10th Doctor - The Darkness Within
“Ah, headmaster so good that you could join me,” said Lady Rouncey, bowing to her guest as he entered her house. The noble was in late middle age but retained some of the features that had made her attractive in her youth. The pegasus’ ice blue eyes were still clear but hidden behind thin rimmed glasses. Her mane was of the same colour apart from streaks of grey and was currently worn tied back. Her yellow coat was still immaculate and she wore several bracelets on each leg.
“Your summons did state that the matter was very important,” said her companion, Open Door, the current headmaster of Academy of Magic. He was an ancient unicorn, his mane long since turned snow white and now balding. His coat was a dirty grey and mostly covered by a long rainbow coloured cloak of office, and he rested his forelegs on a short gnarled staff. “But I do not appreciate being disturbed so late, I have enough on my plate organising the graduation and longest night celebrations tomorrow. Anyway, I was told that you had found something of import?”
“As you are aware, my house is one of the oldest in Equestria. The Rouncey’s held power even before the princesses revealed themselves to us.”
The old unicorn gave a grunt and made a gesture for his companion to get to the point.
“This building itself is one of the oldest in Equestria. Indeed, it is said that Canterlot itself may have once been the main holding of House Rouncey and the capital grew up from our property.” The yellow pegasus pushed the door leading out of the house closed, making the bangles on her arms clatter, and deftly locked it.
Open Door raised an eyebrow at her actions. “Yes, well, many people have said many things over the years, often with far more authority that those legends. I am aware that our archaeology department has been trying for several decades to get permission to investigate the foundations of your house. And that every time they have been rebuffed.”
“Recent political events may change that. I am considering allowing your researchers to look into my family’s history, in light of some scandalous accusations made by some of the lesser houses.”
Rouncey started to lead the old unicorn down the hallway. He stumbled for a moment and fell against the door before straightening and following. “That Lightning Bolt matter? Who cares what allegiance your family held a thousand years ago? For all I know one of my ancestors could have been Corona’s personal whore. It’s what you do in this life which is important.”
“Well, others do not feel the same way as you. I can feel the vultures circling. Anyway, that is not important now. While investigating some of the lower catacombs my servants came across a very interesting artefact of quite some age - pre-unification in fact.”
The old mage raised an eyebrow. “That is indeed interesting. Little apart from legends remain from that period, you know. But still, is this not more the kind of thing for a historian rather than a mage?”
“My original thoughts,” said Rouncey. “But once I had a unicorn scan it he told me that it might have magical significance, so I thought of you.” The yellow pegasus gave a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes as she lead the headmaster to a door guarded by a pair of guards, a unicorn and an earth pony.
The four of them entered the door and followed a long winding path leading into the ground. So there was no one to notice the two dark coated figures who entered the building shortly after. Their slitted yellow eyes observed the area carefully then silently followed the party into the depths of the house.
The only light along the path the four ponies took was from the unicorn guard’s horn. The path led them past many portals, all blocked by heavy stone doors with several names and various symbols carved on them. Their form was familiar to Open Door. “These are your family’s crypts?” he asked quietly.
“Oh yes, generation after generation of Rouncey’s have been interned down her for as long as anyone can remember. My late husband is one of the newer residents,” she announced rather cheerfully, “and I myself have a place prepared.”
“You said that the artefact was found down here?”
“Yes, the older tombs are rarely inspected, sometimes not for generations. Ah, here we are.”
In front of the group was a door different from any of the others Open had seen in the complex so far. Instead of a name and cutie mark, the door was covered in tiny runes. He marvelled at the skill behind their engraving, particularly as the work must have been done over a thousand, maybe even two thousand years ago. Their form seemed somewhat familiar to him, but he could not quite put his hoof on it.
With a grunt the unicorn guard forced the door open, revealing a large circular chamber with several entrances. More of the runes were carved into the walls and floor but the centre of the chamber was clear, apart from a large stone urn with a handle on each side placed on a plinth and a shapeless bundle covered by sheets behind it. These objects were surrounded by a metal circle inlayed in the ground. Open recognised it as a primitive form of containment ward, designed to keep spells within its area from affecting those outside its boundaries.
Without fear Rouncey trotted over the circle and picked up the urn. It was quite large and required both hooves to lift, and as with the door it was engraved with runes. “This is the artefact in question, why don’t you come over and have a look?”
Open looked around nervously. His curiosity and caution warred for a few seconds before he moved forward step by step until he was next to the urn. He took it in his aura and examined it closely, rotating it in the air along all three axes. He spoke with increasing excitement, “It appears to be a fairly standard stone vessel although it is obviously very old. I do not recognise the runes but they do bear some similarity to pre-unity script... this might even come from before the original nations formed. There is a minor magical aura bound to it but of a kind I have not seen before, maybe...” Then there was a flash of his horn and his eyes glowed for a second before he gasped and dropped the urn. Rouncey leapt forth to intercept the tumbling artefact, but it was grabbed by Open’s aura again before it could impact with the floor.
“Luna’s mane,” swore Open, “This, this is of Alicorn manufacture.”
“Luna made it?” asked Rouncey raising an eyebrow.
“No, it’s not her signature, nor Cadenza’s. In my years at the academy I have had a chance to study some of the few remaining artefacts from Corona’s time and the aura is similar but not identical. Could it be..?” he wondered. “Could this be the work of another unknown alicorn? The implications are..” he trailed off in thought.
“I’m sure it’s all very fascinating,” said the pegasus smoothly, “but I think it’ll pale in comparison to the real prize down here.”
“Real prize? What are you talking about? This is priceless.”
“That is a mere trinket, a safety feature, linked to the real treasure.” The noble grabbed the trailing edge of the sheet with her mouth and gave a pull, sweeping it away to reveal a pony shaped figure entirely covered in wrappings, onto each of which more of the same script as on the urn and door has been written.
“A mummy?” gasped Open, then recovered somewhat. “One of your ancestors? It is fascinating, there has never been any real proof that our ancestors used this type of funeral ritual, but this urn... the existence of more alicorns... it’s ground breaking.”
Suddenly a hissing sound came from the bandage wrapped shape and it jerkily started to move. Open leapt back in terror. “It’s alive!” he screamed.
Unperturbed, Rouncey took the urn from the headmaster before it could be dropped. She seemed to stare blankly into the distance for a second, then continued. “Yes, and it has been for quite some time now, although not for much longer I fear.”
Open looked on in horror as the clicking sound resolved itself into a dry laughing sound and the creature spoke. “This is our new body?” it asked in a voice that sounded like thousands of insects scratching on wood.
“What is the meaning of this? What is this creature?” demanded Open, recovering quickly from his shock. He began to power up his horn but a blow to the sensitive organ from the earth pony guard knocked him to the ground with a cry of pain.
Through watering eyes he looked up at the bandage covered monstrosity looming over him. “We are legion!” it announced. “For we are many!”
There was a glow from the unicorn guard’s horn and the bandages were torn from the creature’s form. Beneath was the desiccated form of the oldest pony the mage had ever seen. It was almost entirely bald and its bones could be seen through its paper thin skin.
“This is my grandfather’s body,” announced Lady Rouncey sadly. “There was an accident many years ago and the creature entered him rather than its intended victim. We have kept him comfortable since, but nothing lasts forever and a new host is required. You.”
The creature reached a crooked hoof towards the mage. He tried to back away but was held down by the guards. The creature made contact with him and the last thing he heard was thousands of voices screaming in his head, then blackness.
“We are legion!” announced Open Door in the same voice as the creature that attacked him. Behind him the skeletal pony collapsed to the ground, twitching weakly.
Rouncey gently knelt beside the remains of the aged creature. “Rest now Granddad,” she whispered, “I’ll carry on our duty now.” She petted the ancient pegasus until it laid still, and a single tear dripped from her eye before she pulled herself together, stood and turned to the headmaster. “Are you ready for your mission?” she asked.
The grey unicorn leapt forwards and placed his hooves on the noble’s face. She viciously shoved the elderly pony back. “Sorry, but I’m using protection,” she sneered, shaking a bangle covered hoof at him. “Which is probably why my house is almost extinct,” she muttered.
The guards restrained the unicorn again and clamped a bracelet over his forearm, making him howl out in disappointment. “And you are safely neutered for the moment,” continued Rouncey. “Now be a good creature, do what I tell you and you get to kill Luna. You want that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Open’s body nodded. “Death to the Alicorns! Wait, this body did not come alone! It was suspicious, Night Guard came with it.” The possessed Unicorn spun around and a beam of light flashed from its horn cutting through the weak protection of the circle and smashing into the roof of the chamber. The blast sent a block of stone crashing to the ground. The flash illuminated a pair of identical looking, blue coated, bat winged ponies in guard armour. Discovered, the two night guards took flight.
“Get them!” yelled Rouncey, spurred into action. “Don’t let them escape! Sound the alarm!”
The unicorn used his power to tug on a rope concealed in one of the walls, and the sound of distant bells could be heard. The lead bat guard dived at the unicorn, body checking her and knocking her away from the alarm. The other turned on the earth pony, buzzing past him and making him dive out of the way.
