“No more.”
“We're positioned at equidistant intervals around the globe. Equidistant. So grown up. “
“What you do in your regeneration is your own business.”
“It’s nothing… Just a wolf.”
…
The Doctor struggled to keep his mind together. It felt like it was splintering into a million pieces, like glass, shattering against the ground. Thousands of years of memories blazed through his mind, going out of control like a tornado of grief, terror, and destruction.
He let out a horrible wail as his mind was invaded again, it felt like a burning hot piece of metal pressing against his head.
“Whatever you are, you better hope this kills me. Otherwise, YOU’LL REGRET IT!” he roared.
~==~
The 11th Doctor walked down the street, trying to shove his irritation for the so-called Paternoster Gang to the back of his mind. Once again they went about their monthly antics to convince the Doctor to “snap out of his sulk and get out there” and they failed for the billionth time. The thought of them trying to somehow “cure” the Doctor of his depression was both aggravating yet sweet and considerate at the same time.
Still, the Doctor was perhaps the most adamant person in the universe. Well, save Amy of course.
A deep frown set on his face as he could practically hear her Scottish brogue chiding him.
Oh, come off it, Grumpy-Face. What’s skulking ‘round gonna help?
“I’m not skulking,” the Doctor muttered under his breath.
Right, chimed the voice of Rory, the Centurion, Funeral clothes in Victorian London while you sit up on your cloud? Nothing wrong with that picture.
The barest foundation of a smile set in on the Time Lord’s face as he pictured those two so vividly in his mind he could almost touch them. Then the harsh reality set on him, weighing his shoulders down as if the sky was suddenly set on his back. With his shoulders hunched downward and his eyes downcast, the Doctor sullenly continued his path through the alleyway.
“Did you make this snowman?”
Without hesitation or breaking stride, the Doctor curtly responded, “No.”
“Well, who did? ‘Cos it wasn’t ‘ere a second ago. It just appeared. Out of nowhere.”
The Doctor turned around slowly, feeling his curiosity rise and prod the back of his mind like a sugar-crazed child with the attention span of a goldfish. He glanced at the woman who spoke: pretty, he supposed, with a somewhat homely dress that seemed to burst with fiery defiance.
Something compelled him. Something powerful like a gravitational field, perhaps it was the way this woman spoke or just the genuine interest in the self-creating snowman. Either way, his mind wasn’t in control as he approached the snowman and the woman, pulling out his glasses and throwing them on.
He glanced at her for a moment. There wasn’t fear in her eyes but a bright intelligence that seemed to challenge the Doctor like, Go on, try to figure it out if you’re so clever.
The Doctor suppressed his smile and reached out to touch the snowman. “Maybe it’s snow that fell before,” he started. “Maybe it remembers how to make a snowman.”
The snow felt like regular snow. It was a bit denser than usual but on the surface there wasn’t particularly abnormal about this snow. He was merely saying that to hopefully coax the girl away and to stave her interest in imaginary snowmen.
“Wot, snow that can remember? That’s silly,” she said with a smile.
“What’s wrong with silly?”
“Nothing, still talkin’ to you, ain’t I?” This time a full, proper smile appeared on her face with the slight cock of her head. A smile so infectious the Doctor couldn’t help but smile back.
“What’s your name?” the Doctor asked as he pulled his glasses off.
“Clara,” she announced with the stately tone of a queen.
“Nice name… Clara,” he repeated, as if feeling out how the name sounds in his mouth. He turned around and quickly disposed of Clara’s name from his memory. “You should definitely keep it.” He rounded the corner, mentally chiding himself for hanging around. “Goodbye!”
The Doctor only made it halfway down the alley before he heard Clara half-jog after him. “Oi!” she called but didn’t break the Doctor’s pace. “Where you goin’, I thought we was just gettin’ acquainted.”
Instantly, memories flooded back into his mind. Sassy Rose, brave Mickey, brilliant Martha, important Donna, little Amelia, and heroic Rory appeared and doused him like a cold bucket of water. Thousands of years of grief and loneliness manifested in those big sad eyes as he turned around and smiled so morosely, Clara could’ve easily imagined him in a funeral.
“Those were the days…”
~==~
The Doctor jogged up the stairs up Powell Estate, following the psychic directions transmitted from his sonic screwdriver. There was only one bit remaining from that Nestene Consciousness that had somehow survived the… fiasco from last night.
Honestly, he wasn’t expecting his little explosive to cause that much damage. He might’ve gotten the calculations wrong but really can he be blamed? He’s only getting used to this body and he can’t expect all the synapses to be firing off right out of the gate.
