"Time Lords were once able to travel between universes. This device factors in magic, leaving it alone," David said.
“No… life… magic…” she rasped again. “Volatile.”
"Trust me," David said, "This device knows. Its AI, so it will stop if the procedure becomes too dangerous."
“Uh, mister Tennant… I’m just saying that I’ve offered healing, as well as others, but Tia always said that was a very bad idea,” Ben said.
"Does Tia know about Time Lords?"
Ben shrugged. “I have no idea.”
"Very well, have Spike message her before we start."
“He’s kinda not here… Cutie Mark Crusaders Dragon Riders. I weep for him.”
"Anyone else able to do it? I can move the TARDIS, but it may delay my departure and I get the feeling you want me to leave as soon as possible," David said.
Ben snapped his fingers, a quill and parchment appearing in mid air and began writing. He snapped again, causing it to disappear in a burst of green fire. “Bingo bango.”
"Knowing that character she'll reply quickly," David said.
“Hello?” a voice called from outside the TARDIS. “Benny? Are you here?”
“In the box, Tia!” Ben called.
There was a pause. “It… it’s just a box. How could you be inside it and I not see you?”
“Because magick!”
“Don’t you dare use that on me!” the voice replied in a warning tone.
David snapped his fingers and the TARDIS doors opened. "Science, actually."
Celestia walked in, noticing Twilight first and rushing over. “Oh my, Twilight,” she cooed. “It’s acting up again, isn’t it?”
The purple pony princess nodded weakly, letting out some rough coughs.
"Celestia," David bowed. "I'm the Doctor."
“Who?” she asked.
"Also called David. I'm a Time Lord. This is my TARDIS," He answered.
“Oh… did you regenerate?” she asked with a turn of her head. “Last you visited, you were fairly old.”
"That may have been a future version of myself or another version, did he say anything about this visit?" David asked.
“Only that it would not be the last we met,” she mused. “But that was about three thousand years ago.”
"He called himself David?"
She shook her head. “No, only the Doctor. That’s why I was confused, as you look nothing like the one I had met.”
"Might have been me, but no, I did not regenerate, this is my first body," David said.
“Very strange. Now, exactly what are you trying to do to my former-student and dear friend?”
"Heal. My TARDIS has medical equipment," David said, "It's incredibly high tech."
“I’m not so sure of that, Mr. Doctor,” Celestia said. “One wrong move and... “ She walked over to David and whispered in his ear. “I already lost her once from that wound, I won’t lose her again.”
"Ben? Would you mind staying with Twilight for a moment?" David asked, "I'm going to speak with Celestia in private."
Ben shrugged and moved off with Twilight a little further into the ship.
"You haven't told her have you?" David asked.
“She very much knows that she is immortal, Doctor,” Celestia replied. “But that wound still has the possibility of taking her away from me.”
"Not that she's immortal. That wound, it'll paralyze her for a very long time won't it? A living death."
Celestia looked away. “I’ve been trying to push it off as long as possible. I couldn’t tell her that I saved her only for her to become a vegetable later in life. This is why I rarely rely on dark magic, there’s always a price. But I can’t lose her, not again. Twilight has far too much to live for, especially now.”
David placed his hands on her shoulders. "I'm no longer a normal man, I'm the Doctor, the traveler of spacetime. If I say I can help, I can. Not all prices should paid. I may be a warrior on some worlds, but just this once, I am the Doctor and no one is going to die or be lost."
David clenches a fist, "Celestia I swear, as the Doctor, I will do all I can to let you keep Twilight beside you. I've seen worlds where you fell due to dark feelings. Never will I allow it if I can stop it. Princess or not, a person is always in need of their strength, and yours is those you care about. If saving her means I'll die, so be it, I always win. This is no different."
Celestia took in a big breath and let it out slowly. “Alright. I shall allow you to try, Doctor. But,” she got right in his face with a dark look. “Should you fail, it will be you who will explain to her children why they no longer have a mother.”
"I will not fail, you can be sure of that," David said, "I will always succeed."
“That’s not what you’ve said before,” she muttered under her breath.
"I'm a new man, Tia," he said, smiling.
She deadpanned. “Benny may call me ‘Tia’. Twilight may call me ‘Tia’ (if I can ever get her to do it). You, however, may not. Either ‘Princess’ or ‘Celestia’ will do, Doctor.”
"Before I start, one question. Have I ever failed you?" David walked out of the room.
“...mistakes were made, Doctor. That is all we both agreed to ever speak of.”
