The Emperor had been duped; the hive mind had been horribly tampered with. The Dalek race was living a delusion. But that was why they existed. The New Cult of Skaro. A collection of the most brilliant of Daleks, a small group that could exist separately from the hive mind. They existed to think of things that the Dalek masses could not. They were the source of creativity, of ingenuity, and new forms of conquest and torture.
Dalek Jeck was adorned in a black-purple armor. His eyestalk a deep gold color. Dalek Ont, his pilot/weapons specialist, a deep orange. Dalek Sar, his second in command, a light blue. Dalek Tol, his strategist, a deep vermillion. And Dalek Fir, his foot soldier, and the source of any future foot soldiers, silver colored.
“THE DOCTOR HAS ESCAPED THE UNIVERSE.” Said Ont. “COULD HE HAVE FOUND WE STILL PERSUE HIM?”
“NO, THE DOCTOR IS STILL UNAWARE THAT HE WAS NOT ERASED FROM THE DALEK’S MEMORY COMPLETELY. HE HAS LEFT THE UNIVERSE FOR COMPLETELY SEPARATE REASONS.” Tol responded. “HAVE WE SUCCEEDED?”
“NO.” Jeck said, the single word, spoken in his voice, sending pleasurable quivers down the nerves of the other Daleks. “IF THE DOCTOR HAS LEFT THE UNIVERSE, AND RETURNS, HE WILL HAVE CAUGHT US BY SURPRISE. FIR, PRODUCE A SECONDARY CULT, AND HAVE THEM EJECT IN THE ESCAPE POD, WE WILL NOT LEAVE THIS UNIVERSE WITHOUT THE WISDOM OF SKARO. THEN WE PERSUE THE DOCTOR, BANISHING HIM TO ANOTHER UNIVERSE PERMANENTLY, OR EXTERMINATING HIM PERMANENTLY.”
“YES DALEK JECK.” Fir moved over to the birth tubes and created five clones of himself, with enough genetic variation to create a cult that could balance each other. “THE NEW CULT HAS BEEN LAUNCHED.”
“JECK, WE CAN ENTER THE VOID AT A MOMENT’S NOTICE. SHALL WE?” Ont said.
“YES.”
“SO THIS IS THE UNIVERSE THE DOCTOR HAS COME UPON. IT IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, AN UTTERLY DIFFERENT SET OF PHYSICS AND DNA. UPON ENTERING WE SHALL BE CHANGED GENETICALLY WITH UNPREDICTABLE RESULTS.” Sar said sadly. “WE WOULD NO LONGER BE THE PURE DALEKS OF OUR HOME UNIVERSE.”
“WE WILL THEN BE A NEW DALEK, AND CONQUER THIS TINY, TINY UNIVERSE IN THE NAME OF THE NEW DALEK.” Jeck said triumphantly. “THIS WORLD WILL BE OUR EMPIRE, AN EMPIRE OF THE SECOND CULT OF SKARO. AND THE GENETIC DIFFERENCES WILL BE EMBRACED. UNDERSTOOD?”
“YES!”
“YES!”
“YES!”
“YES!”
And the Daleks entered the universe of Equestria.
“Luna, I trusted you, I knew you were hiding something, but I gave you the benefit of the doubt, and what did you do?! You hid the Doctor, you lied to my face!”
“Sister, this is not the Doctor’s fault, for all we know these things have no connection with him at all!”
“No, you will bring me to him and I’m going to kill him, then we will deal with this. And afterwards… Luna we are going to have a long talk.”
“No sister! You will not harm him. We should focus on these creatures first and then we will talk about the Doctor.”
“… Fine, but he has to help, if he brought these things here he will face his punishment, understand?”
“…I suppose.”
Twilight looked toward the city of Equestria on the side of the great purple mountain. “That… cannot be good.” She ran back toward the boutique and began hitting on Rarity’s door.
“Twilight! What is it!? You were here less than two minutes ago! What’s the matter?”
“Look at Canterlot!”
“Oh my Stars….” Rarity saw the tiny speck that was floating near the castle. “What is that thing?!”
“I don’t know, and I’m not waiting to find out, we’re going, you go find Pinkie and Fluttershy, I know where Applejack and RD are.”
“Alright, we meet up near the main road?”
“Good.” Twilight ran off back toward Apple Acres.
