By default, the main room of the Type-40 TARDIS that Soldier entered was simple in its layout, a central control console stemming from the Matrix intended to be operated by six Time Lords, a holographic imaging screen, and few other features aside from doors leading deeper into the vehicle and walls covered in glowing circular designs. The Doctor had altered the color scheme, however; it was supposed to be white, but the Doctor had apparently elected to instead color the entire thing in hues of blues and greens from the ceiling, making the floor dark, while many of the circular designs had been converted into plastic bubbles containing trophies and mementos from across the Doctor’s lifespan. Rather absurdly, a large hourglass, taller than Soldier was now long, hung from the ceiling over the Matrix, all its sand resting at the bottom.
Soldier trudged in, the Doctor following behind her and closing the doors immediately once he had, then turning to face Soldier. “Why did you do that?” He demanded.
She stared at him, confused. “Explain.”
“That, what you just did out there. Apologize. Why did you do that?”
Soldier looked away. “I…was sorry. For lying to Spike. I apologized.”
“Daleks don’t have a concept of sorrow!”
The Doctor was right, of course. Soldier sat down on the floor, running one hoof against it, feeling the cold metal underneath her. “I was sorry.”
“And how about everything else, then?” The Doctor asked. He came forward, sonic probe sweeping over her, scanning her. “Unless you’re going to tell me you died fresh from a Progenitor, then you and I both know there’s blood up to your eyestalk in your past life. Feel sorry for that?”
“No.”
“Thought not.” The Doctor took his sonic probe from his mouth and looked at it. His device was many generations in advance of the fairly crude one Soldier had been able to construct, it probably included a psychic readout and interface. He seemed somehow both satisfied and perturbed by what he saw, and made a gesture before proceeding to the control console, flipping switches and pulling levers at it. Throughout the TARDIS, the high-pitched groan began again. Soldier noted with interest, however, that the Matrix itself did not light up or move in any way – the ship was moving through space, not time, she surmised. The sound didn’t last long as the TARDIS reached its destination.
“What are you going to do to me?” Soldier asked.
The Doctor hadn’t really taken his eyes off of Soldier, but at that his full attention returned to her, and his eyes narrowed. “I first met your kind when the Thals were still on Skaro. I went to your city. You were planning to irradiate the planet, wipe out the Thals. Back then you still depended on energy coming up from the floor to move around. I broke that energy, I took it away. You begged me to restore it. I didn’t. I couldn’t, but even if I could have, I wouldn’t. I’d known you for a day and I knew you were filth.”
“There was another time I was looking to help a poisoned friend. The universe, the whole universe, hadn’t known war for twenty-five years, and then five thousand Daleks got it into their casings to try and wipe out everything. You used a Time Destructor. I turned it on you, set it in reverse. Disassembled your casings, aged you all back to embryos and watched you die.
“During the Dalek Civil War – do you remember that, Dalek? Were you there for that one? – I booby-trapped an ancient Gallifreyan artifact. I goaded Davros into using it. I set off a supernova that destroyed Skaro and then I talked the Supreme Dalek, the last Dalek, into killing itself.”
The Doctor advanced on Soldier, staring down at her – easy, since not only was he taller, but Soldier had folded up a little on herself with every one of the Doctor’s words, shrinking back from the Doctor as his image blurred in her vision. “What am I gonna do to you, Dalek? Something like all that. Or maybe something new. I'm still deciding.” Soldier was silent as the Doctor continued to loom over her, eyes darting around her. After a rel, he backed away, returning to the TARDIS console and pressing some buttons. “Stop doing that.”
“E-explain.” Something had happened to her throat, it felt like there was something caught there. It was a struggle to get out just one word. She heard tapping beneath her and realized that it was her hooves twitching on the metal floor of the TARDIS.
“That! Looking like…like that!” The Doctor waved a hoof at Soldier again. “The big watery eyes, the trembling lip…stop it, you’re not fooling me.” He glared at the TARDIS’ console. “Where is she…”
Soldier rubbed her eyes; they came away wet again, as they had before in the basement with Spike, and yet somehow the feeling was totally different. Spike had said that this was good – how could this be good? “I…my body is…wh-what have you done to me, Doctor? What have you done?”
The Doctor let out a groan. “I haven’t done anything yet! I’ve talked. That’s how this normally goes, Dalek, I talk, you listen, I talk some more, you threaten to exterminate me, you never get ‘round to it before I do something clever and get away.” He returned his attentions to the console, staring into it. “Only this time I don’t have to get away. This time, I’m in control. A little gift from this reality for my retirement. Told you things just work out here. Come on, where are you…” He glanced back to the Dalek. “Not you.”
“Wh-why am I trembling? Stuttering? Why a-are my eyes leaking?”
The Doctor breathed out sharply, looking upwards and mouthing something silently before looking back to Soldier. “You’re scared and you’re smart. Brain the size of a planet is looking at the being who’s defeated armies of Daleks time and time and time and time again and figuring its odds of survival are zero. And you’re a pony instead of a Dalek, and the Dalek part of you is screaming at you about how wrong that is, screaming at you to exterminate yourself even as the pony part of you is trying to figure out what’s so wrong about it and how anything can hate itself so much. And you’re in what looks like an enclosed space with nowhere to run, and the part of you that’s a pony wants to run but sees that it can’t, and that’s just not helping the part of you that’s a Dalek at all.” He paused, looking away. “Or, I dunno, you have a sugar imbalance.”
“Well of course she does,” a new voice said. Soldier’s head snapped in the direction, and saw, coming in, a familiar-looking blue unicorn – Minuette. She closed the door behind her and walked straight over to Soldier, though stopped several feet short of her and stooped down to look her in the eye. “Never ate anything at all until just a few hours ago, then had enough to last her a week. Including more chocolate than anypony should have in one sitting.”
