Chapters Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
The Doctor knew his time had finally come. He had saved Wilfred Mott by absorbing the radiation, but in doing so doomed himself. He took one last walk around the TARDIS’s hexagonal control panel, setting her in flight and running one of his now-glowing hands along one of its faces. He raised his hand, fear rising up in his chest. As the glowing increased, his head also began to glow the orangish-golden light that always accompanied a regeneration, but he knew that he would not be regenerating this time.
His breath increased, memories of his life flashing before his eyes, “I don’t want to go!” he said as the glow finally overtook him.
He burst into flames, an explosion following that tore the control room apart and sent anything not nailed down flying everywhere. Suddenly, he felt himself changing, and after what felt like an eternity for him, the glow subsided, and his new body was formed. He breathed a sigh of relief, oblivious to the bedlam going on around him.
He looked down at his new, fur-covered legs, “Legs! I’ve still got legs! A couple more than I’m used to, but…” he said, “Hooves instead of hands, I’ll miss fingers sometime, I just know it. Ah well. Ears?” he said, flexing his very equine feeling ears, “Yes. Eyes: two.” he raised a forehoof to his long, snout-y nose, “Eh, I’ve had worse. Chin… blimey! Hair,” he said, using both forehooves to pull out part of his mane, “I’m a girl! No, no, I’m not a girl! And still not ginger!” he said, taking in its dark brown color, “There’s something else, I’m…. I’m,” the TARDIS gave a great lurch to the side, and he barely caught himself on the railing, “I’m crashing! Geronimo!!!” he shouted as the TARDIS rocked and swayed as the control panel exploded…
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
By: Gandalf158
Prologue
The Doctor was hanging out of the TARDIS’s front door, the entire thing shaking like mad and spinning around. He held his sonic screwdriver in his mouth (it tasted awful, he thought) and was using it to flip a switch on what was left of the control console, to give his crash landing at least some degree of stability. Enough for him to crawl back into the TARDIS, narrowly missing some tower or another. He breathed another sigh of content, before one final jolt sent him flying through the air… and straight into the swimming pool…
The air was brisk in Canterlot that afternoon, and best friends Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody were walking back to the train station after the concert they had come to town to see was over. The Canterlot Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had played well that night, one of Tchrotkovsky’s finer works, Octavia had thought as she trotted merrily along, chatting with her white coated, bass-loving companion about the Orchestra’s new bassoon player and how she was shaping up to be a nice addition to the group. She herself was a member, but they had many contrabassists, so they switched out rather regularly.
Vinyl Scratch was about to comment on the shininess of the freshly-polished brass section when a loud, metallic groaning filled the cool, evening air followed by an even louder thumping crash from the gardens directly to their left. Vinyl was immediately running off to see what the commotion was, motioning behind her to her charcoal-colored friend to follow. She skidded to a stop in front of a tall blue box with the words “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX” scrawled across the top in large, boldface lettering lying on its side.
There was a coughing noise from inside the box as the door was pushed open and a light brown earth pony tumbeled out, releasing a wave of smoke from the box’s interior. The strange stallion was obviously hurt, as he was wretching and hacking. Vinyl took a step closer to help him to his hooves, but he suddenly sprang up and opened his mouth, letting out a golden mist that glowed orange as it floated away into the darkening sky.
“Sorry about the abrupt landing, kind of hard to fly an exploding TARDIS less than an hour after regenerating.” he said, dusting himself off.
The Doctor examined himself in one of the TARDIS’s exterior windows. He let out a little “hmm” as he saw his reflection.
“So it wasn’t a dream, I really did regenerate as a horse this time! And a talking one at that, I wonder if that’s ever happened to a Time Lord before.” he turned around and jumped, taking notice of his two observers as if for the first time.
“Oh hello! Can you two talk as well?” he said, then he noticed Vinyl’s horn and raised an eyebrow, “And are you a unicorn? Never met a unicorn before. Well, there was the one time with Agatha Christie, but I suppose she didn’t count. Look at me here, brand new voice and the first thing I use it on is to rant to a couple of horses.” he shook his head and sighed.
“Are you okay?” Octavia asked the curious earth pony, causing him to jump.
“So, you can talk. Are there more of you on this planet? Ooh, first planet of a new regeneration and it’s full of talking horses! How cool is that for a test run?” nothing the stallion had said had made any sort of sense, but Octavia wanted to learn more about him, so she introduced herself and her electric-blue maned friend.
