A Tale of Two Doctors

by Ianpiersonjdavis

Rating: everyone
Tags: Dark, Adventure, Crossover
Length: 12539

The Doctor runs into a rogue Changeling in the Everfree forest who claims to have renounced his allegiance to Queen Chrysalis with the intent of changing his ways for the better in the hopes of inspiring others to follow him in his cause.

The Doctor runs into a rogue Changeling in the Everfree forest who claims to have renounced his allegiance to Queen Chrysalis with the intent of changing his ways for the better in the hopes of inspiring others to follow him in his cause.

While the Queen won’t give up her servants so easily, the biggest roadblock to the Changeling’s cause will be the wariness and prejudice he faces from ponies after the attack on Canterlot one year ago.

Takes place after “Ghost of the Crystal Empire”

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-25 20:31:17 UTC

Special Delivery

The TARDIS had just materialized on the outskirts of the Everfree forest before The Doctor stepped outside.

He took his time to enjoy the view and fresh morning air.

After preventing a catastrophic time paradox and saving the Crystal Empire, he felt that he was entitled to a little break from investigating the source of said paradox.

“Woah!” a feminine voice exclaimed, closely followed by a loud slam that came from behind the TARDIS, as the sound of fluttering paper became audible.

The Doctor circled around the TARDIS to investigate the noise.

There lay a dazed, grey Pegasus mare with a mail bag strapped over her shoulder and an image of several bubbles for her Cutie Mark.

She had a blonde mane and was surrounded by scattered envelopes.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Oh! Sorry mister! It’s just that your house came out of nowhere…” She replied, apologetically.

Quickly, he pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver to scan her body to see if anything was broken or out of place.

“No, I’m the one who should apologize…I never pay attention when I land this thing.”

She winced as she saw him pull out the Screwdriver.

“Don’t worry! It’s not a weapon!” he exclaimed defensively. “It’s a tool I use for situations like this…it’s very handy.”

“Are you a doctor?” she asked curiously.

“Of sorts,” he replied.

After a preliminary medical scan and x-ray she seemed perfectly fine, that is-until he looked her in the face to tell her so-that’s when he noticed something he should have seen earlier.

Her eyes…there was something wrong with them…did the impact on the TARDIS do that?

“W-what’s wrong?” the mare timidly asked as she saw the concerned look on The Doctor’s face.

“Your eyes…” he began, “They’re…sort of…crossed.”

“Oh, that’s a relief!” she sighed.

“I’m sorry?”

“I was born like this, mister.” She explained. “My parents always said they were a part of what make special.”

What was even more surprising to him however, was the amount of pride in her tone when she said this.

Now, that he was getting a closer look at the golden-yellow orbs he had to admit; they were quite beautiful.

That was when he realized that he was staring.

“Sorry,” he apologized again. “What’s your name?”

“Derpy!” he replied with a very contagious smile that The Doctor couldn’t help, but grin looking at.

“Derpy?” he repeated, “Is that your name or is that just what they call you?”

“Nope!” she exclaimed. “My name is Derpy…but, sometimes ponies call me…other things.”

Her smile faded at this recollection as The Doctor’s grin followed suit.

“Like what?” he asked, not entirely sure if he wanted to know or not.

“Really mean nicknames; like ‘Ditzy Doo’, ‘Stupid’, ‘Freak’, and…some other things.” She added quietly, her voice taking on a somber tone.

“That’s terrible.”

She nodded glumly.

“But, it’s not so bad like it was at the beginning of flight school before I had any friends and I’d get picked on because of my eyes…”

Her expression then brightened.

“But, that’s when I met Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy!” she exclaimed happily. “Rainbow Dash was always there to stand up to the bullies for us and Fluttershy was always really nice to me.”

“Oh!” She snapped out of her nostalgic reverie. “I’m sorry, I forgot to ask you your name Mister…?”

“Doctor.” He corrected.

“Oh, well then Doctor…Who?” she asked.

“Just ‘The Doctor’.” He chuckled.

His eyes then moved to the envelopes scattered around the dazed mare.

“Let me help you pick those up.”

The two then began picking up the seemingly infinite letters lying in the grass-luckily there was no wind to blow them away-but, it would probably be best not to push their luck and get them back in her mailbag.

“So are your mornings always this busy?” The Doctor asked, counting the envelopes as he picked them up and realizing that there were more than a few dozen, which seemed strange for a seemingly small town like Ponyville.

“No,” replied Derpy with a mouth full of letters. “Mostly just around the holidays.”

Once she dropped this last pile into the bag, she looked back up at the TARDIS before cocking her head like a confused puppy.

“You said that you landed your shed…does it fly?

“Why yes, well…sort of…it depends really.”

“Why did you paint you paint it blue?”

“Well, first off it’s not a shed-it’s a TARDIS.”

“Tardy?” she asked.

“No, TARDIS.” He corrected her. “It’s an acronym for Time And Relative Dimensions In-”

His explanation was cut short as Derpy jumped up, looking alarm.

“TARDY!” she exclaimed. “I can’t be late to delivering ponies’ mail in the morning or they’ll get really mad and complain to my boss and then I’ll get fired again! Just like with my other job at the moving company!”

“I’m sorry, but I really have to go now.” She apologized, beginning to hover with a few experimental flaps of her wings.

“It was really nice to meet you, mister!” She called back to him as she sped off.

“That’s…‘Doctor’.” He sighed in defeat, knowing that at this point she was probably too far away to hear him.

That was when he heard rustling from some nearby bushes and turned to see another stallion emerge looking exactly like him-from his height and body shape to his eyes and mane-in fact, the only real notable exception was his attire.

Instead of the brown pinstripe suit with a black necktie The Doctor was currently wearing, his doppelganger wore the white collar and green necktie combination that he had worn upon his first arrival in Ponyville.

They stood there, practically nose to nose for a few moments; silently observing the other when The Doctor slowly began tilting his head to the left while maintaining eye contact as the other stallion mimicked this movement.

He then slowly moved his head to the right as the other Doctor once again, followed suit.

“What?” he asked.

“What?” It repeated.

“What!?” They shouted simultaneously.

History Lesson

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I’m The Doctor.” It replied.

“No you’re not-I am!”

They both spoke in unison this time.

“Okay…that was weird…” The Doctor muttered.

“Unless…” he glanced back up at the creature.

“Are you a Changeling?”

There was only silence.

“I’ll take that as ‘yes’ which brings me to my next question; why are you here?”

The Changeling Doctor cocked its head.

“If you were here to kill or capture me, you would have done so earlier, either in the form of someone I recognized or as a complete stranger like that mare I ran into earlier to throw me off my guard, which means you’re here for something else now tell me-why the charade?”

It began reverting back to its true form which wasn’t too different from any other Changeling with the exception of a white scar over its left eye.

