A month after the return of King Dusk, Twilight is still his captive but the Doctor and his allies are planning to infiltrate the deadly land of twilight in order to save her and all of Nymphadora.
It's been a month since the return of the Twilight King, Dusk. Twilight is still his captive and the Doctor, Derpy, and Marcus have taken refuge on Ruleo to gain backup in their plan to infiltrate the new land of twilight. But there is more waiting for the Doctor and his friends beyond the twilight curtain than just an evil, powerful tyrant.
Twilight Sparkle stood on one of the many balconies of the City Centre: the gargantuan building which once acted as the home and workplace of President Tyrion Targaryen. The abandoned, cold remnants of the city known as Lupae surrounded the building. Blue, ghostly figures moved about the city while various monsters of horrible descriptions made their way through the shadows. The sky and atmosphere were a shady purple with silver patches here and there. The shady outlines of moons Auran and Ruleo could just barely be made out past the layer of thick, lavender clouds.
A familiar pain shot through Twilight's cranium and she grasped her temple for a few seconds. Her horn was emanating a dim light continuously. "Doctor. Derpy. I wish you'd hurry up," Twilight stated as she lowered her hoof.
"Still waiting for your friends, as usual," chuckled the voice of King Dusk from behind. Twilight scowled as she turned around to face her captor. He was dressed in his black armor and gold and purple cape, as usual; but he was now only a couple feet taller than Twilight. He had cast a temporary shrinking spell on himself upon Twilight's initial capture in order to "make her feel more comfortable". A familiar, cold laugh emanated from behind the dark helmet of the Twilight King, a sound that was not uncommon to Twilight's ears now. "You are quite an entertaining sight to behold, Twilight Sparkle. Have I told you that?"
"You've told me many things. I just don't care to remember most of them."
King Dusk gave a low growl and took a few steps towards Twilight. "You've grown surprisingly brave around me in the month you've spent in my kingdom. I can still remember your screams when I was revived."
"That was then. This is now." Twilight turned away to look at the ruined Lupae. "Besides, I know you won't hurt me."
She heard the sound of Dusk clutching the hilt of his sword. "And what makes you so sure of that, my little unicorn?"
Twilight rolled her eyes and turned back to face the creature of twilight. "Because I'm the one who gave your power back, though unintentionally. I'm the one who's still feeding you power as we speak. You can't afford to kill me yet. Even though it's been a month, you're still recovering from those many centuries you spent inside that tomb. You haven't fully latched onto your full abilities yet and if I were to go you would gradually lose your powers until you resembled that of the most average of Nymphadorians." King Dusk clenched his fists. Twilight couldn't help but smile. She often took pleasure at using her snarky wit against the ancient tyrant. "Also, you're incredibly underestimating your enemy."
King Dusk laughed. "You speak so confidently about this Doctor of whom you know very little about."
"True, I know little about who he really is. But I've gotten a good picture of what he's capable of. I've seen the age in his eyes and the fury that lies within. There's a warrior in there somewhere and, if pushed far enough, I have a feeling that warrior will make his appearance."
The Twilight King crossed his arms. "Continue to dream about your supposed hero in a blue box. Look around you. This is what I've been able to do."
"And yet half of Nymphadora lies free from your evil, Dusk."
King Dusk took another step towards Twilight. "Thanks to your interference, Twilight Sparkle." He looked down at her for a few seconds before turning away. "But it will not matter in the long run. My powers will fully return soon and, when they do, I will finally claim Nymphadora and those useless rocks in the sky as my own once more; and none of your unicorn magic tricks will be able to hinder my plans."
Twilight remained silent as King Dusk took his exit. It was only a couple seconds after the King's departure that another sharp pain shot through Twilight's head. She groaned and rubbed her temple softly. "Doctor. Derpy. I can't hold out much longer," she stated under her breath. She looked upwards at the moons of Nymphadora and gave a weak smile. "I know you'll make it...but please don't be too much longer. I don't know how much time the rest of Nymphadora has left."
Ruleo, 1678 C.E.
The Doctor stood on the balcony of the two-story home and looked out towards Nymphadora and the stars beyond. This had become a habit of his to perform each night before going to sleep. "Keep strong, Twilight. Derpy and I are coming," he said before taking a breath and leaning against the balcony's railing. A vast plain of indigo grass spread out before the balcony. The nearest portions of the plain were illuminated slightly by the lights of the town which the house the Doctor was currently occupying belonged to.
"Out here again?" asked the voice of Derpy Hooves.
The Doctor faced his companion and sighed. "Of course."
Derpy approached the Doctor and leaned on the railing next to him. "It's been a long month of planning and waiting."
"It certainly has, Ms. Hooves."
"It would have gone by much longer if I had no connections on Ruleo," chuckled the voice of Marcus as he strutted out onto the balcony, his tail moving about in the light breeze.
"Are you expecting us to thank you again?" Derpy asked with a giggle.
Marcus leaned against the railing and smirked at the ponies. "Perhaps."
The Doctor noticed a paper in one of Marcus's claws, which he was holding quite tightly. "Something important on that paper?" he asked.
Marcus's smile grew a bit as he nodded. "For both you and I," he replied. "Tomorrow morning, we're getting a ride back down to Nymphadora."
"Really?!" asked the Doctor and Derpy together.
"How?" Derpy questioned further.
"I finally managed to make contact with someone I've been wanting to see again for a long time." Marcus blushed a bit as he looked at the paper. "She has a few connections of her own and might even be able to get us a small militia."
"That could prove quite useful, given the circumstances," said the Doctor.
"So you two better get a good night's rest," said Marcus as he waved one of his fingers. "Our ride is scheduled to arrive in the morning." The Nymphadorian adjusted his jeans before walking back inside.
The Doctor and Derpy stared up at Nymphadora for a minute or two longer. "What do you think is waiting for us in there, Doctor?" Derpy asked as she beckoned towards the twilight mesh that covered half of Nymphadora.
The Doctor turned to Derpy and gave her a warm smile. "Definitely more than just Twilight Sparkle and King Dusk, I can tell you that right now," he replied.
Derpy giggled before letting out a great yawn and backing away. "I'm gonna head in."
"Okay. I'll be in shortly."
"'Night, Doctor."
"Goodnight, Derpy." Derpy retreated into the house while the Doctor turned back to stare up at the night sky. The image of King Dusk returned to the forefront of the Doctor's thoughts and he gave a determined scowl as a result. "You better prepare yourself, Dusk, because a storm is on its way." He slowly pointed his right foreleg towards the sky, his thoughts still focused on the covered face of the Twilight King. "The oncoming storm is coming for you."
Derpy shot awake in a cold sweat, her heart pounding like she had just nearly avoided getting eaten by a dragon. Her legs and wings were shaking and her breathing was quick. She pulled herself out of bed and trudged her way to the front of the house. The sound of Marcus snoring reverberated about as Derpy walked down the hallway, through the kitchen, and out the glass door. A simple patio waited for her beyond the door, furnished with nothing more than a table and a few chairs. A single lamp stood at the edge of the patio and illuminated the surrounding area in a warm, relaxing light. The night sky had become a light, neon blue and Derpy could see the beginnings of the sunrise starting to form on the horizon.
She sat down in one of the chairs and rested her head back a bit. The sound of her thumping heart could still be heard. "Not another one," she sighed while rubbing her forehead. The images of the nightmare were still fresh in her mind. They were always clear because it was always the same nightmare. It would start with her being back in the Tomb of the Twilight King. The Twilight King himself, Dusk, would be standing before her. Twilight would be held in one of his massive hands and the decapitated head of President Tyrion Targaryen would be lying on the ground a few feet from Derpy. Then, a ghostly, sickly Colonel Ash would appear and begin to walk towards her. She would back up but find herself bumping into a wall constructed of long arms covered in green hair. Ash would then be upon her and she would stare deeply into his glassy eyes. From the depths, the angry eyes of the Jabberwocky would appear and lunge at her. This was when she'd wake up.
"Nightmare?" asked a voice from behind. Derpy looked to see the Doctor approaching her. "You like to mumble loudly in your sleep." She blushed a bit as he pulled a chair next to hers and sat down. "They must be pretty bad because I remember hearing you cry one night."
"I think I'm just stressed," Derpy replied.
"I'd be surprised if you weren't. It's been a very troublesome month."
"Do...do you have nightmares, Doctor?"
The Doctor faced Derpy. "Everypony has nightmares, Derpy. It's a part of life."
"What do you have nightmares about?"
An almost fatherly smile appeared on the Doctor's face. "Come on. You don't want to hear about what this old stallion sees when he sleeps."
"I'd be interested in hearing about-"
"No. You wouldn't." The Doctor's face had now become cold and serious. "You really don't want to hear about the stuff I see in my dreams, Derpy Hooves."
She lowered her head slightly. "You must have a lot of bad memories."
"Enough to span many lifetimes, which they do as a matter of fact."
Derpy was quiet momentarily. "My nightmares always involve what happened when Dusk returned. And...they also always end with the Jabberwocky's eyes coming at me."
The Doctor gave a teasing smile. "Still on that old lizard are you?" Derpy remained silent and the Doctor became serious again. "I don't know if this will help but I wouldn't worry about him, the Jabberwocky."
"Why not?"
"Because there's a good team going up against him: you and I." Derpy blushed and smiled at the Doctor. The Doctor turned away from Derpy and looked up at the disappearing night sky. "I usually dream about where I'm going." He turned back to face her. "That's the basis of my dreams and nightmares."
"Just where you're going?"
"Well, that and also where I've been but the future is what I mostly dream about. Out of the three terms of time, the future is truly the most terrifying one. The past is a cloudy blur of mysteries, the present is common knowledge, but the future is utterly uncertain. And it doesn't even have to be the 'big picture' future of the world but rather just our own personal futures. What we're going to have for breakfast tomorrow. Who we're going to meet next Tuesday during tea. What accident is going to occur on your way home. Whether you're going to get the sudden urge to grab a nearby fez and place it on your head. Terrifying wonder. That's the future."
"I never knew somepony like you would wonder about the future like that."
"Well, now you do...and now I could use a nice, hot biscuit!" The Doctor abruptly stood up and headed back inside the house. Derpy turned back towards the horizon just in time to see Nymphadora's sun making its first appearance of the day.
Nymphadora, 1678 C.E.
Twilight couldn't remember the last time she'd slept. There seemed to be a strange aura in this new land of twilight that kept everything within its grasp awake. It had now become a habit of hers to spend several hours just walking about the City Centre. Dusk never seemed to have a need to keep a constant eye on her to make sure she didn't escape. This was because both he and Twilight knew this was the safest place in the twilight half of Nymphadora right now. Everything beyond was a wasteland of trapped souls and vicious beasts.
One particular place in the City Centre where Twilight managed to find some amount of peace was the library. When she wasn't wandering about, she would venture into the library to read up on Nymphadorian history and politics. The only times when she felt uncomfortable in the library would be when she would see Dusk spying on her out of the corner of her eye. It was true that Dusk didn't frighten Twilight as much as he had upon his revival but that didn't stop her from being intimidated. He was still a powerful being and her magical lock on his expanding twilight curtain was weakening. It wouldn't be long now before Twilight's grasp on the twilight vanished and Dusk spread his dominion out further across Nymphadora and eventually to Auran and Ruleo.
After one long walk, Twilight returned to the library once more to read up on any further information about Nymphadora and its moons. She found a comfortable spot in the back corner behind a collection of large bookcases and started looking into a book called First Contact: Nymphadora's Initial Reach into the Stars by Irving Indigo. She had only made it two pages in when she heard the sound of footsteps moving about the library. Twilight instantly took notice of this as the City Centre was only occupied by herself and Dusk and these footsteps sounded too light and quick to belong to the armor-clad Twilight King.
"Hello?" Twilight asked as she stood up and made her way towards the center of the library. The footsteps continued to circle around her for a minute or so before falling silent. She reached the center of the library, which was marked by a circular desk containing various paper stacks and dead monitors, and looked around for any sign of life. "Hello?"
"Are you safe?" asked a small voice from within the opening in the central, circular desk. "Are you a monster?"
It sounds like a child, Twilight thought. "Don't worry. I'm no monster. Just your everyday unicorn from Equestria," she replied.
"Are you with the monsters? I've seen you hang around that one covered in armor a lot."
"Trust me, it's not by choice. I'm sort of stuck with him until help arrives."
"Promise that you won't hurt me!"
"I promise. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
Suddenly, a Nymphadorian girl around the age of ten stood up from within the circular desk with a confused look on her face. She was wearing an indigo dress and her hair, which hung down to just past her shoulders, was decorated with a single red ribbon. Her body also emanated a bright but tolerable blue light in a similar fashion to the many other Nymphadorians Twilight had seen moving about Lupae in the twilight. "That's a weird thing to say when making a promise," she stated.
Twilight smiled and giggled. "Well, I learned it from a friend of mine who, in all honesty, is pretty weird herself so that's a fair thing to say," Twilight replied.
The girl laughed before climbing over the desk and standing in front of Twilight. "I guess you're not that scary."
"Pardon me but I don't think I'm scary at all."
"Are you kidding? Have you seen that horn of yours? You could poke somebody's eye out!"
"I'll have you know that I've never once poked anypony in the eye with my horn!"
"Really? Not one single eye?"
Twilight darted her eyes around and blushed. "Okay, fine! There was that one time with my brother but that was the only time!"
The girl giggled and began to slowly walk around Twilight. "I like you. You're funny. I've always wanted to meet a pony." She extended one of her claws. "I'm Thea."
Twilight extended one of her hooves and shook Thea's outstretched claw. "Twilight Sparkle." Thea abruptly began skipping away. "Where are you going?"
"Follow me, Twilight Sparkle!"
Twilight shrugged her shoulders before running after Thea.
Ruleo, 1678 C.E.
The Doctor sat at the table while Mr. Hazel, the Ruleonite who owned the house and was caring for the ponies and Marcus during their stay, began making his signature breakfast of honey biscuits. He was a somewhat elderly Ruleonite with a thin, twirly, silver mustache; aged bags under his eyes; drooping ears, and a frizzled tail sticking out of the line between his gray slacks and striped pajama shirt. It wasn't long before the house was filled with the addictive aroma of honey. Sunlight was pouring in through the glass doorway and the kitchen was filled with a charming, warm glow that made everything sparkle slightly.
Derpy came in from outside and found a spot at the table across from the Doctor. She looked tired in the morning light and her mane was still strewn. "You look like you had a rough night's sleep," Mr. Hazel commented as he placed a tray of honey biscuits on the table. Derpy took one of the biscuits and began munching on it slowly.
The Doctor grabbed a biscuit and took a bite out of it. The wonderful combination of biscuit and honey made the Doctor's tongue dance with joy and a surge of energy spread throughout his body. The Doctor chuckled a bit as he saw the sleepy Marcus make his appearance. He sat down at one head of the table, grabbed one of the biscuits, and started munching on it in a similar way to Derpy. "Nice to see that you're awake," the Doctor teased.
"Shut up. It's too early for me to deal with you," Marcus replied with a weak smirk.
Mr. Hazel sat down at the opposite end of the table to Marcus and placed a large jug of Ruleonite milk, which was orange, on the table. He took hold of a biscuit and clutched it tightly in one of his hands. "So you three are leaving today?" he asked.
"If Marcus's contact keeps true to their word," the Doctor replied.
"She will," Marcus replied with a strong sense of faith. "There's nothing that's going to stop her from getting to us."
"You seem to have a lot of confidence in this contact of yours. Who is she?"
Marcus balanced his partially finished biscuit in his hands. "Her name's Sylvia. She's someone I've been wanting to see again for a long time."
"She's your girlfriend, isn't she?" Derpy stated suddenly. "The one you've talked about a few times."
Marcus eyed her with somewhat widened eyes. "Yeah. She is," Marcus replied with a smile. "It's been a while since we last saw each other."
"When was that?"
"Right around when the war started."
"Wasn't that ten years ago?"
Marcus let out a deep sigh. "Yeah."
The Doctor and Derpy exchanged a glance. Suddenly, the sound of the engine of a spaceship could be heard from outside. The house shook slightly in response. Marcus instantly stood up and ran outside. The Doctor and Derpy followed while Mr. Hazel waited behind to finish his biscuit.
Outside, a silver spaceship around the size of a cottage and resembling that of a fighter jet touched down in the plain of indigo grass. A ramp opened up underneath the ship and extended down to the ground. The Doctor, Derpy, and Marcus watched as the inhabitants of the ship began to come forth. The Doctor was both surprised and happy to see that the militia approaching them was a mix of Nymphadorians, Ruleonites, and Auranians. They're beginning to being brought back together, he thought.
"There she is," Marcus said as a huge smile appeared on his face.
The Doctor realized that he was referring to the Auranian at the head of the group. She had a slim yet muscular figure and was wearing a slick, red, futuristic spandex suit that appeared as smooth as silk yet as tough as iron. Her eyes were deep green and cut through the bluish landscape of Ruleo like a knife in melted butter. A smile appeared on her face as a long, red, serpentine tongue stuck out slightly. "Well," the Doctor whispered to Derpy. "Things have just gotten slightly more interesting."
Nymphadora, 1678 C.E.
Twilight followed Thea down several flights of stairs before they entered the central heart of the City Centre. This segment of the building was mostly home to small restaurants for the previous employees and various sources of relaxation and entertainment. Thea led Twilight under a yellow arch with the words City Centre School embedded on top. Beyond the arch was a long hallway which branched off into several rooms. At the end of the hallway was a cafeteria which contained a large window that presented the vast expanse of Lupae. "This is where I went to school," Thea stated as she began to dance around the empty tables.
Twilight looked around the abandoned, dark cafeteria before quickly glancing back down the hallway. "It must have been nice when it was in use," she commented.
"It was. Lots of kids went here. Well...only the kids who had moms and dads who worked here." Thea began looking around the tables as if to be searching for something. "I wonder where they went."
"Who?"
"My friends."
"There are others here?"
"Yeah. There's ten of us." Thea began counting her fingers as she went through a list of names. "There's me, Nash, Louise, Steven, Lauren, Ivan, Penelope, Petyr, Clementine, and Jane."
"And you've all been hiding out in here for a whole month?!" Twilight gave an impressed look. "It must have taken a miracle for you to hide from Dusk."
"Nah. It wasn't that hard. We have a talent for disappearing when we need to." Thea continued to look around the tables for her friends.
Twilight looked over the cafeteria until her eyes fell across a particular object nailed to one of the walls: a plaque. She didn't know why but she found herself drawn towards the plaque. She approached it and began examining it. The plaque was gray and shimmered slightly in the light of the twilight. Her attention was drawn to two words at the top of the plaque. "In memoriam," she read aloud.
"They should be around here somewhere," echoed Thea's voice from another part of the cafeteria.
Twilight began to read further along the text of the plaque. Under the first two words was a date that altered itself before Twilight's eyes into a date in relation to Equestrian time. "November 22, 1663 C.E." She continued to read further. "This is a moment that will forever be remembered. A signal for change. A symbol of tragedy. Many young souls have been tarnished and some have been lost. We will never forget their smiling faces. We will never forget what was taken from them. We will continue to strive for a better future so that this may never happen again. Their sorrow will never be forgotten and shall always be respected."
"I see you're already reading that."
Twilight jumped as she turned to see Thea standing right next to her. "I thought you were looking for your friends."
"They're around here somewhere. I'll find them later. I see you've found the plaque."
Twilight turned back to the plaque. "Yeah. What's it about? Reading it, I get the feeling that something terrible happened here."
Thea sighed. "You've got the right feeling. A bomb was set off right in this very room about fifteen years ago."
"A bomb?!"
"Yeah. It wasn't enough to take down the City Centre but it took the bomber and ten others with him."
"That...that's horrible!"
"Yeah. Now this place has become a stupid tourist attraction along with being a school because now everybody wants to see the site of the Mad Bomber's attack."
Twilight gulped slightly. "Were...were the victims...children?"
"Yeah."
"I just...why would anypony do something like that...and to children, no less?!"
"Some people are just crazy." Thea's voice had become strangely bored and slightly annoyed. "When people come by, they always talk about how sorry they feel for the kids and they think about how horrible it must have been. Honestly...it didn't hurt."
"Well, Thea, you can't blame them for thinking about...what did you just say?"
"It didn't hurt, when the bomb went off." Twilight suddenly felt a cold chill running up her spine. "There was just a jolt and that was it. Nothing more to it."
Twilight could feel her body beginning to shake. She found herself listening carefully to Thea. Her voice was becoming raspier and her breathing had become heavier. "Thea...what were the names of the victims?"
Thea gave a childish, giddy, creepy laugh in response. "You must have a bad memory, Twilight Sparkle! I already told you their names. There was Nash, Louise, Steven, Lauren, Ivan, Penelope, Petyr, Clementine, Jane, and me."
Twilight jumped as she turned back to face Thea. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. "Oh. My. Celestia," she gasped.
Thea's appearance had changed drastically. Her dress was now torn and burnt, many areas of her skin were peeled off, half of her face appeared to have burned off, and her eyes were giving off a faintly red light. Thea giggled and smiled wider than normal skin would allow. "What's with that funny look? Is there something on my face?" Thea asked. Twilight began to back away from Thea and slowly made her way towards the hallway. Thea gave a confused look and started to follow her. "Twilight Sparkle? What's wrong?"
"Just...just stay there."
Thea gave a sad face and her dead eyes started to tear up. "What's wrong? Why are you acting so strange?"
"Just stay there, Thea!"
"What's wrong?! Did I say something?!"
"Please don't come any closer." Thea froze. Twilight could feel her whole body shaking with equal amounts of fear and guilt. "Just...stay away."
Suddenly, Thea rushed at her and grabbed her forelegs. A bright red light started pouring from her eyes. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO BE MY FRIEND!" Twilight broke free, jumped back, and started running down the hallway. Thea continued to chase after her. "DON'T LEAVE! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE! WE DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE AGAIN!"
Twilight gasped as she saw nine other Nymphadorian children, showing the same ghastly traits as Thea, running towards her. "DON'T GO! DON'T GO!" they cried.
Twilight jumped past them and raced down the hallway. Their cries continued to reverberate through the air and pound against her eardrums as she ran back under the arch. Just as the ghosts were about to pass through the arch after her, an armored hand appeared and cast a purple shield in front of them. Thea and her ghostly friends suddenly found themselves trapped within the section beyond the arch. Twilight looked to see that Dusk had appeared and was the one who had cast the shield. Her attention was drawn to Thea and her friends, who were now constantly transitioning between their normal and ghostly appearances. "I see you've made some new friends, lovely Twilight," Dusk chuckled.
Several different emotions pumped through Twilight: rage, sadness, guilt, fear, confusion, etc. "How?!" Twilight asked. "How can they be here if they're-"
"Dead? Simple. The twilight has always acted as a point between the sunset and dusk and vice versa. It can also act as a transition point for the departed. Those lost to tragedy. Those with unfinished business. These are the spirits who are trapped in the twilight of life and death. When my twilight realm comes into play, the lost dead return to the new world of the living and the living find themselves trapped in a point between light and dark." A usual, sadistic chuckle echoed through Dusk's helmet. "You better get used to this, Twilight Sparkle. My minions and the lost living aren't the only ones wandering through the curtains of twilight. The dead of Nymphadora are returning as well."
Twilight couldn't help but shake as Dusk laughed and walked off. Her eyes fell back to Thea and her friends. The longer she looked at their sad and confused living-dead faces, one particular feeling began to overshadow all the other emotions she was experiencing. It wasn't fear. It wasn't anger. It was simply sadness. Pure, guilt-ridden sadness.
When Twilight later returned to her room and stared out upon the lost spirits wandering about through Dusk's twilight realm, she placed her head in her hooves and wept.
Silence seemed to fall as Marcus and Sylvia locked eyes. Derpy couldn't help but smile and squeal slightly as the two lovers slowly approached each other. They came to a stop when a mere two feet of blue grass stood between them. Marcus smiled at his girlfriend. "You look different," he commented with a smirk.
"You don't," Sylvia replied with a quick flick of her tongue. "Still scrawny as ever."
Marcus laughed before reaching forward and pulling Sylvia in, locking himself and her in a long and passionate kiss. Derpy heard the Doctor sigh and she turned to him. "Ah. The sight of reunited love. Nothing quite like it," he said.
"You look like you have experience with that, Doctor," Derpy guessed.
"No. Of course, I don't." Derpy raised an eyebrow and the Doctor's face became slightly flushed. "Okay...maybe." Derpy raised her eyebrow even higher. "Alright! That's enough, Ms. Hooves! Whatever love life I may or may not have had previously is not the concern here! Let us just focus on the matters at hoof!"
"This conversation isn't over, Doctor."
"Oh I know it isn't." The Doctor let out a groan and began to approach the kissing lovers with an annoyed pattern in his trot. Derpy giggled due to her enjoyment of teasing the Doctor before walking after him.
"I've missed you," said Marcus once he and Sylvia had finished their kiss.
"Me too," said Sylvia.
"Hello!" said the Doctor loudly. Marcus and Sylvia jumped a bit before turning to face him.
"Doctor!" Derpy snapped as she slapped one of his forelegs. "Don't interrupt them!"
"Normally, I wouldn't but seeing as we're on a pretty tight schedule-"
"Hold it," said Sylvia. She pointed one of her serpentine fingers at the Doctor. "Are you...the Doctor?"
"Well...yeah. Pretty much. Obviously. Yes, I am the Doctor."
"It's an honor to meet you!" Sylvia gave a salute and the Doctor looked as if he were about to roll his eyes.
"You don't have to salute me. Really...don't...really." Sylvia nodded then reached her hand forward and grabbed one of the Doctor's forehooves in a strong handshake. The Doctor gasped as Sylvia grabbed his hoof. When she took her hand away, the Doctor's hoof looked red and swollen.
"You okay, Doctor?" Derpy asked.
"Don't worry, I'm fine," the Doctor replied as he rubbed his hoof. He looked at Sylvia and smirked. "That's quite an impressive amount of strength you've got there."
"Well, war tends to act as a good excuse to work out," Sylvia replied.
