Missy stood in front of the group, in her cyan magical aura she held a device The Doctor knew well, she used one such device to murder an old friend after all.

"So you're the Master?" Asked a curious Twilight

"Yes but that's Missy to you dearie, you call me Master and you may have an accident" Missy said with a sinister chuckle, "And you must be the 'wittle pony pwincess' Twilight Twinkle or Sparkle or whatever that ridicules name is."

"Sparkle," Twilight deadpanned

"Yes that's nice, oh, but I have heard of a timeline where you were a really naughty girl, trying to kill sun-butt over there and all, shame the Doctor had to spoil the fun as usual," Missy shrugged.

Twilight was fairly certain she didn't like this mare, and she wasn't alone.

"Why are you here? This world could certainly do without your idea of 'fun'," The Doctor asked the insane Time Lord.

"Why am I ever anywhere Doctor, to torment you, so wherever you go... I go" Responded Missy with an innocent smile, "And I certainly see you've brought plenty of your little friends for me to play with, tell me Doctor, do you love these ponies as much as the humans I wonder, I mean this planet is technically Earth after all, just in a slightly different place that's filled with magical fairy pony things."

"You will not harm this planet in any way Master!" Proclaimed The Doctor with a stamp of his hoof.

The group of ponies began to circle Missy, the princesses ready to arrest her at a moments notice.

"Harm this planet? Moi? Oh, I wouldn't dream of it! Nope, that honor is left to some other old friends of ours Doctor," Missy said beginning to tap her hoof in a rhythm of four beats and then a pause.

"We beat your little Cybermen before, what else have you got?" The Doctor asked, thinking he may perhaps regret it in a moment.

"Oh Doctor, remember, I'm not the only one who follows you wherever you may travel... and while they might not usually be in the business

of crossing into unknown universes on a dime they will make a special case for this one, all just to get to you... Doctor," Sneered Missy. "In just a few short minutes this planet is going to get burned."

Finally Celestia stepped forward from the group and walked up to Missy, "I will not let any harm come to my little ponies or any other race on this planet."

Missy laughed at the Solar Diarch, "Very brave of you princess, but tell that to them."

For the first time The Doctor noticed Missy had been holding onto a second object in her aura, a small silver device with plenty of buttons on it, and Missy used the big red button right in the centre.

A large gust of hind blasted through the castle and a small tremor almost knocked a few of the element bearers to the ground. Through the windows the group could see the edges of what looked like a giant crack in the sky, and on the other side was open space.

"Missy? What have you done!?" Asked The Doctor in alarm.

"Oh not much just opened a rift in the very fabric of reality connecting this universe and our own, I must be going now Doctor but I would suggest finding a balcony or something to get a better look at what's on the other side of that rift"

At this the lone solar guard in the room approached Missy, "Miss you are not going anywhere"

Missy turned to look at the guard, "Say something nice," She commanded

"Pardon?" The Guard said confused

"Say... something... nice..."

"Uh... this was a well constructed plan, on paper at least?" The Guard still looked confused but shook it off, "Not that it matters your still under arrest."

Missy lifted her first device up and disintegrated the guard where he stood.

"Murderer!" Shouted Luna charging a spell

Luna launched the spell full force at Missy, but by the time it hit Missy had already gone, blowing the Doctor a kiss as she used her second device to teleport away.

The Doctor tried to process everything that had just happened, the Master had just returned, murdered somepony and opened a rift back to his universe, what had she, what had HE unleashed upon this world.

"Doctor?" Derpy asked placing a hoof on The Doctors shoulder.

"I'm fine," He lied

"She was certainly an unpleasant... thing..." Muttered an appalled Rarity

"So whatta we do now Doctor?" Asked Applejack

"I..." The Doctor muttered, his thought process having completely broken down.

The five element bearers and Derpy gathered round The Doctor hoping he would provide answers, he gave none. The three princesses hung back looking on, concern etched into their faces, it was Celestia who spoke first.

"Firstly I think we should take her advice on one matter, we find a good view of this rift and see what we are up against," She advised

"Good idea," Twilight said to her fellow princess and mentor.

Slowly the group emerged from their daze and agreed with the princesses, the group of ten heading for the nearest balcony.

The Doctor already knew what he was going to see when he looked through the rift, it was this reason he was acting so distant. What could one up the Cybermen? What followed him wherever he went?

The group walked down a hallway being led by Celestia, at the end was a door that led directly onto a large balcony overseeing much of the city.

"I'm so sorry," He said to the group at last.

"I'm sorry sugarcube?" Applejack asked her gaze moving towards the Doctor

"I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" Asked Twilight

"I know what's on the other side of that rift..."

Twilight looked surprised at The Doctors sudden insight, "You do? What?"

They reached the far door, using her magic Celestia swung it open to reveal a full un-obstructed view of the rift. In Canterlot they could see hundreds, if not thousands of ponies were all looking up at the same thing, not the rift itself, but what was in the rift.

Just beyond the rift sitting in the vast emptiness of space where hundreds of starships, saucer shaped starships that made The Doctor sick to the stomach to see again after all this time.

"Daleks," He proclaimed in renewed horror

Play for atmosphere

"Daleks?" Celestia asked

"The most ruthless and deadly killing machines my universe has ever, and will ever know, it was they who my kind fought during the Time War, it was they who brought reality itself to near destruction, and it is they Missy intends to use to burn Equestiria, and all of Equus to ash,"

The Doctor said, his horror turning into anger.

