Recurring Battle

The darkness didn’t go away even when I was awake. It just lingered. It seemed to taunt me and poke at me telling me to go back to my enforced slumber. I just didn’t know what to do. I guess I am now in a bed… no… I am on a couch. But I am still in the tardis. My eyes are open but even the light seemed to blacken. It was all just… dark.

I don’t hear anything. Well, other than whispers. I think that they are from the TARDIS but I do feel him. I feel his… hand. Hand. HAND. HAND? HAND! His hand was on my forehead. As soon as I realized this, I came to my senses. Everything lightened up. I felt the warmth of his hand. I saw his eyes and his blank face. I saw his clothes. I saw my clothes. I saw my hands. I heard the sounds of the TARDIS. I heard my own breath. My life was coming back.

“D-Doctor,” I began. I expected a different reaction than the one he gave, but I suppose the one he gave was better than I could have asked for. He grabbed my hand and lowered his head and our lips met. I had a different feeling than before. The first time was hard for me to catch my senses. This time, it was an explosion. Like he had hit me with some sort of weight. A weight that I loved so much and that I will never forget. I felt love. Extreme love. It was beautiful.

I felt his head move away from mine and his eyes were open. He just looked at me and I was wondering what he was looking at me about. I had forgotten about my new body until he pulled me up off of the couch.

“Lyra, you will really like this. I transformed us in your sleep. I don’t know how I look, but you are simply amazing.”

“There has to be a mirror somewhere, isn’t there, Doctor? You look amazing too.”

“Yes. But I didn’t want to spoil it for me. I wanted us both to do it together. Shall we?”

“We shall.”

He led me to a large room with a hot tub. It seemed to be a spa because it had a steam room in the back. I simply followed him into the steam room and there were mirrors in there. I looked at my face. It was just how I imagined humans looked like. The only difference was that my horn was gone, I had a nose and a mouth separate, and my skin was pale. Other than that, I realized just how little I was wearing. I guess I couldn’t get frustrated. Doctor had to dress me while I was asleep so it must have been pretty hard. Anyway, my nose was small. My lips were normal but stood out a bit. My eyes did as well. When I looked at my hands, I had 5 fingers and I could spread them out and move them into a ball. It would take some getting used to.

I turned my attention to the rest of my body. I had no cutie mark on my skin, my hair was brown but still had white streaks in it and a small hint of light green. My waist was slim and I had a chest that seemed to pop out as well as my flanks. I got worried and froze.

“Doctor… what is wrong with my chest and my flank? Are they b-broken? W-why are they sticking out like this? Th-they never did that before!”

“Lyra it’s ok. It will take some getting used to but it is normal. Trust me. I’m the Doctor.”

I turned and saw that he was looking in the mirror too. He seemed disappointed. He said something under his breath about, “same body as before.” I didn’t question it too much. I was too occupied yet worried about my own new body. It didn’t hurt to touch my chest and flank… but that was still weird that they were just poking out of my body like that.

I turned away from the mirror and looked at the Doctor. He was now looking at me. An instant blush showed on his face and I didn’t question it as I was blushing too. And we both knew why. At that exact moment, I noticed that I hadn’t seen the Doctor before that day for a long time, and we somehow were both thinking the same thing. After he lied to me, I never wanted to see him again but somehow we both got into this…. We got to loving each other in just a few minutes. I didn’t know how, something tells me that neither did he. Whatever it was, I enjoyed it. No matter how strange it was, I enjoyed it. However, I somehow knew that River would be disappointed in the fact that we weren’t snogging all over the place. I blinked and looked down, but his gaze remained on me.

“Lyra, I really-”

“I know, Doctor. It isn’t normal for me, and I don’t know about you, but I am sure of what I feel about you, no matter how quickly it came.”

He didn’t try to respond. I was the first to break the long silence. “We should probably go sit down, I haven’t stood like this before. Besides, I think we have a lot of catching up to do.”

With that, he grabbed my new hand, which felt interesting considering I had never felt that before, and he slowly began walking toward the same couch that I had woken up on. I welcomed his warm hand in mine. It was almost like a little hug. I like hugs.

