Knights of Equestria: part 7

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Knights of Equestria, part 7: The Mad Stallion With a Box

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     "Let's see, let's see, Bardaby's Book of Biconian Ballads, Shakesteed's 7th-century Poetics, Quantum Magic Theories, and one old copy of Legends of the Rainbow." Yellow Jacket straightened out the stack of books on the university library's counter and looked around it at the purple unicorn across from him. "I never took you for a Shakesteed filly, Twilight. Got a secret poet side nopony knows about?"

     Twilight Sparkle gave the yellow Pegasus and fellow university student a small smile as she levitated the pile of books into her bags. "Not really, no. I just came across an utterly fascinating theory on working magic through song and voice, and I wanted to explore down that avenue for a while. You know how it is."

     "Oh, yes I do!" Yellow Jacket smiled. His forehooves clopped against the wood of the counter as he grew more excited. "Beethooven's theory on sonic wavelengths affecting the density-per-distance of magic fields was incredibly forward-looking for his time. Looked at through the lens of Colterson's-"

     "Reverberation Paradigm," Twilight continued, "And it not only provides an explanation for why sometimes music seems to come out of nowhere, but it also opens up the possibility of artificial magic manipulation-"

     "Through hoofheld sonic generators!" Yellow Jacket beamed. "You have been doing your research into this field, haven't you Twilight Sparkle?"

     "So have you," Twilight responded, returning his smile. "Sometimes, I think you would have made a fantastic unicorn."

     "I..." Yellow Jacket's smile faltered some. "I think so...too. Still, I make do..." But Twilight had turned away and was trotting to the arched doorway leading out into the Canterlot University courtyard. Jack watched her go for a few seconds, his eyes locked on his lazily swinging tail. She had such a lovely color scheme, he thought, and her cutie mark was beautiful...

     "Uh, Twi-Twilight!"

     Twilight looked back to Jack at she shout and put on a smile. "Yes, Yellow Jacket?"

     Jack shuffled his hooves a moment, the sudden butterflies in his stomach threatening to send him to his knees. "Uh, well you see, Moondancer is throwing a little party tomorrow in the west castle courtyard, and I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go together?"

     Twilight's smile dropped, making his drop with it. She coughed and scratched the back of her head with a hoof. "Oh...jeez, sorry Jack, but I...already have plans for studying tomorrow. Plus you're not really my type."

     "..." Jack looked down and turned away. "Oh, okay. Well, have fun with your studying then. Tell Spike I said hi."

     The only answer he received was the sound of the door shutting.

     Yellow Jacket woke up. A groan escaped his lips as he sat up and looked around at where he was. It seemed to be a meadow, though strangely quiet. No birds chirping, no grass rustling as little animals scampered through it; nothing at all. Several yards to the left of where he lay, Jack could see the outermost edges of the Everfree Forest.

     Jack moved to stand up from his laying position and suddenly screamed. He looked down to his side and saw it covered in blood, four stab wounds leaking the precious red fluid. He grimaced. "Oh, that's right...I must have passed out from using too much magic..."

     Turning around Jack reached into the leather satchel beside him, withdrawing from it the Element of Kindness. Looking at it, Jack slowly smiled before slipping it back into the bag. Next he pulled out a crystal vial filled with a crimson liquid. Jack looked into the liquid, its soft glow nearly imperceptible in the daylight, and smiled. Here, then, was how he had unlocked the magic within him. Here was why his life would end if Twilight did not save him. Here was why his soul was forever damned. Never before in the written history of Equestria had any pony done what he had done. None had ever drunk...

     "Pony blood..."

     Pulling out the stopper on the vial, Jack threw his head back and chugged every ounce down. A burning sensation filled his body, as broken skin began knitting itself back together.

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     Ditzy soared through the mid-afternoon sky from the Ponyville General Hospital. Her lemon-yellow mane flared out behind her, whipping wildly in the wind. The streets of Ponyville passed by beneath her, ponies looking up at her and giving cheerful waves and hellos. She returned their waves with ones of her own five, no, 10 times as enthusiastically. Today, she thought, was a good day.

