Corrupted lifeby DracoAntares6ChaptersCorruptedHome againMagic duelChangelingsEscapeThe EndCorruptedThe lightning erupted overhead, light flashing through the cloudy night sky. A hooded figure ran through the empty marketplace, entering an old shop. The cloaked figure began to look around the shop in hast until a small light flickered on revealing a stallion, who appeared to be the shopkeeper. He quickly trotted to the front desk and asked the figure what they wanted; it points to a red amulet. The shopkeeper stood shocked for a moment “Are you sure? This is one of the most powerful magic charms.” He warned the figure about the issues such an item would give to its user, but he quickly closed his mouth when the figure dropped a massive bag of bits in front of him. The figure walked slowly towards the amulet and smiled evilly. Theme music The Doctor galloped around the room, at it again with the TARDIS, trying to get her where he wanted her. Colgate also galloped back and forth helping, as well as The Master. A certain purple unicorn lay in a heap on the floor, losing herself in daydreams of organized lists and a room full of books. With a final whirl, the group of time ponies left the consul, having successfully landed the TARDIS. "Okay Twilight! You are home." The Doctor waved his hoof towards the door and Twilight stared. "Are you sure that if I walk out that door, I won't fall into a pit of monsters, or into that time vortexy thingy?" The time ponies laughed in unison. "I wouldn't trust the old mad pony either. He never read the direction manual for this thing!" The Master and Colgate burst out in a fit of laughter and The Doctor tried to hide his smile with a pouty face. Twilight rolled her eyes. Slowly they watched the purple unicorn open the door. "OH NO!” Twilight fell out of the TARDIS, giving a scream that slowly recessed. The Doctor rushed to the door, ready to jump if need be to save his friend. To his befuddlement and slight embarrassment, Twilight was standing right there laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face!" In truth the mare was standing face away from a forest of trees. Above a familiar cave loomed. The Doctor snorted and went back into the TARDIS to make sure it was secure, not wanting his transportation to float away randomly without him. Colgate quietly slipped out to talk with Twilight, no doubt asking her to travel with them more. "Alright, just another leaver, aaannndd... There. See, I can park her at least. Makes up for not being able to fly her half of the time." The Doctor turned back around and frowned when he saw The Master. The time pony’s blue coat had dulled for the moment and his golden hair turned a dusty grey blond. His eyes and jaw where clenched shut and he was practically doubled over in pain. When The Master noticed The Doctor watching, he tried to hide his pain, but The Doctor saw through it and went over to his old friend, gently patting him on the back. "Is the...the noise...back again?" The Doctor asked in a hushed tone. The Master just nodded. "After the time lords beamed me here, to Equestria, the d...drums dimmed. I thought they would go away after the time lords left, but they didn't. Now it's louder than ever. Doctor, its Discord. I didn't disintegrate him; I simply put him into my own mind." The Master doubled over again, his vibrant colors growing into a duller gray. "Master. Why would you do something like that? You know that it's not necessary. This could make you go insane!" The Doctor’s face grew angry but The Master just laughed dryly. "I think we have had this conversation before with me possibly going insane or dying. You know my mind is already corrupted, so if I'm going to go insane, I might as well save a place in the process." The Master gave another emotionless laugh. "It's nothing compared to how many people you've saved, but it will have to do. Think of it as a last goodbye." The Master lost his balance and his legs collapsed underneath him. The now dark grey pony collapsed to the floor, The Doctor unable to catch him. "What do you mean last goodbye!? Don't tell me you plan to try and die again." The Master clenched his eyes and a cold smile spread across his face. "Everything dies eventually Doctor, and I'm truly getting sick of living. I know your argument already about the universe to see, all of time and space, but I got to say that I wouldn't enjoy any of it if I have to live with this bloody head ache!!!" The Doctor tried to calm The Master down as his body went into spasms. The Doctor made his way around to The Masters head and slowly put his hooves on the others temples. "Now just relax my dear friend and I’ll try to help." The Doctor sighed and slowly entered The Master’s mind. He forced himself to continue even as the drumbeat in the mind entered his own head. The Doctor traveled into The Master’s mind further. It never seized to amaze him when he looked through another's mind. It felt as though he where swimming through jelly at first, and the deeper he got, the more water like it felt. Memories and dreams passed him by as he followed the beat to its scarce. When he reached the core leaves of the drumbeat The Doctor stopped and listened. To his concern, not only was there a beat, but there was also an evil sounding laugh. "Who's there?" The Doctor shouted, only faintly aware of The Master stop spamming under his hooves. Hello again my dear friend The Doctor. And what fun have you gotten into since I last saw you? I can't tell how long it's been because times hard to tell when you’re listening to music. The Doctor yanked himself out of The Master mind, only pausing long enough to block as much of the drum beats noise from The Masters mind as he could before leaving. When he was back in his own body, The Doctor fell back from The Master and sat trembling. He would rather fight the Silents again than have to go against Discord. The Master slowly sat up, he himself only now beginning to regain a bit of his usual blue color. "Thanks..."he muttered and The Doctor nodded his head in acknowledgement. Both just sat there trembling from the encounter from Discord, and this is also what Colgate walked back into the TARDIS to. "Oh my! Are you two alright!?" Colgate rushed over to The Master, and to both of their surprise almost ignoring The Doctor aside from a few worried looks. She quickly helped The Master up and brushed him off. The Doctor shook off the chills going down his back and stood up as well, trotting over to the other two. "It's quite alright my dear. We just had a bit of trouble is all. Go on out and start down the trail. Well be there in a bit." The Doctor gave a reassuring grin and Colgate left, casting one more worried look back at The Master. "We'll that was odd. I wonder what's wrong with her. “The Doctor mumbled, a little annoyed that Colgate had ignored him. The Master just giggled. "You’re just jealous that I get all the timemare’s attention." The Doctors face turned as red as a pomegranate. He had never really thought of Colgate more than just his companion, although he loved her like a father, but anything else? No. Besides, she was way too young aside from her appearance. "So back to that thing about the guy in my head, I have an idea that will help all of us. I need a thing called an alicorn amulet. It's a deadly weapon that corrupts its user with black magic. What I plan to do is to wear this amulet and then while I have it on, destroy it. The amulet should backlash at me, killing me, and Discord would die with me. And there problem solve." The Doctor frowned. He would be a bit lonelier without The Master, but there was no helping that. It wasn't his decision. "And what do I get from it?" The Doctor asked. "I'll help you find Colgate’s mother." The Doctor almost choked on air. Find her mother? She would be so excited! The Doctor raised his hoof to meet The Masters. "Deal. “The two then left the TARDIS, off to the wonderful world of Equestria. Home againColgate and Twilight broke through the last cluster of trees and burst out over a long empty plane. The sunlight blinded the, both momentarily. They continued to trot over the lush prairie like field until they came to the side road that would eventually lead them to the main road. The weather was slightly cloudy, but not enough to break the beautiful light of the sun. Another duo of hoof steps followed their own, reveling The Doctor and The Master. All four ponies walked tiredly on the road, occasionally greeting a pony who passed by. They passed the colorful setting of sugar cube corner, then Rarity’s boutique shop, and soon came to the library. "What's this sign doing on my door?!"Twilight practically shouted. It was then that the four ponies began to look about, and then that they finely noticed the surprised and curious stares that every pony was giving them. Colgate looked back to the sign. CLOSED UNTILL FURTHER NOTICE Colgate gently knocked on the door, and when no answer replied, opened it. The lights in the library where on and the place looked a complete mess. Books were strewn everywhere, heaps upon heaps stacking to the ceiling. The horse head statue that was usually placed on the table had been ungraciously knocked onto the floor, bending many a page of a valuable book. The Doctor, being his usual curious self, quickly went through the motions of scanning the room with his new sonic screwdriver the TARDIS had made for him. "We have company, but it’s just your dragon and some other equine life forms. Probably PinkiePie or Applejack." The Doctor concluded. The Master was just standing off to the side, unknowing what to do. "Looks like Spike has been falling behind on his chores." Twilight growled. She took in a deep breath to shout the baby dragon’s name, but Colgate quickly put a hoof there instead. "Someone's coming!"She whispered frantically. Although she was in a much more mature body, Colgate’s mind was still that of a filly, also meaning she was constantly fearful. "Hey! What are you doing here? The sign says the library is ... TWILIGHT!!!!" A speeding rainbow bullet rushed across the room and tackled the unsuspecting unicorn mare to the ground in a big bear hug. Twilight, who now found it increasingly harder to breath, tried to pry the mare off of her. "OMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!!! We have been so worried! First spike was all 'oh no! Twilights gone. I’ll go eat ice cream!' Then the next day he got more worried so he came and told us and so we were worried..." The cyan Pegasus was interrupted by a pink blur that joined their bear hug and continued from were Rainbow had left off, this time in a much faster voice. "And then we sent a letter to the princess and asked if you where with her, but you weren’t! Then Celestia used some crazy spell and couldn’t find you, so she told us you might not be in Equestria. So then I came up with the idea to go to the library and stay there and wait for you but no pony would listen and I got so worried and two more days went by and...And...IMISSEDYOUSOMUCH!!!!!"Pinkie shouted and started to sob. Soon the room was crowded when three more mares came down. All gave Twilight a hug and told her how worried they were. Eventually everyone settled down so that Twilight and the rest of them could find out what had happened. The elements all sat in a sort of half circle facing Twilight while the time ponies sat to the side watching the whole ordeal. "Okay every pony. I would like a one at a time explanation to why the library is closed, why you’re all here, and what was that bit about Celestia?"Twilight looked around, signaling Fluttershy to explain. The shy mare squeaked before stepping forward slowly. "You...You were gone for almost two weeks, and Spike got really worried. He told us and we waited, but then we sort of freaked out and sent a letter to the princess to help us find you. I hope you don’t mind...please dont be angry with us." Fluttershy scooted back like a scared animal. "So I’ve been gone for two weeks?!" Twilight growled, scowling at The Doctor. "I thought you said we wouldn’t be gone a minute later than we left! Now look at this mess you've made!" All of the mares suddenly seemed to jump, realizing that the six of them where not the only ponies in the room. Rainbow instantly hopped into the air and flew right up to The Doctor’s face. "And what were you doing with her punk? Trying to gussy her up and get her drunk? Trying to get her to go home with ya for the night? You didn’t hurt her did ya? Cuz if you did I’m going to SHOW YOU WHAT PAIN FEELS LIKE!!!" A purple aurora snatched rainbows tail and yanked her back from the surprised stallion. The Doctor was blushing profoundly and the urge to run beckoned to his mind. Rainbow was plopped back down next to an upset Applejack. "Rainbow! Quit throwing accusations around when you have no idea what’s happened to me over the last two, what seems to you, weeks. To me it feels like months and I need my sleep!" Twilight stomped away from the group and up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door for emphasis. The mares left in the room turned on The Doctor, all holding either scowls or evil grins on their faces. "There are other ways of getting information." Rainbow said maliciously. Pinkie giggled and whispered to The Doctor. “You should run.” "Wellcomealongcompanionsnoneedtostay!"And with that The Doctor rushed out the door, Colgate and The Master right at his heels. Twilight jumped onto her bed and closed her eyes. A wave of sadness and relief washed over her. Relief because she was finely home, sadness because, well, she didn’t know. She was just sad for some reason. Maybe it was because of the stress from the last couple weeks? Or maybe it was because she didn’t want her friends to be so worried about her. Twilight lifted her head a bit and let magic flow through her. Her horn light up, levitating a small bound book and a quill over to her. "Hey diary. It’s been a while." Twilight sighed and opened the book. She flipped past many pages with dates and writing. As she flipped farther into the book, the hoof writing continued to become neater, showing the changes in her learning and age. Soon she came to a blank page. Twilight dipped the quill in the inkwell and put pen to paper. Dear diary, I’ve been gone for a while... As Twilight wrote, she felt emotion overcome her. Tears slipped off of her face, dropping onto the page with small splashes. She wrote about all that had happened and paused a moment to think before she finished. I was so scared and didn’t know what to do. I was so alone and none of my friends there where the same as my real friends. I learned a few important lessons. The first one is that The Doctor lies. It’s probably one of the most important lessons that I’ve ever learned. He was never mean to me, it’s just that he's dangerous in a sort of unrelated way. The other lesson I learned is that anything could happen at any time, so you should always be prepared for the best or the worst to happen. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle Twilight slowly closed her journal and levitated it back under her bed, and placed the quills back where they belonged. She just collapsed on her bed and pushed her head in her pillow sobbing. Who Twilight looked up to see Owlishious sitting in her window sill. The owl flew over to her and perched on her bed, snuggling against the emotionally unstable unicorn. "Hey owlishious sniff How are you? I hope spike had been taking care of you properly." "Who, Who" Twilight giggled at the owl’s way of speaking and gently rubbed in between his wings. The owl seemed to melt into her hoof from pleasure. Many voices could still be heard downstairs, and Twilight was worried that her friends might be so worried that they wouldn’t leave. "Who, Who, Who, Who!" Owlishis said, seeming to read Twilights mind. "Good idea owlishious. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to talk to them each separately to get things straight. But I still won’t be able to tell the truth. No pony would believe me and the girls would just push harder." Owlishious swiftly flew out the room and Twilight tried to wipe the rest of her tears from her face. Moments later a yellow Pegasus walked meekly into the room. "Oh. H-Hi Twilight. Owlishious said that I should be first to come talk to you." FlutterShy looked up from her lowered gaze and gasped when she saw that Twilight had been crying. "Oh dear! Are you alright!?" FlutterShy flew over and gently hugged Twilight and began rubbing her friends back to sooth her. "Yes Shy, I’m okay. Thanks for coming up here. Has The Doctor left yet?" Fluttershy nodded a faint look of worry showing. "I kind of wanted to know... I mean...Rainbow said that you...never mind..." "Go ahead FlutterShy. I won’t get mad. What did Rainbow say?" FlutterShy's cheeks blushed red. "She said that you went to the stallions house and-" "Nope!" Twilight cut in. She had a feeling she knew where this was going, and she would have to slap Rainbow for even having such thoughts. "Then where were you?" FlutterShy asked attentively. Twilight sighed, not knowing what to say. "Please Twilight. You can trust me." Twilight flinched when Fluttershy said that. It was exactly what The Doctor had said, and also what Colgate had said. "FlutterShy. I was on a trip. Colgate asked me to come along so I did, and now it’s over." "Were you kidnapped!?" FlutterShy squeaked. Twilight ignored the question. "Believe me FlutterShy, I’m fine. Friends?" Twilight hugged Fluttershy and let go. "Friends." Fluttershy agreed. "Okay. Ask PinkiePie to come in here next." Fluttershy trotted out of the room and Twilight lay back and sighed. Hi ya Twilight!" Pinkie bounced into the room. Twilight was about to speak, but Pinkie beat her to it. "I can’t wait to hear all about your adventure with The Doctor! Where did you visit? Was it in space or did you just travel in time? Why did Colgate look older than before, and OH MY GOODNESS have you been crying?! It’s okay, I know Rainbow was wrong and was just worrying about you. The Doctor would never kidnap you or anything and he doesn’t drink alcohol. And who was that other pony that came in with you? It was definitely another time pony, but I guess you already knew that. But I really really want to know where you’ve been so I’ll try and be quiet and listen starting...NOW!!!" Pinkie stopped automatically and sat rigid still, ready to know where Twilight had been to. Twilight told her the events that had happened the past few days and Pinkie pulled her into a big bear hug when she was finished. "The world can be tough Twilight, but please don’t blame it on The Doctor. He tries to do his best and he already blames himself enough as it is." The emotion in Pinkies voice shocked Twilight almost as much as it did to see her sit still so long. Pinkie departed out the door and soon a rainbow manned head appeared. The face accompanying it was one of rage. "I want an explanation and I want it now! What did that guy do to you and why are you sticking up for him?" Twilight sighed again (as she had been doing a lot of that in the past hour) and waited a moment for Rainbow to sit down. "Let’s start. You ask a question and I will answer truthfully and as I see fit." Twilight had a feeling that doing it this way would be much easier. "Did that stallion hurt you?" Rainbow scowled as she asked. "No Rainbow. Not in a way that he had control of." "Did he kidnap you?" "No he didn’t." "Are you the real Twilight? "RAINBOW!!!" "Okay, sorry. But, if you went on your own accord, and he didn’t hurt you or anything, why didn’t you tell us you were going? We were truly worried Twilight." Rainbow frowned and turned away slightly, hiding her face. "I didn’t think I would be leaving. I was sort of stuck Rainbow. You have to believe me when I say that I am truly sorry." Twilight reached to hug rainbow but was gently pushed away. "I forgive you Twilight, but I need some time." Rainbow left the room and Twilight again sighed. She could imagine that it must have been the hardest for the element of loyalty to sit and do nothing but wait for her return. Applejacks meet went mostly the same as Rainbows, but she managed to get a hug in the end. Rarity just put it off and said that a true lady should not be questioned for what she does. She said it was downright impolite for friends to be so inquisitive. So one by one each friend left and went home, leaving Twilight to herself in her room. "Twilight?" A young voice called and the door cracked open. Twilight lifted an eye and smiled slightly, motioning for her faithful assistant to come to her. The baby dragon lay on the bed next to his caretaker and gave her a hug. "Twilight?" "Yeah spike?" "Please don’t leave me again." "Not in a million years number one assistant." And there the two fell asleep. The Doctor trotted around the TARDIS consol, his ever building energy making it impossible to sleep. He wasn't used to long sleeping; only a rare few short naps. The Master had gone into the guest room with the excuse of his headache coming back. Colgate had also gone to sleep, needing it more being so young. No matter what he did, The Doctor couldn't stop thinking about The Masters and his agreement. The Doctor would be losing a lot because of it, but it would make every pony else happy. Colgate would find her mother and probably go make a home and live with her, leaving The Doctor. And The Master, the poor lowly Master who was always in so much pain. To have the drums and the strain of life lifted from him would probably be wonderful for him, but were would that leave The Doctor? Alone as always. No companion, no friend, only his shadow and the TARDIS. The Doctor rubbed his hoof against the aged metal wall. "In the end it's always us two. You’re such a good ole gal. So loyal. You would never leave me would you? You wouldn't just throw out a handsome time lord as myself after you stole me, would you?" The Doctor chuckled a moment before his face again turned grave. He stomped a hoof to the ground and growled. "It's just so unfair. My whole life I've been saving planets and watching over all these bloody weaklings, and in the end what does it amount to? I never gain anything! It's always me to lose something in the end. IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" The Doctor shouted. He breathed hard, trying to calm down as he continued to pace. "Consol! Show me a picture that will calm me down!" The Doctor ordered. A projection of the earth materialized before him and he stomped again, gritting his teeth. "I said that would calm me down! Not another thing to remind me of all I lost!" The Doctor shut his eyes closed and lay down where he was. A soothing voice hit his ears. It was Scottish, as that was the setting he had put the consol’s voice on when he met Amelia pond. "I am not showing you what you want to see, but what you need to see." The voice deepened to one that made The Doctor shiver. "You need to face your fears." The Doctor clenched his eyes shut harder, fear biting his mind. "It's only a projection, it's not real. It's only a projection, it's not real. “The Doctor kept repeating the words and slowly he opened his eyes. He flinched when he saw the tall creature looming in front of him. "Discord." The Doctor whispered the name and the projection seemed to grin. "Doctor." The projection said and The Doctor stepped back. "No, projections can't do that!" He said panicked, his voice growing. "Consul, projection off!" The image of discord flickered and disappeared, but not before saying a last word. The Doctor sat down fear engulfing him. It felt like one of his hearts had stopped working and the other one was being split in two. It felt like he was being torn limb from limb, like each bone in his body was being cracked apart one by one. The Doctor crumpled into a heap, his coat darkening quickly before hardening. Two feathered limbs sprouted from his back and his eyes turned Icy blue. The TARDIS groaned and creaked before the engines usual hum started to fade into a low growl. The interior slowly shifted into a darker place, the only light an eerie green. The Doctor’s mind echoed in a hollow void. ALONE The Master sat up in bed, startled to hear The Doctors shout "IT’S NOT FAIR!!!" It was unlike The Doctor to shout things like that, but The Master paid it no heed and lay back down, reclosing his eyes. He listened to the drumming in his head, trying to hear it as a soft beat instead of the constant pound that drove him insane. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump hello The Master’s eyes shot open. Did he just hear a voice inside his head? No, that was impossible. And had the room really grown darker than it had been, or was his eyes just unadjusted? He closed his eyes again and pushed away the thoughts of voices in his head. He just had to get back to sleep. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump. That wasn't much of a welcome party. The Master grew stiff, but was able to keep himself from opening his eyes. "What do you want?" The Master growled back, clenching his teeth. The holder of the voice could only be one creature, and the tone made it obvious as well. I just wanted to talk, maybe make a friend? It looks like we will be stuck like this until the end anyways. "It's not my problem that you're going to die, and I’m going to enjoy it." well, I can tell you now that you won’t like the news that I’m going to give you, but it will just be *So Funny** to watch you.* "What are you talking about Discord?" I’m surprised you haven’t noticed yet. I mean, sometimes things just *fade away** and even a Doctor can’t fix a blackened heart.* The draconoquis snickered in The Masters head. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE DOCTOR?!?" The Master burst. He couldn’t stand this monstrous freak stuck in his head. well that’s a harsh way to think. I don’t think I’m a monstrous freak. Of course, you’re and my thoughts are sort of combined now, aren’t they? The Master struggled to open his eyes, but when he did nothing seemed to change from the blackness. Everything was dark and enveloped in thick shadows. The Master stumbled off of his bed and began to run towards the door, tripping and falling in the process. He got back up quickly and rushed towards the control room. "Doctor?! Doctor! *snort* Doctor!" as The Master reached the control room a bubble of mad laughter emanated from his throat. What was happening to him? He looked around quickly and saw The Doctor laying on the floor looking much like he did when they had first rescued him from discord in the parallel world. "DOCT-" The Master tried to shout the name but only accomplished to burst out laughing again. He just couldn’t stop. And his head pounded more every step closer to The Doctor he took. Stop trying to save him and I may let you go freely. The Master could feel discord grin in his head but tried to ignore the feeling as he struggled to breath. "I...Won’t....Save him..." The Master relaxed as the laughter and the drums released him from their grasp. See, that wasn’t so hard, now was it? Now go wake him up and don’t pull any moves on I or your life will turn red. The Master dragged his hooves toward The Doctor and gently prodded his old friend/enemy. "Doctor? Wake, wake?" The Doctor moved slightly and opened his eyes. The Master noticed instantly that they had turned an icy blue full of malice. "Get off me Master" The Doctor spit out the name with scorn. A scowl overcame his darkened features and he stood up. "Haven’t you done enough trouble for one life? Go jump in a pit." The Doctor kicked The Master in the side before leaving the console room. The Master was flabbergasted and stood there like an idiot for a moment before going back to his room. He had had enough problems for one night. "Please! Let me out!" "Quiet or you will wake the whole hive prisoner!" "No! I can’t let them ruin my life!" A unicorn mare sat, pulling at the cage that imprisoned her. A dark creature flew over to her, a sharp object in hoof. He poked the mare with the item through the bars and she flew back to the wall as a green bolt of electricity shocked her. "I told you to shut up!" The creature buzzed, flying back to his post. The mare lay down and wept. "My poor, poor Minuette." Magic duelTwilight strained her magic, sweat dripping down her face. Lifting more things at once was usually hard enough without those things constantly moving around. She could faintly hear Fluttershy's worried squeaks in the background as Spike tried to comfort her. It had been almost three days since she had gotten back and she had been rushing around to get everything on schedule. So far she had gotten almost two thirds of her fifth list done. She slowly set the little animals she had been levitating down and wiped the sweat from her brow. "That’s all for now little ones." The small woodland creatures crowded around Twilight, cheering for more. "We can practice again later if Fluttershy says it’s alright." The crowd of animals drifted over to Fluttershy shaking form. Spike made his way over to Twilight and congratulated her on her improvement. "Princess Celestia’s going to love it!" He grinned at her and Twilight lifted her head with pride. "Thank you Spike! I have to be at my best when she arrives with the delegates from Saddle Arabia! I can't belief she trusts me with the entertainment-" WACK "TWILIGHT!!! You have to come quick! It's an emergency!" Twilight looked up with surprise and worry at the rainbow mare that had run into her. "Let's go!" Colgate watched in surprise at the scene unfolding before her. Twilight was in the middle of town confronting another unicorn with an impressive show of magic. Colgate ducked quickly as an unbalanced Rainbow Dash flew over. She had gone out that morning before The Master or The Doctor woke up so that she could get some shopping done, but was blocked off by the odd crowd of people in the street. Her sense of adventure had told her to go check it out and so she had. "Let's dual Trixie!" Twilight growled and the pony in question laughed. "Excellent." A glow shot over the perimeter and all the ponies that had fallen victim to the unicorn magic turned back. That is, except for Pinkie Pie. Colgate shuddered momentarily and wondered how the poor thing could breath. "DRAW!!" Colgate heard the unknown unicorn shout. A beam of red magic shot from her horn, hitting a nearby cart full of apples. She cart shot strait for a crowd of ponies not far way, scattering them. Colgate watched in horror as one of the mares in the group tripped, unable to get up to get out of the way. Colgate could faintly remember the mares name being Shoeshine. A sudden burst of the well known purple magic belonging to the local librarian stopped the cart in its tracks. The cart was gently set down to the side, all apples in it set neatly. But as soon as the cart was put down, a cascade of pies shot towards Twilight. The quick thinking mare made a parasprite appear. The small creature ate all the pie in one mouthful and disappeared. WAP A thick layer of cold snow covered Colgate and she shivered. She was instantly warmed up by a blast of hot air that seemed to radiate off of Twilight that melted the sudden collapse of random snow. Next, to every ponies delight and laughter, Trixie grew a foot long mustache. "Snip, Snails, come over here!" The two colts went over and where covered in a red glow. "An age spell?!" A chorus of gases came from any nearby unicorns including Colgate. She new for a fact that even Twilight couldn't do that. They had gone over it in magic class and Colgate had collapsed with exhaustion just from trying it. Now she watched as Twilight was beaten at her own game. Twilight was picked up by a red glow and thrown towards the Everfree forest, but this feat was not seen by Colgate, for she had already begun to run in that direction as fast as she could. She began to charge up her magic to teleport there, but was slammed to a stop when horn met glass. "OWWWW!!!" She shouted in pain and fell back. Looking up she could see that a huge magic glass dome had bubbled Ponyville off from the rest of the world. She of course was on the wrong side of it and now trapped with the rest of the small town’s residence. She started to bang against the glass, hoping that some pony would get her out of it. Maybe if she could contact The Master or The Doctor... Colgate’s mind suddenly struck a light bulb and her horn begun to glow. RING, RING, RING. RING, RING, RING. “For the love of the cursed dead Galifrey, can't a Timelord get some sleep around here?!" The Doctor shouted, smashing a hoof against the blackened console. The TARDIS'S side groaned in protest, but held. A clank could be heard as The Doctor yanked the phone to his ear. "I am afraid that this phone is out of order. If you want to talk to someone go look in the mirror!" The Doctor went to slam the phone down, but his hoof was caught by another. "Who's on the phone Doctor?" The Master grumbled and The Doctor slammed the phone into The Master and stalked away. The Master scrambled for the phone that seemed to be trying and slip from his hooves before remembering that he was, in fact, a unicorn. The phone was levitated in a blue glow and traveled up to his ear. "Hello, The Doctor's residence, Master speaking." an incoherent mumble of words came from the other end, just loud enough for The Master to make out the voice. "Colgate? Is that you? Please try and speak louder." Ponyville....Glass....needs help....a tree.....Twilight! "Okay! I have no idea what you said but It sounds like your in trouble." A mumble came from the other end confirming his thoughts. "Okay Colgate! I’ll find Twilight and then I’ll come to try and help you!" The Master set the phone back in its place and looked around. "DOCTOR!!! Get your scrawny flank over here. We have to save Ponyville!" There was no respond so The Master galloped to the back of the TARDIS. To his amusement and annoyance The Doctor had seemed to get himself stuck in a rope, and his face flat on the floor from a previous fall. His wings shot up and down trying to get the rest of him free, but only managed to get him even more tangled. "Doctor! Come on." The Master levitated the rope and quickly got The Doctor untangled. He then proceeded to levitate The Doctor, ignoring his protests, next to him and towards the door. The Master pushed the door open, coming face to face with a disheveled Twilight. "Master! I need your help! Ponyville is-" "Shut up grape! Nopony wants to hear you babble like an idiot all day! Get it over with and find another poor soul to help you!" The Doctor flailed and The Master started to lose his magic grasp. The burden of a full grown pony was lifted from him as a purple magic took over, slamming The Doctor into a tree with a loud thump. "Don’t you Ever talk to me like that Again!" She stressed her point with another smack before conjuring up a rope and tying The Doctor up for the second time that day. "Let’s go! It’s by time that some pony smacked some sense into him, but Colgate needs our help!" The Master looked back and noticed Twilights hesitation. "Listen Master, Ponyville is trapped in a giant glass dome made of Trixie's magic. I have to go and train so that I might beat her and regain Ponyville. I need you to go see what you can do, but I can’t help right now. Good luck." And with that she was off, leaving The Doctor to drop to the ground. "If you behave I might untie your mouth. Even if you are being a jerk, I may need your brain." The Master sighed as he picked The Doctor up once again and trudged on towards Ponyville. Colgate's face light up when her friend came into sight. The Master trotted out of the forest followed by a floating Doctor who seemed to be tied up. She smashed against the glass again, causing magical waves to ripple away from the impact spot. She grinned widely as she looked at The Master, lost in thought for a moment. Before she had met The Master she had thought that her and The Doctor where the last time lords in existence. Now she was proved wrong by the magnificent stallion that came towards her. A blush crept over her cheeks as she caught her eyes drifting. A sudden connection of outside magic on her horn surprised Colgate. She tried to fight back weakly. Calm down, its only me. Colgate blushed profusely as did The Master as she tried to block any drifting thoughts from the moment before. I assume I wasn’t supposed to hear that? "Sorry..." I must agree that I am very sexy though...Never mind. Pretend that it never happened. Anyways, let’s get you out here. The two got together a spell and activated it. Two large blasts of dark and light blue seemed to fly towards each other (probably because they were in fact flying towards each other.) Massive waves of red magic rolled away from impact point, much larger than the small ripples that Colgate had made on it earlier. A red flash erupted next to Colgate, but she ignored it, pouring all her concentration into the spell... "WHAT ARE YOU BZZZZZ... DOING!!!!!!" A hoof hit Colgate full force under her horn, causing pain to break her concentration and making her fall to the ground. Her magic shut off, ending the ripples in the wall. The Master had apparently stopped his magic blast as well and was now banging against the glass. Colgate watched thought bleary eyes as a blue unicorn came into her view. It was the same pony who she had seen before fighting Twilight. Although she was not wearing the cloak anymore, she still had the same amulet on. Colgate failed to notice that The Master had no short of a full out tantrum at seeing this. He started banging the glass like a maniac before going into a state of shock. Colgate didn’t see this though, and if she had, wouldn’t have been able to understand the event. The unicorn mare shouted a few things that Colgate couldn’t quite distinguish and suddenly The Master was teleported to inside the glass, his legs half buried in the ground. Slowly her hearing came back to her and it went a little something like this... "WHO DARES TO PASS ONTO TRIXIES TERRITORY!?! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!" "Actually you just let us in." A dangerous grin spread across the still tied up Doctors face. Colgate took a double take quickly, wondering how she had never noticed The Doctor had wings. "And if I am correct, you are wearing the Alicorn amulet, right? I’m afraid I need that..." The Master grinned sheepishly and sweat beaded down his face which had come oddly close to Trixie. "Are you saying you want this amulet?" Trixie said in a quiet calm voice that seemed to send chills down eve pony’s spine. "And are you expecting me to let you go with it and keep Ponyville all to yourself?" she continued. Her voice dropping dramatically into a low growl and oddly enough a series of buzzing noises. "And do you think that I, The great and powerful Trixie, am going to leave Ponyville without trouble?" "Ah, well," The Master stuttered, his face growing pale. "I didn’t think you would be up for that much, but I would really appreciate the act. So if you wouldn’t mind..." "YOU PONIES ARE *FOOLS** TO EVEN THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME AND FOR YOUR IDIOCY YOU WILL BE SENTANCED TO DEATH*!!!!!" Trixie screeched. Colgate moaned and held her hooves to her ears, quickly doing multiple double takes with her eyes. Did Trixie just turn black? It must have been imagination. But Colgate took another double take when she saw that Trixie magic had changed colors from red to green. Now she watched a green glow capture The Master and The Doctor, making them disappear. Colgate only happened to notice this a moment before she disappeared as well. Changelings"Do Do de do do, dum de dum" A lone pony trotted through a dark tunnel, a small glow on his horn and a song in his mouth. Everything was good. His mind slowly wandered as he thought what to do when he made it back to his room. He had already finished his job for the day, feeding the young, and now he was finally granted some free time. He decided to explore, and he couldn’t ever remember coming down this far in the tunnels before. It was definitely darker than most tunnels, and it looked like it hadn’t been used in centuries. There had been legends about secret stashes of treasure being lost in ponies hast to escape the terrifying beasts that roamed the dark. But he knew it was all just myth. Clank The pony paused, turning off his light so as not to be detected. He may not believe the treasures to be true, but there where all possibilities that a group of diamond dogs could have infiltrated the musky hall. He crawled over to the side of the cave, hoping to blend in with it. "I see you..." A low buzzing voice growled. The pony found courage and brought light back to his horn, ready to face his foe. His wings flared when he saw the creature before him. It had a shell of chitin that was black as night and yet gleamed like metal in the sun. The dagger sharp fangs in its mouth would terrify the most noble of stallions, and the wings on its back where those of an insect, buzzing ever so slightly. Its horn glowed a brilliant green as it took another step forward with its holed hooves. Its big blue eyes seemed to stare into the pony’s soul and he could feel his emotions being drained. "Hello Love Giver." Colgate shook her head back and forth in frustration. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't use any magic. Not only that but she wouldn't have been able to see her hoof if she waved it in Front of her face. All she was aware of was a sort of soft squishy goop under her hooves and the damp air of a cave on her coat and the horrid smell. A gag in her mouth kept her from calling out and frequent push from behind kept her moving forward. Buzzing noises wrapped around her ears, letting her know that this was no ponies doing. Behind her somewhere The Doctor and Master where prisoners as well. After they had disappeared from the clearing they had teleported to outside a cave. Trixie had picked them all up in her magic and forced them in. As soon as the three time ponies were in pitch black darkness, they had been dropped to the ground. A flash of bright green fire had come from where Trixie had stood, but Colgate had not been able to tell what she had done. She was about to make a run for it when she felt something cold and hard Giver against her side. She gasped at the touch and cringed back as a buzzing noise surrounded her. She had tried to called to The Doctor and The Master but couldn’t tell where they where aside from the faint sound of a struggle. Colgate closed her eyes and took a breath before she began to run. She ran as fast as she could and grinned when she saw something in front of her. Was the cave getting lighter? Her run lasted about 5 seconds before the wall made contact with her head. She had been quickly caught again after that and they had started the march through darkness. "Take the prisoners to the dungeon and order someone to guard them. I will report the capture to the queen." Colgate heard Trixie leave, tensing in fear. She had never seen a dungeon but in story books and it was terrible what happened inside them in the stories. Whould their hosts torture them? Would The Doctor and The Master be put into different cells? What would she do without them? The group continued to walk and soon an odd, green, glowing substance stuck on the wall was visible. Colgate reached out to touch it, but her hoof was swayed back by a hard object. The further they walked, the more frequent the substance appeared, and soon the hall was filled with it. Only then could Colgate get a good look at her captors. They where changelings by the look of it with black carapaces and bug wings. The only difference from these and the ones from the attack at Canterlot was that these changelings where bigger and had different colored eyes and hair. A large changeling with red ominous eyes was currently walking towards the group, pausing next to the changeling in the front. "Captain report rank, name, and destination." He commanded, his voice giving away an air of boredom to Colgate’s surprise. She hadn't thought that changelings where capable of emotions at all. She had actually pictured them as being somewhat like the cybermen, seeking a life of perfection and emptiness. "Sergeant Apharius reporting Sir. Destination east wing to place prisoners in dungeon sir." Colgate heard termers of fear in the sergeants voice. Apparently changelings where also capable of fear and intimidation. "Who placed you under these orders sergeant?" The changeling hesitated a moment before answering, seeming to prepare for something to happen. "Lady Emerald...sir." "WHAT!!! How long have you been taken orders from the LADY Emerald!?!?" "Since this morning sir." "And what is she having you do, private?" "I'm a sergeant sir..." "I SAID, WHAT IS SHE MAKEING YOU DO!!!" "SHE IS PREPAREING TO TAKE OVER PONYVILLE SIR!" Colgate took a step back from the shouting. It sounded like Ponyville was in for some trouble and here she was trapped before it even started. Also that explained the barrier around Ponyville. "Now instead of taking orders from the lady you will take orders from me. Place the prisoners in the south wing." "But sir, if word of this reaches the queen she will have my head!" "And I care nothing about your head private. See that the order is served and then report to my office to obtain your old badge. Oh and private, see that my brother, the queens son, is given the guard job. He's going to collapse from exhaustion if he keeps that Job in the nursery." A changeling shoved Colgate forward as they began walking again. "Shurekin! What brings you to the dark tunnels?" "Looking for you of course love Giver." The changeling grinned toothily. Love Giver smiled back and fell into step with his changeling friend. "The captain has given orders for you to guard the new prisoners in the feeding cells. The queen has fears that if you continue in the nursery the younglings will drain you dry." Giver laughed at that. It was completely true, but he had to admit that his job was good compared to what most changelings had. But then again, he wasn’t a changeling. "I have other duties to perform. The prisoners should make it to the cells soon so I would hurry. Being the queens son does not lift you from your responsibilities of being on time friend." And with that Shurekin was gone. Giver buzzed his wings slightly and made his way back to the top of the tunnel and began to navigate the main hive, also known as the changeling Capitol. His hoof steps echoed in the empty tunnels he walked. He would meet no other changeling in them, for they were constructed for the purpose of escape in case of emergencies many centuries ago, and now they were unknown except to the eldest and most educated of ponies. The tunnels where empty of all light and not a trace of solid emotion the usually glowed green in the more commonly used tunnels could not be found. He made it to the last tunnel that crossed into the correct hall through a crack, and slinked forward through the shadows. Solid emotion hung from the walls in green glowing gunk, slightly illuminating the area. Up farther in the hallway he could see the captain, his oldest brother. Giver started to ninja run forward, his hooves falling silently as he came up behind his brother. A gasp came from one of the feeding cells that he passed on his right. The gasp alerted is brother who turned around right as Giver pounced. Giver landed gracefully on top of his brother who was knocked on the ground. Giver smirked as he jumped off of his brother, his head held high. The smirk vanished instantly as he was covered in a green glow. "You’re going to get it this time!" His brother shouted. Giver was floated back to his brother and held against the