//------------------------------// // A Long Shot // Story: Soren The Alicorn Part 2: The Effects Of War // by KingNyroc15 //------------------------------// Everypony gathered on the second floor in Twilight Sparkle's room. When they entered the room, the group of four saw Twilight levitating a necklace of sorts. The necklace had a black string running through a blue pendant that had strange shapes on it. Turning towards her friends, Twilight began explaining her plan. "This is an Emergency Necklace," she explained. "When charged with magic, it will send a signal to the TARDIS that the Doctor can pick up. Then he will come as soon as possible." Everyone agreed that this was a great plan, and as Twilight started to tell the tale of how she got it, Pendant asked Soren if she could speak to him in private. "What is it?" he whispered. "The Doctor wouldn't happen to be a brown stallion with a dark brown mane, would he?" Pendant asked while also whispering. "Yes. Why?" "So that's the stallion that Ditzy has a crush on." Soren's eyes widened. "Ditzy...likes the Doctor?" Pendant nodded. "Could you excuse me for a second?" Soren and Pendant walked over to their friends. "Twilight, Rainbow Dash, can I speak with you two for a second?" he asked with normal volume. "Is something wrong?" Twilight asked him as they stepped away from Ditzy and Pendant. "Kind of. I just want to avoid something. Pendant just told me that Ditzy has a crush on the Doctor." "Really?" Rainbow smirked while looking at Twilight. "What?" the confused unicorn said. "This isn't anything to be worried about," Soren explained. "I just feel like when the Doctor shows up, we have to make sure he doesn't act too...friendly towards Twilight...for Ditzy's sake." "Why?" Rainbow asked. "I'm sure she can handle it." "I'm sure she can as well, but let me ask you a question. How did you feel when I was dating Luna?" "...Good point. We don't need Derpy feeling jealous." The three friends decided to walk back to the other two mares. Once they were all together, Twilight started using her magic on the necklace. Within the minute, the TARDIS appeared and the Doctor sprinted out of her doors. "Is everyone alright?!" he shouted. The Doctor looked at Twilight, who used her head to motion to where Soren was. He walked over to Soren, who put a foreleg around the Doctor's neck when he got close enough. "I can't explain why right now, but I need you to not act like Twilight is your marefriend. Ditzy is right over there." The Doctor quickly looked up, and his body became tense as he saw his previous companion. Soren could hear Ditzy starting to stammer to Pendant out of nervousness, but soon she regained herself. Her and the Doctor walked up to each other and started having a private conversation. "We should leave these two alone," Pendant said to the others. No pony protested, so Soren, Twilight, Rainbow, and Pendent all left the library. It was only about 4 o'clock in the afternoon as they exited the library. One of them commented that today seems like another long day. As the four of them walked through Ponyville, they began to talk about the situation. "How can that nice looking pony possibly be evil?" Pendant asked. "He is nice, but apparently he still has a little 'evil' left in his conscience," Twilight replied before looking at Soren. "Soren, you mentioned that the Doctor's conscience told you that witnessing his past can help him. How will that help?" "I don't know, but I do know that sleeping may be the only way to fix the Doctor. I may need to sleep now and again in order to help faster." "But the Doctor looked fine!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Why do you need to do anything?" "His evil conscience could be a seed waiting to grow. I don't want to take any chances." "So how exactly is sleeping going to work?" "When I sleep, I talk to the Doctor's conscience. In every dream, he's been giving me advice on how to fix him. The more I sleep, the more I learn. But..." Soren walked over to Rainbow Dash and pulled her close. He began whispering something in her ear. As he did so, Rainbow's eyes widened, and the others clearly saw this. When he finished whispering to Rainbow, Soren saw her expression and chuckled. "It's not what you think, Rainbow," he assured. Soren patted her on the shoulder and flew away. "What did Soren whisper to you?" Twilight asked once the alicorn was gone. "He...He wanted me to grab something for him," Rainbow lied. She then took off as well. --------------- Soren stood by his bedroom window, looking upon Ponyville. He was enjoying the sunny day scenery as he waited for somepony. But that wasn't the only thing he was thinking about. 