Doctor Hooves: An Unusual Filly

by Anime PJ

Chapter 8: Aiding the Alicorns

Darkness. A never ending darkness. Cheerilee could see nothing, just the eternal darkness of where she was.

There were things. Ponies, creatures and gravestones. The TARDIS was there, making it's grinding noise as if it were taking off.

The voice whispered in her ear "Death, the companion of Doctor Hooves."

An explosion happened in the distance, its light was blinding. The flames got closer and closer until...
***

...she woke up.

She sat up with a start thank god it's just a dream she thought, relieved. She lay her head back on the pillow but found herself unable of getting to sleep. Frustrated, she thought about what had happened that night in an attempt to stop herself from dying of fright.
*** Earlier

They had arrived in a daze, Sugar almost entirely falling over "I apologise for the sick feeling" Luna had said to them "but I had to get you away from that madman as quickly as possible."

Before they could respond another Alicorn walked over to them, this one with a pure white coat with a dark pink and blue mane, her horn was the longest any of them had ever seen, her cutie mark was a beautiful image of the sun. This Alicorn introduced herself "Greetings, I am Celestia the princess of the sun."

All four of the time travellers bowed "Princess Celestia, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Doctor Hooves and this is my granddaughter Sugar." Doctor Hooves said, surprisingly politely.

"It's... nice to meet you... your majesty." Sugar said nervously.

"And I am Cheerilee, teacher to the little darling. It's such an honour to meet you ma'am." Cheerilee said, rather excitedly.

"Howdy there Princess, I'm Big Macintosh but most folks just call me Big Mac." The other three gave him a glare that said be respectful, this is royalty.

But Princess Celestia just smiled and said "Well, I know that you'll all be wanting to discuss why I had Luna bring you here but first you should all go and catch some rest, a tent has been prepared already." They had all wondered who'd prepared it at first but then then noticed the guards behind the princesses, some were white and some were brown but thankfully none of the were grey and they were all wearing the traditional golden armour.

One of these guards stepped forward and showed them to their tent, once inside a question that had formed on Cheerilee's mind was let out "So how come they weren't speaking in... well... old speak?"

"What in Equestria do you mean by old speak?" Doctor Hooves asked.

"You know, thee, thy, thou, why aren't they speaking like that, Luna at least should be doing it, and what about the 'royal tone of voice' Luna freaked everyone out with?"

Doctor Hooves chuckled "Oh, that my dear is the TARDIS translator circuit, it takes what people in the past, future or other worlds are trying to say and translates it into a form the listener will understand. As for the royal tone of voice, well would you do that if you were trying to hide from Discord?"

Satisfied, Cheerilee went to sleep "Goodnight everyone." she said before dozing off.
***Now

It's been a hell of a day Cheerilee thought. Then she realised that she didn't remember why she'd woken up feeling so scared in the first place. She vaguely remembered the word death but other than that she couldn't remember her dream. Oh well she thought better catch some sleep before the end of the night.
***

She woke up later than everypony else in the morning because of her period of non-sleep that she couldn't think of a reason for. She shrugged it off and went outside, breakfast had been made for them already by one of the workers dressed as guards (she doubted they were actual guards, more than likely they volunteered for the job out of hatred for Discord), they had three muffins each with a side of hay. She sat next to Big Mac "I'm really glad Derpy isn't here, she'd go nuts for these muffins even with all of the danger going on." she joked, it got a laugh out of Big Mac but Doctor Hooves and Sugar shrugged, they didn't have a clue who Derpy was.

"Princess Celestia said that she and Luna would join us shortly." Doctor Hooves told them.

Surely enough after they'd eaten some more, Celestia and Luna emerged from their respective tents having brushed their manes to look more presentable to their guests. "Good morning everyone." Celestia greeted with a warm smile "I hope you slept well."

They all nodded in union, the face of Celestia becoming stern "Down to business then, I know you're from the future."

This revelation didn't surprise them, they figured that since Discord could sense that they were time travellers then the Princesses probably could to. "I asked my sister to rescue you from Discord and bring you here because we are in desperate need of your help. Have any of you heard of the Tree of Harmony?"

Doctor and Sugar Hooves nodded while Cheerilee and Big Mac just looked oblivious, Doctor Hooves noticed this and said "The Tree of Harmony is an especially magical tree located in the Everfree Forest, the magic it possesses controls of the plants and creatures found in the forest."

Princess Celestia nodded "A fine explanation," she complimented "but there is more, There are six images on the tree, on each of it's five interconnected branches and one at the very centre of the tree itself. These images represent the Elements of Harmony and they are what gives the tree its magical prowess."

Cheerilee and Big Mac were surprised, they obviously knew of the Elements of Harmony; Big Mac's sister Applejack and her five friends represented them, but the fact that they originated in a place as unnatural as the Everfree Forest was news to them.

"You need us to help extract them don't you?" Doctor Hooves asked.

"Yes," Celestia confirmed "your knowledge of what happened in what is the past for you could help us to discern any dangers there might be, we also may not be able to handle Discord's corrupted creatures alone. We will bear no ill will against you if you feel you have to refuse. Will you help us?"

Doctor Hooves called for a huddle of the four "I'm normally used to making the decisions when it comes to my travels but this is risking all of our lives, what do you want to do?" he asked.

"Well I'm definitely helpin' " Big Mac said "after he made me watch a vision of mah family dyin' I ain't gonna let that monster get off easy."

"I agree," Cheerilee said "if Big Mac wants to then I will to."

"What about you Sugar?" Doctor Hooves asked, gently.

"I'm going to help stop Discord. He threatened you all and I won't allow that." she said, surprisingly bluntly.

They turned around and told the princesses their decision, Celestia smiled and said "It's decided then, we shall prepare and go into Everfree tomorrow at dawn."
***

Discord had three of his most powerful guard ponies in a line, a Unicorn, a Pegasus and an Earth Pony. He reached a hand out towards them and they all writhed in pain, their features becoming distorted in darkness, their bodies growing larger, their eyes growing red. The three guards stood up, they were completely black now, their newly red eyes glowing, their abilities significantly stronger. "Go out, find the future dwellers." Discord ordered "Kill them if you must, provided you bring me back at least one of them alive, I still have questions they need to answer. Oh and the ones you do kill, make it as painful as possible."