"So, um, where is Chrysalis?" Rainbow Dash asked uncertainly, hovering above the Doctor. She still held Scootaloo tightly to her chest. The filly was still dazed, her eyes half closed.
"Just wait. I don't want you to panic," the Doctor told her. He swerved around huge chunks of marble pillars that had been crushed. Dash herself ducked under the ones leaning haphazardly against the walls and ceiling.
"We might panic?" Discord asked, eyebrows raised. Then, he frowned, a deadpan look on his face. "She's in your TARDIS, isn't she?" The three stopped at the blue wooden doors. The Doctor placed a hoof on one. Screams sounded from inside the spacecraft.
"Yep." He pushed the door open and stepped inside, with Discord and Rainbow Dash trailing closely.
The ponies were backed against the wall, the ones with horns having theirs lit brightly, ready to fire. A loud hiss sounded from the other side of the ship, and the three who just entered looked over.
Chrysalis was hovering in the air, bright green magic covering her horn. She had a fierce glare on her face, eyes burning. She saw the Doctor and growled.
"You! What have you done?! Where am I?!" the Queen demanded angrily, her magic glowing brighter before it unleashed its fury. Discord quickly teleported them out of the way, to the rest of the group.
"Hello Chryssi! Nice to see you again!" the draconequus chimed. He snapped his tail fur, and then the changeling was knocked out on the floor. He turned to the ponies, smiling. "Oh, girls, forgot to tell you, I was expecting!" Two small bundles swaddled in blankets were held in the crooks of his arms.
"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity exclaimed, taking the filly out of Discord's grasp. The blankets vanished and she hugged her little sister tightly. Her large sapphire blue eyes were squeezed shut, tears leaking out of them, smearing her makeup. A tight frown was on her face.
"Apple Bloom! Oh, thank goodness she's alright," Applejack sighed, reaching up for her sister also. Discord handed the filly to her.
"Why was Chrysalis here?!" Celestia demanded, glaring at the Doctor. She loomed over the smaller stallion, who lowered his ears, a timid look on his face.
"Um, well, it was how it all worked out. . ." the Time Lord squeaked. He waited until the angry Princess backed off, and scurried to the sleeping changeling.
"Alright, I think we'll be good for a while. She seems like she's sleeping pretty deeply." The Doctor walked back over to the ponies. "Are the fillies waking up yet?"
Applejack shook her head. "No. They seem to be in a kind of, what do you call it. . . stasis mode." She motioned to how Apple Bloom was laying limply in her arms, eyes half closed.
The Doctor bit his lip. Not wanting them to see how worried he was, he turned around again.
"So, uh, what now?" Rainbow Dash asked, shrugging.
"Well, I say we wait until Chrysalis wakes up, and we get some answers."
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The Queen shifted, her head aching dully. She sat up, stretching her legs. She opened her eyes, and was immediately faced with a load of angry mares. She blinked once, then smirked.
"And it's not even my birthday!" she cooed.
"Silence, Chrysalis!" Luna shouted loudly. The Queen gave her a glare, but held her tongue.
"What have you done to the fillies?!" Rarity demanded, wanting to know why her little sister was not waking up.
"Like I'd ever tell you!" she snapped.
"Chrysalis, you will tell us what you've done," Celestia said firmly.
The Queen smirked. "What makes you think that?"
The Doctor glanced up from the TARDIS console. "This." He pulled a switch, and high pitched sounds radiated through the ship. Chrysalis hissed, holding her head.
"You'll never get me to talk!"
"Suit yourself." He turned a dial, raising the pitch even more. The changeling winced.
"Uh! What do you want to know?" She stood up and faced the ponies.
"What's wrong with the fillies?!" Rainbow Dash demanded, shaking her fist at the Queen.
"It's simple, really. Just the aftermath of the spell. I can turn them back to normal, if you want," Chrysalis said innocently, blinking. The ponies exchanged suspicious glances.
"Change them back," Celestia ordered. Chrysalis smirked evilly, then lit her horn. The Doctor's mind raced, the possibilities of what he thought would happen actually happening.
Meanwhile, green magic was seeping into the fillies. They twitched slightly, and their eyes opened. They were still like the Queen's. The three fillies leaped out of their sisters' arms and stood in a line.
"What are you doin'?!" Applejack shouted. She reached out for Apple Bloom but a field of energy stopped her.
