Change of a kind

by Charles Farrow

Rating: teen
Tags: Doctor Who, Gore, Slice of Life, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Doctor Whooves, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Queen Chrysalis, Other, Adventure, Crossover, Sex, Thorax
Length: 4868

Change comes to us all, whether it's big or small. Some change with experiences, love and pain. And others can change on a whim again and again.

Change... It always happened, no matter what anyone or anything tried to do about it, for good or bad change was a given. Still... Chrysalis had almost managed to change the fate of her hive to her whims, she had stood at the cusp of greatness and failed to grasp it.
Instead the Queen of Changelings had suffered a catastrophic blow.
She and her brood were blasted far away into the desolate badlands.
She had failed to change just as her mother before her...

But change did not play favorites. And Chrysalis still had a part to play.

As she lay broken and beaten within an inch of her life fighting for what little of it she had left, something in the sky shook in agony and shock, as an entity not meant for this world crashed into it. Something very old and alien. Something kind and wise. Something terrible and awe inspiring.
Something blue and something changed...

And the universe would never be the same...

Published 2023-12-30 21:20:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-09-23 03:16:55 UTC

Chapter 0, Prelude - Breaking the mold

Their final breath came out like mist in the cool interior of the Tardis, dancing towards the console, seeking its company.
Despite the cold air the atmosphere in the control room was comfortable, like the sunset of an early day in fall. The walls were awash with warm light as the ship sang its pilot into sleep once more.

The Doctor welcomed their end for once, for they had lived a lonely existence for many years, and the last days before their end, were spent reminiscing about many old friends... They had worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of the universe, its preservation, its restoration...

But even saving the universe could get tiring when without a companion, and so here at the end they were glad to be someone new. Too many years alone had made them feel the weight of their long life. The loss, the laughter, friends and enemies, company and solitude...

The Doctor had refrained from getting too close to anyone in this life, For fear of losing once more, and what rules they might break to keep their those they cared for alive.

As such the Doctor had grown weary, bitter, old, cold and detached. Still... they could not refrain from old habits and as such had helped where they could, when the need arose, but had otherwise spent much of their life on their own, contemplating their long life.

Tempered not by another, The Doctor had been more of an oncoming storm to their enemies than a savior to their allies this life, and it had cost them dearly...

And so it was with that telltale creaking and moaning of their one true companion, that they ventured somewhere unknown, somewhere new. The turning gears of the main console spinning in a harmony of their own making. The Doctor could not help but to finally let themselves cry, for at least wherever and whenever they went next their faithful box would come along with them, the one companion that had kept them from the brink for so long

Already their last breath floated like a whisper on the wind, yet even now willing and ready, the death of a Time Lord took its sweet time...

So it was at the end, that a glimmer of brilliance awoke within them once more and their eyes, though teary and sore with age, began to sparkle with a youthful vigor unbecoming of one who was dying. They could only hope that their next incarnation would live a better life, but with a defiance born of a kindness long silent, The Doctor had some requests, and so they took another breath... For if it were to be their last, then they could at least make it good.

“Whoever you are, Doctor, know that the universe is not kind nor is it forgiving, but… it is not without kindness, nor without forgiveness. I have made many choices that I now would consider blunders, for in my solitude I had forgotten what kindness meant...” Rising from the crumbled position on their knees near the Tardis console, they began to walk with a candor and life they had not embodied for many years. “Kindness is not something to be given nor taken, it is a measure of one's deeds and intentions, it is a choice and it is one I bid you, Doctor, to choose wherever you go… More than that I bid thee to be brave! I thought myself braver than all before me, for I alone chose not to put anyone in danger by being in our company, but I realize now that this was not bravery, but rather cowardice…”

The Doctor stopped abruptly, holding that last most important breath of their life as a collage of pictures and memories of old friends and companions came into view… They had not been the one to make it, and to this day they still did not know whether they were simply manifestations of their own waning mind, or reminders from their oldest friend, trying to steer them back to a better place. As The Doctor looked upon the memoirs, it did not matter, the message was clear, and so they continued their pacing with a renewed strength.

