Derpy Meets The Doctor

by Heavyhauler75622

Chapter Fourteen: Time's Champion

As she raced back to the battlefield, the recent cloying dread that had been stilled started to find its way back around her heart. As she did so, her Sergeant of the Royal Guard rushed out from a different archway to her side.

She galloped onto the green, skidded to a stop alongside her halberd…

It was true. The Nightmare’s Rune Scythe laid in pieces where it had shattered, forgotten until now. But it had changed. No longer was it crescent-shaped, in the colors of the Nightmare, with the argent sigils of her power. It was a dull, crystallized black, like unpolished hematite.

It was Sombra’s old weapon. The dread reached out, clamped her heart in viselike pressure.

The moment was here.

Celestia bellowed in rage and frustration, pulling her halberd loose from the ground and flinging the Shaft of Light at the courtyard’s far wall. It struck, and buried itself a third of the way along its length into the wall.

The Sergeant froze in shock.

He had worked hard for his place. First, he had to prove he belonged in the EUP, then fight for a place in the Royal Guard. That was no figurative term; The Royal Guard tested every applicant for the brains and decorum the position required, and then set the candidates against each other in single hoof-to-hoof combat to evaluate their fighting skill and mettle. No candidate pony knew where the Pass/Fail demarcation was drawn. Recommendation was solely on the opinions of the senior ponies who watched the matches.

He had lost several of his matches. Time after time, he found himself grounded by a heavier, stronger opponent. Each and every time, he managed to drag himself back up and re-engage his opponent.

“The kid must really like getting beat up,” the lieutenant watching the pair had said, laughing.

“Really?” asked Sar-Major Lance. The lieutenant didn’t realize it, but he was being evaluated, too. The Sergeant Major wouldn’t be writing it down on an eval form, but the senior officers, the good ones, and in his EUP, he busted flank to make sure the good ones stayed in, always asked his opinion. And his opinion carried weight.

“Look, he’s getting up again…”

“Yeah. I’m calling this. I’m keeping him,” Lance said.

“You’re kidding me, “the lieutenant said, incredulously.

“Nope. I can teach technique. That’s the easy part. How do you teach someone to never to give up on the mission, Lieutenant? That behemoth he’s scrapping with is a terror. It was in his file, an interesting string of petty offenses until one day he went too far, and someone told him EUP, or Shattered Hooves Correctional. He isn’t what we look for, but he did earn his shot. He’s humoring us with what discipline he shows; I’ve been watching him. The lesson might have taken in Boot Camp. If it did, wonderful; he should have a good career. But I’m not placing the lives of the Princesses in that one’s hooves. I want the son of a dam that won’t roll over and die as long as he can breathe just enough to stay in there and fight.”

He had learned of that part years later, from the Sar-Major himself when Lance retired. He guarded them exactly with that as his mission parameter; stay in there and fight. Maybe he got a little too enthusiastic and earned his time in the palace fountain, but he had earned it doing his job, not slacking. He knew their moods.

But until today, he had never seen the Warmth of the Benevolent Sun enraged.

---

‘John’ set the machine into motion, as Derpy placed herself in front of the ‘communications’ section of the console. ‘John’ showed her the significant parts.

“Luv, the relevant displacement looks like…” he said professorially, “…this.” He pointed at the screen. “Transfer the temporal coordinates to me at the pilot center. We’ll start with this one first.”

A few minutes later, Derpy was holding a hoof out to Sergeant Major Lance, who bewilderingly followed Derpy aboard the TARDIS. Once on, he looked at the two of them.

“Derpy…I don’t understand. Everypony. They were gone. I couldn’t find anyone. I was…alone. What happened? Where did you come from?”

“Wilf, I would love to spend time with you reviewing this. However…believe it or not, we are pressed as to time. We need your help…”Derpy said gently.

Sar-Major Lance marched off a few minutes later; and quickly returned with two of the missing Royal Guards. A few more, and all the Guard had been retrieved.

“I’ve the next, too,” the Sergeant Major said, as the TARDIS landed. Escorted by the senior Guard, Steward Lance brought a frightened Squire on board.

“Never thought a crowded TARDIS would be so joyous,” ‘John’ said, as he and Derpy worked the console.

‘”John’, I’m having trouble…” Derpy said worriedly. He stroked her hoof with his.

“Relax, luv. Remember when we talked about feeling everything about you? Close your eyes, and reach out. You know the little colt. Think on that, and steer for it…”

Derpy closed her eyes, thought about the little brown guy in the propeller beanie, buried facedown in a game, Sweetie Belle alongside him watching; as she worked the vessel’s console…

“Look,” he said proudly.

