Time Lords
Rainbow carried Twilight into the TARDIS, followed by the Doctor walking somberly, “Doctor?” Rainbow started, “I-is Twilight going to be okay?” she asked, letting Twilight’s limp body down onto the TARDIS’s brass floor.
“Rainbow… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, she won’t make it,” the brown stallion started stroking the unicorn’s purple mane softly. Rainbow sat on her haunches. She looked at the ground, tears leaking from her eyes. The Doctor got up and started the TARDIS’s engines. The soft whirring sound accompanied the grim atmosphere.
“No,” Rainbow said dejectedly, “No Doctor!” The cyan pegasus rose from the ground, her wings fully extended, and grabbed the stallion by his shoulders, “No! You can’t do this to her! You can’t let her just die like this!” Dash yelled. Her fur was matted with tears.
“Rainbow Dash, please! There’s nothing I can do!” the Doctor replied pushing Rainbow away from him, “Do you think it doesn’t hurt? Do you even know how many times I’ve loved... How many times I’ve lost?” the stallion yelled, stunning Rainbow Dash as tears of his own fell to the ground. He approached the seemingly sleeping unicorn.
“But... Doctor, please help her!” Dash muttered choking between sobs, resting her head in Twilight’s chest, crying bitterly, “Please… SAVE HER!!”
Thump-thump
“Doctor?” Rainbow said confusedly, reaching for the earth pony’s hoof, “It’s Twilight, she-she’s alive!” she yelled as she hugged Twilight’s body excitedly.
The Doctor sighed, “Rainbow, I know this is hard. Believe when I say I would like nothing more than to see her alive, but- ” Dash waved her hooves in front of the stallion’s face, “No, this is nothing like that. Listen,” Rainbow replied. She brought the Doctor’s head onto the unicorn’s chest.
Thump-thump
The Doctor raised his head slowly and stared Twilight with a dumbfounded expression, “That- that can’t be right,” the stallion said, pulling his sonic screwdriver from his coat, its blue light pointing at her chest.
“What is it Doctor? Is she gonna be alright?” Dash asked, her voice laced with hope.
“She…” the Doctor looked at his sonic for confirmation, “She has pulse!” the Doctor exclaimed, his eyes widening with glee, “Still a weak one, but she has pulse!”
Rainbow stared, flabbergasted at the stallion with her mouth agape, “Does this mean that we can save her?” She asked hopefully.
The brown stallion opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by a sudden gasp from the figure below them. Twilight coughed a few times before she lazily opened her eyes.
The unicorn felt pain all over her body. The first thing she saw was the worried magenta eyes of Rainbow Dash, who was examining her over and over again.
“R-Rainbow?” Twilight said with a weak voice. Her lungs were burning, her eyes were stinging, and she couldn’t feel her hindlegs, heck! she couldn’t even feel her forelegs!, “Wha-What happened? I remember cyber-ponies firing at me, and then… ” Twilight turned her head and gazed at the other figure standing over her with a troubled expression.
“Doctor, what happened to me?” she asked confusedly, trying and failing to raise from her spot on the floor.
The Doctor swallowed before answering, as if the end of the world was behind those deep purple eyes, “Twilight, you should’ve died. You should be dead, nopony lives after what you’ve been through.”
He approached Twilight’s side, scared at the prospect of losing someone dear to him. He looked over at Twilight, her lavender coat a bit pale and scorched where the shot marks had hit, “I’m actually glad that you’re not an ordinary equine,” he ruffled Twilight’s mane softly, eliciting a weak giggle from the mare, “But the question remains: how did you survive? A cyber-pony laser kills on the spot. There’s no way you could have survived that.”
Twilight shivered at the words, tears leaking from her eyes, “I-I don’t know what to say. Aren’t you happy to see me alive?” she asked as the Doctor and Rainbow nodded their heads strongly in agreement.
“Hey!” Rainbow shouted. She hugged Twilight with all of her might, “Of course we're happy that you’re alive, aren’t we Doctor?”
“Of course I’m Happy Twilight, I’m just a curious stallion. You know that, now-” he said, cleaning the unicorn’s tears, “I don’t want to see more tears. Come on Twilight, get up. We need to go home,” the Doctor said, helping Twilight onto her hooves.
Twilight sniffed and accepted the stallion’s hoof. She raised up slowly,“Thank you Doctor, I think I will AUGHH!” she cried and grabbed her stomach in pain. A golden light emanated from her horn, “W-What am I, Doctor?” Twilight stammered, her voice weakening by the minute.
