The Adventures of Doctor Whooves: Series 1

by Time Pony Victorious

Bringer of Darkness

Cavern, The Garden, Perciwing

89th of Summer, 12 Noon, 4000 L.R. (The Republic of Princess Luna)

“Doctor, calm down,” Fluttershy attempted to placate the now raging Time Lord. He paced the cavern, mumbling angrily to himself, messing up his mane as much as possible as his mind worked hard to figure out the reason for that message. Misdirection? His enemies have tried countless times to distract him by using his loved ones as either bait or leverage against him. But what would be the point of that? For some random planet in a random corner in the universe?

A trap? Well, he’s certainly trapped here but again this was all decided randomly. It would be illogical to think whoever planned this would know the Doctor would end up here. That doesn’t make any sense! And why use Twilight’s cutie mark as the signature? Why use a Dalek head? How did they even acquire a Dalek?!

The Doctor stopped and slapped himself, hard, then once more for good measure. “Who would go through such extravagant measures to get me here to see that message?”

“Um…”

“Well, besides me,” he muttered. “But that doesn’t make sense. This doesn’t make any sense!”

“Doctor…”

“And look at this!” he pointed at the carved Gallifreyan, scanning it with his sonic. “This message has been here for”—he consulted his sonic screwdriver –“Two point four billion years! That isn’t an easy feat, oh, let’s pop in a time machine to when this planet was created and leave a message!”

“Doctor…”

“And for what! To scare me? To make me angry? To…” He paused, looking around the room as he realized they had been surrounded by dozens of animals. None of them were the same species but all of them had red, glowing eyes and multicolored fur. “Distract me…”

“Um,” Fluttershy squeaked up in the claws of the bear from earlier. “I just wanted to say, we’re surrounded.”

The Doctor must admit, being captured and taken prisoner by a bunch of robotic animals is new. An honor guard of bears and gorillas carried the Doctor and Fluttershy by the forelegs deeper into the cave. They didn’t resemble each other but the Doctor could see their laser-like red eyes and hear the subtle whirring of advanced mechanics under their skin.

“Cyberanimals,” the Doctor remarked. “Certainly new.”

“Oh yes, this is the first time I’ve encountered them as well,” Fluttershy nodded with a timid smile. Despite her pale expression and bandaged, stiff wings, she seemed surprisingly well. Perhaps it was the fact that she was surrounded by animals, albeit slightly evil.

The Doctor looked around and tried to focus on his surroundings. The cavern was certainly naturally formed, water and wind and the elements have worn this place down over the course of millions of years, so it wasn’t some artificial base of operations for some villain.

The animals, as well, were only recently made into Cyber-things. The Doctor glanced at a Cyberbear’s shoulder, its fur was coarse but still full and healthy, meaning this change was only a recent one. That was slightly informative but, as with everything else, only served to confuse the Time Pony.

None of this seemed to make sense, if the Doctor wasn’t absolutely sure there was a chess master, of sorts, manipulating these events he would honestly peg it as random coincidence! That Gallifreyan message, the Dalek head… Twilight’s cutie mark signature.

Scowling slightly, the Doctor shook his head and decided to focus on the problem at hoof. He knew it was a bad idea but if he didn’t then more harm would befall Fluttershy and he’d never forgive himself.

“So! Cyberanimals, eh?” the Doctor said with a great big smile, looking at the bear at his side. “I mean that’s quite scary but not, well, end-of-the-universe scary. More like, ‘Oh look at that poor dog in the Henderson’s lawn, all chained up and barking up a storm’!”

The animals were, however, not as receptive as he hoped. They deliberately maintained their military decorum and did not stop their monotonous marching. Fluttershy was uncharacteristically, very calm despite the situation. While most of the Doctor’s companions would’ve responded to this situation with more fire, Fluttershy maintained a calm demeanor.

Still, behind those eyes, the Doctor sensed that she was more worried than she let on but chose to hide it. At first he figured it was to reassure the Time Pony that she was, in fact, calm, but he then realized it was more for the animals. Animals generally respond to someone’s emotions and demeanor, the calmer and in control the person (or pony, in this case) seems the less likely the animal will fall into a wild rage.

