Episode 1 - Daleks in Ponyville
Chapter 1 - Who Said That?
The TARDIS swung violently from side to side. Sparks flew from various places, and things rolled this way and that in tune with the wildly rocking time-and-space machine. The Doctor was all over the controls, using his hands and feet as he tried to gain control of his ship. He had been blasted out of nowhere by a huge solar flare, the source of which he didn't have the time to discern. He repeatedly had to pat out budding fires in his hair caused by the sparking and buzzing Gallifreyan machinery. Ignoring that for the most part, he frantically flipped switches, pushed buttons, and flippity-tooed the bingle-bongles, but to no avail; Sexy was just too riled up to calm down again.
As a failsafe, the Doctor zeroed in on the nearest gravitational body and performed an emergency timeshift towards it, hoping the TARDIS would latch on and he could perform repairs.
And it latched, it certainly latched, except when the TARDIS landed, the entire ship pitched to one angle, and the Doctor went flying into the doors, knocking them open and tumbling head over heels into a bed of weeds. He groaned from the force of the impact and rolled over, looking up to see he had successfully landed his TARDIS in a tree.
For a moment he simply laid there, throwing his hands up indignantly. Eventually he was going to have to get that down, but for now he stretched out, getting more comfortably suited in the weeds and catching his breath.
Something moved in the vegetation nearby, and he froze. He was in a small dip in the ground, perhaps whatever it was wouldn't notice him here. He took this chance to remind himself he didn't know what planet he was on, or what sort of life it had. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) it had trees, which meant it had oxygen, but it also meant it had mobile, not necessarily friendly, life.
The noise neared closer; what seemed like a fairly large creature was stomping through the plants nearby, and the Doctor held his breath.
A head poked over the grassy knoll which concealed him, and the Doctor started laughing, releasing all his nervous energy.
The potentially dangerous alien lifeform that had found him was just a pony.
The Doctor laughed at his own fright, and began sitting up straight, smiling at the alien pony. "Hello!" he greeted the animal, waving at it's confused face. Grabbing the nearby vegetation for leverage, he put himself on his own two feet and looked over the pony more closely. It seemed a great deal smaller than the ones he was used to on Earth, and it's proportions were significantly skewed. It's head alone seemed to be alone a third of it's bodily volume, and it's eyes appeared to be the largest organs it had. Not to mention it's peculiar coloring; the adorable creature's fur was gray while it's mane was a light blond color.
"Look at you!" The Doctor gushed, placing his hands on either side of the pony. It seemed panicked, but did not back away. He turned it's head this way and that, describing the animal to himself, "Aren't you the most adorable alien ever?" He petted the creature, scratching through it's mane.
The creature just looked at him with it's big, golden, crossed eyes.
"Aww," the Doctor said when he noticed the visual impairment, "That's not good. Though you seem full grown, maybe you've learned to deal with it-oh!" he said suddenly, looking around the pony to see a pair of wings on it's back. The Doctor let out a wheezy laugh of amazement when he saw them, and knelt down in front of the pony, saying, "You've got wings!" he let out another whoop of laughter and stood back up, admiring the pony. "A right, regular Pegasus," he said, recalling the old human legend, "I've seen quite a lot of things in my life, but never that!"
He turned away from the pony and stepped out of the knoll to inspect his surroundings. He appeared to have landed on the edge of a forest; behind him was a multitude of trees, and in front of him was a large, rolling, uphill slope of grass.
"Is there any intelligent life on this planet, then?" He asked the gray Pegasus behind him. Of course, the poor thing couldn't understand him; he had accidentally jarred the translation matrix when he crashed. And he knew that for a fact, he could sense it in the psychic link between him and the TARDIS. That was another thing he was going to have to fix, but for now all it meant that he was speaking plain English to the alien pony.
And as a result, the pony didn't answer him, only staring at him with it's crossed eyes.
Nevertheless, the Doctor nodded understandingly, "Well, I don't have to fix the TARDIS right now," he said, "Perhaps I can do a bit of exploring first. Any planet with pegasi is one I'm bound to like." and he began walking up the hill.
He heard a noise, and turned back to see the pony had taken a few steps towards him. He gave it a wide grin and said jokingly, "Hey, stop following me! I'm not your mother!"
Of course, the pony didn't leave.
The Doctor simply shrugged, said, "Alright," and continued walking towards the hill, thinking he could hear something coming from it.
"What are you?" asked a feminine, childlike voice.
The Doctor immediately spazzed, whipping his hands up protectively next to his head and bending down low, spinning slowly around, eyes darting this way and that. "Who said that?" he asked, turning around and around to look for the source of the voice. "Come on, now, show yourself!" He looked back at the gray Pegasus and asked, "You heard something, right?"
The Pegasus nodded, "It was me."
The Doctor froze, eyes wide and mouth agape. "It talks..." he said finally. He began laughing again, throwing his hands around, "It talks!"
"Of course I talk!" said the pony, scrunching up it's muzzle, "Now, mister, I don't know what you are, but your big blue box thingy is in my tree."
The Doctor couldn't help himself. He walked over to the talking pony. "D'awww," he said aloud, giving the little pony a big hug, "You are just so cute!"
The pony rose up one of it's hooves and pushed the Doctor away, "Are you okay, mister?"
The Doctor nodded, regaining his composure. He stood up, putting his hands awkwardly into the pocket's of his suit. The pony barely came up to his chest; about four feet tall. Truly, a little pony.
"So, um," the Doctor said, breaking the awkward silence, "There are more...talking ponies on this planet?"
"Well, yeah," the pony said, "It's nothing new."
"New to me!" The Doctor argued light heartedly. "Can you take me to them?" he requested. A planet full of talking ponies, that was something he had to see!
"W-well, sure, but..." the pony started nervously, "They might freak out when they see you, since you're..."
"Timelord," the Doctor finished for her, straightening his tie with a prideful smile, "An Alien, basically-well, alien to you-I come from another planet." he explained.
"That's nice," the pony said it like it wasn't nice.
The Doctor thought for a moment, "I've never really had to worry about a disguise before, since timelords look like humans-well, humans look like timelords, whichever way you see it-but..." he snapped his fingers, "I've got an idea," he ran to the tree which held his TARDIS, climbing his way up into the bigger-on-the-inside ship.
