Time and Space with other traits

Chapters

Ch. 1: Hourglass
Ch. 2: Jack
Ch. 3: We have other problems
Ch. 4: Blue Boxes
Ch. 5: Perception
Ch. 6: Two Worlds
Ch. 7: Conflicted

Ch. 1: Hourglass

I take a look at the clock. One hour until my birthday remained.

I sat there on my couch looking around my empty apartment. No one came, though really I don’t know too many people. I was used to being alone. I’m Jenny Smith. Worst last name in my opinion, but it’s still mine, and I stick with it.

I get up and head for the bathroom. I felt tired, but I still want to be awake when my birthday arrives. I step in front of the sink and turn on the warm water, splashing it in my face. The towel rack was behind me, and I turn to grab the towel and dry my face off. Once done, I look at my face in the mirror just above the sink.

My blonde hair lays long and loose on my shoulders, and my brown eyes seem to be a bit bloodshot from the drinks I had. I wipe my eyes with my fingers, and step back out into the hallway. I turn on the lights to reveal my living room where I sat for the last few hours. My couch was illuminated, revealing its red color and leathery surface. The coffee table holds several alcoholic drinks and shot glasses. Today was just not my day, but I guess it was. It’s my birthday after all.

Dana was going to get here soon. She’s bringing her boyfriend as well, Jack. Him and her are always with each other every time I see them. “He’s the one for me,” Dana would say. He’s a nice guy, but not my type at the very least. I don’t think I even want a boyfriend. I’m too awkward in my opinion to keep one without him running off because of my ramblings. Five minutes at the most, I think. They’ll be here in no time to celebrate my day of birth.

The intercom in my kitchen buzzed, and I rush over to pick up the phone it’s attached to.

I put it close to my mouth and say, “Hello?”

“Jenny, it’s us~... open up we have you’re present right here!”

I roll my eyes and press the button on the intercom that unlocks the lobby door. I hear a faint, muffled click and the sound of the heavy glass door opening as I place the phone back on the intercom and head for the door to let them in. Before I could get there, they beat me to the door and one of them was knocking. “Hold on, I can’t teleport!” I said, jokingly.

I unlock the door and pull back the bolt to let them in. Dana was smiling like a maniac and Jack was holding a blue wrapped up present. I could only wonder what was inside as he sheepishly grins at me, and they both say to me “Happy Birthday.” Dana has brown, shorter hair than mine with brown eyes. She’s turning twenty five today as well, surprisingly. Jack has some fancy geled brown hair with grey eyes, who seems to always have a shit eating grin on his face all the time.

I smile and say, “Welcome, come in, I got to get rid of all the stuff on my table, you want anything?”

Dana just playfully shoved me and says “Come on, Jenny. It’s your birthday. You don’t have to act like the host you know.”

I just shrug and head to the living room to clear up the drinks and leave a couple for the perfect time. I head on over to the kitchen to put away the drinks when I hear Jack place the present on the coffee table back in the living room with a thud. I say while in the kitchen, “It’s your birthday too, Dana. We’re celebrating together here.”

Dana says, “True, but you come first you know! An hour before mine!”

I just sigh and finish putting away the leftover drinks, heading back to the living room where everyone is. I glance at the clock. 8:20. Just about forty more minutes to go. My present sat on the table next to a few poured drinks for each of us. Jack says, “So, how old are you again?”

Dana lightly hits him in his shoulder with the back of her hand. “Jack, don’t be rude. You know very well this is her twenty fifth birthday.”

Jack chuckles. “You’re twenty five after an hour too, missy.”

Dana throws her hands up while Jack just chuckles at his own dumb joke. I sit down on the couch opposite of Jack and Dana and play with my hands. We talked about our days, our jobs, and how fabulous being together on a day like this. It lasted for a while, setting the time at 8:57 now. My birthday starts officially at 9:00 P.M.

Dana starts to get bubbly and excited, and Jack just smiles away at her and me. She says, “Oo, Jenny, you have to open your present at the exact time! It will be really special, we’ve been looking for this for a long time.”

I laugh. “Really? What’s in there, c’mon tell me.”

She giggles. “It’s a surprise!”

One more minute. I take a shot of my favorite whiskey and so does everyone else. I place the present on my lap, and grin at the two on the other couch. Dana seems to really anticipate something amazing, and Jack just stares at the present. Five... four... three... two... one...

…

Five Score...
...Divided by four...

…

...DITZY!

I blink. I felt like for a moment there I just lost my focus. What happened? Dana was snapping her fingers in my face and Jack sits back on the couch with a worried look on his face. “Jenny, Earth to Jenny, you alright?”

I say with a muddled tone, “Wha... what happened? What’s going on?”

Dana sighs with relief and Jack leans in, still looking worried. Dana says, “Whoah... Jenny we thought we lost you. You spaced out for five minutes.”
Five minutes? I don’t just lose focus like that, i’m quite the attentive girl. “Really...? I must have had a quick case of déjà vu.” I said. I need to start to pay more attention to stuff around me. Then again, I always do, but something came over me to space out for a whole five minutes. Dana sits back down on the couch next to Jack, who in turn shuffles in his seat to accommodate her space. Jack says, “Well, after that little episode, how about you open your present?”

I nod, and start to tear at the cold blue paper. It reveals a white box, labeled with the local cake factory. I grin at the cake, then back at the two sitting in the couch that have a similar smile. I open up the cake box, and inside is a blue cake. It’s remarkable, the details in it are amazing. It’s styled in these blue boxes, like carved wood. In the center, it’s labeled in white: “Happy Birthday, Jenny and Dana.”

Dana sits up and looks down on the cake in my lap. “I never actually got to see the whole cake, Jack here was the one that planned it.” Jack holds up his hands in defeat, saying, “True, it was all my idea. It’s a present for both of you. I set up two candles. Jenny gets to blow out one and Dana gets to blow out the other. Here, put it out on the table.”

I carefully take out the cake that came with a glass plate under it, and place it on the coffee table. Jack takes out a lighter, and lights the two candles. I smile the whole time, enjoying the company of the two jokers. Dana seems excited, and Jack flicks off the lighter, motioning for me to make a wish and blow.

I close my eyes and think of a wish. What could I wish for? I don’t have much to wish for. I could wish for better social skills, or rather money to help get a better house and car, maybe. But those are more... normal wishes. I want something big to wish. I want to... I want to...

I wish that I could travel the stars. I wish that I could meet aliens, go to far off planets, make friends with everyone. I wish...

I blow out the candle on the left side of the cake. My wish was cast into the wish void, then. No going back after that. I don’t know where my wish of traveling came from, but it seemed like a fantastic idea to me. It felt like it was the best thing that could ever happen to me. I smile and open my eyes at the two. Dana blurts out, “So... what did you wish for?”

I just giggle. “Ditzy, if I told you, it would never come true. Remember the rules?”

Dana rolls her eyes. “Okaaaay, whatever you say, missy... wait, what?”

Dana looks at me with a quizzical look. I say, “What?”

Dana squints at me suspiciously. “You just called me Ditzy.”

“I did?”

“Yeah, you did.”

Huh. Now that I think back I did say that, didn’t I? Where did that come from? I don’t even know a person named Ditzy. I scratch my head and say, “Huh. Sorry about that, then.”

She just shrugs and Jack stares at me. It’s starting to make me a bit uncomfortable, but I just shrug it away. “Dana, I think it’s your turn to make a wish.”

Dana jumps up from her seat, and smiles widely. She closes her eyes for a few minutes, and blows out her candle. Jack claps his hands together a few times, saying, “Congrats, you two!”

We all laugh and eat cake for the next half hour. It tasted wonderful, it was also flavored blue berries. I like cake, Dana likes blueberry flavored items. She always liked pastries, like cupcakes and cake in general. Pie and others as well, though she admits her favourite is muffins. I laughed when I first heard that. It was just so cute, oddly enough, to hear that her favourite food is muffins.

They were about to leave when Dana just froze still. They were heading out the door when it happened, and Jack snapped his fingers in her face trying to get her to come out of it. I shake her, saying, “Dana, come on, it’s time to go home now.”

Dana stares at me... and begins to cry. She mumbles and cries in my shoulder, and Jack creates a worried look on his face. He rubs her back while she cries into my shoulder. In her haze of tears, I could have sworn her ask for a doctor. I pat her on the back and set her upright again, her eyes red from the crying. I say calmly, “You alright now?”

She nods, saying. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me... Jack will take me home, i’ll see you later then, Doctor.”

I nod, and then blink. “Doctor? In case you didn’t know I don’t have a medical license.” I say, grinning.

Her face starts to blush, and she heads for the door, back out into the parking lot in five seconds. Jack just looks at her rush back to his car, and then he looks at me with a serious face on. I look at him, and say, “What?”

He reaches into his coat pocket, and takes out an average looking key. He hands it to me, without saying much except, “You’re going to need this.”

I take the key, and examine it. It’s ordinary, not labeled in any way. Its hold is circular, with a hole at the top for key chains. I hold it, and just look at it’s simplistic design like it’s the most beautiful thing in the world. I look up to ask why, but Jack was gone. I could hear his car pulling out and driving away.

I tap the key in my left palm and sigh. I look at it again, asking myself, “What do you go to then?”

It sits there, being an average key, and doesn’t answer me. I sigh once again, and head to my bedroom. I place the key on top of my dresser, and scratch my thigh. “I guess I should go take a shower, and head to bed.”

I head over to my towel closet, and pick out a light blue towel. Inside the bathroom, I strip down and turn on the shower, letting it run a bit to get warm. I again scratch my thigh, which is starting to get real itchy. Damn.

I step in, and rinse down the days dirt and grime from head to toe, occasionally scratching once or twice the same area on my thigh, then on the other thigh. I paid not much mind to it, and after the shower I dry myself off, first the hair, then my body. Showers are the best thing ever invented for the stressed. I enjoyed today, it was fun to hang out with my friends, but for some reason I felt tense.

I wrap the towel around myself and head back to my bedroom. I pick out a sleeveless white cotton shirt and shorts. I pick out some underwear as well, and slip them all on. My thighs are now killing me, and I decide to check out if I have a rash or something.

Then I saw an hourglass.

A brightly colored hourglass was emblazoned on my thigh, stuck in time dropping sand from the top to the bottom. It had a light brown bottom and top to it, and the overall art style of it reminded me of cartoons.

I freaked out.

“What the he- What?!” I said out loud, as I checked my other thigh. Yep, another one was on the other thigh too.

I feel the mark on my right thigh. It has no cracks in it, no sign of irritation either. It looks perfect, with no flaw in it in any way possible. When. The Hell. Did that get there?

It can’t be a tattoo, I don’t remember ever going to a tattoo parlor to get a fucking hourglass printed on my thigh. Did Dana and Jack do it? No, couldn’t have. I don’t ever remember passing out with them around and throwing on a wet tattoo on there. Did they do it when I spaced out? No, it was five minutes, I checked. It would have taken much longer to do it.

All I could think of it ever happening was when I would be sleeping, which I highly doubt anyone would break in to just put an hourglass on me. It’s the worst possible way to prank someone. Ugh...

I just hop into bed. Whatever, it will probably go away like most of those crazy water tattoos do over a while. No one will notice if I wear jeans all day. It will go away, and no one will notice.

I pull the blankets over me, and clap twice to turn out the lights. Those clappers are sure the most lazy invention ever.

I close my eyes and go to sleep, having a very strange dream for the rest of the night.

I ran out of my Tardis to check to see if Ditzy was still outside. She ran when she heard the monsters outside start to stampede out of the pits of Tartarus. Those hellspawn should not exist, at least not now. Time was in flux, once again.

The town was on fire, the ponies were galloping left to right away from the demons, and I could see some ponies fade away. Lyra was gone, so was Bon Bon. I could see Rainbow Dash flying at remarkable speeds to who knows where. I need to find her...

I ran around town, avoiding the demons and fire pits. Where is she...?

It felt like hours before I found her, trapped in a strange aura in front of that abomination called a draconequus. He was chanting something. Oh no NO, HE’S...!

I don’t think. I scream out her name as I jump in to tackle her out of the monsters grasp, and just when I did, everything went white...

I wake up in a sweat, screaming. I felt my face with my drenched hands as I tried to calm myself down.

That dream... was terrible. I remember those ponies. I used to enjoy that show until the horrible ending to the whole series came around. It was the worst. Discord betrayed Celestia in the end... Friendship is Magic used to be such a nice show. I wonder to this day how the hell that episode got on there, since it’s supposed to be a kid friendly show.

I don’t watch the older episodes anymore. They just don’t feel right after that. It just doesn’t. I look at my digital clock on my nightstand, next to my bed. It’s just morning, 8:23 A.M.

I get up and check my phone. Three missed calls from Dana. She tried to call me the last half hour three times. I roll my eyes, and tap her face on my phone. It expands, and it starts to ring as I bring it up to my ears.

Dana answers it, and yells into my ear, “Where the hell were you?! I need to talk to you, come over to my place as soon as you can. Bye.”

And there we have it. I didn’t even get to say a word before she orders me to come to her house. I sigh, and click the hang up button to stop the beeping coming out of it. She sounded really... angry. That’s unusual. She’s usually happy most of the time. Nothing really makes her angry at all. Whatever happened must of been serious.

I get dressed quickly, glancing slightly at the mark on my leg, and put on some jeans with a green t-shirt. Over the shirt, I put on a thin black dress jacket with buttons, and look at myself in the mirror. Looks fine to me, and that mark on my thigh can’t be seen through the jeans, so work today should be embarrassment free.

I nod at myself, and grab the key on my dresser without thinking. It put it in my pocket, and grab my car keys on the kitchen counter. I felt like I was on autopilot, as I walked outside and sat in my car, fumbling with my keys to put it in the slot and turn on the engine. The drive over to Dana’s house was fuzzy the whole way. I kept thinking about a deep blue color, and the key.

Before I knew it, I was there at her small one story house. I pull up into her driveway, and kill the engine. I sat there, just staring ahead at her house. Soon, her door opens to reveal an angry Dana. I snap out of my trance, and get out of the car.

Dana points inside while looking at me, and I just mumble “Hey” before I head in.

Her house was a humble color of grey and blue. It’s mostly a living room, with a kitchen and one bedroom with a bathroom inside. I sat on a light blue couch next to a small table with a lamp on it, and a T.V. sat in the corner, muted but playing a weird looking show. I didn’t recognise it.

She steps into the living room eventually with a disappointed look on her face. “What did you do?”

I look at her with a confused look on my face. “Do what?”

She looks down the hallway, and back to me. “This!” and she pulls down her pants. I shield my eyes from the sight, saying, “Woah, in case you didn’t notice, I like guys.”

She makes an annoyed sound, and says, “No, get your head out of the gutter! I meant this mark!”

I put my hands down to see a series of bubbles on her thigh. I look at the bubbles with interest. They looked similar in art style to my weird mark...

She points at it roughly. “Why the hell do I have a cutie mark on my thigh?”

I look up at her. “I don’t know, what make you think that’s a cutie mark?!”

She throws up her arms in frustration, and pulls back up her pants. “I know it’s a cutie mark, because it belongs to Derpy!”

I frown. Derpy was that grey pegasus pony from the show. She was a background pony for a while, only having one spotlight episode in which she actually speaks. Those bubbles do look familiar, as it was her cutie mark...

My head begins to throb painfully. I rub my temples slowly in a circular motion, and look back at Dana. “I didn’t do that if that’s what you’re thinking.”

She takes a deep breath and sits down next to me on the couch. “I’m sorry I got angry, I woke up with this thing on me and I just... got really angry for some reason. Sorry for yelling at you.”

I rub my hands on my pants. “The thing is... I got a similar surprise last night too.”

She raises an eyebrow. “What...?”

I pull my pants down a bit to show my thigh to Dana, revealing a much more prominent than last night hourglass. She looks at it, and I could see her eyes glaze over after seeing it. I wave my hands in front of her face, but she just sits there. I frown as I pull back up my pants hiding the mark from view. In turn, she snaps out of it, and looks back at me. “You have an hourglass cutie mark...”

I tilt my head at her. “Again, with the cutie marks. You’re making me feel a bit uncomfortable here, Dana. Do you know what’s going on?”

She just shakes her head and holds it with both her hands. “I don’t know... I called Jack first before you and every time it just goes straight to voicemail. I don’t know what’s going on with him. I suspect he’s the one responsible for this.”

I nod my head slowly. Jack was the only one we knew that actually knew about the show, and how we used to enjoy it long ago. Then again, that would just be a big punch in the face because it just reminds me about the horrifying ending. Jack wouldn’t sink that low to pull off a prank. Besides, I could charge him with sexual assault for pulling off my pants to do that.

I stand up from the couch. “I need to get to work, i’ll call you after to see if you got Jack on the phone. See you later, Dana.”

Dana nods, staring at the T.V. It’s showing off some odd looking guy in a long coat stepping inside of a blue police box with a blonde girl. I don’t think I want to know what happens next. I walk outside and head back to my car to drive on over to the school. I was a substitute professor for a local community college that masters in algebra and physics. It’s a bit advanced, and believe it or not I enjoy just talking about it to students. My lectures weren’t the most entertaining, but it certainly wasn't the worst.

It was only part time, however. I was looking for a more permanent position in what I enjoy the most. Technology. Computer science. Anything along those lines were alright with me. The drive there was quiet, not much traffic around this time of day. I liked these quiet drives. It gives me time to think, and that time I did use. I never did ask Dana about the mark, didn’t I? This is going to bother me all day.

My phone rings half way through the drive, and I stop at a red light to see who it is. It’s Jack. I answer the phone with a “Hello?”

Jack says immediately, “Jenny, listen. I need you to come around the college after you’re done with the lectures. There’s something I need to tell you.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Jack, what is it? Something wrong?”

Jack doesn’t answer for a moment, but eventually says, “No, nothing yet. I just need to show you something that is very important. I’ll see you next to the parking lot. Later.”

The phone emits that familiar droning sound of a disconnected line and I hit the end call button. Today is just not a normal day, is it? It seems like it’s just one mystery after the next. Ah, well. I need to get to the class and give out the days lectures. We’ll see about that thing Jack has to tell me later.

I pull up front of the college. It was generously large, enough to fit about eight hundred students at the most. It was built recently as well, with all those glass adaptations to brickwork. Some of the building was similar to a castle, while the rest was modern day architecture with glass walls and white concrete supports to hold them up. It was a strange place to put modern art, but it’s better than just straight up concrete and bricks.

I park in the staff parking lot and head over to the doors, scanning my ID on the lock, opening the door. I head down the empty halls towards my given room, and peek inside. No one seemed to be inside, so I just head in and sit at the desk in the far corner of the room. It was a standard lecture hall, with raised seats going up to the back wall and a large space for me to stand, along with a half chalkboard half white board to play around with when giving out my speech.

The desk was clear, with only a single thin paper folder placed neatly on the desk, with my name on it. I sit down in a leather swivel chair and open the folder, revealing a paper filled with what the topic was going to be today. The full time professor had written the paper as a quick run through of what they want me to do with the students. I scan over it, re-reading areas and memorizing the schedule when I noticed a small postcard paperclipped to the back of the list.

It’s not really a postcard, but a photo. I read the back first, which says in cursive writing, “Remember, you have to remember. Don’t forget.”

Huh. That’s creepy. This guy must be pulling my leg...

I turn the photo over to see the picture, and what I saw gave me a massive headache. It was a box. A big, blue box. My thigh began to burn in irritation again as I looked at it. Surrounding the box was an odd array of lights, all shades of blue. It was like it was falling through a hole, this blue box. Looking closely, I began to make out the details. It was not just a box, but it had a door in the front. The windows were tinted, so I could not see inside. On top of the box was a light bulb that was flashing blue.