It was both inspiring and reassuring, but the Doctor wasn’t sure there was anything left in these Cyberanimals. As near as the Doctor figured, they may be controlled by a central transmitter, receiving orders from a mastermind elsewhere. But still that didn’t make much sense, did this big bad want to lead the Doctor down here to see the message and this secret base?

What kind of fool would deliberately expose their plans, especially to someone like the Doctor?

“Um, excuse me, Mr. Bear,” Fluttershy said gently, startling the Doctor out his thoughts. “I’d just like to know something. Why did those Cyberbirds create that tornado? Was it to hurt the other animals, because it didn’t do anything but get our attention…”

The Doctor blinked, staring at Fluttershy incredulously. He mentally noted not to underestimate the pegasus, as timid as she is, she is still rather sharp and quick to adapt.

“Perhaps a fault?” the Doctor suggested. “Why would they want to put the local resources in danger?”

Fluttershy frowned, perhaps bothered by the Doctor’s insensitivity, dismissing innocent lives as resources, but she didn’t respond to his poor mood and ill-temper.

“Whatever the case,” the Doctor continued, scowling at the Cyberanimals. “I will put a stop to it, and you can tell your leader I’ll find them as well!”

The TARDIS, The Garden, Perciwing

A few minutes ago…

Darkness enveloped the hill where the time machine sat. It covered the area in a thousand kilometer radius in perpetual obscurity. Light faded, warmth snuffed out, the temperature dropped so quickly the grass and trees were caked with frost and ice. The TARDIS itself began wailing the cloister bell throughout all of time and space but even sound became muffled in the wake of this evil.

Shadows and black magic manifested in a lone figure. Their body left ambiguous to shape and gender yet the distinct silhouette of a pony was allowed to surface. It approached the TARDIS almost with trepidation, as if overwhelmed by the familiarity of the situation.

A cold wave washed over the hill as the pony finally stood in front of the screaming time machine. “It’s been a very long time…” the pony cooed, its voice warped and echoed as if spoken from deep underground. “You’re looking… young, Old Girl.”

Magic surrounded the TARDIS and focused on the doors. Psychic feedback screeched as the TARDIS resisted this influence from opening her doors but it wasn’t strong enough. The doors opened slowly, with a deafening screech, as if the TARDIS was crying from the unwanted intrusion, until it was opened completely.

The enigmatic pony stepped through, indifferent to its almost violent intrusion into this beautiful time machine. Freezing waves of cruelty radiated from the pony as they approached the console, gently touching its controls despite the TARDIS’s psychic protests.

“Time and Relative Dimension in Space,” the voice said nostalgically. “Best ship in the universe… That old Time Lord would be devastated to lose you…”

It turned and handled a random lever with familiarity. “I suppose we shouldn’t disappoint…”

Throwing the lever forward, the TARDIS rumbled as the engines roared to life and began to take off. The pony smiled darkly. “Next stop, everywhere…”

~==~

Okay. This was definitely new.

The Doctor and Fluttershy was deposited in the middle of a large cave, well, the entire place was just one big cave but, once again, calling this place a room would a gross overstatement. In the center of the cave was a massive spire made from molten rock that sprouted from the ceiling, the Doctor wondered how dormant this volcano was considering the spire radiated intense heat.

The Time Pony glanced at Fluttershy and noticed her fur was damp and sweat beaded her forehead. Worriedly he looked at her bandages which were beginning to slip off, he could see her wings, red from inflammation, and twitching nervously.

Staying in this environment would be detrimental to her health. But still, Fluttershy managed a brave, if weak and tired, smile. It seemed despite the danger, she was more or less in her element around these animals.

The Doctor looked back at the base of the spire which blossomed out like an inverted mushroom and glowed similarly with heat. With a start, the Doctor realized that the spire resembled a Time Rotor. He looked at the ground and noticed that other than the radiating heat there were strange patterns embedded into the ground. No…

He stomped the ground with a hoof and instead of the dull sound of a hoof against rock, it clanged with a metallic ring.

