The Iron Army

by Fedora

Earthquakes in Canterlot

“That’s weird,” the Doctor said as he entered Celestia’s sitting room, “I haven’t known Celestia personally, and I certainly haven’t ever introduced myself to her.”

“Maybe you two just haven’t met yet,” suggested Derpy, stretching out on one of the plush royal sofas.

“What was that?”

“You know, you’re a time traveller. You meet her in your future, but in her past.”

“No, not that.... listen!”

The two paused, straining their ears to hear a distant rumbling. The floor beneath them began to vibrate. Each and every pedestal and furniture piece started to shake, and a bust of Princess Twilight fell right off and crashed onto the floor, shattering it.

“Earthquake!” Derpy shouted, getting up from the couch and hovering in midair as everything around her vibrated and rumbled. Almost as soon as it had started, it faded. The building stopped shaking and the rumbling died down with a final thump, leaving everything as still as it was before.

The Doctor stood, legs buckled and with a pensive expression on his face.

“What’s the matter?” Derpy asked, landing next to him.

“That wasn’t an earthquake,” he said, “I know when the land beneath me is shaking, and that wasn’t it.”

“So.... what was it?”

“The foundation of the building itself,” said the Doctor, “The castle itself was shaking.”

****

Derpy walked back out into the throne room, where Celestia was flipping through newscasts given by ponies by region on a transparent board to her side, against the wall next to one of the many stained glass windows.

“And tonight in sports, the Fillydelphia Dragons will face the Baltimare Timberwolves in Hoofball, to be broadcast on Equestria Sports Network, channel 421. The Manticores beat out the Bad Wolves last night in a double overtime, winning 45 to-”

“Weather, please,” Celestia commanded the automatic display, “I need reports of earthquakes across the country, and possible damage.”

“...and it’s clear skies today, dropping to lows around 40 this evening, with the scheduled thundershowers occurring overnight. Tomorrow the sky will be overcast, so make sure-”

“No, news on Earthquakes!”

Derpy thought that was odd. The display couldn’t give Celestia any news on the earthquakes, and since the Doctor had said it had just been the castle shaking....

“P...princess?” Derpy asked, her legs turning to rubber. She hadn’t ever spoken to her princess one on one before, and the experience was a little bit intimidating.

“Yes?” replied Celestia, looking up from what she was doing.

“I....I.... Uh....” she stumbled, “The Doctor’s working on the clocks right now!”

“Oh,” she said, “Thank you for telling me. Say, miss....”

“Hooves.”

“Miss Hooves, can you please tell the Doctor to check for any other broken clocks? I’m worried that something important might have gotten knocked over.”

“Oh, a ...a..s-statue did get knocked over.....” Derpy sputtered, “It was kinda purple, and had a crown on it.”

“That’d be the bust of Princess Twilight,” Celestia sighed, “Thank you for telling me.”

****

“Doctor,” Derpy said, flying into the sitting room and nearly knocking over a statue of a blue princess this time, another one that she didn’t recognize.

“Yeah?”

“The Princess wants you to look at all the different clocks all over the castle, check for anything broken.”

The Doctor set the clock back on the wall freshly ticking, and pocketed his sonic screwdriver in his jacket.

“Did she now? Fantastic! That’ll give us an excuse to check the place out!”

“Excuse me?”

The Doctor rounded the corner, followed by Derpy flying after him. They were in a hallway now, poshly decorated with rich carpets and paintings from all over Equestria’s history. It was almost being inside a museum.

“Can you imagine that one pony lives in this palace?” Derpy said, astonished.

“Two, actually. There’s also Princess Luna,”

Derpy’s head snapped up, her eyes looking straight this time as she stared at the Doctor quizzically.

“Hasn’t happened yet, sorry. No.... that earthquake came from somewhere nearby, and since it was the foundation that was shaking I’m betting it came from down below. We have to find a way to get to the lowest part of the building.”

At that moment, they rounded the corner and nearly collided with a tallish alicorn, a princess with a royal navy coat. The Doctor backed off, and Derpy landed herself at his side.

“Oh,” the pony started, “Sorry, I should’ve been watching where I was....”

Her voice trailed off, and the night princess’ eyes bulged suddenly, her mouth agape. She pointed at the Doctor with a single hoof, backing up with a shocked expression. The Doctor had a huge grin on his face.

