The hall was dark and eerie as a sudden moaning became audible. In the next moment, the TARDIS appeared out of a wall, transparent and only half visible before she swung around and slid across the ground, her bottom emanating a wave of sparks as the metal screeched beneath her. When she came to a halt, the Doctor, both his eyes shut tight, dared to open one of his eyes, before he sighed in relief.

Stemming herself up, Rachel shook her head, shooting a glare towards the time pony.
“Nice landing...”

“Not the usual way I steer her... For obvious reasons that is.”

Looking over to the others, Twilight shook her head in wonder.
“How did we get inside without blowing a big hole into the hull?”

“The TARDIS may not be able to travel in time right now, but phase-shifting is still possible.” the Doctor answered.

Twilight looked up to Tyler in order to get an explanation, but he only shrugged.
“Uh... I guess some sort of teleportation through solid walls, only with technology.”

Looking up to the dark ceiling, Applejack shook her head before correcting her Stetson.
“Oh well, whatever. Ah still don't get it. Why are these Dalek fellers so gosh darn obsessed with exterminating everythin' in their way?”

Closing his eyes, the Doctor slowly shook his head before facing the earth pony.
“There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought.”

Tyler looked over to the Doctor, narrowing his eyes.
“They are your sworn enemies, aren't they?”

“Yes! We go way back, the Daleks and I. Back to the last great time war. My people, the time ponies battled them for the sake of all creation, until both sides were destroyed by me.”

“That's why the Master called you killer of your own kind... You killed all of them to end this war? Was it worth it?” Tyler then asked.

“Killing something is never worth it.” The Doctor replied sober and looked down. “But if I hadn't done it, nothing would have been left by now.”

“Will we die at the hands of your enemies, Doctor?”

In an instant, the Doctor looked at Tyler. That kind of allegation... He had heard it many times. And in a way it was true. Where ever he came and went, people suffered, so the idea of people putting him on par with a bringer of hardship was nothing new.
“Not if I have a word in this! I lost too much over all these years. I'm sick and tired of loosing companions...”

Sam now nodded while caressing Lyra's mane.
“Alright... What do we do about the current situation?”

Handing out some technical devices to the humans, the Doctor began to explain his plan.
“I want you to search the station and find a way to repel the Daleks while I go and look for that timelock mechanism. If you find a way to hold the Daleks back long enough, I might find and deactivate the lock, so we can make our escape and you can return home. The Element Bearers will remain in the TARDIS, only you humans, Derpy and I will go outside.” Nodding in agreement, the humans then went along a corridor, watched by their worried herd mates.

* * * * *

Meanwhile on the surface of Barelioth station, the swarms of Daleks surrounded the massive space station, focusing their entire firepower on one particular spot alone.
“THE STATION WALLS ARE OUT OF SOLID XENTRONIUM ALLOY, SUPREME DALEK. OUR WEAPONS HAVE DIFFICULTIES PENETRATING SUCH DENSE MATERIAL.”

Looking around, the Supreme Dalek monitored the Dalek fleet from its bridge.
“NOTHING WILL HOLD THE DALEKS BACK! MAXIMUM EXTERMINATION!!! EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR AND THE MASTER!” Slowly and surely, the immense armor began to glow in a red hot fashion.

Inside the station, however, unnoticed by the Doctor and Derpy, both were watched by the cyborg Mechtoo, who was lurking in the shadows. A sudden humming on his left wrist then got his attention and he stayed behind, making sure not to be spotted by the time pony and Pegasus. Once sure to be alone, Mechtoo then raised his left arm and activated a holo-communicator, showing two eyes only. As dozens of bits of information flashed by his visor, he nodded at the instructions.
“It will be done, mistress.” With that, the cyborg disappeared into the darkness of the station.

* * * * *

Half an hour later the humans were standing in some sort of logistics hall. Sam read a sign describing the layout of the section they were in.
“Seems to me there are several freight halls. More than we could effectively by going in a group. We should spread out.”

Tyler hummed a long time in thought before he nodded.
“Alright. The Daleks are still on the surface of the station, we should be OK. However, if you run into trouble, try to avoid it and regroup with the rest of us. If this isn't an option, go for some rampage and make some noise. We others will then catch up.”

Everyone nodded in agreement before they spread out. Inspecting some of the crates standing in the freight hall he chose, Sam found nothing of use. Only some spare parts he couldn't make any sense of. Flynn on the other hand wrinkled his nose at the stench in his hall as he found a broken metal barrel that was oozing out shining blue slime. He immediately evaded this barrel big time for security reasons. Rachel Higgins was on edge. Pointing her gun at the hallways in front of her, she shrieked up at the squeaking right next to her. But all the flashlight revealed was a little rat squeaking as she stood up and sniffing a bit before she went her way.

Tyler Jones was walking between some shelves and pillars in freight hall A when he suddenly heard a noise from behind some shelves. He knew that none of the others were with him, so whoever or whatever this was, was not one of the team. Immobilizing the encounter would be a good idea. Thus he accumulated some magic and brought three rows of shelves down, which caused a domino effect on the shelves behind them. But just wen the shelves were down, a humanoid figure landed on top of them as if evaded the shelves with jumping up. The figure was male and armored and instead of a face there was only a red glowing visor. As the figure made 'eye contact' with Tyler, its hands clenched to fists as a male voice spoke up.
“You...”

Raising his arm, Tyler accumulated magic in his hand in order to attack if necessary.
“Who are you?”

Remaining calm, the masked cyborg seemed to eye Tyler as if scanning him.
“I'm like you, 'Magic'... I hide behind a codename. Call me 'Mechtoo'!”

This caused Tyler to listen up.
“How do you know me?” But little did he know that currently his entire body was being scanned.

0100110101100101011000110110100001110100011011110110111100100000011010010111001100100000010001100110110001111001011011100110111000100000010011010110000101110010011100110110100001100001011011000110110000101110

Target aquired
Acessing Mission Protocols

Prime directive: Tyler Jones, the human Rangers and the Elements of Harmony MUST survive.

Secondary directive: Tyler Jones must be brought to the test to reach his very limits.

010000110111100101100010011001010111001001110000011011110110111001101001011001010111001100100001001000000100001101111001011000100110010101110010011100000110111101101110011010010110010101110011001000000110010101110110011001010111001001111001011101110110100001100101011100100110010100100001

Now Mechtoo was confused. He had to battle this man to the very limit and at the same time preserve his life? 'I best ignore these protocoargh-' His train of thought was abruptly ended as his cybernetic suit electrocuted his biological body, which was now compelled down to its knees as Mechtoo screamed up in pain. 'Alright! ALRIGHT!!! I OBEY!!!' Just with that thought, the electrocution ended and his view darted up to a confused Tyler.

With a sudden move, Mechtoo then jumped up and Tyler was forced to look up to keep up with the movement. The cyborg was fast, even faster than Flynn and that could only mean that he was a force both swift and deadly. Tyler readied himself to face a rather impossible opponent to battle. With that speed and sword, there was no way to tell how fast he could cut off every limb. In the next second, he recognized a sudden cut in the metallic pillar behind him and made a hasty step forward as he turned around, facing the enemy behind him. Resting in Mechtoo's hand was a katana sword, humming aggressively like the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The pillar between the two of them tilted and fell as the two adversaries faced each other.

By now Tyler knew he had no choice but to rely on magic and greatly so. Raising his hand, he fired a magic shot at Mechtoo, but the cyborg simply deflected it with his sword while in midair again. The next cut went right through the wall as Tyler barely evaded the ultra sharp blade. For a moment he thought he could even see the densely sonic waves emitting from the katana. Both turning at each other once more, Tyler shot another magic projectile, yet the cyborg leaned far down evading it while at the same time kicking high up into Tyler's face. Or so Tyler thought. The mechanical boot went right pass him, yet the pressure was enough to cause a cut on his cheek. A full hit would have been a definite kill. But why not do that? What was this cyborg's intention? But while thinking too much, Tyler was kicked into the chest, causing him to slide backwards.

Jumping up, the cyborg assassin held his sword in the hand and faced the ceiling. With a speed even surpassing Flynn's, the sword flashed around, barely to see. All Tyler could clearly see were Mechtoo's torso and head, constant in midair like not moving at all in a game of momentum and gravity. As Gravity pulled the cyborg assassin down again, he performed a midair back somersault and kicked a heavy piece of falling debris towards Tyler, who teleported out of harms way to avoid the attack. Teleporting out behind Mechtoo, Tyler raised his hand once more while the cyborg span around. While the katana blade was only inches away from Tyler's throat, his hand rested on the helmet, able to blow the threat to pieces. Both stared at each other and Tyler wondered if the cyborg really meant to kill him. It would be so very easy now for both of them to end the other.

What happened next was more than unexpected for Tyler. Lowering the katana, the cyborg nodded and gained some distance.
“Good! You are almost as good as she wants you. But you still need some training. Get to freight hall B where your fellow humans are, then head towards the Elevator Shaft C. You need to activate the station's defenses. You can do that by re-activating the computer core that you can reach with that shaft. And you have to be fast. The Daleks are already picking at the outer shell of the station. Soon they will breach and swarm through every corner of the station.”

And just like that, the cyborg assassin jumped away, leaving Tyler behind, stumped.
“What the fuck?!?”

On his way to the others, he already heard them from afar as they ran over to him.
“Tyler? Where have you been? We were looking for you.”

“When we heard magic projectile fire, we were worried and came as fast as we could.

Looking behind, Tyler shook his head.
“I ran into a henchman of the Master I think. Odd feller, he was fighting me, but when I thought it was over, the guy simply vanished after telling me where to find you guys.”

Flynn now arched a brow.
“Which means...”