“Doctor, what’s that?” Fluttershy asked, pointing to the far end of the cavern. A dozen or so Cyberanimals poured into the place carrying… no, that was impossible. They carried complex machinery over their shoulders, silver, bronze and gold equipment that, by itself, was relatively useless, but together could be meshed up to produce a working… time machine.

“What do you think you’re doing with that?!” the Doctor demanded stepping forward, but a bear sentry intercepted him, calmly raising his arm to stop him from advancing. “Even if you could manage to make it work, you don’t have the power source required to stabilize it! You’ll burn up on your first trip!”

“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked.

The Doctor didn’t meet her gaze, merely looking at the animals as they worked with a horrible expression. “They’re trying to build a TARDIS…”

Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville, Equestria

47th of Summer, 4:00pm, 1002 C.R.

Applebloom sullenly shut the door to Applejack’s room as her elder sister had fallen to a deep sleep only five minutes into their conversation. Which was fine, since Applebloom didn’t want to disturb her anyways and it would give her time to process everything she had witnessed a few hours ago.

While Applebloom had expressed her doubts about Mr. Turner being an alien, she couldn’t deny the evidence stacking up at this point. In particular, Colgate’s reaction to Twilight’s prodding about Mr. Turner.

That cold, frosty look still chilled Applebloom to the core. Even though she didn’t get a direct look at it (only from a peripheral) it still unnerved her. That looked was the scariest thing she saw, easily beating even the most sour moods from Granny Smith. Applebloom also had the feeling that her expression had something more to do than this Trenzalore place Twilight mentioned.
To be completely honest, Applebloom wasn’t sure she wanted to find out what.

She shook her head, ridding of those thoughts, took a deep breath and headed downstairs to help her brother with supper… completely unaware of the nightmare black aura that materialized behind her and slipped into Applejack’s room.

Unbeknownst to the sleeping Applejack, the temperature of the room dropped so quickly a sheen of frost appeared over the windows. A dark form of a pony materialized by Applejack’s bed, almost smiling as it looked down on the farmpony’s sleeping face.

“The former Element of Honesty,” the pony mused before pausing for half a second, cocking its head in a manner almost like an inquisitive pony but a cruel smile still apparent on their face. “Or is it current? I always get past and future confused…”

Calmly, the pony lifted their hoof and reached over to Applejack’s forehead, causing the farmpony to briefly glow a golden dust. “Hm. The Doctor’s memories are still rattling around there… I suppose it’s only right to leave it there, no reason to risk the causal nexus.”

The pony turned around, prepared to leave in a gesture almost certainly suited to appease regular ponies given its ability to shift through walls, but paused for a moment. “Have a good sleep… Applejack. I’ll see you very soon.”

It tapped the ground in a strange rhythm, clop-clop-clop-clop, took a single step forward and faded into the shadows.

“Twilight?” Applejack opened her eyes and looked toward the door just as the Element of Magic stepped in with a meek smile.

“Hey there, AJ,” Twilight said, waving her hoof in greeting and approaching the bed slowly. “You feeling okay?”

Applejack weakly sat up, nodding as she managed a smile but her face paled as if that exertion only cost her a tremendous amount of energy. Twilight quickly closed the gap between them and sat at Applejack’s bed, taking her hoof.

“Ah’m feeling a bit better,” Applejack admitted. “At least th’ drummin’ stopped.”

Twilight nodded, unsure of what to say. “Sorry I haven’t visited all day, I’ve been in Canterlot speaking with the princesses.”

“About?”

Twilight looked away, fiddling with Applejack’s hoof for a moment. “So this illness, how do you think you got it? It doesn’t seem like something that would form naturally.”

Applejack frowned for a moment, fixing her green eyes on as if trying to extract the information with her gaze alone. After a moment she gave up and sighed. “Ah’m not sure. It happened after we got back from th’ moon.”

“Pinkie said you faced Nightmare Moon up there,” Twilight remembered. “That must’ve been scary.”

“It was,” Applejack admitted. “Ah was terrified, Ah wasn’t sure if we would get outta there alive.”

