When things go inside
It was traveling toward the source of food. Suddenly, it felt food closer to itself. It altered slightly its trajectory to pass over it. The food was on a much smaller gravity well, it would make the last stretch of travel toward the bigger one much easier.
It was getting close when a container of food sent it its way. It was a lot, but nothing its current weaken state could not eat. As it got closer, the quantity of food sent kept growing. It stopped, there was simply too much to absorb. It tried to eat everything, but it couldn't. The left over started to burn it. It tried to escape, but it kept coming its way.
Even more food came, burning it faster. Something else was mixed inside the food, something toxic. It was about to disappear when the food stopped. It was only a fraction of its original size and its nodules dedicated to processing food were burned off. There was no way it could eat anymore, but instinct pushed it to find a way to survive.
There was nothing left on the small moon as it pushed itself toward the blue planet.
Consciousness slowly returned to Twilight. She was warm and she felt safe. She could feel the bed sheets wrapped around her. She didn't want to wake up; fighting to go back to sleep, but it was a losing battle. There was a noise nearby disturbing her rest, like a very slow beat that kept going and coming back. As she moved, her whole body felt of some kind of soft pain, similar to what she experienced the day after she ran that marathon a year ago.
She finally decided to open her eyes. She looked around the dark plain room. She knew that room, she was sure of it, but she found out her memory was still asleep. She raised her head to find the source of the unpleasant noise that now sounded even closer.
Rainbow Dash had her head on the foot of her bed and was deep asleep, snoring loudly. She softly pushed her with her rear legs. "Five more minutes..." she said softly before snoring louder than ever. Twilight pushed her harder. She lost her balance and started falling to the floor. By instinct she automatically started flapping her wings and her front legs rocketing and crashing head first in the ceiling. "Ouch! What?" she asked now fully awake holding her head in her front legs. Twilight wondered if it was an instinctive reaction learned from sleeping on clouds. Did she ever fall off one while in a vivid dream?
Twilight couldn't hold her laugh. "You're snoring, and I would like some sleep."
"Twilight! You're awake!" she said as she dived and hugged her.
Twilight tried to push the cyan mare away. "Rainbow! What's wrong with you? Can't... breath!" She finally managed to get free by pushing Dash with her four legs. "And why are you on my bed in the first place?"
The door of the room opened to let doctor Stable in. "Would you mind keeping it quiet? It's the middle of the night and it is a hospital." He turned on the lights. "Ah! Twilight, happy to see you're finally awake."
"Finally?" she asked. Rainbow Dash was staring at her with a huge grin, which only served at making her feel more awkward. She tried to ignore her.
The doctor took the clipboard at the feet of her bed with his magic, wrote a note and put it back in place. "Yes. You got the longest magic exhaustion induced coma I heard of. You've been out for over three days." He moved around the bed to get a better look at her. "It took our magic specialist almost twelve hours to stabilize your magic levels. To your credit, she said she never used that much magic only to bring someone back a bare minimum. I think you got yourself a fan." He took a deep breath. "Do you feel rested enough for a few questions?" he asked.
Three days? That... That wasn't a dream! Did it worked?
"I guess." she simply replied.
"Good." the doctor exited the room without looking back. A few moments later she heard galloping in the corridor and soon enough four mares rushed in the room; Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and behind them, Fluttershy. Following them all, the doctor Stable entered the room again. To Twilight's surprise, they didn't bombard her with questions.
"Darling, don't ever do that again!"
"Good to see you kicking, sugarcube!"
"Woohoo! We will do a super-duper-huger party!"
"Happy you're alright Twilight."
"They waited in the hospital for the last three days." The doctor stood clear of the circle of friends. "Now, if it's not too much asking, what did you do all? It's the first time I get seven cases of magic exhaustion at once. I also checked the medical record; it's the first time ever earth ponies and pegasi also get that kind of symptoms."
Twilight tried to remember, but her memories abruptly stopped at a particular event. "Maybe you can tell us what happened in the last three days?" she asked back.
The doctor looked slightly annoying. "Fair I guess. At around eight in the afternoon, three days ago, you and that human... Mark? 'Appeared', I guess is the best word..." he sighed. "At the entrance of the hospital. Nopony know how you got there and nopony saw you come in. While we were treating you in emergency, your five friends right here also... 'appeared' one at a time in our hall with the same symptoms, you were all passed out from magical exhaustion. However they all recovered pretty fast, unlike you."
He moved closer and pointed at her face. "I will be blunt, no magic for you for a few weeks. At least! I never saw magical burns like that before. Your horn will need time to recover." For the first time Twilight noticed her horn was wrapped in a white bandage. "Now, that was from my point of view... I would like to know your, Twilight. Your friends already told me they didn't really know what occurred, aside that they helped you using the elements of harmony?"
