"EXTERMINATE!!!" called several Daleks as the TARDIS dematerialized. Several blasts went off to no avail. The Doctor was gone.
"The Doctor has escaped with the Key to Time!" shouted the Cyberleader. "The Master has failed!"
"You promised us the Doctor would die here!" bellowed the Dalek Supreme. "You have lost the Key to Time! Your plans have been for naught! You shall not leave this place alive!"
"Send him away...," whispered the Nestine consciousness. "His plan has failed..."
Two great stone hooves landed hard on the Master's shoulder. He looked next to him to see two Weeping Angels glaring at him with contempt and hate in their eyes.
He was mildly amused by the sight. He was greatly amused be the sight of the army he had massed together all pointing their weapons at him. He let out a small laugh.
"Does your impending demise amuse you?" the Dalek Supreme asked.
"No, no," the Master laughed. "It's not that. It's just I don't understand why you are so upset. Especially when things are going so well."
There was a confused pause. "Explain!" the Dalek Supreme demanded. "Explaiiin!"
"My dear Dalek Supreme," the Master said patronizingly. "At long last, the six segments of the Key to Time are gathered. The Key to Time will soon be completed, and thus, victory is ours."
"But the Key is not in our possession!" the Supreme shouted.
"Really?" the Master turned on the supreme angrily. "Because I was under the impression that this entire timestream was under our possession. Pardon me, not ours. Not yours. Not even mine. The Black Guardian's. Never forget who we all struck this bargain with. I am merely his voice in this little shamble of a committee. He is in charge and he has told me that this is the best way to continue his work. So maybe before you go around calling my plans failures you should shut up until they are finished! My patience with you is running thin Dalek. I will not have you attempt this again."
This made one thing abundantly clear amongst the ranks. There were thousands of him. Millions. He was a Lynchpin of the Multiverse. There fore there couldn't be a "where" without him.
But in this room, at this time.
There was only one Master.
"Now," said the Master, calming himself. "I'm afraid this is where I must leave you. I can make the assurance that the Doctor will be dead by the time I return, and the Key to Time shall be in the capable hooves of our benefactor. I trust that you are satisfied? If you're not, you're welcome to bugger off."
With that, there was a flash of light, and the Master disappeared.
Spike and the Crusaders had been sent to the back room. The Doctor wanted to talk to the six mares alone. First, however, he needed time to think. He stared at the Pocketwatch Rarity had given him. He smiled. He remembered when Sweetie Belle first brought it into his shop. They were so afraid that he was going to overcharge them for it, but there would be no point. It was hardly broken, and easily fixed.
The Doctor's reminiscing left the six Mares to roam freely around the TARDIS. Twilight was reading the TARDIS data logs front to back, a delighted smile on her face. Applejack was desperately trying to keep Pinkie Pie from pushing buttons on the TARDIS console. Fluttershy was whispering intensely to Rainbow Dash in the corner of the console room. The Doctor became nervous when he realized that he had lost track of Rarity.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" came a high pitched shriek from the back of the TARDIS.
They found Rarity in the enormous walk in closet, backing away from an outfit that was preferred by the Doctor's sixth incarnation as if it was going to attack her. "Keep it away!" she screamed. "I have now seen the face of pure evil! Don't let it touch you! Kill it! Kill it with fire!!!!"
There was a collective smack of hooves to faces. "Well," sighed the Doctor. "I think now is as good a time as any for our little get together..."
The Doctor explained the Key to a Time to the rest of Applejack's friends, and their significance. They took it rather well, all things considered.
"So what you're telling me," said Rainbow Dash said. "Is that we're not just awesome, we're cosmically awesome?"
The Doctor shrugged. "One way of looking at it," he said.
"This is wonderful news," Twilight said brightly. "If we're the Key to Time, we can just not help the Master."
"Not that simple," the Doctor sighed. "When you're here, like this, you have free will. You can make your own decisions. As soon as you take the shape of the Key to Time you'll enter a dream state. You'll be aware of what you're being used for, but you'll be unable to control it. If the Master gets his hands on you in that state it's over."
"Then we won't get into that state," Rarity said frankly. "This whole Key to Time malarkey seems far too dangerous."
