7th Doctor - The Chess Master
The glowing orbs that provided the illumination in the library were flashing a warning red. The very fact that the library had warning lights showed just how unusual a library it was, Trixie thought, as she staggered through it past the panicked guards and librarians. Somewhere an alarm siren was blaring. “Will someone shut that foutu thing off?” she roared. “This is a library!” Nopony seemed to be listening to her and the racket continued. Rubbing her aching head, Trixie and her yellow coated assistant continued to force their way through the library until they saw a familiar face.
“Dinky? What in Tartarus is going on here? Why did you summon me?” yelled Trixie over the racket.
The tall grey unicorn turned to her one time mentor, her bulging abdomen almost touching the ground. “It’s Twilight, she’s gone and sealed herself in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing.”
“So she wanted some peace and quiet to read. If we went on full alert every time that happened we’d never stop,” Trixie grumbled.
“She’s been acting... strange recently, obsessive.” Trixie snorted. “More obsessive than normal,” she clarified. “She’s been talking about those anomalous artefacts again - the ones Luna told her about.”
“The ones supposed to be the underpinning of our entire universe but don’t appear out of the ordinary in any way?” The grey unicorn looked shocked. “See, I pay attention sometimes.”
“Anyway, she claimed to have made a breakthrough and needed some of Star Swirl’s old journals to prove her theory. When the guards tried to check her pass she knocked them out and put up barriers around the room.” She gestured at the purple shield blocking the doorway and her horn lit up. “Whatever she’s doing is throwing out loads of magic, over fifteen megathaums.”
“Fifteen megathaums? That’s a lot right?”
“Yes, éducateur it is a lot.” Dinky facehoofed and turned to Trixie’s assistant. “Bushel, is she drunk?”
Before the yellow pony could answer, Trixie butted in. “I’ve just performed to a sell-out crowd at the Royal Canterlot Theatre, and it’s my birthday. Of course I’m drunk! That reminds me, why weren’t you at my party? I only turn forty once, you know.”
“Trixie, this is the third time you’ve had your fortieth birthday so far. Anyway, I was going to leave when this all blew up in my face.”
Trixie snorted, “And where’s your pirate of a husband? Shouldn’t he be doting on you in your condition?”
“Pip is an independent trader, not a pirate, and you know he’s still on his way back from Neighpon. He should be home well before the foal comes.” She cradled her stomach protectively.
“Anyway, what do you think I can do even if I was sober? You’d need a princess to get through one of Twilight’s shields if she really doesn’t want you to.”
“That’s why she didn’t call for you,” said Bushel. “She called for me, you just tagged along.” She turned to the blocked door. “I guess you need the amazing no-horn?”
Dinky nodded, and the earth pony stepped cautiously forwards until her head almost touched the barrier. A purple glow started to surround her forehead and the shield faded away. Bushel sank to the ground with a groan. Dinky rushed to her side. “Are you alright?”
“Fine, just feeling a bit bloated.”
“Join the club,” muttered Dinky.
Trixie cautiously approached the now clear portal and faded from view as she used her magic to cloak herself. Inside, it looked like a tornado has struck the room. Books had been thrown around the chamber seemingly at random. In the centre of the room stood Twilight Sparkle, her slightly greying purple and blue mane dishevelled. For some reason she was covered by a rather threadbare coat apparently made from clashing fragments of other garments. Around her, complex runes had been burnt onto the floor and were sparkling with power.
Trixie whistled, then kicked herself as Twilight’s wide gaze swung towards the sound. “Trixie?” she said.
“Uh, hi,” Trixie said, dropping her spell. “Shouldn't you be at my birthday party?”
“Oh is that today? I’m sorry I forgot,” Twilight said in a scarily normal tone of voice, as waves of magical energy started to flow around her. “But don’t worry, after today I’ll never be late for anything ever again.”
“Yeah? Well, Dinky called me, she said you’d had a breakthrough about these ‘shard of reality’ things Luna asked you to look into.” Behind the blue mare, Bushel and Dinky entered the room, looking around in awe.
“Yes,” Twilight said with a nod, “I finally figured out how to locate them. It’s fascinating, the slight imperfections in how the background magic flows through them, but it only works within a few miles a most. But I know just how to find them now, the Doctor, he’s the key! And the coat is the key to the Doctor!” She indicated her odd garment.
“Fluttershy’s ‘bravery’ coat? I quite like it myself, but it’s not all that,” Trixie noted. “And a doctor might be a good idea for you, Twilight, you're looking a little.... tired.”
The crazed mare slumped. “Yes... tired,” she mumbled. “I’ve been so busy recently, so much to do.” The mystic energies orbiting her started to fade.
Trixie took a cautious step forward. “Why don’t you come to my party? That always relaxes you, and after a good night’s sleep you can come back and finish off whatever it is you’re working on. You’ve got plenty of time.”
Twilight head snapped up. “Time! That’s the key, I can get there just in time to stop the Doctor, all the Doctors...” The runes flared up again and Trixie was pushed back by a wave of force.
“Twilight! Stop!” Trixie yelled over the wind. “This isn’t like you!” She tried to shield Dinky from the worst of it.
“No it’s not, Lulamoon,” Twilight spat in a voice totally unlike herself. “But it is just like us.”
“No! I remember you, but...” Trixie started. Suddenly a flash of ball lightning burst out from Twilight. By the time Trixie’s vision had cleared Twilight had disappeared.
Ditzy awoke with a groan, bells ringing in her ears. With a herculean effort she dragged one eye open. Her bedroom was still dark but she could just about make out her alarm clock in the gloom; it was the source of the racket. She quested about with one hoof and on her third attempt managed to strike the alarm, knocking it to the ground and mercifully stop the ringing. For a moment she considered going back to sleep - what did she have to get up for anyway? She couldn’t remember. Then she shook herself and recollections slotted into place. She had to get to work; no work meant no pay and no pay meant no food for her and Dinky.
Ditzy staggered to her feet. She felt rotten today; maybe she was coming down with something? Muttering to herself, she wandered into the bathroom and examined her reflection in the mirror. She looked even worse than she felt. Her eyes were red-rimmed and gunked up with sleep, her mane and coat were dishevelled, and she even noticed some bald spots in her wings. Maybe she really was ill? She should make an appointment with a doctor after she finished her shift; she wouldn’t want her daughter to catch anything from her. She thrust her head under the shower and let the warm water make her feel somewhat equine again.
Once she had finished washing, she decided on breakfast. To her surprise, most of the cupboards were empty; she must have forgotten to go shopping. She quickly crunched her way through a bowl of dry and stale cereal. She checked the time again - she was late!
Quickly grabbing her hat and coat - they seemed a little loose on her - she rushed for the door leading down to the post office below. It was emptier than she would have expected, but she didn’t have time to investigate. She grabbed a full bag from one of the tables, shouted a quick greeting to the few members of staff present - who looked up in surprise - and ran out onto the streets of Ponyville.
As she carried out her rounds, a feeling of wrongness continued to gnaw away in the back of her mind. Like the office, the town itself seemed depopulated and the ponies she did see mostly trudged by, eyes downcast. The weather did not help; it appeared that the weather ponies had made a mix up, so one part of town was buried under several inches of snow while another was suffering torrential rain. Ditzy looked up and saw Cloud Kicker yelling at a number of other pegasi she didn’t recognise but who seemed to be ignoring the deputy manager. Was Rainbow Dash AWOL again? It might explain the mistake if her assistant had been left in charge. Cloud Kicker was normally quite dependable but she didn’t deal with stress well.
She checked the address on the next letter and smiled to herself. It was the representative’s residence; maybe a chat with Trixie would make her feel better. She could ask Trixie where everypony was today. Maybe she’d missed a really big Pinkie Party yesterday?
Putting on a sunny smile, Ditzy pushed open the door and let herself into the residence. As expected Trixie was present, but to the mailmare’s surprise she was sitting behind Pokey’s desk rather than her own.
“You’ve got mail,” announced Ditzy, tossing a pile of letters onto her friend's desk.
“Oh, errr. Thank you Ms Doo,” said Trixie, sounding subdued. “You’re looking well today.”
“Ms Doo? Why so formal?” asked Ditzy, bemused. “Actually I’m feeling a little rough. Maybe Dinky picked something up from school and passed it on to me.” Then suddenly it hit her. “Dinky! I forgot about Dinky! I didn’t wake her up and get her ready for school this morning. How could I forget about her?!”
A look of pain and embarrassment flashed over Trixie’s face. “Ditzy, did you take your medication this morning? Did Par say you could work today?”
“Medication? What are you talking about? And what’s Par got to do with anything? He’s retired. Look, I’ve got to get home, Dinky will be worrying about where I am.”
Trixie seemed to fight with herself for a moment before looking up at the worried mailmare. "I know it's hard, Ditzy," she said, wheeling her chair over and putting a hesitant arm across the pegasus’ withers. "But you have to accept it, Dinky died with Cheerilee over a year ago now. You've got to move on."
Ditzy staggered back, breaking out of the unicorn’s grip. “What are you talking about?” she cried. “Dinky’s not dead, I saw her last night - she was talking about being in the Hearth’s Warming play this year.” Ditzy though back to last night and the conversation. And then she remembered the funeral, the casket had been so small, she’d sat there too upset to even cry just waiting for somepony, anypony to just tell her that it was all a mistake, that the thing in the ground wasn’t her daughter. Ditzy staggered back, blinking. Where had that come from? It couldn’t be true.
“Ditzy, you’re having one of your episodes... please try to calm down. I’ll get Redheart or Carrot Top or somepony.” Trixie pulled her chair closer. Ditzy’s gaze dropped to Trixie’s rear legs; they were both missing from just below the hip, and she was strapped into a wheeled contraption that allowed her to remain mobile.
“Trixie,” gasped Ditzy in horror, “What happened to your legs?”
“Grand-père!” yelled Trixie.
“What is it, child?” came a masculine voice from within the residence. “I’m not entirely deaf you know.” An aged blue stallion tottered into the room, leaning heavily on a cane, his mane and beard a dirty white.
“Who are you?” Ditzy asked, backing away from the new arrival.
“Ah, she’s having a bad day, isn’t she?”
“I’ve never seen her this bad,” Trixie agreed, pity written across her face. “She normally forgets the ‘incident’ but not much else.”
“Who are you?” Ditzy demanded again. The stallion seemed vaguely familiar.
“I am Quartermoon, Ms Doo. You remember me? The town's representative to the Night Court?”
“Quartermoon? But you’re dead, Trixie said so,” Ditzy muttered, backing away from the stallion towards the door.
“Evidently not, Ms Doo. Why don’t you just sit down and we can get one of your friends to look after you.” He held out a hoof.
“Get away from me!” Ditzy screamed, bolting for the door and leaping into the air. She had to get away, to get to Dinky, she could see Dinky and everything would be alright. This would all be a bad dream or a plot by Corona or Zecora or someone, Dinky would make everything better.
She flew as fast as her wings would carry her towards her home. She didn’t even stop to land before entering the building, instead prising the window open and crawling into her daughter’s bedroom. It was just as she remembered, every book, toy and item of clothing was in place. The only thing missing was Dinky herself. The bed did not look like it had been slept in. Nothing looked touched, everything was perfect, like a shrine. A shiver ran down Ditzy’s spine. She remembered cleaning the room and putting everything neatly away. She had to keep it all perfect for when her muffin came back, from when the mistake was all sorted out, no matter how long it took. No, that couldn’t be it. What was going on?
She collapsed to the floor, sobbing, as memories flew through her head. She remembered Dinky telling her of her adventures in the Everfree and begging her to let her keep the timber wolf puppy. She remembered the look on Nurse Redheart’s face when she told her what they had found in the forest and that she had to identify the pieces they had found, the pieces of her daughter. What was happening to her? Was she going mad? Had she always been mad? She felt like she was going to snap in two.
“Please help me!” Ditzy cried to the heavens. “Please, somepony, help me! I don’t know what’s going on, what’s real!”
Suddenly the room was filled with a wheezing groaning sound and a wind seemed to pick up from nowhere. To her astonishment, a large blue box faded into existence, taking up much of the bedroom. I suppose that confirms that, thought Ditzy, I have gone mad.
A door opened in the box and a short straw coloured earth pony stallion with a brown mane rushed from it. He was wearing a cream jacket and checked trousers. Under the jacket was a jumper covered in question marks and a tie. On his head was a panama hat and hooked on one leg was an umbrella.
“Don’t worry,” he said with confidence, “I’m the Doctor.”
“I don’t understand, what...” stuttered Ditzy.
The strange stallion crouched down next to her and stared at her with deep brown eyes. “Memory problems?” he asked, rolling the r’s.
“I, I can remember talking to my daughter last night and I can remember her, her death a year ago,” she sobbed. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Very little... but there is something very wrong with the world. Which would you prefer?”
“What?”
“Which memory? Your daughter, alive or dead?”
“Alive, of course, alive! I want to see her again alive and well. I’d give anything, do anything just for that.”
“Then concentrate on that. Remember those memories, concentrate.”
Ditzy did as she was told, and focused on the times she could remember being with her daughter; her birth, their conversation last night, last week’s bath night, even the time she had left her alone in the teeth of a storm. Everything she could remember about Dinky. Gradually the other visions - those of her daughter’s death and her half-life since then - were pushed into the background. They did not disappear, but they became more manageable, as if they had happened to somepony else. “Thank you.” She sighed as her mind cleared.
“You're welcome, Miss...”
“Doo, Ditzy Doo. What’s happening to me?”
“Change, and not the welcome kind. Your daughter must have been very special to you for your memory to span the probabilities,” he mused.
“Who are you? What do you mean, probabilities?”
“I’m the Doctor. I’ve visited your world several times, helping to heal it by finding parts of a shield protecting it from destruction. When I arrived this time, I noticed something strange; where once there was one world, now there were two. Separated by certain events. On one world, this world, I had been stopped at every turn, every shard kept from me. In the other, the one I remember, I had been successful.”
“But what has this got to do with me and Dinky?”
“Dinky?” the Doctor asked, sounding surprised. “She was your daughter?”
“Yes! In this other world, did you save her?” Hope burst forth in her words.
He smiled. “More like she saved me. But yes, in the other world she lived.”
Ditzy reached forward and grasped the Doctor. “Then take me there. I have to see my daughter again.”
“Ah, I’m afraid it’s not quite that easy. At present this world is a possibility; the other world is more likely but only by a bit. Given time the probabilities may shift and this world could become the dominant one. I will have failed and this world will become not just a possibility but a probability and eventually a certainty.”
“And Dinky will die.”
“And Dinky will have been dead.”
“There must be something we can do,” Ditzy demanded.
“Yes, I can try to go back and help my previous selves, but it’s tricky. It has to be done subtly so as not to change my own time line. Somepony who remembers what happened in both worlds would be very useful.”
“I can do that!”
“Yes,” said the Doctor uncertainly. “I wonder why? Why you in all the world?”
“It might be because I’m an element bearer in the other world, the element of Kindness.” Her face crinkled for a moment. ”But not this one. Maybe that helps me remember how the world should be?”
“Maybe kindness is bigger than the world,” the Doctor mused.
“If I help you, will I get Dinky back? Will I see her again?”
“If you help,” said the Doctor, “Then Dinky will get to live happily with her mother.”
“Then I’ll help you.”
“Very well, come with me, Ditzy Doo.” He stood up and with surprising strength for his size pulled Ditzy to her hooves. “Come with me,” he said, striding into the blue box.
Without a second’s hesitation, Ditzy followed him.
Ditzy stood stock still in shock as she entered the box. She had expected a cramped wooden interior to match the exterior, but instead she found herself in a large white room, the walls covered in roundels. The Doctor quickly busied himself at a large, many sided control panel at the centre of the room. The door hummed closed behind the pegasus and a column at the centre of the control panel started to rise and fall.
Ditzy was shaken from her daze by the arrival of another pony.
