Most of the time, the Bureau maintained a very strict “no running in the hallways”-rule. After all, if you are dealing with a potion capable of changing one’s very being, kindergarten-level security was the least one would have to adhere to. As it stood however, Shining Armor and Victorious Shield had thrown that rule out of the window, as they charged down the hallways towards Octavia’s room, Octavia herself only barely keeping up.

“L- left!” Octavia replied between breaths, cursing her lack of physical fortitude due to too many years of performing for long nights in front of stuffy audiences.

Rounding the corner, Victorious quickly found his path obstructed by a gun. Judging by the nozzle, some black-market semi-automatic rifle, the kind most gangs would use. “An’ where do you thin’ you’re goin’?” the HLF-thug in front of the group said as he leveled his weapon to their faces.

Before he could pull the trigger however, he was suddenly knocked out by a large green bottle with a bunch of grapes on the label. “I’m sorry, so sorry,” Berry muttered as she inspected the now unconscious HLF-member while the ventilation grate behind her still swung on its hinges.

Victorious was the first to pick up his jaw and break the shocked silence the group had entered. “Berry, what were you doing in the air vents?”

Berry looked up from her inspection, and shot a nervous grin. “Surprise pulled me in there, just when I was inspecting the cellar. She insisted we’d start clearing the way to Octy’s room, and-”

Despite the death-glare from Octavia that could be felt without seeing it, Shining interrupted the brewer without even flinching. “Thank you very much, but we need to get going. We need to get to miss. Pie’s room as soon as possible, and every moment we spend talking might just be one too many.”

Berry nodded as she walked back to the still swinging grate. “You should be all right. Just follow what Octy says, and you won’t get in trouble,” she said as she reached for the grate with a shaking foreleg.

Victorious walked up to her, putting a hoof on her withers. “Are you OK? You are trembling.”

“No. I’m not ‘OK,’” the plum brewer replied before looking up to the white Unicorn. “Right now, I’m running on ninety percent adrenaline, nine percent denial and one percent willpower not to just break down! Why do I have to be the one Surprise drags into these stupid, stupid schemes?!” Visibly struggling now not to break down, she continued. “All I wanted was to get a bit of recognition. Have some newfoals spread the word about my wines and such. And here I am, fighting like some weird Gryphon/Changeling combo! Why me?! Why here?! WHY!? I never-”

Victorious interrupted her with a hug. “Listen, Berry. You don’t have to do this, OK? Look, the rest are in the central storage room, you can go to them. And if Surprise has any problem with that, I’ll deal with her. Now, just go to them. We’ve got a plan to stop this madness, and with the way to Octavia’s room clear we should be able to complete it in no time.”

The purple Earth pony nodded through the tears, before slowly walking off in the general direction the other three had come from.

Victorious kept looking at her retreating form, until a voice interrupted his thoughts. “That’s not the first time you found a civilian in the middle of a battlefield, was it?”

Turning to Shining Armor, Victorious shook his head. “No. You’d be disturbed how often it happens. But enough time spent here. Let’s move!” he said before charging down the recently cleared hallway, the rest of the group following in close pursuit.

Elsewhere in the bureau, Hal had discovered an interesting new use for the halves of the handcuffs which were still on his wrists: impromptu sword deflectors.

Blocking another swipe from the katana-wielding city girl, Hal leapt back in an effort to put some distance between himself and the warrior. “Listen to me, Elane! That thing’s going to blow!” he shouted as he pointed to the nuclear device between the two of them.

“Oh, I know. But the Kensing family never backs out of a contract. Family honor and all that. Also, you might wanna attack for a change soon. Even my old granny never defended for as long as you do!”

Seizing up the situation, Hal only gave a grim chuckle as he wiped the blood from his lip. “Guess playtime is over then. Just about warmed up too.”

Elane gave a mocking smile as she adjusted the grip on her sword. “You better hurry then, or else things’ll get warmer than a clothing store on black Friday,”

Despite the explosion and subsequent invasion of the bureau, the HLF-vans were still standing in a loose circle near the front gate. After all, every attack needed some kind of base to fall back on if things got troublesome. Most organized militias would have left some kind of sentry to protect the base or, at the very least, warn the camp of incoming attacks. As things were however, the Doctor and Twilight only had to make sure they didn’t step on the sleeping guard as they made their way into the temporary compound.

