"Sister, are you sure about this?" Luna asked softly. Celestia watched as Shining Armor left her chambers and nodded.
"Rainbow cannot handle something like this. Even if it is for only a few days, we must keep up appearances sister."
"But this is your student, you are sending her own brother to throw her in the dungeons!"
"We, sister. It is under OUR orders that he do so." Celestia sat up weakly.
"You have changed sister. The Celestia I knew would never do such a thing to somepony so dear."
"What would you have me do Luna? With the Gryphons still undecided my hooves are somewhat tied. I cannot allow myself to appear weak or picking out favorites."
"She is the Element of Magic! Surely that accounts for something?!"
"It will be enough that I won't have to fake her death and that merely locking her away in the dungeons will keep Niare happy until he leaves."
"From what I have heard he is never happy. Least of all with his daughter according to recent events." Luna mumbled, trying to calm herself. She didn't like the thought of locking up the first pony other than her sister to accept her, but there didn't seem to be any other choice with Niare around.
The Gryphons could be sneaky when they needed to, that was how Niare took the crown to begin with. His genius and deception had lead to the slaughter of the former royal family and any guards who had even a tiny shred of loyalty to them. It was a dangerous game Celestia played, but she had been playing it far longer than Luna had.
Perhaps these are just the rules of the game, but it is not a fair one. Luna mused.
"Can we at least let Twilight Sparkle know?"
"No, she will figure it out on her own if given time. I only worry about..."
"HOW COULD YOU?!" Rainbow screamed as she burst into the room, guards trying to calm her. Tears stained her cheeks, her eyes red as her body shook with held back sobs.
"Wait, Rainbow Dash please allow us to explain." Luna said, standing before her.
"You better be quick about it" the distraught mare mumbled, making her anger known simply with her gaze at both Alicorns. Luna took a slow breath and was quickly interrupted by Celestia.
"Twilight attacked you Chroma. As you know such an offense is punishable by death, something we haven't done in over thousands of years. Due to her importance and her rank she will only be placed in the dungeon for a few days."
"A few days...she shouldn't be down there to begin with! I've seen what its like down there! They had Gilda down there. I've known her a long time and Gilda isn't scared of anything, but when I came near her she flinched like I was gonna beat her to death! Just what the buck do they do to them down there?!" Rainbow demanded.
"I can assure you, nopony touches a prisoner without orders." Celestia spoke up.
"That doesn't make me feel any better. That just means whoever was screwin' with her had your permission."
"I gave no order for anything to be done to Gilda." Rainbow blinked.
"You're lying."
"She is not Rainbow. She has spent the majority of the day resting. She was only just awoken with the news of what occurred in the Grand Hall. While I personally do not approve of the actions being taken towards Twilight Sparkle, I have to agree it is for the best. Her brother will see to it that no harm truly comes to her. But in order for things to go as planned she must stay in the dark."
"Buck that! I'm going to go see her." Rainbow turned and stumbled as Luna's magic surrounded her, her eyelids feeling heavy.
"I am sorry, but I cannot allow it. Rest, and when you awaken know peace."
Twilight sighed, not even bothering to struggle as a small metal clasp was placed over her horn to hold back her magic as well as a metal collar placed around her neck and bound to the dungeon wall by a metal chain. She kept her gaze down, unable to look into her brothers eyes.
"I'm sorry Twilight." He said again before leaving her to the darkness of the dungeon.
"Well...at least...at least Rainbow is ok..." she said, trying to cheer herself up.
"What are they going to do to me..."
"Well they will probably just keep you locked up in here until the Princess recovers, and then she'll probably come down here for both of us personally." a figure said from the shadows. Twilight screamed in shock and tried to run from the voice, choking as the collar pulled her back to the wall.
"Don't be afraid. I couldn't hurt you even if I wanted to. I'm a bit 'tied up' as it were." the voice said. Slowly Twilights eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could make out the figure of a pony chained to a wall close to her, though he was literally chained to the wall, hanging upside down with his hooves tightly held against the wall.
"So, what did you do to end up here?" the pony asked. He seemed a bit TOO happy. As if this were just another day for him. The thought scared her. Would she be down here that long? Would she lose all sanity and end up like the stallion before her?
"Don't worry, I'm not crazy, its just the blood rushing to my head. You really shouldn't think aloud." the stallion said with a chuckle. Twilight sighed and lowered her head.
"It doesn't matter..."
"Of course it matters. Everyone ends up here for a reason. I'm not sure what I did just yet. Time travel is weird like that you know."
"Time Travel? Wait! You're a time traveler?" Twilight asked the stranger.
"Well yes I suppose you could call me that. I should be coming to get me out of this at some point, though that would be a bit stupid of me. I'd probably send someone else to do it. Can't risk ruining the time line just to get a look at my own face without having to use a mirror."
"Who are you?"
"Well they call me a lot of things. But my friends call me the Doctor."
After that you, what the lack of better words, burned me alive in the frigd, I want to appologise for my behavor at yesterday. It was not right of me to say does things and demanded more work from your side. You do a very good job on this fic and it seems you have alot to think of. I'm a criticer by heart, and suck thing want propper work from a fic I'm seen a huge potential in it. Call me an editor if you will. That all, and i'm sorry.