“Ponies distrust all Changelings…and for good reason after Chrysalis’ failed attempt on taking Canterlot during the wedding of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor...some of them already knew about us but after that, they became more alert.” Its voice was definitely male and it sounded quite raspy.

“But, you’re different?” The Doctor asked, wondering if this kind of voice was typical of Changeling drones or if this was just a unique trait of the one he was speaking to…like his scar.

“I was there…” he placed a hoof over his scar. “That’s how I got this; contrary to popular belief not all Changelings enjoy what we do…tearing families, friends, and lovers apart to feed on their emotions, but we do it anyway for sustenance…our Queen....”

The Doctor noted that he spat the word with much contempt.

“She tells us…brainwashes us, really into believing that without feasting on those emotions of romantic and platonic love that our bodies will begin to deteriorate and wither into lifeless husks…and during the assault on Canterlot, while I did not enjoy what I did…I thought it necessary to preserve the lives of my brothers and sisters.”

“What about your scar?”

“I got when it seemed as if victory had been all, but assured; every filly, colt, foal, mare, and stallion had been subdued and the royal guards were powerless to stop us-we had set up a trap for those who would foolishly search for the Elements of Harmony in a last ditch effort to stop our attack-which, succeeded as we were able to bring the six Element bearers to our Queen as hostages…that was when she just had to do her stupid monologue…giving Twilight Sparkle the chance to escape and free Cadance.”

“What happened next?”

“Oh, I think you know…but, I’ll tell because the fallout is where things really get interesting; Shining Armor and Cadance united, sharing a deep and powerful magic that Chrysalis could never have foreseen, let alone understand and the resulting shockwave expelled every Changeling from the area…do you know what that power was.”

“Love?”

“Yes.”

“But, why would it hurt you if you could just feed on love?” asked The Doctor.

“Because feeding on another’s love is like exposing yourself to a drug…you feel good, powerful…but then, you get addicted to it and it consumes your entire existence…and that single blast was like an overdose…many of my brothers and sisters died that day.”

“I still don’t see what you’re-”

“I’m getting to it!” The Changeling snapped, annoyed.

“Anyway, that blast is how I got the souvenir your were asking about earlier and after we landed, seeing the dead, broken bodies of the ones I grew up with…I felt something…a rage that was almost blinding…I stormed into her new ‘chambers’ and called her out on her incompetence and before I knew it, I was screaming in her face about all of the Changelings that had put their faith in her and her promises of food only to end up dead or crippled.”

“So what happened?”

“She laughed.”

“What?”

“She laughed in my face, telling me that there never was any food…that was just a convenient lie…the love we feasted on only made us more malleable to her commands…more complacent, so we wouldn’t question orders…I never did it for myself, so I rarely fed.”

“But, why would she tell you all of this?”

“You know…” he sighed. “I asked her the very same thing and she said that I had nowhere else to go, that no one would be willing to help…or even listen to me after what we did…and I realized she was right, at that moment the only one I hated more than myself for believing in her lies was her, our beloved Queen.”

“So you want revenge?” The Doctor concluded.

“Yes, but not for myself…for my fallen brothers or sisters…for all of the lives we took and destroyed because of her lies.”

“But, why would it be so surprising to her?”

“Huh?”

“Shining Armor and Cadance’s spell-if she feeds on love-then shouldn’t she have known a spell like that would exist?”

“Actually, despite all the love she tries to feed on our ‘Queen’ knows surprisingly little about the subject…which it kind of ironic when you think about it…she’s completely incapable of feeling those emotions herself.”

“Did you ask her about that as well?”

“Yes, she had no idea what happened and it’s probably still driving her crazy trying to figure it out…but I did.”

“Figure what out?” The Doctor pressed.

“There’s a Seventh Element of Harmony; Love-and it’s only possessed by Shining Armor-he was only able to use it without uniting with the other Elements for two reasons; it doesn’t truly have a physical representation and the only way that power could manifest itself was through the desire to protect the ones he loves and who was in the room with him?”

“Cadance, Twilight, and Celestia.” The Doctor recalled.

“That’s right; the three mares he’s devoted his entire life to protecting.”

Heart to Heart

John Smith recounted his tale loss and betrayal from the Changelings failed assault on Canterlot to the point where Twilight attacked them outside of the library.

“My heart is bleeding.” Rainbow Dash muttered dryly with a look of apathy plastered across her face.

“I still can’t believe you gave it a name…” Twilight murmured.

“Twilight,” The Doctor sighed. “This is the kind of kneejerk reaction I’ve come to expect of Rainbow Dash, but you’re supposed to be more patient and open-minded…I thought you’d be more reasonable than this.”

“I am reasonable,” she insisted. “To a point; despite you coming here with a vicious monster, against my better judgment I let you two inside and this…thing feeds us some wild sob story filled with crocodile tears-so credit where it’s due-and now, you actually expect us to help it?”

“Why do you hate me so much?” The Changeling asked under his breath.

“Why? WHY!?” Twilight repeated incredulously. “I don’t know, let’s see-you’ve attacked my brother and sister-in-law, your Queen tried to murder Princess Celestia, and during your siege on Canterlot you’ve racked up more fatalities and crippling injuries than any war in recent Pony history and you’re standing here asking me why I don’t trust you?”

“Right, stupid question.” He muttered in defeat.

“Why can’t you just give him a chance?” The Doctor demanded.

“Because he hasn’t earned it!” Twilight countered.

“And Discord has?”

“That wasn’t our decision!” Twilight snapped. “Princess Celestia ordered us to try and reform Discord because she thought his magic would benefit others…but, none of us aside from Fluttershy actually believe that he can or is even willing to be reformed!”

“So in other words; if I brought you written letter from Celestia ordering you to give him a chance you would do as she asks?” he pressed.

“Do you?” she challenged.

“No, but that’s not the point-if I had a letter from her with those specific instructions-would you follow them?”

She seemed to think about it for a minute before offering her reply.

“No.”

“No?” The Doctor and Rainbow Dash repeated simultaneously in shock.

“That’s right.” Twilight replied. “I have all of the respect in the world for Princess Celestia-but, she admitted herself that she’s not perfect-and I’m convinced that she’s wrong about Discord and that she’d be wrong about this, too.”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped open at Twilight’s words, while she did agree with her on both counts it was difficult for her to comprehend Twilight Sparkle-the biggest teacher’s pet she had ever known of all ponies-to say, let alone think things like this about her mentor.

But, then again-she had been quite vocal about her opinion when Celestia brought Discord back to Ponyville with her…

Dash shook her head, all of this thinking was making her head hurt-she was a world class athlete-not one of those eggheads that thought about weird stuff all the time.

She then began to fly upstairs, she needed to lie down.

The Doctor then turned back to John Smith.

“Go wait for me in the TARDIS, I think it would be best if Twilight and I spoke in private for a moment.”

“Okay,” he readily agreed, wishing that The Doctor would have let him do that in the first place to avoid all of this unnecessary drama.

