Doctor Who Infinite Loops
Rules of the Loops:
One person in a Loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts to Loop through time.
There is always at least one Anchor present in a given Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one.
The standard pattern for a loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is Looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influenced by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until either a predetermined end point is reached or all the Loopers have copped it.
To be Awake is to be aware of the time loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time.)
The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after others have started looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular loop.
Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality.
Loops do not have to be in chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they not require a mutually contradictory order (where A must be before B and B must be before A.)
Just about every Looper is very, very stir crazy.
1.1
The Doctor checked over one of the bits of "junk" in Totter's Lane. Yes, this would be a decent place to stash the Hand, he thought. He had to hurry, though, as Susan would be back from that "school" fancy of hers in a few minutes.
"Message for you, sir!" chirped a voice to his left, causing him to jump for a moment. Looking in that direction, all there was was a single envelope, with the words "To the Doctor, from Zurvan" on it. Mildly suspicious, he poked at it with his cane, then opened it up. He'd never heard of another Time Lord called "Zurvan" before, but that didn't mean it wasn't from someone he just hadn't met yet.
Dear
The Doctor stopped reading for a moment. That was his name. Not "Doctor," but his name. With renewed trepidation, he continued on.
As stated on the front of the envelope, I am Zurvan, Administrator of Yggdrasil and in charge of your Branch of the multiverse. There have been a great deal of issues in trying to get your universe online again after The Event, even in the stabilization form of a universe-wide Time Loop that we have managed to administer to other universes. This is in part due to the incredible potential for errors via the time travel you and your race are capable of. What this letter is for is part of an experiment I have gotten one of our top technicians to sign off on: you will have a single Loop through a modified Nesting Doll Protocol as a test that the Jormungandr upgrade to our Ouroboros Patch will prevent catastrophic failure if you accidentally break something in your timeline.
Part of the reason you have been sent this letter now, and not simply thrown into the experiment is that I trust you can follow the guidelines I lay out for you to minimize damage, while simultaneously taking a better reading of your normal travels. As such, I request that you keep this letter on you at all times, even after you regenerate, so I can use its sensors (yes, there are sensors, but they're placed in a dimension you can't see very well) to keep track of various phenomena. At the start of your first Loop, another version of this letter will be sent to remind you of the guidelines, as you will not be able to carry this one back with you.
The guidelines are as follows:
The Doctor briefly scanned the rest of the letter, noting that the "guidelines" were all easy to follow, being such things as "complete stable time loops (for example, don't have a future self save you from something, then not go back and save yourself)" and "try not to use the Key to Time to fix things, it'll just break everything worse." He then noticed the post-script:
P.S.: Do try to act normally this time around, would you? We wouldn't want to contaminate the experiment by having you do something you wouldn't normally do, now would we?
"Certainly not," scoffed the Doctor. Grades to the contrary, he was a scientist.
Many hundreds of years later...
The Doctor lay dying. His vision just starting to fade. By his side he could see his companion, laying a hand upon his shoulder.
"Doctor!" the voice said. Ah, his companions. Such wonderful people, all of them. "Please, Doctor! Regenerate!"
"No... Not this time," he wheezed. "I've put this off long enough. It has been wonderful, travelling with all of you, but now it's time I go back." He nodded, with some amusement in his voice. "Yes. I will go back. It will be nice seeing Susan again."
"What do you mean, Doctor?"
He shakily reached into his pocket, fishing out both his latest Sonic and the letter. It was surprisingly still crisp and white, despite having carried it for so long. "I received this... Oh, so long ago. Back when I was a young man, playing at being old." The coughs racked his body. "And now I return to then. As part of a grand experiment. If it doesn't work, however, I want you to use the Sonic to have the TARDIS take you home. Oh, my dear, sweet TARDIS. My most faithful companion. She's been... with me.. for so... long..."
The Doctor shuddered, almost dropping the bit of "junk" in his hand. Glancing at his hand confirmed the presence of his old class ring, the one he had lost so long ago.
"Message for you, sir!" chirped the voice, just as he was expecting.
Time for a new, old adventure.
It would be so wonderful to see everyone again.
1.2
Jean-Luc Picard leaned back into his chair. Just another day on the Enterprise-D. It did get a little monotonous at times, but it was home. And then, of course, there were the Loops where he could start making changes, usually because of a Variant, or a minor Fused Loop.
"Captain," Unawake Data shook him out of his reverie.
"Yes, Mister Data?"
"We are picking up an unusual object on the scanners. It appears to be a rectangular prism, only approximately four times larger than the Nomad device encountered by Captain Kirk, with a small cylinder on top."
"On screen." The sight of a blue box bearing the words "Police Public Call Box" was something of an annoyance. Having a Loop suddenly turn out to be Read-Only barely gave the Looping Staff a chance to make sure they hadn't pocketed anything unusual. He'd have to get word to Beverly, Miles, and Geordi somehow. Regardless. "Open hailing frequencies." A chirp signalled his compliance.
"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise to the mysterious blue box. Please respond." After a moment without an answer, Picard was set to repeat himself as was standard procedure, when one of the doors opened and a hand pulled a phone out of the sign on the other door and back inside.
"Hello, the TARDIS," said a voice. Then came a slightly muffled, "Did you really have to put the phone back on the outside? I was getting used to it being back in the console!"
"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the-"
"Enterprise!" interrupted the same voice. "Excellent! Hello, Captain! I'm afraid I've been knocked for a Loop and am looking for an Anchor!" Again, muffled, "That was the right phrase, wasn't it?"
