//------------------------------// // Prologue: Deliverance // Story: Promise Of Her Life // by Alcatraz //------------------------------// I thought it would be a good idea, I thought it would be a fun trip, showing her new family the wonders of the cosmos. It was supposed to have been a fitting wedding present; much to see and much to do with the endless expanses of space and beautiful, lush planets, and many other races to meet and greet. That wasn’t how it happened. What was supposed to be the one of the greatest gifts on the most important day in anyones life, turned into one of the greatest mistakes to ever happen. Ditzy Doo, the mare I first met when I crashed in this land, the one who showed me kindness and indifference for who—or rather what, I am. As a token of my gratitude for helping me to cope in a word completely and utterly alien to me—and believe me that’s saying something—I offered to take Ditzy on a few trips. Of course, this universe was completely new to me at the time so it would give me a good chance to map it out to a certain degree and see what other life forms exist. I tried seeing if there were any planets, galaxies, or systems reminiscent to those back from the universe I used to travel, starting off with some of the more… infamous planets that have known to harbour the creatures I’d been known go up against. Fortunately, I couldn’t find any trace of technology on the planets that would otherwise indicate the presence of something to worry about. I did, however, try to find a planet that would’ve closely matched Earth to any degree. Sadly, I couldn’t find any such planet. Then again, Equus could very well be this universe’s Earth, couldn’t it? Ditzy had the time of her life travelling with me. Of course, I didn’t let her stray too far from my sight in this uncharted universe, so I just resorted to showing her stars, planets, and planetary systems throughout various stages of development. From lumps of rock billions of years in the past, to planets that had thriving cultures billions of years later. Like me, she was fascinated how things grew and expanded like that. After about a week of travelling, Ditzy asked me if we could return home. I happily dropped her back off a few minutes after we initially took off, and I left to go explore the universe on my own. I popped back every no often when I discovered a planet or system to show her to keep in touch, and we quickly became good friends. Almost like a companion. Upon my return to Equestria one day for a seemingly normal visit one day, I was met with some spectacular news. Ditzy informed me that she was engaged to a handsome looking stallion, whom she loved to bits. Not only that, but she extended an open invitation for me to come to the upcoming wedding. I assured her that I wouldn’t miss it for the world, or any number of them for that matter. Unfortunately for me, in my excitement I somehow managed to overshoot the date, arriving six months past the actual date itself. I’d question if the date was in fact correct, but knowing the TARDIS’s track record, I assumed something somewhere had gone wrong. Fortunately though, she had kept a spare invitation for just this occasion. She figured that I may or may not make it on time, knowing how prone the TARDIS is at missing specific times and all. She simply laughed it off and chalked it down to; “The Doctor just being the Doctor.” I had to manually input the date, time, and location off of the invitation into the console—as opposed to what usually would amount to me joyously flicking random switches and buttons to see where I would end up, and arrived on time. To the minute, surprisingly enough. It was a quaint ceremony; mainly meant for family and friends. Pony weddings intrigued me above anything else. Gallifreyans had their own way of performing weddings, they can range from quick and simple to long and extravagant. When you get down to it, they can be complicated. Humans on Earth used priests to conduct their weddings, but the venue usually varied. Past that, culture usually has a massive influence on weddings, no matter the planet or galaxy you’re from. Princess Celestia usually oversees the weddings, like that of Shining Armour and Princess Cadence, but outside of royalty, someone appointed by the Princess would normally be the one to carry out the ceremony. Apart from formalities and customs, weddings, buy-in-large, were almost identical in proceedings. Everyone went their separate ways after the ceremony, and when everything had calmed down I took Ditzy aside and gave her a proposal of my own, one she could not refuse, a proposal that would bring back many wonderful memories of our previous travels. As my gift to her, I would take her and her husband on a trip across the stars to any planet they might liked, to do anything they might fancy. I even added that I would have them back before they even left. Ditzy told me she would have to talk it over with her husband, seeing how he was rather ignorant to the whole travelling through space and time thing. She had a very valid point. That, and she couldn’t depart immediately because she had other things to take care of, such as moving into their new home, seeing family and friends off that travelled from out of town to the