> The Fragments of Symphony > by Sky Blue CMC > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter I: The Big Mix-Up > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Around the time of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armour's wedding, just after the Mane Six left for Canterlot, Doctor Whooves opened his little TARDIS blue book to a page on which River Song had written an equation. It was supposed to be a formula for perpetual energy, something not anybody or anypony had been able to calculate. If it could be completed, the Doctor thought, then I could fly my TARDIS forever! Suddenly he saw a grey Pegasus mare standing in front of him. "Derpy!" he exclaimed in surprise. "How long have you been here?" "A few minutes, maybe?" The wall-eyed mare replied, wondering herself. "You were probably too lost in your book, Doctor." "I wasn't lost in my book, Derpy!" the Doctor replied "I was just reading it for a moment, looking at some equation an old friend of mine wrote. She said that if it was correct, it could make the TARDIS fly forever!" "What's an Equestion?" Derpy asked. "Is it like a question about ponies?" "It's an equation, not an Equestion!" the Doctor replied. "And an equation is a maths problem which has an unknown and a solution." "Oh," Derpy responded "If the TARDIS could fly forever, we could go back in time to before you got to Equestria and get you back home to Gallopfrey!" "Gallifrey, not Gallopfrey." the Doctor corrected. "And even if I could go back to my home universe, I would never go back there. Not after all the friendships I've made here. Anyway, why did you come here?" "I just came by to say hello and see what you were doing." Derpy answered. "Well in that case, run along Derpy, I'm too busy to speak right now." the Doctor replied. "Okay then, bye Doctor!" Derpy said as she walked on her way. She was going to make muffins for all her friends. Delicious oatmeal muffins. With butter on top. And blueberries inside. She'd figure out the rest when she got home. With the klutz away, the Doctor thought to himself, the Time Lord will play! Since nopony was around, he started thinking aloud. "Let's see, KE=0.5mv^2 where v=c and m=0... no, that wouldn't work: nothing has no mass. How about m=0.001, a small object weighing only 1 gram at light speed... 44937758936840.89 Joules of energy used. That's still a rather large amount of energy, probably too much to get enough back in return... Then again, the TARDIS has a lot of vortex energy, probably more than that much per second. What nearby object weighs 1 gram?" The Doctor looked around and found nothing he could place in a particle accelerator. Nothing other than dirt, anyway. "Well, dirt it is then!" he said, and then he grabbed some dirt, carefully weighed it, and put it in the particle accelerator. The particle accelerator, connected to the TARDIS, carried the dirt in circles and circles until it had reached just slightly under the speed of light. The energy was then transferred to the TARDIS. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, however, Celestia and Luna had scheduled a solar eclipse for that particular moment. The Doctor, too busy testing River's equation, was not looking at the sky. He did not see the solar eclipse, nor know of it until the sky randomly went dark for a few moments. Also unbeknownst to the Doctor, eclipses in Equestria were powered by the Fragments of Symphony, the second most powerful magic known to ponydom. The power of the eclipse was magnified by the TARDIS's energy, and the Fragments of Symphony were mixed up. "Now to testy westy the TARDIS's new energy... wenergy!" The Doctor exclaimed in triumph. "Allons-y!" The Doctor got into the TARDIS and pulled some levers, pressed some buttons, and adjusted some dials. The TARDIS travelled to about six minutes in the future, to when the eclipse would end, making a vworping noise as she left. As the TARDIS made another vworping noise, she took the Doctor to sixty minutes in the future. In Canterlot. Whoops. Fifty-four minutes off. the Doctor thought. Then he looked around. And in the wrong town! The Doctor saw a familiar looking light-grey-brown mare and said hello. "'ello, Octavia!" He noticed there was a different symbol on her rump than there normally was: where a purple treble clef used to be, there was a black pair of beamed eighth notes. Just like the Cootie Mark of a certain DJ back in Ponyville: Vinyl, or DJ P0N3. The Doctor was astounded: not only had a pony's Cutie Mark changed, but it changed into that of another pony's. The Doctor was oblivious to many, though not most, Equestrian ways, but he knew that ponies only had one Cutie Mark in their lifetime, unless afflicted by the Cutie Pox. Since