Zero Room

by FiveyWhooves

Frustrated

The Doctor started to regain consciousness, his head spinning a million miles an hour. He didn't know how long he had been out...seconds? Minutes? Possibly hours? Either way he had to regain his bearings again...remember that he was in an old version of his TARDIS. He was caught in a Hadron Web that lined one of the walls. There was another problem the Doctor had also just discovered.

The Master.

As he expected, the Doctor saw the pony-version of whom he believed was the Master next to the controls. He was still wearing the dark cloak as he had been and he turned his head the moment the Doctor awoke.

"It's rather dull in here when you keep passing out like this, Doctor," the Master said firstly. "Doesn't make for decent conversation."

"Maybe if you put down the torture devices and took off the disguise," stated the Doctor. The Master chuckled. The Doctor was not amused. He just wanted answers.

"How did you get here?" asked the Timepony.

"Why is it of concern to you?" re-questioned the Master. "After all, you're here too, Doctor."

"I'm not talking about the way you entered this world, I mean how are you here, physically?" questioned the Doctor. The Master almost showed himself off.

"Is this not enough evidence for you?" he asked.

"I know who you are, Master, so you can stop playing around," spoke the Doctor. "I saw you on earth, I watched as your plans for tranforming Earth with the Toclafane failed. You died and burned and I watched you do so!" The Master stood, back in the shadows. The Doctor uncomfortably could tell he was grinning. He could feel the Master's confidence in the air.

"Oh," the Master just responded. "So that's how we meet again." The Doctor swallowed.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"No, Doctor, what are you talking about?" laughed the Master. "By what I can tell from what you have said, we do meet again before this moment. I suppose it's one of the many perks of having a future Doctor in captivity." The Master pulled back his hood, revealing his head. The Doctor's stomach dropped.

Even though the Master was now a pony, a unicorn specifically, the Doctor could recognize the face. The coat of the other Timepony was a menacing yellow, his black mane slicked back to show his furrowed face and dark facial hair around his muzzle. His grin was the most recognizable feature that the Doctor remembered, crooked and made him look like he had a nasty secret in mind. He was most definitely the Master from the Doctor's far past, not the Master the Doctor had last encountered when he was humanoid.

And he had just given the past Master too much information.

"Five incarnations later and you're still as gullible!" the Master laughed historically. "You know, I truly thought that you may have learned some things over the two-hundred year gap between our last meeting until now, yet here you are, the Doctor, still the buffoon you never admit to be! Ha! I bet you really are appreciating the benefits of time-travel, but instead, into my web you get stuck, like a fly captured by a spider. How does it feel now, Doctor, to be the one who's lost? Admit it, Doctor, I've won!" The Master's prideful eyes gleamed at the Doctor as a boastful grin crept across his face. The Doctor simply hung in the Web, narrowing his eyes at the Master.

"Two things to that, Master," the Doctor replied. "One, I will never admit that I have lost, because I haven't. Not yet at least. There is always another way, and battling you for more years you have imagined I can say that with full confidence." The Master turned and snickered away. He neared the controls of the TARDIS yet again.

"And what is this second point, Doctor?" the Master asked, his face humored by the Timepony. The Doctor moaned.

"I forgot about how much I hated your rubbish 'victory speeches'."

* * *

Ditzy stared at the cordial stallion standing in front of her. Her eyes crossed further in frustration, and she shook her head slightly.

"That...that can't be true," she mumbled quietly. "It's not possible..."

"I'm sorry," said the Doctor, retreating his hoof. "What isn't possible?"

"No...no no no..." Ditzy stuttered. "You're not the Doctor."

"What do you mean he's 'not the Doctor'?" asked the young mare behind the Doctor. She stepped forward. "Of course he is!"

"The Doctor doesn't look like this," piped Amethyst, also trying to make sense of the situation.

"Well, that actually can be debated," stated the Doctor. "You see, being a Timelord-"

"Timepony. The Doctor says Timepony; you're not the Doctor," interrupted Ditzy.

"Yes, yes, I know, the Doctor that you apparently know says things such as that, but you must realize that I'm new here and well...a stranger to this world and-"

"See?! You don't even know what this place is!"

"Of course not, I-"

"I bet you don't even know who I am!" Ditzy was upset. Who was this imposter to appear in Equestria and claim he was the Doctor, especially since the one she knew all too well was missing?

