Doctor Who: Equestria needs a Doctor

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Doctor and the Pony
Chapter 2: The Impossible
Chapter 3: Welcome to Ponyville
Chapter 4: Would Anypony like a Jellybaby?
Chapter 5: Dinner for Nine
Chapter 6: Bowties are Cool
Chapter 7: The Doctor Dates
Chapter 9: City of Nightmares (Edited)
Chapter 10: Run!
Chapter 11: Confessions
Chapter 12: What Madness Creates
Chapter 13: The Master of All
Chapter 14: The Resurrection of the Time Lords
Chapter 15: Time Heals All Wounds
Chapter 16: This Song is Ending, but the Story Never Ends
Epilogue - A League Unlike any Other
Chapter 8: Please remain silent for a moment of madness

Chapter 1: The Doctor and the Pony

Emptiness. It was the only way the Doctor could really think to put it. Emptiness. It had felt like this in the Tardis before, and ever since losing Donna the place that he called home just didn’t seem alive for him anymore. He had had a brief moment of happiness when he reunited a man with his son on Christmas day and stopped a Cyberman invasion, but that moment ended quickly. Soon after, he met a woman who he thought could refill the hole that Donna had left, but it turned out that she was just a thief and could not be trusted. She had stung him, and now he was back to moping about the Tardis. Just seeking a friend, a friend he knew he shouldn’t have. He knew that any person he took with him would end up dead, hurt or changed forever.

Donna had come back into his life when he needed her most, when he just needed a mate. Not a companion who would develop feelings for him that he would eventually develop back, like Rose, or even Martha to a degree. No, just a friend, like Mickey or Sarah Jane. That was what Donna was to him, a friend he could see himself travelling with to the end of her days.

When you lose a lover it was supposed to be harder than when you lose a friend, but the way the Doctor had lost Donna struck him in a bad way. She would never remember the great, amazing things she did, or that they had done together, and she would just return to her old life. There was a mercy in that. He thought it should be better than just being left with all those memories of worlds past, but it still seemed worse in his perspective.

Temporarily done with reminiscence, he returned to looking over the last thing he had in this entire universe, the last piece of his home. He chuckled as he stroked the Tardis, something Rose had pointed out once but he no longer cared if it looked odd. He was at the stage where he constantly referred to it as ‘she.’ But as he stroked the Tardis he noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with his Tardis this time. The screens were all showing some sort of weird energy that had surrounded the Tardis. It was affecting its trajectory through the time stream.

“Well. That’s odd” the Doctor said aloud.

He looked over the energy source, which was being described by the monitors as ‘unknown’

“How is it unknown? That’s not possible; you have information on all the energy types in all the galaxies!”

The Doctor quickly ran around the circumference of the Tardis, checking consoles and screens making sure his ship wasn’t in immediate peril, but he was now quite frustrated that he wasn’t able to identify what appeared to be dragging his Tardis to some unknown destination. He decided to take a new approach and see exactly where it was dragging him to.

“How? How is that possible? We closed them all up!”

Before the Timelords went extinct, they had closed up all the cracks in the universe. However, a few had slipped past them. About two years ago, the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey fell through one into an alternate universe and discovered an alternate race of Cybermen. The Doctor was certain this time he had taken care of it, but according to the scanner, someone, or something was pulling him right down into a new crack, which had just formed. The Doctor watched in awe of the event before him, apparently powerless to do anything about it.

“This … This isn’t possible! How can someone just rip open the boundaries of the universe like this?!”

It wasn't something he could comprehend, much less fight against as he was being pulled down through the crack. The central console of the Tardis was starting to pop and spark erratically. The Tardis was shaking uncontrollably, throwing the Doctor all over the place until he landed on the couch near him. He held on as tight as he could as he watched his home get thrown about like a ragdoll. He felt helpless to do anything, that all he could do was hope that when the Tardis landed that it wasn’t too damaged as to where he could never leave from whatever world in which he was about to land. The Tardis hit something solid, and the Doctor blacked out.

The Doctor awoke in what he could only describe as ‘an uncomfortable position.’ He got up as quickly as he could and checked himself over to see if anything was broken. With that sorted, he quickly and methodically examined his precious Tardis for the same thing.

“Nothing broken, everything in working order, good.”

He looked over everything a second time, just to be sure, and again the Tardis was telling him it was functional. His attention was drawn to the Tardis door. It wasn’t like last time when they were stranded, and they had to venture outside to have a look at the situation. No, this time he could just leave right now and no one would be the wiser. But … there was something drawing him to the door.

He could be in some lost dimension, a place that never was, but he couldn't help himself when there was an opportunity for adventure to be had. For the first time, in a long time, he smiled to himself. A smile he always gave when he felt something good was about to happen. He grabbed his brown jacket, for which he had grown a lot of affection over the years, he wiped his face with his hands, and he opened the door to the Tardis, on his way to a new adventure.

As soon as he opened the door he could tell that he was in some kind of tree, however it had been hollowed out to make what appeared to be a library. The Doctor immediately liked it.

“Wow, now this is cool.” He said.

The Doctor looked down to see what looked like a purple pony in front of him. The pony had its mouth open in shock as to what it was seeing. The Doctor was immediately fascinated by this creature, and in his usual manner he put on the biggest grin he could and said: “Hello!”

It looked familiar to the Doctor; however he couldn’t place his finger on where he had actually seen it before. He got down on one knee facing the visibly shocked pony. He brought out his sonic screwdriver to check her biology, in order to ascertain that what he was seeing was indeed real. The pony in front of him backed away a couple of paces in fear, and as soon as the doctor finished he felt the need to apologize.

“Sorry about that, just needed to see if you were real.”

He examined the analysis further, and noticed that some weird and unexplained energy was centered on the horn of what the Doctor noted was a unicorn. Suddenly it hit the Doctor. He remembered where he though he knew it from. He had spent quite a long time learning about pop-culture trends on Earth, from music like the Beatles, to books such as the Harry Potter series (he actually remembered crying at the final book.) One thing that he also remembered was popular cartoons. Transformers, Family Guy, Ducktales and, of course, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The last one even to the point where the Doctor could be called, as you would say, a ‘Brony.’ So boy was he loving this. Somehow this managed to make his smile grow wider.

“Why hello there Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight, hearing this, finally managed to shake the cobwebs enough to get a sentence out.

“Ok, I want you to answer four questions for me. One, who are you? Two, what is that blue box? Three, what are you doing in my library? And four, how did you know that I was Twilight Sparkle?”

The Doctor stood up, now looking down at her. Then he looked back at the Tardis.

“What, that? Oh that’s just nothing. Well, nothing important anyway. Well, nothing dangerous. Well, a little dangerous, but still … I still haven’t introduced myself now have I? How rude of me, I’m the Doctor.”

“Doctor? Doctor who?”

“Just the Doctor.”

Twilight now had a chance to absorb what she was looking at. It was a humanoid figure, and was wearing a jacket and vest combination with a tie and trousers.

“Actually I have a better question, what are you?”

“Oh, I’m nothing important, just a Timelord, but that wouldn’t mean anything to you.”

“Does that mean that you control time?”

“No, no, definitely not. I just travel through space and time and … I've clearly said too much.”

The Doctor saw that that Twilight’s expression had changed from shock to intrigue. No, that wasn’t the right word, more like … an insatiable curiosity, with a hint of madness.

“Oh my gosh. How does your device work? What does a Timelord do? How many are there of you?”

The Doctor was being bombarded with questions, and he slowly backed up to the door of his Tardis, preparing for his escape.

“Miss Sparkle, I would love to answers your questions however I feel that I have overstayed my welcome goodbye.”

He whirled around, quickly opened the door to the Tardis, entered it, and locked it behind him. Leaning against the door, he breathed a sigh of relief. He put his ear to the door, and could hear Twilight breathing heavily just outside. Having a moment to himself again, he thought about how he seemed be in a children’s show. He realized that since there were, in fact, an infinite amount of universes with an infinite amount of possibilities, one appearing like the show was entirely possible. He decided that the best course of action was to just leave this time around. Maybe it was the recent events that affected his decision, but in the end he knew he ought to go before he messed something up in such a peaceful world.

He went to the central console again and started pressing, pulling, and spinning the necessary switches.

“There we are, now when we go through the crack it should close up behind us.”

He looked up and realized that he was once again talking to himself. He had grown so used to having someone around to talk to about all this. He walked slowly to the lever that would send him off back to his universe. He looked up once more and said sadly to himself: “Goodbye Ponyville.”

He pulled the lever down and … nothing happened. The Tardis didn't move, no noise, no nothing. He looked around, and breathed heavily.

“Well, that’s … that’s not good. Not good at all.”

Chapter 2: The Impossible

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The Doctor has landed in a new world and discovered he cannot leave.

Chapter 2: The Impossible

The Doctor just couldn’t understand it. It was impossible that Tardis was saying that it was completely fine yet it would not move. He had a horrible feeling of what it could be but he was hoping that he somehow missed something but for the sixth time it all read that the Tardis was in (relatively) good condition. He knew that there was only one possible explanation, the Tardis was literally refusing to leave the planet.

“Why? Why do you want to stay? Have I not caused enough damage!?”

After the Doctor had finished his screaming he let out a heavy sigh, he decided to look at the options before him. He had two in reality, the first option was to stay in here and just hope that the Tardis would come to its senses and allow him to leave or walk out of the Tardis and face the hyperactive music that was just outside his door. He was willing to bet she was still breathing heavily outside his door eager to get in.

He gave in quickly knowing he couldn’t win in any of these situations and walked slowly to the Tardis door.

He put the key in to unlock it but before he did he listened closely to the frame. He could hear desperate, heavy breathing, and as slowly as he could he turned the keyhole still putting his ear to the door to hear the breathing getting faster the more the key turned inside the door. He heard the click signifying that the door was indeed unlocked and he breathed one last heavy sigh preparing himself for what was about to come and as soon as he opened the Tardis door a crack a purple pony came shooting through the door at what the Doctor could only describe as near light speed and head-butted the central console knocking herself unconscious.

Twilight Sparkle felt like her head had just been kicked in multiple times by princess Celestia and Princess Luna and then the two of them threw her into the wall with their magic several times over. She was having a lot of trouble lifting her head above the cold ground she was now lying on, it felt like she was lying on a combination of glass and metal.

She dared to at least open her eyes to what was above her. There she saw the blurry image of a light pink creature, when the creature talked to her its voice was like it was calling out to her at the end of a long tunnel.

“Twilight! Can you hear me?”

She wanted to call back out to the creature but the words just didn’t seem to be able to pass her lips so her mouth just hung there open. It called out to her again “Twilight your inside the Tardis I need you to respond to me.”

It all suddenly came back to her in one reflective motion. The Doctor, Timelord, his knowledge of her and the Tardis, she paused on that last part.

“Wait a second… I’m… in the Tardis?”

Her vision suddenly became more clear the more she focused on her surroundings. She was in a large room which had some sort of centre with lots of buttons and levers and she also noted the weird statues that seemed to surround the room. It dawned on her at this moment that this was impossible as the room she was in was very large while the Tardis was just a little blue box.

She stood up surprisingly fast, her intellectual mind was having trouble conceiving the room that she was now in was the same as the small box. She paced slowly away from a crouching Doctor to the entrance of the Tardis “What… how… this is… I can’t… what?”

She suddenly ran straight out of the door behind her and looked back to see she was standing outside the same box that was in the middle of her library. Twilight felt like she was having a mental breakdown, one similar to the time she freaked over being tardy with a letter to the Princess. What was happening was impossible “What spell can do this!?”

She ran around the box to see if there was some kind of trick to it but found nothing and then she ran back inside to confirm that she was not insane and tried to blurt out “It’s…”

The Doctor cut her off with a small grin on his face. “I know.”

“But its…”

“I know.”

“It can’t…”

“I know.”

Suddenly Twilight screamed in what looked like she had finally snapped.

“ITS BIGGER ON THE INSIDE THAN THE OUTSIDE!!!”

The Doctor just stood there for a moment, unsure on what to say but could only find two words to sum up the situation.

“… I know.”

To the Doctors surprise Twilight showed an angry expression on her face, as if she was about to lunge at him but all she seemed to do was make her horn light up a purple colour. She pointed her horn at the Doctor and started to pace towards him.

“This is impossible, nopony has this kind of magic so tell me the truth. Who are you and how did you know who I am?”

The Doctor raised his hands to show no hostility towards her however Twilight did not power down her horn. “Miss Sparkle please I know this is hard to explain but…”

Suddenly the doctors monitors started to pick up, a blue light stated to scan Twilight’s horn and she tried to dodge out of the way to no avail. New statistics appeared to the Doctor on the monitor closest to him, the Doctor forgot about Twilight and looked over the data that had been given to him. “Ah now this explains a lot, my Tardis has just identified the mysterious energy that brought me here, although it isn’t from you it shows that the energy was…magic.”

The Doctor had paused on that last part of the sentence. He didn’t believe in magic, however in the show magic did exist thus in this reality Unicorns (which also shouldn’t exist) like Twilight could perform magic. The data also showed it did not completely match Twilight signifying that she was not the one who brought him here.

He scanned the room for Twilight who had taken cover behind the sofa of the Tardis, she peeked her head over the top.

“What…What was that?”

“Sorry about that, my Tardis took the liberty of scanning you as it managed to recognise the energy signature coming from your horn as the same that brought me here… magic.”

The Doctor looked to her again and she seemed to be gaining a bit more courage as she was starting to step out from behind the coach.

“Is this some kind of magic?”

“No it’s the chameleon circuit.”

“And what is that exactly?”

“It’s a device within the Tardis to help it camouflage around its surroundings. It bends space and time as it's in its own dimension to make it appear smaller on the outside and it constantly changes its appearance to fit its surroundings. For example if it went into an alleyway it would appear as a rubbish bin but the circuit broke years ago and its stuck as a police telephone box and since I like the design I've just never fixed it.”

Twilight had been absorbed and entranced by every word that the Doctor was saying. it was all so alien to her yet in some weird way it all made sense. She did have some experience in time travel and she had theorised with enough magic she could bend space around herself, one thing stuck at her however. “What’s a police telephone box?”

“Oh it was something people from my reality used around the 1920’s to 50’s to lock criminals up to a police officer could arrive.”

Again in some weird way Twilight Sparkle understood what he meant. “So you’re from another planet?”

“Well not exactly, I’m from another reality where there is no magic and…”

Twilight cut him off before he could continue. “Wait sorry did you just say no magic.”

“Yes there’s no such thing as magic in my universe, we mainly use technology like the Tardis but less impressive.”

“What about ponies?”

“Yes there are ponies in my reality but they’re not exactly the same and out of kindness I think we should leave it at that.”

Twilight had calmed down significantly now. She took one more look round her surroundings making sure that she was not daydreaming, her head started to hurt slightly.

“Ugh…I can’t stay in this room its making my head hurt.”

The Doctor knew that he would probably be here for a while so he took this opportunity to make peace with his new neighbour. “So then why don’t we have ourselves a nice cup of tea, that helps me all the time…well mainly during regenerations but it clears the synapsis.”

Twilight nodded, “Yeah ok, that’s a good idea.”

The two walked out of Tardis together with the Doctor preparing himself to tell all.

The Doctor had been introduced to Spike. The initial meeting was much the same as Twilight’s as it involved a lot of confusion and a lot of questions but he was also calmed down and he proceeded to make tea.

They sat there exchanging facts about each other’s universes. Twilight had mentioned that she didn’t think aliens existed but came to the conclusion that it may indeed be possible after meeting the Doctor. The Doctor talked about Gallifrey although a first he was reluctant to do so, he left out the fact that he is the only Timelord left in his universe. Twilight was in the middle of telling him an interesting story about Princess Celestia the co-ruler of Equestria.

“…So in the end it turned out it wasn’t a double ganger and the truth was that the Princess genuinely didn’t like tea, but because of how quickly tea stocks were crashing and how many Ponies were upset by this revelation, especially the royal tea pony we decided to cover it up.”

The Doctor couldn’t remember an episode like that in the show, he theorised that worlds like Twilight’s had adventures and stories that were not shown on TV, but the Doctor wondered what happened when the show was cancelled. Did the world cease to exist or did it just carry on, the Doctor’s train of thought was interrupted by a question from Twilight. “Doctor, I still have a question for you, how did you know who I was?”

The Doctor wasn’t really sure on how to answer that question. Twilight had been told a lot today and experienced things that she didn’t think were possible and the Doctor didn’t know how much more her fragile mind could possibly take. How could he break it to her that the only reason her entire world exists is because of a children’s TV show and she probably wouldn’t even know what that is, he decided to make up something.

“Well… um… I can… read minds.”

He didn’t say it with full confidence but realised he had something on him that could back it up. “In fact this piece of paper proves my credentials as a mind reader.”

He pulled out his trusty psychic paper which had gotten him out of many troubles in the past and shoved it in front of her; Twilight read it aloud “The Doctor, Professional mind reader, cleared on licence to work on Gallifrey.”

The Doctor quickly placed it back in his pocket before Twilight could get a closer look and figure out that it was just a plain piece of paper, he quickly took another sip of his tea and continued on. “Yeah sorry about reading your mind without your permission, I needed to know where I was and I just so happened to come across your name.”

The Doctor gave a smile as it appeared that his lie had worked, Twilight looked on in amazement that the Doctor had such an ability.

“That is amazing, but I must respectfully ask that you no longer do that as privacy should be respected for everypony.”

The Doctor put on a serious look trying to cloak the smile that he wanted to show. “Alrigh,t no more. I won’t read anyone else’s mind.”

“Actually your mind reading powers are quite fascinating is there anything else interesting about your biology.”

At this point the Doctor thought that there couldn’t really be any more harm done by telling her more about himself, mainly as twilight wasn’t really a threat to him. “Well actually I have two hearts.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah I don’t really know how anyone can really survive with a single heart personally, one of my hearts stopped working once and I could barely function at all.”

“Anything else?”

The Doctor thought for a moment. “Well I guess I could tell you about how I regen…”

The Doctor was cut off by Spike who placed two sandwiches in front of them. There was something a little off about them to the Doctor, “What are these?”

Spike looked up at him with a tired expression on his face. Not only had he cleaned up the mess the Tardis had made when it materialised inside the library but he also had to make them these. “Their Dandelion sandwiches, Twilight told me to make you one because she thought you might be hungry.”

Twilight stepped in, “They’re my favourite and Spike can make a pretty good meal for a pony.”

To the Doctor the key word there was ‘pony’ and as the Doctor looked at the food before him he wasn’t sure if he should eat it. There were grass blades sticking out the sides of the sandwich and what looked like the head of a dandelion sticking out another. He had eaten some of the finest cuisine the galaxy had to offer from earth to delta-5 but he had never been offered a dandelion sandwich before.

Against his better judgement he took a bite and to his amazement he liked it. “mmm now this is good. I mean it’s not as good as jellybabies but man this is one of the best sandwiches I’ve eaten and I’m over 900 years old.”

“What are Jellybabies?”

“Their sweets but probably not the kind you have in Ponyville, let me guess you have a sweet called jellyfoals.”

“Yeah that’s right.”

“Same basic thing, I loved them in my fourth form and practically offered everyone I met one, but it always seemed to get mixed results.”

Twilight simply smiled, and continued eating, she wasn’t sure what he meant by fourth form but did not question it as her mind had been practically blown enough today, but then an idea came in to her head. “You know you said your Tardis won’t leave and it was brought here by magic.”

The Doctor’s mouth was full of food but he managed to get out a muffled Yes. “Well a spell might be keeping it here. so maybe we should gather my friends and possibly seek out who could have grounded the Tardis.”

The Doctor didn’t understand magic fully so this was a potential theory to why the Tardis was refusing to leave and then it occurred to him. “Wait does that mean that I get to meet the elements of Harmony?”

“Let me guess you saw that in my mind too” she let out a small giggle. “It will be interesting to see how they will react to you but yeah I think that would be a good idea.”

The Doctor gave the biggest grin he could and stood up as quick as a flash, he shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and drank the last of his tea. He gulped it all down in one flowing motion and said “Twilight Sparkle it would be my honour to accompany you to town today.”

The Doctor realised at that moment that he had not felt this happy or excited in a very, very long time.

This story takes place between the planet of the dead and the waters of mars, what will the Doctor do now he is stranded in Equestria, like the story is you want regular updates, and of course follow also to get them.

Please say what you liked and what you didn’t like thank you, Praise + constructive critism welcome!

Chapter 3: Welcome to Ponyville

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The Doctor has properly met Twilight Sparkle and is now off to Ponyville to meet the rest of the elements of harmony.

Chapter 3: Welcome to Ponyville

The Doctor felt excited, this used to be a regular feeling for him however recent events clouded his mood to the point where he no longer felt excitement for the next adventure but now he was in a world all about friendship and adventure and the Doctor was loving it and he hadn't even left the library yet.

He checked himself over to see if he had everything. All he needed was his jacket, his psychic paper and his sonic screwdriver in case his arrival into Ponyville caused some sort of evil to be awakened like Discord. Normally remembering the fact that nearly everywhere he went death followed was disheartening but right now his smile shone brightly as he was about to be introduced to the rest of the elements of harmony by Twilight Sparkle herself.

The Doctor looked behind him to see Twilight giving instructions to Spike, most likely she was telling him his chores and to look after the Treehouse. She was wearing a saddle bag as she approached the Doctor. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.

"May I ask what's in the bag?"

"Oh I've written a number of notes about your species and a little about what you told me about humans. It was so fascinating that I got an idea. I'm going to record the reactions from my friends when they encounter you for a social experiment, it's something I've been meaning to do for a while since I'm studying…"

"Friendship, yeah I read your mind but what would their reactions help you with?"

"Well seeing how they react to meeting you could prove to be a valuable friendship lesson to not judge a book by its cover. You know, if you don't mind?"

The Doctor let out a chuckle, he thought to himself Even with everything that's happened to her today, she's still trying to learn more. The Doctor got down on one knee to face her. "Twilight, I do not mind in the slightest, I'm all for people or ponies in this case learning more about the universe around them. Well, within reason, as long as they don't dig up Satan or something like that."

For a second he reflected on the many friends he made in his life, especially the more recent ones. He noted that any mention of friends, traveling or learning would make him reminisce in such a way that it made him feel like he could lose those memories at any moment, the good and the bad alike. He shook his head in order to return himself to reality "Right then shall we be off."

Twilight nodded her head, "Yes let us go, I'm sure after the initial shock wears off they'll like you like I do, it's funny actually, I seem to already trust you since I've already blurted out so much of our history and about myself."

"Oh people and Ponies alike tend to do that around me, I always seem to have one of those faces."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing important." The Doctor clapped his hands together and rubbed them in earnest, "Right let's go then!"

The Doctor was the first one at the door as he opened it to the small rural town of Ponyville.

The Doctor opened the door and rushed outside to smell the air around him, he took in a long exhale and breathed out. "Wow it smells like what I thought it would smell like, very sweet, that's probably from the sweet shop and the bakery but it seems to linger around the town. This is brilliant."

The Doctor looked around, there were plenty of ponies in the town but none of them seemed to have noticed him yet. Twilight trotted up next to the Doctor and asked "Why did you have an idea of what the town smelled like? You said you hadn't been in the town yet."

"Yes, sorry, it was from when I read your mind earlier. I saw fragments of the town and got an idea of what it would smell like. Don't worry, as I said I won't read anyone else's mind without their consent."

The Doctor wondered for a moment how long he could milk the whole mind reading thing and made a mental note to be more careful. However it appeared that Twilight was still buying the ploy, "Wow mind reading sounds pretty useful."

The Doctor got a good look at the town, he was twice the size of the ponies so he got to see it from a different angle than he normally would when he watched the show. it still relatively looked the same as it did on the show, they were near the town centre and it appeared to be the spring which was the Doctor's favourite season. "So since you know who all my friends are now, who would you like to meet first?"

Finally a pony got a good look at the doctor as she was passing through. She was a bit confused at first and Berry punch rubbed her eyes to make out if she was seeing things. She poked a mare next to her called Octavia and asked "What is that thing?"

Octavia replied "I don't know… wait, it couldn't be?"

"What?"

"My roommate Vinyl told me about the Changeling attack at Canterlot…"

"Vinyl? Oh you mean that pony that calls herself DJ Pon-3."

"Yeah, I think that's a Changeling."

The town grew deathly silent, everypony managed to hear Octavia's outburst and they all turned towards the direction of the Doctor. They all stared expectedly towards him and the only thing the Doctor could do was do what he always did in this situation. He put on the biggest grin he could and said "Hello! I'm the Doctor."

Suddenly without warning a young colt called Snails with his friend called out "Run Everypony! The Changeling is going to get us all!"

All that could be heard throughout the town at that moment were mad and panicked screams of ponies trying to get away from the 'Dangerous' creature. Ponies rushed into their shops and houses and before the Doctor or Twilight knew it they were the only two on the streets of Ponyville.

The town square now looked like a barren wasteland, the streets were deserted with the litter of what the fleeing ponies left behind. The Doctor couldn't help but scowl at the scene before him as it was somewhat depressing, he could see a familiar female zebra approaching from the edge of town, she stopped when she saw the deserted street and simply turned around and was grumbling in rhyme to herself about how she couldn't believe that this was still happening.

The Doctor turned to twilight, all she could really do was shrug her shoulders and say "Their all actually pretty friendly, I swear."

The Doctor still had that serious look he wore mostly when he was thinking but then he heard a springy kind of sound coming from the distance. It was somewhat familiar to him and when he turned towards the direction of the sound he saw a pink blur hopping up and down that was coming straight towards him.

Eventually it came close enough to be recognised. It was Pinkie Pie. Twilight greeted her friend "Hey there Pinkie Pie!"

"Hi Twilight where is every…oooooooooooo"

Pinkie hopped right in front of the Doctor, "Hi there, what are you?"

The Doctor put on his usual grin. "Pleasure to meet you, I'm the Doctor."

"A doctor? Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

"Do you not have a first name?"

"Well I…"

"What are you a doctor of?"

"Um… I'm a doctor of… time I guess."

"You guess? How can you not know what you're a doctor of silly."

"No I'm a doctor of time, It's very nice to meet you Miss Pinkie."

Pinkie Pie paused for a moment. "Are you an alien?"

Both the Doctor and Twilight were surprised by this question so the Doctor blurted out the first answer that came to his head "Yes…I mean…"

"Ha-ha I knew it, I knew you were an alien because my tail had that shivering feeling this morning which told me that I was going to run into a new creature today and you look kinda alienish and you wear really strange clothes and…"

Twilight stopped Pinkie before she could go any further. "Sorry I should explain, I still don't know how it's possible but Pinkie has some kind of sixth sense which pretty much tells her everything that's going to happen during the day."

The Doctor already knew this but instead of saying that he did, this time he just quietly nodded and it appeared the pink ponies curiosity wasn't finished yet. "Where do you live?"

The Doctor decided that honesty would be the best policy this time round "I live in a blue box called the TARDIS."

"Wow, where is it?"

"At Twilight's library."

The doctor slightly regretted saying that when he realised he was talking to a pony who had the ability to break the fourth wall, "So your living in a blue box which lives inside Twilights library."

"Yes, that's right."

"OK, BYE!"

And before Twilight or the Doctor could say anything else Pinkie Pie started bouncing back towards the direction from which she came, the Doctor could now make out that she was headed towards Sugar cube corner, he sighed in relief when she didn't head off in the direction of his Tardis. "Doctor, aren't you worried that Pinkie might try to get into the Tardis?"

The Doctor laughed a little, "Twilight, that door held out Genghis Khan and all his armies, I doubt a pink pony can get in on her own, so did you get the interaction between us down?"

"I wrote a quick note but it played out exactly how I expected from Pinkie. Her friendly demeanour is the only thing that's predictable about that pony."

The Doctor looked around to see the town was still empty. He sighed and looked down at Twilight. "Well that went well, if the rest of your friends are that friendly then we should have nothing to…"

The Doctor never got the chance to finish his sentence as he was speared by an object that was just too fast for him to see. The Doctor felt a sharp pain in his stomach as he was carried a couple of feet away from Twilight and landed painfully on the ground.

He wasn't pinned down but couldn't get up because of the pain in his stomach. He tried to speak but was slapped in the face as soon as he lifted his head, the thing on top of him spoke out. "Get out of here Twi, I've got this Changeling or whatever it is…"

The Doctor recognised the voice from the show, it was from the same women who also voiced Applejack, he opened his eyes to see a rainbow mane above him. "Try to hurt my friends huh, I won't let anypony hurt my pals you weird monster thing."

The Pony lifted her hoof to strike him again but was instead carried away from the Doctor by a force field of magic. "Rainbow Dash! Why did you do that?"

Twilight Sparkle was holding her friend above her helplessly. The Doctor started to get up but only got to his knees as he grunted in pain. "Well, I've felt worse I suppose. Died nine times before actually."

Rainbow Dash was trying to escape the force field of magic to no avail. "What's the deal Twi, I hear all these screams from Ponyville and then I see this weird thing standing above you, he looked like he was about to attack so I just saved you."

"Rainbow, he was not going to attack me. This is my new friend, the Doctor and he's a Timelord."

"Doctor? Doctor Who? And what's a Timelord?"

The Doctor managed to beat the pain and stand up on two legs. He approached the still floating Rainbow Dash. "Well first off it's just, the Doctor and secondly the Timelord's are an alien race from another universe that can travel and watch over all of time."

Rainbow Dash looked like she had been told that for her entire life the sky was actually green. She made no sound and had a blank, dead look on her face. "OK, Twilight is this 'Timelord' crazy or something?"

"No Rainbow, he's telling the truth."

"And he wasn't going to attack you?"

"No he wasn't, he's actually quite friendly once you get to know."

Twilight safely lowered her friend down to the ground and deactivated the force field. Rainbow brushed herself off while still trying to keep her cool image, the Doctor thought the best way to ease the tension was to do what he always did. "We got off on the wrong foot or hoof as it were so let's start again…hello I'm the Doctor."

He extended his hand out to shake her hoof but Rainbow Dash waved him off. "Sorry but hoof shakes are not cool enough, a hoof bump is much more awesome."

She extended her hoof out and the Doctor curled up his hand into a fist and lightly punched her hoof, the Doctor immediately got the sense that he had just done something that most Bronies would have given up their left arms to do. She gave him a nod, "I guess if your Twi's friend then your cool, sorry about attacking you a minute a go."

"Apology accepted, did you get it down, Twilight?"

He turned to her to see her scribbling something down onto a scroll. "Yep, it was most definitely interesting, by the way Rainbow Dash this might make a good letter to the Princess about 'judging a book by its cover'."

Rainbow Dash looked down now seemingly embarrassed. "Yeah I guess, what are you two doing anyway?"

"Were introducing the Doctor to everypony, you and pinkie have now met him so I thought we go see Rarity next since she's the closest, is that OK with you Doctor?"

"No objections from me, how about you, Rainbow Dash. Would you like to come?"

"Sure I guess I've got nothing better to do anyway."

"Great let's be off then, allons-y !"

And with that the Doctor pointed to the direction of Carousel Boutique which he could see from where he was standing…

Rarity was busy with a dress as she always was. At this time she was trying to find the colour that would best compliment Aqua in her new dress. Business had been relatively slow lately despite selling a number of dresses to higher up Ponies in Canterlot but it didn't faze her much because most Ponies would have bought their spring outfits and it was now late in the Spring but she was still making enough sales to get by.

She shook her head trying to remind herself to get back to work and as she tried to continue she suddenly heard the familiar chime of the bell at her door signifying that she had a customer. She cleared her throat and trotted downstairs, she went into the waiting room and put on her most polite and distinguished voice. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, how may I help…oh Twilight and Rainbow Dash hello there and you've brought a friend."

Standing before her was one of the smartest and one of the most loyal ponies she had ever known, the two of them were among her most treasured friends but they had brought an odd humanoid figure to her shop and he was wearing a really nice outfit. "My who is your finely dressed friend."

The Doctor extended his hand for Rarity to shake. "Hello there, I'm the doctor, you must be, Rarity and it's a pleasure to meet you."

Rarity extended her hoof and shook his hand. "Likewise Doctor, I must ask where did you get such a smashing outfit?"

"Oh this, well I just put it together about three Christmases ago and it kind of stuck, I normally wear a blue or brown suit but I opted to go for black today."

"And I must say that I am most surprised how well your brown jacket compliments your black suit and what is that interesting footwear you have on?"

"Oh these? Their just trainers nothing special."

"I must say, I think they complete the ensemble very nicely."

"You really think so? Wow I'm getting complemented on my choice of fashion by Rarity; this has been a weird day."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were standing at the side-lines during the entire conversation. Twilight was busy writing notes in her notebook but Rainbow was amazed that Rarity hadn't pointed out the elephant in the room. "Hello! Are you not going to ask what he is? Are you not even a little curious?"

"Oh Rainbow, that doesn't matter, I was just observing the gentlemen's fine attire, whether he is a pony or not is irrelevant."

Twilight appeared to be satisfied with the notes that she made. "Well this was very interesting, much better than your reaction Rainbow."

"Please don't remind me."

Curiosity had gotten the better of Rarity now. "So what are you exactly? If you do not mind me asking of course."

"Well to put it simply I'm an alien creature from an alternate universe called a Timelord."

Rarity was rather shocked at how blunt he was to her and was even more surprised about what he actually was. It made sense to her as she had never seen anything like the Doctor in Ponyville before but she needed a confirmation. "Twilight, is he telling the truth?"