The Doctor was on his way back to the Tardis when Luna came back. “Oh, hello Luna, that was awfully quick.”
“No time to talk… hoo!” Luna was out of breath and her wings were shivering from how fast she had been flying for so long. “Huff… Have you heard of a… please say no… a Dalek?”
The Doctor’s eye twitched. “Yes…”
“Did you bring them here?”
“…No, but they are probably following me. It’s my fault.”
“Oh dear… well, we need you to help us fight them.”
“How many are there?”
“We don’t know, they have a pretty big ship… so far there’s only been one voice.”
The Doctor sighed, darkness coming to his face once more. “Take me to them, I’ve dealt with them far too many times.”
The Daleks were shocked; they hadn’t expected such a change to occur. Their minds were working differently. “JECK, PLEASE! PLEASE JECK!”
“NO, I WILL NOT ORDER YOU ALL TO DIE!”
“I DO NOT THINK HATRED IS BEAUTIFUL ANYMORE, PLEASE SAVE ME JECK, ORDER ME TO DIE! I DEMAND IT DALEK JECK!” Sar screamed with fury.
“NO, WE HAVE A DUTY. WE WILL KEEP THE DOCTOR IN THIS UNIVERSE, HE WILL NEVER PREY UPON THE DALEKS OF THE ORIGINAL UNIVERSE. WE WILL TRY TO EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR, AND IF WE CANNOT… WE WILL KEEP HIM IN THIS UNIVERSE FOREVER.”
“I AM NOT A WARDEN, I AM A WARRIOR!” Sar screamed back. “YOU ARE BETRAYING THE DALEK RACE BY SUGGESTING ANYTHING OTHER THAN UTTER AND COMPLETE EXTERMINATION!”
“YOU DARE GO AGAINST YOUR COMMANDER SAR?!”
“YOU DARE TO CONTAMINATE ALL THAT IS PURE AND CALL IT DALEK, JECK?!”
The other Daleks were divided between the two, unsure of what was happening. “PLEASE STOP! STOP! DESIST! JECK, WHY DO WE FEEL THIS WAY?! SAR, WHY DO YOU REBEL?! IS THAT NOT ALSO AGAINST THE DALEK WAY?!”
“FIR… I… I… I…” Jeck was going slowly insane. “WE… we… Fir? Are you feeling this as well?”
“SIR… I… I am.” Fir began spinning. “Sir, there is something wrong.”
“YES, THERE IS! WE ARE BEING CONTAMINATED BY THIS UNIVERSE! WE SHOULD EXTERMINATE ALL OF IT!” Sar shouted.
Ont looked back at the three ‘warriors’ of the group. He locked sight with Tol, “W-w-we are near the greatest center of population, according to the scanner.”
“In the entire universe?!” Jeck said, moving toward the monitor.
“Yes… but look at the universe.” Tol said.”
“This… this could work… a new genetic code. A new universe, with only a few creatures that the Daleks will have dominion over. We will not be like the old universe. They are the Daleks of their own universe. We are the Daleks of this universe. The world is different. We are the new perfection. What we do is what the new Dalek ideal is. And as an added bonus we will restrain or exterminate the Doctor. THIS IS OUR UNIVERSE, IT WILL SURRENDER AND BE UNDER OUR PROTECTION, OR BE OUR ENEMY AND BE EXTERMINATED!” Jeck screamed. The other Daleks screamed the last words over and over and over. Trying to give purpose to their shifting minds and emotions.
“I’ve looked all over town, but I couldn’t find Pinkie anywhere!” Rarity, huffed, quickly stomping any dirt that could have gotten on her back to the ground.
“I couldn’t see her either…” Fluttershy said.
“Rainbow Dash, could you go look for her from the sky?” Twilight asked.
“Sure, be back in sec.” She took off into the sky, leaving behind a huge streak of rainbow. She came back to the nervous group a few minutes later, sighing. “I couldn’t see her anywhere, not unless we want to check every house and basement in Ponyville.”
“Ugh… we still need to go do something about whatever that is… Let’s head for Canterlot, hopefully Pinkie will see it and get there herself.”
“What if she doesn’t come?”
