When The Doctor goes missing, who's there to help him? A mystery that dates back to the fall of Discord, and reveals more about the darker past of Equestria...
It was another normal, busy day in London’s Piccadilly Circus. With normal people, and their normal lives, doing what they would do normally. Being human. This was when Clara began to panic; she knew why she was there, and what she would be doing. But it didn’t seem like she was needed. There was no chaos, no destruction, no Doctor.
When the Doctor goes missing, who's there to help find him? Luckily, Clara Oswald is on the case. An adventure that will take both Clara and The Doctor to places beyond their universe and into the madness of Equestria... After all, what fun is there in making sense?
It was another normal, busy day in London’s Piccadilly Circus.
With normal people, and their normal lives, doing what they would do normally. Being human. This was when Clara began to panic; she knew why she was there, and what she would be doing. But it didn’t seem like she was needed. There was no panic, no destruction, no Doctor.
The events up to this point were fuzzy to Clara. After the Great Intelligence, tried to destroy the very history of the Doctor, she, of course, saved him. From that moment she knew why it felt right with that strange, yet brilliant, man. She was the one who would die to save him. Every. Single. Time. So where was he?
“Pah, he’ll turn up like he always does” She said to herself to calm her nerves, “In the meantime, why don’t I enjoy the scenery? I think I remember there was a café I liked round the corner”.
Thankfully this reincarnation of her actually had some decent currency for a change, which was more than can be said for the last few Claras. And with her mind made up, she set off down the street with a certain spring in her step. Little did she know, that another set of eyes were watching her in the shadows with great interest.
“So there I was, screaming down the corridor in some refinery on the moon or whatever, with some great bloody beast-thing bearing down on my neck. Turned the corner, and there was the Doctor again, still missing his bowtie. Ran straight into him, both of us sent flying, I bashed my head on an overhead pipe and cracked my skull open. Think I saved him, not too sure, but I wouldn’t be here if he weren’t saved there…” “That’s nice dearie…”
Clara had been sat in café for over an hour, spreading her misadventures with passers-by, who clearly had other, more important plans than talking to a seeming senile young girl, not that it mattered to Clara. This time it was an old lady, who did pop out to get some milk, but ended being pulled into another one of Clara’s tales about the Doctor, who still hadn’t turned up.
“Well I must be off” started the lady as she got up “Take care of yourself pet”, and with that she was gone.
The time traveller slumped over the chair in front of her and sulked, it was normal for her to be thoroughly confused, but that generally happened while she was running away from something, not sat in a café drinking overpriced cappuccinos. And with still no sign of the Doctor, and the likeliness of him appearing looking slim, Clara got up, placed her tip on the table, and left the café, with the weight of defeat clearly on her shoulders.
“Clara Oswald?” “Who wants to know?”
As she turned around to see a man wearing a dreary blue suit, and holding a large black briefcase. There was something imposing about him, as though light bent around him. His eyes were emotionless and jet black, never blinking, as though his only purpose was to observe.
“I believe we can help each other, I know who you’re looking for”
Clara decided the best course of action was to keep quiet, lest the dark man in front of her turned out to be more than he seemed.
“Heh” Smirked the man, but the smile was cold and jagged, shaped by some unseen force “I’m glad the guy managed to teach you something about the Time Lords, even if it was just their mannerisms of silence” “Hold on, you know the Doctor?” “Knew him, but now’s not the place to talk about it, follow me, quickly”
As quickly as he appeared, the man turned on his heels and walked off, into the bustling crowds of London. It took Clara a few baffling seconds to pull herself back together, shocked by the sudden arrival and departure of this dark figure, but she quickly gave chase.
What intrigued her more about the man wasn’t his connection to the Doctor, but how he was managing to increase the distance between himself and her, regardless of how hard Clara was running through the crowds. And he was still walking, showing little strain or effort on his part. Always staying in sight, for a fleeting moment, just enough for Clara to pick up on the man’s direction, before disappearing into the crowds again. The physical impossibility of this man’s agility hardened Clara’s resolve, as she pushed harder through the dithering crowds of tourists, business men and citizens of the capital. However it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.
“I lost him?! How could I lose him that quickly? He was just there!”
The hot-headed girl screamed to the sky in anger, causing a few unceremonious looks from those walking by. Not wanting to make more of a scene, Clara located a nearby bench and continued her previous sulking session. After a few minutes she began to gain awareness of the situation.
“Hang on a minute, where exactly is here?”
Looking around trying to figure out where on Earth she was, she soon answered her question “Hmm, that’s the Apollo, which means I’m in Hammersmith, sweet!”
Impressed by the distance that she had walked in such a small amount time ( About 5 miles in under an hour) cheered her up instantly, almost to the point of forgetting why she was there in the first place.
“You got lost”
Clara squeaked in surprise by the voice that appeared so suddenly behind her, she twirled round to face the source, so quickly she almost fell straight off the bench.
“Hey, it’s not my fault you wouldn’t slow down”
Clara mentally slapped herself for the rude reply. Unimpressed, the man turned around and started walking again “So where were you taking me?” the girl asked, hoping to keep the man in eyesight for allot longer than usual.
“I was taking you somewhere more secure than the middle of a city where anyone could be listening, thankfully for you it’s just over there” claimed the man, pointing towards a normal looking back street. Unperturbed by direction the man pointed in, the time traveller followed him towards the alleyway, as the sun began to go down....
Part 2: Sweet Dreams Doctor The Doctor woke with a start. Unsurprising, he thought to himself; he’d had one of those dreams again, the ones when he was with humans. The Doctor stared out of the rounded window next to his bed. He still couldn't trust whether the regeneration process had finshed yet, and after another one of those dreams he didn't feel like moving at all. The dreams still haunted him even after the event. The dreams could be about anything or anyone he’d met, but always around the same time. The time before he regenerated, before the TARDIS crashed, and before he was stranded. He hated that word; it lacked adventure, hope, freedom. All the things that the Doctor had done stood for nothing that day, all those faces waiting for him to return, all those promises he made to come back, all of them were for nothing, because he could never return to them again.
1 Week Ago...
The doctor frantically ran around the TARDIS console, pressing buttons and levers in a frantic hope that it would stop the intense fires, sparks of energy and, most importantly to him, the big red lights on the dashboard. “Look I know navigating a temporal maelstrom is less than ideal” The madman proclaimed to the pulsating column in the centre of the room, “But if you could just bear with i-“ He didn’t get to finish his sentence, the resulting explosion blew him off his feet as he landed with a painful crunch on the grated floor. “Be like that then!” He then jumped up, apparently not hurt from the explosion, and flung himself at the screen that had decided to spin around the console like a merry-go-round. The old gallifreyan symbols flicked and flew across the screen, the Doctor still not understanding the reasons behind them. “What? That’s impossible...” And with that the TARDIS stopped, no explosions, no sparks, and no lighting whatsoever. It took the Doctor three days to get the lights back on, well, a rudimentary lighting system anyway, not that it mattered to him; he just needed light to see what he was doing. And then for the next two weeks the Doctor tinkered and dabbled, trying to get even some of the basic flight protocols working, with each attempt more foolhardy and farfetched as the last. After completely exhausting his ideas and his only prize being the unsatisfactory smell of burnt jam, an impaled thumb, and regulator fluid all over his best bowtie, the Doctor decided to give up. Sitting down on the tattered seats next to the console, The Doctor finally understood what the symbols meant two weeks ago: the temporal maelstrom the TARDIS collided with had caused a rip in the continuum. And his TARDIS fell straight through that. He wasn’t in the void, because otherwise the light would have never turned on. Because the TARDIS wasn’t dead, it was starved. The TARDIS fuels itself on the Artron energy in the time stream, but here there was none, the place the TARDIS had fallen into lacked any sort of time energy at all. Which is why the Doctor was impressed when he’d managed to get the light on, because quite frankly: it was impossible, "Unless" He thought to himself. And then, it hit him. Timelords have a reserve of Artron energy that they use to regenerate, and with the Doctor only being in his 11th incarnation, he was sure he’d have enough to make a quick hop, back to his universe. In theory. The Doctor jumped up and stood to face the central column “Now girl you may not like this, but when I do it, I want you to get us out of here, understand?” The flicker in the lights was all the input he needed. The Doctor closed his eyes and focused, until suddenly his arms burst open with a golden light, He tried to focus the energy at the console, but attempting to cheat regeneration is quite tricky, even in the Doctor’s standards. The golden spirals twirled and danced all over the TARDIS, until finally, the old machine jerked into life once more. The column pulsated immediately, and the raspy warping noise began again. “Hah! Brilliant, it worked!” but now came the tricky bit: stopping the regeneration process. The Doctor struggled against the pull of regeneration, but eventually got control as the glowing dimmed. Once the energy had completely receded, The Doctor looked up, straightened his bowtie and pulled his jacket back on. “Well, that went according to plan” Suddenly the TARDIS burst into flames, the console exploded, and the column shattered into a million pieces. Even for the Doctor that was too much of a brunt to take, as he was sent flying into the metal barricade around the console, and tumbled straight over it to the floor below, completely unconscious.
Elsewhere...
It was a normal, busy day in Ponyville market. With everypony doing what they would normally do, walking here and there, buying anything and everything one would think you’d might need. From potatoes to books about Star Swirl the Bearded, you were sure that if you needed it, somepony was sure to have it on sale. However Twilight, being Twilight could help to notice that one stall wasn’t bustling with customers, heck it wasn’t even open. But what baffled her more was that this was the stall owned by the Apple family. “Surely Applejack hasn’t been out all night and forgotten again?” Twilight thought to herself. She sighed inwardly, and placed her book back into her saddlebag. Jumped up, and started across the market, towards Sweet Apple Acres. “TWILIGHT!” The voice jumped and tackled her to the ground, spraying dirt into the air, the mare coughed and spluttered, trying to get the dust out of her eyes, with the dust settling, Twilight could finally see the perpetrator of the assault. “Wah? Pinkie?!?” “Hey Twilight, whatya up to? Can I join in? Pleasepleaseplease?!?” “Pinkie, how many times have I told you not to do that?” Pinkie immediately got off the purple mare, and from nowhere got out her deerstalker and popped it on her head, Twilight just brushed past the fact that the hat came from nowhere, it was Pinkie after all. “Well first there was that time when you’d just finished that test from Celestia, then the time after that when there was hundreds of me-s” Twilight shuddered at the thought, and made a mental note to NEVER bring that up again. ” Then the time the other day when you were talking to Fluttershy” “Okay Pinkie, I get it, but what I mean to say is please don’t do it again” “Okie Dokie Lokie!” And with that Pinkie Pie disappeared. Twilight drew a sigh of relief, it was fine that her friends were interested in what she was up to, but she’d rather get on with the task at hoof first, without any more pinkie distractions. And with that, her trot became a gallop as she raced towards Sweet Apple Acres. Only to be overtaken by a stream of colours overhead. “Hey Rainbow” Twilight said, hoping to get a reaction from the cyan Pegasus. “Hah Twi, you know you’re not gonna catch me like that don’t ya?” “Rainbow, if I was going to catch you, you’d have been caught by now” Twilight quickly demonstrated this by teleporting up and grabbing Dash’s tail. “Hey!” Twilight chuckled and let go of the rainbow colour tail, causing her to drop a few feet to the ground. “So what you doing out here anyway Twi?” “Well I’m heading to Applejack’s; There was no one working their stall this morning, so I guess I’m a bit concerned” “Huh, that exactly where I was heading, AJ sent me a letter saying its urgent” “But nothing saying what it is?” “Nope, but hey, if AJ’s saying its urgent then it definitely is something wrong, right?” “Fair enough, we’d better get our tails to Sweet Apple Acres then, as quickly as possible” “C’mon Twi, you’re talking to the fastest flier in Equestria, quickly as possible is my mid-“ “Sorry, you were saying something?”. Twilight had already run ahead of the cyan Pegasus, not wanting to leave Applejack hanging by wasting more time. Rainbow Dash smirked and immediately launched herself into the sky at a sickening pace, and fired herself towards the apple orchard in the distance. Applejack was pacing nervously in her room, nothing like this had ever happened before; it could mean the entirety of the farm could go up in smoke. Then what would happen to her family? Where would they go? How would the rest of Ponyville survive once the only major attraction is wiped of the face of the map? And more importantly, Where was anypony gonna get any cider from! At this moment a thud from below brought her back to her senses “Yo, AJ you in here? I got your message!” “Me too Applejack, is something wrong?” “Ah’m in here fellas, glad you came as fast as ya did Dash” The two ponies walked into Applejack’s room, to find her lying on the bed looking absolutely distraught “Whoa, Applejack, I haven’t seen you this bad since that time you bucked the entire orchard yourself, what the hays the matter?” “Well... It’s that time of year again, when we gotta get all the apples into tha barn ya see, but we went ta go put them in and tha barns gone” “What?! What do you mean ‘gone’ AJ?” “As in the great big dirty hole in tha roof means we ain’t ever gonna get it fixed in time for the snow, this year’s harvest is ruined” Applejack buried her face in her hooves, Cleary this conversation was over. Rainbow turned round to Twilight “What are we gonna do?” “Well, first things first, we should have a look at the barn” “Right! Um… actually Twi, I’ve gotta fly, I’m missing one of my weather shifts over at Sugar Cube Corner” Twilight sighed “Fine I’ll take a look” “Thanks Twi, keep me posted would ya?” Another flash of light and Rainbow was gone. Twilight stood outside the barn, the damages were obvious, there was a great big hole in the roof, and the left hand door was swinging on just one hinge. There was also the smell of burnt wood hanging in the air. Normally the barn would be lit, but not wanting to cause more chaos, by risking the lights, Twilight decided that her magic would be more than adequate. “Say Big Mac? Could you keep an eye on this side for me, in case anypony or anything comes out behind me?” “Eeyup” And with that the unicorn entered the barn. The inside was dark and musty; with hale bales stacked up to the ceiling.in the very centre of the barn was a cone of light but due to hole in the roof that was hardly surprising. What was surprising was the continued destruction inside the barn, as if something large crashed into the roof, continued and eventually came to a stop with the help of the contents of the barn. “I really hope it’s not another rogue Changeling, by Celestia the last one we had was a damn menace” As she continued following the path of destruction deeper into the barn, the sound of steam pipes, and the dull ring of a bell were faintly heard. Mustering up her courage, Twilight clambered through the holes in the hay bales, until finally she came across the most unusual sight. There was a blue box that was lying sideways among the barrels, every once and a while it would produce a jet of steam from nowhere, and then hum slightly. Twilight got closer to the box, and she was sure she could hear voices from the inside. Suddenly the top of the box burst open, to reveal a brown stallion climbing out, mumbling to himself about safety tips, regeneration energies, and a place called Gallopfrey? He turned around to Twilight “Oh, hello I don’t suppose you know where I am? The long range scanner on the old girl got busted when she came through the orbit” Twilight was lost for words, as the strange stallion began to examine the purple unicorn “Hmm interesting… colourful horses… Not the most exotic form of life I’ve seen but hey-ho, life’s for the living and whatnot” “Wha? We’re not horses, we’re ponies and what are you talking about?” Twilight asked finally finding words again. “Hmm! A talking pony, definitely one to chalk up on the strangest life form board, not that I chalk anything on that board often, In fact I don’t even remember getting a chalk board… odd” “Would somepony mind telling me what in the hay is going on? How are you surprised by what a pony is?” “What do you mean?” “Well have you seen yourself recently?!?” The strange colt looked down to see himself in a puddle of engine oil left by the blue box. “Ah… well that explains, why I had a hard time climbing out of the old girl then” The Earth pony then continued to look over himself. “Hmm… might have to get used to 4 legs…And no hands… and why do I have a sand timer on my back?” The stallion looked towards Twilight, who was in quite a state of shock but still managing to ask necessary questions. “Who exactly are you?” “Well, I’m The Doctor, but other than that, I have absolutely no idea” He gave an enormous grin, then immediately passed out, leaving Twilight more confused than stunned.
