The burning sensation in the Time Lord’s legs was beginning to resurface. It hadn’t taken long for Pinkie to clear the door and nopony was willing to waste any more time. Running was something both Doctor’s were used to, but even they had their limits, and the pony Doctor was worried that he might be reaching his. He refused to allow those thoughts to cloud his mind though. Everything was finally coming together.

He took another look over his shoulder and sure enough his group was still intact. The problem was that they had no idea what to expect when they reached the roof. The Doctor was certain that the tower would have at least one guard stationed by it and dealing with even one Cyberman would not be an easy task. They couldn’t match one physically, so the only option left was to outwit it.

Finally, they came to the final staircase that would lead them to the palace roof. While Pinkie had been freeing the door, the Doctor had spotted a blueprint for the castle. He had quickly memorised it and led the charge to the roof. The Doctor paused at the foot of the stairs and turned to the group.

“Alright, get ready. If we encounter anything, get behind me.”

“Doctor, what about the others?” asked an out of breath Ditzy.

“And, how will we get rid of the Cybermen?” questioned Fluttershy.

“First we have to take care of the tower and free everypony,” replied the Doctor, “and don’t worry about the Cybermen. I’ve got a plan on how to deal with them,” he finished with a smirk. They all relaxed slightly while Pinkie jumped up triumphantly.

“Alright then! Let’s teach those mean old Cybermen a lesson!” She cried.

“Here we go, allons-y!”

Without another word, he began to quickly ascend the staircase with the others in tow. It was a short walk with no distractions but the group’s mood was taken down further by the unsettling feeling that this was a little too easy. Still, they pushed ahead, dreading what they might behind behind the next corner. The door to the roof was nothing but a simple brown door without a lock. Odd that there would be no lock, but the Doctor realised that it might be magically protected. Preparing for the worst, he gingerly reached over for the doorknob, but Pinkie beat him to the punch and swung the door wide open. Pinkie happily trotted through, perhaps oblivious to the potential danger ahead while the Doctor quickly followed behind.

What lay ahead was a long stretch of concrete and at the far end was their target. The tower seemed to reach up to the sky. There was a ladder that rose up to the peak of the metallic mesh, and located at the bottom was a large switch that screamed “pull me!” The group huddled around each other as they gazed up at the tower. The Doctor put his thoughts into words in the most elegant way possible.

“That. Is. Beautiful.”

“I know it-WHAT!?” Shouted Ditzy.

“I mean look at her Ditz. That is a magnificent creation. It’s funny really when you think about it. The reason this technology hasn’t existed for eight hundred years is because Celestia insists on magical advancement over technological advancement. Just imagine if it was the other way round! I wouldn’t be surprised if your entire race was exploring the stars by now.”

“Aren’t you more concerned over the fact that it’s HUGE!”

“Not really. We’re practically looking at a work of art. I mean it would be a crime, a travesty to destroy this. Still, we had better shut it down, right?”

“Nice to see you have your priorities straight,” said Ditzy with an annoyed look. The Doctor responded with a sheepish smile that slowly turned into a grimace.

“You know what Ditzy? I’m really going to miss you.”

“Huh? What do you…”

“Doctor! Is that the switch!?” screamed Pinkie as she pointed to the massive switch at the base of the tower.

“Yes, it should be. Would you do the honours?” Pinkie didn’t need to be asked twice. She got into a running stance, but as soon as she took off, she slammed into a white body.

A man once said that the wrong man in the right place, or the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. Life has always had a way of bringing the worst mare to the worst place at the worst possible time. This was one of those times. Celestia stood over the fallen Pinkie Pie with a deranged looked plastered over her face. She gazed over the group and attempted a motherly smile which came off as more sinister than intended.

“I had a feeling you would find your way up here,” she said. The Doctor motioned for Ditzy to get behind him while Celestia placed a hoof on the element of laughter’s chest. “Please don’t struggle, Pinkie, everything will so much clearer, very soon.”

