The last gasp of the Time War has come to Equestria...
Most ponies, when they see a pony with an hourglass cutie mark, would figure that it would mean their talent has something to do with time, or clocks, or another harmless meaning. Technically, the first is true, but there is a hidden meaning beneath it. To those that carry it, they know that the hourglass marks them as refugees, survivors from a war that would make any normal pony go mad from glimpsing just a fraction of the sheer scope of it. These unusual ponies have all found asylum in Equestria, but now, one last escapee will be followed by an evil that will threaten to ignite the conflict anew and bring down their last refuge with it.
But this newcomer not only brings the remains of the conflict with him, but is their best and only hope of ending it once and for all.
The last gasp of the Time War has come to Equestria. The Doctor will find old friends, make new ones...and face off with one of his greatest foes, one last time.
Blinking slowly to consciousness, the pony, known to her classmates as Colgate, sat up in her bed and turned to look at the large grandfather clock that dominated a good chunk of her dorm room. She had a feeling something was off even before her eyes managed to focus on the clock's face, and then she knew. Though it was letting out a steady stream of bongs like it was striking midnight, the time shown was 2:26. Now wide awake, the blue unicorn filly sprang out of bed and rushed over to the room's desk, pulling the main drawer open with a flash of her horn and began rustling through the assorted odds and ends that had been building up in it over the course of her studies. Oh, where is the blasted thing!? She growled in mental frustration. Honestly, she was so unorganized this time around…or maybe she had just become complacent. After all, it’d been a long while since she’d gotten a call like this…
With a quiet ‘Ha!’ of triumph, she finally pulled the object of her search from the clutter: a silver, spade shaped, pendant on a fine chain. Rushing over to the still chiming clock she slid the keyhole cover on the clock’s face aside, revealing a slot that fit the pendant perfectly. With a click, she turned it like the key it actually was, causing the door to the clock’s case to swing open, as the clock itself went quiet. Taking a quick glance at the door of her room to make sure no one was about to come knocking, or worse, bursting in to complain about the noise, she pulled the clock’s door the rest of the way open, and, impossibly, for the space should have been far too small for even a young pony filly, stepped inside.
Of course, the clock wasn’t exactly a real clock, any more than she was exactly a pony. Well, maybe...not exactly 100% on that… Colgate mused to herself. But she filed that thought away for another time. She stepped through the clock from her dorm room into a room that was about as opposite of it as it could get. For starters, it was over double the size of the former. Another stray musing told her that she wouldn’t have to squeeze around during study sessions if she just moved back in here, but she quickly squashed that one. Unlike some of the others, one of which was no doubt the reason for tonight’s interruption of her rest, she was determined to live as close to a normal Equestrian lifestyle as she could.
Aside from its size, the room was hexagonally shaped, its walls and floor made mostly of a dark silvery metal, its ceiling, except for a circular area in the center, was a circle of metal mesh panels. Every other wall was dominated by a pattern of large blue roundels, with rods at the seams giving off a low light, illuminating the room. The wall behind her contained a large set of double doors, far larger than the clock case she had entered through. The back right wall was bare save for a, currently dark, monitor set into the center. The remaining wall was centered by a single door decorated with a couple more of the blue roundels on it. Finally, in the center, was a six part set of control consoles, each part of the console facing outward towards one of the walls. Colgate trotted up to the one facing her and tapped a hoof on one of the larger buttons. With a whir, the entrance way doors swung closed, and she knew that outside the clock door had done the same. No sense in risking awkward situations on the off chance someone did choose to violate her privacy.
Pressing another control to bring the lights up to normal, she moved over to the panel in front of the monitor screen, and finally got around to dealing with the reason she’d gotten up: someone was calling. A few quick switch flicks, a rather impressive feat for someone with hooves if she said so herself, and Colgate turned to face the screen as it flickered to life. On it appeared the image of a green coated, orange stripe maned, older earth pony mare standing in a room similar, but subtly different, to the one she was in. On each of her flanks, just as they were on her own, were matching hourglass cutie marks. Colgate gave a weary sigh, recognizing the other pony at once. “Rani…I’m not sure if you’re aware that there’s almost no time difference between Canterlot and Manhatten, so there’d better be a good reason for getting me up at this hour…”
The other pony gave her a smug little smile before answering. “My dear R-“
“Colgate,” she interrupted testily.
Rani’s smile didn’t fade in the slightest. “Of course, Colgate,” she said with an underlying tone of mocking humor. “My dear Colgate, is it so hard to believe that I can’t just want to chat for old time’s sake?”
“Given that it’s you…yes,” Colgate responded deadpan.
“You wound me, but true enough. You see, I’d just gotten back from one of the Orange’s delightful dinner parties and decided to do a round of TTC maintenance…”
“Mmmhmm…” Colgate murmured in a tone that urged Rani to get to the point. At the same time she noted that she was behind on her own maintenance schedule.
Rani sighed in annoyance, “In any case, while I was busy with that, my scanners picked something up. It seems we have another new arrival.”
Colgate perked up at this. “Really? After all this time I would have thought that…” …That there’d be no one left… “…that anyone who was coming would have already come by now.”
“Yes, well…apparently not. In any case, they came through somewhere outside Canterlot, so naturally I did my duty and contacted you.”
“Naturally…” Colgate sighed. She’d hoped to be able to relax for once this weekend. She turned away from Rani, and moved over to another part on the console, bringing up the data for arch reprogramming she’d need. “Since you were so kind to monitor their entrance, I don’t suppose you’d be more specific as to their landing coordinates?”
Rani glanced at something outside Colgate’s viewpoint. “Hrrm, small village in the valley, Ponyville I think it’s called. A farm on the outskirts, I’m sending the exact location now. …Funny coincidence, the Orange’s niece was talking tonight about how she came from a farm…”
“Yes, well, if you’ll excuse me, I need to pack for the weekend,” Colgate interrupted again, wanting to end the conversation now that she had the details.
“Of course, but there was one more thing… Their entrance was rather messy. I wouldn’t be surprised if her royal nagness herself felt it…”
Colgate gave a small groan as she telekinetically pulled out a small data module. “Yes well, Princess Celestia,” she stressed the alicorn’s name and title to her colleague, “will still expect us to handle our own.”
“Oh I know, but my point is, the power behind the dimensional displacement was powerful enough that I was able to get a good read on the TTC’s signature…”
Colgate froze. Something in the way Rani had said that made her just KNOW that this seemingly insignificant detail about the new arrival was going to in fact be VERY significant. “…And?”
“And…it was a Type 40.”
The data module clattered to the floor as Colgate’s jaw metaphorically joined it.
Rani nodded from the other side of the screen. “Yes, I thought that would get your attention…” she said aloud, then muttered to herself, “…it certainly got mine.”
Colgate didn’t answer. Her already light blue coat had gone a shade or two paler. Forget the weekend…I need to get to Ponyville NOW!
The boom from the direction of the orchards was what woke him.
Or rather, it would have, but Macintosh hadn’t been sleeping much lately. Not since Applejack had gone off to Manehatten. …Not since Ma and Pa had… He squeezed his eyes shut and forced the memories away. Something was happening out in his family’s livelihood. He couldn’t mope about the past right now. Rolling out of bed and onto his hooves, Mac headed over to his room’s window, lifting it open so he could look out. He saw it after a moment: a small pillar of…smoke, steam? A cloud of…something, rising from the orchards out by the edge of the fields. Whatever it was, what he didn’t see was any sign of a glow from a fire, but better to check it and be sure. The last thing he needed was the farm burning down on his watch on top of everything else. Not to mention what Granny would do to him if he let it…
Speaking of, by the sounds, or lack thereof, from inside, it seemed both she and little Apple Bloom had managed to sleep through the racket. Not that either of them would be able to help much in any case. No…he was the stallion of the family now, up to him to deal with whatever this was.
Slipping on his collar out of habit, Mac headed out of his room and quietly trotted downstairs and outside before jogging out to investigate. The moon was full tonight, displaying the dark patches of the so-called Mare in the Moon clearly, as well as giving him enough light to easily find his way out to the site of the disturbance. Whatever he’d expected to find, what he found was probably anything but. Sitting in the middle of a small crater amongst, ironically, several of the Macintosh trees, was…a large blue box.
The young colt blinked at the improbability of this. The box was two, maybe two and a half or more average ponies high, and maybe one long. It appeared to be made of wood, with each side consisting of panels that were topped with a small pair of windows, above which were words that read POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX. On top, what looked like a small lantern flickered weakly every other moment or two. The square bottom was partially jammed into the ground at one corner, causing the whole thing to be tilted slightly.
Mac stood and stared for a moment before he managed to gather his nerve. Cautiously walking closer, he also began slowly circling it, looking it over from all sides. As he did, he noticed one side was different from the others. A little over half way up were a pair of metal handles, the one on the right topped by what looked like a keyhole. Doors, maybe? Also, the left side panel right below the window seemed to have another sign posted on it. Gathering his courage, Mac approached close enough to read it.
POLICE TELEPHONE FREE FOR USE OF PUBLIC ADVICE & ASSISTANCE OBTAINABLE IMMEDIATELY OFFICERS & CARS RESPOND TO ALL CALLS PULL TO OPEN
As he stood contemplating what this could mean, as well as wondering what a telephone or a car was, the door on his right suddenly swung inward, letting out a small cloud of smoke even as the colt jumped back in alarm. There was the sound of someone coughing, before something staggered out, leaning heavily against the door frame. It was taller than anypony Mac had ever seen, maybe even as big as the Princess, though he’d never seen her in person to be able to compare. It stood on its hind legs, which were far longer than its front pair…which ended in things that resembled pictures he’d seen of gryphon or dragon claws. Completely hairless except for a short, unkempt mane on top of its rather round head, it was also dressed in a tweed suit, complete with pants and a dark blue bow tie. It raised a foreleg and waved away the smoke from its face with its claw before finally noticing Mac, who by now had gone completely wide eyed and stiff.
“Oh…ponies,” it spoke, much to the colt’s surprise. “…Weirdly colored ponies with…butt tattoos… But that’s ok! Ponies…ponies are cool…”
Unsure of how to respond to that, if he even should, Mac’s jaw worked soundlessly for a second before he managed to get out, “Er…Eeyup?”
The creature's eyes widened in surprise. “Talking ponies!? That’s…new…and completely brilliant…” it muttered…and then collapsed to the ground in front of Macintosh’s hooves…conveniently pulling the door shut behind itself.
Mac just stared down at it for the time being, a small part of himself at the back of his mind having a feeling that he was going to wish he could go back to his biggest troubles being his sister going away…
He smiled, looking over the data reports, the readings, measurements, and figures all pointing to one logical meaning:
"So...he's finally arrived..."
A wave of his hand dismissed the hologram, another called his attendants. They glided in, quietly, quickly, and most importantly, obediently. "The plan must be accelerated. Until further notice, all weapons are to be set to incapacitate only. We cannot afford to waste potential...recruits," he ordered, and then with one last wave, dismissed them to enact his commands. When he was alone, he grinned, and chuckled to the empty darkness.
"Round and round our little game has gone, Doctor...but everything must have its end. This time...this time there will be no place for either of us to run to. One way...or another, our game will finally have its victor..."
You've gone off your rocker, Macintosh.
"Eeyup..."
Your rocker, Granny Smith's rocker, and even the rockers on Apple Bloom's crib.
"I reckon so..."
And yer talkin' to yourself too...
Mac bit off any response to that. But still, it was the only answer that made sense right now. Either he was insane...or he really had put an ALIEN in the barn and was currently engaged in dragging said alien's...space ship? Escape pod? ...It didn't really look like much of either, at least according to the comic books he used to read. Anyhow, he wouldn't be pulling...IT into the barn too.
Well...ok, if he was really honest, he probably would be pulling the thing into the barn no matter what, 'cause whatever else she thought of it, Mac knew that Granny Smith's first reaction to the thing would be to order him to haul it out of the orchards. So maybe he was only HALF crazy, but that still left him with an ALIEN in the barn. An alien that'd he'd put in the barn in the first place, once it had passed out after calling him a 'talking pony' (a description which, however else he felt about it, he had to admit was perfectly accurate). Not knowing what else to do, Mac had fallen back on what he'd been taught: Apple Family Hospitality. And Apple Family Hospitality (or AFH) said that you didn't leave a guest, no matter how unusual, lying in the orchards in the middle of the night. So he'd slung the fellow onto his back as best he could, (he was assuming that...whatever it was, was male, though he was working on the sound of its voice alone), and carry/dragged him up to the barn, lay him out on some hay bales, and got him a couple blankets; one for a pillow and one for just a blanket.
That settled, for the time being at least, he'd grabbed the tow line, and gone back to hitch up the...box and began pulling it up to the barn, all the while trying to figure out whether he'd gone plum loco, or if this was really happening. This was Ponyville after all. The wildest things that happened around here either involved the Everfree Forest or little fillies stuck in a well. Blue boxes did not just drop out of the night sky and spit out alien visitors that-
...Was gone!
Macintosh had reached the barn's door and could clearly see the spot where he had left the creature, and, except for the blankets, that spot was now empty! He rushed forward...and was yanked back abruptly as he was reminded that he was still hitched to the...box. UNhitching himself, he quickly galloped inside. It was gone! It was loose! It could be doing who knows what!? It could-!
"Mmm, these are excellent, really!"
...It could be halfway through a basket of fresh apples and showing no signs of stopping.
"Oh yes..." he muttered, halfway through a bright red apple, "I can't remember if I like apples or not...but these..." He sighed happily, "I take back anything bad I ever might have said about apples. Apples are brilliant!"
"Uh...thank ya kindly," Macintosh said, his manners about the only thing he could recall at the moment.
The alien looked up from its impromptu meal. "Oh, hey, its the talking pony! Ponies that talk, never come across that before I don't think. Lizard people, spider people, squid people, fish people, TREE people, but never pony people. ...It is pony, right?"
Macintosh just nodded.
"Oh good, was worried it was horse people for a moment there. Some races are really touchy about what kind of whatever people you call them." He paused a moment, glancing down at the half eaten apple it was holding. "Oh, right...apple trees, rather farmy setting. Probably your apples I'm eating then? Yes, sorry about that...just woke up absolutely famished and there they were. So I thought 'oh just one, couldn't hurt...' But of course I had the one and OH YES, just couldn't stop! What DO you use on these, uh...er...hmm, I don't believe I got your name..."
"M-Macintosh," Mac answered, finding his voice. Of course, the heaping amount of praise for his family's produce had definitely helped things along. "And nothin', mister. We grow 'em all natural right here at Sweet Apple Acres, Eeyup!"
"Macintosh...really?" the alien answered, leaning forward curiously. "Apple red pony with apple on its backside, has an apple name and lives on an apple farm... You seem to have an apple theme going here, Macintosh. I like that, it's interesting, and I like interesting things." He suddenly finished off the apple he'd been eating and looked over to the open door, as if seeing it for the first time. "And a helpful talking apple pony too!" Tossing the apple core with perfect aim into a nearby barrel, the alien stood up and practically bounded over to the box. "Brought the TARDIS up with you! Thanks very much, Macintosh!"
Mac turned and followed him over. "Tardis...that what you call your...um...?"
"Ship? Yes, space ship!" he answered, "Well...time ship, really...well, time AND space ship. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. T-A-R-D-I-S, TARDIS!" His face suddenly turned serious as he turned back to the ship. "And I'd better give you a once over to make sure nothing got banged up too bad, yes..." he told it, almost soothingly.
Macintosh seemed to snap out of his haze. "Wait, so yer leavin'?" he asked, disappointment evident, "Just like that?"
"Oh, not quite," he said with a shake of his head. "Like I said, got to make sure the old girl's ok. See...I was in kind of a fight before I got here...not sure with who really....though it was almost familiar..." He shook his head again, snapping from the quiet serious voice back to the happy, energetic one he'd been using earlier. "So no! Not leaving just yet. Besides, just got here! I'm the Doctor by the way," he said, introducing himself out of nowhere.
"Doctor?" Mac repeated, cocking his head quizzically. "Doctor who?"
"Love it when they do that..." the Doctor said to himself, then aloud to the colt, "Just, the Doctor!" He reached into an inner pocket of his jacket, taking out a small brass key which he used to unlock the door. "...Say, while I'm busy...you wouldn't want a quick peek?" he asked.
Mac glanced at the TARDIS and back to the Doctor. "Er...won't it be sorta cramped?"
The Doctor just grinned, pushing the door opening and motioning the colt to step inside. "Take a look..."
Curiosity getting the better of him, the colt walked past the strange alien and was halfway inside when he stopped dead. Mac immediately backed out, did a full gallop around the TARDIS, then stuck his head back in. Now he KNEW he was crazy. "It's...bigger on the inside!"
The Doctor, who had silently mouthed the words as Macintosh had said them, grinned like, well, a madman with a box. "Love it when they do that too." Nudging the colt the rest of the way inside, he started to follow, but stopped suddenly, grabbing the opposite door, leaning out and looking around with an inscrutable look on his face. "Something...else familiar here too..." He frowned. He knew this familiar feeling, which is why it was impossible that he could be feeling it. ...Or it was an impossible trap. Either way...he had stuff to do and someone to show off in front of, so he put it aside for the moment and went inside to where Macintosh was getting his first dose of the wonders of the TARDIS.
What on Equestria was I THINKING, regenerating so young!? Colgate internally yelled at herself as she galloped down through the city from the Academy. She had arranged for a carriage to Ponyville, but first she had to get down to meet it. Oh, I know what I was thinking...we agreed to integrate, to blend in! And as former Lady President, I decided to set the example and start as close to scratch as I could manage. ...No, really, what in Omega's empty helmet was I thinking? She sighed. It had been a good gesture at the time, and she'd had no way of anticipating THIS situation. Still...filly legs were not conductive to traveling as quickly as she'd like right now. She would have just taken her own TARDIS...but not only was she not supposed to use it, but the last thing she wanted to do was spook HIM into doing something foolish...like running off.
Oh yes, that would be a pleasant conversation with the Princess. 'Yes your highness, not only is there a rogue time-lord loose in your dimension, and he's possibly the singularly most dangerous, unpredictable member of us ever known, but oh don't worry, his actions usually turn out for the better...usually.' ...Oooh, I should have brought K-9 along to stun him...
"Three-twenty H, three-twenty I..." Pipedream counted off as the lanky earth pony trotted through the tunnel. Most of the time...he loved his job. Heck, as a foal he used to run around these tunnels all the time, in between groundings. Then there were times like these: getting called in to be sent through the oldest, dankest, parts of the Canterlot sewer system because some stuck up nobles had low water pressure. And not only were the old tunnels the nastiest, but the pipes were worse. Odds were this was a blockage, a leak...or his favorite: a leak caused by a blockage.
"Three-twenty K...here we go." He lifted a hoof, tapped the pipe, then felt it carefully. "Yep...dry..." he sighed. Reaching back into his saddlebags, he pulled out a folded up set of blueprints, jerked it open, and carefully lay it on a dry spot on the pipe. A quick check later and he was moving down the tunnel again, following 3-23 K back til he found the problem. His ears perked up as he heard the sounds of water in the pipes again, meaning he was close. "And here we...are..." No wonder there was low flow, it looked like someone had tapped the pipe and had run another line to... "What the clop?" The new pipe led to a hole in the tunnel wall...only the hole was perfectly cut, like someone had dug another tunnel, maybe using some fancy digging spell or something. Either way it wasn't on his plans. Who the heck had even dug this? No way was this legal, especially this close to the...
His thoughts trailed off and his eyes widened as he mentally plotted his map of the tunnel systems with the city. If he was figuring it right...this freaky tunnel was pointed right towards the palace! Swallowing nervously, Pipedream considered his options. One the one hoof, he should probably go tell someone about this...on the other, he wasn't about to risk his job in case this turned out to be a case of one bureaucrat not talking to another. For all he knew, this was an extra line put in for the Princess' new swimming pool or something, and someone had lost paperwork somewhere... Cry manticore on that...at best he looks like a stupid foal, at worst he gets canned...
Grumbling to himself, he adjusted his helmet and headed down the new tunnel. Except for the pipe running along the top, it was utterly featureless, but the further he went he could hear this weird sound. A steady bump-bump, almost like a heartbeat, but it sounded...metallic? All of a sudden the tunnel opened up into a crossway. There was a high pitched whir to his left and he quickly turned his gaze in that direction.
Something gazed back.
Pipedream screamed and turned to flee. There was a flash of green light, a loud wail of some kind, and his world went dark.
"No...that can't be right..." The Doctor muttered. He twisted a couple dials, flicked a switch or two, and looked at the monitor again. "...But that would mean- But then why...?
The sound of hoofsteps pulled him out of his musings as Macintosh found his way back to the console room. "...Do ya know ya have a whole hoofball field back there?" the colt asked with a hint of awe.
"Been wondering where that went," the Doctor responded with a grin, figuring 'hoofball' to be a pony equivalent of football or other outdoor sport. "Macintosh...I've been noticing some strange things about your planet. Have you noticed?"
The pony just looked at him funny. "Fer instance?"
"Well, for starters, the sun and moon seem to be locked in a perfectly balanced orbit around us. As in, the sun and moon both orbit this planet."
"Uh...isn't it supposed to be like that?"
