Doctor Whooves - Silence is Golden

"So what do you think of all this, Doctor?" Luna asked, bundling up tighter in her coat as they trekked across the frozen planet.

The Doctor had been deep in thought, and was snapped out of it by Luna's question, "Well, I always try to help those in need, and if this Silence-Pony, whatever he is, tells me these ponies need my help, I won't turn my back."

"But why do you do it, Doctor?" Luna blurted out, asking the question she had held in for quite a while, "With your TARDIS, and your knowledge, you could do anything! Go anywhere! Why do you stop at all? Why do you do the things you do?"

The Doctor thought for a moment, thinking about how to answer. After a moment, he took a breath and said, "Let me give you a bit of history about the Timelords, Luna. And feel lucky, not many ponies have ever heard this..."

Luna watched him with rapt attention, eager to learn.

The Doctor paused, gathering his thoughts, then began, "Timelord is not a species, Gallifreyan is. Timelord is a rank, and order, of sorts. Gallifreyans are given to the order as young children, very young. When they reach the age of eight, they are taken to look at the Untempered Schism, a hole in the fabric of reality, just a child. We stare into the raw power of the universe, taking it all in. Some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad."

"What did you do?" Luna asked, interrupting but achingly curious.

"I ran, of course," The Doctor sighed, "And I never stopped running."

Luna said nothing, fully absorbed in the story.

"After that milestone, young timelords begin their study," The Doctor continued, "working, doing chores, and studying the sciences and arts until they reach young adulthood, at one hundred eighteen."

"What?" Luna asked suddenly.

The Doctor ignored her, "When we reach that age, we choose our name. As you have probably guessed, 'The Doctor' is not my real name, it's the name I chose when I entered the order of the Timelords. And a name is a special thing, very special. I suppose I'm lucky in that aspect, While you are only known as Luna, and nothing more, Timelords have three names; the name their parents give them, the name they choose when they mature, and their real name. A timelord's real name must never be spoken aloud, it has terrible power." The Doctor looked out into space, thinking. Then he returned, "But I'm getting ahead of myself. The name a Timelord chooses, their title, it's not something to be taken lightly. The name you choose is a promise, a promise that all timelords are honor bound to keep, until their very last death."

Luna ignored that last bit, "So you chose...'The Doctor'." She confirmed.

The Doctor nodded, "The Doctor is the pony who fixes everything, the one who makes everything better." He stopped walking and turned towards Luna, looking her in the eye, "And that's what I do, I fix things, and I make them better. That's what I've done for 900 years, and that's what I'll do as long as I live."

Luna nodded, slightly apprehensive, and slightly excited after learning all that history. She had gotten a peek into the passion of a timelord, and she loved it.

But The Doctor was already past it, reinvigorated by his renewal of his beliefs, he picked up the pace, walking towards the east slightly faster than before, "Come on, then, Allons-y! I think I can see the town just over that hill!"

Luna had to run to keep up with him, but she smiled like she was having the time of her life, and she was. Travelling with The Doctor, seeing new things...in that moment, she knew she wanted to do this forever.

She wasn't the first.

The Doctor was right, there, over the hill, was a town! A small collection of oddly shaped buildings jumbled together in a big mess, they were almost at it!

But then, suddenly and without warning, what looked like ten ponies in strange suits, wielding enormous guns, burst out from in between the buildings and pointed their weapons, The Doctor and Luna in their sights.

The Doctor and Luna skidded to a halt, sitting down and holding up their forelegs as a sign of surrender, "What on earth is this, now?" The Doctor asked, outraged at the sight of the guns.

Then, one pony walked ahead of the others, wearing the same strange suit. But then the pony held up its hoof, and all the other lowered their weapons.

The pony reached up and removed its helmet, to reveal underneath an earth pony mare, with dirty yellow fur, and a big, curly, dirty blonde mane. she smiled and said in an I'll-probably-kill-you-someday-but-not-today voice, "Hello sweetie."

"Oh no," The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Don't tell me you're archaeologists, are you?"

"And what's wrong with that?" asked the mare in a snappy voice, though she didn't seem upset.

"I'm a time traveler, I point and laugh at archaeologists."

The mare smiled and held out a hoof to shake, "River Song, archaeologist."