“Hey Professor,” the arrival called. “That machine of yours is well wicked, look at me now.” She was a young pegasus mare - little more than a filly, really; her coat was raven black and her mane, tied back in a ponytail, was a light brown. She wore a thick black jacket with various patches and badges attached. It had some rather untidy holes cut in it through which her wings protruded. “I’ve got wings, I can’t wait to get to try them out, it’ll be so cool. Hey, who’s this?” she asked, noticing Ditzy for the first time.
“Ah. Ace, this is Ditzy. Ditzy, this is Ace. Ditzy has agreed to help us track down what is trying to change the time lines,” said the Doctor without looking up.
Ace nodded somewhat suspiciously at the other pegasus. “Fair enough. So what are we doing first?”
“I think we should start with my most recent visit, from my point of view anyway. Tell me, Ditzy, what do you know about a dinner party hosted by Fluttershy? It would have been a few months ago in your timeline.”
Ditzy tried to search her split memories for some recollection of that time. “I remember Fluttershy telling me and Dinky about that. You saved her from some sirens in the Everfree. Oh, but after Dinky died I didn’t talk to my friends, I didn’t leave my house, I didn’t want to go out in case Dinky came back and I wasn’t there.” The grey mare started to sob again.
Ace rushed to her side and put an arm over her. “Hey, don’t worry, the Professor will save your sprog. It’s what he does, right?”
“I’ll certainly try,” the Doctor said. “Remember, you can lock the memories away if you want.”
“Oh, how could I forget!” Ditzy cried, still lost in her memories. “Fluttershy died! I was so wrapped up in myself, I almost didn’t notice. She ran into the Everfree and nopony could find her... the sirens must have gotten her.”
“I found her using the tracer.” He lifted a short wand attached to his belt via a cable. “But I didn’t in this world, so it’s likely she never had the shard. Rarity gave it to her, from what I can remember. So where did Rarity get it from in the first place?”
Ditzy screwed up her eyes and tried to force the memories of her Dinkyless life to the back of her mind. “I think she mentioned she’d found it out to the north of Ponyville. She does most of her prospecting there. About two weeks before the party.”
“That should be enough to get a rough fix. Thank you, Ditzy,” the Doctor said, throwing switches on the console. The time rotor began to rise and fall.
“Come along, darling, we have lots to do today,” Rarity said, leading the way. The fashionista was as always tastefully dressed in a flowing white summer dress and a pink pith helmet.
Behind her Amethyst Star followed. She was much more burdened; several shovels and other tools were strapped to her flanks and she was pulling a currently empty cart.
The two of them were on one of their semi-regular gem hunting expeditions. When Amethyst had moved to Ponyville and found out that one of her fellow small business owners had access to a spell which allowed her to locate jewels, she had been overjoyed. The two of them had quickly formed an agreement to work together to locate and cut the colourful rocks. Now, several months later, Amethyst was starting to feel that she had gotten the short straw. True to her word, Rarity’s spell did allow her to locate gems deep within the ground. But most of what she found were of extremely poor quality, maybe good enough to add some flash to dress but certainly not good enough to sell in Ponyville’s premier (and only) jewellery store. Still, it was the exceptions which made it worthwhile; she might only find a few usable gems per trip but those she did provided quite a pretty profit.
“Here looks like a good place to start,” Rarity announced.
Amethyst came to a halt and unhitched herself from the cart before wiping her brow. She looked around at the rough rocky planes that surrounded her. It looked the same as the rest of the area to her but she deferred to the white unicorn’s greater experience.
Concentrating, Rarity lit up her horn and started to scan the area. Quickly locating several possible gem deposits, she began to place markers over each in turn. Amethyst looked on in interest. Shrewdly, Rarity had refused to teach Amethyst her spell, but the other unicorn had been observing the workings closely for some time now, and although her own magical abilities were relatively limited she was quite close to figuring it all out. Given time she might even be able to improve on the base spell, to allow her to locate only higher quality gems or those of specific types. That would certainly allow her business to boom.
“Sparkler dear, do stop wool gathering. We have a lot to do.” Amethyst shook herself out of her thoughts and looked around. Rarity had been busy; there were over a dozen marked areas surrounding her. “I think you should start there,” Rarity said, pointing a hoof at a nearby marker. “It felt like a big one.”
“Do you think you could lend me a hoof this time?” Sparkler asked, lifting a spade with her aura and starting to break the earth.
“I would love to, darling,” began Rarity. “But all that casting has quite worn me out and this can be a dangerous area - somepony needs to keep watch.” She unrolled a checkered blanket to cover the dusty ground and began to scan the horizon with a pair of opera glasses. “I’ll start putting out dinner while you get to work.”
Sparkler perked up a little at that. One of the good points of their trips was that Rarity provided a picnic lunch imported from Canterlot for the two of them, which always turned out to be both lavish and tasty. Spurred on by that thought, the purple unicorn attacked the ground with increased vigour.
“I recognise Rarity over there,” said the Doctor peeking over a rock, “but not that other pony.”
Ditzy raised her head and peered at the hard working pony. “That’s Amethyst Star, she was... is Dinky’s half-sister.” Ditzy screwed up her eyes again to try and block a stream of pseudo-memories. Sparkler had blamed her for Dinky’s death. She had caused a scene after the funeral by publically screaming at her about murdering her sister with her negligence, and she’s been right. If only she hadn’t gone out on that delivery, Dinky and Cheerilee would still be alive. “Should we go and talk to them?” she asked with a quiver in her voice. She didn’t want to have to face the purple unicorn again.
“Maybe. I need to find out what has caused the time lines to diverge. It may be better to wait...”
“Hey, Professor!” called Ace. “What are those?” She was pointing towards several large canine shapes loping towards the pair of unicorns. As they watched, the figures began to burrow into the ground and disappear from sight.
“Diamond Dogs!” gasped Ditzy.
Sparkler was grumbling to herself at Rarity’s laziness as she lifted her next load of gems from the sizable pit she had excavated. The white unicorn had not been mistaken when she had said it was a large collection; so far she had filled half of the cart. The quality of the gems were not bad; most were still a little below what she would normally use but passable as secondary gems in a larger construction. There were one or two of high quality though. A large irregularly shaped diamond in particular caught her eye.
She was just admiring the gem when suddenly she was knocked aside, as the fountain of earth burst from her newly created hole and a large canine shape leapt from the pit. It grasped her in long limbs before she even had time to scream.
Rarity, who had been observing hawkishly in completely the wrong direction, was likewise captured by a similar, but slightly smaller creature which popped out of the earth behind her. “Let go of me you brute!” she squealed, thrashing her limbs around to no avail.
A third Diamond Dog, even larger than the other two, burst out of the earth nearby. “Be quiet, Po-ny,” he growled. Rarity’s eyes went wide and she swooned in her captors grasp.
The dog holding her shook Rarity’s limp form. “You break Po-ny,” he said, “Pur-ple Po-ny tell us not to break po-ny, now she not pay us.”
“She already pay us well,” said the leader, brandishing a bag which made a clinking sound of coins knocking against each other.
“But she say she pay us more if we bring her the gems.”
“Maybe we tell her Po-ny like this when we find it? Maybe it better if we break both Po-nys.” The brute turned towards Sparkler and raised its large paw threateningly. The purple pony tried to struggle out of her captor’s grip, but it was too strong.
“STOP!” came a commanding shout. The group turned to see the diminutive figure of the Doctor galloping towards them. He came to a halt in front of the Diamond Dog leader and stared up into his eyes. “Let them go,” he snarled through gritted teeth.
The leader took a step back, and one of his companions instinctively dropped Rarity. The white unicorn landed with a thud and with a groan her eyes flickered open.
Overcoming his initial surprise, the largest dog took a step forward. “Why should we do what you say?” asked the creature.
“Because I have this!” the Doctor announced, brandishing his umbrella.
There was silence for a second, then the Dog replied, “You have stick? What stick supposed to do?”
“This!” the Doctor announced, pointing it at one of the larger boulders in the field.
Nothing happened.
“Professor!” exclaimed Ace. “That’s the wrong one!”
“I still don’t understand what is supposed to be going on,” said Ditzy. She and Ace had spent the last few minutes rushing around the area placing strange silver cylinders on the ground while the Dogs had been distracted. The black pegasus had then pulled a strange contraption from her backpack and extended a long metal spike from it.
“We’ve been placing the Nitro-9 around the field so the Professor can use it to scare those stupid Dog heads, but he’s gone and picked the only rock in the field we didn’t mine. Here, take the last one,” she passed a cylinder to Ditzy, ”and stick it behind the rock. I need to stay with the remote. Make sure you leg it afterwards or you’ll be chunky salsa,” she said encouragingly.
With a gulp, Ditzy took the offered object in her mouth and scuttled towards the rock. Her grey coat gave her a measure of camouflage against the dusty background, but she still tried to keep as low as she could. Not for the first time today she questioned her sanity, but she would do anything if there was a chance of saving Dinky.
To her surprise, no one seemed to notice her, and she reached the boulder and placed the can it its base before rushing away, trying to keep the rock between herself and the dogs.
“Nothing happen,” said the Diamond Dog leader approaching the Doctor.
“Errr.... Silly me. I forgot to do this,” he said, opening the umbrella with a snap that made the dog hop back in surprise.
He pointed the device at the boulder again, and this time there was a huge explosion that threw it into the sky. It tumbled to the earth not too far away, creating a deep trench before coming to a stop only a few feet from the Doctor.
“Wicked!” Ace crowed from behind cover.
The dogs and ponies froze in place, mouths open in astonishment. The Doctor calmly pointed the umbrella at an empty patch of ground, and a further gout of flame blew a crater in the rock. He casually turned the umbrella round to point at the Diamond Dog leader, who cowered.
“Now, how about you let the ponies go and tell me why you’re here?” the Doctor said, closing the umbrella up again.
The dog holding Sparkler quickly dropped her to the ground, and she staggered over to help the still semi-conscious Rarity to her hooves.
“Uh... Pur-ple Po-ny paid us to get gems,” muttered the large canine. “She said we would find other po-nys looking for them and to drive them off but not to hurt them.”
“Humm, where is this pur-ple, eh, purple pony now?”
“Not far. We can take you. If you not make go boom?”
“Good.” He turned to Sparkler and Rarity. “You should probably go now. Make sure you take your gems with you, you wouldn’t want to leave empty hooved would you?” He searched through the cart for a second, lifting the large diamond that Sparkler had had her eye on. “This one is particularly good, isn’t it? Don’t you think it looks a bit like a butterfly?”
“Why, yes it does,” Rarity mumbled. “Thank you for saving us, Mr ...”
“Oh, call me Professor.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Rarity said. “Are you sure we can’t do anything in return? I am a tailor, I could make you a suit or a coat maybe?”
“I could make you a ring or something,” Sparkler added.
“That’s very kind but your gratitude is enough,” the Doctor said, doffing his hat. He turned back to the dogs, brandishing his umbrella again. “Now we better be off.”
As soon as Rarity and Sparkler were out of sight, Ditzy and Ace joined the Doctor and the group of Diamond Dogs as they headed back towards their mysterious employer.
“She threaten to turn dogs into cats unless we do what she say,” explained the dog’s leader, “She crazy like last boss, but she pay better anyway.”
“I think you should hand over that cash,” the Doctor said, gesturing with the umbrella.
The dog gave a whine of pain but handed over the pouch without further comment.
“Why did you do that, professor?” Ace whispered. “Dog face shouldn’t get to keep the loot, but since when did you need the dosh?”
“It always pays to have local currency. I have reason to believe that I might need to make some purchases sooner or later,” he replied in an equally hushed tone.
“You say the purple pony turned up yesterday?” the Doctor continued loudly.
“Yes, she say find gems and bring them to her, she know when she had the right one. Then she say Po-nys would find the right one and to find the Po-nys.”
The group rounded a large boulder to reveal a purple unicorn, wearing a multi-coloured coat several sizes too large for her. “Twilight?” Ditzy gasped. “You look so old!”
“Ditzy?” replied Twilight looking equally shocked. “You’re so young! You must be this time’s Ditzy but you never mentioned..”
“That’s my coat!” the Doctor exclaimed, stepping towards Twilight.
“That thing!” said Ace. “It looks like an explosion in a paint factory!”
“My tastes have changed over time,” the Doctor replied, looking rather pained. “If your future self saw what you were wearing now, she’d probably be horrified.”
“Not this, professor,” Ace said, tugging on her coat. “This styles going to stay for ever.”
“Your coat! You must be the Doctor. You’re the one doing this, taking the shards, damaging this universe!” Twilight cried. She charged her horn and threw a bolt of energy at the Doctor, causing him to stagger back to avoid it.
“Stop! Twilight! This isn’t like you!” Ditzy called.
“No! He’s a threat! He has to be dealt with!” Twilight bellowed, her voice sounding deeper than normal. With a sweep of her power she pushed Ditzy, Ace and the Dogs aside.
“Now you die, Doctor!” A tornado of power started to blow up around her. “Wait, no! Not now! This is too soon!” There was a flash of light and a silent explosion and Twilight disappeared.
The Dogs all scattered in panic, and the Doctor started to get to his hooves again. “Well timed,” he muttered.
“Who was that crazy mare?” Ace asked, helping the Doctor up.
“I don’t know, do you Ditzy?”
“That was Twilight Sparkle, I think. She looked so old. I never met her in the bad time line,” she didn’t want to think about it now, “but in the right universe she caused an accident and was sentenced to community service in the library.”
“So why’d she try to off you, Professor? Overdue library books?”
“I don’t know, I don’t recall meeting her yet. Humm, back to the TARDIS, I have something I’ll need to look into.”
“Now that is interesting,” the Doctor noted, looking at screen in the TARDIS. “Now this,” he pointed a hoof at a blue line zig zagging itself down the screen, “is a two dimensional representation of the five dimensional interactions I’ve had with Equestria. And this,” he pointed to a red line passing in the opposite direction, “is the time path of Twilight.” The two lines intersected about half a dozen times. “She’s following me, but in the opposite temporal direction.”
“So she’s going backwards along your life?” Ace asked, screwing up her face in concentration.
“Yes, she appears to be trying to collect the various shards before I get to them, but why? That’s very dangerous. If I don’t use the shards to heal the barrier, then the whole universe will eventually be destroyed.”
“But what about Dinky?” asked Ditzy. “How does she fit into this?”
“I met Dinky during my first visit to this world.” He tapped a point near the bottom of the screen.
“So why don’t we just go there? I need to see her again,” Ditzy whined.
“I’m afraid we can’t. If we did, then Twilight won’t have arrived there yet, and we would not be able to arrive later without further crossing our own time streams.”
“How can we get there before her if we’re both travelling in time?”
“It is do with probability waves and semi-temporal chrono mechanics,” the Doctor explained.
“This sort of stuff makes my head hurt,” Ace noted.
“Anyway, the only option we have is to follow Twilight back through my visits one at a time, and hope to stop her each time. What I don’t understand is how she locked onto the time track in the first case... of course, the coat.”
“Wasn’t that Fluttershy’s?” asked Ditzy.
“Yes, I gave it to her during my last visit. How is she?”
“She’s getting better, she actually came into town and played at a concert a few weeks ago.”
“That’s good to hear,” said the Doctor with a grin. “Anyway, she must have used the trace of my bio-data on the coat to track me. That’s very clever. But now we know where she’ll be next. Canterlot Castle, a few years after your time, Ditzy, so we won’t know what she’s planning to do. We’ll just have to hope we can find her and the shard in time.”
Twilight blinked as the glow faded away. Stupid magic! She’d known her time in each time zone would be limited but she’d expected longer than that. She had almost... why had she done that? She’d tried to kill the Doctor. She knew he was trouble, that he was stealing the shards that could be used to protect the world, but why did she go so far? Why?
Shaking her head, she put the matter to the back of her thoughts. She needed to locate the shard in this time zone. A quick spell showed she was in Canterlot, about a decade and a half before her own time. She mentally flipped through the records she had on the shards and the Doctor. This must be the incident that Luna had told her about, where the Doctor had almost caused the destruction of the whole city. The shard would be in the form of a cup for a soon to occur sports match. She lit her horn, running through the spells she had created to detect the presence of the shards. Now would be the time to find out if they really worked. After a few minutes, she got a tentative signal from several floors down.
