The first rays of Celestia’s glorious sun had finally touched the land and the humble houses of Ponyville. Everything seemed peaceful; the birds were chirping, roosters calling, and the wind was rustling the grass, making it sway back and forth. The inhabitants were beginning to wake to their routine tasks, oblivious to the events that would soon turn their lives upside-down.
At the same time, on the edge of the Everfree Forest, there came an odd sound from seemingly nowhere. It sounded, in a way, like a car engine starting, although nopony would have recognized the sound. It was foreign to them. Then it happened again. The noise woke the small denizens of the forest, who came to investigate the strange sound, which stopped as suddenly as it had started. They were met by an odd sight. A strange tall, blue box with a small cylinder on top was now standing where there used to be just the grass and some tiny flowers. The area near the top was lined with glazed windows, and the top edge of the box had strange words on it. “Police Public Call Box”
Silently, one panel on the box with a handle on it swung open, and a light brown stallion with a messy dark brown mane and hourglass cutie mark trotted out and tripped. He looked down at himself and straightened his messy tie and aligned his ill-fitting jacket, clearly annoyed, but also slightly amused.
“Blend in with the locals,” he said. “Locals indeed!” He sniffed and continued muttering to nopony in particular. “Looks like this thing was a piece of junk. At least it’s pretty interesting,” he continued, now eyeing his hooves, then spinning around in circles to look at his tail. “What am I? A... pony?! Hah! Brilliant! It may be a piece of junk but it’s a pretty hilarious one.” He chuckled, then looked around at his surroundings. The small animals that had been watching him shrank away into the dense foliage of the Everfree Forest.
“Pretty peaceful, nothing life-threatening yet, there’s a plus... and a village! Now to meet some of these ‘locals.’” He chuckled again, and set off toward the direction of Ponyville in a leisurely trot, all the while looking around, admiring his peaceful surroundings. Suddenly he tripped over a small rock on the road, falling flat on his face and sending dust flying everywhere, then stood up once more. “This could take some getting used to,” he muttered again. The colt then set off once more, although this time he glanced at the ground occasionally with an apprehensive glance.
At the same time, Pinkie Pie had woken up, bright eyed and as cheery as ever. She got ready for the long day ahead, (She could tell. Her Pinkie Sense was going off again.) then took her usual morning “walk” (Which for her was more of a bounce.) around Ponyville. She got a few odd glances, but she didn’t mind. Ponies-boring ponies, anyways- ALWAYS did that when she walked by. She’d tried throwing parties to lighten them up a bit before, but they always seemed to go back to their old boring attitudes the next day. She didn’t understand those grumpy-pants ponies! What was it with-THUMP!
Pinkie had been so absorbed with her thoughts that she hadn’t paid any attention to where she was going, and accidentally bumped into a light brown earth pony, sending him tumbling down.
“Ohmygosh I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to bump into you I was just thinking about all of the grumpy-pants ponies who never ever seem to lighten up or laugh or have any fun that I didn’t see you and then I sort of crashed into you and I didn’t-” For once, Pinkie Pie actually cut herself off mid-sentence, rather than somepony else. She didn’t recognize the earth pony who was staring back at her with a shocked look on his face, and she knew everypony in Ponyville.
“WOAH! Hey, you’re new! Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?” she rattled off excitedly. The earth pony was still lying on the ground with a dumbstruck expression on his face. Suddenly that same expression turned into a wide grin that stretched from ear to ear.
“Talking ponies, who would have thought? Haha! Brilliant!” The earth pony then got up and looked at the bouncing Pinkie Pie. “Oh, right, sorry. I’m the Doctor. Pleased to meet you Miss Pie,” he said, sticking his hoof out to Pinkie, who took it and nearly shook his arm off.
“Ooh, doctors! I like doctors! They help cure everypony-” Here the Doctor’s grin grew wider, and he stifled an amused snicker, but Pinkie didn’t notice. “-of everything like seeing too many things at once or cuts or bruises and stuff. Speaking of that, I know a pony, well, I know everypony in Ponyville-” The Doctor stifled a slight chuckle again. “but this pony has her eyes all crazy-rific! Her name’s Ditzy and she sees two of everything but the doctors couldn’t cure her, not even those mind doctor people, but she doesn’t mind and- Heeyyyy.” She paused here. “Doctor who?”
The Doctor seemed a bit frazzled over all of this happening at once, (Although mostly amused. ‘Everypony. Haha, brilliant!’ He was thinking.) but he quickly recovered and replied. “W-Oh. Er, I’m just the Doctor.”
Pinkie Pie stared at him for a few seconds, and he stared back, his grin shrinking slightly to an obvious bit of curiosity and a slightly apprehensive look, but she burst back into a smile a few seconds later. “Okie dokie lokie!” she said, bouncing up and down once again. “I have to go now and get everything ready for your surprise!” With that, she started to set off toward a certain building in town with the name ‘Sugarcube Corner’ hung on a sign beside it.
“Er, for what, exactly?” The Doctor asked the bouncing pink figure.
“If I told you it wouldn’t be a secret you silly filly!” she called in response.
The Doctor just stood there, quite puzzled, but also quite entertained by all of this. ‘Everypony, now that’s just brilliant. And a surprise! Wonderful!’ he thought. It was then he realized that everypony’s eyes were on him. Ponies were obviously curious how the newcomer would react to Pinkie Pie’s antics.
