Doctor Who: Equestrian Chronicles Series 1

Twilight followed the Doctor into the TARDIS, where he was hooking the Cyberhead to the console, “The Mothership?”

“That’s it!” he said while attaching wires to the inside of the head, “With the help of the distress signal, I should be able to track down the Cybership!”

“Cybership?” she asked, raising an eyebrow, “That’s… not really imaginative.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” he shook his head disappointedly, “But I guess the creativity was all drained out of them during the upgrade process.”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

“And how could it be at this hour,” the Doctor’s rubbed his chin, and pulled down the screen. The image was of Braeburn, fruitlessly trying to break into the TARDIS. The Doctor let out a sigh, and opened the doors.

“Open this door righ’ no-woooooah!” Braeburn tripped into the control room, planting his face into the console.

“Well, then,” the Doctor leaned down to be face to face with the earth pony, “The Doctor will see you now.”

“Lookie here, what eva’ yah are,” Braeburn huffed angrily, “Let Twilight go, and leave this town now!”

“Well, look at the gratitude I get for trying to save all of your lives,” the Doctor said irritably, “This universe would have been destroyed on multiple occasions if it weren’t for me!”

“Look, what yer saying ain’t making a lick o’ sense to me,” he replied, “but if yah ain’t letting her go, ah’m gonna bust ’er out!”

The Doctor rolled his eyes, and flipped a switch.

Click!

The doors behind Braeburn snapped shut. He ran off to open the doors. When he soon discovered that they were locked shut, he tried opening them forcefully, but with no avail.

“You’re gonna open these doors, right now, Doctor! Or ah swear, you will pay!” Braeburn threatened, shaking his forehoof.

“You’re right,” the Doctor agreed quickly, reaching for a wheel on the TARDIS console, “How terrible of me. I shall open the doors riiighht, now!”

Whoooooosh, whoooooosh whooooosh

The TARDIS engines wheezed loudly, taking Braeburn by surprise. He stumbled around the shaking room. Twilight and the Doctor, on the other hoof, grabbed onto the bench next to the console, obviously experienced.

“W-w-what did you do?” Braeburn stuttered, “What did you do?”

“Nothing much!” the Doctor replied innocently, “Just sent the TARDIS through the time vortex! We should be at the Ship any moment now!”

The wheezing of the TARDIS was put to a stop and the Doctor walked to the door.

“There, happy now?” When the door was opened, the environment had changed. Gone were the dry, plain lands of Appleloosa, and in its place were dull gray walls. Everywhere, robotic marching could be heard.

“Alright,” the Doctor whispered, “We’re right in the center of the Cybership.

Twilight followed him outside, “I don’t get it, didn’t the Cybermen kidnap dozens of Appleloosans? Why aren’t we hearing any struggling?”

“Can’t say,” he replied, “But we have to hurry. I’ll need some tools to take the Cyberman down.”

Twilight took a gander at her surroundings. “I’d say that we’re in a storage closet of some kind,” she pulled open a cabinet, “Hey, Doctor, what are these?”

The Doctor’s eyes widened in confusion, “Those, those are EarPods! How on Raxicoricofallipatorious did they get these?” He pulled one out and scanned it with his screwdriver, “Ahh, stolen technology. There are many slight differences in the inner workings. Probably reversed engineered from deactivated Cybusmen.”

“Would somepony tell me what the HAY is going on here!” Braeburn shouted, whose tolerance was at its peak.

“Shhhh! There’s no need to shout!” the Doctor whispered loudly, “The Cybermen don’t know we’re here, so we need to be quiet.”

“Audio heard in Storage Chamber one one nine five two six, reveal yourselves and bow to the mighty Cyberlegion.”

The chamber door slid open, revealing a Cyberman. The Doctor innocently waggled his fingers, “Oh! Don’t mind us, just stopping by, hello!”

“You will surrender immediately or be deleted,” the Cyberman deadpanned, “Bow down at once in the name of the Cybermen,”

“Oh, yes, of course,” the Doctor agreed sarcastically, “you truly deserve our respect! Here, have some gold!” the Doctor threw another bag of gold dust at the Cyberman. The dust took its effect on the Cyberman, causing it to fall down to it’s knees.