The Doctor, the stranger, stood in front of Ditzy, unsure of what words to use, as if he was half committed to making his point yet at the same time trying to keep offenses away from the strange mare in front of him. The two mares behind him also were unsure of what to say.

"If you could just listen for just a minute, I believe this will be straightened out," said the Doctor calmly. "By what I can collect, you know the Doctor, however, not specifically me."

"That's the point I'm trying to make," said Ditzy.

"Yes, but let me explain further. I'm a Time...pony. The Doctor you know is a Timepony. And just like any other Timepony I, the Doctor, have this ability of regenerating myself when I come close to death."

"It's true!" said the younger mare. "We've seen it ourselves!"

"And it might be why you're frustrated," said the other mare. "The Doctor changes faces when he regenerates. Trust me, we had to cope with the same concept."

"And so, what I'm trying to say is," said the Doctor, "the Doctor that you know is just another incarnation of me." Ditzy scrunched her face.

"I'm confused," she replied. "That doesn't make sense at all."

"I'm actually quite surprised the Doctor...er, I haven't told you about this. Have you never seen your Doctor change his face or look different?"

"No," stated Ditzy. "He's always the same."

"Doesn't he ever talk about Timeponies ever? Has Gallifrey never come up in conversation?" Ditzy's face took a somber tone.

"Is this some kind of joke?" she asked.

"Joke?" questioned the Doctor. "How is it a joke? Has the High Council of Gallifrey never interfered? Or perhaps they've done something wrong...they aren't really fond of me that much..."

"What about other Timelords...ponies I mean?" the younger mare also asked, trying to help out Ditzy's understanding. "Don't you ever run into the Master?"

"If she's lived a decent life, she hasn't," the other mare muttered while rolling her eyes.

"Maybe if you could, I don't know, tell me what your Doctor has said to you about him, if you please. That might help us out tremendously," said the Doctor, eager to figure out what in the world, this world, was going on. Ditzy just stared at the strangers, unsure if they were trying to confuse her or if they were mocking her or the Doctor in some way.

[In an earlier adventure:]

"Doctor," Ditzy said as she sat in the TARDIS with her newest friend, the Doctor. She watched as he finished stabilizing the TARDIS in deep space before he looked up at her. His black spectacles were still on the bridge of his nose.

"What's wrong, Ditzy?" he asked, giving a look of concern.

"I was just wondering," she said, "you've told me that you traveled alone a lot. Remember? You said so when you met me."

"Yes, I did say that," replied the Doctor, taking the glasses off his face and focusing his eyes somewhere else. It was then Ditzy broke the slight, uncomfortable silence in the hum on the TARDIS with one word.

"Why?"

"Why did I say that?"

"No. Why do you travel alone?" The Doctor smiled as in attempt to cover something deeper, more painful up.

"I don't anymore," he said. "I travel with you, don't I?" Ditzy saw past the coverup. She saw it in his eyes.

"I don't mean that," she said. "I mean, like you...don't you have family? Other friends? Do you have somewhere to live when you're not in the TARDIS?" The Doctor stood silently, looking at the console with sad eyes. He ran a hoof through his chestnut hair and sighed. He then turned to Ditzy.

"I had family once," he began. Ditzy listened intently, knowing he'd give her all the answers. "A father, mother, many cousins. I had a home, too. I used to live with the other Timelords, yes, Timelords, something I once was before coming here, and we all lived on the planet Gallifrey. We were a mighty race, capable of so many things, and the Timelords were brilliant, really. Just...so brilliant."

"Where are the Time...lords?" asked Ditzy. "Aren't there more than just you?" The Doctor looked at Ditzy so seriously, and a painful shock pierced through his blue eyes. His expression was somber and didn't change.

"No," he replied. "They're gone, Ditzy. Gallifrey is gone, it's dead, and all the Timelords with it. It's just me now. And that's why, Ditzy, I am alone."

"You just...can't be making sense," Ditzy finally replied to the strange Doctor. "There isn't a Gallifrey, there are no more Timelords or Timeponies...none of those things exist. So you can't be the Doctor." The Doctor was taken aback, confused. That wasn't the response he was looking for.

"What do you mean by none of those things existing?" questioned the Doctor. "Did your Doctor tell you that?"

"Of course he did," said Ditzy. "He said all of those things are dead."

"This can't be right," the Doctor told Ditzy. "Gallifrey is most definitely real, the Timeponies are all still in existence. Your Doctor must have given you false information." Ditzy looked at the Doctor with a irked expression.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that...well, how do I put this properly...the Doctor you know has obviously not told you the truth...or quite possibly, it may not have been me, the Doctor, at all." Ditzy's agitation grew.

