A Tale of Two Doctors

The TARDIS materialized in the caves beneath Canterlot before The Doctor turned back to John Smith.

“Now, let’s see if you’ve got me down just in case something goes wrong.”

His face and body shifted until they mirrored The Doctor’s in every respect, except for his clothing, which replaced his blue suit and red necktie with a brown suit and black necktie, he had also omitted The Doctor’s overcoat from this transformation.

“Oh hello there Doctor, you’re very handsome.” The Doctor complimented him.

“Why yes I am, thank you very much.” John Smith gushed in agreement.

“Opinion on pears?”

“Hate them.”

“Good, then I think we’re all set…I just hope this goes over better than our last visit…” The Doctor concluded pushing the TARDIS’s wooden blue door open for his doppelganger.

Even after all of this time, John Smith still remembered the path to the Queen’s chamber like the back of his hand (now that he knew what hands were) as The Doctor followed closely behind.

They avoided the patrols by taking various shortcuts that all Changelings used to travel when trying to stay out of each other’s way.

Most of the Changelings they had passed by seemed extraordinarily like the soldiers within Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard with merely a handful taking the vigilance part of their position seriously; the rest were either napping or chatting to kill time until their shift ended.

The Queen’s chamber itself was more of a shabby clone of Princess Celestia royal throne room with a largely unimpressive dark cavern, with pulsing green veins pulsing through the stone floor and walls and a few broke steps leading up to a broken, jagged throne with Chrysalis herself sitting in it with a hoof placed under her chin and a bored expression on her face.

John Smith leaned in towards The Doctor and whispered into his ear.

“Do you see those glowing green veins in the floor, ceiling, and walls?” he asked, gesturing to the ceiling.

He nodded.

“Those veins are filled with magical energy extracted from the love of other creatures…it’s a food reserve for emergencies and preparations for war…its how we became so powerful when we attacked Canterlot last year.” He whispered.

“Do you want to be the one to start things off or should I?” asked The Doctor.

“Uh, after you.” John replied, nervously.

And with that, The Doctor began strolling toward the Changeling Queen’s throne and to his surprise, the black masses on either side of the aisle was not a part of the room’s décor as he was originally led to believe, but masses of Changeling subjects turning around to gaze at the intruder.

There were also two guards on either side of the throne (which, he wished he’d noticed earlier-or at the very least John could have warned him about), in an almost complete antithesis to Celestia’s Royal Guards, these ones wore black and turquoise armor that was a slightly darker shade than their eye color and large, sharp, axes with holes in them similar to their tattered insect wings.

The steel of their axes clanged together making a large ‘X’ shape denying access to Chrysalis’s throne as the two guards growled at him.

“What is the meaning of this?” She demanded getting up from her seat and onto all four hooves, walking towards the guards before stopping dead in her tracks at the sight of The Doctor.

“You…” she hissed venomously.

The guards uncrossed their weapons so she was allowed to pass through as cantered towards The Doctor.

“You are the one who humiliated me last year, making me look like an utterly incompetent fool-in front of my own subjects no less.”

A couple of Changeling in the crowd began to snicker before she shot them a death glare.

“For what purpose have you returned this time?” she demanded, returning her gaze to The Doctor.

“Are you here to humiliate me once more for your own amusement? To bring a declaration of war upon our species from Canterlot?”

“I’m not here to do either of those things…and I wouldn’t have had to damage your horn last time if you had just listened me in the first place-how’s it healing by the way?” he replied, maintaining eye contact.

“It’s made a full recovery-no thanks to you.” She replied curtly.

“Well, that wasn’t exactly my dream vacation either-especially when the fabric of this world’s reality was threatening to rip itself apart.”

“Oh, spare me.” She retorted, rolling her eyes. “There was no crisis, otherwise we wouldn’t still be here and that tremor was obviously just another one of your cheap tricks.”

She narrowed her gaze at him while she ran a hoof under his face seductively.

“Or maybe you’ve finally realized that you were on the wrong side and have come to join us? We could really benefit each other…you could teach us the secrets behind your Earth Pony magic…and we could make you our king…I thought Shining Armor was quite the looker, but your no slouch yourself.”

“First off,” he brushed her hoof away. “It’s not magic-it’s science. Second, I’m not here to become a glorified parasite or a position as some kind of ruler.”

“Hmph.” She huffed, turning away from him. “We don’t really need a filthy mud pony like yourself, anyway…so what did you come here to talk about?”

“I came her to talk to you about your subjects.”

“Hm?” she turned back around to face him. “Whatever for?”