But, perhaps that was one thing about ponies he’d never understand.

Changelings occasionally required companionship with each other as well as there food source, they were social creatures after all, but this obsession with friendship that these ponies seemed to have with their misplaced trust in one another is what he found the most disturbing.

For as long as any Changeling could remember, his species had focused solely on parasitism and mutual parasitism where two or more Changelings would become acquainted long enough to suit their own physical needs and then be on their way without any distractions of ‘love’ or ‘loyalty’ to any other but the Queen.

Twilight watched the Changeling carefully as it exited the library before turning to face The Doctor.

“Look,” she sighed. “I know you think that you’re doing the right thing…and maybe you’re right…but, I just want you to keep in mind that he is still a Changeling and it is in their nature to be deceptive-that’s how they’ve survived here in Equestria for so long.”

“I am aware.”

“It’s just…I almost lost my brother to them…and I know that makes me a little bias, but I don’t want to lose a friend because of this, so I won’t fight you anymore on this…just promise me you’ll be careful, okay?”

“I’m over nine hundred years old, I think I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.” He chuckled.

Twilight’s concerned expression was still there.

“Alright,” he sighed. “I promise I’ll be careful-scout’s honor.”

He gave a salute which seemed to relieve her.

“Good.”

The Doctor then began heading upstairs to Twilight’s room, which was quite large with a few windows, a balcony with a telescope on it surrounded by a few books on astronomy as well as a bed with a spread covered in various constellations that he recognized.

Lying on top of it was Rainbow Dash with her eyes screwed shut and a hoof placed over her forehead, giving the impression that she was suffering some form of severe migraine.

“Rainbow Dash?” he asked.

“Whaaat?” she replied in annoyed tone.

“I met a mare earlier…a Pegasus, actually who was delivering the mail…she said her name was Derpy Hooves and that she went to flight school with you-”

Suddenly, she shot up to the point where she was sitting straight.

“Derpy?” she repeated.

“Yeah, she said that she went to flight school with you and Fluttershy.”

“Yeah,” Dash put her hooves behind her head as she lay back down.

“I kinda felt bad for her-jerks always picked on me because my stunts didn’t always work out-they started calling me ‘Rainbow Crash’.”

“Ouch.”

She shrugged.

“It was annoying, but it didn’t really hurt that much…but, Fluttershy and Derpy were always sensitive…even as fillies.”

“There were these three guys in particular; Dumb-Bell who liked to be called Billy for obvious reasons, I can’t seem to remember the name of the other one but, he had some kind of food for his Cutie Mark, and then there was Hoops; the ringleader and my arch-rival throughout flight school.”

“And these were the bullies that picked on you three?”

“Well, Fluttershy and Derpy mostly because they were easy targets; Fluttershy started off as a pretty weak flier which is why they started calling her ‘Klutzershy’ and once she got decent enough at it, they began picking on her for being so quiet all the time.”

“But, you stood up for her?”

“Whenever I could, yeah.”

“What does that mean?”

“During our teenage years I wasn’t in flight school anymore,” she narrowed her gaze at The Doctor before he could ask the question. “I DIDN’T get kicked out.”

“So you graduated early, then?”

“No…” her cheeks flushed red as she averted her gaze.

“Then you dropped out.”

“Uh…yeah!” she added quickly. “I figured they couldn’t teach me anything else I hadn’t already figured out myself, so I didn’t really need them anymore and staying would’ve just been a waste of time.”

The Doctor gave her a suspicious look as a few droplets of sweat ran down her forehead.

“Is it hot in here to you?” she chuckled nervously. “Because it is HOT!”

She was obviously lying, as even if that had been the case her loyalty wouldn’t have allowed her to abandon her friends for anything, especially when she knew that they were going through such great emotional turmoil.

But, he decided to let it go-he wasn’t her to interrogate her about the reason she had gotten kicked out of flight school (although, undoubtedly it had something to do with a discipline problem given her temper and what he’d heard about these bullies)-it wasn’t hard to put two and two together.

“What were saying about Derpy?” The Doctor prompted.

“Huh? Oh yeah, she got the worst of it…when we were kids people thought she was either stupid or blind…sometimes both and it didn’t help much that like Fluttershy she was also a bit of a clumsy flier at first.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Oh, it gets worse-stupid parents wanted to take their kids out of school, like they thought she had some kind of disease or something that they could catch, some prudes even demanding that she be banned from the school because they found her too ‘offensive’ for anyone in their ‘perfect world’ to look at.”

She stopped to see the horrified look on The Doctor’s face.

“They didn’t do it, of course-they were actually cool for once and said that they supported an ‘equal rights learning environment for all students willing to learn regardless of age, race, or sexual orientation as long as they were willing to learn, follow the rules, and blah, blah, blah.”

“I’m sensing there’s a ‘but’ in here somewhere, though.” He cut in.

“But,” she sighed. “That wasn’t good enough for them and they threatened to take it all the way up to Celestia, who pretty much said the same thing and told them they could shove it.”

“She did not say that.”

Dash shrugged.

“In my version she did.”

“Anyway, if you know teenagers then you could probably guess the teasing only got worse through high school when they began calling her ‘retard’ and other things like that, at one point she began crying and they chased her down to ground level as she tried hiding in a tree.”

“What happened?”

“They landed and surrounded it, which was around the point I came around when I saw them chuck a hoofball at her which bounced of her head as she began trembling like she was about to fall of the branch she was clinging onto…and that’s when I just lost it.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, anyone else would probably say that I just lost my temper but, actually that didn’t even come close to how angry I was…I hated those guys at that moment…I probably would’ve killed them if I hadn’t blacked out.”

“Blacked out?” he repeated.

“Yeah, you know how someone will say that when they get angry they’ll ‘only see red’? Well, it was kind of like seeing things through a haze of blood…or maybe I just popped a blood vessel in one of my eyes or something-either way, all of the adrenaline rushing through me must’ve dulled the pain-it probably wasn’t very smart attacking when they had me outnumbered three-to-one, but I didn’t really care at that point…it’s really all just a blur after that.”

“And when you came to?”

“I woke up in a bed in the Ponyville Hospital covered in bandages and bruises with a broken wing, broken nose, and a broken arm with the mother of all shiners and my two best friends sitting next to me…Derpy pretty much threw her arms around me with tears in her eyes…which really hurt, by the way-she seemed totally fine and Fluttershy told me that she found us after I passed out and those three jerks took off, but from the looks of them I put a real number on them before everything went dark.”

“It sounds like the three of you were really close.”

“We still are and we still hang out sometimes, it’s just that Derpy doesn’t hang around us as much because she wants to prove that she can take care of herself now, which I totally get but, Fluttershy still tries to baby her sometimes before I tell her to knock it off…”

“Why would they run away from Fluttershy?”