The Doctor’s eyes widened in shock, as he looked with awe at the golden light that Twilight had expulsed. All the loneliness, all the pain, and all the rage condensed in one golden light.
“Twilight… ” the Doctor exclaimed, rushing to help the fallen mare, “Y-You're a Time Lord, Twilight!” the stallion yelled, gazing with his aged brown eyes as the purple unicorn recoiled from his words.
“What!? Bu-but Doctor, that’s impossible. You said,” Twilight coughed, “You said you were the last of them,” Twilight retorted as a sharp pain coursed through her body, “Argh!” The unicorn shouted, gritting her teeth in pain while Rainbow Dash held her closely.
“Doctor! What- What do you mean? That’s not even possible!” Rainbow yelled at the stallion who was now eying Twilight with renewed curiosity.
“I know Dash. This shouldn’t even be possible. You know why?” Rainbow shook her head, holding Twilight even closer, “This shouldn’t even be possible because I killed them all. I killed every single one of them, no distinctions. I KILLED THEM ALL! Twilight shouldn’t even be alive!”
He yelled, tears streaming from his eyes as he sat on his haunches, hooves covering his eyes.
“Doctor! What can we do? Will she be alright?” Rainbow asked as more light started to flow from Twilight’s body.
The Doctor shook his head. It was time now.
“Nothing! Twilight is dying AGAIN, and you wanna do NOTHING!?” Rainbow shouted glaring daggers at the Doctor as he approached the crouched mare.
“You misunderstand me Rainbow. There’s nothing I can’t to to save her. She must do this by herself,” he said while Twilight shot him a pleading look.
“Doctor, A-am I going to die?” she asked, crying in Rainbow’s fur. She felt the Doctor approach her side.
“Twilight, you won’t die. You’re far too strong for that,” the Doctor said, calming the unicorn by stroking her mane repeatedly. Tears of his own fell onto her cheeks, “You won’t be the same either, but that isn’t important. You know why?” he asked as he lifted her chin so she could look at him directly into his eyes.
“Why?” Twilight asked, her voice fading.
“Because we’re here with you, always and forever, and we are not going anywhere. Are we Rainbow?” The stallion said, looking at Rainbow Dash, who shook her head furiously.
“Of course Twilight, I will never leave your side. I promise,” Dash said as she put her hoof on her chest, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Loyalty, Remember?” she uttered softly.
“You see Twilight, we are not going anywhere, and neither are you,” the Doctor said as Twilight closed her eyes. A weak golden light started to shine from her hooves.
“Doctor, what's happening?” Dash yelled. She looked at Twilight incredulously as more golden light shone from her horn.
“Rainbow, stay back!” the Doctor ordered, pushing Rainbow away from Twilight’s glowing body.
“Bu-but what's happening Doctor? Say something!” the pegasus shouted.
“Time Lords have this little trick. It’s sort of a way of cheating death, but it means Twilight is going to change,” he stated, looking at the light display in front of him.
‘Please Twilight, Please be okay,’ the stallion thought, praying that Twilight remained the same. But he knew it wasn’t going to be that way. Regeneration was a lottery after all.
Suddenly an explosion shook the TARDIS as bright orange light exploded from Twilight’s body, covering her from horn to hoof. Rainbow and the Doctor staggered backwards, the light too bright for them to see. Then as soon as it started, the light began to die out, leaving a white coated unicorn with a messy black mane and a wide eyed, confused expression standing in front of them.
“Wow, flashy!” the new unicorn said, looking over the spot occupied by the Doctor and Rainbow Dash. The unicorn's brow furrowed a little, her mind deep in thought.
“Twi-Twilight?” Rainbow stammered, examining the white unicorn’s body from her deep crimson eyes to her purple starburst cutie mark.
“Yeah, that’s me. Were you expecting somepony else, Rainbow?” the mare said, confused over her own words, “Now hold on. That was rude,” she looked herself over again, “Am I rude now?”
“Rude, insulting- ” With every word she approached more to Rainbow’s side “Polite, vulgar, Fluttershy?” Rainbow looked at her with confusion.
