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Of Princesses and Time Chargers

by Shotoman

Chapter 3: A Fixed Point

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Chapter 2

A Fixed Point

Tears ran freely down Celestia's face as she continued gazing at the new face of the moon. She hadn't even noticed that five of the Elements of Harmony had fallen in formation around her, nor did she notice that the elaborate headpiece which was the Element of Magic had vanished off her head. The home she had known her whole life was now nothing but ruins, the forest surrounding it dull and wild. Celestia herself took no mind of any of it—at least not yet. All her focus was on the full moon above her, the new pattern upon its face taking the form of a unicorn in profile. The white alicorn with the multicolored mane had a great many thoughts and questions floating around her head. Why had this happened? Could she have done something different? A single word was all that escaped her lips. “Luna...”

The sudden screeching that interrupted her grief was not met with much enthusiasm.

Celestia turned to see the familiar blue barn fading into existence behind her. The door to the barn opened and out stepped...well, Celestia's magical senses told her he was the Doctor, though he looked absolutely nothing like he had during the time she had known him. He seemed younger than before, somehow. His once chestnut coat had been replaced by a sky-blue one, his once uncontrollable brown mane and tail replaced with much more manageable golden hair, and he was wearing a tan vest with—of all things—a piece of celery on his lapel. The only physical thing that remained the same was the hourglass cutie mark on his flank. Yet Celesia had shared too much time, too many adventures with the strange pony-like being from Gallopfrey to be fooled by something as simple as physical appearance. This was most definitely the Doctor.

“Where were you?” she asked, her eyes narrowing dangerously. The greeting the other pony was about to give froze immediately in his throat. This was obviously not the hello he was expecting. “WHERE WERE YOU?” Celestia repeated, the full force of the Royal Canterlot Voice erupting from her lips. “YOU HAVE SAVED THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE SO MANY TIMES! I KNOW; I WAS THERE FOR SOME OF THEM! SO WHERE WERE YOU NOW WHEN MY OWN WORLD WAS CRUMBLING AROUND ME?”

“Now, steady on...”

“STEADY...? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HAS TRANSPIRED TONIGHT? ANY IDEA WHAT I HAD TO...? What I had to...?”

The smile returned to the Doctor's face—this time quite sad. “Yes. I do.”

Celestia's face contorted in anger for moment, but the anger deflated, and she flopped down to the ground and the tears came anew. “Why weren't you here?” she asked once more, anger replaced with despair in her voice.

The Doctor sighed. “I couldn't be. Oh, I argued with myself for decades over the issue—distracted myself with, well, you know what I distract myself with. But I literally could not be here. Not for this.”

“Why not?”

The Doctor gave a rather awkward grin and rubbed the back of his head. “For ponies in general—yourself included these last few centuries—time is just a linear progression of event to event, but to a time traveler, it's much more complicated. Most events can be changed, for better or worse, without any major damage done to the fabric of the universe. But, there are some points which serve basically as lynchpins. These points must remain unchanged, or the consequences would be disastrous for everything everywhere.”

“And-and tonight was one of these...lynchpins?”

“Unfortunately yes. Any influence I might have had tonight could have proven fatal.”

“What, then, are you doing here now?” Celestaia asked of her friend. The Doctor looked rather uncomfortable for a moment and his eyes darted toward the barn. Celestia turned incredulous. “You wish to take me adventuring with you? Now?”

“Oh, no. No no no no no no. I was hoping to take you on a trip, but just a quick one. Five minutes—ten on the outside. No daleks, no cyberponies, no sontaurans, no running. Cross my hearts. Both of them.”

“For what purpose?”

The Doctor smiled. “I am your friend, remember? I'm attempting to show you that no matter how things seem now, they will be okay. I'm just in a rather unique position to show you thus definitively.”

Celestia thought for a moment, then nodded. “Very well. I will give you ten minutes.”

The Doctor led the way as Celestia ducked into the small barn. Though she had spent months within the ship, those months were so long ago that even with conscious knowledge of it's impossible scale, she still couldn't help but to be impressed at the fact that it was, well, bigger on the inside. Despite all that had occurred, Celestia couldn't help but smile nostalgically. “Hello, Old Girl,” she found herself muttering, even as the Doctor began his frantic little dance around the controls in the center of the room.

Celestia almost reflexively sat on the ground as the screeching began. As the trip began, the room shook and rattled. “I would have thought you would have improved your piloting skills over the decades,” she grumbled irritably as a loose...something...nearly hit her in the head.

“I've told you before, the TARDIS was built to be piloted by six Time Chargers. I'm but one. It'll only last for a moment.”

The blue Time Charger was correct, and moments later the screeching and shaking stopped. Getting to her hooves, Celestia asked the Doctor, “Where and when are we?”

The Doctor's smile never wavered. “Canterot Castle, your soon-to-be new home, in the year of 1001 C.R.”

“C.R.?”

“Oh, yes. Your, ah, battle resulted in a renumbering of the calendar. Now, go ahead and take a look.” Celestia hesitated a bit at the doors. “Well, go on.”

Celestia opened the door and found herself staring directly at a marble wall. “What...?” she murmured.

“Oh!” the Doctor exclaimed, smacking himself in the forehead. “One moment.” The Doctor tapped a few more controls, and the TARDIS rose several hooves, so that instead of a wall, Celestia was looking through a window.

Gazing in, Celestia discovered a brightly lit marble hallway, of an elegance that even the old castle in Everfree lacked. It was actually a bit more...pretentious than she would choose as her home, but the alicron knew her subjects well enough to know that they would have built this castle for her and would have insisted upon only the best.

Celestia had only a moment to contemplate this fact before she heard laughter emanating from down the hall. Shifting her gaze for a better view, the royal alicorn gasped. Stumbling down the hallway was herself, splotches of rainbow colors covering almost every part of her coat. Undignified though it was, this was not what caused the princess to gasp. It was the reason her future self was having so much difficulty walking down the hallway. Adhered to the future alicorn's side, stuck upside down and with her legs wheeling in the air, laughing all the while, was Luna.

The Celestia within the castle suddenly stopped, as if remembering something, and cast her gaze out the window. The two white alicorns met their gazes, and the smile on the future Celestia softened into something less jovial, but no less happy, and she nodded her head briefly to her sister before winking.

“Sister, is something the matter?” Luna asked.

“Nothing, nothing, Luna,” the future Celestia said with a smile. “I just needed to take a moment to regain my balance.”

“We are not that heavy,” Luna complained.

“I don't remember implying you were,” Celestia replied with an impish smile as she continued her way down the hall.

“I do apologize, Little Celestia,” the Doctor stated. “My intent was to show you a more...dignified scene, but you know how the Old Girl can be.” With that, the Doctor glared back at the TARDIS control console, which actually buzzed at that moment as if blowing him a raspberry.

“Oh, do not apologize,” Celestia replied, tears pooling in her eyes. “It was perfect. Just...just perfect.”

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