> Doctor Whooves Adventures
>  by IHasApple
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Missing Cutie Marks: Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a normal day for Ponyville. Celestia’s sun shone down on all the ponies as they went about the day. All except for a few places. On the far side of Ponyville, near the everfree forest, there stood a cottage, surrounded by bird houses, a chicken coop and all sort of other animal habitats. Around this pony's house, it was this dark with clouds. This, of course, was Fluttershy’s house. Every day in the morn, she would go out and feed the animals and collect eggs. She stood in the doorway of the henhouse, counting the eggs she had gathered in her basket. 

“6...7…8…9? Oh dear, one’s missing.”

She looked back to the chickens. They all looked back to one chicken in the corner. The chicken looked saddened and just shrugged it's wings. 

"Oh my. Another day without an egg?" she walked towards the chicken roost, "Don't worry about it. You're new. Just give it time." The chicken perked up a little as Fluttershy walked out of the coop. 

Fluttershy stepped out and looked up at the sky. Clouds. Clouds were in the way of the beautiful skies and sun. There had been alot of clouds, recently. Rather dark, scary looking ones, too. Rainbow Dash was usually the one who would clear the stray weather that drifted in from the wild Everfree forest. Although, Fluttershy hadn't seen Rainbow in for at least two or three days.

"Hm. Rainbow must still be-"

SWOOSH

She was cut off by the aforementioned pegasus making her entrance. With a great swoop of her wings and a burst of speed, the dark sky exploded into a colourful rainbow blitz! The timid pony was starlted, but regained a small smile when she was what was happening. The rainbow maned pony went about, kicking away the clouds left and right, clearing the entire sky in a little less than 10 seconds, flat.  

"Wow, Rainbow Dash. Thank you for clearing the sky. That was fast, even for you." Fluttershy complimented her friend. "I guess you got over that nasty flu bug, huh?"

Dash flew down lower to the pink maned pony. "Heh heh, yeah. I woke up really early today, feeling GREAT!" she flew in loops to emphasize her point. 

Fluttershy continued to smile at her excited friend. "Well that's um.. great!" she tried to mimic Rainbow's enthusiasum.

Rainbow Dash continued to fly higher and faster. "Catch ya later, 'Shy! I gotta do some awesome tricks!"

Fluttershy continued to watch as Rainbow dashed off. Smaller and smaller Dash got. Fluttershy was about to turned to head inside, when her keen eyes and attention to detail caught something. It was Rainbow. She stopped getting smaller. In fact, instead of getting smaller, Rainbow's wings went straight out and then fell limp at her sides!

Then she began to fall. 

"Oh No!" Fluttershy screamed as she immediately flew off, forgetting about the nine eggs that soon became two. 

Now, usually, Fluttershy is not a strong flier. In fact, she's propably the weakest flyer to come out of Cloudsdale. However, threaten her friends or her animals, and Fluttershy's power and speed rival that of even Rainbow Dash. Which is good, because it was what was needed to catch Rainbow before she fell to her certain death. 

She held onto Dash's hoof with a death grip as they floated down. "Don't worry, Rainbow, I've got you." They both touched down on the grass below. The sat a moment to catch their breath. Silence loomed over the two frightened ponies; no sound but breathing, was heard. 

Dash was the first to speak, "What the heck happened?" She looked at her limp wing that just hung there. "Why did my wing just spaz up like that? I always exercise my wings before practice.." 

"Um... Rainbow?" Fluttershy tried to voice her opinion in amongst Dash's ranting. 

"I mean I was just flying! It's not like I was doing was a triple backwards loop or a 720 spin!" Dash just continued to rant on about herself. She didn't show it, but under her mask of frustration and confusion, Rainbow was very concerned about what happened. She was scared about losing her wings. 

"Rainbow."

"Really! I don't get it. This kind of thing hasn't happened to me since before I got my cutie mark!"

"Uh, Rainbow... Your cutie mark..."

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome, isn’t it?" Rainbow stopped to think about the day she got her cutie mark: The bullies the race and the sonic rainboom. Dash snapped out of her memories and turned to look at her friend, "What about it?"
Fluttershy just continued to stare at the cyan flank. Slowly, Rainbow turned her head to her own behind. She was confused and slightly freighted about what she would she. What she saw, was the last thing she wanted to see:

A blank flank. 

No, not Scootaloo. Her own flank. Blank. No lightning bolt mark. No cloud. Nothing. Just a blank flank. 

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!"



Doctor Whooves


The Missing Cutie Marks 

> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Now what on earth was that?"

Twilight Sparkle pondered this as she trotted down her stairs. Earlier, she had heard a loud clanging noise coming from the basement. She had been studying hard at the time. She had been so engrossed in her books she didn’t even notice Spike when he said he was going over to Rarity’s. The clanging noise, however, broke her concentration on a deeper level than just audible noise. Something sparked in her for a moment, but a moment was all that was needed to grab her attention. 

Her hooves clipped and clopped as she descended the staircase and landed in the quiet basement. The main room of the basement had been redone into her laboratory, but a small section of the original empty room remained. She stood alone, in the middle of the empty room. 

“Hello? Is anypony there?” she called out to shadows that lurked in the corners and sides of the room. 

Silence

After a minute, she decided that it was probably nothing. She turned to back upstairs, but couldn’t shake this feeling that something was down there with her. When she reached the stair case, however, she suddenly whipped around, certain something was behind her. She saw nothing.

Then, she noticed something she hadn’t before: a small blue box. On the left side of the room, was a blue chest. Twilight was sure that wasn’t there when she looked just a second ago. She carefully made her way over to the chest. Her horn glowed purple and so did the lid. 

It was unlocked.

She slowly lifted the lid and peered inside. Inside the box, she was met face to face with something she thought she’d never see: a parasprite. 

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? A parasprite?” she looked at it quizzically, “What are you doing here, little guy?”

It was about then she noticed something different about this little fur ball than the ones that nearly destroyed Ponyville: it was much larger. In fact, it was about the size of a pony’s head. Twilight took a step back.

The parasprite rose as Twilight stepped away. Twilight noticed another difference about the parasprites: this one had legs. Not just legs, but ghastly, gangly, hairy arms with big hands. A gross smile crept across the parasprite’s head as it stepped out of its confinement. It stood well over the head of a normal pony, and Twilight was no exception.

“S-stay back! I’m warning you!” she stuttered. Her horn glowed as she backed away from the advancing grotesque creature. When her warning fell upon deaf ears, she shot out a blast of magic from her horn, directly at the parasprite!
Without even flinching, the bolt hit the creature, not affecting it. Twilight was shocked. Why didn’t it even flinch? 
She shot another bolt. And another. And another! Nothing worked on the creature that had her backed up to the wall The parasprite’s arm where far too long for her to escape, as they could just swat her away if she ran. 
She was trapped. Twilight closed her eyes, fearing it was certainly the end for her. 

“HELP!!”

What she felt next was not a giant hand grabbing her, or sharp claws, or huge teeth gnawing own on pony bones, but a hoof. 

She opened her eyes, confused. She looked to her left and stared straight into the big blue eyes of a light brown pony. He had a spiky brown mane and on his neck, a blue necktie. He said only one thing to her:

“Run.”

Immediately, Twilight followed her mysterious savior. They sprinted along the wall, away from the parasprite, to a nearby closet that was open. They ran inside and soon hit another wall. The closet was not very large, but it was empty, giving them enough room to stand shoulder to shoulder. They turned around, facing the still open door. 

“You know magic, right?” the stallion said to Twilight, panting. 

“What? O-of course I can. It’s my-“ 

“Great. Then when I say so, you can teleport us out of here.” 

“What?”

The parasprite soon found them and blocked the entrance. It ducked down to find inside the closet, and when it did, the tan earth pony turned to Twilight and said “NOW!” 

With a glow of her horn and a flash of light, Twilight and the stallion were on the other side of the door, and therefore, the parasprite. In one quick move, he slammed the door shut and, using a strange whirring device with a blue light on it, locked the door. 

Twilight stopped and sat on her haunches. She saw still shaken up by these sudden turn of events. She looked to the door that the parasprite was already trying to break down. “That will not hold him for long. What are we gonna do?” She looked around, but the pony was already gone. 

“Well, well, well! You have a laboratory down here!” She turned to find the stallion off in her lab, messing about with concoctions and machines. “Brilliant!”

“Hey, stop messing with those! Those are highly unstable chemicals! This is no time for fooling around.” she got up and walked over to the lab section of the basement. The male pony had already concocted a bubbling substance in a jar and was mixing up some spices in a beaker. 

He either didn’t notice her, or didn’t care, but he didn’t say anything to her. He just kept mixing strange chemicals with other ones that Twilight didn’t even know she had.  

“What are we gonna do? Why won’t my magic work? And just who the hell are you?” 

The earth pony stopped to look at Twilight. “Too many questions.” He went right back to dancing around the beakers and vials. The closet door continued to bang and bend as the parasprite continued its efforts to escape. More chemicals and beakers went into the jar that was 

“Well, in order, I’m mixing up a ‘solution’ to our problem.” He smiled at his own pun, but Twilight was not amused. He continued, “And that thing that’s trying to murder us is a super sciencey charged parasprite. Only sciencey stuff will affect it.” The banging became louder. Any second now, the creature would break through and eat them up. 

“And my name is-“

SMASH

He was cut off by the parasprite crashing through the closet door. Twilight screamed. The parasprite focused on the source of the irksome noise and immediately went to silence the Celestia awful sound. This was the end. The gangly monster ran full tilt at Twilight. 

As the parasprite leaped to gobble up a purple pony, a certain earth pony saved Twilight again for the second time that day. He finished mixing the jar just in time, and threw it all over the ghastly creature. Steam and shrieks from the creature rose as it fell to the ground. It writhed in pain and agony as the outer shell of the monster melted away to revealed a normal parasprite. The parasprite got up and flew around the room happily, oblivious to the calm stallion and the very frightened mare.

Silence was interrupted by Twilight. “What was that?” she whispered to nopony in particular. 

“Like I said: sciencey stuff.”

Twilight turned around slowly to the calm pony. It was then she finally got a good look at his cutie mark: an hourglass. She looked back to his blue pony eyes. "Who are you?”

He looked down at where she sat. He smiled gently and stared into her curious purple eyes.

“I’m the Doctor.” 

> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside of the Ponyville library was quiet, as one would expect from a library. The quiet, peaceful atmosphere that the old tree usually gave off remained undisturbed. Inside the library, however, was a very different story. Inside, a very confused and very frustrated Twilight continued to poke and interrogate the tan earth pony that made his way to the front door. She was still a bit upset by a certain turn of events, namely part about her nearly dying, and the bit about having a strange stallion in her house. While she was certain she would lie in bed tonight, thinking of all the horrid things that could have happened to her, right now she was focused on the mysterious colt in front of her.  

"No, I mean, really. Who are you?" Twilight asked again. She was beginning to get frustrated.

"Like I said before, I'm the Doctor." the Doctor said, trying to open the front door of the library, only for Twilight to magically lock it with her horn.

Hah. He’s stuck. Nopony can open that door without magic. Twilight thought. The Doctor just rolled his eyes. 

“Yes, okay. You’re a doctor, but doctor who?” Twilight eyed the colt with a stare that could rival Fluttershy. “You can’t just appear in my home, mess around with my laboratory, defeat some creature and walk out without giving me a proper name!” 

Twilight stood in front of the Doctor and cleared her throat. She was hell-bent on making proper introductions. If there was going to be at least one thing normal, proper and orderly thing in this entire situation, it would be finding out this guy’s name. 

"My name is Twilight Sparkle." Twilight said, holding out a hoof. The Doctor shook it. 

“I’m the Doctor.” he said, smiling. 

Twilight facehoofed. “The Doctor….” She mumbled. 

"That’s me. Hello!" he replied, quickly whipping out his blue device, a “sonic screwdriver” as he called it and sonicing the door open. He put away the device and opened the door. “Goodbye!" 

Twilight just stood there stunned as the earth pony walked out. How did he do that? He’s not a unicorn. There’s no way he could have opened that door! Not without magic. No, Wait, was the blue thing magic? Was it his horn? A portable horn? Could such a thing exist? And where the heck did her just put it? Wait. Where did he go?

She blinked her eyes and looked out the door. He was already in the far distance, turning a corner to leave. 

"Hey! Wait up!" 

Twilight Sparkle appeared in a burst of magic teleportation. The Doctor stopped in his tracks. This mare was persistent. He liked persistence. 

“Where are you going?” 

The Doctor walked around Twilight, continuing his little trek across the street and into the market. Twilight followed closely beside him. Ponies crowded around the stalls and vendors that were open for business. On the left, there were street merchants that had things such as jewelry, pottery and the like. On the right side of the street, were the food vendors. Fruits, vegetables and fresh bread were spread out for purchase as the two ponies passed by. 

"Well, I'm trying to track the origin of the energy reading I intercepted. I found a similar energy reading, so I followed it to your home. Turns out it was just a byproduct of the original source." 

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver again and starting pointing it at random ponies and things. He got a couple odd looks from ponies that apparently didn't like flashy blue things going "Whirr" pointed in their general direction. He looked down at his readings.

Twilight had decided to just go along with the Doctor’s quirky antics. His name she could find out later, right now, she was interested in knowing who had made that parasprite, and why they had sent it on her? 

"So, why do you think someone would create such a powerful parasprite to attack me?" Twilight pondered as she and the Doctor wandered through the marketplace. 

"You tell me." 

“What?”

“You said you think someone is trying to kill you. You tell me why someone would want you dead.” The Doctor looked at his readings. "Got any enemies?"  

Twilight thought for a second. "Hm... Not really. I mean, there was that one showpony unicorn, Trixie. She didn’t like me, but I doubt she could do any real science like that. Although it’s possible she got somepony else to help her do it…"

“A rival unicorn with help from a scientist. Good. That’s a good theory.” The Doctor said. Twilight swelled with pride. She was good at deducting things. She was probably the smartest pony in Ponyville. If there was anyone who could solve this mystery, it was Twilight Sparkle! 

“But it’s not Trixie.”

Twilight was taken aback by his bold statement. What right did he have to say what was right and wrong clearly an unclear scenario? Then again, she had underestimated his twice before, and both times he had come out victorious. She decided to keep cool and calmly ask why he thought what he thought. 

“What? How do you know that?” 

The Doctor didn’t respond. He kept his focus on his screwdriver. He looked up to the distance. Something intrigued him. His face held a look of confusion. When Twilight looked over, however, she saw nothing. 

“Doctor!?...” 

Reality snapped back into his head. His concentration broke away from the distance and back to Twilight. “I’m sorry, what?”

“How are you so sure it’s not Trixie?” 

“Because it’s not from anything pony. Well, not anything pony alone, anyway.” The Doctor put away his device for now and walked over to a cart of vegetables. He began to examine the produce.

“And just how do you know that?” 

“Because the data sheets say so.”

He turned around and whipped out a long piece of paper with readings and data on it. To him, it was a code of alien origin that he had intercepted and traced back to earth. To Twilight, it was a huge mess of numbers and symbols with a few recognizable patterns. Twilight pushed the paper away. She didn’t want to look at data that she couldn’t read. In her time learning under Celestia, she had learned every code and signal pattern in all of Equestria. This was the first page of data and info she didn’t understand. Although she would never admit it, it made her feel stupid. She felt inferior. She wanted to doubt it was legible in the first place, but something told her he was telling the truth. 

Twilight sighed. “Okay, then if it’s not pony, what is it?”

The Doctor put down the carrot he was holding and turned to face the purple unicorn. “Alien.” He put simply. 

Twilight had a look of confusion on her face. “Alien? Like what? Zebra? Donkey?” 

The Doctor continued his walk through the food vendors and over to the sales merchants. “No no no, more alien than that. I mean like alien aliens.” 

Twilight’s look of confusion slowly melted into one of realization and disbelief. He couldn’t really mean those kinds of aliens, could he? It would explain a lot, but still. Aliens are just science fiction! They aren’t real, right?The less and less he made sense, the more and more Twilight believed him. 

"You don't mean..." she stuttered. 

The Doctor looked up from the gems he was sniffing. "Mean what? Extraterrestrial beings that came here from space? Yes!” he said with a much too excited face. 

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but there’s no-“ 

Suddenly, a scream pierced the air, interrupting Twilight! Both she and the Doctor turned to the direction the scream came. Ponies around them looked as well and talked in a quiet murmur. They both looked at each other, Twilight with a look of surprise and horror. The Doctor was smiling ear to ear.

“What was that?” Twilight worried. 

“I don’t know, but it sounds interesting!” He continued smiling as he turned away to the general direction of the scream. “Let’s go find out!” 

And with that, he was off in a gallop.

“Hey!” Twilight coughed in the dust he had stirred up, “Wait for me!” 


The two ponies took in the sight before them. Inside of the store/home of Lyra and Bon-Bon, lay the chocolate maker herself on the floor. She was conscious, but looking deathly ill. She was pale white and shaking visibly. Beside her, Lyra was watching her friend as other ponies already started to gather around them. Everypony pretty much knew about Lyra and Bon-Bon, so they understood why Lyra would be so worried. What they didn’t understand, was what was happening to Bon-Bon. They looked on with worry and curiosity. Twilight and the Doctor fought their way inside. 

“Is… anyone here a doctor...?” Lyra pleaded through tears. 

The Doctor made his way to the center of the crowd. “Stand back, give her some room!” 

The Doctor pushed his way into the middle and knelt down. He looked over Bon-Bon’s current state. She was shivering horribly and looked very cold, even though it was rather warm out today. Her face was white as a sheet.

“What’s your name?” The Doctor said to Lyra as he pulled out the first tool that Twilight finally recognized: a stethoscope.

“L-Lyra” the green unicorn said, holding back tears. She looked back down at her ill friend.

The Doctor checked Bon-Bon’s breathing and heart rate. Breathing stuttered, heart rate extraordinarily high. “Ooh. Lyra.
That’s a nice name. Ly-ra.” Twilight pondered where the Doctor kept such a tool as he put away his stethoscope. 

“Her name?” The Doctor put his hoof to her head as he looked into her eyes. “Eyes normal…”

“Bon-Bon.” 

“Good name. Tell me what happened.” Out came the sonic screwdriver again. The Doctor really likes using this tool, Twilight thought. Well, it opened the magically locked door, must have other uses.

Lyra tried to calm down enough to speak. “Well, we were just making ou-, I mean making chocolates as usual. She was testing some of the chocolates she made, when she fell over just like that!”

The Doctor looked at his screwdriver. “Has this happened before?” he asked Lyra. 

Lyra stopped and looked down, thinking. She blinked once or twice, but remained motionless, still carrying a look of worry in her eyes. The Doctor looked up at her. 

“Has this happened before!?” The Doctor yelled at the unicorn. If she hadn’t already been tearing up, she would certainly be now 

“I... I don’t know!!” Lyra broke down into a sobbing mess This is getting out of hoof. Twilight thought. 

“Doctor!” Twilight scolded the tan earth pony. She gave him a glare as she knelt down to comfort Lyra. The Doctor put away his sonic screwdriver with a slight frown. 

“I’m sorry.” 

As Twilight shushed Lyra and told her everything would be fine, the Doctor continued to examine Bon-Bon. 

"Erm... Twilight? Is there  spell or something that make one's cutie mark vanish?" 

Twilight looked deep in though for a moment. "Well, hypothetically, you could, but it wouldn't last very long. A few seconds, perhaps..."

The Doctor counted to four. "Twilight..." He pointed at Bon-Bon's flank. "Her cutie mark is missing." 

Sure enough, Bon-Bon's cream coloured butt was bare. No mark. 

Twilight gasped. "How is that even possible?" 

The Doctor stood up, dusting himself off.  

"I have no idea." 
> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bon-Bon’s hair bobbed up and down as Lyra stroked it. The unconscious mare looked so cute asleep. At least Lyra thought so. Well, she would have if she wasn’t worried out of her skull as to what could be happening. Both mares were in the hospital room. Twilight was kind enough to teleport the four of them there.  The medical doctors had taken a look already, but were unable to reach a concluded diagnosis. A missing cutie mark? Unheard of!

In the corner, the aforementioned purple unicorn sat in a chair looking through a stack of medical books. While it was true she didn’t have a PhD in medical studies, she did know quite a bit on pony anatomy, so she had decided she would offer help. She also wanted to know what in the world was going on. She had never seen anything like this and was curious to find out. She flipped her page. 

Meanwhile, the Doctor continued to use his screwdriver to scan Bon-Bon. He was slightly less confused than the other two, but confused nonetheless. He was hoping he could figure this one out quicker than usual. Lyra blushed as he passed his tool over Bon-Bon’s flank. 

“Okay….” He observed his screwdriver, “Well, now. That’s interesting.”

Twilight immediately perked up at this. Lyra’s attention was also raised from the cream coloured flank.  Both mares looked toward the Doctor. 

“What is it?” Twilight got up and walked over to the bed where their patient lay.

“I’m getting a faint reading of something… odd.” The Doctor said. 

“How… odd is it?” Lyra asked slowly. 

The Doctor turned to look at Lyra said, “Alien odd.” He smiled. Lyra looked confused.  

Twilight sighed. She didn’t need this. “Doctor, I find it hard to believe that aliens are the cause of someone being sick and their cutie mark missing.” Her hair began to twinge out of place. 

The Doctor just calmly put away his sonic screwdriver and asked, “And why is it so hard to believe, pray tell?”

“Because, Doctor, even if aliens, existed, which I’m not saying they do, there are literally billions of planets to choose from. Why would they choose here? On top of that, how would they travel all the way here, for billions of light-years, and find us exactly in Ponyville, hm? Even if other intelligent beings existed, they would most certainly be much too far away.” Twilight smirked, feeling confident in her observations.  

The Doctor chuckled again. “They may be closer than you think…”

Twilight just groaned and shook her head. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her thoughts. Ponies’ magic. Pony magic… Hm… Suddenly, her eyes shot open. She had idea. 

She pushed the Doctor out of the way and sat on the bed next to Bon-Bon. Her horn glowed a dull purple as she placed it on Bon-Bon’s forehead. For a while, no one said anything. A thick silence fell upon the room as Twilight concentrated.  Slowly, but surely, Bon-Bon’s eyes began to mysteriously open. She started back at Twilight with dark pupil-less eyes. Twilight only stared harder. Something more was happening. 

Finally, she released her trance on earth pony and let her fall back unconscious again. 

Lyra was the first to speak. “W-what was that?” 

Twilight slowed her breathing and regained herself. “I was checking her internal magic. All ponies have magic in them, but in most of them it lies dormant. Only unicorns can channel theirs through their horn.” She motioned toward her own horn, “It’s also what gives a pony their cutie mark. Only Bon-Bon’s…”

“It’s like, it’s being drained.” The Doctor finished for her in a serious tone. 

Twilight silently nodded. She didn’t want to say it, but this guy was pretty clever. Maybe even as clever as she was. 
Lyra spoke quietly. “So… that is why Bonny’s so… sick?” 

Twilight nodded.  “Pony magic is necessary for all ponies. Her health will continue to decline as her magic does.”
“What… what will happen to her? What happens if all her magic gets drained?” Lyra said with worry in her eyes.  If something was going to happen to Bon-Bon, she had to know. 

The Doctor and Twilight looked at each other, unsure what to say. They both had no idea what would happen; nothing like this had ever happened before. Ponies weren’t supposed to lose magic!

Finally, the Doctor took a breath and said, “Lyra, I promise I will not let that happen. We will find the answer and save Bon-Bon. You have my word. Lyra looked into his eyes, and felt a relive wash over her s though he really could save her Bonny.  

The time rolled by as the Doctor and Twilight continued to ask Lyra if anything had been amiss recently. Lyra continued to deny that anything was wrong, except for one thing: 

“Well… for the past few hours leading up to… this, Bon-Bon’s chocolate had been… oh I dare not say it. She would hate me for it.” Lyra blushed and looked away. Both the Doctor and Twilight looked at each other. 

The Doctor leaned in close. “Lyra.” he spoke quietly, “If there’s anything that could help us help both you and Bon-Bon, we need you to tell us.” He put his hoof on hers. She looked back up into his eyes, his calming blue eyes. A familiar feeling swept through her. Suddenly, she felt as though she could trust this colt with her life. She breathed deeply. 

“Well, the chocolates had been… shall we say, not up to par with her usual work. She kept messing up the sugar to cocoa ratio, she forgot the milk in the milk chocolates, it was just trouble…” Lyra smiled slightly. It had been a hectic day. Then she frowned, “It was almost like….”

“She was losing her talent for making chocolates.” The Doctor, for the second time, finished a sentence for a mare he had only just met today. He was on a roll.  

Lyra nodded silently. 

Stranger and stranger, Twilight thought. She stepped over to the Doctor. “If you’ll excuse us, I need to talk to him.” She dragged the Doctor over to her chair of books, out of Lyra’s earshot. The green unicorn went back to looking at Bon-Bon’s blank flank and frowning. 

“Okay, let’s go over what we know: 1. Somepony made a science-based monster to attack me, 2. Bon-Bon’s magic is being drained by… something that is making her ill.”

“And 3, I still think it something alien.” the Doctor interrupted Twilight. Twilight just looked at him with a clearly not amused face. He was about to continue, but Twilight stopped him. 

“Doctor, please. I don’t think it’s ‘space ponies’ or ‘cyberponies’ or whatever kind of ‘aliens’ you think are trying to steal ponies’ magic.”

“Well, now I don’t think Cyberponies would be the ones behind it, they would just take people away or kill them. They would have no use for magic…” The Doctor rambled on about why and how Cyberponies would think that magic is inferior to technology. 

Twilight groaned loudly. Is this really how she sounded when she went off on a tangent? Now she knew why everypony would shut her up. She walked away for some space in order to collect herself. She had had enough of this ‘alien’ business; that she got enough of at home with Spike.

