//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Doctor Hooves: To Whom Gods Pray // by M1ghtypen //------------------------------// The Doctor insisted on a trip back to the TARDIS before they followed the changelings deeper into the forest. He secured Ditzy’s wing to her side with some gauze and a splint, then bandaged the shallow cuts on her chest. He seemed to be taking a bit more care than was necessary, but Ditzy didn’t mind. Any reason to have him close was a good one. Once they were finished the changelings led them away. “What’s going on?” Ditzy asked. “How can you communicate with them without me hearing?” The Doctor chuckled. “You never get tired of drowning me with questions, do you?” “Sorry.” “Don’t apologize!” The Doctor scolded. “Never be sorry for being curious. It’s one of the things I love about ponies. The answers to your questions are ‘I don’t know,’ ‘Daring Do,’ ‘because they asked me to,’ and ‘telepathically’.” “But I didn’t ask that many-” “Shh!” One of the changelings up ahead turned and glared at the Doctor. “They aren’t very happy to see us,” he noted. “I think they’re suspicious of me. They’ve never met a pony that can communicate with them through telepathy.” He stared thoughtfully at the changelings guiding them. “It’s strange; so far I can only get a vague sense of what they want. It’s like they don’t have any actual language skills.” Another changeling, slightly larger and clearly older than the rest, dropped out of a tree and landed directly in front of them. The Doctor took it in stride, but Ditzy squealed and cowered behind him. The changeling watched them for a moment. “Who are you?” it demanded in a startlingly female voice. It was much larger than the others, so Ditzy had just assumed that it was male. “What do you want?” “I’m the Doctor, and this is…Ditzy, get out here and be polite. They aren’t going to eat you.” The changeling noticed Ditzy’s bandages. “She’s been hurt.” One of the other changelings stepped forward and looked her in the eye. After a moment the elder changeling sighed heavily. “I see,” she muttered. “Please forgive my friends. They don’t mean you any harm; you frightened them. They thought Celestia’s armies were coming for them.” “Your queen’s doing, no doubt.” The Doctor’s lip curled into a sneer. “She’s a masterful liar. She’s misled all of you.” “Some more than others,” the changeling said. “We were promised a new home here among the trees. We would gather strength, safely hidden from the world and the goddesses. My queen promised us a bright and glorious future. She said we would be strong and prosperous.” The changeling turned away from her…siblings? Children? Ditzy didn’t know how the other changelings thought of her, but they were obviously subordinate. “She lied to us!” the changeling whispered. Her jade eyes filled with tears and, despite her scary appearance, Ditzy badly wanted to give her a hug and tell her that everything would be alright. “Do you know why she left us, Mr. Healer? Did we do something wrong?” “Healer?” Ditzy whispered. “Telepathy isn’t an exact science,” The Doctor answered. “Or any science at all, really. Doctors, healers, they all feel the same.” He stepped forward and put a comforting hoof on the changeling’s shoulder. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “Chrysalis didn’t leave you because she wanted to. She was taken against her will.” Ditzy looked at the silent changelings, clustered together into a shadowy mass of green eyes that glowed in the forest’s dim light. “Why can’t they talk?” The Doctor’s conversation instantly derailed. “Why didn’t I think to ask that?” he wondered aloud. “That should have been the first thing I noticed. Why aren’t they talking?” The changeling’s shoulders rolled back and made the chitin on her back click together. It was probably her equivalent of a shrug. “They do not know how. Until now they have not needed words.” The Doctor stared at the other changelings, completely unconcerned when one of them detached from the group and crept closer to get a better look at him. The two stared at one another for a while, each curious but neither afraid. “They’re children,” the Doctor whispered. “They’re just helpless children that can’t find their mother.” “Yes.” The oldest changeling nuzzled her sibling gently, the two of them looking almost like a mother and her child. “There are many of us. Some, like me, are from older generations. We have tried to protect the hatchlings, but we are lost.” She frowned resentfully at the forest around them as though blaming it for all the world’s injustices. “This forest cannot