Part 5: Distrust
Shining Armor, the Princess and Raven by his side, led the Doctor to the TARDIS, which had been kept in the lower bowels of the castle. After Filthy Rich had reported the Doctor to the Royal Guard, it had been teleported here on Shining’s personal orders in fear of any danger it may or may not present. The Doctor smiled at seeing his oldest friend, and once he saw it he quite quickly pulled it into a hug with his forelegs, his arms wrapping around the TARDIS’s dark blue exterior.
“Oh, don’t you worry Old Girl, I’m never letting you out of my sight again, you hear?” The Doctor whispered in a comforting tone of voice. In the background, Shining used a hoof and twirled it around his head to make the universal “He’s insane” gesture. “Those nasty ponies… They’re not taking you away from me ever again, understand?” He cooed.
The Doctor then took notice of his location. He, along with Shining and the other two ponies were inside a storage room packed with crates of every size and description, along with various other items of note like staves and even a giant crystal ball in one corner of the room. The Doctor gazed around the room in wonder.
“Wow, someone's a hoarder.” He remarked.
“Somepony.” Shining corrected. The Doctor rolled his eyes and muttered something along the lines of tomato, to-mah-to largely to himself. It was then he noticed the Captain’s offended look.
“...Sorry, didn't mean it like that. My mouth isn't always connected to my brain. Quite a gob, I have. Never know what’ll come out of it, as Shining’s already found out,” The Doctor rapidly apologized, again not noticing Shining’s annoyed look. “Say, what is this place anyway? That little area where you keep the stuff you don't want to lose? A vault, perhaps? Okay, it’s probably that. But maybe it’s a place you lot would want to keep your weapons of war, stuff you wouldn’t want your enemies to get their pretty little hands on,”
“Hooves,” Shining corrected again. The Doctor had the decency to look embarrassed this time around.
“This is the Black Archive, where only the most dangerous of magical artifacts go,” Raven explained, adjusting her glasses and huffing at the Doctor’s nonchalant and yet criticizing demeanor. The Doctor smirked, his suspicions seemingly confirmed as he placed his hooves on a long wooden rod and inspected it. Raven sighed at this. “In short, don't touch anything. There's a reason half of this stuff is best left forgotten. Like that staff, supposed to be able to remove one’s entire personality. Created by a dark mage back in the day, had to store it away so nopony would be able to get their hooves on it. Quite a few nasty curses on it...”
The Doctor very quickly retracted his hooves from the staff on hearing this in the blink of an eye and dropped it, the staff falling onto the floor with a clatter and the Doctor whistled innocently as he headed toward the TARDIS. It’s doors were swiftly thrown open and he and his three companions stepped inside. There were two gasps of shock, one from Raven and one from Shining. Celestia on the other hoof had a less visible reaction. She just simply raised an eyebrow.
“It's... It's not possible!” Raven stammered out.
“Impossible’s just a word, something people like to throw around wherever they like when they see something they can’t explain. The great detective Sherlock Holmes once said: Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” The Doctor commented cheerfully all the while noticing what Shining was doing.
“Go on… Say it… Say it…” He mentally chanted.
Shining quickly stepped right back out of the time machine and walked all the way around it. He then stepped back inside. He'd seen many magics, but none such as this. If it was even magic at all, which a small part in the back of his mind said but he refused to believe it at the time.
“It's smaller on the outside,” Shining stated flatly.
The Doctor heard him and frowned. He loved it when they said, “Bigger on the inside.” Shining then asked the immortal question. No, not that one. The other one.
“Why's it look like a Police Box?”
“It's not supposed to! There's a circuit, but it's broken!” The Doctor retorted.
“And you're too lazy to fix it?” Shining teased.
“Y-NO!” The Doctor said rather too quickly, after catching himself. “I rather like it this way.”
Both Raven and Shining shared a look, not sure if they should believe it or not.
“Very impressive magic Doctor,” Celestia observed in a complimentary tone of voice. Like Shining, a small part in the back of her mind said this could not be magic, but unlike Shining she had lived long enough to understand the meaning of what the Doctor had tried to state with that quote he spouted off.
“Magic... Haven't heard that one in a while…” The Doctor muttered in distaste as glanced towards the controls before looking at his hooves and letting out a small whine. How was he supposed to use them now? As he thought over this, he pulled Celestia aside, out of the range of a certain Captain's hearing.
“Sooo... What's with him? He seems awfully cold…” The Doctor observed, having been keeping tabs on Shining’s behavior ever since he met him.
The Princess sighed to herself and shook her head.
“He's, let's just say he's had some bad experiences that's made it hard for him to trust others. It’s… It’s not my place to explain.” Celestia said sadly.
The Doctor grinned, much to Celestia's shock.
“Well, I'll have to fix that at some point, won't I?”
