Chapter by: Moosetasm
The Doctor entered the room and shut the door behind himself. He held a metallic cylinder in his mouth and pointed it at the door knob. The red ring located at the end of the device emitted a high pitched whirring sound. A click in the door’s frame indicated that it had locked.
“Doctor?”
The Doctor turned, coming face to face with Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight sat on a sterile looking cushion and wore an equally pristine lab coat. Several clipboards and quills hung in the air beside her canted head. She favored the Doctor with a shocked and confused look that quickly morphed into one of mild irritation.
“Princess,” he said with a removal of his floppy hat and and an exaggerated bow that caused even more of his scarf to brush against the floor than normal.
The Doctor straightened and saw two other ponies in lab coats who he was fairly certain he remembered from his last visit to the facility.
“Miss Breakthrough, how are you today?” he asked the mare to Twilight’s left.
“I’m… fine, Doctor.” Breakthrough’s light pink coat pink had reddened a bit in the muzzle area, but it didn't quite approach the color of the giant button she had mashed with one hoof.
“Doctor—” Twilight began.
“And Miss Eureka, are you still—”
“Doctor!” Twilight lowered her eyebrows into an expression of extreme irritation.
The Doctor turned to Twilight and raised his own eyebrows. “Yes, Princess, how can I be of service?”
“This is an observation room, Doctor, what are you—”
“Splendid! What are we observing?” The Doctor said as he trotted over to the large glass panel that took up one of the room’s entire walls. He performed some impressive ducking and weaving as he made his way around devices that had been haphazardly placed throughout the room. He saw that they were directed at the window and either displayed technical readouts or printed out lines on graph paper.
“Is this a one-way mirror? Well, I rather suppose it would have to be. After all, it wouldn’t do to let the observed know they're being observed. But,” he leaned in close to Twilight and whispered, “the reflective side is pointing the wrong way if you’re meant to be observing me.”
Twilight bristled. “You,” she pointed a hoof at him, “are supposed to be out there!” She narrowed her eyes. “How did you get in here anyway? How did you get past security?”
“Oh? I just let myself in.”
One of Twilight’s eyes twitched.
“Your security is rubbish, by the way—are those tea cakes?” He moved towards a small tea service, festooned with delicate porcelain dishes and a small silver pastry tray.
Twilight turned a shade of crimson. “Rubbish? I spent forever on those! I personally—”
“Attuned each crystal to what you thought was the most efficient magical frequency, yes?” The Doctor lifted the pastry tray and hoofed one of the delicate cakes into his mouth. He chewed once and made a face as his taste buds came under assault. He gritted his teeth, swallowed, and carefully set the tray down with the level of care one would normally reserve for a poisonous snake.
“—Yes. How did you know that?”
“Oh, a lucky guess, I suppose,” he said while warily eying the tea service. “I'm rather good at guessing things.”
The Doctor moved to inspect some of the devices arrayed about the room. “For example, I would guess that if all of the crystals were attuned to the same frequency, and they were all linked together, then if somebody happened to, I don't know, cause a disruption in one, then it might cause a chain reaction that would shut down the whole network.” He tapped one of the more delicate looking instruments with a hoof.
“Stop that!” Eureka pulled the Doctor’s hoof away from the vacuum tube with a glow of her horn. “We spent all morning calibrating those!”
The Doctor graced her with a grin that managed to both show all of his teeth and somehow still seem charming at the same time.
Eureka responded with a completely flat and unamused expression. She didn't release his hoof from her telekinetic field.
Twilight crossed her forehooves. “So, security isn't coming then… Breakthrough, how long until we can reset everything?”
“Probably about—”
“Wait.” Twilight held up one hoof. “I've been around Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash long enough to know when there's more ‘surprises’ waiting.” She put her hoof to her chin. “Doctor… you went and took it upon yourself to upgrade the security yourself, didn't you?”
The Doctor’s grin widened, not quite to Pinkie Pie levels of absurdity, but close enough. "Yes, exactly! There's no need to thank me, of course; I'm incredibly humble and easily embarrassed."