kill us with its creatures, so it intends to starve us. Most of us have not eaten in days.” “I can help you,” the Doctor said. “I don’t know how yet, but I’ll think of something. I promise.” The changeling looked over her shoulder as several pairs of glowing eyes appeared. They were followed by several more, then a few dozen, and finally by hundreds of changelings that had been hidden from sight. “We hope so,” she said quietly. “Please hurry, Master. We will starve soon.” Ditzy and the Doctor trekked back to the TARDIS in silence. “Did she call you what I think she did?” Ditzy asked when they were inside. The Doctor pretended that he hadn’t heard. He flipped a few toggles on the control panel, a sour look on his face. The TARDIS once again leapt violently into motion. ***** “Where are we?” Ditzy asked once the TARDIS had settled down in its new destination. “The palace’s dungeon,” the Doctor said. “Let’s go. I’ll explain on the way.” He grabbed his saddlebag, held his sonic screwdriver in his mouth, and ran outside. Ditzy followed as quickly as she could and was instantly lost in the darkness. Ditzy waited for the Doctor to take her hoof and guide her to safety, but he never did. “Doctor!” she called, “Wait for me! Which way should I go?” The answer, much to her surprise, came from behind her. “Nowhere,” the Doctor said from the doorway of the TARDIS. “I’m sorry, Ditzy. I’ll send the TARDIS back for you later. I just...I can’t take you with me. I’m so sorry.” The door slammed shut and the TARDIS’s engines began to rev up. “Wait!” Ditzy cried, running to the door and trying to push it open. It was obviously a lost cause; if the combined hoards of Grainghis Khan couldn’t break down the TARDIS’s door then one upset pegasus didn’t stand a chance. Ditzy had dreaded this day from the moment she had agreed to travel with the Doctor. One day she knew that he would leave her. She would grow old and die, while he would go on without her for hundreds or even thousands of years. He would eventually have to leave her behind. But did it have to happen like this? Ditzy slumped forward onto the floor, crying miserably as the TARDIS faded away one final time. The Doctor obviously didn’t think he would come back alive, and there was nothing she could do to stop him. She would never see him again, never laugh at his childish jokes or share breakfast on the surface of an alien world. She would never get the chance to tell him how much she loved him, how desperately she wanted him to be happy. She would never…what was that noise? The TARDIS exploded into existence right in front of her, nearly taking her head off as it whizzed by. A deep, booming cloister bell sounded: the emergency siren, for lack of a better term. The little blue box tumbled end over end through the air and illuminated the caves around it as it went. Ditzy managed to take in a huge, empty room covered in gigantic gemstones before the running light atop the TARDIS smashed into a wall and went out. The cavern was silent for a while. Then, mercifully, the TARDIS’s doors flew open and a shaky hoof groped about for support. The Doctor heaved himself out and onto the floor, his image highlighted by the white light of the TARDIS’s interior. The doors slammed shut behind him, giving him a painful smack on the hindquarters in the process. Silence reigned once again. The Doctor got unsteadily to his hooves and stared at Ditzy, his face a mask of shock and confusion. Ditzy wasn’t sure what to say. She had been ready to yell at him, to berate him for frightening her so badly and curse him for abandoning her, but now she couldn’t bring herself to say one hurtful word. He looked so hopeless, so full of pain and misery that she couldn’t stand the thought of making it any worse. “I crashed her,” the Doctor whispered. “I crashed the TARDIS. She…she wouldn’t let me fly her. Why would she do that?” For a moment the Doctor looked like he was ready to run, to disappear into the darkness and never come back. Ditzy grabbed him before he had the chance. His entire body sagged, as though the one thing that had kept him going had collapsed beneath him. Maybe, in a way, it had. Ditzy knew what was coming and tried to brace herself. “They won’t leave me alooooooone!” he wailed. “I can’t stop the drums! Why won’t they stop? What did I ever do to deserve this?” “It’ll be alright,” Ditzy promised. “You’ll think of something. You always do.” “I can’t!” the Doctor cried. “I can’t think! I can’t sleep! It’s like everything he is, everything that turned my friend into the Master, is trapped inside my skull. It hurts so