Chapter 7
A Different Kind of Magic
Gaia; Equestria; Crystal Empire; Crystal Palace; Castle Spire; 1 P.C.E.
"DOCTOR!!!" Sombra screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Oh, dear," was his only reaction.
Sombra's horn glowed with dark energy and a black magical aura surrounded it. "You will suffer, Doctor!" he seethed.
The Doctor looked nervously to the spire. Nearly all of the Vashta Nerada had been absorbed back into the rift but there was still a few of them to go. All he needed to do was stall. The Doctor inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, taking a step out of the TARDIS.
"Doctor!" Twilight called from within, "What's happening?"
He turned to face the pair of ponies in the TARDIS, "I'm sorry," he said to them. He then pulled out his screwdriver and activated it. The doors to the ship snapped shut and locked themselves, locking Twilight and Farsight in, and the Doctor out. He turned back to Sombra and exhaled. "I suppose that you're going to kill me now?"
"Indeed," Sombra snorted, "I've always wanted to destroy a god, and I suppose that you will suffice." He scraped his hooves across the crystal floor, using enough strength to create impurities in its surface.
The Doctor readied himself, spreading his hooves in what he hoped looked like a defensive stance. He lowered his head but his eyes never left Sombra. "Allons-y," he breathed.
Sombra charged at the Doctor while the latter pulled out his sonic screwdriver and charged as well.
In the TARDIS
Twilight pounded at the doors with all her might and screamed, "DOCTOR!" She realized his plan once Sombra reached the tower, and she knew that he would most likely be killed if her tried to fight him. "DOCTOR!" she bucked the TARDIS doors, eliciting a vibrating hum from the ship. Twilight grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," she apologized.
Farsight, who had been leaning on the control platform's guard rails, tilted his head in confusion. "Did you just... apologize to the ship?" he asked dumfounded.
"The ship's alive, according to the Doctor," she explained. "He'll probably explain it in greater depth later." Twilight returned to the doors and battered them mercilessly.
Outside Again
During his charge, Sombra shot a blast of dark energy at the Doctor's legs, meaning to disrupt his own advance. The Doctor, on the other hoof, shifted to the left and dodged the attack, his pace never faltering. Sombra growled and fired more blasts, the Doctor managing to dodge each one of them successfully.
The two of them were just about to collide when the Doctor suddenly jumped to the side, startling Sombra and avoiding his advance simultaneously. The Doctor spun around, impressed with his newfound agility as he aimed his screwdriver with his teeth. Sombra slid to a halt and spun around as well.
"Don't make this harder than it needs to be, Doctor!" Sombra shouted. "I bear the arms of dark magic." To prove his point, Sombra's horn glowed black, and a patch of black fire surrounded the tower, cutting off the light of whatever sunlight could be seen through the thick clouds.
With a loud whine, the screwdriver's tip illuminated the now pitch black space. "Well, I bear the arms of... sonic tools!" the Doctor retorted over the noise. "I need something better then that," he quietly scolded himself. Suddenly, the dark fire surrounding the tower began to die out.
"What is this?!" Sombra stared in confused rage. He turned to the Doctor and he saw the sonic screwdriver in his mouth, still glowing. "What sort of sorcery is this?!"
"Huh?" the Doctor cocked his head.
"Your wand!" Sombra growled, pointing at the screwdriver. He shot a beam of dark magic at the Doctor in an attempt to destroy the strange device.
The Doctor saw the beam coming a second too late and braced himself.
TARDIS
Twilight was sitting on her haunches, leaning against the doors in defeat and mumbling quietly to herself. Farsight stood at the controls, examining the TARDIS more thoroughly.
"How did he get the inside through the outside?" he asked to nopony in particular. Twilight moaned. Farsight turned to her, "What's wrong, Twilight?"
"Hnm Ommner," she mumbled.
"What?"
"It's over," she repeated a bit louder.
Farsight looked at her like she was a filly that had just done something disgusting. "Over?" Twilight nodded slightly at the question. "Over?" Farsight repeated, "You're giving up?" Twilight turned her head away from him this time. "You can't just give up! You two looked almost unstoppable together!"
Twilight stared at him, not expecting this newfound courage to come from him. "What's gotten into you so suddenly?" she asked quizzically.
Farsight snorted and trotted down the walkway to the doors. "Why are you giving up?!"
Twilight sputtered out a quick, "Because... it's hopeless."
"Define hopeless," Farsight glared at her.