Twilight nodded firmly and said "Were taking him to meet the rest of our friends and we only have Applejack and Fluttershy left so would you like to come with us?"

"Of course darling, I'm not getting a lot of business this week so I doubt I'll miss out on any customers today, I would love to get to know your finely dressed friend better."

The Doctor smiled smugly, there was even a tint of blush on his cheeks. Twilight felt that this could easily go to his head so she cut him off before he went into detail about how he arranged his attire further. "Anyway, Doctor, who would you like to meet next. Applejack and Fluttershy are both an equal distance from each other so the choice is yours."

The choice was simple as the Doctor was awfully thirsty and he had a certain taste for apple cider…

The Apple family farm was just coming into view over the horizon and the Doctor was going into detail with Rarity about his past outfits. Some she felt weren't very stylish while others she thought were inspired and if she was telling the truth the Doctor had just inspired her into making a whole new clothing line.

Twilight wasn't focusing on the conversation as she was writing more notes about how well the two of them were getting on with each other but Rainbow Dash was regretting the offer of coming along now as she had to hear the constant drivel about fashion from Rarity, but she didn't expect the same from the Doctor who apparently had an extensively large wardrobe.

It was like a constant droning to Rainbow Dash and she prayed to Celestia that they would find Applejack when they got to the farm or she might have to see what a direct shot of a sonic rainboom would do to a pony and a Timelord.

As the four of them looked over the apple orchard they could see the familiar sight of the blonde orange Earth pony kicking apple trees and causing the apples to fall precisely into the baskets below them. Twilight had always thought that Applejack was smarter than she appeared as she always managed to get the apples in the basket, maybe there was a hidden math genius behind all that muscle.

It had been a long day for Applejack and she had just collected the last of the apples on her route through the apple orchard. She placed the baskets on her back and was ready for a ten minute break when she spotted her friends coming over the hill with a weird creature towering over them. "What the hay is that?"

As she looked closer she saw that the creature was certainly not a pony and with her experience of the changelings and Discord for all she knew that creature was controlling her friends. She couldn't take any chances. She grabbed the nearest rope that she could find and jumped behind one of the apple trees so that they couldn't spot her.

As the three of them approached the barn Applejack was suddenly nowhere in sight, Rainbow Dash didn't understand as she only just saw her. "Am I crazy everypony or wasn't Applejack just here?"

The Doctor stepped in front of Rainbow Dash to look around, he could see a clear sign that she was here just a moment ago as two baskets of apples were just lying on the ground in the middle of the orchard. The Doctor took out his screwdriver and was about to scan the baskets for any unusual energy when he was cut off by an unknown voice near him.

"I wouldn't do that there partner."

Before the Doctor could say Derpy he was grabbed from behind and all his limbs were tied together with him lying on his back. He had been hogtied. The other three ponies were just standing there in awe of Applejack's sudden attack on the Doctor. Applejack put one hoof proudly on her prize and called to the others "It's alright girls, I got the critter."

Twilight was the first one to speak. "Applejack! Why did you do that?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"That's the Doctor, he's a friend."

Applejack looked down at the captured Doctor; she was surprised to see him simply beaming up to her with a smile.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor."

"I aint never seen a Doctor look nothing like you before."

"Yes well I'm sort of an involuntary visitor to your world. Anyway it's nice to meet you Applejack."

"What the hay is this… thing yakking about?"

Rainbow flew up to the Doctor and stated to untie him, in her mind it was a 'sorry for spearing you earlier' apology and she also began to explain to Applejack who he was. "Duh, he's an alien Timelord from another universe is all, no need to go crazy and tie him up like this Applejack."

"Come again sugar cube."

The Doctor began to stand up again and dusted himself off. Rarity approached and told Applejack "Its true dear, I've been having the most delightful conversation with him and from what Twilight has told me, he is definitely an alien."

Applejack wasn't too sure however as she looked up at the doctor he still had that warm welcoming smile on him.

"Well if you girls say he's ok then I trust ya. Nice to meet ya there partner, the names, Applejack and I'm mighty sorry for tying yawl up like that."

Applejack extended a hoof and the Doctor naturally shook it.

"Apology accepted Applejack. I'm used to sustaining injuries from ponies now."

Twilight gave her friend a reassuring pat on the back. "We've been introducing him to all of us and the only one left is Fluttershy. Would you like to tag along?"

"Sure… that is if you don't mind me tagging along after I hogtied ya like that, Doctor."

"No problem, I've felt worse today from Rainbow Dash so it's all good partner.

The Doctor had put on a fake southern accent but the joke seemed to fly over Applejack's head. "Alright then, let me just tell Big Macintosh and Granny Smith that I'm off and we'll all go to Fluttershy's."

And like that Applejack ran into the barn to tell her family members of her departure.

Fluttershy's cottage stood right at the edge of the Everfree forest, the other ponies had often wondered why Fluttershy would live right at the edge of a place that was meant to be so terrifying but the Doctor understood. So many different creatures lived in the forest which gave her the chance to look after and love every one of them.

Rainbow Dash seemed to be particularly nervous about the Doctor meeting Fluttershy, she had known her since they were foals and predicted that their meeting would end with Fluttershy suffering a heart attack.

"Hey guys listen, no offence, Doctor but are you sure it's wise to introduce him to Flutters. I don't think she's going to react very well, I mean we've all seen her during nightmare night, she'll probably think the Doctor is just another monster like the Changelings."

Twilight shook her head in agreement. "You're probably right Rainbow but if we are to have any hope in finding the source that is keeping the Doctor grounded we may need all the elements of harmony and that does include Fluttershy."

This didn't fill Rainbow Dash with confidence. The Doctor was nervous too but he was doing a better job at not showing it, he predicted that this would end in three way. One way was Fluttershy hits him from the shock of seeing him or runs away screaming, two she suffers some sort of attack that kills her (the Doctor thought the guilt of killing Ponyville's sweetest and kindest resident might be more than when he killed his own people) and three she may be too shy to even talk to him at all.

There was no turning back now anyway as all of them were now standing at the foot of Fluttershy's door. Applejack felt the need to give a final warning. "Now remember there sugar cube, no sudden movements or we might all regret it."

The Doctor was the one to take the initiative and knock on the door to the cottage. The five of them heard a very meek and timid voice come from behind the door. "Um… just a minute… if you don't mind."

They all heard very light footsteps slowly approaching the door and the voice called out again, "Um… who is it?"

"Hey, Fluttershy it's me, Rainbow Dash and the girls, we've uh… brought a friend here to meet you."

"Oh, ok let me just unlock the door."

All of them were prepared for the worst to happen. They heard the click of door and it was opened by the timid animal lover named Fluttershy. Everyone held their breath as Fluttershy looked directly at the Doctor in front of her. "Excuse me, are you an animal?"

"Well I guess technically I am..."

"My goodness you can talk, are you okay you look very pale."

"Oh no this is my natural skin…"

"Come inside now little one. I'll help you get better."

Rainbow Dash was taken aback a little. "Little? Fluttershy he's like twice your size."

Fluttershy wasn't listening to Rainbow Dash though as she dragged the Doctor into the middle of her cottage and laid him down onto her couch. He didn't fight back at all as he knew how delicate Fluttershy was. "Now just wait here my little friend, I will be right back with some medicine to help you feel better."

Fluttershy flew off towards her kitchen when the others entered the room to see the Doctor lying on the couch. He decided that since he was now in this position that he might as well get comfortable but Twilight had other ideas. "Get up Doctor we need to explain to her…"

"OK I'm back here is some medicine that should make you feel all better."

Before the Doctor had a chance to reject the offer he had a spoon shoved into his mouth and the vile liquid poured down from it into his throat. The Doctor had only one word for what was just shoved down his throat "yuck!"

The Doctor thought about all his meetings with the ponies thus far, he had been threatened, beaten up, confused, tied up and now he had bile shoved down his throat. In reality the one good experience he had was when he was complimented on his fashion sense but it didn't make up for the pain and suffering he'd felt so far despite how nice they were to him.

When the other ponies ran away from him that had started his bad mood, he was at first worried that he was going to bring strife to this world however it seemed to be the reverse. While the Doctor had been lost in thought the other ponies had explained to Fluttershy exactly what was going on and she flew back over to the Doctor with an apologetic look on her face.

"Doctor I am awfully sorry for thinking you were ill and giving you that medicine, I know that it doesn't taste very good."

The Doctor couldn't be upset at her for very long, something about that reminded him of Rose. "No harm done. Anyway why don't we start again, hello I'm the Doctor."

The two of them shook. "And your name is, Fluttershy. Am I correct in saying?"

"Yes you are, please may I ask you some questions about your race, the Timelords sound like such interesting animals."

The Doctor was still a little hesitant to talk about his people but firmly shook his head none the less. Twilight however intervened.

"I'm sorry to interrupt and I'll let you continue in a minute Fluttershy but since you've now met all the elements of Harmony Doctor what do you want to do now?"

The Doctor looked outside and guessed the time was about four o'clock, he knew one thing that would make the others happy. "Well you've heard about it at this point, why don't I show you the TARDIS?"

This got a cheer from the others and they all proceeded to leave Fluttershy's home but the Doctors mood had dropped since the morning.

They were walking through Ponyville and Fluttershy was bombarding the Doctor with questions which he was answering subconsciously. He was focused on the fact that it was four twenty in the afternoon and the town was still deserted, he let out small chuckle which caught Rarities attention. "What is so funny?"

"Oh nothing it's just the fact that everyone is still locked up in their homes."

"Oh right… I only faintly heard the commotion but I was too busy with a dress to take notice."

The Doctor couldn't hide his sad look from the element of honesty, she was abrupt as always. "Is that what's bothering you sugar cube?"

"Sort of but I've come accustomed to landing in places and things going wrong, and there's the library oh I love this part."

The Doctor suddenly got a spring in his step and ran through the library door while the others followed close behind him, he stopped outside the door to the TARDIS, Rainbow Dash was a little disappointed that it was so small.

"This is it, it's just a blue box, we could all barely fit in there."

"Oh come now Rainbow Dash, he did say it was bigger on the inside than the outside" said Rarity.

"Oh yeah, wait, how's that possible anyway."

The Doctor had practically returned to life as he was happily bouncing around his beloved home. "Ladies or Mares this is the TARDIS, it stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Its bigger on the inside as it has its own dimension and with this box I can go anywhere in time and space."

All the ponies even Twilight who had already been in there were all at the edge of their seats ready to get a good look of the interior. The Doctor unlocked the door and put his hand on the Tardis door. "Everypony, welcome to the Tardis."

As they all rushed in the Doctor was greeted by one of the last things that he expected. Voices. Specifically these voices all shouted in unison "Welcome!"

The Doctor was left in shock, he looked around and saw streamers and a cake that said 'Welcome to Ponyville', party games and a big sign hanging from the two closest pillars to the entrance which also read 'Welcome to Ponyville'.

There was a sudden silence as all the ponies looked at the Doctor waiting for him to respond but the look on the Doctors face was that of absolute shock. "How… how did all of you get in here?"

Then he heard a familiar springy sound jump right up to him, it was Pinkie Pie. The Doctor couldn't help but smile, "It was you wasn't it, Pinkie?"

"Yep it was me Mr. Timelord Doctor Sir. I thought to myself that since you were new here that I had to throw you a party to welcome you to town but I couldn't get into your TARDIS so I had to pick the lock…"

"Sorry you managed to break into my TARDIS, thus making you one of the only beings to ever do it while others had armies and couldn't do it."

"I suppose it does."

"OK, please continue."

"So when I broke in I was shocked to see how big it was and I told all the other ponies in town and they all came over and they were shocked and no one could figure it out so we all just decided to throw you a welcome party after I told them how nice you were and how your kind of stranded and that's why we're here."

There were so many things wrong with the situation before him. No one and no pony for that matter had ever broken in by picking the lock. It dumbfounded him, he looked back to the elements of harmony behind him and all of them just shrugged their shoulders. The Doctor looked at what was before him again and it appeared the entire town was in his home. He sighed and threw his jacket onto the nearest pillar and just said "Alright then, lets party!"

With that all the ponies cheered and everypony joined in with the festivities of welcoming the Doctor to Ponyville, little did he know that trouble would soon find its way to the doorstep of Twilight Sparkles library…

What will the Doctor do now he is stranded in Equestria, like the story is you want regular updates, and follow to keep up with the story, Praise + constructive critism welcome!

Chapter 4: Would Anypony like a Jellybaby?

Please leave a like and follow if you like this story, it motivates me to right more.

The Doctor has been welcomed to Ponyville and is now relaxing with his new found friends.

Chapter 4: Would Anypony like a Jellybaby?

The surprise party in the Tardis had been eventful to say the least. The Doctor had to make sure that none of the ponies touched the console despite the Tardis being grounded as the Tardis was acting unpredictably. He was surprised how all the ponies just accepted the fact that his home was bigger on the inside than the outside however he figured that all the unicorn ponies thought that it was a type of magic above them and all the non-unicorn ponies probably just assumed it was magic.

Eventually the party winded down and most of the ponies had taken their leave. The only ponies left in the Tardis right now were Twilight who was looking around the console in some attempt to figure out how to fly it, Rainbow Dash who was flying around the Tardis so she could get an idea of how big it actually was, Applejack and Fluttershy who were just content on lying on the ground and taking it all in, Rarity who was in the wardrobe section and was judging all of the clothing that the Doctor had and Pinkie Pie who was excitably jumping all over in random parts of the Tardis.

The Doctor was making seven cups of hot chocolate for his new friends and himself. His day had done a complete 180 twice and right now he was very happy, he had never had a party in his honour before in his entire 900 year old life and now he would end the day drinking hot chocolate with his new friends. He had thought that this was a pretty good place to get stranded if someone was going to get stranded at all.

He walked in with a tray of seven hot chocolates to the main Tardis console, he remembered at least once that he had shared the beauty of hot chocolate with all of his companions, chocolate was one of humanity's greatest creations and a winner in his book. He had also found something familiar from his days in his fourth form which he wanted to share with the group.

He made it to the console and was greeted by Applejac. "Well howdy partner, have you got drinks for everypony?"

"Oh yes, hot chocolates for everybody, we just have to get everyone here now."

Fluttershy then spoke up in er usual quiet tone. "Oh… well if we wait a moment Rainbow Dash should come around because she's… um… racing around your Tardis."

And sure enough Rainbow Dash was about to make a turn around the Tardis but she was stopped by the Doctor who asked her to gather everypony to the room so they can all drink their hot chocolate. A couple of moments later all the elements of harmony had joined them in the control room and they were all quietly drinking their coco. Nopony said anything for a while but Pinkie Pie couldn't stand the quiet so she called out "Hey! did you enjoy your welcome to Ponyville party, I hope you had a super fun time."

"Oh I did indeed, I think that mare… what was her name… oh yes it was Octavia. I think she drank a little too much and I think she was actually hitting on me as well, but I did enjoy the cake, I've always loved cake me."

Rarity said "Oh yes, Octavia. She regularly buys bowties from my shop and she's rather upper class despite the fact the fact she moved from Canterlot to this town, she's always had a thing for the odd darling so that's probably why you caught her eye. I mean her roommate has always been a little odd to, I swear there's something off about that Vinyl Scratch, I just can't put my hoof on it…"

Applejack cut Rarity off, "Now hold on there Rare, it aint kind to talk about other ponies behind their backs and spread gossip. You and the Cutie mark crusaders learned that the hard way remember?"

"Oh relax darling. I didn't mean anything by it. Actually come to think of it, Octavia really was flirting with you wasn't she? I think she really took a fancy to you when you put that bowtie on, I know she's always had a thing for them."

The Doctor thought back to when he got a bit wild and was putting on random clothing. "Yeah, I'm not sure why I did that, I've never really liked bowties, I can't imagine myself ever wearing one again for very long, they're not very cool."

Rainbow Dash had become weary with this conversation. "Anyway… since you're staying in Ponyville and all, what do you think you're actually going to do here?"

"I don't really know, until I can figure out exactly why the Tardis has decided to stay here then I can't leave. I guess I'll just have to find something for me to do because I can't even get my Tardis out of Twilights library. It's just dawned on me that I'm probably going to have to find a job, I've never had a job before, what do you do in a job?"

Twilight just shook her head with a smirk on her face. "Actually Doctor, I was hoping that maybe you could show me exactly how your Tardis works, it's fascinating how you are able to travel through time with your device and your chameleon circuit and how it cloaks your Tardis. Also, can you tell me how your Tardis is connected to the time stream?"

"Sure, that sounds very interesting, as long as you show me exactly how this magic works. I have some idea but I would like you to show me more."

"Then it's a deal, it will be a scientists trade."

Fluttershy also spoke up, "If you don't mind me asking… would you be able to tell about some of the animals in your universe? From what little you've told me they sound very fascinating."

Rarity spoke up next. "Oh and I would love your advice on my next clothing line that I'm making. You seem to have an eye for fashion and unique style."

The Doctor looked around the group "Well I guess I'll be busier than I thought… oh and before I forget would anyone here like a jelly baby."

They all looked a little confused at this offer but they all took one each and then Rainbow Dash recognised what it was. "Hey these look like Jelly foals, except their shaped like mini Timelords."

"Well their actually meant to be baby humans which is your equivalent to foals."

The mane six all tucked into the tasty treat presented to them. The Doctor looked around and for a moment, he didn't see how in any way he could cause any trouble in this world. That's when Spike opened up the door to the Tardis and called out to them "Everypony, two of Celestia's guards are standing at the door and they want to see Twilight urgently."

Nobody wasted anytime in going straight out of the Tardis and to the front door where they were greeted by the two guards in question. "Greetings Twilight Sparkle, we were told that an unidentified creature would be at your place of residence, is this the creature in question?"

The guard pointed directly at the Doctor who didn't seem to bothered about this. "Yes hello that's me, I'm the unidentified creature, I'm called the Doctor."

The guard kept directly talking to Twilight. "Princess Celestia has called for his presence and yours, and she said that if the rest of the elements of harmony wish to come they may. Please do not delay. We will meet you by the carriage when your all ready."

They could see that it was now night time at this point and Twilight turned to the Doctor and said "We should go, perhaps she will know why you're stranded. There must be a reason she called for us especially at this hour."

"I agree, would you five like to come?"

Applejack was a bit confused. "How the hay would the Princess know about the Doctor already though?"

The Doctor thought about it. "That's a good question actually, she couldn't have seen me land because the Tardis materialises on the spot and it doesn't land like a Pegasus or a carriage would so I don't know but we'll probably find out once we get there. So I'll ask again, do you all want to come?"

They all nodded their heads in unison and the Doctor clapped his hands together, "Alright then it's time to meet Princess Celestia."

Princess Luna had just finished putting up the night sky. She had flown tonight with a lot of vigour in her step and she was eager to return so she could have something to eat as she was famished. She was going to eat with her sister Princess Celestia tonight as they had not dined together in a while.

She walked around her bedroom as she wondered what she was going to eat tonight, in truth she was somewhat a little worried about her older sister as she was doing some interesting experiments that Luna was not allowed to be a part of. She wasn't jealous per say as she wasn't really interested in the sciences but she did find it very odd that she wouldn't even allow her own student to know anything about it and Celestia had made Luna promise not to tell her. Still she just assumed that her sister was having a faze that she would get over soon.

It was then when she heard a knock on the door. "Ah that must be one of the Guards. He must be here to tell me that supper has been prepared."

She had been able to gain control over her voice as of late. She found that Twilight Sparkle was correct that the royal Canterlot voice was outdated however she also realised if she ever needed to intimidate any pony in the future that the voice does wonders. She always kept that at the back of her mind, she approached the door and when it was opened she greeted the guard in front of her. "Good evening Guard, is tea prepared yet?"

"It is indeed Princess Luna. However, your sister has requested your presence outside the front entrance to the palace immediately."

"Why on earth does she want to meet me there?"

"I am afraid that she would not tell me. The only thing she said was that it was very important for you to meet her there, if I were to take a guess she just might want to show you something."

Luna sighed, she was very eager to start eating but she knew that she couldn't stand up her own sister despite her ever growing hunger. She would just have to finish whatever she wanted as quickly as possible. "Alright guard, lead the way."

They set off towards the front entrance to the palace. To keep her mind off the hunger in the pit of her stomach she guessed in her mind what her sister could possibly want. Perhaps it has something to do with that experiment, or perhaps my sister is playing some practical joke on me, if it is that I will make a mental note to wring her neck afterwards.

They were approaching the main entrance when the guard suddenly took his leave, he said that he was not allowed past this point and that the only guard that was stationed with Celestia was Shining Armour and this was per Celestia's request. Luna just accepted this as the less questions meant the sooner she could get to the food.

She walked through the doors and Luna saw her Sister sitting just outside with shining Armour nearby. She greeted him, "Good evening Shining Armour, I trust all is well?"

"You'll have to ask Celestia your majesty, all I've been told to do is stand guard in case something ugly happens."

Luna turned her attention to her sister and asked "Sister what is the meaning of this? I thought we were to dine together but instead you have called me out here. Why have you done this?"

Celestia wasn't moving. She was looking ahead with a smile on her face. It didn't look like she was looking at anything in particular at all, it seemed that she was waiting for something to fall in her line of sight. "Luna, patience is a virtue. I do hope you remember this lesson. Tonight we might have some guests joining us for dinner."

"And is this the reason thou has asked us to join you, to meet these guests?"

"Precisely, but I must ask you not to act rashly when you meet one of them, I would rather not start an incident."

"Why would we act rashly to any of the guests? What are you not telling me?"

"Again, patience is a virtue Luna. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out there was a missing seventh element of harmony and that was it… ah and look here they come."

Their eyes locked onto the golden chariot that was descending towards them. It stopped right outside the palace. six very familiar mares stepped outside of it but they were accompanied by something that Princess Luna had to do a double take on. She didn't know what it was, Luna had lived a very long life and had seen all the creatures Equestria had to offer but she didn't have a clue about what she was looking at.

The creature was tall and it had unusual clothing on, it also had a wide smile and it was muttering words like brilliant and fantastic under its breath. The seven of them approached the princesses and Shining Armour's horn was starting to glow and was pointing directly at the Doctor, he also took a defensive position. "Twiley? Is that you? What is this thing?"

The Doctor said "Hey that's a little rude, I'm not a thing. Well I guess I technically am a thing I suppose but still it's a little rude and put that thing down you'll poke out someone's eye with that."

Twilight put a reassuring hoof on her brother's shoulder and he depowered his horn. The Doctor turned his attention to the princesses, "Right now then, hello I'm the Doctor, it's a pleasure to meet you Princess Celestia."

She extended her hoof and the Doctor shook it. Luna was still in a small state of shock as she was still trying to figure out what the Doctor was. "Oh it's a pleasure to meet you to Princess Luna."

She did the same as her sister subconsciously but then she found the ability to speak. "Sister! I'm sorry for being so rude but what is this thing?"

"Why didn't you hear him Luna? This is the Doctor and I'm the one who brought him here.

Dinner is served with a side of confession next chapter. Like the story if you want regular updates, and follow to keep up with the story, Praise + constructive critism welcome!

Chapter 5: Dinner for Nine

Please leave a like and follow if you like this story, it motivates me to write more.

Now before I begin I have to say something, basically I have been rather busy as of late that's why the chapter updates have been so infrequent however I promise to try and improve. Well anyway essentially I've been doing a compilation project with a number of writers and it's really coming together now. It will be called 'Equestria: World of Superheroes.' You will definitely start receiving updates more regularly after that is finished. I've got to do three separate stories so I hope you understand, Thank you.

The Doctor has just met Celestia and she just dropped the bombshell that she was the one who brought him to this world.

Chapter 5: Dinner for nine

There was a short silence after Celestia's revelation, everypony including the Doctor kept looking at each other trying to urge one another to say something but eventually the Doctor gave in a words managed to fall out of his mouth. "Well that's… that's… unexpected."

Celestia chuckled to herself lightly and said "I apologise if that was not what you were expecting."

"Oh no there's no need to apologise it was just a little unexpected is all…"

Twilight cut in, "But Princess why did you bring the Doctor here and how?"

"My faithful student, all of that will be revealed when you join me and my sister for dinner this evening."

The Doctor didn't like this, something smelt off about all of this, judging from Luna's expressions and reaction to meeting him she was completely out of the loop and the rest of the elements of harmony seemed to think the same thing to judging by their expressions. Even, Twilight, Celestia's own pupil seemed to have doubts and there was just something… off about her that she just could not place. The Doctor decided that it would be best to decline the offer and if he was lucky he might be able to leave this universe. "I very must appreciate the hospitality your majesty, but I must respectfully decline as I must get back to… timey wimey stuff and yes that is the technical term."

"Oh, Doctor. I am afraid you misunderstood me so I should clarify. I wasn't giving you an option to stay or go I'm afraid you are joining me and my sister for dinner. You have no choice in the situation."

The Doctor heard hoof steps approaching behind him and they all turned around to see a number of guards blocking the exit. Shining Armour looked worried about the prospect of his sister being harmed and said "Twiley please convince your friend here just to come along. I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding that will be sorted out if he goes without a struggle."

The Doctor looked around him, clearly none of the elements wanted to fight Celestia but Rainbow Dash getting pumped in case the eventuality arises. She flew up to the Doctor and whispered in his ear, "Hey listen, I'm not really into fighting the co-ruler of all of Equestria and all but she doesn't seem quite right so we may want to go and see what's up, but if you want to fight our way out of here I'm with you."

Celestia spoke "So you would be prepared to fight me Rainbow Dash? You are the element of loyalty after all but let us hope that it doesn't come to that. Right, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked down at a very worried Twilight who mouthed to him the word 'please', this was certainly not the Celestia he knew from the show but he had no choice but to give in. "Fine, there won't be any trouble."

Celestia looked very happy all of a sudden. She clapped her hoofs together and actually hugged the Doctor. "Oh thank you, you have no idea what this means for all of us, sister you show them to the dining room. I'm going to speak to the chief and organise the food for the Doctor, I assume you would like something a bit more filling… maybe not for a pony."

He figured that she meant meat and he guessed that would be a good idea since if his guess was right he would be here for a while it would actually be nice to eat something from an animal without freaking everypony out. He wasn't in the mood now to question why she had meat so he just went along with it. "I suppose if it's not too much trouble…"

"Oh no trouble at all and thank you so much. Luna, show them to the dining hall."

"Tia wait I…"

Luna had forgotten the hunger and was now annoyed and confused as her sister flew off towards her bedroom. She turned back to this Timelord who she still wasn't sure what to make of but he didn't seem hostile so for now that would have to suffice.

She let out a sigh, she remembered her hunger again and it was getting late. She turned to Shining Armour. "I know you are eager to return to your beloved, Shining Armour, but I must ask you to guard the dining hall. Take a few of the guards and make sure no pony enters or leaves until either me or Tia command so."

He saluted the princess and quickly hugged his sister and made his way into the castle. She turned to everypony else. "Come then, I am as eager as you to find out what this is all about."

They were all now seated at a long table minus Princess Celestia who had not arrived yet, the table was rectangular and Celestia's empty chair sat at one end while the Doctor was told to sit at the opposite. Everypony else were seated along the sides, Luna and Twilight were closest to Celestia's seat while Dash and Applejack were closest to the Doctor while the others were located more in the middle.

To say the atmosphere was tense would be an understatement. Nopony was talking and they were giving each other nervous looks. Not even Celestia's sister or student didn't know exactly what to expect. The Doctor didn't like this kind of atmosphere, he cleared his throat and spoke "Anyway this is a nice castle isn't it?"

Pinkie bounced up, "Oh your super-duper right, Doctor. This is my most favourite castle ever, although this is the only one I've ever actually been to but it's still the greatest one ever."

Twilight joined in "Yeah it is nice, I've missed coming here. I hardly ever seen it since moving to Ponyville, can you tell us anything about this place Princess Luna?"

"Yes I can, this castle has stood here for over a 1000 years, me and my sister moved here when we were filly's after our mother built it, she was known simply as Faust, I miss her very much."

The Doctor's ears picked up "Sorry did you just say Faust?"

"Yes I did, why?"

"Oh no reason. "

The Doctor had a mischievous smile on his face, but another question came to him "May I ask, what happened to your mother?"

"Neither I nor my sister know, one day she was just gone. We miss her dearly though, the fact is that my sister took it worse and removed many statues and paintings of her, I've never been able to get her to put them back up."

Before another word was uttered Princess Celestia entered the room. She strode in as majestically as she could but she had trouble holding in her excitement. She took her seat so she faced the Doctor directly.

When Celestia entered the food soon followed and it was placed in front of the guests. The finest food in all of Equestria lay before them but the Doctors dish held a special surprise. Hidden under the salad was bacon and other various meats.

The Doctor carefully took some when nopony was looking. There was no conversation at first before Celestia broke the ice. "So, Doctor. Let's begin shall we, may I ask how you know our language?"

"Oh… you mean… Equestrian?"

"Yes that's correct."

"Well to me you are all speaking Timelord. The Tardis which is my time and space machine translates all languages so I and anyone that I come in contact with can understand each other." Applejack perked up.

"So you're saying that you and your blue hickity are connected?"

"Yes that's correct. Odd I know and I imagine it's hard to get your head around but…" Celestia interrupted him.

"Actually it makes a lot sense. At least it would in your universe." Fluttershy asked "So you were aware he was from another universe, if you don't mind me asking that is."

"You are correct Fluttershy. Should I explain how I came across you, Doctor?" The Doctor nodded firmly and Celestia began to explain.

"I was in my room the previous day when I felt something quite off. Recently I have returned to some old research of mine. After the recent wedding and the attack I felt relieved after there were no further attacks and the changelings appeared to have returned from whence they came. Then we fixed many political disputes between us and turned an entire group of Changelings into Equestrian citizens."

The Doctor listened intently and so did the other ponies around the table. Celestia continued "After the attack and settling the Changelings in Luna said she would take care of any further political situations for a while which left me a lot of free time and that's when I stumbled across this. Twilight, you might find this quite interesting."

Celestia lifted a book from under the table and placed it on the floor. Twilight took note the author was Starswirl the Bearded, one of her heroes. The Doctor only had to read the title to know what it was about. 'The Multiverse – A place we shall never reach'. Twilight questioned her mentor. "Princess, how did you get this? Why have I never read this?"

"It was Starswirl's request that this should only be shown to limited numbers and not the public. This book contains the theory of the multiverse. Essentially every possible reality exists, if you can think of it, then it exists somewhere. Even a reality where magic doesn't exist. The Doctor is from one of these other realities, however Starswirl theorised something slightly different. He believed a universe was created through something in other universes but he never specified what it was."

Dash sat upon a bit and asked "What does this have to do with the Doctor?"

"I believe that Starswirl was correct, so I was hoping the Doctor would have the answer that I'm looking for."

The Doctor looked directly at Celestia and asked "And what is the question?"

"How was Equestria created?"

Silence filled the room. How could the Doctor even begin to answer her question? He knew he could lie to her and theoretically if Starswirl was correct with his theory then the only reason this entire world existed was because of a children's television show. The Doctor said "I don't know if you'd like the answer. Are you sure you…"

"Oh come now, it couldn't be that bad. Was it some great higher powers idea for creating our utopian society? Or a well-crafted machine of visionaries?" Luna looked nervous; she was worried for her sister who was definitely not herself.

"Sister, why is this so important? Perhaps it is best that we don't know everything for…"

"Quiet, Luna! You don't understand the importance of this! You have been gone a thousand years while I have had to work day and night to protect and look after this kingdom and I won't let some former deranged maniac tell me what I need and don't need to know."

Luna's jaw hanged open. The Doctor thought it would drop off but it remained attached. Twilight was wearing a similar expression to Luna, Fluttershy was hiding under the table, Dash kept her eyes on the ground with AJ, Rarity wanted to excuse herself but didn't dare speak and Pinkie Pie… was actually speechless. Celestia wasn't done.

"Now tell me! How was this world created?"

"You're a children's TV show."

That wasn't the answer Celestia was expecting, she didn't even know what a TV was. She asked "What is that? Is it some sort of code?"

"No your Majesty. A TV is like a projection device with moving pictures. People in my world write and create television shows and then they are shown to everyone on these screens."

Celestia was getting a picture and so was Twilight who asked "So this is sent to the entire planet to view."

"Relatively yes. There's more to it than that but you get the general gist of it." Applejack was starting to see it also.

"So humans on your planet just sit around and look at this screen all day?"

"Some do, but most not to the level you are probably thinking."

Pinkie Pie cut in "So were for kids?"

"I guess so. You're show has quite the following in my world though so all ages watch it."

Twilight then realised something. "Wait a second, that's how you knew who I was. You can't really read minds at all can you?"

The Doctor let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry about that Twilight. Things were different then and your mind had taken so much trauma from all the reality bending things you found out about me and my Tardis. It was safer for you not to know."

Twilight nodded affirmably. Rarity asked "So who was this 'Human' who created us then?"

"Her name is Lauren Faust, she's the main creator of the show but there was a team that helped her. She wrote and created all of you specifically."

"Ah, so she crated my dazzling mane, I must give this mare my thanks when I can."

"So she wrote that I was banished to the moon for a thousand years? Why would she do that?" Everyone turned to an upset looking Luna.

The Doctor answered "You have to understand, she has no clue she's even creating this reality. To her, it's just a story. A good story has to have a good antagonist and that's what you played, however she wrote your redemption also Luna. She wrote that you reunited with your sister."