Picard had long ago mastered his composure, but if there was any moment he dearly wished to faint, it was now.
1.3 (OathToOblivion)
Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister of Britain, was a lot of things. One thing she wasn't, however, was someone holding a grudge against the Doctor for deposing her from her elected office. She did, however, expect that he didn't want anything to do with her, so imagine her shock when the familiar *VWORP* of the TARDIS was heard outside her door. She froze in the silence until there was a knock on the door. "Coming!" she called, rushing over to it. She opened the door, revealing the Doctor as she last saw him, with the hair that stood up and a brown, pinstriped suit with overcoat.
"Harriet Jones. May I come in?" he asked almost hesitatingly. A bit unusual for the Doctor, but British manners and all.
"Doctor...yes, of course," she replied, leaving the threshold and letting him walk in.
"I won't be long, Harriet; I just needed to tell you something," the Doctor said, stopping in an effort to choose his words very carefully. He then ventured out. "I...I don't really know where to start," he sighed.
"The beginning is always a good place," Harriet pointed out.
"Heh. Doesn't really matter much to a Time Lord. I met my wife in the opposite direction of time than she met me. Caused me all sorts of headaches when I met her for the first time on my end," he reminisced. He shook his head. "Anyway, that's not the point. The point is I'm...I'm..." he stumbled trying to finish the sentence.
"You're what?" Harriet wondered.
"I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry, Harriet. I never should have done what I did by deposing you," the Time Lord in the room said in sorrow.
"What? But Doctor-" the former Prime Minister attempted to argue back.
"Let me finish, please!" he pleaded. At her silence, he continued. "I still don't approve of your genocide of the Sycorax. But you had a point; humanity does deserve to have the right to protect itself when I'm not around. I'm not so arrogant to think that I'll always be around; not anymore," he explained.
"But if you think that, then why did you do it in the first place?" Harriet couldn't help but ask.
"My people, we have this trick where we can cheat death up to 12 times. In between the first and second times we saw each other, I was forced to use that trick, which is why I look so different. But you know that already." With that summary of regeneration out of the way, he continued on. "But after it happens, while I'm physically fine after a bit, mentally there's a bit of trauma. Everything about me is changed, from my taste buds, to my hair color, to the way my neurons fire. Because I'm not used yet to how the neurons fire differently, I don't always act the way I should. In short, I wasn't really thinking clearly when I did that. Now that I am, I came to apologize. Harriet, if there's anything I can do to make it up to you-" he began to offer.
However, Harriet cut him off. "Doctor, you may think what you did was wrong, but it's the same for me. You're right, I shouldn't have committed genocide the way I did. But I don't regret anything I did that day. You shouldn't either," she said, piercing through him with his gaze.
At this, the Doctor cracked a grin. "'No regret', eh? You humans always continue to surprise me. Regret...I suppose she was right. Even after all this time, like this I'm still 'the Man Who Regrets'," he murmured.
"What?" Harriet asked in confusion.
"Oh, nothing. Just something someone once told me a long long time ago," the Doctor waved the question away. "So! Guess I better get going. Places to see, people to meet! ...See you around, Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland," the Doctor quietly said, turning to leave.
"I know who I am," Harriet wryly said. "Godspeed, Doctor," she saluted him.
"...And the same to you," he murmured, before leaving and shutting the door behind him. The hum of his Sonic Screwdriver was heard as he locked the door behind him.
1.4 (TrueZero2)
"I don't believe it," Skuld said, looking at Zurvan's screen. "I… you… HOW?!"
"I've got to admit," Themis said, "I thought I had a challenge with the Cooper Gang and their lot, since I've got to deal with a band of thieves for an Anchor and the related Loopers. I thought Hephaestus had pulled of the impossible task with getting the Megaverse stable for Looping, after the hell that went on getting that one going. Then there's this. You've probably just won Administrator of the Millennium right there."
"While Skuld's brain reboots itself," Sleipnir added, "Would you mind explaining just what needed to be done to enable this?"
The assortment of Admins that were present nodded in agreement. It was normally a small victory when certain difficult Loops were made Loop-capable. This one though was a whole other story altogether.
On Zurvan's screen was a few lines that conveyed the situation.
Branch: Doctor Who
Anchor: The Doctor (All Incarnations)
Stability: 97%
LOOPING ENABLED
"It wasn't easy, I'll say that much. Any entities that would be classed as Loop-Aware needed to lose some of that awareness. For that, there were a few modifications that needed to be made to the Ouroboros Patch, which I managed to get going with some assistance from Jormungandr. Those mods made it stricter on the system, but to make an analogy, the differences would be like having Diet Cola and Regular Cola. Take the other Time Lords as an actual example here. As a race, they were aware of the Loops, they were able to rather easily deduce that a Time Loop existed. Now, the likely result is that they'll believe that time is distorted to some degree, but that it's something benign, no need to fix it because it'll fix itself eventually. That's what I was aiming for at least," Zurvan began to explain, as he pointed out the various changes to the data that formed the patch in question.
"Then there was the problem with the different versions of the Doctor. I know we'd been bouncing around ideas like 'The Doctor as a Travelling Looper' or the JoJo solution. The main problem with the former was that it left the rest of the branch in the lurch. The latter had the problem of splitting a single individual into around a dozen Anchors. The code just didn't like that one; it dropped concept like a bad habit." This part was accompanied by images depicting the two ideas.