much, like I’m starting to lose myself to it.” “You’re not him,” Ditzy reminded him gently. “You’re the Doctor. You’re better than he could ever hope to be.” “Not anymore.” The Doctor, who had faced down the combined might of the entire universe on more than one occasion without blinking, cowered in fear. The pony that had cheerfully waltzed away from the fury of gods and demigods and given entire space armadas pause just by warning them of his presence was now completely losing his mind. “The TARDIS doesn’t want me anymore,” he sobbed. “I’m not…not good enough.” Ditzy gently pushed his mane out of his eyes. For a long time she’d wanted to be this close to him, but now that the opportunity was here she wasn’t enjoying it as much as she’d expected to. For a while neither pony moved, each of them consumed with their own thoughts. Ditzy waited until the Doctor had calmed down a bit before speaking. “Do you know what’s going to happen now?” she asked. The Doctor buried his head in her arms, reluctant to acknowledge the rest of the universe. “What?” he asked in a weary moan. “You’re going to apologize for making such a scene. I’ll tell you that I don’t mind, and we’ll fly off in the TARDIS to save however much of the universe is in danger this time. Do you know why?” The Doctor didn’t answer. “It’s because the universe needs you,” Ditzy continued. “You’ve saved us all more times than I feel comfortable remembering. You’ve risked your life over and over again without expecting one single thing in return. I used to wonder why you did it, but I think I finally understand. You love use, Doctor. You love the entire universe, all five hundred and sixty-eight known class 5 planets of it. Nothing has ever stopped you before, because you love us too much to let it.” “Five hundred and sixty-nine,” the Doctor corrected. Ditzy gave an exasperated sigh. “Voga was an asteroid, not a planet. You’re missing the point. We need you, Doctor. Don’t give up on us yet, because you’re the only one that can help us. “What if I fail?” he asked. “The Master has Discord and Chrysalis. He might even have Celestia by now. I don’t stand a chance.” Ditzy gently lifted his chin so that he was looking into at least one of her eyes. “You’ve got me, and you’ve got the TARDIS. You’ve done more with less.” The Doctor smiled. It wasn’t a big smile, nor was it the usual cocky grin that she had grown used to seeing. In fact it was sort of pathetic. Still, it was a step in the right direction. The two walked slowly back to the TARDIS and, after a moment’s contemplation, the Doctor pulled the doors open. For the first and last time he had obeyed the “PULL” sign hanging on the door. Once inside the Doctor punched a few coordinates into the console and put his hoof on one of the many unlabeled levers. “What if she doesn’t want me to fly her?” Ditzy gently rested her hoof atop his and pushed the lever down. The TARDIS rattled slightly before taking off, disappearing from the world and embarking on a remarkably smooth flight. ***** The TARDIS touched down almost silently in the dank recessed of the palace dungeon. “It’s the perfect entry point,” the Doctor explained. “Loads of ponies would expect us to sneak over the walls or find a back door, but the dungeons don’t have an exit. They won’t be expecting us here because there’s no possible way we could have gotten in!” “Very clever,” Ditzy praised. Her friend was feeling marginally better, she supposed, but the drums pounding in his head hadn’t stopped. They had to be dealt with soon before they drove him irrevocably insane. “What’s the plan?” The Doctor paused at the door. “I don’t exactly have the specifics nailed down quite yet. We need to help Celestia, put Discord back into his statue, and find some way to help the changelings without turning them into a threat to Equestria. Oh, and we’re going to need a way to imprison the Master once we’re done with him.” Ditzy nodded happily in agreement until she realized that he’d mentioned the sun goddess. “Free Celestia?” “I stuck a stick in the ground before we found the changelings and the shadow didn’t move,” the Doctor explained. “For the love of whatever goddess you’d like, at least try to keep up. Something’s happened to her and we need to find out what. Luckily nopony knows we’re here.” He unlocked the TARDIS’s doors and threw them wide open. “We’ve got all the time we need!” Several razor-sharp swords immediately prodded his neck. No less than eight of the royal guard, each of them dressed in full battle armor and literally armed to the teeth, watched the Doctor with empty, haunted eyes. “The