Tanith becomes aware of someone following him, who turns out to be a time traveller and takes him on grand adventures.
Tanith is a regular, everyday earth pony with no uncommon abilities or traits, discounting his name. His life was normal, or as normal as it can get when one lives in Ponyville, until one day he found a figure tailing him. Said figure turned out to be a time traveller. Shenanigans ensue.
Made during the time I should have been reading. KoH, if you ever read this, this is the reason me and Eli never caught up on your story.
"Okay, so next up on the list is to get cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner...wait, what flavour? Shit, how did I manage to forget to ask that," Tanith mumbled to himself as he scanned the list for any sign that he'd written down what flavour to get.
He briefly thought about just going into the shop and just getting a random flavour, but quickly threw the thought out and turned on his heels. A stallion down the street froze in place and darted towards the nearest vendor stall, the shopkeep giving him a weird look. Tanith probably would have ignored the strange activity and simply blew it off as just random Ponyville antics, if it hadn't been for how the stallion looked. His fur was for the most part grey, with a slight hint of a light brown thrown in, and his mane was the same but with a darker shade of brown hinted at in it. His light blue eyes were probably the weirdest part of him, looking as though they were thrown on at the very last second and whoever had thrown them on had forgot to add the shading.
Tanith turned and pretended to lose interest in the stallion, moving down the street but keeping an eye on the street behind him and watching the stallion as he followed somewhat stealthily behind. Tanith suddenly turned down an alleyway and pressed himself against the wall, waiting for the stallion to come around the corner so he could catch him off guard.
"So," a voice behind him said, accompanied by the crunch of an apple, "what are you waiting on?"
Tanith turned quickly and his cyan irises shrank as he saw the stallion standing right behind him. He quickly jumped further back as his eyes travelled to the stallion's forehead, searching for a horn, moving to his back after he came to the conclusion he had no horn.
"How did you..." he began once he made sure there were no wings either, trailing off in confusion.
"Tell me Tanith," the stallion began, finishing the apple and throwing the core away, "how has your life been lately, good I hope."
"Uhh," Tanith replied, too confused to reply.
"Oh, good, you haven't met me yet, in that case, I have a message for you. If you ever see me again, run. Don't stop to talk with me, don't notice me, just walk on by and ignore me," he said, focusing his gaze on Tanith.
"Wat," Tanith said, his brain now malfunctioning and overloading.
Without waiting to hear what else the stallion had to say to him he turned and hurried off down the street and onto a random street, pausing and leaning against a wall to turn and see if the stallion had followed him. Then he suddenly froze and whipped his head around, the white tips of his bangs getting in his way. He moved the black and white strands out of his vision to reveal nobody there. He let out a sigh of relief and turned around again. His vision scanned the area around him and he even looked around the corner, only to find the stallion completely gone.
He gave a sigh of relief and headed off towards Ariel's house. This would certainly make an interesting story.
"Oh, yeah, see, there were going to be cupcakes, but the guy I sent out to get them didn't know what flavour to get, so he just didn't," a feminine voice said loud enough to reach Tanith's ear for the eighth time that night.
He turned his cyan eyes on the mare who had said that, her green eyes meeting his. Her pale fur seemed stuck to her body in some areas but other than that there was no sign of her earlier explosion, resulting in him being pelted with leftover cake batter that got them both a sticky mess. Apparently too stressed over making this party perfect, the mare opted to simply wipe most of the cake batter off of herself rather than take a shower. Tanith on the other hoof enjoyed the warm feeling of the water trickling down on his slender frame, matting down his dark blue fur. He arrived at Ariel's house later to find the rest of the party set up, the cake set out and decorations all hung up, and a giant hoof painted sign made by Pinkie Pie saying "Happy Birthday Mayde".
The rest of the night had been him only half listening for Ariel to find some way to bring up the cupcakes again and watching as Mayde enjoyed her birthday party, the light green mare dancing happily amongst her friends, her pale mane swinging around her head. She didn't even seem to be thinking about where her boyfriend was. Tanith gave a small sigh and turned around, walking away from the main room of the house to the balcony down the hall. The sound of the party slowly faded until he found the beat of the music just barely noticeable from the upper balcony. He lay his chin on the wooden railing of it and let his eyes rest on one of the street lamps, the light burning onto his retina.
A rustling below him drew his gaze away and as he struggled to see past the image burned into his vision he heard a voice.
"Hello there friend, this wouldn't happen to be the house of Ariel Fraa, would it," the voice asked.