"But then why are they just sitting there?" Asked Rainbow Dash

"Hold on, Doctor? Didn't your 'friend' say something about burning us to get to you?" Luna questioned The Doctor, feeling more than a little alarmed.

"Yes," He simply stated, "A portal to a whole new universe has opened, they don't know anything about it they don't know whats here! But right now they will be actively scanning the planet, and they are going to find one lifeform who stands out, a Time Lord, and not just any time lord, the one who is the only being in the galaxy who the Daleks fear".

The group had turned to listen to the Doctor, watching intently as he spoke.

"Me."

All of a sudden there was a blur of activity in the Dalek fleet and the ships began to make haste towards Equus, the voice that still haunted the Doctors nightmares blared out for everypony to hear.

"EMERGANCY EMERGANCY, THE DOCTOR IS DETECTED, EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR!"

"EXTERMINATE"

"EXTERMINATE"

"EXTERMINATE"

"Tia what do we do?" Asked a now extremely alarmed Luna

Celestia turned to her fellow princesses, "Luna you coordinate the Lunar Guard and get civilians to safety, Twilight you and I will organise the Solar guard and..."

The Doctor cut in, "No! They won't be any use we have minutes at best I'm sorry we have to leave!"

Celestia glared at the Time Lord "We need to get my little ponies to safety before their ground forces land."

The Doctor sighed, "Oh Celestia, they aren't going to use any 'ground troops' until after the planet is already dust!"

Sure enough the ships began to file into formation in the planets upper atmosphere, readying for an orbital bombardment.

The mane 5 all shared the same expression, sheer terror, The princesses all glanced between each other.

"There must be something we can do! We can't just leave them!" Shouted Twilight to nopony in particular.

The Doctor looked positively crestfallen "I'm so sorry, but we can't save them, any of them, on the whole planet! The only way we have a chance is to get to the TARDIS and sit this out, when its over we gather the survivors and come up with a plan, I know this is hard and if there was any other way... I am so sorry..." The Doctor fell to the floor, this was all his fault, he should have left Equestria long ago.

"Trust him!" Shouted a tearful Derpy, "Its horrible I know but he's fought them, he knows what he's talking about and we should trust him!"

Celestia sighed, her regal mask faltering as she let a single tear slide down her cheek. She simply nodded in confirmation.

The Doctor got to his hooves, nodded and then turned to the door, running with the group back to the TARDIS as fast as their legs could carry them. As they ran Luna bellowed out a order to evacuate the city in her royal canterlot voice, projecting it all across the city in the hopes at least some would make it out in time, The Doctor however knew any survivors from Canterlot would be unlikely, the Daleks would have pinpointed his presence here and Canterlot would almost certainly get the worst of it.

On reaching the familiar blue box they burst through the doors and The Doctor set the TARDIS to take them to the open fields between Ponyville and Canterlot three days from now. Outside they all heard several loud explosions and screaming following shortly after, however these noises faded as the TARDIS' engines started and they dematerialized, entering the depths of the time vortex.

Throughout the trip nopony said a word, not one.

The TARDIS materialized in the middle of a field just next to a rather tall hill, all those aboard held their breaths as they exited the TARDIS. They were met with fire. The days sky was red from all the flames and destruction, the fields around them were all burnt to a crisp and they couldn't see any life anywhere. The Dalek ships still sat in orbit.

"Canterlot... its gone," Rarity near shouted in horror pointing a hoof in the direction Canterlot once stood. The mountain it sat on wasn't even there anymore, all that would exist there was a massive crater and the dying echoes of thousands.

The mane six didn't take the realisation of just how devastated the planet was well. Fluttershy began to sob, Applejack held her Stetson to her chest, Rarity fainted, Pinkie Pie's hair deflated as she began to climb the hill, Rainbow Dash was trying to keep a tough face but was failing miserably, while Princess Twilight Sparkle simply stared into the distance keeping to her own thoughts.

The Princesses of day and night sat apart from the rest, they simply stood staring at what was once Canterlot with no visible emotion on their faces.

The Doctor walked up behind his companion who had completely broken down at her surroundings.

"Derpy? I'm so sorry, this is my fault I...."

Derpy pounced on The Doctor and pinned him to the floor, "No! Don't you ever say that! It was the fault of that crazy mare and not you! Never, ever blame yourself for this!"

"So Twilight..." Rainbow Dash said slowly, "What do we do now?"

Twilight immediately snapped out of her trance and looked Dash straight in the eyes, "What do we do? We save as many as possible and then we kick those things off, our, planet!"

"We couldn't agree more!" Exclaimed Princess Luna as she and Celestia walked up to the group

"First things first," Said Celestia, her calm regal demeanor somehow returning despite everything, "We need to locate any place that may yet hold survivors, ideas?"

"How about that!" Shouted Pinkie Pie from on top the hill, her hoof pointing at something beyond the hill, whatever she saw caused her mane to re-inflate slightly.

The group climbed or flew up the hill in haste, when they got to the top they all saw what Pinkie was pointing at.

"Ponyville!" Exclaimed Twilight in surprise

In the distance they could see Ponyville, despite looking a bit damaged it seemed like it fared better than most places, but what really caught their eye was the rather familiar giant pink magical field protecting it.

"A field like that will almost certainly be keeping out the Daleks!" The Doctor shouted excitedly.

"But who's doing that?" Asked Rarity pointing at the protected town.

The three princesses looked between them, all saying at once...

"Cadance."