Waitaminute! Spike! 

Twilight’s eyes grew wide as the realization dawned on her. While she all mixed up in this missing cutie mark madness, she had completely forgotten about her little dragon assistant! He was left all alone by himself in the library for the most of the day! She didn’t even tell him where she was going. What time was it now? She turned around frantically to the wall clock.

7:10

She was going to be in trouble. 

Twilight turned around to the Doctor, who had stopped talking and was now looking at her. 

“Well, Lyra.” Twilight walked up to the sitting unicorn, “I would love to stay and help, but it’s getting late, and I really need to get home. I’m sorry we haven’t figured it out yet. I promise I will try to figure this out and help both you and Bon-Bon.” 

Lyra smiled. “I understand. Thank you.” Lyra gave her a hug. 

As Twilight left she added, “And both of you, please, don’t tell anyone. Ponies would panic if they though a ‘cutie mark fever’ had spread.” Both ponies sat in though as the clip clop of Twilight’s hooves faded down the hallway. 

…

Shortly after Twilight had left the Doctor and Lyra at the hospital, he had decided that he should leave as well. He had been getting nowhere, and had other things he could do. That, and the chair he was sitting in was becoming unbearably uncomfortable. He rose to stretch. He bid Lyra and Bon-Bon the best, said farewell, and left in the opposite direction Twilight had exited previously. 

As he walked down the empty hospital hallway, he took a moment to observe his surroundings. The hospital was nothing too spectacular, nothing like New New Ponyville in the year 5 million. They had little a shop. The Doctor liked little shops. This hospital had the usual: white walls, tiled floors, some decorative plants. A decent place. As he passed by some of the rooms, however, he noticed something else. He stopped.

He walked up to one of the doors. Peeking into the white room, he saw nothing out of the ordinary: a neatly made bed with green sheets, a window, and some plants, along with regular hospital room equipment. A normal hospital room. Not too shabby, but nothing too special.  He immediately, rushed over to another room. Same thing: bed, window, plant. Same with the next room. And the next one. And the next one! 

The last room he popped into was the first room he entered: Bon-Bon’s. Lyra looked up in surprise at her visitor. She smiled weakly. “Oh, hello, Doctor.” she greeted him as he stayed in the open doorway.

“Hello again…” he looked back into the hallway, “Um… is this the only hospital in Ponyville?” 

Slowly, Lyra answered, “Yes… This is the only one…” She looked at him curiously, “Why? What is it?” The Doctor furrowed his brow and ran out in to hall. Curious to the Doctor’s antics, Lyra followed. “Doctor! What is it? What’s wrong?” 

The Doctor ran back and forth between the rooms on either side of the hall as Lyra watched curiously. He stopped and looked round in a circle. Finally, he spoke. “If this is the only hospital within a growing community of oh, let’s say… 1000 ponies…” he turned back to her, “where are all the patients?” 

Lyra, disbelieving him, checked the rooms the Doctor had. Just as he said, they were all empty. 

…

Twilight sighed as she entered the large tree that served as the public library, as well as her home. When she first moved into Ponyville, she was skeptical about living inside of a tree. The potential termite problems, cleaning up all the leaves, the gross sticky sap. Now, the idea of living in a library, she was open to. Eventually, she settled into the organic rustic feel of the old wooden thing, and loved it ever since. 

As she walked deeper into the library, she smelled something good emanating from the kitchen. She recognized the scent of alfalfa and dandelions salad, alongside carrot stew and gemstone… something. Spike has gone to a lot of trouble to prepare this. She thought as she turned the corner. 

Twilight smiled as she entered the kitchen. She had been 100% spot on. The table held a meal consisting of carrot stew, alfalfa and dandelion salad on the side, and  gemstone meatloaf, all being set by one purple and green dragon, who had just placed the bowl of stew on the table and was now smiling at Twilight. 

“Hey, Twilight. There you are.”  He said as he jumped down from the chair. “I came home and you were nowhere. I was starting to get worried when I didn’t find a note or anything.”  

Twilight smiled awkwardly. “Yeah…. Listen, I’m really sorry I just left you like that. I completely forgot you would be home all alone. I just got caught up in this thing and…” She frowned slightly, “Well, anyway…. Can you forgive me?”  

Spike just smirked at her and walked up to her. “Aw, forgot about it,” he playfully punched her arm, “I knew you must have had important stuff to do.” He motioned to the table, “I’ve made dinner, why don’t you tell me all about it?” 

Twilight smiled. 

…

Nurse Redheart sighed as she continued to push her cart of medications for the patients. Well, what patients were left, anyways. The only people checked in the hospital were the coma patients, terminally ill patients and one mare. For the last couple of weeks, fewer and fewer ponies had checked into the hospital. That was good, at least for everypony else. Healthy ponies are what everypony wanted, right? Wrong. See, while it was great that nopony was getting sick or injured seriously, it was also bad. Bad for business. When doctor, nurses and pediatricians have nopony to look after, what do they do? All their years of training are wasted away. There were already talks of cut backs and “pink slips” going around. 
Redheart had always been a hardworking, kind nurse. Everypony knew her. They always knew her as the nurse in the clinic who was happy to help. Oh, how she wished to be back in her golden days. Helping ponies and curing illnesses. Wait… was she wishing ill tidings on others? No… she just wanted to be able to help. With nopony to help, she may lose her job. She didn’t want to hurt anyone…

As Nurse Redheart pondered this, she did not notice the two ponies rush up to her. “Nurse. Nurse…? NURSE!”  

She snapped out of her deep thought and returned to the real world. She perked up at the chance to help somebody. “Huh? Oh, can I help you?” She smiled brightly.

The tan earth pony asked, “Yes! Well, you see, my friend and I couldn’t help noticing that most of these rooms are empty and we were just wondering... uh, where are all the patients?” 

Redheart’s smiled deflated almost as fast as Pinkie Pie’s at the mention of the reason of her depression. She sighed, “Oh. Yeah… That.” She talked as she continued to push the cart. “Well, it started about two weeks ago. You remember that new drug that came out?” 

The Doctor smiled firmly and nodded. “No.” he said quickly, shaking his head. 

She just rolled her eyes. “Well, a few weeks ago there opened up this new pharmacy just down the road. They weren’t anything to special until they announced this new medicine: ‘Salvation’. Claimed it would be able to cure anything. I didn’t believe ‘em…”

Lyra suddenly spoke up. “Oh yeah! I remember me and Bonny checking that place out. The people there seemed a little weird, but nice nonetheless.”

Redheart nodded, “Yes, well, anyway, that new medicine, it actually worked!” 

The Doctor was immediately intrigued. “Really. A drug that can cure anything?” he said skeptically. Could it be connected to the missing magic somehow?

“Yes, I know! I couldn’t believe it either, at first. Then less and less people starting checking in; all going to that place to buy ‘Salvation’. No one knows how it works or what’s in it. It just works.” Nurse Redheart said with a heavy heart, “Pretty soon, there’ll be no need for a hospital anymore.” And with that, she solemnly strode off to finish her duties and punch out. Perhaps, for the last time.

The Doctor and Lyra just stood in silence, reflecting on this new information. Lyra slowly turned away from him. “I… I remember getting some of that stuff for Bon-Bon, back when she had the flu. Many ponies were there for the same reason, but the pharmacy always seemed to have plenty. When I gave it to her, she was better the next day. I thought Salvation was great. Never thought it'd be so powerful as to put a hospital out of business."

“It can't."

Lyra back at him, confused. 

"Or at least, it shouldn't. It's not just illnesses that bring people to hospitals. Pregancies, accidents, serious injuries, lots of things. Where are they?" he began to pace himself around her. 

Lyra shrugged. "Ponyville doesn't have a large crime rate, and recently, not many accidents have occured. As for pregancies... you got me."

"First, a miracle drug comes out that cures anything. Release it during the flu season; hundreds of ponies taking it. Mass ditribution.” He turned back to her. “Second, all of a sudden, ponies are more careful and nicer to each other. No need for a hospital." He began to walk past her, "Lyra?"

"Yeah?" 

"This just got a lot more interesting… ” he added with a smile.  

…

“Wow… that does sound serious…” Spike said solemnly as he poked at his food. Hearing about Bon-Bon’s condition suddenly made him not so hungry anymore. 

Twilight had just spent Spike telling her all about what her day was like, starting from the noise in the basement, all the way to the hospital, and everything in between. Spike liked the parts about the parasprite and the Doctor. He sounded cool! He got worried around the part with Lyra and Bon-Bon, and was now thinking about what could be happening. 
“Now, Spike, remember, you absolutely MUST NOT tell anyone. Pinkie Pie Promise?” 

Spike raised his hand, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my…“ He stopped. His claw stopped just in front of his eye. He heard about when Twilight had done something similar. He wanted to avoid anything like that like the plague. 

Twilight giggled as he lowered his hand. Then she serious’d the buck up. “Good. If word got out that ponies magic is being stolen, panic and fear would spread like wildfire.” 

Spike nodded. “I just hope no one else has gotten their cutie mark stolen…” 

Before anything else could be said betwixt the two, a loud bang interrupted them. It sounded like it came from the front door being slammed open in a rush. 

“Hello? Twilight!? Rainbow Dash needs help! Please!” It was Fluttershy!

Twilight rushed over to the front door and into an expected sight: Fluttershy, cold and tired, with an unconscious Rainbow Dash on her back. She didn’t need to look to know that her cutie mark was missing too. 

Spike gasped as he entered the scene of Fluttershy lowering an unconscious Rainbow Dash to Twilight, before collapsing herself. “Are they okay?” he worried about the second best pony. His question was met with silence. He worried looked from Dash, to Fluttershy, to Twilight. “Twilight, what’s happening?” 

Twilight frowned with look of worry, “I don’t know, Spike.” She walked over to heavily breathing Fluttershy, who had placed a soft yellow wing over the cyan Pegasus. She obviously had run the entire way here, unable to fly with Rainbow on her back. Twilight’s face changed from one of sadness, to one of determination. “Spike, make some coffee.” The dragon assistant saluted and then ran off to the kitchen. 

“We’re gonna figure this bucking thing out.” 

> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash shifted slightly as Twilight Sparkle continued to examine her patient. When Fluttershy brought her to the library, Twilight had Dash moved to her bed for a more comfortable rest. Now she was checking her over. The fact that it was very late and she had just eaten, all matters that directed to her becoming exhausted and very sleepy, did not slow her down in her efforts to help a friend. She looked all over Dash, checking every inch of her body for injury or other odd things. Just like Bon-Bon’s condition, Rainbow was fine except for her ill appearance and missing cutie mark.  

“And you just found her like this?” asked Twilight, stepping away from the unconscious pegasus.

Fluttershy shook her head.  “No, she was talking to me. Then she flew off and began to do tricks.” She turned towards the cyan pony, “Then her wings gave out on her… and she fell.”

Twilight turned in surprise, “She fell?!”

“Yes, but I caught her in time. She was alright.” Fluttershy assured her. “Then I noticed her cutie mark was missing. I took her inside to lie down and rest. She slept for most of the day. When she awoke I gave her some medicine, because I thought it would help.” She solemnly looked at the floor. “She only got worse. Then she began to shake and look terrible” 

“And you decided to bring her here of all places?” asked Twilight with a stern voice. 

“I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry… I didn’t know what was happening, so I brought her here! I knew cutie marks are magic and you’re the best I know at magic and I just thought you could figure it out… I’m so sorry.” Fluttershy began to tear up.

Twilight changed her tone from one of frustration and tiredness into one of regret and sorrow. She reached over and put her hoof on the scared pink maned pony. 

Twilight knew Fluttershy didn’t mean to be an annoyance. She knew she didn’t mean to interrupt her dinner, bring in a heavy burden of caring for another pony and dump the task of uncovering what the problem is on her and make it all better like a frickin’ miracle worker. No, she was just scared and concerned for a lifelong friend, and she cared enough about Dash to bring to Twilight. Not an expert in the field of medical science, but an expert in magic. She trusted Twilight and had faith that she would be well experienced enough and smart enough to help out a friend of both her and Fluttershy. Fluttershy didn’t mean to impede, she just wanted to be a good friend. 

Twilight shushed Shy as she rubbed her shoulder. “It’s okay. I’ll help out Dash. Don’t worry about it.”

After she was sure Fluttershy wouldn’t cry any more, Twilight let go of her and walked over to Dash again. “Wait…. You gave her medicine?” 

Fluttershy nodded quietly, “Yes, and then right after, she got even sicker…”

Twilight pondered this over for a moment. “Medicine made it worse…” She turned to Fluttershy, “What kind of medicine did you give her?” 

Fluttershy paused to think for a moment, then recalled, “Oh yes, it was that new drug that came out, ‘Salvation’. I found it helpful with my aches from working, but my animals didn’t like it much…”

“’Salvation?’ Hm. Never heard of it.” Twilight said, putting hoof to her chin. 

Fluttershy smiled weakly, “You need to get out more, Twilight.” She stood up and stretched her legs a bit, “A few weeks ago, a new pharmacy opened up and starting selling this new medicine. It’s actually pretty useful.” 

“Do you have any?”  Twilight asked.

Fluttershy shook her head, “I must’ve left it at home in the confusion. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Twilight turned and looked out the window. Pitch black. “Hm. It’s too late to go buy any for analysis…” 

"UUUAAAhahhhhh...."

Twilight was interrupted by a strange noise. It started out quietly, slowly building to a load groan. A rather odd and noisy moan It sounded like a… whale? Yeah, a whale. A surprisingly female sounding whale. A female whale that was right behind her... 

What the hell? 

The curious and somewhat confused purple unicorn turned around to be met with a very large mouth and tongue, reaching right out at her.  She stood still, face frozen in shock and disgust. Finally, the mouth dropped and she saw who it was. It was Fluttershy. She finished yawning audibly in Twilight’s face. She quickly realized what she had just done and blushed with a squee.

It was getting late, and they both had been getting very sleepy.  Both stood in awkward silence for a few moments.

“Well, um… Yeah… Anyway, I think it’s time for bed…” said Twilight, walking across the room from the bed currently occupied by Rainbow Dash. “I’m not gonna send you out in the cold darkness, you’re welcome to stay the night here. I have can whip up some spare beds for us.”

Twilight’s horn glowed as a large bed popped into existence at the other end of the room. Such ability to create things out of sheer will and magic never seemed to faze the ponies of Equestria. They were never ones to stop and think, ‘Hm. We have the ability to create and destroy matter at will, change things very molecular structure, teleport, shake the very laws of existence, and we choose to make beds’. No, they were more to think, ‘Oh, cool. A place to nap’. “Ponies are such odd creatures.” The Doctor would say. 

Fluttershy thought none of this as she hopped into the bed alongside Twilight. They lay in a silence as Twilight blew out the lantern next to her, leaving them in complete darkness. 

As Fluttershy laid on her back, a concerned sighed escaped her lips. “I sure hope Rainbow will be okay…” she said, looking towards the blackened out ceiling. 

Twilight turned to her and reassuringly said, “Don’t worry; I’m sure she’ll be just fine.” 

Fluttershy’s small smile blended into the darkness, but was not unfelt by Twilight. She knew Shy was feeling better from her words and believed her. If only Twilight could believe them, too. While it was true that nopony had ever been completely drained of their internal magic before, and nopony knew for sure what would happen, Twilight knew it couldn’t end well. She needed to stop this thing before it got way out of hoof. She needed to help Rainbow. She needed to save Ponyville. 
Right now… she needed to sleep on it. 


…


It was fortunate that the Doctor’s internal clock was completely different from the normal internal clocks of ponies. This was mainly because he was so used to jumping around from time zone to time zone that not even he was sure what his internal clock was. Put in simple terms, it meant he didn’t need to sleep at normal intervals as the Equestrian ponies. This was very helpful for staying awake to do important things such as breaking into a closed pharmacy at night. 

The pharmacy itself was a surprisingly large building, spanning the size of at least one and a half Sugar Cube Corners; the local bakery shop. It was a complete giant square, which was odd, considering the shape of other buildings in Ponyville. It made the building look very much out of place, compared to the one beside it. The Doctor made note of these as he approached the place.  

The Doctor checked his surroundings to make sure he wasn’t being followed as he casually walked up to the pharmacy. He peered into the darkened windows. Nobody’s home, perfect for a little… investigation. He checked the door over and found something interesting: an electronic alarm system. He looked left and right to be sure he was alone and whipped out his handy little screwdriver. Sonicing the alarm box, he deactivated it. Putting away the screwdriver, he briskly walked in and closed the door behind him. 

The inside of the pharmacy was nothing to spectacular: just a small room with some paintings on either side wall, a plant for decoration, and a counter with a register. Behind the front counter were rows and rows of filed medications, most of them being stock of “Salvation”. The Doctor quickly observed this and began his search. The paintings were normal enough. The stock of a single kind of medicine was different… but understandable given how good it supposedly was. The door behind the counter with a large sign that read “EMPLOYEES ONLY”? Now that seemed very inviting to the Doctor. He hopped over the counter and investigated the doorway. No alarms this time, but the door was doubly locked. They obviously didn’t want anybody in. Too bad. 

Quickly sonicing his way in, the Doctor found himself in a strange looking laboratory. Wires and cables hung from the ceiling, going every which way. Tall white machines and monitors lined the walls, causing an eerie mad scientist feel to the room. The room itself was unsurprisingly dark, most of the light coming the machines and monitors that were on standby. 

The Doctor took his time walking around the room. The room itself was odd, but it didn’t appear that weird. The Doctor pondered the technology in the room. It was the machines along the walls that were the strange thing; they seemed a little out of place, but not to out of the ordinary. They were vaguely familiar, yet somehow unknown. It was rather advanced tech, but then again, Equestria had pretty odd tech, some old fashioned, some rather advanced. It was always difficult to tell what tech belonged and what didn’t. 

He approached one of the monitors. Perhaps he could hack into their computers and dig up something on Salvation. 

“Now… what magic things are you putting in this stuff?” The Doctor spoke as he typed away furiously. He hacked away for a few moments before he came across the ingredients list and preparation for the drug. “Acetylsalicylic acid? Hypromellose, triacetin… No!” he said frustratingly, “These are the ingredients for… aspirin?”

The Doctor thought about it for a moment. His hooves clipped and clopped, breaking the silence of the room as he paced. “So, according to this, all that Salvation is, is just aspirin. But...” He knew that it couldn’t simply be aspirin. “It can’t simply be aspirin if it’s the cause of magic drainy-thing. There has to be more.”

The Doctor knew when there were some bad things afoot, and this place certainly gave him the worst feeling of dread and anguish. There was something else in that drug, and he wasn’t going to find it on a false computer database. While computers might have been a simple task to a pony such as the Doctor, he liked to do things old school. Investigation of the room for clues seemed like a good idea. 

He began to look around the room a bit more. He observed monitors, machines, shelves… Then he noticed something he hadn’t before: cabinets. He walked over to a cabinet and opened it. Inside he found more ingredients, the same ones that the computer had said.

“Basic ingredients for aspirin.” The Doctor opened one of the bottles and took a whiff of it. 

Now, the Doctor was no ordinary pony, that much was obvious. He was a pony of considerable knowledge and experience. His vast years of experience and intellect told him that these bottles did not contain simple ingredients. Fortunately, he did know what they really were. Grinning, he took down some more bottles and smelled them, too.

“Specimen 2A, Alrida C4, Nocturne Salv…” He grinned, “You sure can’t find these ingredients on earth.”

Before he could make any more discoveries, he was interrupted by noises coming from another room. He looked up to see another door. A door that he apparently had failed to see before in the darkness. He could make out voices coming from beyond the doorway. He was not alone. The metal hinges creaked as a fire red pony with a white lab coat stepped out and into the room. He held a torch in his mouth. Shining it around the room, he found nopony. The place was empty.


…


Twilight briskly trotted up the road leading to the pharmacy. She smiled slightly as she kept a steady pace, arriving to her destination quickly, but still being able to take in the beauty of the morning. As urgent her mission was, she couldn’t help but appreciate the new day. 

Earlier that morning, Fluttershy had left to go home and care for her animals, leaving Rainbow Dash in Twilight’s care. She had made sure Spike awake before heading off to the drug store. Hopefully, they would be open this early. 
As she trotted town the street, her mind wandered back to the previous day. The parasprite, the Doctor, Lyra and Bon-Bon, Fluttershy and Rainbow, the missing cutie marks… She reflected on how odd things had been, but stranger things had happened when Discord was free and mucking about, so she didn’t worry about it too much. 

“I wonder whatever happened to the Doctor, though...” She thought, turning the corner and reaching the pharmacy.  
While it may be rather really in the morning, Twilight was surprised to see so many ponies inside the store already. At least five other ponies mingled in amongst the shop, all waiting in line to buy some of the famous ‘miracle drug’. Obeying the unwritten rules of lines, Twilight walked over and got in line. As she waited, her mind began to drift off again.

“I wonder how Bon-Bon’s doing… I hate having to leave them like that, but what could I do?” she looked around the place, “Well, I’m here, helping Rainbow… maybe Bon-Bon took the same medication?”

The line shifted forward a few feet. “Hmm…” Twilight thought as she looked the small room. It was a little claustrophobic, being only for buying the one medication. There weren’t any shelves for other products. No medical supplies, no blood pressure machine, not even any cosmetic products! Rarity would hate this place. The majority of the room was empty. The plant in the corner offered very little atmosphere to the room. It looked fake. 

"Not much of a 'pharmacy'." Twilight flatly said.   

The ponies in the line shuffled up a few feet as the next pony got his share of the miracle drug and walked out. Twilight took no notice and continued to be wrapped up in her thoughts.  

Twilight thought for a moment, and realized something: Why would a place that sells only one excellent product need such a large building? Why not just cart or something? For that matter, why such a large building, in the room is so small? What’s the rest used for? Production of the drug, perhaps? Do they make it here? 

Twilight’s thoughts were cut off by a distant voice that slowly began to get louder. “Next!”

What?

“NEXT!”

“Huh?” she said as she snapped back into reality. She looked around to see that nopony else was in the room; only the cashier. 

“Next!”

“Oh… right.” Twilight blushed. 


…


Outside of the store, Twilight looked at her purchase. It wasn’t very expensive, surprisingly. Good medicine, good prices; no wonder it had become so popular. The drug itself didn’t look like a super-duper Celestia-given miracle drug that most ponies’ expectations had set. Just an ordinary pill bottle. Inside, ordinary pills. She looked it over more. 

Twilight hummed and hawed. “Looks normal enough…” she analyzed the drug. 

“A little too normal.”

“Huh?” Twilight quickly turned around to see who had spoken. She came face to face with a certain pink party pony. The mare known as Pinkie Pie smile greatly, inches away from Twilight’s face. 

“Hi Twilight!”

“GAH!” Twilight stumbled backwards in surprise and fell onto the ground. As the purple unicorn fell down her grasp on the pill bottle loosened, allowing the drugs to go flying in a completely different direction. The bottle landed on the ground with a ‘clack’ and began to roll away.  

“Oh no!” Twilight cried out as the bottle rolled out into the street. 

She watched in horror as it continued to roll into the road running perpendicular to the. The bottle rolled right into the path of an oncoming cart, being pulled by a large red stallion with an orange mane. The stallion didn’t notice the medicine on the ground. It slowed to a stop in front of his massive hoof and was subsequently smashed to pieces when he brought it down. His cart followed close behind him and mushed the cracked container and pills into dust. The dust was then ground up into the mud. The large stallion, also known as ‘Big Mac’, then proceeded to continue merrily on his way, glancing over at the two mares. 

“Mornin’ Miss Pie, Miss Sparkle.” He greeted the two and walked on. 

Twilight said nothing. Her jaw moved up and down, but only silence came out. 

“Morning Big Mac!” Pinkie cheerily greeted as Twilight facehoofed into the dirt. After red workhorse had left, she turned to look at Twilight.

“You know Twilight, you’re gonna get real dirty doing that.” Pinkie looked at Twilight with a look of curiosity and humour. “I mean, I like to play in the dirt sometimes, too, but then I always have to take a bath afterwards because Mrs. Cake doesn’t like it when I make food with dirt in my mane. Why, one time, I made a batch of brownies and I forgot to wash my mane after I rolled in the dirt so when I...”

As Pinkie babbled on, Twilight picked herself off of the floor. She shook her head and dusted herself off. Paying no attention to the drabble that spewed from the other’s mouth, and instead focused on the destroyed remains of her purchase. 

Together, (together meaning Twilight walked and Pinkie mindlessly followed), they walked towards the pile of mush that had been formally known as ‘Salvation’. Twilight stared into the mud with a mix of defeat and sadness.  

“-and all of them looked just like me!” Pinkie finished her epic tale of dirt, brownies and adventure. 

Twilight looked up to the happy pink pony. “Do you realize what you did?!” she began to get angry. 

Pinkie Pie looked at her with a thoughtful expression. “Um, destroy any possibility of Humma Kavula ever running for president again?” she grinned weakly. 

Now it was Twilight’s turn to be confused. “What? No! You made me drop these pills and they got smashed!” said the increasingly infuriated Twilight, pointing to the pieces of plastic in the mud. She had no idea what Pinkie was going on about, and right now, she didn’t care. 

Pinkie looked at the mush, “Gee, I’m sorry, Twilight.” she said, honestly sympathetic, “But you can always buy some more, right?”

“No, I can’t. I just used the last of my spending bits on these ones!” Twilight said slightly less angrily. 

“Oh... Waitaminute! I thought you had connections with the Princess... Doesn’t she give you a lot of money?” 

“Not really… I have to pay for a lot of things from my own pouch…” Twilight said rather calmly. She began walking back to the pharmacy. Pinkie followed in bound. 

“Huh. Well, everypony around here thought you were loaded with royal grants or something…” The pink maned pony said, bouncing along the way. 