"So...this is your militia?" Marcus asked as he looked at Sylvia's band of Nymphadorians, Ruleonites, and Auranians.
Sylvia looked back at her group and gave a confident and stern yet endearing smile. "Yes. They're all rebels, if you wish to call them that, like myself who found themselves stranded on Auran following the start of the war. We just sort of ran into each other in time."
"And I bet it didn't take long for you to establish yourself as leader."
"In all honesty, it wasn't a difficult decision," stated a female Nymphadorian towards the front of the group with short hair. "Sylvia is the strongest, smartest, and fiercest out of all of us. She has been a great leader."
"It also helps a lot to be allied with an Auranian on Auran during these times...for obvious reasons," said one of the male Ruleonites.
"Hey! What about us then?!" snapped one of the male Auranians as he pointed towards himself and the other Auranians in the group.
"Yes, I'm sure that came in handy quite a lot," said the Doctor quickly as he pushed himself to the forefront. "Hate to be pushy but I think it would be best for us to get out of here before the Ruleonites in this town wake up to see a group of Nymphadorians and Auranians standing in their backyard."
"The Doctor's right. We better get a move on," said Marcus.
"Do you have much luggage?" Sylvia asked.
"Just one suitcase," the Doctor replied. "It's over by the door."
Derpy watched as the Doctor hastily ran back to the house and grabbed a black suitcase of slightly above average size. She knew what lay within: the wedding gown she had worn to Shining Armor and Princess Cadance's wedding, the Staff of the Dawn, and President Targaryen's ring. "And that's all?" Sylvia asked.
"That's all," the Doctor replied.
"Not really that much of a need for anything else," Marcus added.
"Very well," said Sylvia before turning her attention back to her militia. "Everyone back on board!"
The others saluted and started boarding the ship. Derpy turned back to the house and saw Mr. Hazel standing in the doorway. He was waving with a kind smile on his face. "Good luck!" he called.
"Thank you for everything!" Derpy called back as she, the Doctor, and Marcus waved farewell to their host. They then quickly turned around and followed Sylvia and her soldiers onto the ship.
Orbit of Nymphadora, 1678 C.E.
Derpy held on tightly as the spaceship finally broke free from Ruleo's gravity field and began to get pulled in by Nymphadora's. Most of the view seen through the front window of the ship was filled by the sight of the contaminated purple planet. "So, do you want us to go ahead and dive into the twilight?" Sylvia asked as she piloted the vessel.
"Not yet," the Doctor said suddenly.
"Where do you want us to go first then?"
"I think I know," said Marcus. Marcus looked at Sylvia and the two of them shared a nod of acknowledgement.
"Just go to these coordinates," said the Doctor as he gave Sylvia a paper with some scribbles on it that Derpy didn't even bother trying to understand.
"On it," said Sylvia before she aimed the ship in the direction of the half of Nymphadora which remained free from King Dusk's grasp. "I'm gonna try and find a safe area to get through. I'm sure there's a few leftover offensive satellites flying about."
Everypony and everyone on the ship settled in as Sylvia comfortably flew the ship through Nymphadora's orbit, scanning for a safe area to begin the descent. For a few seconds, Derpy couldn't help but temporarily listen in to a conversation that Marcus began having with Sylvia. "I hope you know that I tried to get to you," Marcus whispered.
"I know," Sylvia whispered back. "There were moments where I thought you were...you know...but I always knew that, no matter what, you would be trying to get to me...as I was trying to get to you."
"Ash helped at one point too."
"I remember reading about that in your message." Sylvia placed one of her hands on one of Marcus's claws. "I'm sorry."
"Yeah. Me too."
"It's not nice to listen in," whispered the Doctor from behind.
Derpy turned around and sighed. "Sorry, Doctor," she said.
The Doctor smiled and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "It's alright. No huge amount of damage done."
Derpy glanced out the window before turning back to the Doctor. "Do you think the TARDIS has been safe all this time?"
"I would hope so. We left it in the middle of the wilderness on the side of Nymphadora that wasn't covered in twilight. Not to mention that it's a second out of sync and nopony can see it. I'm sure it's fine. Might be a bit lonely though."
Derpy giggled. "I bet it misses us a lot."
"Well, hopefully it won't have to wait that much longer to see us again."
The ship slanted a bit and Derpy looked to see that Sylvia was flying down towards Nymphadora. "Hang on! It's going to be bumpy!" she warned. Derpy found herself simultaneously grabbing onto both the wall and the Doctor as the spaceship began its passage through Nymphadora's atmosphere. Everything started trembling and shaking and a fiery, orange light appeared outside the ship's front window. A loud, continuous boom similar to that of a lion's roar coursed through the air. The walls of the ship grew warm and became much more difficult to cling to. Yet, Derpy continued to hold on. At one point, the ship tilted back slightly and Derpy fell into the Doctor, her muzzle burying into his shoulder. She froze and didn't dare look up to see the Doctor's reaction. However, she knew that he could probably see her face growing as red as a fresh apple from Sweet Apple Acres right about now. Through the sound of the fiery roar, she could almost swear that she could hear the Doctor awkwardly chuckling.
Nymphadora, 1678 C.E.
After what felt like hours of endurance, the spaceship finally touched down on the surface of Nymphadora. Sylvia brought the ship to a surprisingly smooth stop and the Doctor kindly separated his shoulder from Derpy's shaking muzzle. "You okay?" he asked as he stared into her golden, inverted eyes. Her face was abnormally red and an expression of embarrassed horror was all she appeared to be able to give. The Doctor smiled at her. "A simple nod or shake will do." Derpy gave a hasty nod before backing away.
Sylvia stood up and armed herself with an Auranian blaster. She handed one to Marcus as well. "Everybody stay alert! This may be the quote-unquote safe half of Nymphadora but we still don't know what could be waiting for us out there," Sylvia stated. The other soldiers nodded before the hatch door opened and the ponies, Nymphadorians, Auranians, and Ruleonites took their exit.
It was nighttime and the air was refreshingly cool. The light blue grass decorated the landscape and the surrounding area itself had the appearance of a rocky, bumpy valley; with somewhat steep hills rising up on the bordering sides of the curved landscape of irregular blue grass patches. Sylvia's head quickly turned every which way, her eyes looking as if they desperately wished to latch onto something. "Looking for the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked with a chuckle.
"Where is it? I thought you were taking us to where it was," said Sylvia.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "I did." He activated the screwdriver and the TARDIS appeared out of thin air a few feet away. "There it is!"
Marcus and Sylvia slowly approached the blue box and pressed their hands against it. "It's almost how I pictured it."
"Glad I didn't disappoint." The Doctor took a few steps towards the TARDIS. "Now we have our ride to the heart of the twilight."
Before the Doctor could open the TARDIS. One of the Ruleonite soldiers gasped. "Sylvia!" he said.
"What is it?" Sylvia asked.
"I...I can't move!"
"What?"
"Hey! I can't move either!" said one of the Nymphadorians.
"Me neither!" exclaimed one of the Auranians.
"Me neither!" gasped another Ruleonite.
The Doctor watched in shocked curiosity as Sylvia's soldiers proceeded to freeze in place like statues. His eyes darted over to Derpy, who was now shaking. "Derpy?" he asked.
"Doctor...I...I'm freezing!" gasped the pegasus as every part of her body grew still. The Doctor heard two gasps and looked back in time to see Marcus and Sylvia freeze up as well. It was only when he turned back to Derpy when he began to feel his own body begin to grow still. His muscles seemed to tighten and prevent any movement of his limbs. His skin started to feel like cement and it became a test just to try and change the expression on his face. As this strange, frightening process took hold of him, a series of figures emerged from the darkness and approached the group of frozen rebels. The Doctor instantly recognized them.
They were the isolated Nymphadorian "indians" whom the Doctor had encountered when he, Derpy, and Twilight had arrived on Nymphadora. Leading them was an intimidating and obviously angry Nymphadorian woman dressed up like a priestess. "Midna...Wolfsbane," the Doctor managed to say before his face hardened.
"Well look who's returned," said Midna Wolfsbane with a despising tone. "The one who brought the spark to Nymphadora." Midna's followers growled upon hearing this. She approached the Doctor and knelt down in front of them. Their eyes met in a long stare of wits, though it wasn't hard for the Doctor to keep staring as he face muscles were paralyzed. Midna stood up and snapped her fingers. "Surround the box and the ship!" Sections of her tribe split off to guard the TARDIS and Sylvia's spaceship. "I have a few questions for the Doctor and his little mixed army to answer."
It took a while for Twilight to regain the courage to return to the library. The thought of sharing existence with the deceased was a concept which both disturbed and frightened her. However, upon thinking back to the young Thea and her fellow students, she didn't feel as frightened of them as she did guilty for running away from them. They may be spirits but they were also just children. Still...that didn't make their backstory or current, ghostly appearances any less gruesome.
Twilight entered the library to find a strong chill in the air, one that hadn't been present previously. She could tell that she wasn't alone. Every hair on her body was standing up and the air felt both thick and filled to the brim with static electricity. They were here. They were there with her. Was it Thea and her friends or somepony else? It was hard to tell. The dead usually tended to give off around the same aura unless they were either really good or really evil.
A wave of both fear and relief came over Twilight when she saw Thea enter her line of sight. She didn't look injured anymore but she still had a ghostly aura. And she was crying. Twilight took a deep breath before approaching the Nymphadorian girl. "Thea?" she asked as she came to a stop.
Thea turned around. She wiped her eyes and smiled at Twilight. "Twilight Sparkle...you came back!" she said happily. Through the cracks in her somewhat sobbing voice, Thea flickered back and forth between her normal and ghastly selves.
"I thought Dusk trapped you and your friends in the school."
Thea began to slowly skip around the area. "That didn't last long. Did you want us to remain trapped?"
Twilight smiled sadly at Thea and shook her head. "Honestly...no."
"I was really sad when you ran from me and my friends."
"You frightened me." Twilight figured that it was best not to sugarcoat her reasons for running from Thea.
"Did we look that bad?"
"Let's just say that I prefer you looking the way you do right now."
Thea stopped skipping and smirked at Twilight. "You know what? I like looking this way too. Being all...you know...full of holes and stuff isn't that fun."
Twilight began to feel her eyes tearing up. "I...I'm sorry, Thea. About what happened to you and your friends."
Thea rolled her eyes but continued to smile warmly at Twilight. "I told you earlier, it didn't hurt."
"I know...but you and your friends were too young."
Thea shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe. Honestly, I don't think much about what happened that day. I don't really think much about my life when I was alive. Everything's been like a wonderful, slow and fast dream since then. I don't take much notice of a lot of things in the world that's always passing me by. That kinda changed when the twilight fell, however. Then I started noticing things again and paying attention. But...it feels wrong. I know my friends and I aren't supposed to be here and yet here we are. I like to think that we're here for a reason other than the twilight."
"Like what?"
Thea shrugged her shoulders again. "I dunno. Maybe to help you or something?"
"If you could somehow get the Doctor and whatever help he has here, that could prove useful."
Thea scratched her chin for a few seconds before shaking her head. "Sorry. I don't think I can leave this building." Twilight sighed and rubbed her temple. "But maybe the new guy can help!"
Twilight hastily turned all of her attention back to Thea. "New guy?"
"Yeah! He appeared not too long ago and I think he can leave the building. He might be able to get this Doctor of yours here!"
"Where is he then?"
Suddenly, a series of light footsteps echoed through the air and came to a stop a few feet behind Twilight. Thea pointed in this direction and smiled. "Right there," replied the ghost girl.
Twilight turned around and her eyes widened in response to seeing the figure standing before her. "Oh my Celestia," she gasped. "It's you!"
The Doctor gasped as the warm, clear liquid was dumped over his body. He couldn't help but let out a great sigh as feeling and control returned to his body. "Ah! There we go! Good to have you back, mobility!" the Doctor exclaimed as he stretched his four legs. A campfire was situated in front of him and Midna sat on the other side, a angry look etched into her face. "Midna Wolfsbane." The Doctor sat down in his selected seat and eyed the Nymphadorian. "I'd say that it's nice to see you again but I can't really say that since you tried to kill Twilight Sparkle the last time we met and now you've gone and turned my friends into living statues."
Midna glanced at the group of paralyzed soldiers, which included Derpy, Marcus, and Sylvia. "You can blame yourselves for that. You walked into our security field," Midna stated with a cold shrug of the shoulders.
"I suppose you've laced that area with some sort of substance that causes paralysis of the body."
"Juice of the Dead Orchid. It comes in handy when dealing with unwanted visitors that wish to bring harm to me and my tribe."
"Well I can assure you that my friends and I are no threat to you."
"Says the pony who brought the Spark to Nymphadora."
"I swear by the stars of this galaxy and all beyond it that I nor Twilight Sparkle were aware of this whole Spark business. We never intended for the Twilight King's return."
Midna grabbed a nearby cup and took a sip of the steaming liquid within. "And yet half the planet is cloaked in twilight and Dusk himself resides just beyond those borders."
"If it weren't for Twilight Sparkle, this whole planet would be cloaked in twilight by now. The unicorn you tried to murder a month ago is the last thing preventing that twilight from expanding over here."
"What I attempted to do was for the safety of my people and my planet. It was nothing personal."
"Sorry but that doesn't make what you tried to do any less serious."
Midna shrugged her shoulders. "Fair enough. So how about you explain to me about your little mixed bag?"
The Doctor looked over at the frozen soldiers before turning back to Midna. "They're helping me get to Dusk so that I can seal him away once again, rescue Twilight, save Nymphadora, and hopefully bring an end to this war."
Midna glanced at the Doctor's group again and laughed. "To think, I never imagined seeing Nymphadorians, Ruleonites, and Auranians working alongside each other again."
"This group's been together for a while now."
"So what was your plan, Doctor? Fly into the twilight and defeat the Twilight King on a whim?"
"Not necessarily. I was going to travel to Dusk's castle in my ship and use a pair of powerful items I recently gained possession of to defeat him."
"Ship? Are you by chance referring to that blue box?"
"I am."
"And you expect to bring your entire group with you in that little box?"
"Don't judge things so quickly, Midna Wolfsbane. It may not look like it, but my ship has enough room in it for a whole army and then some."
Midna gave a quick, amused smile. "And what of these objects of yours?"
"Do you really need to know all of the details? Just trust me! I'm the Doctor. I'm going to defeat the Twilight King, rescue my friend, and save these three rocks once and for all! That's all you need to know!"
Midna gave a snarky smile at the Doctor. "Well, Doctor, if you're so confident in your abilities and tools then you probably don't need your ship anyway," she said.
"What?" the Doctor asked.
"You already have a spaceship. A ship like that can most certainly get you to your destination." Midna took another sip from her drink and leaned back slightly. "Let's make a deal, Doctor. You defeat the Twilight King and destroy the twilight curtain and you get your ship back."
"Deal."
"Hmm. You were pretty quick to answer."
"There's nothing to debate. It's true. The ship my friends and I already have can most surely get us through the twilight." The Doctor quickly eyed the still-frozen soldiers. "I do hope you'll unfreeze my friends."
"Certainly."
"And they'll be needing their weapons back, though I wish we didn't have to use them. There's going to be lots of danger waiting for us beyond that curtain, I predict."
"They can have their weapons as long as you can promise me that there won't be a sudden backstabbing and your soldiers decide to attack my tribe to get your blue box back."
The Doctor looked back at Derpy, Marcus, Sylvia, and the soldiers and met them dead in the eyes. "They won't. There's been enough bloodshed in this war. We'll all obey your terms."
The Doctor returned his gaze to Midna and the two locked eyes for a brief moment. Eventually, Midna let out a long, deep sigh and waved one of her claws. A few members of her tribe approached the Doctor's frozen militia with large buckets in hand. In a swift movement, a wave of clear liquid was thrown over them. Within seconds, the group was moving, groaning, and stretching their previously paralyzed appendages.
Derpy flew over to the Doctor and hugged him. "It feels so good to move again!" she exclaimed.
Another portion of Midna's followers appeared with Sylvia's militia's weapons in their possession. "Remember your word, Doctor," said Midna.
The Doctor nodded and turned to Marcus and Sylvia. The soldiers nodded in reply. "No backstabbing attacks. We've got it," the Doctor replied.
Midna waved her claw and her followers approached Sylvia's militia and returned their weapons. The soldiers definitely looked happy to be reunited with their weapons. "We better move out then," said Marcus. He glanced at Midna. "That is if we're allowed to leave yet." Midna began to walk up the hill towards Sylvia's parked spaceship. The Doctor, Derpy, Marcus, Sylvia, and the others followed.
Midna had ordered her followers to dump more of the clear liquid over the area around Sylvia's ship to prevent any further accidental exposure to the Dead Orchid juice. The entrance ramp to the ship opened up and everybody began to board. "It shouldn't take us long to get to Lupae in my ship," said Sylvia with a confident grin.
"Remember, we have to pass through the twilight as well...and I think there's definitely more than the Twilight King waiting for us in there," said the Doctor.
"I am well prepared for any threats that may come our way. Thank you, Doctor." Sylvia boarded the ship with Marcus not too far behind.
"I'm a bit worried about leaving the TARDIS here with her," Derpy said.
"Don't worry, Derpy. Nothing's going to happen to our favorite blue box," said the Doctor. He suddenly turned back towards the TARDIS, pointed his sonic screwdriver at it, and activated the device. The TARDIS vanished from view, causing some disturbance amongst Midna and her tribe.
"What trickery is this, Doctor?!" Midna snapped.
"No trickery at all," the Doctor replied as he tossed the screwdriver in the air. "My ship's still there. It's just a second out of sync." He pointed the screwdriver at the spot where the TARDIS was and activated it, thus bringing the TARDIS back. He then repeated the process to have the TARDIS disappear once more. Midna gave an icy, unsure glare in the Doctor's direction. "I swore no backstabbing, remember?"
Midna's stare became less angry but remained just as serious. "I'm not sure if I can trust you entirely, Doctor."
"Ah. I can say the same thing. Why do you think I decided to keep it out of sync? I mean, no offense...kinda, you and your people couldn't get into my ship no matter how hard you tried but a few extra safety measures never hurt." The Doctor tossed the screwdriver in the air again before storing it in his pocket.
"You best not fail Nymphadora, Doctor. If you do not succeed in living up to your promise and doom my planet...I'm coming for you."
"I wouldn't expect anything less." The Doctor gave a respectful nod of his head to Midna before turning to Derpy. "Come along, Derpy Hooves. We've got a planet and a friend to save." Derpy wrapped one of her wings around the Doctor as he and her turned and boarded Sylvia's ship.
An hour after departing from Midna's camp, Sylvia's ship was flying through Nymphadora's lower atmosphere. The shadows of defensive satellites loomed overhead and the blurry mesh of colors that was Nymphadora's surface lay below. Sylvia intentionally kept the ship from going at its greatest speed, which could have gotten them to the twilight curtain in mere minutes, in order to save the fuel for the final shot to Dusk's base in Lupae. Everypony on board was keen on spending as less time traveling through the twilight as possible.
Even at the relatively "slow" speed the ship was traveling at now, it was still a fairly bumpy ride. Derpy was holding onto the wall tightly as many levels of uneasiness were coursing through her body, making her feel somewhat nauseated. "You feeling okay?" the Doctor asked at one point when he returned from having a conversation with Marcus.
Derpy forced a smile and nodded. "Yeah...just fine," she replied.
"Really? Because you look about as green as lettuce right now." Derpy's face grew hot and she couldn't help but blush. "And now you're beginning to look like a salad."
Derpy gulped hard and shook her head. "Okay. I'm feeling nervous."
The Doctor wrapped a foreleg around her and pulled her in close. "No need to feel bad about it." He leaned in close to her until his mouth was next to her ear. "To tell you the truth, I'm pretty sure a fair amount of the soldiers in here with us are about as nervous as you are."
Derpy's ears perked up. "Really?!"
The Doctor smiled at her and nodded. "Oh yeah! Though, they're loads better at hiding it." Derpy pictured her own blushing, nauseated face and smirked nervously.
Suddenly, the spaceship began to slow down until it was moving no faster than a strolling pony. "There it is," said Sylvia.
Derpy and the Doctor approached the front of the ship and stared out the front window. Derpy gulped in response to what she saw. A towering wall of dark purple energy stood before them. It seemed to stretch on forever to the left and right and it rose high into Nymphadora's atmosphere. At some points it looked as rowdy as an oncoming sandstorm and at others it looked as still and stern as a wall of thick glass. Shadows moved about within the realm of twilight and various lights could be seen flickering on and off at certain areas. The silhouettes of mountains, hills, and various other landmarks could just be barely made out.
"Looks just as welcoming as I pictured," Marcus stated with a chuckle.
"Sylvia, is this ship ready to make a mad dash for Lupae?" the Doctor asked.
A short laugh escaped Sylvia's lips. "Of course. I've been going moderately slow and saving up energy for a reason, Doctor," the Auranian replied.
Derpy looked at the Doctor and he faced her. "Derpy...you should probably begin holding onto that wall again." Derpy nodded and felt another rush of nausea as she returned to the wall and grabbed onto it.
"Is everybody ready?" Marcus asked as he turned back towards the others.
"READY!" replied the militia.
Marcus turned back to Sylvia and chuckled. "You heard them, dear."
Sylvia clasped one of her hands on a green and red lever. "Let the insanity begin," she said. The Doctor grabbed onto the opposite wall to where Derpy was holding on. Derpy gulped again and a shiver ran down her spine as Sylvia began to push the lever forward. "Here. We. Go."
Sylvia slammed the lever forward and, for a second, nothing happened. A calm hum moved through the ship and seemed to phase through Derpy's body as well as the bodies of everypony else. Then a powerful boom emanated from the back of the ship and a great shockwave passed through everypony on board. The ship shot forward like a bolt of lightning. The purple, dark landscape of Nymphadora beneath them, from the POV of Derpy's view through the front window, appeared to disintegrate and splash around like water colors. The curtain of twilight rushed towards them liked a hungry monster and the ship cut through the barrier like a new kitchen knife through melting butter.
Upon entry, Derpy couldn't make out anything within the twilight world that lay outside the ship. Dark shapes and purple mist moved past and swirled about like vapor emanating from hot water being poured on ice. Faint cries and roars could be heard passing by the exterior of the ship. The warped twilight sky bent and twisted like gelatine. The ship was moving at such great speeds that there was no time to hone in on any landmark or object within the twilight.
This continued for several minutes. The ship shook like it was sitting above the epicenter of an earthquake and the world that was King Dusk's twilight realm could be seen through the front window passing by like flying cans of paint. Derpy closed her eyes and tried her best to calm down the violent butterflies punching the sides of her stomach. Her legs ached, her stomach growled sickly, and weak groans escaped her mouth. Within the mixture of sounds of Sylvia's spaceship racing through the air like a exploding rocket, Derpy heard the sound of hooves on metal racing towards her. This was soon followed by the feeling of two forelegs wrapping around her and warm breath moving down her neck. She opened her eyes and looked to see the Doctor holding onto her tightly, a comforting smile on his face and a confident spark in his eyes.
"Feel better?" the Doctor asked.
Derpy blushed but ultimately ignored her embarrassment, threw caution to the wind, and held the Doctor close. She and the Doctor continued to hold onto the wall and each other as the ship bounded through the twilight. "Not that much further to go," said Sylvia as she held the controls tightly.
Suddenly, the ship jerked violently and and flew diagonally downwards. Sylvia regained control and aimed the ship forward. "What was that?!" the Doctor asked.
"I think something hit us," said Marcus. The ship jerked again and, this time, the movement was joined with a loud clang. Sylvia managed to regain control but something was definitely wrong.
The Doctor's ears perked up and his eyes widened. "Something's grabbed onto the outside of the ship!" the Doctor announced.
"That's impossible!" Sylvia stated. "We're going faster than the speed of sound! Nothing could grab onto the outside of a ship going as fast as us!"
Just then, the sound of heavy clawing emanated from the roof. The Doctor and Sylvia quickly exchanged glances. "You were saying?" the Doctor asked.
A chilling bang reverberated from above and the back of the ship tilted slightly, causing it to shoot up higher into the atmosphere. Sylvia attempted to once again retain control but the ship wasn't following her commands with such ease anymore. "I think we've taken more external damage than we think," said Sylvia as she tried to level the ship out.
Derpy's ears perked up and she looked towards the ceiling where the sound of clawing and growling was growing louder and closer with each second. The soldiers held their weapons tightly and appeared to prepare themselves for a fight. The Doctor held Derpy close and she tightened her grip on him and the wall in response. "Need some help?" Marcus asked as he reached over and grabbed onto Sylvia's controls. With their combined strength, Marcus and Sylvia managed to level out the ship.
Sylvia smiled at Marcus. "Thanks."
Marcus winked at Sylvia. "What would you do without me?"
Sylvia let out a quick giggle. "LOOK OUT!" yelled the Doctor. Derpy looked out the front window along with Sylvia and Marcus. A medium-sized, metallic object raced towards the ship. Sylvia tightened her grip on the controls and aimed downwards but it was too late. The object smashed into the front of the ship, cloaking the front window in oil, metal sheets, and an assortment of various materials. Sylvia fought with the controls as the ship began to lose altitude.
"We're heading down!" Sylvia warned as she continued to fight the rebel controls.
Derpy's ears jerked again as the clawing sounds appeared to be immediately above her and the Doctor. "Doctor!" she gasped as she looked at the ceiling. The Doctor followed her gaze and, as both she and him looked at the ceiling, four massive claws pierced through the ceiling and ripped a massive chunk off. Powerful gusts blew into the ship and a mixture of debris, smoke, and clouds began to contaminate the air. Derpy felt her voice escape her as she looked at the creature looking down through the hole. It resembled a scorpion except it had a head that looked an awful lot like one of the heads of Cerberus as well as had a pair of muscular arms that each ended in four, sharp claws. It had ten yellow eyes and rivers of drool dripped from its gaping mouth.
"FIRE!" ordered a Ruleonite soldier as he and the others in the militia began firing at the creature in the hole.