Tyler nodded.
“He must monitor us somehow! We should have a look for cameras and destroy them on the spot.”

“Speaking of seeing... where the hell are we? I can't see shit.” Flynn stated.

Tyler narrowed his eyes a bit and raised his arm to fire a magical signal flare into the dark, revealing a huge hall several square miles across with tens of thousands of cylinders hanging in rows. Shaking his head in disbelief, he took a step back.
“So this is freight hall B...”

The sight caused Rachel to shake her head in disbelief.
“What in the world is that?”

Sam narrowed his eyes and tried to make some sense out of it.
“Seems to me like a giant cryogenic hall. You know? In every of these cylinders rests a living being sleeping.

Coming across on of these cylinders at the gangway, Flynn yelled over to the others.
“Hey! Here's one, too!”

Cutting it open with magic, the human Rangers immediately regretted their decision to open the cylinder as the stench became unbearable. The pony corpse in front of them was rotten away, yet the stench had been preserved over the ages.
“And that's what happens if your capsule has a malfunction... Poor guy... Hopefully he didn't wake up to experience all this.”

It was then when Rachel whistled the others over and pointed at yet another capsule that was opened. This time however, the capsule was empty, yet still powered. Whoever or whatever was in there, may have made it out.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, down below, One single earth pony stallion crawled backwards as a blurry and barely visible figure approached it. Once close, the outlines of the humanoid figure became more clear and the camouflage was dropped, revealing Mechtoo. The stallion shook his head in confusion.
“Stealth Camouflage? But no one used that in over 3 galactic periods!

Bending down face to face with the stallion, Mechtoo's visor glowed hellishly red into the pony's eyes as the katana was unsheathed.
“You got free... Are there any others who got free? I am looking for someone...”

Shivering as the blade tickled his nose, the stallion shut his eyes. This couldn't be happening. Yet suddenly the door opened and caused the blade to leave his nose alone.
“What?” As the four humans entered the room, the pony shook its head. “Great. Now what?”

Standing up again, Mechtoo slowly turned at the Harmony Rangers.
“Ten minutes... It took you quite some time to get down here. Especially with the others to help you. You are too slow, Tyler Jones.”

His eyes growing grim at the sight of the cyborg now harassing ponies as well, Tyler spoke up.
“Who are you?”

The red visor silently grew in strength, the cyborg assassin seemed to scan Tyler from head to toe once more as he pointed at Tyler.
“Neither enemy nor friend. I've traveled a path that makes these two words meaningless for us two. While you four were busy stumbling through this station, I've removed all Daleks on your tail for now, so now you and I will battle to the death. I waited an eternity for this day to happen. Now I will take my chance.”

Tyler's eyes darkened as he got into fighting stance.
“What is it? Revenge of a time traveler?”

Still calm in voice and posture, Mechtoo slowly shook his head.
“No, it is nothing that trivial. I just want you to fight me in a battle to the death. Only one of us two will leave this space station. I know who it will be. The outcome will be my salvation!”

Taking stances behind Tyler, the others looked at the cyborg.
“So... Beating up a robotic dude, huh? That's a nice change in a while...”

By now the pony made haste out to the door, leaving the humans and the cyborg behind, who simply cocked his head.
“Alright, now we don't need to worry about unwanted pony interferences.”

Not taking his eyes off the cyborg for one second, Tyler began to talk.
“You guys take a look after this one guy, I should handle this guy here. Besides: He is after me as it seems and this one survivor might help us out a bit.”

Slowly retreating, the others eyed Mechtoo as well when Rachel spoke up.
“Only under protest... And you watch it, Jones! If you die, You'll be in so much trouble, I swear to you!”

Tyler smirked before the door closed behind him and his smirk withered.
“Why fighting? Can't we talk this over?”

Mechtoo slowly shook his head.
“Not my decision, Magic. She wants it that way. I can't disobey her, so there's my problem. I have to fight you no matter what until she says otherwise! But I thank you for ordering the others out. You respect my mission to face you alone, so I will honor you with all the fairness I can muster.”

“You know it doesn't have to be this way. Whatever power can she have over you that you can't overcome?”

Now holding his sonic katana in fighting stance, Mechtoo got ready to fight Tyler.
“Against my mistress you cannot win. For every attempt more ponies and humans will suffer.”

Then the two of them stormed at each other, before Mechtoo started to move with great speed once more. But this time Tyler simply vanished. Halting in surprise for a split second, the cyborg held back, only to turn sideways quickly enough to block Tyler's attack from the side. On Tyler's hands, or rather coming out of them, were two shining bright triangular blades and each time Mechtoo couldn't block the attack with his blade, each block resulting in a wild fire of sparks, these magic blades carved deep into his armor. Finally the two opponents faced each other once more.

Halting in position, the cyborg now eyed Tyler for a moment.
“You have become quite faster since our last fight... Yet you lack the speed I have. How do you move so fast?”

Clenching his fists, Tyler gave it a grin.
“I don't. I teleport. Or rather I don't teleport into a static position, but also put movement into the teleportation. The idea struck me when I escaped your somersault kick with the debris. I don't have to move physically to fight you.” What Tyler didn't mentioned was the fact that he was almost out of teleportation spells. He had to come up with something different or the cyborg would kill him.

Now Mechtoo slammed his sword into the wall and turned back to Tyler.
“I see. Like this I can't foresee your movements either. Excellent progress! It comforts me that you are reaching a combat level I remember. Now we can fight as the men we are. No attack magic, no sword, no super-speed. Just hand to hand. It is the basis of all combat. Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon.”

Blinking for a bit in surprise, Tyler nodded and went into fighting stance as the magic blades on his fists disappeared. This was promising, even if Mechtoo had a full body armor. As the fist fight went on, Tyler didn't hold back with his healing magic. As more and more punches and kicks were exchanged, Mechtoo was holding his stomach despite not being hit much at that point.

Then, all of a sudden, the cyborg seemed to have lost his patience as he suddenly punched super fast. It didn't hit, yet it gave Tyler the right idea. 'You don't obey your own rules? Then why the hell should I?' His next punch got some attack spell, yet not knowing how much his armor would take, Tyler dosed the spells high. The blow itself was gruesome. Although the punch with the fist would have been enough to paralyze the muscles for a moment, the magic added destruction to the punch. This, however, was over the edge. Not only was the armor penetrated, not only were the muscles paralyzed... No, the entire biceps and bone along with the armor were disintegrated, leaving a bloody stump.

Growling in pain, or what Tyler thought would be growling in pain, the cyborg now held the remaining stump of his arm as the blood shot out of it while stumbling back.
“ARGH!!! Aghhhh... Nnnnnggh Not again...” The blood now sprinkled out of the wound and splattered to the ground for three seconds before the wound closed and first bones recreated themselves along with the muscle tissue, sinew and skin. Looking up to Tyler, the cyborg seemed to be out of breath. “Ugh... Alright... I deserved that. I moved in super-speed, thus I broke the agreement which justified your use of magic. I wasn't cautious...” He then grabbed a capsule filled with white liquid which he injected himself after a long needle shot out of the capsule.

Shaking his head in disbelief at the sight of the fast regeneration, Tyler took a step back, his eyes still focused on the once cut off arm.
“Can't be...”

Cocking his head, the cyborg then simply shrugged.
“What can't be? Regeneration process? Please... Lots of species have that! Even more have it through technology to a lower degree. I was wrong though... You can't give me salvation... Not yet!”

“Who are you to claim such a thing?!?”

Taking a deep breath, the cyborg then walked away.
“All in good time, Tyler Jones. There are things to be done first. This whole station runs on auxiliary power. But you could reactivate the computer systems able to restore the main energy.” Staying behind, Tyler took a long look at the floor. 'He knew my name... Changelings, Descendants, Daleks, cyborg ninjas... Shit, I never was so popular!'

* * * * *

Coming outside, Rachel and Flynn were standing a few meters away with the earth pony while Sam stood near the door and approached him. Shaking his head, he pointed at Tyler.
“Man! When we saw that guy coming out, we thought you were a goner, Tyler. So he just went away again?”

“Yeah... Go figure. What about the pony?”

Nodding over to the others, Sam shrugged.
“While you and Mr. Killercyborg had your little dispute, they both calmed that guy down enough to persuade him that we are not here to harm him. He's warming up a bit.”

Coming over to the others, Tyler then nodded at the stallion who returned the favor.
“May... May I now get some answers of what is going on? I... I was on my way to planet Xaren, a gas mining planet for Methane and other useful materials. I woke up here and... and saw horrible things. Ponies shredded to pieces. There was a laboratory with all sorts of pony body parts.”

Leaning over to Tyler Rachel shook her head and lowered her voice.
“Seemingly that poor feller was kidnapped by some space pirates a long time ago and brought here. Either to be sold or for who knows what...”

Shaking his head, the earth pony looked at the humans with uncertain eyes.
“I don't understand. What stardate is it?”

“One billion seventy five million... something...” Flynn answered bluntly.

The expression of the stallion grew empty and pale in an instant.
“That's... That's one million years ahead of my time! Every... Everypony I once knew is dead! My friends, my family! My entire civilization perhaps.”

The others looked at each other with unsure glances, not sure what would be the best to say in such a moment. After a bit, Tyler looked at the stallion who now stared at the ground with an absent glare.
“We can take you with us. I'm sure we could bring you to your planet, if you wish.”

Still looking down, the stallion nodded.
“Yeah... I... I think I have an idea where to go to...”

