The Doctor is tasked of solving the mystery of a rapidly shrinking universe. With the help of a few unlikely allies, can he discover who's behind it before all of time and space collapses in on itself?
After returning from a rather paradoxical adventure with Twilight Sparkle, the 11th Doctor begins to question his ability to keep her safe. However, before he can find an answer, he's called back to Equestria. Summoned by the Princesses, The Doctor arrives just in time to witness both past and future events repeat themselves in the present. Faced with a terrifyingly familiar enemy, The Doctor must team up with a few unlikely allies to stop them. But even with their help, will he be able to stop the one pony that hates him the most?
Note: Inspired by the actual DoTD special, and the Discorded Doctor Tumblr Secondary note: This Doctor has always been a pony. (This is important)
Sometimes, we all have to make impossible choices. Choices with almost no good outcomes, no correct solutions. Choices that won’t make everypony happy. Even as an element of magic, and as a princess, I have to make them. Unfortunately, we won’t always get it right and maybe it’s just not possible to get it right. And when we don’t the results can be devastating… and we regret them. We forget that it was necessary, that there was no right answer, and we blame ourselves for what we couldn't do. We blame ourselves for the lives that we ruined upon making that choice. But sometimes… sometimes we do get it right...
...and that’s when miracles can happen.
~~~
Twilight hesitantly made her way over to the controls, the Doctor silently egging her on. Nodding, Twilight tried her best to savor the moment. For so long The Doctor refused to let her study the TARDIS' inner workings. Not only that, but it seemed that the machine itself refused to cooperate with her.
But today was the day, the shields were down, and the irritable time machine had finally allowed Twilight a chance to prove herself. Twilight tentatively touched the closest lever. Just as she touched it, a sudden explosion rocked the interior, the force of which sent Twilight stumbling back over towards the stairs. Instinctively, she tried to spread her wings to stabilize herself. “I told you that the TARDIS doesn't like me!” Twilight screamed, desperately holding on to the railing.
The Doctor ducked as a series of sparks exploded from the top of the console. “That’s not it!” he cried. “It’s a magnetic hover field, and we’ve flown right into it.” Panicking, he ran towards the console and started trying to figure out what to do. “Twilight, stay close to me!”
Twilight tried to move closer, but the constant shaking continued to throw off her balance and her stomach. Putting a hoof to her muzzle she groaned. “Please tell me that there’s a button that you can press to fix this…”
The Doctor continued to hover his hooves over the controls, every so often flipping one to see if it fixed something. “Ohh yeah, big friendly button! I always have one on hoof for situations like this!” he smirked.
Twilight dry heaved and flinched as another set of sparks rained down from above. “Please tell me that you’re telling the truth.”
The Doctor bravely flipped a large switch and waited. An explosion, larger than the previous ones rocked the ship. “Are you panicking?”
“Of course I’m panicking!”
“Then of course I’m going to tell you that I’m telling the truth! Stop panicking first.”
Twilight opened her mouth to respond when a third scream echoed through the console room. She turned just in time to see a large glowing crack form in the side of the room. Soon after forming a familiarly dressed stallion tore his way through. The Doctor, more beat up and injured then the one behind her, locked eyes momentarily before he turned to face himself.
“Doctor! Doctor!” he called out, his screaming mixed with grunts and hisses of pain. “I’m from your future! Aggghh-We haven't got long!” Twilight noticed that whatever that light was that he had traveled through, it was hurting him badly. She deeply wished that she could help him somehow.
The Doctor, the current one, turned to face whoever was calling him. His own face contorted in horror at the sight of himself disintegrating in the light of time. The Doctor in the crack quickly tossed something into the air before disappearing entirely.
“He tossed something.” Holding out her hooves Twilight quickly leaned over the rail to catch it.
“Twilight! Wait!” It was too late, whatever Twilight had caught, it was searing hot and had burned the bottom of her hoof. She dropped it almost immediately, allowing the Doctor himself to pick it up.
Upon seeing what it was, his face erupted into a rather jovial grin. He turned it to face Twilight, who was nursing her hoof. It appeared like a large metal egg with a large grey button at the tip. Someone had written three important words on the side. “Big Friendly Button,” the Doctor giggled. Slamming his hoof on the button, the entire console room lit up in a bright white light and the time machine's engines roared to life.
Eventually, the light faded and Twilight sound herself lying on the cold panel floor of the TARDIS. Sitting up she groaned softly as she sat a hoof to her head. “Why am I so exhausted…?
The Doctor cantered around the TARDIS console with a never-ending grin. Every so often, he would lean over and rub down the glass chamber with a towel. “Well we’ve just had two days crammed into the space of one. I’d be shocked if you weren't.”
Twilight got up and shook off her drowsiness. “What do you mean by that?”
The Doctor playfully sat the cloth he used to wipe the chamber off on her horn. “Ahh I don’t know. I just like to say cool stuff like that. Pay it no mind.” The Doctor turned back to the console and dropped his smile. He hovered his hoof over a button for a few seconds before calling over his shoulder. “...Twilight?”
Twilight frowned and removed the semi-dirty towel from her horn. “Yeah?”
“Do you feel safe?” he asked, not turning to look at her. "Traveling with me, I mean."
She gave him a curious look. “Oh course I--”
The Doctor spun around a interrupted her. “Give me a number! Eleven being… I don’t know, woohoo, and one being arghh, or something funny like that.”
“Doctor,” she chided. She smiled and trotted up to him. “You’re acting weird again.”
The Doctor, however, didn’t smile, not this time. He stared into her eyes with deep concern and care. “I just… I need to know if you feel safe with me.”
Twilight’s own smile fell as she felt the full weight of his questions. No jokes, no weirdness, he was seriously asking her. “Doctor… I-aaghhh!” Once again she fell backwards as the TARDIS tipped to its side. “Oh what’s happening now!”
The Doctor ran back to the central tube to see it starting up. It wasn't like before. There were no explosions or cracks this time. This was time travel shaking. “Well for one thing, I know that you don’t feel safe with me,” he chuckled, his face erupting back into an excited grin. “But otherwise, nothing. Something started the engines!”
Twilight’s magic flared up, and much like the TARDIS, without her permission. “Wait, I feel something,” she announced. She shut her eyes and concentrated on the magic that had anchored itself to her. “This magic... It belongs to Celestia and Luna!”
The Doctor grinned even harder at that information. He quickly ran to the other side of the console and flipped an array of switches. “Then it looks like the adventure’s not over yet, Twilight. You’re going home!”
Suddenly, the entire room tipped completely upside down, sending Twilight flying into the air. The Doctor, however, just laughed and screamed, “Geronimo!”
~~~
“Celestia!” Bursting into the throne room, Luna ran up to her sister who was staring out the window with horror fueled trepidation. She watched as her little ponies ran around rampantly, enemies were resurfacing, buildings were being rebuilt and destroyed over and over again, and everything else outside was nothing but chaos. But the worst part was that there wasn’t anything that she could do.
“I know sister…” Celestia sighed. “But I cannot explain it. I can only guess that this is something beyond our capability.” She turned to her sister with a face full of conviction. “But one thing’s for certain… It’s time to call the Doctor back to Equestria.”
Luna beamed happily for a few seconds, but it soon devolved into a frown. “D-do you think he’ll still be the same as when we last saw him?”
Celestia gave her a soft smile and trotted over to her. Setting a hoof on Luna’s shoulder they locked eyes. “I am sure he will be. But please remember, this is not personal visit. Whatever face he wears, and whatever is happening, I can feel that Equis isn’t the only world that’s in danger. Do you still remember the spell the general taught us?”
Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Once she reopened then, her eyes were full of the same kind of conviction her sister had. “I do.”
Celestia nodded and closed her eyes to focus her magic at the base of her horn. Luna did the same. Both of them continued to suppress their magic while still building it up. “Remember sister. Calling the TARDIS is no easy feat. You must concentrate.”
“I am no child, Tia. I’m well aware that it’ll be a small miracle if he’s even within 500 years of our current timeline. Are you ready?”
Celestia nodded. Both alicorns opened their eyes to reveal that they were pure white. Touching their horns, the duo released an enormous burst of magic. The forces of which were enough to burst the windows and shake the foundations themselves as the sisters filled with a pure translucent light.
“First we need to locate them,” Celestia yelled over the roaring winds. “Try to hone in on Twilight’s magical signature, that’s the Eleventh, the version of him we want.”
"I'd rather have the younger one." Luna grinned despite the immense amount of magic she was channeling. “I found them! 423 years in the future. 20 light years left of the scorpio constellation.”
Celestia mentally locked onto the coordinates and a small ball of light began forming between their horns. “Good, now we have to convince the TARDIS to bring them here. We cannot force her.”
“Done,” Luna’s grin turned into a smirk. “She always did like me more than you.”
“Luna, focus!" ordered Celestia. Slowly, the two sisters distanced themselves from one another, allowing the ball of light to grow in size until it was nearly 6 hooves in diameter and hovering in the air. Lowering their heads they sat the ball on the ground. Soon enough they heard the tell tale sounds of the TARDIS’ wheezing engine.