     "Fly faster Mommy, fly faster!"

     Ditzy turned her head and smiled at the little unicorn filly clinging to her back. Dinky had just been released from the hospital. "Okay muffin, hang on tightly!"

     As the pressure from the hooves gripped around her back tightened Ditzy faced forward again. A grin crept across her face, and the next moment Ditzy and Dinky disappeared in a blast of light, replaced by a grey and yellow ribbon of light that whipped and zipped through the Ponyville skies, filling it with a child's wild laughter. Inside, Ditzy smiled with contentment. It wasn't a Sonic Rainboom like what her friend Rainbow Dash could do, but it was good enough for her little muffin.

     "Hey Mommy, if our house burned down, where are we going?"

     To the eternal confusion of anyone close enough to actually hear it, Ditzy screeched to a halt in mid-air, nearly throwing little Dinky off. The grey Pegasus blinked and thought about the question. "Uh...huh, yeah, I guess we're homeless now, aren't we?"

     Dinky groaned and pressed her face into her mother's back. "Mommy, where did you stay when I was with the nice nurses and Rainbow Dash?"

     Ditsy hesitated answering. Truth be told she hadn't been staying anywhere at all other than at her daughter's side the whole time. Through her close friendship with Doctor Whoof she had been allowed to sleep in a small cot a room over from Dinky and Rainbow Dash's room. Wait a moment. Rainbow Dash...

     "Ooh, ooh, that's right!" Ditzy looked back at Ditzy and smiled. "I've been staying at Rainbow Dash's house. Somepony had to keep it in shape while she was...er, gone. I'm sure she won't mind at all if we crash there until our house is rebuilt!"

     "But Mommy-" But it was too late as, with a whoop, Ditzy Doo zoomed off to Rainbow Dash's cloud home, leaving Dinky with nothing to do but hang on for dear life.

     It was but mere moments before the mother and daughter pair arrived at Rainbow Dash's cloud palace. Ditzy circled around it once, then twice, admiring as she always did the incredible level of craftsmanship her fellow Pegasus had put into it.

     "Rainbow Dash!" Ditzy landed on the front terrace and knocked on the front door. "Rainbow Dash, are you home?"

     "Maybe she's still in the hospital?" Dinky asked from Ditzy's back.

     Ditzy frowned and continued knocking. "No, she's out. I saw her earlier today at Sugarcube Corner when...ahhh...they had a muffin sale. Yum, muffins..." Ditsy gave an especially hard knocking, making the cloud door poof away. "Oops. Uh, I'll pay for that, Rainbow! You know I'm good for it!"

     Her shout through the open doorway received no response. Ditzy shuffled her hooves and flicked her wings with nervousness, a frown growing on her face. This wasn't right, her old marine instincts screamed at her. This wasn't right at all...

     "Maybe she's still at the bakery, Mamma. Ooh! Can we go? I want a cupcake!"

     Ditzy took a step away from the doorway, then another, and then turned away from it and prepared to take flight. "No my muffin, that's not a good place to be right now. Also I just realized how stupid an idea this was because you can't walk on clouds. Feel free to bonk your mom on the head, sweetie."

     Bonk.

     Ditzy rubbed the back of her head. "Ow. Okay, now we-"

     "Hello up there! Rainbow Dash, are you there?"

     Ditzy blinked at the distant voice, barely audible over the wind. Peeking over the cloud edge she looked down at the ground and saw Trixie standing there, the little dragon Spike sitting on her back. Ditzy leaned a bit further out and waved. "Hi there! Rainbow isn't home right now, can I help you?"

     Trixie ignored Ditzy's question and looked back at Spike. "Well, you know Rainbow Dash better than I do. Where else could we find her?"

     Spike tore his eyes from the grey Pegasus and her increasingly animated waving and looked at Trixie. "Well when she's not napping in a random tree she can usually be found playing pranks with Pinkie Pie or challenging Applejack to a contest."