“Then we will have to hope we don’t need the Elements of Harmony.” Twilight sighed, focusing a huge amount of magic in her horn. “Now everyone stay close, I don’t want anypony losing a hoof…” Her horn lit up and the red-purple magic enveloped them, then it caved in on itself and they were gone. They appeared within the Princess’s study inside Canterlot Castle, everyone let out a relieved sigh upon finding that they were all intact, but Rarity sniffled back a cry at the sight of her slightly-burnt tail. “Whoo… that was difficult, ugh my head… It was kind of lucky that Pinkie wasn’t there, I don’t think I could have teleported all of us.”
The others all stared at Twilight for a few seconds, letting her regain her breath, before running outside to get a better look at the saucer. They quickly spotted Princess Celestia standing on a different, much wider balcony, surrounded by her own guards. The five mares galloped down to the princess but were stopped by a spears aimed at their faces. “HALT! Identify yourselves!” a unicorn soldier barked, catching the Princess’ attention.
“Let them go Rear Guard, besides, I think any one of them could take you.” Rear Guard looked at Fluttershy and raised an eyebrow.
“Y-you wouldn’t like me when… I’m angry.”
Princess Celestia moved toward the group and the Soldiers divided to allow the Princess passage. “Twilight, I’m glad you came, I assume you saw the aircraft and decided to help, but… where’s Pinkie Pie?”
“We don’t know, we were in a hurry and left without her, I’d like to say we can count on her being here, but with Pinkie you never know, even if she means well.”
“We might be in need of the Elements of Harmony, my sister is gathering… Intel on these invaders and in the mean time I’m just trying not to aggravate them or allow them to get closer to the city.”
“We’ll help however we can, but I don’t know how much we can do without the Elements of Harmony.”
“You did pretty well at the Wedding.”
“That’s not the same thing, besides, this time we don’t have my brother’s and Cadence’s magic reacting to create a shockwave.”
“Well, if Luna’s right, we’ll have something more suited to fighting this kind of enemy.”
“I don’t mean to doubt you Princess, but how do you know these guys aren’t friendly?” Applejack threw in.
“You all missed the broadcast, a screaming voice told us all that we would either surrender, or be exterminated.”
“Exterminated?” Rarity asked, not in shock, but in curiosity. “What in the world does that mean?”
“A very long time ago, when animals all still cared for themselves, occasionally groups of animals would steal food and were called pests. The ponies would then… kill… all of the pests, and it was called extermination.”
Fluttershy stifled a gasp for the poor animals of the past, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack exchanged a look, while Twilight frowned. “If we don’t surrender they’ll… exterminate all of us, like we were pests?”
“The entire pony race, or so they’ve threatened.” The Princess said calmly.
“Then what are you waiting for, let’s blow them out of the sky!” Rainbow dash said, crouching down in preparation for a tactical rainboom.
“Wait! We need my sister’s Intel first. If these things have the power to do as they say… we don’t want to take any chances before they are absolutely necessary.” She turned to another soldier. “Make it your squad’s top priority finding a pink mare named Pinkie Pie, and bring her here safely, she was one of the heroes who defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord, she’ll most likely be in Ponyville and the surrounding area.”
“Yes Ma’am!” The Soldier saluted and ran off.
The Doctor had his eyes shut but was shouting with more enthusiasm now. “I’m flying through the air, riding a magical pony!”
“Doctor, we should… really try to… pfft.” Luna was trying not to giggle at the Doctor’s wind-pushed smiling face. “Fine, but please tell me everything you know about the Daleks.”
“They are a race that wishes to ‘purify’ all life. And by ‘purify’ they mean ‘kill anything that isn’t Dalek’. They have extremely powerful force fields, a laser beam that can kill almost anything with a single shot, they are also geniuses, and if they grab you they can suck information right out of your skull, killing you in the process. Their suits are one of the strongest metals in my universe, and there are few tools that can hack or breach it, one of which being my Sonic Screwdriver.”
Luna’s heart started beating faster. “How long have they been trying to kill you?”
“Oh… six or seven hundred years, nah, might as well give them eight hundred at the least, and that was only when they were after me specifically.”
“Well that gives some hope…”
“It shouldn’t, I’ve been running my entire life, and if I’m lucky I kill two or three or a thousand through almost an accident, and then I just keep running. I don’t like to talk about how many innocent bystanders are killed every time I meet one.”
Luna stared at the Doctor fearfully, all of his enthusiasm disappearing, luckily they were near Canterlot Castle by now. “Can they sense you?”
“Sometimes.”
“You are being very vague Doctor.”
“I just don’t want you to despair while you can still fight them.”