Dash quickly asked "So there are people in your world watching us right now?"

"Well it appears that you have adventures outside of the shows and I doubt this would be broadcasted so their likely not watching us now. Also remember it's a kid's show which is relative to something for foals so they won't see you doing anything… private."

"N-no that can't be right. There has to be more to this!" The Ponies turned to Celestia. They were concerned with her sudden outburst. Celestia continued on but looked very distressed with her natural flowing mane falling out of place.

"You don't understand Doctor. It can't be just from one person's idea. I need to know how to change things here. You're seriously telling me that I can't do a cursed thing and every fundamental decision about our lives and history was decided by just some writer." Tears nearly came to her eyes. No one interrupted her as it looked like she was about to break down.

"I-I just can't accept that. I lost my sister for a thousand years, I haven't seen my own mother for longer than that and our idyllic society is now facing a problem that can't be changed unless I can change the way this world works."

"Sister what do you mean?" A silence filled the room as Celestia lowered her head down so no pony could see. What they had heard around that table to many was life changing. It was surprising though that Celestia took it the worst. Celestia's head was suddenly raised and her expression had become a disturbingly happy one.

"Thank you for coming to dinner my little ponies. Thank you as well Doctor. I must retire for the evening so be safe and goodnight." Twilight tried to call out to her mentor.

"Princess, what did you mean you had to change the way this world worked? What's wrong?" her words fell on deaf ears as Celestia left the room for the others to continue their meal.

One hour later…

The Doctor and co had not said a word to each other since they left the castle. Luna had assured them before they left that she would look into the matter but it didn't fill them with confidence. There were a lot of unanswered questions after that meal. They had returned to their homes and the Doctor and Twilight found themselves in the library, both had thoughts running through their minds.

Twilight had just witnessed the pony she idolised above all others, who she had never even seen break a sweat practically have a nervous breakdown in front of her. The Doctor had witnessed a beloved creature act completely out of character. If he had only heard of Celestia but had never seen her then he would have been certain that the pony he met that evening wasn't her.

Twilight had stayed clam though, but she also wanted answers for her mentor's unusual behaviour. Spike was fast asleep by the time they got back so Twilight made them some tea. Twilight wanted to ask some further questions while they were sitting at the kitchen table.

"So what do you think is the problem with this world then? I just can't figure it out." The Doctor took a big gulp of his tea. He thought intently about what had transpired.

"Has there been any border issues? Perhaps the Changelings or…"

"Shiney has told me constantly that there have been no such issues. The Changelings were completely removed, in fact the Queen is rumoured to no longer be in power. Their actually in tribes and they now live among us. There was a Changeling called Wubsy who lived in Ponyville for a time, a now famed romance occurred between a reserve guard and a Changeling called Kuno and because of, Flitter, we now have a peace treaty with a Changeling tribe that lives in Everfree forest."

"Really? Quite interesting. Perhaps it's a social issue but whatever it is it's drawn the Tardis here which is not a good sign." Twilight let out large yawn that made the Doctor chuckle.

"It looks like somepony is getting sleepy. You should probably hit the hay. We could all do with some rest."

"I suppose you're right. I'm not sure how much sleep I'm going to get though. Sleep well Doctor." She trotted towards her bedroom but stopped halfway up the stairs.

"Just one question Doctor, do you think you were born from one of these shows?"

"Oh no, that's just silly." Twilight nodded and went to her room, leaving the Doctor alone with his tea. The Doctor looked at the bottom of his cup for a second before finishing the contents.

He washed the cup and took a look at Luna's night sky before returning to the Tardis. However, when he got to the door he found a small envelope stuck to the front door. What was also interesting was that a heart was drawn on the front of the envelope.

He took it off and looked inside to see that the envelope had a bowtie in it. A brown bowtie that surprisingly, fit him perfectly. Although he didn't really like them there was something about this tie that really appealed to him.

He took the tie and examined it further that night before he went to sleep. One thing that stuck to his mind though was who would leave him that envelope.

Meanwhile…

Celestia couldn't sleep. She buried her head in her hooves as she sat next to her contraption. This device told her the Doctor was by a tear she could take advantage of and it had taken all her power to bring him here. The next day she knew she would have to send him back but then she heard something.

"Y-y-you wa-ant help?"

"Who said that?" She received no answer at first. She leant against the device that was a combination of magic and current era technology that resembled a speaker system with a screen.

"W-w-we can hel-lp you." It was coming from the speaker system.

"You're like the Doctor?"

"We c-can help you ch-hange your w-w-w-orld. We can save it." This was all so sudden for her. The Doctor couldn't help her and she knew the inevitable would soon arrive.

"Will you ace-ept our off-fer? Just let us in."

Somepony has their eye on the Doctor next chapter, like the story if you want regular updates and follow to keep up with the story. Praise + constructive critism welcome!

Chapter 6: Bowties are Cool

Please leave a like and follow if you like this story, it motivates me to write more.

The Doctor dropped a bombshell of his own on Celestia. Will there be any fallout?

Chapter 6: Bowties are Cool

Two weeks. For two weeks the Doctor has been stranded in Equestria. The consolation was that he couldn't be stranded in a nicer place. The Doctor should have many thoughts going through his head, how can he get home? What was with Princess Celestia two weeks ago? Who left that letter? However it turned out that whenever the Doctor was tinkering with the Tardis that all others thoughts went out of his head… unless someone was talking to him and in this case, somepony.

Rainbow Dash was visiting the Doctor today as many of the locals regularly did. She was currently reciting the tale of her second sonic rainboom which the Doctor was half listening too. The Doctor had become an odd sort of local as of late and within a week to everypony else he was just another one of those weird things that found their way to Ponyville. This town was no stranger to bizarre characters.

When the Doctor met Granny Smith the other day she talked about how she knew that one way or another he would be staying. When he asked why she told him this. "When me and my family came here we knew we would be staying. When a small and fragile Pegasus fell down from the sky I knew she would be staying. When my little apple left for the city I knew she would be back. When that pristine mare opened up her fancy shop as a 'temporary' location I knew she would be staying. When that Rainbow haired mare came with big dreams and a large ego I knew she would be staying. When a bubbly pink pony came here looking for work I knew she would be staying and when Celestia's student who didn't have a clue about friendship came here, I knew she would be staying. Trust me pardner, you're staying one way or another." Not if the Doctor could help it.

Rainbow Dash was continuing to spin her tale when they heard a knock on the Tardis door. The Doctor was otherwise preoccupied so he asked Dash to get it.

"Could you get that, Rainbow?" Dash responded with a salute and dashed towards the door. The Doctor only heard the sound of the Tardis door opening and Dash was surprised by what she found.

"What the?"

Dash was confused by what she held in her hoofs. Even more confused by the fact that the person who delivered the letter was nowhere in sight. She ruled out Ditzy delivering this letter as she always liked to deliver them personally. Another thing that confused her was that a heart was drawn on the front of the letter and below it said To the Doctor. Dash saw Twilight enter the room from the staircase.

"Hey, Twilight. Who left this letter for the Doctor?" she asked. Twilight trotted over to take a closer look.

"I'm sorry, Dash. I didn't see anypony enter the library. I would have heard them because of the bell so they must have come through the open window over there." She replied.

"Why does this letter have a heart on it?"

"Oh, Rainbow Dash. Even I know that it's a love letter. You better not let Rarity get a wind of this though."

"Why's that?"

"Remember our last sleepover with all the girls. After Pinkie said she liked the Wondebolt who has a thing for pies, Rarity then went on about Pinkies 'romance' with Soarin. Then she stated to pair us up with loads of different ponies."

"Oh yeah, don't remind me. She went on about how I would meet some mysterious pony without a home that would melt my heart and sweep me off my hooves. For some reason she made him a detective. Like that will ever happen."

Twilight took another look at the letter and gave it back to Rainbow Dash.

"Anyway, you should give the letter back to the Doctor." Dash nodded and flew back into the Tardis and hovered above the Doctor.

"I got mail for you but it doesn't say who it's from." That sounded awfully familiar to the Doctor as he climbed out of the flooring of the Tardis. He recognised it straight away. It was just like the letter he had been given previously.

"This is familiar. I had received a letter like this two weeks before. I still don't know who the sender is." Twilight had walked in and had overheard what the Doctor said.

"Really? What was in the first letter?" she asked.

"It was a bowtie actually. You remember the one I tried on yesterday."

"Oh yes, you looked nice in that. Wait a minute, bowtie huh?" An idea came into Twilights mind and the Doctor opened the letter. Instead of another accessory it was an actual letter.

Dear Doctor

I must apologise for the letter that I am writing you. In truth I find this whole situation rather embarrassing. I'm acting like a little school filly and if I can be honest, I'm afraid of rejection on this matter.

The reason I tell you this is because of a friend actually. A friend of mine in the orchestra has also taken a fancy to you. I responded to this by randomly slapping her. She claimed that she liked your fingers. I apologised of course but she figured out what was wrong and convinced me to tell you. However the furthest I've gotten to this is writing this letter.

Ever since I saw you at that party in your incredible machine I've not been able to get you out of thoughts. I have always been drawn to more unusual creatures and things. My roommate is a testament to that. You're clearly very intelligent and after what Lyra my friend said you could likely do with your fingers… well that isn't important.

I thought you should know and I hope to gain the courage to talk to you face to face very soon.

Love, your secret admirer.

The Doctor was perplexed by the letter. It wasn't like he hadn't gained admirers before in his time and he had received letters like this before but not from a creature so different. Although he did fancy a tree once so really the species boundary was no issue for the Doctor.

The obvious issue was his age. He can never die and he would live forever. Any creature that he encounters would not be able to share this and the Doctor would have to watch them die. Just like all his friends. He shook his head. He would have to let this mare down easily.

"I think I know who sent this, I think it was Octavia. I had heard she took a liking to you" Said Twilight. Twilight looked up at the letter the Doctor had in his hand. "What does it say, Doctor?"

The Doctor tucked the note in his jacket pocket.

"It isn't important. Do you two have any idea where I might find Octavia?" Dash had a good idea.

"Sure, I fly over Ponyville all the time. Usually all the musician ponies when they're not practicing or performing at concerts. They are street performers, if she's around you just have to follow the sound of her… her… um, help me out Twi."

"Cello, she plays a cello Dash."

"Yeah, that thing. Just walk around town and you might just find her."

"Would you like us to come with you, Doctor?" Twilight's curiosity wanted to know what the Doctor would do but she was disappointed by his answer.

"I'll go alone this time Twilight. I think it will be easier that way."

The Doctor had to admit it, Dash was certainly right. As soon as he had exited the library he could hear the sound of a cello, almost beckoning him to follow. Of course he met his fair share of friendly townsfolk on the way. Lyra who asked if she could touch his fingers, Forelle the pear pony who was trying to sell her wears. Sadly the Doctor had a hatred for pears so he declined her offer to buy one. He also met Big Mac who simply nodded at him. The Doctor noted that he wasn't much of a talker. Eventually the Doctor followed the sound down a row of houses and there was Octavia.

He saw that she was taking a small break and she was chatting with a white pony with a vibrant blue mane. He couldn't recall meeting her at the party. In that moment the Doctor had a feeling that he was being watched. Being watched in the sense that somepony was following him.

It was like a sixth sense, a small chill went up his spine despite the fact that it was quite warm that day. He realised that he was next to a shop that specialised in mirrors. The opportunity was too good not to take. He went up to a mirror that was pointed behind and pretended that he was fixing his hair. In the reflection, just over his should was a brown Stallion. His mane was combed backwards and he appeared to have an hourglass for a cutie mark. The unknown brown stallion was watching the Doctor from an alleyway. The Doctor didn't remember meeting this stallion at the party either.

Just as the Doctor was contemplating the idea of confronting this stallion he felt a prodding at his leg. When he looked down a grey mare with a blonde mane was looking up at him.

"Hey there Doctor." Said the mare. The Doctor remembered her as Ditzy. The local mailmare. He had been warned not to ask about her eyes but she seemed very friendly. When the Doctor looked up he saw the Brown Stallion was charging towards them.

"Ditzy, we need to go." This seemed to annoy Ditzy.

"But I need to talk to the Doctor here, Time Turner. It's about all this mail he's been given that wasn't through the post service. Y'know he's a lot like…"

"DITZY! We need to go, NOW!" Time Turner practically dragged the Blonde Pegasus away. The Doctor almost stepped in but he realised that Octavia was now on her own and took his attention away.

He was surprised by how elegant he found her. She seemed to have a certain poise to her, one that you wouldn't expect to find in a small town like Ponyville so she was likely raised somewhere else. She had a nice grey coat and a black mane. She also had a pink musical note for a cutie mark. He approached her slowly while she was setting up her cello again. She didn't notice anypony behind her until he was up close. Octavia assumed he was a pony who wanted to make a request.

"Hello there, do you have a request…" Octavia turned around to find that it wasn't exactly a pony. The Doctor smiled at the surprised looking mare.

"How about some Beethoven. Great artist, bit of a grump though. He was deaf you know." Octavia stared up, wide eyed at the Timelord before her.

"D-doctor, I don't suppose you remember me do you?"

"Octavia, you gave me a nice bowtie and you delivered that letter to me this morning." Octavia's throat dried up, preventing any words from leaving her mouth. "I'm quite flattered actually."

"Y-you are? How did you even know it was me?"

"Twilight helped me figure it out. At the party you seemed to like it when I placed the bowtie on." Octavia blushed a little.

"Well yes… I think bowties are… what's the word… cool.

"Cool, huh?" An awkward silence came between them for a moment. When the Doctor found something to say, it was a rather blunt question.

"Don't you think it's rather odd though?" Octavia was confused by his question.

"What do you mean odd? What is odd?"

"Well, I mean… you're a Pony and I'm a Timelord. Wouldn't it be sort of frowned upon if we…" Realisation then struck the Mare.

"Oh, you obviously don't know. You see it's encouraged in Equestria to seek partners anywhere. Due to the population issue."

"What population issue. There doesn't appear to be many or too little of you."

"No the Mare and Stallion ration is 60:40. A good number of mares don't find Stallion partners so they settle down with another mare or a Griffon, there's even a Mare in Canterlot that's with a Changeling."

"I see, well I suppose that makes a lot of sense. You weren't born here were you?" Octavia let out a small giggle.

"That's a bit of a personal question isn't it?"

"Well, I suppose I'm one for getting to the point."

"I bet you are." Octavia gave him a sly wink which the Doctor picked up on easily. He was thankful nopony else seemed to be about at the time. "I was born and raised in Canterlot. I still keep in contact with my parents but so many royal occasions keep occurring here it's a great place to get work. My roommate agrees, her name is Vinyl, you might have seen. In west Fillydelphia she was born and raised. It was a playground where she spent most of her days."

"She was the white mare you were talking to a minute ago, right?"

"Yes, that was her."

"By the way, you don't know a, Time Turner do you?"

"Time Turner? I don…"

Before Octavia could finish her sentence they heard a commotion going on in the town square. They turned to see what looked like royal canterlot guards gathering all the ponies into the square. The pair walked and joined the other ponies as Mayor Mare took to a pedestal set up for her.

"Everypony, I have exciting news from Princess Celestia. A great discovery has occurred in Canterlot." The Doctor drew closer, he hadn't heard word from Celestia in a while and truth be told he was worried. "She has given the guards here orders to hand out these so called 'ear pieces' to all the Ponies in Ponyville."

The guards then got up and started to hand them out to Everypony. The Ponies were told to place them in their ears and Mayor Mare continued.

"According to Celestia in one week will come an event that will change our lives forever. These earpieces must be kept on to then so please do not lose them."

Both the Doctor and Octavia were given one. They were small and green. On the side there was a picture of the flag of Equestria. There was something off about this. The Doctor looked up to see that the mane six had already been given ear pieces as well.

They shouldn't have this technology he thought. Their world is based in magic, not technology. This kind of thing is like finding a helicopter in Middle Earth.

He looked down to see Octavia about to put her earpiece on.

"Octavia, do you think you could do me a favour?"

"Alright, what is it?"

"Don't put that earpiece in, just for now, okay?"

Octavia did as she was asked but then she called out to the Doctor before he left.

"Wait, Doctor." The Doctor turned to face the mare.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Would you like to go on a date with me this evening?"

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Chapter 7: The Doctor Dates

The Doctor was very rarely left speechless. This time he had been taken by surprise and he was given a question that he had not been given for some time now. Words jumbled in his head but none that could completely make sense of the situation before him. Below him was Octavia. She had just asked him on a date and the mare was blushing very brightly. The Doctor looked down at her still trying to process an answer. But a number of words seem to fall out of his mouth, he temporarily lost control of his speech and the last word shocked both himself and Octavia.

"Well uh…I don't… um… yes." The Doctor almost doubled back when the word came out of his mouth. He would have taken it back if he hadn't spotted the very big smile that appeared on Octavia's face. Octavia practically jumped for joy.

"Well that's great news," she exclaimed. "I mean, my goodness I never thought I would get this far but hearing you say yes… meet me at 'Mignight's corner' at 6:30 tonight. Okay bye now." Octavia ran the opposite direction as fast as she could, presumably towards her home. She left the Doctor standing there completely stunned. He was about to chase after her but then a familiar voice called to him from behind.

"My, Doctor. It appears Octavia beat me to the punch." The Doctor looked behind him to see that the feminine voice belonged to none other than Rarity. The mischievous look on her face said a thousand words as she continued. "However, I am so glad you said yes to her. The poor dear has been racked with nerves ever since she first met you. Whenever she came by the shop she would look an absolute state." The Doctor realised something.

"So you knew about Octavia's feelings beforehand?" He asked.

"Yes I did Doctor. Of course I learned my lesson about gossip a while back so I would've never said anything but it's so nice to see her overcoming her fears like that." The Doctor looked over to the direction that Octavia had run. It must have taken a lot for her to ask me, he mused to himself. A thought then came to him.

"Hold on a moment there, Rarity," the Doctor said with a smug smile. "Did you say, and I quote 'it appears Octavia beat me to the punch.'" Despite Rarity's classy and borderline flirty nature she found herself slightly blushing at the Doctor's point.

"Y-yes well… you see darling," Rarity stammered. She looked around slightly before continuing. "Tell you what darling. Why don't you join me and Fluttershy for tea in an hour? I have to meet Fluttershy for our spa session and we always have some tea afterwards. I would like to talk to you about a few things while were there. So, would you like to join us?"

An hour later the Doctor found himself in Carousel Boutique. He was sitting on a couch, opposite him was Fluttershy and Rarity who were both carefully sipping their respective cups of tea on another couch. They were in Rarity's kitchen as most of her shop was being refurbished so she had moved her couches into the kitchen while most of her work supplies were now located in her bedroom. The Doctor held a cup of tea in his hand, patiently waiting for the conversation between the three of them to turn towards his reason for being here. He didn't have to wait very long.

"Um Doctor… I do hope you don't mind me asking but…" Fluttershy began to ask "… What brought you here today?"

"Oh that's right," Rarity suddenly remembered. "I asked you here. Sorry I sometimes get so lost in conversation. Now you wanted to know the details about my slip of the tongue, yes?"

"Yes, that's correct," the Doctor replied with a smile.

"Well then let's bring Fluttershy up to speed then." Rarity turned to Fluttershy, "You see darling, Octavia finally asked the Doctor out on a date."

"Oh she did? That's wonderful!" Fluttershy barely let her voice rise any higher than a squeak but she seemed unable to contain herself at the news which made the Doctor grin further. Fluttershy turned to the Doctor and asked, "Did you say yes? Please tell me you did?" The Doctor rubbed the back of his head as he tried to think of something to say.

"I… guess I did." Just admitting it surprised him. Even after an hour it really hadn't set in for him yet. He couldn't remember the last time that he was on a date of any kind. He couldn't really count any of his adventures with his multiple companions, not even Rose. Fluttershy suddenly looked very sad as she turned to her friend, Rarity.

"Oh, Rarity. I'm so sorry. I forgot that…" Rarity waved a dismissive hoof towards her friend.

"It's alright. It was a tiny crush. Similar to, Blueblood!" Rarity said the word Blueblood with a hint of venom in her voice. She cleared her throat and returned to her usual composure as she continued. "I will be frank with you. For a short time after meeting you, Doctor. I gained a small crush on you. However, after I discovered Octavia's feelings I decided to stand aside." Rarity had one last thought go through her mind. But I would have given you so much more than her, she mentally sighed as the Doctor asked a question.

"Is it not rather odd though?" Rarity gave him a confused look.

"Whatever do you mean dear?"

"How do I put this?" The Doctor hesitated before making his point. He rubbed his chin as he thought of the best way to put it. "Well I'm a humanoid creature while you Ponies are… no that won't work. Hang on, I've got it. Is it not rather odd for a member of your species to be dating a member of another species, especially one that looks so different?" Rarity and Fluttershy looked at each other for a moment but almost at the same time it clicked for both of them.

"I think we understand, Doctor," Fluttershy explained. "This is a little difficult to explain but my mother told me that it used to be like that, but times change." Rarity continued the explanation.

"Let me ask you something Doctor. Have you noticed something particular about this town?" The Doctor thought back to his entire time spent here but nothing really struck him as odd. Rarity gave him another hint. "Perhaps, involving the Mares and Gentlecolts?" And then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"There are significantly more mares than stallions!" The Doctor practically shouted out his answer in a moment of excitement. He always got like this when he figured out something.

"Yes, that is correct" Fluttershy answered. "I read in a news report that the Equestrian population has a significant difference between mares and stallions. Roughly 70% of the population are mares, while the other 30% are stallions." Once again, Rarity continued.

"Because of this it is harder for mares to find a nice stallion. This caused a break down in prejudice against fillyfoolers and coltcuddlers and it also caused interspecies relationships to be more widely accepted." Fluttershy continued from Rarity's point.

"There was no choice in a mare and stallion relationship for many mares so Ponies kept looking for alternatives and it appeared most were in the same boat. This is linked heavily to Equestria's peaceful policies. In fact, one of Celestia's lovers was a Griffon. Many believe that what could have been the end of our species ironically ushered in the golden age we live in today." The Doctor sat in silence while the information was being processed in his head. It all made so much sense now. Rarity added something.

"It actually used to be a lot worse. Only 200 years ago, 80% of the population used to be mares which many Ponies have taken as a good sign that things can only get better. Plus, it's prevented an overpopulation crisis." It made sense to the Doctor that a species that is so prosperous would have faced an overpopulation crisis by this point if not for the gender difference. It also helped add more reason to why Octavia wanted to date him. He imagined that there weren't a lot of the Stallions in this town that were single.

"Thank you for the information Rarity and Fluttershy. I still wonder why she asked me of all peop… I mean ponies."

"You can't be serious doctor?" Rarity replied. "Somepony as charming, well dressed and alluring as yourself must have many followers." The Doctor couldn't help but grin at this.

"Well not really, well not that many, well maybe a couple, well… okay perhaps a lot. I always seem to have one of those faces that people can't stop blurting their plans to." Rarity cleared her throat and gently put her tea down on the table in front of her.

"Anyway, Doctor. Since Octavia is trying to court you and you've agreed to a date with her." Rarity pointed out. "Have you given much thought on what you will wear?" The Doctor looked down at what he was wearing now. He was wearing his blue suit and his brown overcoat.

"Well I was just going to wear this." Rarity suddenly looked like a fish gasping for breath. Fluttershy immediately jumped into action and gave her a paper bag to breathe into. Rarity waved a hoof in dismissal and regained her composure.

"No offence darling, but you simply can't go to a restaurant in your everyday clothes, especially with a mare to impress." The Doctor couldn't help but frown slightly. Fluttershy nodded her head in agreement.

"Oh yes, Rarity is quite right. My stories say that when the hero goes on a date with the mare he's meant to be with, he has to dress up in something special." The Doctor gave Fluttershy a confused look.

Mare I'm meant to be with. I'm still going to leave Equestria and I doubt I'll suddenly go domestic in that time, he thought to himself. He chuckled at the thought of actually settling down, he had to admit some parts of settling down were quite appealing to him but he would go mad before long. Besides, if it didn't work out he might have left the Tardis by then and then he would then find himself the roommate of an overweight football fanatic who has feelings for his best friend.

Nah, that would be silly, he assured himself

The Doctor was returned to reality when he noticed that Fluttershy was hiding herself behind her mane while Rarity was giving her a confused look.

"Fluttershy, dear," She said. "Take it from a friend who knows, love is not as… romantic as they make it out in stories." An evil look then appeared on Rarity's face as she looked down at the floor at muttered something darkly. The Doctor presumed it had something to do with this Blueblood character.

"Um… Rarity?" The Doctor said trying to get the white mares attention. Rarity seemed to snap out of her dark thoughts and returned to reality.

"Oh, sorry everypony," she said. "So basically I would like you to have a look at some of the suits that I have prepared upstairs."

"… You've been waiting for this haven't you?" The Doctor questioned. Rarity tried not to make eye contact with him as she dismissed this.

"Oh, pish posh darling. I was just preparing these little pieces in advance and you just so happen to have a date tonight so why not try them on?" She battered her eyes in a pleading manner. "If you like one then you can keep it and use it on your date tonight, free of charge." The Doctor rubbed his chin, contemplating what to do but then Rarity sweetened the deal. "In fact, since they won't fit anypony else you might as well take them all, what do you say?"

The time was now 6:30 on the dot and the Doctor was just outside 'Midnight's corner' (which funnily enough was situated at a street corner) waiting for his date to arrive. The restaurant itself looked very beautiful from the outside. It had a mix of rustic charm and civilised manner (not the snobby kind.) The outside was coloured with greens and browns and above the sign was a row of multi-coloured flowers. Inside the restaurant was a mix of red and black and the place was furnished with a large number of tables and a bar on the far side.

There were a large number of ponies enjoying their meals with one another. The Doctor recognised a couple of them from his welcome party but not all by name. He could see his faint reflection in the window and he checked out the suit he was wearing. He ended up taking one of the braver choices Rarity had given the Doctor. The suit was essentially the same design and make as his other ones, minus the pinstripes. The vest and shirt were black, along with his trousers. The tie and buttons were a dark red and his shoes were a combination of both colours. He fixed himself up a bit, making sure his tie was at the top and all his buttons were done up when he swore he saw a familiar site in the reflection. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he could see that brown stallion from before, the one Ditzy said was called Time turner. Before he took notice, his attention was taken away by the approaching grey mare.

His date had arrived. And the Doctor had to admit, she looked stunning.

There was something about the way her dress seemed to flow from her body. Her dress was completely black and she kept her signature bowtie on. She walked straight up to the Doctor as he went down on one knee. The Doctor quickly looked up to see if he could spot Time Turner but no pony was with him apart from Octavia. Octavia seemed a lot more confident than this morning as she walked straight up to the Doctor.

"Did you know the last time I came to this restaurant I was performing?" She asked. "It's nice to come here as a diner for a change."

"I imagine it is," the Doctor replied. "But I get this feeling that you love playing that cello more than anything." The Doctor extended his hand and Octavia placed her hoof in it. The Timelord motioned towards the restaurant and asked, "Shall we?"

Octavia nodded and the pair walked silently into the restaurant. When they stepped in a number of Ponies turned their heads to look at the pair but quickly returned to their meals. The Doctor noticed a mare with a rose cutie mark eating with a male Griffon. It appeared what Rarity and Fluttershy had told him was true. A waiter suddenly appeared in front of the two and immediately recognised the pair. He showed them to the only free table left in the restaurant which was in the far corner of the room.

"I see that you reserved us a table," the Doctor noted.

"Yes, my roommate booked it for me when I got home," Octavia replied. "She seemed as excited as me when I told her. Although she thought it was me and her going for a meal at first. I felt a little guilty afterwards if I'm honest." The pair sat down and were both handed a menu. As they looked over their respective menus they continued to chat.

"Really?" The Doctor asked. "Have I met her before?"

"I'm not sure actually," Octavia said. "You certainly didn't meet her at the party in your unusual home because she was in Canterlot doing a show at the time. You may have seen her around though but she's been somewhat distant as of late." The Doctor got a bit more comfortable in his chair. The chairs were much smaller than he was used to and this made it harder for him to get comfy. He longed for his couch back at the Tardis but he decided to get it out of his mind by asking Octavia another question.

"In what way is she becoming more distant?"

"It's hard to explain unless you know her personally. She works late because she's a DJ but I've been seeing her less and less lately. Honestly, I've never seen Vi-"

"Excuse me, but are you two ready to order?" Octavia had been interrupted by a female waitress who was ready to take the pairs order. The Doctor quickly looked over his menu and decided on something safe.

"I'll take the Caesar salad please." He knew it likely didn't have any chicken so he would have to hope it wasn't substituted for something inedible to him. Octavia ordered a vegetable casserole and while she did this the Timelord opposite her couldn't help but admire the grace and elegance in which she did everything. It seemed so natural to her, like it was her own language. The Doctor had met many a being like Octavia in his very long life but there was something that made her stick out, he just couldn't put his finger on it. The waitress left to get their orders when suddenly a mint green Unicorn appeared beside the Doctor.

"Oh my goodness, you're the Doctor aren't you. I had heard that Tavi was trying to court you. Sorry to interrupt your date but my name is Lyra Heartstrings." The unicorn had a lyre cutie mark and a green and white mane. She stuck out her hoof and the Doctor shook it in response. "I've been meaning to talk to you for a little bit now ever since Twilight told me your universe had humans in it." Octavia facehoofed because she knew what was coming next.

"Lyra, please. I'm sure the Doctor would rather just continue his meal…" Lyra cut Octavia off.

"But Tavi! He could confirm my theories at last." This caught the Doctors attention.

"Theories? You have theories on Humans? This I have to hear." Lyra stuck her tongue out at Octavia in a childish fashion and began to tell the Doctor her theory.

"You see, I believe we were not the first civilisation here on this planet. I believe that before we evolved there was a race called, 'Humans'. A humanoid race that may have not relied on magic." The Doctor questioned her on this.

"How do you know this?"

"You see I have found a number of relics. A small device with a screen and numbers and a few other things. I do not know what happened to them but…" Octavia interrupted Lyra this time to explain.

"Lyra here used to be a student of Celestia's but her work was dismissed as a practical joke. She quit afterwards despite Celestia taking a great interest I her theory because they wouldn't let her continue her research, Celestia was overruled by the entire board to let her continue. She dates Bon-bon in a relationship I disapprove of." The Doctor questioned this also.

"Why is that then?"

"Because Lyra here isn't really in lo-" A green hoof was shoved in Octavia's mouth as Lyra began to shake uncontrollably. Her nose scrunched up and she started to look about. She was clearly very nervous all of a sudden.

"Oh my, look at the time," said Lyra. "I best be off, you enjoy the rest of your date you two." Lyra practically galloped away as quickly left the restaurant. It appeared that she was eating alone and had just finished and paid the bill. Octavia explained.

"We're in the orchestra together, we've been friends for ages now. Her relationship with Bon-bon is built on pity you see. Lyra feels sorry for Bon-bon because Bon-bon is a tad… how do I put this gently… desperate. But it won't work out and eventually Lyra we'll have to tell the truth. I swear when that happens, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the two ended up dead."

"That's a rather grim view of it," the Doctor replied.

"I know but get these feelings. I'm probably just overthinking it though." The two were surprised when two plates were put in front of them. Both plates had their orders.

"Well that was quick," the Timelord remarked.

"The staff here are known for making quality food at a very quick pace."

"I thought you said you've never eaten here before. How did you know about the staff? Was it from your performances?"

"No, it says over there." Octavia pointed her hoof towards a sign that was hanging above the exit that read 'Our staff promise to make top quality food at the quickest pace possible to ensure your enjoyment.' When the Doctors eyes drifted away from the sign he noticed something that slightly disturbed him. Everypony in the room apart from himself and Octavia were wearing the earpieces that had been handed out this morning. They were not working yet but a dreaded familiarity floated around the earpieces. The Doctor had seen this before but it wasn't possible was it? There were no threats like that in Equestria from what he saw. Then again, there was no technology like that in Equestria, at least there wasn't meant to be.

"So how is your salad then, Doctor?" Octavia's voice found its way to the Doctor's ears. His current train of thought crashed in its place and his attention was now focused on Octavia again. He realised that he hadn't even taken a bite of his salad yet and quickly dug in. He was pleasantly surprised by the results.

"Well this does taste like Caesar salad."

"You're surprised by that? What else would it taste…" Before Octavia got a chance to finish her sentence a pair of white hooves covered her eyes. A classic game of guess who was the favourite game of one mare she knew better than anypony. Vinyl Scratch.

"Vinyl? That's you isn't it?"

"Awww, this game has become too easy for you. I need to figure out a way to spice it up." The white pony hugged her friend while the Doctor looked on in mild amusement. He noted that it seemed Octavia had a playful side to her as well. Vinyl stay focused on her friend but Octavia thought an introduction would be needed.

"Doctor, this is my roommate, Vinyl. Vinyl, this is the Timelord everypony is talking about." The Doctor was surprised that Vinyl glared at him with disinterest and mild hint of envy.

"Yeah, whatever," Vinyl said. Venom was laced in her voice. "Anyway, Tavi. Sorry for interrupting your date but I was passing by and I just wanted you to know that I've got a last minute gig so I'm off. Don't wait up for me I'll probably be back tomorrow." Octavia let out a sigh, she knew better than to argue with her friend when it came to her DJ work.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then. Stay safe." The two friends hugged but the Doctor noticed something interesting about Vinyl. Apart from himself and Octavia she was the only other pony not wearing an earpiece. Vinyl broke the hug when she caught the Doctor staring at her ear.