Derpy finally let out a loud scream as the projectiles smashed into the creature's body. A black liquid splattered onto the upper walls of the inner ship and the creature let out a pained roar. The Doctor grabbed Derpy's head and held it close to him. "Don't look at it, Derpy! Everything's going to be alright! Just hold onto me and everything's going to be alright!" he ordered.
Derpy nodded and closed her eyes. She folded down her ears to somewhat muffle the sounds of roaring, blowing air, and bullets being fired. Eventually she heard both Marcus and Sylvia yell, "BRACE YOURSELVES!"
For a split second, everything seemed to slow down to a snail's pace. Sound vanished and everything became still. Derpy gasped as she held onto the Doctor as tightly as she could manage, unintentionally squeezing some of the air out of him in the process. Then...the spaceship collided with the earth.
Darkness. Eternal, infinite darkness. Derpy didn't know how long she spent staring into the endless abyss but her eyes longed for the light. Any light at all. Her senses were numb and her body refused to obey her orders. She ordered her eyelids to open but they felt as thick as lead and simply refused to budge, thus continuing to trap her eyes within a prison of nothing. At some moments, she felt like crying but her dead senses didn't even allow her this depressing luxury.
At other moments, she even considered the possibility that she had passed on. Her body was merely an illusion and she was now a lost soul drifting out into the sea of eternity, leaving everything behind. The Doctor. Carrot Top. Twilight. Marcus. Paulie. Lyra. Bon-Bon. Princess Luna. The faces of those she knew appeared before her. They were emotionless and distant. However, Derpy longed to see their faces again in the flesh. This wasn't the end. She had to fight. She had to win.
As soon as she began to pull her confident thoughts together, feeling began to return to her body. Unfortunately, what she began to feel wasn't that much better than the loss of touch she experienced in the void. A crumpled, hot metal surface lay beneath her. The air smelled of rich iron and smoke and felt unbearably hot. Though her eyelids still felt like logs of lead, she forced all of her strength into opening them. What she saw was not pretty.
Sylvia's ship was destroyed. It had been ripped into two sections: one that held her, the Doctor, Marcus, and Sylvia and one that held the other members of Sylvia's militia. The world around them had a dark purple tint but was also orange due to the fire. It was everywhere. Oil leaked onto the purple earth beneath the two sections of the broken ship, massive flames reaching up towards the heavens. Through the smoke and flames, Derpy could just make out members of Sylvia's militia slowly being burned away while trapped in their unconscious states.
Derpy looked up towards the hole in the roof. The creature that resembled a scorpion was covered in flames and melting away like wax. Flames and oil filled Derpy's section of the ship, the bodies of the Doctor, Marcus, and Sylvia being devoured by the fiery death. A knot built up in Derpy's stomach as her eyes fell upon the Doctor's lifeless body, his peaceful face completely devoid of life. She wanted to cry desperately now but the heat refused to let any liquids escape her body. A stinging pain shot from her legs. The flames had reached her now and were slowly eating away at her. She begged herself to start screaming and fly away into the twilight wasteland but she simply had no strength. This was it. They had failed. They weren't going to save Twilight. They weren't go to save Nymphadora. They weren't going to stop Dusk. No. Instead, they were going to die from being burned alive within their own crashed ship.
Derpy leaned back and shook as the flames crawled up her torso and towards her head. The pain was unbearable but shock was hastily taking hold and dulling all of her senses. Soon, she would return to the void. A dry, pained sigh escaped her cracking lips as the flames reached her neck. She was ready. It was time to go, though she wished she didn't have to.
"Wake up," ordered a friendly, familiar voice in the distance. Derpy opened her eyes. A shadowy figure phased through the flames and approached her. Strangely, she wasn't intimidated. She felt almost relieved, like the figure approaching her was a long lost friend returning from a lengthy journey. The shadow stopped and knelt down next to her burning body. "This isn't the truth. The twilight is altering your perception. However, what you see will become fact if you don't act quickly." The figure placed one of his hands on her cheek, a cold yet refreshing sensation began to spread through her body. "Wake up, Derpy. There's still time. It's not over yet. Wake up!"
Derpy's eyes shot open. Her body was badly bruised and annoying pains inflicted her senses...but she was alive. She examined her surroundings. The ship was destroyed. It was split in two. The unconscious bodies of Sylvia's militia resided in the second, larger half while Derpy, the Doctor, Marcus, and Sylvia resided in the smaller, first half. The carcass of the scorpion creature dangled from the hole in the ceiling above Derpy and the Doctor. But...there was no fire.
The air was like that of a warm summer night. An occasional breeze blew through the remains of the ship. Derpy smiled with comfort as the cool air passed over her body. Her eyelids felt heavy and she began to fall back to sleep. However, she quickly awakened when the shadow's words returned to her. "However, what you see will become fact if you don't act quickly," he had told her.
The fire had been an illusion but it could still happen. What she had seen could still be an event scheduled to happen. Derpy's mind was blurred and she could hardly think but she definitely knew one thing: she had to get herself and the others out of the wrecked ship.
Using all of her strength, she pulled herself off the damaged floor and stood up. Her body ached as she stretched her legs but she was alive and she could move. Looking at the destruction caused by the crash, she could only wonder how in the name of Celestia she had managed to survive. She turned her attention to the Doctor, Marcus, and Sylvia. They all appeared to be just as bruised as she was but alive nonetheless. She approached the Doctor first and began to shake him with as much vigor that she could manage. "Doctor. Doctor! Wake up! Doctor!" she cried. The Doctor groaned and turned his head away from Derpy, still remaining unconscious. "Come on! Wake up!" The stallion refused to reply. The pegasus hastily turned to Marcus and Sylvia and began shaking them. "Wake up! Come on! Wake up!" The Nymphadorian and the Auranian, like the Doctor, simply refused to awaken.
Just then, a new scent appeared in the air that caused Derpy to freeze momentarily: smoke. Somewhere on the ship, a small fire had started. She didn't know where but she knew that her time was running out fast. Her vision was coming true. Come on! There has to be a way to help them get over their injuries and wake up faster! Derpy thought as she paced back and forth inside her broken segment of the ship. She accidentally stumped her hoof on an bent piece of the floor and gasped. As she rubbed her hoof, her eyes fell upon an object attached to the wall: a first aid kit. Without any hesitation, she lunged for the box and ripped it open. She scanned over the various objects within until she found a medium-sized blue bottle with the words Revitalizing Serum printed on its label. She looked at the back and read the short but sweet description. "Hastily heals minor injuries and gradually heals major injuries. Only one to two drops required," she read aloud.
Derpy uncapped the bottle and ran over to the Doctor. She opened his mouth and tipped the bottle, allowing two drops to fall into the orifice. The Doctor let out a disgruntled groan before sitting up and opening his eyes wide. Derpy wanted to hug the Doctor but she knew that she had to hurry. The fire was starting and there were still several others to heal. She quickly gave the Doctor a loving pat on the shoulder before turning towards Marcus and Sylvia. Like with the Doctor, she forced their mouths open and administered two drops each. Both of them groaned loudly before their eyes shot open. "What hit me?" Marcus groaned.
"We crashed!" Derpy explained. "We've got to get out! A fire's starting!"
"A fire?!" asked Sylvia as she stood up quickly. She bent over slightly and grabbed her arms. She was definitely still sore from the crash.
Derpy clutched the revitalizing serum in her hoof and started making her way towards the second half of the ship, which was a few yards away. "DERPY!" the Doctor yelled suddenly. Derpy gasped as the Doctor grabbed onto her from behind and pulled her back into their section of the ship.
"Doctor?! What are you doing?! I have to help them!" Derpy snapped. Not two seconds after she had said this, a flood of flames rushed out into the open area between the two segments of the ship. Derpy's eyes widened as she watched the second half of the ship begin to vanish from view. "The oil."
The air began to grow hot and their ship section started to groan and creak in response. "We need to get away from here fast!" said Marcus as he started looking around for an escape route.
Sylvia grabbed a nearby black bag, reached inside, and pulled out a blaster. She aimed the weapon up at the hole in the ceiling where the body of the scorpion creature lay. She fired and the creature's body tumbled away from the hole and flew off into the flames that were quickly surrounding the ship. "Here's our escape route!" Sylvia said as sweat began to form on the surface of her scaly skin. She turned back towards the others. "Who's first?"
Derpy turned back towards the second section of the ship which was quickly being consumed by the flames. "Wait! We've got to help the others!" she exclaimed.
She heard Sylvia let out a deep sigh. "There...there's no time." The world seemed to freeze and grow silent. Derpy turned back towards the Doctor, Marcus, and Sylvia. Each of their faces showed no emotion aside from grief.
Derpy gulped. Her throat was becoming incredibly dry and her coat was gradually becoming soaked with sweat due to the growing heat. "What...what are you saying?"
Sylvia tried her best to look cold and serious but Derpy could see her body shaking, and Derpy knew this wasn't due to her injuries. "The flames are too large. There's not enough time to save them."
"No. There's always a way. We can't leave them! There's got to be a way to save them!" Derpy turned towards the only source of sanity and kindness she could think of. "Doctor?"
The Doctor lowered his head. "Come on, Derpy. We need to get out of here," he replied sadly.
Derpy's heart stopped. "No. We can save them. We have time."
"Derpy...please. If we could save them we would but...look at those flames. I'm sorry. We won't let their loss be in vain." The Doctor's face suddenly grew very angry and cold. "Dusk has used up his last chance. He did a long time ago. Justice will come to him for everything he's caused. But if he is to stand accountable for his crimes, we need to get out of this ship now."
The Doctor reached for Derpy but Derpy dodged his grab and began backing away, shaking her head. "No. I can save them." She clutched the revitalizing serum tightly in her hoof. "I will save them!"
With that said, Derpy flapped her wings, took to the air, and flew straight into the field of fire. "DERPY!" she could hear the Doctor calling after her. She didn't stop. She could save them! She had so save them. The flames licked at her coat and attempted to reach her but she didn't allow them to. She flew as fast as she could through the heat until she reached the second section of the ship.
She tried to land but the metal was already growing increasingly hot. The unconscious soldiers were already beginning to grow red and sweaty from the fire around them. Derpy lowered herself towards a male Ruleonite nearest to her. She opened his mouth and poured two drops in. Like with the others, the Ruleonite grunted. His eyes shot open and he sat up incredibly fast, much faster than the others had. "Hot! HOT!" he exclaimed. Patches of his fur were slightly singed and parts of his skin were red.
"Don't worry! I'm here to help you!" said Derpy. Just at that second, the spaceship section groaned loudly and tilted down in the direction of the fire field. The weakened, sore Ruleonite began to slide towards the fire along with the other unconscious soldiers. "NO!" Derpy quickly grabbed onto the soldier's arms and flapped her wings as hard as she could. While she did this, she noticed several of the soldiers' weapons sliding across the hot metal towards the fire. She got a gut instinct telling her to get the hay out of there. Before she could escape with the Ruleonite, however, the weapons reached the fire and exploded violently. Flames and shrapnel flew in every direction. Derpy gasped as a piece of metal flew past her and cut one of her hind legs slightly. She and the Ruleonite were knocked back by the explosion.
When Derpy managed to recover from the explosion, she sat up to see a horrible sight. Flames everywhere. The unconscious soldiers simply lay silently and peacefully as the hungry fire slowly ate away at them. The air was intolerable and her body was sweatier than a pig. "GAH!" cried the Ruleonite. Derpy looked and realized that the Ruleonite's right leg was on fire. She quickly began flapping her wings in a vague attempt to blow out the flames. As she did this, she could feel herself growing weaker and weaker. The carnage around her, the intense heat, her injuries...it was all too much to bear. She could feel herself slipping away. She was returning to the void for one, last time. Smoke began to fill her lungs, her vision began to blur, she could feel the sting of hot metal as she fell to the floor, and she could hear the pained cries of the Ruleonite whom she had attempted to save.
Just before she allowed herself to slip away, Derpy heard the sound of tearing metal followed by quick hoofsteps...no...footsteps. Sylvia appeared before her in her blurry vision. The Auranian picked her up along with the screaming Ruleonite. As Sylvia began to pull her and the Ruleonite away from the flames, Derpy could hear the Ruleonite screaming a name. "NO! YVONNE! YVONNE! NO! PLEASE! GO BACK! SAVE HER! LEAVE ME! GO BACK! GO BACK!" he cried. Derpy's vision fell dark and the world temporarily became silent.
When Derpy's senses returned and she opened her eyes, her mouth was filled with the taste of blueberries and ash. She looked up to see the Doctor staring down at her, the revitalizing serum in one of his hooves. "Good," he said with a relieved smile. "You're awake."
The memories of what had happened started coming back. Tears formed in the corners of Derpy's eyes. Her voice cracked as she attempted to speak. She could feel her face contorting into a pained, sad expression. "Doctor!" she cried as she sat up and turned towards the burning ship.
The remnants of Sylvia's ship were completely gone now. Nothing remained except for a towering inferno. The smell of burning metal and fur lingered in the air. Marcus was standing a couple feet away from Derpy with the first aid kit held tightly in one of his hands. Sylvia was sitting down and rubbing her arms slowly, her face completely emotionless aside from the occasional tear. The Ruleonite was lying on his back, his right leg badly burnt and his eyes sad and puffy. Derpy turned her attention back to the ship. Her memories of the burning soldiers and their peaceful, oblivious faces as their lives were burned away came back in a wave. Her entire body shook as tears began pouring from her eyes. "Oh, Derpy," sighed the Doctor sadly as he approached her from behind and wrapped her up in a caring, protective hug. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Derpy fell back into the Doctor and continued to cry as the remnants of the soldiers and the spaceship flew up into the twilight sky within a column of dark, depressing smoke.
Twilight stood silently in her room and glared out the window. Nothing stared back at her aside from the bleak twilight. This was a sight she had grown used to by this point. However, now she was filled with a new sense of hope. A feeling of hope much stronger than the version she had felt during the previous month. That previous feeling was constantly clouded with uncertainty. Now she was sure that help was coming. The Doctor and Derpy were on their way. Together they could defeat Dusk and save Nymphadora. Then...she could return home.
Twilight closed her eyes and silently sighed as she thought about the faces of her loved ones. Spike. Shining Armor. Princess Celestia. Applejack. Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash. Rarity. Pinkie Pie. Princess Luna. Cadance. Her parents. All of their faces smiled happily at her from the depths of her collected memories of them. She longed to see their faces again. She desired to hold them and be within their loving grasp. An amused chuckle escaped Twilight's lips. "Never knew I'd one day miss one of Pinkie Pie's bear hugs," she said.
Suddenly, something caught Twilight's eyes. Deep within the hazy twilight, a few miles beyond the borders of the city, a column of smoke was rising into the sky. At first she was confused by it but was then struck with a mixture of feelings including dread, sorrow, and fear. A pain shot through her head as the quick images of the Doctor and Derpy caught in a fire sped by. She gasped in response and fell the floor, her breathing having become hard and heavy.
She looked up through the window and focused on the rising column of smoke. "Help them," she begged in a weak voice. "You promised that you would! They need you now! Please! Help them! Help them!"
"Pleading to lost souls?" chuckled the voice of Dusk from behind. Twilight didn't turn around to face him. She wasn't in the mood to stare upon his terrible armor nor witness his uncomfortable aura. "Whatever help you foolishly think is coming will never arrive, dear Twilight. Even if anyone were able to get through the curtain, the land itself would defeat them. All who enter my twilight become lost souls owned by me eventually."
"You don't own them," Twilight snapped. She stood up and continued to keep her attention focused on the smoke rather than turning around to face Dusk. "Your twilight may keep some of these souls trapped and most of them oblivious but there are some that have escaped your grasp. Your ego and underestimation of your enemies will be your downfall, Dusk."
Twilight shook a bit upon hearing Dusk's cold laughter in response to her statement. "I see you still have faith in your little rescue team. Fine, continue to pray for their arrival. In fact, I hope they manage to get through my twilight. It'll be much more satisfying to crush them right in front of your eyes." Twilight felt a gust of wind and gasped as Dusk appeared in front of her. He knelt down and grabbed her chin with his armored hand, his armored face meeting eye-to-eye with her's. "Then you will finally see who has won this war."
Twilight shook her head out of Dusk's grasp and stepped back. "I guess the two of us will just have to wait and see what happens."
Dusk laughed before standing up and walking past Twilight, his cape flapping against her slightly. "Let them come, I say. Let them come and die!"
Twilight continued to stare at the column of smoke as Dusk left the room. "Help them. Help them. Help them," Twilight continued to plead under her breath.
The group didn't stop walking until they could no longer smell the scent of fire and death. The air now smelled of morning dew and flowers. The light of the twilight was dark but in an almost beautiful way. Shimmers of silver moved about the sky, air, and land, acting as refreshing breaks in the sea of violet aura. A desert of purple sand and blue cacti could just barely be made out a few miles away from the column of smoke while in the direction the group was now traveling a collection of tall buildings could be seen. "Lupae," said Marcus as he stared out upon the city. "We're only a few miles away."
The Doctor looked out upon the landscape of grassy hills and plains which made up the land between Lupae and the purple desert. However, he didn't spend much time focusing on the landscape for his attention quickly returned to Derpy. The pegasus was sitting on the ground a couple feet from him. Her eyes were puffy and she was shaking a bit. He felt a great deal of sadness for her as well as for the others. Those soldiers were Sylvia's friends. They had been her allies. They had joined with her and had happily accepted the task of helping the Doctor and Derpy travel into the twilight to help them take down Dusk. They hadn't deserved what they got. They came together to work towards a better future for this world...and they were repaid with death by inferno.
The Doctor started to feel his own body shake. He had seen much death and carnage in his life. The images of seeing his own planet Gallifrey burning at his command were still fresh in his mind. Sylvia's friends had met their end just like Gallifrey: by burning.
A soft whimper escaped the mouth of the Ruleonite, whose name was Klaus, who had escaped the flames thanks to Derpy and Sylvia. The only member of Sylvia's militia to survive. And even then it had come with a cost. His leg was badly burnt and his twin sister Yvonne had been one of the soldiers to die in the flames. Every now and then, the Doctor would catch a few tears escaping from his puffy, dry eyes. Another victim of war.
Marcus and Sylvia had also taken a hit from the inferno. Sylvia more than Marcus though, which was understandable as she had spent the last ten years or so with those soldiers. And now, in an instant, she had only one left. No. She had four left. The Doctor dug his hooves further into the earth and clenched his teeth. He wasn't going to let Dusk get away with what he had done. He was going to send that demon back to the hell he had been born from. The Doctor's eyes trailed over to his black suitcase, one of the few things that had managed to escape the fire with them along with a first aid kit and a bag filled with some supplies and weapons. The Doctor thought about the contents of his suitcase, most notably the Staff of the Dawn and President Targaryen's ring. For the past month, he had studied them in some hope to understand how to use them to defeat Dusk. However, his thoughts always returned to moment when President Targaryen had violently lost his life in his attempt to use the items against Dusk. Was Dusk too powerful now to be defeated by the items? Had President Targaryen simply been unworthy? Was there more to the process than just waving the staff back and forth and giving commands? The Doctor scratched his chin as he sat down.
"How are you feeling?" he heard Marcus ask. The Doctor turned to see Marcus standing next to Derpy with a hand on her shoulder.
Derpy continued to shake but smiled kindly up at Marcus. "I've seen better days," she replied.
Marcus chuckled a bit. "I think we all have." Derpy looked down and Marcus warmly tightened his grip on her shoulder. "We won't let their deaths be in vain, Derpy. I promise you that."
"We all do," the Doctor said as he stood up. Derpy turned back to the Doctor. She gave a small smile at him but said smile quickly faded away. The Doctor didn't blame her for feeling the way she felt. She witnessed something that no pony as innocent and kind as her should witness.
You brought this on her, hissed an accusing voice from within the Doctor's mind. You just had to do it again. You had to invite another innocent creature to join you on adventures through time and space. It never ends well. You know this. You're just going to ruin her life. Remember Donna? You made her forget. Remember Martha? You turned her into a soldier. Remember Rose? You lost her! You've even failed people from your future! Remember River? It's only a matter of time before something happens to Derpy and you know it. You've already ruined her. How long will it be before her breath is finally snuffed out of her miserable, weak, defeated co-
"SHUT UP!" the Doctor yelled. Everybody jumped and turned towards the Doctor. The Doctor's breathing was heavy for a few seconds before slowing down. His eyes fell on Derpy. Fear. That's what he saw on her face. Confusion and fear. The Doctor cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. I fear that the twilight was getting to me for a moment."
Sylvia grunted as she helped Klaus up and wrapped one of his arms over her shoulders to help him stay balanced. "We best keep moving," she said. "I don't think it's wise for us to remain in one area for too long...not while we're in this place."
"We better be on our guard," said Marcus. "There might be more monsters like the one that attacked our ship walking about. Maybe even other kinds as well."
"The city looks so far away," Derpy stated as she stared towards the faint outline of Lupae.
"But each step will take us closer to it," said the Doctor as he approached Derpy and touched one of her hooves. The pegasus looked at him and gently leaned her weary head on his shoulder.
"We're definitely going to run into more obstacles on our way to Lupae. There's no doubt about that," said Sylvia.
"Then we're going to need to be more careful," said Marcus. "We can't afford to lose-" Marcus cut himself off as his voice cracked a bit. Everybody's face grew grim and depressed once more. "We can't afford to lose anymore of us. We're the last ones. We have to survive!"
"If you're going to survive this world, you're going to need help from this world," stated a strangely familiar voice from the shadows.
Everyone jumped and began looking around. "Who's there?!" Derpy asked with a shaky voice.
"Is it another monster?!" Klaus gasped.
"Wait a minute," said the Doctor as he focused on one area of the shadows. "That...that voice!" The Doctor recognized this voice. He had heard it before. He knew to whom it belonged to. It had certainly been a while. But it was impossible! The owner of this voice couldn't possibly be here! It was impossible! It was unthinkable! It was...the truth.
A figure appeared in the dark and casually walked towards them. The Doctor could feel the beating of his hearts increase as the figure came closer and closer, its appearance slowly entering their line of sight. The figure had a white-purple glow and was constantly shifting between looking solid and looking transparent. The Doctor heard Marcus gasp once the figure came into full view. Derpy tightened her grip on the Doctor. The Doctor's own eyes widened in shock. "Impossible!" Marcus uttered.
"It's a ghost!" Derpy stated with a frightened crack in her voice.
"Yeah...I guess you could call me that," chuckled Colonel Asphodel "Ash" Rogers. "However, unlike normal ghosts, I'm not here to scare you. In fact, I'm probably your best chance at making it through the twilight alive."
Marcus shook like he was freezing to death as he approached the ghostly Colonel Ash. "Is...is it really you, Ash?" he asked.
Ash smirked and chuckled softly. "I know you're probably shocked, scared, and confused right now but I swear on my...afterlife that it's really me," he replied.
Marcus reached his paw forward and placed it on one of Ash's shoulders. Blue steam emanated from the spot where they met and Marcus jerked his paw back. "Cold!"
"Sorry. Us dead people aren't exactly known for our warmth."
Derpy could see Marcus's eyes beginning to tear up slightly. "I just...can't...how?!"
"How indeed," said the Doctor as he approached the apparition and examined him.
"The reason behind me coming back is all around you," said Ash as he extended his arms and spun around, wisps of purple dust moving through the air in response.
Derpy looked at the depressing, warped world that surrounded her. "The twilight," she deduced.
Ash pointed at Derpy. "Exactly!" he replied. "The twilight keeps spirits bound to the world of the living. Even those who have been gone for years are starting to return."
Derpy looked and noticed many ghostly figures beginning to appear from the shadows and move about the surrounding landscape. Just then, she heard a gasp and looked to see that Marcus had rushed forward and grabbed the ghostly Ash in a hug, huge amounts of smoke were emanating from their embrace. "It's...really you!" Marcus exclaimed.
Ash chuckled and patted Marcus on the back. "It's great to see you too, Marcus," he said. "Now you better let go of me before you get frostbite all over your front." Marcus slowly broke away from Ash and took a few steps back towards Sylvia. Ash smiled at the couple. "I see you two have finally been reunited. That makes me very happy." Marcus and Sylvia smiled at each other before looking back at Ash.
Derpy was still in shock that Ash was standing before her and talking. She remembered seeing him die in Marcus's arms and now he was back almost as if he had never died. "Well...it's great to have you back, Colonel," said the Doctor with a warm smile. "So you've come to help us?"
"That's correct, Doctor," Ash replied. "And it looks like I arrived just in time. You should thank Twilight Sparkle for me being here."
"Twilight?!" Derpy asked.
Ash nodded his head. "Yep. Originally, after I died, I was sort of stuck in this weird twilight void. I was stuck watching the twilight world progress around me and I spent my time in that void examining the twilight world and learning more about it. After a while, I eventually felt a pull that brought me into the twilight world. I ended up back in the City Centre and another lost spirit led me to Twilight. That's when she asked me to go out and help bring you to the City Centre." Derpy didn't realize until Ash had finished speaking that she was shaking slightly with worry. "And, don't worry, she's doing surprisingly well. She's done a good job at keeping her sanity and will as well as her strength in holding back the Dusk's magic."
Derpy sighed with relief. "That's good to hear."
"But I don't think she can hold out that much longer. Dusk's going to eventually overpower her protective magic and spread his realm out across the rest of Nymphadora."
"Then you better get us to Lupae before that happens!" said Marcus with a confident pose.
Ash winked. "Count on it." Suddenly, the ghost shimmered a bit and took a few steps back. "Oh man...we better get a move on quickly." He groaned with pain and knelt down on the ground.
"What's wrong?!" Derpy asked.
"Remember what I said about the twilight trapping spirits? The same thing has happened to those who you lost in the crash."
Derpy thought back to the crash, the smell of smoke and the feeling of intense heat still fresh in her mind. "Does...does that mean they're coming back?!" asked the injured Klaus.
"Not in the way you want them to," Ash explained. "I'm one of the few lucky ones to come back with their sanity and minds intact. Your friends...well...take a look." Ash pointed in the direction of the crash. Derpy's eyes focused in that direction and her entire body froze in response to what she saw.