The alley was quiet, uncommonly so, even the wind, which was quite strong that evening, made no more noise than a whisper. The bins were pilled across the sides of the street, full of refuse and recycling, which by Clara’s reckoning, hadn’t been collected for at least a fortnight. ”Why is this more secure than the rest of the city? Some sort of perception filter?” “Something like that, yes” The man stood at the far end of the alley, with his back to Clara, staring almost intently at the solid brick wall in front of him, although it was difficult to see, as the sun was gone and the darkness began to surround both of them. “Alright, we’re here now, so c’mon how much do you know about the Doctor?” she inquired, who would rather get on with business more than exchanging pleasantries.
Her ears picked up a slight whirring sound; it reminded her of the sound of a spring unwinding inside of a toy car. The man replied slowly, lingering on the end of every word “I was wondering… if you’d tell me… the same thing” There was a change in his voice. It was raspy, piercing… metallic. “Hey, are you okay?” The words came out of Clara’s mouth like a curse, because even she knew the inevitability of those words when the Doctor was involved. The man tried to dismiss all concerns; “I’m…Fine” but this wasn’t very convincing for the woman who was standing not 5 feet from him.
Suddenly the man fell to the floor, writhing in pain. Immediate concern flashed across the girl’s face as she ran to help the man, but before she could reach him another voice boomed across the alleyway “Oih! You, Duck! NOW!” and without questioning Clara threw her hand over her head and collapsed to the floor. There was a bright flash of blue, a roar of pain and a small explosion that seemed to last forever. Clara scream was barely heard over the chaos above her. Then there was silence. The brunette looked up to find the man was standing again, but he was swaying, like a person in a trance, his features still undistinguishable in the darkness. Then he fell to the side, with a dull clang, the man had collapsed on the floor, never to move again.
Clara got up slowly still at shock with what just occurred, and went to inspect the man. Before, his face was dark and scarred, with lines that clearly showed he had faced enough winters alone. But now his face was grey and smooth, with a ghostly gleam that shone in the moonlight, with empty black sockets for eyes. Cybermen. Clara was so lost in thought she almost forgot about the mysterious saviour, until it spoke again “Yes! Bull’s-eye! It’s taken days to find that bastard, and finally we got him!” The voice rattled Clara out of her trance “Wh-Who’s there?!” she wasn’t in the mood for any more surprises, so the direct approach seemed more logical. The sound of a radio static filled the street, and again the voice spoke “Yeah, this is Greyhoud-42, we got the target, repeat, we got the target, bringing the witness to UNIT HQ” Out of the shadows walked a largly built man, this time in army uniform, with a small badge on his beret that had an odd symbol and the letters UNIT below it. He was carrying something that looked akin to a lava lamp attached to the end of a gun. “You alright there?” The man asked “You nearly got yourself bloody killed by that thing!” Clara smirked, she liked the way he was mocking her at the same time as showing concern. “Hey! I can take care of myself, and I know what a Cyberman is thanks" The soldier was taken aback “What? You know what that is? You don’t know anyone from UNIT do ya?” Clara had never heard of UNIT in all her life, but assumed it had somthing to do with the Doctor, so decided to take her chances. “Have no idea, but if you know what that is then you could probably help me with my other problem” “I’ll see what I can do, fire away!” “I need to find the Doctor” The man's attitude immediately changed, his cocky, boisterous nature deflated and the pause between the two was almost madening for the time traveller “…Um, just wait here for a sec” The man hurried away down the alley; once again the sound of static was reverberating around the walls. “Hi, this is Greyhoud-42 again, the witness know something about the Doctor, requesting pickup…. Okay thanks” The man returned, without the gun this time, only holding the radio in his right hand. “Right I’ve called HQ, they’re sending over a jeep to pick us up, in the meantime, just relax, you’re safe now” Clara has never been so glad to hear those words and felt tired for the first time. She giggled to herself, hundreds of lifetimes and not once has she felt tired. Her eyelids grew heavier, and she fell into a deep sleep, full of dreams of the bizarre, yet wonderful Doctor.
Clara woke with a jump; she wasn’t used to sleeping, especially when you consider the hundreds of thoughts of monsters, danger, and chaos that were free to run amok when she let her guard down. She tried to get up, but the sheer effort required just wasn’t worth it, and with the onset of sleep returning the brunette decided to just lie there, observing the room around her. It was a small white sterile room, with no obvious features other than the bed she was in and a small round camera on the ceiling above her. There was no entrance that could be seen, nor any windows. Normally this kind of situation would just invoke panic in people, but Clara’s weariness dulled this reaction. However the room had other ideas. “AH, YOU’RE AWAKE. I’M GLAD YOU MANAGED TO RECOVER WELL; I’LL JOIN YOU IN A MOMENT TO EXPLAIN THE SITUATION!” The time traveller sat bolt upright at the addition of an incredibly deafening voice to the small cubicle. She sat on the edge of the bed foe a bit, wiping the sleep from her eyes, hoping that the next time it returned it might be at a more suitable time. Then with a slight whoosh of air, the wall opposite the bed opened up to reveal the exit. Clara stood up, but wobbled slightly, with the weight returning to her legs again, and hobbled into the opening. In the next room was a collection of important people, all military, with their canes and many traditions from days gone by strapped proudly to their chests. “Miss Oswald, glad to see you awake, I’m Kate Stewart. And let me tell you, we are glad we found you” The owner of the voice was a blonde woman in the middle of the group, who, although lacked the stature of those with her with their badges of service, they clearly gave her the respect that would be adequate to give a general. Her eyes were far older than the rest of them, and there was somthing about her that told Clara there was more to her than meets the eye. “Yeah, great, who exactly are you?” this surprised both the woman and Clara, as it came from another voice, a deeper imposing voice that came from the left of the woman. “Major Haynes! Give her a chance, anyways, you’re all dismissed, go and fantasize about the good old days, or whatever you do when you’re not shooting things” The men immediately left the room, all equally grumbling about some problem or another. Only when all the men had left the woman spoke again: “Sorry about that, I had to let the dogs out for a walk, they get so restless sometimes” She chuckled to herself about her little joke but quickly, her attention turned back to Clara “you claim you know the Doctor?” “Yeah I was with him for a while, but thing became…complicated” The woman smiled again “They seldom are normal when it comes to the Doctor, but we’ve got some news” Clara's eyes grew wide “Really? You know where he is?” With that Kate frowned and turned away from Clara, her hand on her chin, while the other rubbed her neck nervously “Well that’s the problem you see, the Doctor is missing” “What do you mean missing?”
The Doctor opened one eye begrudgingly trying to locate the source of the disturbance; the shrill voice nearly destroyed his eardrums and quite frankly, after surviving that sort of regeneration process, he needed the rest. And his eardrums. He opened the other eye, and pulled his head up off the pillow that was supporting it. Looking around, he was in some sort of cottage. well, it looked like a cottage, with a tidy wooden planked floor, and ornately carved beams across the ceiling. The bed he was in had the same craftsmanship the rest of the room displayed, but in a much darker, rich spruce, that distinctly reminded him of the smell of honey. There were a few bookshelves in the small room, crammed full of ancient yet beautifully preserved hardbacks. “The person who lives here must have quite a taste for literature” The Doctor said to himself aloud. Just then a crash was heard from below.
“Oh C’mon Twilight, it was just a joke!” Another crash reverberated around the room. “I don’t care! You know I use that ink to send letters to the Princess! How am I meant to send her anything with INVISIBLE INK?!” The voice once again pierced The Doctor’s ears causing him to grimace in pain. “Ok, ok, I get it… geez; I’ll go and get the real ink, who twisted your horn the wrong way this morning?” A door slammed shut below the Doctor, and the bellowing voices, crashes, and the occasional clucking chicken stopped.
He sighed in relief, now that was over he can get back to working out where he was. He got out of the bed, and tried a few tentative steps, just to check that the skeletal changes had finished. No problems, good. The round window at the back of the room was still closed with curtains pulled across it, so he walked over, pulled the curtains back and looked out. What he saw made his jaw drop, he was looking down on was seemed to be a medieval town, complete with thatched roofs, and exposed wooden girders. The window he was looking out of was imbedded in a huge oak tree near the centre of the town.
He jumped up and down a few times. Yep, definitely normal laws of physics, but there’s something else, another element to the air. The world around him was colourful, more colourful than anything he’d ever seen before. But where was he? Just then the door behind him creaked open. Out of the opening came the lavender pony that he saw before he passed out; “Oh! You’re awake… great! You’ve been out for a week you know?” He looked back towards the window deep in thought “A week?!? I’ve never normally stayed in regeneration stasis for more than couple of days, but then again, given the circumstances I probably needed more rest than usual… plus there was no tea…” The Doctor then turned round to face the pony, once again with the signature smile on his face “do you have tea?” The reaction to his hyperactivity from the purple unicorn was utterly priceless, better than any of the confused faces of all of his companions combined. The Doctor could help but smile at the thought. “Wha... regeneration stasis? What in the hay are you on about?” “Oh nothing to bother you over dear, don’t worry about it” That response was clearly not what the unicorn had in mind “Hey we have names you know!” The horn on the top of the pony’s head lit up in a deep purple glow. I think I may have pushed a little too far “Well then, in your own time, please do share” with this the mare returned to a more casual stance “Twilight, Twilight Sparkle”
“Twilight…Sparkle?”. This was all the Doctor could manage before bursting into laughter “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh… Sweet Silurians... ” The Doctor wiped the tears from his eyes, nearly falling over in absolute hysterics. “That has got to be… the best name I’ve ever heard… 900 years of travelling around the cosmos and not once have I come across anything or anyone with a name like that, well apart from Staal The-Not-So-Quite-Undefeated-But-Never-Mind, but that’s another story” The Doctor then trotted over to the door, passing the utterly confused Twilight, continued through the open door and down the stairs on the other side.