The mares released their magic and further backed off from the light. They watched in amazement as the legendary machine appeared before them. Fully materialized, the light exploded outwards, fracturing like glass.
Celestia and Luna waited with baited breath for the pony they hoped to see exit the box. Luna especially hoped that it was the one that she fancied. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the door opened and Twilight came sprawling out, dizzy and confused.
Behind her exited the Doctor, seemingly unaffected except for a slightly askew bowtie. Both he, and Luna, seemed slightly upset. “Oi!" he called. "As I’m sure the Brigadier must have told you when he taught you that spell; I don’t like being summoned against my will.” His frown turned back into a smile almost immediately. “Though I must admit that that was a rather smooth journey, considering.”
Twilight took a second to compose herself before glaring back at the Doctor. “Considering what? That I didn’t throw up all over the floor?”
Celestia however, chuckled good naturedly. “Well did you know that Brigadier Leftbridge had an entire squadron of unicorns on his payroll whose specific job was solely to summon you, Doctor?”
“Yeahh that makes sense. Explains the bumpy ride each time.” The Doctor turned his attention to Luna, who was frowning in disappointment. He trotted up to her and threw a leg around her neck. “Oh what’s wrong, Luna? Not happy to see the old boxboy?”
“I wanted the one with the sideburns,” she sulked.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and took his leg back to adjust his tie. “Oh please. Sideburns? Everypony likes the sideburns. Well let me tell you, bow ties are much cooler than sideburns.” Luna gave him a small smile.
Having accomplished his job, the Doctor spun around on his hoof to face the centre of the throne room. “Anyway, since you two called me here with what I’m fairly sure is an extremely uncomfortable, and might I say, rather unstable spell that could easily get me thrown into the depths of the time vortex, I can only assume…” he spun back to face them with a manic grin. “that you have something fun for me.”
Celestia shook her head with a disapproving look. “Doctor, I’m glad to see you but this is not a game. Something very wrong is occurring within Equestria and i have a sinking feeling that it is spreading across the cosmos.”
The Doctor gave her a disgusted look. “Oh no, no don’t say “cosmos”. That sounds so… so...” he trailed off as he suddenly began to feel light headed. Almost as though he was about to lose consciousness. Then, all at once, his faculties returned, bringing with them scathes of pain and headache the likes of which he hadn’t felt in a long time. He immediately fell to the ground and clutched his head.
“Aggghh!” he screamed. All of the mares in the room quickly called his name and ran to his side.
“Doctor!” called Twilight cradling his head. “What’s wrong! Tell us?”
“Are you alright, Doctor!” asked Celestia setting a wing over him.
“No… No something is wrong! Something is very, very, very wrong!” The Doctors head began to burn. It felt as if something were squeezing the sides of his head together, squishing his brain.
Hazy visions began to flash in front of his eyes. A pony, a stallion. He was standing in front of a large machine... and he was laughing. A crazed, insane laugh that bore into the Doctor’s mind and even threatened the very safety of reality itself. The Doctor couldn’t tell what hurt his head more, the pony or the machine.
The pony seemed to realize that he was being watched because he suddenly stopped laughing and turned to the Doctor. He even waved. Though he could still not make out his face, he could still tell that he was smiling. “I’m he~re, Doctor! Haaahaaa, I’m right… here!” His voice… it was dark, unhinged. It that was the only way the Doctor could describe it.
“Do you want to see what’s going to happen? I’ll give you a hint.”
The image changed to one of the universe as a whole. In an instant the entirety of it collapsed in on itself. But that was it. There was no explosion, no expansion, nothing. No time, no space. A pure and endless darkness that could put the Vashta Nerada, creatures of pure shadow, to shame. Nothing could survive, but what could possibly produce something so horrible.
The Doctor woke up with a large intake of breath. He gasped for air as he frantically tried to gauge where he was. He found that he was still between the three princesses, all of whom were gazing at him with intense looks of concern and worry.
“Doctor,” began Celestia, “are you alright?”
“Yes Doctor, you’re worrying us greatly,” added Luna.
The Doctor glanced around before finally seeming to calm down. “I’m… I’m alright.” He quickly got up and began pacing back and forth. “This isn’t good this is not good. I don’t know what’s happening, but whatever it is it goes much further than Equestria, further than this universe even. The whole of reality is in danger. But from what?” he hissed.
As the Doctor continued to mutter to himself. Luna’s eyes widened and she found her head almost guided towards one of the blown out windows. It just so happened to be the one of her banishment. She called over her back. “Doctor?”
The Doctor ignored her in favour of further grumbling while Celestia and Twilight followed Luna’s path to see what she was seeing.
The three of them watched as the moon rose into the sky of its own accord and blocked out the sun. Twilight nervously called over her back. “Doctor?!”
“Busy!” he called back.
However, this moon was different, as it still bore the symbol of the mare in the moon. Her own face was etched into its surface for all of ten seconds before four stars gathered around it. In a flash her face disappeared, and a loud laugh echoed through the newfound night. All three of them called behind them. “Doctor?!”
“Tirek?!”
The trio turned around to see the Doctor staring at none other than Tirek himself, buffed out and sitting on the throne. Before any of them could react a pillar of green fire erupted next to him. Out came Chrysalis, laughing maniacally. Almost immediately afterward a large swirling mass of darkness descended from the sky and touched down in front of the him.
The diabolical demi god opened her eyes and leered at the Doctor. “Did you think I would stay banished forever, you fool?!”
The Doctor looked between the three of them. “Oh now this is bad…”
Nightmare Moon towered over the light grey stallion, leering down at him with an expression of pure malice. “Did you think I would stay banished forever, you fool?!” she bellowed.
Tirek grinned in amusement. “So that was your plan?”
Twilight reeled back in shock and fear. She looked back and forth between Nightmare Moon and Luna herself, frantically trying to figure out what was going on. “Prin--” Before she could say anything, Celestia covered her mouth with a hoof and silently shook her head. Aside from a slight glare, Celestia hadn't moved or reacted to the sight of three of her greatest enemies. Glancing over at Luna once again, Twilight noticed that she too, had remained stoic despite the situation.
The Doctor’s ear twitched as he glanced between the three enemies. “Tirek? Chrysalis? Nightmare Moon? You three are working together now? Is this a thing now? Enemies working together? I mean with the Pandorica I guess it was special but now?”
Chrysalis chuckled and took a few steps forward. “Right you are, Princess.”
“Oi, I haven't regenerated into a mare! Well not yet anyway,” he muttered.
Nightmare Moon’s eyes turned white and thunder rumbled through the building. “The stars have freed me and now I’ve returned to take my rightful place!”
The Doctor grinned.“Well with Tirek sitting on the throne there I’m not sure if--”
Chrysalis grinned in return and took a few steps towards him, forcing the Doctor to take a few back. “This place has more love than any place I’ve ever encountered. My changelings and I will be able to devour so much of it!”
This line threw the Doctor for a loop. “What?” he asked looking between the three.
“Psst, Doctor!”
Glancing to the side he saw Princess Luna waving a hoof at him, signalling him to come over to where they were. He looked at them in confusion for a few seconds longer, wondering why they were so calm. Usually everyone besides him would be panicking right about now. His ear twitched once more as turned to look at the villains before it finally hit him.
“Oh. Ohhh! So that’s it then is it?” Breaking out in a wide smile he quickly ran over to meet with the others.
Twilight inched closer as he approached. “Doctor, I don’t understand. What’s happening?” whispered Twilight.
The Doctor shushed her. “Keep watching.”
Over in the middle of the throne room, none of the villains seemed to realize that the Doctor had even moved. They were all still addressing an empty space.
“How does it feel?” asked Tirek. Horns glowing, he summoned three glowing yellow orbs. Each one contained an image of a pony race. “Knowing soon that every pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony will bow to my will.” All at once he smashed the orbs. “And that there is nothing you can do to stop it!”
Meanwhile, Chrysalis, having made her way back to the throne and now standing in front of Tirek, was laughing evilly. “He may not be my husband, but he’s under my complete control!”
Twilight continued to look on in complete bafflement. “That’s the same thing Chrysalis said about Shining Armor,” she whispered.
“Exactly,” the Doctor whispered back.
Nightmare Moon’s horn flared. “Now let’s see how you do sealed within the sun, sister dear!” Even though she had her horn flared, nothing happened. Instead she disappeared altogether.
Tirek himself disappeared in a similar fashion. His horns flared and he raised his arm triumphantly. “Give my regards to Cerberus,” he hissed before vanishing.
Chrysalis was still going on about her plans. By this point she had flown into the air dramatically. “...and then, all of Equestria!” Suddenly she glanced backward at some invisible enemy.
Luna nudged the Doctor. “This is when Celestia comes in and get’s her flank handed to her.”
While the Doctor chuckled Celestia’s face grew slightly warmer. “I underestimated her.” After glaring at her sister she returned to the scene of Chrysalis acting out her side of the battle.