"No, not normally no..." his eyes flicked left and right in thought. "...At least not according to the laws of physics I'm used to." He was silent for almost a whole moment before going on. "Second weird thing. Except for an odd patch here and there, this planet shouldn't have any weather. In fact, that means there shouldn't be able to be an apple farm for apple ponies outside. This whole space except for that forest over yonder should be dried up desert, but its not. In fact, it was quite pleasant out. Why's that?"
Mac blinked, suddenly feeling like he was being interrogated. "Well, 'cause th' pegasai do the weather. At least 'round here..."
"Pegasai?" The doctor repeated, both confused and intrigued by this. "You have pegasai...that control the weather?"
"Eeyup."
"And by pegasai, I'm talking about ponies with wings, right?"
"Uh...eeyup."
The Doctor grinned like someone who'd been told that Hearth's Warming day was happening twice. "That's brilliant, really. I think I'm going to like it here!" He turned and practically hopped back over to the console. "Speaking of here, I suppose I should get started having a look around. But first!" He turned back to Macintosh and suddenly knelt down to look the colt in the eyes. "Macintosh, Mac, my helpful little apple pony...you've been very helpful to me today, which I might have mentioned. So, as a thank you, I'd like to take you on a quick trip. A trip to anywhere, anywhen, time or place, that you'd like to go. So how 'bout it?"
It was at this point that it really sank in for Macintosh. Through all the wonders, doubts about his own sanity, and other craziness that had happened over the last few ours, on simple truth bubbled its way to the top of his mind:
He was standing in a TIME MACHINE.
Yes, there were plenty of places and times he'd have loved to go and see. But if this was for real, and not just the result of him getting hit on the head by a stray apple...then there was only one time he wanted to go back to right now. Only one thing he wanted to do... He opened his mouth to give his answer...
As if he had read the colt's intentions just by looking him in the eyes, which for all Mac knew, he could, the Doctor suddenly held up a finger to pause him. "I should clarify a little something. This trip's just for fun, just for a good time and laughs. No changing things around. Its dangerous, and generally not such a good idea in any case."
Well, so much for that idea. "...Ok, then could ya...take me ta Manehatten?"
"...MANEhatten?" The Doctor asked incredulously. "...I take it that's a city?"
"Yeah!" Mac said with a nod. "My sister's there, ya see, and...well, kinda wanted to talk to her..." Make sure this isn't really all a dream...
Maybe ask her to come back to th' farm...
"Just a little hop over to Manehatten? Sounds a bit tame, I mean, TIME MACHINE! Isn't there, I dunno, a favorite time in...Ponyland history-"
"Equestria..."
"Equestrian history... ...Equestria, really? ...This world really takes the theme naming idea and runs with it, doesn't it?" He trailed off on seeing the colt's face fall. ...He hated seeing sad kids, especially sad PONY kids. ...Somehow that just made it worse. Turning back to the console he began setting the controls. "But right, no problem, one round trip to MANEhatten, comming up! " he said with a wink, then threw the main lever. The crystal column of in center of the console began to move up and down and there was a loud grinding and wheezing noise coming from all around.
...And then the room lurched to the right.
The Doctor winced as he grabbed hold of the side of the console, even as Macintosh found himself dropped to the floor. "...Ok, that wasn't supposed to happen."
Colgate left the chariot waiting at the gate as she trotted towards the barn. With luck, she wouldn't need it for the return trip, but when you were dealing with the Doctor, it paid to be prepared. And finally, there it was. A small, nostalgic, smile come to her as she spotted the still familiar shape of his TARDIS. "...Oh Doctor, still haven't fixed that circuit yet?" The 'filly' gave a small sigh. Then she got a sudden chill. There was a loud 'thump' sound from the TARDIS, followed by a distinctive wheezing noise.
"Oh no, no, no!" Colgate exclaimed, breaking into a gallop even as first the beacon on top, and then the whole exterior began to pulse with a bright glow. "Doctor stop!" she shouted as she ran, in a futile attempt to catch his attention. "Doctor! DOCTOR!" But it was too late. By the time she made it to the barn, there was only a fading whistling sound left of its presence.
Colgate panted a moment in the now empty space, catching her breath. "Yes...I think it's...official..." she muttered between pants. "I'm going...to KILL him..."
Ditzy Doo was not having a good day. Actually, that was probably the understatement of at least the week. She was having a terrible day. And her eyes were certainly doing their best to not help the situation. They'd gone crossed, AGAIN, and almost no one ever took her seriously when her eyes went crossed. And the pegasus really needed to be taken seriously right now. But no, they'd gone and let her down not once, but three times so far, as she waited for the officer in front of her to read her report.
"So let me get this straight," the police stallion sitting across from her said as he levitated up a donut out of the Pony Joe's box sitting next to him. "It says here that you're reporting that, last night, several ponies broke into your home, and assaulted your father, a member of the royal guard?"
Ditzy nodded emphatically.
"But when he managed to fight them off, he was shot...with a laser beam...from a giant salt-shaker? ...At which point you escaped by flying out an upstairs window..." The officer paused and looked at her skeptically. "...Kid, does this look like a creative writing class at the university to you?"
Focusing her willpower, she blinked once, setting her eyes straight, and managed to force out a single word. "Truth!"
The unicorn sighed. "Look miss...I'm not saying something didn't happen to your pops, but lasers and giant salt monsters?"
Ditzy managed to give him the best pleading look she could. Her right eye tried to roll out of alignment, but she managed to force it back before it was too noticeable. She knew that if she'd heard this story herself, she'd think it was a joke too, but she'd seen that...thing for herself!
The officer sighed again, defeated. "All right, I guess we can send someone to look things over at least...but this better not be a-"
"Ditzerella!"
Ditzy's ears shot up and she turned around in surprise. Standing in the doorway was a tall grey unicorn stallion in full, golden, royal guard armor. He was staring at her with a blank expression.
"Papfin?" she gasped, then jumped out of her chair to rush over to him. "Papfin what harmony? You gas shout!" she said, so happy to see him that she didn't care that everything was coming out jumbled.
"Mr. Doo I take it?" the officer she'd been talking to asked as he too stood up.
"Lieutenant," her father clarified.
The officer nodded, "Right, well, Lieutenant Doo...maybe you could clear some things up for us. Your daughter here claims you were...attacked last night."
"I'm afraid whatever my daughter's been telling you is...untrue."
Ditzy's entire mind ground to a halt. ...What?
"It's unfortunate, but she occasionally has periods where she is unable to distinguish reality from fantasy. She had a particularly bad episode last night and ran out. I've been looking for her since."
Ditzy stared up at her father in shock, her complete loss of focus causing both her eyes to move out of place. No no no...this wasn't happening. Her own father, who had spent her entire life telling her that, whatever problems she might have, that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her mind, was NOT telling the police she was delusional!
The officer glanced at her with a bit of sorrow. "Ah...sorry to hear that. But, well, she appears to be just fine otherwise, and no harm done here. Glad we could help you find her, you're both free to go of course."
"Of course," Lieutenant Doo said then, not quite gently, nudged the still disbelieving Ditzy towards the exit. "Lets go Ditzerella."
Her mind still in partial shutdown, she numbly obeyed, too shocked to do otherwise.
Macintosh rubbed his bruised flank as he stood up. After a couple minutes, the TARDIS had finally stopped shaking and had settled back down. "Ugh, this sorta thing happen often, Doc?"
"Don't call me Doc, makes me sound like I'm a cartoon character," He was jumping from panel to panel on the console, dragging the screen that hung above it around and glancing at it every few seconds. "And sometimes...but shouldn't have this time... Felt more like the TARDIS was yanked off course...or maybe went off course by itself..."
"So we didn' make it ta Manehatten then?"
"No, most likely not, sorry..."
Mac couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed about that, but it wasn't the Doctor's fault things went sideways. "So where did we go?"
"A good question my dear pony..." the Doctor replied, striding away from the console and over to the doors. "...And I've found one of the best ways to find that out, is to just...look outside!"
He flung open the door and stepped out. The TARDIS was sitting against a wall in what appeared to be a small alleyway. The architecture of the surrounding buildings was old, and reminded him of some parts of London he'd landed in, only much cleaner. Judging from the light in the sky, they'd not only moved locations, but at least few hours ahead as well.
And then, at the mouth of the alley, he saw them: ponies!
Naturally, due to the TARDIS' perception filter, they were all just walking (or was that trotting?) by, going about their business and not paying any attention to him. Red ponies, blue ponies, green ponies, pink ponies...the whole spectrum, all with equally colorful manes. And not just the normal (if you called pastel ponies with clothes and human-like hairstyles normal) ponies, but there were a few of the pegasai Macintosh had mentioned, but most of them, and what really caught his attention, were unicorns.
"Macintosh...stay put for a bit, would you?"
He reached into his jacket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Then, with an ear to ear grin, strolled out towards the street.
Behind him, Macintosh poked his head out of the TARDIS. Nope, definitely not Manehatten. He'd visited the city once or twice before with his parents to visit his Aunt and Uncle, and the buildings there didn't look anything like this. In fact, if the towers he could make out were any indication, he'd say they were in Canterlot.
And then it hit him.
The Doctor was about to walk out into the open...in the middle of Canterlot.
Oh boy... Not having heard the Doctor's order anyway, Macintosh rushed out after him.
Of course, he was far too late. Stepping out of the ally, he accosted the first unicorn to cross his path: a powder blue mare with a pink mane and pair of crossed feathers on her flanks. To his delight, she was also trailing a small group of packages, holding them above her, apparently in some sort of telekinetic field. "Hello madam... It is madam, right?" He bent to the side to getter look at the pony. "Yes, madam, pretty sure. In any case, would you mind holding still a second while I settle a bit of scientific curiosity?"
The mare just gaped at him. Her packages fell noisily to the ground as she lost her concentration.
"Thank you." He pointed the screwdriver at her and turned it on. The crystal on the end lit up as the device gave off a high pitched hum. He waved it over her face and over her horn a moment before with drawing it, and with a snap, popped open the claw around the crystal as he studied the results. "So the horn is some sort of psychokinetic energy magnifier linked directly into the nervous system? That's fantastic!" He looked down at the Mare. "So I saw the basic telekinesis, but what other sorts of effects can you pull of with that?"
She screamed.
Startled, the Doctor stepped back, even as she turned and took off at a gallop, still screaming her head off. Apparently this was enough to finally draw attention to him, because other screams and cries suddenly sprang out all around the street.
"Oh right...I'm the scary monster this time," he said to himself. "...That's different."
"Doctor, wha' happened!?" Macintosh asked as he ran up, even as most of the other ponies in the area were making tracks away from him.
"You there, halt!" Most ponies, that is, except for a pair of burly looking earth ponies that were dressed in what the Doctor could only assume were Police uniforms.
"Macintosh, I'm about to say something to you that I've said to lots of people over the years," the Doctor told the young colt at his side.
"...What's that?"
"Run!"
And so they did.
Ditzy Doo was feeling a bunch of things. Shocked, hurt, angry, betrayed...but overall, very scared. You see, she'd been pretty much on autopilot when she and her father had left the police station, and it wasn't until her brain had caught up with what her eyes were seeing that she realized that wherever they were going, they weren't heading home.
"Papfin, where-"
"Keep moving," Her father said tonelessly.
She cut off the rest of her question and dropped her head, continuing on in silence. Eventually, they came to the exit of one of the large pipeways at the base of the city, a drain to let excess rainwater or melted snow to wash away so it didn't flood the city itself. She hesitated a moment, but a poke from her father's horn forced her on inside. Ditzy lost track of how long they walked after that, but it was far enough that the unicorn stallion had lit up his horn so they could see. Finally, they came to a large junction of several tunnels and stopped. Then she heard the whirring.
It started softly, but then got louder right before she saw them: More of the giant salt-shakers!
Ok, they weren't really giant salt-shakers, but that was the best comparison she had. There were three of them this time, each standing a few heads higher than a large pony. They were all colored a bright white, with gold decorations and other parts. The skirt like bottom halves of the things were covered in rows of small domes, and above this was a section of metal slats, the front of which ended in what she assumed were forelegs of some kind. One was long, ending with what looked almost like the cup from a toilet plunger. The other was shorter, a small tube with smaller tubes arranged almost like a flower around it, but the way they pointed these limbs at her made her think they were some sort of weapons. And at the top was a round, dome-like head, with what looked like two lamps on either side, and, in the middle, a long stalk, at the end of which was a glowing blue eye. And she knew it had to be an eye because the one in the middle was gazing right at her before its gaze switched up to her father.
"THIS IS THE SOURCE OF THE POTENTIAL LEAK?" it asked in a harsh, high pitched voice. The lamps on its head lighting up with each word.
"Yes," her father responded in the same toneless voice he'd used all morning. "She was apprehended before she could alert the local authorities."
"EXCELLENT! RESUME YOUR NORMAL ACTIVITIES, WE MUST NOT AROUSE SUSPICION!"
"I obey," Lieutenant Doo answered, then turned about and began walking away, leaving Ditzy with them.
Ditzy curled up on the floor of the tunnel, shivering with fear. She felt like that time she'd gotten separated from her parents and ended up lost in the city for hours, only this time, she knew with a sinking feeling, her father wouldn't be coming to find her this time.
"TAKE THIS ONE FOR PROCESSING AND TRANSPORT!" The lead monster said to one of the other two before it glided off down one of the tunnels.
"I OBEY!" It moved towards her, still keeping the the smaller of its arms pointed at her. "THE PRISONER WILL STAND AND FOLLOW!"
Ditzy didn't move, just remained shaking on the floor. She didn't know what these things were going to do with her, but if whatever had happened to her father was any indication, it would be anything but good.
The one that gave the order to her suddenly pointed its short arm away from her. There was a flash of green light accompanied by a loud shrieking sound that she recognized as the same type of beam the one that had taken her father last night had used. Only this time, it blew a small chunk out of the floor next to her. She shot to her hooves with a frightened bleat.
"THE PRISONER WILL STAND AND FOLLOW!" it repeated, "OBEY!"
Left with little choice, Ditzy turned and followed the third creature as it led the way down another of the tunnels, the second one bringing up the rear.
More walking, accompanied by the whirring noise of the creatures as they moved. Ditzy couldn't stop wondering what they planned on doing with her. 'Processing' certainly sounded ominous enough. But most of all, she couldn't stop thinking about her father. These things had come, using more ponies under their control, taken him away, and done...something to him that had forced him to give her up to them too...
She wondered if she'd ever see him again, or if there was a way for her to free him...not that it looked like she'd get a chance..
*TSEEEWWW!*
Suddenly, as they were passing a side tunnel, a bright beam of light shot out, striking the creature in front of her and causing it to explode! Wondering what else could go wrong today, Ditzy went with her instincts and dropped back to the floor, clamping her front hooves on top of her head and just waiting for it to be over.
"ALERT! ALERT! UNDER ATTACK!" the remaining one yelled, rushing past her and firing its weapon in the direction the shot had come from. Another of the beams shot back at it and there was another explosion though smaller this time.
"HELP! HELP!"
Ditzy dared to peek and see what was going on. The front end of the creature's eye stalk looked like it had been blown off!
"VISION IMPAIRED! HELP ME! HELP ME! I CANNOT SEE!" it screamed, spinning around and flailing wildly. Unfortunately, it was also shooting wildly as well, sending bright green bursts of energy all over. One of them shot over DItzy's head and slammed into the ceiling a small distance back the way they'd come. With a loud rumble, it gave way, collapsing behind her just short of her rump.
Another shot from the attacker rang out, this one striking the salt-shaker dead center. It exploded just as violently as its partner, leaving only the dome studded base in anything approaching one piece, which wobbled slightly for a moment, before falling over with a loud 'clunk!'
Ditzy stayed huddled where she was for a long, silent, moment before the sound of approaching hoofsteps made her look up again. A pony was walking towards her through the smoking remains of her captors. It was an earth pony mare with a soft pink coat and a fluff, pale blonde mane with a blue flower placed in it. She wore a set of brown saddle bags, and had a small metal tube on a handle attached clutched in her teeth. She stopped next to the remains of one of the creatures and gave it a good kick with a foreleg. When nothing happened she just nodded and moved on, and then her eyes locked on Ditzy. She gasped, almost dropping what she was holding before she tucked it into one of her bags and rushed over.
"Oh dear me..." she said, then gently nuzzled the still petrified pegasus. "There there, it's all right, they won't be able to hurt you any more." She helped Ditzy sit up. "There we go, yes. ...You poor dear, how in the world did you end up in the company of a couple of Daleks?" she asked.
Daleks. So Ditzy finally had a name to go with the horror. "M-my Papfin..." she said, though she was such a wreck right now she doubted she'd be able to make herself understood. "Papfin crated...things wing taste him. ...Gave selves above when muffin speak blue..." Then she sighed. Yes, just as she thought.
The mare just stood still for a moment, staring into one of Ditzy's eyes. "...They captured your father? ...And then he gave you to them after you tried to tell the police? Oh dear...I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
Ditzy blinked in surprise. She'd...understood her? Even her father had trouble when she was this bad.
"Well, you can tell me more later. Right now we'd better get out of here..." She turned away for a moment to glance down the still open tunnels. Ditzy noticed offhandedly that her Cutie Mark was an hourglass. "...They might send others to investigate when these two don't come back." She turned back and helped Ditzy to her hooves as she glanced at the blocked passage behind her. "...And it looks like we'll have to find another way out too." She gave Ditzy a friendly smile. "So, what's your name then?"
"...Ditzy...Doo," Ditzy answered.
"Well then Ditzy Doo, a pleasure. You can call me Flower Shine."
It was interesting the things you thought of when you were running for your life. Near the top of Macintosh's list of thoughts at this particular moment were things like how this was not at all how he'd pictured his day going when he went to bed last night. Or wondering how mad Granny was going to be when she found he wasn't there when she got up...and how bad a tanning she'd give him when she found out he was in Canterlot running from the police! But really the thing that topped the list was this: for a weird, gangly, alien that only moved on two legs, the Doctor sure could run!
No seriously, Mac wasn't a racing stallion by any means, nor would he ever be, but he prided himself on being able to move at a good pace if need be. And a life of farm work had given him pretty good endurance as well, but the Doctor was still managing to keep pace, even as they both managed to stay ahead of the two police stallions. Of course, the latter bit was helped by the packs of panicking pastel ponies that were stirred up at the sight of the Doctor as they went along.
All of a sudden the Doctor turned into another alleyway, and Mac slid on his hooves a moment as he scrambled to turn after him. He followed him through several twists and turns until they finally stopped next to a large dumpster.
"You know," the Doctor said, panting a bit as he rested with his hands on his knees. "When I said 'run,' I sort of...meant back to the TARDIS..."
"Sorry. Ya said 'run,' so...Ah ran..."
"Nevermind," the Doctor told him, "Should've been more specific. But we can still use it as plan B." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a TARDIS key, tossing it to Mac who instinctively caught it in his mouth. "Head back when I draw them off, I'll see you when I've thrown 'em off."
"But-" Macintosh tried to protest.
"No arguing, this was supposed to be your 'fun' trip, and I seriously doubt this is one of those planets where a night in prison counts," he said back. "...At least I'm reasonably sure. Besides, they'll be after the 'alien monster,' not you." He stood back up suddenly, "Ok then, count of three... One..."
"But-"
"Two...
"Doct-"
"Three!" And then he was off. He slid back out into the street. "Say, gentlecolts...gentlestallions? I believe you were looking for me!" He then turned and dashed off out of Macintosh's view. There were shouts and repeated orders to halt, and Mac ducked behind the dumpster as the two police-ponies galloped past the alley. After a few moments, he deemed it safe enough to head back out. On his way back to the TARDIS, Mac found that the Doctor had been quite correct, in that no one paid much attention to him. In fact the snippets of conversation he picked up from ponies he passed were all about how a 'horrible beast' had attacked some poor mare and tried to cut off her horn. Not one mention of a teenage colt accompanying it.
Soon enough he found himself back at the now familiar blue box. Using the key the Doctor had given him, he unlocked the door and slipped inside. He shut the door behind him and pondered what he'd do until the Doctor came back when he made a discovery:
The TARDIS wasn't empty.
The last thing Macintosh saw was a flash of red light, followed by the sensation of his snout making painful contact with the floor before everything went black.
Ditzy and Flower Shine were still making their way through through the tunnels beneath Canterlot. To pass the time, Shine was telling Ditzy why she'd been down here in the first place.
"I knew something was wrong. I like to pay attention to local events, so when I started noticing the patterns, of course I investigated. Disappearances no one seemed to want to talk about, strange goings on...and all involving the sewer system. Yes, I could tell something was up...but Daleks? No, I can say I didn't quite see this coming..." She sighed. "I wish the others had paid attention. Just 'cause I'm the youngest of us, they all see fit to ignore me. You'd think Colgate at least would have known better, but no, they'd all rather sit around and play at happy ponies, and forget about anything remotely like things like the war..."
Ditzy glanced at her oddly. She wasn't sure what the other mare was talking about now.
Flower Shine suddenly seemed to remember she had an audience. "Er...well, never mind that. Nothing you need to worry about, Ditzy."
Ditzy just shrugged. "If usage ten solo," she said with a sigh. Any other day she might have been curious, but given everything that had happened and was still happening, curious just wasn't on the day plan.