"What?" She asked bluntly.

"You're not wearing your earpiece."

"I know. They don't suit me is all." Vinyl looked over the Doctor one last time before making one last comment. "You remind me of somepony I know." With that, Vinyl turned and headed for the door. Her nose was held high until she left the building. The Doctor turned to Octavia with a look of confusion spread on his face as Octavia tried to explain.

"Vinyl has been a little… different lately. She's normally very friendly to everypony that she meets. I think she might also be a tad jealous but that's another story." The Doctor nodded politely and continued the rest of his date with Octavia uninterrupted.

The pair now found themselves walking side by side towards Octavia's home. The cool air breeze had entered along with the night sky that twinkled and sparkled above their heads. They had talked for around an hour and a half inside the restaurant about any subject matter close to them. Music, art, technology etc. Even rumours, one story about some sort of spider creature that lived in the Everfree forest was very entertaining. It was also quite interesting to hear about different musicians from the Doctors universe that sounded very familiar to some of Octavia's heroes, like Beat hoofen which the Doctor couldn't help but snicker at. As they approached the house the Doctor could tell that it had Octavia written all over it. It appeared small but enough size for two mares to live comfortably in. The house was black with a straw roof like most of the houses in Ponyville, the Doctor imagined it was Octavia who kept the house looking so respectable.

Vinyl's behaviour crossed his mind again, it appeared she had taken an immediate dislike to the Doctor for reasons unknown to him. Perhaps she was slightly xenophobic but from what Rarity had told him that would have been slightly unusual in this day and age. Perhaps she thought that the Doctor was dangerous which was a fair assumption and she was simply looking out for her friend. Then he remembered what Octavia had told him, that she was a little jealous. Before the Doctor could think it over any further he was taken away from his thoughts by Octavia's sweet voice.

"Well it appears that we have arrived, Doctor." The Doctor felt slightly disappointed that this night was over. He had a lot of fun, which had become a constant as of late in Ponyville. "You haven't been on a date in a long time, have you?"

"No, no I haven't," the Doctor said with a hint of regret in his voice.

"Why is that?"

"My life is dangerous," he said surprisingly calmly. "Here it's been different, I have to warn you though, I'm not one to settle down. I'm a traveller." Octavia gave him a sly grin.

"Good, I've always wanted to travel." Regret started to come over the Timelord. Tavi was too sweet, too kind and too perfect to be put in danger by him. Despite them coming from two very different social circles, Tavi seemed a lot like Rose in a way. In the short time the Doctor knew her, he wanted to protect her.

"Do you know how old I am?" The Doctor asked. Octavia shook her head. "I'm over 900 years old." This visibly shocked the musician for a moment before she returned to her normal composure. The Doctor got on one knee so the pair were face to face. "I'm cursed to live forever, I don't die I just regenerate. It's the Timelords curse. Imagine having someone you love and watching them slowly decay in front of your eyes…" Before he could continue, Octavia's hoof found its way onto the side of the Doctor's face. Their eyes met under the door of Octavia's house.

"The thing you really want and the thing you need are one in the same in this case," Octavia said, soft as a whisper. "You need somepony. Don't kid yourself into thinking you don't." Before the Doctor could counter her point, Octavia leaned in and gave the Doctor a kiss on the cheek. Clearly Octavia was not the shy mare the Doctor had met this morning. "Goodnight, Doctor." Octavia quickly turned towards the door and entered her house, closing it quickly behind her. The Doctor stayed there for a moment on his knee, he couldn't keep the smile from forming in his face.

Meanwhile…

Princess Celestia was patiently listening to her subject, Archetype. Usually Luna would be here since she handled the midnight court; however she was being… sorted out. The throne room was empty beside the two ponies presently talking. Archetype was currently petitioning Princess Celestia to take down her masts as he found them an eyesore, they were unnatural, they scared some of the citizens, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then there was something he said that caught Celestia's attention.

"… and if that wasn't bad enough your majesty, I have discovered that there may be something sinister about the antennas that you were not aware of."

"Oh really?" She replied with genuine curiosity. The earpiece told her that she should ask what. "Whatever is it my little pony?"

"Well I've been studying the frequency and the earpiece you've given me. They are all linked but on a deeper level than I expected. The information does not only go to the subconscious, it can control the subconscious. The right pony could use the antennas to have a mindless hoard to do with whatever they pleased." Celestia nodded and replied calmly.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Archetype. While you are here though I would like to introduce you to the new guard."

"New guard?"

"Yes, you see Shining Armour and Candance have been sent to investigate some magical disturbance far from here and while he's been gone I've taken it upon myself to strip him of his title and commission an entirely new guard." The stunned Archetype looked on as Celestia called to somepony behind the door. "Please, if you would be so kind as to come in and deal with this problem." Suddenly the door burst open with tremendous force and two figures started to make their way towards the trembling Stallion. Terrified thoughts went through his head as the figures got closer and closer and in a barely coherent babble the pony asked.

"What? What are they?" Celestia then replied quite sweetly.

"My little Pony, these Gentlecolts will show you the door… deaths door." Archetype didn't even have time to scream before a hand grabbed his shoulder and an electric current went through his tiny body. In moments he was on the ground, dead. Celestia looked towards the figures and gave instructions.

"Dispose of the body and forward the plans. We will activate the antennas in Canterlot tomorrow. Place the city under lockdown and then send out crews to set the other antennas up all around Equestria. The figures responded by tightening their hands into fists and slamming them against their chests.

Chapter 9: City of Nightmares (Edited)

Chapter 9: Canterlot, City of Nightmares (Edited)

Chapter 9: Canterlot, city of nightmares

“And here it is. My home.” The Timelord was the first to enter the Timepony’s TARDIS. What he saw brought a smile to his face, as it was a near exact replica of his own TARDIS interior. From the couch, to the console, to the design on the wall, it was like the Doctor had entered his second home. The pony Doctor, now bearing a smug grin, quickly followed him inside.

“So, what do you think?”

“Honestly? I feel at home again.” He looked at his pony counterpart exchanged a look that said ‘I know what you mean’. The Timepony couldn’t help but wax nostalgic.

“Nine forms, 900 years and a whole bunch of wonderful companions and here I am today.”

The Doctor noted what his pony counterpart had said, and questioned, “So you’re in your tenth form as well?”

“Correct. I like this form! I would hate to leave it.” The Timelord quickly remembered their friends and ran back to tell the others that it was okay for them to come in. Vinyl pushed past the Doctor first with an unimpressed look on her face. Everypony knew that Vinyl had seen all of this before. The Doctor had to remind himself that Octavia had told him that Vinyl was generally a very friendly and loving mare. Derpy narrowly missed the Doctor’s head as she flew in next and took a seat on the TARDIS coach. The remaining members of the elements of harmony all brushed past with each of them commenting on how much it looked like the Timelord’s TARDIS. Finally, Octavia trotted in last. She gave a courteous thank you to the Doctor as he held the door open for her, and when she was in he closed the door behind him, locking it with the key his counterpart leant him. The Doctor stopped Octavia before she joined the others.

“Octavia, how did you meet Vinyl?” The Doctor asked. The question caught Octavia off-guard, but she was more than happy to answer.

“Oh, I met Vinyl at music school. I used to be a massive snob before I met her.”

“Really?” The Doctor replied skeptically.

“Mhm. You see, my parents were quite rich so I used to have a lot of well off friends, but none of them found their talents in music like I did, thus I was the only one who went to music school. Vinyl was the only pony kind enough to talk to me. She grew on me. I decided to make it on my own and Vinyl and I moved in together when we were old enough. We’ve been best friends ever since.” The Doctor was satisfied with the history lesson and was about to make his way to the console when Octavia whispered something to him. “By the way, remind me to ask Vinyl about this ‘condition’. I haven’t simply forgotten her question dodging.” The Doctor kindly nodded, and when he left her she made one more comment under her breath. “I haven’t forgotten your question dodging either.”

The Doctor stepped over to the main console to check the controls. As he thought it was exactly like his, only modified so they were easier to use if you had hooves. The Doctor wondered if the timepony could regenerate into a Unicorn or Pegasus. He wasn’t sure though as you would have to take in the fact that the pony Doctor is also an alien and not a native of this world. He watched his counterpart begin to work his magic on the machine. He noted the delicate stroke he would give some parts, a habit he also picked up. The pony Doctor paused and looked at his counterpart.

“Would you like to help me, Doctor?” He asked with a smile.

“I thought you’d never ask, Doctor!” They shared a small laugh and the pair went to work. Dash had already begun flying around the TARDIS, making sure she didn’t get lost again. Her three friends began conversing by the TARDIS console while both Doctors worked away on the console. Tavi slowly trotted up the ramp and spotted Vinyl who was lazily leaning against one the support beams. Octavia thought buck it and headed straight for the DJ to ask her directly about her ‘condition’, but paused when she saw Dash approach Vinyl. Dash had a tendency to go ‘fangirl’ with ponies she admired or was curious about. From what she could overhear, Dash was asking about Vinyl’s time in the TARDIS. Octavia felt it would be rude to interrupt them over something potentially trivial, and since there was no real urgency, she relented for now. Her attention then turned to the Timelord who was busily working away at the TARDIS. He spotted her and beckoned her over. When Octavia approached, the Doctor stopped what he was doing and knelt down to face her.

“Are you alright?” He asked with sincerity. “There’s something bothering you, isn’t there? You’ve had that look since we’ve entered.” Octavia sighed as she tried her best to explain.

“I’m worried, to be honest. About two things .The first is Vinyl, I want to know what this condition is. Is she dying? Is it a disease?”

“I’m curious about that as well. I don’t know if my counterpart over there would be willing to tell us…”

“And I’m worried about you.” Octavia interrupted the Doctor before he could finish and he gave her a confused stare. “Why do you keep dodging my question?” The Timelord didn’t know what to say. He made sure nopony was listening and made sure his counterpart needed no further help as he took the mare to the side and finally found words to speak with.

“What do you mean?”

“I asked you last night if you could tell me about your homeworld, Gallifrey.” The Doctor found himself feeling uncomfortable. A quick look confirmed that nopony else was paying attention to him and Tavi. His eyes met hers, and hiis gaze did not falter as the mare looked up at him expectantly.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why can’t you tell me? Don’t you trust me?”

“No, I do trust you. It just… hurts.” Octavia saw the pained expression on the Timelords face and she couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. “Look, I would be lying to you if I said I haven’t felt anything for my companions. Honestly, I sometimes come to the conclusion that I’m better off alone.” Octavia watched him intently as she tried to read every emotion that crossed his face. “I met someone who showed me I wasn’t. Because when I am I do things that I’m not proud of. I think it will be dangerous when we get to Canterlot so do you want to go…”

“No, I’m going.”

“Heh, I thought that wouldn’t work. Alright, do me a favour. Do everything I say and please, do not die. I really don’t want your death on my conscience as well.”

“Make me a promise.”

“What?”

“You’ll tell me everything when we’re done here.” He paused before answering, but his gaze didn’t leave her as he took her hoof in his hand.

“Alright, I promise you I will tell you everything when this is over.” Before he had time to react, Octavia wrapped her forelegs around his neck and hugged him. The Doctor quickly returned the hug as she nuzzled him gently.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was busy drilling Vinyl Scratch on info about her time with the pony Doctor. “So, were you two just friends or…”

“Just friends. Trust me, he isn’t my type,” said Vinyl. “I think Ditzy has always had a thing for him but she’s never said.”

“Really? So, you’ve been in space, right?”

“I’ve visited space stations, alien planets, moons, I’ve gone back in time…”

“… And forwards as well,” interrupted the pony Doctor. “Don’t forget about that Vinyl.” The pony Doctor had gotten to work on the console closest to the pair as he appeared to be nearly done. Rainbow wanted to know one more thing.

“So why did the Doctor leave you behind? What was so important that he didn’t take you?”

“Well that was….” Before Vinyl could answer the entire TARDIS rocked to one side. Everypony nearly left their hooves as both Doctors quickly grabbed onto a part of the main console. The other ponies did their best to try and keep themselves balanced apart from Pinkie Pie who was jumping about while squealing with delight. The Timelord held on tight but before he could ask what had happened, the Timepony explained.

“Sorry! Wrong lever. Were still on course for Canterlot, be be there in a moment! Everypony, hold on tight!” The TARDIS continued to rock and shake for what felt like an eternity, yet it was closer to five minutes. The Timelord looked around to make sure all were alright. Octavia had moved next to him on the console. Vinyl held onto Dash, Ditzy and the pony Doctor. She’s very strong for a Unicorn he mused to himself. The rest of the mane six were holding onto the couch, minus Pinkie who was still gleefully hopping about. Eventually the TARDIS stopped and everypony began to calm down. The Doctor checked over Octavia first who appeared to be fine.

“Is everyone alright?” He called out. A series of murmurs confirmed that everypony was indeed fine. The Doctor spied the pony Doctor receiving a clip round the ear, courtesy of Miss Scratch.

“What the heck was that?” She cried out. “The TARDIS has never been that bad before! What did you do!?”

“Ow, I accidently let go of the parking break before all the coordinates were set.” Ditzy intervened between the pair.

“Relax you two! We’re here now aren’t we?” The pony Doctor nodded.

“Exactly,” he said. “We should be in the back alleyway that’s closest to the main castle.” Rarity took the initiative and headed for the TARDIS door.

“Well, I for one think it’s about time we see what’s going on…” As her hoof touched the door, Rainbow shot across the room and swiped it away. Rarity shook her hoof as she made puppy dog eyes. “Oh! Rainbow, why did you do that?”

“Are you nuts Rarity? Who the heck knows what’s going on out there!?” Pinkie Pie appeared to still be hopping around in bliss, not realising that the TARDIS had stopped shaking some time ago. The others gathered around the front door, they were all mixed about exactly what they should do next. Fluttershy then spoke up.

“Shouldn’t we at least take a peek…? If you don’t mind me saying.” The Doctor approached the front door.

“If this TARDIS is the same as mine then we should be safe if we have to make a run for it.” The pony Doctor put his key into the lock and twisted it until a click sound was heard. Everypony gathered around the door as the pony Doctor began to open it but they weren’t paying attention to the pink mare behind them.

“Alright everypony, let’s go!” A pink blur smacked into the back of the crowd of ponies and the resulting force caused everypony to shoot out of the door. The group landed in a pile with both Doctors on the bottom. A series of groans and moans could be heard as Pinkie jumped on top of the group. Her next statement sent alarm bells off inside the Doctors head. “Hey, this isn’t an alleyway.” On cue the Doctor looked at the ground and noticed that it was polished marble.

“Doctor, weren’t you taking us to an alleyway?” Asked Ditzy. “This looks like…”

“A throne room? You are most correct my little pony.” Everypony froze. Both Doctors noticed a pair of white hooves in front of them, and as they looked up they saw Princess Celestia. “It must be my lucky day. Instead of having to look for you, you’ve all come straight to me.” Like an explosion, Rainbow Dash shot out from the centre of the pile and made a beeline for the TARDIS, but before she could reach it, it began to fade away. The iconic noise the machine made when it moved through time and space echoed through the room and then it was gone. Celestia chuckled to herself. “I’m so glad I figured out how to alter the TARDIS’s flight patterns with my magic. I’ve sent it back to its last location in Ponyville. That will allow us to chat without any further interruptions, don’t you agree?”

“Princess, what are you doing!?” Cried out Rarity. The others managed to find their footing and gathered together. Vinyl stood in front of Ditzy and Octavia in an attempt to protect them while both Doctors stood next to each other. The rest of the elements were backing up Rarity. “Why are you trying to control your subjects like this!? What is this all about!?” The Doctor could see the earplugs inside Celestia’s ears and an unnatural grin on her face. A forced smile.

“My little pony, I’m simply doing what I am told. Now listen to your monarch, surrender now and you will soon see the light.” Octavia pushed past Vinyl.

“What do you mean ‘see the light’?” She asked.

“You will only know once you wear these plugs. It is… indescribable.” The Doctor grabbed something the pony Doctor handed him and approached the Princess.

“Princess Celestia, I know you’re still in there! Your mind is too powerful for them to simply control you, so they’re altering your mind to see a form of blissful reality instead of a nightmare. This isn’t real!” Princess Celestia shook her head, that smile curling slightly wider as she did.

“They told me you would say something like that...” she murmured gently. Suddenly, loud footsteps could be heard approaching the throne room. The Doctor knew exactly what was coming. “Ah, here they are.. I believe they wanted to talk to you directly so I shall leave you to it. I’m far too busy preparing for the future of Ponykind.” Before the Doctor could ask what she meant, she had vanished in a flash of golden light. The throne room doors flung open and there stood two large imposing figures. Everypony’s eyes opened wide.

“D-Doctor! Wh-what are they!?” Screamed out Octavia. The Doctor said only one word.

“Cybermen!” The large metal men stood in the doorway, blocking off their chance to escape. An electronic voice came from the first Cyberman.

“You will all desist and surrender yourselves for future upgrading.” Nopony was sure what was going on, save for the Doctor, whose anger was visibly painted upon his face.

“What are you doing here? How did you get here?” There was a short silence as the pony Doctor gathered the group behind the Timelord.

“We were brought here. You are not part of this world. Our scans indicate you are a known enemy of the Cybermen: The Doctor.” Dash flew next to the Doctor and began to get ready to fight.

“So you’ve fought these guys before then. What are they Doctor? Robots?” Dash asked. The Doctor stared intensely at the metal men who had still not moved away from the door.

“They’re worse than robots, Rainbow. A twisted combination of metal and flesh lie behind that armour.” Rainbow looked confused but Rarity figured it out almost immediately.

“Doctor, you can’ possibly be saying that…” Before she could finish her sentence, the group heard more metal footsteps approaching.

“Doctor, we should go, there’s more coming,” called out Ditzy. However, when she looked around she realised the only way out was through the Cybermen. The windows were closed shut, and since they were all magically reinforced they couldn’t break through. When she looked back at the doorway, two new Cybermen now stood there. These two were different, though. They were smaller and were on all fours, looking just like metal ponies. Everypony quickly realised what they used to be. One of the metal ponies spoke.

“Only a few of the castle staff have been upgraded, soon, all of Equestria will join us.” The Doctor stepped closer towards the metal monsters.

“Why have you only done a few? Why haven’t simply taken complete control over Celestia… Oh I see.” The Doctor paced back and forth as he spun his theory. “You can’t convert anypony else can you? You may have been led to this world by me but you certainly didn’t have the resources. That’s why you have them collecting metal. Electricity hasn’t been significantly mass produced yet either, only in hospitals. The ponies still rely on candlelight and steam power. You have to convert all your technology to fit steam power, right?” The metal men and ponies stood silent for a moment, they seemed to be collecting data. Pinkie muttered to the others.

“I bet the Doctor has one of those faces.” Fluttershy seemed confused by this.

“Pinkie, what do you mean those faces?”

“One of those faces that ponies can’t stop blabbing their plans too. It must be super useful.” The pony Doctor butted in.

“They are, I know from personal experience.” Vinyl nudged the Doctor.

“Quiet, I’m trying to listen,” she commanded. Finally, the metal behemoths spoke.

“We are not utilising steam power. Substance to power machines are hereby dubbed element x.”

“A bit cliché,” the Doctor muttered. But what is element x? The Doctor pondered to himself.

“You also have incorrect information. You did not lead us to this world.”

“So… it was Princess Celestia?” Asked Vinyl Scratch.

“Unit identified as Celestia was a catalyst.”

“So you used her to get in,” the Doctor said. “But she didn’t lead you here. Then who did? And what is element x?” The Doctor didn’t receive the reply he wanted.

“Sufficient metal has been acquired in Canterlot. Building of upgrade stations will commence. You have been deemed a rogue element, you will be deleted.” The four Cybermen brought up their right arm/fore hoof and began to march towards the group. All the group could hear were the thunderous sounds of the Cybermen marching and their chant. “DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!”

Chapter 10: Run!

“DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!”

“Ah, now before you do that, I should tell you something,” interrupted the Doctor. The Cybermen literally froze in place. “This is actually quite interesting as I came across this situation not too long ago. Sonic technology, although effective, is neither mass-produced nor easy to come by. I’m partly to blame for that, but we’re not here to point fingers - or hooves - and what is quite fascinating is what happens when you put together two specific sonic devices.”

“We have deemed that you are stalling for time,” announced one of the Cybermen.

“Perhaps. Or maybe, I was just waiting to set the right calibrations, before I did THIS!” As soon as the Doctor finished his sentence he pulled out the screwdriver his counterpart gave him as well as his own. The Doctor placed the ends together and activated both simultaneously. A high-pitched wail could be heard by everypony in the room. The Cybermen began to shake violently as they started overloading. The others covered their ears until the Doctor stopped the screwdrivers. The Cybermen didn’t stop shaking though and the Doctor knew that this was their chance. “Everyone, it’s time to do what I do best. RUN!” Without a hint of hesitation the entire group pushed past the Cybermen and the Cyberponies and ran for the exit. They got to the hallway and found two choices open to them, left and right.

“We need to split up,” said the pony Doctor.

“Agreed, this ends today. I’ll take Dash, Tavi and Rarity.”

“Hey! If your taking Tavi then I’m coming with,” demanded Vinyl.

“I’ll take everypony else then,” confirmed the pony Doctor. Without another word, the two groups ran their separate ways. Moments later, the Cybermen regained control over themselves and resumed their metallic march after the group. They chose to chase after the pony Doctor’s group but they were already far ahead.

The pony Doctor’s legs were beginning to feel the burn. ‘Guess I’m a bit out of shape,’ he thought to himself. Pinkie, despite the situation they were in, was keeping up with the Doctor by simply hopping. Despite the cheerful action, there was a glint of fear in her eyes. Both Fluttershy and Ditzy were right behind them. Neither of them were flying, instead, they opted to run. They were far ahead of the Cybermen due to their need to have a uniformed march but that didn’t slow down the pace of the ponies. Nopony was sure exactly where they were, having ran for a solid two minutes through multiple turns without paying much attention to direction. Fluttershy had wished that Twilight was with them, as she had spent so much time in the castle that she would have known where they were. Eventually the Doctor spotted a room and formulated a change of strategy. “Everypony, follow me.” They ran towards the door but Ditzy stopped before entering.

“But Doctor, what if they find us?” She asked in a panicked tone.

“They won’t; I believe we lost them. We have to come up with a plan.” Without another word the Doctor trotted towards the door and beckoned the others to follow him through. He opened the door and waited for everypony to run in before quietly closing it behind him. Fluttershy spoke up louder than usual.

“Shouldn’t we make sure they can’t get through?” The Doctor was ahead of her and used his sonic screwdriver to lock the doors but Pinkie had other ideas.

“Alright everypony, stand back!” She cried. Pinkie moved faster than should have been physically possible. Pieces of furniture began to be stacked in front of the doorway, blocking anypony from coming through. Chairs, a large wardrobe and other bits and pieces came together to make the large doorstop. Pinkie eventually stopped and nodded at the others. “There we go, your aunty Pinkie Pie has made it safe.”

“I’m nine hundred years older than you,” the Doctor muttered. The Doctor was now satisfied that they were secure and took in his surroundings. This was formerly a pony’s bedroom, probably an important staff member. The walls were a dark purple and on them were pinned up blueprints and plans, amongst other things. The room had been turned into a planning room. The blueprints had designs for the pony cybermen. On closer inspection they detailed how to convert the biology to the suit but some of the notes warned they would be insufficient materials to convert the entire populace of Equestria.

“Do you think they’ll kill the other races like the Griffons and the Dragons?” Asked Ditzy.

“Goodness, what makes you think that?” Questioned Fluttershy, whose soft tone of voice had returned to her.

“Well look, all of these blueprints show how to make a pony into one of those… things. There’s nothing for Wolves or Dragons or Diamond dogs, not even Zebras. What makes us so special?” There was a small silence that was shared amongst the group. The castle itself was also nearly silent. If you listened closely, you could hear the occasional metal footstep hitting the ground far off into the distance. The Doctor let out a long heavy sigh as he finished his pondering.

“It appears that even if they focused entirely on the pony population, they would not have enough resources to convert all of us,” he began. “There’s something else going on here, maybe this ‘element x’ has something to do with it. The answer may very well be in this room.”

“If that’s the case, then why isn’t this room guarded?” asked Pinkie.

“These Cybermen are machines, so they already have all the information they need stored in their mechanical brains. Additionally, I don’t think there are enough of them right now to be worried about guarding one room. Everypony, start looking around for anything useful. Anything that could show what they’re doing.” Nopony wasted anytime but due to the amount of blueprints and papers that were scattered on the floor and carelessly piled up on one another, nopony was sure where to begin. In the end the group began in the four different corners of the room, each taking their own corner. The Doctor glanced through quickly as he slowly approached Pinkie Pie.

“Y’know, this all feels strangely familiar,” muttered Pinkie. The Doctor overheard her as he was looking around the room.

“Really? Have you been in this scenario before?”

“Not exactly, this sounds like one of the Doctor’s stories. The other Doctor I mean.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, well one time I invited the Doctor to make some scrumalicous goodies with me. He came over and while we were baking he told me some of his adventures. He mentioned these ‘Cybermen’ before and there were these creatures he didn’t want to talk about but he described as giant pepper pots on wheels but that’s just silly. There were also moving statues and this meanie-pants called the Master…”

“… The Master?”

“Yeah, he said he was a bad Timelord who tried to take over and stuff. Oh wait, you must have met somepony like that too.”

“No, honestly I never met a particularly evil Timepony. My people weren’t perfect and I have come to odds with some of them but none of them ever sought to take over anything. The Master, huh? Interesting name.” The Doctor didn’t get a chance to think it over any further as Fluttershy beckoned him over. The Doctor expected to see Fluttershy holding a folder or blueprint but instead she was beckoning everypony to the window.

“Fluttershy, what is it?” Asked the Doctor. She didn’t say anything, perhaps she was in shock but she kept pointing out of the window. The Doctor peered outside and quickly realised what it was that had her so shocked. Canterlot was being covered in antennas much like the one in Ponyville. However, they only needed one to control the populace of Canterlot. Why were there so many?

“This has to be linked to their final plan,” the Doctor pondered allowed. “Everypony, we need to move, double time!”

Meanwhile…

Two Cybermen we’re just around the corner. The Timelord carefully peered around the edge of the wall, careful not to alert the mechanical men to his presence. He peered behind him and his group was still intact. He put a finger to his lips so they would keep quiet. Dash was keeping Rarity close to her and Vinyl was doing the same with Octavia. The Doctor could hear the two Cybermen begin to march again and peered around the wall once again. He was satisfied that they were in the clear but before he could move, Dash whispered to him as quietly as she could.

“So what the heck are we doing here?”

“I asked Rarity if she knew where Luna’s chamber was,” he replied. “Did you notice how Celestia acted differently than the other controlled ponies?”

“Yeah, the others acted like zombies,” said Vinyl. “The princess was like in control of her mind, but wasn’t at the same time…”

“… It was like she was seeing something different than what was actually happening,” finished Octavia. The Doctor nodded in agreement.

“The Princesses are old, older than me. Like me they can’t be simply controlled due to their advanced anatomy and brain power so the cybermen have to manipulate them.” Rarity, who had remained silent up until this point realised something.

“So why would they keep them alive then? Surely they could kill them and then they would be put out of the way.”

“Exactly, that means they need them. For what, I’m not sure yet.”

“So Princess Luna is still alive?” Asked a hopeful Octavia.

“Hopefully, we’re about to find out.” The Doctor ran towards the door and signalled the others to join him. The Doctor quickly pulled out his screwdriver and unlocked the door. He edged the handle down and lightly pushed it with his weight against the door. There was only a deep blackness at first but soon some of the bedroom was illuminated. A bed could be seen on the far side of the room but there didn’t seem to be anypony in it. The décor of the room was black and blue which fitted the Princess of the night’s style. The Doctor held the door so the others could get in first before shutting the door quietly behind him. The amount of books in the room rivalled Twilight’s library but many seemed to be collecting dust. Obviously, Luna didn’t have the time to read most of them. The curtains were drawn but small cracks of sunlight pierced the edges of the curtains that added faint light to the room. Suddenly, the candles located around the room ignired and a familiar voice could be heard above the group.

“I’m so glad that you’re all here.” Everypony looked up at Princess Luna who was descending upon the group. “I was hoping to see you all before everything came to fruition.” The group bunched together and tried to back towards the door but Luna landed in front of the exit. “I must thank you, Doctor. You helped bring the ones that will lead us all to Utopia.” The Doctor didn’t even have to look at Luna’s ears to know that she was being manipulated. Luna looked happy. Too happy - deranged happy.

“Princess Luna,” cried Rarity. “Tell me you’re not…”

“… Enlightened?” Finished Luna. “Why yes I am, dear element of generosity. At first I was admittedly afraid when the metal men came and put these earplugs on me.” She made a point to lightly touch both earplugs. “But now I see things that will end all conflict and fighting forever. TIS A GLORIOUS DAY FOR ALL!”

“Ah, now I see,” said the Doctor. “Their leading you by emphasising that they’ll get rid of the one thing you and Celestia hate most. War. Conflict. With that it opens your minds to mind control. Because that’s what the earplugs are telling you, aren’t they?” Luna snorted at the Doctor.

“Clearly since none of you wear them you do not understand.” Luna looked up at the ceiling; she began to reminisce on the past, a dangerous thing to do when one is as old as she. “A thousand years ago my sister and I declared war on each other. What started as a civil war escalated into a world war between all the races until I was defeated. So many things happened in that war. Both my sister and I felt we had no choice at the time but looking back, we have both agreed we have far more blood on our hooves than anypony should have. Do you understand us Doctor?” The ponies around the Doctor’s feet looked up at him in curiosity. Waiting for him to answer.

“… Yes, yes I do understand.”

“That isn’t something you’ll find in the history books as it has been turned into a story for foals. Today most ponies believe that the fight was purely between me and my sister, but how wrong they are. Like many of the atrocities committed in that war...” Luna paused before continuing, composing herself as she relived an especially painful memory. “I lost my son you know. Carnage Moon was his name. He wanted to serve and protect his mother along with the rest of my soldiers who believed that the night was the best.” The Doctor could see an angry scowl appear on the face of the DJ next to him.

“It isn’t about what was best!” shouted Vinyl. “Do you know why everypony sleeps during the night? Not because they shun it, it’s because they feel safe! They feel protected because they trust the pony in charge to look after them!”

“And I forgot that,” whispered the princess. “They have told me your past Doctor. I know what you did in the great Timewar.” The grimace that appeared on the Doctor’s face told the whole story. “I am surprised you would try to stop this. This will prevent conflict amongst all of us for all time.”

“Luna, I’m sorry but you’re being manipulated! Think about what else will happen when everypony is turned into a cyberpony. No more emotions, the cyberponies will never advance, you will all just stop. You will all stay exactly the same way forever!”

“Maybe that is best, Doctor.”

“You don’t mean that Luna, you can’t!” The Doctor felt an unfamiliar glow around him and before he could react he was being picked up by Luna’s magic.

“You do not tell me what I mean. If you insist on stopping us then you must…” Luna never had the chance to finish her sentence as a princess-sized bed slammed straight into her. The Doctor fell a foot back to the ground as he turned around to see who threw it. To their surprise, it was Vinyl. The way she stood on her two hindlegs and her forelegs in the air suggested that she had actually thrown it using her strength rather than her magic.

“Vi-Vinyl! Ho-how did you…?” Spluttered Octavia. Everypony heard Luna beginning to get up and the Doctor knew this was their chance.

“Rainbow!” he shouted. “Take off her earplugs, now!” Rainbow gave a salute and in no time at all, the ‘self-proclaimed fastest flyer in all of Equestria’ held two earplugs in her hoof. Luna was knocked out, and this worried Dash when she remembered what was meant to happen when a pony had their plugs removed, though the Doctor assured her she was okay. “Relax, Luna’s mind is stronger than average ponies so both princesses are safe from suffering a neuron implosion. She should be out for only a moment.” Everypony returned their attentions back to Vinyl who was sheepishly rubbing a hoof against the back of her head.

“Darling, have you been taking trips to the gym lately?” Asked Rarity.

“Um, not exactly,” replied Vinyl who was trying to dodge the harsh stare from her longtime friend, Octavia. Nopony had the chance to press any further as Luna began to stir awake. The Doctor cautiously approached her, keeping his screwdriver at the ready. It couldn’t fight her off, but it was enough to reassure the Timelord. Almost immediately the Doctor could see the look of dread upon the night princesses face. She looked up at him with tears beginning to form in her eyes.

“Tell me I have been having the most awful nightmare.” The Doctor shook his head. “By the gods, what must mother and Carnage think of me now!?” There was no mask she could wear, nor any composure she could bring forth to stop the tears pouring down her face. She jumped at the Doctor and wrapped her forehooves around him to try and gain some comfort and the Timelord returned the hug. Despite the cybermen telling the Doctor that he didn’t bring them here, he couldn’t help but feel like this was all his fault.

Chapter 11: Confessions

The Doctor had lost track of time - far from ordinary in his case. Comforting Luna had caused him to think about all that had happened. The cybermen, element x, the towers. He berated himself for not taking action sooner when the earpieces were first handed out. It was cyberman technology, of COURSE it was cyberman technology, but the Doctor hadn’t wanted to believe it. Once again, his arrival had caused death to those who did not deserve it. What started as a dream had quickly escalated into a nightmare and now the Doctor and his friends were the only ones who could set things right. And they needed Princess Luna.

