//------------------------------// // Insanity in All Its Forms // Story: The Drums of War: How to live as a Timepony // by ShackledTime //------------------------------//    We had been driving for at least a dozen hours since we first left. Tyler had fallen asleep around 1:30 this morning, making my drive much more quiet than I would’ve liked. So to pass the time, I conversed with the Master; stuff like what he could still do as an equine, which is surprisingly not that hindered, he did say he missed having thumbs though.   It was 11:14 when Tyler finally woke up, seeing me still driving. “Did you even get any sleep?” he asked, rubbing the crust from his eyes with the palm of him hand.   “Nope,” I replied, smiling, “I don’t need to, not unless I use a boatload of energy at once anyway.”   “Really, huh...” Tyler yawned as he pulled out a muffin from his backpack, which was on the passenger side floor, “... I wouldn’t have thought you could do that.”   “Still not convinced I’m the Master?”   “Meh,” he shrugged, taking a bite from his late breakfast, “You still eat though, don’t you?”   “I could do with a slight bit of food, I guess,” I replied.   I pulled the car into a nearby Quiznos and cut the engine. We had already left most of Georgia behind, so we were unfamiliar with any of the people here, not that it stopped a bunch of people from staring at me as I walked up to the counter.   I put my hooves on the counter to get the cashier’s attention. “Hello,” the woman with a name tag that read ‘Carol’ said, a sincere smile on her face, like having a pony in her resteraunt was normal, “welcome to Quiznos, how may I help you?”   Tyler came up behind me, his phone out, probably playing Mother or something. “Yes,” I began, listing off what I’d normally get, “I’ll have a meatball sub with pepperoni, swiss cheese, and ranch dressing, and my brother will have the same, without the dressing.”   She gave me an odd look at that, “You sure?” she asked, “I don’t think you’ll like meat, considering, you know...”   “Oh, rubbish,”(always wanted to say that) I said, waving a dismissive hoof, “I’ll be fine.”   “I’ll just add the pony special, just in case,” she said, writing it down on a notepad, “don’t worry, the extra is free of charge”.   “Pony special?” Tyler said with a slightly annoyed expression, looking from his phone, down at me, “I blame you...”   “Yeah, we’ve got a few others that live around here that were turned into ponies as well,” the cashier says with a smile, ”and we’ve been told it’s what they like.”   “Well I’ll certainly try it,” I say, the cook’s bell rang, announcing that someone’s order was up.   “Your total comes up to $17.04,” she said. I pulled out my wallet from my collar, pulled out a 20 and giving it to her. I got my change and the receipt as she began to gape at me.   “Wow,” she said in amazement, staring at my collar, “how’d you do that?”   “Oh, the collar?” I gestured to it with a hoof, “well, you know Doctor Who?”   “A little,” she admitted.   “Well the same principle works the same as the TARDIS,” I answered, “simply put, it’s bigger on the inside.”   “That is so cool,” she replied, “what else you got in there?”   “Just a few personal things,” I said, enjoying the attention.   It was then that our own order arrived. “Thank you, Carol,” I nodded my thanks as Tyler carried the tray over to a table. The pony special apparently came with a side of hayfries, from what the Master told me.    I unwrapped my sandwich, Tyler having already dug into his, the smell alone nearly made my mouth water. ‘That’s the thing about Timelords,’ the Master mentally said, ‘eating isn’t really as important, so you feel it tastes better since you don’t eat as much.’. I then took a bite from my mess of a sandwich, only to have some sauce and a meatball fall out the other end.   “Damn,” I said to myself, deciding to spear the ball on a fork and eat it anyway, seeing the ‘pony special’ still wrapped up, I opted to see what Carol was talking about. I wrapped up the meatball one and scoot it to the side in favor of the new one. Unwrapping it revealed a lettuce and onion sandwich, with a few seasonings. I take a bite and almost started to laugh ‘Didn’t think a veggie sandwich would ever taste as good as meat,’ I thought to myself. I take a bite of one of the fries, “Not bad,” I said appreciatively, nodding my approval, “could use a bit of salt, but still”.   We ate the rest in silence, thanking Carol for the sandwich before we leave, half a meatball sub still uneaten for later.   When we reached the car, I noticed that; one, we were low on gas, and two, my laser screwdriver was losing energy, fast. ‘Blasted human technology,’ the Master scowled, ‘limited energy is going to be a hassle if we need to charge the thing every day’. “So,” Tyler began shifting my focus to him, “did you see any gas stations near here?”   “No, but I did see a billboard saying there was once a mile up the road,” I said, using a bit more of the screwdriver’s power to start the mental link back up, getting in the driver seat as I do so.   “Then you’d better start driving,” Tyler smirked as he climbed in next to me.   I looked around the dashboard and saw something, the car outlet to be exact, ‘maybe I could hook something to the screwdriver so it’d charge off here,’ I thought, waiting for the Master to respond. ‘No that won’t work,’ he said, ‘not nearly enough electricity in there to even charge it half way’.   We found the station easily enough, and I decided to try my luck with a quick jumpstart of power from an outlet behind the station. So, I worked my way into the socket, removing the panel so I could get at the wires. As soon as I was able to do that, I spliced the wires and just about electrocuted myself when I touch them.   I quickly attached the wires to the base and tip of the laser screwdriver, a loud pop and the generator cutting off sounded as soon as I did so, people inside immediately freaking out inside the building, “What happened to the lights?” I heard a woman say. I looked back down at my screwdriver and saw it was glowing, almost too brightly at first, before it died down and I picked it up.   “Run...” I said, trotting quickly to the car, Tyler followed close behind. As soon as we closed the doors, I started driving away, fearing that I may have just majorly damaged private property. I made no move to show it on my face, but I’m kinda afraid of going to jail right now. A few minutes passed and I’m fairly certain we weren’t followed, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that at least we got away without a hassle. **** **** **** ****   “So, how far to Tennessee?” Tyler asked as we continued to drive.   “Not too far actually,” I said, “about another half hour at the most”.   A sudden pain shot through my head, ‘Oh no,’ the Master said suddenly, the drums beating faster than before. I quickly pulled off to the side of the road and stopped the car, clutching my head in pain, groaning in agony.   “Shane,” my brother started, a look of fear on his face, “what’s wrong?”   “I...” I stuttered, “I don’t know, ju...just let me rest for a bit.”   As soon as I finished saying that, my body started to sway before I fell unconscious, face on the wheel. **** **** **** ****   I open my eyes to see that I’m standing on my feet, nothing underneath me as I look around.  My feet, I’m human again. “Hello,” I call out, my voice is mine again, but it still has the Master’s accent. I took a step forward and the floor shows itself, a bright glow blinding me for a moment, illuminating a stained glass pillar, a gallifreyan choir softly singing from somewhere unknown.  My breath is caught in my throat, the image of the Master and I on opposite sides, faces we each know in the circles surrounding us; Chantho, Rassilon, The Doctor, Tyler, my father, and my mother, the rest of the circles were full of Gallifreyan writing.   “What do you think?” I hear a voice say.   I quickly turn to see the Master, though it looks as if he’s shifting somehow, like I see him as a human one moment, and as a pony the next. “A station of awakening...” I say, looking at him with a bewildered look on my face.   “Yes,” he said, “I shifted through your memories and found something similar to this from a game called ‘Kingdom Hearts’, I saw that you were fond of it, and I thought it would be a good place to talk”.   “What happened just now?” I ask.   “A mental break,” he stated, “I had put up a barrier on your mind as soon as Discord caused you to have to hear those drums”.   “So, I’m losing my mind?”   “It’s highly possible,” he said, “remember what happen to Donna when she remembered the Doctor?”   “What’s going to happen to me?”   “In all honestly, I don’t know, the merge is already starting to take effect”.   “Merge?” I ask, “what do you mean ‘merge’?”   “Look for yourself,” he said pointing to me.   I look down and see that I’m wearing a black hoodie , red shirt and grey sweats, the same thing the Master wore when he fought Rassilon and ‘died’. “So I’m becoming you?” I asked.   “From what I gather,” he explains, ”we have no choice in the matter, and most likely, you’ll be overridden by my memories and insanity, what with Discord’s influence trying to kill us”.   I stand there for a few minutes in silence, my head down, my thoughts a mix of emotions. The Master walked up to me, putting a hand/hoof on my shoulder, “I’m sorry you ha-”   “No...” I interrupt, “I won’t accept that.”   I could feel the Master staring at me, “But we can’t control it...”   “I don’t care,” I say, looking at him in his pain filled eyes, “I won’t lose myself just because I’m told I will”. I’ve always been the one to break expectations, a bit of a bad habit considering it got me in and out of trouble several times in my life.   “How?” he asked, a stern look on his face.   “By being something Discord wouldn’t think I would be.”   “And what would that be?” the Master asked me, a hint of a smile creeping onto his face.   “Hopeful,” I say.   The Master chuckles a bit at that, “Humans,” he begins, “they’re the only race that believes in the impossible, but when it comes down to it, that’s what keeps them alive, hope”.   I look at the Timelord and see him staring off into the black void around us. I follow his gaze and before me is the universe, all that has been, is, and will be, the entirety of space and time unfolding before my eyes. All the war, the violence, the blood... but then there were the good things, the prospering of civilizations, the kindness they would show each other.   “I’d forgotten these memories...” the Master said as he looked on, “the drums made me forget”. I was too busy to hear him, the sights and sounds beginning to almost hurt to take in. “This is the time vortex,” he told me, “all the knowledge of the universe in the mind of an insane Timelord”.   The images faded from view, leaving the pillar alone in the void. “No matter how much you try though,” the Master said turning to me, “you will be flooded with my memories, it’s all on you if you can handle them or not, remember that”.   “Go through my memories,” I said soberly, “see just what humans are capable of, sure I’m scared as hell of losing myself, but that won’t stop me from trying.” **** **** **** ****     I woke up and found a few feathers in my mouth, the remnants of a down pillow in my hooves. I spit out the feathers and looked at the clock in the car to see that it was only 2:37PM, so I was only out for a short bit. I looked around to see Tyler standing outside the car, phone to his ear, talking to our dad probably. I caught only the end of the conversation, “... yeah, I’ll make sure... okay, see you when this is all over, bye”.   He climbed back into the car and saw the ruined pillow. “Um... where’d you get the pillow?” he asked picking a feather out of my coat.   “That’s what I was going to ask you,” I say, tossing the pillow into the back of the car.   “Huh... so, are you feeling okay?” he asked me.   “Yeah,” I assured him, “I’ll be fine, it was just a bit of a thing that happens to the Master often, apparently”. I didn’t want to tell my brother he might lose me, at least not now, so I decided to keep that bit of info to myself. I started up the car and began driving, making small talk as we went.   “So,” I began, “if you had to choose, what do you think would win in a fight, living Gak or Morpha from Ocarina of Time?”