Twilight shook her head sadly. “No. And now I have no way to buy more medicine…” She looked back up to Pinkie. “Unless you have any bits I can borrow?” said Twilight, her spirits rising with hope that she might still be able to buy the drug, analyse its contents, concoct a solution and save the day. 

Pinkie shook her head sorrowfully. “Sorry, no can do, Twi! I just spent my last of my bits on 50 tons of confetti and custard.”

Twilight’s hope deflated. “Oh. I see.” 

Pinkie smiled. “Why do you need pills, anyway? Can’t you use your magic to fix everything?” she said as they continued walking down the street, passing the pharmacy. 

Twilight sighed. “No, Pinkie. See, I don’t need the pills to fix something… Well, I guess I do… But they aren’t for me… Except they were…  For me to fix the problem… But they’re the cause of the problem…” Twilight shook her head once more, “Ugh. It’s complicated.” She walked on. 

Twilight half expected Pinkie Pie to just shove off at the mention of complicated explanations. Hopefully she would become bored and want to go prank somebody. Complicated explanations weren’t Pinkie’s strong suit. As random and strange as she was, her explanations were often very short and left more questions than answers. To Twilight’s surprise, Pinkie just smiled.

“That’s okay. I’ve got the whole day off. Nothing is really happening today, and we really haven’t hung out in a while so…” Pinkie gave her a half-hearted smile.  

Twilight contemplated telling Pinkie Pie about the missing cutie marks and the possibility of everypony being drained of magic. On the one hoof, Pinkie was known to overreact to things very easily and panic loudly. Everypony knowing that they might become sick and die would not bode over well. Then again, on the other hoof, if she made Pinkie swear not to panic loudly, she defiantly wouldn’t tell a soul. Pinkie Promises were handy that way. In fact, Pinkie might even be able to help her. In some way…

Twilight looked back at Pinkie Pie. “Okay,” she whispered, drawing her in close, “But you must Pinkie Pie Promise not to tell anypony else.”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Pinkie waved her hoof around in the familiar motion that Spike had shown before. 

“Well, alright, then." Twilight smiled back, "I’ll start with yesterday afternoon…” The two began walking off down the street.  

If either mare was to turn their heads to their left at that moment, look down the alleyway they were currently passing and take a moment to look, they might have seen a tall blue box, hiding in the alley. The box was a tall rectangle with windows on either side and a light bulb on the top. Subsequently, if either one were to pause for a moment, they might have heard a click and slam in the alleyway. These sounds were a door on the blue box opening and closing respectively. Shortly after the click and slam, they would have heard a most wondrous noise, indescribable by words. Those who have heard it have called it ‘the most beautiful sound in the world’. The sound grew louder as the light on the top of the box flashed in sync with the sound. The sound soon faded away, as did the box itself, fading from existence and disappearing into thin air. 


> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Wow, Twilight. Ponies with missing cutie marks? A drug that steals magic? Parasprites in a box? And I thought my stories were pretty nutty!” Pinkie Pie giggled.

“As nutty as it may sound, it’s true! I need that drug…” Twilight retorted. 

“Well, no use crying over spilled milk… or spilled pills!” Pinkie smiled, trying to lighten to mood. 

Twilight looked at her with a look of disbelief and anger, “Pinkie, do you even understand how serious this is? Ponies everywhere are going to be sick. They may even die! I’ve got no way to analyze the drug that could cause all of it! I am of no help to anypony!”

As Twilight went on she closed in on the frightened Pinkie Pie, getting very close, “Maybe I could have helped them. Maybe there was something in the pills that trigger something in the ponies! Maybe I could have discovered it and created an antidote using a combination of magic spells and science, but we’ll never know now!” Twilight was right in Pinkie’s face now. 

Pinkie folded her ears back. “Gee, Twilight. I’m really sorry, really.” she pleaded. Pinkie didn’t like it when her friends were mad at her. 

Twilight backed away and looked at the ground. She sighed, “It’s… It’s okay….” she calmed herself down. Twilight didn’t like to yell at her friends. 

The two had walked together down the streets of Ponyville ever since Pinkie accidentally broke Twilight’s pills. The pills were a certain drug that Twilight thought was causing a plague of missing cutie marks and illnesses in ponies. Twilight bought them to try and make an antidote, but Pinkie had accidentally caused her to break them. Thought Twilight had been initially, frustrated, saddened and angry at Pinkie Pie, she had time to cool off with the story of her adventure of the past few days. By the time she had finished, Twilight felt better and had more or less forgiven her friend. 

A little bit ago, the mares had passed by Sugarcube Corner, the local bakery and sweets shop. Twilight had been so wrapped in retelling her story again that he neglected to notice her friend’s protest to stop and eat. Pinkie Pie was hungry, but didn’t want to just ditch her friend. As quickly and stealthily as she could, Pinkie zipped into the shop, consumed half a dozen muffins, four cupcakes, downed it all with a gallon of milk, and zoomed back out before Twilight had even finished her next sentence.  When Pinkie wanted to eat, she damned well ate. 

They were now just standing a few blocks away from the treehouse library. Twilight had accepted that she could not buy the pills, so she decided to go back home and devise another plan to save Ponyville. At this point, it seemed that it would be impossible to do anything before all of Ponyville was ill and lacking cutie marks. Perhaps if she knew where that strange doctor had gone, she could have asked him for advice. As crazy and annoying as he as, he seemed to know what he was doing… 

“I just don’t know what to do…” Twilight sighed, hanging her head down.

Pinkie furrowed her brow in sadness. She wanted to help her friend, really she did. While she didn’t like her friends to be mad, she liked it even less when they were sad. Her mission was to spread smiles and happiness, not frowns and sadness. This was her fault. She made Twilight drop those essential pills, and it was her responsibility to fix this! 

“Well, we could… try asking for free samples?” Pinkie Pie gave her an awkwardly adorable smile. 

“Pinkie, pharmacies don’t give free samples. Grocery stores do.” Twilight said with an air of annoyance.

Pinkie giggled. “Oh yeah. Oopsies, silly me! I always get those two mixed up. Speaking of which…” 

Despite devouring an entire party’s worth of baking, Pinkie was still hungry, and decided that some free cheese samples would suffice right about now. Pinkie Pie tensed her legs and got down in a position to get ready to run. She sprang forward with a burst of speed to run to the market and ‘sample’ some cheese. Twilight saw this and stopped her short with her magic. A purple aura appeared around Pinkie’s tail and prevented her from running off and leaving Twilight alone. With a sharp tug, Pinkie fell to the ground flat on her belly. She winced in pain, but was not seriously injured. She looked back to Twilight. 

“Pinkie, you can eat later. Right now we need a plan to get some of that ‘Salvation’.” said Twilight. 

Pinkie closed her eyes and rubbed her temples to indicate the process of deep thought. She rattled off her brain for a moment. In that split second spark of brain wave, Pinkie randomly picked an option from her constantly nonsensical head. 

“Uhh… What about stealing some?” 

Twilight thought it over for a second. From the short time she was in the room, it seemed to her as though the pharmacy was heavily reinforced. Bars on the windows and a thick metal door prevented any forced entry. The lock on the door seemed easily picked, but there must have been security. Besides, they probably locked the pills themselves away deep in the building. No, it would be too tough. 

“No, Pinkie. I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Twilight said, releasing Pinkie from her magical grasp. 

Pinkie Pie stood up and dusted herself off. “Oh yeah… I guess stealing is wrong, right?” 

Twilight’s face made a strange look, somewhat of a cross between confusion and realization. “Yeahh…. Wrong…” Twilight shifted her eyes from side to side as she figured out where the conversation was going. Her mouth scrunched up for a second. 

Pinkie ignored Twilight’s funny antics and began to think again. She thought very hard and deep. She thought about creating some new pills themselves, eating cupcakes, asking for a loan, snacking on brownies, getting odd jobs to raise funds and munching on biscuits. None of these ideas Twilight found to be good enough, especially the ones about food. 

After a quick session of brainstorming, Twilight was prepared to give up. Neither she nor Pinkie could come up with any sure fire and useful idea to get money, get the pills, or save Ponyville. It has been said that your greatest idea comes only after you have exhausted every other idea you have. Never until this point in her life had been true for Twilight. She had always been able to devise quick plans of action that would always work. Until now. Now, it seemed that every idea she could think of was hindered by some other factor or variable. Nothing was going right; it was as though something in her had changed… 

Just when Twilight had given up all hope on ever saving Ponyville, inspiration struck. She knew what they could do. A sudden burst of relief and hope washed over her. The realization that the answer was staring them right in the face the whole time dawned on Twilight. She smiled at the irony of it all. She began to laugh at how blind she was to it. 

“Of course! It’s so obvious!” she announced her brilliant idea. 

Pinkie smiled, “Really? You know what we can do?” 

“Think about it: lots of ponies are going to be a risk of missing cutie marks, right?”

Pinkie Pie nodded, following along so far…

“Therefore, many ponies have bought the drug; therefore lots of ponies already have the drug! We just need to ask somepony else who has the drug and borrow it from them!” she finished with a big smile. 

…and Pinkie lost track of her. 

“um… okay?” Pinkie said, giving an awkward smile. 

Twilight saw Pinkie obviously didn’t get it, but continued on, “It’s easy! We’ll just go to somepony’s door, explain the situation, and they’ll be happy to give us some!”

The two ponies ran off in the direction of the nearest home to ask for some drugs. What could go wrong? 

…

“Get off my property before I call the police!”

The door slammed into Twilight’s poor nose before she even had time to protest. Spirits dampened, both she and Pinkie walked away from the house. So far, nopony was willing to give up their medicine for a good cause. 
Maybe it was their approach. Maybe it was the unfamiliarity of the people they talked to. Maybe it was the fact Pinkie demanded drugs before everypony got hurt real bad. Whatever the reason, ponies just didn’t seem eager to give some random ponies drugs in the morning. How odd.  

Twilight sat down in defeat. “Nopony is willing to give us any…” She folded her ears back. “Maybe it is all hopeless…” 

Pinkie sat down as well and made her normally smiling face turn into a serious one. Well, as serious a face as Pinkie could make, which was not very serious at all, but more serious than her usual face of joy and extreme glee. “Hmm.” She thought for a few moments. If nopony in town was going to give them any Salvation… what about ponies not in town? 

“Wait…”

“What?” said Twilight. 

“Wait a second, Twilight… we do know someone who would be willing to give us some!” 

Twilight’s eyes widened with realization. They did know somepony who would be more than willing to give them the medicine. The best part was, even if she didn’t know what was going on, she would happily give it to them anyways! Twilight began to laugh. It was so freakin’ obvious. Why hadn’t she thought of it?! 

Twilight scooped Pinkie up in a joyful hug. “Oh my gosh! Pinkie Pie, you’re a genius!” 

The pink pony smiled widely. “Aren’t I always?” 

…

Spike kicked up his feet on Twilight’s favourite work desk as he sat in Twilight’s favourite chair. The chair squeaked as he leaned back and sighed. 

The Ponyville library had been rather quiet that day. Now, libraries are usually supposed to be quiet, but today had been exceptionally quiet. The kind of quiet one could only find in a library where nothing was going on. It was a Saturday; Spike liked Saturdays. Nothing really happened on Saturdays. It was a good time to kick back and relax, which is exactly what he did. 

The library was closed that day, so nopony was expected to come in. Not that many ponies bothered to come into the library anyways. Most visitors were Twilight’s friends or other ponies she was trying to help by finding a book on some random subject like ghosts or bananas. No, today was Spike’s day off and he had decided to do nothing all day. So far, it had been a success. 

Some time ago, Twilight had woken up Spike and told him to watch Rainbow Dash to make sure nothing happened while she was out. Spike obeyed and after watching the sleeping pegasus do nothing but sleep for about seven second, he diligently went to do something else. First, he thought he might clean up a bit, but then he realized he did that yesterday and nothing had gotten dirty yet today. Next he thought about doodling on the sleeping Rainbow’s face with a magic marker. Revenge for some pranks, perhaps? Then he thought about all the results that could arise from such an act; most of them ending with him in a body cast or grave. Lastly, he contemplated reading some nice educational books about useful things in life like romance and stock marketing and sophistication so that one day he may become successful and life a long happy life. After a great deal of laughing, Spike decided to kick back on Twilight’s extremely comfy chair and do nothing. 

So there he was, doing absolutely nothing. Yup, just kickin’ it back and doing… nothing.  Totally and utterly nothing… 

Nothing, nothing, nothing… Nothin’… at… all…  

“I’M SO BORED!”

Spike slumped back into his seat and sighed. Time passed. A lot of time. Well, His eyes began to glaze over in boredom. His jaw hung slack, tongue out hanging a bit. It looked like he had been beaten and left comatose. He began to drool on himself as he fell asleep...

‘DING-DONG!’

“?” 

Spike was revived from his coma by a ringing bell in the distance. To be more accurate, it was a door bell. He turned his head around to the stairs. Somepony was at the door? Rushing down the steps to the main floor, he wondered who it could be. This was supposed to be his day off, ie, nopony to bother him! Despite having to run up and down the same flight stairs many times in one day on a regular basis, in the midst of his so called ‘deep thinking’, Spike’s feet misplaced where they should have been and missed the step. Long story short, he tripped. 

“Waaaaaahhhhh!”

In a spectacular display of flailing limbs and a very girly scream, Spike tumbled down the stairs like clothes in a clothes dryer. Well he would have, had it been invented at the time anyway… He hit each step with a thump and a bump as he fell, each one causing him to become increasingly sore. He hit the bottom of the stairs with a loud thud, yet he kept on rolling. 
The front door burst open. The pony on the other side of the door ran in frantically. “Twilight!?” He worried that another monster of some sort had managed its way into her home and he would have to save her again. 

Spike slid into home when he hit his head on the wall next to front door. “Ow…” he mumbled. 

The earth pony ran over to Spike. He was ready to take on whatever horrid creature or alien had made the poor mistake of getting involved with him. This strange little dragon didn’t see likely to hurt anybody, as dangerous as dragons were. Be that as it may, he didn’t drop his guard towards this dragon.  

Spike lay on his back for a moment longer, the world spinning around him. He had been hit on his head before, but this time it actually hurt pretty badly. He could have sworn he saw flying pegasi around his dizzy head, just like a cartoon. Spike was so out of it; he didn’t even notice the mystery pony had already walked in and asked him something. What did he say? Something about trouble? 

“Can you hear me? I said, what’s the trouble!?” the pony repeated as Spike reoriented himself. 

“Trouble?” Spike said, getting to his feet. He shook his head. “Oof… The only trouble is my achin’ head!” Spike rubbed his forehead in pain. He was going to be very sore tomorrow.

“So there’s nothing wrong?” asked the strange brown maned pony. Spike simply replied with a ‘nope’ that would make Big Mac proud. 

The male pony was now confused. As well and dandy everything being fine was, he liked it better  when there was trouble. One thing still didn’t make sense though. He furrowed his brow. “Oh. I could have sworn I heard a mare’s scream. I thought Twilight was in danger…” he said honestly. “You never know what could be happening…”

Spike’s cheeks turned red in frustration and embarrassment. That ‘girly scream’ was him. He didn’t need this guff.  He had enough trouble with ponies not taking him seriously for his height, now his voice, too? He didn’t need his voice in the fight against him trying to woo Rarity. Was his voice really that high pitched? 

“Uh… No. Twilight’s not here.” He said in a rather harsher tone than he really meant. He dusted himself off. 

“Oh. I was hoping to speak with her about… pressing matters.” He looked at the room behind Spike. The place did seem empty. Maybe he could be trusted. Then again, maybe he did do something to Twilight. One could never be too cautious. He decided to play along and see how much he could find out about this dragon. If he really was bad, then maybe this day wouldn’t be a complete bore. Looking down at Spike, the stallion asked, “Um, when did you say she would be back?”

“I didn’t. She said something like… uh…” he trailed off into silence. He actually had absolutely no idea when she would be back. He was still half asleep when she told him to watch the place and missed half of the conversation. She could be gone for hours. “Um… half an hour?” he lied a random lie. 

The other pony raised his brows in indifference. “Oh. I see.” He looked down at the little purple dragon, then back up to the room around them. Seemed quaint enough. He then flashed a toothy grin, “Well then, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I waited here until then.” And with that, he let himself into the place without waiting for a reply.  

As much as Spike wanted to object, he found himself saying nothing. He had every right to deny entrance to his stallion. One, he was a complete stranger, and two, he didn’t even help Spike after he hit his head. That scumbag. He should have told that guy to hit the curb… And yet, Spike secretly wanted him to come in. He was bored. Perhaps having someone to talk to, even for a while, would be nice change of pace. Besides, he could always kick him out later.

“Wait, I don’t even know your name.” Spike realized.  “I’m Spike.” he introduced himself, holding out a hand. 

The tan earth pony put his hoof in his hand and shook it. “The Doctor.” 

…

Twilight tapped her hoof impatiently while she waited for Fluttershy to open her door. Both she and Pinkie ran as fast as they could when they realized Fluttershy was the one who brought up ‘Salvation’ in the first place, and was obviously the one to obtain some from. They ran into a few snags along the way, most of them being Pinkie Pie stopping for a snack. Or two. Or three...

The shy pegasus lived quite a ways out of town, so they rushed to get there. Twilight tried to help by teleporting them a good distance closer, but it still took a while. After only two teleports, Twilight already began to feel light headed, and just settled on running the rest of the way. Pinkie had decidedly bounced beside her as she ran, keeping pace with the increasingly exhausted Twilight. She kept up the whole way; the happy pink pony didn’t even seem to break a sweat as she bounced merrily to Fluttershy’s cabin. Twilight shook it out of her mind as one of those ‘Pinkie Pie things’.  

Finally, the door swung open. Twilight took a moment to drink in what she was looking at. In front of her, Fluttershy stood with her wings wide open to either side. On each wing, dozens of cute little colourful birds perched. When Twilight looked closer she saw that all of the birds were eating tiny seeds and grains that coated Fluttershy’s wings and back.

“Oh. Hello Twilight. Good day, Pinkie Pie.”

“Hi.” said Pinkie. 

Twilight stood in silence.

Uncharacteristically, Fluttershy was the first to break the silence. “Is there something I can do for you? I’m a little busy at the moment. As you can see, I’m feeding my birds.” 

Fluttershy motioned towards the birds she was feeding on her back and wings. She enjoyed the feel of having dozens of tiny little beaks poking her gently. Fluttershy’s connection with her animal friends helped in that the birds never pecked too hard or caused discomfort. For Fluttershy, it was like a little acupuncture therapy while she fed them. It was a kind of ‘thank you’ for her taking care of them.

Twilight stopped looking at the marvelous display of a yellow pegasus and colourful birds and snapped back to reality. She quickly reminded herself of the reason they were there. “Yes. Fluttershy, can you get us some Salvation, please?” Twilight politely asked the timid pegasus. 

Fluttershy folded her ears. She looked down in a worried manner. “Salvation? Oh… well… um. I’m not so sure about that. I’m not very a religious pony.…”

Twilight cocked her head to one side. What on earth was Fluttershy talking about? What the hay did potentially lethal drugs have to do with being religious? She would have expected this kind of nonsense from Pinkie Pie, sure... but Fluttershy? 

Fluttershy shifted awkwardly from one side hooves to the others. She thought for a moment, and then looked back up. She looked as though she had an idea. 

“But I’m pretty sure that nice old Mr. Waddle is a priest. He lives close to the town hall. I do believe he may be able to help you achieve salvation.” She smiled as she spoke. She closed her eyes and tilted her head, thinking she had helped out another friend. What a good friend she was. 

Twilight looked at Fluttershy with disbelief and confusion. It took a moment, but then it hit her. Her eye twitched. Finally understanding the miscommunication that had taken place, Twilight facehoofed. She really didn’t have time for this; lives were at stake! She sighed audibly.

“No no no! Fluttershy, I don’t mean that kind of ‘Salvation’!” she said frustratingly. 

Fluttershy opened her eyes. “Y-you don’t?” What had she done wrong now? 

Twilight shook her head. Today had been pretty frustrating. Yet as much as she would like to vent her frustration out right here and now, she had to be careful around someone as ‘fragile’ as Fluttershy. She saw that Shy was already a bit worried now, so she better play it calm. She chose her words carefully. 

Just then, Fluttershy caught on. “Oh? Oh! You mean ‘Salvation’, that nasty drug that made Rainbow Dash sick?” Her face scrunched up, signifying her disgust for the horrible drug. 

Twilight smiled. “Yes, that one! I need to look at it and forgot to ask for some before you left this morning. Do you still have it?” she said joyfully. Maybe there was still time to get a sample back to her lab and figure this stuff out. Unfortunately, things were not going to be that easy. 

Fluttershy looked saddened again. “I’m sorry, Twilight. You said the medicine was dangerous, so as soon as I got home, I got rid of all the Salvation I had. It’s all gone, now. Sorry.”

Twilight stopped smiling. “I see…” This day just seemed to be getting better and better. 

“I’m sorry, Twilight…” Fluttershy timidly backed away into her home. She felt bad for not being able to help. Just then, she remembered something that might be able to help them. 

“But I think I know who does have some. Rarity told me the other day that she generously gave Applejack the last of her medicine because she had a headache. I believe she mentioned it being ‘Salvation’. So, I would try either Rarity or Applejack.”  Fluttershy said. On any other occasion would be willing to help them search, but she was just too busy with her animals. The least she could do was provide information. 

Twilight’s eyes widened. She blinked. “Oh. Okay, we’ll try them then. Thanks Fluttershy.” Turning around, both she and Pinkie left Fluttershy to tend to her animals. 

Twilight already knew the effects the drug had on ponies, and it was very possible that Applejack and Rarity had been affected, as well. Rainbow Dash and Bon-Bon were bad enough. She didn’t need more friends down and sick with missing cutie marks. Together, she and Pinkie quickly decided to head for Sweet Apple Acres, as it was closer than running back into town. Be that as it may, there was no time to lose, so the two ponies sped off as fast as they could. 

Twilight sighed. More running. 
> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 6 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What?! ‘Salvation’? That’s the most ridiculous thing Ah’d ever heard in mah life! And Ah lived for a long time, missy, so I’ve heard some pretty ridiculous things!” Granny Smith slammed her hoof down on the table. 

“A drug that cures everything… Feh. In mah day, if yah were sick, yah still worked! Yah worked till you got better, er ya died! The only medicine we had was made of pine needles and rocks. It tasted like crap and it worked! What was so wrong with that, huh?!”  

Granny Smith continued to rant on about how things used to be before her family built Ponyville. ‘The good ol’ days’, as she called it. When Granny Smith talked, she tended to go off topic. She went on for a while, going on many tangents about farming, travel, diarrhea, and a number of strange things about a blue box. Before long, she had completely forgotten about Twilight, Pinkie and the medicine, and was now just talking about apples. Most conversations with her ended with apples.  

“Uh... Granny Smith? Ah think it’s time for yer nap…” the young AppleBloom awkwardly lead the rambling Granny Smith out of the room, leaving a confused Twilight and Pinkie Pie alone in the Apple family’s den. Pinkie sat beside Twilight, obliviously eating apples. Twilight blinked. 

“If things were good before Ponyville was built, why’d they build it?” Twilight whispered aside to Pinkie.  She stifled a giggle through a mouthful of apple.

When the two arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, they had been informed that their friend Applejack was in bed. She was sick with a fever. Immediately concerned for her friend, Twilight foolishly asked if she had taken any new medicine recently. When the subject of ‘new medicine’ was brought up, Granny Smith entered an ‘Elderly remembrance of other times’ mind set as Twilight called it, or as Pinkie Pie called it, ‘Crazy old-people talk about how things used to be better than they are now’ ramble, and began spewing out rant after rant. 

Seeing that they were getting nowhere with this, Twilight hopped off of her chair. Once again, she found that the chairs in Ponyville just were not very comfortable. That was why she had ordered a specially made one from Canterlot. She specifically told Spike not to sit in it when she was away. She had a feeling he was not obeying her orders…

Pinkie sighed. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I guess we-“

“Pst.”

Pinkie was cut off by a quick noise. It sounded like a whisper. A voice. A very deep and familiar voice. The noise came from the direction of the door other than that which AppleBloom escorted Granny Smith. Both Pinkie and Twilight turned to see a large red mass standing in the front door. The mass wore a dirty head of orange mane and a large brown yoke round his big neck. It was none other than Big Macintosh, the very same farm pony that had crushed Twilight’s pills earlier that very morning. 

“Miss Pie. Miss Sparkle. Ah know what yer talking about.” he said in his deep ad thick southern accent, “Ah know about the drug.”

…

“Nice collection here.” The Doctor said, perusing through the library’s shelves. He had scampered up the steps of the Ponyville library and began looking through the books on the shelf. He never really got a good chance to observe books, always busy running around and that sort. Over the time Twilight lived in Ponyville, she had amassed even more books for both the library and her own personal collection. Some books she had shipped over from Canterlot to Ponyville. It was nowhere close to the size of her collection back home, but it was more than one would see anywhere else in Ponyville. 

“Yeah. It’s great. Twilight loves books; Twilight lives in a library.” Spike said. 

“Makes sense to me.” The Doctor turned around to the small dragon. “So, you’re Twilight’s what, pet?”

Spike furrowed his brow. He was not Twilight’s pet. How dare he make such an accusation! He was twilight’s number one assistant! He did his fair share of work round the place! Spike gave the Doctor such a glare. If looks could kill, the Doctor would be dead before he had time to regenerate! 

Oblivious, the Doctor blinked. “Cuz it’s totally cool if you are. Somepony tried to make me their pet once.” He smiled as he remembered the time he shrunk down to only a few inches tall… “I myself wasn’t keen on the idea, though.” He frowned. 

