Chapter 5: The Moonbase
=The Moon of the Planet Gaia, 238, 857 Miles Above in Orbit, Canterlot Royal Palace, Palace Decorated Window Room, 1066 C.E. =
The Doctor looked over the TARDIS console as the TARDIS came to land. "Well that's… odd." He declared.
"What's odd?" Princess Twilight asked.
"Now that we're all here on the Moon, all the life signs I was scanning for have apparently just vanished. Meaning that they all just decided to die for no reason, or they don't want it to be very easy to find them." The Doctor explained.
"Back up to that first part." Princess Twilight said. "Now that we're all here on the Moon? We could not be on the Moon. Everything in the ship stayed in one place, and I didn't feel us moving. I didn't feel the effects of a unicorn teleportation spell, and it would be difficult even for me to teleport this entire ship all the way to the Moon. So thusly, there is no way we could have moved from the spot we were before."
Shining Armor rolled her eyes. His sister was still the same way she was 63 years ago.
"I look forward to seeing her reaction when she steps out those doors." The Doctor muttered to Romana. Then he smiled and pressed the lever to open the TARDIS doors.
Princess Twilight strolled out, and was shocked to see they were in the middle of the Canterlot Royal Palace Throne Room. "What?" she asked herself. She ran over to the shattered windows, not even caring what they used to be, and looked out of it. She was even more shocked to see the surface of the Moon (which was no longer darkened.) and her home planet circling it in the distance. "WHAT?" she turned back to the Doctor to ask him a few questions, but was even more shocked to see a little blue box in place of the gigantic spaceship she had just been inside. "WHAT?" she screamed as she ran over to the box and stuck her head inside of it, once again seeing the gigantic spaceship inside of it. Her hooves began to buckle, and she collapsed to the floor, babbling incoherently.
"You know, I just might just start saying that in a future regeneration." The Doctor said in reference to the three whats that Twilight had said. Then he began to examine his surroundings.
Shining Armor was also surprised by the bigger on the inside thing, but his non scientific brain didn't try to understand it, so he just didn't know what to think of it.
The Doctor noted that all lights in the place had been shut off, but now that the surface of the Moon was no longer darkened, everything was now very dim. "That's spooky. There are two groups of ponies we need to find, and there are four of us. So, in the immortal words of juvenile Earth entertainment… 'Let's split up and look for clues!'"
Romana buried her face in her hooves while Shining Armor and Princess Twilight (who had gotten up off the floor) just looked confused.
"I'll go with Twilight, who, despite the fact that she believes in magic and won't believe in technology, seems to be the sort of smart one." The Doctor said.
"Hey!" Princess Twilight said in annoyance.
"And I suppose that leaves you with Shining Armor, who seems willing enough to help out." The Doctor said as he gestured to the two.
"I sort of take offense to that." Shining Armor sad through gritted teeth.
"I'll go towards Luna's room, even though we're not likely to find anypony there. I'll leave it up to you to see where you're going." He grabbed Twilight and walked off.
When they got to Luna's room, they could not entirely tell if anypony was there, as the room was even darker than the rest of the room. The Doctor examined the place, deciding to make casual conversation.
"So, how's it like ruling the kingdom? You seem a little young, so it would be stressful, am I correct?" The Doctor asked.
"I am actually 83 years old." Princess Twilight told him.
"You certainly don't look it." The Doctor said.
"It's a long story. You see, 66 years ago, Princess Celestia sent me to Ponyville to study the magic of friendship…"
"Metaphorically?" The Doctor interrupted.
Princess Twilight glared at him, and continued the story. "I made 5 good friends, and we lived a rather normal life for what was close to 3 years. Then I completed this magic spell, achieved my destiny, and became an immortal alicorn princess. That's the short version, anyway."
The Doctor looked at her with a completely blank expression. She thought for a second that he would burst out laughing again, but he didn't. "I sort of understand one of those parts, anyway." He noted.
"How so?" she asked in disbelief.
"At this moment, I'm 760 years old, and I'm still far away from dying." The Doctor noted.
"How can you be 760? Ordinary ponies don't live that long."
"But Time Lords do. Tell me, where are your friends now? How did you deal with the fact that every friend you have ever made eventually had to pass by?" he said in a slightly saddened voice, as if he was referring to himself just as much as he was she.
"They're all still alive at the moment. Happy, doing quite fine. Rainbow Dash hit her head a bit too hard during one of her daredevil moves and has memory issues now, but the rest are doing fine. But how are you doing?" Twilight said.
"Good, good." The Doctor said. "I wonder if we'll find anything here.
Suddenly, glowing catlike eyes darted by them.
"And there it is!" The Doctor said as he began following them.
=The Moon of the Planet Gaia, 238, 857 Miles Above in Orbit, Canterlot Royal Palace, The Basement, 1066 C.E. =
Romana and Shining Armor, however, had gotten off to a much more awkward start and middle with their search.
"What's down here that you think may be what we're looking for?" Romana asked.
"Not sure. But the Doctor is looking closer to the top of the castle, and we're looking at the bottom. Strategically, we'll cover more ground that way." He said.
"Do you have any military experience?" Romana asked.
"I used to be the Captain of the Royal Guard before I became the prince of the Crystal Empire and accepted immortality." Shining Armor said.
Romana nodded as she walked through the castle. "You wouldn't expect most castles to have a basement.
"They used to be part of crystal catacombs, but a part of them were closed off a few decades ago to be used for certain things like storage and retreat. I guess since it was connected to the castle, it was teleported up here with the rest of the castle to the Moon." Shining Armor explained.
"Interesting." Romana said.
All of a sudden, the chamber went completely dark. It was impossible to see anything. Then the lights came back on, and Romana was all alone.
Before she really had time to react, Daring Do came up behind her and grabbed her by the neck. "I have been examining you." She told her. "You are the youngest and most sustainable of the Time Lords, I believe you called yourself. You unique physiology is perfect for my cause. I thought I needed Luna's mind, but you will be even better for my plans. You will be mine."