Doctor Whooves: Mark Of The Mara

by LightOfTriumph

Bass and Treble

Octavia walked into her roomate's workplace, livid as she had ever been. "Vinyl!" she shouted. "Vinyl Scratch I am going to kill you!"

"They're right here!" Vinyl Scratch said, expecting this reaction. "Stop panicking..."

"Where is my sheet music?!" Octavia Melody shouted, obviously not listening to her roommate.

"Your sheets are right here," Vinyl said calmly, handing Octavia her sheet music. "We switched this morning. I have yours, you have mine."

Octavia calmed herself slowly. "I'm...," she breathed. "I'm sorry.... I just... This recital coming up has got me absolutely mental. I just can't seem to focus..."

"It's not the first time you performed live," Vinyl said reassuringly.

"Yes, but this is the first time it's been my music," Octavia explained. "If they don't like the composition of any other piece I'm performing it's not my fault, I'm just the Cello player. Now, however, I'm the composer. If they think my composition is garbage, that's it. It's over. My career is finished."

Vinyl sighed. "Look, I can't pretend I know what I'm talking about when it comes to your stuff... But it sounds pretty to me! Not my thing... at all, but still really pretty. It sounds a hell of a lot better than a lot of the other stuff I've seen you performing. So, in my opinion, if they don't like you, I don't like them. You have nothing to be ashamed of, okay?"

Octavia and Vinyl wrapped each other in a tight hug. "Thank you," said Octavia. "It means a lot."

"I'm glad to hear it," Vinyl said. "Now, where are my sheets?"

Octavia stared at her blankly for a moment. "Oh, sweet Celestia..." she smacked her head. "I forgot them at home."

Vinyl rolled her eyes. "It's cool, I'll get them..."

'I'm really sorry..."

"I said it's cool, I've got the time, I'll just head home."

"It's the stress," Octavia sat down on the floor. "It's got me mad. I swear, I don't think I can take one more surprise today..."

Then a few things happened all at once.

The door flung open to reveal Twilight, Applejack and their friends scrambling quickly into the studio. AJ and Rainbow Dash were helping an older stallion along. With them were AJ's sister and her friends. Behind them was a young stallion that Octavia didn't recognize.

"Quick Vi!" Apple Bloom shouted. "Our alien friend needs help!!"

With that, Octavia began to feel very dizzy.

---

It took them a few hours to explain everything that had happened. The Doctor. The Lynchpins. The Master. The Key to Time. The regeneration. Octavia had buried her face in her hooves about halfway through. Vinyl on the other hand seemed to take it fairly well.

"So the evil flying salt shakers," Vinyl started. "Princess Cadence's wedding, all hell breaking loose a week ago, this all happened because of the old guy?"

"Pretty much," Applejack nodded.

"And the old guy is a Space Alien?" Vi continued.

"That's right," Apple Bloom said frankly.

"From another dimension?"

"Kind... of?" Sweetie Bell shrugged.

"Wow," Vinyl said. "Well, at least today won't be boring!"

"Oh, Celestia...," Octavia groaned.

"We're so sorry to barge in on you like this," Fluttershy said meekly. "But the Doctor needed help, and..."

"You six need to go home," Blue said firmly. "Right now. I'm not kidding."

"Now hold on just one pony-pickin' minute here!" Applejack protested. "I ain't goin' anywhere until I know that the Doctor is going to be okay. A friend of mine just went through a real traumatic experience, here! I ain't just gonna leave him!"

"Trust me, the Doctor would want you away from me," Blue insisted. "You're too valuable to lose, and I'm a ticking time bomb right now..."

Vinyl let out a little giggle. "Okay there, babe," she said softly. "There are... one, two, three, eight able bodied ponies here. If you really go completely berserk I'm pretty sure we can take you."

In a split second a blood red magical aura had wrapped itself around Vinyl's neck, lifting her in the air. Blue's eyes had turned from their normal sky blue to an oppressive blood red. Applejack knew that this meant that whatever the strange stallion was holding back was suddenly in the driver's seat. The Mara had taken control.

"Stand. Back. Now." It hissed. "To say I didn't want to hurt you would simply be a lie... I would be too happy to rip each one of you insignificant little specks off the face of this inferior universe! However for your sakes I think we can avoid that..."

Applejack stepped forward. "Who are you?"