“All asleep... Does Equestria have sleep gas or something?” the Doctor mused out loud as the two of them explored the area between the vans.

“Gas? No. Then again, my daughter is the Student of the Princess of the Night,” Twilight responded as she nudged a sleeping guard into a more natural pose. “Painless and harmless.”

Silently chuckling at the ponified cliché, the Doctor raised his hands in the air.

The two of them turned to face the source of the voice, Twilight dragging her hooves in order to comply with the earlier order.

The woman before them leveled her shotgun at Twilight’s head (or, so the purple Unicorn mused, more at her horn.) “I’ll shoot at tha first spark, so don’t try anything stupid. Comprendé, needlehead?”

She grinned. “That’s more like it. Now, what tha hell are you doing here?”

This time, it was the Doctor who responded. “We wanted to negotiate a truce. Please, take us to your leader!”

Thinking for a moment, the HLF-member nodded. “Allright. But I’ll be watching you! ” She said as she walked around the pair, prodding Twilight in the back of her head with the shotgun. “Move.”

The Doctor chuckled to himself as they left the ring of vans. ’Take me to your leader. Never gets old.’

Derpy sighed. She and Colgate-but-not-quite had been going back and forward for the better part of the last ten minutes since they had reached the TARDIS-but-not-the-one-you-mean-why-does-this-have-to-be-so-difficult? Sighing, she took another look at the cobalt Unicorn before her. Same exact coat, same exact cutiemark (down to the grains in the hourglass,) same natural control over the Doctor’s wonderful box. And yet...

“So, time for me to ask something,” ‘Colgate’ said with an uncharacteristic grin on her face. “Why do you keep calling me Colgate? It will have been years until anypony called me that, so why will you?”

Ignoring the strange tenses (travel long enough with the Doctor, and even your understanding of the concept of time in relation to language will suffer,) Derpy continued. “So... If you aren’t Colgate yet, what should we call you?”

The blue Unicorn pondered the question for a moment. “You could call me TARDIS. Everypony calls me that all the time.”

Derpy shook her head. “No, that won’t do... the Doctor always called the box that way.” ‘Save for that time he thought I wasn’t watching...’

“Excuse me!” The two mares looked up from their conversation, to princess Cadence who was just heading down the stairs, away from the room where they had brought the injured. “Some of the ponies got badly hurt in the attack, and I need bandages to treat them. Are there any onboard?”

‘Colgate’ nodded. “Just go down the stairs, second hallway on your left, third on your right, then go up twice, take five left turns and it should be right in front of you. It is a blue door leading to a red room, can’t miss it. Also, if you run into a green room, you took a wrong turn somewhere. Just leave through the red door, repeat the original path, and you should be fine.”

Cadence could only nod dumbly. “Err...ok. Thanks for the directions,” she mumbled before she headed off.

Derpy raised an eyebrow. “Last time the medicine closet was behind the first door on the left after leaving this room. Did you...?”

‘Colgate’ shook her head. “It has been that way ever since I stole the Doctor. You are mistaken.”

At that point, a thoroughly soaked Cadence returned. “Colgate, are you sure there is no faster, less complicated way there? I did as you said, and somehow ended up in an aquarium in some kind of lounge. The lives of ponies depends on it!”

‘Colgate’ raised an eyebrow. “Right now, there isn’t. But hold on.” Closing her eyes, her horn started to glow with a golden light, before a trail of fairy dust lazily made its way to the central console. “There. Recalculated the local structure of my body. Now, just go up the stairs over there,” she said as she pointed a hoof in the general direction of a set of stairs leading to the deeper parts of the extradimensional time/spaceship, “and take the first door on your left. Should still be a blue door leading to a red room.”

Cadence climbed the stairs, only to return moments later with several rolls of bandaging. “Thank you. Though I must ask, miss Colgate, why is there a door leading to the inside of an aquarium?”

‘Colgate’ shrugged. “The Doctor has guests of many species. And I’m not Colgate, by the way.”

Derpy nodded. “We were talking about that just now. Are you sure you don’t have anything we could call you? Not even a nickname?”