Spike ignored him. “No. I’m not her ‘pet’!” Using air quotes, Spike mimicked the Doctor’s odd British accent. He didn’t quite do it justice, though. The Doctor stifled a laugh at Spike’s humorous attempt at his voice. Not many ponies could pull off such a voice that could be taken seriously. Neither could dragons, apparently. “I’m her number one assistant!” the baby dragon said proudly. 

The Doctor flashed his big bright teeth. “Really. She has her own assistant…” he began pacing around Spike. If the Doctor had arms, they would be crossed right about now. He looked up and down the short dragon, almost like he was sizing him up. Spike just stood firm. He wasn’t going to be intimidated by this guy…

“She’s got somepony to help her out in times of need…” he said. 

“Yeah. I help her out a lot.” Spike agreed with him. He watched his words carefully. As much as he wanted to trust him, Spike didn’t let his guard down. 

“Somepony to keep her company…” The Doctor began to walk away. Spike kept in follow. He wanted to keep an eye on him. 

“Yeah. There aren’t that many dragons around…” He trailed off to think for a moment. He thought about all the other times that they had encountered dragons: the one sleeping on the mountain, the one he ran into while running away, the group of bullies he once was with… “Well, okay, none like me around here, anyway…” 

The Doctor just continued to walk. “You’ve known Twilight for a long time then?” 

“She’s been my best friend my whole life.” He paused. “Actually, she’s more than just my friend. I’ve known her my entire life. She’s my mentor, sister, parent…”

“Companion.” The Doctor thought to himself. No matter how he thought it, his mind continued to come back to the same conclusion and similarity. 

“Huh?” Spike turned to the stallion. Apparently his little comment wasn’t kept as secure in his mind as he thought. 

“OH, uh. Nothing. Nothing…” The Doctor quickly covered up. His smiled returned two fold.  “Sounds like you’ve got it good here, Spike.” 

Spike smiled back. Maybe this guy was okay. Sure, he may have had some strange qualities about him, but then again, what pony didn’t really? He seemed to have this unique charm that made it difficult for Spike to hate him. Besides, most of Twilight’s friends were pretty cool. If this guy knew Twilight, maybe he was cool too. 

Suddenly, the Doctor’s smile dropped. He stopped mid pace. He stared for a moment. Just staring off into space. Spike looked up to the Doctor he gave him a quizzical look. He waved his hand in front of his face. He turned round to see what the Doctor was looking at. He didn’t see anything but the door that led to the basement. He turned back around. 

“Uh… Doctor?”

“Tea!” 

The Doctor jolted as he snapped out of his trance. He looked away from the basement door and down at Spike. Okay, now Spike was really confused. Did he just say tea? What on earth was he doing? Spike said nothing, though. Just giving him a strange look. The Doctor looked back and forth for a second. He looked to Spike. He looked up at the door just beyond him. Back down to Spike. 

“Tea?” Spike said curiously and now slightly irritated. 

“Tea. Yes. I would like some… tea. Please, can you make me some?” The Doctor brought up a rather convincing smile. Spike just looked at him, unsure what he was doing. Well, he was British, wasn’t he? British ponies drank a lot of tea, right? Made sense to Spike. He walked over to the staircase, not taking his eyes off of the Doctor. Giving the Doctor one last judgemental glare, he stepped off down the stairs to make the tea. 

Looking down the stairs quick to make sure he was alone, The Doctor stepped back towards the basement door. Trying it a couple times, he was unsurprised to find it locked. Spike didn’t trust him alone in this place? How rude! Popping out his trusty screwdriver, he unlocked about as well as he unlocked anything else: with ease. The wooden door creaked audibly as it opened. He wasn’t sure if Spike heard him or not, but it didn’t matter now. He had important things to investigate. 

Stepping down the stairs into the darkened room, the Doctor fumbled for a bit. As brilliant and clever as he was, he still could not see in the dark. By just the light of his sonic, he found the light switch and flicked it on. The consuming darkness vanished as the light washed over the room. The place was exactly as he remembered. Beakers and test tubes and heavy machinery lie all over the basement. The closet door was still smashed from the parasprite breaking through. Apparently, Twilight hadn’t had time to clean up, yet. The Doctor ignored these, however, and went ahead to do what he came to do. Without a word, he calmly raised his hoof. He held his hoof in the air for some time before moving it slowly. Back and forth he waved his hoof in the air, concentrating as if he was trying to find something. 

After apparently sensing something, he began walking forward. He took a few steps this way, a couple paces that way. He made his way across the basement before finally arriving at the end of his little dowsing expedition: a small wooden trunk. 
The same trunk that started the whole thing. The trunk that got Twilight first involved with the Doctor. A parasprite hid in the box when they first met. It turned out to be deadly, very deadly, and nearly killed them. For Twilight, it was terrifying. For the Doctor, it was a nice easy task to overcome. A fun colourful little hairball with arms/legs that was made with science instead of this confusing magic stuff. How nice. However, one thing had been pegged in the back of his mind since he had saved her, bothering him to no end: how did the parasprite get in the box? 

The Doctor approached the little wooden cube. The lid of the trunk had slammed shut during the scuffle that had taken place shortly after its opening. Raising the lid, his eyes widened. A smile crept across his face as he swept his hoof through the air above the open box. Now this was interesting!

“HEY!” Somepony yelled at him from behind. 

The Doctor looked back over his shoulder to see one rather angry little dragon. His arms were crossed and his face was just as cross. “I knew it! I knew I couldn’t trust you! I leave for five minutes and you’re already snooping through Twilight’s stuff!” he accused the tan pony. 

The Doctor did not seem fazed by the accusations, keeping his calm exterior. He was used to this kind of thing. Without saying anything, he turned his attention back to the box. 
Spike couldn’t believe him. “What are you doing? Don’t turn around! Hello!! I’m talking to you!” he continued to yell but to no avail. Finally, he walked up beside the Doctor to see what he was doing. All he saw was the box. It was empty. Spike looked from the box to the Doctor, and then back to the box. The Doctor ignored him and just focused on the fascinating box. 
Spike didn’t get it. “What are y-“

“Shh!” The Doctor put a hoof up to silence him. He didn’t take his eyes off the box. 

How rude! How dare he shush Spike after he was caught red hoofed trespassing and snooping! What on earth was he even doing? Spike was confused and offended. 

“Hey, don’t-“

“Sh-sh-sh!” He shushed Spike again, putting a hoof to his own mouth. This time he turned around and gave him a look. Spike said nothing. His angry face said everything. After a few moments of silence, he released his hoof and turned back again. 

“Did Twilight ever tell you how she met me?” 

“No. She didn’t say anything about you. I’m starting to doubt you even know her personally.” Spike crossed his little arms again. 

“Oh. Well, basically I tracked a strange energy signal down to the basement here and found a parasprite that had been altered with science and I took care of it. After that we ended up at the local hospital because of Lyra’s missing cutie mark and we made our own separate ways. After she left, I made some interesting discoveries and it turns out that it’s probably because of a drug called Salvation. The missing cutie mark, not the parasprite, I mean.” he said quickly without even giving Spike a chance to comprehend. 

“The only thing I didn’t find out however is where that parasprite came from in the first place.” He said in a way that Spike somewhat understood. 

“Now, when something appears from nowhere and you know could not have just jumped away and hidden itself in there, there can only be one answer as to where it came from.” 

Spike thought for a moment before realizing the answer was simple. “Somepony teleported it here?” Spike said, still trying to figure out exactly what was going on. 

The Doctor paused for a moment, thinking. “Well… yes and no. Sort of. Almost. Not exactly. Yes.” Spike was ready to give up with this guy.

From a certain location Spike could not exactly say where it was, The Doctor pulled out a funny little metal device. He thought it looked like a really fancy pen. “See, when something is teleported by regular controlled unicorn magic, it transports over physically into ether and then back into reality at its intended destination, right?”
“Uh… sure.” Spike had no clue.

“Anyway, this particular teleportation is different. Rather than just transporting the subject, it opened a rip in the very fabric of reality and shoved it through. Then they stitched the rip shut. Very stupid if I might say.”

Spike nodded. He actually understood that part. More or less. 

He continued, “But just like any patch job on a piece of cloth, if the stiches aren’t placed properly…” he placed the device in his mouth to operate it.

His little metal stick little up blue and produced a high pitched ‘whirring’ sound. Not two second later, Spike saw something amazing. Right in front of his eyes, the air moved. He couldn’t actually see it at first, but then, clear as day, he saw realty separate. There, in the air occupied above the open chest, was a tear. A very rough and jagged rip. Glowing blue and light purple, it seemed to pulse periodically. It wasn’t attached to anything, and when he moved his head, it stayed in place. Floating in the air…

“What is that thing?” Spike said, amazed. Despite being around incredible feats of magic and impossibilities frequently with Twilight, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

The Doctor looked away from the hole to look at Spike. “It’s a tear in reality, remember? Weren’t you listening to what I just said?” he said, putting away his device. He looked at Spike like he had bananas stuck in his ears. Very silly. 

The two turned their attention back to the spectacle that was worth looking at. Crouching lower for a better look, The Doctor observed the rip. It was really nothing special to him. Just a little snag in time and space. Easily fixable. He only changed the frequency of the energy it produced to make it visible for Spike to explain what he was doing. 

“I’m sure Twilight has told you the history of teleportation spells?” The Doctor 

Spike just gave him a blank look. 

“Well, to put it shortly, the original way was to open a hole in space and pass the object through, as seen here.” He motioned towards the hole with his hoof. “It was a very dangerous and delicate procedure. Only the highest of master magicians and spell casters could perform it, and even then with difficultly.”

“As their techniques evolved however, they learned new ways to transport matter and simpler ways of teleportation. This kind of teleportation hasn’t been used in, oh…” he stopped to think, “Few thousand years?”

Miraculously, Spike actually managed to follow the Doctor’s train of thought and train crash of an explanation.  “So… why would anypony do this? If regular teleportation is so much simpler, why rip a hole and not even fix it right?”

Shrugging, the Doctor leaned against the box.  “I don’t know. Perhaps to prove a point. Perhaps they want to destroy the universe?” A look of disagreement washed over his face. “Although, if that’s your choice, don’t do it this way, this way’s boring.” The Doctor shook his head. Spike rolled his eyes. 

“I should get Twilight over here…” he said a tad quieter. He stood back up to his full height. “Ah, when did you say she’d be back?” he asked the dragon of the household. 

Spike hesitated. “Uh…. Um… Soon?” He had no clue. 

The Doctor furrowed his brow. “Well, where did she say she was going?”  

Spike shrugged. He didn’t remember what she said to him at all this morning. All he knew was that she was out. 

The Doctor sighed. Twilight had to see this. It was very important she was notified of this right away. But without knowledge of her current location, what was there to do? Wait here in the library for possibly hours and do nothing but talk to Spike? The Doctor nearly burst aloud laughing at the thought. 

“Sorry. But I’m sure she won’t be gone too long. She has to be back eventually.” Spike said.

“Er… By the way…” the Doctor said, looking back to the rip, which had started to glow a new purple colour, “What was the name of that pegasus in the bed back in Twilight’s room?”

Spike stopped. He took a moment to switch gears and figure out what on earth the earth pony had just said. What was the mare’s name? There was a hole in reality and he was curious about the mare in the bed!? Somepony’s priorities were not in order and Spike doubted it was him. 

Spike shook his head. “What? Um... Rainbow Dash. Why?”

“Hm… You said she was sick, right? That she wouldn’t be out of bed for a long while?”

“Probably. I’m not exactly sure, I feel sleep while they were figuring it out. But that seems about right.” Spike did not know where he was going with this and somewhat didn’t care. Who knew what this guy was going on about...

“It’s not about right, it is right.” The Doctor said, looking like he was thinking. “I could tell. It’s the same thing as Lyra. Lyra’s in bed, too. In fact, they aren’t going anywhere until I fix this and even then it will take a while for them to recover!” said the Doctor a tad louder than was appropriate. 

“Okay, so…?” Spike didn’t get it. “So she’s in bed! What does that have to do with this hole!?” Spike was beginning to get angry again.

The Doctor shrugged. “Possibly nothing; possibly something.” he replied calmly. “But that’s not important right now.” He walked up a bit closer to Spike and bent down.

“What is important is: If Rainbow Dash is supposed to be in bed at this very moment…” his eyes shifted slowly to the right; the direction of the stairs. Spike eyes followed to see exactly the point the Doctor was trying to make. 
“Why is she standing right there?” 

…

Arriving at the top of the stairs, Twilight opened the door to AJ’s room. It was a decent bedroom. A little empty, but it looked like it served its purpose. The bed was right next to the door. Looking like death itself curdled over, laid the sickly ill Applejack. Her mane was a mess and her eyes bloodshot. The bags under her eyes did not help her appearance. She noticed the trio enter her abode and sat up. 

“Well, *cough*… Howdy Twilight, Pinkie *cough* Pie.” Applejack gave a very small smile to her friends. Her voice was very hoarse and weak. Pinkie walked around to either side of the bed, observing her sick friend. Big Macintosh stayed in the doorway, looking cool and silent as always. 

“What are ya’ll *cough* doing here?”  Applejack said, glad to see her friends. 

Twilight was the one to speak. “We’re here to help. We know of the pills Rarity gave you. We need them. We think they’re what’s causing your illness. With some samples of the pills I can probably make an antidote.”

Twilight hoped that Applejack wouldn’t need a lengthy explanation. She was getting tired of retelling the same story over and over. And what if AJ didn’t believe her? Would she have to take them by force? Would she have to convince Big Mac to-

“Oh okay.” 

Applejack reached over to the nightstand beside the bed and grabbed the pill bottle sitting on top. It was about half full. She leaned over and handed them to the purple unicorn. “Here ya are.”

And just as simple as that, Twilight was now in possession of ‘Salvation’. She blinked. There it was. Right in her hooves, easy as that. It seemed like such a simple task now that she had accomplished it... 

Twilight blinked again. “Um… uh… Thanks.” 

Applejack brushed it off like it was nothing. “No problem. I mean, it’s kinda ironic that the medicine would be the one ta’ cause what ails ya.” She smiled. Even in this degraded state, Applejack kept her spirits up. Her determined and tough attitude pushed through her the worst of times. Twilight admired her for that. 

“Um. Yeah. Well, don’t worry, Applejack. I’m sure with this I’ll be able to find a cure. We’ll get to the bottom of this!” Twilight smiled, Applejacks high spirits rubbing off on her. She was actually starting to feel better herself. 

“YAAAAAY!” Pinkie nearly exploded at this. Applejack’s spirits may have been high, but Pinkie’s were through the roof! “Hooray! Everypony will be better! I’m gonna throw a huge party for everypony! They’ll all love it! I’ll call it ‘Goodbye Salvation’ or maybe-“

“Uggahh!”

Pinkie gained a face of confusion, which was quickly taken over by one of laughter. “Uggahh? Ha ha ha! That’s not a good name for a party!” Pinkie laughed at the thought. “Silly willy!”

“Pinkie…” 

“I mean, just imagine: ‘Hi! Welcome! We’re so glad you didn’t die from a horrible drug that was supposed to kill you instead of making you feel better and now we’re having a party, we call it ‘Uggahh!’” She laughed even harder at this.
“Pinkie!” Twilight called out, trying to bring Pinkie back to the real world. 

“Yes, Twilight?” Pinkie finally stopped giggling enough to pay attention, quite a feat in itself. She turned, only to see Twilight and Big Mac, wide eyed and mouths gaping in shock. Curiosity rising, Pinkie followed their line of sight to come to one Applejack in bed. Pinkie gasped as well. 

Applejack was experiencing the single most horrifying experience of her life. The orange farm pony thrashed around in the bed, screaming in pain. A cold sweat poured down her forehead as she shook and convulsed. As sick as she seemed before, it was nothing compared to how ill she became after this horrid experience. As the trio watched on, they noticed a sickly green glow pulsing around Applejack’s body. It wasn’t like unicorn magic surrounding an object. This was different; it was like her own body was producing it. Nopony could do anything as they watched the horrific scene unfold. Even Pinkie was shockingly quiet at this. Even if she spoke, it would most likely have been drowned out by Applejack’s grunts and cries.  
Then, just as suddenly as they began, her screams of agony stopped. Applejack fell back on her bed, completely spent. She did not move. Moments of silence passed. Nopony moved a muscle. They all waited for their heart rates to drop before making any motion. Finally, Twilight decided that somepony had to check on her. And since no one was willing to do anything, it was up to her. 

Everypony held their breath as Twilight slowly approached the unconscious mare. She inched her way closer and closer. Twilight feared the worse as she carefully raised a hoof. 

“A-applejack?” she cautiously asked the unmoving body. She prayed she was not too late to make the antidote. 

Suddenly, Applejack sprang right back up! Everypony’s heart rates rose again as they got their second major scare of the day. Applejack sat straight up, almost unnaturally. Her eyes were closed and she did not move a muscle as she sat there. Twilight hesitated to do anything. It wasn’t because she was scared. Rather, something was different about Applejack. Of course, the illness and missing cutie mark were a given, but now there was something else. Something about her eyes. 

Twilight had a bad feeling about this. 

Her fears were realized when Applejack finally opened her eyes. Twilight gasped as Applejack stared right back into hers. At least, she thought she was staring into her eyes. She couldn’t actually see Applejack’s pupil’s as she currently had none: Her eyes were a solid yellow. 

> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Doctor!” 

Spike backed away from the pegasus standing at the bottom of the stairs of the basement. Her former aura of illness and weakness had been completely overcome with anger and power. Her eyes glowed a creepy bright yellow. Spike was both frightened and confused. The point was clear she was sick and in bed, or at least should have been. What was she doing here? And what happened to her eyes!?

“Get behind me, Spike…” The doctor said, quickly putting himself between Spike and the enraged Rainbow Dash. 

Rainbow took a step towards the two. Her position changed from one of simple anger to a more offensive one. She crouched down low, ready to pounce. Her wings were extended to full height. Her nostrils flared. She looked ready to charge! The Doctor stared directly into the yellow orbs that were her eyes. He tried to determine exactly what this could be and what it meant. The first question was still being figured out by the time he reached his first conclusion: Rainbow wanted to fight.

“Listen!” he announced before Dash could make any more sudden movements. “I don’t know what you’re planning to accomplish here, but I know what’s happening to you.” He offered out a hoof. “Let me help you.” 

But his offer fell upon deaf ears as Rainbow showed no indication she cared about his proposal or even heard him. Her only response was a loud snort and a hoof scratching the ground. 

The Doctor’s only response was a fierce glare back at her. She matched it very easily.The Doctor slowly made a motion for his Sonic Screwdriver and placed it between his hooves. He didn’t want to do this. As skilled as he was in close quarters combat, the Doctor tried not to fight whenever he could. Preferably, he liked to deal with situations by talking it out. As one could guess, it often did not work. He preferred flight over fight. 

Spike felt uneasy. This was not simply Rainbow just being angry, whatever reason she had. He had seen her angry before; it was not as ferocious as this. She gave off a very violent and scary vibe. One of pure rage and instability. Spike wasn’t completely sure about her intentions, but it felt like she didn’t want a fight for fight’s sake. No, it felt like she wanted a fight to the death. 

“Doctor…” a concerned Spike said. He tried to move away, but the Doctor simply looked back at him. In some weird way, Spike felt as though he could trust this guy. Even with his life. 

With a fierce snarl and a show of teeth, Rainbow charged right at the cornered dragon and pony! The Doctor did nothing in retaliation. He simply stood his ground as the dangerous mare came closer and closer. Her hoof steps ponded against the floor like Spike’s heart pounded in his chest. Just when there seemed no time to do anything, The Doctor made his move. 

It all happened so fast. First, the Doctor grabbed Spike’s arm and pulled him over to the ground. Not directly into the ground, but with a little bit of angle to the right; just enough to dodge out of the way of the charging Dash. With a bind rage and fury, Rainbow ran full speed into the box behind them. Luckily for them, Rainbow was not exactly in the right state of mind to make rational decisions, and dove headlong into the rip in space. Mind that she did not pass through the portal as she did not fit. It came as a shock to Spike and an even bigger shock to Rainbow Dash when she was electrocuted by the tear’s pulsing energy! Her hair stood on end and a cry of pain pierced the air before she fell down with a loud thud. 

Spike lay flat on the floor for a few moments. His breathing slowed as he regained himself. The Doctor was already standing by the time he got up himself. The Doctor was looking back at Rainbow as put his screwdriver away. The scent of smoke and burnt hair filled his nostrils as he looked on. Spike was confused, but glad to be unharmed. He turned to the tan earth pony.

“What the heck was that?” Spike nearly yelled, adrenaline still fleeing his system.  “Why did she get shocked like that? Could we have been shocked!?” 

“Well, no. I amplified its power for a little bit while she was getting ready to charge. I was hoping a shock like that would snap her out of it…”

“Huh? Out of what exactly?” Spike asked, still a bit confused about the whole ordeal. 

“Uh… I think I’ll have to explain later...” the Doctor replied, slowly heading towards the stairs. Spike turned back to the cyan pegasus to see her already on her hooves again. At least, getting up to them. Apparently, the shock did not work. Her eyes kept their yellow glow and her violent look was stronger than ever. Any second she would be right back to trying to kill them. 

The Doctor had nearly reached the stairs by then and Spike was not far behind. “I think our best plan now is…” 

“RUN!” 

…

“Ah! What’s going on!?” Pinkie cried out, doing her best to keep her footing. 

“I don’t know! But we have to keep her in there!” Twilight called out, keeping her magic steady to hold the door shut. 
Big Mac, Twilight and Pinkie Pie all did their best to keep Applejack’s bedroom door shut. The mare inside the room had gone completely mad, thrashing and fighting her way out. Her previous demeanor of high spirits had completely dissipated by anger and wild fury. Yet despite Big Mac’s incredible strength, Twilight’s magic and the rather thick door, Applejack was still making a strong attempt to break down the door to get a piece of them. And was winning.

The wood of the door creaked and splintered from the wild bucking from the crazy farm mare. All those years of experience with bucking apple trees showed when not even Twilight’s magic and Big Mac’s muscles were slowing her down. But it wasn’t just her bucking skills. Something else fueled her. Even she could not stop her own brother on normal situations. What was going on?

CRASH!

Splinters of wood rained down on the trio as Applejack bucked a rather large crack in the door. Twilight’s eyes widened as the crack, upon subsequent kicks, was quickly turned a hole. 
“She’s breaking through!” Big Mac said, surprised at his own sister’s strength and determination. 
Pinkie was nearly hysterical. “What are we gonna do!?” She hated to see her friends upset, and was in major discomfort over something like this. 

“I… I don’t know!” For once, Twilight was out of ideas. She didn’t want to hurt Applejack, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep that moral in her head. She already tired restraining her with magic, but she lost her grip after trying holding the orange pony down for more than five seconds. Applejack just thrashed about violently, trying to buck her head off. The violent motions proved to be too much for her and got thrown out of control like Scootaloo off her scooter. Her loss of grip of Applejack was the reason they had to barricade the door in the first place. 

But it wasn’t as simple as a slip or a careless mistake. To Twilight, it felt like something was fighting her off. Something was trying to keep her out of control of Applejack’s body. It was like another magic source was already in control… of… her. 
And that’s when it hit her. 

…

Rainbow Dash crashed her way through the library, knocking over books and disrupting piles of important papers. Well, she disturbed the ones that hadn’t already been knocked over by the two in front of her. Both Spike and the Doctor were throwing things in attempts to slow her down. None were very fruitful. 

Spike’s tiny legs went as fast as they could as he tried to keep up with the Doctor’s strong running ability. He was nearly out of breath but the Doctor looked like he could go for hours. He must have had practice or something. 

“Well, any more bright ideas!?” Spike called out to the Doctor. 

“I’m thinking!” he retorted, doing his best to void the stubborn mare and come up with a plan. “I don’t see you doing any quick thinking!” 

Rainbow seemed even angrier now that she had been electrocuted. Her previous attempt of a simple charge seemed weak and predicable compared to her flying ability. 

Doors were slammed and furniture was thrown. Yet despite their efforts to stop the chase, Rainbow did not slow for a second, crashing through all the rather thin wooden doors. She kept a steady headstrong flight, breaking through all of the obstacles rather than avoiding them. She seemed even more stubborn than usual. 

The Doctor kept doing what he did best: thinking on the spot. He almost got lost in thought and nearly hit the table as he jumped over it. Spike slid underneath said table. Rainbow broke it in two. 

Looking back at Rainbow effortlessly breaking the wooden table, The Doctor had an idea. “Right got it!” he said finally. 

“What is it?” Spike was running out of steam. He was coming close to the end of his sprint. And the end of his life. 

“First: find a place to think. Isn’t there a place we can hold up?” the Doctor asked, running out of assorted things to kick over as they ran. “One with a preferably strong door?”

Spike thought for a moment. Most of the doors in the library were thin so that Twilight could hear any ponies come into the library. All these places Rainbow could buck into easily. But there was one room with a specifically thicker door…
“Quick! This way!” Spike made a sharp right turn down the next set of stairs they came to. Rainbow banked it as hard as she could, and followed right behind. Spike could practically feel Rainbow’s snarly breath on the back of his neck. She was gaining. Pretty soon she would be right on top of-

SLAM!

Rainbow winced as the thick wooden door immediately rushed to greet her face with a joyous embrace. To the face. The pained pegasus felled back and hit the ground with a thud. 

Beyond the reclosed door, the Doctor quickly locked the heavy lock. He pressed his ear to the door, listening to Rainbow’s movements. He stepped back as she tried her best to kick down the door, but her efforts were in vain. After a few more kicks, there was silence. The Doctor took a moment to catch his breath before looking at the door that had saved them. 

“Oh, this is just great…” Spike muttered under his breath.

