Chapter 8

The Doctor was galloping around the console, the rumbling and shakiness showing the load of stress it was carrying

Rainbowdash was trying to figure out exactly how Marx had received the necklace, when she herself had never given it to him

"Doctor, what do you think?"

"I'm a time traveler" the Doctor said, "Spoilers."

Rainbowdash left it at that

As for the Doctor he knew exactly what was going on, a single crossed timeline might be easy to fix but what if it had happened more than once?

That was a problem, one he didn't want to know much more about

And furthermore, what of the Shadow's affiliations with the Griffon Queen? If he was correct they had been leading in several versions of the Doctor from alternate universes in order to kill them, but why would they need to do that?

Everything he found out only proposed more questions, and no answers for them

The Doctor decided to stop the Shadow, this was the top priority, as without the Shadow out of the way he would have to deal with it while dealing with a tangled timeline

"Right then!" the Doctor pulled on the joystick, typed on the keyboard, "We should fix the Shadow here and now, I think it'd be easy if we can-"

The sentence hadn't left his mouth before he was flung across the console room, before impacting on one of the floating marble pillars

It hadn't fallen over, but the Doctor knew that they had crashed into something, and the TARDIS had locked on so they could step out and take a look around

As the Doctor crashed back into the metal mesh that they always stood on while in flight the Doctor saw that Rainbowdash had fared much better in the landing

Crash landing, the Doctor corrected himself, they would have to be careful because the scanner seemed to have been knocked out cold

"What's out there this time?" Rainbowdash asked, eyeing the door

"No idea, let's find out!" the Doctor grinned and pushed open the doors

[…]

They appeared to be in a back alley of some shops, nobody seemed to have noticed the blue box inside

The Doctor almost strutted into the street to take a better look around, but he could easily smell it, easily taste it on the air, and his gut seemed to drop into a void

"We're on Earth…" the Doctor said

"Is it possible we're on earth?" Rainbowdash asked

The Doctor didn't want to, but he looked upward anyways

"When was the last time the earth was in orbit above Equestria?" the Doctor looked at Rainbowdash

It didn't need to be said, the dead planet

[…]

The man watched the two ponies interact, only one seemed to be native to Equestria, the one with the bowtie popped back into a police box and grabbed a fedora

He lifted a walkie-talkie to his mouth, "We've got a code 9; I repeat we have a code 9."

[…]

The Doctor made sure to grab his fedora, as he felt more comfortable with the situation having it on his head

It wasn't hard to see a few propaganda posters plastered all over the place, one said that they should not 'Oppress the Ponies', another claimed they would 'Curb the hooved menace'

"Doctor, why is earth the dead planet?" Rainbowdash questioned

The Doctor didn't answer

"You know, it's not very difficult for me to know when I'm being snuck up on." The Doctor turned around to face a man in a tuxedo

The man was crisp, and his hair was a slick black, his eyes were dark enough to tell no difference, and his voice matched

"You've certainly mixed it up haven't you Doctor?"

"I want you to explain what you're doing in terms of diplomacy." The Doctor said, "Because it had better be diplomatic."

"The sun princess have not been cooperative with the government" the man said, "She believes we have too much of a potential for harm to her planet, she's been…unhospitable."

"That doesn't sound like princess Celestia at all" Rainbowdash said

But the Doctor understood

"Someone can only become so kind when they've done something that took lives, and have regretted it ever since." The Doctor said

"But the princess would never do something like that!" Rainbowdash protested

"The princess you know hasn't happened yet" the Doctor said sharply, "This one is willing to kill."

Rainbowdash recoiled

The Doctor sighed, "I'm sorry for snapping at you, but this is not the best situation for me to be in right now."

The man looked between the two of them, "I can tell that this is a fixed point, I will not tell you to do anything you would regret."

"Looks like the only political leader we need to really talk to is Celestia." The Doctor said, "Still, could be worse."

The Doctor opened up the TARDIS doors, "She got roughed up in the crash, and therefore the worst that could happen is we're a bit off landing, nothing too harsh."

Rainbowdash decided to give him an earful once they took off, and they did, flying to Equestria

The Doctor sighed, "Rainbow, you know when you look at an old photo of somebody that you know, and it looks like they're not quite finished yet?"

Rainbowdash didn't answer

So the Doctor continued, "Well that's what she is, and if I'm correct, has not experienced that traumatizing event yet, and I can say it wasn't the nightmare moon problem."

"So what will we have to deal with?" Rainbowdash finally asked

Images of when he was shot by the princess flashed through the Doctor's skull

"No idea, but we should be ready." The Doctor locked the handbrake

[…]

When he opened the door there was quite the sight, computers in shop windows and all sorts of technology

"It appears that Celestia removes technology, fascinating." The Doctor said

Rainbowdash shook her head, "This can't be happening, the princess wouldn't do that."

The Doctor didn't respond, he was looking upwards at a small black box on a window, there was a red light

"She knows we're here" the Doctor said, "She must have full coverage of this whole city."

