The Plastic Paradigm

Twilight Sparkle looked at the page with both fear and curiosity, her hoof tenderly reaching under to turn the page when another hoof stopped her softly. "No, sorry Twilight, some things should never be learned about." The Doctor said, shutting the book and picking it up.

He carried it over to a workbench, covered in random odds and ends, advanced technology and some ancient artifacts were sprawled across the blue and silver surface. The Doctor shuffled through them, tossing some over his shoulder and putting others to the side. Twilight felt her heart die a little when one particular artifact, a stone tablet, covered in pre-history dragon-script was tossed with some amount of gleeful abandon, sailing across the room till it shattered into hundreds of pieces on the floor.

"It was essentially a grocery list, used by a small alien repair service, don't get too excited, all the Dragon-script tablets that are important are somewhere else entirely." he said matter-of-factually. Little by little, the clutter on the workbench slowly dissipated  until only a few bits and bobs remained. Among them was an egg timer, a strange triangular device, covered in wiring, a model replica of the statue of liberty; which the Doctor kept giggling at.

"S-so, what exactly is this going to do?" Twilight asked nervously, peering over his shoulder.

The Doctor whipped around, skilfully avoiding Twilight and taking a step back. "Nothing really," he said almost sheepishly, "I was hoping I would find a Navari Transceiver amongst all this, which is the only component I need to call the TARDIS, but unfortunately the most I can do with this is build a Class 5 Industrial hairdryer, or a Quantum Bomb, both of which would cook the planet to a crisp..." he sighed out.

Celestia had had enough, she turned quickly and began to walk out of the room. "Well, I give you till sundown, I am going to prepare for the Wax Museum opening, it IS tonight." she said importantly as she proceeded up the stairs.

The moment she was out of earshot the two began to burst out in giggles and laughter. "Sh-she must really hate you! I've never seen her this grumpy!" Twilight said between bursts of laughter.

The Doctor managed to get to his hooves, "Hate? Oh she despises me, I almost burnt down the palace in one of my very early escapades, I almost set Luna free on the moon...The list goes on and on, despite the good I do for Equestria she seems to cop most of the bad stuff that happens," he caught his breath, smiling from ear to ear.

The pair regained their balance, getting the last of the laughs out of their system. "H-hang on, what's that noise?"  he asked, head darting about.

"What noise?" Twilight asked, following him slowly before hearing a dull static, occasionally spiking to a higher pitch for a split second, before returning. "Ooooh, that hurt..." she groaned, her movements starting to become sluggish. It was like a buzzing of a hundred tiny voices,  all inside her head and talking, about...Things. Just things, descriptions of buildings, locations and ponies, many of which she recognized instantly, others took a little longer, all the while a sound would spike, sending a blinding, hot rush of pain through her skull, like something was angry or confused.

The Doctor found it just a mere nuisance, trying to find it's source and not in the least bit worried about the sound hurting him. "Where, where, where, where, where...THERE!" he exclaimed, bolting to a small, old fashioned radio that was still going; the frequency dial missing and a large amount of wires and circuitry protruding from it. He looked back for a second to find Twilight on the floor, her hooves over her ears. "Ohhh, I am so sorry, Equine hearing is irritated by this frequency.." he looked back and grabbed a screwdriver from a workbench, working it into where the frequency dial on the radio used to be, moving it in circles slowly.

Slowly the pain went away, the voices stayed, but the static and the high pitched noises that made her ears hurt had gone and she could stand again. "Wh-what WAS that?" she asked, looking at the inanimate object with a hatred that could have turned it's heart, if it had one, to stone.

The Doctor looked back to the radio, taking out a pair of glasses, putting them on quickly and taking a closer look. "Hmmm..."

Twilight didn't like that Hmmm, that Hmmm sounded like a mother's Hmmm, either condescending or dangerous. "C-Come on Doctor, dazzle me with Science, don't say Hmmm."