Zecora and the Seeds of Truth were in the Everfree Forest, which was quite far from Canterlot, the Doctor needed to find his own cure. Then he had an idea: Everyone in Ponyville came here for the Royal Wedding. Maybe Bon Bon had an idea for a cure. After all, her sweets did more than just satisfy the taste buds, some of them had magic powers! Then he thought a little more on the matter. Or whoever has Bon Bon's Cootie Mark! The Doctor looked at Octavia's turntables, and saw the name DJ T4V3 inscribed on the side of it. He listened and heard music that sounded terrible even for what Vinyl called "wubs". Yup, the Doctor thought Someone needs to cure these ponies. Doesn't really matter who. Something needs to be done or else Equestria will have another disaster! > Chapter II: The Fragment of Humour > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doctor Whooves said "Hello, Octavia!" again, just in case she didn't hear him. "My professional name is DJ T4V3." the mare replied. "I go by that name when I'm wubbing." Wubbing? the Doctor thought. Is "wub" a verb? I thought it was a noun! Never mind, Brain #13, that's not important. "What's wubbing?" the Doctor asked, pretending that he didn't know. "It's what I call my music style: 'wubs' as a verb." Octavia responded. "I'm not very proud of myself for inventing it, though. How did you know my name, anyway? We've never met before, as far as I can tell." "I know you because I'm a Time Lord, a time-travelling two-hearted alien pony from planet Gallopfrey." the Doctor said, following Rule 1. "You'll meet me in the near future. I'm Clockwork, by the way." "Well it was nice meeting you, Clockwork, but I need to concentrate on my wubbing." Octavia replied. "Farewell for now, Clockwork! Or, as they say in French, au revoir, Mécanisme!" "Au revoir, Octave!" the Doctor returned the farewell. "I must depart as well." he added, then he ran to the Canterlot Castle. With DJ T4V3 away, the Doctor decided to search the castle atrium. I must look for Vinyl, she'll know how to fix this! the Doctor thought. She's the original wubber! Oh Rassilon, I'm starting to think like DJ T4V3! She should be in the kitchen, preparing muffins or candies. Whichever one it is depends on whose Cootie Mark she has. Doctor Whooves had no idea where the Royal Kitchen was, so he went to the head of the atrium, where Princess Celestia was standing. She was patiently waiting for the groom and bride, wondering why it was taking this long for them to arrive. Suddenly she saw the brown stallion, who exclaimed "Princess! It's an emergency! Octavia has Vinyl's Cootie Mark!" Princess Celestia had learned not to correct the Doctor, and replied "Have you noticed anything strange about anypony before the eclipse?" The Doctor thought about it for a while before answering. "No, Princess." he replied. "Derpy was off to make muffins like she normally does, and she asked me Derpy Werpy questions, like 'What's an Equestion?' when I told her about my friend River Song's equation." "I see," responded the Princess, "I believe somepony transferred a lot of energy to the Sun during the eclipse, causing the Fragments of Symphony to mix up." "That was me." the Doctor replied sheepishly. "I was testing my friend's equation, and the eclipse just happened to happen at that exact moment!" "And have you any idea of whose Cootie Mark Vinyl has?" Celestia asked, emphasising that the correct word wasn't Cootie. "I've narrowed it down to Bon Bon's or Derpy's," the Doctor replied, "Which led me here, to ask you where the kitchen is, since they'd both be there by now if their Cootie Marks were normal." "Enter the sixth door on your right from in front of me." Princess Celestia replied, watching the Doctor as he turned around. The Doctor ran to the room, and sure enough, he was in the Royal Kitchen. Then he saw Lyra with Derpy's Cutie Mark and Vinyl with Bon Bon's Cutie Mark. "I'm try-ing to make muf-fins, I just don't know what went wrong!" Lyra exclaimed. "I can't get these in-gre-di-ents wher-e-ver they be-long! I have a lot of bad luck, so I hope you'll for-give me!" "You telling me, Ly?" Vinyl asked. "I mix up all my can-dy but it al-ways just ends up a waste! I do al-right with fla-vours, but I can't hold on, I drop the base! I must be a Con-fec-tio-ner, it's what I'm meant to be." "No time to sing of des-ti-ny, 'cause we have to get a move on, Al-lons-y!" the Doctor joined in the tune of a song he had heard in the future. "Come with me, Vinyl! Octavia's really struggling with her wubs!" "But I don't really know anything about wubs!" Vinyl replied. Yes, you do. You know everything about them. You invented the word, you human-brained Unicorn! The Doctor thought. The only thing he said on the