A group of burning, angry Nymphadorians, Ruleonites, and Auranians was making its way towards the survivors. "I agree with Ash. We all best be moving along!" stated the Doctor. Derpy's temporary paralysis was removed when the Doctor grabbed one of her legs. She looked back at the earth pony stallion, nodded and began to follow him. Ash began to walk in the direction of Lupae with Derpy, the Doctor, Marcus, and Sylvia carrying Klaus remaining close behind him.
"Stay close," Ash ordered. "There's many more demons hiding in the twilight ahead."
Twilight groaned as her body collided with the hallway floor. Everything was spinning and an unbelievable amount of pain was emanating from her horn. It felt like her horn had inverted and was now drilling deep into her skull. Shaking. Got to stop shaking! she pleaded in thought. She grabbed onto a nearby tapestry and pulled herself off the ground. Her entire body shook and rattled like she was suffering from multiple muscle spasms. She managed to pull herself up and leaned against the wall to keep her balance. Is...is Dusk breaking through my magic? Is his twilight finally covering the rest of Nymphadora?!
After a few more seconds, the pain and dizziness faded away and Twilight let out several coughs as she regained control of her body. "Oh Celestia," she groaned as she began to slowly trudge her way down the hallway. She had no real destination in mind. She just needed to keep walking. Away from Dusk. Away from Thea and her fellow undead classmates. She just needed to walk and be alone.
As she made her way around another corner, she felt a strange surge of strength come over her. Her weakness brought upon by the last searing pain had gone and she could walk normally once more. While it felt good to have full stamina once again, Twilight couldn't help but feel that she was being watched. Not by Dusk. Not by Thea. Not even by Ash, who Twilight knew was probably out of the city by this point. No. This was something new.
That's when the sound of chains being dragged along the floor could be heard. Twilight's hairs stood up and she faced the direction from where she had come from. At first she saw nothing but she knew something was approaching her. She started walking backwards and away from the invisible source of the dragging chains. For the first time in a while, Twilight didn't feel safe. Sure, Dusk had an intimidating presence and certainly wasn't a foe to underestimate but she knew that he wasn't going to hurt her...yet. Thea and her classmates had appeared terrifying at first but were really as harmless as flies. All of the truly dangerous apparitions and monsters had resided outside the cold walls of the City Centre. At least that's what Dusk had told Twilight.
Twilight wanted to call out and ask who was stalking her in the shadows but couldn't find the ability to produce a sound. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness in this new hallway, she noticed certain patches of air rippling like the disturbed surface of a pond. Within seconds, the ripples took on a more bipedal shape. Shadows and light bent around the ripples and bounced off in random directions. Footsteps could be heard now and Twilight could feel her body beginning to shake once more.
"Come here," ordered a soft voice from the center of the ripples. "Come here, spark of twilight." This is what gave Twilight the strength to turn around and run as fast as she could down the hallway. She could hear the raspy, whisper-prone voice of the ripples calling out to her as she made her escape.
She turned around another bend and made it halfway down the hallway before glancing back. WHAT?! she thought in horror as she saw the ripples merely a few feet behind her. How did it catch up to me so fast?! It didn't even make a sound! Twilight's heart was pounding and her breathing was quick. Her body started to ache again and her muscles pleaded for a respite.
Twilight turned around another corner. Her eyes fell on a door just ahead. It wasn't like the other doors in the City Centre, which tended to be metal or iron. This was a wooden door covered in strange markings. It looked more like a door that belonged in an ancient castle from the days of Star-Swirl the Bearded. Twilight couldn't explain it but something drew her towards this door. This door would save her. It would hold all the answers. It was the key to finding safety. Taking a gamble, she raced towards the door and flung it open with her magic. The door slammed shut behind her as soon as she passed through the threshold.
The room was pitch black and Twilight hastily tried to illuminate her horn. Strangely enough, no light came forth. She tried as hard as she could to produce a simple illumination spell but her horn failed her at every attempt. It was only after her sixth attempt to light her horn that she noticed something odd about this room other than its darkness. The air smelled of burnt toast and felt like a prison of static electricity. Every hair on her body raised up and she almost gagged as the thick scent of burnt toast reached the back of her throat. "What's in this room?" Twilight asked with a cough.
"A gateway...to your salvation," replied a familiar voice that made Twilight freeze up.
No! It's in here! she realized in thought. Suddenly, a fiery light appeared in the center of the room. Twilight couldn't make out anything about the room for standing right in front of her was a tall, shadowy figure. Twilight was able to identify that the figure standing in front of her was a Nymphadorian and it didn't take much longer for her to notice the long dagger held in one of its paws. Before Twilight even had a chance to widen her eyes or gasp, the dagger was plunged deep into her chest.
The Doctor couldn't help but find his curiosity about Dusk's twilight increasing with every new revelation. Scorpion abominations. Bringing the dead back to the world of the living. I wonder what else this realm has in store for us, the Doctor thought as he made sure to keep close to Derpy. He noticed that her body was shaking ever so slightly. The Doctor's ears fell. He could only imagine what it must be like for, such an innocent pegasus, to witness the horrors she's seen. Such is the nature of war. It takes our innocence and rips it away. Just then, Derpy turned towards the Doctor and they met eye-to-eye. He expected to see fear etched into her face but, instead, he saw a warm and abnormally cute smile that made his hearts explode...twice. Look at her. Putting on a brave face. She's probably trying to keep me from worrying about her. Sadly, it's not working. The Doctor smiled back at Derpy and she gave him a quick nod before looking forward.
The Doctor glanced back to see that the ghostly echoes of their lost soldiers were now off in the distance. He noticed Sylvia was looking back at them as well. The stallion and the Auranian met eye-to-eye before turning forward to keep following their glowing guide.
Marcus and Ash were caught up in a conversation being spoken at such low levels that no one else in the group could hear their words. The Doctor didn't care. His mission wasn't to hear what those two old friends were talking about. His mission was to stop Dusk and rescue Twilight Sparkle and the rest of Nymphadora.
Twilight Sparkle. The Doctor smiled upon thinking about the lavender unicorn. Such a strong mare. Standing up against an alien tyrant and keeping a wall of twilight at bay. The Doctor couldn't help thinking back to that moment when that unexpected best mare had stumbled into the TARDIS. I'm going to get you back to that wedding, Twilight Sparkle.
"Hold it!" Ash ordered suddenly. Everyone came to a halt.
"What is it?" groaned Klaus.
"We're nearing the city."
The Doctor looked. He had been in a mental haze for so long that he hadn't realized that they were now merely a mile or so away from the exterior wall of Lupae. How long had they been walking? A few minutes? A few hours? A day? There was no feeling of the progression of time in the twilight. Everything felt still and static. Forever trapped in a single second of the day. No way forward and no way back.
"And that's good...right?" Derpy asked.
"Yes and no," Ash replied. "Good 'cause we're close to the city. Bad 'cause...well...them."
Ash pointed at the stretch of land that lay between them and the opening in the city wall. The Doctor and the others looked. Spread throughout the landscape were clusters of armored soldiers wielding massive blades. The blades were dark and rusted and their armor was sharp and chipped, allowing a few segments of rotted, gray skin to be seen.
"What are those things?" Sylvia asked.
"Soldiers and guards for the city turned into deadly warriors and bloodthirsty fighters," Ash explained. "They won't go for me since I'm a spirit but they'll tear the rest of you to pieces."
Derpy gulped. "Great. Just what we needed," she said with a shrill tone.
Sylvia pulled out one of her blasters. "I can take care of this," she said.
"I wouldn't use that here, if I were you," Ash warned. "You use that and you're gonna attract the attention of every monster in the city. No offense, but I doubt you'd be able to take on over a million monsters." Sylvia frowned before storing her blaster away.
"Is there a way for us to get past them without fighting?" Klaus asked.
"Lucky for you, there is a way to sneak past them," Ash replied. "These particular creatures are blind and have to rely on their hearing and sense of vibrations in order to hunt their prey. Now, I know you're probably considering the possibility that you could just walk past them at the same pace as them and not be caught; and I'm sorry to say that you'd be wrong because-"
"They can sense our heartbeats," the Doctor deduced.
"Right! So, basically, the only way to sneak past them would be to stop your hearts."
The Doctor exchanged glances with his fellow, living companions. "Uh...that's not really an effective way to sneak past them," said Marcus. "You're basically saying that we have to die in order to not die."
Ash began to smile. "Actually, there is a way for you to stop your hearts and live," informed the ghost.
"How?" asked Sylvia with a raised eyebrow.
Ash pointed to himself. "Me. I can stop all of your hearts while still keeping you alive."
"How is that even possible?" Klaus asked.
Ash waved his paws, which gave off a ghostly steam. "It's one of those things that comes with being a sane ghost," he replied. "Now, in order for this to work properly, I need you all to link up and each of you focus on something strong. A powerful memory. A strong desire. An important objective. Something that will keep you connected to life and to your body."
The Doctor and the others exchanged another series of stares. "Well if this is our only way of getting into the city in one piece, might as well," said Marcus as he grabbed one of Sylvia's hands.
The Doctor turned to Derpy and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Everything will be alright. I promise," he said.
Derpy smiled at him. "I know. As long as we're a team, I'm sure we can do anything," she replied confidently.
The Doctor took the lead of the link with Derpy grabbing onto his tail with her mouth, Marcus grabbing onto her tail, and Sylvia holding onto Marcus's hand while still helping the injured Klaus walk. Ash approached the Doctor and extended his hand forward. "Everyone got their strong thoughts ready?" he asked. Everyone nodded. At first, the Doctor had thought about his current objective: saving Twilight and Nymphadora. However, his focus quickly changed to his past, something he usually didn't tend to like looking back into all that much. His memories honed in on the faces of those he had traveled with throughout his many lives: Susan, Jamie, Jo, Sarah Jane, Tegan, Peri, Ace, Lucie, Rose, Donna, and everybody else. All of their faces appearing before him all at once. He had to keep going. For himself. For these two universes. For them. "Here we go then." Steam poured from Ash's ghostly paw as he pressed it against the Doctor's chest. Everybody in the group gasped. The Doctor felt his body freeze. The world became gray and a hard, final breath escaped his lungs as both of his hearts ground to a halt.
Twilight gasped loudly and closed her eyes tight, expecting to feel the painful collision of metal with flesh. However, it never came. Strange. She had seen the knife pierce through her chest. So where was the pain? Was she in shock? Was she already dead? Or...did she even get stabbed? Twilight eventually gained the courage to open her eyes and look down at her chest. No knife. No wound. Twilight let out a sigh of relief upon seeing this. But this sense of relief quickly vanished when confusion began to set in.
I saw it stab me...right? she thought as her heart finally slowed down to a normal pace. It was right here. It stabbed me. And now...it's gone? She raised her head up. There was no shadow standing before her anymore. She was now able to take in a full view of the room she was now in.
It was a room of average size. The floor was smooth, gray stone and the walls were painted white. Two bookcases stood on opposite sides of the room and were filled with a series of books of various sizes and colors. A single, bright, yellow light hung from the ceiling. Twilight could see dust particles floating through the air but she could also see something else. Along with the dust, she was just barely able to make out small wisps constructed from a white, gaseous substance floating about. They made her body twitch with uncertainty and her horn gave off small sparks whenever it came in contact with the white wisps.
Twilight turned her attention to one of the bookcases and used her horn to levitate one of the books over. When she saw the cover, she was surprised to see that it was blank. She used her magic to flip through the many pages of the book and, just like the cover, every page was blank. "That's weird," she commented. She tossed the book into a corner and chose another one. Like the first book, both the cover and its contents were blank.
For the next several minutes, Twilight went through each book the bookshelves held. No matter what color or what length, each book was blank from cover to cover. Once she had finished flipping through the last book, she sat down against the door and rubbed her forehead. "A room filled with blank books. Why? Just...why?" she pondered. She tried to wrap her brain around the odd, indescribable gut feeling she had that told her this room had everything she needed. But how? There was nothing special about it. It was just a lonely room deep in the City Centre filled with air wisps and blank books. There was nothing helpful about it.
That's when the smell of burnt toast returned. Twilight coughed as the the smell dived deep into the back of her throat and latched around the back of her mouth. The hairs on her body stood on end as the feeling of static electricity returned as well. Twilight stood up and looked around the lonely room. "Okay...I get it. There's something in here you want to show me," she said. She didn't know who she was talking to. The room itself. The shadow. Another entity altogether. She wasn't sure. All she knew was that something had drawn her to this room and now it was listening to her. "I was drawn to this room for a reason. I was chased here by that shadow for a reason. Whoever's in here...whatever's in here...what do you want me to see? What does this room have that could help me?" A few, tense seconds of silence passed. There was no response to Twilight's words. No sounds to be heard. No movements to be seen. No change to be felt aside from the burnt toast odor and static sensations.
Then she heard it. A reply. It sounded muffled and distant but she could make it out clearly for it was emanating from the very deep recesses of her subconscious. "There's nothing left for you to do now. The time has not come," the voice replied.
"Who are you? What do you mean?" Twilight asked.
"A voice from a forgotten yet remembered past. An echo of your final checkmate."
"Not to be entirely rude here but could you be a little more specific?"
"I knew you would be drawn to this room, Twilight Sparkle. You can feel the aura it emanates."
"Aura?" Twilight looked around the lonely room. "What aura?"
"You can feel it. That aura eating away at your weakness. Giving you your strength. Helping you gain a last, fighting edge against the ever-expanding twilight."
It was right. She did feel stronger. The pains had gone away. Her legs weren't shaky. Her breathing was normal. She hadn't felt this state of good health in quite some time. "What's in this room?"
"The remnants of my legacy. It's all been moved here. This one spot. This one, last barrier between him and I. I'm the one soul he doesn't want coming back from the afterlife. You're the key to breaking that barrier. Initial contact has already been made. Now, we simply wait for the moment to come."
"Moment?"
"Yes. The moment of reunion and unification. The moment of truth and forgiveness. The moment which will bring about the beginning of a new age. You will know when it comes. It will come with the final contact. Your last act, spark of twilight."
Twilight could feel the second consciousness fading away. "Don't go! I have more questions!" Just then, the room shook like an explosion had just erupted underneath the City Centre. Twilight turned towards the floor just in time to see a massive crack appear. Bright, white light poured out and blinded Twilight. It had been so long since she had last seen pure light not filtered by the twilight. As she stared in the light she found herself repeating a single word over and over again against her will. "Dawn. Dawn. Dawn. Dawn. Dawn. Dawn. Dawn. Dawn. DAWN!" Twilight ran towards the door and pulled it open. She then flung herself into the hallway outside and slammed the door shut behind her.
Silence fell around her. Once again, there was nothing to be heard. Nothing to be felt. Nothing to be observed. There was just Twilight alone in the twilight hallway. She pushed herself away from the door that led into the strange room and forced herself to walk down the hallway. A collection of odd feelings were coursing through her mind. She wasn't sure about what she was feeling. She wasn't sure about what she was supposed to feel. However, deep down, she could tell that one feeling had grown slightly stronger: hope.
Everything was hazy and gray. Nothing felt solid and everything felt as if it could slip away at any second. Blurred sounds pounded against Derpy's ears. Strange hallucinations clouded her sight. Her whole body felt numb. Walking the line between life and death was certainly no walk in the park. Every step took effort. Every second was draining. Every passing instant required the upmost of focus and concentration. One look down the wrong path and everything would be lost.
During all this time, Derpy kept her focus on the stallion in front of her: the Doctor. In this state of nothing, he glowed brighter than the morning rays of Celestia's Sun. She dare not take her eyes off him. She dare not turn away. She had to focus on him. He was her hook. Her link to life. The thing that was keeping her bound to this world. Bound to this body. Her body was growing cold but she didn't pay attention. She just clasped her mouth tightly around his tail and held on for life. I trust you, Doctor, she thought. I trust that you'll make everything alright in the end. I believe in you...my Doctor.
A loud gasp escaped from Derpy's mouth as true life and everything with it came flooding back into her. She let go of the Doctor's tail and stumbled about for a brief moment. Her vision was hazy and her body felt numb due to the sudden burst of warmth coursing through her veins. "Everyone alive and well?" asked the ghostly Colonel Ash as he walked past Derpy, his body still emanating streams of spiritual steam.
"Never...again...please," Sylvia coughed as she held onto the equally distraught Klaus.
Derpy pressed her hoof against her chest. The feeling of her beating heart made her feel a sense of relief unlike anything she had ever felt previously. "Are you okay?" asked a familiar, caring voice.
Derpy looked up to see the Doctor observing her with a caring face. Once again, her eyes met his in a solid stare. So old. They always looked so old. So kind. So sad. So...loving. "I think so," Derpy replied with a few, deep breaths.
The Doctor smiled at her. "I must admit that was certainly an interesting sensation to experience. I mean, you and I lived without our hearts beating. How many ponies can say that?!"
"Not many." Derpy chuckled. "I don't thank many other ponies would like to try it."
"Well...yeah...definitely...it certainly wasn't fun, that's for sure. Interesting, still. Very, very interesting."
Derpy managed to catch her breath fully and straightened herself up. "Are we in the city?"
"We're right on the border," Ash replied as he walked past her and the Doctor.
Derpy looked and saw that she and the others were standing under a large gateway. The side of the gateway to Derpy's right led back into the surrounding grounds of Lupae that were filled with the hordes of black armored zombies. The opening to the left led out into a wide street bordered by futuristic buildings of great height.
"I've never been to Lupae before," Klaus commented.
"It's seen better days, trust me," Marcus added.
"We better get moving," said Ash. "The faster we get to the City Centre, the better."
Silence fell amongst the group as they began their trek into the capital of the twilight. At first, everything was an unnerving calm. There were no signs of life to be identified anywhere in the surrounding area. The quiet reined supreme over Lupae. Much like the surrounding areas, the twilight affected the feeling of passing time greatly here. Derpy didn't know how much time they spent engulfed in the silent, violet world. The first time she turned back towards the gateway she and the others had passed under, she was shocked to find that it was already several blocks behind her after what had felt like a minute or two of walking.
Ever since the crash and escaping the fire, Derpy had been feeling horrible in both a mental and physical state. Antagonistic forces seemed to be eating away at her will and strength all the time in this bleak realm. There were now even brief moments where she didn't feel any emotions at all. She was simply neutral. No anger. No happiness. No sadness. No fear. Just nothing. Pure nothing.
Derpy shook her head to break herself out of a self-induced trance she was falling under. This was becoming a common occurrence for her in the twilight. However, no matter what happened, she always made sure to think back to her anchor: the Doctor. Thinking of him had kept her bound to life. Thinking of him helped clear her mind of any unwanted, negative feelings.
Her eyes turned towards the stallion walking next to her and she gave a quaint smile. They had been through so much together. Going back to the day of Nightmare Moon's banishment. Facing aliens in the future, creatures from other realities, and villains under the sea. Spending a month on an alien moon in order to plan an assault on a world of twilight. Now here they were. Derpy and the Doctor. Yet again on another dangerous quest.
"Is that a smile I see?" the Doctor asked suddenly.
Derpy blushed and shook her head. "No...well...maybe," she replied.
"No need to feel bad about it. Smiling's good."
"But now's not really the time to do it. I was just thinking about something happy."
"And there's nothing wrong with that. It's good to think happy thoughts during the worst of times. It keeps us going." The Doctor proceeded to smile at Derpy and wink.
Derpy's smile was about to return when she was distracted by the realization and she and the others were now surrounded by a massive crowd of ghostly Nymphadorians. They all gave off spiritual auras and steam similar to that of Ash but, unlike Ash, they seemed distant and disconnected from them. The spirits didn't even attempt to interact with them. They simply went on performing what Derpy assumed were their day-to-day activities.
"This is what's become of those who were caught in the twilight when it was first unleashed," Ash explained. "They were trapped in a ghostly plane caught between life and death."
"It's equality," the Doctor said harshly.
"Equality?" Marcus asked.
"The twilight's bringing the dead back while simultaneously trapping the living in a ghostly state. It's forcing the living and the dead into an equal playing field, putting them on similar terms." The Doctor shook his head. "It's wrong."
Just then, Derpy felt the ground vibrate beneath her hooves. The vibrations were followed by a loud shriek. "Oh no," said Ash.
"What is it?!" Sylvia asked as she tightened her hold on the black bag she carried.
"Run! All of you, run!" Ash began running down the street and the others followed him as quickly as they could. "I didn't expect it to sense you so quickly! We've barely gotten into the thick of the city!"
"What is it?!" asked Derpy as she began to take to the air a bit.
"It doesn't have a name. It's just a guardian of the city."
With that said, a powerful force smashed through one of the buildings behind the group. Derpy turned around to see one of the tall buildings collapsing into a pile of rubble. The ghostly Nymphadorians paid no attention to the destroyed building. Standing in the building's place was a muscular creature with at least fifty feet of height. Its eyes were dark red and its armored skin was pitch black. It had arms as thick as spaceships and claws as sharp and large as castle spires. With each breath, a gust of uncomfortably cold air blew down the street. "Intruders," the Guardian commented via telepathic waves that bore deep into Derpy's skull. "You must be dealt with. In the name of the king, lay down and accept the fate of the twilight."
The Guardian instantly broke into a run. Each step it took covered nearly an entire block. The group ran but were soon knocked forward onto the ground by the shockwave produced from one of the monster's steps. The ground cracked beneath the weight of the beast and Derpy tried to regain her surroundings. Dust billowed in the air. Angry cries clouded her hearing. A violent force took hold of her and began dragging her down the street.
"Derpy! Derpy!" cried the Doctor as he aided Derpy down the street. Derpy clutched onto the Doctor's suit as she attempted to regain her strength. She looked to see Marcus, Sylvia, and Klaus running alongside them. Ash was taking up the lead, ordering them to keep running and follow him. Another shockwave shook the ground beneath them and Derpy tightened her grip on the Doctor. "Hold on, Derpy!"
"Don't let me go," Derpy said under her breath.
"THIS WAY!" cried Ash as he beckoned the group towards a nearby alleyway. The group started to run in the direction of the alley's entrance but quickly found themselves cloaked in the shadow of one of the Guardian's massive feet.
"DODGE!" ordered Marcus. Everypony flung themselves out of harm's way just before the foot came down. This time, the resulting shockwave was so intense it blasted Derpy out of the Doctor's grasp and flung her into a wall near to the alley's entrance. She felt her body bruise and hindering bursts of pain resonated from the spots where her skin had met concrete.
It took a few seconds for her to regain a full sense of her surroundings. During her blurry state, she saw more dust clouds rise around her and heard the angry roar of the Guardian echo through the air. The ghostly Ash appeared in front of her and attempted to help her up, but contact with his spiritual exterior made Derpy's skin ice over extremely quickly.
As her senses returned, Derpy saw Sylvia standing in the middle of the destroyed street with a massive weapon aimed up at the beast. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH!" she screamed before firing a red, fiery projectile up at the creature.
"SYLVIA! NO!" cried Ash.
The projectile collided with the Guardian's face. Golden ash and blue liquid rained down from the sky. The Guardian's body grew wild and uncontrollable. The gargantuan feet collided with the earth at much deadlier levels of strength. Massive cracks stretched across the street and even began trailing along the sidewalks and up some of the buildings. The roaring and sounds of destruction grew incredibly loud. It was soon at a point to where Derpy could hardly hear anything aside from a high-pitched ring. She turned towards the alleyway to see Ash beckoning her towards him. Through much effort, she picked herself off the cracking sidewalk and pushed herself towards the entrance of the alleyway. When she turned back towards the street, her heart sunk.
A massive hole was forming in the center of the street. An entire segment of the street was collapsing and opening up a humongous crevice, which seemed to present a view of a world consisting of pure darkness. The Guardian's flailing body fell into the opening street. However, Derpy quickly noticed a certain chestnut stallion sliding towards the dark crater. "DOCTOR!" she cried. The Doctor was grabbing for anything that could hold him but it was no use. He was going down.
No! She wasn't going to let him fall! She expanded her wings and, despite Ash's protest, flew straight towards the falling Doctor.
She was only a small field's length away now. A few yards. Several feet. Then...clank! Derpy gasped as a hard, metallic object struck the top of her head. Her skull screamed in agony as she fell onto the surface of the collapsing street. She could feel rubble raining down from the sky. One of the buildings was collapsing and it was falling down in her direction. All of her strength was gone. Her entire body was numb. Her eyes honed in on the Doctor and tears started pouring from her glassy gaze as her anchor to life and strength tumbled down into the abyss. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. But she was refused this act of expression.
Suddenly, a powerful pair of paws grabbed her and lifted her up. "I've got you!" said Marcus as he ran over the still collapsing street and towards the alleyway entrance.
"Doctor," she managed to utter with weak breath. "Doctor."
"I'm sorry, Derpy...he's gone."
The last thing Derpy saw before returning to the world of unconsciousness was her and Marcus passing through the entrance to the alleyway and a building collapsing over the hole which had pulled both the Guardian and the Doctor into its depths.
The Doctor didn't know how long he fell. He wasn't taking a very warm liking to the blurred passage of time created by the twilight. He preferred to be able to calculate time accurately and not upon dizzy guesswork.
By this point, the light of the twilight atmosphere was merely a speck in the high heavens. Everything else around him was darker than the furthest reaches of space. This whole world confused him. From what he could tell, he was already miles beneath the city of Lupae. By this point, he should have been crushed to death by the gravity and pressure of the planet's oncoming core. More magical tweaks, he deduced in thought.
Suddenly, a great feeling of tension built up inside him. He wasn't sure how long he had been falling but he knew that his fall was coming to an end. The bottom to this pit was coming up quickly. The fall would surely be the end of him. Would he be able to regenerate? What if he managed to sustain enough injuries in this world to prevent regeneration? Maybe...this was the end.
His ears twitched upward in anticipation. He listened closely to any sounds beyond the fall-induced wind blowing past his ears. The ominous words of Carmen's prophecy echoed through his subconscious. "It is returning. It is returning through the dark, and then Doctor...oh but then...he will knock four times," she had said.