Derpy opened her eyes, saw the target locked on her screen, the coordinates already being transferred to the pilot section. ‘John’ patted the hoof.

“See? I told you, and everypony else who’d listen. Simply brilliant.” He went to his place, threw the lever over…

About an hour later, relative to when they had actually started, though it had taken almost two from their point of view in the TARDIS, ‘John’ was opening the doors to escort his ‘guests’ out. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were there to meet them, though if one looked closely, one could see that they were still more than a bit frazzled around the edges from their own harrowing experience.

Rarity and Sweetie Belle, along with Dinky and the other CMC’s, firmly planted Buttons in the center of attention The confused colt didn’t know whether to relish or hide away from the intense interest, but since they were carrying him off to celebrate, there wasn’t much he could do about it, anyway.

Steward Lance, the onetime Sergeant-Major, saluted the Princesses as he made a concise report. When he came to the end of it, Luna put a compassionate hoof on his shoulder, then pointed the way to the reception. He took the Guard and the squire in by eye, and led them off. Luna smiled at that.

“A fine stallion, that one. Always duty first. Oh, and Derpy, would you accompany me? It’s been a long day, and I’d be glad of the company.”

“Certainly, Majesty. I’ll get ‘John’, and…”

“That is unnecessary, Messenger. Princess Celestia wishes to talk with him a bit. He’ll be along soon,” she said, smiling.

“Okay, Princess.” she said chirpily, as she started walking toward the reception room.

As Derpy passed Luna, the smile faded. Luna hung her head for a moment sadly, and then raised it as she looked at her sister significantly. Then she turned and followed the grey Pegasus.

The Doctor spent a minute looking over the outside of his machine, giving a cursory inspection to it, as Celestia watched him. He peeked at the direction they had all gone as he finished up.

She was immensely old, even older than he was. She had walked the world a long time, had seen the brief flickers of the ponies lives kindle like lights in the dark, burn brightly for what felt to her like scant seconds of existence, then wink out. Of all the things she endured over her prolonged, lingering existence, this was the worst. Centuries passed beneath her hooves, announced their presence all too briefly to her consciousness, then passed to the next one in a never ending blur.

It galled her.

Perhaps her age may have numbed her to her need for companionship; it certainly felt like that at times…but it did not numb her to the desire to see others find their fellow spark. The satisfaction she was doing right in her ancient existence.

It was time.

She turned away, the hint of tears in her eyes. She cared for him. Possibly loved him, in her way. She certainly admired the stallion, his compunction to help, his bravery, his steadfastness. All would now be tested. Tested to the breaking point. As she knew it would be, one day.

“Doctor,” she said over her shoulder, sternly, candidly. “Doctor…you need to travel. Travel back to the point I need you to go. Somepony needs you, needs you desperately. They will need The Oncoming Storm, for both Life and Death will hang in the balance.”

“Princess…”he started to say. She cut him off with a sudden, forceful swipe with her hoof, slamming it on the floor. She swung back, looking at him. He was stunned at seeing the tears.

“No. You will know what will need to be done once there. I cannot say more. This is yours, and all I can do is interfere with you. The time is just over nine years ago. The place is just north of Ponyville. Take this,” she said with authoritarian strength and power, handing him a medium sized flat bundle with a Royal seal, and a small envelope attached to the front of it.

“Leave. Immediately. I shall speak with the others, and you must set your device to return at this point one hour in the future with minimal guidance from you. Leave the doors unlocked.”

“Cely…” he said gently.

“NO! Thou shalt OBEY me, Time Charger!!” she shouted, the Royal Canterlot Voice evident, the power unambiguous. “GO NOW, Warrior! Sterte, there is no more time for thee to waste!!” She was openly crying now, her pain unmistakable.

The power flowed about him, but did not compel him as it would with the others, though it tried to. But the fact that she would use it…

Startled, he sprinted into the TARDIS, anxiety on his face. The machine powered up, and left.

Princess Celestia, The Radiant Dawn, Warmth of the Benevolent Sun, Guardian of the Light in the World, fell to her knees. The die had been cast, but it was still rolling across the table…

She started to cry…

“Sister…”

Celestia looked up. Luna lay down next to her, wrapped her in a wing.

Her head down, she cried in the softness of Luna’s wing. “Oh, Luny…” she sobbed briefly. Then she steeled herself.

Princess Celestia of Equestria pushed herself to a sitting position. Not time to mourn. Not yet. Too much yet to do.