‘Colgate’ thought about it for a moment. “Well, last time I had a different body, everypony called me Idris. Or, well, everyone did. ”

Cadence nodded. “Very well then, Idris. Thank you for your help. Also, it might be helpful to remember that ‘recalculation’ spell in the future.”

Idris nodded, before resting a fore hoof on her chin in contemplation. “I will, but actually, Block Transfer Computation has little to do with magic. While I can see the similarities, fact remains that all the manipulations are the result of mathematical formulas, and- She left, didn’t she?”

It took Derpy a moment to realize the last question was for her. “Y-yes. She did. So, Idris?”

The blue Unicorn nodded, although hesitantly. “Yes and no. I am no more in control of my body than you are of yours. I can do a lot, but for some things I need my thief to pull the right lever or push a button. Still, if need be I can do quite a few things.”

Meanwhile, in a different part of time...

As he slammed the door behind him, Doctor Whooves once more thanked his hooves for carrying him faster than his humanoid form ever let him. “Carnivorous butter... why, by the Eye of Harmony, did it have to be carnivorous butter?”

Turning his attention to the only other pony in the control room of the TARDIS, he gave a small smile. “Told you there would be nothing here. Now, let’s head back to where we were, shall we?”

“I... I am sure he is not in any situation as strange as that.” Derpy raised an eyebrow at this. “Ok, not entirely as strange as that. Still, I do think he will be back soon,” Idris concluded.

Derpy nodded, as she managed a slightly lopsided smile. “You’re right. He’ll be back.”

Derpy and Idris weren’t the only ones hoping for backup. As it stood, Hal found himself vastly outclassed by the swordswoman as he leaned against a wall and tried to ignore the pain left by a shallow cut to the stomach.

Fortunately for him, Elane decided that now was a good time for a little break as well as she put a hand on her stomach. ”You got a mean right hook, you know? Should have ended this earlier,” the high-class mercenary chuckled grimly.

“And miss out on all of this? Don’t bother. I know your kind. Never satisfied, until they get pushed too far. Besides, would you let the world lose someone as good looking as me?” the Blackmesh undercover agent replied with a smirk of his own.

Elane scoffed as she readied herself once more. “Takes one to know one, but enough. I thought you’d be more interesting, but I have no use for lines that cheesy. Prepare to die, idiot!”

Stumbling back to what at least resembled a fighting pose, Hal grinned. “Cheesy? Lady, have you ever listened to yourself?”

A Cello is mostly air, since much of the body is occupied by the resonance box. As such, one would expect the instrument to be rather light. Victorious Shield however, learned the hard way that (while the previous statement was true,) carrying a Cello or any other oversized violin-like instrument was not an easy task.

Sighing for what felt like the tenth time in half as many minutes, Victorious shifted the weight into what he hoped was a more stable position, as Octavia kept on insisting they’d slow down despite the immediate danger everypony was in. Who would have known that transporting a single instrument could be such a hassle?

Glancing over to Shining Armor, Victorious silently pleaded him to take over from him.

“And don’t think I didn’t see you there! No magic near Celly, it takes forever to tune her afterwards!”

Flinching at the slightly stinging remark, Victorious quickly turned his head back to the road ahead.

In the meantime, Octavia had apparently found her second wind as the three of them hurried over to the broadcasting booth, or as Octavia had insisted on calling it, “Her most important solo yet, bar none.”

“Now, we are almost there. I don’t think we’ll run into any trou-” At this point, the grey mare was interrupted by her ears suddenly flopping over her eyes, followed by a twitching knee which caused her to crash in a rather painful way. “WATCH OUT! WE’LL-” she managed to choke out, interrupted by the group literally tumbling into an HLF guardsman.

Sadly for them, the guard was the first to get back up. “Hey, now. What are you doing here? Last I heard, the cattle would be stuck in some room!” he said as he leveled his gun at the large Unicorn and grey Earth pony before him. “Now, why don’t you just go to the rest of your-”

The rest of his implied threat was interrupted by a cello to the head. “Sorry for that, but we are in a hurry,” Victorious said as he gave a quick inspection to the now unconscious guard. Turning back to his companions, ha gave an awkward smile. “Is everypony OK?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Shining said with a barely hidden sigh of relief. Turning to the third member of their group, he started asking, “Are you unharmed as well miss-” only to be interrupted by a death glare from the grey mare.

