The Cutie Mark Crusaders
“First things first,” said the Doctor, opening a door deep in the TARDIS. “This is the chameleon arch. It's the device that changed me – temporarily – into Time Turner, leaving my memories, and any other differences between me and an ordinary earth pony, trapped in a brass watch.”
“Are you going to do that again?” asked Twilight.
“No, no, no,” said the Doctor. “No point. No, I'm going to change the settings quite a bit.” He tapped on a control panel, turning several dials far to the left and flipping a few switches, causing several little lights to turn off.
“Um, so... what exactly are you, um...”
“Doing?” said the Doctor. He gave Twilight a brief smile. “I'll tell you in a minute. Just wait out here for a moment, will you?”
“Um -” said Twilight.
“Excellent,” said the Doctor, stepping forward under the arch and hitting a button. The arch flashed, just once, and the Doctor winced; then there was a rattling somewhere inside the machinery, and a brass watch popped out of a panel.
“Was that it?” asked Twilight.
The Doctor nodded. “Oh, yes,” he said. “Much quicker and less painful than using the full features of the arch.”
“So... what exactly did you just do?” asked Twilight.
“Glad you asked,” said the Doctor. He reached out and grabbed the watch with one hoof. “This watch,” he continued, “now contains the only copy of my memories of Paradox dodging... er... whatever it was Discord was throwing at him. Come along, I need to test something.”
The Doctor rushed past Twilight, further down the corridor, until he reached another room; this one had a small alcove in the wall, into which he tossed the watch.
“And... where does that go?” asked Twilight.
“Garbage disposal,” said the Doctor. “It'll get broken apart by the TARDIS' internal systems. Smashed to pieces. Destroyed. Obliterated. I can't get it back now, even if I wanted to.”
Twilight frowned. “Why would you destroy part of your own memory?” she asked.
“Let me ask you a question,” said the Doctor. “When Discord was throwing things at Paradox, did he dodge them all? As if he knew where they were coming from, and remembered their trajectories?”
“Er, yes,” said Twilight. “Yes, he did. He said it was because he remembered them – because he'd seen their trajectories, through your eyes.”
“He remembered them, yes,” said the Doctor, looking down at the garbage disposal. “But he didn't get those memories from being me. Because he wasn't ever me.”
Twilight frowned. “So... he's a future Discord?”
The Doctor shook his head. “Discord can't time travel,” he said. “Paradox can.”
“But – that only leaves me!” said Twilight. “Paradox must be a future me!”
“I doubt that, very, very much,” said the Doctor. “You don't have future regenerations to redirect into your biological matrix.”
“But,” said Twilight, “who else was there to see the balloons? ...do you think he could have been the beaver with the chainsaw?”
* * *
vworrrrrrrrp... vworrrrrrrrrp...vworrrrrrrrrrp
The TARDIS faded into view in the middle of Ponyville Town Hall. The door opened, and the Doctor stepped out. He glanced around – tables overturned, decorations ruined, but the Town Hall itself was empty, panicking ponies having already fled. And outside, an unmarred white moon hung in the sky.
Importantly, there was no sign of the younger Twilight. But, just as the Doctor turned aside to call the older Twilight, a voice cried out to him.
“Doctor!” said a small orange pegasus filly. “There you are!”
“We're at th' wrong Summer Sun Celebration!” added a yellow earth pony. “We got th' year of Nightmare Moon's return!”
The Doctor frowned at them. “Do I... do I know you?” he asked.
“Aaaaaah!” screeched the small white unicorn. “We changed history! Now it's all messed up! We've probably never been born or something!”
“We can't've done that!” objected the earth pony. “We never went back t' before we were born!”
“Applebloom?” asked Twilight, only her head poking around the door of the TARDIS.
“Princess Twilight!” called out all three Cutie Mark Crusaders, in the fearful tones of a small child suddenly meeting an unexpected authority figure.
It was at this point that a throat was cleared near the front door of Town Hall. The Doctor was standing there.
Twilight and the Crusaders both immediately turned their heads to look back at the Doctor still standing in front of the TARDIS. Then they all turned back to look at the Doctor standing by the door.
Two Doctors.
“Terribly sorry about all this,” said the Doctor by the door. “Teeny little problem targeting the right year. Crusaders!” He stomped one hoof. “You're with me, my TARDIS is parked round the back, right where it was when you stepped out of it.”
“You mean we didn't mess up time so we were never born?” asked Sweetie Belle, hopefully.
“No, you didn't,” said the Doctor by the door.
“You took the Cutie Mark Crusaders time travelling?” asked Twilight. “The... Cutie Mark Crusaders?”
The Doctor by the door shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he explained. “Oh, and by the way, you've got the wrong end of history. Paradox didn't pick this appearance of Nightmare Moon.”
“What?” asked Twilight.
“Can't say any more,” said the Doctor by the door. “Spoilers. Come on, Crusaders, let's go!”
“Cutie mark crusader time travellers, yay!” chorused the Crusaders, as they trotted out after the Doctor.
Twilight gave the Doctor a plaintive look. “Surely you're not going to take the Cutie Mark Crusaders time travelling?” she asked.