They had gotten lucky. Vinyl had caught the night princess off guard but that wouldn’t work on Celestia. She knew they were here and she would see them coming a mile away. Their only hope was that Luna would be able to keep her sister busy long enough so they could remove the earplugs from her but the Doctor needed Luna to be in the right state of mind for that. They were still in Luna’s bedroom while Luna was sobbing into the Timelord’s shoulder. Grief had taken her and she needed time to let it out.

Rainbow Dash was busy looking at her hooves. She never was good at handling situations like these. She usually just flew but that wasn’t an option here. Instead, she tried to block out Luna’s crying by making small talk with Rarity. Rarity on the other hoof wished she could help somehow. She was the queen of overdramatic reactions but here she felt the princess was fully justified to let it all out. She could see that Rainbow was struggling to deal with the situation so she tried her best to distract her friend. She hoped her fear wouldn’t show.

Vinyl had made her way to the balcony, away from everypony else. She briefly considered a cyberpony might spot her from below but she didn’t care right now. What she had done was going to cause questions to be asked, questions she wished never to answer. She blew away a single strand of blue mane that fell across her face; her mane always started to get messy when she was worrying and it bugged her to no end. She had hoped the fresh air might cheer her up but looking at the dark cloudy sky only helped to bring down her mood even further. The clip clop sound of hooves hitting the ground was behind her and she knew who they belonged to as they got closer to her.

“Well… you’ve gotten stronger,” stated Octavia as she walked up beside the DJ. Vinyl quickly adjusted her glasses so they were firmly on her face. “I’ve been thinking about what’s been different about you recently. The random late night excursions which I’m now certain weren’t last minute gigs, the fact that I can’t remember the last time you didn’t have your glasses on, that you recently brought your own fridge for your own room yet you constantly use the one in the kitchen and let’s not forget that you appear to be stronger than an earth pony now.” Vinyl said nothing as she continued to look at the clouds. “It’s bad enough that I found out you had a whole secret life. Travelling in a time machine with an eccentric…”

“I’m going to stop you there Tavi.” Vinyl spoke for the first time in this conversation. “You’re the one who’s been dating the counterpart so don’t tell me if a stallion came to you and offered you an adventure anywhere in time and space that you wouldn’t jump on board.” Octavia stared at the DJ. Vinyl hadn’t looked away from the clouds during the conversation and Octavia found it slightly unnerving. From what Octavia could gather, the pony Doctor had dumped her back on Equestria without any warning and disappeared.This explained her hostility to his counterpart, but her general moodiness and other changes still hadn’t been explained.

“True, but there’s more to this. What has happened to you Vinyl Scratch?” Vinyl hated it when Octavia used her full name. It felt like she was being talked down to by her mother. Vinyl let out a heavy sigh as she turned to face the grey mare.

“I’m going to bring up a bad memory now so stay with me here, okay?” Asked Vinyl. Octavia nodded in response. “Do you… Do you…” The DJ was struggling to say it so Octavia put her hoof on her shoulder to reassure her. “… Do you remember two years ago when I told you I loved you?”

Ah, I can see why she didn’t want to talk about it, thought Octavia. “Yes, yes I remember.”

“I couldn’t believe it myself. I had never really liked anypony like that before and I was a total goof about it. It just kind of happened. Heck, I told you this already so I don’t…”

“… Vinyl. It’s okay, just say it.”

“Thanks. When you said you wanted us to be friends... I took it badly. I know it looked like I ran out of the house and didn’t come back till the morning...but that wasn’t exactly what happened. I ran into the Doctor and Ditzy that night. They were being chased by a statue that moved when you didn’t look at it. Weird, huh?”

“Sounds absolutely ridiculous. Then again, giant metal men and aliens from another universe are pretty ridiculous too.” Octavia smiled warmly and Vinyl soon returned it.

“Anyway, I kind of got caught up in it all and before I knew it, we were travelling in the Tardis. I was actually gone for a month but I asked to be returned to the morning after our...talk. Ever since then I travelled with those two until six months ago when both me and Ditzy were dumped.”

“Ditzy and I. And, Well that explains how you met him, but that doesn’t…”

“… I’m getting to that, just wait a moment,” assured Vinyl as she placed her hoof on Octavia’s shoulder. “It happened a bit after I saw the Doctor regenerate, you know all about that stuff right?” Octavia remembered what ‘her’ Doctor had told her, so she nodded. “Cool, anyway one day we travelled back in time, 200 years ago to Trottingham. Something was attacking the locals at night and of course, we went to stop it. One night I got separated and attacked but when I woke up I didn’t have a scratch on me except… two puncture wounds on my neck…” Octavia was allowed a moment to digest what she heard. Her first thought was understandable but...surely not, right? Vinyl couldn’t be? “When we stopped him he… he turned out to be a vampony. I don’t think I need to say anymore.”

“No, I don’t believe you. You, a vampony? That’s just…” Vinyl took her glasses off before she finished and Octavia stopped dead in her tracks. Ponies were varied when it came to colours. Whether it was coats, manes or eyes but there was one eye colour you never see on a pony - Red. Yet Vinyl’s eyes were a ruby red. They were bright and stood out beautifully. The scary thing, apart from it being impossible for a pony to have red eyes, was that Vinyl’s eyes were meant to be purple.

“Before you freak, let me give you the facts,” assured Vinyl. “One, I can walk in daylight, but admittedly I’ve always been a night-time mare. Two, no I cannot turn into a bat. Three, no I am not immortal either but I am super-strong and super-fast…”

“… If you are super-fast and super-strong then why didn’t you use any of that earlier when we got cornered by the Cybermen?”

“I was about to, but then I panicked about you finding out and then I noticed that the Doctor was planning something so I left it to him. Trust me, this hasn’t been an easy thing to hide.”

“So, you leaving randomly at night?”

“That was me stocking up on blood vials. I’m not really allowed to talk about it buts there sort of an underground network of vamponies that help each other out. The Doctor showed me them, all I have to do is attend the occasional meeting and help out when needed.”

“So that’s what your private fridge is for. You have blood in there!”

“Hush, keep your voice down will ya?” Vinyl looked around to see if anypony had been spying on them but it appeared the coast was clear. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but can you blame me? I’m still Vinyl, just a vampire is all.”

“I know, but if you go for my neck I’m getting the garlic.”

“Sorry Tavi, garlic doesn’t work.”

“So, vampires aren’t what they’re supposed to be in books?”

“They don’t sparkle if that’s what you mean.” Vinyl gave a coy smile which earned a chuckle form Octavia. “You’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would.”

“Honestly, I thought you might be dying. But considering everything that’s happening right now, to hear that you’re okay is great news.” Octavia wrapped her forelegs around the DJ’s neck and Vinyl did the same. The pair was simply relieved that they hadn’t lost the other. Octavia knew this was still Vinyl, her friend. For a brief moment Vinyl closed her eyes in peace but when she opened them the Doctor was standing by the balcony entrance.

“You heard, didn’t you?” She asked flatly.

“Every word,” he responded. The pair broke their hug as the Doctor knelt down to them. “Sorry, I came to get you because Luna was starting to calm down and I overheard your conversation.”

“Ah, forget it,” said Vinyl as she waved a hoof in a lax manner. “I was kind of jerk to you anyway, just don’t tell anypony, kay?”

“Okay. Alright, who’s up for getting some answers?”

Meanwhile…

“DOCTOR! I FOUND IT!” Screamed the party mare. Before she could speak any further a grey hoof was shoved into her mouth by a panicked mailmare.

“Pinkie, please keep quiet,” pleaded Ditzy. “You’ll alert all the cybermen to where we are if you’re not careful.” When Pinkie nodded at her, Ditzy felt it was safe to remove her hoof.

“Sorry Ditzy, but I think I’ve found what the Doctor wanted.”

“Did you now?” Asked the approaching Doctor. Fluttershy was trotting behind him and the group met in the middle of the room. “Let’s see what you have Pinkie?” Pinkie practically shoved the blueprint into the Doctor. The Doctor walked over to the closest table and unfurled so everypony could see it. It appeared to be a blueprint of the towers, though there was something different about it.

“Do you see Doctor?” Asked Pinkie Pie. “It looks a little different doesn’t it? And take a look at that!” Pinkie pointed to one of the planning notes at the top of the blueprint. It simple said ‘Construction will commence on top of Canterlot castle.’ The Doctor’s eyes looked over the construction. The design was familiar to him and in an instant he knew what this was.

“This tower is different from the others because it isn’t for controlling the populace. Well it sort of is, basically this tower links all the towers together. However, it appears to have another purpose. The Doctor pointed to a component that was near the top of the tower. “Take a look at this component here, this is rather fascinating.” Everypony gazed at the part of blueprint the Doctor was pointing too.

“What’s so special about it Doctor?” Asked Ditzy.

“From the description, it appears to absorb the magical energy in the air in order to power the machine. That’s why it’s located on top of the castle. The two most magically gifted ponies in Equestria live under this roof; it must be like a buffet for that machine.”

“But why does it need that,” asked Fluttershy.

“I believe it’s powering the machine but I believe it has another purpose as well. Sadly, it doesn’t say on this blueprint.”

“If that thing is meant to link the other towers together. Doesn’t that mean it’s finished!?” Questioned Ditzy.

“Yes, your right.”

“So all we gotta do is destroy that mean old tower and everypony will go back to normal.”

“No; remember that if you remove the earplugs from a pony then you cause a neuron implosion which will kill them. The same goes for destroying the tower because it’s such a sudden cut from the link. However, a manual release is located at the base of the tower that should safely cut the link. Everypony will simply pass out and awaken free from any form of control.”

“So that’s what we have to do, we have have to save everypony!” Announced Fluttershy, who broke out of her usual quiet voice.

“That’s right everypony, follow me to the top…” The Doctor was about to begin the righteous march toward the top of the castle when he realised that they were now locked off by their own barricade. “Um, Pinkie, could you…?”

“On it Doctor!” Pinkie gave a mock salute and began to break the speed barrier again.

Meanwhile…

Luna was now standing up having regained her composure. She cleared her throat in order to get everypony’s attention. The Doctor, Vinyl and Octavia came in from the balcony while Dash and Rarity stopped their conversation beside the large bookshelf and trotted over to the princess.

“I would like to apologise, now is not a time for tears yet I…”

“Princess, you have nothing to apologise for,” assured Rarity but Luna would have none of it.

“No! It is my responsibility to protect all of you. Instead, I helped in this takeover. I may have been under their control. But I still helped nonetheless.”

“Didn’t you fight them at all?” asked Dash.

“I did but… none of my magic attacks worked. Such things as lifting and throwing them away worked but actual attacks appeared ineffective. Eventually they overpowered me.” The Doctor was scratching his imaginary beard as he came to a conclusion.

“The cybermen are from a different reality where magic doesn’t exist. Although the rules are different here... Perhaps they have some odd form of immunity due to them being metal but I couldn’t say without looking into it further.” A small awkward silence filled the room. It was rather unexpected, considering the Doctor knew what he wanted to ask but suddenly found himself incapable of asking Luna any further questions. Maybe it was because he knew that she was clearly not a hundred percent. Dash, never liked this kind of awkward atmosphere and always did her best to break it whenever it occurred.

“Um… I… didn’t know you had a kid Princess,” stated Rainbow Dash. Too late did she realise her error in bringing it up when she saw the pained expression on Luna’s face. Dash cringed outwardly and berated herself for being so foolish. “I’m sorry princess…”

“No my little pony, you wouldn’t know, my sister didn’t know until I told her several months ago. Understandably, it was quite a shock to her. You see I have been… suffering from nightmares myself.”

“Hold up, you can do that dream walking thing can’t you?” Asked Vinyl. “I mean, some of my friends have told me about you helping them in their dreams. Can’t you stop them?”

“To stop the nightmare you must first find the cause, I know why I have them. Guilt, for not saving my son.” Luna stood up and walked over to the balcony. She gazed out to what the city was becoming. A metallic paradise for the cybermen and soon, for the cyberponies as well. The express trains we’re delivering metal for the antennas all over Equestria and at the rate they were being completed, the vision of the cybermen would be realised sooner, rather than later.

“Then you have to stop the guilt but I can’t. I simply can’t. From day one he was bred to be a soldier. I even called him Carnage in order to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies. This may surprise you, but before he was born he was altered.”

“Altered? Altered how?” Asked the Doctor.

“Scientists from my army altered his genetic code making him stronger, faster, the perfect soldier. They did other things to him...but I would rather not say. I conceived him with one of my most loyal generals.”

“Hold on,” interrupted the Doctor. “That’s impossible. You couldn’t have that kind of technology.” Luna let out a heavy sigh as she placed a forehoof over her face. Clearly she was trying to compose herself.

“What if I told you that we were once far more advanced than we are today?” This earned odd looks from the entire group and Luna continued to explain. “I’m telling you all of this in the strictest confidence. When the war was over, the planet had a lot of recovery to get through. According to my sister, she blamed technology moving too quickly as one of the reasons for the war and why it lasted so long. She destroyed so much technological advancement, and after several generations, all the races simply forgot any of it ever existed. Why do you think my sister has always pushed for the advancement of magic, but not of technology? I’m still not sure if I agree with her but I understand her reasoning. My sister had a lot of power after the war and slowly gave it back to the other races when she was satisfied she had changed the history books enough.”

“Th-that’s unbelievable,” said Octavia.

“It’s a lot to take in. My son was placed inside a stasis coffin before the final battle. I had hoped I would win but as you know, I was defeated that day and Nightmare Moon was imprisoned and as a result, my son was left in the coffin. My son was born a Pegasus so I doubt he could retain the Alicorn immortality. You are either born an Alicorn or… well… that’s private. I will never see him again. While my sister has had many children over her thousand year reign the one child I had… he shall nev… he shall…” Luna began to choke up so Rarity pulled a hanky out of seemingly nowhere. Luna wiped away a few stray tears and smiled in gratitude. “Thank you Rarity, you would have made a fine element of kindness.”

“Listen, this is interesting and all but shouldn’t we worry about these cyberpunks first?” Questioned Rainbow Dash.

“Your right Dash,” said the Doctor. “Luna, how much do you remember of the Cybermen’s plans?”

“All of it. What do you wish to know?”

“Tell me, what is element x?”

“Ah, this has confused me actually. It’s magic, pure, raw magical energy.” The Doctor thought it over for a moment and then I smile of realisation hit his face.

“Oh, of course! The cybermen don’t believe in magic. They have no proper concept of it. So, they gave it another name. How they even came here is still a mystery I assume?”

“Yes, somepony from this world let them in. My sister. But she didn’t lead them here. For some reason they can’t remember, almost as it was removed from them. They gave them everything, the knowledge to harness magic, the towers, the means to come here and their final plan.”

“Luna, tell me everything.” As Luna began to explain, everypony’s face turned to a mix of surprise of shock and realisation. There was only one thing left to do. Stop the cybermen, or all was lost.

Chapter 12: What Madness Creates

Chapter 12: What madness creates

The burning sensation in the Timepony’s legs was beginning to resurface. It hadn’t taken long for Pinkie to clear the door and nopony was willing to waste any more time. Running was something both Doctors were used to, but even they had their limits and the pony Doctor was worried that he might be reaching his. He refused to allow those thoughts to cloud his mind though. Everything was finally coming together.

He took another look over his shoulder and sure enough, his group was still intact. The problem was that they had no idea what to expect when they reached the roof. The Doctor was certain that the tower would have at least one guard stationed by it and dealing with even one Cyberman would not be an easy task. They couldn’t match one physically, so the only option left was to outwit it.

Finally, they came to the final staircase that would lead them to the palace roof. Previously, while Pinkie was freeing the door, the Doctor had spotted a blueprint for the castle. He had quickly memorised it and led the charge to the roof. The Doctor paused at the foot of the stairs and turned to the group.

“Alright, get ready. If we encounter anything, get behind me.”

“Doctor, what about the others?” Asked an out of breath Ditzy.

“And, how will we get rid of the Cybermen?” Questioned Fluttershy.

“First we have to take care of the tower and free everypony,” replied the Doctor, “and don’t worry about the Cybermen. I’ve got a plan on how to deal with them,” he finished with a smirk. They all relaxed slightly while Pinkie jumped up triumphantly.

“Alright then! Let’s teach those mean old Cybermen a lesson!” She cried.

“Here we go, allons-y!”

Without another word, he began to slowly ascend the staircase with the others in tow. It was a short walk with no distractions, but the group’s mood was taken by the unsettling feeling that this was a little too easy. They pushed ahead. The door to the roof was nothing but a simple brown door without a lock. Odd that there would be no lock, but the Doctor realised that it might be magically protected. Preparing for the worst, he gingerly reached over for the doorknob but Pinkie beat him to the punch and swung the door wide open. Pinkie happily trotted through, perhaps oblivious to the potential danger ahead while the Doctor quickly followed behind.

What lay ahead was a long stretch and at the far end was their target. The tower seemed to reach up to the sky. There was a ladder that rose up to the peak of the metallic mesh, and located at the bottom was a large switch that screamed ‘pull me!’ The group huddled around each other as they gazed up at the tower. The Doctor put his thoughts into words in the most elegant way possible.

“That. Is. Beautiful.”

“I know it… WHAT!?” Shouted Ditzy.

“I mean look at her Ditz. That is a magnificent creation. It’s funny really when you think about it. The reason this technology hasn’t existed for eight hundred years is because Celestia insists on magical advancement over technological advancement. Just imagine if it was the other way round! I wouldn’t be surprised if your entire race was exploring the stars by now.”

“Aren’t you more concerned over the fact that it’s HUGE!”

“Not really. We’re practically looking at a work of art. I mean it would be a crime, a travesty to destroy this. Still, we had better shut it down, right?”

“Nice to see you have your priorities straight,” said Ditzy with an annoyed look. The Doctor responded with a sheepish smile that slowly turned into a grimace.

“You know what Ditzy? I’m really going to miss you.”

“Huh? What do you…”

“Doctor! Is that the switch!?” Screamed Pinkie as she pointed to the massive switch at the base of the tower.

“Yes, it should be. Would you do the honours?” Pinkie didn’t need to be asked twice. She got into a running stance but as soon as she took off, she slammed into a white body.

A man once said that the wrong man in the right place, or the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. Life has always had a way of bringing the worst mare to the worst place at the worst possible time. This was one of those times.

Celestia stood over the fallen Pinkie Pie with a deranged looked plastered over her face. She gazed over the group and attempted a motherly smile which came off as more sinister than intended.

“I had a feeling you would find your way up here,” she said. The Doctor motioned for Ditzy to get behind him while Celestia placed a hoof on the element of laughter’s chest. “Please don’t struggle Pinkie, everything will so much clearer, very soon.”

“Obviously you're being manipulated,” muttered the Doctor. His voice was just loud enough so Celestia could hear. “Either you’re seeing a distorted reality or every decision you make is being subtly decided for you. Either way, you’re not in your right mind.”

“I will have to correct you Doctor. My mind has never been more clear. All the potential wars of the future, all future conflict will be avoided and true harmony will descend upon the planet.” She pointed her hoof towards the peak of the tower. “Our salvation has come from another world. A world that understands true peace…”

“No! They understand uniformity, order, but they don’t understand harmony or magic or freedom. If you do this, you doom every race on this planet to become a mindless drone. No species on this planet will ever advance. All creativity and imagination will die, along with their emotions.”

“Perhaps that is best. I have witnessed this world descend into chaos, twice!” She slammed her hoofs into the ground which caused the floor beneath them to shake violently. “First, when a demon of chaos ruled Equestria, the second time when a dispute with my sister led to a world-spanning war. Do you know what it’s like to live a lie? Nopony can ever know what I used to be like back then. How foolish, ignorant and greedy I used to be. I used to be in support of slavery! I advocated for the Earth pony race to be second class citizens because I couldn’t imagine a world where we we’re all equal.”

“Exactly,” snapped the Doctor. “Imagination led you to the conclusion it could be done. I know the truth. Luna was upset over the fact that the ponies didn’t appreciate the night, that is true. But she also strongly disagreed with your policies on slavery. What she didn’t realise, was that you weren’t Celestia anymore.” Celestia’s eyes opened wide in shock.

“No, don’t say it!”

“You were…

“I SAID DON’T!”

“… Scorching Sun.”

“Scorching sun? Who’s that?” Asked Ditzy.

“Before Luna became Nightmare Moon, an entity took advantage of Celestia’s fear over ruling. She felt like she had to show her power when some of the other races threatened war against her. The entity, much like Nightmare Moon, transformed her into Scorching Sun. A dictator like spirit, bent on control. Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon during the course of the war after losing so many loved ones and during the final battle between the sisters, Celestia was freed from Scorching Sun.” Celestia was shaking her head in a desperate attempt to block out the Doctor’s words, but it was in vain.

“Did you never think to, I don’t know, stop it from ever happening?” Asked Ditzy.

“I can’t, the entire event is time locked. Changing it would cause the destruction of everything.” A bolt of magic flew over the pair’s heads as they quickly ducked down. Celestia took her hoof off Pinkie’s chest, but Pinkie was too scared to move.

“It doesn’t matter. I won’t let you stop my citizens living in peace. You will never reach that switch!” A wry smile began to show on the Doctor’s face as he stood confidently before Celestia.

“You’re right. I won’t be able to reach that switch, but Fluttershy already has.” The realisation that one of the ponies that was meant to be with the Timepony’s group was absent hit her like a ton of bricks. She craned her neck behind her just in time to see Fluttershy, with all of her strength, flip the massive switch downwards.

Meanwhile…

The town of Ponyville came to a standstill. Everypony, no matter the position they were in, froze in place. The entire town became a series of living statues as their eyes began to glaze over and roll back in their heads. Suddenly, everypony fell to the ground unconscious. Only a few of them would ever grasp how close they came to death.

“Ha, well done Fluttershy,” praised the Timepony. “It appears her quiet nature was enough to sneak past you, Celestia.” Celestia should have had a face filled with rage, anger, disappointment. Instead, she was smiling. And then she began laughing. Understandably, this unsettled the group slightly.

“Um, usually when ponies laugh it’s because something funny has happened,” noted Pinkie. “But you’re laughing and something bad has happened to you.” Celestia wiped an imaginary tear from her eye as she calmed herself.

“It’s funny that you think you’ve won now. Because you haven’t. The device is ready to fire. What the workers were setting up was supposed to boost the effect of the tower to cover all of Equis. Sadly, we’ll just have to settle for Equestria for the time being.”

“I don’t understand,” said the Doctor. “What do you…?” A flash of light surrounded the group and when the light disappeared, the entire group found themselves in the throne room. They weren’t alone though, as six Cybermen and two Cyberponies surrounded them. Fluttershy jumped towards the others and coward down in a desperate bid to hide from sight but it was no use.

They were surrounded with no way out.

Pinkie was able to get Fluttershy to stand up when Fluttershy realised that it wasn’t working. The Doctor looked over to the doorway, only to find two more Cybermen standing in front of the exit. The Doctor had taken one last scan around the room but came to the same conclusion, they were trapped. Instinctively, he took out his screwdriver and began to point it at the enemy’s around them but this only made Celestia scoff.

“What do you intend to do with your little night light? On its own, it is no threat to us.” Instinct wouldn’t allow the Doctor to lower his final defence. He wanted to hold onto that small glimmer of hope, but reality was quickly setting in. One of the Cybermen marched up to the front of the group and stretched his arm out towards them.

“You have all been deemed incompatible. You will be deleted.” A chorus of death began to sound across the room as the other Cybermen mimicked the first Cyberman’s actions.

“DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!”

Suddenly, the throne room doors swung open, launching the two Cybermen on guard across the room. Everypony turned towards the source of the disturbance to discover Princess Luna, the Doctor, Vinyl, Octavia, Rarity and Rainbow Dash standing inside the doorway. Celestia released a hearty laugh at the scene before her.

“I was wondering where you had all gone,” she said with a smirk. Her eyes met her sisters across the room. “Lulu, I see they removed your earplugs. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to help you, little sister.” Luna’s anger was evident as she began to tremble.

“Help me!? HELP ME!? I thought you were stronger than this, Tia. Can you not see the madness that has befallen our kingdom?”

“Any ‘madness’ has been caused by this group,” Celestia said as she pointed towards the non-converted ponies in the room. “Lulu, do you really want to fight me? We all remember what happened last time?” Luna was begging to see red but before she could make any sort of attack, the Cybermen marched in front of Celestia, forming a wall in front of the princess. If Luna attacked, she would be attacked in return. “Don’t make me hurt you little sister. I would rather avoid that.” Rarity signalled for the Timepony’s group to join them as both the ponies and the Cybermen stood facing one another. The Timelord took a step forward as he looked Celestia in her eyes.

“We know your entire plan now,” the Timelord announced with a hint of pride in his voice. “The tower isn’t just for controlling the populace, it’s a biology converter.” Celestia squinted her eyes at the Doctor but he paid her no mind as he turned to his friends. “Basically, the reason the Cybermen have been collecting magic or, “element x” is because of its infinite potential. Magic, in its raw form is like the number zero. Empty, but filled with infinite potential. The being, who is yet to be identified, supplied the Cybermen with the location of Equestria and the means to set this all up. Someone or somepony handed you a victory strategy. For what reason, I still don’t know. But now I know why the princesses were kept alive.”

“Yeah, why did they do that? Wouldn’t it be easier just to take them out?” Asked Pinkie Pie.

“If they did that, then they would have gotten rid of their biggest power source.” The Doctor pointed directly at Celestia who did not react to his finger. “You can’t extract raw magic from a pony, it’s simply something they emit. A unicorn gives off very low levels but an Alicorn is a different story entirely. It only took a matter of days to power up the tower and now all you simply have to do is place a decent amount of cyber technology at the top of the tower, fire away, and the entirety of Equis will be converted into a cyber-base creature.”

“Very nice summation Doctor. I give you an A for effort,” said Celestia. “However, I don’t see how you can win now? You’re trapped and you will be easily overpowered. It’s a shame really, you would have made a great member to our cause.”

“Well normally you would be right, I’m very much used to making it up as I go along. However, I have noticed something about you. I picked it up after every time we’ve talked.”

“Oh really? And what is that?”

“You’re very easily distracted,” he said with a smirk. Alarm bells rang in Celestia’s head as she scanned the room and noticed a certain rainbow haired mare was missing from the group. Too late did she notice the two hoofs on her earplugs as they were being pulled off.

“Oh buck…” Celestia fell unconscious.

The Cybermen, upon witnessing Celestia’s swift defeat, immediately attempted to grab Rainbow Dash but she was too quick for them as she flew up into the air. Like a missile, she flew hoof first into a Cyberman’s chest. At the speed she was going, she managed to slam her hoof through its chest, effectively killing the metal giant. She ignored the fact her hoof came into contact with dead flesh but she couldn’t help but wretch a little.

Her allies quickly joined the fray as Pinkie Pie, from seemingly nowhere, managed to blow away a Cyberman with her trusted party canon. Vinyl’s speed and strength became essential as she began tearing through the Cyberman that Luna managed to keep still by using her magic. Both Doctors took their chance to check on Princess Celestia. They slipped past the battle, confident their friends would succeed and reached the unconscious Celestia. The Timelord looked over to the Timepony with a smile.

“I assume you turned off the earpieces,” he asked.

“Yes, you should have seen Celestia’s face. Priceless.” Both Doctors confirmed she was merely asleep. “Well done on discovering the entire plan. It’s helped confirm my plan on how to deal with the rest of the Cybermen.”

“Really? What’s that then?”

“The Cybermen from your universe are too bent on logic. Magic is chaotic and beyond the realm of possibility for them. However, with minimum contact and renaming the substance ‘element x’, they’ve avoided suffering from a logic overload. Despite the flesh, they’re too much machine.” The Timelord immediately realised what his counterpart was leading too.

“Ha! Of course! If they witnessed a mass use of magic in front of them, they’re minds would be able to comprehend it. That’s also why they didn’t choose the longer extraction process. Witnessing its use too much would have fried their circuits.”

“Correct so all we have to do…” the Timepony was interrupted by quiet sobbing. Below, the Alicorn princess who had once stood proud and tall, was now a blubbering wreck. Any words that were coming out of her mouth were muffled by her sobbing.

“Tia! Are you alright!?” Cried out the princess of the night. Both Doctors turned around to see the battle was over. Together they easily bested these Cybermen, but there were many more, roaming the streets of Canterlot. Luna knelt down and embraced her elder sister while the two Doctors made their way towards the door. Vinyl caught them before they could leave.

“Where are you two going? We have to stop the Cybermen,” she said.

“Don’t worry, Vinyl. That is exactly what we are going to do,” assured the Timepony.

“When Celestia has calmed down, and judging by the scene behind us, that might take a while. Tell everyone to meet us on top of the balcony that’s looking over Canterlot,” finished the Timelord. With that, the two left, ready to carry out the final part of the plan.

It was roughly a thirty minute wait, but the others eventually joined the two Doctors on the balcony. From where they stood, they could see the rest of the Cybermen marching through the streets. They were loading up ponies and placing them in carts after they had been knocked unconscious. Both Doctor’s assumed it was to place the earpieces back on once they were able to get the link running again. It was only a matter of time before the Cybermen stormed the castle so they would have to act quickly. Celestia took a couple of steps forward and bowed her head in shame.

“I am truly sorry my little ponies,” she said solemnly. “I have no idea what came over me. Suddenly, everything the earpiece told me made perfect sense. That is not an excuse, that is the truth. I have shamed myself because of this. I don’t know what I’m going to say to Twilight.” Tears became to form in Celestia’s eyes but Luna was there to stop them.

“Now is not the time sister. You are not to blame and the ponies of our kingdom will recognise that. We will find whomever brought them here; but first, we must deal with the threat at hoof.” Celestia nodded while Octavia approached the Timelord.

“Doctor, tell me you know what to do.” The Doctor nodded his head and began to explain.

“As we said before, the Cybermen can’t accept magic but they can’t flat out ignore the evidence if it’s placed in front of them.” The Timepony continued.

“Simply put, we must do something so big that even they can’t ignore. When they witness it, their circuits should overload which will result in their death.”

“But what on earth could possibly be big enough?”

“Simple really, Luna must raise the moon.” There was a short pause as everypony digested the information. The Timelord decided to explain.

“In my world, day and night are automatic because the earth orbits the sun. Here, it requires one of your to do it. To the Cybermen, that is completely illogical. If they witness Luna raise the moon, there is no way they would be able to handle it.” Celestia took this chance to interrupt.

“Could the Cybermen simply not look up?”

“Exactly, that’s why we need to draw their attention to the sky. That’s where you come in Celestia.” Celestia eyes opened slightly wider at this. “We need you to make something big, loud and colourful in the sky long enough to get their attention.” There was another pause as Celestia stared at the Timelord in front of her. She took a few cautious steps towards him and bowed her head.

“If there is anypony that I trust right now, that is you.” She raised her head again and wore a genuine smile. “Thank you, Doctor. Let us begin.”

Celestia turned to her sister and the pair nodded at each other. Luna instinctively flew past the balcony and into the sky but before she did, she waited for her sister’s signal. Celestia stood at the edge of the balcony, charging her spell. The perfect distraction for any creature. The perfect thing to draw somepony’s attention. Fireworks. An explosion of colours burst from the tip of her horn and rocketed up the sky. It left a short, sparkly rainbow in its wake and when it reached the top of the sky, it exploded into a massive ball of multi-coloured light. As expected, every Cyberman in the city gazed upward to investigate the sudden noise and colour and now it was Luna’s time to shine.

Celestia had once said that explain how to move the sun and moon was impossible. It was something you had to experience yourself. The higher Luna rose, the further the sun descended and the higher the moon climbed up the sky. Already, the Cybermen were showing ill signs. Some began to shake uncontrollably while others were frozen solid. Suddenly, one Cyberman’s head exploded which started a chorus of exploding metal the further the moon rose. The others watched down from the balcony in joy as the Cybermen were exploding in the street. The scene was ghastly with metal and bits of burned flesh scattered about but it did not deter the early celebration. After several minutes, the last Cyberman fell.

The Cybermen had been defeated.

Luna quickly flew back once the moon was secure and embraced her sister in a hug. The ponies around the Timelord did the same as the victory celebration was already underway. A smile reached his lips as he looked on.

“Well, Doctor, it looks like…” The Timelord stopped his sentence when he could no longer see his counterpart beside him. He scanned the room for him and found him on the other side of the room. The key difference was that the Timepony had placed a gas mask on his face. He was also holding some kind of silver ball. The others began to notice this too and Ditzy was the first to point out the elephant in the room.

“Doctor? Wh….” The Timepony threw the ball at the group and before anypony could react, the contents of the ball was released in the form of gas. Everypony went stiff. Rainbow Dash who had been in the air at the time, suddenly fell to the ground, unable to move any part of her body apart from her face. Her friends suffered from similar reactions. Even the princesses found themselves falling to the ground in a heap. The Timelord was the only exception as he fell to one knee. He was able to move but still felt incredibly stiff.

“It’s a pity I hadn’t planned on you,” muttered the Timepony. “The gas was only designed for ponies, not Timelords. Still, it appears to have had some sort of effect on you.” The gas began to clear slightly so the group could just make out the Doctor wearing an eerie gas mask.

“Wha… what ar… re you do… ing?” Spluttered out Vinyl.

