• Published 26th Feb 2015
  • 2,296 Views, 11 Comments

The Day of the Doctor - Spirit Shift



The Doctor is tasked of solving the mystery of a rapidly shrinking universe. With the help of a few unlikely allies, can he discover who's behind it before all of time and space collapses in on itself?

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CH4: Misdiagnosis

“DOC-TOR! REVEAL YOURSELF!”

“Oh no,” breathed Eleventh. Both he, Tenth, Twilight, and Derpy ran over to the nearest window to see what the disturbance was.

Unfortunately, it was just as he feared. The sky was now littered with alien warships of every kind. The Daleks, the Judoon, Sycorax, Sontarans, Cyberponies, Atraxi, even the dark ships of the Shadow Proclamation; all of them were whizzing around the skies of Equestria while even more spaceships descended.

“No! No! No! Not again!” yelled Eleventh as he turned and ran towards the door. “It’s the Pandorica incident all over again!”

Tenth, confused by this statement, quickly followed after him. “Wait, what? This has happened before?!”

Twilight turned and began running as well, stopping only to address Derpy who was still by the window. “Derpy come on. They might need our help!”

Derpy, still marveling at the impressive collection of past and future enemies, finally tore her attention away and nodded as Twilight left. However, just as Derpy spread her wings to fly after her, something else echoed through the room.

“DITZY!”

Derpy froze as she heard her own name being called in distress from behind her. Slowly, she turned around just in time to watch a pony fall past the window outside. For a brief moment, she wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her again. Curious, she looked outside. They weren't. Sprawled out on the grass of the courtyard was a single pony lying face down on the ground. From where she sat she couldn’t make out who it was or if they were alright.

Panicking, Derpy hopped out of the window and flew over to the injured pony. Upon closer inspection she noticed that this pony was a pegasus mare. “Oh my goodness! Are you alright? What happened to you?” Her breath caught in her throat. Now that she was closer she could see exactly how injured this mare was. Her grey coat had been charred black in places and her wings lie limp, bloody, tattered and useless. Even her cutie mark had been--

Her cutie mark… Derpy leaned in closer, careful not to touch the pony in fear that it could cause her pain. It was true, her cutie mark, as much as it could be seen was an image of seven bubbles, much like her own.

“I… you… Who are you?” she muttered. She reached down to touch the mare, hoping to get a better look at her face.

“Don’t touch her!”

Her hoof snapped back at the demand. Derpy looked forward to see a familiar brown pony lying injured some distance away. He was no longer wearing his coat, instead he looked beat up and injured somewhat. But Derpy didn’t notice any of it. She was far too terrified of the colt looking directly at her with a rage she had never seen before. “D-Doctor?”

“I don’t care! Don’t you dare touch her,” he hissed.

The sheer force of his glare caused her to shrink back in terror. “Bu-but I... you.. she…”

“Derpy!” A bright violet flashed forced her to close her eyes for a second. When she opened them she realized the Twilight Sparkle had teleported right in front of her. “What are you doing here? We need to help the Doctors stop Celestia and Luna!”

Derpy looked past her to see nothing but grass. “But I… T-there was a pony... she was me... a-and the Doctor. I--”

Twilight craned her head around to see what she was looking at, trying to make sense of her ramblings. She briefly wondered if she saw a vision of herself? “Agh, there’s no time,” she grumbled. “Tell the Doctor when you get the chance alright?” Derpy nodded and Twilight charged up her horn for another teleport.

With a flash and a pop the alicorn and pegasus appeared atop a balcony on the side of the castle. The first thing she saw was two enraged alicorns barely being held back by a pair of earth pony stallions.

Both Luna and Celestia’s eyes had gone completely white with magic; their manes and tails were flared upwards and their wings had spread wide in a show of aggression.

Celestia’s horn flared. “Doctor stand aside!” she boomed. “These creatures dare bring an army to our world? They dare threaten my ponies!” The magic in hor horn grew in intensity to match her tone.

Tenth stepped forward. “Princess think about what you’re doing. You can’t fight them all, you can’t win.”

Luna audibly growled, her magic seemingly followed suit as the castle itself rumbled. “Dost thou doubt our power, Doctor?”

Tenth immediately shook his head. “No. No. No. Of course not. But just think. If they were here to wage war, trust me, this planet would be nothing but ashes by now. The must be here for another reason.”