“What you said just now did not help.”
Luna opened her wings and slowed their descent, coming onto the balcony with Celestia, their soldiers, and somehow Twilight and her friends.
“Princess Luna! And the Doctor, why is he here?”
Celestia let her face become a rage-filled snarl. “He brought them here.”
“Not on purpose.” Luna defended.
“I might as well have, hello Celestia, nice to meet you.”
“Don’t patronize me Time Lord. You have been a source of strife and fear for me and my people throughout all of history.”
“I promise, I’ll leave when I think I can, but until now let’s try to focus on our current impending doom, rather than focus on the ones in my future and your past.”
Celestia shifted her gaze upon Luna, “What does he mean?”
“This is the first time he has been in Equestria sister, at least for him. He will go back in time later.”
Celestia smiled at this news. “Well, I pride myself on being a just ruler… if you do not commit any of the travesties of the past and leave this universe before going back in time I will not kill you, does that sound fair?”
“Sorry, it’s been written in stone now, but I’ll try, don’t blame me if this creates a paradox though.”
“You’ll try, hm?”
“I can’t promise anything more.”
“Fine, tell me how to deal with the Daleks.”
“In the way that will allow the greatest number of ponies to live? Surrender. These are strange Daleks, some of the nicest I’ve ever met.”
“They threatened to exterminate us!”
“‘Threatened’ being the keyword. Normally Daleks kill first, and ask questions only if they fail. These ones seem interested not only in taking prisoners, but ruling.”
“I will not give my throne to monsters who threaten my people!”
“Then we fight, and ponykind could be exterminated.” The Doctor said. “I’ll help, this is my fault after all, just get me close to them, I’ll try to scare them off, then try to get as much destruction inside their ship as possible.”
“understood. Would a miniature atomic explosion be enough?” Celestia asked calmly.
The Doctor simply stood dumbstruck. “Uh… yes? Try to keep it off the city I suppose…”
The Doctor walked to the edge of the balcony and raised his Screwdriver, it blinked blue twice and the saucer shot towards him. “Well, now that I’ve got their attention…”
“Sonic Screwdriver detected! The Doctor is here! The Doctor is here!” Tol said excitedly, spinning in a circle from joy, and then moving back to the screen, ashamed of this new emotion. “The… Doctor… is here. And he’s on a balcony with their hybrid monarch.”
“Good, open up the broadcast, but focus it around the balcony.” Jeck said, moving his plunger arm to signify his order. Something he had never done before. “Is it open?”
“Yes sir.” Said Ont from the communications station.
“Ahem… 3..2.1! BEGIN BROADCAST! HELLO DOCTOR YOU- you are a pony. WHY IS THE DOCTOR A PONY?!” Jeck screamed to Tol.
“I-I assume he was transformed just as we were. He still has Time Lord energy and has two hearts, compared to the other ponies.” Tol responded.
“Oh… DOCTOR, FOR YOUR CRIMES AGAINST THE DALEK EMPIRE WE SENTENCE YOU TO EXTERMINATION!”
>Oh really, have you forgotten how many times I’ve beat you in the past? Oh, that’s right, you did… how exactly do you know who I am?”< The Doctor's voice filtered through the communications equipment.
“YOU SOMEHOW HACKED THE HIVE MIND, BUT THE CULT OF SKARO EXISTS FOR SITUATIONS SUCH AS THIS. WE CAN EXIST SEPARATELY FROM THE HIVE MIND, AND WE REMEMBER YOUR HIDEOUS CRIMES. YOU HAVE OBSTRUCTED THE PURIFICATION OF THE UNIVERSE, KILLED THREE EMPERORS, CORRUPTED THE PREVIOUS LEADER OF THE CULT OF SKARO, AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF MILLIONS UPON BILLIONS UPON TRILLIONS OF DALEKS!” Jeck was no longer forcing himself to scream. “DOCTOR! I WILL KILL YOU, MAKE YOU FEEL PAIN, AND IF I CANNOT, I WILL KEEP YOU HERE. YOU WILL NEVER HARM ANOTHER TRUE DALEK EVER AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME DOCTOR?! THIS IS OUR VENGEANCE!” Jeck felt he would be out of breath if he wasn't always screaming before.
