The Judgement of Sombra
The darkness in the Doctor’s mind flickered as his eyes fluttered open, revealing the real darkness that actually surrounded him. The Time Lord smacked his lips, doing his best to ignore his aching head. “Oh,” a voice said flatly. “You’re up.”
“Good morning, Jade. Is it morning?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
The Doctor sniffed. “No, not quite. Only a quarter to eleven.”
“If I weren’t chained up, you would be a very, very dead stallion.”
“I believe we’ve rather established that I didn’t actually write you that letter.”
There was a long silence. “No,” she admitted. “I suppose not. And I suppose we both know who did.”
“Yes. A clever trap, wasn’t it?”
“But why would he use me? I’ve always served him well, haven’t I? I’ve never argued with him about anything, never tried to stop anything he ever did…”
“Maybe you should have.”
“And then what? Die? Do you know— No. No, you don’t. Of course you don’t understand, how could you? You’re a foreigner. You’re an Equestrian, with your perfect, pretty, lovely princess-goddesses. You’ve never had to face tyranny.”
The Doctor let out a low, humorless chuckle. “You’d be surprised,” he muttered.
There was silence. “What do you expect?” Jade asked quietly. “Anypony who stands up, who fights back, they don’t die. Corundum… They disappear. I don’t know how, but the dissidents just… vanish.”
The Doctor was silent. He let out a low breath. He felt downright dismal, all over. He paused to review that last thought. That was odd. He was in his element, here! The only explanation was… “Jade,” he said quietly. “It’s not too late. It’s not too late to save the Empire, I promise.”
She snorted. “How would you know?”
“Because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the future. A thousand years into the future, the Crystal Empire will stand tall and strong, shining and glowing in the sunlight. Can you see it, Jade? Can you see the light?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“No,” the Doctor said fiercely. The darkness seemed to shift subtly, and Jade suddenly had the strange idea that the Doctor was much closer now, and that the dungeon was much farther away. “Listen to me. Hear what I’m saying. I promise you, Jade, that the Empire will be restored, to its former glory and beyond. I need you to believe me, down deep in your bones. Can you do that?”
Silence. “I…” she choked. “Yes. I can.”
“Listen to me. I promise you, nopony else is going to die here. Nopony at all, I swear to you.”
“How do you know that?”
In the darkness, you couldn’t see the bright flash of a grin that suffused the Time Lord’s face, but you could certainly feel it. “I’m the Doctor. That’s what I do.”
And behind them, a little bit of the jet-black crystal faded to a more translucent blue.
Sweetie Belle continued down the especially boring corridor, tracing patterns in the crystal with her gaze. Oddly enough, she felt rather safe here. A couple of guards had passed by about an hour ago, which had been terrifying. But neither of them paid the mare any notice, their eyes skimming over her as though she were invisible, their faces distracted and faintly fuzzy-headed. The boredom of the corridor was affecting them far more strongly than it did Sweetie. She supposed that made sense. Guards are generally pretty bored anyway, what with all the routines and standing still and stuff. She, on the other hoof, could find something interesting to do almost anywhere.
And this, she thought to herself, was the most interesting thing she’d found here yet. A bust of a royal guard atop a pillar, staring down at her. She stared back and stuck out her tongue at it, grinning broadly. “What are you doing here?” she asked, cocking her head. “You’re the only statue here in this boring ol’ hallway. You must be lonely.”
The guard, in the manner of statuary everywhere, said nothing whatsoever. Sweetie’s eyes softened. She’d always had a soft spot for inanimate objects that looked like living things. As a foal, she’d not only named all her stuffed animals and dolls, but all of Rarity’s dress dummies as well, and worried if they were neglected. She patted the guard’s helmet. “Don’t you worry, Lieutenant Marble. I’m sure you’ll get a better post soon.”
Lieutenant Marble showed his appreciation for this show of support by beginning suddenly to revolve around and sink into the ground slowly, rumbling loudly. Around him, the air turned dark with a sort of anti-light that seemed to obscure rather than clarify. Sweetie squeaked and fell backwards. “Oh, no, no, no, no, don’t do that, shush, shush, I don’t think I’m supposed to be here…”
But the Lieutenant did not obey her orders. Quietly, a small part of her brain demoted him a rank or two. The rest of her mind was focusing mainly on panicking as the pillar descended further into the floor, glowing black, until all that remained in sight was the head of the recently-demoted Sergeant Marble. The noise and shaking stopped. In the silence, you could almost hear a pin drop, on the off chance that somepony was around who possessed a pin and was willing to drop it solely for dramatic effect. This eventuality did not come to pass, and so Sweetie had a completely unobstructed aural vantage of her doom rushing towards her in the form of armored hooves clattering down the hall. Somehow she doubted that even the protective aura of tedium would allow her to escape notice this time.