“Yes, well,” the Doctor said. He pointed to the control console. “You’re here. We can go now.”
“I will do no such thing, that’s not what happens, and besides, I am a doctor and Soldier is still my patient.” She carefully stepped forward, holding out one hoof and gently laying it atop Soldier’s head, lightly ruffling her mane. “There, there, Soldier. I’m sorry my boyfriend’s an idiot. It’s the age. He means well, usually. And he was not going to kill you, Soldier, he was only planning on wiping your memory and putting you back in our reality in a prison that could contain you.”
Soldier hiccupped for the first time in her life at Minuette’s touch, flinching away as her mind was somehow simultaneously working at a mile a minute and completely frozen at one rel in time. “Y-you are the Doctor’s companion,” she observed. Of course, that made sense given the earlier interaction between Minuette and the Doctor, the familiarity. “You…you are an e-enemy of the Daleks. Y-you are my enemy.”
Minuette frowned as she stepped still closer to Soldier, hoof moving down to rest on her shoulder, touching her the way Twilight had when Twilight had been attempting to console her. “No, I’m retired.”
“So am I supposed to be,” the Doctor said, stepping closer to Minuette and jabbing a hoof at Soldier. “But something’s come up and we should really just pop out of retirement for just a bit to deal with it.”
The blue unicorn stepped still closer to Soldier, turning as well so she was sitting beside her, one hoof over Soldier’s withers and pulling her close, a similar action to what Twilight had done earlier. Soldier felt her body moving of its own accord, leaning in to the touch, burying itself in minuette’s fur. “Why ever should we come out of retirement?”
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Because without you, Minuette – ”
“Ooh, we’re being formal then? I suppose we do have someone over…”
“ – without you, I don’t really have a TARDIS. I have an RDIS. I can do space but not time and we’ll need both to get back home.”
“Can’t even do space very well, you dissolved half the wall of my office. Nearly destroyed my diploma, scared poor Strawberry Sunrise half to death, and you know how impossible it is to get her to sit in that chair…”
“It’s psychic paper, it’s not a real diploma.”
Minuette looked the Doctor up and down with indignation. “And where’s your psychic paper doctorate then, Doctor? Oh, that’s right, you don’t have one. Spoiler: you never will.”
Soldier glanced between Minuette and the Doctor. The Doctor’s TARDIS was malfunctioning, but Minuette could fix it? A dentist? That didn’t seem right. “What is happening? What is going on?” She asked.
Minuette reached out with her free hoof, taking one of Soldier’s into it and shaking it up and down slightly. “Let’s re-introduce ourselves. Soldier, I’m the TARDIS. Well, I was the TARDIS. Well, I was part of the TARDIS.” She nodded her head towards the command console, the Matrix it was centered around. “The important bit. But you can still call me Minuette.”
Soldier glanced between her, then the console, then back to the unicorn, then back to the console. She felt her terror begin to abate as she tried to process what Minuette had said, worked through the calculations. The Daleks and the Time Lords had been nearly equal in terms of scientific understanding during the Time War, and the Type-40 TARDIS was considered a relic by the latter and had been for ages. She was well aware of the vehicle’s specifications. “Absurd,” she objected at length, wiping the wetness from her eyes. “Absurd! This is a Type-40 TARDIS. The Matrix of the TARDIS extends across time and space! It cannot be contained in a physical body!”
“In our reality,” Minuette said. “Different world. Different rules. It helps that I don’t extend across all of this time and this space.” She glanced around the interior of what was, in some ways, herself, and waved a hoof to indicate it. “Just here, when I’m here…” she then tapped the same hoof to her chest. “And in here, the rest of the time.”
“And…you became…a dentist?”
“I’ve spent my whole life traveling. I thought I could use a break, settle down, mean to stay in one place for a while. You can learn a lot about ponies from their teeth.” At Soldier’s confused stare, Minuette pressed on. “Like whether or not they’ve been flossing!”
Soldier glanced between the Doctor, the command console, and Minuette, her mind struggling to turn away from the fear, struggling to think. “You…did not arrive as I did,” she surmised. “You came here of your own volition. You came and used Time Lord science to change and adapt your bodies, this vessel, to this reality. You came…and you can leave.”
The Doctor stepped forward. "Speaking of - "
“Shut it, this bit’s important,” Minuette countered, jabbing a hoof at the Doctor and glaring at him. The Time Lord backed away at the intensity, a look of confusion on his face.
Soldier stepped away from Minuette, rising to her hooves. “The Doctor. He spoke of Celestia with familiarity. He said he would speak to Luna about the stars. The Princesses of Equestria, he knows them. But Celestia told me I could not return. That I was trapped. Celestia lied! Lied! LIED! Or…” Soldier paused, then turned to look at the Doctor. “Or you did. You lied to Celestia. You lied to Celestia! YOU LIED!”
The Doctor glared down Soldier. “No I didn’t. I told her I was a traveler from a very long ways away, that I wasn’t really a pony, that I was looking for a place to put up my hooves – I had already gotten myself hooves at the time – and rest, and that I would bring no harm to her or her ponies. That was the complete truth, it was all she asked for and even though I told her there was more, she said that I’d said enough. And what’s it matter to you, Dalek?”
“I think it matters because her choice to become a pony was predicated on the idea that she didn’t have any other except death,” Minuette observed.