“Obviously you're being manipulated,” muttered the Doctor. His voice was just loud enough so Celestia could hear.” Either you’re seeing a distorted reality or every decision you make is being subtly decided for you. Either way, you’re not in your right mind.”

“I will have to correct you, Doctor. My mind has never been more clear. All the potential wars of the future, all future conflict will be avoided and true harmony will descend upon the planet.” She pointed her hoof towards the peak of the tower. “Our salvation has come from another world. A world that understands true peace…”

“No! They understand uniformity, order, but they don’t understand harmony or magic or freedom. If you do this, you doom every race on this planet to become a mindless drone. No species on this planet will ever advance. All creativity and imagination will die, along with their emotions.”

“Perhaps that is best. I have witnessed this world descend into chaos, twice!” She slammed her hoofs into the ground which caused the floor beneath them to shake violently. “First, when a demon of chaos ruled Equestria, the second time when a dispute with my sister led to a world-spanning war. Do you know what it’s like to live a lie? Nopony can ever know what I used to be like back then. How foolish, ignorant and greedy I used to be. I used to be in support of slavery! I advocated for the earth pony race to be second class citizens because I couldn’t imagine a world where we we’re all equal.”

“Exactly,” snapped the Doctor. “Imagination led you to the conclusion it could be done. I know the truth. Luna was upset over the fact that the ponies didn’t appreciate the night, that is true. But she also strongly disagreed with your policies on slavery. What she didn’t realise, was that you weren’t Celestia anymore.” Celestia’s eyes opened wide in shock.

“No, don’t say it!”

“You were…

“I SAID DON’T!”

“… Scorching Sun.”

“Scorching sun? Who’s that?” Asked Ditzy.

“Before Luna became Nightmare Moon, an entity took advantage of Celestia’s fear over ruling. She felt like she had to show her power when some of the other races threatened war against her. The entity, much like Nightmare Moon, transformed her into Scorching Sun. A dictator like spirit, bent on control. Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon during the course of the war after losing so many loved ones and during the final battle between the sisters, Celestia was freed from Scorching Sun.” Celestia was shaking her head in a desperate attempt to block out the Doctor’s words, but it was in vain.

“Did you never think to, I don’t know, stop it from ever happening?” asked Ditzy.

“I can’t, the entire event is time locked. Changing it would cause the destruction of everything.” A bolt of magic flew over the pair’s heads as they quickly ducked down. Celestia took her hoof off Pinkie’s chest, but Pinkie was too scared to move.

“It doesn’t matter. I won’t let you stop my citizens living in peace. You will never reach that switch!” A wry smile began to show on the Doctor’s face as he stood confidently before Celestia.

“You’re right. I won’t be able to reach that switch, but Fluttershy already has.” The realisation that one of the ponies that was meant to be with the Time Lord’s group was absent hit her like a tonne of bricks. Celestia craned her neck behind her just in time to see Fluttershy, with all of her strength, flip the massive switch downwards.

Meanwhile…

The town of Ponyville came to a standstill. Everypony, no matter the position they were in, froze in place. The entire town became a series of living statues as their eyes began to glaze over and roll back in their heads. Suddenly, everypony fell to the ground unconscious. Only a few of them would ever grasp how close they came to death.

“Ha, well done Fluttershy,” praised the the Doctor. “It appears her quiet nature was enough to sneak past you, Celestia.” Celestia should have had a face filled with rage, anger, disappointment. Instead, she was smiling. Then, she began laughing. Understandably, this unsettled the group slightly.

“Um, usually when ponies laugh it’s because something funny has happened,” noted Pinkie. “But you’re laughing and something bad has happened to you.” Celestia wiped an imaginary tear from her eye as she calmed herself.

“It’s funny that you think you’ve won now. Because you haven’t. The device is ready to fire. What the workers were setting up was supposed to boost the effect of the tower to cover all of Equis. Sadly, we’ll just have to settle for Equestria for the time being.”