The first Night Guard turned towards Lady Rouncey. “Lady Rouncey of house Rouncey,” she announced formally, “I hereby arrest you on suspicion of treason against Princess Luna. Please come quietly.”
“Or what?” asked the noble lifting herself off the ground and hovering just above the guard.
“Or things will get loud,” intoned the bat pony coolly, looking up into the pegasus’ blue eyes.
With a snarl Lady Rouncey lashed out with her forehooves but her blows were blocked. Behind them the earth pony guard had leapt on the other Night Guard and was currently being smashed into the wall by his opponent.
Smiling, the bat pony counter-attacked using all four legs. To her surprise her opponent bent around the attacks and replied with a blow to her chest which knocked her back. The move was similar to the one she herself had been taught for that situation. “I’m afraid you’re not the only game in town, my dear,” said Rouncey with a sneer.
The smile was quickly wiped from her face as a vicious forehoof jab caught her on the muzzle, followed by another to her gut, bending her over. She desperately blocked a third blow but could not avoid a fourth kick to her back, which drove her to the floor.
“As I said, you are under arrest.” The blue furred pony drifted to the ground over her defeated opponent, “You have...” Suddenly she was interrupted as a white aura enveloped her wing and threw her into the air with a crunching sound. She spun and crashed to the ground.
Rouncey picked herself up, wiping blood from her muzzle. “You couldn’t have done that earlier?” she asked Open Door.
“You looked like you were winning,” replied Legion.
Lady Rouncey glared at him before walking over to the fallen Night Guard and stamped down viciously on her outstretched wing, eliciting a howl of pain. Behind her, more guards started to rush in. Above, the second bat pony threw her now unconscious opponent aside and weighed up her options. She rushed forward towards Rouncey who took up a defensive posture. Moving quickly, the bat pony swept the noble’s legs from under her and grabbed her partner from the ground before turning and diving through one of the exits from the chamber, and back into the labyrinth beyond.
“How did they get in here? The house was sealed,” cried Rouncey as her guards rushed out after the intruders.
The possessed mage spoke using his normal deep sarcastic tones, “Did you really expect it to remain sealed after letting in a mage called Open Door?”
Somewhere a short distance away, the two bat ponies desperately fled through the pitch black network of tombs beneath the house. The spells woven into their armour allowed them to see as well as if there were illuminated by the noonday sun. One was leaning heavily on the other, hissing as its right wing, badly twisted out of shape, brushed against a wall.
“Come on, Nocturne, they’ll be all over us in a few minutes,” said the uninjured pony. “We got to get out of this place.”
“Leave me,” the other gasped. “I’ll only slow you down.”
“Sorry, I can’t do that. We don’t leave a mare behind, you know that.”
“This isn’t a time to blindly follow orders, Fledermaus. One of us needs to report back to the Captain and with this busted wing it’s not going to be me. Leave me and I’ll delay them as long as I can.”
“There’s no way I’m going to have to tell your husband what happened to you.” She looked thoughtful for a second. “Still he is kind of hot for a ground pounder. If something does happen to you maybe I could put the moves on him. After a decent morning period of course, maybe a few days.” Fledermaus grinned.
Nocturne punched her partner in the shoulder, “Don’t you dare, he’s mine. You do that and I’ll come back and haunt you! But seriously you have to leave me.”
Fledermaus looked around and saw a tomb door partially ajar. “Okay, you win.” She put her shoulder to the stone door and with a grunt forced it slightly more open. “Get in there and ambush the pursuers. I’ll get reinforcements for you as soon as I can.” As the sound of pounding hooves got louder she helped her partner slip into the narrow space. “It’s been an honour working with you Nocturne. Custodimus occúltis” she saluted.
“Et nemo potest venire. You too Fledermaus. See you on the other side.” The injured pegasus returned the salute.
Fledermaus gave a grin, and to her partner’s surprise ran back towards their pursuers yelling, “Hey, you. Bet you can’t catch me!” before running off down a random passage.
From her tomb, Nocturne cursed her friend in her head. She considered leaving her hiding place to help but that would make her partners sacrifice in vain, so she was forced to wait in the darkness. Once the sound of pursuit started to recede into the distance, she squeezed herself from her hiding place and started to stagger back towards the surface.
Some distance vertically and a lesser distance horizontally, a deep blue box faded into existence with a wheezing, groaning sound. It sat unnoticed in a side street for several minutes until its door suddenly swung open and a light brown earth pony stallion with an untidy dark brown mane exited. He was mostly covered by a long brown coat over a blue suit. A red tie hung from his neck almost down to the ground. “Ah, smell that air!” he announced. “That’s proper Equestrian air, that is, accept no substitute. In fact, I think this particular air is blowing around Canterlot, capital of Equestria, and the home of its ruler, Princess Luna.”
A second pony exited the blue box with rather more trepidation. The newcomer was an earth pony mare with a light red coat and a raven black mane. She was covered in a short red leather jacket and jeans. “Wow!” she exclaimed looking down at herself. “I really am a horse.”
“Oh yea of little faith. You are what is referred to locally as an earth pony - all humans seem to become those here. Well, apart from Leela, but she always was a little different.”
“Who’s Leela?” asked the mare somewhat suspiciously.
“Oh, a previous companion of mine. Leather bikini, janus thorns, changeable eye colour. She was far before your time, Martha.” his mood seemed to darken. “She’s long gone now, she fought to the end.”
Sensing the change in her companion, Martha tried to distract him. “So Doctor, you’ve been here before. Did you get to meet this Princess before?”
“A few times, not in the best of circumstances last time. But that was a long time ago, over a thousand years if the TARDIS is correct. It’ll be nice to see her again in brighter times if I get the chance. Still, we’d better get down to business first.” The Doctor pulled a small rod-like device from his pocket and waved it around a bit. It gave a quiet buzz. “That’s interesting, the shard seems to be below us and a bit that way.” he gestured towards a tall building towering above the neighbourhood.
Martha looked in the direction indicated. “That would be the building that that winged pony thing just rushed out of followed by a bunch of other ponies who don’t look very friendly, would it?”
“Yes, and I think we should look into that right away, don’t you?” replied the Doctor with a grin as he started to jog towards the ruckus. “Come on Martha, Allons-y!”
With a sigh, Martha set off after the now galloping Doctor.
Fledermaus seemed to have done a good job of distracting the guards and Nocturne had found her path back to the entrance of the house unguarded. However, when she got to the exit her luck ran out; four guards in house Rouncey livery stood blocking the door. Unwilling to waste the time needed to search for another way out, Nocturne had charged the portal, knocking the guards aside, and crashed through the door. Luckily it was still unlocked after Open Door’s attentions.
However, the guards did not remain stunned for long, and before Nocturne could properly make her escape they were upon her. She managed to throw off the first guard, a pegasus, who tried to leap upon her. But a unicorn cast a spell which bound her rear legs and made her fall, while a pair of earth ponies laid about her with their hooves. A wild blow to her injured wing made her cry out, but another hoof to the head quieted her.
“‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello. What’s going on here then?” came a masculine voice from behind the guards and they turned to look at the arrival.
“Push off,” growled the unicorn, “We’ve caught a thief, it’s none of your business.”
“Really,” said the Doctor walking straight past the guards and examining the fallen Bat pony. “That’s a rather fancy outfit for a thief. Whatever happened to a domino mask, black and white shirt and a bag marked ‘Swag’? It’s traditional.” He reached into his coat and took out a wallet which he flipped open and swung around quickly in front of the guard’s eyes. “As you can see I am a member of the,” his eyes flickered down to the psychic paper, “Royal Guard, so I can take this criminal off your hooves.”
The guards looked back and forth between themselves. Then their leader yelled, “Another one, get him!”
“Not the response I would expect from law abiding citizens, you know,” said the Doctor, backpedalling away from the guards now rushing towards him and Martha.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Nocturne roused herself and swung her still trapped legs at the nearby Unicorn, striking a glancing blow on the side of his head and making him drop his spell. Freed, the pegasus staggered past the guards, her head still ringing, shoving them aside. “Follow me!” she yelled at her rescuer.
Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, both the Doctor and Martha followed the fleeing bat pony into the backstreets of Canterlot, pursued by the guards. Given that it was gone midnight and near midwinter, the streets were relatively quiet, but Canterlot never fully sleeps and some ponies, wrapped up against the cold, still wandered the city. It was these poor unfortunate ponies who ended up getting trampled as the two groups chased each other through the streets.
Nocturne, Martha and the Doctor did their best to avoid the passersby while the house Rouncey guards just shoved the pedestrians aside. The pegasus guard took to the air to try and spot the fugitives and guide his companions to them. Nocturne spotted the aerial guard and instinctively tried to fly up to deal with him, but let out a strangled cry as her injured wing tried to unfold. She staggered and almost fell as she was overcome by the pain. Martha tried to support her. “Doctor, she’s hurt, we have to get away from them.”
“On, it,” yelled the Doctor. He skidded to the stop in front of a shop with an ‘Apple Trust’ sign about it. “Quick, get me a banana.”
The shopkeeper looked confused. “I’m sorry we only sell apples here.”