“Yes… yes that's right, we have been alone for too long Doctor, what would our friends think of us now, hm? well… it hardly matters… We've ensured that they will be taken care of no matter what happens, regardless of who you turn out to be...” The Doctor twisted a lever on the control panel, as they came head to head with a mirror installed in the console of the Tardis, one they had spent many years gazing into in contemplation. “Alas I beg of you Doctor, please… do not shy away from love just for fear of loss, we have run long enough, and frankly my legs are getting rather cross with me." The Doctor allowed themselves a chuckle at that, as they gazed into their reflection with a vulnerability they had not allowed themselves in this life. “Hm... yes... I believe it was once said that we have two hearts for a reason…”

Cranking a valve and flicking a plethora of multicolored buttons, The Doctor felt their two hearts slowing, the ever-present rhythm of twos and twos, the 4 beats that marked the end, always… This did not slow them down however, if anything it meant they had to speak faster, if all was to be said.

“My time is running out, I can feel it, you'll get your go soon enough, but I'm not quite done with you yet, Doctor. You who are so afraid of endings and I who would neglect to even read the story, we must be better… Do not fall victim to my failings, Doctor. It is high time that we made a change.” With that said, The Doctor turned away from the mirror and walked over to the Tardis doors, opening them and staring out into the ocean of stars that made up their universe, with a sad smile. “I have spent many years, millennia really… contemplating my life, our lives… It has been long since we belonged anywhere, once upon a time it was on a planet called Gallifrey... Since we have traveled many places, oh what wondrous and frightening places we have seen… I suppose the closest we've ever gotten was Earth. Yet now I'm not so sure…”

The silence of the void between stars was deafening, too long had The Doctor lived in silence. Whole decades gone by without speaking a word. reserved, cold and alone in the void of any sound. It had been maddening...

But The Doctor could dawdle no longer, their breath drew short as the light began to emanate from their hands, slowly crawling up their body. They closed the doors and walked back to the console, to share their last words.

“I wish you well Doctor... and I hope you'll live a life full of color, companionship and laughter. I bid you to live a life full of warmth, kindness and love. I demand you to accept loss and friendship, and to run when you must, but never when you want to. I plead with you, Doctor, never be cruel, never be cowardly and never ever… eat pears,” They couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that, their smile now more genuine and a look of acceptance in their eyes. ”Be brilliant, be loud, never give up, and most of all accept change, as I will now…”

With that The Doctor turned one last gear on the console, once more allowing the Tardis to freely choose when and where next they should go.
With a smile that reached their eyes for the first time in untold years they exhaled their last breath once more. “Doctor… I welcome you…”

As the familiar glow of regeneration began to consume The Doctor and as its warm light spilled from every part of their body, something changed... reality became askew with itself, as something threw the Tardis astray. Perhaps it had been The Doctor unlocking the Tardis' self-navigation system, or perhaps it had been the energies of The Doctor's regeneration messing with the controls... In truth it was neither entirely one nor the other, rather both and something entirely third... something old and mysterious. Something powerful and in want of entertainment...

So it was that the Tardis was once more hurled through realities. The Doctors' peaceful regeneration inside interrupted as they were bodily thrown about in the control room.
The Tardis howled and rang as it was forcefully ripped from its own existence, crossing the infinite void between universes and arriving somewhere entirely different.

Immediately this new reality that they had found themselves in, protested their continued existence within the boundaries of the laws that it was made to follow. Every Grain of their bodies burning, freezing, evaporating and coalescing back into shape by the second. The Doctor had no air left to scream, but what had been a quiet regeneration now became a battle for their bodies' continued existence. As such the regeneration energy exploded outwards in the control room, searing and burning the inside of the Tardis as the outside was assaulted by the very laws of existence in this universe.

There was little time, but the Tardis understood what would need to be done...
Both it and its pilot would need to adapt to the laws of physics in this universe. This was already happening as reality itself was trying to reshape them into something that could exist. But reality needed a reference to adapt and this was not happening fast enough, there were similar things to them out there somewhere but they were too far away. Their pilot would die before they could adapt and the timestream of this universe was so different from the one The Tardis knew that they could not navigate spacetime, and so taking every calculation it was able to make at the moment, despite the excruciating agony, it did the only thing it could.

Homing in on the nearest, most similar life form and hurling itself through space towards it. A world covered in life came into view as it shot through its atmosphere like a comet. The Doctor was regenerating, and having calculated the gravity of the world it was surging towards, The Tardis was as sure as it could be that its pilot would survive what came next.
Decelerating as much as it could as it homed in on its match, it crashed bodily into the scorched sand blasted terrain that had made up its destination, leaving a sizable crater in its wake.