Twilight was still stood there, in complete shock. The strange stallion, who’d taken her bed for over a week, had just cast her aside, not said any words of gratitude, and then laughed at her introduction! And what in Celestia’s name is a Silurian!?!. The Doctor suddenly popped his head back round the door frame “Don’t mind me if you hear a few crashes from downstairs, just going to cook myself some breakfast… You do have eggs right?” Twilight barely had time to reply before the pony was charging back down the stairs, to make whatever mess he deemed necessary to make breakfast. This was the final straw for the faithful student of Celestia, who promptly fainted on the spot, and hit the ground with a light thud.
The Doctor had finally found the eggs required for making breakfast about ten minutes ago, thankfully with fewer breakages than he had estimated initially. Then again, the quality of the scrambled eggs would be hardly acceptable if he’d had done it with hands, but beggars can’t be choosers he told himself, after the twelfth egg to fall from his clumsy grasp smashed against the floor with a resounding splat. He’d already created a makeshift way of using the sonic screwdriver that was still hidden behind his ear. By flicking his head, the small stove in front of him lit up in a brilliant orange flame. The next half an hour was filled with the smell of scrambled eggs and curiously enough; brown sauce. (For some reason the Doctor had found a bottle of brown sauce behind his right ear) Finishing his breakfast, the Doctor cleaned up after himself, left a portion of the scrambled eggs on the table with a poorly written note, and proceeded out of the kitchen.
Twilight, on the other hoof, came around an hour later with a familiar cyan Pegasus standing over her. The pegasus’ face immediately lit up, noticing that Twilight had finally woken up. “Hey hey! You ok Twi? I heard there was a bit of a commotion going on over here, something about invisible ink?” Twilight came to her senses immediately and bolted up “Rainbow! Did you see him?!? Where’d he go? How long was I out?!?” “Hey calm down, it’s been about an hour, and yes, your ‘patient’ as you put it, is downstairs whizzing through the library, although he prefers being called the Doctor, pretty weird name eh?” “Um… What do you mean whizzing?” Twilight had now calmed down thoroughly, and had decided to hear more about the strange pony that was downstairs in her house. “As in literally whizzing through every single book, seriously, it’s amazing Twi! He is literally reading books in no time flat, always muttering to himself afterwards about some strange thing or another. In fact, I’d go as far to say he may be a bigger egghead than you” Twilight snorted at the claim “Oh C’mon Rainbow, I hardly doubt it’s THAT bad and just for the record there is nothing wrong with enjoying reading you should know that or need i remind you of Dari-” Just then, the Doctor poked his head round the door “Oh hey… Um… Twilight was it? Have you read this one? It’s a bit predictable, but I do like my souvenirs of the places I visit, is there another copy anywhere? ” Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash turned round to see the gargantuan, dusty tome the Doctor had somehow managed to carry from the library and up the stairs. Twilight did a double take. “ I’ve only ever seen a single book with those runes on the front before… that’s Starswirl The Bearded’s research journal…but that’s in Canterlot, in the restricted section, that can only be opened at the request of Celestia herself… How’d the heck did you get that?!?”
As if on cue, the Doctor closed his eyes and cringed as in pain and within the second, he was no longer the hyper, overly-exaggerated pony that both Twilight and Rainbow were speaking to not moments ago. Now he had large black shadows under his eyes, his hair had flattened, becoming sleek, almost dripping with dark venom that had now dyed his hair from the usual chestnut brown to a jet black. He smirked with an evil intent as he eyed both of the mares infront of him. “why Twilight… when you are a 2000 year old demi-god, the idea of locks and keys just don’t fit into the equation” There was an unnerving silence across the room, with the Doctor still staring straight at Twilight. Dash was the only one brave enough to break the silence, thankfully being the only one not being targeted for something. “Say, um… Doc, you’re kinda getting a bit worrying now, are you sure you’re ok?” The venomous stare of the Doctor then turned towards the window, as he paced towards it. “My dear Rainbow Dash. No-one is ok…Well they were, but now that I’m here things are going to get…”He then turned around showing a grinning face that would make even the staunchest Royal Guard running in utter terror. “Complicated….”
Both of the mares stood there in absolute shock, this obviously did not please the stallion who once again frowned “Oh don’t look like that, after all you were the ones to raise me back to good health, if it weren’t for that foolish other me that seems to be completely resistant to all my advancements, I would have been out of his grasp sooner” Twilight now had too many questions, and began confronting the dark stallion in front of her “Wait, there’s other yous?” the look of discontent increased on the Doctor’s shadowy face “Now Twilight you really are disappointing me… After all you are the cleverest one here, besides me of course. But if you really must know, I am just another part of the fool that you’ve had in your home for a week that he keeps so well in check, he is after all, such a dark man” He then turned back towards the window “However every so often we just let our guards down, just enough for our other selves to leak through the gaps. I am all that the Doctor fears in himself. And worst of all, he can do nothing to stop me” “Oh Yeah? Try stopping this!” With that Rainbow Dash jumped forward and kicked the Doctor across the room. He then smashed against the wall while Twilight began a binding spell to keep him from moving. The Doctor struggled against the binds, but without magic himself, it was a useless venture. “Damn…. once again my mouth is my downfall, I underestimated you two, but don’t think that will happen again. I will withdraw back to corners of this mind. Tell the Doctor this from me: his Shadow is back for good” The Doctor then fell completely unconscious, the spell dissipated as though it was holding nothing. Twilight recovered quickly from the rapid use of magic and stood next to Rainbow Dash whom was watching as the colour returned to the Doctor’s mane and eyes. Checking to see if he was still breathing the two hauled him back onto the bed and left the room, hoping to recover from the mighty strange ordeal downstairs.
Clara was once again, stumped for words. Kate began her explanation, “Well the Doctor hasn’t been seen for over 2 years now. No phone box sightings, no temporal activities have been picked up on any corner of the globe, and there are only decade old traces of artron energy left on the planet. Yes, there had been many interactions with extra-terrestrial life in those years, but each one that was encountered, whether friend of foe, had the same information: The Doctor was missing” Clara felt sick, her destiny was to save the Doctor from every peril he has, may do and will face. But with no Doctor to save, what was she doing here? “Well I suppose I’m stuck here then” she said finally, Kate walked up to her and placed a hand on Clara’s shoulder “Now don’t be like that, we can offer you a job here at UNIT, until the Doctor wishes to reveal himself, the only thing you can do is to wait” “But you don’t understand, the only reason I’m ever alive is because he is in trouble, but with him missing, how am I meant to help him?”
The conversation was still running through Clara’s mind even a fortnight after. The Doctor was missing; there was no doubt about this. The Cybermen that was destroyed the night Clara appeared had no data that could be salvageable from its data banks other than that fact. And even with UNIT tracking down any possible sighting non-stop for a fortnight, there were still no signs. Clara had had enough with waiting around for other people to do her job for her. And she knew just what to do.
She had only visited Bannerman Road once in all her previous lives, and that was only because she’d hitched a ride back in the TARDIS without anyone noticing after the “funeral” of The Doctor at the UNIT base in Snowden. Clara liked Sarah, she liked the way that the former companion knew the Doctor wouldn’t come to help her out if she got into trouble, but regardless of that she carried on in the name of The Doctor, for the Doctor, representing the best intentions for the human race. And she even got some of the younger generation involved too. With Clyde, Rani, Maria and even her adopted son and daughter, Luke and Sky, all helping out on those crazy adventures they have from that attic.
Clara walked up to the front door of 13 Bannerman Road and checked the houses around the area. She knew Clyde, Rani and Sky would all be at school, and of course Luke was away at university, so there was no trouble with that lot asking any questions. She knocked on the door twice, and waited for what seemed like an eternity until finally the door opened to reveal a dishevelled looking Sarah Jane Smith standing in the doorway.
“Yes? Can I help you; I’m a bit busy with my work” Clara simply smiled “Hello Sarah Jane” Sarah Jane looked over the top of her glasses “How do you know my name? Did you read one of my reports? If so you could have just sent me an email like everyone else does” Dismissing the unhelpful comments, Clara continued. “No, nothing like that, but I do know that I need your help. It’s involving the Doctor” Immediately Sarah Jane’s attention was now fully on Clara, she turned around with a serious look on her face “You’d better come inside” And Sarah ushered her into the house and across the corridor into the living room.
“Please make yourself comfortable” Gesturing towards one of the many upholstered seats in the room “I’m not one to deny those who know about the Doctor” Clara lounged out comfortably on the beige settee; Sarah joined her fairly quickly and started “so how do you know him?” Clara sat up and smirked “Oh, I’m his companion, like you were. Well I think I’m still his companion, not too sure though, having multiple lives does throw that sort of perspective out of the window” she then laughed in an attempt to reduce the impression that she was in fact, completely insane. Thankfully Sarah Jane didn’t notice and continued with her train of thought “Well I’m pretty sure last time I saw him he was with some Mrs and Mr Pond, but they were on their honeymoon” Clara remembered this, quite clearly “Ah, that was the…. Shansheeth wasn’t it?” “How’d you know that?” Clara rubbed the back of her neck in an attempt to recollect what actually happened “I was there, on the planet you went to? Yeah people do tend to miss me when I’m around, but you get used to that sort of behaviour after the 1000th time of being ignored completely” Sarah started to look rather worried “ Now dear, you’re not making the slightest bit of sense” Clara sighed inwardly “I’m going to have to explain all this from the top again aren’t I?” Sarah Jane then got up and walked towards the door “It would help, I’ll stick the kettle on, I’ve got a feeling we may need it”
Two hours later Clara had finally finished explaining her entire situation to Sarah Jane Smith. “So here I am, and I’m not here under orders from UNIT, I’m here for a personal favour. You know, they don’t actually know I’m here so…” Sarah leaned back into the comfy armchair she’d been sat on for the past hour “I see, well that’s quite a tale, and I’m pretty sure it’s not over yet for you, but I’ll do what I can, and seeing as you already know what’s upstairs, and Clyde, Rani or Sky won’t be back for a while to give us a hand, we might as well get started now finding the Doctor, don’t you think?” “That’s great! What time are they back from school?” “Well it’s around four o’ clock they normally get out and they don’t get around here till about five at the earliest” Clara then bounced up to her feet “Well then, best we get to work, and I’m afraid I don’t really want to be around when they’re here, too many questions if you know what I mean” Sarah nodded acceptingly “Fair enough, but they could help out while you’re not here” she added as the two of them climbed the flights of stairs to the Bannerman Attic.
Clara almost forgot about Mr Smith, as the wall opened up to reveal the great Xylok computer “Sarah Jane, who is this woman? I am detecting a large amount of temporal rift energy surrounding her, is she important?” Clara scoffed at the computer’s ignorance, but Sarah Jane was ready for this “Oh don’t worry Mr Smith, she one of the Doctor’s friends” The vents surrounding the monitor burst a great bout of steam “Ah I see, another time traveller” “Mr Smith! Haven’t I told you that your sarcasm is getting worse?” “I apologise Sarah Jane, I must admit I do not enjoy being in the knowledge that we have more than enough visitors up here as it is, I am supposed to be, as you say: covert. Also K9 has contacted me today, something about the Macarena. I would suggest replacing his main processor as it appears to be malfunctioning” Both of the time travellers looked at each other and smiled, but Sarah Jane quickly turned her attention back to the task at hand “Yes, that’s all well and good, but we need you Mr Smith” “Of course, how can I be of assistance Sarah Jane?” “We need to find the Doctor” The computer paused, the great swirls of colour beaming from the monitor. “But Sarah Jane, according to my scanners there is no current extra-terrestrial threat to planet Earth in the Solar System; do you need to find the Doctor for another reason?” Clara then spoke up, rather annoyed that she was being left out of the conversation, “Yeah, brainbox I need your help to find him. Name’s Clara Oswald by the way, considering you didn’t actually ask” “I already knew who you were Miss Oswald, I have all the data I need here” Clara was about to have an outburst at the Xylok, but Sarah Jane quickly intervened “Great, so Mr Smith, can you start looking?” Clara then realised having an argument with an alien super-computer probably isn’t the best way to get it to cooperate, so returned to smiling. “Yes Sarah Jane, I will begin the necessary scans imminently; however they may take some time” the Xylok stated “How long exactly Mr Smith?” “Five minutes and forty seconds” Both Sarah Jane and Clara burst into fits of laughter “Oh good, my sense of humour is improving”
*DING* “Scans complete Sarah Jane” Clara shot up, and got aware to her surroundings, somehow she’d managed to fall asleep, and dream about something, but what the dreams were she couldn’t recall. She stood up and looked across the room where Sarah Jane was standing with her own handheld scanner, looking for any possible alien activity. “Well Mr Smith, is there anything?” “There is no current Artron energy surrounding the planet Earth, nor are there any other currently on-going time-rift distortions. Other than yourself, Miss Oswald” Clara sat back down, once again glum that another attempt had failed. Sarah Jane was not one to be put off that easily however “Wait. Mr Smith, why did you say currently on-going?” The warping shapes on the computer monitor changed into a series of Galifreyan symbols “Well... The last time the TARDIS was here, we had an exchange of data cores; I must admit I took some information on past and future occurrences of time travellers, knowing that we’d encounter other associates of the Doctor in due time” Clara now returned to the conversation, spurred on by the possibility of future events. “So you mean that you know when other time travellers are going to arrive?” “That is correct, Miss Oswald, in fact there will be one imminently, however as the data is in High Galifreyan, it will take more time to translate the coordinates, as the time is already translated for some reason, I will invest processing power in translating the coordinates embedded, it will take but a moment” Clara still didn’t trust the computer, even with the current information it held on finding the Doctor “So what is the time that is in the data Mr Smith?” “Oddly enough, the date and time are within five minutes of current Earth time” “What?!?” Both companions said excitedly “Yes, and now that I’ve translated the coordinates, they are also positioning the temporal influx within 5 square miles of current position, calculating exact coordinates now” Clara and Sarah Jane cheered with joy and danced around laughing, until Clara worked something out and stopped in her tracks. “Mr Smith, who exactly is making this influx?” “I am afraid Miss Oswald it has no traces of Artron energy, so it is not a TARDIS that is appearing, but I have detected the cardiovascular system of a non-human species, whether it is the Doctor or not, I cannot be certain” Clara gave a nod to Sarah Jane, who held up the coordinates on a piece of paper, Clara grabbed them and said out loud “That’s all I need to know” And with that, Clara bolted towards the attic door, swung it open and raced down the stairs without a seconds notice. “Charming friends the Doctor associates himself with” Mr Smith chided to himself. “What was that Mr Smith?” “Nothing Sarah Jane” The computer quickly replied. Sarah Jane laughed “I thought not”.