The pony followed him, "What is this thing?" she asked curiously.
"It's my ship," the Doctor explained, wrapping his legs around the main console and hanging upside-down in the overturned ship. "It can travel through all of Time And Relative Dimension In Space, or TARDIS." he began pulling various wires out of the bottom of the machine, reconnecting them in various places.
The pony nodded as if it understood, but the Doctor doubted it did. "So what are you doing?"
"I'm trying," the Doctor grunted, yanking a piece of technology out of it's slot, "To isolate the chameleon circuit in this console here. You see, my ship doesn't actually look like the blue box you see out there, it only looks that way because the chameleon circuit makes it look that way."
"So?"
"So, I had the idea that if the chameleon circuit could cloak the most advanced piece of Gallifreyan technology to exist, perhaps it can cloak," he grunted as he pulled out one more thick cable, "A Gallifreyan," he finished. He pulled out a wire and held it carefully above his skin, wincing as he stuck it into his arm. Acting quickly, he reached up and flipped a switch.
Sparks showered out of the makeshift cloaking device, and he felt his genetic makeup beginning to be altered. "Oh yeah!" he said, remembering something particularly crucial. He reached down and, without warning, plucked a hair from the pony's mane, swallowing it. "I need pony DNA," he explained. She just stared at him.
Another shower of sparks flew out, and the Doctor was suddenly changed. He was much more bulky, and he lost his grip on what was holding up, and he fell back down onto the bed of weeds again, but this time, when he stood up, he was about the same height as the pony.
He opened his mouth to say something, but began coughing and hacking, using rather bulky appendages to remove a hair from his mouth. He handed it back to the pony, saying, "Here,"
"Keep it," she said, shaking her head.
The Doctor nodded, inspecting his new form. It had worked; the chameleon circuit had made him look like a pony! He had light brown fur, four hooves, and a tiny picture of an hourglass on his rump, "Not bad," he remarked vainly, looking back up at the pony, "What do you think?"
The pony rolled her eyes.
The Doctor nodded and said, "Alright, I'll take that as a, 'fine'. Now, can you take me to these other ponies?"
"Alright," she agreed carefully, walking towards the hill.
The Doctor loped after her gleefully, relishing the new feeling of having four legs instead of two, "This is just marvelous!" he remarked as he followed her.
The pony looked at him, "I'm Ditzy, by the way. Ditzy Doo."
"Hello, Ditzy!" The Doctor greeted warmly, "I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor Who?"
Chapter 2 - There's Stuff Here
"I don't believe it!" whooped the Doctor with laughter as he trotted this way and that, taking in every detail of Ponyville. He looked through market stalls, watched fillies run this way and that, and invaded the personal space of far too many ponies for Ditzy's own liking. For the umpteenth time, the Doctor ran back to Ditzy's side and said, "They're ponies! And they talk! A whole planet, with talking ponies!" emphasizing each point with a wave of his new hooves.
For the umpteenth time, Ditzy rolled her eyes at the Doctor's foolishness, "You're definitely an alien," she remarked.
The Doctor let out a giggle at her joke, then suddenly froze, all frivolousness gone in an instant, "Hold on, now," he said seriously.
Ditzy stopped walking, looking at the Doctor, who had donned his mask of seriousness unnaturally quickly.
The Doctor spun on his hoof towards her and pointed at her, "You said if these ponies saw me in my timelord form then they would freak out," he remembered.
Ditzy nodded. "I said that," she confirmed.
The Doctor readjusted his stance, looking at Ditzy suspiciously, "Then why didn't you?"
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out, "...U-um, well-" she choked.
Out of nowhere, somepony not looking where he was going tumbled into the Doctor, cutting Ditzy off. The Doctor quickly regained his composure and looked up to apologize, only to see the Doctor standing in front of him.
Ditzy's mouth stayed wide open as she watched the two Doctor's look at each other, tilting their heads in sync.
The second Doctor suddenly began fumbling with his hooves, looking away, "Sorry," he muttered, "must've not been...paying attention." he awkwardly nodded towards Ditzy and the Doctor, and then made his way around them, running off in some direction.
The Doctor that was left watched himself run away, then turned back to Ditzy, "That was me," he observed, "Well, a future version of me."
Ditzy nodded, "That's weird," she observed, trying very hard to remain calm.
The Doctor looked at her; she could see the gears in his mind turning, "What's weird about it is that he's still here...and if he came back...and you didn't freak out when you saw me...that means..."
He spun on his hoof and began walking down the street, not straying his path to look at the sights anymore.
Ditzy lunged after him, keeping with his brisk pace, "What does it mean?" she asked.
"There's something here," the Doctor stated ominously, "Something that shouldn't be." He turned to Ditzy again, "I need to know all of the knowledge you have of extraterrestrial life, now." he instructed.
Ditzy was confused, and a bit scared at his seriousness. Just minutes ago he had been so jovial, relishing in the thought of a planet full of ponies, but now...he was something else. "W-what?" she asked carefully.
"Why didn't you freak out when you saw me, an alien, fall out of your tree?" he rephrased.
Ditzy thought back, forming her words carefully. "Well, actually, I had seen you before. I didn't know you at the time, but you kinda barged into my house, in your, uh, timelord form, and you started talking to me like you knew who I was. After a while, I guess, you realized that I didn't know you, and left. And then, later on, I saw you fall out of the tree, and you didn't know me."
"That's because that version of me is from the future," the Doctor explained, still walking unswervingly forward, "It hasn't happened to me yet."
Ditzy suddenly realized what he meant, "What, you mean, like, time travel? Like, in the movies?" she asked.
"That's right," the Doctor confirmed, halting his pace to look at her, "I'm not just an alien, I'm a time travelling alien."
"That's so cool!" Ditzy said, unable to contain herself. She loved watching sci-fi movies; time travel, aliens, space travel, all of that stuff fascinated her, and the Doctor was living it! She didn't doubt him in the least; after all, she had seen him as a timelord, she didn't need any more proof that he was an alien.
"Yes it is," the Doctor said. He did not smile. "What's less cool is that, while I managed to stumble across the lovely planet, something else did too."
"Well, how do you know?" Ditzy asked.