He could feel the bottom growing closer and closer...and, yet, there was no knocking. His ears twitched. No knocking, he thought. No knocking. Then...maybe...this isn't the end!
The Doctor's eyes shot open as an external force began exerting on his body. The force definitely felt magical but had an older, more crafted feel to it. Every cell in the Doctor's body tingled in response to being exposed to this odd, foreign magic. After a moment or so, the Doctor felt a soft earth terrain meet his back. The magical force weakened and faded away into the dark.
The Doctor didn't sit up until the sound of falling rubble echoed in the silence. Suddenly, the silence had gone to be replaced by an orchestra of breaking glass, crumbling rock, bending metal, and cracking marble. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and activated it, making sure to bring it to the highest level of light possible.
Finally, the Doctor had light. It wasn't very spectacular, merely a small beam of blue light; but it was better than total darkness. He aimed the beam around and tried his best to get his bearings of the general area. From what he could make out of his surroundings through what his sonic flashlight had been able to reveal to him, he was able to deduce that he was sitting in the middle of an abnormally large cavern. Even calling it simply large was an understatement. The Doctor guessed that it had to be an extremely gargantuan space; for it was able to contain the massive corpse of the Lupae Guardian.
The Guardian hadn't been as lucky as the Doctor. Whether it had died following Sylvia's attack on it back up on the surface or had died from the impact of the fall was anyone's guess for the creature's corpse hardly showed the signs of falling from such a tremendous height. The Doctor stood up and decided that it was best to get as far away from the dead creature as possible. Given this twilight realm's power to keep the living and the dead trapped in a similar plane, it probably wouldn't be long now before the beast was resurrected.
Just as the Doctor began backing away from the fifty foot long corpse, the sound of coughing broke the silence that had just returned after the rubble had finished falling. He jumped and turned around, aiming his screwdriver's beam into the darkness. It took a few seconds of moving about but he eventually managed to illuminate his visitor. "Gah!" gasped a Ruleonite standing a few feet away as he placed one of his paws over his face.
"Klaus?!" the Doctor gasped in surprise as he approached the bandaged Ruleonite.
Klaus moved his paw away and met eye-to-eye with the Doctor through the dim light of the sonic. "Doctor! Oh thank the heavens! I thought the beast had fallen on you!"
"Thankfully, that didn't happen." The Doctor looked up towards the speck in the darkness that was the opening he, Klaus, and the Guardian had fallen through. "So you fell into the crevice too."
"Yeah." Klaus grunted as he rubbed his bandaged leg. "I don't remember much but Sylvia put me aside for a moment to fire at the monster. She tried to get over to me afterwards but the ground collapsed beneath me before she could. I think I blacked out on the way down because I don't remember anything after that before me waking up just now."
The Doctor gave a soft chuckle. "You know, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm kinda glad you fell down with me. Being alone is...well...I prefer to not be that."
Klaus chuckled in response before looking up towards the speck of light. "Is...is that where we fell from?!"
"Yep."
"How far down are we?! How can we still be alive?!"
"My guess is that we're maybe nearly a hundred miles down. Impossible, under normal circumstances, but I'm mostly certain that more powerful magic is at work here. Same goes to how we survived. There's an ancient magic down here...and, for some reason, it needs us alive."
"For what?"
The Doctor turned away from the black sky and turned back to Klaus. "That I'm not entirely sure of. But we best stick together and try to find a way back up to the surface."
Klaus sighed loudly. "I hope the others are okay."
The Doctor thought back to the last thing he had seen before falling into the abyss: Derpy flying towards him and being struck in the head by a falling piece of metal. "Me too. I wish there was a way for us to communicate with them." Just then, Klaus gasped. The Doctor turned to him. "Klaus? What is it?"
"I think I have just the thing to let us do that!" Klaus replied as he presented an object to the Doctor through the sonic light. It was a black walkie-talkie.
"Oh that is brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed as he rushed forward and politely took the communication device out of Klaus's grasp.
"I must have accidentally grabbed one out of Sylvia's bag before I fell into the hole."
"Let's just hope the other one's up there." The Doctor turned the walkie-talkie on. A soft static emanated from the tiny speaker. "Hello? Sylvia? Marcus? Derpy? Ash? This is the Doctor. I repeat. This is the Doctor. Can anyone hear me?" There was no response.
"Maybe theirs isn't on."
"Maybe." Suddenly, the static on the device grew loud and the exterior started to emanate a dim, white light. "Klaus...are walkie-talkies here on Nymphadora supposed to do that?"
"Not that I know of," Klaus replied awkwardly.
The static died down as a series of voices began emanating from the speaker. "Stop it! You've made your point! Just leave them alone!" pleaded the voice of Twilight Sparkle.
"Why would I do that? They've come here to kill me. I think it's only fitting that they receive an appropriate punishment. Besides, we wouldn't want to disappoint our viewers," chuckled the voice of King Dusk.
The sound of a snapping finger could be heard and was soon followed by the sound of metal scraping against marble. Twilight could be heard crying. "What is that?! What is that?!"
"Not those things again!" stated the panicked voice of Sylvia.
"Let them go, Dusk!" snarled the voice of Ash.
"Or what, spirit? Are you going to kill me yourself? You have no power here, little colonel," teased Dusk. There was another snapping of fingers. "Kill the pegasus first."
The Doctor felt his hearts skip a beat. "NO!" cried Twilight. "PLEASE! DON'T HURT HER!"
"Yes. Cry, little spark. Cry for the death of your worthless friend." A cold laugh echoed from the walkie-talkie. "Where's your precious Doctor now?"
"He'll come!" cried the voice of Derpy confidently. "He always does!"
"Not this time, pegasus," chuckled Dusk. "Your Doctor is dead. And now it's time for you to join him." Another snapping of fingers. "Kill her then take her to the kitchen. I'm in a mood for some pegasus soup."
"STOP! GET AWAY FROM HER!" Twilight cried. The sound of metal colliding rang out and the voices fell silent. Soft static emanated from the device for a full minute before fading away along with the dim, white light.
"Doctor?" asked a confused Klaus. "What was-"
"A warning," the Doctor stated. "That was a transmission from the future." The Doctor looked down at the walkie-talkie in the dim light and gulped. "I suggest that you and I head out right now. We need to find our way to the City Centre as soon as possible."
"How are we going to find our way there from down here in the dark?" Not two seconds later, the darkness was instantly broken by a series of white lights a few yards away. The Doctor and Klaus looked to see a small tunnel in one of the walls of the cavern. Small orbs of white fire could be seen clinging to the walls of the tunnel. The light of the fire seemed to fill the Doctor's body with strength. It appeared to do the same thing to Klaus for he instantly stood up, the injuries to his leg apparently having been healed. "Where...where did that come from?" Klaus looked down at his leg. "How-"
"Like I said earlier, there's an ancient magic down here that needs you and I alive." The Doctor looked down at the walkie-talkie. Don't worry, Derpy. I will be there, he thought before making his way towards the lit tunnel.
"Initial contact has been made." The Doctor jumped and looked around upon hearing the soft, foreign voice.
"What's wrong?" Klaus asked.
"Did you hear that?" the Doctor asked back.
Klaus gave a confused expression. "Hear what?"
The Doctor turned back towards the fiery white tunnel. He breathed deeply and sighed as he began to register the faint murmurs and mumblings of distant voices emanating from within. "Nothing. Never mind."
The Doctor and Klaus walked side-by-side through the tunnel. The orbs of white fire floated peacefully in the air, casting soft shadows across the floor and ceiling. The air, which had been a comfortable lukewarm back in the massive chamber, had grown considerably cold in spite of the presence of the white fire. It was moments like these where the Doctor was thankful to be a pony with a coat of fur instead of a humanoid with easy-to-chill skin.
Klaus appeared to still be simultaneously confused, frightened, and joyous about the healing of his previously-broken leg. Still, the Ruleonite had a heavy, depressing aura emanating from him. It didn't take much thought for the Doctor to understand why. The poor soldier had lost his sister and several of his friends in a brutal crash and fire only a few hours ago at the max. His ears drooped, his fluffy tail was hardly vibrant, and his eyes were glassy and distant. The Doctor could tell that the soldier had yet to see carnage such as this prior to his entrance of Dusk's twilight. Sure, he had probably seen a few fights and brawls up on the unstable Auran but had probably yet to see the true and complete horrors of war. Now he had.
As the Doctor and his Ruleonite companion walked on, the tunnel seemed to bend and twist. The Doctor knew it was simply an illusion created as the result of staring down the seemingly endless tunnel of magical fire for such a long duration of time and hardly thought anything of it. The Time Lord pony couldn't help but give a quick glance in his companion's direction. Klaus appeared stable and sound of mind. The Doctor gave a quiet sigh of relief. He knew such illusions could cause the confused and emotionally hurt to experience extra doses of psychological fear. Thankfully, Klaus appeared to be the type who could handle such an uncomfortable mixture of emotional trauma and external phenomena.
Once again, time began to twist, shrink, stretch, and bend all at the same time. The land and air around the Doctor grew fuzzy and felt almost incomplete in a sense. He wanted to get a sense of the passing of time. He wanted to get a sense of anything passing. The Doctor never realized how much he would miss the internal sensation of himself, everyone and everything around him, and the planet beneath his feet, now hooves, falling through space at such tremendous speeds. The twilight took this ancient sensation away from him. He desperately wanted it back.
"So...when are we supposed to know when we're underneath the City Centre?" Klaus asked.
"Oh I think we'll know," the Doctor replied.
Klaus glanced at the Doctor's chest for a moment. "Holding onto something precious?"
"What?" Klaus pointed at the Doctor's chest and he looked to see that one of his forehooves was pressed tightly against the suit pocket where he was currently storing both his sonic screwdriver and the walkie-talkie that had broadcast the troubling future confrontation. "Oh...it's nothing. Just...stuff."
"Okay. Whatever you say."
Klaus continued forward and the Doctor placed his forehoof back down on the rocky surface before continuing after his Ruleonite companion.
Suddenly, a mere moment later, Klaus's ears shot up and he turned back in the direction they had come from. "Do you hear that?" he asked.
Looks like we're both hearing things down here, the Doctor thought with slight amusement as he stared back into the darkness. Almost instantly, a sense of fear and tension overcame him. Being a common traveler of space and time, the dark didn't really frighten him unless it was hosting some Vashta Nerada. Down here, however, the Doctor could feel some incredibly strong and unwanted forces reverberating from the depths of the darkness.
"So what do you hear?" the Doctor asked.
"It sounds like clawing." Klaus stretched his ears a bit and nodded. "Yep. Definitely clawing."
The Doctor felt a shiver course through him. The earth beneath his hooves seemed to groan. It was crying. It was in pain. Something unnatural was coming through it. Something unwanted and forced. The Doctor cleared his throat and started continuing in the direction he and Klaus were headed. "I suggest we go right now. I don't think we're alone down here anymore."
"Is the Guardian coming back?" Klaus asked instantly.
"No. Our threat is smaller...but far greater in number." As if on cue, a series of blank, white eyes appeared in the darkness of the tunnel behind them. Dirt began falling from the walls and ceiling and the floor started to crack. "Klaus, start running. Now!"
The Doctor took off in a full gallop with Klaus hastily following not far behind. Pained, depressing shrieks and groans started echoing through the air around them. The dirt and stone around them was quickly falling apart. Hands, paws, claws, and a whole assortment of limbs and appendages were starting to claw out of the earth. Klaus was soon running immediately next to the Doctor. The Doctor noticed Klaus beginning to glance back.
"Don't look back!" the Doctor snapped. Klaus instantly looked ahead once more. "Don't think about what's behind us! Just keep looking forward! Keep running forward!" The Doctor's words began to become directed as much to himself as they were to Klaus.
The Doctor could feel them reaching for him and Klaus. He could feel them clawing through the surrounding earth. He could feel their hot, stale breath on his neck and rump. He could hear their hungry cries for true life. At times, the Doctor was tempted to take a solid millisecond to glance back at cursed attackers trapped in a state more resemblant to that of Hell than Limbo. But he knew he couldn't perform such an act. To do such a thing would cause him to stop and stare into their desperate, tortured pupils. He had seen enough pain and sadness within the eyes of too many creatures and friends. This was the limit. He didn't want to face these poor creatures. He would try his best to save them, sure. But we wasn't going to look at them. Even if bringing back Donna Noble's memories of him was the reward, he still wouldn't look back. The sadness would kill him. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
"Doctor! There's something ahead!" Klaus exclaimed as he pointed in the direction of a pair of metal doors a few yards ahead of them. The doors were definitely connected to something but the rest of the structure was blocked off by the rest of the surrounding dirt and stone.
The Doctor's hearts beat even faster as he noticed that the doors were closing. This was it. This was his and Klaus's escape from their attackers. However, it could also prove to be their trap in they weren't fast enough. "Just keep running! Don't stop!" the Doctor ordered. His hooves kicked off the earth with an almost angelic grace.
Despite all the running, the air around them seemed to grow colder with every frantic breath. The Doctor could see clouded bursts of air moving from his open, panting mouth and trailing behind him like comet tails. He and Klaus were getting close to the closing metal doors. He could feel the attackers behind him reaching for his hind legs and tail.
"We're not going to make it!" cried Klaus.
The Doctor had to admit that their chances seemed narrow. The doors were at the point where only a single being could squeeze through the opening at a time and the poor monsters behind them were literally right behind them. Yes, their chances of survival now were pretty slim.
A mischievous smile of glee appeared on the Doctor's face. Yes, lady luck was not on their side. Yes, things sure looked grim. Yes, the chance of them surviving was about equal to that of a mouse stopping an oncoming train. But he was the Doctor. Moments like this, moments of slim survival and unfair odds, were what he was an expert at getting around. This wasn't the first time he had faced odds like this and it certainly wouldn't be the last. No matter what face or form he took, no matter what personality and warped morals, no matter if he was running on feet or hooves, no matter what horribly unfair and outmatched situations he was put in, he would always be the Doctor: the master of spitting in the face of impossibility.
"Get in front of me and think positively!" the Doctor ordered as he suddenly grabbed Klaus and placed him ahead, shoving his head directly into Klaus's back to push him forward. "We're going to make it!" The Doctor could see the doors a mere leap of faith away. "Now...JUMP!"
In that instant, both the Doctor and Klaus leapt for the closing doors. Silence seemed to fall in that one second. Tortured souls reaching from behind. Doors closing ahead. Nothing but air surrounding their bodies as they flew. The only sounds being that of thumping hearts and held breaths.
The Doctor couldn't see anything clearly at this point. Most of his vision was obscured due to his face being mostly dug into Klaus's back. This didn't matter. The Doctor simply closed his eyes tightly and took a breath, his senses anxiously waiting in anticipation for the results of the leap. Would they make it through? Would they be trapped with the hungry corpses? Would they be caught in between and mutilated? He would find out soon enough.
The doors slammed shut.
Derpy regained consciousness to a city that was completely silent aside from the sound of hoofsteps on cement. The pegasus looked down to see a pair of furry paws walking along the ground beneath her. Hoofsteps. Footsteps. Whatever. I'm calling them hoofsteps, she thought as a mild pain rocked her skull.
"You awake?" came the voice of Marcus the Nymphadorian from above. Derpy, upon instinct, reached for the spot of her head that hurt the most and felt it. There was an incredibly prominent bump rising up from the top center of her cranium. "Got a nasty bump on the head a while back. I managed to clean it up to the best of my abilities."
Derpy gave a nearly silent cough and opened her eyes completely to make eye contact with Marcus. "How...how long-"
"My guess is that it's been an hour or so. Maybe two. Can't really tell. Time doesn't flow naturally here."
Derpy began moving around. "Can you let me down now?" she asked.
"You sure you're fine walking...or flying on your own? I don't mind carrying you. To be completely honest, you're not that heavy."
Derpy giggled. "I'm fine. Head hurts a bit but I'm sure I can walk and fly just fine."
"Okay. If you need any help just say the word and I'll resume carrying you."
Derpy nodded in response. Marcus slowly lessened his hold on her and, with a few flaps of her wings, she was soon flying peacefully next to him.
As Derpy slowly regained her full train of thought, she quickly noticed that their group was two members short. Marcus was walking next to her, Ash and Sylvia were walking together a couple feet ahead, but there was no sign of the Doctor or Klaus.
That's when full recollection of the events leading up to her unconsciousness came back to her.
"Oh no," Derpy uttered as she lowered herself to the ground. Her entire body began shaking. Tears formed in her eyes and fell down onto the cement surface beneath her. "Nooooooooo." Her voice was weak. She didn't have the strength to scream. She could merely sit there in her new pit of despair and guilt.
She shook as Marcus placed a paw on her shoulder. "Derpy...I'm sorry. I'm really, truly sorry," he said.
Derpy knew he meant well and was thankful for his words. But they weren't helping. How could they? The Doctor had fallen into an abyss. Her traveling companion was gone. The only creature that could get her back to her home was gone. But most importantly, her friend was gone. Not only that, but poor Klaus had fallen into darkness as well. It wasn't fair. The Ruleonite had already suffered enough. He had deserved better than this. Both of them had deserved better.
A familiar aura of cold swept over Derpy. She looked up to find herself staring into the ghostly eyes of Colonel Ash. "If it makes you feel any better, we're not one hundred percent certain that the Doctor and Klaus are dead," he stated warmly.
Derpy wiped her eyes and choked slightly on her tears. "But how could they not be?" she asked. "They fell into that hole in the ground!"
Ash nodded. "Yes...they did, but we didn't see them return as spirits." The spirit froze for a moment. "Normally, if someone dies in Dusk's twilight, they turn into a trapped spirit. Like me. Like the others that were part of Sylvia's group. They usually turn up not long after their deaths. By now, if the Doctor and Klaus were indeed dead, we should have run across them again." He gave a confident smile. "But we haven't."
"So...they're not dead?"
"In all honesty, I can't say for sure. There's definitely a chance that they are dead now but there's also an equal chance in favor of them being alive. There's hope, Derpy. We can have hope for their survival. In times like these and in places like this, hope is something we desperately need." Ash softly placed one of his fingers beneath Derpy's chin. It was cold but he wasn't making enough contact to cause her coat to ice over. "So don't cry now, Derpy. Just hope. Have hope for the Doctor and Klaus. I do. And if a spirit can have hope then I'm sure a bubbly pegasus can have ten times as much."
Derpy giggled before wiping the final stream of tears from her eyes, an expression of confidence now replacing her previously sad face. She gave a quick nod then flapped her wings to return to the air. As she did so, she looked up to see where she, Marcus, Ash, and Sylvia were now.
The gargantuan buildings of Lupae surrounded them on all sides. However, one particular building stood out from the rest. It was easily the tallest and reached towards the sky at such lengths that it wouldn't surprise Derpy if it were taller than the mountain where Canterlot resided. Even in the bleak twilight, Derpy had to admit that the building was a marvel. A carefully designed glass, marble, metal exterior with spires, statues, and thousands upon thousands of windows. Strangely enough, the twilight sort of made the City Centre look kind of beautiful.
Strange. When Derpy stopped to think about it, certain aspects of the twilight realm were wonders to behold. Silver wisps in the air and sky. The violet hues. The electrified hum in the air. If it weren't for the terrible tyrant, monsters, and trapped spirits, the twilight could have been a thoroughly gorgeous sight.
Just then, the ground shook. Derpy and the others hastily prepared themselves for any possible threats. "More monsters?" Sylvia asked as she pulled out one of the many guns in her bag.
Ash knelt down and placed his paw on the ground. He jumped back a moment later and shook. "We need to move. They're coming up," he said.
"Who's coming up?" Marcus asked.
"The Indecisive. Now come on!"
Small cracks began appearing in the sidewalk and street. Derpy didn't want to waste time questioning Ash further and simply continued after him alongside Marcus and Sylvia.
A loud clang rang out as the Doctor and Klaus collided with the metal floor, the closing doors behind them giving off a sound that was somewhere between a clang and a hiss. The Doctor heard Klaus give a loud groan and, honestly, the Doctor didn't blame him. Getting rammed in the back by a stallion and colliding with a metal floor probably didn't give off the best of sensations.
The Doctor stood up to see that he and Klaus were at the edge of a massive room filled with various computers, hard drives, and various electrical hardware. It was easily the size of a football stadium with a few extra meters of width added. The walls, floor, and ceiling were perfectly clean and sparkled like diamonds in the violet light.
The Doctor's attention was then drawn to a large, black letter and a large, black number painted into the wall on the opposite side of the room: B9.
B9. Basement Nine. We're nine floors beneath the surface, the Doctor concluded in thought as he looked at the ceiling. "I suppose we'll be needing to find a way up."
Klaus stood up and rubbed his back. "The shoving wasn't necessary. I was running pretty fast on my own," he stated.
"Sorry. Didn't want to take any chances," the Doctor said with a grin. His smile only grew bigger when he noticed a staircase door situated a few yards away. "Alrighty then! Let's head up!"
"Right! So where do you think we are?"
"I believe this is the City Centre."
"Really?! We're here already?!"
"The twilight warps time and space, Klaus. Besides, what other building would need to have more than nine levels underground?"
Klaus glanced over at the B9 on the opposite wall and nodded. "Fair enough."
The Doctor and Klaus ran over to the door and opened it. Upon entering the room beyond, they both whistled in response to seeing the great length the staircase extended in both directions.
"Well, time to climb some stairs!" exclaimed the Doctor with a giddy shake.
"You seem a lot happier about this than you should," Klaus commented with a deadpan expression.
"Oh come on, Bugs! A little bit of stairs never hurt anyone! Well...unless they tripped and fell. Then it would hurt. I would recommend not tripping."
"You call this," Klaus moved towards the railing, extended his arm outwards, and waved his arm upwards then downwards, "a little bit of stairs?!"
The Doctor was silent for a moment. "Have I mentioned that I've done a lot of running throughout my life?"
Klaus raised an eyebrow. "Enough to consider this little?"
"I'm over nine hundred years old. Needless to say, one can do a lot of running in that period of time."
The Doctor started ascending the staircase with Klaus following close behind.
"Over nine hundred years old, huh? I must say that you look pretty good for your age," Klaus said with a chuckle.
"Thank you very much, they didn't invent hygienic products for nothing. Of course, regeneration also plays a bit of a role but that's a whole other can of worms."
"Well, we've got a long climb ahead of us. We've got time for this can of worms."
"Let's just change the subject. Something else. Anything. Well...except a topic about pears. I hate pears!"
"Come on! Run!" shouted Sylvia as the sound of cracking grew louder with every passing second. The cracks that had started out small were now growing enormous in size. Even while flying, Derpy could feel the vibrations caused by the tearing and breaking moving through the air.
Ash was having an easy enough experience getting across the breaking ground due to his spiritual state while Marcus and Sylvia were having a more rocky trek. It wasn't long before Derpy realized that black, dirty, rotting limbs and other appendages were breaking through the surface. They looked so weak and frail that the pegasus found it shocking that they had been able to break through the seemingly thick and sturdy cement streets and sidewalks of Lupae.
The creatures clawing from beneath the city seemed different from the spirits and monsters. They were something in between. Something less bloodthirsty than the monsters but more tragic than the spirits. "Don't look at them! Just keep heading towards the City Centre! We're almost there!" Ash ordered.
Derpy turned away from the various appendages and looked ahead to see that they were now two blocks or so away from the main ground entrance of the City Centre. The building loomed over them like a giant and cast a dark purple shadow over them. Despite the fact that she knew there was an evil tyrant with unbelievable power waiting inside, Derpy saw the oncoming City Centre as a safe point. A place of tranquility amongst insanity.
An arm grabbed onto Sylvia's leg but was quickly shot away from a blast produced by the Auranian's gun. Ash accidentally passed through a pair of clawing arms, which froze and shattered mere seconds after the initial contact. Marcus was pretty good at dodging the fast and vicious appendages. This quickly grew to become one of those moments where Derpy was thankful she was a pegasus. But she didn't spend as much time being thankful that she didn't have to put up with zombies reaching for her as much as she spent worrying about the safety of her friends on the ground.
The front doors were about half a block away now. They were so close that the group could see their reflections clearly in the glass windows. The street and sidewalk behind them was quickly becoming a massive, jagged collection of cracked cement and dispersed dust and dirt. Derpy glanced back to see that many of the creatures had managed to pull their entire abdomens up above the ground. Their eyes were milky white and their mouths were red and cracked like burning coals. The rest of their bodies chipped and tore like a mixture of rock and burnt flesh.
Derpy froze as she met their eyes. They were so white. So pained. So desperate for life. She stopped and fell to the ground. She couldn't cease staring into their eyes as they continued to crawl out of the ground. The surface cracked around her and more arms appeared.
"DERPY!" cried the voice of Ash. "MOVE!"
She wanted to listen to him. She wanted to follow his command and run straight through the glass doors. But she couldn't. The eyes of the Indecisive created such great sadness within her that she found it painful to even think about leaving them. All they wanted was freedom. Whether that meant return to life or return to what came after was unclear.
She was transfixed. Perfectly fine with sitting there, waiting for them to grab her. Waiting to help give them the freedom they deserved.
A sharp cold pierced her skin as she was unexpectedly lifted into the air. As her coat and skin started icing over, Derpy was tossed violently through the air by the ghostly hands of Ash. With her eye contact with the Indecisive broken, she flapped her wings and flew forward. Unfortunately, a sealed window lay before her instead of an open door.
CRASH!!!
Derpy smashed through the window. Glass flew inwards. She felt nothing pierce or cut her skin but she did feel a sharp pain emanate from the bump on her head. Her flapping wings kept her airborne for an extra second or two before she fell to the ground behind a sleek reception desk.
"Ugh," she groaned upon sitting up a few seconds later. Several random spots of her body were bruised, a constant pain was coming from her already bruised scalp, and small trickles of blood dripped from the few incredibly small cuts scattered about her body.
"That's one way to make an entrance," chuckled Sylvia nervously as she knelt down next to Derpy to examine her.
"How is she?" asked Ash as he ran up. "I threw her in the wrong direction!"