"Sombra's too powerful," Twilight elaborated. "My friends and I have faced him before, and even when he was at half of his normal strength he nearly beat us. Still, I can't help the Doctor even if I wanted to, the doors are locked if you hadn't noticed."
Farsight stepped beside Twilight and checked the doors. She was right, they were locked in place. 'There's no way to open thes- Wait a minute,' Farsight cought sight of a small, metal bolt between the doors. He took the small handle in his hoof and pulled it aside, receiving a strong *click* in response.
Twilight quickly stood back up and stared at the doors before giving Farsight a sheepish grin. "Heh-heh, that was... easy."
Farsight just cocked an eyebrow at her, "Really?"
The Tower
Sombra's dark magic raced towards the Doctor, sparking and crackling with power. He braced himself, anticipating the impact as the magic reached him.
FIZZIT!
The Doctor cracked open an eye, then the other. He waited for some indication of intense pain, even the strange, warming feeling of regeneration.
No such feeling came.
He stood there and examined his body, unsure of what he was actually looking for. As far as he was concerned, he was fine.
"WHAT?!" the sound of Sombra's rage shocked the Doctor back to attention. The Crystal King was glaring at him with unrelenting fury. "HOW?!" Two more blasts shot out of his horn and raced to the Doctor.
This time, the Doctor watched the magic come for him, and just as the beams reached him, they fizzled out and were dissolved into the air. He blinked in intrigue.
"What is that device?!" Sombra pointed, once again, at the screwdriver. "How is that magic possible?!"
The Doctor looked down at the sonic, just realizing that it was still activated and whining. "Fascinating!" he cried out. It appeared that the screwdriver had somehow protected him from harm. He looked back at Sombra and smirked. Slowly, he started to advance towards the black unicorn.
More magic was fired at the Doctor, but the sonic deflected them effortlessly. The chestnut stallion continued forward, his invisible shield holding danger back. "Last chance, Sombra!" he shouted, "Stand down and I'll leave you in peace!"
A growl was Sombra's response, "NEVER!!! I SHALL DESTROY YOU!!!" The King began to charge the Doctor with his horn lowered threateningly. The distance between the two of them was closing fast.
Thirty feet... twenty feet... fifteen... ten...
"NO!!!"
The shout rang out, startling both Sombra and the Doctor. Suddenly, a grey form crashed against Sombra, knocking him away. The impact knocked the wind out of the unicorn and the magic he was conjuring shot out of his horn. Sombra hit the floor and slid towards the tall beam of the rift machine, stopping a few inches away from the tower of light.
The Doctor looked at Sombra's assailant, only to find that Farsight had been the cause. The grey pegasus had opened the doors to the TARDIS just as the two enemies were advancing on each other. At the last second, he had run through the doors and thrown himself at Sombra, disrupting his attack. Now, Farsight was standing in the Crystal King's previous position, glaring at him fiercely.
"I won't let you hurt the Doctor," he said sternly.
The Doctor just stared at him in shock, wondering how such a timid pony had become so brave all of a sudden. Before he could answer, though, a subtle rumbling sound began to reverberate across the tower. The three ponies and Twilight, who was standing at the TARDIS doors in the same state of shock as the Doctor, watched the pointed form of the rift machine as it shook violently.
Then, without warning, the beam began to slowly expand outwards.
Sombra watched the light of the machine begin to approach him and he attempted to stumble away, but he was grabbed by something. He turned around and saw that some of the Vashta Nerada that were being absorbed were reaching out to him, preventing him from escaping.
"MASTER!!!" they hissed at Sombra, "HELP US!!!"
Sombra made an attempt to free himself from their grasp, but it was to no avail. The shadows were just too strong. "Get off of me! I demand it!" he ordered them. The shadows didn't seem to listen and refused to relinquish their grip on him, pulling him closer to the beam. Just as he was at his edge, Sombra glared at Farsight. "YOU'VE DONE THIS TO ME!!! REMEMBER, BOY, YOU'VE DONE THIS TO M-!!!" and Sombra, with all of his evil, was sucked into the machine.
Farsight stared at where Sombra had been, his expression blank and his eyes glazed over. The beam was approaching him, its speed increasing with each second, but he was completely oblivious. The Doctor ran over to him and pulled him Farsight back towards the TARDIS.
"I killed him," Farsight mumbled, "I killed him." His senses began to return and he realized that the Doctor was dragging him away from the light. He shook off his dizziness and the two of them stumbled over to the ship. Twilight was standing in the doorway, beckoning to them with her hoof.
