//------------------------------//
// Thunderbolts and Lightning (Very Very Frightening) 
// Story: Fall of the Doctor 
// by Sixes_And_Sevens 
//------------------------------//

The Intelligence grinned at the Doctor-sicle that stood before him. “What’s this? No clever quips? No jibes? Oh, come now, I know you’re still alive in there. Given your Time Lord resilience, I’ve no doubt you could stay alive for quite some time yet.”
He smiled, and his teeth were the blizzards of the frozen wastes and his eyes the deepest reaches of space. “Which is why I’m going to kill you faster.”
He walked around the Doctor, admiring his work. A thin layer of ice surrounded the Time Lord. He was still quite aware, of course. The Intelligence had made sure of that. Yes, the Doctor could stay alive indefinitely in there, barring accidents. Barring the Intelligence. “I can’t have you dying slowly, you see. You’ll just escape. You’ll find some clever way to melt the ice, or shatter it, or else one of your companions will come save you. Therefore, I must kill you quickly.”
With a wave of his hoof, a section of the floor near the Doctor floated away and dissipated in the breeze. “It will cause a paradox, of course. I can’t kill you now, because your future self won’t be around to stop me in the past. The thing is, I don’t care.” He smiled once more. “I have been around since before your people were even a twinkle in the primordial soup, and I will be there to dance on the universe’s grave. Time is little more than a nuisance to me as it is. Besides, Hecuba throws terrible dinner parties, as I believe you already know.”
He looked down at the hole he had created. “So, all things considered, it is only logical to send you splat.”
He peered a little closer at the hole, frowning. “Ah! You see, Doctor? Already, your cavalry rides to the rescue!” He pointed at the TARDIS, gently spinning just below the cloud layer, but moving steadily closer to the hole. “Let’s just see about that,” he said, stomping the cloud beneath him.
A bolt of lightning shot out and struck the TARDIS dead on. The Doctor let out a faint moan of horror as the box began to drop. “As for you…” the Intelligence continued, reaching to touch the small of the Doctor’s back, “...Bye!”
He shoved heartily, pushing the frozen Gallifreyan over the precipice and down, down, down to the ground far below.
The Doctor tried to scream as he plummeted toward the ground, but all that came out was a terrified croak, his vocal cords as frozen as the rest of him.


***

Rumble and Scootaloo both let out simultaneous cries of pain as electricity suddenly shot through the controls. Though the orange pegasus was blown backwards almost immediately, Rumble stayed grasping onto the joystick as though affixed to it before slumping down to the ground. Almost immediately, the others were checking over their fallen friends. “Scoots is alright,” Sweetie reported in relief.
“So’s Rumble,” Ditzy reported.
The colt’s eyes fluttered briefly. “Nnn. No. No vase. Vase bad.” He twitched once, and fell back into Ditzy’s hooves.
“Uh, guys? Not to bring anypony down, but I think we’re crashing,” Button said. Ditzy and Sweetie froze.
“Okay,” Sweetie said, panicked, racing to the controls, “I think Scootaloo was using… this one? No, this one! Maybe…”
“The one on the left,” Button blurted. Sweetie grabbed at it and tilted up. The control room bounced as the TARDIS rocketed back up. Everypony let out a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, Sweetie frowned. “Hey, what’s that?” she pointed to an object that fell past suddenly, pushed out of the hole.
“It looked like a pony…” Button said. Suddenly his eyes widened. “Quick! Sweetie, take us down, fast!”
The unicorn slammed down hard on the altitude controls, sending the TARDIS hurtling toward the ground. It approached the level of the falling object, and Ditzy gasped. “It is a pony! That’s Pocket!”
Button glanced around wildly. “Ditzy, do you know how to fly this thing?”
“No!” she cried. “I tried, but I can’t! It’s too different from pegasus flight!”
“Sweetie?” Button tried.
She stared at him incredulously. “I’m a little busy right now! You do it!”
“What if I mess up?”
“You won’t! You have a joystick and a screen, this is your time to shine right now!”
Button swallowed hard. Then, setting his face into a stern mask, he grasped the controller in his hooves. “Take us down faster,” he ordered.
Sweetie snorted. “Like you need to tell me twice,” she replied, pushing down even harder on the altitude switch.
The blue box rocketed past the Doctor. Glancing up at the small screen, Button played the controller like a concert pianist on opening night. “Shoot,” he growled, “How do we tilt this thing? If we catch him like this, he’ll die as surely as if he hits the ground.”
“Um,” said Sweetie, glancing over her instrument panel. “I— let’s try— I don’t—”
“Sweetie!” Button said. “You trust me, right?”
“Yes!”
“Well, I trust you too! Take your pick!”
“Uhh,” Sweetie said, right hoof nervously fluttering over switches. “Eenie, meenie, miney… this one,” she said, pushing down on the switch that mirrored the altitude control.
The box tilted… but the wrong way. Hurriedly, Sweetie yanked it back up. “Woohoo! Go Sweetie!” Button cheered.
Ditzy was, meanwhile, closely monitoring a series of displays on another panel. “We’re almost at the ground!” she warned. Button licked his lips nervously, watching the view from his monitor. “Right. No change in interior gravity, good, that means…” he pushed up on the joystick ever so slightly, maneuvering the TARDIS into just the right position. Then he paused. “The door!” he shouted, “It’s still closed!”
Sweetie Belle glanced over. To her horror, Button was right. “I got it!” she cried. With a flash of green magic, the doors flew open.
“Now let go of the controls!” Button instructed.
Sweetie leapt back as though the switch had burned her. The TARDIS suddenly came to a halt in midair. The Doctor fell through the door only a few inches above the threshold, and crashed, skidding against the floor. Pieces of ice flew across the floor as the coating shattered off of the Time Lord’s body. “Pocket?” Ditzy asked, worried. “Are you okay?”
The Doctor pushed himself up. “... Yes. Yes, I think I am!” he said in mild surprise. He looked up at his wife. “Are you okay?”
“Yep!”
“Everypony else okay?”
“Scoots and Rumble got shocked, but they’ll be okay,” Sweetie replied.
“Then yes, I think I’m fine as well,” the Doctor said, before sneezing loudly. “Apart from having caught a bit of a chill.”
Suddenly he glanced around sharply. “Where are Dinky and Apple Bloom?” he demanded.
Ditzy stared. “You mean, you don’t know? I thought you had a plan!”
“Yes! The plan was to get you out so you could bring in the TARDIS and save the rest of us! Well done, by the way, just in time.”
“Actually, it wasn’t me,” Ditzy said. “You know I can’t fly this box— sorry, ship. It was the kids!”
The Doctor looked at the foals, incredulous. “What? But— but— the TARDIS is a highly complex— I mean— that’s impossible!”
“You’re welcome,” Sweetie said, raising an eyebrow.
“What? Oh yes. You’ve all done very well, good job. But we aren’t done here just yet.” He glanced between Sweetie and Button. “Can you keep her flying steady?”
The two foals looked at each other. Button grinned. “I think we can about manage that, yeah,” he said. “Sweetie?”
“Going up!” she said, pulling up on the altitude controller, and the TARDIS roared toward the clouds.