matter was "But you do know something about Octavia!" "I know that she's a true friend," Vinyl said, "and I'd do anything I could to help her!" Doctor Whooves and Vinyl, joined at the hip, headed back outside the castle. Lyra didn't join them because she wasn't called to do so yet. I don't even know where Bon Bon and Derpy are! the Doctor thought. I'll ask Lyra to come when she's needed. "Bonjour, Mécanisme." Octavia said worriedly. "Octave!" the Doctor replied. He couldn't see her anywhere. Before he could ask where she went, he heard her say something else. "I'm in here! Help! I'm trapped!" It was coming from under DJ P0N3's, no, DJ T4V3's turntable. "I trapped myself under here to blind me from the haters!" "Hurry, Clockwork!" Vinyl exclaimed. "Can't you just use some sort of equation to calculate good sounding wubs?" "No. Vinyl, you're the only one who can help!" the Doctor replied "Octavia needs you!" "Um... Hello?" Vinyl said. "A wiki-wiki-wiki and a wubba-dub-dub! A Vinyl Scratch is playin' in the DJ Club! If the Element of Laughter just isn't enough, then call upon the Fragment of Humour and stuff!" Almost instantly, Vinyl's Cutie Mark had returned to normal. The name on the turntable said DJ P0N3 and the fans gave a rousing cheer! "Vinvyl!" One down. the Doctor thought. How many more? > Chapter III: The Fragment of Hospitality > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doctor Whooves, for thirteen, was ecstatic that his poorly-thought-out plan worked. "It worked! It worked!" he exclaimed. "Oh, I'm so happy you're back to normal! Now we need your help!" the Doctor didn't quite want to sing a song about it, though he did know the words of one from the future. He said them in a normal, non-singing, tone of voice. "Derpy Hooves needs your help, she's trying hard doing what she can!" Then Vinyl asked Octavia "Would you try, just give it a chance?" Then together they said "You might find that you'll start to understand!" Octavia looked confused. "Comprendre ce qui, Mécanisme?" she asked the Doctor. "I don't know the slightest thing about how to play a cello! I'd probably just get discorded notes like Derpy's." "You know French, one of the six Romantic languages!" the Doctor exclaimed. "The cello originated in Italy, the land of another Romantic language!" "Try playing a song, Tavi!" Vinyl added. "Something that comes from the heart!" "Okay, I'll try." Octavia replied. "This one goes out to my very special somepony." Once when I was seventeen I met a mare named Eveline I knew my life would never be the same. Her bright red eyes, her flowing hair, Magnificence was in the air The night I met my dearest Golden Flayme Oh oh oh oh My Eveline I've always seen You in my dream! My Golden Flayme You call my name I feel the same! My Fallen Star You broke my heart I'm torn apart! Eveline "Vinyl" Scratch stood in silence until the end of the song, which had three more verses, and then asked Octavia "How did you know my real name, Tavi? I never told you or anypony else my real name!" "You were probably too blacked out to remember," Octavia answered, "but you did tell me your name when we met. You were having a drinking contest with Berry Punch, and after you were declared champion, you told the nearest pony, which was me, 'Eveline is the drinking champ!' in slurred drunken speech." A second later, Octavia's Cutie Mark had returned to normal, signifying that the second arc of the cure had worked. Octavia's Memories seem to be normal again! the Doctor thought. I'm fairly certain that means there are three more. > Chapter IV: The Fragment of Fidelity > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doctor Whooves was worried that Tavi and Vinyl's little scene would go on forever, and that the damage of the eclipse's mix-up would never be undone, so he interrupted. "Derpy! No-one's in the kitchen with Lyra! She needs your help making those muffins! Lyra needs your help, she's trying hard doing what she can!" "Would you try, just give it a chance?" Octavia added. "You might find that you'll start to understand!" After this, the crew travelled back to the Royal Kitchen, where Lyra was alone trying to make muffins. And failing. Miserably. "I just don't know what went wrong!" was heard in Lyra's voice over all the clamour. "What could you do? What could I do?" Derpy Hooves asked. "Give me a smidge of confidence, give me a speck of something that makes sense! Give me an idear of dependency, give me the Fragment of Fidelity! Fidelity! I could save this muffin batch for you! But the feelin' in my tum can't follow through! (Can't follow through!) You can give your burnt muffins to mihi! 