floor. The large changeling’s hooves pulled upwards and came down. "hahahahahahaha SNORT haha ha No! ha ha No, stop! gasp No! giggle You know I’m ticklish! Get off me you big bully!" "You need to learn not to mess with changelings older than yourself squirt." Giver was let up finally and rolled away from his brother. "I’m here to do my duty captain!" Giver saluted to his older brother who rolled his eyes. "Have fun with that. Just remember not to let them out. I personally don’t care if you interrogate them with your silly pony questions. Just be sure the queen doesn’t catch you." Captain grinned and trotted away, waving back one last time. Giver sighed and looked to the cells. The bars where old and rusted, but magically enchanted to hold any ponies in. There was also a special changeling spell on it that slowly channeled the emotions from the prisoners and into the walls around the cells, which then converted it to solid emotion that sat there until a changeling came and took it away to the store room. Giver looked into the first cell that contained two stallions, one with brown fur, and one with blue. Both of them where knocked out on the ground. The next cell was empty as usual. The cell after that held two pony unicorns, one of them a blue unicorn mare lying on the ground. The other cell occupant stood over the unconscious one, her face one of shock. "Hey Trixie, what’s wrong? Do you know this one?" Giver called to the shocked pony. She simply nodded her head, running a hoof through the pony’s mane. "I think so, but that is not important now. She will just be stuck here like me until the queen takes us."Giver leaned in right next to the bars and looked around suspiciously. "Just between you and me pony, I heard that the queen was preparing to negotiate terms of peace with Celestia. This battle cut down half our population and our love supply is down to. If the princess is willing to negotiate then you could be out of here in about a month." He pulled his head back and looked down at the knocked out mare. “I wouldn’t hold my breath though. Sometimes queen chrysalis can be a bit tenacious when it comes to her pride." Colgate shuddered slightly and tried to open her eyes but to no avail. They, as well as the rest of her body felt heavy as if her coat was soaked through with water. She could faintly make out two voices near her, one a mare and one a stallion. Remembering her predicament, she assumed one or both of them where changelings. That most likely meant they where guards which meant they were stuck. Trapped. At realization a cold chill ran down her spine. If it hadn’t been for the paralyzing spell put through her whole body she would have begun to twitch in adrenalin. It usually happened on her adventures with The Doctor. "COLGATE!" Colgate did her best to become alert, but only managed to cock her ears up. She could suddenly hear the voices clearly and she could instantly tell that the one to call her name was The Doctor. She could hear more voices join in on the shouting as well. "Stop shouting prisoner. The sleeping chambers are nearby and if you wake anyone I’m positive that you will regret it!" The speaker was a male, a changeling guard by his tone and words. " I WONT SHUT UP UNTIL YOU TELL ME WERE MY DAUGHTER IS!!!!!!"Colgate smiled. Had The Doctor just called her his daughter? Of course she knew he was not her birth father despite her developed race, but she had never heard him call her anything of the sorts. It swelled her heart with joy to hear him call her that. "I know for a fact she is not your daughter." The changeling's voice growled. Colgate noticed that she could move slightly and began to flutter her eyes, and blink away the blurriness. "D..Doctor. Pease....calm yourself." The Masters voice sounded faint and strained, most likely because he was still under the changelings spell a bit. Colgate’s vision had begun to clear and now she could see a blue hoof next to her head. She was facing away from the guards voice and a mare’s voice broke out right above her, most likely belonging to the mare connected with the blue hoof. "Brush, I think you should calm yourself also. There’s no reason to get worked up about the others waking. That stallion will get what’s coming to him. I know firsthoof." For some reason the voice sent alarm bells through her mind. "Shut up pony. And don’t call me Brush! You will show me respect as you do my brother!"The changelings voice growled. "Pony!!! You would be one to speak!" The mare’s voice shouted back. Colgate tried to turn her head and managed to get a better look at the mare giving out a gasp. "Trixie!" The one named jumped back from Colgate seemingly startled by the sudden shout. Colgate tried to move away and found herself to be able to stand shakily on her hooves. She stumbled backwards. A burning shock ran through her body and all of her strength seemed to sap away as cold metal chilled her back, making her jump away from that as well. The cell she was stuck in was small and only contained two small cots and a couple blankets in the left corner. Colgate crouched in the right corner of the cell and watched Trixie cautiously. The mare in question began to calm back down from the startle and looked back at Colgate, seeming to evaluate her. There was a gleam in her eye that Colgate couldn’t quite put a hoof on. "By time you woke up. We were starting to worry that they had drained you dry." The changeling’s voice reached her ears with dry humor. She looked over to see him and found she had been wrong and the surprise must have shown in her face because their guard chuckled slightly. "Weren’t expecting a pony to be outside the bars, were you?" Colgate noticed her mouth had dropped open and swiftly closed it. "W..Who are you?" Colgate managed to whisper. Trixie looked like she was about to answer but a menacing glare from Colgate cut her off. "And I don’t want to speak to you evil...thing!" Colgate hissed. The mare scowled and Colgate could detect rejection and sorrow pool in her eyes like tears before the mare turned away. "Don’t be so harsh on her. It’s not like she did anything wrong." Colgate looked out at the guard pony and looked him over. He didn’t seem to be the strongest of ponies, but was certainly not weak. His vibrant orange mane was ruffled up and one of his ears flopped down. His eyes where a breathtaking TARDIS blue color. His coat was a dull brown and almost seemed feathery. Colgate couldn’t help but notice his cutie mark was a heart and a Giver, and thought the heart on it a bit ironic seeing that he lived with changelings. "Thank you for trying to clear my name Giver, but I deserve it anyway for the deeds I have done before entering this hell hole." The blue coated mare shuddered slightly and only now could Colgate see the bags of sleepless nights gathered under the older mare’s eyes. "Nothing wrong?!? She’s going to take over Ponyville! I heard her say it!” Colgate narrowed her question towards the pony guard. He scoffed and rolled his eyes as if the answer to the question had been obvious through the whole ordeal. "The Trixie that you met was a changeling, my dear sister the lady emerald to be exact. This Trixie, the real Trixie, is not quite so rude. Besides how did you expect her to take over Ponyville on that side of the bars?" The guard chuckled again and looked to the right as an ear splitting sound sliced their eardrums. The guard rushed over to we're The Doctor and Masters cage was and began to shout at them. Colgate simply sighed and calmed down from her crouched position, straightening up. Trixie looked over to her and began to move forward, a hoof held out in greeting. Colgate cautiously shook it with her own. "I don't believe we have made introductions. I am Trixie Lulamoon." Colgate’s mind raced trying to remember the name from a past memory, but she seemed not to remember. "I am Colgate." Colgate smiled slightly and sighed on exasperation when the sound of hoof and jaw connecting reached her ear. The Doctors voice was instantly silenced. The guard trotted back in front of our cell and sat down, beginning the long task of watching. He held The Doctors Sonic screwdriver in his mouth. Giver continued to pace in front of the cells as the day continued. It had been three days since the three new prisoners had entered the feeding cells. The two stallions in the first cell had tried to escape almost five times in the last few days although they had not made it far before they were overcome by changelings. The mares had begun to speak and Giver would usually pass the time listening in on them. At the moment the stallions were whispering in the corner of their cell, a practice they had started after their last try at escape. The mares where both doing their own things, Trixie laying on the cot and Colgate sitting at the bars of the cell looking down the hallway. He could not help but take a fancy to the mare, for she had star quality. She was brave and bold enough to stand up to his brother when he had given less food to Trixie than herself. The punishment had been no food for any of them. But of course he new that he could never have a mare, his mother would not permit it unless it was to a changeling mare. Giver stepped over to Colgaste, sitting next to the bars. “So, Having fun?” "Yeah. Getting captured by changelings is every mares dream.” She snipped sacasticly before sighing. “Sorry. I just want to go home. I’m not used to living with changelings like you.” “ And you would never want to.”Giver sighed,”The changelings are obnoxious, rude, and very biased against ponies.” “Then why stay?” Clogates question made Giver flinch a bit. “Imagine,” He began,” That were half dead, unable to survive, but some pony rescued you. Now imagine that they took you with them back to their home, invited you in, and raised you. Everyone else you ever saw hated you. The only one that shows you any respect is the one who saved you, one brother, and one friend. Would you be able to leave those few people that you love?” Giver shook his head. “I cant.” Giver looked back at Colgate to see that she had scrambled back to the wall of the cell. Giver stiffened and spun around to find his mother standing tall before him. The hall became silent of all, even the stallions whispers. The chill of an emotionless wind threw a snowy chill down Givers back. He quickly bowed low, arising at her gesture. "Hello Mom. What brings you to the feeding grounds?" Giver inquired. The queen smiled thoughtfully at her adopted son before her gaze again grew cold. "I am afraid young mister that I must speak with you concerning our new “guestssss”." Chrysalis hissed out the words and glared towards the cells. "Come." The queen gracefully stepped down the tunnel, closely followed by Giver. They continued through the darkness before slipping through one of the hidden passageway opening to the left, soon coming to a door. Light leaked out from the bottom and began to pour when it was opened fully by the queen. The light was a bright flickering red momentarily bringing Giver before he could make up his surroundings. When he could see he instantly recognized one of his mothers "off rooms” that she used when she wanted to get away from being royalty or in emergencies like a crazy assassin on the loose. The room contained a bed, a small container of solid emotion, a shelf of books, and an assortment of other casual items. Giver sighed as he watched the crown fall off his mothers head as she collapsed on her bed. He trotted over to her and gently rubbed her back as he usually did when she was stressed. "Oh child, what am I supposed to do?" Chrysalis relented. “Our hive is dwindling to extinction after the attack and still we have not solved the problem of starvation. We can't survive much longer without a love source." Giver thought it over and raised his hoof to his chin in thought. “I Thought you were going to sign a peace treaty with the equestrian princesses? Surely their price won't be too high seeing that we didn't harm any ponies during our attack in permanent ways. Besides we have surely paid enough of a ransom with our lives." The queen just shook her head at the suggestion. “You ponies are too soft. You are probably curious as to why I stole you away from your job." He simply nodded as she continued. "I have made up my mind on our problem. We will use the prisoners as hostages. Every time the princesses deny us, the prisoners lives will be put in jeopardy. Until they gives us a final food source we will put them in the... noshery." She spit out the last word with pity and remorse. When Giver heard this he gasped and stepped away from her in shock. "But mother! That would be torture! I wouldn’t wish that feat upon my worst enemies, not even Celestia!" Mother whipped around a burning rage in her eyes. "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THAT NAME IN MY PRESENCE YOU INSOLENT PONIE!!!!" Her royal voice was torture to my eardrums and my body shook in fear. It felt as though her gaze had turned Giver to ice. Her breath came out in ragged breaths after her outburst and she closed her eyes, turning from him. "You just don’t understand. Your one of the... the ponies. You wouldn’t... couldn’t... understand." Giver could feel the tears trying to arise in his large eyes. It hurt him when she did this, thinking he was just a soft pony. screw this. He set his jaw straight, clenching his teeth as he usually did to keep from shouting at his mother. "If that’s all my queen, I will withdraw." Giver turned and walked towards the entrance with his head high, ignoring the burning sensation of her watching him. "Knock out the prisoners. The guard captain will transport them to the room. You can keep the young mare for yourself." Giver grunted as a response, trying not to let her notice his inner turmoil. "Wait!-" The voice of the queen had begun to sound regretful, maybe even defeated. His heart told him to go comfort her, but his mind had begun to harden towards her. He continued out the room, closing the door softly. Why don’t I leave? Soon he had reappeared at the harvesting cells. He let his small horn light up with a faint orange glow and closed his eyes. The magic had always felt weird to him. It was as if a barrier was in-between his horn and true magic flow as mother called it, with only enough magic trickling out for a simple spell every once in a while. Now he directed that magic into three minds being held in the two cells. They could tell what Giver was doing and protests began to rise from the ponies, but he just blocked all noise out as he concentrated on getting the spell right. His magic connected with their mind and he began to warp it into music. It was a spell that mother had taught him that made a magical lullaby in the 'prey's' mind making them fall to sleep. It was natural enough that it didn’t leave any traces of magic use and simple enough that he could use it. One by one he felt their minds slowly slip into slumber and he carefully withdrew from their minds. "What did you do to them?!?" Giver opened his eyes; fighting back the dizziness that using magic usually brought him. A blue blur sat in the cell, staring at him. "Calm down p..pony, I..their just sleeping..." he continued to try and shake the dizziness and blurriness in his head out, finally succeeding. He sat down heavily and waited for his brother to get there. Giver’s mind wandered and his face became wet again as he thought about mother. She had never thought him overly high compared to his siblings, and she had constantly used his race against him. He was more changeling than pony, feeling their same feelings, sharing their life, even eating at their table which was very sparse of food. "Giver." a somber voice came up beside him. "Mother told me what happened, don’t sweat over it, k?" Givers head snapped up and he jumped in front of his brother who had come up to him. "Shut Up! THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUISNESS SO SHUT UP AND STAY OUT OF IT!!!!" His voice cracked and he closed his eyes. He had never shouted at his siblings in rage before unless it was over petty sibling problems like sharing toys. He just curled up on the floor, listening to Captain’s hoof steps and the sound of his magic as he carried the prisoners out of their cells. The sound of Colgate struggling and shouting reached my ears and were muffled at the slam of the cell door closing again. "Have fun with your pet." The gruff voice of my brother passed, and there was a clank on the floor next to me. I didn’t move. I hated the wetness of tear on my face. Changelings never cried, so why did I? I let out a sob before another one came and soon I was weeping on the floor. I could faintly hear comforting words coming from the prisoner, but I ignored them. She shouldn’t waist her pity on me when she needs it at the moment. Why not just leave? After a while the tears stopped coming. I felt depressed and empty, but my sadness was slowly being replaced by hate and anger, and I could feel it. I knew it was bad to be controlled by anger, but when mother had snapped at me, it had hurt. It’s not like that was the first time either. She constantly mistrusted me in important situations, and she always referred to how annoying it was that I had to use the secret tunnels and that I should be more like changelings. Well newsflash, I’m a pony. Eventually I stood up, tears gone but a scowl set on my face. I was sick and tired of changelings; maybe I should just go be a pony then. I used a small burst of magic, ignoring the dizzy spell it brought me, and unlocked the cell, letting the blue pony out. She just stood there with her mouth open in surprise. "Well come on pony, let’s get out a here." EscapeColgate ran as fast as her hooves would carry her, ignoring the crunching sound ahead. The pony-changeling ran somewhere ahead of her, far enough that she couldn’t see him. The only thing that showed he was still there was the occasional noise that came when he met a changeling ahead. His work appeared on the sides of the tunnels as she ran, changelings with their skulls crushed in. She didn’t know how he did it, but she was glad he wasn’t her enemy. Soon she caught up to giver, panting loudly. She did her best to ignore the blood on his hooves. "Now where?" The two had come to a fork in the road. Giver looked both ways, running down the left right back into the darkness. Colgate sighed, rushing forward again. She was unprepared for the body she smacked into. "Back Back Back!!!" Giver had stopped in the middle of the tunnel and had run back into Colgate. When Colgate saw the horns of five changelings light up in front of them she spun around and ran followed close behind by giver. "We’re cut off!! What do we do!?!" Changelings had cornered them, coming from both forks in the road and the way they had come from. "Here!" Giver jumped towards the wall, seeming to vanish through it. Colgate followed. There was a crack in there that was just big enough for a thin pony to get through. Inside it was a door which giver had already opened and was beckoning Colgate into. She went in and was immediately blinded by a bright light. She blushed when she noticed it was just a small candle that had been lit. Giver held a lamp and he sat on a bed in the room after he had closed the door. Colgate sat on a chair. "Were is this place?" She said looking about. "One of the queen’s hideaway rooms. They're hidden all over the hive. They were made in secret when the hive was first built so only the queens children know about it." "I thought the queen was the mother for all the changelings like an ant?" Giver let out a snort. "Just because changelings look like bugs doesn’t mean they are. They are actually just like ponies aside from their outer shell, wings and they have different magic." "Different magic? I thought there was only one kind. Also changelings eat love not pony food so their not that much alike." "Actually changelings don’t eat love. We eat pony food; the love is just to power their magic. Changelings use their magic to constantly shift forms and so they eat the solid emotion that you saw on the walls to power it back up. If a changeling runs out of magic it dies slowly and painfully. But it still doesn't fill up their bellies. That’s why the attack was made on Canterlot. We don’t get any real food out here in the bad lands." Colgate pondered givers words for a moment before getting of the chair. “We need to do something. We can’t stay in here forever you know." She began to look through the different drawers, looking for anything useful. Of course nothing showed up. "So what do we do now Giver?" “Don’t call me giver. My real name is Brushheart." Giver hopped off his bed, and opened the door. “Can you use magic?" “What?" “I said can you use you're magic?" Brush questioned. Colgate let magic run through her horn, making it glow. "Yep." “Okay. I need you to teleport both of us to these specific coordinates? Can you do that?" He showed her a piece of paper with some numbers on it. "Yeah Brush, but if were high up I won't be able to stop our fall while my magic recharges." Brush nodded his head, trotting over to stand next to Colgate. "If I’m right we should appear about a foot above the ground. The worst that could happen is one of us could twist an ankle when we start running for our lives. Ready?" Colgate nodded, a brief burst of excitement fuelling her on. She let the magic channel through her horn, making it twirl into the simple formation of a teleportation around them. Her horn flashed a bright blue and both ponies disappeared. "Keep moving ponies. We don’t want to be caught!" The Doctor galloped silently beside his old friend as they followed the two changelings in front of them. Behind them the Doctor could hear the real Trixie panting for breath as she ran. He himself wasn’t breaking a sweat. He was used to running from the things that seemed to continuously chasing him. The Doctor flapped his wings a bit to gain more speed, wincing at the pain that showed how weak they were. “Be glad you’re not a unicorn. It stings quite a bit more than wings when under used." The Master chuckled before becoming a bit more serious. “You haven’t been having anymore of those thoughts, have you? It’ll help you to talk about it so you don’t fall into Discords grip any farther." The Doctor just grimaced."I’m fine Master. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve had jumbled emotions. Of course the pain of trying to keep out the negatives is another story." The Master smiled at him reassuringly, egging him to continue. "Well, He speaks to me sometimes. Discord I mean. He taunts me, and he asks me stuff that I would not rather think of the answers to. Sometimes he just tells me stories of times with no one like me to save the day. Tales of chaos and destruction. Sometimes I just feel like..like..." The doctor closed his mouth abruptly, and gave a cold look at the master. It wasn’t the masters business what he felt like. Maybe it was one of his schemes to get in his head. You couldn’t trust anyone. The doctor was about to tell the master to mind his own business, but was interrupted by the changelings ahead. "Everyone slow down. Were coming to the back entrance for invaders to come through. The problem is its going to come out in the sewers of Ponyville so we will probably be spotted and taken away quickly. That and there’s guards." The doctor watched the two changelings carefully as they tried to make a plan with the master. The larger one was the changeling who put them into the prison in the first place. The other one the doctor had never seen before then. What he couldn’t decide was to trust these changelings or kill them. The larger one would be easily taken out with speed, but the smaller one would be more difficult. He could always... The Doctor suddenly noticed that three sets of eyes were on him, and his hoof just happened to randomly be in the position for him to knock out the smaller changeling. He slowly lowered his hoof, his already pale face losing a bit more color. "As I was saying," The larger changeling growled, “We could all combine our magic and set up a large enough illusion spell to disguise all of us. I can direct the spell so it will be as if we are simply shifting forms. We won’t notice the change, but anyone who looks at you will see a completely different pony. From there we can find a good hiding place to make a better long term plan." All the ponies other than the Doctor verbally agreed to the plan and made a circle, their horns touching in the middle. "Excuse me, but I’m still curious as to why you’re trying to help us escape?" The Doctor looked at the larger changeling that he had addressed the question to accusingly. The changeling lifted his horn out of the circle in the middle, looking straight at the Doctor. “Did you want to go into a place where thousands of starving and imprisoned changelings suck you dry until all that left is your carcass which is eaten while you’re still alive?" The Doctor shook his head and the changeling scoffed. “I didn't think so. I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemies, especially those who did nothing wrong." The changeling proceeded to lower his horn back to the circle and let his horn began to glow. The other three began to let magic seep through their horns as well. The different colored magic twirled around each other. The twist spun through the air, surrounding the ponies and two changelings. It suddenly gave off a flash of light, making the Doctor close his eyes as he felt himself being lifted off the ground. His hooves clopped back onto the stone floor after a second. "Lets go!" the larger changeling ordered, galloping up the steps to the sewer opening. The Doctor just grumbled and began to flap his wings again. Once at the top the changeling carefully opened the sewer top and climbed out, signaling for the rest of them to follow. The Doctor gave a large flap of his wings and leapt out of the tunnel and into the fresh night air. The five of them seemed to be in a back alleyway, empty but for a few storage boxes up against a store. "Come on everyone. I know someone who will help us." the Master motioned everyone to follow as he began walking down the street. The Doctor noted how the streets were empty of ponies and most shops were closed down, large red and black flags covering the entrances. Clouds covered the sky, and wind sliced into the doctor’s coat. If any pony saw them they didn’t acknowledge their presence. The Doctor trotted behind the others next to Trixie. Looking at her now, she seemed to be tired and a bit withered. "Why does she travel with you?" Trixie's voice was dry, but strong, and her eyes bold as she turned to the Doctor. "Who do you mean?" he growled slightly, annoyed with the sound of voices. “Colgate. Why does she travel with you? I can tell she gets scared to death, and I know she is constantly put in danger, so why?" Trixie looked onto the Doctor expecting an answer. Her question earned a loud sigh. “I don’t like when she’s put in danger. She travels with me I guess because she... I...don’t know. Could be because she enjoys it, or she doesn’t want me to be in danger. It may even be because she doesn’t have a choice and I unconsciously drag her into it one way or another. why does it matter." he spat the last bit out, emotion slicing through him ragingly for no apparent reason as it had for the last couple weeks. “I have something that you deserve to know." the Doctor sensed the nervousness in Trixie’s voice and began to wonder if she was in fact a changeling. “I am Colgate's mother." PLOP "Doctor! Master come here! He fainted!" The ponies and changelings continued their walk, now with a limp Doctor hanging above them in a magic hold. Soon they came upon a little cottage. Behind it sat a forest and all around animals of all shape and size ran. They dropped the illusion spell and the Master gave the door a slight knock and waited for the butterscotch yellow Pegasus with a pink mane and tail open the door. When she did her eyes opened wide at the ponies outside her door. "Fluttershy, we need your help." PLOP "Not again." The End“Guys I think she's waking up!" Fluttershy slowly blinked her eyes, fuzzy looking figures filling her vision. When she could tell who it was standing over her she let out a scream. "CHANGELINGS!!!!!" She flung her legs out, losing her balance on the bed, and fell off in a heap of sheets. "Fluttershy calm down!" Fluttershy felt hooves hold her down as she struggled. Why would they attack her? Tears rolled down her face as she thought of the terrible, terrible things that they could do to her. "Fluttershy, its okay it’s just me. The Master remember?" Fluttershy continued to shake in fright. She had only met that stallion twice before, so why would the changelings use his form to fool her? "I..Don’t believe you Changeling monster! You...You came here to steal my love and my friends and to keep me from helping twilight..." Fluttershy stopped her wining for a moment when The Doctor stuck his hoof into her mouth. "Shut up. Do I look like a changeling? If I was one why wouldn’t I be out in the open like those other two? Now I’m going to remove my hoof and you’re going to keep quiet. If not for me do it so we can help save Ponyville." The Doctor scowled and removed his hoof, grumbling under his breath. Fluttershy kept to her word and didn’t utter a sound aside from her soft whimpering. "Thank you Doctor." The Master walked up to Fluttershy, pushing his angry friend out of the way. "Now Fluttershy..." The Master told her all of what happened, how Ponyville was being taken over by changelings and how one of them was trying to be Trixie. It wasn’t until he had said her name that the real Trixie made herself known to Fluttershy, sending her into another case of whimpers. The Doctor who had woken up only an hour before Fluttershy walked to the back of the room while Trixie comforted the frightened mare. The Doctor stumbled slightly, his head spinning momentarily before he shook it off. Ever since he woke up he couldn’t get that stupid voice out of his head. Discord just loved to torment him. He looked around the room, noting the many animals and birds making annoying noises. These days he couldn’t enjoy anything except spending time with Colgate. But now even thinking about her reminded him that Trixie was her mother. How could he not have noticed? Her name, her coat, her mane. It was all there. She had also said that Colgate had talked about her travels with him before meaning that sometime in her past and his future they would visit her. Just another thing to look forward to. "!!!!!!!" The Doctor jumped back in surprise as a white bunny hopped into his face, whacking at him with its little paws. "WHAT!?!!??" The Doctor stumbled around, blinded by the bunny, smashing into things. "Angel!!! What are you doing?" The Doctor heard Fluttershy's voice as he shook his head franticly. He could feel his anger rising in his chest. He let it burst. "AAAHHHHHHRRRGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A blast of gold energy flew from The Doctor’s mouth, storming over the bunny. The Doctor could only see white, this time because of his energy escaping him instead of the bunny. "Doctor!" "Angel!" The Doctor fell to his front knees, the energy left from him. "Doctor are you okay!??" "Yeah..I think so..." The Doctor stopped, surprised that his voice had grown lighter. "Were did his wings go?! Is he okay???" Fluttershy ran to The Doctor leaving the dizzy white bunny on the floor. "You must have broken discords contact with your mind!"The master grinned. The Doctor jumped up, feeling rejuvenated if a bit drained. He looked in a wall mirror he noticed coming in and he grinned happily for the first time in weeks. His coat was back to his normal tan color and his eyes were a deep TARDIS blue again. FLASH "Run!" Colgate rushed through the Everfree behind Brushheart, trying her best not to trip over anything. Building a burst of speed she shot ahead of him, signaling for him to follow her. Colgate could see some light ahead signaling a break in the forest. If they could make it there she might be able to get her bearings and head them in the direction of the TARDIS. They soon broke through the trees, unsure if anything was chasing them at all. Colgate stopped running suddenly and was pushed forward onto her snout when brush ran into her back. "Why did you stop!?!?" Brush snapped at her. She picked herself off the ground and pushed him off of her. "Those changelings could be right behind us!" "But are they?" Colgate asked, pausing to let Brush listen to see if he could hear any buzzing behind them. "So? I don’t believe they even noticed we were gone yet." Brush nodded his head in acknowledgement, but stopped suddenly and perked his ears. "What is it brush?"Colgate whispered. "A rustling. Something is coming from in front of us and I’d be willing to bet it’s a changeling coming back from a mission." Colgate listened a moment, finally able to hear the rustling noise. "I think it’s headed right for us, and its running! We got to hide!" Colgate looked around frantically, but was unable to find any cover except the trees. "One second!" She focused any magic she had left, and let it burst, making a popping noise and a flash. She re appeared in a thick tree, safe to hide in. She motioned for Brush to come closer and she focused her magic again. Another pop and a flash. "Hurry Colgate!" Brush called from....The ground??? "My magic isn’t strong enough, I’ve used too much!!" Colgate called down, a small amount of fear in her voice. If he was caught, she would be left alone in this forest. "Ugghh! Okay, I’m coming!" Brush called up. To Colgate’s amazement he began to run at the tree. "What are you doing!?! You’re not going to make it!" She couldn’t see any way that Brush could make it that far up the tree. It surprised her more when two wings shot from his sides as if appearing from nothing. They were obviously too small for him to fly on, but with a few strong flaps, he pounced up into the tree, bouncing from branch to branch athletically until he reached the wide eyed Colgate. "How.....?" "SHH!" Brush shushed her and looked through the branches and motioned to the black figure that had appeared below them. It stopped right next to the tree, sitting down and breathing heavily. Colgate quickly noticed it wasn’t a changeling. The figure was black, but not the black of a hard shell. Instead it was covered in a sort of fabric with a blue band around its waist. /the black fabric went over the figures face like a hood, but it wasn’t large enough to hide the pink mane that stood out and the bunny ears weren’t very threatening either. When Colgate saw the yellow coat of the figure she knew exactly what and who it was. "Fluttershy!!!" Colgate called down, making the pony yelp in surprise. Colgate made a hasty retreat out of the tree, landing not far from Fluttershy. A soft thump behind her signaled that brush had come down as well. “It’s okay Fluttershy, it's just me Colgate!" Colgate said in a rush before Fluttershy could go into a panic attack. "Oh Colgate! You startled me! What are you doing in this terrifying, creepy forest!?" "Long story short we were captured by changelings and I escaped. I don’t know what became of The Doctor or Master..." "Oh! Their back at my cottage with two changelings that helped them escape. They told me that I had to take a message to Twilight sine I was going there anyways. You were in a changeling hive though, are you okay!?" "Of course I'm fine. They just locked us in a dungeon, but they did take care of us. But you should probably go now." Colgate assured her. "Wait! We should go with her! We could warn Twilight that the changelings are involved!" Brush said. Fluttershy, who had not been aware of the stallion, jumped a foot in the air and quickly hid behind her hooves in fear. "Or she could tell twilight for us and we can head back to my home were we can safely contact The Doctor and Master." Colgate decided for him. She assured Fluttershy that nothing was wrong and that the stallion was a friend before letting her continue her mission, telling her to inform Twilight of the changelings. With that she led the way to a certain cave with a certain blue box in it. When they arrived and entered brush was surprise, but he kept quiet aside from a small gasp. Colgate chuckled, waiting for his comment. "It’s...bigger on the inside...." "Yep." Both of them trotted up to the consol and Colgate put a code in, bringing up two ponies and two changelings up on the viewing screen. "Look! It’s The Doctor and The Master, and The Doctor is back to normal!!" "And there’s my brother and Shuriken! I wonder why they left the hive!" After watching the viewing screen for a bit, watching The Doctor and Master and changelings walk around Fluttershy's house, Colgate decided to try and communicate with them. She picked up the telephone in her hoof and with a flash of magic called Fluttershy’s home phone. All the figures on the screen jumped and looked startled before The Doctor walked over to were the phone was. "Hello?" Colgate noted the lightening in his voice and how much more happy he sounded. "Doctor! It’s Colgate!" "Colgate! Did you escape!?" "Yeah! I’m in the TARDIS right now! I have that pony that was guarding us also. He helped me escape," "You said you’re in the TARDIS right? Well I want you to check the force field around the town and tell me if there’s any weak point in it we could use to get out!" "Okay I’m on it!" Colgate trotted over to another screen, pressed a few buttons and went back to the phone. "Not really I noticed that in the last hour there have been three disturbances in the past hour. I know that two of those must have been Fluttershy and I have a feeling that I know who the last one was. Go by the middle of town and see if there’s a crowed. I think Twilights back." "Okay Colgate, I'll check. Just stay and the TARDIS and be safe. And don't let that bumbling colt touch any of the TARDIS controls! Bye!" The Doctor hung up the phone before Colgate could reply. She looked to the screen that showed them all leaving the cottage. "So...about those wings. That and I want you to tell me about Trixie." Colgate began, making brush grow silent for a few moments. "I was born that way. Chrysalis thought that was the reason why my parents abandoned me. I can't fly on them but I can jump high and run faster than an earth pony with them." Brush spread them out and tucked them back in. They fit so perfectly at his sides that you would have to be right next to him to notice that those were feathers and not fur. “And Trixie, well she's sort of...” "My mother. Ya, I guessed as much. I'm surprised she didn't tell me herself." They both sat in silence for a moment. Colgate shivered, noticing for the first time that she was actually quite cold standing there. “I’m going to go turn on the heat and make us some tea. I'll be right back." Colgate trotted out of the room and through the hall that led to the "kitchen". In truth it couldn't really be called a kitchen because all it held was a big machine that made anything you wanted to eat and a sink. Colgate gave the machine instructions to make two cups of tea and left back into the hallway were the temperature control was. It was currently 50 degrees in the TARDIS, the reason most likely being that The Doctor preferred it cold after an adventure. He had never told her the reason why though. After changing it up twenty degrees she trotted back into the kitchen. She gathered the two freshly made cups of tea in her magic and began the short trek back to the main room. Colgate let her mind wander over the days crazy events. She had escaped the changeling hive, hidden in a tree from Fluttershy, and brought a strange peg acorn colt into the TARDIS. A strange very...handsome...stallion..." Colgate had walked back into the main room with the tea, but barely registered it as she had a sudden urge to see Brushheart. As soon as she locked eyes on him she briskly trotted over to him, setting the tea down on the consol. She was very annoyed at herself for ignoring logic but that didn't stop her from going straight over to brush and nuzzling him in the neck. She breathed in his misty scent and looked up to his eyes. He looked down at her with a half smile on his face. "Colgate, do you know you look very beautiful?" Colgate felt herself blush and reached her hooves up around his neck. "Did you know, Brush, that you are the most handsome colt I have ever laid eyes on?" Colgate let her eyes look into his. Without a second thought she lifted her chin and kissed him on the mouth. It was short, but she quickly did it again after breaking away, the second much more passionate. It was Brush who pulled out of this one. "No Colgate, don't. His face had become serious and Colgate could sense the guilt in his eyes. His horn glowed softly and all thoughts of being with him vanished. "You..You used mind control on me!" Colgate growled and spun around. Before Brushheart could react Colgate bucked him in the face with her hind legs. He fell backed, more stunned than hurt. Colgate faced him again and got up in his face. "Did you really mean the things you said?" Colgate growled, and he nodded his head quickly. Again he was struck by surprise, not by a blow this time but with a quick kiss to his cheek. "Never do that again. If you want affection you can earn it with those sweat words you have." Colgate left the colt there stunned, going over to the consol to drink her tea. The fact was true. The Doctor had left with the others from Fluttershy’s cottage and snuck downtown, just in time to catch the beginning of another dual. Ponies were gathered on two sides of the street and the mayor was lacked in a cage. The Doctor stayed in the shadows of a building nearby the others waiting quietly behind him. He watched an age spell be performed on the two colts that were there last time. After that he saw what Colgate had told him was twilights trick. She simply used a smoke spell and different ponies would jump out, making it look like age spells, duplication spells, gender spells, and something with pinkie playing a lot of instruments. "Well Trixie, it looks like my amulet is more powerful than yours -Hey!!!" Twilight shouted as a red magic took the amulet from her. "Give it back!" Twilight shouted, but Trixie paid her no mind. A maniacal laugh escaped Trixie's lips as she held the amulet for all to see. "With this amulet I shall now rule, all of Equestria!!" Trixie let out another laugh as she took of the alicorn amulet and replaced it with twilights phony. As she bragged, one of the two dashes flying above swooped down and took the alicorn amulet. "I don’t need that old alicorn amulet. I have this!" Trixie shot a beam of magic at the flying Rainbow Dash. "HaHaHa Stop it! It tickles!" Rainbow dash cried, stunning Trixie. "Tickles!? That was supposed to make you writhe in agony! This amulet is a defect, I want my old one!" Trixie growled. Her words went unheeded as Rainbow flew down, placing the amulet in a box that Zecora held. Suddenly green sparks began to fly from the angered Trixie and a buzzing noise came from her. The Doctor saw this and closed his eyes, using a magic that even unicorns in this universe couldn’t compare to. "You will all pay!!!" Green flames covered Trixie before they revealed her true form, a changeling. "You will all....Pay?" The changeling looked around, surprise covering her face. "What is the meaning of this!??!!" She flew around, looking at all the motionless ponies around her. "Why aren’t they moving!?!" "Time stopped." The Doctor walked out of the shadows casually, looking about before his eyes fell upon the box containing the alicorn amulet. He wandered over there, opening the box and removing the necklace. "Doctor?" The Doctor looked over to see that Twilight was still moving, looking around frightened. "Oh! Twilight I forgot! You have some of that nasty void stuff on you so you can still move!" "What happened?" The Doctor just walked over, ignoring the changeling giving him a menacing glare. "I just stopped time for as moment. I am a Timelord after all. You see, The Master needs this amulet, and that changeling needs to go." He pointed an accusing hoof at it before looking it in its blue eyes. "You get ten seconds to run or you will regret that you were ever born." The Doctor growled at it. The changeling hissed, shooting a beam of magic at The Doctor. He made no move, staying still until the beam was right in front of him before stomping his hoof on the ground. The beam stopped mid air inches from his chest. "That is impossible. How can you do that!?!?" The Doctor ignored the question and looked it in the eye again. "Five seconds." The changeling paused a moment, gave another hiss, and flew off. The Doctor sighed, stomping his hoof again to make the beam of magic come back to life, and directed it to hit the changeling flying away. It wouldn’t hurt it; just give it a warning to never come back. The Doctor then proceeded to look into the shadows of a building. “You guys come out, it’s safe. The shadows slowly gave way to two changelings, The Master, and the real Trixie. "Hello twilight sparkle. It’s been a while." Trixie said, smiling. Twilight began to ask her questions and The Doctor went over to The Master. "I believe this is yours to get rid of." The Doctor frowned, handing his friend the amulet. "Their going to be quite shocked when it ends up disappearing like that." "I think twilight can handle it." The Doctor reassured him. The two stood there in silence before The Doctor grabbed The Master and hugged him. "I’m going to miss you so much." He choked out. "It's been fun trying to kill you so many times. Now you can carry on the Timelord legacy in peace." Bothe of them chuckled at that. The Master broke the hug and stepped back, putting the amulet around his neck. "Tell Colgate I love her, and Doctor...don’t forget me." With that The Master let out a burst of magic full of a rainbow of regeneration energy, discords chaos magic, and the red magic of the alicorn amulet. Then he was gone, nothing left but a bit of stray magic in the air. Silence held for a moment as everyone watched The Doctor wide eyed, unsure of what had just taken place. The Doctor wiped a tear from his eye and spun around, a forced smile upon his face. "Alright everyone, time to get time started again." He got Trixie into the place where the changeling had been and twilight went back to hers. The Doctor and two changelings snuck back into the shadows as time resumed. Almost an hour later The Doctor stood in front of the TARDIS watching Colgate talk to her mother and brush talk to his changeling friends. After a bit they all went their separate ways, The Doctor giving Trixie a hug before she left. “Take good care of my little girl. She may look older but she hasn’t lost her innocents.” Trixie said before heading off to travel once again. They said farewell to the changelings as they went back to the hive. Then they went back into the TARDIS. The doors of the TARDIS closed. When they closed The Doctor let it out, falling to the floor and bursting into tears in front of a surprised Colgate and Brushheart. Colgate knew what had happened, for she had watched they whole thing take place. She ran to The Doctor and cried with him, holding him in her hooves. Brush joined, trying to comfort the two. After a bit the tears ended. "Doctor?' Colgate sniffed. The Doctor looked up, signaling for her to go on. "Let's go. I kind of feel like running." The Doctor grinned at her sadly before looking to the pony next to her. "What your name?" He inquired, making the stallion tense up. "Um..Brushheart sir..." "Just The Doctor. Welcome to the TARDIS!" The Doctor stood up and walked to the consol and pulled the big leaver on the side. "ALLONSY!!!"