Finally, she stopped and the changeling glanced down at her own hooves in awe. “It seems that feeding on Shining Armor’s love has made me even more powerful than Celestia!” Then, just like the other two, she vanished, leaving the throne room quiet once more.
Celestia looked around before finally stepping forward and turning to face the others. “It is as you can see, Doctor. This is our problem. Things like this have been happening all over Equestria. Phantom images of our most feared enemies have been reappearing, scaring the populous greatly. We cannot interact with them as far as I have seen. Although I’ve had recent reports stating otherwise. What do you make of it?”
The Doctor opened his mouth but to his surprise somepony else beat him to it. “Well obviously the future has seeped into the present and it seems that the past has as well.” The Doctor glanced past Celestia to see an exact version of himself looking back at them. He turned to his side, apparently address an invisible pony. “Correct, Twilight. That is us, though I’d wager that I’m still the only visible one.”
The current Twilight stared in awe, her ear twitching slightly. “Wait, can he see us?”
Her Doctor opened his mouth to answer but the other Doctor answered first. “No, I can’t see you, Twilight. But I remember you asking that. I also remember making that face,” he gestured to his double’s disapproving and annoyed look, “and by this point I’m remembering that this must have been what it was like for Sparrow when I did it to her during the whole weeping angel incident. But anyway, Doctor you might want to scan this spot here to find out what’s happening.” With that he disappeared.
As he was advised the Doctor quickly ran over to where his double was and pulled out his sonic with his mouth. After a few seconds he lifted the screwdriver and flicked up the extension. Whatever he discovered caused his eyes to sparkle in delight. “Quick, over here, all of you. Hurry!”
As they were ordered all three alicorns made their way over to form a circle around him. “What is it?” asked Celestia.
Luna followed. “Have you found something?”
The Doctor spun on his hooves to face her. “I have but I can’t tell you just yet. We have to maintain the timeline or else the world goes boom,” he said, making a blow-y up-y motion with his hooves.
Twilight looked around nervously. “But that other Doctor said that he couldn’t see us. How will we know when to start?”
The Doctor spun to face her with a large grin. “Excellent question, Twilight. Tell me, what do you hear right now?” He addressed the others. “What do you all hear besides the commotion from outside. Really, I want all of you to close your eyes and listen to what you’ve been ignoring.” He pointed to his still twitching ear.
For a second each of them looked at him in confusion, but they had long since learned to trust him. So, in compliance they all closed their eyes and listened.
Nothing.
Impatient, Twilight opened her eyes and said, “Doc--” Her ear flicked slightly and as she focused she could hear an extremely faint static sound. “What is that?”
Celestia and Luna’s ears flicked as well. Celestia opened her eyes as well. “I heard a very faint buzzing noise, Doctor.”
“It seems to be growing louder as well,” added Luna.
The Doctor clapped his hooves. “Yes, and that is the sound of time being disrupted. As time travelers you can hear it just like me. That sound is going to get louder the worse the distortion gets. And it will be at its loudest when concerning yourself. I'll use it to tell when to turn. So when I give the signal, Twilight I want you to ask your question. Got it? Got it.”
Luna took a step forward. “But why is this happening in the first place. Why do we appear in the past?”
The Doctor smirked. “Well obviously the future has seeped into the present,” he turned to face the wall that they were formally standing by, ”and it seems that the past has as well.”
He discretely flicked his tail toward Twilight. She noticed this and assumed that it was the signal. “Is it happening, is that us?” she said, asking the first thing that came to her head.
The Doctor craned his head to look at her. “Correct, Twilight. That is us, though I’d wager that I’m still the only visible one.”
“Now this is the part where I ask if you can see us right?” whispered Twilight.
The Doctor winked and turned back. “No, I can’t see you, Twilight. But I remember you asking that. I also remember making that face,” he gestured his hoof at thin air, “and by this point I’m remembering that this must have been what it was like for Sparrow when I did it to her. But anyway, Doctor you might want to scan this spot here to find out what’s happening.” He poked at the ground.
They waited for a few seconds further before the Doctor turned back to face them. “There, now that that’s done we need to hurry.” Luna looked like she was about to ask something, but the doctor quickly put his hoof up to stop her. “Uup. Before you say anything you need to know that what we just did was extremely dangerous and we can’t go doing that again or we could rupture the already fragile state of time.”
He turned to lock his gaze with Celestia. While her’s was one of worry, his was grave. “To answer your questions; yes. Phantom images are appearing, I’m wagering all over the universe.” He took a few steps past her and began pacing around the mares.
“It seems that time is being mashed together.” He stopped and pushed his front hooves together. “Think of time and space as a banana, and our current situation as if you're pushing it from both ends…” He raised his eyebrow at his own statement before shaking his head and resuming his pacing. “Actually, it’s nothing like that. Forget the banana. Focus on the fact that if we don’t fix this reality will implode.” He stopped and tapped his muzzle a few times. “Kind of like a banana.”
“Doctor,” interrupted Celestia, stopping him before he could go off, “could this be the result of somepony messing with the past. You once told me that altering a fixed point in time would result in this situation.”
The Doctor stopped in his trot and turned to face her with a grin. “Oh I’m so glad you brought that up because you're right! Breaking a fixed point in time would result in a similar situation. But not this time. If you look outside, you’ll still see ponies going about their day... Well more like running about their day with the images of villains running around. The point is”-- he flipped his hoof over to check his watch-- “that the clocks are still ticking and time is moving normally.”
Luna’s raised a curious brow. “This is... good right?”
“Of course,” he chuckled. “I’ve seen what happens when a fixed point is altered. Last time it happened I had to get married to fix it. The time before that I had to die.” Ignoring the mares shocked faces he continued. “But nevermind that, keep the ideas coming. We need to figure this out.”
“Well perhaps the answer will come if we wait for another vision of the future!” Luna suggested.
The Doctor gave her a sad smile and shook his head as he made his way over to her. “Luna, I love your idea, and I love the enthusiasm. I really do." He playfully booped her in the nose and ignored the resulting frown. "But it’s completely wrong. We can’t just wait for the answer. If we do then whatever vision we get will be either a vision of the future of us waiting, or a vision of the past of us having waited.” His smile turned into a frown. “Also we can't follow those visions anyway.”
“Oh yeah,” gasped Twilight. “I meant to ask you. Why can’t we watch them?”
The Doctor seemed to deflate some, speaking his next sentence slowly and clearly. “Well… think of it this way. Time, by nature is all wibbly. It can be altered in places, but not when it’s established before hoof.” He sighed and turned away from the group to hide his downtrodden look. “For example; if your future was written in a book, and you read that you break your arm somehow… then you have no choice. You either let the events happen or risk fracturing time. It's not possible to change at that point.”
Seeming to get his energy back, he swung back around and pointed his hoof at the group. He had a serious look in his eye and his speech picked up speed once more. “Likewise, if you saw a future image of yourself falling on your face then no matter what happens you’re going to end up on your face. Knowing future events turns them into fixed points that cannot be changed.” Clearly upset he took several steps towards the mares, looking each of them in the eye as he did so. “If the static becomes too strong and you see yourself, even for a second, you walk away with your ears covered. Don’t watch the visions and don’t listen. Do. You. Understand?”
All of the mares nodded frantically. “Good,” he sighed. Turning back around he began to mutter to himself. “Now we still need to locate the source of the-- Ah, that burns!” The Doctor, feeling a slight burn, hunched over and grabbed his chest.”
“Doctor!”
The Doctor held his hoof up, motioning them to wait. “I’m fine! I’m alright.” Reaching into his jacket he pulled out the Tardis Key. It was glowing a bright golden color and was warm in his hoof. “Now what are you doing, eh?” he whispered, holding the key to his face.
Finally, an idea sprang to mind. “Of course! I can use the TARDIS to track the disruption!” He turned to face the princesses. “I’ll be right back. I'm going to see if the TARDIS knows what's going on.” Without waiting for a response, the Doctor ran back into his large box.
Twilight, like a good companion, followed after him. However, before she was able to enter the doors slammed closed. “Doctor, let me in!” she yelled, banging on the door. Suddenly the light atop the TARDIS began lightning up an the machines signature wheezing noise and fading form signaled its activation. “Doctor? Doctor where are you going?”
~~~
On the other side of the door, the Doctor likewise banged on his end of the door. “Twilight?! I’m not the one who closed the door. Can you hear me?” Hearing no response the Doctor turned and ran back over to the console. “What are you doing, old girl?” As if to answer his question, a lever slammed down next to him, activating the engines and beginning the customary shaking. However, this particular set of shaking was not accompanied by wheezing engines, but rather the sound of large gonging bell.
“Doctor what’s happening?!”
The Doctor’s head snapped up at the mysterious voice. Looking around, he saw nothing but an empty shaking room. Curiously, he also heard the faint sound of hooves slamming against the floor and darting around the TARDIS. “What was…”
“What’s all this about? Where are you taking us, eh? Eh?!”
