Once a Time Lord, Now a Pony

Present Time, Canterlot General Hospital

"So, do we know what it is?" Steel Sentry asked in concern as he looked into the room in front of him which was part of the hospital's Isolation Ward. Beside him, Mi Amore Cadence, one of the three alicorns and the Princess of Love and most importantly at this point Shining Armor's girlfriend of a few years sat. Several tissues were beside her already used.

"It's... It's too early to tell." Nurse Redheart said. "Specialists are coming in from the Griffin Kingdom including Doctor Ironclaw but until they get here we won't know for sure. We just have to hope it's nothing we can't treat."

Inwardly, Steel had his doubts. Even from outside the room he could tell it was bad. Shining was bleeding, and bleeding bad. Blood was being given to him from the local Blood Bank but it just kept being used up.

"Have... Have his family been notified? In case... In case things take a turn for the worst?" Steel asked of Redheart who nodded.

"His parents have been told and are on their way now... but..."

"But what?" Steel asked, having no time for nonsense right now. "Spit it out woman!" Now normally he wouldn't be this rude but his temper was running high due to the stress he was under. Redheart understood that and therefore was not going to chide him for his rudeness.

"We can't get ahold of his sister. It's like she's... vanished." Redheart trailed off and Steel let out a soft 'Damnit." in frustration punching a wall making it crack a bit before he calmed himself. It wouldn't do to lose his temper, not right now.

"We all know what this is. Somepony's trying to cause chaos in preparation for an attack and a big one at that. It's the only thing that makes any sort of sense. So, what do we do now?"

It was Cadence who answered him.

"Find the pony who did this to Shiny, and kill him." She snarled. It was very telling that nopony bothered or dared to disagree with her. Why would they?

Rich Enterprises Headquarters: Ground Floor with the two Twilights...

"Okay, yeah it's official. I've lost my mind. Had to happen eventually I suppose." Present-Twilight said while staring at her counterpart whom she'd named "Twilicorn".

"Well, if you have I'd say I'd joined you there." Her future self replied. "You know, I'm pretty sure there are universal laws about this." She deadpanned. Present-Twilight smiled inwardly. Well, some things had stayed the same at least. "Something wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm half expecting the universe to implode." Present-Twilight said dryly. "Just something I heard from a friend. Well, I suppose if it had we'd have noticed."

"Twilicorn" laughed.

"Odd thing is, I don't have any memories of this meeting. One would think that..." She trailed off.

"If you really are my older self you would. That's odd alright." Her younger counterpart agreed. "This might require a bit of research."

Then she heard the Doctor calling her name...

30 minutes before, in Filthy Rich's office on the top floor...

"Well, my daughter... Would you disagree with what I'm doing here? Would you?" One Filthy Rich of Rich Enterprises, formerly Rich's Barnyard Bargains asked himself as he looked at a picture of his daughter Diamond Tiara on his desk. In the photo, she smiled. It had been a long time since she did that.

"I know what I'm doing most ponies would think is wrong but is it really? If it saves one life?" He asked, gazing out the window where somewhere out there was the hospital where his daughter was, living out what would be her last days if Filthy's plan didn't work. About three years ago, she'd been diagnosed with cancer. If they had caught it earlier, they might have been able to stop it and save her life. But alas, it was too late and the cancer had progressed too far. He thought back to when he'd first learned of his daughter's plight and how it had torn their family apart...

"So... So it's true? There's nothing that can be done?" Filthy asked Redheart when she gave him the news.

"Yes, it's true. Nothing can be done. I-I'm sorry..." Redheart said sadly, with a tear in her eyes. It grieved her to know there was nothing she could do for another patient. She should have lied, spared the family the pain.

"WELL YOU SHOULD HAVE TRIED HARDER!" Filthy roared at her before he collapsed into sobs. "I... I'm sorry I just..."

Diamond coughed from in her bed. Her mane was beginning to go from the treatments tried and she was very thin.

"D-dad..." She whispered and her father came over to her.

"Yes, sweetheart?" He whispered back. "What is it?"

"You know it's not her fault. It's nopony's." She began. "There was no way any of us could have known." She coughed but Filthy shook his head.

"We should have. Should have seen the signs."

"Dad?" Diamond asked.

"Yes?"

"Do me a favor?" Diamond continued, and Filthy nodded.

"Anything, sweetheart. Anything."

"Promise me you'll make my last days comfortable. If I can't be cured, at least do that." She coughed out.

"I promise my little Diamond. I promise."

"...I promise, you won't have to suffer. If this works..." Filthy whispered. If it did work, she wouldn't have to worry about her last days. In fact, she wouldn't have to worry about anything ever again. "Well, time to unveil my creation. As William Shakespony once said "On with the Motley."

With that, Filthy straightened his tie. Tonight, all of his plans had come to fruition. Now, if only they would work.

With the Doctor and Twilight...

Once Twilight found the Doctor, she was pulled aside by him out of sight where nopony could hear the conversation they was about to have.

"We need to get back to the Tardis." He said simply and without hesitation. Twilight knew by his tone something was up. But that didn't mean she wasn't still confused.

"What? Why?" Twilight inquired.

"I... I don't know actually." He admitted.

"You don't know?" Twilight repeated flatly.

"I just have this feeling. This feeling that back in your time, something's gone terribly wrong. Mauve alert level wrong really. Sorry we have to cut this short, but I just have to check..."

With that, he ran back outside to the Tardis and Twilight followed. But when he got there, the doors slammed shut in his face much to the Time Lord's surprise. When he tried the Tardis keys, they just got hot in his hooves forcing him to drop them out of surprise. While the Doctor didn't know why his old friend was having it's little fit, he deeply suspected that the Tardis was trying to tell him something. That something was about to happen in this time period as well that could effect future events if not dealt with right now.

"So, what now?" Twilight asked.

"Well, I think that if we're going to be stuck here for a little while we might as well investigate..." He trailed off as he gazed at Rich Enterprises. Whatever was about to happen, he was sure this place would be involved in it. Behind him, from the Tardis the Koister Bell bonged repeatedly.

Present Time, in the dining room of Canterlot Castle...

In this room, Celestia and Luna had lunch. While they ate, Celestia explained to her sister her and a certain rogue Captain's history some more. Luna was not pleased with what she had to hear.

"So, thou trusted this maniac and he turned out to be like he was? Why did thou trust him and appoint him to his Captaincy anyway sister of mine?" Luna inquired.

"Who says I trusted him? But at the time, the war was in full swing with ponies gobbled up on the battlefields day after day. I... I don't like to admit this but I was desperate and at the time I wanted somepony who was skilled in battle. Sadly, Boltstrike fit the bill." Celestia explained, while cursing herself mentally. "While I suspected he might have his own personal reasons for wanting the war over, I didn't think they'd be the ones they were. He was very good at hiding his emotions under a mask. Over 1000 years and I still make mistakes." Celestia growled but Luna put her hoof on her sister's shoulder.

"But I do sister. That's why we are not Goddesses. We're not perfect." She reassured.

"But don't you see? Our subjects think us that way, and yet we can't hold ourselves to the standards set for us. We're suppose to be ponies they look up to."

"And they still do, despite any mistakes we make." Luna replied. "They don't blame thou for appointing a maniac to Captain of the Guard, nor I for becoming tainted by the Nightmare."

A few moments later, Celestia received a package. She preformed the same spells as Shining did, and yet like before when she opened it she fell to the floor a few moments later. Luna ran over to her sister.

"Tia...? TIA!"