Tanith recognized the voice instantly, it was the voice of the stallion he had met earlier, and once his vision cleared he confirmed what he had thought. Although by some trick of the moonlight he seemed to have more colour than he did earlier, the browns of his fur and mane more pronounced. His eyes were still the exact same eerily enough.
"And who are you," Tanith asked.
"I'm...an old friend, just dropping by to drop off a package," he said, holding up a package of papers.
"And how do you know me then, surely she doesn't tell her old friends about me," he said.
The stallion narrowed his eyes for a second, as if trying to see exactly who he was talking to. Then suddenly his eyes widened and he grew flustered all of a sudden. His mouth opened to say something, but instead ended up simply opening and shutting a few times, looking as though he was a fish on land, before he finally closed his mouth and ran around the corner of the house, towards the front. Tanith responded instantly, moving quickly away from the railing and into the house, heading for the main room of the house and downstairs. He ran into Ariel, much to his annoyance, who immediately stopped him.
"Ariel, move, I have to go," he said.
"No, you need to stay here for your girlfriend's birthday," she replied harshly, glaring at him.
"Look, I don't have time to deal with this, tell Mayde I said happy birthday and that I'm sorry but something came up," he said, skirting around the mare and towards the front door.
"She said she's sorry."
The random comment caused Tanith to pause for a moment and turn back, looking at the mare over his shoulder. "No she didn't. She's too proud and stubborn."
And with that he opened the front door, almost slamming it behind him.
Tanith didn't have to go far before he found who he was looking for, the grayish brownish stallion slipping into a...giant blue rectangle with windows and a door. The windows were too high for him to look through so he silently moved up to the door and put his ear up against it. A humming sound came from within the box and he pulled his head back a little, looking to either side of the box to see if he could spot whatever was causing the rather soothing noise. There was nothing. He took a chance and inched the door open a little, gazing into the sm-er, scratch that, the rather large space behind the doorway.
Still looking into the room through the crack he slowly reached a hoof around the right side of the box, reassuring himself there was nothing but air over there. He wasn't all that surprised to be blunt, he was actually starting to become a bit used to the strangeness surrounding the stallion.
"You could always come in for a spot of tea if you ever get tired of simply staring into my humble abode," the stallion's voice said from somewhere Tanith couldn't see from his viewpoint.
He let out a small sigh, trying to get over the shock of being surprised like that, before opening the door fully and stepping inside. The room was even bigger from the inside and as he looked around the room he took in the clash of colours on the walls and the center...panel. That was the easiest way to describe what he was looking at, a collection and mishmash of screens, buttons, knobs, and levers surrounding a structure of tubes that rose into the ceiling.
"Interesting colour palate," Tanith muttered, mostly to himself but still loud enough for the stallion to hear over the dim hum of the room.
"Ah, yes. It was not entirely my choice, I must give credit to the TARDIS and...a friend of mine," he said, giving Tanith a rather inquisitive look. "So, you are Tanith, correct?"
"Yeah, you knew that earlier today though, why aren't you so sure now," Tanith asked, taking a few steps down the stairs from the door and placing his front left hoof onto the floor, only to pull it up a little as small pulses passed under his hooves.
"Oh, so I talked to you earlier, did I," he asked, "and pray tell, what did I say?"
"That if I ever saw you I was to run," Tanith replied.
"Ah, well I suppose that's rational," he mumbled to himself. "Oh whatever, please, do join me for some tea, I do believe that the kett-" He stopped as a whistling noise came from further inside the box, "Well what do you know, there it is. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable, I do believe that you'll find that bean bag over there most comfortable."
And with that he disappeared into the doorway on the opposite side, leaving Tanith standing on the stairs, confused and intrigued. He set a hoof onto the floor once more and forced himself to keep it there as the pulsing passed beneath his hoof, quickly becoming a normal feeling, and even soothing and therapeutic as he placed his other three hooves on the floor. He cautiously made his way over to the blue bean bag chair that the stallion had referenced. It was placed on the raised platform around the center console, pressed against the railing to keep it out of the way of most of the walkway around the console. He sat in it and immediately let out a sigh of relief, the weight lifting off his hooves and shifting onto his back as he leaned into the bean bag, which held up against his weight due to the support of the railing.
The stallion came back with a tray containing two cups, looking rather smug as he carried the tray balanced on top of his head. He passed by Tanith and lowered his head, allowing Tanith to pick up the cup nearest to him. He continued onwards, back to the table and chair he had been at before. He slid the tray onto the table and slipped into his seat, concentrating intently as he picked up the cup between his two forehooves and drank from it. Tanith raised an eyebrow over his cup as he drank out of it, holding it by the handle with one hoof.
