Doctor Whooves Episode 13: Clockwork and the Doctor

by Doctor Perseus

Where It All Began

Chapter 7: Where It All Began

The Clock Tower, Ponyville, Equestria, Gaia, Winter, 1002 C.E.

The Doctor couldn't help but gasp in shock when he opened his eyes. A few seconds ago, he had been holding onto Twilight, Derpy, and Bright Eyes in the library. Now, he was dangling from the edge of a balcony that was a long way up from the snowy ground beneath him. He nearly lost his grip when the building he was dangling from proceeded to shake violently. The sound of a bell rang out from beneath him.

"Am...am I hanging from a clock tower?" he asked as he looked around. Wind and snow smashed against his coat and the cold was nearly unbearable. He wondered where the others had gone off to and then his hearts jumped. He looked down towards the ground and gave a sigh of relief when he realized that there were no pony-shaped imprints in the snow.

"Doctor?" asked a familiar voice from nearby. It was Twilight.

"Twilight! I've over here and could use a bit of help!" Twilight appeared at the edge of the balcony. Her horn glowed for a second and the Doctor felt gravity disappear as he proceeded to levitate a few feet higher. He landed on the balcony with a soft thump. Twilight then gave the Doctor a quick hug before pulling him inside.

The inside of the tower resembled that of a small apartment. A bed was situated off in the corner, and a series of tables were scattered throughout the room. Clockwork was standing in the middle of the room. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were wide with shock.

"This...this is my home," he said.

"Your home?" Twilight asked.

"Yes. This is where I live. This is my home in the Ponyville clock tower."

"Wait...that means-"

"We're not in your universe anymore, Twilight," the Doctor finished.

"But...but where's the library? Where's Derpy and Bright Eyes? Where's Spike?!"

"Probably back in your home dimension."

"How did we end up here and they end up there?" The Doctor looked at Clockwork.

"Something interfered."

"It was her...er...it wasn't it?" Clockwork asked.

"I believe so." Clockwork looked around, expecting something to jump out of the shadows.

"How are we going to get back then?" Twilight asked. "Can Clockwork get us back?"

The Doctor suddenly shook and frowned as a sharp pain raced through his body.

"He can get us back," the Doctor replied. "But-"

"But at a price," laughed a voice from above. It was a deep and menacing voice. Clockwork jumped and began backing towards the corner. The Doctor and Twilight watched as the diamond Twilight descended from the rafters above. Holes were scattered throughout her body. Each hole emanated a green/black gas. Her horn was now long, jagged, and black. She no longer had a feminine look and looked more like a brute and somewhat muscular stallion. She was so masculine that the Doctor and Twilight figured that they couldn't even call her a she anymore. As diamond Twilight touched the ground he/she exploded into a cloud of black smoke. For a moment, there was nothing in diamond Twilight's spot aside from a black cloud with green eyes staring out of it. When the cloud disappeared, a large black unicorn stallion stood before them. He snarled a bit and cackled at the sight of his frightened subjects. The stallion turned towards Clockwork and smiled evilly. "Hello, Clockwork."

"Sombra!" Clockwork gasped.

"Clockwork, don't be afraid of him! He's just a nightmare, nothing more!" Twilight cried. An invisible force slammed into Twilight, knocking her into the nearby wall.

"Twilight!" cried the Doctor and Clockwork. Twilight gasped as a green magical prison surrounded her. She definitely wasn't going anywhere.

"You've just made a terrible mistake!" snapped the Doctor as he reached for his Sonic Screwdriver; however, he didn't get the chance to grab it for the floorboards around him suddenly liquified. Before he could even raise his hoof, the Doctor found his hooves melted into the floor.

"Such annoying extras," Sombra sighed as he turned away from the Doctor and Twilight and honed in on Clockwork. "This is between you and me, Clockwork." Clockwork felt a chill run down his spine as the unicorn continued to walk towards him. He seemed to grow larger with every step he took. Clockwork could hear the Doctor and Twilight yelling for him to send Sombra away...but he simply didn't have the strength to do it. Something was holding him back. Sombra came to a sudden stop a few feet from Clockwork. He looked around the clock tower apartment and chuckled. "Funny, isn't it? This is where it all began, this little adventure of ours. How did this all start? Oh, yes. You pitched yourself off that balcony out there."

"Shut up," Clockwork ordered weakly.

"And why is that? Oh, that's right. I killed your lovely wife, didn't I?"

"Clockwork! Don't listen to it! This isn't the real Sombra! It's just a nightmare made real! You can make it go away!" the Doctor cried. Sombra looked back at the Doctor and then back at Clockwork. He gave another cruel chuckle.