He  walked in circles around the radio thing, taking in every detail he could, making calculations and decisions behind the glasses and a furrowed brow. "Weeeeeeell, I think...No it can't be that, it doesn't need a potato peeler...Hmm- sorry, forgot about the sound thing..." he stared at it for another half an hour and Twilight had almost fallen asleep on top of a pile of various books.

The Doctor had not moved from his spot, staring at the radio with a hoof on his chin. It was another minute before anything else happened; The Doctor sprang up in the air, whipping his glasses away in a swift motion before yelling. "I'm so STUPID! There it was, staring me in the face, clear as day and I missed it!"

Twilight hurriedly blinked herself awake at the noise, trying to sluggishly stand on all four hooves. "Missed what?" she mumbled out, walking over slowly. By now it was almost sunset, Celestia would be coming to eject them from "The Basement". "Hey Doctor?" she asked, glancing over to the door. "What is this place, I've never seen it before, I'd never even heard of The Basement, so what exactly IS it?"

The Doctor shrugged, "Back when I was younger, this place used to be a sort of research facility. They would bring in damaged alien technology and reverse engineer it. I was here as the Scientific Adviser, but really I was only here to make sure you Ponies didn't get anything too dangerous or get too ahead of yourselves."

He smiled and turned back to the radio; "Now this thing! It is brilliant really! What it is is a signal booster, it sends an amplified signal on a specific frequency to boost the range of the original emitter...But what it amplifies it for, I have no idea..."

And, as if on cue, Celestia came down the steps, wearing a splendid, cream colored dress with a rainbow trail and a sun shaped jewel around the waist. "Ah there you two are. Dear Twilight, you look tired, you should go to your room in the palace and rest; I would like a private chat with the Doctor as well." she said calmly, casting a not-as-vicious glance at the Chestnut colt.

Twilight Sparkle nodded and proceeded slowly up the steps to the actual palace. The Doctor was busy re-examining the radio, starting to take it apart. "I can't let this place stay Celestia, there is too much stuff here and I don't want you turning Twilight into the next Scientific Adviser..." he said bluntly, not even looking up at her. Before the Princess could do anything in the form of a reply the radio tuned into a station somehow that was playing: I Want To Break Free by QUEEN. "Oh yes! I love this song!' the Doctor said cheerily, bobbing his head to the sound.

"You have changed Doctor, you are a completely different pony since we first met, all those aliens you defended Equestria from, all the while tagging along somepony with for the 'fun'. You were old back then, when you were young, and now you are old, but your face is young; that is quite the interesting scenario..." she paused in the middle of her impromptu speech. "You cannot take her with you. You cannot take Twilight with you, I know when she finds out what your ship can truly do then I fear she will want to leave, but I must have you refuse her, I do not wish to lose her like you lost the others..."

The Doctor winced a little at the last comment, finally looking up from the radio. "Celestia...Don't mention them...I'm trying to be kind at the moment, I really am, but if  you keep this up...I don't know what I might do..." he said, looking back to the radio. "Bingo!" the Doctor exclaimed, pulling out a wire that then sparked before the radio died. "Problem one solved...Now to problem two, which would have been easier to do before fixing problem one...."

"What is 'Problem One'?" Celestia asked, trotting slowly around the debris that the Doctor had flung onto the floor during his cleanout of "The Basement".

He shrugged, trotting about as he mentally ran through  a few ideas and plans. "Oh you know, this and that. Found a signal transmitter over there, that radio. Not sure where it was coming from, Problem One was finding out where the transmission is transmitting from...Also, who in the hay named this place The Basement? That's the worst name I've ever heard of!" The Doctor rolled his eyes, not even waiting for an answer before hurrying out of the room, leaving prints in the dust on the floor as he left.

Princess Celestia stood there, baffled at the Doctor's sudden change of mood. As far as she was aware he was a male of his species, and although she didn't know much about it she was fairly certain that he was not supposed to be doing that. She galloped after him, only to find him upstairs, swinging from a wall mounted banner, giggling like a foal. "Doctor!" she called almost angrily. "I demand you get down form there at once!"