'Cause you know I'll eat 'em with you, that's why I'm called Fidelity!" This was a song that not even I had heard! the Doctor thought to himself. If someone could play an acoustic guitar or a mandolin while she sang it, it would sound a lot better. "No time for a song!" the Doctor shouted. "Unless you sing while you work." Derpy sang a completely different song this time. "Lyra, won't you glow? Lyra, won't you glow? Lyra, won't you glow your horn?" Lyra tried again, and the next batch of muffins didn't turn out quite as well as she had hoped. Derpy kept tasting and criticising them. "Too green!" Lyra baked another batch "Too yellow!" And another. "Too many bluberries!" And another. "Not enough blueberries!" And another. "Too oaty!" And one last batch. "Too... shiny! Now careful, Lyra! We don't wanna cause any more damage than we've already done!" Lyra said something she said twice before: "I just don't know what went wrong!" Derpy replied "Yeah. It's a mystery!" "Maybe you should try making muffins instead of eating Lyra's!" the Doctor suggested. He immediately regretted saying this when Derpy broke into song. As much as he loved music, hearing song after song got rather tiresome after a while. "I'll cook up a solution with the muffins I will mix! They say a kitchen time saves nine, but I'm just saving six! I've gathered the ingredients to make it Muffin Day! There's hardly room for seconds when the seconds melt away!" Derpy sang as she preheated the oven, gathered the ingredients, and made the batter. "Watch as I work my Derpsy Magic, half cup of oats and blueberries! Watch as the matter turns to batter, open the Portal I'm free! Crude start, do you fear it Lyra Heart-strings? There's just no explanation for the muffin-making art!" And just like that, half of her Cutie Mark returned to normal: three bubbles appeared on the upper half of her flank. Half her Cootie Mark? the Doctor thought. Is that because Derpy doubles as a mailmare? Maybe if I show her that she can write letters, she'll get the other half! I can't tell her directly, though. "Derpy!" the Doctor exclaimed, "I'm about to write a letter to Carrot Top! Maybe somepony with wings could deliver it for me!" "Carrot Top? The Muffin Demon? I'm not letting her steal my recipes, that's for sure." Derpy responded. Doctor Whooves started writing his letter, it went as follows: Non-Dear Carrot Top, my companion and I are working on a new recipe of muffin: Caramel-Carrot-Covered Delight! We will never tell you the recipe, ever! What we've come up with so far tastes delicious! You must be so jealous of us! Sincerely Yours, Clockwork "Okay, it's done! Send it, anyone with wings!" the Doctor exclaimed, hoping that Derpy was listening. He dropped the letter on the floor, and, almost immediately, Derpy picked it up with her hoof. She flew to the Castle atrium, which now had the royalties Princess Celestia and Guard Captain Shining Armour, as well as over a thousand visitors. They all appeared to be waiting for someting big, like a ceremony of some sort. There was a Royal Wedding that day, but Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was nowhere to be found. The Doctor thought to himself If the bride is really just getting ready, I'm not a madpony with a box! After two minutes, a sanguine-faced, orange-maned pony with a Cutie Mark of three carrots angrily asked "WHICH ONE OF YOU IS CLOCKWORK?!" Well, the mailing seemed to work! the Doctor thought. The other four bubbles returned to Derpy's lower flank, meaning three mares were unmixed. J-Just two... m-m-more mares, Doctor! He could feel at least 1.21 gigawatts of energy inside him, more than a human or normal pony could handle. How much longer could he last? > Chapter V: The Fragment of Selflessness > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- We've gotten this far, Doctor Whooves thought, I can go a little further. The excess radiation from the ecliptical mishap won't have any effect on me for at least an hour. We only have two more Cootie Marks to fix, it should be easy! "I just don't know what went wrong!" Derpy exclaimed after seeing Carrot Top's angry mug. "There's no time to explain, but we need your help!" the Doctor replied. "Bon Bon's trying to play the lyre!" "Say no more!" exclaimed Derpy. The four ponies and one ponyoid alien hurried to the atrium. There they saw a confused Bon Bon, playing her, no Lyra's lyre with her hooves. "I try to play my lyre, but I am met with mock and scorn!" Bon Bon sang. "I have to play with hooves, because I'm not a Unicorn! This has got to be my calling, but I'm feeling so forlorn!" "Your music is bad and you should feel bad! You can't just have your characters announce how they feel!" Lyra exclaimed after hearing this. "That makes me feel angry!" "Okay, then you play something, Flank Pone-atra!" Bon Bon