He’d probably need to leave some money to compensate for the repairs…
Anyhow. The sonic led him here, why a piece of plastic with a hivemind intelligence would venture out all the way here was beyond the Doctor.
Following the signal to the correct door, the Doctor heard some noise behind it. Carefully, he listened and heard two distinct voices, one was shrill with a grating cadence while the other sounded eerily familiar.
“—I know she’s Greek, but that’s not the point. It was a valid claim!” came the first voice so loudly, the Doctor had to recoil from the door to prevent his eardrums from rupturing.
“Blimey, I’m gonna regret this ain’t I?” the Doctor muttered as he tried the door. Ah, locked. Perhaps the sonic could—
“Mum, you’re such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down! We’re going to get strays!”
That voice sounded really familiar at this point but he couldn’t peg it down.
“I did it weeks back!” shouted the first woman.
“No, you thought about it.”
Looking down under at the cat-flap the woman was talking about, the Doctor was about to open it when it rattled by itself. He stared intently, waiting, perhaps it was the Nestene disguising itself. Ooh, it was going to get it now.
The flap opened and a blonde was staring back at him. Well, that was different.
She gasped, staring at him like he was a ghost and snapped to her feet. The Doctor calmly got up just as she was opening the door.
“What’re you doing here?” the Doctor asked, frowning like it was her fault he couldn’t find the Nestene.
“I live here,” she snapped back with an incredulous expression.
The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows. “Well, what’d you do that for?”
“Because I do,” she argued but the Doctor wasn’t paying attention at this point. He brandished his sonic and listened to it, nope, the signal corresponded here. “I’m only ‘ere ‘cos someone blew up my job.”
“Must’ve gotten the wrong signal,” he muttered, listening to the sonic buzz. He looked up at the woman again, seriously, it felt like déjà vu looking at her. “You’re not plastic are ya?”
He didn’t wait for her response, leaning in, he tapped her forehead twice and felt the familiar skeletal structure resonate from his invasion of personal space.
“No, bonehead.” He backed up slightly and smiled a bit, preparing to leave. “Bye then!”
But she reached out and grabbed his coat, yanking him inside. “You. Inside. Right now.”
She slammed the door behind him but he just stared at her like she just evolved from pond scum to a sapien right before his eyes. He pocketed his sonic and looked around the flat. Lovely if a bit small and restricting, he felt like he walked into a closet.
“Who is it?” the first woman asked from the other room.
Blondey walked off to answer and the Doctor just remained there, half-thinking about the Nestene and half-wondering about where he saw her before. Ah! Last night, at the store. Rose. That was her name, how he could forget that?
No, but it felt like he knew her from somewhere else. Somewhere a long time ago…
Rose walked forward and the Doctor followed just in time for the first woman to all but shout out, “She deserves compensation!”
The Doctor smiled derisively, having no clue what she’s on about but went along with the joke. “Ha. We’re talkin’ millions.”
The woman blushed slightly and fidgeted in her spot but the Doctor just grinned stupidly, looking around the room and trying not to grimace at the overbearing assault of offending odors of cheap perfume. She straightened up slightly and the Doctor finally turned his attention back on her.
“I’m in my dressing gown,” she pointedly remarked.
The Doctor maintained his cheerful expression. “Yes, you are,” he told her, unsure if she had regenerated recently considering her apparent confusion over her clothing options.
“There’s a strange man in my bedroom,” she said next.
This time the Doctor tilted his head a bit but nodded, deciding that he was, yes indeed, strange and a man. “Yes, there is.”
“Well, anything could happen…”
He finally took a look at her. Sure, she was pretty and obviously Rose’s mother but her sudden attraction to him was both confusing and alarming. “No,” he decided, leaving the room and following Rose to the sitting room.
“Don’t mind the mess,” Rose tells him, beginning to clean up slightly. “Do you want a coffee?”
The Doctor thought about it. He wasn’t sure if he liked coffee. Did his last regeneration like coffee? Probably didn’t have a lot of time to try it. “Might as well,” he decided almost reluctantly. “Thanks! Just milk.”
“We should go to the police. Seriously, both of us.” Rose continued as she made her way to the kitchen. The Doctor wanted to scoff, what good could the police do in the case of a sentient, megalomaniac race of living plastic?
He kept his opinions to himself as he grabs and flips through an unremarkable magazine. “That won’t last,” he mutters. “He’s gay and she’s an alien.”
