“What was that? Did any of you hear that?” A snow white filly's ears perked up as a distant crash echoed throughout the orchard.
“What? Ah didn't hear anything.” An energetic yellow blur bounded out from behind one of the nearby trees, a massive red bow bobbing along in her wake.
“No, she's right, I definitely heard something!” A shout echoed down from a small orange filly-like shape precariously balanced in the higher branches of one of the taller trees.
“Scootaloo, get down from there, you're going to fall and hurt yourself or something!” The white unicorn yelled up at the treetops.
Scootaloo ignored her friend's scolding. “Sweetie Belle, I'm fine! You heard it too though, right?” Scootaloo shouted, nimbly swinging and leaping down from branch to branch.
“Yeah, sounded like it came from the south orchard,” Sweetie Belle muttered, her muzzle resting on her chin, before turning to her yellow friend, “Was Big Mac taking a tree down today?”
AppleBloom shook her head, her bow waving in the breeze , “They took the day off today, they needed to go to town to get some things.”
The orange Pegasus landed next to her yellow friend with a thump, shaking leaves and twigs off herself. “But if they're not down there...”
“Then what made the noise?” Sweetie Belle shouted from the top of the next hill, having run off right after AppleBloom had finished explaining. “Come on, let's go look!” Without a backwards glance, she bounded down the hill, disappearing from view.
“Hey! Wait up!” Scootaloo bellowed at the top of her lungs, galloping after her friend, AppleBloom in hot pursuit.
Scootaloo and AppleBloom finally caught up to their unicorn friend, just in time for the wheezing Pegasus to trip over a root, and all of them to end up in a big filly pile at the bottom of another hill.
“Good goin' there, feather brain,” muttered Applebloom's muffled voice.
“Hey, it wasn't my fault!” Scootaloo said angrily, shaking the leaves and twigs off herself again.
The yellow farm pony extracted herself from the tall grass and shook herself off as well. “Was too!”
“Was not!”
“Was too!”
Both fillies suddenly found a white hoof jammed in their faces as the unicorn stepped in. “We don't have time for this, girls!” Sweetie Belle whispered shakily, “Look!” They followed the unicorn's gaze, and both of them gasped in shock.
A massive trench had been carved in the earth, apple trees uprooted and splintered, rocks thrown far and wide, branches and fruit scattered everywhere. At the bottom of the hill they stood on, not twenty feet away, laying against one of the larger trees that had been knocked halfway over, was a tall blue wooden box, little windows on the upper half of all sides, a glass strobe-light on the top, and trails of smoke wafting from the doors. The words “Police Public Call Box” were printed in bold white letters on all four sides across the top.
Sweetie Belle took a few steps back, shaking slightly. “S...Scootaloo, what is that?”
“I don't know. AppleBloom, what is that?”
“Ah dunno, Sweetie Belle, what is that?”
“I was the one who asked in the first place!” The three fillies glared in a circle, before grinning, then breaking into fits of giggles, which quickly became shrieks of fear and surprise as the doors of the box let out a loud click, then swung open. A plume of smoke rose from the doorway, tinged slightly green by some source of light from inside. The trio quickly retreated behind a nearby tree that was still standing, listening to the sounds of distant banging and scraping that could be heard from beyond the open doors, followed by a muffled curse and a loud grunt.
A large metal climbing hook came whistling out of the doors, a length of rope trailing along behind it, landing with a thud in the dirt near the crusaders' hiding spot. The rope went taut as the hook dragging along the dirt, before skittering up the side and disappearing through the doors again. There was a loud clang, and some indiscriminate muttering. Another loud grunt, and the hook came flying out again, settling several feet from its first landing spot.
The fillies exchanged a terrified glance, before the nervous orange Pegasus took a few inches closer to the smoking box and called out, “H...hello?”
A relieved masculine voice echoed up from the box, “Ahh, someone's there! Splendid! Do you see that climbing hook up there? I don't know what's out there so I may have thrown it off a cliff or something! I don't think I did, but you can't ever be too sure...”
“Should we help him?” AppleBloom asked nervously.
“I say we should, if somepony's trapped down there, we can't just leave them,” Scootaloo replied with a determined expression on her orange face.
“Scootaloo's right,” chimed in Sweetie Belle. The fillies looked at one another, then nodded in unison, before clapping their hooves together and chanting.
“Cutie Mark Crusader Pony Rescuers!”
“Sorry, wasn't listening for a second, what was that?” came the voice from the mystery box. The Crusaders all looked over at the smoking doors, then back at each other.
