Silver Bells

by mamori86

Chapter 3

FREEDOM.

"Oh sweet freedom!"

Discord twisted and turned, stretched and spun through the streets of Ponyville. All around him ponies were hanging wreaths and decorating trees with an assortment of ornaments and garlands. However, all of this was lost on the spirit of chaos; he was free, free to move. He wasn’t sure how, but he was free.

“All the chaos I can finally catch up on! I was barely able to get started before those ponies encased me in stone. But, where to start, where to start?”

Up ahead, just past a pair of ponies dragging a tree into their shop, was a yellow and pink pegasus. A light blue scarf wrapped about her. Resting upon her tail, a snow-white rabbit bobbed up and down with the sway of her tail with each step.

“Hmm, perhaps a bit too easy, but a bit of practice never hurt. Maybe turn the rabbit into a bear? No, far too mundane. I know, turn her scarf into a snake… no, too predictable.”

Discord cupped his chin with a talloned hand, stroking it as he thought.

“There must be something… aha! That would be perfect, oh so perfect! That would be completely original and unexpected. Truly, I am the personification of chaos itself.”

With a look of self-satisfaction Discord snapped his fingers.

And snapped his fingers.

And snapped his fingers...

“What the blazes is wrong…” Discord questioned, examining his digits.

It was only then that he noticed. He couldn’t feel his fingers. He couldn’t feel the cold, or the sun, or the wind. He lowered himself to street level and peered into a shop window. Amongst the display of clocks and wind up toys, Discord confirmed his fear. His reflection did not shine back at him. He had been freed, but in mind only. His powers, his physical body, were still quite trapped in stone back in Canterlot.

“TEMPEST!!!”

Silver Bells

Chapter 3

Fluttershy paused, looking up and down the frosted street.

“Did you hear something, Angel?”

The little white rabbit upon her tail shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh, okay then.”

She continued down the road, passed the blue door of the clockmaker’s shop, and turned into the shop with the wooden “bakery” sign out front.

“Mister Ember, Angel just loved that carrot muffin you ga… oh, I’m sorry, did you have something planned?”

“We’re going to go fight alien pepper shakers!” squealed Pinkie.”

“No no no, Miss Doo and I will handle this, it’s too dangerous for all of you to come along, I just need some information from the baker here first.”

Head on the table, the owner of the shop was giggling, though his eyes were closed.

“He must be so angry,” Ember mumbled with a smirk on his face.

At one of the long tables of the bakery, Twilight and Princess Luna were whispering to each other, Pinkie was filling a bag with muffins for Ditzy, and the Clockmaker, Doctor Whooves, was trying to shake a rather ragged Ember from his semi-consciousness.

“Umm, if his is a bad time…”

“Doctor, If my citizens are in danger, it is my duty as a princess of Equestria to see that they are safe,” proclaimed Luna. “If these ‘Daleks’ are as dangerous as you claim, then it is clear I should go with you to investigate.”

The Doctor sighed, and then placed his hooves back on the floor of the bakery.

“With what little information I have, I can’t guarantee the safety of anyone. That’s exactly why I need you to stay behind, in case I need to call for back up. Princess, you’re the only person who could feasibly make it to the ship and rescue us should something go wrong.”

“I see.”

Luna stared long and hard at the Doctor.

“I know you have done a great many services for Equestria in the past Doctor, and I have never known you to be wrong. I suppose I will have to trust you this time as well.”

“Right, then it’s settled. Miss Doo and I will board the Dalek ship and see what they’re up to. Meanwhile, the Princess will wait here in case we need her to rescue us. Any questions?”

“Ooh ooh!” Pinkie waved a hoof in the air.

“Yes, pink pony,” said the Doctor.

“I want to come too!”

“Like I’ve said, I can’t gaur...”

“Actually,” Ditzy interrupted, “I think it would be a good idea! Pinkie has a way of sensing things that others can’t.”

“… And this has nothing to do with muffins?”

“Only a little bit,” Ditzy replied with a smile.

“Well… I have heard of that “Pinkie Sense” before, I guess I might as well make use of it. All right then, Miss Doo, pink pony, into the TARDIS. We have a world to save.”

In a flurry of hooves and a stray muffin, the trio dashed out of the bakery, right past Fluttershy.

“W-what exactly is going on, if I might ask…” inquired the yellow pegasus.

