//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: The Long Way Round // Story: Doctor Whooves and The Lone Dalek // by Whooves235 //------------------------------// The Forbidden Section Flurry Heart was in heaven, ever since moving in with Twilight and Pinkie Pie, she has grown accustomed to their hobbies. From cooking and party planning, to reading and making lists. So her being in a place like this surrounded by the very history of Equestria itself? it felt almost too real. "Princess Flurry Heart!" A voice said. "Shoot!" Flurry said, she quickly put down the book and ran to the TARDIS, keeping the door open enough to see who the intruder was. As the hoofsteps got louder, Flurry could make out who the pony was wearing Royal Guard Armor, on the front of the his face was clearly visible, showing his pure white coat and his mane and tail which consisted of blue, light blue, cyan, and light green. "Princess Flurry Heart, I know your down here. It's ok I'm with the royal guards!" Flurry quietly exited the TARDIS and made her way to the weapons rack located just a couple of shelves away from her original location, using her magic, she lifted one of the swords off the rack and quietly snuck up on the guard. "Princess??" The Guard shouted. Flurry's chance then came when the guard turned around completely away from her, she pounced tackling the guard and putting the sword to his neck, close enough to scare him, but not enough to kill "Who are you?! are you with that Dalek??" "Wait Wait! Im with the Royal Guard I swear, check my badge, left side pocket" The Guard said. Flurry used her magic to check his pocket, pulling an ID out "Orion eh?" Flurry said, she lowered the sword away from the guard and got off of him. "How did you find me? and how did you know where to look??" "The Princess's ordered me to take the Royal Guards to the Canterlot Library, they said some dangerous enemy was on his way here and we were to protect you" Orion said. "And how did you know about the Restricted section??" Flurry asked. "Princess Celestia and Luna personally told me where to find it" Orion said "I came down to protect you personally, should the enemy break past our defensive lines." "And how will we know if that-" Just then an explosion could be heard from above, followed by the shouting of orders from the different guards. "I'm guessing that answers your question?" Orion said, he then picked up the sword that Flurry had grabbed with his mouth and held it as his own weapon "Stay inside the Blue Box, and don't come out, even if you hear me screaming don't come out of it!" "Alright" Flurry said, she then ran into the TARDIS and closed the door completely locking herself inside it "Come on Doctor, where are you?!" The Broken TARDIS "Please, don't do this! we are not this person, this monster you have so claimed to become!!" The Doctor said. "It's too late for me Doctor, there's nothing you can do to stop what will happen in the future" The Other Doctor said "What I am doing is mercy." "Mercy?! this is not mercy! this is pure genocide!" The Doctor said "This paradox machine will destroy everything!! you included!!" "If that's what needs to be done then so be it!" The Other Doctor said, he then flipped the lever to the machine and it began to glow red, a countdown began to show "Only twenty minutes doctor! twenty minutes until the end of everything!!" "I'm warning you, I can give you....give us....one last chance....stand down and talk...be the man so many people know we are, be the man who saved countless lives!" "You and I both know Doctor....there is no going back....what is about to happen, will forever change everything." "Then what happens next is your own doing." The Doctor said firmly. "I'll show you what happens next! At arms my Cyberponies!!" The Other Doctor would shout out, as the Cyberponies pointed all their weapons at not only The Doctor and Zap but also Derpy as well "Take aim! And..." "Relax" The Doctor said, before all the Cyberponies just slumped over, as if they were brainless suits of armor. "Doctor? What did you do?" Zap asked. "Guess what I've got, Zap?" The Doctor said, before he took out his Sonic Screwdriver, which was currently glowing red "Pockets." The Doctor said smerking. The Other Doctor angrily growled as he flew up into the air and landed on the ground firmly in front of the Doctor "How?! How did you-" "Deactivate the Cyberponies? Well, when I was over at the TARDIS council earlier and realized it was my own, I had my Sonic do a quick diagnosis of it, which after doing so allowed me to have full access to it. After all....it is still MY Tardis...." The Other Doctor would snarl and get face to face with