Adventures in the TARDIS

I should probably just accept the fact that recovering from shocking revelations is just a theme of my life now. Every single time I start to recover my hoofing, something else comes along to knock it right back down again. Not all of these recent discoveries are bad things. In fact, I guess I’ve overall been on a very good trend lately, but it just doesn’t feel fair how strong each of these impacts are. Internally, there is just no way I can withstand the impact yet. It’s very humbling.

Like in Captain Grimwald’s case. Everything I knew about reality, and this pony in particular, has turned topsy-turvy. Just about everything I knew about the pony and accepted as fact, it turns out the opposite is true on a lot of core issues. It’s one thing to get his word on these new discoveries. It’s another to secretly touch him while reaching for the Brass Sphere he recovered from a hidden compartment within a pillar of the Grand Cathedral. When I did that, two major downloads came crashing down upon me like a ton of bricks.

For one thing, Captain Grimwald was telling the truth about his past and his goals. That’s only something I could determine after I had a chance to recover from the crash of information that bombarded me. The first thing I actually had to sort out was the weight of his emotions due to his tragic history. He really was forced to fight in so many secret gladiatorial matches. The majority of them did not occur in Neighbriais until way later, but he didn’t know that until he was later purchased, freed, and offered a job by Dispatcher Hoofclaven, of all ponies. That also tells me that Dispatcher was well aware of, and took part in, the businesses of these slave traders long ago.

Prior to that, Grimwald’s history was about struggle for survival. To face deadly combat so often that he had to harden his heart over it. There was no point in making friends when every other fellow slave might turn into his next opponent, but that didn’t mean he evaded an occasional challenge. Every time he had to put down another pony that he started to develop some affection for, he transformed his grief into rage at his oppressors. In the back of his mind, he slowly accumulated a plan. As his skills as a warrior gradually grew, part of him planned on slaughtering his way to freedom when he got skilled enough, but he was purchased and freed before he could fully execute that plan.

Freedom didn’t have the sweet taste that he expected in light of the fact that his new benefactor ordered him to turn a blind eye to other slave trade in the city. He knew that they were there and slaughtering them might as well have been his cutie mark. His true life’s purpose. When it comes to them, hatred was all he knew, but considering his gratitude towards the one who freed him combined with his fear of this unholy and unnatural monster, he was forced to keep swallowing his rage over and over again.

It was a new form of torture for his soul. Because of that, it pretty much trivialized everything else in his life. In moments he should have been elated in his elevation of status and newfound freedom, he found himself consumed by pain and rage of being unable to fulfill the one purpose that had defined his more recent life. Next to that, his life felt like a drift from one meaningless moment to the next with very few things feeling important enough to break that pattern.

The other bombardment of information that crashed upon me, and threatened to break my sanity, was touching the Brass Sphere itself. As tiny as it was, it was indeed a space vessel for an even smaller entity that should be too wicked to possibly exist. It is amazing how such a tiny entity could be responsible for so much pain and damage in the universe. It was far more than one lifetime that flashed before my eyes because this entity had possessed so many other hosts before. The most common theme between them all was an all-pervasive hunger. Hunger for power, hunger for control, and hunger in the biological sense.

Between all of these lives, there was something primal about this creature that is befitting a very savage animal. Many of its past hosts had animal-like intelligence anyway but often also certain abilities that empowered its own dark evolution. Consuming one victim after another, it cared nothing for the hosts it used like stepping ladders. They were to be used and discarded. Consumed from within, just like the victims it forced its hosts to feed upon.

Eventually, though, it did possess some hosts that had intelligence on their side. Ever since then, it climbed a new form of evolutionary ladder. A layer of strategy became involved which eventually turned its sights upon a much larger hunting ground. A hunting ground that required space travel to fulfill.