She glanced around wildly. The hoofsteps were coming from either side of the hallway, and already she could see shadows flickering against the walls, cast by the faintly glowing walls. Had they always been that blue? And then her eyes fell upon the hole.
Well. Hole was, perhaps, an uncharitable term. It was not ragged and cramped, like a mousehole, and neither was it jagged and unstable like something dug out with a spade. It was, rather, a perfect rectangle cut into the wall, joined up so neatly that it could have gone unnoticed for centuries, were it not for the interference of the statue. Silently, Sweetie promoted him up several ranks to Captain Marble. The sounds of pursuit grew increasingly loud as the mare slipped into the secret passage. There was another grumbling rumble, and the hole closed once more, sealing itself into invisibility. The pillar revolved back to its original height, and a fanciful individual might be tempted to say that it held itself with more purpose, more pride than it ever had before.
However, we are not, by and large, fanciful individuals, so we will merely note here that as the guards burst onto the scene of the Loud Scary Rumble, the bust had turned a shade rather closer to pale blue. This went completely and utterly unnoticed by almost every being present.
Almost.
The guards that had come to grab them from the cells had been rather rough, but they didn’t actually seem enthused to inflict injury on their prisoners. Solid working ponies, the Doctor thought. Nine-to-fivers. Well, mind-controlled nine-to-fivers, but still, fairly decent. As guards go, solid… seven out of ten.
The Doctor and Jade found themselves hauled through various halls, suffering a dizzying array of emotions vying for command. Frankly, the Doctor was beginning to find it rather tedious. For the past several hours, visions of Adric, Kameleon, Katrina, and more had been jostling for his attention in the crystalline patterns. It had been rather effective, at first. The vision of a crying Ditzy Doo particularly twinged at his hearts. After the first hour or so, though, the repetitive images began to lose their sting. It was like a cinema death scene being played over and over again from different angles. New points of view, certainly, but ultimately the same, pointless ending. Overdramatic and overdone, and quite easy to tune out like background noise.
Rather than allow himself to be distracted, the Doctor focused on his temporary companion, Jade. She, it seemed, wasn’t faring quite as well as he was, but she didn’t look to be suffering overmuch. Likely, she was more affected by the idea of being up in court before the king, an idea which, the Doctor had to admit, didn’t appeal to him, either. Sombra was an odd fellow, to be certain. Well, perhaps that was an understatement. Or an overstatement. There was something about him that wasn’t right. To be sure, there were many things about him that weren’t right. The Doctor had met a good few megalomaniacs and egotists over his lives (and then there was his sixth incarnation…), but the King was distinct from them. He thought over what had happened in the stone circle. It was as though Sombra was an actor, playing a part…
But why?
And then a pair of double doors opened and a great wash of dark-yellow light poured into the hall.
Sweetie Belle squeaked in surprise as the door in the wall slid shut behind her, encasing her in darkness. She blinked once or twice, her eyes slowly adjusting to the stygian gloom. When that didn’t help, she lit her horn, and a faint, mint-green glow suffused the walls, slowly strengthening until she could actually see her surroundings.
There wasn’t much to see, honestly. The walls were rock, rather than crystal, dull and dark and rough and altogether rather homely. Sweetie smiled faintly at the dull walls. Suddenly, she felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her mind. The plain stone was a blessed relief from the bright glow of the corridor. Odd how you never noticed it while you were in it.
She took a few hesitant steps forward. How far did these tunnels go? Another important question; how was she to open the doors from the inside?
The enormity of the situation suddenly hit her like a ton of crystals. She lit her horn up further and scanned along the walls, searching for a mechanism, a switch, anything. The wall was devoid of any such device. Slowly, Sweetie took a deep, shuddering breath in and slowly exhaled through her nose. There had to be another way out somewhere, right? What would be the point of these tunnels if they just led you around outside the castle walls?
With that in mind, the unicorn cantered forward quickly, hooves skittering and skipping over the damp stone floor. On the other side of the castle, a dark stallion squeezed his eyes shut, his mind in the painful grip of… something.
He waved an armored hoof of dismissal in the general direction of an honor guard who had made no move to aid him in any case. “Bring them in,” he snarled.