Clara was already halfway down the next street before she’d even considered thanking the Smith household, well I can always go back and thank them later she told herself, at the moment finding whoever or whatever was going to arrive in less than 5 minutes time was more important to her than mere formalities. Using the coordinates that Mr Smith gave her, and the pocket edition of a tourist map of London she’d finally pinpointed the location, and was heading in the right direction to make it in time. She reached an odd looking, abandoned café with sweat forming on her brow before she could run no more. Leaning against a lamppost on the other side of the street, recovering from another marathon sprint, the sun was yet again setting in the sky, it was winter after all. Clara then looked up into the sky to see if there were any tell-tale signs of another time traveller: strange weather patterns, odd power fluctuations, anything unusual. What she failed to notice was the eerie blue glow coming from the café, and as that had subsided, the silhouette that had appeared in the doorframe. Clara was quickly notified to someone clapping across the street, quickly followed by the lamp above her exploding in a burst of power, She jumped out of the way just in time to miss the large shards of glass and scrap metal falling on top of her. “My, My, Clara you really are determined this time aren’t you?” Clara turned around to meet the attacker head on, but failed to notice where it came from due to the lack of light in the downtrodden street “Hey! Who the hell are you?!?!” The shadow’s smile glinted in the first of the night’s moonlight that reached the café. “Oh that’s right, multiple lives. You know if you weren’t so intent on finishing me off you would actually be quite interesting, think of all the information I could gain, Intelligence is as we all know the only power in this universe. Like so” The entity then gestured towards her and the wall behind Clara burst open, sending Clara flying into the middle of the road, scattering shards of brick and mortar into the street. “My plan will proceed, without interference from the Children of Time, or you. But how to get rid of you?” The shady figure walked out of the doorway into the street, his black top hat glistened in the crisp winter moonlight, he then walked over to the recently destroyed lamp, completely ignoring the seriously injured Clara in the road, and leant against the destroyed remains of the pole. “Well I could do to you what I did to the last accomplice who dared to get in my way, but that would be too easy” The Great Intelligence mumbled, either to scare Clara (Which had worked exceedingly well) or just because he was deep in thought. “Well this is no fun at all. Of all the things I can think of doing to you, not one of them is a fitting demise”. Clara tried to use this moment to her advantage; unfortunately, her entire body was frozen stuck, whenever she tried to move her brain would punish her with another wave of intense pain. It felt like her left leg, her right arm, and multiple ribs were broken.
She lay silently until the monotony was broken by a small chuckle “Oh…I know exactly what to do with you Miss Oswald” The entity then walked forward and crouched over the incapacitated companion. “What do you know of other universes? Actually, don’t answer; I’m going to tell you” He then returned to standing and looked towards the moon “Every single choice that appears in any universe will instantly create another universe, a parallel if you will. Now, a parallel is impossible to enter conventionally, but what if you had a link to the another universe…say, like this one” He then held a dusty tome in the air, the book itself looked impossibly old with a rich purple cover, but any symbols on said cover had been lost to time. “Theoretically you could use the relic as an anchor point to that universe, but first you’d need the base codes for this universe and enough energy to burn out the physical barriers between the worlds. Now wouldn’t it be a shame if someone didn’t have those things, eh?” He then turned around with a smirk on his face. “And guess who has those things Miss Oswald, get ready, because this is going to be… spectacular” The Great Intelligence then walked away from Clara, who was still unable to move on the ground, made his way to the abandoned doorway and stopped. With a snap of his fingers the blue glow returned, he then span on his heels, and gestured towards Clara. Silently, blue flames began to form around her, but she didn’t have the energy to react and soon the mystical flames completely surrounded her. Almost as suddenly as the flames, Clara’s mind began to spin and burn, all Clara could feel was intense pain surging through her body, as though something was trying to push her into the ground itself. The Great Intelligence looked on, clearly pleased that all was going according to plan; he threw the book into the flames and then continued with the incantations. With another snap of his fingers, the flames turned from blue to a coal-black. He then pulled his hands together, watching with an evil grin on his face as the brimstone flames obeyed his commands and compressed together, finally he blew into his now closed hands, and released them. The flames subsided almost instantly, leaving behind no trace of whom or what had been contained inside of them. “Good luck out there Miss Oswald, because not even I know where you are going to end up… Heheheh” And as quietly as he arrived, he continued back into the dark café, clicked his heels together and disappeared, leaving the street once again silent in the winter moonlight.
It had been three weeks since the “Shadow” incident, and Twilight was more scared than ever of the strange stallion currently living in her home.
The letter she got back from Princess Celestia didn’t help either, but at least she promised to make a visit to Ponyville soon, her main priority to meet this “visitor”, although Twilight couldn’t help but feel that something wasn’t right, the princess knew something that Twilight clearly wasn’t meant to know, and she didn’t like it.
The Doctor, on the other hand was taking this all in his stride; a new face, new world and all the joys of exploration. However, Twilight decided the best thing to do for his own safety was to pair him up with Spike for the week, much to both of the parties’ disappointment. “Ugh… tell me again why Twilight got me stuck with you” The Doctor grumbled to the baby dragon now riding on his back. Spike hopped off of his back and continued ahead of the Doctor “Believe me it wasn’t my idea, but we can’t do anything about it till tomorrow. That’s when the princesses are coming to Ponyville. C’mon we need to get to Sugar Cube Corner”.
The Doctor didn’t like the idea of meeting the apparent royalty of this world. Far too many times he has been chased by royal guards back to his TARDIS, without so much as a word from him to the queen or king involved. Put that unlucky streak with the fact that these rulers are alicorns, the most powerful magic users in Equestria, he didn’t see his chances of survival particularly high. And with the TARDIS still refusing him entry after an entire fortnight, he couldn’t see himself taking shelter in the one place he called home either.
He shuddered at the thought of what they could possibly do to him. Spike noticed this and put a claw on the Doctor’s leg “They’re not gonna do anything bad to you, they just want to know who you are, and besides, I’ve never known Princess Celestia do anything bad to anypony who ends up in front of her” The Doctor looked down at the purple reptile “That’s the problem buddy; I’ve had many faces, many lives. Not all of them were particularly nice ones, and who’s to say I haven’t been here before, I might have done something completely horrible in the past” Spike looked up in to Stallions solemn face and smiled “C’mon Doc, try to lay off the angst for a while. Twilight’s already looked through the entirety of Equestrian history for a mention of your name, and not once has it come up, so trust us, you’ve not been here before” The Doctor finally smiled, much to the dragon’s relief “Your right Spike, Guess I’ve been far too harsh on myself. Well then, Sugar Cube Corner. I’ll race you, last one there buys” “But you’ve got no bits Doc!” “Heh, best I don’t lose then!” The two of them then flashed off, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. Little did they know someone else was also trailing them, with great interest in the newcomer.
Twilight was once again, walking through the market, when a commotion outside Sugar Cube Corner caught her attention. Outside the bakery she noticed two familiar faces were nosily arguing about the results of their recent competition. The Doctor was jumping up and down happily, while Spike on the other hand was on his back, sulking: “Ha-ha! Victory to the Timelord!” “Oh C’mon Doc it was hardly fair, and anyway you got far longer legs than me” The Doctor turn to face the grumpy reptile on his back. “Hey, just because I’m not the one that had to pay out, doesn’t mean you have to have a go at me, weren’t you telling me not five minutes ago to buck up?”
Twilight chuckled to herself; it had been years since she’d seen anyone other than herself take care of Spike like that. Maybe this Doctor wasn’t as frightening as she thought. "Hi fellas, staying out of trouble?” The unicorn greeted the two cheerfully. “Right as rain Twilight, I think we may have found Equestria’s fastest pony” The Doctor exclaimed, rather proudly. “Don’t let Rainbow hear you say that, the last time anyone challenged her, they were thoroughly disappointed” the voice on the Doctor’s back replied. Twilight sniggered “Right then, I’m heading back to the Library, you coming?” The Doctor then ushered Spike off his back "You two go on ahead, I’m gonna take in a bit of the scenery here” “Fine then, just don’t go getting into trouble, I’ll see you back at the Library” And with that, both Twilight and Spike turned tail and walked off.
The Doctor sighed contently, and sat down in one of the chair outside the bakery. Looking around, he could see a world true alive with colour and peace. Three fillies sped past, one on a scooter, which made the Doctor smile inside, each one brainstorming ideas about how to get their Cutie Mark. Across the street a mint green unicorn was happily exchanging jokes with another cream coloured mare, who was in complete hysterics. The Doctor closed his eyes to listen to the wonder of the scene. But he frowned: something was off, there was something else interfering in the background. He closed his eyes and concentrated.
What could he hear behind the busyness of the street? What was wrong with this picture…? It couldn’t be…. Was someone crying?
The Doctor opened his eyes, and tried to pinpoint the source of the problem. Eventually he found the desperate tears came from the door behind the bakery. The Doctor braced himself and opened the wooden door slowly, as to not disturb the distraught pony inside. What he saw was a bubble-gum pink pony sat looking towards the wall, in the middle of what seemed to be a party. There was a large banner hanging on the wall opposite, with writing that was completely illegible, with a Cutie Mark that seemed familiar to the stallion, but he wasn’t sure why. Streamers of many colours covered the floor, and in the corner was the biggest, most decorated cake the Doctor had ever seen. The Doctor knew this was Pinkie Pie, the embodiment of Laughter, but the scene in front of him didn’t fit Twilight’s vivid and highly exciting description of the “Ultimate Party Pony”. The bright, cotton-candy mane was sleek and straight, covering the tear-stained, bloodshot eyes of the mare; her entire physique seemed deflated, her frame of mind sucking the joy out of the room around her. The contrast between the earth pony’s surroundings and herself was almost sickening; clearly something needed to be done. The Doctor sneaked into the room, and took shelter underneath a cloth covered table. On the table, The Doctor noted, were many richly embellished envelopes.
Invitations perhaps? But then why would they all have the same name on them? Just as that train of thought was taking the Doctor somewhere else, the pink pony started to sing, the notes hanging in the air uncomfortably:
“I just wanted to make you open your eyes, and you might have been in for a pleasant surprise, I wanted you to stay here by my side, I’m a party of one and I need you tonight. I just wanted to make you finally see, that not being with you is torturing me, but finally I know what has happened to me. And now I can say that the party has just ended…”
Pinkie Pie then slumped to the ground, the tears she had been holding back; now free to flow down her face, formed unsightly puddles on the wooden floor. The Doctor, still hidden in his hiding place then realised what he needed to do. He got out from under the table, and slowly walked behind the weeping pony. “You know Miss Pie…” The Doctor began. Immediately the pink baker jumped up, with venom in her eyes. “Wha…What are you doing in here?!?” the mare spat out, her words heavy with spite, the Doctor ignored the hostility and continued: “I’ve seen many worlds, much heartbreak, and far too much tragedy and death. But do you want to know the one thing that kept me going through the many centuries I’ve lived? It’s the fact that there’s always a reason to smile, what’s your reason?”