wedding, things of that nature. I did point out that I would have them back before they left or anyone would notice, but she stuck to her guns. She told me it’d be rather rude and a tad selfish to just up and go traveling, even though they would be gone all of two seconds, more or less like going to the bathroom then coming back before anyone would know you’re gone. I told her I would be back soon to see if she had made her mind up by that stage, so I went off on my own again, to visit some planets and make sure this universe was free from harm from creatures that had terrorized the universe I was from. That made me think. Since I crashed here, how well have my past companions been keeping? Have they managed to save the universe without me? That would make me so proud to know that they did just that. After I had some time to visit what had become my normal destinations to travel to in this universe, I decided it would be time to go collect Ditzy. As usual, I got the dates wrong again. Something went awry when the TARDIS was traveling through the time vortex and I missed the exit. Much to my chagrin, I arrived two years after the wedding had taken place, as I intended to get there the week after the fact. Ditzy, as usual, was glad to see me regardless. She explained that the husband took the mention of traveling through space and time with incredulity and a grain of salt, but she did say that he would take up the opportunity if presented, but he largely thought it a bunch of horseapples—no pun intended. Hearing him say that sounded like sarcasm at the time. But, when he got home and saw me waiting in the living room, I was taken by surprise at the bundle he was carrying in a basket. A six-month old foal. She was adorable; an off cream-white coat with a two toned brown and tan mane. She sported two tiny little wings that the feathers were beginning to grow out of. I immediately wondered if this would be a good idea, given the circumstances, but I kept those concerns to myself for the time being. Ditzy introduced me to her husband and the foal they named Jenny Hooves, and mentioned that I was the one she was talking about. He begrudgingly accepted, but that was probably he wouldn’t believe me anyway, not that he intended on doing so. I turned my attention to the foal and assured them both that nothing bad would come of the child, and that the TARDIS even had a child-friendly room where she could play to her heart's content. That much finally persuaded the duo, and we set off. Ditzy kept assuring the stallion that, "The Doctor always knows what he's doing!", so that helped persuade him, but I hate it when people say that, everyone makes mistakes, and I’m no exception. Ditzy’s husband seemed utterly confused as to how a blue box was smaller on the outside, so I explained it to him the best way I could. I held a small ball close to his face while pointing at a house. I asked him which was bigger, and he said the house. It wasn’t the wrong answer, but not the one I was looking for. I told him to look at it from a different perspective, and he said the ball, because it was closer. Following that, I told him the beings that built the TARDIS took the size of the ball, and put the house inside of it. He still didn’t understand, so he just chalked it down to just being a bigger on the inside magical box. On the first leg of the journey, we hovered in orbit around the planet, Equus, and looked down on the continent that held the country, Equestria, while Ditzy and her husband held Jenny between them, showing her the planet below. The husband seemed in awe at the sight, not having known too much about the planet itself, much less what it looked like from the air. Oh, how Jenny's eyes would just sparkle under the stars as we all stared down at the planet beneath us. The husband wondered how we could go outside lest the vacuum of space suck him out of the TARDIS. I explained that I could extend the oxygen bubble around the TARDIS to a given extent, but if he went outside the door he would be free to float around so long as he didn’t pass through the bubble itself, then he’d be in trouble. We... ran into some complications on the next planet. This planet–whose name I forget–is one dedicated to markets. Initially a barren planet with nothing of huge value to contribute—save for a couple of large oases, it was established as an interplanetary trading post. Over time, cities were built, it had an established infrastructure and everything a regular economy/planet would, but the income from the planet as a whole comes largely from the vast markets that pepper the outskirts of the cities and merchandise brought in from other planets by those seeking to barter or trade. Caravans travel from place to place to find a location that gets the better bang for their buck, trying to sell their wares in between. Its surface is mostly barren, save for a few large oases that can support a city, township and so on. Those that travel from city to city have enough supplies with them to get to their next destination, although they do need to watch out for raiders and the occasional sand storm, which have a tendency to be quite ferocious. Thankfully, the storms don't tend to last very long, only the smaller part of a day. I took them to