“I’m not blaming you,” Rose continued, ignoring the Doctor’s quiet musings while working on their drinks. “Even if it was just some joke that went wrong.”
Picking up a small book, the Doctor flipped through it, reading it all instantly. “Hmm. Sad ending,” he remarks, he hated endings like that.
“They said on the news they’d found a body,” said Rose as the Doctor glanced at her mail.
“Rose Tyler,” he read, enjoying how her name sounded in his voice but still unable to shake the feeling that he’d heard that name from somewhere before.
Finally, the Doctor looked up and noticed a mirror at the wall. He frowned. Short, military-cropped hair graced the top of his head, his face was older than he was accustomed to considering his last two regenerations, but he looked grim and stoic. Bleh.
“Ah, could’ve been worse,” he joked, playing with his earlobes and remembering his previous face’s desire for smaller ears. “Look at the ears!”
“All the same,” Rose said. “He was nice. Nice bloke…”
Picking up a deck of cards, the Doctor successfully trick-shuffles it. Ooh, it’s been quite a while where he’s had a dexterous body. “Luck be a lady.”
“Anyway, if we are going to the police. I wanna know what I’m sayin’,” Rose called from the kitchen.
But suddenly, the cards spill from his hands, flying everywhere. Blimey, Houdini would laugh at him.
“Maybe not…”
Scuttling rapped at the back of the room. The Doctor quickly turned his attention toward it. It was tiny, considering how loud it was, about the size of a household pet. “What’s that then? You got a cat?”
“No,” Rose answered.
The Doctor looks over the chair, smiling, expecting a friendly little cat but a plastic arm flew up and clutched his throat so tightly you’d think it was a professional arm-wrestler than plastic. The Doctor shot back, choking from the arm’s iron grip.
“We did have, but now they’re just strays,” Rose explained, entering the room with two mugs of warm coffee. The Doctor gave her a desperate look of panic but Rose took no notice, scoffing under her breath. “I told Mickey to chuck that out. You’re all the same… Give a man a plastic hand. Anyway, I don’t even know your name. Doctor… what was it?”
The Doctor, through sheer force of will and brute strength, pulled the arm away from his neck and it flew backwards but stopped in mid-air. It turned, finding a better target, and shot through Rose, wrapping its hand over her face.
Rose flinched and tried to pull the arm off. The Doctor leapt to action, his body recognizing the sensation of danger and adrenaline. He grabbed at the arm and tried to pull it off but Rose moved with it, it was stuck on there tight!
He kept pulling, Rose pulling away from him, but they had no such luck. He pulled hard but the two of them flew back and crashed on the coffee table, obliterating it. Ignoring the pain, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and activating it. Leaping up, he grabbed the arm again and finally yanked it free from Rose’s face. Holding it steady, he toyed with his sonic.
The sonic pulsed and a slew of psychic commands were ready at his command. He needed to find the right frequency for a hivemind intelligence, pressing the button and psychically entering different commands, it buzzed differently with each pulse. Finally finding it, he pressed it against its palm and the fingers went slack.
Sighing in relief, his shoulders relaxed and the adrenaline subsided. “It’s all right,” he promised. “I’ve stopped it. There you go, ya see? ‘Armless!”
He tossed her the arm and she jumped in surprise but as the Doctor said it was harmless. “D’ya think?” she smacked him in the arm with the arm and he feigned a hurt expression.
“Ow!”
~==~
The Doctor twitched and took a huge gulp of air like it was his first time inhaling in a thousand years. Past memories and faces wash over his mind and for a moment he had to convince himself that he wasn’t fighting a plastic arm with a blonde, spunky girl. He was a pony, freezing, and afraid.
The TARDIS’s cloister bell rang off and chimed somberly. The room was absolutely freezing, so cold, another memory reappeared in his mind. Victorian London, the Great Intelligence freezing his body from the inside out.
He shook that memory away, refusing to indulge it by letting it consume him. He would not pass out.
The Doctor couldn’t move very well, it felt like a mountain was sitting on him, pinning him down. He looked around the room desperately, trying to remember who was here with him. His hearts froze as he saw Pinkie Pie and Applejack slumped on the ground.
He wanted to cry out and call for them but then he noticed their midsections were moving. Thank god, they were breathing.
Then a malevolent force washed over him and a shiver ran up his back. It caressed him gently, like a mother soothing her troubled child, but it only made him more alert, sitting up and trying to spot this evil force.
On a scale of 1 to Dalek, this thing was a very good contender for Cybermen level of evil.
