> 12 -Codename "The Eyebrows" > by General D > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Eyebrows of Hope 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Sister I can't hold on- "But you must Luna." Luna's eyes twitched, and her lips wobbled. "I can still see it, Celestia, right there. Right there." "In the corner of my eye? I'm afraid I can say the same for you too, Luna." Celestia frowned at Luna's twitchy eyes. "Come now sister, you're stronger than this." "I'm sorry. " Luna blinked. "I'm sorry I can't." When she opened her eyes, Celestia was gone. In her place stood a sneering pegasus statue. Luna couldn't help but sob, and with each sob she blinked, and the statue with a frozen head drew closer. "Somepony, anypony please." Luna cried. It was so close now. "I'm the last one left." She closed her eyes, as it touched her muzzle, and a single tear fell. "I'm sorry." -For what? That went of perfectly! All thanks to yours truly of course." Luna opened her eyes to stare into a pair of angry old ones. She took a step back even as the light blue pony that had spoken started to twist knobs, and pull levers on the strange machine infront of him. "Don't touch the console by the way." He said offhandedly. "I've gone mad." She exclaimed as she spun, and twisted her neck to look around. She was in a room filled with machines and blinking lights, and as her eyes fell on the elderly stallion fiddling with the machine in the center she couldn't help but ask, "Or is this where everypony who was touched by those statues ended up? If so then my sister, your Princess Celestia, where is she? Have you seen her?!" The stallion glanced her way then went back to his machine. At this, she grew outraged. "As your princess I demand you speak at once sir! What do you know of the strange statues that have been attacking Canterlot all day?" He stared at her, and she saw how old the stallion clearly was. Guilt filled her. "Forgive me. It is unbecoming to raise my voice against the elderly, but please tell me what you know. Many lives depend on it." Then he flipped a switch. She stumbled as the metal ground shifted underneath her, and the wheezing of a broken machine filled her ears. "Glad to know we're on the same page then." His rough voice stated. "T-minus six hours ago your capital lit up with a massive quantum anomaly. The kind that makes you wonder just what equestria's all powerful princesses are up to." "Quantum anomaly?" "Yes the 'universe goes boom' kind.'" He replied with a deadpan. The stallion strode around the console, and towards her. "So I make my way over but oh oh, looks like everybody's packed up and gone on vacation! And I couldn't just come back another time, nooo. See, bad thing about quantum anomalies: leave them alone for too long, and pop goes the universe! Good news: all you need to fix them is one pony at the eye of the storm. Fortunately, I managed to snag the only pony still in town." Luna took a step back. "I don't understand." "To quote a friend of mine who isn't yet a friend of mine, 'tell me what you know because many lives depend on it'. What exactly happened six hours ago?" "I asked you first." "Don't be like that- "Answer all of mine then I'll answer yours." She stated firmly. "Fine. What do I know? The creatures that attacked you are called weeping pegasi. Creatures of the abstract. They feed by sending unsuspecting prey like you backwards in time, and then feeding on the energy of the days you never lived." "Abstract wha-? And that's what would have happened if you hadn't found me?" "Yes. That about sums it up nicely, doesn't it." "If what you're saying is true then where, and when am I? What about my sister, and the rest of our little ponies, where are they? In fact...," She spread her wings in aggression, "Who are you? How do I know you aren't in league with those fiends- "Oh, just shut up." She bristled. "Wha- how dare you?" "Tut. Tut. Tut. No. Shut up. Listen. Can you hear that?" "I can't hear a thing." She ground out. "Too bad because that's the sound of time passing while your friends, and probably everyone you've ever cared about, die peacefully hundreds of years away." She glared into his furrowed brows, and bony face. "Now unless you want to keep arguing while they die very pleasant deaths- all things considered -I suggest you listen very closely because as the pony trying to fix everything I'm going to make things very simple for both of us." The room shook. "I'm the Doctor, and you're the local knowledge. Now come on. Also, don't turn your back. Don't look away, and don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you die, and personally, I wouldn't recommend it." The Doctor strode past Luna to open the way out. The overwhelmingly bright light made his black vest, and hourglass cutie mark stand out. "...You didn't have to get angry about it." She trotted after him. "I'm not angry. I'm Trottish." "Either way. You want to know what happened this morning, but you've yet to explain everything to me. However, I do owe you