Things were silent between the group during the walk up to Canterlot Castle, that was aside from the occasional ramble from Pinkie about something or other, that girl seemed to have reverted back to her usual self.

Twilight thought back to how Pinkie had acted towards her on the train, she seemed almost... hostile. And it all revolved around the watch she wore around her neck.

Twilight was so deep in thought that she almost didn't notice they had arrived at their destination. There seemed to be a tense atmosphere at the castle, everypony figured something bad was going to happen due to the shield but nopony knew anything, several tried to stop Twilight to ask her what was happening but they were prevented from doing so by the guards. Twilight herself wished she could give them an answer but in truth she didn't currently have any, she just hoped Celestia and Luna would.

With a giant creak the throne room doors opened to reveal two regal alicorns as well as two other familiar pony's, Ponyville's timekeeper Time Turner as well as the towns mail-mare Derpy.

"Twilight, it's good to see you," Celestia greeted her former student with a warm nuzzle before turning to the guards, "You may leave us."

The guards saluted before turning and exiting the throne room, closing the massive doors behind them.

"Celestia? Why is Time Turner and Derpy here?" Twilight asked her mentor.

The brown stallion walked up to Twilight, "Hello! I'm The Doctor!"

"The Doctor?"

"Yes, Time Turner was just a cover, a bit like John Smith but that name stands out in this universe so I had to use a different one! Might I say Princess Twilight it is a pleasure to see you again!"

"Again?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, "The only other encounters we've had have been briefly walking past each other back in Ponyville."

"Time Travel, we had quite an in-depth discussion about a century from now about the quirks of temporal mechanics. And might I say the tea was lovely."

"Time Travel... The Doctor..." Twilight suddenly went deep into thought, why was this all familiar to her?

"Well it's nice t' meet ya Doctor, but might ah ask is the name 'Derpy' a cover too?" Applejack shook The Doctors hoof.

Derpy chuckled, "No, that is my name, he's the alien from another universe while I'm just a plain old Pegasus."

"Wait wait wait... alien?" Rainbow blurted out.

"Another universe?" Rarity said in a shocked manor.

Celestia chuckled lightly at their confusion while Luna addressed them next.

"Yes indeed he is, Time Lord I believe his species is called. We last met him during the first reign of Discord, if it wasn't for him we never would have found the tree of harmony, well that and the Cybermen."

"Yes well that's a story for another day!" The Doctor interrupted, "We are here because something is about to attack Canterlot and it's bad enough that my TARDIS believes I should be involved lest disaster strikes you all. Now, what do we know so far, Celestia?"

Everypony's attention moved to Celestia as she prepared to answer The Doctor's question.

"Not much I am afraid, all I have to go on is a vision both me and my sister experienced. I saw... fire. Equestria was burning and there was a single mare among it all, I couldn't see who and her voice was distorted, it was if over a dozen different voices spoke at once all around me. She said that I knew her... aside from that it was mostly just her taunting me."

An uneasy silence befell the group.

"That was it?" The Doctor asked, "Just a lone mare and a lot of fire?"

Celestia thought back to the vision, "There was one other thing... a crack."

This brought The Doctor's undivided attention.

"A giant white crack, the figure said it was a crack in reality that..."

"Erased everything it touches..." The Doctor finished Celestia's sentence.

All eyes turned to The Doctor.

The Doctor had a grim look on his face, gone was the excitable stallion they had seen moments ago, "Oh, I'm so sorry..."

Luna approached The Doctor, "You know of this crack?"

"Yes, but it shouldn't be here, it CAN'T be here. You see a long time ago in my home universe a group called The Silence destroyed my TARDIS, which for those of you who don't yet know stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, it's my ship and time machine. Anyway they blew it up in such a way that it created a hole in the universe and while normally the Time Lords would fix such a thing easy there were no other Time Lords by that point. The crack swallowed everything, nearly erasing every moment in history until I re-booted the universe. But the crack remained, scar tissue left over from that event, following me throughout my entire eleventh life. If it's here then that mare must have done something very, very bad to get it. Not to mention the understanding required to do such a thing would likely require the intellect of a..."

"Doctor?" Derpy was concerned over how pale The Doctor suddenly became, "The intellect of what?"

"...A Time Lord."

Silence fell over the room again.

"I'm guessing that's bad..." Squeaked Fluttershy.

"Well... it might not be a Time Lord, but if it is we are in serious danger." The Doctor said pensively, before returning to his lighter attitude with a smile, "Well never mind that's what I'm here aren't I! We just need to find whomever the culprit is before she has the chance to fulfill her plan and then me and Derpy can got on our way to Barcelona!"

Celestia gave a sigh, "I hope you are right Doctor, now my little ponies the moon is due to rise soon and we most certainly have a long day ahead tomorrow. Twilight, I have had rooms prepared for your friends, I assume you remember where yours is?"

Twilight nodded in confirmation.

"OK then, I suggest you get some rest."

Quietly aside from some light internal discussion about the days event the six ponies and one dragon walked out of the room, the guards went to escort the five not-royal element bearers to their prepared rooms while Spike and Twilight walked in the other direction towards their own room in the castle.

In the throne room Derpy gave a yawn, "Actually Doc, I'm pretty beat so I think I'll head back to the TARDIS and get some sleep myself."

Derpy left the room leaving only two alicorns and a Time lord left. Celestia noticed The Doctor had gone back into deep thought.

"Thinking about the crack Doctor?" Celestia asked him.

"Not quite, I'm thinking back on the discussion we just had, specifically the ponies we were discussing with."

"The element bearers? Why?"

"I just feel like... I missed something incredibly obvious and very, very crucial.

The Watch.

It seemed to grow heavier with every step Twilight took, and the voices along with that maddening drumming also increased.

Twilight was more than ready just to put her head down and sleep, that is why it was a great relief to finally come to the door with Twilight's Cutie Mark embedded at the top of the frame. It was situated in the Royal wing right next to another which held the mark of Princess Cadance and down the hallway from where  Celestia and Luna's bedrooms were situated.

Entering room Twilight immediately collapsed on the bed with a groan.

"You OK Twilight?" Spike asked her out of concern.

"I'm fine Spike... just exhausted."

"You want me to get you anything?"

"No I... actually, some water would be nice."

"Well your number one assistant is on the case!"

Spike quickly left the room to fetch Twilight water, Twilight watched him leave. Sitting up Twilight levitated the watch with her magic to examine it, the more she examined it the louder the whispering became.

"What are you?" Twilight muttered.

Twilight got off the bed and took the watch off her neck holding it out in front of her. For the first time she noticed the odd symbols on the front. Some sort of language?

She had to know, the whispering, the drums, The Doctor. All the things she had witnessed the past two days were driving her to do one thing, open this watch. She had to know... what lay within? What made this watch so compelling? Why had Pinkie acted the way she did?

Twilight had to know...

Twilight stood there for a few, very tense moments with the watch just levitating in front of her. Then with her magic she found a small button on top, the release mechanism.

She pressed it.

The watch swung open and brilliant golden energy began to swirl out of it free at last! It made contact with Twilight and began to engulf her, and then be absorbed into her.

The drumming became louder and louder as memories came flooding back, Gallifrey... The Daleks... The Doctor....

The Doctor...

And of course, The Master.

A second heart began to beat.

The golden energy died down just as Spike walked back into the room.

"I've got your water, hey... are you OK?" Spike saw Twilight standing in the centre of the room with an open watch on the floor in front of her, she was smiling, and not a warm smile or a friendly smile, a cold sinister smile.

"I'm fine Spike...oh I am so fine it blows my mind..."