“Well, they weren’t running away from her specifically-they were probably afraid that whoever she got help from would report them to the principal or something and they’d get kicked out of flight school and off the hoofball team well, they’d be really embarrassed if word got around that they got beat up by a girl, ‘Rainbow Crash’ of all ponies…again.”

“Again?” The Doctor pried.

“It was back when we were kids, never mind…it’s not important…don’t you have a thing you’re supposed to be doing?”

“Oh!” he’d been so wrapped up in Dash’s story and so keen to learn more about Derpy that he’d forgotten all about John Smith, The Changelings, and Queen Chrysalis.

He had turned to leave before Dash’s voice stopped him.

“Doctor?”

He turned back around to face her.

“I don’t know what you’re planning with Derpy…but, I wanted you to know that I don’t care even if you are some sort of all-powerful ‘Time King’ or whatever…if you hurt her in ANY way I’ll find you and you’ll be sorry.”

“That’s ‘Time Lord’” he corrected. “And I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

Alone

After returning to the TARDIS, John Smith could be seen waiting inside leaning against one of the coral walls with his arms crossed, wearing a bored expression.

“Still think this was a good idea?” he grumbled.

“They just need time…that attack was less than a year ago, many people nearly lost their loved ones in that attack and for many the pain is still fresh in their minds and Twilight has a VERY strong bond with her brother…can you honestly blame them for having suspicions?” he asked.

“No,” he sighed. “But, how can I get them to trust me?”

“Well…you could probably start by giving a helping hand to those around town and show them your friendly nature-I’m really proud of you for staying calm under pressure, by the way-and the rest is like I said before; let time heal the rest of their wounds.”

“Huh…” he seemed to mull this over for a while before returning his gaze to The Doctor.

“But, then why are YOU so eager to help me?” he asked suspiciously.

“Because I’m The Doctor; helping others is in the job description.” He replied simply.

However, a second glance at the Changeling proved that he found it to be an unsatisfactory answer.

“Fine,” he sighed. “I suppose you deserve to know.”

“Know what?” he prompted.

The Doctor rested his fore hooves on the console before him, pressing down on it with considerable pressure to support himself as he leaned over it.

The console itself groaned in protest at the obscene amount of wait that was being forced onto it.

Watching this, John Smith could imagine that if he had fingers or claws; The Doctor would also be gripping it tightly.

“There was a time in my life…a very dark time.”

He hung his head so that John Smith couldn’t see his facial expression while he spoke.

“A war broke out between my fellow Time Lords and a race called the Daleks; they were beings that encased themselves in metallic shells and had every emotion except hate removed from them they only wanted two things; to expand the Dalek Empire and to exterminate every non-Dalek life form in the universe.”

“And that’s what the war was about?” John Smith asked, intrigued.

“Yes…The ‘Last Great Time War’” The Doctor replied.

“But…you’re alive here now so doesn’t the mean you won?” he asked hesitantly.

“No, we lost…everyone lost; the Daleks, the Time Lords, Gallifrey, and myself.”

“I don’t understand.”

“There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Daleks needed to be stopped, but I also began to see how the majority of my fellow Time Lords were becoming just as monstrous…so I locked them into the Time War.” The Doctor explained.

“If you’re here now, then how did you lose?”

“Because while some may have seen it as my greatest victory, for me it will always be my greatest failure; I couldn’t save any of them…I tried everything…”

With that last bit he seemed to be talking to himself rather than the Changeling.

He then seemed to straighten up.

“And that’s why I’m going to do everything in power to help you; I don’t want to see another species ending up the same way and I don’t want ever want anyone to be in that position if I can help it.”

“But, wait…why didn’t you bring any of this up back in the library?”

“Because it’s not just a failure for me…it’s like a broken promise; my real name isn’t ‘The Doctor’ obviously, it’s a moniker I’d chosen because it meant ‘healer’ someone who protects and takes care of those who can’t do it for themselves…that point of my life and everything I did in it disgraced the name and all it stands for…at that point in my life I was ‘The Doctor’ in name only.”

“So you didn’t mention if because it felt like you failed?” John Smith asked quizzically.

“No,” he sighed. “It’s more complicated than that; sometimes I feel like a monster, like I didn’t have the right to do what I did…because no one SHOULD have the right to do something like that…it haunts my every waking moment.”

“So nobody else knows about this?”

“Celestia and Luna know, but that’s about it…they were both very understanding about it…Luna in particular knew what it was like to go through a dark chapter in your life that you’re not particularly proud of and would rather keep buried.”

“So why haven’t you told Twilight and Rainbow Dash or anyone else about this, aren’t they your friends?” John Smith challenged.

“They are,” he replied glumly. “And that’s why I can never tell them.”

“Huh?”

“Because I’m afraid that if I tell them who I really am…they will no longer want to have anything to do with me…that they will see me as the monster I really am and I wouldn’t blame them.”

“But?”

“But, I’ve travelled through time and space for so long picking up companions to travel with and try to ward off my loneliness-even if only for a little while-but, in they end they’d leave or some of them would even die…and it would break my heart.”

“Just how many of these companions have you had?” John Smith asked curiously.

“At least a few dozen, but my point is that my heart has broken so many times…and I am so very, very old…I’m not sure how many more I’ll be able to survive.”

“So you’re afraid.” He concluded.

“Yes, I am very afraid…of being alone again.”

“You still tried to do the right thing and even if it didn’t exactly turn out the way you wanted it-shouldn’t your intentions be what count?”

“And that justifies killing my own people?” The Doctor shot back.

He hung his head again and sighed.

“Maybe I’ll muster up the courage to tell them one day…but, for now I have no idea how I’d break it to them and ponies like Rainbow Dash are only just beginning to trust me-you saw how impulsive she is-how do you think she’d react if I just strolled back in there and dropped a bombshell like that?”

“I see your point.” John Smith conceded.

“So what’s the plan, then?”

“We return to the Changeling hive and speak with Queen Chrysalis.”

“What!?” he shrieked. “Why? Do you have any idea how stubborn she is? She’ll never listen to you!”

“Besides,” he grumbled. “She probably still wants my head…”

“I know.” The Doctor replied. “But, I still have to try…besides, she hates me too…probably even more, but that will be to our benefit; she’ll want to execute us publicly and then we will reveal what she told you after the siege on Canterlot for the rest of the Changelings to hear.”

“And then?”

“If a few of them listen they may turn on Chrysalis for manipulating them.”

“What if none of them listen?” he asked.

“Then we will probably be executed.” The Doctor replied simply.

“Doctor, that’s a terrible plan!” John Smith exclaimed.

“Do you have a better one?”

“No…”

“Well, it’s the only one I’ve got so if you still want to go through with this we have to leave now.”

The New Doctor

Reluctantly, John Smith had agreed with The Doctor’s insane luck driven scheme, but only on the condition that there was some sort of back-up plan if things went to Tartarus.

“Okay,” The Doctor sighed holding John Smith’s shoulders with his hooves.