"Come on, you two!" she shouted, "We have to get out of here!"
The Doctor was the first through the doors followed by Farsight, who collapsed in a heap just inside the ship. The Doctor didn't notice him fall and continued to run up to the controls. When he reached the console, he was met with a terrible sight: the cube that he was using to regulate the beam was damaged severely. The box was smoking and a small hole ran through its center. "No, no, no, NO!" the Doctor pleaded with the box, somehow hoping that it would fix itself. With incredible speed, the Doctor ran from button to lever to dial, adjusting them with immense precision.
Meanwhile, Twilight was sitting next to Farsight, all while he mumbled, "I killed him. I killed him. I killed him..." over and over again. Twilight dared a glance out the still open TARDIS doors.
"Uh, Doctor?!" she said half panicked, "That beam is getting closer!"
"I'm very well aware of that Miss Sparkle!" he answered between adjustments. He grabbed the main lever on the console, "HANG ON!" With a sharp tug, the lever flipped down and the TARDIS shuddered erratically.
Twilight watched out the doors as the TARDIS began to pull away from the tower.
KA-KRACK!!!
The cables that were plugged into the TARDIS were ripped out of their sockets and slid out the door, loose wiring flailing behind them. Outside, the beam of light began to envelop the palace, its speed continually increasing. Then, it began to move outward towards the surrounding area. Twilight watched the ponies run away in terror, seeking shelter from the light, but to no avail. The fleeing figures were swallowed up and disappeared. Twilight turned away and buried her face in Farsight's mane, not wanting to watch anymore.
The TARDIS jolted away from the scene, but it dropped out of the sky seconds later. The Doctor wrestled with the controls, slowing their free fall. The ship landed on the ground, nearly a mile away from the city, now just a towering pillar of blue light. The Doctor ran up to the doors and swung them closed, before looking to the ponies next to him. "Brace yourselves!"
Twilight did so immediately while Farsight did the same, though he was only half aware of it. Seconds later, an explosion rocked the exterior of the ship, battering the doors and forcing them open. The Doctor was thrown backwards and landed on top of Farsight, gaining a pained grunt in response.
A few moments passed before the Doctor and the others struggled to their feet. "Are you both alright?" he asked them. Twilight simply nodded while Farsight groaned. "Good." The trio turned their attention to the doors and peered outside. Instead of seeing the Crystal Empire, all that they saw was a vast expanse of Arctic snow.
"What happened to the Empire?" Twilight asked quizzically.
The Doctor gave out a sigh of relief. "It's been absorbed by the rift," he stated, "thrown through time. I wonder where it ended up."
"1000 years in the future," Twilight replied. "I always wondered how they disappeared for a thousand years without any knowledge that time had passed."
The Doctor shot her an approving glance, "Very informative Miss Sparkle. You really must indulge me with your country's past. That, and teach me how to use hooves."
Twilight laughed lightly, "That shouldn't be a problem, Doctor."
The pair then turned to face Farsight. The pegasus pony was rubbing his side with his hoof, trying to remove the pain from when the Doctor fell on him. He caught them staring and returned the action, "What?"
"Are you alright?" the Doctor approached him slowly, "You seem to be having a hard time."
Farsight opened his mouth to protest, but nodded in assent. "Yeah, I... I killed him. Sombra." He stood there in silence for a bit. "I pushed him into the machine."
Immediately, a lavender hoof was wrapped around Farsight's neck. "It's not your fault," Twilight reassured him, "It was the Vashta Nerada. They pulled him in. You didn't do anything about it."
"I still feel guilty about it."
"Well don't," the Doctor chimed in, "You saved countless lives today. I would call you 'brilliant' but since I'm here..." He trotted up to the controls and leaned against them. "As a thank you, I'm going to allow you to choose where we go next." The Doctor's hoof hovered over the controls, ready to do what was required.
"That's nice and all, but..." Farsight started, "could we just wait for a bit, I'm a bit overwhelmed from everything that happened."
"Fair enough," the Doctor nodded slightly. "I'll just set the TARDIS to drift mode. That way, you can have as much time as you need to decide, as well as allow Twilight to teach me how this universe works." He began to input commands into the ship. He stopped working and turned to Farsight, "When you're ready to pick where and whenever you want to go, just let me know." The Doctor flipped the switch.
VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP! VVRROOMMP!