Celestia eyed the Doctor. Something was bothering him and she knew it. It was obvious, the way he glanced off into space at some points and his general body language.
“Something wrong?” She asked carefully.
“No, nothing at all.” The Doctor lied.
But Celestia was having none of it.
“Don't lie to me Doctor. As old as I am, I'm not stupid nor am I senile,” Celestia stated firmly. “I should be able to tell a truth from a lie. Now tell me yours.”
The Doctor finally gave in. He supposed his new found friend deserved to know.
"Alright, it's just that... I have friends okay? Or had,” The Doctor whispered to himself, only Celestia hearing him. “They die and yet I live on..."
“I know the feeling,” Celestia replied, the Doctor not knowing she’d heard him. “Sometimes I think we immortals live for far too long…” She mused sadly. For far too long, she's watched dear friends and sometimes more pass, and without her sister, she was alone to bear it all. Nearby, the Doctor then pressed a button and the Tardis began to hum as it searched all of this world for one very particular life form, hiding among thousands of others. But this life form was quite possibly the only of its kind here, at least that was what the Doctor hoped. And if he was wrong... No, it was best for him not to think about that. He currently needed a plan to deal with just this one. His voice began to rise in tone, reaching outright fury as he glared accusingly towards Celestia.
“A Weeping Angel, oldest and most deadliest lifeform in this or any other universe, accepting no others. Must have fallen through the same crack I did, only arrived much earlier. Time's funny that way. Wherever you found it, you should have let it be. Let it die and rot away. Now it's on the loose, the potential timelines of everyone on the planet to feed and gorge itself on, like a pig!” The Doctor growled as he searched through a nearby chest. His lost hand from the battle above Earth on Christmas Eve was in a jar nearby. He tossed various items out of the chest, like a banana and a part of the Eye of Harmony. He paced back and forth around the TARDIS’s interior and muttered to himself. “Rulers, in all of time and space, they always turn out to be the bloody same! Always thinking about themselves, never caring for their people!”
The Doctor, as he said this to himself, thought back. He remembered Rassilon, how corrupt and power-hungry he turned out to be. The Time War had turned into Hell, and he planned to bring Gallifrey to Earth, just to save his own hide and not even thinking about the people of Earth. And then there was what he did to the Master, drove him insane with the sounds of the drums of war. Mind you, this was all just conjecture right now, but he long suspected, ever since the Master was resurrected to fight in the Time War because of Rassilon’s belief that he would be the perfect soldier that Rassilon somehow played a part in making the Master who he was, what he turned out to be. The Doctor let out an audible growl at remembering what the Master had turned into, and wiped away a tear at remembering his old friend, the one he called “Koschei”.
“You’re projecting, you know,” Raven said in a surprisingly kind tone of voice, and the Doctor’s ears perked up in surprise. “I don’t know what experiences you’ve had with rulers in the past, but I can assure you Princess Celestia isn’t like what you think she is.”
“Is she?” The Doctor asked before his tone became much more condescending. “Or are you just worshipping her because she’s your Princess and the laws of the land must dictate you think of her as a god?”
Raven growled. In the background, Celestia just listened to the two argue.
“A-Aren’t you going to step in?” Shining whispered to her.
“Opinions on me may differ,” Celestia whispered back. “If the Doctor wants to think of me as an almighty Goddess or a tyrant, let him. If I stepped in now, I may only worsen the situation.”
“Listen, you haven’t been here long enough to get to know Celestia! You don’t know what she’s like, so you have no room to criticize her!” Raven snapped.
“Really? Do I?” The Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow. “Your Princess… She strikes me as the type to observe, never to step in unless it’s to clean up her own messes. She’s one of those generals, the ones on the battlefield who would sit back and play chess with the soldiers, thinking them as pawns while she sits drinking wine and not caring about lives. There was a leader on my planet, one would who probably identify with this quote. “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” Joseph Stalin, 1981.”
Raven’s head whipped around to face Celestia. “Are you not going to step in and tell this “Doctor” he’s wrong?” She hissed out.
“Everypony is allowed their own opinions. If he is to think of me as a tyrant, so let him.” Celestia stated, and Raven’s jaw dropped, completely gobsmacked. Celestia sighed, Raven was loyal, but it at times could come across as a fanatic loyalty and she was as stubborn as a mule, no offense to them intended. If anypony said anything against her, Raven was quick to refute them, no matter how wrong or right for that matter that they may have been. The Doctor didn’t trust her, and for all she knew, and from what she could gather by what he was saying, had a problem with authority, that much was obvious. If the Doctor was to trust her, and she didn’t mind if he never did, she would have to prove herself to be the opposite of everything he said she was however hard that may have been.
Suddenly, a small device on the TARDIS’s control console went flashed, and the Doctor galloped over to it, his hooves clanking against the metal grating. His eyes hovered over one of the small screens as he read the data displayed.