Pinkie Pie was speechless. This complete stranger, whom she had never seen before, was attempting to cheer her up? The Doctor closed his eyes and smiled at the mare, holding out his hoof for her to take. BANG! The Doctor was sent flying across the room landing with a great splat into the side of the cake. The last thing that the Doctor saw before he blacked out was Pinkie Pie racing out the back door, wielding what seemed to be a sky-blue cannon…
It took the Doctor a good ten minutes to come to. “Urgh… where the heck did she get a cannon from?" The Doctor groaned to no-one in particular. Funnily enough a voice replied ”Oh that’s Pinkie’s Party Cannon, I don’t think she ever leaves home without it” The Doctor jumped up with a start knowing that someone else was in the room. Turning around to see the face of the violet mare that he’d been living with for the past month. She smiled, clearly unaware of the events that had happened, to be fair it did look like she had just stumbled in on another welcome party, but upon noting the concerned face the Doctor was showing slight concern of her own “Say Doctor, are you ok? Did something happen?” “Yes, something bad definitely did happen. We need to find Pinkie Pie, but where’d she run off to?” Twilight face became confused. “What? you didn’t ask her where she went? I just saw her going off to Sweet Apple Acres…” The Doctor jumped straight past the unaware unicorn, and swung open the door “get there as soon as possible, bring Pinkie’s friends, I believe she may need them” And with those parting words, he bounded off into the street, leaving a very puzzled unicorn in his wake.
The path to Sweet Apple Acres was a lengthy, rarely used track that was only used for access to the orchard itself. Perfect for keeping out of ponies’ ways then, the Doctor thought. He looked forward to the apple farm on the horizon and sighed. According to all the history books in Twilight’s library, Sweet Apple Acres was where the foundations of Ponyville were made, and the family running the place, amusingly called the Apples, were as loyal to Ponyville as anyone. Breaking his train of thought was a slight buzzing noise coming from behind his left ear, the ear where he kept his sonic screwdriver. This meant that the TARDIS was ready. He could use it both to get out of here and find Pinkie Pie at the same time! The Doctor whooped in joy, and cantered off towards the farm in the distance.
After spending ten minutes trying to open the thoroughly intricate barn door, he gave up, and finally asked the large, red stallion for assistance, with his only excuse being that the Sonic Screwdriver doesn’t work on wood. He looked upon his marvellous machine with pride, the bluest blue you could imagine. The cracks splintering the wood around the TARDIS had all been healed, as was the missing pane of glass, and the shattered bulb above the box had been replaced with a large, blue, rotating light. The words on the top of the TARDIS had changed as well; they now read “Pony Box” instead of “Police Box”. The Doctor looked at the doors to the TARDIS and smiled. “What have you got for me this time?” And with that he flicked his head back and caught his Sonic Screwdriver in his right hoof, pointing it at the doors, he pressed the button. Nothing happened. “What? That should’ve worked?” The Doctor mumbled, once again he tried to open the TARDIS, now pressing his Sonic Screwdriver against the lock on the TARDIS doors. Still nothing. Grumbling to himself, the Doctor finally placed his head against the doors, attempting to hear if anything was going on inside.
The Doctor was struggling to keep his mind on the TARDIS, on one hand, if he could get into the old girl, he could get out of here before the inevitable meeting tomorrow. But before that, Pinkie Pie still needed his help, and he couldn’t just leave her, and it didn’t look like the TARDIS was going to open anytime soon after all. He sighed and turned around to continue search for the mare without his beloved machine, only for the TARDIS doors to fly open, releasing a miasma of black smoke that rapidly hurled itself at the stallion without delay.
The smoke swirled around him like a tornado, trapping the Timelord entirely. The Doctor tried to grab hold of something to stop him from being picked up by the tremendous wind, but the swirling darkness was too strong. The smog seemed to relish in his weakness; gnawing, and biting at his face like a sandstorm. The Doctor tried to cover his eyes and mouth, but the pain caused by the lashing fumes paralysed him completely.
And then almost as quickly as the attack had come, it ceased, leaving the Doctor still coughing in pain on the floor. The Doctor got up slowly still aching from the surprise assault “Blimey! I was not ready for that.” The Doctor dusted himself down looking back at his TARDIS “Now what on earth was it? Some sort of vapour release? Possibly a diffraction deregulator emission, but only type 45 TARDISes have those, what do you suppose…” The Doctor turned round to find Pinkie Pie on the floor shaking, surrounded by the apparent attacker, with sharp teeth like extrusions emanating from the mass surrounding the mare. “Now that’s a tad more interesting” The Doctor mumbled.
Noticing that the space surrounding Pinkie was becoming increasing smaller, the Doctor tried his only possible gambit: Talking to the beast. “Now, wait. Hold on a mo. You can’t just break into the best ship in the universe, that things been locked for nearly a month. I couldn’t even get in.” The shadow didn’t react, only further reducing the area the earth pony had to cower in. “Oh c’mon you must be intelligent enough to talk to me! You just snuck into my ship, and believe me, that gets my attention, so just tell me what you want!” Still no reaction from the gloom, the Doctor quickly studied the shadow, watching it swirl and boil before him. Finally chuckling to himself “I know what you are; you’re a servant to the Pantheon of Discord. So tell me: Has the Trickster finally caught up with me yet?” The shadow finally stopped moving and words drifted in the air “We… Not….”
The Doctor, finally realising that this entity clearly hadn’t tried telepathy yet, offered a small bit of advice: “Whoa, easy. Telepathy’s difficult first time but you’ll get the hang of it” More words glided through the air “We… Not…Follow you….” “Well what do you mean?” “We…Do Not…. Know Timelord….is here….But we know where….we are….” “Ok, so the Pantheon has knowledge of this place” The Doctor made a mental note of this. “but why come to a broken TARDIS when you know where you are? Can’t you just return?” “You will give us…Element” The Doctor scoffed “I’m sorry? Element? Are you now making demands? That won’t work on me” The Doctor warned. The same words hovered in the air, like a broken record: “Give us… Element” The Doctor took a step forward “Listen here; I haven’t the faintest idea what these ‘elements’ are, or why you think I have them. But do you want to know what I do know?” The Doctor frowned “You really shouldn’t have picked my friend as your hostage” Another message hung in the air:“Give us….element…or element…will die” “You are in hardly any position to threaten me” The Doctor returned “You forget one thing, something that I haven’t remembered myself until just now, something very secret, something that would make creature like you and your Pantheon quake with fear” The Doctor leaned forwards toward the murk, “Do you want to know what it is?”
There was a long pause before the next unworldly response. “What…Is it?” The Doctor smiled “I’m The Doctor” And with that, the Doctor jumped backwards, twirling in mid-air, flung his screwdriver through the open doors of the TARDIS and turned round to face the gaseous mass. “And the Doctor is in!”
Suddenly the room exploded with noise, causing the shadow to screech and howl in pain, it roiled and swirled violently, forgetting about the helpless mare trapped in its form. The sudden attack gave the Doctor enough time to charge straight towards it and tackle it to the ground. For a gaseous creature, it was surprisingly solid…and incredibly fast at recovering. “Pinkie! RUN!” The Doctor shouted to the mare, quickly ducking to miss an attempt of the tendrils to skewer him against the wall.
It was an impressive attempt, The Doctor admitted. Unfortunately he failed to realise that his opponent had multiple arms, a factor which made him curse in Old Galifreyan. The first attack glanced the top of his head, but before he could recover, another swung in from the left, smashing into his ribcage; doubling him over, and causing the air to rush out of his lungs.
Outside of having the wind knocked out of him, the Doctor noticed a throbbing pain coming from his head and chest. He could deal with madmen pointing lasers and death beams at him, and he was exceptionally good at running away from attackers. But actually facing them head on? He wasn’t sure when the last time he actually fought with an enemy like this, but he secretly hoped that a pony physique was just as durable as the humanoid equivalent.
His eyes met the gaseous torrent of darkness in front of him. It was still as a statue, waiting to see what the infamous Timelord would attempt. “Well I was looking forward to a good old-fashioned running montage” The Doctor took a few determined steps towards the gruesome mass. “But I suppose this’ll have to do…. Geronimo!” on the screaming of his catchphrase, the Doctor flung himself at his target, but before reaching it, twirled around to make his back legs collide with the figure with a sickening crunch. The creature screeched in pain, and returned fire at the stallion.
The Doctor’s dodge was sluggish; he knew this before he even began. And it resulted in three more blows; one to each of his back legs, which buckled under the assault. And another to his chest, which sent more ripples of pain through his torso, sending him spiralling backward through the air and landing with a dull, painful thud. The Doctor made a mental note that pony bodies definitely weren’t as hardy as a Timelords, before collapsing to the ground in a battered heap.
The darkness hissed in applause, as it made its way slowly towards the defeated stallion. The Timelord was still struggling to get up, but his body was having none of it. He had lost. And now was time to face the results of that failure. The mass had finally reached the final resting place of the stallion and was bearing down upon him. The Timelord closed his eyes as he awaited the end… BANG!!! The shadow was propelled forwards, crashing into the side of the TARDIS, as is squealed in intense pain, until it finally stopped moving and faint hissing noise filled the silent room. The Doctor looked up in surprise to find the crazy haired party-planner looking over him in concern, with the party cannon by her side still discharging pieces of confetti into the room. “Heh… never leave home without it, eh Pink?”
Pinkie Pie helped the Doctor up to his hooves, and both looked down on the remnants of the black menace. The smog had completely dissolved leaving behind a brimstone residue, but upon closer inspection also contained a small piece of rolled up parchment. The Doctor picked it up, and placed it behind his ear, without Pinkie Pie noticing. He turned to his saviour with a beaming smile “Well that wasn’t so bad, was it Miss Pie? Now perhaps now you can tell me the answer to my question I asked you before I was rudely interrupted by your cannon” Pinkie’s eyes darted left and right, attempting to find a way out of this situation, before finally she sighed in defeat. “My… friends keep me smiling all the time. But they’ve got everything to lose. I.I… mean look at them” Pinkie’s voice was beginning to rise “All of them have families that love them; they even have futures ahead of them! And what do I have?!” Pinkie Pie slumped to the ground on the verge of tears. “My life is just one big crude stew… Doctor? What do you do when you’ve got nothing to lose?” The Doctor considered his answer carefully; the outcome of his reply could very well save this mare from darker depression “Why don’t you come with me, I think I’ve got the perfect answer” He guided the mare into the TARDIS and the doors closed behind him.
As soon as the Doctor had entered his beloved TARDIS his demeanour changes, he felt like he could do anything at the controls of his amazing time machine as he bounded towards the bright, new central console. “Yes, I know. It’s bigger on the inside, and no I don’t have the time to explain it.” He slammed a mallet into the side of the monitor, and smiled at the bewildered mare that was stood smiling widely at the sight in front of her. He pointed toward the large circular monitor close to the wall “Now, could you turn your attention to that screen Miss Pie?”
Words spewed randomly across the screen, gradually forming, to Pinkie, something that looked like legible sentences, as a picture of stars and galaxies came into view. The Doctor read out the words on the screen to Pinkie, this being due to the fact that the words were in fact in High Galifreyan “Galactic coordinates, 10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2, The constellation of Kasterborous, home to the Shining World of the Seven Systems, or by another name; Gallifrey. The stronghold of the Time Lords of old” The bright red planet zoomed into view on the screen. “Now Miss Pie, there are many ponies out there that keep asking me where I come from. Do you know what I tell them?” Pinkie Pie turned back to the Doctor, unsure of where this was going, but before she could reply The Doctor interrupted “Actually it doesn’t matter what I tell them, what’s important is what I tell you” The Doctor then walked up to the mare sitting in front of the screen, and sat down next to her. “This is where I come from. Another planet, in another galaxy, in another universe, never to see it again. And yes that makes me upset. But not for the reasons you’d expect.”
He turned away from the confused pony. “I’ve been running all my life, running because I daren’t look back. This is probably the longest I’ve stayed in one place. Oh I had friends, but those we’re nothing compared to my enemies.” The Doctor looked back at the screen, still showing the picture of Gallifrey. “The Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds, Valeyard. These are the names I found myself with. All because of that moment” His voice trailed off, as his head sunk down. Pinkie Pie sat still for a few minutes, until finally asking “Wh…What happened?” The Doctor pulled his head up suddenly and stared straight at the pink earth pony. Pinkie Pie didn’t know why, but she could feel herself transfixed on his eyes. His sad old eyes.
The Doctor finally spoke: “There was a war…” “What? Like the Lunar Rebellion?” Replied Pinkie. “Oh bigger, much bigger. My people went to war with a race known as the Daleks who’d sworn to eradicate all life. And the prize was the entire universe.” The Doctor looked back at the screen, the light reflecting of his face, showing the age old lines that covered it. “And we lost. Everyone lost. But only I could stop it. And I did what needed to be done. I’m not just a Time Lord; I’m the last of my race. The last of a legacy, alone in the universe, and do you really think that’s gonna stop me?”
Pinkie Pie was again, lost for words. Sure the pony in front of her was an alien, but he needed someone. Someone to remind him of all the good he causes and fights for. “Well Doc, I’ll tell you one thing. It seems we’re in the same boat. So why not stick around? We sure could use all the do-hickeys and watch-meh-call-its that you’ve got here.” “Now Miss Pie, I know the offer sounds tempting. But first I’ve got to get through a visit from the princesses. Now why don’t we give my old girl a little privacy, I don’t think she’s quite finished yet, give her a few minutes and maybe she’ll be fit for flying!” With that, both of them got to their feet and walked towards the door.