“I swore I’d never do this again, but…here we go.”

And with that, he head butted the Changeling as the both recoiled in pain from the collision.

“Aw…Oh…that really hurt…” he groaned, massaging his forehead.

“Was there any way to do this without fracturing my skull?” John Smith asked, mirroring The Doctor’s movements.

He then gasped as memories and knowledge began flooding into his brain accompanied by voices echoing;

“Absolutely Fantastic.”

“REVERSE THE POLARITY OF THE NEUTRON FLOW!”

“A brilliant smile beaming with intelligence.”

“DIE DOCTOR!”

“Care for a Jelly Baby?”

“Binary vascular system detected.”

“Don’t blink.”

“Bowties ARE cool.”

Images flashed through his brain;

Most of them featured creatures that were or looked similar to a species known as humans.

Words and terms seemed to be magically written into his mind as the very second they were generated he knew the history and definition, but they were coming in too fast and it felt as if his brain were burning up as it struggled to process the information.

The strain was so great that he could only focus on a small chunk of the words flooding into his memory.

‘Regeneration, TARDIS, Sarah Jane, K-9, Rose Tyler, Gallifrey, Martha Jones, Weeping Angels, Cybermen,  Donna Noble, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, The Silence, Daleks, Sonic Screwdriver, Isomorphic Controls, Chameleon Circuit, Trenzalore, The Great Intelligence, Sontaren Stratagem, Clara Oswin Oswald, Telepathic Circuit, The Master, Quantum Locked, Stupid Ape, Fantastic, Allons-y, I’m so very, very sorry, Geronimo, Cool, Yowza, Timey-wimey, River Song, Demon’s Run, The Last Centurion, The Girl Who Waited, Soufflé Girl, Impossible Girl, Commander Strax, Lonely God, Time Lord’

And…

He gasped when he realized what it was; The Doctor’s NAME! He KNEW what it WAS.

That was when it all seemed to stop and his body felt as if it had been dunked into a tank of ice water.

“You might want to hold on,” The Doctor spoke up, he’d been observing silently once the pain had subsided.

“This is going to be the really rocky part.”

Before John Smith could ask him what he was talking about the feeling of ice water flowing through his veins was quickly replaced by stinging and then burning as his body involuntarily shifted between different pony forms he’d never even seen before.

“I’ve given you all of my memories and past experiences as well as my vast intelligence in case anything happens to me in the hive, you’re body is trying to cope with past regenerations…it must be extraordinarily painful…but, that was always a possibility.”

John Smith’s body shifted to the point where he was a white stallion with a short, practically non-existent mane, a pair of large ears and a black jacket.

“You could have told me that EARLIER, you stupid horse!” he growled before wincing in pain as his body shifted back.

The Doctor was contemplating whether to approach him or if this was just the eye of the storm and a prelude to a stronger, more violent burst in which case any interference he cause would most likely do more harm than good.

“Is that it?”

It seemed highly unlikely that a process like this would end with just a single regeneration, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointing at not catching a glimpse of more of his past selves with all of their quirks, but at the same time he didn’t know too much about Changeling anatomy.

“Yowza...” John Smith breathed.

“How are you feeling John?”

“Hungry…you wouldn’t happen to have any Jelly Babies around, would you?”

“That’s an after-effect of the process, give it a few moments and it’ll fade.”

“Doctor, why bother doing all of this? I could just turn into you at a moment’s notice-what’s the point of giving me all of your memories and other stuff?”

“Because if we’re going to pull this off, we need to think exactly the same and be in perfect synchronization; besides, I can’t be everywhere at once and if we do succeeded the liberated Changelings will need someone intelligent to guide them…the only draw back is when you change into one of my regenerations you’ll also have all of the quirks and flaws.” The Doctor explained.

“How is that a good thing?” John challenged.

“Because the reason one of the reasons Chrysalis failed to take over Canterlot was because Twilight Sparkle knew Princess Cadance well enough to see her disguise, since she didn’t have her memories or her mannerisms.”

“Okay…”

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah…you gave me something I don’t think you meant to; your name.”

“No, I meant to do that-it’ very important that you know my name and the reason why it must be kept a secret-but, hopefully that will never come to pass.”

“What will never come to pass?”

“…My death.”

“What are you talking about? You’re not sick and by Time Lord standards you’re only middle-aged.”

“That still doesn’t change the fact that I am very old…and after all I’ve been through it’s nothing short of a miracle that I’ve lived this long…it’s quite possible that one of these days all of this travelling and making new enemies will kill me.”

Blood from a Stone

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!"

Dalek

“EXTERMINATE LIFEFORMS!” It shrieked as an army of alarmed Changeling dove at the intruder in an effort to protect their beloved queen.

Green bolts of energy emitted from its gunstick, striking the creatures in a flash of blinding light that briefly exposed their skeletal structures before releasing horrific, ear-piercing shrieks and crumpling lifelessly to the ground.

“NO!” The Doctor shouted in protest at the massacre unfolding before his very eyes.

The Changelings began firing blasts of their own magical energy at the intruder, but its armor seemed to make it impervious to their attacks.

“EXTERMINATE!” It repeated as several more Changelings fell.

“STOP!” The Doctor shouted desperately.

The horde merely ignored him, doubling up on their efforts to destroy the alien menace.

He shot Chrysalis an imploring look before she rolled her eyes and gave the order.

“Very well; All Changelings cease fire!”

The Dalek’s eye stalk zoomed in on Chrysalis.

“WHY HAVE YOU ORDERED YOUR SOLDIERS TO STOP FIRING?” It inquired. “HAVE YOU ACCEPTED DEFEAT?”

“No.”

The Doctor stood between the two.

“I want to talk to you.”

“WHO ARE YOU?” The Dalek asked, moving forward slightly.

“I…am The Doctor.” He replied, hesitantly.

“YOU LIE!”

“What? What do you mean? Why would you think I’m lying to you?”

“YOUR PHYSICAL PROFILE FITS THAT OF AN EQUINE, NOT A TIME LORD! THERE IS NO RECORD OF THIS REGENERATION AMONG THE DALEKS…”

“Well there are several reasons for that; this is a whole new universe for the both of us…completely uncharted by either Time Lords or Daleks alike, completely cut off from Skaro, Earth, or Gallifrey.” He explained.

The Dalek remained silent; staring at The Doctor with what the Changelings could only imagine being a blank expression.

“The second reason is because I regenerated when my TARDIS was swept up by a storm of chaotic temporal energy…both it and my body were badly damaged.”

“I have two hearts, I came from the planet Gallifrey, and I’m the one that ended the Last Great Time War…”

“YOU WERE AT TORCHWOOD?” The Dalek inquired.

That was when realization dawned on him.

“You were one of the Daleks we sent into the Void…but, how did you get here?”

“THAT IS IRRELEVANT!” It shouted, aiming its gunstick at him. “YOU ARE THE DOCTOR! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!”