Twilight cast an invisibility spell over herself. It would be better if she wasn’t seen, since she was supposed to be under house arrest in this time period. Getting caught would only create problems for her previous self. The spell should make her more or less undetectable; it was one that Trixie had taught her. The blue unicorn could be a pompous blowhard sometimes, she thought fondly, but she knew her illusion magic better than anypony. Thoughts of the blue mare brought up a picture of the two of them arguing in a library. Where had that come from? Maybe time travelling had some effect on the memory? She’d have to investigate that later. Trying to get her thoughts back on mission, she set off through the castle.
It didn’t take long for Twilight to make her way to the location of the shard. It was in one of the towers near the top of the castle. The sign on the door indicated that these were the quarters of the court musician. Lyra hadn’t mentioned anything about having a shard, though. Then she remembered when she was. She tried to remember who had held that post at this time, and she thought it had been Octavia Philharmonica. Twilight had met the mare a few times but they weren’t close.
To her surprise, Twilight found another pony also attempting to break into the same room as she was. She was a young blue coated unicorn mare in a page’s uniform, who appeared to be using her horn to try and pick the lock on the door without success.
Twilight looked on in bemusement at the increasingly frustrated filly. Concentrating for a second, she used her own power to open the lock.
“At last,” hissed the mare as the door swung silently open. The room beyond was spartan and very clean. In one corner, a cello sat on a stand, and in another was a rack containing several books of music. A few chairs and a table were the only other furniture present. The unknown mare creeped into the room and Twilight followed her, unseen. To her surprise, the purple mare could hear loud modern music from one of the doors leading out of the living room.
“Paperweight, do you have to play that... noise after we finish?” came a languid voice from behind the door.
“You know me, Octy, I like to celebrate.”
The blue unicorn froze in place at the sound.
“What ever happened to just cuddling?” came the first voice again.
“I don’t suppose there's any harm in doing both.”
Blushing brightly, the young unicorn began to quickly search the room. Twilight looked on, puzzled. Could this mare be looking for the same thing as her? How did she learn of the importance of the object?
Giving a cry of satisfaction, the mare lifted a large box from a cupboard. Remembering her position, she held a hoof to her mouth and looked at the door nervously. The music continued to blare. After a few moments she calmed and opened the box to reveal a large golden cup.
Twilight, sensing the cup was the shard she had been looking, for grabbed it in her aura. Surprised, the mare kept her grip on the object and was dragged stumbling over a chair and tripped into Twilight, causing the two of them to fall in a tangle of legs. Twilight was so surprised she dropped her spell.
Suddenly the side door opened to reveal a grey mare, an untied bowtie strung over her shoulders and her mane in a tangle. Behind her stood a younger pink mare, her mane and coat likewise dishevelled. “What is going on here?” demanded Octavia.
“Bellemane,” gasped Paperweight. “What are you doing here? Were you peeping on us?” her face turned bright red.
“I... I...” stuttered the blue mare. Then she jumped to her hooves, painfully stamping on Twilight’s face in the process, and grabbed the cup from where it had fallen before rushing for the door.
With a groan, Twilight staggered to her hooves as well, and set off after the fleeing filly.
With a cry of “Stop thieves!” Octavia and Paperweight ran after them as well.
“That’s odd,” noted the Doctor, waving the tracker around. The TARDIS had landed within the castle this time and the crew had just exited and were looking around. “The shard seems to be quite close but moving. Very close.”
Suddenly a door was thrown open and a panicked blue mare rushed through, a cup in her aura. She crashed straight into the Doctor, knocking him into Ditzy and Ace, felling all four of them. Next through the door was Twilight, who took in the room’s contents in a second and gracefully leapt over the pile of ponies on the floor, grabbing the cup as she went before rushing through a further doorway.
“After her, Ace,” called the Doctor. The black pegasus leapt to her hooves and rushed after the fleeing figure, the Doctor hot on her heels.
Ditzy and Bellemane struggled to stand for a moment before a small group of guards, led by Octavia and Paperweight, entered. The guards pointed their spears at the fallen ponies.
“Not that one,” said Octavia, pointing at Ditzy, and helping her up. “Ms Doo, what brings you to Canterlot? Are you here on official business?” she asked.
Ditzy looked down and saw that she was still wearing her uniform. “Err, yes. I had a delivery to make when this mare ran into me.”
“I am sorry about this. I will make sure you get back to Ponyville as quickly as possible.”
Ditzy’s eyes widened. She could go home! In this world Dinky would still be alive. Her wings tensed as she prepared to fly to her daughter, no matter the distance. Then another thought hit her. If what the Doctor had said was true, then if she didn’t stop Twilight now, this world would fade out to be replaced with the one in which her daughter had died. What would happen to her then, she wondered. Would she and all the world’s inhabitants just fade away? Would Dinky? She couldn’t risk it.
“Why did you do it?” asked Paperweight of her fellow page. “Why steal the cup?”
“I... I...” she stuttered. “It’s not fair,” she whined, “You’re Night Light’s favourite, even Luna knows your name, you're the lover of the court musician,” Octavia blushed, “Even your hoofball team’s going to win the cup. I have nothing, nothing! I work just as hard as you do and I’ve got nothing for it. I just wanted to have something of my own!”
“Where is the cup now?” asked Octavia, as some of the guards started to lead Bellemane away.
Dumbly, Ditzy pointed at the far door.
“Some purple mare in a horrid coat took it from me,” spat Bellemane. “She was in your room as well. She might be a spy or an assassin or something.”
Looking alarmed, half of the guards thundered off in the direction the cross eyed mare had indicated.
“Wait!” cried Ditzy. “My friends went that way as well!” She ran off after the guards with Octavia and Paperweight in tow.
Twilight thundered through the corridors of the castle. She glanced over her shoulder; that black pegasus was on her tail and the Doctor wasn’t much further behind her. In turn, behind them was what looked like half of the royal guard. In some way it made her nostalgic, thinking back to her time on the run. It was odd the tricks memory could play; at the time she had been terrified of capture, but now it seemed like a time of fun and freedom. She tried to remember where her brother was now - probably Cavallia - but he could be on duty here, and running into him would be embarrassing.
Twilight shook her head to clear her thoughts then reached out with her magic and yanked at one of the statues lining the walls pulling it down behind her. The pegasus dextrously ducked under the barrier and the Doctor only just managed to avoid it as it fell, but the first of the guards crashed into it.
“My leg!” screamed one of them.
“Moonlight!” cried another at his partner’s pain.
Fighting down rising guilt, Twilight turned a sharp corner and rushed into an office of some sort. Piles of paper were stacked along the walls, while a large balcony opened out to the exterior of the castle, revealing a starry night. She came to a stop just in front of the balcony.
Ace rushed into the room and screeched to a halt, seeing her prey was cornered.
“Ok,” said Ace. “Just give us the cup and no one needs to get hurt.”
The Doctor followed them and grabbed a few sheets of paper off of a pile, as well as a quill. Seeming to pay Twilight no heed, he put the paper against a wall and began to write.
Something in Twilight told her to attack now, to destroy them both. She fought against it; she could deal with this logically. “I don’t know who you are,” she said to the pegasus, “or what he’s told you, but he’s not who he says he is. He isn’t even a pony.”
“What I’ve told her is the truth,” said the Doctor, not looking up from his writing. “I need the shards to protect Equestria and this whole universe from destruction.”
“No, that’s just what you told Luna, but I worked it out. I found out how to track the shards and how to return them to their natural state.” A crystalline mass appeared in the air next to Twilight’s head orbiting the cup she still grasped.
The Doctor looked up in astonishment. “That’s amazing, how did you manage that?”
“You don’t need to know that. But I worked it out. You’re not strengthening our world by taking these things, you're weakening it - taking away the very foundations until it will all just crumble to dust.”
“I’m afraid you’re very much mistaken about that. Whatever gave you that idea?”
“I... I... It’s just obvious isn’t it?” cried Twilight. “Why don’t you believe me?” she screamed.
“I trust the Doctor,” Ace stated.
Behind them, the rest of the pursuers arrived. Seeing herself heavily outnumbered, Twilight started to back away towards the lip of the balcony.
“Wait, don’t!” cried Ditzy, as Twilight toppled into the space below.
“I’ll get her!” Ace yelled, leaping forwards wings out stretched.
“Wait!” screamed the Doctor. “Flying isn’t that easy!”
Twilight plummeted towards the ground but she felt no fear. A simple teleport should get her to safety and then the Doctor wouldn’t be able to find her. She began to concentrate when she realised her mistake; she felt her physical structure began to loosen as the spell took effect, but in her current state instead of allowing her to move to a different spatial location it initiated a temporal shift, dragging her to her next time zone. She struggled to fight against the effect when to her shock she saw the black pegasus shooting towards her at full speed. Ace grabbed the cup from alongside the falling unicorn and then pulled out of the power dive gracefully. It was the last sight Twilight saw before she was whisked back in time.
The Doctor rushed forwards to peer over the edge of the balcony just in time to see an explosion of light from below. He blinked away the spots and saw Ace rise up and hover in front of him, clutching the cup in her forearms.
“It looks like I’m a natural at this, Professor. It feels Ace!” She did a backflip in the air.
“Well, get down here,” he cried in relief.
“Who are you anyway?” asked one of the guards.
“Ah, yes. Here are my credentials.” He presented a sheet of paper. “As you will see they are signed by Luna herself. Careful the ink is still wet.” He passed the paper over with a smile.
The guard looked at them suspiciously.
“Um, I’ll vouch for him,” said Ditzy, raising a hoof.
Octavia looked at the mare for a second. “As will I,” she agreed.
“Here’s your cup thingy back,” said Ace, holding out the trophy.
Paperweight took it gratefully, before passing it to Octavia. “Thanks, the match is in a few days’ time. Hopefully I’ll get to keep it after then.”
“Good, only one more thing to do before we depart,” noted the Doctor as he passed a letter to Ditzy.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Just something to keep time on track,” he replied enigmatically. “Just deliver it to Frolicsome Meadowlark.”
“I know him,” said one of the guards. “He just took his partner to the medics after he busted his leg on that statue back there. I’ll show you the way.”
“Don’t worry Moony, I’m sure you’ll be good as new in a week or two,” said Frolicsome, patting one of his partner’s uninjured legs.
“Yeah, but the match is in a few days. No way I’ll be fixed by them. Damn!” The frustrated unicorn shouted. “We haven't got any subs. We’re going to have to pull out. All that hard work for nothing.”
“Err, excuse me,” said a cross-eyed grey pegasus in a postmare’s outfit. “I’ve got a letter for you.” She passed it to Frolicsome.
“Thanks, miss...” but she had already turned and was leaving.
“Odd,” he commented. He opened the letter and read it. “Hey Moonie, look at this, what are the odds...”
The time travellers regrouped in the TARDIS to discuss where they were going next.
“From what I remember of my previous visit, I was at some sort of competition to catch enchanted balls,” said the Doctor.
“A game of Sky hunt?” said Ditzy. “That doesn’t narrow it down much. Most of the professional games are played in Cloudsdale but it can be run more or less anywhere where there’s a sizable Pegasus population. I played once or twice in Fillydelphia... I wasn’t very good at it though.” She gestured at her eyes. “I tended to miss the tags. Never known a game in Ponyville though. I think Rainbow tried to organise one but she couldn’t get enough players.”
“Yes, Rainbow Dash, that was one of the players, and Raindrops. My memory really is getting like a sieve these days. That was only about three hundred years ago.”
“Rainbow and Raindrops together? Could that be the weather bureau conference? I can remember them talking about you afterwards. Oh, and in the other world they got fired! They got into some sort of brawl just before the final day of the conference.”
“Humm, Twilight must have caused that fight somehow,” muttered the Doctor. “So we have to prevent it. As I’m not suited for Cloudsdale, you and Ace will have to deal with it. I have something else to set up.”
“Why can’t you get to Cloudsdale, Professor? They only allow girls in or something?” said Ace.
“No, Ace, it’s a flying city made out of clouds.” He indicated his back. “I lack the necessary limbs.”
“A flying city! Wicked!” A wide grin passed over her face. ”Doesn’t that mean that Twilight won’t have a way of getting up there either?”
“Possibly, but I wouldn’t underestimate her. She’s probably thought of a way.”
“What about me? Won't they be surprised to meet me?” said Ditzy.
“Good point, but I’m sure you can find a disguise in the dressing room.” The Doctor pointed towards a door leading further into the TARDIS.
“What about my most distinguishing feature,” she said, pointing at the misplaced yellow orbs of her eyes.
“Not a problem,” said Ace, reaching into her bag and bringing out a pair of glasses with reflective lenses. “There you go,” she said, placing the glasses over Ditzy’s eyes. “Now you look dead stylish.”
“Yes very nice, now off you go and get a costume.” The Doctor threw a lever on the control panel and the TARDIS started on its next journey.
The place was a dive. Not quite as bad as the places Ditzy had used to frequent in Fillydelphia, where nopony raised an eyebrow when a barely of age mare would go home with a stallion old enough to be her father, but close. The place was only a block or two away from the weather bureau head office. With the conference on, it was packed with ponies from all over Equestria who were technically on holiday and thus were doing things they would otherwise not do. Ditzy and Ace had been following Dash and Raindrops since they left the conference a few hours ago. Ditzy had been relying on a dark hooded cloak she’s picked up from the TARDIS to hide her identity from her friends.
So far, the weather ponies had spent most of their time in this bar. Dash had been drinking enthusiastically for most of that time, and was now barely capable of standing. Raindrops was better off; she had obviously been dragged along to the bar by Dash and had spent the first half of the evening sipping a few beers in a dark corner. However, she had eventually given in to the ambiance and moved on to harder drinks after some encouragement from Dash. She was currently swaying in time with the loud music playing throughout the bar; her tapping hooves were starting to tear small holes in the cloud that made up the structure of the building.
“Raindrops doesn’t usually drink this much,” Ditzy yelled over the sound.
“I guess she just wants to let off steam. This seems to be the place for it,” said Ace, passing over a drink to the other Pegasus. “They didn’t ask for ID.”
“How old are you anyway?” asked Ditzy, her maternal behaviour activated.
“Old enough,” Ace replied defensively. “Probably. It’s not like I have any identification on me anyway.”
“True,” said Ditzy, sipping her beer. “You’re not actually from Equestria, are you?”
“I don’t even normally have hooves,” she said shaking the offending organ. “The wings are cool, though, and I can’t believe you actually build out of cloud.” She bounced up and down on the fluffy furniture, “That’s dead wicked.”
“I guess that’s something I’ve got to look forward to, Dinky picking up the latest slang I don’t understand.” She smiled for a moment then looked downcast.
“Bad memories again?” Ace asked, putting her hoof over Ditzy’s.
“Yes... it’s confusing, being neither one thing nor the other. I try to lock away the bad times but they keep coming back again.” She looked into Ace’s eyes. “I went mad, literally mad. After she... went, I was medicated. How do I know this isn’t just another kind of madness, travelling through time with creatures that only look like ponies? It’s not likely is it?”
“Just trust the Doctor. He can be a bit manipulative sometimes, but whatever he does is for the best.”
“You really trust him, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah, he’s wicked. I didn’t have anything to look forward to, just a dead end job and a dead end life, even if it was in space. But he showed me the universe, showed me that I could make a difference.”
“I don’t want the universe, I just want Dinky,” Ditzy looked down into her drink.
“Cheer up,” said Ace. “You’ll see her soon.” She looked up. The yellow pony, Raindrops, had apparently been coaxed into moving to the dance floor by a stallion, and she was throwing herself around with abandon, bumping into other dancers.
“Raindrops isn’t normally that... liberated,” Ditzy noted, frowning slightly. “Still, it’s probably good for her.”