“There it is again!” The Doctor noted, running around the console. Whatever the voice was, it sounded soft and sounded far away. “It sounded familiar but I-- Oh! I remember… well… almost!” A particularly nasty shake threw the TARDIS on its side, causing the Doctor to fall over.
“I don’t know what’s happening, it’s almost as if something’s dragging us along the wall of the time vortex. Agghhh! I can’t stop it!”
Finally, the Doctor’s eyes lit up in realization. “Oh, this is my part!” Giggling madly, the light grey mad-stallion spun around the console, frantically slamming on various buttons and flipping various levers. Slowly the shaking ceased and with one final spin for style, the Doctor slammed his hoof on one particular dial. The mad dance completed, a huge spark shot out from the console and caused the Doctor to flinch back. When he reopened his eyes the TARDIS’ walls had changed from large metallic spires and bookshelves to blank white walls covered in round hole-y things.
A familiar voice, male sounding, echoed through the room from the other side of the console. Unlike before, the voice was clear. “Oh, we’ve stopped. That’s convenient.”
Another voice, female this time, followed. Though this one sounded a bit dizzy. “Ohhh, Doctor,” she groaned. “What just happened to us.... and what’s with the round thingies?”
The male stallion looked at the console curiously while tapping his hoof on the central tube. “I don’t know. Possibly the TARDIS impacted with something within the vortex… but it doesn't seem like we’ve crashed into anything.”
“You’re welcome for that by the way!” Both ponies were stunned silence by the sound of a third voice. Slowly, the brown stallion leaned to the side and met the eyes of the light grey one on the other side of the console.
Said stallion was smiling widely. “Hello, Doctor!”
For a few tense seconds, both stallions peered at one another, neither moving from their side of the console. One grey pony—who was wearing a tweed jacket and blue bowtie—starred in excitement, while the brown one—who wore a brown suit jacket under a long trench coat—stared back in shock. In the middle, shifting her gaze between them, was a light grey pegasus who wore nothing as she simply struggled to understand the current situation.
Finally, said mare broke the silence. “Doctor… who is that?” she whispered.
The brown stallion shifted his gaze towards her for a moment before muttering back, “That’s just what I was wondering.”
As if a switch had been pulled the grey stallion quickly moved closer to the brown one, his grin widening madly. “Oh that is short,” he exclaimed. “That is proper short!” He began looking his counterpart up and down. Now that he was standing right in front of him, he noticed the immediate difference in height. The grey pony was almost a full head taller than the brown one. Standing on his tippy-hooves, he looked over the top of the brown pony’s head. “I’ve never seen it from the outside before. It’s like a special effect!” he chuckled, rubbing the stallion’s noggin.
The brown one quickly retaliated by shoving his hoof away. “Oi! I am not short, you’re just tall... and lanky!” He motioned to the stallion’s long legs. “And I—Will you stop it!” Annoyed with this stranger examining his scalp, the Doctor finally distanced himself from the tall pony. Making use of this new distance, the Doctor took this chance to examine the pony in front of him. Something about him seemed strikingly familiar; it almost felt like they had met each other before.
Finally, it clicked in his head. “No…” he breathed. "You can't be…?” Slowly, the Doctor reached into his trench coat, watching as the other pony did the same. In one simultaneous motion, both ponies removed their individual sonic screwdrivers. The brown Doctor pulled out a short metallic cylindrical one with his mouth, while the grey Doctor held a brown wand-like device in his.
The Doctor smirked a cheeky grin as he clicked a button with his tongue, extending the length of his screwdriver. “Ha, even your screwdriver is small!” he chuckled.
The other Doctor simply gave him an unamused look as he extended his own screwdriver. Though one look between them still revealed that his was shorter.
Derpy looked between them in confusion. To her all they were doing was just waving their sonic thingies around. “Umm... What are you two doing?”
The Tenth Doctor shortened his tool. “Oh don’t mind him, he’s just compensating,” he said, waving the pony off.
“Compensating?” he asked, clearly offended. “For what?”
Tenth shrugged. He flicked his head and tossed the silver sonic into the air. Opening his coat, he grinned as the machine cleanly fell into the side pocket. “Regeneration. It’s always a lottery.”
Derpy scratched her head. “What does that mean?”
While Derpy didn’t get the joke, Eleventh did and he frowned at his predecessor’s blatant showmanship. “Oh, Oh! He’s got jokes.” Eleventh put his sonic back the regular way. “He’s got jokes. He’s cool, isn't he cool?” He trotted past the Tenth and flicked his coat. “Look at me, I’m the Doctor and I like wearing a duster!”
Tenth turned and glared at him. “What’s wrong with my coat?”
His expression went from offense to shock when he heard his companion giggling behind him. He turned around just in time to see her cover her mouth with a hoof. “What...? What?!”
“Well you do have a little strut you like to do when you’re wearing that,” she chuckled, making use of her lazy eye to not look at his. She lowered her voice in a poor imitation of his. “‘Oh look at how cool I look in this long coat! Look how it flaps in the breeze when I run.’ That’s pretty much what you were like when you first put that on.”
The Doctor blushed slightly. He couldn’t deny that she was pretty spot on in what he was acting like. Instead he coughed into his hoof and turned to face who he assumed was his future self. “Anyway, why are you… Doctor?”
No longer was the Eleventh sporting a large jovial grin. Now he was staring straight ahead, his eyes shrunken to pinpricks as he peered past the Tenth at the pony he just now realized was here. “...Ditzy?” he gasped, his voice barely audible.
The mare in question merely tilted her head. “Yes?
Tenth looked between them before taking a step closer to the Eleventh. He knew that look, and it began to worry him greatly. “Are you alright…?” he asked.
The Doctor shook his head and trotted past the both of them towards the door. “It’s nothing. Don’t mind me, I’m old and I tend to daydream sometimes. Moving on now!” Now standing with one hoof on the door of the TARDIS the Eleventh Doctor turned to face them.
“You both are probably wondering why I’m here and what happened with the TARDIS just now.” The two ponies nodded. “Well I don’t know the answer to either. What I do know is that she must have had a reason. Follow me.” The Doctor pushed open the door and let himself out.
Tenth and Derpy looked between one another curiously. “So… I’m still confused. Who was that again?” asked Derpy.
“That was me,” he answered. “Or rather, a future version of me, post regeneration.” He looked back towards the console and at the TARDIS walls. He briefly wondered about the round white things that had replaced his desktop theme and if he should consider that a problem. In the end he decided not to worry about it. “Like he said, something brought us together, which means there’s something so wrong that both of us are needed to fix it.” He brought his gaze back to his companion and smiled. “Welp, should be fun at least. I can’t wait to see where we are!”
Derpy mirrored his grin and began trotting towards the doorway. “Me too!”
As she made her way outside the Doctor’s grin disappeared, with a serious expression replacing it. That look on his older self’s face when he looked at Derpy weighed heavily on his mind and gave him a terrible feeling. After a second of thought, he followed the others outside. Passing through the doorway, he quickly tuned in to the loud lecture coming from the outside.
“—do that again! Do you hear me. We thought you just up and left us!” In front of the Tardis, his future self appeared to be getting yelled at by a lavender alicorn mare. Now fully outside and standing next to Derpy, he took a look around, he also noticed that they were in Canterlot Castle, and that everypony was looking at him now.
Luna gasped in shock then squee’d in excitement while Celestia reeled back in surprise. Twilight stopped lecturing her Doctor to join in the staring. Tenth and Derpy simply looked back at them in confusion.
“What?” they asked.
“Well it took you long enough,” muttered the Eleventh.
Celestia nearly ran over to the Eleventh with a furious look. “Doctor are you mad?! Crossing your own timeline at a time like this? Are you trying to destroy the universe?”
The Eleventh backtracked and distanced himself from Celestia. “Oi, it wasn’t my fault! The TARDIS brought them here.”
Twilight meanwhile trotted closer to the tenth and examined him. She looked like she was about to say something. But before she could, she paused to look at the mare next to him. Her jaw hit the ground. “Derpy Hooves? What are you doing here?”
“Well, actually it’s Ditzy Doo. Wait a sec… Do I know you?” Derpy focused her eyes together to give her a scrutinizing look. After a few moments her eyes misaligned and her face broke out into a joyful smile. “I do! You’re the town librarian, Dusk Shine! I remember bringing you your mail. When did you become a princess?” Derpy quickly went to work examining the mares seemingly improbable wings; she eagerly pulled them out and poked at the individual feathers to make sure that they were real.
Twilight blushed at the sudden invasion of her personal space. Though by this time she should’ve been used to it of course, as the Doctor, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and most of her family reacted much the same way. She simply just learned to wait it out. “It’s Twilight Sparkle. I didn’t know you traveled with the Doctor.” She put a hoof to her chin and muttered, “Though that does explain a few things.”
Derpy finally stopped examining her wings and look at her curiously. “Explain what?”
“Well in Ponyville you live alone with your doummphhpphh” She immediately spit the tenth Doctors hoof out of her mouth. “Doctor!”