Doctor will come with us,” droned the few mouths devoid of weaponry. The Doctor placed a hoof on one of the blades at his neck and tried to gently push it away. “Or perhaps we’re in a bit more of a rush than I thought,” he muttered. ***** Ditzy had no idea the dungeons beneath Canterlot Castle were so extensive. At first she tried to remember the route they were taking in case she needed to find her way back to the TARDIS, but there were too many twists and turns to keep track of. The dungeon had been laid out in a confusing maze to make escape more difficult, and in that regard it succeeded. There were no prisoners in the cells. Ditzy was increasingly unnerved at how empty the dungeon was now that a monster had taken control of the country. Surely there would be ponies that resisted him. What did he do with them? That line of thought became extremely unpleasant very quickly, so Ditzy switched to something else. “How is that plan coming, Doctor?” “Not as well as I’d like. Have you noticed that the cells are empty?” “I’m trying not to think about why.” Ditzy noticed that every cell had convenient eyebolt above the bed to secure unruly prisoners. The fact that this place had obviously not been used in a very long time made her feel a little better, but she still couldn’t wait to be free of it. “What happened to the royal guards?” “The same thing that happened to Chrysalis and Discord,” the Doctor said. He waved a hoof in front of the nearest guard’s face, but failed to provoke a reaction. They probably wouldn’t be in any serious trouble unless they tried to escape. “I have to admit, the Master is doing really well for himself. He found a way to manufacture alien technology on a planet that hasn’t even invented a transistor yet.” “What’s a transistor?” The Doctor chuckled. “Exactly.” The two intruders were soon brought out of the dungeon and into the castle proper. Ditzy had never been to Canterlot Castle, but surely it wasn’t meant to be so quiet. No maids scurried about to keep the place tidy and no guardsponies stood at attention to keep the peace. The castle had become still as a tomb. The throne room, however, was a different matter. Chrysalis and Discord stood beside the throne like a pair of obedient dogs as the Master reclined on Celestia’s throne, a golden ring around his hoof emitting an odd blue glow. The goddess herself was chained in the center of the room. She was on display atop a banquet table filled with typical party fair and a few dishes that Ditzy couldn’t identify. Celestia was a complete mess. Her man drooped listlessly to the ground, a waterfall of pastels that pooled around her in a multicolor puddle. Her coat had lost its pearly sheen and was now dingy and ruffled. Worst of all, her muzzle was stained with blood. Ditzy wasn’t sure if a goddess could die, but it appeared that she could be injured. She struggled against the chains holding her, but it was obvious that she wasn’t making any progress. “Doctor!” the Master exclaimed when he noticed them. “Lovely to see you! Like what I’ve done with the place?” “Hardly,” the Doctor snorted. “It’ll be a bit of a mess, won’t it? Where’s the staff?” “Gone,” the Master said dismissively. “They all ran when I started abducting the royal guard. It’s downright impossible to find good help these days.” The Doctor pointed at Discord. “You seem to be doing well enough. You’ve got the changeling queen and a god sitting next to you.” “I do, don’t I?” the Master reached out and gently stroked Chrysalis’s cheek. She mouthed something to him, but he ignored her. “Too bad this one won’t last much longer. She needs love, and I suppose perverse lust doesn’t count. Oh well; the clones will do better.” “That explains why you wanted the clone feed. You’re going to grown an army, ready to fight right out of the test tube. Gotta love a monster with ambition.” The Master flew to his hooves and laughed excitedly. “I know!” he said. “It’s perfect, isn’t it? Can you imagine what I could do with the DNA of a god? I’ll be unstoppable!” He looked down at where Celestia was wrestling with her iron chains. “Now that I think about it, I already have Discord and Chrysalis. I doubt that I need Celestia. What should I do with her?” His eyes settled on Ditzy’s injured wing. “What’s happened to your friend, Doctor? Did she hurt her wing?” The Doctor locked eyes with the Master, his weary gaze suddenly cold and deadly. “If you touch her, I’ll kill you.” The entire room went still. Even Celestia paused in her struggles and gaped at him. “You’ll do what?” the Master asked. Ditzy thought she saw a shadow of fear pass across his face. Moments later the old Master was back, but his flawless confidence was shaken. “Goodness, Doctor, that isn’t like you at all! You sound positively bloodthirsty.” He rubbed his scruffy chin thoughtfully and Ditzy noted that he really needed a trim. “What’s gotten into you, I wonder?