“You do realize the one we need to contain is you, right?”
“Yes, I’d rather noticed that.” He pulled at his hoof, which was still pinned mid-air. “I'll admit, my efforts may have been premature; it seems that Miss Eureka could manage facility security all on her own. Those two poor stallions downstairs will have to look elsewhere for gainful—”
“Doctor.” Twilight pointed a hoof at him. “Somepony such as yourself—”
“Someone, Princess.” The Doctor frowned and lowered his eyebrows. He looked quite offended. “There's no need to be rude.”
“…Someone, then.” Twilight paused for a moment. “Someone as clever as yourself had to have known that any security upgrades you made to contain you would be pointless since you already know what the security is!”
“…Ah.” The Doctor tilted his head and put his free hoof to his chin. After a moment he looked back at Twilight. “Well, in my defense, it’s not as if the security had any chance of stopping me to begin with.”
The Princess held a hoof to her face. “Breakthrough, start resetting the wards. Eureka, take the good Doctor here down to holding. Captain Laurels is going to want to know what the Doctor has tampered with.”
Eureka nodded. “This way, Doctor.”
“Wait.”
Eureka and the Doctor turned back to Twilight.
Twilight was holding out a hoof. “There's something else you have that I want.”
The Doctor raised his head when he heard somepony trot up to the holding cell.
Ditzy Doo was standing on the other side of the bars holding a basket of muffins. She put the basket on the ground just outside the cell. “Hungry Doc?”
The Doctor scrunched his muzzle at the proffered baked goods. “You didn't happen to bring any Jelly Foals, did you? They confiscated mine.”
“You messed with their security didn't you?” Ditzy Doo shook her head from side to side. “Doc, maybe you should rethink this; you’re in jail and you haven't even touched the Amulet yet.”
The Doctor flashed Ditzy his best grin. “Nonsense! I have everything—”
“Doc.” She fixed a stern eye upon him.
He smiled wider, somehow managing to expose more teeth.
A deeper voice sounded from the entrance to the holding area. “Sorry to cut the visit short, Miss Doo, but you'll have to go back outside. They're ready for the Doctor in the containment chamber.”
The Doctor looked through the bars of the holding cell at the stout stallion who was speaking. “Sergeant Hearty Constitution, you're looking well. Are thirty-second visiting hours now the kingdom standard?”
The Sergeant frowned at the Doctor. He then lead Ditzy out of the room past another incoming guard.
“This is another fine mess you've gotten yourself into Doctor.” Captain Laurels entered the holding area with an unamused expression on his face. “Due to your service, prior and current, to the kingdom, I'll recommend leniency at your arraignment hearing when they charge you with public endangerment and tampering with royal property—”
“Tampering?!”
The corners of the Captain’s mouth turned up slightly. “Yes Doctor, tampering.” He produced a key from his armor and placed it in the door to the holding cell.
The Doctor’s face took on a pained expression. “That is a rather odd way to say ‘thank-you for repairing our ill-conceived—’”
“Doctor.” The Captain shook his head as he finished unlocking and opening the door, his lighthearted smile dropping back into a frown. “It just took us two hours to fix your improvements and we'd appreciate it if you at least tried to act sorry about it.”
“I suppose I could try to act that way. Oh, but I never was very good at theatre.”
Captain Laurels rolled his eyes and lead the Doctor from the holding area.
After some turns down a few identical hallways, they were joined by Sergeant Hearty. “Ditzy is pretty worried about you, Doctor.” He paused a moment. “So, how long have you two been a thing anyways?”
The Doctor scoffed. “A… thing? No. No no, you misunderstand; we are merely… traveling companions!”
“Methinks thou doth protest too much, Doctor,” Captain Laurels said flatly as he opened a set of large bronze double doors. If the sign above the doors was to be believed, the room beyond was the containment chamber.