Twilight went deep in her thought, carefully trying to choose her words.
How do you explain something like that?
"You were on the Moon, no?" asked Pinkie with wide eyes and a huge smile.
"How... how do you...?" replied Twilight. How Pinkie could know that? She knew the pink pony had some special power, like predicting generic future events, but could she read minds?
Rainbow Dash flew over her bed. "Wow! It's true? That's so awesome!" she said doing a looping on herself.
"But... How do you know?" she managed to ask. The six other ponies looked at each other. The doctor went to the window beside her bed and pulled the curtains. Low in the sky, the Moon was slowly moving across the sky. Twilight knew it by heart; she looked at it so often with her telescope. She had map and charts of its surface.
"Oh... wow..." was all she could say. The upper right quarter of the Moon was almost black, burned off, like if a huge explosion took place on its surface. She had a very hard time to get her eyes off it.
Did I? Did I really? Oh no! Princess Luna will be mad! What did I do to her moon?!
With a lot of efforts, she managed to get her eyes off the celestial object.
"I didn't see it as I was working inside the clinic, but from what I heard witnesses from all over Equestria reported a very bright light on the Moon's surface." explained the doctor.
She was about to explain them what happened when suddenly her mind spotted something missing. "Huh, doctor? Where's Mark?"
The five mares beside her decided all at once to look elsewhere, only the doctor managed to keep his sight on her. "Twilight... I'm sorry..."
"Don't tell me he is..." she said getting a hoof to in front of her mouth.
Mark woke up. One moment there was only darkness, and the moment after his eyes were open and his mind was working. He didn't even remember opening his eyes. It was as if something had turned the switch of his mind on. He only saw white wherever his eyes looked. He thought he was blind until he put his right hand in front of his eyes.
He stared at his right hand. The last thing he remembered was the Moon, his charred right arm and Earth in the sky. His hand was spotless, even an old scar on the back of his hand was nowhere to be seen. Looking at his wrist, he noticed the arm of his space suit, it was perfect like the day he received it. And yet he remembered ripping both arms of his suit to hold his broken leg in place.
He sat down and looked around. Even if he felt like he was sitting on a floor, he couldn't see any. Everywhere he looked was of pure white with no details whatsoever. He examined himself to find he and his suit was in perfect shape. But if he thought the past six months was a dream, the shoes he was wearing quickly reminded him the truth. His dark blue shoes were shining the same way the day Rarity gave him them.
He stood up, surprised how effortless it was. He didn't remember feeling that good before. He kept trying to look around, trying to see any difference in the endless white background. He kneeled and tried to touch the floor, but while his fingers were stopped by something, he didn't feel anything.
"Welcome."
He stood back up and looked behind him. The voice came from all around him. After doing a full turn on himself, he decided to look up. Above him, a bright yellow sphere the size of a bowling ball was slowly going down toward him. It stopped a few meters in front of him at eye level.
"Huh... Hi?" he replied.
The sphere slowly changed shape, elonging itself toward the 'floor'. Within a few seconds, the sphere was in the shape of a humanoid, but its color didn't change. Details slowly appeared on its surface, like if someone was sculpting it in front of his eyes. Finally, stood in front of him a slim and short female, still in gold color, about a head shorter than him. Her eyes appeared to glow.
"Am... am I dead?" he asked.
"No." This time he knew the voice came from the figure, but he didn't see her lips moving.
"Am I... dying?" he asked once more.
"Yes."
He took a deep breath, but somehow breathing didn't feel the same, like if the air inside him wouldn't do enter his body. While staring at the woman, he stopped breathing; quickly finding out that it didn't change anything. He counted up to thirty and yet his body never asked him to take a breath.
"Who are you?"
He didn't feel threaten in any way by the golden figure, but he wasn't at ease with the new environment. It felt too strange, too different to not put him on the defensive.
"I'm the living component of the TARDIS." the figure replied without hesitation. Her voice had absolutely not inflection, like if she was stating fact without an ounce of emotion. He couldn't see her breathing or moving at all. He did a few step around, to find out she was always facing him, even if he didn't see her moving. He did a step back and he wasn't surprised to find that she appeared at the same distance as before.
He started to think about the situation. He knew the Doctor's ship was alive in some kind of parallel plan of existence, not that he really understood what it meant. He wasn't sure what to ask her, but he felt she wasn't about to hide him anything.
"Why... am I here?" he asked tentatively.
"I'm giving you a chance to be saved." she replied.
"From?"
"Death."