“CORRECT!” Soldier screamed, glaring hate at the Doctor from where she stood, enough hate that had it taken form it would have been the Dalek Emperor itself. “I could still be Dalek! I COULD STILL BE DALEK! I COULD STILL BE PURE – ”
Soldier froze, the last word catching in her throat, stopping breathing. She tried to, starting up with only a deliberate act of will and a hacking cough that also froze in her throat. She sucked in a breath, barely exhaled, sucked in another one, barely exhaled again…as everything that being “pure” entailed suddenly came rushing towards the front of her mind.
She could be Dalek again. She could even hide her impurity, her human corruption, or covertly remove it, if she was careful and could tolerate her own existence long enough. Genetics was no more difficult than any other science to her. Already ideas danced in her mind, ways for her to go about doing it, to remove the corruption, the infection, the sickness from her cells, to become once again whole, once again pure, once again truly Dalek…and return to her Mark-III Travel Machine.
Trapped. Never again to taste, to feel, to smell. No more sunlight. No more food. Never again to run free. Never again to be near anyone else, to feel their warmth. No more magic. The part of her that had been transformed by Celestia, the part of her corrupted by Rose Tyler, screamed in horror in her mind at the thought. Her Dalek mind tried to shunt it aside, to press it down, to remind Soldier of the purity she had once known, the perfection that had been hers, the glory that was her birthright…
…but the Dalek part of her contained the memory of the Nightmare Child, too. The memory of her fleeing. The cowardly part of her running away, somewhere else, anywhere else but into its maw…and the pony part gave that part of her somewhere to run to, something to run towards.
It wasn’t much. Chocolate and sunlight were hardly great prizes to be taken, the Dalek part of her noted. And the pony part of her also contained Spike’s scorn, the look of betrayal. It contained feelings of shame and inadequacy and futility. The pony part of her promised her moments of…of something, something positive, something barely felt but which she knew was there…amidst a lifetime of hurt and pain and loss and fear.
But a life of tiny brilliance surrounded by darkness was more than the Dalek part of her could offer. The Dalek could only offer itself. The pony could offer everything. Including the Dalek part. It was going to be part of her no matter what. A part of her, but not all of her.
Soldier’s legs were trembling. She closed her eyes. Whatever was freezing the breath in her throat finally gave, and she exhaled…a long and tortured scream as she fell to her knees and hocks. She took in breath only to cry out again. She felt the wetness in her eyes once more, great rivulets of tears falling from her to the floor.
“I…I don’t…I don’t want to go back!” She exclaimed, looking to the Doctor, or his shape, what she could see through the tears. “I don’t want to go back! I don’t want to be a Dalek! I don’t want to die! I want to live!”
The Doctor was staring at her with wide, confused eyes, she could see them even through her tears. He’d retrieved his sonic probe again and was scanning her in confusion, but then Minuette was beside him. She used her golden magic to take the sonic from him, then nodded towards Soldier. “We have now reached the part where you ask a question you should have asked her from the start,” she said softly.
The Doctor looked at Minuette in confusion before turning back to Soldier. “Who…who were you, Soldier?”
Soldier was hyperventilating, but she lifted herself from the floor, and repeated the breathing exercise that Twilight had shown her. When she had recovered enough, she looked to the Doctor, wiping tears from her eyes. “I…I am a soldier. I t-told you before…I do not know how long it has been since we encountered o-one another from your perspective…but from mine, less than o-one day.”
The Doctor’s eyes fluttered at that. “Did I kill you?”
“Y-you tried. You were stopped. I h-had been injured. I had fled the Time War. I f-fell to Earth. I burned for th-three days. I s-screamed. I could not fire my weapon. I could not kill my captors. I was tortured. I came into the p-possession of the human Henry Van Statten – ”
“Rose,” the Doctor interrupted, rocking back on his hooves. He glanced all over Soldier. “You’re…that’s not possible. You committed suicide. Rose ordered you to kill yourself, I watched you reduced to dust! There was nothing left to come to Equestria! How could it have happened?”
“I do not kn-know. I remember…I r-remember not existing for a time. S-stillness. Frozen i-in a moment, trapped in a s-single thought…I do n-not know for how long…b-but…but then I was here, in this world.” She breathed in sharply at the memory. Sunlight. Kind eyes belonging to a kind creature who hadn’t known her but had helped her. Soldier rubbed her eyes of tears. “Then Princess Celestia found me. She offered me life. And I could not refuse. I was…I could not die again.”
The Doctor had sat down, hooves running through his mane as he stared at Soldier. “I…I didn’t know…”
“You didn’t ask,” Minuette observed. She shifted back over to Soldier, hugging her, rubbing a hoof up and down Soldier’s back as the tears finally began to subside. “Didn’t even think to. Didn’t even stop to consider what it must have meant, to have a Dalek running around in a pony’s body in this world.” She released Solider to look to the Doctor, and crossed her front hooves, glaring at him. “You said it yourself, didn’t you? Things just work out here? You were right, you know. This is a kind world. It offers kindness even to creatures that don’t deserve it because one day, they might. Think about that, love. Think about this world, and then think about the sort of Dalek that Soldier would have to be, or have the potential to be, to get in.”
The Doctor’s eyes finally narrowed as he looked to Minuette. “It doesn’t work like that,” he said. “The world’s not alive.”
“Neither is Time, but somehow you and I both know that Time seems to dislike being fiddled with more than is absolutely necessary and bites back when pushed too far. And Space?” She leaned back and glanced up, letting out a laugh. “Don’t get me started on Space.”
“She doesn’t…” The Doctor began, then paused, and looked back to Soldier. “You said you don’t even feel sorry for what you’ve done. You feel sorry for lying to a small child but not for killing…do Daleks even count how many they’ve killed?”
“We do not,” Soldier confirmed. “But the number is large.”