Pinkie Pie exited excitedly, but the Doctor stayed behind for a few seconds, retrieving a pair of goggles that we’re handing up of the coat rack, beside the door, And also to uncover whatever was on that piece of parchment. Unrolling it, and looking at its contents, the Doctor’s face became more, and more worried. He went back to the console, and tacked the note to the side of the overhead monitor. Looking at it once more, he turned and left the TARDIS. The note swayed in the mechanically stimulated breeze. The words on its face, still haunting the Doctor:
Doctor, I know it’s you, and I know where you are. But please, you need to find me. Save me. Save your daughter…
Clara was still hurting all over, the spell was still burning her synapses, and her eyes still wouldn’t open. The time traveller rubbed her eyes in pain, trying to sooth her head after the ordeal. Her whole body felt funny, wobbly even, but that was nothing compared to the problems she now had to face. The Great Intelligence was back again.
The Great Intelligence caught her this time, without even sweating, she cursed at her own bad luck. Normally the two of them had a decent battle, with him winning some, and her winning others, but with all of them ultimately ending up with The Doctor surviving the ordeal. This time he came out of nowhere and left just as surprisingly.
There was no Doctor to defend this time, so what was he up to? More to the point, he’d sent the poor time traveller somewhere, but where?
Her hands felt cramped and Clara found it difficult to flex her fingers. She opened her eyes to take a look at her hands. Well… her hooves. Dark blue hooves.
“Wait…. WHAAAA!?!?” Clara screamed.
She had hooves, Real hooves. As in, not fake hooves. She looked behind herself to see what other damage had been done:
“I have a tail…oh god… a tail...” The golden hair coating the new limb shimmered in the shadow of the buildings, as though it gave out its own light.
“and what’s that?!?”
Clara was, in fact referencing to the mark on the side of her flank, which was a purple and blue swirl, surrounded by stars. It took Clara a few minutes to get over her new body, partly because she was far more interested in the spiralling towers of gold and silver that grew above her as her vision improved.
She was in an alleyway, surrounded by pristine buildings, adorned with great swirls of gold and silver. Although it looked different to any alleyway she’d been in before. It was far too clean, too maintained, although it looked like nothing in comparison to the grandeur of the towers above her.
“Speak to the princess” mumbled Clara.
Wait. Where did that come from? What princess? She closed her eyes and concentrated on the thought. Yes, speak to the princess. There it was again, just a tiny blip in her thought train, but apparently important enough for her to subconsciously speak it aloud. Whatever it was and whatever it may lead to, it seemed the best lead she had to finding out what the heck happened. The spiralling towers in the distance caught her attention once more, as if she was eager to find out what was there.
“That must be where the princess is then. No other explanation for me wanting to go there” She murmured to herself to steel her aim.
She attempted to get to her hooves, but the recent teleport still made her disorientated, not to mention the fact that her legs just didn’t seem to work the same way. She fell immediately back down to the ground; her legs were having none of it. Once more the time traveller attempted to stand, and this time she made it beyond merely falling over, standing awkwardly on her wobbly legs. Although it was fairly apparent, that in her condition, she was not going to be going excessive distances anytime soon. But getting out of wherever she was seemed fairly important either way.
Clara took a few tentative steps. First hoof was fine, if a little unstable. The second followed suit. However, the third step was all but a disaster, her front legs buckled and she was sent cartwheeling into the side of a crate that was blocking the exit. The crate splintered open and collapsed into itself, sending the dusty contents of the poorly built crate sprawling into the air.
“Well, I suppose that gets rid of one problem”, Clara thought to herself, whilst dusting herself down. “Who stores flour in a box crate anyway?”
Peering out of the cloud of ruined baking goods, Clara could see a whole load of other ponies, as she’d decided to call them, continuing with their everyday lives. Blissfully unaware of the newcomer, and of the commotion that she’d caused. Through the exit was a grand road that lead up to the great swirling towers Clara was so intent on visiting for some reason even she couldn’t understand. In fact, the road itself reminded Clara of the Pall Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace.
She steadily got to her hooves, and wandered down the cobbled road towards the towers, also intently studying these ponies. The walk wasn’t long, or at least didn’t feel it, as Clara had become entranced by the many different kinds of ponies walking the streets. Unfortunately, as the towers grew on the horizon, so did the gigantic wall that separated Clara from her goal.
She sighed inwardly, of course it wasn’t going to be that simple, and nothing ever is. But perhaps there was a way past the wall. Maybe someone else knew how to get past? Looking around to see if anyone might be in the mood to help her, she saw the most brilliant alabaster white mare, sporting the most elegant hat that Clara had ever seen.
“Um… Excuse me?” the Time Traveller began, immediately getting a warm smile from the mare.
“Why, hello dear. Is there anything I can help you with? Are you lost?”
Clara smiled, glad that she picked the right pony to help. “Um… yes actually… Is there any way to get over this wall?”
The mare looked back at Clara with the same sincere look on her face “You mean getting into the Royal Canterlot Gardens? You must be a tourist then”
“Yeah, something like that”
“No worries, dearie. Just head straight up that road, and you’ll hit a large gate, just tell the gate keeper to let you in, and if he says no, just tell him your there to see the Princess, that normally works”
Clara looked quizzically at the upstanding mare “So you normally have acces to the Palace?”
“Oh, why yes. The gaurds know me as Rarity dear, oh and where are my manners? Might I ask of your name?”
“Oh… The name’s Clara, Miss Rarity. Thank you for the directions”
Rarity waved a dismissive hoof at Clara “Oh think nothing of it dearie. They don’t call me the element of Generosity for nothing, have a good day” And with that the white mare turned tail and continued on her original path.
Clara on the other hand, and begun down her new path towards the entrance to the Royal Canterlot Palace, passing by a few Pegasi, who happened to be arguing over what was an acceptable price for A-Grade liquid rainbow. Upon reaching the gate, she could see the small keepers shack to the side of the massive, purple door. She walked up to it, and saw a gruff stallion sitting on a chair, looking out.
“Um… Sir… Can you open the gate please? I’m here to see the Princess.”
The stallion looked up at her, distain in his eyes. “Nope” He replied, still staring down Clara through the small letter box opening.
“B...But”
There was a small grumble from the other side of the opening “The Princess is busy, ‘parently something to do with the Elements again. Not my problem though”
“But Rarity sai-“
But before she could finish the gate keeper cut her off “Wait, you mean Lady Rarity, the Element of Generosity. Why didn’t you say that before!?!”
The angry demeanour of the pony immediately dissipated, leaving behind a joyful and beaming stallion. “I’ll let you in immediately, ma’am. Any friends of the elements are always welcome” He said as he placed the large golden key into the lock in front of him, causing the large bulkhead of a gate to swing open impressively.
The stallion leaned back and shout through the door on the other side of the wall “Yo Storm Wing, we got another one to see the princess, comes from Lady Rarity”
A dark green Pegasus landed immediately, adorned in bright golden armour, an impressive sight. “C’mon Locke, why do I always have to take the visitors to Celestia?”
“Hey! You may be part of the royal guard, but you ain’t captain yet” The gate-keeper chuckled heartily.
The Pegasus huffed in disappointment, but still turned to Clara with a sincere smile “Right this way ma’am” and he took off, flying slow enough for Clara to keep up.
The gardens to the palace were indeed an impressive sight, with all manner of floral and horticultural expertise used throughout the vast display. Grand topiary lined the path, with many exotic and beautiful blossoms bursting through below them, in vast waves of yellow, red and violet. Many caretakers cantered around the gardens, wielding trowels or watering cans in magical auras. Whilst large stallions, adorned in the same gilded armour as Clara’s guide, stood proud and tall at every entrance to the incredible palace. Clara kept close to the pegasus that was guiding her to the princess, whom had attempted to avoid a conversation completely, barely even regarding her existence.
Passing through another archway in the many walled gardens surround the palace. Clara could see a large hedge maze in the distance. But her eyes were drawn to a large pedestal in the middle of the gravelled expanse she now found herself in. On top of this pedestal was the most perplexing sculpture she’d ever seen.
It had the head of a pony, but the jaw was filled with large, menacing fangs. The rest of the body was similar in build to a lumbering bear and a dragon tail spiralled around the entire sculpture like a snake, almost crushing the rest of the basalt sculpture. Clara took a closer look at the plaque on the pedestal as the two passed the mysterious monument. The plaque read: Malice, member of the Pantheon, enemy to the Moon and Sun.
Although there were many statues in that display, the only one that caught Clara’s attention was the one of this bizarre creature. But soon they left the statue display behind, and entered the grand hall of the palace.
They continued through in silence, passing door after door, each guarded by at least two royal guards. Until they reached the throne room itself. The door was closed still surrounded by guards, evidently the princess was inside there.
Clara’s guide turned to her “And this is where I leave you miss, the Captain will take over from here”
He saluted the imposing stallion that came towards them “Captain! Another visitor for the princess”
“You know the princess is not allowing counselling today Lieutenant Storm”
“But sir, this was an exception, she comes with permission from the Elements, sir!”
“Well then...” The stallion replied, studying Clara intently “I’ll inform the princess, back to your duties Lieutenant”
“Yes sir!” and with that the pegasus flew off.
The new stallion returned his attention back to Clara “You came to see the princess?”
“Y…Yes, but I can’t explain it here, it’s a tad complicated”
“Well all of my detection spells are say you’re clean and that you weren’t lying when you said you came from the Elements, so you can proceed” He said, turning away and placing his horn into the opening in the door. The door glowed bright blue, and then began to open, swinging grandly outwards on its own accord.
Clara was urged inside by the stallion, and the door was closed briskly behind them. In front of Clara was a hallway, with bright red carpet of the finest material, leading up to the grand throne, in which a figure sat. Although it was merely a shadow from this angle, as the light from behind the figure was blinding, as it beamed through the incredible stained-glass window.
The stallion was the first to speak “Your highness, an earth pony to see you”
The figure turned her head to the stallion “Captain Shining, please. None of this formality, you may be the Captain of the guard, but I believe your attitude might be clouding your compassion”
"Sorry princess Celestia, it’s just that because of the recent odd events happening in Ponyville, I’m a little on edge”
“It is forgiven Captain; I know concern for your sister troubles you, as it does myself. Now what worries you my little pony”
Focusing on Clara this time, the figure got down from her throne out of the sunlight, to reveal a majestical sight. Her mane and tail flowed like water, cascading down her form, swirling at the tips. The colours mixed and merged, forming a mirage of rainbows. This was princess Celestia at her finest; regal and poised for dignitaries, but homely and welcoming at the same time.
Clara took a deep breath, unsure what would happen if she told the truth, but on the other hand knew she couldn’t lie about even if she tried.
“This might sound crazy, but just hear me out. What do you know about other universes?”
Celestia looked down Clara, not with discontent as Clara thought would have been the first reaction, but with understanding. She nodded to the Captain, who immediately took that as a sign that he should leave. The stallion saluted and left the throne room, closing the door behind him.
Celestia spoke up immediately “ My sister knows more about this sort of magic than I do, as space was more her domain. but I can see this bothers you enough to speak to anyone, so continue”
Clara did as instructed “Well, I don’t come from here, not this planet anyway, although I have no idea how I got here and no idea how to get home.”
“I see… this may be an unusual coincidence then”
“Coincidence? How?” Clara responded quickly, probably too quickly as her eagerness was clearly showing.
Celestia smiled “because we’ve recently received another visitor from another world, perhaps you know them?”
Clara crossed every known possible limb in her mind “They wouldn’t happen to have a blue box? Would they?”
Celestia giggled “It seems you’re not alone here, he does indeed have a blue box, although my student was a little slim on the details”
Clara had frozen on the spot, her mind still reeling from the information. She had done it. Beyond all odds she’d found him. Her head spun and twirled, before rational thinking finally kicked in, and caused her to jump for joy.
“Yes! I’ve found him! Finally!” she exclaimed happily, with Celestia looking on with happy interest.
Clara turned to the solar sovereign eager for more information “Where is he?”
“He’s in Ponyville, Miss Oswald. My sister and I are heading there tomorrow to greet him, you may come with us to reunite with him, no-one should be alone like that in the universe, but first, I think you should get some rest from your ordeal. And I officially welcome you to Equestria Miss Oswald”
And with a twist of her mane, the door to the throne roomed opened again, showing Captain Shining standing in the hallway
“Captain, would you please take Miss Oswald to the visitor suite, she will be joining Luna and myself in our outing to Ponyville tomorrow”
The stallion saluted, and beckoned Clara to follow him, but before this Clara had one more question “Princess, how do you know my name, I never told you”
Celestia giggled once again in that knowing fashion. “You should know the answer to that my dear: Spoilers”
Clara grinned knowingly, and quickly followed the stallion that was walking away from the room.
Once Clara had left the room, Celestia looked towards the stained window behind the throne, muttering with a concerned look on her face “The impossible two are here, just as you predicted, Discord… You and your damned Pantheon”
“Did someone call my name?”
Celestia squeaked in surprise “Or perhaps someone just rubbed that old lamp of mine three times, I get the two confused easily, oh hey Celly! Did'ja miss me?”