It had made it on time, but only barely… The Doctor would survive in some way or shape, but the Tardis itself could not in its current form, and so despite how much it pained it to do so, it would have to leave its pilot behind, it was sure that they would find each other again someday, but it dreaded to leave them to their own loneliness once more…
Yet as The Doctor finished their regeneration and their adaptation to this different reality, the Tardis hummed a soothing Melody to their pilot, one full of hope, grief and love beyond measure. It could do no more, and so for its own survival, The Tardis warbled and warped wildly into the unknown of this reality’s Time-Vortex. it knew not what would happen to it, but it had faith that its thief would find it once again… somewhere, somewhen.

And with that, the enigmatic forces of reality settled once more, leaving only the light pattering sound of rain and the cloud of dust that obscured The Doctor. It was quiet, until very faintly, and some distance away, a weak call for help was heard, and slowly something within the cloud of dust stirred, as a looming figure within it rose, and a monstrous black hoof emerged from its depths…

Author's Note

Soooo... How about a Doctor Who crossover ay? :ajsmug:

I've had this concept on the backburner for like 3 or 4 years now, but never had the guts nor focus and initiative to write it, but having started taking my medicine I thought I'd finally give a proper crack at it. I've also begun to figure out how I want to move forward with the Story of Crystal Reincarnation, but inspiration struck me to get this out there. :twilightsmile:

I'm by no means a writer on level with the showrunners for Doctor Who, nor MLP, nor even other people who've written Doctor whooves stories on here, so I make no promises as to it's quality of writing nor excitement. :moustache:

I've wanted to explore this concept for a long time though, and have brain stormed some ideas for where I can imagine taking it. Some of it may follow the formula of Who that we're familiar with, but I'd also like to explore some things that may not be as exciting as the monster of the week formula the show usually follows, so I hope you'll bear with me. :pinkiesad2:

Chapter 1 - The Flight and the Fall

It had only been a moment, a loud and bright light, a force unstoppable, and then just as suddenly there was only sky...

Whirling and tumbling uncontrollably through the air.
There was no up or down, pummeled by the wind at all sides, a rotating view of the heavens above and the ground below, all that she could see.

She was too dazed to even attempt flight, despite how every instinct, thought and emotion within her screamed at her to do so.

Her body burned as a level of love she had never thought possible bleed through her veins and seared her flesh.

She and every other changeling of her brood had been overloaded and thrown to the winds... All because of one little misstep, it could not have been her fault, it wasn't... Everything had been, perfect...

She was filled with a righteous indignation, a fury and a terror like never before... What would become of her? Was she... was she going to die? No, no, NO! She couldn't be, she refused to die! There had to be something, anything she could do!?

Her wings, their delicate filaments, though filled with holes already, had been scorched such that there was barely any tissue left...

So she tried to reach out with her magic, only to find her horn cracked along its base and the magic she issued forth leaking uselessly from it. Dammit all! Not like this!

Plunging instead into the magic of her core, the magic of her very being, she tried to change her form, shapeshift into something, anything! like a bird, yes! She could feel the magic issue forth like flame across her carapace, but where she had expected the shape of a bird, her body had only become a mismatch of different creatures.
Even that form she could only hold for a few seconds before a splitting pain within her head would have left her screaming, if there had been any air left in her lungs...

She could feel the panic and the dread of all the changelings around her. Her mental block had been torn down and she could feel how every one of her brood was just as afraid of their fate as she was... She could feel the pain and terror of each one as they fought for survival just as she did... Would any of them survive? She considered her own life much more important than that of any of her drones, but as she felt the depth of their fear mingle with her own, she wished for them to live just as much as herself. They had to survive, there was no other option, no other choice. They had to...

Time went on and the unequivocal agony that wrecked every part of her being and the flood of terror, despair and pain from every creature around her lessened... Some of her brood had already burned up, or given up altogether, those left struggling growing more and more desperate.
Yet there was nothing she could do to stop it...

As second's went by like minutes and minutes like hours, she struggled for her life, but their trajectory had long since changed from ascending higher and further, to simply falling towards the ground...

As more and more of her brood gave up their will and their struggles, the building apathy and grim acceptance began to bleed into her own mind... She was no longer tumbling about, just falling, back towards the ground, eyes on the sky. Her instincts and her mind warred with one another, she did not want to die, but she was no fool, her body was already beginning to shut down. She would hit the ground, she would die and that would be it. No one ever came to save the monsters when they fell...