MORE
1897047 ...OKIE DOKIE LOKIE!
La de da, the story is moving along...
The Doctor~! Get out of jail free card!
No offense, but I have a feeling you would've been better off without him. Uuugh, cannot stand it, mostly cause, well, folks suck at writing him. Witholding my reservations till you get more I suppose.
1897090 I've become a rather big fan of the Doctor Who series and while I admit I have never been able to properly write him I do like him as a character in MLP and that stallion just looks way too much like him to not be him and this is something thats been bouncing around in my head for months so I had to write it.
Really? You put the Doctor in here
1897158 Did you read the authors note at the end of the chapter? Its a jaded explanation but lemme give you a better one. He's just stopping by for a part of the story so don't worry about it too much.
1897217 For the record it is pure coincidence that Gilda is a tomboy and a Princess. Also I was too lazy to make my own damn princess because that requires hard work and brainpower, things Wendy's has sapped away from me over the past six months.
wah? What's the doctor suddenly doing here? I must know more! UPDATE!
figured he would come in with twilight messing with the time line.
Oh my god it's the Doctor!
It's the Doctor! That's Fantastic!
1899359 Three mustaches for you for that reference Thank you for making my day before I had to go to work
The Doctor? Really? That would explain Twilight getting a second chance to save Rainbow, but seriously?
1899702 HA! Nope! Wrong! The Doctor is not responsible for the "second chance" He is here for a different reason but not totally unrelated. He was drawn to this reality by the event that caused the "second chance". Its one of those Timey-Wimey things the TARDIS does when it decides the Doctor needs to be somewhere.
1897869 Oh its not Twilight who is screwing with time, she's just caught up in it.
YES Doctor to the "rescue"! so in other word make everything worse then make everything better after a life threatening situation!
Wow.
You know I don't read a whole lot of fictions anymore, and that being said, when I got into this fandom I didn't do a whole lot of reading then, either. This, is the first story I've read for this fandom that had the Doctor in it. Doctor Whooves, I assume.
Well done! And I noticed that this chapter had the EXACT amount of words in it as the last one. Surprised me too!
I feel as though there are two separate stories here, with two different authors behind their construction.
Though its plot remains somewhat thin even within ‘act one’, this is pleasantly disguised beneath a character driven narrative. Unforeseen character aspects are carefully revealed, woven into the tale as not to upset existing impressions from cannon. Over all, very clever and pleasing to even the most judicious reader. We are drawn in and captured, never once questioning the holes caused by particular cannon episodes because the world is so enthralling.
Yet at the words “She’s dying rainbow”, the whole thing suddenly goes snooker loopy. All pretence for serious character interaction is totally abandoned in favour of a hastily constructed action driven narrative, with utterly nonsensical results. Not a single character acts in accordance with the careful expansion we were provided in the first act, let alone cannon. Instead they seem to function entirely on whimsy. It took three attempts to decipher what actually occurred in the last few chapters which seem to be a call back to the ‘Final Destination’ series.
Perhaps this is a deliberate play on the author’s part? Maybe later chapters will draw sense from this chaos. For this reason I reserve final judgement for after the story's completion. Even if things have been somewhat disappointing it is far from completion, so let’s wait and see for the time being.
1928052 Its hard for me to tell whether you are enjoying or are simply reading the story but please rest assured this story was carefully planned from beginning to end. All of the events are set in stone and merely need the structure built around them to complete them. Besides, a bit of chaos never hurt, Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge.
1937766 OK that made me laugh, but allow me to overexplain things a bit here.
Nightmare Moon was slowly created over the course of some odd hundred years of constantly being ignored while her sister was praised day in and day out for her efforts. Jealousy, anger, hatred, loneliness, hundreds of years of being ignored after all that hard work while someone else gets all the credit, I'd be pretty damn pissed too.
Celestia very nearly died upon sealing away Nightmare Moon, only those around here that needed her kept her going, that and the hope that some day her sister would return.
Rainbow Dash had her entire life flipped on its head, forced into a major political battle and then accidentally killed her best friend by stomping on her throat. How would you feel after a day like that? Your entire life just smashed apart in a week and then murdering your friend in front of everyone.
I could keep going on and blah blah blah but I've gotta lot to do today.
1937869 I know what you mean and don't worry he won't be around that long.
I always hate myself a little for reading good stories that aren't complelte yet, because then I have to wait forever for updates. though, this one is worth it.
1961332 I'd like to apologize for keeping you waiting for so long. This story will now be my main focus and I plan to give it some good updates and hopefully finish it.
3375174 OMG THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
please good author, more!
i love this story. you've shown a side of gilda not many would take time to notice, and given such a better aspect to the creatures of the everfree. i wish every story i came across was as well written as this i internet-applaud you!
also i love the little doctor thing at the end, adding a bit more spice to the soup pot so to speak.
3440897 You're the first who hasn't sent me threatening hate-mail about the Doctor snippet and for that I thank you. I'm glad you are enjoying the story thus far and I hope to have the next chapter ready soon.
Love the story so far keep up the great progress that you are having on this. I loved the Doctor thing it just fit SO well into the whole Inception Time Travel theme of the last few chapters.