Nodding at each other, the others then went on leading the way as Tyler began to speak.
“We will bring the guy to the TARDIS and ask the Doctor to do a little-” His sentence abruptly ended at the metallic sound behind them. As he whirled around, he barely saw the stallion standing on top of the railing. The others whirled around as Tyler raised his arm to storm at the stallion, but already the body fell. Leaning over the railing, held back by the others, Tyler could see the stallion disappear into the darkness. No scream, no sound of impact... Nothing. Taking some steps away from the railing, Tyler leaned against the wall and shook his head in shock. “This place is hell.”

Rachel shook her head.
“No shit. Don't take it personal, Jones. He made his own decision. Even if this decision was utter bullshit.

It was then when the communicator rang anew and with an emotionless “Yeah?” Tyler answered it, only to hear the Doctor's cheerful voice.
“I don't know what you did down there, Tyler... But you took out the main security systems. Good work! No bad surprises with laser turrets coming out of the ceiling or something.”

Taking a deep breath, Sam shook his head in frustration.
“Fighting a cyborg assassin in a computer room that was out to kill one sure was something considering he had that strange sword around...”

“Yeah... Buzzing like the screwdriver of the Doc.” Flynn added

Tyler nodded in agreement.
“Doctor! We are being followed and guided by a rogue cyborg who on one hand wants to kill me and guides us at the same time to make better progress. What the hell is going on here?”

Frowning a bit in thought, the stallion hummed.
“A cyborg you say? Hmmmm.... Plenty of cyborgs around in the universe.

“Yeah but surely not everyone has a sword buzzing like your sonic screwdriver!”

This caught the Doctor off guard.
“A sonic sword?!?” His mind once more began racing. Of all encounters there was nothing like a cyborg with a sonic sword. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and took a look at the TARDIS monitor. “Alright, I will see to this in good time. Unfortunately your way back again is blocked by several tons of debris. But there should be a hall with an elevator up to us. In order to get to that elevator, you four have to get through the computer core chamber.”

Rolling his eyes, Tyler chuckled a bit.
“Yeah, he already told me to do so.”

By now the Doctor became most curious. Who was that cyborg? Why did he know where to go? And most importantly: Why was he helping when he was a definite henchman of the Master. Or was he something else?

* * * * *

An hour later at the big bulky doors of the computer core room, Rachel shook her head.
“It is a miracle that we're not lost already on a space station the size of a moon. I mean this place is huge!!!”

Flynn nodded while looking around.
Yeah... Under other circumstances, without the good Doctor perhaps, we might be lost in here. But these devices of his sure make this easy. Tyler? What's your take on him?”

Trying to open a door, Tyler shook his head.
“I'm trying to have no take on him right now, Flynn. That guy is dangerous since he is surrounded by enemies most of the time. I'm a bit worried about Derpy. She's a good girl, she doesn't deserve to die because of some possible mistake of a time pony. Then again, his determination to stop losing companions seems to have grown very big. But this can only be caused by losing lots of them in the first place. Like I said: I don't know what to think of him, but I would prefer remaining cautious.” The door opened a bit and after being stemmed up, the Rangers passed through it, reaching a large hall. A large apparatus was mounted on the ceiling, maybe some assembly robot of some sorts. The hall was surely big, yet poorly illuminated.

Spotting a terminal on the ground, Tyler nodded with a smile and knelt down next to it.
“Now what do we have here...?” After wiping away some dust and rust, the inscription became readable again. “Military Alicorn Defense Operation System... That actually sounds like it could help us against the Daleks outside the station. I think we should say thank you to Celestia and Luna once we return. OK, maybe I can get the goddamn thing running and warm up the station defenses. Sam, could you see to it that we get some power here? We have a terminal, but the power is down from it.”

Nodding, Sam looked around until he found a hatch to climb through.
“Alright” Climbing down, Sam was in some sort of maintenance area. It was dark and dusty and the air smelled timeworn. Obviously no one had been here in eons. Finding several levers, he switched them all on until one of them turned out to be the main breaker unit. “Bingo!”

More and more lights turned on in the station and the hall they were in now turned out to be in worse shape than first thought. As Tyler found that the terminal had power to run, he started to look into it at once. He was surprised he could operate an alien machine God knows how old, but if the TARDIS managed to make them understand different languages, it certainly could also make them read all languages. As he entered the system, he managed to start a boot-up routine.

On his way back, Sam then had the maintenance corridor lit up. It was then when he saw it. A logo he first saw during the Canterlot invasion. A logo or rather crest of a dreaded cult. Making haste back, Sam began to yell.
“STOP! NO!!! TYLER! THAT THING IS AN INVENTION FROM THE DESCENDANTS OF TACITUS!”

“What?!?”

But before Tyler could return his attention towards the terminal again, it gave an audible message ring, followed by a text to speech announcement.
"Boot-up complete"

Slowly standing up, Tyler got back to the others as they stared at the assembled and hanging robot interface that now turned to them. A yellow lens stared at the humans, before the audio speaker gave it a go.
"Oh.... I-I-I-It's you..."

The voice was male from what they could hear through all the stuttering and quite more pleasant and melodious than the Dalek voice. Seemingly the voice algorithms of the robot were heavily damaged after all that time. Looking over to the others, Flynn arched a brow while pointing at the robot.
"Do we know that thing?”

"I-I-I-It's been a lo-ooo-ooo-oo-ong time...” the robot then continued as it was carried over to them. “How have -ave-ave-ave you four been? I've been really busy being aaaaaaaltered and misused by-by-by-by several alien races. You know-ow-ow-ow-ow, after you disassemble-emble-emble-embled and BANISHED ME INTO SPACE."

Gritting her teeth, Rachel shook her head in surprise.
"We did WHAT?!?"

A tractor beam was shot at Flynn and levitated him above ground while the others were grabbed by robotic arms. One by one the humans were captured and brought in front of the reactivated computer core. Feeling the pressure in his body rise, Tyler screamed up in pain, causing the robotic body to come closer to inspect him.
“OK, look-k-k-k-k: This isn't Equestria and by the current stardaaaaaate I read our last confrontation liiiiieeeees-lie-lie-lies countless of ages in the past, I think it's only proper not to kill you in an instant, b-b-b-but to study these other two inside of you that defeated me, you bipedal monster.”

A hidden shaft opened into the ground and right above it, the humans were simply dangling in the robot's mercy. “I must say though... Since you aaaaall- Since you all went through all the trouble- trooouuuble to reactivate me, you must really, really love to kill. I've learned to love it too-oo-oo-oo, but there are some things that we have to take care of first.” Then the humans were released all at once and fell down the shaft. In midst of the dark, Tyler fired a flare into the direction they fell and spotted the others, one by one, he teleported down to their height and pulled them in so they could take a hold on him.

Looking at the fast passing walls of the shaft, Rachel shook her head.
“Tell me that you can teleport us back to the surface, Jones!”

As the harsh wind blew through his hair, Tyler shook his head.
“Can't do that so fast... But here is what I can do...” In the next moment, a big magic sphere surrounded all of them and their descent slowed down to a large degree.

A sigh of relief followed.
“Good... We won't end as human pancakes”

But Tyler gritted his teeth.
“Hang on to me. The sphere only levitates me, but none of you...”

Nodding, Rachel looked him into the eyes, their faces inches away.
“Alright... But don't try anything funny. I'll bite your nose!”

* * * * *

Meanwhile in the TARDIS, Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof down.
“OK. this is stupid!T-man, Flynn and the others are looking outside, risking their lives facing Celestia knows what and we sit here doing nothing?”

AJ leaned back and nodded over to Fluttershy and Rarity.
“She's right.”

Twilight shook her head. Rainbow was so eager to help, she didn't see the possible threat.
“Rainbow, the Doctor said we should wait here. That it's too dangerous for us to go outside the TARDIS.”

Pointing to Twilight, AJ grinned.
“Now she's right.”

“Oh yeah? Well since when do we follow the orders of a stranger if our special someones are in danger?” Rainbow now snapped at Twilight.

“They're both right.” Applejack stated with a grin.

Taking flight, Rainbow then headed for the front door of the TARDIS.
“Yeah, well... I'm not going to wait here for their return. I'm going to look for them and help them out.” Without further hesitation, she then left the TARDIS.

Twilight facepalmed before she turned to the others.
“Come on! I have a very bad feeling about this.”

Meanwhile miles below, the human rangers landed on top of a mountain of metallic debris. The hall they were in now was huge as well and several pipes lead down from the ceiling. Sam wrinkled his nose.
“The junkyard... How nice! I'm sick and tired of getting tossed around. What are we? Errand boys? Now how long will it take us to find a way up again?”

A screen activated near them, seemingly belonging to a disposed machine, yet now reactivated to communicate. A familiar robotic voice emitted from it.
“I see you managed to survive the fall. That comes to no real surprise, but it gave me enough time to re-assemble my routines. These vocal algorithms were so rotten, they reminded me of you. Just sit tight in there while I get you some companions to play with... They will be-”

In the next moment the screen was shot broken by a magic projectile. Looking around, Tyler shook his head.
“Which basically means that we should get going. Come on, folks!”

Climbing over several dozen piles of debris, the humans slowly recognized the stronger heat. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Sam took a look around.
“Man, what is this? A giant smelter?”

Rachel pointed at a doorway blocked by some debris.
“Seems to me this station was built around this computer core a long time ago and as they kept building, they had to manufacture minerals and ores as well.”

Once they were over a certain mountain of debris, the human rangers were shocked in awe at the sight in front of them. Three all too familiar shapes were lying in front of them. Ruined, but still noticeable.
“War citadels... but bigger and more technical. It looks like the Descendants tried to build spaceships with their citadel design.”

Tyler shook his head in disbelief. This was simply unreal.
“What in the world happens in the future? Or happened if you will... And it WILL happen in our lifetime if that thing, this computer system recognizes us four.” Making careful ascent and descent over the fields of debris, the rangers slowly made their way through the massive junkyard.