The Doctor "No matter...I don't need Cyberponies to destroy you! The Countdown is impossible to stop, only I know the code, and its something that only the current version of myself would know!" "I don't need a key code...I have a screwdriver!" The Doctor said before he pointed the screwdriver at the council, and after a couple of seconds some alarms went off, and the room went red, as well as the cloister bell going off, signaling the Tardis Self Destruct. "What have you done!" The Other Doctor shouted as he ran over to the council, before the Doctor jumped on top of him, doing a tackle hold on the Pegasus. "Doctor!!" Zap shouted. "Zap, go get Derpy and get out of here!!" The Doctor screamed while holding the struggling Other Doctor. "What about you?!" Zap shouted. "Just go!! Don't worry about me!!" The Doctor shouted, Zap would nod and then run over to Derpy using his strength he pried the Cyberponies grip off of her, and grabbed her hoof. "Come on Derpy we need to move!" Zap shouted, but Derpy would look back and try to go to the Doctor. "B-but what about Doctor?" She said. "We can't help him, he needs to keep the Other Doctor at bay, now let's move before this whole place goes up in flames" Zap said, as he grabbed Derpys hoof and ran out the door. Meanwhile the Doctor kept the Other Doctor on the ground, who was currently struggling to break free. "What are you doing?! You will kill us both!" "That's the plan" The Doctor said, flipping the Other Doctor over to see his face "I will not let you threaten Equestria, not as long as my Two Hearts are still beating!" "Don't you see Doctor?! Everything is already gone! Everything we were! Everything we Stood For!" The Other Doctor said, the alarms still blaring out, as the Paradox Machine began to rip a hole in the fabric of space and time. Sucking up everything in the room. The two Doctors then began to float up into the sky, as the Doctor grabbed the hoof of his counterpart. Using his other hoof to grab onto the TARDIS Council. "Please let me help you! Let me understand why you did this! We can stop it together!" The Doctor said "This is not what The Time Lords should stand for!!" "Then the Timelords have failed Doctor!!! Let me finish the job and make the Timelords Extinct! Rid the universe of our filth!! LET US DIE DOCTOR!!! DIE IN FIRE!!!" The Other Doctor said, his eyes showing nothing but insanity and a lust for destruction and chaos. He truly was lost. "Then it looks like your getting your wish" The Doctor said, as he then let go of the Other Doctor, he then began to get sucked into the portal screaming the entire time words of madness, however as he was he pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver. "The truth Doctor!! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE TRUTH!!!!" He said, he then let loose a blast from his screwdriver which hit the Doctor squarely in the chest. The Doctor screamed before gripping onto the council as hard as he could. The Other Doctor would then finally get sucked into the portal, lost to the void of space and time. With The Doctor Injured, he continued to use all of his strength to pull him forward to the council chamber. He pulled out his screwdriver and pointed it at the Machine, and after a couple of seconds the Machine showed a passcode to enter. "Damnet, alright think Doctor think! Something we would never use! Something-" He then went quiet for a moment, and typed in some letters, the letters he never wanted to enter 'N o M o r e' was entered into the chamber, and suddenly everything began to shut down, the lights, the alarms the cloister bell. Everything shut off. Gravity returned to normal as the doctor crashed to the ground. The building began to shake as the ceiling began to crash down upon him, burying him in the broken TARDIS, which began to vanish into thin air. The Warehouse District Zap and Derpy ran as fast as they could away from the building. As they ran all they could hear was chaos and destruction behind them. Turning around for a split second Zap could see the warehouse they once stood in shrinking in on itself, the walls collapsing and the roof caving in on itself "We need to go back for the Doctor!" Derpy said "We cant! He is the only one keeping that Other Doctor occupied. He saved us" Zap said, then a loud explosion happened, and the entire warehouse collapsed in a cloud of dust, the giant red hole above it closed and all that was left was the smoke in the clear blue sky. Zap and Derpy stared at it for a second before they both ran to it, it looked like nothing was left. "Doctor?! Doctor where are you?!" Derpy shouted Zap flew into the sky to get an aerial view of the area, all he