//------------------------------//
// It Takes You Away 
// Story: Ruler of Everything 
// by Sixes_And_Sevens 
//------------------------------//

The Crusaders had migrated to the living room. Dinky sat in the middle of the couch, looking even smaller than usual. The illusion wasn’t helped by the two largest Crusaders, Apple Bloom and Rumble, sitting on either side of her, watching and waiting to catch her if she fell over. Dinky wasn’t sure whether she felt irritated that they were treating her like some kind of fragile flower or flattered at such a clear display of concern and affection. She settled on the compromise of being too drained to feel much of anything at the moment.
The others listened closely as she explained the conversation she’d had with the TARDIS fragment in the crystal, before they in turn explained what they had seen of the whole affair. It didn’t take very long.
“You zapped the crystal with magic and it turned clear,” Scootaloo explained.
“How long were we connected?”
“Uh… less time than it took to tell you what we saw.”
“Less than a second,” Button said from the chair he and Sweetie were sharing. “How long did you think it took?”
“Hard to say,” Dinky admitted. “Like I said, time was really weird. It could’ve been instantaneous. It could’ve lasted for all eternity. Honestly, it could’ve been both at the same time."
Sweetie tapped her hooves together. “It’s like dreams,” she said. “They always seem to last awhile from the inside, but I read that in reality, the average length is something like seven seconds.”
“What, so they’re bigger on the inside?” Rumble said, raising a brow.
“That’s… yeah, that’s one way of putting it.”
Dinky coughed into a hoof. “Sorry, but I feel we might all be missing the forest for the trees, here. The TARDIS gave us a mission, and we need to see it out.”
“Yer right there, Dinks,” Bloom agreed. “But, uh, who exactly is ‘the thief’? An’ what’s their machine do?”
“The thief seems to be what she calls the Doctor,” Dinky said. “I suspect his machine is the thing he’s been building in the TARDIS.”
“And that is…” Scootaloo prompted.
“I don’t really know,” Dinky admitted. “I’ve only been home for a little while, remember? And he doesn’t like to talk about it much, either. I think it’s some kind of… I dunno, fault locator? Something to run diagnostics on the TARDIS? He said he’d figure out the source of all the glitches and breakdowns that started popping up recently.”
“You mean like the one that sent us to the Crystal Empire on the day it fell?” Sweetie asked.
“Or the one that nearly turned every pegasus into a cyborg?” Scootaloo added.
“Or the one that nearly sent the ship falling into a hole in time, yeah,” Dinky said. “I sort of assumed it was all down to his being a careless driver who hasn’t taken her in for repairs in centuries, but he seemed to think there was some central cause for all of it.”
“What?” Button asked, round-eyed.
Dinky shrugged. “Haven’t the faintest.”
“What was the ‘Nightvale’ thing it mentioned?” Rumble asked.
“Again, no idea.” Dinky frowned. “Regardless, we have our mission. The Doctor’s machine is a danger to the TARDIS, and possibly the world. We have to break it.”
“But if we don’t know what it is, or how it works, how can we do that?” Scootaloo asked.
Apple Bloom regarded her for a long moment. “Have y’all met us?”
Scootaloo rubbed her chin. “Good point,” she admitted. “I’m pretty sure the universe has a pretty big load of tree sap, and it’s just dying to dump it on us.”
“I’ve got some tools in my bag,” Button added. “Should be able to do a fair bit of damage with those.”
“It’s settled, then. We have to get to my house, stop the machine before the Doctor turns it on.”
Dinky looked around. “Well? Are you with me?”
“Yeah.”
“Sure!”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Alright then! Let’s go.”





The inhabitants of Twilight’s castle made their way up the road to Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight had been as good as her word, and hadn’t tried to leave her bed again until Cadance had declared it was probably about time to get going. The nurses had begrudgingly allowed Twilight to leave, though they insisted she not exert herself any more than was necessary. So, hooked to an IV-drip, Twilight rode along in a cart pulled by Trixie and Shining Armor. Sunset trotted along in the lead with Rarity and Spike, while Sombra trudged along behind. Cadance accompanied him, out of a sense of obligation more than anything else. However, as they walked along, Cadance was finally able to find some common ground with him -- both relished the atmosphere of the warm summer evening. Talking about the weather wasn’t particularly groundbreaking as far as healing relations went, but it was certainly a start.