the aforementioned planet which I like to frequent from time to time, but going to different markets—which can sometimes be as big as cities—to show them what alien races buy, sell, trade in, and often eat and so on like that. As usual it was quite busy, so I suggested that Ditzy leave Jenny in the TARDIS while she had her nap so I could show the duo around the market for a little while. We stopped at a stall selling what looked like jewellery and other gems. The merchant was cradle what looked like a baby growing out of its side, and when Ditzy commented on how cute it was. The creature didn’t look too happy. The ‘baby’ spoke up. “I’m not a baby, I’m a tumour!” We quickly left that particular stall after that incident to look for another stall whose owner doesn’t have a sentient carcinogenic growth coming from its side. Can you blame me for thinking it was something else? Different races have different methods of giving birth, you know. Ditzy expressed an interest in some other shiny things that caught her eye while we were walking through the section that sold more precious items like jewellery, technology that got phased out but was still useful if you knew how to work it, and other rarities. During that, a group of shifty looking aliens shoved past us. We brushed it off and went back to perusing subsequent stalls down the street, but a few minutes later we noticed something amiss. “Have you seen my husband?” Ditzy asked me. I turned around to look up and down the street, but I couldn’t see him. She began asking the ‘people’ that walked by us, most of whom gave her a sideways glance, but kept their head forward to keep on their path. We quickly looked up and down the street a few times trying to locate him, glancing around looking for the other pony, but he was nowhere to be seen "Where do you think he could’ve got to?" she asked. She began turning her head in either direction the road went, but in a crowd this large we couldn’t see him. "Doctor..." Ditzy asked, the apprehension growing in her voice. “...where is my husband?” To nip it in the bud, I told her that panicking wouldn’t do any good, so we started to ask some of the other, rather colourful officials that policed the markets and streets if they had seen what could be described as an equine-like creature with a picture on its rump. A disambiguous way of saying who you’re looking for in comparison to Ditzy asking if they had seen her husband. Not surprisingly, none had. I tried keeping a brave face for Ditzy, I had to keep her calm. Being calm is a better way to approach things, it lets me think clearly, even though I was just as worried for his safety as Ditzy was, although not for the same reasons as she. I told Ditzy that I could use the TARDIS to scan for him, so she eagerly began pulling me back to the TARDIS, only she didn’t know what direction she was going, so she bashfully told me to lead the way. With Ditzy in tow, I began my way back to the TARDIS. I got half way there before I turned back to tell her to keep an eye out for him on our way there. I should have been holding her hoof, I shouldn’t have trusted her to keep up with me in a place she’d never been to before. First her husband, then Ditzy went missing too. I lost sight of her while we were running back, and now this just became doubly serious; Ditzy and her husband have gone missing and their foal is alone. I thought in passing that they might have found their way back by themselves, but, alas, neither of them were there. I used the idea of doing a scan for the husband to find the two of them, and sure enough I found them not more than ten minutes away. The scan showed they weren't moving, so I thought they had found each other and stayed put. I didn't think it odd at the time, except that was the problem. They weren't moving. I followed the directions from memory as I weaved through the myriad of alien characters standing at stalls and walking through the streets, not at all surprised to see a pony running and weaving between them. I got to what I assumed to be the door to where they were, set into the side of a building that you wouldn’t think twice if you walked by. Non-descript, nothing of immediate importance about it. I used my screwdriver to open the door. The lock was rather finnicky, weirdly enough. It took multiple attempts to unlock it which I found rather odd. It shouldn’t have been that difficult for a lock in a place like this.. The door gave way to the room, but the back of the door looked to be made of high grade metal, whereas the front looked to be made out of the regular wood. The room itself was like a circular metal tube; cold, surgical, and two tables sat bolted to the floor with metal rivets and a single blast door stood behind the tables. Ditzy and the husband, I found, were strapped to tables, squirming as hard as they could to escape upon seeing me. My intentions were clear; get them out, get back to the TARDIS, and take them back home. I doubt the husband would've liked an extended stay after being kidnapped and tied to a table, not to mention it’d’ve completely soured his first time time travelling. I managed to unbuckle Ditzy and her significant other half from the table using the sonic screwdriver, and she gladly threw her front hooves