“I don’t understand,” said the Doctor. “What do you…?” A flash of light surrounded the group and when the light disappeared, the entire group found themselves in the throne room. They weren’t alone though, as six Cybermen and two Cyberponies surrounded them. Fluttershy jumped towards the others and coward down in a desperate bid to hide from sight, but it was no use.

They were surrounded with no way out.

Pinkie was able to get Fluttershy to stand up when Fluttershy realised that it wasn’t working. The Doctor looked over to the doorway, only to find two more cybermen standing in front of the exit. The Doctor took one last scan around the room, but came to the same conclusion: They were trapped. Instinctively, he took out his screwdriver and began to point it at the enemy’s around them, but this only made Celestia scoff.

“What do you intend to do with your little night light? On its own, it is no threat to us.” Instinct wouldn’t allow the Doctor to lower his final defence. He wanted to hold onto that small glimmer of hope, but reality was quickly setting in. One of the Cybermen marched up to the front of the group and stretched his arm out towards them.

“You have all been deemed incompatible. You will be deleted.” A chorus of death began to sound across the room as the other cybermen mimicked the first cyberman’s actions.

“DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!”

Suddenly, the throne room doors swung open, launching the two Cybermen on guard across the room. Everypony turned towards the source of the disturbance to discover Princess Luna, the Doctor, Vinyl, Octavia, Rarity and Rainbow Dash standing inside the doorway. Celestia released a hearty laugh at the scene before her.

“I was wondering where you had all gone,” she said with a smirk. Her eyes met her sisters across the room. “Lulu, I see they removed your earplugs. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to help you, little sister.” Luna’s anger was evident as she began to tremble.

“Help me!? HELP ME!? I thought you were stronger than this, Tia. Can you not see the madness that has befallen our kingdom?”

“Any ‘madness’ has been caused by this group,” Celestia said as she pointed towards the non-converted ponies in the room. “Lulu, do you really want to fight me? We all remember what happened last time?” Luna was beginning to see red, but before she could make any sort of attack, the cybermen marched in front of Celestia, forming a wall in front of the princess. If Luna attacked, she would be attacked in return. “Don’t make me hurt you little sister. I would rather avoid that.” Rarity signalled for the pony Doctor’s group to join them as both the ponies and the Cybermen stood facing one another. The taller Doctor took a step forward as he looked Celestia in her eyes.

“We know your entire plan now,” the Time Lord announced with a hint of pride in his voice. “The tower isn’t just for controlling the populace, it’s a biology converter.” Celestia squinted her eyes at the Doctor but he paid her no mind as he turned to his friends. “Basically, the reason the cybermen have been collecting magic or, “element x” is because of its infinite potential. Magic, in its raw form is like the number zero. Empty, but filled with infinite potential. The being, who is yet to be identified, supplied the cybermen with the location of Equestria and the means to set this all up. Someone or somepony handed you a victory strategy. For what reason, I still don’t know. But now I know why the princesses were kept alive.”

“Yeah, why did they do that? Wouldn’t it be easier just to take them out?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“If they did that, then they would have gotten rid of their biggest power source.” The Doctor pointed directly at Celestia who did not react to his finger. “You can’t extract raw magic from a pony, it’s simply something they emit. A unicorn gives off very low levels, earth and pegasi even less, but an Alicorn is a different story entirely. It only took a matter of days to power up the tower and now all you simply have to do is place a decent amount of cyber technology at the top of the tower, fire away, and the entirety of Equis will be converted into a cyber-base creature.”

“Very nice summation Doctor. I give you an A for effort,” said Celestia. “However, I don’t see how you can win now? You’re trapped and you will be easily overpowered. It’s a shame really, you would have made a great member to our cause.”

“Well normally you would be right, I’m very much used to making it up as I go along. However, I have noticed something about you. I picked it up after the last two times we talked.”

“Oh really? And what is that?”

“You’re very easily distracted,” he said with a smirk. Alarm bells rang in Celestia’s head as she scanned the room and noticed a certain rainbow haired mare was missing from the group. Too late did she notice the two hoofs on her earplugs as they were being pulled off.