Shine noticed her companion's gloomy mood. "Don't worry, my friends will have to get involved now. Daleks...well, they're serious business, especially to us. And I'll do everything in my power to try and make sure you and your father are reunited." She paused, and suddenly it was her turn to look sad. "Trust me, I know what its like to lose those close to you."
They continued on in silence for a bit after that. Not having any other clues to go on, they were following the flow of the water back to its source, hoping to find a junction with a ponyhole or exit they could use. "Honestly, why didn't I think to grab a map?" Shine muttered to herself at one point.
They'd come to yet another junction when Ditzy heard a familiar noise. "Demotions!"
Flower Shine understood what she really meant: Daleks! "Quick, hide!" she whispered.
Lacking any sort of decent cover in the tunnels, the best the two ponies could do was back into a darker section and press up against the walls, trying to make them selves as small as possible. Shine reached into her saddlebags and pulled out the device Ditzy had seen her with earlier, which she now understood to be some sort of weapon like those the Daleks used.
Soon enough, a pair of Daleks appeared in the other tunnel. Like the two that had been escorting Ditzy, they were moving in single file, with something in between them. Unlike the other two, what they were escorting wasn't ponies. Instead several hovering platforms floated along between them, a great deal of oblong boxes stacked on each. The two ponies eyes widened in horror as they realized that the Daleks were escorting ponies, just not the living kind, as the boxes were coffins. Ditzy glanced at shine questioningly, wondering what these things would want with a bunch of dead ponies, but Shine was watching the Daleks like a hawk, keeping her weapon trained on them until the rear one disappeared through the other end of the junction.
Finally, when she felt it safe enough, she tucked it away in her bag again. "Gold on white...they were gold on white too..."
Ditzy threw her a confused look.
"Daleks identify their functions and ranks by the colors of their casings," she explained. "But I'm not sure what that particular combination means. ...And no, I have no idea what they would want with...corpses, either," she added, answering the unspoken question from earlier. "...Unfortunately, I think we'd better find out."
"...What about friends?" Ditzy asked, managing to speak clearly in her surprise.
"When it comes to Daleks, its always a good idea to know what you're getting into, especially so if you're going to be sending others in as well."
Unable to refute that bit of logic Ditzy just nodded.
"Come on," Shine said, taking the lead. "Stay low and quiet. They can't see much except for whats directly in front of where their eye is pointed...but you'd be surprised at how good their hearing can be..."
The Doctor chuckled to himself as he jogged back towards where he'd left the TARDIS. He'd led the pony police on a merry chase, but had given them the slip in the end. It'd been somewhat fun actually, running from basic police instead of hostile aliens or deadly explosions for once. But he was pretty sure they'd managed to call for some backup and he wasn't interested in getting caught right now. ...Maybe later, when he wanted to see if a night in pony jail really did count as fun or not.
Unfortunately when he finally arrived, he received a rather nasty shock.
The TARDIS wasn't there.
As a Time-Lord, he prided himself on having a rather decent sense of direction, so he was certain he was in the proper place, it was just that the TARDIS...wasn't. Indeed, he could make out the square shape in the alley's dust where it had been sitting, and the lack of drag marks or other disturbances led him to believe the TARDIS had left under its own power. Now not that he doubted the colt's intelligence, but he was fairly certain that Macintosh wouldn't have been able to pilot the ship at all...which meant someone else had done it, and that someone most likely had the colt captive as well.
But who could have done it? Two immediate thoughts came to mind. The unknown person or persons whose attack had resulted In his breach into this universe, for starters. If they'd come through too, it was more than likely they'd want to track him down to finish what they'd started. Then there was also the feeling, the one he'd been having ever since he woke up here. Could it be possible-? No, he squashed that thought quickly. He'd been down that path one too many times, and every time had ended in disappointment and heartbreak, along with a helping of mortal peril.
Either way, with the TARDIS missing, he'd need to lay low for a bit. Despite giving them the slip, he was decently sure the police would still be searching for him. He glanced around and spotted a door a little bit further into the alley. He strolled over while taking out his screwdriver again. A quick buzz on the lock and he was stepping in through what turned out to be the back door of a rather nice pony home. Quietly shutting the door and locking it again, he took a curious look around and was struck by how...humanish the furnishings seemed. Though everything was proportioned for ponies, it struck him a bit odd how many of the items around him wouldn't be out of place in a similar Earth or other humanoid based culture's home. Though he'd seen Macintosh manipulate objects with his mouth, which would account for the long handled pots and pans he could see, he pondered the logic of why an equine civilization would have coffee mugs with handles on the sides just like humans would. Of course, given the ratio of different pony types he'd observed in this city so far, it was likely that this was a unicorn dwelling, meaning they could manipulate the objects with telekinesis. But this just brought up the further question of why they had handles at all. ...However the mugs in question were hanging by said handles on a rack above the sink. ...Maybe he was just overthinking things.
He carefully left the kitchen and entered what appeared to be a nice looking sitting room. He noted that everything was quiet. Good, most likely no one home, and with a bit of luck, he could wait here a bit until the authorities will have given up their searching, or at least moved on from this area. He sat down on a comfy looking couch (idly adding to his musings above that it had a back rest for whatever reason). He'd barely been sitting for a minute when he heard a small gasp and his head shot up, spotting a small sea-green foal standing at the base of a staircase. The small, matching horn that protruded from her white and slightly paler sea-green mane marked her as a unicorn, confirming, at least in part, his earlier suspicions.
The Doctor quickly raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Please, don't be afraid...I promise I'm not here to hurt you...or to steal anything. I apologize for coming in uninvited, I just needed a place to rest a tish, and it didn't look like anyone was here."
Luckily, this seemed to placate the foal, and fear faded, to be quickly replaced with curiosity. "What's wrong with your hooves?" she, at least it sounded like a she, asked.
The Doctor looked down at his feet. "No, no," she corrected, pointing a hoof at his hands. "Your forehooves. ...They're all weird"
"Oh! Well, they're not hooves. They're hands. Called that because they're handy."
"What're they for?" she asked, now trotting over to him.
The Doctor smiled. "Oh, all sorts of things. I can catch things, write, make pictures. ...In fact, you should have seen some of things I did with the last ones I had."
"You had more?"
"Oh yes, I'm special like that."
She hesitated a moment, then climbed up to lay on the couch beside him. She was quiet for a moment as she just looked at him oddly. "You sit funny."
"You sit funny," the Doctor shot back. "I'll have you know this is perfectly normal for me."
"But you're doing it all wrong!" the filly protested.
"Really? Well what's the point of having a back on your couch if you don't use it?" he pointed out.
The foal looked like she'd never considered this before. She started shifting around and after a few moments had managed to position herself so that she was laying belly up with her back and head resting against the back of the couch, in a position that looked almost humanoid...but very odd on a pony.
"Now that looks uncomfortable," the Doctor commented.
"I dunno...I think its kinda nice..." There was another short silence before she came up with another question. "So what are you anyway?"
"That's easy, I'm a Time-Lord."
"Time-Lord? ...So does that mean you're in charge of time like the Princess is in charge of the sun?"
Princess in charge of the sun? The Doctor filed this information away before answering. "No...I'm not in charge of time. Time takes care of itself. ...I do watch over it a bit though. But no...no one person should be in charge of time..." He said it in a soft voice that sounded almost...sad. "...So, what's your name?"
"Oh, I'm Lyra."
"A pleasure Lyra, I'm the Doctor. So, where's your family?"
"They went out to get stuff for our Summer Sun Celebration party. Its not for a few weeks, but Mom likes to get the decorations early."
"And they just left you by yourself?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
Lyra looked cross at this. "I'm old enough!"
"Right, course you are, what was I thinking," he said apologetically. "Well, Lyra, thanks for letting me stay for a bit."
"That's ok, I like you," she said, smiling up at him.
"Thanks, you're not so bad yourself."
Luck was with the two, as they managed to pursue the Daleks without drawing attention to themselves. Still, it wasn't easy, and they practically jumped at every shadowy tunnel they passed, expecting more Daleks to pop out of them and put an end to everything. But fortune was most definitely on their side for once. The Daleks led them to some sort of large underground room. Strange looking metal and lights were placed all around and there were many, many more Daleks all over the place.
"SHIPMENT FOR TRANSPORT HAS ARRIVED!" the leader of the two they had been following announced as they and their cargo came to a halt.
"TRANSPORT DUE TO ARRIVE IN 40 RELS! CLEAR TRANSPORT AREA!" responded another Dalek that was near one of the pulsing panels on the walls.
"I OBEY!"
Ditzy glanced at Flower Shine, but she only shrugged back in response to the unspoken question. She wasn't sure what was going on. The implications of a transport were troubling, especially sine there didn't seem to be any way for one to enter. A quick glance at the ceiling showed it to be solid stonework like the rest of the tunnels. However the Dalek had said that the transport would be arriving...so that ruled out any form of teleportation like a transmat.
Her fear getting the better of her again, Ditzy's eyes shifted out of alignment briefly, but when they did, she spotted something out of the corner of one. Focusing, she turned to look, then silently alerted Shine to it as well. There was an staircase set against the wall that looked to lead to some sort of walkway overlooking the room. Shine nodded, getting what Ditzy was suggesting. The stairs were close enough that if they stayed quiet, and their luck held, they could get up onto the walkway, both getting a better view of things while getting out of the tunnel in case more Daleks came, or any in the room decided to use it.
Luckily, it did on both counts, and they got into decent positions to observe things just as the Dalek at the wall panel began a countdown.
"TRANSPORT ARRIVAL IN 10 RELS! 9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...TRANSPORT ARRIVING!"
A sudden wind came up out of nowhere, and Ditzy and Flower Shine suddenly heard a noise that was familiar to Shine, but utterly wrong at the same time. A glow came up in the center of the room, and Shine's eyes widened in horror as an object began to take shape within it.
It was made of a dark grey metal, and from above appeared perfectly round, but in between the top and bottom were two inverted corners, each side of which was covered in a panel with a Dalek shaped indention on it. The indention in one of the panels on the left side suddenly slid upwards into nowhere, briefly letting the two mares see a space on the other side, before a Dalek emerged...followed by another, and another. Ditzy's eyes widened in bewilderment as more Daleks than could possibly have fit inside the object emerged one after another.
Shine was equally mystified, but for different reasons. This was beyond bad. If the 'transport' was what she thought it was, Canterlot, no, all of Equestria was in serious trouble. It looked like they were facing a full Dalek invasion that included, at least, one, also at least, partially functional, time-ship!
The first Dalek to emerge from the ship glided over to one of the others that were already present in the landing area. "THE EMPEROR ORDERS YOU TO ESTABLISH CONTACT!"
Shine swore she felt one of her hearts stop. The Dalek Emperor was alive...and here!? Ditzy glanced at her new friend worriedly. She could tell just from how scared Shine looked that whatever was going on here was terrifying her, and that didn't help her any.
The addressed Dalek turned and glided to the middle of the room near the time-ship. "OPEN COMMUNICATION LINK!"
"I OBEY!" said a Dalek from somewhere. There was a flash from overhead, and a large flat image took shape in midair. Ditzy was afraid her eyes would roll out of her sockets if they got any wider. Shine however, nearly let out a sigh of relief as the hologram came into focus. Whatever was on the other end was shrouded in darkness, but if the pair of Daleks flanking it was any indication, it was both too small and the wrong shape to be the Dalek Emperor she was aware of.
"Commander, your report. What is the status of your force?" The voice from the image was deeper, and not as...loud as the normal Dalek voice. Also it almost sounded...less artificial?
"ATTACK FORCE NOW AT FULL BATTLE STRENGTH! WE ARE READY TO COMMENCE THE OPERATION!" the Dalek, apparently the commander of this group responded.
"Excellent, and what is the status of Robo-Equine infiltration of the palace guard?"
"INFILTRATION IS ABOVE OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS! PROBABILITY OF OPERATIONAL SUCCESS: GREATER THAN 96%!"
"Good...inform me when the attack commences. I will wish to be there for its conclusion. Now...what of the security leak I was informed about this morning?"
"PATROL LAMBDA WAS SENT TO SECURE THE EQUINE AFTER RETRIEVAL BY ROBO-EQUINE INFILTRATOR! PATROL LEADER RETURNED AND CONFIRMED CAPTURE, HOWEVER PATROL WAS LATER DISCOVERED DESTROYED! EXAMINATION OF REMAINS SUGGESTS DESTRUCTION BY STAZER WEAPONRY!"
Shine winced at that. But it couldn't be helped. It wasn't like she could have just gone up and bucked the Daleks to death.
"What...are you sure?" The voice sounded disturbed at this revelation.
"ANALYSIS WAS CONCLUSIVE!"
"...This is...unexpected. Be on your guard commander. You are authorized for full extermination until after the operation's completion. But remember, you are not to harm her in any permanent fashion."
"UNDERSTOOD!"
Ok, yes, it was more than time to get out of here. From the sounds of things, the Daleks were planning an attack on the palace...possibly in an attempt to capture Celestia herself! She wasn't sure if they would actually be able to pull THAT off or not, but again, these were Daleks, and she wouldn't put it past them. Now if only-
"One more thing, has there been any sign...of him?"
"NEGATIVE, NO SIGN OF THE DOCTOR SINCE INITIAL DIMENSIONAL BREACH!"
This time Flower Shine was sure she felt BOTH hearts stop! In fact she nearly let out of shriek of surprise, but Ditzy, already concerned about her reactions, suddenly clamped her hooves over her mouth when she saw what was happening.
"He is here commander...I can feel it... But I am determined to win the prize this time! Do not fail me..."
"I OBEY!"
"As you should." And then the hologram cut off.
It was Shine's turn to go numb as Ditzy practically dragged her from the room. There was another staircase at the back that led further upward. It was a risk, since for all she knew there were a hundred more Daleks at the top, but she knew they couldn't get back down to the tunnels with Shine like this. Ditzy hadn't been sure of half of what was going on, but she got enough of it to know that the Daleks were going to attack the princess, and they had more ponies like her father under their control and already inside the palace. They had to get out of here and find someone; unaffected guards, Shine's friends, even the Princess herself, and warn them before it was too late!
Shine was barely thinking about this right now. 'The Doctor' kept echoing in her thoughts. He was here! A mix of intense joy and bottomless dread rushed through her. After all this time, how would he react? ...In any case it didn't matter, she had to find him, to see him, no matter what it took, even if it meant carving her way through an entire Dalek armada...she would find a way to see him again...
In recent years, Princess Celestia had found that the evening hours just before sunset had become her favorite time of day. Court was over, dinner was just around the corner, and barring the occasional 'emergency' she was essentially free to take time for herself. Tonight this 'her' time was being used to enjoy a good pot of tea, and read an interesting book. ...And maybe reflect a bit on how mundane her routine had become. Raise the sun, breakfast, Morning Court (Smile and nod, then either politely agree, politely pass the buck, or subtly decline without actually saying so), a brief lunch, Afternoon Court(Wash, rinse, repeat), then her time, followed by dinner, lowering the sun, raising the moon, and sleep, if she felt like it.
She tried to vary things by doing something different with her personal time, but it wasn't helping much anymore. She rarely got to go out among the 'common' ponies anymore, and looked forward the Summer Sun Celebration each year, because it gave her an excuse to do just that, if only for a little while. ...Maybe she should arrange for her personal appearance to be held at a different location each year? And of course, don't even get her started on the Grand Galloping Gala. There were times she wanted to just collapse the main ballroom on everypony there, just to shake things up.
Maybe it was high time she took a personal student again? At least it would give her an excuse to put aside her 'royal duties' every once in a while. She'd have to remember to attend the entrance exams at her school later this year to see about finding potential candidates.
...Either way, she needed to find something to put some surprises back into her life.
A few years from now, she would look back on this day, and realize she should have known better than to give fate such an open invitation.
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
A Dalek beam sailed past their heads to blast a chunk out of the wall beside them as Ditzy and Flower Shine scrambled to get to safety. Their luck had finally been stretched thin. As Ditzy had hoped, the exit from the Dalek command room had led up to a possible exit from the tunnels. But as she'd feared, there were more Daleks guarding it, and this time, there had been no way to sneak past. Their best option had been for Shine to blast a hole in the line with her stazer pistol, and then to run as fast as they could, with a hornet's nest worth of Daleks blasting away at their retreating rumps.
Luckily for the two mares, on the ground, Daleks weren't all that fast, at least not compared to the speed a couple of desperate ponies could put out if they set their minds to it, and they were able to quickly put a fair distance between them and the metal death dealers.
They rushed around a corner and up yet another flight of stairs, only to come face to face with a heavy wooden door. And a locked one at that. They bucked at it for a moment before they began to hear the Dalek's high pitched voices approaching from below.
Grasping her pistol between her hooves, she quickly adjusted a dial on its back, then grasping the weapon in her mouth again, pointed it at the door and fired. There was a blinding flash of light accompanied by a deafening noise, and the whole door, as well as the section of wall that had been plastered over it, blew outwards, disintegrating into a fine powder as it fell. They rushed through, finding themselves in some sort of storage room. And then they dove to the floor as another Dalek beam flashed between them.
They looked at each other, then back at the stair, where a Dalek was just beginning to hover its way up.
"Blunder the rockslide!" Ditzy shouted.
"Agh, wzz jst thnkn," Shine said, her mouth busy resetting the pistol. Putting it back in mouth, she looked up and fired twice. The first struck the Dalek in the collar just below its head, the second struck the ceiling halfway down the stairs, causing it to collapse and block up the tunnel exit.
When the dust finally settled, the only sound was the heavy breathing of the two as they stared at the collapsed passage, half-expecting the Daleks to come bursting back out. After a couple minutes of silence, it seemed that they were either unable or unwilling to follow.
Ditzy glanced at Shine, "So..." she said, finally having the piece of mind to control her speech. "Who's...the Doctor?"
"Someone...someone very special," she answered. She then frowned, "And probably our best hope of stopping what's about to happen if we can find him in time. We'd better find a way out of here."
Ditzy just nodded, getting up to look around for another exit, when the world suddenly went sideways...
Sweet little kid, that Lyra, he just hoped she didn't grow up to obsess over a 'Funny Doctor' or whatever. ...He wasn't sure the multiverse could handle another Amelia Pond.
He'd slipped out after a suitable period of time, leaving the little filly asleep in that odd position. Apparently she really did find it comfortable.
"Ok, now, next order of business: Find the TARDIS, Macintosh, and whoever took them. Then, make the last one feel really bad about it..." he said to himself.
But how to go about it? He was the Doctor, he'd once saved the entire Earth in twenty minutes using only a laptop, a phone, and his extraordinary amount of wits. In comparison, tracking down his missing TARDIS shouldn't be too hard, after all, this time around he still had his-
"Screwdriver!" Of course! He quickly pulled the device out. "Yes...brilliant! Let's see, jury rig the pulse emitter by crossing it into the subharmonic relay...yes, that'd remote trigger the homing protocol. But, I'd need some kind of high energy source in order to broadcast into the vortex, and even then it'd only have an effective range of a few decades..."
*THOOM*
The shockwave seemed to roll through the city. Not strong enough to shatter windows, but strong enough to give them a decent rattle. The Doctor looked up from figuring out how to rewire his screwdriver. "...Hello, what was that?" Turning the screwdriver on, he scanned around for a second before examining it. "Seismic activity...no. Residual pressure wave from shaped explosive charge... That was a bomb."
He quickly used the screwdriver again, to point him towards the source of the shockwave. He turned around, and then up, to where the screwdriver was pointing, where he could see the top of a large castle beyond the buildings of the city. "Hmm...either their Princess is having a party that's gotten out of hand...or somebody's being naughty..."
Ditzy was on her side, which was strange, because she could have sworn that she was standing upright a second ago. "Huzwaa?" she muttered, and it wasn't her speech acting up, she was just too disoriented to even try speaking correctly.
Somewhere else in the room, Shine was likewise picking herself up off the floor. "...I think we're too late."
Celestia blinked in surprise as her room shook violently for a moment, causing the teapot to be vibrated off her desk and smash to the floor. She set her cup down and rushed to the doors of her chambers, throwing them open as she went. The pegasus guards outside were glancing around warily, wings spread in alarm. The Princess glanced down the corridor in concern. From the sound of the boom that had accompanied the shaking, the explosion had come from the direction of the great hall.
"With me," She ordered, heading off, the guards falling into step behind her. They hadn't gone far before they heard strange noises from ahead. ...Noises quickly followed by the screams of ponies. Now at full gallop, they were met by another pegasus guard halfway.
"My princess!" he gasped, sounding completely shell-shocked, "We-we're under attack!"
Celestia had suspected as much from the start, but hearing it confirmed still sent a pang of outrage through her. She honestly couldn't recall the last time someone had directly assaulted the castle, it had been so long. "Do we have any idea who they are?"
The pegasus shook his head wildly. "There was some sort of explosion in the throne room, most of the floor in the middle was just...gone! And then these...things...just came pouring up out of it, spraying some sort of death spells everywhere! The Captain sent me to find you while he tried to contain them...but there's just so many!"
Celestia winced. The throne room. If this had happened just a little earlier during Afternoon Court... As it was there should have only been a few guards on duty there, and maybe a couple of the cleaning staff. ...Not that any loss of life as acceptable to her.