“Alright, Twilight,” the Doctor said while patting the Cyberman’s head, “I’ll need some help dragging the Cyberman back to the TARDIS,”

“Ya’ll are crazy, ya hear? Crazy!” Braeburn stomped back into the blue box, “What ever ya’ll are planning, ah want no part in it!”

Twilight and the Doctor exchanged glances. “I think I should talk to him,” Twilight suggested.

“I think that’d be best.”

“Braeburn?” Twilight stepped into the TARDIS to find Braeburn, sulking in the corner of the control room, “Look, life with the Doctor can be really confusing at times, so it’s perfectly natural to be confused.”

“Ah… ah just don’t get it,” Braeburn pouted, “We just got over the territory problems last year. Why this? Why can’t we just negotiate? That’s what we did for them buffalo.”

“I know the Doctor, Braeburn,” Twilight reassured, “And I trust him with all my heart. I know that he wouldn’t fight somepony if there weren’t any chance of negotiation.”

“Yah think yah know him so well, don’t cha?” he said crossly, “Then tell me this: What’s his real name?”

Twilight was silent. For the first time, she realized how little she knew of the Doctor. He never talked about himself, and he always had that tired, guilty expression on his face when he wasn’t ranting. What could happened, for some pony that happy and cheerful to never even talk about his past?

“Exactly,” Braeburn scoffed, “Yah don’t even know him, yet yer sacrificing yer life to help him. Mark mah words, Sparkle; Someday he won’t be there for yah. Yah can go, prance around him, blinded by yer little crush”

Twilight sighed as she stepped out of the TARDIS. She is going to have a big talk with the Doctor when this thing blows over. When she found the Doctor, he was using the Screwdriver to strip the Cyberman to its bare elements.

“Hmmm,” he mumbled to himself, curiously, “It seems like the Cybermen have been waiting for quite some time now… the host had decomposed to the bone…”

“And how goes your research on the Cyberman?”

“Welllll,” he said while tapping the chest of the Cyberman, “The Cybermen were fueled by the sun. Somehow, there’s a large amount of energy radiating off it. I just can’t understand how that would work!” He paused and turned to Twilight, “Your sun isn’t sentient, is it?”

“No, not that I know of,” she replied hesitantly, “Though I can explain the energy radiating from the sun.”

“Really,” the Doctor widen his eyes in interest, “Please, educate me.”

“Well, Princess Celestia uses her magical abilities to raise the sun every morning, as her sister raises the moon every night,” Twilight explained smugly, finally knowing something the Doctor didn’t, “Would that be helpful?”

“Immensely,” he grinned wildly, “SO! The Cybermen are feeding off the magic Princess Celestia creates. And whom do I have for a companion other than Twilight Sparkle, the most powerful unicorn in Equestria! The go to expert on what makes it tick.” He clasped his hands together eagerly, “Lets go! Times a-wastin’”

The Doctor poked his head into the hallway. He then motioned with his arm for Twilight to come over.

“Alright, Twilight,” he handed her a small, metal tube. The metal was covered in a tan colored bandage, and had a green LED on the end, “You’ll need this to defend yourself.”

Twilight grinned enthusiastically, clapping her hooves in joy, “Oh my gosh! I get a sonic screwdriver! This is-“

“Shhh!” the Doctor covered her mouth with is hand, “We’re sneaking around, and we can’t afford to make any noise!”

“Okay, sorr-“ she stopped in mid sentence to collect her thoughts, “Wait a minute! If we can’t make any noise, what’s this?” She examined the device with her magic.

“Well,” he ranted, “It’s an Electro Magnetic Multi tool. It uses the range of radiations in the electromagnetic spectrum. The device is activated telepathically, and designed to attach to certain surfaces, like your hoof for example. It’s pretty much very similar to the Sonic Screwdriver, but doesn’t make noise.”

She turned it on, which allowed a green light effect to escape the tip of the tool, “So, it’s like a Super Torch,”

The Doctor considered this for a moment. Scratching his chin, he said, “I guess so.”