“My name is Octavia Ann Melody, and this is my friend and roommate Vinyl Scratch. Who are you?”
“Oh, you can just call me the Doctor.”
“Doctor who?” Vinyl asked, much to the old Time Lord’s amusement.
“Oh, I love hearing that question. Even from a strange, talking horse-unicorn...thingy. Just the Doctor, if you please. Now, my turn to ask the questions. What are you, what planet are we on, and by any chance, do either of you happen to have any apples on you?”
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
By: Gandalf158
Chapter One: New World, Old Enemies
"What?" Was all Octavia could say.
The Doctor sighed and asked again, "What are you, what planet are we on, and do either of you have an apple with you?"
Vinyl snorted, what idiot didn't know what they were, let alone what planet they were on? She didn’t know what to think about this guy, he seemed weird and was acting crazy. Octavia, on the other hoof, was still curious, but the guard was coming to check out the disturbance, and she doubted they could talk their way out of this strange situation…
“We need to get out of here, I’ll answer all your questions soon, but we’re...about to miss our train!” she said, thinking of no other excuse.
The Doctor brightened at the thought of getting answers, and smirked. This was his favorite part.
“Well then,” he said, “The only thing to do in that case is...run!” he said, trying to run and landing flat on his face.
“Not quite used to four legs yet, no more running. Walk very briskly!” he said, taking step after shaky step.
Octavia called out to him, and pointed in the other direction, towards the train station. He turned around and began walking towards her, nervous grin scrawled across his new face. They all began trotting away, when the Doctor remembered something, something very, very important.
“Hold on a moment,” he said, pulling out the screwdriver and using it to lock the TARDIS door, “Alright, off we go then.” they left the scene as the first guards arrived on scene, looking incredulously at the blue box lying in the middle of a crater.
Walking along the road nearing the train station, the two mares had answered a few of the Doctor’s questions.
“So, you,” he gestured at the DJ, “Are a unicorn, can use ‘magic’ with your horn to do almost anything, and you,” he turned to the black maned mare, “Are an ‘earth’ pony, a race that possess a higher degree of physical strength as well as an in-born connection to the world around you. There is a third race of ponies called pegasi that have wings, and can somehow manipulate natural weather patterns. We are currently in Canterlot, the capital city of the nation of Equestria, on the planet of Equus. You are governed by two royal sisters of a bygone race called Alicorns, who have ruled for centuries. Have I got it so far?”
“Yeah, but why are you asking us all this? Even foals know the answers to your questions.” Vinyl said.
“Let’s just say, for the moment, that I’m from out of town. Now, onto my next question; apples?” he asked hopefully.
“Well, sorry, no apples here...but there are bound to be some apples in Ponyville.” they had finally reached the station, the train preparing to depart.
They purchased three tickets, the Doctor wondering where they kept any money when they didn’t wear clothes. He himself had shed his too big and misshapen clothing back in the TARDIS, he’d need to obtain new clothing that would fit his new form. He thought it odd, he lands on a new planet he had never heard of before, and regenerates into a new form, one that matched the general build of this planet’s strange dominant species. There had to be more to it, as far as he knew, no other Time Lords had ever regenerated into anything but Time Lords, but here he was, an earth pony in the land of Equestria.
Then he saw the train and balked. There was a team of strong looking earth pony stallions at the front of the train, looking like they were, well, champing at the bit. The Doctor tried to hold back a snicker at that thought, and utterly failed at it. Octavia looked at him as they boarded the train.
“What’s so funny, Doctor?” she asked him.
“Oh, nothing. Just remembering a saying from my old home.” he said.
“So, Doctor, what was that blue thingy we found you in?” Vinyl asked him, getting a nod of agreement from her friend.
“Oh, that’s my ship. A type 40 TARDIS, daft old bird sometimes, but she still gets me where I need to go. Eventually.” he said, rolling his eyes.
“You expect me to believe that you drive around in that thing? It looked like it was barely big enough to hold you!”
“Oh, if only you knew…” he replied, smiling wistfully and imagining their reactions.
The train moved swiftly along the tracks, going much faster than the Doctor would’ve thought possible for a completely pony powered vehicle of this size. As he looked out the window at the countryside rolling by, he began to notice something, something that had been nagging at the back of his mind since he first stumbled out of the TARDIS, where in the universe was he? This planet seemed more...vibrant than any of the others he had visited, the colors brighter and more numerous, it seemed.
