Ponyville, Equestria. 1002 C.R.
It was early evening when the knock came to Carrot Top's door, causing her to break from the card game she and Dinky were playing. She wasn't complaining. She owed the little card shark something to the tune of twenty bits, and she already knew better than to play with stakes, but Dinky was getting distressingly good at the I'm-Just-An-Innocent-And-Cute-Filly-What-Harm-Could-I-Do act. If Carrot Top ever learned that Derpy was actively teaching the act to her kid, she may have to have one of those Concerned Best Friend Talks again.
Carrot Top opened the door with a practiced friendly smile and was about to greet the pony on the other side, but upon actually seeing said pony, the smile died an instant, hopefully-painless death and she instantly tried to slam the door in her face. Too bad the other pony already had a hoof in the way.
"Do we really have to do this dance every time I show up?" Amusement was clear on the newcomer's finely aged features.
"Yes, River Song, we do. And the Doctor's not even here right now. Go away."
River Song's grin persisted. "Yes, I know. Who do you think asked me to come here, anyway? And before you get all huffy, it was the future one that doesn't travel with your best friend right now. Your Doctor's still been actively avoiding me since the blaster rifle incident."
Carrot Top sighed and opened the door to let her uninvited guest in. "What're you here for, then? More 'protection' for me and the kid?"
River laughed at that. "Oh, my, no." At the offended look she was being given, she amended, "Look, you may not believe it, but I'm not actually jealous of Derpy's relationship with the Doctor and would absolutely not wish any harm on either of you. I know how the whole 'companion' thing works and am very comfortable in the knowledge of where he and I stand with each other. But, he also wouldn't use me for something like that. I'm more of a 'point and shoot' kind of mare. I just need to pick something up and be on my way."
Carrot Top was actually a little confused at that. "What could the Doctor possibly have left here for you instead of the shop or Derpy's place?"
River just smirked, and called, "Oh, K-9!" When the robot dog rolled in, she added, "Memory code RS-RP-BS-D-1-1."
K-9 looked at her blankly for a moment, then, "Greetings Mistress Song."
"Come along K-9. We've got work to do." As River began to leave the house, she smiled back at the still stunned and confused Carrot Top. "You know, I really would like to one day just stop by, do girl talk, all that. But, under the circumstances, I don't see it happening any time soon, unfortunately. Do give Derpy and the Doctor my love. Toodles." She closed the door behind her as she and K-9 left.
She stopped and closed her eyes in concentration. "Now where did he...?" Her eyes snapped open and she looked back at the house, looking at the window next to the front door. Smiling warmly now, she walked the few steps back she needed, then snapped her hoof against the ground. The TARDIS came into view, leaning right up against the house. It's doors opened for her. "Hello, Auntie," she said warmly as she entered the control room.
In all honesty, it was still a bit 'grungy', but actually seemed in much better shape than she'd seen it previously. There were fewer blatantly exposed wires, and a modicum of upkeep was visible where there wasn't before. She'd never say it to the mare herself but Derpy was certainly a positive influence on the Doctor.
She marched straight for the control console and smacked the whack-a-mole once, causing a number of monitors to lower from somewhere above. "Now, let's see how bad it's all gotten, shall we?"
~DrW~
Satellite 5, the far flung future, Doctors Ten and Eleven
"Do you have any idea what you are getting yourselves into?" Ten asked of the ponies-turned-Dalek, as they took a threatening step towards him, the other him, and their charges. "Any idea of what we can do to you if you continue to threaten ourselves or our friends?"
The Daleks took a moment to look at each other, then turned back to the Doctors. "You-have-no-weapons, you-have-no-magical-abilities-to-speak-of, you-have-below-average-earth-pony-strength. You-are-no-threat."
Ten blinked in surprise at that. "That's... not how they usually respond to us," he said uncertainly to Eleven, who just shrugged himself.