“Gather the ponies. Get the one we summoned yourself, and prepare as planned. Have the other standing by if she is needed. Should he succeed, we must be ready. If he falls…”

She sobbed once more, caught it. “If he falls…we will do what is needed. I shall save any further tears for then.” She stared at the empty space where the TARDIS had rested.

He was going to save Derpy. Perhaps.

Those without knowledge would point out that he had already saved her, therefore he would save her. Predetermination. She laughed ruefully, bitterly in the silence of her thoughts.

Predetermination was unreal. Entropy always had its role to play in existence as well. And it always found its part. The die had been cast forth. What number would be revealed in this throw was coming soon.

Their wait had just begun.

---

‘John Smith’ rushed into his machine, closing the door behind him. Once inside, he anxiously tore open the envelope…

And stared at the crystalline disc that fell into his hoof worriedly.

A record crystal. A Gallifreyan record crystal.

There was only one way he knew such a thing could come into Celestia’s possession. He gave it to her.

Carrying the package and the crystal carefully, he made his way to the console. He then put the package down cautiously on the floor nearby, and swung the monitor screen into place.

He put the crystal in the port on the side of it, started the playback.

“Good. If you’re watching this, remember to get this crystal to Celestia afterward. She’s to give it to you as soon as she’s supposed to, I suppose…” he said to himself. Because his image there in the screen was talking to the apprehensive pony that was watching the monitor uneasily.

“Right, then. The coordinate complex I’m sending you is automatically being uploaded as we speak. Or I speak. Whatever.”

“Mate, you have to go there. You have something very important there to do. And I, meaning me, can’t tell you, meaning you, what it is you need to do. Can’t take the chance of mucking this up by giving you too much information.”

‘John’ watched, fascinated. He never did this to himself before.

“Remember Twilight Sparkle, mate?” the image went on earnestly. “She came back, talked to herself. Changed her future with that little ripple. Caused herself all sorts of trouble along the way. But to set this part into motion, I have to do this much.”

The image became solemn. “You know how it works. Too much, things could wibble-wobble completely out of control. Too little, and we fail, and we mustn’t. So, you go in mostly blind. The tool you need is in the package. Open it up when you get there. It’ll make more sense after that.”

Then the image became very serious and grave. “You have to listen very carefully to your instincts, Doctor. Don’t think. Though when we get rolling, we really don’t do much of that, do we? Act, and react. Think a tiny bit too much, or too little, and all becomes lost.”

He facehoofed, a look of distress on his face for a moment. “Bollocks, this is hard; to say just enough, and not too much, when you don’t quite know where the marker is. So, trust me. Or you. Or us.”

The pony on the screen reached up. The screen went blank.

He reached up as well, shut the screen off.

He then went over, started to pull the lever down.

And hesitated.

Closing his eyes, The Doctor reached out with his perceptions, trying to feel the wall he was blindly walking beside…

“And…now,” he whispered, pulling the lever down decisively.

He felt the die in motion, as the TARDIS took him to his destiny…

---

Derpy looked around the castle as the shadows lengthened in the late afternoon, but ‘John’ had seemed to have disappeared. So had the Princesses. How odd…

She abruptly gasped, as a sharp pain pierced her abdomen. The castle flickered in the suddenly dim light, as it became darker, more menacing. Black crystals everywhere absorbed the illumination.

Black crystals? A sun dimmed to almost darkness? Where was Luna’s Moon?

She was suddenly very weak, a vessel drained of vitality. She wanted to cry out in the dark, to yell for help, but her mouth, her face, refused to obey. The pain in her belly grew, twisted, twisted with malevolence. Something horrifying had happened.

A figure walked out from the shadows…a child. But not a child. A curved horn, like a sword dipped in blood, thrust upward. Dipped in her blood…

She looked down as the pain took her. The rends were horrifying, as her life’s flow gushed from the wounds. Derpy tried to staunch the bleeding with her hooves, but the flow continued around them unabated.

Then, a voice…childlike, female…and resonant with power. Power from another, a stallion, speaking along with the child.

“Thank You, Mother…but I am afraid the time has come for us to finish what had been begun long ago. Your purpose is at an end. I shall parent ourselves from now on. And there will be no room for your juvenile sentiments any longer.”

“Dinky?” Derpy whispered with her last breath…

And just as unexpectedly, it disappeared. She lifted herself from the tiles of the floor, where she had fallen…fallen? When did she fall?
The dream? Memory? Was gone. As if it never existed.