He sighed, it wasn't going anywhere. She wasn't hiding anything, but she wasn't making it any easier. He looked down at his suit once more. "It's not my real body, isn't it?"
"Correct, it's your mind, or what human call a soul." she answered.
He pondered her words for a few moments. "If... I... What's happening to my physical body?"
She didn't answer, instead on her left an image appeared out of nowhere. It was as if someone had cut a slice of another reality. Mark could see it was a white room with a hospital bed in the middle. As he watched, Twilight entered the room supported by Applejack.
Twilight passed the door of the small intensive care room of Ponyville's clinic. Her right leg was over Applejack's back as she supported her, she was feeling too weak to walk alone right now.
It's good to have strong friends.
She looked at the single bed in the middle of the room. The doctor Stable told her Mark wasn't dead, but it was obvious by the way he said it that something was wrong. On the bed, Mark was in bad shape. Tubes were coming out of his nose and his left arm. They ripped off the top of his suit for good reasons, the right half of his chest, his whole right arm and a part of his face were wrapped in bandages.
Stable walked in the room and placed himself beside Twilight. "How is he doctor?"
He sighed. "I'm not sure." Seeing the look on Twilight's face, he continued. "I'm not sure if we can save his right leg... arm? He also got severe burns on his chest and face." He put an annoyed face. "All that shouldn't be a problem, even with his own magic exhaustion. But all the healing spells we tried had no effect what so ever." He pointed at the bed. "Something is disrupting all our attempts."
"But even without outside healing, he should be able to recover?" she asked back.
He took a deep breath. "Normally yes, but whatever is preventing us from healing him is also killing him. I could show you the results of the tests we did, but to sum up, his cellular structure is slow breaking down." He looked at Twilight. "He is dying, and there's nothing I could do about it."
"Don't say that! There's always a way!" she snapped back.
He looked at his hooves. "Maybe, but if there is, it's outside our knowledge. I've sent the results to specialists all around Equestria and they never saw anything like it." While leaving the room, he looked back. "I'm sorry. He has a week, maybe two." He closed the door behind himself, leaving the six mares in the room.
Applejack helped her sit beside the bed. "Now sugarcube, would you mind telling us the whole story?"
She looked at her five friends, which were deeply staring back.
"So, that's it? I'm gonna die?" Mark snapped at the TARDIS.
"It is a possibility." she answered, as enigmatic as ever.
Mark felt angry at the golden woman. "Can't you see the future? You already know if I die or not!" he shouted. She turned to directly face him, for the first time he felt she was looking at him instead of pass him.
"I can see potential future, it is true. But I can't tell which one will happen. You might die or you might live. The future is never set. Each individual has the ability to change it."
His anger faded away as his mind was trying to understand what she said. He lowered his shoulder as he gave up trying to make sense of it. "I don't understand."
"The quantum structure that makes one's mind works beyond the constraint of time. Traveling to the future is visiting a potential timeline. At any moment, one can decide to change his actions, creating a totally new one."
He frowned. "What?"
A second image appeared to her right, Mark automatically recognized the Doctor. The image displayed what appeared to be a bad recording from an old camera. "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint; it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... timey wimey... stuff." the image explained before fading away, his words echoing in the white void.
Mark took all that and went inside trying to make the pieces fit together. He found before that while the Doctor sounded weird, he was right in his own special way. He felt that within his words, there was a lot of hidden wisdom, only he wasn't able to give them meaning he could easily understand. He shook his head. "Do you mean I need to choose to live?"
"No. You don't have that power. Your will to live will be tested, but what can change the balance is your faith in your friends." she answered without moving her lips.
He blinked while staring at the immobile statue. "My friends? What are you talking about?"
The five mares stared at her; they simply didn't know what to say. Rainbow Dash was the first one to come forward. "Wow! That's awesome. But are you sure it wasn't a dream or something?"
Twilight was expecting some kind of skepticism. Applejack bumped Rainbow Dash on her side. "What Rainbow is trying to say, it's a lot to accept at once... And you did stay in coma for three days."
"I didn't dream that!" she snapped back.
"I sometime have very weird dream too, you know? I often think they are real too!" said Pinkie Pie with a huge smile.
Twilight felt tired, she didn't have the energy to fight back incredulity generated by her story. She couldn't blame them; time and time travel, the moon, monster that eats magic? If she didn't experience it herself, she wouldn't have believed. Or would she? After all they lived and fighted against, after Discord, she could accept almost anything. She remembered how she reacted on the TARDIS after Mark's explanation; she actually did far worse than her friends.
"I can vouch for Twilight story." said a voice coming from an empty corner of the room.
Rainbow Dash instantly snapped in defensive position between the corner and her friends. "Who's there? Show yourself?"
