Once upon a time there was a unicorn, the last unicorn, which was in search for her lost friends. A while back it found out that humans don't recognize her as unicorn but instead saw in her a mare. A monk even tried to catch her with his belt. Now it was lying on the ground and still wondering, if the reason that humans think that the unicorns are gone might be that they can't see them anymore. After a while the unicorn decided to go on with its search for the others and got up.
While the unicorn raised its body it heard a weird noise and at first it couldn't see anything in the direction that noise came from. A few seconds later there slowly appeared a blue box out of nowhere, which surprised the unicorn. It was staring in confusion at that box, when a man dressed in a brown coat and a blue suit stepped out of the box.
The man walked around the box, as if he was inspecting it and while he did that he gently petted the box and mumbled "Oh dear, oh dear. We were lucky that nothing happened to us."
It took the unicorn a bit to get out of its state of shock but it then stepped towards the man and the box and gazing at them in wonder. Both were lost in their inspections, when the unicorn said out loudly "What is this thing?" and the men answered without turning around "It's a TARDIS, it's my ship." The unicorn was surprised to get an answer, it didn't expect anyone to speak to her after that incident with the monk.
After a while he finished his inspection and turned around to look at the person who had talked to him, the unicorn had stepped around a corner of the box so he could only see its back. "So what is a TARDIS?" it asked and turned around. Now that the man could see that he was talking to a unicorn it was his turn to be surprised. "You are beautiful, so beautiful" was all he could say.
As it heard those words it stopped looking at the box and looked at the man "You mean you can see me? You can see what, who I am?" The man nodded "Yes, I can see you. But I never expected to see one of your kind." The unicorn lowered its head and whispered "I might be the last of us." These words made the men sad and he told the unicorn "I know how you must feel, I'm the last of my kind too" The unicorn rose its head now in confusion as it said "How can you be the last of your kind? You are a human!"
The man awkwardly scratched his head when he thought for a solution on how to answer that. The unicorn kept looking at him awaiting a reply. "Well you see, errr", he began and then got an idea, "You see I am as much a human as you are a horse." "What do you mean?" "I mean that I am not human. I am a Timelord and I come from another planet named Gallifrey, but it no longer exists." "Another planet? How did you get here then?" "I came with my ship, the TARDIS." "You told me already that it is called TARDIS, but you didn't answer me when I asked what it is." "Well, TARDIS means Time And Relative Dimension In Space. With other words, I can travel with it through space and time."
The two of them had talked for about an hour, in which the unicorn found out that the man called himself the Doctor, as they heard a loud buzzing sound. Both of them looked around in confusion in order to find the source of the noise. It was the unicorn, who first saw the source. It told the Doctor from where the noise came, so he turned around. "No, that can't be, that shouldn't be here", he said. The unicorn looked at him "I suppose you have seen that before." He just nodded as he started sprinting towards the source of the noise which had stopped by now. The unicorn just shook his head and also ran towards the source and arrived there first.
Several seconds later the Doctor arrived and he knelt down next to a giant wasp. He recognized that the wasp was seriously wounded and was in pain. "Oh, I wish you could transform, then I could be able to help you." The wasp gave off a silent buzz but nothing else happened. "I guess you don't have enough energy left for that. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry", the Doctor said. "I can't help you in that form" The unicorn neighed silently "I can help, if you want me too." Before the Doctor could reply it lowered its head and held its horn against the injured wasp.
The horn glowed in a gentle light as the unicorn used the old magic all unicorns could perform. The Doctor watched astonished how the injury slowly healed up and when it was completely healed the unicorn raised its head and smiled. "Now that you are healed you could transform in a human body and tell us what happened", said the Doctor to the wasp.
The wasp then started to transform to a human "I have to thank you two. Without your help I wouldn't be alive anymore. I'm called Arras Vynferas and have a request, if you would be so kind to help me." The unicorn and the Doctor looked at each other and then back at Vynferas, before they nodded.
Vynferas then started to tell them, that he came to earth to find out more about humans and that he fell in love with a human woman. But her father forced her to marry a rich lord instead of the man she loved. The wedding ceremony was supposed to be on the next day and he had wanted to run away with her. When he came to her place to take her with him, he was attacked by the guards.