“Um, sorry, business and whatnot. Allons-y!” he shouted a bit too loudly, and then he trotted off at a quick pace to nowhere in particular. Everypony shrugged and continued on with their business. Every time somepony new came to town this happened, so why should this be any different?
The Doctor continued on his way, taking in his amazing surroundings. At first when he arrived, he thought the ponies were workhorses, but that assumption changed when he bumped into Pinkie Pie. He was now intrigued by this world the TARDIS had picked as his ‘vacation spot.’ He decided to set off to the first place he could think of to learn more about this world, as he couldn’t recall what it was; the library. Well, if he could find it, that is.
Twilight Sparkle was relaxing in the library she now called her home, reading one of the hundreds of books that it contained. It was an off day for everypony, and she intended to make the most of it. After all, why intrude on her friend’s off times as well? Her horn glowed and one of the pages from the book that was sprawled out in front of her turned. It make a soft rustling sound. Then another rustle came from another room... wait, no, it was her imagination.
“Oh Spike...” she muttered with a soft sigh. She missed the baby dragon, but he was off in Canterlot on royal business, which left Twilight by herself to tend to the mountains of books. Twilight continued reading her book, and flipped another page. Then out of nowhere, a sharp tapping filled the room. It was coming from the door.
“Hello?” A stallion’s voice called.
Twilight was startled by this, and nearly ripped a page that she was turning. Now who could that be? It wasn’t any of her friends...
“Come on in!” she called to whoever was behind the door. It swung open almost immediately and a light brown stallion with a dark brown mane peered inside.
“Sorry to bother you, but-” He looked around some more, his eyes falling on the numerous books that lined the walls. “Oh, it looks like it is. Right. Can I come in? This is the library, correct?”
“Um, yeah, this is the library.” said Twilight timidly. Who was this? She’d never seen him before. “You can come in.” she added quickly. The stallion gave her a smile and trotted in. “What are you looking for, Mister...?”
“Hmm? Oh, I’m just the Doctor.” he replied while looking around curiously, causing Twilight to look puzzled. “I’m looking for a history book on this pla-er, the area.”
“Sure thing.” Twilight said with a much more cheerful tone than she thought. This pony certainly was odd.
Twilight Sparkle’s horn glowed and one of the many books that lined the circular walls of the library came off of its shelf and hovered to the now grinning ‘Doctor.’ He gingerly grabbed the book and laid it on the floor. ‘Absolutely amazing.’ he thought as he opened the book. He flipped through the book quickly and saw the name “Equestria” appear several times. He closed the book again and handed it over to Twilight Sparkle.
“Your book. Thank you for all of the help Miss...”
“T-Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.” She nodded at him and picked up the book. “Are you sure you’re done? You only glanced at it.” She gave him a puzzled look. The Doctor looked baffled for an instant, as if he didn’t understand her, then gave her a grin.
“I’m a fast reader. Thank you.” he turned and trotted out the door, but not before stopping and shouting, “Allons-y!”
Twilight just stood there staring at where the ‘Doctor’ had been a few seconds before, puzzled at the strange events. Who in Equestria was he? She’d never seen him before, and he certainly was an odd character. And Twilight could have sworn that he was about to say ‘planet’ instead of area. What was going on? Her mind shifted to a different line of thought once Pinkie Pie came bouncing through the door, however. She gave Twilight a huge grin.
“We’re going to have a party today in Sugarcube Corner for this new pony I saw and it’s going to be GREAT because it’ll have cake and balloons and cupcakes and muffins and streamers and party hats...” She continued on like that for a few more seconds before taking a breath. “Wouldya like to come?”
“Um, sure...” Twilight said. New pony? Could this be the ‘Doctor?’
“Okie dokie lokie! It’ll be this afternoon in Sugarcube Corner! Seeya later Twilight!” As suddenly as Pinkie Pie had appeared she had gone again. Twilight shook her head and giggled. What was she so upset about? Pinkie Pie had the right idea. This was just a new pony in town. It’s not like he was another Zecora, who ended up scaring everypony for no good reason, just because she was different. This stallion was just different too. It was nothing to worry about.
Twilight turned to pick up her book again, now that her mind was at ease, and went back to reading once more. What was there to worry about?
‘Equestria, how could I have forgotten? I knew this place was familiar!’ The stallion was now trotting around town aimlessly, thinking about what to do. ‘I should leave. This place plays an important...’ Sugarcube Corner appeared around a bend in the street, showing off its colorful display of food, and his stomach growled. He had forgotten how hungry he was. Even Timelords had to eat. ‘Well, maybe a bit longer. After all, this is supposed to be a vacation... A very interesting one at that. How could I have forgotten a planet with talking ponies?’ The Doctor chuckled once more and trotted toward Sugarcube Corner, but then stopped. ‘Right, money.’ He then took off as fast as he could in the direction of the strange blue box.
Over at Sugarcube Corner itself, things weren’t looking well. Pinkie knew a hungry pony when she saw one, and the Doctor seemed pretty hungry as soon as he saw the shop. She was glad he seemed to have forgotten something, however. The preparations weren’t done yet! She had invited all of her friends (Which to her meant everypony, although mostly Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. They didn’t really seem to mind her antics too much, unlike everypony else.) but she hadn’t put up the decorations! Just then, Rarity walked in. “Ah, hello Pinkie Pie!” the beautiful mare said to the other.
“Hiya Rarity!” Pinkie replied, bouncing up and down again. Her first guest had arrived early!
Rarity looked around with a small smile, which quickly turned into a frown of the same size. “Darling, you haven’t gotten everything ready yet!”