“Unharmed?” Octavia asked, her voice eerily level. “Unharmed, you ask? After your little friend used Celly as a cheap club!?!” Turning her attention to the now cowering Victorious Shield, she continued her angry rant as she closed in on the unfortunate stallion. “Do you even know what she means to me?! Let me tell you, colt! She was there, when I got my cutiemark! She was there, when I held my first concert in Canterlot’s Royal Concert Hall! She was there, when I met the love of my life! AND YOU JUST HIT SOMEONE WITH HER!!!”

Backing into the wall behind him, Victorious began to stammer. “I- I’m sure the case p-protected her, right?” Was all he managed to say before Shining opened the case.

“Actually, it looks like ‘she’ took quite the hit from the impact. I don’t think-”

Victorious wisely shut his mouth when Octavia gave him the kind of glare most mothers reserve for those who would even suggest hurting their child.

“m-maybe it can be... f-fixed?” Victorious managed to stutter, followed immediately by him wondering ‘why did I remind her of my existence?!’

Pastor William Winchester allowed himself only a small measure of Pride. After all, Pride in any form was a sin, yet like all the sins nearly impossible to avoid. So, in an attempt to at least guide his sins towards a mild Judgment, he only allowed himself to feel Pride for his devotion to the LORD and all of His works. As such, he had little patience for those who would conspire against Him. “Let me make sure I understand your lies, ‘Doctor,’” he said from behind the small altar in the trailer-turned-mobile-chapel. “You want me, to stop this most Holy of missions, just to spare the lives of the hellspawn you so willingly defend?”

Closing his eyes as he sighed in exasperation, the Pastor continued. “And you thought it would be a good idea to bring along one of the little Devils, in order to corrupt me into agreeing?”

“I don’t think I could ‘corrupt’ anypony or anyone, but I did come along to-” Twilight began, only to be interrupted by the Pastor speaking up.

The guard standing behind the two of them pumped his shotgun in a wholly unnecessary display of dominance, before taking aim in a rather exaggerated manner.

“Nononono, Hold on! I’m no traitor! Please just listen to me!” the Doctor pleaded.

In response, the Pastor raised his hand. “Hold on, don’t shoot them just jet.” As the guard lowered his gun with a disappointed scowl, the spiritual leader continued. “You stand here before me, demanding I stop this most sacred of pilgrimages, let the heretics and the Demons run free, and still you have the gall to claim you are no traitor?! Very well then. The LORD will forgive his wayward children, as long as they atone for their sins. Tell me, my son, why are you no traitor to the LORD?”

Coughing in an obviously uncomfortable fashion, the Doctor responded. “Well, this might take a while to explain...”

If there was one family that stood out among the general strangeness of Equestria, it was the Pie family. For starters, their family name was quite deceiving, since the members of the family had quite a diverse set of talents, ranging from rock farming to architecture in the current generation alone rather than the pastry related occupations everypony sort-of expected when confronted with the surname “Pie.” Another thing that stood out amongst their bloodline was their uncannily accurate intuition, to the point where most ponies who knew any member of that family well enough also knew better than to question their judgment.

As such, only some ponies from the Bureau itself had objected in any way or form when Pinkie had dashed off, mentioning something about glue, a cello and a way to stop her sister from killing anypony while citing a flopping liver plus some other involuntary muscle spasms as the only reason for her sudden escape.

Thankfully for Victorious Shield, she was at the scene of the crime before any crime other than Cello-assisted assault could take place. “Hold on, sister! Pinkie to the rescue!”

no more than a minute later...

Putting the finishing touches to the newly ‘repaired’ cello, Pinkie gave the battered instrument a final once-over before nodding, and offering it to her grey sister. “Good as new, go ahead and try it!”

Octavia raised an eyebrow, the skepticism almost oozing off of her face. “’Good as new?’ Pinkie, Celly is only barely holding together, and the glue hasn’t even dried!”

Pinkie shook her head. “Oh sister, when will you stop worrying about the small things? Give her a try, and trust your big sister!”

