Children Of Time

Doctors POV:

I stood outside the T.A.R.D.I.S with The Keeper, wearing a pair of night-vision goggles, and sadly no fez. Something which I think The Keeper was actually glad about. A group of soldiers had brought us out; we never would have found our way on our own seeing as we was unconscious the last time we made the Flareurney.

"Ready, old girl?" I asked as I unlocked the door. I heard something move behind me and I spun around pulling out my Sonic Screwdriver.

"Who's there?" Keeper called. "I warn you we're armed."

"I thought it wasn't a weapon." came a voice from behind a pile rubble. A figure appeared and side-stepping the debris and approached us.

"Flare?" I cried. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to help." she said.

"No, it's too dangerous. How did you even get here?"

"I followed you."

I gave The Keeper a look and saw that he shook his head. "Right, well, I'm calling the soldiers back. They won't have got that far, they can take you back." I said while pulling a communicator out of his packet. "Neat huh, you're Dad gave it to me." I then put the device to his mouth.

"Please don't do this," begged Flare. "I can't let you go on your own. I want to help."

“Hey, he’s not alone!” cried the Keeper. “He’s got me.”

“You know what I mean.”

"I'm doing this for you, Flare." I said as he flipped a switch on the communicator. "Sorry boys, gonna need you to come back, someone's been left behind."

The communicator crackled then a voice spoke. "We copy Doctor, we're turning back now. We should be about five minutes."

"Good, thank you." I replied. I looked to Flare, who was now glaring sullenly at me. "I'm sorry," I said. "But I can't let anything happen to you."

"I can take care of myself." she said.

The Keeper scoffed. “But you’re just a filly.” He chuckled at the thought of Flare thinking she could be in any way useful to us, but stopped upon see that see was glaring at him.

"People have traveled with me before and they've got hurt. I keep making the same stupid mistakes, but not today. Trust me; I'm just trying to keep you safe."

"It wasn't me I was worried about, Doctor"

I didn't reply. We waited in silence for a few minutes. Then I could hear footsteps approaching.

"That will be the soldiers. You'll be fine, they'll look after you." Keeper said giving a warm smile.

"And who’s going to look after you? The Keeper? Three is better than two." Flare asked.

“Dang, haven’t even known her for a day and she thinks she knows me. That’s impossible, because I don’t even know who I am.”

I smiled sadly at her. "I have to go now, Flare, but I promise you will be safe, all of you." I raised a hoof in farewell. "Goodbye. Come on Keeper, we’ve got work to do."

"Doctor!" she cried, but it was too late. I had already stepped into the T.A.R.D.I.S and immediately caused it disappear.

The soldiers arrived right after. "Where's The Doctor?" one of them asked, looking around.

"He's gone." said Flare.

Finding the right place to land the two of us quietly stepped out of the T.A.R.D.I.S, taking off our goggles as we did so. We found ourselves in a dimly lit corridor. I pulled out my Sonic Screwdriver and did a quick scan for life forms, nothing.

“Find anything, with that doohickey?” Keeper asked.

“Nope, there’s nothing here.” We silently made our way down the corridor, coming to a door on our left; we opened it and stepped inside.

It was brighter in the room. I could see a console of some kind. It looked important enough so I decided to hurry over to it. However I was disappointed when I got there. It was a piece of technology unlike anything I had ever seen. It was covered in strange symbols that not even the T.A.R.D.I.S could decipher. I looked back at Keeper and shook my head.

Seeing nothing in the room that could help us, we decided to try our luck somewhere else. We reentered the corridor and kept moving. After some time the two of us reached the end of the corridor. I stood before a much larger door with a much more advanced locking mechanism; still it was no problem for my screwdriver. 'This looks promising' I thought as I moved to enter the room. But for I could make it inside, I heard Keeper grunt out in what sounded like pain. When I turned around to look I quickly felt a sharp pain in my neck and then suddenly I was unconsious.

I don’t know how long I was a sleep but when I awoke, I still felt groggy. "I really need to find a way to stop things sneaking up on me." he said to himself.

“You think?! Does this happen to you often or what?” The Keeper said looking as if he had already been away. I started to take stock of the situation and soon realized it was much worse than before. We were shackled to a metal table by our wrists and ankles. I looked around and my hearts fell when I saw several metal trolleys containing some nasty looking medical equipment, or torture devices, I wasn't sure which.

"Okay, this is not good," I said.

"And it's about to get much worse." The Keeper said while looking forward.

I sensed something approaching, I couldn't hear anything, but I knew they were coming. Whatever "they" were, we had no idea and I really didn't want to find out. I heard a clicking sound, like a key board and then the metal table I was lying on began to rise until I was standing upright, or hanging would be a better word.

"Hello?" I called uneasily. "I'm The Doctor."

I heard something so quiet that I almost didn't think it was real. It was the sound of fabric being dragged across the floor, but by whom? The sound continued for a moment until a figure stepped out of the shadows and stood before us. It had a basic pony shape, but that was all I could tell, for it was shrouded head to foot in black fabric.

"Why don't you take off that hood, let us get a look at you." said The Keeper trying to sound nonchalant.

"No living creature may look upon us." it spoke in a horrible rasping voice.

