Moving along

[zervziel]

"So you want me to become the next Deep Queen?" Riptide asked, her voice booming out through the city.

The ancient kelpie Ebb Flow who was heading the group of elder kelpies nodded her head. "Yes. As I pointed out to our kin, you've passed each test needed to be a truly worthy monarch of the Deep."

Riptide nodded her head as if she understood. Truthfully, she had forgotten about the trails the leaders of the kelpies underwent to prove their worth.

It's damned lucky that currents events have transpired in such a way as to allow me to pass these Trials Riptide thought. For a moment she played with the idea that the Doctor had something to do with these events as they did seem to be setting her up rather nicely with her goal of freeing the kelpies from the tyranny of the sea pony empress. However she discarded that idea as nonsense. He certainly hadn't intended to have his boxship stolen from him and he most certainly wouldn't have planned Primeval getting wounded to the point of near death.

As it was Riptide had no trouble with with saying yes to the kelpies. It would be a lie to say she hadn't been working towards a similar goal. After all it was easier to gather around a central figure. The irony that that was exactly what other sea ponies did with Samudra wasn't lost on her. While Riptide was no master of time, she knew she'd eventually cross horns with the Empress.

"I'd be honored to become the Deep Queen, my fellow kelpies." Riptide intoned with a bow of her enormous head.

Hopefully we can move a bit faster now that whatever was holding notMurphy up has passed

Winding Down

[multaekappae]

The Doctor paused, looking at the broken pieces of metal.
"Is that..."
"It is,"
"Was it..."
"It was."
"And you..."
"Yes *sigh*, now can you help me fix it or not?"

"Afraid not," The time pony shook his head cheerfully, "But I know who can, the bloke who forged it to begin with."

Sharp shook his head and tried not to laugh, 'Of course he'd try to solve a problem with time travel...' '...and make it ten times worse.' 'I wasn't going to think that.' 'Oh but you should have been; you'll see, soon enough.'

---

Cain regarded the wounded gryphon and was unsure what to say. Had it been a technician on Longreach Station, the appropriate words would have been 'I'm sorry,' followed by the mercy of rendering them unconscious before the station finished the dog off. On the station there was not much time for sentimentality, and Technician 09 was only now beginning to realize there was something wrong with the idea that it was more resource-efficient to replace a broken technician rather than repair them.

...none of these thoughts helped him figure out how to respond to Ako's expression of thanks.

"There is no nee–" no, that didn't seem right. "Y-you are welcome, of course. Cai- ah, I strongly hope you will 'Get Better'." He frowned, that was the term he remembered reading, but the phrasing seemed odd, and very nonspecific.

---

Scribble paused in the doorway, Primeval was sitting in the lobby reading through some bit of information or other. 'Ok, so now I just walk up and ask her what's–'

"...ness is to get you back in your box and me in mine, then I'll deal with this lot." The Doctor's voice came up suddenly behind the earth pony.

"I can see where your worry comes from, but wouldn't it be simpler to just split your consciousness into two parts and have one astrally projected out over the entirety of the timespan to suss out whether it's actually going to happen?" The voice of the previous doctor babbled on.

"Is that really your solution to every problem?"
"Well, not every problem, but large, over-arching ones..."
"Absolutely not, it was ridiculous when you did it. And besides... I don't remember – OH, Hullo, Scribble!"

The dual instances of the stallion from Gallopfrey all but marched the blue pony into the blue box, picking up their incomprehensible conversation again as they headed further into the TARDIS.

Primeval was looking straight at him, which was the obvious consequence of three ponies stumbling into the foyer, with two of them arguing at loud volume. Scribble swallowed his fears and strode toward the proto-mare...

---

(A few minutes later)

"Well, I can't say it hasn't been a pleasure." The Doctor said to himself, raising a hoof to the door controls, "But I think you'll understand if I say that I really hope we don't meet like this again."

"Shhh, don't spoil this with words," The previous Doctor grinned, "You enjoyed every minute of this and you know it."

The spiky maned incarnation shook his head, chuckling as he disengaged the cargo room from his TARDIS, en route to it's fourth incarnation.

As the door hissed shut, the behatted pony spoke one last time, "See you in the gallery."

"What?" The Doctor asked as his former self vanished behind the door. "What?"

---

(Several more minutes later)

With a vworp, the TARDIS materialized behind the assembled Kelpies, the door sprining open and a dozen or so lizard people staggered out, shielding their eyes from the blazing solar orb.

The Doctor hopped out after them, grinning up at Riptide's gigantic form. "Oiii! Any time yer ready to depar, your madge. Got a bit of a schedule, yeah?" He tapped the 'wrist' of one forehoof with the other, a gesture that would hardly have been recognized even in modern Canterlot as pantomiming the tapping of a hoofwatch.