“Uh...nuthin'!” AppleBloom yelled, “We're tyin' off your rope for ya!” She trotted over and bent down, gripping the heavy hook in her teeth as Sweetie Belle hopped over to the other side to help. The both of them dragged it over to a nearby trunk where Scootaloo was waiting. They dragged the hook all the way around the tree, then wedged it close to the bark and slipped the rope under one of the prongs, forming a tight hold.
“Okay, try it now!” shouted Sweetie Belle back at the doors. The rope was pulled taut again, and the three ponies could hear the sounds of climbing, as something big made its way up out of the depths. A large white hand with digits that almost looked like claws thrust through the smoke, before grabbing hold of the threshold. Another hand followed, and with a loud heave, a head appeared out of smoke.
The creature seemed male, and fur-less, save for the top of his head, where hair resembling a shaggy mane occasionally draped down in front of forward facing brown eyes. Shiny white teeth that were sharper than the three ponies preferred shown from under dull pink lips on a very flat face, almost as if his muzzle had been smashed in. All together, he resembled a predator, and the fillies didn't like it. But as they began to back away, cowering together in a group, something happened. The creature looked around in interest, and his eyes settled on one of the apple-laden trees. A delighted expression spread across his face.
“Ah ha! Apples!”
The Crusaders stopped dead in their tracks, before exchanging more glances. The creature proceeded to hoist himself out of the doorway, dragging himself up to where he was straddling the threshold. He was dressed in a strange outfit; some sort of suit that covered his slender, bipedal body from head to toe. On top of that, he wore a long, sweeping coat that hung down the side of the box as he sat. As he continued to survey, his eyes fell on the long swath of destruction that led up to where the box lay against the splintered apple tree, and his face fell.
“Goodness, that's quite a mess. She must have been more out of control than I thought...” His words trailed off into muttering, before he finally noticed the group of fillies hiding in the shadows.
“Oh! Hello there! Don't worry, everything's fine, just took a bit of a tumble!” he called over, before looking back down through the doors and grimacing.
“Well, not exactly fine, but it could be a lot worse. Well, not a lot worse, but I've had worse, at least.” He shook his head in exasperation, before looking over at the Crusaders again and beckoning. “Come on out, I'm not gonna hurt you!”
The three ponies shared one last look around the group, before tentatively stepping from the shadows and creeping towards the strange creature. All of them opened their mouths and began the barrage of questions.
“Who are you?”
“What are you?”
“How did you get here?”
“Are you okay?”
“What is that thing?”
“What happened here?”
He looked very taken aback, but promptly said, “Well then, in order I guess. The Doctor, a Time Lord, no idea but I think something went terribly wrong, yes I'm fine, the TARDIS, and again, no idea, but whatever it was, it wasn't what was supposed to happen.”
Scootaloo's face went blank, and she opted to reply with a simple “What?”
“I understood some of it...” murmured Sweetie Belle, face contorted in thought.
“I ain't got a single clue what he said,” said AppleBloom with a serene smile.
He frowned, “Yeah, come to think of it, that was a pretty useless answer, wasn't it,” He hopped down from his perch atop the blue box.
“Here, I'll try again,” he said, spreading his arms wide, “Hello! I'm the Doctor, just the Doctor, and you can call me the Doctor,” He thought for a moment, then shook his head and continued, “I'm what's called a Time Lord, long story, something for another time. As to how I got here, I crashed. I was...traveling, and something went wrong and now I'm here.” He pondered for another moment, then kept talking.
“This here is called the TARDIS,” He gestured behind him to the smoking blue box, “It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space, it's a combination time and space travel machine-”
“What are you, a dictionary?” asked Scootaloo incredulously, having finally regained her thought process.
“What are you, someone who asks questions and interrupts me?” replied the Doctor without batting an eye.
Scootaloo laughed nervously before looking at her feet. “Sorry...” AppleBloom and Sweetie Belle would have laughed, but were still too stunned.
“It's alright, sorry about that, I'm being rude again. I'm not normally rude, well, more often than I should be probably, but it's been a weird day and I'm kind of stressed,” The Doctor's eyebrows furrowed and he ran his hand through his hair, frowning. “Where was I? Right, this is the TARDIS, it's a combination of a time machine and spaceship, so it can travel anywhere and any-when in the universe.”
“That thing can time travel?” asked Sweetie Belle in disbelief. The Doctor looked over at her and nodded. The white unicorn frowned, then said, “Horseapples. I don't believe you, it's just a box!”