"I'm changing them back, of course!" Chrysalis cackled. She fired three small shots at the fillies, and then they began to grow. Their limbs stretched, holes forming in them. Sweetie Belle's horn grew twisted and Scootaloo's wings lost their feathers and turned transparent. The fillies' manes grew longer and holey. Shiny carapaces formed slowly over their backs. Their teeth sharpened and poked out from their top lips.
"Quick! Get behind me!" the Doctor yelled, bouncing forward. He took out his spray bottle and sonic screwdriver, preparing to fire the fillies back to stasis mode. The Queen laughed, and the two objects were yanked out of the Time Lord's hooves.
"What interesting items! How do you use this?" Chrysalis inquired, smirking. She inspected the sonic screwdriver. She tried random codes until she grew bored. She held up the spray bottle, pointing it at the group of ponies. "Let's see what it does to you!" The sonic lit up and the fire shot out of the end of the bottle. The ponies ducked, barely escaping the blast. The Doctor grunted in pain as he hit the floor, but managed to stay awake. He crawled up and ran at Chrysalis, attempting to knock her away. She saw him and teleported to the side. The stream of fire enveloped the Doctor, who shouted in pain. His skin burned, the smell of cooking flesh filling the air.
"Doctor!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flying forward. She tried to go through the fire, but found the sweltering heat too much for even her. She squinted her watering eyes, trying to see the Doctor through the blaze.
"I'll get him out!" Discord proclaimed, snapping his fingers. The Time Lord appeared off to the side, his mane on fire. A bucket of water appeared above him, and drenched the earth pony. The Doctor fell to the floor and lay limply.
"Now! Let's go, my pretties!" the Queen cackled to the other changelings. "And bring the Doctor!" Scootaloo flashed forward and picked the Doctor up by his scruff. He curled in a ball, trying to stop the searing pain as the changeling flitted towards the others. Chrysalis saw the Princesses' horns glowing, and held up a hoof. "If any of you foals try to get the Doctor back, I'll have my three children here kill him!"
As if to prove her point, Sweetie Belle flared her horn and Apple Bloom snarled menacingly.
"We're off!" She kicked open the blue doors and the four changelings disappeared into the dark castle.
The group of ponies stood, or in Rainbow Dash's, Fluttershy's, and Discord's case- hovered- in stunned silence.
Pinkie Pie was the first to speak. "What just happened?"
--------------------------
"What are we gonna do? We have to rescue him!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air.
Applejack stepped forward. "She's right y'all. We need to make a plan." The ponies exchanged glances.
"How? Chrysalis said she would kill him if we tried to get him back," Pinkie Pie pointed out. Twilight Sparkle looked over at the party pony.
"Pinkie's right; but so is Applejack. We can't just leave the Doctor with the Queen. But how would we even get him back anyways?" Twilight asked.
"I could just snap my fingers and we'd have him back," Discord mentioned, pressing his fingers together.
"But then the Queen could get him right back," Celestia said. The ponies looked over at her. "And if she did, she'd kill him."
"Great, just great," Rarity mumbled. "We're now stuck in this box, with Chrysalis doing who-knows-what to the Doctor, and the fillies are once again changelings."
"Well, we're not technically stuck in here. We could go and beat the fudge out of Chrysalis and get the Doctor back before the fillies, well, not anymore, kill him. Then we could find out how to change them back to normal," Rainbow Dash suggested. A few deadpan glares were directed her way. Dash shrugged. "What? It could work."
"I really don't think so. Chrysalis has gotten stronger than when we last met, and we've all seen it," Luna reminded.
"Then what are we to do?" Rarity inquired.
"I'm afraid the Doctor is on his own," Celestia informed.
----------------------------------
"Put him in the cage, and make sure he does not escape," Chrysalis ordered, walking regally past the three other changelings. They blinked and Scootaloo flitted forward to the large metal cage. She deposited the Doctor inside, closing the door. Sweetie Belle clicked the lock closed. The three stationed themselves in front of the cage, blank glares on their faces.
The Doctor was still, not daring to move a muscle, even if it was nearly impossible right then. He felt his pelt crawling; a side effect of the fire, no doubt. But it wasn't just fire, he knew very well. It was a special formula he himself had designed using information from Twilight Sparkle about the dragon, Spike.
Its duties were to transform and/or transport, and that was exactly what was going on. But instead of changing him into a pony, it was trying to change him back into his original Time Lord self. That was good, but at the same time bad, as he did not know if that was allowed. Plus, he didn't need a bunch of ponies seeing what he truly looked like.