The Doctor looked her in the eye, "I came here twice," he said in unshakeable certainty, as if that was all the proof he needed. "Have you seen anything out of the ordinary lately?" he asked.
"You mean, like-"
"Yes, besides me," the Doctor interrupted, rolling his eyes.
Ditzy nodded, "Got it," she said, thinking back. She scrunched up her muzzle, trying to remember if she had seen anything remotely alien, besides the Doctor, of course, but she couldn't come up with anything, so she shrugged.
The Doctor clicked his tongue like he was expecting that result, "Alright, I've got another idea," he said, walking right up to the nearest house and putting his hoof on the door.
Ditzy was aghast, "What are you doing?" she asked.
The Doctor looked back at her, "What?"
"Y-you can't just barge into somepony's home!" Ditzy insisted.
"Did you just say, 'some-pony'?" he asked, smiling like that was the funniest thing ever. Disregarding the rest of her statement, he swung the door open wide and walked right in like he owned the place, chuckling to himself.
Ditzy stayed outside, and from the inside she heard a strange conversation.
"Who the hay are you?"
"Uh, clock inspector, I'm here to, uh, inspect this clock right here."
"Hey! Put that ba-"
"Mm, mm, mm, doesn't look good. No, no, see, we're going to-have-to-" Crack! "There we go!"
"That was five bits!"
"No, no, see, not in this condition. You see this thingamabob? See, it should be connected to the doohickey, when in actuality it's right above the yickety-too, no, that's no good, see, I'm going to have to take this into shope, good luck with you, and the best of luck in all your future ventures!"
The Doctor leapt out of the home, closing the door quickly behind him and holding a partially disassembled clock in his hooves. Out of nowhere, he pulled out a long, silver tube capped with a blue light and shone it on the clock pieces with a high pitched buzzing, twisting wires around parts and rearranging gears and motors.
"Doctor! What in Equestria did you just do?" Ditzy asked with worry.
"I might've stolen a clock," the Doctor conceded, not taking his eyes off of the clock parts. When he was satisfied with his construction, he showed it to Ditzy with a sly smile, "Ding," he said.
"What's that?"
"It's a machine that goes, 'Ding'," the Doctor explained helpfully. The machine looked like a roughly thrown together plate of clock parts wrapped in wires and topped with a slowly rotating disc. He pulled it back and looked at it with a smile, stepping off of the doorstep, "It also detects signs of alien life and downloads comics from the future-I never quite know where to stop-but, pertaining to what it is specifically," He threw a hoof over Ditzy's shoulders and held the machine in front of her face, "This, my little pony, is my timey-wimey detector."
Ditzy looked at the timey-wimey detector, and then the Doctor with a blank look on her face.
"It goes, 'Ding', when there's stuff," he said with a straight face, "And it'll help us find whatever's here that's not supposed to be."
The Doctor didn't let go, seeming to be waiting for something. Ditzy finally nodded, "O-okay?" she said.
The Doctor instantly leapt off of her, "Okay!" he agreed, holding the timey-wimey detector very close to his face and walking off in a straight line, "Allons-y!" he cheered.
Ditzy ran after him, thinking, Dear Celestia, does he always have to run? "What does that mean?" she said instead.
Chapter 3 - Eggs
"So, it's another language. An alien language," Ditzy confirmed. The Doctor had explained his invocation of the expression, "Allons-y" as such.
"Yes," the Doctor nodded, not looking away from his timey-wimey detector that ticked away endlessly in his hoof.
"And there's an entire planet of these...aliens, that speak it?"
"Well, not all of them," the Doctor conceded, "There's lots of languages on that planet. English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish,"
"French," Ditzy added, remembering the language the Doctor had called it.
"Yes, and French," the Doctor chuckled.
"And you know not only all those languages, but Equestrian, too!" Ditzy inferred, marveling at how smart the Doctor must have been to know so many languages.
"Actually, I don't," the Doctor admitted, "See, my ship, my TARDIS, it has a translation matrix that makes everything I say sound like whatever language you know, and whatever you say sound like a language I know-which would either be English or Gallifreyan."
"Oh," Ditzy said, feeling slightly reprimanded, "Well, it's a good, uh, matrix; you sound exactly like a pony."
"Actually, I don't," the Doctor repeated, finally looking at her, "See, I knocked the matrix when I crashed; I'm speaking plain English, which is why I was so surprised when you started talking back to me."
Ditzy's brow furrowed, "But, you're speaking Equestrian!"
"No, I'm speaking English." the Doctor corrected, "And so are you; you just call it Equestrian."
"B-but how is that possible?" Ditzy argued.
"I don't know!" The Doctor agreed, "How is it possible?"
Ditzy opened her mouth, but, not knowing how to respond, said nothing.
The timey-wimey detector went, 'Ding'.
The Doctor's face lit up like a light on a Hearth's Warming Eve decoration. "Come on, Ditzy! We found a thing!" he whooped, running off in the direction of the ding.
Ditzy ran after him, taking a moment to look at their surroundings. They were in a secluded corner of the town, one she had never seen before. She could see the Everfree forest a ways away, and the timey-wimey detector seemed to be leading them to a large, abandoned, stone chapel atop a hill opposite the forest. How long has that been here? It looks so old!
They ran right up to the enormous wooden doors of the chapel. The timey-wimey detector was dinging away furiously, and the Doctor nodded at it, "Yes, yes, thank you very much," he said, and shut the detector off, chucking it over his shoulder. Ditzy almost made a sound of objection at his carelessly tossing away of the technology, but held back at the last second.
The Doctor loosened his shoulders in preparation and put his hooves on the door, turning back to Ditzy, "There could be absolutely anything behind this door. Friendly, not-so friendly, I don't know, but most definitely...alien. Are you ready?"
Ditzy looked from the Doctor to the doors back to the Doctor. She felt butterflies in her stomach; watching the movies was so much different than actually doing it. Of course, in an endless universe of aliens, she wasn't sure what she was expecting, but the Doctor was certainly a surprise. Taking a deep breath, she nodded.
An enthusiastic grin spread across the Doctor's face and, with a mischievous glint in his eyes, thrust the doors wide open.
The inside of the chapel was completely empty.
The Doctor's face went from happy anticipation to bewildered disappointment in a second. "Aww, what?" he said, walking into the empty building.