Several guards began to move in towards the two

"They'll have guns" the Doctor looked around, "I think I know what to do, come on!"

Rainbowdash was grabbed by her shoulder and pulled in a direction that she had barely registered

What had the princess hidden from her and her friends for so long? Why was technology removed, and why was the Doctor getting involved?

When she had registered what was going on she saw that they were running through what seemed to be a hailstorm, the Doctor was holding onto his fedora and keeping his head down

"We need to get out of the line of fire!" the Doctor pulled Rainbowdash to the side, the corner of a building

"Doctor, what will we do?" Rainbowdash puffed

The Doctor then felt very aware that they were not in the alley alone, they turned around

The Doctor could easily see that one had a light brown coat, a brown mane, a red bowtie, a fez, and green eyes, his cutie mark confirmed what he already suspected

The Ponyville dentist was behind him, Colgate, the Doctor recalled

"I can't believe it" the stallion said, "Another one?"

"Looks like the griffon queen hadn't been lying" the Doctor said, "As there are clearly other incarnations of myself from alternate universes prancing about."

Colgate and Rainbow looked at each other

"Is this your universe?" Colgate asked

"Yeah, the Doctor wanted to fix my… problems." Rainbowdash didn't elaborate

"Universal double vision" the Doctor did elaborate, "After this universe nearly collapsed."

"Nearly?" Whooves asked

(Calling him Whooves to avoid confusion, as it already was affecting me)

"I stopped it" the Doctor said, "But nobody remembered me, except Rainbowdash here."

"He used to have problems with crashing into other universes" Rainbowdash explained, "And I was with him when he crashed."

"So the memories of the alternate remained inside your head" Whooves had a grin, "Brilliant."

"Weren't we being chased?" Rainbowdash looked around, to see nopony around

"They were simply shooting at us" the Doctor winced as he acknowledged a shot that hit his right wing

"We should get to the castle" Whooves suggested, "We can knock some sense into the Princess' head."

The Doctor nodded, "Afterwards we can deal with the Shadow."

Colgate and Rainbow nodded

"Right then" Whooves straightened his bowtie, "Geronimo."

[…]

Celestia was aware that they were going to come straight to her, so why use any more force than she needed to? They were going to arrive here soon, and she knew exactly what to do then.

She could feel the need to do it, the urge to go out and eliminate them once and for all, but when she saw the pegasus, the dark coated one she thought about it, but it couldn't be him. Not possible.

But she couldn't shake it off, that pegasus was familiar, and she wanted to at least hear him out

'Hmm.' The princess thought, 'I just might be getting kinder.'

[…]

The Doctor had made sure to grab everything he would need, and prepare what words he had to say

When they regrouped in front of the castle both versions of the Doctor knew that since they hadn't been arrested yet then that meant they had sealed off all paths other than the castle

As they quickly approached the Doctor chose to make note of everything that could be used in a dangerous situation

Discord's statue was there, and the Doctor could tell that he was watching intently, he could feel chaos emanating from that thing

Whooves seemed to not notice, or simply didn't care, he was focused on the task at hand

The corridors were blocked off for locations they shouldn't go, but it didn't matter as they knew exactly where they were headed

Once they reached the throne room doors the Doctor looked to his comrades

"Are we ready?"

"Your call" Whooves said

The Doctor looked at the doors, "Adelante."

And he pushed the doors wide open

[…]

Celestia was waiting for them, sitting on her golden throne. The glass stained windows were of the history of Equestria, rather than the victories of its heroes

The Doctor went straight up to the throne, stopping ten feet away

"Explain. Now." The Doctor said

"I'm not sure I know what you mean." The Princess' look of glee didn't fade

"The humans, I want you to explain why you're not negotiating." The Doctor demanded

The princess shined one of her hooves, "I have been…hired per say."

Whooves looked alarmed, "Hired by who?"

"Hired by what is a better question" Rainbowdash commented

"I am to flush out the Doctor, the one who killed a colleague of my client." Celestia's eyes flashed, "Which one of you was it?"

The Doctor knew exactly what she was talking about, but decided to change the subject

"The humans, what are your plans for them?"

"They're a nuisance, pests." Celestia waved her hoof dismissively, "If they don't surrender I can't be held responsible for what I'll do."

"You're always held responsible" Whooves said, "No matter how far you run your past will always catch up with you."

The Doctor nodded, "What will your subjects think if you were to do that? Or even more so your sister?"

"Nopony has any right to bring her into this" Celestia snapped

"You already have, simply by being related to her" the Doctor pressed

"She is not, nor will Luna be a part of this." Celestia said, "And the human's best not have contacted her."

Colgate looked at her, "You need to understand, killing them is not an option."

"Killing is always an option" Celestia shrugged, "Nothing new to Equestria."

Then she grinned in a very sadistic manner, "Arrest them, I want each of them searched for weapons."