The Doctor managed to keep in his whine of pain as fingers began growing out of his hoof. The transformation was not quick and short like in the TARDIS; it was slow and painful now, without her help. He winced when his leg bones began changing shape. They started to straighten out, taking the shape of a human's. He wanted to growl in frustration but kept his mouth firmly shut. He didn't want to risk the changelings turning around. The crack of the bones nearly made the Doctor think they would turn around, or Chrysalis would come back from where ever she went.
His ears began shrinking and changing shape, becoming more round and less pointed. They went to the sides of his head as his muzzle came in. He clenched his teeth, grimacing.
---------------------------
"We can't just leave him!" Rainbow Dash barked angrily, fluffing her wings out boldly.
"There's nothing we can do, Dash," Twilight firmly told the pegasus. Rainbow growled, flicking her tail.
"Oh yeah? Well, I'll show you guys! I'll go save him!" She sped towards the doors and hit them open, leaving the TARDIS. Pinkie Pie bounced forward, but Rarity held onto her tail with her magic.
"I can't let you go after her, dear," the unicorn said sadly. The pink pony stood up on her hind legs.
"But we can't let her go alone!" Pinkie protested, pawing at the air with her front hooves.
"Rarity's right, Pinkie," Applejack told her. "It's too dangerous."
"I can take whatever's out there!" She bounced wildly, teeth clenched.
"I couldn't stop her in time, but I managed to put a harm-free spell on Rainbow Dash. She will be safe for the time being," Luna announced. Celestia locked eyes with her and dipped her head without saying anything.
"Thanks, Princess Luna," Twilight said, bowing. She turned her head to the still open doors, and closed them.
"Now we wait, I presume," Rarity sighed.
----------------------------
Rainbow Dash rocketed through the broken castle, dodging fallen pillars and collapsed walls. Her spectrum mane whisked out behind, creating the signature trail that nearly always followed the pegasus. Her face was set in one of determination; eyebrows furrowed and a tight frown on her lips.
Dash didn't know why she was risking her life to save the Doctor. She really didn't. Maybe it was her sense of loyalty, or her desire to be a hero.
But as she flew circles around the hallways and corridors, her heart thumped in a way she had never experienced. She'd never felt like this before, and Rainbow didn't know what she was feeling.
Feather flu?
No, she'd had that before.
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The Doctor was in silent misery. He was partially back to normal; only his tail and spine not changing. He had clothes on, for some reason. He presumed that as some sort of side effect, his tie contained his ability to wear them. Thank goodness it had not been burned all the way off in the fire.
The three changeling fillies stayed in front of the cage, not turning around, thankfully, once during the transformation. They stood still as stone, blinking and even breathing together. They were all linked by some sort of magical trance, the only differences being the obvious.
"Hey! Feather-brains!" a loud, brash voice called. Lavender, green, and sunset pink-and-orange cat-like eyes flashed over to the rowdy blue, rainbow-maned pegasus hovering in the cracked doorway. Identical hisses were directed at Rainbow Dash, before Sweetie Belle's horn crackled with its shimmering green aura. A large bolt of lightning shot out at the pegasus, who easily dodged it and ended up next to the broken stained glass windows in the blink of an eye. She waved nonchalantly and smirked at the changelings.
They all hissed again.
"Too slow! Come on, you don't stand a chance if that's how you're gonna fight!" Rainbow Dash mocked, hooves by her mouth to direct the sound. She then put her hooves by her ears and wiggled them, sticking out her tongue. A flick of her wings later and she was on the other side of the room. Another flash of light later and a smoking hole was burnt right above Dash's head. She laughed, shaking her flank at the changelings.
"Missed me, missed me, now ya gotta kiss me!" Rainbow called. Scootaloo launched forward now, narrowly missing her idol. The pegasus darted backwards, and prepared herself for the changeling's next attack. She held her hooves outwards, as if she was going to catch her. Scootaloo snarled and dived towards the blue pegasus. Rainbow side-flew and stuck her hoof out just as Scootaloo missed her. Her hoof went through a hole in the filly's pinkish insect wings, the timing so perfect that Dash's hoof didn't even touch the sides of the hole.
Scootaloo opened her mouth in surprise. She went around her own wing, falling from the air. Rainbow Dash yanked her hoof back, leapt forward, and started forming a tornado. The speed of the winds soon caught the changelings in its force, and they tried to grab onto something as they were tugged back into the swirling vortex. The colors blurred together.