"I am every nightmare you've ever had," the Mara hissed. "I am your worst dream come true. I am everything you've ever been afraid of. I am evil as you perceive it. The specter of every horror you have ever faced, or will ever face. I am-"

"The result of a Jekyll and Hyde-esque experiment, the purpose of which was to rid the human mind of all negative traits," came a fussy voice from behind them. "It travels about the universe causing all sorts of trouble and mischief, possessing good people and causing them to do evil. Anything it can't posses it enthralls."

The rest of the room turned to see that the Doctor sitting up on the couch they had lain him down on. "You're..." Applejack started to tear up. "You're alright."

"Good lord, Sarah Jane!" the Doctor said firmly. "I'm always alright!"

Applejack buried her face in her hooves. "Never mind..."

"Now! You!" the Doctor marched over to Blue. "Drop her if you please!"

"I don't take orders from you!" the Mara hissed.

"Oh, shut up," the Doctor said dismissively. "I wasn't talking to you... Uhh... Young lad! I'm sorry, I can't recall your name... Something with B.... Boo?"

Blue's eyes turned back to their normal sky blue. "It...," Blue gasped. "It doesn't talk like that... Why is it talking like that?"

"Never mind that, dear boy," the Doctor grabbed both sides of Blue's head with his hooves and looked headlong into his. "Oh... Oh my word, you have seen more than a few things haven't you? You've seen what it can do to people... You've seen more than someone so young should ever see... It's quite a sad face..."

"Yeah...," Blue was breathing heavily. "I've seen what it can do... So have you, Doctor... You can't let it happen again... You need to kill m-"

Before Blue could finish the sentence the Doctor smacked him on the side of the head. "Don't be stupid," the Doctor scoffed. "It's that attitude the Mara is feeding off of, and you know it! Now stop being so bloody grim and look at me."

The Doctor brought Blues eyes level with him. "Why?" the Doctor asked. "Why are you doing this? Fighting it is obviously killing you, so why are you bothering? What is the reason?"

"Doctor!" Applejack shouted.

"Let him answer!" the Doctor shot back.

"It..." Blue struggled. "It needs to be stopped, or else--"

"Oh come now, young man," the Doctor scolded. "That's the reason I do things and that's only because I ran out of the good reasons some time ago. Because as far as your concerned, the universe can burn under your feet as log as the people you care about won't suffer. And that's good. It means you have a reason to live."

"I'm... I'm willing to die for this...," Blue answered.

"Don't give me something you're willing to die for," the Doctor said angrily. "Ponies have been willing to die for countries, philosophies and to maintain there own idiot pride. All things as common as the dirt under our feet. We all have something we would die for. Now, something to live for... That's hard to find. Everyone has something to die for. Dying is easy. I should know I've done it around twelve times now. Living takes time, patience, and more than a fair bit of pain. You go through it for a reason. Especially when a bloody massive psychic snake has coiled around your brain and it's squeezing ever tighter.

"You don't go through this for something you're willing to die for, Blue. Why are you still alive?"

Blue looked into the Doctor's eyes for what seemed like an eternity. "Blade..."

"Blade?" the Doctor asked. "What's a Blade have to do with anything?"

"She's...," Blue asked. "She's in danger... She's been in so much pain..."

"She's... Oh! She's your girl!" the Doctor let out a wide grin. "Excellent! Now, I need you to keep her in your mind dear boy. Make her the focus of your thoughts."

"So much pain..."

"No! Don't think about the pain," the Doctor clarified. "That's what the Mara needs. Pain and despair and defeat. It's what it feeds off of. You need to keep out that pain. You need to fight it."

"I...," Blue doubled over again.

"Tell me about her," the Doctor demanded. "I want to hear everything. How did you meet?"

"She... She showed me how to get to the subway in Manehattan," Blue choked. "I didn't need the directions I was just..."

"Chatting her up, eh?" the Doctor smiled. "That's good. Keep going. First date."

"Picnic," Blue started to stand more upright. "In the nighttime... Couldn't afford anything else..."

"When did yu know you loved her?" the Doctor asked.

"Right then," Blue said, a little stronger now.

"Good," the Doctor grew a devious grin on his face, as if he new victory was only a matter of time. "Now, keep going down that road. Every happy memory, every sunset, every dinner, every time you made up from a fight. Every kiss. Every gift. Ever single time you thought the world was completely useless and then there she was."

Blue closed his eyes, and then doubled over again. The room seemed to be filled with a massive hissing noise.