“Apparently the good baker here,” Twilight motioned to the unconscious colt, “has sent out a signal which may or may not have alerted a murderous alien race to our location.”

“The Doctor is going to head up to their ship with Pinkie Pie and Ditzy Doo to investigate their intentions,” continued Luna.

“Oh…oh my.”

Fluttershy’s felt a sudden coldness rush over her. The world, once stable and even, began to feel loose under her hooves.

“A-are you alright?” asked Twilight, “you look a little… pale.”

“I’ll, be alright, I just need to… has anyone seen Angel?”

Fluttershy looked behind her, beneath her, above her. There was no sign of her little companion.

“Do you refer to the rabbit?” asked the princess.

“Yes, he was with me when I came in, he wanted to thank Ember for the carrot muffin he gave me yesterday for him.”

“I see, I noticed him next to the baker after the Doctor had ceased trying to revive him. He ran out the door shortly after.”

“Oh dear, I better find him.”

Fluttershy hovered out the door, peering all around for any sign of Angel. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be seen. What she did find, were a tiny set of tracks.

“Rabbit tracks, these must be Angel’s.”

“Thank goodness, I just need to follow these, then when can both go home where it’s safe and…”

The prints abruptly ended at the open doorway of the clockmaker’s shop. Fluttershy peered inside, eyeing the Doctor’s jagged metal wares.

“H-h-hello?” she whispered. Only the rhythmic ticking of a hundred clocks answered back to her.

“W-well, he must be in here somewhere…”

Fluttershy took one shaky step after another into the shop. The ticking of clocks was beginning to seem louder and louder. Tick tick tick.

BONG!

Roughly a dozen grandfather clocks all announced the top of the hour eight times in perfect unison.

It was several seconds before the yellow, twitching ball of a pony noticed a faint green light coming from the back room of the shop. Her pink mane shifted as she glanced back at the door, a pinpoint of light miles away from her now.

“N-no Fluttershy, you have to be brave, for Angel.”

Finding her footing, she slowly moved towards the back room of the shop, towards that strange light.

Standing before a large blue box was Angel. The light, as it turned out, was emanating from this box. However, before she could call out to her dear pet, the little white rabbit had dashed into the strange crate.

“Angel! Where are you going?”

Lunging forward into the box, Fluttershy made the inevitable discovery.

“Wha-wha-what?”

Circling outside the box, then poking her head back in reached the same result.

“It’s bigger on the inside… and Angel is somewhere in there.”

-----------------

“Really Ditzy, how many times have I told you not to take my sonic screwdriver?”

“Sorry Doctor,” apologized the Pegasus, head drooped.

“What does that thing do anyway?” asked Pinkie Pie, referring to the metal rod held tightly in Ditzy’s hooves as she flew.

“It drives screws, with sound, among other things. Now, like I was saying before our detour, welcome to the TARDIS.”
The Doctor lead the way in, followed by his two companions. Walking around the control panel and it’s central column, the Doctor let his newest companion take in what was obviously going to be a shock for her.

“Well, anything you want to say?”

“It’s…”

“Yes?”

“The inside is…”

“Yes, go on.” The Doctor smirked.

“It’s… smaller than I thought it’d be.”

“…”

----------

VWORP-VWORP

“This place is worse than the shop,” whimpered Fluttershy. Following the sound of hopping, she had first made her way through several bizarre rooms. A wardrobe fit for the Canterlot Theater, with costumes from the stylish to the outlandish, surrounded one room. Another room held various paintings and sculptures, most depicting ponies, but a few depicting some strange ape like creatures. The room she now found herself in housed a pool, the decor of which reminded her of her trips with Rarity to the spa. Oh, how she wished this were all a dream, that she had just fallen asleep at the spa.

VWORP-VWORP

Now there was that odd noise echoing through the entire… whatever this place was. Lowering her face to the water’s surface, Fluttershy tapped the water with her hoof, causing ripples to distort her reflection.

“What am I even doing in here, all I am is pathetic and weak, and here I am trying to find Angel in this strange place. All I end up doing is making my friends come save me instead.”

As the ripples began to settle, a second face could be seen in the water.

“Angel?”

She grabbed the little white rodent up into her arms, squeezing him tightly as he flailed in vain.

“Oh Angel! I was so worried! You mustn’t run into strange places like this, who knows what could be in here?”

