Traversing Time, Space and Reality
Chapter One: Not Just a Pony Part: 1
Chapter One: Not Just a Pony Part:1
“Like I said, I’m really glad you could come Walker. It’s been, rough recently and it’s good to talk to a friend.” The mare said. Walker looked up from his drink at the beautiful pink mare with a rainbow mane.
“It was no problem Sparkler, what are friends for?” Walker said with his trademark warm smile. Sparkler and Walker had been friends since they were both foals, and the fact that their parents had been best friends as well. and that’s all they had ever been. Mainly because Walker didn’t have the balls to make the first move. “So, have the doctors figured out what’s wrong with Rainbowdash?” Walker asked. Sparkler swirled her straw in her drink absent mindly.
“They’re still fiddling around with her wings no matter how many times I tell them it’s not what’s wrong with her.” Sparkler said frustrated.
“So, if the wings aren’t the problem, then what is?” Walker asked. Sparkler sighed and took a sip of her drink and set it back on the table.
“Like I said, I’ve told them that it’s her heart or something else in her chest, that’s where her pains were coming from before I took her to the hospital, but they won’t listen to me!” She said clenching her hoof. Walker leaned over the table and rested a hoof on her shoulder.
“We’re gonna get through this, alright. It’s all gonna be okay.” Her intense gaze calmed after a few moments and he took his hoof off her shoulder.
“Thanks Walker I don’t know what I would do without you.” She said smiling at him. He opened his mouth to respond but was cut off when the front entrance to the restaurant was kicked down and the entrance was stormed by several ponies.
Each one was clad in the same black body armor and wore a mask to hide their faces. Each one also carried a crossbow and dagger. Walker tensed up as one of the, who he assumed to be the leader, walked forward. His crossbow was loaded and ready to fire.
“Everypony, on the ground and this won’t get messy!” He shouted.Everypony in the establishment compiled, all except for Walker who just sipped his drink. He had been in situations like this before and had found silent defiance was the best way to go.
“Hey buddy, on the ground!”Another of the ponies shouted. Walker had his back to them but he heard the hoof steps toward him. Walker sipped his drink and stood up and turned to the masked pony, keeping his silence.
“I’m gonna count to three then you’re gonna be on the floor whether you like it or not.” He said pressing the stock into his shoulder.
“We’ll see which one of us is on the floor.” Walker said with an intimidating smile.
“One.” The pony said. Walker stood, his smile still there. “Two.”
“J-Just do what he says W-Walker.” Sparkler said.
“Wait,” The lead pony said walking away from one of the ponies who had his hooves zip-tied behind him. “Did you say, Walker?” He asked.
“The one and only.” Walker said to the leader.
“Yeah, you’re that vigilante pegasus who’s been getting in our buddy’s way.” He said sticking his masked face in Walker’s. “I can’t say I like you very much.”
“Good, the feeling is mutual.” Walker said.
“And, if I may, what are you gonna do about it, featherbrain?” The leader said taking a step back.
“I’m gonna feed you your teeth.” Walker said. He lunged forward and knocked the crossbow up an inch as the pony fired it. The bolt hissed as it flew through the air and into the ceiling. Walker kicked his legs out from under him and wrenched the crossbow out of his hooves. Walker slammed the stock down on the masked pony’s skull. Not killing him, but knocking him out.
Suddenly, a pony slammed into his side sending him tumbling to the ground. “I thought you were gonna be more of a challenge.” The lead pony said pinning Walker to the ground.
“Just warming up.” Walker said. He slammed his forehead against the leader and he crumpled to the ground. Walker pushed the leader to the right and rolled on top of him, pinning his hooves down. “You were saying.” Walker hissed.
The leader’s vision had gone fuzzy and his ears were ringing. A small trickle of blood ran down his forehead. Suddenly, walker removed himself from the leader and stepped aside, allowing the pony to stand up. He braced himself against a chair and dragged himself to his whooves.
“If I ever see your sorry flank in here again, I won’t be so forgiving.” Walker said grabbing the pony by the mane. He nodded his head furiously and Walker shoved him towards his partners in crime at the front of the establishment. They all turned and shoved their way through the door, leaving the little amount of bits they had found on the counter.