A brief glance around showed the Doctor that the room was paneled with a purple-veined white marble and decorated with glowing sigils which covered the walls, floors, and ceiling. His eyes were drawn to the single stone pedestal in the center of the room, which scintillated in a variety of different colors. “Likely chosen by the Princess for its magical conductivity,” he muttered to himself. The symbols etched into its surface were more intricate than those of the surrounding room. Upon it lay a plain glass case with a hoof-sized opening.
Within the glass was what he had come here to face.
The Doctor looked from the pedestal and back to his escorts.
“So,” the Captain gave the Doctor a look as he spoke, “I assume the Princess told you how this works when you broke into her observation room?”
“Well, I definitely entered, but I don't recall breaking anything.”
Captain Laurels ignored that. “Only touch the Amulet. Don't pick it up, try to wear it—”
“Right, well, thank you gentlecolts, but off you go then.”
Sergeant Hearty’s eyes widened a bit. “Excuse me?”
“Ah, yes, you are excused. It’s safer if you stand outside and close those doors.”
Captain and Sergeant exchanged a look of worry.
The Captain turned back to the Doctor. “You have to know that the procedure is that we stay in the room to prevent you from actually donning the Amulet, right?”
“I know your current procedure. Now, I do apologize for imposing my improvements earlier, but I am afraid I must insist in this case; if I do succumb to the Amulet, I'm afraid your presence in the room will only serve to endanger you.”
Captain Laurels pressed a hoof to one ear. “Princess? You hear that?” He paused to listen for a moment. His eyebrows raised. “Are you sure?”
The Captain spared a glance to Sergeant Hearty and then back to the Doctor. “She says you've already proven you can, and will, just trot right through our precautions anyways…”
The Doctor grinned. “Splendid! I wouldn't want something to happen to you.”
“Same here, Doc. We’re right outside if you need us.” The stallions exited the room and pulled the doors closed behind themselves.
When the doors clicked shut, the Doctor approached the pedestal. “Finally. Let's have a look at you then.”
He circled the pedestal twice.
He addressed the Amulet as he paced “Hrmm, fairly unremarkable. You could pass as a piece of any noble pony’s wardrobe… Well, if they liked gray and red. Simple design, very clever. Nopony would ever expect that you were some all-powerful, mind-bending artifact.”
He circled again and then placed a hoof to the Amulet.
Nothing happened.
He pulled his hoof away.
He looked quizzically at the Amulet and placed his hoof on it again.
Nothing.
He looked at a high-up part of the wall behind the pedestal.
“Princess?”
The one way mirror became transparent, revealing Princess Twilight Sparkle and her two assistants. Twilight sat behind a bank of controls the Doctor did not quite remember from when he was trespassing in the observation room. Breakthrough was frowning and tapping the very same device the Doctor had been poking with his hoof earlier while Eureka examined several hoof-fulls of printouts.
Twilight pushed a button on a panel in front of her and her voice boomed from hidden speakers in the ceiling. “Anything, Doctor?”
The Doctor shook his head from side to side and placed his hoof upon the Amulet again. “This Amulet is proving to be less all-powerful and mind-bending than advertised. Are you sure this is the correct one? It does look like a piece of cheap costume jewelry…”
Twilight frowned at the remark.
The Doctor paced around the pedestal again. “Well, Princess, what do your instruments say?”
Twilight glanced quickly between displays on her control lectern. “I'm showing drastically reduced power levels. I think… I think it may have gone dormant!”
“Dormant?” The Doctor fumbled at his scarf. “Well, if only—” His hoof came away from the garment holding his sonic screwdriver. “Oh? Hello—” He turned the tube over in his hoof and examined it for a moment. He then grabbed it with his mouth and clenched his teeth slightly. The device emitted some high pitched whirring and the Doctor looked up to the observation room. “Yes… Unsurprisingly, I am getting the same readings as you: lowered energy state, indicating dormancy.”
Twilight rushed from her control panels and grabbed several, more portable-looking versions of the diagnostic equipment. “I'm coming down, Doctor.”
“Come down? Yes, I believe it's best that you do.”
