Gaia: approx. 1004C.E: Equestria: Canterlot Royal Castle: TARDIS
Celestia stared at the pony in front of her. The happy go lucky Doctor she was beginning to get to know (much to her annoyance) suddenly vanished, and what stood before her was a stallion hardened by war and grief. It was the first time she actually looked into his eyes, and for the first time since he had awakened, she could see loss. He had lost everything. In his eyes were hundreds of years of loneliness, sorrow, and knowledge. Secrets, secrets that must never be told even to himself lest the ghosts of his past were to overhear him. Celestia stood in silence as The Doctor walked over to what looked like some sort of metal glowing tree. She watched him fumble with a few switches and the rest of the room lit up with a green glow and circular lights shown down on her from the top of the celling. She mentally noted the room was inside the blue box and that by what had to be magic was bigger on the inside.
The Doctor was in a bad mood. He didn’t expect that in this new world, the troubles of his own would follow him through the void. He looked around the new desktop the TARDIS came up with. Despite the lights it was darker inside the main console room than its previous design. Perhaps the TARDIS was reflecting his and its own loss of Amy and Rory. He looked up and down the center console, no more up and down things, he thought to himself. In fact this whole desktop looked rather advanced compared to his others he had over the years.
“Doctor?” Celestia asked. “I’ll ask again…who are you?” This time when Celestia asked she wasn’t asking whom she thought was a lunatic, she was asking a lonely elder. The Doctor looking up at her for the first time in what felt like forever since they retreated into the TARDIS, sighed.
“My name is The Doctor. I’m a Time Lord from Gallifrey. I travel through time and space, sometimes with companions, sometimes not. I have lived for over a thousand years and have had many faces. I’m called the oncoming storm by some cultures and I am the last of my kind. I’m not even from the same universe as you are, as you most probably saw I crashed out of the sky.” The Doctor walked over to her and leaned on the hand rail at the top of the ramp. “I have lost so much. Sometimes I wonder why I help anymore. I never win, I just get one victory only to have the loved ones around me be destroyed by another enemy more powerful than the last.”
“I am sorry to hear of your hardships Doctor. It has been a long time since I have met another pony who I could consider an equal without them have been an old villain I once fought.” She looked around the TARDIS again. “You seem to be a good stallion. I would like to know how you met my sister Luna? Celestia asked.
“I don’t know your sister yet. Time travel can be tricky. The order of events never really happen as they should. For instance I could have been somebody’s lifelong friend before I even knew they existed.” He explained.
“Oh I see.” She said without really knowing what he meant.
A screen on the TARDIS console flashed and a warning bell went off. At the same time the TARDIS started rocking back and forth. The Doctor climbed up as best he could to see what it said. The screen read “Proximity Warning” in the background it showed the TARDIS surrounded by four weeping angels just before the screen went out.
“What’s happening!?” Celestia yelled.
“The angels are trying to get in. It seems I pissed off the one at the door and it called for back-up.” The Doctor replied as he started messing with the controls. He stopped at one lever. “I wasn’t wanting to do this yet but I guess we have to jump into the time vortex. I have no idea where we’ll land.” He pulled the lever and the lights on the top of the mechanism started to spin only to grind to a abrupt halt and the main lever sparked. Forcing itself to reset back into an upright position despite the Doctor’s best efforts to keep it down.
“That didn’t sound good!” A panicked Celestia said. At this point in the face of this new danger she had put on her brave façade she would use even when the battle wasn’t looking good.
“They’ve gotten smart. They’re using their power to bend time around the TARDIS keeping it grounded.” The Doctor was running out of options. The only thing they could do was just sit there until the weeping angels gave up…that might not ever happen as long as the TARIDS stood in one piece. The TARDIS shook and shook for a few minutes as he and Celestia tried coming up with a new plan when suddenly the TARDIS stopped shaking all together as they heard what sounded like a laser connecting with stone followed by exploding rubble. The Doctor checked the monitor but to no avail, the screen was still out.
“Is it over?” Asked a hopeful Celestia.
“I’m not sure what just happened.” Replied the Doctor. They sat there quietly for a second only to hear a loud knock. Tap tap tap tap…tap tap tap tap. The Doctors hearts stood still. The knock was repeated. Tap tap tap tap…tap tap tap tap. His hearts then plummeted into his stomach as he recognized the beat.
“Hello in there! I don’t mean to alarm you but uh…I know you’re a Time Lord. Now don’t be scared, The creepy statues are gone. I blasted them with my screwdriver. Weird yes I know, screwdriver, how does that work. Duh obviously because its laser in nature.” The voice yelled through doors. The Doctor and Celestia were absolutely speechless. They didn’t know if they should even acknowledge the fact that there were ponies inside. “Listen I’m a Time Lord too! You don’t have to be afraid I wasn’t a part of the war.” At the mention of a war the Doctor was deadly curious as to who it was, maybe it wasn’t who he thought, he hoped against hope that it was just another Time Lord with a knack for rhythm. The Doctor broke the silence the two had been keeping.
“You mention a war? What war may I ask are you referring to?” He asked.