My head was pulsing, I couldn’t take it. I drop the photo on the floor and fall out of my desk.

“Remember.”

I hold my head with both my hands, on my knees now. I could hear something odd forming in my head, a sound. It was a deep, echoing ‘vworp’ sound, like a dead engine having trouble to start up. I kept repeating in my head, and I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted it all to stop.

“You have to remember.”

I yell out in pain as my head felt like it split open, and my chest began to heave and tug at me like it was shifting. Something was happening, I can feel it in my chest, something is happening, oh god, make it stop, it hurts, stop, please...

I begin to cry. The vworp sound continues to echo in my head, but the pain in my chest begins to fade. I cry more and more and more as the pain begins to subside, the sounds in my head fading.

“Don’t forget.”

I could hear the sound of my heartbeat in my ears from all the excessive amounts of blood flow. It sounded different, though. Is my heart failing? No, it has the same beat... but then it isn’t. I can hear something new. Something changed.

My heartbeat is way off.

I could feel the beats in my ears as it makes a ‘bu-bum-ba-BUM’ sound in quick succession. It makes me feel really weird, but I sit up after I notice I was on the floor bawling my eyes out. I sniff out my tears, and wipe them away with my sleeve. That was a terrible episode... what had gotten over me? The pain is gone, but I just feel a little bit heavier all of a sudden. I need a drink...

Then I notice a student was standing there for the past few minutes just staring at my torture. I look up at him in extreme embarrassment. “Oh-Oh, uh, how long were you there?”

He adjusts his backpack and looks at me with a worried look. “...Are you okay?”

I flick my shirt forward. Is it getting hot in here? It just got suddenly warmer... “I’m fine, I just had a bit of a panic attack, nothing to worry about now. I’ll be fine.”

The student looks at his watch. “You’ve actually been wiggling on the floor for the past twenty minutes...”

I go wide eyed. “WHAT?!” I yell, and look at the clock. Sure enough, it was twenty minutes since I got here. Oh god...

The student just shrugs. “We tried getting help, but they just said to let you go through it until you were ready. The nurse wants to talk to you.”

“N-Nurse? Of course, i’ll head over...”

“I guess lectures cancelled?” he asks as I quickly get my things and head for the door.

I sigh. “For now, you’re lucky I had a mental breakdown.”

He nervously laughs, but scratches the back of his head. I just shake my head and head out the door, towards the nurse office. I grind my teeth on the way there. I felt torn for some reason, like I just lost something very important, and I need to get it back. But what?

I knocked on the office’s door, and an aged woman answers.. She has slight wrinkles, and her hair is beginning to grey. Her eyes though, are a deep blue, and full of life. She smiles at me and says sweetly, “You’re okay then, sweetie? Come in, I want to check to make sure you’re physically fine.”

I nod. I just wonder why they just didn’t try to get me here in the first place, but push it to the side. I guess they couldn’t since I was freaking out without my knowledge for the past twenty minutes. I sat in a wooden chair as the old woman collected her equipment. She checked my temperature, asked questions about any brain or heart problems, and then she broke out the stethoscope.

She places the ear pieces into her ears, and goes to check my heart. She places it on the left side of my chest, and nods. She moves it again, and again, and her face starts to scrunch up in confusion. “What’s the matter?” I say, and she moves the hearing piece farther and farther to the right, her look growing more concerned.

She takes out her earpieces slowly, and looks at me like i’m some kind of alien. “Dear...” she began, and says after, “You have any surgery done on you in the past?”

I look at her, worried. “No... nothing too serious to ever lead to that... what is it?”

She backs away from me, and says, “I listened to your heart, and noticed a beat differentiating from the normal human beats. Dear... you have not one, but two hearts.”

End of Chapter 1

Ch. 2: Jack

I felt my chest at the news the old nurse gave me. That’s just not possible, two hearts? I felt the left side of my chest, same as usual, but then I felt the right side. There was another beat that’s in sync with the beat on the left. The left beats first, then the right, then the left, then the right...

A man in a long black trench coat, along with white clean suspenders and dark blue dress shirt, pants, and shoes shoulders open the door without even knocking. He looks at me, nodding, and then looks at the nurse. The nurse was about to use the phone before he came in, and she looks him in the eye. “Excuse me, sir, but i’m a bit busy.”

The man grins, and says, “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to let you know that you're just dreaming!”

The nurse blinks, and says, “I’m quite sure that i’m fully awa-”

The man then uses the side of his hand in a kind of karate chop, and hits her in the back of the neck. The nurse’s eyes roll up to the top of her head, and she falls to the floor. I gasp in surprise when he does this, and then he says, “Jenny, mind if you go and wait outside? I gotta put this old lady to bed.”

I stand up, and yell at the man, “Who the hell do you think you are? You just... just knocked that poor old lady out cold with some sort of move that only works in the movies! What’re you-”

He turns to face me, and then I recognise his face. I know that smug grin anywhere. Jack.

“Look, you can complain later, but right now, I don’t think that we want anyone to know what’s going on with you, and also with Dana.”

I cross my arms in frustration. “Ja- Jack! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

“Saving your life from being inside of an isolation cell somewhere in the bowels of an extensive research facility!”

My face was plastered with confusion and anger. “Excuse me? Not only does that not make any sense right now, but do you have to do it by hurting old ladies?”

“She’s not hurt, she’s just out cold for a few hours!”

“Does it matter?”

Jack lifts the lady up finally, and places her down on a cot in the corner of the office. He throws a blue blanket over her, and turns to me. “She won’t remember a thing when she wakes up anyway, now come on, I can explain on the way.”

I yell at him, “No! I want to know what the hell is going on, Jack! Who are you?”

“I’m Jack!”

I make an “Ugh!” sound while Jack opens the door to the hallway, which is still empty of students. I say to him, “Where do you think you’re taking me?”

He looks back after he looks both ways down the hallway, and says, “I’m taking you to a town not far from here. Should be relatively safe, considering that no one should know who you are there.”

I squint at him, but follow him down the hall to the left, out of the office. “And, why, am I going to go there? What’s so dangerous?”

Jack glances back at me, and says “You.” then looks back towards where he is walking, which is the door leading out to the parking lot.

I glare at the back of his head. “Me? What’s going on with me?”

Jack lifts up his hand in the middle of the hallway, near the exit. Footsteps are echoing from the hallway behind us, and Jack turns towards the noise. He scrunches up his face, then looks at me.

“Run!”

He begins to run towards the exit, and I look back to see if I couldn’t get a glimpse at what was so scary about the footsteps. I could see a man in a blue suit and tie walking down the hallway, casually. I decide to not question it, and run to catch up with Jack, who was waiting by the door.

He pushes open the door, and I step outside. The parking lot was empty, except for two cars. One was a jet black four seater, which looked like it was an old model, and the other was a red sports car. Jack, to my disappointment, went for the black car, and opened the door which was unlocked. He points at the passenger seat, and slides behind the wheel. I jump in after him.

I look at Jack while I fight my seat belt. “Why are we running? I’m really lost as to what is going on here!”

He takes out a key and turns the slot, revving up the engine and the car springs to life. “I’m being followed. That guy,” he points at the door we left from, “Is from the U.S. government. He’s following me all over the place, because the alien department of the FBI wants to take a good look at me.”

I look at him like he’s a world renowned criminal. “And why would that want to do that?”

He pushes the car into drive. “I can’t die.”

With that in my head, he slams on the accelerator pedal and the car’s wheels screeches into action, leaving behind burnt rubber. The agent was out the door when we drove onto the street. Jack was driving like a maniac, swerving left and right, and once even down an alley. No one was following us at this point, as far as I know.

As we drive, I ramble on, “You can’t die? That’s impossible, more importantly, that’s just wrong! No one on this planet can’t live forever!”

Jack just chuckles. “You remind me of before you were like this. I guess I should expect that, hehe.”

I look at him again. “Before I was like this? What do you mean? Who the hell are you!?”

He pulls out his wallet in his coat pocket. He opens it up, while driving mind you, and shows me an ID with his face out front, and a symbol that is a capital T made up of honey comb shaped circles. It read, “Cpt. Jack Harkness”

“Harkness? You told me your last name was Clark!”

He does that damn grin again, and says, “Yeah, sorry about that! Had to make sure no one recognised me out here.” He takes a sharp turn at a corner, and keeps driving. “Obviously, it didn’t work out too well, eh?”

I nod at him quickly, “Yeah, obviously!”

Jack quickly glances at me, then behind us. A car was following us from the back. It was the red sports car. “Ah, well I tried to get away normally. Hey, Jenny, hold my watch, will you?”

Jack keeps holding the wheel, and shakes away his right arm sleeve to reveal a black device on his arm. He crosses his arm over himself towards me, and shakes it in my face. “Press, ah, those two buttons right there at the same time! Make sure you hold on tight!” He lets go of the wheel for a split second and points at two larger buttons on the device. I look at him like he’s crazy. “I don’t think that synchronizing your watch is a top priority right now!”

He shakes his head. “No, no, just trust me! Press those buttons at the same time, quickly!”

I glance at the car behind us, and decide to, screw it, press the buttons at the same time.

…

It hurt a lot. I just saw a flash of several shades of blue and a lot of pain everywhere. It felt like I hit a wall and bounced right off of it at the speed of sound. That was only just for a moment, though. Soon after, I found myself lying in a dirty puddle in the middle of an alley way. Did the car crash?

I hold my head as I sit up from the muck, and look around. It was getting late, the sky was turning a deep orange, and the alley wasn’t looking any better in the lesser amount of light. It was a small place, filled with old, rotting cardboard boxes and tin trash cans. No one was here, not even Jack. To be honest, I was glad he wasn’t around. He was starting to give me a headache, because he lied to me ever since we met. Not only me, but to his girlfriend as well! Did he even love her? For all I know, Dana was in on it too! That’s just dandy to think about.

My hands drop to my knees and I push myself off the wet ground. When I get back, i’m going to have to burn these clothes with a hot furnace. Nothing will be able to get rid of this mess all over my back.

The exit to the alley was just a few steps to my right, and I peek out before I do to check if anyone was around. There were a few people walking back and forth down the sidewalk, but they paid no attention to me. I step out into the dusk and look around.

This doesn’t look right... last I remember we were driving down an empty road with a crazy FBI guy tailing us, and now it looks like a whole new place, not only that, no sign of the car or that FBI agent. I pull out my phone in my left pocket and check the time. 7:38 P.M.

I don’t know how long I was out, but hell, the days fly by. As much as I hate it, I need to find Jack and figure out where I am, so I can get back home and deal with it myself. I don’t need some crazy guy that, and this is coming from him, apparently can’t die. What, does that mean he’s immortal, or something? Great, my friend is in love with a god.

“He-ow, hey!”

There’s Jacks voice, he’s somewhere nearby. It came from the alley, so I turn back to walk down it again to find a dumpster calling out for help. I knock on it and say, “Gee, what is it Mr. Dump? You want some garbage for dinner?”

Jack inside knocks on the top door harshly, and says, “Very funny, now unlock the latch, i’m stuck in here!”

I squint at a padlock on the lid. Who locks dumpsters? More importantly, how did Jack just fly into a dumpster, and it magically locks itself? Whatever, I need something to break it open with.

I look around the alley, and find a reasonably sized hammer. I walk back to the dumpster, and wind up for a swing. Jack squirms inside to avoid the shock wave of the hit as I bring it down several times on the lock. Thankfully, it’s old and rusted, so it fell away quickly and easily. Jack pushes open the door and takes a desperate breath for air.

I grin and say, “I’d imagine the air in there wasn’t the most fresh?”

He looks at me with a forced smile and says, “Oh, don’t be such a smartass. We’ve got a few more things to do before we can laugh and joke around safely.”

He climbs out of the dumpster, and takes off his trench coat. He flaps it around in the air in the same way you would get rid of a bunch of dust on a rug. A few tin cans and general muck fly out of it, and Jack swings it over his shoulder. “Let’s get going then.”

We step out of the alley, back onto the street. We take a right and continue down the sidewalk, passing by a few people who look at Jack in disgust, but pay no mind to me. Jack ignores their comments of how smelly he is, and looks at me. “Dana is in an apartment just down the road. She already knows the circumstances, so don’t be surprised when she starts yelling at me.”

I roll my eyes. “I would be yelling at you if it weren’t for all these people.”

He throws his head back a bit, and says, “Well, they shouldn’t be able to notice you. You still have that key, right?”

I reach into my right pocket and pull out the average looking key. “Yeah, what of it? What’s it for?”

He opens his mouth, but stops for a moment. He says soon after, “It has a perception field around it. No one should be able to notice you if you just act normal and not try to get into their straight view. Keep it on you, like I said awhile ago, you're going to need it. I don’t think you want to be noticed for a while.”

I look back at the key, and examine it closely. It’s just a normal key, nothing wrong with it here. I say to Jack, “It’s just a key though, how can it make me less... noticeable?”

Jack shrugs. “I don’t know, that’s your tech you're dealing with here, not mine.”

I began to say something, but Jack points over at a decently sized complex. “There it is, I found a reasonable apartment to stay inside. We should be fine.”

We walk across the street and head over to the glass security door. Jack hits one of the many buttons on the intercom, and waits. Soon enough, Dana’s voice emits from the speakers.

“Helloooo~?”

Jack leans into the microphone. “Dana, it’s me. Let me in.”

Dana gasps slightly in the intercom, then says, “What? No, you lying jerk! Go away!”

Jack rolls his eyes, and says, “I have Jenny with me, right here. Say hi, Jenny.”

He moves out of the way for me to lean in too and I say, “Hey, Dana. Could you please let us in?”

Dana stays quiet for a moment, then says, “...Okay. I’m opening the door.”

After a moments pause, the door clicks while emitting a low buzzing sound, and Jack pulls open the door before it stops. The main room was a hallway, with doors on either side. An elevator was at the end of the hallway, with a door to the right set aside for fire escape from the upper floors. We head over to the elevator, and I hit the up button.

The elevator hits our floor, and it opens up to a small box with mirrors all over the walls, making an infinite tunnel of reflections. We step inside, and Jack hits one of the buttons, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was busy looking at the many me’s in the mirrors.

Awkward silence ensues as the elevator reaches the floor Jack hit. I follow along to one of the doors and he knocks. A muffled, “One second,” comes from inside, and Dana unlocks the door, opening up for us. Jack puts on a grin, and Dana slaps him across the face.

“Ow! Hey, i’m only trying to help...!”

Dana ignores him, and goes over to hug me. I return it, and she says, “It’s so good to see you, it felt like ages, even though it was just earlier today...”

I pat her back sympathetically. “Same here. Can we get inside before we get emotional?”

Dana releases me and says, “Oh, right, come in.”

Both Jack and I step inside to the apartment. The place still looked like the owner just moved in a few seconds ago, with boxes and large furniture laying about. Dana looks around, and says, “Most of this was just borrowed. Well, Jack says ‘borrowed’, I say stolen from a yard sale.”

I look at Jack, pulling off a poker face pretty well, and I go to sit on a black leather couch. “Well, at least the worst is over. Jack, why are we here?”

Jack sits in a reclining chair opposite of me and motions for Dana to sit. After a moment, Jack says, “As far as I know, you, Jenny, are turning back into an old friend of mine. Though I should say you shouldn’t even exist here... but things happen, I guess.”

I lean in towards Jack. “What do you mean? You’re being the most vague person right now, just spit it out!”

Jack sighs, and says, “If I do that, i’m afraid I might burn your brain to a crisp. But, let me just check something...” Jack pulls out a stethoscope from his jacket, which he discarded on the floor next to his chair. He gets up, and places the ear pieces in his ears. “What the hell are you doing?” I ask, as Jack gets closer. “I’m checking to make sure what that nurse said was true, now hold still.”

I sat there as Jack prodded my chest with the cold piece of equipment. Jack makes several faces, confused, skeptical, interested, then happy. “Haha, yep, it looks like it’s happening. To be honest, I really don’t know what the hell is going on, but you’re turning back, that’s for sure.”

I feel my chest at the four in sync beats that are bursting out softly. “Turning back? God damn, just tell me already!”

Jack puts away the stethoscope, and says, “Fine, you want me to name who you are? Alright, sure, first off, you are actually an alien. You’re not from Earth.”

I make a sort of confused look at him. Of course i’m from Earth! I remember everything from my childhood, the memories are not that of an alien planet.

“Second, the race of aliens you are turning back into is called a Time Lord. Not only that, you are the last of the Time Lords. Two hearts, and a brain thats so expansive, even I cannot comprehend most of what you would know.”

I stand up, Dana glancing back and forth between me and Jack. “I don’t know what’s going on, but aliens and shit are not something I can believe, Jack. Do you even know what the hell this-” I pull down the side of my pants to reveal my thigh, plus hourglass. “Is?!”

Jack stares at it, then back to me. “I have absolutely no idea what that is, Jenny.”

Dana speaks up. “It’s called a cutie mark, Jack. From that show, you know, My Little Pony?”

Jack nods. “Okay, so you got a tattoo? I would never imagine the Doctor getting a tattoo-”

I yell at him. “No, not a damn tattoo! It just appeared there, same with Dana! She’s got a bunch of bubbles on her! Do you know what the hell is going on!?”

Jack slowly shakes his head, and I throw up my arms. It was starting to get darker outside, and a wall clock next to me said, 8:12.

I sigh reluctantly. “I’m going to get some sleep. Wake me when things start to get normal again.”

I walk off in a haze of anger and confusion, past a scared Dana and a confused Jack. There was a small room with a bed, and I just flop down on it, pulling up some covers. The room was slightly tinted blue from the curtains that hide what is left of the sun as it finally hides behind the horizon. I take one more breath to calm myself down, and fall asleep.

It was a dreamless sleep, and I sat up awkwardly in the morning light. I stretch my arms out lazily as I take a moment to reacquaint myself with being awake. I just felt off today, like I just got considerably heavier. Oh well, I guess sleep does that to you. I get up and stand to stretch my legs. I was stil wearing the muddy clothes from yesterday. There was a box filled with clothes, and one caught my eye. It was actually not clothes at all, but a green tie. I shrug it away from my thoughts, and dig through another box.

I found a white blouse with a light brown jacket. I’ll take that. There was also a pair of dress pants at the bottom, and since I couldn’t find any other pants, I threw that onto the bed, along with the blouse and jacket. I’ll leave that there, and try to go and take a shower to get rid of this stench.

I step out into the hall. Jack was still fast asleep on the couch and Dana was awake, watching some show on T.V. I murmured a soft “Morning” and head for the bathroom. It already had a towel sitting on top of the toilet seat, and the shower was at the end of the small room. There was a sink with a mirror over it, as well. I glance at myself in the mirror before turning on the shower and stripping down to get in the shower and wash away the mud and grime from yesterday.

While in the shower, I thought about everything that Jack had said yesterday, about Time Lords and perception filters, which was the correct name for it- wait, what? Was it the right name? Ugh, I don’t want to start off the morning with confusion. I quickly wipe off the mud and, sure enough, that hourglass was still there. I scrub at it, actually thinking it would come off, but no.

I give up eventually, and step out of the shower while it was still running to dry off. I just like listening to the shower run, the white noise of water hitting porcelain flooring was soothing to my ears. I step up to the sink to brush my teeth, and thankfully, there was a toothbrush waiting for me. I ran it under the water, and scrubbed madly at my teeth in front of the blurred form of my reflection.

As I rubbed my teeth without toothpaste, I began to notice something off about the reflection in the mirror. I squint at it through the fog of the hot water, and I wipe away the condensation.