“The lord of time approaches,” a voice said. It was female, deep and sultry, as if she were trying to lull him back to sleep. She pronounced her words carefully and slowly, with the prose of a poet. “His fortification of mind, will not withstand my terror. Awaken, Time Pony, rise! Before me… everything dies.”
“Oh, great, a poet,” the Doctor grumbles trying to blink his pain away. “Spare me the theatrics and you might as well tell me your plan so I can stop it.”
The Doctor could sense a ripple of amusement run through the voice. He could imagine a wicked smile, like the grin of a murderer. “He weaves words pedantically. Hoping to poke and prod. To what end, I wonder. Your tongue, like a sword… Strike me Time Lord, you may try to strike a chord.”
“You’re trying to possess me,” the Doctor guesses, feeling the intrusive feel of this malevolent creature against his mind. “And the TARDIS, you’ve shut her down. Why, who are you?”
“You… cannot hope to know me. The never-ending darkness, malice, evil, corruption. They may call me the Devil. But the truth, you will know soon, for I am the Nightmare Moon.”
Panic seized the Doctor’s throat. He had heard of Nightmare Moon from Twilight Sparkle. Apparently, it was Princess Luna’s alter-ego when she betrayed and attacked her sister, Princess Celestia. He had heard Princess Luna speak before, she did not sound like this, although there were similarities.
Both Luna and Nightmare Moon spoke archaically, with a degree of severe intelligence and wisdom that accumulated from thousands of years.
Looking back at his companions, he noticed they shuddered from Nightmare Moon’s freezing presence. The only reason he wasn’t developing frost-bite was because of his durable body, but those two… who knows how long they can last.
“Let Applejack and Pinkie go,” he demanded. “They’ve no part in this!”
“Brave souls for braving you, yes?” Nightmare Moon mused. “As long as they are with you, forever they will suffer. A shared grave for the Doctor.”
Anger bubbled in the Doctor’s voice and he sat up straighter than ever, ignoring how his entire body and mind burned. With the command of thousands of years of experience at disposal and the anger of a million suns, he roared, “I said RELEASE THEM!”
“Strong words, so bold from the Time Lord, so old. I will have your mind, Doctor,” she laughed quietly. “Yours is something I have not encountered in many eons. Even the Night Princess paled before you.”
His anger dissipated as it was replaced with realization and fear. Nightmare Moon latched on Princess Luna’s jealousy and anger… if she would try the same with him…
“Your guilty, murderous heart… will take this universe apart,” Nightmare Moon finished.
The Doctor blinked away his confusion and focused intensely on Nightmare Moon’s voice. Pain seared his mind, peeling it away until only raw nerves remained that caught ablaze from Nightmare Moon’s influence, but it allowed him to focus on what was important.
He stared, dazed, at the TARDIS control room once so full of life remained desolate and despondent. The lights were off and so were the engines, a deep psychic wave washed over the Doctor and for once he understood. The pain he felt against his mind was not his own, it was the TARDIS transmitting all of her pain to him.
That’s the only reason he woke up. Because the Old Girl forced him awake with a metaphorical bucket of cold water. Despite how dark and cold the TARDIS had become there was a bright, purple light shining around the console.
The Doctor paled as he realized what it was. It was a billowy purple smoke that wrapped around the time rotor like a snake coiling up. It was only smoke but it radiated a type of freezing cruelty that only the Doctor could recognize. When it shone against the reflective rotor, the Doctor could see the barest images of a mare’s face. Dark purple eyes, wicked fangs, a black coat.
The smoke coiled around the Doctor, threatening to overwhelm him but it hadn’t, as powerful as she may be she still couldn’t possess him so easily.
“I could regenerate,” he threatened weakly, his hooves shining gold. “Blast you out of my TARDIS with so much regeneration energy not a single molecule would remain.”
“Combust in the flames of life, dear Doctor,” suggested Nightmare Moon. “But what of your companions? Would they be safe in such close proximity? I doubt your claimed ability.”
“Do you?” he growled, the gold dust now covering his entire body and a brilliant light bursting from his eyes. “That’s one thing you shouldn’t do, lady.”
But his threat didn’t go as planned. Instead, Nightmare Moon laughed wickedly a sound that eerily reminded the Doctor of Davros’s evil cackle. The purple smoke flowed from the console like a shark and circled Pinkie and AJ. The Doctor cried, “NO! Stop!”
But the smoke jabbed at the mares’ backside and they twitched and convulsed horribly, the Doctor felt like his hearts were being crushed.