“Bah, apples are repulsive.” The Doctor made a face. “Still, when all you have is a hammer...” He grabbed an apple from the shocked shopkeeper and with a flick of his hoof hurled it up at the pegasus above them. It hit its target straight on the head, momentarily dazing him and causing him to drop out of the air. One of his flailing wings caught on a canopy, and he crashed amongst his companions, knocking all of them aside like skittles. “Howzatt!” yelled the Doctor as he ran on.
“Hey, you need to pay for that!” called the shopkeeper, shaking a hoof at the fleeing Time Lord.
The Doctor caught up with the rest of his group. Nocturne looked terrible - sweat was dripping from her and she was staggering along only remaining upright with Martha’s support. “Need to get to safety,” she gasped. She looked around, her brow furrowed. “This way.” She pointed down a street.
The bat pony led the time travellers through a maze of streets until she stood in front of an inconspicuous door. After checking that there were no other ponies in sight, Nocturne slumped against it. As her helmet touched the door, it glowed with a faint blue aura and swung open. She almost fell forward but was supported by the Doctor and Martha who dragged her inside. The door clicked shut behind them.
The house, as its exterior suggested, seemed to be totally ordinary. Built on a single floor, a small hallway contained doors to a living room, a tiny kitchen, an equally small bathroom and a bedroom with two beds. It was onto one of these that Nocturne was gently lowered by her rescuers. She laid there panting hard.
“You should probably look at her, Doctor,” said the Doctor.
“Why me!” exclaimed Martha, then continued in a quieter voice, “I’m not a vet.”
“You’re an MD, it’s more or less the same.”
“What about you?”
“Sorry, I’m not that kind of Doctor. Plus the last time I did this one of the patients almost died despite me being helped by a princess.”
Martha turned to her patient and put on a fake smile. “Okay, Miss. I need to look at that wing now.”
“It’s Nocturne. You have medical training?”
“I’m a Doctor, mostly. My name’s Martha and this,” she gestured to where the Doctor had been but he had disappeared, she sighed, “was the Doctor.”
“His name’s Doctor and he’s not a medic?”
“Apparently not. But I’m sure I can help.”
“Patch me up as quickly as you can,” she panted. “I need to get back to base to report.”
Gingerly Martha examined Nocturne’s wing as well as the other wounds she had taken. The injured pony hissed as Martha gently prodded her wing. To the medic’s surprise, despite looking like a leathery bat wing she was certain she felt feathers when she touched it. The surprise must have shown on her face as Nocturne looked up at her with a laugh, which turned into a cough. She reached up and removed first her helmet, shaking loose her matted mane, then her chest piece and finally with Martha’s help her armoured saddle and barding. As the last of the armour was removed a change came over the battled pegasus. She shrunk slightly and her grey coat darkened to a dark blue. Her mane lightened to a bright purple, almost pink. The biggest change were her wings, which converted from batlike to feathered like a bird’s.
“Magic in the armour,” she explained bluntly. “Now do your job.”
Martha returned to the wing and gently manipulated it. It was bent at several wrong angles. Taking it in her hooves Martha closed her eyes and thought about anatomy. ‘It’s just a funny shaped leg,’ she thought. The limb felt hot to the touch.
“Some of your wingtip bone thingies are broken but they’re clean breaks,” stated Martha, wishing she sounded more professional. “But your wing is also dislocated, so I’m going to need to reset it. I haven't got any anaesthetic so it’s going to hurt.”
“I can take it,” grunted the blue pony. “Just fix my wing, I want to be able to teach my daughter to fly soon.” Looking around, she took a lump of thick padding from her armour and placed it in her mouth. Biting down, she nodded to Martha to start.
Trying hard not to shudder, Martha gripped the injured wing above the breaks as best she could with hooves. She put her hind legs on the bed frame and started to tug gently. Nocturne winced and stared daggers at her. Martha increased the force and her patient bit down strongly. “‘arder,” she mumbled. With a tug Martha used her full weight to pull and with a sickening crunch and a muffled scream from Nocturne the wing slipped back into its socket. The injured pony slumped back onto the bed and passed out.
Nocturne slowly drifted back into consciousness. She was in bed, and the sheets below her felt warm and comfortable so she must be at home - she could swear that the blankets in the barracks were designed to be as itchy as possible. She could feel sunlight on her face and she screwed her eyes up to keep it from stripping away the last layers of sleep. She tried to turn away but one of her wings felt stiff. She, or more likely her husband, must have slept on it last night. Even after all these years he still hadn’t learned how to sleep with a Pegasus, well in that way anyway. She couldn’t hear anything so her daughter wasn’t up yet. Maybe she could have some ‘adult time’ with her husband before the orange hell raiser awoke, they had talked about trying for another kid but they never seemed to have the time. She finally opened her eyes and her mind became fully functional reminding her of what had happened last night.
Her eyes darted around the room. Her armour was dumped in one corner but otherwise the room was empty. She ached all over, and several bandages and plasters were attached to the injuries she had suffered at the hooves of the house Rouncey employees. Her wing throbbed gently, but less than it had last night - it was splinted with what looked like part of a picture frame and there was a bandage wrapped around her head. With a grunt she tried to get to her hooves, but it took several tries before she could roll off the bed and stagger into a standing position.
The door to the room sprung open and the Doctor rushed in. “Mornin’” he called. “How are you feelin’?”
“You're still here?” she asked.
“Well you know we wanted to hang around and see that you were okay, do our civic duty, that sort of thing.”
“You’ve been asleep for about six hours,” said Martha, joining them in the room with a glass of water. She passed it to Nocturne who took it gratefully. “I’ve fixed you up with what I could find in the surprisingly good first aid kit in the bathroom. I think you might have a minor concussion, though.”
“Plus of course you locked us in,” continued the Doctor, ignoring Martha.
“I must have set the security spells when I arrived, I don’t remember,” muttered Nocturne taking a sip of water.
The Doctor pulled a short rod from his coat. It hummed and produced a blue light. “Apparently, you have the magical version of deadbolt seals around here,” he said. “Even the windows.”
“It’s standard design for guard safehouses. But you should know how to get out, you said you were with the guard.”
“Well let’s not get caught up with what I have or haven't said,” said the Doctor dismissively. “I take it you’re with the guard then and not a thief, so what was that all about last night?”
Maybe it was the concussion but Nocturne felt she could trust the brown stallion. “Me and my partner, Fledermaus...” She shuddered when she thought about her partner’s likely fate. “...were assigned as protection for a VIP, the headmaster of Luna’s school of magic, Open Door. He was summoned to Lady Rouncey’s house around midnight last night and thought she might try something, so he let us in. We followed him down to the catacombs under the house. Once there something calling itself Legion...”
“Wait, Legion?”
“I think that’s what it said.”
“Interesting, I think I’ve met it before and it did say it had met me before. I wonder if this is before or during our last encounter?”
Nocturne stared at the stranger before restarting her account. “Legion attacked and seemed to possess the headmaster. It must know what its host knows because our cover was broken and I got hit. Fledermaus stayed behind to allow me to get away, that’s when you found me.” She blinked. “I’ve got to get back to base and report.”
The Doctor looked thoughtful. “Why would they want the headmaster, what can he get them?”
“He’s getting on a bit but he was one of the most powerful mages in Equestria. His position gives him access to some of the most powerful artefacts as well and tomorrow he’s going to....” She gasped. “Tomorrow, no today now, he’s going to present the graduating class to Luna herself. They’re going to try and kill the princess!”
‘This was supposed to be a special day,’ thought Lyra. She’d been chosen to be part of the school band to play to Princess Luna herself but now she’d gone and broken her stupid lyre while practising. She gazed unhappily at the snapped string while around her the rest of the school were making their last minute preparations for this afternoon’s ceremony. Oh well, it wasn’t the worst possible thing, she could probably find a music shop open to get a replacement. It just normally took her hours to tune it to her satisfaction. She was glad Octavia wasn’t around or the grey mare would lecture her on taking proper care of her instrument.
Standing, she noticed the headmaster making his way across the quad towards her. He stopped every few feet to shake hooves or hug a passing student. She didn’t remember the old curmudgeon being so personable in the past.
“Ah, Ms Heartstrings isn’t it,” Open Door called.
“Yes sir,” said Lyra, eyes down and trying to hide her ruined lyre behind her back.
“Good to see you, I’m sure you and the rest of the musicians will be at your best tonight.” The aged pony took the green unicorn into a long hug.
Lyra stiffened in his grasp. ‘Oh Luna,’ she thought, ‘He’s coming on to me, ewwwww. He’s got to be three maybe four times my age, this is gross.’
Open released her from his grasp and she staggered back in shock. The headmaster examined her for a second before turning away, looking disappointed. He walked away without a further word, a bracelet on his ankle clanging against the ground.
“Well that was strange,” mutter Lyra before shaking herself out of her daze and cantering away. She had to find a new lyre string by this evening or there would be Tartarus to pay.
