Chapter 12

The castle was silent, the darkness of night had fallen over the peaceful city of Canterlot. The guards were doing their nightly rounds about the castle, and princess Celestia was asleep. There hadn't been anything in recent times to call for any drastic measures, Luna was out in the Crystal Empire with Twilight and her friends for a visit; everything seemed to be just fine.

But all this peace was a façade

Directly behind the throne of Celestia a thin crack of bright white light began to open, and a small metal container fell through, before the crack sealed once more. It wouldn't take too long to get noticed; it was bound to happen soon

Then everything would fall into place

[…]

The following day Celestia woke up and raised the sun, before going about her morning schedule. Before she could settle in to do any of the things she had planned for that day, a small metal container was presented to her

"We do not know what it is your highness" the guard had said, "But we know it is not dangerous."

From the small glass sides she could see a human-like hand floating in a light blue bubbling liquid, it was maddeningly familiar, however any attempt to remember ended in frustration

As little that the princess could remember she still had the two cents to try and use her magic to get some sort of reading on it

This proved to be a vital mistake

[…]

Once the alicorn princess Celestia used her magic the entity knew that this was the opportune moment, the most delicate part of the whole operation

It jumped, through the magical aura and into the princess, all had worked

It quickly shut out any panic or any inclination to call the guards, it knew that taking the mind completely would take mere moments

'Perfect…' Celestia couldn't help thinking, 'Now for that pesky Doctor…'

[…]

Twilight and her friends were having a great time out visiting the Empire, they knew they could trust Princess Celestia on her own, as she had done that for 1,000 years

Luna had been dragged along because Celestia insisted she needed some time to relax. Although Luna had only agreed if she would still raise and lower the moon from the Empire

There hadn't been any problems for a while now, and Shining Armor had decided that a better look at the Empire might increase commerce between it and the rest of Equestria

Rainbowdash was flying through the clouds and stretching her wings, Applejack was looking over the local fruit, Celestia knows where Pinkie got off to, Twilight and Cadence were talking, and Fluttershy was with the animals of course

Of course none of them knew they had been played for fools; the Shadow itself was absolutely positive that there was no escaping from this fate. This universe would burn, everything the Doctor cared about was going to die, it would be seen to nicely.

As Twilight and Cadence ate some of the local delicacy their conversation shifted off from casual

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked

"There's no doubt" Cadence answered, "The same stallion that helped save the Empire fits the description you told me!"

"But why now-AH!" Twilight clutched her horn

"A magic surge" Cadence looked around, "We'll have to keep on our hoof-tips."

This surge wasn't just felt by the unicorns of the Empire, nor the ponies of Equestria. For at that very moment all sentient life around Equestria began to move away

[…]

Rainbowdash also felt this, as if the winds had shifted against her wings. Her flight had instantly began to go wild, and an inevitable crash into the ground commenced.

As she hit the ground a surge of pain spiked through her body, as she managed to drag herself to her hooves she could see a large amount of panic going on in the crowds of the Empire, she wasn't the only one to have felt it

As the mane six gathered to try and figure out what was going on not too far off from the group was a small wooden blue box sitting inconspicuously in one of the castle rooms

[…]

"No doubting it" the Doctor said out loud, "That surge originated from-"

He looked around, remembering that he was alone in the console room

He would have to exit the TARDIS to get a better look, but staying out of sight would be in his best interest because if anybody recognized him he might have a few issues

Once outside the little blue box he was able to hide in a dark doorway while five of Twilight's friends rushed to the throne room

He would have to go and tell them what he found, but face-to-face would be stupid. No, he needed to find some alternate method of warning them about-

"Excuse me sir" a guard tapped his shoulder, "But I'm going to have to ask you to move your box."

[…]

Twilight and the rest of her friends were all inside the throne room, it was no surprise that the surge had interrupted what all of them were doing

Twilight was looking over Rainbowdash, the crash had nearly broken her wing as far as she could tell

"You really need to see a doctor" Twilight insisted, "I can't tell if you've gotten any internal damage."

A guard walked in at that moment, "Funny, I just finished talking with one."

"Really?" Shining Armor raised an eyebrow

"Yeah, blue-green, red bowtie, had a blue box that he needed to move." The guard smiled slightly, "He never gave his name."

"Any idea where he went?" Rainbowdash asked

"Not really, he just went to go look for a shadow or something." The guard shrugged, "Then talked a bunch of gibberish I didn't really catch as he walked off."

There were exchanged looks around the room, mainly of confusion, but Rainbowdash decided to move things along

"So where is this pulse from?" Rainbowdash asked, "If we can find that then we can put a stop to it!"

"Canterlot Castle"

All heads turned to see Luna, she looked like she had been asleep

Rainbowdash remembered that Luna was practically nocturnal

"I can recognize my sister's magic print anywhere" Luna said, "I knew I shouldn't have left."

"No point beating yourself up about it princess!" Applejack said, "We just have to fix it."

"Easier said than done" Twilight said, "I think we should divide and conquer, Shining Armor, Princess Luna and Cadence should stay here and get the Crystal Ponies to stop panicking. Rainbowdash and I'll look for that Doctor the guard was talking about. Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Applejack take the train."

The group all agreed and then went about their assigned stations, it was go time