My hair was several shades darker than before. It’s now becoming a shade of dark brown. I run my fingers through the strands of hair as I look at them curiously. Then I notice something a bit more strange... my eyes were blue. I use my finger and thumb to pull away my eyelids to get a better look at them. Blue eyes? I had brown ones, what the hell? Did someone put those weird colored contacts in my eyes? I pat the back of my head over the sink to see if they would fall out, but nothing plinked out of my eye.

I squint at myself in the mirror. I’m having actually a bit of trouble seeing myself. Maybe I do need contacts...

I wrap the towel a bit more tightly around myself, and turn off the shower. Enough wasting water, I need to get dressed. I step out into the hall, and thankfully, Jack was still asleep. Dana was also still watching some show. I didn’t bother to check what it was, and I step back into my room to throw on the clothes.

Once dressed, I head back out to find Jack finally stirring, and Dana jumps slightly, switching the channel after glancing his way. I walk out to sit next to Dana, and Jack sits up as he squints at me.

“Huh... you’ve got blue eyes. That’s... not right.”

Dana looks at me, and I say towards Jack, “I know it’s not right. My hair is turning a dark brown too, and-”

I look at Dana, something catching my eye. Her hair was also a bit different. It was a kind of like the color of bleached sand... and her eyes were gold. Is that supposed to be a normal color?

Dana scratches the back of her head, and says, “Yeah... I woke up like this too.”

I quickly do another look at her, then back at Jack, who was scratching his head with a bit of a confused look on his face. He says, “No, no... what I meant is... the person I am thinking of doesn’t have blue eyes. They are brown.”

I stand up, and walk over to a window. “I’m not some other person, Jack. I’m me, and I intend to stay that way.”

Jack looks at my feet, and says, “Why are you walking on your toes?”

“Huh?”

I look down at my feet. I was indeed on the tips of my toes, yet it felt pretty damn normal to me. I try to force them back down onto my heels, but it was actually kinda hard to do. I do manage to do it, but that just makes me feel a bit uneasy. It’s like my weight has shifted severely.

Jack shakes his head, and stands up. “Something isn’t right here. I need to go check up on a few things today, though. Uh, Dana, is there any clean clothes I can wear?”

Dana points towards a few boxes, and Jack starts digging through them. He eventually finds a black button shirt with jeans, and he hides away in the bathroom to change. As he does, I look at Dana, who looks back at me. Just looking at her, I could feel something is wrong. I was about to ask about it before Jack came out of the bathroom and bellowing “Right, well, i’ll be back! You two, don’t leave this place until I get back, it could be dangerous.”

I just look at Jack with lying eyes, “‘Course Jack, we’ll be fine. Won’t we, Dana?”

Dana looks at me, then realisation hits in her eyes. She turns to Jack, then says, “Yeah, we’ll stay here and gossip about boys and all that.”

Jack looked a bit uneasy about that comment, but nods. “Ookay... see you guys later.” He leaves out the hallway, and soon enough I could hear the elevator in action going up... and then down.

Dana looks at me, then says, “So, where are we going to go?”

I shrug, and look out the window at the town. “I suppose we should look around and see where we are, it’s obviously not our town. Do you know? I never got to ask.”

She shrugs as well, then says, “I don’t know either. Jack had this weird watch thing on his wrist that, and this is his exact words, ‘bounces you through the time vortex, and places you in a whole different location’.

I cringe a bit. Jack is getting more mysterious by the day here. Watches that teleport you through time and space? Yep, my mind is burning now. I need to get out of this cramped place.

I sigh, and turn towards the door. I put on my shoes quickly, and the while I say, “Well, we should get going then! I saw a few shops in town, and I want to take a look at them! Come on, Allons-y!”

I jump up and bounce around the place happily while Ditzy was just sitting there with her mouth agape. I look at her with my hands behind my back, and say to her, “Ditzy, you alright there? We don’t have all day! That crazy time agent will be back here sometime in a few... oh I don't know... hours? Yeah, maybe three. Or four. Or maybe-”

“J-Jenny!”

“Hm? Who's that?”

Ch. 3: We have other problems

Just a few moments ago...

Jack was heading down the town, looking for the item he forgot at his small hideout. He passed street corners, shops, a nice looking cafe... or maybe a bakery? It didn’t really matter, he just kept walking. He passed buildings, apartments, and finally he found he was terribly lost.

He found himself back at the alleyway he and Jenny were forced into thanks to that strange little device he had. Someone was there, though. Someone he didn’t recognise. He was holding a silver fob watch, with many interesting etchings and circles. The man looked at Jack with a grin, and pressed the release, opening the latch to reveal its contents.

What was inside, though, was not just a clock to check the time. A bright, yellow light surged from the inside, flying out into the air. Jack knew what was happening, and he yelled out to stop, but the man continued to stand there, holding the watch. He even began to laugh. Jack decided enough was enough, and tackled the man to the ground. Once he did, however, the man disappeared into a cloud of smoke. A moments pause of shock later, Jack got up, and retrieved the fob watch, closing it.

But it was too late. The damage was done.

“Jenny! What’s gotten into you?”

“I don’t know any Jenny’s, miss Doo. Well, actually, I know a couple. One was made out of my genetic information, but that was a long time ago.”

It was kind of like watching a movie, except I was the actor. Things were forced out of my mouth, words that I don’t recognise. Thoughts and ideas were surging through my brain at remarkable speeds, so much that I never have enough time to actually think about what I am thinking.

“Jenny, stop calling me that!”

“What? Well, you are Ditzy! And please, call me The Doctor.”

“No, i’m not, and no, you are not The Doctor.”

Apparently I was, the surging thoughts in my brain kept telling me that. There were blue boxes, horrible machines that felt nothing, a couple times I saw pears, and eugh, it made me feel disgusted.

I walked in front of the mirror in the bathroom, still lost in all these thoughts. I said, “Oh nononono, No! Maybe? No! I’m a woman? What happened to me?!”

Dana (Or Ditzy, I keep hearing that several times) followed me to the bathroom. She watched me as I felt my face, arms, legs, ears, and the top of my head a couple of times. I was thinking out loud, well, loudly. “I must have lost focus in regeneration... but come on! That’s not fair!” My voice was a bit altered, I could hear a bit of an accent in it. British? Sounded like it, probably from the great city of London.

Dana said to me, “Okay... Doctor. What have you done to my friend?”

I look at her, with a raised eyebrow, and say “Your friend? Last I heard, most of your friends were indeed not your friends, but more of like those that bring you along for comedic effect. Also, why are you human?”

She looks at me sadly, and scrunches up her face in confusion when I said that last question. “Excuse me? I’ve always been human, since I was born!”

“Not what you told me when I met you.”

Dana holds her head as I check my eyes in the mirror. “Huh, blue, and my hair? ...Still not ginger.”

My head begins to burn heavily, and I start to feel really agitated. Dana was staring at me with a worried look on her face, then I noticed I was repeating myself.

“...ginger, ginger, ginger, augh!” I throw up my arms to my face and pant through my teeth from the aftermath of the burning sensation. More images flash past my eyes. I see so many different things, like statues of crying angels, a library, a swimming pool in the same library, and Jack, a couple of times.

I put my hands down like nothing happened, and walk over to the front door of the apartment. “So, shall we be off? I think we should go to a cafe, I want to see what my favorite drinks are. I’m craving a warm latte. Sugar, lots of sugar.”

Dana grinds her teeth while looking worried at the same time, and says, “Actually... I think we should just stay here, and wait for Jack to get back.”

I look at her with a smile. “Jack? Jack Harkness, yes? Oh, boy, I have not seen that man in a long time. I wonder if he still works at Torchwood... hm, or...? Nah, I don’t think so.”

It’s hard to keep up with all these thoughts going through my head, it’s starting to actually physically hurt to see them all fly by. That doesn’t stop me, though. I think I managed to go into complete autopilot, and this thing calling itself The Doctor has taken over my limbs.

Never the less, I throw open the door and gesture widely for Dana to go first. She hesitates, but goes out anyway, and I follow. We head down to the elevator, and I hit the call button. The elevator heads back up to us, and we step inside once the door opens. I then hit the first floor button on the wall, and the doors close, leaving me and Dana in a box filled with millions of Jenny’s and Dana’s. I look at myself, and mumble quietly, “Just not fair... Why did I turn into a woman...?” I run both my hands through my hair, and I felt the lining of my hair go all the way down to the back of my neck.

I make a quizzical look at myself, and mumble again, “Hm, hairline seems to continue further down the back of my neck. Odd.”

Dana glances at me a couple of times, and finally says, “Are you talking to yourself?”

I look back at Dana, about to say something, but the doors open before I could start. I step out, and feel very disturbed for some reason. Though the pilot in this situation knows what it is.

“Ah, Jack went down this elevator a moment ago, right? I can feel that small little bit of energy left behind by his vortex manipulator. How many times do I have to get rid of that thing...?”

Dana says, slightly irritated, “Vortex manipulator? What, that thing on his wrist? How the hell do you know what that is?”

I look at her with a bit of distaste, saying “Language” then saying “A vortex manipulator is a device that lets you travel between time and space. I deactivated it twice already... speaking of deactivating, where is...” I feel around my jacket and pockets for something. “... my sonic screwdriver, screwdriver, screwdriver, owowowowowow...”

My head begins to burn again, a high pitched buzzing sound plays in my head loudly, and I start to have another information overload. This time, it’s people. Loads of people. I see old and young, mostly women, some had names that vibrated in my head loudly, while others were not. The one that stood out was a Rose Tyler, but then there was another one. One name that made no sense at all. It even came with a picture.

It wasn’t a human. It was a pony. A grey pegasus with bleached sandy hair, golden and lazy eyes, and bubbles emblazoned on her flank. Ditzy Doo, otherwise known by the general populace, Derpy.

I found myself ever so lightly slamming my head against the wall. I could feel the burning sensation fade away, but the guy at the helm wasn’t getting any better. He, i’d assume he is a he, is mumbling to himself and flexing his fingers.

I step away from the wall, and run my fingers through my hair from front to back, thinking at absurd speeds. “Something isn’t right, the regeneration must have failed, or maybe I lost too much focus? Why can’t I remember it happening?”

Dana walks up to me, and places a hand on my shoulder. “Jenny... are you alright?”

I shrug her off, and say “It may just be a bit of leftover energy, but still... ah well, come on then! To that cafe!”

It was a quaint place. It had a nice lady up front that served tables and took orders. I think she even cooked some of it too. She looked really down though, something was on her mind. I kept that in the back of my burning mind and sat down with Dana at a far off table, in the back. I took note of everything I saw after seeing the lady facedown on the glass counter. The place was called the Café Sucré, selling pastries and some fairly nice caffeinated drinks.

Dana hesitantly sat in front of me in the booth. I was smiling away, examining my surroundings. I already took a look at the menu, and it was a long list filled with loads of colorful food art. Surprisingly, no latte. Oh well, I guess i’ll get a box of cupcakes. Most of the people were outside at tables, enjoying the bright and shiny day, though Dana wasn’t too happy with the recent turn of events.

“Jenny, we can’t just go out. Jack could already be back there, wondering where we are!”

I sat back, folding my legs, and say “It’s not like Captain Jack has a vendetta for us. The most he would do is get cross with us. I wouldn’t worry about it.” I pause, the pilot blasting more thoughts through my head. “Well, too much about it.”

As we sat there in silence, a young man walked through the door, and he too looked a bit hung over, just like the girl. He walked up and started to talk to the girl behind the glass counter.

Dana was talking. “We don’t even know who Jack is!”

I look back at her, and say “I do. He used to be a time agent, went rogue after a while, became a con man, and almost conned me out of a medical ship that held the key to saving the human race from turning into a five year old boy with a weak mind and body with a gasmask that was looking for his ‘mummy’.”

Dana squints at me like i’m insane, which I might be, considering the situation. I say to her “Er, nevermind. I guess we should go look for Captain Jack, then.” I get up, and head over to the counter. The man had left, I could see him out the window eating a pastel green cupcake. I spoke with the girl behind the counter, got my sweets, and left.

I could have sworn something was up with those two people, the man and the girl behind the counter. Oh well, bigger problems are at hand. I’ll file that under the ‘investigate later’ folder. Wait, what am I doing? I really shouldn’t care about other people’s problems, though then again that would be mean, but- AUGH!

As we walked out onto the sidewalk heading who knows where, I was following Dana, my head began to burn like the sun was inside it. I fell to my knees and held my head, holding back screams of pain. Dana turned to find my horrible situation and knelt down. “J-Jenny, what’s wrong?”

I grunt a few times in pain, unable to talk to her. I couldn’t even think straight. The burning... I felt like I was dying.

I guess the universe thought I had enough, because Captain Jack Harkness came to the rescue. He busted out of a door at a small building not far away, holding a silver fob watch. He ran over, and knelt down next to me and Dana. “Back up Dana, this is going to probably hurt your eyes.”

I look up at Jack, still in the immense amount of pain. “Captain Jack... good to see you- AH!”

I get flashes of what appears to be the past, and the present, and the future. I see so many things, so many beautiful things. There, in front of my eyes, was the universe. I could see what happened, what is happening, and what will happen. I could see a huge planet, with so many shades of red. A huge glass orb encased a fantastical futuristic city, surrounded by planes of red grass and trees, with snow capped mountains lining most of the horizon.

Jack opened up the fog watch, and golden light seeped from the contents. It flew out from the watch inside, and creeped into my eyes. I went light headed, my muscles relaxing as all these thoughts, images, and names faded from my mind. All that was left was echoes.

Jack closed the watch as soon as the golden light stopped collecting what was in my head, and the bright light stopped. I fell, but Jack caught me before my head hit the pavement. Dana was nervously glancing around, and looked at me with the most worried, and even tear filled eyes.

Jack held me out at arms length, and said “Are you okay now, Jenny?”

I look at him, realising that I could move my limbs by myself now. I had full control again.

“Jack... what happened? ...Dana?”

Dana let out a long held breath in relief, and got a bit closer. “I’m here, are you okay?”

I could barely hear what they were saying as the colors began to fade around me, turning black. Before it consumed my vision, I said “Who is this... Doctor?”

I woke up in bed. From what I could tell, I was back at that apartment in town. I sat up with a massive headache pulsing in my forehead, and I rub my temples to calm down the raging pain in my head. It felt like I just had a whole section of me torn out.

The events of what happened recently flow back into my memory, and I remember the man that took over the drivers seat in my brain. He was gone now, but for how long? I could hear the two out in the living room, beyond the bedroom door. I sat up, and checked a digital clock next to the bed on a nightstand. 7:39 P.M. I was out of it for about four hours.

I flicked my shirt collar a few times. It was seriously hot in here, i’m starting to sweat. I blow air out of my nose and get up slowly. Faintly, I could hear Jack and Dana having a hushed conversation behind my door. I decide to let them go at it, and I look around the bedroom. Surprisingly, there was a laptop on standby on the floor in the corner. I quietly walk over to it, and pick it up to bring it over to the bed.

I sit awkwardly on the bed, cross-legged, and lift up the monitor. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but of course, it needs a password to get to the desktop. I sigh, and sit there contemplating what the password is. I figured it was Dana’s, so I decide to guess what would be a generic password she would choose. Knowing her, it’s probably based off some T.V. show, or something. She watches so many different shows though, so I could be here all day trying names of characters, titles, catch phrases, and more.

After a few attempts, I throw up my hands and give up. There is no way I am ever going to find her password. I could just go out there and ask, but they were still talking and I didn’t exactly want to go out there all suddenly and get bombarded with “Are you alright?” questions. I just wanted to be alone for now.

I laid back on the bed with my legs still crossed. I thought about how this all began to happen. It began on my birthday, my goddamn birthday. What caused it? Was it the key Jack gave me? I think it’s still in my pocket, but I don’t see how that could cause it. What did I do? I remember how they told me I spaced out for five minutes... on the exact time of my birthday. Did it start there?

It had to start there, it was the only thing that happened that was at the very least out of the ordinary. It all starts... with that mark. The hourgla-

I get up, facing the laptop again. I think I know just what that password is. I can remember a couple times when I visited Dana, she was watching a show. This show, and this is just based on facts, may be related somehow. Those images and names that flashed in my head, I can still remember them, or at least the echoes. I have a few more passwords I can try.

I flex my fingers, and start typing the first one I had in mind. “Doctor”. No, that didn’t work. What about... nah, that can’t be it...

One more then, let’s try this...

“TARDIS”

The generic Windows welcome text appears on the blue styled background, along with the circling loading symbol. That’s done it, i’m on Dana’s computer. Soon the screen fades away from the ‘Welcome’ window to black for a quick second, and then I see her desktop. It is pony related, but instead of the mane six, we have the famous background ponies that were popular back when. There’s Lyra, BonBon, Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Carrot Top... wait didn’t they change her name at some point? It was set by Hasbro for her to be called Golden Harvest, I think. That’s a stupid name, Carrot Top was a more ‘name name’.

That thought aside, I also saw Berry Punch, Colgate, Ditzy, and me. Or, wait, no, Doctor Whooves. At this point in time, I think I can just assume that, yes, that chunk of whoever was in my brain is still there, and I just told myself that I was, indeed, Doctor Whooves. I facepalm at my stupidity, and sigh. I’m going to get nowhere...

I look at the only stallion in the picture, the Doctor, and notice something familiar about him. His cutie mark is an hourglass too. Sure, Colgate in the corner has the same one, which made me wonder how the hell these two have the same cutie mark when each one is supposed to be unique, but he stands out a whole lot more to me.

He’s sitting with his legs folded under him, and Ditzy is in the dead center of the picture, just over the Doctor. They both are looking at eachother with a smile, and Ditzy has a bit of a lazy right eye, which is slightly looking forward instead of at him. It’s kind of cute, as Ditzy is messing up Doctor Whooves’ hair as she balances on his head with her forehooves.

I smile to myself at the scene. It looked really happy, all these ponies together for a group picture like this. I thought about the ending to the show, season five... it was a sad and horrifying ending. Discord wins... and...

I need to see that ending again. I don’t know why, but I just need to make sure what I saw is what I saw. I’ll have to ask when I finally choose to go out there and talk to the two of them.

I notice that Google is open in the taskbar, and I click it to bring up a full screen video. I check the time it takes to watch, and it says about 3 minutes. It isn’t labeled at all, and the picture that is frozen is completely black. I look at the door behind me, and sure enough, I could hear the T.V. going on and the two talking. I decide to click ‘play’ and see what Dana was up to.

…

It was Ponyville, bright and colorful as ever. There was no music to go along with it, though. Only the sound of... something familiar. I heard this noise before, and before I knew it, the video showed its source. A blue, pastel styled police box was bolding into existence before me. Once it became solid, a low ‘boom’ of the bass tells me that the show is over, and the box is there, officially.

A moment passes, and soon the door opens to reveal a brown earth pony. He had a darker brown mane, blue eyes, and an hourglass cutie mark. Instantly, I knew, it was Doctor Whooves, in all his glory. He didn’t seem to look happy at all, though. He stumbled out of the box, trying the best he can to walk, but can’t seem to get the hang of it. He falls over, and grunts in pain.

He shuts his eyes for a moment, and opens one to look around. He was behind a large bush, and in the foreground was a bunch of blurred out pastel trees. He managed to push himself up to sit on his haunches, and opens both his eyes. He swishes his head all over the place, then looks at himself in astonishment. He says “Well... that was unexpected.” before the video ends in an old video like way, like when the tape in the VCR messes up.

I blink at the video I saw. That was it? I don’t know what the animator of this short video was thinking but... that was really disturbing, for some reason. I glance at the clock in the bottom right. It’s just about eight now. Time sure flies. I’m starting to get tired...

My lower back begins to ache severely out of nowhere, and I reach down there to adjust myself. I thought I was sitting on something jagged, but apparently not. Something was inside my pants, and it was... growing? Innuendo aside, It felt like my spine was being pulled out slowly. I groan in pain as I fall onto my side, the pain still there. I decided enough was enough, and I pull off my pants and twist my torso around to see what was causing me so much trouble.