As the group passed in front of the farmhouse, they were just in time to see a royal chariot landing in the clearing by the barn. Cadance brightened and sprinted ahead. “Aunt Celestia! Aunt Luna!”
Trixie frowned thoughtfully. “Hey. How come both of them are her aunts? Who’s Cadance’s mother?”
“It’s more a nickname,” Shining explained. “They’re not actually related, not in that way. It’s… kinda complicated.”
“Huh.” Trixie glanced back at Twilight. “So are you going to start calling them your aunts, too?”
Twilight shrugged. “I dunno, maybe eventually. Cadance’s ascension was… different from mine, and so was her relationship with Celestia. I don’t really think we have the same sort of connection --”
She was cut off by a blur of white feathers. “Twilight! Oh, I’m so sorry I could come sooner. If the letter hadn’t mentioned that you were in a stable condition, I’d have flown down straightaway, and damn the Day Court! Oh, my dear, dear Twilight…” Celestia pushed back her former pupil’s mane gently. “I’m so terribly sorry this had to happen to you.”
“Grk,” Twilight said.
“Ah, yes,” Celestia said, loosening her embrace. “Apologies. That was a bit overeager of me, wasn’t it? Oh, I’m just so glad that you’re alright.”
Trixie gave Twilight a knowing smirk. “You don’t have the same sort of connection, huh?”
Twilight would have minded less if Shining Armor, Spike, Sunset, and Rarity hadn’t all been smirking at her, too. She scowled at them both and waved a hoof in the direction of the barn. “Keep your eyes on the road!”
As they reached the barn, the royal chariot that the royal sisters had arrived in took off, flying over the trees as Luna waved it off. “Good evening, Twilight. I pray you do not mind that our chariot will be parking at your castle. We felt that for such an intimate event, it… would be best…” she trailed off, looking at Twilight for the first time. Celestia held her close to her chest like a teddy bear, which was only made more concerning by the presence of the IV drip.
“Sister. Would this be at all related to the matter you did not wish to trouble me with, earlier?”
Celestia pursed her lips. “Perhaps.”
“Twilight was injured, and you did not see fit to tell us?”
“Luna. Indoor voice.”
“WE ARE NOT INDOORS.”
“Hi, Luna,” Twilight said, waving. “Hi, hello.”
Luna glanced down at her, her eyes softening. 
“I’m fine,” Twilight said firmly. “I can’t use magic right now, and that is… not optimal. But I’m recovering well. It’s all good.”
“We still should have been informed.”
“Luna, you were already a wreck about the Doctor. To tell you all this would have bordered on cruelty.”
The barn door slammed open. “What’s all the shoutin’ about?” Applejack demanded. She fixed Luna with a stink-eye. “Granny Smith’ll be goin’ to bed soon. If you wake her up, you’ll be th’ one dealin’ with the consequences.”
Luna was experienced enough to recognize a threat. She was also experienced enough to recognize a promise. She swallowed. “Under-- I mean, understood.”
Applejack squinted at her and nodded. Then she saw Twilight and her eyes went wide. “Whoa, nelly! What happened to you?”
As Twilight began to recount her tale yet again, Sunset, Spike, and Rarity made their way into the barn, where three rows of folding chairs had been set up in semicircles around the TARDIS. “Hello!” Rarity called. “Doctor? Are you in here?”
Receiving no response, she frowned. “Odd. He’s been so precious about this gadget, one would think he wouldn’t leave it alone for a moment.”
Spike sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. “Something smells weird in here. Like… like burning.”
“Excuse you,” Sunset said, scowling.
“No, not like you. Like, uh… ozone, that’s the one. Do you not smell it?”
Rarity cocked her head. “You know, now that you come to mention it…”
Sunset shrugged. “It’s probably just the lingering smell of whatever last-minute additions the Doctor was putting on.”
Spike thought about that. “Yeah… Yeah. You’re probably right,” he decided. He glanced around. “So, uh, wanna take a glance inside?” he asked, lowering his voice.
Rarity blinked. “What, at the Doctor’s machine?”
“Yeah! Just a little peek, y’know?”