     "Hmm." Trixie scratched at an ear and looked back up at Ditzy, who by this point was somehow balancing on her rear hooves on the cloud while waving both front hooves at them. "Who IS that? She's the pony who fought off Yellow Jacket, but what does she actually do?"

     "Oh, that's Ditzy Doo, Ponyville's mailmare and second-fastest flyer." Spike grinned and crossed his arms across his chest. "She's pretty cool, for a mo-wait, Yellow Jacket?"

     "Yes yes, Yellow Jacket, now an evil magic-using Pegasus with unknown plans, what, does Twilight not tell you anything anymore?"

     Spike frowned. "Well, no...not since you arrived."

     "Oh." Trixie looked away from Spike, back to Ditzy. "Well sorry for that. But anyway, DITZY! Could you come down here and-STOP THAT WAVING!"

     Ditzy froze mid-air, a light blush covering her cheeks as she dropped all four legs back down to the cloud. On her back Dinky giggled. "You're funny, Mommy. But I think you mad the Unicorn lady mad."

     A grin crossed the mail pony's face as she gave her wings a flap and drifted down from the cloud. "A life's not fully lived if you never upset somepony at some point during it."

     Once Ditzy touched down on the ground she smiled at Trixie and Spike. "Hello, people. How can I help you?"

     "We need your help to find Rainbow Dash," answered Trixie.

     "Why do you need to find Rainbow Dash?"

     "To help us find Twilight."

     Ditzy blinked, shared a look with her daughter, and then stared at the unicorn. "Then...why don't I just help you find Twilight?"

     "..." Trixie raised her hoof, paused, looked off into the distance for several seconds, and then set it back to the ground. "Uh...that is exactly what I was going to suggest. Yes, exactly." Spike began laughing at Trixie, until a buck sent him flying off her back. She huffed at the baby dragon before turning back to the mother/daughter pair. "Whatever. Do you have any idea where TWILIGHT might be then?"

     "Ooh, ooh!" Dinky hooped up and down on Ditzy's back and waved a hoof. "We could go check out Doctor Whoof's place! He fancies her!"

     "Fancies her?" Trixie quirked an eyebrow at the child, before switching to Ditzy. "That eccentric doctor...fancies our favorite egghead? I was wondering why he visited the library so much."

     Ditzy frowned and looked at her daughter. "Dinky, hush, it's not polite to gossip about other ponies. But yes," She continued, looking to Trixie and a recovering Spike. "Doctor Whoof has had a little crush on Twilight Sparkle for a while. I only know because I'm a close friend of his, nopony else knows.

     "Feh, that's what you think," mumbled Spike. He climbed back up onto Trixie's back and glared down at her. "Please don't buck me again."

     "I'll consider it," she responded. "Anyway, we're getting nowhere by just standing around here expositing. Ditzy, if you really think Doctor Whoof can help us, then lead the way."

     "Okay!" Ditzy turned and began trotting away, before suddenly halting. She and Dinky shared a look, before she glanced back at Trixie. "I should...probably warn you, Doctor's house is...kinda really weird."

     "Oh, please. I, the Modest and Humble Trixie, have traveled the world and seen countless bizarre sights. I am sure this will be more than ordinary enough."

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     "The Modest and Humble Trixie is willing to admit she might have been wrong in her earlier estimation." Trixie looked the blue wood box up and down, not quite sure what to make of it. "This is nowhere near ordinary enough."

     "I told yooouuu," Ditzy sang as she trotted pass Trixie and rapped several times on the door. "Doctor's house is like nothing you've seen."

     "But it's nothing like a house!" Trixie waved her hooves at the thing. "It's a box! It's blue! It's standing in the middle of Whitetail Woods! It's too small to fit anything! It's-"

     "-bigger on the inside," interrupted Doctor Whoof's head, poked out of the now-open door. He smiled at the two mares, filly, and baby dragon standing at his doorstep. "I couldn't help but hear and get annoyed at your shrill jaw exercising, so I came out to tell you to shut up."