"You know what's also funny? The fact that you're an alternate version of the Doctor. I find that hard to believe. I mean, look at what you are and then look at what he is." Sombra looked back and forth between the Doctor and Clockwork and laughed again. "If you two didn't look alike, I would have never guessed that either of you were related in any way whatsoever, not even through inter-dimensional means. The only similarities I see is that you both look alike and that you both have Twilight Sparkle wrapped around your hooves...oh...I guess that last fact doesn't apply to you anymore, does it?" Clockwork felt an unbelievable rage building up inside him. Sure, the thing before him wasn't the real Sombra, for Sombra had died months earlier, but, in a way, it was him to an extent. It was everything Clockwork had heard about Sombra made real. In some way of looking at things, his wife's murderer was standing before him and not only wishing to do him harm but making taunts at his friends as well as the wonderful mare whom he took life from.

"Shut up!" Clockwork growled as he stood up. Sombra smiled and looked down at Clockwork like a schoolyard bully would look at his latest victim.

"Getting angry, I see. Good. Maybe in your state of anger you might be able to pull something out of your ass that might make you live up to a percentage of what your dimensional duplicate has done." Clockwork was shaking with fury now. He wished he had a knife in his hooves for he so dearly longed to cut into the stallion before him and wipe the smile from his face. "Come at me then. This should be over quickly. It matters not if you die at this point. I've grown too powerful to be connected to you anymore. I'm free."

"You don't deserve to be free. You don't deserve anything. If there's one thing I've done faster than the Doctor, it's how much time it's taken me to lose my mercy." The Doctor felt a pit grow in his stomach upon hearing Clockwork's words. Clockwork looked up at Sombra. His eyes looked much darker than they previously had. An anger was billowing up from deep within the stallion in the overcoat. His eyes began to turn red and his breathing became raspy. Sombra still didn't back down. He kept his ground.

"Isn't that cute? You actually think you're threatening."

"You should be afraid of me, Sombra!" Clockwork's eyes were purely red now. His coat was also growing slightly gray. He brown mane was becoming black. "You've taunted me, taken my wife from me, and have caused my life to become a living hell! That's not a good place to be standing!" Twilight was beginning to feel frightened by the new Clockwork. It now sounded as if there was somepony else speaking alongside him. Somepony darker. Somepony...familiar.

Clockwork could see several things flashing before his eyes. It was as if his mind had suddenly opened up to a wide variety of doors. His furious mind led him to one particular door. Within the door, there sat a gray stallion with a black mane and a black bow tie. It was him: it was the Dark Doctor. The Dark Doctor looked at Clockwork and Clockwork stared at him. The Dark Doctor chuckled.

"You're quite a piece of work, you are. I'm not even sure that I've been as angry as you currently are. That's quite a milestone," he said. Clockwork felt anger for the Dark Doctor. He felt anger towards everything. "The Doctor on your end is right about something: you can easily take down this Sombra knock off. He's nothing compared to you, and that's a fact."

Clockwork mentally returned to the clock tower. Sombra was preparing to take him out.

"Let's finish this," Sombra chuckled.

"Yes...let's," Clockwork growled. Before Sombra could react, Clockwork jumped up and latched his teeth around Sombra's neck. The dark unicorn screamed in pain as Clockwork's teeth grew as sharp as knives and proceeded to drill deep into his neck. Clockwork tore and ripped at Sombra's neck like a primal carnivore. The Doctor and Twilight were freed from their traps as they looked on in horror at what Clockwork was doing.

"Clockwork!" Twilight cried. Clockwork couldn't hear her. His rage had taken over. Sombra tried to kick the stallion off him but it was to no avail. Clockwork bit down tighter.

"Hurts...doesn't it?!" Clockwork asked as blood smeared his muzzle and coat. The clock tower began to shake and morph around them.

"Doctor, what's happening?!" Twilight asked.

"It's Clockwork. His connection to the rift is at its breaking point. He could burn up!" the Doctor replied as he ran towards Clockwork. "Clockwork! You've got to let this anger go!" He grabbed onto Clockwork and wrapped his hooves around the stallion's neck. "Let go!"

"Ha!" Clockwork laughed. Suddenly, the Doctor was pulled up into the air alongside Clockwork and Sombra. Sombra screamed as he head smashed into the ceiling above. The Doctor cringed as a loud cracking sound emanated from the unicorn's neck. Clockwork smiled darkly. "Yes! Die! Die! DIE!" Sombra's lifeless head was smashed again and again into the ceiling. Blood poured onto Clockwork and the Doctor, only to disappear a few seconds later in streams of black and green smoke. The Doctor tightened his grip on Clockwork and suddenly found himself leave his body.