The air flickered a few second to reveal the Doctor, standing against the wall in his blue suit. "Doctor! How long have you been here?" asked Twilight as she kept the cyan mare back.
"Since I brought you all to the hospital after you passed out." he explained while crossing his arms.
That explains how we all got in here. But I would really like to know how he got to find Rainbow Dash as she was probably on some clouds...
Something pink jumped in front of her. "Oh! Oh! A new pony! Or something else. You need a welcome party!" said Pinkie Pie as excited as ever.
The Doctor laughed. "No need Pinkie, you already gave me one when I first came in Ponyville."
"I did?"
"Yeah, I just didn't look like that." explained the Doctor.
"Oh. Okey-dokey!"
"So you're a spy!" shouted Rainbow Dash just before Applejack put a hoof in her mouth.
"This will wait for another time spy-hunter." She nodded at the timelord. "Sorry for that."
Twilight pushed Rainbow Dash aside. "Doctor! Do you know what's happening to Mark?" she said pointing at the bed.
He didn't answer; instead he went to the window and closed the blinds. Turning around he noticed the light switch was behind Rainbow Dash. "Could someone close the lights?" he asked. Fluttershy who were standing in the back of the mares turned around and flipped it.
Twilight was about to ask why the Doctor wanted the room to be dark when she noticed a glow coming from the bed. She came closer to inspect it and found that Mark's body was slowly releasing a kind of golden vapor. "What's that?"
"When he helped you, his body wasn't ready for that. You probably know more than any other that generating magic is like a muscle, your body got to be trained first." he explained as the six mares stared at him. "At some point, his body stopped converting the time stream into magic, and it flooded his body." He crossed his arm. "Time is separated from the physical world for a good reason; when it come in contact with matter, they both slowly disintegrate each other. Unless, of course, if you can transform it into magic right away." He moved his hands above Mark, pushing the golden vapor around. "This glow is the visible part of the decay of matter directly touched by time."
Applejack shook her head. "Can someone translate that?"
"I will explain it later Applejack. Right now I need to think." said Twilight. "If what you say is true, I can drain it and convert it into magic?" she said with sparkles in her eyes.
The Doctor looked at Mark. "Yes, you can drain it, but you will kill him at the same time." He looked back at Twilight. "His atomic structure is unstable, if you remove the time flowing in his body, he will age a million years in a fraction of a second."
Her eyes widen at what it would be if she did it. "There's no way to stabilize it?"
He sighed. "I'm sorry. Rare are those who touched time itself and survived to talk about it."
She felt tears coming to her eyes. She kept thinking about what the Doctor just explained and what she said to Stable.
There must be a way!
She tried to remember everything she learned in the past; something, anything she could use as knowledge to save him. She knew it; knowledge was the key to everything. How many time she saved the day by knowing what others didn't? The answer was there, close to her reach.
While trying to think, her memory started to flow in. She tried to push them aside; she needed a clear mind to tackle that puzzle. She remembered the month Mark passed with her in her house. How she brought him unconscious from the forest. His face when he saw Derpy fly. How she almost burned him with a spell. How happy he looked with his new shoes...
Wait! That's it!
"But he touched the... the time before and he was stable! Sure he got burned, but he survived it!" she almost screamed.
At first the Doctor didn't react, his ears heard what she said, but his brain was still trying to analyze it. He was expecting grief and to help comfort the mare. "What?" he simply said, unsure of what she meant.
"The first time he was in this hospital, I casted a spell on him to show him his magic source." she said pointing at Mark. "He got burned badly, but he survived it!" she said, trying to pass her point that he did survived a contact with time before. "Actually, I'm pretty sure it's about that time his eyes turned yellow... But I'm not sure of that." she finished, digging back in her memory.
The Doctor stood there silent, staring at the purple unicorn. "Twilight! You're a genius!" he exclaimed himself while snapping his fingers. He ran toward the door he was about to cross it when he turned around. "I will be back soon. Twilight, you get as much rest as you can. I will need your help to save him when I return." On that, he ran off the corridors, oblivious that his perception filter was offline.
They heard a scream of terror and noise of something hitting the floor. "Sorry! Sorry! I'm just passing by!" apologized the Doctor while running away.
"Twilight, dear, where did you find such weird... creature?" asked Rarity. "But I have to say, the cut of his clothes are of impressive quality!"
"I don't know." she replied while staring at the door. She didn't know what to think of what happened, but she felt there was hope.
"Friends?" asked Mark while looking at the TARDIS. He didn't remember anybody who he could call a friend before. He always felt on his own. He got to the NASA and in space by his own work, his own efforts. He knew the six ponies, but he only lived a month with Twilight. In his mind, a friend was something you get by putting years of effort in building a relationship. He never felt the need to invest himself that much into someone else. "I don't think I have any. People bails out when things get too hard."