     Trixie gaped at the pony head sticking out of the blue box. "I-but-space-what. What." She growled and gave her head a shake. "No. No, I got this, plenty of experience from my magic act with sleights of perception. That's just a plain box with enough room for one pony, barely. Lame prank."

     "Oh, is that so?" Doctor Whoof hopped out of the box and to the side, out of the way of the door. Then he gave a nod to Ditzy and Dinky. "If you fine ladies would like to go inside, go on. I have company who could use some cheering up. I need to have a little chat with our magician friend and the dragon." For a moment he glanced at Spike. "And you, stop being so quiet! It's freaking me out!"

     "Ooh, Trixie made Doctor mad!" Dinky giggled and hopped off Ditzy's back.

     "Dinky, hush, it's not polite to tease others like that." Ditzy frowned at her daughter, before turning and winking at Doctor. "Do try to be a little easy on her, Whoof. She's new around here."

     And with that, Ditzy and Dinky trotted into the box. Trixie tried to get a look inside, before Doctor stood in her way. He frowned down at her. "Hold on, magician, there's a few things I need to set down first." He waved a hoof at the box. "Firstly, you will be the first other than Ditzy, Dinky, and one other I've ever allowed into the DRIS, so treat it with respect and dignity. She is a sweety."

     Spike held up his hand and Doctor nodded to him. "What's a DRIS?"

     "Ah, leave it to the child to ask the most obvious and most important question first." He turned and opened the door, motioning inside. "Welcome, magician and dragon, to my Dimensions Relative In Space."

     The unicorn and dragon both looked at the doorway, whatever lying beyond hidden by a golden glow, and then shared a look. Trixie took one step, then another, and then with the third was inside the DRIS. Their jaws dropped at the sight, followed by what Trixie believed to be her stomach. "It's really...really..."

     "Go on, say it," Doctor Whoof said, closing the door behind them before half-trotting, half-skipping past the dumbfounded pair into the room. "I've not heard it too many times, but it never gets old."

     "Bigger on the inside," mumbled Spike. He looked around at it all. Gold/bronze walls surrounded a wide-open area that reminded him of the main lobby of the Ponyville library. It was littered with trinkets and strange machinery, all centered on some kind of dias at the center, from which emitted a soft humming sound. "This is so cool!"

     "I know, right!" Doctor held up a hoof, to which Spike gladly gave a high-five. "It's all Gallopfreyan in design. 10 generations worked on this thing, I'm the 11th. A sonic resonator at the center," here he pointed to the glass and metal pillar they now stood by, "manipulates ambient magic and PKE energy in the environment. Think of it like your old stagecoach, Trixie. How you could fold it up for travel, but when time for a show it could be unfolded for several magnitudes more space? Well, basically this place is folded and unfolded at the same time."

     Like Spike had done earlier, Trixie raked her eyes over the area, ignoring the giggles from Spike at what must have been a very dumbfounded expression. "Incredible...I'd always heard the Gallopfreyans were natural geniuses, but I never believed they had accomplished anything like this before-oh!" She looked over at Doctor to find his expression unreadable. "I'm, I'm so sorry."

     An awkward silence followed, until Trixie coughed. "Earlier, you said you had a guest? Is it Twilight Sparkle?"

     Doctor Whoof sighed as he looked away to a door on the far side of the room. "No, I'm afraid not, but it's somepony just as important. Listen, there are some things you need to be filled in on..."

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     "Mommy, may I go to the pool?"

     Ditzy looked from the door she stood in front of, down to her daughter. She smiled and patted the unicorn filly on the head. "Of course muffin, have fun."
Ditzy watched her little filly scamper down the hallway until a corner took her out of sight, before sighing and dropping her smile. It was a good thing that Dinky had asked that, she thought to herself as she brought a hoof up to knock on the door. It would make this next part much easier. "Rainbow Dash, are you there?"