Tenth shook his head and wiped the spit off his hoof. “Sorry, Twilight. It’s fairly obvious that you’re from our future. Couldn’t have you divulging future events now can I,” he said with a grin.
Eleventh trotted up next to them with the same grin. “Shame on you Twilight. I thought I taught you better than that.” He turned to his past self. “Companions, they never listen.”
Tenths eyes nearly bulged out of his head. “What? You have a unicorn?! That’s not fair!” He sulked, frowning at his future self’s smug look.
Twilight raised a hoof. “Actually, I’m an ali—”
Derpy glared at him. “And what’s so great about a unicorn?” she asked. She didn’t know what it was, but she felt slightly offended at his statement.
Tenth shrugged. “Well just think about it. It’s like they have a sonic, on their head. It’s a pretty brilliant design if you ask me. Not everyday you find something that something this would has up on Gallopfrey.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, her offence quickly switching over to interest.
Eleventh filled in for that one. “Well there are no unicorns on Gallopfrey, only earth ponies, and in rare cases pegasi. Time Lords rarely ever regenerated into unicorns and we didn’t have any idea alicorns existed.” He chuckled. “Honestly, Twillight, you have no idea how excited I was when you agreed come with me.”
“No... I’m pretty sure I do have some idea,” she deadpanned, recalling the party he had Pinkie throw for the occasion.
“Ohhhh, remember when we were a unicorn?!” gushed Tenth, gazing upwards. He found himself completely lost in his memory. Eleventh mirrored his look as he too remembered the days he spent without his sonic. Why? Because he didn’t need one. “Some of the best centuries of my life right there,” Tenth muttered.
The sound of Celestia lightly clearing her throat brought everypony’s attention back to her. “While I understand that this must be a special occasion for you, Doctor, we still have a rather pressing crisis on our hooves.”
“Oh yes. Of course,” said Eleventh. “First things first. In order to cut down on the spoilers, I need to know where you are in our timeline. Have you met River yet?”
“Who?”
“Alright then,” he muttered. “Starting from there then. Where are you two coming from?”
“The Doctor just set the sky on fire!” Derpy cheered. “It was amazing!”
“So that was you!” yelled Luna.
Eleventh paid her no mind. “Ah the Sontarans then. Nasty little buggers with their ATMOS magi-tech.”
Luna rubbed the temple of her skull. “That was a very stressful day for us… No matter, back to the matter at hoof then?”
Tenth nodded. He found see that this terrible problem required the utmost seriousness. “Of course. Back to the pressing, pressing crisis. Very dangerous and have to solve it immediately…” He blinked as he looked around the seemingly peaceful and undestroyed throne room. “Well what is it?”
Twilight gestured to the window. “Look outside.”
Following her suggestion, Tenth and Derpy made their way over to the window to peer into the outside world.
“Oh my goodness…” she gasped, watching as random non linear events caused chaos and mass hysteria.
The Doctor’s gaze locked onto a specific part of the city where a legion of Diamond dogs ransacked a portion of the town. Yes, definitely a town. The entire area that he was looking was definitely out of it’s own time. Where one part of Canterlot was built with stone or marble—boasting a while and yellow color scheme similar to the castle—the part he gazed upon looked closer to Ponyville’s architecture. However, the strangest part was that he was staring at it for a good few minutes before it suddenly shifted into a decisively futuristic version of the exact same area.
“Well that’s not right,” he mumbled. “The surprise Diamond Dog attack happened about 10 years after the banishment. But the changeling invasion was fairly recent.” He turned towards the others. “And the mass innovation of electricity won’t even happen for another hundred or so. Do you know what could be causing this?”
Luna solemnly shook her head. “Alas we do not know. Our Doctor theorizes that time and space is folding in on itself.”
Eleventh nodded. “I’m not sure what it was,” he muttered, “but I had a vision of sorts. I saw a dark figure operating an enormous machine. Then I watched the universe collapse. I don’t know where it came from or who that stallion was, but it definitely wasn’t alright. Time is folding, there’s grey where black and white meet, creases where there shouldn't be. Things that haven't happened are happening and things that have happened are happening again and I don’t know why.”
Tenth trotted over to him and hummed in thought. “So it wasn’t the Daleks then, or the Cyberponies?”
Eleventh began pacing around the large room. “Hmmmno. Neither of them would have access to the technology needed for this kind of large scale manipulation of time and space; at least not without going undetected at this point.”
Tenth began pacing in the opposite directions. “And I don’t suppose the Master survived somehow?” Both turned and they paced towards one another.
Eleventh shook his head grimly as they passed each other in their pacing. “Not that I know of. It is possible that this is a new threat.”
He turned and stopped in front of his future self. “Weeelll. We shouldn’t stress over who’s doing it, but rather how. What kind of technology or magic would be capable of this?”
Eleventh thought on this and gave his past self a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. “Brilliant thinking. There could be millions upon millions of possibilities on who’s doing this but the amount of ways is decisively lower. If we narrow our search parameters to find the method then we can find it and the perpetrator will reveal themselves along with it. But what device is strong enough for this.” He resumed pacing. “Perhaps a mass range shrinking spell cast through the Medusa Cascade?”
Tenth continued as well. “It’d have to be extraordinarily powerful to bend time and space.”
While the two Doctor’s continued walking in a circle, with one aimlessly throwing out ideas only for the other to immediately refute them, a lone guard burst into the room.
Marching up to the three alicorns, he quickly saluted. “Your majestys, the populace’s has grown restless. Ponies are starting to gather at the castle looking for guidance. They want to know what’s going on.”
Celestia sighed and shook her head. “Yes, I suppose that this would’ve happened sooner or later.” She turned to Luna who shook her head.
“I want to stay here with the Doctor,” she protested.
Celestia rolled her eyes. Ignoring her, she turned to Derpy and Twilight. “We have to go calm our subjects down. Please, will you two keep an eye on the Doctor… Err, Doctors. Make sure that they don’t do anything too… you know.”
“We know,” both answered, knowing full well what she meant.
Magically dragging an upset Luna with her, Princess Celestia followed the guard out of the throne room.
Derpy fidgeted slightly. She looked back at the Doctors, both of which were still brainstorming. “So… what do we do now?” she asked Twilight.
Twilight shouted back at the Doctors, hoping to be heard above their discussion. “Doctors, you need help with anything?”
“I’ll need swat team ready to mobilize, a list of every known spell created from 100 years ago to 100 years from now, several cups of coffee, 12 jammy dodgers, a bookmark, and a fez,” answered the Eleventh, not even pausing in his stride.
“Unless you can compute the radius of the galaxy and factor in the amount of magical energy it could take to turn it a quintillionth of a millimeter then no thanks we’ve got it covered,” answered Tenth, much in the same way.
“Oh!” he stopped and turned to his counterpart with an excited look. “What about a warpspeed paradox machine modified to compress time by interchanging the temporal cortices and reversing the polarity of the thermo-magical regulators!” His other self simply gave him an odd look. His own expression fell. “Wait… no that makes no sense…” He sighed and they continued to pace.
Twilight turned back to Derpy. “They’re alright. Are you? You look a little nervous,” she observed. Figuring that she must just be nervous about the situation, she was quick to reassure her. “Don’t worry, I’m sure—”
“Has he said anything about me?!” she blurted. Once she realized what she said she instantly covered her mouth with a hoof.
Twilight blinked. “Excuse me?”
The grey mare blushed slightly. “Sorry… I’m just really curious. It’s kind of disheartening to see that I’m not still traveling with him…”
Twilight gave her a kind smile. “It’s alright. Though, I must admit, I didn’t know that you traveled with the Doctor in the first place.”
Derpy frowned. “He hasn’t... said anything about me? Anything?”
Twilight shook her head. Derpy pondered this new information. “Well how old is he? How far in his timeline is he from my Doctor.”
“Well I’m not sure. All I know is that the last ponies to travel with her before me was a couple named by the name of Pond and he seemed to get really sad when I brought them up.”
Derpy’s head drooped. “So I’m not even the last pony to have traveled with him. I mean, I guess if I did live the rest of my life with him and he just moved on that would be fine… but he hasn’t mentioned me at all?” Twilight sadly shook her head. “Oh…”
Twilight quickly jumped onto a different topic, not wanting to see the mare sad. “So why don’t you tell me then?” Derpy glanced back up. “If he won’t say anything why don’t you. I’m from your future so nothing you say would be spoilers.”
Derpy gasped in delight. “You’re right!” she exclaimed.
Twilight smiled, glad she was able to turn her mood around. “For instance, how did you meet him?” she asked. Despite the fact that she was about to get the story from Derpy, she still made a mental note to question the Doctor—her Doctor—later on this topic.
Prancing in place, Derpy eagerly thought back to her first meeting with the Doctor. It had been a long time since she had the chance to retell it. “Alright, it all started when—”
*CRASH!* *BOOOOM*
Suddenly, an explosion burst forth from somewhere in the castle, rocking it to its very foundations. Several ear-piercingly loud voices began echoing throughout the kingdom. All of them were demanding the same thing...