CorruptedThe lightning erupted overhead, light flashing through the cloudy night sky. A hooded figure ran through the empty marketplace, entering an old shop. The cloaked figure began to look around the shop in hast until a small light flickered on revealing a stallion, who appeared to be the shopkeeper. He quickly trotted to the front desk and asked the figure what they wanted; it points to a red amulet. The shopkeeper stood shocked for a moment “Are you sure? This is one of the most powerful magic charms.” He warned the figure about the issues such an item would give to its user, but he quickly closed his mouth when the figure dropped a massive bag of bits in front of him. The figure walked slowly towards the amulet and smiled evilly. Theme music The Doctor galloped around the room, at it again with the TARDIS, trying to get her where he wanted her. Colgate also galloped back and forth helping, as well as The Master. A certain purple unicorn lay in a heap on the floor, losing herself in daydreams of organized lists and a room full of books. With a final whirl, the group of time ponies left the consul, having successfully landed the TARDIS. "Okay Twilight! You are home." The Doctor waved his hoof towards the door and Twilight stared. "Are you sure that if I walk out that door, I won't fall into a pit of monsters, or into that time vortexy thingy?" The time ponies laughed in unison. "I wouldn't trust the old mad pony either. He never read the direction manual for this thing!" The Master and Colgate burst out in a fit of laughter and The Doctor tried to hide his smile with a pouty face. Twilight rolled her eyes. Slowly they watched the purple unicorn open the door. "OH NO!” Twilight fell out of the TARDIS, giving a scream that slowly recessed. The Doctor rushed to the door, ready to jump if need be to save his friend. To his befuddlement and slight embarrassment, Twilight was standing right there laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face!" In truth the mare was standing face away from a forest of trees. Above a familiar cave loomed. The Doctor snorted and went back into the TARDIS to make sure it was secure, not wanting his transportation to float away randomly without him. Colgate quietly slipped out to talk with Twilight, no doubt asking her to travel with them more. "Alright, just another leaver, aaannndd... There. See, I can park her at least. Makes up for not being able to fly her half of the time." The Doctor turned back around and frowned when he saw The Master. The time pony’s blue coat had dulled for the moment and his golden hair turned a dusty grey blond. His eyes and jaw where clenched shut and he was practically doubled over in pain. When The Master noticed The Doctor watching, he tried to hide his pain, but The Doctor saw through it and went over to his old friend, gently patting him on the back. "Is the...the noise...back again?" The Doctor asked in a hushed tone. The Master just nodded. "After the time lords beamed me here, to Equestria, the d...drums dimmed. I thought they would go away after the time lords left, but they didn't. Now it's louder than ever. Doctor, its Discord. I didn't disintegrate him; I simply put him into my own mind." The Master doubled over again, his vibrant colors growing into a duller gray. "Master. Why would you do something like that? You know that it's not necessary. This could make you go insane!" The Doctor’s face grew angry but The Master just laughed dryly. "I think we have had this conversation before with me possibly going insane or dying. You know my mind is already corrupted, so if I'm going to go insane, I might as well save a place in the process." The Master gave another emotionless laugh. "It's nothing compared to how many people you've saved, but it will have to do. Think of it as a last goodbye." The Master lost his balance and his legs collapsed underneath him. The now dark grey pony collapsed to the floor, The Doctor unable to catch him. "What do you mean last goodbye!? Don't tell me you plan to try and die again." The Master clenched his eyes and a cold smile spread across his face. "Everything dies eventually Doctor, and I'm truly getting sick of living. I know your argument already about the universe to see, all of time and space, but I got to say that I wouldn't enjoy any of it if I have to live with this bloody head ache!!!" The Doctor tried to calm The Master down as his body went into spasms. The Doctor made his way around to The Masters head and slowly put his hooves on the others temples. "Now just relax my dear friend and I’ll try to help." The Doctor sighed and slowly entered The Master’s mind. He forced himself to continue even as the drumbeat in the mind entered his own head. The Doctor traveled into The Master’s mind further. It never seized to amaze him when he looked through another's mind. It felt as though he where swimming through jelly at first, and the deeper he got, the more water like it felt. Memories and dreams passed him by as he followed the beat to its scarce. When he reached the core leaves of the drumbeat The Doctor stopped and listened. To his concern, not only was there a beat, but there was also an evil sounding laugh. "Who's there?" The Doctor shouted, only faintly aware of The Master stop spamming under his hooves. Hello again my dear friend The Doctor. And what fun have you gotten into since I last saw you? I can't tell how long it's been because times hard to tell when you’re listening to music. The Doctor yanked himself out of The Master mind, only pausing long enough to block as much of the drum beats noise from The Masters mind as he could before leaving. When he was back in his own body, The Doctor fell back from The Master and sat trembling. He would rather fight the Silents again than have to go against Discord. The Master slowly sat up, he himself only now beginning to regain a bit of his usual blue color. "Thanks..."he muttered and The Doctor nodded his head in acknowledgement. Both just sat there trembling from the encounter from Discord, and this is also what Colgate walked back into the TARDIS to. "Oh my! Are you two alright!?" Colgate rushed over to The Master, and to both of their surprise almost ignoring The Doctor aside from a few worried looks. She quickly helped The Master up and brushed him off. The Doctor shook off the chills going down his back and stood up as well, trotting over to the other two. "It's quite alright my dear. We just had a bit of trouble is all. Go on out and start down the trail. Well be there in a bit." The Doctor gave a reassuring grin and Colgate left, casting one more worried look back at The Master. "We'll that was odd. I wonder what's wrong with her. “The Doctor mumbled, a little annoyed that Colgate had ignored him. The Master just giggled. "You’re just jealous that I get all the timemare’s attention." The Doctors face turned as red as a pomegranate. He had never really thought of Colgate more than just his companion, although he loved her like a father, but anything else? No. Besides, she was way too young aside from her appearance. "So back to that thing about the guy in my head, I have an idea that will help all of us. I need a thing called an alicorn amulet. It's a deadly weapon that corrupts its user with black magic. What I plan to do is to wear this amulet and then while I have it on, destroy it. The amulet should backlash at me, killing me, and Discord would die with me. And there problem solve." The Doctor frowned. He would be a bit lonelier without The Master, but there was no helping that. It wasn't his decision. "And what do I get from it?" The Doctor asked. "I'll help you find Colgate’s mother." The Doctor almost choked on air. Find her mother? She would be so excited! The Doctor raised his hoof to meet The Masters. "Deal. “The two then left the TARDIS, off to the wonderful world of Equestria.
Home againColgate and Twilight broke through the last cluster of trees and burst out over a long empty plane. The sunlight blinded the, both momentarily. They continued to trot over the lush prairie like field until they came to the side road that would eventually lead them to the main road. The weather was slightly cloudy, but not enough to break the beautiful light of the sun. Another duo of hoof steps followed their own, reveling The Doctor and The Master. All four ponies walked tiredly on the road, occasionally greeting a pony who passed by. They passed the colorful setting of sugar cube corner, then Rarity’s boutique shop, and soon came to the library. "What's this sign doing on my door?!"Twilight practically shouted. It was then that the four ponies began to look about, and then that they finely noticed the surprised and curious stares that every pony was giving them. Colgate looked back to the sign. CLOSED UNTILL FURTHER NOTICE Colgate gently knocked on the door, and when no answer replied, opened it. The lights in the library where on and the place looked a complete mess. Books were strewn everywhere, heaps upon heaps stacking to the ceiling. The horse head statue that was usually placed on the table had been ungraciously knocked onto the floor, bending many a page of a valuable book. The Doctor, being his usual curious self, quickly went through the motions of scanning the room with his new sonic screwdriver the TARDIS had made for him. "We have company, but it’s just your dragon and some other equine life forms. Probably PinkiePie or Applejack." The Doctor concluded. The Master was just standing off to the side, unknowing what to do. "Looks like Spike has been falling behind on his chores." Twilight growled. She took in a deep breath to shout the baby dragon’s name, but Colgate quickly put a hoof there instead. "Someone's coming!"She whispered frantically. Although she was in a much more mature body, Colgate’s mind was still that of a filly, also meaning she was constantly fearful. "Hey! What are you doing here? The sign says the library is ... TWILIGHT!!!!" A speeding rainbow bullet rushed across the room and tackled the unsuspecting unicorn mare to the ground in a big bear hug. Twilight, who now found it increasingly harder to breath, tried to pry the mare off of her. "OMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!!! We have been so worried! First spike was all 'oh no! Twilights gone. I’ll go eat ice cream!' Then the next day he got more worried so he came and told us and so we were worried..." The cyan Pegasus was interrupted by a pink blur that joined their bear hug and continued from were Rainbow had left off, this time in a much faster voice. "And then we sent a letter to the princess and asked if you where with her, but you weren’t! Then Celestia used some crazy spell and couldn’t find you, so she told us you might not be in Equestria. So then I came up with the idea to go to the library and stay there and wait for you but no pony would listen and I got so worried and two more days went by and...And...IMISSEDYOUSOMUCH!!!!!"Pinkie shouted and started to sob. Soon the room was crowded when three more mares came down. All gave Twilight a hug and told her how worried they were. Eventually everyone settled down so that Twilight and the rest of them could find out what had happened. The elements all sat in a sort of half circle facing Twilight while the time ponies sat to the side watching the whole ordeal. "Okay every pony. I would like a one at a time explanation to why the library is closed, why you’re all here, and what was that bit about Celestia?"Twilight looked around, signaling Fluttershy to explain. The shy mare squeaked before stepping forward slowly. "You...You were gone for almost two weeks, and Spike got really worried. He told us and we waited, but then we sort of freaked out and sent a letter to the princess to help us find you. I hope you don’t mind...please dont be angry with us." Fluttershy scooted back like a scared animal. "So I’ve been gone for two weeks?!" Twilight growled, scowling at The Doctor. "I thought you said we wouldn’t be gone a minute later than we left! Now look at this mess you've made!" All of the mares suddenly seemed to jump, realizing that the six of them where not the only ponies in the room. Rainbow instantly hopped into the air and flew right up to The Doctor’s face. "And what were you doing with her punk? Trying to gussy her up and get her drunk? Trying to get her to go home with ya for the night? You didn’t hurt her did ya? Cuz if you did I’m going to SHOW YOU WHAT PAIN FEELS LIKE!!!" A purple aurora snatched rainbows tail and yanked her back from the surprised stallion. The Doctor was blushing profoundly and the urge to run beckoned to his mind. Rainbow was plopped back down next to an upset Applejack. "Rainbow! Quit throwing accusations around when you have no idea what’s happened to me over the last two, what seems to you, weeks. To me it feels like months and I need my sleep!" Twilight stomped away from the group and up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door for emphasis. The mares left in the room turned on The Doctor, all holding either scowls or evil grins on their faces. "There are other ways of getting information." Rainbow said maliciously. Pinkie giggled and whispered to The Doctor. “You should run.” "Wellcomealongcompanionsnoneedtostay!"And with that The Doctor rushed out the door, Colgate and The Master right at his heels. Twilight jumped onto her bed and closed her eyes. A wave of sadness and relief washed over her. Relief because she was finely home, sadness because, well, she didn’t know. She was just sad for some reason. Maybe it was because of the stress from the last couple weeks? Or maybe it was because she didn’t want her friends to be so worried about her. Twilight lifted her head a bit and let magic flow through her. Her horn light up, levitating a small bound book and a quill over to her. "Hey diary. It’s been a while." Twilight sighed and opened the book. She flipped past many pages with dates and writing. As she flipped farther into the book, the hoof writing continued to become neater, showing the changes in her learning and age. Soon she came to a blank page. Twilight dipped the quill in the inkwell and put pen to paper. Dear diary, I’ve been gone for a while... As Twilight wrote, she felt emotion overcome her. Tears slipped off of her face, dropping onto the page with small splashes. She wrote about all that had happened and paused a moment to think before she finished. I was so scared and didn’t know what to do. I was so alone and none of my friends there where the same as my real friends. I learned a few important lessons. The first one is that The Doctor lies. It’s probably one of the most important lessons that I’ve ever learned. He was never mean to me, it’s just that he's dangerous in a sort of unrelated way. The other lesson I learned is that anything could happen at any time, so you should always be prepared for the best or the worst to happen. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle Twilight slowly closed her journal and levitated it back under her bed, and placed the quills back where they belonged. She just collapsed on her bed and pushed her head in her pillow sobbing. Who Twilight looked up to see Owlishious sitting in her window sill. The owl flew over to her and perched on her bed, snuggling against the emotionally unstable unicorn. "Hey owlishious sniff How are you? I hope spike had been taking care of you properly." "Who, Who" Twilight giggled at the owl’s way of speaking and gently rubbed in between his wings. The owl seemed to melt into her hoof from pleasure. Many voices could still be heard downstairs, and Twilight was worried that her friends might be so worried that they wouldn’t leave. "Who, Who, Who, Who!" Owlishis said, seeming to read Twilights mind. "Good idea owlishious. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to talk to them each separately to get things straight. But I still won’t be able to tell the truth. No pony would believe me and the girls would just push harder." Owlishious swiftly flew out the room and Twilight tried to wipe the rest of her tears from her face. Moments later a yellow Pegasus walked meekly into the room. "Oh. H-Hi Twilight. Owlishious said that I should be first to come talk to you." FlutterShy looked up from her lowered gaze and gasped when she saw that Twilight had been crying. "Oh dear! Are you alright!?" FlutterShy flew over and gently hugged Twilight and began rubbing her friends back to sooth her. "Yes Shy, I’m okay. Thanks for coming up here. Has The Doctor left yet?" Fluttershy nodded a faint look of worry showing. "I kind of wanted to know... I mean...Rainbow said that you...never mind..." "Go ahead FlutterShy. I won’t get mad. What did Rainbow say?" FlutterShy's cheeks blushed red. "She said that you went to the stallions house and-" "Nope!" Twilight cut in. She had a feeling she knew where this was going, and she would have to slap Rainbow for even having such thoughts. "Then where were you?" FlutterShy asked attentively. Twilight sighed, not knowing what to say. "Please Twilight. You can trust me." Twilight flinched when Fluttershy said that. It was exactly what The Doctor had said, and also what Colgate had said. "FlutterShy. I was on a trip. Colgate asked me to come along so I did, and now it’s over." "Were you kidnapped!?" FlutterShy squeaked. Twilight ignored the question. "Believe me FlutterShy, I’m fine. Friends?" Twilight hugged Fluttershy and let go. "Friends." Fluttershy agreed. "Okay. Ask PinkiePie to come in here next." Fluttershy trotted out of the room and Twilight lay back and sighed. Hi ya Twilight!" Pinkie bounced into the room. Twilight was about to speak, but Pinkie beat her to it. "I can’t wait to hear all about your adventure with The Doctor! Where did you visit? Was it in space or did you just travel in time? Why did Colgate look older than before, and OH MY GOODNESS have you been crying?! It’s okay, I know Rainbow was wrong and was just worrying about you. The Doctor would never kidnap you or anything and he doesn’t drink alcohol. And who was that other pony that came in with you? It was definitely another time pony, but I guess you already knew that. But I really really want to know where you’ve been so I’ll try and be quiet and listen starting...NOW!!!" Pinkie stopped automatically and sat rigid still, ready to know where Twilight had been to. Twilight told her the events that had happened the past few days and Pinkie pulled her into a big bear hug when she was finished. "The world can be tough Twilight, but please don’t blame it on The Doctor. He tries to do his best and he already blames himself enough as it is." The emotion in Pinkies voice shocked Twilight almost as much as it did to see her sit still so long. Pinkie departed out the door and soon a rainbow manned head appeared. The face accompanying it was one of rage. "I want an explanation and I want it now! What did that guy do to you and why are you sticking up for him?" Twilight sighed again (as she had been doing a lot of that in the past hour) and waited a moment for Rainbow to sit down. "Let’s start. You ask a question and I will answer truthfully and as I see fit." Twilight had a feeling that doing it this way would be much easier. "Did that stallion hurt you?" Rainbow scowled as she asked. "No Rainbow. Not in a way that he had control of." "Did he kidnap you?" "No he didn’t." "Are you the real Twilight? "RAINBOW!!!" "Okay, sorry. But, if you went on your own accord, and he didn’t hurt you or anything, why didn’t you tell us you were going? We were truly worried Twilight." Rainbow frowned and turned away slightly, hiding her face. "I didn’t think I would be leaving. I was sort of stuck Rainbow. You have to believe me when I say that I am truly sorry." Twilight reached to hug rainbow but was gently pushed away. "I forgive you Twilight, but I need some time." Rainbow left the room and Twilight again sighed. She could imagine that it must have been the hardest for the element of loyalty to sit and do nothing but wait for her return. Applejacks meet went mostly the same as Rainbows, but she managed to get a hug in the end. Rarity just put it off and said that a true lady should not be questioned for what she does. She said it was downright impolite for friends to be so inquisitive. So one by one each friend left and went home, leaving Twilight to herself in her room. "Twilight?" A young voice called and the door cracked open. Twilight lifted an eye and smiled slightly, motioning for her faithful assistant to come to her. The baby dragon lay on the bed next to his caretaker and gave her a hug. "Twilight?" "Yeah spike?" "Please don’t leave me again." "Not in a million years number one assistant." And there the two fell asleep. The Doctor trotted around the TARDIS consol, his ever building energy making it impossible to sleep. He wasn't used to long sleeping; only a rare few short naps. The Master had gone into the guest room with the excuse of his headache coming back. Colgate had also gone to sleep, needing it more being so young. No matter what he did, The Doctor couldn't stop thinking about The Masters and his agreement. The Doctor would be losing a lot because of it, but it would make every pony else happy. Colgate would find her mother and probably go make a home and live with her, leaving The Doctor. And The Master, the poor lowly Master who was always in so much pain. To have the drums and the strain of life lifted from him would probably be wonderful for him, but were would that leave The Doctor? Alone as always. No companion, no friend, only his shadow and the TARDIS. The Doctor rubbed his hoof against the aged metal wall. "In the end it's always us two. You’re such a good ole gal. So loyal. You would never leave me would you? You wouldn't just throw out a handsome time lord as myself after you stole me, would you?" The Doctor chuckled a moment before his face again turned grave. He stomped a hoof to the ground and growled. "It's just so unfair. My whole life I've been saving planets and watching over all these bloody weaklings, and in the end what does it amount to? I never gain anything! It's always me to lose something in the end. IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" The Doctor shouted. He breathed hard, trying to calm down as he continued to pace. "Consol! Show me a picture that will calm me down!" The Doctor ordered. A projection of the earth materialized before him and he stomped again, gritting his teeth. "I said that would calm me down! Not another thing to remind me of all I lost!" The Doctor shut his eyes closed and lay down where he was. A soothing voice hit his ears. It was Scottish, as that was the setting he had put the consol’s voice on when he met Amelia pond. "I am not showing you what you want to see, but what you need to see." The voice deepened to one that made The Doctor shiver. "You need to face your fears." The Doctor clenched his eyes shut harder, fear biting his mind. "It's only a projection, it's not real. It's only a projection, it's not real. “The Doctor kept repeating the words and slowly he opened his eyes. He flinched when he saw the tall creature looming in front of him. "Discord." The Doctor whispered the name and the projection seemed to grin. "Doctor." The projection said and The Doctor stepped back. "No, projections can't do that!" He said panicked, his voice growing. "Consul, projection off!" The image of discord flickered and disappeared, but not before saying a last word. The Doctor sat down fear engulfing him. It felt like one of his hearts had stopped working and the other one was being split in two. It felt like he was being torn limb from limb, like each bone in his body was being cracked apart one by one. The Doctor crumpled into a heap, his coat darkening quickly before hardening. Two feathered limbs sprouted from his back and his eyes turned Icy blue. The TARDIS groaned and creaked before the engines usual hum started to fade into a low growl. The interior slowly shifted into a darker place, the only light an eerie green. The Doctor’s mind echoed in a hollow void. ALONE The Master sat up in bed, startled to hear The Doctors shout "IT’S NOT FAIR!!!" It was unlike The Doctor to shout things like that, but The Master paid it no heed and lay back down, reclosing his eyes. He listened to the drumming in his head, trying to hear it as a soft beat instead of the constant pound that drove him insane. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump hello The Master’s eyes shot open. Did he just hear a voice inside his head? No, that was impossible. And had the room really grown darker than it had been, or was his eyes just unadjusted? He closed his eyes again and pushed away the thoughts of voices in his head. He just had to get back to sleep. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump. That wasn't much of a welcome party. The Master grew stiff, but was able to keep himself from opening his eyes. "What do you want?" The Master growled back, clenching his teeth. The holder of the voice could only be one creature, and the tone made it obvious as well. I just wanted to talk, maybe make a friend? It looks like we will be stuck like this until the end anyways. "It's not my problem that you're going to die, and I’m going to enjoy it." well, I can tell you now that you won’t like the news that I’m going to give you, but it will just be *So Funny** to watch you.* "What are you talking about Discord?" I’m surprised you haven’t noticed yet. I mean, sometimes things just *fade away** and even a Doctor can’t fix a blackened heart.* The draconoquis snickered in The Masters head. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE DOCTOR?!?" The Master burst. He couldn’t stand this monstrous freak stuck in his head. well that’s a harsh way to think. I don’t think I’m a monstrous freak. Of course, you’re and my thoughts are sort of combined now, aren’t they? The Master struggled to open his eyes, but when he did nothing seemed to change from the blackness. Everything was dark and enveloped in thick shadows. The Master stumbled off of his bed and began to run towards the door, tripping and falling in the process. He got back up quickly and rushed towards the control room. "Doctor?! Doctor! *snort* Doctor!" as The Master reached the control room a bubble of mad laughter emanated from his throat. What was happening to him? He looked around quickly and saw The Doctor laying on the floor looking much like he did when they had first rescued him from discord in the parallel world. "DOCT-" The Master tried to shout the name but only accomplished to burst out laughing again. He just couldn’t stop. And his head pounded more every step closer to The Doctor he took. Stop trying to save him and I may let you go freely. The Master could feel discord grin in his head but tried to ignore the feeling as he struggled to breath. "I...Won’t....Save him..." The Master relaxed as the laughter and the drums released him from their grasp. See, that wasn’t so hard, now was it? Now go wake him up and don’t pull any moves on I or your life will turn red. The Master dragged his hooves toward The Doctor and gently prodded his old friend/enemy. "Doctor? Wake, wake?" The Doctor moved slightly and opened his eyes. The Master noticed instantly that they had turned an icy blue full of malice. "Get off me Master" The Doctor spit out the name with scorn. A scowl overcame his darkened features and he stood up. "Haven’t you done enough trouble for one life? Go jump in a pit." The Doctor kicked The Master in the side before leaving the console room. The Master was flabbergasted and stood there like an idiot for a moment before going back to his room. He had had enough problems for one night. "Please! Let me out!" "Quiet or you will wake the whole hive prisoner!" "No! I can’t let them ruin my life!" A unicorn mare sat, pulling at the cage that imprisoned her. A dark creature flew over to her, a sharp object in hoof. He poked the mare with the item through the bars and she flew back to the wall as a green bolt of electricity shocked her. "I told you to shut up!" The creature buzzed, flying back to his post. The mare lay down and wept. "My poor, poor Minuette."
Magic duelTwilight strained her magic, sweat dripping down her face. Lifting more things at once was usually hard enough without those things constantly moving around. She could faintly hear Fluttershy's worried squeaks in the background as Spike tried to comfort her. It had been almost three days since she had gotten back and she had been rushing around to get everything on schedule. So far she had gotten almost two thirds of her fifth list done. She slowly set the little animals she had been levitating down and wiped the sweat from her brow. "That’s all for now little ones." The small woodland creatures crowded around Twilight, cheering for more. "We can practice again later if Fluttershy says it’s alright." The crowd of animals drifted over to Fluttershy shaking form. Spike made his way over to Twilight and congratulated her on her improvement. "Princess Celestia’s going to love it!" He grinned at her and Twilight lifted her head with pride. "Thank you Spike! I have to be at my best when she arrives with the delegates from Saddle Arabia! I can't belief she trusts me with the entertainment-" WACK "TWILIGHT!!! You have to come quick! It's an emergency!" Twilight looked up with surprise and worry at the rainbow mare that had run into her. "Let's go!" Colgate watched in surprise at the scene unfolding before her. Twilight was in the middle of town confronting another unicorn with an impressive show of magic. Colgate ducked quickly as an unbalanced Rainbow Dash flew over. She had gone out that morning before The Master or The Doctor woke up so that she could get some shopping done, but was blocked off by the odd crowd of people in the street. Her sense of adventure had told her to go check it out and so she had. "Let's dual Trixie!" Twilight growled and the pony in question laughed. "Excellent." A glow shot over the perimeter and all the ponies that had fallen victim to the unicorn magic turned back. That is, except for Pinkie Pie. Colgate shuddered momentarily and wondered how the poor thing could breath. "DRAW!!" Colgate heard the unknown unicorn shout. A beam of red magic shot from her horn, hitting a nearby cart full of apples. She cart shot strait for a crowd of ponies not far way, scattering them. Colgate watched in horror as one of the mares in the group tripped, unable to get up to get out of the way. Colgate could faintly remember the mares name being Shoeshine. A sudden burst of the well known purple magic belonging to the local librarian stopped the cart in its tracks. The cart was gently set down to the side, all apples in it set neatly. But as soon as the cart was put down, a cascade of pies shot towards Twilight. The quick thinking mare made a parasprite appear. The small creature ate all the pie in one mouthful and disappeared. WAP A thick layer of cold snow covered Colgate and she shivered. She was instantly warmed up by a blast of hot air that seemed to radiate off of Twilight that melted the sudden collapse of random snow. Next, to every ponies delight and laughter, Trixie grew a foot long mustache. "Snip, Snails, come over here!" The two colts went over and where covered in a red glow. "An age spell?!" A chorus of gases came from any nearby unicorns including Colgate. She new for a fact that even Twilight couldn't do that. They had gone over it in magic class and Colgate had collapsed with exhaustion just from trying it. Now she watched as Twilight was beaten at her own game. Twilight was picked up by a red glow and thrown towards the Everfree forest, but this feat was not seen by Colgate, for she had already begun to run in that direction as fast as she could. She began to charge up her magic to teleport there, but was slammed to a stop when horn met glass. "OWWWW!!!" She shouted in pain and fell back. Looking up she could see that a huge magic glass dome had bubbled Ponyville off from the rest of the world. She of course was on the wrong side of it and now trapped with the rest of the small town’s residence. She started to bang against the glass, hoping that some pony would get her out of it. Maybe if she could contact The Master or The Doctor... Colgate’s mind suddenly struck a light bulb and her horn begun to glow. RING, RING, RING. RING, RING, RING. “For the love of the cursed dead Galifrey, can't a Timelord get some sleep around here?!" The Doctor shouted, smashing a hoof against the blackened console. The TARDIS'S side groaned in protest, but held. A clank could be heard as The Doctor yanked the phone to his ear. "I am afraid that this phone is out of order. If you want to talk to someone go look in the mirror!" The Doctor went to slam the phone down, but his hoof was caught by another. "Who's on the phone Doctor?" The Master grumbled and The Doctor slammed the phone into The Master and stalked away. The Master scrambled for the phone that seemed to be trying and slip from his hooves before remembering that he was, in fact, a unicorn. The phone was levitated in a blue glow and traveled up to his ear. "Hello, The Doctor's residence, Master speaking." an incoherent mumble of words came from the other end, just loud enough for The Master to make out the voice. "Colgate? Is that you? Please try and speak louder." Ponyville....Glass....needs help....a tree.....Twilight! "Okay! I have no idea what you said but It sounds like your in trouble." A mumble came from the other end confirming his thoughts. "Okay Colgate! I’ll find Twilight and then I’ll come to try and help you!" The Master set the phone back in its place and looked around. "DOCTOR!!! Get your scrawny flank over here. We have to save Ponyville!" There was no respond so The Master galloped to the back of the TARDIS. To his amusement and annoyance The Doctor had seemed to get himself stuck in a rope, and his face flat on the floor from a previous fall. His wings shot up and down trying to get the rest of him free, but only managed to get him even more tangled. "Doctor! Come on." The Master levitated the rope and quickly got The Doctor untangled. He then proceeded to levitate The Doctor, ignoring his protests, next to him and towards the door. The Master pushed the door open, coming face to face with a disheveled Twilight. "Master! I need your help! Ponyville is-" "Shut up grape! Nopony wants to hear you babble like an idiot all day! Get it over with and find another poor soul to help you!" The Doctor flailed and The Master started to lose his magic grasp. The burden of a full grown pony was lifted from him as a purple magic took over, slamming The Doctor into a tree with a loud thump. "Don’t you Ever talk to me like that Again!" She stressed her point with another smack before conjuring up a rope and tying The Doctor up for the second time that day. "Let’s go! It’s by time that some pony smacked some sense into him, but Colgate needs our help!" The Master looked back and noticed Twilights hesitation. "Listen Master, Ponyville is trapped in a giant glass dome made of Trixie's magic. I have to go and train so that I might beat her and regain Ponyville. I need you to go see what you can do, but I can’t help right now. Good luck." And with that she was off, leaving The Doctor to drop to the ground. "If you behave I might untie your mouth. Even if you are being a jerk, I may need your brain." The Master sighed as he picked The Doctor up once again and trudged on towards Ponyville. Colgate's face light up when her friend came into sight. The Master trotted out of the forest followed by a floating Doctor who seemed to be tied up. She smashed against the glass again, causing magical waves to ripple away from the impact spot. She grinned widely as she looked at The Master, lost in thought for a moment. Before she had met The Master she had thought that her and The Doctor where the last time lords in existence. Now she was proved wrong by the magnificent stallion that came towards her. A blush crept over her cheeks as she caught her eyes drifting. A sudden connection of outside magic on her horn surprised Colgate. She tried to fight back weakly. Calm down, its only me. Colgate blushed profusely as did The Master as she tried to block any drifting thoughts from the moment before. I assume I wasn’t supposed to hear that? "Sorry..." I must agree that I am very sexy though...Never mind. Pretend that it never happened. Anyways, let’s get you out here. The two got together a spell and activated it. Two large blasts of dark and light blue seemed to fly towards each other (probably because they were in fact flying towards each other.) Massive waves of red magic rolled away from impact point, much larger than the small ripples that Colgate had made on it earlier. A red flash erupted next to Colgate, but she ignored it, pouring all her concentration into the spell... "WHAT ARE YOU BZZZZZ... DOING!!!!!!" A hoof hit Colgate full force under her horn, causing pain to break her concentration and making her fall to the ground. Her magic shut off, ending the ripples in the wall. The Master had apparently stopped his magic blast as well and was now banging against the glass. Colgate watched thought bleary eyes as a blue unicorn came into her view. It was the same pony who she had seen before fighting Twilight. Although she was not wearing the cloak anymore, she still had the same amulet on. Colgate failed to notice that The Master had no short of a full out tantrum at seeing this. He started banging the glass like a maniac before going into a state of shock. Colgate didn’t see this though, and if she had, wouldn’t have been able to understand the event. The unicorn mare shouted a few things that Colgate couldn’t quite distinguish and suddenly The Master was teleported to inside the glass, his legs half buried in the ground. Slowly her hearing came back to her and it went a little something like this... "WHO DARES TO PASS ONTO TRIXIES TERRITORY!?! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!" "Actually you just let us in." A dangerous grin spread across the still tied up Doctors face. Colgate took a double take quickly, wondering how she had never noticed The Doctor had wings. "And if I am correct, you are wearing the Alicorn amulet, right? I’m afraid I need that..." The Master grinned sheepishly and sweat beaded down his face which had come oddly close to Trixie. "Are you saying you want this amulet?" Trixie said in a quiet calm voice that seemed to send chills down eve pony’s spine. "And are you expecting me to let you go with it and keep Ponyville all to yourself?" she continued. Her voice dropping dramatically into a low growl and oddly enough a series of buzzing noises. "And do you think that I, The great and powerful Trixie, am going to leave Ponyville without trouble?" "Ah, well," The Master stuttered, his face growing pale. "I didn’t think you would be up for that much, but I would really appreciate the act. So if you wouldn’t mind..." "YOU PONIES ARE *FOOLS** TO EVEN THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME AND FOR YOUR IDIOCY YOU WILL BE SENTANCED TO DEATH*!!!!!" Trixie screeched. Colgate moaned and held her hooves to her ears, quickly doing multiple double takes with her eyes. Did Trixie just turn black? It must have been imagination. But Colgate took another double take when she saw that Trixie magic had changed colors from red to green. Now she watched a green glow capture The Master and The Doctor, making them disappear. Colgate only happened to notice this a moment before she disappeared as well.
Changelings"Do Do de do do, dum de dum" A lone pony trotted through a dark tunnel, a small glow on his horn and a song in his mouth. Everything was good. His mind slowly wandered as he thought what to do when he made it back to his room. He had already finished his job for the day, feeding the young, and now he was finally granted some free time. He decided to explore, and he couldn’t ever remember coming down this far in the tunnels before. It was definitely darker than most tunnels, and it looked like it hadn’t been used in centuries. There had been legends about secret stashes of treasure being lost in ponies hast to escape the terrifying beasts that roamed the dark. But he knew it was all just myth. Clank The pony paused, turning off his light so as not to be detected. He may not believe the treasures to be true, but there where all possibilities that a group of diamond dogs could have infiltrated the musky hall. He crawled over to the side of the cave, hoping to blend in with it. "I see you..." A low buzzing voice growled. The pony found courage and brought light back to his horn, ready to face his foe. His wings flared when he saw the creature before him. It had a shell of chitin that was black as night and yet gleamed like metal in the sun. The dagger sharp fangs in its mouth would terrify the most noble of stallions, and the wings on its back where those of an insect, buzzing ever so slightly. Its horn glowed a brilliant green as it took another step forward with its holed hooves. Its big blue eyes seemed to stare into the pony’s soul and he could feel his emotions being drained. "Hello Love Giver." Colgate shook her head back and forth in frustration. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't use any magic. Not only that but she wouldn't have been able to see her hoof if she waved it in Front of her face. All she was aware of was a sort of soft squishy goop under her hooves and the damp air of a cave on her coat and the horrid smell. A gag in her mouth kept her from calling out and frequent push from behind kept her moving forward. Buzzing noises wrapped around her ears, letting her know that this was no ponies doing. Behind her somewhere The Doctor and Master where prisoners as well. After they had disappeared from the clearing they had teleported to outside a cave. Trixie had picked them all up in her magic and forced them in. As soon as the three time ponies were in pitch black darkness, they had been dropped to the ground. A flash of bright green fire had come from where Trixie had stood, but Colgate had not been able to tell what she had done. She was about to make a run for it when she felt something cold and hard Giver against her side. She gasped at the touch and cringed back as a buzzing noise surrounded her. She had tried to called to The Doctor and The Master but couldn’t tell where they where aside from the faint sound of a struggle. Colgate closed her eyes and took a breath before she began to run. She ran as fast as she could and grinned when she saw something in front of her. Was the cave getting lighter? Her run lasted about 5 seconds before the wall made contact with her head. She had been quickly caught again after that and they had started the march through darkness. "Take the prisoners to the dungeon and order someone to guard them. I will report the capture to the queen." Colgate heard Trixie leave, tensing in fear. She had never seen a dungeon but in story books and it was terrible what happened inside them in the stories. Whould their hosts torture them? Would The Doctor and The Master be put into different cells? What would she do without them? The group continued to walk and soon an odd, green, glowing substance stuck on the wall was visible. Colgate reached out to touch it, but her hoof was swayed back by a hard object. The further they walked, the more frequent the substance appeared, and soon the hall was filled with it. Only then could Colgate get a good look at her captors. They where changelings by the look of it with black carapaces and bug wings. The only difference from these and the ones from the attack at Canterlot was that these changelings where bigger and had different colored eyes and hair. A large changeling with red ominous eyes was currently walking towards the group, pausing next to the changeling in the front. "Captain report rank, name, and destination." He commanded, his voice giving away an air of boredom to Colgate’s surprise. She hadn't thought that changelings where capable of emotions at all. She had actually pictured them as being somewhat like the cybermen, seeking a life of perfection and emptiness. "Sergeant Apharius reporting Sir. Destination east wing to place prisoners in dungeon sir." Colgate heard termers of fear in the sergeants voice. Apparently changelings where also capable of fear and intimidation. "Who placed you under these orders sergeant?" The changeling hesitated a moment before answering, seeming to prepare for something to happen. "Lady Emerald...sir." "WHAT!!! How long have you been taken orders from the LADY Emerald!?!?" "Since this morning sir." "And what is she having you do, private?" "I'm a sergeant sir..." "I SAID, WHAT IS SHE MAKEING YOU DO!!!" "SHE IS PREPAREING TO TAKE OVER PONYVILLE SIR!" Colgate took a step back from the shouting. It sounded like Ponyville was in for some trouble and here she was trapped before it even started. Also that explained the barrier around Ponyville. "Now instead of taking orders from the lady you will take orders from me. Place the prisoners in the south wing." "But sir, if word of this reaches the queen she will have my head!" "And I care nothing about your head private. See that the order is served and then report to my office to obtain your old badge. Oh and private, see that my brother, the queens son, is given the guard job. He's going to collapse from exhaustion if he keeps that Job in the nursery." A changeling shoved Colgate forward as they began walking again. "Shurekin! What brings you to the dark tunnels?" "Looking for you of course love Giver." The changeling grinned toothily. Love Giver smiled back and fell into step with his changeling friend. "The captain has given orders for you to guard the new prisoners in the feeding cells. The queen has fears that if you continue in the nursery the younglings will drain you dry." Giver laughed at that. It was completely true, but he had to admit that his job was good compared to what most changelings had. But then again, he wasn’t a changeling. "I have other duties to perform. The prisoners should make it to the cells soon so I would hurry. Being the queens son does not lift you from your responsibilities of being on time friend." And with that Shurekin was gone. Giver buzzed his wings slightly and made his way back to the top of the tunnel and began to navigate the main hive, also known as the changeling Capitol. His hoof steps echoed in the empty tunnels he walked. He would meet no other changeling in them, for they were constructed for the purpose of escape in case of emergencies many centuries ago, and now they were unknown except to the eldest and most educated of ponies. The tunnels where empty of all light and not a trace of solid emotion the usually glowed green in the more commonly used tunnels could not be found. He made it to the last tunnel that crossed into the correct hall through a crack, and slinked forward through the shadows. Solid emotion hung from the walls in green glowing gunk, slightly illuminating the area. Up farther in the hallway he could see the captain, his oldest brother. Giver started to ninja run forward, his hooves falling silently as he came up behind his brother. A gasp came from one of the feeding cells that he passed on his right. The gasp alerted is brother who turned around right as Giver pounced. Giver landed gracefully on top of his brother who was knocked on the ground. Giver smirked as he jumped off of his brother, his head held high. The smirk vanished instantly as he was covered in a green glow. "You’re going to get it this time!" His brother shouted. Giver was floated back to his brother and held against the floor. The large changeling’s