Rainbow Dash rocketed out of the tornado and screeched to a halt in front of the grey, metal cage. She bucked the cage door open and stopped in surprise. Her mouth popped open, eyes wide. She blinked a few times in quick succession, trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
The Doctor cringed as he saw the look on Rainbow Dash's face; she was horrified. He tried to scoot back in the cage, but found he was already against the wall. He averted his gaze and waited.
"Wha-what? What happened? Is this. . . your true form, or what?" Rainbow Dash asked, leaning forward to poke the Time Lord.
"Uh. . almost. My spine is all messed up, and I still have a tail," the Doctor answered slowly, wiggling his tail at the end for emphasis.
". . Whatever. We have to get going! Come on!" She turned around, but realized he wasn't following. "Can you walk?" She watched as he struggled to stand on his feet. He had crawled out of the cage, and was now leaning on it as he tried to take a step.
"Uh. . ." The Doctor fell onto his hands and bent his knees so his feet were still holding him up. He took a few steps and sighed. "I'll have to crawl. Now, lead the way!"
"Alright. Just shout if you need help. I'll keep an eye on you though." Rainbow Dash took off, glancing back over her shoulder every once in a while to make sure the Doctor was keeping up. His long brown coat flapped behind him, concealing his tail as he crawled. His head was down, and his messy brown hair bounced up and down like Pinkie Pie's did.
After a few minutes, Dash looked back again. She hear snarling and gasped, seeing the changelings at the end of the corridor.
"Quick! We need to go faster!" the pegasus ordered, waving her hoof to take a side path. The Doctor grunted, following after her. He glanced up, panting.
"Gosh! How did I do this for that long?!" he growled. "Crawling is exhausting!"
Dash noticed the quickly approaching fillies and sighed. She dropped back and scooped up the Time Lord in her arms, picking up the pace. He clung to her neck as she dipped and swerved, trying to lose the changelings in the hallways and debris.
It was when she tossed him into the air, over a pillar, catching him on the other side, that he officially felt sick. He closed his eyes, feeling the pegasus do a loop-de-loop around some stairs.
"Oh, are we almost there?" he groaned.
"Actually, yes!" Rainbow Dash replied, her words being sucked back in the air at the pace she was flying. "Hang on!" He felt a large crash, and himself almost falling, and opened his eyes.
The Doctor smiled; seeing the inside of the TARDIS was comforting. Dash set him down on the small red chair by the railing. He could feel the eyes of every single creature in the room on him, but he didn't care at the moment. The Doctor managed to get off the chair and limp, practically falling, onto the controls. He smiled with relief, and ran his hands (oh, how good it felt to have hands again)! over the numerous buttons, knobs, and switches on the console. He did this for a few good minutes before he had to sit down because of the pain in his back.
He leaned back leisurely, putting his arms on the top of the chair. "Yeah, this is what I look like; minus the tail, and weird back. Not totally finished with the process yet," the Doctor said.
"So. . you're definitely an alien, huh? No denying it now," Twilight Sparkle half-joked, rubbing her hoof along the ground. She glanced away nervously.
"Awesome! Now I can throw a 'I found out what aliens look like' party!" Pinkie Pie cheered, hopping up and down in the air excitedly.
The Doctor gave her a frown. "No, I really don't think so." He winced, feeling his spine realigning. "I'm not going to eat anybody, if that's what you're all afraid of now," he commented after a couple more minutes of awkward silence. His tail started disappearing.
"So. . ." Rarity started, "are you still at danger from turning into a pony now?"
"I shouldn't be. At least changing back lets me escape that fate." He let out a gasp, arching his back after a wave of pain ran up his spine. He gave out a long, shuddering breath when the pain finally passed.
"You alright?" Rainbow Dash asked, concerned.
"Yeah; it's just my spine repositioning itself."
"Just?" Applejack coughed.
". . Yeah." He looked at the southern pony. "So, what now? Queen Chrysalis stole my sonic screwdriver."
"Hey! I just got an idea!" Twilight announced. "If we find out the counter spell, the one the Queen has on the fillies, then we can change them back to normal! Then, we can defeat her and her changeling army."
"Alright! Out of the TARDIS-"
"Got it," Discord called, holding a book in his paws.
The Doctor sighed. "Sometimes you just take the fun right out of an adventure."