"It's fighting back, isn't it, son?" the Doctor said quietly. "That doesn't matter, because now we're going to finish it. I want you to think about all the good times you will have together. I want you to think about holding her again when you get back to her after this is done. Because no matter what it's telling you, that is going to happen. We've moved passed hope and into expectationi. Because this doesn't look like a happy ending. And if it's not a happy ending then the story isn't over yet.

"So think of the happy ending," the Doctor said in defiance. "Because it's going to happen. Because I won't let it not."

"He can't help you," the Mara hissed. This time unable to use Blue's lips.

"Like I told you before..." Blue breathed heavily as he stared into the Doctor's soul. "Shut up, and get thee behind me."

Blue screamed as a giant spectral snake emerged from his back. The snake hissed at several people in the room before whirling round to face Octavia. It seemed to calm down as it simply looked into her eyes. Eventually the serpent dissipated into vapor.

Blue collapsed, unconscious. And the room was left silent. All parties staring at the Doctor.

"Well!" the Doctor smiled. "That's taken care of! Well, at least for the moment. Nyssa? Tegan? Look after Thurlough! I'm going to see where we've landed."

With that, the Doctor sauntered out of the Nightclub, leaving the rest of the ponies with their jaws on the floor.

Author's Note:

So... It's been a Year and a half... I owe you guys an explanation.

I have been ignoring this fic for a couple of reasons. Some personal, others not. Let me get the personal one out of the way first.

1. I am using two friends OC's, and those friends are no longer active.

I am beginning to regret saying I would do this. I did feel I owed it to him for editing my Doctor Whooves stuff, but he had VERY specific ideas about his backstory, and where the character fit into the story, and his role in it. It began so that I felt I was walking on eggshells writing the character. Also, it appears he has left the site, so whether I have the right to use the character at ALL comes into question.

Ephraim Blue, Graymayne, if you ever read this, I'm sorry. I need to make some edits and I need to write the story my own way. If that makes you upset, I can Lucas them into having different names. But I need my words to be my own.

Buuuuut truth be told, that is only HALF the reason I stopped. The other half?

2. I grew ROYALLY pissed at the Doctor Who fandom.

There are a couple of factors to this one, the first was how I was treated on several forums after I objected to the prospect of a Female Doctor.

Making myself clear: I object to Time Lords changing gender randomly upon regeneration. In the Classic series, it is often suggested that that cannot happen. The Master doing it makes sense because his Regenerations have always been weird. He's been Skeletor, a puddle of snot, and Eric Roberts. Anything goes with him, and Missy is phenomenal, don't get me wrong.

From a character standpoint, I also object. It lends credence to the false and irritating idea that regeneration transforms you into a different being entirely. It does not, despite the tenth Doctor's bitching ("I don't want to go," FUCK YOU.) It is a belief I have never held, and it drives me up the wall that that is how the new series thinks of it.

These, I feel, are perfectly reasonable objections to the switch. And while I am still against it, I have softened to the idea. Mostly because I have been given counterarguments to both points that I'd be willing to buy.

By "given," I of course mean "thought up by myself," because the majority of fans I have interacted with called me sexist, anti-trans, homophobic, and even racist for some reason. I was cyberbullied off of two forums, and I no longer participate in discussions on the Doctor Whooves group.

BTW, I was also called a fanboy who hated change, which leads me to my second point, MATT SMITH FANGIRLS ARE THE VERY WORST KIND OF PEOPLE.

I... LOVE the Eleventh Doctor. I do. On my favorite Doctors list, he is third behind Four and Nine, and Nostalgia is a huge part of that. But sweet god, he has the worst fanbase this side of Roxas!

Idiot twelve year olds, in Bowties and Fezzes screaming and bitching about how Capaldi is "too old" to play the Doctor (William Hartnell, the FIRST Doctor, still remains the oldest man to play the role. Starting in his late 70's.) . How the Doctor is never this "Grouchy or Pessimistic" (Patrick Troughton, the Second Doctor, was an ornery old bastard. And HE never went through a world ending war.) And that the series should have ENDED WHEN MATT SMITH LEFT THE SHOW.

I have.... NO words for that last one. Okay, that's not fair. I can spare two. FUCK. YOU.

There was no respect for the Classic Series anymore. Every fan complaining that it was "too much to watch." And it breaks my heart.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to drop the titles of Seven serials. One for each Classic Doctor. If you consider yourself a Doctor Who fan, I URGE you to check these out. Here we go.

1st Doctor- Daleks: The second ever serial of Doctor Who. And guess who showed up early! I recommend this one, not just for the first appearance of the Daleks, but for you all to see that the Doctor wasn't always as selfless and magnanimous as he is now. I see a lot of Hartnell in Peter Capaldi.