replied. "It wouldn't be better than my attempt!" "I'm stupid, I'm stupid, I'm stupider than you! I'm stupider than you in ev'ry way!" Lyra remarked sarcastically. "Bite my shiny metal flank!" She then proceeded to play the lyre, after rudely snatching it from Bon Bon's hooves with her magic. "Destiny has cheated me, By forcing me to decide upon, The pony that I idolise, Or the hands of some... one drawn upon." Lyra's Cutie Mark had returned to normal. Bon Bon applauded, clapping her hooves. Which was quite hard to do for an Earth Pony, having no horn or wings to help her retain her balance. "That was beautiful!" She exclaimed. "But who was it for? Who's this 'pony that you idolise'?" Everypony, especially Lyra, knew she still had missing memories. "We don't have time for this." the Doctor said. "The wedding could happen any minute now!" even though that wasn't what he was really worried about. He was really worried about dying of excess radiation, and regenerating into his eleventh body. I'd only have two lives left, since the Metacrisis took one of them. Still, I have hope: There's only one... more... p-p-pony! > Chapter VI: The Fragment of Truth > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The townspeople are furious! We need the old Bon Bon back!" Doctor Whooves exclaimed. "I'm on it!" Vinyl replied. "I know just the thing!" She started to sing a familiar song. Or at least one that was familiar to the Doctor. "The townspeople need you, they've been cravin' for too long! They need some treats, or something sweet, to help 'em right their wrongs! And if you feel like helping, we'd appreciate a lot! If you get up there and make some candy for all Canterlot!" After less than twenty minutes, Bon Bon had a very large batch of candies complete. "Come on ponies, I wanna see you smile!" she exclaimed as she threw them to the crowded atrium. "Bon Bon!" the crowd cheered. Then everypony, even the Doctor, was singing the chorus. "A true true friend helps a friend in need! A friend will be there to help them see! A true true friend helps a friend in need, to see the light! See the light! That shines! That shines from a true true friend!" Bon Bon's Cutie Mark returned to normal, and the whole of Equestria regained their memories. Princess Luna, in her daydream, saw a brilliant light that was so bright it woke her up. She decided to stay in her room until she could make some sense of this aurora flash. She consulted her dream journal for any interpretation. "We only have one more Fragment left to find." the Doctor said. "The Fragment of Time. My Fragment!" > Chapter VII: The Fragment of Time > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Regarding the Fragment of Time, The next thing that happened was prime: Doctor Whooves was perplexed As for what to do next, And his brains were as sour as a lime. The very next thing that he did Was say something, and I don't kid, He said "All that is left Is for me to be deft, And to find out where my Fragment hid!" So the Doctor went back to his ship, With all his friends joined at the hip. They all followed him far and wide to ev'ry star, In the sky they had such a nice trip. But this trip was to no avail, For he and his friends all did fail. With only ten minutes, They put their hearts in it, And that's when they got on a rail. While some fake Princess sang "This Day" An aria that was to say "Ev'rypony in town Will do naught but bow down Do I care for love? I say neigh!" The Doctor helped Twilight to find The Elements, deep down inside. When the Changelings all morphed Twilight was speckledorfed! By Queen Chrysalis, who was the bride. The Doc and his friends saw the doom, That'd happen, should Changelings consume All the love in a dash, So they made a big flash Of aurora: a Sonic Timeboom! And soon I'll be ending my rhyme, But first I will say how sublime Ev'rypony had been Through the thick and the thin And the Doc found the Fragment of Time! > Chapter VIII: The Aurora Flash > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sonic Timeboom was a success, causing an aurora flash to occur at the time it was produced. What's more is that Doctor Whooves and his friends had chosen the day Rainbow Dash created the Sonic Rainboom with her sheer awesomeness and helped her what were then future friends earn their Cutie Marks. This day is going to be perfect! The Doctor thought. Midnight Twinkle and her friends' Cootie Marks will all be affected in some way or other, causing my newfound Fragment of Time to actually be of use! If the Fragments are anything like the Elements, another five ponies will earn their Cootie Marks at the same time. On that same day, near the Sweet Drops Emporium, a young Earth pony with a beige coat, pigment blue