The already familiar draconequus appeared through the wall, which seemed to gloop around him as he walked through. Celestia was definetly not amused, and showed it clearly. Discord continued without even noticing the furious look the monarch’s face as one of her favourite murals melted into a puddle on the floor.
“Well I am the guy most ponies miss, or did you just say my name in spite like normal? Cussing really isn’t fitting for a regal monarch like you, you should try yoga, I’ve heard it really calms ponies down”
He snapped his talons and immediately an exercise ball and foam mats appeared on the floor. Discord then flashed into existence ontop of them in a hideous blend of mismatching exercise kit, performing a few push ups. Celestia still stood there, unmoving and becoming more irritated by the minute.
“Discord this is hardly the time for your usual ga-“
“Of course it’s the time!" Discord interupted angrily "You of all ponies Celestia should know that when the Pantheon makes a prediction they always… come…. true…” Discord said returning to a sing-song voice.
Although this did little to comfort Celestia whose face grew more concerned.
“They won’t break free, this will be stopped, before anything will happen, I won’t allow it”
Discord chuckled to the alicorn “Oh Celestia, I missed how naive you are, it’s surprisingly uncouth for a monarch, wouldn’t you say?"
"Whatever the Pantheon uncovered about the fabric of time will happen, whether you want it to or not. But don’t think you can try the same method to tame my brother or sister."
"If you remember I was the easy one out of the three, isn’t that why you ston-ified me in the first place? To get me away from the two of them, take out the supports as it were, and watch as the other two fight it out? Can’t say I blame you, if I was in your position I’d have done the same thing”
And with that, Discord snapped his talons and vanished in a flash, returning the hall to its regular appearance. An echo of laughter filled the hall, leaving a worried and deeply concerned Celestia alone in the throne room...
The doors on the TARDIS closed once more, with the Doctor still on the wrong side of them, unable to escape back into the universe. At least for a few minutes.
Although those few minutes later, The Doctor wished he hadn’t used the TARDIS at all, as the Timelord hurried around the gyrating and confusing main console, trying to work out where half of the levers had moved to.
“I swear you only do this to get back at me for something!” The Doctor shouted into the air, still scampering around the collection of levers, dials and buttons.
A few mocking bell tones rang out at the infuriated Doctor’s folly. Although these were drowned out by the absolute racket that the rest of the TARDIS was making.
The entire interior was shaking like an earthquake, with the raspy noise of the engine howling through the air. Pinkie Pie was strapped into one of the ragged, uncomfortable seats, on the request of the Doctor. He didn’t really want to injure his first companion this early on.
“What happened on Securla was an accident, really! How was I supposed to know it was sentient quicksand?!?”
Unfortunately the TARDIS seemed to disagree, and sent the monitor attached to the central pillar spinning around like a merry-go-round. The Doctor ducked to miss the out-of-control screen while the machine replied with a few klaxon tones.
“Yes I know! I get it, I’m sorry. Now please, would you fly SAFELY?!?”
Immediately, the racket stopped. The Doctor sighed gratefully, and went to look at the, now motionless, display monitor. “Yup, she’s taken us right where we wanted to go. Good, old, dependable girl”
He turned his attention back to Pinkie, who was still trapped in the seat. “You can take that off now, we’ve landed”
Pinkie Pie fidgeted awkwardly with the latch on the belt, until it finally released her from its grasp. “But where are we Doc?”
The Doctor beamed back at the mare “Well, I really don’t know yet, but that’s not the clever bit” The Doctor was on a roll now, the knowing smile plastered across his face “Now my old girl loves showing off. She really can’t help it. Practically instinctive” A bong of agreement sounded through the console room. “So I give her the land of Equestria, The ‘Elements’, whatever they are, and the Pantheon of Discord, and this is where she’s pointing” The Doctor turned to the monitor to check where they were. Although the information was less than helpful.
“Ponyville? We’re in the same place? That can’t be right” The Doctor then turned to his newest companion “Pinkie? Was there anything that happened recently that was fairly important?” Pinkie Pie shook her head. “Hmm, well we’re only 18 months in the past, so whatever happened can’t be too difficult to recall, I’m going to check outside”
The Doctor then cantered over to the exit, swung the door open and stuck his head out of the opening. Unfortunately there was very little to see, as the entire area they landed in was covered in a rich pink mist.
“Wait, Doc. Are you telling me this is a time machine?!?” The Doctor turned back to the TARDIS interior nodding happily in the correct guess of his newest companion. “Well I can’t see a thing outside, so you might as well follow”
Before Pinkie got to the door, The Doctor placed a hoof before her, his face returned to a serious appearance. “But before we go through here, I’ve got a couple of ground rules for peop- sorry. Ponies that I take with me.”
“One: no interfering with anything unless I say. I honestly have no idea about the cause and effect continuum here, so I’m going to assume everything is a fixed event. Two, if anything happens to me, just get back to the TARDIS and she’ll take you home.”
“Oh yes, that reminds me”
The Doctor cantered back to the console and pressed a few buttons across its surface. A few hums and buzzes were added to the reasonably quiet noises coming from the now idle TARDIS, and the Doctor quickly returned his attention to Pinkie.
“Right. That should do it. I’ve set the home co-ordinates to the library at the exact time we took off. Now where was I?” “Ah yes! Three. Now this is my most important rule. The one you might just bet your life on. And without a doubt the same rule that has saved thousands of lives.”
“Trust me. I’m the Doctor”
And with Pinkie Pie standing there thoroughly impressed, The Doctor continued out of the door and immediately fell over into a large puddle of chocolate milk.
Discord howled in delight at the Doctor’s ‘trip’. “Ohoho! Now what have we here? C’mon out! don’t be shy!” He snapped his talons and Pinkie Pie shot out of the TARDIS doors and landed in a nearby hedge. The Doctor had picked himself out of the sweet puddle and was glaring at the apparent antagonist. “Now don’t give me that look. I didn’t put that there. I blame the clouds.” Discord said innocently, pointing at the bright pink clouds whizzing around the sky. He looked back at the dishevelled, and now trapped, Pinkie Pie “Oh, another element of laughter? What are you? twins? Well, when Celestia makes up a plan she really does commit!” Discord then crossed his arms and reappeared sat in his throne. Pinkie Pie pulled herself out of the bush and took her place next to the Doctor. “Pinkie who is this? You seem to know more than I do by the way you’re looking.” “Humph. This meanie is Discord, Mr Chaos himself. You said we’re in a time machine right? So this must be Discord before he was reformed.”
The Doctor stood in front of Discord, placing himself between the insane draconequus and Pinkie “I would assume then by the way that Ponyville’s been turned upside down, you would be the spirit of chaos?” A firework went off behind Discord’s throne and he happily jumped into the air “And we have a winner! Lord of chaos, Discord at your service.” The Draconequus then performed a small bow.
“Now I must admit.” Discord began “I would have thought little Celestia would have got rid of all knowledge of me. She always likes protecting her ponies like that, now doesn’t she?” He then looked at the Doctor with a menacing smile “But you. You know all about me, I can tell.”
This was in fact, true, as the TARDIS had given him a lot of information on the current situation while he changed the home co-ordinates.
“So, Mr. Mysterious, how ‘bout a game?” “What did you have in mind?” The Doctor replied uncertainly. “A game of riddles, if you can get more right than me, you win. But if I win, I keep the mare.”
The Doctor looked down at the ground in deep thought, weighing his options up. “Ok, I’ll play, on one condition, if I win, you answer all my questions.” The Doctor put his hoof up for a shake and Discord grasped it with vigour “Deal!”
As soon as Discord struck the deal, the ground began to shake. Cracks appeared in the surface of the checkered surface around the stallion and draconequus, and the earth they were all standing on blasted out of the ground like a rocket, sending Pinkie Pie flying again. The Doctor jumped to grab her and missed, “PINKIE!!” he screamed as the party mare plummeted out of sight over the edge. The ground rose higher and higher, until the stage was set. Both now stood on a humungous pillar of rock that towered over any mountain in Equis.
Discord gave a courteous gesture towards the Timelord. “The challenger goes first, just because I’m the lord of chaos doesn’t mean I don’t have manners.” “Okay.” The Doctor closed his eyes for a moment to clear his head, the thoughts dancing around creating a riddle, until he finally grasped one and produced:
“My first is in horse but not in pony." "My second is in coyote but not in jackal." "My third is in shrew and also in vole." “My fourth is in panda but not in bear.” “My last is in baboon but not in monkey.” “What am I?”
It took a few seconds for any reaction from the draconequus, who immediately burst out laughing. “Ohohohohoho!” He wiped more tears from his eyes. “My dear sir that was far too easy, the answer is a Hyena, I would have expected something a little more difficult. Now, it’s my turn.” He snapped his talons and disappeared in a flash. He quickly reappeared sat back in his throne.
“Tomorrow I will never see." "though I have no wings I fly free." "Of what I’m made very few may know." "I am but a container for a rainbow.”
The Doctor smirked slightly. “You know you really shouldn’t give clues to riddles. The answer is a cloud. Although I am fascinated how you managed to make cotton-candy clouds and chocolate rain, by all standards they’re meteorologically impossible.” “But onto the task at hand.” The Doctor quickly added before beginning his second challange.
“I can be half without getting thinner." "I can shine with no fire." "I can be hidden but never taken." "I can stay dry while moving oceans.”
Discord went to reply, but quickly stopped himself. Cursing under his breath he continued muttering theories. This continued for a few minutes until the Doctor broke the concerning silence. “I’m not wasting any more time, give me an answer now, or I win.” Discord shot the stallion a venomous look. “I might be courteous to my challengers, but I believe you didn’t set a time limit. And anyway the answer is the Moon. I always forget that Celestia had that little, bratty sister. Although, Nightmare was a whole other filly” The Draconequus chuckled to himself. “And it’s my turn again. And get ready for this one, because it’s a whopper”
“I wasn't born a horse, and I never fly." "Yet sometimes I still soar, right into the sky." "I often contain breath, and yet I never die." "Sometimes I am torn, but I never sigh." "Often, with ambition, I aspire, and go till I can go no higher." "Then, like many ponies, so great, I sink into a low state." "What am I?”
The Doctor was stumped. Nothing dancing around in his head matched this description. His eyes darted around the scenery for anything that could give him a clue. It couldn’t be clouds again, he told himself. And anything else didn’t fit the riddle either. Discord could see that the stallion was stuck, and he smiled to himself, pondering what he could do with two elements of laughter. “Well my dear stallion, it seems that you are at the end of your time, so what’s the answer?” The Doctor went to open his mouth in at an attempt to stall, but before he could even formulate a valid excuse, a familiar voice replied to Discord. “Ooh! I know this one. Isn’t it… Balloons?” The Doctor turned to look straight at the pink mare, who looked like she’d been there the whole time. “Wha? Pinkie?!? How did you get up here?!?” The Doctor exclaimed. “Don’t tell me you’ve never tried rock climbing before Doc?” “But it’s at least a mile up!” “Actually” Pinkie began “It’s about 2.7 miles, I had lots of time on my hoofs climbing it, and I just happened to have this tape measure”
The Doctor had given up trying to work out Pinkie Pie and turned back to Discord, who was sat grinning madly in his throne. “Ok, now it’s our turn Discord.” The Doctor took a short while to work out another riddle, when it hit him. And he chuckled. “Perfect.” Looking back at Discord with daggers for eyes, the big, dark hero began:
“Something old." "Something new." "Something borrowed" "Something blue." "Time is my compass." "Space is my eyes." "Every time the door opens," "a new place, a new surprise." "What am I?”
Discord’s grin vanished, the look of shock on his face would’ve paralyzed a cockatrice. “What?!?” Discord roared angrily “You can’t just makes up riddles! There’s not a pony in this world who could make up a better riddle than me!” “Oh but that’s where your wrong Discord” The Doctor smugly replied “You should have known since I arrived that I knew what I was doing. Riddles are simple really. After all, The Time Lords invented riddles. So it’s my game. Do you concede?”
“But…But…But. Urgh…fine, you win.” Discord grumbled lowering his head in defeat. “But before I return my end of the bargain, just one more thing: Your name, so I can chalk it up against the others who have beaten me.” Discord snapped his talons and a chalkboard appeared in front of him. The words Celestia and Luna were written on the board, along with two other names: Malice and Ruse. The Doctor was rather hesitant, but gave his name anyway. “If you really must know, The Doctor” Discord froze on the spot, mid-way between writing. He then turned towards the stallion, and began unusually calmly “Ah so you’ve finally arrived. Well then I won’t keep you, ask your questions and leave. You clearly have much to do.” “Right” The Doctor began, dismissing the odd behaviour “What is all this element malarkey that I keep hearing about? It’s clearly something quite import-“ Before the Doctor could finish Discord burst out laughing “Bwhahahaha! I genuinely thought you came here with valid questions! Hah, just ask that goody-two shoes Twilight Sparkle to help you with that one. You’re staying with her, I presume?”