Applejack sat up suddenly and opened her eyes but they glowed ghostly purple. She looked sickly as Nightmare Moon’s magical aura surrounded her. “Try, try, Doctor,” Applejack spoke but it was in Nightmare Moon’s iambic prose. “To expunge me. You will find it not to be easy!”
Pinkie twitched and sat up as well, her eyes just as lifeless as Applejack’s. “The Time Lord’s heart lay bare, such a weak fool. This semblance of kindness will be your doom!”
Immediately, the Doctor ceased his regeneration, the gold dust dissipated and the light around him died. He glared at Pinkie/Nightmare Moon and didn’t try anything else for fear of putting his friend in danger.
“When I get out of this, and I will, I’ll put an end to your plan,” the Doctor promised as the ghostly smoke came out of Pinkie’s mouth and the mare slumped over asleep again. The smoke went over to the Time Pony and wrapped around him. “You’ve only got one shot at this, Nightmare Moon. For your sake… don’t miss.”
Nightmare Moon laugh, a sound that reminded the Doctor of a monstrous purr. “Sleep, sleep, my little Time Lord,” she whispered and the Doctor’s eyelids became heavy. “For this will be over soon. You’ll be the next Nightmare Moon!”
Her magic shadowed over him. The Doctor resisted the sleep magic for a moment but found it would be useless if he tried so he slumped his head and fell to a deep slumber. His mind buzzed as past memories resurfaced, memories he tried so hard to forget, stirred by this evil creature.
~==~
The Doctor worked to maintain his TARDIS as it sparked and creaked erratically. He growled as the TARDIS tried to resist his flight pattern. “Come on, Old Girl,” he mumbled. “I know you don’t want to be here, but it’s my fault this is happening.”
“Grandfather!”
The Time Pony looked up and noticed his granddaughter, Susan, staring back at him in desperation. Her dark eyes were wide with fear as she worked on her side of the TARDIS console. “She wants to leave! We should go…”
The Doctor shook his head, waving his dark curly hair from here to there, and stared back at the controls. He hated that Susan was here, she didn’t deserve to endure this horrific war, but the silly mare insisted on enlisting. She wore her standard Time Lady military grab while the Doctor kept his dark coat marred by years of fighting.
Her large and bulky armor dwarfed her already tiny size, so she looked like a filly wearing her father’s clothes. Her black mane was usually well-done and fashionably sensible, but the years of war and the indifference toward personal aesthetic left it a tangled mess. Even her eyes which used to be so full of life and curiosity were cloudy and sullen.
“We can’t my dear,” the Doctor answered, running over to her side and hugging her reassuringly. “We’re responsible for this, it is our duty to stop it.”
Susan returned his hug but she was shivering, taking shaky breaths like she was about to go into shock. When they broke the hug, Susan gave the Doctor a brave smile which warmed his hearts. This was only his 8th body but it was young and virile. The start of this life was so traumatic and dark yet he ended up with a loveable, romantic personality.
War quickly broke that aspect of his personality.
“I think she’s calming down,” Susan remarked, pointing at the display.
The Doctor looked at the hectic Gallopfreyan writing and decided she was correct. Perhaps even the TARDIS knew how dire this situation was. “Park her at a safe distance,” the Doctor ordered. “There’s no need to get any closer.”
Susan nodded and began to work the controls while the Doctor trotted to the other side and brandished an old-fashioned telephone that was connected to the console. With the phone in his magical grip, the Doctor ran for the door and pulled them open.
They were somewhere in deep space, he didn’t recognize where exactly because the constellations around them blinked out of existence and back in sporadically. Right in front of the parked TARDIS was a swirling black vortex comprised of starlight and pure destruction about 3 times the size of Gallopfrey. Energy pulsated from the vortex that brushed against the Doctor’s skin making his skeleton feel as stable as gelatin.
He looked over to the right of the TARDIS and saw the massive fleet that flew closer and closer to the vortex. Their circular, saucer-like crafts brought the Doctor’s hearts at a standstill. The largest of the ships led the fleet of a few million. The Daleks were getting closer.
“Susan!” the Doctor shouted over the deafening hum of the vortex. “Open communications, put it on the loudspeaker!”
“Yes, Grandfather!” Susan shouted back, throwing a lever and a loud shriek played over the speakers.
“IN-COMING TRANSMISSION!” cried a Dalek commander through the speaker.
“DAVROS!” the Doctor yelled into his phone. “Turn around! It will destroy you!”
“Ah, Doctor,” hissed the low reptilian cadence of Davros. “Have you come to witness my transcendence?”