Twilight’s eyes softened and she gently caressed Applejack’s hoof, trying to comfort the poor farmpony. “Good thing you managed to flush her out of the TARDIS,” Twilight said.

Applejack frowned, her green eyes becoming foggy and dazed, as if she couldn’t remember where she was for a moment. “We… did?”

Twilight tilted her head. “That’s what Pinkie told me. Why, what do you remember?”

“Ah remember a golden light,” Applejack recalled dreamily. “Then somethin’ burning in my head… like, like a sunburn for yer mind then…”

She frowned again, her breathing became quick like she was hyperventilating. “A-Ah don’t remember.”

Twilight sat up suddenly, using both her hooves to caress and calm Applejack down. “AJ, it’s okay,” she said in a soft, cooing voice. “You’re here that’s what matters. Applejack, just breath.”

“But th’ drums…” she said, her eyes darting around like she could see something that wasn’t there. “Th’ drums are so loud, Twi…”

Twilight felt Applejack’s pulse through her forelegs, it was becoming erratic and out of control. If she didn’t intervene, Applejack may go into shock. Twilight’s horn filled with magic and her magical aura wrapped around Applejack’s head. Soon, the farmpony’s eyelids started to droop sleepily and within seconds, Applejack’s head slumped back and she fell perfectly asleep.

Twilight exhaled, feeling Applejack’s pulse through her magical influence, good she was stabilizing. She brushed the mane from Applejack’s eyes gently and looked at her sleeping form, trying to ignore the sliver of ice in her chest as she considered what the farmpony told her.

The drums…

That definitely didn’t sound good.

Twilight stood and quietly headed out the door and down the stairs. She made her excuses and left Sweet Apple Acres, even more determined to speak with a certain Time Lord, wherever, and whenever, he was.

~==~

“A… TARDIS?” Fluttershy repeated, looking around the cavern as if imagining it to be that impossible box she was familiar with. “But this is a cave…”

Despite the situation, the Doctor managed a childish, incredulous expression as he looked over at the yellow pegasus who maintained her confused expression. “Firstly, a TARDIS interior, and exterior, can look like anything, so a cave isn’t out of the question. Secondly, they’re just building a TARDIS console room, trying to achieve time travel with… well, rocks!”

The Doctor noted the animals who continued to work, bringing in tons of equipment and setting them up in the circumference of the molten spire. As each piece of the make-shift console was set into place, the equipment began glowing in an eerie blue light, so as they worked, the Doctor and Fluttershy had to squint because the spire was glowing so brightly.

“Well, they can’t right?” Fluttershy asked. “The TARDIS requires a… power source, right? I mean, if anypony could simply build one, then we’d see hundreds of TARDISes, right?”

The Doctor nodded, again surprised at the adaptive nature that Fluttershy was displaying. “They require power sources unlike anything I’ve seen in this universe, well, other than a black hole but this lot… they’re trying something dangerous.”

Fluttershy looked around at the impassive animals who continued to work, either unaware of the danger the Doctor implies may occur or indifferent, neither of those options comforted her.

“TARDISes require something called the Eye of Harmony to power it, well, amongst a dozen of other alternatives but the Eye is the most potent,” the Doctor elaborated. “The Eye is simply a star moments before it collapses into a black hole, the instant that happens it released a tremendous amount of energy, almost incalculable. The black hole I saw on Rainbow Island nearly reached the levels the Eye of Harmony produced but it was too unstable and was prone to self-destruction.”

Fluttershy again looked around the cavern, the heat was almost becoming a bit unbearable even for the weather-protected pegasus. She figured that being inside a volcano, no matter how dormant, wouldn’t be good. That the convection of the volcano would burn them up but it hadn’t… almost as if this place was insulated against it.

Fluttershy tapped the ground, feeling the foreign sensation of hoof against metal.

“Metallic insulation,” the Doctor explained, looking at Fluttershy despondently. “Keeps us, and the console, from burning up.”

Fluttershy felt out of her depth but nevertheless terrified at the implications. These animals were building a time machine… and succeeding!