Ditzy cautiously followed him, saying, "What happened?"
"I don't know," the Doctor said, running a hoof through his mane in confusion, "I could have sworn...what?" he threw his hooves in the air, shaking his head, "where's the thing?" he yelled.
"Eggs..." a scratchy voice croaked.
Ditzy and the Doctor spun around simultaneously and saw the source of the voice tucked in the corner of the chapel, behind the doors. The Doctor immediately threw a hoof across Ditzy's chest protectively, pushing her backwards, away from the thing. Ditzy pushed back, squinting at the thing, "What is it?"
The thing was about as tall as a pony, except it looked like a giant, brass cone topped with a dome; a whisk and a plunger were stuck in it about halfway down, and it had a stalk-like thing stuck in it's dome. It looked damaged: charred, pieces of it were obviously missing, and it had wires and other things spilling out of it. It was leaning next to the wall, sparking and smoking. "Eggs...Eggs..." it repeated in it's croaking, metallic voice.
"It's a Dalek," the Doctor explained, "Stay away from it."
Ditzy didn't see what was so dangerous about it, but the Doctor seemed very apprehensive about it's presence, so she stayed where she was, "What does it want? Did it say, 'eggs'?"
"No, it's not trying to say eggs," the Doctor explained in a low voice, "It's saying, 'exterminate'."
"eXTERMINATE!" the Dalek said suddenly, it's appendages jumping at the sound of the phrase. The Doctor reacted immediately, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and pointing it menacingly at the Dalek.
"What are you going to do with that?" Ditzy whispered frantically, heart set aflutter with fear at the Dalek's sudden outburst, "Build a cabinet?"
"That's really rude!" the Doctor rebutted, not lowering the device.
Luckily, that seemed to be all the Dalek had in it, as it did not move any further, only continuing to repeat, "Eggs...eggs...eggs..." Ditzy could now tell it sounded more like, "Ex...ex...ex..."
The Doctor, breathing with relief, let go of Ditzy and straightened himself up. Ditzy only then realized she had been holding tightly to the Doctor out of fear of the Dalek, and quickly straightened herself up as well.
The Doctor moved to put his sonic away, but then held it up to Ditzy and said, "Don't diss the sonic. It may save your life someday."
Ditzy was unsure if he was serious or joking, but when the Doctor smiled at her apprehensiveness, she rolled her eyes.
The Doctor chuckled to himself and then went up and sat down on the step that lead up to the stage at the front of the chapel. Ditzy followed him, sitting down on the step next to him, and they both looked at the Dalek in the corner, who continuously muttered, "Ex...ex...ex..."
"I suppose I should explain," the Doctor said finally, "That thing over there?" he pointed out, gesturing to the Dalek. Ditzy nodded and he continued, "It's a Dalek. They're a race of hateful, supremacist aliens."
"Supremacist?" Ditzy repeated.
The Doctor nodded somberly, "They believe their race is pure, higher than any other in the entire universe. They plan to prove that by killing every other species in the universe," he looked at Ditzy, "including ponies."
Ditzy said nothing, now fearful of the machine in the corner. She scooted closer to the Doctor protectively.
"My people, the timelords, they fought the Daleks in a war. The Last Great Time War," the Doctor explained.
"Did you win?" Ditzy asked.
The Doctor looked at her for a moment, and then shook his head, "No. But," he added, "I killed the Daleks-all of them-twice! Once was in the Last Great Time War, the other was to prevent the leader of the Daleks Davros from dissolving all of reality with a reality bomb. Well," he added, "the second time wasn't necessarily me, more than it was a metacrisis human clone of me who did it. I had to trap him in a parallel universe as punishment. Though it wasn't necessarily punishment, as he's currently living out his days with the woman I..." the Doctor stopped rambling, looking at Ditzy out of the corner of his eye, "Bottom line, I killed all the Daleks."
Ditzy didn't really understand anything the Doctor was saying, but she understood the bottom line. "So what's the problem?"
"Problem is," the Doctor continued, pointing at the Dalek in the corner, "There's one right there."
"Ex...ex...ex..." the Dalek said.
"And I don't know why," the Doctor finished.
They sat there for a moment longer in silence. Ditzy didn't have the slightest clue what to do-she had only realized aliens were real that morning-but even the Doctor seemed at a loss. She opened her mouth to say something encouraging, but was cut off by a masculine voice from outside.
"Look out!" it screamed, and the doors exploded.
Chapter 4 - Stoppit
The doors blew open, and in came a wildly bucking pony riding atop a rampaging Dalek. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
"Get down!" the Doctor screamed, tackling Ditzy to the floor just in time for the Dalek to start shooting dangerous looking beams of blue energy all around the room. Ditzy watched as one of the beams hit a decorative column in the corner, which immediately disintegrated. She clutched to the Doctor tightly, screaming.
"Woah, there!" the pony fearlessly riding the Dalek called out, holding a strange, crook shaped device. He held it to the Dalek's dome and pulled some sort of trigger, and the Dalek immediately exploded.
"Oh, no, no, no!" the Doctor said when the smoke had cleared, "No, why'd you kill it?" he scolded, getting up and pushing past the strange pony to inspect the smoking Dalek husk.
The pony he'd brushed past walked towards Ditzy, calling over his shoulder, "Would you rather I let it live and kill us all?" he said it casually, but Ditzy could tell he was serious.
He was a Pegasus with dark blue fur, a black, spikey mane, and a very handsome face. Ditzy almost blushed when he knelt down next to her, flashing a brilliantly white smile, "Hi," he said.
"Stoppit," the Doctor immediately chastised, without hesitation. His head whipped up and he stared at the pony with wide eyes, mouth agape, "No..." he said.
The pony looked at the Doctor carefully, "Wait a minute," he said, "That can't be...?" he walked towards him.
The Doctor took careful steps towards the pony, "...Jack?" he asked.
"Doctor?" Jack asked.
The Doctor let out a wheezy whoop of laughter and gave Jack a huge hug. Jack returned the embrace, laughing along with him.
They let go of each other and the Doctor straightened himself up, "I can't believe it! How did you get here, why do you look like a pony?"