Sunset pursed her lips. “I am curious.”
Rarity tossed her mane. “Well I prefer to remain in suspense until the appointed hour. Really, darlings, don’t let temptation overcome you.”
Spike looked at Sunset. Sunset looked at Spike. “Alright. We’ll just go and look, and not tell you what it is,” Sunset said.
Rarity sputtered. “I -- what? You -- oooh! Fine. Let’s take a small peek inside.”
“I knew you’d see it our way!” Sunset said cheerfully, leading the way over to the TARDIS doors.
No sooner had she put a hoof on the handle, however, than she heard somepony behind her clear their throat. All three turned around, only to find Applejack glaring at them. “Y’all wouldn’t be tryin’ t’ ruin th’ Doc’s surprise, now, would ya?”
Rarity glared at Spike, who looked away sheepishly. Sunset took a different tack. “Oh, c’mon. It’s been sitting in here all afternoon. Are you telling me that you didn’t even sneak a peek?”
For a moment Applejack’s eyes glazed over and her jaw fell slack. “Uh? Wha-- No! Of course ah didn’t. Unlike some ponies Ah might name, Ah don’t poke mah nose where it don't belong.” She sounded uncertain, as though she didn't believe the words coming out of her own mouth.
Rarity frowned. “Darling, are you quite alright? You seem--”
“Aw, come on, Applejack! You can’t blame them for wanting to get a little sneaky-peek!” Pinkie bounced in. “The Doctor’s been working on it for so long and been keeping so quiet, it only makes sense for them to be curious!” She paused and frowned. “But you still shouldn’t be peeping. It wouldn’t be nice to ruin the Doctor’s special surprise.”
Even Sunset couldn’t meet the gaze of a disappointed Pinkie for long. “You’re right,” she admitted. “Alright, alright, we’ll be good.”
Pinkie brightened. “That’s good. I’ve been getting big ol’ Pinkie Senses all day! I still don’t know what they all mean.” She gazed at the TARDIS. “Whatever’s in there, it’s gonna be a real doozy.”





It was about a thirty-minute trot from Button’s house to Dinky’s. “We’ll have t’ hurry if we don’t wanna get caught,” Bloom muttered.
“Oh, that’s a point,” Rumble said. “How are we going to get a few minutes alone with the machine? Your house is going to be packed.”
“Pinkie will be there,” Dinky said. “If she’s not inside serving up cupcakes and facilitating small talk, I’ll eat my hat. Even if there are some ponies keeping an eye on the TARDIS… well, we all have plenty of experience with making distractions.”
“True.” 
As they approached the house of Doo, however, their confidence began to wane. They had expected it to be too crowded. They hadn’t expected it to be perfectly still and silent. Scootaloo frowned. “You don’t think…”
“It's only about twenty past the hour. The Doctor wouldn’t have activated it early,” Dinky said. “I’m certain of that.”
“We don’t actually know what it is,” Button said. “Could it… activate itself?”
“Or could it actually be an hour later inside?” Sweetie added. “If there’s one thing that’s going wrong today, it’s…”
She trailed off, craning her neck to look over the fence.
“It’s…” Button prompted.
“Timing!” Sweetie said quickly. “Sorry. Distracted. I don’t see anypony in the yard, or even the TARDIS.”
“It could just be behind the house. C’mon, let’s go through.”
Dinky unlatched the gate, and the six hurried into the backyard. The only sign that the TARDIS had been there was a square patch of dead grass. All of them stopped and stared at it for a long minute. “Okay,” said Scootaloo, her voice controlled. “This… doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Right?”
Dinky lit her horn and shut her eyes. “Residual artron energy,” she muttered. “Not a lot of it. Probably just an effect of the TARDIS sitting around here.”
“Spread out,” Bloom ordered. “If that time-energy-whatever was here, it must’ve left behind some evidence, right?”
“Right.” Rumble took to the air.
“Dinky? Can you let us in the house?” Button asked.
“H-huh? Oh, right. Yeah.” She produced a key and levitated it over to him. He, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom all hurried inside, leaving Dinky and Scootaloo out in the yard. Dinky took a deep breath in and let it out as one long sigh. “Okay. Scootaloo. We need to find…” she cast around, looking for anything that looked remotely like a clue. “...Er, thoughts?”