mane with a rose pink streak, cerulean eyes, and no Cutie Mark was sick of choosing between two boring colours: black and white. For two boring candies with the same boring flavour of nothing. So she decided to do someting about that. The newlywed Cake couple had just opened a shop together: Sugarcube Corner. The filly, having heard about this, decided to go there. When she arrived, Mrs. Cake welcomed her with a smile. "Welcome to Sugarcube Corner, where smiles come alive!" Mrs. Cake exclaimed. "What's your name, little filly?" Mr. Cake asked. "Me?" the filly asked. "I'm Bon Bon. You must be Mr. and Mrs. Cake! I'm looking for something that can make my candies sweet instead of bland." "I'm sorry." Mrs. Cake replied. "We just used the last of our sugar to make our desserts." As soon as those words left the light-blue-coated mare's mouth, a big explosion was heard followed by a twinkle. The twinkle in question was none other than the resonance of the Sonic Timeboom! As soon as Bon Bon heard it, she knew what she needed to do. She needed to mix her candies with love, not magic or sugar. When she realised this, her flank flashed for a second, and then her Cutie Mark had appeared. It was three objects that unmistakenly represented candies. At the same time in Canterlot, a certain light-grey-brown Earth filly was having trouble finding an instrument to play. She decided a guitar didn't have enough class, a violin wasn't big enough, and a bass was too big. The Sonic Timeboom happened at the exact right moment, for when she laid her eyes on a cello, she heard a twinkle. A twinkle that, though saying nothing, told the filly that this was the one. She played the cello, and, in a literal flash, her Cutie Mark appeared. It was a purple coloured treble clef. She played a song that is remembered to this day: "I am Octavia!" A young mint-green Unicorn pony in Ponyville School of Music and Magic was frustrated at her inability to play instuments or cast spells. She tried the guitar, cello, bass, even the harp, all in vain. She saw an instrument that called to her with a twinkle. Then she heard a double explosion and felt a powerful magic surge flow through her horn. The unicorn picked up the instrument with her magic, a golden aura, and played a few chords of a song she tried to write while playing. "The music of the night," she began to sing, "a Golden Melody, can shine a little light, on Illucidity!" "That was absolutely beautiful, miss Heartstrings!" Professor Dubilee exclaimed in delight. "Thank you sir," she replied, "But I prefer to be called Lyra." "Well then, Lyra," Dubilee replied, "there's something else." "More?" Lyra asked. Professor Dubilee pointed at Lyra's flank, which now had a replica of that instrument on it. "It's called a lyre." he told her. "It suits you name and musical abilities so well that I'll allow you to keep the one you played." "My Cutie Mark!" Lyra exclaimed with joy. Then she chanted the word "Yes" several times, dancing on air with excitement. Another Unicorn pony in Ponyville was having the same frustration, this one white with red eyes. She was trying to open a door like a good doormare should. But this little filly didn't want to be a doormare. She wanted to play a kind of music called "wubs" that she made up. She heard the voice of her mother. "Eveline! The door!" the mare exclaimed. "There's somepony on the other side!" Eveline, who wanted to be called Vinyl, or maybe even DJ P0N3, opened the door with a frown. Her flank was still blank, meaning that opening doors wasn't her destiny. That frown turned into a straight face as she realised that this meant her destiny could be wubbing. As soon as she realised this, Eveline decided to run to the music shop, without greeting the guest, and see if they had a DJ turntable there. She gave the name "Vinyl Scratch" to the clerk, and requested for the turntable to be engraved with the letters "DJ P0N3" on it. As turntables aren't the most... portable of instruments, Vinyl decided to just play it there for now and wait for it to be mailed to her at night, when her parents were sleeping. That turned out to be pointless, as a loud blast of music the next night woke them up anyway. "EVELINE!!!" her mother exclaimed in a rage. "WHAT IS THAT AWFUL NOISE?!!!!" "It's called wubs, mom!" Vinyl replied. "And I'm DJ P0N3 now!" Vinyl's words were made true as soon as they were spoken. Her flank flashed briefly, and a black pair of beamed eighth notes appeared on it. A grey-blue Pegasus filly in Cloudsdale was crying because she was being bullied for her wall-eyes and lack of a Cutie Mark. She heard a voice, and looked up to see an unfamiliar brown Pegasus stallion looking down at her. "Hm…? That sounds like a child crying..." he