He put a hoof up defensively.

“Yes, you’re right-I am The Doctor, but before you do that-ask yourself one thing; have you seen any other Daleks since you arrived here?”

The Dalek’s eye stalk moved from examining his chest to pinpoint the location of his hearts to his face in order to ascertain whether this was some sort of trick on his part.

“WHAT IS YOUR POINT?”

“Everything you do is for the glory of the Dalek Empire, right?”

“THAT IS CORRECT. DALEKS ARE SUPREME!”

“Yeah, yeah, we got that part already-but, there IS no Dalek Empire anymore…you can do whatever you want now!”

“THERE…ARE NO OTHER DALEKS?”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

Despite his apprehension of having to deal with more that a single Dalek, he couldn’t help but empathize with this creature as he knew exactly what it was like to be the last of one’s kind.

Its eye stalk lowered in what appeared to be despair.

It’s angry, screaming sounding tone of its voice had lowered to one that was quiet and depressed.

“I am…alone in this universe?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Then, I no longer have purpose…there are only two logical conclusions; exterminate the remaining life forms of this planet for the glory of the fallen Dalek Empire in the hopes of some day rebuilding that which has been lost or self-termination.”

“NO!” The Doctor shouted as all eyes returned to him.

“No,” he repeated, regaining his composure. “You don’t need to kill yourself or anyone else, still rebuild the Dalek Empire…a bigger, better one without hate or the need to exterminate anything and redeem your race in the eyes of the universe-”

“Or,” Chrysalis cut in. “You could join us in the first ever Changeling-Dalek Empire! Together we would be unstoppable! Even the combined might of Equestria’s princesses and the simple-minded Discord would fall before us!”

“YOU PROPOSE AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN OUR SPECIES?” It asked.

“Yes.” She replied with a smile revealing her fangs covered in the green glow of the cavern.

“YOUR OFFER HAS BEEN CONSIDERED.”

“And your decision?” she pressed expectantly.

“DENIED.”

“You WHAT!?” she sputtered.

“YOUR SPECIES REQUIRES LOVE FOR SUSTENANCE-YOUR DEPENDANCE ON EMOTION MAKES YOU INFERIOR-YOU ARE AN INFERIOR SPECIES!”

It aimed its gunstick at her before The Doctor could stop either of them the cavern was filled with a flash of blinding green light as Chrysalis fired a blast of magical energy at the Dalek as it attempted to exterminate her, causing both The Doctor and the horde of Changelings to shield their eyes.

Once it has subsided the light was replaced with the echoes of the mutated Kaled’s dying shrieks reverberated throughout the cave as its outer protective shell had largely been obliterated from the blast with its tentacles flailing wildly in agony as its single bloodshot eye rolled backwards as what appeared to be some type of white fluid jetted from wounds caused by shrapnel of the broken armor.

The Doctor and Changelings could do nothing but look on in horror at the scene unfolding before them, he stole a quick glance at Chrysalis’ reaction and was disgusted to see her shock curl into a victorious smirk.

His attention was immediately brought back to the creature with its next words;

“DOC-TOR?”

Reluctantly, he went to the Dalek’s side while occasionally glancing at Chrysalis to make sure she didn’t try anything else like that while his back was turned.

Instead of hatred, the creature merely looked up at him imploringly with its single eye filled with pain.

“I’m here.” He stated in a tone that was intended to sound reassuring, but instead came out with uncertainty.

“I do not understand…she is an inferior species, requiring emotion to survive…how is it that she can make me experience such pain?” it asked earnestly.

“Your species sees every emotion except for hate as a weakness, but what you don’t understand is that every other emotion also has its uses…” he explained.

“Yet the two of you are not allies?”

“No, she uses emotions for different reasons-she steals them to make herself more powerful-but, she doesn’t understand them.”

“I…I feel…I FEEL…”

It tried weakly before falling limp.

The Doctor lowered his head, feeling more guilt and pity for the monster than the fear and hatred he was accustomed to for the majority of his life.

“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…Ever since I came here everything’s gone wrong…”

He turned around to face Chrysalis who was sitting back on her throne with a hoof under her chin with her hind legs crossed and wearing a bored expression.

“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” he demanded. “I WAS GETTING IT TO BACK DOWN!”

“Ugh, all this preaching is giving me a migraine.” Chrysalis groaned, massaging her temple.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, Doctor-I merely asked it a question before it attacked me and did what was necessary to defend myself.”

“Everything was going to be fine until you cut in!” he argued. “All you had to do was just sit there and what for me to finish talking to it. Oh, but you can’t stand the thought of even the slightest modicum of time passing without you being the center of the universe-can you?”

Before he could finish his rant, he was hit by another blast of magical green energy knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying backwards as the horde of Changeling dispersed down the center to avoid colliding with the injured Doctor.

As he landed, he skid to a halt at the end of the chamber lying on his side desperately trying to catch his breath while his body tried to cope with the third-degree magical burns it was experiencing as he shakily pick himself back up onto his fore hooves with the front of his suit visibly burned and small tatters in his overcoat.

“You see…?” he panted, speaking to all Changelings in the room.

“This is what she does…she uses fear to keep you in line…her twisted idea of loyalty from her subjects and when they disobey…Gah!”

He felt another wave of sharp pain in his chest, the blast wasn’t powerful enough that his body needed him to regenerate, but he couldn’t take another one like it…and even then if Chrysalis exerted herself and put enough power behind it, she could kill him outright.

Civil War

While on the surface she was irritated at The Doctor’s attempts to insight a riot…or ‘revolution’ from her subjects-whatever he had wanted to call it-she took a considerable amount of pleasure to see him writhing about like the worm he was with audacity to challenge her rule, especially in her very own kingdom.

Secretly, she was recovering and charging magical energy into her jagged black horn to finish him off, it would be a hefty price with the large amount of energy that would be required to finish him off and it would be quite a while before she fully recovered, by to end his insolence once and for all and get revenge for damaging her horn in their last encounter…it was simply too grand of an opportunity to pass up.

To his credit however, he was no coward as he merely glared contemptuously at her before examining the reactions of the Changelings around him-while most would be bawling like foals and begging her for mercy at this point-she couldn’t help, but respect that a little.

“Please understand…” he continued, desperately. “I am not your enemy…I can help give you another chance at life-you can do so much good-become so much more than the parasitic monsters society has deemed you as!”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes at that utterly ridiculous sentiment, society had never accepted them in the past, nor would they now…she had learned very early on in life that respect was only given to those who demanded it and took it by force.

“I’m not saying integrating into societies on the outside world is going to be quick or easy…but, I will tell you that if you leave in fear under her rule your species will never evolve or go anywhere worthwhile…”

The energy in the tip of her horn was almost finished charging, thankfully she would be able to shut him up pretty soon…

“I look around and I know that you are all so much more than you’ve become…you have so much potential to create and heal, to make the world a better place! But, not if you can’t stand up for yourselves first and cast aside your shackles!”