Not every host was a step up in terms of evolutionary intelligence, but this entity memorized many key genetic traits of its past hosts. If the new host didn’t have much intelligence before, it acquired at least a semblance of it through the symbite up to the level of the smartest hosts it possessed before. Those hosts tended to be easier to control anyway so the symbite kind of developed a taste for them, yet there always was that allure to possess a smarter host who is more difficult to control but further empowered the symbite so that it will always be smarter with all of its future hosts.

That’s the hunger. That’s the all consuming drive of this dark entity.

The Brass Sphere traveled through space and it is a marvel to me to behold, but the dark purpose that drove that journey quickly made me wretch because of multiple levels of horror.

Captain Grimwald was confused and concerned why I had that reaction because he still has no idea about my newly acquired psychic abilities, but Princess Arielza does know now. The ever sharp mare, especially when it comes to emotional intelligence, quickly deduced the source of my woes. Because of that, she offered to hold the Brass Sphere for me but I quickly, and vehemently, denied her. After everything I learned about the history of this abhorrent object, there’s no way in Tartarus I am allowing this to taint her pure hooves.

On the other hoof, she did have a point about it being difficult for me to carry it, and despite everything I learned about Grimwald’s history, I didn’t fully trust him either. So, instead, I resolved to carry this unholy thing in a cloth sack and hold it a hoof’s length away from me. Its mere presence still seems to reek in the air like a poisonous miasma, but this strategy can at least be temporarily endured. That’s far better than touching it directly. I won’t make that mistake again.

Fortunately and surprisingly, we encountered the Doctor earlier than expected. The last time that I checked, he should have been with Princess Celestia and her guards, but apparently he slipped their compony and intercepted us earlier. While surprising, I still consider this most fortuitous because it gives me a chance to be rid of this awful thing sooner.

“Doctor! What a surprise to see you so soon,” I express to him in a tone of surprise when we encounter him in a hallway of the Palace along our way to Princess Celestia. “I thought you’d still be with the Princess.”

The Doctor almost speaks but hesitates when the Captain beats him to it.

“Doctor? Doctor who?” Captain Grimwald asks defensively then passes me a nervous glance. “Are you sure this pony can be trusted?”

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” the Doctor responds with a blink of surprise of his own while regarding Captain Grimwald. He then grins as he adds in amusement under his breath, “The horse's mouth.” More aloud and much more serious again, he says, “We have, indeed, encountered each other before, my good Sir, for I had traveled with and been employed by Princess Celestia. I was there among her procession as we all marched towards this Palace. I should have stood out to you as one of the few ponies in her company who was not in royal armor regalia.”

“Oh yeah,” the Captain replied with a blink of recognition. Recalling that fact makes him much calmer now. It seems to me that he still doesn’t know why this mysterious brown stallion with a green necktie is traveling with the Princess, but if she trusts the Doctor enough to accept his compony, it’s easier for the Captain to do the same.

“Well you two certainly made fast friends,” the Doctor remarks as he regards me again. “Mind you, I’m not complaining, but I beg your pardon if I find this unexpected.”

“I’m with you on that one,” I agree with the Doctor as I give a quizzical glance at the Captain before focusing on the Doctor seriously. “But trust me when I say I am sure that we can trust this pony now. He wants to help us take down Dispatcher as well.” I nod to the Doctor confidently. “We can trust him, and this will make our job easier too. With him on our side, none of the other Palace Guards should stand in our way anymore. This’ll also mean the Grand Vizier will stand alone when we finally confront him.”

“Which we’ll need to do soon. Daylight is fading outside which, I’m sure, is what he wants,” the Doctor figures, likely in reference to the Vizier.

“True, but with Princess Celestia herself in our compony, I’m sure it isn’t lost to us that having the sun linger in the sky a little longer is a unique option for us now,” I point out.

The Doctor nods in agreement as he says, “True, but I’d rather not mess with the cycle of the entire planet if we don’t have to. A little haste in our steps is all that is required to cure this ailment, and the Doctor is in the house now.”