"The idea that I had was awkward, but ultimately simplistic. I've opted to have the Doctor Loop through his own personal timeline, and to leave the start point on a randomiser," Zurvan explained, turning to face everyone.
"A randomiser? What's the point there?" Skuld asked, having regained her composure.
"Well, it'll put him at a random point in his personal timeline. Using the names that the Hub does for each version of him, he'll be able to Loop from his birth prior to the William Hartnell era, all the way through to the end of the Matt Smith era. On the whole though, it'll treat the entire timeline as a single entity and it allowed us to lock-on to him more effectively. If he was to Awaken in his fourth incarnation, every one that comes after would be Awake too. For him, a Loop will last for one Regeneration Cycle, so should he Loop in as any of his first pre-Trenzalore incarnations, then he'll finish at Trenzalore. If he Loops in as one of his second Cycle incarnations, then they'll be ones he has for the Loop. At the moment though, only the first one, the one played by Peter Capaldi in the Hub, is eligible for Awakening. It'll adjust itself should new ones appear in the Hub World."
"His Regeneration presented another problem as it's a racial ability. I dealt with that by locking it to his Gallifreyan data and not him specifically. If he's in a Fused Loop, and he's not from Gallifrey or any variation of, he won't be able to regenerate. Likewise, I've locked the Time Lord species data to prevent Loopers from ending up as one themselves, for the time being at least. I left that part able to be adjusted as we need to. Moving on, it's time for the big one. How to deal with his tech."
At the mere mention of the technology for this Loop, most of the present Admins looked at each other nervously.
"For this, the problem was if he put the stuff into a Subspace Pocket and carried it from one Loop to another," Zurvan said, the screen showing the appropriate images. "Because of that, I've left a number of items as Read-Only, so we won't need to worry too much. Those are mainly the things that enable time-travel."
That alone relieved some of the spectators.
"For the things that aren't Read-Only though, such as Sonic Screwdrivers, I've imposed a limiter on them. They'll simply not work at full capacity or at full reliability whenever they're used outside of the Doctor's home Loop. It'll turn Loopers away from using any of them as the go-to items, and thus, reduce their usage overall. Less usage, less chance of something destabilising the system, and there you have them: the measures that were put in place to allow the Doctor to Loop," he finished.
"Impressive, I've got to say, Zurvan. Well done," Sleipnir replied.
"So, how're we going to break the news to the Loopers?" Themis asked.
"Now that, I really don't know," Zurvan replied. "I say let them find out on their own. We should probably let the Doctor know about that whole regeneration clause though. Professional courtesy and all."
"Alright, where am I now?"
The Doctor had woken up to a new world entirely, in his younger days as his Time War incarnation. From what he could tell, it was a Fused Loop, given the heads up display showing up in his field of vision. Looking at his Loop memories, he was currently in a virtual world, connected to a game called Elder Tale.
"So, you must be the Doctor," a voice from behind him said. He turned to see a man dressed in white robes, with a staff in one hand, and a book in the other. "I'm the local Anchor. My username is Shiroe. According to my Loop memories, I was helping you to level up before the new expansion sucked us in here. Come with me, we'll get to know each other properly while we make some arrangements for you during your stay in our branch of Yggdrasil."
A little dubious, the Doctor agreed nonetheless. It was a little later that he found a note from the Admins in his inventory that explained what he needed to know about the terms on his Loop.
1.5 (crossoverpairinglover, edited by OathToOblivion)
The Doctor, currently as the incarnation directly following the Time War (the 9th Doctor), found himself surrounded by a small army of Daleks in the New York Subway Systems (which he had entered because he had heard an interesting rumor about adolescent turtles who lived down here and ate pizza a lot) in an abandoned subway station.
But not just any old group of Daleks was surrounding him this odd Fused Loop.
No, these Daleks had large, metal arms on them that looked good for crushing things.
"Well, this is an...interesting variant," the Doctor muttered to himself as he drew from his Subspace Pocket a lightsaber. He then ignited its blue blade. "So Daleks, any interesting one liners you may or may not wish to shriek out before I exterminate you?" he asked in bravado, pointing the lightsaber at the Daleks.
"...HUG."
The Doctor just stared at the Dalek that spoke in confusion "Wha-?"
"HUG."
The Daleks charged.
A few Loops later, the Doctor found himself surrounded by Daleks again, this time with large feathers sticking out of their fronts like odd, reverse flamenco dancers. They were in a great valley surrounded by crystal near a town called 'Radiant Garden' or something of the matter.
Drawing his wand from his subspace pocket, he pointed the magical conduit at the nearest Dalek. The end started to glow. "So, Daleks, any interesting one liners before I see what my Patronus actually looks like?"
"...TICKLE."
The Doctor's wand stopped glowing as he stared at the Dalek who just said that. "Wha-?"
"TICKLE."
The Daleks charged...again
Several dozen loops later, the Doctor, having enjoyed his time in his latest fused loop (Though this 'Providence' group that kept running around catching the E.V.O's was kind of annoying), had went out grocery shopping after hearing about the health benefits of Avocados.
Instead, he found himself surrounded by Daleks while his grocery basket was still empty.
But these Daleks, unlike the regular ones, had giant needles attached to them, like a bunch of blood collecting nurses.
The Doctor sighed. "What do you want this time?"
"...BLOOD."
He cocked an eyebrow at this one.
"THE DA-LEKS MUST FEED ON THE BLOOD OF IN-FE-RI-OR BE-INGS! GIVE US YOUR BLOOD!" The Daleks charged, before realizing that they had missed the Doctor and just punctured themselves with their needles.
