Part 27
Unstoppable, Immovable
Discord was not one to be frightened easily. In his long life he could probably count the number of times he'd been well and truly afraid on one paw. Even so, in the face of the power manifesting before him and the cold blue eyes of the stallion who called upon it, he took a nervous step back. And his illusions--the TARDIS control room, the ever so fun jacket, everything--shattered like glass. He was back in the room he'd been imprisoned in these last few weeks, months, whatever, and standing across from him was the Doctor, apparently back to normal, though Discord could still feel the powerful magic swirling within him.
For his part the Doctor was all pep and hyperkenetic energy, his mouth already running at a hundred miles an hour. "But it's not that easy, is it? Of course it isn't. It's never that easy with me, why should it be now? Oh, don't worry you. I'm not going to blast you with an all-powerful deux ex machina rainbow beam thing. Can't do it you see. That's the problem with the primal forces. They're primal. Unless you've got a channeling agent specifically built for the task--like, say the Elements of Harmony--they do whatever the hell they want when they manifest. Beginnings of Equestria? A marvelous windigo vanquishing magic hearty thing that no amount of pageant level pyromagics can duplicate. Mere months ago by your reckoning Friendship's close cousin Love--another of the three forces by the way--ejected a literal army of changelings from Canterlot. And what do I get you ask? I get protection from your magics and manipulations but no direct way to fight back." He sighed here. "Always was too scientific for my own good, I suppose. Never could just let magic be magic. Always had to find a more rational way of things. Ah, well."
Discord blinked as he parsed the rapid fire rantings of the madpony before him and laughed. "Wait, so after all that posturing you're saying we're at a draw here? Hah! You actually had me going for a..."
"Do shut up," the Doctor ordered, calm as can be, but Discord felt a wave of power wash through him that prompted him to do as he was told. Which was an absolute first as near as he could remember. "A draw? Whoever said we were at a draw? A draw implies that I've played my turn out, and to quote a close personal friend of mine, I have not yet begun to fight. Thinking back on it, why do you suppose today's manifestation is, shall we say, less than impressive when compared to those of the past?"
Discrord shrugged. "Phsh. How should I know? Why should I care?"
The Doctor grinned at him. Discord found it disconcerting, like a cat that had cornered a mouse. Why would he be that full of confidence when he admitted to being untouchable but helpless? "You may remember that I said I had a plan. I still do. This extra development has actually done very little to change it. But before we begin, a small lesson on Time Chargers. See, we have what could be described as psychic powers, for a given value of psychic. Thoughts can pass with relative ease between Time Chargers, though the effort required gets steeper the further from our step on the evolutionary ladder we go. Equestrian ponies require physical contact and cause enough strain to give a slight headache, but it's still plenty possible to read minds and share thoughts with them. Following along so far?"
Discord waved a dismissive paw. "Yes, yes. Mind reading and physical contact and pain killers, I get it. What's that gotta do with anything?"
"Well, since you asked so nicely, everything. Ordinarily a being like you would be effectively immune to my abilities. But--and this is the important part--you've been spending a great deal of time breaking right on into my own brain, haven't you? That coupled with the extra push?" With a smirk the Doctor brought a hoof up to his temple. "Contact."
~DrW~
"Woah, what a trip," Discord muttered. Even he found himself slightly disoriented after the sudden shift in scenery. Wasn't much of a trip though, ten, fifteen hooves, probably. But he still let out a sigh of exasperation.
He was back in his little lit up prison.
A voice began humming, and Discord looked down to see the Doctor, back turned to him, seemingly engrossed in his surroundings. "What are you doing now?" Discord asked.
"Having a looksee at your first day here is all," his opponent replied. "It's really quite fascinating the way memory and the brain works. If you were to actually attempt to recall this moment on your own, you probably wouldn't remember it anywhere close to this kind of clarity. But that's a simple issue in recall. Dig just a little deeper and you find that the brain actually recorded it all, even the stuff you thought unimportant or unintelligible."
Discord was getting irritated to say the least. "Mmm hmm, oh yes, fascinating. What's the point?"
