Part 8
Boom
The field was empty. Not five minutes ago, the skies were full of spaceships of every imaginable type, the fields loaded with a large number of the Old Guard doing battle with Cyberponies, Sontaurans, you name it, and the Doctor was right in the middle of it all. Now, though, the Doctor was gone, the aliens were gone, the ponies were gone, even the stars in the sky were gone.
And Blue Shield couldn't bring himself to care.
His world was the pony laying on the ground in front of him, taken down by his own unwilling hoof. Or rather, The gun hidden inside it. "Ripple..." he cried, holding her unmoving form to his chest. He sighed. "So the universe ended," he said, barely keeping the tears at bay. "You missed that, in 995 S.R. no less. I suppose this means you and I never get born at all. Twice, in my case." He chuckled mirthlessly. "You would have laughed at that. Please laugh." He wasn't trying even trying to hold back now, though thanks to this damn new plastic body, he couldn't actually shed tears. "The Doctor said the universe was huge and ridiculous, and sometimes there were miracles. I could do with a ridiculous miracle about now."
As if on cue, his grief was interrupted by a bright flash of light, which coalesced into the form of the Doctor. Holding a mop in the crook of his right foreleg. And he was wearing a red fez on his head. A ridiculous miracle. "Shieldy!" he shouted before going on one of his stream-of-conciousness rants. "Listen, she's not dead. Well, she is dead, but it's not the end of the world. Well, it is the end of the world. Actually, it's the end of the universe. Oh, no. Hang on." And he vanished, but only for a moment. Then he reappeared, without the mop. "You need to get me out of the Pandorica."
"But you're not in the Pandorica," Blue Shield responded in confusion.
"Yes, I am. Well, I'm not now, but I was back then. Well, back now from your point of view, which is back then from my point of view. Time travel, you can't keep it straight in your head." The Doctor shook his head, and hoofed over his sonic screwdriver. "It's easy to open from the outside. Just point and press. Now GO!" And he vanished again.
Blue Shield just stared at the high tech wand in his hoof for a moment before the Doctor was back again. "Oh, and when you're done, tuck the sonic behind her ear. Most convenient spot since no one listens to me and brings anything with pockets on these trips. Now go!" And he was gone again.
A few very confusing minutes later, and Blue Shield was back with the Doctor--one who was not going to just vanish on him this time. "I killed her," he said simply, pointing to Ripple.
The Doctor's eyes widened slightly as he sighed. "Oh, Blue Shield..."
"What am I, Doctor?" Blue Shield asked.
The Doctor got very serious. Much as he always hated to do it--okay, riling up Wordsmith from time to time was actually pretty fun--it was time for a cruel-to-be-kind moment. "You're a Nestine duplicate," he said bluntly. "Otherwise known as an Auton. A lump of plastic with delusions of ponydom."
Blue Shield suddenly looked very small, very vulnerable, despite the regal Old Lunar Guard armor he was wearing. "But I'm Blue Shield now. Whatever was happening, it's stopped. I'm Blue Shield."
"That's just the software talking," the Doctor huffed.
Blue Shield ignored that last dig, casting a helpless look at Ripple's dead body. "Can you help her? Is there anything you can do?"
"Yeah, probably," the Doctor said distractedly. "If I had the time."
Blue Shield froze. "If you had the... time?"
The Doctor suddenly turned on Blue Shield, fury of the Time Chargers in his green eyes. "All of creation has just been wiped from the sky. Do you know how many lives now never happened? All the ponies who never lived? Your marefriend isn't more important than the whole universe."
He was completely unprepared for the punch to the face, which spun him around a half circle before he fell to the ground.
"SHE IS TO ME!" Blue Shield screamed.
The Doctor leaped to his hooves, an ecstatic smile on his face. "Welcome back, Blue Shield! Sorry. Had to be sure. Hell of a gun-hoof you're packing there. Right, we need to get her downstairs. And take that look off your plastic face. You're getting married in the morning."
And a few slightly less confusing minutes later, Blue Shield was alone in the underground cavern looking up at the large, rune-covered box that was the cause of this whole mess. The Doctor was gone, off to save the universe as he always was. Ripple was in the box waiting for the day for it to open and let her out alive and full of piss and vinegar. Problem was, that day was 2,000 years away. And that left Blue Shield. The Doctor wanted to take him with him, of course. But there was no way he was going to leave the Pandorica unattended for that long. Not with how precious its cargo was.
And besides, it wasn't like he was a pony anymore, anyway.