hooves pulled upwards and came down. "hahahahahahaha SNORT haha ha No! ha ha No, stop! gasp No! giggle You know I’m ticklish! Get off me you big bully!" "You need to learn not to mess with changelings older than yourself squirt." Giver was let up finally and rolled away from his brother. "I’m here to do my duty captain!" Giver saluted to his older brother who rolled his eyes. "Have fun with that. Just remember not to let them out. I personally don’t care if you interrogate them with your silly pony questions. Just be sure the queen doesn’t catch you." Captain grinned and trotted away, waving back one last time. Giver sighed and looked to the cells. The bars where old and rusted, but magically enchanted to hold any ponies in. There was also a special changeling spell on it that slowly channeled the emotions from the prisoners and into the walls around the cells, which then converted it to solid emotion that sat there until a changeling came and took it away to the store room. Giver looked into the first cell that contained two stallions, one with brown fur, and one with blue. Both of them where knocked out on the ground. The next cell was empty as usual. The cell after that held two pony unicorns, one of them a blue unicorn mare lying on the ground. The other cell occupant stood over the unconscious one, her face one of shock. "Hey Trixie, what’s wrong? Do you know this one?" Giver called to the shocked pony. She simply nodded her head, running a hoof through the pony’s mane. "I think so, but that is not important now. She will just be stuck here like me until the queen takes us."Giver leaned in right next to the bars and looked around suspiciously. "Just between you and me pony, I heard that the queen was preparing to negotiate terms of peace with Celestia. This battle cut down half our population and our love supply is down to. If the princess is willing to negotiate then you could be out of here in about a month." He pulled his head back and looked down at the knocked out mare. “I wouldn’t hold my breath though. Sometimes queen chrysalis can be a bit tenacious when it comes to her pride." Colgate shuddered slightly and tried to open her eyes but to no avail. They, as well as the rest of her body felt heavy as if her coat was soaked through with water. She could faintly make out two voices near her, one a mare and one a stallion. Remembering her predicament, she assumed one or both of them where changelings. That most likely meant they where guards which meant they were stuck. Trapped. At realization a cold chill ran down her spine. If it hadn’t been for the paralyzing spell put through her whole body she would have begun to twitch in adrenalin. It usually happened on her adventures with The Doctor. "COLGATE!" Colgate did her best to become alert, but only managed to cock her ears up. She could suddenly hear the voices clearly and she could instantly tell that the one to call her name was The Doctor. She could hear more voices join in on the shouting as well. "Stop shouting prisoner. The sleeping chambers are nearby and if you wake anyone I’m positive that you will regret it!" The speaker was a male, a changeling guard by his tone and words. " I WONT SHUT UP UNTIL YOU TELL ME WERE MY DAUGHTER IS!!!!!!"Colgate smiled. Had The Doctor just called her his daughter? Of course she knew he was not her birth father despite her developed race, but she had never heard him call her anything of the sorts. It swelled her heart with joy to hear him call her that. "I know for a fact she is not your daughter." The changeling's voice growled. Colgate noticed that she could move slightly and began to flutter her eyes, and blink away the blurriness. "D..Doctor. Pease....calm yourself." The Masters voice sounded faint and strained, most likely because he was still under the changelings spell a bit. Colgate’s vision had begun to clear and now she could see a blue hoof next to her head. She was facing away from the guards voice and a mare’s voice broke out right above her, most likely belonging to the mare connected with the blue hoof. "Brush, I think you should calm yourself also. There’s no reason to get worked up about the others waking. That stallion will get what’s coming to him. I know firsthoof." For some reason the voice sent alarm bells through her mind. "Shut up pony. And don’t call me Brush! You will show me respect as you do my brother!"The changelings voice growled. "Pony!!! You would be one to speak!" The mare’s voice shouted back. Colgate tried to turn her head and managed to get a better look at the mare giving out a gasp. "Trixie!" The one named jumped back from Colgate seemingly startled by the sudden shout. Colgate tried to move away and found herself to be able to stand shakily on her hooves. She stumbled backwards. A burning shock ran through her body and all of her strength seemed to sap away as cold metal chilled her back, making her jump away from that as well. The cell she was stuck in was small and only contained two small cots and a couple blankets in the left corner. Colgate crouched in the right corner of the cell and watched Trixie cautiously. The mare in question began to calm back down from the startle and looked back at Colgate, seeming to evaluate her. There was a gleam in her eye that Colgate couldn’t quite put a hoof on. "By time you woke up. We were starting to worry that they had drained you dry." The changeling’s voice reached her ears with dry humor. She looked over to see him and found she had been wrong and the surprise must have shown in her face because their guard chuckled slightly. "Weren’t expecting a pony to be outside the bars, were you?" Colgate noticed her mouth had dropped open and swiftly closed it. "W..Who are you?" Colgate managed to whisper. Trixie looked like she was about to answer but a menacing glare from Colgate cut her off. "And I don’t want to speak to you evil...thing!" Colgate hissed. The mare scowled and Colgate could detect rejection and sorrow pool in her eyes like tears before the mare turned away. "Don’t be so harsh on her. It’s not like she did anything wrong." Colgate looked out at the guard pony and looked him over. He didn’t seem to be the strongest of ponies, but was certainly not weak. His vibrant orange mane was ruffled up and one of his ears flopped down. His eyes where a breathtaking TARDIS blue color. His coat was a dull brown and almost seemed feathery. Colgate couldn’t help but notice his cutie mark was a heart and a Giver, and thought the heart on it a bit ironic seeing that he lived with changelings. "Thank you for trying to clear my name Giver, but I deserve it anyway for the deeds I have done before entering this hell hole." The blue coated mare shuddered slightly and only now could Colgate see the bags of sleepless nights gathered under the older mare’s eyes. "Nothing wrong?!? She’s going to take over Ponyville! I heard her say it!” Colgate narrowed her question towards the pony guard. He scoffed and rolled his eyes as if the answer to the question had been obvious through the whole ordeal. "The Trixie that you met was a changeling, my dear sister the lady emerald to be exact. This Trixie, the real Trixie, is not quite so rude. Besides how did you expect her to take over Ponyville on that side of the bars?" The guard chuckled again and looked to the right as an ear splitting sound sliced their eardrums. The guard rushed over to we're The Doctor and Masters cage was and began to shout at them. Colgate simply sighed and calmed down from her crouched position, straightening up. Trixie looked over to her and began to move forward, a hoof held out in greeting. Colgate cautiously shook it with her own. "I don't believe we have made introductions. I am Trixie Lulamoon." Colgate’s mind raced trying to remember the name from a past memory, but she seemed not to remember. "I am Colgate." Colgate smiled slightly and sighed on exasperation when the sound of hoof and jaw connecting reached her ear. The Doctors voice was instantly silenced. The guard trotted back in front of our cell and sat down, beginning the long task of watching. He held The Doctors Sonic screwdriver in his mouth. Giver continued to pace in front of the cells as the day continued. It had been three days since the three new prisoners had entered the feeding cells. The two stallions in the first cell had tried to escape almost five times in the last few days although they had not made it far before they were overcome by changelings. The mares had begun to speak and Giver would usually pass the time listening in on them. At the moment the stallions were whispering in the corner of their cell, a practice they had started after their last try at escape. The mares where both doing their own things, Trixie laying on the cot and Colgate sitting at the bars of the cell looking down the hallway. He could not help but take a fancy to the mare, for she had star quality. She was brave and bold enough to stand up to his brother when he had given less food to Trixie than herself. The punishment had been no food for any of them. But of course he new that he could never have a mare, his mother would not permit it unless it was to a changeling mare. Giver stepped over to Colgaste, sitting next to the bars. “So, Having fun?” "Yeah. Getting captured by changelings is every mares dream.” She snipped sacasticly before sighing. “Sorry. I just want to go home. I’m not used to living with changelings like you.” “ And you would never want to.”Giver sighed,”The changelings are obnoxious, rude, and very biased against ponies.” “Then why stay?” Clogates question made Giver flinch a bit. “Imagine,” He began,” That were half dead, unable to survive, but some pony rescued you. Now imagine that they took you with them back to their home, invited you in, and raised you. Everyone else you ever saw hated you. The only one that shows you any respect is the one who saved you, one brother, and one friend. Would you be able to leave those few people that you love?” Giver shook his head. “I cant.” Giver looked back at Colgate to see that she had scrambled back to the wall of the cell. Giver stiffened and spun around to find his mother standing tall before him. The hall became silent of all, even the stallions whispers. The chill of an emotionless wind threw a snowy chill down Givers back. He quickly bowed low, arising at her gesture. "Hello Mom. What brings you to the feeding grounds?" Giver inquired. The queen smiled thoughtfully at her adopted son before her gaze again grew cold. "I am afraid young mister that I must speak with you concerning our new “guestssss”." Chrysalis hissed out the words and glared towards the cells. "Come." The queen gracefully stepped down the tunnel, closely followed by Giver. They continued through the darkness before slipping through one of the hidden passageway opening to the left, soon coming to a door. Light leaked out from the bottom and began to pour when it was opened fully by the queen. The light was a bright flickering red momentarily bringing Giver before he could make up his surroundings. When he could see he instantly recognized one of his mothers "off rooms” that she used when she wanted to get away from being royalty or in emergencies like a crazy assassin on the loose. The room contained a bed, a small container of solid emotion, a shelf of books, and an assortment of other casual items. Giver sighed as he watched the crown fall off his mothers head as she collapsed on her bed. He trotted over to her and gently rubbed her back as he usually did when she was stressed. "Oh child, what am I supposed to do?" Chrysalis relented. “Our hive is dwindling to extinction after the attack and still we have not solved the problem of starvation. We can't survive much longer without a love source." Giver thought it over and raised his hoof to his chin in thought. “I Thought you were going to sign a peace treaty with the equestrian princesses? Surely their price won't be too high seeing that we didn't harm any ponies during our attack in permanent ways. Besides we have surely paid enough of a ransom with our lives." The queen just shook her head at the suggestion. “You ponies are too soft. You are probably curious as to why I stole you away from your job." He simply nodded as she continued. "I have made up my mind on our problem. We will use the prisoners as hostages. Every time the princesses deny us, the prisoners lives will be put in jeopardy. Until they gives us a final food source we will put them in the... noshery." She spit out the last word with pity and remorse. When Giver heard this he gasped and stepped away from her in shock. "But mother! That would be torture! I wouldn’t wish that feat upon my worst enemies, not even Celestia!" Mother whipped around a burning rage in her eyes. "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THAT NAME IN MY PRESENCE YOU INSOLENT PONIE!!!!" Her royal voice was torture to my eardrums and my body shook in fear. It felt as though her gaze had turned Giver to ice. Her breath came out in ragged breaths after her outburst and she closed her eyes, turning from him. "You just don’t understand. Your one of the... the ponies. You wouldn’t... couldn’t... understand." Giver could feel the tears trying to arise in his large eyes. It hurt him when she did this, thinking he was just a soft pony. screw this. He set his jaw straight, clenching his teeth as he usually did to keep from shouting at his mother. "If that’s all my queen, I will withdraw." Giver turned and walked towards the entrance with his head high, ignoring the burning sensation of her watching him. "Knock out the prisoners. The guard captain will transport them to the room. You can keep the young mare for yourself." Giver grunted as a response, trying not to let her notice his inner turmoil. "Wait!-" The voice of the queen had begun to sound regretful, maybe even defeated. His heart told him to go comfort her, but his mind had begun to harden towards her. He continued out the room, closing the door softly. Why don’t I leave? Soon he had reappeared at the harvesting cells. He let his small horn light up with a faint orange glow and closed his eyes. The magic had always felt weird to him. It was as if a barrier was in-between his horn and true magic flow as mother called it, with only enough magic trickling out for a simple spell every once in a while. Now he directed that magic into three minds being held in the two cells. They could tell what Giver was doing and protests began to rise from the ponies, but he just blocked all noise out as he concentrated on getting the spell right. His magic connected with their mind and he began to warp it into music. It was a spell that mother had taught him that made a magical lullaby in the 'prey's' mind making them fall to sleep. It was natural enough that it didn’t leave any traces of magic use and simple enough that he could use it. One by one he felt their minds slowly slip into slumber and he carefully withdrew from their minds. "What did you do to them?!?" Giver opened his eyes; fighting back the dizziness that using magic usually brought him. A blue blur sat in the cell, staring at him. "Calm down p..pony, I..their just sleeping..." he continued to try and shake the dizziness and blurriness in his head out, finally succeeding. He sat down heavily and waited for his brother to get there. Giver’s mind wandered and his face became wet again as he thought about mother. She had never thought him overly high compared to his siblings, and she had constantly used his race against him. He was more changeling than pony, feeling their same feelings, sharing their life, even eating at their table which was very sparse of food. "Giver." a somber voice came up beside him. "Mother told me what happened, don’t sweat over it, k?" Givers head snapped up and he jumped in front of his brother who had come up to him. "Shut Up! THIS IS NONE OF YOUR BUISNESS SO SHUT UP AND STAY OUT OF IT!!!!" His voice cracked and he closed his eyes. He had never shouted at his siblings in rage before unless it was over petty sibling problems like sharing toys. He just curled up on the floor, listening to Captain’s hoof steps and the sound of his magic as he carried the prisoners out of their cells. The sound of Colgate struggling and shouting reached my ears and were muffled at the slam of the cell door closing again. "Have fun with your pet." The gruff voice of my brother passed, and there was a clank on the floor next to me. I didn’t move. I hated the wetness of tear on my face. Changelings never cried, so why did I? I let out a sob before another one came and soon I was weeping on the floor. I could faintly hear comforting words coming from the prisoner, but I ignored them. She shouldn’t waist her pity on me when she needs it at the moment. Why not just leave? After a while the tears stopped coming. I felt depressed and empty, but my sadness was slowly being replaced by hate and anger, and I could feel it. I knew it was bad to be controlled by anger, but when mother had snapped at me, it had hurt. It’s not like that was the first time either. She constantly mistrusted me in important situations, and she always referred to how annoying it was that I had to use the secret tunnels and that I should be more like changelings. Well newsflash, I’m a pony. Eventually I stood up, tears gone but a scowl set on my face. I was sick and tired of changelings; maybe I should just go be a pony then. I used a small burst of magic, ignoring the dizzy spell it brought me, and unlocked the cell, letting the blue pony out. She just stood there with her mouth open in surprise. "Well come on pony, let’s get out a here."
EscapeColgate ran as fast as her hooves would carry her, ignoring the crunching sound ahead. The pony-changeling ran somewhere ahead of her, far enough that she couldn’t see him. The only thing that showed he was still there was the occasional noise that came when he met a changeling ahead. His work appeared on the sides of the tunnels as she ran, changelings with their skulls crushed in. She didn’t know how he did it, but she was glad he wasn’t her enemy. Soon she caught up to giver, panting loudly. She did her best to ignore the blood on his hooves. "Now where?" The two had come to a fork in the road. Giver looked both ways, running down the left right back into the darkness. Colgate sighed, rushing forward again. She was unprepared for the body she smacked into. "Back Back Back!!!" Giver had stopped in the middle of the tunnel and had run back into Colgate. When Colgate saw the horns of five changelings light up in front of them she spun around and ran followed close behind by giver. "We’re cut off!! What do we do!?!" Changelings had cornered them, coming from both forks in the road and the way they had come from. "Here!" Giver jumped towards the wall, seeming to vanish through it. Colgate followed. There was a crack in there that was just big enough for a thin pony to get through. Inside it was a door which giver had already opened and was beckoning Colgate into. She went in and was immediately blinded by a bright light. She blushed when she noticed it was just a small candle that had been lit. Giver held a lamp and he sat on a bed in the room after he had closed the door. Colgate sat on a chair. "Were is this place?" She said looking about. "One of the queen’s hideaway rooms. They're hidden all over the hive. They were made in secret when the hive was first built so only the queens children know about it." "I thought the queen was the mother for all the changelings like an ant?" Giver let out a snort. "Just because changelings look like bugs doesn’t mean they are. They are actually just like ponies aside from their outer shell, wings and they have different magic." "Different magic? I thought there was only one kind. Also changelings eat love not pony food so their not that much alike." "Actually changelings don’t eat love. We eat pony food; the love is just to power their magic. Changelings use their magic to constantly shift forms and so they eat the solid emotion that you saw on the walls to power it back up. If a changeling runs out of magic it dies slowly and painfully. But it still doesn't fill up their bellies. That’s why the attack was made on Canterlot. We don’t get any real food out here in the bad lands." Colgate pondered givers words for a moment before getting of the chair. “We need to do something. We can’t stay in here forever you know." She began to look through the different drawers, looking for anything useful. Of course nothing showed up. "So what do we do now Giver?" “Don’t call me giver. My real name is Brushheart." Giver hopped off his bed, and opened the door. “Can you use magic?" “What?" “I said can you use you're magic?" Brush questioned. Colgate let magic run through her horn, making it glow. "Yep." “Okay. I need you to teleport both of us to these specific coordinates? Can you do that?" He showed her a piece of paper with some numbers on it. "Yeah Brush, but if were high up I won't be able to stop our fall while my magic recharges." Brush nodded his head, trotting over to stand next to Colgate. "If I’m right we should appear about a foot above the ground. The worst that could happen is one of us could twist an ankle when we start running for our lives. Ready?" Colgate nodded, a brief burst of excitement fuelling her on. She let the magic channel through her horn, making it twirl into the simple formation of a teleportation around them. Her horn flashed a bright blue and both ponies disappeared. "Keep moving ponies. We don’t want to be caught!" The Doctor galloped silently beside his old friend as they followed the two changelings in front of them. Behind them the Doctor could hear the real Trixie panting for breath as she ran. He himself wasn’t breaking a sweat. He was used to running from the things that seemed to continuously chasing him. The Doctor flapped his wings a bit to gain more speed, wincing at the pain that showed how weak they were. “Be glad you’re not a unicorn. It stings quite a bit more than wings when under used." The Master chuckled before becoming a bit more serious. “You haven’t been having anymore of those thoughts, have you? It’ll help you to talk about it so you don’t fall into Discords grip any farther." The Doctor just grimaced."I’m fine Master. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve had jumbled emotions. Of course the pain of trying to keep out the negatives is another story." The Master smiled at him reassuringly, egging him to continue. "Well, He speaks to me sometimes. Discord I mean. He taunts me, and he asks me stuff that I would not rather think of the answers to. Sometimes he just tells me stories of times with no one like me to save the day. Tales of chaos and destruction. Sometimes I just feel like..like..." The doctor closed his mouth abruptly, and gave a cold look at the master. It wasn’t the masters business what he felt like. Maybe it was one of his schemes to get in his head. You couldn’t trust anyone. The doctor was about to tell the master to mind his own business, but was interrupted by the changelings ahead. "Everyone slow down. Were coming to the back entrance for invaders to come through. The problem is its going to come out in the sewers of Ponyville so we will probably be spotted and taken away quickly. That and there’s guards." The doctor watched the two changelings carefully as they tried to make a plan with the master. The larger one was the changeling who put them into the prison in the first place. The other one the doctor had never seen before then. What he couldn’t decide was to trust these changelings or kill them. The larger one would be easily taken out with speed, but the smaller one would be more difficult. He could always... The Doctor suddenly noticed that three sets of eyes were on him, and his hoof just happened to randomly be in the position for him to knock out the smaller changeling. He slowly lowered his hoof, his already pale face losing a bit more color. "As I was saying," The larger changeling growled, “We could all combine our magic and set up a large enough illusion spell to disguise all of us. I can direct the spell so it will be as if we are simply shifting forms. We won’t notice the change, but anyone who looks at you will see a completely different pony. From there we can find a good hiding place to make a better long term plan." All the ponies other than the Doctor verbally agreed to the plan and made a circle, their horns touching in the middle. "Excuse me, but I’m still curious as to why you’re trying to help us escape?" The Doctor looked at the larger changeling that he had addressed the question to accusingly. The changeling lifted his horn out of the circle in the middle, looking straight at the Doctor. “Did you want to go into a place where thousands of starving and imprisoned changelings suck you dry until all that left is your carcass which is eaten while you’re still alive?" The Doctor shook his head and the changeling scoffed. “I didn't think so. I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemies, especially those who did nothing wrong." The changeling proceeded to lower his horn back to the circle and let his horn began to glow. The other three began to let magic seep through their horns as well. The different colored magic twirled around each other. The twist spun through the air, surrounding the ponies and two changelings. It suddenly gave off a flash of light, making the Doctor close his eyes as he felt himself being lifted off the ground. His hooves clopped back onto the stone floor after a second. "Lets go!" the larger changeling ordered, galloping up the steps to the sewer opening. The Doctor just grumbled and began to flap his wings again. Once at the top the changeling carefully opened the sewer top and climbed out, signaling for the rest of them to follow. The Doctor gave a large flap of his wings and leapt out of the tunnel and into the fresh night air. The five of them seemed to be in a back alleyway, empty but for a few storage boxes up against a store. "Come on everyone. I know someone who will help us." the Master motioned everyone to follow as he began walking down the street. The Doctor noted how the streets were empty of ponies and most shops were closed down, large red and black flags covering the entrances. Clouds covered the sky, and wind sliced into the doctor’s coat. If any pony saw them they didn’t acknowledge their presence. The Doctor trotted behind the others next to Trixie. Looking at her now, she seemed to be tired and a bit withered. "Why does she travel with you?" Trixie's voice was dry, but strong, and her eyes bold as she turned to the Doctor. "Who do you mean?" he growled slightly, annoyed with the sound of voices. “Colgate. Why does she travel with you? I can tell she gets scared to death, and I know she is constantly put in danger, so why?" Trixie looked onto the Doctor expecting an answer. Her question earned a loud sigh. “I don’t like when she’s put in danger. She travels with me I guess because she... I...don’t know. Could be because she enjoys it, or she doesn’t want me to be in danger. It may even be because she doesn’t have a choice and I unconsciously drag her into it one way or another. why does it matter." he spat the last bit out, emotion slicing through him ragingly for no apparent reason as it had for the last couple weeks. “I have something that you deserve to know." the Doctor sensed the nervousness in Trixie’s voice and began to wonder if she was in fact a changeling. “I am Colgate's mother." PLOP "Doctor! Master come here! He fainted!" The ponies and changelings continued their walk, now with a limp Doctor hanging above them in a magic hold. Soon they came upon a little cottage. Behind it sat a forest and all around animals of all shape and size ran. They dropped the illusion spell and the Master gave the door a slight knock and waited for the butterscotch yellow Pegasus with a pink mane and tail open the door. When she did her eyes opened wide at the ponies outside her door. "Fluttershy, we need your help." PLOP "Not again."
The End“Guys I think she's waking up!" Fluttershy slowly blinked her eyes, fuzzy looking figures filling her vision. When she could tell who it was standing over her she let out a scream. "CHANGELINGS!!!!!" She flung her legs out, losing her balance on the bed, and fell off in a heap of sheets. "Fluttershy calm down!" Fluttershy felt hooves hold her down as she struggled. Why would they attack her? Tears rolled down her face as she thought of the terrible, terrible things that they could do to her. "Fluttershy, its okay it’s just me. The Master remember?" Fluttershy continued to shake in fright. She had only met that stallion twice before, so why would the changelings use his form to fool her? "I..Don’t believe you Changeling monster! You...You came here to steal my love and my friends and to keep me from helping twilight..." Fluttershy stopped her wining for a moment when The Doctor stuck his hoof into her mouth. "Shut up. Do I look like a changeling? If I was one why wouldn’t I be out in the open like those other two? Now I’m going to remove my hoof and you’re going to keep quiet. If not for me do it so we can help save Ponyville." The Doctor scowled and removed his hoof, grumbling under his breath. Fluttershy kept to her word and didn’t utter a sound aside from her soft whimpering. "Thank you Doctor." The Master walked up to Fluttershy, pushing his angry friend out of the way. "Now Fluttershy..." The Master told her all of what happened, how Ponyville was being taken over by changelings and how one of them was trying to be Trixie. It wasn’t until he had said her name that the real Trixie made herself known to Fluttershy, sending her into another case of whimpers. The Doctor who had woken up only an hour before Fluttershy walked to the back of the room while Trixie comforted the frightened mare. The Doctor stumbled slightly, his head spinning momentarily before he shook it off. Ever since he woke up he couldn’t get that stupid voice out of his head. Discord just loved to torment him. He looked around the room, noting the many animals and birds making annoying noises. These days he couldn’t enjoy anything except spending time with Colgate. But now even thinking about her reminded him that Trixie was her mother. How could he not have noticed? Her name, her coat, her mane. It was all there. She had also said that Colgate had talked about her travels with him before meaning that sometime in her past and his future they would visit her. Just another thing to look forward to. "!!!!!!!" The Doctor jumped back in surprise as a white bunny hopped into his face, whacking at him with its little paws. "WHAT!?!!??" The Doctor stumbled around, blinded by the bunny, smashing into things. "Angel!!! What are you doing?" The Doctor heard Fluttershy's voice as he shook his head franticly. He could feel his anger rising in his chest. He let it burst. "AAAHHHHHHRRRGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A blast of gold energy flew from The Doctor’s mouth, storming over the bunny. The Doctor could only see white, this time because of his energy escaping him instead of the bunny. "Doctor!" "Angel!" The Doctor fell to his front knees, the energy left from him. "Doctor are you okay!??" "Yeah..I think so..." The Doctor stopped, surprised that his voice had grown lighter. "Were did his wings go?! Is he okay???" Fluttershy ran to The Doctor leaving the dizzy white bunny on the floor. "You must have broken discords contact with your mind!"The master grinned. The Doctor jumped up, feeling rejuvenated if a bit drained. He looked in a wall mirror he noticed coming in and he grinned happily for the first time in weeks. His coat was back to his normal tan color and his eyes were a deep TARDIS blue again. FLASH "Run!" Colgate rushed through the Everfree behind Brushheart, trying her best not to trip over anything. Building a burst of speed she shot ahead of him, signaling for him to follow her. Colgate could see some light ahead signaling a break in the forest. If they could make it there she might be able to get her bearings and head them in the direction of the TARDIS. They soon broke through the trees, unsure if anything was chasing them at all. Colgate stopped running suddenly and was pushed forward onto her snout when brush ran into her back. "Why did you stop!?!?" Brush snapped at her. She picked herself off the ground and pushed him off of her. "Those changelings could be right behind us!" "But are they?" Colgate asked, pausing to let Brush listen to see if he could hear any buzzing behind them. "So? I don’t believe they even noticed we were gone yet." Brush nodded his head in acknowledgement, but stopped suddenly and perked his ears. "What is it brush?"Colgate whispered. "A rustling. Something is coming from in front of us and I’d be willing to bet it’s a changeling coming back from a mission." Colgate listened a moment, finally able to hear the rustling noise. "I think it’s headed right for us, and its running! We got to hide!" Colgate looked around frantically, but was unable to find any cover except the trees. "One second!" She focused any magic she had left, and let it burst, making a popping noise and a flash. She re appeared in a thick tree, safe to hide in. She motioned for Brush to come closer and she focused her magic again. Another pop and a flash. "Hurry Colgate!" Brush called from....The ground??? "My magic isn’t strong enough, I’ve used too much!!" Colgate called down, a small amount of fear in her voice. If he was caught, she would be left alone in this forest. "Ugghh! Okay, I’m coming!" Brush called up. To Colgate’s amazement he began to run at the tree. "What are you doing!?! You’re not going to make it!" She couldn’t see any way that Brush could make it that far up the tree. It surprised her more when two wings shot from his sides as if appearing from nothing. They were obviously too small for him to fly on, but with a few strong flaps, he pounced up into the tree, bouncing from branch to branch athletically until he reached the wide eyed Colgate. "How.....?" "SHH!" Brush shushed her and looked through the branches and motioned to the black figure that had appeared below them. It stopped right next to the tree, sitting down and breathing heavily. Colgate quickly noticed it wasn’t a changeling. The figure was black, but not the black of a hard shell. Instead it was covered in a sort of fabric with a blue band around its waist. /the black fabric went over the figures face like a hood, but it wasn’t large enough to hide the pink mane that stood out and the bunny ears weren’t very threatening either. When Colgate saw the yellow coat of the figure she knew exactly what and who it was. "Fluttershy!!!" Colgate called down, making the pony yelp in surprise. Colgate made a hasty retreat out of the tree, landing not far from Fluttershy. A soft thump behind her signaled that brush had come down as well. “It’s okay Fluttershy, it's just me Colgate!" Colgate said in a rush before Fluttershy could go into a panic attack. "Oh Colgate! You startled me! What are you doing in this terrifying, creepy forest!?" "Long story short we were captured by changelings and I escaped. I don’t know what became of The Doctor or Master..." "Oh! Their back at my cottage with two changelings that helped them escape. They told me that I had to take a message to Twilight sine I was going there anyways. You were in a changeling hive though, are you okay!?" "Of course I'm fine. They just locked us in a dungeon, but they did take care of us. But you should probably go now." Colgate assured her. "Wait! We should go with her! We could warn Twilight that the changelings are involved!" Brush said. Fluttershy, who had not been aware of the stallion, jumped a foot in the air and quickly hid behind her hooves in fear. "Or she could tell twilight for us and we can head back to my home were we can safely contact The Doctor and Master." Colgate decided for him. She assured Fluttershy that nothing was wrong and that the stallion was a friend before letting her continue her mission, telling her to inform Twilight of the changelings. With that she led the way to a certain cave with a certain blue box in it. When they arrived and entered brush was surprise, but he kept quiet aside from a small gasp. Colgate chuckled, waiting for his comment. "It’s...bigger on the inside...." "Yep." Both of them trotted up to the consol and Colgate put a code in, bringing up two ponies and two changelings up on the viewing screen. "Look! It’s The Doctor and The Master, and The Doctor is back to normal!!" "And there’s my brother and Shuriken! I wonder why they left the hive!" After watching the viewing screen for a bit, watching The Doctor and Master and changelings walk around Fluttershy's house, Colgate decided to try and communicate with them. She picked up the telephone in her hoof and with a flash of magic called Fluttershy’s home phone. All the figures on the screen jumped and looked startled before The Doctor walked over to were the phone was. "Hello?" Colgate noted the lightening in his voice and how much more happy he sounded. "Doctor! It’s Colgate!" "Colgate! Did you escape!?" "Yeah! I’m in the TARDIS right now! I have that pony that was guarding us also. He helped me escape," "You said you’re in the TARDIS right? Well I want you to check the force field around the town and tell me if there’s any weak point in it we could use to get out!" "Okay I’m on it!" Colgate trotted over to another screen, pressed a few buttons and went back to the phone. "Not really I noticed that in the last hour there have been three disturbances in the past hour. I know that two of those must have been Fluttershy and I have a feeling that I know who the last one was. Go by the middle of town and see if there’s a crowed. I think Twilights back." "Okay Colgate, I'll check. Just stay and the TARDIS and be safe. And don't let that bumbling colt touch any of the TARDIS controls! Bye!" The Doctor hung up the phone before Colgate could reply. She looked to the screen that showed them all leaving the cottage. "So...about those wings. That and I want you to tell me about Trixie." Colgate began, making brush grow silent for a few moments. "I was born that way. Chrysalis thought that was the reason why my parents abandoned me. I can't fly on them but I can jump high and run faster than an earth pony with them." Brush spread them out and tucked them back in. They fit so perfectly at his sides that you would have to be right next to him to notice that those were feathers and not fur. “And Trixie, well she's sort of...” "My mother. Ya, I guessed as much. I'm surprised she didn't tell me herself." They both sat in silence for a moment. Colgate shivered, noticing for the first time that she was actually quite cold standing there. “I’m going to go turn on the heat and make us some tea. I'll be right back." Colgate trotted out of the room and through the hall that led to the "kitchen". In truth it couldn't really be called a kitchen because all it held was a big machine that made anything you wanted to eat and a sink. Colgate gave the machine instructions to make two cups of tea and left back into the hallway were the temperature control was. It was currently 50 degrees in the TARDIS, the reason most likely being that The Doctor preferred it cold after an adventure. He had never told her the reason why though. After changing it up twenty degrees she trotted back into the kitchen. She gathered the two freshly made cups of tea in her magic and began the short trek back to the main room. Colgate let her mind wander over the days crazy events. She had escaped the changeling hive, hidden in a tree from Fluttershy, and brought a strange peg acorn colt into the TARDIS. A strange very...handsome...stallion..." Colgate had walked back into the main room with the tea, but barely registered it as she had a sudden urge to see Brushheart. As soon as she locked eyes on him she briskly trotted over to him, setting the tea down on the consol. She was very annoyed at herself for ignoring logic but that didn't stop her from going straight over to brush and nuzzling him in the neck. She breathed in his misty scent and looked up to his eyes. He looked down at her with a half smile on his face. "Colgate, do you know you look very beautiful?" Colgate felt herself blush and reached her hooves up around his neck. "Did you know, Brush, that you are the most handsome colt I have ever laid eyes on?" Colgate let her eyes look into his. Without a second thought she lifted her chin and kissed him on the mouth. It was short, but she quickly did it again after breaking away, the second much more passionate. It was Brush who pulled out of this one. "No Colgate, don't. His face had become serious and Colgate could sense the guilt in his eyes. His horn glowed softly and all thoughts of being with him vanished. "You..You used mind control on me!" Colgate growled and spun around. Before Brushheart could react Colgate bucked him in the face with her hind legs. He fell backed, more stunned than hurt. Colgate faced him again and got up in his face. "Did you really mean the things you said?" Colgate growled, and he nodded his head quickly. Again he was struck by surprise, not by a blow this time but with a quick kiss to his cheek. "Never do that again. If you want affection you can earn it with those sweat words you have." Colgate left the colt there stunned, going over to the consol to drink her tea. The fact was true. The Doctor had left with the others from Fluttershy’s cottage and snuck downtown, just in time to catch the beginning of another dual. Ponies were gathered on two sides of the street and the mayor was lacked in a cage. The Doctor stayed in the shadows of a building nearby the others waiting quietly behind him. He watched an age spell be performed on the two colts that were there last time. After that he saw what Colgate had told him was twilights trick. She simply used a smoke spell and different ponies would jump out, making it look like age spells, duplication spells, gender spells, and something with pinkie playing a lot of instruments. "Well Trixie, it looks like my amulet is more powerful than yours -Hey!!!" Twilight shouted as a red magic took the amulet from her. "Give it back!" Twilight shouted, but Trixie paid her no mind. A maniacal laugh escaped Trixie's lips as she held the amulet for all to see. "With this amulet I shall now rule, all of Equestria!!" Trixie let out another laugh as she took of the alicorn amulet and replaced it with twilights phony. As she bragged, one of the two dashes flying above swooped down and took the alicorn amulet. "I don’t need that old alicorn amulet. I have this!" Trixie shot a beam of magic at the flying Rainbow Dash. "HaHaHa Stop it! It tickles!" Rainbow dash cried, stunning Trixie. "Tickles!? That was supposed to make you writhe in agony! This amulet is a defect, I want my old one!" Trixie growled. Her words went unheeded as Rainbow flew down, placing the amulet in a box that Zecora held. Suddenly green sparks began to fly from the angered Trixie and a buzzing noise came from her. The Doctor saw this and closed his eyes, using a magic that even unicorns in this universe couldn’t compare to. "You will all pay!!!" Green flames covered Trixie before they revealed her true form, a changeling. "You will all....Pay?" The changeling looked around, surprise covering her face. "What is the meaning of this!??!!" She flew around, looking at all the motionless ponies around her. "Why aren’t they moving!?!" "Time stopped." The Doctor walked out of the shadows casually, looking about before his eyes fell upon the box containing the alicorn amulet. He wandered over there, opening the box and removing the necklace. "Doctor?" The Doctor looked over to see that Twilight was still moving, looking around frightened. "Oh! Twilight I forgot! You have some of that nasty void stuff on you so you can still move!" "What happened?" The Doctor just walked over, ignoring the changeling giving him a menacing glare. "I just stopped time for as moment. I am a Timelord after all. You see, The Master needs this amulet, and that changeling needs to go." He pointed an accusing hoof at it before looking it in its blue eyes. "You get ten seconds to run or you will regret that you were ever born." The Doctor growled at it. The changeling hissed, shooting a beam of magic at The Doctor. He made no move, staying still until the beam was right in front of him before stomping his hoof on the ground. The beam stopped mid air inches from his chest. "That is impossible. How can you do that!?!?" The Doctor ignored the question and looked it in the eye again. "Five seconds." The changeling paused a moment, gave another hiss, and flew off. The Doctor sighed, stomping his hoof again to make the beam of magic come back to life, and directed it to hit the changeling flying away. It wouldn’t hurt it; just give it a warning to never come back. The Doctor then proceeded to look into the shadows of a building. “You guys come out, it’s safe. The shadows slowly gave way to two changelings, The Master, and the real Trixie. "Hello twilight sparkle. It’s been a while." Trixie said, smiling. Twilight began to ask her questions and The Doctor went over to The Master. "I believe this is yours to get rid of." The Doctor frowned, handing his friend the amulet. "Their going to be quite shocked when it ends up disappearing like that." "I think twilight can handle it." The Doctor reassured him. The two stood there in silence before The Doctor grabbed The Master and hugged him. "I’m going to miss you so much." He choked out. "It's been fun trying to kill you so many times. Now you can carry on the Timelord legacy in peace." Bothe of them chuckled at that. The Master broke the hug and stepped back, putting the amulet around his neck. "Tell Colgate I love her, and Doctor...don’t forget me." With that The Master let out a burst of magic full of a rainbow of regeneration energy, discords chaos magic, and the red magic of the alicorn amulet. Then he was gone, nothing left but a bit of stray magic in the air. Silence held for a moment as everyone watched The Doctor wide eyed, unsure of what had just taken place. The Doctor wiped a tear from his eye and spun around, a forced smile upon his face. "Alright everyone, time to get time started again." He got Trixie into the place where the changeling had been and twilight went back to hers. The Doctor and two changelings snuck back into the shadows as time resumed. Almost an hour later The Doctor stood in front of the TARDIS watching Colgate talk to her mother and brush talk to his changeling friends. After a bit they all went their separate ways, The Doctor giving Trixie a hug before she left. “Take good care of my little girl. She may look older but she hasn’t lost her innocents.” Trixie said before heading off to travel once again. They said farewell to the changelings as they went back to the hive. Then they went back into the TARDIS. The doors of the TARDIS closed. When they closed The Doctor let it out, falling to the floor and bursting into tears in front of a surprised Colgate and Brushheart. Colgate knew what had happened, for she had watched they whole thing take place. She ran to The Doctor and cried with him, holding him in her hooves. Brush joined, trying to comfort the two. After a bit the tears ended. "Doctor?' Colgate sniffed. The Doctor looked up, signaling for her to go on. "Let's go. I kind of feel like running." The Doctor grinned at her sadly before looking to the pony next to her. "What your name?" He inquired, making the stallion tense up. "Um..Brushheart sir..." "Just The Doctor. Welcome to the TARDIS!" The Doctor stood up and walked to the consol and pulled the big leaver on the side. "ALLONSY!!!"