around me in a warm embrace, happy that I had saved her. I was so glad to have Ditzy back safe and sound. I pulled back from the embrace to glance around the room, as it dawned on me this was a bit too easy. It really never is. “Don’t you think this was a bit too easy?” I asked. “What do you mean?” Ditzy replied. “You get kidnapped for reasons unknown, and I manage to find you easily enough in a room that wasn’t too hard to unlock, nor was it hard to get you out of the binds on the table. Doesn’t that strike you as… I don’t know, odd?” Ditzy took a step back to look at me like I was crazy. “Are you ok?” I asked. A moment later had my own question answered. Twenty seconds after Ditzy took a step back to look at me, she turned a lumpy, mixed grey and white amorphous version of herself, as did her husband, and they melted into a pile of plastic goop on the spot. Oh stupid, stupid me! I always rush into things! I should have seen this coming! It was like the incident regarding a Solar Tsunami event back on Earth, before I crashed in this universe. A crew of people were using disposable, plastic figurines of themselves to handle hazardous materials and were using a kind of harness to control them with. They would melt back into the plastic bath or into a puddle of plastic when the user disconnected themselves from the harness. The figures that had been tied to the table? They were just doppelgangers. Distractions. By the time I had realized this, I knew I was already too late. Before I could give the situation any more thought, a hum came from above my head as two concentric rings started to rotate in opposite directions. Next thing I knew, I found myself on their ship as the Cyberpony versions of the couple I sought stared back at me with cold, dead eyes; as if taunting me of their fate, surrounded by several more Cybermen. The pair was in their hands now. The Cybermen. They must have had a contingent of the mechanical beings here waiting for me to show up with a companion so they could convert them into Cybermen—or Cyberponies as this case may be—to lead them back to the convert’s planet of origin. Namely, Equuis. The process was... quite gruesome, to put it gently. The Cybermen saved the better parts of the victims’ organic bodies—namely the brain, to be transferred into armoured robotic suit versions of themselves. They'd be far more complacent to their needs after the fact they no longer had a will of their own. It was a terrible fate to befall any being unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. A fate I may have just let happen to my friends. The horror of the situation washed over me in an instant. I had made a grave mistake. But what of Jenny now? And Equestria? I can’t just let the Cybermen stage an assault on an innocent planet. Again. I knew that I had to stop the Cybermen before they could progress their plan any further, but that meant... Ugh… destroying what remained of my best friend and her husband. I tried convincing myself they were already dead, that the cyborg ponies in front of me where just empty shells, but that didn't help the cause. I still had to live with the guilt of my carelessness preventing me from making it in time to save them. Aside from the pair in front of me, it was only a small ship housing maybe a few dozen Cybermen or so. The room I had found the gangers in was their teleporter relay, where they teleported whomever they wanted to convert, to their ship, and into the conversion chambers. The craft itself hovered in orbit around the city, not too far above the planet's atmosphere. At that stage, the Cybermen had got what they wanted: a means to get back to Equestria in the form of my friends. My plan was simple at the time. I had to buy just enough time talking to the Cybermen in circles using logic loops. The idea was to keep them distracted while I fiddled with the ship’s controls. It worked last time with The Family. The Family were the last of their kind, belonging to a race of aliens that fed off of time energy, and they were hunting me down for the energy I possessed. I managed to make it onto their ship to bargain with them, and, playing dumb, I stumbled around their ship while acting as though I was ignorant about it, turning knobs and flicking switches. It worked. They were too occupied with getting what they wanted that they failed to see everything go into the red, and I overloaded the ship to the point where it exploded. We all got out in time, and I figured if it bought enough time, it may work here too. I was able to keep talking them in circles as I kept asking redundant questions while nonchalantly walked around the room talking, discreetly fiddling with various buttons and switches, putting dials and gauges in the red while the chatting kept them distracted. It kept them preoccupied for a good while, trying to figure out the answers to all my riddles and whatnot. Depending on the complexity of the statement, they would need to devote more processing power from each of the Cyberman’s individual processors as well as the ship’s to trying to solve the riddles, thus, keeping them occupied for long enough as I tried to better understand their plan and poke holes in it where I could. It didn’t make for much resistance fortunately, they