A bright orange light appeared at the opposite side of the town, this could only mean one thing : the Doctor was regenerating !

The princess teleported behind me, and teleported again, but this time with me. I had never experienced teleportation before, and the feeling of suffocation that invaded me was an unnecessary surprise, and when I arrived, I had trouble to breathe...

I opened my eyes, and saw the Doctor, in the middle of a bright fire of light, Derpy Hooves behind him, watching the scene with wide opened eyes, stunned. She was hurt to the flank.

I ran towards her, not paying attention to what was happening around me, and before I could reach her, I was shoved aside, and struck against the wall of the closest house. I was stunned, but I tried to stay conscious, I turned back, and saw Vinyl, covered in blood, apparently not her own, walking towards the scared and paralysed Derpy, a murderous gaze in her eyes. Derpy had lost consciousness.

Vinyl was slowly walking towards Derpy. Her horn was glowing red, her eyes were turning black, she had summoned an axe, floating by her head...

She was only a meter away from her unconscious victim when she was struck by a white beam, paralysing her. The Princess walked towards her and spawned shackles to lock her here.

The Doctor screamed, and the orange fire that was surrounding him exploded into a large explosion. When it faded away, the Doctor had changed of face, and had become a little... eccentric.

“I'm alive ! I'm alive ! Oh my lord she didn't kill me ! Let's see, I got legs!”, he kissed his leg, ”I got hair... hair... I'M A GIRL ! I'm a girl ! And still not ginger ! Where is the little freak that hurt Derpy ?”

“She's just over there”, answered the Princess, ”I locked her... where is she ?”, where was Vinyl just a second ago, there was just the pieces of broken shackles

“The final stage of the regeneration probably weakened the spell you cast on the shackles, it happens. What's up for you ?”

“We found a crypt below Vinyl's house where she placed the skulls of her friends, I don't really know how it works, will you help us ?”, the Princess seemed very worried.

“I will, don't worry. We'll see about Vinyl later”

“Octavia, take care of Derpy, and bring her to the hospital, Time Turner and I will look on that altar.”

The Doctor and Twilight ran towards Vinyl's house, the Doctor yelling “Allons-y !”

Derpy was lying, unconscious, on the ground. It seemed like she was sleeping. I took her on my back and headed to the hospital. I was talking to the inanimate body of Derpy, to reassure me. The town was so empty it was chilling. I could see the faces of the citizens at their window, watching me walk, Derpy on my back.

“Don't worry, Derpy, you'll be fine. Your wound is nothing, the doctors will take care of you.”

“Octa... via...”, she was barely talking, but knowing she woke up was good to know.

“Don't talk ! You'll be fine, don't worry”

“She's... there...”

“What ?”

I turned back, and saw Vinyl, she knocked me off, I hit a wall and lost consciousness. The last thing I saw was Derpy's body falling by my side.

Meanwhile, in Vinyl's house...

Time Turner and Twilight arrived in the crypt. The Doctor started to examine the altar and the three posts with the two heads on top. The princess could only watch him, since he was using technology she had never even heard about.

The altar itself, at the end of the room, was made of a black stone, and runes were written on it, there was a dark red carpet on top of it, and a few candles. The Doctor was still investigating on the altar, he took his screwdriver, and used it on the altar. A few lines of bright blue light began to appear on the altar, forming symbols I never saw before.

“This is not from this world...”, The Doctor seemed worried.

“What do you mean ? What does it do ?”, asked the Princess

“It is pretty simple, it takes the energy from three ponies, an earth pony, a pegasus and a unicorn, and it uses this energy to merge the soul of a pony with something else.”

“And how it is supposed to give her hearing back ?”

“When you do that spell, you can choose which body will take over the other one, if she merges her soul with a hearing being, she will recover her hearing too. There's two options, if she stops the process before its ending, she might recover her hearing and still be, somehow, herself, but her soul will be corrupted, but her goal might be something else, she may want more power than she has now.”

“What can we do ?”

“Each step of the process make her stronger than before, she is much more powerful than before, now that she killed two of her friends. If she completes the process, there will be no pony, no army able to stop her. We need to stop her now. Contact the princesses and tell them to gather here, in Ponyville, to decide about what to do.”

I opened my eyes. I was lying in the middle of the town. A lot of ponies were gathered around me, murmuring. I got up, my neck was painful and my since my broken leg had not fully recovered, I had trouble to walk, but overall, I was fine. I saw Derpy, she had a few bruises and she was still hurt on the flank, but she seemed okay. I was a bit confused by the events...

“What happened ?”

“Ya got kicked by that jerk, but when we saw it, we kicked her butt and sent her outta there !”, Apple Jack's voice was nice to hear, “You and your friend are safe, sugarcube.“

“Thank you very much ! How did you stop her ? And where is the princess ?”