The response was far from mature, punctuated or civilized. The Doctor stuck his tongue out and made foal like noises at her as he continued to swing, despite two guards attempting to steady the banner and get him down. "Doctor I implore you! Now is not the time for such antics!"

Suddenly the Doctor froze, his eyes dilated and he fell from the banner, landing on the floor and did not move for about a minute. Eventually he stood, struggling to get on all fours. "Ow...Psychic Link to the TARDIS has been damaged...Geez that hurt...Any more damage could make me go mad... Well, madder anyway." The chestnut colt blinked rapidly, managing to stand properly.

"You mean to tell me that your sudden outburst was not of your own actions?" the Princess  asked curiously.

"Of course not! What, do you think I would do something like that?" the Doctor asked semi-seriously. The following awkward silence produced a pout to creep across his face. "Oh...Anyway! What was I going to say...Right, my invitation to the Wax Museum opening!" He exclaimed, smiling broadly.

Princess Celestia blinked rather confusedly. "What do you mean Doctor? Last I checked you had not been given one, would you like me to have one made?"

He simply smiled and shook his head. "Shouldn't need to, I already have one." he said as he reached to his pockets. After a few moments he began furiously padding himself down before hitting his forehead with a hoof. "Oh so stupid! I left my coat with Rarity! Celestia," he called as he ran off I'll be back, postpone the opening for a day!" he only just shouted as he ran out, mentally running calculations. Another trip back to Ponyville and a trip back when I have my stuff...That's at least another day..I'm going to cut it close...

Meanwhile, Twilight had barely gotten a wink of sleep, despite the castle walls being thick and plentiful she could still hear everything the Doctor said as he pranced about downstairs like an idiot. She turned and tossed, flipping herself over on the bed before looking about with a huff. There wasn't much new in her room, she hadn't needed to change it much. The essential pile of books she insisted on having at all times changed every month or so as she read from it when she was in the palace.

She lazily picked up the book on the top of the pile and glanced at the cover. The Time Machine by Horse.G. Wells, she snorted. "If only that were possible..." Eventually her mind turned to the nightmare she had the day before. She didn't know what the box was, what it did, or why she saw it. But it exploded in front of her, quite violently too. What did it mean? She had been told to be wary of her dreams but this particular one made no sense to her, at least at the moment, perhaps things would become clearer on the future...The future, if only she get there quicker...

She shook her head, clearing the thought of time travel form her head for now and decided to continue evaluating any changes made to her room in her absence in the castle. Her vintage posters on the walls had not changed, nor had the contents of her chest of possessions. But there was now a changing veil, the rather elephant in the room that she had ignored on purpose to find more subtle changes first.

It was an oriental style veil, a picture of a bonsai garden with a small stream and pagoda, most of which was blurred by the shadows of a changing mannequin, most likely wearing the dress Rarity had picked out for her for the Opening party tonight, or as she would later find out, the next night, thanks to the Doctor's insistence of postponing it. She trotted slowly around the veil to find the snow white mannequin almost staring at her, that familiar whispering of voices that invaded her head previously came back all at once, barking in her head.

"N-no...N-not again..." She whimpered, a tiny bit of blood trickling from her nose as she slowly and painfully passed out.

Meanwhile, on board the still crashing TARDIS things were getting out of hand. The Dimensional Configurator, which controlled and managed the seemingly infinite amount of rooms about The Ship had been heavily damaged, and some of the interiors were seeping into the console room. Well, by seeping we mean slowly breaking in, pillars and sharp objects from various room pierced through the almost golden dome of a ceiling, a white pillar and a section of a previous console fell through a gap and landed on a chair/couch hybrid, destroying it instantly.

The flames continued to rise as the screaming of the TARDIS' engines filled the air, the crackling from the fire only just audible over the cacophony of sounds the Time Machine produced.