"You think you can keep this find all to yourself?" Jack said teasingly, "An entire planet full of magical, talking ponies with a gender ratio of five females in every six? Doctor, how could you be so selfish? I'm ashamed." he laughed.
"I don't understand," Ditzy interjected, "You two...know each other?"
The Doctor clasped a hoof to his forehead with a smile, "Of course, I'm sorry. Ditzy, this-"
"Captain Jack Harkness," the pony interrupted, holding out a hoof to Ditzy with a smile. Ditzy shook his hoof, and he winked at her.
The Doctor had gone back to inspecting the Dalek Jack had blown up, "Seriously, now," he said, "How'd you get that body?"
Jack held up his hoof and gestured to a strange leather strap around it, with a piece of embedded in it. "Manipulator," he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "How did you?"
"Chameleon circuit," the Doctor responded, pulling out his sonic and running it over the still sparking Dalek experimentally.
Jack nodded understandingly, then turned to Ditzy, "And this is...?"
"Ditzy. Ditzy Do," she introduced, "I like your coat."
Jack looked down at the long, gray overcoat he wore and smiled, "Maybe the three of us could get a drink sometime."
"The three of us?"
"You, me, and the coat," Jack explained with a wink.
"Jack," the Doctor said, looking at him out of the corner of his eye, "Stoppit."
Jack suddenly inhaled, "Aaah, I see," he said, turning back to Ditzy, "You must be his new companion, that's nice. I was his companion once, he didn't move fast enough for my tastes."
Ditzy laughed at that-the thought of the Doctor not being fast enough for anypony blew her mind.
"But that's besides the point," Jack said, suddenly becoming businesslike, "Doctor, you've no doubt noticed that we weren't the only ones to find this treasure of a planet."
"So I hear," the Doctor agreed, giving up on scanning the Dalek and standing back up, "Do you have any idea why they're here?"
"No, I was hoping you would know," Jack said, tapping his manipulator, "This thing told me you were nearby, just didn't expect you to look like a pony."
"The feeling's mutual," the Doctor said, scratching his head and looking at the Dalek, "But why are they here?"
"I can answer that," said a new voice, and another pony walked out of the shadows behind them.
It was the Doctor, except he was wearing Jack's manipulator. Ditzy looked from Doctor to Doctor, somewhat expecting the universe to implode. Her knowledge of time travel was imaginative at best, but shouldn't this be some sort of paradox?
The second Doctor walked over to Jack, taking Jack's manipulator. He then walked over to the first Doctor and wrapped it around his hoof, pressing a series of buttons, "Look up," he said, then pressed one more button, and the first Doctor vanished into thin air with a buzz.
Ditzy gasped when he vanished and turned to the Doctor that was left. This Doctor reached down to his own hoof and removed the manipulator on his hoof, tossing it to Jack, who caught it and put it back on. "I just sent myself back in time an hour or so to investigate why there were Daleks on this planet. I know why now."
"Wait," Ditzy said, "I'm still trying to get my head around this." She pointed at Jack's manipulator, "That's a time machine too?"
Jack and the Doctor nodded, "Cheap, messy time travel. Not as satisfying as using a TARDIS." the Doctor said.
"Okay, and you," she pointed at the Doctor, "just sent your past self back in time and hour, and then, an hour later, he...is you?"
"Yes."
"Okay! I think I'm all caught up!" Ditzy said with a smile.
Jack smiled at her, "You have a fitting name," before Ditzy could think about what that was supposed to mean, he turned to the Doctor and said, "So, what's up, Doc? Why are there Daleks in Ponyville?"
The Doctor put up his hoof and gestured for them to follow him, "Follow me," he said ominously, and turned around and walked away.
Chapter 5 - Oh
The Doctor was plucked out of time and dropped back into the church an hour earlier, now alone, with no trace of Daleks anywhere.
He stood up and dusted himself off to find that he was now standing on two legs. The manipulator had shorted out his chameleon circuit. "Blast," he muttered to himself, "Gotta get back to the TARDIS." and he made a dash for the doors.
He ran out of the building and tumbled down the hillside, only tripping ~~once~~ twice, and made his way back to where he thought his TARDIS was, being careful not to stumble into town in his inconspicuously conspicuous normal timelord form.
"Now what did I say to me a few minutes ago, an hour from now?" he mused as he sneaked around comically small pony buildings. " I said, 'look up', what could that mean?"
Suddenly, he heard a loud crashing, and turned around to see Ditzy staring at him with wide, fearful eyes, and a dropped telescope at her hooves
"Ditzy!" he cheered, "Thank goodness! Can you help me find my TARDIS?" He took a step towards her.
Ditzy scrambled backwards, leaning up against the wall of her home fearfully, "S-stay away from me!" she demanded, her knees knocking, "W-what aRE you?"
"What?" the Doctor said, brow furrowing in confusion. "Oh, oh!" he started, "Right! I haven't met you yet! Sorry!"
"W-what does that mean?" Ditzy asked, inching away further and further.
The Doctor held up his hands nonconfrontationally, "Don't be scared! I'm not going to hurt you!"
"...y-you're not?" Ditzy asked.
"No!" The Doctor said, "Look-" he was cut off as he heard his iconic vworp vworp ring through the trees behind him. He whipped around and sighed in relief, "Ah, there it is!"
"There what is?" Ditzy demanded.
But the Doctor was already running through the trees, "I'll tell you later!" he promised, making his way to the TARDIS.
When he arrived at his crash site, he was careful not to alert himself to his presence, and hid in the bushes as he saw himself meet Ditzy and form a disguise and head off towards town. As he watched himself leave, he could only reach up and grab his own hair and say, "Blimey...is it really that spikey?"
He shook his head dismissively, "Never mind that," and he leapt out of the bushes to the TARDIS, climbing up into the perpendicular console of his TARDIS-in-a-tree, swinging his legs around the central centrifuge, and hacking into the chameleon circuit again.
Soon enough, he fell out of his TARDIS with four clunky hooves once more.
He hopped up to his legs and two extra legs, dusting himself off. "Brilliant!" he declared, "Now to find those Daleks! 'Look up', what does that mean?" he mused again as he ran into town.
Stopping in town square and out of ideas, on a whim, he looked up into the sky.
There, approximately 10,574 kilometers above the planet was a Dalek satellite, orbiting around Equestria.
