The Timepony’s Journal

by Penny_Shavins109

Chapter 11 - Destruction

The TARDIS was duly lit, its occupants lying unconscious on the floor. The console wheezed and groaned differently as if it were ill. Time was a blur within the TARDIS, especially given how time didn’t exist here. Yet despite that, time was very much running out. The Doctor’s eyes fluttered as Berry applied a special medical gauze from the TARDIS medical kit to his head. He’d hit his head on the console during the fall. What had happened? The Doctor assured that the flight was almost near-perfect. In fact he’d used the Fast Return switch to forgo the entry of coordinates in order to ensure they’d return to 963.

“Berry…where is Susan?”

“She’s in the little side room through those doors. Something’s wrong. I-I don’t know what’s going on.” Berry stuttered.

The Doctor tried to quiet her down, still somewhat delirious. He stood up, leaning heavily against the console while looking over the controls. It was hard to look at most of them, his head still throbbing. They hadn’t quite landed, yet they were also not fully in flight. It was a strange sort of temporal limbo that he hadn’t seen before. He rubbed his forehead, trying to steady his breathing and calm the pain/

“Did Susan give you these bandages?”

Berry nodded nervously. He assumed Susan did given she was the only one who knew his ship well enough. He tried to comfortably move forwards but only ended up falling. Berry caught him but he still tried to push her away. He felt angry, angry that anyone or thing would dare tamper with his ship.

“Go…go and fetch Spark for me. I need to know what’s happened to everypony.”

“Well, we crashed I think. Susan is suffering from some kind of headache but we can’t go near her.”

“Why?”

“She tried to attack me.” said Spark, wiping his forehead with a cloth.

The Doctor turned to him in disbelief. Susan, his Susan, had never had a violent thought or bone in her body. She’d never hurt a fly let alone ponies. It had to be a lie, a trick, a trap. Why though, that was the question.

“She didn’t seem to be herself, almost like some kind of zombie. Every time I got close to her she got defensive. We did nothing to harm her, I assure you.”

“Perhaps you were antagonising her then. She’s quite the sensible young mare, you know. I doubt it’d be without reason.”

“Now this is absurd. We’ve done nothing but try to be kind even after you kidnapped us to go Celestia knows where.”

“Both of you, enough! This is getting us nowhere.”

Both stallions looked at Berry in a slight sense of disbelief. The timid mare was usually in the background, now she was standing between the two of them. Almost immediately she backed down once their eyes were on her.

“A-anyway, we must’ve landed…somewhere.”

“Well, we don’t appear to be in flight yet we haven’t landed either.”

“Face it Doctor, you’re just as much in the dark as we are.”

The Doctor stood up straight, ready to unleash another tirade until Berry gave him a hard stare.

“Now is not the time for so many questions, I need to check the Fault Locator. Perhaps it’s just a simple circuit fault is all.”

The Doctor went to the back of the console room where an array of flashing lights, dials and readouts were in a room enclosed by a glass wall. He looked at the serial readouts, the TARDIS continuing to troubleshoot every single component at high speed. His vision began to blur in and out, not allowing him to concentrate.

“Sprite, could you come over here? Read out the letters and numbers once they’ve stopped changing.”

The ship felt as if it were getting hotter and stuffier every second. He was just tired, that was all. Nothing a short rest couldn’t fix. The Doctor dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief as Spark continued to watch the display.

“It’s not saying anything…” Spark said.

The Doctor didn’t fully believe him, attempting to focus on the readout himself. Sure enough, no serial number was returned. It couldn’t be functioning perfectly, could it? Come to think of it, what had been happening? Everypony was acting so strangely, perhaps it was some outside force acting upon them? It was possible that Berry and Spark had brought something in while leaving Skaro, though it didn’t feel likely. Quickly turning around the Doctor saw the TARDIS doors opening. He quickly went to the door control switch, receiving a slight shock as he attempted to touch the control. All that was outside of those doors was a bright burning light, too intense to look at for long. Just as suddenly as they’d opened, the doors had closed.

“Did you see what was out there? Where are we?” Spark asked.

The Doctor only stuttered, at a loss for words. He took a deep breath before composing himself.

“I need to see Susan…perhaps she made a mistake.”

The Doctor contemplated what was going on silently, entering the side room with Spark not far behind. Berry was by her side, gently dabbing Susan’s forehead with a damp cloth as she laid on a cot. Susan was unconscious, the heat becoming more and more prevalent.

“How is she?” asked the Doctor.

Berry looked up nervously, sweeping aside a part of her mane.

“I think she might have a fever, though I’m feeling rather warm myself. It might be a heatstroke. Is the air conditioning working?”

“Yes…in fact everything is functioning perfectly. The fault locator showed nothing, no faults in any of the TARDIS systems.”

“But the doors, they opened on their own! You can’t seriously think that this is all business as usual.” Spark retorted.

“You’re quite right, it’s possible that something else is causing the malfunction…perhaps you better fetch us some water from the food machine, eh?”

