//------------------------------// // Episode 1-Part 3: Final Finale of Finality // Story: The Other Mane Six: Adventures in Ponyville // by DayDrifter75 //------------------------------// The rope held rigid due to the weight of both a unicorn mare and a talking ape, at least, that was what Lyra thought it was. Now she was unsure. The other four ponies that had entered the Everfree forest with Lyra peered over the edge of the cliff to assure themselves as to wether or not she was safe. "Are you okay!?" Octavia called down. Lyra tried to call back, but she was interrupted by the Doctor. "We're doing fine! We have a very good rope to hold on to!" "Is that really all you care about at a time like this?" Lyra asked anxiously. What was this thing? "I could have died, you could have killed us!" "It's fine, I knew what I was doing when I 'dialled you up', which by the way is a surprise to me. I didn't think you would be any sort of equine, not to mention a talking horse-" "I'm a pony!" "Ponies! Even better! I've never met nor even heard of a race of English-speaking ponies. Tell me, what planet is this?" "Earth." The Doctor's eyes widened in disbelief. Lyra simply gave him a confused look before hearing another voice from just beside them. "Umm, Lyra? Are you done bickering? I'm going to help you down now..." Derpy Hooves grabbed hold of Lyra with both of her forehoooves. Slowly the two descended towards their friends, who had taken the time that Lyra spent conversing with the Doctor to find and climb down a safe path. When Lyra's hooves finally touched solid ground she looked up at the Doctor before turning to Derpy. "You can't carry him down, can you?" Derpy shook her head. All the ponies were only about half his size, so it would take a miracle for any of them to even lift him. Being able to break his fall would be like magic... "Of course! How am I so blind? Vinyl, get ready to catch him." "Are you kidding, I can't lift that... That... Whatever he is. I'll be crushed!" "Use your magic." The white unicorn put on a face of realisation, then saluted Lyra and got into a ready stance. "Vinyl Scratch and I will catch him with our magic. Everypony else, get ready to catch, just in case." The three earth ponies and one pegasus scrambled into position. "We're ready Lyra" Octavia announced. Lyra nodded, then turned to Vinyl Scratch who then reassuringly nodded to her. She cleared her throat and yelled up to the Doctor, who was now humming. While doing this, there were three things going through his mind. The first being 'what are those pony-aliens talking about?' The second was his thoughts on trying to get down without having to die and waste a regeneration. Finally, the third thought in his mind was about how strong yet soft the rope was. It really was a nice rope, and it would be a shame to waste it. But these thoughts were all eradicated (except his admiration for the rope) when Lyra's voice reached his ears. "Mister, you need to jump!" "Eh, sorry, I don't think I heard you right!" he responded. What did they have planned? "Don't worry, we'll levitate you down!" That's brilliant! They probably have some sort of focused gravitational redirectional flotation device. I love finding more about new races! He would have to trust them. In fact, he loved the excitement of wether or not they would catch him. Except the dying part. He always hated the dying part. It was getting to be a pet peeve of his with how many times it had happened in his life. "Okay, I'm coming down on three!" he yelled back to them, "Ready!? Three!" The Doctor dropped down instantly and without warning, causing Lyra to be distracted. Who in their right mind skips one and two and goes straight to three? The unicorn mare regained her composure and concentrated on the falling biped in question. Hers along with her friends horn lit up in unison, Lyra's being green and Vinyl Scratches being blue. Soon enough, the falling Doctor began to slow down, surrounded in an aura that glowed a mix of the same colours as the two unicorns horns. He descended at a leisurely pace, at least, until about four feet above the ground, when Vinyl Scratch released her hold on him. He hit the ground, causing a cloud of dust to rise. "Vinyl!" Octavia scolded. "Oh lighten up, he's fine." she replied, cantering over to him. She prodded him once. Then again. One more time. "Umm, Vinyl, I think he's-" "He's not! It was, like, five feet, that's nothing! He's probably just-" The Doctor's facial expression suddenly changed from 'unconscious' to wide eyed and excited. He quickly stood up, startling a curious Bon Bon in the process. "Whoo!" he grunted, "That was a real doozy, but I have one question." "And what's that!?" responded Vinyl Scratch. "Weelll, funny thing, that was my question exactly." He pointed at her horn, but not with his finger, with a strange, metal device. With a slip of his thumb