Nocturne strapped on her armour on as quickly as she could given her injuries. The spells built into it once again transformed her into the impressive visage of a Night Guard pony, although her wounds were making her feel less than impressive. The same spells would allow her to open the doors of the safe house. Fully prepared she marched into the hallway and moved to open the door. To her surprise it sprung open before she could do anything and revealed another royal guard. Her heart leapt as she read the magical name tag on the arrival, ‘Fledermaus’.
“You’re ok,” she gasped. Her partner looked rather the worse for the wear, various cuts and bruises covered her coat and one of her eyes was swollen shut.
“Nocturne,” gasped Fledermaus, “I’ve found you at last.”
“The weather has been off schedule recently,” said Nocturne, looking suspicious.
“Come on, you know I’m terrible at these code phrase things.” Nocturne glared at her partner. “Fine. First we get the sun, then the, oh what is it, showers, do you think we’ll have snow?”
That was the code response and the one to indicate she her partner wasn’t acting under duress, but Nocturne still wasn’t satisfied. “That Legion thing possessed the headmaster. How do I know it hasn’t done the same to you?”
“Does it sound like I’m gargling bees? It’s me, Noc. I went to your wedding, remember; you spent ten minutes hyperventilating into a bag when the groom was late, you were worried your dress would make you look pregnant and given your daughter was born five months later that was a valid fear. It’s me.”
Nocturne let out a deep breath she hadn’t realised she was holding and stood aside, letting the bat pony into the living room where the Doctor and Martha were waiting. It was crowded with the four of them. “What happened?”
“Those thugs gave me a good working over but I lost them in the tunnels. It took me a few hours but eventually I got out. I made it back to base and got patched up. We raided house Rouncey and captured them all. A few mages managed to extract that Legion thing from the Headmaster and stuck it in some sort of magic bottle. Some of the captives we questioned said you’d gotten away so I checked all the safe houses I knew in the area, eventually I found you here. So what have you been doing all this time? Did you manage to contact command? Who are these ponies, anyway?” She gestured at the Doctor and Martha.
“They’re some civilians that helped me get away. Martha and the Doctor.”
Fledermaus ignored this. “Did you manage to contact command?” she insisted.
“No I’ve been unconscious here all night.” said Nocturne, sounding confused. “Wouldn’t you have been told if I had?”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think your partner is herself right now,” said the Doctor gravely. “That peculiar piece of jewellery might have something to do with it.” He pointed at a rune covered bangle on one of Fledermaus’ rear legs.
With an unnatural hissing sound, the bat winged mare reared up and slammed her front hooves down on the floor where Nocturne had been standing just a moment ago, cracking the wood. The Doctor shoved the injured guardsmare aside at the last moment.
“You will all die!” screamed the Legion-controlled pony in her buzzing voice, striking out again at Nocturne with her front hoof while flailing her wings to keep Martha and the Doctor back.
Despite still being stunned, Nocturne’s training kicked in and she moved to deflect the blow, throwing her former friend off balance. She followed with a blow of her own, knocking the attacking pony back and tripping her over an armchair. She was up again in a moment, hissing in anger. With the possessed pony distracted, Martha ran for the hall while the Doctor drew his sonic screwdriver. Fledermaus leapt at him and he ducked, flipping the pegasus over his head to crash against a wall. By the time the controlled mare came to her senses, Nocturne had a hoof to her throat.
“Wait! Stop! It’s me!” pleaded Fledermaus in her normal voice. “The thing in me, you’ve weakened its control. I’m myself again but I can feel it getting stronger. I don’t have much time, help me!”
Nocturne moved back slightly but kept her partner covered. “What can I do?”
Fledermaus shook the leg with the rune covered bracelet on it. “This thing, they put it on me when the creature possessed me, I think it’s keeping it in me. Please help me. I can feel it, it’s so cold.” The possessed pony shivered.
“Let me see,” commanded the Doctor, pushing Nocturne aside gently. He examined the outstretched leg. There was no clear joint on the bracelet. He waved his sonic screwdriver at it and checked the readings. “Interesting. This seems to be created to open upon a specific signal, probably what you would consider magic, but I think I can duplicate it.”
“Please!” begged the bat pony. She started to convulse. “I will not be denied,” came the scratchy voice. “I can’t hold it much longer,” cried Fledermaus in her normal voice.
The screwdriver gave a sharp buzz and the bracelet opened, dropping from Fledermaus’ leg with a clang. She stopped shaking. “Thank you very much, Doctor. You are so very gullible.” She reached up and tapped the Doctor’s head with one of her hooves.
He froze for a moment. “We are Legion,” he announced in the spirit’s buzzing voice as he turned towards Martha and Nocturne.
“Doctor?” asked Martha in shock.
“Not anymore,” announced Legion as the Doctor’s body started to slowly walk towards the scared earth pony.
“Now we are both Legion,” said Fledermaus as she got to her hooves and advanced on Nocturne. “Come, let us touch you so that you can join us.”
With a sudden crash the front door was knocked open and ponies in house Rouncey uniform rushed in filling most of the already cramped room.
“No! Not so soon!” cried Legion using the Doctor’s body.
“It’s spread,” warned one of the guards. “Quick, get bracelets on them all.”
“No! I will not be caged again!” cried Fledermaus, charging for the door and bowling several guards over before she was pulled to the ground by the weight of their numbers.
Two guards leapt at Nocturne. She sidestepped one and twisted to kick the other in the face, smashing him into a wall. She turned to her first attacker but she was quicker and landed a heavy blow to Nocturne’s head. The bat pony blinked to try and clear her vision and retaliated with a glancing blow to her attacker’s flank. A third attacker charged at the beleaguered Night Guard and smashed into her injured wing, causing her to howl out in pain. More and more ponies piled in bearing her to the ground.
The Doctor desperately swiped at Martha with his hoof but she leapt back out of reach almost tripping over one of the guards. He growled as several guards fell on him bearing him to the ground. He tried to buck them off but was quickly incapacitated.
Two guards advanced on Martha, who backed away until her flank touched the wall. “I surrender,” she called. One guard roughly grabbed her hoof and slammed a bracelet over it, locking closed.
“Now you lot, come with us,” commanded one of the guards.
‘Well, this is going to be a ‘special’ day,’ thought Trixie sarcastically as she paced back and forth in Luna’s office. Luna herself sat at her desk going through some paperwork, her reading glasses propped up on her snout. Trixie had never understood why the princess wore the things; there was nothing wrong with her vision, in fact it was far better than a normal pony’s. She had asked her teacher about it once and she had just said that she’s been told that they made her look cute. Trixie thought they made her look like a dork but had kept her mouth shut on the subject.
“Trixie, sit down. You’ll wear a hole in the floor,” commanded the Alicorn of the night without looking up from her work.
Trixie flopped down on the ground with bad grace. “But do I have to come with you all day?” she whined.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I told you to, and although you might have forgotten I actually rule this country,” replied Luna severely. Then her tone softened, “You’re going to have to go to events you don’t like if you join the Night Court.”
“The meeting with the weather bureau, that’s fine, Nimbus is always good for a laugh. But you know Open Door hates me, why do I have to go to that graduation thing?”
“I think it would be good for you to meet up with some ponies of your own age and ability. And headmaster Door doesn’t hate you, he just doesn’t think you apply yourself to your full potential and sometimes I agree with him.”
“But they’re all the same at the academy, alternating between looking down their muzzles at me or trying to suck up. ‘Oh, illusion isn’t a real branch of magic’, ‘Look at this spell formula, isn’t the second semi-temporal counter-spiral so pretty’. They’re all so wrapped up in their ivory tower they never actually get out and do stuff.”
Luna looked up and removed her glasses via telekinesis, rubbing her snout with her hoof. “Trixie, you are going to have to learn to deal with these things the same way I do, just smile and wave.” She demonstrated by putting on a dignified smile and waved a hoof in Trixie’s general direction. “Besides, it’s the longest night celebrations tonight, you always enjoy those.”
“True.”
“I’m thinking of splitting myself into three and disguising myself as one of each of the tribes before combining back on the stage this year.”
“You did that last year, and the year before and the year before that,” said Trixie, looking bored.
“Did I? Well, it’s a good symbol of the unity of the tribes and it gives me a chance to talk to my little ponies while they’re enjoying themselves.”
“We could try something different this year,” said the light blue unicorn, brightening up. “I could put on an epic warm-up show for you, culminating with a massive illusion showing the battle between you and Corona.”
“No,” announced Luna icily, the shadows around the room seemingly deepening.
Trixie decided she had pushed her teacher a little too far. “Sorry.”
Luna took a deep breath and the office returned to its previous state. “Trixie, if you don’t cause any trouble for the rest of the day you may help with the fireworks display tomorrow.”
“Fine,” Trixie pouted.
“Good.”
There was a knock on the door and Luna opened it with her aura to reveal a jagged horned member of the Night Guard. He saluted. “Your chariot is ready, your majesty.”
She nodded to him. “Come along Trixie, we have a long day ahead of ourselves.”
Martha and Nocturne were led through the back streets of Canterlot back to Rouncey’s tower, the former having to support the latter who was still recovering from her recent head injury. The Doctor and Fledermaus came as well. The possessed ponies occasionally snarled at the guards but followed them without having to be forced. Once in the house, the party was surprisingly led into a well decorated dining room and left under heavy guard.