could see were bits and pieces of debris, some Cyberpony parts, as well as different mish-mash of Alien Tech. "Doctor!!" Just as he shouted that, he noticed a movement in the debris of the warehouse, and out of it emerged The Doctor "Derpy I found him!" Zap would yell then he jolted down from the sky in front of the Doctor "Doctor! Your ok!" Derpy shouted running to him, and giving him a hug "Hay, of course I'm ok. I'm always ok, I'm the King of Ok" The Doctor said smiling, as he turned around to look at the remains of the building "Doctor, what happened to the other you?" Zap asked "He chose his own fate..." The Doctor said "I don't think we will be seeing him again" "Doctor what do we do now?" Zap asked "What about my parents? and The Dalek?" "Right, well if my theory is correct, the Dalek has been taken care of. The Destruction of the Paradox Machine has all but made the Dalek evaporate into nothing but dust. As for your parents well-" The Doctor would then collapse to the ground in a sweaty like pain. His face looked hot, and his entire body seemed to be glowing almost "Doctor what's happening?!" Zap asked "I-It's fine...Zap...this is how it has to h-happen" The Doctor would groan in pain as he gripped his heart "Doctor...wait you can't! Doctor please you cant!" Derpy said, taking ahold of his hand "Please you cant do this" She said, tears forming in her eyes The Doctor would smile, looking to his companion "Derpy Ditzy Doo...don't cry..." The Doctor said "While this life has ended...a new one can begin" He said, tearing up as well looking to Derpy, he put his hoof on her face and smiled "This was the first face I saw when coming to this world...and...im glad I could see it one last time..." "I dont understand, what's happening to him!" Zap said Derpy would take the Doctors hoof and put it on his chest, and then back up a bit from him, looking to Zap "The Doctor, he has this...trick... it's a way he can cheat death almost...but in doing so, he changes" She would say "Changes changes how?!" Zap said, looking to the Doctor who was now glowing more The Doctor would look to Zap and Derpy and smile "I will see you both....The Long Way Round..." Then his eyes would close and his entire face began to glow, engulfed in a golden like fire almost, then before the two ponies very eyes, his coat would change from brown to a light grey, his mane color would turn into a dark purple, while also changing styles too, his tail would even grow longer, then as if by magic, the glow stopped. "Doctor?" Derpy asked, approaching the stallion, looking to him. All the while Zap looked utterly confused, then the Stallion would wake up, showing his eyes, those brilliant blue eyes. Upon looking to Derpy, he would smile "Hello Ditzy" He said, his voice different than last time "I don't...understand what happened to the doctor?!" Zap asked "This is the Doctor" Derpy said "As I said....he changes in order to not die" "Indeed it is dear Zap" The Doctor said, slowly getting up and looking to the pegasus "It is still me just....diffrent" "Im so confused" Zap said "Don't worry, your Aunt Twilight will explain it to you" The Doctor said "Speaking of your Aunt! We must get going!" "I don't understand...why?" Zap asked "Well, in your mother's letter. It said that my future self had gone back in time to watch them until the time was right, and if I'm clever, which we all know I am. I am the future doctor that your mothers met, meaning we need to get back to Canterlot so I can get to my TARDIS" "Well what are we waiting for lets go!" Zap said "Right, while I would love to go. Im afraid we will have to wait for someone to pick us up" The Doctor said "Im sure this light show has at least alerted Celestia and Luna to where we are so we should get company soon" "Doctor why can't we just leave now" Zap said, however before he could say anything else, the Doctor collapsed onto the ground again, with that same golden color coming out of his mouth "I-I need to rest...my body needs to recover the energy I put forth from Regenerating" The Doctor said, he then looked to Derpy "Ditzy, tell the guards when they get here everything that happened. Then tell them we need to get to Celestia and Luna fast..." "Doctor..I don't think that's going to be an issue" Zap said "Why's that?" He asked "Look," He said, pointing to the sky, which was now full of Royal Guards followed by Celestia in her chariot. The swarmed the area covering the entire place. Then Celestia landed followed by a couple more guards, she then walked up to the three ponies and noticed the Doctor, who was now properly passed out "Oh my.." She said, "Looks like he has gone and done it again hasn't he.."