“Look!” hissed Ace. “Isn’t that Twilight?” She pointed at a pony in a cloak standing near the bar. A horn could just be seen poking out from the hood. Three large stallions were clustered around her, apparently talking.
“I can’t see, those guys are in the way.”
One of the stallions with a brown coat and cream mane reached out and put a hoof on the cloaked pony’s cutie mark. There was a flash and a stink of ozone, and the ‘hoofsy’ stallion was knocked back into the table Dash was slumped over. The drink in front of her was upended over her mane, rousing her from her stupor. She leapt to her hooves, head flicking back and forth before settling on the stallion who was now righting himself again. Dash yelled something at the stallion, which couldn’t be made out over the music but probably wasn’t complimentary. He replied in kind, and soon the two of them were face to face snorting at each other.
“Looks like it’s about to kick off,” Ace noted, standing up. “We better get over there.”
Ditzy nodded. “Can you see Twilight?” she yelled, as the two of them tried to push through the gathering crowd towards the imminent fight.
“No, I’ve lost sight of her. What do we do?”
Raindrops had returned from the dance floor, leaning rather heavily on the by now quite bruised stallion she had been dancing with. The stallion tried to separate Dash and her opponent, but got a hoof to the face from one of the combatants for his troubles and staggered back, muzzle bleeding. Raindrops looked on in dull surprise; then, with a single leg, picked up the brown stallion and threw him across the bar, into another table. The whole bar went silent for a moment, before the brown stallion’s friends rushed at Raindrops, managing to knock her off her hooves. Dash leapt to her aid, pushing passing ponies aside to get to her, and suddenly the whole bar erupted into violence.
Ace shoved a pair of brawling mares aside, and then ducked as a tan stallion was sent flying over her head. Behind her, Ditzy was waving between the combatants, trying not to get involved. They suddenly broke through a wall of ponies and came face to face with Raindrops, who was standing in an empty space with all the other fighters keeping a safe distance from her. Seeing Ace she tensed up and struck a fighting pose.
“Wait!” Ditzy called, drawing back her hood.
“Ditzy?” Raindrops asked slowly. “What are you doing here in this... this.... place?” She was apparently much more drunk than she had seemed earlier, which was probably why the fight had started in the first place.
“We’ve got to get out of here! Have you seen Dash?”
The drunk pony slowly rotated her head around the club before pointing towards the bar. The rainbow maned pegasus was standing on top of it beside a large pile of dazed ponies. “Only the pony who can beat me can have me!” she bellowed with a large smile. A dark blue stallion with a black mane clambered onto the bar and staggered towards her grinning lustfully.
“There she is,” Raindrops noted, unnecessarily.
Suddenly the main doors to the club were flung open, and a number of uniformed pegasi forced their way in. “Flying Squad!” came a shout. “Stop fighting now!”
The declaration didn’t have the desired effect. Part of the crowd started to run from the newly arrived police, only increasing the chaos, while the rest continued their brawl.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Ace yelled. “We can’t let them get caught by the fuzz.”
“We need to get Rainbow,” Ditzy replied.
“I’ll get her,” said Raindrops, moving towards the bar and shoving ponies away as she went. Rainbow and the stallion were locked together in something between a hug and a brawl, slowly rotating around each other.
Just as Ditzy and the others arrived, the stallion missed his footing and collapsed off the bar. He almost dragged Dash with him, but she righted herself. “Too bad,” Dash crowed. “Guess you’re not going to live up to your name tonight, dude.”
“Come on! We have to get going!” Ditzy called, watching the police getting closer.
“No way! This party’s only just getting started! Who wants to have a go next?” she cried, slapping her flank.
“Rainbow, you need to come with us,” Raindrops insisted, tugging on one of her legs.
“No way! You're not the boss of me. In fact, I’m the boss of you and I say we stay.”
“Nothing I can do to change your mind?”
“Nope, nothing at all.” Rainbow reared up and folded her forelegs across her chest, grinning widely.
Raindrops seemed to think for a moment, then swung her hoof down onto Rainbows head. The blue pegasus fell like a tree grin still plastered across her face.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” Raindrops noted, examining her hoof carefully.
Ace grabbed Rainbow’s fallen form and rested it across her back. “There’s got to be another way out of here. A fire exit or something?”
“The building’s made out of cloud. Fire is not normally a problem,” Ditzy noted.
“There,” Ace cried, pointing at a door near the back of the club which several ponies were hammering on.
With Raindrops making a path, the trio headed towards the exit. When they got there, they found it locked, but a swift kick from Raindrops opened it. Ponies started to pour out into the night beyond.
The chill air seemed to rouse Dash, who started to struggle on Ace’s back. “What happened? Where are we?” she asked woozily.
“You’ve just had a few too many to drink. We need to get you back to your hotel,” Ditzy said. Dash seemed to accept this and dropped back into unconsciousness. “Where are you staying, anyway?” she asked Raindrops.
“Um... big building... lots of rooms... a hotel,” she replied with a furrowed brow.
“Which one?”
“Near the weather centre... Royal Sky Plaza...” She started to droop.
With great difficulty, Ace and Ditzy managed to manoeuvre the two sloshed ponies to their hotel, and found Raindrops’ room. The yellow pony let them in before dropping into bed and passing out. Rainbow was in no shape to tell them what her room number was, so they laid her on the bed alongside Raindrops.
“They’re going to feel that in the morning,” Ace noted.
“Well, at least they’ll have a job tomorrow,” Ditzy replied, another mark against her terrible future coming to reality. “Still, we lost Twilight. She could be anywhere.”
“We better get back to the Doctor. He might know how we can find her.”
Twilight ground her teeth in frustration. How had this happened? She struggled against the nullification ring on her horn, but it was a heavy duty model and even with all her strength she could not even generate a spark.
She had just gone for a drink! That was all! She knew from what Raindrops had told her that one of the shards was one of the tags used in tomorrow’s game. That set was currently in the weather bureau building. Her original plan had been to simply teleport in and grab it, but now that she had discovered that teleporting resulted in her time traveling to her next destination, that wouldn’t work. So instead she decided to wait until the actual game, then cast the gossamer wings spell on herself and grab the correct tag before the Doctor and his allies could. In the meantime, she had decided to stop off somewhere and have a drink. Trixie had been right, that did normally calm her. Wait, when had she said that? It seemed recent... It wasn’t important. However, some neanderpony had decided to paw her, and she had reacted instinctively with a magical slap which had somehow set off a riot. Then the police had turned up, and somehow they had mistaken her for her earlier self and locked her up. It was like the universe was conspiring against her. She slammed her head against her cell’s wall, then winced at her actions.
Still, it was only a temporary defeat. The time spell was still in place; going by her first trip, it would activate again in less than a day and whisk her off to her next objective. She slumped to the floor and began to plan her next move.
Ditzy and Ace arrived back at the TARDIS just in time to see the Doctor galloping towards them. “Glad to see you again.” He panted, leaning heavily against his vehicle. “How did it all go?”
“Well we stopped Raindrops and Dash from being arrested,” Ditzy said. “But they saw me.”
“With the amount they were drinking, I doubt they’ll remember us,” Ace added.
“Good. Hanging about with time travellers tends to have a deleterious effect on the memory anyway,” the Doctor noted.
“We might have seen Twilight, but she got away, Professor,” Ace said, looking disheartened.
“I don’t think we need to worry about her for the moment,” the Doctor said, tapping his muzzle. “I’ve taken care of that.”
“What did you do?”
“Oh, something very clever and possibly a little bit against the laws of time. But what are laws there for if not to be broken?”
“So, off again then?”
“Soon. Now, Ditzy, what do you know about Quartermoon the Magnificent?”
“Trixie’s grandfather? He was a stage magician back in the day. In the changed world he gave it up and moved into politics, after he and Trixie were attacked by a crazed rival and Trixie was... Trixie was...” Ditzy began to cry. “Oh, Trixie lost her legs when she was a foal! I’d forgotten that. We have to stop it.”
“Don’t worry, we will.” The Doctor laid an arm over Ditzy. “And in the other world?”
“Quartermoon died of liver failure. Trixie rarely mention it but I know she misses him a lot. Can’t we do something so they’re both fine? Warn Quartermoon of what’s going to happen?”
“We can’t change what’s happened.”
“Isn’t that what we’re doing anyway? We’re doing this so Dinky can live, why can’t Quartermoon as well?”
“It’s different,” the Doctor said, wringing his hooves. “Quartermoon chose his fate.”
“What do you mean, ‘chose’? You know something you’re not telling me!”
The Doctor sighed. “Quartermoon’s death is due to the attack on him, he was poisoned and it eventually kills him. But he accepted that fate. He did it for Trixie. We can’t just change things willy nilly. It's like dropping a boulder in a pond, the ripples spread and change everything. We have to do as little as possible. I would like to help Quartermoon but I can’t.”
Ditzy slumped against the TARDIS, too many thoughts running through her head.
“Are you okay?” asked Ace.
“I’m just feeling a little faint,” she whispered. “I might have gotten hit in the fight. It’s just catching up with me. I’m fine.”
The Doctor stared at her intently for a moment, then opened the door to the TARDIS. “Come on,” he said. “We should be on our way.”
Twilight silently made her way down the corridor. Most of the theatre’s staff were busy setting up for the coming performance, so the dressing rooms were largely empty at the moment. She heard hooves coming the other way and ducked into a broom cupboard. She peeked out to see a brown earth pony stallion staggering the other way; he didn’t look well at all. She briefly considered going to his aid, but decided that possibly saving the world was more important than helping what was most likely nothing more than a case of influenza.
Once he had passed, she exited her hiding place and continued to creep down the corridor. At the far end was a door with a large silver star on it, marked Quartermoon the Magnificent. She found it unlocked and peered in. As expected, nopony was present, but an intricate statue of a snake could be seen on the dressing room table. Good, Quartermoon’s journals had been correct. She silently thanked Trixie for lending them to her. Twilight carefully picked up the statue in her hooves, making sure not to touch the fangs.
This would have been so much easier if the nullification ring wasn’t still attached to her, but it had followed her on her trip through time. There was no way she could remove it herself; she would need another pony to help her, but nullification rings were only used on dangerous criminals. Few would just remove one from a total stranger. She would have to lay low for a while until she could come up with a plan, or the time travel spell kicked in and transported her to her next target.
Still keeping an eye out for any trouble, Twilight slipped from the dressing room and back into the theatre.
“That can’t be right,” the Doctor muttered as he activated the tracker. “Three signals? I was expecting two.” He thought for a moment. “Of course!” he yelled, smacking his forehead with a hoof. ”The other must be Twilight, that shard she had. I thought however she stored it must block its signal, but I guess I was wrong.”
“So what do we do, Professor?” Ace asked. Behind her, Ditzy was deep in thought.
“From what I remember, the shards here were held by a pony called Maestro. He had somehow carved one of them into a model of a snake and found a way to animate and control it using another shard. That signal over there,” he pointed the tracker towards the centre of the city, “must be the statue he used to attack Quartermoon. So those,” he pointed the tracker in a different direction, “must be the control ring and Twilight. We have to stop her from getting her hooves on the shard.”
“So if she does, Maestro can’t use the creature on Quartermoon, and he takes matters into his own hooves and cuts up Trixie?” Ditzy asked.
“That seems like it, given what you’ve told us of the future. But I’m sure we can stop that.”
The trio followed the trackers signal as it led them through the snowy streets of the capital
“Ah this is it,” the Doctor said, looking up at a large house.
“Maestro lives here?” Ace asked. “Bit posh.”
“Actually, I think he’s stolen it. However, that has the advantage that he hasn't bothered to lock up.” He carefully slid the door open. “And that there won’t be anypony else here.” He turned and almost ran straight into a tall unicorn mare in a butler’s uniform.
“The master is not home,” she intoned, looking straight over the Doctor’s head. “Please leave.”
“Well I should hope not. I shudder to think what would happen if he made it to Equestria,” the Doctor quipped.
“The master is not home,” the butler repeated. “Please leave.” She began to shuffle forward, pushing the Doctor back.
“Look at me,” the Doctor commanded. “Look at my eyes.” The mare stopped and looked down. “Your master is not home so you do not need to be here. Go to your own home and have a nice long sleep. Sleeeeeep. When you wake up you will remember none of this.”
“Sleep,” the mare muttered, swaying slightly. She blinked. “My master is not home, so I should go home.” She politely stood aside so Ace and Ditzy could enter before stepping out into the snow.
“Don’t worry, we’ll lock up when we finish,” the Doctor called after her.
“What was that, Doctor?” Ace asked.
“Maestro’s special talent in a form of mind control. However, those under such control are often susceptible to other forms of control as well,” he explained. “Now keep quiet, Maestro and Twilight must be somewhere around here.” He waved the tracker around a bit. “Apparently they are below us, maybe in some sort of cellar.”
A quick search of the house revealed an open hatch in the kitchen which opened up into a large wine cellar below. The Doctor and Ace cautiously descended. Ditzy looked apprehensive for a moment; like most pegasi she was not keen on enclosed spaces where her wings would be useless. Still, screwing up her courage, she followed her companions.
From the cellar came the sound of whistling. A deep purple unicorn in a turban, Maestro, was walking through the racks and examining some of the bottles.
“Twilight must be down here somewhere,” whispered the Doctor, “But I don’t know where. Keep an eye out, but keep away from Maestro.”
Ace and Ditzy nodded and headed off in different directions. Ditzy carefully peered around a rack, expecting Twilight to pop up at any moment. However, she misjudged the position of it and one of her wings caught on a bottle, dragging it from its place and causing it to smash on the floor.
Maestro spun around. “Who’s there?” he demanded. “Custus? Is that you? I didn’t tell you to come down here.” He lit his horn and swung around a powerful beam of light like a spotlight; it illuminated Ditzy, who fell back into another rack and knocked it over. She cried out in shock.
“Ditzy!” Ace screamed, running towards Maestro.
Panicked, the unicorn threw something to the ground at his feet and with a flash of his horn a lion suddenly appeared in front of him. Ace was forced to throw herself aside to avoid a clawed paw that struck out at her.
“Oh, no!” cried the Doctor. “It wasn’t Twilight after all! He’s got two of them! Get out of the cellar!” He rushed up the stairs with Ace in hot pursuit, the lion nipping at both of their tails as it struggled out of the cellar.
Ditzy gulped. Maestro seemed to have forgotten about her, and was making his way across the cellar to better lead his creature in attacking his enemies. Looking around, she found a broken bottle and gently picked it up with her mouth as a weapon. She wasn’t sure she could do this - attack another pony. Then she thought of the future Trixie she knew, who had lost her legs, who couldn’t carry out her special talent, who seemed so much less alive than she should be. Trying to stop her legs from shaking, Ditzy rushed toward the distracted unicorn. He must have seen her out of the corner of his eye, and he turned at the last minute and leapt aside.
Once again Maestro’s horn flashed, and a crystal statue of a snake flashed into existence next to him, along with a very surprised purple mare.
“Twilight!” Ditzy gasped.
“What? Where am I?” Twilight exclaimed, looking around.
Maestro took the opportunity with the distraction to clamber up the stairs, out of the cellar. As he left, his horn flashed again. Twilight screamed in terror as the statue she held transformed into a real snake and snapped at her. She hurled it as far away as she could, but it twisted in the air and slithered under one of the racks.
Twilight tried to keep one eye on where the snake might be, and the other on Ditzy, and ended up looking like the wall eyed mare. “I, I really hate, hate, snakes you know,” she stuttered. “Please get this ring off my horn now!”
“Twilight, look. About the Doctor...” Ditzy began.
Twilight’s head snapped forward as the snake revealed itself and started to speed across the floor towards her. “Now!” she screamed.
Ditzy reached up with a hoof, and as quickly and gently as she could knocked the ring off of her friend’s horn. The organ instantly blazed with power and the snake was frozen in place, where it lay struggling in vain against Twilight’s power.
Meanwhile above their heads, the lion was leaping ineffectively at Ace, who was using her wings to keep outside of its reach.