“Nopie lokie! Do ya think you can help me reeeaaally quick?” She leaned in close to Rarity when she said this, who just gave her a weak smile, and backed away a tiny bit. Did Pinkie Pie know about personal space? The nerve! Oh well, she was a friend, after all.
“Of course dear.” replied Rarity, and Pinkie backed off instantly and gave her a huge smile. “I wouldn’t dream of not helping with a party. Who’s the pony this is for, anyways?”
“OhthankssomuchRarity! And it’s for this Doctor pony I met earlier. He’s new, so this is to welcome him to Ponyville!”
Rarity smiled at Pinkie again. She was always so... random, as Rainbow Dash would put it, but her heart was in the right place.
“Well, we had best get started then!” For the next few minutes, Rarity helped Pinkie Pie set up the decorations, (Sparkle did the trick, once again.) and ponies from all over Ponyville funneled into Sugarcube Corner, including Applejack, (“Them are some fancy decorations you two!”) Rainbow Dash, (“This is so cool!”) Twilight Sparkle, and finally Fluttershy. Once everypony was there and the decorations were set up, Pinkie bounced over to the window in anticipation. Suddenly she saw the pony she was looking for trotting down the street... straight toward Sugarcube Corner!
“He’s coming everypony! Quick, hide!” Pinkie waved everypony back into multiple doors that were in Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie herself leaned against the wall, right next to where the light switch was. She shushed everyone, then waited... and waited... she hated waiting... And there! The bell attached to the door rang, and Pinkie immediately switched off the lights, as to make things more mysterious and interesting, but mostly just to make the surprise more surprising.
“... Well that’s interesting.” She heard a voice say. Now was her chance! She flipped on the lights and everypony yelled, “Surprise!”
Much to her disappointment, the Doctor didn’t jump, but he did look shocked... For an instant anyways. A second later his shock turned into a wide grin, and he started laughing.
“Oh yay! He’s happy!” Pinkie immediately went over the the chuckling figure and started bombarding him with questions while bouncing, just like she had done with Twilight Sparkle when she was new. (Who was looking at the scene, giggling to herself.)
“So didya like your surprise? I sure hope you did, I mean, you’re laughing and laughing is great! I hope that means yes! I bet you were surprised!”
“Hahaha, brilliant! Wonderful... uh... Pinkie... Cake.. Pinkie Pie! Yes, wonderful job Pinkie Pie! This is for me?” asked the Doctor, still chuckling.
“Yep! Were you surprised? Huh?” Pinkie Pie was still bouncing in front of him, which, he had to admit, slightly disoriented him.
“Very.” laughed the Doctor. “Where is the food, exactly? I was just coming in to buy something to eat.
“Oh, it’s over there!” Pinkie said, pointing over to a table in the corner of the room. She had stopped bouncing, thankfully. How any creature could have that much energy, the Doctor would never know. Well, technically he could find out, but for the time he’d never know.
Pinkie Pie then trotted over to the middle of the room where she yelled out to everypony, “Alright everypony, let’s get this party started!” As soon as she had said that, the music had turned on, the lights dimmed, and everypony started to dance. (Or stand in the corner and watch, for some of them.)
The Doctor, meanwhile, had gone over to the concession stand that Pinkie had pointed out and began shoveling food into his mouth. (Or as well as he could. The hooves were still fairly new to him, but he was getting used to them quickly.) He hadn’t remembered when food had ever tasted this good. This could end up being fun! He’d still need to leave, but a little party wouldn’t hurt. He decided to sit in the corner and watch the events of the night unfold. He’d like to be out there on the dance floor (He was quite good at dancing. Well, he was in his regular Timelord form. He wasn’t sure how it’d work out as a pony.) but the personalities of these people-well, ponies- couldn’t be tampered with. It could have serious repercussions on the universe. It may not, but he couldn’t take the chance with- He felt someone next to him. He turned and saw the purple coated pony he had seen earlier at the library looking at him. What was her name... Dusk... no, Twilight... Twilight... Sparkle! That was it.
“So...” she ventured carefully. “Enjoying yourself, um, Doctor?”
“Hmm, yes.” he said. He’d rather be enjoying himself more, but this wasn’t bad either. (Especially with Pinkie leading a conga line.) It was proving to be an interesting day.
“Good, good...” she said. She never was very good at small talk. Spending so much time in the library hadn’t really helped with that either.
The two ponies sat and watched the party happen in front of them, neither of them really doing anything aside from watching and thinking. Twilight was still intrigued by this so called Doctor, but she had loosened up a bit after her encounter with Pinkie and her part invitation. He still seemed to... well, not scare her. The stallion was more mysterious than anything. He seemed like Princess Celestia in a way; wise and old, but he was but a young stallion. Very curious indeed...
Out of nowhere, the lights turned off, and the music screeched to a halt.
“Heeeyyy. Who turned out the lights?” called out Pinkie Pie, obviously annoyed, but she kept up the good attitude regardless. The Doctor, in the meantime, had stood up to his full height immediately and looked around wildly. ‘Oh no... no no no no... please not here.’ He thought. Hopefully this was just a power failure, and not one of his enemies... Then his worst fears came to life, as the small sound of a running motor came to his ears, and a large, slightly cylindrical, silhouette appeared in the main doorway, which smashed the door off of its hinges.
“Doctor.” The strange creature spoke with a scratchy, metallic voice. “You will come with us immediately.”