“She’s new to everything,” Minuette countered the Doctor. “She’s new to every part of her body and half of her mind. Everything she did was back during a time when she didn’t care, and it’s going to take time for her to really attach who she is now to what she did then. Guilt will come if it’s allowed to, you can’t expect her to just fall down and immediately beg forgiveness for everything when she only acquired a concept of sorrow hours ago.” Minuette looked to Soldier. “Ooh, if you think today was rough…you’re going to go to pieces one day. Not even very long from now…a year at most. But you’ll make it. You’ll be happy again at some point not long after that. Not going to tell you too much, though. Spoilers.”
Soldier didn’t understand…but she had gathered that Minuette, as the TARDIS, was essentially omniscient while inside of herself. She was seeing the future. Soldier did not look forward to ‘going to pieces’…but apparently she would survive the process. She would live.
Minuette frowned after a rel. “Oh. By the way, we are just about to be invaded by a rather colorful collection of ponies and one dragon.” She pointed a hoof to the door. “I convinced Twilight and her friends to give me some time with you, but I wasn’t certain it would work until I actually came inside, so…insurance. Left the door unlocked.”
Soldier, the Doctor, and Minuette all looked too the door – which didn’t open, because instead there was a lavender flash-pop, and a purple alicorn, five other ponies, and one dragon were all suddenly inside the TARDIS with looks of determination in their eyes. “Doctor Oncoming Storm!” Twilight Sparkle declared loudly. “I’m not going to let you lay a hoof on Soldier! Doctor Minuette explained all about the Time War and the Daleks and the Time Lords to us.”
“Actually, I get the impression she left out a lot of details…” A yellow-coated pegasus ventured.
“We got the gist of it,” a cyan-coated, rainbow-maned pegasus countered. “Lots of bad ponies doing bad stuff and Soldier was one of them.”
“But that doesn’t give ya the right to judge her when you were one a’ them bad ponies durin’ the Time War too,” an orange-coated earth pony that Soldier recognized as Applejack continued.
“Indeed,” a white-coated unicorn said, “and especially not when Soldier hasn’t even been given the chance to correct her mistakes.”
“Also?” a pink earth pony added, “I just got back in town and bad pony or not Soldier is getting a welcome to Ponyville party! I’ll throw it in the town stockade, don’t think I won’t!”
Twilight stepped forward, wings spread wide. “It might be true that Soldier’s done bad things, but that was back when she was a Dalek. She deserves a chance to try to become more than what she was, to change and grow as a pony. What happened was a long time ago and in your reality, but now Soldier is in this one. Her old life had to end in order for her to get here. It was like she regenerated, just like doctor Minuette said you used to do. If regeneration could turn you into a whole new pony, why can’t it turn Soldier into one?
“Soldier’s a pony now, she’s one of us – and ponies help each other, no matter what!” Twilight looked directly at Soldier. “And even if you still want to call yourself a Dalek…this world has never had Daleks in it before. It doesn’t know what a Dalek is yet. You’re not just the last Dalek, Soldier, you’re the first one. You get to define what it means to be a Dalek here! This is your chance to make it good! With all our help, with the power of friendship, I know you can!”
There were several long rels of silence.
“Correct,” Soldier said.
“Absolutely right,” the Doctor added.
“Nice touch with the regeneration bit there, Twilight,” Minuette noted. “Would have probably worked if it had been needed.”
Twilight Sparkle stood still a rel longer, before her wings twitched slightly, then lowered about halfway. “Uh…what?”
“You’re absolutely right,” the Doctor repeated. “I was wrong…what I did was wrong. Soldier’s free to go, no strings attached. Keep an eye on her, help her. Teach her about loyalty and honesty, and kindness and generosity, and laughter, and friendship.” He scratched the back of his head. “I…may need a refresher on them myself…”
Twilight’s wings fully sagged at that. “Oh,” she said. “Well, um…good! Good. Glad to help…”
She started a bit, then moved aside a small purple dragon – Spike – pushed past her. In his hands, he was clutching Soldier’s optical crystal. It was unscathed from the destruction of her sonic probe. Spike looked at Soldier with an expression that she couldn’t read as he came up to her.
“You, uh…you dropped this,” Spike said, holding out the crystal. Soldier took it with both of her hooves, and clutched it close to her body. She didn’t break eye contact with Spike, however. “You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“And…I think you’re probably the worst pony I know or have ever met. By a lot.”
“That is certain.”
Spike breathed in deeply, then let it out. He pointed up at her. “You said you were sorry,” he said, “and that counts…a little. But you’ve got to show me you mean it. Okay? Not just for lying to me, but for…for everything you’ve done.”
Soldier nodded. “I obey.”
“Good.” After a moment, Spike puffed up his chest a little. “‘Cause I’m a dragon who thinks more like a pony, and you think like a Dalek but look like a pony. We were made for each other!” He held out his fist. Soldier recognized the gesture, and tapped his first lightly with her hoof. “There. We’re back on track to becoming friends now.”
“I…” Soldier began, and paused as she searched for the word. “I hope so.”
There was final rel of silence, before – somehow, without Soldier having been at all able to track her movements – the pink earth pony was beside her, one leg already slung over her withers. “Aww…” she said, “that’s so sweet! C’mon everypony, group hug!”
“Daleks have no concept of – ” Soldier began, when suddenly Spike was attached to her leg, and an entire visible spectrum of pony fur was closing around her from all sides. “Ahh! I am under attack! Emergency! EMERGENCY…!”
---
Yet again, for the uncountable time in his long and storied life, the Doctor felt like a complete idiot as he watched all the ponies hugging Soldier. The Dalek-pony had given up resistance when it had become obvious that she was not, in fact, under attack, and instead simply sat in place, waiting for the hug to end. She’d be waiting for some time.
