Chapter 1: Coronas of the Sun

=Gaia, Equestria, Canterlot, Canterlot Royal Palace Grounds, 1066 C.E. =

The Doctor moved along, goaded by the push of a long spear from behind him. "Keep moving," the Royal Guard said to him. "You will be taken directly to the Royal Court."

"Well how delightful." The Doctor said over cheerfully.

The Guard rolled his eyes in annoyance, and pushed them into the halls of the castle.

"You know, I find the legal system of this Royal Court to be obscenely uptight." Romana noted. "We didn't do anything that terrible."

"Says the girl who appears to be good friends with the obscenely dressed stallion who talks obscenely too much." The Guard said sarcastically.

"I agree with him on that last part. You talk too much." Daring Do said.

"I know I talk too much. That's why I keep talking." The Doctor said.

The Guard pushed them through a very tall golden colored door, and walked away, rather happy not to have to listen to them anymore.

The Doctor, Romana, and Daring Do began walking through the rather lengthy room, admiring the many decorated glass windows that the Doctor figured depicted multiple notable historic events. In fact, most of them were used as an illustration in the detailed book he read about Equestrian history. He admired the fact that many more would come to be made in the future. Heck, they would even make one about the eclipse he had come to watch. He could tell this would be exciting to watch.

At the end of the room were five thrones for all of the Canterlot royalty. They were certainly a colorful bunch, all right. In the middle, there was a white alicorn (had both a horn and wings) with a flowing green, blue, and pink mane, with a one of those sun markings on her flank. The Doctor could tell she was the big leader. On the left side of her was a purple alicorn with a purple mane with a pink stripe in it, who also had a pink star marking with white stars around it. Next to her was a white unicorn with a blue mane and a shield with a star over it marking. On the end of the right side was a pink alicorn with a pink, purple, and yellow mane, and had the marking of a teal heart. Deductive reasoning told the Doctor that these last two were rulers of another land, but happened to be in town as of now. He did notice that the throne right next to the one with the sun mark, that he guessed was Princess Celestia, was empty, but it was decorated for who he guessed was Princess Luna.

He stepped forward. "Hello." He said simply.

"Hello sir." Princess Celestia said. "Now I have a question for you. Why were you waking all those ponies up at 4 in the morning?"

"Before I answer that, let me tell you our names." The Doctor said. "I'm the Doctor, this is Romana, and this is Daring Do."

"That is nice, but you still haven't answered the question." The purple one snapped.

"Princess Twilight, please. They were pushed in here quite fast, and we didn't even ask their names." Princess Celestia turned to the Doctor. "I suppose we will need no introduction."

"Actually, I don't know any of you at all." The Doctor half-lied.

Princess Celestia actually seemed a little taken aback by this. "Well, I am Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria. My sister, Princess Luna, is currently asleep right now. She is very stressed out. This was my former student, Twilight Sparkle, who, 63 years ago, turned into an alicorn princess. This is her brother, Shining Armor, who became royalty and the ruler of the Crystal Empire after he married her, Princess Cadance."

"Nice to meet you all. Now to answer your question, I was just making an early set up for the eclipse at 10:47."The Doctor said.

"What in Equestria is an eclipse?" Princess Twilight asked.

"I swear, why must everypony ask that? Don't you think it's great that I remember that it's everypony instead of everybody? I was only told once, and now I've always figured out to say that every time." The Doctor said, getting off topic.

"Are you even listening to us? What is an eclipse?" Princess Twilight asked.

"Oh, an eclipse is just when the moon passes between the Sun, obscuring it from view. I came here to get a good view of it. Sorry about waking a few thousand ponies up. It's just very exciting." The Doctor said.

Princess Celestia chuckled. "That cannot happen. My sister would not drive the Moon over the Sun."

The Doctor outright laughed. "Nopony can move the Sun. How can you move something so far away? How can you move something so big? Besides, how can you move something when magic doesn't exist?"

All the members of the Royal Court burst out laughing. "If there is no such thing as magic, what is this then?" Princess Celestia said as she lifted him up with her supposed magic.

"Biologically produced telekinetic energies, but that's it." The Doctor said as he was lowered onto the ground, crossing his hooves unhappily

"If you are insane enough to not believe in magic, you are fighting a losing battle trying to convince us of such." Princess Celestia said, still chuckling.

The Doctor began to storm out of the room. "Magic, eh? Magic? If you want magic, I'll show you something incredible, and there is no magic involved. See you in approximately 5 hours and 40 minutes to the second, or at least from your point of view!" And then he was gone.

"Where is he going?" Princess Celestia asked.

"5 hours and 40 minutes from now, about." Romana said.

5 hours and 39 minutes later, much had happened. Society in the city had gotten started, and the Royal Court had gotten started with their full Royal duties. Romana and Daring Do were still in the room, who were entertaining themselves by reading the story behind each of the glass windows, with Daring Do being more interested in the ones from the future. They had pretty much settled down, when all of a sudden…

The TARDIS rematerialized in the middle of the room, with the Doctor stepping out. "5 hours and 40 minutes on the dot, and no magic involved." he said.

The Royal Court clapped. "Nice magic." Princess Twilight said. "What is the trick?"

"But-"The Doctor said. "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC! No come with me!" he began walking away. The Royal Court sighed and got up and followed him.

"Has it even surprised you or worried you that Princess Luna is still not here?" The Doctor asked.

"Luna?" Princess Celestia said. "I suppose it should, but I guess if just didn't…"

"That's a powerful psychic blocking right there." The Doctor said as he walked into Princess Luna's room.

As soon as he was in the room, he walked over and stepped onto the balcony. "The eclipse should be in only two minutes."

"There can be no such thing as an eclipse!" Princess Celestia said as she walked over to Princess Luna and inspected her.

"She's still alive, so you can come over." The Doctor said.

With some hesitation, Princess Celestia, the rest of the Royal Court, and Romana and Daring Do walked over to the balcony

As they watched in shock, the Sun became passed over by a darkened extraterrestrial body, completely covering it, with only a ring of light around it shining over, darkening everything.

"That's impossible…" Princess Celestia said in shock.

Suddenly, there was a blood-curdling screech of death from behind them.