Sylvia patted Derpy's shoulder and nodded at Ash. "I think she'll be fine. A bit bruised up, but fine."
"That does it," Derpy said with a now deadpan expression. "I'm never letting anypony or anything throw me ever again."
"That's the spirit!" said Marcus with an overly enthusiastic tone before helping Derpy to her hooves.
Derpy looked back at the broken window she had flown through. Beyond that, she could see that the Indecisive couldn't get any less than ten feet closer to the exterior of the building.
"This place is protected," said Sylvia upon looking upwards. She gave several, hard sniffs and flicked her snake tongue. "I can taste the magic in the air."
"I think I can too," Derpy stated. This was followed by a quick cough. She recoiled her tongue in response to the new taste of burnt food she was experiencing.
"At least we don't have to worry about them anymore," Marcus sighed with a nod at the Indecisive. "Now all we have left to worry about is Dusk."
Derpy, Marcus, and Ash followed Sylvia's example and looked up at the ceiling. "Personally, I'm hoping we run across Twilight before we meet Dusk again," said Derpy.
Marcus nodded. "I'm with ya on that one, Derpy. One hundred percent."
"Hey! The ground's cracking!" exclaimed Thea. The ghost girl tapped her finger against the window and jumped with a strange, giddy excitement while Twilight approached to inspect the new sight.
She was right. The streets in the city far below were indeed cracking and Twilight could just barely make out strange forms emerging from them.
"What in the name of Celestia is going on down there?!" Twilight asked.
Thea crossed her arms and bit her lip. "It looks like zombies, if you ask me."
Twilight rolled her eyes. Great. Just what this place needed: zombies. As if the ghosts, monsters, and sadistic tyrant weren't enough, she vented in thought.
Thea scratched her chin. "Something big must be happening down there to be causing them to wake up like that."
Twilight couldn't help but smile. "Maybe they're here," the unicorn stated hopefully.
"Your friends?" Thea turned to Twilight.
"Yeah."
A cool chill ran down Twilight's back. "The time is coming."
Twilight quickly turned back towards the doorway of her bedroom. Nothing was there.
"Whatcha looking at?" Thea asked as she prodded Twilight with her ghostly finger, causing another cold sensation for the unicorn.
Twilight shook her head. "Nothing. Just thinking about what I hope ends up being my trump card," she replied. She turned back around and stared out the window once again. Hundreds of feet below, a black crowd could now be seen swarming around the City Centre's ground level.
Marcus gave an annoyed grunt as Ash poked him, a temporary ice patch appearing on his shoulder. He had been on his way to press the elevator button. "I think it would be wise for us to use a method of getting up to the top that wouldn't immediately alert Dusk about our presence," Ash stated with a snide grin.
Marcus grunted. "I think the zombies outside are already doing that," he said.
"Not at the moment. Right now, if Dusk has noticed them, he probably thinks of the Indecisive as a random monster gathering and nothing more. There's been plenty of them throughout the past month. Believe me, I've seen a few."
Derpy glanced back at the crowd of deformed, tormented monsters swarming just a few feet away from the exterior of the building. She quickly turned her attention away from them for she wasn't too keen of making eye contact with them again.
"We take the stairs," Ash insisted. "It's a bit of a climb but it'll at least give us the element of surprise."
The group began making its way towards a nearby stairwell entrance. Derpy groaned a bit as she walked along. She was still pretty sore from being thrown through the window.
"You holding up?" Marcus asked as he held onto the Doctor's suitcase tightly. Derpy was a bit impressed that he had managed to hold onto it throughout all the chaos.
"As good as I can right now," Derpy replied with a cheeky, weak grin.
"Need me to carry you again?"
"I'm fine."
"You didn't ask me if I wanted to be carried," Sylvia teased.
"Since when did you need to be carried by me? Last time I checked, you were holding out just fine!" Marcus teased back.
Sylvia pushed the door open and the group passed through the threshold to be greeted with the sight of a stairwell that seemed to stretch to infinity in both directions. "Well, we better get started then," she stated as she clutched her bag of weapons tighter.
Derpy already didn't like the City Centre. She hadn't been very fond of it during her first visit due to the fact that President Targaryen had brought her and Twilight there via ponynapping but she definitely didn't like it now. She could sense the foreign, dark magic swelling through the walls and air around her.
As she walked up the stairs and felt the magic coursing around her, she thought back to her early school days. She remembered learning about how all types of ponies had a form of magic within them. Unicorns, obviously, were the most connected with the magical auras of Equestria and had the ability to control it. Pegasi had magic which allowed them to fly and control the sky. Earth ponies had magic which connected to the earth and gave them greater strength than that of the other races.
She remembered a particular note about how spells, enchantments, and the like were normally only sensed by unicorns due to the type of magical power within them. However, if strong enough, a spell or enchantment could also be sensed by pegasi and earth ponies, even still it would take a lot of focus to even get a twinge of notice about the magic's presence.
Here, Derpy could definitely sense the magic around her and she wasn't even trying. The last time she had felt this way had been back when she had visited Canterlot with the Doctor prior to coming to Nymphadora. But she assumed that was mostly due to the large abundance of unicorns there and that it was home to three alicorn princesses. However, what she had felt in Canterlot was far different from what she was currently experiencing. Canterlot had been filled with light magic. Magic that gave her strength and positive emotions. The City Centre was filled with dark magic. It made her itchy, incredibly uncomfortable, paranoid, and also seemed to slow down her body's healing abilities with her cuts and bruises continuing to throb for quite some time.
"You doing okay?" Marcus asked.
Derpy snapped out of her thoughts and rolled her eyes in a way that reminded her of certain spoiled filly she had come across back in Ponyville once. Metal Crown her name was, if she remembered correctly. "Didn't you just ask me that?! Yes! I'm fine!" she snapped.
Marcus was a little taken aback by Derpy's agitated state. "First, I asked you that about half an hour ago. And second, you don't seem fine."
Derpy's eyes widened in disbelief. "Half an hour?! No. It can't have been that long! We only just started climbing the stairs!"
"Marcus is right, Derpy. We've been climbing for the past half hour or so. Give or take a few minutes," Ash informed with a goofy smile.
Derpy twitched a bit. The dark magic was everywhere. "I think this place is getting to me," she stated in an almost emotionless manner. She looked at the pitch black abyss that stretched upwards and downwards in the stairwell's chamber. "It's the dark magic. There's a lot of it."
"No doubt about that," said Marcus as he nervously looked around. He looked at Ash. "How much further do we have to climb?"
"Quite a bit," Ash replied.
"I'm really wishing we could have taken the elevator."
"Well if you want Dusk to give you a friendly welcome, by all means take the elevator."
"Let's see. Face a twilight king or climb a billion and one steps?" Marcus stroked his chin. "I think this is a pick your poison situation."
Ash rolled his eyes and continued up the steps. Marcus and Sylvia fell silent.
Derpy continued to say on guard. She kept her mind focused on walking. No more slipping back into the past. No more letting her mind wander. No more thinking about the dark energy suffocating her like a giant plastic bag. Get up the stairs. Find Twilight. Defeat Dusk. Save Nymphadora, she thought as she continued to climb. Get up the stairs. Find Twilight. Defeat Dusk. Save Nymphadora.
The Doctor and Klaus stopped a level short of the ground floor. Klaus leaned against the wall and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. "So. Many. Stairs," he breathed.
"Oh it wasn't that bad," said the Doctor. "We've only climbed a little over 3000 steps."
"3000?!"
"Well, 3192 but who's counting?" The Doctor leaned over the railing a bit and looked up. "Still got a ways to go."
"Spectacular."
"Spectacular, indeed." The Doctor moved towards the next flight of stairs. "Come on then! Many more steps await to be walked upon!"
Klaus stood up and stretched his arms and legs. "Am I supposed to get excited now or later?" he asked with a deadpan expression.
"Whenever you like will work," the Doctor replied with a wave of a hoof. The Doctor turned away from Klaus and faced the stairs ahead of him.
"The time is coming."
The Doctor jumped and turned around.
Klaus came to a stop next to him and gave a curious expression. "You alright there? You look like you just smelled something awful," inquired the Ruleonite.
The Doctor turned away from Klaus and continued his trek up the stairs. "Just thought I heard something," he replied.
"Could it be one of those zombies?"
The Doctor shook his head. "No." He cleared his throat and adjusted his tie. "Something far more powerful than that."
Twilight wasn't sure how long she spent staring down at the bulging mass of monsters hundreds of feet below. She was curious about them, but she also felt a little sad as well.
"How long are you going to stare out that window?" asked the bored voice of Thea.
Twilight looked back. The ghostly Nymphadorian was sprawled out on her bed. She was focused on stroking her claws through her hair. Twilight smiled at the child.
"You don't have to wait around for me, you know. There's an entire building for you to explore," the unicorn stated with a chuckle.
"I've already been all over this place. It's boring."
Twilight pressed her chest forward and approached the girl with a smirk. "Well I find it fascinating...aside from the complete jerks that have lived in it recently."
"Well that's because you're an egghead."
Twilight froze. Every part of her seemed to melt like butter on a hot day. "What did you say?" she asked with next to no emotion.
"I called you an egghead." Thea lied on her belly and looked at Twilight with a childish grin, her back legs kicking up in the air dreamily. "Whatcha gonna do about it?" Twilight stumbled back and sat down on the floor. Tears started pouring from her eyes. She covered her face with her hooves as she started to weep. Thea jumped off the bed and ran to Twilight's side. "Whoa! Wait a sec! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings! I was just joking around!"
"I know." Twilight nodded as she wiped the tears away. "It's just that one of my friends calls me that all the time...and I really miss her. Her and the rest of my friends and family."
Thea stepped in front of Twilight and sat down, crossing her legs as she did so. "Tell me about Equestria."
Twilight wiped the last of the tears from her eyes and stared deep into the wide, yearning eyes of the young child sitting before her. "What?"
"Equestria. Tell me about it. I remember hearing a few things about it and Gaia during school. What's it like?"
Twilight smiled and calmed herself down with a few deep breaths. "Well, firstly, it's very beautiful and spans through many different climates. Forest, desert, beach, city, village, mountain, snow. We've got it all."
"I've never seen snow," Thea said as she played with her own hair.
"Really? Never?" Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.
Thea leaned in close to Twilight. "In case you haven't noticed, Lupae's located in a desert. I don't know how things work on Gaia but, here, snow isn't usually found in the desert."
Twilight giggled. "The same rule applies on Gaia."
"Cool! Tell me more!"
Twilight scratched her chin slightly. She was about to start explaining to Thea about Equestria's political structure when an odd, yet familiar, feeling overcame her. A feeling of strength and power coupled with the uncomfortable sensation of being watched by something she couldn't see. Twilight looked around the bedroom, zooming in on every dark corner and shadow. She and Thea were no longer alone and it wasn't because of Dusk.
Derpy had managed to keep herself focused for a great deal of time. Yet that didn't stop the external forces acting on her from annoying her and putting her on the edge of exploding in a cloud of emotional output.
She was thankful that the others had so far remained silent and hadn't asked her any questions. She didn't want to snap at them or be angry but the negative power surrounding her was certainly not making her feel any less paranoid or agitated.
She and the others had just climbed yet another flight of stairs when she came to a sudden, unexpected stop. A new feeling had made itself known and it was most definitely different from the other feelings she had been experiencing. It gave her strength and stamina but also increased her paranoia and gave her the impression that some powerful force was bearing right down on top of her.
The others quickly noticed the pegasus mare's sudden refusal to continue the trek upwards and turned to face her.
"Derpy?" Marcus asked.
"Is something wrong?" Sylvia asked.
Derpy's teeth started to chatter as she looked at her fellow anthropomorphic companions. "Something's here with us," she replied.
The Doctor and Klaus reached the ground floor. The Doctor stopped for a moment as he noticed a small but noticeable detail. "Hold on a moment," he said to Klaus as he approached the door that led out towards the ground floor lobby.
"What's up?" Klaus asked.
"Look." The Doctor pointed at the door, which was slightly ajar.
"Okay. I see a door." The Doctor leaned towards Klaus, expecting the Ruleonite to give further details. "Is there something else I should be noticing?"
"It's ajar."
Klaus took a couple steps towards the door and nodded. "Ah. Yes. I see. It is indeed ajar."
"Exactly!"
"Just one question, Doctor."
"Feel free to ask away!"
"Um...yes...well...why does it matter, exactly?"
"It matters because..." The Doctor rubbed one of his hooves against the door and gave it a quick lick. "It matters because somebody else was here." The Doctor licked his lips and looked up diagonally in thought. "And somepony as well."
"The others! They made it here!" Klaus exclaimed.
"Looks like it," the Doctor confirmed with a smile. Just then, a terrifyingly strong presence made itself known to him. He couldn't detect where it was but he knew it was close and it was constantly giving off waves of power that made the Time Lord feel an equal increase in both strength and uncomfortableness. The hairs on the back of his neck began to stand up. The Doctor could feel every part of him freezing up. Something was right behind him. Something powerful. Something with a plan. He looked to his left to see that Klaus was completely oblivious to their guest's appearance. "I'd stay still if I were you, Klaus."
Klaus turned his attention to the Doctor. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"We're not alone anymore. We have a guest. And they're right behind us."
Just before Klaus could turn around, the Doctor felt something resembling that of a great hand grabbing onto his back. A massive charge coursed through his body and everything suddenly appeared to be covered in white light. Strong winds blew past him from above and the stairwell dissolved into a swirling mass of liquid and electronic orbs.
The Doctor and Klaus were flying up.
Twilight fell over as a sharp pain rocked her skull. The entire City Centre seemed to rock back and forth around her. The floor shook and bent like the angry surface of the ocean during a violent storm. "Dear Celestia, that hurts!" she cried through gritted teeth. Waves of white light bounced up and down the walls of the room and potentially beyond.
Twilight grabbed her head and applied a great amount of pressure to it, hoping that in some vain attempt it would cause the pain to decrease. She looked up to see if she could gain any strength or composure from looking into the youthful eyes of her deceased companion, only to see that the young Nymphadorian was fading away.
"Twilight? Twilight?! Something's wrong! I'm fading! I'm going away!" cried Thea, her voice obviously shaking with fear and uncertainty.
"Thea?! Thea?!" Twilight cried as she reached for her ghostly friend. Seconds later, the Nymphadorian girl disappeared. "Thea! Come back, Thea! THEA!"
Derpy fell to the ground as a wave of white light coursed up the stairwell from far below. Marcus and Sylvia grabbed the railing while Ash seemed to freeze in place. The spiritual colonel started shaking. Trails of icy vapor floated up from his claws, eyes, nose, and mouth.
"Ash?!" asked a worried Marcus.
Ash's faced contorted and twisted in ways that Derpy figured only the dead were capable of performing. His arms and legs bent at odd, impossible angles and his head bent back at such a sharp angle that Derpy almost expected it to rip off. His body started to flicker in sync with the waves of white light now coursing up and down the walls around them.
A soft humming filled the air and Derpy gasped as the sensation of a large, icy blade driving into her from below passed through her. She wrapped her arms around her torso as the feeling faded away to be replaced with lukewarm heat.
Ash grabbed the wall and began to gasp quickly and heavily.
Ash let out a fearful, angry screech as his ghostly form blew apart like an ice sculpture being hit by a comet.
The shaking and flashing light soon stopped and Marcus dashed over to the spot that Ash had been standing seconds earlier. "Ash?! ASH?! WHERE ARE YOU?! ASH?!" he cried.
Sylvia slumped against the railing. She appeared to be incredibly shaken by the event.
Derpy remained on the floor. She looked up into the dark abyss that was the upper floors and gave a look of determination. The dark magic that had been previously affecting her seemed dulled and lifeless now. Every part of her was now filled with a strong determination to reach the upper floors. To save her friend. To stop the tyrant.
"You haven't stopped us, Dusk," Derpy stated under her breath. "You've only made me want to defeat you that much more."
The Doctor and Klaus simultaneously let out a loud gasp as their electrifying trip came to an abrupt end. The silent stillness of the stairwell was no longer present. Instead, the two travelers were now embraced in a cold wind blowing around them with the sound of roaring thunder emanating from high above.
"Doctor? How the hell did we end up all the way up here?" Klaus asked.
The Doctor examined their new surroundings with an impressed smirk. He and Klaus were now standing on the very top of the City Centre. A small doorway presumably leading to the stairwell was situated behind them. The vast land of twilight spread out from the tall building and extended off into the horizon. Dark purple clouds were now orbiting above the building in a spiral fashion. Indigo and silver lightning occasionally appeared in the moving mass and was fittingly followed by thunder which roared with the ferocity of an angry lion.
"You should be happy, Klaus," stated the Doctor with a cheeky grin. "We no longer have to climb up all those stairs!"
Klaus gave a nod to the side. "Though we may have missed our mark by a little bit," he added.
"Yeah. Maybe a little." The Doctor sighed as he looked up at the swirling thunder clouds of twilight.
Twilight remained still for quite some time after the event of shaking and flashing had passed. She occasionally, weakly, called out for Thea to come to her; but she was met with no reply. Her companion had disappeared. Vanished like breath on a mirror.
Suddenly, the sound of heavy metal footsteps emanated from the hallway. Twilight groaned as she forced herself to sit up. She knew who was coming.
"That was quite a show, wasn't it?" chuckled Dusk as he entered the room. "It seems my old friend is growing restless."
"Your...old friend?" Twilight groaned.
Dusk snarled as he approached Twilight. He reached down, grabbed her by the neck, and lifted her up. He cocked his head a bit as he stared straight at her. Twilight could feel his soulless eyes drilling deep into the innards of her psyche.
"Whatever little plan you think you have, it's not going to work," chuckled the tyrant. "I already know that your little friends have finally gotten around to entering this building."
Twilight wanted to gasp but found that she was too weak to do so. The strength she had been previously gaining was now quickly slipping away. Dusk chuckled.
"I think the time for waiting has come to an end, don't you agree?" he teased. "We've been trapped in this stalemate for far too long, Twilight Sparkle. It's time that this war officially ended." Dusk tightened his grip on Twilight as he began to walk out of the room with her in his grasp. A terribly sadistic smile appeared on his face. "Come along, my lovely little spark. We've got a special show to put on; and everybody's going to be watching."
Derpy, Marcus, and Sylvia readied themselves as they neared the upper floors of the City Centre. Derpy had taken it upon herself to carry the Doctor's suitcase, which held the Staff of the Dawn and President Targaryen's ring. Marcus and Sylvia had both armed themselves with plenty of weapons from Sylvia's weapon bag.
Derpy was completely in the dark about what to expect once they came face-to-face with King Dusk once again. It had been a month since their first and last encounter and Derpy still had the memory burned into her mind. His great size. His dark voice. His terrible power. Would futuristic guns and blasters be enough to stop this maniac? Sure, they also had the staff and the ring but that didn't make Derpy feel any more confident. President Targaryen's attempted use of the staff on Dusk had proved to be an absolute failure and the Doctor's studies of the two objects throughout the past month had provided no new pieces of information.
A quiet, nervous chuckle escaped Derpy's lips as the dull sound of pipe organs began to reverberate through the air. Up until this point, she had been pushed forward by the powerful drive to defeat Dusk. At this point, she had many reasons to take him down. Capturing Twilight, ruining half of Nymphadora, and, by extension, being responsible for the deaths of Sylvia's group of soldiers and the possible deaths of the Doctor and Klaus. Now, with the villain she sought being oh so unbearably close, her anger was hastily replaced with caution, fear, and self-doubt.
What were they compared to Dusk? Sure, they had drive, weapons, and strength of their own. But, from what little she had seen of him, Derpy felt it safe to assume that Dusk was no pushover. She had been a first hoof witness to what he could do. This twilight shroud was his doing. The ghosts, the monsters, the warped progression of time. All of it was an extension of his power.
"I think this is it," said Marcus as the reached the fifth highest floor of the City Centre. "This is where President Targaryen's main offices and living quarters were. I have a feeling this would be the best place for Dusk to set up his throne."
Derpy gulped as she stared at her own reflection emanating from the dark glass of the small window in the door. Could she really take the Twilight King on? A pegasus with warped eyes face an alien tyrant literally brought back from the dead? The weight of the world seemed to be crushing down on top of her.
"You ready, Derpy?" Sylvia asked as she turned to face her.
Derpy was silent for a moment. As she thought of what to say in response, her mind drifted back to the Doctor. "I do need somebody there," she remembered him saying to her. "In this case, I need somepony. You could be that somepony, Derpy Hooves, if you want to."
Derpy contorted her face into a determined expression. She needed to be strong. Despite how incredibly intimidating the obstacles ahead of her were, she had to face them. The Doctor needed her. Twilight needed her. Nymphadora needed her.
"Give me the suitcase," she ordered in a surprisingly stern voice that even shocked herself.
"Yes, ma'am," Marcus replied with a smirk as he handed her the Doctor's black suitcase.
Derpy opened the lid and was instantly met with a glowing, orange light. It was coming from Targaryen's ring. Derpy grabbed the ring and was taken by surprise as the ring instantly grew in size. Within seconds, it was big enough to fit comfortably around one of her forelegs. She slowly slid the ring onto her right foreleg. Instantly, she was met with a surge of warm power. The dark magic that had been working against her during her climb up the stairs seemingly went away. The air now smelled of freshly-baked muffins. The faces of those she cared about appeared before her. Aunt Patty. Carrot Top. The Doctor. Twilight Sparkle. Their faces floated before her and smiled, encouraging her to keep moving on.
Derpy then grabbed the Staff of the Dawn and closed the suitcase. "I'm ready," she stated.
"Okay," said Marcus with a nod. "We're going in on three. One!" Sylvia readied her weapons. "Two!" Derpy stretched her wings and placed the staff in her mouth. "Three!" Marcus swung the door open and charged in.
Derpy flew through the threshold and was instantly met with the sight of her reflection in a large camera lense.
Twilight stared down at the throne room from the balcony she had been placed on. It was a large room with a checkerboard floor, dark tapestries, a massive window giving a wondrous view of the twilight capital of Lupae, and a great throne for Dusk to sit in. She wished she could teleport down but her magic was straining something fierce. Dusk was painfully close to breaking through her magical defenses and spreading his twilight out across the rest of Nymphadora.
Down in the main throne room, King Dusk was sitting in his large, black and hazy purple throne. A massive, floating screen was situated in the center of the room. For a while, the screen had shown nothing but static. But, now, Twilight could clearly see Derpy on it. She was standing in a hallway alongside the Nymphadorian known as Marcus and a female Auranian.
Where's the Doctor? Twilight asked in thought as she examined the trio on the screen. And where's Ash?!
"Hello, citizens of Nymphadora, Ruleo, and Auran," echoed Dusk's dark, booming voice from below. Twilight looked down to see that the Twilight King was speaking into a microphone of sorts. Twilight turned her attention back to the large screen. Was Dusk transmitting this? "It is I, the Twilight King, speaking to you today. I've been rather silent and patient this last month. But now seems like the perfect time for me to make myself known. What you see in the image being broadcasted to you right now are the remains of a group that went about the delusion that they could fight me and win. And, yes, that is a Nymphadorian working alongside an Auranian. Strange times we're living in, aren't they? And that's saying something, coming from me. Up until a month ago, I was trapped in a state of perpetual purgatory. However, I may have been trapped but I was still able to listen to the world moving around me. I know what you've all been through; and I'm pleased to announce that today shall mark the end of this pathetic war. The end will start with these three." Twilight shook as Dusk gave a cold chuckle. "These three have made it surprisingly far and I must credit them for that. They're only a few hallways away from me. But let's see if they're able to get past a little obstacle I've spent some time working on."
Dusk rang a bell and a shrill, terrifying shriek pierced the air. Twilight covered her ears and winced. "Watch out, Derpy. Whatever Dusk has coming for you, I'm pretty sure it's nothing good!" Twilight exclaimed under her breath.
Derpy stared at the floating camera as it levitated up towards the ceiling of the hallway and looked down at her, Marcus, and Sylvia. "Looks like we're definitely being watched now," said Marcus as he looked up at the camera.
Derpy nervously looked around. "So...if Dusk is watching us and knows we're here how come he hasn't come out yet and confronted us?" she asked.
Marcus glared angrily up at the camera. He pointed one of his guns at it and fired. Derpy jumped as the bullet collided with the camera, was reflected off by a small magical shield surrounding it, and flew off into the hallway's right wall. "I think he's just toying with us right now."
Suddenly, a loud shriek broke the eerie silence of the hallway. Dust fell down from the darkened upper corners of the hallway as the shriek reverberated through the air. Derpy, Marcus, and Sylvia froze as the foreign sound reached their ears. Sylvia cocked her immediate gun. "It looks like we're not alone here, anymore," she said.
"I thought monsters couldn't get into the City Centre," said Derpy. "Isn't there some sort of magical barrier around it? That's what stopped those zombies downstairs from following us."
The walls began to shake. A strange scratching noise could now be heard in the distance.
"Well, assuming the shield around the building is under Dusk's control, I think monsters can come in if Dusk lets them," said Marcus.
Odd clouds of steam began to fill the air. Thanks to the effects of the ring, Derpy couldn't smell anything aside from muffins: a scent that kept her calm and strong. Yet, looking over at Marcus and Sylvia, she could tell that the smell of the smoke was most likely not all that enjoyable.
"Gah! It smells like a burning corpse!" Sylvia exclaimed as she covered her serpent nose.
The scratching sound had grown much louder by this point. Derpy was looking all over for any sign of something running down the hall towards them. Yet, she saw nothing. However, it wasn't until the scratching noise had grown loud enough to simulate its source being right next to her that a terrible realization became known to her. Her eyes drifted up towards the ceiling. Her pupils widened as they fell upon the sight of a massive creature cloaked in darkness. "MOVE!" she screamed as she jumped back. Sylvia and Marcus listened and followed suit mere seconds before their unwanted guest jumped down onto the floor in front of them.