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the Doctor said. “Come on, don’t be shy! No, no, let me guess.” The Master scrunched up his face and pretended to be deep in thought. “I’ve been suffering a few interesting side effects since my reawakening. Mostly I’ve started rambling when I talk. It’s very frustrating. I always thought you were an idiot, the way you’d drone on about nonsense that had nothing to do with the current situation, but if this is what it’s like for you then I almost pity you. It’s an awful feeling, not knowing what you’ll say next.” “And yet I still feel like I got the short end of the stick,” the Doctor grumbled. “Now what did you end up with?” the Master wondered aloud. “Could it be that you’re hearing the drums, Doctor? The anger and resentment in your eyes says that you are. What’s it like? How does it feel to know that nothing separates us anymore?” The Doctor’s angry gaze softened slightly. “It’s informative. I think I understand now. Until now I was going to be merciful. I wanted to help you, to make you well again. Now I don’t think that I can.” The Master clicked his hooves together. “Guards!” he shouted, and moments later the palace rang with the sounds of marching soldiers. “Do you hear that, Doctor?” the Master asked. “Listen to the hoof beats. The drums are coming for you. It’s always been my nightmare, and now it’s yours!” “Run!” the Doctor shouted. He sprinted from the throne room and nearly collided with a guardspony while he was fishing around in his saddlebag. Ditzy yanked him away and made sure he was heading in the right direction. “Found it!” he exclaimed as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Ditzy had to push her friend forward to remind him to run as he fumbled with the screwdriver’s controls. It wasn’t long before the two ran out of room to run. Dozens of guards closed in from all directions, weapons held at the ready. “Stop right there!” the Doctor warned. “Take one more step and you’ll regret it!” He brandished the sonic screwdriver threateningly, but it seemed pathetic compared to the multitude of swords and spears that were steadily drawing nearer. The Doctor held his fighting stance for a while longer, but it obviously wasn’t doing any good. “I warned you,” he muttered crossly. The screwdriver filled the air with a high-pitched screech that made Ditzy’s eyes cross more than usual. She clapped her hooves over her ears and ground her teeth as the awful noise invaded her mind, tickling at her sanity like nails lightly scratching a blackboard. The noise mercifully ended soon after it had begun. Ditzy watched as the royal guards collapsed as one, each of them dropping to the ground like marionettes with their strings cut. “What did you do?” she asked. The Doctor put away his screwdriver, looking extremely pleased with himself. “I put them to sleep! Well, sort of. I sent out an interrupt signal. The Master hasn’t had time to program a set of default commands into his puppets. Look!” He grabbed one of the guards and shook him back and forth. The guard watched him in mild annoyance but made no attempt to push him away. “They don’t have any orders to follow, so they just stop doing anything at all.” “Nicely done!” Ditzy exclaimed. “What do we do now?” “To the vault!” the Doctor said. “There has to be something down there that can help us. I’m sure that I can figure something out. Drums or no drums, I’m still the Doctor. Technology loves me.” Ditzy ran to keep up. Despite the dire situation, she was in high spirits. The Doctor was finally taking action, even if he didn’t know what that action would be quite yet. His meltdown in the catacombs had frightened her far more than she’d let on, but now there was hope. She knew that everything would be put right soon enough. The Doctor and Ditzy skidded to a halt in front of the Master’s throne. “What’s going on?” Ditzy asked. She looked around at the grand throne room and franticly went over their escape in her mind. There was no possible way they could have circled back around. “Doctor, how did we get back here?” “Think about it for a moment,” the Doctor said calmly. “The Master has a god under his control. He wouldn’t let us escape that easily.” “Then why did we run?” Ditzy asked. The Doctor grabbed his sonic screwdriver and