They arrived in the Great Hall to find it in chaos. A line of pegasai and unicorn corps guards stood against a wave of white and gold...things that swept out from the entrance to the throne room. The unicorns had raised magical barriers, but the attackers responded by firing beams of green energy from the smaller of their two stubby appendages, threatening to overwhelm the barriers through sheer numbers alone. Meanwhile the pegasai corps were dive-bombing the creatures, attempting to use the fine blades built into their wing armor to damage them, but whatever they were made of, it was obvious that it was more than enough to withstand the attacks. In response, the pegasai were cut down en mass as the creatures responded to their ineffectual attacks with their own far more lethal ones. Celestia watched in horror as one guard took a direct hit. His entire body lit up with a green glow, his skeleton showing through for a split second before the glow faded, and then the pony simply fell from the air, long dead even before he hit the ground.
"Captain!" Celestia shouted, rushing over to where she saw the captain of her guard barking orders, desperately trying to salvage the situation.
"Princess! The large, alabaster coated pegasus responded. "Princess, I'm so sorry! We were caught totally off guard. We're trying to push them back, but there's so many...and their power..."
"Captain, none of this is your fault, I'm sure you have done admirably," she told him, her tone as consoling as it could be under the circumstance, "But your time to fight is past. Evacuate the palace, gather everyone you can find, staff and guard alike and get out! I will deal with these...creatures."
"But Princess Cele-" the Captain tried to protest.
"GO!" Celestia ordered in a tone that brokered no argument. "...These foes are beyond any of you."
The Captain swallowed. "...Of course Princess," he responded, giving her a quick bow before ordering the retreat.
It didn't take the Doctor long to reach the road leading up to the castle drawbridge. Like the old Earth saying 'All roads lead to Rome,' apparently in this city, all roads led to the castle. He could see that a large crowd had gathered, apparently curious as to the source of the boom from earlier, just as he was, but they were blocked from getting any nearer to the castle by a pair of burly looking white pegasai with blue tails and golden armor with an almost roman stile crest with blue hair to match their tails.
While he didn't fancy another chase with the authorities, the Doctor had never been one to let something like a pair of guards deter him from sating his curiosity. Reaching into his jacket again, he pulled out a simple, black leather, wallet, and then strolled right through the crowd of ponies.
"Right, make way, excuse me, Royal Castle Inspector, coming through!" he shouted, flipping the wallet open and waving it around, showing the apparently blank piece of paper to anyone who looked. Of course, the beauty of psychic paper was that it only appeared blank to those who already knew what it was or who had sufficient training to block its effects. And though he would, reluctantly, admit he still new comparatively little about pony culture, he was nearly-mostly sure that no one here would have either, and instead all would see an ID declaring him to be a Royal Castle Inspector or something to that effect.
Not that this mattered much, seeing as at his appearance there were screams, cries, and other general reactions of fear as the crowd parted before him like the Red Sea to Moses. ...General reactions of fear from everypony, that is, except the pair of guards blocking the bridge.
"Entrance to the palace is forbidden at this time," one of them said in a toneless voice as the Doctor made it to the front of the crowd.
"Ah, yes, but remember the part about Royal Castle Inspector?" the Doctor asked, waving the psychic paper at them.
Neither of the two looked at it, or even blinked for that matter. "Entrance to the palace is forbidden at this time," the one who hadn't said it the first time said.
"...You know, you two are very good guards. Real stoic types...not even reacting like a normal person...pony...would if a big alien came waltzing up to them and waved a badge in their faces..."
"Entrance to the palace is forbidden at th-"
"At this time, yes I get it..." He tucked the psychic paper and pulled out the sonic screwdriver yet again. "But what I'm not getting is why you two are so calm about it. I'd LIKE to think Equestrian guard training is just that good..." He waved it in one of the guards faces, doing a quick scan. "...But I have a bad feeling that's just not the case." he finished as he checked the results. Then, adjusting the setting, he buzzed the guard again. The pony suddenly collapsed boneless to the ground.
This served to finally get a reaction out of his partner. "You are the Doctor!" the pegasus shouted, right before it moved to attack. However a buzz of the screwdriver to the face, and he joined his partner in sudden unconsciousness.
"Yes...yes I am..." Mind control via surgically implanted cybernetics. ...And a form he was disturbingly familiar with. But it couldn't be them...not here...
He suddenly became aware of the crowd of ponies still gaping at him from behind. "Oh, right," he muttered, turning around to face them. "Er...these two should be just fine in a few hours. Still...someone might want to call whatever amounts to medical professionals among you ponies...just to be on the safe side," he told them, the turned and dashed off across the drawbridge.
"ENEMIES OF EQUESTRIA! HEAR ME!" Celestia's voice boomed loud enough to shake the Great Hall. It had been over a century since she'd used the Royal Canterlot Voice, but now was an appropriate occasion as any. She had already cast a shield of her own, covering her guards as they fled to sweep the palace and evacuate any staff or other residents they found to safety. The creatures had continually assaulted her barrier as she waited for her ponies to get clear, but even as the guards had left, allowing them to file into the room and begin to surround her, their combined attacks barely left a dent in her power. But at her shout, they, and their weapons, had suddenly gone quiet.
"YOU HAVE INVADED MY HOME, ATTACKED ME...AND ASSAULTED AND KILLED MY SUBJECTS! HOWEVER, I WILL STILL GIVE YOU ONE CHANCE FOR MERCY, BUT ONLY IF YOU SURRENDER NOW!"
It was nearly dead silent in the hall, except for the faint whirrs of the creatures' movements as several of them glanced at each other. For a moment, Celestia dared to hope that this wouldn't come to further bloodshed. But then...
"DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!" one of them said.
Like a spark on dry wood, this rallying cry rushed through the rest of them.
"DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY! DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!"
Celestia's gut went cold as the creatures named themselves. Daleks. Yes she had heard of them, and the refugees' descriptions of these abominations and their cruelties came crashing headlong to the front of her mind. No, for the sake of Equestria, she could only allow this to end one way. She closed her eyes. "...So be it," she said in a near whisper. When her eyes opened again, there were glowing a solid, blinding, white. A swirl of magical energy began to surround the alicorn princess even as the Daleks resumed fire, but as before the attacks broke harmlessly against her barriers. The energy formed into a ball around her, then exploded outwards in a wave of force, scattering Daleks like leaves on the wind.
The Doctor had barely passed through the castle gates when the sound of screaming alerted him to a large object flying straight at him. He quickly took cover as it crashed to the floor right where he would have been. As he emerged, the Doctor turned to see what it had been...and found himself looking at his nightmares. Its casing was dented, cracked, sparking, and leaking a greenish fluid. One of its headlamps was smashed and the glow in its eyestalk was rapidly fading, but it was still immediately recognizable as a Dalek.
"No...no, no, no, NO!" the Doctor raged, glaring at the fallen Dalek even as the glow completely left its eye. "Why...why is it always you! Why are you always there to haunt my path, no matter how many times I stop you, no matter how far I go!" His people had lost everything to them, even their very souls in the end. Yet still they persisted. He had personally destroyed them time and time again, forced to knowingly, commit genocide repeatedly, and still they returned from the brink. Yes, he had stopped them...except for the one time it may have counted. Yes...every time he encountered them, every time they killed an innocent being...he was reminded of the one time he had failed to do everything in his power to destroy them...and doomed his people in the end.
He was brought out of his recriminations be the sounds of conflict ahead of him. He could wallow in the past later. The Daleks were here, now, and they needed to be stopped...and apparently fate had decided to be kind and hand him a break for once. He took his screwdriver and moved over the dead Dalek, to salvage some parts he'd need from it, when he noticed something else. The casing design was the same as that used by the Daleks during and immediately after the time war, but the colors... White and Gold. He'd seen that before, long ago... Icy dread gripped his hearts as he realized the extent of what he was up against, but he pushed through it and quickly got to work.
Celestia shone like the sun she represented as she stood firm in the middle of the Great Hall. The Daleks had regrouped and resumed their attack, but their firepower still proved impotent against her. She responded with streams of solar fire that crackled about the area like whips, melting anything they came into contact with, and burning down Daleks by the dozen. Still, more came, only to join their brethren as part of the glowing piles of slag around her. A part of her despaired at how a force this size had managed to escape her sight at all, let alone one right under her own doorstep. Another worried that this attack didn't consist of all of their forces. But these would be things to solve afterwords. Now she would force these beasts back until they finally took the hint and retreated.
Each green splash of a beam against her barrier just pointed her to yet another target. They seemed determined in their single minded efforts at overwhelming her through sheer numbers. This worried her as well. What she'd been told about these creatures showed her a picture of a cunning and ruthless enemy. And while she was seeing the ruthless side in their continued sacrificing of numbers against her, this tactic was far from cunning. They didn't actually hope to overcome her like this, did they? If so, it would seem they had vastly underestimated her strength.
Then the first magi-bolt hit her shield.
She turned around in surprise, to see a squad of unicorn guards gallop in. For a moment, she thought that they might have come to try and aid her, despite her orders, but then more magi-bolts were hurled at her, and the unicorns began to spread out amongst the Daleks. They were attacking her! Even as she realized this, she instinctively cut off her streams of fire before she inadvertently cut down any of the rogue ponies. Her confusion at this apparent betrayal lasted only long enough for her to get a good look at the faces of some of the apparent traitors. Their faces were utterly blank. Even as they hurled deadly spells at the ruler they were sworn to protect, and sided with these inequine monsters, they showed no emotion whatsoever. She recognized this as a symptom caused by some crude from of mind control, and realized that these ponies were not acting with their own wills.
Even with the aid of their puppets, they were no closer to breaking her defense, but their strategy was effective in one respect: with the guard ponies as essentially equine shields, they had pretty much tied Celestia's hooves as far as offensive options. With any attacks she made against the Daleks, she ran the risk of striking down an essentially innocent pony as well.
"Enough!" she shouted. "What is it that you hope to gain from this? I cannot attack you at the moment, but I will not surrender, as I know what that would mean for Equestria. So what is the point?"
The room quickly went silent as the Daleks and their puppets suddenly stopped attacking. Several of them moved closer and formed a circle around her, just outside her barriers.
"Well?" Celestia asked, glancing at them in confusion.
None of them immediatly responded. Instead, several globes detached themselves from the skirts of the Daleks closest to her, which spaced themselves into a sphere shaped grid around her.
"ACTIVATING ARTRON CAGE!"
Lines of energy sprang out to connect the globes together. Celestia remained baffled by their actions, until her eyes widened in surprise as she felt a pull at her magic. The pull became a pressure, and then the pressure a strain, and then suddenly her defensive barriers collapsed! In shock, Celestia defensively lashed out at the Dalek in front of her. The spell struck the energy grid surrounding her, lighting it up for a moment, before it was reflected back into her stunned face.
For the first time in almost a thousand years, Celestia found herself knocked on her rump.
Refusing to accept this turn of events, Celestia lashed out again, and again. But each time her efforts were absorbed and reflected back by the cage. Finally, she tried to teleport, and for a second, her form winked out...only to wink back in, still inside, and in enough pain that it felt like she had almost been ripped apart. She silently cursed herself as she realized her folly. The Daleks tactics of sending waves of seemingly ineffective and expendable troops at her hadn't been a result of them underestimating her, but a strategy to get her to underestimate them. Then they brought in their mind controlled ponies, playing on her concern for her subjects to get her to stop attacking long enough to spring their trap. Yes...now she saw the cunning. For a moment she considered just letting loose completely in an attempt to break free, but didn't for a couple reasons. First, such a release might need to be strong enough to cause damage far outside the confines of the Great Hall, and second...she wasn't sure if even she could survive that much power being redirected against her if she failed.
"So, what now?" she asked, her voice holding anger, for both the Daleks and herself.
None of them made any direct response, instead one Dalek spoke up.
"PRISONER SECURED, ALERTING THE EMPEROR!"
Celestia's ears perked up. The Emperor? Their leader was coming to collect her in person, then? In that case she might just risk an escape attempt after all if it might mean... She blinked, what was happening? Her view of the Great hall and the Daleks surrounding her was beginning to slowly fade out, a blank, grey metaled room fading into existence over it. Soon enough this room had completely overtaken the great hall, and she realized she had somehow been moved...or rather that this room had somehow been made to appear around her. Either way, she was now someplace other than the Great Hall...
Ditzy and Shine watched from an archway just outside the room in horror as the time ship faded out again. The Daleks had done it, they had actually captured Celestia! As Shine worried about the implications of this, Ditzy just stared worriedly at her father, the controlled unicorn guard nearest where they were concealed. She wondered what they would do with him, now that the goal they'd forcibly recruited him to help achieve had been met...
"GOOD...AFTERNOON...EQUESTRIA!!"
Several dozen Dalek eyestalks, plus a handful + two pony heads, suddenly turned towards the entrance to the Great Hall. There, one hand holding the sonic screwdriver like a microphone, the other carrying a strange device that looked like it was made of spare Dalek parts, was the Doctor. Shine's hearts leaped to her throat while Ditzy just looked at the strange creature oddly.
"Hello, and thank you for joining us! Welcome to our special guests this evening, the Daleks, up to no good as usual!" the Doctor said, speaking like he was hosting some kind of talk show. "From the look of things in here, someone's already had a head start on tonight's activities. Unfortunately, it looks like they didn't mange to finish the job though. Anyway, welcome to another round of Stop the Daleks, I'm your host for the evening, the Doctor!"
The reaction among the Daleks was immediate.
"DOCTOR!"
"THE DOCTOR!?"
"THE DOCTOR IS THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS!"
"EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR!"
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
"Yes yes, blah blah, same old," the Doctor responded, boredly. "So, lets get things started! Part 1..." he held up the Dalek part device, "...Lights out!" There was a small hum as the device switched on...
...And every Dalek's eyestalk and gunstick switched off.
"ALERT! ALERT!"
"VISION IMPAIRED!"
"HELP! HELP!"
Flower Shine felt a giddy smile come to her. ...Ditzy couldn't help but wish he'd come in just a few minutes earlier.
The Doctor just gave a savage grin. "Right now...you lot are going to provide me answers," he said, striding towards the panicking Daleks, who were now blindly attempting to retreat back to their entrance point in the throne room. "I want to know where your leader is, what your plans are, and how you got here, and you can all stumble around in the dark til you tell me!" he demanded.
"DESTROY THE DEVICE!" one of the blinded Daleks ordered.
A Robo-Equine unicorn charged the Doctor, but he quickly stepped out of the way and gave it a buzz with the sonic as it passed and it collapsed, 'deactivated.' "No stalling! -Whoopsie!" He was forced to dodge again as the next unicorn guard attempted to blast him with a magi-bolt. "...So you do have other effects than telekinesis..." he muttered even as he moved to stop this one too.
"Ditzy, no!"
The Doctor looked up in time to see a grey and yellow blur slam into his opponent, dragging them both to the ground.
Ditzy was unaware that the Doctor's srewdriver had actually freed the first guard from Dalek control. All she'd seen was the pony collapsing, so when the next guard to attack had been her father, she acted, launching herself into the air and then dive-bombing the elder Doo, keeping him from hurting the Doctor, but also keeping the Doctor from, she believed, hurting him.
"Papfin, stop!" she pleaded as she tried to pin him down, "Stop, please!"
In the meantime, some of the Daleks had managed to fumble their way back into the destroyed throne room. "RETREAT! RETREAT!"
"ACTIVATE ROBO-EQUINE SELF-DESTRUCT!"
The Doctor went cold. "No, don't...stop!"
Ditzy's impromptu wresting match with her father was suddenly cut short when he stopped fighting her...and started screaming. A scream that was echoed by the other guardponies as, almost as one, they collapsed, twitching, to the floor.
"You didn't have to do this...you didn't NEED to do this!" the Doctor yelled. Dropping the 'Dalek jammer,' he rushed over to where Ditzy was now standing over her father with a look of horror on her face. "Move!" he told her, roughly pushing her away in his haste. He knelt over the seizing pony, trying to hold his head still with his free hand, while cycling the screwdriver through various settings. He kept at it even when the screaming stopped...even when the unicorn stallion stopped moving at all...and even a little after that. Finally, his arm dropped limply to his side and he just knelt there on the foor, unable to take his eyes away from yet another he'd failed to save. "I'm sorry...I'm....I'm so sorry..." And even he wasn't sure who he was telling it to.
Ditzy burst into tears. Flower Shine slowly trotted up behind her and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. Then she suddenly found herself nearly knocked over as the pegasus threw herself into a hug, which Shine freely returned, looking over Ditzy's shoulder at the Doctor, sadly.
They vaguely heard the *pop* as the jammer finally failed.
They were still like that when the remaining Daleks returned, their eyes and weapons fully functional again. "DO NOT MOVE! YOU ARE OUR PRISONERS!"
In complete defiance of this, the Doctor stood up and turned to face the nearest Dalek. There was a smoldering fury behind his eyes. "Why?" he asked simply, in a scarily quiet voice.
It didn't take a genius to know what he meant. "BECAUSE, YOU WOULD ATTEMPT TO SAVE THEM," the Dalek answered.
"...You killed them...simply to distract me." It wasn't a question.
"YES."
The Doctor just nodded. "Right then...what are you waiting for? Get on with it."
"YOU ARE OUR PRI-"
"And how well has THAT ever worked out for you?" he asked with a laugh, and not a happy one. "No...just get on with it already!" he yelled, actually causing the Dalek to flinch back a bit.
Shine looked up at him in alarm. He couldn't actually be asking for them to...?
"EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR!" Several gunsticks swiveled towards him.
Then came the noise...a most glorious and wonderful noise...
Everyone looked up in surprise as it came smashing through one of the large stained glass windows, its form spinning like a top as it came hurtling down.
"ALERT, TARDIS DETEC-" one Dalek tried to get out, before the TARDIS slammed into it and several others nearby, scattering them like oversize bowling pins. It bounced once, ramming over several more Daleks as it finally came sliding to a halt near where the Doctor and the others were. The doors swung open, and out charged Macintosh. The farm pony galloped over then reared up and spun around on his front hooves, slamming his back hooves into the side of a Dalek in the biggest buck of his life so far. It slid across the floor out of control, colliding with the ones in front of the Doctor and knocking them away.
"Come on, Doc!" the earth pony colt exclaimed. "We gotta get scarce!"
This seemed to snap him back to focus. He turned to look behind him, but Shine was already half-carrying Ditzy to the TARDIS. He turned to follow as the Daleks finally snapped out of it as well, and the beams started flying. However, he suddenly stopped short, actually avoiding a shot by coincidence, as he saw something impossible emerge from the TARDIS.
It was only about the height of an average pony's leg, made of a silvery-grey metal...and in the boxy shape of a dog.
"Maximum defense mode!" K-9 shouted, deploying his laser and laying down a stream of cover fire against the Daleks. Meanwhile, Shine and Ditzy ran past him into the still open doors of the TARDIS.
"Doc, move!" Macintosh told him, pushing his head into the Time-Lord's back to try and push him forwards, but the Doctor was still trying to work past the impossibility of a K-9 being here, of all places, to respond.
"Doctor, GET IN HERE!" roared a voice from inside.
Reflexively, the Doctor obeyed, running for the doors with Macintosh right behind him, but inside he was in even more turmoil. Though he hadn't recognized the voice itself, the tone and inflections were...beyond familiar.
He dashed into the console room, Macintosh following. Still laying down fire, K-9 quickly rolled in behind them and, causing a wince from the Doctor, Mac bucked the doors shut. The Doctor turned towards the console to find a little blue unicorn filly with a white and dark-blue mane and tail frantically attempting to work the controls.
"I'll lecture you about whatever you've put this poor thing through later," she said, "If you'll quickly get us out of here, now!"
Numbly, he took over, and a few seconds later the sounds of the TARDIS engines coming up filled the room. Outside, the TARDIS began to glow, and then slowly fade away even as the Daleks pelted it with energy blasts.
Celestia was slowly coming to the conclusion that this course of action was proving futile. She'd been hitting her cage with stronger and stronger attacks...only to receive stronger and stronger retaliations each time. The effort was beginning to take a toll on her too, so she finally called it quits...for now. Stopping to rest, she took a moment to wonder what the Daleks could want with capturing her. Nothing she could think of comforted her. Even just the act of capturing her would mean eventual disaster, as soon it would be time for her to transition the world from day to night, and she doubted she would be able to do her duty from here.
The hiss of a door sliding open caught her attention and she looked up. A pair of Daleks glided into the room, then took positions on either side of the door, turning to face her. And then he entered.
He rode in some sort of device that resembled the bottom half of a Dalek, only it was colored black with silver domes. At the top of this chair was a series of control button and switches, beside which rested a metal, mechanical hand. His torso was thin, missing his left arm, and dressed in black. His face was gaunt, the sockets where she assumed his eyes had once been were empty and black, replaced by a glowing device in the center of his forehead that resembled the eye of a Dalek. his lips were curved in a terrible grin, and his whole head seemed supported by some sort of thin framework that went along the top.
He glided his chair up to her cage. "Ah...Princes Celestia of Equestria..." His voice sounded old and gravelly, with a faint electronic quality that made it sound not unlike that of a Dalek's. "...I have been waiting a long time to finally meet you. I am Davros."