Within the dim light of the hallway, it was an incredibly difficult task for Derpy to get a good look at the creature. It was mostly hidden in shadow with only a few features being allowed to be known. She could see several long, spider-like legs protruding from its main body. Its main body had a Nymphadorian body structure but also appeared to be bent awkwardly and deformed in many areas. And, for a split second, Derpy could swear that she could see claws as sharp as daggers and as long as swords protruding from its front.
"So...we meet again," chuckled the creature. Its voice was unbearably scratchy and distorted. To Derpy, it sounded like what she thought a creature would sound like if it were an animal-insect hybrid.
"Sorry, you're not ringing any bells," said Marcus as he aimed his guns straight at the creature.
The creature merely laughed upon seeing Marcus's weapons. "Oh but we have indeed met, Marcus. Same goes for you, pegasus."
Derpy felt a shiver pass through her body.
"We don't have time for this," snapped Sylvia as she stepped forward and aimed her own weapons. "Move or get blown away."
The creature laughed again. "It looks like killing you will be a lot more fun that what I originally thought it would be!"
On that note, both Marcus and Sylvia began to unload their immediate weapons into the creature's body. The creature vibrated in reaction and even gave a few annoyed groans; but, in the end, it didn't appear to have been incredibly injured by the attack.
The creature then lunged forward, its legs and claws swinging madly through the air. Derpy and Sylvia dodged the attack and flew past the monster while Marcus got a small nick on his left arm. "Gah!" he gasped as he met up with Derpy and Sylvia. "Damn those claws are sharp!"
Through the dim light, Derpy could see small trickles of blood moving down Marcus's arm. "How bad are you hurt?!" she asked.
"I'll live. Let's just worry about it for now." The trio turned back to the creature to see it quickly advancing on them. Marcus and Sylvia continued to unload ammo into the creature as they, along with Derpy, walked backwards down the hallway. Their attacker, however, was barely hindered and enthusiastically continued its pursuit. The floating camera followed them as well, never turning its attention away from them and their opponent.
"Let's get into a place with more light!" Derpy suggested.
Sylvia reached into her bag and pulled out a grenade. "Sounds good to me!" she said before tossing the weapon at the creature.
As soon as the grenade touched the floor, the trio made a mad dash away from it. A couple seconds later, a loud boom erupted behind them. Derpy jumped into the air and began to vigorously flap her wings. She glanced back to see a cloud of black smoke, fiery sparks, and blue electricity filling up the hallway behind her. Cracks and burn marks appeared in the walls, floor, and ceiling and a wave of heat collided with her backside.
Unfortunately, the grenade hadn't been enough to defeat the creature as it only took a few seconds for it to recover from the shock of the attack and burst forth from the settling smoke cloud.
Derpy, Marcus, and Sylvia made a quick turn to the left and found themselves facing an even larger hallway. It was brighter than the previous hallway as a few open doorways along the left side had rays of twilight light pouring out of them. At the very end of the hallway, Derpy could make out a large door covered in cryptic pictures and writing.
"I'm guessing that leads to the throne room," Derpy thought aloud as she stared down the hallway. Just then, Derpy could hear that familiar scratching sound come up behind her. She, Marcus, and Sylvia turned around to face their attacker in the brighter light of twilight...only to feel their own jaws drop to the floor.
He was very different from how Derpy had remembered him. His fur was black and singed, his eyes were completely bright yellow and red, his indigo suit was torn and bloodied, eight spider legs of huge sizes protruded from his spine, his front claws were indeed as long as swords and as sharp and knives, and a blue sack of flesh filled with white and blue orbs of light was attached to the back of his head. The only part of him that seemed to be carried over perfectly from his previous look was his suave smile.
"President Targaryen," Derpy and Marcus said together in shock.
"Now you remember me. That's good," chuckled the deformed former President of Nymphadora.
"But...but Dusk cut your head off!" Derpy gasped.
"He gave it back to me. Along with all these other body parts." President Targaryen examined the new, monstrous parts of his body. His eyes then focused on Derpy. "I see you have my ring, pegasus. I'd very much like to have it back."
Derpy glanced back at the large doorway at the end of the hallway. "Sorry. I need it right now. But, don't worry, I'm taking very good care of it."
"Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way."
"I think we were already doing this the hard way, Tyrion," said Marcus before sending three bullets straight into the former president's face. The bullets left bruise marks on President Targaryen's face but, other than that, didn't do any further damage.
The trio once again took off down the hallway with President Targaryen following close behind. In vain attempts to slow down the undead monstrosity, Sylvia tossed a few more grenades in Targaryen's direction. Each grenade only managed to stun him for a few seconds before he was up and chasing them at full speed once again.
Derpy could see a white light pouring through the cracks in the large door. She knew that an even greater threat lay beyond but she was ready to face it. She was done facing the grunts. She wanted to face the king of it all.
Her focus on Dusk was interrupted by a terrified gasp. Derpy turned around to see that Targaryen had grabbed both Sylvia and Marcus and was holding them tight in his grasp.
"Derpy! Keep going!" Marcus ordered. "You've got the ring and the staff!"
"Yes. Run away and die, little pegasus," President Targaryen chuckled as he readied his claws and looked at Sylvia. "Now...let's see what an Auranian looks like on the inside."
In that moment, Derpy thought back to the crash. The premonition brought on by Ash, her attempts to save the members of Sylvia's militia, the fire, her failure.
Derpy flapped her wings hard as she charged towards Targaryen. Sweat poured down her coat, her teeth clenched hard on the handle of the staff, the light emanating from the ring grew brighter. She had watched those brave soldiers burn. She had watched the Doctor fall into oblivion. She wasn't going to stand by and let another person die. She extended her foreleg with the ring forward as she flew straight at Targaryen. Targaryen looked up and attempted to dodge her assault. While Targaryen managed to save his face from colliding with Derpy's forehoof, Derpy still made a direct hit to the spot where the back of his head connected with the strange sack of white and blue lights.
A sharp crack rippled through the air as Derpy's arm burned through the flesh like a fire poker. Targaryen let out a pained shriek and proceeded to release Sylvia and Marcus from his grasp. The fleshy sack dissolved into a pile of ash as the white and blue lights flew away from Targaryen and phased through the walls, floor, and ceiling. Two orbs, however, remained.
As Targaryen collapsed onto the floor, writhing with pain, the orbs of light that stayed behind transformed into the ghostly forms of Colonel Ash and a young Nymphadorian girl in an indigo dress.
"It sure feels good to be out of there!" exclaimed Ash.
"Ugh! It was nasty!" stated the girl.
Derpy looked down and watched as the deformed President Tyrion Targaryen melted into a puddle of black sludge. She lowered herself to the floor next to Marcus, who was breathing heavily and clutching his cut arm.
"That was...pretty cool...Derpy," he said with an impressed smirk.
"You didn't think I would actually let President Targaryen of all things kill you off, did you?" Derpy asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Now that you mention it, I would have been very pissed off to have been killed by that guy." Marcus turned his attention to Ash and gave a sigh of relief. "So that's where you disappeared off to, huh? You leave us to go hang out inside President Targaryen?!"
"Hey! I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter! Something caused me to disintegrate and Dusk managed to collect my spiritual essence in order to help bring Targaryen to life!" said Ash in his defense.
"So...Targaryen needed other spirits in order to be brought back to life?"
"I think it would only make sense, given that he himself was a broken spirit and his new body was a random combination of body parts that shouldn't work together. He needed the power of other spirits in order to keep himself together."
"So that's what all those waves of light were about earlier?" asked Sylvia as she crossed her arms. "Dusk needed to cause spirits to disintegrate so he could use them to make his Targaryen monster work?"
Ash shook his head. "Dusk wasn't responsible for me and the other nearby spirits disintegrating or the waves of white light."
"Well, if that's true, then who was?" Derpy asked.
"Why don't we find that out after we defeat the tyrant that's currently cloaking half of Nymphadora in twilight?" Marcus asked with a grin.
"Yeah! Twilight needs help!" exclaimed the girl before running off towards the door.
"She knows Twilight?" Derpy asked.
"Later! We can discuss this later!" said Sylvia as she pushed Derpy forward. Marcus and Ash followed close behind.
Twilight couldn't help but jump with surprise as Derpy, Marcus, Ash, Thea, and the female Auranian burst through the throne room door. She had watched the entire fight on the screen and, admittedly, was relieved that they had survived. But, now, they had the biggest challenge of all to face.
Dusk didn't change his position on his throne or even react. He simply straightened his posture a bit and clapped his armored paws together. "Excellent," commented the Twilight King. "A wonderful show." Marcus and the Auranian aimed their guns at Dusk. Dusk shook his head. "Do you honestly expect to take me down with worthless weapons like those?"
"It's worth a shot," said Marcus as he and the Auranian cocked their weapons.
"Yes, I suppose it was." Dusk snapped his fingers and Marcus and the Auranian gasped as the weapons in their paws were reduced to dust. The Auranian let go of the black bag slung over her shoulder as it too was reduced to a dust pile. Dusk chuckled in response to their reactions. "Disappointed? I would expect nothing more or less from you right now. You've come so far, fought so hard. And, in the end, every weapon at your disposal was as weak and meaningless as your own existence."
"SHUT UP!" snapped Derpy with a fire burning deep within her eyes. Twilight couldn't believe how bruised, battered, and angry the gray pegasus looked. Even from all the way up in the balcony, Twilight could sense a powerful fury emanating from Derpy. A fury that ran deep and was directed solely in Dusk's direction.
"I remember you well, pegasus," said Dusk. "You were there, outside my tomb, when I returned. I must admit, you don't unintimidate me as much as you did back then. There's a dark fire burning within you now." Dusk stood up and snapped his fingers again. Just then, Twilight felt a powerful pull behind her navel and, a second later, was standing in between Dusk and Derpy's group. "This is whom you fought to rescue, if I'm correct."
"Twilight!" Derpy gasped.
Twilight smiled weakly at her pegasus friend. "Hi...Derpy," she said. A powerful pain suddenly coursed through her body as Dusk magically lifted her into the air.
"Put her down!" Derpy and Thea ordered simultaneously.
"She is my spark," Dusk chuckled. "I will do with her as I wish." Dusk began to move his arm in different directions, which caused Twilight to fly around the room like an out of control puppet.
"Stop it, Dusk!" snapped Derpy as he placed the Staff the Dawn in her hoof and pointed it at him. "I have the Staff of the Dawn! So, if I were you, I'd put Twilight Sparkle down!"
Dusk shrugged his shoulders as he placed Twilight back on the ground. Weakened by his antics, Twilight fell forward onto the floor. "It matters not that you have the Staff of the Dawn. It appears to have lost its hold over me since it last cursed me to that tomb. That worthless President Targaryen could not use it and you, little pegasus, certainly don't have the strength to wield its power." Dusk waved his paw and the staff flew out of Derpy's hoof. It landed several yards away from her with a loud clang. "That ring may have given you some power but it certainly won't be enough to defeat me." Dusk snapped his fingers once again and Derpy, Marcus, and the Auranian all let out surprised gasps.
"I...can't...move!" said Marcus.
Twilight felt so incredibly helpless as she watched her rescuers be trapped in place. Her own body was pulsating with pain on all sides. This was it. Dusk was mere moments away from finally overcoming her. His twilight realm was ready to continue spreading out across all of Nymphadora and beyond.
Dusk looked up at the camera floating down towards him, his armored face now filling up the entirety of the gargantuan screen, and laughed. "You see, people of Nymphadora and its moons?" he asked. He pointed at Derpy. "This is what happens to those who oppose me."
"What...what is all this?!" asked Ash.
Dusk looked down at Ash and laughed again. "I'm putting on the show of the century, spirit. Everyone on Nymphadora, Ruleo, and Auran shall bear witness to the failure of those you led here!" Dusk clapped his paws together. "Now, I think the audience had waited long enough for this grand climax. I must admit that I'm excited as well. My first broadcast executions."
Twilight's eyes widened. She couldn't bear it. She had been shut away from most of the twilight realm's horrors due to her time in the City Centre and she definitely wasn't ready to start witnessing them now. "Stop it! You've made your point! Just leave them alone!" she begged. Her entire body was screaming with pain now.
Dusk looked down at Twilight and chuckled. "Why would I do that? They've come here to kill me. I think it's only fitting that they receive an appropriate punishment. Besides, we wouldn't want to disappoint our viewers." Dusk snapped his fingers and Twilight watched as a terrifying, disgusting creature entered the throne room. It appeared to be an armored Nymphadorian soldier. Its armor was black and rusted and, from what Twilight could make out of the few spots where there was no armor, its skin was rotting and gray. It carried a long, rusted, bloodied sword, walked with an odd limp, and gave out gurgling groans that made Twilight's entire body shake.
Twilight gave a small cry of fear upon seeing it. "What is that?! What is that?!"
"Not those things again!" stated the Auranian with a panicked tone.
"Let them go, Dusk!" Ash snarled as he stepped forward and pointed up at the Twilight King.
"Or what, spirit? Are you going to kill me yourself? You have no power here, little colonel," Dusk teased before snapping his fingers again. "Kill the pegasus first."
Twilight and Derpy stared at each other. Their terrified eyes met. Derpy took a deep breath and gave a look of confidence as the soldier began to walk towards her with the sword at the ready.
Twilight couldn't take it anymore. Frightened tears began to roll down her face. "NO!" she cried. "PLEASE! DON'T HURT HER!"
"Yes. Cry, little spark. Cry for the death of your worthless friend," Dusk said before giving a long, cold laugh. He then looked down at Derpy and snickered. "Where's your precious Doctor now?"
This was a question that had been burning within Twilight as well. Where was the Doctor?!
"Not this time, pegasus," Dusk chuckled. "Your Doctor is dead." Twilight felt a terrible cold wash over her. The Doctor...dead?! How?! Why?! When?! "And now it's time for you to join him." Once more, Dusk snapped his fingers in the direction of the soldier. "Kill her then take her to the kitchen. I'm in a mood for some pegasus soup." The soldier continued to approach Derpy.
"STOP! GET AWAY FROM HER!" Twilight cried. But it was in vain. The soldier came to a halt in front of Derpy and raised its blade. Twilight felt as if the world had stopped as she watched the sword come down.
A soft whizzing sound emanated from the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. A few seconds later, Klaus gave a quiet grunt as he lifted the piece of metal tiling up out of the floor. The Doctor was, for a second, taken aback by the bright light emanating from the room directly beneath the empty meeting room he and Klaus were now in.
The Doctor was still confused by he and Klaus's mysterious teleportation up to the very top of the City Centre. But now, after much navigation, he and Klaus had managed to find their way to the spot immediately above Dusk's throne room.
"Oh good," said the Doctor as he looked down at the scene playing out in the room far below. "It looks like we've arrived just in time."
"NO!" echoed the fearful voice of Twilight Sparkle from below. "PLEASE! DON'T HURT HER!"
"That's what we heard on the walkie-talkie earlier!" stated Klaus.
"Exactly. And, from the looks of things, we don't have long before we reach the end of what we heard."
"But the message ended with Derpy-"
"That's not going to happen, Klaus!"
"How are we supposed to get down there then? It's quite a drop."
"Yes it is, not arguing with you on that one." The Doctor examined the room further until his eyes fell across one particular item: the Staff of the Dawn. "There you are, my mysterious friend."
Klaus gave a look of confusion. "What?"
"Brace yourself, Klaus," said the Doctor as he readied his sonic screwdriver. "I'm going to use my sonic screwdriver to send out a constant frequency throughout the floor beneath us that will cause it to collapse."
The blood in Klaus's face appeared to drain way. "Wait...what?!" he gasped. "You're going to make the floor collapse?!"
"Pretty much."
"But the fall will kill us!"
"Normally, it probably would."
"Normally?"
"Look, Klaus. Something powerful is working on our side. It allowed us to survive that fall into the cavern earlier. It's been with us ever since we entered Lupae. Something wants us to defeat Dusk...and I think I have an idea about what it is now."
"What is it?!"
"You'll find out soon enough." The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at the floor. "But, right now, you better brace yourself."
"You're crazy!"
"You're damn right I am. Are you going to stop me?"
Klaus looked down at what was happening in the throne room. "STOP! GET AWAY FROM HER!" cried the voice of Twilight Sparkle from far below.
"Sonic away, Doctor," said Klaus as he wrapped his arms around his head.
"Right then!" exclaimed the Doctor as he activated the screwdriver. "Allons-y!"
After a second or two of painful silence aside from the screwdriver's whizzing sound, the floor broke apart beneath them. Everything became a swirling mix of metal, plaster, and tile as the Doctor and Klaus tumbled through the air and down towards the throne room floor.
Let us not be too late. Please, the Doctor begged in thought as he fell. As the floor was just mere feet away, the Doctor felt a sudden push beneath him. It felt as if a warm liquid had wrapped itself around his body. His fall slowed down to the speed of a drifting feather. The Doctor looked to see that Klaus was experiencing the same effect. The tiles, however, continued their quick descent.
As the armored soldier brought its sword down towards Derpy, several tiles from above smashed into it. The soldier fell sideways onto the floor and its sword slid out of its grasp. King Dusk let out a surprised groan as a collection of tiles fell on top of him, though they merely shattered and bounced off him due to his thick armor.
"What...what is this?!" Dusk asked with genuine confusion.
The Doctor landed perfectly on his hooves with Klaus not too far behind him. "That, Dusk, is what is known as a sneak attack," the Doctor replied with a smirk.
"Doctor!" gasped Derpy and Twilight simultaneously.
The Doctor smiled and felt a huge wave of joy upon seeing the two mares. "Ah! Derpy! Twilight! So nice to see you're both in...decent shape. Nice ring, Derpy. It fits you. You've both done splendidly but I think it's time that we wrap this up, don't you think?"
"Silence!" ordered Dusk as he smashed one of his armored feet into the floor, leaving several cracks in his wake. "You shouldn't be here! You should be dead! I observed my guardian's attack on you myself with these very cameras!"
The Doctor examined the camera floating above him as well as what was being shown on the massive screen. He could also see a few other cameras hiding up in the far corners of the room. "And a nice set of security you have here, I must admit," he stated. "However, Dusk, it appears that something is currently working hard to make sure that you fail today."
For a moment, the Doctor swore he could see Dusk shake a little. He knows what I know, he thought. He knows what's coming for him. He's probably too scared to admit it.
"Besides," the Doctor continued. "Isn't this the twilight realm? A place where the dead and the living meet? Surely seeing somepony such as myself returning from their assumed death doesn't surprise you."
Dusk cleared his throat and pressed his chest forward in a confident manner. "It matters not how you survived, Doctor. This conflict ends today and I shall finally win!"
"You're right about one thing, Dusk, I'll give you that. Yes, all of this shall end today." The Doctor looked up at the camera. "Isn't that right, people of Nymphadora, Auran, and Ruleo?! It's time for this to end!" The Doctor began to feel a strange sensation take hold of him. A powerful surge of energy overcame his senses. It felt as if every action he performed was both of his own will and the will of a foreign power. "You've seen what this war has led to!" The Doctor glanced in Dusk's direction. "You've seen the extreme consequences of your combined actions. The prejudice, the fighting, the hatred. Every action of this war has helped lead to this monstrosity of an entity making his return to create a hell for you far worse than anything a bunch of prejudiced politicians could give you!" The Doctor pointed a foreleg in the direction of Klaus, Marcus, and Sylvia. "Yet, this horrible consequence has helped bring these three warring species together." The Doctor pointed at Marcus. "Nymphadorian." He moved his gaze over to Sylvia. "Auranian." Finally, he turned to Klaus. "Ruleonite." He swiftly turned around and pointed up at Dusk. "They came together to help take down this horrible result of your seemingly endless war." He looked straight into the camera. "You've seen the results. I'm sure as hell you wish you could take it all back. Every. Single. One of you."
"Are you finished, Doctor?" Dusk asked.
The Doctor smirked confidently as he turned back to Dusk. "Just about, Dusk. Just about."
Dusk raised one of his hands. "Well I'm ready for you to be done now. I think I've grown tired of you. Goodbye, Doctor."
"NO!" cried Derpy and Twilight as Dusk snapped his fingers.
At that very second, a white light flashed in front of the Doctor and Dusk grabbed his hand with a loud shout of pain. The white light in front of the Doctor spread throughout the room. The Doctor watched as Derpy, Marcus, and Sylvia were freed from their frozen positions and as Twilight was magically placed into a standing position. The Doctor and Twilight met eye-to-eye. In that moment, he knew that she knew too. The Time Lord and the unicorn nodded to each other.
"What...what did you do?!" yelled Dusk.
"Repelled your magic, wasn't that difficult," the Doctor replied.
"Impossible! A mere pony such as yourself has no hope to match up to the powers I hold!"
"You're right, Dusk. Even though I'm not technically a pony, I still wouldn't normally be able to stand up against your power."
"And yet...you're still alive."
"Obviously." The Doctor began to walk in Twilight's direction, never taking his attention away from Dusk. "I told you, something powerful has been working hard to ensure your failure, Dusk. Something you've tried to restrain and keep sealed away. Something you've feared yet have been ignorant to for quite some time."
"The one thing that can truly defeat you," Twilight finished with a smile as the Doctor stood next to her.
"It's not possible!" Dusk snapped as he conjured a dark fireball in his hand. "You have no power over me!" Dusk launched the fireball at the Doctor and Twilight, only for it to dissolve into nothing before getting within five feet of them.
"What...how...huh?!" asked Derpy, Marcus, Sylvia, Ash, and Klaus simultaneously. The ghostly Nymphadorian girl next to Ash looked on in wonder as the Doctor and Twilight simply waved off the attack.
"I know this is probably confusing all of you," the Doctor said with a smirk in the direction of both his allies and the camera.
"Just a bit," said Marcus.
"Or maybe a lot," Klaus added with a scratch to his head.
The Doctor chuckled. "Don't worry, everything will be explained soon enough."
Twilight took a step in Dusk's direction. "Tell me, Dusk, who said that I was just your spark?" she asked.
Dusk stepped back. "No. It can't be," he breathed.
The Doctor took a step towards Dusk as well. The presence within him grew stronger with every passing second. He almost felt like a puppet now, fulfilling the commands of a greater entity. "You tried to keep it from returning, but you failed," the Doctor said, his voice starting to sound like two separate people talking.
"The very thing that brought you life shall now return you to purgatory." Twilight's voice began to sound like two individuals talking as well.
"IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!" shouted Dusk as he threw several more magical blasts at the two ponies. Each attack was successfully blocked or diminished.
"Tell us," said Twilight as she and the Doctor stepped towards Dusk in perfect sync.
"Do you remember what the opposite of the twilight is?" the Doctor asked. His eyes drifted over towards the staff. It was beginning to vibrate and gradually slide across the floor. He also noticed that the light emanating from Derpy's ring was beginning to grow brighter.
Dusk was shaking his head vigorously. "NO! I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS! YOU CAN'T BE HERE! I MADE SURE OF IT!" screamed the Twilight King.
The Doctor and Twilight came to a stop and smiled at Dusk. "The moment has come," they said in unison. "It's time for the Dawn."
At that precise second, the Staff of the Dawn flew through the air. The Doctor and Twilight extended their forelegs forward and caught the weapon. They proceeded to point it straight up into the air. Derpy let out a shocked gasp. The Doctor looked to see that her foreleg bearing the ring was also pointed up. A second later, a bright beam of white light emanated from the staff while an intense beam of orange light emanated from the ring.
A loud boom reverberated through the air as the two beams met mid-air. A large orb of light began to take shape at the meeting point. Underneath the orb, a shower of misty light rained down. Within the shower of light, a figure appeared. It was a male Nymphadorian who appeared to be the same height as Dusk. He was dressed in a billowing, white cloak and had pure light emanating from his eyes, mouth, and palms.
Dusk fell down against the foot of his throne at the sight of the figure. He attempted to conjure another magical attack but found that all of his attempts no longer produced any results.
The Doctor watched in awe as the Dawn approached the Twilight King with his arms stretched outwards.
"It is time for this to end, Dusk. You do not belong in this world anymore. You have brought it enough pain," the Dawn stated. The voice was powerful and intimidating, yet calm and soothing.
"NO! I'M NOT GOING BACK! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME GO BACK! I REFUSE!" Dusk shouted.
"It is already decided." The Dawn lunged forward at a speed nearly as fast as light itself and clasped his hands around Dusk's armored head. "This was never meant to happen...and yet it had to happen. Now that your part to play in this is over, it's time to fix what you've broken."
With that said, the Dawn tightened his grip. Dusk's armor cracked and white light poured from the new openings. Dusk let out a loud, pained, terrible scream as a blast of white light enveloped him. A powerful shockwave spread out from the clashing entities. The Doctor, Twilight, and Derpy were knocked out of their respective positions. The Staff of the Dawn flew high into the air on its own accord. The ring around Derpy's foreleg detached and joined the staff in the air.
"I'm afraid...I honestly don't know," the Doctor replied with a bulge in his throat. He looked in the direction of the throne to see a massive vortex of white light swirling around like a tornado. He turned his attention away from it and, along with Twilight, made his way over towards Derpy and the others.
Derpy ran towards the Doctor and Twilight and wrapped her forelegs around him. "I knew it! I knew you'd come back!" she cried as tears of joy rolled down her face.
"I always do, don't I?" the Doctor asked as powerful winds whipped his and Derpy's manes back and forth.
Derpy looked at the swirling vortex. "What happens now?"
The Doctor sighed. "Not sure. But it looks like we're close to finding out." Derpy tightened her grip around the Doctor and extended her hug to Twilight, who hugged the Doctor and Derpy back.
"Twilight Sparkle," said a soft voice. The Doctor looked to see the ghostly Nymphadorian girl standing a couple feet away.
"Thea," Twilight said.
"Thank you, Twilight. I think...I think I'm finally free." A giddy laugh of happiness escaped from the spirit's smiling mouth. "We're finally free!" Thea wiped her eyes and gave a polite curtsy in Twilight's direction. "Thank you again, Twilight, and...goodbye." Twilight let out a gasp as Thea broke apart into a cloud of spiritual dust.
"Thea!" Twilight cried.