~DrW~
Blue Shield blinked the traumatic flashback away as he rubbed a hoof over his right foreleg--his very flesh and blood right foreleg. That was another life, another time. Technically, it was a time that no longer existed, meaning he never lived it at all. Tell his memories that, though.
"The Last Lunar Guard?" one of the other Doctors asked--the relatively normal looking one who's place they trashed. "Now, why does that sound so tantalizingly familiar...?"
"You've forgotten?" The toothy one with the scarf scoffed. "It's quite an old Equestiran legend. Sightings of an earth pony in the ancient uniform of Luna's Guard ranging back... a thousand years at least."
"Two, actually," Blue Shield's Doctor corrected with a grin.
"And if memory serves," the purple one added. "He was guarding... protecting... something. What was it again?"
"That is odd, isn't it?" Ten asked. "A very tantalizing old Equestrian legend that we don't even know the details of, let alone the origin."
"I say, that is rather suspect," Four agreed. "Considering how knowledgeable we usually are over such things."
Eight chuckled. "Knowledgeable? We're the cause of half of it."
"Yes! Right! Weird, isn't it?" Eleven said with a grin. "Here's the thing. The Last Lunar Guard is from a timeline that no longer exists. The only reason you lot remember it at all is because you're Time Chargers. Well, because you're me specifically. Long story. Universal cracks, friends turned into autons, a new Big Bang, the works. The point is. Blue Shield here is the Last Lunar Guard."
At Ten's look, Blue Shield nodded. "It's true. I was a 2,000 year old piece of plastic, once."
Ten remained unreadable for a moment before his face split in a huge grin. "Oh, that is good! So very good!" A mad laugh erupted from his mouth before he planted a kiss right on Blue Shield's mouth before charging back into the quiet room.
Blue Shield's face scrunched up disgust. "Yeah. He's you all right."
"He doesn't usually do that though," Eleven said with a smirk. "Then again you did just make his day. Now come along Pond."
"I'm not a--"
"Yes you are." Eleven turned to his other selves and Romana. "You also. We're gonna need all the genius minds we can get on this one."
Blue Shield blanched. "I suddenly don't like the sound of that."
~DrW~
The Crystal Empire, the reasonably near future:
"Hey, guys," Spike said cheerfully as he entered the throne room, always glad that such rooms came with doors he didn't have to duck to enter these days. "What's... happenin'?" He stopped at the the concerned look on the faces of the Prince and Princess. Also... "Where's Twilight?" he asked.
"Right here," Twilight Sparkle said as she entered from the door that led to the Crystal Heart's tower, sweaty and panting and not at all princessly.
"Twilight! You okay?" Spike asked as he ran up to her and knelt on on knee to get her roughly to eye level.
Twilight smiled at her not-so-little-anymore assistant. "The Crystal Heart's being corrupted by an outside source, Spike. I've been spending the last couple of hours analyzing it." She turned to her brother and sister-in-law. "It's Sombra."
Cadance and Shining Armor cast a concerned glance at each other. "Twiley, are you sure?" Shining asked.
Twilight nodded. "I'll never forget his magic signature." She shuddered. "It's him all right."
"But I don't get it," Spike said in confusion. "Isn't he... y'know... dead? Blown to smithereens by the Crystal Heart, confirmed by Princess Celestia herself? A good ten years ago? Sound familiar?"
"Oh it's him all right," Twilight said darkly. "But that's not even the worst thing. The spell, though not one I've actually seen myself before, is very similar in makeup and purpose to Starswirl the Bearded's time spell."
There was a silence before Cadance asked the obvious. "So he's time traveling?"
"Yes," Twilight confirmed. "From the far past." She sighed, remembering the almost absurd level of preparation and planning his old tricks and traps displayed--a far cry from the guttural force of nature they actually faced a decade ago. "And that's not good. C'mon Spike, we've got things to do."
"Letters to Princess Celestia and the girls and then the library?" Spike said with a grin.
"Yes. I've got some important research to do. Let's go." And she was gone in a flash of light.
"I hate it when she does that," Spike grumbled as he stormed out of the room to chase after her.
"Well, there goes our little hero, as usual," Cadance said, a combination of amusement and concern in her voice. She cast a glance at her husband. "And what's going on in that brain of yours?"
Shining Armor gave a sighed. "Just thinking of ways to organize the Guard and actually contribute. You know. Can't have my little sister show me up every time something happens."
"Uh huh." Cadence had a grin forming on her face, despite the situation. "And I bet you're also hoping we get a visit from a certain old friend from your Royal Guard days, right?"
Shining Armor cast a long hard look at a corner of the throne room, half expecting that silly little blue barn to materialize at any moment. "Honestly? Given the circumstances? Yes."