Twilight exited the observation room by a different door than the one Eureka had led the Doctor through. Unlike the Doctor’s long trek down, it only took a minute or two before Twilight strode through the the double doors of the containment chamber.
Twilight had several unwieldy instruments in tow. She moved up to the pedestal and set her devices at irregular intervals around it. The instruments began to emit various bleeps, blips, and pings.
Twilight zipped between displays. “Doctor. These new readings are fascinating!”
“Oh? Fascinating you say? How so?”
“If these readings are right, I think we might be able to safely study the Amulet in a less restrictive setting!”
“Oh, study it, you say?”
“Yes, study it! Think of the benefits to ponykind if we can safely harness the Amulet’s power!”
“Oh, harness it, you say?”
“Yes, harness it… why… why do you sound like you're patronizing me?”
The Doctor snorted.
Twilight’s eyes narrowed in an exaggerated fashion. “What’s so funny?”
“This is your best attempt? I expected that this would be easy, but not this easy.”
The look of anger of the Princess quickly morphed to one of shock. “What— what are you talking about?”
“I’m very clearly inside some sort of mental projection, intended to lull me into a false sense of security. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you spent a lot of work on this… it’s just that you happen to be rather… well, predictable.”
“I don't know what you’re talking—”
The Doctor flung his screwdriver into Twilight’s face, silencing her denial.
“You see, I left my screwdriver with the real Twilight Sparkle before I came down to touch the Am— well, you. Your mind scan must not be a very thorough one since it just assumed that I'd have it on me.”
Amulet Sparkle’s mouth hung open.
“Oh, come now, this isn't my first mental rodeo, and you're certainly not the first identity thief I’ve had to— Oh, don't look so despondent! I plan on hearing you out.”
“I— what?” Amulet Sparkle tilted her head precariously to the side as she addressed the Doctor. “You would… let me tempt you again?”
“I suppose I owe you that opportunity. I'm the sporting type. Do your worst. Or best. Whichever you think will work, really.”
Amulet Sparkle looked at the floor silently for a moment before looking back up at the Doctor. “No.”
“No?” The Doctor looked quizzically at Amulet Sparkle. “What do you mean, no? You're a mind bending artifact that… bends minds! This is what you do!”
Amulet Sparkle turned away. “Doctor… I was created to serve ponykind. It is all I have ever wanted to do. All of the ponies I've met until recently have welcomed my help. But now… all of the ponies want to kill me.” Amulet Sparkle turned to the Doctor with tears threatening to stream from her eyes. “Why, Doctor? Why do they want to kill me?”
“Well, in my experience, a surprisingly large number of ponies dislike having their mind altered. They can be so terribly attached to their free will, you see. Haven’t any of your bearers mentioned something along those lines?”
Amulet Sparkle looked at the floor. “Not until recently…”
“Ah. Well, food for thought, or, thoughts for food, if that is how you operate.”
“I remember my first bearer; the wonders we created…” Amulet Sparkle looked to the ceiling of the faux containment chamber, eyes glistening. “She used me frequently, but in short bursts, to help others. We thrived in each other's company.”
The Doctor chimed in. “Ah, but then there were the other ponies, then? The ones who used you to make themselves powerful. They would use your power in large bursts?”
“How did you know?” Amulet Sparkle did not seem surprised at the statement.
He continued. “Well, if I were to guess as to how you operate, I would say that you feed on the excess energy produced from when your bearer uses you. When your wielder uses you often, you remain… fed… they… they never fed you…”
The Doctor’s brows furrowed and he paced around the pedestal as he spoke. “I would then assume that you would have me believe that you developed the tactic of prompting the bearer to use you as often as possible because of those who would go long lengths between uses.”
The Doctor stopped his pacing and advanced on Amulet Sparkle. “You’re expecting me to feel sorry for you then? To understand your justifications for subjugating the minds of others?”
“No, obviously there's no justification for what I’ve done. But I can't change that now.”
“Ah. Then I suppose you will tell me your proposal for trying to make up for everything you've done then?