"I guess they are mine then," he responded. "To make a very long story short, a long story I'd normally love to tell and may have to before all is said and done, as of right this moment -- you know, comparably -- the Daleks don't have any memory of us."
"What," Ten said blankly. "Wait, what. Whatwhatwhat? What?"
"Yeah," Blue Shield said before Eleven could. "The Daleks shot us at a planet, things happened, and now they no longer remember you."
"Made for surprisingly effective couples therapy," Ripple said with a bit of a grin, even as the Daleks pointed their weapons their way. She thought, and not for the first time, that maybe they were getting desensitized to things they shouldn't be.
Before anything more could be said or done, a perfectly square hole appeared on the ground beneath the sleeper-agent Daleks, causing the lightly-if-at-all armored creatures to fall directly into the now-exposed power conduits below. Their fate wasn't exactly a pretty sight, one which caused the five ponies present to turn away from it, which didn't avert their attention away from the sounds of shrieking and the smell of burnt flesh, but one out of three. Fortunately the square was closed as quickly as it appeared, and standing behind where the Daleks once were stood...
"Jack!" Derpy cried happily as she rushed him a great big hug. "You're alive!"
"So it would seem," Jack Harness responded, carefully pointing his weapon away from her or any of the others.
"And you have a squareness gun!" Ten said giddily. "Wait, how did you get a new set of batteries for...?"
"I don't kiss and tell," Jack said with a wink and a grin.
"Since when?"
The reunion was interrupted by a banging on the closed door behind the Doctors and companions. "Lets get somewhere a bit calmer, shall we?" Jack said as she shot a square shortcut into the wall. They all charged through it and the hole disappeared just before the door opened and more Daleks entered it.
~DrW~
In front of the Foal Hill School, 963 C.R., the Eighth Doctor
Romana divided her attention between the rather severe looking schoolhouse, and the cart with the incongruous satellite dish set up across the street. "Is this where you...?"
"Oh, no," the Doctor responded airily. "It's where the Daleks think I put it. What's actually happening here is one of their factions has a transmat in the basement, and that military-funded scientific team is tracing its signal, with no idea of what it actually is." The Doctor stopped in thought for a moment. "Actually, if my timing is accurate, only one of the team is actually in there, the other one should be getting lunch at a nearby cafe."
"And the other faction had one set up over at that junkyard," Romana confirmed, for clarity's sake. "Had" being the operative word; the mysterious third faction had destroyed it along with the Dalek they'd found. The Doctor nodded distractedly. Now that they were back, and the Doctor was musing over what to do next as opposed to going straight to a goal, Romana actually noticed how odd that science carriage actually was. "That is some sophisticated technology, for the time period and Equestria in general. To the point where it seems a bit out of place."
The Doctor had a look of nostalgia on him that Romana was noticing was quite common on these future versions of her friend. "Equestria is a bit strange and unique in that way," he said. "Due, I believe, to how unusually magically inclined the place is, their technological needs, and thus technological progression, are notoriously dichotomous. Note that the vehicle itself is pony-drawn rather than motorized." Romana had remembered that he mentioned just that upon their arrival.
"So what are we to do now?" Romana asked.
"That is a good question actually," the Doctor said. "This particular adventure was already quite complicated, what with two warring Dalek factions, a severely under-prepared local military unit with a rogue operative to deal with, and the Hoof all thrown together. Now we have a third time-displaced Dalek faction added to the list, which already removed the first battle encounter that at least got all the players assembled. And the distinct lack of screaming and fire says that we're at the proverbial calm before the storm, so our next move should be chosen very carefully. Should I just go for the Hoof right away, make first contact with the scientist as I did previously, or..." here he cast a very serious look at a very inconspicuous young filly playing hopscotch in front of the school.
Romana shuddered. It was never a good sign when a child got that look from the Doctor.
The Doctor apparently made his choice, as without a word of warning, he trotted over to the carriage, threw open the back doors, and with obviously forced excitement, exclaimed, "Why Morse Code, it is you. I haven't seen you in ages. Positively ages! How are you doing?"