After Vynferas had finished with his story, he asked the two again "So will you help me to free my Lily, so we can run away and be happy together?" The unicorn and the Doctor both replied at the same time "I'll help you"
The Doctor, the unicorn and Vynferas were sitting, or lying in the unicorns case, on the grass and discussed how they should hamper Lily's wedding with Severin Harnell Jr. on the next day. Once again Vynferas suggested to just attack them to free Lily but the other two didn't agree with that violent solution. "Ahh come on" ranted Vynferas, "That's the best idea we had so far" "We are not going to kill or hurt anybody, if we can avoid it" replied the Doctor, "If I remember right you said that they would hold a party tonight, right?" As Vynferas nodded the Doctor went on "We should infiltrate that party and help Lily to flee during that party." "But you need an invitation to enter the grounds" said Vynferas. The Doctor took out his wallet with the psychic paper and grinned "Not as long as we have this" Now the unicorn interfered "Ok now we can enter the party, but wouldn't we need some kind of distraction?" "Oh yes, oh yes" said the Doctor and started explaining the plan he had come up with.
A bit later the unicorn and Vynferas nodded in agreement with the plan and Vynferas said "That's a good plan but you can't go on the party looking like that" The Doctor looked down on his clothes "Why? What's wrong with them?" "Well I doubt they would let you enter in those even if you have an invitation" "Fine, I'll go put on some more appreciate clothing, but you need a disguise too. Come follow me" With that said the Doctor got up and walked back to the TARDIS with the other two following him.
As they reached the TARDIS the Doctor entered it at once and the unicorn followed him, while Vynferas just stood there and stared at it. "What is this?" "My spaceship and now hurry up we have lots to do" shouted the Doctor from the inside. Vynferas followed that command and stepped inside where he just stood and stared again "It's bigger in the inside!" The Doctor just rolled his eyes and said "It is? I never noticed", while the unicorn giggled. "Ok, follow me" said the Doctor and then looked at the unicorn "Uhmm ok you better not follow me, I don't think you'll fit through the staircase.
When Vynferas and the Doctor entered the dressing room the Doctor suggested "Ok, you should look for your own outfit. Wigs are on the second floor in the fifth shelf." That said he disappeared in the depth of the room and Vynferas followed his directions. Both checked several dressings, but while Vynferas's fitted with the current clothing style the Doctor held up dresses from several centuries. These dresses included a Venetian suit from the 18th century, a long, dark leather coat with dark clothes and a roman toga, before he decided to wear some typical medieval clothing.
Since they finished dressing up, they both went back to the control room where the unicorn was waiting. The Doctor nodded in the unicorns direction "Now all is left is her." "Yeah, but what should we do with her?" "I thought we would braid some ribbons and some bead chains in her mane and tail." The unicorn looked suspiciously at the stuff but agreed to the braiding and so the Doctor and Vynferas started to braid it.
Dusk was close, when the Doctor entered the inner yard of Harnell manor, after he accessed entry with his psychic paper. He could see that a lot of guests had arrived already and were scattered in several smaller groups. Some waiters were walking through the crowd with wine and food.
The Doctor strolled between the groups and took a glass of wine from one of the waiters. When a man passed him he said "Hello" but he was ignored and so he said "Good bye". He got closer to a group of women who were talking and greeted them "Hello" but they as well ignored him. "Maybe later then" he muttered and went on to the next group, but this time he tried to laugh at a joke they made and since he was ignored again he tried to show off with his expensive clothing, but all didn't work.
Since he was ignored by everybody he muttered to himself "I'm fine. Yes, I'm fine. Super, marvellous, just dandy. Thanks for asking." He then took another sip from his wine and noticed that a beautiful woman was watching him from across the crowd. She fitted the description he got from Vynferas and so he assumed that this woman was Lily. He nodded in her direction and silently asked "what?" but she just looked at him and so he shrugged, which made her smile. After a while she turned away and he emptied his glass of wine so he could give it to the passing waiter.
The Doctor now went to the group which contained Severin Harnell Jr, the husband to be for Lily. They talked about different things and the Doctor interrupted Harnell several times to correct him. This angered Harnell a lot so that he punched the Doctor on his nose. He was so surprised, that he fell down and held his nose, while Harnell turned around and walked away with his friends.
Because of the nosebleed the Doctor went to a fountain, which was a bit away and couldn't be seen from the inner yard. There he cleaned his nose with a handkerchief and cooled it at the same time. He didn't notice that Lily had come to check up on him, until she spoke "That was a stupid idea." "Yes, it was", he said as he looked up and recognized her "You are the future wife of that 'violent' man". "That I am" she replied with a sad voice." "I have to tell you something from Arras." She looked at him in surprise as he started to explain their plan to her.