It was at this point that Eleventh, whom had been nervously gazing up at the legion of ships until now, noticed that his companion had returned. Smiling he made his way over to her. “Twilight, perfect. I’m glad you’re here, can you amplify my voice with magic?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously. “Sure. But why?”

The Doctor’s smile turned into a mischievous smirk as he leaned in to whisper, “I want to try something. It worked well enough last time.” He ran back to the edge of the balcony. “Cast the spell!” he ordered.

Twilight looked towards Derpy for a second, unsure about the Doctor’s plan. Derpy shrugged, clearly just as confused. Twilight aimed her horn and charged her spell.

While she did, Derpy quickly made her way over and stood next to her Doctor, intent on telling her what she saw. “Doctor, I...”

The Doctor turned to face her. His face was a picture of concern for her, even in this dangerous time. “Yes, Derpy what is it?”

“Back in the garden, I saw a mare and she looked alot like--”

AHEM! Everyone flinched at the volume and turned towards the Eleventh who sheepishly grinned. “Oh, sorry about that,” he apologized, speaking more softly. “It’s a bit loud now.”

Tenth frowned. “See this is what I mean, you see how useful a unicorn is in this situation?”

The Doctor, now having everypony--and everything’s--attention, took a deep breath and addressed the fleet. “Hello Equestria! Who ever takes the--”

“SILENCE DOCTOR!”

The Doctor’s eyes shrank at the combined demand of most of the armada. The sheer volume of which forced most of the ponies below them to cover their ears in pain, including Twilight who dropped her spell. “Well that’s not nice…” he muttered. “Twilight mind casting that spell again? Perhaps not as loud this time though.”

Twilight, still rubbing her ear in pain, begrudgingly cast the spell once more.

The clear voice of the Dalek emperor echoed from the lead ship.“We will hear none of your speeches or perorations, Doctor. You will surrender yourself immediately!

The Doctor scoffed, mumbling, “Well you don’t need to be rude about it.” Which, even as a mumble, still came out as a mildly loud declaration. “Speaking of which, what’s all this then? Do you all form an alliance every time the universe is threatened, or is this just little annual get together?”

This time time the Cyberponies spoke. “The alliance was formed to eradicate the source of the contraction of the galaxy.”

Eleventh sighed. “Let me guess: the source is me?”

Now the Sontarans. “Affirmative! The Doctor surrounds the universe. It has been confirmed! You are the source. Surrender yourself this instant to be destroyed in a horrendously glorious fashion along with this puny world!”

Tenth stepped forward. “‘The Doctor surrounds the universe?!’” he yelled, questioning the alliance. Unlike his future self, his voice wasn’t amplified, so he had to scream to be heard. “What do you mean?! We’re right here!”

The Daleks once more. “Do not lie! The Doctor’s TARDIS has been detected at approximately 1,000,000,200,000 points along the perimeter of the universe!”

Everypony present stood in dead shock at this new revelation. The Doctors in particular were confused about the existence of over a trillion versions of the TARDIS. It was simply not possible.

Several dangerous lights lit up along the edges of each of the ships. A loud hum began permeating the air. The Daleks voice echoed far louder than before. “You will surrender, or you will be exterminated alongside this planet!”

Celestia mane flared, becoming a fiery red color. The air around them suddenly became very dry. “Doctor…” she warned, her voice low and dangerous.

Tenth turned back to her. “Now now. Calm down.” He screamed back up to the alliance, “Now, before I surrender myself, I just have one tiny question; just one. Why have you come for us instead of destroying the million versions of me? You have all those big impressive ships, why waste them all over two ponies? I mean, it’s just me and chinny face here; we’re nothing special. You’ve got an entire race to choose from. Why us?”

You are the source! You are the original! You are the current!” A bright red light began charging at the forefront of the ship, causing the ponies’ collective eyes to shrink in fear. Ponies who had been watching from the ground began panicking once again. “You. Will. Be. Exterminated!”

Tenth turned to face the alicorns. “Princess!”

The bright red light burst into an onslaught of laser strikes, all aimed directly at where the Doctors had were standing. However, just as they fired, Celestia and Luna released their pent up magic to form a dual shield around the capitol.

Eleventh sighed in relief. “Oh thank goodness. I was afraid you’d do something else there for a second.”

