Chapter 15: Time Heals All Wounds
A journalist would later describe the explosion as ‘a fiery rainbow exploding in the sky.’ The sheer level of magical energy that was released into the air was almost inconceivable. The weather over Canterlot and the surrounding area would be uncontrollable for a least a month afterwards. Despite this though, it had all been worth the damages. Families would mourn for those who had died, researchers and scientists would be denied a chance to examine all cyber technology after it was collected, (and swiftly destroyed,) but life would eventually return to normal as it always did. The same could not be said for the Doctor, as things were about to take a turn for the strange.
Octavia nearly took the hinges off the door leading to the roof in her panicked state. She often forgot how strong she was when she tapped into her earth pony strength. The group had finally regained the ability to move freely with little discomfort when they had heard the explosion above them. Every possible worst case scenario had entered Octavia’s head all at once and every single one involved the Doctor’s death.
She couldn’t say for certain if she loved him, but she deeply cared for him. He was bright, unique, he had a love for her music, he was infectiously charming and no matter what he said about himself, he was a good stallion, or rather, a good man. She imagined that if they had all survived this, Vinyl would tease her relentlessly about marriage and foals like she always used to when she was dating somepony. Although when put with the Doctor, it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant thought. Although she doubted that biology would ever allow the pair to have foals of their own.
All those pleasant thoughts seemed to evaporate as she stared at the lifeless form of the Doctor who was lying at the foot of the destroyed tower on his back. Everypony else hadn’t noticed the Doctor until Octavia took off sprinting towards the fallen Time Lord. They had been too busy gazing at the destroyed towers remains. Once they had noticed what Octavia was galloping towards, Vinyl led the charge to investigate.
The Doctor’s body was covered in battle scars from the fight with the Master and the explosion. Bruises, cuts, singed clothing and a golden glow all showed the signs of a fallen champion. Octavia’s heart dropped inside her chest at the sight before her. She couldn’t prevent the tears that began to form in her eyes from falling down her cheeks as she hugged his neck. Celestia had arrived with the rest of the group and quickly performed a spell over the Doctor’s body, but the results greatly confused her.
“Tia, what’s wrong,” asked a visibly concerned Luna.
“I can’t tell if he’s alive or dead, it’s like his body is experiencing both at the same time.”
“He might be regenerating,” suggested Ditzy.
“B-but I can’t hear him breathing,” said Octavia through choked sobs. “I-I-I don’t….”
“AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!” The Doctor shot up in a burst of pain. He began to gasp for air and shake his head in a desperate attempt to clear it, but he was tackled by a grey object that wrapped her hooves around his neck. The grey object was soon joined by two white forms, a cyan form and a multitude of other colours before a voice beckoned them away.
“Please everypony, I’m sure the Doctor would rather not be strangled just after reviving.” Everypony quickly got off the fallen Time Lord who was beginning to make out everypony again. He felt a hoof collide with his arm, and when he turned to the assailant, he saw a teary eyed Vinyl who was missing her glasses.
“You’re a jerk, y’know that right? You had us all so worried.” Despite her angry words, her beaming smile showed her real thoughts. Octavia stood by her as she let out a relieved sigh. All the while, the golden aura around the Doctor was healing all of his scars and wounds.
“Hey Doctor, your face is getting all better,” said an ecstatic Pinkie Pie. It took a moment to connect all the dots in his head, but the Doctor finally spoke.
“The fall should have killed me alone, but all the regeneration energy I absorbed to prevent the machine from working has been healing me, apparently my species and the Master’s was enough of a genetic match.” The Doctor began to stand up and he received a helping hoof from a very grateful sun princess.
“Thank you, Doctor. If not for you, we would have become slaves to a mad pony.”
“Speaking of which, where is the Master? He has a lot to answer for,” growled Luna. The group took a moment to look around but found no sign of a body close by.
“Maybe he survived and ran away,” muttered Rarity.
“How far have you fallen, Doctor?” Ditzy asked to no one in particular. Despite what he did, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness for her former friend.
“I personally won’t be satisfied until I find either him, or his body,” announced Luna. “There will be questions asked about all of this and… Doctor? Is the golden glow meant to stay that long?”
Everypony turned their attention to the Time Lord, who gave Luna a puzzled expression. He looked over his body again to find the subtle golden glow was still emitting from his form. All his wounds were healed and he didn’t feel a regeneration coming at all. Then he realized that there was a problem, his body was rejecting the energy, but the energy was fighting back. There was war going on inside his body.
