So, last time, Twilight (who was traveling with the Doctor) and the Doctor experienced some technical difficulties with the TARDIS. They landed in a post disaster Ponyville, and decided to find out what went wrong.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own My Little Pony, the MLP 'Victory' video, the 2008 Doctor Who theme, Doctor Who or Doctor Whooves. If I did, the Rani would had a better character than 'I am evil, I am sooooo evil', Nightmare Moon would be fleshed out, the abforementioned Youtube video would be canon AND an opening for season 3, and I would have connections to your favorite actors on both shows.
Twilight stepped outside, and observed her surroundings. Ponyville, to say the least, was in complete shambles. The streets were completely empty, except for scattered paper and broken lampposts, and a strong wind blew through the town. Every building was either boarded up, reduced to rubble, or in a state of disrepair. In some parts of Ponyville, nature was beginning to reclaim several buildings. However, there was no sun or moon in the sky. It was just dark grey clouds.
"This is terrible!" Twilight cried, "Some really significant events must have occurred between the time I left and now. But what?"
"Very good question," the Doctor responded, "And the only way we can answer that is if we do some good old fashioned investigation."
Twilight swallowed her fear, straightened herself up, and followed the Doctor as they trekked across Ponyville on the search for answers. Twilight was eager to find out what exactly occured. Everywhere she looked had the same bad news waiting for her. Ponyville seemed to have turn into a disaster zone, and not one pony was in sight. What could have been so terrible that it caused Ponyville to become a ghost town? Suddenly, a thought crossed Twilight. Some of the buildings were still erect - albeit sealed off - so it could be possible for Twilight's library to still be up. Another pony - or even Spike - could have been updating it since her absence... so it was completely plausible for the library to still be up.
"Hey, Doctor?" Twilight asked, "I personally think we should check the Ponyville Library."
"It's probably destroyed along with everything else," the Doctor told her.
"I'm not so sure about that," Twilight told him, "A few of the buildings are still intact. Who's to say that the library isn't one of them?"
"Brilliant, Twilight!" the Doctor cried, "Brilliant!" With a newfound hope, Twilight bounded for the library, with the Doctor following behind and trying to keep up. Inside, Twilight secretly prayed that nothing bad happened to the library as well.
All hope was shattered when Twilight and the Doctor found the Library - or at least, the remnants. All that was left of the library was a foot tall wall of wood, a scorched wood floor, and some burnt pages flying around in the gale. Nothing was salvageable.
"How could this happen?" Twilight screamed, kicking the walls, "What pony would destroy not only my home, but also a library's worth of books?" She stopped kicking the wall, took a deep breath, and turned to the Doctor. "I don't see anything here. Now we're in a tough place."
"Let's try to piece together what we have so far," the Doctor told her, "Sometime in the last ten years, a significant event caused the destruction of Ponyville, along with your library. But what?"
"Maybe we could ask that pony over there?" Twilight asked.
"Over where?"
"Over THERE!" Twilight yelled, pointing her hoof in the direction she wanted the Doctor to look.
"Don't be ridiculous, there's no-" the Doctor stopped when he saw that Twilight was rightl. There WAS a pony over there. It was a white unicorn with a long wavy pink mane, gold eyes, and a cluster of vines for a cutie mark. And she was coming right towards them.
Twilight stepped out in front of the Doctor. "Let me handle this." Twilight looked over to the pony and asked, "Hello...?"
The pony locked eyes with Twilight and grinned manically. "Oh dear, this isn't going well," the Doctor whispered.
Suddenly, the pony began to change. A small puff of turquoise flames burnt away the appearance of the unicorn. Twilight shut her eyes from the bright light burning them. Despite Twilight's efforts, the light still hurt. When she opened her eyes again, a black, insect-like creature with turquiose eyes, torn wings, and sharp white fangs. Twilight immediately knew what this was; she had last seen these at her brother's wedding.
"A CHANGELING!" Twilight yelled. After remembering how she defeated a few of them, she got into a fighting stance. "Doctor, I can take this thing on."
The Doctor looked at the Changeling and then Twilight again. He whispered to her, "Alright, Twilight. When I tell you to run... we run."
Twilight's response was: "Doctor, I've taken on several of these guys before. I don't think that one is going to be much of a problem."
Unfortunately, things got worse. Two more Changelings walked out, obviously annoyed. One of them gave it an irritated expression and yelled at it. The voice was a little unintelligible, but Twilight was able to make out 'You', 'moron', 'attacked', and 'too soon'. Behind the two Changelings were a small group of them.
The Doctor noted to Twilight, "I believe that we should run now."
Twilight looked at the whole group of Changelings. Without her friends there, the two ponies would definitely be outnumbered, and fast. "Good idea!" Twilight yelled.
With that, the Doctor speeded away, and Twilight did her best to stay on the same track as him. They ran up and down the streets of Ponyville - past a dilapidated Sugarcube Corner, through the yard of the sealed off Ponyville Schoolhouse, and running past a crumbling Carousel Boutique. At that point, Twilight looked behind her. To her shock, the Changelings were giving chase, and they were far from the TARDIS. Suddenly, Twilight's eye caught a dark, secluded alleyway. Perfect, she thought, and used her magic to pull the Doctor into the alleyway.
Both ponies found that the alleyway was almost pitch black, thanks to the tall structures, around it that refused to fall down. Several crates, pieces of broken furniture, and trash cans dotted the alleyway. "Doctor, here's what I'm thinking," Twilight whispered, "We wait out the Changelings in here. Once they leave us alone, we..." She paused. "Well, we need to figure out what to do next while we're here."