     "..."

     Ditzy frowned and knocked again. "Rainbow Dash, that was just me being polite, I know you're in there. Doctor told me."

     "...go away. I don't want to hurt you."

     Ditzy sighed and gave the lock of the door a swift kick. It broke, allowing her to simply push the door open and enter. "No offense Rainbow, but you couldn't hurt me right now even if you wanted to."

     Rainbow Dash lay limp on the guest room's bed, her wings tucked to her sides and her eyes trained on the ceiling. Her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks wet from recent crying. "I didn't w-want to hurt my other friends either," she whispered. She fought back a sob and turned onto her side to look at her fellow Pegasus. "But I did anyway. I couldn't stop myself."

     Ditzy began to say something, before her friend's wording caught her attention. "Friends?"

     Rainbow Dash nodded. Her eyes filled with tears again as she rolled away to stare at the ceiling. "Twilight...I was telling her what happened, when she said the trigger words. I...stabbed her in the damn chest!" Rainbow collapsed, sobs wracking her body as all the guilt burst forth. "She was tr-trying to help me and I buried a knife up to the ha-ha-handle in her! But, but then she came back and did s-something to me, and now I can't fly! I-"

     Ditzy slapped her. Rainbow's words stuttered out as she held a hoof up to where her cheek stung. Her fellow Pegasus meanwhile flapped her wings and hovered above her, forcing Rainbow to look up at her. "Rainbow Dash, you calm down this INSTANT. You are not to blame for attacking her friends. The pony who put the illusion spell on you is. And no, you could not have overcome it through sheer willpower, that's a myth propagated by lame fiction. No pony without the proper training can break out of them. Trust me on this, once those are on you, you're gonna be affected."

     Rainbow Dash sniffled and looked away. "Let me guess, Marine Basic taught you that...wait!" Dash sat up and looked Ditzy in the eye. "Taught! You can teach me how to break out like you did! Then I wouldn't have to worry about attacking any of my friends again!"

     Ditsy smiled and placed a hoof on Dash's shoulder. "I thought you would never ask. Sorry for slapping you."

     "It's okay, I probably needed it." Dash settled back onto the bed, moving over so her legs were under her. "Now I just wish I knew what happened to Twilight and why I can't fly."

     Ditzy settled down next to Dash and wrapped a wing around her shoulders. "You don't remember?"

     Dash shook her head. "No, I blacked out after...after Twilight did something. It felt like she ripped something out of me. Could have been the illusion for all I know. Then next I wake up in a hospital bed with that crazy Doctor Whoof nearby, and together we came here. I..." she looked down. "I didn't want to be alone. And he promised that if anything happened again he would...take care of me."

     "That sounds like Doctor, all right. If it makes you feel any better, he really would have. Taken care of you, I mean." At this Dash shrugged and kept her gaze towards the floor. Ditzy sighed. "Well anyways, from your account I wouldn't be worried too much about not flying. It just sounds like she had to take a lot of your natural magic that lets you fly to remove the spell. It will replenish soon enough. So take stock of your fish shares, bumblebees sleep down the canal."

     "Yeah I-what?" Dash looked at Ditzy. Ditzy smirked back. A moment passed, and then just like that the tension snapped, and they fell off the bed onto the floor. Their raucous laughter filled the room and rang down the halls. It was the hardest Rainbow Dash could remember laughing in quite some time; a loud, clear, happy laugh that seemed to make all the hardships of the past and coming days that much smaller, that much easier to handle. Maybe it was, they didn't know. All they knew was here, in each other's presence, the laughter just wouldn't stop.

     Then suddenly a bump, a yelp, a little bit more rolling on the floor, and Rainbow Dash found herself on her back, looking up into a pair of beautiful lemon-yellow eyes. Ditzy Doo smiled down at her, seemingly more than happy with the position. Slowly, Rainbow Dash smiled back. The warm weight of Ditzy's body lying on her own felt so right, as if it had been missing all this time and was only now as it should be.