“How,” he asked Minuette – the TARDIS. Or Sexy, when they were alone. “How can I possibly be as old as I am, and still make the same mistakes over and over again?”
“It’s because you’re an idiot.” Minuette said.
“That was, in fact, what I was thinking…”
Minuette smirked. “It’s because you’re the worst at being a Time Lord,” she added. “The worst, you understand? Let’s face it, as Time Lords go, you’re an utter failure.”
The Doctor looked to Minuette. “I take that as a point of pride,” he said.
“You should. It is. It’s why I stole you.” She leaned in, nuzzling him slightly, an utterly equine gesture that felt no more alien to the Doctor than any other at this point. Form wasn’t important, never really had been. “My Doctor,” Minuette contentedly breathed.
The Doctor returned the nuzzle. “My TARDIS,” he intoned. He remained still for a moment before pressing on, his head over Minuette’s, who had her own against to his chest. “You know…I know I said I was retiring, making this my last go, my last regeneration…and I do still think this reality is ideal for it…”
“But…?”
“But right now I’m looking at a Dalek who’s chosen to live as a pony. Who’s going to try and make friends. And yes, she had help getting there, stole some human DNA, died, traveled to another reality, had her entire genome rewritten…well. If you’d told me that I’d see this yesterday, even after all of that, I’d have laughed in your face.”
“We can actually go and see if that’s the case. Time’s a bit less picky about interacting with different iterations of yourself in this reality.”
“We might well. Could be interesting. But my point is…” He turned a little to look down to Minuette without having to move. “If I’ve lived this long and can still see something this new…what else am I missing?”
Minuette smiled, looking up to the Doctor without moving herself. “Finally. I’ve been waiting years to get ‘round to this, you know. Do you know how many pony mouths I’ve stared down? How many cavities I’ve had to fill, especially once the pink one moved to town?”
The Doctor’s eyes widened. He wasn’t surprised she knew, but…“Why didn’t you say anything?” He asked.
“Because I wasn't going to say anything. Obviously. In seriousness: the worst Time Lord.”
The Doctor laughed. There were several more moments of silence; they could get back to it all in just a little bit. “So,” the Doctor ventured at length, in a low voice. “When do you suppose I should get around to telling Soldier that she isn’t the last Dalek?”
“WHAT?!” Soldier demanded. The Doctor, somehow, had forgotten that equine ears were more sensitive than humanoid ones.
“About right then,” Minuette giggled.
Great Chapter. I love the relationship between the three of them, and had a good laugh at Soldier's reaction to being hugged. Keep up the great work
The hug attack! The most monstrous of attqcks!
Minuette is Sexy, didn't see that one coming. We'll done :)
You did a great job with the doctor in this chapter.
This is exactly how I hoped things would go. Thanks, needed this.
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Doctor Who, at its absolute best, is actually a pretty similar show to My Little Pony in terms of tone and themes, especially seeing as both have a recurring trend of emphasizing how powerful a force kindness can be. The two naturally gel well together. One of the things I tend to hate in crossovers is when one of the chosen worlds "overrides" the other, demands that everything plays by its rules and its tones and themes such that the other half is sort of just window dressing that's along for the ride. It was pretty easy to avoid that here, though.
By the way, because I don't think it was entirely clear from the narration (I tried really hard but didn't want to drag it out), the idea during Soldier's battle in the center of her mind is that the Pony half, which hasn't existed for very long and doesn't have much experience, can only offer Soldier tiny glimpses of something positive that it knows is there but has only barely seen and can't really articulate, while for the most part the Pony part can only offer up a lifetime of remorse, shame, sadness, pain, fear, and misery, which it has experienced far more of.
...but Soldier still picks that half because it's still more than the Dalek half can offer, which is only itself. If you pick being a Dalek, then you get to be a Dalek. That's it. In the balance, a lifetime of misery with just an occasional moment to sit in sunlight or eat some chocolate, is by a wide margin more than being a Dalek brings to the table.
Or at least Soldier thinks so. Then again, she's a coward. But...
"Fear is a superpower. Fear can make you faster, and cleverer, and stronger. And one day, you’re gonna come back to this barn, and on that day, you’re going to be very afraid indeed. But that’s okay. Because if you’re very wise and very strong, fear doesn’t have to make you cruel or cowardly. Fear can make you kind."
— Clara Oswald
Yeah, no. I still don't feel sorry for Soldier or think she deserves anything less than being locked up for life plus infinity. I am rather... tired of trying to treat the remorseless killing machine like this.
Also, I call bullshit that the Doc has ever been as bad as the Daleks. Oh, and yes, Applejack. The Doc has FULL RIGHT to judge the Dalek for the crimes it's done.
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One of the very first things we ever saw the Doctor do, way back in the day, was pick up a rock in order to bash in the head of an injured man, because carrying the man around would have slowed him down. The injured man had otherwise been helpful to him and the people he was with, if I recall correctly.
9596405
Yeah, I've seen an Unearthly Child about a dozen times. Own it on DVD. Here's the thing, the Doc realized what he did was wrong, and has been working to better themselves ever since then. Daleks don't do that, not without outside genetic infusions of the human factor. And most of the time that leads to a self-loathing Dalek that either kills itself or is driven even more 'round the bend.
Comparing the Doctor to Daleks is a gross insult to the character.
9596400
Does he now?
You could argue that the Dalek isn't technically culpable for its 'crimes' because it never actually had a choice in the matter.
A Dalek (a Time War era soldier Dalek, especially) has about as much choice on whether to start killing as a human has on whether to start breathing; everyone you know thinks its normal, and if you don't do it, you die.