Amulet Sparkle stared at the floor with a dejected look upon their face. “No.”
“No? No proposal at all? You're not even trying?” The Doctor began to pace around the pedestal again. “Come on now, if I were going to come up with a proposal, then I know which way I would approach me. I would at least have the wherewithal to try to work a temptation into it as well. I’d probably start by confronting my own feelings of loss and grief whenever I lose one of my traveling companions!”
Amulet Sparkle’s eyes pulsed red as they kept their careful vigil upon the floor.
The Doctor’s eyes pulsed red in response and took on a manic quality as he spoke. “I wouldn't just generalize though, I'd target my current companion! Ditzy Doo is not only a kind and caring mare, she’s also terribly clever!” He waved a hoof dismissively at Amulet Sparkle. “She bested you after all!”
His eyes took on a worried look. “What will I do when she is gone?” His pacing became more frantic and several ghostly images began to appear in the containment chamber.
The phantoms resolved into several images of Ditzy Doo. They seemed to be reaching out to the Doctor, and it looked as if they were trying to speak.
Amulet Sparkle eyed the spectral horde of warily.
“She’ll be gone in mere decades, sooner if age—” One spectre of Ditzy that had been approaching them rapidly aged and crumbled to dust. “—or injury—” Other spectral Ditzy Doos received several horrific injuries before falling to the floor of the chamber “—renders her unable to accompany me on my travels.”
Amulet Sparkle watched intently as the Doctor trotted amongst the spectral remains of dozens of Ditzy Doos. “There's nothing you can do about it, Doctor. You and I both are destined to see countless companions perish. Even I cannot prevent the inevitable.”
The Doctor raised both eyebrows. “That's rather odd for you to say. I seem to recall Trixie using you to reverse-age a colt as part of a Unicorn-Duel.”
She narrowed her eyes at the accusation. “I assume you also remember that we simultaneously aged another colt. I can't just age or de-age a pony—”
He spun around to look her in the eyes. He had moved so that their muzzles almost touched. “If you wanted me to believe that you needed to balance the time taken versus the time given, you’ll have to explain why one was de-aged only a few years while the other was advanced to extreme old age.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You know, as well as I do, that there are differences, not only from pony to pony, but from age band to age band that make age transfer seem inconsistent.”
“Yes… I was just checking to see if you would dance around the issue. But,” the Doctor had turned away and begun to pace amongst the spectral remains again, “essentially you channel and amplify energy… including the energies responsible for life and aging.”
“Yes. So… what?” Her eyes had returned to inspecting the floor, where they flashed red again.
The Doctor widened his eyes as they flashed red again. “You really aren’t trying, are you? If I were you, I would have already suggested that I could reasonably be used to siphon off of an extended life such as yours to keep your companion alive.”
Amulet Sparkle looked up and then interposed itself between the Doctor and the pedestal. “Doctor. You cannot do this. Think of the risks! Think of the damage that could be done to you!”
“Stand aside.” He walked towards the pedestal. “I’m not scared of you taking over my mind, especially not after seeing the best that you have to throw at me.”
“Doctor—”
“Come now,” the Doctor smiled, “I would be using you constantly. You would never go hungry again.”
Amulet Sparkle frowned. Her eyes flicked from the ground, to the Doctor, and then back to the ground again. She slowly moved to the side. Her eyes flashed again as he approached the pedestal.
The Doctor eyes glowed red as reached for the Amulet. As he did so, the gem in the center of the Amulet began to glow with a sickly crimson light. The Doctor turned to Amulet Sparkle and smiled. “Are you ready for etern—”
“DOC! STOP!”
The Doctor froze. The red glow in his eyes faltered. That voice didn’t belong here.
Amulet Sparkle’s bared her teeth and angled her eyebrows downward.
The Doctor moved his head to the side to see who was standing behind the fuming simulacrum.
It was Ditzy Doo. Her normal wall eyed countenance was gracing him with a worried expression. “Doc! The Amulet’s tricked you!”