“Doctor,” called Martha, “Please do something, Please.”
The creature inhabiting the Doctor’s body took a few steps forward and grinned nastily. “There is no more Doctor,” it buzzed. “There is only Legion and soon you will be Legion too.”
One of the guards grabbed the Doctor by the tail and dragged him back away from his companion.
“We’ll going to have to do this by ourselves,” mumbled Nocturne, trying to concentrate on stopping the room from spinning around. Martha huddled up next to her. “We have to get out of here now. If I was right then they’re going to try to assassinate Princess Luna using this Legion thing. We have to stop them.”
“But how? There’re too many of them,” whispered Martha.
“It doesn’t matter how many. Nos protegat nocte.”
Martha though back to her latin classes. “You protect the night?”
“Motto of the Night Guard, well one of them. What do they teach in school nowadays?” She looked disappointed.
“I didn’t go to school in Equestria, I’m afraid.”
“Where are you from then?”
“You probably won’t believe me.” She took a deep breath. “Me and the Doctor are from another universe, we travel in time and space. We’ve come here to reclaim a fragment of the barrier between our two universes to prevent them both being destroyed. Oh and we’re not normally ponies but humans.”
Nocturne stared at her for a few seconds. “You’re right,” she intoned, “I don’t believe you. What is a human anyway?”
The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Lady Rouncey. She had changed since Nocturne had last seen her and was wearing an ornate suit of armour with a helmet held in the crook of her wing. It was in a style that looked vaguely familiar to Nocturne; it had similarities to her own but appeared to be made of gold, and she thought she might have seen something similar in a museum. It gave her a bad feeling.
“These are the prisoners?” the noble asked one of the guards.
“Yes, my lady,” he replied with a bow.
She walked over the Doctor and examined him. She turned to Fledermaus. “You took control of this one?” he asked.
“Yes,” both the Doctor and Fledermaus replied at once in identical scratchy voices.
With a sweep of her wing Rouncey knocked the bat pony’s legs out from under her and she fell with a surprised cry. Before the possessed pony could recover the noble slapped her about the face with a hoof. “I gave you no permission to do that,” she yelled. “How did you get the warded bracelet off?” she demanded.
The Doctor stepped forward angrily and several guards closed in around him.
“If you don’t tell me I will not free your other self to kill Luna!” threatened Lady Rouncey.
The Doctor froze for a second then slowly withdrew the sonic screwdriver from his pocket. “With this.”
“What is it?” Rouncey examined it.
“A type of ... wand.”
“A wand usable by an earth pony?” she sounded suspicious, “Who are you anyway?”
“My body’s name is Dr Time Turner, a watchmaker from Ponyville. He is visiting Canterlot with his wife, Dr Marvellous Stitching, a doctor from the same town.” He gestured towards Martha who was standing with her mouth open - she was sure he winked at her. “That device was enchanted by one of his friends to help in his work.”
“Interesting.” She passed the device to a nearby guard. “I’ll look into that later. I’m rather busy now, my guests should be arriving soon. You,” she pointed at Fledermaus who had now picked herself up of the floor, “Go to the night guard, make sure they don’t suspect what is going to happen. I will free you once the plan goes into action, gain control of as many of them as possible and spread chaos.” Legion chattered excitedly before scurrying off. “You, she pointed to the Doctor, “Make your way to the festival if you can, it won’t hurt to have two of you there.” The Doctor’s body nodded as well and followed Fledermaus from the room.
“The rest of you, bring the prisoners to the catacombs. I think I may have a use for them.”
The trip to the catacombs was difficult. Nocturne could barely stand; Martha had to support her for more most of the trip. The red earth pony was worried that the further head trauma had aggravated the guard’s previous injuries. The two of them were shoved along by the guards while Lady Rouncey led the way.
“We have to get away now,” hissed Nocturne. “I’m not as weak as I’m acting, we can surprise them.”
“Wait,” replied Martha. “The Doctor lied, he’s not called Time Turner and I’m certainly not Marvellous Stitching. He’s faking, he’ll rescue us.”
“Why do you trust him?”
“He’s never abandoned me before.”
“And you fancy him.”
Martha paused, “It’s that obvious?”
“To everypony who’s not him I think. Don’t worry, my husband was the same. I practically had to beat him over the head and drag him into my bed before he got the hint. He figured things out quickly enough after that, though.” Her eyes looked distant.
“You’re married?”
“Yep, got a filly as well.” Her eyes hardened again. “I hope I get to see them again. But if I don’t, they’ll understand that I died defending Luna and Equestria.”
“Don’t talk like that, I’m sure you’ll see your family again soon.”
The party reached a door which Nocturne recognised as being the one leading into the chamber which originally contained Legion. Within it the vase remained on its pedestal but the remains of the previous host had been removed. Rouncey called for the party to stop and placed her helmet on her head. Suddenly a change came over her, her coat bleached to a bright white, her tail and mane appeared to burst into flame and she seemed to grow in size. The armour must contain similar spells to Nocturne’s own. It suddenly struck the bat pony that Rouncey now looked similar to the images of Corona she had previously seen.
“Keep them here and keep them quiet,” said Rouncey to her guards as she strode into the chamber.
The room contained several dozen ponies all wearing the same armour as Rouncey, although slightly less ornate. The same spells were anchored to them so that the chamber seemed to be full of many copies of the same pony.
“Welcome, my fellow Lightning Bolts,” announced Lady Rouncey to the gathering. Her voice was not affected by the spells.
The other occupants of the chamber all stamped with various levels of enthusiasm. Rouncey glared at the more sedate members of their group before continuing, “For hundreds of years our ancestor served as Celestia’s strong right hoof, searching out corruption and treason and bringing in into the light. But there was one place they did not expect treachery to come from; our monarch’s own sister! When Luna started her rebellion, our predecessors were taken by surprise and many died at the hooves of the mob. Some managed to flee to other lands,” she gestured to some of the audience, “while others like myself remained hidden in plain sight, slowly rebuilding our power until the time was right to strike, and that time is now!”
There was a general rumble of conversation between the audience members. Rouncey waited for it to die down before continuing. “Celestia, in her infinite wisdom, left a weapon in my family’s possession with which to strike down her sister. A creature known as Legion - once a scourge of ponykind, but tamed by our patron. This creature can control any number of ponies. Luna may have the strength of a hundred ponies, but Legion can control a thousand - or ten thousand - it will crush her. Even if Luna does overcome Legion she will have killed many of her subjects, and it should not be difficult to raise a rebellion against her then.”
“But if Luna is killed who will raise the sun?” came a call from the audience.
Rouncey scowled. “My family’s libraries contain scrolls dating back to pre-unification times. They include a copy of the spells once used by Unicornia to control the sun. With Luna destroyed we can return to the old ways. Given time we may even be able to free our mistress from her prison.”
“How do we stop this Legion creature turning on us once it has ‘dealt with’ Luna?” asked one of the ponies at the front of the crowd.
“With this,” Rouncey gestured at the vase on its platform, “and these,” she waved her foreleg covered with the rune bracelet. “These bracelets prevent Legion from controlling the wearer, whereas the vase once activated will draw all the parts of legion for several miles into the nearest pony. I even brought a few ‘volunteers’ for that duty.” she gestured at her captives.
“And when will this attack take place?”
Rouncey smiled and turned to one of her unicorn guards who nodded and her horn lit up. “It should start momentarily. I just freed Legion at the academy graduation ceremony which Luna is presiding over.”
“And I hope that the whole class, as well as their family and friends, all enjoy this special day,” said Luna, finishing her speech. The courtyard in front of her was packed with ponies, the graduating class were on the stage next to her and around them were various academy staff and other dignitaries. With the longest night celebrations tonight, the streets around the academy were packed. Her guards had warned her that they be forced to disperse the crowds due to the sheer numbers but had gotten the situation under control before that was necessary.
On her cue the school band started to play the national anthem, and a secretary rushed over with an aura full of the diplomas she would be presenting to the class. She took them and started to unroll a few. She had memorized the names of the graduates but it would be interesting to see exactly what they had done. Beside her Open Door leaned over. “Do you mind if I have a quick word, your excellency?” he asked.
The band was starting the second verse so she probably had a few minutes until she needed to present the certificates. “Of course, headmaster, we have a short time. What is it you want to speak of?” She noticed a bangle lying at the old stallions hooves. She hadn’t seen him wear such decoration before.
To her surprise Open Door hopped up and kissed her, forcing his tongue into her surprised mouth. ‘Memory spell?’ she briefly thought before she felt an entirely different power trying to worm itself into her mind. With a tiny fragment of her power, she blocked the intrusion. Around her the crowd were gasping at the stallion’s actions. The band continued to play on but a few of its members including a mint unicorn had noticed what was going on and were standing open mouthed.
Luna staggered back in surprise. “Legion?” she muttered. Before she could act further, the old stallion rushed across the stage and rammed into the first of the students - a purple mare who looked far too young to be there. She was knocked aside but righted herself. “We are Legion!” she announced, reaching for the next student in line.