Octavia shot her a cold glare. “Still a year older than you, but fine. Because you are (somehow) family.” Rearing up on her legs, she prepared her bow in one hoof while placing the other across the neck of her beloved instrument. Hesitating for only a moment, she tried playing a simple exercise tune.

The resonance box was a mess of glue and pieces of wood on one side, the neck felt bent from the impact, and Octavia had been sure she heard something rattle inside when she readied her instrument. Still, the sound was as it always had been, and not even the terrified Victorious could help nodding along with the simple tune.

Stopping the exercise with tears in her eyes, Octavia could not help but smile in relief. “Celly... I thought I lost you!”

The heartfelt reunion would have continued for quite a bit longer, if it hadn’t been for Pinkie. “Hey, sis? You said something about your ‘most important concert yet,’ right?”

Octavia gasped, as she broke out of her relief-induced reverie. “Ohmy! You are right!” Turning back to the two relieved stallions behind her, she quickly returned to her usual no-nonsense demeanor. “Don’t just stand there, get moving!”

One of the first exercises one would get after getting through the background check needed to enter Blackmesh, involved a highly trained instructor beating up all the recruits. The official reason behind it was to make sure that the recruits knew their place in the pecking order, but the more functional explanation was that it left the recruits with some very keen instincts regarding whether or not they could win a given fight.

As Hal slumped against the doorpost of the conversion room, the weight of the nuke plus his injuries leaving him with only barely enough energy to struggle, his instincts were clear. He had lost.

“Never expected anyone to hold out that long against me, and yet you did so unarmed. Congrats,” Elaine said as she cautiously walked up to the man, still holding her blade ready.

Hal could only chuckle as one of his eyes fell on the timer, now entering the last 20 seconds until detonation. “Same to you. Even my instructor hated sparring against me, and yet you held out pretty well. But you made one mistake,” he whispered the last few words as his strength left his body.

Sheathing her sword, Elane held her ear close to the dying man’s face. “A mistake? And what would that be?”

Hal chuckled grimly, before suddenly grabbing Elane by the throat and throwing her through the door to the conversion room, dragging himself after her and locking the door before she could get up. “Blackmesh soldiers... We go out with a bang.”

Had anyone stood outside the door at that point, they would have heard only the faintest of grumbles as the suitcase nuke exploded, the blast contained perfectly well by the often described as ridiculous armor of the conversion room.

“...And that is why I’m no traitor. Any questions?” the Doctor finished his minutes-long speech, causing the lone guard to snap out of his drowsiness-induced nap.

“Just one,” the Pastor replied as he rubbed his temples. “Do I look like a fool, ‘Doctor?’ Do I look like the kind of person you could trick into believing your little fairytale of aliens and time travel? This has gone on for long enough already, guard! Shoot-”

He is like fire, burning through time
As old as forever, but fast in his prime I
saw his blue spaceship materialize
He looked out and said to me “run for your life!'”
The doctor quickly picked up Twilight and carried her away from the pastor who had re-drawn his gun and aimed it at the two

"I don’t know why I never thought to ask for his name
But I really don’t think he’d have told me the truth anyway
But that’s ok

It’s completely terrifying but it’s so so exciting
He said I was brilliant and I could change the world
So many places I’ve been; there’s so much more to see
We’ve got galaxies and planets and moons
And an awful lot of running to do"
The pastor fired and a shot grazed the side of a nearby door. the Doctor kept running

As a full-time companion he gave me a key
And a phone with a signal in every galaxy
As we fell through the vortex I felt so free
Please don’t let this danger just be another dream

Cos my life before you was unreasonably mundane
I’ve never been happier although we face death every day
I wouldn’t have it any other way

And you know you can fix that chameleon circuit if you try hot-wiring the
fragment links and superseding the binary/binary/binary/binary/binary/binary-

The song continued in the distance, but with the speaker closest to the three of them blown apart by the shotgun now in the Pastor’s hands, the effect was broken.