my life. For that I greatly thank you, Doctor...?" "Oh, wouldn't you like to know." "Has anypony told you you're rude for age?" He shrugged. "I don't know you, but if you can help bring my sister back then we have an accord. And I'll start by telling you- Together they walked into the light. -of how the pegasi took canterlot." > Eyebrows of hope 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Six hours ago I woke to screams in the air. I was terrified, but not of the screams. The thought of ponies in my own castle dying while I slumbered was what terrified me. I burst out the doors just in time to see Flitter die. "Princess Luna, get back!" She screamed. Her pained expression was all I saw before she was wiped from existence. I fired a bolt of ice at her assailant's head, freezing it completely. Death was a stranger to me, in the sense I saw it everyday, but never had it come to greet me. In that light, I gave the body little thought before I ran off. That was my first mistake I believe. I could still hear screams, and they were all screams of anguish and vengeance. Screams of the dying so to speak, so I knew whatever battle I had woken to was far from over. Outside a window, I saw more of the strange creature I had slain minutes ago. In the back of my mind I realized most of them were simply standing in place, but I paid that no heed. That was my second mistake. As I rounded a corner several of my guards came into view, but they were surrounded on all sides by the strange creatures. And as they stood back to back they made no effort to fight their clearly immobile attackers. They were clearly terrified. In my anger and confusion I simply stood there and stared. "They've all stopped. But how?" One cried. "Look, its Princess Luna. She saved us!." Another said in joy. "Guards, to me!" I roared. Their cries of happiness turned to confusion and shock as I ran past them. I planned to personally relieve them for such cowardice, but Canterlot needed all the help It could get, so I attempted to rally them, and together we would seek out my sister. That was the accumulation of my mistakes. It was the last pony's cry of fear that made me look back. "Princess, NO." But they were all gone, and in their place the statues stood leering evilly at- -me?" The Doctor gave Luna a curious glance. Luna stared at the Tardis as though she was seeing it for the first time. The Doctor continued to fiddle with the computer like contraption he had set up outside even as the blue alicorn begun to circle his spaceship. There was a silence in the Canterlot throne room only broken by the beeping and blinking of the Doctor's computer. "I thought you were mad when you brought as back here, Doctor. I thought you were even madder when you said your device could bring back all the ponies we've lost." At this point she had circled the Tardis twice. "But this, this takes all of Celestia's cakes." His eyebrows rose. "Well tha's alof cakes." "More than you can imagine." She said seriously, "How exactly did you fit such a large room into you box, Doctor?" Luna inquired. "Oh you know, just a teeny tiny compression enlargement spell." He fibbed. She gave a knowing nod, "It must be quite a powerful spell. Did my sister cast it for you?" The stallion gave Luna a confused glance, so she explained further. "It resembles the 'bigger on the inside' spell her clothing is enchanted with, a spell without which she could not hope to fit into her clothes. Only alicorns can cast a spell of that magnitude, and only every so often." And then she turned serious. "How goes it good physician?" "See right here." He gave Luna his full attention. "I've set the scanner to scan for scan thingys, the seismograph to seismofy stuff, and the hypersonic four dimension collaborator to peruse relevant particle debris in the time vortex, translate them into code the Tardis can process, and hopefully reverse the polarity of this quantum conundrum." Luna coughed awkwardly. The Doctor trotted up to her. "If all goes well you'll be helping the pudgy white one out of her clothing by dinner. The Tardis, my box over there, will fix this whole mess if we give her enough time." He cocked his head to the side. "You don't look happy. Why don't you look happy? I thought you'd be happy." She shook her head. "Until this entire mess is resolved, I cannot allow myself that luxury." "Good. I was afraid you'd be optimistic. Now, remember how I told you the pegasi wouldn't bother us while we worked?" Luna nodded reluctantly. "That's what you said when we arrived. You said they would be full from feeding on an entire city, and wouldn't be able to move." "Yes, sort of like a snake that had a really big meal. Only one problem with that." "What pro- Doctor!" He spun at Luna's alarmed cry, and caught a weeping pegasus half way towards them. Speak of the devil, and he will appear. "There's one pegasus who's still very very hungry." Luna snarled at it, and the pegasus's half frozen face glared back. "And very angry. I would be too if someone stole my