//------------------------------//
// The Master's TARDIS 
// Story: Zero Room 
// by FiveyWhooves 
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	There wasn't much of a difference between a type 40 and a type 45 TARDIS, however, the Doctor wasn't really too fond of using a piece of machinery he wasn't accustomed to, neither was he happy about his TARDIS being in someone else's hands. However, the Doctor was sitting on the edge of London's Heathrow Airport in the late 20th century with nothing but his companions, a cricket ball, and a wad of shoestring. It wasn't like he was expecting to be perfectly content 100% at that moment.
The precarious Timelord stood uncomfortably in the blackened and dimly lit "borrowed" TARDIS control panel, unsure of how to start it. Across the room stood the flight attendant, Tegan Jovanka, and the girl, Nyssa.
"What's wrong, Doctor?" Nyssa asked when she noticed how long the Doctor was pausing to take-off. "Can't it start?"
"It should. It got us here in the first place, didn't it?" noted Tegan. Both girls were concerned of getting stuck in London. After all, they did have a mission at hand.
"Yes, that is indeed true," said the Doctor, trying to reassure his companions as well as himself. "Although now's probably the best time to admit that I didn't exactly fly this TARDIS back to Heathrow."
"What?!" exclaimed Tegan. 
"Now just a minute," he continued, trying to keep the former flight attendant from firing off on him, "there is an explanation for this. After the gestalt of the Xeraphin conquered his split self and agreeing to help us, he sacrificed his species' regenerations to help power this TARDIS, enabling us to transport Victor Foxtrot, the passengers, and us back to...well, where we are now." The Doctor was referring to the previous events the trio had just encountered. He, Tegan, and Nyssa had followed a missing Heathrow passenger jet into a time contour that led to 140 million years in the past. Many strange events occurred, however upon attempting to return, the Doctor's TARDIS was stolen, or more traded, for the sake of the passengers. For some reason the Doctor couldn't comprehend, the criminal got away with the blue box, leaving the Doctor, his companions, and the passengers in the past with a broken TARDIS and an eerie Citadel. 
The Citadel was a power-source the criminal had intended to use for their broken TARDIS, however it was in possession of a gestalt of the species that took an ethereal form in the Citadel, the Xeraphin. When the criminal first entered the time-stream, the gestalt became unstable and broke into a moral, helpful self, and a villainous, treacherous self. It had appeared to the Doctor and the others that the gestalt was losing himself and leaning toward helping the criminal in the end, however, by some odd reason, he didn't, and in turn, as the Doctor had stated, helped power the broken TARDIS to materialize the passengers, who were on board the Victor Foxtrot, and the time-travelers back to Heathrow Airport in the time period they left.
"We know that, we were there for all of it," stated Tegan. "I just don't understand how the TARDIS doesn't work now."
"Well for starters, the Xeraphin's conscience wore out as soon as we arrived," the Doctor hypothesized as he took a closer look at the controls on the console. "It seems as though we are safely out of the time contour and the TARDIS's main power systems are inclining back to their normal functions, but-"
"Wait, if the TARDIS is beginning to function normally, than why can't you fly it like your TARDIS?" interrupted Nyssa.
"Because, it isn't my TARDIS!"
"So you're saying that you just don't know how to fly this thing?" sassed Tegan. The Doctor sighed.
"I just want my TARDIS back, that's all," he groaned. 


* * *


The Doctor, still trapped in the strange, metal holdings, strained his eyes through the darkness of the control room. For the past few minutes he had been running his mind, trying to figure out who his captor was. No information could be gained, though. The stallion was draped in a black cloak, and even if the Doctor could see the pony, he knew that he wouldn't be able to recognize him instantly.
The pony that held him hostage obviously knew the Doctor, but he also used the term "man" instead of "pony", giving the Doctor a clue that whoever was roaming around in the control room was not originally what he was. The Doctor concluded that the stranger had to come from the dimension he himself came from before he turned into a pony, went on adventures with Ditzy, etc. 
He closed his eyes. The Doctor knew that he may not get an exact name out of his holder. He would have to trick him, know a little more about him, before he could make a final estimate.
"How do you know I'm the Doctor?" the Timepony asked, breaking the silence (other than the murmur of the TARDIS). The stranger turned toward him, or at least the Doctor assumed.