Having Apparated out of the way, the Doctor retrieved his basket and went back on his Avocado hunt. "Honestly, I think I prefer you this way," he muttered.
1.6
The Doctor fingered the gold star in his pocket, given to him by Adric. The first time this happened, he'd killed the Cyberleader, but it damaged the console and he'd failed to save Adric. In his first actual Loop, he'd practically forgotten about that and failed again. It had nagged at him a few times as he started Looping into his later incarnations, mainly his tenth and eleventh, annoyingly enough. But this time, he'd Awoken in Castrovalva and that gave him plenty of time to prepare. He let go of the star and grabbed something else in the deep pockets of his coat.
"You've failed, Leader," he said, just as he had before.
The Cyberleader turned its gun on him. "But you will not enjoy the victory. I shall now kill you, Doctor."
Tegan, bless her brave heart, jumped up behind the Cyberleader, grabbing it and distracting it enough to make it turn around.
"Time to go off-script, I think," the Doctor said, raising the glitter gun he had returned to Voga to borrow. This particular version did far more than cause a Cyberman to suffocate. The Cyberleader turned back just in time to get a jet of molten gold straight to the chest, which gummed up the works enough that it's gun never fired even as it gasped in pain and anguish. He then quickly ran over to the console, tossing the glitter gun to Tegan.
"Please hurry, Doctor. We must get Adric off the freighter," begged Nyssa.
"I'm working on it, Nyssa!"
"We must save Adric! There's so little time"
Distracted by putting the coordinates in, the Doctor again failed to notice a Cyberman enter the room. But Nyssa did see it. "Look out!"
"I won't let him die again!" the Doctor almost growled. He'd had many companions over the centuries, but Adric was the first one he'd truly lost. Even those that had accidentally been left behind were still there to be visited. He wouldn't let that happen again.
Nyssa, recognizing the Doctor's focus, though she was confused by his statement, snatched the Cyberleader's gun and opened fire. Tegan, remembering her own armed status, attempted to fire the glitter gun.
However, it had only had enough in it for the shot that took out the Cyberleader.
With a clunk, the TARDIS landed, and the Doctor threw open the doors.
"ADRIC!" He shouted. "PLEASE HURRY!"
The genius of E-Space was startled out of his musings by the Doctor's shout, and seemed torn between answering the question and complying. He was so certain he had the answer. Fortunately for the Doctor, the choice was taken out of both their hands by a lone surviving Cyberman, who fired at the controls for the freighter, destroying it.
Adric raced on board and the Doctor began dematerialization.
As they left for the next adventure, Adric looked out of the viewer and said, "Now I'll never know if I was right."
The Doctor could only laugh and hug him.
1.7
Variations to the Loop were only slightly more common on the other side of the mirror than in Equestria proper, since most other Loops were populated by humans, so whenever Sunset Looped into "home," she was generally prepared to meet visitors to Canterlot High, especially those who were resistant to attending high school a second time. Teachers were a different matter, since most Loopers had little idea on how to teach. She sat down in her sciences class, already familiar with the subject for the most part.
So the new arrival was only sort of expected.
After everyone was seated, the teacher entered. He was tall, with gray hair and a frilly, almost Victorian-looking, outfit. His skin was peach in tone, which while somewhat normal for a regular human, it tended to stand out amongst the technicolour population of Canterlot High.
"Good afternoon, class," he announced. "I'm your new teacher. My name is Doctor... John- no, that doesn't fit this world does it... Time Turner, yes, that's right. I'd prefer, however, if you just refer to me as Doctor.'" He started writing on the board. "Now, to establish a bit of a baseline, who here is familiar with the concept of a 'Time Loop?' Anyone at all?"
Sunset was the only one to raise her hand.
"Excellent. Miss...?"
"Shimmer, Doctor. Sunset Shimmer."
"Miss Shimmer. I have a special assignment for you, then. Please see me after class. Now then, we'll see how much knowledge we can stuff into your heads by the end of the period, shall we?"
Sunset was certain she heard him mutter, "Hopefully you'll retain more than the Brigadier ever did."
Time Turner spoke with an unusual accent, which now Sunset realized was similar to British from some human loops, though Sunset realized it could be easily faked with no special Looper skill required. And the famously long scarf was just in one corner on the hat rack, right next to a fez. How she hadn't seen it before was a mystery. In the end Sunset decided to give the benefit of the doubt on Time Turner being the Doctor, as she didn't know enough about him to disprove any evidence he may have with him.
After classes ended both waited until all other students left the class. The teacher spoke first as he approached Sunset Shimmer: "Now, Miss Shimmer, if you would be so kind. Might I ask after the Anchor of this quaint Loop? I haven't had much experience outside my own, you see. Even my first Fused Loop was in my own universe."
No ping and now this… is the Doctor a young looper? It made a weird kind of sense. "Um, okay," still baffled, Sunset did her best to answer. "This is a sort of parallel subset of the Equestrian Loops. Our Anchor is Twilight Sparkle, and she's probably just moving to Ponyville now. I don't know if anyone else is Awake, the ping doesn't work very well through the mirror."
The Doctor nodded.
"Actually… are you the Anchor of your world?" Sunset Shimmer asked in a pensive look.
"Yes, I am indeed the Anchor for my little Branch of the World Tree. Still working on the ping, too. Rather more complicated than you all let on." He tapped his chin. "Perhaps if I reverse the polarity... No, that couldn't possibly work."