“Oh buck…” Celestia fell unconscious.

The Cybermen, upon witnessing Celestia’s swift defeat, immediately attempted to grab Rainbow Dash but she was too quick for them as she flew up into the air. Like a missile, she flew hoof first into a Cyberman’s chest. At the speed she was going, she managed to slam her hoof through its chest, effectively killing the metal giant. She tried to ignore the fact her hoof came into contact with dead flesh, but she couldn’t help but wretch a little.

Her allies quickly joined the fray as Pinkie Pie, from seemingly nowhere, managed to blow away a cyberman with her trusted party canon. Vinyl’s speed and strength became essential as she began tearing through the cybermen that Luna managed to keep still by using her magic. Both Doctor’s took their chance to check on Princess Celestia. They slipped past the battle, confident their friends would succeed and reached the unconscious Celestia. The taller Doctor looked over to his pony counterpart with a smile.

“I assume you turned off the earpieces,” he asked.

“Yes, you should have seen Celestia’s face. Priceless.” Both Doctor’s confirmed she was merely asleep. “Well done on discovering the entire plan. It’s helped confirm my plan on how to deal with the rest of the Cybermen.”

“Really? What’s that then?”

“The cybermen from your universe are too bent on logic. Magic is chaotic and beyond the realm of possibility for them. However, with minimum contact and renaming the substance ‘element x’, they’ve avoided suffering from a logic overload. Despite the flesh, they’re too much machine.” The other Doctor immediately realised what his counterpart was leading too.

“Ha! Of course! If they witnessed a mass use of magic in front of them, they’re minds would be unable to comprehend it. That’s also why they didn’t choose the longer extraction process. Witnessing its use too much would have fried their circuits.”

“Correct so all we have to do…” the pony Doctor was interrupted by quiet sobbing. Below, the Alicorn princess who had once stood proud and tall, was now a blubbering wreck. Any words that were coming out of her mouth were muffled by her sobbing.

“Tia! Are you alright!?” cried out the princess of the night. Both Doctor’s turned around to see the battle was over. Together, they easily bested these cybermen, but there were many more roaming the streets of Canterlot. Luna knelt down and embraced her elder sister while the two Doctor’s made their way towards the door. Vinyl caught them before they could leave.

“Where are you two going? We have to stop the cybermen,” she said.

“Don’t worry, Vinyl. That is exactly what we are going to do,” assured the pony Doctor.

“When Celestia has calmed down, and judging by the scene behind us, that might take a while, tell everyone to meet us on top of the balcony that’s looking over Canterlot,” finished the other Doctor. With that the two left, ready to carry out the final part of the plan.

It was roughly a thirty minute wait, but the others eventually joined the two Doctor’s on the balcony. From where they stood, they could see the rest of the cybermen marching through the streets. They were loading up ponies and placing them in carts after they had been knocked unconscious. Both Doctor’s assumed it was to place the earpieces back on once they were able to get the link running again. It was only a matter of time before the cybermen stormed the castle so they would have to act quickly. Celestia took a couple of steps forward and bowed her head in shame.

“I am truly sorry my little ponies,” she said solemnly. “I have no idea what came over me. Suddenly, everything the earpiece told me made perfect sense. That is not an excuse, that is the truth. I have shamed myself because of this. I don’t know what I’m going to say to Twilight.” Tears became to form in Celestia’s eyes but Luna was there to stop them.

“Now is not the time, sister. You are not to blame and the ponies of our kingdom will recognise that. We will find whomever brought them here; but first, we must deal with the threat at hoof.” Celestia nodded while Octavia approached her Doctor.

“Doctor, tell me you know what to do.” The Doctor nodded his head and began to explain.

“As we said before, the cybermen can’t accept magic, but they can’t flat out ignore the evidence if it’s placed in front of them.” The pony Doctor continued.

“Simply put, we must do something so big that even they can’t ignore it. When they witness it, their circuits should overload which will result in their death.”