     "Ditzy, I-"

     A pair of soft lips against her own stopped Dash's words cold. Her eyes fluttered, a moan rising from her throat as a bolt of white-hot lightning raced down her spine. Her wings flared out to the sides, bringing a hot blush to Dash's cheeks before she wrapped her front legs around Ditzy's sides and began returning the kiss.

     "HOLY GUACAMOLE!"

     Both Pegasi yelped at the sudden shout and sprung away from each other, taking different sides of the room. They looked to the open door to see a slack-jawed Spike standing there. Rainbow Dash growled. "Spike, you little...little jerk! Knock next time!"

     Spike blinked, arms hanging to his sides and eyes glued to the spot where a moment ago he had seen Ditzy and Dash. "Holy guacamole!"

     Rainbow Dash quirked an eyebrow and looked at Ditzy. "I think we broke him."

     "Holy guacamole!"

     Ditzy sighed. "At least it wasn't little Dinky."

     "Holy guaca-"

     A blue hoof knocked Spike out of the doorway and Trixie walked through it into the room. "Doctor Whoof asked me to tell you two to keep it PG while he's gone." Here the Unicorn smirked, a light blush covering her own cheeks. "And to at least leave that kind of stuff to rooms without security cameras."

     Rainbow Dash groaned and collapsed to the floor, covering her face with her hooves. Ditzy merely blushed and released a chuckle. "Um...right, hehe. You said Doctor's gone?"

     "Yep." Spike picked him up from the floor and shot a glare at Trixie, before dusting himself off. "Whoof told Trixie about Dash attacking Twilight and stuff, Trixie told Whoof about some Knights of Equestria and stuff, then Whoof grabbed a metal cylinder thing and ran off. Also we need to go find Twilight and the others immediately, fate of Equestria, something something Tirek...I think that's it."

     "Find egghead #1? No problem!" Rainbow Dash lunged forward, wings spread, and promptly crashed to the ground, completely flightless. "Ow. Okay, new plan. You guys go find egghead #1, I'll stay and keep an eye on Dinky."

     "Okay! My muffin's in the pool."

     "Holy guacamole, this place has a pool!?"

     "That's strange, according to the security monitors she is in the library."

     Ditzy smirked. "So is the pool."

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     "JAAAAAAAACK!"

     Doctor Whoof slammed the library door behind him, nearly breaking it. He strode to the center of the library's main lobby and threw his head back. "Jacket! I would have some words with you!"

     The sound of pots banging and the fridge door closing came from the kitchen, and then Yellow Jacket poked his head out through the doorway. His mane was covered in small splotches by flour, and a bit of milk dripped from his chin. "Would you mind? I'm trying to make dinner here. Trying very hard."

     Doctor began striding towards Jack, glaring holes through him. "Oh really? How nice of you, let me make you something." In a flash he'd punched Jack in the snout, sending the Pegasus reeling back into the kitchen. "There, enjoy the hoof sandwich!"

     Jack climbed back up onto his hooves. His legs wobbled a moment before he steadied himself. He trained his eyes on the other stallion as he began edging his way out of the kitchen. "What the hay was that for!?"

     "Oh, don't play dumb with me!" Doctor kept pace with Jack, keeping the yellow Pegasus between him and the wall. You got really dumb or really arrogant, attacking Rainbow Dash with that illusion spell. Sowed some great confusion, but you know what happened?" He twisted around and hammed a rear hoof into Jack's side, forcing the air from his lungs in a gasp. "You got Twilight hurt!"

     Jack coughed, panting for air. With a flap of his wings he shot upwards towards the ceiling, out of reach. "Wh-what? What are you talking about? Is Twilight hurt?"

     "I said stop playing dumb with me!" Reaching his head back to the holster on his side Doctor drew a silver and gold rod, about the length of a toothbrush and with a green crystal fixture at one end. He pointed this end at Jack and pressed a button, causing it to light up and a shrill sound to fill the air. The next moment the Pegasus fell to the ground, his wings flopping uselessly to his sides. Before he could do anything Doctor strode up and pressed a hoof to his chest, pinning him to the ground. "Don't move."

