Fanfic / Time Lords and Terror

Regeneration can sometimes be a... dodgy process

Time Lords and Terror is a crossover fanfic between Doctor Who and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

After witnessing a series of strange events Twilight Sparkle and friends search for answers, only to find themselves entangled in a war between two ancient races and a plot that could end all existence. Luckily, our heroes find help in the form of an eccentric brown pony with an impossible blue box.

The story was followed by two sequels, Mines of Dragon Mountain and The Nightmare Engine.

Tropes contained in Time Lords and Terror:

• Adaptational Badass: Who would have thought anything based on My Little Pony G1 villains could be so damn dangerous?!
• Arc Words: Méchant Loup (French for Bad Wolf).
• Apocalypse How: The S'Müz can cause a Class X-5 as it can destroy one reality and move on and destroy another. As a last ditch effort, the Doctor can detonate the Tardis to cause a Class X-4, which would destroy the current universe but would also kill the S'Müz, thus keeping other realities safe.
• Badass Adorable:
  • Zecora, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity all kick a fair amount of ass.
  • Pony!Doctor counts because Pony!
• Badass Boast: A fairly subdued but effective one from the Doctor.
  "I'm the Doctor, and these (MLP Mane Cast...and Zecora) are my friends. And we are going to stop you. Understood?"
• Badass Bookworm: Twilight Sparkle's bookworm nature comes out in full force while working with the Doctor to save the world.
• Back from the Dead: Thanks to the Elements of Harmony destroying the S'Müz, the ponies that were killed throughout the story get resurrected, including Zecora and the Doctor.
• Berserk Button:
  • Twilight has a couple of these throughout the story. They're typically called "The Doctor".
  • The Doctor himself is already serious when colts are attacked, but when the Hervoken says the destruction of his own race was necessary to destroy another and end a long war, he becomes very serious.
• Beyond the Impossible: A storm in the first chapter was "outright contradictory to all known magical laws." Trying to quantify the impossible event that happened over her head makes Twilight shout “AAAAAARRRGH!!!!”
• Bigger on the Inside: Initially Twilight tries to rationalize it but when she steps inside the TARDIS she's amazed.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The Doctor has two hearts even in pony form. He also has the ability to vomit up certain poisons.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: When explaining her plan to defeat The S'Muz, Twilight uses the Doctor's trademark of speaking at rapid-fire, and tops the speech with "Allons-y!" It helps that at this point, the Doctor is temporarily dead.
• Brick Joke: That book of Twilight's the Doctor accidentally teleported into the sun; it's spoken of in chapter 2 and the Doctor returns it in the finale. Twilight makes it explode so it won't embarrass her any further.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Twilight Sparkle has this memorable exchange with The S'Müz.
  Twilight: "You must be The S'Müz."
  S'Müz: We are...beyond you.
  Twilight: "Quite."
• Chekhov's Gunman: Zeitgeist Stardust, introduced in this story as just a potentially big client for Rarity, would go on to play a central role in Mines of Dragon Mountain.
• Chick Magnet: Ten has a reputation for it, but it's taken up a level here when almost everypony has a Ship Tease with him. There is a scene in the third chapter where Pinkie Pie lists off what makes him attractive to the Mane Six:
  • For Applejack, it's his strength and charisma.
  • For Twilight, it's his boundless knowledge and endless line of questions.
  • For herself? They both speak nonsense.
• Clark's Third Law: Magic? PKE? Sounds the same to me! Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!! More specifically, the magic readings that Twilight gets are nonsensical because she doesn't understand (or doesn't know) the "science" behind it. The Doctor on the other hand is well versed in all things hallo-baloo.
• Continuity Nod: When the Doctor wakes up in chapter two, he comments that his situation (he tastes embalming fluid, he's in a random, unknown hospital, and has no idea where he is) is just like his seventh regeneration. When he regenerated into his eighth form, he had just died from a botched operation to save his life and was presumed dead, and was placed in the hospital Morgue.
