//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Hero or Coward 
// by rawcolter 
//------------------------------//

"There once was a man who was courageous, kind,  brave, loved and feared by many. He saved countless galaxies, changed  history, and his name was sung in hymns across time and space. He was a  warrior with many allies and enemies. He had companions who loved him, and he would risk his own life countless to save those he believed in. . . . . . I am not that man."

- The Doctor


Nimbus Resort and Casino, Equuis, Year 1003

The screaming never stopped, whether it was the screams of his previous companions who had died, those who perished in the Time War or the screams of those he had neglected to help. The locations changed when the ominous light of a Dalek's gun fired and the victim falling over in a heap, lifeless. This made him shiver non-stop as the voices continued to yell and plead for anyone to help them, and he simply stood there in fear and shock. He couldn't even dare to gaze at the faces of the dead, as the dull grey Pegasus found himself in the ruins of the Nimbus Casino. Many fallen Pegasi littered the room, their bodies still as he saw how they've died. The screaming that never ended when the Daleks attacked, killing them because they were simply different.

'You're disgusting.'

This made the black maned stallion shudder, his cyan irises shifting around the destroyed area as his hooves clopped against the ruined, red carpet. Beads of sweat rolled down his face, gulping as he could've swore that the screams had grown even louder. The agonizing wails and groans of the dying were slowly turning into screams and jeers of those wanting his head on a pike. This made him shudder as the voices that were ringing all around him began to shift into familiar tones.

'It's your fault, It's all your fault!'

'I name you! Forever! You. Are the destroyer. OF WORLDS!'

"Shut up!" The words escaped his trembling muzzle, his head kneeling down as he passed by the corpses of guards, ponies who have just begun their adulthood. He began to hyperventilate, panting repeatedly as he keeps his gaze away from the deceased. A attempt to levitate the guilt and the reality of the situation that had taken place, that this was the result of both his cowardly inaction and reckless action that led to Jack entering the Equine Dimension. The one man who he thought would understand, threatened him at gunpoint. He can't recall what happened, but he heard the blast of a gun going off and seeing the blue Pegasus' body hurling down to the earth below.

'You can't fix anything! You never have and you never will!' The voice turned into the enraged tone of the former Time Agent, the man, well, the pony who cannot die. The friend from his universe, now turned foe.

"Stop it," the Ponified Gallifreyan begged through loud sobbing, tears welling up in his eyes and rolling down those grey, furry cheeks. "Stop it! STOP IT!!"

'You just get thrown in by your TARDIS, who is so disappointed in you that she has to force you to go where there are problems so you can solve them!'

"SHUT UP!!" A ragged filled neigh was let out from the grey stallion, as he begins to gallop in a attempt to escape the voices. His surroundings shifted and changed, as he was out of the casino and galloping on the very streets of Ponyville. The dead Pegasi turned into the still forms of Unicorns, who had their throats slit and their horns broken off.

'And now you won't even do that!' Jack's voice began to shift and change into the tone of a man he knew all too well. Because in a previous life, he was that man. 'You're not The Doctor anymore. YOU'RE NOTHING!'

"S-Shut up," his voice trembles as he continues to flee, passing by more innocents who had their lives snuffed out. Those who he could've helped. Could've saved, if he had did his role as The Doctor. "P-Please," he begins to slow down, as he gazes down at the pavement that was stained with blood. He dared not look at the source of the crimson liquid, as he knew the answer all too well. He didn't save them, all because he was afraid. Because of his own selfish desire for self preservation, his promise to his Marshmallow, a lie.

'You're nothing,' shouted the voice of a mare he now had grown to despise. 'but a big lying coward in a blue box who pretends to be a hero!!'

"I never was!" He shouts as he lifts his head upward, gazing at the corpses of unicorns that laid in front of the Golden Oaks Library. "You bubble brained twit!"

'Run away, again,' spoke the voice of another man he used to be. 'You're famous for those words, you're 'Doctor Run Away'. The children will laugh at you and call you 'Doctor Run Away'. You've trampled upon the memories of those WE LOVED AND CHERISHED.....Doctor Run Away.'

Ears flopping downward as he begins to violently sob once more, as he saw a group of Stallions; eleven of them suddenly appearing in front of the tree building. Though they were in a sense Equine Shaped, The Doctor recognized each and every one of those faces that were glaring at him. They stare at him with contempt, judgement and shame. Shame at the man who he had become, ever since he had learned the Truth. The purple stallion in the green coat and brown mane steps forward, grimacing at the trembling Pegasus.

'I suppose there's no sense in calling you 'The Doctor',' reshaped words escaped the stallion who slightly resembled his Eight Life., during his last moments when he was the man who refused to fight in the Time War.

