//------------------------------// // Mistakes // Story: Doctor Whooves: You Are Not Alone // by LightOfTriumph //------------------------------// The three fillies stared at the text on the Monitor. It spelled out two simple words. Next question? Sweetie Belle stepped up. "Alright," she started. "You're so all powerful, why don't you just zap all the bad things away? Wouldn't that be simpler? Just poof no more Master?" My counterpart would stop me. "The one who is helping the Master out," Sweetie Belle reasoned. "He's as scary powerful as you?" Under the right circumstances, more so. Apple Bloom bit her lip and thought for a moment. Last question the text went on. Apple Bloom? "Gotta make this a good one..." Apple Bloom started pacing around the control room. "Alright, this thing moves by disappearin' in one place and reappearin' in another, right? So what if it were to appear around somethin'?" "What?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Think about it!" Apple Bloom smiled. "If the TARDIS materialized around somethin', when it took off again it would still be inside! So..." Scootaloo jumped up and down. "So if we materialized around that Hand of Omega thingy..." "We could take off again and get it away from the Master!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "Exactly!" Apple Bloom turned triumphantly to the monitor. "My question to you is: You can fly this thing, right?" They waited for the screen to respond. Correct. Apple Bloom turned to Sweetie Belle. "Sweetie Belle, crank up the music! Track five I think would work best." Sweetie Belle grinned. "Oh, yeah. Definitely track five!" Hold on tight girls! ^_^ The Doctor stared into the Master's eyes. "I could start on the whole, 'You don't want to do this, you were once a good man', malarkey," The Doctor sighed. "But you're not going to listen." "Nope!" The Master whipped the tarp off of the bronze chest that contained the Hand of Omega. "I could go onto my 'together we could easily take this reality apart' speech, but you're uninterested..." "Yes," the Doctor nodded. "Then," the Master started. "As always, we are at a verbal stalemate, Doctor. The difference this time is that I hold all of the practical cards, and you have nothing." "I wouldn't be so sure about that," the Doctor smiled. "I've always been a crafty swine, me. I may have a few tricks up my sleeve you don't even know about." "I am assuming that there is one of your pathetic fan club somewhere trying to do something to stop me," the Master chuckled. "It won't work Doctor. Once the sun is out of the sky I will be headed to parts unknown. Never to look back. Watching this planet die, and give this reality a new Master." "I also have something else," the Doctor said, his grin unwavering. "Something you've been wanting for quite a while." "And that is?" "Information," the Doctor said frankly. "I know who brought us here. Who's been causing those little lucky coincidences that had us face each other on this balcony. I know who our benefactors are. When you think about it, it's obvious. Two entities, playing against each other in a cosmic game of chess as they have for millennia. The only two beings in the world with the power to do any of this." The Master thought for a moment, and then his jaw dropped. "No..." he started. "You mean..." "And if we keep going like this we're just going to be pawns in their game," said the Doctor. "You open that chest you'll be playing right into his hands-" "And if you stop me," the Master grinned. "You'll be playing right into his. Oh... Oh this is interesting..." "Master," the Doctor said sternly. "Trust me, dealing with these two is dangerous. Believe me, I know. I have to be involved, there's no way out for me at this point. You still have a chance to-" "To do what?" the Master said. "Give up? Stop playing their game? You won't. You could but you won't. Why? Because it's the 'right' thing to do? I don't think it's the fact that I'm part of this now that bothers you, I think you're mad I'm playing for the wrong side! Oh this... This is perfect. And the best part is, if you're right, he can tell me..." "Tell you what?" the Doctor asked. Tap tap tap tap. "Doctor who?" Tap tap tap tap. "Doctor who?" Tap tap tap tap. "Why do they keep asking? If the question is from the same place as the drums, they know the answer! Why can't I answer? Why must it be you? Why, Doctor?! Why do the Time Lords keep asking?!" The Doctor was stunned. "The Time Lords are gone," the Doctor said firmly. "They can't be the ones asking." "Another fair point!" The Master let out a manic grin. "But it's them! Trust me. They are asking, and asking, and asking, and asking, waiting for you to answer! And I'm going to find out why! Nothing is going to stand in my way!" "Master," the Doctor started. "This is your last warning! Leave now." The Master laughed. "Well... I guess if you say so," he said mockingly. "I'll have to pack my things and go..." "That's right!" came three voices seemingly from nowhere. The three fillies were dancing around the TARDIS console, and singing in unison. "Hit the road, Jack! And don't'cha come back no more no more no more! Hit the road, Jack! And don't you come back no more!" A bronze chest materialized inside the TARDIS. "That looks important!