"Well, in that case there's no guarantee Twilight's Awake," Sunset continued where she had left. "While multiple Anchors might be Awake in any given loop, only one is required and you'd fill the quota."
"I see."
Seeing the conversation being under control Sunset decided to launch the most complicated question she had. "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but who are you? You can't possibly be who I think you are, but there's no other choice left."
"And as the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, through Sherlock Holmes," the Doctor said back,"'when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' Though, between you and me, I think he got that phrase from me."
"Only in loops you exist." Sunset sniped back.
The Doctor chuckled "True, true."
Taking a more serious stance Sunset pressed on. "But seriously, isn't your world Read-Only and forbidden to Loop?"
"It was," the Doctor corrected. "You see, my original Administrator enlisted the help of Jörmungandr to upgrade something called an 'Ouroboros Patch.' And, with that, I was activated as a Looper. It is rather annoying to Awaken as a different me all the time, though."
Sunset Shimmer blinked "So it's like Link and Zelda?"
"Who?"
"Loopers from Hyrule." Sunset Shimmer explained. "Their loop has reincarnation built in its life and death cycle so they tend to Awake in whole different eras."
The Doctor smiled wryly, "Somehow I don't think they can regenerate into different bodies and personalities about a dozen times in a single life."
"Point."
The conversation paused at this point and Sunset Shimmer looked outside. "It's night already and everybody left. You said you wanted to meet our Anchor?" At the Doctor's nod she pointed to Canterlot High's front yard, "then let's go the the statue. That's our ticket to meet her."
The Doctor stepped over to a wardrobe in the corner opposite the hat rack. How she missed that one was even more baffling, considering it's blue colour. As he pulled out a light coat, she spotted a hard-to-miss overcoat with enough colours to make a clown jealous. With confirmation that he was the Doctor, she supposed it made some sense that he'd have all his outfits.
After leaving the classroom they walked in silence, leaving enough time for Sunset Shimmer to digest what had happened today. A grin started to creep its way across her face as she realized this had to be the biggest news in the entire Multiverse and she got to hear it first (not actually true, but she could be forgiven for thinking otherwise)! She had to see if the others were Awake. And if so, they needed to know immediately.
"If you're just starting to loop, Doctor, I'm guessing you've always been a biped, right?"
"Yes," The Doctor answered back, slightly confused. "Your point being?"
"Travelling through the portal will change your shape." Sunset answered back as she summoned her Keyblade. "You'll probably become a pony just like me, and walking on four legs may be difficult if all your life… lives you've been a biped. Oh, and I'll have to seal the gate behind us. First time I did this, I forgot to do that, and some of the people here followed me through."
"Understood, Miss Shimmer." The Doctor said, apparently fascinated with how Sunset Shimmer summoned her giant key and worked it through the solid marble of the statue. "You know, it's quite the experience being the inexperienced one for a change."
With a shared laugh, both walked through the portal into Equestria.
1.8
The Doctor tugged at his colourful coat. He didn't see why everyone thought it was "terrible" or "an eyesore." Honestly, it's as if they'd never heard of "being ahead of the curve!" But all that was a bit off topic. "And there you are, Peri! Conflict resolved in record time, with only a few Daleks as casualties."
"I still don't know how you knew this Davros guy was there, Doctor," his companion complained. Honestly, while he didn't mind having someone with him, did she have to be so blind?
"Oh, I doubt you would understand," the Doctor retorted.
"Try me."
"The Multiverse is broken and I've been chosen to keep it stable by constantly repeating my life. It's not often one gets to interfere with one's personal history without actually meeting oneself in the process!"
Peri blinked a couple times. "Okay, you were right. I didn't understand. Can't you be clearer?"
The Doctor scoffed. "Clearer? Clearer? CLEARER?! My dear Peri, that's about as clear as one can get when it comes to multi-dimensional errors in the very fabric of reality itself!"
Peri just sighed. "Oh, fine Doctor, I won't ask. But, where are we going next?"
"We, my dear, are going to save a future version of Earth, as well as the whole universe, from a black light explosion. Then, we're going to steer completely clear of Thoros Beta so you don't get your mind switched with one of the Mentors and killed by King Yrcanos."
Peri looked further confused. "Um, thanks?"
"You're welcome, my dear. I wonder what the 'Courtyard' will have to say about things THIS time around!" The Doctor paused in his flipping of switches. "Hmm... I wonder. The Valeyard always claimed he was a dark reflection of my future self, but he's obviously not one of me, now that I've been all of me. I wonder how ol' Zurvan will handle that...?"
Peri had no idea what to say to that.
1.9
The assembled Time Lords finished watching the events of his revised adventure on the displaced Earth. It was odd, he mused, that they never, in any iteration, pulled any evidence from his past selves, including the time his toothy fourth self was outright ordered by the council to commit genocide on the Daleks.
The Valeyard stood up. "And that was only the some of the meddling the Doctor did in his travels."
"Oh, it was hardly meddling," the Doctor remarked calmly. "All I did was repair a black light converter, shut down a robot tyrant, and stop a robbery while I was at it." The Valeyard glared at the Doctor out of the corner of his eye. It was just so satisfying to infuriate the faker by not rising to the bait, even if it did feel slightly out of character for himself.
The Inquisitor turned to the Doctor, "And do you have any evidence for us, Doctor?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. Even better, I have an excellent character witness who is willing to submit some of his memories to the Matrix for my defense. And don't worry, he is a Time Lord."