“Oh no,” breathed Eleventh. Both he, Tenth, Twilight, and Derpy ran over to the nearest window to see what the disturbance was.
Unfortunately, it was just as he feared. The sky was now littered with alien warships of every kind. The Daleks, the Judoon, Sycorax, Sontarans, Cyberponies, Atraxi, even the dark ships of the Shadow Proclamation; all of them were whizzing around the skies of Equestria while even more spaceships descended.
“No! No! No! Not again!” yelled Eleventh as he turned and ran towards the door. “It’s the Pandorica incident all over again!”
Tenth, confused by this statement, quickly followed after him. “Wait, what? This has happened before?!”
Twilight turned and began running as well, stopping only to address Derpy who was still by the window. “Derpy come on. They might need our help!”
Derpy, still marveling at the impressive collection of past and future enemies, finally tore her attention away and nodded as Twilight left. However, just as Derpy spread her wings to fly after her, something else echoed through the room.
“DITZY!”
Derpy froze as she heard her own name being called in distress from behind her. Slowly, she turned around just in time to watch a pony fall past the window outside. For a brief moment, she wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her again. Curious, she looked outside. They weren't. Sprawled out on the grass of the courtyard was a single pony lying face down on the ground. From where she sat she couldn’t make out who it was or if they were alright.
Panicking, Derpy hopped out of the window and flew over to the injured pony. Upon closer inspection she noticed that this pony was a pegasus mare. “Oh my goodness! Are you alright? What happened to you?” Her breath caught in her throat. Now that she was closer she could see exactly how injured this mare was. Her grey coat had been charred black in places and her wings lie limp, bloody, tattered and useless. Even her cutie mark had been--
Her cutie mark… Derpy leaned in closer, careful not to touch the pony in fear that it could cause her pain. It was true, her cutie mark, as much as it could be seen was an image of seven bubbles, much like her own.
“I… you… Who are you?” she muttered. She reached down to touch the mare, hoping to get a better look at her face.
“Don’t touch her!”
Her hoof snapped back at the demand. Derpy looked forward to see a familiar brown pony lying injured some distance away. He was no longer wearing his coat, instead he looked beat up and injured somewhat. But Derpy didn’t notice any of it. She was far too terrified of the colt looking directly at her with a rage she had never seen before. “D-Doctor?”
“I don’t care! Don’t you dare touch her,” he hissed.
The sheer force of his glare caused her to shrink back in terror. “Bu-but I... you.. she…”
“Derpy!” A bright violet flashed forced her to close her eyes for a second. When she opened them she realized the Twilight Sparkle had teleported right in front of her. “What are you doing here? We need to help the Doctors stop Celestia and Luna!”
Derpy looked past her to see nothing but grass. “But I… T-there was a pony... she was me... a-and the Doctor. I--”
Twilight craned her head around to see what she was looking at, trying to make sense of her ramblings. She briefly wondered if she saw a vision of herself? “Agh, there’s no time,” she grumbled. “Tell the Doctor when you get the chance alright?” Derpy nodded and Twilight charged up her horn for another teleport.
With a flash and a pop the alicorn and pegasus appeared atop a balcony on the side of the castle. The first thing she saw was two enraged alicorns barely being held back by a pair of earth pony stallions.
Both Luna and Celestia’s eyes had gone completely white with magic; their manes and tails were flared upwards and their wings had spread wide in a show of aggression.
Celestia’s horn flared. “Doctor stand aside!” she boomed. “These creatures dare bring an army to our world? They dare threaten my ponies!” The magic in hor horn grew in intensity to match her tone.
Tenth stepped forward. “Princess think about what you’re doing. You can’t fight them all, you can’t win.”
Luna audibly growled, her magic seemingly followed suit as the castle itself rumbled. “Dost thou doubt our power, Doctor?”
Tenth immediately shook his head. “No. No. No. Of course not. But just think. If they were here to wage war, trust me, this planet would be nothing but ashes by now. The must be here for another reason.”
It was at this point that Eleventh, whom had been nervously gazing up at the legion of ships until now, noticed that his companion had returned. Smiling he made his way over to her. “Twilight, perfect. I’m glad you’re here, can you amplify my voice with magic?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow curiously. “Sure. But why?”
The Doctor’s smile turned into a mischievous smirk as he leaned in to whisper, “I want to try something. It worked well enough last time.” He ran back to the edge of the balcony. “Cast the spell!” he ordered.
Twilight looked towards Derpy for a second, unsure about the Doctor’s plan. Derpy shrugged, clearly just as confused. Twilight aimed her horn and charged her spell.
While she did, Derpy quickly made her way over and stood next to her Doctor, intent on telling her what she saw. “Doctor, I...”
The Doctor turned to face her. His face was a picture of concern for her, even in this dangerous time. “Yes, Derpy what is it?”
“Back in the garden, I saw a mare and she looked alot like--”
“AHEM! Everyone flinched at the volume and turned towards the Eleventh who sheepishly grinned. “Oh, sorry about that,” he apologized, speaking more softly. “It’s a bit loud now.”
Tenth frowned. “See this is what I mean, you see how useful a unicorn is in this situation?”
The Doctor, now having everypony--and everything’s--attention, took a deep breath and addressed the fleet. “Hello Equestria! Who ever takes the--”
“SILENCE DOCTOR!”
The Doctor’s eyes shrank at the combined demand of most of the armada. The sheer volume of which forced most of the ponies below them to cover their ears in pain, including Twilight who dropped her spell. “Well that’s not nice…” he muttered. “Twilight mind casting that spell again? Perhaps not as loud this time though.”
Twilight, still rubbing her ear in pain, begrudgingly cast the spell once more.
The clear voice of the Dalek emperor echoed from the lead ship.“We will hear none of your speeches or perorations, Doctor. You will surrender yourself immediately!”
The Doctor scoffed, mumbling, “Well you don’t need to be rude about it.” Which, even as a mumble, still came out as a mildly loud declaration. “Speaking of which, what’s all this then? Do you all form an alliance every time the universe is threatened, or is this just little annual get together?”
This time time the Cyberponies spoke. “The alliance was formed to eradicate the source of the contraction of the galaxy.”
Eleventh sighed. “Let me guess: the source is me?”
Now the Sontarans. “Affirmative! The Doctor surrounds the universe. It has been confirmed! You are the source. Surrender yourself this instant to be destroyed in a horrendously glorious fashion along with this puny world!”
Tenth stepped forward. “‘The Doctor surrounds the universe?!’” he yelled, questioning the alliance. Unlike his future self, his voice wasn’t amplified, so he had to scream to be heard. “What do you mean?! We’re right here!”
The Daleks once more. “Do not lie! The Doctor’s TARDIS has been detected at approximately 1,000,000,200,000 points along the perimeter of the universe!”
Everypony present stood in dead shock at this new revelation. The Doctors in particular were confused about the existence of over a trillion versions of the TARDIS. It was simply not possible.
Several dangerous lights lit up along the edges of each of the ships. A loud hum began permeating the air. The Daleks voice echoed far louder than before. “You will surrender, or you will be exterminated alongside this planet!”
Celestia mane flared, becoming a fiery red color. The air around them suddenly became very dry. “Doctor…” she warned, her voice low and dangerous.
Tenth turned back to her. “Now now. Calm down.” He screamed back up to the alliance, “Now, before I surrender myself, I just have one tiny question; just one. Why have you come for us instead of destroying the million versions of me? You have all those big impressive ships, why waste them all over two ponies? I mean, it’s just me and chinny face here; we’re nothing special. You’ve got an entire race to choose from. Why us?”
“You are the source! You are the original! You are the current!” A bright red light began charging at the forefront of the ship, causing the ponies’ collective eyes to shrink in fear. Ponies who had been watching from the ground began panicking once again. “You. Will. Be. Exterminated!”
Tenth turned to face the alicorns. “Princess!”
The bright red light burst into an onslaught of laser strikes, all aimed directly at where the Doctors had were standing. However, just as they fired, Celestia and Luna released their pent up magic to form a dual shield around the capitol.
Eleventh sighed in relief. “Oh thank goodness. I was afraid you’d do something else there for a second.”
Celestia grunted in annoyance. “He was right… Even if my sister were to strike back it wouldn’t stop the rest from attacking our citizens.”
“However, this shield will not protect the rest of Equestria should they decide to spread out,” added Luna, watching as the alliance of ships continued to wail on the blue and yellow shield. “I trust you have a plan, Doctor.”
Eleventh sauntered up and booped Luna’s nose, his face sporting a cheeky grin. “Oh Lulu, of course we have a plan,” he whispered. Nodding to his past self, the two earth ponies dashed off back into the castle with Derpy and Twilight right on their tails.
“Doctor,” yelled Derpy, calling to her respective partner. With her flight she caught up to the two fairly easily while Twilight trailed further behind on hoof. “I don’t understand, why are they after you?”