“I'm here.”, everypony stopped talking to listen, they stepped aside to clear the way for the Princess to come to me, “I'm sorry we left you behind without even check for Vinyl before. I'm glad nopony was badly hurt. The Doctor investigated the crypt under Vinyl's house, and found out what it is. Come with me in the castle, Princess Celestia, Luna and Cadance, we formed a council to discuss the problem and what we should do about it. This is now a royal preoccupation.”

I headed towards the castle, following the Princess, and surprisingly, everypony followed. We were all walking silently, towards the castle. There was no word spoken, no murmur, just the sound of the wind, as we were walking. The way to the castle seemed to last hours, everypony was scared about the threat Vinyl was representing, but they were determined to stay and protect their friends, and that was the most important.

We finally arrived at the castle, and Celestia invited the Princess and I to enter. Everypony watched silently. Once at the castle's doors, I turned back, and there they were, staring at me, without a single movement. These hundreds of eyes were full of hope, full of fear... it was chilling to know we weretheir only hope...

“We'll talk in the throne room, there's enough space”, told Princess Twilight.

The Four Princesses, Time Turner and I arrived in the throne room, and each of us took a seat. I was on the Generosity Throne, and it was weird to think that Rarity usually sit there, as if I wasn't supposed to sit here...

Princess Celestia was the first to break the silence :

“I suppose we all know why we are here, but we're not all aware of the details. Doctor, I think you have some explanations.”

“Indeed, princess, I have reasons to believe that Vinyl is trying to use forbidden magic to merge her soul and body with another creature, heaven knows what. Doing this would be killing two birds with one stone : it would give her hearing back and give her more power. The power she could gain would be enough to kill any of us in a single move.”

“Can we use the elements of harmony to stop her ?”, asked Cadance nervously

“I don't think so. The power of the elements of harmony is strong, but it has limits. It won't work on Vinyl”

“What can we do, then ?”, asked Princess Twilight, “The elements of harmony are our strongest weapon, without them we're almost powerless ! And I don't think I have the power to invent a spell stronger than the elements.”

“I think you do, Princess.”, the Doctor was smiling, now, ”But we have a stronger weapon. We never used it...”

“And we never will !”, Luna was suddenly upset, “You know the power of the Elements of Entropy as well as I do. It could kill hundreds of innocents !”

“To save thousands of others, you have no idea of the power she will have !”, he wasn't smiling anymore, and I had the feeling the conversation couldn't end well.

“Maybe we can find a way to save her without killing her !”, when I said this, everypony stared at me, as if what I said was completely stupid.

“And how would you do it ?”, asked Time Turner, doubtfully.

“She was corrupted by a book, right ? If we destroy the book, or cancel the spell in it, we could break the spell that corrupted Vinyl !”

“...”

Time Turner was about to answer when we heard an explosion and the sound of rocks falling. A guard entered the room.

“Princesses, please, you need to come, this is bad !”

We got out and saw that everypony was behind the castle. There used to be a mountain behind the castle. Once in this mountain, there was a dragon who came to sleep and the smoke he produced was polluting the town. Twilight and her friends went and sent him away... But now there wasn't any mountain left. Just a bunch of rocks, and a lot of smoke coming from the ruins. We could see the silhouette of a flying creature in the darkened sky.

“Princess Celestia ? What is this creature ?”

“I'm assuming it is a dragon, Octavia.”

“Really ? Is Vinyl planning to merge her soul with the dragon's one ?”

“I'm afraid it is a possibility...”

If it was true, if Vinyl was planning to become a dragon, then there was nothing we could do. We'll have to fight her. We would have to kill her. Realizing this fact was painful to me. I have lost another friend, but this time it wasn't because she died, it was because I'd have to kill her. A cold tear flowed on my face...

“Isn't he beautiful ?”

I wasn't expecting anypony to be around, and so I jumped. I saw the Doctor, laughing.

“What's so beautiful ?”

“The dragon ! We don't see these kind of creatures too often, do we ? I need to see what happened there, will you come with me ?”

“Yes, of course”, investigating with the Doctor seemed like a pretty exciting adventure, and I could focus on what's important :

“Very well, then, Allons-y !”

And so we walked towards the mountain. I have no idea about what could happen now, if I was going to die, or if Vinyl was going to be saved, but I was sure of one thing...

I will fight her.

Author's Note

After a long pause without any writing, I came back to it and found inspiration again :D

Yep, I know, "Allons-y !" is the 10th Doctor's favourite saying, but I prefer this than "Geronimo" :3

I hope you like it, please leave a comment if you don't, it'll help me improve ;)