She was becoming very concerned, when she noticed Twilight Sparkle coming toward her.

“Princess Sparkle,” she said as she started to bow.

Twilight raised a hoof to her lips, then gestured to an alcove near the throne room entrance. Derpy stood up and led the both of them into it, puzzled.

“Princess…”

“Derpy…please, a moment. Luna sent me to you. ‘John’ is not here. He went on a mission for the Diarchy. Please follow me.”

Derpy frowned, but followed. “A mission?” she asked.

“Yes. Luna will explain it.”

Twilight led them to the hospital wing. Derpy suddenly became apprehensive.

“Is ‘John’ hurt?” she asked, frightened.

“Hello, Derpy,” Luna said calmly, as she met the two of them outside the infirmary. Twilight stood by, quietly.

“‘John’.”

“He is here, Derpy, and yes, he has been injured. Princess Celestia is with him now, as are Nurses Redheart and Kindness. Doctor Stable is with them. Celestia’s personal physician has also been called.”

“I need to see him,” she said simply, dread clutching at her.

“Soon, Derpy. Allow them to finish. His injuries were fairly extensive, but he should heal quickly, without deficit or much scarring, if any at all. I am here to tell you the reason why.”

“What was so important to send him out alone, without help?” Derpy asked in an accusatory tone, seething anger just below the surface.

Twilight put a foreleg over her shoulders, compassionately.

“You,” said Luna, benevolently. She laid a sympathetic hoof on her shoulder as well.

“ME? What about me? Why was it necessary to send him?” she asked, upset.

Luna looked at Twilight, who nodded, her eyes glistening, as Twilight turned back to the distraught grey Pegasus.

“There was no one else, Derpy. No one to do what had to be done. Him, and no one but him.” Twilight said compassionately.

She crawled to understanding. “When?” she asked, with a sharp intake of breath, as the answer raced to her mind.

“Nine years ago…” Luna said, ready to reach and hold Derpy, should the truth overwhelm her.

“Oh, no…” Derpy whispered, as memories came back in a blurred rush, a train that could not slow or stop. She started to slump to the floor as Luna caught her.

Luna felt the displacement as she started to hum her song, taking them out of the flow of time in their consciousness, to bear mute witness…as she became the conduit of memories between Derpy and the Time Charger in the next room.

The ‘waking dream’…

---

That night, nine years ago…that horrifying, macabre night. The purple-tinted, unnatural lightning, the loud but stilted thunder of its passing. Her consciousness, fading in and out from the drugs, as that…monster…strapped her to the bizarre chair, splaying her out like some slutty ware for the pleasure of psychotic stallions to service themselves with. Sex was no longer on his mind anymore, though; something far darker, more destructive, slithered under the surface. The cold bite of the knife as it carved along her belly; her screaming in fear, horror, and pain. The irrational, maniacal laughter of the husband she thought once cared for her, but only for the use of her body, the intelligence of her mind…and what she could produce for him…

The crash of the doors, kicked off their hinges, the wood splintering as if by an explosion, as he stood there, a red tie askew, coat billowing in the howling, keening wind.

The Doctor. But not her Doctor, as she had no knowledge of him then.

A stranger. A stranger that in this form had reduced some of the worst things in the universe to helpless, crying children, frightened to death of the dark.

The Oncoming Storm.

Here.

Now.

“You’re too late!” her husband had chortled, as he picked up the athame. “The time is now at hoof! I shall provide the conduit to reach the child, and my Lord shall take refuge away from the eyes of the Princesses! When the time comes, he will subsume the female, and once more take his place, to rule all of Equestria!”

The ritualistic knife turned in his hoof, the cut and sharpened dark crystal that formed its blade gleaming dully as it absorbed the fitful light. He poised the blade, the edges straight up and down, as he readied himself for the final phase.

“Really? All this for one dead pinch faced King? Hardly worth the trouble, don’t you think? You should have just decided to be happy. She would have made you happy, if you weren’t such a rubbish, sadistic, criminally sociopathic psychopath. Instead, you decided to do this…thing, to a mare that would rather let horseflies bite her than hurt them with a nudge of her tail. I wouldn’t have done this. Never. I would have rather been happy,” he said reasonably, though his face was tottering, twistingly constrained and restrained rage; rage, and hatred.

He glanced at the machines. “Psionic resonator. Temporal displacement node. Thaumaturgic power supply. And I assume that ridiculous looking knife acts as an antenna for the resonator, as well as a transfer conduit. Obvious that you didn’t build these; way beyond your abilities. Crayons would confuse you, I’d wager. She did those. You struck, beat, drugged, and abused her so she would make them for you.”