As we both sat down, he gazed toward the center of the tardis. As if something were standing over there. However, there was nothing. His avoiding my eye contact was to be expected, and I did the same, letting my head hang and my eyes lock on the ground. It was a couple minutes before I spoke. It seemed that he had always been waiting for me to speak.

“So…. what was it you said earlier about us being watched? In my house?”

He did turn his head, but he remained silent for a few seconds.

“I know something that nopony else does. I try… so hard to keep it a secret for the safety of many and for the tranquility of the near future in Equestria. When I tried to come and see you earlier tonight, I got stuck in a time warp. Nothing was right. The time itself was confused. It didn’t know whether to go forward or backward or stand still.” He let out a sigh and held my hand. “Time showed small segments of the past and the near future of where I was. I happened to be outside of your house. I saw fire. I saw changelings. I saw evil. I saw…. you. I had to watch you helplessly. You…. you jumped off of your roof. Into… into a fire, Lyra.” His eyes were watering, and it was quite obvious to me that he wasn’t lying. It was the truth.

“Wh-what does that have to do with being watched…?”

He wiped his tears away and took a deep breath.

“BonBon…. your roommate. She knew I was coming apparently… because she was outside of my tardis when I finally got free. She was just as pleasant as I remembered her… but it wasn’t her. Lyra, she was a changeling. The invasion has already started. I knew she was a changeling because…. when I made her laugh while we talked, it was a cackle. When she looked straight into my eyes, they flashed a bright green. Furthermore, my contraption that goes ‘ding’ went off as I opened the door.”

I was dumbfounded. I didn’t know what to think…. First off, a contraption that goes ‘ding?’ Furthermore, he watched me die? Kill myself? He watched a war in Equestria? That just didn’t sound good. None of it did. If there was going to be hope, something would need to be done. Quickly. But I didn’t want our time together to end, no matter how crazy the situation was. We were in a damned TIME MACHINE. Did it really matter how quickly we got there if we can get there any time we want? I decided to express my thoughts.

“Doctor… Wh-what about this? Right now? Us being together? We can go any time we want, right? I mean… with the tardis being a time machine and all…” I said shyly, hoping for the best response. Honestly, I didn’t want to come across as selfish, only wanting the Doctor and not caring about my own planet.

“That depends. According to my calculations previously, the time warp goes on and off. It is a disruption of the fabric of time simply because of frequent time and interdimensional travel as of late. I suppose it could be from changelings or from other forms of interdimensional transportation in Equestria. That means, it will be going on and off in waves. They can last minutes to milliseconds. The timing of our travel must be perfectly timed. We can choose to go any time we want, but the wave must be at a low to where by the time the tardis reaches the area, it will not get trapped in a time warp.”

From what he had said, I understood only the fact that it went in waves. Timing would have to be perfect. If not, we can get trapped again. Alright that is simple enough.

“W-we can leave any time? So does that mean… we can stay here? Until we choose to leave? I want to stay with you as long as I can, Doctor. I want to make sure that we make the most of this time in case we don’t make it back from the…. Equestrian Time War.” I knew about the time war of his own on his home planet. This time, it was the same. As far as we knew, there can be more than changelings. Even if not, changelings will be far more than enough to destroy Equestria if they so please. It was the equine equivalent to the time war. I’m sure he knew it as well as I.

“I would love to stay with you here, but only for a while. Lyra, you must understand that this is serious. If we don’t stop it at the source, the battle will become what we both know could happen. Nobody expects it to come. If we cut them off, we can win easier,” he explained. I knew it was the truth. He was never wrong when it came to serious things.

Hesitantly, I responded. “Alright. Why don’t we get it taken care of as much as we can. I love you, Doctor. I trust you now,” I said softly before kissing him softly yet again. It wasn’t as special this time, because I knew it was a kiss that could be final. A kiss that would be the last one if the war was as expected.

With that, he kissed back a small bit and we both pulled away at the same time. He stood up and slowly made his way to the control panel. “River! Open the armory!” He glanced at me as I stood up, walking to him. He turned a few knobs, flipped switches and cranked gears.  With that, he put his hand on the lever. “Hold on tight, Lyra.” He said with a massive grin. “We have a war to win.” With that he held onto a railing with his other hand. “ALLONS-Y!” He threw the lever. Everything around rattled and whirled, and with no further warning, we were on our way to the Equestrian Time War.