and a quick flick it was activated, giving a blue glow and wavering buzz that was all too familiar to Lyra. He slid some sort of panel and stared into the device. "That... is so strange. One hundered percent organic, made out of... Something. What is it? It's part of you that's for sure. But. It doesn't... exist!" The ponies looked at the talking ape curiously as he rambled on about Vinyl's horn. "You." He pointed at Lyra, "How did you carry me down, what did you use?" She paused for a moment before her brain caught up with her. "It... It was just magic. All unicorns have it. But what is that thing?" "This, this is science." _______________________________ "So, you're trying to say that you're from space? And that wand is like portable magic?" Bon Bon was very pessimistic about the Doctor's claims, even if everypony else believed what seemed impossible. The Doctor was more than happy to share these details about himself with these new people. Horses. PONIES. Whatever "Well, it's more sonic than magic. Which I still can't believe is possible. I mean, unicorns and pegasi! The humans were actually on to something." What are humans? thought Lyra. She would have to ask him about it later. At the moment they needed to find out where Nightmare Moon was and stop her. "Look, mister, um..." she began,but trailed off due to completely losing track of his name. "Doctor, my name's the Doctor, nice to meet you!" "Look, Doctor, we need to find Nightmare Moon. If we don't, she'll shroud the world in night time eternal!" "Listen, Miss Pony-" "It's Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings." The Doctor kneeled as to level his eyes with hers. He put his hands on her shoulders and said "Okay then, Miss Heartstrings, everything's going to be fine. Right now we need to get to the TARDIS, and once that happens we'll be able to track this Nightmare down. I promise you." She stared into his eyes, his ancient, timeless eyes. Eyes that told a thousand tales, eyes that showed only honesty. They were eyes that she couldn't help but trust. "Okay, I believe you. But once we- Wait. What's a TARDIS?" The Doctor smiled. "I'm glad you asked!" As the group continued their trek towards the landing point of the Doctor's blue box, he tried to explain to them that it was in fact both his spaceship and time machine. As they entered a clearing, the Doctor finished. "-which means the TARDIS is bigger on the inside!" The ponies marvelled in awe, except for Bon Bon, who still did not like anything about this Doctor. He appears out of nowhere, drops in and almost gets Lyra killed, and then expects everypony to be friends with him. It would be the top this on Bon Bon's mind had a loud rumble not struck her ears. It was not just her, but everypony else had heard it too. Again, it came, seemingly shaking the ground beneath them.  "It's an earthquake!" screamed out Octavia. Lyra Heartstrings looked toward the source of the noise to see that it was nothing of the sort. What it was happened to be a large, sleeping beast. It was a hulking creature lying on the ground some distance away. The mismatched creature had the body of a lion and the wings of a bat with a scorpion tail attached to its rear. It was sleeping, blocking the only visible pathway to their destination. "That's no earthquake. That's a Manticore!" Lyra corrected her. "But wait, it... looks like it's asleep." Indeed, the beast was asleep, its snores continuing to rattle the earth. The group of ponies, along with the Doctor crept past the sleeping giant in hopes that it would not suddenly wake up and devour them whole. The stomach of the manticore grumbled loudy when Lyra misplaced her hoof on a dry twig, which snapped loudly in the silent night. Each of her companions turned their immediate attention to the monster before looking at her. She gave a blush as the Doctor raised his finger to his lips, which she assumed was a signal for being quiet, like when a pony raises a hoof to theirs. After that nearly deadly mistake, they were able to succesfully get past the manticore with ease. The ponies took a short break once they left the earshot of the beast. Lyra did a quick headcount. There was Octavia and Vinyl Scratch, Bon Bon was there, Derpy Hooves was hovering beside her, and the Doctor was... "This thing is fascinating..." Lyra turned back to the manticore they had just past to see that their missing member had stayed back to inspect it. He was pointing his metal stick at it. That means he's about to... No, he'll wake it up! Lyra dashed towards him, knowing that when the Doctor activated his stick, the noise would wake the beast. Once she was close enough she was able to levitate the futuristic device from his hands just in time. The brown haired man whipped around in the direction that his screwdriver had flown. "Oi!" he said, "That's my sonic! What'd you go and take that f-" Lyra stuffed