“Very unkind, that.” He slowly walked closer, then stopped.

“And so you unashamedly pose her like that, cut on her for finding the right landmarks to stick that thing into her. Just so one moldy old barbaric demon of a King could have another go.” He turned back toward the husband, his entire countenance one of barely restrained, infinitely destructive power, balanced on a razor-thin edge.

“Here’s the bargain. Stop. Right now. Go to the authorities; they’ll soon be arriving outside to take you away as it is. I leave with her, and you’ll divorce, and you’ll never see her or the little girl foal ever again. Not even in your dreams, if I were you. Don’t ever look back for them. And you’ll stay alive. Even against my better judgment.”

His head lowered even more. “Or, you won’t. Up to you.”

The husband laughed, the laughter having a hysterical edge. “You have no power here, stranger. Nothing. I don’t even care to hear your name, as no one else on this miserable mudball will, either.”

“Go on. Threaten away. I’ve had that done by titans of true misery in the universe. The difference between us is I don’t need to tell you who I am, either. You’re a little git. The ones in the universe, the real giants of destruction, horror, and abject terror that write their abominations across the stars, all of them already know my name. They call me various things. The Wanderer. The Dark One. Time’s Champion. The Bringer of Darkness. The Destroyer of Worlds. Evergreen Man, though that really doesn’t apply as much anymore since I became a pony. Probably have to change that. The Great Exterminator. The Wizard of the Traveling Box. And the one you should concern yourself with in every fiber of your existence.”

“That one is ‘The Oncoming Storm’.” He smiled that dazzling smile of acres of teeth. That dazzling smile that abruptly ended at his eyes.

“The name most know of is ‘The Doctor’. When the worst sort in the ‘verse hear that one, they usually flee for their very lives…oh yes, they do. But the one most dear to me is the one she’ll soon use. ‘John Smith’. So, now you know. And once again, your decision.”

And for once, Derpy’s husband paused in his gloating monologuing, his blood beginning to freeze. Time for appropriate precautions.

The husband slapped a nearby switch with his horn’s aura, and the greenish force shield sprang into existence. “My ‘decision’, dear ‘Johnny’, is to watch you enslaved; you, and everypony else,” he said, as he probed the wound with a hooftip and his aura, feeling for the right place. She winced, screaming to a crescendo, and then passed out from the terrible pain.

“Ah, that’s better,” he said. “It’s gratifying when this silly subequine cunt has her mouth shut, don’t you agree? Maybe I’ll take her tongue after this too, while she gestates the new King of Equestria. It would be nice not to hear that constant whimpering.”

“You should have listened. All the smart ones listen when I tell them to stop,” he said calmly. The Doctor reached into his pockets as he started to rear up…

And pulled the Sonic Screwdriver from one. From the other…

The Crystal Heart of the Crystal Empire rose over his head, as he stood on his rear legs and brought it up. The Screwdriver was pointed behind it, at the center of the clear shape.

The husband was suddenly reminded of a definition from the dictionary.

Nemesis: A righteous infliction of retribution, manifested by an appropriate agent…

The pony in front of him.

“King Sombra…” the husband prayed, fearful, as he leapt at the figure holding the Heart…and rebounded with a loud thump off the inner wall of the shield, slamming to the floor. He watched in terror as The Oncoming Storm looked at him, smiling that dazzling, flashing, and terrifying smile. The smile that ended at eyes of reprisal and vengeance.

“You should have listened, too,” he said softly, as he clicked the Screwdriver on…

There was an actinic, brilliant blue flash…and the room burned in bluish-white light…

The Doctor recovered first, the pain sinking in its spurs, as he managed to put the Heart back in his pocket, though he kept the Screwdriver in hoof. Patches of his fur, skin, and his coat still smoldered from the light.

Both Derpy and her husband showed injuries from the flash, though the husband had been fearfully damaged from the worst of it. The Heart had recognized the form of Sombra’s negative energy, and had dumped most of its power into his body through the shield, which had been manipulated so it lensed the energy into focus on him. Derpy showed only light to moderate and mostly superficial injury. The bubble had ended up protecting her somewhat, since she had been outside of the focal point. Blessed be the Princesses, The Doctor thought incongruously to himself.

The Doctor played the Screwdriver over the surfaces of the shield, managing to collapse it, and then he put it away. He staunched Derpy’s bleeding as best as he was able, as he freed her from the loathsome chair she was strapped to. He picked her up, laid her gently across his back as he stumbled toward the door…

“Doctor…” he heard something gasp.