The Doctor looked onward, stunned. Everypony’s eyes turned toward him. He leaned in toward Twilight, who looked terrified, but also very curious. “When I give the signal, run, and get everyone out of here.”
He turned back toward the metal creature. “And if I don’t?” He shouted, barely a hint of fear in his voice.
The creature paused, then turned its domelike head so that an odd pole with what looked sort of like a plunger at the end faced him. “Then we will take you by force, and exterminate every life form here.”
Everypony gasped, (Even Pinkie, who was usually extremely cheerful in the face of danger.) and looked back toward the Doctor, who was looking around the room, trying to find an escape route. Outside the windows he could see more of the creatures. Maybe the stairs... No, he could see the shadow of another of these creatures there too. There was no escape. Wait, no, he couldn’t be that negative. There had to be one somewhere, something he had missed. He could feel his expression turning into a panicked look as he swung around, and then caught Twilight’s eye, which was shining brightly. ... Her eye? That couldn’t be right. No, it was her horn... Then everything flashed brightly.
The Doctor was still standing looking at Twilight, but everything had changed. For one, Twilight was panting now, and was lying on the floor... Er, ground. He looked around, and saw everypony standing in a large cave. The creatures were gone, thankfully, and everypony seemed to be alright, but what had happened? Then it dawned on him; Twilight had teleported them all out of there! Teleportation at it’s finest!
“Twilight, that was brilliant! Perfect timing!” He yelled, and then turned to see the unicorn passed out on the ground of the cave, and then a pony with a rainbow colored mane in his face.
“Okay Mr. Doctor. What were those things, and why did they want you?” the pony demanded.
“Um, well...”
“Well...?”
“Would ya calm down Rainbow Dash?” another voice added. Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor could see an orange pony with a... cowboy hat. He had to straighten out a grin. Even after all of these events, these ponies were still amusing. “Give him a little breathin’ room, will ya?” continued the orange pony. Rainbow Dash backed off from the Doctor, but gave him a glare.
“Ah’m sorry about that Doc.” said the orange pony. “My name’s Applejack. Rainbow Dash here is just pretty scared-”
“Am not!” shouted the pony defensively.
“Well, sorta worried. Could ya explain what just happened back there at the party?”
The Doctor reached an ironic realization. “Always the parties...” he muttered. He coughed, and then spoke full on to the pony. “Well, this might take a bit to explain. You know space?” He motioned upwards, then realized that the ceiling was there. “Well, beyond the sky? Well, there are millions and billions of planets out there, and I travel between them, as well as time. Long story shot, they don’t exactly like me from a war between our races, but I honestly don’t know how they found me, let alone why they’re here.” The Doctor paused and observed the two... wait, five, ponies. A pony with a shimmering white coat and a curly purple mane had walked in behind Applejack, and behind her, Pinkie Pie and a yellow pony with a pink mane trotted into his vision. The white pony looked deep in thought. Rainbow Dash, however, had a disbelieving frown on her face. Applejack too, had a frown, but was staring at him back, studying him carefully. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, had her jaw slightly hanging open, while the yellow pony shrunk behind her when looked at. The Doctor looked each of them in the eye to attempt to let them all know that he was telling the truth, when Applejack returned the stare carefully.
“Ah... believe ya. I dunno why, but ah think you’re tellin’ the truth.”
“WHAT?!” shouted Rainbow Dash a little too loudly. Everypony in the cave turned to look at her from reassuring each other, but she didn’t seem to mind. “He’s obviously lying! He visits other planets? Seriously?” She shot the Doctor another glare intended to make him shrink back and admit to lying, but he stayed steadfast with his story, which made Rainbow even more annoyed.
“It don’t make any sense to me either Rainbow, but when I look in his eyes...” Applejack turned and looked directly at the Doctor. “Well, ah can tell he’s not lying. Ah dunno what it is, but ah can just tell.
An awkward silence then started between all of the ponies there, when a moan came from the floor beside the Doctor.
“Oh... What... happened?” Twilight groaned, and the pony with the white coat was suddenly at her side.
“Oh darling, I didn’t see you there! I’m so sorry, are you alright?”
“Ugh... Rarity? What happened... Last thing I remember...” Twilight suddenly sat up and stared straight at the Doctor. “You! What’s going on Doctor?”
“I’m a space and time traveler, those guys don’t like me, thank you, that was brilliant.” He replied far too cheerfully.
“... Huh?”
“We don’t understand it either sugarcube,” said Applejack, “but ah think he’s telling the truth, especially after what happened at Sugarcube Corner.” She shuddered slightly after saying this, not wanting to relive those few terrifying moments.
“W-What were those things?” asked a timid voice from behind Pinkie Pie. The Doctor leaned around Pinkie Pie to get a look at whoever was talking, and saw the yellow pony with the pink mane from before.
“Oh, hello there! I didn’t see you miss...?” he said. The pony shrunk back, however, and stared at the floor for a second before replying.
“Oh, I’m Fluttershy.” she whispered, looking at the ground.
“Hmm?” asked the Doctor.
“Her name’s Fluttershy, Doc,” said Applejack. “She... don’t really talk much. So, what were those things?”
The Doctor’s face suddenly turned from a slight grin to a serious expression. “Ah, those...” he said, looking away slightly as if recalling some long lost memory. “They’re called the Daleks. I don’t exactly know what they want with me, but I can tell you that they’re probably going to exterminate everyone-that is, everypony-on this planet.” Everypony gasped at this, but the Doctor smiled immediately. “Unless,” he continued, “I do something about it.” He suddenly set off in a gallop toward the cave entrance, the 6 other ponies quickly following behind once they had gotten a grasp of the situation.