grinned. “Because he sent the guards after us first.” Ditzy covered her ears and laughed as the screwdriver once again filled the air with aural hell. She waited for Discord to collapse like the guards, certain that their troubles were about to be over. After a while it became clear that she was wrong. Discord was completely unaffected by the interrupt signal and made no attempt to fight off the Master’s influence. “It’s deadlocked,” the Doctor said as the signal died. “I should have thought of that.” “Indeed you should have,” the Master agreed. “I’m truly disappointed, old friend. Is this the best you could do?” He waved a hoof at Ditzy and the Doctor. “Get rid of them, please. I’m tired of dealing with them.” Ditzy felt something pulling at her neck and struggled to break free of it. Cotton candy had materialized around her, stronger than any rope or chain. The Doctor made no such attempt, not that it made any difference one way or another. They were both lifted into the air, choking as the pink bands put pressure on their windpipes. Discord took a moment to examine both of them. He seemed strangely happy, as though he would gladly kill them even without the Master’s instruction. The Doctor wormed a hoof between his neck and the cotton candy. “What did he make you do?” he croaked. Discord’s grip faltered. “I chained Celestia,” he said. “The Master wants to cut off her horn. I…I have to help him figure out how.” “She loves you!” the Doctor snarled. “You’re a traitor. You’ve failed her. Who else did you fail? Where’s your daughter, chaos god?” “Shut up!” The Master ordered. “Discord, I ordered you to get rid of them. Do it.” One of the thick stone pillars that decorated the room broke free and hovered in the air. Discord snapped his fingers and the pillar rotated to face his helpless captives. “No!” the Doctor howled, struggling harder against the cotton candy holding him in place. Discord hurled the pillar through the air. Ditzy watched the cracked and uneven surface draw nearer, certain that her travels with the Doctor were finally over. Her life too, she supposed, but somehow that seemed less important. The Doctor’s hooves connected painfully with her side and pushed her away. Discord’s grip on her faltered and she tumbled to the ground, unable to slow her fall with her wing immobilized. She saw the Doctor’s smile as she fell out of harm’s way. Ditzy landed hard on her back and gasped for air. The impact knocked the wind out of her, but still she struggled to her feet. The stone pillar was lying in a crumbled heap next to Celestia. A tuft of unruly brown mane stuck out of the rubble. “I told you to get rid of them!” the Master shouted. “You’re just making a mess!” Ditzy watched as Discord levitated the pillar into the air and reassembled it into its original shape. He carefully placed it back where it belonged before turning his attention to the Doctor. “Please don’t be dead,” Ditzy whispered. “Oh please…” The Doctor’s body was in one piece, but he was not moving. Discord examined him thoughtfully for a moment, turning him about in the air to inspect more of him. The Doctor’s body remained limp, but his eyes fluttered open after a moment. “Knew it,” he whispered. The words were accompanied by a trickle of blood that seeped from the corner of his mouth. “You loved her. Look…you’re crying.” Discord wiped his face with a lion’s paw and stared at the dampness of his fur. “Less introspection, more murder!” the Master ordered impatiently. Ditzy was once again yanked into the air. She collided hard with the Doctor and grabbed onto him, burying her face in his mane and sobbing. A sudden acceleration made her sick to her stomach, but she dared not look to see where they were headed. One of the many stained glass windows in Celestia’s throne room shattered around them. Ditzy screamed as she felt wind rushing through her mane, then the dizzying sensation of freefall. She looked and saw Canterlot spread out below them, followed by a steep drop to the mountain below. It would be a long fall. ***** If I’m not mistaken, and I very well could be, with each new version of the TARDIS the lettering of the word “PULL” on the door gets bigger. It’s like the TARDIS is getting more and more frustrated that the Doctor isn’t listening. Poor TARDy. Ugh. I have plans for a series of shorter stories after this one. That’s a problem, because the story with my OTP isn’t the next one in the series. Also yes, I did in fact try to count every planet that appeared in Dr. Who. I think I got the number right, but don’t tell me if I’m wrong. Because I don’t feel like doing it again.