As the Inquisitor opened her mouth to reply, the doors to the courtroom swung open, revealing a tall man with disheveled brown hair, wearing a suit and long brown coat. "Hello, everyone! Am I early?"
The Doctor nodded to the newcomer. "You're right on time."
"Just who is this, Doctor?"
"Why, the best character witness one can have, of course! He's a future me! The tenth Doctor, so to speak."
"And he's got a heart of gold, just like the rest of me. Though it is a bit hard to see with that coat." said the older Doctor.
"Excuse me? My coat? You look ready to go fight in a rebellion!"
"Silence!" shouted the Valeyard. "Sagacity, how can we allow this? One should not be allowed to act as his own character witness, especially when his future is still in flux."
"Oh, my future's not the one in danger, Valeyard," replied Ten. "Well, not from you at any rate. Still, I'm not going to be just speaking on my behalf, I'm here to offer memories to the Matrix!"
The Inquisitor looked contemplative. "I believe we shall have a short recess to deliberate on the matter. And if the witness is allowed to submit memories to the Matrix, we will do so in that recess. We will reconvene in one hour."
Everyone but the Doctors and the Valeyard filed out of the room. After everyone left, the Valeyard leaned toward his foes. "You will not win this, Doctor. I swear it." Then he swept out of the courtroom.
"Good. Good," said Six, still leaning back in the defense's chair. "Now, what were you thinking about submitting?"
"I figured I'd put in our adventure with Mister Saxon and the Toclafane. It's half again as long as the evidence the faker's putting forth, but it should suffice to show how we help people."
"Are you sure? I mean, that is during the time we thought Gallifrey was destroyed."
"True. I'll just skip over any mention of the Time War. It only comes up about four or five times."
"They might be a bit suspicious, you know. And with the Master in the Matrix manipulating things..."
"Ah, but he won't have this." Ten whipped out a complicated-looking gadget. "Once my memories are in there, I just switch this on and it prevents all in-going signals from reaching the Matrix. 'Course that means you won't be able to pause the video, so be ready to act shocked about that. It'll also pop popcorn, extinguish fires, and create personalized force fields for any living thing in ten meters."
"Do you ever stop adding features to things?"
1.10 (Detective Ethan Redfield)
The doors to the TARDIS flew open as the elderly first doctor raced for the console with a speed unusual for men his age. Susan was already in the TARDIS, meaning he could take off immediately. The Doctor's granddaughter looked at her relative, who had a ghastly expression on his face. "Grandfather, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Oh, just someone I'm supposed to meet...900 or so years in the future, don't worry about it. I'll have us off in a jiffy."
A series of raps echoed into the control room. "Hello, Sweetie! Open up, I just want to talk!"
With a flip of a lever, the TARDIS started grinding only for it to cut out. "Oh Sweetie, you can't leave that quickly, we just met."
Looking at a display, the elderly doctor frowned. "Locking down the Time Circuits using a future sonic screwdriver, clever girl."
The Time Lord reached into his coat, then into his subspace pocket and withdrew the 11th's Screwdriver. Susan asked. "What is that?"
"A Sonic Screwdriver I picked up back at the Academy from Rani," the older man lied.
Susan bought it as she pointed at the door. "And who's that?"
He looked at the TARDIS entrance. "A variant."
Susan blinked. "A what?"
"I'll tell you about it later."
He pointed the green tipped Sonic at the console. "Nice try, River, But you'll have to work harder to kill me than that."
With a push of the button, the Time Circuits unlocked and the grinding resumed.
1.7 cont.
After the rather disorienting experience of traversing the barrier between worlds unprotected, the Doctor found himself rather awkwardly falling from an upright position into his new body's proper quadrupedal stance.
"Odd," commented Sunset, hovering her Keyblade in her magic as she re-locked the gateway. "I would've thought you'd look a bit... browner."
The Doctor gave himself a once-over. His tail was as grey and curly as his hair (and what an novel experience, having a tail), and his coat retained a peach-pale tone. He kept his suit jacket and frilled shirt, but his light jacket and pants seemed to have vanished. And on his rear was an hourglass, with most of the sand in the top bulb. "And just why is that?"
"Well, we have a pony-slash-person in our Branch called Time Turner who's brown with a spiky mane. He's got the hourglass cutie mark, too." She looked closer at his hourglass. "Though, yours seems to have more sand in the top."
"Sounds like he'd be very similar to my tenth self. You say this image is called a 'cutie mark?'"
"Right, it's supposed to signify a pony's special talent. And, as a Time Lord, yours would obviously be time."
"Quite right. Now, you were going to-" The Doctor paused as he felt an unusual burst of energy pass through him. "My word. Is that what a ping is supposed to feel like?" A moment later, several more bursts of energy were felt.
"Oh, that's right, you haven't quite gotten the hang of pings yet. Here, let me give you some tips..."
After Sunset explained the ping to the Doctor, Sunset said, "Hang on, Doctor. This is going to be a wild ride!" Using the Force to grab the Doctor, Sunset cast the Rey Wing spell she learned from Lina Inverse to take flight.
"How exhilarating!" The Doctor had rarely flown without a craft of some sort, the closest he'd ever come being the time he borrowed the power of the Archangel Network to hover for a bit in his tenth incarnation.
Sunset chuckled in reply. "I've picked up a few tricks in my time as a Looper." Soon enough, Sunset landed near Ponyville. Taking the time to grab a newspaper, she noticed it was a few weeks after the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration. "It's a bit later than I thought. Still, this works just fine."