As he was thinking on this, he noticed his two travelling companions staring at him, as if sizing up whether or not he was crazy. He decided he may as well fill them in; they’d find out soon enough anyway. But first he belched another cloud of mist.
“Still cooking, it would seem. So, you’ve answered my questions, I suppose it’s only fair if I answer a few of yours.” he said, putting his hooves on the table in front of him (oh, he thought, this is going to take some getting used to).
“Okay, first question. Who are you?”
“Ah, but you already know that, I told you. I’m the Doctor.” Octavia decided to let that one slide, there were other questions to be asked.
“Fine, Doctor. Where are you from? You did say you were from out of town. Judging by your accent, I’ll guess...North Trottingham?” she said.
“There’s actually place here called Trottingham?” he snickered, “Seriously? I let Canterlot slide, and I can excuse Ponyville, but a town called Trottingham ?” the looks he was getting from the pair stopped him from laughing.
“Right then. I am a Time Lord, of the planet Gallifrey near the constellation of Kasterborous and the Medusa Cascade. Next question?” he said, getting a look of disbelief from the two mares.
“So what, you’re an alien?” Vinyl said, thinking that this guy was severely off his rocker.
“Yes. Two hearts and everything.” he said.
Octavia gave him an incredulous glance and chuckled bemusedly. He was insane if he thought he was going to convince her that he was born on another planet. Vinyl, however, was very intrigued by his incredible statement; come on! A real alien? Had to be the coolest thing to ever happen to her (you know, except for that time Octavia gave her her sandwich).
“Awesome! A real, live space alien!” she said, causing Octavia to snort.
“He’s crazy, Vinyl. He’s just a disturbed earth pony stallion who probably just escaped from an asylum, and we’ve just helped him evade the guards!” Octavia said, starting to fear for their lives. The Doctor, however, was simply smirking.
“Believe what you want, if you stick around me long enough, you’re bound to find out the truth, one way or another.”
Half an hour later, the train was pulling into Ponyville station, and the passengers were starting to disembark. Vinyl and Octavia were arguing about what they were to do next. The Doctor was acting like he couldn’t hear them.
“Vinyl, he could be dangerous!”
“Seriously, if he wanted to hurt us, he could of done it in the garden, on the train, or even on the way to the station! And, what if he’s telling the truth? I mean, really, all the stuff that’s been happening the last few years, this is where you draw the line?” the Doctor was about to say something, but a piercing scream stopped him in his tracks.
“Come on!” he shouted, and took off running, the adrenaline carrying him forward.
They followed the scream to Carousel Boutique, where the Doctor unlocked the door and stormed in. He looked around inside, but it was empty save for some mannequins (or would they be ponnequins here? he thought) and some other assorted sewing equipment and materials. Octavia and Vinyl finally came in, the Doctor turned to speak to them.
“Who lived here?”
“Rarity, the town’s dressmaker.”
“And the Element of Generosity, don’t forget that Tavi.” the Doctor filed that under “ask later” as he started to walk towards them.
“Have there been any odd sightings here recently?” he asked.
“What do you mean, Doctor?”
“Anything out of the ordinary, strange visitors in the night, lights in the sky, things disappe-” he stopped and turned around, “Wait a moment, weren’t there seven ponnequins here earlier?”
“Yeah, why?” Vinyl asked.
“Then why am I only counting five?” he said, gesturing at them all in turn.
A cold dread settled over the three, the Doctor from experience, the two mares from the unknown. The Doctor told them to get out, and they did, he said run, and they did. All the way back to Octavia and Vinyl’s apartment.
“Doctor, what’s going on? Where’s Rarity?” Octavia asked when they closed the door behind them.
“Taken. We have to find her soon, before it’s too late.”
“Who took her?” Vinyl asked, she hardly knew the fashonista, but would still consider her a friend.
“An old enemy of mine. She was taken by the Autons…”
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
By: Gandalf158
Chapter 2: Plastic Menace
The Doctor was deep in thought. Why here, of all places? What could they possibly want? Was it the Nestene Consciousness, or was it someone else controlling them? He had explained the autons to the two mares following him, to mixed reactions; Vinyl was completely enraptured, and believed everything he said, even asking to know more. Octavia was still a little sceptacle. As the Doctor told about the time he faced them in a place called “London”, she fought with herself on whether or not to believe his fantastical tales.