"...Oh. That's what that means."
He started running through town, thinking of ways to get up to the ship, "Now how did I miss that?"
His train of thought was cut off as he collided with something large and clunky, and looked up to see himself, Ditzy standing behind him.
The Doctor looked at the Doctor for a few seconds of befuddlement, tilting his head in sync with the Doctor, until the Doctor suddenly began fumbling with his hooves, looking away, "Sorry," he muttered, "must've not been...paying attention." he awkwardly nodded towards Ditzy and the Doctor, and then made his way around them, running off towards the Dalek satellite.
"Alright, I think that's every paradox explained," the Doctor said to himself as he ran, trying to fumble with his sonic screwdriver. "Except for Jack, I think."
As he ran he passed by a market stand selling clocks, and he snatched one as he passed by, ignoring the "Hey!" of the market stall owner. He modified the clock with his sonic, building another timey-wimey detector, and he set it to detect Daleks. Following the dings (and gleefully cheering "Ding!" with each one) he found a lone Dalek behind a shack on the edge of town.
The Dalek found him too, turning around and screeching, "THE DOCTOR HAS BEEN LOCA-"
The Doctor quickly cut him off as he jammed his sonic into the head of the Dalek, shutting it down midsentence. "Do these things ever shut up?" he muttered, scanning through the Dalek's hardware until he found-
"Aha! An emergency timeshift!" he cheered, activating it and immediately transporting both the Dalek and him up to the satellite.
But in hindsight, this was probably not the best course of action, as three fully functional Daleks were going about their business in the same room that he was transported to.
"INTRUDER" said one.
"Oh, really? Where? How'd he get in?" the Doctor inquired, clutching with his hooves to a sparking, smoking, shut down Dalek. "Intru-da window?"
The Daleks began firing at him, and the Doctor hid behind his Dalek for dear life, rifling through his pockets for something that he could use.
All he found was a stale jammy dodger.
"Oh, that's where that went!" he said, chuckling to himself. Until the Daleks continued firing, and one bullet struck the Dalek he was crouching behind full on, almost obliterating the top half and leaving it as a charred, sparking husk, which continually clicked out, "Ex-, Ex-, Ex-...,"
"Alright, that's enough of that, I think!" the Doctor said, using his sonic to activate the timeshift inside his Dalek before it was destroyed completely. But before he left, he hopped up on top of the Dalek and said to the other three, "Alright, now I don't know what you all are doing here, and I don't know what you want with this planet. But I want you to go and tell your leader," he felt the timeshift activate as he finished dramatically, "It! Is! Defended!"
And he was transported back down to the surface, inside the stone church of all places.
"Well isn't that lucky?" the Doctor mused, "Ah well, better start preparing," and he pushed the sparking Dalek into the corner, then went and hid in the opposite corner behind the stage, waiting for himself.
Chapter 6 - Pacing
The Doctor threw open the doors of the church and stepped out, closely followed by Ditzy and Jack. The Doctor headed right for town, not stopping or slowing.
"Doc, what is it? Where are the Daleks?" Jack demanded, breaking into a trot to keep up with the Doctor's brisk stride.
"Up there," the Doctor said, pointing into the sky and not breaking his step.
Ditzy looked up, but she didn't see anything. But Jack did. He stumbled a single time as the realization struck him. "What? What is it?" Ditzy asked.
Jack looked at her, fear dancing imperceptibly in his eyes, "It's a satellite, orbiting this planet. And it's full of-,"
"Daleks," the Doctor spat. He wore a frown etched deeply on his face, and his teeth started grinding. "But I don't get it! Why? Why are they here? How are they here?" He stopped abruptly and swung on his hoof, turning around and pacing a few steps before turning back. He paced back and forth, continually muttering to himself, "Why, why?" and grinding his hoof against his forehead.
Ditzy stopped in her tracks, watching the Doctor fearfully. He had stopped in the middle of town, and now other ponies were making their way around him as he paced. She suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to see Jack gesturing for her to sit on a nearby hay bale.
She obliged, and Jack sat next to her, grunting as he landed, "This'll take a while. The Doctor tends to get like this when he doesn't understand something."
Ditzy nodded, her eyes following the Doctor as he paced back and forth and muttered Gallifreyen obscenities under his breath.
"But don't worry, it doesn't last long," Jack assured, "Soon enough he'll have a stroke of brilliance or cleverness and figure out a way to save the day and everyone. Happens all the time," he bragged with a slight smile on his chiseled face.
Ditzy gave a slight chuckle, but fell quiet soon after.
Jack nodded thoughtfully. "So how long have you been travelling with the Doctor?" he asked suddenly.
Ditzy turned towards him, confused. "Travelling...? I, I don't..."
"Oh!" Jack said, "This is your first time?" Ditzy nodded, and Jack laughed again, "Well, I know the Doctor can be...a little overwhelming, for the first time, so," he broke off in laughter at his own joke, "So, you're doing very well for a first-timer."
Ditzy smiled back, "Well, I've always loved sci-fi, and space, and all that stuff. In fact, when I first saw the Doctor I was going out to set up a telescope; there's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight!" Ditzy stopped suddenly when she realized, "I guess I'm going to miss it now.."
Jack smiled knowingly, "I think you're gonna see it a lot closer than you thought."
Ditzy looked at him, puzzled. "What do you mean?"
Jack nodded towards the Doctor, who was fervently discussing his current dilemma with a market stall pony who clearly didn't understand but was sympathetic all the while. " -so if the Daleks could somehow activate a reverse temporal shift through the Medusa Cascade by siphoning energy from the eye of harmony, perhaps they could reverse the polarity of the neutron flow in the encryption of the timelock, but where would they find such a massive banana?-"
"You've got a chauffer right over there," Jack said with a sly smile. "And, if you're really his new companion, the first one is free."
"Chauffer?" Ditzy repeated with giggle.
"Oh yes," Jack nodded, "He can take you to see that meteor shower so close you'll worry about getting hit by one!"
Ditzy smiled, relishing the thought, "But I could never ask that of him," she objected.
"You don't have to," Jack said, tapping the side of his nose with his hoof, "He'll ask you." Jack readjusted his seat, looking at the Doctor and thinking hard. "How does his speech go again? 'Anywhere and everywhere. Every star that ever was, is, or will be. where do you want to start?'"