“But, Doctor,” Fluttershy said. “You said the Eye is a star collapsing… I don’t see a black hole around here.”

“They’re trying an alternative,” he answered. “They’re trying to use the volcano as an energy source.”

The Doctor tapped the ground again, motioning Fluttershy to pay attention. “These not only insulate against heat, they transfer it into the console, feeding off the dormant energy of the volcano to power it up.”

“Is that possible?”

“Volcano eruptions release a massive amount of energy,” he said. “They release hundreds of megatons of thermal energy, one of the last eruptions I saw was Vesuvius and it completely obliterated Pompeii and Herculaneum.”

“But this volcano is dormant, right?” Fluttershy gestured at the molten cavern. “We should be fine.”

“It wouldn’t be difficult to trigger an explosion, especially considering the technology they have,” he said, growling as they set up more and more equipment. “They only need to do it once and in the instance of the eruption, they’ll have just enough energy to time travel only once… But why?!”

He turned toward the Cyberbears, angrily stomping up to him. “You’ll only have enough power for one trip,” he said, his voice carrying the fury of the Time Lord. “And you’ll condemn this entire world to centuries of ash, if they even survive that long!”

The bear impassively turned away, ignoring the Doctor’s questions and the Time Lord huffed in frustration. “What I don’t understand is why now? They had the technology and means to do this, why wait now?”

“Because we were missing one more component.” The Doctor and Fluttershy turned and faced the Cybergorilla that spoke in its mechanical voice. Its red eyes were now glowing dark purple and its face went slack and listless.

“Missing what?” the Doctor asked, approaching the gorilla and gesturing at the console. “Because it looks to me you’ve got everything.”

“We were missing the pilot,” the Cybergorilla answered.

“Oh come on,” the Doctor grumbled. “There’s only one thing in the universe that can pilot a TARDIS…”

Suddenly, he felt all eyes draw on him. The Doctor paled and took a step back and the Cyberanimals responded by taking a step forward. “Fluttershy,” the Doctor said in a hushed voice. “Stay close…”

“Restrain the pegasus,” a Cyberbird ordered.

A pair of bears grabbed Fluttershy and hoisted her up, the pegasus yelped out in pain as her wings were suddenly, and violently, jostled. She blinked the tears from her eyes and willed herself to remain conscious.

“Let her go!” the Doctor demanded.

“The Doctor will pilot the TARDIS,” the Cyberanimals spoke in unison. “He will take us to salvation.”

“You must not know me very well mate, because I don’t respond well to threats,” the Doctor growled, brandishing his sonic. But at the same time he produced his tool, the Cyberbears lifted their free arms and weapons protruded from them, pointed at Fluttershy.

“Doctor!” she squeaked.

“The Doctor will pilot us, or his companion will be destroyed,” the animals told him.

“Once again you’ve made another grave mistake!” the Doctor said, this time with a cocky smile on his face. He began walking, slowly, around the console and the animals never took their eyes off him. “Thinking my companions are a useless lot, a dead weight I have to carry around, well if you think that then you’re thicker than I thought!”

He spared a look at Fluttershy and gave her a subtle wink then turned back to the Cybercreatures, still grinning madly. “Because I choose my companions with care, every single one of them. And I’ll have you know, none of them are useless. Not one single hair on their bodies, or lack thereof, is useless…”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she caught the subtle shift in tone in the Doctor’s voice. He was giving her a clue, but, would it even work? After all, these Cyberanimals are hardly flesh and blood anymore. No, it would have to work, otherwise the Doctor wouldn’t have suggested it.

While they all had their eyes on the Doctor, Fluttershy tilted her head in a way that her mane fell over her eyes. None of them thought anything of it, like she suspected. She squinted her eyes, trying really hard to spot the near microscopic orbs that she encountered earlier…

Ah! There!

Dozens of glowing purple orbs were embedded into her mane, the psychic pollen! But with her legs trapped and her wings useless, how could she scatter them? Fluttershy flipped her mane back and shook it like a dog trying to dry itself. As expected, the pollen scattered from her mane and straight into the Cyberbears that restrained her.