"Twilight, during this procedure you will be unconscious. Ben, I'll need you and Celestia outside. Dependent on the extent of the injury, I should be done between ten minutes and an hour," David said, attaching the proper equipment to Twilight. "Any questions?"
Twilight telekinetically lifted up a quill and paper, unable to speak any more from the pain and coughing. She quickly scribbled a few things down and passed it to Ben.
“Uh… well, first off she’s wondering if there will be an anesthetic,” he read off.
"The parts of her brain that stimulate pain and any conscious thought will not be active. There will be no pain afterwards either," David said, looking at Twilight. "That work?"
Twilight shrugged before nodding. “Alright, second is.. oh, that’s a note for me.” Ben looked at her. “Sure, I’ll keep them safe,” he said, brushing her hair a little, getting a sad smile in return. “And lastly… she wants Celestia here with her. She won’t budge on that.”
"I'm afraid that the equipment is sensitive but," David hesitated, "the viewing room is right in front of you. It'll be open for the process. Is that alright?"
Celestia nuzzled against Twilight. “If Twilight needs me for support, then I shall stay.”
"You cannot be in the room but I can make it seem like you are," David said, "the viewing is a holographic projector. To her, you'll be right beside her."
Celestia looked to Twilight, who slowly nodded. The solar princess sighed. “Alright Doctor.”
"No other questions?" David looked at those in the room. They all shook their heads. "Then, allons-y."
David wiped away a droplet of sweat and turned off the equipment. "I'm finished. She's better now. The magic can't-" a blast of dark magic flew from Twilight who gasped. Meanwhile David was thrown into the wall.
"Oh, that's pleasant. One heart stopped. Ack. I need a shock. Oh, geez," David gasped.
"Doctor!" Celestia's hologram exclaimed.
"Yeesh. Couldn't have warned me about that bit?" David groaned.
"It's dark magic, Doctor. It's unpredictable."
"Ok. Now could someone help me?" David asked.
“Oh, right!” Tia claimed, turning off the hologram and rushing into the room. “I’m coming, Doctor!”
“Story of my bloody life,” David sighed. Celestia ran into the room, quickly looking for the Doctor.
“Doctor? Doctor?! Where are you?”
"Over here," David's voice came from the other side of the room. Celestia rushed over with a healing spell already powered up.
“Just a moment, Doctor. I’ll get you healed.” She lowered her horn down to David’s chest, firing a quick bolt of magic.
David flinched, "Oh, that's great," he said as his second, still beating, heart stopped and started again. "You're univascular species, I'm a diovascular species! That spell could kill me!"
“Oh my! I am so sorry, Doctor. Um… would a defibrillator spell be more beneficial?”
"Yes, " David said. Celestia fired a different spell, this one sending surges of electricity through the Time Lord’s body.
“Better that time?”
David took a deep breathe, "Yes. My second heart has begun beating again. How do you even cope with only one heart?"
“I’m not sure I have a physical heart, Doctor. Alicorns are living magic in this universe. It’s the reason Benny can’t scan us into his Omnitrix either.”
David paled, "Living magic? I really shouldn't have brought anyone in here then."
“Doctor, what do you mean?” Celestia did not like what she was hearing now.
"There's a reason the dark magic pulsed, " David said, "I was digging through the history of Gallifrey when I discovered the Time Lords took all magic from their worlds. My TARDIS must be activating a programme like that inside itself to keep out magical corruption. Basically, you and possibly Twilight need to get out of here."
“But her operation!”
"I've already finished, " David looked over to Ben. "Get them out of here. I'll take care of the programme." Ben saluted, snapping his fingers which teleported the three of them out of the TARDIS, leaving David to his work.
Meanwhile, David rushed into the TARDIS control room and began to blast through the programme's firewalls eventually deleting it only for it to be restored by a secondary programme.
"You wanna tango, universe? Bring it on!" David yelled, his fingers typing away on the controls. As fast as the programme was, it was no match for David who walked out upon finishing. "So, anyone still up for that play?”
“Didn’t you say it was in the box?” Ben asked. “The box that can’t take magical beings within for very long?”
“Yes. I took care of that though,” David gestured to the small sign on the door. Magic Now Allowed.
“Where did the sign come from?” Skurd asked, his face contorting to look as if his brow was raised.
“I can make small edits to the outside appearance of the TARDIS,” David said, “It’s stuck as a police box though.”
“Must all you humans and humanoids be so odd? I mean, really. It gets old after a while.”