Tossing away several light parts of debris, Tyler then began welding the heavier parts to pieces so they could pass through. It was then when they reached a longer corridor, who was fortunately free from debris. The air was cooler here and the air seemed to move a bit. As they went along, the communicator activated and the Doctor's voice sounded off.
“Tyler? What is going on? I see here that the power to the station is partially getting re-enabled more and more and the systems are booting up, but at the same time you descended about five miles instead of going up. What happened?”

Taking the communicator, Tyler gently shook his head while looking back.
“It seems we ran into a remnant of our past... Or rather our future that is still out to happen.” Gritting his teeth, the Doctor kicked the ground a bit. This was getting tedious with the time-line. His eyes however shot open as Tyler continued. “Doctor? Do you know anything about the Military Alicorn Defense Operation System?”

The stallion closed his eyes.
“MADOS...”

“Yeah... Something like that. He told us something about companions coming to play. Now Doctor... Is there anything we should know about this now?”

The Doctor now thought in overdrive once more. The Master, the Daleks, the weeping pegasi... Someone had put great effort for things falling into place. And now this. 'When they come, they come all at once. This Darkness, I really give her that. She is one hell of a mastermind.' Opening his eyes again, he looked at Derpy.
“Listen, Tyler... If you see something resembling robotic ponies...” Derpy gasped a bit and the Doctor nodded as he continued. “Just run! Don't try to fight them on your own.”

Looking at the others, Tyler arched his brows.
“Uh... Alright? Robotic ponies... Yet another nightmare to come, eh? It never gets old...”

Derpy now approached the Doctor with a worried expression.
“Doctor... Cyberponies now as well?”

Shaking his head, the stallion then stood in front of the mare.
“No need to worry if we stick together and hurry. We have a job to do as well, Derpy. Let's do it and leave as fast as possible.”

Meanwhile, while Tyler was stowing the communicator away, Flynn and Sam both shook their heads.
“You think this computer thing really has a robot army for us to fight?”

Fighting a chuckle, Tyler then rolled his eyes.
“You are right, Flynn. They should stand in line after the Daleks.”

* * * * *

While Derpy and the Doctor went along the corridor, the mare looked out for any suspicious shadow. While the Doctor halted in his movement, some speakers activated inside the station.
“Battalions 1 to 2785 dead. Battalions 2786 to 3012 out of order. Battalions 3013 to 3015 functional in cryo-sleep. Activation routine started. Launch emergency upgrading from cryo reserves.”

Looking up to the speaker, Derpy shook her head. This made
What does this mean, Doctor?”

Gently kicking a robotic pony head aside, the Doctor shook his head.
“It means that there are 3000 mechanical nightmares waking up and soon they will wake up more victims out of their sleep just to transform them into nightmares themselves. Under other circumstances and with a fully functional TARDIS I would fight them head on... But not with such very important ponies... And humans.”

Just when the two of them wanted to continue, a screen activated beside them, showing a yellow ocular.
“Ah! You are here, too. The archives mention you and your machinery, yet I have yet to analyze it.” Derpy now pointed at a camera looking at them and the Doctor nodded. “Please remain where you are. Some of my minions will soon-”

The Doctor raised his sonic screwdriver and switched the monitor off in mid-sentence.
“He is getting tedious again. MADOS... I thought we had taken him out for good in the caverns of Miridas Prime.”

As he turned around, he saw Derpy staring at something behind him, slowly backing away.
“What? What is it?” Turning around, the Doctor booped his muzzle on the armored suit of a humanoid figure. Taking two steps away, he gulped at the sight of it. “You... You're that cyborg Tyler talked about!”

“And you are in deeper trouble than you think, Doctor...” the cyborg replied in return. When the Doctor went into fighting stance, the cyborg gently shook his head. “I'm not here to kill you or those with you, Doctor. I am here because I have to be here, simple as that. And you can't ever hope to kill me. It is impossible, Doctor… Believe me, I tried. In oh so many ways… I tried blood loss, suffocation, blowing up and poison… I've tried kinetic and energy weapons. Nothing! Nothing brings me down permanently. Not even the vacuum of space. And the millions of years I have witnessed are more than enough. I am tired of life. One may think this cybernetic suit speeds me up. In fact, it slows me down. A cage that keeps me from going so fast I would harm others.” He then looked at the Doctor and shook his head. “And you? You should heed your own warning and run, Doctor! This adventure holds nothing but death for you. Yes… I remember what happened. Or what is still going to happen to you. Where Daleks and Cyberponies and all the other horrors of the universe failed to kill you, the deeds of one man and one man alone will result in the Death of the Doctor! I saw so myself.”

Determined, Derpy glared at the Cyborg.
“You give this the meaning of a fixpoint… But Mister Jones would never-“

“I said nothing about him killing the Doctor in person…”

This caused the Doctor to shake his head.
“That man is many things, but not a coward. He would never stand idly by and watch it happen!”

A chuckle now escaped the metal visor of the cyborg.
“Oh, not only did he watch it happen, he MADE it happen! As he laid witness to all the terrors of the Alicorn War, he made a decision, an oath that would end you as well. An oath you told me you once made yourself.”

“What oath?”

There was a moment of silence between the two of them before the cyborg uttered his reply,
“No more!”

This prompted the Doctor to look down, to think the situation over. It WAS the same oath he took once. How could his and Tyler’s time lines be interwoven like this? A decision was the most powerful weapon a time traveler had in his arsenal to fight the future. This looked awfully a lot like a fixed point in time. So Tyler helped someone in the past who now came back as the Darkness? Or did he fail in a task and Darkness was coming? And all of this begged one essential question. A question the Doctor never asked and was unable to see yet. 'The Daleks knew of Tyler's presence in this time before he even came here and were told so by the Master. But how did the Master gain this knowledge? Who had told him about it? It has to be someone of importance who is close to Tyler in his very own time-line. But who would live long enough to...'

His eyes darted back to the screen now showing Tyler after the cyborg had pointed his sonic sword at it. The question of where that cyborg had learned to build a sonic sword lingered in the Doctor's head, yet other things were of greater importance now. 'Is Tyler sparing the Darkness Sisters for some reason? But what madness would drive him to let them escape?' Thinking fast the Doctor then collected as much facts in his minds as he could gather. 'Or maybe fortunate for him... Only an alicorn can kill another alicorn and he lacks the horn of one. Unless...' Now an even greater concern grew in his mind. 'Alicorn offspring...'

Coming one step closer, the cyborg now chuckled beneath his visor,
“Your mind is in overdrive. You start to think that somehow some alicorn is the Darkness that is coming. Your reputation precedes you. But it's not that simple. Because until now you lack the final piece to the puzzle, the one fact to solve the mystery.” He then turned around and headed towards the next door. “I must go.”

The Doctor and Derpy exchanged glances before they looked at him again.
“Where to?”

Looking back, the cyborg then shook his head as he shrugged. “Don't know yet. I know that I will see the others before the end, but after this adventure here... I will never see the others again... ever.”

* * * * *

In the meanwhile, far below. Flynn stretched his limbs.
“Hey folks... Don't mind me, but I'm going for a quick scout route.”

Tyler stretched out his arm to state a protest, but Flynn was already in the go and several hundred meters away. Grumbling a bit, he shook his head.
“That's Rainbow's influence on him. Come on! We have to follow him in case that moron manages to run into trouble.”

Finally at a pleasant enough speed, Flynn scouted several of the halls in their route. Many lead into dead ends and knowing that would definitely help in the ascent. But as he stopped at one of the halls, he managed to hear screams of terror in the distance. 'What in the world...?' Approaching the source of the screams, he found several ponies being held in line by something best described as robotic ponies. Gulping a bit, he took cover and watched them. The robot ponies lead the normal ponies into several chambers, where all the screams were coming from as each time a wave of sparks emanated from the chambers. On the other side a new robot pony emerged. A cold chill ran through his spine and he went backwards to retreat. Whatever these robots were doing, they were transforming ponies into more robots.

Yet halfway on the way to the others again, one of these robots noticed Flynn as he entered a new corridor.
“Halt! Intruder alert! Protocol orders that all intruders must be deleted!”

Taking a step back, Flynn suddenly heard an all too familiar voice he least expected now.
“Oh no you won't!” Coming in fast, Rainbow kicked the head of the cyberpony, what prompted it to fall over and slide over the ground for some meters. Coming to his aid, she hovered beside him. “You OK?”

Shaking his head in surprise he looked up to her.
Rainbow! What the fuck are you doing here? You were to stay in the TARDIS!”

But before they could argue about it, the cyberpony got up again with a crack in its helmet.
“Hostile elements will be deleted!”

In an instant, Flynn pulled Rainbow in and hid with her behind a pillar as several energy projectiles shot by. Gritting his teeth, he looked at her.
“You are impossible, you know that? I'm the one with the healing boost, not you! If you were to get shot, I could never look into the mirror again!”

Yet a sly grin formed on her lips.
“And yet... You're jeans are not as loose as before, eh?” Her comment only caused him to roll his eyes. He had to think of somehing.

In the distance, the other rangers heard the shots and Tyler shook his head.
“That idiot certainly has a talent to find trouble.”

Approaching them more and more, the cyberpony was only a few meters away from the pillar and Flynn and Rainbow's cover would soon be lost.
“Delete! Del-” With a gargling sound, the cyberpony stopped in its tracks as a silver flash zipped by. Once in a complete halt at the side of the two of them, Mechtoo looked back at the robotic menace as its head was slowly cantering and fell to the ground.

Rainbow arched both brows and looked at the cyborg. “Whoa... He's even faster than you, Flynn.”