“Very moving, Doctor…” Chrysalis commented mockingly. “You should have been a poet… or better yet, run for a political office with the way you’ve seemed to capture the hearts and minds of subjects.”

She was slightly annoyed to see a few of her Changelings actually mulling over The Doctor’s radical ideals, but that was of little consequence-chop off the head-and the body will die.

“STOP!” a voice hauntingly similar to The Doctor’s shouted out as what appeared to be clone of him, wearing a brown suit stood between the two of them.

“John, what are you doing?” asked The Doctor.

“She’s stalling! She’s gathering up energy so she can kill you!” The Changeling shouted, before glaring defiantly at his Queen.

“Choose your enemy very carefully, boy.” Chrysalis growled dangerously. “We are many…he is but, one-wouldn’t you prefer to get out of this alive?”

“Not if this is what it takes, The Doctor is right-the only reason society has been treating us a monsters for so long is because that’s all we’ve acted like-and that’s become increasingly apparent to me under your rule!”

“Does life really mean so little to you?” she challenged. “All you have to do is step aside so I can finish this worm and I’ll forget your pathetic attempt at military insurrection.”

“No.”

Chrysalis was completely taken aback by this response.

“WHAT!?”

“I said; ‘No’. I know I can’t speak for anyone else here, but personally I’m sick of your rule and the way you’ve been treating us and The Doctor is risking everything including his life to make sure we have the rights as everyone else and I’m glad I came to him for help.”

“STAND ASIDE OR YOU WILL DIE!” she screamed.

“No, not only do I look like The Doctor but I have the same level of intelligence and processing power as well and it’s just a theory, but I believe that you can’t make me move without firing and doing so will leave you weakened-is that right?”

She bared her fangs at him before striking him with the back of her hoof, knocking him to the side as she advanced on the original Doctor, but was appalled to see a group of Changelings jump in front of him to block her path before mimicking his appearance as many others followed suit.

“WHAT!?” she shouted furiously, before lowering her head and aiming her horn at the center.

“Move aside or you all die with him!” she announced.

“You wouldn’t.” John stated simply.

“Try me.”

“It’s suicide, because even with the maximum calculations and estimations of the potential power and blast radius of your attack and even if you manage to get lucky and hit your target in such a large group-there will still be both injured and unscathed survivors wanting revenge for killing their liberator and even a handful of Changelings against your drained state would be more that enough to finish you-in Laymen’s terms; You. Can’t. Possibly. Win.”

Chrysalis was glaring daggers at him and at the same time she was considering her options; she could kill him and take her chances against the remaining ingrates and possibly win albeit, sustaining substantial injuries in the aftermath…

She had originally taken up her rule with an iron fist in the hopes that it would keep her subjects in line, but it seemed to have backfired with them rebelling in favor of this mysterious ‘Doctor’ for his single act of kindness, everything was falling apart…

“It’s either revenge or your life.” John continued. “And as you know we’re not as forgiving as The Doctor, nor do we share his sentiments on non-violence towards those who’ve wronged us.”

She glared at him hatefully before glancing back at the select few Changelings in the crowd who appeared to be completely confused by the actions of their brethren.

“Those of you still loyal to me; protect your Queen as she retreats to fight another day!” she ordered.

These Changelings nodded before jumping into between the horde of Doctors and their Queen, growling at them for their insolence towards her majesty and forsaking their sacred Changeling duties.

The Doctor staggered over to John as those who had taken on his likeness to intimidate their former Queen cleared a path.

“You weren’t really going to kill her.” It was a statement more than a question, but John took it as one.

“If she attacked you again, I would’ve.” He replied.

“Why?”

“Because you’re the only non-Changeling friend I’ve ever had.”

The remaining Changelings followed their Queen once they were certain that she was far enough away to elude The Doctor and the traitors.

“For future reference, I would prefer it if you didn’t.”

John gave him an incredulous look.

“Why not?”

“Because my life isn’t worth saving, let alone spilling blood over-but, I appreciate the sentiment.”

The Oncoming Storm

The Doctor and John stood outside of the T.A.R.D.I.S. on a grassy hill overlooking a shanty town a few miles south of Ponyville.

“Are you sure this is alright?” John asked as the other Changelings emerged from the pone box.

“It’s a ghost town, all of the former residents abandoned it about three decades ago to move onto greener pastures once the town’s economy collapsed, one of the adverse effects of being so isolated, but what you lack in economic strength you’ll gain in safety.”

“But, what about withdrawals? I’ll be fine, but what about the others?” John continued.

“I can’t guarantee that ponies will learn to accept you quickly or easily, but this is the quickest and easiest solution I can think of for the time being-others will have you to look after them and help them get through their withdrawals-after all; you beat it.” The Doctor added reassuringly.

“And what about Celestia?” he pressed. “After the attack on Canterlot and Chrysalis’ kidnapping and subsequent impersonation of her niece…what will her reaction to all of this be?”

“Celestia is far more understanding than most would think she is-just because she’s royalty, doesn’t necessarily make her a close-minded prude-like Blueblood.”

“And what if you’re wrong?” he challenged.

“Then, I’ll take the heat for it.” The Doctor replied with a toothy grin before winking.

“Doctor, what did you mean when you said that your life ‘wasn’t worth saving’?”

“You have my memories-you should know.”

“Yeah, just thought I’d like to hear it from the horse’s mouth-so to speak.”

“And what did you mean when you said I was your first non-Changeling friend, John? You’re a shape shifter, if companionship is so important to you, couldn’t you have taken up the guise of some pony you’ve made up accompanied with an alias?”

“I have.” He replied dismally. “And I met a girl named Orange Sherbet and we got along well enough, to the point where our friendship grew into something…more and I didn’t want to have any secrets between us, so I showed her the truth about myself.”

“And I’m guessing that didn’t go over so well…”

“No, it didn’t, but not because I was a Changeling-at least, not entirely-when I told her she cried and kept apologizing, saying that she still loved me, but being in a relationship with a Changeling was wrong and that she was afraid that if someone found out, it would get one or both of us executed.”

“And you never saw her again?” he pressed.

“No, I left town that day…never saw her again.”

“Ponyville?”

“No, some other town-similar, but different can’t remember the name of it, don’t want to, it’s…”

“Too painful.” The Doctor finished.

John nodded.

“Yeah, I get that…you know Chrysalis will want revenge for this lot’s disloyalty, don’t you?”

“And you realize that she merely disliked you before, but now she hates you and won’t rest until she sees you dead.” He shot back.

“Stone dead, I should think. If you see her again, tell her to get in line.”

“Why don’t you tell her yourself?” John asked, shooting The Doctor what he assumed to be the Changeling equivalent of a grin.

“What will you do now, Doctor?”