The console room was quite except for the hum of the TARDIS' engines when Colagate came back to it. She still couldn't help marvel, again, at how completely different it was from the last time she'd seen it, during the Shada incident. Frankly, she considered it a testament to both its construction and the Doctor's care that the TTC was even still operational.
As she trotted down the stairs to the console platform itself, she noticed K-9 standing silent vigil next to the hat rack near the exterior doors. The doctor himself was leaning forward over one side of the console, an unreadable expression on his face. "I led the others to the library, though it took a while to find it. You have been re-arranging things somewhat. ...What happened to half your book collection?"
"...Incident with the pool during last regeneration," he told her.
"Ah, pity." She walked over next to him. "...Speaking of regenerations, I suppose we need to talk,"
The Doctor stood up, looking at her. "Yes, we need to talk,"
"Good, because I need to -GAK-!" She gagged as the Doctor suddenly grabbed her around the neck, hauling her up and pinning her down on top of a clear space on the console!
"Yes, lets talk," he said, the calm in his voice being flooded by an undertone of anger. "First subject, who are you?"
Colgate panted for air for a moment before she managed to respond. "Have...have you gone mad!? You should be able to perfectly well know who I am!"
"No, I know who you're supposed to be, there's a difference," he said, staring down at her. "I will admit you've done a very good job of it. The K-9 unit was a nice touch."
"Master?" questioned the tin dog.
"Quiet you!" the Doctor snapped, pointing at it warningly with his free arm. He quickly turned his attention back to the filly. "Now, who are you!? And no lies, because with everything that has happened today, I am very much not. In. The. Mood!"
Colgate glared up at him. "I am Romanadvoratrelundar, Time Lord of Gallifrey, Lady-President of the High Council!" She pronounced, then added, "...In exile, at least."
"I SAID NO LYING!" the Doctor exploded, causing her to flinch. With difficulty, he restrained himself. "She's gone...Gallifrey...all of them...gone...I've come to accept that..."
"...Doctor," she said gently, "If you'd just believe your senses and listen, I'm trying to tell you-"
"Because every time I don't...every time I allow myself to think otherwise," he interrupted, "It always ends in heartache, tears, and a lot of mortal peril, so unless you want to see me...angry...DROP THE ACT!"
"'One day, I shall come back.'"
The two suddenly turned their heads to see Flower Shine standing next to them. It was she who had spoken just then.
She continued before either of them could speak up. "'Yes, one day I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.'"
Colgate glance upwards to see the Doctor frozen with a look of astonishment.
"That was the last thing you said to me before saying goodbye, do you remember?" Shine went on, "And I did my best, or rather, we did, David and I. It wasn't always perfect, but we were happy together, and I'm glad, now, that you gave me that chance. But I did wait for you to come back...but you never did."
Releasing Colgate, the Doctor stepped back a pace, seemingly dazed. "...I tried, once. But...you were gone...I couldn't...couldn't find you..."
Shine smiled at him sadly. "It wasn't your fault...I'm glad to know you tried...but I suppose the war got to me first."
"War? ...No! No, no ,no...you were safe...you were supposed to be safe from all that!" the Doctor protested.
"Rassilon came for me himself. He said that anyone with experience fighting the Daleks was needed. Really, I think he thought if he had me, he might be able to control you. Apparently he never got the chance to try. ...He should have known better in any case." She stepped forward, really looking him over now. "Look at you!" she said with a laugh, "You finally stopped pretending to be so old...except, you really are now, aren't you?"
For once at a loss for words, it took him a moment to find a response. "Well...you're a...pony!" he said, cracking a smile even as he started to cry openly.
Shine started to as well. "Oh grandfather!" she exclaimed, rushing over to him.
He dropped to his knee to embrace her. "Susan!" he gasped, hugging her to him, "My dear Susan..."
Any other day, and she might have been absolutely fascinated in the place she found herself in today. A craft of some sort, that while outside was the size of a large box, contained large rooms and other wonders inside! But today was, by far, NOT an ordinary day. Today...Ditzy had just seen her father die...no, seen him killed in front of her, and right now all she wanted to do was cry. And so she did, as she rested on a couch in a half-empty library that Flower Shine and that blue filly had led her to after they'd escaped.
"Er...are y'all okay?" came a voice from nearby.
Ditzy looked up to see the earth pony colt teen that had helped rescue them earlier.
Macintosh flinched a little at her gaze. "Eeeyup, dumb question..." he muttered. "...Look...is there anything I c'n do fer ya?"
Ditzy couldn't help it, a wave of grief and anger came bubbling up and she let it loose on the only target available. "Whistle!?" she snapped, "Warrant your Papfin MURDERED tuba!?"
Mac stepped back in response to her outburst. "...Was...my pa murdered?" he asked, taking a moment to piece together what she'd meant. "...Oh, is that who that...?" he started to ask, remembering the unicorn guard she and and the other mare had been standing over with the Doctor. "...No, can't say he was..."
Ditzy nodded, opening her mouth to say something else when Mac beat her to it.
"He is gone though...he and ma, both..."
Instantly her anger deflated and it was her turn to flinch. "Oh...wax..."
They were both quiet for a long moment. "...What cornered? ...If ice ok to axe?"
"Wha' happened, you mean?" he asked back, and she nodded. "Nah...it's...it's ok 'ta ask. ...It was a few months ago, ya see, right after mah youngest sister came along... There was a big storm tha' came up outta the Everfree Forrest. Weather Teams couldn't stop it none, and it started overflowing the river where the new dam was. Ma and Pa went t' go help evacuate ponies downstream in case it broke...and then it did..."
Mac stopped there, and it was silent again for a few moments. Finally it was Ditzy who broke it. "I'm...sorry," she said, doing her best to speak clearly.
"'Twern't your fault...weren't anypony's fault. ...Jus' an accident. Granny Smith said, though, that iffin they had to go...they....would've been glad ta know it was helping other ponies..." ...Not that it helped much, he added to himself, sadly.
Ditzy just nodded. Her own father had made her understand that, even in a land as peaceful as Equestria, there was always a risk that his duties in the guard might mean he might not come home someday. But Mac's parents...they'd just been helping out during a crisis...they'd given their lives to help others, even though they didn't have to. And instead of a noble death in the line of duty, her father had been enslaved and then his life taken as a simple distraction by these Dalek monsters. Neither should have happened...
Ditzy suddenly got up with a look of determination. She hopped off the couch and started heading back to the console room, a confused Macintosh following in her wake.
"Where ya goin'?" he asked.
She didn't answer. No, neither event should have happened, but while she couldn't do anything to prevent tragic accidents...she could help to make sure the Daleks never took the life of another pony ever again.
Meanwhile, back in the console room, there were tears shed, followed by apologies given. Finally, after things had settled down, the Doctor decided to get some questions answered. "I suppose the obvious question is: how?"
Colgate chuckled. "Actually, the how of it was the fairly easy, at least in terms of creating the inter-universal tear. The real trick was doing it under the noses of Rassilon and the Council. Luckily, even after his supporters had ousted me we still had allies among them. ...Some of them even had to stay behind in the end, to keep our escape secret. The rest of them couldn't be allowed to follow..."
The Doctor nodded. "I can imagine, given what they tried back in our universe..."
"The Final Sanction..." Shine whispered. The three of them gave a collective shudder.
Colgate gave a disgusted snort. "To think that we had fallen so far... Bad enough that the war had degenerated into something far beyond Time Lords versus Daleks...but to destroy time itself simply to achieve victory..." She looked up into the Doctor's eyes. "However you ended it...whatever you had to do...don't ever think for a moment that it was the wrong decision. Especially considering the alternative."
"I..." he was unsure what to say to that. "...Thank you."
The unicorn filly just nodded in response. "Anyway, those of us who rebelled against the direction Rassilon was leading us, we devised an escape. ...Call it cowardly if you must, but we couldn't just blindly follow the Council any longer, and continuing to fight would just pointlessly expand the conflict even further. We created an inter-dimensional tear, large enough to fly TARDISes through. ...And then those of us who could came here."
"Right. And here comes the question I've been really wanting answered, why go pony?"
The other two giggled. "Well, for starters, I'm sure you've noticed that the humanoid form doesn't exactly blend in here," Shine said.
"But more than that, it was part of the sanctuary agreement with Princess Celestia," Colgate added. "I suppose we could have simply started over again somewhere, set up a New Gallifrey or some such...and some of us did want to. But the rest of us... The Time War had shown us our worst, and most of didn't want to set up something that might just go on to repeat all our mistakes all over again. In addition, the tear had exited here in Equestria, and while we debated, we had ample time to observe their culture. And while not perfect it was...appealing, I guess. So we made contact.
"As pretty much our leader by default as well as position, I entered into negotiations with the Princess. I told her everything, and in the end, we reached an agreement where we would be allowed to live among the Equestrian population, so long as we made sure that the Gallifreyan technology we had brought with us would be kept out of pony...hooves, and that none of us went messing around with this universe's timestreams."
"Given the universal difference, I would have thought that last bit would be a non issue...but then, my TARDIS seems to be running all right...." he commented.
Shine nodded, "That baffled us for a while too. Near as we can tell the background 'magic,' of this dimension (we're not exactly sure what to classify it as, but that's what the natives call it), is fully compatible with TARDIS power systems, even despite the differing universal origins."
"Which was luck for us, because Gallifreyan technology really helped speed along the final step," Colgate continued. "One of us devised a way to modify chameleon arches to modify our basic physiology patterns without actually completely rewriting it."
"Meaning instead of going full pony, you turned time lords into...time ponies?"
"Essentially. Unfortunately, the process mainly works by altering our regeneration cycles, so the change only really goes into effect upon the next regeneration, meaning we all had to lose one..."
"Still, that's brilliant, I'd love to meet whoever came up with it!"
She sighed, "Normally, you'd be doing just that, but apparently something bigger has come up..."
"Daleks?"
The three turned in surprise to see Ditzy Doo descending the stairs into the room, a determined look on her wall-eyed features. Mac was lurking uncertainly in the doorway above. "That's water teacup tap-lking about, right?" she asked. "I'm sorry if this is important but shouldn't we be thinking about trying to stop them, and do catch-up later?"
Flower Shine was looking at her dumbfounded. "Ditzy...your aphasia..."
Ditzy snorted. "What about it?" she asked a tad angrily, as if she needed to be reminded of her condition right now. "I know you can understand me fine, somehow, so just translate for me if-"
"No, I mean...it's gone!"
The pegasus mare blinked, her eyes drifting a bit further out of alignment in her surprise. "W-what? But...that's...how?"
"...Doctor?" Colagate asked, looking at him questioningly.
He didn't answer, instead pulling out his sonic screwdriver as he strode over to the befuddled mare. "...You said she had aphasia?" he asked.
Shine nodded. "A severe form of Paraphasia to be more exact, I believe. I've had to rely on 'listening' to her empathic meanings to be able to understand her."
"I-I've had it as long as I can remember," Ditzy mumbled as the Doctor examined her, "....Though I can control it sometimes...if I concentrate..."
"Hmm..." he muttered, scanning the screwdriver's end around her head for a moment before checking it. "Well...I don't think your condition's gone, exactly..." His eyes drifted over to the console. "I think...its the TARDIS..."
Colgate cocked her head. "The translation circuit can do that?"
"Apparently so..." he answered, grinning. He looked down at Ditzy. "She must really like you!"
"So...I'm not...cured?" Ditzy asked, sounding a bit disappointed.
"I'm sorry, but no," the Doctor told her. "In fact, it'll probably only last while you're on board. But you're still absolutely right. The Daleks are threatening your world, and I promise I will do everything I can to stop them."
"I just don't want anyone else to...to end up like my Papfin..."
He patted her on the head. "And we'll try to make sure of that." He looked to the others, "So we'd better get to work. To start, why would they want to attack the castle back there?"
Shine looked grim. "To capture Princess Celestia," she said simply.
Mac and Colgate's eyes widened. "...Tell me you're joking," Colgate whispered.
"Why? What's so special about the princess?" the Doctor asked.
"She's...she's powerful, Doctor," Colgate answered. "She literally has control over the sun and moon of this planet, and that's just the more obvious demonstrations of her power."
"What, that was for real?" he asked, getting nods from all around. "Princess Celestia controls the cycle of the sun and moon?"
Colgate sighed, "Yes, I have noticed it seems to almost be a universal law to name things on a theme here. Can we focus, Doctor?"
"Right, sorry...but if she's as powerful as all that, how did they catch her?"
"They used some kind of Artron energy cage, and then materialized a ship around her. Not a saucer, but an older model timeship, based on TARDIS technology," Shine explained.
"And they used it to sneak in too!" Ditzy added, "They had a base or something in the tunnels beneath the castle."
"Old style timeship..." the Doctor muttered. "Hmm, still, this base beneath the castle, sounds like a good place to start." He rushed over to the flight controls.
"But wha' if they're still there?" Mac asked, concerned.
"No, they went to a lot of trouble to do a sneak attack on the castle, meaning they probably still want to keep being sneaky after, so they've probably gone scurrying back to wherever their main nest is by now..." He quickly began throwing switches. "In any case, its the best lead we've got. Everybody brace yourselves! Geronimo!"
Everyone except him stumbled a bit as the TARDIS lurched into motion.
A couple minutes later, it materialized in the space that had once been the Dalek staging area. The doors flung open and the Doctor strolled out. "K-9, you come along too, we could use your scanners!"
"Affirmative!" K-9 said, sounding pleased as he trailed behind, followed by the small herd of ponies.
"She sells settles orange wet grass," Ditzy muttered to herself, starting out hopeful, but ending on a sad tone. Shine put a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
The space looked very different from when it had when the two mares had snuck through earlier. The upper exits had been collapsed, and nearly all the control panels and other tech that had been set into the walls had been removed, rather hastily by the looks of it.
"You were definitely right about them being quick to leave," Colgate remarked. "But what I don't understand is why the secrecy? It's not like Equestria has the technology to resist them."
"Technology, maybe not," the Doctor said as he scanned a wall with his screwdriver, "But there's other things they do have. Like a third of the population with essentially built in weapons. Think about it, if Celestia represents the upper tier of magical abilities, and she can apparently move stellar bodies around, it stands to reason that if you were going to invade a people like that, that you wouldn't want to tip them off about it unless you were sure you could overcome that advantage..."
"Very good, Doctor. It seems your exceptional mind has remained unchanged, unlike the rest of you..."
"Master, detecting active communication link!" K-9 piped in.
Colgate's eyes went wide as she recognized the voice, but a quick glance from the Doctor bade her to keep quiet.
"Yes, we can hear it K-9," he told the robot. "Hello Davros."
The holographic screen sprang into existence above them, causing Shine, Ditzy and Mac to recoil in horror. When the former two had seen him before, he'd been in shadow, but now he could be seen clearly.
"I knew it was only a matter of time before you arrived to interfere, as you always do."
"Yes, well, that's me, perfectly predictable... I see you're still up to your old tricks, and I do mean old."
"I take it you are referring to my new generation of Imperial Daleks? Yes, I learned from the mistakes I made with the New Dalek Empire. I remembered that sometimes older methods work best. My new creations have qualities that my last children lacked, the foremost being obedience."
"Yes, I can see how that would be an improvement over them keeping you in the basement as a pet." He stepped towards the image threateningly. "Now, all pleasantries aside...what have you done with the Princess?"
Davros laughed, an unpleasant thing to hear. "Always so quick to play the hero. The Princess is my...guest. She will be helping me to accomplish my work here."
"Oh really? And what might that be?"
"Doctor...you don't honestly expect me to tell you everything?"
"Well I was sort of hoping..."
"No...no, I think not. This is to be the final round of our very long game...and I am determined to come out the victor."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," the Doctor said without humor.
"Such hostility Doctor...but you only have yourself to blame. After all...you were the one who brought us here."
The Doctor held on tightly to the edge of the console as the TARDIS pitched around him after taking another hit. Sparks burst from a cable overhead somewhere as he struggled to input another evasive pattern in, but no matter how many times he altered course, his attacker seemed to stay right on him.
"Who the bloody heck are you?" he asked aloud, almost wishing that they'd give in and just tell him. Whatever weapons they were using against him were causing enough 'turbulence' in the local vortex area that he couldn't get a solid lock on whatever the attacker was. Still, whoever they were, they had some impressive technology. Not many people could build a vessel capable of keeping up with the TARDIS through the vortex, let alone have weapons that would actually be capable of damaging it. Unfortunately, as much as he admired their ingenuity, he'd rather not get blown to component atoms, thank you.
"Right, time to put a stop to this...sorry dear," he muttered, knowing this would probably be rather rough on his faithful TARDIS. When the next round of shots came, he quickly diverted all drive power to the extrapolator shielding, giving it enough of a boost to actually deflect them right off the TARDIS' own defensive screens. The resulting explosions from around the console room were expected. What happened next wasn't. The room began to pitch wildly, causing the doctor to grab hold of the console for dear life. Above the clamor around him, he could hear the sound of the Cloister bell.
"Oh, well, that can't be good..." Keeping a one armed grip on the console, he reached over and pulled the small scanner screen over to him. His eyes widened at what he saw. Apparently, the force of the attacker's weapons, combined with whatever power they'd picked up from being bounced off the TARDIS had been just enough to create a small rupture in the vortex itself, and now both craft were being drawn into the tear!
Still keeping a hold of the console, he moved himself over to another side of it, working the controls in a desperate attempt to throw enough power back into the engines to pull away long enough for the rupture to seal itself. He glanced back at the scanner just in time to see the other vessel disappear. "Come on, sexy. You can do it!" He said in encouragement. The groan of the engines picked up speed and volume as the TARDIS gave one last effort.
It wasn't enough.
Suddenly the room was tumbling around him. The Doctor had the presence of mind to throw the materialization control while he could still reach it. A physical impact would be nothing after all this. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the exterior monitor flashing between ground and starry sky as the TARDIS tumbled. He managed to hit the blue stabilizer switches, glad River wasn't here to see that, and the room stopped spinning for a moment...just in time for collision with the ground to knock everything for a loop one more time...
Equestrian Year 990 C.R.(Celestia's Reign) AKA Now...
"It was you!" The Doctor stepped forward towards the image of Davros, now feeling a bit cross. "You were the one that decided to go all...shooty, and use me for target practice!"
"Yes...I gave in to my baser emotions and decided to take revenge for our last encounter in a direct fashion. However I couldn't have foreseen that your defense against my attempt to destroy you would instead lead me here: A planet nearly defenseless even against what meager resources I had left. A universe, where my Daleks had never known failure, where they will be able to start anew, without concern of opposition...except for you."
"Yeah...and you're as insane as I've ever thought you were if you think I'm going to let that happen."
"Oh, I'm well aware of that, Doctor..."
"Master, energy levels spiking!" K-9 piped in.
"But as I said, I intend to come out the victor this time. I highly doubt this will stop you, but it should slow you down long enough..."
"Energy overload increasing! Danger of explosion imminent!"
"Farewell for now, Doctor." And then the screen faded out.
A loud hum began to fill the chamber as sparks and arcs of energy began to flash from the remains of the consoles around the room. The Doctor only had a few moments to take in the situation. During the confrontation, he'd foolishly allowed himself to get the furthest from the TARDIS. K-9 was beside him, with the pegasus, Ditzy, the next closest, then Colgate, Shine and Macintosh right in front of the police box shaped vessel. Of the three, he picked Mac as the best candidate for the next bit.
"Macintosh, catch!" he shouted, scooping up K-9 by its carrying handle and tossing it with just enough force to make the distance. To his credit, the colt quickly positioned himself to catch the robot dog on his back. The Doctor then gave a snap of his fingers, causing the doors of the TARDIS to swing open in response. "Everyone in!"
"How did you-?" Colgate started to ask, even as Mac and Flower Shine rushed inside.
"Explain later, move!"
The filly jumped inside. The hum was quickly becoming more of a whine, but he was almost to the doors. They'd be able to get out with- Wait no, something was wrong...
"Ditzy, come on!" Shine shouted.
The Doctor looked, and indeed the grey pegasus was still standing there...looking at him with an unreadable expression. He glanced from her to the doors even as he estimated the time left by the sound of the overload. There wasn't enough time... He could leave her, make it to the TARDIS himself, but he couldn't grab her and still make it in time. And he'd be damned if he did anything with the first option other than just put it on the list. He snapped his fingers again even as he changed directions. The TARDIS doors slammed closed as he leaped towards Ditzy, who came out of her stupor just in time to register shock at the sight of him flying at her. He tackled her to the ground, then quickly pulled out his screwdriver and aimed it at the ceiling, even as the world went white around him.
The three ponies and tin dog were thrown to the floor as the TARDIS shook from the explosion outside. Dazed, it took them a moment to find their hooves. Shine was the first to recover her wits, her eyes going wide as she realized what had happened. "Grandfather! Ditzy!"
She rushed back to the doors and pulled them open again, only to find them blocked by a pile of debris that completely covered the opening. "Oh no...we...we've got to..." She began trying to dig at the rocks to little effect. Macintosh ran up beside her before turning around and giving it a strong buck...and quickly regretted it as the debris pile proved quite solid.
"Both of you, stop before you cause it all to collapse inside!" Colgate shouted.
"How can you say that?" Shine asked angrily. "They're both still out there...probably buried!"