The Doctor fell to one knee as a sudden jolt of pain drove inside his body, and he clutched his stomach. Everypony ran to his location to find the Time Lord in an incredible amount of pain. The Doctor grunted again as he wrapped his arm around his stomach. He arched his back and opened his mouth. A sort of golden cloud floated out of his mouth and the Doctor cried out in pain for a third time.
“Oh no,” whimpered Fluttershy, “Doctor, please, what do we do? What’s wrong?”
“Argh, I-I’m overflow-wing with regenerative energy. I-I can’t…” Again he cried in pain. Everypony's panicked faces told the entire story, nopony knew what to do. “… I told you all that I regen…. regen…” he struggled to finish his sentence until Octavia finished it for him.
“You regenerate your body when you’re about to die, that’s what you're trying to say isn’t it?” asked Octavia, and the Doctor nodded weakly.
“Despite the similarities between my realities Time Lord’s and this realities Time Lord’s, we’re still too different. My body is rejecting the energy, but the energy is fighting back. I have to release it all before it kills me.”
“Then do it now, hurry!” Rainbow Dash practically screamed out the order in desperation. The Doctor shook his head.
“I-I-I c-cant. With this much energy, I might attract a ro-rouge alien species looking fo-or a go-ood fuel source. I-I ne-eed to rel-ease it in a safe place.”
“Well what about the TARDIS then?” suggested Vinyl Scratch.
“Th-that would work but it’s…”
“Say no more Doctor, we can teleport you to your TARIDS. It’s in the Ponyville library, yes?” The Doctor nodded weakly. “Let’s go my little ponies. It appears we don’t have much time.” A flash of light surrounded the ponies and Time Lord on the roof, and then they vanished.
Meanwhile…
The majority of the ponies in Ponyville were now awake, confused, shocked, and downright dumbfounded. Many speculated on the earpieces and the explosion in the sky. All of that only helped to increase Twilights anxiety about the whole ordeal. She so badly wanted to travel to Canterlot to check on her friends and mentor, but she didn’t know if she was strong enough to get to Canterlot in her present condition. Plus, she couldn’t leave the still recovering ponies of the town in case there was some kind of attack. Twilight still didn’t know the full picture, and that probably frustrated her the most. Was her mentor the enemy? Who were they even fighting? What was the goal of this convoluted plan? So many questions and no clear answers, and if there was anything Twilight hated, it was unanswered questions. That and overdue library books.
She spied Applejack conversing with her brother, and Spike assisting Nurse Redheart with treating ponies in nearby tents. Nopony seemed to be suffering any severe or long-term effects. According to Redheart, the worse cases were only exhibiting exhaustion. This soothed some of Twilights worries, but not all. Mayor Mare was only told that the tower was to be built via direct orders from Celestia herself. The speech and the earplugs were also Celestia’s doing. This information seemed to confirm Celestia’s part in all of this, but she held onto the hope that Spike was right and Celestia had been mind controlled the entire time. She just couldn’t see her mentor willingly doing this.
Twilight would get her answers sooner rather than later, when she heard a pop behind her. This particular pop sounded like somepony had just teleported using magic, a noise that Twilight was very familiar with. When she turned around, the large form of Princess Celestia was mere meters away from her.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight cried aloud. Nearly everypony within proximity turned in shock at the new arrivals. Along with Princess Celestia was Princess Luna, the rest of the elements, Vinyl, Octavia, Ditzy and the Doctor who looked like he was in a great deal of pain. There was no sign of the other Doctor but that hadn’t registered with Twilight yet as she was too busy galloping towards her mentor.
“Princess, you’re safe. What happened? Is the Doctor hurt? Were you involved in this?” Twilight’s barrage of questions came screeching to a halt as Celestia raised a hoof to stop her.
“Twilight, I promise you that I will personally answer all of your questions when it is appropriate, but right now, we must help our saviour.” At that moment, both Spike and Applejack ran over to see the commotion.
“Doctor? You alright there sugar cube?” asked the apple farmer. The Doctor could only shake his head weakly at this point. Standing was difficult enough, the Doctor had to use Luna as a support. The golden glow was getting brighter by the second.
“We don’t have time for this,” cried Octavia, “we have to get the Doctor to the TARDIS.”
“Oh right, I’ll open the door.” Twilight teleported to the library door and held it open while her friends did their best to guide the Time Lord through. The looks of confusion and worry on the town’s populace could not match the looks of concern on the Doctor’s friends. Rainbow looked like she was about to scream in panic, Pinkie had been disturbingly quiet, Rarity felt helpless at the scene before her, while Fluttershy was acting like a reassuring mother, telling her child that everything was going to be fine.