“For me, it comes with being a Time Lord,” David shrugged.
“Would it be possible for you to simply leave us a copy, Doctor?” Celestia asked, looking at the tired alicorn on her back. “I think Twilight should be put to bed and I have Court to return to. And Benny here has more paperwork to sort through.”
“I hate legal battles,” Ben goaned.
“I can’t leave yet. The damn magic eating program distracted the systems,” David muttered. “What sort of legal battle?”
“I’m being sued,” he sighed, looking over to the piles of paper work. “By everyone.”
“...Please tell me you’re kidding,” David gaped.
“Nope. The Canterlot nobility are suing me for everything I have for all the damages that have happened in Equestria from five thousand years ago to present day. And they have the support of the nation on their side.”
“I may be able to stop some of them and some of the nation,” David grinned, “It involves an illusion, you, me, and a whole lot of lecturing.”
“Uh, Doctor, not to put a hampering on your plan, but it’s not going to be easy to absolve the being who’s been Equestria’s most wanted numbers one through ten for five thousand years. Not too mention the fear monsters, the aliens, and the recent invasion.”
“I think I could lecture them out of it. Just send one of them into the TARDIS or something,” David waved a hand.
“Uh, Mr. Tennant,” Ben interrupted. “How would we do that? The nobles don’t trust any of us now, especially not the princesses. And I’m not going to kidnap anyone. I have enough problems, so it might be better if I just let the system work it’s magick.”
David shrugged, “I wasn’t suggesting kidnap. I suppose… I can try making a miniature chameleon circuit and pretend to be a foreign noble THEN lecture them in private.”
“Lecture them on what, exactly?” Skurd questioned. “If this was false, then we wouldn’t be having this much trouble in the first place. The problem is that all the accusations are true and we have to ‘prove’ otherwise.”
“I see it more as them being illogical. Ben has been protecting them, right?” David asked.
“Uh...sometimes?” Ben answered sheepishly.
“Regardless, you attempted it at some point,” David said.
“Ehehehe...not really. I’m not really a protector… more of a politician, myself.”
“Meh. I can still get some of them to retract it,” David waved his hand.
“How?” the three asked.
“Provide logic, evidence of what Ben will do in the future and thoroughly destroy their argument,” David said.
“What kind of logic?” Skurd asked, skeptically. “The logic is that Ben is the reason the bad things happened. How else can you explain it?”
“Putting a spin on things is fairly easy,” David grinned.
“Doctor, please tell me you’ve thought this out,” Celestia begged. “The last time you tried politics did not end very well.”
“Of course I’ve thought it out Celes,” David rolled his eyes.
“Are you certain? The last time you said that, I was nearly forced into an arranged marriage with the minotaurs’ leader.”
“That’s in the past,” David said, “and I’m different.”
“Your cockiness is still the same,” she teased.
“That, dear princess, shall never change,” David grinned.
“How in the world did you do all this?” Twilight gasped as she read the morning paper. “Ben’s popularity polls are skyrocketing. How is this possible in only two days?!”
“Politics, my dear purple, are a medieval science,” David grinned, “the groundwork was there and I merely finished the building.”
Indeed only two days had passed since David had arrived on Ben’s Equestria. And within only those few days, he had successfully switched a quarter of Ben’s agitators to being supporters. It was a feat the freshly recovered Twilight had a lot of trouble wrapping her head around.
“I’m lavender,” she corrected softly. Since her operation, Twilight was much calmer and not as irritable as of late. Though, it did not lessen her reactions to the seemingly impossible. “This… this may just be the thing we need to turn the tide in this trial.”
David smiled, rubbing the alicorn’s head, “I know.”
“It’s rude to be smug, uncle Tennant,” Nyx said softly. Unfortunately for Twilight’s sanity, Nyx and Scootaloo had gotten into the habit of calling David ‘uncle’ very early on. It was beginning to get on Ben’s nerves as well, but only slightly.
“Who said I was being smug, little one?” David grinned, “I knew I could. The TARDIS’ predictions are never wrong.”
“I know a couple of Time Lords that would say otherwise,” Ben snarked as he took a bite of bread.
“Fair enough. I took advantage of getting a Time Lord brain and updated them. The navigation system is… It looks like it was purposely disabled,” David grimaced.
“More fun that way.”
“Sometimes.”
“At least that’s what the Doctor I met says,” Ben shrugged. “He knows it’s broken… just can’t fix it, so they just go on having adventures.”
"Mhm."