The Doctor noticed the look on her face and sighed; he’d seen that look before, the “I want to believe” look. He reached over and grabbed her forehoof. She tried to pull away, but he assured her that everything was alright. He put her hoof to the left side of his chest.
“Feel that?”
Th-thump, th-thump. She nodded, and he moved her hoof to the other side. Thump-th, thump-th. She pulled back her hoof and looked at him.
“That’s not possible, you can’t have two hearts! Ponies only have one heart.” she said, her brain trying to grasp the concept.
“I’ve told you, I am not a pony. I’m a Time Lord, I come from the planet Gallifrey, I am 906 years old, and I crashed here in my TARDIS, a time machine that is much bigger on the inside than the outside.”
“But you look like a pony! Why do you look like a regular old earth pony?” she asked, trying hard not to think about the bigger on the inside remark.
“I’m not quite sure, actually. I regenerated this way, but enough about me, we have to find your dressmaker friend, stop the autons, and find out who is behind all this!” he said, standing up, and falling onto his face again, “But first, I need a little practice walking on four hooves…”
An hour later, the Doctor felt at least confident enough to walk at a medium trot. They then returned to the Boutique, the Doctor using his screwdriver to scan the area for anything to help find where the autons had made their camp. Coming up blank, he growled in frustration, shaking the sonic screwdriver in his hooves.
“Why won’t you work?” he asked, pointing the malfunctioning device back at the ground and trying to search for something, anything to give him a clue.
Then the screwdriver burned out, causing it to warp and deform and causing the Doctor to drop it. He kicked it away in frustration. Then he noticed the drag marks on the ground, heading out the back door. The tracks looked about as wide and roughly the same shape as one of the ponnequins’ bases, causing him to kick himself for not thinking of that sooner. He ran outside and saw more of the marks leading off towards a forest.
“Come on, they went this way!” he shouted, and went as fast as he could in that direction, his two followers easily keeping up with him.
They arrived at the edge of the forest, and the Doctor was about to go in, when Vinyl pulled him back, a frantic look on her face.
“It’s almost dark, Doctor, we can’t go in there tonight. We’ll come back tomorrow.”
“She could be dead by tomorrow, there isn’t time.” he said, making another break for the treeline.
Much to his surprise, he found himself floating and unable to move, a blue, translucent glow surrounding him. He was turned around and sat down by Vinyl, the glow from her horn receding. The Doctor stood up, brushed himself off, and looked up warily at the unicorn.
“I see you weren’t kidding about the horn. But as I said, the situation is fairly dire, and we must go and find them. Why are you so scared?” he asked.
“There are monsters in that forest, manticores, hydra, timberwolves, and lots of other things that have a real penchant for eating pony flesh, it’s just too dangerous to go in there without a guide at night.” Octavia said.
“Monsters? You’re afraid of monsters?”
“You’re not?”
He laughed at that, “No,” he said, turning to go into the forest, “In fact, usually the monsters are afraid of me.” he walked past the treeline with a cocky grin on his face…
“I TAKE IT BACK! THIS FOREST IS TERRIFYING!” the Doctor shouted, the smirk replaced with a look of sheer panic as the trio ran from the raging lion-scorpion-bat thing that was chasing them.
They kept running, trying their best to follow the path the autons had taken. It had taken the Doctor less than a minute to run into the monster, where he then tried to strike up a conversation with the beast. He found out the hard way that manticores aren’t really good conversationalists. As they were running, they suddenly stopped as the creature behind them gave a shout of pain and fell to the ground.
They looked around for the source of the killing blow, when they spotted a ponnequin standing at the edge of the forest. Its forehoof had a hinge inside it that revealed a hidden weapon, one that made the Doctor take a step forward, putting himself between it and his new friends. It turned and slid towards them, gun trained on the Time Lord. Suddenly it’s flat, featureless face melted and reformed one the Doctor thought was vaguely familiar.
“So, Doctor, we meet again. What brings you out here so late, Time Lord?” it asked him.
“Who are you, and what have you done with Rarity?” Vinyl asked, making the Doctor turn and give her a silencing glare.
“Doctor, Doctor. One day in a new universe and you’ve already got ponies following you around? Aren’t you going to introduce me to your new friends?”