the sonic screwdriver into his mouth in order to shut him up. "Shhh..." she told him, and then looked past his body to see that the manticore was still fast asleep behind him. He took the screwdriver out of his mouth and looked behind him. A look of realization and a smile came upon his face when he understood what Lyra was trying to tell him. The two began to walk back to the worried group of ponies in silence when something happened. It was the. Worst. POSSIBLE. THING. ROOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!! _______________________________ Lyra and her bipedal companion froze in place. Behind them stood the now woken manticore on its hind legs, roaring and ear shattering roar. The Doctor turned only his eyes towards the small pony beside him, smiling, and whispered, "Run." The beast swiped at the two with its lion paw, missing by only an inch. They were already on a mad dash away from it and towards the group. Another roar thundered behind them. The beast was now airborn, flapping its bat-like wing and speeding toward them. The Doctor stopped in his tracks. The seafoam unicorn continued to gallop away, not noticing that her aquaintance had stayed behind. Octavia was the first to notice and called out, "Doctor! What are you doing!" After hearing this, Lyra turned her head. Worriedly, she too stopped and exclaimed "Doctor!" Continuing to face the oncoming manticore he responded to Octavia's question. "Run! Don't stay here, I can handle this, just run!" As the beast once again lunged towards the Doctor who ducked under its attack and ran behind it. It turned to face him, ignoring the candy coloured ponies that were trying to escape. It growled at him before roaring again and pouncing at him with both of its paws outstretched. It opened its mouth wide, and snapped shut as it reached him. "No!" Lyra screamed, reaching her forehoof towards her fallen comrade. The rest of her friends also rushed to her side. But as she looked more closely, she could see that something was off. The manticore seemed like it was stuck in half pounce and looked like it was almost leaning on something. Could he have-? "Lyra, we have to get out of here!" pleaded Octavia who was grabbing on to her leg. "Wait, look." The ash grey earth pony did as she was told and looked to the beast. The Doctor was alive. Octavia saw that the Doctor had stopped the manticore with some sort of pole. It was an odd looking object, and was about long as he was tall. Derpy Hooves floated closer in order to see what the pole-like object was and found that it was not what anypony expected it to be. "Is that a... Rope?" she hazarded a guess. A buzzing noise was heard and the Doctor was able to step away from the manticore before it fell forward, allowing him to climb over it and lunge toward his pony pals. The hairy beast stood up on its hind legs and turned around to show that its paws were tied with the very same rope that its escaped prey used as a pole. Lyra almost could not believe it. She had never even heard of a unicorn spell that could change the solidity of a rope. It was impossible! "Doctor, how did you do that?" she questioned. "Oh, it's nothing special, just heightened and lowered the structural integrity of the rope on a molecular scale using my trusty friend here." he explained quickly while flipping the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "I told you the rope would come in handy. Now, on to business. Lyra, while I was holding of the manticore, I remembered, you're still connected to the TARDIS." "What?" "You see, when I first contacted you, I had the TARDIS select the nearest intelligent life-form at random and establish a psychic link with it. If I'm correct, you should be able to call the TARDIS and bring it here." "How can I do that?" She, along with the rest of her pony friends, was skeptical about this. "With your mind." "So like a spell?" He hesitated for a moment, still not understanding how magic worked. "Er, yes, exactly. Like a lost and found spell." The manticore began to tear its confines as the Doctor spoke. "Hurry up, you have to do it now, otherwise we're done for. Call it here. Only you can do it." "Come on dude, you can do it Lyra!" Vinyl cheered. Lyra knew what she had to do. It was highly unlikely that she could do anything, but it was worth a shot. She began to focus all of her power into her horn, which began to glow as it did whenever she cast a spell. She thought of bringing this mysterious blue box to her. The strain it put on her mind was beginning to take its toll on her. The mare's head ached as she continued to focus. The manticore was nearly free from the bonds that the Doctor had trapped it with, and the box was nowhere to be seen. But soon enough, a strange, mystical wheezing noise was heard and the wind began to pick up. Knowing that the unicorn's spell had worked, the Doctor smiled. A box