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "Hang on I'll ask the Doctor!" Apple Bloom said happily. Apple Bloom poked her head out of the TARDIS and turned to the Doctor. "Hey Doc! This big chest gadget we got in here..." The Doctor burst out into a wide smile. "Take it away, Apple Bloom," he said. "Not much use for it here anymore." "Gotcha!" Apple Bloom looked at the Master, then at the TARDIS, then back to the Master. "Bet you wish yours was workin'!" As the music of Ray Charles and the giggling of the Crusaders faded away, so did the TARDIS. The Master was left, speechless and defeated, staring at the Doctor, mouth agape. "That was always your mistake," the Doctor smiled. "You always tried to force everything. You never looked around at your situation to figure out what to do, you always try to force everything. You are never willing to put people in the right positions, and then let events take their course. You never learned to trust anypony. That's why you're standing here, without the hand, without anything. You could never count on the people around you." The Master gritted his teeth hard, fangs burrowing into his lower lip, drawing blood. He leaped and tackled the Doctor to the ground. Pinning him. "Shut up! Shut up! I may be stranded on this god forsaken planet in this god-forsaken world, in this god forsaken timestream, but there's still you! Oh yes! You're still here! I'm going to take my sweet time with you, Doctor! I doubt you have any thing else that can save you from this!!" "Wanna bet?" Applejack distracted the Master just long enough so she could whip around and buck him in the chest, sending him flying in the air. Then a burst of violet energy swept over all of Canterlot, throwing the Master even further away. He would have been blown clean out of Equestria had he not vanished in the last second. The Doctor and Applejack got up and took a few deep breaths. "Are you alright?" Applejack asked. "Yeah," the Doctor said breathlessly. "That... That was..." "Cadence and Shinin' Armor," Applejack smiled. "They got themselves together and saved Equestria. And now we get to see the good part." "I'm afraid not," the Doctor said firmly. "Normally I would stick around for the wedding, but we have to get back to the TARDIS. I have an appointment. "It's time the four of you met our benefactor." The Doctor and Applejack met up with the CMC inside the TARDIS. "We did it!" Sweetie Belle sqeaked "It was my idea!" said Apple Bloom smugly "On a scale from one to Rainbow Dash, how awesome were we?" Scootaloo asked. The Doctor hugged the three fillies. "Oh girls," he smiled. "You were all brilliant. And now I think you've earned something... "Haven't they sir?" he called to the back of the TARDIS From out of the back room, in steeped a mare. She was taller then anypony else in the ship. She was wearing a golden crown with a single amethyst embedded in it. She had massive wings and a long horn, all pure white. Her mane flowed like a great cloud. She gave the five ponies a soft smile. Applejack and the Crusaders quickly bowed, but the Doctor just stared right at her. "You're not Princess Celestia," the Doctor said slyly. "You may look like her for right now, but that's not who you are." The alicorn nodded. "Well..." Applejack started "Then who is that?" "I'm cross about several things," the Doctor began. "First off, last time we met, you just give me the instructions and send me off. When I'm done I never receive a thank you. I went through half of time and space looking for your little cosmic doohickey, and then not even a nice card? And now you don't even bother to ask for my help! You just push me to different parts of time and space without the slightest clue of what I'm looking for! What am I looking for?" "The Lynchpins of the Multiverse," the mare who wasn't Celestia responded. "Rubbish," the Doctor said dismissively. "Before we get in to what is, and isn't rubbish in the reality I protect," she started. "Shouldn't you properly introduce me to your friends?" "Oh, yes!" The Doctor turned to his companions. "This is Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Applejack. Ladies this... "This is the White Guardian."