I saw a dark brown tail sticking out of my ass. It was short, and very unkempt. It also stuck out in various directions, in spikes of hair.

My eyes go wide from the sight, and then my ears start to shift on the side of my head. I grip my bedsheets, hoping that the pain and that would go away, but no, the pain just got worse. My ears began to shift slightly up the sides of my head, and I fell out of my bed onto the floor. My blanket gets tangled all around me as I squirm in the haze of pain that my ears are giving me. The tail wasn’t causing pain anymore, but I could feel it get stuck in between the folds on the blanket.

A moment that felt like hours passed, and the pain passes. I could hear the concerned, and then mortified screams of Dana and Jack out in the living room. I try my best to get out of the tangle of blanket and hair, all the while trying to stand up as well. Surprisingly, it’s starting to get hard to keep balance, and I almost fall over from the blanket being pulled under my feet as I pull it away from me. I was standing in the room, with no pants, and apparently a tail was attached to my butt.

I looked around. I need a mirror, some kind of mirror right now. I saw a decently sized mirror in the corner of the room, above a short dresser. Thanking, and then cursing the gods above for it, I head over and look at myself in the mirror.

My hair was a much more considerably darker brown. It was actually shorter than before, as my hair ends at the back of my neck in a sort of a mohawk style, along with the occasional spike of hair heading all the way back. But the hair is not the problem, it’s what is on top of my head that bothered me as much as the tail.

I had brown pony ears.

They sat there, pointing upwards while mocking me with its presence. For a moment, I thought that they were fake, but no, I could see them twitch and turn to the slightest amount of sound coming from the living room. I leaned in to look even closer at myself, in fascination and terror. I feel the tips of the ears on my head, and I could feel them. They were most... definitely... real.

Jack busts into my room without even knocking, and quickly glances at the bed, then at me. I look at him, and he looks at me for a moment, then at my not-so-clothed lower body. I realised the extent of my situation, and I go back to what any person in the world would say to someone when they are in an embarrassing situation.

“Get out!”

Jack looks back up at me, pulls a disturbed ‘oops’ face, and shuts the door.

So, we have other problems besides my mental breakdown. I almost forgot completely about the mark on my side, as well as our strange walking habits. We never did pay much mind considering the second personality problem I had only hours ago.

Dana was suffering with me. Her hair is now a pure bleached yellow, and she had a long tail to go along with it. We were sitting in the living room after I found a couple very uncomfortable but effective towels for both Dana and I to wear so we don’t crush our new appendages inside our pants.

Jack was walking back and forth in front of us next to the muted T.V., playing whatever they were watching before this happened. After a moment of awkward glances between all of us, Jack speaks up.

“Okay... what the hell are sticking out of your... whatever. Tails? Specifically horse tails?”

Dana said to the confused Jack “I think we’re turning into ponies, Jenny and I. I am pretty sure I know who I am turning into, but not quite Jenny.”

I look at her quizzically. “Dana, that doesn’t make any bloody sense. How are we supposed to be turning into ponies? They are, most certainly, not real.”

Jack stressfully wipes his face from top to bottom with both his hands, and takes a deep breath. “I agree with Jenny. This isn’t something that is supposed to happen. I thought the watch would do something, but it still looks like you’re changing Jenny.”

I look up at him, confused about the change of topic. “Jack, I don’t have the foggiest idea of what you are talking about.”

Jack lifts a finger. “Ah, see? You have a British accent now. Also, is that a bit of a deeper voice I hear?”

I hold my throat with curiosity. Nothing seems different, and my voice is pretty much the same as always. Jack looks at Dana, and says “You too, your voice is getting a bit... high. Too high for it to make any sense.”

Dana does the same thing I did, and says “No, my voice is the same as always, Jack. Are your ears playing tricks on you?”

Jack folds his arms, and glances at the T.V. momentarily before saying “No, I don’t think so. But these tails, these habits, and your eyes... I’d have to say something I didn’t expect is happening, and I don’t know how to stop it.”

After a moment, I turn to Dana and say “Okay, Dana, if you are really sure, do you have any idea how this could have started?”

Dana taps her chin inquisitively, and says “Well, I think it started at your birthday party. It’s the only time anything unusual happened before all this.”

I nod. “Yeah, I thought that too. It makes no sense, though. What does it me-”

Dana interrupts me by saying “I want to see the finale again. Season five of Friendship is Magic.”

I stop my sentence completely, and look at her. I guess now or never, I do too want to get another look at the ending. I get up and sidestep around Jack and kneel down in front of the T.V. The DVDs are kept in a cupboard installed into the desk that holds up the telly, and I reach inside to grab the case. The cover was the usual, happy and colorful thing. If you never saw the show, you would think that the whole thing was just for kids, but seriously...

I take out the disk, and slide it into the DVD player. Jack sits down on the couch, waiting for me to finish setting it up, and Dana gets comfortable in the opposite couch. I set the video on the T.V. to ‘MOVIE’ and turn on the DVD player. It boots up, and on comes the movie menu.

I press the buttons on the DVD player to go to scene selection, and hit the final episode, at the final minutes. Once done, I get up and sit next to Dana. The show plays for the first time in forever.

I gotta say, I remember it being gruesome, but seeing it again like this was worse than a picture in my head.

There, on the telly, was Doctor Whooves. He was stepping out of his smoking, and useless TARDIS while fire and hell were attacking Ponyville. Ponies ran left and right, and he was walking through it. Before this played, I remember that Ditzy ran off without him after he crashed. He was looking for her.

For some reason, I hoped that he wouldn’t find her like the way I remembered. I just wanted him to turn around and go the other way, but he was not that kind of pony. His friends are the most important thing to him.

Especially her.

Dana was crying now, watching as he came up from under a burned bush to see Discord hovering Ditzy over the ground, choking her like Darth Vader in Star Wars with some invisible force. He mumbled to himself “no, no, DITZY!” and jumped in front of Discord to tackle her out of his grip.

Once he did though, the scene ends. Credits roll. The End.

I wondered as they rolled down the screen with an almost surreal happy tune playing in the background how they managed to incorporate the TARDIS at all in the show, because that would be copyright infringement. I guess they got a license or something. Dana had her head in her hands, crying her eyes out, and Jack just sat there confused.

Jack said “I don’t get it... that dragon thing dumps that princess into the lava, and heads straight for Twilight? It’s like a scene is missing or something. You didn’t scratch the disk, did you?”

I almost got up and punched him in the face for being so insensitive about the scene, but then I realise something. The scene that played didn’t have either of the two powerful ponies Jack described in them. I saw Doctor Whooves, trying to save Ditzy...

Dana sobs. “Why did he have to kill them...? Oh my goddesses...”

I didn’t see any killing in there either, at least not in that scene. I say to Dana “What do you mean? Who did he kill?”

Dana looks at me with a slight amount of anger in her eyes. “Did you not see Discord do that stupid spell on her family?!”

I frown with sympathy. “As a matter of fact... no.”

“Where WERE you when Derpy watched her whole family get blasted away by Discord?”

Her family was murdered? I didn’t see that at all... what the hell?

“Dana, all I saw was Doctor Whooves looking for Ditzy, walking through fire and then saving her from the blast-”

“Well, your ‘Doctor’ didn’t save her! He just killed him, and went back to her!”

I go wide eyed. This isn’t right. I say to her “Dana... I think you and I both saw two different things.”

She does her best to stop sobbing, and looks back at me. Jack was sitting up, attentive to what I had to say. “What I saw was the Doctor searching for Ditzy, and trying to save her. What you saw was Discord killing Ditzy’s family, and then the Doctor trying to save you, but failing.”

She wipes her eyes, then says “So that means...?”

I finish her sentence “We saw two different scenes at the same time.”

I clap, and rub my hands together without even thinking. I get up to stop the movie, and then Jack gets up as well. He says “This is getting out of my league here. The only way I can ever see this be possible, is if this is either telekinetic, or magic. I really doubt that a DVD player on an old fat T.V. can have that much of an effect on people.”

Jack checks his ‘vortex manipulator’ as the guy in my head had said, and cringes. “Oh... yeah, it’s magic. I literally can’t get anything from it. I’d hate to say it, but there is no explanation for it.”

I finish getting the disk out of the DVD player, and replace it back into its case. I stand up on my toes, and walk over to the window to check outside. It was dark, but I could see the comings of a large cloud in the far distance of the black sky. What time was it- oh right, around eight... actually 8:21 P.M., thirty more seconds until the next minute. Huh.

I stood there, staring out the dark sky when I felt a slight breeze under my thighs. I ignored it, until Dana spoke up. “Jenny, stop swishing your tail. It’s making me nervous.”

I noticed with a short thought that I managed to get a feel of the tail that grew just at the base of my spine. It was swishing back and forth, the stubby little thing. I managed to force it to stop, and I turned around to say “It’s getting late... I think we should get to bed.”

Dana began to protest, but I said “It’s not like we can do anything about it, Dana. Just go to sleep. You too, Jack.”

Jack shakes his head. “No, I’m going to try and get what I wanted back outside. I never had the chance because of your... accident.”

I shrug, and say “Go for it, I don’t mind. Just don’t cry to me when your dying in an alleyway thanks to a homeless man with a shank.”

He grins, and says “Remember, I can’t die.”

I roll my eyes, and say “Yeah, and i’m an alien.”

Jack chuckles, but then pulls a weird face I can’t recognise. He nods, and heads out the door without another word. Dana stands up (on her toes, great) and heads for her room. I say “Goodnight” before she shuts the door.

I sigh, and forlornly glance back out the window. The stars in the night sky were visible tonight, surprisingly. I could name them all. Rigel, Sabik, oh there’s Secunda Giedi, Wezn, Tyl, Nodus Secundus...

Where the hell are these coming from? I never studied stars in my entire life, and yet here I am, pointing at stars and laughing like that star and I were old friends. I frown deeply, and shut the curtains to hide the beautiful sky.

I head to my room, and shut the door. The room was still a mess from a fit I had earlier that I don’t remember at all. The mirror in the corner shined from the light on the laptop, still on my bed, and still on.

I hop on the bed, mindful of the newly grown tail, and went to go and place the laptop on the floor when I noticed something different on the screen. It wasn’t that window of the three minute long video, instead it was a picture. It showed a planet, in a cartoony, pastel style. Labeled under the planet, in white text against the starry black background was this:

“BAD TIMBER WOLF”

…

Huh.

Ch. 4: Blue Boxes

Quick re-cap.

One, it looks like I can’t walk anymore normally. I’m forced to walk on my toes, because if I try to force my heels back down to where they are supposed to be, my muscles decide to tense up and shake, making me lose balance and fall over.

Two, My eye color changes, along with my hair. Not only that, but it looks like my hair actually shrank in size, along with it changing the hairline from the top of my head, all the way down the back of my neck. It also decided to become pretty spiky, without gel or mousse to keep it in place.

Three, there is a tail sticking out of my butt. At this point, I can safely assume that there is, indeed, something wrong with me.

And now, there seems to be a whole new problem.

It was morning, a really dreadful morning that. The entire sky was a dull grey, clouds covering every inch of the sky down to the horizon. I sat up in the grey light coming from the windows and wiped away the tired from my eyes. For a split second, I thought it was just an average morning, and nothing bad happened at all. Of course, the illusion was broken when I got out of bed, and felt the ever so slight breeze just under my thighs. Right.

But of course, there was something else...

I push that thought aside, and stand in front of the mirror that gave me the bad news last night. I checked my face, and flexed my fingers. It’s becoming a bit difficult to move only one finger at a time now, as when I try to move my index finger, the rest come down with it straight to my palm.

I sigh, and run my fingers down my new spiky, dark brown hair. It was really smooth, and felt as natural as water in the ocean. I step away from the mirror, and take a look at what to wear for today.

If I was ever to go outside again, I need to hide these new appendages as best as I can. I found that was actually wearing pants now, for whatever reason. I shrug, and just stuff my tail into them, and eventually find a spot for it to sit without it being too uncomfortable.

Now for a shirt. I search through the cardboard boxes for a decent t-shirt or something, only to come up with a white dress shirt (for men) and a grey suit jacket with tiny blue stripes heading vertically down the shirt. Then there was that green tie again.

I pinch my nose in frustration. It looks like i’ll be having to wear this today. I put on the shirt and even the jacket, buttoning it up to the top, leaving the last two open to leave a v-neck at the top. I take a look at myself in the mirror, and surprisingly, I look actually quite decent. Formal, but quite... oh god, I look handsome.

I look like a man in this. My shoulders are broad, my hips are more tucked in, what should be my chest was now really flat, and the hair just tops it off. Even my face looks relatively masculine. If you looked real close, you could say I was a woman, but at a glance it would look like I was a gentleman going to an important business conference.

I also noticed I had the tacky green tie on. I don’t even remember putting it on, and hell, I don’t know how to tie up a tie. It was tucked inside the jacket, and in my opinion, it looked out of place in the whole suit. Still, I looked fine, and if I had to be a man for a day, oh well. It isn’t harming me, or others.

I subconsciously fix my tie, and head for the door out into the living room. Dana was sitting there on the left couch, and Jack was nowhere to be seen. Her hair was in a different style as well. It looked messy, with the front end of it sticking out over her face in spikes, and her hair in the back was in a mullet shape, but much more longer and draped over her shoulder.

I break the silence.. “Morning, Dana.”

She looks at me, then at my suit. “Going somewhere fancy?”

I roll my eyes, and say “This is all I could find in that box of clothes you left for me in there. Why do you even have a mens suit?”

Dana still has her longer, more messy tail hanging out. It looks like she took a pair of scissors and cut a hole in the back of her pants to let her tail out comfortably. It swishes upward slightly, startling me while she says “I don’t own a suit. Maybe Jack put it in there?”

Of course. At this point, nothing Jack throws at me can surprise me anymore. The... my ears twitch at the muffled sound of the elevator out in the hallway in action, heading up to our floor. Dana scratches her head while watching telly, for the millionth time this week. How can she just relax and watch shows while we are having a rather major problem going on?

Someone begins to knock on the door, and a muffled voice calls out from behind it. “Jenny, Dana, I’m back. It’s Jack.”

As much as I wanted to leave him out there, standing around in the hallway, I walk over and release the deadbolt on the door, and open it for Jack to come in. He’s got a grin on his face, and in his hand is a small silver cylinder, with a blue bulb at one end.

He gestures for me to step aside, and I do. He walks into the living room and takes a quick look around. I, while he does this, shut the door and replace the deadbolt so no one walks in to see a half woman, half horse sitting on the couch.

It takes awhile for Jack to notice my unusual choice of clothing for the day. He looks me up, and down, then up again in an open mouth. During which, I could have sworn I saw a bit of red form on his cheeks.

I say something to break the awkwardness. “So, Jack, what were you so keen on collecting out there?”

Jack comes out of his possibly very lewd daydream, and says “Oh, right, I-I, uh...”

I facepalm. Hard. He’s really irritating, this man. At least I am nice enough to not embarrass him by asking exactly what his problem was. I let him stutter for a moment, and he finally gets out “Okay, I went out and ‘collected’, as you call it, your old sonic screwdriver. Personally, I still don’t understand why you want a screwdriver, over a sonic blaster.”

A quick thought comes to mind and I blurt it out without thinking. “Because it doesn’t wound, doesn’t maim, and doesn’t kill.”

Jack pauses for a moment, then continues “Yeah, well, that is a Doctor thing to do, I guess.”

I scratch the side of my head after he says that, and he changes the topic back to the device. “If you don’t remember, this is your handy dandy tool that you never leave behind. This model is really old, though. I have no clue how to work it.

He hands it over to me, and I hesitantly take it. I examine it closely, and take in all its details. There are a few buttons on the main grip, and the end where the blue bulb sticks out slightly can extend, showing off more of the strange little thing. It has a small screen to show statistics and scanning results, from the looks of it. On a more ordinary note, it looks like the thing has suffered a lot of chewing. I can see indents from molars in the grip.

“I actually found you with that, when you came back. I should probably explain...”

I press one of the buttons, and the blue bulb lights up, along with a pulsing sonic wave that makes my pony ears retreat. Dana doesn’t seem to mind the high-pitched ‘wOoOoOo’ sound, as her ears are still upright, and she doesn’t look any stressed from it. All of a sudden, the telly decides to turn its volume up, and switch a few channels.

On the screen, was the same sonic screwdriver Jack gave me, only less bitten. It was held by a rather good looking man with brown, spiky hair and sideburns. What kind of scared me was that he was wearing the same exact suit I was, along with a long, bright brown coat that reached his ankles and a different tie.

Jack yells out in shock. “Wha- What the hell?! That’s... Doctor?”

I turn my whole body to the screen. Dana leans to her right to get a look at the screen that my body is blocking. He sure does look really familiar, like I did see him somewhere before. He is with a similarly familiar girl, with dark skin and black hair. They were leaning on a railing in a beautiful concrete park, along with...

Jack?

Jack was taken aback by this. He looked at the screen, and looked closely at himself. He jokingly says “Who’s that handsome guy?” with a slight grin, but then forms a frown.

I pry my eyes away from the mysterious show, and look at Dana. “Uh, Dana, you watch shows all the time, what’s this called?”

She also looks quite shocked, looking at our Jack then at the Jack on the screen. “Uh, it’s Doctor Who.”

“And what’s Doctor Who?”

Dana takes a long breath, and begins. “It’s about an alien called The Doctor called a Time Lord, who is the last of his kind. He travels the stars, sometimes bringing a companion and making new friends along the way. He also fights aliens that are... uh, more... evil? Like Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Weeping Angels, and a couple of times something you don’t see really at all, like the Empty Child and even another Time Lord named The Master.”

Jack folds his arms, and rubs his temples. I sit down on the couch opposite. Dana says “Is it... oh my God, you aren’t saying...?”

Jack interrupts. “So, what you are saying... is that there is a show that follows The Doctor, pretty much everywhere?”

Dana slowly shrugs. “Not all the time... but the times where it matters. You know, when he saves the world over and over again? Or narrowly misses death? Or even when-”

I lift my hand to stop her. “Okay, we get it.”

Jack looks at me, then back at Dana. “So, there is a show... where we watch him save the world? Where is the real Doctor in all of this?”

He looks at me. “Well, you are right here, but...”

I look up at him. “I’m not that Doctor. I don’t think I could ever do something like that. I can’t be the Doctor.”

Jack leans in. “But you are, I mean, I know you are. I’ve seen you before this happened.”

I push him away by pushing his shoulder. “If you say so.”

Jack sighs, and says to Dana “Can you change the channel? It’s making me feel a bit sick, turn it to the news, or something.”

Dana lowers the volume slightly, and sets it to a random local news station. I lift up the ‘screwdriver’ and twist the base of it, setting it to multiple different settings that come to mind easily as to what they do. A lot of them are oddly very specific, like unlocking metal doors, breaking weapon mechanisms, repairing barbed wire, scanning organic material, scanning non-organic material, etcetera.

As I play around with the device in my hands, Dana leans back and takes a breath. “I think... we should try to prepare for what is to come.”

I pry my eyes away from the screwdriver, and say to Dana “What do you mean?”

She glances at Jack for a moment, then says “You may be some alien called the Doctor, who by the way shouldn’t even exist, but you still are turning into a pony.”

I nod slowly. She continues “With that, I think we should get more food that is... horse friendly, you know? I don’t think meat is a go to anymore.”

Jack takes a look out the window, and nods. “I’d hate to say, but yeah. Jenny, Doctor, you're definitely turning into a pony, but I can also see that the Doctor side is coming back, too. I don’t know... what that would mean. Why a cartoon horse?”

