Time Lines and Bubble Wands
Chapter 1
My hooves clip-clipped against the tiled floor. Over time, the length of silence between clops decreased as I burst into a run. This was the first time Princess Celestia had called for my help, and I wanted to be right by her side every step of the way. It's not as if its the first time I've helped royalty, it's just the first time I've helped equine royalty, and I wanted to remember it. I mentally cringe as I remember the tone of her voice in the message she left me.
"We need you, Doctor." Which was followed by a series of coordinates to get me here on time. I was still breaking in the horse TARDIS, so I might of been a little off, but not by much.
"Where is the Princess?" I grab one of the guards walking past me an look into his tired eyes.
He looks slowly at me and whispers, "She's dead."
***
I shoot my head up from the couch, making solid contact with someone's head, sending us both reeling. I groan and rub my face as I look at the scene around me. My two room mates, Minnie and Jack, are around me, jack holding his forehead with a pained grin. After sitting there awkwardly for a few seconds, I realize that they were staring at me.
"What?" I give them a glare each in return.
Jack steps forward, lowering his hand from his head. "You were, um-" he clears his throat "-talking in your sleep. Saying some weird things..."
I glance at Minnie for confirmation, and she slightly nods her head. I look back at Jack.
"So, Jack, What was I saying?"
"Well, you were asking where the princess was?" He phrased as if it was a question.
"Sorry, I had a pony dream. It was a weird one too." I say with an awkward grin. "I was some weird pony who had high class connections or something."
Minnie suddenly brightens up, "Oh! Like the Doctor!"
Jack and I share a confuse glance at each other before we both look back at Minnie.
"Min, who is the Doctor?" I ask.
"You know, from Doctor Who?"
I look at her blankly.
"A British sci-fi?"
I continue to stare at her.
"Ugh I give up." She slumps onto the couch next to me.
"Hey!" Jack suddenly says. "I have an idea! Lets open presents, tell me where you hid yours this year, you guys!"
"Under the couch!" Minnie and I say at almost the same time. I blush.
"We'll mine are there too... Again." Jack says with a small smile. No one knows why, but every year we hide our presents under the couch. Jack pulls them out and places two piles down. One for me and one for Minnie.
"Ten seconds flat!" Jack says.
I subconsciously check my watch at the mere reference to time. It proudly proclaims, May 1st, 2020, 5:37pm. I rub my eyes and check again.
"I slept until 5:30?" I almost yell at my roommates.
"Well, no. You just fell asleep on the couch like, five minutes ago. I thought something was wrong, but you were back up in a flash so I didn't really care." Minnie says.
"Ditz, you of all people should check on that stuff, you know, being a nurse." I say while shaking my head.
"Umm, you just called her Ditz, John." Jack say to me.
"Whatever, same thing right?" I say to be met with some confused stares. I think it over and then try again. "Sorry. Not same thing. Don't know what quite happened there."
They still look at me funny. But Minnie gives up and breaks the silence.
"I don't mind. Now open my present, John!" She says.
I tear open the wrapping paper and let loose the present held within. A small Ditzy plushie falls onto my lap. I start to laugh.
"What's up John?" Minnie asks, "Do you not like it?" She starts to frown.
"No, it just this makes my present about... 20 percent cooler." I share a grin with Minnie.
"Oh great. I make one reference to that show and now everyone is. I just did it as a birthday present, I even searched online for a good saying, I don't even like the show, why did-" Minnie cuts jack off by placing a hand on his mouth.
"Hush, only dreams now." Minnie and I crack up again to the annoyance of Jack.
"Ugh, just open my gift." Jack says. I start to open the present before I'm stopped.
"Wait! We should do it at our birthday times!" Minnie says with a grin.
"Mine already passed 14 minutes ago." I say without thinking. I look up from my fake pout to see Jack and Minnie staring at me. "What? It did."
Jack pulls his phone out. "And what time were you born?"
"5:34."
"Oh... Kay then. Your right, but you didn't know the time, how'd you do that?" He says, looking at me with a steely glare.
"Well, I've just been good with time, what can I say? I thought you already knew this, considering we've been roomies for a while."
"Yeah, but you were never this close. You were always like, a minute off." Minnie pipes in from the couch beside me.
"Well, lucky guess?"
"John, tell me the time right now, and don't stop, ok? Go." Jack says while holding his phone up so I can't see it.
"Well, it feels around 5:48 and 56.291747306261839729392610719-" I'm cut off by Minnie's hand in my mouth. I push it away. "Seconds."
"Figures." Jack says as he closes his phone and puts it in his pocket.
"Figures what?" I ask.
"Oh nothing. Just open my present away from Minnie, alright?"
"What? Why would I do that?"
"No reason, just do it because I'm asking you to."
I roll my eyes, but eventually nod to Jack.