9596437
Plus there is the question of, if Soldier is locked up for forever and a day, who is helped?
9596437
Just following orders, eh? No. That would be cold comfort at best to the Dalek species' trillions upon trillions of victims and devastated planets throughout the centuries. "It didn't have a choice!" really doesn't mean much of anything to me. I focus on the ones they've killed and tortured and made slaves of.
9596439
Well, no chance of Soldier doing more killing. Which is a pretty good thing. Her victims can rest easy a bit that the psycho killing machine isn't let off and given a fucking Welcome to Ponyville party! Although if it's season-two Pinkie, that might be punishment enough.
9596447
Season 4, actually. Twilight's an alicorn but still lives in her tree, and she drops a mention of giving up the Elements of Harmony to contain the Everfree Forest, but during her listing of villains she's faced she says Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, and King Sombra, but doesn't mention Tirek. So Season 4.
9596459
That was a bit of a joke, but admittedly I should've used an emoji. My bad, there.
9596447
Hmm Ever heard of the Milgram Experiment?
Discounting the "obeying orders" is grossly unfair.
Moreover there is the problem that Soldier is NOT the dalek we have seen at the beginning. A change in the genetics of a dalek IS ground to reevaluate completely the identity of the being.
Let's say... I COPY the thought pattern of Adolf Hitler and put them in a new body. Is the new being Hitler and should he be hanged as soon as he awakes? That is the big issue.
A Dalek is INCAPABLE of experiencing regret, happiness and a whole host of other emotion, it's like saying that a lion that has chomped on a arm of a guy is guilty of murder...
9596523
Also, to quote a comment from a (truly excellent) fic entitled Child of the Invasion, concerning a changeling named Harlequin and stuff she did during the fic:
By the way, go read Child of the Invasion, it's great.
Ah yes, finally the Doctor sees reason. Did not expect Minuette to be the TARDIS, but it makes perfect sense, and I love her ability to talk sense into her wonderful idiot of a boyfriend.
Now look what you've done Doctor, you've made the poor dalek cry!
Aiet, what kind of clown world is this that that was a serious comment?
9596540
Colgate is Best TARDIS.
9596420
This is true, it's because Davros stole their capacity for other emotions when he made the Dalek race. However it doesn't mean they can't regain them in some way. This changing into other species is definitely one key to fixing their race. Dalek Sec was onto something with the Human Dalek subspecies plan. He regained his lost emotions and rejected the Dalek way, seeing it as wrong and evil. Wanted to save his race by bringing them out of the darkness but died saving the 10th Doctor from an attack meant for him while trying to get his fellow elite Dalek to obey and see reason to their survival. The first Dalek to earn his respect and possible friendship.
Wonder if he found a way to Equestria after death too?
So no ditzy doo as the companion? Aww... I always had a headcanon that she was a minor spirit of entropy what with all of her little accidents
9596583
Not going to go into it, personally...but I think Sec and Soldier would have a lot to talk about if they bumped into each other in Equestria. Not certain they'd entirely get along, though. Sec very much wants to save the Daleks; Soldier is more focused on trying to save herself, very inwardly focused. Sec thinks in much larger terms; he's a great leader, or could have been. Soldier is just a soldier. That being said, I don't think Soldier would in any way disagree with Sec's conclusions about the Daleks. She wouldn't, like, fight him or anything. I just don't think they could be friends because Sec would want Soldier to step up, but Soldier believes she's done enough of that for a lifetime.
Incidentally, how rapidly Sec changed as a person when he hybridized with human DNA, plus of course how quickly the Dalek did in the episode "Dalek", allowed me to justify Soldier's own rapid change in this fic. It does seem that Daleks really do only need scant hours of exposure to other ways of thinking, and the fortitude to survive the transition without killing themselves, to realize how fundamentally flawed, wrong, and evil they are as a race.
Heck, Caan, as well, saw the evil of the Dalek race when, in an effort to pull Davros from the maw of the Nightmare Child, it was exposed to Time and saw the whole tapestry of the Daleks all at once. And Caan was a genetically pure Dalek from first to last.
9596592
It's implied that the Doctor has gone on several adventures in Equestria, if his mention of making a nuisance of himself for Ahuizotl is any indication (The Doctor's version of "retirement" is "everything I normally do, now with ponies", apparently). So he may have done a few stints with Ditzy.
Ahhhhhhh!!! I'm SO happy you decided to finish this story! And it's going so happily! I'm sad it's almost over, but happy to finally get to see the conclusion. And I love that you used Minuette as the TARDIS, primarily because it has ALWAYS bugged me that she has a MUSICAL name and a toothpaste mane and yet a stupid hourglass cutie mark that doesn't match ANYTHING in her color scheme. This makes more sense than anything. XD (Also Minuette looks kind of like Minute so that adds a bit to the potential cleverness.) The whole scene with Soldier realizing that she WANTS to live and not be a pure Dalek anymore was really moving, too. Great job all around!
Interesting Minuette backstory.
She's doomed.
So is Minuette still going to be the town dentist because it implied the doctor wa going to go on more adventures
9596642
I mean...the TARDIS is a time machine. They could leave for centuries and be back yesterday.
9596447
Of course their many, many crimes against all universal life haven't been erased, but bear in mind they are biologically and mechanically engineered to feel nothing but hatred for anything that is not Dalek. Daleks are, by design, pure evil. Soldier now has the opportunity to be something other than Dalek, and that sort of inner journey is what we're here for.
Also, the Doctor has caused death and suffering himself, even deliberately. He has never been a perfect person, and in his many incarnations his kindness has been tested. This is why he keeps companions, after all, to keep himself sane. He tries his best, but ultimately; "Good men don't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many."