“Oh…um…Ok. Well I really have one more question: The Pantheon, what has it got to do with this Universe?” “Hmmm. Now that I really don’t want to divulge just yet” “Hey! We had a deal” “Yes, we may have a deal, but I fear now may not be the appropriate time for said information to be divulged. For you see, they are everywhere. In fact, now that I’ve even explained that, they’re already coming for me. So I think it’s best if I pop off now” “You can’t just leave!” The Draconequus turned back to The Doctor “You know the best part about being the embodiment of chaos: Omnipresence.” He then held his claw up and revealed a mirror, in the mirror was another Discord surround by 6 familiar ponies. Each wearing a strange amulet, each one giving of a blinding light. “I’ll just pop back into stone for a few years, that’ll put them off my scent, so I bid you adieu, my dear Doctor, until we meet again.” “Oh and Pinkie, you’re always my favourite” And with those farewell decrees, Discord once again, snapped his claws, Immediately transporting both the Doctor and Pinkie Pie back to the outside of the TARDIS. “Well” The Doctor finally began to say “That wasn’t what I was expecting. But I shall need to talk to Twilight immediately.” He turned to his newest companion “C’mon Pinkie let’s get out of this madhouse” The two of them got back inside the TARDIS and the warping sound of it dematerializing filled the sugar-saturated air until it had vanished, leaving a chaos-stricken street in its wake.
However, across the hysteria-filled lane, another similar noise was groaning out, a TARDIS had appeared in the same place that the last one had left. The doors unceremoniously burst open, splintering shards of wood across the already debris filled path. Flames and smoke billowed out of the opening, while the Doctor stumbled out of the now ruined doorway as fast as possible. “Argh! Missed him again!” He then leaped back through the flaming TARDIS doors as the engines began the ever-iconic wheezing, and the second, partially destroyed TARDIS vanished from existence.
First, finding out that her equine-self had a completely different taste palette than what she was used to wasn’t exactly her idea of fun. And to make matters worse, the Captain ran in halfway through the night, interrupting her much needed rest, to inform her that there was a commotion down at a farm near Ponyville, and that The Doctor and another mare, named Pinkie Pie, had gone missing.
This placed the whole castle on red alert, and an immediate royal carriage was arranged for transit to Ponyville with enough room for three, Celestia had asked for Clara to come as well. Unfortunately, everypony was far too busy with the current commotion to show her where the carriage actually was. Which is why she found herself at the doors of an observatory, at around midnight.
“Urgh… Another dead end.” Clara moaned after reaching the doors of the celestial telescope. She tried the doors, which looked like they hadn’t been opened in a while, to find that they conceded without little effort. “Perhaps they’ve built a new observatory?” Clara questioned out loud. “No I don’t think it was that my dear, really I think it’s because dear old Celly just won’t let go of that emotional baggage she has, but then again who to blame her? It takes years to get rid of the terrors that she’s gone through.” Clara looked around to find the source of the voice “Who’s there?” She called out. “Oh, where are my manners? I’m Discord my dear, Lord of Chaos at your service. Hehehehe.” The laughter grew gradually into complete hysterics. “What’s so funny?!?” Clara called out to the open air. The laugher died down enough for Discord to complete a full sentence “Sorry, it’s just that: That’s the exact way I introduced myself to that friend of yours, The Doctor, isn’t it?” “Wait, you know the Doctor?” “Well, when I say knew. We talked. We fought. He won. I went back to stone. That answer your question? Although I must say he had a dab hand when it comes to riddles.” Clara was getting tired of talking to thin air “Why don’t you come out?” “Well my dear it’s all down to tactics, if you don’t know what I look like, you won’t be able to tell the Doctor who I am. Really, I thought you were meant to be intelligent.” “But you’ve already told me your name.” “Ah…Well…Yes… That does sort of give it away doesn’t it?” The echoing voice began “Bah! You can see why I don’t do plans, they never seem to bode well. I prefer to go with the flow. Anyway, tell your favoured physician I said hi!” A snap echoed throughout the dome, and Clara was instantly teleported in front of the carriage. “Urgh… I’m never going to get used to that.” Clara complained to no-one in particular. “However you get from one place to another Miss Oswald matters little, I find it invigorating to have a nice pop here and there” Discord began, before finally revealing himself in front of Clara, holding out his claw. Clara took it and was gently pulled back to her hooves. “Anyway I must dash, things to do, rules to abide, blah, blah, blah, you get the point…” And with that Discord disappeared.
Clara waited for a few minutes by the carriage before both Princesses joined her, Although Celestia’s face showed she was hardly in a good mood. Celestia sighed openly. “What was it that Discord is up to this time?” Clara felt this question was aimed at her. “Um... Does he normally do something more than just talk Princess?” The solar monarch’s face fell into a frown. “That Draconecuus has been nothing but trouble for a myriad. In fact, his mischief was so great and terrible, my sister and I locked him in stone for the past millennia.” “So why is he out now?” “A few of the Elements of Harmony believed he could be reformed, although that is seeming to be a more difficult task that we first thought. But I don’t doubt that Twilight and her friends can change him for the better.” “But sister." The younger of the two princesses began. "I thought we have a bigger problem than Discord’s chaos to deal with? Shouldn’t we be getting to Ponyville with all due haste?” “Yes, thank you Luna. That does take priority over Discord, although I get the feeling he’s more involved than we know.”
The three embarked onto the carriage, and took off into the sky, pulled by the finest guards in the royal sisters employ. The journey itself was without interruptions. Although all this moving around was beginning to make Clara travel sick. They landed outside Sweet Apple acres, with Twilight and Applejack waiting to greet them, although Twilight was in a bit of a state.
Luna disembarked and began talking to Applejack about the commotion that occurred, trying to piece together the event. Celestia beckoned Clara over and both of them went over to the stressed out unicorn, who immediately began raving at the two. “Princess Celestia! I’m so glad you could make it. I’m so sorry for what has happened, if I’d have known that any of thi-“ “Calm yourself, my faithful student” Celestia quickly began, forcing Twilight to contain her panic “If you’d have known that this would happen, you would have greater powers than even that of myself in the matter. Even I did not see this. This is of no fault of your own.” Twilight still didn’t seem too pleased. “But what if both of them are lost?!? I can’t just sit here knowing both of them are gone!” Celestia was still unmoved “Please Twilight, compose yourself. I have a task for you to complete for me while my sister and I take care of things here.” “Really?” “Yes, Twilight. This is Miss Oswald” She said whilst pointing to Clara, who forced a wave and a smile in the attempt to not feel too awkward. It didn’t really work. “She requires a place to stay for a while, and I could think of no better place for her to stay than with my personal student.” “Oh…um... Okay Princess. Is this going anywhere?” Celestia chuckled “Always the curious one? Why don’t you ask her when you get home?” “Okay, but please send me a report on anything you find tonight” “It will be my first priority, I will send Spike any news as soon as possible.” The two embraced each other and Twilight turned to Clara. “Well Miss Oswald, follow me” Clara turned to Celestia before leaving, letting Twilight begin down the road. “Thank you for everything you’ve done Princess.” She then galloped down the road to catch up with Twilight. What Clara failed to notice was that Celestia wasn’t smiling at all.
The two mares reached Golden Oaks Library in complete silence. Twilight opened the door, and beckoned Clara inside. Clara entered and was immeditely amazed by the amount of books lining the shelves “Wow, nice place you got here” She exclaimed, hoping to get a conversation started. “Yeah, I like my books, so this seems the best place for me to stay. Celestia handles the lease for the place while I’m here, but the pay is taken out of my stipend.” “Wait. You get paid?” Clara blurted out. “Well yeah, services to the kingdom do have their benefits.” Twilight began “That and defeating both Discord and Nightmare Moon, sort of makes me and my friends into heroes.” Her head slumped slightly when she said this. “Let me guess, you don’t really want that sort of attention, do you?” Clara asked. Twilight laughed out loud “You got me. Its fine and all being Celestia’s student. But hero? Not really the attention I’m looking for, it... sort of puts an expectation that ponies seem to think you can fulfil.” Clara knew where this was going. “Other times it’s just tiring?” “Yeah! Wait… how do you know that?” “Well. Let’s say I’ve gone through this before. Heck you’re meant to be the brainbox here, so get started.” Twilight’s faced beamed at the challenge, before immediately falling into a stance of deep concentration. She began mumbling to herself deep in thought “Let’s see… Celestia knows I wouldn’t miss a trick that bad surely? So, what have we got? Strange stallion, mysterious box, Pinkie Pie, all three missing. Celestia turns up with another pony with a strange name, no offence, and asks me to take care of you.” Twilight stopped talking for a few seconds before looking up at Clara “You wouldn’t be somepony who knows the Doctor would you?” “That took a while, I would have thought you’d have got that on the walk over here” “Well I did have my suspicions, but I was a bit distracted” “Really? What could possibly distract you?” “Oh quite a few things.” Twilight then walked up to the only window on the ground floor. Turned around and ignited her horn menacingly. “Like her”.
With a slam, another pony, a grey Pegasus, was pulled through the now open window, held down by Twilight’s powerful magic. “Ow… ok you got me. I’m sorry, ok? But I had to make sure you were talking about the right person.” Clara’s ears perked up, no-one here would say person, would they? Twilight didn’t notice Clara’s interest, she was far more concerned with the intruder. She picked the mare off the ground and levitated the Pegasus to her face, brandishing her horn menacingly. “You have five seconds to explain to me why you were at my window before I show how many body transmogrification spells I can perform on a single pony.” Clara however was not letting this unfurl in front of her, and shoved Twilight aside before standing over the pony which had fallen to the ground, to protect her. “Hey, That was far too much, I think she gets the point, don’t you think you should cool it?” Clara asked the now bristling mare across the room. Twilight screamed in anger “I’ve lost two ponies today and now someone’s stalking me! Don’t you dare tell me to cool it!” Clara turned to the Pegasus, pulled her up and said one word: “Run!”
The two of them bolted up the stairs, narrowly missing blasts of magic sent screaming at them from the fuming unicorn. They ran through the second floor corridor, again avoiding the barrage of magic still being unleashed at them. Clara was grateful in these circumstances that Twilight had a very bad shot. Clara noticed an open door at the end of the hallway “Quick! In there!” She shouted. The two slung themselves inside and slammed the door shut. Both of them pushed against the door in an attempt to stop Celestia’s prized student from tearing both of them limb from limb. The door quaked and splintered from the brunt of the force the unicorn was slamming against it. The two mares on the other side of the door, pushed with all their might, hoping that the door could hold back the tide.
But then the sound of blasts was gradually drowned out. Replaced by another sound, a familiar sound to Clara’s ears. Engines. TARDIS Engines. She turned round to see the most welcome sight in the entire universe, the TARDIS rematerializing in front of her. She looked towards the grey mare and grabbed her by the hoof “In here, now!” And she jumped for the TARDIS doors. They swung open and the two fell through. “And that’s why Pinkie- Sweet Silurians! What are you doing in my TARDIS!?!” The Doctor exclaimed. Clara quickly got up and jumped to the console. “Hey! Don’t touch that! It is most certainly not for touching!” The Doctor warned. “Oh don’t worry, just a quick hop!” Clara quipped, before ramming the large red lever upwards, firing up the engines again and sending all of them sprawling, before the engine powered down after a few seconds. “Urgh… And that is why Pinkie you don’t touch her console…” The Doctor finished before hauling himself to his hooves. “Who the blazes are you?!?” The Doctor began, pointing an accusing hoof at Clara. “Most ponies would starve to death in here trying to find the light switch! You could've blown up the entire planet! Do you even know what you just pushed?!?” Clara got up and laughed. “Actually I didn’t. But I know this place normally keeps most of the levers the same colour. Same software, different desktop, right? That's normally where the Short Distance Recalculator is.” The Doctor stared dumbfounded at Clara, who just stood there, unamused. “Are you gonna keep ogling one of the only people who can actually get this girl to fly or are you actually going to answer a few of my questions?” This kicked the Doctor out of his lapse “Answer your questions?!? I might just have to kick you out into a supernova at this rate!” “Just humour me ok?” “Hmm, fine. But if you’re planning anything it won’t end well.” Clara began briskly “Age?” “Twelve hundred and seventy.” “Regeneration?” “13, Including Mr Grumpy Face.” “Fez?” “I think I got over that actually.” Clara paused for a few seconds before asking her final question. “Clara Oswald?” “Gone. Not dead. Just gone. Home.” “Phew, well I suppose that’s fine enough for me.” “Fine enough for you? Who are you?!?” “Well then I suppose there’s no use beating about the bush. I’m Cla-“ Before she could finish, knocking was heard against the door “Come out of the box, and surrender yourself… Wait. What? Ok. Please remove yourselves from the box, by orders of Princess Celestia.” Clara turned back to the Doctor “Well let’s not keep the royalty waiting. You’ve caused quite the mayhem jumping off in her too early.” The Doctor bashfully chuckled, and then continued slowly towards the door “Alright, Doctor. Let’s get this over with.” He muttered to himself before forcing the doors open.