The inside of the library was the same as always. The TARDIS was in the exact same place, waiting for the Doctor’s return. The Doctor hobbled towards the TARDIS door, using Luna as a support. He picked the TARDIS key from his pocket and turned the lock until he heard a click. Octavia pushed open the door so the Doctor could enter on his own as he desperately hobbled to the TARDIS coach. His body was reacting in a way that he had never experienced before. Instead of the on-going battle that he felt before, it now felt like a new being was trying to escape from him. It didn’t make sense, he wasn’t regenerating, that much the Doctor was certain. Another cry of pain only served to worry his friends even more.
“Princess, what in Equestria is happening?” asked Twilight with a panic stricken face. Octavia answered for her.
“It’s a terribly long story. It turned out the pony Doctor was behind this all along. He betrayed the cybermen and was using all of us the entire time. The Doctor stopped him, but in the process I believe he absorbed his regeneration energy. Since it’s technically alien, his body is accepting it and rejecting it at the same time. The Doctor has to forcefully release it, but he has to do it in a safe place, otherwise he might attract some unwanted guests.” The Doctor nodded weakly to confirm the situation. Twilight approached the pained Time Lord.
“Oh, Doctor. Is there anything we can do for you?” At that moment, the Doctor was finally turning the tide. He was ready to release the energy into the room.
“I need y-you all to stand back,” he said. Twilight did so with no argument as the ponies trotted to the other side of the room. Anticipation was brewing inside of them, none of them knew what to expect. The Doctor began to stand up one last time. He barely made it to the console as he used it as a support. He suddenly felt like a great weight was about to be released from his shoulders, while at the same time, the TARDIS was beckoning him to do what he had too. “All of you, prom-promise me you’ll all keep ba-ack no matter what! This is going to be big.” A few noncommittal nods was all the Doctor needed. With that, he let go.
The energy seeped through every limb in his body, but instead of rising to the ceiling, in began to mass together on the ground. The Doctor could barely make out what was going on below him, but the others watched in shock and awe in what appeared to be a living creature coming together in the golden mist. The figure was equine in shape, its entire body was flashing in and out of existence, but the number of flashes was beginning to lessen, and soon there was just a brown body lying in the middle of the cloud.
After a moment, the Doctor felt the last of the regeneration energy had left his body. Once he was certain he was no longer in danger, and that he was in no more pain, he turned his attention to the pony that had formed in the cloud. He was disturbingly familiar. The chestnut coat, the dark brown mane, the hourglass cutie mark, he looked very similar to the Master before he regenerated. Then again, he looked a lot like the Doctor. Minus the muzzle, his facial features were reminiscent of the Time Lord. His mane was styled differently as well. The Master’s mane had been pointed backwards, while the pony’s was pointed forward. It was a slight bigger version of the Doctor’s own hair.
The Doctor looked over to the others to find that they were all stunned silent. Nopony was able to find the words to sum up what they had just witnessed. The golden energy that had left his body had created a whole new life form. Who this pony was had yet to be established. At that moment, the pony’s eyes began to open. He didn’t slowly rise up, instead, he shot up and scanned his surroundings. He could see the group of ponies in front of him, but he hadn’t noticed the Time Lord behind him.
“Huh. How did I end up on the floor?” Everypony’s eyes shot wide open. He sounded just like the Time Lord behind him. “Now let’s see, there was a cyberman invasion, a combination of myself and the Master in a pony body, and then I had to absorb that regeneration energy.” He paused for a moment and Applejack shook her head out of her daze.
“Now who the heck are you?” she asked.
“Hold on a moment Applejack, I need to get my brain back in gear,” interrupted the Stallion. He looked over to the console again, and then it hit him. “Aha! You all took me back me here so I could safely get rid of the built up regeneration energy.” He pointed his hoof towards them, to help confirm what he already knew in his head. “All I can remember then is… I have a hoof.”
It was the statement itself that left the Stallion dumbfounded. Right in front of him, the limb he had chosen to point at his friends was in fact a foreleg. He stared at it for a moment, and then it occurred to him that he was also a lot shorter than he was before. He could only barely reach the TARDIS console if he tried reaching up to it, he had assumed he was just kneeling or sitting down. Slowly his current situation began to dawn on the stallion. He now had fur and it was a light, chestnut brown. There was also a muzzle sticking out of his face where his mouth once was. The Doctor had experienced many things, being a pony was a new one.
