“You can do it, Doctor!” Derpy shouted as she took her seat next to her friends.
The excitement of the crowd, meanwhile, had built up to a fever pitch. Everypony was chanting “Doctor Whooves! Doctor Whooves! Doctor Whooves!” over and over again. Truly a sight to behold.
“Well, I never would have expected to see you here at all, let alone make your way to this final round,” Princess Celestia said. “And now you have come all this way and are here to go hoof-to-hoof with me. Tell me, Doctor, how do you feel?”
“To be honest, a little nervous,” The Doctor admitted.
Princess Celestia chuckled a little. “Well, there’s a first time for everything, Doctor. Even for you. Still don’t think I’m going to go easy on you just because you’ve saved Equestria on countless occasions.”
“I understand that, Princess,” The Doctor replied.
“Then prepare yourself. I am the final obstacle you must overcome to win this tournament. Beat me, and the trophy and prize money are yours.”
“I don’t care for the prize money. I was just here to take down Cyberleader. I just didn’t have anything to do after I finished, though, so I stayed for fun.”
“Then let us begin. Doctor, are you ready?”
“Have you ever known me to be otherwise?”
“Round 1, fight!”
Celestia decided to start the battle with a bang. She charged her horn and fired a blast of energy. The Doctor was barely able to dodge it.
The Doctor had to think quickly about how he was going to fight Princess Celestia. He expected a challenge, but that one attack proved that (once again) he had underestimated his opponent. Thinking on his hooves, (as usual) The Doctor charged forward and tried to strike Celestia with a powerful mid-level punch. The Princess, however, simply shrug the attack off.
“I can sense you are nervous,” Celestia said.
“Me? Nervous?” The Doctor asked. “How long have you known me? I never get nervous.”
“When you’re as old as I am, (and you and I both know you are) you can see through even the bravest of faces. Even the faces of a Time Lord.”
“I couldn’t be that obvious, could I?”
“You’re letting your past get to you. If you keep worrying about your fate if you lose, that fate will come true. You have to work with the future rather than in it, for once.” To prove her point, Princess Celestia charged forward and struck The Doctor with a kick.
The Doctor stumbled a little, but quickly recovered and drew his Sonic Screwdriver. Waving it frantically to find something he could use, The Doctor found himself pulling a large amount of gems out of the ground with his Screwdriver and throwing them at Celestia, hitting her with a barrage of jagged and shiny stones.
“THAT’S MY SPELL!” an angry voice shouted from the audience.
“Sorry,” The Doctor called back. “I’m just borrowing it. I promise to give it back when I’m done.”
Princess Celestia recovered from the attack, but was already fairly bruised and fatigued, not unlike The Doctor. “30 seconds remaining,” Princess Celestia called out.
“You aren’t that bad at this, Doctor,” Celestia complemented, panting heavily. “I never expected you of all ponies or otherwise to give me this good of a battle.”
“Happy to help, Princess,” The Doctor said. “That’s what I’m here for.”
“Still, you out of everyone here could be doing better.” Celestia then fired a magic blast that The Doctor was barely able to dodge, though the attack did clip his hind leg.
I gotta heat things up, The Doctor said to himself. There’s only one thing I can use against her at this point. The Doctor planted his hooves firmly on the ground and aimed his gaze directly at Princess Celestia. “Here goes nothing,” he said out loud. He then charged forward at full gallop. Princess Celestia readied herself for anything, but the one thing she didn’t expect was for The Doctor to dive and slide right under her at the last second. Celestia turned around just in time to catch a forehoof to the face which started a powerful combo that she could do nothing about. The combo started with that high-level punch, a mid-level backhoof, two low kicks, a mule kick, a tackle, a rising two-hoof smash, a downward smash, and finally, an overhead throw right into the barrier that surrounded the arena.
“KO,” the defeated Princess Celestia muttered. “The winner of round 1 is Doctor Whooves.” The crowd erupted in cheers and applause as Celestia made this announcement, and Derpy and the others were no exceptions to the cheering.
“I knew you could do it, Doctor!” Derpy shouted.
“I don’t think I could have pulled that kind of combo off,” Bon Bon admitted.
“It certainly didn’t lack class,” Octavia complemented.
“THAT WAS WUB-TACULAR!” Vinyl Scratch shouted.
“How did you even pull that off?” Lyra asked.
“That little combo?” The Doctor asked. “Oh, that was something new I whipped up that I like to call the Dalek Buster.”
“The Dalek Buster?” Derpy asked. “That must be your strongest move, then.”
“It is,” The Doctor replied. “It was probably a mistake to pull it out in round 1, though. Oh well, it’s like I always say. I can’t predict the future, I just work there.” Just then, The Doctor felt his wounds being healed and his stamina being restored. “Well, time to get to work, I guess.”
“Good luck, Doctor,” Derpy said as The Doctor turned back to Princess Celestia.
“That was an excellent round, Doctor,” Princess Celestia complemented. “Tell me something. Is this your first experience with melee combat?”
“As a pony, yes,” The Doctor answered. “But a few decades ago, one of my lives brought with it some pretty excellent combat skill. Between when I regenerated out of that form to today, I’ve hardly used that experience at all.”
“You could have fooled me,” Princess Celestia said. “Now then, let’s get started. Round 2, fight!”
Princess Celestia wasted no time using her wings to propel herself forward to give The Doctor a barrage of punches and kicks, but The Doctor used his Sonic Screwdriver to pull up some gems from the ground and strike Celestia’s underside. This left her open to The Doctor’s Dalek Buster combo. He managed to get the first few hits in, but Celestia was able to block the mule kick with her wings, leaving The Doctor open to an unblockable magic blast, sending him flying into the barrier.
“Don’t give up, Doctor!” Derpy shouted.
“I never said I was,” The Doctor nonchalantly said, shaking himself off. “I’m just getting started. He then charged right at Celestia and leapt into the air to give her a sky kick.
“Don’t think you can beat me using such predictable moves,” Celestia said as she readied herself to block the attack. However, much to her surprise, she found herself getting pelted by gems from behind her, knocking her off balance and completely vulnerable to The Doctor’s kick, which, combined with the two gem attacks, was enough to down Celestia.
“Tsk tsk tsk, Princess,” The Doctor said to the downed alicorn. “You should know by now that I’m never predictable.”
“Good point,” Celestia muttered. “KO. The winner of round 2 and the Equestria Battle Tournament is Doctor Whooves.” The crowd couldn’t have been cheering any louder than they were at that moment if they tried, which they were.
“I knew he could do it!” Derpy shouted while leaping up and down.
“He did it! He did it!” Lyra and Bon Bon shouted in unison, leaping in excitement with each other.
“Oh, now this calls for a party,” Vinyl Scratch shouted.
“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t take part in such uncivilized expressions of joy,” Octavia said, ‘but... I KNEW HE COULD DO IT! WHOO! WHOO! YEAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!”
“Excellent work, Doctor,” Princess Celestia said as she healed both her’s and The Doctor’s wounds. “By using your wits, as usual, you were able to overcome the odds and become the champion of the Equestria Battle Tournament. You must be very proud.”
“I am,” The Doctor said. It doesn’t make any sense, though, The Doctor thought to himself. According to The Master, something was supposed to happen by now. Ignoring this thought for the time being, The Doctor proceeded to the stage where he would receive his trophy and prize money.