“It seems likely that I will, at some point,” said the Doctor, drily. “Come on, it looks like we should be going to the original appearance of Nightmare Moon, instead.”
“Right. Um. Can we stop somewhere else first?”
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “What exactly do you have in mind?” he asked.
“Well,” said Twilight, “just before the first time I met you, Pinkie said something about just having seen me, with a flower in my mane and my eyebrows scorched, and I'd told her to feed me bananas. And since I currently have a flower in my mane and scorched eyebrows...”
“So you want to close that loop,” said the Doctor. “Well, fair enough, I guess.”
* * *
vworrrrrrrrp... vworrrrrrrrrp...vworrrrrrrrrrp
The TARDIS faded into view in an alleyway in Ponyville. Both the Doctor and Twilight stepped cautiously out.
“Alright,” said the Doctor, “so where's your friend usually at this time of day?”
“Kind of hard to predict,” said Twilight. “But... you're not the same person as Time Turner, right?”
“We... share a lot of similarities,” said the Doctor.
“And, so while you may have passed through Ponyville before, you've never really stayed here?”
“...yes?” said the Doctor, cautiously.
“So that means you're new in town?” asked Twilight.
“Technically,” said the Doctor, “but why -”
“Oh wow you're new did you know you look just like Time Turner he lives just down the road over that way he fixes clocks what's your name?” asked a pink mare, suddenly bouncing along on the other side of the Doctor.
“And that's how you find Pinkie,” said Twilight, grinning.
“Ooooh, is he a friend of yours?” asked Pinkie. “Why were you looking for me? Are we playing hide and seek? I love hide and seek! Oooh, have you got a joke flower in your mane?”
“No, Pinkie,” said Twilight. “I need you to do something very, very important for me.”
“Sure!” said Pinkie. “A party for your new friend?”
“No,” said Twilight, “even more important.”
“Wow!” said Pinkie. “It must be really important if it's more important than a party!”
“I want you to go to the market,” said Twilight.
“Market,” said Pinkie, nodding.
“And get a big bunch of bananas,” continued Twilight.
“Bananas!” said Pinkie. “Got it!”
“And then,” said Twilight, “I want you to go to the Friendship Castle, where you'll meet me.”
“Meet you at the castle,” nodded Pinkie.
“And then I want you to feed me the bananas,” said Twilight.
“Feed you the bananas,” said Pinkie.
“They're a good source of potassium,” explained the Doctor.
“Okie dokie lokie!” said Pinkie, bouncing in place. “Anything else?”
“Hmmm... afterwards, you'll need to go inside the castle and give Spike some bananas as well,” said Twilight.
“Is potassium good for dragons?” asked Pinkie.
“Right now, he needs lots of it,” said Twilight, firmly.
“Okay!” said Pinkie, saluting. “Pinkie's on the job!”
She charged away at full speed, in the direction of the market.
There was a brief silence. Then the Doctor asked, “Anything else you need to do while we're here?”
Twilight considered it, then shook her head. “No,” she said. “No, I don't think so.”
“Right,” said the Doctor, leading the way back to the TARDIS. “Well, then. Next stop, Nightmare Moon.”
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5571057
No Vogon deconstructor fleets. Not this time, at least.
5571424
No
Paradox's origin has nothing to do with Doctor Who lore.
It's always hard to tell when I've given enough clues for people to work it out; because I'm making a puzzle, in short, to which I already know the answer. And any puzzle is easier when you know the answer. So I try to make it not completely obvious, and sometimes end up with it being really obscure...
Writing both Discord chapters one after the other was certainly interesting, as well
.
Hmm. I'm sure sending the Crusaders through time will make sense somehow. Somehow.
Also, good job with Twilight closing another loop. She's really getting the hang of this.
I'm sure Paradox's true origin will be completely obvious when you reveal it. As it is, I'm going to assume you've done an excellent job of hiding the clues in plain sight.
Cutie Mark Crusaders Time Travelers is still the scariest phrase ever. Of all time.
So, The Doctor needs to go to the first appearance of nightmare moon, and get the cutie mark crusaders, and then take them to this place, and then they will realize that it's the wrong one as well ...
...
This loop is getting messy. You said that you've put out all the clues we need by this point.
I'm going to re-read this, and try to solve it, before I go any farther.
AAAAUUUUGHH.
> “Yeah, I've had it for years,” said Pinkie. She reached into her mane, and pulled out a clearly fake, plastic flower with a large bulge at the bottom of the stalk.
Missed clue number one!
And clue number two: Spike is no longer in the story; he got left behind when they fought Paradox.
Probable determination: Spike was somehow changed into Paradox.
So next question: Who is manipulating the time stream?
Next chapter now.
7301487
Ooooh, good! I'd love for someone to solve it before getting to the answer. I know the answer, so I'm probably a bad judge about how many clues are enough...
7301496
Yep, that's definitely a clue.
7301551
Ah. Um. That one's just poor writing. Spike's still travelling with them, Twilight's just been telling him (off-screen) to stay in the TARDIS where it's safe.
So, the Doctor is erasing some of his own memories to ensure he never becomes Paradox. I suspect those physically stored, discarded memories will somehow reunite, separate from the Doctor, and that's what will create Paradox.