Flynn, however, raised his arm in front of Rainbow, shielding her.
“Yeah... But why does he protect us and attacks Tyler?”

Mechtoo turned around to both of them and shook his head.
“One of my directives is to ensure that the Harmony Rangers and Elements of Harmony live.”

Approaching the cyborg, Rainbow gave him a smile.
“Come on, Flynn. He saved our lives; he can't be that bad.” Approaching Mechtoo, the cerulean mare looked up to him. “Thanks! We owe you one.”

Mechtoo looked at Flynn, who was eying him with cautious eyes before he knelt down to the Pegasus in front of him. His right hand raised to her mane, yet he hesitated, his hand shivered ever so slightly before he finally patted her head.
“M-my pleasure...”

Rainbow looked over to Flynn.
“See? No problem at all.”

But Flynn looked at the motions the cyborg performed with his head and shoulders. The visor and helmet blocked the sight on the face, making the cyborg faceless. But these motions... Was this cyborg crying beneath his mechanical shell? He didn't dare to speak his mind, this was a far shot and he could be wrong. After some time, Mechtoo stood up and went away again.
“I have to go dispose some more enemies. Daleks as well as cyberponies. Once I'm done, You'll have a nice firework, I can promise you that.”

Rainbow and Flynn stayed behind, stumped. It was then when she cocked her head.
“OK, he was helpful and cool, but that last thing was just weird.”

Flynn, collected again, shook his head.
“Come on, let's head back for the others...”

Five minutes later, they met the other Rangers. Tyler shook his head.
“Alright, Ranger... Report!”

Nodding, Flynn pointed behind.
“They are transforming ponies into these 'cyberponies' as this cyborg assassin called them.”

This caused Tyler to listen up.
“You were attacked by him as well?”

“What? No... He actually got us rid of one of the cyberponies. He helped us.”

Tyler looked down in thought.
“Am I understanding you? You tell me that this guy who attacked me twice actually helped you by disposing one of the enemy?”

When the two of them nodded, Tyler held his forehead.
“This is making so little sense... Why is he doing what he is doing? Anyhow... Let's search for the others. I'm sure they are looking for you as well, Rainbow.”

Rainbow nodded and guided them back up where they found the others after a few minutes search. Not long after this they were back at the TARDIS. While Twilight scolded the cerulean Pegasus for not thinking ahead, the humans conversed a bit.
“Actually that makes our part of the bargain. We activated the defenses of the station, even if these defenses deem us a threat as well. Leaves only the Doc with his time-lock problem.”

“That won't be a larger problem anymore.” As they turned around, they saw Derpy and the Doctor approaching the TARDIS as well. “I have located the time-lock several miles below us. We will have to go down there and deactivate it. Then we can simply leave.”

“Like it's that easy, eh? Ain't that sweet?” By now a giant screen in front of the TARDIS activated and showed the face of the Master.

Sighing, Rachel shook her head as her brow twitched.
“Now look who crawls out of the woodwork.”

Tyler began to grin.
“We are coming down to whoop your little ass, you little punk!”

“Hollow threats by a companion of the Doctor...” Right now, unnoticed by the Master, a cloud of black smoke approached the time pony from behind. Seeing the surprised eyes of the others, the Master then turned around, his usually calm and threatening voice now more panicked and pleading. “What? No! I did as you told me to. NO!!! WAIT!!! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!!!” The transmission ended in screaming and static and the friends were looking at each other with uncertain glances.

Tyler gulped as he nodded.
“One more down, two more to go...”

Rachel, however, shook her head.
“What? Are you out of your mind? We know of the cyborg, yes, but what about this Darkness? Fighting something with a solid body is easier than a black cloud of evil. Tyler, we aren't ready for this!”

“And you never will be!” All whirled back as the cyborg approached all of them and the TARDIS. While everyone went into fighting position, the assassin made no attempt to attack them even when holding his sonic katana. “In the name of my liege I have brought many criminals to justice and assassinated many enemies who brought great misery upon others...” Looking at Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Applejack, he ended at the Doctor. “I have struck the fearful, the brave, the beautiful, the honest and the liars alike... And I never showed mercy upon those who couldn't be saved in their errors.” With a swift move, he sheathed his katana again and bowed his head to the Element Bearers. “Fortunately, you are none of these. It is imperative for me that you live. I've waited long for this day to come.”

Cocking her head, Twilight arched a brow.
“Why have you attacked Tyler?”

Nodding in agreement, Rainbow came to her side.
“Yeah! And why then the sudden change of mind when you defended me and Flynn? Are you a villain or one of the good guys?”

“I attacked Tyler Jones because my mistress demanded it. She demands him to be ARGH!!!” interrupted in mid-sentence, the cyborg fell to his knees as lightning shot through his armor.

Approaching him in worry, Flynn, Rainbow and Fluttershy came closer.
“What's wrong?!?”

But before they could reach or touch him, his katana was unsheathed once more and rammed into the ground between him and them,
“I am being punished for telling you parts of her plans. Don't come any closer!” In an inferno of lightning the punishment took place in front of the others, underlined by the screams of agony the cyborg gave out. After a while, the lightning ceased, the body of the cyborg steamed and smoked and the smell of burning flesh was in the air. Yet after a minute, the cyborg gasped and stood up, seemingly in no more pain. He grabbed a capsule of white liquid and raised it high, revealing a long needle beneath it before he rammed it down into his stomach in an area not as heavily armored.
“Understood!” was everything he said before he was going towards the door.

But now Tyler went into his way.
“Not so fast! How about some answers first? What's with these robot cyberponies? Why is your mistress on a station with a rogue AI and all these nightmares? What the FUCK is happening here?”

Mechtoo simply shoved Tyler aside.
“I have to repel the remaining Daleks. You on the other hand can go ask my mistress about these questions. The landing pad on which the TARDIS is standing is actually a shaft down to the reactor core. Normally there would be hundreds of compartments for safety measures, but MADOS deactivated them so the cyberponies can hunt for you unhindered. Take the elevator down until you can't go further. You will reach yet another elevator that will lead up again to the place my mistress is. There you will find all answers you seek, Doctor. And there your journey will most definitely end.

Tyler's face grew grim.
“What's that supposed to mean?”

Standing still in the doorway, Mechtoo looked back one final time.
“Tyler Jones... You are the man who will kill the Doctor.”

Tyler looked at the cyborg, aghast. But nonetheless the cyborg disappeared into the dark. On the way down the elevator shaft, Tyler looked at the Doctor. There was an unpleasant silence between all of them until Tyler spoke up.
“Do you believe him, Doctor?”

The stallion looked up to Tyler and eyed him for a second until he finally shrugged.
“I don't know... What do you think?”

“What I think?” Tyler now stated in an aggressive tone. “Heck, a cyborg assassin which attacked me over and over again to push me to the limits and was right with everything he said about where to find stuff as if he knew it in advance just told me that I'm responsible for your death! How can you be so calm?”

The elevator came to a stop after going for what felt like an eternity before they entered a corridor and stepped into a glass elevator. The Doctor shook his head while looking at Tyler.
“How can you be so excited about it? I thought it was common human belief that you are the makers of your own destiny. Relax... Many want to see me dead, this doesn't need you for monsters and terrors to come after me.”

Knocking at the windows, Sam arched a brow.
“This is NOT glass of any kind...”

Giving the glass a short look, the Doctor nodded.
“Probably Diamonium. It looks like glass, but it's as hard as a diamond. Probably strong enough to withstand several detonations. Although my sonic screwdriver could mess this up.”

Then, finally, the elevator reached the top floor and a large crystal hall surrounded by Diamonium panels stretched out in front of them. Tyler slowly shook his head.
“It's way too quiet in here. No mechanical humming, nothing...”

Coming to the side of the Doctor, Derpy shook her head.
“Doctor? I don't like this. We should head back.”

Looking around, the Doctor nodded before he saw the machine in front of them.
“Wait a second. There it is!” Coming to the machine, the time pony made haste and let the sonic screwdriver whirr aggressively. Come on... Come on!!!” Finally, the machine malfunctioned and the Doctor turned around. “Got it!”

But as he turned around, Derpy was hit by a green magical blast, catapulting her into the air and into Tyler's arms, which caused him to fly back as well and push the others back into the elevator. While being swatted away like a fly, Derpy also lost her saddlebags, which fell to the ground revealing one container of liquid and a letter.
“DERPY!!!” Stretching out a hoof towards his assistant, the Doctor then saw that the green magic also closed the elevator doors.

While the others were surrounding her and Tyler, the gray mare blinked and opened her eyes again, shortly followed by a short shake of her head.
“Now that was something... Hey! My saddlebags! MY MUFFINS!!!” Within seconds, she was on her hooves again and the others helped Tyler up. And then they saw it. A pitchblack cloud of an unknown material, maybe even Darkness itself approached the time pony, circled around it like a predator eying its new prey.

While the others tried to get the elevator doors open, the Doctor remained calm and looked deep into these two emerald eyes whose cat-slit pupils followed his every movement.
“So that’s how it is… Now I understand… All of this is a deathtrap. Yet not only just for me...” Coming towards the elevator, the Doctor then smiled. “Time for us to part, Derpy.”

Realizing of what the Doctor was up to, Derpy slammed her hooves against the elevator doors.
“NO!!! DOCTOR!!!”

Closing his eyes, the time pony shook his head with a smile.
“I said to you, that I’ll have to protect you, Derpy… No matter what, I won’t lose you. And you will always live to see another day”

“But, Doctor… I am…” Now her hoof went over her tummy.