"I never understood how you Equestrians did that," the stallion said, staring intently at Tanith's hoof.
"Okay, I think this question has been left alone long enough, who are you and why do you know who I am," Tanith asked.
"Okay, fine, I'll answer the first question you asked, but the second one is complicated," he said.
"Complicated how?"
"Complicated in the way that I'm not allowed to tell you."
"Can't or won't?"
"You really love those cliche lines, don't you?"
"Can't or won't?"
"Okay, fine, a bit of both. I'm not rightfully allowed to tell you due to the Shadow Proclamation and I also don't want to tell you due to spoiling parts of your life in the future." Tanith was silent so he decided to answer his first question. "My name is the Doctor, or Doctor Whooves as some have taken to calling me." The last bit had somewhat of a bitter sound to it, making Tanith instantly file it away. "I come from a planet far far away from here, both in time and space, and I'm from a race of time traveling beings known as Time Lords."
"What's this planet's name?"
"Gallopfrey."
Tanith held back a laugh at the name, but in all honesty, he sort of believed the Doctor, what with all he'd seen so far it kind of made sense.
"So...why exactly is this thing sma-" Tanith began, the Doctor cutting him off.
"She is bigger on the inside," he said, putting an emphasis on the she for some reason.
"Ummm...Okay then," Tanith replied, shifting uncomfortably in the bean bag chair.
"Sorry, I just get a bit defensive when people refer to her as an it," the Doctor replied, a light blush appearing on his cheeks.
"You realise it's not ali-" once again Tanith was cut off, this time from the box as the pipes in the center of the room gave a grinding sound as they moved up and down.
"I don't think she appreciated that," the Doctor commented as the noise died away and the pipes stopped moving.
"You mean to tell me that she's alive," Tanith exclaimed, jumping up.
"Yes, and she's a TARDIS, a machine capable of traveling almost anywhere in space and time," the Doctor explained.
"Almost anywhere?"
"There are a few exceptions."
"Right, well it's been fun but I have a life to get back to," Tanith said, getting up and heading for the door, placing his tea cup on the tray the Doctor had brought as he passed. Before he could get to the door though the pipes in the center of the room began whirring and the TARDIS tilted, throwing Tanith onto his side and knocking the tea cups onto the ground and the Doctor against the table. "DOCTOR WHAT'S HAPPENING," Tanith shouted as he struggled to regain his footing while the TARDIS seemed to bounce around.
"I am inclined to believe that we're traveling time and space," the Doctor replied, seeming only slightly fazed by what was happening.
"DOCTOR IF I END UP SOMEWHERE I'M GOING TO DIE IN I SWEAR I'LL COME BACK AND HAUNT YOU," Tanith yelled, finally managing to regain his balance and work his way over to the staircase leading up to the center console.
"I believe that you already have," the Doctor muttered as the TARDIS slowly stopped rocking and quieted down.
The TARDIS finally settled and the Doctor got up from his seat, making way past Tanith and towards the door.
"Where are you going," Tanith asked, looking wearily at him.
"To go see where we've landed of course," the Doctor replied before stepping outside.
Things seemed okay enough outside, they had landed on a cobbled road in the middle of a rather quiet town, which didn't seem to be on fire or in any imminent danger. Until...the Doctor paused, allowing the sounds of his hoof steps to fade away, listening for any other sounds, only to find none. Things were deathly silent, the sounds of hoof steps off in the distance, ponies working on repairing something or another, and the general sounds of everyday life completely non-existent. The Doctor was instantly on alert, peering into the windows of the surrounding buildings before turning around to get Tanith, only to find the TARDIS missing entirely.
"Great," he muttered, "now I have to go looking for wherever they disappeared off to."
Tanith had been drifting on the edge of unconsciousness for a while now, but had been unable to fall into sleep's embrace due to the pain coming from his shoulders. He had no clue what had happened or what was going on, the only thing he remembered before waking up in the embrace of whatever was carrying him being a sharp noise coming from behind him then darkness. When he woke up there was a blindfold over his eyes and he was being carried by something on each side, each guard, or at least what he assumed were guards, holding one of his fore hooves at the joint in the middle, leaving him dangling and causing his shoulder joints to begin protesting quickly.