Ah, the end is nigh!
*Sees ending*
FACE PALM For the love of god, Minuette could you put a muzzle on the doctor next time?!
9596701
Only when they're alone.
Yes, I just implied that.
This was just perfect.
9596645
And since when has the Doctor been able to time one of those return trips accurately?
I wonder what soldier opinion of rusty will be like... or that one really impressive dalek that somehow survived universal destruction. (You know the white one from that power ranger team of daleks.)
9596714
I mean, that's partially on the TARDIS. The Doctor is awful at being a Time Lord, but let's be honest with ourselves here, Sexy is kind of really bad at being a TARDIS. She has one job, to get the Doctor to where and when he wants to go. Instead she takes him all over the place and lets him pick up strays.
But the fact that they're both so awful at being who and what they're supposed to be, is what makes them both so great at being who and what they are.
9596724
I forget, is the white one from the Pandorica episode?
Rusty I don't really count as a reformed Dalek so much as a redirected one. It's very much still a Dalek, it's just that all of it's hate is pointed at Daleks. But it didn't really reform, it just switched targets, and not even really of its own volition either, if my memory of "Into the Dalek" is right. It's still very fundamentally Dalek. I don't think Soldier would like it.
9596447
Honestly, I give Soldier a pass.
Why? Easy: Soldier has already been punished for the crimes of being Dalek. Tortured in a lab. Corrupted by human DNA enough to feel the horror at being corrupted from 'perfection'. And execution by ordered suicide.
As someone who's pretty much non-religious, I'm pretty certain that chain of events tops the maximum punishments available to any living creature. Especially the DEATH part.
Philosophically, our concept of punishment was never built up to deal with something like a Dalek. The punishment for murder is meant to remove the threat to society and dissuade others from committing more murder. You get a side-order of satisfaction from people who want to be vindictive and visit the pain back on the accused... But it's generally not possible for a single living being to murder to the point of being a statistic. Even at the height of the atrocities in WWII, no single person could affect the kinds of murders that went on to make the numbers swell to absurdity. Even the atomic bomb was a team effort by thousands no matter how much someone can 'pin' the blame on the person in the Enola Gay who hit the release switch. Daleks, in contrast, are capable of so much destruction on an individual level that it outstrips our ability to conceptualize what it means to be a murderer. You do not even bother to respond to the presence of a Dalek with 'It must be punished as a warning to others!'. You respond to the presence of a Dalek with 'kill it before it wipes out the planet!'
Thus, the concept of punishing soldier just breaks down completely. Punish Soldier for, what? As far as removing Soldier The Dalek from the 'is a threat to all life in the cosmos' category, that's done and passed. Soldier The Dalek died self-destructing. Soldier The Dalek died when she became Soldier The Pony. What's left to visit upon Soldier at this point? Revisit the pain upon Soldier for all the lives lost? How do you even revisit billions or trillions of counts of murder? Execute them multiple times? Incarceration for half of eternity like some Sealed Evil in a Can? What good does that do anyone?
This is the point where punishment stops making sense, and starts painting the person calling for it in some not so flattering colors. It's not justice anymore, it's a vendetta.
As far as feeling remorse for past actions, I don't think it's even possible for a good portion of it. The amount of destruction possible by a Dalek is so extreme that it's just going to be a number. Soldier will remember most of her murders as a Dalek the same way I remember poisoning the ant hills outside my house over the years. Sure you can rate that from bad to worse in a clinical sense, but there was no emotional connection to the exterminated, only that they needed to be exterminated. Soldier may wake from nightmares seeing some of the one-on-one exterminations' looks of horror before they fried, but that will be it. And that will be followup punishment enough for her. To develop enough emotional capacity to recall those one-on-ones and get hit with a shot of empathy on each pass. Waking up in a cold sweat with the ghost of a scream in one's ears and the context hitting fresh.
So really, I see no point in calling for any more blood.
9596739
Have you seen an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation entitled "The Survivors"? I think you'd like it. I think you'd like it a lot. If you haven't seen it, correct that. If you have...go watch it again.
"We're not qualified to be your judges. We have no law to fit your crime."
9596738
Yea that’s him. I’m not saying soldier would like that particular dalek but hard not to be a little impressed a dalek survived being erased from existence
Poor Soldier, compared to Pinkie, youre a flatlander and if you were genius enough to truly understand what that meant, your Dalek mind would collapse stark raving insane dead.
So far, Soldier is vastly more reasonable than Chrysalis?
The one stuck in... What was it... That one thing with the frozen and the picture that's not a picture.... Right?
Silly Doctor, you'll never run out of things to learn, discover, or find!
Colgate is best Minuette! Er....
Keep going! ;)
9596705
Soldier: Twilight, why are the Doctor and Minuette --
Twilight: let's go outside and um, play catch! Yeah, games!
Soldier: but--
Twilight: remember that memory I gave you on "excess material expulsion"? I don't have one that adequately explains this, and I'm not going to try helping you get it yourself!
I have been thoroughly enjoying this so far. It helps you really know your stuff when it comes to The Doctor.
You know considering how many species and civilizations (admittedly often out of necessity and only after any offer of mercy is rejected) he was wiped out of existance it really is eerie how thin the line between The Doctor and his greatest foe can be at times.
With all due respect to RK Striker I don't think its an insult at all to compare The Doctor to a Daalek. The latter has a habit of bringing out the absolute worst qualities in the Time Lords as a species and individually. There's a duality akin to Batman and the Joker there that really adds depth to the last two chapters.