"From your point of view, a friend is someone you know well and support you in time of need." she said. "From my point of view, it is when a magical connection is established between two individuals."
He blinked a few time. "That doesn't make any sense." He shook his head. "How can you call someone a friend if you don't even invest years in learning who they are?"
"Did you feel close to Twilight?" she asked.
Mark was stunned by her first question. "I... I don't know." The conversation was moving toward grounds he never felt at ease talking about. "I guess... I guess we are a bit alike." He closed his eyes, on the Moon he put himself at risk for others he never meet before. When he joined her effort with his own magic, he felt the presence of the six mares, but Twilight was like a bright light in his mind.
Back then, he pushed that feeling aside, thinking it was a side effect of that magical connection. But if the TARDIS was right, this connection existed way before that moment. They helped him while never asking anything in return. Sure, he did a pretty great sacrifice on the Moon, but he never felt he needed to repay them and he never took that into account while making his decision. He wished to repay them for their kindness, but he knew they would never accept it if he was thinking of it as clearing a debt.
"Maybe you're right. I don't know. I need to think more about it." he said.
"You will have lot of time to do so." she said while her form was fading away.
"Wait!" he said moving forward. "Where are you going?"
"Nowhere, but the Doctor needs me now."
Mark was left alone in the big white void, pondering on what he just learned.
The Doctor stepped off the TARDIS in the middle of the night. If his calculations were right, it was two nights after Twilight made her first visit to the hospital. He checked that the perception filter was online. He didn't want to scare the nurses again. To everypony, he appeared to be that brown colt with an hourglass on his flanks. The filter that could keep him invisible never worked well with moving objects, so he was better in his pony form.
His plan was simple, get in the hospital unnoticed, get some quantum reading hoping they would be enough and get out the same way. He walked toward the hospital and stopped behind a bush, just in time as a light could be seen moving around the building. A unicorn guard walked up to the front door, his horn glowing to light his path. It stopped glowing as he stepped inside the clinic.
The Doctor followed him and entered the building. He was about to turn a corner in the first corridor when he heard a discussion between the doctor Stable and a white mare, both standing behind the reception desk. "I don't care what he is! You will do your job as if he was any other pony." The Doctor stopped to listen.
He heard sobbing. "I... I can't Doctor. It's just too weird!" replied the mare.
"I'm not asking you to chat with him and become the best friends, only to bring him meals twice a day. As long as he is in this building, he is our responsibility." Stable explained.
"But... but why did we accept it... him... in the first place?"
Stable sighed loudly. "Alright, but what I'm about to show you must stay confidential. From everypony, Twilight Sparkle included!"
The Doctor guessed she nodded because she asked "What... What is that?"
"A communication from the Princess Celestia." he explained. The Doctor moved around, trying to get a view on the two ponies. He could only see that Stable was levitating a scroll with his magic. "A courier came in a few hours before Twilight brought the human here. She explicitly requested that we take care of him, and that we don't tell anypony about it. If you want to go explain to her that you didn't follow her orders, it's your choice!"
The Doctor could see the nurse reading the scroll with her eyes wide open. "How... How did she know he would come here?"
"How the hay should I know! She's the Princess, we probably don't understand a third of what she does!" he spitted back. "So do you job! You can always bring his meals when he is asleep, I don't care. And remember, not a word about that letter!"
The Doctor started to move again. He was surprised by what he just heard. It was obvious Twilight couldn't have warned Celestia that quickly and requested for medical care. But why Celestia wished it to stay secret? He never meets the Princess before, but after his problems with a specific Queen, he had sworn to himself to never get involved with the royalty again.
At the third room he looked inside, he finally found out Mark. He was deep asleep. The Doctor quickly entered the room and closed silently the door behind him. He didn't know how long he would need to scan him to find what he was searching for.
He took his sonic screwdriver in his mouth and aimed it at the sleeping form. With his teeth he pushed a few buttons and the tip glowed blue as the device started searching for a compatible match. Mark turned around in his sleep, making the Doctor jump in surprise.
"I'm sure I saw you before! You... you were in my room at the hospital one night!" the Doctor remembered Mark telling him that.
Just as the screwdrivers biped, claiming to have found a positive stable signature, Mark moved again, trying to open his eyes. The Doctor froze; messing up with the past was never a good idea. He noticed Mark had closed his eyes again, and he took the opportunity to leave the room on the tip of his hooves. As he closed the door behind himself, he noticed Mark waking up and sitting on his bed, looking around the room.