"I know that!" the 'filly' shouted back, then softened her tone. "I know, Shine. But...even if they survived, we can't stay. There might be some tools aboard somewhere we could use to get to them, but it'd take too long to find what we need. You heard Davros, he's close to finishing whatever he's planning."
"But..surely we can't just leave them..." Shine protested, and though he didn't say anything, his expression showed that Mac was inclined to agree with her.
"Your grandfather's gotten out of deadlier situations than this. And I'm sure its what he'd want us to do," Colgate told her as she headed for the console. "After all, he made sure that we got K-9 on board..."
The other two looked suitably confused. "What does that have to do with anything?" Shine asked.
"Because K-9's sensors were recording during that little chat, weren't you, K-9?"
"Affirmative Mistress. I have analyzed the transmission frequency and traced it back to its originating location within a 96.76% accuracy." the little robot told them.
"He knows where they are?" Shine asked. "...But surely you don't plan on taking on a whole Dalek army with just us?"
Colgate snorted even as she began charting a course. "Ha! If the Doctor was here, we'd probably be doing just that! But, no offense, I'd like to consider myself a tad more sensible. We're going to need help."
"Hold on jus' a minute here," Macintosh finally spoke up. "I get we're in a bit o' a rush, but who exactly is this Davros feller?"
"He's..." Shine started, then stopped. "...Actually, I'm not exactly familiar with him either. He's affiliated with the Daleks obviously..."
"He's their creator," Colgate said matter-of-factually as she engaged the engines. As the familiar groan started, she continued. "The greatest force of evil ever, and Davros is the one who created it. He's the last surviving, if you want to consider his condition survival, Kaled, the race from which the Daleks are derived from. ...And he's supposed to have died during the time war. Near the start. ...I have no idea how he's able to be here now."
"So, wait, them Dalek things are alive!?" Mac asked, "I thought they was just machines!"
Shine shook her head. "No...what you see on the outside is just a shell. A casing for the creature within. They're mutants, horribly changed by radiation and genetic manipulation...no emotions except for hate and the need to destroy..."
"And then imagine someone who could create something like that, and you have Davros," Colgate finished. "If we do nothing, the Daleks will kill everypony...everyone on Equestria before finding a way to spread throughout the universe until Daleks are all that's left. And if the Doctor were here, he'd want us to stop them...even if it meant leaving him behind for now."
When Ditzy came to, she found it a bit hard to breathe. Panicking, she tried to struggle, only to find she could barely move too, as something was on top of her. In her struggles, her head bumped into that something and it let out a grunt.
"Ugh...Ditzy, right?"
She barely heard the question. Her pegasus instincts were screaming at her to get out of wherever she was...this dark, SMALL space, and she continued thrashing.
"Oof...Ditzy! Ditzy, calm down, it's ok, you're fine!" the voice, which she belatedly recognized as the Doctor's, insisted. She felt something grab her forelegs and pin them down to stop her attempted flailing. "It's all right, calm down...shh..."
Gradually, she stopped struggling and her panic let up just a bit. "Water...hopeful?"
"Well...you remember that big explosion?"
Ditzy nodded, before realizing he probably couldn't see her. "Uh huh..."
"Well...and don't panic, again, but...it seems to have collapsed the roof on us."
"TIMEPIECE!?"
"Oi! I said don't panic!" She felt him shifting around for a moment before the small space they were in was lit up with the greenish glow of the sonic screwdriver. "I managed to sonic the ceiling above us so it'd fall in such a way to give us this little space here," he explained, giving her a grin.
Ditzy forced herself back to calm. She did have to admit just being able to see again helped alleviate a little bit of the fear. "Ready lump sum?"
"Well, now we just wait for someone to get us out..." he told her as he looked their little pocket over. "Luckily, it doesn't seem like we're buried too deep, as I think I see a few air holes, which also means we don't need to worry about suffocation. Anyway, either Romana and the others will get to us, unless the TARDIS got buried too, in which case they probably can't, so she'll have gotten my hint and left to come up with her own plan to stop the Daleks."
"Fish...petal leaf dance?"
"Oh, I thought of that too. You see, whoever's in charge of the remaining guards is probably going around the bend to do everything to get the Princess back, and since the Daleks came from down here, they'd pick this as the first place to start looking. And then there was a big explosion, which might as well have been like pointing a sign to tell them which part of the tunnels to search, so I figure..."
He trailed off as they were both briefly enveloped in a sparkling blue glow. This was followed by the faint sounds of shouting from outside their rocky enclosure.
"Hmm...tingly," the Doctor commented. "As I was saying...authorities, almost like clockwork sometimes."
He switched the screwdriver off and put it away, and then the two waited in silence as sounds of digging got closer. Finally, the debris directly in front of them was surrounded by a glowing aura and ripped away, revealing the faces of a pair of unicorns, who just stared at them blankly when they got a look at what they'd uncovered.
"Ello!" the Doctor said pleasantly, giving them a small wave. Despite herself, Ditzy cracked a weak grin.
The unicorns just stared at them a moment longer before one of them managed to recover his wits. "Sergeant...uh, we found the lifesigns, I think."
A white coated pegasus in golden armor quickly walked into view. "...What in the Princess' name...? Get them out of there and take them up to the dungeon. ...Captain'll probably want to speak to these two."
Macintosh and Flower Shine followed Colgate out of the alley where they'd left the TARDIS, making their way through a street that was barely more than an alley itself. Shine glanced around for a moment then giggled. "Oh wait, you meant we're going to ask him for help?"
Colgate gave a sigh. "If you know another of us here in Canterlot who might still have everything we'll need, speak up. ...No seriously."
Shine just giggled again.
Mac just looked suitably confused. "Who're ya talking about?"
"You'll see," Shine told him.
The three stopped outside a small shop, a sign reading Timeless Books & Antiques above the door. A 'Closed' sign hung inside the large window next to the door, but Colgate knocked loudly on the door anyway. There was silence for a moment before she knocked again, louder.
"Oi! Read the sign already!" came an irritated shout from within.
"Starsider, get your flank over here and open this door! It's an emergency!"
There was the sound of scrambling hoofsteps from withing, followed by quick snaps of the locks on the door being undone before it was pulled open, and a grey stallion with an unruly black mane and vivid purple eyes poked his head out, a short, purple scarf around his neck. "Oh...uh, didn't realize it was you, Colgate..." He pulled the door open all the way, revealing himself to be a pegasus, with the same hourglass cutie mark as the mare and filly. "Come in, come i-" he started, then noticed Macintosh, or rather his apple half cutie mark. "Who's he?"
"With us," Colgate stated, glaring up at him,
Starsider withered a bit at her gaze, but persisted. "But he's not-"
"No he isn't," she confirmed.
"So he knows-"
"Yes!" she said, getting exasperated. "Honestly, all the rule breaking I have to berate you for, and this is the one time you decide to stick to procedure?"
The stallion grumbled something unintelligible, but moved aside to let them in. To say that the shop was full of books would be an injustice to the concept of understatements. The shelves were packed with books from bottom to top. There were books on counter-tops, books on tables, and books on top of books. Interspersed throughout the books, though, were various other odds and ends, like busts of famous historical ponies, old looking tapestries on the walls, piles of scrolls, swords or other weapons, a model train, and various other antiquities.
"Macintosh, meet Starsider, time lord, TTC systems engineer, and former head of the Type 85 project," Shine introduced.
"And constant pain in my flank..." Colgate muttered.
"Er...howdy," Mac said, "...What's a Type 85?"
Starsider's eyes lit up in excitement. "Oh, just my best piece of work! The Type 85 TTC! Designed to have all the functions and capabilities of normal TTCs, but able to be reliably crewed by only a single person. You see, they were supposed be used for exploration and scouting purposes-"
"Which was just a smokescreen of an excuse for you and your friends to go gallivanting around the universe like your idol!" Colgate interrupted, "Which is why I shut down the project before it got out of prototyping."
Mac looked at Shine with more confusion.
"She means Grandf- the Doctor," she told him.
"Hmmph, you and the rest of the council, bunch of spoilsports. You especially, considering you'd practically been doing the same thing before you took office..." the pegasus muttered.
"I was acting as a moderating factor when I was with him, and that's my story," Colgate protested. "Now if you're done going over your past grudges, we need a few things from your armory."
Starsider stepped back, suddenly looking nervous. "A-armory? What armory? I h-have no idea what...you're..." He trailed off at the look on her face. It was surprisingly scary even with her apparent age. "Oh all right! Lost everything else, didn't expect to have to lose my collections too... This way." He turned and started threading his way through the shelves towards the back of the shop.
"Starsider liked collecting odds and ends from all around time and space," Shine explained to Mac as they walked. "However, our people weren't supposed to be messing around with the timelines, so he got in trouble for it a lot."
"And then the war came along and that's ALL we were doing, bunch of hypocrites. At least I tried to be careful about it..."
"And I said enough with the past grudges!" Colgate reminded him.
"That's another thing! Why in the name of the Princess do you need anything from me?" the pegasus asked. "If you need firepower beyond current equestrian tech levels, you've got unicorn magic after all."
"I'm still only a student as far as magic goes, and self defense spells aren't even taught for a few years, which is time we don't have!" She paused, finally ready to bring out the big one. "Besides...I'm not sure how effective magic is against Dalekanium."
"Dalekani-? DALEKS!?" Starsider jumped about three feet of the ground, his wings shooting out in surprise and knocking several books off the shelves on either side of him. "Daleks...in Equestria!?" he asked, whirling on Colgate. "Oh please tell me that's just a bad joke!?"
"Unfortunately no, so you can see why we might be in a hurry!"
He gulped, then turned and began practically galloping through the shelves. "This way!"
He led them to the very back of the shop, to an ordinary looking door with an 'Employees Only' sign on it. "No one's ever noticed that this is actually the back wall of the shop," Starsider noted while extracting a key on a chain from beneath his scarf. "'Course, the perception filter probably helps..." He fumbled with the key for a moment before unlocking the door and pulling it open. While he was busy with it, Colgate noticed something out of the corner of her eye, but filed it away for later.
Upon entering room beyond, Mac experienced a slight feeling of Deja' vu, as it was similar, yet utterly different from the console room of the Doctor's TARDIS. For starters, it was square shaped, and it appeared smaller at first glance, until he looked up and saw a second level above them through a glass balcony. The walls were primarily a walnut colored wood, with matching roundels decorating it except in the spots where there were bookcases set against them. A cozy looking armchair with a blue floor lamp were set in the corner to the left of the entrance, while the corner to the right had a bookshelf set into it, with a brown hatstand beside it. The far right corner had a small staircase leading up to the balcony above, while the far left had what appeared to be some kind of large cabinet with sliding shutters that were currently closed. The back wall was dominated by a large brass. vault-like, door. In the center was obviously the control console. It was similar to the Doctor's in that it was hexegonally shaped, but the similarities ended there. Whereas his console looked like someone had taken various odds and ends and elegantly worked them all together, Starsider's reminded him of an old desk. On top the center of this was a large circular tube set with gauges, and topped by a silvery dome. This dome had brass rods attached to it, which led up to the ceiling where they were attached to similar but larger dome hanging from the middle of the ceiling.
Starsider quickly moved over to the console and slid up one of the small panel covers on the side nearest the cabinet. He pushed up on one of the sliders underneath and the lights in the room came on. "Elevator's through the door to your right. Just give me a moment to restore power. Haven't been down there in a while..."
Mac pushed the door in question to see a short hallway in a style similar to the console room, ending in a pair of double doors. Before he could turn back, the pegasus stallion was already pushing past him. "This way...this way..." he said absently. They got to the end of the hall and Starsider slapped a hoof on a panel next to the doors. ...And then a moment later tried it again. "...Oh dear, what's...?" He glanced at the panel, then at his hoof...and then back at the rather small buttons on the panel.
Behind him, Shine burst out laughing.
"Oi! I did say I hadn't been down there in a while..." He fumbled in his scarf for a bit before pulling out a pencil. With a mutter that sounded something like 'should've been a unicorn' he used it to press the button and the doors slid open. "Next floor, weapons from throughout the space time continuum, all aboard."
"Hmmph, so much for like clockwork..." the Doctor muttered as he paced back and forth across the cell's floor. On a bunk set into the wall, Ditzy lay facing away from him. As soon as they'd been pulled out of the rubble in the tunnels, they'd been marched up to the palace's small dungeon and placed into this cell. With the threat of dying in a small hole in the ground gone, and her natural pegasus claustrophobia no longer screaming at her, she was able to return her thoughts to what she'd been thinking about before.
She rolled over to face him, trying to gather her concentration. "Doctor..."
He apparently didn't hear her. "I mean really, keeping us waiting like this..."
"Doctor..."
"...It's not like the fate of the world is at stake...oh wait!"
"Doctor!"
He looked over at her suddenly. "Hmm, yes? Sorry...lost in thought there..."
"Is...it...true?" she asked, being careful with each world. She knew he could understand her regardless, but she felt this was important enough to make absolutely sure.
"Hmm? Is what true?"
"Did...they...come...because...of...you?"
The Doctor's face fell into a mask of expressionless. He stopped pacing and was quiet for a long moment. "...Someone else would probably try to put the blame on Davros for attacking me...but I'm not someone else. It was my actions that opened the tear that brought us here, so yes, it's my fault."
Ditzy didn't answer, she just put her head in her forelegs and cried.
The Doctor walked over and sat down on the empty spot of the bunk in front of her. "...Who was he to you? The..unicorn, I mean."
"Pa...father," she got out between the tears.
He just nodded. "...I know I can't say anything that will really make it better. One of the few things I can't do is bring back the dead. The best I can do is to tell you I'm sorry...and that I promise to do everything I can to make sure that it doesn't happen to anyone else. And I won't hold it against you for hating me."
She just shook her head. "Don't...hate..."
"Well...that's refreshing. Thank you..."
"Just...want...know...why?"
The Doctor sighed. "That's...well, that's a very good question Ditzy. One I've spent a very long time trying to figure out, and...I really don't have an answer yet." He sat back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. "Oh, the Daleks themselves are pretty simple to figure out, really. They want to eliminate every other lifeform that isn't Dalek. That's what 'survival' means to them. But Davros, the one who created them... I've been to some dark places before, but I've always found my way out. He found his way into one a long time ago and never left. I was there, you know, when he first created them. I was on a mission to try and stop him. I failed obviously, but at one point I had him alone, and tried to reason with him. I compared the Daleks to a virus, a disease, that if unleashed would be capable of destroying all life in existence. Instead of seeing my point...he actually took it as a challenge, as if creating something like that was something to strive for..."
Suddenly there came the sound of the dungeon door opening, followed by multiple hoofsteps.
"Ah, about time," the Doctor said to himself as he stood up.
A pair of unicorn guards appeared first, taking up positions on either side of the cell. They were followed by a pair of pegasai. The first looked fairly normal for a pegasus guard, with his white coat and blue mane/tail. The only difference being his armor had more ornate decorations, indicating a higher rank. The other one, however, was most unusual. He was half again as large as the stallion next to him, his coat a steel grey color, and his tail a dark blue. His armor was different not only in that it was silver and lacked the helmet crest the golden armored guards had, but it completely covered his front half. Even the helmet sported a full face mask molded in the shape of a pony's head that only his ears and large, amber eyes were easily visible through.
"Well, Ironshod?" the white pegasus asked, "What do you make of it?"
The masked pegasus stepped forward, looking the Doctor over through the bars of the cell. "Not sure, Captain," he answered in a deep sounding voice. "I've seen creatures with similar forms, but nothing exactly like this. Can't identify it anymore than I can tell you what those things upstairs were."
"You know, you could just ask 'it,'" the Doctor pointed out.
The Captain glared at him. "All right then. Who are you? What are you? And what were y-" He stopped suddenly as he noticed the wall-eyed mare on the bunk. "Wait a moment. I know you...you're...Lt. Doo's girl. ...What in Celestia's name are you doing here?"
The Doctor smiled. "She's my assistant."
The stallion shot him another glare before looking back at Ditzy. "This true, filly?"
Ditzy only hesitated a second before nodding vigorously.
"Hmph, very well then. You'd better hope you don't regret that answer in a moment." He hesitated a second. "...I'm afraid it's also my sad duty to report that your father has-"
"She knows," the Doctor interrupted. "...No need to rub it in more by telling her again."
"...Alright. Back to my questions then..."
"Yes, okay then." He straightened up then adjusted his bow tie a second before he began answering. "In order: I'm the Doctor. Just the Doctor. I'm a time lord from the planet Gallifrey, which means nothing to you since it was also in another universe. And assuming your last question was 'what was I doing down in the tunnels beneath the palace?' I was attempting to locate the rest of the creatures, whose remains upstairs your man, er, stallion here was talking about, and are called Daleks by the way, in order to rescue and return your princess to you before she can be used in whatever nefarious scheme they wanted her for."
Silence reigned. The Captain and Ironshod looked at each other, and even the stoic unicorn guards shot uncertain glances towards the cell.
"That's..." the Captain said finally, "...That's quite the answers. ...I don't suppose you have any way of proving this?"
"Besides the fact that I am not a large angry pepper pot, not a thing. ...Well, I suppose Miss Doo here could relate her side of things, but it might take a while for her to get it out in a way that would be understandable...no offense."
"Noodle gate," Ditzy said, letting her speech slip on purpose in order to back him up.
The Captain was silent for a moment more. "...I don't kn-"
The Doctor interrupted him, again. "Captain, I've gone through this more times that you have feathers so let me tell you how it goes. First, you lock me up thinking I'm the enemy. Second, I try to tell you I'm here to help and you ignore me. Third, something catastrophic happens. Then fourth, you're finally forced to trust me in order to get my help. Now you may have noticed we've done step three early, so I'd very much appreciate we get to step four while we still have time!"
"...He does seem to know a lot more about the beasties upstairs than we do, sir," Ironshod piped in.
The Captain sighed as he lightly facehoofed. "Oh very well. But I'm telling you 'Shod, if I get imprisoned in the place that the Princess banishes me to, if you're wrong, I'm making sure you're right there with me!"
"Whatever you say Claymore," Ironshod responded with a tone you could just hear the smile in.
"Open the cell!" Captain Claymore ordered one of the unicorns. "And you, 'Doctor,' had better come through or I'll make sure its a trip for three."
"Aw now Captain, what kind of attitude is that? Optimism, I always say," he responded as he stepped out of the cell after it'd been opened. "Now, I'd like to have a look at the Dalek remains first. Come along Doo. ...Nah, doesn't work as well as Pond. Ah well, come on Ditzy!"
Ditzy quickly hopped down off the bunk and trotted after him.
"And here I thought palace duty was the boring job," Ironshod said aside to Claymore.
Claymore sighed. "It used to be," he muttered, then quickly followed after the Doctor and his companion.
"Status of capacitors?" Davros asked.
"CAPACITOR CHARGE LEVEL AT 34%!" a Dalek answered.
"It should be well over fifty by now. What is the efficiency of the power extraction?"
"EXTRACTION EFFICIENCY AT 43% RATING!"
"I see..." He turned his chair around and glided over to another part of the lab. Princess Celestia's cage had been removed from the time ship and placed into the base of the machinery that dominated the complex they were now in. She lay on the floor, weakened by the power drain. The alicorn's once pure white coat was now looking almost grey. Her normally ethereal mane and tail hung limp and faded.
"You should just give in, Celestia. It will be less stressful for you if you do. In any case, your resistance only delays the inevitable."
Celestia raised her head enough to look him in his electronic eye. "...Then everything's going...to plan..."
"Your bravado is commendable, but you can't hope to escape. And even if you should, I have harnessed forces capable of destroying reality itself. Your powers, though formidable, are trivial compared to that. You don't intimidate me."
"But...he does...doesn't he?"
Davros didn't immediately answer.
"The Doctor..." she clarified.
"...How...?" If he still had working eyes, Davros would have widened them in surprise. "...You know him...somehow, you know him, don't you?"
Now it was Celestia's turn not to answer. Instead she just smiled mysteriously.
"Know this: just because you may have encountered him at some point in his future, it doesn't mean you are safe!" Davros snapped, pointing at her threateningly. "History is not immutable!" He turned around and began gliding away. "A few of your little ponies will not be allies enough to allow him to triumph this time! When the engines are charged, I will destroy this planet, and demonstrate the power of the Daleks to this universe, once and for all!"
Celestia allowed herself to lay down fully again. "Hurry Doctor..." she whispered. "Too much longer...and he may be right..."
If the shop outside was organized chaos, then the 'armory' was its polar opposite. In fact, it more resembled a museum than anything else. Rows of display cases and shelves were placed throughout the large room that the elevator had exited into.
"I'm sure what you'll be looking for is towards the back," Starsider said, taking the lead as they began moving through the displays. The displays closest to the elevator contained mundane weapons such as broadswords, battleaxes, bows and the like, interspersed with suits of armor designed for humanoid creatures, though every once in a while they'd come across something created for something decidedly non-humanoid. However they were passing a rack of flintlock muskets when Macintosh noticed a problem.
"Er...we're supposed ta use some 'o these do'hickeys to fight the Daleks, right?" he asked.
"That is the general idea, yes," the pegasus answered.
"Ok...so...how?"
Starsider stopped and looked back at the colt curiously. "Beg pardon?"
"Well...I dunno about y'all, but...I have absolutely no idea how ta use these things."