The Doctor straightened his suit jacket. "My word, Miss Shimmer. What was that just now? Some form of telekinesis?"
"One was the Force, from the Star Wars universe. It's a bit easier to carry people that way than using my personal magic sometimes. The other was a spell called 'Rey Wing.' Speaking of, if you ever have a Fused Loop with Lina Inverse, be careful. She tends to cause mass destruction."
The Doctor cocked an eyebrow, curious. "And why does she cause mass destruction?"
"Well, the first time she Awakens to a new Fused Loop, she casts her signature spell to make sure it works. Said signature spell can flatten small villages. Other than that it's often incidental damage from fighting."
"My word. I hope I don't run into her any time soon." The Doctor looked around the quaint village of Ponyville. "Now then, you were going to show me to your Anchor."
"She lives over there, in the house-tree-library." The Doctor wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but he had seen some very odd things in his time.
As the two trotted toward the library, Sunset gave the Doctor some tips on several of the Loops she had been to.
"Now, one of the Original Seven, Ranma, has a rather interesting home Loop. It's so focused on various martial arts, that it started making some up, like Martial Arts Tea Ceremony-" Suddenly, Sunset saw a certain pink party pony out of the corner of her eye, shaking like mad. She held up a hand to the Doctor as she paused.
Smirking, Sunset said to the Doctor, "Follow my lead. I just thought of something that'll make your big debut as a Looper more fitting for you. After all, you're the one person everyone thought would never Awaken." The Doctor cocked his eyebrow in a specific manner, Delphon for "you're the expert here."
Sunset, loudly, asked the Doctor, "So, feeling a little Loopy?"
Doing his best to guess where she was going with this, the Doctor replied, "Yes, but now I feel quite Awake. For the first time, so to speak." Pinkie looked at the Doctor, curiously.
"So, you're a Doctor, right? What's your specialty?"
Ah, he thought, this other pony must be Awake as well. Out loud, he replied, "Well, anything, everything. Time in particular."
Pinkie stared at the two of them for a long moment, blinking, before shrugging and continuing on her merry way.
"Well, that's not the reaction I was expecting," remarked Sunset.
"What do you mean?"
"I thought for sure she'd zip off, raring to get a party together for you." Sunset shook her head. "She's acting odd, even for herself."
"Hmm. Well, regardless, you were going to introduce me to your Anchor, Miss Shimmer."
Once they were out of view of pretty much anypony, but still quite a ways from the library, Sunset paused. "Doctor. There's something that's been nagging at me for a while now, but it's difficult to talk about with people from here. We're all so very forgiving, after all."
The Doctor looked at her, puzzled, "Nothing wrong with a bit of forgiveness. But, why are you asking me? There must be more experienced Loopers out there who can advise you."
"I know, but there's something about you. I think it has to do with all the experience your baseline alone gives you."
Sunset took a deep breath. "Anyways, in our baseline... I go a little insane. I stole Twilight's crown, the Element of Magic, one of Equestria's most powerful artifacts, and intended to use it to invade Equestria and take it over with an army of mind-controlled teenagers." Sunset looked at the ground, haunted by her baseline memories.
"And I take it you're worried about potentially backsliding, is that it?"
"In a way. You see, Equestria is ruled over by Alicorns, a pony made of all the pony tribes. And almost all the Looping Equestrians are or can become them at will. I'm worried that if my time to ascend to Alicorn ever comes, that I'll wind up going mad with power again. Especially since I'm told emotions run a little hotter when someone ascends."
The Doctor nodded in understanding. Fortunately, he had a few examples he could pull from. "I see. Tell me, my dear, do you know of my Warrior incarnation?"
"I've heard of it, yeah."
"He did many terrible things in the Time War. Enough to feel that he should renounce the very name of 'Doctor.'" It was difficult to think of that era in his life. The Time War had been so long and so brutal, that by the end of it he had practically forgotten his true age and just reset the age he gave to around eight hundred and something.
The haunted look faded somewhat as he looked into her eyes. "I have since learned that there are many ways of being a Doctor. However, it is still very difficult to forgive that part of myself for what he did – and what he intended to do. It's the same for what my tenth incarnation did when he tried to break a Fixed Point, calling himself 'the Time Lord Victorious.'"
The Doctor paused. "What I'm getting at, Miss Shimer... Sunset, is that even if you do something terrible, if you learn from it and use its lesson to be better, you have nothing to fear from that part of you."
Sunset stood in silence for a minute. "Thank you. I'm still not sure I'm ready to be an Alicorn. But if it happens, I'll try not to fear myself."
The Doctor patted her on the shoulder. "That's all anyone can do with themselves. Shall we continue?"
Sunset shook herself. "Right."
"Well, Doctor, this is it," said Sunset, as they stood in front of the library.
"No need to stand around, I think." And with that, the Doctor pulled open the door, inwardly marvelling at the dexterity of his hooves.
"Hello," greeted Twilight. "Oh, Sunset! We don't usually see you around now. What's up?"
"We have a new Looper," grinned Sunset, gesturing to the Doctor.
"Good afternoon, Miss Sparkle. I'm the Doctor."
"Nice try, but I don't think so."
The Doctor gave her an incredulous look. "I beg your pardon?"
"He sounds like one of the Doctor, but that's easy to replicate. I'm surprised you thought this would work, Sunset."
"Now see here-" The Doctor restrained himself from yelling angrily at the unicorn. "What must I do to prove to you who I am?"
