The First of Many

by Mudkipman98


Chapter 2

The Doctor stared in awe at Twilight as she stood at the top of the stairs, giving him a look of complete and utter confusion. "Um, Doctor? Are you okay? You look a little bit sick."
"Who are you?" he asked in disbelief.
"What?"
"I said," anger now filling his voice as he made his way to Twilight until he was right in her face, "who are you?! What are you? And why are you using my friend's form?"
"Doctor, you're starting to scare me," said Twilight nervously as she began backing up the stairs.
"Are you a Zygon? Did you somehow make it through like me or the weeping angels? Did the daleks send you after us?" At this point, Twilight had been backed up to the top of the stairs and they were moving back towards her room. "Come on then," he said, holding up his screwdriver with one hoof as if it were a weapon. "Just what are you?!"
"Doctor, what's going on? Why are you doing this? And what the hay is a Zygon?" The Doctor stopped advancing when he had pushed Twilight to the end of the hall up against the wall.
The Doctor activated his sonic screwdriver, using it to scan Twilight before checking its reading. He relaxed when he discovered what it had scanned. "Alicorn," he said in relief. He realized, also, that they were standing next to Twilight's room which was positioned directly to his right. When he looked through the door, he found a strange sight.
The newly regenerated Twilight was still in bed.
When Twilight saw that 'she' was in her bed, looking like a different mare, she recoiled as she said, "Doctor, who is that?"
"That's you," he said slowly. "You died. Don't you remember?"
"I'm dead? But, how can that be? I'm standing right here! How can that be me?"
"I have absolutely no idea," said the Doctor, running a hoof through his mane in thought. "This is a new one on me."
Twilight slowly started walking into her room, trying to approach 'herself'. When the Doctor noticed this, he called after her. "Twilight, get back! Don't touch her," he said frantically as she returned. When she'd gotten close to her alternate self, the golden glow of regeneration had begun growing intensely from the 'new Twilight', nearly filling the room.
When Twilight once again stood in the hall, he rescanned her with the sonic screwdriver. "You're not just an alicorn," he said. "You're pure regeneration energy. You shouldn't even be here. You died."
"Why do you keep saying that?" asked Twilight.
"You really don't remember?"
"Maybe a little bit," she confessed. "I remember being in the TARDIS, and you were talking. And then..." she trailed off after she remembered the rest. "Oh," she said in sadness. "But, I can't be dead," she said as if trying to reassure herself. "I'm standing right here."
The Doctor sighed before saying, "Yes, you are. But if my theory is correct, and they usually are, then you're not." He slowly reached a hoof out to her. When it made contact, it passed straight through, turning gold in the light of regeneration energy. Twilight stared in awe at the fact the Doctor's hoof was where her shoulder should be. "I'm sorry," he said, "but you're not really here." He retracted his hoof before saying, "Well, you are here, but you're not here here." When Twilight gave him a look of puzzlement, he continued.
"You're regeneration energy. I don't know how, but your mind is here in some kind of physical form born from the energy you released when you regenerated." He walked over to the 'new Twilight' and began scanning her with his screwdriver. "Your 'body'--" he paused as he motioned to the bed, "-- is pumping out regeneration energy at an impossible rate. If this keeps up, you're going to burn up in only a few days."
"But you can fix me, right?" ask Twilight skeptically. When she received no reply, she repeated, "Right?"
Finally, the Doctor spoke. "I don't know," he said somberly. "Even if I could do something, you'd still be gone. You'll die, and this one here will fill your place."
"But you can find a way to fix this, can't y-"
"You don't understand!" shouted the Doctor from out of nowhere. "You can't just reverse a regeneration, and I sure as hell can't bring you back! And now, you're gonna die again. But this time, you won't regenerate, no. You will cease to be before you can ever live out the lives that are waiting for you!" He stopped and hung his head.
That's when he noticed the intense glow coming from 'new Twilight'. When he looked back up, he saw Twilight at the foot of the bed, beginning to glow a similar color. "So you're saying... she'll die without me?"
The Doctor hesitated before responding. "Yes. She'll die without you. Even now, you're draining up all the energy she has just by existing. In a matter of days, she'll burn up along with you." He noticed Twilight move around the bed and hold up her hoof, going for 'new Twilight's' chest. "Twilight, wait," commanded the Doctor.
"If I'm here, that means I must still be inside her somewhere inside that great, big head of hers," she snapped, not taking a moment to look away from her goal. "If I'm in there somewhere, then you can bring me out." She looked away, back up to the Doctor. "So come on then you mad pony in a box," she teased. "Come get me." She stopped and smiled as her hoof connected with 'new Twilight', causing her to explode into regeneration energy and feed back into her sleeping other.
In a moment, Twilight sat up in bed. "Did you wake me up?" she said to the Doctor. "Because I was having this great dream. Besides, I'm still regenerating! You of all people should know that you shouldn't interrupt a pony in their regeneration cycle, silly. Wait, how do I know you're people? Oh yeah! You told me so! That was ages ago! Years in fact. Well, what can you do?" she shrugged. "If that's all, goodnight!" she finished as she fell back onto her pillow, immediately drifting back into her regenerative sleep.
The Doctor chuckled to himself a little bit. He remembered being that crazy a few times. It was plenty of fun, but it always left him with a headache afterwards. He decided to get some aspirin ready for his companion for when she woke up in a few days.
He made his way back downstairs to find Fluttershy and Rarity sitting at the table in the center of the room. "What is going on, Doctor?" asked Rarity.
"Is Twilight going to be okay," asked Fluttershy softly.
"I'm not sure," he said back, frowning. "There shouldn't be any of who she was left. But somehow, she's locked herself away and she's waiting for me to find her. For me to help her. So as long as she's in there, I'm going to get her out."
The two ponies frowned as the Doctor approached them. "There's still a chance I can save her," he said. "The old her, not the new one. Though, if my luck holds out for a bit longer, I might be able to save them both."
"What do you mean 'save them both'?!" asked Rarity in shock. "That thing stole our friend! And you want to save her?!"
The Doctor quickly got right in Rarity's face before saying, "She's not a thing! She's a living pony just like you and me, and she has a right to live just the same!" He back away from Rarity before walking back to the stairs. "I'm going to go back up and stay with her until she recovers," he said grimly before climbing the steps. "You can either stay here with her, or go home. There's not much you can do here, and worrying about her won't help anyone." As he reached Twilight's room a few moments later, he heard the front door shut, signalling that Rarity and Fluttershy had left.
He opened the door and walked in, setting a floor cushion down next to her bed before sitting down on it, waiting for her to recover like so many had waited for him in the past. And now, Twilight was waiting for him, trapped in the labyrinth of her own mind and only wishing to come back to reality. "I'll save you, Twilight Sparkle," he said, "one way or another." Had Twilight been facing him, he might have seen a small smile on her face.