“So?” Shining asked. “What is it?”
“While we’ve been chatting each other up, the TARDIS has been running a scan on the surrounding area for the Weeping Angel. It’s in Canterlot Castle or the grounds, that much I do know. Trouble is, now we’ve got to find it,” The Doctor stated. “Scan’s not exact, we only have the general layout of the area.”
“I’ll go in alone and get everypony out of the Castle,” Celestia stated as she opened the TARDIS doors with her magic.
“But… But milady! The Angel… It’s already grabbed Princess Cadance, we can’t afford to lose you as well!” Raven stammered out in fear.
“No, this is my mess. I brought this thing here. I have to take some responsibility for my own actions. Nopony else is dying today, I’m making sure of that.” Celestia stated and the Doctor’s eyes widened.
“No… She couldn’t be… I can’t be wrong about her? Can I?” The Doctor thought, before shaking his head.
“But-” Raven began before Celestia cut her off.
“No, go. Go with the Doctor and Shining, scour the Castle and find that Angel.” Celestia stated before teleporting away leaving Raven with Shining and the Doctor. Sighing, Shining pulled out his sword.
“Come on, let’s go get this son of a bitch.” He growled out, his horn alight with a rosy colored magic...
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considering the way the Doctor has been treated by authority figures since the third Doctor its little wonder he distrusts them. Of course he probably means Celestia's comment about being immortal as just that she's long lived. If he realized the truth he'd realize how much of a power boost and much history could screwed up by the angel getting Princess Celestia. I imagine Cadance was quite a meal for the angel
Celestia had the right reaction and attitude towards the Doctor's distrust of authority figures and this will certainly play in her favour.
Also don't worry about delays, most of us are either back at school or at work, so this actually help us not be too much distract.
Mistakes found.
hooves
Its
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A meal the Doctor will have to "unmake" but like in my last comment, time travelers are the weeping angel's natural for, able to just snatch meals from them. Of course this is Doctor Who and well even unavoidable mucking about in time has consequences. Of course if Cadance is immortal she just needs to wait around to "catch up", most likely under a sleeping charm so she doesn't mess up the timeline. In fact, a Weeping Angel would love an immortal, they could feed on them over and over.
Why is he offended?
By that I mean is there a social Faux Pas I'm not aware of?
Frankly, I'd consider it offensive to use 'Somepony'. I consider it very exclusionary. There are non-ponies that live there and there the ponyfolk go pretending they are the only ones that exist. I even imagine a less polite doctor like the twelfth would call them our on it. Maybe even say something like "that's quite the narcisistic streak your people have Princess,"
Then again, the doctor hasn't met any non-ponies on Equestria yet...
there's a weird bit where Celestia & Doctor bond over the feeling of loss and then Doctor imediately goes mistrustful out of nowhere. Something needed to happen for the Doctor to turn like that. Alterateively, you could've done with the bonding bit later so they aren't chummy one second and at odds the next. the Doctor would look a bit unlikable if he's nasty to someone who is going out of there way to be nice to him for the rest of the fic so having that bondig moment later on would fix that.
According to your timeline these events take place after Voyage of the Damned (2007) so the reference to End Of Time (2009) where The Timelords tried to bring Galifrey to Earth doesn't fit.
I don't mean to sound overly critical I LOVED the rest but the last two bits didn't make sense and the first was just personal preference.
I'm also unreasonably happy that you used my idea. It was so cool that you credited me for it too! I really wasn't expecting that. Thanks!
I noticed The Doctor never actually got to tell Celestia what to do if she did encounter an Angel.
Speaking of the crying angels we know that their stone form is almost unusual and that this form is something like a protective mechanism. However, never dropped their state outside the stone form. Since these physiologists they can not control their condition and automatically move to the protection mode (stone state) when they look at them. Theoretically they can be killed when they are outside the stone form that is, when no one looks at them.
P.S.Sorry for my English
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I think the term is used so that you can distinguish who your referring too in terms of groups. If you said everyone, but there is many different types of people nearby wouldn't it be easier to label a group so that your refering to that specific group.
For example if a pony saw a pony group and griffon group, but wants too say "everyone", however the pony is specifically referring to the ponies and not the griffons when the pony says it this translates too "everypony". I mean if your talking to one group specifically and not all groups what other way do you refer to the entire specific one group? It makes sense considering there is more than one sapient species in their world so they would have labels like "everypony, everygriffon, everyminatour," it's similar to the word everyone except it's trying too refer to a specific group.
I don't think they are just trying to be tribalist it's just a label to specify towards a specific group. In fact there has been a time when they said "everyone" in the show, but that only happens when multiple species were in one area. So Shining armour is technically correcting the doctor, because in their language "everyone" can only be used when multiple sapient species are near each other and your referring to every single group. I mean they have the exact language as ours, but they do have some different rules in terms of language.