"Who are you to say that?!" she said. "For all I know, you may be the one telling the lies! The Doctor would never lie to me!"

"But he's telling the truth!" the younger mare backed up the Doctor.

"No! My Doctor is the Doctor! He looks nothing like you and definitely doesn't barge in my house like this! You have such nerve to mock the Doctor that way, claiming you're him and then going on saying that there is a Gallifrey and other Timeponies!"

"But there is!" stated the Doctor.

"No there isn't! You're the false Doctor! You and your fake TARDIS!"

"TARDIS?" said the Doctor, not sure if he should've been surprised that Ditzy knew the term. "But this isn't even-"

"The Doctor flies a blue box, not a...whatever this is!" The Doctor was now speechless.

"Certainly this can all be solved through simple explanation!" he retorted.

"No! You had your chance! Get out!" Ditzy was furious with the strange pony and his two friends with him. She had heard enough of his stupid voice. And with the Doctor, her Doctor, missing, she was fed up with this fool. Ditzy just wanted her Doctor back.

The Doctor in front of Ditzy looked dismayed. There was no way he was getting through with the mare. He didn't even figure out where he was, what he was doing there, what she was. She just knew the Doctor, someone else besides him, and it led to zero answers. Without anything else to do, the Doctor shut his mouth and put his over-sized hat back on his head.

"Well, goodbye then," he said steadily. He then pointed to the TARDIS crashed in the center of the room. "I should inform you, though, that this TARDIS is out of-"

"It doesn't matter," interrupted Ditzy. "Just you, all of you, get out." With that, the Doctor nodded and shuffled out of the kitchen. Wide-eyed and confused, the two other mares followed him.

Once they were out of the room, Ditzy stood quietly. Her children walked up next to her, watching the three ponies leave.

"That was...weird," said Amethyst. Ditzy didn't reply. She had nothing else to say. Dinky pulled at her wing.

"Momma, those ponies dress funny."

* * *

"Doctor, do something!" Tegan hissed quietly when she, Nyssa, and the Doctor left the kitchen. "What did that strange horse mean by any of those things?"

"I don't know," replied the Doctor. "And I don't think questioning her any further would help the situation. The best we can do is find someone else or wait until the creature is willing to help."

"What was she, by the way?" asked Nyssa. "She looked like us, but she had wings."

"It was like she was some kind of pegasus," said Tegan.

"Pegasus?"

"Fictional creatures from Earth myth," said the Doctor. "It was a creature that had the body of a horse and the wings of an eagle. That must have been who that mare was."

"So...what am I then?" asked Nyssa. "You and Tegan are normal, that one horse was a pegasus. I saw another young horse in the kitchen that had a horn on its head like mine."

"Hm...reminds me of a unicorn, another mythological creature from Earth fiction. They were horses with horns on their head, and some humans believed that unicorns had magical powers beyond understanding."

"How come the Doctor knows all these things and not you?" asked Nyssa to Tegan, her being the only former human of the group.

"Unicorns and pegasi don't exist on Earth. The idea just sounded uncanny," said Tegan. "I guess not, though." The three of them then entered Ditzy's living room, almost out of the house. However, each of them froze.

"Doctor, look!" said Nyssa, pointing to a familiar object across the room.

"It's the TARDIS!" exclaimed Tegan. And so it was. There, in the center of the room was the blue police box that the Doctor and his companions knew too well.

"It isn't mine though," said the Doctor.

"How can you tell?" asked Tegan. "And how can it not be yours?"

"Well, if the horse owner of this house is correct," stated the Doctor, "another Doctor is here. And if I'm correct, he is either another incarnation of me or someone imposing as me. This must be his TARDIS." The Doctor squinted his eyes and took a closer look. "The 'Police Box' words are lit up on the top. Have they been able to do that all along?"

"What should we do with it?" asked Tegan.

"Leave it here," said the Doctor. "We'll just keep an eye on this place for a while until we get answers." He then led Nyssa and Tegan out of the house. Once the three were outside, they shut the door. The Doctor then looked down at his baggy clothes.

"But first, we need answers to this place," he said.

"I agree to that," said Nyssa.

"And we might need a tailor or a shop, if those exist here."

"I agree to that, too," said Tegan. "I'm done with this uniform."