Thunk-zzzzz, thunk-zzzzzz

Twilight and the Doctor dived into the shadows of the hallway, out of the view of the Cybermen. But it wasn’t long before their scanners picked them up. A Cyberman marched towards the two and prepared his gun.

“Warning: Unauthorized life forms detected on board. Reveal yourself and receive a free upgrade. If you try to resist you will be deleted.”

The Doctor stepped into sight, “Aw, shut up!” he whined sarcastically, “That’s all you ever talk about! Upgrade this, delete that! Can’t you change the subject at least once!”

‘The Doctor is on board. He is incompatible. Prepare for maximum deletion,” the Cyberman aimed the gun.

“Ohhh,” he smirked, unimpressed, “You’ve got a gun! And guess what? I don’t care! ‘Cuz, I’ve got a SUPER TORCH!” He nodded to Twilight, who jumped out of her hiding spot and aimed the light at the Cyberman’s head.

“Infrared rays,” he chuckled, “Quick thinking, Twilight!” He gave her a friendly pat on the back before them ran off to the next hallway, leaving the Cyberman on the ground, next to the discarded gun.

Meanwhile, in the conversion chambers.

The Cybermen were designing something new. Something that would help them catch more hosts for the upgrading. The statistics were all they needed to prove that the Earth Ponies were much faster compared to the humans and mondasians. Soon, they would have a sub-race, of scouts and kidnappers.

A race of Cyberponies.

Clank

Twilight deactivated the last guard. The shell made a loud echo as it hit the ground. She turned to the Doctor, with a triumphant, yet tired expression on her face.

“So, Doctor, are we at this lift yet?” She asked breathlessly.

“Yup,” he said cheerfully, “No more running now, we can finally get to the Cybercomputer and end this once and for all.”

He fiddled with the lift controls. The doors opened with a ding, and opened up. Twilight and the Doctor couldn’t believe their eyes. Because the lift was filled with Cybermen.

When the Doctor woke up, he found himself inside of a cell. Groaning, he gingerly stroked the side of his numb arm. Looking down, he saw that there was a hole punctured into the left sleeve of his jacket.

“Well,” he said to himself groggily, “Looks like your common variety knock out dart. I wonder if Twilight had woken up yet-“

Then he suddenly realized that he was alone. His eyes darted across the room, frantically searching for his lost companion.

“Twiiiiliiiiight!”

Twilight awoke to find herself uncontrollably marching. She couldn’t speak, nor run away. All she could do was march, synchronized with the other ponies surrounding her. She heard a faint beeping noise, and the cold touch of metal lingered in her ear.

“Halt!”

The cold, emotionless voice forced them to stop. A Cyberman walked towards Twilight, “Your biology is different and far more advanced than the other ponies around you. Explain.”

She felt the mental grip of whatever was controlling her- did the Doctor call them earpods?- slip off enough to allow her to sleep, “My name is Twilight Sparkle,” she answered monotonously, “I am biologically different to the Earth Ponies due to the fact that I am a unicorn. I snuck into the ship with the help of the Doctor.”

Alarms seemed to go off in the Cyberman’s head, “Explain further. What is you relationship with the Doctor?”

Twilight reluctantly complied, “I am the Doctor’s companion and friend.”

The Doctor paced around the room, looking for ways of escape.

Ugh, this would be much more simpler if I was still in my seventh form, he thought in frustration. He turned his head and saw two Cybermen jailors come in front of his cell.

“Hey, what’s new?” he asked in a mock friendly tone, “Come to let me go yet?”

The mouth of the first Cyberman lit up, “We wish to make a deal wish you.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, “What?”

The Cybermen lead the Doctor into the conversion chamber. The doors slide out and allowed them to enter.

“Sooo, what’s this deal of yours,” he asked, “You know I can’t be converted.”

The Cyberman didn’t even turn to face him.

The Doctor huffed, “Fine! Killjoy.”

So the Doctor waited. And he waited. And after what seemed like three hours of silence, the doors finally opened again. Twilight and a black helmeted Cyberleader marched in.