"No!" He shouts, shaking his head in a pleading manner. "Don't take away my name! It's all I have!!" The black bowtie wearing stallion kneels down, as if he was being judged by a council of Time Lords. The worse part, they are his previous incarnations. "PLEASE! DON'T TAKE AWAY THAT!!"

'Someone whose called 'The Doctor',' the stallion who was leaning against a familiar umbrella spoke, a representation of his Seventh Incarnation. 'is someone who is wise and kind. All I see is a man who is cruel and a idiot!'

The green coated pony, sporting a coat that has every colored that is seen upon a rainbow, steps forward as he gazes at the current Doctor with disgust. 'Never cruel or cowardly! Have you remembered those words or have you been too busy drinking away and whoring yourself to anyone who would give you a glance?'

His other incarnations began to talk among themselves, as The Pegasus hears the words 'coward', 'drunk', 'lecher' and 'liar' repeated from them over and over again. He shakes his head, kneeling it down in shame once more. "Don't take away my name," he sobs quietly as each of his past eleven lives began to face as the shadows began to engulf Ponyville. "I have lost so much, it's all I have left."

"How can you keep that name," a feminine voice, no doubt a mare, spoke up. She groaned and stutters while hoof steps can be heard from behind him.

The grey coated stallion slowly turns to the source, his brows raising in horror and his eyes widening at the sight before him. Miss Twilight Sparkle, his beloved, standing before him with her throat sliced and her horn broken off. She stared at the Time Lord with half lidded, glazed eyes. This caused The Doctor to rise onto his hooves, while Celestia's student falls forward onto the pavement.

"when you can't protect the one you love?"

"TWILIGHT!!"

The TARDIS, Time Vortex

His eyes shoot open as he gazes at the corral ceiling of his Main Control/Living Room, which also has a steampunk theme to it. He felt the cushion of his red lounge chair, the rattling of the bottles that surrounded him. He had lost count in how long he was in The Time Vortex since the violent parting with Jack, but he remembered seeing Twilight in her library conversing with a rather reluctant Applejack. The black maned Pegasus lifts his upper body up from the chair, gazing straight ahead at the pile of empty bottles that covered his hind legs.

"I feel like utter rubbish," he says to himself, slowly but surely getting down onto all four hooves. The Ponified Time Lord slowly approaches his red and black Control Panel, sporting the strongest stench of alcohol. His cyan irises stare at the main screen, seeing that the TARDIS was still drifting through the Vortex; remembering that Jack has revived and likely has gotten resources and allies to hunt him down. It would be unwise to return to any point in Equuis' history, as the Torchwood Agent would have a Vortex Manipulator on him.

"That same damned dream," he furrows his brows in disgust, "the same bloody dream since I shot him!" He stands up on his back legs, leaning against the Panel as he rests his fore hooves on a lever and dial. "I can't even get drunk in peace without it plaguing my mind."

A loud hum can be heard throughout the room, as it was the TARDIS responding in a obvious manner. It had gotten obvious to the stallion that the Time Capsule had grown disgusted with his behavior. Sweeping can be heard, as Ananta, a unicorn mare, was sweeping away at the bottles he left behind. Though she had no mouth, she spoke through the ship they resided in. He glare of disappointment was enough for The Doctor to understand that he had really sank to a new low. He felt light shaking throughout the room, as the ship continues to fly through the current of the Vortex.

"No," he shakes his head lightly, "I'm not going to apologize to a person who threatened to shoot me," his tone raised in anger, "and I shot him! I'm likely a wanted man as we speak!"

Another hum rings out throughout the room, making the Pegasus huffing in annoyance. "No," he waves his right fore hoof in a dismissive manner, "no, I'm...I'm not going to see Twilight. She's happy, and I don't want to ruin it."

A disturbing but all too clear thought lingers in his mind, remembering how Ponyville, the one he landed in, was going through hard times since the 'Slaughtercube Corner' incident. The aftermath had horrifically effected the once prosperous, farming town, turning it into a crime ridden hell hole. Like usual, since he had gained his new mindset since discovering 'The Truth', it was his fault. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. A saying from his world that had rang all too true, from what Derpy , Jack, and The Master of all people had been chanting to him. The dreams of his previous lives hating him had driven him to a attempt at a drinking binge, to drown it all out.

"What's the point anyway?" He leans to the left, accidentally pushing a lever; which made the TARDIS to quake and shake violently. This made the Pegasus shriek in a feminine manner as it made him fully alert of his surroundings.  "No! No!! No!!" The Time Lord begins to move around the panel, flipping switches and pushing levers randomly.

"Stop that! Bloody stop that!!" The Doctor shouts as he pulls the monitor to face him, seeing that the Time Ship begins to enter Equuis once more, a different one to be exact. A slight sigh of relief came to the Time Lord, but he noticed that the TARDIS wasn't materializing; it was hurling down towards Ponyville. Grabbing a hold of the hammer off of the Panel, he begins to bang at it with the tool frantically.