“I know.” The Doctor said, still looking at the door. “Great structure, sturdy lock, elegant design. Perfect for stopping crazy pegasi. Well, the design doesn’t help other than looks, but…” 

He paused a bit. “This door should hold her off long enough…” Turning around, he took a moment to see exactly what room they were in. He saw the objects and placements and quickly deduced they were in the bathroom. Naturally. Actually, he thought, this might work… 

“So… now what?” Spike asked.

The Doctor began looking around the room. “Well, from her behaviour, she obviously won’t give up that easily. Seeing as how she can’t break down the door, she’ll probably try to find another way in.” 

“And then she’ll come in and we’ll be cornered! Then she’ll get us for sure!” Spike brought a worried hand to his head. “This is all your fault!” 

“No time for that, now!” He replied, already working his screwdriver on the bathroom mirror. He stopped for a moment and turned back to Spike. Looking beyond the young dragon he saw a window. A window that looked just big enough to fit a pegasus through. Perfect. 

“Okay, I need you to look out the window and tell me when you see her.” He quickly pointed behind the worrisome Spike. 
Spike did a double take. “What? How are you so sure she’ll come this way?” Spike asked, skeptical about this plan. 

“Trust me,” he smiled, “I’m the Doctor.” 

…

“Big Mac! Pinkie! I have an idea!” Twilight called out. It was getting hard to hear over the deafening bucks. 

CRACK!

The door was quickly becoming smaller and smaller. Applejack would continuously kick at the door, shattering the frame and even cracking the wall around it. Pretty soon she would be through. Soon after AJ bucked a hole through, Pinkie had the idea to stack a pile tables and chairs in front of the door. A great barricade, she thought! Except now that they couldn’t hold the door itself very well, it didn’t do much to help.

“Idea for what? My plan’s working perfectly.” Pinkie said hppily, not doing anything to help.  

Twilight ignored her. “Big Mac! Do you have any rope? Anything to restrain her with?” She asked the red workhorse. 
Big Mac, despite being very silent most of the time, was not slow to catch on. He immediately knew where she was going with this. Quickly nodding his head, he spoke. “Eeyup!” 

After making sure Twilight could hold the makeshift barricade, (with Pinkie’s reluctant help), he stepped away and quickly headed off downstairs to get some strong rope. Pinkie strained to hold tight against the powerful hits that rattled her around. Applejack had some really strong legs. Twilight’s grip was nowhere near as strong as her magic could have been, but even something as simple as holding up the pile caused her to lose her grip just like she did Applejack. Something was causing her to lose focus with her magic. Even if she couldn’t constrain Applejack herself, she had to stop her somehow. But there had to be a better way…

Just then, Twilight heard a shout from downstairs. 

“Flibberty gibbets! What in the hay is going on up there!?” 

CRACK!

Twilight looked down the stairs to see a familiar old face peeking around the corner. She looked rather angry at the disturbance of shattering wood. 

“Granny Smith! Get away!” Twilight didn’t know if Applejack would attack her own granny or not, but even if she didn’t, the old mare could get hurt from all the debris and splinters. The last thing she wanted was somepony getting hurt. Especially an innocent little old lady…

Pinkie turned around, smiling. “Yeah! Don’t worry about it! We got this!” she agreed cheerfully.

The old mare furrowed her wrinkled old face even more. The loud bangs and snaps of wood continued. After staring at the scene of the two ponies holding a pile of broken wood against her granddaughter’s door, which had loud noises emitting from inside, she shook her head. 

“Ah don’t know what you kids are doing up there, but just keep it quiet. Yer disturbing my nap…” Her words seemed rather ignorant, but Twilight saw otherwise. Granny Smith somehow knew what was going on. And knew that they could handle it. She smiled. 

Just then, AppleBloom came around the corner as well. She was curious about the noise as well. Her eyes travelled from her granny to the stairs. She smiled at the exciting scene unfold. Her curiosity rising and urge to help building, she stared up the stairs. 

“Oh wow! What’s going on up the-“ 

Her words were cut off as Granny Smith stopped her from advancing into danger. The disgruntled youth struggled a bit before turning back to her elder. “No. C’mon young’un.” 

Somewhat frustrated, but still respectful of her granny, AppleBloom conceded. “Never do anything fun…” she mumbled. The two Apples made their way back to a safer place. 

Twilight winced as another buck rattled the poorly made pile of debris. As strong as she knew AJ was, still was incredible. Her strength was out of this world! Twilight knew this ‘barricade’ wouldn’t last long. She hoped Mac would be back soon. Looking thought the holes and cracks she could see Applejack gearing up for another blow. Tightening her own grip and preparing herself, she warned Pinkie to do the same. 

“Brace yourself!”

KKKRAAASH!!!

The cacophonous sound tore through the air as the table the chairs and the door all exploded with extraordinary force. The wooden furniture and fixtures blew apart, sending chunks and pieces everywhere. Both mares lost their footing and were sent flying. Twilight groaned and Pinkie squeaked as they hit the floor. Taking a moment to regain her self, Twilight looked up. Through the dust and debris, she could see two evil yellow eyes glaring right back at her. 

For the first time since this whole thing started, Twilight did not feel worry. Nor did she feel troubled, frustrated, or even anxious. She didn’t feel any of it right now. She was free from it, but at a price. For when those feeling left her, another gripped her and held onto her tightly. A feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time. 

She felt fear. 

Twilight could practically hear the anger in the orange pony’s hoofsteps as they boomed against the ground. Twilight looked and saw that because she was thrown a shorter distance, Pinkie was now in between Applejack and Twilight. And Applejack was charging. 

“Pinkie, look out!” she called out to the still dizzy pony. 

Pinkie Pie shook her head and reoriented herself just in time to see a very scary-looking Applejack heading straight for her! Pinkie barely had time to even utter a meep before she was overtaken by the raging earth pony. She cowered low and braced for impact.

…but nothing happened. 

Pinkie opened her eyes after a few seconds to see nothing but broken wood in an otherwise empty hallway.  “Huh?” she blinked twice. 

“EEEK!” 

Turning around, Pinkie witnessed Applejack running away from her. He had completely ignored her and continued her charge. Her sole focus was on Twilight Sparkle.  

“AAH!”

Twilight closed her eyes. She concentrated as hard as she could. Her horn fizzled little purple sparks, but could not conjure up anything. Her magic felt sick when she tried to use it. It felt drained and exhausted. She opened her eyes to see her doom coming up extremely quickly. She looked around, but there was nowhere to go. She was trapped. With nothing else to do and no escape in sight, Twilight closed her eyes and bowed her head, accepting her fate. Her ears twitched as they picked up the sound of her impending doom. The loud clip clops of Applejack’s hooves rung in her ears. The last sound she would ever hear before being brutally… 

…wait…

For a split second, Twilight could have sworn she hear something else. It sounded like… another set of hooves. They were not in sync with AJ’s, and it was not just an echo. It was definitely another pony. Then it could only be…

Snapping her eyes open, Twilight looked up to witness something incredible. Thundering up from behind, Big Mac had returned! Rope in his mouth, he jumped with a surprising amount of agility and crashed down on top of his sister. The two collapsed to the ground in a heap of limbs and rope. Twilight quietly stepped aside as they tumbled on by. Quickly working, Big Mac used his skill to tie down his sister in record time. Applejack was hogtied by her own brother! 

…

Rainbow snorted. The pain in her nose was not her main concern as the rage filled her. She tried to break down the heavy door, but to no avail. But they wouldn’t escape that easily. Quickly taking flight, she headed out the closest window. She flew around the tree house, making loops and looking through windows until she found what she was looking for: Spike and the Doctor. Well, she didn’t so much see them as sense them.  Wasting no time, she headed for the window she thought they were in. Upon closer observation, she did in fact see them! She smiled an evil and snarly grin. Heading back, she flew until she was far enough to begin a charge. No flimsy window would stand in her way! Rearing up, she bolted ahead at max speed!

“Raaaughh!” she roared as she crashed through the window with ease. Her rey in sight, she prepared to attack!

KKRAAAAASH!!

Glass and mirror shards flew everywhere. Rainbow’s nose became even more painful as it rocketed through the mirror and into the bathroom door. Stunned and confused, the bruised rainbow Dash collapsed on the floor surrounded by thousands of glass shards and pieces. Standing over in the corner stood The Doctor and Spike, completely unharmed, though the latter somewhat spooked. The Doctor took a step towards the cyan pegasus. Picking her head up, she saw them.
It became apparent what had happened after Rainbow saw them for real, instead of the reflection. The mirror pieces reflected red as she picked herself up. It seemed no matter how badly she injured herself, she would not stop until they were dead. 

The Doctor sighed. Seeing no other option, he readied his screwdriver. The beaten and weak mare snarled at him. Even in this state, she still had some fight in her. If she wasn’t trying to kill them, The Doctor would have found it inspiring. Aiming the sonic screwdriver directly at her head, the Doctor solemnly spoke.

“Rainbow. I’m so sorry…”

Whirrr…

“NYAAAAAAAUUUUUGHHHHAAAAAHHHH!!!”

Rainbow’s screamed pierced Spike’s eardrums as she rolled on the floor. He jumped back as he saw the cyan pegasus completely freak. Her face was one of pain and absolute horror. It was a pain like she had never felt before. Her mind was hurting. Her consciousness felt like it was dying. The Doctor seemed about as enthusiastic to do this as Rainbow was. He clearly was not pleased by having to be the one to cause her such misery. He frowned in sadness as he forcefully ripped Rainbow’s mind from the alien one that had completely overridden it. 

“AAAAAUUUUUUGGGGAAAAAAHHH!!!”

She continued to scream in agony and torment as she shook vividly. She slammed her head against the floor. As sturdy and strong as she was, the Doctor worried about Rainbow’s physical state as well as her mental one. This much damaged and pain. It must have been hell. He prayed she would be alright. 

Then, just as it seemed like she could take it no more, Rainbow stood straight up. She let out one last roar as a bright yellow light spread round her body. It glowed brightly for a few seconds, before dissipating into the air. Eyes rolling back in her head, a very exhausted Rainbow Dash collapsed onto the bathroom floor. Spike looked from the heap of an unconscious mare to the Doctor. No words need be spoken. His face said it all. 

…

“Grr! Hgg…! Agg!” 

Applejack had been restrained, but she was far from contained. Big Mac had expertly tied the ropes in such a way that she could not escape. But the crazed mare would not succumb that easily. She thrashed around and chewed at the ropes entangling her hooves. Her state of mind had not changed one bit. She was just as angry as before, if not angrier. Big Mac dropped his head and sighed. He couldn’t bear to see his sister like this.  

“I’m sorry, AJ.” He said solemnly. “But Twilight here’s gonna make it all better.” He turned around with hope filed eyes. Twilight saw this and was moved. Sure, she had the pills. Sure, she could leave right now and go home and come back once she had the antidote. But… she couldn’t. She couldn’t leave her friend like this. 

“I’ll… do what I can.” 

Even if she couldn’t fix everything right now, she had to try. She owed them that much. Holding down Applejack with a heavy hoof, Big Mac stepped aside to let Twilight look at AJ. She already knew that her magic wasn’t working properly around her. 

Kneeling down in front of AJ, Twilight began to doubt. What on earth was she supposed to do? She had no idea what she was doing. What would that crazy Doctor do? Wait…  Was she actually asking what he would do? That quack of a ‘Doctor’, with his fancy tech and his silly talk of aliens… Was she this desperate? 

…Well, no time for that now, she thought. This was no time for doubt. Time for action!

Twilight bent in closer to Applejack. The orange pony glared at her with her eyes. Those evil looking glowing eyes. Twilight closed her own eyes and breathed. If her magic didn’t work from afar, let’s try a different approach… She kept leaning towards Applejack until her horn was directly touching her forehead. Keeping herself steady, Twilight concentrated. 

Honestly, she had no idea what she was doing. She just kept her horn placed on her friend and did what felt right. Whatever it was, it was working. Pinkie Pie and Big Mac watched in awe as Twilight’s horn glowed its natural purple glow. The aura of magic continued on, sweeping over Applejack’s body. They were speechless as the two seemingly bridged minds. Although it was not intentional, that was exactly what was happening. Whatever Applejack felt, whatever Applejack though, Twilight felt it, too. And the moment she did, she regretted it instantly. 

The moment hers and Applejack’s minds touched, it was flooded by a foreign magic energy. She could feel the crazy yellow energy seep into her own head. Twilight was experiencing what Applejack was experiencing. And it was terrifying. The entire time, she felt extremely exhausted. Like something was sucking the life out of her and trying to get in at the same time. She felt really hot all of a sudden. She felt on fire. Her head panged with pain. It was awful.

Twilight had entered Applejack’s mind but had no idea what she was dong. It reminded her of the time Discord had messed with her friends. Each one of them had had their minds and personalities completely under his control. Back then, Twilight had done something similar as well. She held down Applejack and reminded what great friends they were. She bridged minds with her friend, and broke the control. That time, however, all she did was share her own feelings about how they were all such great friends. This time around, she was drawing a blank. 

“C’mon Twilight, think!” she told herself. If a god of chaos’ control could be broken, then surely this could. But how…? What was Applejack like back then? Disharmony and lies. How did she defeat it? With friendship and harmony. If that was the case, what was she like now? Fury, rage, anger… Hate!

Wait. 

If the opposite of chaos is harmony, then the opposite of hate would be…!

“It’s not that simple, is it?”

Twilight shook that feeling of doubt and began to focus. Although Cadence would be the ideal one to perform this, Twilight would have to do her best. No, she did not love Applejack like that, but she had to think about love, any love. Perhaps it would work. She thought as hard as she could. A bridge can be crossed in either direction. So, if Twilight thought about it, it should spread into Applejack’s mind as well. Once she had thought about it, she began to spread it to Applejack. Even though she was not as resilient to having thoughts put in her head as last time, it still took a bit of fore to get her to see what Twilight saw. Once she did however, Applejack did something nopony expected. 

“BAHAHAHAAHAHAAAA!!!”

Twilight snapped her eyes open and was force back as Applejack began laughing uncontrollably. She clutched to her sides and fell on her back. Big Mac jumped back at the sudden outburst from his sister. Pinkie jumped a little, too, but soon began laughing along for no reason. Pinkie fell next to the laughing pony, both of them rolling around and laughing hysterically. Twilight was confused and slightly irritated, while Big Mac was just found speechless. 

After a round of guffawing and fit of giggles, Applejack finally calmed down. Her breathing slowed as she seemed to fall asleep. She lay completely still on the ground. Cautiously, Twilight asked if she was alright. When she didn’t respond, Twilight feared the worst and quickly inspected her. She seemed okay. When she opened her eyes, she found no yellow glow this time. She was back to normal! 

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. Exhausted from both the situation with Applejack and her crazy mindset, she looked up to her two friends. Pinkie was still snickering on the floor while Big Mac had picked up Applejack. He took her away to a different room to let her rest. Rest. Twilight groaned as she fell back on the floor. She had to rest a bit, herself. She wished that this was the end; that she could go home and sleep. But she knew all too well that this was far from over. 

> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville’s atmosphere had changed significantly. The sun, which had once rose high and claimed the sky as its own, had now fallen deep to the west, allowing room for the nightly return of the moon. Although it had yet to rise, the moon’s presence was felt throughout the town. The sun’s light still illuminated the sky in a glorious display of orange and yellow. The warmth of the sun diminished as it fell, causing the town to become colder with the passing time. Through the town, two mares had kept a steady pace while everypony else gathered their things and hurried home. 

Twilight Sparkle stayed quiet as she and Pinkie Pie once again made their way through the town. The only sound came from their hooves in the dirt and the food in Pinkie’s mouth. She had gathered many apples from Sweet Apple Acres to take on the road. Nopony minded if she took a few apples after what had just happened. As she munched way happily, Twilight felt the exact opposite. Just kept her head at a lower height than normal, trying to ignore the cacophonous sounds of Pinkie eating. 

Her mind drifted back to when she felt what Applejack felt. It was terrifying and still haunted her even now. Such pain and exhaustion. The rage was nothing to scoff at, either. Such burning hate and fiery anger made Twilight scared. She didn’t know anger as strong as that could exist. It made her shudder to think about how horrifying it must have been for Applejack to experience this whole thing. To have the life forcefully sucked out of her and replaced with anger. To attack her own friends… Was she even aware of what she was doing? Twilight wasn’t sure. She didn’t know if the consciousness she connected with was Applejack or… something else. 

“Hey, Pinkie.” 

“?”

Pinkie had nearly missed her friend’s words as she bit into a new apple. She turned around to see that Twilight had stopped walking. The purple magician was sitting in the dirt, looking very sad. Pinkie halted her own hooves and backed herself up. 
“Do you think Applejack will be okay? I mean, she’s had nearly all her internal magic drained, and when I went into her mind… ” she put her head down in disgust of the memory.   

This whole thing was taking a toll on Twilight. Her previous attitude of a simple problem with a simple solution died when she began to have trouble obtaining ‘Salvation’. Then the whole ordeal with Applejack… Twilight was starting to lose hope. She began to wonder if she could even help anymore. Maybe it was too late. 

“Twilight…” Pinkie said with a gentle half smile. “I know how much you care about our friends. I’m worried about them, too. I know this is scary thing to go through, but we’re almost done. You have the pills, right?”

“Yeah…” she said 

“Then let’s do this!” she rushed over and picked up Twilight, putting back on her hooves.  “Let’s make that antidote and save everypony!” 

Twilight’s smile returned. She knew Pinkie would help her keep her head high, even in times like these. After a thankful hug and some chewing off apples, the two set off again, spirits high. After a few minutes of walking, Twilight began to notice something. She looked around at the town. She looked up at the setting sun. Even though it had already begun to make room for the oncoming moon, it was nowhere near close to becoming dark. It was usually around this time of day that ponies would begin to consider packing it in for the day. Some would have already gone home early for whatever reason, but many of them would stay out later for any potential late customers. 

“Pinkie, what time is it?” Twilight asked her friend who was covered in flecks of apple.

Pulling out a rather large sundial from seemingly nowhere, Pinkie happily checked the time. “6:30 on the nose.” 

“Hm. This is bad…” Twilight said to herself. 

Just as mysteriously and spontaneously as she brought it out, Pinkie put away the sundial. “Why is that a bad thing, Twilight? Sure, we wasted a day trying to find a pill and stopping a crazed Applejack from murdering us, but we’re gonna save everypony, Twi! Isn’t that worth it? Besides, we got lots of apples!” She held up a seemingly endless amount of apples, again, from nowhere. 

Twilight shook her head and revealed her line of reasoning. “Pinkie, if it’s only 6:30, where is everypony?”

Looking around the completely desolate street, the pink party pony saw that her friend was right. Absolutely nopony was around. The two mares were the only ones out, and it was barely getting dark. Pinkie was just as confused as Twilight about this. “Um… maybe they all went home?”

“But why this early? Pinkie, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Twilight observed the loneliness of the town. She hadn’t seen it this empty since she first met Zecora. Some and alone… 

In a surprisingly clever way, Pinkie actually managed to keep up with Twilight’s logic and figure out just what she was getting at. “You don’t think…?”

“Could be ‘Salvation’s’ handiwork? Yeah, I think so.”

“Actually I was thinking of zombie ponies…” Pinkie said in a frightened and shaky voice. She shifted her eyes back and forth in fear of the brain sucking flesh crawlers. 

Lots of ponies had taken the drug. So many homes held ponies that were a potentially lethal threat. This wasn’t just the ponies who had taken the drug that were at risk anymore. Now it was the entire town. Not only could many be deathly ill, if the drug was capable of doing to them what happened back at Sweet Apple Acres… 

“We need to get back to the library!” Twilight took off in a sprint back home. She couldn’t waste a second. Pinkie scrambled to get her apples together. 

“Wait for me!” 

…

“Blimey, those are some delicious biscuits!” The Doctor said, stuffing another small piece of heaven in his mouth. 
Spike smirked. “Heh. Twilight doesn’t know about my secret stash. I only take these babies out when I’m alone. But seeing as how you’ve helped me a little bit with Rainbow Dash, it’s only fair to let you in on ‘em.”

“Hey! I did most of the work!” the Doctor in a fake angry yell. 

“Well, I guess you did help me drag Rainbow back into bed afterwards…” he smirked. 

“Right.” The Doctor replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “At any rate...”

He stood up from the table and stretched his legs. “I really must be going. It’s getting rather late and Twilight’s still not here. ” He began to head towards the door. “Guess she’ll miss out…” he mumbled to himself. 

Spike put down the biscuits and stood up as well. “Yeah, that’s pretty weird. She should’ve been back hours ago. I wonder what could’ve-“

BAM!

The front door suddenly exploded open, revealing a very weary Twilight, tired from running. “Huff, huff… Quick! To the lab!” She took off without even noticing the two guys standing a few feet to her left. Both said nothing as she blurred by, surprised to see her, but more curious about where she had been than where she was going. They heard a noise coming from the open door. Looking back, they saw a pink pony trying in vain to keep up. 

Pinkie followed wearily behind Twilight’s trail, sweat dripping and legs wobbling. “Huff… Puff… Ha… Twilight! Ease up on the running… ow… I’m getting stomach cramps!” She collapsed once she entered into the tree house. 

Spike and the Doctor looked at each other. They shrugged in unison. 

…

While Spike had taken Pinkie upstairs to rest, the Doctor decided to follow Twilight into the basement. He watched as she cracked open the pill bottle and began inspecting the pills. She looked over the drug every which way she could. Seemed like an ordinary medicinal pill. Closer analysis with scientific technology should reveal-

“You’re not gonna learn anything doing that.” 

Twilight turned to see the Doctor leaning against the staircase, smiling smugly. At least, she thought his smile was rather smug. In actuality, he was just smiling. Twilight scowled as she went back to observing the drug. Seeing she wasn’t going to take his word, he walked closer. Twilight noticed this, and becme hostile. 

“Go away. I’m working on making an antidote.” Her voice had a rather harsh tone. 

“Right. Um, listen. I know you’re trying really hard on this, but-“

“I said leave! I can do this on my own!” 

The Doctor looked at her with a hint of suspicion in his eyes. “I never said you couldn’t. You’re just going about this the wrong way.”

“Oh yeah?” Twilight snapped her head up to the Doctor in a very violent manner. “How would you go about this?”

The Doctor hesitated. He looked at Twilight; specifically, her seemingly spontaneous anger. She snarled at him in a way he could have sworn he’d seen before… “Well, actually, I have a plan to sneak into the section of the pharmacy that produces these drugs and-“ 

“No thanks.”  She went right back to looking at the drugs. “I have no interest in going with you.” 

As she spoke, her anger seemed to vanish. Her next few words were very calm and sensible. “I’m not gonna get in trouble just because you want to play around. Breaking and entering is a serious crime!” 

“Uh, Twilight? Isn’t that exactly what we did a few months ago in Canterlot?” 

Both Twilight and the Doctor turned to see who had spoken. On the stairs behind the Doctor sat none other than Spike. The small dragon walked around to the other side of Twilight. “Besides, that sounds like fun. Not to mention a great way to get infor-“

“I’m not going!" Twilight blurted out, her anger returning. 

“And for the record, the time at Canterlot was different! I was… tired. My judgement was impaired… and I had no other options!” Looking back to the Doctor she continued. “And as for you, you can just take your little blue device thingy and go away! I can handle this on my own!” 

Simply nodding, the Doctor conceded. If she really didn’t want to listen, that was her problem. She was the one missing out. “Well, I can’t wait any longer. I thought you would want a part in this, but I guess you’re too focussed on doing it your way.” 
He still had his suspicions and more questions to ask, but right now, he was needed elsewhere. Ironically for him, time was running out. That’s what he got for taking the slow path. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to save Ponyville. I know, it’s a relatively small accomplishment… but I still happen to like this town.” 

He began to ascend the staircase. Halfway up, he stopped. ‘Oh, and by the way. No matter how any times you look, that thing is only gonna show up to be identical to aspirin!” 

…

As the clock ticked on, Twilight tried everything she knew to learn more about the drug. All her scientific analysis techniques, all her fancy machines, all her lab knowledge was used she ran all the tests. She also decided to look at it from a magical viewpoint. Any mind control spells and all magic stealing techniques were carefully reviewed and checked. Her focus was on one thing only: finding out what made this thing tick, and then find a way to make it untick! Or whatever analogy she tried to come up with. Despite her extensive checklist of investigation, Twilight’s efforts only took her a couple of hours. She was just that good. 

As she progressed, however, she began more and more dishevelled. Her patience was wearing thin and her energy was wearing. But she did not give up. Only when all hope was lost could she give up! She would fight to the end. Finally, after extensive research and experiments, she had what she needed. 

This was it. This was the moment she was waiting for. The final result of all her hard work. Right in her hooves held all of the data and information she would need to begin work on the antidote. Reading it thoroughly, her face melted into one of dipair. She could not believe it. No matter how many times she ran the tests, all of her different magical detection spells… They all said the same thing.

This ‘miracle drug’, this...‘Salvation’… 

…it was nothing but aspirin.

Twilight stared at the piece of paper in front of her. She looked at all the data and all the information and all the words until she practically had it memorized. She didn’t want to believe it. She knew it to be the truth, but she did not want to believe it. She knew it was correct. She had done the tests herself… 

“Twilight?” Spike cautiously descended the stairs. He came to see if she was alright. He noticed all the machinery and chemical sounds had stopped, so he had come to see if she had made a breakthrough or died in the process. He saw the look on her face and immediately knew what it was. “Twilight. I know you’re trying to help. But you’re not going to help anypony this way.”

“Why?” was the only word to escape Twilight’s lips. 

“Huh?” he asked. 

“Why can’t I get this?” she said again, this time somewhat quieter. 

“I… don’t-“

“I don’t why I just can’t get this!!!” Twilight yelled, shoving the papers onto the floor. She slammed her hooves on the table and buried her head in them. Not quite understanding what she meant, Spike offered his two bits. “Because… this is something beyond what you know?” 