The Doctor was now standing in a small and simple bedroom. Everything in the room was gray and there was only a single window. It was raining outside. Clockwork was sitting on the bed nearby. He looked like he was in a daze. Somepony was standing next to the window: a gray stallion with a black mane and an hourglass cutie mark. The Dark Doctor turned around to face the Doctor. He smiled.

"Hello, Doctor," he said.

"What is this place?" the Doctor asked.

"Nowhere and everywhere." The Doctor looked at the dazed Clockwork and put the pieces together.

"You're not the real version of my darker counterpart. You're just a part of Clockwork's psyche. This is all just a part of Clockwork's mind." The Dark Doctor nodded in reply. The Doctor rubbed his temple. "But it's also more than that. The rifts had added something to it. This place could potentially become real...that is if Clockwork allows it extend that far."

"Correct. It's all on him." Clockwork looked up at the Doctor and nodded. It was then that the Doctor noticed that something was wrapped around Clockwork's head. It appeared to be a crab made out of black smoke. It had green eyes and a white, pearly smile.

"He isn't defeating his demon, he's allowing himself to become it." The Dark Doctor nodded again. The Doctor looked at his darker counterpart and pointed at him. "And you're egging him on!"

"Of course I am! I'm based around the version of you that embraces disharmony and chaos. Almost a...Discord Doctor if you will." The Doctor felt that his darker self was hinting at something but he figured that he'd give it more thought once everything was sorted out. "But...that doesn't mean I can't play fair sometimes." He nodded his head at Clockwork.

"What are you talking about?"

"The nightmare is the choice. I'm the devil on one of Clockwork's shoulders. You're the angel on the other shoulder."

"You're kidding."

"I'm a fabrication of dimensional anomalies and mental instability. Do I look like something that spends its time kidding around?"

"Well if Discord's your inspiration-"

"Shut it and have your go." The Doctor turned towards Clockwork and knelt down next to him.

"Clockwork, you've got to wake up."

"But I am awake," Clockwork replied. "I'm facing my nightmare, like you and Twilight told me to do."

"But not like this. You're more than this, Clockwork. You always have been. You've had the strength to defeat your demons but here you're choosing to become them instead."

"This...this power, Doctor. I've never felt so strong! I...I can do anything! Maybe I can even bring her back!"

"There's nothing you can do to bring your Twilight back, Clockwork."

"Oh...but there is. It all lies within your Twilight. All it would take is a simple memory swap and everything could return to what it used to be!"

"I won't allow you to do that, Clockwork."

"Are you threatening me?"

"You're better than this. What would Twilight want you to do?"

"She...she'd want me to be happy."

"Yes, but this isn't the path she would have wanted you to take."

"But the path you're currently on is so much fun!" cackled the Dark Doctor. The Doctor turned back to his darker self.

"There's enough demons in Clockwork's mind! Go!" The Dark Doctor rolled his eyes before disappearing into nothing. "Clockwork-" The room shook around them. Suddenly, the Doctor felt another presence in the room.

"It's time for you to make a tough decision, Clockwork," said a familiar voice. The Doctor turned around to find himself staring at himself! And it wasn't the Dark Doctor either. It was literally another Doctor who looked exactly as he was now.

"What?!" asked the Doctor. "What are you?!"

"Clockwork's mind is proving to be quite strong. He's breaking into your psyche as well, Doctor." The Doctor felt a pain rush through his head. The door to the bedroom flung open. The Doctor looked and saw five figures staring back at him: three women and two mares.

"Rose...Martha...Donna...Twilight...Derpy." The Doctor's companions smiled.

"Your greatest desires. Your worst fears," they said before disappearing. The Doctor rubbed his temple.

"I've really got to stop taking mental trips like this!" He looked up at his second self. "Then what are you supposed to be?"

The second Doctor smiled as he said, "I'm the truth. The deliverer of facts that will ultimately make us unhappy." He turned to Clockwork. "You must now make a tough decision, Clockwork."

"And what is it?" Clockwork asked.

"Your connection to the rift is weakening. You have enough strength to make one last journey. You can use this journey to bring the Doctor and Twilight back to their universe, but you will be brought with them. Once you do this, the walls of this universe will seal. There are too many holes. It'll take some time for them to mend. You'll get stuck in the Doctor's universe...until further notice."

"I...I'll have to leave my world behind?"

"Or...you can stay here and use your dimensional abilities to bring your wife back via the other Twilight; thus, Twilight will remain with you always but the Doctor will be trapped for his TARDIS is back in the other dimension."