“Octavia, Vinyl, I’d like you to meet an old friend of mine; the Great Intelligence.” the ponnequin smirked and made a quick bowing movement.
“At your service.”
“What are you doing here, and what do you mean, new universe?” the Doctor asked.
“Honestly Doctor, you didn’t know? How else do you explain how you regenerated into a pony, all my autons look like ponies, and even I have taken the guise of a pony? We are currently in a different universe, Doctor, one that follows different rules than our old one.” it made sense, the Doctor thought.
“But how did we get here?”
The auton smiled, “An exploding TARDIS, when given the right push, can be quite effective at pushing through the void. I simply followed your path of destruction.”
“Enough talk, Intelligence. You’ve taken someone, and I’d like to get her back now.”
“Oh, there will be time for that later. Right now, you’re going to follow this auton back to my base, I can’t have a Time Lord running about the place.” he said, voice dripping with malice.
“And if we refuse?” Octavia asked, trying to sound intimidating and failing.
The auton turned towards a tree and discharged its weapon, punching a hole clean through the tree’s thick bark. It turned back toward her and pointed it directly at her head. The Doctor jumped between them and held out his hooves, almost losing his balance.
“No need for that, we’ll come quietly. Just please, no killing.” the auton didn’t move the gun, but did nod its head, motioning for them to follow.
The Doctor gave them a pleading look, and they hung their heads and started slowly walking down the path in the direction the animated ponnequin had gone. The Doctor gave a sigh of relief, but was troubled. If this really was a different universe and the Intelligence had followed him through, how many of his other enemies could?
A few minutes later, they arrived at a large, ruined castle. Vinyl and Octavia gasped at the sight of it.
“You two know this place?” the Doctor asked, and they both nodded.
“It’s called the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters, it was Celestia and Luna’s castle from a thousand years ago…” Octavia said.
“Yes, and now, it’s my personal base of operations.” a more articulated, life-like ponnequin said, stepping out to greet them.
He was shaped like a unicorn and had a blue coat and an orange mane. The Doctor briefly wondered where he had gotten that form. But that didn’t matter at the moment, finding this Rarity, however, was.
I know little about. I couldn’t pass up the chance to learn everything I possibly could about it. Surely you understand that, a quest for knowledge?”
“But why kidnap a dressmaker, why not a librarian or scientist? Why not just take over a library or something?”
“Because of one simple fact; my hostage is one of the best friends of this planet’s greatest intellectual mind, and if I were to take her,” at that moment, there was a rosey blast of light as a tall, violet colored alicorn appeared in the room, “Then this intellectual would come running. Hello, Princess Twilight.” the purple mare sent a bolt of supercharged energy at the plastic stallion, striking him squarely in the chest, causing him to melt into a puddle of blue and orange sludge.
"Well, that was a waste of energy." another blue auton said, stepping out of the shadows.
Twilight wheeled to face the new ponnequin, and readied another spell. The Great Intelligence surrounded her in a field of energy before she could cast it, causing the spell to backfire and knock down the angry mare.
"Where's my friend?" she asked, venom infusing every word.
"She's right here, safe and sound." he gestured over to a large cage off to the side of the shattered throne room. Inside was a very disheveled Rarity.
Twilight thrashed inside her glowing prison, trying to reach out to her friend.
"Rarity, are you hurt?" she asked, the anger in her eyes spoke of unending pain for the Great Intelligence if the answer was anything but "no".
"I'm alright, a little out of sorts and confused, but otherwise okay, darling." she said, much to Twilight's relief.
"What are you, and what do you want with Rarity?"
"I, my dear princess, am the Great Intelligence. And it wasn't her I wanted, she was simply bait for my true catch."
"And what is that?"
"You, Twilight Sparkle. I want to know what you know."
The Doctor and companions tried to make a move, but the autons around the room leveled their weapons at them. The Great Intelligence turned to them and smiled.
"Put those the in the cage with the other. I have business to attend to here." he said.
"One moment, I have to know something; how do you plan on getting her knowledge?"
"Simple, I'm going to upload her brain."
"But there aren't any computers in this world, nothing to upload her with." The Doctor said, a sense of dread as to what the plastic stallion would say next.
"Oh, I've planned for such a thing, the process won't be clean," he gestured to a strange looking machine made of brass and crystals over to the side, "And there won't be much of her leftover when it's done, but I'll know absolutely everything about this world that she does."