Romana facehooved as she heard the female voice within cry out "Who are...?" before being muffled by the doors closing. And if she was smiling beneath her hoof, she was going to choose not to acknowledge it. Somehow she had the impression that in this incarnation, the Doctor had some modicum of tact and grace. She forgot that regeneration doesn't change a Charger that much.
~DrW~
The Crystal Empire, the Reign of Sombra, The Fourth Doctor
The Doctor didn't cry out when he got thrown to the ground again, but it was a close thing. "Heh," he chuckled into the windstorm that was buffeting him. "Is that truly the best you can do?" He got thrown again for his trouble. "That one was a bit better, in truth, but still not enough."
He got to his feet, and continued walking, determination in his features even as the winds and snow cut into his face. His march was purposeful, even as he kept the item in his hoof clutched to his barrel. No way was he going to let it be lost. He could not keep the smirk off his face, for all it's big talk and big show, the snow creature actually wasn't able to do much to directly hurt him. He was still able to keep the worst of its efforts away from his person just through his own mental strength over its own.
"Sombra was a fool to be afraid of you," the voice in the winds said mockingly. "Despite your unusual knowledge with regards to my origin, you have been unable to actually put up anything resembling a fight."
"And why should I wish to battle you directly, when I already have you where I want you? Whoop!" The winds had picked up suddenly and he once again found himself face-to-floor.
"You continue to be all talk. It is getting annoying."
"I have been told that, yes," the Doctor admitted, getting back to his hooves and continuing his march. "It is a funny thing, though, that most times I'm told this, it's usually minutes before I win through sheer brilliance and force of will." And he grinned, here, seeing the patch of Trottingham blue fade into being in the haze before him. He brought the TARDIS key to his lips briefly in gratitude. It never steered him wrong when it came to finding her again.
"So you've found your little blue box," the Intelligence sneered. "What good can it possibly do you when we both know it has been rendered inoperable."
The Doctor smiled triumphantly. "On her own, nothing really. She's in such a state of de-powering I doubt I can get the doors open right now, but that wasn't the point. The point was that her location was a point I knew I could find no matter the situation. A point that I know is well outside of the borders of the Empire."
"What....?"
From miles away, an explosive force tore through the wind funnel the Doctor had been struggling through. The Intelligence reformed itself fairly quickly, but once again it was a simple snow pony, looking in disbelief at the scene before it. The sprawling Crystal Empire was in full view in the valley below, and erupting from roughly the epicenter was a huge black whirlwind of dark magics, far larger than the storm the Intelligence itself had become its battle with the Doctor. Flitting in, around, and through the storm could be seen two streaks of light, one an almost blinding white, even from the distance, the other a cold blue.
"I never needed nor intended to battle you directly," the Doctor said, his smug smile showing off his impressive set of teeth. "I only needed to make sure I had your full and undivided attention so I could lead you away from the actually important battle and out of bounds, as it were. Now strap yourself in, you're about to witness a show quite unlike any other in history."
~DrW~
The intruder had chosen its timing perfectly. The battle outside was raging, enough to practically change the weather itself. Getting past the King's defenses was proving to be child's play. The intruder feared nothing, so that door proved no obstacle (And, no, there was no residual flash of a multi-colored striped scarf, that was ridiculous). And the intruder's life support chair held little regard for gravity in any event, so the spiraling staircase that was positioned wrong-way-up held no challenge for it, either.
It was not long before the intruder found itself before the grand prize. The Crystal Heart, glowing practically white hot due to the energies her so-called King was drawing from her, as well as the energies she was drawing upon herself to do what must be done to end this. The intruder grinned a cruel grin, the scar-like tissue covering its eyeless sockets wrinkling like over-dried leather. It's one good hoof tapped a series of commands into the computer console set in its chair as a small, thin arm of metal emerged from a panel on its front, it's sparkling tip reaching towards the Heart.
The King wasn't the only being with the means to make... changes.