//------------------------------// // Part 3: Don't Blink // Story: Once a Time Lord... Well, actually still that, but now a Pony as well... // by The Bricklayer //------------------------------// Canterlot Castle: Dungeons: The Doctor still sat in the dungeons, having now pulled out a banana from his suit. He idly wondered how that had gotten there, even if it probably didn’t matter that much no one could blame him for being curious. The Doctor chuckled to himself, one of the things that came with having pockets that were larger than the norm was that you were always finding odd things in them. The Doctor chuckled, once he’d found a subset of the Eye of Harmony in them. “Bananas are good. Great source of potassium. Reason I replaced that weapons factory with a grove full of them,” The Doctor thought to himself, beginning to go on one of his famous, or infamous depending on the way you looked at it, rambles. “Shame though, I admit that Squareness Gun of Jack's... (Some voice in his mind, sounding suspiciously like the man himself, shouted “There should be a “Captain” in there!”) which I... Er, liberated from the factory before it blew up does come in handy.” The Doctor then had a thought occur to him and tossed the banana behind him before going on another search through his pockets in hopes of finding the item in question. No such luck though. All that he could produce was the big orange, and quite frankly in the Doctor’s mind, quite disgusting fruit known as the satsuma. “Figures, there's always that one stinking satsuma at the end amongst a whole hoard of items,” By this point, his deep blue suit was a mess, scorched and burned from the TARDIS’s crash landing in Canterlot. Although it wasn't like anybody was around to see him right now, nor did he particularly care anyhow. He'd long ago dropped caring how people or in this case, ponies thought of his fashion sense. It had started ever since he wore that ghastly multi-colored coat about six or so regenerations ago that looked like it was stitched together from just about any piece of clothing he could find. The Doctor snorted (Wait, was that a nicker?) in derision, he had to wonder what he was thinking back then. No right man would ever wear that unless they absolutely wanted people to think them insane. “Then again, I am a bit of a madman really. Yep, a madman in a box. That’s who I am,” He thought to himself before sighing. “Rassilon above… I have to wonder what sort of path my life’s taken if I’ve wound up in a dungeon. Mind you, I’ve wound up in dungeons before, angered a few kings. Mind you, winding up in a dungeon made for candy colored ponies is certainly a first. Not exactly something I had in mind. ...Yep, this so isn’t on my bucket list of things to do before I run out of regenerations.” The Doctor thought to himself. His train of thought then turned sadder. “Paths in life… Rassilon, there have probably been so many other paths in life I could have taken… Prevented so many deaths..” “You, no we did what we had to do, considering we are the same being after all.” An aged and weary voice said to him from a corner of his mind. It was a feature of Time Lord biology that even after a regeneration had passed, they were still able to speak to their future incarnations mentally if they so desired. Some Time Lords, usually the ones with especially powerful mental abilities like the Master and the Doctor had developed whole Mind Palaces and were able to communicate with any and even all of their previous selves in moments of calming peace and tranquility... Which for both the Doctor and the Master were far and few between. "No, there could have been other ways…” Ten argued mentally with the regeneration he refused to acknowledge, the one who had dropped the name of the Doctor entirely. “Bullshit!” HE snapped back. “You know perfectly well as I do that using the Moment was the only way to end all the fighting!” "And in one simple stroke, I became a god, a god of death. Nobody should have to choose who lives and who dies, then they'd become a monster. And that's what I became in that one single moment, something I've been fighting for millennia. A monster. You know, they say the Valeyard was sometime between my Eleventh and Twelfth incarnations, but I think in that moment we became the Valeyard." Ten retorted and he could feel his previous self being struck like he was hit in the chest. “How dare you..." War growled out. “Listen to yourself. The Valeyard is a monster with no remorse,” War said back in return in a stern tone of voice before his voice became kinder. "We have remorse for what we did. That's what you've become now. The man who forgets, and now the man who regrets. You’re not a monster, not yet…” “Am I?” The Doctor asked sadly, and War had no true response for that. The Doctor sighed to