Acting to prevent a disaster, Luna formed a bubble around both the headmaster and the student. To her surprise, the young unicorn activated a teleport spell with more power than she would expect someone of that age to be able to use, and disappeared from the bubble. She reappeared a short distance above the centre of the crowd and fired a bolt of energy at the Alicorn princess with enough force to make her flinch. Then gravity took control and she fell down into the packed crowd.
For a second there was a pause then several hundred heads turned towards Luna and several hundred mouths spoke as one.
“WE ARE LEGION! FOR WE ARE MANY!”
“Trixie, run,” she called and turned to her student, to see a questing hoof reach her from the crowd.
The blue unicorn turned towards her. “We are legion.” she hissed with a smile.
The chamber had erupted into an uproar upon Rouncey’s announcement and for several minutes no single voice could be made out over the yelling. Eventually the crowd quieted.
“Why did you not tell us of this in advance?” demanded one of the Lightning Bolts.
“Because I know how cowardly most of you are.” A gasp passed through the crowd. “You are happy with your current positions, you have forgotten our ancestors’ dreams. Now that I have taken this step, you have to put your resources behind my coup, because if it fails you will all be branded traitors like your forefathers. You don’t have a choice.” The disguised pony smiled at the shocked crowd.
Suddenly there was a loud buzz and all the firefly lanterns around the chamber went out. For a moment the chamber was silent. Then one end was bathed in a blue light, revealing the figure of a bat winged pegasus in Night Guard armour. “I am the terror that flaps in the night!” it announced in a voice as loud as thunder, but somewhat familiar to Martha. It bared its fangs and snarled theatrically.
“The Night Guard!” yelled once of the Lightning Bolts.
“It’s a raid!” screamed another.
“Let’s get out of here!” called a third.
The whole chamber erupted into chaos as a room full of ponies tried to run in every possible direction at once.
“Wait! There’s only one of them!” called Rouncey, trying in vain to establish control.
The bat pony charged forwards, a blue glow emanating from her mouth. The crowd separated in front of her and she grabbed the urn from its resting place, swinging it dexterously onto her back. Rouncey tried to grab her but was pushed away by a panicked Lightning Bolt.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Nocturne leapt up and headbutted the nearest guard. Armoured helmet met pony skull and the guard fell to the ground stunned. In the same move she kicked out at another guard, catching him on the flank with her rear legs and knocking him to the ground.
The bat pony rushed through the crowd and met up with Martha and Nocturne. “Quick, we have to get out of here,” it said with the Doctor’s voice.
“Doctor is that you? You’re a mare!” stuttered Martha.
“Well, I did wonder what it would be like. This armour is apparently sex and tribe specific.”
“That’s Fledermaus’ armour?” asked Nocturne, knocking another guard aside.
“Yes.” He grabbed his sonic screwdriver from one of the fallen guards. “That’s mine, thanks. Don’t want to leave that here, it’d explode eventually.” he stuffed both screwdrivers into his pockets.
“I didn’t know you had two,” said Martha as the three of them galloped back into the catacombs.
“Of course, one philips and one flat head,” replied the Doctor as if it was obvious.
“How did you avoid becoming possessed?” asked Nocturne.
“That caught me by surprise, the last time I met Legion it couldn’t do that. But it helps that I have an exceptionally large mind. I trapped Legion in a small corner of my consciousness and let it think that it was the whole thing, sort of an emulator if you like techie talk. That way I can send it false signals making it think I’m off doing its bidding elsewhere while I’m actually running for my life. I’m running a Fledermaus emulator as well so it doesn’t know I managed to knock her out and steal her armour. It’s getting a bit distracting, luckily most of Legion’s a bit busy fighting Luna now to pay too much attention to me.”
Nocturne gasped, “What’s happening?”
“It doesn’t look great. Luna’s holding him off for the moment but he’s spreading like wildfire. I don’t know how long she can continue without having to do something drastic.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Martha, listening to the sounds of pursuit from behind.
“We need to get back to the TARDIS to use this urn thingy. We need to make sure we get all of Legion at once.”
“How do we get out of the house? The front door must be heavily guarded.”
“Don’t worry, I - or rather Legion - knows a secret way out. It’s how I got back in.”
Luna struggled to keep her shield up while it was being battered by magic projectiles from dozens of unicorns, including some of the most powerful in the land. She had taken to the air to avoid attacks from earth ponies but still had to contend with hordes of Pegasi. Around her floated over a hundred bubbles containing possessed ponies, keeping them safe from her and she from them, but the concentration required to maintain all the spells at once was starting to become a drain. She had tried several times to cover the whole area with a shield to prevent Legion’s influence spreading any further, but each time one or more of his puppets had breached the quarantine. The entire crowd around the academy were now under his control, and she suspected he was loose in the rest of the city. She had tried to use her powers to induce a slumber over the affected ponies, but it did not seem to affect the possession by Legion - awake or asleep, it continued to control its hosts. The spell had only resulted in the few un-possessed ponies falling unconscious, leaving them easy prey for their controlled brethren. She had considered producing duplicates of herself to match her opponent’s numbers, but feared that the resulting weakening would make her vulnerable; she would weaken as her numbers increased while her enemy grew stronger with each pony he absorbed. Her options were being reduced by the second and forcing her to consider very desperate actions.
“Come on, o Princess of the Night,” taunted a squadron of Night Guard pegasi as they threw themselves at her. “You can do better than this, your sister did. She knew how to do what had to be done.”
“I will defeat you monster,” she swore encasing the attacking winged ponies in a blue force bubble. “I have in the past.”
“Back then,” yelled a red and yellow unicorn, hurling a fireball at her, “there were only small villages, maybe a hundred ponies. How many are there in this city? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? Soon they will all be us.”
She dodged the flaming projectile but was struck by a dozen other blasts, and her shields began to buckle. She struggled to strengthen them. A mint unicorn battered her eardrums with a barrage of sound, shaking her concentration.
“What is it you told this body earlier?” said Trixie as her bubble floated by. “You wanted a good symbol of the unity of the tribes? And here they all are working together to kill you, united in one mind.”
Above her a cloud of pegasus formed and as one dove down towards her. “It’s not even you we really want. Tell us where Morpheus is and we might let you live.”
“He is gone, but he abdicated his power to me.” She tried to teleport out of the way but a hundred counter spells at once stopped her.
“Are you sure? You don’t seem very powerful to us.” The rain of pegasi hammered into Luna’s shield forcing her back to the ground and into the hooves of the earth ponies.
Martha was glad to be out of the tombs. They had been pitch black and although the spells in Nocturne’s and the Doctor’s armour allowed them to see in the dark she had been left blind and had to grasp the Doctor’s tail in her mouth to allow him to lead her through the maze. A position that had left her blushing.
Finally after an unknown period of time a doorway had opened with a creak of stone and they emerged into the weak winter sun which nonetheless appeared dazzling to her light-starved eyes. The group paused for a second to catch their breath and get their bearings. Martha let the Doctor’s tail drop from her mouth and he gave it a few experimental swishes. It was very strange to see him in Fledermaus’ form.
He removed the tracker from his coat and waved it at the vase still balanced on his back. It gave a shriek. “That’s what I thought,” he muttered. Lurching onto his hind legs he grasped the urn in both hooves and it seemed to glow for a second. He blinked in surprise. “Oh, that’s not good. Quick, to the TARDIS!” With that he dashed off around a corner. Martha and Nocturne made to follow him but before they could move he sped back past them. “Sorry, wrong way,” he yelled.
Once the Doctor has gotten himself fully orientated, it only took a few minutes for the party to find the TARDIS.
“What is this thing?” asked Nocturne, tapping a hoof on the blue box as the Doctor fumbled with the lock.
“This is how we travel in time and space,” explained Martha.
“That’s real?”
“As real as you want it to be,” said the Doctor, finally opening the door and gesturing for the mares to enter.
Nocturne’s eyes widened as she entered the impossibly large space within the small box. The walls were covered with roundels and pillars of a coral-like substance twisted and turned through them. Cables hung from the ceiling, at the centre of the room was a single glass column reaching the ceiling, and around it stood banks of glowing controls. Attached to the console was a thick cable leading to a hissing, crackling contraption seemingly cobbled together from a pile of junk.
The Doctor threw aside his helmet returning to his own form before checking the device. “Well, the transmogrifier’s fine,” he announced before leaping over to the main console.
Nocturne turned around slowly taking the whole space in, “It’s big,” she muttered.
“You have to say it now,” said Martha with a smile, “or he’ll get all grumpy.”
“Say what?”
“That it’s bigger on the inside than the outside.”
“Well that’s obvious. It’s all true isn’t it? You are from another universe, and you are trying to save mine.”
“Yep,” said the Doctor, rushing around the console pushing buttons, pulling levers, hammering bells, “Except I don’t get grumpy, well except when I do. Now come on girl,” he muttered to the TARDIS. “All I need is a bit of a move in space, not time, not dimensions. You can do that it’s easy, a Morris Minor can do that.”
The whole room shuddered and the column at the centre of the room slowly began to move, “That’s it,” crowed the Doctor. “That’s it old girl, just a bit more. Martha I need a hoof over here.”