Celestia grunted in annoyance. “He was right… Even if my sister were to strike back it wouldn’t stop the rest from attacking our citizens.”

“However, this shield will not protect the rest of Equestria should they decide to spread out,” added Luna, watching as the alliance of ships continued to wail on the blue and yellow shield. “I trust you have a plan, Doctor.”

Eleventh sauntered up and booped Luna’s nose, his face sporting a cheeky grin. “Oh Lulu, of course we have a plan,” he whispered. Nodding to his past self, the two earth ponies dashed off back into the castle with Derpy and Twilight right on their tails.

“Doctor,” yelled Derpy, calling to her respective partner. With her flight she caught up to the two fairly easily while Twilight trailed further behind on hoof. “I don’t understand, why are they after you?”

Tenth craned his head to reply as he and his other self rounded a corner. “They’re not after us, they’re after him! I’m plan B,” he said, gesturing to the Eleventh.

“Why?” she asked.

“I’m willing to wager that they know that I’m the current me so they think I orchestrated this. They think that if they kill me everything will go back to normal. And if they kill him, I won’t exist. So I suppose it really doesn't matter now does it?”

After a few minutes of running, the group burst through the large double doors to find themselves back inside the throne room. Finally the two slowed down and stopped in front of the TARDIS. Derpy landed next to them. “Doctor, what are you doing? What’s the plan?”

Tenth, being her Doctor, decided to answer while Eleventh opened the door. By this point, Twilight ran through the throne room entrance, with the princesses right behind her. “The plan is simple; we run as fast as we can, get them away from this planet before they decide to bomb the place.”

“That’s suicide!” exclaimed Twilight.

“Listen to me,” urged Eleventh, having opened the TARDIS doors. “Yes, it is suicidal, and yes, it is insane, but it’s our only option.” He threw his hoof to the sky. “That lot out there hasn't begun firing on us seriously yet but when they do this world's going up in flames and we’re they’re target. They’re waiting for something to happen; probably expecting us to do something clever.” He turned to face himself. “What they won’t be expecting is something normal, something that any hunted animal does.”

He turned once again and pointed to Derpy and Twilight. “Now, you two need to stay here to reassure your fri--”

“No!”

“No!”

“--ends and family that everthieeerrr... What was that now?”

Twilight and Derpy huffed simply strode past them and into the blue box without giving it a second thought, leaving both stallions gaping.

“Companions,” huffed Tenth, turning to face his other self. “I swear, each one is getting worse than the last. They never listen, not one of them.”

Eleventh nodded. “Oh, trust me, it gets worse. Just wait until you have a married couple on-board. Ugh, it’s all lips all the time. Just ignore the crazy old Doctor, let’s just smooch our problems away. Let’s not get into the plastic Romans and bitey mad ladies.”

“Yes…” Tenth hummed, rubbing his chin. “There seems to be a lot of that lately hasn't there? Kissing, I mean.”

His future self gave him a smug look as he adjusted his bow tie. “Though you must admit we have turned out quite dashing in these last few regenerations.” This got a smile from the brown pony as he adjusted his mane.

Before the stallion next to him could reply, though, both of them felt themselves being lifted up in a familiar azure glow, effectively stalling their conversation.

“Will you two cease your self gratificating prattling?” ordered Luna, setting them down. The stress of the situation clearly appeared to be getting to her, as she even seemed to be reverting to her old speech patterns. “Whilst we can agree to the fact that thou art very dashing, must we remind thee that our kingdom is under siege?!”

Celestia, however, appeared to be taking the situation more calmly, though a closer look would still reveal the worry in her eyes. “Doctor’s we don’t know what you are planning, but we need you to promise us that you will all return once this is over.”

The Doctor’s took one look at one another before giving the princesses determined looks. “We promise.” Just like that, they dashed into the TARDIS and closed the doors behind them. Not a few seconds passed before the tell-tale wheezing sound began signaling the machines departure through space.

Luna and Celestia looked on in a mix of nervousness and sadness. After the machine disappeared completely, Luna sighed softly. “Let us hope that the first rule does not apply in this instance…”

Author's Note:

Sorry for all the lateness on my end. Stuff's been getting done. And yes the Daleks do make a small appearance but calm down, they're not even going to be around much longer..