“Well then, it appears I’m a pony,” he simply stated. There was no real emotion in his voice. At best, the group could make out a hint of exasperation. Octavia gingerly took a step forward towards the new stallion and asked the obvious question.
“Excuse me, but who are you?” The pony looked straight at her and gave Octavia a warm smile.
“Tavi, it’s me, the Doctor.” A series of gasps filled the room. Ditzy nearly hit the roof upon the revelation but kept her cool.
“Wait, are you my Doctor?” she asked. Vinyl’s eyes squinted at the stallion.
“I’m sorry Ditzy, but I’m not. Do you not remember? He either died or escaped when the tower exploded. It’s me, Octavia’s Doctor. Although it appears I have regenerated into an equine form. That’s odd, I didn’t feel like I was regenerating. Perhaps the foriegn Time Lord regeneration energy works differently and caused-” Dash practically exploded from the other side of the console.
“But you’re not the Doctor. He’s the Doctor!” The Doctor followed Rainbow’s hoof so he turned around. Towering over him was what he remembered looking like no less than several minutes ago. The Time Lord gazed down upon the pony. The entire time, the Doctor had carefully listened to what the stallion had to say. There was only one conclusion to who that was. It was him, it was the Doctor.
“What?” asked the Time Lord in utter bewilderment.
“What?” replied the pony Time Lord, now gazing up at him.
The two beings looked into the others eyes. Both creatures looked as if they were in their late twenties to early thirties, but their eyes betrayed them. They had old eyes, ancient eyes. There was no doubt in their minds. They were looking at the Doctor. They were both the Doctor. Every possible way this could happen was running through their minds. In the end, at the exact same moment, they both reached the same conclusion.
“No!”
“No!”
“No!”
"No!”
At the exact same time, the pair shouted the same thing.
“Of course!” The pair both began to smile uncontrollably, as they strolled around the TARDIS together”
“It makes so much sense,” started the taller Doctor. “I’ve never had to release so much energy before at once. In normal instances, it would have dispersed into the atmosphere…”
“…But we were in a controlled environment,” continued the pony Doctor. “We were in the TARDIS. A place we have spent hundreds of years inside. This ship is reeking of our DNA. On top of that…”
“…It wasn’t normal Time Lord regeneration energy, it was Time Lord regeneration energy from this universe. The energy tethered onto my DNA and began to rebuild me from the DNA in the room because there was no place for it to leave…”
“…But since it was Time Lord energy from this universe, it rebuilt me into a pony version of yourself. That’s me…”
“…You have all my memories and the memories of the Master…”
“…I have your personality…”
“…In summation…”
“…I am you!”
Both Doctor’s hugged each other, lost in the moment. This was so weird and wrong, yet at the same time it was so right and it made so much sense. The two Doctor’s let go of each other and faced their friends. They could only look on and see the bizarre situation before them. At the same time, everypony voiced their confusion at the situation before them.
“WHAT!?”
Well... that escalated quickly. In case your wondering what the pony Doctor looks like, he's wearing the overcoat and holding the sonic screwdriver below.
You see, he's all set to appear in the League of... SSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Spoilers! ;)
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Is... Is that Ulysses? In the picture? and Joshua Graham?
This is gonna be interesting!
3174900 That is Ulysses, but the other stallion your referring too is the Invisible pony
3174916 No, better idea, the pony with the bandages could be the pony form of The Hidden.
It feels like a doctor who episode.
all I have to say is that you are a brilliant writer.
Everything feels like something Ten would do, down to the specific words and hilarious banter.
and suddenly, renewed excitement for November 29th.
God you make me want MOAR Doctor Who and MOAR Ponies even MOAR then I already did. Congrats, this was fantastic. Keep up the great work!
3174995 Story is already being written I'm afraid
So no hidden
3179218 Aw, oh well, that means there's still a need for a Hidden crossover
Oh dear
I see you.
Somebody explain to me why I want this to continue, but my mind is just all over the place at the same time, please...?
3187361 I have no answers, can you go into more detail?
3188648 Well, I mean it's quite like a Doctor Who episode, in that my mind is just....out there. I feel like my head's imploding from all the, from lack of a better word, mind freak. But it's interesting, again like an episode of Doctor Who, and the end of chapter 15....well again mind freak.
3191078 The idea was to make it like an episode so I'm pleased to hear you say that
3193598 You did a good job on that. I can actually imagine this as like, I don't know, a lost episode or something.