Also to Striker I would like to point out the episode 'Into the Daalek' where its shown just how thoroughly any potential iota of positive emotion is systematically ferreted out and deleted. You can be horrified by what Davros built his creations to become, but its as pointless to call a Daalek cruel as it is to call a hurricane evil. It's literally built into them to hate.
Anyway enough soap boxing I can only hope this is the first story in a series, it feels like we've only just begun to get to the best material! But your tale your call, I'm just thankful to be along for the ride, and for all your hard work.
9596748
When I took my college ethics course, I pretty much absorbed the big picture it was trying to teach.
Justice, overall, is a product of the ethical leanings of a society combined with that which benefits the most individuals in said society codified. And what a society deems as ethical is usually focused on what allows that society to grow and flourish as a whole.
The idea of the 'punishment' side of justice comes from the concept that what has been taken away must be given back in some form or another. But even here, the concept of justice (or at least, retributive justice) is about give and take, and using the fear of give and take to curtail the offending actions of those who would be deemed criminal. In another manner of speaking, justice is simply a form of state-sanctioned revenge systemized to a controlled process so that some proper utility can be gotten out of it.
This works well within a society for the most part. But there's a limit to how far it can be pushed before the context or scale just can't handle it. Mass genocide is one such thing. For all the amount of harm an individual can do to a society, you can only take so much back from them before you start asking 'what is there left to take?'. The punishment for the crimes of physical violence and murder escalate until the only thing you have left to take from someone is their life. You could inflict indignities on the offender before doing this, but these indignities are only emotional appeasements to the victims and serve no real utility in the system. I mean, what utility would it serve to parade a child molester and murderer around an arena before execution? Entertainment value? Maybe?
At the ultimate, the worst you can really do to an offender is take a life for the life they took. But if they took many lives, you can't really take many lives from the offender. If the offender committed Genocide somehow, you can't really justly match the punishment for the crime. You can still only execute the offender once. Countering the genocide with a genocide of the offender's race/species doesn't work because the concept of justice is applied to the individual in society. And we don't punish the group for the failures of the individual. Not in our social system, anyway.
So what you end up with here, is that there is no form of punishment that can really scale to an individual after they've killed more than a few other individuals. For a Dalek, there's no real punishment that can apply to them as individuals. There are no 'degrees' of genocide. No difference between killing five, and killing five million. Drop on top of this the fact that Daleks are indoctrinated from inception to only feel hate and contempt for everything that isn't Dalek, and have a social value that amounts to 'Kill everything that isn't Dalek or DIE'. Where does any form of human justice even fit here?
To encounter any Dalek is not a question of if it should be 'brought to justice'. To encounter a Dalek is tantamount to playing a video game. Player encounters Dalek; Dalek will kill player. Kill Dalek first. If for any reason you have a Dalek that is not trying to kill you, then you've found a bug in the Dalek AI. Normally, you'd just take advantage of the bug and kill it anyway.
What's really funny with the Doctor and Daleks is how emotional the Doctor gets when dealing with them. He gets borderline cruel. He gets vindictive. He gets spiteful. He seems to just flat out fail to conceptualize that he's dealing with living NPCs set to 'Kill Everything'. Sure, he can use the reputation he's earned over eons to make them fear him enough to hesitate, but his emotional responses to them are LOST on them. They don't care. They CAN'T care. So when he goes into the 'you should be ashamed' rants at them as he goes to corner them? It just shows the Doctor's flaws and misunderstanding of Daleks in general.
Still, my favorite Dalek moment has to be the trash talk between Daleks and Cybermen.
Aaaah, satisfying. I love the choice of the TARDIS. The Doctor is nothing without his Lady.
9597411
Daleks to Cybermen "You are superior in one way."
Cybermen "What is that?"
Daleks "You are better at dying!" *SAKZAPPPP!*
Yay can't wait to see how it all ends!
Tardis: oh wait till you hit your first heat. It's dreadful!
Soldier:... Daleks have no concept of mating.
Tardis:... You can't have my doctor.
Loving this as always. Had to go back a reread a few paragraphs from the first chapters to refresh my memory of certain events but I really do have a soft spot for this story. I hope the Doctor at least pops in every now and then to say hello to her.
Part of me hopes Soldier has a relapse at some point during this story. Daleks are needlessly cruel, setting their weapons to just below lethal to ensure a painful death. They destroy and kill without even considering that it could ever be, in any reality, a morality objectionable action. It's simply what they do. They conquer, they destroy. They exterminate. Not only that, they actively enjoy being this way. They regard hatred as beautiful and despise anything close to not being exactly like their highest standard.
To see Soldier improve as a pony, to learn what it means to be a living creature and still commit an act so natural to a Dalek would really push to the ponies how much of an alien she is. It would affect how ponies see her; they'd be witness to an act of a Dalek, not merely hearing horror stories, and it would shape Soldier moving forward as she experiences what might be her first sparks of guilt and sadness over something she previously had to qualms over.
Or she could end up learning what gifts to buy her friends at Hearths Warming and worrying if they will like them or not. Either way I cannot wait to see what you come up with
Pff-! Great going there, Doc.
Okay, just an idea to play with, what if Angel Bunny is a Dalek who refused to be a pony and tried to turn to dust but instead turned into something worse than a pony?
9599206
I mean, first thought is that any normal Dalek trapped as a bunny in spite of its best efforts to kill itself is going to, once it knows the futility of trying to die, go full Pickle Rick on Equestria.
Considering what I've seen of the TARDIS I can say it's a sentient thing and can be quite jealous of some of the doctor's companions quite literally creating a holographic copy if one of them and proceeds to say something rude to that person in techno speak during a time in the show where that person is trying to save the doctor I distinctly remember that companion calling the TARDIS a bi$@h so if a reality could create a body for it I think that it probably would end up with one