"After this, we should investigate what happened to Ponyville," the Doctor suggested, "You know, find the survivors, talk to them, gather clues... typical mystery stuff."
"That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea, Doctor," Twilight told him, "We both deserve an explanation about what happened to Ponyville."
Before anything else was discussed, the Changelings began to fill into the alley. Twilight turned away from the Doctor and studied the group. There seemed to be 10 Changelings, and each of them were coming towards the two genuine ponies with hungry looking eyes. "Doctor, if we don't act now, we're going to end up as their dinner," Twilight whispered.
"Well, we've only got two options," the Doctor responded, "Either we run deeper into this alleyway, or we get eaten right here and right now."
Twilight decided in her head that running deeper into the alleyway was a good idea. It was dark, deep, and seemed to go on for ages. She looked over to the Doctor, nodded, and ran deeper with him. They both ran side by side, with the Changelings in hot pursuit.
Unfortunately, the alley wasn't as continuous as they thought. After a few inches, Twilight bumped into a wall. The wall was crumbling and could give way in any seconds. Twilight turned around, and saw the outline of the Changelings coming towards her. She knew what the Changelings were capable of, and picking a fight with 10 of them would definitely not end well. They were both doomed one way of the other.
Suddenly, a shrill cry rang in Twilight's ears. One by one, the Changelings were knocked unconscious. Twilight saw who it was. It was a mare around the same size as her. It was a pegasus as well, and had purplish-red eyes. Twilight couldn't see any other features of the mare, due to the darkness. She looked over to the Doctor. "Doctor! There seems to be another pony here. She may know something about what's going on!"
"Brilliant!" The Doctor replied. Once the mare was finished with defeating the Changelings, the Doctor cried, "Excuse me! We've... well... been out of town for a while, and are curious as to what happened here."
The mare, however, had other plans. "Look, if anypony's gonna be asking anypony around here, it's gonna be me! I've seen this stunt before; two Changelings lure ponies over by pretending to get attacked, and then feed on that pony's love! Thanks to you scum, nopony lives here anymore!"
"But we aren't Changelings!" Twilight argued.
"Yeah, yeah!" the mare snapped, "That's what they all say! Now, listen; what are your motives?"
"We were trying to investigate what happened when we were attacked," the Doctor explained.
"LIAR!" the mare yelled. She mumbled, "By Celestia, I should've brought AJ with me. With her, questioning would be much easier."
As soon as Twilight heard the words 'AJ', she put two and two together. "Applejack's alive?" Twilight asked hopefully.
"Yes, and I'm not letting you two get anywhere near her! She's already lost half of her family to you, and I won't let you take any more ponies away from her!" the mare yelled. "Anyway, where was I?"
At this time, the Doctor decided to interfere. "Listen, I'm sure that interrogating every Changeling in sight is a lovely hobby, but we don't have much time. I'm the Doctor, and this is my faithful companion Twilight Sparkle."
"How terrible are you two?" the mare cried in fury, "Using the names of two missing ponies to convince others that you're good!"
"Now wait a moment," Twilight commented, "If we were Changelings, we would've been attacking you back there with the rest of them!"
"Well, if you're hiding in the dark, you obviously are Changelings that are too lazy to change appearance and are just doing convincing voice imitations," the mare retorted, "So if I am talking to you two in the flesh, step out of the darkness." The mare paused. "Wait a moment. Better test in mind. Twilight's a unicorn. So if you're really those two, then Twilight should be able to use her magic to light up this place!"
Twilight, eager to prove who she and the Doctor were, casted a light spell. Soon, the alleyway was flooded with light thanks to Twilight. The Doctor told Twilight, "Open your eyes, Twilight. I believe there's a pleasant surprise waiting for you."
Twilight opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was Twilight's old friend, Rainbow Dash. She hadn't changed very much, apart from seeming like she had had several restless nights. "Rainbow, is that you?" Twilight asked.
"Yep!" Rainbow grinned, "The one and only!"
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's been ten years, hasn't it?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow nodded. "You could've at least wrote to the gang and me!" Twilight nodded, beginning to feel guilty for leaving.
"I don't mean to intrude," the Doctor said, "But we need to find out what had happened. Now, Rainbow, do you know anything?"
"I know a lot!" Rainbow yelled, "But I have to get back to Camp S-Double-A before everypony else begins to worry about me."
"Fair enough," the Doctor told the mares, "In that case, Twilight-"
"Actually, Doctor," Twilight announced, "I'd like to go with Rainbow Dash. I'm sure that all of my friends miss me, and maybe they know something about what's going on as well."
The Doctor nodded. "Of course. And in that case, I'll go investigate Ponyville on my own."
"See you later, Doctor!" Twilight cried.
"Yeah, bye Doc!" Rainbow added as she flew out of the alley. Twilight nodded and followed after the pegasus, trying to catch up.
The Doctor watched them fly off. Suddenly, he remembered what Rainbow called him. He responded by running out of the alley and calling, "IT'S THE DOCTOR!" Unfortunately, the two mares were already too far ahead to hear him. The Doctor sighed and walked off, ready to investigate.
Next time in Triumphant...
'Right this way, Twilight!'
'Oh thank goodness! We thought something terrible happened to you!'
'Why? What happened?'
'Things have changed since ya left wit' him, Twahlaght...'
Next time, we follow Twilight and Rainbow Dash as they return to Camp S-Double-A. We'll catch up with some very familiar faces and if that last 'next time' quote means anything, some exposition is given out! Stay tuned!
Additionally: I'm not going to be able to write for 3 weeks starting Sunday. So, if there are any questions, concerns, or milkshakes, NOW would be the time. Also, these two chapters are going to be the only ones for a while.