He had woken up fighting, immediately kicking out with his back hooves where he imagined their hooves to be but hitting nothing. It made him wonder how far away from the ground he was. His brain kept switching between two extremes, with the ground being just inches out of his reach to being hundreds of hoof lengths above the ground. That was the main reason he refrained from trying to escape now. His thoughts were interrupted as he was suddenly dropped, his fear of being extremely high up becoming the forepoint of his mind, until he hit the ground a moment later. He hadn't been high enough to cause himself any major physical damage, but his landing did knock the wind out of him, leaving him gasping for breath on the ground.
"Careful, that's precious cargo you're carrying there," a voice said, sounding more as if it was coming out of the stallion's nose than his mouth. There was no response from whoever had been carrying Tanith and the stallion grumbled something under his breath before saying, "Well go on, take off his blindfold."
The claws that had been holding him so far immediately began working at the knot in the blindfold, quickly pulling it off and leaving Tanith squinting in the harsh light of the area. His eyes quickly adjusted and he was greeted with a pristine room, completely and utterly free of any dirt or colour.
"Ah, the great Tanith, we meet again, seems your Doctor didn't keep as good an eye on you as last time," the stallion said, going behind the white desk in the room and sitting down in the white office chair. Everything about him seemed to be white as well, his fur, his mane, his irises, his horn, even his teeth were pure white! The only exception to that were the regular areas of a body, the center of his eye, the bottoms of his hooves, and his cutie mark. His cutie mark was the globe but half of it seemed to be covered with dripping, white paint.
"Well, somepony really likes the colour white," Tanith said.
"Ah, there's that great wit I missed. Where have you been Tanith, you've kept me waiting a good five years now," he asked. "Do you know how many innocents I could've killed waiting for you. But, I did promise I'd wait for you to see your pain when you failed, and I'm a man on my word."
"Who the fuck are you," Tanith asked him.
"Oh my, did amnesia become added to the list of issues you have," he asked. He got up from his desk and moved closer to Tanith, looking into his eyes, "Or maybe not, hmm, this is rather interesting, it's been five years and you not only seem unchanged but you seem to be, younger, more naive. No, I'm imagining it, that's not possible."
Tanith decided to just keep his mouth closed, deciding that limiting his interactions with the stallion would lower the chance that he'd get infected with whatever he had, be it rabies or straight up insanity. The lights in the room flickered for a moment and a frown replaced the stallion's expression of curiosity.
"She's here, for you no doubt," he said, turning around and going back to his desk, waving a hoof dismissively. "Get him down to Cell Block H, use as many guards as possible, re-blindfold him, and for the sake of all that is pure, don't let that mare set a hoof on him. Got it?"
There was a small beep behind Tanith and he only just remembered the guards that had carried him in. He turned his head and took in what he could of his guards before the blindfold was thrown back over his eyes. On the way to 'Cell Block H' he ran over the details of the...robots. It was something straight from a science fiction novel, the constructions having a bulky upper portion of their body with two thin, round tubes of metalwork coming out of the side, each with three curved claws at the end which Tanith assumed was to help pick items up. Where the back hooves should have been was simply nothing, leaving Tanith to wonder if they were simply levitating or if it was more machinery that kept them aloft. All of this though was covered in a coat of white paint, which didn't surprise Tanith one bit.
His thoughts had tapered off finally when suddenly there was a commotion up ahead of him and his entourage stopped suddenly, pausing for a moment before turning left and heading down a narrow hall, closing in together and letting him hang back and fall enough for his back hooves to drag on the ground. Instead of a smooth and clean floor like he expected he was greeted with the feeling of rocks, fragments of glass that poked at his skin but didn't cause any wounds thankfully, and course earth that seemed extremely compact and dry, like it hadn't rained in forever.
There was a small hiss and a small buzzing sound that lasted for only a moment before the guard holding Tanith's left hoof suddenly let go of him and dropped to the ground. The second one followed suit only a moment later and Tanith raised his fore hooves up, lifting the blindfold and leaping to his hooves. He was in a narrow hall, a wall with the paint peeling on one side and a row of blown out windows on the other. A hoof appeared over the sill of a window further down the hall and a mare pulled herself into the hall.
"You're Pearsons, aren't you," the mare asked as she stood up and brushed some shards of glass off her gray fur.
"Uhh, yes," Tanith replied, "but I prefer T-"
"And I really don't care what you prefer right now, if you want to get out of here alive then you'd better take this and use it," she said, pulling a black stick out of her vest tossing it to him.
He caught it and looked from her, to it, and back, eliciting a sigh from the mare. "What do you want me to do, I don't even know what this thing is," he said.