meal. Friend of yours?" The Doctor asked. "Tis no friend of mine good physician, but a fiend which refuses to remain smitten. We froze thou once, and thou still returned to take our sister from us. We will not be as merciful this time." Her horn glowed with an unearthly chill, and her eyes shone a similar color as she reared up. But the grey haired stallion was quick to stop her. "Don't waste your time." He answered her disapproving glare. "You can't kill them .Trust me." "What does thou insi- Forgive me. What do we do then?" "Come with me. Keep your eyes locked on it." Together they backpedaled out of the throne room, and slowly closed the doors. Only the Doctor was prepared for the force that struck the doors. Luna was sent flying. Another hard push followed, and by the time the statue went for a third shove Luna had thrown her own weight against the door. "What do we do now?!" She yelled. "Simple. You're going to tell me a story!" He replied over the banging. "What?" "Well go on. It's trapped in there, and we've got a few minutes till these doors give out. And you still haven't finished your story. Plus, you aren't a bad story teller." He admitted to her disbelieving face. "If the princess job ever goes sour you can make a living off it." > Eyebrows of Hope 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Luna, dear sister, it's good to see you again!" Celestia hugged her sister with the fury of the sun itself. All around them, the ponies who had been abducted by the weeping pegasi cheered as they realised they had been returned home. "Oh Celestia," The smaller alicorn cried, "Can you ever forgive me?" "Hush now. Don't blame yourself for anything that happened here today. I'm just glad you're alright. I always won our staring contests, so I should've seen this coming," she added playfully. "But what actually did happen?" Luna shook her head in disbelief. "You won't believe it sister: right before I was taken, I met the strangest stallion." Here she turned, and made to point the Doctor out, but he was gone. Celestia followed her sister's searching gaze over the crowd. "A stallion? Luna! And here I thought saving me would be your first priority." But Luna payed her sister's well meaning jab no mind. The sun princess saw her sister's worried gaze, and tried to change the topic. "And what part did your mystery colt play in all of this?" She asked. "Well it's- -a long story!" Luna screamed. "But if you want to chat our lives away so badly then why don't you explain yourself!" "What's there to explain?!" The Doctor replied. The bang that shook the doors almost sent them flying. Two more bangs followed before the pegasus stopped trying. They took the chance to breathe, but refused to leave the doors. Luna looked the Doctor in the eye, and said, "Ponies of your advanced age don't normally go around chasing monsters in strange little cubes that are strangely bigger on the inside. If at all," she said slowly, "Explain yourself." "Look around you. It's fake, all of it. Everything you see around you is fake. Hell...between you, me, and the pegasus. None of us is real. Well, we are real in the sense that we are physically here. But not real, in the sense that this reality shouldn't exist. Everything you see around you is a product of an event that should have never happened in the first place." He gestured around the room with his hoof, and her eyes followed. "Something happened here this morning, but I don't know what. What I do know is; six hours ago, this entire city became what is know as a quantum anomaly. A big nope in the fabric of time and space. Normally, you'd have a big ol'crack in the sky, or a massive timestorm to tell you something's up. But this time? Those statues came instead. And let me tell you they really shouldn't be here. I saw to that when I threw them into a reality eating crack in time and space. Only another crack could have brought them here." "An opening in time and space..." Luna frowned, "Doctor I think I know the cause." "Forget the cause, we have the solution. You're a product of this mess. If she scans you with the device I was hooking up earlier, she can manipulate the time energy here, and set this whole mess straight." "But the machine is back in there with that thing." He nodded, "And it gets worse, because we're on a time limit." "You never mentioned a time limit!" She cried. "Didn't I? Well, we can only fix things right now because the reality we're in is like a dream. If we wake up, all the nasty things fade away. And the opposite is true; if the nasty things stick around long enough, then they'll become real. Now, just imagine one of your nightmares coming to life." She shuddered, "Oh no, you don't think- "Wait, can you hear that." He said suddenly. He realised it was quiet. Too quiet, in fact. The Doctor was struck by a sense of Deja vu. "What do you call it when you're taking a run up, but you don't have legs?" They were sent flying by a powerful shove. The timecharger saw the pegasus' maniacal grin just before he blinked.