Twilight was the first to recover from both the shock, and the lingering effects of the Mayhem. “W- what!? Doctor, how did he break free from-”

“You are... All of you...
GARBAGE!!!” the enraged man shouted as he pumped the shotgun in his hands, the empty casing falling to the floor.
“You claim you come in peace,
That you only mean well,
But when anyone sees through your lies,
You immediately resort to witchcraft and silence them!
But no more shall you go unimpeded!
I am the Pastor of the One World Church,
Servant of the LORD,
I am William Wincester,
And I will END you!”

The Pastor had pulled the trigger, intending to kill Twilight. However, during his speech, the Doctor had gotten in front of her and was the one to take the deadly spray of high-velocity metal.

“Doctor!!!” Twilight screamed as she caught the falling man on her back.

Visibly struggling to open his eyes, the Doctor managed a weak chuckle. “That... that hurt... Don’t think I’ll survive that... Can’t believe... ‘I’ would die twice...”

Gently putting the profusely bleeding man on the ground, Twilight managed to suppress her panic attack just enough for a quick check. Multiple wounds to the chest, many of which suggested extensive damage to the lungs. Large amounts of blood loss, possible organ failure due to shrapnel damage. He was not going to live. “S- stay with me, Doctor! I’ll get you to Cadence, she can-”

“You will do no such thing, Demon!” Looking up from the dying man, Twilight looked straight down the barrel of the shotgun held by the Pastor as he walked up to them. “And you! You would give your life for one of them?! Hell will be too good for you! Die, heathen!” The Pastor pumped the shotgun once more, but before he could finish the job, the door swung open.

The Equinoid Doctor was the first to charge into the room.“NO! Don’t hurt-”

The Pastor wasted no time leveling the gun at the doorway and pulling the trigger this time. However, before he could reload the shotgun again, the weapon was cloaked in a golden glow and pulled from his hands.

“You... how DARE you!?!” Idris shouted as she charged into the van, crushing the shotgun in her telekinetic grasp into a small ball of scrap while tears of rage fell from her eyes as she shifted her grip to the startled man, lifting him straight into the air. “He did you no harm, he tried to save you from your own idiocy, and you kill him for it?!” she screamed as she pulled the man to her face.

Sputtering for but a moment, the Pastor managed to regain some of his composure. “What will you do to stop me, Demon? Go ahead. Kill me,” he said with a wavering self-certain grin. “The LORD will judge me a martyr, and reward me accordingly. All you do, is give me my just reward.”

Idris was silent after the man’s words. However, after a few seconds, she chuckled. And if anypony would have seen her expression of sheer sadistic cheerfulness at that moment, they would never again have a single solid night of sleep unmarred by nightmares. “Is that so? You don’t fear the judgment of your own maker? Very well. Judge yourself then!!!” Her eyes glowed yellow as she screamed the last three words, wisps of yellow fairy dust leaping from her horn. “You call yourself a servant, and yet you make all the decisions! You call yourself kind, and yet your actions are cruel! For too long, you have lived without a care for how many you hurt! Now, FACE THEM!!!”

Like a swarm of glowing bees, the wisps of light leapt for the Pastor’s eyes. Dropping him to the ground, Idris turned around and walked away. “Cover your ears,” she said to the other people in the room.

Twilight was the first to recover. “W-what did you-” however, before she could finish her question, the Pastor started to scream.

“NOOO!!!! I meant well! I didn’t know! I’m not to bl-AAAAARRGH!! They made me! HE made me! I am innoc-GYAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

Idris gave a chuckle what would make even the most hardened of soldiers flinch in fear. “I did what I said I would,” she said as tears started forming in the corners of her eyes. “He- he said he w-wasn’t afraid, so I-I made him- made him see all the effects h-his choices have had.” At this point, Idris’ frightening mask of rage gave way for one of crushing realization. “I-I m-m-made him regret everything! N-nopony deserves t-that,” she barely managed to say before she broke down in tears, the knowledge of what she had done breaking her completely.

“DOCTOR” at that moment, the door to the trailer slammed shut from the slipstream left by Derpy’s entrance as she dove for the wounded Earth pony. “Doctor! C-can you hear me? Does it hurt? S-so much blood... Please, don’t leave me!”

As one, everypony in the trailer turned to the Doctor, only now noticing the wisps of yellow light flowing from his skin. “The children of Gallifrey... we never really liked endings... so, Rassilon gave us thirteen lives, rather than one...”