I just shrug at Jack, slightly uncaring. “Well, Dana is right... but what do horses eat? They’re herbivores, molars everywhere, so we need vegetables and maybe some fruits... wait, wait, some from both categories can be unbeneficial or even poisonous to any breed...”

I began to mumble under my breath, listing all available safe foods, and tossing ones that don’t work out.

“...ugh, hope nobody in here smokes, tobacco is poisonous... but then again it always is, but MORE so than to humans, or are they actually safer?-”

Dana interrupts me. “Jenny, you're thinking out loud over there.”

I stop my train of thought. “Oh... sorry. Got a bit carried away there.”

Jack says after a moments pause. “Well, give me a list and I’ll head out to get the food.”

I shake my head. “Oooh, no you don’t. I’m going with you.”

Dana bursts out “Me too.”

Jack and I frown at the same time. Jack says “You guys can’t come, you’ll be noticed. We can’t afford that.”

I say to him “You’re not going out alone again, you hear me? No secrets. Though Dana, I think you should stay.”

She bluntly says to me “No.”

I fold my arms in frustration. “Dana, two odd looking people walking around in broad daylight, well, ‘cloud light’, would certainly look suspicious. You really need to stay here.”

Jack adds in “You too, Jenny.”

I look at him in irritation. When I look at this guy, it makes me want to avoid and even punch him in the face and run off. He is a very... wrong person. “I’m not staying, staying in one place too long gets me a bit angry, and I don’t feel like getting any more angry than irritation.”

“Doesn’t mean that you’re coming with me.” Jack bluntly says to me face.

“Yeah? What are you going to do to keep me in here?”

So, apparently Jack had a couple pairs of alien handcuffs that magnetically attach themselves to walls rather violently. All I could think about as I was attached to the wall next to the couch was that my tie was loose.

Dana was in a similar situation across from me, angrily mumbling to herself about how Jack is a long list of vulgarity and descriptive words that actually made me shudder. He left about half an hour ago, setting the time to around... ugh, my head hurts right now because of all of my own hateful words that formed in my head directed towards Jack.

I break the long silence to sarcastically ask Dana, “So, Dana, what do you think of the current situation?”

That just re-lights the fire of hate for Jack again, and she kicks out in anger as I sit there watching her flail for a few moments. I frown, and try to think.

Okay, so i’m stuck handcuffed to a wall in a probably borrowed apartment, and not only that, the handcuffs are certainly not from Earth. Cool, i’m a prisoner to some guy from the distant future, and probably from a time where social taboo was literally non-existent.

Wait, wait, what about the sonic? I know there is a setting to unlock cuffs in it, but I can’t reach it. I can feel it in my back pocket... huh...

I get an incredibly stupid but good enough idea in my head. I shuffle my tail that stuffed down my pants to get free, and breath fresh air. Okay, step one complete. It’s short enough to move around with enough precision, so let’s see...

I manage to get the majority of my tail, surprisingly in my back pocket where the sonic screwdriver sits. I actually grab the thing by wrapping my tail around it, and shoving it out.

It fell onto the floor. Shit.

Okay, new plan. I manage to crouch while still attached to the wall, and I use my left foot to pry off the sock on my right foot. It falls off easily, and I get a good look at it while I try to grab the sonic screwdriver with my toes. The middle toe was actually a bit larger than normal, and I could see the beginnings of... oh lord, light brown fur.

The lack of dexterity in my foot made it hard for me to get an awkward grip with my toes on the sonic screwdriver. Dana was watching me attempt my escape as I balance it on the top of my foot.

Okay, now for the real stupid part.

One...

Two...

Three!

I kick my foot up towards my face suddenly, and the momentum from my foot transfers to the screwdriver, sending it to my face.

I act quickly, and immediately bite down on the grip of the screwdriver in mid-air. Success! Surprisingly. Now for the last part of my impossible plan.

I twist my neck towards the lock on the handcuffs attached to the wall. I use my tongue to switch the setting on the device to pick mechanical locks. I then move the screwdriver towards the lock, and press down on the activation button with my teeth.

*click*

“Haha!”

The cuffs fall away from my wrists, and the screwdriver falls out of my mouth. I catch it before it falls to the ground, and I move over to unlock Dana’s cuffs. They fall away similarly, and Dana rubs her chafing wrists. She says “Wow, nice job ‘Doctor’”

I roll my eyes, and put back on my sock. That deformity will have to be seen to later. For now, we have to get out of here. Don’t know why, just have to.

She gets up, and I go and put on a pair of sneakers that look old, red body with white rubber undersides and shoe laces. She puts on her own shoes, and I say “Okay, we have to get going. I have to- hold on a second...”

I notice a flat lump on the inside of my jacket. I reach in past my collar, and pull out a blue, leather wallet. It has no pockets, only a single paper on one side. I jumped when words began to form on it, in my hand writing.

“Head to campus, box. Hurry. -Doctor”

Okay, that’s bloody creepy. Oooh, i’m using different words now. Didn’t even notice.

I flip it closed again, placing the wallet-thing in the inside pocket along with my screwdriver. Well, guess this is a change in plans.

I turn to Dana as I open the door for her to exit first. “We need to head to a college, or university, what ever it is somewhere in town. Don’t ask why, we just have to get there.”

Dana gave me a worried glance, but went out into the hallway. We took the elevator down to the first floor, and headed out onto the street. Dana brought a hoodie with her, and lifted the hood up to hide her ridiculously radiant sandy-blonde hair.

We’re trying our best to walk normally, but every time we try we end up going back to the weird ‘standing on our toes’ way to walk. We gave up after a few minutes, and we just avoided most eye contact with people as we looked at street maps, and headed down wrong roads.

It seemed like ages until we got to campus. The sun was, to my astonishment, actually about to set now. How long have we been walking? Ugh, no time, we’re probably already late for whatever this piece of paper told me was supposed to be here.

We head up to one of the doors, and guess what? Electronically locked. We don’t have a student ID to unlock it, so I just pull out my screwdriver and hit the lock with a precise series of sonic waves that pushed the lock out of position, allowing us to enter without tripping any security alarm. I really doubted a school would have alarms, though.

Well, we’re here. Anything else to say, paper?

I pull it out to check again, and behold, more words!

“Basement, near the boiler. Wait there. -Doctor”

Dana notices me looking at the paper, and asks a most interesting question.

“Why are you looking at a recipe for blueberry muffins, Doctor?”

I squint at her in disbelief, and shake my head. “What? Recipe?”

I look back, and see that the words that told me to go to a boiler room disappeared, and instead it said, “Bonbon’s secret recipe, vol. 7: BlueBerry Muffin”

I create the most confused face as I read out the words, and just fold up the paper and put it back in the pocket with my screwdriver. “Uh, nothing.” and we keep moving. We pass by a couple of janitors and security guards on our way to find the basement, and we did our very best to avoid them. It surprised me that they didn’t notice the really loud ‘clop’ sounds we made every time we took a step.

After a few minutes of walking aimlessly, we found the door heading into the basement, with a big red sign that said ‘EMPL_YE_S ONL_’, some of the letters scratched out from wear and tear. I sonic the door open, and we both walk down a staircase of steel lined grates. It was getting a lot warmer as we descended, and soon we hit the concrete floor.

Next to us was a cheap and very old boiler, with a steel door to open and close to shovel in coal. It was burning away at the days last shovel of coal burned to cinders and ash. Nothing was down here except heat and sweat.

Dana taps my shoulder. “Uh... why are we here, again?”

I take out the paper one more time, and check if anything is new.

“Geronimo!”

...

‘VWOOOOORP’

‘VWOOOOORP’

Oh my GOD.

I slowly put away the paper and look to see a blue box start to materialize out of nowhere. The noise it’s making filling me with a creepy sense of nostalgia and excitement. I was overwhelmed at the deep blue that was filling my eyes, and the words ‘POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX’ become legible as it finally reached our plane of existence.

A deep, loud ‘boom’ hits my ears as the box finally finished emitting the loud ‘vwooorp’ sound, and both Dana and I stand in amazement in front of the police box. Soon enough, a man in a tweed jacket with overalls comes out, straightening his bow-tie.

“Hello, me.” He says, after he takes a good look at both me and Dana.

Dana literally falls over in shock, and I catch her before she hits the hard floor. I look back up at the man, and say “Who’re you?”

He grins, twisting his torso around slightly. “I’m the Doctor. Who’re you?”

“Jenny.”

“Incorrect, you’re the Doctor too.”

I set down Dana, and stand back up to face The Doctor. He looks at my suit, and smiles widely. “Oooh, ho, ho, that brings back memories. Sad memories, but sometimes good memories. Mostly.”

His hair is exceptionally large and puffy, perfectly styled to what I assume was his chosen hairstyle. He lifts both his hands and flexes and flicks his fingers around while he talks. “Right, I came to this dimension on complete accident. It was a hole in the Time Vortex, and even my TARDIS’s idea to come here. So, first off, what is wrong with your hair?”

I touch my spiky hair with my left hand, and look at him funny. “It’s some weird transformation.”

He nods, then looks down at my feet. “Oh, my...”

I frown, and look down to see that my feet aren't there anymore. Instead, I have a large amount of light brown fur and, heh, hooves.

God damn hooves.

I didn’t even notice. I was so determined to get to my destination, I had no clue that my feet decided to lose its toes and replace it with keratin and one big, weight supporting digit while we were walking around.

I check the rest of my leg, and it looks like over the course of the day, the fur made its way up to my thigh. I stifle a frustrated scream, and place my hands over my face. I literally give up.

That apparently other Doctor walks closer to me, then says “Whatever version of me you are, I must ask, how did you get here...?”

He pulls out a device in a similar shape to my sonic screwdriver, except in a claw-like design. He presses a button to turn it on, and instead of a bright blue, it emits a green beam of light. He waves it over my body, and then he flicks it once to extend it out to show off small monitors. He reads it, and then looks back at me with a confused face.

“You look like you're having a strange DNA replacement procedure that is constantly changing you from the bottom, up. What’s odd is that it is modified horse DNA strands... coming out of nowhere.”

I frown at my own misfortune. It makes me feel worse, now that I know almost exactally what is happening to me, and to Dana.

He turns the device in his hands, and looks at another one. “Wait a minute... huh, your brain isn’t a Time Lord brain, and yet you have two hearts... and... wow! Your DNA is actually replacing human DNA with horse AND Time Lord DNA! That’s... really...”

He looks up at my face, which by the way, wasn’t smiling. He frowns, then finishes his sentence. “...Odd.”

After he finishes, a loud crash resonates from upstairs. An alarm is set off, blasting its loud noise into my sensitive pony ears. The Doctor looks up, then hurriedly says “Okay, judging from your face, you have no clue what is going on. I know how to fix that, but I need to get you to YOUR TARDIS, so we can use the technology from your dimension to help figure out your problem. Mine won’t do any good, and I am afraid if I let you in, it will create a rip in space, causing a paradox. I’ll keep in touch on the psychic paper, younger, more equine me! I’ll also bring your friend with me, as you may not have the ability to carry her back to wherever you stay.”

I don’t have much time to protest, and he picks up Dana to bring her inside of the police box. I calls back to me before he closes it “Don’t worry, i’ll find it and contact you shortly! What is it that the old me said? Nevermind, just get going!”

And with that, I just bail out of the boiler room as his TARDIS vanishes. Back upstairs, I can hear the familiar voices of... I can’t really remember. I run surprisingly well in my hooves down the corridors and past empty classrooms.

Near where I assume was the exit, I see a girl running down the hallway with dark blue and pink hair. She caught me off guard when I saw that she also had very equine shaped feet, and running down the hall surprisingly slow. I could hear another girl yelling really loudly behind her, and I acted quickly. I hid in a classroom as she ran past my room towards a door very close to mine. She stood there in a panic, and then another, mint colored hair girl ran up next to her.

Wait a moment, I know those two! Those were the two back at the cafe a couple days ago! Wait, why is the guy a girl? His/her face was familiar, but he looked a lot more... feminine. They ran into the room before I could get a better look.

I have a sudden pang of fear. Did the girl with the blue and pink hair see me? I don’t know what is going on, but those two seemed to be in a similar situation as I was. They had hooves, like me. Their hair was a lot more colourful than mine, but they certainly looked not human. The mint one had a lyre in his/her hands too. Lyre... where did I see that before?

I had to get out of this place. Security guards are slowly starting to notice the blaring alarms and started scanning the hallways and the bushes. I looked out a window to see the two half pony, half human people jump into a car, and it violently finding its way to the street.

I’m probably going to see that on the news.

Time for me to get out then. I lift up one of the windows, and crawl out of the building. Wishing I had a car, I ran off into the night, heading back for the apartment. Thankfully, I don’t think anyone on the streets saw me in the dark, but I still keep wondering if the blue and pink one saw me. If she did, things could get a lot more complicated. I keep that dangerous thought in my head as I finally find myself back in my apartment building.

With Jack waiting for me.

“I can never hope to find you where I last saw you, can I?”

I force a quick grin before I feel a very, very, very uncomfortable pain in my crotch.

I keel over, and groan in pain as the pain continues, and Jack kneeling over me spilling out words like “What’s wrong?” and “Are you okay? Talk to me!”

I suddenly feel extremely violated. It feels like... oh God, I can’t explain it, but it is sort of like ‘placing something backwards into a place where it shouldn’t really be right now’ feeling. I felt... well, full.

I suddenly am very aware of the fact that there is something forming in between my legs.

SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT

I push Jack out of the way, and head straight for the bathroom. I slam the door, and lock it tightly. Afterwards, I pull down my pants all the way, and look down to find...

Find...

Fi...

…

“...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

And my tie was still loose.

Ch. 5: Perception

…

Ugh...

This can’t be right...

I’m on my side, in a surprisingly warm and fluffy bed. I have several thoughts flowing through my head in a messy frenzy, and I try to organize them so I could think clearly.

...When was the last time I had a nice poppy flower sandwich? Those are always tasty, but oh! Ham? No, that’s not the proper diet, I would vomit. In fact, I don’t think it would go down far enough to actually hit stomach acid. Maybe just grass, or daffodils? Could work, grass doesn’t taste all that great anyway.

I guess I’m hungry. Though I seem to have rather odd cravings, I don’t think I will act on them unless I was in a survival situation. Then again... horses do eat that stuff, right? No, I’m not a horse, just very similar. A pony, to be exact.

Wait... ugh, my head is pounding. I need to get walking.

I push myself up from the inviting comforts of the clean sheets and take a look around. I was in a very different place, from the looks of it. It looks like a decently sized dome, with ports in the walls for light sources. There isn’t much in here besides my bed, a wardrobe, and a large mirror next to it.

I slide out of bed, and balance on my legs. For a second, I wobbled there uncontrollably, and finally I fall over onto all fours...

…

Wait...

I tap the hard ground with my hand to experime-

*clop*

…

Huh...

*clop, clop*

I finally decide to look down on myself. What I saw really didn’t surprise me at all, but still gave me quite the shock.

I had hooves instead of hands. My entire body was now covered in light brown fur, and the hourglass on my butt was complete perfection. My tail stuck out at the end, though short, it still looked fine. I finally processed the fact that I seemed to shrink down a couple of sizes...

And that my head felt really big. I need a mirror, right now.

I try to get back up on my legs, but even trying to walk on them proved to be a challenge for me. I kept falling over, knocking into my bed and almost into the mirror.

I looked into the mirror.

…

That isn’t my face. That isn’t even human. What I saw instead of my usual face was a huge, light brown head, with very large blue eyes. It had darker brown hair that was blown back and spiked as it traveled all the way down its neck. It had a muzzle, too. Though it looked rather... square. Where the nostrils are, the ends take a new path abruptly, making a seemingly sharp end to the muzzle.

I was looking right at the face of Doctor Whooves. Me.

I’m a full on pony.

I raise my right forehoof to touch my new face. I could feel the hard surface of the hoof on it, proving to me that this was indeed real. I poke my hair, hover my hoof over my eyes, and touch the mirror in front of me, the reversed copy of Doctor Whooves mimicking my actions.

To top off the picture, and adding to the surrealism, the green tie with the white neck collar was attached to my neck. It was the same one I wore when I was... humanoid.

I sit on my haunches, taking in the detail in the mirror. Hah, I had withers! And a flank! Hah, this is new! Hooves, tie... let’s see, legs, check, though not really human legs, but check. Hourglass... huh, fitting. Blue eyes are odd, but oh well!

For some really weird reason, I was laughing. I was laughing at myself for how interesting I looked. After all those other regenerations, the tenth was the most intriguing...

I flinched, expecting a surge of pain from my head, but none came. Instead, more ideas and thoughts fly on by, never ending, never ceasing for just one moment.

I could feel my heartbeat as I smiled widely at myself in the mirror.

Heartbeats.

*bum bum bum BUM, bum bum bum BUM*

The two hearts in my chest were beating away in sync. Never have I noticed until now how different I am. Dana would never feel this, she’s turning into something else entirely. We only... look the same...

Oh no, I forgot completely about Dana! Ditzy? Dana! No, Ditzy! Which one!?

I grow aware of my surroundings, and take another look around. This does not look like any conventional bedroom. The walls are made of a metal, only found on Gallopfrey...

Huh. That’s a funny name.

Before I go into another adventure into my mind, I get moving on all fours this time. It gets easy, over time. All I have to do is when I move one leg, I move the exact opposite after. For example, when I move my left hind leg, I then move my right foreleg. Then the opposite. Easy.

At least for me.

I trot up to a big, grey, metal door. It slides open immediately to allow me to pass into a hallway that is close to pure white, with similar portholes that have lights inside to illuminate the hallway clearly. Support beams with small circles in them hold up the ceiling from both sides of the hallway, heading up in a slight slant.

I continue down the hall, looking left and right as I went. I saw doorways that led to closets, old control rooms, screwdriver storage, bathrooms, a library with a pool in it (I checked that one out for a bit) and finally a big door leading into a large chamber, with wires and circuits exposed under a platform in the center.

On the dead center of the platform was an extremely familiar console that wraps itself in a circle around a glass cylinder that heads all the way up to the top of the dome shaped room. The console has buttons, levers, switches, keyboards, and a few things I can’t even name without going into vague descriptions, like “colorful circle thing” or “a car dashboard.”

The room emits a soft humming sound of electronics returning to life as I enter. It looked like the room has been neglected for years. Dust covers every surface, and I could see a couple cobwebs in a few of the lights.

I smile for a start, then say to no one in particular: “I’m back, Sexy.”

I guess I said that to the console, as it begins to ‘wirr’ in response and the whole room returns to full power, blowing a huge blast of air everywhere, blowing away the dust and webs into vents to who knows where.

My tie flies up to my face in the air blast, and I blow it away after the room decides to stop. A quiet *clack* emits from the ground below me, and I notice that my sonic screwdriver fell out of a pocket in the back of my tie. I go to pick it up with a hoof, then realize it is physically impossible. I smack myself for being an idiot, and lean over to pick it up with my new herbivore teeth. At least I know where the bite marks come from now.

I keep holding it in my mouth, and walk up to the console. A red, flashing light comes from a small button near my face, and I push it in with a hoof.

A monitor clicks on, revealing a bunch of fancy circles overlapping each other. Surprisingly, I could read it. It turns out the circles actually mean something, and it says:

“Holographic Recording, last recorded: Twenty five years and four days.”

I raise an eyebrow, though one didn’t exactly exist. I place the screwdriver back inside the pocket in my tie, and stand up on my hind legs, using the console in front of me to keep balance. I click “PLAY” on the monitor, and a hologram emits from seemingly nowhere right next to me.

It’s me, or rather Doctor Whooves. He’s standing there on all fours, wearing the exact same tie I was wearing. I jump a bit when he starts talking:

“Hello, I’m the Doctor! Weeell, you should know that by now, at least. I’m making this recording to tell whomever may see it because I need one for... security reasons.”