"How do you not know, you made it," she said in exasperation. There came a beeping from down the hallway and the mare said, "No time to explain, just figure it out, now go, find your way to the ground floor and to the outskirts, someone will find you when you get that far." The mare pushed past him and took up a protective stance, looking over her shoulder and saying, "Well go on, if you get caught then we're finished."
Before any more words could be exchanged a group of robots came from around the corner, and the mare lifted another black tube level with her eye, four small hisses sounding and four of the bots dropping, before he could watch any more of the spectacle Tanith turned and ran, the sounds of the hisses and failing bots following after him, fading quickly as he reached the door to a stairwell. He began heading downstairs, his hoof steps pounding loudly on the concrete as he continued lower and lower, past level 19, level 18, 17, 16. When he reached the landing of floor 15 the door slammed open and robots began to pour out of the doorway, only just big enough to fit. He turned and ran back up towards floor 16 but skidded to a stop as the door on that landing slammed open as well, leaving him trapped between two packs of robots heading straight for him. His brain went on overdrive and he came up with and insane plan, moving quickly towards the railing of the stairwell and looking down for only a moment.
And then he jumped. His original intention had been to simply jump onto the set of stairs leading to floor 14 but a robot suddenly appeared behind him and grabbed his tail, stopping him mid-air and causing him to swing back and hit his head on the side of the stairs. The black tube almost slipped from his grasp but he managed to pull it up to his eye like he'd seen the mare do in his confusion. He didn't know what to do from here and so he just ended up looking like an idiot holding a black tube that he wished would fire while a robot hauled him up, holding him upside down over the drop between the stairs. He began to scream in his mind, hoping for anything to happen, for something to work, for the thing to fire-
Hiss. Bzzt.
Tanith cheered and watched as the robot suddenly died, and then the cheering turned to a scream of horror as gravity took hold and began to pull him down. His hooves acted on their own though and slammed against the railing of the stairwell, pushing him off of it and backwards, landing him on his back on the stairwell to the 14th floor. He was stunned for only a second, the adrenaline in his body allowing him to get up almost instantly and rush down the stairs. The robots were right on his tail as he reached the eight floor, and he was slowing down while they weren't, and to make matters worse he couldn't get the stupid thing to fire again, leaving him defenceless as well as tired. Then his salvation came as a group of stallions and mares burst out of the door on the landing and began firing at the mob behind him.
He gave them a nod as he ran past them and continued onwards, reaching the ground floor with no more instances, until the robot bodies began falling, which started once he reached the fourth floor. He assumed that the robots were simply clearing the way to get through their comrades, but even that was foreboding, meaning that they were managing to push their way forward. Tanith sincerely hoped that these ponies weren't wasting their energy on saving him.
He opened the door on the ground floor and found an all out war, ponies of all genders and races fighting against the pristine white robots. Tanith paused for a moment until a mare spotted him and shouted, "CLEAR A PATH, IT'S PEARSONS."
Before anyone could do anything though the lights went out and a mechanical sound rang from all around, what remaining light there was quickly fading.
He's closing the windows, Tanith thought as the darkness closed in around him.
Once the darkness was complete, things were silent for a good thirty seconds until a squeak sounded from above and the voice of the white stallion rang out.
"Oh Tanith, tsk tsk tsk. Did you really think that it was going to be that easy to escape from me, and now thanks to you, I have most of the rebel forces, I really must commend you on your effort though. Now, droids, activate night vision and capture them, I want the cell blocks to be bursting with prisoners when I get down there."
Then he was gone and it was silent again other than the heavy breathing of everyone in the room, then a small whirring sound began, followed by another and another until the room was awash with the noise, and then it all stopped, and the screaming began. Tanith turned back and ran towards the stairs, scrambling up as fast as he could. It wasn't fast enough. A claw closed around his back hoof and pulled him to the ground, quickly binding his hooves behind his back and picking him up. Then it began to take him further down into the building.
"You're sure he's down there," the Doctor asked, leaning against the frame of the door in the helicopter and looking down.
"Yes, Tanith is there, along with most of my troops and him," the mare behind him said.
"Who's 'he'," the Doctor replied, looking at the hooded mare.
"You know very well who he is, you were the only one who was willing to forgive him after all," she replied, sinking further into the folds of her cowl.
"You mean...So you want me to go in there alone and save them," he asked.
"Not alone no, I have a few troops that are already on the roof, they're just waiting for you."