---------------

“Now that’s odd…”

“What is it Doctor? What do you see?”

Ditzy Doo peered over the shoulder of the brown colt as he observed a monitor around the control panel of the TARDIS.

“Well, nothing, absolutely nothing. I mean, this is certainly a Dalek ship, but as far as I can tell, there’s no one home.”

“Where did they all go then?” asked the pink pony, briefly distracted from the light emanating from the glass tube.

“That is exactly what we are going to find out, by going right into the heart of things.”

With a few twisted knobs and levers, the sound of the TARDIS’s unique sound briefly filled the room.

“Right. I’ll take a quick look around, you two stay in the TARDIS until I come back.”

“Okie Dokey Lokie!” replied Pinkie Pie with a salute. “But, what do you want Fluttershy to do?

Just coming from the lower levels of the alien vessel was Fluttershy, Angel sitting atop her head.

“Now how the blazes did you get in here?”

“I’m sorry, Angel came in for some reason. Don’t worry though! We’re on our way out right now.”

The Doctor stared at Fluttershy as she stepped onto the floor of the control room, and quickly made her way to the doors.

“Hold on there, yellow pony.”

Fluttershy froze in place.

“Y-yes?”

“You said your rabbit got inside the TARDIS? All by himself?”

Fluttershy nodded, head almost knocking against the ground.

“I need to have a brief word with your pet. Don’t worry, won’t take a minute.”

--------------

“Well, what shall we do?” Twilight asked Princess Luna.

“For now all we can do is wait for a signal from the Doctor. If he needs us, he’ll contact us on that contraption he left.”

The contraption, as Luna put it, looked to be little more than a wooden box with a few loose wires, a few vertical slits cut into it’s top, along with a flashing blue light in one of the top corners. It currently rested on the table they had until a few minutes ago been enjoying their breakfast.

“I suppose we could get him to bed at least, it looks like he hasn’t slept in days.” Twilight nudged the sleeping colt, whose ear twitched briefly.

“I suppose, the sooner he wakes up the sooner we can get some answers from him.”

A dark blue aura surrounded Ember, lifting him from his wooden pillow and slowly carrying him to the back. Walking along with the unconscious pony, Luna surveyed the room. It was easily as large as the front of the store, and as she had expected, in addition to the usual devices one would expect to find in a kitchen; oven, refrigerator, sink, counter, there was also stairs to the living quarters.

The room was full of boxes and a bed with sheets and blankets haphazardly thrown onto it. As Luna lowered Ember onto the pile of cloth, Twilight inspected a desk beneath one of the room’s windows. The desk, like much of the store, was made of a golden oak. It was bare save for two framed photographs.

“Princess Luna, take a look at these.”

The larger of the two photos depicted four ponies, very likely a family. The smallest of them bore a striking resemblance to a young Ember, climbing atop the head of a gray stallion, perhaps his father. Next to them was a tan mare, and a gray colt, perhaps his mother and brother. The four of them had the signature horns of unicorns, even Ember.

The smaller of the photos depicted an older, hornless Ember. As far as Twilight could tell, he was not much younger than the Ember who was now asleep. The photo, taken underneath an oak tree, depicted the him next to a filly. She had a cream coat, a dark brown mane, blue eyes, and a pair of wings.

“I guess this is his family,” Twilight pointed a hoof towards the larger photo. “But I wonder who this filly is?”

“Her name,” an annoyed voice came from behind, “is Dew Drop.”

-----------------

“I see, and he didn’t say why? No, just promised you another muffin.”

The Doctor eyed Fluttershy again.

"It seems Miss Shy, that you are required here for some reason. I don’t know what yet, but I suspect we’ll soon find out.”

“Doctor, there is something on the monitor.”

Ditzy eyed the screen that had been scanning various areas of the ship.

The doctor returned to the control panel. On the screen was what appeared to be a rather large creature. Large bat like wings and a hooked tail were the only distinctive features he could make out.

“No, you couldn’t be, but that’s impossible.”

“What is it Doctor?” asked a concerned Ditzy.

“I won’t know for sure until I can get up close, but if it is what I think it is, then we are in far more danger than I thought.”

Comments

Multo Bene Comrade Mamori, looking forward to your future work.

Moar plz!

[mamori86]

Haha, the next chapter is *almost* ready! Sometime tomorrow morning I should be able to post it.

Spasiba tovarishch