"Oh, bloody Nora and her Left Shoe," the black maned stallion grimaced as he held onto the Panel with dear life. "This is going to hurt!" He closes his eyes once more, mentally pleading that the impact doesn't lead to another regeneration.

Ponyville, Equestria, Equiis, Year 1008

"Oh, come now Roseluck," a brown, earth pony stallion chuckles with happiness as he trots along the road to the park. He had a mane with a darker shade of brown, blue eyes and a hourglass cutie mark. He wore a green bowtie around his neck, along with a white collar. Strolling along with him was his companion, the aforementioned Roseluck. A earth pony mare with a beige coat and red mane with a pink stripe, sporting a rose cutie mark upon her flank.

"Just because of that mishap involving Miss Glimmer," the green bowtie wearing pony says to his peer, "doesn't mean the idea of time travel is dangerous within itself."

"I know, Timey," she says with a roll of her green eyes, "but, at least really think about it before going through with it. From what I heard, it's a pretty risky thing in itself."

The stallion, Time Turner, lets out a lowly sigh. Since he moved from Trottingham to Ponyville, it seems his love for science and discovery has been put on the shelf to act as the town's clock keeper. Repairing said clocks, keeping time of daily events and even helping Mayor Mare out more than twice. "If you say so, Roseluck," the aspiring scientist said, his tone crestfallen.

"It's just," he stops at the bridge, making the mare cease her trotting as well. "I was hoping to have my talents lead to amazing, wonderful things! The Fireworks at Crankey's wedding was one of my more successful experiments! But I want to do more than just use my inventions in celebrations and gatherings."

Raising his right fore hoof towards the clear blue sky, in which Celestia's sun was shining high. "By the Goddesses, we could likely discover life outside of Equuis!" He says with glee, turning his gaze back to the florist.

"Sure," nodding her head lightly, though she didn't share his enthusiasm upon the part involving aliens. "but, at least, aim at a reasonable....reasonable," her train of thought became lost as her green eyes move upward.

"Something the matter?" Turner inquires to his friend, then turns to where she was looking. This caused his eyes to wide, "Great Wickering Stallions!"

Hurling down from the sky and into the forest was what appeared to be a comet, speeding down at a terrifying velocity. The unidentified object soon crashed a few miles from where the pair stood, who gazed upon the event at shock. Without a second thought, Time Turner proceeds to gallop towards the crash site.

"Turner, wait!" Roseluck pleads with the sprinting stallion, beginning to chase after him. "We should inform Princess Twilight! Turner!!" It seems her pleas were falling on deaf ears, as they proceed to enter the woods. A sense of dread suddenly comes over the florist, as the aroma of smoke grew potent.

"We're close, my dear!" The Trottish stallion said, panting slightly as he slows down his pace. "It can't be too far!" The pair's running shift into a frantic trot, as they saw small flames around the crater. Time Turner gulps, as he begins to approach the object that fell from the sky. His brows crease in confusion as he studies what was before him and Roseluck; a wooden, blue guard box.

"Impossible," he says, going up and down as he studies it from a distance. "How can a Guard Box from Trottingham fall from the sky? A unicorn playing a practical joke?"

"Turner," Roseluck spoke up, "It doesn't say 'Guard Box'," she points her hoof at the sign, which instead of the words 'Guard Public Call Box', the first word had 'Police' upon it. Smoke emanated from the phone booth, as it what felt like minutes to the duo as they gawked at it. Then, the doors open inwardly and a equine figure steps out.

"D-Dammit!" A Trottish sounding stallion says, much to Turner's surprise. The stranger, a grey, black maned Pegasus, had exited the phone booth. As he shakes his head, Roseluck noticed something very odd; that the occupant of the box and the brown earth pony she knew bare a slight resemblance, save for the wings, colors and the newcomer's snout was rather big.

"Excuse me, my good pony," Time Turner spoke up to the Pegasus, which made the latter jump in surprise. "Are you alright? Have you broken anything? Also," he squints, "you...you sort of look like me."

"Oh, great," the black maned pony says in sarcasm, "just great." Straightening out his own bowtie, which was black, with his wings and turning to face the two ponies fully. "Of all the places I land, it had to be another world where I was born a bloody pony."

Listening to the grey stallion talk made Roseluck and Turner uneasy, as he gave off a rather unpleasant demeanor. Though, he had just got out of what appeared to be a rough crash. Anypony would be irate after going through such a ordeal, though the way the stranger went made them look at one another twice.

"Who are you?" Roseluck inquires to the grey Time Turner look a like, slightly approaching him while the brown stallion she knew for years stood still in awe.

"Me?" He responded with a raised brow, a slight annoyed frown upon his face. "I'm The Doctor. Good? Good."