"Oh don't worry too much," Starsider said with a dismissive wave of his hoof. "The basic use of firearms is fairly intuitive. You simply hold the weapon in your arms, aim it at your target, and squeeze the trigger with your fingers."
Three pairs of pony eyes blinked at him, one in confusion, the other two in realization.
"Er...hold it in my what, an' squeeze with my what?" Mac asked.
"In your arms and with your fin...gers... Oh dear..." Starsider said, glancing at his own hoof.
Colgate facehoofed. "...I had a feeling I had forgotten something," she muttered, "Luckily, I have a solution for myself, at least." Looking around, she spotted a heavy looking rifle on a rack nearby. Staring at it, her horn lit up, and a second later the weapon lifted into the air. A bit after that, there were clicking sounds as she pulled the action back and readied it. "Yes...I think I handle something around this size at least."
Starsider was looking a bit nervous though. "That's nice that you'll be able to use something...but not that one, please. It's an imperial bolter rifle from the 400th century human empire. Ammo for it was hard to come by before the change in universal address..."
"Very well..." she said, setting it down again. "But this doesn't solve the larger problem of how we plan on equipping the rest of us, and I don't mean just these two," she motioned to Shine and Macintosh, "If this comes down to it, we may need to equip as many of us as are able. And unfortunately, the majority of us didn't come out of things as unicorns."
"Well...I can work a pistol," Shine said. "It's tricky, but doable, using my mouth. Which reminds me..." She reached back and pulled her stazer pistol out of her saddlebags. "This probably could use a recharge."
Starsider took it from her and looked it over. "Hmm, model 6, I believe. A bit flashier and and not as maintenance intensive as some of the earlier models. And it quite good condition too. Yes, I believe I can service this, no problem." He tucked it into his scarf. "But how to equip you, dear colt?" he asked to himself as he looked Macintosh over.
"Er, well, it's ok if ah ain't gonna be able to use anything. Ah'm not really much of a fighter, ehnope..." Macintosh told him, feeling a bit anxious at being the center of attention all of a sudden.
"I'd say you did rather well back at the palace," Shine told him, "And that was with nothing but your bare hooves."
Mac blushed a bit at the praise.
"Hmm, yes, be that as it may, you can't go about engaging Daleks barehanded...er, barehoofed. And that rules out melee weapons too, even though I'm sure I could dig up a vibro or monomolecular weapon..." He circled the earth pony colt a bit, looking him over. "I suppose...yes, I might be able to rig up some sort of adapter...maybe mount whatever we pick out on some sort of saddle..."
"How long would that take?" Colgate asked, worried about time.
"Let's see...a few hours, if we allow for basic testing. Less if we skip it, but then there's be no guarantee it'd work..."
She sighed. Her plan to gather some allies and quickly storm the Dalek headquarters was rapidly falling to shambles. It was time to go to plan B. "All right, put that on hold for the moment. I have an unrelated question. I noticed something as we were going through your shop. Was that an actual set of royal guard armor in the corner up there?"
The pegasus looked a tad offended. "What do you take me for? Of course it's an actual set! And it was rather hard to come by, I'll have you know. Armor like that isn't normally available for private ownership. The exceptions are guards that retire after having done exceptional service, who are allowed to keep their armor, and those who die in the line of duty, in which case its given to their families. In fact I was rather lucky to acquire that set because-"
"I didn't want its complete history, I merely asked if it was authentic!" Colgate snapped, causing Starsider to jump back.
"Oh, well, yes, it is..."
"Enchantments are still functional then?"
"I believe so, yes..."
"Which sub-race?"
"Unicorn."
Unicorn...blast. That derailed her plan B as well. ...Or did it? She looked Macintosh over. He was young, but nicely developed for his age. Yes, it could still work, with some adjustments. She looked back to Starsider. "...Ok, here's what I need. That suit of armor, a life size unicorn bust, and some light black paint. Then I need you to contact the others. Tell them I need all available TARDISes up and running. Only tell them about the Daleks if you absolutely have to. I don't want anyone panicking."
"Colgate...what are you thinking?" Shine asked hesitantly.
"I'm thinking we need a better plan, and the Doctor's good at those, so we need to go get him after all."
Starsider's eyes lit up with excitement. "The Doctor...he's here in Equestria too?"
Colgate smiled wryly. "Of course he is. You think we'd be up to our necks in so much danger if he weren't involved?"
The Doctor sneezed loudly.
"Are you all right?" Claymore asked.
"Hmm? Oh, yes, fine, just a little dusty in here I suppose," he responded.
"Tends to happen when things get demolished," Ironshod remarked.
"Indeed," the Doctor agreed with a nod, having seen similar observations before.
The Great Hall of the palace was in just as much a mess as it had been when they'd left, with great swatches burned into the walls and melted or dead Daleks and rubble strewn all about. The major changes were that all the live Daleks were long gone, of course, and that they'd obviously had time to remove the bodies of the fallen ponies. Ditzy was grateful for the last part, as it was hard enough being back here so soon. It was also swarming with official looking ponies. Guards of all three races stood by while a bunch of official looking unicorns moved throughout the wrecked Daleks. All activity stopped as the two officers and their entourage were noticed.
"As you were," Claymore snapped, and the guardponies instantly returned to their duties.
However a trio of unicorns came trotting over, led by an older pink mare with a two-tone magenta mane and tail, a cutie mark of three blue stars showing on her flanks beneath the powder blue cape she wearing. Her royal blue eyes narrowed behind a pair of horn rimmed glasses. "Captain..." she asked in a tone of voice that made her sound like a schoolteacher about to scold a child, "What is this?"
"Madame Arcane..." Claymore began.
The mare's narrowed eyes turned into a full scowl. "Lady Arcane, Captain..."
Claymore scowled right back, but decided to overlook the admonishment. "Lady Arcane... Your team has had difficulty in identifying and tracking the attackers, so I've brought in an expert."
She looked confused at this. "I beg your pardon? What do you mean 'expert?'"
The Doctor took the moment to insert himself into the conversation. "Oh, he means me!" he said happily, leaning forward and extending a hand. "Ello, I'm the Doctor!"
The unicorn mare leaned away, looking at his hand with disgust. Claymore threw him a 'let me handle this' look, but before he could do anything, she'd already taken notice of someone else. "And who is that?" she asked imperiously, pointing a hoof at Ditzy, even as she did her best to maintain her distance from the Doctor.
Ditzy shrank back under the weight of her gaze before she felt herself being pulled into a one armed hug by the Doctor, who, apparently, was completely ignoring Claymore. "This is Ditzy Doo," he introduced, "She's my assistant."
"I...see..." She looked back at Claymore. "Captain, this is highly irregular! Are you seriously considering putting the fate of Equestria in the hoo- ...claws of this...thing and his supposed assistant who doesn't exactly look mentally fit either!?"
THAT snapped Ditzy right out of her intimidation as she gave an angry snort and would have actually charged the mare if the Doctor still hadn't had a grip on her. Instead she settled for as deadly a glare as she could manage.
"It is because the fate of Equestria is at stake that I'm allowing this!" Claymore countered. "Your team has admitted to coming up with nothing. Our search of the tunnels only turned up these two, and they say they can help, so unless you can give me a better idea...?"
"Well...I..." she sputtered, "...There's certainly got to be SOMETHING better than-"
"That's what I thought," the pegasus interrupted, "So with all due respect, shove it!" And then, before she could recover from the sudden look of shock that had crossed her features, he turned to Ironshod. "'Shod, take our guests and help them do...whatever they need to do here."
Ironshod snapped off a salute with one armored leg and started heading for another part of the hall. "The ones in better shape are over here," he said as the Doctor and Ditzy fell into step behind him, the two unicorn guards bringing up the rear.
"So who exactly was that charming young lady?" the Doctor asked.
Ironshod gave a snort behind his mask at the descriptors 'charming' or 'young.' "Lady Aurora Arcane. She's one of the senior court mages, and a member of two of the oldest noble families in Canterlot. She's also real big into that 'Unicorn supremacy' bit."
"Beg pardon?"
Ironshod glanced back at him. "Ah...right. Well, its something a lot of the nobles around here buy into. Canterlot was built by unicorns, and because its the capital, and because most of the really old noble families are unicorns, they like to believe that makes them better than anyone else. Mostly the other types of ponies, but especially better than non-ponies."
"I see." The Doctor sighed a bit. "Racism(or would that be species-ism?), can't even go to another universe and escape it." He perked up as they approached one of the more intact Daleks. "Ah, here we go now..."
The casing of this Dalek was scorched, and the headlamps were cracked, but otherwise it seemed intact. The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and darted in front of the group, putting his free hand to Ironshod's armored chest to stop him. "Hold up a tic..." he said, switching the screwdriver on and waving it at the Dalek.
Ironshod glanced at him. "What?"
"Making sure its actually dead..." he told him, "Don't want it waking up while I'm examining it and have it start shooting everything, do we?"
"That...would be bad," the guard agreed. Ditzy gulped.
The Doctor studied the screwdriver for a moment. "Ok, yeah, should be safe."
Ditzy gave him a look that just screamed 'should!?'
Ironshod actually said it. "Should!?"
"Well...99% Can't account for random variables after all." He hopped forward and was kneeling down beside it soon after. "Hmm...judging from the carbon scoring on the casing, probably died of excessive temperature variations rather than a direct blast like some of the others here," he said, motioning towards a lumpy pile of slag that only vaguely resembled the Dalek casing it had once been. He ran the sonic over it a bit before stopping at the skirt section. Taking hold of one of the spherical 'lumps' he sonic'd it a couple times before it finally detached. "Hmm...the nodules have been modified..." he muttered as he examined it.
"That significant?" Ironshod asked as the others closed in to look over his shoulder.
"Maybe...not sure..." He examined it a bit more. "Seems like its supposed to emit Artron energy in some form. But what would be the point of that unless..." His eyes widened in realization. "Oh that's brilliant... Genius as usual, Davros!"
Ditzy, Ironshod and the three guards just looked at him expectantly.
The Doctor looked confused for a moment but then quickly snapped back. "Right, Artron energy, its...well it's hard to explain but basically its a type of life energy. But it has all sorts of uses, mainly as a source of power, but if configured into a barrier or shield properly, it could potentially absorb or reflect any sort of energy thrown at it. A good way to keep something powerful contained, especially if you also wanted to extract energy from it as well."
"Princess?" Ditzy asked.
"Exactly, Ditzy!" he got to his feet and began pacing excitedly. "Why kidnap the Princess? Yes she's probably the biggest, if not the only, threat to them here, because, no offense, you ponies seem to be completely outmatched."
"None taken Doc," Ironshod said, "This whole thing is way over my head, and I fight monsters for a living. But where're you goin' with this?"
"Ah yes. Anyways, they had the ability to capture her, though I imagine they had to make her drop her guard first, but if they just needed her out of the way, then why not just exterminate her flat out?" he asked, then without waiting for a response, answered himself. "Because she's powerful, I mean just look around, but no I mean really powerful, since apparently she can move your sun and moon around. Obviously, Davros wants to tap that power...but what for?" He stopped, putting a hand to his chin in thought. "I suppose throwing a sun around would make an effective weapon, but I doubt she'd have enough power or range to make it useful beyond defensive purposes...unless he plans to crash it into the planet, but what'd be the point in that? Same thing with the moon..."
"What 'bout th' planet?" asked one of the guards.
The Doctor's eyes widened in realization. "Oh yes...yes, moving the planet. Turn the whole thing into one big spaceship...or warship rather. Of course moving it out of position without precautions would wreck the surface, but the Daleks don't exactly need it habitable for other lifeforms, do they? Yes, that has to be it. Excellent reasoning, Macintosh." He blinked. "...Oops."
Ditzy blinked in surprise and glanced behind her. Indeed there were now three unicorn guards. Only now that they were paying attention, it was rather obvious that the third 'guard' was a head shorter than the other two, wearing ill fitting armor, and had the wrong mane and tailcuts. And aside from his colors and horn, was very familiar to her.
"What the buck!?" Ironshod exclaimed, wings flaring in surprise. "Who the blazes are you!?" he demanded, facing Macintosh threateningly, the two actual guards also taking aggressive stances.
"No need for that!" the Doctor said, quickly interposing himself between the colt and guard officer. "I'm afraid he's with me."
"Another 'assistant?'" Ironshod asked sceptically. He turned his glare on Mac. "Son, you do know it's a criminal offense to impersonate a member of the guard?"
Mac swallowed nervously. He HAD thought the notion that this scheme might not be strictly legal, but considering the stakes, he'd gone along with it. "...Eeyup," he answered honestly. Apples weren't liars after all.
"I'm sure no harm was meant. I assume this was part of some rescue plan of Romana's?" the Doctor asked.
"Eeyup," Mac confirmed.
"...I'm rather disapointed, but I'm guessing she didn't have much to work with for a diguise. ...How'd she get your colors changed though? That's actually an amazing job considering the lack of quality with the rest of the outfit."
Ironshod sighed, "They wouldn't need to." He reared up on his hind legs and took hold of Mac's helmet between his boots and pulled it off. Instantly Mac's coat, mane and eyes changed back to their normal color, except for his 'horn' which was revealed to be a fake made of dark grey stone taped to his head. "Palace guard armors are enchanted to change the wearer's coloration depending on which corps they're a part of."
"Really? Then why aren't you a gleaming shade of white then?"
"I'm Realm Guard, for starters, we don't do the whole uniform appearance thing since we don't do a lot of ceremonial stuff out in the wild regions." He shifted uncomfortably. "Plus, I'm a special case."
"Obviously," the Doctor remarked. "Well, I'd love to discuss this in detail...but besides the impending planetary apocalypse, I think we're about to be interrupted.
Indeed, Captain Claymore came trotting over, followed by the group of unicorn mages from earlier. "Ironshod, what's going on here? ...Why is there some colt here, dressed in guard armor?"
"More importantly, how much time do we have until the planet is destroyed?" the Doctor asked, deflecting attention away from Mac.
"I beg your pardon!?" Lady Arcane asked.
"You do that alot," the Doctor remarked, leaving her shocked and outraged.
"'Shod?" Claymore questioned before she could act on said outrage.
"Erm, yes. The Doc here thinks that these things, Daleks, right?" he asked looking to the time lord, who nodded, "Right. He thinks they took the Princess cause they want to use her powers to move the planet and turn it into some kind of spaceship."
There was silence, accompanied by looks of horror from the unicorn mages as they apparently were able to grasp what that would mean. And since they were scared silent by this, Claymore figured he should be too. "...All right. I don't suppose you've also managed to figure out where they are so we can stop them?"
"Oh, don't need to. I already knew that," the Doctor said nonchalantly.
There were exclamations of "WHAT!?" from nearly everyone outside of his two companions at this revelation.
"Oh yes, had that done hours ago."
"A-and you didn't think to TELL ANYONE!?" Lady Arcane shouted, nearly choking on her rage as she rounded on Claymore. "I WARNED you about trusting this...this...THING, Captain! For all you know he's working with the creatures that have taken the Princess!"
"Let's not jump to conclusions Lady Arcane..." Claymore responded, though it sounded like he was working to keep his own temper under wraps. "I'm sure he has a good reason not sharing this information until now..." he added, giving the Doctor a look that said that he HAD better have one.
"Two reasons, actually," the Doctor told them. "First, while I had a plan of my own for dealing with them, circumstances happened that ended with me in your kind custody. Deciding that every plan could use some refinement, I decided to take the opportunity to get a better study of the enemy, since you were kind enough to give me a chance!"
Claymore let out a slow breath. Ok, that one was plausible. "And the other?"
The Doctor's face turned serious, "Given your admitted inexperience with the Daleks, I could not, in good conscious, give you information that, having no real idea what you're up against, would simply lead to the deaths of the men and wom- er...stallions and mares that you would send against them."
The pegasus guard grimaced at that. He really did have a point there. Still... "I'm afraid that's not your call, though I appreciate the sentiment. Are you done here?"
"Not quite, one last thing I need to check on..."
Claymore sighed. "All right then, but then we need to have a little chat..."
"Right, well, let's get back to work then," the Doctor said with a clap of his hands. "Ditzy, Macintosh, I'll need your help here." He motioned to the dead Dalek. "Ditzy, take hold of that arm there, Macintosh, you take the gunstick side, there's a good colt..." He waited for the two ponies to get into position before he moved in and placed the tip of the sonic screwdriver against the casing, right between the two points he had them grab. "Ok, when I tell you, pull outward as hard as you can, got it?"
They both nodded.
"Right then..." He activated the sonic and began slowly raising up along the case. With a hiss of releasing air, a seam appeared. While the Doctor seemed unphased, the ponies nearby all started gagging, as the stench that was released was simply foul. Ditzy thought she might lose her stomach contents for a moment.
"Dear Celestia, what IS that horrid stink?" Lady Arcane moaned, using an edge of her cloak to guard her nose.
"Ditzy, Mac...pull now!" the Doctor ordered as he finished unlocking it. Slowly, the upper parts of the casing starting from just below the domed head to just above the skirt section began to separate outward. The Doctor quickly leaned in to examine the interior. When they found that the sections wouldn't pull out any farther, Ditzy and Mac moved in to look as well...and then almost immediately fell back with horrified shouts. Ditzy really did lose her lunch this time.
"What...what is it?" Claymore asked, looking startled.
The Doctor moved back and stood up, stepping out of the way. "Have a look," he said simply. While the rest of the gathered ponies moved in for a look, the Doctor looked to a still slightly shaken Mac and mouthed questioningly. 'TARDIS?' In response, Mac glance over at a seemingly empty corner of the hall.
Meanwhile, the reactions to the sight the others found were varied but shared a common theme.
"Holy-!"
"Oh dear heavens!"
"What. The. Buck..."
"I think I may be sick..."
Inside the casing, was a partially burnt lump of flesh and tentacles that only vaguely resembled a lifeform and more closely resembled a mishmash of blended bodyparts. However one feature stood out amongst the mess: a blackened, but still recognizable spiral horn rising from the top of the 'body.'
"When he said they were alive and not machines, I knew it would be bad, but this..." Claymore muttered.
"It has...and a...and...oh Princess...is that a horn!? Oh lord, it IS! ...I think this used to be some kind of pony..." Lady Arcane said aloud as she took in the sight, becoming horrified beyond words.
"You didn't know about this, did you Doc?" Ironshod asked, using the question as an excuse to make himself look away. However when he turned to ask the question, he became aware that the Doctor nor his two 'assistants' were no longer nearby. A quick glance around showed that they were skidding to a halt at the corner of the hall behind them. "Captain!"
Claymore looked up and immediately saw what he was being called for. "You morons!" he shouted, berating the two unicorn guards. "Get after them!" he ordered, taking wing himself.
However even as they turned and began galloping to stop what was clearly some form of escape attempt, the Doctor and his companions stepped to the left...and seemed to vanish in midair.
"What in the-!?" Claymore made a sliding landing right on the area the Doctor had been before he'd vanished. Tentatively, he reached out a hoof in the general direction they had appeared to move, and it hit something solid, even though his eyes said that space was empty. "Dispel now!" he barked. "There's something invisible here!"
However before any of the unicorns present could even light up their horn, the air seemed to ripple, and suddenly the 'empty' space was filled with a dark blue box of some sort. Then before he could even THINK of an order to give, the lamp on top began flashing and there was a wheezing/groaning sound as the whole thing began to slowly fade away until it disappeared entirely.
"...Well...buck me..." Claymore muttered. He glanced over at the court mages, where Lady Arcane had, for once, nothing to say about things.
"You really shouldn't have done that," Colgate said with a sigh as the TARDIS dematerialized. "You could have taken off without turning off the stealth mode and revealing the TARDIS to everyone."
"Oh, come now Romana, just a bit of fun," the Doctor told her. "Besides, it's all about saving face."
She looked confused. "I don't follow."
"I meant them, not me. You see when this is all over they're going to have to give a report to the Princess or whoever is above them. This way, they don't have to say that we just disappeared into thin air. Instead, they can say that we disappeared into an invisible blue box, that then became visible before IT disappeared into thin air. Much less likely to be a made up story to cover supposed incompetence."
"Except that the Princess already knows about us, and since we're going to be rescuing her, she probably won't punish them for letting you get away," Shine pointed out.
"Oh, right..." the Doctor frowned. Then he just shrugged. "Ah well, it still works out for the best for all, doesn't it?"
"Doctor..." Ditzy spoke up, still looking shaken from what she'd just seen. "Was it...I mean...the Dalek...was it...?"
"A pony?" he asked, all trace of humor gone from his voice.
She nodded weakly.
"Yes." He looked up to see the horror on both her and Macintosh's faces. Even Shine and Colgate seemed taken aback at this revelation. "Did I know? No...but I suspected. You see, the original Imperial Daleks were made using humans. In fact it only made sense that in order to build up a large force, Davros would need to get the biological material from somewhere, so logically, he used ponies."
"The coffins..." Shine said. She glanced at Ditzy. "When we saw them down in the tunnels, the Daleks were moving a bunch of coffins. They must have been raiding graveyards for the bodies."
The Doctor just nodded grimly. "Like I said, it makes sense..." He looked down at Colgate. "Speaking of suspicions though, I would have thought you'd have gone after them already. I mean, I was sure you'd figure out that K-9 would have tracked Davros' little comm signal back to the source."