Spark joined Berry's side, looking concerned. They knew that he was suspicious of them, but even the Doctor wasn’t sure why. All he knew was that something was wrong. The Doctor held his head before moving to the food machine himself. It was a large silver box with two dials, a few buttons, and a row of lights on the front. After pushing the button labelled water a small glass on a silver tray slid out from a bottom compartment. He took a sip from the h;ass before wiping his brow again. Looking back at Susan she was back on her four hooves.

“Susan my dear… glad to see that you’re awake.”

The Doctor got another glass of water from the machine, slowly approaching his granddaughter. She didn’t move, didn’t blink, her eyes staring far beyond him. It was as if she were stuck in a trance. She quickly smacked the water out of his hoof, the glass shattering on the floor.

“Grandfather, listen! The ship is in pain, the controls. The controls are jammed, we need to leave!”

A loud alarm rang throughout the TARDIS like a low gong. Everything lurched to the side before righting itself again. Quickly returning to the console room the glass cylinder in the console’s center had risen drastically. It’d never risen this high before, such a thing shouldn’t be possible without extreme circumstances. The Doctor couldn’t touch any of the controls, not even the switch for the door. Every control he tried resulted in a light shock.

“What’s happening?” Berry asked, barely able to stand.

“The Time Rotor is lifting, only an immense inrush of energy could do such a thing.”

“And what if the rotor comes out completely?”

The Doctor paused, his throat dry as the temperature continued to rise.

“An intense inrush of energy that strong…could destroy or create stars. We’d be vaporised in an instant.”

“Can’t you do something? It’s your machine, you have to do something!” Spark begged.

“It’s too late…we’re on the edge of total destruction.”

“And we’re just supposed to sit here and do nothing?”

The Doctor turned around, putting his hoof on Susan’s shoulder. He glared at Spark disapprovingly, still somewhat irritated.

“There’s nothing we can do, the Tardis is destroying itself as we speak.”

“But there must be failsafes, something so advanced wouldn’t just let itself be destroyed.”

“And I’m telling you that every known failsafe has been bypassed. To my knowledge there is no fault, if it even truly exists.”

“You can’t seriously still be going on about sabotage. You really think that we did all of this?”

“You cannot deny that, that cannot deny that you eh knocked us unconscious!”

“ENOUGH! How many times do I really need to reign you two in? Look at you both, squabbling like a couple of foals. Now listen, we need to put our heads together and just think.”

That shut the both of them up rather quickly. Both Spark and the Doctor looked away from one another in shame. Berry sighed, rubbing the bridge of her muzzle. Clearly as a school teacher, this wasn’t her first time dealing with bickering adults. The two of them looked at one another, sharing a quick apology. Meanwhile Berry moved over to console, looking over it but not touching anything.

“So you said that every known failsafe had failed, but what if there were a failsafe that you didn’t know about?”

“Quite impossible, I know this machine in and out.”

“But it’s a possibility, what if the Tardis is trying to tell us something? We can’t touch the console, can’t even look at it properly. What if it’s trying to show us directly where the problem is? The Tardis knows what’s wrong and it’s been trying to tell us this entire time.”

“It’s…a plausible theory. The Tardis doesn’t know or think like you or I, though it does have a large bank of computers, and its energy could be considered a form of life based on some principles. Perhaps it does have some capability to convey thought outside of a purely mechanical sense.”

The Doctor walked around the console, thinking about what he’d done prior to the disturbance. He looked down at the Fast Return switch, actually able to focus on it compared to the rest of the controls. He tried pushing down on it, the switch having been stuck in place the entire time. It must’ve constantly been returning to prior locations in its history until it couldn’t do so anymore.

“I’ve got it! Quickly, get me a screwdriver. Should be in the workstation by the doors.”

Spark quickly did so, the Doctor unscrewing the panel the switch was attached to. The second the panel was removed the switch finally sprung out of place, the TARDIS finally able to escape its destruction. The time rotor quickly shifted back into its proper position before rising and falling normally. The console room shifted again, all of the anger and fear escaping from their minds. He’d heard of some old TARDISes having telepathic capabilities, but he’d never experienced them himself. All another symptom of the warnings, the sense of urgency finally gone.

“Doctor…what really happened?” Spark asked.

“Well, because the Fast Return Switch was functioning as it should, there was no fault in any of the Tardis components. We were at the beginning of a new star, where all Tardises are created.”

“I see, and we barely noticed just in time.”

“Yes…unfortunately due to the navigational system I cannot properly return you home just yet. Reusing the return switch would only send us back to where we were. I’m sorry.”

“I feel as though I should be sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“Oh no, no, I likely deserved it. I never should’ve taken you with me. You’re a strong mare, Berry, don’t take that for granted.”

Berry looked at him confused, the mysterious old stallion simply smiling back at her as he looked over the controls. She let out a muffled thank you, not having been complimented like that before. The Doctor felt as though he’d been too selfish without realising, treating them not as ponies but as some kind of attraction at a theme park. They had their own lives, their own hopes and dreams, and he had no idea what dangers he’d unintentionally thrown them into. Letting out a sigh, the Doctor twisted the knob that opened the doors, looking at whatever awaited them outside.