I could hear a bit of shuffling from the speakers all over the room, telling me that the recording isn’t alone. The past me (I’d assume) doesn’t seem to notice, and continues.

“I really should explain, as you're probably wondering why you are in a very different place from before. You see, this security procedure is to teleport me back to the TARDIS if I do not return in under a day. It’s a bit flawed, though, as I designed it to teleport any equine shaped entity in the universe that has similar DNA to myself. I don’t know how to program it so it can match my DNA exactly without having to kill me right now.”

I could see something slowly descending from the top limit of the hologram, which is being held by grey hooves. The quiet flaps of wings emit from the speakers as the past me speaks.

“If you are not me, the scanner that will... eh, scan you in about a few seconds will send you back to wherever you were before, and wipe your recent memory of the entire ordeal. Very sorry about that.”

Soon enough, a small arm extends from the console, and a cone shaped blue light emits from the end of it, the light flowing over my body. It does this for a few moments, then retreats back into the console.

The holographic object that was descending slowly turns out to be a very oddly shaped muffin, and before it touches the holographic me’s head, he looks up and grins. “Ditzy, that doesn’t work on me, you know.”

A high pitched giggling sound hits my ears, filling me with a growing sense of nostalgia. The muffin quickly retreats, followed by a few flaps of wings, then a face appears where the muffin used to be.

It’s Ditzy, or Derpy, or... okay, fine, I’ll call her Ditzy. Her eyes are very close to flow away from each other, and she frowns at me. “Doctor, what are you doing?”

The hologram me responds “I’m installing the Bad Timber Wolf program, a security measure if I.. never return to the TARDIS. Now shh, I need to finish it.”

She scrunches up her face, then says “Ooookaaaay~” and flies off into nothingness.

The hologram me looks back towards me. “Now, if you are still here, that means that the scan has found me. Welcome back, Doctor! The controls are now unlocked, ready for use. If for some reason you can’t remember anything, just open up the fob watch. Should all flow back to you.”

The hologram ends, and I frown at the space the hologram was. What fob watch? I pat my tie, finding nothing but the screwdriver. I don’t have a fob watch...

The hologram abruptly returns, and I jump out of my skin, letting out a high pitched ‘yelp’

It speaks “Oh, one more thing, you have to find the Elements, they are the only way you can return to your Equestria. I’d bet right now they are trying to group together. Only they can stop Discord, Doctor, so hurry up! I’ve already set the coordinates of the TARDIS to find their unique magical aura, thanks to the Elements of Harmony. I hope you don’t have too much trouble, good luck!”

The hologram ends for the second time, and I stand there in shock. The mane six? Here? That’s... wonderful! Possibly very, very bad, but wonderful at the same time! They are actually real! Who knew?!

I laugh at myself, turning away from the space the hologram was, and trot around the console.

I stop laughing. I go wide eyed when I realize:

“Where.. am I?”

I look over at a set of white double doors, and trot over to it. The door has a latch in the middle to lock it, and I push it out of the way with a hoof. I bite down on the knob, and pull it inward.

I immediately close the door when I saw what was outside. I expected the air to rush out of the entire room, but nothing happened. So, I open the door again, more cautiously.

After I was assured the air would remain where it was, I look out into space.

Goddamn space.

All I could see in front of me was pure black, with far away stars twinkling in the blackness. I could see a far off galaxy spinning away, and a bit closer a whole different planet that I never had ever heard of before.

I stood there with my mouth agape, and just then I remember what happened before I woke up in this place.

My fantasy was broken, and my eyes turn into pinpricks when I remember just exactly what happened. I got back to the apartment, Jack was there... then...

I fall flat on my back, and look down at myself. I was even more shocked when I saw nothing but a thin line where... it... was.

Then I realize, thanks to my very limited knowledge of horses, that it was actually not gone, but INSIDE ME.

In case you didn’t know, and I hope that you didn’t, horse... yeah, can go back inside when... not in use, okay this is getting awkward. Consider the topic closed.

I raise both my forehooves to my face, and take in a long, anxiety filled breath. The realization that I just became a pony ever so much aware to me, but also that I was a stallion. The most interesting stallion in the whole universe, at that, but still a stallion.

That also means that Dana is Ditzy, now.

Right, that too. She is with that human Doctor right now, I think. I can only imagine how much she is geeking out right now. The thought makes me chuckle in the almost dead silence of the chamber, with the doors still wide open to outer space.

Dana has to be Ditzy by now, so does that mean that she has wings? Lucky! I get nothing besides increased stamina, and she gets to fly! Of course, she might have to relearn how to fly all over again, but it still counts to flying.

Flying would be the most useful thing in really bad situations, too.

I get back up, and close the doors. Even if the air doesn’t get sucked out of the room and my lungs, I don’t want to risk it. I walk over to the console, and look at all the complicated controls.

Oh no, how do I even fly this thing?

I audibly express my distress by yelling out “Graaaaaah!” and slamming a hoof down on the console. It replies by mentally giving me a slap, and I am once again surprised, for out of nowhere it feels like information is being streamed straight into my head. I listen to the inaudible directions, and pull back on a really large lever.

The coordinates were already set, so I had no need to type them in. The whole room begins to shake violently as a loud ‘VWOOOORP’ emits from the glass cylinder in the center of the console, with pistons moving up and down inside it. My work isn’t done yet, because I have to navigate something called the Time Vortex without falling out of it. If I do, I end up in a random location. That is bad.

So, I regain balance and begin to turn knobs, push buttons, turn wheels, and hammer in small spots with a wooden hammer attached to the top of the console. I could hear lightning outside of the machine, and a few times it hits spot on, causing sparks to fly everywhere.

More of the fancy circles pop up in the monitor, telling me that I was close to my destination. I prepare for the landing by slowing the vehicle down, so we don’t hit the ground at mach 100000 continued, or so. Once we hit the spot, I push the big lever that started all this back up, and the pistons start to slow down gradually. The vworp sound begins to fade away, leaving behind a high pitched, surreal screeching sound that did too fade away, leaving me in silence.

…

Wow, that was fun.

I suddenly feel exhausted, and pant heavily while I fall back onto my haunches. Fun... but physically exhausting. I guess I really should be an earth pony for this job...

I get up after a moment, and trot over to the door. I pull it open with my teeth, and I meet an empty street. It’s night, but thanks to me feeling a bit jet lagged, I don’t think it was the exact same time I got separated from everyone. It looks like whatever I used to get here landed in a very dark alley, so I step out of the doors, and into the concrete path.

I turn around to see a short, and cartoony looking TARDIS.

It looked a lot like the human Doctor’s but a bit shorter, and more... lighter. Instead of it saying “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX” It said in the exact same font “PONY PUBLIC CALL BOX”.

Well, if you thought I thought it was stupid, you’d be wrong. I actually really liked the look of... my TARDIS. All mine. Heh.

I guess the sound of it materializing didn’t wake up anyone, because the streets and windows were empty and black. I close the TARDIS doors, and notice a gold glimmer appear in front of me.

I just then realize that the key Jack gave me was in the lock. I move my face in to get a better look, and it was faintly glowing golden inside it. I lock the doors by biting down on the key, and turning my head sideways once, then back again to pull it out. Once I do it, the key stops glowing, and returns to its silver, ordinary shine.

I place the key in my tie pocket with the screwdriver, and turn to face the street. Most of the street lights were still on, so I follow a sidewalk down the road.

More information begins to stream into my head again, telling me about something called a ‘perception filter’. A perception filter makes an invisible field around it in 3D, allowing whatever it is inside the field to be unnoticeable. You are not invisible, but no one will pay any mind of you, when inside it.

And apparently my key was a perception filter.

As long as I have it with me, no one will notice me unless they are looking for me really hard, or already know I am there. Interesting, could be useful.

I could hear the faint sounds of hoof on concrete up ahead, and my ears perk up at the sound. Is it Ditzy? I cast away any sense of staying quiet (though it wouldn’t matter) and rush down the street.

I come up behind an apartment complex, of which all the lights are currently out besides the hallway window. I make my way around the building up to the front, and immediately stop in my tracks.

There in front of me, was the most unlikely characters I would ever think I would meet. I saw Rainbow Dash and Big MacIntosh.

I quietly back up to hide behind the corner, the perception filter doing its work to make sure I can’t be noticed. They are quietly whispering to each other, and eventually Rainbow, to my surprise, actually lifts herself off the ground using her wings, and flies up to an open window.

I could hardly contain my excitement to finally see these two in the flesh. I lift up a hoof to my muzzle to stop me from making a very un-stallion like squeal that would probably catch their attention. Rainbow Dash seemed to be having trouble flying up to the window, however, and it looked like she stumbled through it clumsily. I didn’t hear them talk to each other, as I was entrapped by how impossible it is for something so big to fly. I think Big Mac said something about Dash being... something.

A few moments of speculating how something so big with smaller wings achieve flight effortlessly, I begin to hear the slurred laughter of two men walking my way. I remain perfectly still, hoping to whatever galactic being that watches over me that the perception filter wasn’t a devious lie. Two men walk by me, without even noticing my presence, and head right inside the door where Big Mac was recently standing. He must have hid somewhere. One of the men stops near me, though, and yep, decided to vomit right next to me. Soon after, he wipes away what’s left of the nights drinks and follows his friend inside.

I let out a quiet breath. Looks like these things work like a charm, even if it leads to awkward situations. I lean back out of my dark corner, and notice the big red come out of the bushes near the door. I could hear the muffled voices of the two men, and the shuttering of the elevator going down, then back up after a moments pause.

Events seem to fly by so fast, as I continue to sit there, waiting for something to happen. The door opens, finally, and Dash has returned to the door to let in Big Mac.

They’re heading inside, I have to follow them in, and figure out where the other... important characters are.

Oh, that was rude.

Shut up, me.

Thanks to my internal monologue, the security door closed before I could catch it. I roll my eyes, and pull out my handy dandy sonic screwdriver. I set the frequency to unlock electric locks, and press down the button with my tongue to turn on the sonic.

The familiar high pitched buzzing sound echoes in my ears, and the electric lock opens. I quickly catch the door before it falls back again, and pull it open haphazardly with my forehooves. Soon enough, I stumble inside right into the hallway. They must have took the elevator, because I could hear it once again head for one of the floors above me.

Well, I have two ideas on how to get up there.

One, I take the elevator. They would most definately hear me, and I would probably get caught in a bad position once I hit their level.

Two, I don’t take the elevator. Instead...

I trot over to the doors, and switch the frequency on the screwdriver that is still in my mouth. I point it at the edges of the door, and press down on the button once again with my tongue. I trace the entire outline of the elevator doors, and it opens up to the dusty, metal shaft.

Can I climb metal pistons with hooves? Let’s find out!

In hindsight, this was probably a really bad idea. Then again, an old motto I gave myself in a past life echoes in my head out of complete nowhere.

I’m just a mad pony with a box.

I wrap my hooves around one of the pistons that moves the elevator up and down, and start to shimmy my way up the piston.

What seemed like half an hour or so, I started to regret doing this.

I could have looked for stairs, I could have just used the damn elevator, screw if they hear it, they would probably just assume it was another all nighter coming back from a drinking party. I could have just sonic’d the pistons so they wouldn’t emit sound, if I was so worried about that. I could of--

*bonk*

“Ow! What in the-”

I hit my head against the roof of the lift. Well, I’m here, time to see if I can’t...

I look down. Really shouldn’t have done that. I mumble to myself: “Oh, that’s a very... very long fall.” and then I look back up to the bottom of the lift, looking for emergency hatches, or something that would get me inside.

No dice. These lifts are designed to have hatches on the top, not the bottom. I’d have to climb up the side of the box to get to the top. With no fingers. It’s like trying to bowl using only your pinkie.

Well, more like hooves. And your mouth.

I put together an even more stupid idea, and look over to find a metal cylinder traveling across the pit I’m hanging over. Welp, either that or wait for someone to come along and crush me with the lift.

I prepare myself to jump off the cylinder. I let go of the pipe with one hoof, and lean off of it towards the pipe. I could feel the not-so-dexterous hooves under me start to slip down the pipe, so I had to act quickly. I jump off the piston by kicking off of it with my hind legs, and I bite down on the pipe hanging off the side.

“Aaaahehehe! Ich werk’d!” I said with a mouth full of lead pipe. I was hanging off the wall in a hollow metal rectangle, with a box hanging just a bit off behind me. I could taste the old metal in my mouth, and if it weren’t for the fact that I was hanging for my life, I would have probably gagged and fell to my doom.

It was a service ladder, apparently. It was old, though, and missing many different rungs. There was more above me, so I repeated step two over and over again by hopping up the rungs and biting down on the dusty rungs. Soon enough, I was above the lift, and I jumped off of it onto the roof.

I gagged out all the dust and grime I tasted and inhaled. “Gaaah, *cough* that... wasn’t nice. Never doing that again- *gag*”

All that work was for something, however. There is indeed a hatch on top of the lift, so I bring out my screwdriver, and remove the padlock on the latch. I pull it open with my teeth, and jump down into a box full of mirrors.

Huh, this is familiar. This looks exactly like my apartments lift. There were mirrors all around me, reflecting a light brown earth pony with a sonic screwdriver in his mouth.

I notice my tie, even through all that, was pretty spotless. I guess even dust can’t notice me, at least my tie. Just to satiate my curiosity, I press down on the sonic on switch, and look at myself in the mirror with it glowing blue. To be honest, I actually thought I was looking pretty cool. Dangerously close to adorable, but cool.

I open the doors with my screwdriver, and walk into the hallway. It was pretty obvious which door they went through, thanks to the fact that the door was pretty beaten up. I could see a really impressive dent in the door, though when I took a closer look, the lock was messed up so much it hardly looked like it used to be a lock.

The door was placed back into its frame, though, but it probably would cause some kind of suspicion I was here, so I decide to just put my ear up to the door instead.

I could hear the two talking in there, in panicked tones of voice. Big Mac said something about a farm, and Dash said something about someone named Jack...

Evan yells out that this Jack isn’t answering his or her phone anymore, then a moment later I hear the sound of heavy hooves running...

Right at the door.

Too late, I didn’t dive out of the way quick enough, and I was thrown back by a rogue door being tackled by a very, very strong red stallion. Splinters fly everywhere, and a few cut into me. I was under what was left of the door when I saw the two running frantically, Dash trying to calm Big Mac down, then...

Seriously?! THERE WAS A STAIRWELL?! I did all that for NO REASON?! Where was my mind when I decided to climb the walls of the elevator shaft? There was a door leading to stairs RIGHT THERE...

In any case, they ran into the stairwell (bucking...) and I could hear the sound of people growing aware of the loud noises in all the rooms around me. As much as this really hurt, I had to get going. Perception filter or no, it would probably would be really bad to be under all this rubble. Like I said, I am only unnoticeable, not invisible. They could see me if they were looking in the area I was in.

So, I push the what-use-to-be-door off of me, and I chase after the two down the stairs. They said something about a farm, so I could definitely find such a place nearby with the TARDIS. That is, if I can actually figure out how...

I was outside by the time I finished that thought. Lights were turning on in the windows, and I could hear the two drunk men yelling out something I couldn’t comprehend. I lost the two ponies, so my only choice was to head back to the TARDIS.

I run towards where I remember I left it, and while I ran, I dug through my pocket tie for the key with my muzzle. I’m probably going to have a fun time getting used to this.

I bite into the familiar metal of the key, and it begins to glow golden like before. Great, key! Make me even more noticeable! I need that right now!

*FLASH*

There was a tall boy near me that I definitely did not see there before. Guess what? He took a picture of me. He looks at me with bewildered eyes, then says “Holy shit... Doctor Whooves?”

I didn’t have time to be a nice pony, so I bucked him in the stomach. He grunts, and flies backward quite far. After a moment to be impressed with myself, I ran up to the doors of the TARDIS, and slam the key into the lock, open it up with my hoof (somehow) and slam the doors closed once I got inside.

I yell at at the console in the middle of the room. “Okay! Time to get going, we need to get out of here RIGHT. NOW.”

I make my way to the console, and randomly set a whole new coordinate position. I do not know where in the universe this will take me, but it is much better than here. I pull back the heavy lever, and off I go.

The TARDIS spun clockwise in the time storm as it flew at remarkable speeds through the Time Vortex. This did not last long, as a rogue lightning bolt hits the light bulb on top of the mighty ship, and sends it off course before Doctor Whooves could set it back on the right track.

A rip in the universe appears before the TARDIS. This anomaly is extremely rare in the Vortex, and if the TARDIS doesn’t go through, she and her Doctor would end up in a random point in time and space that very well could kill them both. So, she takes control and flies herself into the rip, hoping to save her thief and remain intact.

Of course, these rips can be very dangerous. They lead to alternate universes, which have ever so slight differences in time than other universes. Even the slightest change in the past can change the future drastically. Who knows where we could end up in this alternate Time Vortex?

So the TARDIS decides to go to the most familiar place in the whole universe that she knows would be safe for her, and her thief.

She’s not losing him again.

I woke up with a start, sparks and emergency lights flashing in my sensitive eyes. At first, I thought I was back home, with my friends Dana and Jack, then I remember how much I didn’t really like Jack, then I remember that whole pony fiasco.

Right.

I’m a guy now, too.

That’s a start.

I get back up onto my haunches, and look around. The place looked positively wrecked, a few pylons were detached from the ceiling, and most of the lights were out. Wires hung (even more) loose all around me, and systems were failing. Also, poisonous gas was filling the room, forgot that detail.

Should probably exit the premises until the automatic repair systems take care of this mess. I get up, and cough at the first whiff of the gas. I stuff my muzzle into my fur, and make my way blindly to the door. I shove it open, and step out into sunlight.

Wait, wasn’t it night just a few moments ago? Did I switch time zones?

Ooh, did I travel through time? Or maybe back, considering all the trees and lack of smog.

“No, wait, the smell of the air is different, too different.” I saw out loud, and I sniff the air harshly, taking in the scents around me.

Definitely no humans here for a very long time, maybe even never. I could see a few... oddly shaped animals living in a tree close by. They looked a bit... cartoony...

“Where in the universe am I?”

“The Everfree, Doctor!”

I jump out of my skin, and turn around quickly to see a very familiar face that almost made me scream a bit.

Ditzy.

Ch. 6: Two Worlds

Meanwhile, at the correct universal reality, Jack was very, very troubled. He let Jenny into the bathroom to deal with her... very awkward problem. Soon after, all he heard was silence.

He checked on her, to see if she was alright. She wasn’t, though, as she was completely gone from the room. There are no windows, or holes in the wall that could have led to her leaving in another way besides the bathroom door, so Jack pulls out his vortex manipulator and checks the area’s temporal status.

There was energy left from an alien transmat system. An extremely old transmat system. Jack then attempts to trace the energy from the teleport, but finds that it no longer exists. THat’s impossible! There is no way the exit of the transport just doesn’t exist anymore! It’s like it just popped right out of the universe...

Jack facepalms. God dammit, here we go again. It looks like Jenny, who he really should start getting used to calling Doctor, just went into a whole different universe. Great, this is going to be fun getting her back. Or him, because of the... thing. Yeah, thing.

Dana was missing too, oh boy, things couldn’t get any more worse. Not only does he have to bring back a Doctor who is turning into a small, brown pony, but as well as Dana, who as well is turning into some weird as hell grey pony. I think she may be getting a bit loose in the head, too. Just makes it even more dangerous for her to be alone.

Jack runs his fingers through his hair. He screwed up, he should have never, ever let those two out of his sight. Now how is he going to fix it?

Jack suddenly gets very elated, as he hears the very familiar sound that he has come to love. The blue box starts to materialize in front of him, as the words “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX” appear before him, above the doors that go inward, instead of outward.