She looked upon the open sky with sorrow, regret, fury and with a grim acceptance.
She could not help letting out a small chuckle in spite as she thought of the ironic injustice of her fate... How her mother had died before her, how she had vowed never to repeat her mistakes... It was all some sort of cruel joke by a world that had no care for her or her monstrous kin. In the end that's all they had ever been to them... Monsters...

She closed her eyes one final time with a scowl, broken only by the pity she had for her brood. She only hoped their ends would be swift and painless...

Then suddenly there was a feeling. Something, someling... was moving among her brood.
Opening her eyes she saw it. a single drone had managed to regain full control of itself, and was using it's magic to stabilize another one, the look on the second drones face one of relief and gratitude, as they in turn flew about trying to help any others they could, with what little time they had.

The first drone looked around for anyone else it could help and locked eyes with her. In that instant she could both see and feel the panic that took to it as it realized just how badly wounded she was. A part of her screamed to demand it's help, for it to give everything it had to save her, but she couldn't find it in herself to do so... she was no fool... She was beyond saving at this point and despite her pride, she could tell that her time was up by now, regardless of whether she hit the ground or not...

She closed her eyes once more, her scowl creasing ever so slightly upwards, tempered by the knowledge that at least not all of her brood would perish alongside her this day...

A rush of wind, a faint buzzing noise and then suddenly a pair of chitinous hooves were sprawled around her stomach, trying to grasp her, but much too small to get any real grip.

She looked down in shock as the drone that had regained it's flight, was falling headfirst with her towards the ground.
It's wings buzzed extraneously and it's face was scrunched up in great effort and pain as it tried to halt her plummet towards the ground. It's efforts did little but slow her fall a miniscule amount, and as she regained her composure she used what little strength she had left to try and dislodge the changeling from her. The fool was throwing away it's own life for nothing!

The drone resisted her attempts with all it's tiny might and even used what little magic it had left trying to change her trajectory even if just a little.

But time ran short, and though she managed to throw off the drone, it was too late, it had passed out using up all it had left trying to save her...
Something inside her broke then, as she reached out weakly and held them close to her chest.

Why?.. What a fool they were! Such a... such a fool... Yet as she held them near and thought of the futility of their actions, bloody tears broke from her eyes. She had never considered herself a mother, but at that moment she could not help but to lament the loss of her child...

The ground grew close, there was no more time and so she once more closed her eyes for the last time...

Then pain, a sickening snap, and darkness was all there was...

Author's Note

Alright originally I was going to have this chapter be the one where Chrysalis met up with The Doctor, but by the end of it I decided to split it into two different chapters instead. That way I can release this one and then keep working on the next one without leaving you all dry for too long. :pinkiesad2:

As such this chapter becomes sort of the same prelude for Chrysalis as the previous one was for The Doctor and I hope that doesn't make it bad. Also I apologize for leaving you all on a cliffhanger once more, but I promise I'm already working on the next chapter. :twilightsmile:

I didn't feel quite as "on top of my game" as I did with the last one admittedly, but I refuse to fall into a 2 year hiatus again just because my perfectionism tells me it might not be as good as the first...:rainbowdetermined2:
So I hope you'll be patient with me as I endeavor to do my best, trying to get some more chapters out to you.

Chapter 2 - Breaking Expectations

Agony.

It should have been all she felt, but her body could not even muster that...

Cold.

That she was still alive at all should have been a miracle...

Wet.

Or maybe more so a curse... that she was made to suffer a slow death...

Rain.

Brief flashes of intense pain lit up in her mind and then extinguished, as her children were snuffed out one by one. Granted the swift release that she was denied...

The rain stung as it ran down and through the deep cracks in her chitin, Dark green ichor pooling on the ground beneath her.

Something was missing.

She could taste the sour dirt of the jagged rock that drilled through her lower back. It had punched through her chest ending a fair bit above her shoulder.

Oh, right.

A deep ragged cough tore through her chest viciously, dark ichor spilling from her downturned lips.

Her foreleg, she was missing her foreleg...

The sky was grey and dark and little light shone on the land around her.
Not that it would have illuminated much...
The ragged stone formations that stood scattered hauntingly around the expanse and the endless swirling dust that permeated everything in sight, was a dreadfully familiar sign of her old home...

The Badlands.

Of course she would die here...

Fate, cruel as it was, always loved it's bloody irony.