Twilight’s head snapped up in an instant. “I witnessed one of my closest friends try to kill me in cold blood today. Don’t tell me I don’t know what’s going on!” She stood up, feeling the rage build inside her.

Spike backed off, holding up his hands. “I’m not saying you don’t know what the problem is. We’ve both seen what this thing’s is capable of.”

“Then what are you saying? That I’m incapable of fixing this? That I can’t actually do anything to help!?”  She stepped closer to him and he took a few back. 

“No Twilight…” Spike paused and chose his words carefully. “There are just some things you can’t learn from a book.”

“I know. You have to go out in the world and experience it yourself.” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “You sound just like Celestia” 

Spike shook his head. “But sometimes, even that’s not enough. Sometimes, as big and great as this world is, it’s just… really… small. No, wait…” He lost what he was going to say. 

“Twilight, I know you don’t believe in some things that can’t be proven by science... But out there, there are some pretty miraculous things. Things that you would never find on earth. Things that simply can’t be explained.”

“Spike, what are you getting at?” 

“Remember back when you tried to figure out Pinkie’s Pinkie sense and you said that there were some things you just couldn’t explain?”

“Yeah, well… this is different! That was just Pinkie predicting some small things merely seconds before they actually happened. This… This is…” 

Twilight paused as she recounted all she had figured out in the last two hours. 

“This is scientific. This whole thing is science… and… a-and magic! This drug is chemistry, the illness is medical and the mind control is magical! I’m a student of science and magic. This is something I should know. I should understand this. It’s been my life to study and be knowledgeable in science and magic; this is my passion. The vast wonders of the world are my playthings. I should be able to save them… but…” She trailed off, realizing what this meant. Her face fell and her spirits sank. 
“But now I’m as clueless as Rainbow Dash in a lecture about kinematics.” Twilight slumped to the floor. Tears welled in her eyes and her head fell. She was ready to give up. 

Spike sighed and sat down next to her. He propped his head up with his hands. Both just sat in depressed silence for a while. Twilight felt awful. She felt so pathetic. He was right all along. It really was just aspirin. If only she’d listened, she could’ve help save everypony… Now it was too late. 

While Twilight wallowed in her own self-pity, Spike noticed the piece of paper that she had thrown. Picking it up, he looked it over. “This is your data?” he asked. 

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. But it’s all useless. All it says is that this drug is simply aspirin. Aspirin! And none of my magic detection spells found anything conclusive, just a ‘vague energy reading’. For all I know it’s heat from my hooves touching it…” 

Spike put down the paper and stood up. Walking over to the site of her experiments, he picked up one of the few remaining pills that had not been analysed or taken apart. It looked normal. A regular red and white pill. But the damage it could do… 
“Twilight…” Spike tried to interrupt. 

“Maybe he was right, Spike. Maybe I don’t play a part in all this. He’s the one trying out there. All I did was trail behind sloppily and figure out stuff long after he already did. He can probably save everypony by himself… however he does it.” 
“Twilight.” He again, this time a bit louder. 

“Maybe I should just go to bed. By morning he’ll have probably-“

“Twilight!” 

Twilight jumped as Spike’s yells broke through to her head. She turned around to see what was the matter. “What is it, Spike?”

“Twilight… are you… casting a spell? Like, right now?” His eyes jumped from Twilight’s eyes to her horn and back again.  

Twilight gave him a curious look. “What? Of course not. I’m not doing anything.”

“But… your horn’s glowing.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “What? Are you sure?” Spike nodded his head. She couldn’t believe it. “But… b-but I’m not feeling anything…”

“It’s not your normal purpley… uh... glow.” 

Twilight was beginning to get irritated. “Well then what colour is it? I can’t see it!”

“It’s… it’s yellow.” 

“What!?” Twilight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Yellow. Just like Applejack…” she whispered.

Spike took a step towards Twilight. When he did so, he noticed another glow. This time, it was coming from his own hands. The pill he held in his hands glowed a spooky yellow; identical to the one surrounding Twilight’s horn. He stared at the lit up little drug and became curious. He had a thought… He came a bit closer to the increasingly confused mare. When he did, both the horn and the pill’s bright light grew exponentially. Twilight noticed this as well.

“What the hay?” Spike said, just as confused as Twilight. “What’s going on?”

“I… I’m not exactly sure. But think I can figure it out. When I visited Applejack, she had these crazy glowy yellow eyes.”
“So did Rainbow Dash.”

“She was being controlled. She attacked us without mercy. I couldn’t get her to stop so I performed a mind bridging spell I connected our minds and broke the control. I felt what she felt.  A foreign energy all over her. I think that’s when some of the energy must have… seeped… into my mind. That’s why I got so angry earlier!”

“And this pill… contains the same energy?” Spike said, doing a surprisingly well job keeping up. 

“Yes! I was looking for any unknown energy. I didn’t find anything specific because the energy technically wasn’t unknown. I knew what it was, but I didn’t!”

“What.”

“If I can somehow… connect with the energy within me with a spell…” Twilight closed her eyes. She had performed a lot of magic spells in her time, but none her ever so fragile and important to control than this one. She breathed rhythmically, keeping her magic in focus. 

Spike held his breath as he watched her horn glow even brighter, along with the pill. 

Twilight reached deep inside herself and allowed the energy to seep around her. She focused on gathering it in a controlled manner.  She had to make sure the foreign energy inside her did not escape control. She didn’t want to end up like Applejack. She could not. She felt the power inside her. It was amazing. Such raw power. It was nothing she knew. She could do a lot of damage with this kind of power in her command… 

…which was why she had to focus on keeping it in control! It took all of her strength no to succumb to its tempting power. She began to feel weary from exerting all this effort… But it was worth it. 

Kra-KOWWW!

With an incredible bang and a sharp crack, Twilight’s horn discharged the built up energy. A large bolt of yellow electricity shot out from her horn, tracing an invisible path up the stairs and out of the library. Spike was shocked from this revelation. Literally. The pill exploded in his hand, scaring him and making him fall on his bum. 

Twilight felt an immense relief. Like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She felt a lot better. Her mind was clear and she understood things clearer as well. Without the interference of the yellow magic, she could hear something. It felt… like something was calling to her. She had felt it before, when she first met the Doctor. She couldn’t explain it. It was like she was supposed to follow him and go to the pharmacy. Not just for her sake, but he needed her too. She wasn’t useless. She could still help. It wasn’t too late. She opened her eyes. 

“What the heck was that?” Spike said, rubbing his sore bum.  

“The energy has returned to its point of origin.” Twilight said, her voice brimming with newfound confidence. “Spike. I’m going to help the Doctor.”

…

The sun had already set when Twilight reached the pharmacy. Nopony was outside anyways, as she noticed earlier, so she did not need to wear her sneaking suit this time. Pinkie and Spike had declined to join her on her little excursion, the former sick with a belly ache. How could that have happened? Spike said he would watch over both Rainbow and Pinkie. His words of encouragement rang in her ears as she stealthily snuck across the wall of the building. 

She observed the entire rear side of the building, looking for any point of entry. To her surprise, there was absolutely none. No windows, no doors, nothing. Just a tall wall of flat stone. What kind of place was this? As she walked along, she did eventually see something in the wall. It was a door!

Twilight was no master at lock picking, but she would have to do whatever was necessary to break into…

…an open door. Twilight hesitated, wondering why they would have an open door, completely unguarded. Was it a trap? Did they want her to come in and get captured? Was the Doctor already captured? Twilight shook these doubts from her mind. Even if it was a trap, she had no choice. She was certain she and the Doctor could handle anything. She’d be fine. She always came out fine…

Easing her way into the doorway, Twilight watched for any signs of guards or ponies that could blow her cover. If they could create ‘Salvation’, who knew what they could do to her? It was dark. If she was lucky, there would be nopony around, making her job swift and easy. But in reality, there would probably be at least a couple of guards or pharmacists staying overtime. 
“Okay. First, find out where the Doctor went.” Twilight thought. As she made her way deeper into the pharmacy, she soon discovered that it was a task easier said than done. This place was huge! There were tons of offices and room after room of labs and tech rooms, probably where they researched and produced the drug. Strangely enough, every single one was empty. No signs of any guards or the Doctor. She started to wish she’d run into somepony, anypony! A guard or at least a pharmacist. Then mybe she could pry some information out of-

THUD

Mmff!!

What was that? Twilight stopped mid thought. She didn’t make a sound. Had somepony heard her/ Was it a guard on duty? Was a pharmacist going home? Could it be the Doctor? She perked her ears to try and listen for it again, but nothing came. Nothing but serene silence. Maybe her ears were playing tricks on her… Wait! There it was again! It sounded like a muffled thud. It came from down the next hall. Twilight silently tiptoed down the corridor. She kept her eyes peeled for any traps or ambushes. The last thing she wanted was to come all this way just to get caught. 

BANG BANG BANG

Twilight pressed herself flat against the wall. She strained to hear what it was. It sounded like someone was hitting something. Could it be a hammer? Some kind of construction? No, probably not. It was more like… kicking? Whatever it was, it was just up in the next room. Although unarmed, Twilight confident she could handle whatever was in there. She eased open the door. 

Twilight let out a breath she didn’t even know he was holding when she realized there as nopony there. The room itself was void of life, or so it seemed. At first, she didn’t notice anything important. It was a lounge of sorts. A few potted plants, a couple couches, a painting or two... it was rather quaint. Then she caught something move out of the corner of her eye. She saw it was only a large cabinet in the corner of the room. Looked like it could hold clothes or spare lab equipment… or even a pony? Twilight didn’t want to overlook anything, so she decided to investigate. As she inspected the large wooden box, Twilight thought she heard something. Just then, the box moved! It jumped a bit, like something inside it had moved! There was something in there! 

She didn’t know what she would find, but it was all she had to go on. Keeping her distance, Twilight readied her magic to open the wooden latch. She prepared herself for whatever disgusting creature or dangerous monster might come out of there. A surprise attack by a sneaky pony? Another parasprite perhaps? Or maybe even- 

“Whoa-ah! Oof!” 

…the Doctor. 

The tan spiky haired pony tumbled out of the cabinet, startling Twilight. He fell to the ground with a grunt. He looked dizzy, but shook his head and quickly regained himself. “Ugh. That’s one box that’s definitely not bigger on the inside.” he said, standing up. 

Once Twilight realized who it was that had fallen out of the cabinet, she was unsure whether to be glad and confused. She was glad she had found him, but what the heck was he doing in that box? “Doctor?”

The Doctor looked to see who had released him from his wooden prison. “Twilight! You decided to come after all? I knew you’d come around!” he gave her a cheery grin. 

“Yeah… Um, what were you doing in that cabinet?” she asked. 

The Doctor hesitated with his response. “Oh… well. Yes. The cabinet…” he kept looking back and forth between Twilight and wooden fixture. “Um… I was checking… for secret compartments!” he fibbed terribly. “No hidden doors in there!”
“Somepony locked you in there didn’t they?” Twilight said with a sly grin. 

The Doctor took a page from Spike. “Hey, I was busy looking when somepony came and shut the door. I was just about to make a miraculous escape before you opened it!” 

Twilight sighed. “So… other than that there no secret compartments in this box, what else have you found?” 
“Surprisingly, not much.” he said more in a tone of seriousness, “As I’m sure you’re aware, there are literally hundreds of rooms in this place, but there are no ponies around. No guards, no scientists, nothing. Nopony is here to keep up the façade of a pharmacy.” As he spoke he began looking around the room. 

“Yeah, I noticed that too- Wait, façade?” Twilight inquired, “But we know this drug is real. Where else could it have come from?” 

The Doctor gave an amused smile. “Don’t you remember what I said earlier?”

“Oh. Right. Aliens.” Twilight said flatly. 

“And I even have a hunch which ones it might be. The problem is I can’t seem to find anything to prove me right. There’s nothing around here. No factory, no production facilities, no aliens…” 

As the Doctor carried on, Twilight sighed and took a seat in one of the chairs. She was getting tired. She had a busy day and needed to sit. “Ugh. Doctor, look around you! There are tons of rooms that they could have made it.” she paused for a moment before bringing up a good point. “Why don’t you just use your blue device thingy to find it? That’s how you found pretty much everything else…”

“Sonic Screwdriver. And I know. That’s why I’m not. Using it, I mean. I’ve been relying on it too much recently and I want to see if I can do this bit on my own. I don’t want it to be the solution to all my problems. I’m cleverer than that.” He bent down to check the plant by the door, just in case of a hidden switch or something. 

Twilight put a hoof to her head. “We just need to think this through. Think think think…” She lost her train of thought as she relaxed more in the chair. It was quite possibly the best chair she had sat in, even better than her custom made one from Canterlot. It gave great support. And it was so soft… like clouds.  

“Mm. This chair is comfy. Why don’t you take a seat, Doctor?” Twilight patted the chair next to her.  

The Doctor stopped and picked his head up. “Wait? What did you just say?” He turned around. 

“I said you should sit. When was the last time you took a rest?” Twilight was beginning to become concerned with how active he seemed to be. 

The Doctor shook his head. “No no no… Before that. The chair.”

“I said the chair was comfy?” Like usual, Twilight had no clue what the Doctor was talking about. 

“Yes! That part. It’s a very comfortable chair?” He walked over to said chair. “One that supports your lower back and is soft as a cloud?”

Twilight had a blank face. He was absolutely spot-on. She blinked. “How did you…?”

The Doctor interrupted her and just inspected the chair. “Twilight you sat down in those chairs in the hospital the other day, correct?”

“What?” Now he was taking about those chairs? What was his problem, did he have a seat fetish? “Uh, yeah… Yeah, I did. ” Twilight got up off her incredibly comfy chair to see just what the Doctor was doing. He looked it over, but he did not touch the chair. To Twilight, it didn’t look heavy, yet he did not try to pick it up or anything. He just looked at it. 

“As far as I can tell, these chairs are the exact same as the ones in the hospital, and I can tell you, They were the single most uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat on. And coming from me, that’s saying something.”

“Yet this chair…” the Doctor finally began to put his hooves on it. He felt its cushiony seat and its wooden legs. “This chair is not from earth.”

At those words, Twilight snapped. She had had enough. She thought that they could just brush the alien claims aside to focus on the task at hand, but apparently not. Apparently he wanted to drive this claim into the ground. Well now she wanted to give him a piece of her mind. 

“Doctor! You can’t keep saying that this is aliens!! This entire time you’ve been claiming extraterrestrial life forms are behind this whole thing, yet to fail to provide a single shred of evidence other than unexplainable circumstances and conjuncture. Now you want me to believe that because a chair is COMFORTABLE, it’s alien technology!?” 

The Doctor ignored her outburst and calmly proceeded to tip the chair. Tipping it towards himself seemed to serve no purpose other than a click. Click? Twilight watched as when the Doctor tipped the chair, the cabinet in the corner, along with the rest of a good portion of the wall, opened inwards, revealing a secret passageway. 

The Doctor stood up and smiled at his handiwork. “Well, if you’re quite finished, I’d like to explore this non-existent tunnel. Cheery-o!” 

He walked off without another word down the staircase in the tunnel, disappearing from sight. A split second later, Twilight snapped out of her trance and realized he had left her behind. 

“Hey! Wait for me!”

> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle didn’t know what she wanted to do to the Doctor. She was stuck between the choices of giving him credit where due, or bucking his face in. He was so deserving of both that it was hard to choose. Perhaps both were the best option. She’d have to get to that later. 

The two ponies were rather quiet as they descended the long and winding staircase. Nothing to Twilight seemed very strange or ‘alien’ about the tunnel itself. The walls and stairs were mostly metal; the walls eventually became rock as they made their way further down. Nothing seemed too strange. Maybe the Doctor was wrong? Maybe it was an elaborate cover.  

“So, Doctor… where do you think we’re going?” Twilight asked. 

The Doctor looked at her like she had just dribbled on herself. “Down a hidden flight of stairs in a pharmacy, of course.” 

Twilight mentally facehoofed. She walked right into that one. “…of course. And at the end of the stairs?”

“Oh. Probably the real production facility.” He said calmly. 

“Real production- So now you’re saying that the entire huge building up there is entirely pointless?” 

“No, not pointless. It’s a façade, remember?” He was beginning to wonder if she was paying attention to anything at all. “If you want to make people think you made drugs and medicine, you’d need them to think it was in a large place. That way you can hide the real production of it down here.”

Twilight shook her head in disbelief. “And all those labs and rooms... all for a cover up!?” 

The Doctor nodded. Now she was getting it. “Whoever did all this really wanted to keep it hidden. It’s a very good effort. Really. Could fool almost anyone. But they didn’t account for one thing.”

Twilight didn’t know how much more of this she could take, but she asked anyway, “What’s that?” 

The Doctor smiled. “Me.”

As they walked, Twilight thought about all she knew up to this point. If this was supposed to be the end, she wanted to be sure she was ready and knew everything. She didn’t know what would be important to know. She liked to be prepared. The drug, the missing cutie marks, the mind control, the aspirin, the strange energy… She made some connections and realized that quite a few things still didn’t make sense to her. Like, how did they use a mind control spell? Why didn’t her magic work against the yellow energy when it was present? And where did the parasprite come from anyway? As much as she tried to think about it, she couldn’t come up with any reasonable solution.  

She knew what the Doctor would say about her questions: ‘Aliens’ this and ‘wibbley-wobbley ’ that. Besides, she could figure it out herself later. Probably. So she tried to avoid that sort of nonsense and simply asked him what he had been up to today. She wanted to know if there was anything important she missed. So they passed the time by telling what had happened to them that day. After sharing surprisingly similar stories about angry ponies yellow glowing eyes and strange energy, the Doctor had some of his own questions for Twilight. 

“Why does your bathroom have such a thick door and lock anyway?”

Twilight blushed at the memory that required her to install such a heavy door. “Well… let’s just say that no matter what Rainbow Dash says, her flight skills do not improve when there’s alcohol involved. Nor does her knowledge of the word ‘privacy’.” She didn’t really want to get into detail.

The Doctor stifled a laugh. “And this happens often?”

“Enough for me to get that door in place.” Twilight said disgruntled. She awaited another snappy comeback from the tan pony, but she heard nothing. In fact, she didn’t even hear hoof steps anymore. The Doctor had stopped. They were here. 

A large metal door at the end of a hallway stood between the two ponies and the truth behind this whole thing. The Doctor pressed his ear against it, listening for something. It appeared locked shut, but Twilight knew firsthand that wouldn’t be a problem for the Doctor and his sonic screwdriver. If he wanted to get into a place somewhere, he darn well got in there. Even as he worked on said door, Twilight still could not tell exactly where he took the device out from. It seemed to appear out of thin air. Maybe he’d been conversing with Pinkie at some point… 

“Well, Twilight.” The Doctor said, having finished with the door. “Are you ready to see the real deal? Actual alien laboratories! Most earth ponies don’t get this privilege!” He seemed just as excited as Pinkie would. 

Twilight nodded so he would open it already. “Yeah. I’m sure it’ll be great. By the way, I'm a unicorn, not an earth pony.”  

He looked back at her. "I know. I meant...ponies...from earth." he said sheepishly. 

She just wanted him to get on with it. The Doctor was unsatisfied with Twilight’s attitude. The whole time she was being a party pooper. But, having no choice but to go forward, he opened the doors. 

The atmosphere of the place was dark. Literally. The walls and ceiling were completely blackened. Despite the green lights and blinky switches scattered about, it was rather difficult to see. As her eyes adjusted, Twilight could make out some things on the walls. Machines and strange decorations littered the walls. Cables and wires hung from the ceiling in disarray, as if it had been hastily put together. If Twilight didn’t know any better, she’d say they were in……an alien spaceship. 

The Doctor kept his sunny deposition. “Oh. Lovely home they have here. It’s very…” he paused to find the right word, but all he could say was, “…dark.”

“No kidding.” Twilight scoffed. She tried to see if there was anything at all to look at, but all she saw was hallway after hallway, all intertwined like a maze. That, coupled with the darkness made the place very desolate and lonesome. She didn’t like it. 

“Twilight, this way.” The Doctor said, heading down one specific corridor.   

“Why? What is it?”

“I’m feeling… a magic power.” He tried to explain what he felt, but it wasn’t easy to say. 

Twilight scoffed at this. “Yeah. No duh. I bet this place is teeming with that weird yellow magic. Who knows what creepy stuff has gone on in here?” She imagined all the cruel experiments and ideas that must have happened to produce a working version of ‘Salvation’. She shuddered. 

The Doctor shook his head, “It’s not that kind of magic. It’s normal pony magic.”

…

A large tube. That was the most basic shape Twilight could make of it. A big tube with a door. Some type of chamber. It was grey and blue with many other tubes and cables hooked up to it. Beside that chamber stood another chamber. And another. And another. Rows of odd looking tube shaped chambers stood against the wall. To the left of the farthest one stood a computer looking terminal. All of the chambers were linked to it, like a master control panel. 

“What are those things?” asked Twilight, “They look like big batteries.”

“They’re holding the magic…” The Doctor said, “These things have pony magic in them.”

Twilight walked up to one of the pods. Only this close did she noticed there was a rather thick layer of dust on them. They hadn’t been touched in a long time. She wiped off the front of one of the chambers and peered inside the glass window. She took a step back and gasped. “Doctor… Doctor come see this!”

The Doctor looked inside a pod as well. His reaction, however, was slightly different than Twilight’s. “Oh… Aren’t you all just so cute asleep. So harmless and peaceful.” He said, smiling. “Long time no see, guys.” 

Inside the pods, sitting curled up, lay a red pony. It lay dormant and looked asleep. It looked not much different than Twilight herself, or any other pony, except that his mane and his coat were a bright fiery red. In fact, all of the pods held these strange red ponies. All looked exactly the same. Twilight was both frightened and confused. “Doctor… who, or what, are they?”

The Doctor kept smiling while he held a hoof up to the pods. “Twilight, meet the Asht’k!”

“What!? What are… Kash tic?” Twilight asked, even though she already knew the answer. 

“Asht’k.’ he corrected her. “They’re an alien race, of course. I’ll try to summarize what I know.”

He took a breath. “The Asht’k live far off in the Leeson 0 galaxy. They are very similar to you ponies in more ways than one; however their one main difference is how they run. Not literally, mind you, but rather where their energy and life comes from: Magic! See, their sun doesn’t burn like your sun. It burns magic, sending magical energy down on their planet for all the little Asht’k people to enjoy. It’s their life energy. Without it, they would starve and die.” He said the last part with a bit too much enthusiasm.  

Twilight tried not to listen to this drabble but found she had nothing else to do. Maybe once he got it off his chest, he’d shut up. But the more Twilight listened, the more it seemed to make sense and explain what was going on. Ponies that feed from magic? That seemed… like a plausible reason to steal magic. 

"Also, they're red. Really red." he added. He turned back to the pods. “This technology is old. Very old. Last time I saw them, they had much more advanced stuff, that’s why I didn’t recognize this!” 

Twilight still didn’t know what was going on. And yet… she did. She shook her head, “Doctor… if what you’re saying is true, then why did they come to earth? Why all this way? Why take ponies’ magic when they have a sun of their own?” 

The Doctor closed his eyes in thought. “The last questions. Once those are answered, we can act.” 

Twilight didn't know what to think anymore. Her talk with Spike had her believing that there was something else amiss about this whole thing, but she still didn’t want to believe it was aliens. And yet… The evidence was piling up and she was running out of explanations. The empty building, the hidden stairwell, the strange labs, the pods with ‘aliens’ in them… More and more she wished it was all some elaborate prank, but more and more she felt that it was true...

Aliens. She wanted so much to deny they existed, and here she was looking right at one. Throughout this whole thing, Twilight wanted to think that the Doctor was being silly for believing in aliens. But as things happened, as things were revealed, she began to change. Slowly, she began to feel as though it was her who was being silly.  

“Come here.” The Doctor had already skedaddled off and was examining something. It was the terminal on the far left. He motioned over for Twilight to see. 

Twilight gave in and checked out what had captured the Doctor’s attentions this time. He was looking at a computer monitor that was atop the terminal. She bent down to get a better look. From what Twilight could see, it showed a bunch of garbled nonsense and random symbols. Wait… She recognized some of those symbols. Upon closer inspection, she discovered they were similar to the symbols that were on the paper the Doctor had shown her when they first met. The strange energy readings… 

The Doctor typed away at the keyboard underneath the screen. His hooves moved lightning fast and his brain worked even faster. He mumbled under his breath. “So… you’re harvesting the magic from the ponies… but where are you storing it all?”

Finally, she had to ask. “Doctor, what’s going on?” 

Without taking his eyes off the screen, he explained. “All the magic that’s being stolen... it’s being taken down here. It’s in here… but not all of it. There are records of magic being harvested, and then some is split off into these stasis pods. But only some of it. The rest… is gone.”  

Just then, Twilight had a stroke of realization. “Wait! You said they feed off of magic, right? What if that magic is going towards the Asht’k themselves? To feed them?”

The Doctor smiled. She took the bait. “Clever. You’re catching on.” He stood back up straight. “So the Asht’k have created a drug that steals magic from ponies for them to feed on. The magic being drained keeps their cutie mark and special talent in them. No magic, no cutie marks.”

“And no talent.”

Twilight’s ears fell back against her head and her face turned into one of worry when she saw somepony standing there beyond the open door they came through. He was a fiery red all over and was rather tall. He had a very stiff smile spread across his pony face. He wore a white lab coat and stood firm, making him rather intimidating. 

Twilight wanted to run or fight back or do something. But the Doctor did not move. He stood his ground. 

“We’ve been expecting you Doctor.” The pony said. His voice was deep and serious. Twilight thought he looked like some kind of leader, given his important looking and large stature. Normally, Twilight was not known for passing early judgements or making hasty assumptions, but she instantly did not like this guy. Not one bit. 