“Doctor, what magic is that? And what are you talking about?!” Twilight said with frustration obvious in her voice.

“No magic... just Time Lord science. So, might as well be magic, right?” the Doctor managed as he winched from a surge of pain.

Looking back to the dying pony the Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, what was that?”

“I... have... one. heart. I don’t age... but I have... one... heart...” the stallion managed, each breath laborious and pained.

Derpy held him tightly, almost as if she feared letting him go would be his end. “Don’t go! I can’t go on without you! What about Dinky? What about Colgate? W-what about m-me?!”

The humanoid Doctor watched the scene before him, before he raised a trembling hand from the ground. “You don’t have any more lives... but I have some to spare, and she needs you!” At this, all the lights flowing from his skin formed into a single stream of golden light, leaping from one Doctor to the other.

As the glow around the humanoid Doctor died out, it only increased in intensity around the Equinoid Doctor, causing Derpy to flinch away. For only a few moments did Doctor Whooves’ body spasm on the ground, before two magnificent wings spread from his back as the wounds to his chest healed, leaving not even the slightest scar in their wake. When the glow faded away, all that was left was a brown Pegasus stallion, peacefully sleeping according to the rise and fall of his chest.

As so many times before, it was Twilight’s curiosity and confusion that overcame the silence the miracle before them had brought everyone in the trailer to. “D-Doctor, you saved him! How did you-” the rest of her question died in her throat, as she saw the look of utter terror on the Doctor’s face.

“I- I had more than one left! I should be regenerating as well! W-why isn’t it...” was all he managed to say, before he collapsed.

“DOCTOR!!!” Twilight screamed, before her first aid course kicked into high gear. Putting her ear to his chest, she started her assessment. Irregular, but weakening pulse. Excessive blood loss. Loss of consciousness.

Twilight’s startling realization was broken by the trailer’s doors slamming open once more, revealing-

“Greetings, all of you! No time to explain, I have a potion to deliver!” A brown Pegasus stallion, a vial of some purple sparkling liquid visible between the feathers of his wings, who seemed suspiciously similar to the sleeping Pegasus next to Derpy.

When nopony spoke up, he raised an eyebrow. “Or wait, did they add that rule for live saving conversions yet? I never seem to get the timing for that right.”

“T-there is a rule, stating no consent is needed for conversion, when the subject’s life is in danger, but who-” Twilight started.

Nodding quickly, the stallion made his way over to the dying man. “Good. As Equinoid physiotherapist of the St. George Conversion Bureau, I hereby save this man’s life,” he interrupted Twilight before quickly removing the cap from the small bottle with one wing, opening the Doctor’s mouth with the other wing and quickly pouring the purple liquid into the man’s throat.

“Hold on! You can’t be!” Derpy shouted as she recovered just a little from the many shocks she recently had to endure. “The Doctor was the Bureau’s therapist, and you are not him! Why do you claim to be him?”

The newcomer chuckled a bit at that. “But I am him. Just look at your special somepony, don’t we look alike?” he said as he turned in place, showing the hourglass on his flank.

Looking down on her recently regenerated romantic interest, Derpy could only stammer. “But- you- he-” then, as her mind caught up, her eyes aligned as she realized the answer. “Colgate! She brought you here!”

The Pegasus ‘Doctor’ nodded. “Yes, she did. And not a moment too soon, I may add.” Turning to Twilight, he continued. “Also, if the lives-before-choices rule still doesn’t apply, I agree to conversion retroactively. There, that should take care of all the legal issues.”

Twilight in the meantime had put a hoof over her eyes, all of the recent occurrences making her head spin.

Twilight responded with a sigh. “Since time travel is only good for causing ice-cream induced stomach aches, I’ll just stop there and let you explain.”

The new Doctor nodded again. “No ends-of-worlds I can do anything about at the moment, so I have a little time.” Looking over to the blob of goo and clothes that used to be the Humanoid Doctor. “At least, until about half an hour after he finishes. Still have to explain to myself how damaging thaumic radiation can be, even if you can regenerate all the affected tissue...”

Conversion Bureau: St George

by kryxel

episode 7 part 3 an awful lot of running to do