“But what on earth could possibly be big enough?”

“Simple really, Luna must raise the moon.” There was a short pause as everypony digested the information. The other Doctor decided to explain.

“In my world, day and night are automatic because the earth orbits the sun. Here, it requires one of your to do it. To the cybermen, that is completely illogical. If they witness Luna raise the moon, there is no way they would be able to handle it.” Celestia took this chance to interrupt.

“Could the Cybermen simply not look up?”

“Exactly, that’s why we need to draw their attention to the sky. That’s where you come in Celestia.” Celestia eyes opened slightly wider at this. “We need you to make something big, loud and colourful in the sky long enough to get their attention.” There was another pause as Celestia stared at the Doctor’s in front of her. She took a few cautious steps towards them and bowed her head.

“If there is anypony that I trust right now, that is you two.” She raised her head again and wore a genuine smile. “Thank you, Doctor’s. Let us begin.”

Celestia turned to her sister and the pair nodded at each other. Luna instinctively flew past the balcony and into the sky, but before she did, she waited for her sister’s signal. Celestia stood at the edge of the balcony, charging her spell. The perfect distraction for any creature. The perfect thing to draw somepony’s attention. Fireworks. An explosion of colours burst from the tip of her horn and rocketed up the sky. It left a short, sparkly rainbow in its wake and when it reached the top of the sky, and exploded into a massive ball of multi-coloured light. As expected, every cyberman in the city gazed upward to investigate the sudden noise and colour and now it was Luna’s time to shine.

Celestia had once said that explaining how to move the sun and moon was impossible. It was something you had to experience yourself. The higher Luna rose, the further the sun descended and the higher the moon climbed up the sky. Already, the cybermen were showing ill signs. Some began to shake uncontrollably, while others were frozen solid. Suddenly, one cyberman’s head exploded which started a chorus of exploding metal the further the moon rose. The others watched down from the balcony in joy as the cybermen were exploding in the street. The scene was ghastly with metal and bits of burned flesh scattered about, but it did not deter the early celebration. After several minutes, the last cyberman fell.

The cybermen had been defeated.

Luna quickly flew back once the moon was secure and embraced her sister in a hug. The ponies around the taller Doctor did the same as the victory celebration was already underway. A smile reached his lips as he looked on.

“Well, Doctor, it looks like…” The Time Lord stopped his sentence when he could no longer see his counterpart beside him. He scanned the room for him and found him on the other side of the room. The key difference was that the pony Doctor had placed a gas mask on his face. He was also holding some kind of silver ball. The others began to notice this too and Ditzy was the first to point out the elephant in the room.

“Doctor? Wh-” The pony Doctor threw the ball at the group and before anypony could react, the contents of the ball was released in the form of gas. Everypony went stiff. Rainbow Dash, who had been in the air at the time, suddenly fell to the ground, unable to move any part of her body apart from her face. Her friends suffered from similar ailments . Even the princesses found themselves falling to the ground in a heap. The other Doctor was the only exception as he fell to one knee. He was able to move, but still felt incredibly stiff.

“It’s a pity I hadn’t planned on you,” muttered the pony Doctor. “The gas was only designed for ponies, not Time Lord’s. Still, it appears to have had some sort of effect on you.” The gas began to clear slightly so the group could just make out the Doctor wearing an eerie gas mask.

“Wha… what ar-re you do-ing?” spluttered out Vinyl.

“Don’t worry my friends,” assured the pony Doctor. “Everything will be clear soon.” Before anypony could press any further, the Doctor pulled out a gun. The gun was alien in design, but instead of pointing it at the group, the pony Doctor pointed it at himself and fired it at his chest.

The Doctor laid there in a lifeless heap. A golden glow began to emit from the Time Lord and the only part of his body that moved was his right hoof which he kept tapping on the ground. He was mimicking a drum beat.

Author's Notes:

Just because one man handles loss in one way, doesn't mean everypony would do the exact same thing in his position...