The Watch

by Light Angle

3) What was That?

Chapter 3: What was That?

Celestia and The Doctor flashed into existence outside of Twilight's house. The first thing they noticed was that they were not the only ones there. In fact there was large crowd of ponies outside the library. Spike was attempting to tell them that Twilight was busy, but none of them were buying it. Celestia was wondering how she could have caused a panic this quirky, when she noticed that the crowd contained multiple Pinky Pies. The Doctor had noticed all this as well.

"I told you that you should have sealed off damn cavern." he muttered.

Celestia glared at him. "I am aware of that. Of all ponies to actually find it… "

"Yes I know." The Doctor sighed.

"I can return them, but we need to find the real one first." Celestia stated.

"That one." The Doctor said pointing at an extremely depressed Pinkie cowering behind the others.

Celestia stared at him.

He sighed. "No clone created by that process would have the capacity to go through an existential crises."

Celestia sighed. "I suppose you are right." Her horn lights up. All the Pinkies except the real one were blasted back into the pond.

Pinkie blinked and looked at Celestia guiltily. Celestia patted Pinkie on the head.

"It's okay my little pony. I assume you have learned your lesson." she said in a gentle tone.

"Yes!" Pinkie replied shaking her head repeatedly.

"Good." Celestia stated sternly. "I need to talk to Twilight and then to all of you. Go get the others, find a way to block the entrance to the Mirror Pond for good, then all five of you return here."

Pinkie nodded again and vanished in the blink of an eye. Celestia looked to The Doctor who looked away. The two remembered why they had come and ran to Spike.

~~~~Mindscape~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight and The Rani looked around at where the energy had deposited them. They were transparent and floating above a laboratory.

"No." Rani muttered "Not this."

"Do you recognize this place?" Twilight asked.

"Unfortunately, it was my old lab." Rani growled.

"Old lab? What happened?" Twilight questioned.

"Just wait five seconds and you will see for your self." Rani said.

The lab had some cages with mice in them. A younger version of The Rani entered the lab and opened a cabinet door. She took out a vial of a strange substance. She mixed in some extra ingredients and put the new mixture in a syringe. She shot some of the substance into several of the mice.

"What does that do?" Twilight asked.

Rani glared at her "Can you be silent for even a second?"

Back in the memory the mice grew to an enormous size. Their teeth sharpened. Their hands and feet mutated into claws. The Rani in the past attempted to order the mice around but none listened. The monsters ran past her and out of the lab.

"Why did you create those monsters?" Twilight asked.

"Why do ask so many questions?" Rani asked.

Twilight looked down finally quiet.

Rani sneered. "You're attempting to avoid the the fact I just told you that are not real."

Before they could continue the scene below them changed. They were in an area that almost reminded Twilight of the royal court. Of course here it was filled with what Twilight could only assume were more Time Lords. They all were looking at the past version of The Rani reactions ranging from annoyance to pure rage. The one out front who appeared to be the leader was most upset. He was also missing an arm.

"Lord President I apologize." the past Rani said, although it was clear from her tone that she did not actually mean it.

"Silence" the one armed Time Lord spoke. "I have told you before, you are free to experiment as you wish, as long as it has control and purpose. Not only did you lose control, but I can not see how an army of giant rats helps us. Given this, and their attacks on myself and my cats, I see it fit to banish you."

"No!" growled both versions of Rani.

The scene cleared again and Twilight and Rani were back in plane were they had first met.

Rani was still fuming at having to relive her at having to relive her worst memory. Twilight took some tentative steps towards her.

"Are you alright?" Twilight asked.

"Still with the unimportant questions." Rani groaned. "I have repeatedly told you are not real. Are you not disturbed by this fact?"

"You said I was just created as … a placeholder right?" Twilight questioned.

"I suppose that's an accurate term." Rani agreed.

"Then what about my memories?" Twilight asked.

"It depends on how the arch was set. You could have really lived most of your life, or only the last several days of it. " Rani explained.

Then it came the outburst Rani had been expecting from Twilight. It did not however express itself the way she'd expected. Instead of breaking down the unicorn seemed to gain more resolve.

"My memories ARE real!" Twilight yelled.

Another gold flash surrounded them both. In a second they were both floating as they had been before, this time it was above a lecture hall with several ponies in it.

"What is this?" Rani asked.

"My happiest memory." Twilight smiled.

"What, that's impossible, the watch only…" Rani starts but is distracted by the action below them.

Past Twilight is sitting in front of a rock. She focuses on it but nothing really happens. This continued until a flash of rainbow colored energy hit her. Her eyes turned white and energy flowed from her to the entire room. The rock hatched into a dragon, some onlookers were levitated up in the air, others were turned into plants. The light hit the dragon which grew to an enormous size. A white unicorn with wings and flowing multi colored hair went up to past Twilight. The energy stopped and the ponies went back to normal, then the dragon shrank back to its original size.

After that there was another flash and The Rani and Twilight were again returned to the place were they had met.

"What was that?" Rani asked.

"That's how I became the Princess' student." Twilight answered.

"So that was the Princess then, at the end there?" Rani asked, there something about that horse. She just could not put a find finger on it.

"Yes." Twilight smiled.

"What was that?" Rani asked again.

"Now who's asking the wrong questions?" Twilight joked.

Rani rolled her eyes. "Fine, I suppose I wasn't that clear. How did you do that?"

"Magic." Twilight responded.

"There no such thing." Rani stated.

"Then how is this happening?" Twilight questioned her.

"Science. The chameleon arch is technology." Rani responded.

"So, some theorists argue magic and science are just different takes on similar premises." Twilight replied back.

"I do not have time to argue this with a unicorn. Just open the damn watch so I can get my body back." Rani demanded.

"No." Twilight stated. "I think I am going to try to find out exactly what's going on here before I do that."

With that, and despite continued protests from The Rani, Twilight focused her magic and detached her self from the watch.

~~~~~~~Ponyville~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight awoke to find her self holding her still closed watch. Then she heard a commotion downstairs and went to investigate, leaving the watch behind.

Coming down the stairs Twilight looked to see Princess Celestia trying to calm down a panicked Spike. She also notices a brown earth pony, Time Tuner if she was correct. He looked at her with a stare that could turn back an army.

"Rani" he spit out with disgust.

-To Be Continued -

Comments

[John Tannius]

Hurray for mistaken identities!