Tenth craned his head to reply as he and his other self rounded a corner. “They’re not after us, they’re after him! I’m plan B,” he said, gesturing to the Eleventh.
“Why?” she asked.
“I’m willing to wager that they know that I’m the current me so they think I orchestrated this. They think that if they kill me everything will go back to normal. And if they kill him, I won’t exist. So I suppose it really doesn't matter now does it?”
After a few minutes of running, the group burst through the large double doors to find themselves back inside the throne room. Finally the two slowed down and stopped in front of the TARDIS. Derpy landed next to them. “Doctor, what are you doing? What’s the plan?”
Tenth, being her Doctor, decided to answer while Eleventh opened the door. By this point, Twilight ran through the throne room entrance, with the princesses right behind her. “The plan is simple; we run as fast as we can, get them away from this planet before they decide to bomb the place.”
“That’s suicide!” exclaimed Twilight.
“Listen to me,” urged Eleventh, having opened the TARDIS doors. “Yes, it is suicidal, and yes, it is insane, but it’s our only option.” He threw his hoof to the sky. “That lot out there hasn't begun firing on us seriously yet but when they do this world's going up in flames and we’re they’re target. They’re waiting for something to happen; probably expecting us to do something clever.” He turned to face himself. “What they won’t be expecting is something normal, something that any hunted animal does.”
He turned once again and pointed to Derpy and Twilight. “Now, you two need to stay here to reassure your fri--”
“No!”
“No!”
“--ends and family that everthieeerrr... What was that now?”
Twilight and Derpy huffed simply strode past them and into the blue box without giving it a second thought, leaving both stallions gaping.
“Companions,” huffed Tenth, turning to face his other self. “I swear, each one is getting worse than the last. They never listen, not one of them.”
Eleventh nodded. “Oh, trust me, it gets worse. Just wait until you have a married couple on-board. Ugh, it’s all lips all the time. Just ignore the crazy old Doctor, let’s just smooch our problems away. Let’s not get into the plastic Romans and bitey mad ladies.”
“Yes…” Tenth hummed, rubbing his chin. “There seems to be a lot of that lately hasn't there? Kissing, I mean.”
His future self gave him a smug look as he adjusted his bow tie. “Though you must admit we have turned out quite dashing in these last few regenerations.” This got a smile from the brown pony as he adjusted his mane.
Before the stallion next to him could reply, though, both of them felt themselves being lifted up in a familiar azure glow, effectively stalling their conversation.
“Will you two cease your self gratificating prattling?” ordered Luna, setting them down. The stress of the situation clearly appeared to be getting to her, as she even seemed to be reverting to her old speech patterns. “Whilst we can agree to the fact that thou art very dashing, must we remind thee that our kingdom is under siege?!”
Celestia, however, appeared to be taking the situation more calmly, though a closer look would still reveal the worry in her eyes. “Doctor’s we don’t know what you are planning, but we need you to promise us that you will all return once this is over.”
The Doctor’s took one look at one another before giving the princesses determined looks. “We promise.” Just like that, they dashed into the TARDIS and closed the doors behind them. Not a few seconds passed before the tell-tale wheezing sound began signaling the machines departure through space.
Luna and Celestia looked on in a mix of nervousness and sadness. After the machine disappeared completely, Luna sighed softly. “Let us hope that the first rule does not apply in this instance…”
While Tenth closed the doors behind him, Eleventh ran past the girls. Reaching the console, he spun around and jutted a hoof on Twilight’s direction, stopping just in front of her muzzle. “This is your last chance. What we’re doing is practically suicide and is likely to get us killed unless I can think of something clever.”
Twilight just smiled and moved his hoof down with her own. “Then you better get thinking,” she said determinedly. “Because we need to save my planet.”
“Atta girl, Twilight!” cheered Tenth, dashing past her. “Ditzy, hop on the other end of the console would you. I’ll need you to aim.” He turned to his other self. “Doctor, are you ready.”
Eleventh smirked at his companion and stood next to him by the console. The second he touched the controls, the console sparked and fizzled. The normally chrome looking surroundings flashed and became the same hole filled walls that his past self had.
Tenth looked around curiously. He nudged his partner and grinned. “Look,” he chuckled, “it’s the round things, remember those?”
Eleventh also looked up in excitement. “Love the round things.”
“What are the round things?” he wondered.
“No idea…” There was another spark from the console and Derpy yelped in shock. Eleventh snapped out of his reverie and began flipping switches and pressing buttons. “But no time to figure that out now. The desktop is glitching, the universe is shrinking and worse of all, there two of Doctors in one TARDIS.” The Doctor stopped and began looking for a particular switch. “Frankly this is the worst case scenario. Let me just locate the friction contrafibulator,” he grunted, reaching under the console.
With a tug of the hidden lever, the desktop setting of the walls returned to their usual chrome appearance. Tenth looked around with a blank expression. “I never noticed but you changed things quite a bit in here… I don’t like it.”
The grey stallion just gave him a shocked look. Before he could retort, Derpy followed with, “I liked the old brown color. This just feels too... Cyberpony-ish.”
Eleventh turned to her with an even bigger shocked reaction, jaw rolling away somewhere.
Seeking validation, The Doctor turned to face Twilight, who had looked away with a shamed look on her face. “I didn’t want to say anything but…”
An explosion rocked the TARDIS, reminding everypony of what was at stake.
Eleventh ran over and took back his position with himself. He looked at Twilight and pointed a hoof to the other side of the console. “Twilight, please assist Ms. Doo.”
“Umm, sure.” Twilight ran over to Derpy’s side, only to see the mare pushing buttons at a fast pace, a look of intense concentration covering her wall eyed face. Twilight stared in awe. “He taught you how to pilot the TARDIS?!” she asked.
Derpy gave her a sheepish grin. “Well… he didn’t teach me… so much as I learned. Having the entire time vortex rattling around in your skull for a bit tends to have a few side effects.”
“YOU HAD THE WHAT IN YOUR WHERE?!” Twilight nearly screamed.
At that moment Tenth slammed a lever down. “Here we go!” The engines shot up and the ever so familiar rumbling of the TARDIS signaled the machine’s burst through space, reappearing above the planet.
When it stopped, Eleventh pulled the monitor over to him and looked out at the scene behind the doors. Instantly all of the armada’s ships ceased attacking the planet and turned towards him.
“They’ve noticed us! Time to do what we do best!” Eleventh announced.
Both he and his past self took hold of a wide red lever in front of them. They glanced at one another and nodded. Pulling the lever, both Doctors called out their signature phrase.
“Allons-Y”
“Geronimo!”
With another rumble the time machine shot through space as fast as it could, leading just about every enemy ship after it. Quickly the group began ducking and weaving around as the armada shot at the ship with everything they had. The box spun around, just barely dodging a ray from the Cyberponies.
The inside began shaking, the gravitational stabilizers being pushed to their absolute limit.
Twilight turned to her doctor, eyes wide and panicked. “Alright, Equestria’s safe, what do we do now?”
“Working on it!” Eleventh called back. He and his counterpart frantically rushed around the console, often bumping into one another in the process.
“This is usually the part where they come up with something to fix this,” Derpy observed, giving Twilight a nervous, twitching grin.
“Can’t we just travel through time and escape?” offered Twilight. “Or we could just turn invisible right?”
Eleventh stopped to point towards her, a wide smile on his face. “That’s my Sparkle! Always thinking of a solution!” he praised.
“Except we can’t do either of those things while they’re shooting at us,” answered Tenth. “They’re locked onto the TARDIS’ unique energy signature so invisibility won’t work. And time travel is dangerous for a number of different reasons.”
Stopping his fumbling on the console, The Doctor began counting off on his hooves. “We could get shot while entering the vortex, the armada could return to Equestria, The Daleks could use an emergency time shift to try to follow us. There are two of us in one TARDIS, and let’s not forget that time is shrinking around us so we might just end up in the exact same spot.”
“We get it!” yelled Twilight, riding out the shockwave of another near miss.
Derpy grabbed the monitor and ventured a look outside. Immediately, she gave a sharp gasp. “Fly down!” she yelled
“What?” yelled Eleven, turning to face her. Unlike him, however, Tenth grabbed a lever and let the TARDIS lurch downward, throwing the group into the air for a second.
As soon as he did a ear splittingly large screech hit their ears, forcing everyone to cover their ears in pain. It lasted less than a minute but for them it felt much longer.
“What is that!” screamed Twilight. Bring her hooves up to her face she found that she could not stop shaking, either that or her vision was affected by the noise.
Derpy tried to stand but immediately fell on her face. Unable to balance herself the resigned herself to staying low.
The Doctors, taking the noise better than their pony companions, quickly got back to the controls.
Tenth shook his head and pushed another button. “Side effect. Judging by the frequency of the sound the Judoon must have just taken a shot at us. Luckily Derpy saw it coming… how did you see that coming?” he asked, glancing back at her. “The Judoon’s Compression Cannon is almost invisible to the eye. An instant kill for runaways.”