“Don’t worry my friends,” assured the Timepony. “Everything will be clear soon.” Before anypony could press any further, the Timepony pulled out a gun. The gun was alien in design but instead of pointing it at the group. The Timepony pointed at himself and fired it at his chest.

The Doctor laid there in a lifeless heap. A golden glow began to emit from the Timepony and the only part of his body that moved was his right hoof which he kept tapping on the ground. He was mimicking a drum beat.

Chapter 13: The Master of All

The rhythmic tapping didn't stop as the golden glow continued to surround the near lifeless form of the Timepony. The only reason the tapping finally did come to an end was because the Doctor’s body began to float in the air. Many of the confused watchers were at a lost at what was happening. But Vinyl, Ditzy and the Timelord knew.

The Doctor was regenerating.

The Timelord tried to move but still felt too stiff to be of any use. He was having trouble staying on his knees, let alone standing up. There were so many questions going through his mind but two stood out. Why had his counterpart immobilized them? And why did he forcefully regenerate himself?

It was rare for his kind to force a regeneration. Despite being immortal, they had a number of forms they could use before they could no longer regenerate. In a way, it was like stripping away a part of your soul by force every time a Timelord regenerated. Their preferences and personality would change slightly, along with their body. However, they were still the same basic person with all their morals and beliefs intact, just slightly different. To force that was foreign to the Doctor and not in a good way.

Suddenly, the golden aura began to pour out of the Timepony from his limbs and head. This caused the gas mask he was wearing to go flying off his face. The massive surge of energy shook the floor they all stood on but barely affected the group as they laid on the ground. The Timelord glanced over his shoulder and noted that despite being paralyzed, they were all fine. Judging by it coming in the form of gas and Doctor’s stiffness, he summarised that its effects would soon wear off. Although he doubted that it would wear off in time to stop whatever the Timepony had planned. When the Doctor looked at his counterpart again, the Doctor’s transformation had officially begun.

The brown, chocolate like coat began to melt away from the Doctor’s body and in its place was a charcoal grey. His brown mane began to grow longer and the colour transformed into a pure black. During it all, his body continued to float in the air as the golden energy danced around his body and exploded from his limbs and head.

Finally, the transformation began to come to a stop as the Doctor’s body slowly floated downwards until he was lying on his back. For a moment, for a single moment, the world was silent. Nopony moved or even knew what to say. Some of the elements thought the Doctor had died, but others knew better. Finally, a small chuckle could be heard from the stallion lying on his back. His voice was deeper, but a lot sharper and distinctive than before. Slowly, he raised his head to face them.

“Ever since the Timewar, I’ve had that drumming in my head,” he said with a relieved smile. “At first I hated it; I thought I had gone mad at last. Now, I realise it was sign. Out with the old, in with the new as they say.” He stood up on all fours and faced the group with a disturbingly, kind smile.

“Wai… wait! Did you j-ust…?” Stammered Dash.

“…Regenerate?” Finished the Timepony. “Yes Miss Dash. I know my counterpart has been surprisingly open about his history to all of you. Well, not everything of course but as you know, he is my counterpart.”

His jaw was squarer than before and his emerald green eyes stood out from his dark body. There was one big difference that rested on the Timepony’s head. He had a horn. The Doctor lightly touched his new horn and seemed pleased with the results.

“It’s a shame that I haven’t practiced magic in jolly long while. I’ll have to pick it up again when I find the time.” Part of his mane was blocking his vision in his left eye but he made no attempt at changing it. “Now, I did say everything would soon become clear right? Well please allow me to explain.” Ditzy seemed close to tears.

“D-doctor what’s hap…” She was cut off by the Timepony.

“The Doctor. That isn’t my name. That was a promise. A promise I had to break in the Time war. I’ll fix everything though, it’s all been leading up to this.” Some of the things the Timepony said rang scarily familiar in the Timelord’s ears. The drumbeats, the Timewar, but everything that he was doing didn’t make sense at all. The Doctor was starting to feel rage. An emotion he tried very hard to suppress but only amplified when he spied Octavia lying on the floor, unable to move.

“What’s wrong? What is going on inside your head!?” He practically shouted the last part but the Timepony seemed too transfixed in his own little world.

“I am no longer the Doctor. I need a new name, a new promise. What was that name Pinkie mentioned? Ah yes, the Master. Yes, that’s my name. I am the Master.”

The Doctor could feel his hearts pounding inside his chest. It was all so clear now. This was not just an alternate version of him, it was an alternate reality version of the Master. One of his greatest enemies. It was definitely based off himself, but in this reality, he eventually succumbs to the same madness as his old foe only in different circumstances. In this reality, the master probably never existed. There was something especially eerie about the fact that he could’ve ended up as his counterpart if the circumstances had been different. Clearly the Timewar was the cause of all this but the reference of a drumming noise alerted him to what his counterpart was planning. He had to be sure though.

“Let me guess,” said the Doctor as calmly as he could muster, “It involves the tower above us.” The Timepony now calling himself the Master nodded smugly.

“I came across your universe when I found a crack in time and space. Something that had been overlooked by my people, so I went to close it up but this was soon after the Timewar and I had left Vinyl and Ditzy back on their world before I left.” The slight flicker of eye movement between the two mentioned mares was enough to say that something had clicked in place.

“Because I was alone, I wasn’t able to sort the correct sequence that would close the hole in time, so I accidently fell through. However, from disaster lies opportunity. That opportunity came when I discover the Cybermen.” The Doctor still had trouble moving his body, so he decided to conserve his strength when the Master trotted past him and towards the balcony.

“They were an alternate version of the Cyberponies. A race of beings that lived on Equis’ twin planet, however, they are all dead now. They died before Vinyl or Ditzy had ever encountered them. They were simple in goals and very easy to hack, that’s what led me to enact my plan.” He left the balcony and trotted over to Celestia next. Luna struggled with all her might but couldn’t move an inch from her position. She panicked at the prospect of Tia being harmed but instead, the Master pointed at her.

“I had encountered Celestia before, but in another form so she didn’t recognise me. The truth is, she has been manipulated for quite some time.” The Master turned towards Luna. “Did you find it odd how all of a sudden; Celestia was obsessed with parallel worlds?” Luna didn’t respond but she didn’t need too. The Master already knew the answer.

“That was my work. A slight hypnotic suggestion left at night for one month was enough to drive her to that state. So when the Cybermen came to her, she let them in, when normally she would have had defences set up in case something went wrong. I nearly got caught a couple of times but it was all worth it in the end.”

“Two weeks prior, I personally handed the Cybermen the information to build what they have built since coming here, even the plan to break into this world and start their species again. Of course, I hacked into their network and wiped all knowledge of myself from their databanks. That is where the next step of my plan kicked into gear.” He trotted into the middle of the group and gazed at them individually. He gave looks of triumph to some, looks of disdain to others, and looks of regret and sympathy to those he was close too.

“Funny thing, their plan would never have worked. Despite raw magic’s potential, for their plan to work they needed more than metal, they needed some organic material of what they wanted to duplicate. Of course they never knew that, they were just following the plans that I had left for them. You see, my full intention has always been to feign ignorance to their plan and use all of you to help me stop them. Because the tower is not for them, it’s for me.”

“Th-that’s why yo-u di-dn’t want us to…” stammered Fluttershy.

“… Destroy the tower? That was one reason, but of course I need you all alive, otherwise there wouldn’t have been any point to this.”

“Then what is this? Why do all of this!?” Asked the Doctor.

“Simply put, the Timeponies will be reborn.”

“Reborn?”

“Let me ask you a question that you must have been pondering this entire conversation. Why would I force myself to regenerate? What purpose would that serve?”

There was no immediate answer. It had definitely been something on the Doctors mind so he decided to look at it from another angle. What benefits were there when you regenerated? Of course it gave you another chance when you were near death, and it saved the Doctor’s life on more than one occasion. With all that energy… ENERGY! That was it. The leftover regeneration energy.

“There’s only one reason you would force yourself to regenerate,” claimed the Doctor, “you're trying to use all the leftover regeneration energy inside of you.” A small laugh escaped the master lips.

“I knew I would be the only one who could figure my own plan. For those of you aren’t aware, a Timepony, and I imagine a Timelord, doesn’t use all of his regeneration energy who he regenerates. Some of it remains in his body for a couple of days. The purpose of this is a defence against possible attacks. A Timepony can sometimes be vulnerable and fall unconscious right after regenerating so if they are shot, cut or even lose a limb, all the damage will be healed without a scratch. Now, do you have any idea how else I can use this energy?”

“You’re going to have the rest flow into the top of the device and then fire.”

“Right again, Doctor. If I used a piece of my genetic code, everypony would just become an exact clone of me. But regeneration energy completely randomises a genetic code. You will all become Timeponies, just with all of my ideals. Of course I will become your master, we can’t have my people dying again, now can we?”

“So that’s why you’re doing this,” growled the sun princess, “all of your people are dead, so you’ll willingly replace them with us?”

“Correct, but I’m not the only one who knows that pain,” muttered the Master. Despite how quietly he had said it, everypony had heard and it only took Octavia a moment to realise who the Master was referring too.

“D-d-doctor? Does he me-ean you?” She struggled to get out. The Doctor nodded sadly as his friends shared looks of sympathy towards him.

“We both went through something called the Timewar,” continued the Master, “as the name suggests, the war for time itself. Everypony in the war died, except for me. The entire event is timelocked so I cannot save my people, but, I can start again. But this time, from my own image. I will lead all of you to a golden age of magic, technology, but most of all, prosperity under my golden rule. I have destroyed so much in my life, but no more. The oncoming storm will become the guiding light for all.” Rarity was able to choke out what everypony was thinking.

“You’re insane.”

“Ha, I thought that myself a couple of times. Then I realised, why shouldn’t I lead you all? Originally, I was going to convert another planet filled with a species called ‘Humans,’ but this world has always been a second home to me. I’m far more intelligent than all of you combined and my species was far more superior than yours. You should all consider this an upgrade.”

“B-but what ab-out all the species the tower won’t reach?” Asked Rainbow.

“Regrettably we’ll have to kill them. There will be more than enough in Equestria alone to rebuild the Timepony race. Honestly, you should be thanking me. The amount of wars this avoids will save you all a lot of trouble.”

“What the heck do you mean by ‘we’ll have to kill them’?” Rainbow’s stutter, that was induced by the gas, had disappeared.

“Ah, I forgot to mention. Thanks to the genius engineering on myself and borrowing some cyber technology, all those who are converted will instinctively do anything I say. You will all see me as your leader. I thought that would be easier than winning you all over with my charm and intelligence. Some ponies can be just too stubborn.”

The Doctor, with sheer force of will, was able to stand up. He gazed over his friends to see the pitiful sight. All of them on the floor, completely defenceless. The Master didn’t even regard him as a threat at this point. He could see the stiffness in the Doctors joints and realised he was having too much trouble moving to attack him.

“Y-you’re n-not the Doctor,” said Ditzy, who appeared to be close to tears. “The Doctor was a good stallion who went out of his way to help others. He had no desire to lead, only to help and explore. You can twist your words in any way which you please. But I know you’re only doing this because you want to control us.”

“Maybe you’re right. Perhaps that’s why calling myself the Master sounds so natural,” he replied solemnly. “Curse that drumming. It hasn’t left ever since the war.”

“Drumming?”

“Can’t you hear it!? It won’t stop.” The Master began to mimic a drumbeat on the ground with his hoof. To the Doctor, it was disturbingly familiar. “This plan was so perfect. Everything was going so well. And then you showed up!” The Master pointed at the Doctor with an accusatory hoof.

“What do you mean?” Asked the Doctor.

”You were never meant to be here. You were something I hadn’t counted on. Looking back, I knew I should have kept an eye on the hole but I thought the plan was so perfect. Instead of moping, I used you to my advantage. Ironically, you made the Cyberman defeat ten times easier. I have to thank you. But, maybe we can work together?”

The Doctor had to shake his head clear to see if he heard right. He wanted to work together? He was still trying to get the strength back in his limbs. Slowly but surely, the stiffness that was haunting his body was dispersing. He had to stall for time. Otherwise, if it did come to a confrontation, he would be overwhelmed easily.

“What do you mean work together?”

“Hear me out before you say no. Now, apart from a few differences, our histories our almost identical. We have seen some many wondrous things, but we’ve also committed atrocities. There’s a reason they call us the oncoming storm.” Octavia could see a hurt look fall on the Doctor’s face. She wanted nothing more than to reassure him but no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t lift a hoof.

“We’ve destroyed civilisations, brought species to extinction, burned planets out of the solar system. We’re not like them, we can never be like any of them because of the things we’ve done. Because we will outlive all of them. Look at your friends now. THEY’RE JUDGING YOU!” The Doctor looked over the crowd of ponies by his feet and as much as he would have liked to tell the Master he was wrong, he was right. Looks of shock were on his friend’s faces. Some were because the Doctor didn’t deny the claims of the Master, some were of realisation, but now there was a new feeling in the air. Fear. Even Ditzy and Vinyl, who he thought would have known about their Doctor’s past, we’re left reeling by the sudden revelation. They weren’t just afraid of the Master, they were afraid of the Doctor as well. The oncoming storm. The destroyer of worlds.

“But you know what, that’s okay. The beat inside my head has made me realise that were better than them. None of them could do what you and me have done. These elements of harmony have never seen real evil. They’ve met a corrupted ruler, a god just trying to have fun and a desperate Queen trying to save her race. That isn’t evil. The Daleks were evil! They wouldn’t last five minutes with one of them.” The Doctor shut his eyes for a moment. He really wished the Master hadn’t brought up the Daleks but he couldn’t think about that as the strength in his limbs was finally coming back.

“My Point is that we are superior. We’re smarter, older than most, we’ve seen all of history unfold before our eyes. We shouldn’t just stop here. We should rule the entire galaxy. You and me, joint rulers of the galaxy. You’re my only equal after all and I imagine it will get lonely eventually. Two immortal beings ruling the universe till the end of time.”

“Did you really think I would say yes?” Asked the Doctor in defiance. “Did you really think I would abandon everything I believe in, betray everyone I’ve ever known, I’ve ever loved. You don’t get it do you?”

“Oh I do, believe me I do. I don’t really think you’ve thought this all the way through.”

“What else is there to consider.”

“If the tower can recreate the Timeponies, what other race could it resurrect?”

The Doctor blinked in surprise as it hit him. With a few calibrations and the Doctor’s own regeneration energy, he could recreate the Timelords. It was so obvious now that the Doctor began to berate himself for not seeing it sooner. Wait, no! He couldn’t consider this could he?

“Your eyes betray you, Doctor. I know what you want more than anything. You want to bring your race back from the dead. The entire universe is ours for the taking, hell, remember that ‘Human’ planet I was telling you about? Well that one is perfect for your race. The species has the same build, and look almost identical to yours if you’re anything to judge by. Imagine it my friend, the Timelords, reborn.”

To the Doctors shame, he didn’t immediately reject the proposal. He couldn’t actually bring his people back, recreating them was an option, but at what cost? The lives of another race.

Regret, shame, desire, confusion, he felt a mix of all those emotions but a voice snapped him out of his self-induced trance.

“Doctor, please don’t listen to him,” pleaded the voice. The Doctor stirred his head towards the voice where Octavia was looking up at him teary eyed. “Is it true? Did you really kill your own race?”

“Yes. I had too.”

“Why?” Asked Celestia in genuine curiosity.

“My people were going to enact something called the final amendment. They had been driven mad by the Timewar, just like the Master. They would end all of time and kill every life form in history. I couldn’t let it happen but… I couldn’t make them stop…” The final words choked out of the Doctors throat as he tried his best to keep his composure. The looks of fear morphed into looks of sympathy. “So many dead by my hands, all I can really do is keep on running.”

“But you don’t have to do that anymore,” interrupted the Master with a look of bliss on his face. “Not only can you resurrect your race, but you can lead them into an age of peace with no more war!”

“But you want to enslave every pony under your rule? Can you honestly say that is the right thing to do?” Questioned the Princess of the night. “I for one know when somepony has become drunk with power. Both my sister and I have lost our ways before. You have allowed your fear of being alone and the horrors that you were forced to commit cloud your judgement, Doct…”

“MASTER! MY NAME IS THE MASTER!”

The sudden outburst, the small eye twitch, the disgusting smile spread on his lips, they were all signs that the Master was insane. And everypony in the room knew it. What was even creepier was despite the angry outburst, the Master was smiling as if everything was wonderful in the world. A small chuckle escaped the Timepony’s lips that quickly turned into hysterical, maddening laughter that chilled everypony to their core. Another insane rant was about to begin.

“You are all so PATHETIC! Weak pathetic little creatures! I can’t believe I spent so long trying to protect you all. Potential? Opportunity? You all just threw it away time and time again so you could keep your precious harmony! You all just accept a lie that if anyone took a moment to examine, would find a million different holes in but you all just follow it like sheep! You think I’m the bad guy!? You have no idea what I’ve seen, what I’ve done, what I can still do! I am the Master. You’re new Master. And if I have to keep you all on a leash to bring my race back, then so be it.”

“I’m not sure what horrifies me more,” began the Doctor. “The fact that I failed to see what you were up to and I let my friends get hurt. Or, that I could have so easily ended up like you. A friend of mine once told me that I need someone with me. She couldn’t have been more right. Because when I’m alone I do things I shouldn’t; I do things I live to regret. It turns out that without someone by my side I’ll go insane as well. I’m so sorry for what’s happened to you but my answer is no. In my right mind, I would never do this. I wouldn’t even consider this as an option.”

He walked over to Octavia and cradled her head in his arms. She looked up at him with a relieved smile while the Master looked on in confusion. “Yes, they're stupid. All living things do some really stupid things every now and then, but then they come around and do something wonderfully brilliant.” The Doctor stood back up and began to strut around the room, showing the stiffness in his limbs had completely worn off. “They create works of art, discover hidden treasures, invent the unthinkable, survive the impossible. Ponies and Humans are so stupidly wonderful and so wonderfully stupid. You’ve just forgotten that. That’s why we help.”

The Doctor extended his right hand towards the Master. He knew this was his last chance to reason with his counterpart.

“Please, let me help you. There are other ways; there are ponies here that care about you. Just give them a chance.”

For a moment, it looked like the Doctor had gotten through to him. It became painfully clear that he hadn’t when his hand was slapped away by a hoof. The Master looked at the Doctor with a look of disgust as his anger began to take him over.

“It’s too late for that, and I’m not going to let you stop me now. Go to Tarturas you fool!” In one swift motion, the Master galloped out the door towards the tower. The Doctor looked behind him as his eyes met Octavia’s.

“Go! I know you can save us!” The Doctor didn’t need any more convincing as he chased the Master towards the tower. The rest of them could only lie there and hope this awful stiffness would depart their bodies.

Chapter 14: The Resurrection of the Time Lords

Chapter 14: The Resurrection of the Timeponies

The Doctor was so close to losing everything. If the Master activated the tower before the Doctor could stop him, he would lose Octavia, his friends, his mind and he would never see his universe again. Everything was on the line and the fate of Equestria, and possibly the entire universe, was resting on his shoulders. This seemingly increased the speed at which he was running but the Master was still out of reach as he was always two hoofsteps ahead of him.

It was rather surreal that he was essentially chasing himself, or alternatively, he was chasing an old enemy in a new form. Some things never change, some foes never truly leave, and running would always be a necessity in his life. The chase through the winding corridors had taken a lot out of both beings but the Masters powerful pony legs propelled him forward. The Doctor soon realised that he wouldn’t be able to catch him at this rate so his only hope would be to catch him on the ladder.

Previously when the Master had been called the Doctor, he had shown his counterpart the blueprint of the tower, and the Doctor had wondered why there was a second activation switch at the top. Now it was clear. When the Master placed his remaining regeneration energy in the top of the tower, he would immediately activate the device to ensure minimal complications. The Timepony was leading him right to the tower as the Doctor was beginning to fall behind. The Master had just slipped out of sight as they reached the final stretch to the roof.

The Doctor quickly found the spiral staircase and sprinted to the top. Only to find a locked door waiting for him at the top. This had bought the Master several valuable seconds as his counterpart had to unlock it with his sonic screwdriver. The Doctor threw the door open to find his counterpart already climbing the ladder. The Master spotted the Doctor across from him and took a moment to gloat.

“You’re too late Doctor! You can’t prevent the resurrection of my species. Soon the Timeponies will rule over this miserable universe and I will lead you all too prosperity!”

The Doctor had nothing to say as he bolted for the ladder while the Master continued to climb to the top.

Meanwhile…

“Hey everypony. I can move my hoof!” Vinyl’s sudden outburst lifted the spirits of everypony in the room. Almost instantaneously, the residents of the room began to feel the strength in their limbs return. Although it wasn’t enough to actually stand up again, it was a start. This development wasn’t enough to satisfy Rainbow Dash though.

“It doesn’t matter though. We need to actually stand up and get to the roof. The Doctor is up there with that psy-psyco-psyc…”

“Psychopath, dear,” finished Rarity.

“Yeah, that maniac. The point is our friend is up there all alone. I don’t care what he did, he ain’t a bad guy, I know that much.”

“I agree with you, element of loyalty,” announced Luna as she struggled to move. “It’s clear that he never set out to hurt anypony, and I believe he has done more good than harm. If anypony can save us now, then it is him.”

“Yes, well said Lulu,” agreed Celestia. “We must put our faith in him while we regain the ability to move. Only then can we worry about the consequences of what I’ve done.”

“You we’re mind controlled Princess, nopony can blame you for what happened,” assured Fluttershy.

“You may be right Fluttershy, but I doubt it. I have no intention of abdicating; I know what chaos that alone would cause. But I doubt the papers will be kind to me after this.” Everypony struggled for a moment until Pinkie broke the short silence.

“You know what? I think the Doctor is going to be alright up there.”

“Did your Pinkie sense tell you that Pinks?” Asked Rainbow.

“Nah, it’s just a normal feeling in my stomach.”

“I hope you’re right Pinkie, I really do,” Octavia muttered under her breath as she continued to struggle to her hoofs.

Meanwhile…

The Doctor desperately clambered up the ladder as he realised the Master had nearly made it to the very top. The Doctors long limbs had played to his advantage on the ladder as he quickly closed the distance between himself and the Master but he hadn’t reached the very top before the Master climbed over the edge.

The Master didn’t waste a second as he began to channel the energy inside of him and release it into a large dish located in the middle of the platform. The dish was meant to hold the cyber technology when in reality, it’s purpose was to control the regeneration energy and keep it in one place long enough for the weapon to fire.

A golden aura suddenly shot through the Masters body and fell straight into the dish through the Doctors forelegs. The more energy parted from his body, the wider the Masters grin grew till it became nothing more than psychotic. The Doctor had nearly reached him when the last of the energy build up had departed the Masters body. The Timepony practically leapt at the fire switch and pulled it downwards. Everything was finally coming together. The tower only needed several minutes to charge before it fired. There was nothing the Doctor could do to stop it.

Speak of the devil, the Doctor had finally reached the top but the Master was one step ahead. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the bolts that was keeping the ladder in place. The bolts began to unscrew themselves but just before they came off, the Doctor leapt from the ladder and grabbed onto the platforms edge. The ladder fell from the platform and landed on the roof with large CLANG. The Doctor barely held onto the platform with his fingertips, for a moment, he totally forgot about the Master until a brown hoof stomped on his left hand. A sharp pain coursed through his hand and the Doctor was forced to let it drop. The only thing preventing him from falling to the ground was his right hand, which was desperately holding onto the platform.

“Well what do we have here?” Asked the Master in a mocking tone, “oh that’s right, a pathetic excuse of a time traveller. You had the nerve to call yourself the Doctor! I turned the meaning of that word from one of healing, to one of fear.” The Master was now standing over the Doctor. He looked down on him as he struggled to hold on. “Look at you, you could have joined me, but then you spat in my face! Morality has no place in the universe, years of running have shown me that. You’re too late now anyway. All my regeneration energy is in the dish and soon it will be combined with the raw magic to transform everypony within the Equestrian border into Timeponies that will follow my rule.” The Master raised his right hoof to stomp on the doctors remaining hand. “And now, I have the pleasure of killing you. A fall from this height will kill you instantly with no time to regenerate. Goodbye Doctor.”

The Doctor saw his chance. The Timelord using the last of his strength threw up his left arm and grabbed onto the Timeponys raised leg. The Master, now afraid that he might be pulled over the edge by the Doctor was forced to pull back, but in the process, he accidently pulled his enemy safely over the edge. The Doctor had no time to recover as he dodged a buck from the Master. Instinctively, the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the Master. The Master did the same, pointing his at the Doctor.

“Stop the tower from firing, NOW!” Demanded the Doctor whose rage was released for the Master to see. The Master let out a small, dark chuckle.

“You are in no position to demand anything. Even if I wanted to stop this device, I cannot. Without the regeneration energy, only the raw magical energy would release which would become unstable and explode. Plus, there’s no shut off switch at this point. The energy will be released, hell, even if you were willing to sacrifice yourself, you can’t remove the regeneration energy from the dish.”

“I promise you one thing, I will stop you.”

“Another empty promise? How many companions have you promised you would come back for, only to never see it through? How many beings have you promised would survive, only to die? You’re promises are empty and worthless.”

“Not this one. I will stop you, even if I have to die as well.”

“Then let us battle, Doctor. You and me, fighting like this, for some reason, this feels right to me.”

With that, two ancient enemies charged at each other, ready for one last fight…

Meanwhile…

Spike’s eyes began to slowly open to the colourful world around him. He thought it was rather odd that he wasn’t in his usual bed. Instead, he was in the middle of Ponyville square. Despite sometimes trying to dodge a job or two, he never thought he was Rainbow Dash levels of lazy. So why he was trying to nap in the middle of the square was lost on him. Then he noticed the massive pile of metal objects beside him.

He sat up to get a closer look at the pile, only for his attention to be stolen by the fact that nearly everypony in town was lying on the floor, asleep. He could see Flitter and Cloud Chaser helping each other up, Mayor Mare was starting to stand on shaky legs and several other ponies were just getting up as well. It seemed like everypony just decided to take a nap. Then he remembered everything.

They all met up for Mayor Mare’s announcement, only to lose all their senses. Every emotion, every bit of free will they had in them had suddenly vanished and the only impulse left in them was to follow orders. Whose orders though was somewhat of a mystery at this time. Spike turned his head several times to see if he could spot his friends but he could only spot Twilight and Applejack several hoofsteps away from him, the rest of his friends were nowhere in sight.

For a moment he panicked at the thought that Twilight might not wake up, but as he approached her, Twilight began to stir slightly, much to Spikes relief. He gently shook her to help rouse her and almost simultaneously, Applejack began to awaken as well. Twilight had the same thoughts that Spike had when he had woken up previously. Why was she napping in the middle of town square? Then, just like Spike, her memories of everything that had transpired came back to her. She immediately took the earpieces still in her ear and crushed them in one stomp.

“Oh my goodness, the Doctor was right. I don’t understand, why would the Princess do this?” The look on Applejack’s face indicated that she remembered as well. Spike put a reassuring claw on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Maybe the Princess was being controlled as well?”

“Yep, I think Spike is right. I just can’t see the Princess doing sumthing like this willingly,” agreed Applejack who seemed to have regained all her senses.

“But who stopped this? Did the Princess break free?” Questioned Twilight.

“Twi, I got this feeling that our flanks were saved by a certain Timelord we know,” assured Applejack. Not another word was said as the three of them began to check on the other residents of Ponyville that were beginning to wake.

Meanwhile…

Neither Doctor was known for fighting, yet this didn’t stop either of them from beating the crap out of the other. Fists and hoofs went flying at the other in a desperate attempt to incapacitate their opponent. The Doctor needed to think of way to stop this and he couldn’t do that with the Master in the way. The Master, despite being certain of his victory, wanted a definite guarantee by getting rid of the only one who had a ghost of a chance at stopping him.

The Master in one swift buck landed a strong strike that caused the Doctor to fall to his knees. In his weakened position, the Timepony landed another strike which sent the Timelord backwards as he nearly fell from the platforms edge. Despite being dazed, the Doctor noticed the Master sending another strike so he dodged it by rolling out of the way. The Master’s hoof only met steel. He yelped in pain while the Doctor quickly stood up and punt kicked the Master in the chin.

The Master seemed out of it for a moment, so the Timelord took advantage of this distraction and ran over to the dish. He needed to find a way of getting rid of the energy, but what? A buck to the Doctors knee caused the Timelord to topple on the ground. The Master had regained his senses and was now taking advantage of his opponents desire to stop him.

“I knew you’d run over here as soon as I was dizzy. It’s time to end this Doctor!” However, the Masters rant had given the Doctor enough time to ram his sneaker into the Timeponys muzzle. The Master went flying backwards as his head hit a steel beam. Despite not being out cold, the Master appeared to be in too much pain to fight anymore and simply sat there with a smug grin on his face.

“It doesn’t matter! You can’t stop the tower from firing now. The energy is in place and all the tower has to do is charge up and release its energy across all of Equesrtria!” The Doctor took his eyes off his fallen opponent and turned to the pool of regeneration energy. The golden aura sparked and danced in place with no sign of leaving the tower just yet. “So close now!”

The Doctor willed his brain to come up with something. Anything that would get rid of the regeneration energy. It didn’t matter if he died at this point, he just had to stop the tower from firing. He thought back to all his regenerations before, how he used the energy, how he expelled it from his body once, how he can… that was it! They may not be the same species, but they were similar enough that he might be able to absorb the energy. The Doctor stood over the dish and focused on the energy in front of him. It immediately started to draw near the Timelord and enter inside his body. The Master could only watch on in horror as his plan began to fall apart.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” He cried out.

“Something wonderfully stupid, or stupidly wonderful,” the Doctor replied with an all too familiar smirk. The Doctor now had a golden glow around him, but before he could celebrate his victory, the tower fired which released raw magic but with nothing to combine it with, there was an explosion.

If you were in Canterlot and you looked towards the palace roof you would see three things. A disturbing looking tower exploded and two lifeless forms falling from the top if the tower. One form, which looked like a pony, fell completely out of sight. The other, a humanoid figure, seemed to land back first on top of the roof.

Chapter 15: Time Heals All Wounds

A journalist would later describe the explosion as ‘A fiery rainbow exploding in the sky.’ The sheer level of magical energy that was released into the sky was almost inconceivable. The weather over Canterlot and the surrounding area would be uncontrollable for a least a month afterwards. Despite this though, it had all been worth the damages. Families would mourn for those who had died, researchers and scientists would be denied a chance to examine all cyber technology after it was collected, (and swiftly destroyed,) but life would eventually return to normal as it always did. The same could not be said for the Doctor, as things were about to take a turn for the strange.

Octavia nearly took the hinges off the door leading to the roof in her panicked state. She often forgot how strong she was when she tapped into her Earth pony strength. The group had finally regained the ability to move freely with little discomfort when they had heard the explosion above them. Every possible worst case scenario had entered Octavia’s head all at once and every single one involved the Doctors death.

She couldn’t say for certain if she loved him, but she deeply cared for him. He was bright, unique, he had a love for her music, he was infectiously charming and no matter what he said about himself, he was a good stallion, or rather, a good man. She imagined that if they had all survived this, Vinyl would tease her relentlessly about marriage and foals like she always used to when she was dating somepony. Although when put with the Doctor, it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant thought. Although she doubted that biology would ever allow the pair to have foals of their own.

All those pleasant thoughts seemed to evaporate as she stared at the lifeless form of the Doctor who was lying at the foot of the destroyed tower on his back. Everypony else hadn’t noticed the Doctor until she took off sprinting towards the fallen Timelord. They had been too busy gazing at the destroyed towers remains. Once they had noticed what Octavia was galloping towards, Vinyl led the charge to investigate.

The Doctors body was covered in battle scars from the fight with the Master and the explosion. Bruises, cuts, singed clothing and a golden glow all showed the signs of a fallen champion. Octavia’s heart dropped inside her chest at the sight before her. She couldn’t prevent the tears that began to form in her eyes from falling down her cheeks as she hugged his neck. Celestia had arrived with the rest of the group and quickly performed a spell over the Doctor’s body, but the results greatly confused her.

“Tia, what’s wrong,” asked a visibly concerned Princess Luna.

“I can’t tell if he’s alive or dead, it’s like his body is experiencing both at the same time.”

“He might be regenerating,” suggested Ditzy.

“B-but I can’t hear him breathing,” said Octavia through choked sobs. “I-I-I don’t….”

“AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH,” the Doctor shot up in a burst of pain. He began to gasp for air and shake his head in a desperate attempt to clear his head but he was tackled by a grey object that wrapped her hooves around his neck. The grey object was soon joined by two white forms, a cyan form and a multitude of colours before a voice beckoned them away.

“Please everypony, I’m sure the Doctor would rather not be strangled just after reviving.” Everypony quickly got off the fallen Timelord who was beginning to make out everypony again. He felt a hoof collide with his arm and when he turned to the assailant, he saw a teary eyed Vinyl who was missing her glasses.

“You’re a jerk, y’know that right? You had us all so worried.” Despite her angry words, her beaming smile showed her real thoughts. Octavia stood by her as she let out a relieved sigh. All the while, the golden aura around the Doctor was healing all his scars and wounds.

“Hey Doctor, your face is getting all better,” said an ecstatic Pinkie Pie. It took a moment to connect all the dots in his head, but the Doctor finally spoke.