“Twilight!” He attempted to run to her, but he was restricted by the two Cybermen, “Oh, for the love of…”

“This is the deal,” the Cyberleader explained, “Kill yourself, or have your companion converted. It will be your choice.”

The Doctor stared back at the Cyberleader, “That’s the deal. Kill myself, or let my best mate die?”

The Cyberleader gave him a cold stare, “Yes. Every time our kind manages to capture you, you escape. Now we have taken every factor that could lead to your escape.”

“Well then,” a new voice came from behind them, “Ah think y’all forgot ‘bout me!”

The room filled with green light, and all the Cybermen collapsed to the ground. The stallion grinned and said, “Yeah! That’s the way we do it in AAAAppleloosa!”

The constant beeping noise in Twilight’s head ceased. The last thing she remember before passing out was a brilliant flash of green.

“So, is Twilight gonna be okay?”

“Yep! Unicorns seem to have stronger mental power than Earth Ponies and Pegasi, no offence, which would explain the whole magic thing a bit.”

Twilight opened up her eyes and saw Braeburn and the Doctor hovering over her. She shook her head trying to focus, “Braeburn? What are you doing here?”

“Well, when we had that talk, ah felt sorry for talkin’ to yah like that,” Braeburn explained, “So ah tried to find yah. But there were those Cyberthingies everywhere! So ah broke a coupla’ of them EarPods and plugged ‘em into my ears. Just had to act real stiff-like and they bought it like an apple pie! They brought me and some other ponies to that Changing Chamber thing. But then ah saw you, and ah saw them confiscate that there flashlight thingy of yours. And turns out, that turning ‘em on would knock those Cyberpunks out cold!”

The Doctor smiled, “Impressive. Gotta say, Braeburn, you were a lot less of a tin dog than I thought at first.”

Braeburn frowned, “Thanks…ah guess?”

“Right!” the Doctor clasped his hands together, “Where was I before those rude Cybermen interrupted me with their rude rudness? AHA! Yes! The Cybercomputer. Times a-wastin’”

Ding!

The lift doors opened, releasing the Doctor and his companions. And they looked upon what they have been restlessly searching for.

“That it?” Braeburn asked.

“Oh, yes. Just look at that craftsmanship! That is just BEAUTIFUL!” he stroked the screen, displaying every thing every Cyberman saw, “It’s a new idea, hasn’t really caught on yet. But a couple of Mondas ships do have them in. Alright, Twilight! Do your magic!”

Twilight stepped towards the computer and zapped it with the Super Torch. The screen went black.

“Was that all?” Braeburn asked, sounding a little annoyed.

“Of course not! The computer just switched to its AI mode,” the Doctor grinned, “Now usually this would be difficult, but the whole computer runs on magic. And I’ve got a unicorn for an assistant!” He giggled gleefully. After taping a few keys, he looked at Twilight, “I’ve shut down the layers of firewalls, and after that, you should be able to send a signal to all the Cybermen. Something that’ll blow their minds. Quite literally.”

“Well then,” Twilight smiled enthusiastically, “Times a-wastin’!”

She focused her magic onto the computer. Purple sparks erupted out of her horn as she manipulated the computer. And she thought of her friends. Of how much she missed them. And she broadcasted the emotions to every Cyberman on deck.

In the floor below, the conversion chambers, the EarPods of the Appleloosans deactivated and fell to the group. The everypony shook their head and started murmuring and arguing.

“We should wait fer help!”

“You foal! How do yah even know if any pony’s comin’ to help us?”

“Maybe if we all walk in a single file line…”

“What are yah? Seven?”

Thunk zzzzz thunk zzzzz

“Error. Circuits overloading. Error. Prisoners are escaping.”

Everypony shut up and agreed on one thing. To get the buck out of wherever they were.

Meanwhile, everywhere on deck, all of the Cybermen moaned in agony. A few ran about aimlessly until their heads finally blew up. Many others followed suit.

“Okay!” the Doctor exclaimed as he watched the whole thing unfold via camera, “We did it!”

The Ship shook violently, causing them to topple over.

“Actually,” the Doctor observed, “I think we should RUN!!!”