Blushing, Derpy struggled not to meet his gaze; though it was tough with her particular vision problem. “I… I saw a version of us in front of the ship on the monitor explode.”
Tenth opened his mouth to chide her when his counterpart came over and threw a hoof around his shoulder. “Well it’s a good thing she did because then we just be stuff and bits in space!”
“Wait!” called out Twilight. There was a moment of silence as she looked up and around. “What happened to the turbulence?”
Both Doctors immediately ran to look into the console. “It was a trap!” announced Tenth. “We ran right into the Daleks repulsor ray…” Tenth turned to look at the mars, fear in his eyes. “They’ve caught us
Eleventh sighed and trotted around the console, brow furrowed.
Derpy whimpered, her eyes tearing up. “I… I’m sorry. If I hadn’t told you to move down we would…”
Tenth ran over and comforted her. “No, nooo,” he urged, bringing her up into a hug and patting her back. “This was inevitable. They were going to catch us anyway,” he soothed.
“I thought I’d at least come up with a proper plan before they did,” Eleventh muttered.
Twilight ran up in front of him and interrupted his pacing. “You still don’t have a plan?!”
Eleventh shrunk back slightly. “Well I almost had one but the bit of noise induced brain scrambling a little while ago knocked it out of me!”
After making sure that Derpy was alright, Tenth sighed. “Well considering the fact that we aren't being annihilated at the moment, I’m guessing they’re being stereotypical villains and want to watch us die in person. Maybe we can use this to our advantan—”
There was a blue flash and an influx of, searing pain. Derpy and Twilight both let out a scream and all four of them fell to the ground.
Once the pain subsided into a less thought shattering amount, Tenth opened his eyes to see himself and the group surrounded by just about every enemy, both past and future. There were the Judoon—the ones who weren't employed by the Shadow Proclamation anyway—the Racnoss, the Daleks, Cyberponies and others. In front of each group stood one specimen that, The Doctor assumed, were the respective leaders or representatives.
His feebly tried to get up, but found himself almost glued to the ground.
Despite his incapacitation, Tenth still managed a cheeky grin. “Oh, look at you all, nice and organized by species. I don’t know whether to comment about racial separation or to thank you for not flaring my OCD.”
Over next to her respective Doctor, Twilight groaned, her face still flat on the ground. “Doctor… shut up,” she mumbled. Concentrating, she slowly began to gather power in her horn.
“Caution! Magic detected!” alerted the Cyberleader. At his call just about every enemy readied a form of weapon, all of which were directed at Twilight.
One of the Sontarans took an angry step forward. “Girl, cease your magic this moment or I will break your horn off and forcibly reattach it backwards!” With an eep, Twilight ceased her spell. The Sontaran nodded towards his leader.
“Doctor!” screamed the lead Sontaran. “Reverse your effect on the universe now and you will only suffer a mildly painful death!”
“Please!” yelled Eleventh, struggling to stand. “We aren't the ones doing this. Let us go and we’ll find whoever really is doing it.”
“It has been confirmed!” droned the Cyberleader. “The Doctor’s TARDIS surrounds the universe. They are unreachable.”
“Then why would we be here then?” asked Tenth. Like his other self, he too struggled against his gravity bonds to stand. “If there’s something preventing you all from reaching the edges of the universe the why would we be here, well within reach.”
“KO! SCO BO TRO NO FLO KO TO TO!” bellowed the largest rhino-looking pony warrior, the clear leader of the Judoon.
“Wh- what did they say?” muttered Derpy, still stuck to the ground.
“They don’t care about our motives or why we’re here,” whispered Eleventh. “Do you think killing us will even stop it?” he proclaimed.
“Extermination of The Doctor is only the second course of action!” answered the lead Dalek.
Tenth’s eyes went wide. “What?” Now that both he and his future self were standing both stared up at the armada. “What do you mean?”
“Oh no,” muttered the Eleventh. “Not again…” Arching his head, he struggled to look behind them.
Tenth stared at him in confusion before following his gaze. “What? What do you… Oh no…”
Turning their heads along the ground, both Derpy and Twilight turned to find a large monitor open behind them. The vision activated to reveal the outside of the ship, and the TARDIS floating idly in the tractor beam. Behind it, the rest of the armada’s ships had surrounded it. Slowly, the outside of the box began to light up a variety of colours and the hum of energy began building in everyone’s ears.
“Doctor,” muttered Derpy, her voice quivering with fear. “What’s happening? What are they going to do?”
Eleventh practically fell over turning back around. “Please! Don’t! We aren't the ones, you have to believe us!” he pleaded.
The ships on the other side of the box began charging their own weapons.
Tenth followed suit. “If you destroy the TARDIS like this you’ll kill us all! Then nothing will be able to stop whomever is actually doing this!”
Even Twilight chipped in. Pushing herself to her limit, she too stood up event though though her wings were still forced to the ground. “Y-you’re making a mistake!”
“Rule one!” proclaimed the Cyberleader.
The ships around the TARDIS all primed their weapons and the tractor beam disappeared from around the ship.
“The Doctor lies!” finished the Daleks.
“NO!” screamed the earth ponies. Both turned around just in time to see just about every ship fire on his simultaneously. The blue boxed rocked back and forth under the hail of fire. They all watched as the windows cracked, the wood break and the outside start to disintegrate. The hail of energy beams continued to bombard the poor girl. Slowly, the box began to spark, the outside began glowing a deadly red colour, and smoke began spewing from the cracks.
Acting on instinct, Twilight’s horn lit up just as the TARDIS exploded, blowing each and every thing away and completely incinerating the surrounding ships.
Opening her eyes, Derpy glanced around to make sure that she was alive.The first thing she saw in front of her was a violet coloured bubble. Flickering pitifully, the cracked shield floated aimlessly among the scattered debris of countless enemy ships.
“Wha… what?” she jittered, looking around. Eventually she turned to see both Doctors tending to Twilight who was unconscious between them. The first thing she noticed was that her horn was smoking and her nose was practically running with blood. “On my Celestia, what happened!”
Tenth, finished checking her pulse and head. “She shielded us from the blast with all her might. Most likely blew a blood vessel and emptied her magical reserves making the bubble sustainable. Fantastic,” he whispered, smiling.
Eleventh meanwhile, was cradling her head in his hooves, a proud but sad smile on his face. “Element of Magic indeed. An exploding TARDIS is akin to a star blowing up.” He sighed. “Oh Twilight…”
Derpy frantically looked around, her anxiety making her eyes misalign even worse than usual. She spied the eye stalk of a Dalek float on by outside of the bubble. “Wh-what do we do now?” she stuttered.
Tenth sighed and looked around. “I… I don’t know. This bubble won’t last long. And even if it does the air definately wont. The TARDIS is likely destroyed and every ship that they had is likely destroyed.” The Doctor gingerly touched the bubble surrounding them. At his touch the bubble rippled and quivered dangerously, prompting him to quickly remove his hoof.
“Our only option is to use the wreckage to salvage a way back to Equestria but we can’t do that without breaking the bubble that’s keeping us alive.”
“So…? Think of something! You’re the Doctors?” whimpered Derpy, looking between the two of them. Eleventh met her gaze for a second before turning away.
Carefully, Tenth moved over and sat a hoof around her. Derpy looked up at him, eyes watering. Her Doctor looked directly into them for a few seconds before even he was forced to close his and bring her into a hug. “Oh Ditzy, I want to say ‘of course there’s a way’. But I think... this might be it.”
Gasping, Derpy leaned into his grip and resigned herself to her fate. Eleventh looked down at Twilight for a moment before closing his eyes as well.
For a time, the group sat in silence, the bubble around them flickering more and more.
Vworrrp Vworrrrp
Then, a familiar sound filled everyone’s ears. Head’s snapped up in shock as something formed around the bubble.
“No…” breath the Doctors. Slowly, phasing in and out, were the familiar chrome walls of his TARDIS.
Soon enough the machine fully appeared around them. The inside of the box was very well worse for wear. Lights flickered, the console sparked, the room was half dark, and the two rotating wheels above the console had been knocked askew, causing them to rotate up against each other producing a light screech while the engine whined down.
“How?” whispered Tenth, looking around.
“You never did know how to use a TARDIS, Doctor.” The Doctors’ respective heads snapped towards the dark half of the console to see a figure hunched over the controls. It was then that the Time Lords could make out the sound of laboured breathing coming from the figure.
An odd feeling washed over the Doctors. “You…?” muttered Tenth.
“Impossible…” said the other one. Derpy looked between them curiously, still trying to catch up.
Limping over to the Doctors the sight of another earth pony exited the darkness, revealing his light blue coat and blond mane. A mild smirk was on his face, exposing a few sharp fangs that were hidden behind his lips. Once in the light, Derpy saw his familiar cutie mark. An hourglass alongside a drum.
“Yes, it’s me,” the stallion muttered, walking up to them. “But… you know, Doctors, both of you owe me now.”
Chuckling gleefully, he reared up and leaned both of his hooves and his face on the bubble. “Feel free to tell me which one of those scares you more.”