A deep sadness bled through her core, only matched by the rivers of the fleeing life essence that ran through her cracked carapace.

Yet even now she did not allow herself to cry.
Perhaps it was pride, or perhaps the way that one of her eyes had been knocked clean from her skull, at this point she couldn't tell...

A flash of light followed by a deep rumbling roar from the heavens signaled that the stinging acidic rain would soon become a storm.

She glared tiredly at the encroaching clouds that even now would deign to mock her passing with their slow insidious touch.

Why?

...

There was no answer, nor had the words truly been spoken aloud, but yet the question remained.

Why?

Why what? She thought dispassionately, she was in no mood for games, nor for much of anything else...
She was dying, what could there possibly still be left to ponder on other than regret and spite?

So then... why? Why was she still clinging on.
She did not wish to die, but it had long since become clear that was to be her fate.

Why was she still alive?

A faint crackling cough pierced her ears, even as weak as it was.
Yet it was not her own.

She'd been too consumed by her own impending demise to notice that the drone who'd clung to her before yet remained...

She moved to try to get a better view, tried being the key word, as the very attempt sent piercing jolts of pure suffering and agony through her broken body. Biting back the scream that would have torn her throat to threads, she instead gingerly and with great effort tried to feel for the drone with her remaining forearm.

Laying just shy of the large stone that had pierced her chest, the drone still clung to her abdomen even in unconsciousness.

Its- their body was damaged, though whole. Their thorax was cracked in numerous places, but the flow of ichor that ran from them was slower, lesser than her own...

She thought no more about it, before beginning to dig into the dark green dusty earth now moist and sticky with the ichor of her wounds. Slowly and painfully she gathered a clump of the substance and attempted, to the best of her diminished ability, to stem the flow of the wounds the drone had suffered.

She knew not why she did it, but as the minutes edged by she lost any chance to think on it...

Darkness was slowly creeping in at the edges of her vision, further and further, darker and darker.

The last thing she saw was of the drone, blearily opening their eyes and meeting her own with alarm.

They spoke to her, but words could no longer reach her, as her forearm went limp in the dust...

She stopped moving...

He was afraid to shake her for fear of making it worse, but he didn't know what else to do!

"No no no! No I... P-please don't die!"

He was barely able to move himself and every stretch, every turn of his body was a gauntlet of pain, yet he tried his best to patch up her wounds with what little slime and dirt he could produce anyways.
It was too little, too late he feared... At this point her wounds barely bled at all, only deepening his growing anxiety.

No no! It couldn't end like this!
He wracked his frayed tether to the bond for anything that could help him save his queen, but found to his growing dread that there was nothing to find, the bond was little else than a waning feeling, ebbing out moment by moment...

Tears flowed freely from him as he sobbed against her chest. Why? Why!
Why couldn't he have just spoken of his worries earlier, instead of cowering behind his brother?!

Maybe then he could have stopped all this from happening, if he could have convinced enough of his kin, maybe she would have listened to them and not gone through with all this!

Why couldn't he have been less of a coward! If he'd been less of a weakling, maybe they could've stopped those ponies from getting to the throne room...

As the storm grew closer in the distance and the rumbling of thunderous clouds groaned louder, a cry of anguish and despair pierced the otherwise silent landscape.

If he'd only been stronger he could have saved them, saved her! Why did he have to be so weak?!

He clung close to the form of his regent, his tears mixing with the dust caked in her wounds. Her body growing colder by the minute.

Please...

He didn't want to be alone...

He didn't know what else to do, so between heaving sobs he called out.
Trying to reach to anyling, calling out to anyone or anything.

A cry for help from a subject to save their queen.
A cry for help from a child to save their mother.

Something In the distance must have heard. For on the horizon, slowly, a large and dark figure began it's approach...

Author's Note

Been a bit, but I guess this'll make for the first time I release a third chapter on a story ay?
Breaking the Gaben curse once and for all! :pinkiehappy:

I don't know about the quality of this chapter compared to the others considering that I may be a bit rusty. Still, I think I managed to cram a lil drama in there and though quite dark, hopefully next chapter we can get the at this point long awaited meeting between parties. 2 of them dying and 1 having recently already done so. :twilightoops:

What fun we have aye? :trollestia:

Regardless with me managing to string this together over 2-3 days I'd imagine the next chapter to come out sometime before 2028. :pinkiecrazy:

Though genuinely, I do hope to release chapters a little more actively than every 6-12 months in the future.