2nd Doctor- War Games: A little of the mystery of who the Doctor is i revealed in the introduction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords. Troughton at his funniest and can prove to New Who fans that the Time Lords were NEVER as nice as the Tenth Doctor liked to think.

3rd Doctor-Terror of the Autons: This episode is a must see for fans of The Master. The character was created not to rival The Doctor, but to rival John Pertwee. Roger Del Gato's chemistry with the Third Doctor is nothing short of breathtaking.

4th Doctor-Genesis of the Daleks If I need to explain WHY you need to watch this damn episode, you are stupid. Go watch it.

5th Doctor-Earthshock: You want the episode that makes every dramatic moment in New Who mean something? Right here. Because some stayed behind. Some were left behind. And a few... A VERY few...

6th Doctor-The Two Doctors: The only team up I'm suggesting, but I can't help it. The Sixth Doctor at his best, without some cocaine fueled idiot ruining the character. Colin Baker had a rocky tenure as the doctor.

7th Doctor-Remembrance of the Daleks While Genesis is considered the first shot of the Time War by most of the fanbase, I hold "Remembrance" is how it escalated as fast as it did. The Daleks trying to get a weapon to kill the Time Lords. This is how it began.

Please Rate and Comment.

Comments

[Ephraim Blue]

"Inactive" is one thing. I did try to contact you after you hadn't continued for a couple months. But no matter what I sent, PMs or Comments, it never seemed to get anywhere.

Glad you're finally getting back on your feet. I feel that being angry at a fandom is no reason to let your own works go to wastes. I've practically stopped all my stories because I've run out of ideas to fill the gaps. I want the plot to continue, but leaving gaps makes it worse on everyone.

Again, being mad at a fandom is just plain idiotic, I'm saying it right now. I know you like Doctor Who. I do too. But if I got mad over what everyone else thinks, it just causes more and more problems for me. You're letting those thoughts take over and influence your own work, which is a show of how you would like a story of the franchise to go.

All my stories I've written are tiny fabrications to the universe of My Little Pony and whatever else I occasionally reference them too, whether it be a Doctor Who Story, Equestria Girls, or my own life I wish to go the way I write.

But what I'm saying is that they are yours. No fandom of anything has any jurisdiction of it, especially those "die-hard-11th-Doctor-'Oh Marry Me'" Types you mention.

And I get that "very specific backstories" are hard to get used too and follow, and to be honest, that's more or less a lot like a fan influencing a writer's story. I don't mind this change to "Blue's" character that you've made. Its neat to look at and see. And really, it gives you more distinction or control over the story, which is the way its really meant to be.

I'll probably still influence you, if not a little, a lot, about "Blue's" backstory. But really, I don't oppose to any of what I see. Willing to sacrifice himself over someone else is certainly something worth doing, but also seeking out help once he's made sure that some are safe. Plus, his thoughts about willing to even die to take the Mara with him, while probably not something he'd do, but I agree would be something of tiredness and stress of holding a murderous snake thing.

All and all, I hope you get in contact with me again. I'd love to continue editing this for you, and who knows. Maybe helping another's works with what it needs will help me write more. New ideas is what I need.

[gamexpert1990]

I swear, I don't think I can take one more surprise today...

Well, hello Murphy.

---

"Don't give me something you're willing to die for," the Doctor said angrily. "Ponies have been willing to die for countries, philosophies and to maintain there own idiot pride. All things as common as the dirt under our feet. We all have something we would die for. Now, something to live for... That's hard to find. Everyone has something to die for. Dying is easy. I should know I've done it around twelve times now. Living takes time, patience, and more than a fair bit of pain. You go through it for a reason. Especially when a bloody massive psychic snake has coiled around your brain and it's squeezing ever tighter.

"You don't go through this for something you're willing to die for, Blue. Why are you still alive?"

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[cultpony]

Thank you.

[Emkozul]

ok so I actually agree with you on the Classic Doctors and on the whole "I don't want to go". But at the same time I do like some of the things they have done as team ups with the older doctors. I know he's not Supposed to be able to do it (I chalk it up to the TARDIS being Ornery nowadays, specially after the whole Trenzalore thing and I am talking about the FIRST time he went to Trenzalore not the 11th's[?] Finale) What I do hate though is that they make the Regeneration so..... tediously Long. Good Lord is it just me or is the Doctor's Regenerations getting Longer and Longer?