• The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: Pinkie Pie is the first to catch onto the Doctor's train of thought, much to his surprise.
• Cute Bruiser: Zecora gets this during her first encounter with the Carrionites; all three are wiped out thanks to her manticore dust and staff.
• Deus Exit Machina: At the start of the story, the princesses are patching holes in the universe that would cause its heat death if left unattended. This means they are unable to help with the current crisis and the Mane Six are the only ones who can help the Doctor. It's a Justified Trope because the holes are a by-product of the villain's entry into the pony universe.
• Eldritch Abomination: The S'Müz is referred to directly as such and its effect on muggles described in horrific detail.
• "Eureka!" Moment: In the penultimate chapter, both the Doctor and Twilight (albeit at separate times) realize how to defeat the S'Müz (using the Sonic Screwdriver to reverse the polarity of the Elements of Harmony). With the Doctor, it's when Rainbow mentions how life is being pulled out of everything around them. For Twilight, it's when the same pony mentions how the current situation sucks.
• Everybody Lives: Name dropped by the Doctor after his, Zecora, Draggle and Cherry Swirl revive at the end. The only permanent casualities are those Too Dumb to Live and a Death Seeker.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: The S'Müz kills Hydia right after she summons it.
• Evil Plan: The Carrionites wish to extend the empire into Equestria by using the S'Müz.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: The S'Müz's reason killing everything is that reality's existence simply offended it that much.
• Heel–Face Turn: Draggle, the only Carrionite to see the S'Müz for the indiscriminate monster that it is, is the only one to make the switch to the friendship side of the force.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Zecora. She gets better.
  • the Hervoken Commander. He doesn't get better.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: the S'Müz is defeated when the ponies use their Elements of Harmony to absorb both the PKE it stole and the PKE that makes up its body and disperse it into Equestria.
• Hope Spot: The Doctor suddenly realizes how to defeat the S'Müz! All they need to do is— the S'Müz impales the Doctor with a tentacle, and kills him instantly.
• Humans Are Ugly: While not technically human, the Doctor insists he was fairly good-looking as a bald ape.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Not even the Doctor can figure out how Pinkie Pie does the things she does. Twilight has long since given up.
• Magitek: Twilight's computers run on magic crystals.
  The Doctor: "Not magic instead of technology, but magic as technology. Brilliant!"
• My God, What Have I Done?: Each of the Mane 6, after the Doctor steps in on Twilight's Punctuated Pounding on Draggle. He doesn't want any of them to become like him.
• Nerves of Steel:
  • Rarity takes being thrust into a life-or-death adventure surprisingly well. Fittingly, she has displayed grace under pressure in the show, being a fashion designer and all.
  • All the Ponies take being pitted against a Lovecraftian Horror quite well.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • Twilight and the Doctor get into this situation due to a mishap involving Twilight's Element of Harmony.
  • A second time, when Draggle reincarnates as a foal and is held by Twilight, everyone assumes the Doctor is the father.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Twilight gives a horrific one to Draggle, ignoring her frantic pleas to stop. It takes the Doctor's intervention to keep Twilight from killing her.
• Noodle Incident: Sometime in the past the Doctor had some adventure with Princesses Celestia and Luna. By the end of it, the latter had developed a crush on him. Because of the Timey-Wimey Ball involved, the Doctor himself doesn't know what happened, and is looking forward to it.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • An oh-so-very satisfying one from The S'Müz when it realizes what the Elements of Harmony are doing to it.
  • One from Reeka when the Hervoken Commander destabilizes her singularity attack and causes a small thermonuclear explosion that kills them both.
  • Everyone on both sides of the fourth wall when the Doctor is Killed Mid-Sentence.
  • Learning (through here or the fanfic itself) that the S'Müz is in simplest terms a Cthulu-Smooze.