"Time travel."
"The TARDIS didn't follow me over. And even if she had, there's no artron energy in your universe, so she wouldn't be able to move."
"Sonic Screwdriver."
"Is there anything in here [i]not[/i] made of wood?"
"Regenerate?"
"Aside from wanting to remain myself, I'm not currently Gallifreyan and therefore cannot."
Sunset looked between the two as they continued their verbal tennis match. Every time Twilight asked something of the Doctor, he'd give a good reason he couldn't do it or an answer that Twilight would dismiss as "common knowledge" about the Doctor's adventures. After several minutes of this, Sunset and the Doctor found themselves outside the library.
"Of all the nerve," grumbled the Doctor. "I have half a mind to-"
"Please, Doctor, let's just try someone else, okay? Rarity lives closest, we can see if she's Awake."
As it turns out, she was. However, while she complimented the Doctor on his current outfit, she didn't believe them either. Nor did Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash. And with each failure, the Doctor became angrier and angrier.
"Millions of Loops under your collective belts and not one of them seems to think I could possibly be who I say I am?! The absolute nerve!"
"There's still a few ponies left to try, Doctor. We've only met half the pings out there. Going by the trend, I'm sure Applejack must be Awake, and she's the Element of Honesty. She [i]has[/i] to believe us."
"I don't believe it."
The pair stared incredulously.
"That does it!" The Doctor shouted. "I-"
"No, that ain't what I meant," interrupted Applejack. "I can feel the truth in what yer sayin'. He's really the Doctor. I was just so shocked I could scarcely believe my own senses."
"I knew we could rely on you, AJ," sighed a relieved Sunset. "Every other Element wouldn't believe us at all. They thought we were pranking them."
"Now, I could be a mite offended that ya didn't come ta me first, but I know I'm a bit out of the way compared to everypony other than Fluttershy."
"Do you think you could help us tell everyone else?"
"Well, first we should go meet up with Apple Bloom. She's going to be so ecstatic to meet ya Doctor. She's been working on her own Sonic Screwdriver, y'see. After that, we'll hope that nopony thinks ya managed to rope me inta a prank."
"Won't she have met me when I was unAwake?" asked the Doctor.
"I'm not actually sure. The only time I've heard of her meetin' a version of ya was when we were replacing all of ya'll."
"My word, replacing all of me? How did that work?"
"Well, Princess Celestia was in the place o' yer first self..."
1.11 (Detective Ethan Redfield)
The door swung open, issuing forth Donna Noble, followed closely by the 10th Doctor. They stood on the edge of a vast mountain, overlooking a vast burnt out wasteland leading to the sea. Donna looked to the Doctor with her head tilted. "The view is quite lovely, but I thought you said you would show me something I've never seen before?"
The Doctor gave his patented smile. "Indeed I did. Now, look down in the valley below, just before the ocean. Do you see anything?"
Donna peered to where he indicated, "I see...something. It's large and white...but, I'm not sure what it is."
The Doctor issued her back into the TARDIS and flipped a few levers. "Now, let's get a lot closer. You're gonna love this."
As the grinding ended, the door opened again, only for Donna's mouth to drop. "Oh...My...God...is that-"
The Doctor chuckled. "Yes, yes it is. The eighth wonder of the world, or soon will be anyway."
In front of them was the legendary 13 foot chickens of the Valley of Pompeii. Of course, the Doctor couldn't bear to tell her it was one of his more foolish plans. That Malon girl seemed so nice too, loaning him an egg just for this purpose and making them to reproduce asexually while putting a stasis spell on said egg. What she failed to mention was their ability to resist attacks that could ordinarily could bring down buildings and, if irritated too much, would summon an entire swarm from nowhere to kill the attacker. And then there was-
The doctor was jostled out of his thoughts. "Uh, Donna, don't stand in front of one of them...ever. They have a tendency to randomly shoot flames from their beaks."
Donna looked at him skeptically before light erupted behind her. She turned in time to see a gout of flame echo from one of the bird's mouth. The Doctor scratched his forehead. "Yeah, before these creatures lived here, the valley was quite fertile. What caused this is a complete mystery."
He stepped back into the TARDIS and issued Donna to join him. "Yeah, it's about time to set off the volcano. Surely you don't think the Romans took time to randomly carve statues of chickens in the valley, do you?"
Donna shrugged. "Why not? They have statues to the chicken god, Scootaloo, alongside the statue of Sleipnir in the temple of Yggdrasil."
She failed to notice the doctor's double take before he caught himself, muttering. "You got to be kidding me."
With that, the Doctor made silent plans to visit Ancient Rome and see about getting a second companion as he prepared to set off a volcano that would erase his slight miscalculation. At the very least, he did manage to prevent Pompeii from being destroyed...by making the area uninhabitable, but it was a small price to pay to save so many lives.
1.1: How not to break a universe.
1.2: When the impossible happens to you.
1.3: Regeneration Trauma takes many forms.
1.4: The Admins are just as shocked as we are.
1.5: Davros never has a sense of humour. He is, however, a little odd sometimes.
1.6: Saving those lost before.
1.7: Doctor Whooves has arrived. (Slight edit to the second part, due to conflicts from the MLP Thread end of things)
1.8: Even when he's Looping, Six is loud.
1.9: Advance warning can do wonders for your case.
1.10: River was trained to kill the Doctor. This time they never specified which one.
1.11: Malon of the LonLon Ranch has some curious breeds of Cucco.