The trio ran out of the room, passing by several dying Cybermen. They ran down a flight of stairs, flames sending smoke throughout the stairway, forcing them to cough. When they finally reached the bottom, Braeburn and Twilight stopped for breath.

“Twilight! What did you do?” The Doctor asked curiously.

“I… sent… emotions…” she panted, “The memories of my… friends. You… said they can’t feel emotions, so I figured that it would… distract them.”

He whistled, “It did hell of a lot more than that. Cybermen can’t even comprehend emotions, let alone have them. That’s enough to make them blow, like a bottle of pop.”

“But…” Braeburn pieced the final pieces of the puzzle together, “All of those Cybermen… blowing up at once…”

“I know,” he replied grimly, “That’s why we have to get to the TARDIS now!”

“There it is!” Twilight pointed to a distinct shade of blue, before seeing a massive obstacle, “Directly across that chasm.”

There was a large indent in the floor of the hallway. No doubt made from exploding Cybermen, running around like headless chickens, the Doctor thought.

“Let’s see… AHA!” his eyes darted to a pipeline, attached horizontally to the roof, “Now, if only I had something… AHA!” he undid his cape and ripped it into long stripes, and tied them all together. He then threw it, in a very grappling hook like way. He motioned his head towards his friends and gripped onto cloth, “C’mon!”

Braeburn face-hoofed, “Please, tell me we aren’t gonna-”

“Wahhhhh!” Braeburn screamed with the lungs of a thousand griffins. Air whipped his face as they swung across the hole and let out an audible ‘ouch,’ as he landed on his face.

“Okeedokee!” the Doctor cried out, going inside the box, “We’ve got some ponies to save!”

Whooooosh, whoooooosh, whooooosh

The TARDIS dematierialized from the ship, and was about to pick up forty-two hitchhikers.

Appleloosa had never been so quiet. Ponies were mourning the loss of half of the population. But a few ponies managed to pick up the sound of the TARDIS engines.

Inside the TARDIS, most of the new passengers were still astonished by its whole ‘bigger in the inside’ feature. One particular pony, a tan coat and a dark brown mane, walked to him.

“Thank you, kind stranger,” the stallion said; “Yah saved us from whatever the hay those things are. We can’t thank yah enough.”

“It’s all right, my good…colt? Stallion?” the Doctor rolled his eyes, “Someday I’m gonna get the hang of this ‘pony speak’ thing.”

A metaphorical light bulb went off over the stallions head, “Pony speak? Yer saying that like yer not one.”

The Doctor just gave a sly grin, “It’s all right. All I what is for you to have a normal life. Go home, read a nice book, eat beans on toast, et cetera,” he opened up the doors, “Go on. There’s Appleloosa out there.”

As the ponies all left the TARDIS, the Doctor stopped the stallion, “I’m the Doctor, by the way, what’s your name?”

“Sheriff Silverstar,” he replied with a tip of his hat.

After all the ponies had left, the Doctor paced towards Braeburn, “You know, you can come with us if you like,”

Braeburn awkwardly smiled, “Beggin’ mah pardon, Doctor, but yer sense of adventure is a might too much for this pony.”

“Sorry, you feel that way. You would've made a good companion,” he got up and brushed his lap, “Oh, and before I forget, here’s your hat back!”

“Nah,” he shook his head, “Yah can keep it, ah got tons o’ ‘em.”

There was a short, awkward silence, before Braeburn broke it, “So… ah’ll be seeing yah aroun’, ah guess….”

“Yeah, I guess so,” the Doctor nodded in agreement, before his face broke into a joking smile, “Now, get out.”

“So! Off to Ponyville we go!” the Doctor smacked his hands together eagerly. The TARDIS started wheezing. But as the TARDIS left, something else was amiss.

“Hello?” A maroon Earth Pony spoke into a phone, “Is this DAEL?”

“Yes,” a gruff, male voice responded, “Why have you called?”

“I just encountered a strange experience, Appleloosa. I don’t know what it was, but it kidnapped me, and 45 other ponies. They turned four of us into these weird, robot things.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Yeah. One of them is in my backyard”

“Don’t worry,” the voice assured, “DAEL will be there shortly.”