“Not that one,” roared Maestro. “Get the dirt pony.” At his command the creature turned towards the Doctor.
“Now, now, there’s a good kitty,” the Doctor mumbled, backing away from the creature while searching his pockets. “Aha, fetch!” he cried, throwing a fluffy toy mouse at the lion. It bounced off the creature’s nose without any effect. “Oh dear,” he muttered.
Ace swooped down towards Maestro and lashed out with one of her front hooves, catching him on the head. He staggered back, cursing. Momentarily distracted, the lion turned to look at its master while the doctor swung the tracker at it. There was a flash and the lion disappeared. Simultaneously, Maestro screamed as the ring on his horn glowed, and he tore it off of himself.
“What did you do?” Maestro cried, eyes watering in pain. “I’ll deal with you myself.” A rainbow beam leapt out of his horn at Ace. She raised a hoof to block the light, but slowly all the tension seemed to drain out of her body and her limbs flopped limply down. She hung in the air, only held aloft by her slowly flapping wings.
“Good, now deal with that fool over there for me,” Maestro commanded.
The Doctor rushed over to the wall and grabbed a large ornate mirror, which he dragged between Ace and Maestro. The rainbow beam reflected off of its surface and returned to its originator’s eyes. Maestro sneered. Of course his will was strong enough to resist even his own power; it was just that it was fascinating how his spell worked. He’d never seen it first hoof before, how the lights flickered and span; maybe he should examine them closely for a while.
“Maestro?” the Doctor said. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” the hypnotised stallion said.
The Doctor looked up. Ace was hovering above his head, still entranced. He weighed up his options and grimaced slightly. “Good. Now listen very carefully.”
To Twilight’s surprise, the snake she was restraining had suddenly changed into a statue of itself. She turned to Ditzy and started to back away. All she needed was a few seconds to cast a teleport spell, and she’d be flung through time to her next destination.
“Twilight, please stop,” Ditzy begged. “If you do this, Trixie loses her legs.”
“What?! How?” said Twilight her horn still glowing.
“That madpony will attack her and her grandfather. He’s going to cut them up.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Her horn went out.
“Because I come from the universe where you get all of these shards. Trixie loses her legs. She’s so different there, the attack put her off stage magic, she never became Luna’s student, she’s just an assistant there. She could be so much more.”
“But.. but... I can stop it, we can catch Maestro before he can do anything,” Twilight pleaded.
“Do you know where he’s gone? Are you sure you can find him again in a city the size of Canterlot? Are you sure? There are other changes as well. Dinky dies!” she cried.
Twilight staggered back as if she had been slapped. “No... no... that can’t be true, I’m protecting her from the Doctor. Her and her foal.”
“What?! What foal?” Her eyes widened. “You’re from my future, aren't you?”
Twilight nodded, somewhat self-consciously stroking her greying mane.
“I’m going to be a grandmother?” A smile started to grow over her face, the first one in a long time. Then it fell. “But that’ll never happen if you keep trying to take the shards,” she said grimly.
“That’s what the Doctor told you, isn’t it? How can you trust him? He’s lying!”
“Maybe, but he’d promised to save Dinky.”
“But I can do that, I’ll make sure she’s okay, you told me what happened when she met him, I can sort it all out, I’ll save her and Trixie.” she said desperately.
“Are you sure?”
Twilight slumped in defeat. “No, but...” She sighed. “Take the statue.” She held out the crystal snake. “I’ll get a shard at the next stop. Keep Trixie safe.”
Ditzy took the statue from Twilight’s aura. Then there was a bright flash and she disappeared. Ditzy sagged to the floor, feeling drained and suddenly faint. The Doctor rushed down the stairs from above, followed by Ace, who looked a little spacey.
“What happened?” the Doctor demanded.
“I got the statue,” said Dinky weakly. “Twilight just left.”
“Well done. Now, I don’t think we have much time. Ace and I have a little errand to run so you’ll need to replace the statue in Quartermoon’s dressing room.”
Ditzy opened her mouth to protest, but the Doctor interrupted. “Maestro got away but he had these tickets he stole from the house’s owner.” He waved a few pieces of paper. “I need to get them to my earlier self and I may not have time to do that and replace the statue at the same time.”
Ditzy sighed. “I’ll do it then.”
The Doctor turned the corner to the front of the theatre. There was a short queue of ponies waiting for tickets. He quickly ducked back and dragged Ace with him. “That’s me,” he hissed, pointing at the queue.
Ace peaked around the corner. “What, with the hair and the cape? You were well disco back then.”
“Yes, well, my tastes have matured over time. Wait here.”
The Doctor took a deep breath and trotted over to the queue, dexterously interposing himself between his earlier self and the clerk.
“I’d like to return these tickets,” he announced, pushing over two pieces of paper. “Make sure they get good owners.” Not even waiting for the surprised clerk to reply, the Doctor turned and doffed his hat to his earlier self, before walking away to join Ace.
“Come on, Professor,” she said. “We’d better get out of here.”
Inside the theatre, Ditzy made her way towards the dressing room. All attention was currently on the last part of the show, so the way was clear. She almost wished that somepony would stop her, would take the decision off of her hooves. She opened the door and carefully placed the statue on the table. She felt like a murderer.
There was still time. She could take the statue away and Quartermoon would live, but Trixie would be crippled and who else might be hurt by the creature? Or she could leave it here and Quartermoon would die and Trixie would mourn but grow up to be something so much greater - Luna’s pupil, saviour of Equestria, her friend.
Could she make a third path? Write a warning? Do something differently? But as the Doctor said, what would the ripples be? Who else would die so she could help her friend? How many mothers would lose their daughters?
“I’m sorry,” she muttered as she left the room, shutting the door behind her with the statue back in its place. She just hoped she could live with herself once this was over.
The trio met up again at the TARDIS.
“So where are we off to next?” Ace asked cheerfully. She seemed to have shaken off Maestro’s power.
“Not too far in time but a fair distance in space, at least for this planet. Only in a few years’ time but in the frozen north, near somewhere called the Crystal Empire. We’d better wrap up warmly.”
Ditzy did a quick calculation in her head. “The Windigos!” she gasped.
“Yes, those were the creatures I met. Quite pleasant once you got used to them.”
“Pleasant?! They attacked Equestria! The war was devastating! It was years before the guard and Princess Luna contained them, tens of thousands of ponies died...” Ditzy looked confused. “Only that didn’t happen. In the correct universe, I never even heard of Windigo except in old stories. You stopped the war?”
“Well, I helped. A chap called Lieutenant Armour did most of the work.”
“We have to tell Twilight. She’s going to start a war. If she knew, she wouldn’t do it.”
“Let us hope so,” the Doctor said, darkly. “I fear that Ms Sparkle may not be entirely in her right mind on this quest of hers.”
Twilight arrived in darkness.
It was the work of seconds to light her horn and peer around. She was in a large ruined chamber, with blocks of rubble littering the floor and crumbling mosaics covering the walls. She had been here before - would be here before? She wasn’t sure what the collect grammar was. In twenty years this site would be crawling with archaeologists hoping to study the lives of their ancestors who built this place. At this point it had only just been uncovered and only one or two ponies understood the importance of what was held here. Luckily the time jump had put her down in the correct place. She had personal knowledge of this location and she knew all about what was going to happen here; her brother had told her himself. There was no way the Doctor was going to stop her this time.
She couldn’t believe what she had just done. Given one of the shards over to Ditzy. Of course she trusted the mare - she was one of her closest friends - but she could be influenced rather easily. Maybe it could be part of being the Element of Kindness, but Twilight had always thought that Ditzy was rather gullible; far too trusting. She had obviously been taken in by the Doctor’s lies. It was obvious that he was trying to harm Equestria; her tests had shown that the shards were clearly a core part of the universe, so taking them away would only harm reality. And that’s what he was doing, draining away reality. Why, she didn’t know, but it was obviously not a good thing. She would not be stopped this time, this shard would be hers, she would not be stopped. This time, if anypony got in her way, even Ditzy, she would have to remove them permanently.
Twilight shook her head. That didn’t feel right. What was going on? No, she couldn’t think about that now. She had to get to the shard as quickly as possible. She had no way of knowing when the Doctor would turn up. She turned to the wall behind which she knew the shard to be and started to search for the secret opening. In her time it had been wedged open, but it shouldn’t take long for her to figure out the secret.
The TARDIS came to a smooth stop and the crew rushed for the door. It swung open into the night to let in an arctic breeze.
“Gordon Bennett,” gasped Ace, “It’s cold out.”
“Yes,” agreed the Doctor, not looking distressed, “it is rather bracing.” He spun around. Nearby was a canvas tunnel connecting one of the several large tents that littered the area. “Ah, this way, but keep your eyes peeled, there should be several of Equestria’s finest around here.”
The group creeped towards the nearest building. Ace took a small swiss army knife out of her bag, and after a few tries opened it with clumsy hooves and cut a hole in the material. She stuck her head in then quickly dragged it back as two ponies, a blue earth pony stallion and a large ugly unicorn mare, marched by. She waited until they had passed before cautiously looking around again. “All clear,” she confirmed.
Ditzy and finally the Doctor followed her into the tunnel. “This way.” He gestured towards a gentle incline leading down into the earth. Suddenly a crackle of magic echoed from somewhere ahead. “Come on,” the Doctor yelled, rushing towards the sound.
The door swung open with hardly a sound. To Twilight’s surprise, she found the room behind it lit by a pale pink glow. The fire of friendship was already lit - it must be later than she thought - still, she should have plenty of time to carry out her task. This particular shard would be too large for her to just carry away, so she would have to convert it to its natural form in situ. That would take some time; she had only cast the spell once before on the shard she now carried in an extra dimensional bag. It had been a miracle that she found it while creating the shard locating spell; by itself near impossible due to the lack of anything to test it on, she had tried to craft a spell able to detect any anomalies in nearby materials and had gotten a positive return on an ancient item of jewellery buried deep in the castle vaults. Many more months of research and experimentation had been required before she was certain of what she had found and how to return it to its natural form.
She carefully shut the door behind her and walked towards the glowing light at the centre of the chamber. She winced slightly as the flame was throwing off more heat than she would have expected. It did not seem dangerous but it was uncomfortable, almost like it was pushing her back. Forcing herself forwards, she lit her horn and began her spell.
“Stop right there,” a high pitched voice demanded from across the chamber. To her surprise, a golden figure appeared from behind one of the statues that dotted the chamber. It was a unicorn stallion, his horn glowing with a bright white light. “Who are you? How did you get in here?”
Twilight's head turned towards the new arrival. Her eyes narrowed. “You’re Golden Sceptre, aren't you?” she asked.
“How do you know me? Are you one of Silver’s people? I wasn’t expecting you for at least a day.”
“Silver? Oh yes, Silver Dollar. I remember you trying to throw him to the timberwolves at your trial - you said he forced you to do it all.”
“Trial? Who are you?” the stallion stuttered, starting to back away as Twilight approached.
“Nopony you know yet. All you need to know is that you tried to kill my brother, and I don’t take that well.”
A beam of light shot out from Golden’s horn at Twilight, but it was blocked by a purple shield that appeared in front of her.
“My turn,” she announced with a smile as her horn burned brighter.
Ditzy, Ace and the Doctor came to a halt in front of the secret door leading to the flame room.
“It’s a dead end,” Ditzy said, looking nervously around the room. She seemed to have been spending far too much time in enclosed spaces recently.
“Not quite,” the Doctor said, examining the hidden door. He wiped a hoof across the door and examined it. “Clean,” he muttered. “Ace, you wouldn’t happen to have an oil can with you?” he asked.
The black pegasus ruffled through her bag. “Here, professor,” she exclaimed, handing him the object.
“Thanks, this should make it easier for me to find this place later.” He squirted some of the slippery liquid over the door and gave part of it a gentle shove. It swung open silently.
Suddenly a yell came from behind them. “Hey you, who’s there?”
Ace’s head swung around to see a white stallion rushing towards them. “Quick!” she yelled, shoving Ditzy and the Doctor through the door.
On the other side, they found Twilight standing over the limp form of a golden coated stallion.
“Twilight!” gasped Ditzy. “What have you done?”
She looked up, eyes blank. “Nothing yet. He attacked me so I defended myself, but he’s going to try and kill my brother. It might be better if he was removed from the picture.”
“What’s wrong with you?! This isn’t like you!”
“You don’t know anything about me. You probably haven't even gotten to meet the me in your timeline yet. But you keep trying to stop me from getting the shards. Why do you keep getting in my way?” She growled. “With your stories about things happening to Trixie and Dinky and others. You just keep getting in my way.” She stamped her hoof into the ground and her horn began to glow. “Maybe I should get you out of my way permanently.”
Ditzy backed away. “What’s wrong with her, Doctor?” she asked.
“I suspect she’s not quite herself,” the Doctor replied. He and Ace were starting to spread out across the chamber. A blast from Twilight's horn destroyed a priceless statue next to him and forced him to dodge back towards Ditzy.
To everyone's surprise, a white stallion came rushing into the chamber. “Stop there, whoever you are!” he cried, then came to a halt and stared at Twilight. “Mom?” Shining armour gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Twilight stared at her brother for a moment. To her eyes he looked so young, barely more than a colt. Then she realised what he had just said. “I do not look like Mother,” she snarled. “You take that back Shiney.”
“Twiley?” he replied, brow furrowed. “Is that you? What happened to you? You’re all grown up.”
“It’s complicated. Just get out of the way. I need to deal with them.” She indicated the Doctor’s party.
“Who are they? What are they doing here? What are you doing here?”
“There really bad ponies, all right? Just get out of the way so I can get rid of them.” She ground her teeth.
“Get rid of them?” he took a step back. “My sister wouldn’t talk like that. Who are you?” He began to charge his horn and a faint shield formed in front of him.
“What do you want? Me to go through the whole ladybug thing? Just get out of the way.”
“Look, just calm down, we can talk this through.”
“Stop treating me like a foal!” she yelled, unleashing a purple beam from her horn. It crashed into Shining’s shield, shattering it and knocking the stallion back against a statue.
For a second Twilight stood there, horn smoking and a satisfied look on her face. Then it shifted into a look of horror. “Shiny!” she cried, rushing to the fallen figure. “I didn’t... Please... Somepony help, please...” she wailed, totally undone.
“Move aside,” the Doctor ordered, pushing Twilight away from her brother and starting to examine him.
“I didn’t mean to, I was just so angry, we’ve never even had a single fight before,” Twilight babbled in shock.
Despite her earlier behaviour, Ditzy felt sorry for the purple mare and enveloped her in a wing hug. “I know you didn’t mean to,” she said, comforting Twilight. “I’m sure he’ll be all right.”
The Doctor looked up. “I think he’s going to be all right, the shield absorbed most of the energy. But I don’t know what the Windigo are going to do when they get here.”
Twilight’s head snapped up. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Tell her, Ditzy.”
“Twilight, if you take the flame now then there’s going to be a war between the Windigo and Equestria. Thousands of ponies are going to die. Everything’s so much worse in the world where you collect the shards. The only good thing is that Corona hasn’t broken free from her exile.”
“I stop Corona?” gasped Twilight.
“I don’t know. I think she just went crazy later in that world. Everything else is so bad... Dinky dies, Raindrops is fired, there’s a war with the Windigo, Trixie’s crippled.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re lying.” She leapt from Ditzy’s grasp. “If I remove the flame now, there will be no reason for the Windigo to attack.”
“The fire’s already been lit,” the Doctor explained. “They can sense that and take it to be an attack. They only believed Equestria didn’t want a war because they saw it being destroyed in front of them and Shining Armour convinced them he wanted peace. Without that, they’ll attack this camp in force and kill everypony.”
“No, no,” Twilight said, pacing agitatedly around the room. “That can’t be right. I’m sure I can stop the attack.”
“Even if you did, imagine what it would do to your brother. I imagine stopping the attack was a big feather in his cap. I know he made Captain - would that have happened so quickly if this was just an archaeological dig? How would that affect him and you?”