“Now hold on mister,” said Rainbow Dash from behind the Doctor, who spun around at this.
“Sorry, terribly busy saving the world and whatnot. Can’t chat right now.” He then twisted back around as fast as possible, and galloped away again. Rainbow Dash just groaned and took off after him, as did the rest of the ponies.
“WAIT!” she yelled much more loudly, and this time the Doctor completely stopped, and turned around once more. “You aren’t just going to leave us!”
The Doctor paused at this, then said, “Well, yeah, I suppose I am.”
“Now hold on!” said Twilight, panting and gasping from running so fast after them both. She paused to catch her breath, and then continued. “You aren’t going to let us help?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s too dangerous. You had best stay up there and wait for me to take care of this,” the Doctor said, annoyed.
“Not when Equestria is at stake!” she yelled. “You think we’re not going to try and help everypony?”
“No, not really. It’s very dangerous, so you had better not have planned on it.”
“We’re going to help, Doctor. We simply cannot let these ‘Daleks’ take over Equestia,” said Rarity coming up behind them.
The Doctor just stood there, staring at the six ponies assembled there in front of him, sighed, and then broke out in a wide grin. “Brilliant!” he said cheerfully. “Can’t stand people who don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. Alright then! Allons-y!” He then broke off in a fast gallop down the mountain in the general direction of Ponyville, which could be seen in the distance.
The other ponies were slightly confused about this strange change in personality, but quickly recovered, and chased after the Doctor.
Several minutes later, the group had arrived at Ponyville, and returned to see it deserted. Deserted, that is, except for the Daleks, which were hovering around town and going inside buildings, searching for the ponies that had disappeared.
The Doctor, realizing this, leaned in close to Pinkie Pie. “Was everyone at that party Pinkie?”
“Yep!” She replied loudly. The other ponies hushed her up quickly, and then looked around to make sure none of the Daleks had noticed. Luckily, none had. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“Good,” said the Doctor, who sighed with relief. “Alright, you had better stay here and out of sight. I need to go get my TARDIS.”
“Your what?” asked Twilight, confused.
“TARDIS. Er, Time and Relative Dimension in Space.” Twilight still looked confused. “Uh... it’s my time machine. No time to explain. I’ll be back in a jiffy,” and with that, he trotted off as quietly as he could, and snuck through Ponyville.
The other ponies didn’t quite know what to think, but they decided to stay where they were and hope for the best. The Daleks, in the meantime, continued their patrol, and more than once passed dangerously close to their hiding spot. They didn’t know what the Daleks would do to them if caught, but they had a vague idea of being ‘exterminated,’ which was enough to make them hold their breath when they passed by.
It seemed like an eternity before the Doctor came creeping back into view, but he was approaching from the direction of the mountain this time, rather than from the way he left, which sparked Twilight’s curiosity. The other ponies seemed too relieved at his return to notice, however.
“Alright, I got it,” he clarified. “This way.” He set off back in the direction that he came from, and everypony followed him swiftly. Eventually they came to a large blue box standing at the foot of the mountain that they came from.
“Hold on, why didn’t we see this when we came down the mountain?” asked Rainbow Dash suspiciously. She still didn’t entirely trust the Doctor.
“Space travel,” he said, which confused the pony even more, including the others, except Twilight. “I, uh, parked in a different spot, you could say.”
“Which means...?” asked Rainbow Dash again.
“Space in this case means a different area, rather than the space we normally think of,” Twilight cleared up. “He just moved it from wherever it was before to here.”
The Doctor grinned at this. “Precisely Twilight! Now come on, inside.” He pushed open one of the doors and walked in, but none of the other ponies followed him, but he didn’t notice until about a minute later, when he poked his head outside. “Uh, inside means in here.”
Applejack spoke up at this. “Pardon me for askin’, but exactly how do you expect us all ta fit in there?”
“You’ll see. Allons-y!” He got weird looks for this expression. “It means let’s go,” he clarified.
One by one, the ponies carefully walked inside, each gasping at the marvel before them. Rainbow Dash’s reaction amused the Doctor quite a bit, as her mouth just hung open, no longer caring to protest or question him. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, stared blankly at the scene for a moment before trotting outside and around the box.
“Wha-how?” she said as she trotted around, baffled. “It’s... it’s bigger on the inside...”
The Doctor just chuckled. “I get that a lot.” He stood there grinning for a moment, and then his face turned serious as gave a purposeful cough, which woke the ponies from their amazed stupor. “On to business then.” He turned around to a circular control panel with a large cylinder in the middle and attempted to turn a dial with his hoof, but couldn’t. He just frowned and said, “Well, this will take some getting used to,” and then used his teeth to turn the dial instead. Immediately, a map of Ponyville from above appeared on a screen beside the dial, and the Doctor began to study it at once. The other ponies came over as well in an attempt to help. The map, meanwhile, began flashing all over with a neon green.
“What are you looking for?” asked Fluttershy timidly, noticing his careful watch on the map.