"What about your mates, they must look at you." Keeper said jokingly.

"They are not alive and very soon neither will you be."

"Okay," I said worriedly. "That sounds a bit ominous. Who are you lot anyway and what are doing here?"

"We are the Legion of the Dead." it said. "We are the many. We will replenish our ranks and rise to make war with the universe. These ponies will join us."

"The Legion?" I said. "I've heard stories about you. You tried to convert the entire universe, kill is more like it. But the universe fought back, your people were slaughtered. The Shadow Proclamation ordered your extinction."

“Serves you freaks right!” Keeper yelled.

"Some of us survived. This time we will not fail." it said fiercely.

"Like I haven't heard that before." I scoffed. "And what you're going to convert the ponies down there? You try to take them they will fight back. I can assure you of that."

"We have already converted 6,442 of them."

"What? How'd you manage that?" asked The Keeper angrily.

"We take them, the ones who are alone, and the ones who won't be missed. After the attacks we take the dead, life is not required for conversion."

"You bring them back and make them like you?" asked The Keeper horrified and pisses at this newly discovered revelation.

"Correct."

"I will stop you!" I shouted furiously. "I'm The Doctor. Do you hear me? You will not touch another pony. I swear I will stop you!"

The creature emitted a strangled hissing sound and I realized with horror that it was laughing. "Oh Doctor, you cannot stop us. You will Join us. You and your companion The Vanguard will join us."

“Who’s the Vanguard? My name is The Keeper.” He said puzzled by this. I looked at him in horror that the Legion knew of The Vanguard. I looked back at the cloaked figure with a facial expression that asked him , how did he know that name.

“Come now Doctor. Someone of our status has of course heard of the Fabled Doctor and infamous Vanguard. Besides whom do you think gave us the technology to do what we’ve been doing?” He said while looking at the Keeper.

"What? No! You’re insane" I yelled desperately, trying to change the subject. "You can't convert us, we’re not ponies!"

"Being a pony is not a requirement." it said coldly. "We will take your lifes Doctor, inch by inch. Purging you of everything you are."

"No! You can't do this!" Cried The Keeper.

"It is done."

We looked up to see several more creatures advancing on us. One held a large syringe. We began struggled against our bonds in futility. The Keeper felt a sharp pain in his neck and he once again fell unconscious. I tried to yell out to him but I too felt the same pain and once again fell unconscious.

A few moments later I slowly became aware of voices nearby. I tried to open my eyes, but couldn't muster the strength so I contented himself with just listening.

"Those two are stronger than the others, they’re resisting." said one of the Legion.

"They will succumb in time, they all do." another replied.

I could hear footsteps and realized a third creature had entered the room. It spoke brusquely to the other two. "We will be moving on soon. They will be the last conversion of this world."

"And the cleanup?" the first asked.

"Standard procedure, planetary incineration." it replied harshly.

I was finally able to open my eyes; I saw the messenger was leaving. I looked at The Keeper and say that he looked to be unconscious. I tried to speak, but only a low groaning came out.

"You partner is awake, good." one of the creatures said almost gleefully.

“I can hear.” The Keeper said in an annoyed tone. "What did he mean?" The Keeper asked thickly.

"Planetary incineration," it said. "We cannot remain too long on one planet for fear the Shadow Proclamation will become aware of our return. We convert what we can and move on."

"And you burn the rest; there are 3 billion people on that planet." The Keeper said disgusted.

"A necessary sacrifice. The original you would have been proud."

“I don’t know what your…Wait have we met before?”

The creatures laughed again and turned to go, The Keeper began to shout after them, but they ignored him, leaving him completely alone with me. As I laid strapped to the table, trying to think of something, anything I could do, a strange feeling came over me. A tingling sensation began in my chest and spread outward to the rest of my body. I looked over to The keeper and say that he began to feel the same thing.

We began to struggle, wrenching at our bonds with all the strength we possessed, but to no avail. I knew what was coming and I knew there was nothing I could do to stop it. I cried out in hopeless frustration as the tingling in my body intensified. It grew and grew until I was no longer tingling, I was burning. It began to as if my blood were on fire, never before had I experienced such pain. Unlike me who was screaming my lungs off, The Keeper tryied to keep his cool as he felt the same pain that I did. His eyes had long since been closed and I could see it on his face that he was losing hope as well.

I tried not to cry out, not wanting to give them the satisfaction they wanted, I tried, but I failed. It became too much for us and we found ourselves screaming in agony. Tears streamed down The Keepers face as the screams tore themselves from his throat. Through the fiery wall of pain in my mind I began to realize something. I suddenly figured out what they were doing to us. They were embalming us, pumping our body full of a solution that would course through us, changing us. The Legion of the Dead, no heartbeat, no life, no nothing and we was to join them.

We struggled to hold on, I thought of all the friends I’ve had, the people I had loved. I tried so hard, but the pain only intensified. 'I can't do this.' I thought desperately. 'Oh God, I can't do this.' I held on to my last ounce of strength, but as the agony reached a new height, I let out wrenching howl and let go. For the first time in my life, I actually gave up, I succumbed and when I did the pain stopped and I felt at peace with myself.