"D'you have any idea how you were set free, Discord?" the Doctor asked, then suddenly stopped almost mid thought. "Oooh, that's rude isn't it, answering a question with another question? I've been working on that, you know--not being rude that is, not answering questions with questions. But this question is essential to my answer so I'll ask anyway: Do you know how you were freed?"
Discord began a flippant answer, but stopped before any words came out of his mouth. That... was actually a good question. How did the little unicorn free him from his seal? It was less than a year old and very strong. It would have taken an unnatural amount of chaos to break him out of that statue. Yet... well, if anything his captor was one of the most orderly creatures he'd ever met. Evil and chaos did not mutually mingle, after all.
Seeing the look on Discord's face, the Doctor grinned. "I thought not. It was time travel, sort of. Not the way I do it with the going from place to place and actually traveling, but pretty close. Borusa simply sped up your own personal timeline some two thousand or so years to the point where the seal would naturally have weakened and you could have freed yourself."
"My 'personal timeline.'' Discord said flatly. "You know you keep using words that I know are real, but I'm still not understanding them."
"Well try to keep up. I'm already dumbing things down for you, and this is easy stuff. Even Equestrian ponies can get this. There was a scientist in Prance who made a rudimentary version of the exact thing I'm talking about, though granted he had alien help and almost ended all life on the planet, but I digress."
"My point is," the Doctor continued, "reversing an artificial fast forward in time is pretty easy to fix, assuming you have the proper data. Starting point, end point, power output. That sort of thing. Pretty difficult to get when the only pony who really knows what it is is serving time as a paperweight. BUT!" Here the Doctor pointed at one of the screen. "Looks like you got yourself a look at just that data, even if you had no idea what it was."
"Derpy!" the Doctor ordered over his shoulder, the present popping into place around him. "Setting seventy four gamma delta!"
"Wait, what?" Discord muttered, even as the wall eyed pegasus peeked out from behind a console, the sonic screwdriver in her mouth.
"hvnty frr hmma dlta!" she repeated around the metal rod in her mouth before vanishing behind the console.
Discord had time to sputter out a single "Huh?" before things got strange. The Doctor watched impassively as Discord seemed to become a whirlwind of activity, moving backwards through his personal time line with such speed as to be a brown and grey blur, high pitched squeaks flowing instead of words. When he stopped moving seconds later, he was one again a stone statue, reeling back in fear.
The Doctor stood proudly for a moment more before the magic that had been buffeting him suddenly drained out of his body and he began to topple to the side. At least, he would have, had there not been a very particular grey pegasus there to catch him.
"You okay?" Derpy asked.
"Yes, of course I'm okay," the Doctor insisted, pushing himself away from his companion. "Why wouldn't I be...?" He accidentally interrupted himself by falling flat on his face, with his rump in the air, and the tail ends of his coat now obscuring his face.
Derpy giggled, even as she pushed his back end down level with his front and straightened the coat out. "You were saying?" She asked.
"Okay. Okay," the Doctor relented. "I may be a bit drained on account of holding in me a very powerful source of magic for maybe a little too long."
"What, again?" Derpy asked with a chuckle.
"Well at least I get to keep my face this time. And my teeth. Took me a while to get used to these teeth."
"Uh huh," Derpy responded as she sat down next to him and draped a wing over his body.
"Er, ah..." the Doctor began sputtering, his cheeks pink."We still have a lot of things to do, you know. Getting the statues to the TARDIS, setting the ship to self destruct..."
"Giving old friends last respects?" Derpy supplied, sadness entering her voice and smile.
"Yeah. That. We should probably get to them."
Derpy nodded. "Probably. Except you look like a dead pony walking."
"What do you mean by...?" the Doctor asked in consternation before letting loose a wide yawn.
Derpy chuckled even as he glared at her. "C'mon, Doctor. You won. Royal Double Oh Seven Mission Accomplished. The cleanup will still be there after you rest a few minutes."
"I suppose, but..."
"Ah, ah. No buts," Derpy reprimanded, placing her hoof on the back of his head and gently pushing it down to the ground. "Rest now, cleanup later. Derpy's orders."
The Doctor would have liked to protest, except that his eyelids suddenly felt very heavy. "Fine. But five minutes. That's all."
"Of course, Doctor. Five minutes."
He slept like a log for hours.