"Alright then." He shifted the strap on the parachute on his back and stepped up to the edge of the helicopter. "Hey." The mare turned her gaze on him as he leaned out and prepared to jump. "I'm sorry."
"I know you are."
With that the Doctor grabbed the release string in his mouth and jumped.
"Promise me."
"What?"
"Promise me you won't go there again."
"...I need to finish this Tanith, for my dad."
When Tanith opened his eyes the first thing to greet him was a stone ceiling. There was a light illuminating the area he was in and he let his eyes roam the small area. Three of the walls were made up of the same stone as the ceiling, all of them containing cracks and chips. The fourth wall was made up of bars of some form of metal, covered in dirt and rusted to pieces. In the corner was a drain and beside that a bucket, a pile of rags directly across from that piled into the corner. There was a bunk bed in another corner, placed against the bars of the cell but out of the way of the door.
Tanith finally moved and immediately hissed in pain, each of his joints seeming to be boiling at the same time. The bundle of rags moved and a pair of yellow eyes looked out at him, silently judging him.
They both sat like that for a while before the bundle of rags spoke up, "The pain should only las' a little while, is jus' a serum 'moving the magic from ya body."
"M-magic," Tanith asked, his words slightly slurred.
"Yeah, the magic that lets ya grab stuff, gives ya strength, ya cutie mark, that stuff," the bundle said gruffly.
"Is that even possible," he asked, lifting himself up and leaning against the nearest wall.
"Well we 'ave an entire cell block filled wi' ponies who are weak, frail, an' markless," he said. "It's all a part of 'The Great Cleansing'." Tanith was silent, so the stallion decided to ask, "So, wha's ya cutie mark fer?"
"You're really asking a twenty year old stallion that stupid question," Tanith replied.
"I'm jus' trying to make sure ya don' ferget, so many do after not having theirs fer so long."
Tanith looked down at his cutie mark. It was a heart with a blade entering one side and exiting from the other end, a drop of blood pooling on the tip of it, looking as if it were about to drop.
"It stands for sacrifice," Tanith said.
"So ya're willing to lay yer life down fer someone else," he asked.
"Maybe at one point in time I was, but that was years ago, now I know how life is, it's a dog eat dog world out there and nobody honestly cares if you save them or not, everyone is just working towards their own goal in life and they're willing to use anyone to get where they want to be."
"Well ya're certainly an optimistic one."
"I'm just stating the facts."
"I'm not so sure, I think ya've just had a bad run-in with someone once and now ya're testy on the subject. The way I sees it, life is one big track, where everyone's headin' towards a common goal, but everyone gets 'ere at different times, an' occasionally ya'll have a run-in with someone whos'll help you see, and other times ya meet someone who's less than helpful 'an most an' then ya get a bitter taste in yer mouth. But ya gotta keep headin' for the end."
"You're a naive old git."
"Ah'll have ya know ah'm only thirty."
Tanith looked at the stallion intently and sighed. "I don't know if you're telling the truth or not, but either way I have somewhere to be." He got up and moved towards the bars, testing them and nearly falling back as the rusted metal crumbled in his hooves.
"An' where would tha' be?"
"Anywhere but here."
"Ah wouldn' advise tha'."
"And why not?" He now had a hole large enough to wriggle through but the jagged edges of metal worried him so he continued to break pieces off.
"The guards don' mess wit' ya in the cells."
Tanith paused at his work and looked back at him. "What stops them?"
"Coding maybe, they don' harm anyone behind bars."
"Huh, they don't harm anyone behind bars do they."
Tanith began to devise a plan, marking key points on the bars and picking at the area until he finally was able to pull out a circle of the bars, large enough to cover his entire form if need be.
"This is crazy enough it might actually work," he muttered.
The stallion had been watching him this entire time and only just now spoke up, "Ya really think tha'll work?"
"Maybe, maybe not. I'm gonna try either way," he replied, stepping up to the hole in the bars. He could feel his grip on the bars weakening and he quickly crouched to scoot through the hole.
"Hey, who are ya," the stallion asked.
"My name is Tanith Pearsons," he said, pausing to look back at the stallion, "and I'm going to be the one to get you guys out of here."
The stallion was silent and Tanith crawled the rest of the way out, standing up to find himself in a dimly lit corridor, the only light coming from inside the cells. He looked down both ways, seeing only an endless hall in both directions he randomly chose a direction and began heading to the right.
Before he was too far from the cell he heard the stallion say, "Ah'll be waiting for help Pearsons, you can count on that."
"I'll try not to let you down," Tanith said, his voice barely audible.