Meanwhile the sun had set and it was time to commence the plan. The Doctor jumped on a low wall and shouted "Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to this marvellous party. I want to introduce everybody to my wedding gift for the great couple." He nodded towards Lily and Harnell and then called for his servant. The disguised Vynferas entered with a beautiful white mare, whose hair was decorated with blue ribbons and pearl chains.
The ladies all glared in awe at the beautiful mare, they couldn't believe that such a delicate and graceful being existed. And even the men were bound by the beauty they saw. After a while the people started to whisper about the present, wishing they could have it. The unicorn, which wasn't used to this kind of attention started to prance nervously.
The Doctor was pleased with the results he got for this part of the plan and grinned cheekily, while saying to himself "Brilliant." And while the Doctor was still grinning to himself, Harnell stepped closer and started to inspect the unicorn. When Harnell tried to open its mouth to check on the teeth the unicorn threw its head back and neighed scared and loudly. This made Harnell really angry and he grabbed his cane and started to hit the unicorn.
The guests all stared in shock at Harnell since they couldn't believe that he was hurting this graceful animal and even the Doctor was in shock for a bit. It took the Doctor a few seconds to fight the paralysation that had overcome him, but once he could move again he jumped at Harnell and pulled the arm with the cane back. The two of them wrestled for a while but Harnell was stronger than the Doctor so that the Doctor was thrown in front of the hoofs of the startled unicorn. This caused the unicorn to go wild and kick around.
Vynferas, who was in shock first too, used the commotion to sneak to Lily, who was watching the scene anxiously. As Lily felt a slight tap on her right arm she gave out a silent scream, but except for Vynferas nobody could hear it through the loud neighs of the unicorn. "Shhh shhh, stay calm" said Vynferas in an effort to calm her down. It took Lily a bit to recognize him, but once she did she gave him a big hug and sighed "Oh dear Gily, I missed you so much." "I missed you too" he replied and looked deep in her eyes "But we have to leave now quickly, while everybody is distracted." "But that's not what the plan said." "Yeah, I know but I don't think we can carry on with it in this situation" replied Vynferas and pointed at the nervous and scared unicorn and the guests, who were scared as well. Lily just nodded at took his hand, before they both ran away.
The Doctor, who was lying between the legs of the kicking unicorn, noticed that Vynferas and Lily got away. He cautiously crawled away from the unicorn and got up. Harnell grabbed him from behind and grumbled angrily "YOU! What kind of game are you playing?" "What do you mean? I'm not playing any game here" replied the Doctor hysterically with a higher voice than usual. "Are you trying to…" Harnell started but he was knocked out by a kick at his back from the unicorn and he buried the Doctor under him as he fell.
The now calmer unicorn looked down on the Doctor and reckoned "You should have told me that this could happen." "Yes, I should have" moaned the Doctor as he tried to get Harnell from him. After he had freed himself and gotten up, the Doctor looked around. "Hmm we caused a nice commotion here but I think we should run." He noticed that all men had drawn their swords and shouted "Yes we should really run. RUN!" He sprinted towards the gates and the unicorn followed him.
The unicorn and the Doctor had run for about two hours as fast as the Doctor could. They had reached a forest and under its leaf canopy it was pitch black. And they could hardly see where they stepped. After some time the unicorn asked "Shouldn't we go back now and meet the others at your ship? I don't think that those men are still following us." "I guess you are right" agreed the Doctor. That said they turned around and headed towards the TARDIS.
Meanwhile, at place far away from the Doctor and the unicorn, Lily and Vynferas hugged and kissed each other relieved. They had managed to get away without anybody noticing them. "I love you so much" murmured Vynferas while kissing her. The reunion took some time before Lily started ask him out about the help he had in order to rescue her. Vynferas told her everything about the Doctor and his TARDIS and about the unicorn. While he did that they started to head back to the ship. And as he told Lily more and more about the unicorn she started to wonder, since all she had seen was just a white mare.
It took both groups some time before they reached the TARDIS, but since Vynferas and Lily were a lot closer they were there long before the other two. Because Vynferas didn't have a key to it, they both sat down in front of it, holding tightly onto the other. They had fallen asleep, when the Doctor and the unicorn appeared. The Doctor decided to let them sleep and showed the unicorn where it could get some rest before he carried the reunited couple in one of the many bedrooms in the TARDIS.
