"Spike?" came the distant voice of Apple Bloom.
"You think he's okay?" said Sweetie Belle, a little bit clearer.
"WAKE UP!!!"shouted Scootaloo.
Spike finally came to on the floor of the TARDIS control room. He saw the faces of the Cutie Mark Crusaders first. As he sat up he saw the Doctor and Applejack around the console. "Ugh...," he said, his body still racked with pain. "Where... Where am I?
"Hello!" the Doctor smiled. "I'm the Doctor, and you're in my time machine! I know that seems a little out of the ordinary maybe a little impossible..."
"After what I've seen?" asked Spike. "No it doesn't."
"Yeah," the Doctor shrugged. "I suppose it wouldn't... Anyway! I'm a friend of Applejack's, a space alien, an extradimensional entity, a Lynchpin of the Multiverse, you have no idea what that is... I'm also the last hope for this planet, a position I hate being in."
"Why do I instantly believe you?" asked Spike.
"Anyway," the Doctor said. "I'm also sort of the root cause of all this, so if you want to slug me you can go ahead and do it. I can say with all certainty that this would not have happened if I wasn't here. So go ahead and smack me on the jaw."
Spike thought for a bit and then looked up at the Doctor. "Why?" he asked. "That would be pretty stupid, wouldn't it? You're not the Master after all. And you seem to want to help us. Why would I be mad at you?"
The Doctor thought for a moment. "You know," he said thoughtfully. "I'm not sure."
Applejack rushed over to Spike and gave him a massive bear hug. "You little scamp!" Applejack said tearfully. "You had to be so brave and not tell the Master nothin'! Gettin' yourself all beat up! You're just a baby after all, you don't deserve to get hurt!"
The Cutie Mark Crusaders joined in the hug.
"We're sorry we weren't here to help!" Sweetie Belle cried.
"I would have socked the Master right in his stupid jaw if I knew what he was doing to you!" Scootaloo shouted
"We love you!" Apple Bloom said.
Spike's eyes were bulging out of his head. "It still hurts...," he wheezed. "Guys, seriously. The everything still hurts."
The girls released him from the embrace, allowing the baby dragon to breathe.
"Okay, listen," the Doctor said. "I need quite a lot of information and not much time in which to gather it. First things first. Who are you and how do you know Applejack and her friends?"
"I'm Spike," Spike said proudly. "Royal scribe and messenger to Princess Twilight Sparkle."
"Back when Twi first moved to Ponyville, before she had ascended into bein' a princess and all, she was given an assignment," Applejack explained. "Every time she, and eventually any of us, learned somethin' new about friendship we had to write about it to Princess Celestia. Spike is the one who'd write all those letters down and send them off."
"Every time you learn something new, you send it off in a letter to somepony?" the Doctor smiled. "I quite like that. You wouldn't want to do it for me at some point would you?"
"I think it's the least I can do," Spike laughed.
"Right!" the Doctor whipped around. "Next question! How long has it been since the Master took control of Ponyville?"
"Only three days," Spike groaned. "Three of the worst days of my life."
"It took him only three days?" asked Sweetie Belle. "To do all of this?"
"I'm surprised it took him that long," the Doctor sighed. "Daleks, Cybermen, Angels and Autons at his back... Question three! The Master mentioned of a resistance movement?"
"Heh, 'Resistance'," Spike laughed. "If you mean me, Granny Smith and Big Mac hiding in the Everfree forest trying to ride this out, hoping to find a solution somewhere..."
"Granny Smith and Big Mac are alright?" the Apple sisters asked in excited unison.
"They're fine," Spike reassured them.
The Apple sisters locked Spike in another tight embrace.
"Rib cage...," Spike said in a strained voice. "In pain..."
"Final question!" the Doctor shouted. "Why hasn't the Master killed Twilight and the others yet?"
Applejack punched the Doctor in the foreleg. "Doctor," she said through gritted teeth. "There's a phrase you should learn about lookin' a gift horse in the mouth!"
"This is important though!" the Doctor protested, rubbing his arm. "If he was just telling me that they were still alive to bait a trap it would make sense. But that isn't what's happening. Spike was probably taken to the same place they were so the Master must need them. But for what?"
"I don't know," Spike answered honestly. "One of those Dalezoid things said that they should be Exterminated. The Master said that if they died it would ruin everything. They'd be setting themselves backwards, somehow..."
The Doctor nodded. "That's what I thought.
"What?" Applejack asked.
"Time to answer a very good question you had earlier," the Doctor smiled. "What do the segments of the Key to Time look like? That's the thing. they can be anything. If the segment is 'disguising' itself as a shard of Jethrik crystal, or the great seal of Diplos, or even Princess Astra of Atrios that's what it is until it is put together. The Key to Time can be anything, any one, or indeed anypony it wants to be." The Doctor looked straight into AJ's eyes.
Applejack's jaw dropped at what the Doctor was implying.
"Six segments," the Doctor smiled. "And I have one..."
Twilight watched as the Cybermen continued to wheel statues in. One by one. Pegasi with their faces buried in their hooves. There were about twenty of them outside the cells. She and her friends watched in horror. She saw these things before.
"Girls," Twilight said sternly. "Whatever you do, don't look away. Don't even blink if you can avoid it."
She took a little comfort knowing that inside the cages, the Angels couldn't get to them. They were captive, but safe.
A song had been playing since the Weeping Angels had been brought in. It would almost seem very upbeat if Twilight hadn't been listening to the lyrics. This song was about murder, or at least contemplating it, set to almost circus like music. It fit the Master perfectly, she thought.
And then the Music got louder as the Master sauntered into the room.
He stepped directly in front of the cages and began to sing along with the music.
"Oh I could throw you in the lake,
or feed you poisoned birthday cake,
I won't deny, I'm gonna miss you when your gone...
"Oh I could bury you alive,
But you might crawl out with a knife and
kill me when I'm sleeping,
That's why..."
On the word "Why" the cell doors vanished into nothingness.
They still couldn't get out.
But the Angels could get in.
"I can't decide,
Whether you should live or die,
Oh you'll probably go to heaven,
Please don't hang your head and cry,
No wonder why,
My heart feels dead inside,
Cold and hard and petrified,
Lock the doors and close the blinds,
we're goin' for a ride!"
"You're free to leave!" the Master called as he exited the room. "If you think you can make it."