"W-why do the, the dah-links need a banana, again?" the market pony asked tentatively.
The Doctor tilted his head disbelievingly and gestured broadly, "Because time engines need a good source of potassium! Now, if we assume the Daleks are calculating with ninth dimensional Aristarchian space in mind,-"
"That does sound nice," Ditzy said with a smile, "But it feels like today will never end!" she giggled.
"It always feels that way with the Doctor," Jack nodded, "But...everything ends eventually." he said, no longer smiling.
Ditzy noted his change of face, "Why do you say that?"
Jack looked at her, "Did the Doctor ever tell you about his home world?"
"Ditzy, Ditzy!" called another voice as somepony dashed up towards her. A yellow pony with a bright orange, poofy mane skidded to a halt in front of her, "Ditzy, something's wrong!"
"What is it, Carrot Top?" Ditzy said, hopping to her hooves.
"Lyra's missing! Bon Bon too!" Carrot Top wailed, "And there's signs of a struggle at their house!"
"Well did you go to the police?!" Ditzy asked fearfully.
"I did, but they can't do anything until they've been missing for twenty four hours or whatever!" she continued, quickly losing her composure, "Oh, Lyra! Bon Bon!"
"That doesn't sound good," Jack commented, getting to his hooves.
Carrot Top turned to him and hesitated, "O-oh, hello..and who are you?"
Jack flashed her a brilliantly white smile, "Captain Jack Harkness," he introduced, extending a hoof, "Hi,"
Carrot Top began giggling unbecomingly, tentatively taking Jack's hoof.
"Carrot Top!" Ditzy yelled, snapping her out of it. "Lyra? Bon Bon?"
"Right, oh right!" Carrot Top continued her wailing, "Lyra! Bon Bon!"
"What sort of struggle did it look like?" Jack inquired.
"I-I don't know," Carrot Top said, flustered. "There were these strange tracks all over the place, like wheels, and there were these blast marks all over the walls and furniture, like magic bullets-"
"Did you say blast marks?" the Doctor shouted, dashing over as fast as his clunky hooves could carry him, stumbling just thrice.
Chapter 7 - The Sonic
The Doctor, Ditzy, Jack, and Carrot Top all filed through the front door of Lyra and Bon Bon's home, surveying the destruction of the inner sanctum. Furniture was overturned, objects and knick knacks were strewn about, and broken glass and pottery dusted the floor. And, just like Carrot Top said, there were small wheel tracks and blast marks here and there.
The Doctor ran to a nearby chair, which had had it's back blasted off, and was now blackened and ashy. He traced the blast mark with his hoof, smelling it. "Concentrated electromagnetic radiation...Zed Radiation burns," he stood up and took a breath of relief or fear. "The Daleks were here."
"So they're kidnapping ponies?" Jack guessed, "But why?"
"I don't know," the Doctor said, taking out his sonic screwdriver, "But I plan on finding out," he began scanning the blast, then turned to scan the rest of the room.
While Ditzy watched the Doctor scan, Carrot Top prodded her shoulder, "Ditzy," she whispered, "Who are these strange ponies?" Her eyes went from Ditzy to the Doctor to Jack, and then they stayed at Jack, looking him up and down, "These...very attractive...strange ponies."
Ditzy rolled her eyes, then gestured to them in turn, "That's the Doctor, and, well, you already know Jack."
"Not as well as I'd like," she let out an unbecoming giggle and then purred at Jack.
Jack's ears perked up, and he shot Carrot Top a sly smile, winking at her out of the corner of his eye.
Ditzy pushed Carrot Top's shoulder, snapping her out of it. She turned back and shook her head out, "Right, and that fellow..."
She gestured towards the Doctor, who was crouching on the floor, conversing fiercely with a plush pony toy, "-So perhaps the Daleks are kidnapping ponies to use as slaves in their nurseries? I don't see why, though, any robot nanny couldn't do the same job, better than a pony, even!-"
"He's a doctor?" Carrot Top remembered.
"He's the Doctor," Ditzy corrected, "He's an alien."
Carrot Top nodded, "He certainly acts alien," she chuckled, though Ditzy could tell she didn't actually believe her.
Jack made his way around broken glass to tap on the Doctor's shoulder, clearing his throat, "Um, Doctor?"
"Yes, what?" the Doctor responded, turning away from his conversation with the doll, looking up at Jack
"Have you got any brilliant ideas you'd like to share?" Jack suggested.
"Yes, yes," the Doctor agreed, getting to his hooves. "Right then, now I don't know why the Daleks are here - or how, for that matter, they should all be dead twice over by now - but-,"
"Excuse me," Carrot Top interrupted, "What are 'dah-links'?"
The Doctor waved his hoof airily, "Hateful, omnicidal aliens from the future, now," he held up his hoof to punctuate his points, "they are kidnapping ponies, and I don't know why they're doing that either. But I can track them," he fumbled around a bit and held up his sonic screwdriver, "With this."
"What's that?" Carrot Top asked incredulously.
The Doctor looked at her, honestly surprised at her ignorance, "Sonic Screwdriver!" he declared, flipping it around in the air and catching it by the handle.
"It's some kind of tracker?" Carrot Top guessed.
"Tracker, medical scanner, flashlight, audio recorder, door locker, door unlocker - that's the most useful bit, uhhh yeah, it does a lot of things," the Doctor suddenly looked out into space, a sad twinkle in his eyes, "But not wood.."
Carrot Top smirked, "Does it, I don't know, drive screws?" she suggested.
The Doctor raised one of his brows at her, "Course it does, what kind of screwdriver doesn't drive screws?" he put the sonic in his pocket and walked towards the door, turning towards Carrot Top as he passed and said, "Who are you, anyway?"
Carrot Top's jaw dropped, and she gave Ditzy a disbelieving look, "I'm Carrot Top!"
"Hello Carrot Top," the Doctor said, pushing the door open and sweeping his sonic back and forth, looking for the trail the Daleks took. "I'm the Doctor,"
"Doctor who?" Carrot Top asked incredulously.
Before he could respond, the sonic began pinging, and the Doctor let out a cheer, "Found 'em!" he whooped, "Come on, Ditzy! Jack!" and he dashed out the door, looking back to say, "Carrot Top! You can, you can stay here, actually. Allons-y!"