said, flapping, then landed on a cloud. In a more comforting voice, he asked the filly "Hey there little pony, what are you doing here all by your-.... Self?" "Go away, leave me alone!" the filly exclaimed. "I don’t want ponies calling me names anymore!" The brown pony, still trying to comfort the little filly, said "Now, now, don’t worry. I’m not going to call you names." The blue-grey filly, still crying, asked "You aren’t?" The brown pony, still trying to comfort the little filly, replied "No, I would never." The grey-blue filly asked the brown stallion "Who are you?" The brown pony, not wanting to give a name, told her "I’m... uh, a friend, just passing through." Then he asked "So tell me, what’s the problem?" The blue-grey filly replied "It’s just... ever since I came here, I’ve tried to make friends, but ponies just take one look at me, and they avoid me and call me names...make fun of my eyes... I didn’t even do anything to them, I just wanted to be friends.... I just don’t know what went wrong." She cried some more, then said "It’s the same every day here. My parents always told me that it was the inside that counts, but what’s the point if ponies just judge you by your looks anyway?" She broke down crying. The brown pony tried to cheer up the filly with the thing he said next "Listen I know things seem really bad now, but things will get better soon. Trust me, I’ve been through a lot of tough times I thought would never end, but I’m happy now, life is full of highs and lows, but the lows are worth going through to get to the highs. And if those ponies don’t like you just because of your eyes, well then they probably weren’t the friends for you to begin with." The grey-blue filly, filled with a dash of hope, asked the brown pony "Do you think I’ll ever make any friends?" The brown pony said with confidence "I know so." Then he asked her "Do you feel better now?" The blue-grey filly, a bit happy, said "A little." The brown pony, happy to have helped, said "That’s a good pony, now go on and get back to practicing flying, I need to meet up with somepony." The grey-blue filly asked "Wait Mister, will I ever see you again?" The brown pony, looking back to his memories with Derpy, said "Um… I’m sure we’ll meet sometime. In the future." The young Derpy, thankful for what this brown stranger had done, said "Okay, thanks for making me feel better mister." Then she ran off and then tripped "I’m fine!" She exclaimed. She looked down at her flank and noticed that there were nine bubbles on it. Or was it seven? Then she got up and ran again. The brown pony said something, though it was too quiet for young Derpy to hear. He said "You’re welcome Ditzy." Another version of the brown stallion in the air, this one an Earth pony, looked up to the sky from his TARDIS and saw himself comforting the young Derpy. "I wonder when I become a Pegasus?" he asked himself. "Who cares about that, we gotta move if we're going to find out how to create the aurora flash with the Fragments of Symphony so that these events can happen!" he exclaimed. "Allons-y!" > Chapter IX: The Sempricorn > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, in Princess Luna's dream, an inexplicable aurora flash popped into and out of existence with a twinkling sound. In its wake, the flash left behind a Unicorn filly with a teal coat, big teal eyes, and a blonde mane with a single pink streak in it, and a blonde tail with a couple of pink streaks in it. Luna decided to name the pony Aurora Flash, after the inexplicable phenomenon that seemed to have birthed her. She added the middle name Lucilia, meaning "little light" in Latin. The magic we sense in her is pre-Equestrian, so her name deserves to be in the language that the ponies of that time spoke. Aurora Lucilia Flash had magic that was older than anypony who ever knew her, even Luna, had ever realised could exist inside a single pony. This was because she was no normal Unicorn at all. Aurora was a being of an ancient race of ponies known as the Sempricorns. In those times, the Unicorn tribe consisted of two races: normal Unicorns (Which, oddly enough, included royalty) and Sempricorns: Unicorns who could travel through time as many times as they wanted instead of just once, remember things that never happened to them better than any historian pony could, and do something with ease that takes an Alicorn or a very highly-trained normal Unicorn a lot of magic strength to do: Dream-walking spells. The mother of a Sempricorn was the mare who dreamed about his or her creation, and the father was the stallion who created the catalyst necessary to call her into existence. Princess Luna, having woken up and read this in her Encyclopedia Somniaria, recorded her