The Doctor tightened his grip on Twilight and Derpy as the vortex began to grow larger. Her looked over to see Marcus and Sylvia sharing a long, passionate kiss. He turned towards Ash just in time to see the ghostly colonel giving a proud salute in his direction before breaking apart in a similar fashion to Thea. Klaus looked at the Doctor and gave him a nod of respect before looking straight at the growing vortex with awe.
The Doctor closed his eyes as he pulled Derpy and Twilight close to him. He wasn't going to let them go. Not for anything. "I've got you two. I've got you," he whispered into their ears.
"We know," Twilight whispered back.
"We're not letting go," said Derpy.
The Doctor smiled as he felt the powerful winds of the vortex overcome him and the two mares. Everything was roaring as if they were caught in the middle of a continuous explosion. The floor disappeared beneath his hooves. His mane and suit whipped back and forth as did the manes of Derpy and Twilight Sparkle. Everything was spinning. The Doctor was falling. Derpy was falling. Twilight was falling. Nymphadora was falling. The whole universe was falling around them. They were all falling back. Into what? To where? What resided on the other side of this terrible clashing of Dusk and Dawn?
Twilight yelped as she opened her eyes to find herself caught within the tight grasp of President Tyrion Targaryen, who was currently holding a knife uncomfortably close to her neck. "Just play your part and everything will be just..." stammered President Targaryen. "Wait a moment...how...what...who...did all that...did all that really just happen?!"
Twilight was completely shell-shocked. A second ago, she had been hugging the Doctor and Derpy tightly within Dusk's throne room while a white vortex was engulfing them. Now she was back to wearing the clothes she had been wearing at Shining Armor and Cadance's wedding right before being picked up by the Doctor and was being held at knifepoint by President Targaryen, who she clearly remembered seeing get decapitated.
She looked around to see that she was back outside the Tomb of the Twilight King. Everything was exactly as she had remembered it when she had last been there: when Dusk had returned. The large, dark purple door with Dusk's angry eyes embedded in the center. The tall fountains on both sides of the massive, underground room spewing out violet and light blue water. The small ponds beneath the fountains filled with the heads of large, white and yellow alpenglow lilies with their yellow hazes and sugary aromas.
Derpy was standing a few feet away from her, looking about as confused as she herself currently was. Towards the entrance of the room, the Doctor, Marcus, and the no longer ghostly Colonel Ash were having a standoff with a group of Nymphadorian guards.
"We...we're alive?!" one of the guards asked aloud as he turned towards his fellow guards. "We're alive!"
At that instant, every guard in the room turned their attention towards President Targaryen, who had his claw bearing the orange ring raised up and the Staff of the Dawn clutched tightly in that same claw. "Stop him!" shouted another one of the guards. In a flash, every guard rushed towards the President, who proceeded to let Twilight go and attempt to run away. A particularly large guard jumped through the air and tackled the President, knocking him unconscious as a result.
Twilight was still in shock as Derpy flew over to her and wrapped her up in caring hug. "Twilight!" she cried. "We're alive! We made it!" As Twilight looked at Derpy, she noticed that the gray pegasus was back to wearing her fancy clothing as well.
"What...what just happened?!" Twilight managed to ask. "Weren't we just...how did...what?!" She turned to see the Doctor trotting towards them. She could also see Marcus and Ash sharing a big, joyful bear hug.
"Ha ha!" the Doctor laughed as he grabbed Twilight and Derpy in a tight hug. "You both were absolutely brilliant!"
"Doctor...I don't understand," said Derpy. "What just happened here?!"
The Doctor broke the hug and took a step back, clearing his throat as he went. "It appears the Dawn was true to his word."
"How so?" Twilight asked.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten already, Ms. Sparkle! It was only a few seconds ago...well, technically, it never happened anyway."
"What?" asked Twilight and Derpy simultaneously with equally confused, deadpan expressions.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and smiled warmly. "The Dawn said, 'It's time to fix what you've broken,' to Dusk. From what I can tell, he's done just that."
Twilight looked around the room and examined every detail carefully. As she did so, the realization of what had happened slowly came to her. "He reversed everything. He sent us back in time." Twilight stated.
The Doctor nodded. "Not only us, of course. Everyone on Nymphadora, Auran, and Ruleo too. A complete reset. Everything and everyone is back to where they were at the exact moment before President Targaryen used you to free Dusk."
"A complete reset?" Derpy asked as she glanced in the direction of Marcus and Ash. "So that means...everypony who died...the twilight...everything this past month..."
"It never happened," the Doctor finished.
A wide smile appeared on Derpy's face and tears of joy appeared in her eyes. "That means...the crash! Sylvia's friends! Klaus's sister! They're alive again! Everything's okay!" Derpy gave the Doctor a quick, joyous hug before backing up and wiping her eyes.
"The month that never was," Twilight added.
The Doctor chuckled. "Exactly. Heh. Never thought I'd go through something like this twice."
"Twice? What happened the last time?" Derpy asked.
"Oh, you don't want to hear about that! It's a boring story. Old enemy of mine returning, reuniting with an old friend, parting with a new friend, world domination, year completely reversed, nothing noteworthy. Your average Wednesday."
Twilight let out a frustrated groan. "You are impossible, Doctor!" she stated.
"Impossibly charming, right?" The Doctor winked at Twilight.
"And egotistical too!"
The Doctor snickered. "You think that's bad, you should have seen me a few faces back. God, I can still remember how I thought that rainbow outfit was a good look." The Doctor shook like he had just seen a terrifying sight, leaving Twilight and Derpy with even more questions than answers.
However, Twilight couldn't help but let a giggle escape her lips. "You know, honestly, I missed you two," she said as she smiled at the Doctor and Derpy. "I didn't spend that much time with either of you leading up to the month that now never happened. But I remember, when I was alone here in the City Centre for a whole month with no other company aside from Dusk, I would look up towards the sky and think about you two. Well, you and everypony else I care about. Whenever I would start losing hope or begin to feel weak, I would just think about those moments I shared with you two and I would get better."
"We thought about you too," said Derpy. "Being stuck here with Dusk for all that time must have been horrible!"
"It wasn't as bad as you probably think," Twilight explained. "In all honesty, I kinda had the Twilight King on a leash for a little bit with me fighting back against his spreading twilight."
"I'd expect nothing less from the Element of...Wizardry?" the Doctor complimented awkwardly.
Twilight and Derpy rolled their eyes. "Magic," they both replied.
"Same thing."
"Anyway, I'm glad you were okay for the most part, Twilight," Derpy continued. "I was pretty worried. Though, to be honest, I think the Doctor was a bit more worried than me."
"Well of course I was worried!" the Doctor said with a pout. "A little unicorn like you trapped with a thing like Dusk? Anyone would worry!"
Twilight reached forward and drew the Doctor in for another hug. "Thank you, Doctor. You and Derpy didn't disappoint," she said.
Twilight felt the Doctor pat her on the back. "I'm glad we didn't."
"Hey, Doctor!" called Ash as he and Marcus rushed towards them.
"Colonel Ash," said the Doctor with a respectful nod. "Nice to see you back in the flesh."
"It feels good to be back." Ash continued to examine his body. "I still can't believe that I actually died and became a ghost. I'm definitely happy about being a living Nymphadorian again...though I will miss being able to pass through walls. That was pretty cool."
"Cheery Ash is back. Time to celebrate!" Marcus laughed with a slap to Ash's back. "So, it appears that time's reversed."
"But only those on Nymphadora and its moons will be aware of it," the Doctor explained. "And, with those memories, I'm sure some drastic changes are currently underway."
"Maybe the end of the war?" Derpy suggested.
"I would hope so," Ash said. "If what happened during that month wasn't enough to convince people to end the war, I don't know what is."
"Well, in any case, it looks like things are going to start off with our President getting a nice, friendly impeachment," said Marcus with a smirk.
Twilight turned and watched as the guards carried the unconscious President Targaryen away from the tomb. "Good riddance," she said.
"So...what now?" Derpy asked.
"Now, Ms. Hooves, we should leave this tomb far behind us and head upstairs to get some info about what's to happen next," said the Doctor. He then turned towards Marcus and Ash. "And then, if you two would be kind enough, us three ponies need a quick lift to the other side of the planet. There's a certain blue box waiting for us."
The Doctor, Derpy, and Twilight looked out the window of the moderately-sized aircraft as the city of Lupae disappeared into the distance. For the first time in quite a while, the Doctor was feeling satisfied and content. He had been right. Changes were indeed already happening within the Nymphadorian capital. From what they had heard, the Nymphadorian leaders were already scheduling meetings with the Auranian and Ruleonite leaders to meet up, sign a treaty, and officially end the Trinity War. Things were going to be bumpy at first, without a doubt. No one comes out of a decade of war without a few leftover grudges, regrets, and consequences to deal with. But the Doctor could definitely see that a change for the better with quickly coming for Nymphadora and its moons.
The Doctor turned towards the front of the aircraft. Ash was busy preparing the ship for a speed jump in order to shorten the length of the trip and Marcus was occupied with finding a way to make contact with Sylvia, who was most likely back on Auran now.
His eyes then drifted over to Twilight, who appeared to have a look of sadness in her eyes. "Twilight?" he asked. The lavender unicorn faced him. "You look like you have something on your mind. Anything you want to talk about?"
Twilight sighed. "I visited the City Centre School before we left," she replied.
"May I ask why?"
"I made a friend recently while I was still trapped in the twilight. Her name was Thea."
"Thea. The little, ghostly, Nymphadorian girl, right?"
"That's right. She...she's been dead for a long time. She died decades before Dusk returned."
"I see. Like with Ash, the twilight must have brought her back as well."
"But now it's all been reversed...and she's gone."
The Doctor stepped closer to Twilight and wrapped a foreleg around her. "She's where she belongs now. She and the others didn't belong in this world anymore."
"I know." The Doctor noticed a single tear streak down Twilight's face. "It's just...she was such an innocent girl. And she didn't deserve the death she got."
The Doctor sighed. He wanted to be very careful with his words, discussing a situation such as this. "Life's cruelest joke."
"What do you mean?"
"I've seen many things, Twilight Sparkle. Many great things. Many wondrous and fantastic things. But also many horrible things. Many terrible, wretched, disgusting things." The Doctor was quiet for a few seconds. "Sometimes, bad things happen to good people, ponies, whathaveyou; and, sometimes, there's no reason for it. These things happen and, while difficult to comprehend, we must press on. Because, believe it or not, there are happy endings." The Doctor drew Twilight in closer. "The way I see it, Twilight Sparkle, life can be seen as a jumbled mess of good things and bad things. And while the good things don't necessarily soften the bad things; in turn, the bad things don't ruin the good things or make them any less important." The Doctor turned to Twilight and had her face him. "Thea may not have gotten the chance to live as long as she could have and she most likely did not deserve the death she got; but I'm sure that she had plenty of good things in her life as well to look back on and be happy about. And, during her brief period back in the world of the living, I'm sure you most certainly added to her mess of good things, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight smiled at the Doctor and wiped her eyes. "Thank you, Doctor."
The Doctor patted Twilight on the shoulder and decided to leave her alone with her thoughts for now. He trudged towards the front of the aircraft where Derpy, Marcus, and Ash were.
"I think I'm getting something!" Marcus exclaimed as worked with the controls underneath a digital screen on the windshield. Suddenly, an image appeared showing both Sylvia the Auranian and Klaus the Ruleonite. "Yes!"
"Looks like we succeeded," said Sylvia with a smile.
"You're damn right we succeeded!" Marcus pointed at the screen. "And once we've dropped the Doctor, Derpy, and Twilight off, Ash and I are headed straight for ya!"
"Looking forward to it." Sylvia proceeded to teasingly wink.
"So what about you, Klaus? You seem quiet right now," said the Doctor.
"Sorry. I'm still in shock over what just happened," Klaus replied. "I mean...I have my sister back and yet I can still remember-"
"Don't think about what no longer happened, okay?"
"Okay...wait, what?"
"You have your sister back, Klaus. She's alive and well and that's all that matters."
"You're right. Thank you, Doctor. To think none of this would have happened if I had ended up stopping you from breaking apart that floor underneath us."
"When in doubt, go for the crazy. That's my motto." The Doctor shook his head before freezing for a second. "Wait...no...that's not my motto."
"Then what is your motto?" Sylvia asked.
"None of your business!" the Doctor snapped teasingly.
"Almost ready to make a speed jump," Ash informed.
"Well, Doctor, looks like this is goodbye," said Sylvia. "It truly was an honor working with you."
"What about me?!" Derpy asked as she leaned in front of the Doctor.
"You too, Derpy. I gotta say, you're a mare of surprises."
Derpy gave a smile of pride. "Thank you!"
"How's that friend of yours? The unicorn?"
The Doctor glanced back at Twilight, who was still looking out the back window. "She's getting there," the Doctor replied.
"That's good," said Sylvia.
"Okay. We're ready to go!" said Ash.
"Farewell, Sylvia. Klaus," the Doctor stated with a nod.
"Goodbye, Doctor," said Sylvia.
"And thank you again," Klaus added.
With a click of a button, the transmission ended. "Okay," said Ash with a clearing of his throat. "Everybody and everypony ready?"
"Ready," said the Doctor, Derpy, and Twilight simultaneously.
"Let's do this!" cheered Marcus.
"Alright then," Ash chuckled as he grabbed a nearby lever. "Brace yourselves." Ash brought the lever forward. Everything became still for a few seconds before the aircraft suddenly shot forward like a bullet going beyond the speed of light.
The world outside the aircraft became nothing but a blurred mess while the inside was filled with rough vibrations. The three ponies and the two Nymphadorians held on tightly as the ship soared through the air towards their destination.
Throughout this trip, the Doctor felt as if he were back in Dusk's twilight realm. He was unsure about how much time had progressed. A few minutes? An hour? Several hours? He wasn't sure by the end of things. His body has simply fallen in tune with the vibrations and he had allowed himself to fall into a comfortable stupor throughout the duration of the speed jump.
Eventually, the jump came to an end and Ash brought the aircraft down for a soft landing.
Once the ship had come to a complete and steady stop, the five passengers exited from the interior and walked out to face the familiar landscape of purple dirt and blue grass. The Doctor could even see a few of the foal-sized ladybugs flying around.
The Doctor's attention was quickly drawn towards the familiar members of the Midna Wolfsbane's tribe, who had wasted no time in approaching the group of visitors. Derpy, Twilight, and Marcus appeared to be extremely cautious and on high alert. The Doctor didn't blame them. Their previous encounters with the Nymphadorian tribe of Midna Wolfsbane hadn't exactly been entirely peachy.
It didn't take long for Midna herself to make her entrance. "Doctor," she said with a nod and small smile that the Doctor assumed was her way of showing newfound respect.
"Midna Wolfsbane," the Doctor said in return before giving a similar nod of respect.
"I am not sure of what transpired on your end of things, but you've somehow managed to fix everything by reversing time itself."
"Oh I can't take all of the credit." The Doctor grabbed Derpy and Twilight and pulled them in close. "I had help along the way. Even from an...unexpected source."
"And what source would that be, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Dawn."
Midna was silent for a brief moment. Eventually, she gave another nod. "I see."
The Doctor glanced in the direction of his hidden TARDIS. "I'm sure you remember the deal you and I made following our last encounter."
"That I do. You've managed to not only bring down the Twilight King and cause the twilight to retreat, but, from what I've heard from my various sources, you've also managed to help bring an end to the war."
"I said I would bring it to an end, didn't I?"
Midna nodded again. "That you did. Thank you, Doctor. We will make sure that Nymphadora never forgets the Doctor and his companions."
"Oh, you don't have to go and do all that. I'm fine being left in the shadows of history."
"Interesting. A stallion of great successes who wishes for no rewards in return."
"That's just the kind of stallion I am."
Midna gave one more nod and waved her hand before retreating back into her camp. Her followers proceeded to begin dumping the paralysis cure throughout the area surrounding the invisible TARDIS. "What? Does nopony say goodbye anymore?" Twilight asked with an eye roll.
Once the area had been completely cleared on all paralyzing toxins, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and used it to bring the TARDIS back into sync. He, Derpy, and Twilight then turned to face Marcus and Ash.
"So this is it, huh?" Marcus asked.
"For now, anyway," the Doctor replied.
Marcus extended a paw forward and the Doctor shook it. "It's been...interesting."
"Likewise."
Derpy and Twilight stepped forward and each gave Marcus and Ash a quick hug.
"Thank you both. For everything," said Derpy.
"And thank you too," said Ash.
Derpy smiled in Marcus's direction and nodded. "I'm glad you and Sylvia can finally be together," she commented.
"Me too. Now that all this madness is over with," said Marcus.
"And, I'm going to see to it that your name is cleared of that whole dishonored business," Ash informed. "I think everyone else will agree, given what they saw on the broadcast that never happened."
Marcus scratched his head. "Yeah...that whole concept still confuses me."
Ash chuckled. "Hopefully, this'll make up for me failing to help you get to her all those years ago."
"Ash, that's in the past now. You tried to help me back then and I thank you for it, even though I failed in the end. But you managed to help me again, this time from beyond death itself, and we all won. I think that more than makes up for our first failure."
"Yeah. You're right." Ash and Marcus then shared a firm handshake.
Derpy turned in the direction of the TARDIS. "Time to go, I suppose," she said.
"Yep," the Doctor confirmed.
"You better take those ponies with you, Doctor," Marcus suggested. "I bet you wouldn't be able to get anything done without somebody or somepony alongside you."
The Doctor was silent for a few seconds. "You're right." He gave a fleeting smirk in Marcus and Ash's direction. "Take care, Marcus. Ash."
"You too," Ash said with a wave. "Have a safe trip."
"Farewell!" said Twilight.
"Goodbye!" called Derpy.
The Doctor smiled as he approached the TARDIS and placed his hooves against its wooden exterior. He turned around and took one, final glance at the Nymphadorian terrain and the two Nymphadorian soldiers making their way back to their aircraft. "Farewell, Nymphadora," he said under his breath. He waited until Derpy and Twilight were beside him before unlocking the TARDIS doors and stepping inside.
Gaia, 1002 C.E.
Twilight's legs shook as she stepped out of the TARDIS and felt her hooves touch the cobbled streets of Canterlot once again. She looked around. Everything was just as she had remembered it. The wedding party of Shining Armor and Cadance was still in full swing. She could even still see their carriage riding off into the distance. "I'm...home," she managed to utter.
"That you are," the Doctor stated with a chuckle. "I can definitely relate. I've certainly missed my TARDIS. It felt so good to be flying her again."
Twilight couldn't help but laugh as she turned around to face the Doctor and Derpy. Her smile slowly morphed into a serious expression of respect. "So...it's finally time for us to part ways."
"At least we both know each other now," said Derpy with a smile. "We can meet up somewhere in Ponyville sometime and...hang out or something."
Twilight gave a quick nod as a small smile appeared on her face. "I'd like that, Derpy. I'd like that very much."
"You know, Ms. Sparkle, this doesn't have to be goodbye," said the Doctor.
Both Twilight and Derpy focused on the Doctor. "What's that supposed to mean?" Twilight asked.
"Come on now. You're a bright mare. I'm sure you understand what I'm saying." Twilight fell silent. She understood what he was asking. The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Okay. To put it simply, why don't you come with us? There's a whole wide universe out there. Billions upon billions of other worlds and periods in time to explore and learn about. I have a feeling, Ms. Sparkle, that you'd be very interesting in seeing what the universe has to offer."
Twilight slowly nodded. "You're right. It is a wide universe out there just ripe for exploration. So full of information and questions waiting to be answered. Places, creatures, and adventures that no scholars or creative minds in Equestria could ever dream of."
The Doctor chuckled and extended a hoof towards Twilight. "So what do you say, huh? Ready to join Derpy and I in the TARDIS? All of space and time, just waiting to be explored by Twilight Sparkle: the Element of Magic!"
Twilight giggled. "Do you have to make it sound so dramatic?"
"What's wrong with being dramatic?"
"Nothing." Twilight giggled again. "In all honesty, I would love to travel with you two."
"Excellent!"
"But...my answer is no."
"What?!" the Doctor and Derpy asked simultaneously.
Twilight shuffled her hooves awkwardly. "I thank you very much for the offer, Doctor; and, as I said, I would love to explore this entire universe and all of its history. But...I can't."
"Why not?" the Doctor asked.
"It's just too much for me right now. So much to take in." Twilight sighed. "I was trapped in that twilight realm for a month. For a while, my future was uncertain and I was unsure about if I'd ever even see my family, friends, and home ever again. I missed them terribly. But now I'm back and...I'm just not ready to up and go on another other-worldly adventure."
"Are you sure?" Derpy asked.
"Yes," Twilight responded. "One day, in the future, I may wish to travel with you again, Doctor. But, right now, I'm fine just exploring the mysteries of Equestria at this current point in its history. My point in its history."
The Doctor was quiet. Twilight wasn't sure about what to expect from his next reaction.
"Very well, Twilight Sparkle. I understand and respect your decision," he replied.
Twilight smiled at the strange stallion. "Thank you, Doctor," she said.
The Doctor smiled back. "Go and enjoy your life. Love the everyday tasks and enjoy the company of those you care for. But, whenever you're ready, just give the stars a shout and I'll come flying over to your doorstep."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Really? All I have to do is shout at the sky and you'll come back?"
The Doctor pouted. "Can't you just enjoy the illusion?!"
"No. I'm a literal, straightforward mare."
"Really?! I never would have guessed!"
The three ponies proceeded to share a hearty laugh. "Until we meet again, Doctor," said Twilight.
"Until we meet again," the Doctor said back.
Derpy walked over to Twilight and gave her one, last hug. "Goodbye, Twilight," Derpy said.
"Take care, Derpy," Twilight said back as they broke apart. "And take care of him too."
"Don't worry, I will." The two mares shared a final laugh together.
"Come along then, Ms. Hooves! There's plenty more worlds waiting for us out there!" said the Doctor as he stepped back into the TARDIS.
"Coming, Doctor!" Derpy called as she followed him. She turned back to Twilight and gave a final wave before disappearing into the blue box and closing the doors behind her.
Twilight took a few steps back and watched as the TARDIS slowly disappeared into the folds of space and time, its signature sound reverberating through the air around her. VVRROOMMPP! VVRROOMMPP! VVRROOMMPP!
"Be careful, you two," Twilight said under her breath.
"Hello, Twilight," stated a familiar voice. Twilight froze upon hearing it. She turned around to find Princess Celestia standing immediately in front of her.
"Princess Celestia!"
"Are you enjoying the party? You should be. You worked really hard to make sure all of this was possible and I commend you for it, my faithful student."
A huge smile appeared on Twilight's face as she rushed forward and gave her mentor a big hug. Twilight quickly realized how informal she was acting and hastily stepped back. "Forgive me, Princess."
"For what, may I ask? There's nothing wrong with you giving me a hug, Twilight. It was actually quite a heartwarming surprise."
Twilight awkwardly kicked the ground beneath her hooves. "Sorry...it's just...I'm really glad to see you again, Princess."
Princess Celestia let out an amused giggle. "Again? We've only been apart for a few minutes, Twilight. The way you're speaking, it's as if you've been gone for weeks."
"You don't know the half of it," Twilight said under her breath.
"What was that?" Princess Celestia asked.
"Nothing, Princess. I just really want to go see my friends."
Princess Celestia nodded. "I think you've earned the right to do that. Messing around in blue boxes can be quite tiresome."
Twilight's eyes widened. "Wait...what?!"
Princess Celestia flapped her wings and took to the air. "Continue to enjoy the party, Twilight. I shall speak with you again later."
"Wait! Princess! I..." She was gone, leaving Twilight with many questions floating around her head. "Did...did she see me talking with the Doctor and Derpy? Does she know about them?" At that moment, Twilight heard a few familiar voices floating through the air. Looking up, she saw her six closest friends approaching her: Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity. Twilight smiled. "You know what? I can wonder about that later." Twilight could feel a few joyous tears strolling down her face as she ran in the direction of her friends.
"So where next, Derpy?" asked the Doctor as he fiddled with the TARDIS controls. Derpy was leaning against the main console, her mind deep in thought. "Uh...Derpy?"
Derpy snapped out of her trance. "What?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go next?"
"Oh...sorry, Doctor. I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"Twilight."
"You're sad she decided not to come with us?"
"A bit...but that's not what I'm mostly thinking about."
"Then what is it that you're thinking about?"
Derpy was quiet for several seconds. A small smile soon appeared on her face. "I know where I want to go next, Doctor."
"Ah! Excellent! Where to next?" Derpy slowly approached the Doctor and whispered the answer into his ear. "Really?" He was silent for a few seconds. "You're not-"
"No! It's just...Twilight got me thinking and I think it would be nice to make a quick visit before heading back out into the universe."
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, your wish is my command." He proceeded to adjust a few of the controls on the main console. The TARDIS shook for a few seconds before coming to a quick stop. "There we are!"
Derpy turned around and burst through the TARDIS doors. It was nighttime and the only lights were that of the stars and of the surrounding homes. Derpy raced towards the house the Doctor had parked the TARDIS in front of and hastily knocked on the door.
The door opened a minute later.
"Hello?" asked Carrot Top. "Oh! Derpy!"
Derpy flung herself forward and wrapped Carrot Top up in a big hug. "It's so great to see you again, Carrot Top!" she cried.
"It's great to see you too, Derpy! You've been gone for a few days. How have things been?"
"Interesting, to say the least."
"Well why don't you come inside and tell me all about it? I've just made dinner and I'm sure I've made enough to fill five mouths!"
"Great!"
Carrot Top looked past Derpy and smirked. "That goes for you too, Doctor."
The Doctor looked at Carrot Top and shook his head. "No thanks," he replied with a head shake. "I'm not really a group dinner kind of-"
"Oh no! Nopony refuses one of my dinner invitations! You get your rump in this house before you don't have one anymore!" snapped Carrot Top.
The Doctor quickly straightened up and ran inside the house. "Yes, ma'am!"
Derpy and Carrot Top turned to each other and shared a laugh as they entered the house. It feels good to be home again, Derpy thought as she closed the door behind her.
To be continued in The Doctor Whooves Chronicles Episode 7: The Land of Web...