He was right! He did see me!
Coming out of the hospital proved far easier than coming in. Ten minutes later, he was back in the TARDIS, transferring the data he collected to the computer of his ship. He was checking the data passing in his front of his eyes when he noticed something different. He quickly stopped the flow of information displayed and scrolled back.
Twilight! That pony... she knew!
In front of his eyes was glowing the graphic of a complex quantum signature, but different from all the others the screen had shown before.
How is it even possible? The degeneration from contact with the time stream is obvious, but it is not decaying any further!
By instinct, he tapped a few commands on his console, changing the display. He asked the computer to scan for any trace of magic or other unusual radiations. To his surprise, the computer took a long moment before complying with his demands. Finally, the screen changed back to the image of the quantum signature, but over it laid a complex webbing of purple lines. At last, some words showed up besides the purple marking and a line linked the two.
Does she even know she saved his life that day? Did she even do it consciously?
He put his hands behind his head and looked at the ceiling, a smile slowly expending on his face. He laughed for a few seconds before slapping his thigh with his right hand.
Her friends forced Twilight back to her room, convincing her that she would be of no help if she continued to fall asleep every two minutes. She protested, claiming to be alright, but almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, she felt in a dreamless sleep.
Six hours later, she woke up to find Spike reading a book beside her bed. "Good morning Spike."
"Morning Twilight! Or afternoon." he closed the book and put it on the bedside. "Are you hungry?"
"You have no idea!" He stood up and walked off the room. He returned a few minutes later with a tray of food which he put in front of her. "Any news?"
He shook his head while sitting back on his chair. "Nope."
Between two bites, she asked "Did you send a letter to the Princess to tell her what happened?"
"Sure did, the day you were found unconscious." he replied. "And six hours ago with your story."
"And?"
"And what?" he asked unsure.
"What did she reply?" she said, starting to be annoyed.
The little dragon scratched his head with his right claw. "She wished you to get well soon. And..."
"And?"
He sighed. "And that she was too busy to leave Canterlot right now." he finished.
She pondered the information for a minute. "That's weird; it's the same thing she said when Mark was living in my basement. What could be so important that she couldn't drop by for a whole month and now for three days in a row?"
"I don't know Twilight." said the dragon, unaware that her question wasn't asking for an answer.
A brown colt entered the room, diffusing the tense situation without knowing it. Seeing Twilight awake and eating brought a smile to his face. "You look better Twilight!"
Before she could answer, Spike jumped up in front of the intruder and blocked his path. "And who would you be?" he asked trying to look as menacing as possible.
"Spike!" Twilight shouted.
The colt started to laugh; he reached something on his chest with his right hoof. The air flickered a few second to reveal the Doctor in his blue suit. "You got quite a guard Twilight." he said with a smile.
"What are you?" asked a frighten Spike.
"Doctor, this is Spike. Spike, this is the Doctor. You know, from the story you wrote to the Princess?" she explained.
Spike turned around and stared at Twilight. "What? You mean it was all true?" The Doctor and Twilight nodded. "Wow, so you really went on the Moon! That's kind of awesome."
She ignored the excited dragon and focused on the Doctor. "Did you find anything Doctor?"
He nodded once more taking his screwdriver from his suit's inner pocket. "You were right. He did enter in contact with the time stream six months ago. But he should have died back then." He set his tool on some specific setting and pointed at Twilight. Between them appeared a complex blue image, floating in midair. "This is a stable signature. As you can see, it's quite orderly and doesn't move much."
Both Spike and Twilight stared at the image with wide eyes. The Doctor pressed a button and the image changed. "This is the same signature once it came in contact with the time." The image switched to the same complex image, but instead of being orderly and moving in slow motion, it was vibrating and pulsing wildly in complete chaos.
"Mark should have died six months ago. But look what I found out." he said while changing the setting of his device. The same chaotic image stopped moving and was trapped in purple webbing. "Those lines are one of your spell Twilight. The magic signature matches perfectly your." he explained. He shut down his screwdriver and crossed his arms. "This spell kept him stables for long enough for his body to heal himself and convert the remaining trace of time stream into magic."
"So I can redo it!" she exclaimed herself.
The Doctor swallowed. "Yes and no." he put his tool back in his suit. "He's been exposed for too long for your spell to be effective alone. And his body isn't in shape to transform anything to magic right now."
"Come on Doctor! You surely have a plan!" she shouted while hitting her food tray with her right hoof.
He looked around. "I do. But it's a long shot."
"Spit it Doctor!"
