Chapter 1: History's Repeat
A few minutes later, just outside Canterlot; The Doctor, Derpy and Princess Twilight begin to seek out Princesses Luna and Celestia to investigate the mysterious threat discussed in their letter to Derpy.
"Twilight, you're close to the princesses. Is there anything they might've said or done to indicate what sort of danger they would be in?" The Doctor asked the purple alicorn. "I have no idea, Doctor. The last time I saw them was after we restored the Tree of Harmony to stop the Everfree Forest from invading. Since then, they've been putting some distance away from any citizens of Equestria. They don't even visit me and my friends from Ponyville anymore." With this new information, The Doctor formulated new thoughts and ideas that might explain their unsociable behavior. "What if they were traumatized by what they experienced in the Everfree? No, that can't be right. I've seen the way they stand proud during times of distress. Maybe, just maybe this threat is from another world and they were the targets? That's it! They've isolated themselves to protect their citizens!" After he was done with his thoughts, a smile of determination dawned on his face. "Derpy, hand me that letter." "Why, Doctor?" She asked. "If I am correct, this letter is a cipher to tell us the threat the princesses are facing. If they've been isolating themselves, it wasn't because of standard precaution but instead are the targets of something alien and way beyond their capability to protect their citizens from the danger they are facing. Twilight, is there any secret Canterlot code the princesses used in the past to relay messages in times of distress?"
"In the diary of the princesses recovered from their old castle mentions a riddle game Luna and Celestia played. Since they were heavily surrounded by guards in separate rooms at nighttime, they would send letters that didn't make sense if a guard read them, but if you took the 7th word of the second sentence in the letter and read them with the first 8 words of the next sentence, the riddle would be solved."
"That's it!" The Doctor exclaimed. "If we apply that same cipher onto Derpy's letter, it says 'help, a threat has been claimed on our lives.' Now that to me sounds like they need us more than ever! Come on, it shouldn't be that hard to find the two most powerful beings in Equestria."
A few minutes later, in the TARDIS…
"Thanks to the cipher, now we can trace the message back to its source." said The Doctor. "How can it do that?" Twilight asked. "Oh, it's completely impossible to explain right now." The Doctor began to look serious. "If this threat is too dangerous even for me to handle, I need you two to go to the TARDIS. It would take an entire supernova to break through those doors and the last thing I want to happen is you two getting hurt, or worse." The engines stopped their trademark wheezing groan, indicating to it's passengers that they arrived at their destination.
The Doctor, Derpy, and Twilight opened the doors and saw they were in the throne room, but something felt off to the three. Sitting on the throne was Celestia, but she kept staring blankly in front of her. "Are you alright, Princess?" The Doctor asked. "Oh? Are you new here? I always like to see new faces!" The three ponies became confused at this response. "Celestia, don't you recognize me? It's Twilight, your faithful student!" Now the Princess dawned a confused look. "You can't possibly be my student! My student is Sunset Shimmer!"
"How many years have you been ruling so far?" The Doctor asked.
"For about 900 years. Why do you ask?" Celestia said.
"This is exactly what I thought. Someone has opened her past up like a picture book!"
"What does it mean, Doctor?" Derpy asked. "It means the 'danger' they were talking about was this exact thing happening! The reason they've isolated themselves was to prevent any reminders that might give our unknown foe what they were looking for, which means…" Suddenly, the scene around them began to change. Celestia was still there, but seemed older and more familiar with the 3 ponies standing before her. "Oh hello, Doctor! Is something wrong?" The ruler of Equestria asked. Other than The Doctor, the ponies in the room seemed very confused. "Celestia, if you can hear me, give me a sign. Try to remember something, anything!" The illusion before them began to distort, revealing Celestia in real time for a brief moment. "Doctor, help me! AHHH!" The seriousness of the situation now dawned on the two mares. "Celestia! Doctor, how do I save my mentor? Please tell me!" Twilight exclaimed in a frightened and worrisome voice. The only thing he could do was turn his head in shame. "I-I can't, Twilight. As much as I wish I could, there is nothing I can do that wouldn't harm you or the Princess. What we need is somepony who can synchronize Celestia's memories in the proper order."
The two mares now looked confused. "What I mean is we don't have direct experience with her past" he tried to explain. "Twilight, even with that memory potion you received from Zecora you still have memories of her later years, just before the defeat of Nightmare Moon. And as for me and you Derpy, we haven't directly intervened with her memories or her mind. We just lent a helping hand, that's all. Our best bet is to search for her sister, Luna."
They began to understand how much of a risk and a gamble it would be to just repair the memories all on their own. Now that they were all on the same page, the three began to look for Princess Luna in whatever condition she was in.
In a universe unknown to the three companions, a plot began to form…
"PHASE ONE COMPLETE, DALEK SUPREME." A Dalek said.
" BEGIN PHASE TWO IMMEDIATELY." The Dalek Supreme stated. "CYBERMEN, WE ARE IN TEMPORARY ALLIANCE UNTIL THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS RECEIVED. IS THIS DIRECTIVE UNDERSTOOD TO YOU?" In front of the Dalek Supreme, a hologram image formed of the Cyber Controller. "The Directive has been stated and assessed. The alliance will be formed. Cybermen are now under control of Daleks until primary directive has been neutralized. Phase Two is commencing."
A battle map on both Cyber and Dalek ships were displayed with 3 blips in the center of what looked like a labyrinth. Suddenly with the push of a button, the labyrinth rotated and formed a new path for these 3 blips to follow. Strangely enough, at the other end of this new path was a slightly larger 4th blip.
At the same moment in the Castle…
"Shh. Do you hear that?" The Doctor said. Both Twilight and Derpy stared at him and simultaneously asked "Hear what?" Suddenly, the room began to rumble and shake, causing the roof to crack and chunks to fall. All of a sudden, the rumbling stopped. "Interesting. Twilight, can you fly through one of the holes in the roof and tell us what you see?" The Doctor asked. She did as told and flew through one of the many holes now adorned in the ceiling. "Good. Now tell me, what do you see?" Twilight looked around and to her astonishment saw a huge maze! "It's a maze!" yelled Twilight. "A giant maze! It must stretch for thousands of miles! But, how is that possible?" She flew down after describing the labyrinth to the other two. "Just as I thought." The Doctor said. Derpy looked frightened and scared. "Doctor, where are we? Is this the Canterlot we know?" She asked. "No. It's just a clever ruse to get me to play. Well I'm not playing, you hear me?! I'm not budging!" he yelled. "Derpy, Twilight, we're in a labyrinth designed by my predecessors, the Time Lords. It's an endless maze that can be manipulated and changed however they please.
"But this shouldn't be possible! This technology should've been lost!"
"What do you mean, Doctor?" Twilight asked. "What I mean is the last of these Gallifreyan Time Mazes was destroyed when my race went to war with-". By that point, The Doctor realized who put them in this death trap. "With who, Doctor?" both the worried ponies shouted. He then took a big gulp and said "With the Daleks of Skaro."