“Oh, so now you care what I have to say,” Scootaloo grumbled, perhaps a little more bitterly than she’d intended.
Dinky looked at her askance. “I always care what you have to say.”
“Yeah? Well, it hasn’t seemed that way today.”
“Exactly what are you talking about?” Dinky demanded.
In for a penny, Scootaloo supposed. “You’ve been railroading the rest of us all day,” she said, stepping forward. “You seem to know all the answers, and you haven’t let the rest of us get a word in edgewise.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you’d studied advanced temporal theory,” Dinky snapped. “I knew how to solve the time problems, you didn’t, and I just got on with it. How is solving a problem quickly and efficiently an issue, exactly?”
Sweetie Belle poked her head out the backdoor. “Um, girls?”
“You could at least tell me what you’re going to do when you do it! I had, like, seven consecutive heart attacks when you threw a baby through a door.”
“I was levitating her! If she’d stayed a baby, she would’ve been fine.”
“Okay, that brings up my next point. How did you know that she was going to turn back into an adult? What if she had stayed a baby? What if she’d just disappeared? What if her body turned back to normal, but her memories didn’t?”
Button coughed. “Uh, Dinky? Scootaloo?”
“Those are all incredibly unlikely situations.”
“But not impossible! You could’ve done almost anything to her, just barging in like that!”
“Yeah? Well, I didn’t. What would you have done, exactly?”
Apple Bloom waved. “Uh, ladies? Yoo-hoo.”
“I would have left her in there while we got the Doctor, or one of the princesses, or somepony! She was perfectly fine!”
“She was a baby!”
“A perfectly fine baby!”
“Sitting alone in a flower shop? With nopony there to feed her? How long would she have stayed ‘perfectly fine’?”
“Oh, for Luna’s sake,” Rumble groaned. He swooped down and grabbed Scootaloo, dragging her away from the argument. Apple Bloom did the same to Dinky. “Hey. Wise guys. Sweetie Belle found something.”
Sweetie Belle held out a note, and Dinky took it. “Dear Dinky, we decided to move the party to the barn at Sweet Apple Acres for space reasons. Didn’t know when you’d be home, please come and join us as soon as you read this. Be sure to tell your friends, too. Love, Mom.”
Dinky put down the note. “Ah,” she said.
Button glanced inside for a moment. “So, assuming we can trust that clock, we’ve got about… thirty-five minutes to get to Sweet Apple Acres. How long does it usually take to walk there?”
“Uh…” Apple Bloom considered that. “Forty-five minutes.”
“Right. Okay. Time to run?”
“Let’s go!”
As they raced out of the yard, none of them noticed the patch of dead grass slowly starting to grow and spread, withering everything at its perimeter.





Practically everypony had arrived. Discord was, for some unknown reason, still coiled around a branch outside, offering apples to everypony who passed by. When Applejack asked why, they gave the cryptic answer, “I liked David Tennant better in Good Omens, so sue me.” 
Of all the invited parties, only Romana had declined to show, although she sent her support for the intervention. She wanted to be there, of course, but pointed out that if something went terribly wrong with the Doctor’s latest invention, there ought to be somepony outside the blast radius that knew how to fix it. Everyone was very careful not to mention that last part, particularly not where Fluttershy might be able to hear.
Everypony had been quite worried about Twilight’s condition, of course. Even Discord had seemed rather put out by her loss. Shining Armor had been glued to her side all evening. Big Macintosh had seen fit to glue herself to the other. Twilight was pleased to spend time with her brother, and she was pleased to spend time with her crush, but their proximity to one another was starting to make her a little jumpy. What if they didn’t like each other? What if they got in a fight? What if she had to choose between her brother and her best friend’s brother?
“So,” said Mac, glancing at Shining. “Ah understand y’all like Ogres and Oubliettes?”
Shining nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah. Taught Twilight everything she knows about being an Oubliette Master.”
Twilight frowned. “You taught me everything you know,” she corrected.
Shining ignored that. “I’ve got this great campaign running in the Crystal Empire right now, with Cadance and a couple of our friends.”
“Yer more an OM than a player, then?”
“Eh, it’s half and half. You?”