He whirled around, saw the husband had managed to crawl toward, and was now leaning against the floor mount of the chair, a frank and copious trail of blood sliming the floor behind him. He glared at The Doctor.

“I’m going to have the last little laugh here…‘Johnny’ boy,” he wheezed, as he pulled a small device from his pocket. “Let’s go see King Sombra, all of us together in some level of Tartarus. I’m sure he will find both of you amusing toys…until you both break,” he said, as he pushed the button on it.

The Doctor fled, as quickly as he could with Derpy on his back. Just as he passed fifty yards or so, there was a detonation.

The primary blast wave threw them both to the ground as the very earth beneath them heaved upward, slamming into him. The Doctor barely had time to roll on top of her and shield her, tucking her wings underneath him, just as the secondary wave arrived. The violet energy rippled all around them, but dissipated somewhat as the Heart absorbed most of the power passing around and over them. Even with that, he was even more gravely burned, the concussion wave also tearing at internal organs and the fractured ribs caused by the impact with the ground, which started a lung to bleeding. He coughed as he stood back up, spat blood, as he looked around.

The house was gone entirely, reduced to matchsticks, with a wide burn around its former location. The trees and shrubbery around it were uprooted, burned to ash, or stripped entirely bare. The two of them were in the cleared zone.

Canterlot’s EUC High-Risk Warrant Team was beginning to move in, weapons at the ready, as they started their search. The Doctor checked her over, saw she was stable, and wouldn’t slip any farther away before they reached her.

He was loathing abandoning her, but if he was caught, they would want to treat him, and that meant examination. Even here, one plus one equals two. They ever heard his hearts, both of them, he wouldn’t see the outside of a high-security prison medical facility until it fell down from old age, unless Celestia got wind that they had him, not the husband.

And the Legendary Item, the Crystal Heart, plus all his technology? No. He had to leave, let her go on her own path for a bit longer. Now he knew why Celestia ordered him to do what he had to do. He crawled away from the grey angel, hiding from the ponies searching…

He found the rock wall he used as both a marker and shielding, traced it back to the slight depression holding the TARDIS. He managed the doors open, his vision narrowing, as his chest continued to bleed internally. The last conscious thing he remembered was activating the lever…

---

Celestia had been waiting fretfully nearby, and was the first to get into the TARDIS and get him out. She cast about him with her aura, felt the bleeding lung and the fractured ribs that had caused it. Lifting him gently with her magic, she flew him into the medical ward herself, the settled in to divine out the damaging energy playing havoc with him. Her prolonged encounter with an injured grey Pegasus a few years earlier stood in good stead for her as she worked…

…as Luna and Derpy collapsed to the floor, the ‘waking dream’ falling away from around the both of them.

Derpy sat up, rubbing the side of her head with her hoof. Luna managed to sit up also, though much slower than Derpy had. She groaned with the effort.

“How…” Derpy began to say, as Luna shook her head to free it from the odd hollowness she felt.

“Whatever you do, don’t tell Cely,” said the dark blue Alicorn, drowsily shaking her head as she tried to gather her wits about her. “If she knew I could do that, she’d never let me evoke a ‘waking dream’ again. And I do wish the hall would stop spinning. It makes me nauseated.”

“Can I lend a hoof?” asked Twilight Sparkle.

“Help us to my rooms. There’s a huge bottle of Mountain Moonlight soda in there I was saving for the gaming tonight; the sugar and caffeine will help. It’s not raising a Moon, but walking in the ‘waking dream’ has its own stresses on magic and the mind, and I’ve already plenty of that today. To override the consciousness on one’s self is difficult enough without extensive spiritual preparation. For two…neigh impossible. To do that for three, meld two memories together, and break Celestia’s memory block, I ought to get a medal.”

One Twilight Sparkle, fairly new minted Alicorn Princess of Smiling and Waving, led the two to Luna's apartment. Derpy was relegated to guiding Luna, who was ambulatory, but foggy and moderately disoriented by the ordeal. Derpy was near full recovery, but felt remote, a bit out of touch with her surroundings. A bit of the sugary soda later, and they were both feeling much better.

Comments

[Vinylshadow]

"He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing. The fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why. Why this Doctor who had fought with gods and demons, why he'd run away from us and hidden. He was being kind."

Best sums up the Doctor, I think
We should count ourselves lucky he even gives us a chance to surrender

[Minecraftgunner]

5817494 very true