"You also might want to check on Minnie, speaking of her. She's asleep on her feet." Jack then leaves the room to the kitchen, while humming a tune.
"Min, come on!" I realize as soon as Jack left that Minnie wasn't responding to anything. But almost as soon as I said something, her eyes fluttered open.
"Sorry Doctor, I lost track of time." She says with the cutest smilie imaginable.
I chuckle at her new name for me. "Doctor, eh? Are you nick among me now?"
She looks at me weirdly for a second, but before she could say anything Jack bursts in with a cake.
"Alright, Cake Time!" Jack says as he places the cake in front of us. Minnie is so excited, she hugs me with glee. I shrug at Jack, and then when Minnie's finished, we all pick up a slice of cake.
"To living!" I say and we all push our paper plates together.
"What about my presents?" Minnie says.
"Oh yeah, this cake is from me to both of you, by the way. You can't blame me on being cheap." Jack says to us while winking at me.
"Alright Jack, but since I'm not cheap, Min, here's my gift." I hand her a small box wrapped in gold foil. She tears it open on sight and brings out a small Doctor Whooves figurine.
"It's beautiful!" She exclaims while giving it a hug. Me and Jack both chuckle at that. We continue to eat cake and talk for a few more hours before I start to get tired.
"Ugh, Goodnight you two! Don't do anything stupid!" I say as I leave. I hear Minnie excuse herself as I leave, but I don't pay much attention to it. Almost as soon as my head touched my pillow, I was jerked up by Minnie screaming. I rush into her room, which is right across the hall from mine, and questions start firing out of my mouth.
"Are you okay? What happened? Who did this? Wa it Jack?" I would of kept going had it not been that Minnie burst into tears right in front of me.
"Geez, Ditzy, I didn't know it was this bad. What happened?"
Her look of sadness slowly formed into one of anger. "So it was you who did this! Tell me how to get it off!" She points angrily at her thigh.
"Woah woah woah, what?"
"So you're the wise guy that thought it might be funny to see little old Minnie cry, huh!" Minnie never gets angry, but when she does, she always has good reason, and always yells.
"Min, what happened?" I sit down next to her and scratch my leg awkwardly.
"You already know." She whispered.
"Show me, please. It hurts me to see you mad at me."
"I would hope so."
Suddenly I get the urge to stand up and yell at the door. "Jack, you can come in, stop eavesdropping!" Just as quick, I sit back down next to Minnie. "Sorry, Jack isn't anywhere near your room. Sorry about that."
The door to Minnie's room slowly opens to reveal Jack standing there.
"No, I'm near your door all right, but how did you know that?" He said with a confused look on his face.
"Lucky guess. Now give us some alone time please." I make up an excuse in my head to use if he further questions me.
"Alright, see you tomorrow I guess." He looks at me funny on the way outside though.
I turn back to Minnie. "Just show me, please?"
Minnie looks defeated. She looks up at me sadly and then pulls the waist of her pants down, careful not to reveal anything. There, plastered on her thigh, is a cluster of bubbles.
"What?"
"So are you admitting to it?"
"No, sorry I didn't do this."
Minnie blows air out the side of her mouth. "Then who did? Sorry for getting mad."
"It's fine. But I have no idea who did this to you, Ditz."
"There it is again with the Ditz, what's up with that anyway?" Minnie starts to look angrier.
"I didn't say anything!"
"Why did you call me Ditzy!" She yelled at me, clearly not over being angry.
"I called you Min!"
"No. You. Didn't!" She yells.
I finally crack. "Why does it even matter! Calling you a pony name doesn't give you their cutie mark! Using that very specific logic, that would cause me to have The Doctor's cutie mark, which is. Not. True!" I suddenly realize what I said. "Sorry, Min."
She shakes out of the daze my yelling put her in, then gets a grin on her face.
"Prove it."
"What?"
"Prove that you didn't do it. If you have a cutie mark, you didn't do it. Why would a pranker prank themselves? But if you don't, get your excuse ready to make me as little mad as I can be." She says unnaturally calm.
"Okay, first of all, your logic makes no sense. It's confusing even me. And second, why do I need to prove myself? If the only way to get off clean is by having a cutie mark, that gives me a less than one percent chance to get off clean!"
"Oh, afraid to prove yourself, eh?"
"Oh my god Ditz. Stop being a clever evil person. It doesn't suit you."
"Just pull your pants down, and we'll see."
I hear laughing from outside.
"Shut up Jack!" I yell.
"Don't mind him, now show me your cutie mark."
"Freaking hell Min. Fine, I'll show you that I don't have a cutie mark if that's the excuse you need to get angry."
I slowly pull down the waist of my pants to the right place where it would show a cutie mark. And what's there makes my heart skip a beat.
A perfect cartoon hourglass is stamped on my thigh.
"Umm, so I'm innocent?"