It wasn’t a very pleasant courtroom. The walls radiated prejudice. Literally. The Doctor almost didn’t recognize the emotion at first, until he caught himself daydreaming about the death of Davros, the destruction of the Daleks.
He shook himself. Obviously he was thinking of that because the Daleks were the most terrible and self-centered genocidal xenophobes that the universe had ever seen. Obviously. He would have to take care to avoid thinking of them.
The Doctor was distracted from that train of thought when suddenly, the entire room rose to their hooves in perfect unison, a response to some unheard command. Quickly, Jade rose as well, and the Doctor only hesitated a moment before doing the same.
In the next instant, a door swung open on the other side of the room, and a swirling, dark-grey miasma emerged, dissipating in the air to reveal Sombra, still in his red, red cape and collar, though he had swapped out his crown for an admittedly very fetching grey wig. An actor, the Doctor thought again. It’s all a show. But for whose benefit? For what twisted entertainment? For an unpleasant moment, he thought of the Roman arena, the miniscope, the Psychic Circus. Then he shook himself firmly. No, it was the room, influencing his thoughts. Stay objective.
He turned to the judge’s bench in the center of the chamber, where the dark king had seated himself. Sombra’s eye passed over him, glowing deep violet. Just for a moment, the Doctor thought he saw a glimmer of something in the King’s eye. Pity, perhaps? It was a familiar expression, but one which the Time Lord could not place. In any case, it was gone in the next moment, the gaze turned away. There was a faint rumble, and then the unicorn began to speak. “Assembled of the Crystal Empire,” he purred. “We are assembled here today to adjudge the case of Jade Corona and Doctor… what was it? Time Turner? Time Turner, against the Empire At Large for the crime of conspiracy to treason. Guilty party, how do you plead?”
The Doctor frowned. “Don’t you mean, ‘accused’ rather than ‘guilty?’”
Sombra smiled broadly, showing off his sharp fangs. “Slip of the tongue.”
“Right. Well, we plead not guilty, your dishonor.”
The king’s eyes flashed red. “What was that?”
“Sorry. Slip of the tongue.” The Doctor smirked and Jade stared at him in befuddled panic. The rest of the court did not react. It was as though they were all extras in a film.
Sombra leaned forward, but visibly restrained himself. “Let it be recorded that the… defendants… have entered the verdict ‘not guilty.’”
There was a sudden sound of scratching and scribbling quills throughout the court, as easily two dozen crystal ponies began to take notes. One, the Doctor noticed with a small grin, had no ink. That smile quickly vanished when he watched the pony take the quill and stab himself in the leg, using the blood to record his transcript.
“Will the prosecution call their first witness to the stand?” Sombra asked.
A grey stallion in chains rose slowly and hobbled forward. “Prosecution…” he gasped. “Calls to the stand his highness, King Sombra of the Crystal Empire.”
The stallion rose from behind the podium and removed his wig, then sat down in the shorter stand next to him. The Doctor blinked. He’d expected a kangaroo court, but he hadn’t expected it to be this blatant. “Your highness, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth or whatever?”
The tan stallion’s jaw popped open. “I do,” said the king.
The Doctor scowled. Right, okay, no. You know what, we all know how this is going to end. How about we skip the farce and move right to the grand finale, hm?
No one paid him any mind. The Time Lord frowned, more than a tad affronted. He turned to Jade. They aren’t paying attention to me! I mean, I’m not easy to ignore, and they aren’t paying me any mind!
Jade stared straight ahead and sighed.
Sombra’s eyes flickered over the Time Lord for a brief moment as he spoke. The Doctor wasn’t really listening; it sounded a terribly dull account of their discovery and capture.
Bloody kangaroo court, the Doctor thought. Hope it’ll be over soon.
“AND in conclusion,” Sombra said, raising his voice and glaring at the unruly defendants, “it is my belief that there is no alternative explanation for this party’s presence -- breaking curfew, no less -- in Emerald Gardens.”
There was a brief smattering of applause from the assembled. The elderly grey stallion took a deep, shuddering breath and let it out. “The prosecution… rests. The defense may cross-examine.”
Before the grey crystal pony could even return to his seat, the Doctor was up in front of Sombra. The king stared, taken slightly aback by the intrusion. “Good morning, your highness. It is morning, isn’t it? What, about quarter after one?”
“I… yes, I believe so,” Sombra replied, confused.
“Right, let’s get to it. We all know how this is going to end, don’t we? Like I said before. Go on, no harm in answering.”
Obsidian eyes glittered with menace. “You were quite correct in your assessment, Doctor.”