The Doctor takes a deep intake of breath then lets it out slowly before he tells me, “But before that, let us get to the crucial matter at hand. Swift Step . . . do you have the Brass Sphere now?” I notice his eyes turn to look at the cloth bag I’m holding apart from me. “I take it that it’s in there?”

“It is indeed,” I concur with a pained wince of disgust. “And I would consider it as a kindness if you take it from my hooves now.”

“My Liege, are you sure?” Captain Grimwald asks cautiously. “That thing is a royal and holy artifact, or so the Grand Vizier claims. If somepony like him considered it that important, are you sure we can trust this pony with it?”

“Yes,” I tell the Captain as I do my best to openly reveal my confidence in this stallion. “I am sure.”

Captain Grimwald frowns, still feeling uncomfortable with this prospect, but at least now it seems like he’ll hold his silence. He doesn’t know the Doctor like I do.

“As for you,” I say to the Doctor as I approach him and hoof him the sack, “you be careful with this. The one who dwelled within this thing was a very sinister presence. So sinister, in fact, I can’t believe it exists at all.”

“And that is why I’m here,” the Doctor assures as he accepts the offered bag then, mysteriously, he pulls out his sonic screwdriver from the hidden pocket above his cutie mark. I blink at that device in surprise since I was so sure I did not hoof this device back to the Doctor yet, so how is it he already has it?

Regardless how he mysteriously got the device back, what I notice him using it for is to aim the metal stick at the sack. When he uses it, the tip ignites and it emits a weird sound. He waves the sonic screwdriver up and down a bit. It’s just a guess, but I’m assuming he’s using the device to authenticate the Brass Sphere in the sack.

“What, in the Holy Name of Saddle Arabia, is that thing?” Captain Grimwald asks with intense and cautious surprise.

“You’ll find the Doctor has many mysterious ways,” I assure the Captain. “But there’s always a method to his madness.”

“Indeed,” the Doctor agrees as he gives the sack he is holding a very discerning look. “Artifacts like this thing shouldn’t even be on this planet for quite some time. Until pony kind is ready for such technology, it is my job to ensure your species does not destroy itself with things like this. To be sure, it certainly must be removed from the hands of the Vizier as well, for nothing good could come of that.”

The Doctor smiles then nods in satisfaction before putting both the sonic screwdriver and the sack containing the Brass Sphere away in his hidden pocket in his flank.

“You say that as if you’re not included in the term, ‘pony-kind’,” the Captain remarks observantly.

The Doctor smirks in amusement at the Captain as he asks, “What part of, ‘You’ll find the Doctor has many mysterious ways’ didn’t you understand?”

“Pretty much any of it,” the Captain replies immediately. “That’s the nature of a mystery.”

“Touché,” the Doctor accepts with upraised eyebrows and a nod of surprised acceptance. He then regards me seriously. “Well, in any case, with this artifact secured and, most importantly, out of the Grand Vizier’s reach as well, it is soon time to initiate the next phase of our operation.” He nods at me confidently. “To that end, what I want you to do is rendezvous with Princess Celestia and the rest of her guards. We’ll need to regroup before we embark upon our final confrontation with the Vizier.”

I regard him in shock as I ask, “Wait! You’re leaving us? I thought you were going to help us confront the Vizier!”

The Doctor nods at me as he says, “And I will, but first I need to properly dispose of the Brass Sphere which, by the way, isn’t really made of Brass. It just looks like it.”

Princess Arielza reaches a hoof to touch and calm me down while she addresses the Doctor herself by asking, “You will regroup with us there with Princess Celestia before we confront the Vizier?”

“Yes,” the Doctor replies before he goes on to say, “and I promise I’ll rejoin you all before you know it. Timey-wimey shenanigans and all. Trust me, I’ll be with you soon, perhaps even before you all meet with the Princess.