The Doctor flashed them a toothy grin. “Oh good. You know my name. That’ll save us time. As for her, this is Twilight Sparkle.” The Doctor motioned towards the mare behind him. 

“We know who you are. And we know why you’re here.”

The Doctor just continued to smile. “Well, aren’t you just on the ball today! We’ll be going ahead of schedule at this rate.” 

The red pony showed he did not like to be patronized and frowned at the Doctor. With this guy, something as simple as frowning looked scary. “Come with me. You are now our prisoners. Any resistance will be met with swift and painful discipline.”

“Right! Let’s get going.” He began walking towards the red pony leader. He turned back to Twilight, who stood in place, frozen with both fear and confusion. “Come on, Twilight. Didn’t you hear? We’re prisoners, now.” He smiled, making Twilight all the more uneasy. 

“No! Doctor, I’m not going with him!” Twilight kicked her front hoof on the ground and got in a fighting stance, not unlike Rainbow Dash earlier. Her horn began to glow. 

The Doctor saw this and immediately tried to stop her. “Ah, no Twilight. Don’t do that.”

Twilight was going to fight anyways. “Doctor, get back!” He was still standing between her and her target. 
“No, really. You can’t do that!” The Doctor warned her. 

“Just watch me!” Twilight thrust her horn forward, trying to fire a blast of magic at the pony behind them. But all that happened was a pitiful little spark and a short circuit of magic. Her horn fizzled out until her glow disappeared completely. 

“Huh?”

The tall red pony smiled again. “Nice try.” 

The Doctor just looked on with remorse as the red pony stood walked up beside Twilight and locked her in place with his yellow magic. She couldn’t move on her own. Just as he promised, Twilight was dealt a punishment. Sharp pains rocketed through her body as he electrocuted her for a moment. It was only an instant, but enough to get Twilight to cooperate. With the red pony leading the group, they walked out of the room. 

…

Twilight could hardly tell what was going on anymore. Her day started out so nicely. Just a quick run to the store to pick up some drugs. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Then she ran into Pinkie Pie… And that’s when things turned sour. Fluttershy’s cabin, the whole Applejack ordeal… the failed drug tests, the sneaking around… and now… she was a prisoner? Her magic didn’t work. Just like the parasprite. And Applejack… What was going on? 

The group of ponies and aliens walked through the lonely hallways at a steady pace. Twilight took the time to ask the Doctor about these strange occurrences regarding her magic.

“Doctor, what is going on? Why doesn’t my magic work?”

The Doctor hesitated to give his response. ”Yeah. I guess have some explaining to do. Twilight, remember how I said they were similar to regular ponies? That means they can use magic too… in a sense. It’s not the same as yours, however. I mean, it’s not more powerful, but it does cancel it out.”

“How? How does it cancel it out? I have the strongest magic of anypony I know, save for the Alicorns.” she said, giving herself an undauntedly amount of credit, even though even Celestia herself thought it to be true. 

The Doctor thought for a moment and came up with the best explanation. “It’s like rock paper scissors.” 

Despite his perfect analogy of Equestrian magic to Asht’k magic, this only succeeded in confusing Twilight. “What? That makes no sense.”

He looked down at her hooves. “Oh right. I Forgot. No fingers.” He smiled at his own ignorance. “Anyway, the point is you can’t use your magic when theirs is nearby. It cancels out at varying levels, but it’s still technically more powerful.”

“That’s why it didn’t work on Applejack…?” Twilight thought. If she couldn’t rely on her magic to help her out here, then what good was she? The Doctor seemed to be up to date on everything. Her intellect and knowledge was useless. She began to feel queasy again. 

The group entered into another room. It was a rectangular shape with the farthest wall covered in monitors and computers. The side walls looked similar in that they had large machines and cables running along them. It was well lit compared to the rest of the place, but everything in it was still black. Not that there was much to see anyways, because at the moment, the place as mostly empty. For a second, Twilight didn’t recognize the room. Then, she had a feeling that she had been in a similar place… 

In the center stood another red pony. An Asht’k, Twilight presumed. He also wore a lab coat, identical to the taller red one. Unlike his companion however, his mane was a mess of spikes. It reminded her of the Doctor’s spiky hair… only crazier. He was also noticeably shorter. 

Tall red saluted his apparent superior. “Here are the intruders, sir. As you requested.” 

The crazy haired pony smiled stiffly. “Good. Dismissed.”

But the other pony did not move from his spot. He just stood there with a straight face. The two Asht’k just stared at each other. There was a strange tension in the air as nopony said anything. Twilight, still locked by the yellow magic, looked between the two red ponies. The Doctor said nothing as well.  Eventually, their serious faces cracked into smiles and their smiles broke into wide grin. So enough, they couldn’t hold it anymore and broke out into laughter. They laughed and laughed and laughed. Twilight was now more confused than when they were silent. She just looked at them with shock and disbelief. 

Finally, the pony in the middle of the room spoke. “I’m sorry… I can’t keep this up! The-the look on your faces…!” he said, trying to breathe. 

“Haw Haw Haw! Hoo… That’s good.” The other said, holding his stomach. 

After a few more chuckles, the Doctor decided to cut in. “Well, I know laughter is supposedly the best medicine,” he said with an amused smile, “but if you two are finished…”

Messy hair guy nodded and waved a hoof in the air. “Yes yes, you’re right. We have so much to discuss, good Doctor.” His voice was just as cheery as a certain pink party pony.

Twilight couldn't take it anymore. This was just becoming more an more confusing and she wanted answers. Pushing the thoughts about aliens aside, she spoke up, “Hey! Why try to be all serious if you weren’t going to be like that the whole time? What was the point?” It did seem rather pointless and more of a hassle to her. 

Crazy mane, as Twilight now called him, explained it to her. “Think of it this way: I don’t think you would go along with someone that looks like me if I just asked, now would you? You wouldn’t be intimidated to go with us, would you?” He added an eye twitch to go with the creepy smile. 

Twilight paused. “Well… no, but.”

“She wasn’t intimidated anyways. Had to hold her down.” Tall red explained. 

“Ah. I see. Well, it worked for the Doctor at least! Oh, you can let her go now, by the way.” 

The pony holding Twilight with his magic nodded and released her. She shook her head and stretched her legs in relief of being able to move freely. 

“You’ll have to excuse my friend.” The Doctor said looking like he suddenly was on their side. “She’s not as... quick to catch on. Not like someone I know who’s just skipping all the unnecessary introductions.”

Crazy mane smiled. “Yes, I suppose so. Well, if it makes her happy, I’ll spell everything out for her. Starting from the beginning…”

“It worked.” the Doctor thought. Being friendly and on their level got them to explain their plans and intentions much easier and quicker. Maybe Pinkie was right. Maybe they could finish in only ten chapters. 

“Please, sit. Be comfy. We heard how much you like our chairs.” Crazy mane motioned to a set of chairs that had appeared out of the floor. A table and another chair came up as well. Once everypony had been seated and was comfortable, he began his tale. 

“Many years ago, we lived on our home planet that circled our magical sun. It was a happy and peaceful time. Our sun burned magic for all of us Asht’k to enjoy. Then, one day, our brightest scientists predicted that our sun was going to burn itself out. Well if that didn’t just rustle all of our jimmies! Mass panic and chaos filled the people of our world and everything went to hell.”

“Isn’t that just a shame.” The Doctor said. 

“That’s what I said!” Crazy mane agreed, “Then, we had an idea. We would send out our bravest and smartest scientists to go on an expedition to find a new source of magic. We still had time. We still might evacuate to a new place. We could still make it.” He dropped his voice low in sorrow. “but…”

“You never found any.” 

“Right-o! We looked and looked and looked. But there was nothing. We couldn’t just use any magic, you know. It has to be compatible. Our reserve magic was getting low and we all were very tired. So tired… We put ourselves in stasis pods to reserves magic and set our course the most magical source we could detect. Did you know that compatible magic REALLY hard to find? We drifted for such a long time.”

“And that’s how you found earth…?”

“Yup. Not the best place I would have chosen, in my opinion. Little too weird around here. But beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.”

“Oy! This planet’s lovely. It’s your taste that’s weird.” The Doctor stood up for the little blue rock that was third from the normal fiery sun. He happened to like it very much. 

Crazy mane shrugged. “Sure. Anyways, we found that this planet was rich with magically energy! It was perfect. Not quite the same as ours, but compatible nonetheless. But… it was not in the sun, nor the planet itself.”

“It was in the ponies that inhabited it.” the Doctor said. 

Crazy mane rest his chin on his hoof and his elbow on the table. “The trouble was… how do we get the magic out of them? We couldn’t take it out, just like that. Doing it physically didn’t work. All we got was a big mess.”

Twilight cringed at the thought. She listened to the story as well as she could, but the thoughts of all the horrible things they did crept up on her. It took all she had not to buck the two aliens right then and there. 

“Well, we were the brightest and bravest scientist, were we not? Surely we could find a way to harvest the magic!”

“So you invented ‘Salvation’.”

Crazy mane smiled just as crazily as his mane. “The rest is history as they say!”

Twilight interrupted to voice her opinion. “But… what about the mind control? Where does that come in? And the parasprite?” She felt she was still missing a bit of this story.  

Crazy mane chuckled. “Oh yeah. Those. Remember how I said it wasn’t quite the same magic? Well, the special talent and cutie marks were the difference. When we took the magic, we gained the talents! Ahahaha!” he began laughing for no reason. “A talent in cooking, a specialty in flying, uniqueness in apples, they were all given to us to use! So naturally we experimented with new techniques. Did you know that mixing certain spells can take little fuzzy balls and turn them into monsters? Funny stuff.”

"And then you had to try out that old teleportation spell you found..." Tall red said sarcastically. 

“Wait! Doctor, you said it was all sciencey stuff! You said that’s why my magic didn’t-“ Her words drifted off, never to be completed through her mouth as they were completed in her head. He lied. It wasn’t sciencey-wiencey. It was alien magic all along!

“I’m sorry, Twilight.” He said honestly. “I lied because I didn’t think you’d believe me.”

Crazy mane ignored them and continued. “As for the mind control… er, Twilit, was it?”

“Twilight Sparkle.” She corrected him. The more she talked to him, the less she liked him. 

“Yes, Twilight... Let me put it this way. When you dig, other than dirt, what do you get from it?”

Was it a trick question? What was he talking about now? Digging? Well, when you dig, you have… 

“A hole?” she said slowly. 

“Yes. And what can you put into that hole?”

Ignoring the dirty implications of how that sentence was worded, Twilight thought for a moment. “Well. Pretty much anything you wanted?” 

“Including our own mind control dirt!” Crazy mane smiled at his perfect analogy.

Twilight had no idea what to say to that. She just sat there with a blank expression. She blinked. 

The Doctor leaned forward towards Crazy mane. “Yeah… analogies don’t really work…” he whispered to him. 

Crazy mane sighed, seeing that he would have to explain further. “Well, after we took out the magic, we found we could out our own brand of magic in their as a token of thanks! Who knew it would happen to control their minds? So, I controlled the one in the library and had some fun.”

Tall red spoke up from behind Crazy mane. “And I controlled the one in the bedroom!”

Again, ignoring the dirty implications of how that sentence was worded, Twilight realized what this meant. When she was dealing with Applejack, it was the Asht’k that were inside her and trying to kill her. 

“So… I connected with your mind?” Twilight shuddered. She felt like she had to take a shower to wash away the unsavory feeling of having bridged minds with the likes of him. Pass the brain bleach… 

“Let me just say… trying to get me outta there by using the power of love…?” Tall red said nothing for a second then broke down laughing like he had done earlier. He laughed uncontrollably as he fell to the floor. It was then that Twilight recognized something: his laugh was the same as Applejack’s when she was under the mind control! The sight of this pony disgusted her. 

“So, let me get this straight.” The Doctor spoke up. He stood up and began to walk around the table.  “Your people were starving without magic. Terrible tragedy. What are you to do? You look around for a little bit for more magic. Become heroes for your world. Great idea. I can respect that much.”

Crazy mane smiled at his flattery.

Then, the Doctor’s face became serious. “Then, you find a planet with ponies that have magic. And you decide to take their magic from them. But, did you ever stop to think about how the ponies of this world felt about that? Stealing their essential life energy, cause let me tell you, it is not a pleasant experience. You may literally live off of magic, but to these ponies, magic is a part of life. I will not stand by idly while you essentially kill innocent ponies just to feed!” His voice rose in a frightening manner. At this, Tall red stopped laughing. Even Twilight was shaken by it. 

The Doctor noticed this and calmed down. He became very solemn when he spoke again. “Listen. I know this will be hard for you, but what you said, about your planet in danger…  I know about that. That was thousands of years ago. Your sun has already burnt out. They’re already gone. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Both Asht’k went silent. Their previous attitudes of light heartedness were gone. The reality of the situation set in. “I see. I know you are telling the truth, Doctor. We were going to stock up on all the magic and take it home. We were going to save the world…” the Doctor could hear the sadness in his voice. 

“I know. You were just trying to help your people, but your people are gone. There’s nothing you can do for them…but I can still help you. I can find you a new planet to get magic. I can find you a place to live as the last of the Asht’k in peace. Let me help you.”

Neither Asht’k said anything for a while. They looked at each other. Then, Crazy mane spoke. “The last of the Asht’k. The last of our people. The last of our kind. You know that feeling all too well. Don’t you, Doctor?” 

The Doctor said nothing. 

Crazy mane leaned in closer and smiled. “Yes. We know about you, Doctor. We may have been cut off from our planet, but we knew about you long before then…” The two ponies were inches apart when crazy mane whispered, “…the last of the timelords.”

Finally, the Doctor “It’s not easy. Being the last of your kind. I know. But it is possible to get through. You just have to be strong and move on.”

Crazy mane smiled and shook his head. “Sorry, Doctor. You might be strong enough to, but we’re obviously not. No, I think we’ll just stay here and take all the magic we want. They can’t stop us. They can’t even use their magic against us, isn’t that right, Twilight?” 

Twilight said nothing. She just glared at them with a hate filled expression. Tall red smiled even more. The Doctor walked back around to Twilight’s side of the table. 

Crazy mane turned his attention to her tan pony friend as he walked. “And then there’s you, Doctor. As fantastic as you are, there’s nothing you can do either.” 

He smiled at this. “Oh? Can’t I?” he retorted, confidence brimming in his voice. “Of course, knowing so much about me, you must know about my trusty sonic screwdriver?”

Both Asht’k smiled. “Ha! Nice try. The only reason that worked in the library was because my connection had been weakened by the physical abuse! It won’t work on me directly!”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “Oh, believe me I know. But you know what’s cool? Even though it’s a ‘sonic’ screwdriver, it has a ‘silent’ setting.”

As ‘crazy’ Crazy mane seemed to live up to his given nickname, if there was something he was not, it was stupid. At the Doctor’s words of confidence, his eyes widened. He knew that something was going to happen, and whatever it was, he was not going to like it. 

Now that the final questions had been answered, the Doctor decided to act. When he had finished his sentence, he quickly got down and grabbed hold of the newly unscrewed table and pushed up with all his might. Because the bolts had now been removed, the table moved easily an was subsequently flipped on top of the two Asht’k.

CRASH!

“Run!”

Twilight didn’t need to be told twice and high tailed it out of there, followed post haste by the Doctor. Both Asht’k scrambled to get the table off of them. “Stop! Get them!”

…

Twilight and the Doctor didn’t stop running until Twilight thought her heart was going to explode. She followed closely behind the Doctor as he made many twists and turns throughout the underground labs. Finally, they stopped inside what Twilight thought looked like a broom closet. A rather large broom closet, but a broom closet nonetheless. While Twilight caught her breath, the Doctor listened at the door for their pursuers. When he couldn’t hear anything, he turned back to Twilight.

“What are we gonna do? They’re gonna steal the magic from everypony in town unless we stop them!”

“I know, I know, I know!” The Doctor said, pacing around. They both tried to think of what to do before the Asht'k found them. Who knew what they would do with them? "We've got to be careful. As normal of ponies as they might seem, they're are extremely insane. The lack of real Asht'k sun magic has messed with their minds and I don't think the pony magic helped any."

"Yeah. one minute they'e polite and charming, next they're trying to kill you in cold blood."

"They have no real concept of appropriate responses anymore; everything is criss-crossed and that makes them very dangerous."

"You can say that again."

“Okay, here’s the plan. I’ll use a Hyper Sonic Disrupter to scramble the frequencies of their harvester and reverse the polarity, effectively destroying it. Meanwhile, I need you to catch those Asht’k in a clever and cunning magical trap.” He said, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing. “Only three flaws, far as I can see: 1, I don’t know where their harvester is, 2, you can’t use magic and 3, Hyper Sonic Disruptor is something I just made up.”

Twilight just shook her head and paced in a small circle. “Uggh…” she groaned. She might have been able to do something if she had her magic, but at the moment, she was useless. 

“Well, we’ll have to go with plan B.” said the Doctor.

Twilight stopped to look at him. “Oh? And what’s that, then?”

He put a hoof to his head. “Working on it.”

…

Both Crazy mane and Tall red pounded their hooves against the metal floor as they ran down the hallways. Tall red lead the two, galloping quickly throughout the underground labs. There may have only been two Asht’k awake at the moment, but there were only two ponies to deal with. 

“This way!” called Tall red as he bounded around another corner. In his cache of assorted stolen magics and talents, Tall red had picked up a certain ability that let him… find things. He didn’t understand it, nor did he want to. He knew where they had gone, and that’s all he knew about his ability. That was also how he found the Doctor and Twilight earlier. They could run for as long as they wanted, but they could not hide. He would find them. 

The two Asht’k stopped in front of the same door Twilight and the Doctor had entered only a few minutes ago. Crazy mane turned around and bucked in the door with one swift kick. Tall red tried to tell him it was unlocked, but Crazy mane ignored him. His attention was focused on his prey: a lone Twilight Sparkle. 

“Ha! Gotcha!” Crazy mane smiled so wickedly it almost looked like a snarl. He really did look insane. 

Twilight gasped and tried to escape, but there was nowhere to run. Before she took three steps, Crazy mane had already restrained her with that all too familiar yellow magic. Twilight tried to put up a struggle, but it was in vain. She was caught. 
“Doctor! Help!” she screamed. But nopony else was there. The Doctor was gone. 

Crazy mane noticed this and searched for the elusive Doctor. After seeing that only one half of their prey was in their clutches, he levitated Twilight over to his friend. “Here. Take her back to the harvester room. I’m going after the Doctor.”
“Shouldn’t I? I can probably find him easier.” Tall red objected. 

“I know you can, but I don’t care! He’s my prey. Just do as you’re told!” said a very cross Crazy mane. “Besides. She’s all we need. Once she’s in the harvester, there’s nothing he can do to stop us.”

Reluctantly, Tall red nodded. His own horn glowed and he took Twilight in his own yellow energy. Crazy mane then left to find the Doctor while the other two went back to the harvesting room. Twilight kicked and screamed as she was dragged away.  

“NO!! Doctor! Heeeeelp! Doctor!”


> The Missing Cutie Marks: Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, Twilight. Are you comfortable?” 

Silence.

“Oh come on, you don’t have to treat me like that. I’m trying to keep you comfy. I made your straps slightly less tight than usual!”

No response. After a few minutes, he spoke again. 

“I know they say that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything, but…” 

Again, Twilight said nothing. 

“That’s just cold.” 

Twilight just blinked and stared at her captor with a clearly not amused face. She struggled against the leather straps that bound her four hooves, but to no avail. Even though they were apparently not as tight as usual, they were tight enough to keep her restrained. Tall red was glad he wouldn’t have to worry about her magic. He took care to make sure she wouldn’t escape from the harvesting table while they waited for Crazy mane to return. To pass the time, he tried making small talk with Twilight. Needless to say, it wasn’t going over smoothly. 

“Well, that doesn’t matter I suppose.’ He said with a hop in his step. “Once we have what we want there’ll be no need for you to talk at all!” He laughed at himself in a manner that reminded Twilight of Pinkie Pie. “All according to his plan…”  

Red noticed Twilight wasn’t laughing and tried to lighten the mood. “Hey, I know my brother can be a bit… crazy sometimes. But he’s just trying to help us out. To keep us alive.” he spoke softly. “He’s just looking out for us Asht’k…” 

He suddenly picked his head up and walked over to Twilight. He leaned in close. Twilight tried not to breathe with him so close. “Hey, I’m gonna let you in a little secret.” he whispered. “Promise not to tell anybody?” 

Twilight made no notion that she wanted in on his little ‘secret’. In fact, she still didn’t do anything. Her mouth was not covered, so she could talk should she wish to, she just decided to keep it shut. He took her silence as a yes. 

“Good. Anyway, we told you our plans to take all the magic in Ponyville, ya? Well, that’s not all we’re gonna do….’ He said in singy-songy tone. “See, we just finished upgrading the harvester. Now we can harvest even more ponies at once! And you know what we’re gonna do with it?”

Twilight had a feeling where this was going. 

Tall red looked like a little colt on Christmas. “We’re gonna take all of Ponyville’s magic… at the same time! Yes! All of it, all at once! I’ve been awaiting this day…” His said with an air of nostalgia. “Oh, it’s going to be so grand…”

He walked back towards Twilight, who was now hanging on every word he said. “But, once we have all of the magic Ponyville, that’s not the end. Oh no, not by a long shot!” he grinned, showing his teeth. 

“No no, the Grand finale is this: With our newly upgraded harvester, we’ll be able to take magic from anybody we want! Even without salvation!” he drifted of as he thought about all the different ponies they could take talents from. “We’ll be able to take it from any pony! Scientists, adventurers, superheroes…” A sly smile spread across his face. 

“…even princesses.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. Surely they weren’t planning on going after magic such as the princesses’? Well, in the time she learned about them, twilight deduced they certainly were insane enough to try. Of course, Celestia would be able to stop them if they did, right? But… what if they succeeded? Twilight knew first hoof how awful and painful it was to get your magic sucked out of your system. Could Celestia survive that? Not to mention that most if not all of Ponyville would probably be dead by the time Celestia even found out about it. No, she had to stop them here and now! 

If only she could free herself…

Twilight’s inner monologue was cut off a loud bang that was heard across the room. She craned her neck to look at the door. There, looking sweaty and dishevelled, was Crazy mane. He leaned against the doorframe, catching his breath. Both Twilight and Tall red watched in confusion as he made his way to the center of the room.

“Hey. What happened to the Doctor? Where is he?” wondered the taller Asht’k. 

Crazy mane took a second to speak. “He… I took care of him. He won’t be a problem anymore.”

Tall red grinned widely. “Alright! Yeah, that’s the stuff. Hey! I was just telling her all about our plans for Ponyville and the princesses!” 

“Right. Plans…” Crazy mane said with an evil tone. His voice sounded strange. Sort of… hoarse, no pun intended. 

“Hey, you alright?” asked the other Asht’k. 

Crazy mane gave a crazy smile. “Yes, I’m fine. The Doctor just put up a bit of a struggle and kicked my throat.” He explained in a raspy voice. “Well? What are you standing there for? Get on with the plans!”

Tall red nodded and went to work on the computer that had risen from the floor. That floor held a lot of secrets, Twilight thought. Red typed way furiously as Crazy mane just eyed him. He then turned his attention to Twilight. He stared right into her eyes. She tried not to show any fear, not to show any weakness. But right now, she was honestly frightened. 

RRUUUUUUMMMBLE!!!!!

Suddenly, the whole room began to shake. Crazy mane nearly fell over from the violent shakings. Tall red held onto the computer terminal for dear life. Twilight was fine. The entirety of the underground lab, and the pharmacy above, shook tremendously. Tremors similar to an earthquake tore throughout the entire building. Loud rumbles sounded in the background to the sharp cracks that tore through the air. It sounded like the entire place was splitting in two.  

Outside the pharmacy, ponies took notice. A house stood across the street from the trembling building. The home belonged to a Ponyville local, Berry Punch. The cacophonous sounds had awoken the sleepy mare. Looking out of her window, she saw the noises came from the pharmacy. The noises continued, despite her shouting at the building to be the quiet. Her yells were drowned out as the rumbles got louder. Eventually, her shouts died down as she witnessed something incredible. Instead of falling down like she thought it would, ending the noisy noise, it did the exact opposite. 

At first, berry thought she was seeing things. But as she looked, she could swear the building was getting taller! Soon she could see the building’s foundations! The foundation, which included the secret labs, began to rise out of the ground as well. It was like some mysterious force as pushing it up. It continued to rise until it reached the end of the ground. Surely it would stop now, right?

Defying all logic, the building continued to rise, even after there was nothing touching the ground. Berry Punch rubbed her eyes. She could not believe it. Right before her very eyes, the building was flying! Hovering in the air with nothing attached to it. It flew, up and up and up, until Berry could not see it anymore. She continued to stare out the window for a few seconds. She looked down at the bottle between her hooves before throwing it in the trash. She shook her head.

“That’s it for me.” 

...

“We’ve successfully ascended into the air. In about three minutes we’ll be at the optimal altitude and relative distance to syphon all the magic at maximum capacity.” Tall red blinked. “Whoa. That was cool.” He smiled goofily. Another example of their twisted up brains. 

“Good. Go entertain our guest for a bit, will you?” Crazy mane went towards the computer himself and began to type away. Tall red stepped aside and went back to bugging Twilight. He bent over and rested his chin in his hooves.  

“You know, we’ve been watching you for a while, now.” He said in a very creepy way. “Ever since you walked into our store this morning, we kept an eye on you. Yeah.” 

Twilight felt increasingly uncomfortable. She still didn’t know what was going on outside, but right now, that wasn’t the most pressing issue. Right now, she had to find a way out of these straps. 

