Equestria and the Time Lord Episode 5: The Greatest Power

Prologue: Golden Death

=Gaia, Equestria, The Badlands, The Golden Cave, 999 C.E. =

The stalagmites hanging from the ceiling continued to drip down on to the ground repeatedly as they continued to form a small puddle on the cave floor. But what you could barely see down in that puddle was something pulsating down in the water, like it was alive…

The distant sound of a train pulling in could be heard, and then the ever growing sound of hooves galloping towards the cave. After a few minutes, a pony stuck his hooves through the narrow opening to the cave. This pony was an ordinary earth pony with a caramel colored coat, a brown mane, brown eyes, and a cutie mark of a magnifying glass looking at a yellow puzzle piece. He was wearing gold colored half-moon glasses, a heavy looking saddlebag, and he was about 17. This pony trotted up to a desk that had been set up in the middle of the room, and examined the mess of papers he had set there.

He opened up his saddlebag and began pulling out a few metal objects. He had just gone back to the main lands to get some equipment for his research. He knew it looked like just an ordinary cave, but he knew from his instincts that he would find something very interesting down here.

He pulled out a pair of tongs and carried them over to the small pool of water. He jammed it down into the water and felt around the bottom with it. He suddenly felt something down in it. He smiled as he opened the tongs and tried to get a hold on it. He knew if it turned out to be just a large rock, he would be beyond annoyed. He managed to get both ends of the tongs around the large whatever it was that was down there. He closed the tongs around it, and pulled it out.

It was a large golden colored crystalline type of object. It almost felt like there was a beating heart deep down in there.

"Well this is certainly interesting." He said to himself in a voice that sounded exactly like that which the Doctor when he regenerated into his fifth incarnation, would later have. "It's not even wet in the least."

He decided to look at it more closely as he carefully carried it over to his desk. With one hoof, he gathered up his notes and papers and jammed them into his saddlebag. He opened the tongs and the golden stone fell onto the desk. It singed the paint from the desk off of the desk. He looked at it very closely. He felt the need to look closer, even touch it, and see what it was supposed to be. He reached forward and placed his hoof on it. Immediately he was thrown back by a burst of energy, landing directly into the pool of water. He drew his head out, panting for air. He looked up to see that the stone had vanished, and his desk was on fire, burning to ashes.

He quickly pulled himself out of the water, and looked into the water as he pulled himself out. As the ripples in the water receded, he was shocked to discover that a unicorn horn had now grown out of his head. His eyes were glowing a golden color now, and the stone was partially sticking out of his chest. He looked over to the fire. His new horn glowed, and the fire went out. His eyes widened. He used the horn to levitate a coat that he had hanging on the cave wall and put it on, buttoning up the coat so that it covered over the stone in his chest.

As it all sunk in, he smiled widely and levitated his saddlebag over and put it on. His smile grew even wider. "I'm going to have some fun with this!" he said triumphantly as he went to the entrance to the cave and pulled himself out of it.

As he stepped into the desert, he didn't care any longer about the tremendous heat. He simply used his horn to change the temperature of the air around him. He knew he didn't have to care about anything anymore.

=Place Unknown, Year, Date, and Time Unknown =

Daring Do rubbed her head in pain, no wait, she didn't know what she was feeling, as she came back to consciousness and her surroundings became clearer around her.

She could see that she was sitting inside of what looked like a cave. Yes, it certainly seemed like she was sitting inside a rather small cave. She looked around the cave. She was completely alone in the cave… except for that other pony.

It was the caramel coated unicorn, with his eyes glowing gold, sitting with a black cloth wrapped around his body. She didn't know who he was. It sort of felt like she knew who he was, but she didn't know who he was. So, she decided to ask.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

The pony looked at her. "You don't remember? Well, I suppose having your mind harvested and used to feed an evil monster would have debilitating affects on your memories. Oh, where have my manners gone? Hello, my name is Puzzlehunt." The stallion said.

Another question came to her mind. "Alright Puzzlehunt, do you know where the Doctor and Romana are?"

Puzzlehunt wouldn't answer that one.

She rubbed her head. "Ugh, I feel so weird. One more. What happened, how did I get here, and how do you fit into this?" she asked.

Puzzlehunt simply looked out of the mouth of the cave and into the landscape below.

Daring Do got up and hobbled over. She also looked out into the landscape below. Horror filled her mind as she gasped.

Outside the cave were the ruined remains of a city. Buildings were smashed and completely broken down to the ground. The same had happened with smaller houses. Dried cracks had had been burned into the ground. The whole place was nothing but smashed rubble. The bodies of ponies were lying down all over the ground through that smashed rubble. She looked at the outside of the cave to see that they were not sitting in a cave, but the charred remains of a room in what looked to be the only still standing building in the city. The whole place was echoing with terrifying death all over, and there was nothing to say that this wasn't what the rest of the world was like as well.

Daring Do felt her heart race and her hooves wobble as she tried to take this all in.

"Well." Puzzlehunt said darkly. "It's a very long story."