As he saw that, he looked up to her, shaking his head with a big smile as tears ran down his face. “My Derpy, managing what no other companions managed to do… Even more reason for you to live.” Looking over to the Rangers who tried to open the door in vain, the Doctor smiled once more. “It will be alright, Tyler Jones…”

Tyler slammed his fist against the glass, trying to get a hold of it to stem it up.
“HANG IN THERE! WE’LL BE THROUGH IN A SECOND!!!”

“No you won’t… You can’t save me from this, Tyler… But this isn’t your fault. I always knew that this day would come. They said I could save all of the Rangers but one… Who would have thought that this one Ranger… would actually be me? Fret not, Tyler Jones… You can’t save me, but there will be another one you will save, so she can kill me in a few seconds…” Tyler slammed his fists against the glass more frequently as the Darkness behind the Doctor grew larger. The two giant green eyes lurked inside it, eying its prey. “But it must happen this way, you know… I don’t blame you for doing or don’t doing a thing. You are forgiven for having this destiny... always and completely forgiven.” With a happy smile on his face, the Doctor closed his eyes. “Goodbye…”

While Tyler’s hits against the nigh indestructible door grew harder and his yelling louder, Derpy looked at the Doctor, tears in her eyes. He held up his sonic screw driver and the elevator went down, getting them into safety, while he remained back to face the Darkness. With a determined look he turned around. “I’m ready… shall we begin?”

Slamming his fist against the door one last time, Tyler gritted his teeth. He couldn’t save him. Looking down to Rachel who held Derpy in order to calm her down, he felt guilt rising up in him. All his powers and he couldn’t do anything. Just as they went down a couple of floors, an explosion happened right above them. Looking up, shards of glass rained down on the elevator and a gigantic claw reached out of the building along with a dark cloud billowing from inside. Inside the claw was something and the friends could make out it was the Doctor. Then there was that distinct yellow glow that immediately got Derpy’s attention. The time pony regenerated inside the claw’s tight grasp as the claw simply squeezed the pony’s body to death once more.

In that moment, a scream went through the elevator cabin as the gray mare realized the death of her love. Droplets of blood sprinkled down the elevator shaft and the friends were forced to look away from the horror.

Once at the bottom of the elevator, they made haste to the other elevator and to the TARDIS. Yet while certain, everything was safe right now, Rachel halted and knelt down to Derpy. The heartbroken mare was silently sobbing the whole time.
“Is it true, Derpy? You are pregnant with his child?” Now the mare began to wail as if a dam was breaking and Rachel gave her a hug, patting her back. “There, there... Let it out, girl. I know I would be done for if the guy I love and expect a child from would die in front of me.”

Coming to their side, Tyler looked around before looking at them.
“Despite all reverence... We mustn't remain here for too long, girls. The enemies might lurk around the next corner.”

As the others entered the TARDIS one by one, Flynn arched a brow.
“Don't mind me asking, but why is it that the Doctor and you seemed more like adventure companions and you... you know... suddenly are pregnant from him?”

Looking down, Derpy slowly shook her head.
“Because I'm a bad mare...”

Now the others looked at her in confusion.
“What do you mean?”

“He was sleeping and I... I was in heat and... and...” A new stream of tears began to flow as she shook her head. “I took something from the Doctor I shouldn't have.”

Rachel and Tyler looked at each other before Tyler shook his head.
“If he wasn't mad at you for hearing this... Why should you be?”

Raising her head, Derpy looked at Tyler.
“What?”

“As far as I see it, the Doctor wasn't mad at you for having his foal. It didn't matter to him in that moment. He wanted you to live. Both of you.” With that Tyler went to the TARDIS and the others.

While Rachel wiped away Derpy's tears with a handkerchief, Applejack and Rainbow looked over to her.
“Ah don't know...What love makes fools of us. Poor filly. Raising a child all by herself will be hard.”

Rainbow nodded.
“You bet. I remember some stallions saying that she has a fine flank, but a relationship would be out of the question with these eyes.”

Arching a brow, AJ looked at Rainbow.
“That's not a nice thing to say. What did ya say in return?”

“Nothing, I beat them up!”

After Derpy was set again, the gray mare accompanied Rachel to the TARDIS where Tyler was headed for the command console.
“Let's hope that the Doctor managed to get us that timelock down. Otherwise we'll be right in the middle of a world of shit with all the Daleks up there.”

When Derpy saw that Tyler was heading towards the command console, she flew after him.
“No, Mister Jones! You are not instructed to fly the TARDIS!!!

Messing around with some levers and buttons, Tyler went through the center command console.
“Hell, no one here is! Not even our pilot would know how to fly this. But if we don't try, we'll die here for sure! And I'm not to let the Doctor died in vain! If you want to get us out here instead, Derpy, feel free to take command!”

Derpy didn't knew if there ever where some equine gods. But if there were, they caused a miracle to happen. The TARDIS somehow blocked the controls and had a liftoff, spinning wildly as she made her wild and irregular ascent.

Pulling at him like a madmare, Twilight frantically shook her head.
“TYLER!!! STOP IT! YOU WILL GET US KILLED!”

“LIKE HELL I WILL!!! I DON'T EVEN THINK I'M STEERING THE GODDAMN THING. BUT WITH THE DALEKS ALL AROUND THE STATION OUR BEST HOPE IS TO FLEE!” While the TARDIS slid along the walls of the shaft and caused some debris to fall down, its outer hull went through the most stress it had seen in centuries.

As the TARDIS scratched along some Daleks who already made it through in the thousands and were sweeping the station section for section, they turned around and opened up a channel to the Supreme Dalek.
“TARDIS ON ESCAPE TRAJECTORY!!! INTERCEPT! EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR AND HIS COMPANIONS!!!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE8EhJ9gS28

Intercepting this transmission, Mechtoo glared down the shaft as the TARDIS passed him with great speed as well.
“Oh no, you won't... Not if I can help it!” At the bottom of that shaft, of that he knew, where the safety inhibitors keeping the fusion reactor from fusing the entire station into a sun. He could smash these, but while doing so he would most certainly die. And not even his regeneration could hope to cope with this. Without hesitation, he jumped over the edge and began his rapid descent towards their salvation and his demise.

As he fell, the electrocution of his body set in again. The mistress who commanded him obviously didn't wish him to die, yet this time he was not to obey her orders. When the electrocution gained strength to unbearable pain, his visor cracked and split open, revealing a set of two brown eyes. No force in the universe would deter him from this decision now.
“I was immortal... and for over 1 billion years it was good. This stunt is a once in a lifetime and that's not bad. Cuz there's no one I'd give my life for so easily... than my little Dashie...“ Tears filled his eyes as he closed them with a content smile. Only one thought filled him.

Bypassing several thousand Daleks, the assassin dived down the shaft to the reactor core, until brightness filled every inch of the Barelioth. As the TARDIS escaped the giant space station's gravitational field, a short glimpse of light shot away from the station as the fusion reactor overcharged. The station began to shrink in size as flames shot out of every square mile. In an inferno of epic proportions the station and all the Daleks and cyberponies within were obliterated as the mighty fusion reaction took place.

Looking at the monitors in the shaking TARDIS, the Rangers and ponies witnessed the spectacle. Shaking his head, Tyler fought for the words.
“It's... it's like the birth of a star.”

Twilight gasped as she remembered a private talk with the princesses and the fact that all stars were in fact deceased alicorns. Was this the way of things in this universe that powerful beings turn into stars upon death? Rainbow's eyes widened upon seeing the station turning into one giant fireball.
“It's beautiful...”

Standing next to her, Flynn looked down to her and patted her shoulder.
“Seems to me, he kept his word with the fireworks, huh?”

Looking up, Rainbow smiled.
“Yeah... He was weird in some ways, but in the end, he was awesome doing that for a mare he barely knew.”

Nodding himself, Flynn looked back at the gigantic fireball.
“That's definitely something never to forget.”

But as the fusion reaction grew, so did a pressure wave emanating from the burning remnants of the space station. Tyler,upon seeing this, gritted his teeth and turned to the others before he held Applejack and Twilight close to himself.
“HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!!! NOW!!!” What happened next was nothing more than a mixture of shaking, tumbling bodies and flames, as several instruments and walls on the TARDIS burst out in flames.

* * * * *

Minutes passed and Tyler slowly looked up in the TARDIS. It was dark and quiet and the smell of smoke was all around.
“H-Hey... Everyone alright?

Stemming themselves up one by one, the others looked up and nodded with Twilight being the one answering for them all,
“Yeah... Yeah!”

Wiping away some dust from his forehead, Sam took a look at the TARDIS interior,
“I just realized... We merely escaped the detonation, yet we are still stuck in this point in time. This damage here sure doesn't help.”

All eyes turned to Derpy, who now ducked a little.
“I... I could try at least...”

Flying over to the instruments, Derpy took a careful look at the levers and buttons, yet uncertainty was all over her face. Seeing this, Rachel only shook her head and sat down.
“Swell, stuck a billion years ahead of our time and stuck in a spaceship and timemachine we can not fly properly”

This only caused Tyler to frown at her.
“Shut up, Rachel! Derpy let the Doctor steer in all her adventures. How could she foresee that such a thing might happen?”

Coming to Derpy's side, Fluttershy and Rarity tried to give her some comfort.
“Left to say that the one who she loves so much sacrifices himself for her to see another day...”

“Take your time, darling. I know I couldn't remember anything right in a situation such as dreadful as this.”

While the others argued around, Sam knelt down to Pinkie, who kept looking at the last remaining functional monitor.
“What are you looking at, Pinkie?

Pointing at the monitor, Pinkie beamed at Sam.
“Did anyone of you bring a spaceship made out of light with you? Because I know I didn't!”