"Sadly, you're the only one who can do it." he put his hands in his pants' pockets. "You drain the time off his body and at the same time cast that spell to keep his structure stable. That alone won't be enough, he is too far gone. However, while you do it, my screwdriver will rewrite his quantum signature to the same reading I took six months ago." He took a deep breath. "But even then, I can't guaranty that it will work. And on top, I'm worried that you might not be in shape to do it. It will take days to drain off his body and rewrite his signature." He looked at the floor. "And even if you succeed, he might not be the same anymore. Direct contacts with time tend to disrupt the mind too."
Twilight took a last bite off an apple on her tray and pushed it aside. She jumped off her bed. "What are we waiting for then?"
Spike walked in front of her. "Twilight! You need to rest!"
Twilight looked angrily at the little dragon. "Listen very well Spike; you're alive because of what Mark did. I will accept no argument regarding this. Understood?"
Spike stepped aside, he never saw Twilight that angry before. "I understand."
She walked off the room without looking back.
Her horn didn't look in good shape to begin with, but now with the Doctor's screwdriver taped on top of it, it looked somewhat ridiculous. But right now she didn't care much as only the Doctor and Spike were beside her.
"I know I repeat myself, but you must cast the two spells at the same time. If you drain without stabilizing, his cells will age almost instantly. If you stabilize without draining, the time stream remaining in his body will disrupt your spell." the Doctor explained while finishing the settings on his device.
"I know Doctor. It's not the first time I do multiple spell cast."
"Yeah! You should have seen her when she controlled that ursa minor. She casted like four or five at the same time!" said Spike.
The Doctor looked at the small dragon. "I'm not saying she can't do it, only that it won't be easy. It might take days of casting to go over his whole body." He turned back to Twilight. "The screwdriver is on autopilot. It will do quantum rewriting as soon as it detect your spells."
"Alright." she moved to the left side of the bed and put Mark's arm in front of her. "If you don't mind?" she asked looking at the two who were staring at her.
"Come on Spike, let's go. She will need all the focus she can get." the Doctor said while pushing the dragon toward the door.
"But... but..." Spike tried to counter.
"Come with me, I will show you something funny." the Doctor said mysteriously. He closed the door behind him.
Twilight closed her eyes, trying to gather all the concentration she could. She jumped when she heard screaming from the corridor and Spike laughing hard. She rolled her eyes and went back to her spells.
Won't be easy with those two around.
"That's awesome!" said Mark while looking at the floating image of the hospital room. "She will do it!"
"Do you truly want to live?" the TARDIS asked him.
Mark stared at her unsure how to take that question. At first, she only answered his questions, but lately, she started to ask many surprising one. He started to understand that the ship was old, very old and in her own special way, very wise. "On the Moon, I gave it all. Back then, I think I was ready to die."
She stared at him, waiting for him to finish his thoughts. With time, he found out she was also very patient. "But the truth is, I felt like I started to live... Really live, only six months ago." he looked down at his hands. "Dying for peace, for survival, for honor, for a cause... That's all meaningless. I did it because I chose to do it, because I couldn't accept them being hurt."
He sighed loudly. "That's so stupid, now that I'm dying; I want to live more than ever. People who say the true heroes are the young people giving their life for a noble cause, are the worst evil. A young one dying is a mountain of potential wasted." he stared at the floating image. "So much to do, so much to learn, so much to see." He turned around and stared directly at her eyes. "I truly want to live." he said with a smile.
She stared back for a few moments. "You're like the Doctor in many aspects."
He frowned. "I will take that as a compliment."
She lost track of the time, sleeping only when she needed to, eating only when her body forced her to do it. Her friends came out after the other trying to force her to rest more. She knew of the time only when Spike told her it was the fourth day since she started.
Her horn and her head hurt more than they ever did, but she didn't care. The doctor Stable tried once to explain that if she pushed too hard, she could lose her magic ability permanently. But that only pushed her to sleep a few more hours.
She had two third of his body done when a monitor started to bip beside the bed.
Mark felt on the white floor, simply unable to stand. He felt weird, like if he was fading away. His arms were transparent, and he had a hard time to think straight. "What's going on?" he asked looking up at the TARDIS.
"You're going in cardiac arrest." she simply answered looking at the image of his body.
"I thought you removed my mind from my body!" he shouted back.
She stared at him. "Yes, but one cannot live without the other."
He looked at his body. "No! I want to live!" he screamed as hard as he could.
Twilight was staring at the heart monitor, she had no medical knowledge, but she knew exactly what it meant. She stayed stunned a few moments, passing in her mind all the knowledge she had about biology. She knew enough about a pony to help one in distress, but she had no idea what to do with him.
She could feel the adrenaline rushing in her veins. The doctor Stable rushed in the room, but he only stood there, unsure of what to do. She stared at him; she needed to do something, anything. "No." she whispered.