himself. Yeah, he thought as much really. War then changed the subject. “So, what are you going to do then?” He asked. “Just lay around in this dungeon feeling sorry for yourself? Not like you is it?” The question came out in a quite snarky tone. At that point, the Doctor realized where the big eared one must have got it. “Well, excuse me for obeying the “rules”!” Ten snarked back. It soon became a war of snark to snark combat between the twosome. “Well, you’ve never been one for obeying the rules, have you?” War snapped. “Pretty sure I have obeyed a few rules here and there…” Ten remarked. “Yeah, only when it suits you.” War put in. “Huh, suppose that could apply to you as well.” Ten retorted. “Applies to both of us, sandshoes.” War snarked back. “S-Sandshoes?” Ten stuttered out indignantly and missing War’s insult by a mile. “For your information, I’m wearing horseshoes right now!” “And another thing,” War snapped, continuing with his critique. “Why are you always brandishing your Screwdriver like a weapon? It’s a scientific instrument! Unless you’re trying to look cool or something, it’s not doing you any favors amongst the rest of us lot. And then there’s that damned catch phrase of yours… For God’s sake, French? Really?” Ten began singing “La-la-la, can’t hear you!” at the top of his lungs. “...You’re such a child.” War muttered to himself. Canterlot Castle Gardens: Meanwhile, Flash had decided to take it on his own hooves to find the missing statue. After all, he decided, it was just a statue. Couldn’t be that hard to find really, and to be honest considering what it was, the pony who had stolen it probably hadn’t gotten too far. So, it should have been a simple enough task to locate it. Right now he was on the south end of the gardens, exploring the area near the very large hedge maze that had been put in some odd hundred years ago. A mist had descended upon the area, covering Flash’s entire field of vision with a very thick and rather eerie fog. “Got to be brave, got to be brave…” Flash mentally chanted to himself, putting on a confident face even if he didn’t feel very much like that. Suddenly, his eyes whipped around when he thought he saw something move to his left. Flash went for his sword and pulled it out of its hilt with the sound of the blade cutting through the air. It ripped apart a section of the fog with ease but the gap was quickly filled. Something laughed beyond his line of sight, almost as if that something was mocking him. “Alright, whoever’s out there,” Flash shouted into the gloom. “This is your only warning! Come out with your hooves up!” Flash felt… something, even if he couldn’t narrow down what it was, near him and coming fast. Out of pure instinct, he began slowly backing away from the oncoming threat a small drop of sweat trailing down his muzzle until he felt something press up against him. Flash’s head whirled around and he let out a yelp, his sword falling to the ground from his mouth with a clattering sound. Slowly, his eyes peered upwards and his head followed their gaze to be met with a snarling, dragon like face frozen in stone. Flash let out a sigh of relief and picked up his blade. “Oh thank the Creator, it’s just that very… I’ll admit, realistic statue of Discord the Chaos-Bringer, but just that. A statue,” Flash thought as he laughed nervously to himself at his own foolishness. If the other guards caught wind of this, he’d never hear the end of it. The pegasus then let out another sigh, this time one of disappointment. “Sure wish it was the statue I was looking for though.” Flash had to wonder, how could the statue thief made off with the item in question so quickly and so silently? After all, it wasn’t like statues could move by themselves! Somepony had to have stolen it, a Master Thief like The Golden Hoof! That was the only possible rational explanation! Flash then heard hoof-steps coming from somewhere behind him and his eyes slowly turned to look behind him. The guard’s sapphire blue eyes then saw it, the Statue just sitting there, hooves over its eyes as always. Flash sighed in relief. “Okay, now to just figure how to get the damn thing back to its plinth,” Flash thought to himself before groaning as he shook his head in resignation. “Flashy-Boy, you really got the worst job in the world sometimes, you know that right?” Something behind him moved and Flash drew his sword again and pointed it at a very small figure hidden in the mist. “Okay, just so you know, my name is Flash Sentry. I’m 21 years old, I’m from the city of Canterlot, and I’m a Royal Guard and the pony to stop you!” Flash shouted before the mist cleared away to reveal… “...And you’re just a squirrel, aren’t you?” Flash muttered, feeling rather embarrassed with himself and cheeks flushing red. The squirrel chittered and ran off and up a tree. Flash