"Dangerous," the Doctor agreed. "But necessary. Everything breaks down into chaos in a closed system. The White Guardian needs the Key to Time to bring order to the universe every once in a while, and we've reached that point. You need to take the form of the Key, otherwise the Black Guardian will win. How do you think your universe got in such a state? He left it too long. The Black guardian made sure that the other Lynchpins appeared all at once to keep his eye off of this one. To keep him occupied. In the end it was always about the Key."
"So just give us to this White Guardian guy!" said Pinkie Pie brightly.
"Again, not that simple," the Doctor said. "Like I said, the White Guardian left it for too long. He's weak. Close to dying. The only way to win is to use the Key to revive him. Or at least get him to a state where he can use it himself. That means gathering it together and using a massive amount of cosmic energy from it to fix pretty much everything that's gone wrong with the planet in the last month. And me doing that..."
Fluttershy put two and two together. "Can you survive it?"
"Survive?" the Doctor said brightly. "Absolutely, but not unscathed."
Applejack looked directly into the Doctor's soul. "You're going to regenerate."
The Doctor simply smiled.
"You saw this comin'...," Applejack said awestruck. "You saw this comin' the whole time... Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because someone told me, and it rather put me off," the Doctor laughed. "I didn't want to do the same to you." He took out a folded up peice o paper from his waistcoat pocket. "Here. Read this."
Applejack read the note carefully
Doctor,
It seems I overshot it again. This time, right place, wrong time. This thing is making it hard for me to concentrate, but I'll get it right next time.
You asked me to do this later, but I'm here. So I may as well do it now. Where you're headed right now is going to be a change for you. Yes, in a big way. In the big way. I'm sorry Doctor, but long story short, you aren't the Doctor I know. Sorry.
Don't panic! You told me to tell you not to Panic. It's going to be fine. In fact, after this is when it really picks up.
At the end of this, we'll need to have a talk. I need your help, Doctor. For me, this isn't the first time.
You've met before. It's come back for you.
~B
"Who's B?" asked Applejack.
"I don't know," the Doctor shrugged. "That last line is a bit cryptic isn't it? I wonder what godawful thing that I once ran into is back to haunt me again..."
"This changes everythin'" Applejack said firmly. "We can't leave you alone when you're gonna have to find out who you are again. We ain't gonna do it!"
"Yes you are," the Doctor said firmly. "If I hadn't taken you from Ponyville, the six of you could have been rid of this problem by now. I've made that mistake, AJ, and I intend to rectify it. The end of this is where we part ways, in more ways than one."
Applejack stared at the TARDIS floor.
"That is the plan," the Doctor said to the room. The six mares looked at him sadly. "An we need to implement it now. I'm leaving this up to you, however. When you're ready, put your hooves together, and take the shape of the Key. Remind yourselves what your doing this for."
There was a pause before Applejack put her hoof in the middle of the circle. "I'm doin' this for Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom," she said firmly. "And I'm gonna get the Master to pay for the Damages he made to my farm. In cash."
Pinkie Pie threw her hoof in. "For Pound and Pumpkin!" she said brightly. "I wanna see them grow up! If the universe isn't there they can't do that and that would be a major bummer!"
Fluttershy nervously put her hoof in. "For Angel Bunny," she said softly. "And all of the Animals back at the cottage."
"For my dear little sister!" said Rarity, throwing her hoof in. "I need to design her prom dress, and therefore there must be a prom!"
"For Scoots," smiled Rainbow Dash. "I'm still teaching the Squirt how to fly, and I don't like to leave things half finished."
Twilight was the last to throw her hoof in. "For Luna, Celestia, Cadence, Shining Armor," she listed. "And all of my friends here and away. We're at your disposal Doctor."
The Doctor threw his hoof on top of the circle. There was a bright light and suddenly he was alone, holding a perfect cube around the size of a softball. They had done it. They had become the Key to Time.
And that's when the TARDIS jerked to a violent stop.
The Doctor looked around the console, trying to figure out what happened. Where he was. But the TARDIS was registering nothing. No space, no time. He was in the void.
He was nowhere.
"And now that you are nowhere...," came a Voice from the back of the TARDIS.
And then he stepped out.
"We can talk about you handing that over," said the Master