“Are you sure whatever you have planned is a good idea?” Celestia asked worriedly. The Doctor looked up from the TARDIS’ control panel.

“A good idea? HA! No, this is a terrible idea. It’s also the only idea we have. If Duskfall is going to have any chance at all, this is the only course of action. Even the best Mind Healers can’t do anything now. Hey, maybe we’ll be lucky and she’ll snap out of it after her first death,” The Doctor tried to sound optimistic, “After all, I’ve heard Regeneration can do a body good. It’s the same basic principle, right?”

“You mean like your ‘friend’ The Master?” Celestia asked skeptically.

“That was a special case!” The Doctor grumbled.

“So what, exactly, is your plan?” Celestia questioned.

“We’re going to jump ahead in time about a hundred thousand years and dump her on a lawless rock where she can live out her twisted fantasies until she burns out,” The Doctor shrugged. Like he said, it wasn’t a good plan.

“What?!” Celestia sounded outraged. Good, she should be outraged. It meant she still cared.

“As I said before, maybe we’ll be lucky and her first death will snap her out of it,” The Doctor tried to placate her.

“And if we aren’t lucky?” Celestia wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer, but had to ask anyway.

“I fully expect her to start cataloguing all the different ways she can think of to die and/or be sexually used, employ them all, make a list of her favorites, and proceed to do those favorites over and over again for at least two centuries, while picking up the occasional new and exotic idea to try, just to keep things interesting” The Doctor answered bluntly. Celestia’s back legs gave out.

“How did it get so bad?” Celestia whispered.

“Duskfall is a very convincing liar. You wouldn’t have known what to look for and I took for granted that ponies are generally terrible liars. It completely slipped my mind that she’s half human. She’s also fiendishly clever. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if she had devised a way to hide herself from Harmonia’s Weave of Fate as soon as she learned it was a thing. There are few things more terrifying than a smart human utterly devoted to a goal. This is a smart human/pony hybrid utterly devoted to a goal, although what that goal is I have no idea,” The Doctor sighed tiredly.

“Do we really have to do this?” Celestia asked.

“Duskfall’s Mind is currently consumed by the fires of insanity. For most other species I know a drug or two that could possibly help them. We simply don’t have the time to study Alicorn biology long enough to discover similar drugs. Not while Duskfall is such an active threat to society and herself,” The Doctor desperately wished he had spent more time learning and less time goofing off since he had come to Equuis, “The best thing we can do is drop her off somewhere she can do minimal damage to society.”

“What do you mean a threat to society? She hadn’t expressed a desire to harm anyone beside herself,” Celestia pointed out.

“Let’s just say it would be very bad if people got it into their heads that they could kill without consequence. That’s basically what Duskfall is offering. A free taste of murder with no strings attached. Hell, she’ll probably even thank whoever kills her, if they stick around long enough. Definitely not the sort of thing you want spreading around any civilization,” The Doctor’s face crinkled as though he had eaten something particularly sour.

“I had not considered that,” Celestia admitted.

“Nor should you have! It’s one thing to fight monsters that are intentionally looking to destroy everything you hold dear. It’s quite another to try and help someone who is self-destructing and threatening everything around her by accident,” The Doctor replied wearily.

“Do you have a destination in mind for her?” Celestia hesitantly asked.

“Yes. The world doesn’t have an official name anymore, but most refer to it as ‘Hell’s Armpit’. It was originally a pony colony, but over the years it’s become a hive of scum and villainy for a lot of species. Duskfall will have little problem getting what she wants there. Everything from muggings turned murder to people more than willing to sexually prey upon a cute looking mare like Duskfall Sparkle,” The Doctor’s voice was colored with disgust.

“I don’t want to do this,” Celestia confessed.

“Neither do I,” The Doctor agreed, “But unless you can somehow figure out how to use the Elements without Magic and have them target Duskfall, this is our best bet. Sometimes the best way to show kindness is to be cruel. I’ll have the TARDIS monitoring Duskfall. The second she regains some semblance of sanity, we’re pulling her out, OK? Plus, perks of owning a time machine, we can just pop from the moment we drop her off to the moment she’s ready to be picked up.”

“I feel like I should bear witness to every second of Duskfall’s trials, but I don’t think I’m strong enough for that,” Celestia sounded immensely disappointed in herself.

“Better you realize that now. We don’t need two Alicorns running about in fits of insanity. We won’t have nearly the same amount of freedom with your treatment. Your immortality is tied to Equuis’ sun. If we took you too far away or some time before it was born or after it died, you’d simply be a powerful mortal… unless you gave yourself over to your goddesshood and figured out how to link with another sun, of course,” The Doctor mused.

“That is something Harmonia is still working on,” Celestia remarked.

“Yes, so as I said, you’re not allowed to go insane before then,” The Doctor said faux sternly.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Celestia said tiredly. A minute later and the TARDIS had landed.

“If there’s anything you’d like to write in a note, now is the time to do so. She likely won’t be seeing you for a few centuries,” The Doctor said grimly. Before she had the chance to over think it, Celestia scribbled down a short note and placed it in the saddlebags she and the Doctor had prepared for Duskfall. She then placed the saddlebags on Duskfall’s unconscious form as the TARDIS’ doors opened. Celestia levitated Duskfall outside.

The TARDIS had landed about .4 kilometers out from the nearest town, barely visible through the heat haze of the desert the TARDIS had landed in. Celestia double checked the contents of the saddlebags one last time. There was money, pen, paper, a few note pads, a regular journal, and a canteen. Celestia had wanted to add a favorite book or a few personal tokens, but The Doctor had shot her down. What he didn’t say was that he fully expected her to lose the saddlebags upon entering town. The cynic in him predicted she’d find her first death almost immediately after they left in a mugging. No sense bothering Celestia with that knowledge.

“Well, come along Celestia. No sense dallying here now,” The Doctor ordered. Celestia cast a slow acting awakening spell and joined The Doctor in the TARDIS once more.

Author's Notes:

I'll post the next chapter after the side story The Road to Healing is approved. When exactly, I don't know, because Life has decided I needed another dicking after the emotional wringer I've been through the last couple of days.

You know how I'm only supposed to watch the dog 3 days a week? Well the car broke down. So now I have to watch him every day until the car is fixed. Man, the Universe must really want me to commit not alive! So if the next chapter doesn't show up for a week, it's either because I'm in a mental hospital for a psychotic episode that lasted long enough for my parents to actually notice (So probably a full two or three days), I'm in jail for killing the dog, or I'm dead. Those are the three most likely reasons.

It was really very easy to write the first chapter of The Road to Healing because I can feel that exact same Insanity bubbling away in my own brain! EXCEPT I DON'T GET A RESPAWN OPTION!! Fuck me sideways with a sonic screwdriver...