//------------------------------// // Chameleon Circuit // Story: Doctor Whooves: You Are Not Alone // by LightOfTriumph //------------------------------// The Doctor got back to Applejack with the Crusaders and explained what happened. She was livid at her sister and her friends. "Y'all could've gotten yourselves killed!" she yelled at Apple Bloom, who was looking at her forehooves. "The next time you gals go gallopin' off on your own like that...!" "Now now," said the Doctor. "Their safe now aren't they? Besides it was a bloody good idea. I always park the TARDIS too far away..." "And what about this 'Master' fella?" Applejack turned on the Doctor. "You knew we were gonna meet up with him here didn't you? That's why you took us here in such a panic! Why didn't you warn us?" "Because I didn't know," the Doctor said frankly. "I suspected, but I couldn't be certain. I didn't want to overly panic you more then I already had. I just wanted to be sure AJ. And now I am." "Give me one reason why I shouldn't just tell the guards right now about him and stop the weddin' before it starts?" Applejack asked sharply. "Think about it," the Doctor said. "At that rehearsal tomorrow, everyone is going to treat Twilight like a fool, including Celestia. Celestia is going to learn a harsh lesson about trusting her student more. The next month she is going to decide to give her student a test, that will put her on the road to ascension. Once she has ascended she will be instrumental in saving this world on at least two more occasions. Right?" "Right," Applejack nodded. "We expose the Master as a changeling early," the Doctor continued. "No humiliation. No lesson learned. No test. No ascension. No world-saving. At that very moment everything changes. There is no way to be sure that anypony will be safe from the Everfree forest overgrowing or Tirek taking over. The devil you know beats the devil you don't and right now I like the devil I've got." Applejack thought about that for a minute before finally hanging her head. "You're right," Applejack sighed. "But... What now? I know this all turns out for the better so now what? We just go home?" "Of course we don't go home!" the Doctor said quickly. "We can't do that. The Master is planning something behind Chrysalis's back. Obviously it didn't come off in your future because he isn't ruling all of you with an iron fist! Since we are the only one's who know about it we're the only ones who can stop it!" "So," started Scootaloo. "If we do something, it will radically change the future. If we do nothing, it will radically change the future?" "That's about it, yeah," the Doctor smiled. "So what do we do?" Apple Bloom asked. "The right things!" the Doctor grinned. "Which right now means going down into the great hall and having a quick look round. There's something I need to find." They had been searching around for nearly half an hour in the middle of the night. The Doctor made his excuses to the guards as he came across them as to why he was holding the Screwdriver in front of him, scanning every wall. Applejack finally got up the nerve to ask the question. "What are we doing?" "Waiting for the Sonic to go 'ding,'" said the Doctor. "And that will mean...?" asked Sweetie Belle. "I've found it,'" said the Doctor frankly. "Found what?" Apple Bloom asked. The Sonic Screwdriver began to pulse rapidly in front of a pillar in the great hall, He examined it carefully. "This." Scootaloo peered at the pillar. "Why this?" "Do you know," the Doctor began, "Why my TARDIS looks like a big blue box?" "They don't all look like that?" Applejack asked. "It's a disguise," the Doctor explained. "The TARDIS looks all about itself whenever it lands anywhere and takes the shape of something that would be inconspicuous. It's called a chameleon circuit. One day I landed on Earth, a little place called London in 1963, it took the form of a Police Box and then stuck. I liked the way it looked so I never bothered to fix it. A working chameleon circuit however can look like anything. Even..." The Doctor moved his screwdriver over a pillar and a door opened in the side of it. "A castle pillar. After you." The ponies entered the pillar to see a twisted version of a familiar console. "The Master..." Sweetie Belle was stunned. "Built a TARDIS." "Looks like," the Doctor shrugged. "It must have taken him years. I can buy that he could come by most of the raw material, but..." "Oh that's all we need," Scootaloo grumbled. "That wackadoo loose throughout all of time and space." "Oh," the Doctor began quietly. "I wouldn't worry about that..." "Why not?" asked Apple Bloom. "It's not working," said the Doctor. "All of the minor functions of the ship are operational, but it can't go anywhere..." "Why not?" asked Apple Bloom. "No Eye of Harmony," the Doctor said. "Eye of what now?" asked Scootaloo. "It's the name of the thing that powers every TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "You can't time travel without one. It's a great big collapsing star frozen in the state of it's highest energy output. Without it this thing is a train without coal. No... Scratch that, it's a train with no furnace. Why did he go through all of the trouble to build this thing? The only way he could get his hand on an Eye is if he had-" Something clicked in the Doctor's head, he whipped around to Applejack. "AJ," the Doctor said sternly. "Where was Princess Celestia?" "What?" Applejack asked. "During the wedding!" the Doctor shouted. "What was she doing during the wedding?!" "S-She...," Applejack said softly. "She was hung up in this Cocoon thing the Changelin's made. She couldn't help. She-" "Wasn't watching the sun," the Doctor nodded. "I know what the Master wants. I know what he's gotten his hands on!" "What?" Applejack asked frantically. "What has he got?!" "But how?!" the Doctor was pacing around the darkened control room. "How does he have it? He said that the Time Lords jettisoned the Archive but for it to land here exactly where he would find it is more than coincidence it's the work of-" The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks. As if everything in the world had just become clear, and it all horrified him. "I know...," the Doctor said slowly. "I know who's been doing us all of these favors. And I know who must be helping the Master..." The Doctor gritted his teeth and looked up toward the ceiling. "Alright!" the Doctor called out. "Listen up the lot of you! First of all, you!" He raised one hoof and pointed to his right. "If you wanted my help again you could have just asked me up front instead of moving things to different places like the world's most annoying celestial prop man! And you!" He raised another hoof and pointed to his left. "Why all of this beating around the bush? If you want to kill me, kill me!" "He's talking to the ceiling again," Sweetie Belle whispered to her friends. "Come on! We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow!" The Doctor rapidly started to exit the empty TARDIS. "What's goin' on?!" Applejack asked. "He's given it to him!" the Doctor shouted. "The Master has the Hand of Omega!"