kept their unmoving, stoic stances while I moved around and fiddled. After some clever conversation, I managed to weasel out of them that they were after the planet’s power source. “What power source?” I asked, confused. “For that matter, how did you get here? I crashed through a rip between realities, did you follow me?” Their leader replied in their signature cold, monotoned voice. “THE PLANET DUBBED 'EQUUS' HAS AN ABUNDANT OF ETHEREAL ENERGY RADIATING FROM SOMEWHERE ON THE PLANET. CYBERMEN EXIST IN DIFFERENT REALITIES FROM WHAT YOU WOULD CALL THE MULTI-VERSE, BUT WE CAME FROM A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE THAN YOURS, STUCK HERE UNTIL WE WAITED FOR YOU..” “How could you possibly know about the planets power or whatever you called it? Although the latter does make sense, it’s happened before.” I flicked more switches as the conversation took place. “SCANS SHOW A POWERFUL ENERGY SIGNATURE EMANATING FROM SOMEWHERE BELOW THE PLANET’S SURFACE.” “I think they just call that magic,” I cheekily replied. “ERROR. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC. ANY SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM WHAT YOU CALL, 'MAGIC'. WE WILL HARNESS THAT SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SOURCE AND USE IT AS THE POWER SOURCE FOR MORE CONVERSIONS TO REBUILD THE CYBERMEN.” They seemed to think their plan was foolproof, going on their preconceived notion that having any sort of emotion makes you automatically inferior. They argued that emotion inhibits proper function of an individual in combat, and in making calculated decisions. I argued that, even if that were the case, it’s completely subjective and depends entirely on the person. It depends on the heat of the moment, the instances surrounding the scenario as a whole. Heck, even having feeling for others saves lives. I’ll show them why, too… After all, cowards live. “Those who foolishly charge out into battle, like you do, are often amongst the first to die,” I told them. The Cybermen got tired of my incessant babbling about what they called trivial matters and pointless questions. “Is it good if a vacuum really sucks? Why is bra singular but panties plural? If I ate myself would I become twice as big or disappear completely?” After all, that was the entire point. Eventually, they caught onto my stalling, wondering why I was talking for far too long after they had deemed the answers to my questions as sufficient, and thus had no reason to keep talking. They didn’t catch onto why I was walking around the control room, buzzing my sonic screwdriver as we kept our back and forth going. I went about setting the electronics to overload, pulling on all switches and turning all knobs I could get my hooves on, to high. The resulting EMP was a bit too powerful. It fried the emotional inhibitors of everything within the ship—like I intended, but sadly, at the cost of my sonic screwdriver too. The core reactor, situated underneath the main control room for accessibility, exploded from the sheer amount raw power running through it. The explosion threw me across the room as the ship proceeded to crash onto the planet below, into the middle of one of the marketplace of all places. I don't know how long it was before I woke up, but I immediately knew something was wrong as a searing jolt of pain washed through me as one of my hooves let out a familiar, unwelcome, ethereal energy. Thoughts began racing through my head. ”No no no, not here, not now. I don’t even know what’s going to happen, I haven’t regenerated in this body or in this universe before!” I got up to my hooves, shrugging, and pushing off debris that had fallen on me, trying in vain to find my friends. My eyes narrowed to two certain piles of machinery. One was long since ‘decommissioned’, but I noticed a blinking from one of the lights of another suit. I went over to the suit of Ditzy, whom lay sprawled on the floor, the mechanical components to her suit broken off the main body, and the neck portion only holding on by a few wires. The rest of her had been utterly crushed by debris. A single eye of the damaged robotic mare whirred as it turned it’s cold gaze toward me. “d-d-docCToRR..." Her mechanical voice sputtered unempathically as a torrent of sparks erupted from its other eye socket. “Jen-J-Jennn... Jennnnnnyyyyyy...” Immediately following her message, the heartbreaking sound of her suit powering down for good resonated through my mind. The strength in my legs gave out and I fell to the floor, leaving me to stare weakly at the pile of metal that was once my best friend. Quite some time had passed as I sat stock still in shame and sadness. By the time my awareness of the world had come back to me, the people—for lack of a better word—had already started pulling the spaceship around me apart for scrap and tech it might hold, disregarding any other materials, that, shall I say, weren’t exactly part of the robotic assembly. I very weakly stood up, slowly making my way back to way back to the TARDIS on shaky hooves. Disbelief and shock still ran through my mind as I had difficulty accepting what had just transpired. Now here I am, back inside the TARDIS control room with a sleeping Jenny in her basket, unaware of the tragedy that had befallen her