"Floor 17 landing clear."
"Floor 16 landing clear."
"Floor 15 landing filled with hostiles."
The Doctor pulled in a shallow breath and asked, "Is it just the landing or do they go lower?"
"It looks like they've filled the entire staircase sir."
"Can you tell how far down," he asked.
"As far as I can see sir."
"Damn. Retreat to floor 16 and enter the corridor, wait there for me and if necessary defend the position," he said, looking to his guard and nodding down the stairs. They entered the landing on floor 20 and looked down, spotting signs of the white robots. The Doctor sighed and said, "four troops against an entire army, this is ridiculous."
"Well we have a fifth troop, the Doctor. Surely that counts for something," his guard said.
"In the grand scheme, that counts for nothing, I'm just another stallion on Fiore's hit list," he replied.
"Aren't we all on somebody's hit list?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Maybe that's true, but Fiore's hit list is reserved for a special sort of ponies."
"And what sort of ponies would that be?"
"The damned."
Rusted metal tasted absolutely terrible. It was a fact that Tanith was sure he was going to remember forever. His hooves had finally stopped grabbing objects and he was now having to carry the bars in his mouth, his going surprisingly smooth so far. He had run into a few guards but hunkering down against the floor and holding the bars above his head at an angle seemed to work surprisingly, giving him the impression that the robots were either programmed to not harm subjects behind bars, or they were just terribly stupid. Every time he passed a cell the inmates inside would look warily at him before realizing what he was doing, then they would suddenly leap to their hooves and shout encouragement at him. Then he finally passed a cell where apparently one of the ponies who had come in to help him escape was being held.
His name spread like wildfire, and it apparently reached the other levels because soon enough the entirety of the prisoners that were being held captive were cheering him on. And the guards didn't have a clue. At least the white stallion came onto the overhead speakers.
"Well well Tanith, it seems I underestimated your ability, you've certainly outsmarted me, oh dear, what am I possibly going to do now, ALL OF MY GUARDS ARE CERTAINLY TOO INEPT TO CAPTURE YOU. Well, the joke's on you my friend, I think it's about time for E-Day to come, don't you think? It's finally time to begin the Cleansing. The world will finally be perfect."
There was a sharp squeal and then the mic cut off, leaving the entire prison quiet. Then the shouting began, taking a few seconds before Tanith could make it out.
"Go down."
Tanith paused, letting the bars drop before leaning over the railing and looking up to see what the yelling was about. Then a robot fell, passing by his snout so close he could feel the wind from it. Then two more fell. Then more and more and more. Something was going on up there, and he needed to get away from it. So he headed downwards. He knew that the bars wouldn't help him any now so he left them behind and ran down the stairs, hurrying to try and reach the bottom, and then something hit him in the back of the head, leaving him unconscious.
"No, no no no, you can't die on me now, please, no. I need you. Tanith..."
"I...told you not to come back here, it's too dangerous."
"I came to finish what my dad started. I just wanted it over with. I didn't want you hurt."
"Just let it go, please, stay here with me."
"I...I have to finish this, I won't let this go to waste, my love."
Tanith opened his eyes to find himself in front of a crowd of thousands, tied to a throne set on a stage.
"And he's finally awake ladies and gentlecolts. Now then Tanith, King of the Rebels, tell us, how does it feel to watch your entire kingdom crumble," the white stallion asked, walking up to Tanith and holding a microphone up to his lips.
Tanith looked at the stallion and said, "What crumbling city? I see a band o-"
"Yeah yeah yeah, nopony really cares what you think, they're all going to die soon, and I doubt anything you could say will comfort them in their last moments."
The stallion made a gesture with one of his hooves and lights began to flicker on, revealing more and more ponies as more and more of the impossibly large room was revealed until it seemed as though perhaps a million ponies were in the room.
"And their blood will be on your hooves Pearsons," the stallion said, giving him a wide smile. "Ready arms." The guards lifted their arms, each holding a small black object in their claws. "Take aim." The objects were raised to a dip in the metal plating with a hole in the center. "Aaaaand ffff-"
Each of the guards suddenly shut down, leaving the stallion watching with his jaw agape as their arms fell to their side and each tipped over.
"No, no no NO NO NONONONONO! WHAT DID YOU DO YOU LITTLE SHIT," the stallion shouted as he moved over to Tanith, slamming a hoof into the stallion's jaw. "THE WORLD WAS GOING TO BE PERFECT, THERE WASN'T GOING TO BE ANY MORE VIOLENCE, THE WARS WOULD STOP, THE PERFECT RACE WOULD RULE, THE MOST PRISTINE OF RACES IMAGINABLE, AND YOU'VE RUINED IT." Another hoof slammed into Tanith's face and he spit a wad of blood into the stallion's face, giving him a bloody smile.