“In the meantime, I have to go now to make sure that this thing is removed from the equation once and for all. Our encounter with the Vizier will be manageable as long as he loses access to this thing.”

“It really is that bad?” the Captain asks the Doctor in a spooked tone.

“If you think the unnatural powers of the Vizier is bad, it’ll seem like nothing if he maintains access to this thing,” the Doctor assures the Captain. “And even if he doesn’t use it for hostile purposes, even though he very well could, it’s also a potential escape option for our true enemy within him. If that happens, this whole fiasco could start all over again in some other world. I cannot let that happen.”

“And which one of those worlds should the statement you just made make any sense?” the Captain asks in true confusion.

The Doctor chuckles in amusement before partially stepping past the Captain, pauses to give him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, then says, “Believe it or not, my new friend, you’re starting to catch on more than you think. In the meantime, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go to ensure the odds become even more stacked in our favor.”

With that, the Doctor departs.

“You sure do keep some interesting compony,” my wife remarks to me in amusement.

“I have to agree,” the Captain chimes in. “And I’m not just talking about him, either. Pretty much everypony in your life seems quirky in some way. I suppose I should count myself among them . . . in a way.”

I shake my head as I say, “Well, whatever the case may be, at least now things seem to be building in our favor.” I look to where we were going with determination. “And we need to do our own part to continue that momentum.” I transfer my gaze to the Captain as I order him, “You know where Princess Celestia is. Resume your course to lead us to her.”

“At once, My Liege,” the Captain accepts with a deep nod of deference to me before about-facing and resuming his previous course.

“Let us go,” Princess Arielza bids as she trots forward to follow the Captain. “I’m sure the Doctor will meet us with Princess Celestia soon, as he promised.”

“Right,” I accept and take a step to follow. While I do, I pat to check the pocket I had stored the sonic screwdriver to confirm the fact that I lost it. In order to explain how the Doctor had it a moment ago, he must have pick-pocketed it from me which is quite deft of him considering I’m a well trained thief too, now. Knowing what I know of his history, too, it surprises me that he’s already grown that adept at using his hooves now.

But I freeze in shock when I notice the fact that the sonic screwdriver still seems to be in my pocket. Gasping, I frantically fish it out then gaze upon it in shock. Sure enough, I confirm the fact that I still have it.

What, in the unholy abyss of Tartarus, is going on here?!

“Nanpour?” my wife inquires when she notices my shocked expression and the fact that I’m no longer following. A moment later she regards the device I’m holding. At that moment it begins to register, in her mind, why I am so surprised.

Captain Grimwald, however, doesn’t notice. He keeps on his focused course of leading the rest of us to the royal Princess of Equestria.

“What is going on here?!” I quietly exclaim to my wife in confusion. “Why do I still have this?! We both saw the fact that the Doctor wielded this moments ago.”

“He has more than one?” my wife theorizes with an upraised eyebrow.

“I doubt it but I suppose I can’t be sure,” I express back to her.

“Or maybe time travel was involved,” proposes my wife’s second theory. “He did say that timey-wimey shenanigans may get involved. Perhaps he knows that he’s already there with the Princess of Equestria then later travels back in time to rendezvous with us, here in this hallway, just to ensure he eventually collects that thing early. If that’s true, that thing must be really important to go through all these convoluted steps.”

“I suppose that’s possible,” I accept as I relent a bit.

“You said yourself that the Doctor operates in mysterious ways,” my wife reminds.

“Yeah,” I say as I put the sonic device away. “That’s true.”

“And if this is true, then we need to give the Doctor, the one with the Princess, back that thing so that his future self will have it, thus completing that time loop,” my wife reasons. “We should also inform him that we encountered his double here so that he knows to make a note of it and fulfill that objective later.”

“A solid plan,” I agree enthusiastically. “I must say, my dear, it’s so good to have you back on my side again.”

“Don’t be silly,” she says as she turns and waves a silk cloth in my direction. “I never really left it.”