"I can't believe I've never thought of this before!" the Doctor said as Amy came up to the platform, "It's genius." The Doctor pulled the lever and the TARDIS landed with a thud. "Right. Landed. Come on."

"Where are we?" Amy asked.

"Planet One. The oldest planet in the universe. And there's a cliff of pure diamond, and according to legend, on the cliff there's writing. Letters fifty feet high. A message from the dawn of time And no one knows what it says, because no one's ever translated it. Till today."

"What happens today?"

The Doctor tapped Amy on the nose. "Us. The TARDIS can translate anything. All we have to do is open the doors and read the very first words in recorded history."

The Doctor took Amy and Elise's hands and pulled them outside.

On the cliff wall read two words: Hello Sweetie and a set of coordinates.

Elise smiled. That meant they were going to see River again!

"Vavoom," Amy commented.

They went back inside the TARDIS and followed the coordinates which led them to a hill overlooking a Roman camp.

"Right place?" Amy asked.

"Just followed the co-ordinates on the cliff face. Earth. Britain. One o' two am. No, pm. No, AD."

"That's a Roman Legion."

"Well, yeah. The Romans invaded Britain several times during this period."

"Oh, I know. My favorite topic at school. Invasion of the hot Italians."

Both Elise and the Doctor gave Amy a look.

"Yeah, I did get marked down for the title."

A soldier ran up to them and saluted. "Hail, Caesar!"

"Hi," the Doctor said as the Roman knelt down.

"Welcome to Britain. We are honored by your presence."

"Well, you're only human. Arise, Roman person."

The Roman stood up.

"Why does he think you're Caesar?" Amy asked.

"Cleopatra will see you now."

The Roman led them down the hill into a tent.

At the back sat not Cleopatra, but River dressed up as her. "Hello, sweetie," River said smiling.

"River. Hi," Amy said.

Elise ran towards her.

"My little star! You've grown", River told her.

"You graffitied the oldest cliff face in the universe," the Doctor said.

"You wouldn't answer your phone." River clapped and the servants left the tent. She presented the Doctor with a rolled up document.

"What's this?" he asked.

"It's a painting. Your friend Vincent."

The Doctor took it from River and unfurled it on a table nearby.

"One of his final works. He had visions, didn't he? I thought you ought to know about this one."

"Doctor? Doctor, what is this?" Amy asked.

It looked exactly like Starry Night, except the TARDIS was exploding in the middle of it.

"Why is it exploding?" Amy asked.

"I assume it's some kind of warning," River told her.

"What, something's going to happen to the TARDIS?"

"It might not be that literal. Anyway, this is where he wanted you. Date and map reference on the door sign, see?"

"Does it have a title?" the Doctor asked.

"The Pandorica Opens," River said.

"The Pandorica? What is it?" Amy asked.

"A box, a cage, a prison. It was built to contain the most feared things in all the universe." The Doctor got up from the chair he'd been sitting in and started pacing. "And it's a fairy tale, a legend. It can't be real."

"If it is real, it's here and it's opening, and it's got something to do with your TARDIS exploding. Hidden, obviously."

The Doctor laid a couple of maps on the table.

"Buried for centuries. You won't find it on a map," River told him.

"No, but if you buried the most dangerous things in the universe, you'd want to remember where you put it." He pointed to a place on the map.

"Oh you can't be serious," River said.

"What? Where is it?" Amy asked.

They galloped up to Stonehenge.

River dismounted her horse and set Elise on the ground.

The Doctor had wanted Elise to ride with him, but Elise had insisted on going with River.

The Doctor and River started scanning the stones around them.

"How come it's not new?" Amy asked.

"Because it's already old. It's been here thousands of years. No one knows exactly how long."

"Okay, this Pandorica thing. Last time we saw you, you warned us about it, after we climbed out of the Byzantium."

River tapped her lips with her index finger and said, "Spoilers."

"No, but you told the Doctor you'd see him again when the Pandorica opens."

"Maybe I did, but I haven't yet. But I will have. Doctor, I'm picking up fry particles everywhere. Energy weapons discharged on this site."

The Doctor hopped on top of a large stone. "If the Pandorica is here, it contains the mightiest warriors in history. Now, half the galaxy would want a piece of that. Maybe even fight over it. We need to get down there."

Night fell as River finished placing a device on each corner of the Altar stone. "Right then. Ready."

The Altar stone started moving to reveal a staircase.

"The Underhenge," the Doctor said.

Elise grabbed onto River's hand as they descended the stairs.

The Doctor picked up a torch and lit it with his sonic screwdriver and did the same for River.

They unlocked a large wooden door.

It swung open to reveal the Pandorica in the next chamber.