“Doctor?! After so many years, why did you return?” she started, “Well, I suppose it hasn’t been long for you, since you’re a time traveller and all.”

“How did you know that?” he asked, looking worried.

“Hm?”

“Who told you about time travelling?”

“You did,” Luna said, “Back in.... what was it, the 21st century? Ages and ages ago, I know. Yeah, you told me about being a time lord, about the TARDIS machine you travelled in, about how you and Derpy had just gotten back from-”

“Woah woah woah woah,” the Doctor interrupted, holding his hoof up. Derpy raised her eyebrows this time. Nopony could get away with interrupting a princess, not even the Doctor!

“Don’t tell me about what happened when we met before, because it hasn’t happened for us yet, alright?” he said, “I don’t to run the risk of creating some kind of paradox.”

“Doctor... who is this?” Derpy asked, her eyes crossing.

“I’m Luna, Princess of the night,” Luna said, introducing herself, “and you are Derpy Hooves, of the 21st century.”

“20th,” replied Derpy, “Just barely. I’m from 1999.”

“If we’re done chatting,” said the Doctor, “We should keep poking around. Oi Princess, is there any way for us to get beneath the foundation?”

“Why would you want to?” she asked, flipping her mane, “It’s sealed off, has been ever since the changeling invasion.”

The three of them made it down a set of brilliant marble stairs, to the ground floor of Canterlot castle. The doors opened to reveal a spacious room with black and white tiled floors, tall ivory columns, and gold-spun tapestries on the walls. The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and held it in his mouth as he made outlines on the floor, listening to fluctuation in the whizzing sound that his screwdriver made.

“What’s the matter?” Derpy asked, floating above him.

“It’s sealed off,” he said, “You were right Princess.”

“You think that something down there caused the earthquake?” asked the Princess. Before the Doctor could answer, a buzzing robotic pony entered through a side room. It was maneless, tailless, and had no paint on it’s metal hide. The eyepiece glowed a bright red as it took mechanical steps toward them.

“Attempt to breach quarantine detected!” the robot uttered in a soulless voice, “Intruders will be executed!”

Out from under the robot’s neck came a cylinder with what looked like a needle at the end, which swiveled to point at the two ponies and time lord.

“What do we do, Doctor?” Derpy whispered.

“Basically..... run.”

The three took off in separate directions, Luna flying to the right while Derpy flied to the left. The Doctor dashed off diagonally towards one of the columns. Confused by the multiple targets, the robot began taking shots at the two flying ponies, firing a reddish beam of energy into the air after them and barely missing Derpy.

The Doctor leaped out from behind the column, levelling his screwdriver at the robot and jabbing it’s glowing blue end at various points on the robot’s surface. A leg began to malfunction, and the optics crackled.

“Princess!” the Doctor called out.

Luna swerved in mid air, flapping her navy feathers to level herself, and concentrated her magic into a blast aimed at the robot. The Doctor ducked out of the way as Luna’s blast blew the robot apart, scattering broken parts away from a smoking scorch mark on the tiles.

“It shouldn’t have had weapons,” Luna commented, landing next to the Doctor. A moment later, Derpy landed as well, breathing rapidly as her heart continued to race.

“Are you all right?” asked the Doctor, leaning a foreleg over Derpy’s shoulders.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied, “What was that thing?”

“A typical service robot from a new shipment. We hadn’t customized it yet, it must have been activated but left uncustomized. Maybe they stopped in the middle of the Earthquake,” suggested Luna.

“You said they shouldn’t have had weapons?” the Doctor asked the Princess. She nodded.

“All of the robot manufacturers are expressly forbidden from utilizing any weapons technology. The last thing we want are soldiers capable of being programmed to kill anypony.”

“Like that one just tried to do?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

The Doctor paced about, looking at the burnt scrap remains of what had been a functional robot, until he found the cylinder that had been firing at them only moments before.

“See this?” he said, “This is a holographic emitter, but with the specifications changed and with a power re-route.”

“The robot changed itself so that it could fire a beam out of the projector?” Luna said with a surprised expression, “That’s quite a loophole.”

“Yeah,” said the Doctor, “Somepony’s up to a bit of jiggery-pokery. That robot was guarding something, something beneath these floors that causes earthquakes. Something sinister is going on down there.”

“What do we do?” asked Derpy.

“We need to find another way down.”