'How is my plan even going to work? It's up to the Doctor's conscience to decide if my plan will work or not.' Looking upon the town one more time, Soren noticed a pegasus flying towards his house. He smiled as he saw Rainbow Dash approach his cloud house. The athletic pegasus flew through the bedroom window and landed. "You know, the way you worded that request was very misleading," she commented right away. "Yeah, it could have been worded better." "You literally asked me to 'come over and sleep with you.'" Soren laughed. "At least I made sure you understood what I was asking." "Why do you need me to sleep near you anyway?" "Earlier today, Twilight and I read a chapter in a book about lucid dreaming. Although she stopped, I continued to read a little more. I managed to read something that could be helpful to us. It is said that if a unicorn experiences a lucid dream, ponies that sleep very close to them have a chance to enter the same dream. It's a long shot, but if this is true then maybe you can help me confront the Doctor's conscience. I don't know how this will end, but at least I'll have a strong pony by my side." Soren offered his bed to Rainbow Dash, but she decided to sleep on the cloud floor. Shrugging, Soren got on his bed and lay down. Pretty soon, the two were fast asleep. ------------- Soren opened his eyes and was graced with the sight of an entirely white area. He stood in the middle of nowhere as he looked in all directions. All Soren saw was: a never-ending floor; Rainbow Dash laying on the floor; and the Doctor's conscience, staring at him from a few feet away. "Why is Rainbow Dash here yet sleeping?" Soren 'thought.' "Her conscience has yet to accept the possibility of this lucid dream," the Doctor said. Soren was surprised that he couldn't say anything in his head without it being projected. "Soren...do you know what happens when a pony doesn't have a conscience?" "They become a sick, twisted, evil pony." "That's only metaphorically. What would happen if, oh I don't know, one conscience killed another?" "You never wanted to help me, did you? You just wanted me here so you could kill my conscience. And I'm guessing that means I would die in real life as well?" The Doctor smiled evilly at Soren. "Bring it!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed out of nowhere. Soren looked to his right and saw that Rainbow was already in a fighting position. Accepting Rainbow's challenge, the Doctor charged at them. Being a lot faster than Rainbow or Soren expected, the Doctor had no problem tackling Soren to the ground, separating Soren and Rainbow Dash by many feet, and starting to punch him. Soren quickly threw him off and jumped away from the killer conscience, adding distance between the two of them. Rainbow quickly flew over to Soren, but soon Soren started slowly walking towards the Doctor. "Rainbow Dash, no matter what happens and no matter what he does to me, you cannot interfere right now," Soren said seriously. He looked at the Doctor menacingly. "If you hurt Rainbow, I will end you." "Why did you bring me here if you don't want me to fight?!" Rainbow yelled. "I said I needed back-up. That's all." Soren's even tone unnerved Rainbow just a bit. Not wanting to anger him, Rainbow did as she was told and sat down, staying out of the way for now. Meanwhile, the Doctor chuckled and motioned for Soren to come at him. Soren sent a few lightning bolts at him but was surprised to see the spell disintegrate mid-flight. "Magic only works with a physical horn, not a spiritual one," he explained. "I highly doubt that. So it looks like we both have to resort to punching and kicking," Soren smirked. That's when the all-out brawl occurred. Soren and the Doc began hitting each other a lot. They jumped away from each other to breathe for a few seconds. The Doctor looked as though he barely got hurt, yet Soren was already bruised. 'I should've expected nothing less from a Time Lord,' Soren thought. "Yes you should have." Soren ran at the Doc. Once he was close, Soren tricked his enemy into thinking he was about to tackle the stallion, but instead, Soren jumped over him. From behind, Soren wrapped his forelegs around the Doc's neck and put him in a headlock. Soren decided to lay on his back with Whooves on top of him so it would be harder to break the hold. As he began to strangle the Doctor's conscience, Soren realized something: If he kills the conscience, then the Doctor will surely be killed in the process. Soren let the conscience go and jumped away; the Doc laughed in return. "Good guys have too many rules and morals," he smirked triumphantly. Soren backed up until Rainbow Dash was close enough behind him. "Any ideas on how to stop the Doctor's conscience?" Soren asked, turning towards his friend for a few seconds. "No...turn around!" she yelled suddenly. Soren obeyed and saw the Doctor charging at him. "Pay attention!" the conscience said as he tackled Soren yet again. While having a hold of Soren, the Doctor chuckled. "Now time for the real fun." He put his forehead to Soren's. The alicorn then began seeing everything that the Doctor went through before he became discorded. All the betrayals, all the friends he lost, all the enemies he had to fight, the chaos growing within his mind, everything! Soren now understood why the Doctor acted the way he did, but even after seeing all that, Soren still didn't see The Truth that was described in the visions. He assumed the conscience didn't want him to see that, or maybe he is denying that he even saw the Truth. After the visions were over, Soren blacked out.