"I mean, yeah, obviously, the explanation before, assuming that only the Doctor can open his own TARDIS and whatnot," the Doctor continued. "Still, that really isn't a sound argument on why you think I'm the Doctor." He watched as the stranger ventured closer to him. The Doctor continued his "rant".
"For all you know, I could be his newest companion! Or this may not actually be 'The Doctor's TARDIS'! Or-! Or...maybe I'm just a normal pony breaking in. You sure you locked before you parked?" The Doctor grinned. "How do I know you're not the Doctor? Oh, fantastic trick there, buddy, fantastic play."
Plainly the Doctor wasn't this unintelligent. But he was hoping the stranger would think he was. Maybe the cloaked stallion would inform an "idiot".
Instead, the stallion chuckled.
"Oh my dear Doctor you are so naive," he replied to the gabbing Timepony while shaking his head. "I know that tone you are using. You may be acting like you know nothing, but truly, it is a reality." The Doctor frowned. This pony was good.
"Besides, I know exactly who you are based on more than merely finding your way in here," continued the stranger. "You may have tried to fool me with a new face but I know the Doctor when I see him, and I know that the Doctor has a special connection with his TARDIS." Menacingly, the stallion walked over to the controls and pressed a button on the console. The Doctor suddenly felt the metal wires caging him tighten around his hooves and body. Two of them protruded towards his head, then forcefully holding his temples in place. With a shock of some type of energy through the metal, the Doctor winced, sucking air through his teeth.
"What is this, what are you doing to me?!" he demanded as the energy surge increased. The stranger laughed.
"I'm able to get inside your mind Doctor," he replied. "Not much, unfortunately, but the Hadron Power Lines can read any mathematical information in your mind. And I can see a great deal from it, but most importantly, so can the TARDIS." Suddenly the pony slammed his front hooves on the ground. The Doctor grimaced.
"Agh!" he cried, almost out of breath.
"Hm, intriguing," the stranger pondered. "It appears that you respond to the TARDIS and it's own reactions. Although this should make sense...you do have a larger mind capacity than my last victim. Also...the Hadron Web is my installation to your TARDIS. I suppose it makes sense if you have...how should I put it...trouble adjusting?" The Doctor tried to reopen his clenched eyes to face his captor.
"Stop...STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!"
"Oh, alright," the stranger sighed, pressing the button and releasing the pieces of the Hadron Web that was pressing against the Doctor's head. But soon after, he continued to chuckle.
"You really have learned nothing since our last encounter, haven't you? It's like you've lost your intelligence to time. The irony..." The stranger almost waltzed around the control room, clearly enjoying having everything in his grasp. "I'm actually starting to wonder how long our last encounter was to you! How old are you Doctor?"
"Nine-hundred and three," the Doctor replied reluctantly. He figured that he had underestimated the stranger in his TARDIS, and an age question was rather harmless. He didn't want to go through the Hadron Power Line treatment again for something as trivial as that.
"So it has been long!" stated the stallion. "What face is this for you...seventh? Eighth?"
"Tenth."
"Well, you certainly have been getting yourself into danger, haven't you?" the stranger said. "Even ending up here in this...odd dimension."
"So you aren't from here either, I can assume?"
"Ah, no, not at all. But I had knowledge of some dimensions like this existing. Still, it's bizarre that your TARDIS led me here to you, here, in this funny world and not back on Earth where we talked last according to my timeline. But that doesn't matter. All I knew is that I needed the Doctor, and the Doctor I have received, even if he isn't a blubbering fool and he is a talking equine." The Doctor squinted.
"Who are you? And I'm saying this for real...I want a name. Who are you?"
"All in good time, Time...pony," chortled the stranger. "I have already told you enough. I think it's time you realized that I am the one in charge here." With that, the stallion pushed the same button to activate the Hadron Web, but he also turned a switch. The lines of the Web tangled around the Doctor's head this time instead of painfully jabbing at it. 
"Your TARDIS is mine now, Doctor, and so are you." The Doctor felt an excruciating surge through his head.
"STOP!" he belted. "End this now or I'll....I'll-!"
"You'll what, Doctor?" asked the stranger nonchalantly. The Doctor's mind started to lose it's conscious grip.
"You're weak Doctor, admit that I have beaten you!"
"Never!" The Doctor's surrounding became feathered.
"Face it, I have gone into your future and stopped you, even after my present where I have left you in the dust to die with dust," spat the stallion. "I control you and you obey me."
The Doctor blacked out.
However, he heard the stranger's last words before his mind went silent.
"I am your Master."