     Despite the warning Jack continued flapping his wings, but no matter how he flapped, he couldn't get his magic to synch up with it. Wide eyes stared up at Doctor as panic began to set in. "What did you do? What did you do to me!?"

     "I de-synched your magic with your motor functions," replied Doctor. "It will take hours before you can fly again. So now you know how Rainbow Dash feels, I hope."

     "What?" Jack's flapping ceased. His chest rose and fell, still winded from the kick from the earth pony. Despite this his eyes blinked, flicking back and forth from Doctor's face to the device clenched between his teeth. After a moment understanding dawned in them. "You...you got Colterson's theories worked out. No, not just worked out, implemented! You're Gallopfreyan!"

     "..." Doctor Whoof removed his hoof from Jack's chest and stepped back, but kept the device trained on him. "Maybe, maybe not. That doesn't mean the same as it used to, and I'm not quite sure what my sonic screwdriver has to do with anything."

     Jack struggled to his hooves, letting out one, hacking cough before looking up at Doctor. "I didn't...I didn't do anything to hurt Twilight, or Rainbow Dash, or anypony at the bakery. Please, please, give the benefit of the doubt to a fellow Gallopfreyan."

     Doctor Whoof's eyes widened. He took another step back, before slipping the device back into its holster. Then he looked back at Jack and sighed. "I'm a doctor. My choice in life is to help ponies. So I'll let you explain yourself."

     Jack pulled a chair from the nearby desk and sat in it. "Firstly, everything I told you and Twilight those few days ago is true. I found a way to harness the natural magic within myself, discovered I would die from it if I didn't do something, and fled here. I've spent all my time here, in this library, in these books, looking for something, anything that could help. Twilight's been helping and so, I've noticed, have you. Thank you, I don't want to die."

     Despite the situation, Doctor Whoof found himself smiling. "I'm a doctor. That's what I do." Then his smile dropped, and he pulled over a chair to sit beside Jack. "So what you're telling me is that you haven't left this library at all? No scouting about town, no visits to the local shops, no prancing through the flower fields with your mane blowing in the wind?"

     "No, of course not, that would be stupid. Listen! Why would I attack Twilight's friends and risk alienating her? My life depends on her! I won't..." Jack slumped in his chair, his head hanging down. "I guess I have no proof to show I didn't do...whatever happened, you haven't told me yet. I only have the honesty of my emotions. I could never hurt her. Not her."

     Silence followed as Jack finished speaking and looked up at Doctor Whoof. Doctor looked back, his expression blank to the Pegasus. Minutes passed, and then, "You sound like a forlorn lover, sentencing himself to a dark and gloomy life."

     "Hm." Jack stood up from his chair and began to pace. "At the university, all the Unicorn students and faculty were against me. Except for her. Sure, I couldn't really call us friends, she never opened herself up for that, but she never judged what I could get accomplished just on my being a Pegasus. She, and the research, made everything else bearable."

     "Oh yes, of course. I take it everything else was unbearable then."

     The globe Jack had wandered to exploded in a burst of yellow magic. Jack whirled back to face Doctor. "Oh, that's an understatement. They did something they had no right to do. I was a Pegasus, they said. I had no right to study magic, no future studying magic. And they all worked...so hard to get me out of there. But they failed! They had no right to decide my future, my destiny for me! I will decide that! I am THE MASTER of my destiny, not them! It's their fault I did what I did!"

     No sooner did Jack finish speaking when a wisp of green smoke flew in beneath the front door and materialized into a letter in front of Doctor Whoof. Grabbing it from the air he held it in his hooves and read silently to himself.

     "We have found Twilight, and worse! Stay at the library, we're coming!"
-Spike.

     Doctor Whoof looked up from the letter at Yellow Jacket. "You might want to hide."