began to fade in and out before their eyes with the noise it made getting louder and louder each second. The ponies watched in awe, Bon Bon being the most flabbergasted, her jaw nearly hitting the ground. But not all was as expected. Lyra fell to her knee and the TARDIS began to dematerialise. Finally the manticore had broken free, and was prepared to pounce on the helpless creatures. Just before it leaped Lyra made one last push, magic now bursting from her horn. The blue box finally appeared between them and the hungry looking beast and blocked its attack. A loud bang was heard on the other side. Lyra fell to the ground in exhaustion. The last thing she heard was the Doctor, a man they had known for less than an hour, getting them all to pile inside the small, cramped box he called the TARDIS. She fell unconscious. _______________________________ When Lyra finally awoke she was in a strange new place that was somehow oddly familiar. It was, in fact, the room that she had seen in her dream. Except now it wasn't on fire or exploding. It looked brand new, or at least, what she thought was brand new. She sat up. "Hey Lyra, you're awake! Have you seen this place! It's bigger on the inside! Oh, the Doc says he found Nightmare Moon! That means we did it!" It was the white unicorn she knew as Vinyl Scratch. She helped Lyra to her feet as the rest of her friends trotted up to her. "We were really worried about you." mentioned Derpy. "Yes, we couldn't bear to see you 'go', darling." said Octavia. "Oh relax, she wasn't going to die, she had a psychic link." Everypony turned their heads to the Doctor. "Hello there Miss Heartstrings! I have some news for you!" He twisted a crank and pulled a lever. The pillar in the centre of the room ceased all activity when he smacked a large red button. "We're here" An image appeared on  a box attached to the centrepiece. It was a a room with nothing in it. Pillars edged the room which was old and ruined. Vines covered the walls and dirt and stone were scattered all over the stone floor. At the far end was a pony standing on a platform. Her coat was a pitch black, and she wore a midnight blue shade of armour. The mark on her flank was an ink splattered pattern with the image of a moon. Her horn was longer and sharper than any normal unicorns, but in addition to a horn, a pair of wings adorned her. Each of the five ponies gasped in unison as they recognised this to be the dreaded Nightmare Moon. "Okay now blast her with your lasers!" exclaimed Vinyl in excitement. "Really Vinyl, lasers?" Bon Bon was appalled. "No Miss Bon Bon, it's quite all right. Miss, Scratch, was it? The TARDIS isn't equipped with weapons, I disabled them when I first acquired it. Weapons are too much of a hassle. Second, I've cloaked us. She can't see us as long as we don't do anything. For now." "Then how do we stop her?" asked Lyra. It was disappointing to say the least, but at least being there was a start. "I have a plan, but does anyone here know how to work a turntable? Do you ponies have turntables here? I don't suspect so..." Vinyl's head popped up when she heard these words. "That would be me," she boasted, "in fact, it's my special talent!" She cantered over to the Doctor as he rummaged through a mishmash of junk under the centrepiece of the TARDIS. He finally took out what Vinyl would say is her favourite 'instrument' and plugged it into the column. A microphone extended out. The Doctor stepped toward the door and straightened his tie. "Be ready for my signal" he said. He reached for the handle and opened the door. _______________________________ "What, who are you? What are you, where did you come from?" Nightmare Moon had been taken by surprise. She still didn't know the TARDIS was there, so she would be focused fully on the Doctor. "Oh, you haven't heard of me?" he responded, "I thought everybody had heard." "What are you saying? Do you mean to say everypony?" All of a sudden the Doctor burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha! Everypony! Is that really what you say around here? That's hilarious! Everypony..." "Stop it, cease your laughing at once! I am in power now, I am the ruler of the night!" "Oh then, allow me." He gave a mocking smile. "Why don't I introduce myself. I'm the Doctor." "Hahaha! Ah, so we meet again Sir Doctor! How great it is to see you in your true form!" "Wait, you know me? I don't believe we've met." "Ah, so you are not yet at that point in your timeline. This shall be fun. Prepare for your doom Sir Doctor. This night shall be your last. Now kneel before me, your queen!" He kneeled. "Why don't we play some music fit for the successful victory of a ruler like you then?" He raised his screwdriver and flicked it on. _______________________________ "That's it, that's the signal! Play, Vinyl!" said Lyra. Vinyl Scratch levitated a disk out of its case and placed it on the