“The Nightmare Child isn’t what you think it is, Davros,” the Doctor warned. “It isn’t a weapon. It’s alive and it will consume you!”
Susan joined the Doctor at his side, staring in horror at the vortex only now comprehending what she was seeing. It wasn’t a vortex, it was the incalculable maw of the Nightmare Child. Its “teeth” were the mangled remains of Galaxy ships that ran along the perimeter of its mouth. The energy it radiated was its breath as it inhaled and exhaled, pulling the TARDIS in closer and pushing it away.
The Time Pony pair had discovered the Dalek’s plan to utilize the Nightmare Child in this grueling Time War. According to legend this eldritch monster came from the beyond the depths of the universe but was locked away by Rassilon close to the creation of Gallopfrey. They believed the Nightmare Child was a weapon but the Doctor figured out it was a sentient monster bent on consuming the entirety of the universe.
Susan’s hearts fell as she remembered the moment when the Nightmare Child was released. It was her fault, the Doctor took the blame to make her feel better but it didn’t help. She was begging the Time Lord council to increase the defenses around the Citadel but they refused, completely overconfident in their abilities.
Then she did one of the stupidest things in her life. She took the Doctor’s TARDIS and broke into the Gallopfreyan Vault to find a suitable weapon to protect her home, but she accidentally released this monstrosity.
In her panic she ran and the Doctor came to her rescue but it was too late. The Nightmare Child was released and left Gallopfrey. They cornered it to this desolate part of the universe but the Dalek fleet got here first. Susan wanted those nasty Daleks to fall into the Nightmare Child’s mouth, to disappear from the face of the universe like they deserved! She remembered when she first met those horrible tin-cans…
But the Doctor refused. He still believed in helping them, he wanted to stop the war peacefully but Susan wasn’t as optimistic. She knew this war would end with one side completely wiping out the other, and she’d prefer if she were on the winning side.
“We do not fear the Nightmare Child’s power,” Davros responded smugly, the Doctor could imagine the sneer on his face. “Not like you. You were always weak.”
“Stop it, Davros,” the Doctor said, ignoring him. “You’ll die!”
“And why does that concern you, Doctor?” Davros snapped. “The pony who tried to exterminate our entire race!”
“Because I’m not part of this war!” he yelled. “I’m trying to save everyone! Including you.”
“Your false kindness is not welcomed… All ships, maintain course.”
The Doctor wanted to protest but the Daleks cut their transmission off. The Time Pony cursed under his breath and watched as the Dalek ships continued to fly into the infinite darkness. Susan secretly hoped they would be destroyed but didn’t voice those concerns.
Then the Nightmare Child roared. It was a horrible wail that echoed throughout the entire universe, so powerful Susan had to cover her ears. The TARDIS rocked violently from the galaxy-sized shockwave. The Doctor was thrown back from the blast but Susan held on to the doors, watching as the Daleks fell into the Nightmare Child… and vaporized instantly.
They crumbled into a million pieces but were reduced to ash in a millisecond. Millions of Dalek ships were obliterated. The Nightmare Child reveled in its meal and inhaled deeply. It sounded like the universe’s biggest vacuum.
The TARDIS console sparked and exploded as it resisted the Nightmare Child threatening to eat her, but Susan wasn’t prepared for it. Her hooves lifted off the floor and she fell right out of the TARDIS… but stopped short as the Doctor grabbed her hoof.
He had a rope tied around his body and anchored off by the console and held on desperately to Susan. “Hold on, Susan!” the Doctor yelled.
Susan felt weightless as the Nightmare Child tried to swallow her. It felt like all of the iron in her blood was being magnetized toward it. “Grandfather!” she cried, tears falling from her eyes.
“Just hold on!” he ordered but Susan could see the tears in his eyes. “Please!”
Susan swallowed the lump in her throat and managed a sad smile. “I’m sorry, Grandfather…”
“No, don’t!”
“Goodbye!”
Susan pushed off the TARDIS and wrenched herself free from the Doctor’s grip and fell. She closed her eyes as she zipped toward the Nightmare Child’s mouth. Gold dust materialized around her as the regeneration energy began to pour out of her body. If she was going down, she would take this monster with her.
She fell into that horrible maw just as her regeneration energy exploded. The monster roared then yelped like it got something caught in its throat. Light intensified in and around the Nightmare Child as it roared in pain until it finally exploded.
Heat washed over the Doctor as he was knocked back and slammed the back of his head on the floor. Susan’s last words echoed in his mind as he slipped out of consciousness.