“Ah, you did hear me, then.” The Doctor nodded. “I thought so. Trouble is, you can’t have done.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You can’t have heard my comments about the trial, for the simple reason that I didn’t say them out loud,” the Doctor. “I only thought them, on a certain telepathic wavelength, one that can’t even be picked up by ponies. So, what are you, then? A Naiad? An umbra? Go on, no secrets in a courtroom.”
Sombra raised an eyebrow. “I assure you, that I was born and raised in the Empire, Doctor. I am crystal, through and through. Anypony here can attest to that, including Jade.”
The Doctor frowned. “Hm. Well, still. Just wanted to say, I’m onto you.”
“Noted. Shall we return to the script?”
“Why not?”
“Very good.” Sombra cleared his throat. “LIES!” roared the king, his eyes blazing with octarine flame. “You are Equestrian spies, sent to spy on my sovereign nation!”
He turned to the crowd. “Well, we all know the fate of Equestrian spies, don’t we?”
A roar went up from the assembled.
“Your highness, please, I beg you,” Jade said, wide-eyed. “I swear to you that the letter did not come from my hoof! I have served you faithful--”
“You lied to me,” Sombra thundered, his brow darkening, eyes flashing. “You say that you did not conspire with these Equestrians, yet you lied about their intentions and were found in their company after curfew.”
“I didn’t know!” Jade shouted. “I didn’t do anything that you didn’t tell me to! I obeyed you, every one of your commands! And now you’re punishing me for carrying out your orders!” Beneath the mare’s hooves, the bitters-yellow floor discolored, a section of translucent blue spreading over it. The Doctor watched it grow, fascinated.
Sombra apparently noticed as well, and his lip curled up in a sneer to see it. His gavel came down with a short, hard bang. “Guilty on all charges,” he thundered. “Doctor, you will be executed come sunrise. As for you, Advisor Corona… Guards! Take her to the main hall. I’ll deal with her later.”
Jade scowled as a pair of heavies grabbed her. “So, what, you’ll make me disappear like all the rest? I remember, you know! Corundum! Ruby Red! Sparkleshine! Gone without a trace.” She laughed bitterly. “Well, I’ll finally know how you did it.”
The king’s lips drew back in the mockery of a smile, like a dog about to attack. “No. You won’t.”
The Doctor watched soberly as his compatriot was carted away. He looked up at Sombra. “I’ll save her, you know,” he said, his voice cold. “And then, I’m going to take you down with everything that you stand for.”
Sombra chuckled. “My good Doctor, I hope you try. Guards, return him to the cell.”
The Doctor stared at Sombra as he was escorted from the room. The king did not look back.
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Time Lords. Don't even try to figure out all the features they have under the biological hood. I doubt even they know all of them.
Tyrants work so hard to snuff out hope because they know it's one of the strongest weapons against them.
It was a hobbit hole, and that meant comfort.
Wait, sorry, got my notes mixed up.
I was wondering about the lack of quotation marks. Lovely touch.
Which is a lot more dramatic on a world full of magical creatures than, say, the Discworld, where most folks outside of the Unseen University campus can't really appreciate the effect.
The sad thing is that he means it.
With the spotlight on the Doctor, Sweetie's free to muck about backstage. Definitely looking forward to seeing what both do, especially now that the Doctor's noticed the cleansed crystal.
Seriously. There was a comic where the third Doctor taught himself to fly, and other Time Lords have been shown doing it or referring to it throughout the series, but it just never comes up in plots.
Thanks!
Oh, I just realized that I'm all caught up now and will have to wait for the rest of it.
10167478
Third Doctor: Learns how to fly
Fourth Doctor: Fell to his death
And people wonder why Doctor Who fans gave up on the concept of continuity. Pretty much every single aspect of the franchise will have at least one other thing that contradicts it or otherwise creates some kind of continuty error. And that's not even counting the things that are confusing on purpose. (I dare anyone to show me another series who did a plotline about a war without ever actually saying who one of the sides were)
10346609
Yeah, I gave up on continuity around the time I realized that the first three Doctors visited Atlantis three times, all of them contradicting one another utterly. Now I just look for pieces of story that appeal to my magpie brain.
10350868
Technically speaking there is only one canonical source in Doctor Who. Anne it isn't even the Tv Series.
Strictly speaking the only source ever defined as 'Canon' by the BBC, are the adventure games.r
Personally I view anything on the Tv as Canon. Big Finish as secondary Canon, and the rest as "Not really Canon but still fun." With the 8th Doctor Books all having been overwritten by the Time War.