"I did, and we were, but..." she glanced away, "There were...miscalculations in my plan, so we had to come back for you."
"Ah, well, that's ok, my first plan wasn't all that great anyway. We'd probably all have gotten killed. But now, I've got a better one. I hope you at least put the rest of us on alert?"
She nodded. "I did at least manage that."
He smiled. "Good, put me in touch with them then, would you?"
She moved over to the communications panel and typed in a few commands.
The Doctor stepped away from the console towards the main viewscreen as it came to life with a collage of views from a dozen or so other console rooms in other TARDISes around Equestria, all with various ponies that all, at least the ones who had it visible, had hourglass cutie marks on their flanks. "Hello there!" he greeted. "Some of you may know me, some of you may only know me by reputation, and there's just a slim chance that some of you don't know me at all. Well, just so we make things clear, allow me to introduce myself. I am the Doctor!"
There were various mutterings and exclamations from the time ponies, including one excited fanboyish squee from one of them.
"Right, lets hold questions for a later time, shall we? Fellow timelords, we have a crisis. I don't know what your Lady President has told you, but here it is: the Daleks, led by Davros, are here in Equestria. I have a plan to stop them and make sure that no harm comes to Equestria or to you, but to do so...I'm going to need your help. So...who's with me?"
The Doctor gave a shudder and rubbed his forehead as the arch retracted back into the console room's ceiling. "That still REALLY stings. You couldn't do anything about that while you were tinkering?" he asked the grey pegasus next to him.
Starsider just shrugged helplessly. "Sorry...I tried, believe me, but there doesn't seem to be a way to make rewriting your entire base genetic sequences NOT hurt... Well, other than NOT doing so, of course."
"Of course," he turned to look at Colgate, "So why did I have to do so?"
"Because it would have needed to be done sooner or later, and since we're about to go charging into the jaws of danger, it might as well be now," she patiently explained.
"...Well what if I don't want to be a pony?"
She rolled her eyes. "Then this should give you the incentive to be careful, for once."
The Doctor stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in, giving her a mock hurt look. "Since when have you ever known me not to be?"
"You don't want me to answer that, trust me," she responded, deadpan. She looked up at the pegasus. "Thank you for the assistance, Starsider, but you'd better get back to your own ship for your part in this," she told him.
The pegasus time pony looked pouty about having to leave, but nevertheless headed for the exit.
Still feeling tingly, the Doctor stood up and made his way back to the console. "Susan, how're we coming along?" he asked, addressing his granddaughter by her adopted human name instead of her pony one, as he still hadn't gotten used to it yet.
"Pw'tty mush done, Grandfather!" Shine responded around a mouth gripping the sonic screwdriver. She was making last minute adjustments to one of the two weapons harnesses Starsider had managed to whip up, this one being fitted to Ditzy Doo. Nearby, Macintosh stood similarly equipped, though the weapons mounted on his rig were a bit larger than the one on Ditzy's, taking advantage of his earth pony endurance to carry some heavier weapons.
"Ah dunno about this..." the colt muttered, glancing at the menacing looking devices on his sides, especially the one on his right. It had a bright yellow and black decal on it shaped like an upside down Y that somehow made him nervous, especially since that Starsider fellow had warned him that he should only shoot the thing off at long range...
"Good m- pony, Macintosh," the Doctor said approvingly. "Normally, I'm very disdainful of firearms myself, but, unfortunately, the Daleks have a way of making you do things you don't really like in order to stop them..."
Ditzy remained quiet as Shine adjusted her harness. At her sides were a pair of slender looking rifles that Starsider had referred to as 'disruptors.' He'd assured her that they would be more than capable of getting through a Dalek's defenses. Normally, she figured she'd be feeling conflicted about this as Macintosh was, but every time the normal part of her that usually detested violence tried to speak up, another part of her would bring up an image of her father's body, and the pain of it squashed the other part back down. "Are we ready to go?" she asked finally.
"Should be, as soon as K-9 uploads the coordinates," the Doctor responded.
"A simple operation Master," the robot responded, extending his sensor probe to make contact with a port on the console. "Coordinates uploaded to navigation. We are ready for departure."
"All right then! Everyone keep your hooves and legs inside the time machine at all times, because, here. we. Go!" He threw the dematerialization lever forward, and instantly the room began to rumble as the TARDIS took flight. "Geranimo!"
"TARDIS SIGNATURE DETECTED! COURSE WILL BRING IT INTO IMMEDIATE SPACE/TIME VICINITY!" one of his Daleks barked from an instrument panel.
"So he's finally on his way," Davros said to himself. "Activate the Vortex Magnet!" he ordered.
"I OBEY!" came the response from another part of the command center.
The final confrontation was at hand. But HE would be the one to choose the course of events, not the Doctor!
Now, even with her vision troubles, Ditzy was still a pegasus, so she was quite familiar with the sensation of flying. However, she was also used to being the one to initiate it. Thus when she suddenly found herself in mid air, it came as something of a surprise. One moment she'd been standing against one of the console room's railings, waiting for them to arrive at their destination, the next, she found herself tumbling one way through the air, as the room tumbled the other way around her! She spread her wings and began flapping wildly, trying to get some measure of control as she nearly smashed into the central column, but managed to roll out of the way in the nick of time. A flash of blue in one of her misaligned eyes caught her attention, allowing her to react just in time to catch Colgate as the 'filly' tumbled by her.
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the room stopped tumbling around her, and she barely twisted around in time to prevent a hard landing on the floor from turning into something worse. Her own landing was accompanied by the sounds of several other bodies hitting the floor. She lay there for a moment, the wind knocked out of her by the impact. Eventually there came the groans of some of the others as they began to come around.
"Ugh...is everyone all right?" asked Shine as she pushed herself up off the floor in front of the exterior doors, brushing the fallen hat rack off her as well.
"Minor exterior damage, but all systems appear functional," piped up K-9, indeed looking like he'd picked up an extra dent or two during the tumble.
"Well, not my finest example of a landing ever...in fact probably one of my worst..." muttered the Doctor as he climbed out of one of the holes on the bottom level of the room.
"Doctor..." Colgate began, rolling off of Ditzy's lap so they could both get to their hooves, "Your usual atrocious piloting aside, I get the feeling this wasn't your fault. So what was that?"
The Doctor was already making his way back up to the console. "I'm not sure... It certainly felt like something yanked us off course, and rather violently too..."
"Wait, where's Macintosh?" Shine asked, looking about. Everyone stopped at this and quickly looked about, until Ditzy spotted the colt lying in a heap at the top of the stairs leading to the rest of the ship.
"There!"
The Doctor rushed over faster than she would have thought something with only two legs could move. Rushing to the fallen pony's side, he quickly knelt over him and examined him. "Still breathing...doesn't seem to be anything broken either, luckily. ...Must have taken a bad bump during the tumble. He might wake up with a bit of a headache, but he should be fine for the moment," he announced, relief obvious in his tone. Standing up, he moved back to the console as the rest of his companions moved to gather 'round. He fiddled with a couple controls and then pulled the small monitor over to look into it. "...And it seems we're still where we wanted to be, more or less."
Everyone took an apprehensive glance at the exterior doors. They'd arrived in the belly of the beast.
Colgate glanced back at the Doctor. "Doctor....we were barely in flight before whatever it was grabbed us. If Davros has something that can pull TARDISes off course..."
He nodded, "I know, it means we'll have to shut it down or disable it before we can proceed with the plan. K-9, stay here and look after him, will you?"
"Affirmative, Master."
The Doctor took a deep breath, exhaled, then turned and headed for the doors. "Well, come on everyone, might as well go see what kind of death trap is waiting for us!"
The Doctor, followed by three ponies, stepped out of the TARDIS and into a large, but rather empty, room. The Doctor was immediately reminded of the vault on the Crucible station Davros' New Dalek Empire had used to try and destroy the multiverse...only minus the banks of controls that could potentially be used for stopping evil plans, which was a shame, because he could really use one of those at the moment..
He looked about and saw nothing besides a couple pairs of sealed doors at a couple points along the walls. "What, no armed guards? No demands for surrender? I'm feeling a little insulted here..."
A holographic screen flashed into existence half way up the wall in front of them. "Greeting's Doctor...I believe there is a phrase from your favored Earth that goes 'Welcome to my parlor...'"
"Ah, there you are, Davros," the Doctor said, looking up to address the screen. "Though I was hoping to talk face to face this time..."
"Unfortunately my current project is about to enter a critical phase, and I would rather it not be interrupted. But since I saw that you were on your way, I arranged for you and your companions to help test the results of another project."
"Yes, well, well done. Have to admit that was rather brilliant, managing to pull us off course like that..."
Davros chuckled unpleasantly. "Thank you Doctor, the Vortex Magnet is a brilliant example of my genius, but I was referring to something else. You see, I decided to resurrect and improve something for your inevitable arrival here, and I must say I have been looking forward to seeing the results for some time now..."
One of the sets of doors slid open, and something glided into the room. Its' bottom half looked like the dome covered skirt of a normal Dalek, but the rest of it... The head was flatter and lacked the normal 'ear lamps' and instead of being on an eyestalk, the single eye glowed from a recessed slot in the front. The upper body was heavily armored, and instead of the usual plunger arm and gunstick, it instead mounted one large and dangerous looking cannon.
Colgate took a reflexive step back and her eyes shrunk to pinpricks as she recognized it at once. "Special weapons Dalek..." she breathed.
"Indeed," Davros agreed, frowning. "Your small friend is correct Doctor...which makes me wonder exactly how long you've been traveling this universe, for one of your companions to know such a thing... No matter. Proceed with the test...exterminate them!"
The doors slid closed again before the Special weapons Dalek gave an unintelligible screech as it raised its cannon.
"Everyone scatter!" the Doctor yelled.
*ZOT!*
The group all dove in different directions as a large energy blast flew through the space where they'd been and slammed into the side of the TARDIS, rocking it, but otherwise seemingly doing no damage.
"Oi! Don't scratch the paint!" the Doctor yelled indignantly, which only served to draw the Dalek's fire in his direction. He scrambled out of the way as another blast scorched through the air next to his head.
As Colgate and Shine scrambled behind the TARDIS for cover (further irking the Doctor, as their presence would undoubtedly draw MORE fire in the direction of his precious vessel), Ditzy had followed her pegasus instincts and taken to the air. She flew a clumsy circle around the room's ceiling before straightening out and dive-bombing at their opponent, flipping the trigger-bit into her mouth and fiercely biting off a shot from her weapons as she did so. With a high pitched shriek, a pair of energy beams lanced out from the rifles strapped to her sides...
...And scattered harmlessly off a bubble shaped purple barrier that sprang up around the Dalek.
"Oh come on!" protested Shine, "Since when do Daleks have shields like that?" She moved to take a few more shots, in hopes of breaking through, but as she took aim, the Dalek's eye turned towards her. Her pistol suddenly lit up in a glow similar to that of the shield and was yanked out of her grasp, to be flung clear across the room,
Colgate looked at her grimly. "...Apparently since they gained access to unicorn magic."
Elsewhere, Davros watched the shootout with pleasure both personal and scientific on a holographic screen, positioned so both he and the rapidly diminishing Celestia in the cage behind him could see the proceedings, even as she lay near-lifelessly on the floor.
"It is gratifying to see my experiments to allow my new Daleks to tap into the so called 'magic' abilities of their genetic origins have borne fruit...if only in a limited fashion. Still, it is a stepping stone to granting the ability to all my Daleks..."
"You...don't really believe...that...thing...will stop them...do you?" Celestia asked in a weak gasp.
"Even as unstable as the Special Weapons Dalek may be, that thing, as you put it, is an example of the most perfect form of life in existence."
"Perfect...monster..."
"Ah...I see..." Davros turned away from the action to face her. "Really now, Princess...I'd hoped that a being as old as you are rumored to be would be able to see past the small minded boundaries of 'good' and 'evil.' At the most basic level, there is only one priority that every life-form has: survival. In this, my Daleks are perfect!" he told her, smiling with a manic grin. "Would it shock you if I were to admit that for all my pride in them, the Daleks have been defeated before? Oh, yes...but each time, no matter how close to the edge of annihilation they've been pushed, they find a way to return, to survive! The Thals, the Movellans, the Timelords...all were eventually overcome and destroyed! By nature's own rules...they. are. PERFECT!"
Celestia didn't immediately respond in the sudden quiet the proceeded Davros' rant, forcing him to finally break the silence between them.
"You really should be thanking me, Princess. Without you, your little ponies have no hope against the Daleks, but instead of extermination, they will be transformed to become one with them! I uplifted them to become a part of perfection!"
The Sun Princess just scowled at him the best she could. "You say...the Daleks have...overcome all? What about...the Doctor?"
That immediately wiped the smile from Davros' face.
"Yes...the Doctor. I cannot deny that he has always been a random X factor in my calculations. I cannot even be certain that this confrontation will be any different... In response to your question...no, I do not expect the Special Weapons Dalek to prevail. But then its purpose is only to delay. Oh yes...the Doctor and his companions will overcome this obstacle, and then, finally, face to face, the Doctor and Davros will finally decide who it will be that triumphs in their long war..."
The Doctor dodged several bursts from the Dalek's cannon as he ran over to cover behind the TARDIS next to Colgate.
"Ok, fighting it is getting us nowhere fast..." he said as he leaned against the blue box to catch his breath.
"Agreed," the unicorn filly replied, "As long as it can keep that magic barrier going, it can keep this up until we finally collapse from exhaustion."
"And then it won't matter how slow its gun's tracking is..." He thought on the problem intensely for a moment. "Ok, 'magic,' how does it work?"
Colgate glanced at him speculatively. "Well...it's not like the Carr- MOVE!" she began, but was interrupted as the Special Weapons Dalek moved itself to target them, forcing the Doctor and her to scramble around to another side when it attempted to drop an energy blast where they'd been crouched. A moment later, Ditzy attempted to strafe it again, leaving them free to talk as it changed targets. In the meantime, Flower Shine quickly galloped over to retrieve her pistol.
"You were saying," the Doctor prompted when they were back out of danger for the moment.
She nodded. "Right, it's not a word science like the Carrionites and others who purport to do 'sorcery' use. Instead it involves focusing a measure of will over...call them 'mystical energies' and shaping them to create the desired effect. Most races on this world have some sort of access but unicorn ponies and a few other races can tap into them in active ways. Other races can only use 'magic' in passive ways."
"I see...so I imagine that, say, keeping up a barrier and throwing weapons around, all while in the middle of combat would require a good amount of focus?"
"Are you going somewhere with this, Doctor?"
He grinned cheekily. "Always." He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his jacket and studied it for a moment as he made an adjustment to the settings. "If you will help distract it for just a-"
"Grandfather, help!"
The fight had taken a sudden turn for the worse. The SWD had snagged Ditzy harness in its magic and was using it to toss her around like a rag doll. It'd had already knocked her into Shine, causing the earth time pony to lose her weapon again, and was now attempting to drag her into line with its cannon in order to blast her. Only the blonde pegasus' frantic flapping had kept her from being held in the line of fire long enough to land a hit.
"Oi you!" the Doctor yelled, raising the screwdriver threateningly.
The Dalek's eye swiveled towards him, and suddenly Ditzy went hurtling at him. The pegasus slammed into his middle and they both fell over Colgate, the screwdriver being knocked from his hand as they went down in a heap in front of the TARDIS. Sensing victory, the Dalek turned towards them.
"No!" Shine tore off her saddlebags and hurled them at it in a desperate attempt to distract it. It worked. The Dalek reflexively fired on her airborne bag, blowing it to bits, and creating a cloud of smoke as the contents within went up as well.
"Where's my screwdriver?" the Doctor shouted, trying to untangle himself from the two ponies.
Ditzy spotted it out of the corner of one of her eyes. She pointed a hoof at it. "Tortoise!" The timelord and pegasus both scrambled towards it, but only managed to somehow get more tangled up in each other, and squashing poor Colgate as well.
"Oh for the love of... Let me!" the blue filly cried indignantly. Her horn lit up in a light blue glow, the screwdriver quickly followed. It lifted into the air, turned to point at the Dalek, and activated. The high pitched whine the followed was annoying to everyone except the Dalek, to which it was devastating as its auditory sensors experienced a massive amount of feedback. It let out a wail of pain as the barrier surrounding it visibly collapsed, unable to even think through the pain it was feeling.
Unfortunately...this left a small problem.
"I can't believe I'm saying this...but does anyone still have a gun available to shoot it with?" the Doctor asked, as he and Ditzy were still partly tangled, Shine's pistol was halfway across the room, and Colgate's was nowhere to be found.
...And the Dalek was beginning to recover.
Suddenly, the TARDIS' doors flew open. Standing there, a bruise above one eye, looking slightly groggy, but, most importantly, still armed, was Mac. "Eeyup..." he said with a bit of a smirk, the cannon on his right side already charging. With a loud 'PLUNK,' the weapon spat out a brightly glowing projectile that streaked across the room to slam into the Dalek. Jamming into its' gun's elevation joint, it pushed it into the wall, pinning it next to the doors it had originally come from.
The Doctor scrambled to his feet, he and Ditzy having FINALLY managed to untangle themselves from each other. "Oh dear...was that the Cain?"
Colgate looked a bit panicked. "I believe it was."
"Right, should be thankful it hasn't gone off already...everyone back inside, NOW!" he shouted, already practically shoving Ditzy back towards the doors. Shine quickly scooped up the screwdriver as the four pushed past a bewildered looking Mac on their way into the blue box.
"Wha-?" Mac tried to ask, but was interrupted.
"Not your fault," the Doctor told him. "Ours, for forgetting to give you proper safety instructions for that thing. ...Such as minimum safe distance." He slammed the doors shut and hit the deadlock for safe measure. "Everyone brace yourselves!"
Outside, the rocket finally ran out of propellant...
The holographic monitor suddenly whited out before fizzling away a second before the entire compound was shaken from the shock-wave of an explosion.
"What happened?" Davros demanded. "What sort of weapon was that!?"
"EXTREME GRAVITATIONAL EXPLOSION DETECTED! CAPTURE BAY HAS SUSTAINED EXTREME DAMAGE!" a nearby Dalek reported.
"VORTEX MAGNET IS OFFLINE!" reported another.
An explosive device of that magnitude against one Dalek? A little heavy handed for the Doctor's style...but then, he always did seem to do the unexpected. "Send soldiers to the capture bay! Secure the Doctor's TARDIS and bring him and his companions to me!" Davros ordered. "ALL of his companions!" he added, remembering the last time he and the Doctor had met. "Be sure you scan for lifeforms to make sure none remain behind!"
Back in the TARDIS, everyone was once again picking themselves up off the floor. The ship had been tossed around during the explosion, but it hadn't been as bad as the shaking they'd received when they first landed. The Doctor got to his feet shakily, glancing around to check on the others, before stopping a moment to right the hat rack, which had also been knocked over this time. "Everyone all right then?"
"All this getting knocked around happen often?" Ditzy asked, shaking herself off as she got to her hooves.
"Does seem t' be a certain pattern..." Mac added.
"Actually, it's pretty rare..." Flower Shine put in. "Usually just mostly running."
"Lots and lots of running..." Colgate added.
"Right, so everyone's fine..." the Doctor concluded. He turned around and unlocked the doors. "Well, no time to wait. Daleks to defeat, princesses to save and all that. ...I really hope we have the right castle after all this." He pulled the doors open and stepped out. "Oh...somebody's losing their security deposit..."
The TARDIS was now parked on a small ledge against the only remaining wall of the room. The rest of it was just simply gone, replaced by spherical crater several meters in diameter. Damaged conduits dangled from the broken ceiling, and trailed sparks down to the level below, visible through where the crater had broken through at its lowest point. Of the Heavy Weapons Dalek, there was no trace.
Colgate and the others followed him out onto the ledge. "Now we wait?" she asked.
"We wait," the Doctor confirmed.
"Patio get waffle?" Ditzy asked,
Flower Shine trotted past her and passed the sonic screwdriver back to her grandfather before answering. "Oh, this is the part where we all get captured," she said matter-of-factually, prompting Mac and Ditzy to stare at her. "What?" she shrugged. "It always happens to some of us at least once during these things."
They didn't have to wait long. Within seconds, the whirr of moving Daleks was heard, and then half a dozen of them swooped into the room, followed by one at the controls of a small transport disk.
"DO NOT MOVE! YOU ARE OUR PRISONE-"
"Prisoners, yes yes, we know!" the Doctor interrupted, putting his hands up. "Can we just move on? Honestly, it lost the effect the third time I heard it."
"RELINQUISH ALL WEAPONS!" one of them shouted in response, as a couple of them trained their gun-sticks on Ditzy and Mac.
Ditzy looked at the Doctor questioningly, showing more than a little fear.
"Do as they say, both of you," he told them. "Weapons aren't going to do us any good now."
The two ponies unstrapped their saddles, letting their weapons drop to the floor. The whole group was then herded onto the transport disk, while a couple of the Daleks began using their plunger arms to scan the TARDIS.
"NO LIFEFORMS DETECTED. ALL COMPANIONS ACCOUNTED FOR," one of them reported after a moment.
"That's right, you got us all," the Doctor told them, still sounding annoyed. "Now let's get going. It's time I had a face to face with your creator...again."