parents. I took glance around the room, coal-like supports holding the roof up and, the light orbs dotting the walls illuminating the room, shining over Jenny’s basket. Reality was cruel, and that's what broke my hearts the most: I knew couldn’t take care of her, despite Ditzy wanting me too, and I would have to give the foal away to somepony more capable of taking care of her than me. However, I found myself lacking ideas in the wake of recent events. Who could take care of her, and keep her safe? I sat in deep thought for several minutes before my eyes widened in realization. Yes! Yes that’s it! That would be just perfect! I needn't worry about something happening to her, and I know she would be well looked after. I staggered around the console, reminiscing about the happier moments when Ditzy and I would gleefully hop around the console, pushing buttons and flicking switches to set random dates and times. After that, we would put a hoof each on the big lever and throw it, holding onto whatever we could as the TARDIS would shake endlessly as it traveled through the time vortex. I set the TARDIS to take us back to Equestria. More specifically, the steps outside the Ponyville Orphanage. I forgot who it was specifically, but I remembered a chipper little orange filly that got adopted out from there. At the last moment before I was about to throw the switch, I remember something River told me. "It only makes that noise because you leave the parking brake on!" I smirked at the memory. I don't know why, but I always left the thing on. Maybe it was just comfort? I do like the sound it makes, however. After all, the sound is known throughout the galaxy to many. It gives them hope in the most hopeless of times. It brings them joy to know The Doctor is coming to save the day. This isn't a space ship—well, it is, but that's besides the point. It's a police box. People know to go to a police box to call for help, and that's what I'm there for. I don’t have a gun or any other fancy weapon that kills or destroys like heroes would, I have a screwdriver that fixes things. For now however, that time is at an end. It took me quite a while to look for it since I basically paid it zero attention, but when I did, I flicked the switch for the parking brake, turning it off. Pulling the big lever on the console, the TARDIS hummed to life. Even with the brake off the ride wasn’t as bumpy and loud as it normally is, but that's what happens when you steal a faulty time machine designed to be piloted by six and expect a smooth ride. Jenny woke up from the noise. Maybe turning off the parking brake really did ease up on the convulsions it had? Regardless, the foal began crying from the moderately bumpy ride, and I assumed she wanted her mother to hold her tight. I could have told her what happened, but Jenny wouldn't understand in the slightest, which would only have made me sadder trying to explain it. I went up to the foal, put my hoof inside the basket, and pulled the blanket down to check her. "Hey, hey sweetie, don't cry, The Doctor's here to make sure you're going to be alright. I will always be, I'll make sure you'll be safe throughout your whole life. I owe your mother that much at the very least." She quietened down, but the streams of salty residue still remained. I tenderly stroked her cheek to keep her calm as I looked at her, tears forming tears in the corner my own eyes. I blinked them away as Jenny lept up and cheerfully glomped my forehoof, hugging it tightly. That did it. My hearts had officially broken in two halves with that undeserved act of affection. Keeping a brave face, I withdrew my hoof from the basket and picked it up in my maw as I exited the TARDIS upon reaching our destination. "Here we are, little one; The Ponyville Orphanage! Don't worry, these nice ponies will take good care of you!" I tried encouraging her to the best of my ability. However, I knew that I was only really trying to reassure myself. We had arrived at some point in the night. She cooed oh-so adorably, pawing at the key and my tie that hung from my neck as I set the basket on the front of the orphanage door under the awning that acted as shelter over the stairs. I paused at a sudden realization and looked to the piece of metal around my neck. That’s right, the key! Of course, I can use the key! If I gave Jenny the key, she would have a piece of the TARDIS with her, and that meant I could have a more refined method to pinpoint her location in her time stream to seek her out! I hastily removed the key from around my neck, placing it and the over-sized chain around Jenny's neck in return. She cooed, giggling at the funny noise the metal chain made. "I'm not going to say goodbye, because goodbyes are forever. I'll see you around, Jenny. I'll be sure to visit." With that, I pushed the doorbell, banged my hoof on the door, and quickly made my way back into the TARDIS. Now that that is taken care of... where to begin? What about her first birthday? That’s always a good milestone. That's only six months from now, and I could test my theory with the key. Approaching the TARDIS’s control console, I flipped switches and twisted more dials, quietly whispering "Allons-y" to myself as I threw the lever as the TARDIS made its signature noise.