"What are you doing?!" the Doctor snapped.

"Giving him his choices." The second Doctor turned back to Clockwork. "So what shall it be? New world or home? New life or lost wife? A broken heart with a new start or a new beginning with your true love? The choice is yours, Clockwork." The second Doctor then disappeared.

"I could have her back," said Clockwork. The Doctor could feel himself getting pulled away. His power and influence in Clockwork's mind was disappearing.

"Clockwork...please," the Doctor pleaded.

"I could-"

"What about Bright Eyes?" asked a new voice. The Doctor looked as Twilight appeared in the middle of the room.

"Twilight?" Clockwork asked.

"I'm not what you should be thinking about. What of Bright Eyes? She's trapped in the other world with nopony else from her world to give her comfort. What of her?"

"I...Twilight-" Twilight knelt down and kissed Clockwork on the lips.

"I love you, Clockwork. Now set things right." For a moment, everything was silent. The Doctor could hear nothing aside from his own, slow breaths. Then the black crab on Clockwork's head disappeared. Clockwork stood up and embraced Twilight.

"Do you have to go?" he asked as the room began crumbling into a white oblivion.

"No. Don't forget about me and I'll never be gone."

"We had so much planned."

"I know, life sucks sometimes. But that doesn't mean that you can't start over." Clockwork smiled as he turned to face the Doctor.

"Time to go home, right?" The Doctor smiled and nodded.

"Yes. Home sounds really good right about now," the Doctor replied. The room disappeared into a white void and the Doctor felt himself falling. As he fell, faces from his past flew past him. The Doctor suddenly remembered about how much it hurt to look back. The faces of his countless companions stared at him from the oblivion. Twilight and Derpy appeared before him along with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Spike, Opal, and the many others he had met during his time in Equestria. He would not let anything happen to them: that was a promise. For a moment, the clock tower apartment appeared before him. Twilight was screaming and yelling but the Doctor heard no sounds. He could see Sombra finally disappearing into a cloud of smoke, he could see himself and Clockwork falling to the ground, and the last thing he saw was he, Twilight, and Clockwork disappearing into thin air with a simple flash of light. The Doctor then felt a strong pull behind his naval and everything went black.

Comments

[Abbgy]

I'm getting a Scarlet Witch vibe here.

[MariusIoannesP]

The dark unicorn screamed in pain as Clockwork's teeth grew as sharp as knives and proceeded to drill deep into his neck.

Clockwork turned into a Leucrotta!

"Of course I am! I'm based around the version of you that embraces disharmony and chaos. Almost a...Discord Doctor if you will." The Doctor felt that his darker self was hinting at something but he figured that he'd give it more thought once everything was sorted out.

I'm starting to think this Dark or Discord Doctor was a Doctor form an alternate Doctor Who-verse who ended up in an alternate MLP-verse where Discord is still in power and got Discorded. Mayhaps he is still working together with that universe's Discord or has supplanted him completely.

[Spirit Shift]

"I could have her back," said Clockwork. The Doctor could feel himself getting pulled away. His power and influence in Clockwork's mind was disappearing.
"Clockwork...please," the Doctor pleaded.
"I could-"
"What about Bright Eyes?" asked a new voice. The Doctor looked as Twilight appeared in the middle of the room.

lol totally a Amy Pond moment right there lol

[IamShadowDash]

Wellllppppp I'm crying. Buck you, Discorded Doctor!!
But I love his style....
Shut up you
Make me
Just go back to reading that cupcakes story, MM. AND LEAVE ME ALONE. Max isn't even here right now so how the heck are you?
Does it matter? I made you look weird on this website. I'm happy.
BUCK YOU DISCORDED ME.
Heh.

[Random Dude]

the cold was nearly unbearable.

how is it cold for him?
a timelords could survive extreme cold due to having a "souped-up metabolism" They could even survive the subzero temperatures and extremely low pressure of vacuum for around six minutes. timelords had an internal body temperature of about sixty degrees Fahrenheit. While recovering from a serious injury, it could drop spontaneously to below-freezing temperatures. The Eighth Doctor and Miranda Dawkins could both demonstrate this lower body temperature on a cold night, their breath not visible while other humans' was.
also cant he just jump down?
Gallifreyans could survive some falls which would shatter the bones of humans. The Tenth Doctor survived a fall from a low flying spaceship through a glass skylight and was able to stand and move afterwards although the fall from a radio telescope dish was enough to cause the Fourth Doctor to regenerate i think this body would be able to survive a fall from a clocktower
(yay for timelord physiology lesson )

[Random Dude]

2931384 pretty sure its the tumblerverses discorded doctor whooves