“Well, I’ll go inform Celestia of the situation her and see if we can’t get some sort of system sorted out, and then I think I’ll drop by the arcade, I think I’ve earned a break at this point, don’t you?”

“I mean, what will you do now that your alias is gone-there can’t be two John Smiths running around-can there?”

“No, of course not! Jimmy, John, Jack, Joe, none of those are considered legitimate names in Pony society unless there’s some obscure object attached to it, like donut, apples or…pears.” He gagged at the last one.

“I’ve been using ‘Time Turner’ since coming to Equestria and it seems to have been working out great so far-I think I’ll stick with it.”

“If Chrysalis comes back for us…”

“When she comes back to attack you.” The Doctor corrected. “I’ll be here to help you out-promise.”

“But, how will possibly know if-”

The Doctor gestured to the T.A.R.D.I.S.

“Time machine, remember?”

“Hey, learn to relax-you’re a Doctor now-it’s time to start acting like one.” He added before entering the phone box as John Smith couldn’t help, but look on in awe as the T.A.R.D.I.S. de-materialized.

Of Ponies and Prejudice

The next reasonable course of action to The Doctor seemed to be speaking with Twilight Sparkle-well, technically it was Princess Twilight Sparkle now-the personal protégé of Celestia, Element of Magic, and younger sister of the former Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard.

It was for these exact reasons that the Changeling was hesitant to see her, given how possessive she was of her brother and her fierce loyalty to the Princess, he was certain that this encounter would not end well.

“Do you have a name?” The Doctor asked as they stepped out of the TARDIS and in front of the library.

“No-why would I?”

“Because everyone has a name; how else would Chrysalis and the other Changelings identify you if you don’t have a name?”

“Because,” he sighed. “There are unique pheromones that each Changeling’s body emits that help us identify one another-names would just be redundant-besides, all that really matters is rank, knowing whose orders to follow and who to give orders to.”

“You still need a name.”

“Why?”

“If you want to integrate into Pony society, then you need a way to identify and establish yourself as an individual.” The Doctor replied adamantly.

“Besides, I can’t just go around calling you ‘Changeling’ all the time-it sounds racist-which completely defeats the purpose of all this.”

“What makes you think I want to become a part of Pony society?” he challenged.

“Well, after you’ve liberated your fellow Changelings and get your long sought after revenge-what other plans could you have?” The Doctor countered.

The Changeling cursed under his breath.

“Fine, just call me…I don’t know or even really care-I’ve never been good with names-just don’t make it anything stupid.”

“John Smith it is, then.”

“WHAT!?”

“You said I could come up with a name as long as it wasn’t stupid.” The Doctor pointed out.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t even sound like a pony name!” The Changeling exclaimed.

Well, that was definitely true as his old alias never worked out for him when he first tried getting past the royal guards, as well as the reason he had adopted the name ‘Time Turner’ for those who wouldn’t accept ‘The Doctor’ as a real name.

The Doctor just shook his head and knocked on the wooden door of the Golden Oaks library.

Twilight opened the door to see The Doctor standing before her.

“Oh, hello there…” her eyes shifted to the dark, menacing figure next to him.

“Doctor, look out!” she shouted as she charged up her horn.

He pushed John Smith out of the way as a magical blast of lavender hit the area they were standing and leaving a scorched mark on the ground.

“Doctor, why did you push him out of the way?” she demanded. “Can’t you see that he’s a Changeling!?”

“Yes, that’s why I brought him here?”

“But…why would you do that?” asked a puzzled Twilight.

“Because he-”

“Unless you’re a Changeling, too!” she concluded, eyeing The Doctor suspiciously.

Without warning she pounced on him, pinning him to the ground with the tip of her horn aimed directly at his face as it glowed with magical power.

“You better tell me what you’ve done with the real Doctor, right now!” she demanded.

“Twilight, stop! It’s me!” he choked.

“Prove it.” She growled.

“Remember when we first met…I stumbled out of the TARDIS in the middle of the night right in front of this very same library asking you where Rainbow Dash was?”

The energy she had been charging faded as she backed off.

“Doctor?”

“Yes?”

“What are you doing with that…thing?”

John Smith flinched at being called a ‘thing’ especially in a way that was filled with such contempt.

“As I tried to explain before you attacked me; this is John Smith, we met outside the Everfree forest…”

“Uh, Doctor?” John Smith asked. “Can we maybe continue this discussion inside? People are starting to stare…”

He looked around and realized there were indeed ponies that were normally going by their everyday routines before catching sight of a Changeling standing with The Doctor and Princess Twilight Sparkle in front of the local library.

“I think that might be a good idea.”

As the trio entered they noted that there were books scattered everywhere as well as a copy of ‘Magical Mysteries and Practical Potions’ with what appeared to have had some sort of juice spilled over it sometime in the past.

“Sorry, the place is a mess…” Twilight apologized. “I was reorganizing and I wasn’t expecting any visitors today.”

“Oh, that’s okay.” John Smith replied casually, earning him a death glare from the young librarian.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” She said coldly.

He gave The Doctor a nervous look at which he could just shrug.

That was when John Smith noticed a familiar cyan Pegasus with a prismatic mane who had utilized a particularly brutal fighting style against the Changelings during the assault on Canterlot, but for the most part she only seemed to be attacking those who went after the yellow mare Pegasus with the pink mane and immediately alarms were going off inside his head.

He had seen firsthand how dangerous the combination of legendary Pegasus strength and brutality mixed with fearsome loyalty could be and based on what he’d heard of this particular Element bearer, she was by far the most violent and impulsive…especially when she thought her friends were in danger.

She was reading a book with another Pegasus on the cover; this one was a light shade of brown with a black mane, and dressed up in an archeological outfit and a cocky grin reaching out for what appeared to be some sort of goblet or chalice with a large threatening shadowy owl figure looming behind her.

The reading Pegasus was holding the book at an angle so he had to tilt his head slightly to make out the title; ‘Daring Do and the Sapphire Star’ which meant that the archeological pony on the cover must have been the titular ‘Daring Do’ character and the physical similarities between the two Pegasi portrayed by the cover artist was not lost on him either.

She casually glanced up from her book as the trio approached her.

“Hey Twi-WHOAH!”

Upon the seeing the Changeling before her she immediately shot up into the air, dropping the book as she flapped her wings to keep her distance from him.

“Guys! There’s a Changeling right behind you!” she shouted, her voice full of alarm. “Don’t worry! You guys pin it down and I’ll go get a rock to smash its head in before it can do any real damage!”

“Rainbow Dash, wait!” Twilight shouted as the Pegasus screeched to a halt in mid-flight.

“What?” she demanded, as she turned to face her with a tone filled with irritation.

“The Doctor says he wants to talk to us…so we shouldn’t attack him…yet.” She added.

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms and raised a skeptical eyebrow as her wings flapped keeping her steady in one place.

“About what?”