“Hahaha! What war he asks!? The Last Great Time War of course.
“Ah yes. That “Time War”. Stupid me, of course that’s the war you were referring to.” The Doctor cut to the chase. “Tell me! What is your name!?” The Doctor yelled through the doors. He…if he still had them…was crossing his fingers hoping to God it wasn’t the Time Lord he was thinking of.
“My name? Well that’s a secret. But to most other Time Lords I’m known as The Master or the child of dreams. Really it depends on who you ask. May I ask your name now? Or better yet can you come out? I won’t bite. Again I wasn’t a part of the war. Please. It’s been a very long time since I last saw another Time Lord.” The Doctor felt his insides become water and his legs turn into jelly. Celestia watched as all the color drained form his face.
“Doctor you look sick.” Said Celestia. She was concerned he was about to faint. The Doctor regained his composer.
“Hold on I’m coming out” He yelled again. He then turned towards Celestia and whispered. “The second he tries anything suspicious run back into my TARDIS as fast as you can and shut the doors.”
“What do you take me for? A foal? I can and have fought my fair share of battles Doctor. Whoever this is, unless they have powerful magic, I don’t need to worry” Celestia replied tartly. She stared at the Doctor as he decided not to argue and headed for the door with her in tow. The nerve of him thinking of her as some defenseless mare. Then again, she thought, it was a little flattering to have a stallion worry about her.
The Doctor opened up the doors slowly expecting to be shot the moment he did. To his relief he wasn’t. Behind him followed Celestia who to his curiosity was seeming to be trying her best not to…blush? This Princess, the one who seemed to be the kind of mare who was always in control of herself, was surprising him more and more as this whole ordeal progressed. He then drew his attention to the sharply dressed stallion in front of him. The Master was wearing a purple coat with a sliver collar around the neck and he had a black goatee with a black shortly cut mane.
“Hello there!” The Master took the Doctor by the hoof and firmly shook it. “And Just who might you be?”
“Well…Master…I’m…The Doctor.” As soon as the Doctor introduced himself the Master’s eyes opened really wide, he then slowly let the doctors hoof down.
“The…Doctor? As in The Oncoming storm Doctor? That Doctor? My Doctor!?” The Master asked as he stood back with what looked like complete shock. No it wasn’t shock, it looked more like fear to the Doctor.
“Yes…my name is the Doctor.” He was beginning to be weirded out by the Master’s reaction. As the Master held up his laser screwdriver the Doctor quickly got in front of Celestia.
“H…how did you escape the Time War? More importantly how are you alive?!” the Master continued to ask.
“I’m not quite sure how the events of the Time War happened here in this universe. But I’m not from here. I’m from a parallel universe.” The Doctor frowned. “Why are you here? Why would you be surprised to see the Doctor from your world?”
“To be frank you went nuts! The Time Lords placed a link in my head, a constant drumming sound. Anyways I figured out a way to end the war without killing our entire race. Using the link in my head, and a white point star, I used the Heart of my TARDIS to pull them out of the time lock. Then you showed up Doctor, my childhood friend, corrupted by the war you took control of my machine and were going to bring back the Time Lords, only to make them shower you with praise and gifts. Saying how YOU saved them and YOU won the war. You wanted them to make you the president as you had been several times before in your previous generations. However that wasn’t their plan. They were going to perform the ‘Final Sanction’ and destroy the universe and time itself. I…I was going to end it. I held my laser screwdriver to my head but before I could kill myself to cut the link, you put a hoof on my shoulder and told me to move. Without warning and before they could react you pulled out your plasma gun and fired at Rassilon and then my machine causing the link to be cut, Gallifrey fell back into the Time War.”
The Master and the Doctor continued talking back and forth as Celestia stood behind them. She had begun to become bored. Through hundreds of years of court meetings with other dignitaries though she stood there looking like she was intently listening. Reality was she was daydreaming about the old days when she called herself Queen. There had been a huge war campaign against her and the changelings. She was fond of this war because it was one of the only times she…she…why can’t she remember!? Celestia shifted on her hooves as she thought hard about the war. Suddenly the details were all fuzzy. She could remember it was between her kingdom and the changeling kingdom but other than that. She tried to remember…she was the General, the year had been 301C.E…her favorite moment was when her and her commander, who also was an Alicorn, were fighting side by…no…no he wasn’t…it wasn’t her commander it was…Luna? No it couldn’t be, wait no now it was Nightmaremoon fighting along side her…but how could. A sharp pain then filled her head as she buckled down to the ground. “Ahhhha!” She screamed.
“…and then a Dalek popped up out of nowhere and shot me. Lets just say I had vanity issues at the time so as I began to regenerate I poured it into a severed hand of mine..” Celestia’s scream broke the Doctor off from his story. Turning around and trotting over to her, the Doctor knelt down beside the mare. “Celestia what’s wrong!?” She was gripping her head and her face was contorted in pain.
“I don’t know Doctor! My head, it hurts so bad…and my memories…their…their…AHAHGA!” She screamed in pure agony before fainting. The Doctor looking at her with terror in his eyes, had no idea what was happening to her.