The TARDIS.

Everypony awoke on the floor, completely disoriented, all except for the Doctor. The TimeColt was pacing around the console of the TARDIS, muttering things under his breath, "Oh please don't let it be... keep it together...," finally he turned and looked at his companions. "I'm sorry, I am so sorry."

Twilight noticed that a tear escaped his eye, "What is it Doctor?" the unicorn asked.
"I'll answer that," they were interrupted by a strange colt, wearing a fez, of all things. "Well, well. It seems our little game is beginning again, isn't it." He looked around, "Oh, Miss Sparkle, whats wrong is that he knows whats going on, and he can't stop it!" The colt laughed hysterically.

"He can stop anything!" Rainbow Dash shouted, "Go on, show him him how you beat the Daleks."
"Oh, Rainbow Dash, I know more about him than anyone else in the universe." He said, "and whats the point of knowing so much, if you can't teach it to everyone else?"

"Stop it," the Doctor pleaded, "No one should have to live through my life, especially not my friends."
"Have you ever wondered, Twilight, What happened before he crashed in PonyVille." The colt had asked, then turned to AppleJack, "If he's honest about himself.," then to Pinkie, "Has he ever been happy?" Then he looked a Rarity, "what he's taken from ponies?" then to Fluttershy, "Is he kind?" and finally to Rainbow Dash, "What happened to all of his loyal friends." He paused and looked at the Doctor, "Well today your going to learn, oh so very much."

"Who are you," AppleJack had asked with a Fluttershy stutter.
"If he is a lord of time," The colt slowly said. "Then I am a lord of dreams, and this colt," he pointed to the Doctor, "has so many Nightmares."

One by one Twilight saw her friends disappear, finally smoke surrounded her, and she was whisked away into a different place. She saw the Doctor as an old colt, doing so many great things, but then the images stopped at one moment in history. A strange planet with an orange sky, a great civilization, but it all started to fall under a shadow. she looked up and saw it, the great blue box, projecting energy over the planet. Slowly and painfully, everypony on the planet stared to die. And she heard the laughing of the Doctor.

"Pity, isn't it?" The Dream Lord asked, "He wiped out his own people, just to see them burn."
"No, I don't believe you!" Twilight cried, "He is a good colt."

"Yes," the Dream Lord agreed, "But good colts don't need rules, as he once said." and with that the two faded out of this nightmare.

AppleJack awoke to the moment the Doctor revealed himself, "I'm not Colt Swift." he had said after lying to everyone.
"Maybe that dream fella was right." she said to herself.

"We both know I am, AJ." the Dream Lord appeared, "Rule one, the Doctor lies. It's been this way since the beginning. Did you know that his closest friends thought he was dead, on Celestmas?" They were swooped away to the image of two ponies, Amy and Rory. "He kissed that colts wife, and never told the mare his greatest secret. But you know who he did tell AJ? Your friend Rainbow Dash, he told her his secrets. I guess he didn't think that you were, trustworthy."

AppleJack became mad, and as she released her anger in a shout they turned to smoke and fled the scene.

Rarity was experiencing a bunch of memories of the Doctor, never asking anything in return for his deeds, until she saw him as a foal, in a museum. Stepping into the big blue box. He took it, and never returned it. Then Rarity saw many different ponies, mostly fillies. each time a voice said, "Come with me."

"Oh yes, he took all those poor fillies away from their homes," the Dream Lord coughed, "Oh but whats more is the box, that box could have saved so many that he just left behind."

"Well, that's not very gentlecoltly of him, after all he seems so nice, but it is all a ruse?" Rarity questioned. and they faded away from the images.

"You are everything I despise!" Fluttershy heard the Doctor say.
"Colonel Runaway" he spoke mockingly.

"This can't be the same colt," she said to herself, before a voice entered the space.
"Oh it is, he can be ever so cruel, don't you think?" The voice asked.

"E-everyone loses their temper sometimes." Fluttershy responded.
"But when he loses it entire species die, doesn't that make you sick?" The voice asked.

"Oh, everyone makes mistakes." Fluttershy said cutely.
"But he killed so many creatures, purposely!" the voice insisted.

Fluttershy began to cry as she saw a similar image to Twilights.

"Oh, oh my." she started to cry, and her tears sent her away.

"Wow the Doctor knows how to have fun," Pinkie Pie said in a squeaky tone.
"Yeah, if you consider libraries and museums fun." the Dream Lord said. "He always stops at boring places, to check up on his 'score'."

Pinkie saw the Doctor in a giant library, the size of a planet, and in a museum, constantly checking every exhibit.
"He also goes to quite a few sad places." the Dream Lord implied as she showed Pinkie pie the image of a blank white wall, and then him standing outside a house in the rain.

"Doesn't sound very fun." and she was whisked off into the darkness.

Rainbow Dash saw the Doctor, talking with a blonde haired filly. She saw the girl mouth the words 'I love you' to the Doctor and he disappeared. Then she saw a colt change from normal clothing into a Roamin Centurion outfit, as he waited for two thousand years fr the Doctor to return to save the one he loves.

"But, he never returned," the Dream Lord lied. "Not very loyal is he?"
"No, he isn't." Rainbow Dash agreed. and then walked away with the Dream Lord.

Back on the TARDIS:
The Doctor was awoken by Spike, who for some reason had not been affected by the Dream Lords sleeping powers. "Dragons aren't affected by any harmful magic" Spike explained.

"Oh, that's brilliant." the Doctor responded.
They went and woke up all the others, and when they were all awake they looked shocked at him.

"What did I do?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh so much," the Dream Lord replied. "Tell him ladies."
Each of his friends had a formal complaint with the Doctor, driving him mad. until he finally just said, "EVERYPONY SHUT UP!" they all did as was commanded.

"And as for you," he looked at the Dream Lord. "Why don't we show them some of what you've done with your "Life""
A screen popped up without an image, until the Doctor spoke. "You have no power, because you don't exist, your just what happens when I have a nightmare. Now since you know what happens when i slow down, why don't we all take a minute to gather our thoughts." as he closed his eyes, he thought of all the pain he had felt in his life. The sorrow that had been plaguing the Doctor's hearts for so very long, was finally being brought out.

The Dream Lord fell back onto his back, clearly in pain, he screamed.
"Remember our pain, The Ponds, River Song, Donna, Marhta," he paused, "Rose," and the Dream Lord started to disintegrate from his legs up. Finally the Doctor looked up and whispered on word, "Gallifrey." and with that, the particles flowed back into the Doctor.

The TARDIS, after the other had gone to sleep.

The Doctor sat alone next to the console of the TARDIS, when he was joined by Twilight.
"Rough night?" the unicorn asked.

" Try rough, nine-hundred years." the Doctor said blandly, "this is why I travel, I don't ever try to look back. If i slow down, my life catches up with me."

"I think what you need, is a good night's rest." Twilight responded, "The others forgive you, by the way. maybe its time you forgive yourself." and with that she walked back to her room.

"Maybe," the Doctor agreed.

Next Chapter: Back to the Beginning Estimated time remaining: 42 Minutes