“Interesting...” he muttered, then said, “I’m looking for anomalies around this area. There has to be something that attracted the Daleks here. There’s no way that they could have tracked me.” He paused for a moment and looked at the flashes on the map again, and then pointed at one flash in particular that was right over the center of Ponyville. “There!” he cried, pointing at the flash as he did. “That’s a rift in the fabric of space and time. I’m not sure what it’s doing there or why it doesn’t seem to be affecting anything, but it’s there.” The Doctor then attempted to press a few more buttons with his hooves, occasionally pressing more than one at once to which he sighed, but eventually his button pressing zoomed in on the flash. It also opened up a list of data written on the side in a language that none of the ponies could read. “Oh now that’s interesting,” remarked the Doctor, and he leaned in close to the screen to make sure what he was reading was correct.
“What, exactly, is ‘interesting,’ do tell?” asked Rarity casually.
“Well,” said the Doctor, pulling away from the screen, “it looks like that certain rift has connections to the Time War.” He looked crestfallen at this.
“Time War? Now what’s that, exactly?” asked Applejack, intrigued.
“It was a war. A terrible, terrible war, between Daleks and Time Lords; my race. Long story short, they destroyed each other, causing millions on billions of deaths,” everypony gasped once again. How something so terrible could have happened was beyond them. “and eventually ended up destroying them both. From the rift, I think that they’re somehow trying to affect the outcome of the war, and make it so that they come out on top, rather than them ‘losing.’ My guess is that it’d end up in the destruction of all non-Dalek life in the universe.”
The ponies all pondered his words in silenced shock. This was much worse than they had expected, but it still involved them. And had the Doctor said that he was something called a Time Lord? Applejack was the first to recover.
“So you’re sayin’ you’re one of those Time Lord things and you fought in that war? You look like a regular pony ta me.”
“That’s because I’m using this device that I bought to help “blend in” with the locals. Normally I look like something called a human. Anyways, yes, I fought in the war, and it was terrible. As far as I know, I’m the only one that escaped.” The Doctor trailed off there and seemed to get lost in the memories of the war he had described. Suddenly he snapped back to life. “Well, no time for that. I’ve got a planet to save... somehow...” he seemed to go back into a dead, thoughtful mode, and the other ponies looked on in silence. They wanted to do something, but what? They barely had any idea of what was going on.
Once again, the Doctor shot up, and a grin spread across his face like wildfire. “That’s it!” he shouted loudly, shocking everypony out of the thoughtful trances they were in. He then started to run around the console, mashing buttons as fast as he could with his hooves, turning multiple dials, and flipping switches.
“What’s what?” asked Pinkie Pie curiously, tilting her head to the side slightly.
“I have an idea Pinkie Pie! A brilliant, brilliant idea! I just need to fly the TARDIS into the rift and close it, and in the process I could make it a time vortex as well, sucking up the Daleks! Absolutely brillia-” He cut himself off, then slumped down onto the floor of the TARDIS. “Of course...”
“What’s wrong Doctor?” asked Twilight. “If you have a plan, shouldn’t you try and implement it?”
“I’d love to Twilight, but it’s the Daleks,” said the Doctor. Twilight gave him a weird look, so he elaborated it more. “I can’t just fly the TARDIS in there are close the rift. The Daleks would stop me, and draining the rift would take too much power, so I’d be defenseless.”
Rainbow Dash then stepped up. “Well, let us help then! We can take ‘em!” she yelled, boxing invisible enemies.
“No, fighting them would be pointless. It’d get you nowhere. I just need...” The Doctor stood up again and yelled excitedly, “A distraction! Can you give me a distraction so I can close the rift?”
“Uh, yeah, sure.” said Rainbow Dash.
“Wonderful! We’re going to do it then! What exactly can you do to create a distraction?”
“Well, I could take a team of pegasus ponies and fly them through town. That should get their attention.”
“Brillian-”
“Oh, and I can stall them with my magic!” said Twilight.
“And ah can give ‘em a taste of the Apple family’s apples!”
The chatter continued as the ponies added more and more ideas, but the Doctor waved them away quickly. “This will be dangerous. Are you sure?” The ponies all gave an unanimous nod. “That settles it then,” said the Doctor.
A few hours later, the ponies had returned to the top of the mountain and assembled distraction teams, although it took some convincing of the other ponies. (Many had similar attitudes to Rainbow Dash, but they eventually went along with it all, once looking in the Doctor’s strange and deep eyes.) Rainbow Dash led a team of pegasus ponies along with Fluttershy, who was doing her best to overcome her fears. Meanwhile, Applejack led a band of earth ponies armed with apples, Pinkie was armed with various party pranks, and Rarity and Twilight led a team of unicorns to send things in the way of the Daleks with their magic. Every single one of the ponies were nervous, but were also steadfast, as all of Equestia was at stake. (Which was especially evident by the Dalek sweeps going farther out from Ponyville, and ever so slowly creeping closer to the mountain everypony was hiding out in.) They were all standing at the mouth of the cave, waiting to be addressed by the Doctor, when he appeared.
He walked from outside of the cave from observing the situation, which didn’t look good by his account. They were running out of time, but luckily everything was about to start, and the fun was about to begin. “Alright, I’ve never been one for speeches, so I’ll make this fairly short; Daleks are bad,” he said seriously, although a few ponies giggled slightly, regardless of the nature of their situation. He gave a half grin in response, but immediately took up the serious tone again, coughing as to restore the mood. “This is dangerous. The Daleks all have laser weapons that kill on contact, so keep moving at all times. Your goal is to keep the Daleks as far away from the center of town as possible for as long as possible. When the Daleks are are... how should I put this.... ‘sucked’ away toward the center of town, then you’ll know that I’ve succeeded and you’re all safe. Any questions?” No hooves raised, and the Doctor grinned. “Absolutely brilliant. You all are, that is. Well, Allons-y!”