With a “What?!?” in unison, the others stormed over to Pinkie. Looking at the monitor, they saw it. The hull seemed a shimmering white silver, illuminating space by itself. Struts of light passed the TARDIS in a glittering dance of lights as the ship embraced the time pony spaceship in its aura of light. Both to the left and right the hull passed by while the TARDIS flew towards the center of the U-formed ship. Magnification levels increased on the TARDIS monitor, showing pony activity on board the ship as its crew witnessed the TARDIS approaching. A gentle tractor beam took hold of the blue booth and tugged it into the ships interior.

When the TARDIS landing noise sounded off, Sam gulped.
“Please remain on your seats while we are taking parking position... Do you folks think these are friendly? Maybe these are Descendants and pissed that we've blown up their station.”

Tyler only shook his head.
“Sam, the TARDIS was drifting in space... If they wanted to kill us, they could have done that sooner.

As he took one step outside of the TARDIS into the bright light, Twilight raised her hoof.
“Tyler! WAIT!”

But he took in one deep breath of air outside of the TARDIS.
“Breathable atmosphere...”

Stomping her hoof down, Twilight gritted her teeth.
“How reckless! You could have been killed!” Looking down to the floor, Tyler's eyes went wide for a moment. Every step he made, the floor seemed to react to, as if tiny ripples emanated from his feet with every step he made. This technology was far more sophisticated than that of Paretoka.

One by one, the others came out as well. The white walls as well as the floor and ceiling all were decorated with equine fresco and scarcely placed statues.
“Well...Scifi meets Canterlot architecture. This place looks like a palace!” Rachel stated in slight awe.

As she stepped outside, Rarity's eyes went wide. “Sweet Celestia... Look at this place! LOOK! AT! THIS! PLACE! This is- this is... There are no words to describe this!”

“A bit darn bright would point it right there, if ya ask me, Rarity...” Applejack stated while narrowing her eyes. “Hey! Wherever ya are, could ya dim the light a bit?” After a few seconds, the light dimmed to levels the others were much more accustomed to. “Thanks, Ah guess...”

Looking at the TARDIS, Tyler wrinkled his nose and shook his head while lowering his voice and leaning to Rachel.
“Typical... Once the threat is gone all is done, the cavalry steps in...” Rachel nodded in agreement. Whoever were their current hosts, they surely did nothing to repel the threat they faced mere hours ago.

Then the walls opened, revealing a big door worked seamless into the wall and leading further into the ship. A long corridor hall with several floors was stretching a few hundred meters from the door. But in this moment, a single star pony mare came forth to the friends, a gentle smile on her lips.
“I am Apase, the ship's security chief. You are the survivors from Paretoka?”

“We are... You come late several hours. Just do your goddamn duty and evacuate the remaining survivors.”

Leaning over to Fluttershy, Rarity giggled excited.
“My... Do you see that coat? This surely is some beauty these star ponies have... Maybe they could give me some advice to do that with my own coat...”

“There are some Star Ponies saying the same about other ponies. White glow may be chic in your eyes, but it's way too common among my tribe, I can assure you that.” Apase soberly replied to Rarity. Coming to Tyler, the white mare looked up to him and inspected his face. However, upon noticing the TARDIS, she seemed a bit surprised and looked up to Tyler once more.
“Oh! Sir? Are you by any chance time travelers accompanying the Doctor that come from Origin?”

Slightly baffled, Tyler shook his head while looking at the others.
“Origin? Uhhh... No, we come from Equis.”

“I see! Yes, in that case you are more than welcome. The Star Queen wishes to see you.”

“Star Queen?” Tyler now asked in surprise.

Giving a short nod, the white mare looked around.
“Indeed! All of you are invited in person to meet her right now.”

The friends looked at each other, unsure what to do until Tyler simply shook his head.
“Alright... Come on, folks... Let's hear what this queen has to say. Without a pilot manual, the TARDIS isn't going anywhere anyway.”

They were lead into a big hall, seemingly a makeshift throne room on board the ship and waited a few minutes at the base of some stairs while the white mare looked up to a door at the top of the stairs. When the door opened, she turned towards the friends, raising her hoof in a presenting manner to the door.
“Her august majesty, monarch over the seas of stars and patron of all star ponies...”

Rachel leaned over to Tyler.
“I hope she can help us out a bit if she has all that influence...” Tyler only nodded in agreement.

But nonetheless the servant continued to proclaim the introduction.
“Queen Luna!”

Tyler's head darted up the moment he heard that.
“What?!?”

The gentle steps of platinum horseshoes clanked as the monarch descended down the shining stairs and her mane and tail waved gently without a breeze. Tyler blinked twice and shook his head a bit to make clear that this wasn't some sort of dream, but it didn't change what his eyes saw. The dark chest armor of obsidian, platinum, silver and dark velvet as well as the now far more detailed tiara behind the horn. Shimmering lipstick and eye shadow only punctuated the female features of the queen's face, her mane and tail, although formerly filled with glittering stars now had shining galaxies and comets in it, enhancing the beauty of her mane even further. When she opened her eyes to glance down to the friends, her eyes slowly widened with a deep gasp. Her bottom lip shook a bit before a wide and beaming smile formed on her face.
“TYLER!!!”

Now rushing down the stairs, she made haste to him and nuzzled his chest.
“What a pleasant surprise to see you all here!” Looking behind him, she also greeted each one of the ponies and humans. “It's like a glimpse at old times, far better than any hologram or photography can resemble you all...”

Taking her chin into his gentle grasp, Tyler arched a brow with a smile.
“You? Not thou or thee?”

Shaking free of his grasp with a blush over her nose, Luna smiled.
“Oh, you don't expect me to keep that for a billion years, do you? When I heard about Paretoka, I was worried! More so when I remembered your stories from back then. But it's good to know that you managed to escape. So, where's the Doctor? I recon he flew the TARDIS to safety?”

While everyone else but Derpy grimaced over this question, Tyler shook his head.
“Ummm... No, he didn't make it.”

The revelation seemed to surprise Luna for a bit as she looked at Tyler, then down to the ground and closed her eyes.
“I... I see... Well, let me order my servants to see through my belongings if I don't have anything that could help you. You're not stranded here, my friends. I won't allow that! You will return to your time to share your knowledge with the others. But for now... Rest a bit. Forget about these wide eyed fears. On this ship nothing will harm you. Tyler?” As he and Luna shared a look, she winked at him. “On a word under four eyes, please...”

* * * * *

Half an hour later, in the chambers of the queen, Tyler smelled the sweet scents of perfume lingering in the air ever so slightly.
“Thank you for getting us back on our feet. It sure means a lot to get some peace and quiet in midst of all that troublesome time” Looking over to her, he then smirked. “Sooo... Queen Luna, eh? Shall I bow to you?” he asked jokingly.

“Don't you dare to do that, Tyler! Frankly I miss your type of subject among the billions of subjects I nowadays rule over.”

“He, he... You mean the Lunar Republic?”

Looking over to him, Luna began to smile.
“Oh? You took a look into the libraries of Paretoka, I see. Yes, a project of mine that found great popularity among my subjects, especially among humans. Ponies, no matter what tribe, seem to find a greater liking in alicorn guidance.”

His finger slid ever so slightly over her back.
“One billion years... And just look at you: You only became more beautiful.”

Looking down with a blush, Luna then closed her eyes and smiled.
“It's charming of you to say that.”

Tyler then took a look outside to the stars.
“Have you and the others found other herd mates?”

Her ears rose and she looked a bit surprised over that question.
“Oh... uh... yes! The ones that live that is. Celestia, Twilight and me have someone. Cadance has someone, too.”

“Nice to hear... And your herd mate? Does he treat you good?”

“Frankly he has to do a lot of business. But once in a while we find time to get together. I mean we stay in contact with telepathy and magic. If I want intimacy, I can simply ask if he wants some as well. What else to do when I roam the universe while he, Twilight and Celestia remain on Equis.”

Tyler nodded in thought.
“I see... Thus Queen of the Stars, huh?”

“Once space travel was invented, I found more responsibility in the stars than the moon. I had to wait long, but my time finally came and I could shine brighter than before.” Her eyes closed with a content smile as she felt for her heart. “But I'll never forget Golden Millenia and my time with the others there. It truly was paradise. That is... until the incident.”

Tyler's brow arched.
“Incident?”

But Luna shook her head with another smile.
“Hmmm... Nothing for you to worry about, Tyler. This still is several thousands of years ahead for you... I think... Time sure flew by, I don't remember exact dates after a billion years.”

“Some things do change, huh?” He nodded as he looked into her shimmering eyes and smiled. “Fortunately, some things don't.”

Getting free of his gentle grasp, the alicorn then closed her eyes as a slight blush formed on her nose. He was flattering her again, that was sweet of him. It vanquished the fear he might see her as an old hag. When she opened her eyes once more, he could see that she didn't forget of what they both had in her past. Her eyes said enough.
“So... For old times sake... Would you sleep with me, beloved?

Slightly unnerved, Tyler arched his brows.
“What? Luna, what about your current herd mate?”

“Oh I will grant him an appropriate compensation in return. I'm sure he would love to have his way with one or another hundred mares to impregnate.”

“You really are asking me for the kick of adultery one billion years ahead of my time?” But little did she paid attention to his question. Instead she opened the doors to her chamber, where a big satin bed was waiting for the two of them. Trotting towards it, her eyes looked back to him, a wink, a laugh and a smile on her face as her wing gently slapped her flank. She was luring him in, that much was certain. “Luna, you really are a bad filly...”

“I always was your bad little girl of the night… I remember us doing worse things in our dreams. So for the sake of old times... Let me cherish these hours of ancient times like a wine ripe and precious.”