"Now who's kingdom is crumbling," Tanith asked.
"That's fine, I'm not done yet Pearsons, I've got one more trick up my sleeve." The stallion backed up and turned to the crowd, pulling a slender object with a red button at the top out of a white bag strapped to his side that Tanith hadn't noticed. "Now then ladies and gentlecolts, I give you the last act, I call it 'An Ending with a Bang'. I'm sure you'll find it quite appropriate." He clicked the button and waited...and waited...and waited. "W-why isn't it working. PEARSONS, WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"It's called an Electro Magnetic Pulse grenade, and Tanith had nothing to do with it," a mare said, stepping out from the crowd. She had a cowl on that covered every detail of her form from view, but to Tanith the voice was familiar for some reason.
"Ah, so the queen bitch finally shows up," the stallion sneered at her.
"Give it up Fiore, you're done," the mare said.
"I'm never done, you should realize that by now." He leaned down and said, "You want to know why I'm not done yet?"
"Sure," the mare said, obviously not believing him.
"I've got a final backup system, just in case of total failure. Would you like to know what it is?"
"Yes, please do enlighten me," the mare said. Fiore gave a little flourish before producing a single, tiny match. "Hah, that's it? I think this whole cleansing mission has gone to your head Fiore."
"Ah, but what you obviously fail to understand is that we are hundreds of feet below ground, and how does air get down here? Why through ventilation systems. Systems that have been leaking small amounts of methane for years now, this entire room would go up in flames, burning each one of you in an instant with a single spark."
And then, faster than Tanith could follow, Fiore moved the match to the stage, scratching it against the surface and smiling as it caught. The mare was just as fast though and her magic formed a bubble around the stallion, the air in the bubble catching flame and burning the stallion in an instant. There weren't any screams thankfully. The mare let the bubble fail once the flames finally died, watching as his ashes collapsed on the stage before turning to Tanith.
"The TARDIS is on floor 72, tell the Doctor that and that Areel is sorry. No one touch him, let the Doctor get him down and back to the TARDIS."
With that she turned and left, a good part of the crowd turning and following her, soon enough all of them going after her, leaving Tanith on the stage tied to the throne. After all of the ponies had left, hoof steps sounded and Tanith lifted his head, finding the stallion he had talked with in his cell.
"Thank ya kindly Tanith, no one here will firget what ya've done fir us today," he said before dipping his head and turning to go.
"I didn't do anything you know," Tanith said, causing him to stop.
"Oh? But didn't ya?"
"No."
"Course ya did, ya were the perfect distraction. It takes a lot to let someone beat on ya like that to stall. In a way, it's a sacrifice."
Tanith didn't reply and the stallion walked away. It took a while but soon enough the Doctor showed up, climbing the stage and giving Tanith a look.
"You look like you've been through hell and back," The Doctor said, going around behind Tanith and messing with the knot.
"Eh, close enough. I was just on the verge of death about five times due to a crazy stallion," Tanith replied.
"Speaking of Fiore, where is the bastard," he asked.
"Right there," Tanith replied, nodding at the ashes.
"Oh."
"Yeah. He tried to burn the air but a mare put a bubble around him and he died alone."
"A mare?"
"Yeah, she had on a cowl and I couldn't see any features but she said, 'the TARDIS is on the 72nd floor and that Areel is sorry."
The Doctor paused for a few moments before saying, "I know," and continuing his work.
"You sure you don't want to go anywhere else? Perhaps Manehattan or Baltimare," the Doctor asked.
"No, no, I'm fine Doctor, I just want to go home, take a hot shower, and sleep," Tanith replied.
"How will you explain the lack of a cutie mark," the Doctor replied.
Tanith quickly looked to his flank to see that the Doctor was right, his cutie mark was gone. "I'll wing it."
"That's the best plan."
The TARDIS finally slowed its movements and stopped, indicating that they had arrived at their destination. Tanith said his goodbyes and went over to the door, pausing and looking back to the Doctor, who was messing with various parts of the control panel. He seemed to be brighter, or at least he seemed to have more colour on him before, the browns of his fur and mane a bit more pronounced than before, and a hint of a smile on his face. Perhaps they would go on another adventure, there was an entire universe to explore after all.