“No Twilight, I'm Rainbow D-”
“Shush, I know who you are. I’m not stupid,” she paused for a moment, “No I’m definitely not stupid, I’m clever. Smart. Brilliant even,”
“Twilight, are you okay now?” the Doctor interrupted cautiously, not wanting to trigger an adverse reaction. You have to take all the precautions with this process. You never know what you are going to end up with.
The mare paused her revision and looked up at him, “Well you tell me. How do I look?”
The Doctor was about to answer, but Twilight beat him to it.
“Well of course I look great, white is ten times better than that old daft purple. But Doctor, for real this time, how am I? I really don’t know. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy?” She asked wiggling her eyebrows seductively, “I literally don’t know who I am.”
“That used to happen sometimes,” the Doctor replied, walking towards the rambling white unicorn, Rainbow Dash in tow.
“But there’s only one thing I want to do now, and D’ya know what it is?” she asked the Doctor with a bright smile, giggling as the Doctor shook his head.
“A test drive of course,” the mare replied, lighting her horn and raising the two other ponies in a sickly red miasma, known as her telekinesis, as both pegasi and earth pony screamed in shock, “This body feels really amazing Doctor, I don’t know why I hadn’t died before.”
“What do you think I should do first?” she said jumping excitedly along the TARDIS’s controls, “A wild fierce monster of the Everfree? The bloody and savage Griffon-Pony War? Oh one other thing Doc,” The new Twilight said, pulling the Doctor to eye level, “How do I pilot this thing?” she asked meekly before passing out.
Both Rainbow and the Doctor fell from her telekinetic grasp as the unicorn slumped to the ground unconscious. Rainbow, recovering first from the fall, pinned the Doctor to the ground and yelled right in his face.
“What just Happened? Where did that weirdo came from? And- ” she said touching her muzzle with the Doctor’s showing a menacing glare, “Where the buck is Twilight!?”
The Doctor, raised himself from the uncomfortable position with Rainbow. He approached the sleeping unicorn with his sonic screwdriver and proceeded to examine her, “That weirdo here, is Twilight, Rainbow. As for what happened, Twilight just regenerated.”
“Regene-what now?!”
“Regenerated. When a Time Lord is close to dying, their body undergoes a transformation into a new physical form and a different personality. It is a- ”
“Wait wait wait, you can do the same thing?”
“Actually, I have done it 10 times, and it is always a very dodgy process. So I would thank you if you could help me with Twilight, she’s going to need a lot of help to go through this in one piece.”
“And where are we supposed to take Twilight to? A hospital?” Rainbow asked, raising the mare from the ground as the Doctor adjusted some levers on the TARDIS’s console.
“No, that’s too dangerous. We need to take her somewhere safe,” he said, hitting the controls with a hammer, producing sparks, “We need to take her home.”
A peaceful night in Ponyville. That’s how Spike would have liked to see those cold nights alone in the Library when Twilight and Rainbow Dash where off with that friend of theirs. ‘The Doctor,’ that’s what he called himself. ‘A Doctor in what exactly?’ Spike thought as he walked downstairs to the library kitchen to prepare himself a glass of warm milk, and if he was lucky, a couple of gems.
“Who,” Spike jumped, the sound of Owlowiscious startled him in the dark.
“Hey! You scared me!” Spike yelled, panting heavily, “I thought you weren’t going to show up since Twilight isn’t here,” the owl cocked his head in confusion.
“Who?”
“Twilight of course, she hasn’t come home, and she said she would be here by nighttime! What if something happened to her? What if she was hurt!?” Spike yelled before realizing that everyone but him were probably asleep, “What if this Doctor friend of hers did something to her?”
“Who.”
“The Doctor guy, brown coat, always wears a suit? That annoying Trottingham accent? You know, big blue ‘Police Barn’? Argh, why am I even trying to explain this to you?” Spike said dejectedly as Owlowiscious preened his feathers.
As Spike walked to the kitchen, he heard a sudden noise from outside. The logical part of his mind told him to wait inside and hope that it wasn’t a burglar. Although he could defend himself rather easily being a dragon and all that stuff. Unluckily for him, the logical side of his mind was also tired and stressed over Twilight, so despite the fear of the situation, Spike grabbed a candle and rushed outside where a faint wheezing sound could be heard.
Walking towards the source of the noise, Spike saw something impossible: a blue barn materializing over the small garden in front of the library, crushing the few flowers that they had managed to grow there over the past two years living in Ponyville. As the wheezing sound stopped, the door of the barn opened suddenly, and a well-known mare walked outside, panting heavily.
