White Knight
No one ever told Amy Pond fairytales. They didn't need to. She'd always made up her own, the ones about the raggedy man in the blue magic box. She'd told them to anyone who'd listen: her parents, her aunt, her friends and even the psychiatrists.
Now, as she sits in a cold, white room surrounded by people who want to use her as the cheese in a trap, she tells fairytales to her daughter. But the story she tells is different, because Amy is different. She's not little Amelia anymore, she's grown up, so she doesn't tell Melody imaginary stories about magical men who appear out of nowhere and vanish like they never existed. She wants her daughter to hear this story because it's true.
Once upon a time, there was a boy from a little English village called Leadworth. That's the first thing Melody has to know: you don't have to be born under an orange sky with two suns to be special; even ordinary boys from small villages can grow up to be heroes. This one did. He grew up to be smart, funny, brave, and the kindest man in the whole village, who'd do everything he could to look after the people he cared for even if he didn't know them.
She pauses for a moment, not sure how to tell the next part of the story. It's the most important part, because one day this boy met a girl. Everyone in the village thought this girl was strange; she believed in fairies because she said she'd met one. No one believed her, but the boy played games with her anyway so she could believe she'd run away with her Raggedy Doctor and could have adventures instead of being stuck in a boring village.
One day they stopped playing games together, and started doing normal things like revising for exams and rescuing their friend Mels when she got into trouble. Amy promises she'll tell that story later. And still, the boy never complained and did everything the girl asked, no matter how crazy it was. And the girl never missed her games while she was around him.
She has to stop the story there, and drop her head, hiding her face in her hair, refusing to let her captors know she's crying. She won't give them the satisfaction of thinking she's scared, even if she isn't.
Because she isn't scared. This is the part of the story she can't tell baby Melody. Perhaps, when she's older, Amy can admit that she was never certain why Rory put up with her. She'd always known he'd be there, with a certainty that nothing else could match, but she'd never been certain why. Sure, Amy Pond was beautiful – there was no such thing as Miss Leadworth but if there were, she was confident she could win it simply by showing up in the right skirt – but she was also obsessed with a childhood imaginary friend.
No real man could ever measure up to the Raggedy Doctor, and the strange thing about Rory was that he had never tried. He'd just gone on being normal, kind, patient Rory. There were times when she'd abused his patience shamelessly, mocking him, ignoring him, or just being generally selfish. When the penny had finally dropped, the first thing she'd wanted to do is apologise for all those times she'd taken advantage of his feelings for her without understanding what they really were. Of course, that didn't stop her doing all those things, but she did her best to apologise afterwards. It wasn't till he'd got down on one knee and offered her a ring that she really understood that he could actually handle everything she was – even the casual flirting with other guys – and he trusted her not to do anything that would really hurt him.
She quickly dried her tears, brushed her hair aside, and went back to telling Melody her story. How the boy had grown into a handsome man. He'd met a wise old wizard and become a brave knight, helping the wizard fight monsters, demons and everything that hid in the dark and made children cry. He'd even stood guard over the woman he loved for a hundred years after she was trapped by an evil spell. He'd saved her so they could finally be married and happy together, and he'd sworn nothing would keep them apart again. She tells her daughter to remember this, because a knight always keeps his word.
The doors swish open and her blood goes cold. She can sense the one-eyed woman in black before she even turns around. She does turn, and faces her; they won't get to see her afraid.
"Telling stories?"
"Yeah," Amy responds. "I want Melody to know who's coming to rescue us."
"Spare her," the woman smiles coldly. "The stories of the Oncoming Storm are just stories. No one here is afraid of them."
Amy blinks, then smiles a smile of her own. "That isn't who I was telling her about. The Doctor is amazing, and I've seen him do things you wouldn't believe, but he's got nothing on the man who's coming for us. He's fought vampires, Cybermen and Daleks with his bare hands. The universe can't kill him no matter how hard it tries. Even being erased from history didn't stop him. He spent two thousand years awake in a world with no stars just so he could make sure I was safe."
The woman's lips twisted again. "And who is this magical man?"
Amy holds up her left hand, and lets the woman see the gold ring she's never been more proud to wear. "His name is Rory Williams. He's my husband, and Melody's father."
For a second, the woman hesitates. Her single eye narrows. Then the door opens and one of the soldiers comes in and hurriedly salutes.
"What is it?"
"The Twelfth Cyberlegion," the soldier stutters. "It's... gone."
In the silence that follows, everyone in the room turns to look at Amy. She smiles. Rory is on his way.
"You still have time to start running," she says.