latest dream in her dream journal, with a group of letters she wrote in there often: EncSomn, and the number of the page in the book that defined Sempricorns, walked down her tower and into the castle atrium to watch the rest of the Royal Wedding. But when she got there, the wedding was over, and everypony was already outside celebrating. We will find out later who this other pony is, but for now... Luna thought. She then looked down at the Unicorn filly who resembled the dream-figure. It looks like we have a Sempricorn to raise! > Chapter X: The End of Magic > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luna had helped many foals with their troubles before, but she no idea what to do with a Sempricorn filly. She had only just read about them a couple of minutes ago, and the book didn't say anything about how to raise one. So she tried calling her name. "Aurora!" she exclaimed. "Come to mommy!" The pony responded quite unusually for a newborn. She walked on all fours (like a normal pony) and came to her mother, as if she could understand what Luna was saying. Just wait until Princess Cadence sees her new, already sentient, half-sister! Luna thought with delight. We wonder if she can speak! To see if Aurora could speak, Luna held up three objects with her light-blue magic aura: a blank scroll with a quill tied to it by a blue ribbon, a red rubber ball, and a Golden Delicious apple. "Which one of these things do you want, Aurora?" "Poetry?" the Sempricorn replied in a questioning tone. She pointed her left-front hoof at the scroll, and Luna removed the ribbon and gave it and the quill to her. Luna then went back to her bedroom in her tower and came down to the atrium with an inkwell, which she also gave to Aurora. Luna watched as the unusually gifted pony started writing a poem. It went something like the one written here, but this is only a fraction of a rendition of the poem that she actually wrote: A little pair of broken hearts, one pony holds them tight. The foul and fair, they end what starts, by bringing him to fight. Aurora gave the poem this simple title: The End of Magic. She then earned her Cutie Mark, a very odd thing to happen to a newborn filly. Luna knew of only one pony with two hearts, and only one pony prior to Aurora who had a Cutie Mark so quickly after entering Equestria. There was no doubt about it, this poem was a prophecy about the Doctor. > Chapter XI: The Eleventh Chapter > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tail Six headed to the atrium of Canterlot Castle once again, right as everypony, including a multitude of the Tail Six, left it. The Royal Wedding was over, and Shining Armour was now a Prince. Doctor Whooves, having all six Fragments of Symphony, asked Princess Celestia a question: "What do I do with the Fragments?" "Use them to restore Symphony to Equestria by channelling their energy through your ship, whatever you call it." "I call her the TARDIS!" the Doctor exclaimed rudely. "And she can clean this mess in ten seconds flat!" The Doctor quickly gathered his friends to the TARDIS, taking sixty-nine seconds. Then she took them fifty-nine seconds back in time. In Ponyville. Well that worked! the Doctor thought. The TARDIS took the Doctor for one last flight before he changed bodies. In this flight, he could feel magical energy glowing from his hooves. He could also see it, and it was in fact golden. But it looked more like a pony aura than a Time Lord aura. Is Lyra doing this to me, or is this how Time Ponies regenerate? the Doctor thought. "I don't wanna go!" he exclaimed. The words acted almost as a curse, for the moment that he said them, he went. He went and regenerated into a completely different pony. A pony with a greyish-brown coat, a slightly darker brown mane and tail, golden eyes, and a slightly changed head-shape. A different trait for the bearers of each Fragment! he thought. Doctor Whooves started examining himself. "Legs!" he exclaimed. "I've still got legs! Good. Forelegs. Hooves. Ooh, fingers! Nevermind, no fingers. Ears, yes. Eyes, two. Nose, I've had worse! Chin, blimey! Hair. I'm a girl! Nope, I'm not a girl! And still not ginger! And something else, something important. I'm... I'm... I'm... Ha! Crashing! Ha ha! Woo hoo hoo! Avante!" The Doctor really did hate goodbyes. He thought to return to Ponyville, and explain that he was still the same pony, but then he thought that nopony would believe her. No, him! They would not believe him! He had to come up with a new name for himself. Something that comes from his name, but isn't it. Something French. He would introduce himself to the Ponyvillians as... Onze, the French word for Eleven! There's a sequel in the works, it's called "The Revival of Symphony"