"You-you're going to kill me? To know everything I do?" Twilight asked, fear gripping her, making her thrash harder, trying to break her way out of the seemingly impenetrable shield.
The Great Intelligence chuckled, "Precisely, princess." he said, a mad grin scrawled across his shiny, artificial face...
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
Pride Cometh Before the Fall
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
By: Gandalf158
Chapter 3: Pride Cometh Before the Fall
The Doctor glared at the Great Intelligence as he was pushed forcefully into the cage along with his dumbfounded companions and a terrified alabaster fashion designer. The bars slammed close, and the blue plastic unicorn smirked. The Doctor was the only being in the room who knew just what the Intelligence was capable of, and knew he wouldn't he sitate to kill her if it meant acquiring new knowledge.
He also knew he wasn’t going to be doing anypony any good as long as he was trapped inside this cage. He began looking around for something, anything in the cage he could use to try and escape. But the Great Intelligence was almost ready to begin his work, and the Doctor needed to stall. So, he did the only thing logical, he got the Great Intelligence talking about himself.
“Really, that’s your plan? Kill a princess to gain her knowledge? Seems a little simple and heavy handed for you, your plans are always so elaborate. What are you really planning?” rock, rock, pebble, nothing really useful here.
“Oh, Doctor, this is but the first stage of my plans for this universe. But I can not make an effective plan without the proper information. Once I have Princess Sparkle’s knowledge, I can move forward.” he said.
“But you must have a plan? At least a concept of what you’re going to do?” he kept looking around, but there was nothing in the cage that could help them get free. He looked over at Twilight, but she was in the same situation as they were.
“Learn everything there is to know about this world, and every world in this universe, and then I suppose the next step is conquering them all. Now that you won’t be getting in my way anymore, there is no one to stop me.” the smirk on his face grew even larger. The Doctor looked around the rest of the ruined throne room.
There wasn’t much in it, the cage that he and the three mares were trapped in, the cage Twilight was trapped in, and the strange contraption the Intelligence had set up in the corner. He had no idea what to do, when he noticed the other autons stopped moving when the main one spoke, like the act of controlling such a detailed model strained him to the edge of his abilities. Interesting…
“So, how did you get the Nestene Consciousness to follow you, Intelligence?” he asked, smirk of his own forming.
“Those fools? They are nothing compared to me. When you destroyed the Consciousness under the Eye, the mannequins left behind were easy enough to possess. I created these higher quality ones by melting down the old ones.” just like last time, while he was speaking, the autons preparing the machine stopped dead in their tracks, then continued again when he stopped.
The Doctor looked over at Twilight’s cage, looking for anything that might be a power source, anything that might be glowing…..there! One of the crystals on the machine’s control panel was glowing the same color as the force shield. He slid a rock over to Vinyl and nodded in its direction, she nodded in understanding. Good, he thought, now to keep his attention on me.
“Do you plan to kill us as well, GI? Because if you are, then why haven’t you already? We are completely at your mercy, you could simply turn an auton on us and tell him to pull the trigger.” he said, all three of his cellmates and Twilight staring stunned at him, he simply smirked.
The Great Intelligence considered it, the autons stopping once again, a look of confusion and trepidation on his face. The Doctor saw their chance and nodded, Vinyl catching in the corner of her eye and taking aim. As the Intelligence opened his mouth to speak, she threw it with all the force her telekinesis would allow, the rock striking the crystal dead-on and splintering it. The shield around Twilight flickered and died, its power source disabled.
Every auton in the room wheeled as the alicorn was set free. They all opened their gun-hooves, and fired, but she was already gone. She reappeared in front of the Doctor’s cage and put up a shield of her own as the autons turned towards her. She quickly unlocked the iron cage’s door and threw it wide. The Great Intelligence, seeing his advantage failing, turned tail to run, the effort freezing the autons once again. Twilight seized the opportunity, having seen the phenomenon for herself now, and grabbed the fleeing auton in her magic and pulled him back towards them.
“Fire!” he shouted, “Fire you fools!”
“You haven’t realized it yet, have you? You’ve stretched yourself too thin, too many autons and not enough power!” the Doctor shouted.
“That’s impossible, I have all the power! I am the most powerful being in the room!”