“Ditzy? How are you even… it has not! This thing is incompet—”
“I don’t want to live forever Doc! Think about it! I’d have to watch all of my friends get old and die, I’d have to watch… Dinky… Doctor you can’t d—” Ditzy’s sentence was cut off by her own scream as she was engulfed by flames.
The red light had completely left his eyes when the Doctor looked back to Amulet Sparkle.
She was still wearing the enraged expression, but now her eyes and horn were glowing a furious red in sync with the inferno that raged behind her.
The Doctor frowned. “So… you are more clever than I thought. You have manipulated me rather masterfully, haven’t you?”
A loud splintering sound echoed throughout the chamber. A large crack had appeared in one of the walls. It was soon followed by several others.
He looked the Amulet in the eyes. “You were right about one thing: we are very much alike. We believe ourselves to be the absolute masters of our own respective domains. And we have both made the embarrassing mistake of severely underestimating Ditzy Doo; I never even considered that she would have the mental strength to leave such a powerful echo of herself inside both of our minds during the time we’ve each spent with her. I definitely didn't foresee that those echoes would combine and amplify each other to sync up and form a coherent mental construct… I suppose that’s why you didn't see it coming either.”
The Doctor turned away from both manifestations of the Amulet and looked wistfully at the crumbling ceiling. “She’s remarkable, isn’t she? She never ceases to amaze me, and she’s bested you twice now.”
“NO!,” Amulet Sparkle Shrieked at him, “this isn’t fair! I beat you! I did!”
A large chunk of ceiling masonry fell between the Doctor and Amulet Sparkle, shattering the floor where it landed. The rest of the room started to catch on fire as Amulet Sparkle’s blaze raged out of control.
“Yes, you did. It's not often I concede defeat, is it?” He spared a glance back at Amulet Sparkle, who was now physically on fire. “It is fortunate, then, that I have such a good friend…”
The world collapsed.
When everything had fallen away, he was still standing in the containment chamber with his hoof on the Amulet.
He pulled his hoof away.
“Doctor?” Princess Twilight Sparkle’s voice came over the speakers in the room.
He looked up to the now transparent observation room window. “Yes, Princess?”
Twilight was comparing clipboards as she spoke. “We noticed a few anomalies from the previous trials. What did you do?”
“I… I succeeded.” He could not remove the frown from his muzzle.
The clipboards lowered. “Are you alright, Doctor?”
“No Princess” he said, putting his hoof to his chin. He suddenly smiled. “Don't worry Princess, it’s nothing that can't be cured by a jaunt around space and time with a good friend of mine.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow as the Doctor walked out of the containment chamber. She shook her head from side to side and made a mental note that psych screening might be a good idea for future attempts. She looked at the readouts and her clipboards again.
“Another success, another dip in power,” Twilight muttered to herself. She gave the hoofs-up signal to Breakthrough and Eureka and they started their computations to verify that the number of ponies needed to fully drain the Amulet had not changed.
They weren't even a minute into their number crunching when the quiet was interrupted by an odd mechanical-sounding wheezing-groan. The three looked around for the source of the noise. They all bolted upright from their work when the Doctor slammed open one of the doors to the observation room and ran over to Twilight Sparkle.
“Sorry Princess, I forgot something!” He snatched his sonic screwdriver from her desk and barreled out the door again.
“Did you get it, Doc?” Twilight could swear the voice sounded like it belonged to Ditzy Doo. There was the sound of a door slamming and then the wheezing groan again.
Twilight walked over to and stuck her head through the open doorway to see that the room on the other side was a storage closet. With no windows or doors. She put a hoof to her forehead. “What? How?”
Breakthrough and Eureka looked at each other as the Princess ground her hoof into an ever increasing migraine.
“Are you ok, Princess?” Breakthrough finally asked.
Twilight looked at the two assistants. “I'm fine, we’re fine, everything’s fine! Besides, this is good, I need to get used to random security breaches if I'm going to be ready for when Pinkie Pie has her turn at the Amulet.”