“You’ve been lying to them and manipulating them for years…making them believe that they need to feed off the love of other creatures in order for them to survive.”

“What an absolutely ridiculous sentiment!” she laughed, haughtily. “And pray tell, where did you come by this information and how would that benefit me in any way?”

“It doesn’t matter how I came across it, what does matter is that I believe it and I refuse to stand by as innocent people are enslaved through addiction.”

She settled back into her throne, crossing her hind legs and tapping her chin with a hoof.

“My, my, my, that certainly is clever-it almost makes me wish I’d thought of it-but, Doctor how do you know that this renegade that you just happened to bump into isn’t some kind of sleeper agent I’ve appointed to lure you into a trap, hmm?”

“The thought has occurred to me.”

“And yet you’ve taken no precautions to defend yourself should such and event arise?” she pressed.

He just stood there silently, quickly glancing back at John who averted his gaze as Chrysalis threw her head back, laughing.

“Oh, that is rich! It appears your not really as clever as you make yourself out to be!” she taunted.

That was when another Changeling guard flew into the throne room.

“MY QUEEN!” he shouted desperately between pants for breath as his wings stopped buzzing.

“WHAT!?” she snapped with irritation at having her heckling interrupted.

“It’s gone!” he replied timidly, trembling. “And…and the others guarding it…they…they…”

“Spit it out!” she ordered.

“They’re all dead!” he shouted.

Her eyes widened as she stood up from her throne once again before glaring at The Doctor.

“What have you done?”

“I haven’t done anything!” he shouted before turning to face the guard. “What is she talking about? What is the secret you’re trying to keep from me?”

“Don’t answer that.” Chrysalis warned him in a dangerous tone.

“Well, we don’t really know what it is…” he replied slowly, glancing over at his queen in the vain hope that his attempt to dodge the question would earn him leniency from her later on.

“Just describe it to me then-what does it look like?” The Doctor pressed.

“Umm…well…” he thought, as felt sweat pouring from his brow under Chrysalis’ glare.

What they had found was just so alien he had no idea how he could even begin to try describing it.

“We found it a little over a month ago in the caves…it was gold and made up of some kind of strange, foreign metal we haven’t been able to identify and were given outstanding orders to imprison it until we knew more about it…since it was obviously alive…but, for whatever reason we couldn’t feed off any love from it.”

“It was like a giant peppershaker with two lights on top and a…‘stalk’? With some kind of blue lens at the end?” another Changeling chimed in.

Despite her silence, Chrysalis’ face was contorted into an expression of pure rage.

The Doctor paid this no mind however as he felt his blood turn to ice as the beating of his hearts increased at a rapid tempo.

“Chrysalis, listen to me-this creature is called a ‘Dalek’ and it has no fears, no superstitions, and no emotions except hate-that’s why you were unable to drain any power from their love.”

“You can’t take blood from a stone…” John murmured as she spared him a sideways glance.

“We can resolve this later; if we don’t work together right now to stop it-every single one of us will die.” The Doctor continued, ignoring him.

“There’s only one.” She mused. “A single ‘Darlek’ should hardly prove to be a challenge for an entire army of Changelings.”

Ignoring the mispronunciation of the monster race’s name he looked her in the eye as he took a step closer to her throne.

“You don’t understand. One Dalek is all it will take to reduce the population of this ENTIRE WORLD TO ASH!” he shouted in frustration.

“Your skepticism of our prowess had been noted and ignored ‘Doctor’.” She spat the last part of her sentence with the utmost contempt.

The Doctor turned back to John Smith, “You know her better than I do-how can I make her see reason?” he demanded in a harsh whisper.

“Chrysalis, reasonable?” he laughed. “Good luck; she’s one of the most stubborn creatures in all of Equestria.”

He let out a frustrated groan before turning back to Chrysalis for what he hoped to be the final time.

“Chrysalis look, I understand that you hate me and you don’t believe that you have any reason to trust me-and maybe you’re right-but, I don’t want this to devolve into anymore senseless killing…there’s been more than enough of that between ponies and Changelings already.”

“I’m listening.” Chrysalis replied, leaning forward.

The Doctor let out a sigh of relief.

Finally.

“Daleks are literally ruthless killing machines but, they lack subtlety…sooner or later it will find its way here and when it does, let me handle the talking.”

Chrysalis raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“You just said that these creatures were ruthless killers and yet, you believe you can reason with it?”

“I convinced you to let me help, didn’t I?” he countered.

That was when a loud voice echoed throughout the chamber;

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"