At the ‘code word,’ everypony immediately set out of the cave. The pegasus ponies lagged behind a bit, as they were faster, but if the plan was to work, then the attention couldn’t all be on the pegasus ponies, as they would get picked off by the Daleks. The plan was that they would all enter Ponyville from different angles at once to cause mass confusion in the Dalek ranks. Meanwhile, pegasus ponies would fly overhead and distract the flying Daleks. If all went according to the plan, it would work out beautifully.
The Doctor, in the mean time, had gone back to the TARDIS and attempted to pilot it as best as he could toward the rift. Normally this was hard to do, if not impossible, by yourself, but now that he was a pony it made things all the more difficult. Then he realized that the device he was using to ‘blend in’ could be turned off. Oh how forgetful he was becoming... He quickly tried to switch off the device, but then realized that the button was much too small to press with hooves. He would need something much smaller. His pinkie finger might have been able to press it, not his hoof. Until he left this planet, he’d be stuck in this form. ‘Well, no matter,’ he thought. ‘It’ll make this far more entertaining.’ He gave himself a quick laugh, and then went back to attempting to pilot the TARDIS, constantly bumping into trees, rocks, and other items out in the wilderness. At least he was heading in the right direction... mostly.
Soon, all of the ponies had reached Ponyville and surrounded it, waiting for the TARDIS to bob into view. Once it did, all of the ponies charged into town, and chaos ensued. Although nopony was killed, many were injured by the flying objects zipping back and forth at the confused Daleks. Lasers were flying everywhere, but all of the objects were interrupting with their targeting systems. A few lasers actually managed to go in the right direction, but none of them made their mark. The ponies were following the Doctor’s advice well as to keep moving. The Daleks themselves were trying to get closer to the ponies as to get a better shot, which ultimately helped the Doctor’s plan as to distract them. Although none of the objects could damage them, the ponies were all a nuisance to their plan.
Soon, the TARDIS entered town, far above Ponyville, where only the pegasus ponies and a few Daleks were, all flying around in circles. The ponies were taking evasive maneuvers, and trying to get two of the Daleks to crash into each other. The Doctor, meanwhile, had managed to get some sort of control over the TARDIS, and although it frequently dipped in altitude, he got it right back up again. Once he was at the rift, all he’d have to worry about was closing it, luckily. Thank goodness the TARDIS could hover in one spot with nopony managing it.
Eventually he made it to the rift, and began to channel energy into it in an attempt to seal it. The TARDIS buckled and groaned from the sudden loss of energy, but stayed operational and afloat in midair. “Come on...” the Doctor muttered frantically. “Just a little bit more....” Then suddenly, the draining of power had stopped. The rift shouldn’t have closed by now. What was going on? He looked around.... “Oh no... no no no no....” ...and then he opened one of the doors.
A completely different sight met him than what he was expecting. He should have seen open sky and let in fresh air when he opened the door, but instead he saw the interior of what looked like a dark and gloomy ship. He seemed to be in a large chamber of some sort, and in the middle was his TARDIS. In front of him was also a figure...
“I am Dalek Kaash,” the figure said with the strange, metallic voice all Daleks had. This one had a slightly deeper voice, however. “You will come with me, Doctor,” it continued, pointing a laser at the Doctor. What could he do? He was trapped now.
Ultimately, the Doctor decided to follow the figure. “What do you want?” he asked the Dalek, who was turning to go into what looked like a larger chamber.
The Dalek’s head swiveled around to face the Doctor and it said, “You will see. Come.” The Dalek then continued to scoot off toward the other chamber, and the Doctor followed silently.
Once they had reached the chamber, its once dim lights flickered on to reveal a vast, brown metal dome. In the middle was what looked like some sort of portal or gate, with many different consoles and buttons next to it, filling most of the room. The Dalek turned to face the Doctor and said, “You will now open the rift into the Time War, Doctor.”
Sudden realization of everything occurred to him with that one line, but he needed time... “And if I don’t?” he asked, much more bravely than he felt.
The Dalek twisted its head to ‘look’ straight at the Doctor’s face. “Then all life on this planet will be exterminated.”
That was it. The Daleks’ unnaturally brilliant, foolproof plan. There was nothing the Doctor could to. Equestria played a much too important role in Earth’s history to be destroyed, and he wouldn’t let that many innocent lives die anyways. “So that’s why you needed me,” the Doctor said to the Dalek standing in front of him. “A whole universe full of brilliant minds, and you want to capture mine. Why? Because you can’t operate this thing,” the Doctor gave a cold laugh at the irony. “You Daleks have it all; massive weapons, numbers, the will to destroy every single living thing in the universe.... but you can’t operate this thing to do it with. You needed me. That’s why you didn’t kill me right away this time. If you had, your plans would be ruined! It all makes sense now!” The Doctor trotted over to the console, attempting to close the rift with the tools.
“It is no use, Doctor,” Kaash said, looking directly at him, seemingly undeterred by the Doctor guessing their plans. “You cannot destroy the rift from this console. Only open it.”