He didn’t expect another man to open the door, though. He expected a man in a long, brown trench coat with a dark grey suit and tie. Instead, he got a man wearing a brown, leather padded jacket with overalls and a bow-tie.

He speaks in a different voice, as well. “Captain Jack! So good to see you, after about two hundred years, or so! Please come in, may need your help with a particularly confusing problem.”

Jack hesitates. He looks the man up and down, confused. The man makes a quick confused face, then it lights up. “Oh, of course! New face, long story. Come in, I really need your help.”

Jack frowns. The only way the Doctor turns into a whole different person is when he was about to die. Where was he when that happened? Right, Alonso. Yeah... should have figured.

He steps inside the familiar box, and is greeted by a very startling little grey pony with wings, and a slight problem with her eyes.

***

…

Huh?

Who’re you?

What’re you doing in my head? Shouldn’t you...

Nevermind, I guess you’re welcome here, because I really can’t focus on you right now.

In any case, I’m Dana. Or, used to be Dana. Now I’m a winged pony with an eye problem. Derpy, or Ditzy. It is my real name, Ditzy. Derpy is a bit offensive, because it’s referring to my eye problem. So... yeeeaaah...

I’m no good with this. I’ll try my best, though! Back to the action.

Before Jack got here, I was still human. Well, human enough. Before, I fell unconscious thanks to me fangirling over the Doctor being real. It was dramatically traumatizing, and I don’t know how long I was out. He calls himself ‘The Eleventh’, but would that be breaking the fourth wall? Is there a fourth wall to break right now? I guess he saw the show, which may have been a bit weird, considering it’s his whole life packed into a whole bunch of show seasons, old and new.

You’d expect I would be the most insanely happy person in the whole universe to actually be inside of a real and working TARDIS, but I was actually insanely terrified.

I woke up on a soft, but kinda scary table. Something was cramping my back, and as I tried to sit up I found out what exactly it was. In fact, it wasn’t just that either. I was hooked up to a computer with these really awkward suction cups attached to wires, and, oh yeah, I was now a pony.

I could see my hind legs sticking out below me, and my hands no longer has any dexterity, nor fingers. It’s a pair of hooves now... and then the cramps on my back. I successfully turn my neck 180 degrees and figure out what’s causing me trouble.

Oh... I should have really guessed.

On my back was a pair of feathered wings. The feathers, though, were all ruffled and out of place, sticking out in jagged angles in random locations. I frowned at the lack of gratefulness to these wings, and take a look around the room. It is domed shaped, with port holes in every piece of the surface that have bright lights inside, illuminating the room well. The room was mostly empty, aside from the operation table and a hash-pash of computers next to me.

I try to pull off the suction cup thingies with my hooves, but it proved to be the most difficult thing to do, so instead I bit down on the cords, and pulled them off with my teeth and neck. Once they were all off, I hop off the table and faceplant onto the ground. My entire center of gravity must have shifted, and I was overcome with the most odd sensation in my eyes. I could see one area, while in my other eye it was looking at another.

Another thing I should have really guessed. My eyes are lazy. I can’t tell which one, but I can feel them drifting off without my command, and it feels not nauseating, but more calming. It actually dulled the pain in my head when it slammed onto the metal floor.

I sit up on my haunches, and go to rub the bruise on my head when I realised too late that I don’t have soft hands, and instead I have hard hooves. I hit the bruise, hard, and there goes my eyes again. I groan in pain from my clumsiness, and sigh once the episode was over. I take one final look around the room, making sure I was alone, and look back at my new wings.

If they weren’t so ruffled up, they would be the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I would be even more amazed if I could actually fly with these things, but they certainly won’t be able to in this condition...

I decide to take the time to do an embarrassing session of preening. I twist my neck around to face my left wing, and I use my teeth to straighten out the feathers evenly, along a row from top to bottom. It’s actually kinda therapeutic, for some reason to do this. I almost forgot why I was doing it in the first place, and when I remembered, I went onto my right wing.

“Oh! That was unexpected, hello there!”

My eyes go wide when I hear a voice that isn’t my own in the room, and I jump from my position on the floor into the air, rather high for it to be realistic. I fall back to the floor, and in my panic, I flap my wings to try and stop myself from hitting the floor for the second time.

My next mistake here was flapping my wings. Once I did one flap, I flew skyward, straight towards the ceiling, and I smash right into it, breaking a bulb in the process. I lose control of my aerodynamics, and fly straight on downward, towards the man that entered the room.

He yells out “Whoa!” and jumps out of the way in time for me to miss him by a fraction of a grey, pegasus feather and I flap my wings one more time to keep me from crashing into the ground. Instead, I end up heading back upwards again, but this time I had a makeshift plan. I turn my body so the bottom of me was heading upward instead, and I use my hind legs to bounce off the wall, heading back towards the ground. Of course, in my moment of success, I didn’t make up a second plan to stop my fall from being painful.

I crash into the ground for the second time today, and my eyes spaz out all over the place, successfully making me dizzy. There was a light dust cloud in the room now, and I could hear a computer faintly exploding into sparks in the background.

After finding out that I didn’t fracture anything (must be all that milk I drank) I sit up slowly. I cough up a bit of dust, finding out my voice had changed drastically from last I heard it. I test it by saying out loud, “Aaaaaah” and for some reason I giggled a bit.

I remember the man that dived out of the way at my possibly would-be-very-painful-if-I-hit-him dive bomb, and I get up on my two legs to look for him. I fail miserably, and give up after a few steps and return back to all fours. I stumble and shake a bit while I walk towards where I last saw him, but eventually it gets easier the closer I get.

The dust finally cleared, and in it’s place I find a handsome fellow with a brown (tweed?) jacket with leather elbow patches, overalls, boots, and a dark blue bowtie.

I go wide eyed when I realise who it is. He sits up without the use of his hands, and looks at me with a big smile. “Hello, there! I’m the Doctor!”

My jaw drops at the scene. It’s like I’m watching a movie, except it’s real. He stands up, brushing back is puffy, kinda like Elvis hair, and fixes his bowtie which was slightly askew. Once he’s done, he checks a golden plated watch on his wrist, and bends down to look at me. “And who might you be?”

I stutter out “U-uh, uhm, Ditzy-Dana!”

He stands up straight. “Well, Ditzy-Dana, it’s great you’re finally awake, I have had the most troubling time finding something to do while you slept, it’s funny, the way people react to me when I walk around on the street, it’s like I’m a celebrity. I don’t like celebrities, they are way too flashy, except some of them, but then again they could be too and I wouldn’t know.”

I giggle at his random ranting. This is the Doctor, all right. At least the Eleventh.

He flicks a finger at nothing. “Right, here’s what to do, I find out what in the universe is going on with you, Ditzy-Dana, then I’ll-”

I interrupt him. “Uh, it’s actually Ditzy.”

I don’t bother to try and fix what I said, as it’s better than being called ‘Ditzy-Dana’. He pauses for a moment to look at me, then says “Alright... Ditzy. I’ll call you that from now on then. Once I figure out what is wrong with you, I will get you back to your other Doctor, who is strangely a lot like a woman, eurgh, I really hope it isn’t a future me, that would be awkward for me and a whole bunch of people, woops sorry, was I a bit rude?”

I shake my head. When you’re like this, it’s hard to hate you. He smiles at me, then says “Okay, thank you very much, now, Jack! Get over here, please!”

I tilt my head towards the hallway, and take a look at the man walking down it towards us. He’s wearing his usual black trench coat and such, walking down it slightly smug-like, with a friendly smile on his face. Of course, when Jack sees me, he walks into the room slowly, and looks between the Doctor and me. “Uh... what’s that?”

I roll my eyes in irritation, and was about to say something before the Doctor interrupts me. “It’s a pony, Captain Jack. A peaceful life form, much like the humans, from another world. Used to be human, too, just look at her strange body shape, though! It’s equine in effort, but so... cartoony.”

I squint at him. “I’m right here, you know.”

Jack jumps at me speaking. He obviously hasn’t seen a cartoon pony talk to someone before. He pulls back his stature, and looks at me. “You can... talk?”

I look at him with a ‘you don’t say’ face, and say to him “Yeah, Jack, I can talk. It’s me, Dana.”

Jack’s jaw drops, and he stands up straight to wipe away the stress on his face. “Wh-what? What the hell happened, Doctor?”

He lifts a finger slightly, and says “Well, it seems as though her DNA structure is being replaced, her human strands though don’t just disappear... well, actually, they do just disappear. It’s like it wasn’t even there in the first place.”

I look at him spewing facts about my problem with a worried face. What’s he getting on about?

Jack throws up his arms. “What do you mean, ‘wasn’t there in the first place’? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Jack asking the question that was on my mind, the Doctor speaks. “Well, what I ‘mean’, Jack, is that her human DNA didn’t exist at all, it never was. It was just ‘magically’ there, alright? I don’t know, and I don’t like not knowing!”

The Doctor shoves his fingers into his hair, and paces around in a circle while Jack creates a confused look on his face. I suddenly become aware of a fact that was looming in the back of my mind, and I blurt out at Jack: “Where’s my Doctor? Jenny?”

Jack suddenly slackens, and looks at me. “He-she, er... Jenny’s gone. I don’t know how, but for some reason, when she was in the bathroom thanks to her suddenly switching from XX to XY, she disappeared. It was a transmat system, but I don’t recognise it.”

The Doctor of the human-looking Time Lords turns to face Jack. “Show me, take me to the bathroom she teleported out of.”

After a transmat teleport to the main chamber, Jack heads towards the doors first, along with the Doctor and I trailing behind him. We head out into my new apartments living room (huh, that’s a funny place to park a police box) and Jack turns for the bathroom, with the Doctor following.I stay back to look at the TARDIS in all her physical glory.

I expected it to be bigger on the inside, yes, but actually seeing it being bigger on the inside is way better than on BBC America. I could look at all the details in real life, and I reach out to touch it when I realised I can’t feel the surface of the TARDIS, thanks to the fact that my hooves don’t have nerve endings. Better than nothing, though.

I hear the scarily surreal sound of the most recent form of the sonic screwdriver make the sound of its trade in the bathroom with the Doctor and Jack inside it. I take a moment to process the fact that Captain Jack Harkness and The Doctor himself are in my bathroom, right now, scanning for teleport energy. I could die happy now.

The sound stops, and they both enter the living room with the Doctor saying “...It’s the same system I installed to my own TARDIS, but I don’t have any records of it being used as of late. The only possible explanation is if there is either a second TARDIS that I should own somewhere out there, right now, or it’s this pony Doctor’s TARDIS. Really, if I think about it, I guess those two reasons would be the same, but never mind that. I have to trace the teleport back to it’s source, back inside!”

The Doctor heads back into the main chamber of the TARDIS, while Jack and I follow suit behind him. Once inside, we see him clacking, pulling, pushing, and ringing all the controls that I can perceive to be controls on the console. He then pulls a monitor suspended by an iron arm towards himself, and he looks at something I cannot see from here.

“Interesting... the coordinates of the transmat system are outside of the whole universe... but how?”

I speak up. “Erm, Doctor, where’s my friend? Right now?”

He looks at me past the monitor, cringing at me. “Uh, he may be in a whole different universe and timeline right now...”

I go wide eyed. “WHAT?!”

He nods as if he knew this would be my reaction, and says “Don’t worry, there are ways to get back, it’s just that he has to do it... himself... or dear, this isn’t good.”

I say to him with concern in my weird, squeaky voice “What do you mean, what’s wrong?”

He looks at me with sympathetic eyes, and says “The only way he can figure out how to get back, is if he is me, one-hundred percent. Last I checked, he, or rather she, still had a human brain. It looked familiar, but I haven't seen a glint of a fob watch...”

Jack sniffs, and reaches into his pocket. “You mean this thing?”

He holds out that silver fob watch he used to suck out all that golden light from Jenny what felt like years ago. It shimmers slightly in the light, and the Doctor’s face suddenly lights up.

“Yes! Exactly that, how did you get that?” he says as he bounds off the platform, right up to Jack.

“I, er, got it off of a guy in an alley. Had some crazy white hair with black stripes on the side, but that’s all I saw. He opened it up once, and then Jenny started to lose her mind.”

The Doctor swipes it from Jack’s hand, and holds his thumb over the latch release. Jack realises what he is about to do, and starts to protest, “Doctor! Her brain will start to fry again!”

He just smiles at him. “Now, Jack, he’s pretty much me now, I think he can handle a thousand years of life experience. Or maybe nine-hundred, considering that she acts a lot like a past me, but... ah well, geronimo!”

He presses down on the release, and the golden light that was already seeping out of it takes no time to smell the roses, as it bursts out of the thing so hard and brightly, the Doctor drops it clear out of his hands, and it actually floats in mid-air, shooting out all the golden light all over the room.

The Doctor’s face drops. “It needs to get outside! Open the doors, then the windows! The living room, go!”

Jack and I head straight for the doors, the lights trailing behind us. I was faster, and I shove the doors clear for the light to spill into my living room. Jack does a 180 spin around the TARDIS once he’s outside, and heads for the windows, opening them quickly. The light blows up a lot of wind, and heads straight out the window into the open air, moving faster than sound up and out of the atmosphere in seconds.

I stare as the last of the light fades from sight, and I close my eyes.

“Be safe, Turner.”

Ooh, I think I got a bit of a chill there.

Where was I? Oh yes, the fact that I’m in an entirely different universe.

And I just met an alternate universe Ditzy Doo.

After we both saw each other in the forest, I tried to explain to her that I didn’t belong here. She just laughed, saying that “Of course you don’t, silly! You’re a Time Lord, remember? You told me that thousands of times!”

Hearing her talk was like getting hit by a long lost wave of nostalgia from when you were five years old, playing the very first handheld console called a Gameboy. I walked on, with her trailing behind me, talking on and on about how she was looking for me after I ran away from Applebloom (hehe, okay, this is getting too much for me.) after we took a traveler from Earth to here to stop s pony named Dark Light (huh, that’s interesting. Never heard an episode like that before.)

I keep telling her this, until I get to the present time. It turns out I wasn’t walking deeper into the forest, but rather farther out from it. Guess where I ended up? I hit the back of a pastel painted building made of wood and hay, part of a small community called Ponyville.

Once I take my first step into the town, I was beyond ecstatic. It was beyond happiness. It was pure... terror. Oh my God, I am actually in Ponyville, in Equestria, oh boy, what if I don’t act properly? What happens to extraterrestrials? Especially from a whole different universe? HOLY HAYSTACKS I’M IN EQUESTRIA!

I laugh out loud, louder and harder than I had ever in my entire life. This wasn’t funny laughing, though, it’s more like nervous laughter. I would probably go insane right now if it weren’t for the fact that my brain could handle all this thanks to the very, very empty feeling I have up there.

Ditzy looks at me like I just lost my mind, which is probably what just happened. She poked my head lightly with her hoof, and says “Equestria to Time Turner, do you read?”

I stop my laughter, wiping tears away from my face with the bottom of my withers. I look at her, then I lose my composure and laugh again. An actual pony! Not transformed humans, an actual pony in the actual Equestria! Oh, Celestia, I don’t think I can handle this anymore.

After half an hour of rolling on the ground, laughing my flank off, I finally get up to see Ditzy starting at me oddly. “You’re right, you really don’t belong here.” she says, after giggling at me.

I get rid of the funny in my guy by chuckling at her kind of hurtful joke, and stand back up on all fours. Okay... back to business then.

“Exactly, I need.. hehe... to get back to my universe. This isn’t the correc-”

“Ditzy! There you are! Who’s that?”

My eyes go wide as I hear my own voice echo out behind me. I slowly turn around to see the exact mirror image of me standing right in front of me. He looks at me briefly with a smile on his muzzle, then he goes just as wide eyed as me, and his jaw drops. I awkwardly smile at him while he looks me up and down, and Ditzy looks in between me and him.

She says after a moment “Uh... what’s going on?”

We both in unison look at Ditzy, then back at each other. He breaks the silence first. “Why is there a second me ther- are you a changeling?!”

He gets ready into an attacking stance, and Ditzy hops away from me. I panic slightly, and quickly say “No, no! I’m not a changeling, I’m just another you from another universe!”

He squints at me, then says “Okay... then I’ll ask a question. Only I can know it, alright, you ready?”

I frown deeply. This isn’t going to be good.

He grins at my uncertainty, and asks his question.

“How many ties do I have in the TARDIS storage?”

Ditzy looks at him. “Uh, Doctor, everyone knows how many ties you have.”

He looks at her with a confused look. “Really? Since when was that sent out to the general public?”

“When you wore every single tie you own for Nightmare Night.”

He frowns. “Oh... well... okay, how about another question?”

I look left and right, gulping slightly. I didn’t know how many ties were in storage, how the hell am going to answer something that’s more hard? I cringe with my mouth closed, and await his question.

“Okay.. okay, uh, oh! how about-”

He didn’t get to finish his question, as out of nowhere, the TARDIS, my TARDIS, starts to materialize right next to us. The both of us look at it with the most confused look on our faces, as it finally becomes solid. The doors open automatically, revealing complete blackness from the inside.

I dare my luck, and step closer to the black void in the door. Out of pure random, or maybe fact, a bright, golden light blasts from the doorway, straight into my face, creating a low ‘booming’ sound all around us. The light zoomed all around of us, poking at the second me, then heading straight for me. It zooms around me, poking at me, then finally decides to flow harshly straight into my irises.

…

It’s hard to explain what’s happening here. All I can say, it feels like I am getting older. Much, much older. Older than what a person should be able to live up to. My eyes start to feel heavy, and I wobbled on my four knees for a moment as the light seeped right into my brain without me giving permission. It filled my head with images of tall buildings, red grasses, blue boxes, larger than life ponies, so many faces, and past versions of what are supposed to be me.

I’m a very old stallion. Not just any stallion though. I’m the last of the Time Lord ponies.

Anger, frustration, intelligence, and strange habits flow into my brain quickly, filling me with sudden emotions, that I acted upon them rather quickly to remove them from my system.

There is a lot of anger, here. Anger towards a whole bunch of alien names, ones more vibrant in the red color of hate. The one that was covered in red so much, it looked like it was soaked in blood.

Dalek.

I scream loudly, stomping my right forehoof into the hardened dirt road. This is way too much hatred to be physically possible to contain. It has to be masked by something else. That’s when the happier emotions kicked in, giving me good talking habits, intentions, and thinking processes.

The light soon stops swirling around me, all of it being sent straight into my brain, and finally the light and dirt in the air stops swirling.

…

I turn around, smiling at the two astonished ponies. I look at the second me, then at Ditzy.

“Hello. I think that is enough proof, don’t you agree, me?”

The second pony me looks at me with an astonished face. No words were uttered, until Ditzy broke the silence with her bubbly, high pitched voice. “So, you’re really...”

I grin at her, my brain finally clear after twenty five years. “Yes. Hello!”

Ch. 7: Conflicted

Woo!

It’s good to be me again.

Back to the current events. Doctor number 2 (or one? It’s his dimension, after all.) gets up after the glowing dust starts to fade out of existence. Dimensional number 2 Ditzy gets up soon after, both of them looking at me with newfound interest. I could feel the excess energy sizzling off of my fur, and to be honest, I thought I looked pretty cool at the moment.

The moment passes rather quickly, however, because all three of us were interrupted by a nice alarm from my TARDIS.

My eyes turn to pinpricks, and I push myself inside the darkened chamber to discover the problem. Wires were exposed (more than usual) and sparks were flying, but there was something else.

I run towards the monitor, and the words of Gallopfrey explain to me a very interesting warning, one I haven’t seen in quite some time. The memory crystals were damaged, and were leaking information.