"No!" she screamed. Using both hooves, she smashed them on his chest. To her surprise, the heart monitor stopped its constant noise and started back to bip silently. She felt on the floor, tears in her eyes. She was tired.
Stable trotted to the right side of Mark and checked his chest and his breathing. "He don't have much longer, I'm afraid. One day... maybe. At most." he said looking at Twilight. Seeing she wasn't listening to him, he left the room.
She stood back up and wiped her tears.
I can do it!
Mark was relieved to see his heart was beating one more, but he heard what Stable said. "She won't make it. She needs at least two more days." he said closing his eyes, sitting on the floor.
"Do you have faith in your friends?" the TARDIS asked him.
He took a deep breath; he knew shouting at her wouldn't do any good, even if he wanted to do it. He opened his eyes and looked at her. "I don't understand what that has to do." He remembered she already talked about faith and friends before.
"Your body is resisting her spells." she explained.
"What? What are you talking about?" he asked slowly standing up. He looked at his body, nothing could show that it was the case, but he decided to simply trust her.
She stared at him. "Your mind is set to live, but live on your own. This prevents your body from fully accepting external help."
He shook his head. "I'm not sure I see the difference. Wouldn't I die if I 'let go'?"
"No. You need to fight, but fight with her."
He sat down and closed his eyes. "Why say that now?" seeing she wasn't answering, he sighed. "Never mind, you told me about that days ago."
He sought inside himself, and found that spark of magic that was born from friendship. At first he wanted to simply ignore it, he was used to live on his own. But right now, he felt he couldn't ignore it anymore. He knew he had another choice to make.
To give up your life to someone else, not as a sacrifice, but as a gift; is there anything harder to do?
A sacrifice sounded so heroic, somehow easy, but a gift sounded so personal. That friendship was born independently of his choices, but making it grow asked of him to give part of himself.
He closed his eyes. He dived in.
He slowly opened his right eye and stared at the white ceiling. His left eye wasn't responding. His body felt terrible, like if he was hit by some lightning before being thrown around by a tornado. He didn't feel anything from his right shoulder. He couldn't move his right arm or hand. He felt like he had a broken rib or two.
He tried to look around, but the bandages on his face kept him in place. Breathing was hard and the light hurt his eye. His mouth and noise were dry. He heard someone sleeping soundly near him.
He looked down and saw Twilight sleeping, her front legs on the bed and her head resting on them. Her horn looked terrible while still wrapped with the Doctor's screwdriver. He put his left hand on her head.
"Thanks Twilight."
He closed his eye and felt back in sleep. His body hurt more than it ever did, but his mind was feeling better than ever.
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This one was much longer to write than I expected... I kept rethinking on how to formulate parts of it.
And it ended up with far much more words than I planned. At first it was supposed to be merged with the next chapter, but it would have pushed it over 12-14k words. And it didn't have the cliff-hanger I was expecting to put at the end of that chapter. Oh well. Somehow, I keep thinking it's too cliché or cheezy.
However, I think this one is pretty much cleared of any obvious spelling misstakes.
Almost 50,000 words in a month! And I never wrote anything above 2k before.
(And no, no april's fools from me)
Great chapter. Getting pretty tense.
NOW BACK TO WORK LACKEY!
Awesome chapter and i await more. However one sentence didn't make sense to me...
'People saying the true heroes are the young people giving their life for a noble cause are the worst evil.'
I just can't make out what this meant.
396630
Problably missing a coma in there.
How about:
'People who say the true heroes are the young people giving their life for a noble cause, are the worst evil.'
I started to go back on previous chapters to nuke out any spelling misstake. Might take a little while.
I have no clue where this could go.... Good job!
I must say, great work so far! The story is shaping up excellently, the characterization is terrific, and the pacing is great! The only thing I noticed while reading is that there are often basic grammar and spelling mistakes. I didn't really pay attention to the last few chapters, but in the beginning, there were many cases where grammar took a back seat.
Again, great story! Tracked and thumbed!
412011
I know. The first three chapters and the last one should be fairly alright right now.
If you got two minutes and you still find errors on those, let me know.
I'm correcting the others right now. <insert "not speaking English" comment>
Answer A is correct. I can write it... Terribly, but whatever. However I can't speak it.
There, I think I managed to hunt down most of the spelling and grammar. Took a while.
Quite a wild ride :) There are a few errors still lingering, but once I snag you in chat I can point them out
I absolutely loved your description of the five forces, and how magic plays into them. It was a brilliantly crafted argument, and I have some quantum theorist friends who I'll point towards it.
Excellent dramatic tension throughout