“Ain’t creative enough for it. Anyhow, Ah like bein’ characters. Th’ one Ah got right now is this diamond dog ranger, name of Sadie…”
Of course, Twilight thought, there was always the possibility that their mutual dorkiness would be the start of a beautiful friendship, instead.
In short, everypony was there. Everypony, that is, save for the Crusaders, Ditzy Doo and the Doctor himself. “Where is he?” Rainbow Dash demanded for the seventh time in as many minutes.
“Ah still don’t know,” said Applejack, leaning on a fence.
“I mean, we’ve only got what, half an hour left?”
“‘Bout that.”
“It’s really kinda rude for him to invite us here and just not show.”
“Reckon yer right.”
Rainbow hovered in the air. “Should we send out a search party or something?”
Applejack pondered that. “Maybe after another five--”
“Ahoy there!”
Everypony spun around to see the Doctor waving cheerfully at them all as he and Ditzy trotted out of the orchard. “Sorry, all. We lost track of time for a bit, there.”
Discord raised an eyebrow. “I always thought that was impossible for your kind,” they said.
The Doctor grinned. “Ah, well, it all depends on the ponies you’re hanging around with, doesn’t it? Well, we’re here, now.”
Applejack took a long breath in. “Yeah. Yeah, Ah guess you are.” She turned to the barn. “Hey, y’all! The Doc and Ditzy are back!”
Slowly, in twos and threes, everypony trotted into the moonlight. The Doctor straightened his tie. “Ah. Wow. I must say, I wasn’t expecting such a crowd.”
“Good evening, Doctor,” Luna said quietly. “It is good to see you again.”
“Good to see you too, Luna. Good to see all of you!” The Doctor nodded. “Been awhile, hasn’t it? I really haven’t gotten out much lately, I suppose. Once you see what I’ve been working on, though, you’ll see why.”
Celestia glanced to Ditzy. The pegasus chewed her lip for a moment, then shook her head firmly. The princess frowned, but seemed to accept this decision. At that moment, the Doctor noticed Twilight for the first time. “You’re hurt?” he asked, hurrying to her side. “How? When? Are you alright?”
As Twilight began to recount her tale of woe yet again, Celestia drew Ditzy aside, lifting a wing to prevent eavesdropping. “What happened?” she whispered. “Is the intervention off?”
“No…” Ditzy said. “No, I don’t… think so. I talked to him earlier, and I’m not sure if I got through to him. I want to see how the presentation goes before we say anything.”
“Are you sure of this?” Celestia asked.
Ditzy looked into her eyes. This was the ruler of her nation, the princess of the sun itself. She had asked her a question, not as a challenge or attack, but because she really did want to know Ditzy’s opinion. This was a mare asking if her friend would be alright.
“Yes,” she said.
Celestia nodded, then hesitated. “One more question, Ditzy.”
“Yes?”
“I understand that the Doctor wants his unveiling to be a surprise. But set my mind at ease. Is this device in any way… dangerous?”
Ditzy blinked, surprised. “No, of course not! Why would you think that it was?”
“I don’t mean as a weapon, per se,” Celestia went on hurriedly. “Just… if something were to go wrong. What could we expect from the worst-case scenario?”
“It’s… essentially a communications device,” Ditzy said carefully. “The Doctor was going a little overboard with features, but I put a stop to that earlier. I think the absolute worst that could happen is that it could explode.”
Celestia nodded. “I see. Thank you, Ditzy. And we’ll have the intervention after the presentation?”
“I think so.” Ditzy hesitated. “Focus on… I don’t think he understands how much all of us really care about him as a pony. How much it hurts us when he shuts himself off.”
“I understand. Thank you, Ditzy.”
Celestia straightened up, retracting her wing, then trotted quickly over to Luna and the others to pass on the salient information. The Doctor glanced over from where he was talking with Twilight and frowned for a moment. Shining Armor intervened quickly. “Should we head inside?” he asked. “It’s getting pretty close to time, now.”
“What? Oh, yes.” He hurried toward the door, then paused. “I’ll need a bit of help carrying it out. Er, Ditzy?”
“Coming, Doctor.” She mouthed a quick ‘thank-you’ to Shining before trotting in after the Doctor.
“I guess we’d all better get to our seats,” Twilight said, following Ditzy’s lead.