As soon as the mare saw him she left an excited gasp and rushed towards him, “Spike? Spike is it really you?” Rainbow said hugging the small dragon tightly, before a loud crash sounded from inside of the barn, making Rainbow’s ears perk up at the sudden noise. “I’ll be with you in a moment,” she said sheepishly as she let Spike back down on the floor.
“Is that… ”
“Yes I know, bigger on the inside. Now if you excuse me,” she muttered, entering the barn and locking the door. Spike, still standing dumbfounded outside the suspicious blue structure, did the most sensible thing and knocked like a madman on the door.
This however resulted in a tired looking stallion holding an extinguisher stepping out from the cabin, “Oh, Hello little guy. Spike was it?” the Doctor greeted more amicably than the situation warranted, as he sat on his haunches, letting the extinguisher land on the ground with a soft thump.
“What in the wide world of Equestria is happening?” Spike yelled, too stunned to form other questions like ‘Why is the barn bigger on the inside?’ or ‘Why did that thing just materialize on the lawn?’. The Doctor replied with a sheepish smile.
“Well you see, we were traveling when we found a little problem,” he explained vaguely as Spike tilted his head in puzzlement.
“What kind of pro-” Spike was cut short when Rainbow Dash was flung out the blue barn by a red tentacle.
“Darn, her magic is stronger than it looks,” Rainbow said, nursing her head as the Doctor approached to her side helping her to get up.
“Whose magic?! What’s happening?! Why are you all acting so strange?!” Spike yelled, startling the two ponies.
“Spike, quiet! Ponies are sleeping at this time,” the Doctor scolded, raising his voice a little, “As for whose magic, this is Twilight’s magic, who else?” he replied matter-of-factly.
“B-But Twilight’s magic isn’t red, it’s purple!” the dragon replied before the door of the barn slammed open, and a white mare with a black mane stepped out the TARDIS.
“It is now Spikey-Wikey,” The mysterious mare said, walking towards the befuddled ponies, “Oh and Doctor, you should bring the extinguisher inside, there’s a little bit of a fire on the console,” she said nonchalantly.
“What? Oh not in the flux capacitor!” the stallion yelled before entering the smoking barn.
The mare regarded Rainbow with a mocking smile, “See what I mean Rainbow? I’m far stronger than you. There’s no point in discussing that,” she stated as Rainbow huffed in annoyance.
“I liked you more when you were unconscious, Twilight,” Rainbow groaned before pointing a hoof towards the TARDIS, “You almost made us crash. We almost died in there, Twilight!”
The white mare now referred to as Twilight pouted childishly, “I only wanted to make a quick visit to Equestria’s founding! I’m sure I could’ve beaten a Windigo with my magic,” she yelled, sitting beside the frozen dragon, hugging him tightly, “And hello Spike! That’s not the way you greet your big sister!”
“Bruh,” Spike muttered before passing out completely.
“See. Now you broke him!” Rainbow yelled as she picked up the little dragon, “Now we’ll have to wait ‘til morning to tell him, and that is without telling the girls. They’re going to freak as soon as I tell them,” she said, walking towards the library.
“Oh cheer up, they’ll meet a new new me and… I… I will meet the… Stupid brain,” Twilight stammered, falling hard in the ground, groaning for the pain.
“You see, you’re still tired Here, let me help you,” Rainbow groaned. She approached the fallen mare carefully, so she wouldn't drop the sleeping dragon on her back, “Doctor! Do you think you could help me with her!” She called, seeing the brown stallion peek his head out of the TARDIS.
“Could you please wait a little, there’s still a few things that I have to repair!” the Doctor yelled, taking out his screwdriver from his jacket, “I might have to stabilize the engines, It could take a little longer,” he called, entering the TARDIS once again.
“Oh for buck’s sake, that stallion Twi- ”
“Rainbow! I’m okay, you should worry for Spike there,” Twilight said, sitting on her haunches, her hoof massaging her head.
“Fine, are you going inside?” She asked, holding the door for Twilight to enter.
“Sure, It’s my place after all.” Twilight said, walking past Rainbow Dash in a rush.
Rainbow sighed heavily, closing the door after her, “It isn’t your place.” She said, going upstairs to leave Spike in his bed, then she sat on top of Twilight’s bed, a few tears leaking from her eyes, “Is not your bed,” she rest her head in a pillow, closing her eyes slowly, “And it is not your life.”