Doctor 2 and Ditzy 2 (this is going to be annoying) had followed me into the chamber, Ditzy taking a longer than anticipated look around the room before joining me along with Doctor 2 up at the monitor. I say towards the second me “Sorry, but I’m having a very hard time getting back in the kick of things, what does that mean?”

Doctor 2 looks at me with a funny face, and says “It means the memory crystals are leaking, that’s not good.”

I grind my herbivorous teeth. Okay, not good, not good, not GOOD. It’s leaking, but that would mean-

“<:: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! ::>”

An extremely familiar and terrifying sound hits my sensitive ears with high volume, and they fall back to muffle the sound so that my ears don’t start bleeding. Out of the corner of my eye, which is a rather large corner, I could see something shaped like an overly sized thumbtack appearing out of golden dust emanating from a small, faded green crystal.

Both Doctor 2 and I turn towards the scene with newfound terror and hidden anger. The universe is harsh, isn’t it?

What’s forming out of the broken memory crystal isn’t just any memory, information, or character, no no, this is something much worse. I could see the half moon spheres forming at its base, the golden light slowly creating the creature from the bottom up. Its voice seems to be already formed, possibly from a memory leak. It slowly reaches the middle of the body, forming two tools that are very similar to that of a plunger and an egg beater, in that order, from one side to another.

I watch helpless as the glowing light then reaches the head of the machine. Its a shade of darker bronze, but it sure isn’t made out of it. Something a bit different than that. It’s head begins to form, creating a neck that looks like that of an accordion’s strange little neck piece that sucks in and blows out air, but more circular and solid. It reaches the top of the head, forming a long eyestalk with a shining blue light at the end, and two pilot lights on either side of its head.

This isn’t just any alien. It’s a Dalek.

Those damn things never stay dead.

Luckily enough (and to my pleasure, don’t judge) it seems to be malfunctioning heavily. I guess it can’t process the fact that it just all of a sudden exists. Its movements are jagged, its constantly making a loud and high-pitched screaming, and it looks like its weapons are broken and useless.

I walk up to it first. It begins to back away from me slowly, but I keep being persistent. I soon get it up against a wall, and I say to its Dalekanium plated face, “I’m back, thick face.”

Really should have put more thought into that fact, but I guess it was good enough. This Dalek that should have existed in my universe begins to full on panic, which surprises me severely. They don’t panic, they shouldn’t be able to. It’s not an emotion that have, at all. Something is wrong with this one.

It spins in place for a few cycles, then surprises me yet again. It runs. It managed to break any law of how fast I can comprehend a Dalek moving, and heads straight for the door. I regain my composure, and I start to run after it.

Before I reach the door, however, Doctor 2 stops me by putting a hoof in front of me.

“Let me and Ditzy handle this, and once you’re done, you have some explaining to do... me.”

I look at him with slightly angered eyes, but then I nod slowly. I do have something to do while I wait, and I don’t have time to go chase ghosts from my past. I let the two run out the door, and I could hear them yelling out to each other from here.

“Get out of the way! Move!”

“Doctor, it’s heading for the forest!”

“Oh no you don’t!”

Sheesh. Talk about nostalgia. Some really... out of place nostalgia. I sit down on the floor of the dark chamber with only the lights of memory crystals and sunlight coming from out the doors to illuminate the room. I take this time to reflect on what the hell just happened.

I got a very old brain, it seems. Very old, in fact, too old. My accent just switched from American to that of a common Londoner, over in the UK, and my speech habits changed. Oh yeah, I’m a pony too. With two hearts.

Where did my life go so wrong? My head hurts with conflicting memories, ones of my own childhood and then the other childhood. The problem is, I don’t know which one IS the other childhood. I see one where I’m growing up as a small male child, in a huge and bustling golden city encased in glass, with red planes of grass and trees, snow topped mountains... and I wasn’t human, either. I was a pony. A young colt Time Lord on a planet that doesn’t even exist anymore.

Then theres the human childhood. Female, human, and very much alone. I was alone so much of the time in it, growing up with few friends, and the only thing I conversed with was myself in the mirror when I got bored. I was still smart, I got straight A’s, and even graduated high school early, by about two years (heh).

Both times, though, I was growing up with one friend. One was the Gallopfrey childhood, calling himself The Master. The other, a small boy named Edgar. Each one was my friend, until the day of Gallopfrey was lost in the Time War, and the day Edgar moved away.

All of which, was on the exact same date. Only years separated them.

Then was the travelling. Gallopfrey me stole a TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) Mark 1 and set sail across the universe, switching faces and saving worlds. Each time with a companion to go along with it.

Human me did travel, but not the universe. I travelled the world, saw so many beautiful sights, and met some very strange but interesting people. Each time, though, there was a home to go back to.

Then I met her.

Gallopfrey me was in Ponyville when he met a young pegasus mare named Ditzy. The townspeople called her Derpy, for her eyes and lack of coordination. She was clumsy, but had a heart of gold, always wanting to help with anything. For some reason, I felt obliged and even had a sense of need to have her along with me. She was perfect for what I needed her for. Someone to stop me from going too far. In fact... something else was there, though. There was this feeling I never felt before, in the pit of my stomach. Butterflies? It was saying there, when you ‘had butterflies in your stomach’. Though when I heard the definition of the saying, I didn’t exactly understand it.

Then there was human me, meeting Dana for the first time. We met at a pony convention, believe it or not. Heh, I remember her dressing up as Derpy for the time there, and I just lost it. I laughed, even though it wasn’t even funny. She took slight offense to it, and soon after I stopped giggling my butt off, I wanted to apologize to her for it. We made up, and soon we became great friends.

Then there’s those butterflies again. What’s wrong with me, this is not normal, it never happened to me before...

I fall flat on my back, my hind legs finding the position uncomfortable, so I lift them up slightly to get them at the right angle, else I may just dislocate something. The repair systems are online, and the lights came back on soon after, breaking my train of thought.

I adjust my tie, while lying on the floor with my hooves. At least there’s something new in the memories that’s helpful, and that’s how to become more dexterous with hooves.

All this infinite knowledge, collected by thousands of years of experience, and yet not a single piece of it tells me how to deal with... feelings. I can’t even figure out what this feeling is, I’ve never felt it in my entire life.

I get up off of the floor, and close the doors to the TARDIS. I can’t stay here, I might cause some stupid rift to open up, and the one that got me here will close soon. I have to get going. Back to my own universe.

Back to... ugh...

Just then, a huge, and very loud ‘WHUUUM’ muffled by the doors emits from outside, and I bust open the doors to see the entire area around me is now in complete shadow. I look up into the sky, and see a big chunk of land floating in mid air, encased in a giant pink bubble.

Yep.

I’m leaving.

Screw this universe.

I close the doors slowly, and rush over to the console. I know what to do now, at least. I push the lever into place, activating the engine in the center to start pumping Huon particles. I set course for the rift with masterful precision, and begin to dematerialize from the position I’m at, entering the Time Vortex.

I keep an eye on the monitor, showing me the exterior of the TARDIS. The vortex is currently grey, which means I am not moving at all through time, but through space. I fly the great ship towards the rift, and prepare for the transfer of matter from one universe to another. By yelling out “Allons-y!” at the top of my lungs, and diving straight into it.

Oooh... I missed that word. Gotta get back to saying that more often.

The rift closed immediately once I exit it, closing the gap between realities. I’m back in my own Time Vortex, and currently, it’s red out there. Going forward in time then, okay. I start to set course for the last place I can remember, and that’s right for the apartment complex where I first lost myself.

Almost there. It’s a pretty good chance that Ditzy is there right now, maybe with the humanoid Doctor and even Jack. What should I say when I get back? ‘I’m back’ won’t do, I already used it on that Dalek (I’m sure the alternate me can handle it) so, what else? Oh well, I guess I can wing it. I always do, and it usually works out in the end. My plan is to make up a plan as I go.

Starting to materialize now, I’m almost back. Ooh, boy, there’s those butterflies again. Go away, stupid insects! How did you even get in there? Weeell, I’m pretty sure butterflies can’t survive in my stomach without being digested, but this feeling won’t go away!

*boom*

Here we ar-

The doors burst open, and in comes a Ditzy at the speed of sound. I barely let out a “Hi” before I get tackled to the ground by her, her hooves at either side of me, caging me to the ground.

“Where in the universe have you been!?”

“Uh- well, I wasn’t even in the univer-”

She slaps me in the cheek with one of her hooves, causing an extreme stinging sensation with a strange little red mark on my cheek. Come to think of it, there was another on the opposite cheek. Did she slap me with both? I don’t remember that-

“Don’t you leave me behind ever again, Doctor!”

The butterflies are raging in my stomach now. It feels like they’re flying around madly down there, constantly bumping into the walls of my stomach, and sending a lot of confusing signals to my brain. The red marks on my cheeks are blazing red now, which is confusing, considering that there is fur over the-

She kissed me.

On the muzzle. Not the cheek, or anything, straight to the muzzle. The butterflies are now wielding chainsaws and carving pretty pictures into my stomach now, each one with the body build of a construction builder or farm worker.

It was painfully wonderful.

The Eleventh is leaning in the door portal, looking at us with a very confusing face, like he’s trying to decide whether to smile or to vomit. Then there was Jack, who was completely wide eyed with his mouth hanging open.

She stops after a moment, with those same patches of red on either of her cheeks. We both look into each others large eyes for an embarrassingly long time, and soon enough Ditzy goes wide eyed, and reels back from me. She mutters an “Oh God.” and runs out of the TARDIS.

I lay there for a bit.

Wow.

Just...

Wow.

Okay.

Uh, Okay.

I finally get up from my sea of feelings. That was... new. What? I need a moment...

I simply walk off to the ends of my TARDIS, leaving the two human looking people contemplate about the turn of events. I head down the tunnels, and straight towards the bedroom I woke up in.

I walk up to the mirror, and look at my reflection. I look at my very messy tie, with its pastel green color and white shirt collar. I look at my hair, slightly messed up, yet still in the good old fashioned style of blasted back spiky hair. Then I look at my face, with its squarish muzzle, large blue eyes, and pointed ears sticking out of the top.

This was me now. There’s no going back from it. Not only am I the oldest and only remaining Time Lord in the universe,

I just got kissed by my best friend.

And I liked it.

In fact, I loved it.

What is wrong with me?

It was a while after that event. I was laying in my bed, with my eyes open the whole time. I was staring at the ceiling for the whole time I was there, with my limbs outstretched across the bed.

I still can’t get over that. It’s too strange, too... important. I’m pretty sure it was burned into my memory now. In a good way. Weeell, in a good/awkward way. It’s still too strange to think about, I mean, I was a girl just about, what, six or seven hours ago? Woo, it feels like years. Must be all the jet lag. Anyway, yeah, I was a girl six hours ago, and I am pretty sure at the time I liked GUYS not GIRLS.

At least I hope I did. Never really felt this before. Wow, I must have been such a bore when I was a kid for the last twenty five years...

I could have sworn I liked Edgar, though. No matter how much I tried to think of him that way, it never really got past ‘friends’. We always joked around, and had fun, but never flirted, nor even got on a topic which we could have flirted. Eurgh, now that I think about it, I don’t think I want to be ‘more than a friend’ to him. I just wasn’t attracted to him. He was always troubled too...

It looks like I am in love. There’s no other answer to it, there is no other explanation for this. I’m in love with my best friend. How cliche. Of course, it had to be the most favorite ship of Ditzy, too. Ditzy and Doctor Whooves, going on adventures and dates at the same time, saving worlds and each other.

Never leaving each other behind. Now I feel terrible for leaving her with the most strangest people in the universe. Urgh...

The metal doors slide open to reveal The Eleventh behind them. I rearrange my limbs so that they are underneath me, sitting in the traditional pony way. Hm. He comes to sit in a chair next to my bed, and checks his watch that’s on backwards quickly before he says “How’re we feeling? Hehe, that’s a pun there, see?”

I roll my eyes at him. “I think I am much more different than you.”

He creates a sort of half smile, half sad face and says “I suppose you’re right. I just came to know how you are doing after you got back from wherever you came from. Where did you go?”

I really didn’t want to talk about that. It feels insignificant to what happened just after, but I answer his question anyway. “I ended up in an alternate universe, in Equestria.”

“Excuse me?”

“Equestria, you know, where the ponies like Ditzy live?”

“I... am afraid I never heard of such a planet. That’s odd, maybe it’s because it doesn’t exist he-”

“It does exist!” I say to him quickly, and harshly. He reels back slightly from my sudden verbal attack, but regains composure. “If it does, then, I have never seen it. Then again, you are The Doctor, so how can I question that?”

I roll my eyes in frustration. It’s hard to keep up with anything anymore, it’s like nothing makes sense. The whole pony thing is starting to make a whole bunch more sense, but it’s all still foggy. The last thing I remember before my time as a human for twenty five years, Discord used a spell on me meant for Ditzy that... did that. How did of all places I end up here, who knows, but the spell left me with a muddled brain. I can barely collect my thoughts.

Which sure isn’t helping considering my best friend just went from friends to supposed love interest. The memories in my head point in that direction with Ditzy, all those trips to beautiful places in the cosmos, that one time we went to an entire planet that is used for just one big holiday resort, all those things. All those things...

I realise that I was laying on my back again, with the Eleventh here blathering away about alternate universes, and how much he hates waiting, for whatever re- oh right, he asked me a question.

He repeats it to me. “What’s it like, just becoming The Doctor? How are you dealing with it?”

This guy has no idea how to deal with romantic emotions, doesn’t he? Neither do I, can’t blame him.

“It’s like I just got a lot older over a short period of time. Were you the one that sent all that energy through the Vortex?”

He drops his hands into one of his coat pockets, and pulls out a familiar silver fob watch. It’s the same one Jack used to contain all that light, and save me brain from burning up from Time Lord knowledge. He tosses it up into the air, and catches it once it falls towards his hand. “Yes, I was.”

I must have had some kind of face that showed off what I felt, because he frowns at me, and says “Okay, look. I can... somewhat understand what you’re going through right now. I’ve had it happen to me a few times, too. Maybe not in the same way as you, but similar. This feeling you have for her is from the memories from your old past, and it is as such for her. It’s real, yes, but I can tell you’re having trouble dealing with the fact that it is your best friend-”

“And that I was a girl.”

“Oh, yes, that too. Oof, that’s a bad nightmare for me. Don’t think I could handle it myself if I ever regenerated into a woman, would have been very awkward. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about... girls... but I can say that you should probably go to her, right now, and try to fix it, hm?”

I hop out of the bed and hit the ground on all fours, next to The Eleventh. I nod at him before I make my way back through the hallways and into the main chamber. Jack is nowhere to be seen, and I continue through the doors and into the living room. I quickly glance back at the TARDIS, which still makes me feel positively giddy about the fact its mine, and that its actually real after all.

I could hear her crying in her bedroom. I trot over to the door, and hesitate for a moment before I enter. On the bed, Ditzy is crying into a pillow, her hooves placed over it while her hind legs are tucked under her stomach.

Again, I hesitate. I feel really awkward, for some reason, and it becomes severely hard to put together something to say. It looks like she hasn’t noticed me yet, so I end up clearing my throat, and heavily regretting it afterward for no reason other than paranoia. She stops sobbing into the pillow, and looks up at me with slightly reddened eyes.

I stutter out “I- erm, how are you doing?”

She lets out a small whimper, and sniffs. I stand there awkwardly, and continue.

“I’m... very sorry for leaving you alone with strangers. It, uh, probably wasn’t really strangers though, considering it was The Doctor, or at least the humanoid Doctor, but... yes. I’m sorry.”

She looks down at the floor, and says “I’m sorry too. I ruined our friendship with... that. I should have thought about what I was doing before I acted on it.”

She’s crying because of the kiss...

“Ditzy, it’s alright. To be honest, I, er... kinda... liked it?”

She looks up at me. “What?”

I cringe in embarrassment, and look off to the side with my head still facing her. “I... liked it. Sorry, it’s just that we’re going through a whole lot and... er...”

She hops off her bed, and trots over to me. I look back at her and pull a bad poker face as she looks as if she is processing what I said. Oh no, I really hope I didn’t-

Ah, screw it. “Hug for forgiveness?”

I lift myself off my hooves and onto my hind legs, and prepare my forehooves for a hug. She rolls her eyes, and smiles at me. Instead of her for getting up in the same position for a hug, she puts up a hoof to my chin, and forces me back down somehow back onto all fours. Then I had another surprise, and that would be Ditzy giving me a second kiss.

My reaction is pretty similar to the first one, pure shock and enjoyment. My eyes turn to pricks as I get caught off guard, and soon enough I find myself in a prolonged... eh... erm... okay, let’s just say so I can save my embarrassment from going any further and say we achieved the french level of this game.

Once it’s finally done and set in stone, we break the lock and I look back at her with wide eyes and an open mouth. “Yowza!”

She smiles and rolls her eyes at my very stupid use of describing how great it was, which was a pretty good sign that she isn’t going be be crying any further. I will make sure of that. I smile quickly, and nudge my head towards the door. She nods, and we both head back for the TARDIS.

I’ve completely relinquished all thoughts of how wrong this is supposed to be now, as we enter the main chamber. The Eleventh is standing by the console, and I could just tell how much he is confused as to how short the console is to the floor. He must have forgot which TARDIS this is, even if his is a lot more different on the inside than mine. Last I checked, his was a total chrome makeover, and mine is a bit of a classic.

Was I even in there at all? I can’t remembe-

“Ah, Doctor Whooves! Looks like you’re going wild on Twitter!” He says abruptly, and he brings up a smart phone from the console, and walks over to Ditzy and I. He shows me the screen, and I look over the text on the screen from multiple profiles commenting on a photo... of me, covered in splinters, and my eyes blinded the flash of a phone.

After a quick thought that The Eleventh browses Twitter, I get the full realization that I just got posted on it. A photo of me, on the internet.

Damn it.

Ditzy adds to my stress. “That’s... not good.”

I say towards The Eleventh “Are you telling me... that right now... everyone that saw this picture now knows that I am here, on Earth, right now, and am a pony?”

He pulls back the phone, and puts it into his bottomless coat pockets. “I am saying that, yes.”

I quickly add “Is there a way to delete it, quickly?”

He shakes his head. “It’s been up for a few days. I’ll try to delete it, but that wouldn’t delete the memory of the picture. It’s already been seen by about a few thousand.”

Thank God for skeptics, then. I would have guessed it would have been in the hundred thousands by now.

“Delete it, quickly, I really don’t want anything crazy to happen. This is too fragile, and I still have so much to get done.”

He pulls out his newer model of the sonic screwdriver with the green bulb and claw, and goes over to sit in a chair. He pulls out the phone again, and begins to work on hacking the posters profile.

I trot up to the console, and look at Ditzy. “I’m glad you’re with me on this. I don’t know what I would do if I was alone in this situation.”

She smiles as she trots up to me. “I’m not leaving you alone, not ever again.”

I smile back at her, and quickly remember the kiss we just shared earlier. I break a drop of sweat, and face the console again with newfound confidence. “We have to get to a farm somewhere outside of a nearby town. I think it’s nearby, anyway. Gotta monitor the goings, and hopefully we can find all six of the Elements. Once done, we can finally get back home.”

I set the coordinates, and head over to the lever. I hold a grin still, and yell out in confidence as I pull down the lever, and enter the Time Vortex.

“Allons-y!”

--------------------End of Part 1--------------------

Author's Note

Yes, this is an end to the story for now. Just until I refresh my batteries, and more Five Score stuff gets written in present time. I'll be writing a bit of a short story for something else, and I will post it on here once it's complete, 100%. (Also, this chapter was really embarrassing to write, oh my god, I can't romance for nothing. Oh well, *posts anyway*)