“Why does this keep happening?” Twilight wailed.
“Time is carefully balanced around the shards; the slightest change to the timeline results in disaster.”
Twilight threw up her hooves in exasperation. “So I leave! You win again!”
“It’s not that simple. Even if we leave, Sceptre knows somepony is aware of his smuggling. And Shining has met you here. I take it he never mentioned it to you?”
“No, but maybe if I tell him not to...” said Twilight clutching at straws.
“Every time you try to take a shard, you change your own timeline. That’s incredibly dangerous.”
“And what about you? You keep interfering.”
“Yeah, well, me and the Professor are professionals,” Ace butted in, advancing on Twilight. The unicorn charged her horn again.
“Stand down, Ace. We need Twilight’s help.” He turned to the purple mare. “Is there anything you can do to make Sceptre and your brother forget what happened to them?”
“Well yes, there are memory charms. They’re sort of illegal,” she said, shuffling her hooves.
“I won’t tell anypony,” said the Doctor tapping his muzzle.
Twilight bit her lip. “Okay.” She walked over to Golden Sceptre and locked her mouth with his, kissing him. There was a flash of magic and the unconscious unicorn shuddered slightly.
“Get a room,” Ace said.
“It’s a necessary part of the spell,” Twilight mumbled, her face reddening. Then she turned to her brother, and her eyes widened while she took on a greenish complexion. “Oh, no, no, this is so wrong,” she whined.
“Please. Do this for him,” Ditzy pleaded.
“Please don’t ever tell anypony I did this,” she whimpered, walking over to her brother. “I’m sorry, Big Brother,” she mumbled, closing her eyes and grimacing placing her mouth over his and gingerly expending her tongue before activated the spell.
“Oh Lemony,” mumbled Shining Armour in his sleep.
Twilight looked like she was ready to vomit.
“Cheer up,” said Ace with a cheeky grin, "At least he didn’t think you were his mother again."
Twilight stared daggers at the black pegasus before slumping to the ground. “I need to think about this, about why this keeps happening,” she muttered. “There’s got to be a way.”
“Let me take you back to your normal time,” the Doctor pleaded. “I can explain everything...” he began.
With a flash and a gust of wind, Twilight vanished.
“Damn,” the Doctor muttered.
Ditzy felt a wave of tiredness wash over her and she almost fell to the ground. What was wrong with her? “Ace,” she asked, “can you take Shining away? He probably shouldn’t wake up here. The Doctor and I can tidy up this chamber and we can meet at the TARDIS.”
“Okay,” Ace agreed, looking slightly suspicious. She hoisted Shining Armour on his back and carried him away, staggering slightly.
“Doctor, something’s wrong with me,” Ditzy said, slumping to the ground. “I think you know what it is.”
The Doctor knelt in front of her, his face grave. “I’m afraid I do. You’re becoming less likely.”
Ditzy’s screwed her face up in thought for a moment. “What do you... oh,” she exclaimed. “I’m from the world where Dinky dies, aren't I?”
The Doctor looked down. “I’m afraid so. The more times we stop Twilight, the less likely that world becomes, and the less likely you are.”
“So what will happen to me if we stop Twilight?”
“You will just fade away. You will have never been. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Will it... Will it hurt?” she whimpered.
“No, you’ll just slowly be reduced until there is nothing yet,” said the Doctor downcast.
“But Dinky will be happy and safe with the other me, in the world where Twilight never tried to get the shards?”
“Yes.”
“So I get to suffer, and the other me gets Dinky?”
“I’m afraid so. There is no other way. Only you got both sets of memories. If there were any other way...”
Ditzy put a hoof to the Doctor’s mouth. “Don’t. I don’t begrudge my other self anything. I have her memories; I know she’d do just the same thing if our positions were reversed.“ She started to pull herself up the wall, and the Doctor helped her to stand.
“You are a magnificent mare, Ms Doo.”
“No, I’m just a mother. So, where to next?” she asked.
“Only one more stop now. My first visit here when I met Dinky.”
Ditzy shuddered. “Where Dinky was killed by the timberwolf.”
“Not when I was there. I won't let that happen,” the Doctor announced.
“You better not,” Ditzy said, walking to the door, before turning to the Doctor with eyes burning with emotion. “Because if you do, I stay in existence. And I will make you pay for it.”
With a flash, Twilight appeared in a forest. She looked around, and by the dark twisted forms of the trees, she recognised it as the Everfree. She cautiously scanned the area for possible danger, but no harmful flora or fauna seemed to be present. She calmed slightly, then remembered what had just happened, and stamped her hooves angrily.
Why did this keep happening? Her mission was simple enough. She just had to collect the shards to protect her world, but things kept getting in the way; The Doctor, that stupid stallion at the bar, Ditzy, even her own brother. No more, she swore, no more would she be stopped from her goal.
Activating her locating spell, she swung her horn backwards and forwards in an attempt to find the tell-tale trace of a shard. One was near, less than a mile away, slightly further into the forest. She set off with as much haste as she could; by her time much of the forest had been more or less tamed, but in this period any number of dangerous creatures still lived in there. As if on cue she became aware of one of those very creatures; a timberwolf. Oddly, it did not seem to be moving to attack her yet; instead it was following her stealthily. Thinking quickly, Twilight came to a stop and conjured up a shield. She did not want the creature ambushing her later, and it was likely this was the creature that was destined to attack Cheerilee and the foals later. If she defeated it now, no such attack would take place; that should prove the righteousness of her actions to Ditzy.
Spinning quickly, Twilight lashed out with a beam of energy from her horn. The timberwolf was fast, and twisted its body away from the unexpected attack, but not quite fast enough; one of its rear legs was caught by the blast and shards of rotten wood were thrown in all directions. Giving a loud howl, the creature leapt forward. However, the additional strain caused its injured leg to snap under its weight, causing the monster to sprawl onto the ground just in front of Twilight. It let out a pitiful whine and tried to stand again, unsuccessfully. Intrigued by the creature, Twilight stepped forward to examine it. She had never seen one so close below. To her surprise, the timberwolf thrust its head towards her, trying to savage her with its toothy maw. Its mouth struck her shield and it was thrown back, snapping several of the branches that made up its face. Summoning her power, Twilight shot a sheet of fire from her horn and covered the creature in a blanket of fire. She had heard of the plant creatures’ ability to reassemble themselves and was taking no chances. The timberwolf gave out a strangled cry as it was consumed, and its remains fell to the ground as they turned to ash. Twilight watched for a few moments to make sure the creature was fully destroyed - she was surprised how good it felt to deal with it - before continuing on her original journey. That should show how ridiculous the idea of her causing the death of Dinky would be, she thought. No timberwolf meant no attack.
The Doctor, Ace and Dinky stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around. Thick woods surrounded them in all directions.
“I think this is the Whitetail Woods,” Ditzy said. “Where Dinky first met you.” Part of her wanted to burn the place to the ground, knowing what had - what was going to happen here.
“It does seem quite familiar,” the Doctor said, “but it’s been a long time for me.” He waved the tracker around. “The shard seems to be a few miles in that direction.” He pointed deeper into the woods.
“That’s towards the Everfree,” Ditzy agreed. “You and Ace should go, I’m too weak to keep up.”
“Weak? What’s wrong?” Ace asked.
“Nothing, it’s just been a long day,” Ditzy lied.
“Professor, what’s going on? What aren't you telling me?” Ace asked accusingly.
“Not now, Ace. We need to get to the shard before Twilight does to make sure it gets to my earlier self.”
“I’ll see if I can find Dinky,” Ditzy said. “I can try and keep her and the others away from Twilight.”
The Doctor frowned. “Make sure you keep yourself out of sight. Any further change to the time stream could be even more disastrous than things already are.”
“I will not stand by and let my daughter get killed if there is anything I can do about it!”
“It shouldn’t come to that, but please let things play out how they should. Then your daughter will be safe, I promise.”
“Very well, but I need to make sure she’s safe,” Ditzy said, turning and slowly and painfully walking towards the edge of the forest.
The Doctor sighed and turned in the opposite direction. “Come on, Ace,” he called as he started to run through the woods.
Dinky skipped happily up the hill towards the woods, stopping occasionally to smell the patches of wildflowers that dotted the meadow. She looked back to see that Scootaloo and Snails were half-heartedly squabbling as they followed her. Well, Scootaloo was doing most of the actual arguing; Snails would usually take several minutes to realise he had been insulted, so their conversation was becoming increasingly disjointed. Behind the foals Ms Cheerilee trudged, weighed down by her full saddlebags. Although she smiled whenever Dinky looked at her, the purple foal sensed that her teacher wasn’t entirely happy; maybe she should do something to cheer her up. Maybe the grownup would like a bunch of flowers to make her house smell nice? That also tasted nice? Buoyed by her idea, Dinky turned back to look towards the woods. There were sure to be all sorts of nice plants in there, Ms Carrot Top had told her so, although she’s also told her to not eat anything unless an adult told her it was ok. Something in the woods caught her eyes; there, in the shade of one of the largest trees, she thought she saw a familiar grey shape.
“Momma!” the purple foal cried excitedly, waving. “Look, it’s Momma, she must have gotten back from her trip early.” She turned to her teacher. “Look, Ms Cheerilee.”
“Where?” the pink mare asked, scanning the woods. Maybe she would get some time to herself today after all.
“Look!” Dinky pointed towards the spot where she had previously caught sight of her mother, but it was now empty. “Oh, where did she go?”
“I’m afraid it was probably a trick of the light, Dinky,” Cheerilee said, laying a hoof on the foal’s head. “You see, when you get patches of light and dark...” she began to lecture.
“Momma!” cried Dinky.
For a moment Ditzy froze in place. Had her daughter seen her? Then she noticed that the purple foal was pointing in the wrong direction at a grey blur near the forest. Ditzy blinked. No, she was wrong, there was nothing there. Below her, her daughter was now talking to Cheerilee, and the two of them were making their way up the hill towards her. She had to find some way to delay them, so that the Doctor and Ace could deal with Twilight before they got there. She gazed around desperately, and noticed she was standing next to a small group of blue flowers. She leapt away, thinking for a moment they were poison joke. Then she noted her mistake; although similar, they were not the same as that magical weed. They were familiar, though. Then she remembered she’d gotten some flowers like these just after Dinky had been born; the poor mite had been allergic to them. She had almost sneezed herself silly and had cried all night.
It felt wrong to put her daughter through that again, but it would be a way to slow the party of foals and their teacher down. Given that the other option was for Dinky to be torn to pieces by a timberwolf, there was no option at all. Ditzy started to gather the flowers as quickly as she could.
Staying alert for any further attacks from the forests denizens, Twilight continued to home in on the shard. After some time, she found herself in a clearing under a huge spreading tree. It was there that she found her goal, but its form surprised her; it was just a short length of wood, little more than a big stick, really. She scanned it again just to make sure, but the result was positive. For a moment she felt let down. She was not sure what she was expecting, but it had to be more than this. Then she picked the stick up in her aura and felt a rush of elation run through her. Finally she had done it! She had a shard and there was not a sight of the Doctor or any of his allies. She only needed a few minutes to convert the shard to its natural state and store it in the extra-dimensional pocket with the other and be done. She gave a short squeal of joy. A squeal that was echoed from beneath the nearby tree. Her head shot around; there was a hollow under the tree and in that hollow were two small shapes. More timberwolves. Timberpups, really.
One of the small creatures walked forward, tail wagging and looking at her inquisitively, while its less adventurous sibling backed into its den. The little monster seemed slightly familiar to Twilight; she struggled to remember where from. Then she heard a growl from behind her and turned again to see a large timberwolf entering the clearing, then another and another and another. Ears dropping, Twilight noted a dozen or more of the creatures leaving the forest and slowly approaching her.
She swallowed hard. None of them looked happy to see her.
Dinky noticed the flowers. They were such a bright vibrant blue, it would have been hard not to. A short way off, Ms Cheerilee was explaining how to tell which way was north based on where moss grew on trees to Scootaloo and Snails. Half listening, Dinky moved closer to the flowers. There was something odd about them. They weren’t growling naturally; they had already been picked and placed there. In a way that was good, as Ms Cheerilee had warned her to not pick the wild flowers, but she hadn’t said anything about already picked flowers.
Perhaps Ms Cheerilee would like some of the flowers as a thank you for looking after her, or maybe Momma would like a bouquet when she got home. Momma liked flowers. Dinky took a deep sniff, drawing in the flowers’ scent. They smelled nice, a bit like lavender. She sneezed and rubbed her muzzle. She should take some home to make her house smell nice, but how? She couldn’t carry them all way in her aura, because she would get too tired, and she didn’t think she could balance them on her back for long either. Then an idea hit her. Concentrating carefully, Dinky used her magic to pick up the flowers and started to knot them together into a necklace. It was hard work and it made her eyes water, but she managed it without breaking a single stem. Her construction completed, she rested the necklace over her head and sneezed again. Maybe the smell was a bit overpowering.
Dinky turned to her teacher. “Look what I *sneep* found, Ms Cheerilee,” she called, sneezing yet again.
“What is it, Dinky?” Cheerilee asked her ward, who stood a short way away with her neck covered by bright blue flowers.
“I ‘ound these,” announced Dinky, somewhat nasally. “Arn’t ‘ey pritty? *sneep*”
“Very nice, dear, but are you feeling all right? Your eyes look a little red,” the teacher said, looking worried. Ditzy had entrusted her with Dinky for a day and it looked like she was getting sick. What would the protective pegasus do to her if she got back and found her daughter in this state?
“I’m not *sneep* sure *sneep*.” The last sneeze was so powerful it knocked Dinky off of her hooves. “I don’t ‘eel so ‘ood.” she complained, her nose and eyes running.
“Dinky, are you allergic to anything?” Cheerilee asked, pulling the necklace off of the fallen unicorn.
“‘at’s allergic mean? *sneep*,” Dinky asked.
Cheerilee facehoofed.
Ace and the Doctor were galloping through the increasingly dark woods when they heard the sound of battle. There was a crackle of energy and the howling of what sounded like several wolves. Running towards the commotion, they broke out into a clearing to see Twilight Sparkle being attacked by a pack of timberwolves. Although heavily outnumbered, the purple unicorn seemed to be almost holding her own. A purple aura encased her, preventing the larger creatures from getting near her, while she lashed out with beams of fire. Already several of the wood creatures were alight, and the smouldering remains of one lay on the forest floor.
“What are we going to do, Doctor?” Ace asked.
“It doesn’t look like those creatures have noticed us, so we need to get the shard,” He pointed at the stick Twilight was holding high above her head, “while Twilight’s busy with the timberwolves.”
“Not a problem, Professor,” Ace boasted, leaping to the air and swooping down towards the unicorn.
“Wait!” the Doctor cried, but he was too late.
Most of Twilight’s attention was on the many attackers in front of her, but she saw Ace’s approach from the side and quickly dropped the shard out of her way, causing the inexperienced pegasus to fly past her and continue her trajectory towards the tree. Seeing the obstacle coming, Ace tried desperately to avoid it, but was only partially successful. Her head was clipped by one of the lower branches and she dropped to the ground, stunned. Alerted to her presence, a timberwolf turned from Twilight and padded over to her prone form.
Meanwhile, Twilight fired off another beam of fire, causing several of the Timberwolves to back off, but others took advantage of her distraction to attack from another direction. They bounced off of her shield, but their attacks were starting to take a toll on the Unicorn. She was not sure how much longer she could keep this up. She tried to heft the shard again, and found it heavier than expected. To her surprise, one of the pups had grasped the shard in its teeth and was trying to yank it from her grasp. Tugging hard, she let some of her energy flow down the shard to try and drive off the little pest.
To her amazement, the shard started to merge into the body of the little timberwolf, just as the magic reached it. The pup gave out a squeak and was momentarily covered in green fire. It fell to the ground and convulsed for a moment. Then with a cracking, snapping sound, it started to swell. Loose wood and even parts of the tree were pulled towards it as it grew. Within a few seconds, it had doubled in size, then doubled again until it stood larger than any of the other creatures present. Twilight fell back in horror as the creature loomed over her.