“We noticed how… strong you were.” He smiled, showing his teeth. “When I was in that farmer pony’s head, you put up quite a fight. Oh yeah, sorry for trying to kill you earlier. At first we didn’t want you getting in the way, but then… Well you know how plans change.”    

She rolled her eyes and wished they’d hurry up and off her like they had the Doctor. Tall red ignored this and continued to stare at her with his eerie smile. 

“You’re pretty.” 

Twilight awaited the rest of his sentence. Pretty… what? Pretty strong? Pretty brave? Pretty stupid? After a few moments with no response, she looked at him with a confused look. Then it dawned on Twilight what he really meant.  She scrunched her face up in disgust. Red himself was not particularly bad looking. But the things he had done, coupled with the fact he was an extra-terrestrial, did not help Twilight find him appealing. 

…

The large square hovered silently over Ponyville. The pharmaceutical building stayed at a few dozen feet in the air, casting shadows over Sugar cube corner and the library as it passed overhead. Its destination seemed uncertain as it travelled its straight and narrow path, not wavering a bit. But if one was to calculate its current position relative to Ponyville, its course could be found to be heading straight for the center of town. 

Nopony noticed as the grey building flew through the crisp night air. Most were busy with their own problems of missing cutie marks and illness. They were all very concerned and confused. They wished the nightmare would end. Little did they know, their problems were about to get worse. 

Inside the floating building, three ponies were the only ones the wiser to the impending doom of the town. The only earthling pony watched as the two Asht’ks got ready to take all of the magic in Ponyville, salvation or not. Crazy mane still typed away at the computer. Red stared into space as he leaned next to Twilight. And Twilight hated both of their guts. 

“You know,” Redfinally said, “It’ll be a shame to take all your magic, but it’s just sooo good!” He licked his lips and drooled a little. Twilight could not have hated him any more if she tried.

“We’re here.” said Crazy mane, looking back at the two love birds. His voice was still sore from being kicked. “In a few minutes, all of Ponyville’s magic will be ours.”

Red perked up and bounded over. “Good. The harvester is ready for mass…. um, harvesting.” He turned around and yelled to Twilight. “Ya hear that? Only a few more minutes! I’m so excited I can’t hardly wait.” 

“Once I pull this lever, the harvester will activate. Are you ready?” 

Red nodded his head excitedly. Smiling, Crazy Mane lifted his hoof. In a dramatic fashion, he slowly guided it over to the large yellow lever that would effectively doom all of Ponyville’s citizens to a life of blank flanks and dreadful illness. If they survived, that is. 

Twilight struggled and thrashed at the straps that tied her down. She felt so useless. Here she was, the only pony in the whole world that could possibly save it and she couldn’t do anything. This was it. It was all over once he pulled that switch. Wrapping his hoof around the lever, Crazy got ready to pull. 

But he never did. 

Because in the moment that he was about to pull the switch, Crazy’s hoof was engulfed in a yellow aura. He struggled against it, but to no avail. He couldn’t move his hoof, and could not pull the lever. Both Red and Crazy were confused by this. Red wasn’t using his magic, and Crazy certainly wasn’t. Then who…?

“Not so fast!”

Crazy and Red looked to see who had spoken. Twilight tried to look as well. If she wasn’t to die yet, might as well see who it was that inadvertently saved her. There, once again standing in the doorway, stood Crazy mane…

What?

…

Tall red was confused. “Hey! What are you doing over there? You’re supposed to be over here pulling the switch.”

“What am I doing here? What am I doing over there!?”

The other Crazy mane spoke up, “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m going to pull the switch to activate the harvester! You must be an impostor!” 

“No! It is you who is the impostor!”

Both Red and Twilight’s heads kept jumping back and forth between the two Crazy manes. Tall red looked back between the two supposed Asht’k ponies and made a closer observation. The busted gears in his head struggled to start turning and after a moment of thought, he grabbed the Crazy mane next to him. Pulling back his titular crazy mane, Red revealed which one was the real Crazy mane. 

“You’re right it’s me. I’m the impostor.” He said in the clutches of the surprisingly strong Asht'k. 

The other, real, Crazy mane marched up to his faker. Wiping a hoof on the other’s cheek, he noticed a smudge of red wipe off. “It’s paint?”

“You know the cool thing about you all looking alike is? Easy to replicate. Of course, having hair like yours doesn’t hurt, either.” He smiled in his charming way, no longer looking as creepy as Crazy himself.

It was then Twilight realized who it really was. Of course it would be him, who else could it be? Dropping the act of being kicked by the Doctor, his voice became clear and easy to identify. There was only one pony she knew who could sound like that: the Doctor himself! 

Angry at the revelation of who it was impersonating him, Crazy mane restrained the Doctor completely in his magic. In a flash of rage, he threw the Doctor clear across the room and into the wall. He continued to throw him around a bit and scuff him up before finally just tying him to the wall with his own brain of magic locks. His back was against the wall and his hooves were spread out in an X shape, similar to Twilight’s predicament. From this position, he was not able to use his screwdriver, and Crazy mane was perfectly fine with that. 

“And take off that paint. You aren’t worthy to wear the colours of the Asht’k!” Crazy mane shot another blast of magic at the Doctor, who winced in pain as the paint was forcefully ripped off from his body and hair, revealing his tan and brown colours. “Yeah. How do you like that, now?”

“Doctor? Are you okay?” a concerned Twilight asked. 

The Doctor shook his head and made a few queasy ‘bleh’ noises. “Yeah, I’m fine. I can take a lot more than that.”

Relieved that he was alive, Twilight asked, “What happened to you?”

“Well… to make a long story short, he should be taking a long nap, alongside the rest of the Asht’k. How did he escape?” 

Twilight sighed. “It doesn’t matter now. He’s gonna pull that switch and everything will be done for! It’s all over!” There was no way that anypony could help now. They were both trapped and neither one could escape. It was hopeless.

“Oh, I think not. At least not yet…” the Doctor said rather smugly. This time he actually was being smug. 

Crazy mane refigured himself and calmed down enough to act rationally. As rational as he could be, at least. “Now that I’m back, we can continue on with our little demonstration.” He turned around to the Doctor. “I applaud you on your efforts to stop us, but it’s too late, dear Doctor. Besides, I wanted to be the one to pull his switch.”

“I’m sure you do.” the Doctor said quietly to himself. 

Facing the machine once again, Crazy mane was ready to start it for real this time. He was ready to finish what he started and begin something entirely new. With nothing left holding him back, and nopony to stop him, he threw the switch. 

…

The silence of the Ponyville night was cut by a soft hum. It started out quietly, at first. Many people didn’t hear. But, as it continued, the hum grew louder. It sounded like a large vacuum cleaner. Inside the homes of Ponyville’s residents, thing were not well, every pony that had taken ‘Salvation’, suddenly felt extremely tired and pained. Like something was sucking the life out of them. Their screams of agony, which were very similar to Applejack’s, drowned out the hum. The lucky ponies that had not taken the drug watched in horror as their friends and family had their magic forcefully and painfully torn from them.  

Inside the library, Spike was awoken to the screams of Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie was already awakened and frightened by the time he got there. Before Spike could even say anything, Pinkie began to scream as well. The second setting of the harvester had kicked in and was now harvesting all of the pony magic in Ponyville. That included the ones who had not taken the drug. Now Spike was stuck with two screaming mares with no cutie marks. What a night. 

Back at the now above-ground underground labs, things were just as hectic. Both Asht’k visibly shook as all the power from every pony in Ponyville was taken from their equestrian owners and given to the Asht’k. Their movements were similar to Applejack’s when her magic was taken, but this was a completely different feeling. They moaned in pure bliss as they feasted upon his endless smorgasbord of magic and talent. So many different abilities and talents, all theirs to command. And the power!

But then, all of a sudden, the machine stopped giving them magic. In fact, it stopped altogether. The lights and monitors all shut down and fizzled out, but not before sparking and making loud snapping noises like it had exploded on the inside, but not the inside. 

…

Down in Ponyville, all the ponies had suddenly stopped screaming. Their cries of pain died down as they no longer felt the horrid feeling anymore. They did not feel their life force being sucked out of them. Many had fallen unconscious, but were very much alive. 

“No no no no no!!!” Crazy mane was exasperated. “What did you do?!”

The Doctor grinned. “I did a number of things actually. I found I couldn't destroy the harvester directly so I did a little something else in its programming that did the trick, and let me tell you I’ve forgotten how good the Asht’k were at coding. Now that you have a certain amount of magic, you can’t have any more. You greedy buggers.”

Tall red screamed in anger. He threw himself against the wall in a tantrum. He was acting like a child. Crazy mane managed to keep his cool, but one glance and the Doctor could tell he was extremely angry as well. “Fool! Even without all the magic, we are still powerful enough to wipe out everything in our path! Anything is we want ours! We can build! And…” He stopped to turn his head dramatically. “We still have one more ace up our sleeve.”

The Doctor looked down at the red Asht’k hooves. “But you’re not wearing sleeves.” he retorted, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pony wear sleeves. Twilight, you ever seen a pony wear sleeves?”

Twilight simply shrugged. 

Crazy mane scoffed at their ramblings and just looked at Twilight. “We still have you. That table you’re on can double as a back-up harvester. We still have your magic. Your power… is so raw. Your ability and talents… your power could help us fix our harvester. Our plan can still work! The world is ours!” Tall red stopped throwing himself against the wall at this point. 

Twilight gulped. They were right. If they had her power over magic, there was no telling what they could do. They lacked the experience she had to do such spells, but they looked like the type to try anything until they got it right. 

“OH!” he continued, “But you know what? I have a better idea. You have more experience in magic spells than we do. You yourself can probably fix it faster than we can.”

“And what makes you think I’ll help you?”

Crazy mane smiled and began to pace around the table. “You see, as proficient as we are in magic, there is no pony on earth that is as skilled as you. The three of us are the most powerful magical practitioners on earth, save the Alicorns, but they aren’t to help, are they? We could fight by ourselves, but we all know who would win.” 

Twilight eyed him, trying to see what he was getting at. In a way, she already knew what it was. 

“But, if we joined together. If you were to become like us… Why, we’d be the most powerful creatures on the planet. No one could stop us! Not even the princesses.”

“Don’t listen to him, Twilight!” called the Doctor, but there was no response either had heard him. 

“If you lead us… You’re clever. I’m sure you could outsmart dumb ol’ Celestia. She would be powerless to stop us. And afterwards, we could take even her magic. Just think. You could be the new ruler of Equestria….” He stared directly into her eyes.

“…Princess Twilight.” 

Twilight said nothing. Her mind took a moment to think about what that meant. It was completely possible. In fact, Twilight was already thinking about how it might work. Becoming Princess. Having unlimited power. Being ruler. Possibly living forever. Not having to write anymore tedious friendship letters. Not having to learn about friendship… Not having anymore… friends.
Twilight simply gave him an evil eye and said, “I’d rather die than help you kill everypony I love.”

Crazy mane smiled evilly. “Easily arranged.” He put simply. With a nod of his head, the taller red pony was back on his feet and right at the controls of the harvester. With a flick of the wrist, he set the backup harvester and began the process of taking Twilight’s magic.  

“No!” the Doctor called out. He hated this; somepony in trouble and him not being able to do anything. He felt so helpless. When He knew that Twilight was going to get herself involved in all this, he knew it would be dangerous. That’s when he swore to himself he would protect her and keep her safe. Now she was doomed and he could do nothing. He didn’t count on Crazy awakening. He let her down…

“I’m sorry.” 


“AAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGHH! RRRRGGGGGGAAAAAHH!!” Twilight screamed in agony as the process began. It was just as painful and terrifying as she remembered it. Only a hundred times worse. The Doctor could only look on helplessly and imagine how torturous it must have felt. Then again, her life was being drained, so he could bet it was not pleasant one bit. Even if she survived, her special talent would be gone. Magic. It would ruin her life forever.

“Look at this! Her body is regenerating the magic at incredible rate!” Red called out from amongst the pleasure of having such awesome magic overflow in his body.

Crazy mane looked at the monitors. Sure enough, Twilight’s body could replace the stolen magic at an alarming rate. He smiled. “If we kept her alive long enough, she could keep making us magic!”

“We could use her to stay alive until we find a new sun.” The magic was beginning to affect their minds even more. Their bodies were not designed to handle this much magic, let alone this kind of pony magic. They were crazier than ever. 

“I think we already found one!” Both Asht’k looked at the terrified and pained Twilight. “Just think our own personal magic sun!” 

“Ha! More like a cow!” They both began laughing hysterically. 

It was at these words Twilight’s eyes snapped open. But they were not filled with yellow energy. Oh no, they were filled with something else: pure equestrian magic. Her eyes were milky white and glowing, just like when she used the elements of harmony. Only this time, harmony was not was she was going to reign down upon her foes. 

Her horn began to glow white and her restraints burned away. The two Asht’k stopped laughing and looked surprised. How was she using her own magic? Then their faces changed to pure horror. Twilight rose from the table and began to hover in the air. Her face was one of pure hate. Not anger or rage. Just resent of these two pitiful creatures. 

“You want magic? Let’s see if you can handle this!”

From her horn shot out two streams of energy. They went straight to the Asht’k’s horns. The two screamed like she had when their bodies became overloaded with power. At first, it felt wonderful. Such delicious magic was so good, like Red had said. They were walking on air. 

Then, they fell. The pleasure turned into pain as their bodies could not handle this much power. Twilight’s magic was strong, alright. Too strong for the Asht’k to handle. Their bodies violently shook as they fell to the floor in agony. Such a burning pain held them. All over they felt nothing but sheer torture and pure pain. 

The Doctor wished he could cover his ears from their screams. If only he wasn’t tied to the wall. Then, just like that, he wasn’t. He fell from the wall as the magic locks disappeared. 

He watched as Twilight continued to give them more and more of her magic power. They wanted to treat her like a slave, like a cow!? They deserved it. Then, she cranked it too 11. The Asht’k screamed as their bodies burst into flames, the magic power taking over their systems. It was all just too much. They burned with a magical fire that could not be extinguished. 

They cried out for help. The Doctor looked on. Then, he noticed exactly who they were saying it to. Their cries for help, their pleas of aid, they were directed to the Doctor. It was then the Doctor decided it was enough. 

“Twilight stop! Twilight!”

Twilight snapped her head in the Doctor’s direction. He looked dead into her bright white eyes. 

“Please! You’re killing them, stop!” 

Twilight looked back at her two nearly dead preys. She stared at them for a second, before releasing a final wave of pent up energy. She burst with bright light and energy at the release. Along with the wave, Twilight’s horn stopped glowing. The beams stopped. Everything stopped. Twilight fell out of the air, and into the Doctor’s hooves. He held her as she went limp. 

“Twilight!” He feared the worst at first, but her chest began to rise and fall, signifying she was still alive; unconscious, but alive. He breathed a sigh of relief.  

The moment was cut short however, when a loud ring, followed by a crash and shower of sparks alerted the Doctor to a more pressing matter. He looked to see the harvester’s computer, which also controlled the building’s flight, was sparking and sputtering. If the computer was falling, that meant something else was going to fall as well. Laying Twilight on the floor, the Doctor went to save what Twilight had left him to save. 

“Building is falling? Building is falling!” he said, taking the controls into his hooves. “Okay. Engines failing… Reserve power offline… Controls are only slightly responsive… Oh, this is going to be tricky.”

…


Hay Bacon. 

That’s what that smell was. Twilight knew it smelled familiar. She didn’t recognize it at first because Spike didn’t cook bacon that often; only on special occasions. Plus, it was more than a little difficult to get real meat bacon in a place where the consumption of meat was typically frowned upon, so they usually settled for hay-based substitute..   

Rolling over to the other side of the bed, Twilight pulled the sheets closer to her. They restrained back. Like something was holding them back from her… 

“Hey. Leeme some blankets.”

Twilight cracked an eye open to see who it was that was hogging all the covers. She closed it again when she saw it was only Pinkie Pie. That’s okay; she’s a friend, Twilight thought. 


…wait.

Twilight shot up in bed. She looked round wildly before shaking her head and getting dizzy. She held her head in her hooves. When she looked back up, the room stopped spinning long enough for her to get a good look at it. It was her room. How did she get back here? What happened last night? Last thing she remembered was sending Rainbow dash and Pinkie to rest in here before she went to go help-

She gasped. 

Twilight jumped out of the bed, getting tangled in the sheets as she did. With her hooves wrapped in the blankets, she fell to the floor with a thud. She winced in pain as her head hit the floor. A similar pain she had felt when-

Twilight struggled to try and get out of the blanket cocoon. She had to know what happened. Once she was out, she quickly got up and galloped down the stairs. Pinkie simply picked the sheets off of the floor and went back to sleep. 

In the library’s kitchen, Spike whistled a happy tune to himself as he prepared the bacon. He hadn’t had it in forever. He felt that he deserved it. The nightmare was over and everything would be back to normal. At least until the next disaster, he jokingly thought. 

His jokes were interrupted as he heard Twilight’s hooves on the stairs. She tumbled into the kitchen and skidded to a stop. Spike waved her good morning. He didn’t exactly get the same reply.  

“Spike! What’s going on? What happened last night? And are you cooking hay bacon?”

“Well, you were brought here early yesterday morning and have been in bed since then. And you tell me I sleep too much” he said the last part under his breath. “I’m not sure what you did, but I think things got worse before they got better. And yes. Yes I am.” He held up a greasy piece of the uncooked meat. “Want some?” 

Twilight looked around the kitchen. “What happened to the Doctor?”

“Oh, he dropped you off here yesterday and left. He’s probably long gone by now.” 

Twilight looked devastated. He left? After all that happened… he would just leave her all alone. She could barely even remember what happened. Everything was still coming back to her. The pharmacy, the secret doors, the dark rooms, the Asht’k… Once everything was done and finished…  He was gone. Just like that. Without even saying goodbye?

Then, Twilight heard something. She didn’t know what it was at first, but she knew it was important. It was quiet, but it grew louder, not unlike the harvester. But unlike the harvester, Twilight did not feel dread from hearing it. No, instead she felt something wonderful. She couldn’t describe it. But if tried her best. She would have called it ‘the most wondrous sound in the world’. And in that moment of feelings, she somehow knew what it was.

…

Rushing outside, she didn’t know what she thought would be there. But she felt as though it would be the Doctor. Somehow, she just knew. It was unexplainable. Just like how most of the past few days had been. When she got out there, she saw exactly the last thing that she thought she would see. 

A box.

It was a big blue box. Rather tall with large white windows on each side. Across the top of the box read ‘PONY PUBLIC CALL BOX’. Twilight could not explain what those words meant, nor could she explain what the box was doing there in the first place. Was this the source of the sound? Upon closer inspection, she noticed the side facing her looked like it had a door of some sort. Just when she was about to try it, the door opened. Standing there with a big smile on his mug was just the tan, hourglass cutie marked pony she was looking for. 

Twilight took a step back. So many things were rushing in her head. She felt joyous and angry and excited and relived and so many other emotions, all at the same time. And she had so many questions for him! Where did he go? What was this box? Why was he in it? What happened last night? 

“Hello, Twilight. Hope you slept well.” he said stepping out of the box and closing the door. 

Twilight could barely speak. “Doctor…” She collected herself and calmed down. The Doctor simply smiled as he waited for her to speak. Twilight breathed. “What happened? Like, I mean, did we win? Where are the Asht’k?”

“At the bottom of Froggy Bottom Bog.” explained the Doctor, “After you went all… ‘look at me I’ve got super magic powers’, you blacked out and the ship began to crash. Luckily I was able to steer it into the swamp where it wouldn’t land on anypony. Unfortunately, I was only able to get us out in time before it sank completely.”

Twilight had calmed enough to think rationally. She took a moment as she realized what that meant. “So they’re…” She trailed off. All the memories of her and the Doctor’s adventure came flooding back. The pods, the two Asht’ks, the harvesting… her attack of magic. 

“I remember now…” Twilight put a hoof to her mouth at the realization. “Oh Celestia… I was killing them.”

“You were. Their bodies couldn’t take your magic and began to destroy themselves. Killed by their own greed. But I stopped you.”

“I killed them.” Twilight said solemnly. 

He Doctor saw she was obviously distraught from this and tried to comfort her. “In a way, they were already dead.” Twilight looked up in confusion. 

“See, I’ve known Asht’k people. They are very kind and intelligent and not anything like those two beings we met that night. The Asht’k that were sent on the expedition to find magic… they died a long time before they came here.”

Twilight closed her eyes for moment. She took a deep breath and sighed. “So the Asht’k are gone. It’s all over. There’s no more missing cutie marks or magic or mind control. Everything’s back to normal, right?”

“Well, eventually, yeah. I mean, a lot of ponies suffered and will probably need time to rest, but they’ll recover. Bon-Bon, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, they'll all be fine. Oh yeah. Because if there’s one thing that you ponies are good at, it’s surviving.”

Twilight smiled. She couldn’t help but laugh. This whole thing had been such a trial on her an now it was all over. “Thank you, Doctor. For everything.”

“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle."

“Doctor. There’s been one thing that’s been bugging me since the beginning.” She said with a puzzled look on her face, “Just who exactly are you? It’s clear you’re not of this world. And I remember the Asht’k saying that you were the last of something. What did he mean by that? What are you?”

The Doctor sighed and asked, “You really want to know the truth?” 

Twilight nodded. 

The Doctor took her hoof. Gently guiding it over to himself, he placed her hoof over his chest, right where his heart should be. She felt his heartbeat. Twilight was confused. What was this supposed to mean? He moved her hoof to the other side of his chest, where a normal pony’s heart wouldn’t be. 


Bum-bum.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You’ve got two hearts…” she whispered.

The Doctor nodded. “I’m the Doctor. I’m a time lord; the last one in the universe. I’m 903 years old. I’m a traveller of sorts, going around the universe, planet to planet, having fun and saving lives. And I’ve got two hearts.” He smiled. 

Twilight put her hoof down. It was amazing. She knew he was an alien, but she never expected this. She smiled. It was all so amazing. “Doctor. This whole adventure has been so incredible. I’ve seen things I never would have dreamed could exist.”

“Well if you like that, just wait until you see the rest of the universe!”

Twilight paused. “What?”

“Twilight. I told you I’m a traveller. I’ve crossed entire galaxies and saved the universe countless times. But, I’ve been travelling alone for so long now. All by myself. It’s not always easy to save the world by yourself, you know, let alone the universe.” Twilight knew that all too well. 

“I’d like you to come with me.”

“Come with you? Where?”

“Anywhere you want! Any planet, any galaxy, any point in the universe! I can take you anywhere you ever wanted to see or experience.” He was excited to get going. But when Twilight had no response, he continued. 

“Twilight, you showed me that you are incredibly brave and clever. Even though you were always a few steps behind, you never gave up and pushed through to uncover the truth. Throughout this whole thing you kept your wits about you and helped me out in a big way. I’d love to have more adventures with you.” 

She took a step back and slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry, Doctor. I can’t. I’m sure you could take me to places and see the universe, and I’m sure I’d be amazing… but I’m needed here. I have responsibilities and a job. I’m sorry.”

The Doctor just laughed. “Oh, but that’s the beauty of it. You see, not only do I travel through space, I also travel through time.”

Twilight didn’t need proof that he was a time traveller. She had had her fair share of experiences and troubles involving time travel. Plus the sciencey part of her always thought that one day time machines would exist and they could come back to do… timey stuff. 

“Oh, so now you’re a time traveller, too? What else can you do, walk on water?” 

“I can take you wherever and whenever you want, and be right back here like nothing ever happened. In the blink of an eye. You won’t even miss the bacon.” He smiled, able to smell it from there. 

Twilight thought about it for a moment. It would be nice to get away from routine and have more excitement more than once a week. And if they were going to time travel, there would be nothing to lose. No important schedules, lists or friendship reports to miss. Of course, Twilight had a feeling that this kind of thing happened a lot. A lot of close calls and danger. She could guess that it wouldn’t be quiet, it wouldn’t be safe and it wouldn’t be calm. But the thrill of adventure…

“I just don’t know…” she said finally, unsure what to do. In all honesty, she would really like to, but would it be worth it? 

The Doctor saw she was hesitant to go with him and decided to show her one more surprise to help her make up her mind. He stepped aside and motioned his hoof towards the big blue box.  “Here. Take a look inside this box. Then you can decide.” 

Twilight looked at the door of the box herself, and began to get curious. “I was wondering what that was about. Why? What’s in there?”

He simply pointed to it again. “See for yourself.” 

Twilight walked cautiously towards the box. She didn’t know she expected, but whatever was in there, it must have been really something. She opened the wooden door with a creak. When she looked inside her jaw dropped. She just stared. She pulled her head out and looked at the outer side of the box, then looked back inside. She couldn’t believe it. 

“……” She couldn’t speak. It had to be a trick. But after everything that happened, Twilight knew it was the truth. The Doctor walked up beside her and smiled.

She managed to squeak out, “That’s…”

“I know.” The Doctor whispered. 

In a daze, Twilight stepped inside the wondrous magical blue box. In all her years of studying magic, she had never learned of any spell that came close to what she saw. It was simply impossible. The Doctor followed closely behind. Taking her shocked silence as a ‘yes’, he shut the door. 

The light on top of the box began to blink. At the same time, that amazing sound was heard again. Like the universe was calling. It faded in and out as it sounded, and so did the light above the box. As well as the box itself. The box’s existence in this point of space and time was fading, and soon it would be gone.

Inside the library, Spike had heard the noise again. The first time he heard it, he was busy with cooking the bacon, but the second time he got curious. Unfortunately for Spike, by the time that he had stepped out to see what it was that could produce such a wonderful noise, it was already gone. No Twilight, no Doctor and no box. They were already off, probably on some grand adventure, fighting aliens and saving the universe. They were possibly already doing it as he stood there. Maybe they had yet to do it. And maybe they already had done it. Because anything was possible with the Doctor. And everything was magical. 


The End.