“Yeah, how can a box possibly time travel or fly?” piped up Scootaloo.
“No, but it can!” protested the Doctor, “It just looks like a box on the outside, it's a form of disguise that it...oh!” He cut off mid sentence, a loud creak echoing through the orchard as he turned around to watch the TARDIS rotate slowly upright, before coming down on it's base with an earth trembling thump. A wide smile split the Doctor's dirty face.
“Ah, looks like she's woken up,” he said happily, poking his head through the doorway. “How are you feeling in there?”
The only response he got were the doors slamming shut in his face. “Hey, come on now, this one wasn't my fault!” he said loudly, scowling. He yanked one of the doors open again, striding inside.
The Crusaders looked at each other for the millionth time that day.
“Reckon he's telling the truth?” whispered AppleBloom.
“There's no way, it's just a box!” said Scootaloo, stubbornly stomping a hoof. Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to say something as well, but was interrupted by the Doctor.
“Want to come see? I'm pretty sure it's safe, just a little beat up.” His head disappeared back through the ajar TARDIS doors. The three fillies silently thought about it, then nodded together in agreement.
AppleBloom nudged the doors open with her head, then took several nervous steps into the dimly lit room, before looking up and jumping back in shock.
“Ow! AppleBloom! You jumped on my hoof!”
“Agh, sorry Scoots,” whispered AppleBloom, gingerly moving aside to let the other two in.
“Honestly, you've gotta be more careful about whaaaa...”
Scootaloo's voice trailed off into incoherent noises, and an almost inaudible squeak came from Sweetie Belle as the Crusaders stepped into a dimly lit, massive chamber. Thick metal pylons connected from the floor to the ceiling, and dozens of thick cables crisscrossed overhead. At the center of the room, a raised platform held up a large console, covered in lights and buttons and levers. A crystal clear glass cylinder spanned the entire distance from top to bottom, and the mechanisms inside emitted a bright green glow that illuminated the whole room.
All three ponies reacted differently. AppleBloom charged back outside to figure out the space problem. Scootaloo began to walk unsteadily walk towards the center platform, where the Doctor stood, inspecting various bits of this and that. Sweetie Belle just stood with a look of utmost disbelief on her face. As AppleBloom came back in for the third time, the Doctor turned with an expectant grin on his face, then all four of them opened their mouths together.
“It's bigger on the inside than on the outside!”
A deafening silence fell inside the TARDIS. Then the Crusaders burst out laughing, the Time Lord quietly chuckling along with them.
“But how is this even possible, what are you?” asked AppleBloom after the giggling had resided. The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but a distant sound halted his impending speech.
“What in tarnation?!”
AppleBloom's eyes flew wide open. “Ponyfeathers! That's mah sister! She's back early and lookin' for me!”
“Oh dear, is that good for us or bad for us? Wait a minute...” The Doctor's question trailed off, and he put his chin in his hand, thinking.
“Ah'd best go out and find her, if she sees you first she might buck you to the moon or sumthin'!”
“Oh yes, that sounds quite unpleasant...” said the Doctor offhandedly, eyes unfocused.
“Come on girls!” said Sweetie Belle, heading for the door. AppleBloom and Scootaloo followed, but turned back about halfway to the door. The Doctor hadn't moved.
“Doctor? Are you coming with us?”
The Doctor shifted his posture slightly, muttering to himself. “Ponyfeathers... ponyfeathers, where had I heard that before... I've heard the word ponyfeathers somewhere before...”
Scootaloo took a step back towards the distracted Time Lord. “Are you okay?”
“EQUESTRIA!” bellowed the Doctor triumphantly, the Crusaders all jumping in surprise. “I've landed in Equestria, no wonder this seemed familiar! Good Lord, that was ages ago though...”
“Wait, you know about Equestria?” asked Sweetie Belle in confusion.
“Yup. Well slightly. But best not keep your sister waiting, come on,” said the Doctor, heading for the doors, his coat sweeping along behind him.
“But wait, how can you know about Equestria if you're not from here?” asked Scootaloo with a frown as AppleBloom nudged the door back open, looking out at the orange mare with the hat who was surveying the damage in shock.
The Doctor looked down at the orange filly, who's head came up to his hip, and grinned.
“Because I've been here before.”
Author's Note
More story! Something actually substantial this time yay! Again, please point out errors if you see them because I be a writing failcake and I make mistakes and wibbly wobbly overused quote stuff. I must sleep now, bye.