The newly transformed creature got to its paws and turned to the rest of the pack. It stepped forward and moved to nuzzle the closest wolf, but its target backed away, its wooden ears flat, and gave a low growl. The enlarged pup stopped, seemingly confused. While Twilight and the Doctor looked on, several of the other wolves circled and sniffed the transformed creature. The pup dropped to the ground, looking confused. Then, with a growl, one of the other timberwolves leapt forward and bit at the larger creature. Shocked, the pup returned the blow, knocking its attacker back and snapping several of its component branches. There was a moment’s silence. Then, as one, half of the pack moved to attack the larger timberwolf, which turned tail and fled through the woods.
“Wait! Come back!” Twilight yelled as she lost sight of the creature containing the shard. Taking advantage of her distraction, several more wolves attacked, striking her shields and knocking her down.
The Doctor noticed one of the wolves return its attention to Ace as the stunned pegasus started to stagger back to her hooves. He rushed past the creature and grabbed her, pushing her ahead of him as the timberwolf began to race after them.
“Ace! You know how you ran out of Nitro-9?” he asked.
“Yes?” she mumbled, trying to get her legs to work right.
“Where did you put the cans of it you aren't carrying?”
“Bag,” she gasped.
The Doctor lowered his mouth to the bag on her back and picked out a repurposed spray can, before popping the cap off with his teeth and throwing it over his shoulder. A few seconds later he and Ace were thrown forward by an explosion from behind them.
Picking himself up, the Doctor admired the crater and the remains of the timberwolf. Then he noticed the remains starting to knit together again and the smile slid off of his face. “Ace, we need to get moving,” he yelled, helping his companion up. The two of them ran deeper into the woods.
From her hiding place, Ditzy observed Cheerilee taking care of her daughter. She threw the allergenic flowers away and washed out the purple filly’s eyes from a small pond, somewhat alleviating the symptoms, although the small unicorn still kept sneezing. While the teacher was seeing to her charge, Ditzy noticed Snails leaning closer to the water and examining something below the surface. To her surprise, Scootaloo sidled up behind the yellow colt and shoved him into the water. Ditzy was a bit shocked at her actions; the filly was still a foal and she knew that they could be cruel sometimes, well most of them. She thought of her own perfect child. Still, she couldn’t really criticize others for what they did during their wild youth.
To her surprise, she heard the sound of the TARDIS echoing around the forest. For a moment her heart quickened as she feared that the Doctor had abandoned her, but then she realised that this must be the earlier version of the Doctor arriving. Below her, Snails and Scootaloo were rushing off towards the sound, while Cheerilee overbalanced and slipped into the pond.
For a moment, Ditzy dithered about what to do. Should she follow the other foals, or stay to keep an eye on her own child? She knew that in her own world, Scootaloo and Snails had survived the encounter with the timberwolf - although the pegasus had lost a wing - but maybe things had been changed. They could be in danger. Yet Dinky was her daughter. Before she could make up her mind, the decision had already been made for her, as Cheerilee climbed out of the pond and set off to catch her errant pupils with Dinky in tow.
Ditzy started to follow them but almost collapsed against a nearby tree. She felt absolutely exhausted. The fading must be getting worse, she thought. Her end must be near. But in a way she felt good about it; if her universe became impossible, then Dinky would be safe. What more could she want? For a moment she considered just lying there and fading away, but she had to be sure. Hauling herself to her hooves, she staggered after her daughter.
It was several painful minutes before she caught up with Dinky, just in time to see the arrival of the largest timberwolf she had ever seen. She was frozen in terror. This was the moment she had had countless nightmares about, both asleep and awake. This was her daughter's death.
She wanted to cry out, to fly down and save her, but her hooves and wings seemed to be frozen. Below, the ponies started to flee with the timberwolf in pursuit. For a moment it seemed that they would escape, but then a strangely grey filly tripped and an elderly stallion - whom she assumed was the Doctor - stopped to help her. Cheerilee also stopped, and the two adults tried to hold off the attacker while the foals fled. Although she knew she would not have the time, Ditzy felt she should thank her friend for her bravery in protecting her daughter. Ditzy tried to throw herself forward to help them with the creature, but she could barely stagger a few steps before collapsing again. To her surprise, the Doctor and Cheerilee proved quite adept at avoiding the creature, and eventually clambered up a tree to escape it. Sighing in relief, Ditzy started to drag herself after her daughter.
By the time she caught up with her, she and her friends were already heading back to help the Doctor and her teacher. Her eyes screwed up in concentration, the purple filly was levitating several large branches covered in insects. Dinky was trying to look brave, but her mother could see a mix of fear and disgust in her eyes. The small herd approached the timberwolf, and she heard Cheerilee cry something about not giving up their lives. She was right; there was no way her daughter could fight that creature. Ignoring her exhaustion, Ditzy started to make her way slowly, far too slowly down towards her daughter. She saw the foals throw their insect covered burdens towards the creature to no effect.
Cheerilee dropped from the tree and ran towards the monster, but she was going to be too late. It was all going to be for nothing; she had travelled all through space and time just to see her daughter die, and it would all be her fault. If she hadn’t taken that extra job that day, then her daughter would be safe in all worlds. She opened her mouth to scream, when suddenly the timberwolf dropped to the ground and started to scrape itself across the ground in discomfort. The cry turned into a laugh as the creature whined and contorted itself.
Ditzy carefully hid herself again as the drama below her unfolded. The earlier version of the Doctor converted the creature back into a shard, and its remains became a tiny timberpup that Dinky instantly fell in love with. She remembered that in her other life she and her daughter had adopted the creature; how quickly it had grown and what a good companion it was, as well as its tragic end. Then the Doctor returned the shard to its correct place and left. As she had expected, a further wave of tiredness washed over her as her time line became impossible. She did not know what death would feel like, but there were worse options than this drowsy lack of existence. Her last sight was of her daughter and her friends walking away into the distance.
Then all that remained was darkness.
Twilight rushed into the clearing. It had taken far too long to drive of the Timberwolves. Although she had felt the magical shockwave as the shard was taken from her universe, she held on to a last crazy notion that she was mistaken. The sound of the TARDIS leaving had put paid to that idea. As she arrived, she saw Cheerilee and the foals disappearing into the distance. For a second she had a crazy desire to follow them, to punish them for daring to help her enemy get in her way. She shook the feelings away. No! She didn’t know what was wrong with her... maybe she just needed some sleep... she couldn’t remember when she had last put her head down.
Twilight spun as there was a crashing from the treeline, and the Doctor and Ace charged into the clearing. “You’re too late,” the Doctor said, panting heavily. “There are no more shards here for you.”
“Then I’ll get to another time and find more,” Twilight announced, fighting off the impulse to attack him on sight.
“Not with that coat you won't.” He indicated the multi-coloured monstrosity she still wore. “You’ve already travelled to the very beginning of my time line.”
Angrily, she tore the coat from her back and threw it to the ground. A small part of her noted that she’d promised to return it to Fluttershy. “Then I’ll make my own path! You can’t have collected all the shards yet, you can’t!” Her horn lit up and waves of energy started to flow off of her.
“What’s she doing, Professor?” Ace yelled, trying to steady herself against the winds the spell generated.
“I don’t know!” the Doctor cried, trying to keep a hoof on his hat.
Concentrating, Twilight could feel invisible threads of time linking everything together. The Doctor’s thread was so long and tangled, while Ace’s was shorter but just as complicated. Looking inwards, she saw her own threads. Two of them. One lead straight back to her home time, returning a failure. The other was so long, it seemed to circle almost all of time. It lead back, back to the very beginning. Unsure what is meant but not willing to lose, Twilight grabbed the second thread with her spell and pulled, yanking herself out of this time zone and throwing herself back in time.
With a flash she was gone.
“What happened?” asked Ace.
“She’s gone again. I’ll need the TARDIS to find out where,” the Doctor said, picking up his coat from the ground. “We’ll need to be quick before the trail grows cold.”
“Professor, aren't you forgetting Ditzy? I wonder where she got to.” She looked around for the grey pegasus.
“Ah, yes. You see Ace...” the Doctor began awkwardly.
There was a groan from nearby. The two of them turned to see Ditzy stagger into the clearing. Ace gasped - the grey pony had faded to transparent. “Ditzy? What did Twilight do to you?” Ace asked.
“It’s not Twilight. Now that Dinky is safe, I’m ceasing to exist.”
“Doctor, you knew this would happen,” Ace snarled, turning to her mentor.
“It’s not his fault,” Ditzy said. “I made this decision and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“He still could have told me, I’m not a little girl,” Ace cried, glaring at the Doctor.
“I’m sorry, Ace. I was worried that if you knew the effect of our actions on Ditzy, you might try to stop me.”
“After all we’ve been though, you don’t trust me?”
“It’s not that, it’s...” started the Doctor.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Ace growled, stamping off towards the TARDIS.
“Ace!” cried the Doctor after her. “I didn’t mean for it to come to this.”
“You should have trusted her, you know,” Ditzy said ruefully.
“I know, but this was too important for me to trust anyone.”
“Which is why you didn’t tell me either?”
“Yes, can you forgive me?”
“I don’t know. You’ve done what you said you would - Dinky is safe - so I suppose I should.” She paused in thought. “We still need to find Twilight. Help me, I don’t know how far I can walk like this.”
The Doctor hoisted the see-through pony on to his back. She still seemed solid to the touch but unnaturally light. “So how long do I have?” she asked.
“I don’t know. The time lines could realign in a few minutes or a few days, more likely the former. I’m surprised you’re still here - this could mean that there's still a chance your timeline will come to pass.”
A chill passed through Ditzy. Did that mean that after all she’d been through, Dinky could still be in danger? “Then we do need to go after Twilight, now.”
Together, the two ponies headed back towards the TARDIS.
The door of the TARDIS opened to reveal rolling plains stretching as far as the eye could see. Ditzy, still propped up by the Doctor, took a deep breath. The air seemed fresher and cleaner than any she had ever known before. It seemed to nourish her and she found she could stand by herself.
“When are we?” she asked.
“Much further back in your planet’s timeline than I’ve ever been before, at least ten thousand years.”
“Ten thousand? I don’t even think there were ponies back then. That was before even the first tribes.”
“I guess we still need to find Twilight, though?” Ace asked tersely. The journey in the TARDIS had passed in a stony silence.
“Yes, I followed her path as best I could. She should be near in both time and space,” he explained.
“Then I better look for her. I’ll go by myself... I could use some time alone,” she said, leaping into the air.
“Wait, Ace...” called the Doctor.
“If I see her, I’ll signal you. I’m not an idiot, whatever you might think,” she snarled as she flew away, rapidly becoming a small dot in the distance.
“Wait,” mumbled the Doctor. “I do wish she’d understand.”
Ditzy rested a hoof on his shoulder. “She’ll come around, just give her some time. We should search as well.”
The two of them headed off in the opposite direction to the one Ace had taken.
With a gasp, Twilight tumbled back into the real world. The journey had been long. At least it had felt long; it had felt like it had taken years, years frozen in a timeless void. For a timeless time she laid there, her body twitching beyond her control and her mind floating in and out of consciousness.
Eventually time passed (years?) and she started to regain some control of her body. She struggled to stand and looked around with fogged eyes. She was standing in the middle of a dusty brown plane, dotted here and there with large boulders, each several times the size of even the largest of ponies. Where was she? She wondered. Then she remembered the two time lines. Why did she have two? Why did one stretch this far back? She shook her head. What had she been thinking about? It couldn’t have been important. All that was important was to find a shard so she could protect the world from the Doctor. She considered her thoughts for a moment. Why did she think that the Doctor was a threat? What proof was there? No, she couldn’t get distracted; she had a job to do.
Twilight activated her horn to scan the area for the shard and was almost knocked from her hooves. The level of background magic was incredible; even the heart of the Everfree held only a fraction of this power. The magic felt new, clean, untouched. Carefully extending her power, she felt her horn grow painfully warm, her senses extending across the miles. She found a shard almost straight away, despite it being more than a dozen miles distant. She briefly considered teleporting to it, and then found herself there. The slightest wish on her part was enough to activate her powers in this strange place.
She found herself standing on top of one of the large boulders that dotted the environment. Her head swivelled from side to side, trying to locate the shard, before realising that she was standing on it. The barest touch of her horn was enough to convert it back to its natural shape, a lump of crystal about the size of a pony, and to cause her to fall to the ground. She would have to be more careful in future.
She felt dizzy for a moment and found her hoof reaching out towards the shard. She could feel the power within it, the energy of the universe itself. She tried to pull her hoof away, but she found she couldn’t; her body refused to obey her. She tried to call out but her mouth wouldn’t work. Trapped within her head, she felt something move within her thoughts; a black ooze once stretched over the whole of her mindscape, now drawing itself together in the front of her head, growing in size, growing in power. As it moved, she remembered; the thousand, the ten thousand small changes made to her; the small pushes here and there that had brought her here. The creature within her, the creature that had been within her since that fateful day so many years ago now, finally had within its grasp that which it needed. Locked within her own head, Twilight realised that her whole life had been influenced by another, and she screamed wordlessly.
Carefully opening the pocket dimension linked to her, the creature controlling Twilight withdrew the shard it had found before her journey began. Even using all of its strength, it could not control its host for long. To do that, it needed much more power. Luckily, an almost infinite resource lay at its hooves; the very energy of the universe itself. All that it needed to do was to tap it.
The creature within Twilight drove the two shards together with all the force it could muster.
Ace flew in a zig-zag across the land, looking for any signs of life. So far she had seen nothing more complex than a rabbit, and no sign of Twilight.
She sighed. She knew the Doctor meant well but he always seemed to treat her like a kid. Not telling her what was happening to Ditzy was unforgivable. She had been beginning to like the cross eyed pegasus, and to find out that what they were doing was killing her had hurt. Rationally, she understood that it was necessary, and that Ditzy herself was ok with the sacrifice, but her heart told her otherwise. Was that why the Doctor hadn’t told her? Was he right? Was she not capable of putting the well-being of the many above the few? She hoped she didn’t have to find out.
Ace was shaken out of her thoughts as a vast column of darkness rose from a point on the ground about half a mile away. Angling her wings, she turned towards the column, and to her astonishment saw the beam turn into the shape of a colossal pony at least a hundred feet tall, towering over the plains. Peering at it, Ace could just about make out the shape of Twilight Sparkle set in its head, her eyes black orbs.
“We are Legion,” the behemoth thundered, in a voice like thousands of insects buzzing, “for we are one!”
“Where are we, anyway?” Ditzy asked as she and the Doctor slowly made their way across the plain. She could feel the extra strength she had gained from the area slowly slipping away, and was not sure how much longer she could keep going.
“More or less where we were before. In ten thousand years this will be the Everfree forest.”
She scanned the horizon. There was not a tree to be seen. “It certainly doesn’t look like it.”
“A lot can change in ten thousand years,” the Doctor noted.
“Indeed,” a deep voice said. It seemed to bypass Ditzy’s ears and appear straight in her brain. “I remember when all of this was beneath the seas.”
She turned to see the biggest pony she had ever seen, at least a head higher than even Corona. His coat was the purest white she had ever seen, and his mane stood up in untidy spikes. His eyes, his eyes were stars as if drawn from the deepest nights sky, and his cutie mark shimmered and changed from shape to shape as she watched, open mouthed. Even that was not his strangest feature. Like herself, the pony was slightly transparent as if not quite present in this dimension. His wings were spread and his horn glowed slightly. Wings and a horn? He was an alicorn stallion.
Ditzy stood frozen in place, looking at the new arrival in shock.
“Greetings,” he said mildly, with polite interest. “I thought I knew of all the thinking creatures of this world, all that enter my domain, but I do not know you. What manner of creatures are you?”
“I am known as the Doctor - a visitor to this world, a humble traveller,” the Doctor said with a bow. “This is Ditzy Doo, a pony.”