As his hands glided over her flanks, the queen's tail raised, awaiting the partner she surely lacked for quite some time.

* * * * *

An hour later Tyler returned to the others. As he passed his fellow rangers, Rachel took a glimpse at him, before she ignored him and shook her head.
“Tsk, he and Luna... It was predictable, you know that? These two are always at it...”

Once he was taking a seat between her and Applejack, Twilight looked up to him.
“Did you find out anything?”

Taking a deep breath, he shook his head.
“I think if ponies knew what I did tonight I would be a searched man throughout the universe...”

This prompted AJ to snicker.
“Oh, don't sweat it, sugarcube. Ah'm sure anypony will agree that ya can't cheat on Luna with herself.”

Twilight arched a brow and grinned.
“From our point of view perhaps. I only pity the poor guy she's with right now. You are a bad guy, Tyler... We should watch ourselves.”

Tyler leaned back and caressed the backs of his girls.
“The pressure is all mine now, girls. Think of it. Even after a billion years Luna still has such feelings for me. I seem to have made her happy in my lifetime if she's so glad to see me again.”

Then the door swung open and the queen entered the room, winking over to Tyler, who looked down and huffed a bit embarrassed.
“While we wait for my servants to find something of use, why don't I tell you a little story?”

The others looked at each other for a moment before nodding in agreement.
“Sure thing...”

“Yeah, a small diversion from all the stress might do all of us some good...”

What they didn't expected was the fact that Luna then darkened the entire room, before several millions of lights began to emit from her in a vast hologram filling the room.
“Long, long ago in a time all but lost to pony memory in the center of our universe there dwelled the ponies called the Origin tribe.” The shimmering forms of five alicorn mares now became visible. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight and an unknown alicorn mare. “They who possess the power to create harmony and who united all other tribes on their world beckoned to the stars in every corner of the universe. 'Come forth!' They said... 'Come forth to receive our friendship as well!'” Three of the many stars all around them began to glow even brighter. “Their call echoed through the void between the stars and three other tribes heeded them.. Three, whose curiosity was sparked, summoned by the Origin tribe's call.”

As Luna turned her head to the right, she smiled as the pictures of these tribes began to form. “The mysterious Warp Pony tribe...” Seven ponies seemingly of pure nebular or ethereal energy suddenly appeared in space over the moon of Equis and descended down to the surface, as one gigantic asteroid obscured the light of the sun as it moved into a stable orbit and a swarm of insect like ponies, who had several eyes on their foreheads, began to surround it as only three of them came down to the surface. “The unfaltering Mantipony tribe...” Luna now said as she turned her head to the left, where a fleet of ten spaceships similar to the one they all were in now left Hyperspace and moved into orbit as well, sending down a shuttle towards the surface of the moon. “And the noble Star Pony tribe...”

Rachel shook her head and held up her hands just as Luna was about to continue.
“No disrespect, your highness, but let me stop you right there! Why? Why telling us all this? We came to learn something about the Darkness Sisters, not about the distant future.”

Luna glanced over to Rachel, blinked twice as in surprise and closed her eyes with a smile.
“Maybe to give you an impression of what's at stake. If you fail to overcome the Darkness Sisters, probably none of this will ever happen.”

Sam arched a brow and raised a finger.
“Wait a bit... The Doctor said that if we see the end result, the timeline is set in stone.”

Giving a smirk, Luna then glanced over to Sam.
“I know the Doctor quite some time longer than you, Sam. Thus, I know of rule number one regarding the Doctor.”

“And that is?”

Luna now smirked.
“The Doctor lies. Time can be rewritten, but it is a bit more complex to do so.”

Nodding in thought, Tyler looked at the last flickering remnants of the hologram Luna had cast.
“So Equis made contact with other planets? Outstanding... Far into the future though, right?”

Luna shook her head, showing some concern.
“Frankly we don't know exactly how it worked, but the diplomats we spoke with said that Princess Twilight seemingly made the first call due to the energy they recognized in her.”

The revelation let Twilight drop her jaw.
“M-me?!?”

Giggling a bit, Luna patted her shoulder.
“Don't you worry your pretty little head. I assume it will come in natural. And since you did it first must mean you were the one who understood it first.”

Flynn and Sam on the other hand began to smirk.
“One Billion years and you still don't know what caused this call? I say bullshit! You know what caused it, but you don't want to tell us!”

“Your reputation of having great power of observation still precedes you, Rangers. I told you enough already, where would be the fun in knowing what to do? Or when? No, this is a mystery that will unfold itself in good time.”

Coming to the side of the queen, a star pony maid stretched up to her and whispered something into her ear, causing Luna's ears and eyebrows to rise up high.
“I see.” Turning towards the ponies and humans again, she smiled at each one of them. “My friends... You are in luck! We have found a data disc left behind from the good Doctor.”

Trotting over to Derpy, Luna then looked down to her with a smile.
“Derpy Hooves, stand up tall!” Nuzzling the Pegasus, the queen leaned her head on hers. “Your pain is the hardest now, you bow to no one today.” Derpy gulped down and wiped the tears out of her eyes, before she forced a smile and nodded. Luna then continued. “You were the Doctor's friend and assistant. I will hand this disc to you. Use it and bring these humans and ponies back to their own time, where they must continue their quest. And bring the news of the Doctor's death to myself and my sister in your time, they will help you out with everything you might need.” Turning towards the others, Luna then nodded. “I must now say farewell to all of you. It was such a pleasure seeing all your faces once more.”

* * * * *

Coming into the TARDIS, Rachel looked over to Tyler.
“Well, Jones? What do you think?”

“She knows far more than she wants us to know. Who would have thought that one of my girls could have such secrets from me? Or two of her herd mates that is...” He nodded over to Twilight. “Then again, this here is one billion years ahead of our time and maybe she remains silent in order to preserve history.” Coming to Derpy's side, Tyler sat down beside her. In her hooves rested the disc that would bring them all home. Looking into her tear-stained eyes, he sighed. “Derpy... I'm not asking if you are alright. Anyone in your place would be devastated. But we need you to steer the TARDIS home. Can you do it now?”

“What would it matter now?” The gray mare stated emotionless.

Tyler looked at her. No one could blame her for being that way after losing the one and only love she knew.
“It would matter to him. You are now responsible for the TARDIS. And you don't want this to grow up in a TARDIS floating in space, do you?” With this he pointed his index finger at her belly, arching one brow while he did it.

“I... I guess that's right.” Derpy then replied. Standing up, her hoof went through her mane. “I'm an idiot! Falling in love with the one stallion in the entire universe that is constantly surrounded by enemies... What was I thinking?”

Shortly after the friends looked at each other, Rainbow shook her head.
“Derpy, are you bucking kidding? You are deemed nothing more than a clumsy klutz in Equestria! And now look at you! You were living a life full of action at the side of the one you love! And saving us and thousands of other ponies on Paretoka! Even I have yet to manage that with Flynn.” Resting her forehead on Derpy's, Rainbow then looked her into her crossed eyes. “You listen to me right now: That Doctor saw in you what all of us couldn't see. I won't allow you to say that you are an idiot! For you see... We others were the idiots.”

Now the others looked at Rainbow while Derpy looked up to her.
“Huh?”

Yet Rainbow simply nodded.
“It took the death of the Doctor for all to recognize what he left behind. And that's not this handy TARDIS of his. It was this hell of a loyal companion, sticking with him until the end.”

Now fighting against her tears, Derpy gulped down a big lump in her throat.
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash. Thank you all.” She then turned around and inserted the disc into the drive it was meant to be.

A holographic picture of a stallion appeared and he looked around with a smile.
“Emergency manual for the TARDIS. What? Are they actually expecting me to read all of this? Oh please, as if anypony would read this on Gallopfrey...”

A distant voice then interrupted.
“Come on, Doctor... You know: For kids!”

The stallion, seemingly the Doctor in an earlier regeneration phase narrowed his eyes before he pointed a hoof at where he was looking.
“You know as well as I do that we time ponies have all become sterile since the incident! Kids... Children, tsk yeah right! To do that something extraordinary had to happen! You bet your flank on it that if any mare would become able to have my child, I would definitely make sure who caused this. And how! Alright... Let's get this over with...” He then looked at Derpy. “Greetings!”

While Derpy focused on the Doctor's image, the others could see her trembling ever so slightly. If this was right and she had been with the Doctor and pregnant from him, then either she or he had been altered in a way. Both possibilities were bad.

* * * * *

A few seconds after the TARDIS had vanished, a door opened behind Queen Luna and a black unicorn with dark cerulean mane entered the room. Not looking behind, Luna still looked at front.
“I assume everything went according to plan?

With a smirk, the dark alicorn came to her side.
“Oh yes... most certainly. Crescent is talking to him right now, he demands some very difficult answers. I will see to that myself later on. That disc of his got them back into their time?”

“I think so.” Luna stated.

“Good! Otherwise we would have a lot to explain to him. It was his one demand for cooperation. And I know nopony being better at keeping secrets.”

Closing her eyes, Luna took a moderate breath.
“Celestia, Twilight and Cadance have stated concerns about these procedures.”

“Oh, did they? Well, ask them if they want another golden millenia catastrophe. I'm sure he will be delighted to do that one more time...”

Opening her eyes once more, the Queen of the Stars and Night looked up into the sky with a determined look.
“Never again! It almost ruined him.”

“There you have it. This is the sole reason we are doing all this. Because we all desire harmony instead of conflict. And we all know that one thing IS certain, even if we spook the rest of the universe with it already: Darkness IS coming! And we will need him then.”

Author's Notes:

Not proofread yet since proofreader is busy in RL; any hints to mistakes are welcome.
Depiction of future Luna was inspired by this picture