The Doctor seemed to realize this situation as well. After fiddling around with the controls a bit, he realized that his objective was an impossible objective. He slumped down on the floor of the ship. There was literally nothing he could do to stop the Daleks. Closing the rift here was impossible. Even if he destroyed the equipment it wouldn’t get rid of the rift. The portal appeared to only be a channel of the rift, rather than the rift itself. He thought it over, and over... and over.... There had to be something wrong with their plan, there had to be... No. This was it. There was nothing that he-
The ship started to groan, and it tilted to one side. The gravity generators appeared to be offline, because everything started sliding, including the consoles and the Dalek that was guarding the Doctor, who had no idea what was going on. Then, the ship seemed to be stretched and pulled in one direction, ripping it open where the gateway used to be. The Doctor could see a large forest below him, and beyond that, Ponyville, with a now visible rift above it, sucking everything Dalek related inside! There were also six figures hovering in the rift, but it didn’t matter to the Doctor. If he didn’t get out of there, he could be sucked back into the Time War with the Daleks.
The Doctor therefore decided that the best course of action was to run. “Allons-y!” he shouted, getting up, and trotting in the direction of the TARDIS. The Dalek shot a feeble laser in his direction, which he dodged with ease. “Can’t stay to talk, but you were brilliant. Great plan, but it looks like it had a hole.” He laughed at his own pun. Hole in the ship, the rift was essentially a hole, and hole in the plan. Get it? He shook it off realizing how terrible it was, however, and ran back into the TARDIS. He started mashing buttons as quickly as possible, and a strange scraping sound started. Meanwhile, the ship and every single Dalek was being sucked into the rift, and the TARDIS was about to as well, except it disappeared within the inside of the ship, just as it was being torn apart.
Immediately after every Dalek was sucked into the rift and it was closed for good, the ponies stared in wonder, then looked at each other. The Daleks were gone now, and they were safe! After tending to their wounds and helping each other out in general, the ponies decided to throw a party to celebrate the occasion, courtesy of Pinkie Pie. Though many ponies were injured in some way, none of them had been killed throughout the whole ordeal. However, none of the six ponies who had been responsible for closing the rift with their Elements of Harmony reveled in their victory for long. The Doctor was gone, and they had no idea where he went. He seemed to have disappeared during the fight to take back Ponyville.
The ponies had tried assembling rescue teams to search for him all over town, but none of them could find him. The last they had seen, he was in the TARDIS, which had flashed and disappeared during the fight. At last, they decided to make a grave for the Doctor, who had seemingly died trying to save them. The party died down, and everypony assembled for the ‘burial.’ Nopony was laughing now like they were during the party, as the one pony who had indirectly saved them was now dead, and there was nothing they could do about it. However, as soon as they started to dig, an odd sound started. It was an odd grinding noise that filled the air, and as it did, the Doctor’s blue box seemed to materialize out of thin air right where they were digging, and the Doctor popped out, looking frazzled, but happy nonetheless.
“Hello! Miss me?” he joked. The other ponies, though stunned for a moment, cheered.
“Oh Doctor, we were so worried. What happened?” asked Rarity with great concern.
The Doctor frowned, and replied, “That’s what I should be asking you. How did you close the rift?”
“Well,” began Twilight, “we have these things called the Elements of Harmony. They’re sort of like powerful magical items. As soon as your TARDIS disappeared in that flash, we realized that something must have gone wrong, so we,” she motioned to the six ponies that were closest to her, “that is, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, attempted to close it. And it worked! I’m not sure how, but it worked! But where did you go, Doctor?”
“I ended up in the Dalek ship,” he said, grinning once he had known what had happened. It all made sense now. “They must have transported me and the TARDIS inside once the shields were down due to the power transfer.”
“Dalek ship?” asked Rainbow Dash curiously. “You mean that huge hunk of metal we saw get sucked into the rift?”
“Uh, yes, that would be it,” said the Doctor, grinning even more. It was over. It was all over...
Just then, there was a shuffle of hooves, and many gasps. The other ponies all turned to look, and saw Princess Celestia herself walking through the crowd of ponies, directly toward the Doctor.
“Princess Celestia!” the ponies cried, and they all bowed. The Princess herself, however, just laughed.
“Stand up, please,” she commanded with a soft tone. She then turned her attention toward the Doctor. “Doctor of Gallifrey, thank you for saving Ponyville. I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner, but I didn’t know about these events until a few minutes ago.” The other ponies looked at her, puzzled. Gallifrey? Did that mean she knew the Doctor?
“Quite alright Princess Celestia,” said the Doctor. “I couldn’t let them destroy this planet anyways. It’s much too important in history.” Princess Celestia looked puzzled, so he elaborated, “Ah, human history anyways. Age of peace and whatnot. You’ll see.” He grinned, then continued. “I really need to go now. I can’t tamper too much with the timeline.” He then turned and looked directly at the six ponies that had closed the rift. “I can’t thank you enough. Now, I’m sorry, but I really need to go now.”
The other ponies all seemed sad at this news, and used their, “Awww....” in an attempt to make him stay, but the Princess nodded at the Doctor.
“I understand, Doctor,” said the Princess.
“Thank you,” he said, turning to go into the TARDIS. He turned around and looked out the door at all of the sad faces surrounding him. “Thank you all,” he said just above the regular talking level. The door to the TARDIS closed once more, and the grinding sound started up again. Every time the grinding sound seemed to pulse, the blue box slowly became more transparent, until eventually it was no longer there.
Over the next few days, the ponies cleaned up Ponyville after the attack of the Daleks, but soon life went back to normal. The streets were busy again, Sugarcube Corner was as lively as ever, and the weather schedules were back on track. Everypony’s minds bristled with questions, but Princess Celestia refused to answer any of them after the events of that day that seemed to be so long ago. The greatest question on many of their minds was, “Who was this Doctor? And what was his name? Doctor who, exactly?”