“A pony.” He seemed to be trying the word for the first time. “I have not seen your like before. You are similar to my kind but so much... lesser.”
Still struck dumb, Ditzy could not say a word.
“You appear untethered, Ditzy Doo. Not entirely of this world, yet you are not of mine either. Soon you will be no more. I will do what I can but I can only delay this process, not stop it.” He leaned forward and placed his horn on her head. To her surprise, he felt entirely solid and seemed to radiate a powerful masculinity. She found herself colouring at his touch. She felt strength return to her limbs, and looking down she saw that she was no longer transparent.
“Thank you,” she stuttered.
“May we ask your name?” the Doctor asked.
“I am Prince Morpheus, the alicorn of dreams,” he replied with a slight bow.
“I thought Princess Luna controlled dreams,“ Ditzy blurted out.
“Not yet she does not,” Morpheus corrected, seemingly unconcerned by the outburst. “She is the alicorn of the moon. Still she acts as my apprentice. She would take over if I am incapacitated. How do you know of such things? Where are you from?”
“We are from far in the future,” the Doctor said.
“Really, and what brings you here?”
“We are following another traveller from our own time, one who has come here to obtain a shard that makes up part of the walls of this reality.”
Morpheus tilted his head for a second. “I have not heard of these things, Doctor, but I will do what I can to help you. If there is but one dreamer in the world who had met this visitor, I will know of it.”
Suddenly a pillar of darkness rose on the horizon, before shrinking somewhat and morphing into the shape of a huge pony.
“I do not think that will be necessary,” the Doctor noted, pointing at the creature. “Look!”
“Free at last,” the shadow creature roared, stretching out from Twilight’s form. “No longer constrained in the puny mind of that mare. Free to spread, free to control, free to kill.” It swiped a hoof at Ace as she flew past, and she rolled to the side to avoid the blow.
Twisting her neck, she reached into her backpack, then hissed in frustration when she realised she had used the last of her explosives. She should probably get back to the Doctor; he would know how to deal with this creature. Hopefully.
Legion lashed out with a beam of shadow, and Ace was forced to drop out of the sky to avoid it. “Get back here,” it raged. “We have the shards, we will not be denied.”
Suddenly three figures were standing in front of Legion; the Doctor, Ditzy and Morpheus.
“Doctor!” Legion screamed. “We remember you! We remember being wounded, crippled by you. We do not remember what happened but our hate of you kept us alive. We could not control our host, not fully, but we could guide her, push her mind into the paths we needed. The paths to locate the shards. They are the very foundation of this world and with them we can control it.” It stomped down one vast hoof to try and crush the Doctor to a pulp. To its surprise it found its hoof restrained by a white glowing field.
“I think not,” Morpheus noted gently.
“What are you?”
“I am Prince Morpheus, Alicorn of Dreams. And you are a creature of the mind and thus my responsibility.”
“We are Legion, no one controls us.” It lashed out again, its blow sparking off a further white shield.
“You are mistaken,” Morpheus noted, his aura extending to encompass the shadow pony and forcing it down to the ground.
Black sparks arched up from the shard on the ground to Legion, seemingly to feed the shadow creature. It straightened itself, bursting out of Morpheus’s grip.
For the first time, the Alicorn seemed troubled, and the giant creature turned its attention to him, beams of dark light flew from it and the ground around the pale pony was shattered burying him.
One of the giant creature’s hooves slammed down next to Ditzy knocking her over. She struggled to stand but found herself staring up at the colossal leg as it drove down again to crush her, she screamed and closed her eyes. Then she opened them again to find herself still alive, the hoof hovered just over her.
“Get out the way!” the giant cried in Twilight’s voice.
“What is this!” bellowed Legion in its raspy voice again. Affixed to its head Twilight although still blank eyed had started to twitch.
Taking the hint Ditzy rolled aside before the monstrous hoof smashed down where she had been lying.
“You can not do this. We are legion, you are only a mote to us.”
“All that time you spent in my mind, you tried to control me but to do that you had to become like me. Part of you doesn’t want to do this and part is helping me,” continued Twilight’s voice almost as if it was giving a lecture.
“No! We are of one mind!” yelled Legion lashing out at the Doctor. His blow was physically blocked by Morpheus who materialised next to him. The pail pony was driven back by the force but remained standing.
“You are not, it is only because you are drawing energy from an outside source that you have any power at all,” continued Twilight.
“It’s the shard, Doctor!” Ditzy yelled. “It’s drawing power from the shard!”
The Doctor rushed over to the crystals. “I don’t have the power to convert them now, I used it all on the lion.” He thought for a moment. “Morpheus,” he called. “Can you do something about these crystals?”
Legion had grasped the alicorn in its hoof and was trying to crush him against the ground. “My mind is my own!” Morpheus gasped, as the creature tried to force its fractured will upon him. With a thought, the alicorn teleported to the Doctor’s position, causing Legion to stumble.
The Alicorn examined the lumps of crystal on the ground. “Indeed, the beast is linked to these. I believe I can use the larger one to entrap it for the moment.” His horn glowed and the shard started to shrink until it was only about a foot high, taking on the form of a stone vase.
“Stop!” Legion screamed, turning to Morpheus. White lightning arched up the shadow pony’s form and it started to shrink, dragging Twilight’s form with it. “We will never leave this one, if we are trapped it comes with us.”
“The beast speaks true,” noted Morpheus as the shadow creature was forced into the jar. “I may be able to separate their minds but it will likely damage this one,” he gestured at Twilight.
Twilight shuddered and her eyes cleared “Do it!” she begged, “After all the damage I almost caused it’s the least I can do.”
“Are you sure?” asked Ditzy reaching out for the stricken pony.
Morpheus blocked the pegasus’s hoof, “Do not touch her, the creature may try to escape into you.”
“Do it.” confirmed Twilight with a nod gritting her teeth, “I deserve it. I should have realised what had happened.”
“Very well,” said Morpheus a torrent of white light burst from his horn and Twilight’s limp body was thrown aside like a rag doll. Swooping down Ace caught her in mid-air and gently placed her down on the ground.
The dark shape of legion continued to shrink “We will have our revenge,” it cried, it’s voice weakening as it was forced into the jar. “We will have our revenge.” Then it was swallowed up and became silent.
“The beast is defeated,” Morpheus announced, lifting the vase with his horn.
“What about Twilight?” asked Ditzy nervously.
Morpheus ran his horn over her still body, “She had been lucky, the damage is minor, she will remember little of this but she should recover over time.”
“What do we do with the other shard, Professor?” Ace asked, holding up the first shard Twilight had obtained.
“Taking it away from this universe would be dangerous and I don't have the Krayton particles to use it now. Given time it should disguise itself again. I’ll place it somewhere safe for my next self to pick up when I next visit.”
“What will we do with Legion?” Ditzy asked, pointing at the pot grasped in Morpheus's aura, which was all that remained of the monster and the shard.
“I will give its prison to Luna or maybe her sister. They are the more active members of my people and can ensure it does not cause any further harm,” Morpheus said. “I must bid you farewell for the moment. I must discuss this matter further with my brethren. I will see you later in your dreams.” With that, he and the jar faded from view.
Ditzy sighed, feeling the strength slip from her once more. She did not have much longer. “Doctor, can we move on now? I don’t want to spend the rest of my time here. I want to see Dinky for the last time.”
“Of course,” the Doctor said. He looked down at Twilight's slumbering form. “But first I think we should take Twilight home.”
By the time Trixie’s vision cleared, Twilight had disappeared.
She opened her mouth but then closed it as a sound unlike anything she had heard before echoed around the chamber.
“The Catchian Barking toad?” Dinky mumbled.
To the surprise of all but Dinky, a large blue box materialised where only a few seconds ago Twilight had been standing.
The door swung open, and to Trixie’s surprise Dinky rushed forward. “Doctor, is that you?” she called.
A tan pony exited the box with Twilight sprawled over his back. The unicorn mare was carefully wrapped in the multi coloured coat. He doffed his hat to the assembled mares.
“You’re not the Doctor!” Dinky exclaimed.
“I am, although maybe not the one you were expecting.”
Trixie stepped forward. “What did you do to Twilight? She was possessed by Legion, wasn’t she? I recognised him from when he got me.” She shuddered.
The Doctor gently lowered the unicorn to the ground. “She should be fine after a few days of rest, although I doubt she will remember much of what happened to her. Which is probably for the best. Make sure the coat makes its way back to Fluttershy, although I doubt she needs it after all this time.”
“Fluttershy does still wear it for some of her more important speeches,” Trixie noted.
Twilight started to stir. “Hey Trixie,” she slurred. “What happened? Did I make it to your party?”
“Don’t worry, you can go to my next fortieth birthday,” Trixie said kindly.
“Dinky!” Ditzy gasped as she and Ace stepped out of the TARDIS.
“Mom! What’s happened to you? I can see right through you.”
“It’s true!” She stared at her daughter’s gravid belly. “You are going to have a foal. I’m a grandmother.” She staggered and was caught by her daughter’s magic.
“Mom, what’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“I’m afraid I’m not your mother,” Ditzy said, her eyes starting to water. “Soon I’m not going to be anything.”
“What?”
“I’m the Ditzy from a horrible, horrible world which I am so very, very glad will never exist. I’m not your mother, I only wish I was.” She buried her face in her almost-daughter’s mane.
“Oh, Momma. You look like my mother, you sound like my mother, you smell like my mother, you are my mother.” She returned the hug, her forearms starting to pass through the fading pony. “Please stay. We can get Mac and Dayton and the princesses, somepony can do something for you.”
“I’m sorry. Nopony can do anything for me now. But thank you, thank you for showing me what a great future you have.” She turned to the Doctor. “Please take me away, thank you for showing me this but I can’t bear them to see me this way, please.”
“Very well, come with me.” He led the faded pony back into the TARDIS.
“Momma,” Dinky cried, reaching out. “Don’t go!”
“I’m sorry, muffin but I have to. Remember that I will always love you.”
The door of the time craft closed behind them.
“Please Doctor, there has to be something you can do to save Ditzy. Please!” Ace begged, tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t. There are some things even I can’t do.” He looked so old, tired and lost for a moment.
“Please!”
“I. Can’t.” he repeated in a tortured voice.
Ace turned and ran from the console room.
“She’ll understand eventually,” Ditzy said.
“I hope so. Now where do you want to go now?” the Doctor asked solemnly.
“I want to see my daughter, the daughter I remember,” the grey haze that was all that remained of Ditzy Doo said.
The Doctor nodded and threw some switches on the controls.
As Ditzy stood there, she felt all the tiredness and aches slip away from her body. She felt light as a feather. Below her, she saw a purple unicorn foal romping through the meadow, occasionally stopping to smell the flowers or call out to her friends. She seemed so happy, Ditzy thought. She knew her daughter would live a long life; there would be tears and sadness at times, but Dinky would always have her mother there to make things better, even if she wasn’t going to be that mother. Dinky would have a good life, a good marriage, and children, and that was all that mattered to Ditzy. As she faded away she couldn’t be happier.
“Momma!” the purple foal cried excitedly, staring up at the woods. “Look, it’s Momma, she must had gotten back from her trip early.” She turned to her teacher. “Look, Ms Cheerilee.”
“Where?” the pink mare asked, scanning the woods. Maybe she would get some time to herself today after all.
“Look!” Dinky pointed towards the spot where she had previously caught sight of her mother, but it was now empty. “Oh, where did she go?”
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Well, you certainly did capture Seven pretty well. Also, you managed to subvert the usual Ditzycompanion thing just a bit...which I sort of like.
Uh-oh. That's the kind of wording that I've learned means something to the effect of "this particular iteration of Ditzy isn't going to survive, but rather be wiped out when the timeline resets, and she will, at best, only get to see Dinky for a few moments."
Hmm...I was about to point out, that the building is made out of a cloud, they could always escape through the floor...but, the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that pegasus police, being fully three-dimensional creatures by nature, would naturally act to cover the Z axis from escape - that is, there are guards waiting over the roof and beneath the floor. What might not occur to them is that a fleeing foe would operate on the simple X/Y axis
I do wonder what's possessing her. The Great Intelligence, maybe?
Hmm...as much as Twilight's mom looks like a recolor of Twilight, her colors ARE pretty different.
Eh, we'll just call this bad lighting.
The one thing I really regret about Crisis was that I couldn't find a way to work in a scene I wanted, wherein the difference between the Maneverse and Lunaverse memory spells is brought up and the Lunaverse folk agree that it's completely unfair that the Maneverse only requires touching a horn to forehead (and in fact that joke was the reason for making the Lunaverse version a kiss anyway).
It's okay, though.
That's very Ten (Eleven, now?). Or was Seven known for this catchphrase as well?
Oh, yeah, speaking of - and plans for the War Doctor? I suppose he was a little busy to be popping into Equestria...
Oh, also: called it!
Final thing:
comediva.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DoctorWhoMeme12.jpg
One of the things I like about timberwolves is the fact that you can make them interesting just by changing the second part of their name. Timberpups grow up to be big strong Timberwolves. Then sometimes Timberwolves need to work together and form
VoltronThe Timberking.Hmm. Now I want to see a MASSIVE Timberking verses a Cyberking.
It's a good thing that this is just a text document, as actually hearing Dinky sneeze would be so adorable as to cause people to go out and do something horrible in order to restore balance to the universe.
Oh, it's Legion again. Hi Legion! Damn Legion, you scary.
Sometimes honesty is the best policy. This is particularly the case when dealing with gods.
I love the fact that the scene that drew my attention to this fic in the first place (Dinky's allergy attack) is one of the ones that gets more complicated here thanks to time travel.
I imagine this adventure had some impact on Ace's decision to walk out on the Doctor in Love and War (as much as his actions in Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric did, anyway).
I think I teared up a little at the end.
Oh the DRAMA! 
Dang. Just reach right in and rip our hearts out, why don't you?
Now that was a masterful way to tie it all together.
Plus Legion is stuck in a time loop isn't it? It gets trapped into a jar and then released where it then gets into Twilight and somehow a part of it manages to survive in Twilight, only to go back in time and get trapped into a jar by Morpheus!
It has been a crazy month for me so I only now read this. We see Ace and the Doctor as Ponies ans Doctor Whooves and the Assistant too. Twilight Sparkle tried to protect her Universe; but unfortunately neurotically, messed up. Somethings never change in any universe. The Twilight Sparkle in the LunaVerse seems more neurotic than in the CelestiaVerse. Princess Celestia really helped stabilized the personality of Twilight Sparkle in the CelestiaVerse.
I finished reading this. Twilight Sparkle is just like Ace.
About the Doctors:
Now that we saw the “Time Of The Doctor”, we have a complete understanding of his first regeneration-cycle:
We have the WarDoctor. The Doctor considers this version a necessary evil for fighting the TimeWar. The Doctor does not consider the WarDoctor a true Doctor.
The damage the Daleks inflicted when they stole the Earth and that Dalek shot the Doctor which caused damage too severe for normal healing, but too light to warrant a full regeneration blew a regeneration when the Doctor partially regenerated. This explained why the Doctor had to dump the regenerative energy into his severed hand, which, after Donna Noble touched it, grew into a TimeLord/Human-Hybrid and made Donna Noble into the DoctorDonna. After the partial regeneration healed the damage, if he could not dump the excess energy into the severed hand, he probably would have completely regenerated. Evidently, using even a small amount of regenerative energy always wastes an whole regeneration.
If you want Doctor Whooves only to focus on his first regeneration-cycle, then you only have to worry about 11 Doctors and the maybe the WarDoctor. Alternatively, you can add more Doctors as they appear as part of his new regeneration-cycle. That would keep the story going another half century.
In “Day Of The Doctor”, although we saw only 13 Doctors, including the WarDoctor, it is understood that 24 Doctors saved Gallifrey (hypothetically, 24 regenerations allows for 25 Doctors, but the Doctor lost a regeneration from the partial regeneration the 10th Doctor experienced).