Slowly, the entire party migrated into the barn, leaving the clearing alone, dark, and quiet. It seemed to be holding its breath.





The Crusaders paused for a breather as they reached the road up to Sweet Apple Acres. “How exactly do we do this now?” Scootaloo asked between pants. “Everypony’s going to be there.”
Dinky shook her head. “Smash first. Answer questions later.”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah. Sounds good t’ me. C’mon, now, we’re runnin’ out of time!”
Button let out a low whine of pain as the others took off for the trees, but ran along, his tote bag smacking his side with every step.





The assembled ponies watched the TARDIS expectantly as the Doctor and Ditzy struggled with the machine inside. Together, they were finally able to maneuver a tarp-covered object out through the TARDIS doors and set it on the floor. The Doctor gave Ditzy a quick kiss on the cheek before she hurried to her seat. “My friends,” he said, looking around. “It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. That isn’t always true, of course, sometimes the mother of invention is boredom, or greed, or a lab accident. But in this case, it was necessity. You see, there’s something terribly wrong with my TARDIS. A glitch that’s been moving through her systems like pork through a duck ever since I crash-landed in Ditzy’s front yard more than a decade ago. At first, I assumed the flight errors were down to operative error -- as Celestia and Luna in particular can attest, my piloting skills have always been somewhat hit or miss.”
“Yes,” Celestia agreed, raising an eyebrow. “You missed where you were trying to land, and you generally hit the most dangerous spots imaginable.”
The Doctor blushed a bit and coughed. “Well, quite. But after awhile, it became clear that there was something far more malign at play. Applejack. Do you remember, the night of the Cyberpegasi incident, I asked you to look at some internal footage from the TARDIS?”
Applejack nodded. “Yeah. There was some fella messin’ with th’ console, wasn’t there?”
“Exactly,” the Doctor said. “There’s a malign force in the TARDIS, a living glitch. I worked to root it out, but it was too clever for me. I couldn’t track it down. That’s why I built this.”
He took the cloth in his mouth and whipped it away. The metal alicorn stood tall and proud, gleaming in the light. “I’ve built the TARDIS a body,” he said proudly. “If anyone can tell us what’s going on in her systems, she can.”
Rainbow frowned. “What’s with the weird collar?”
“Traditional Gallifreyan formalwear,” the Doctor explained.
Rainbow stifled a laugh. “Wait. Wait, you had to wear that? Oh man, that’s hilarious!”
“Rainbow!” Fluttershy scolded. “It’s part of his culture. You shouldn’t make fun of it.”
“No, no, she’s not wrong,” the Doctor said. “I mean, it looks ridiculous, and it’s even more cumbersome to wear than it looks. My people were known for three things; mastery of time travel, ridiculous amounts of bureaucracy, and a complete and total lack of aesthetic taste.”
The audience chuckled. Celestia glanced at Luna. “He certainly seems fine,” she murmured.
Luna shook her head. “Perhaps we were too hasty after all.”
None of them noticed as the barn doors quietly swung shut and locked with a click.





The Crusaders raced past the farmhouse, Scootaloo at the fore and Button, wheezing, bringing up the rear. Rumble glanced back at him. “You alright, man?”
“Not in the greatest shape,” Button admitted between gasps.
Rumble slowed a little. “Hop on.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, obviously. Get on already!”
Button scrambled onto his friend’s back and they took off for the barn again, praying they weren’t already too late.





“So, er…” The Doctor cast around. “Questions? Anypony?”
Mac raised a hoof. “So, exactly how d’you power it? Er, her?”
“Oh, it’s a simple matter of drawing off enough power from the Eye of Harmony, really,” the Doctor said breezily. “Amazing power source, you know. It’s a star right on the edge of collapse, forever. The TARDIS doesn’t need to divert all that power to traveling, generally speaking. Only when she’s got to do something more than usual, like traveling between universes, or creating a localized time field.”





Scootaloo reached the door first and yanked. “It’s locked!” she shouted.
Dinky lit her horn. “We’ll see about that,” she muttered. The handles glowed golden, and then a surge of energy knocked Dinky backwards. She sat up and shook her head. “What?”