“Maybe back in our universe,” the Doctor replied, “But not here, this universe operates under different rules. The autons are powered by psychic energy, and right now, the most powerful entity in the room is Princess Twilight.” the Intelligence was dumbfounded.
“What does it matter? I control them, I alone!” he shouted, panic rising.
“You did, but her powers are interfering with your own, and the connection between you and them is being severed. You don’t have enough power to keep the connection live and fight off her’s!”
The Intelligence was at his wit’s end.
“You’ve once again underestimated your enemies. And here I was thinking that after all our encounters that you’d have learned your lesson. It will be your doom someday, I promise. Give it up, you’ve lost.”
“Have I, though?” he said, a smirk across his face, making the Doctor cringe. He knew that look, it was an “I’m being clever” look. He hated that look on his enemies.
All the autons around the room began to glow an ominous red as the Intelligence’s smirk grew. They all melted into a pool of liquid plastic and congealed in the center of the room, forming into a gigantic version of the Intelligence’s chuckling head. Part of his face reshaped itself into a longer version of the auton's hoof cannon and training itself on Twilight's shield.
The cannon fired a blast of psychic energy at her, putting a crack in the rose colored barrier. Twilight looked at the Doctor.
"I can't hold this forever, Doctor, how do we stop him?" The Doctor looked around again, spotting the Intelligence's machine sitting behind the head.
Another blast slammed home, widening the crack. But the Doctor noticed something; when the Intelligence fired, a small amount of the head melted away and didn't reform.
"The trip through the Void must've weakened him, that's why he couldn't control them all! If we can keep him firing, he'll eventually run out of power on his own." Another bolt, another crack. Twilight wouldn't last long enough to wear him down.
Looking back at the machine again, a thought struck him.
"Twilight, do you think you can teleport me over to his machine?"
"It's taking all I have to keep the shield up!" She grunted, nose bleeding from the exertion. She found her teeth.
It seemed that even weakened, the Intelligence was still a major force to be reckoned with. He couldn't teleport, couldn't use his screwdriver, and couldn't leave the safety of the shield without being killed.
"Vinyl, can you find a way to distract him? I need to get to that machine!" He asked, the blasts increasing in regularity and force.
The shield was starting to break, chunks falling away like pieces of glass. Rarity added her magic to the mix as Vinyl thought. She nodded nervously. She started to pick up pebbles and throw them at the giant blue head.
The blasts stopped altogether as the Intelligence shouted angrily, "Stop that!"
Much to his chagrin, she continued throwing rubble, Octavia joining her. While he was focused on the musical mares, the Doctor bolted around the edge of the room, right up to the machine, looking it over. It seemed simple enough, connect the diodes to the target's head, connect the other end to yours, touch that crystal and the process starts automatically. Not much help to him now, but the array of unstable looking crystals, however, was a different story.
Having no idea what he was, he started removing crystals at random and placing them back in the wrong order. He grinned as he touched the power crystal and the whole thing started to glow. Then turned and ran as it started to crackle with electricity and glow. The Great Intelligence turned around just in time to see him stumble past as the broken machine exploded. He slid behind the shield as the shockwave overtook them.
As the dust and lights faded, there was a lone, broken auton in the center of the room in a puddle of inert plastic goop. The same goop that was covering both the walls of the throne room as well as Twilight's shield spell. The droplets fell to the ground around them as she dropped the spell and breathed an exhausted sigh of relief.
The Doctor walked over to the remaining auton. The Great Intelligence was beaten, his plastic body lay broken at his hooves. Or so he thought until a familiar glowing blue mist spilled forth from its mouth. It took the shape of a cloud of gases, and the Intelligence's face became visible.
"You may have defeated me again, Doctor, but we shall meet again." It said before departing.
Twilight started to go after him, but the Doctor stopped her.
"You're just going to let him go?" She asked, a mortified look on her face.
"He's beaten, and it'll take time for him to recover. For now, let him run." Then a thought struck him, "How did you know where we were, anyway?"
"One of those auto-things came by my palace with a note telling me to come to the old castle alone." She replied.
"He really sent a random note to you? He really was desperate, wasn't he?" She nodded in agreement.
"So, what was that thing? And how do you know it?" She asked.
"That was the Great Intelligence, ancient being made of living information." Twilight caught herself wondering what that would be like, being made of knowledge, "And he and I have been enemies for ages."
"Okay, next question; who are you? Are you a friend of Vinyl and Octavia's?"