The red mare staggered over to the console.
“Now I need you to hold this in position,” he gestured at a lever, “and turn this wheel so that the red line is at 180, got that.”
“Yes Doctor,” she said positioning her hooves.
“Good, don’t stop for anything or we’ll fall out of the sky which won’t be much fun.” He slammed his hoof down on a button on the console and the door swung open. A strong wind blew in to reveal that the TARDIS was now floating several hundred feet over the city. Below could be seen the castle and a blue dome covering the academy and its surrounding area.
“So what happens now Doctor?” asked Nocturne, staggering towards him as he walked towards the door, seemingly unaffected by the TARDIS’ shuddering.
“Now I use this,” he indicated the urn, “to draw all of Legion into me. You’ll probably need to subdue me, but you’re a tough mare and I’m a wimp so that shouldn’t be a problem. Use this,” he pointed at the tracker,”to return the urn to its natural form, the TARDIS will do the rest.”
“And what about you?”
“I’m sure Luna will be able to sort out something.” he grinned, the smile not quite reaching his eyes.
“What aren't you telling me, Doctor.” asked Nocturne looking dangerously at him.
“Well, there’s more of Legion than one body can really hold now. There’s a chance that it’ll burn me out, but look on the bright side, no more Legion.”
“Then I should do it,” offered Nocturne. “It’s my job to protect Luna.”
“Don’t,” yelled Martha from across the room. “What about your family? Doctor, surely there’s another way?”
The Doctor stood strong. “You have a family? I don’t, not anymore. I can’t let you do this.”
“This is my choice, Doctor,” announced Nocturne, swinging a hoof at Doctor and striking him in the gut, knocking the air from his lungs. She grabbed the urn and leapt for the door. “This universe needs you to fix it. It can live without me. Tell my husband, tell Heavy Roller I love him and I want him to be happy, he should find someone else, eventually, after a long long time, but definitely not Fledermaus. That sounded more noble before I said it, I’m not good at sharing.”
“You can tell him yourself!” The Doctor leapt at the guard mare and grabbed her before she could get to the door. The two of them rolled around on the floor, wrestling for the urn. Martha looked on helplessly.
“Tell my daughter,” growled Nocturne, trying to shove the Doctor off her, “Tell Scootaloo...”
“Scootaloo?” muttered the Doctor. The name triggered a memory in him, from his first incarnation, many hundreds of years ago.
A large creature made of animate wood was running after a small crowd of ponies, including the Doctor. Suddenly one of the ponies fell and the Doctor and a magenta earth pony turned to face the beast. An orange pegasus filly with a purple mane stood alongside them. “I want to help fight the timberwolf,” she announced without fear.
“Scootaloo, I need you to be strong and guard your friends, there could be more timberwolves out there,” said the magenta mare. “It’s what your mother would have wanted you to do.”
“It’s what your mother would have wanted you to do.”
“mother would have.”
“would have.”
“Noooo!” howled the Doctor. “Time, don’t do this to me!”
“What is it?” asked Nocturne in surprise, ceasing to struggle.
“Scootaloo, orange coat, purple mane, fearless?” snapped the Doctor.
“Yes, that’s my girl,” said Nocturne with pride. “You’ve met her?”
“I will have, not far in the future. She saved me from a timberwolf. She missed her mother.”
The implication of this sunk into Nocturne. “So, I do die here then?”
“Not necessarily, you could die in another way, or she could just think you’re dead, or...” he babbled desperately.
Nocturne got to her hooves and put her hoof to his lips, “We both know I die here.”
The Doctor dropped his gaze and nodded his head.
“Then tell her... tell her I’m sorry I’m not going to be there in person to teach her to fly, to see her go on her first date, to see her join the guard. But that I will be there in spirit as part of her, I’ll never be away from her.” Tears started to stream down her face. “And tell her to never let anyone tell her she can’t do something, because she can do anything she puts her mind to.” She picked up the urn from the ground and walked to the open door.
Wondering how to activate the thing, she saw it flash briefly and heard a gentle voice in her head. “I am Morpheus, lord of dreams,” it explained. “This artefact contains a fragment of my will to allow you to contain the spirit known as Legion. Know that this will result in the creature possessing your body permanently. I honour you for your decision to make this sacrifice but ask if you are sure of what you are doing?”
“Yes,” she replied quietly, “Yes, I do.”
“Then I salute you. Pass on to glory, bravest of the brave.”
There was a bright flash and a beam of light blazed from the vase to Nocturne’s body, illuminating it with a light blue glow.
Below, Luna was pinned to the ground, covered in the bodies of hundreds of her little ponies, each controlled by Legion. She tried to rise to push them off but the weight was too much. She tried to think but dozens of horns threw stunning spells at her breaking her concentration. She once again felt a presence try to worm its way into her consciousness but this time it was not alone; a hundred pin pricks tried to pierce her mind’s defences at once and she was tired, so very tired. The dark presence found a grip and pulled.
“I.... am..... Leg...” gasped the alicorn.
Suddenly beams of light cascaded from the sky, one for each of the possessed ponies, painting the sky blue. As each of the controlled ponies was struck, a black shadow image of it was drawn up into the sky. Some tried to flee but the beams were too fast. A purple mare tried to teleport but was struck just as the spell took effect; her body disappeared leaving behind a partial jagged and torn black image which was drawn upwards like its fellows.
The affected ponies fell into groaning piles on the ground. After a second, a blue unicorn crawled her way out of the pile of dazed ponies she was trapped beneath, shuddering in revulsion.
“What the buck happened here?” asked Trixie.
Nocturne hung from the open door of the TARDIS, and below her she could see a vast wave of darkness erupting from the ground towards her. She pushed her body forwards, out of the door and towards the approaching forms. She flipped over in the air and hurled the now drained vase through the open door of the time machine, and as she caught a glance of the Doctor looking down at her, a black shadow was torn from him and dragged towards her.
She closed her eyes and her face relaxed into a look of peace. “Nos protegat nocte,” were her last words as the darkness claimed her.
“We are legion,” cried the creature as its spirit was forced into too small a container. Nocturne’s body convulsed as the entity within tried to fly, but the wounds her body had already suffered were too severe. Screaming, its head smashed into a tower with a crash of bending metal and breaking bone and then continued to fall silently and bonelessly to the ground far below.
From above the Doctor surveyed the scene and whispered, “There should have been another way.”
He turned and staggered back to the console, striking several controls with more force than was necessary. “Come on, I have a message to deliver,” he growled at Martha.
The red pony stood back tears rolling down her face.
The TARDIS faded from view.
“This is where she landed?” asked Luna looking at the sheet covered form on the ground.
“Yes, majesty.” replied the Night Guard officer, “We covered her up as quickly as we could. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Her armour gives her name as Nocturne, but you couldn’t tell it from looking at her.”
Luna sighed, she felt more tired that she had in years. She wanted to rest but she had to attend the longest night celebrations soon. She had to show her people she was fully capable despite the attack, even if she didn’t feel it. Luckily most of those controlled by Legion had suffered only minor injuries and could not remember what had occurred while they were possessed. Luna herself was not so fortunate; during her brief contact with the creature she learned much about it. Including who had sent it, her guards had been sent to apprehend Lady Rouncey and any Lightning Bolts they could find, and who had been responsible for its defeat.
She remembered seeing Nocturne through the eyes of one controlled by Legion falling to her death clutching an item from the ancient past. An item created by one of her fellow alicorns before her ponies were even created. The possessed pony had a name Doctor or was it Time Turner, she would have to investigate further when she had time.
“Search the area Lieutenant, there should be an urn nearby. Tell me when you find it, no one is to touch it, do you understand?” The Night Guard nodded. “Good, and notify her family.”
“I’ll have someone look up her details.”
“She had a husband, Heavy Roller, and a daughter, Scootaloo. They live in Ponyville,” intoned Luna. The officer looked at her. “I know all of your families,” she replied to his unspoken question.
“What shall I tell them?”
Luna used her power to pick up Nocturne’s helmet, a deep dent in the top. She lowered her head and passed it to him. “Tell them I’m so very, very sorry. Tell them she died a hero. Tell them I know it doesn’t help.”
The orange mare frolicked with her friends in the meadow. She looked differently to to when the Doctor had last seen her, centuries ago for him, a few years for her. Her legs were long and ungainly, bringing her to her adult height. Her wings had developed into strong pinions, and she leapt into the air to soar over her giggling pink friend; apparently she had learned how to use them.
“Scootaloo,” he called.
“Yes?” she asked swooping over, “Do I know you?” her brow furrowed.
“We’ve met before but I looked a bit different then.” He took a deep breath. “I met your mother, I was there when she...” he looked down, “I’m sorry.” He met her gaze.
“Mom,” she gasped dropping to the ground, her eye’s starting to wet.
“I’m sorry, I should have come earlier but I got a little off track. She gave me a message to pass on to you, she said...”
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So glad to see this up finally.
Oh thank God. No offense to Rose, but I hate Rose.