“The fall should have killed me alone, but all the regeneration energy I absorbed to prevent the machine from working has been healing me, apparently my species and the Masters was enough of a genetic match.” The Doctor began to stand up and he received a helping hoof from a very grateful sun princess.

“Thank you Doctor. If not for you, we would have become slaves to a mad pony.”

“Speaking of which, where is the Master? He has a lot to answer for,” growled Luna. The group took a moment to look around but found no sign of a body close by.

“Maybe he survived and ran away,” muttered Rarity.

“How far have you fallen Doctor?” Ditzy asked to no one in particular. Despite what he did, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness for her former friend.

“I personally won’t be satisfied until I find either him, or his body,” announced Luna. “There will be questions asked for all of this and… Doctor? Is the golden glow meant to stay that long?”

Everypony turned their attention to the Timelord, who gave Luna a puzzled expression. He looked over his body again to find the subtle golden glow was still emitting from his form. All his wounds were healed and he didn’t feel a regeneration coming at all. Then he realized that there was a problem, his body was rejecting the energy, but the energy was fighting back. There was war going inside his body.

The Doctor fell to one knee as a sudden of pain clutched his stomach. Everypony ran to his location to find the Doctor in an incredible amount of pain. The Doctor grunted in pain again as he wrapped his arm around his stomach. He arched his back and opened his mouth. A sort of golden cloud floated out and the Doctor cried out in pain for a third time.

“Oh no,” whimpered Fluttershy, “Doctor, please, what do we do? What’s wrong?”

“Argh, I-I’m overflow-wing with regenerative energy. I-I can’t…” Again he cried in pain. Everypony's panicked faces told the entire story, nopony knew what to do. “… I told you all that I regen…. regen…” he struggled to finish his sentence until Octavia finished it for him.

“You regenerate your body when you’re about to die, that’s what you're trying to say isn’t it?” Asked Octavia and the Doctor nodded weakly.

“Nor-normally when this happens… it increa-ses the numb-ber of regenerations a Timelord can have.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “Despite the similarities between the Timelords and the Timeponies, we’re still too different. My body is rejecting the energy, but the energy is fighting back. I have to release the energy.”

“Then do it now, hurry!” Rainbow Dash practically screamed out the order in desperation. The Doctor shook his head.

“I-I-I c-cant. With this much energy, I might attract a ro-rouge alien species looking fo-or a go-ood fuel source. I-I ne-eed to rel-ease it in a safe place.”

“Well what about the TARDIS then?” suggested Vinyl Scratch.

“Th-that would work but it’s…”

“Say no more Doctor, we can teleport you to your TARIDS. It’s in the Ponyville library, yes?” The Doctor nodded weakly. “Let’s go my little ponies. It appears we don’t have much time.” A flash of light surrounded the ponies and Timelord on the roof, and then they vanished.

Meanwhile…

The majority of the ponies in Ponyville now found themselves awake, confused, shocked, and downright dumbfounded. Many speculated on the earpieces and the explosion in the sky. All of that only helped to increase Twilights anxiety about the whole ordeal.

She so badly wanted to travel to Canterlot to check on her friends and mentor, but she didn’t know if she was strong enough to get to Canterlot in her present condition. Plus, she couldn’t leave the still recovering ponies of the town in case there was some kind of attack. Twilight still didn’t know the full picture, and that probably frustrated her the most. Was her mentor the enemy? Who were they even fighting? What was the goal of this convoluted plan? So many questions and no clear answers, and if there was anything Twilight hated, it was unanswered questions. That and overdue library books.

She spied Applejack conversing with her brother and Spike assisting Nurse Redheart with treating ponies in nearby tents. Nopony seemed to be suffering any severe or long-term effects. According to Redheart, the worse cases were only exhibiting exhaustion. This soothed some of Twilights worries, but not all. Mayor Mare was only told that the tower was to be built via direct orders from Celestia herself. The speech and the earplugs were also Celestia’s doing. This information seemed to confirm Celestia’s part in all of this, but she held onto the hope that Spike was right and Celestia had been mind controlled this entire time. She just couldn’t see her mentor willingly do this.

Twilight would get her answers sooner rather than later, when she heard a pop behind her. This particular pop sounded like somepony had just teleported using magic, a noise that Twilight was very familiar with. When she turned around, the large form of Princess Celestia was mere meters away from her.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight cried aloud. Nearly everypony within proximity turned in shock at the new arrivals. Along with Princess Celestia was Princess Luna, the rest of the elements, Vinyl, Octavia, Ditzy and the Doctor who looked like he was in a great deal of pain. There was no sign of the other Doctor but that hadn’t registered with Twilight yet as she was too busy galloping towards her mentor.

“Princess, you’re safe. What happened? Is the Doctor hurt? Were you involved in this?” Twilight’s barrage of questions came screeching to a halt as Celestia raised a hoof to stop her.

“Twilight, I promise you that I will personally answer all of your questions when it is appropriate, but right now, we must help our saviour.” At that moment, both Spike and Applejack ran over to see the commotion.

“Doctor? You alright there sugar cube?” asked the apple farmer. The Doctor could only shake his head weakly at this point. Standing was difficult enough, the Doctor had to use Luna as a support. The golden glow was getting brighter by the second.

“We don’t have time for this,” cried Octavia, “we have to get the Doctor to the TARDIS.”

“Oh right, I’ll open the door.” Twilight teleported to the library door and held it open while her friends did their best to guide the Timelord through. The looks of confusion and worry on the town’s populace could not match the looks of concern on the Doctors friends. Rainbow looked like she was about to scream in panic, Pinkie had been disturbingly quiet, Rarity felt helpless at the scene before her, while Fluttershy was acting like a reassuring mother, telling her child that everything was going to be fine.

The inside of the library was the same as always. The TARDIS was in the exact same place, waiting for the Doctors return. The Door hobbled towards the TARDIS door, using Luna as support. He picked the TARDIS key from his pocket and turned the lock until he heard a click. Octavia pushed open the door so the Doctor could enter on his own as he desperately hobbled to the TARDIS coach. His body was reacting in a way that he had never experienced before. Instead of the on-going battle that he felt before, it now felt like a new being was trying to escape from him. It didn’t make sense, he wasn’t regenerating, that much the Doctor was certain. Another cry of pain only served to worry his friends even more.

“Princess, what in Equestria is happening?” Asked Twilight with a panic stricken face. Octavia answered for her.

“It’s a terribly long story. It turned out the pony Doctor was behind this all along. He betrayed the Cybermen and was using all of us the entire time. The Doctor stopped him but in the process, I believe he absorbed his regeneration energy. Since it’s technically alien, his body is accepting it, and rejecting it at the same time. The Doctor has to forcefully release it, but he has to do it in a safe place, otherwise he might attract some unwanted guests.” The Doctor nodded weakly to confirm the situation. Twilight approached the pained Timelord.

“Oh, Doctor. Is there anything we can do for you?” At that moment, the Doctor was finally turning the tide. He was ready to release the energy into the room.

“I need y-you all to stand back,” he said. Twilight did so with no argument as the ponies trotted to the other side of the room. Anticipation was brewing inside of them, none of them knew what to expect. The Doctor began to stand up one last time. He barely made it to the console as he used it as a support. He suddenly felt like a great weight was about to be released from his shoulders, while at the same time, the TARDIS was beckoning him to do what he had too. “All of you, prom-promise me you’ll all keep ba-ack no matter what! This is going to be big.” A few noncommittal nods was all the Doctor needed. With that, he let go.

The energy seeped through every limb in his body, but instead of rising to the ceiling, in began to mass together on the ground. The Doctor could barely make out what was going on below him, but the others watched in shock and awe in what appeared to be a living creature coming together in the golden mist. The figure was equine in shape, its entire body was flashing in and out of existence, but the number of flashes was beginning to lessen, and soon there was just a brown body lying in the middle of the cloud.

After a moment, the Doctor felt the last of the regeneration energy had left his body. Once he was certain he was no longer in danger, and that he was in no more pain, he turned his attention to the pony that had formed in the cloud. He was disturbingly familiar. The chestnut coat, the dark brown mane, the hourglass cutie mark, he looked very similar to the Master before he regenerated. Then again, he looked a lot like the Doctor. Minus the muzzle, his facial features were reminiscent of the Timelord. His mane was styled differently as well. The Masters mane had been pointed backwards, while the pony’s was pointed forward. It was a slight bigger version of the Doctor’s own hair.

The Doctor looked over to the others to find that they were all stunned silent. Nopony was able to find the words to sum up what they had just witnessed. The golden energy that had left his body had created a whole new life form. But who this pony was had yet to be established. At that moment, the pony’s eyes began to open. He didn’t slowly rise up, instead, he shot up and scanned his surroundings. He could see the group of ponies in front of him, but he hadn’t noticed the Timelord behind him.

“Huh. How did I end up on the floor?” Everypony’s eyes shot wide open. He sounded just like the Timelord behind him. “Now let’s see, there was a Cyberman invasion, a combination of myself and the master in a pony body, and then I had to absorb that regeneration energy.” He paused for a moment and Applejack shook her head out of her daze.

“Now who the heck are you?”

“Hold on a moment Applejack, I need to get my brain back in gear,” interrupted the Stallion. He looked over to the console again, and then it hit him. “Aha! You all took me back me here so I could safely get rid of the built up regeneration energy.” He pointed his hoof towards them, to help confirm what he already knew in his head. “All I can remember then is… I have a hoof.”

It was the statement itself that left the Stallion dumbfounded. Right in front of him, the limb he had chosen to point at his friends was in fact a foreleg. He stared at it for a moment, and then it occurred to him that he was also a lot shorter than he was before. He could only barely reach the TARDIS console if he tried reaching up to it, he had assumed he was just kneeling or sitting down. Slowly his current situation began to dawn on the Stallion. He now had fur and it was a light, chestnut brown. There was also a muzzle sticking out of his face where his mouth once was. The Doctor had experienced many things, being a pony was a new one.

“Well then, it appears I’m a pony,” he simply stated. There was no real emotion in his voice. At best, the group could make out a hint of exasperation. Octavia gingerly took a step forward towards the new Stallion and asked the obvious question.

“Excuse me, but who are you?” The pony looked straight at her and gave Octavia a warm smile.

“Tavi, it’s me, the Doctor.” A series of gasps filled the room. Ditzy nearly hit the roof upon the revelation but kept her cool.

“Wait, are you my Doctor,” she asked. Vinyl’s eyes squinted at the stallion.

“I’m sorry Ditzy, but I’m not. Do you not remember? He either died or escaped when the tower exploded. It’s me, Octavia’s Doctor. Although it appears I have regenerated into an equine form. That’s odd, I didn’t feel like I was regenerating. Perhaps the Timepony regeneration energy works differently and caused…” Dash practically exploded from the other side of the console.

“But you’re not the Doctor. He’s the Doctor!” The Doctor followed Rainbow’s hoof so he turned around. Towering over him was what he remembered looking like no less than several minutes ago. The Timelord gazed down upon the pony. The entire time, the Doctor had carefully listened to what the stallion had to say. There was only one conclusion to who that was, it was him. It was the Doctor.

“What?” Simply asked the Timelord in utter bewilderment.

“What?” Replied the Timepony, now gazing up at him.

The two beings looked into the others eyes. Both creatures looked as if they were in their late twenties to early thirties, but their eyes betrayed them. They had old eyes, ancient eyes. There was no doubt in their minds. They were looking at the Doctor. They were both the Doctor. Every possible way this could happen was running through their minds. In the end, at the exact same moment, they both reached the same conclusion.

“No!”

"No!”

At the exact same time, the pair shouted the same thing.

“Of course!” The pair both began to smile uncontrollably, as they strolled around the TARDIS together”

“It makes so much sense,” started the Timelord. “I’ve never had to release so much energy before at once. In normal instances, it would have dispersed into the atmosphere…”

“…But we were in a controlled environment,” continued the Timepony. “We were in the TARDIS. A place we have spent hundreds of years inside. This ship is reeking of our DNA. On top of that…”

“…It wasn’t Timelord regeneration energy, it was Timepony regeneration energy. The energy tethered onto my DNA and began to rebuild me from the DNA in the room because there was no place for it to leave…”

“…But since it was Timepony energy, it rebuilt me into a Timepony version of yourself. That’s me…”

“…You have all my memories…”

“…I have your personality…”

“…In summation…”

“…I am you!”

Both Doctor’s hugged each other, lost in the moment. This was so weird and wrong, yet at the same time it was so right and it made so much sense. The two Doctor’s let go of each other and faced their friends. They could only look on and see the bizarre situation before them. At the same time, everypony voiced their confusion at the situation before them.

“WHAT!?”

Chapter 16: This Song is Ending, but the Story Never Ends

Time has a way of moving agonisingly slowly and moving incredibly fast when we least expect it. Octavia felt like very second was as long as a minute right now. What she had witnessed was something she was having great difficulty comprehending. The Timelord she had been falling for, now had a Timepony clone. And he was hot! Although she would never say it out loud, she immediately felt an attraction towards the Timepony. She had mentally berated herself for this, and all the while, Vinyl had left a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

After five minutes of both Doctors attempting to explain what had happened, the Princesses said they had to leave to help assure the country and the other civilisations that everything was fine. Princess Celestia had kept her word though, and gave Twilight and everypony present a brief summary of what happened in Canterlot. As soon as it was over, they disappeared in a flash of light.

Both Doctors, to the surprise of the ponies present, claimed that they had to discuss some things so they asked everypony for some privacy. Octavia was reluctant to leave but did as she was asked anyway. Twilight said that she should assure the towns ponies that everything would be fine and update all of them on what’s happened. The other elements and Spike followed her out, eager to assist their friend. Ditzy was anxious to see her daughter, who she had left in the care of some friends. She too excused herself which left Vinyl and Octavia alone in Twilights kitchen. The two had remained in silence for some time until Vinyl broke the ice.

“So, do you think the new Doc is hot?”

“Vinyl! That is not appropriate,” scolded Octavia whose face felt a lot warmer.

“Yeah, I thought so. Don’t worry about it Tavi, everything will turn out fine.”

“Are you sure about that Vinyl, I’m now more confused than ever. Are they really the same?”

“You’re confused if they both have feeling about you, huh?”

“Yes, that would complicate matters greatly. But something just occurred to me.” She took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts before continuing. “The Doctor told me the reason he was still here was because his TARDIS wouldn’t allow him to leave. He believed it was because it knew if he left, he would not be able to prevent some sort of catastrophe. It has been prevented now, so he has no reason to stay anymore.” Vinyl shook her head in disagreement.

“Course he has a reason to stay, he’s got you.”

“Yes, but he’s had a lot of ‘people,’ and it nearly always ends in the same way. He left them behind. I think I’m doomed to join a long list of rejects.”

“Hey! You are not a reject, don’t say that about yourself. He’d be crazy if he just up and left you of all ponies. Heck, I’d rut you right here.”

“…Um, thank you Vinyl, I think.” Vinyl grabbed both of Octavia’s hoofs and walked over to the nearest mirror so she could gaze at her own reflection. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but one thing I do know is that you will not be alone. You got me and your parents, heck, you got all our friends. You’re going to be fine Tavi, I just know it.” Octavia looked into her best friends eyes and gave her a hug.

“Thank you Vinyl, I think you might be right.” The pair broke their hug when they heard a door creak open. They turned to the direction of the creak to find the TARDIS door slightly ajar. They couldn’t see anypony, but a voice beckoned to Octavia.

“Tavi, may I see you for a moment?” It was the Doctor’s voice. Octavia urgently responded.

“Yes, of course Doctor, just give me a moment.” The door was left open for her to enter.

“Well, looks like he wants to a have a private ‘chat’ with you,” Vinyl said with a wink. Octavia stifled a groan but couldn’t help but facehoof. “Well, I’m going to check on our place. I wanna make sure the girls are alright.”

“You mean the bass cannons, don’t you?”

“And your instruments too. Good luck Tavi.” Vinyl gave Octavia one last hug before swiftly trotting out of the room. Octavia stared blankly at her friend as she left the library. There was nothing stopping her except herself. She took a deep breath and prepared for the worst. She gently pushed the blue door open and trotted into the impossibly big ship.

What she saw was not what she expected. Instead of the tall, lanky Timepony, she saw the short Timepony who was now wearing a brown overcoat that was far too big for him. He was fiddling with some buttons on the TARDIS console. He seemed a little annoyed at the overcoat, probably frustrated that it didn’t fit him correctly anymore. His face brightened up though when the device in the glass centre began to move up and down.

“Fantastic, she’s working again,” cried the Timepony. “Welcome back sexy.” Octavia’s face turned red as a tomato.

“Oh, Doctor, I didn’t think you…” The Doctor turned around to face the new voice.

“Oh, Octavia, I didn’t hear you come in. Sorry, I was talking to my TARDIS.” Octavia’s eyes opened wide in realisation, her face somehow became a darker shade of red. “Hmm, it appears I’ll have to ask Rarity to make me some more clothes. None of my current outfits fit me anymore.”

“Oh, I see. Um… did you call for me?” A familiar smile fell on the Doctor’s face.

“That’s right. I wanted to talk to you.”

“Right, well I don’t know if that is appropriate. I have a coltfriend right now and…”

“…That’s me. I’m the Doctor.”

“I understand that you’re one Doctor, but you’re not my Doctor. In all honesty, I’m still not a hundred per cent convinced that you’re the same Doctor.” The Doctor shook his head and trotted over to the Canterlot native.

“Tavi, it’s me, literally. Same man, now a pony. A Timepony to be precise.” He took one of her hoofs and pressed it against his ribcage. Tavi was reluctant at first, but made no real attempt to stop him. Then she felt a heartbeat. It was a sign that he was real, but it became a confirmation he really was a Timepony when he moved her hoof to the other side of his chest. She could then feel another heartbeat. Octavia pulled away, almost determined to deny it.

“Alright then, if you are him, tell me something that I confided in you,” she said with a firm nod.

“You play the Cello.”

“Everypony knows that.”

“You love bowties, so much in fact that you have insisted that I should start wearing one.”

“True, but you’ll have to do better than that.”

“Alright then, here we go. Your roommate is Vinyl Scratch. You met her years ago at music school. Despite your clashing tastes in music, the two of you became fast friends and the pair of you moved to Ponyville after graduating. One notable story you told me is how Vinyl enjoys cleaning the dishes with wubs. She began to develop feelings for you, but you only saw her as a friend so you had to let her down gently, which resulted in her storming out of your home and encountering Ditzy and her Doctor for the first time. Only today did you discover that Vinyl is a vampire.”

“Both of your parents are Unicorns, but due to an Earth pony bloodline from your mother’s side of the family, you were born as you were. Despite this, your parents have shown you nothing but love and support throughout your life. Your dream is to become a full time member of the royal Canterlot symphonic orchestra. Despite playing with them a few times, you have yet to become a full member. This has frustrated you as you are of the opinion that you are far better than the majority of the musicians there, and you believe it boils down to a race issue.”

“Finally, let’s talk about our relationship,” the Doctor took a deep breath before continuing. “We met for the first time at my welcoming party. You developed an odd attraction to me, despite my bizarre appearance. Over the short time I was here, a friend of yours, Lyra if I remember correctly, convinced you to confess your feelings which you did in the form of a written letter. With some help, I figured out who wrote it and confronted you on it. This was just before they started to hand out the earplugs for the first time. You asked me out on that same day, and on instinct, I answered yes. We had a good meal, and that was where I met Vinyl for the first. She was cautious of me due my similarities to the other Doctor. Over the period of time we dated, your feelings and your attraction grew because you like my intelligence, charm and wit. You also enjoyed my uniqueness, while others would have pushed me away because of it. At the same time… I developed feelings for you as well. Your grace and kindness always made me feel comfortable around you. When I was with you, I felt at home.”

Octavia felt her heart melt in her chest. There was no way of denying it any further. This pony was indeed the Doctor. The same Doctor. She tried to find the right words, but her throat closed up and tiny droplets began to form in her eyes. She was more confused than ever. She now felt like she cared for both the Timelord and the Timepony. How could she pick between two beings who were destined to leave her behind? At that moment, the Timelord entered the room from the TARDIS corridor.

“Octavia, I’m afraid I have to return to my own universe,” he started, “and I have to close up the hole between our worlds, which means I won’t ever see you again.”

Octavia felt like she had been slapped in the face. Reality dawned on her that this was always going to happen to her, unless the TARDIS had truly died. She didn’t know what to say, the words she wanted to articulate never left her mouth. She just stood there with her mouth agape and her head pointed downwards.

“However, my friend there has other plans.” Then, a glimmer of hope shot through the cello player. The Timelord was pointing at his counterpart.

“There is one difference between myself and the other Doctor,” explained the Timepony,” it’s how we feel about you. My feelings appear to be… stronger.” Octavia was surprised to hear this. Was that really true? “Due to my new form and for other reasons, myself and the Doctor have agreed that I should stay in this universe,” he finished with a genuine smile.

Octavia practically tackled the Doctor in a hug having lost all control of her emotions. In one instant she had felt despair and now a new hope. She would be with the Doctor, just not the one she was expecting. It didn’t matter though, because to her, he was the same Timelord. Then, she planted her lips on his. It was a short kiss, but enough to shock the Doctor. The other Doctor who was looking on couldn’t help but smirk, despite the small tinge of jealousy he felt inside. When Octavia broke the kiss, it suddenly dawned on her what she did and backed off the Timepony while blushing furiously.

“Well that was… um… that was… I seemed to get kissed a lot lately,” concluded the Doctor who was still lying on his back. Octavia, despite her embarrassment, suddenly realised something.

“I just realised. When the other Doctor leaves, you won’t be able to use the TARDIS again, will you?”

“Not quite Tavi,” the Timepony countered while getting back to his hoofs. “Do you remember what happen to the Master's TARDIS?”

“Um, if I recall correctly, Princess Celestia sent it… OH!”

“That’s right, it should be where the Master had previously parked it. Could you do me a favour a check if it’s still there?” Octavia nodded her head and gave the Doctor another hug. She quickly trotted out of the TARDIS, leaving the two time travellers inside.

“I will miss this TARDIS,” muttered the Timepony who was gently stroking the console. His counterpart didn’t say anything as he continued to check on the time machine. “You had me lie to her y’know. Were the same, despite our appearance.”

“I know, this is just easier," replied the Timelord. “I have to leave, Octavia believes your feelings are stronger and she settles for you, everybody, or rather everypony, wins.”

“Except you. I can’t help but feel you’re getting the short end of the stick. There’s no one waiting for you over there, while I get an entire town of ponies that care about me. Everybody does not win. You lose.”

The Timelord inhaled a deep breath before talking any further. He was beginning to wonder why he was even going back, what was waiting for him? Then he remembered something that Octavia had said about him during the time when they dated.

“Octavia once told me that I was a hero. I didn’t understand how she could see me as that after all the beings that I’ve killed. She told me that despite that, I’ve saved billions more if my stories are true. Maybe she’s right, maybe my universe needs me, and maybe, this universe needs a Doctor as well.” The other Doctor didn’t need to say anything. He could only smile at his counterpart’s realisation. Before they continued to work, the Timepony made a suggestion.

“I know that you’re considering the possibility of leaving now when no one’s about, but Pinkie was planning a party. I think they all deserve a proper farewell.”

One week later…

If there was anything anypony could agree on about Equestria, is that the country could recover remarkably easily. In a matter of days, all the damage that had been caused by the Cybermen and the Master had been cleaned up, and Equestria was at peace again. The same could not be said for the Monarchy’s approval ratings. Despite it not falling under seventy five per cent, and the majority of the population believing that Celestia had been under the Cybermen’s control, many were questioning if the Princesses were still up to the task of protecting the country. The elements had saved everypony since Nightmare Moon's return, and Chrysalis getting the upper hand on Celestia was viewed by nearly every noble present at the royal wedding. Needless to say, it would take some time for the Princesses to recover in the face of the media, Celestia especially. Their approval hasn’t been lower in nearly six hundred years.

Meanwhile, the search for the Masters body had turned up no results. It was if he had vanished without a trace, or his body was disintegrated in the blast. He was declared dead, but both Doctors knew better than that. Luna shared their belief and ordered her guards to keep a constant eye out for the rogue Timelord. The Doctor’s role in stopping the Cybermen was, to his surprise, discovered by the media. Nopony knew for sure how, but many ponies had heard the tale of the pony in the blue box that could travel in time and space so it was likely that the press made the connection. The Timepony thought it would be best to lay low for a while, but the call of a Pinkie Pie party had drawn him to said event, along with the other Doctor. There were three reasons for the party. The first was to celebrate the defeat of the Cybermen. The second was to welcome the now pony Doctor. And the last was to say farewell to the Doctor. Today would be his last day in Equestria.

It was actually a small party, per the Doctors request. The partiers were both Doctors, the elements of harmony, Vinyl, Octavia, Ditzy and of course, Spike. Even the Princesses, despite how busy they were supposed to be, made an appearance just before the Timelord prepared to leave. The party itself had been short and in reality, it was more of a farewell than a celebration. Pinkie had organised everypony into a line so the Doctor could say goodbye to each in turn. First it would be the princesses, then Spike, the elements, Ditzy, Vinyl, Octavia and finally, the other Doctor. The time had come to finally bid farewell. The Doctor started with Celestia.

“Princess Celestia, it was a pleasure to meet the mare herself,” he said as he vigorously shook her hoof.

“The pleasure was mine, Doctor. And thank you for saving us.”

“I just want you to know one thing,” the Doctor said firmly so he had her full attention. “I’m nearly as old as you. I’ve seen evil rulers, dictators, corrupt politicians and monstrous gods. I know for a fact that you’re nothing like them. You are a good ruler, don’t let anyone, or anypony, tell you otherwise.” Celestia would later tell Twilight she really needed to hear that after recent events. It was the first time in that entire week she felt good as a ruler. The Doctor moved on to Luna next.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all that you’ve suffered. I’m sure your son would be proud of you.” Luna bowed her head before speaking.

“They say time heals all wounds. It appears I’ll have to wait a little longer to be fully healed. My poor Carnage Moon, how could I treat him so? At first I treated him like a mother should, but over the years, the more Nightmare Moon took over, the more I treated him more like solider than a son.”

“That may well be true, so learn from that mistake. Allow it to make you stronger.” Luna nodded with a smile. The Doctor merely gave spike a low five and a thank you for the food before moving to Applejack. “You got me good the first time we met, do you remember?” Applejack snickered at the memory.

“Yeah, sorry about that, lookin back, hogtying ya might have been goin too far.” Applejack stuck out her hoof and the Doctor shook it. “It was a pleasure meetin ya, sugarcube.” The Doctor went on to Fluttershy next. As soon as the Doctor got on one knee, Fluttershy wrapped her hooves around him in a hug that the Doctor returned.

“Please, be safe,” Fluttershy whispered.

“I’ll try,” he replied. As Fluttershy wiped away her inevitable tears, the Doctor came to Rarity.

“What do you think of your counterpart’s clothes darling?” She asked. The Doctor looked over to the other Doctor who was wearing an exact copy of the Doctors clothes, only smaller.

“Très magnifique,” he replied with a wink.

“Now, do be careful darling. I wish I could design more clothes for you, if only there was more time.”

“It’s fine Rarity, you’ve already done more than enough.” The Doctor gave her a quick hug as well. Pinkie Pie was next, and her usually curly mane was now disturbingly straight.

“Will I ever see you again?” Asked a teary eyed Pinkie. The Doctor couldn’t say it; he could only shake his head. Pinkie hanged her head in disappointment, but the Doctor lifted in back up with his finger so they were eye level.

“Pinkie, I’ve been to many places and many parties, but there is no party like a Pinkie Pie party.” Pinkies mane suddenly came back to life and a familiar smile was plastered on her face. She shot up and hugged the Doctor around his neck which he happily returned it. When he put her down, he came over to a surprisingly depressed Rainbow Dash.

“I’m afraid I have to go Miss future Wondebolt. You pack a hell of punch though,” he said with a smirk. The flood gates broke on Dash’s eyes as she hugged the Timelord. The usually proud Rainbow Dash had been brought to a snivelling wreck.

“You’re a jerk you know that,” she mumbled. “You better not die out there.” The Doctor put her down and gave her a hoofbump as Dash tried to return to her usually ‘awesome’ persona. The Doctor moved onto the final element, magic.

“Well, it’s certainly been interesting Doctor. I think I’ve learned something about friendship today.” The Doctor was very curious about this.

“What did you learn Twilight?”

“That we all have to say goodbye to our friends someday, and it can one of hardest things we’ll ever do.” Nothing else was said as the pair hugged each other. The Doctor thought back to the show and knew that one day Twilight would become an Alicorn. If she became immortal because of it, then she really would have to say goodbye to her friends one day as she would be cursed with immortality, just like him.

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Ditzy was the next in line.

“I’m sorry about your Doctor. I know you two were close.” Instead of a frown, Ditzy had a small smile on her face.

“Honestly, I think I’m over it. He wasn’t my Doctor anymore, he died in the Timewar. I’ll try and remember him as he was before all this. Thank you for stopping him. If you hadn’t, I never would have returned to my little muffin.” The two shook hand to hoof. Vinyl’s face was expressionless as the Doctor approached. Vinyl sucked in some air before speaking.

“I’m sorry,” she began. “I was wrong about you and it wasn’t fair of me to take out my problems on you. That isn’t cool.”

“Apology accepted,” the Doctor replied with sincerity. The pair shook. Vinyl left the Doctor with one last message.

“Look after yourself, Doc. I don’t need to tell you this, but it’s a dangerous universe out there.” The Doctor finally came to Octavia.

Neither of them really knew how to start. Both parties had prepared and thought over what they would say at this moment, but now they were here, neither of them really knew what to say. The awkward silence continued for several seconds before Octavia finally remembered that she had something to give the time traveller.

“Doctor, I have a farewell gift for you. Something to remember me by.” She picked up the small item she had left on the ground and handed it to the Timelord. It was a brown bowtie. It made perfect sense for her to give this to him, but he was surprised how much he liked it. It was almost definitely one of Rarity’s creations and the quality really showed. The Doctor felt an immediate fondness for the article of clothing. He made a mental note to keep a hold of it. Maybe sometime soon he’ll be drawn to wear it on a more permanent basis.

“Thank you, Tavi. I really like it.” Octavia wrapped her hooves around the Timelord for their final hug.

“I’m really going to miss you,” whispered Octavia as she gave the Doctor a light kiss on the cheek. “If only things had been different.”

“If only things had been different,” repeated the Timelord. The pair reluctantly broke the hug and the Doctor turned to the last pony, his counterpart.

“Look after her,” he told him, “look after all of them.”

“I will,” replied the Timepony as he wrapped his foreleg around Tavi’s.

And with that, the last of the goodbyes had been said, and the Doctor finally had to go. He slowly walked over to the ancient machine standing tall in Twilight's library and turned the lock. He looked over at the sad faces of his friends one last time, knowing full well that he would never see them again. Before he left, he gave them some parting words.

“Well, it’s time I went on another adventure. Allon-sy!” And with that, the door slammed shut, and a moment later, the large blue box began to fade in and out of existence. A rush of wind and the familiar sound of the TARDIS filled the room as the ponies struggled to keep eye contact on the blue box. The tears began to fall down Octavia’s face when the TARDIS completely disappeared from their reality. She found comfort on the shoulder of the Doctor. Her Doctor now.

After the Doctor departed, Pinkie Pie attempted to cheer everypony up with little success. The Princesses claimed they had to return to their work so they swiftly departed. Twilight had decided to look at her time spell again for reasons unknown even to her. The rest of the friends mingled with each other, but couldn’t simply leave the subject of the departing Timelord. It made the pony Doctor feel strange. He was here, yet they were saying farewell. It only made the Timepony more adamant that what he would have to do next would be the right thing.

In the end, everypony returned to their normal lives, or as normal as it gets in Ponyville. Applejack continued to work on the farm, Rainbow Dash continued to do her tricks, much to the delight of Scootaloo, Rarity dedicated her next line of clothing to the Doctor, Pinkie soon cheered up and was hopping about the town like she regularly did, Ditzy became Ponyville’s mailmare once more, including the crashes that came with her job and condition, Vinyl had gotten a new gig and Octavia was soon to become a member of the Canterlot symphonic orchestra as of yesterday. However, her dream job came at a price.

The Doctor and Octavia entered the Masters old TARDIS so they could look over her again. In reality, the Doctor was the one who did the work and Octavia stood at the side while they chatted about random things. The TARDIS had quickly warmed up to the Timepony and had no objection of being used by the new Doctor. Both the Doctor and Octavia had something to say, but didn’t know how to say it. To Octavia, the situation was reminiscent of just moments ago when Tavi had to say goodbye to the other Doctor. Just like last time, she decided to come out and just say it.

“Me and Vinyl are moving back to Canterlot,” she stated bluntly. The Doctor immediately stopped what he was doing and stared at her blankly for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

“You’ve been accepted into the orchestra,” he concluded with a smile.

“You remembered,” she replied happily. “I got the letter the other day. Next week I’ll be a full time member. This means we have to move but since most of Vinyl’s gigs are in Canterlot, she isn’t bothered by it at all.”

“That’s fantastic! You’ll be doing what you’ve always dreamed of doing.”

“Exactly, and you can bring your TARDIS as well…”

“… I’m not coming.” The words knocked Octavia like a ton of bricks. There was no sign of it being a joke on the Doctor’s face or his tone of voice. “I mean I’m not coming just yet, I still have something to do.”

