Doctor Whooves walked down the endless hallway with no control over his legs. He had no idea how long he had been walking for or how far he had gone when his legs stopped moving. Unable to move the confused pony looked around to only see swirling smoke. The smoke blew away to reveal a massive window. His legs once again taking control marched him over to the window. Letting out a gasp he looked out of it to see he was in orbit around Gallopfrey. The Gallopfreyan fleet lay frozen in place above the planet. The same smoke that trapped him wrapped around the warships leaving them untouched but helpless.
Distracted by the scene below him he failed to notice five figures form out of the air. They all raised their right hands and Whooves was forced to turn around to face them.
“Oh it’s you again,” he tried to remain emotionless facing them.
You are the Doctor. Like before their words seemed to enter straight into his brain. You are the one we need. All five of the shadowy figures moved around Doctor Whooves. Linking arms they created a circle around him. Whooves broke his poker face and fear showed on his face. Desperately trying to back out of the circle he panicked as legs still refused to obey him.
“Why me? What do I have to do with anything?” To his horror a sixth figure rose up in front of him and placed a hand on his forehead. Sleep now. Doctor Whooves fell over limp.
The six figures circled around Doctor Whooves.
He is ready, one said without speaking.
The answer lies within his mind, added another one.
Over 900 years of memory will take us time to dig through
But we have the time. The only one who can stop us lies helpless before us.
Then it is decided. We shall begin, all said in unison.
Doctor Whooves stood in a familiar room. He tried to remember how he got here but his memory was fuzzy. A bright yellow door creaked open and a massive purple pony walked in. Whooves craned his neck to look up at the towering pony before him. Despite his confusion the sight of this pony greatly eased all of his worries as she looked down at him with a smile on her face. She picked him up and took him out of the room into another with a huge mirror. Whooves stared into his own reflection as he saw that the mare wasn’t huge but he was small. Wide blue foal eyes stared into the mirror. His normally spiky mane was a ball of frizzy hair. Looking down at his reflection he saw his familiar cutie mark was missing leaving him a blank flank. Unable to speak out at this shock all he could do was cry. The two ponies surroundings dissolved into smoke leaving them in an endless void before they too were swept away.
This time Whooves found himself sitting on a chair with the same mare and another red stallion sitting on a couch in front of him. They were bigger than him but not by much. Quickly remembering what had just happened he looked down at his flank to see it still bare.
“So remember to be good and do what you’re told,” the red pony said. The purple mare wiped away a tear and went over to him and wrapped her front legs around him.
“We will come visit the Academy soon.” She blew her nose, “We love you and never forget it.”
Once again everything dissolved again.
Doctor Whooves nervously walked down the darkened hallway. No student should be down here at this time of night but he felt drawn too this place. It was as if something was calling him and he couldn’t refuse to answer. Passing doorways that led in different directions he came to one that look no different from the rest. It’s deep red wooden door opened at his touch. A plaque sat above it reading ‘Outdated TT Capsules’. He couldn’t help but feel surprised at the sight that meet him. Rows upon rows of cubes covered the room for as far as he could see. Each cube looked about two metres cubed and shined with a faint white light. He tried opening the one closest to him but it remained shut. He felt the feeling he had been sensing all night and walked down a random row. After a few minutes walking he stopped at a seemingly identical cube. Raising his hoof he tapped on the cube’s side and watched in awe as the side swung open.
Stepping into the cube he found himself in a massive room with only one thing in it. A single pentagon console no wider than a metre was in the middle. A small clear column rose from the console. He felt the console drawing him in and it consumed his complete attention. It was so simple but so complicated at the same time. Whooves was so enthralled with it that he failed to notice a small flash on his flank as an egg timer appeared on it.
“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever known,” he said completely awestruck. Before he could do anything two ponies rushed in.
“You’re not supposed to be here!” one shouted before they both grabbed Doctor Whooves.
“Please I was just wanting to look at her,” pleaded Doctor Whooves. They dragged him out of the room and locked the door behind him. As Whooves struggled the room and two guards dissolved away just like before.
The six shadowy figures were confused at what they had just witnessed.
That was the memory we were looking for.
But it also wasn’t. We do not understand what happened.
This is the Doctor but also not him at the same time.
But we know that he is here because we followed him here.
***
Romana tried desperately to contact the war fleet of Gallopfrey. All her requests were only answered with static on the radios.
“You know you shouldn’t really be doing that now,” said the Doctor. Romana shot the Doctor an angry look.
“And what do you think I should do?!” he shouted at him.
“Well at the moment it is reasonable to assume that the fleet has been lost and and anything that can do that could intercept your signals.” Romana looked horrified as she caught on to what the Doctor was getting at.
“And I just spent the last 30 minutes broadcasting where I was.”
“It’s not too late for us to get out of here but we have to go now,” he said calmly. “I can help you but you have to start trusting me if you want to help your people.”
Romana didn’t know what to do. At this moment enemies were probably closing in on her position and she could make contact with the fleet. Left with no options she walked over to the Doctor.
“Please help me.” The Doctor nodded to her. “Disable field,” she said as the Doctor felt himself freed. Getting up he keep eye contact with the helpless pony in front of her.
“Right, the planet is being attacked and we don’t know who by. First off I need my sonic screwdriver.”
“Your what?” she asked confused.
“Little metal stick thing that makes noise and a green light,” he said. Romana pulled it out of her jacket and presented it the Doctor.
“Is this it?” The Doctor grabbed it thankfully from her hoof.
“First thing we need is to find out who is attacking us,” he pointed his screwdriver at the console and pressed the button.
The door opened and an automated female voice spoke.
“Warning! Defense failure!”
“What did you do? I trusted you!” Romana angrily shouted at the Doctor.
“What I needed to do. Trust me I’m the Doctor,” he said with a faint smile. Black smoke entered the room from the door. Romana backed away from it in terror but the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at it and scanned it. He stared at it as the smoke completely blocked out the door. and began surrounding them. Looking intently at his screwdriver he thought about what it was telling him.
“Hmm that is interesting,” he said in fascination. “Anyway now that’s out of the way I think I know what to do.”
“Do what?” asked Romana.
“Well seeing as this is a safe room it should have emergency exits.” Romana pointed to the door.
“Look at it, we can’t go that way!”
“I was thinking of taking a different route,” he used his screwdriver again and he and Romana disappeared in a flash of light before the smoke surrounded them.