Walker turned from the fleeing crooks to Sparkler who was staring up at him in awe. “Y-You just…” She trailed off.
“That was awesome!” A small voice said from the other side of the room. THe entire room erupted in cheers, thanking the blue pegasus. A small grey mare came around to the table and set down two drinks on Walker and Sparkler’s table and gave him a quick kiss.
“On the house.” She said with a smile before walking back to wherever she had come from.
Meanwhile, a brown stallion was leaning back in his chair, observing the blue pegasus. ‘That was impressive.’ He thought to himself taking a sip of his drink. “Haven’t seen something like that since, or no. That’s not possible, they’re all dead.” He thought to himself. He raised his glass back to his lips and took another sip. ‘Unless...’
Walker trotted out of the building with Sparkler leaning on his shoulder. A few minutes after they had received their drinks, the entire place had been swept up into a party in Walker’s honor and the sun had long since gone down. He didn’t know exactly what time it was but from the placement of the moon he guessed it was somewhere around midnight. Later on into the party, Sparkler had started a drinking contest with another mare, which she had proudly won at the cost of her sobriety and Walker had refused to let her fly back home to Cloudsdale in her current state. He was pretty sure that he had a guest bedroom.
“That was, hic*, a lot of fun.” Sparkler slurred.
“Your head is gonna be pounding tomorrow.” Walker thought out loud.
“That’s future me’s problem.” She said waving her hoof aimlessly. Walker couldn’t help but laugh at his drunk friend.
They trotted on in silence for the next few minutes. Walker had thought he heard hoofsteps behind him but dismissed it as an echo of Sparkler’s drunk stumbling. Walker was starting to feel uneasy, like somepony was watching, waiting. His suspicions were proved correct when he rounded a corner and a pony slammed into his side.
Sparkler fell to the ground and just laid there, clearly not knowing what was going on, while their assailant jumped on top of Walker, pinning him to the ground. The blade of a knife glinted in the moonlight and was surrounded in a dark green aura. “You don’t mess with the tunnel snakes.” The attacker hissed before plunging the blade into Walker’s chest. The sound of it tearing his flesh made him want to throw up. The unicorn with drew the knife and picked another spot and plunged it into his chest again, and again, and again. He raised the knife to Walker’s throat and right before he ended the pony’s life, a magic bolt smalled into the unicorn’s side. Blowing him off Walker and slamming him onto the concrete. Another bolt flew across Walker’s vision, ending the miserable pony’s life. Walker’s savior, a Ponyville guard, rushed over to him and examined his chest.
Suddenly another pony came and put his hoof on the guard shoulder. “Stand back, I’m a doctor.” He said. The guard, not knowing what to do, stood up and retreated a few steps. Walker felt his flowing out of his wounds and down his sides.
“Umm, Mr. Doctor, why is he glowing?” The guard asked. Walker mustered up just enough strength to raise his head slightly and look down at his chest and, sure enough, it was glowing a deep purple.
“I was right.” Walker head the Doctor mutter to himself. “This is gonna burn, a lot.” The Doctor said looking Walker in the eyes. He would have asked what he was talking about, but his question was answered as a brilliant purple light shot out from the wounds on his chest. It felt like someone had set Walker’s chest on fire as he let out an agonizing cry. Black spots danced in Walker’s vision as several ponies walked out of their homes to see what the screaming was about.
But just as quickly as the light had appeared, it disappeared, along with the stab wounds. Walker couldn’t feel the burning or the pain of the stab wounds any longer. As a matter of fact, he felt just fine. There wasn’t even blood on his chest.
“Pretty light show.” Sparkler said breaking the silence.
“Doctor, what did I just witness?” The guard asked the brown pony.
“That is called regeneration, but not a complete regeneration. Which just proves my suspicions correct. You my friend, are a walker.” The brown pony said to the blue pegasus.
“Yeah, my name’s Walker.” He said rubbing his chest fur, feeling for any blood or marks, there were none.