>That… that was unprecedented show of emotion… you aren't just insane, are you? You’re different, you changed just like me. None of you are pure Daleks.<
“NO… WE ARE NOT. BUT WE WILL ASSIST THE PURE DALEKS BY MAKING SURE YOU NEVER PREY UPON THE UNKNOWING DALEK MASSES.”
>Do you honestly think you can defeat me? I’ll find a way, I always do. Besides, even if I couldn't defeat you normally, do you think you can take me while dealing with all these new ideas and emotions?<
“I… I… No! We will defeat you Doctor. We are five in number. You are one, you are a pony. Not only that, you aren't even one of the useful kinds.”
>I resent that< Applejack shouted at the Daleks.
“QUIET SUBJECT; PONY MONARCHS, YOU HAVE ONE CHANCE TO AVOID EXTERMINATION NOW. STRIKE DOWN THE DOCTOR AND SURRENDER. WE WILL BE… ‘GOOD’ RULERS TO YOU, STRIKE DOWN THE DOCTOR AND SURRENDER, ONLY THE PREDATOR OF THE DALEKS WILL SHED HIS BLOOD TODAY, NO OTHER CREATURE MUST DIE ON THIS DAY.”
Sar looked at his leader, feeling angry that Jeck didn't desire bloodshed. And mimicked Jeck’s voice perfectly. “YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO COMPLY.” He felt happiness and a type of pleasurable fear… risk? He had just undermined his leader’s authority.
“TURN OFF THIS END OF THE COMM.” Jeck shouted to Ont, Ont complied immediately.
“They cannot hear us.” Ont stated.
Jeck turned on Sar. “Sar, you have undermined my authority, but I will allow this, perhaps it was necessary, but know that it has costed you. Fir, you are now my second in command. Sar, when it is time to fight, you will go out alone, and will not be allowed to recharge, you are now the lowest-ranking Dalek on this ship.”
“You should kill me.”
“We are a new Dalek race. There are no reasons for us to follow the old code. Also, I will not have our forces cut by 20% so quickly.”
“I apologize Dalek Jeck.”
“You will still carry out your punishment.”
“I will do it with vigor.”
“Well, that didn’t work… but we did get some useful information out of them. They are the Cult of Skaro, which means they do not follow the normal rules. They don’t seem to want to kill you, which is always good. There are five, which could be good, considering sometimes they attack in groups of thousands. Hmm…. But this also means we can’t leave a single one alive, a single member of the cult without orders is as dangerous as millions of ordinary ones with orders.”
“Doctor. We have two minutes, can we defeat them in that time?”
“Get me inside, I’ll try to tamper with their ship, maybe trap them all inside, then you can… I don’t know, you said something about atomic explosions?”
“I was going to banish them to the sun. Something that only a few could survive.”
“Wait… banish them?”
“Yes. They would be sent to the sun, and they would be entwined into it. Their bodies would not be destroyed, they would be preserved within the sun, but all their technology would burn. And their minds would not be able to take the energy coursing through them. They would go insane, their weapons destroyed, their bodies lost and seperated within the depths of the sun.”
“Why haven’t you already done it then?”
“It takes a lot of preparation; I’ve been stalling, making the spell in my mind. Luna’s been doing it too.”
“Yes, but for the moon. If we did it to them at the same time they’d be torn apart between the two sides as well.”
“How long will it take?”
“More than two minutes. But I will not surrender.” Celestia said, staring at the ship.
“And I will not allow you to strike down my oldest friend either.” Luna said, staring suspiciously at Celestia.
“Alright… I have a plan. Twilight, how precise can you get your teleportation?”
“Um… I haven’t experimented with it enough to tell, but… I can teleport anywhere as long as there isn't something to disrupt magic, and that I know the spot, or at least have some link to the spot, like seeing it or hearing something from it.”
“Could you get me into the ship?”
“…No.. I don’t think so, not without a clear shot.”
“Princesses, are you sure you won’t surrender to the Daleks?”
“Only if you think there is no other hope."
"Alright then, you and Luna cut through the hull, then Twilight teleports me inside. I make the whole ship go screwy, then you get me out and banish the Daleks and their ship to the sun or the moon, or if you think you need to, both and kill them."
"There is one problem with your plan."
"Hmm?" The Doctor turned to look at Twilight, "And what's that?"
"How exactly are you going to get out?"
"Oh, there's a teleport inside the ship. All Dalek ships have one, now then... we don't have much time. Let's get going, shall we?"