muttered “Idiot” to himself as he let out an audible groan hoping that nopony had seen that. He then resheathed his sword, feeling rather safe knowing that the only living thing out here (Aside from him of course) was wild animals and possibly other members of the Royal Guard. After all, what else could there possibly be? Suddenly, there was the sound of stone moving and Flash once again whirled around only to be greeted with a snarling muzzle, sharp teeth bared and then his whole world went black. Elsewhere in the Gardens: Meanwhile, unaware of what was happening, Shining in an attempt to get away from the ball and the crowds of ponies ready to praise him had wandered out to the gardens to hopefully find some peace and quiet. “You don’t like crowds, do you?” Soarin’s voice asked as it came from behind him. Shining snorted. “That’s one way of putting it, never have really liked big crowds or parties in general. Why do you think you never see me at the Grand Galloping Gala?” Shining remarked to the cornflower blue pegasus. “Believe it or not, I know how you feel,” Soarin confessed. Shining stared at him in shock. “Seriously, you?” Shining asked in disbelief. “Yeah, I’m not exactly comfortable around large groups of ponies either, mainly because said large groups are always fan-ponies trying to get you in bed with them for a one night stand or clamor for your autograph really. It’s… not fun.” “Let’s not forget the reporters.” Shining put in. “Oh, don’t even get me started on them,” Soarin groaned. “If I had to compare them to anything, it’d be like a pack of vultures swarming over a kill.” “Don’t I know it…” Shining sighed. Right about then, he saw Cadance trotting up wearing a yellow and pink dress with a white rose in her mane. Soarin muttered “Lucky stallion...” as the Princess of Love nuzzled Shining before quickly getting the hint and trotting off remembering that old saying about three being a crowd. “So, I see somepony’s being sociable,” Cadance commented. “Making friends with the second in command of the Wonderbolts huh?” “Yeah, I suppose,” Shining commented as the two walked together in the light of the Mare in the Moon. “Just wish it was easier for my little sister…” He trailed off sadly. Cadance nodded. “Yeah, she’s got friends, but the problem is she doesn’t pay attention to them and keeps her nose in her books and focuses more on her studies than them.” the Princess said, shaking her head. Shining nuzzled her in an attempt to reassure her. Cadance smiled weakly. “Thanks, Shiny. You always know how to cheer me up.” She said with a soft smile before giving him a short kiss on the lips. Shining blushed. “W-Well, y-you know I aim to please.” Shining stuttered out, quite embarrassed at the public display of affection. Cadance giggled and hid her amusement with a golden horseshoe clad hoof. She then gave him a much longer, lingering kiss, wrapping her forelegs around his neck as she did so. Cadance then broke away from the kiss making Shining let out a small whimper as her eyes trailed away from him. “Something wrong?” Shining asked, noting Cadance’s suspicion and getting ready to go in full Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard/Protective Coltfriend mode if needed. His own eyes followed hers and noted a statue and sighed in relief. “Just a statue, albeit a creepy one, but just a statue,” Shining stated, trying to reassure his marefriend. “Yeah, but I could have sworn the thing wasn’t there before.” She replied, and Shining gave her a look. “Now you’re just being paranoid. Statues can’t move, not since the last time I checked.” He replied before both he and Cadance turned their heads back to the statue. This time, its hooves had moved away from its face and the mouth was beginning to open. Both Shining and Cadance blinked in shock, and once again the statue had moved even closer. “On the other hoof…” Shining thought to himself as the mist began to close in. “Run!” Both Shining and Cadance broke off into a running gallop into the hedge maze the mist becoming ever thicker. They, unknowingly in their fear, took separate paths and split off from each other. Shining began taking turn after turn, shouting his marefriend’s name all the while. Just as Shining reached an open area in the maze with a golden globe themed fountain in the center, he heard a familiar scream. “Cadance!” Shining shouted in fear. He then remembered a set of words. “Just something to think about, if you see anything strange, anything out of the ordinary, ponies start dying and you don’t know why, come see me! There’s a reason I’m called the Doctor, I help out. Maybe bumble a bit along the way, but I do like to help when needed.” Shining let out a sigh, as much as he hated to admit it, there was only one pony who might have the answer as to what was going on...