• The Ophelia: Discussed by Rarity. When her friends show up out of nowhere in a strange blue box with an even stranger stallion to drag her away from the business proposition of a lifetime because Equestria is in terrible danger, her first reaction is to assume that she's simply going insane.
  "I always thought losing my mind would be a little more... dramatic."
• Psychic Nosebleed: Twilight while defeating the S'Müz because of the titanic amount of energy involved.
• Phrase Catcher: Twilight begins to say "bigger on the inside than the outside" but is too awed to finish it.
• Raise Him Right This Time: Mixing with And Your Reward Is Infancy, reincarnation as a foal is the fate of Draggle, the only Carrionite to have qualms about what they were doing and acting largely out of loyalty to her mother.
• Really 700 Years Old: The Doctor, naturally, much to Twilight's surprise is Really Nine Hundred And Five...ish Years Old.
• Redemption Equals Death: The Hervoken Commander dies right after attempting to warn the heros of S'Müz
• Reverse Polarity: Name-dropped, natch. Later used to destroy the Life Energy-gobbling S'Müz by pulling the energy back out through the Elements of Harmony.
• Rule of Symbolism: Parental sacrifice of the most good-hearted of a damned species, that is to say, Hydia's slaying of Draggle, brings forth resurrection for both the world at hand and the sacrificed child. This is, in fact, an aversion of the Messianic Archetype trope, as Hydia had evil intentions and resurrection was not at all part of The Plan.
• Seen It All:
  "Ooh...waking up in a strange hospital room, no idea where or when I am, the taste of embalming fluid on my tongue...must be Wednesday."
• Sensory Overload: Used to explain why Fluttershy's so withdrawn. She's really good at picking up body language, and there's so much of it per pony she can barely stand it. It's also how The Stare works; she can basically overwhelm any creature with "I AM YOUR OVERLORD." signals.
• Sequel Hook: After the S'Müz is vanquished and everything's back to something approaching normal, the Doctor offers to take the girls on further adventures in the TARDIS... which they gladly accept once they realize the implications of having access to a time machine.
• Shout-Out: A double whammy for both Whovians and Bronies alike!
  • The main villains are Carrionites (as seen in "The Shakespeare Code), "and they're named for the witches from the G1 My Little Pony movie.
  • The Hervoken are an even more obscure reference. They and their war with the Carrionites originate in the Tenth Doctor novel Forever Autumn.
  • The S'Müz is a Darker and Edgier take on the Smooze (again from the G1 movie).
  • Applejack calls the Doctor "Professor", much like another companion he used to have.
  • Word of God states that this incarnation of the S'Müz is based off Sovereign. Compare the speech pattern of the S'Müz to Sovereign here.
  • See Summoning Artifact.
  • A bizarre one in the penultimate chapter, when Twilight is working out how to defeat the S'Müz, one of her thought processes is... "F***in' magnets/how do they work?"
  • A Mythology Gag when Zeitgeist Stardust first hears the TARDIS: 'It's kind of like... scraping one's front door keys on piano wire...'
  • Zeitgeist Stardust's name is potentially one, especially if if Ziggy could be a nickname for Zeitgeist.
• Subverted Catchphrase: Rarity enters the TARDIS and the Doctor prompts her to comment along the lines of how it's bigger on the inside or something similar. She instead starts critiquing the décor.
• Summoning Artifact: The Hervoken charm cube. 'This thing reads like stereo instructions...'
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • The S'Müz freaks when the ponies start stealing its PKE.
  • Hydia has a minor one when Draggle confronts her about how summoning the S'Müz is a blindingly stupid idea.
• Villains Want Mercy:
  • Hydia pretends to do this as a distraction so she can summon the S'Müz.
  • The S'Müz begs and pleads with the Mane Cast to stop destroying it. They don't.
  • Draggle frantically pleads with Twilight to stop pummeling her to near death. When the Doctor steps in and saves her, Twilight is horrified at what she almost did.
• Walking Wasteland: The S'Müz consumes passive life like bacteria and plants just by being there and kills higher lifeforms with a touch.
• Younger Than They Look: Draggle is about a century old, but is practically a newborn by Carrionite standards. This is only relevant when she is transformed into a unicorn foal after having her body and mind destroyed by The S'Müz possessing her.

---