I love the psychic paper. I love how it lets us just bypass inconvenient moments when necessary, and I love it when it doesn't quite work as intended. Although most of all I love it when it breaks.
"I'll have you know that I [takes out paper] am well regarded across the universe as a responsible adult. [Paper sparks, gives out] ...huh, finally a lie too big."
And there's the salt...
In my head, there are some vague swastikas in the background, by the way. I'm getting flashes to The Sum of All Fears. And Iron Skies.
...and wound.
The Doctor's life really kind of sucks, doesn't it?
3153213
That's the line that really got me.
I did. As soon as I saw her name, I knew it was going to be a rough ending.
3153335
For me, it was this one. It always hits me, seeing it when these immortal, god-like beings make the effort to truly care about those who devote their lives to their service.
Well, at least she did her best for Princess and Country.
(So....no Ditzy in any of these things so far. Weird.)
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I'm not a great Rose fan either, generally I think Martha needs more love even though she doesn't do much in this story. I could have gone with Donna but I think she would have taken over.
The psychic paper was purely introduced due to the 45 minute episode length, previously you have much longer to have the Doctor gain someones trust. Although my favourite version of this has to be the 7th Doctor story Curse of Fenric when the Doctor gets into a secret British army facility during WWII using papers (including a letter from Churchill) that the commanding officer see's him write right in front of him (using two pens at once).
I'd imagine the swastikas would be a little sun shaped in this case.
Yes, the Doctor has many, many bad days, but the few good days out weigh them.
3153592
I'm glad the line worked out right, I was worried it might come out almost threatening in a 'I know where you sleep way'
3154274
She's currently due to appear with the 7th Doctor in the sequel / prequel to this story in 3-4 months.
Love the Lyra, Trixie, Twilight and Sunset Shimmer cameos. All through this I was wishing this was not the story that Nocturne died in and was heartbroken when it happened. But this was so well done that it is okay. Great job!
Trapped in a virtual machine:
Rather than pay a programmer to create new software, modern 64-bit IBM-MainFrames use emulators running the old 32-bit OS running emulators running the old 360-OS running application-software created in the 1960s and not upgraded since them. Still, transitioning from the late 1990s to the early 2000s over half of the 360-Applications were retired and replaced because they were not Y2K-compliant. It seems like this old code running in old OSes, running in old emulators, running in old OSes, running in emulators will keep plugging away forever. If it would not be for programmer-laziness, we would run even more old code:
When programmers say that they had to truncate dates for saving memory, it is a lie:
Over >99% of these old applications is instructions. less than <1% was references to time. In the 1960s, it was over 60 years since the last century and over 30 years to the next. people wrote years as 2-digit numbers as a shorthand. It is not like someone might arrive 100 years late to the 66-WorldFair. They thoughtlessly used that 2-digit timeformat in their code. A little forethought would have made apparent that the programs will break in 2000.
In the early 1990s, it became blindingly obvious that if nothing is done, the Y2K-noncompliant code will cause a trillion dollars in economic damage; so, people sat on their hands until the late 1990s. In the late 1990s, we spent 100 billion dollars for fixing or replacing Y2K-noncompliant code in a crash program. We did not catch everything, so we experienced about 100 billion dollars in economic damages.
In a since, 200 billion dollars (100 billion dollars for trying to fix the problem and 100 billion dollars for economic damages in code we missed) was a bargain. It was 1/5th as much as the estimated damages from doing nothing. In another sense, every penny spent was a waste of money because the problem would not have existed if it would not have been for lazy programmers in the 1960s.
3192011
Interestingly the Sunset cameo was entirely unconscious, I just picked some random colours for a pony to be throwing fireballs and it just happened to match her.
3335681
Even now almost 300 years after the act of union not everybody in Scotland considers themselves British. There's a vote about that next year.
Jamie was joined the Doctor shortly after this, one of our lesser civil wars with the House of Stuart trying to oust the house of Hanover. Jamie's side consisted of Highlanders, French, Irish and a few English forces, they were a fairly hodge podge group without a fixed uniform. The opposition was English, Lowland Scots, Irish and Germans and were rather more organised so they tended to be in uniform, hence Jamie's dislike of the uniform (not sure how historical this is but he mentions it several times in the stories). The battle itself was a one sided slaughter with the Stuarts loosing about 2000 men to the Hanover's 200-300 after the battle many of the survivors were executed or transported to the colonies so Jamie had good reason to want to leave with the Doctor.
That sort of my thought. The Windigo feed on strife but their don't cause it directly, they 'excrete' cold as a side effect. It was the way the ponies were treating each other which attracted the Windigo and caused the problems the ponies sort of mix up cause and effect.
Bah, everything being 'of Rassilon' is so last year now their all of 'the other' also refer to for the Doctors family.
I have one question and I'm just kidding here, WHY YOU NO FOURTH DOCTOR!!!
3579854
Patience, he's almost certainly up next.
While I think he's a very good Doctor I found it hard to come up with a story for him, plus I'm not so keen on Tom Baker as a person, I've heard he was often quite difficult to work with and got rather Divaish near the end.
3581857
I've always assumed that theirs a difference between 'building' clouds and 'raining' clouds, so that it's a bit harder for ponies to smash through the former because who wants to live somewhere that someone could just walk into through a wall?
A few people have said that and it might have been a good idea but I'd always planned to make Legion an Oberous causing its own creation and existing in an eternal loop.
I've imagined that discussion would end up with Luna looking sheepish and explaining that she was feeling a bit 'lonely' when she taught that spell to the mortals.
It not really a catchphrase of his although I do remember him sneering to Davros that he was sorry after he tricked him into blowing up his own planet. I can't think of a specific catchphrase although he had some awesome lines
Look me in my eye, end my life
Put down your guns
(Both from The happiness patrol)
A child looks up at the sky. His eyes turn to cinders. He weeps ashes. Is this your honour? Is this war?
(About nuclear Armageddon in Battlefield)
The war doctor story may depend on how dark and over the top I want to get, it's characterised by ' The Time War Comes to Equestria ' and will involve a lot of characters dying, and we'll get to find out if Pokey's horn is sharp enough to penetrate a Dalek forcefield.
That's more of less what Cheerilee thought in the first chapter.
Well I based on your pre pony head canon so theirs quite a few alicorns wandering about. Morpheus is in charge of every thinking beings dreams, he's not likely to bat an eyelid at time travel there might even be an alicorn for that (you can imagine the advertising, 'want to book cinema tickets in advance, there's an alicorn for that).
3582955
Quite likely I planned for this to be post Survival but probably pre-Time wyrn maybe about the same time as the Perry and Tucker stories.
3589570
Don't worry, Time lords have spares.
Uh... Where's the Fourth Doctor?
3621640
Give it time.
4th Doctor should be next, probably followed by 8.5, then 11 and maybe 12 although that might have to wait until August.
3697250
I'm currently planning to have stories for all of the Doctors to date, including the War Doctor. I could potentially have a second Tennent Doctor story but I'm undecided if the partial regeneration counts for being able to reclaim shards (and can't at the moment think of one, I'm running dry on the Matt Smith Chapter as it is). I will probably do a Capaldi story although not until he's completed his first series so I can get a handle on the character.
3698258
Now that I think about it, since a partial regeneration wastes a regeneration, in “The Day Of The Doctor”, 25 Tardises with 25 Doctors in them with 2 10th Doctors probably circled Gallifrey. If the 10th Doctor would not have had 1 of his hands alive in a tank nearby at the time of his partial regeneration when the Daleks stole Earth, after thye regenerative energy would have repaired the damage from the DalekWeapon, it woulds have gone onto to regenerate him into an alternate 11th Doctor. A revisit by the the post partially regenerated 10th Doctor to Equestria makes sense.
3848742
We'll I've already had filly Trixie appear and I've written myself into a bit of a corner in the 5th Doctor story set 2-3 years in the future Luna noted that Trixie still blames the Doctor for Quartermoon's death. Which suggests that if she meets him again it's after that point which isn't impossible but I think Trixie would be part of the Night Court by then. I suppose I could make a political thriller out of it as I'm doing some things like that with Max and Fragrant.
3848807
I had a few other ideas, but there was something wrong with my computer.
Do you have any idea how idea how hard it is to type without I, O, U, , AND T?
Anyway, Since this is the last chapter, I think you might be able to invoke Time can be rewritten and do whatever you feel necessary for the big finish.
Honestly, Ive been hoping that Present!Trixie would meet the Doctor ever since Peter Davison's chapter.
Since Trixie and the Doctor haven't really interacted much after Jon Peetwee's chapter, it wouldn't have a massive impact.
As the show often does, call 'Time can be Rewritten' and let the fans figure out the continuity.
3856285
If possible I'd prefer to avoid that (although I will probably use a big red reset button of I do write the John Hurt chapter). Possibly Trixie just wont recognise who the Doctor is until the end of the story which would probably work, I'm planning on making him in reclusive mode similar to 'The Snowmen' and there's some precedent for him going by a different name 'The Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe'
Well not using some letters can improve your mental dictionary. I've got the problem that my keyboards so old that about a third of the letters have rubbed off, I can more or less touch type but when I forget where I am it can take a while to sort it out.