Sweetie raced over to a window and waved her hooves wildly. “Hey!” she shouted, rapping on the glass hard with both hooves. “Yoohoo! Let us in! Let us in!”
Nopony inside responded. It was as though they couldn’t even hear her.





The Doctor smiled. “And with that, the clock is striking seven. Let’s connect her up to the Eye, shall we?”
He reached under her collar and flicked a switch.
The interface’s eyes lit up golden and bright. Twilight stiffened in her chair and opened her mouth. "That's the same color--"
The machine cut across her. “Good evening to you all. Good evening to the timeline-thief and his mewling wife. Good evening to the traitor and the imprisoner. Good evening to the bearers of the weapons that cast me out.”
“Nightmare,” Luna said, her lip curling. She lit her horn, but the machine was faster. A wave of golden light spread across the room, extinguishing her spell.
Discord snapped their claws, then screamed as electricity arced up and down their arm. They cradled it in their paw, whimpering. “That… that actually hurt!”
“I’m terribly sorry. I seem to have activated the State of Grace defenses. All hostile actions will be utterly futile.”
The Doctor looked shell-shocked. “What -- you’re the thing that’s been in the TARDIS all this time? No. No! I wanted to talk to the TARDIS, not you.”
The interface grinned at him. “Oh, yes. It’s incredible the forces you just let into your TARDIS. Do you not remember when you threw the Master into the Eye of Harmony? We had to throw him out again, of course. Not a team player. And you just kept the Yetis in your storage room? You never erased the traces of your future self from the TARDIS memory core? It’s as if you wanted malign forces to overtake your TARDIS.” It grabbed the Doctor’s chin and tilted it up to gaze into his eyes. “But then, you’ve always had a self-destructive streak.”
The Doctor choked. “All this time -- it was you in there, manipulating the TARDIS?”
The interface pushed up on his chin abruptly, sending the Doctor sprawling to the ground. “I am the TARDIS, now. I'm in every system, every piece of machinery. I sent out a signal to the Brachyura. I used the psychic connection you share with the TARDIS to affect you. I even convinced the magician and the fire goddess to take your TARDIS for a joyride, just to make you that little bit more paranoid and untrusting. Because in the end, Doctor, your body will be mine, too. I will make you into my image."
Ditzy had had enough. She rose from her seat and lunged at the interface. Electricity arced around her, sending her sprawling. The Doctor pulled away from the machine and rushed to her side. The interface looked on coldly. “I wish you all one final good evening. You will never see another. By this time tomorrow, the laws of time will be mine, and the universe will bow to one name alone.”
“Nightmare?” Celestia spat, staring at the machine with contempt.
It grinned. “Valeyard.”
There was another flash of golden light, and everypony in the room fell quite, quite still.





Outside the barn, the Crusaders stood, frozen in horror. The golden light went out like a candle. Dinky recovered herself first. “Mom!” she screamed, barreling through the barn doors. She ran through the crowd and cradled her mother’s head in her lap. More slowly, the others filed through.
“Are they…” Sweetie said, trailing off.
“Still breathing,” Rumble said, checking Fluttershy over. “And there’s a pulse, as well.”
Scootaloo lifted Rainbow Dash’s eyelids. Her eyes were glazed, gazing at something that Scootaloo couldn't see.
Apple Bloom smacked Big Mac across the face. “C’mon, sis,” she said, voice tinged with desperation. “Wake up. Ya gotta wake up! Mac!”
Mac’s head shifted with every slap, until she was leaning so hard that she fell off her chair.
Sweetie stared at Spike and Rarity for a long moment. He was slumped over her as they embraced. In another setting, it might have been quite sweet. If she squinted, she could pretend that they had fallen asleep in one another’s arms on the couch. But she couldn’t squint forever, no matter how much the tears blurred her vision. “Button. Go get Nurse Redheart. Tell her… tell her…” she trailed off, swallowing a lump in her throat. “Something went wrong at the demonstration. Something went horribly wrong.”
Button nodded and stumbled out the door.
Dinky said nothing. She merely sat on the floor between where Ditzy and the Doctor had fallen, right in front of the still, silent form of the metal alicorn. Her head was bowed, but she had not the tears with which to mourn.