"You could say that. Let me introduce myself, Princess. Hello, I'm the Doctor!" He said, smiling like a madpony, holding out his hoof for her to shake.
She shook hooves with him and asked the age-old question, "Doctor who?"
The Doctor's giant grin got even bigger, he lived for that question...
Later, in Ponyville, the Doctor and company stood in the throne room of Princess Twilight's castle. Twilight and her friends smiled at them, the Doctor looked around the room, but stopped when he saw what looked like a baby Dragon sitting next to the purple Alicorn. He'd definitely need to stop at a library soon, so much he didn't know.
The princess cleared her throat, "Is there anything that I can do to repay you for your service to Equestria and to me and my friends?" She asked.
"Well, there is one thing..."
"Name it, Doctor. What is it you desire, bits? A title in the government? Prince for a day?"
"I would really love an apple, if you please." He smiled expectantly.
Everypony in the room simultaneously facehoofed at this request. Moments later, a brown unicorn in an apron and a chef's hat came out with a juicy looking red delicious apple. The Doctor took it and bit into it. He quickly grimaced and spat it out of good mouth.
"Apples are rubbish !" The orange earth pony with the Stetson snorted angrily at the statement...
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
Doctor Whooves: Brave New World
By: Gandalf158
Epilogue
Back in Canterlot, in front of the overturned TARDIS, the Doctor smiled. He pulled out the key he has stashed in his mane and unlocked it. He crawled in and beckoned for his new friends to follow him. They looked incredulously at him, but followed him inside. They were stunned, the inside was bigger than the outside!
"Welcome to the TARDIS, that stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space."
"But, but...it's bigger on the inside!" Octavia said, mental circuitry nearing overload.
"Wasn't it laying on its side a second ago?" Vinyl said, kicking her head to the side again.
"She had her own gravity, atmosphere, pretty much everything."
"So this is your ship, huh? Sweet. Does it fly?"
"Kind of. She can travel through the Time Vortex to any point in time or space. So right now," he said, moving around the console, flipping switches and pressing buttons that seemed bigger than they had earlier, "Let's set her upright." There was a mechanical wheeze as the TARDIS dematerialized and rematerialized in the same spot, but right side up.
The trio stepped out and the two mares stood shocked, taking a few steps around the little phone box. The Doctor smirked, then his smile faded, his eyes grew dark and sad. As much as he loved this universe, he couldn't stay. He was too dangerous for this universe.
"Well, it's been fun, but I'd better be off now."
"Where will you go, Doctor?"
"Home. Back to my universe, I suppose." They both hung there heads in sorrow.
"But what if we need you? What if that Intelligence guy comes back?" The Doctor thought about it. Maybe if he left, the Intelligence would follow him back?
"Hopefully you won't find out. Goodbye Vinyl, Octavia." He stepped aboard the TARDIS and looked at the control panel.
There was a new screwdriver waiting for him in its charger. This one had a mouth grip on it , and had a rather ornate mother-of-pearl handle with a tan light at the end. The slide was also placed where he could easily reach and manipulate with his tongue.
Then he went to set a course.for home, but a blinking red light stopped him. Ooh, blinking red lights are never a good sign...
He pulled up the alert on the view screen, it stated in large, red letters, "WARNING, VOID RIFT DETECTED! ATTEMPTING TO CROSS THE VOID WILL RESULT IN CATASTROPHIC PARADOX!"
"Well, I guess going home is out of the question now." He stepped outside and called after the musicians, "I think you two deserve some kind of a reward for being brilliant. Come with me, you both get one trip each. Anywhere in time and space."
"We can come with you? What about going home?" Octavia asked, a curious gleam in her eye.
"Ah, home can wait. So how about it? Where would you like to go?"
"Tavi can go first I need to think about it." Vinyl said.
"Hmm...Oh! Beethooven performed a concert here in Canterlot 200 years ago, I've always wanted to see that!"
The Doctor let that one slide, "200 years it is, then! Allons-y!" He flipped one more lever, and they were off...
Author's Note
Next Time
The TARDIS is malfunctioning, the Doctor meant to send them back two hundred years to see a concert, but forgot that the TARDIS has no reference points in this universe. Now caught in the middle of a frightening Civil War between two sisters, the Doctor and his new Companions will have to employ all their wits to stop an extra-terrestrial plot to change history...
