing is?”

“I… I don’t know…” Twilight whispered, and everypony looked at Twilight. She was just staring wide-eyed at both the crack and the trail of blue.

“Well that’s a first. Say, I wonder where Fluttershy is?” Pinkie exclaimed, and jumped around, not being able to stay in one spot for too long.

“Well, knowing her, she’s probably hiding under her bed and shivering with fear.” Applejack rubbed the back of her head.

“I wouldn’t put it past her, but she has been mi-.” Rarity said, but was cut off when Pinkie noticed something.

“Hey look! The crack is about to close!” Pinkie pointed out, and they all turned in time to see the glowing crack seal itself shut and make it seem as though there was no sign of it being there in the first place. Rainbow then flew up to where the crack was, studied the area a little and shrugged. There was no evidence of it ever being there except for the trail of blue. The mares just looked up with raised eyebrows and no clue what waz going on as of yet. Rainbow then looked towards the direction of where the blue trail led, and gasped.

“Twilight! The trail! It… It leads to the library!” Rainbow shouted down, and Twilight could only look towards the direction of her home, a sense of total panic and fear present in her eyes and even more so displayed on her face. She felt her mouth open and slightly drop. Her friends all turned to look at her, seeing what she would do. Knowing her, they were quick to give warnings.

“Now hold on there Twilight, I know what yer thinkin’-” Applejack was saying, when Rainbow piped in.

“Don’t do it Twi!”

“Twilight, I advise you not to do anything brash-” Rarity tried to say, when Pinkie yelled:

“Go for it Twilight!”

All of them, including Twilight turned to look at Pinkie with raised eyebrows. Even Twilight was questioning the sanity of what Pinkie was encouraging Twilight to do, and it was her idea. Twilight just shook her head, and her friends saw the glow of her horn, and she vanished.

“Twilight no!” Applejack cried, but it was too late. She was gone.

~~~

The Mane 6 minus Twilight and Fluttershy made their way to the Golden Oaks Library. Seeing Twilight disappear only reaffirmed their thoughts on Twilight going by herself to see whatever creature or thing had done to the Library, and possibly to confront it all by herself. Twilight may be smart, but she certainly wasn’t as wise as ponies would like to believe. Knowledge is knowing that there is danger, but wisdom is knowing to get help before confronting said danger. They guessed that they had to be lenient with Twilight. After all, the Golden Oaks Library was Twilight’s home, plus her treasure trove of knowledge. They then remembered at that moment that Spike lived with Twilight in the Library, which only made them quicken their pace and understand Twilight’s reaction more.

They could see from a distance the damage that had been done to Twilight’s home. There was a small fire, smoke billowing out of a crater which had been created by the impact of the whatever it was that impacted it. Out front they saw Twilight, who was frantically running around the front of the Library and looking at the crater, and yelling something. As they got closer, they could make out her words.

“-ke! Spike get out of there! Please Spike, please…Celestia have mercy! Don’t worry Spike, don’t worry! I’ll find a way to get you out, I’ll find a way... “

Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash all looked at Twilight with ever increasing worry and sadness, but it was Rarity who broke their daze.

“Okay everypony, we need to douse that flame and get Spike out of there!” Rarity barked, and the remaining three mares looked at Rarity with raised eyebrows and impressed looks.

“I’ll get Spike, but I’m gonna need someone to make that smoke disappear for a little bit.” Rainbow volunteered, and Pinkie jumped up, raising both front hooves and waving them around.

“Oh! Oh! Pick me, pick me! I can get the smoke out of the way!”

Pinkie then proceeded to become a pink blur, which all but encircled the billowing smoke and made it disappear for second. Then, Rainbow dashed through and up the stairs before the smoke could continue to rise. By this time, Twilight had noticed them, snapped out of her daze, and she had started trying to help. Her head was still a little muddled from crying and the overwhelming feeling of dread, but she couldn’t help but think of herself as stupid for not thinking of a water spell right away. She didn’t even know how to do a water spell, but she tried anyways. It was a lot harder than she thought. Applejack, seeing Twilight’s conflict and attempts to cast water, put a hoof over Twilight’s back and comforted and encouraged her. Rarity then held Pinkie in place with her magic who was now only making the smoke rise faster, and Pinkie gave a disapproving “Awww!” Rarity proceeded to hold a shield over the smoke and fire, containing it.

However, Pinkie being Pinkie, this didn’t last long. As soon as Rarity let go of Pinkie, she pulled a huge, and by huge I mean HUGE (that’s italicized and capitalized!) water bucket from out of nowhere. Rarity, seeing Pinkie’s plan, nodded at Pinkie and let go of the shield. At that moment, three things happened. First, Pinkie threw the contents of the big water bucket onto the crater, dousing what flames were present, and making the surrounding area wet. Second, Rainbow dashed out of the Library at the exact same moment holding Spike, and got hit with a torrent of water, getting knocked out of the sky and tumbled to the ground, soaking wet. Lastly, the smoke from the fire was pushed out of the Library into the faces of Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity and Spike. When the smoke cleared, everyone was in varying degrees of wetness and covered in soot.

Saying Rainbow was mad was probably the understatement of the year. She had finally found Spike (who was sleeping, mind you) and carried him out, only to be hit by a wave of water knocking the wind out of her lungs and her out of the air. She got up, drenched, and was visibly shaking. From anger or of the cold settling into her wet mane, tail and coat, nopony knew. Pinkie was grinning from ear to ear, a look of accomplishment in her eyes. Rarity was making yucky faces and shaking the water off of her, but the soot remained. Applejack walked over to her hat, and picked it up, dusting it off and then putting it on. Twilight ran to Spike to see if he was okay. It seemed, however, that he had just woken from his nap.

“Spike?! Oh thank goodness you’re okay!” Twilight hugged Spike, crushing him in a hug. Spike could only wheeze and look at the other mares for help, who shrugged. They could barely contain their snickers. Rainbow seemed to have cooled off at this point, but got a little angry when she noticed Applejack was also snickering at Rainbow.

“Twilight? What’s wrong? Why is there a big hole in the library? Why is everything wet?” Spike asked, finally being released from Twilight’s death grip. Twilight then proceeded to give the biggest eye roll ever and the most annoyed glare at Spike, who winced and chuckled nervously.

“Ugh! Not even 3 explosions and a big crater can wake you up from a nap!” Twilight raged. Spike could only look at Twilight and say “What? Did I do something wrong?” Stomping a hoof, Twilight gave an exasperated sigh. She then walked over to the now slightly smoking crater in her Library and asked Rainbow to clear the rest of the smoke with her wings. Rainbow complied, beating her feathered appendages and making the rest of the smoke disappear in a breeze. By so doing, they got a clear view of what turned this nice afternoon upside down. They all walked up to the edge of the crater, getting a nice view of the object. They all just stood there, stunned at how such an object could make such a commotion. There was silence in the library.

“What do y’all think it is?” Applejack asked, breaking the silence, but no pony answered. They were all too busy examining the object. Silence reigned once again.

Laying in the crater, it was displayed in full view. It seemed to have survived the fall incredibly well. No dents, no scratches, no nothing. The mares and Spike found it all the more mysterious and dangerous because of that, yet it just lay there. Unimposing, and scarily normal. But the scariest thing was, was that they were all attracted to it.


In the crater lay a big, blue, box...

Then it opened.