The effect was near instantaneous. The bears became dazed and confused and their eyes rolled up and they fell over unconscious. They released Fluttershy which was good since she was nearly crushed by them and she dropped to the floor with a yelp. Every Cyberanimal turned their eyes on her and produced weapons.

“Run!” the Doctor yelled as he activated his sonic. It emitted a loud high-pitched screech which caused every Cyberanimal in the vicinity to spark violently and fall over. Fluttershy turned tail and ran out the entrance.

Despite Fluttershy having a 10 second headstart, the Doctor caught up with her quickly. He took her hoof and turned to the right, into another corridor. “Doctor, the exit’s—“

“I know!” he said. “But I need to see something!”

Fluttershy didn’t complain as she followed the Doctor deeper into the volcano. They ran and ran but Fluttershy didn’t hear any sounds of pursuit behind them, she wondered what the immediate danger was if the Doctor disabled them with his sonic.

“Doctor, your sonic screwdriver worked,” Fluttershy told him. “It disabled the Cyberanimals.”

“Momentarily,” the Doctor answered. “Without the Harmonic Frequency Circuit, the best my sonic can do is give them a headache.”

“What’re we looking for?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’re looking for the bedroom!”

“The what?!”

Suddenly, they burst into another cavern but this time… it was definitely pony-made. The entire place was metallic, from the walls, to the ceiling, to the floor. Pristine silver walls with cascading lines running through them in parallel patterns. It reminded Fluttershy of being inside a cube, it made her feel claustrophobic.

The Doctor headed deeper into the room. Propped up against the walls were large, tube containers ten feet tall and glowing a sickly green. Fluttershy followed the Doctor who began inspecting the cubes and gasped at what she saw.

Inside each container was a silver… something. It was bipedal and shaped almost like a rocket, to Fluttershy, but it reminded her more of a skinny gorilla. Its broad shoulders, long arms that weren’t proportional to their heads. On their chest was a large silver emblem, it was simple the letter C.

“Doctor, what are they?” she asked nervously, hiding behind the Time Pony despite the creature not showing signs of life.

“Cybermen,” he answered grimly. “Hundreds of Cybermen.”

Comments

[Sky Blue CMC]

5001888 I have an OC who is a companion to the Doctor. Can she be in the story? Her name is Aurora Flash (not my titular OC Sky Blue the Crusader.) and she thinks bowties are cool. Her favourite colour is lightish red, (Doc: aka pink? Aurora: NO! It's NOT pink, it's LIGHTISH RED!!!) and she's a Unicorn mare.

[The Guardian and Friends]

If there's a series one, can there be a series 2?

[Time Pony Victorious]

5030407

I'll think about it. Message me her specs, I'll consider it.

5030517

Yep :3

[The Guardian and Friends]

5030533

What's the difference? Different companion? Different regeneration?

[Sky Blue CMC]

5030533 Read this blog post: Lumin and Aurora's Bios.

[Time Pony Victorious]

5030561

Depends. You'll have to follow along

[Black Hoof]

Hmm, is the shadowy pony in this chapter the same than the one who talked with the Professor on Phoenix island? If yes, you gave this pony a female voice and purple mist. Why shift to neutral gender (it, their, ...) and night black magic in this case?
And this darkness... are the Vashta Nerada involved?

[Creed Miles]

I really hope Mr. Clever will make an appearance.

[Nightdancer Moonblossom]

Drums...
OMYSGOSH IS THE MASTER COMING UP!?!?
(Fangirl squee )
I am planning a fic where I am a thestral named Nightdancer Moonblossom with black hair and midnight blue body and silver eyes with a scythe cutie mark and she is a companion to the Master(yes that is a thing) if you wouldn`t mind putting her in this story (and the Master is coming up) could you possibly add her in?
Sorry to bother you.

[Black Hoof]

I don't think this fic is meant to be for OCs cameo invites.

[Tephera]

I wonder when the author of this story is going to mind fu** us again...

Because the last time was when I was sick and my head hurt which concludes a permanent brown stain on my wall.

[Time Pony Victorious]

5063449

Yeah! You tell Twi!