Noon had already passed, when Lily and Vynferas woke up. It took them sometime to find the control room and they got lost several times on their way. Only because of the dressing room they managed to get to the control room, because Vynferas remembered the way from there. When they entered the control room, they saw how the Doctor explained something to the unicorn something while handling they controls.
"Ahh, good morning you two. I hope you two had a nice night" greeted the Doctor as he noticed Lily and Vynferas. The Doctor stepped closer to Lily, giving her his hand. "Hello, I'm the Doctor by the way. Nice to meet you" he said and winked. The unicorn also came closer and wished them a nice day which made Lily look at it in surprise, since she now could see the horn on its forehead and could hear it. Then Lily started to smile gently at the unicorn and petted it. "Nice to meet you and thank you for your help" "Can you.. can you see me?" asked the unicorn and Lily just nodded as answer.
"So, where do you want to go to? I'll bring you there" asked the Doctor. It was Lily who replied "To the home village of my mother, I have relatives there. And I would be happy, if you two would stay for a bit and attend our wedding" Vynferas took her hand as he said "It would be great if you two stayed for the wedding." "Brilliant. Of course I will stay" replied the Doctor and the unicorn also agreed to stay for the wedding.
A little girl opened the girl and looked up at the group. "Ah, you must be Molly. Hello dear I'm your aunt Lily" greeted Lily the girl. "My aunt?" the little girl couldn't believe and shouted "Father, father there is a group of strangers here." They all could her footsteps coming closer and a bit later an older man stood in front of them. He looked surprised at Lily "Is that you sister? Ah, no can't be, she should be much older so you must be Lily her daughter" Lily nodded and found herself in a hug. "Come in, come in. Molly dear go bring that beautiful horse in the stables." Except for the unicorn, who was brought to the stable everybody followed Lily's uncle to the living room.
They had been in the living room for hours now and had explained Lily's family what had happened. Her family was amazed and agreed that the wedding should be as soon as possible. Daniel, Lily's uncle, had invited Father Mulcay and now they all were having dinner together and making plans for the wedding. They scheduled it for next Saturday, which was in three days. Until then everybody could stay at the house of Lily's family.
It was a sunny and warm Saturday, the best conditions for a wedding. The whole village had been invited and was now sitting in the church. They all were glaring at that gorgeous white mare in the front, next to a man dressed in weird clothes. The unicorn was uncomfortable with this and started to paw the ground with its hoofs.
Vynferas, who was dressed in expensive robes, was waiting nervously for his bride. Father Mulcay smiled gently and tried to calm him down. And then the great moment came. Lily entered the church next to her father and walked towards the front to Vynferas and the priest. After a long and heart breaking ceremony Arras and Lily could finally kiss each other as Mister and Misses Vynferas.
After the wedding all guests and the happy couple went to the marketplace to celebrate with a big party. All over the marketplace where long tables full of food the only free place was in the middle. The guests headed first to the tables to eat and drink. About a hour later a small group of musicians started to play and Lily and Arras started the first dance of the evening in the free space of the marketplace. More and more guests joined them until everybody was dancing happily. The Doctor had asked the unicorn to dance with him and so they were dancing on another free place so the unicorn wouldn't step on any feet by accident.
It was already deep in the night and most of the guests had left when the unicorn and the Doctor decided to leave as well. They went to meet the Vynferass to tell them goodbye. After a long goodbye scene with lots of hugs and tears the unicorn asked one last question "Say do you know anything about King Haggard and where his kingdom lies?" Arras shook his head since he didn't know anything but Lily had a clue and told the unicorn "I heard that his kingdom is somewhere to the east. I hope you find your friends and wish you lots of luck for your journey" The unicorn thanked Lily and the turned east to find its comrades, while the Doctor went back to the forest and his TARDIS.
Inside the TARDIS the Doctor took out a chest and started to search something inside it. He had nearly emptied it completely until he found what he had looked for. It was a book named "The Last Unicorn" and he looked sad at it while patting it gently. When the Doctor had heard the name Haggard something in him had remembered about this book. He now knew that the story he had once read was real and that he had met the unicorn from the book. A single tear ran down his cheek because he knew now which hardships his new friend had still to surpass.
Meanwhile the unicorn had walked for the rest of the night and for the whole day. Now it was lying down under a tree next to a road and fell asleep immediately. Because it was really tired it slept deep and didn't here the noises coming closer and closer on the road. It was the wagon trek of "Mummy Fortuna's Midnight Circus" which stopped on the road next to the unicorn.