“What do you mean? I don’t understand. Do you not want to come?” The Doctor took Octavia's hoof in his hoof and began to explain.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a little while now. I need to first understand my transformation and what has changed for me. To understand this, I need to go out there.” He point towards the roof of the TARDIS with his free hoof. Octavia knew what he meant. He meant outer space.

“Despite the similarities between Timeponies and Timelords, I’m willing to bet there are a few differences. I’ve got to know about these differences. I may have the same mind, but a very different body. A body that is alien to even me. The answers aren’t on this planet.”

“Do you mean it could be dangerous?”

“I doubt it, considering how much time the Master spent with ponies. But I have to confirm if the change was truly flawless or if there some sort of catch. I changed what species I am. That’s not exactly an easy thing to pull off. I should know since I had to do it before.”

“So you’ll be gone for a short while, that’s no problem…”

“… That’s not all though.” Octavia was interrupted again by the Doctor who walked over to the TARDIS console. “I’m going to be travelling for a little while.”

“B-b-but I…”

“I’m not leaving you,” the Doctor said firmly. “This is just something I have to do. I can’t explain it in all honesty. All I know is that I’m coming back for you, no matter what. I have a time machine remember?”

“That’s true but… I’m coming with you.” The statement was so sudden that it was evident that it was a last minute decision and Octavaia wasn’t thinking clearly.

“Octavia you can’t…”

“WHY!? Am I not good enough!? Is that all I am to you? Some toy you throw away when you’re done playing with me? I thought you loved me.” The last sentence stung the Doctor greatly. He knew there was only one way to salvage this now. He quickly closed the distance between them and kissed the mare on the lips. It was short but sweet, and silenced Octavia who now had a red blush on her cheeks.

“No, you’re perfect. Honestly, you are the only thing that is making this so difficult. I can’t tell you the full reason I’m leaving, but I swear to you, I will come back… I love you.” Those final words were all she needed to be satisfied.

“I love you too.” They had one last kiss. This one was more passionate, more perfect than the other two before. When they broke it, they came head to head as their voices lowered to a whisper.

“I can’t convince you to stay, can I?” She asked.

“No.”

“You’re going to leave as soon as I leave, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Look after yourself my love. And swear to me that you’ll return.”

“I swear.”

Octavia turned away from the Doctor and practically bolted out of the door. She knew if she didn’t, she’d force herself to stay. As soon as she got out, she heard the whooshing noise of the TARDIS leaving. She didn’t look back. She couldn’t bear to watch two lovers leave her in one day. She could only pray the Doctor would keep his word and come back for her. But how many times has he promised that before and never saw it through? She trotted out of the alleyway and into the sunshine. At the very least, she still had a future, thanks to the Timelord she loved.

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Epilogue - A League Unlike any Other

Epilogue

Amelia Pond was bored. She normally got like this during the periods of transitioning through time and space inside the TARDIS. The Doctor would calibrate the TARDIS and tinker with it on the way, and Amelia Pond would sit by the railing and ask questions in a vain attempt to prevent her inevitable boredom. Even when she received an answer she could understand, she very rarely remembered any of it.

They had ventured off shortly after meeting Winston Churchill, and despite encountering an old enemy, the Doctor was in high spirits. He defeated the Daleks, gave a cyborg a chance to live, and paid an old friend a visit. All in all, a good days work. He knew his current companion deserved more though, she was already bored again and that simply wouldn’t do. Amelia Pond had waited long enough for an adventure.

The Doctor had finished his calibrations and was checking everything over to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Then he realised that something important was missing. His brown bowtie, the same bowtie he had worn every day since regenerating, was not around his neck. He assumed it must of fallen off, but when he looked downwards, it was nowhere in sight. He then realised it must have fallen off somewhere else and asked Amy to help him look.

“Amy, I seem to have misplaced my bowtie, could you help me find it?”

“You mean this bowtie?” The Doctors head snapped towards Amelia Pond who was twirling the item of clothing on her finger. The Doctor visibly cringed when she began to stretch it slightly. He cautiously took a step towards her with a look of fear on his face.

“I don’t know why you wear this thing? Bowties aren’t…” She was then taken aback by the look of panic on the Doctor’s face. That look was normally reserved when something bad had just happened.

“Amy, please,” he pleaded, “hand me the bowtie.” Amy gave him the requested item with no argument. The Doctor wasted no time and quickly put it back on. He sighed in relief as Amy began to walk towards the TARDIS corridor.

“I’ll leave you and your… bowtie alone for a while.” The Doctor didn’t try to stop her, but made a mental note that he should explain later. With a swift click, the TARDIS mirror shot out and the Doctor walked over to gaze at his reflection. He carefully made sure the tie was in the right position and once he was happy, he began to reminisce.

A strange alien world filled with equine like creatures. Two old foes in new and terrifying forms. A lover he would not see again. He missed that place, he truly did, but he was content with his memories. Denial, grief, acceptance. That is what his last three forms represented after losing his world. In his ninth form, he tried to deny the death of his home world. In his tenth, he grieved for his home world. Now, he was at peace with it. And just like that, he had accepted the fact he would never see Equestria again, but he was content, what more could he ask for?

For a brief moment though, he swore he could see someone, or rather, somepony staring back at him through the mirror. Her small grey form gazed back at him with a loving smile that he was all too familiar with. A small smile graced his lips as the figured blurred into nothingness. He had only one thing to say to sum it all up.

“Bowties are cool.”

It had been two months since the Doctor left Octavia Philharmonica, but for the Doctor, it had been twenty years. Twenty long years of exploring, meeting new friends, facing off against new and old foes alike, and generally doing what he did best. Running. The Timepony had just landed in an alleyway in the middle of Canterlot. This had been the furthest he had gotten to meeting Octavia again, because he would always chicken out at the last second. The amount of times he was meant to come back but chose not too was far more numerous than you would expect, and far more numerous than the Doctor would want to acknowledge.

In one word, he felt shame. Despite the fact it had only been two months for the cello player, it had been far longer for the Doctor. He had spent twenty years running away from her. It hadn’t started like that, but when he discovered what he had feared was true, it was almost impossible to return. The Timepony was still immortal. He would live on, while Octavia would turn to dust before his eyes, and he didn’t know if he could take that.

However, Octavia would not leave his thoughts no matter how hard he tried to rid himself of her. That’s what kept drawing him back. He felt love, and friendship. And he knew now that he would inevitably find himself in front of Tavi’s front door eventually, so he might as well face up to it now. What was he going to say? Honestly, he was going to wing it. Like he did most things in life and hopefully it would all turn out fine. But what was he really expecting? Two months wasn’t that long in reality, he was actually meant to have materialised closer to Octavia moving in, but a simple slip up with the controls forced him to land at this point in time.

‘Could have been worse, could have been a whole year,’ he remembered from adventures past. Then it occurred to him, he had no idea where she had moved too. She had only told him she was in Canterlot and neglected to give him a specific address. He concluded it was heat of the moment thing that she totally forgot, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to locate her he finalised in his head. There would be nothing to stop him now. No more distractions. No more running.

He took a step back from the console and turned to the TARDIS door. The ramp that led to the exit seemed suspiciously longer than usual, but never the less, the Doctor slowly ventured forward. Each step caused more doubts to enter his highly intelligent mind, but nothing would stop the Timepony this time. He would venture into Canterlot, discover where Vinyl and Octavia lived, and finally confront what he feared, going domestic. No, that wasn’t it, it was… it was hard to put in all honesty. He feared losing somepony he loved, but at the same time, he was willing to lock ponies out of his life. It was beginning to seem ludicrous to him, but by that point, he had reached the door.

Without thinking, he turned the door handle and stepped on through to the outside world, only to be greeted by an unexpected sight. In front of him was a mare, but not the mare he was hoping to see. She was wearing a tight white suit and a long, flowing, dark brown mane. Behind her were two stallions, also in white uniforms, and they were blocking the alleyway exit. Suddenly, he felt two more ponies behind him blocking the TARDIS door. Somehow they knew he was coming, and had prepared to trap him in place.

The Doctor had never been a practically violent stallion, but he was feeling very anxious in the current situation he was in. before he could act, the mare placed a small circular device by his forehooves, and outshone a cone of blue light from the centre. It was a hologram. Only now did the Doctor notice the symbol these ponies wore on their chests.

It wasn’t familiar to him, but he was more concerned about the fact that these ponies possessed technology that they shouldn’t be close to having yet. The image was a stallion sitting in a revolving chair. In one hoof was a cigarette and the other was tapping the arm of his chair. Judging by the way the pony was looking at the Doctor, the Timepony was certain that this was a live feed. Then the pony spoke.

“Doctor, it’s a pleasure to meet the Timelord himself, or rather, Timepony. Allow me to introduce myself; my name is the Illusive Pony.”

The Doctor instinctively knew he was about to drawn into a long adventure.

Moments after the return of Princess Luna to the throne…

Daring Do lived for moments like these. Months of searching and exploring had led her to the final battleground of Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon. Many rumours surrounded this place. Some ponies say that both princesses had been consumed by evil entities; others say that Celestia wept for a hundred years after her sister’s banishment, but Daring Do preferred the facts. Then again, she was known for chasing legends and stories, or rather, her character was.

This particular legend was one that fascinated the explorer and her coltfriend greatly. The stallion in question, Gambit Write, was a fellow writer who had written many theories on the Luna/Celstia war. He had even written a piece that looked at Luna’s side more sympathetically which was met with universal praise. Unlike her though, he lacked any adventuring abilities so he usually stayed at home, eager to see her walk through the door. She couldn’t think about him now though (as pleasant as the thought was) she had to focus on what was in front of her.

A couple of days before visiting her mother, Gambit had suggested she visit the untamed jungles in the Bad Lands. He theorised that the reason that the jungle existed in the middle of the desert was because it was hiding something, he believed that something was the final battleground. She had to give him credit, he was spot on. Very few ever came to this place, like the Everfree, the weather decided itself and this entire area had its own rules. She had discovered the ancient ruins of old, the destroyed pillars and crumbling buildings. But despite all of this, she could not take her eyes off the silver object before her.

When she had started a small excavation, she had found what looked like a metal coffin buried under the rubble. With a quickly made pully system, she was able to pull it up for further study. She honestly didn’t know what to make of it. It didn’t make any sense to her, because it seemed advanced, impossibly advanced. Not only would this sort of thing have never existed a thousand years ago, but it looked like some sort of life preservation device. She observed the panels at the side which was measuring stats like heartbeats, pulse, mana, etc. It was clear to her that there some pony inside this infernal device.

Her hoof gently brushed against it, but it was too late when she realised she had made a mistake. A mass of steam exited the sides of the coffin, and a loud click reached her ears as the coffin door began to slide open. Daring looked at the spot she had touched, and in that spot was a small red button that said ‘open.’

Suddenly, a blue figure fell face first to the ground. The body had fallen out of the coffin and hit the ground hard, but Daring saw some movement as it began to stir. He was a Pegasus, his coat was an electric blue and he had a pitch black mane. Daring stared blankly at the figure, wondering to herself how long he had been in there. His head slowly rose in confusion till his eyes met the other Pegasus. Daring managed to shake off her shock for a moment and asked a question.

“Who are you?” Then she saw his face. His teeth were razor sharp, like they had belonged to a shark, while his eyes were similar to a lizard or a crocodile, she wasn’t sure which. They were a cold blue and they unnerved her greatly. “Scratch that, what are you?”

His confusion melted away, and in it’s place was rage, anger, fury. He launched up and grabbed Daring’s throat before she had a chance to yelp in surprise. Daring did her best to scramble away, but she felt herself gaze into those unreal eyes. Finally he spoke, his voice sounded like he had a Trottingham accent.

“My name is Mr Carnage! Now where is my mother!?”

Chapter 8: Please remain silent for a moment of madness

6 days later…

"No, bowties are cool, Doctor. You should wear one," Octavia stammered. She nearly tossed her drink against the wall in an attempt to make her point. The chilled brandy was very precious to the cello player at this point. The Timelord opposite her, who was significantly less drunk replied.

"I-I don't really think it's me. Have you really never had a banana?" He always seemed to start on bananas when he was drunk. He would have told Octavia to slow down on the drink but she seemed to be having fun, plus he was afraid that Octavia would bite his hand off if he tried to take the brandy away from her. She really liked that stuff apparently.

"Nah, they always looked weird to me. Vinyl's always been more into pears so she always gets some from Forelle in the market. Did you know that she's from Poma? I've always wanted to go there!" "Pears!" The Doctor cried out. "Yuck! I can't even look at pears. If Martha was here she would tell that I hate pears. You shouldn't have even brought it up; I can taste it on my tongue." After a moment the Doctor appeared to forget what he was saying and he continued on with his rant about his trust in bananas.

"Octavia, stop right there!" He said forcefully. He didn't raise his voice but his tone had a sense of command in it. "I am going to get a banana and you are going to eat it in front of me." The Doctor got up and waddled towards the back of the Tardis while he left Octavia lying on her side on the coach. He said one last thing before he left. "Octavia, you should never leave home without a banana. Bananas are good."

The next morning…

Not even Timelords were safe from hangovers. The Doctor would be berating himself for quite some time for forgetting that. The pounding feeling against the Doctors skull quickly became a nuisance as he took his first cautious steps towards getting up. His eyes gently flickered open but the lights above him were too intense. Eventually his eyes adapted and they were fully open. He could tell that he was in the Tardis which he considered a blessing and that he was laying on the couch located next to the Tardis control panel. A thought crossed his mind that Twilight may have seen him in his drunken state that night. He hoped that he didn't make spectacle of himself like the last time he got drunk. He had always thought the French had a sense of humour. Suddenly his body became aware of a warm figure snuggling up next to him.

He looked to the left of him and by his side was the peaceful looking form of Octavia Philharmonica. She was fast asleep and clinging to the Doctors form in an attempt to keep as warm as possible. Her mane was slightly dishevelled which the Doctor assumed was the pony equivalent of 'bed head'. His left arm was wrapped around her and he presumed that after the pair had finished drinking they had curled up together on the Tardis couch and fallen asleep. The Doctor remembered something about Bananas, which he knew Donna would have had a field day with. He remembered pears which he shuddered at but since he couldn't taste it on his tongue he assumed that he was in the clear.

That was the couples third date, a combination of boredom due to lack of anything to do and genuine curiosity guaranteed the Doctor would reply yes to every date Octavia had asked him on. This was worrying the Doctor, since he still could not leave despite his best attempts; he had no reason not to go, which meant he could not avoid becoming emotionally attached to the mare that was snuggling up next to him. Was he really trapped here? If he was then could he really settle? The boredom would kill him, surely. Octavia began to stir next to him. Her eyes gently fluttered open as she gazed up towards the Doctor.

"Good morning," she said weakly.

"Good morning," the Doctor replied with considerably more energy. Pieces began to form in the cello players head as she realised where she was.

"Oh my goodness! Did we?" She stopped herself when she realised the Doctor was still wearing all of his clothes. She sighed in relief and returned to snuggling. "Good, I'm not that kind of mare. I wouldn't want everypony thinking that I'm some kind of hussy." The Doctor gave a light chuckle.

"How could anyo… anypony think you of all mares was a hussy?"

"Rumours spread fast in a small community, especially untrue ones. Me and Vinyl have been mulling over the idea of moving to Canterlot. Most of our gigs are there nowadays, but I would hate to have to leave all of my friends here."

"I wouldn't worry about it if I'm honest. The Tardis was locked last night and nopony could get in." As soon as the Doctor said this, Octavia flickered her eyes at the Doctor and trailed her hoof along the Doctor's chest seductively.

"Oh really? So, were totally alone then?" The Doctor quickly got the not so subtle nuances of Octavia's tone of voice and shot off the coach. He nearly took the earth pony with him as he brushed himself off.

"Right, well I should probably be off to see… how Twilight is doing. She wanted to ask me about… Timelord stuff, take your time to freshen yourself off." The Doctor hurried out of the Tardis as Octavia attempted to tell him that she was joking.

The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief as he exited the Tardis. He had become so use to running from every problem. Whether it was a new threat or his own feelings. The only thing that made him act is if it was a physical danger to people. He made sure not to lock the door behind him so Tavi could get out when she needed too. He still hadn't told her everything about him. He had regaled her and his new found friends with tales of his adventures in time and space and even went into detail about his companions, his friends. During the third date, Tavi had brought two things. If he ever had feelings for any of his companions? And what was his homeworld like? What was Gallifrey like? In the end, instead of talking about it he picked an option he rarely chose. Tavi had brought a bottle of brandy with her, their intention was to have a quiet night in and the Doctor decided drinking was the best way to avoid the questions. Despite the small headache it did indeed work. When the Doctor stepped away from the Tardis he spotted Spike who was eating gems at the dining table. Spike waved to the Doctor.

"Twilight will be down in a minute if you want to talk to her," said the baby dragon.

The Doctor nodded and sure enough he could hear the sound of Twilight making her way down the staircase. She looked very tired which the Doctor couldn't help but capitalise on.

"Good morning, Twilight. Tired?" The Doctor asked in a mocking tone. He assumed that she had been up all night reading her books again. "Ponies will talk if you keep reading like that. Some might say you're trying to match Celestia in knowledge." Despite how tired she was the unicorn couldn't help but chuckle a little as she rubbed her eyes.

"Heh, I would have to live nearly a 1000 years to get anywhere the Princesses knowledge. And I'd have to be an alicorn to reach that age," she remarked as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"You'd be surprised," the Doctor muttered. Octavia groggily exited out of the Tardis. Twilight spotted her and a few things clicked inside her mind. A mischievous grin appeared on her face.

"So, it looks like the two of you had fun last night," she remarked. The Doctor looked confused at first but when he saw the blush on Octavia's face he was able to piece it together.

"Oh! No, no, no, no, no, we didn't do any… we uh, just woke up together," he assured but this only made Twilights grin grow wider. "Uh, that came out wrong. You see… what were you studying last night?" This seemed to take Twilight away from the awkward situation.

"Well, I wasn't actually studying anything last night."

"Oh? Why are you so tired then?"

"There was this loud drilling noise that woke me up in the middle of the night. I would have investigated but I was too tired so I put up a sound proof shield around the library and tried to go back to sleep. It took me a good hour."

"Noise? What noise? I didn't hear anything last night," said Octavia.

"You wouldn't," answered the Doctor. "Unless the noise was right outside the Tardis door you would've never heard it." Twilight walked into the centre of the room and began charging up a spell.

"Anyway I better take it down now. Ponies can't get into the library while it's up," said the young unicorn. As soon as the spell was cast and the shield was taken down the small group could suddenly hear a drilling sound. Twilight covered her ears and said, "Just like it was last night. I think it's right outside but what could they be working on out there?"

The Doctor was thinking the exact same thing and without another word said he made his way to the door with the two mares and baby dragon in tow.

As soon as the library door was opened, a large crowd of Ponies met the four as they exited the library. The entire town seemed to be in attendance, but what were they gathered for? Despite them being gathered around the library nopony was looking at the door. They were all looking at the top of the tree. Twilight noticed this and ran into the crowd with Spike in tow to get a better look. Her face soon became scrunched up in confusion.

"What the heck are they doing?" She called out. Placed just behind her Library was a metal structure which was peeking out from the top. A number of construction ponies appeared to be putting on the finishing touches to the structure as the Doctor and Octavia joined Twilight at the back of the crowd. "They can't do that can they? I didn't give them permission to place that behind my library!" Twilight's angry glare was halted when one of the construction ponies approached her, handed her a note and then went back to work without saying a word.

My faithful student, Twilight.

I have personally written this letter to assure you not to worry about the Antenna being built behind your library. I sincerely apologise for not telling you of my plans sooner. However, I have been extremely busy here in Canterlot and this has prevented me from telling you sooner. I assure you, you will be thanking me very soon.

Love your mentor, Princess Celestia

Twilight quickly showed the message to the other three as her anger departed and understanding entered.

"Well she is the princess," she mused. "Canterlot has apparently been a mess lately. Celestia knows (literally) what's going on in there that's caused it to go into lockdown." Spike jumped on Twilight's back as the pair departed to investigate the tower further. Meanwhile the Doctor continued to glare at the antenna. The Doctors expression was unreadable. The only thing that was running through the Timelords head was how wrong this all was. Octavia quickly noticed what was wrong with the Doctor.

"There's something wrong with these 'antennas' isn't there?" She asked. The Doctor nodded quickly. A sudden urgency was beginning to arise in him, but he still wasn't sure what he was supposed to be anxious about.

"The problem is an odd one, Octavia," he replied. "Radio technology shouldn't exist in a civilisation like Equestria for at least another 1000 years. Your dependency on magic makes this so. Plus, this is such a giant leap forward when you should have to master radar first. It doesn't make any sense. How did Celestia get this technology? And what is this all for? Think, THINK!" The Doctor angrily berated himself which drew the attention of some ponies around him. Octavia attempted to quieten him down but then a stallion appeared beside the Doctor.

"Well, it's refreshing to see somepony who sees things like I do. To be accurate, technology like this won't exist for another 868 years. To be precise when a young Stallion will stumble across the technology by mistake when he was trying to find an easier way to contact his marefriend who was staying in wolf country. Lovely Stallion but a bit of a ditz though, however he could make a hell of a pizza." The Doctor looked next to him and he recognised the stallion immediately. It was the brown stallion who had been following him since he had arrived. He was wearing a green tie and a white collar. "Oh, sorry I haven't introduced myself have I? My name is Time Turner." He stuck out his hoof for the Doctor to shake. The way Time Turner moved, the way he spoke reminded the Doctor of someone in particular. The Doctor introduced himself as he shook Turners hoof.

"Smith, John Smith."

"Oh really?"

"Yes." The Pair kept on shaking each other's hands/hoofs while Octavia looked on. The intensity in both their eyes as they looked at each other was incredible. She was taken away from this though when a muffin was shoved in front of her face.

"Don't worry about them. They're both like this with suspicious ponies. Muffin?" Ditzy Doo was now in front of Octavia, holding a muffin for her to take. She politely took it as both the Doctor and Time Turner overheard the exchange. Octavia hadn't seen the former mailmare in months. And how would she know how the Doctor would act, she barely knew him.

"Ditzy!? Where have you been?"

"Oh, I've been travelling with…" The Timelord finished the mailmares sentence.

"The Doctor? That's who you really are, isn't it?" The Timepony couldn't help but smile.

"Yes. Time Turner is a name I sometimes go by. Ever since my third form. I had a companion who was a former watch maker who wanted to become a journalist." The pair finally let go of each other's hand/hoof and gauged each other again. "But your name isn't John Smith is it?

"No it isn't. In my third form I met a woman named Jane Smith. She's a journalist who lives with a robot dog called K-9"

"Heh, mine has a robot cat named Fe-Line." The pair then busted out laughing in the middle of the crowd. This drew some very odd looks from the Ponies present but many returned to focusing on the tower. After a solid 5 minutes of laughing between the pair they started to calm down as Octavia began to piece together their conversation.

"Hold on one moment you two," said Octavia. The two Doctors turned towards Octavia as she asked, "So, you're both the Doctor?"

"That's right. Kind of weird, huh?" Replied Ditzy. The Timelord tried his best to explain.

"Well, as I've told you before I'm not from a different planet, I'm from a different universe entirely. There are an infinite amount of universes out there that either spawn from our choices or our imagination. There was one awful incident with a man named Booker Dewitt and I thought I might have to intervene, but that incident seemed to sort itself. Poor man, I hope he found some peace." The Doctor realised he was beginning to ramble "Anyway a good example is your universe. This universe was most likely created because of the fandom from my universe. Anyway, just because you see one planet doesn't mean there aren't others that are teeming with life. I am assuming you are an alien."

"You are correct. My two hearts can vouch for that."

"Yeah, but you also have the extraordinary alien ability to disappear whenever you want." A new voice had caught the small group's attention and they turned to see it belonged to a very angry looking Vinyl Scratch who was heading straight for the Timepony. Her anger could only be judged by her frown because as usual her shades covered her eyes. The Timelord couldn't help but wonder why she always wore shades. The pony Doctor adjusted his tie and greeted Vinyl.

"Ah, Vinyl it's been a whi…" Vinyl slapped the Timepony before he could finish his sentence. This earned a chorus of oooooooh's from the crowd as the Doctor rubbed the side of his cheek.

"Okay, I might deserve that."

"Might deserve that!? You just left me here to go off on your stupid war! I've been stuck here for months and I know you've been alive this whole time but not once did you think to come back to pick me up. Then I find out you've been travelling with Derpy!" Vinyl shot her a cold glare. Ditzy hated that name, Vinyl for a short period when they were foals was one of Ditzy's many tormentors because of her eye condition. Both Doctors were too polite to mention it. As Vinyl matured and mellowed. She began to feel bad and made amends with the Pegasus. She even protected her from the bullies, this made them close friends. Octavia had to know more.

"Vinyl, you used to travel with this pony Doctor?"

"Yeah that's right. Me and derpster used to travel with the Doctor but when he left us both behind he only came back for Derpy…"

"Stop calling me that!" Cried the Pegasus.

"Whatever," replied Vinyl. The DJ quickly turned towards the Timelord. "And you. I figured out who you were pretty quickly and when I heard your name… I'm not gonna let you hurt Tavi you son of a bitc…" A cyan hoof stopped the Unicorn from striking the Timelord in the leg.

"Hey, Vinyl. What the heck's wrong with you?" Asked Rainbow Dash as she continued to hold Vinyl's hoof while hovering in the air.

"Get off me you stupid fillyfooler!"

"Hey! First off I'm bi, second, everypony knows that you hang around Octavia because you want her…" Octavia quickly stepped in and broke the pair up as she attempted to defuse the situation.

"Please, let's just calm down. Ponies are staring."

"Let them stare Tavi," remarked Vinyl. She broke away from Rainbow and backed away with an angry glare directed at the Timelord. A pink figure however blocked off her escape.

"C'mon Vinyl. Let's turn that frown upside down." Before the small group knew it, all of the elements of harmony had returned with Twilight and Spike. Octavia and Ditzy quickly grabbed Vinyl by her shoulders and led her to the side in an attempt to calm her down.

"What the heck was that about?" Asked Applejack. Rainbow Dash was about to answer but was cut off by Time Turner.

"It isn't important. Despite Vinyl's generally laid back and friendly personality, when she gets mad, she generally gets violent if you're not somepony she cares about. She'll calm down in a moment and be forced to apologise, courtesy of Miss Philharmonica's skilful negotiation skills." Twilight recognised the brown stallion.

"Hey Time Turner. I haven't seen you in the library in ages. Where have you been?"

"Oh, you know. Fighting intergalactic monsters and so on."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. It's good to see you Twilight." The Timelord looked down at the Timepony.

"They don't know who you really are, do they?"

"Well I don't imagine you've told the planet you regularly visit what you really are either. I haven't seen Gallineigh in…" The Doctor stopped himself before he could continue. A dark grimace appeared on his face and the other Doctor quickly figured out that 'Gallineigh' was a pony version of 'Gallifrey'. And if their histories were truly similar then he assumed the worst. The mane six looked confused.

"What are you two talking about?" Asked Twilight. "What do you mean 'what you really are?'" Pinkie shook her head.

"Silly Twilight. Time Turner is actually an alternate version of the Doctor. They even have the same name. Basically, Time Turner is an alien." Twilights jaw literally dropped at the realisation that she had known an alien for at least a year and hadn't taken a single note. Turner sighed in exhaustion.

"I should have known that Pinkie knew. I think one of her parents must have been part of the impossible race. A race of extinct aliens that could seemingly break the laws of physics. I've never had the time to look into closer though." Dash flew closer to Turner and asked.

"So wait a minute. You really are an alien?"

"Yes, I'm a Timepony. A race that mastered the ability to travel through time and space by growing…" before he could continue, everyponies attention was directed at a scowling Vinyl Scratch who was approaching the group with Octavia and Ditzy in tow. She marched right up to the Timelord and sighed. "I'm sorry alright. I shouldn't have gotten mad at you, especially since you haven't done anything, yet." She then turned to the others, "I'm sorry for trying to agitate you Dash and I'm sorry for calling you that name, derpster." Ditzy didn't appear to mind being called derpster and smiled in content. Dash simply nodded while the Doctor remained silent. Vinyl wasn't finished though as she turned to Time Turner. "I still can't believe you would leave me here though. Especially in my… condition." Octavia's ears perked up at this.

"Condition? What are you talking about Vinyl?" Vinyl looked away, pretending she hadn't heard the question but then a realisation struck the Timelord.

"Twilight, you're wearing your earpiece." Everypony turned to the mare as she did not shy away.

"Yes I am. You were clearly worrying over nothing Doctor. Trust me, I should know." The Doctor looked over everypony else in their small group that was situated in the crowd. Only Twilight was wearing her earpiece but Spike who was still on her back was quickly putting his on. The other elements had all been asked by the Doctor previously not to wear them. Vinyl wasn't wearing one but he suspected that her previous excuse was a lie and she assumed something was up due to her adventures with his counterpart. Octavia was also asked by the Doctor not to wear one and Ditzy was probably told by his counterpart not to wear hers.

"Twilight, please. I wouldn't tell you not to wear yours if I didn't think something was wrong," pleaded the Timelord. Twilight quickly dismissed his worries.

"Relax Doctor. Princess Celestia herself is endorsing this and she has assured me whatever is happening will be perfectly safe."

"Yes, Twilight but that's exactly it. She hasn't told you what it is. Note even you. And then suddenly Canterlot is conveniently under lockdown. Preventing anyone from going in and seeing what happened when this event activated exactly a week ago. Does that not seem suspicious to you?" Twilight simply ignored the Doctor and beckoned Applejack to come towards her. Applejack quickly put her earpiece on.

"Sorry Doc," Applejack said sincerely. "But I trust sugarcube over there with this kind of stuff." Rarity and Fluttershy joined both Doctors.

"Well, me and Fluttershy would like to see exactly what this all is first before we put some fashion faux pas in our ears," exclaimed Rarity. Fluttershy silently nodded. Pinkie hopped other towards Rarity and Fluttershy as well, claiming that the author needed to keep the comic relief in the story or something like that. Rainbow looked conflicted. Being the element of loyalty was difficult when your friends split into two different groups but Rainbow decided on the larger group.

"Twi, AJ, I'm sorry but… I think their right." She didn't need to say another word as she flew over towards the Doctors. Tavi, Vinyl and Ditzy also joined the Doctors as Twilight, Spike and Applejack made their way to the front of the crowd.

"Suit yourselves, but you'll all feel pretty silly when it turns out that there's nothing to worry about," announced the element of magic. The pony Doctor turned to the group.

"Thank you for trusting us," he said. "I think were about to find out what these ear pieces are all about." The noise in the crowd slowly started to die down as the mayor of Ponyville approached the front of the crowd.

"Rejoice Ponyville. Our fair Princess Celestia has allowed Ponyville to be the next location to receive her mystery gift. Does everypony have their earpieces on?" The dead eyed workers quickly departed the tower when they were confident everything was ready. One stayed at the base next to a large switch. All the ponies in the crowd checked if their ear pieces were on while the Doctors group exited the crowd and stood by the side-lines. "Then if that's the case. Let this gift be brought upon us."

On cue the last worker pony by the antenna flicked a giant switch and quickly put up a magical shield to protect it. Almost instantly it affected the ponies with the earpieces on. It looked like some sort of electric current starting from the earpiece and entering inside the Ponies ears was the cause. Nearly every Ponyville citizen had deadeyes and seemed almost lifeless. Due to a lack of a better word, they appeared to be zombies. The crowd began to disperse with everypony going in different directions, nopony was talking and all were doing random jobs. Some began collecting any sort of metal they could get their hooves on and placing them in the middle of the town square. Others were beginning a march towards Canterlot which would take them several days by hoof. Twilight and Applejack were among the ones collecting items. The other members of the mane six ran to the pair but nothing they said or did could snap them out of their trance. Both Doctors ran over and at the same time pulled out their respective sonic screwdrivers. They looked at each other, trying to figure out who should do what but eventually, Time Turner relented.

"Doctor, why don't you do it?"

"My pleasure Doctor." Both couldn't help but snicker and this angered Rarity.

"I'm glad you two find this so funny. Celestia knows what's happened to the poor darlings." The Timelord asked Ditzy and Octavia to hold Twilight down for a moment and luckily Twilight offered no resistance. The Doctor then began to scan the earpiece and quickly had his suspicion's confirmed.

"Good news, she and the other ponies can be saved. Although this is now connected to her brain it's not directly wired in." Vinyl began to reach for Twilights earpiece.

"So we can just take them out right?" Both Doctors stopped her as Turner explained.

"No Vinyl! That's the bad news. If we take them out it will cause a neuron implosion." Fluttershy then spoke up.

"But Doctor's. What's happening to them? Why are they doing this?" Turner nodded to Ditzy and Tavi so they could let Twilight go as she continued to work.

"My best guess is that they are all being given direct orders in their subconscious through the earpiece. For what purpose, I cannot say?" Octavia was the next to speak up.

"The Princesses must know. But why would they do this?" The Timelord put a reassuring hand on Octavia's shoulder.

"Octavia, we will stop this. And we will save your friends, that is a promise I make to all of you." This calmed everypony down for the moment as the Doctor realised they had a new problem. "We don't have a way to Canterlot that will be quick though. The train is out, the place is likely guarded to let only taken minds in and my Tardis still refuses to move." The Timepony then took his turn to cut in.

"Pardon me Doctor, but who said we had to use your Tardis?"