“No, you’re A walker.” The doctor said. The guard and Walker looked at him confused. “Walk with me, I’ll explain. He said taking a few steps down the street. Walker tentatively got to his hooves and looked to the guard who still looked incredibly confused. “Could you take her to Sugarcube Corner?” The guard nodded, “Will do.” And with that, Walker trotted off behind the doctor.
“So, you wanna explain what the hell just happened back there?” Walker asked.
“I will, but you have to promise not to ask any questions until I’m finished.” The pony said. Walker nodded and the pony smiled. “Good, now for starters, I’m The Doctor. Don’t ask what of, just The Doctor.” Walker nodded, ‘It’s probably just a street name or something.’ He thought to himself. “And that back there was what’s called a regeneration, though yours was different than most. Like one I haven’t seen in a long time, and for a good reason.” The Doctor paused.
“And that would b-”
“What did I say about questions?” He said.
“Right sorry, continue.” Walker said quickly.
“Basicly, all the Walkers died a long time ago. But since you’re here, that couldn’t be true. Either you managed to escape, or you don’t exist. But if you don’t exist, then you couldn’t be here, so you must have escaped. But you want to know what a Walker is, don’t you?” The Doctor asked.
“Yes, of course.” Walker said quickly. Even though this pony sounded crazy, he just survived a fatal wound without a single scratch. He would believe manticore’s could fly and do magic at this point.
“Basically, you’re an alien.” The Doctor said putting a hoof over Walker’s mouth to stem the flow of questions he knew were coming. “An alien like me, except slightly different. You see, I’m what you’d call a Timelord. My people traveled through time stopping fixed points in time from being altered. Time policemen if you will. But we needed time machines to travel through time and space. But Walkers are much better. You actually have a piece of the time vortex inside you.”
“Which means…” Walker trailed off. The Doctor didn’t seem to care that he had asked a question.
“Which means you can travel through time and space all on your own, without a Time Machine. I envy you my friend.” The Doctor said.
“Okay, all this talk of time travel is great and all, but that still doesn’t explain that, regeneration, or whatever it’s called.” Walker said.
“Now that’s the other main difference from Walkers that I know about. Your regeneration cycles are similar to the Timelord’s, but different in an essential way. Whenever a Timelord, or Walker, receive a fatal injury, we have a way to cheat death called regeneration. Which just happened to you. But the problem with that is whenever I regenerate, I basically change entirely. New look, mind, personality even a sex change has been known to happen when regeneration occurs. But Walkers just heal themselves, you don’t change at all. Well, except for the wounds that you received to put you in that state.” The Doctor finished. He glanced over to Walker who was looking at him, confused.
“I’ll explain some more later, the thing we really need to be worrying about is the pony that attacked you.” The Doctor said.
“But they’re just a gang, nothing but a band of criminals.” Walker said.
“No, the TARDIS took me here for a reason and unless it’s just a massive coincidence that the gang just happened to come after you and that other place, what was it called?” The Doctor rambled to himself. To others he probably sounded like a madman, rambling on about different things, changing the subject at a moments notice. But his thoughts were actually very organized, he could just process information very quickly. Which is how he can just flip through the pages and finish a book in a matter of seconds.
“It was called Blissey's or something like that.” Walker said. “But could you explain to me how in the hell I’m standing right here if the Walkers died out a long time ago?”
“I have no idea, isn’t it brilliant!” The Doctor said, suddenly very excited. “But I know where we might get some answers.” The Doctor loved puzzles and other mental pursuits of the sort, and to him Walker’s past was like one giant puzzle across Time and Space, maybe even reality. It made his skin skin crawl with excitement.
“And where would that be?” The pegasus asked.
“Do you have any parents that are still alive. Anyone who raised you?” The Doctor asked.
“Yeah, there’s my mom an-”
“Good lets go pay her a visit.” The Doctor said cutting him off and putting a hoof around Walker’s shoulder and leading him along. Though what The Doctor didn’t know was that Walker’s mother was one of the only ponies that couldn’t take anything seriously, they were off to pay Pinkie Pie a visit.