turntable. She moved the mic closer and moved the needle into place. "You all ready for some noise!" she cried into the mic. A switch was flicked and music started playing. _______________________________ Melodious instrumentals began to emit from seemingly nowhere, and techy, distorted numbers echoed through the air. Screeches, loud booms and wubs played from the unseen speekers of the TARDIS and traveled throughout the room. "What is this? Music? It sounds horrible, what are you trying to do?" "WHAT?! CAN'T HEAR YOU, I JUST PUT EARPLUGS IN!" Soon enough, a voice overlayed the music. The Doctor then aimed his screwdriver at Nightmare and activated it. Instead of the noise it would normally make, it served as an amplifier for the music, beaming it directly at Nightmare. Hey hey, DJ P0N3 in the house! I got a sick song for y'all today, it's gonna drive you up the walls! Yo Nightmare Moon we gonna take you down, Gonna beat you with the power of sound, You think you made us shed a tear, The last thing we're feeling now is fear! Why you gotta be so vile? You ain't even in the least hostile, You're plan is goin' down the drain, Cause you'll be seein' stars, like the ones in your mane! Nightmare Moon has been made a fool, To beat you we don't need weapon or tool, You try to bring eternal night, We gonna' return the fi- "ENOUGH!" screamed Nightmare Moon. She struggled to aim her horn, but succeeded in blasting  the screwdriver out of the Doctor's hand and completely destroyed it. "You are no threat to me! I shall destroy you, then I shall destroy the ponies that think they can stop me! Now Sir Doctor, breathe your last breath!" She aimed her unicorn horn at him and fired off a beam void of all light. He was hit square in the chest and was sent flying back. His limp body burst through the TARDIS door, which then quickly shut. "No!" screamed Lyra. Maniacal laughter entered the room via the speakers as the dark tyrant celebrated her victory over the suited man. The five ponies gathered around him, tears beginning to well up in their eyes. Even Vinyl Scratch could not hold in her sadness. But a noise was heard from the speakers that cut off the laughter. A ball of brilliant light appeared on the floor and exploded in a blast of smoke; when it cleared, Twilight Sparkle could be seen huddled and coughing in the middle of this chamber. Twilight! Lyra thought when she looked at the screen. Twilight was soon able to get her head and lungs clear. She then looked up and uttered one wide-eyed gasp; across the room, Nightmare’s armored form stood on a crumbling dais, chuckling nastily as five stone spheres were held in the grip of her mane and tail. A bolt of lightning cracked out violently. Another gasp, and Twilight lowered her head and hooves to the ground and prepared for a charge. Nightmare set the balls on the ground. "You’re kidding," said Nightmare, "You’re kidding, right?" Twilight barreled straight toward the dais, her horn firing up as she went. Nightmare Moon began to charge, hoping to eliminate another enemy, but an instant before the two could collide, Twilight disappeared with a flash.  "What's she doing? What are those stones?" asked Derpy. Lyra's eyes widened in anticipation of what would happen next. The five stones began to glow, surprising Nightmare no end. She herself used a spell to become a tornado and whip herself onto the dais as well. The magic kicked back hard on Twilight, throwing her across the floor. Nightmare Moon was laughing full throttle on the end of this. One mighty rear and stomp of the metal-shod forelegs caused the stones to shatter into gravel as Twilight stared helplessly. Behind Lyra came a call from Bon Bon. "Lyra, you need to see this! It's the Doctor, he's glowing!" The unicorn tore her eyes from the monitor and turned her attention to the ape-like corpse of the Doctor. It was almost normal for a dead body. Almost. His hands, along with his face eminated a golden glow, an aura different from that of pony magic. It began to build up, and the air around him began to heat. Lyra backed away, and the other ponies followed suit. Soon his whole body was covered in the energy, when suddenly. It disappeared. Not a moment later the same golden energy burst from his suit, shooting in all directions. "What's happening!" exclaimed Octavia. Lyra responded. "I don't know, it's almost like some kind of spell, except it's not!" Finally, the energy burst stopped. What resulted was a rather large lump, though smaller than the Doctor, that was hidden within the suit he wore. Derpy was the first to inspect it. She flapped her grey-feathered wings and floated to the lump-in-a-suit. She nudged it. It didn't move. Then again. Nothing. Then one more time. The last nudge caused a reaction from the lump in question. "Oi, watch it, that one sort of hurt!" Out of the pile of clothing came a brown earth pony colt. His coat was a light shade of brown, and his mane a darker one. Upon his flank one could see an hourglass shaped cutie mark. He stood up. "Why are you lot staring at me? Have you never seen a time lord regenerate before? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and finish what I started with Nightmare Moon. Dying is always such a setback..." As soon as he took his first step, he fell. He fell flat on his face. He stood up and looked down prepared to brush himself off, but froze when he saw what was waiting for him. Pony legs. He had pony legs. And a tail, and hooves. "I've turned into a pony!" he exclaimed. "I've never been a pony, all my regenerations have always been at least human in appearance. Blast, I'm not even a ginger pony! And why are you all still staring at me?" Lyra was completely dazed and confused. It was impossible! One moment this space alien was killed by Nightmare Moon and the next he was up and walking. But as a pony. She grabbed him and looked into his eyes and asked the one question that was in everyponies mind. "What is going on?" The now pony-shaped Doctor opened his mouth to answer her question when something appeared on the monitor. A bright light encompassed six other ponies, and stone bits around all but Twilight formed into gold necklaces, each set with a jewel in the shape of their cutie marks. As for the violet unicorn, an unbroken stone became a gold tiara on her head, studded with small blue jewels and topped by a large one shaped and colored like the six-pointed pink star in her own mark. Two rainbow-striped shafts of light, one red, orange and yellow, and the other green, blue and violet, emerged from the group as a double helix formed and shot toward the ceiling before joining together into a single broad ribbon that swooped down on Nightmare Moon "NOOOOO!! NOOOOO!!" screamed Nightmare. The last thing seen was a small twister that formed around her before the monitor was filled with light. _______________________________ After the whole ordeal with Nightmare Moon, all Lyra wanted to do was settle into her new home and relax. The Doctor easily organised this with the help of his spaceship, and took the five ponies back to their hometown of Ponyville. It was tough with the hooves instead of hands, but eventually, he was able to do it. "So, you can come back to life when you die, but you have to transform?" "That's the gist of it, Miss Heartstrings. Though, I've never been a pony. It's an odd occurrence. I hypothesise that it was magical interference from Nightmare Moon's burst of pony magic mixing with my regeneration energy to create some sort of pony-time lord biological meta crisis. It's all simple, really, once you get the hang of having both science and magic existing." He smiled. That day ended up being a fantastic day for Lyra. She made five new friends, she met a space alien, Nightmare Moon had been defeated and returned to normal. It was perfect. The celebrations for Nightmares defeat and Princess Luna's return had already begun when Lyra and the Doctor walked into the town square. Bon Bon had chosen to stay at home because parties apparently 'weren't her thing'. Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were both selected to play music for the party, and were both trying to one-up each other with their different styles. Derpy Hooves was just floating near the muffins that the pony by the name of Pinkie Pie had baked. "So Doctor, I guess you'll be leaving now." "Naaw, there's no need to leave! The party's just started. Plus,I want to find a way to become my own self again. I can't be stuck as a pony forever. Besides, I have a special feeling about this place. And that's always a reason for me not to leave." Another voice chimed in. "Doctor!" He turned to see that it was the newly transformed Princess Luna. Why did she want to talk to him? He'd never even met her, aside from when she was Nightmare Moon. And even then she seemed to know who he was. "Doctor, am I ever glad to see you! I am very sorry, for everything. Especially killing you." "It's... It's quite alright, now, how do you know me? We've never even met before today." "Oh trust me, you'll meet me. In fact, you know me more than I know you." She turned to Lyra. "You, Lyra Heartstrings." Lyra gasped and asked "How do you know my name?" "The same way I know the Doctor. I now decree that henceforth, you must write to me about any and all events and adventures that you take part in. Time. It's always been a confusing thing." Luna stepped up to the Doctor and kissed him on the cheek before leaving the two ponies to bask in their confusion. After a few moments of awkward silence, Lyra was the first to speak up. "What just happened?" The Doctor had no response except "I have no idea." _______________________________ and that, Princess Luna, recounts the tale of our very first adventure in Ponyville. -Lyra Heartstrings