"It's a Pandorica," the Doctor said.

"More than just a fairy tale," River told him.

The Doctor stepped forward and placed a hand on it. "There were a pair of goblins, or tricksters, or warriors. Nameless, terrible things, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared beings in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop them, or hold them, or reason with them. One day they would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world."

"How did the end up in there?"

"You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it."

"I hate good wizards in fairy tales. They always turn out to be him. Fairies on the other hand..." River said. She handed her torch to Amy and started to scan the Pandorica.

"So, it's kind of like Pandora's Box, then?" Amy asked, "Almost the same name."

"Sorry, what?" the Doctor asked her.

"The story. Pandora's Box, with all the worst things in the world in it. That was my favorite book when I was a kid."

The Doctor stopped sonicing the Pandorica.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked him.

"Your favorite school topic. Your favorite story. Never ignore a coincidence, unless you're busy. In which case, always ignore a coincidence."

"So can you open it?" River asked.

"Easily. Anyone can break into a prison. But I'd rather know what I'm going to find first," the Doctor told her.

"You won't have long to wait. It's already opening. There are layers and layers of security protocols in there, and they're being disabled one by one. Like it's being unlocked from the inside."

"How long do we have?"

"Hours at the most."

"What kind of security?"

"Everything. Deadlocks, time stops, matter lines."

"What could need all that?"

"What could get past all that?"

"Think of the fear that went into making this box. What could inspire that level of fear? Hello, you. Have we met?"

"So why would it start to open now?"

"No idea."

Amy cleared her throat, interrupting them much to Elise's disappoint. She loved watching her father and River work together.

"And how could Vincent have known about it? He won't even be born for centuries," she said.

"The stones. These stones are great big transmitters, broadcasting a warning to everyone, everywhere, to every time zone," the Doctor explained, "The Pandorica is opening."

"Doctor, everyone everywhere?"

"Even poor Vincent heard it, in his dreams. But what's in there? What could justify all this?"

"Doctor, everyone?"

"Anything that powerful, I'd know about it. Why don't I know?"

"Doctor, you said everyone could hear it. So who else is coming?" River asked

"Oh," the Doctor said, realizing.

"Oh? Oh, what?" Amy asked.

River walked over to one of the stones. "Okay. If it is basically a transmitter, we should be able to fold back the signal."

"Doing it," the Doctor said, sonicing the pillars.

"Doing what?" Amy asked.

"Stonehenge is transmitting," River explained, "It's been transmitting for a while, so who heard?"

"Okay, should be feeding back to you now. River, what's out there?" the Doctor asked.

"Give me a moment."

"River, quickly. Anything?"

"Around this planet there are at least ten thousand starships."

"At least?" Amy asked.

"Ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, I don't know. There's too many readings," River said.

"What kind of starships?" the Doctor asked.

"Maintaining orbit."

"I obey. Shield cover compromised on ion sectors."

Elise's blood ran cold hearing the electronic voices that often haunted her nightmares.

"Daleks. Those are Daleks," Amy said.

"Scan detects no temporal activity."

"Soft grid scan commencing."

"Reverse thrust for compensatory stabilization."

"Daleks, Doctor," River told him.

"Launch preliminary armaments protocol."

"Yes. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Dalek fleet, minimum twelve thousand battleships, armed to the teeth. Ah! But we've got surprise on our side. They'll never expect three people to attack twelve thousand Dalek battleships. Because we'd be killed instantly. So it would be a fairly short surprise. Forget surprise."

Amy tried to keep Elise calm, because she could tell the small Timelord was close to a break down.

River ran over to another pillar and scanned it. "Doctor, Cyberships," River told him.

"No, Dalek ships. Listen to them. Those are Dalek ships."

"Yes. Dalek ships and Cyberships."

"Well, we need to start a fight, turn them on each other. I mean, that's easy. It's the Daleks. They're so cross."

River scanned yet another pillar. "Sontaran. Four battlefleets."

"Sontarans! Talk about cross, who stole all their handbags?" the Doctor tried to joke.

"Terileptil. Slitheen, Chelonian, Nestene, Drahvin. Sycorax, Haemogoth, Zygon, Atraxi, Draconian. They're all here for the Pandorica."

"What are you? What could you possibly be?"

The four of them ran outside and saw spaceships filling the skies.

"What do we do?" Amy asked.

"Doctor, listen to me. Everything that ever hated you is coming here tonight. You can't win this. You can't even fight it. Doctor, this once, just this one time, please, you have to run. Take Elise and run," River told him.

"Run where?"

"Fight how?"

"The greatest military machine in the history of the universe."

"What is? The Daleks?" Amy asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "No. No, no, no, no, no. The Romans."