Jack dashed out after him, and Ditzy followed close behind, saying to Carrot Top as she passed, "It's just, 'The Doctor',"
Carrot Top was left standing in Lyra and Bon Bon's door, looking unsure of what to do now.
The Doctor, Ditzy, and Jack ran through town, following the pinging of the sonic. They were lead out of town and down towards the edge of a gloomy, frightening forest. Jack and the Doctor dashed right through the foliage onto the path, but DItzy skidded to a halt right outside of the forest.
The Doctor and Jack halted when they realized Ditzy wasn't with them, and turned to find her sitting on the edge of the forest, just outside of the shadows. "Ditzy? What is it? Come on!" the Doctor instructed, gesturing for her to follow, "The Daleks are this way!"
Ditzy shook her head, "T-this is the Everfree Forest!" she stammered, "W-we can't go in here!"
Jack turned to the Doctor, "What do you think?"
"Local superstition, pure nonsense," the Doctor whispered back, then yelled, "Ditzy! Come on! It'll be fine!"
"T-there's timberwolves! Manticores! Things that eat ponies!" she said, trembling.
Jack shook his head, "Should we leave her?" he asked.
The Doctor turned from him to Ditzy and began speaking slowly, "Ditzy, I'm sure there are scary things in this forest, but I promise you, the scariest thing in these woods," a strange fire lit up his eyes, and a mischievous smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, "is me."
Ditzy couldn't help but smile at that, and she believed it too. Taking a deep breath and gulping down her fears, she stepped into the forest, keeping a brisk pace as she caught up with them.
Chapter 8 - DAAAAAAAALEKS
They ran through the forest as fast as they could allow, with Ditzy jumping into the trees at every snapping of a twig. "How is she doing that?" Jack asked under his breath.
"She's got wings, didn't you notice?" the Doctor replied.
"I thought they were just for show; mine are," he reasoned. Then Jack's eyes went off into space, pondering the usefulness of a functioning pair of wings when-
"Jack, stoppit."
They followed the pinging of the sonic, which was growing steadily faster as they ran. Clambering over large, black roots and dashing past tall, gnarled trees, eventually they reached a point when the Sonic's pinging lead them off the path, and they made their way through the thick foliage. The wheel tracks of Daleks soon became very apparent underhoof.
Soon enough, the sonic's pinging had rose enough that it started to sound like one constant sound. But by that time they could see what it was leading them to, so the Doctor shut it off and tucked it back into his pocket.
They gathered around their destination; a strange, circular piece of machinery that appeared to be built into the forest floor. It was shaded by the tall trees all around, and the plants nearest to it were starting to wither away.
"Teleporter pad," the Doctor explained, "This is how the Daleks are getting from their satellite to the surface. And," he hopped up onto it, "How we're going to get in. Come on, then!" he gestured for his companions to follow.
Jack hopped up, but Ditzy hesitated, "I-is it safe?"
"Nope," said the Doctor and Jack in unison.
Ditzy let out a noncommittal whine, looking at the teleporter in apprehension.
"Would you rather wait here?" Jack suggested, gesturing to the forest around them.
Ditzy took one look at the Everfree forest behind her and immediately hopped onto the teleporter pad.
The Doctor smiled and let out a small laugh, "Right, then!" he said, pulling out his sonic and pointing it at the teleporter, "Allons-y!"
Ditzy couldn't explain what it felt like to teleport. It was almost like diving through a sheet of water, but stepping out on the other side perfectly dry. Nevertheless, within an instant the three ponies were standing on another teleporter pad, with completely different surroundings.
They were in a room with walls, floor, and ceiling all made out of metal, and pipes ran this way and that down an empty corridor. The room was lit up by several panels of technology in the ceiling. Ditzy pointed at one and asked, "What are those things?"
Jack looked at her, "Light bulbs," he answered simply.
Ditzy continued to stare at them in amazement. The Doctor leaned over Jack's shoulder and whispered, "They're still a primitive species." Then he hopped off of the teleporter and went to the exit of the room, poking his head around the walls and peering into the corridor. "Looks empty," he said, turning back and gesturing for Ditzy and Jack to follow.
They did, and the Doctor led them down the corridor silently, gesturing for them to be quiet too. "I don't know how many Daleks are on this satellite," he said, "Right now I just want to find out where they're keeping the ponies they've kidnapped."
"Why do they need ponies, Doctor?" Ditzy whispered, glancing over her shoulder to watch for Daleks.
"I really don't know," the Doctor apologized, "But whatever it is, we're going to stop them." he promised, leading them into another corridor to the left.
After some time of wandering in silence, Jack's ears perked up suddenly. "I hear them, Doctor," he said, pointing to a room some ways down the corridor, "in there."
The Doctor nodded and he made his way to the room as quickly as he could, trying to keep his hooves from clattering noisily on the metal floor. Ditzy and Jack followed close behind.
When they were close enough, they could all hear the Daleks, and it sounded like one was giving a speech to the others. His scratchy, metallic voice echoed through the halls as he spoke. "AS YOU ARE NO DOUBT AWARE, THE DOCTOOOR HAS BEEN SPOTTED ON THIS PLANET.
"EXTERMINATE!" cheered another one.
"YES, WE MUST LOCATE THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS AND EXTERMINATE HIM!" agreed the first, "THEN WE WILL CONTINUE WITH THE GRAND EXPERIMEEEEENT! WE MUST CAPTURE MORE OF THESE PRIMITIVE PONIES FOR OUR RESEARRRRRCH!"
"Grand Experiment?" the Doctor repeated, looking out into space as he crouched next to the doorway, "Why does that sound familiar...?"
"ONCE THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS HAS BEEN EXTERMINATED, THE DALEKS WILL REIGN SURPREEEEME! THE CULT OF SKARO SHALL SPREAD ACROSS THE ENTIRE UNIVERSSSSSE!" the Dalek continued.
"Cult of...Skaro...what?" the Doctor shook his head, thinking hard, "But that's...that's impossible!"
"What's impossible?" Ditzy asked, crouching next to the Doctor for protection.
"The Cult of Skaro is dead...all of them...I've seen it!" The Doctor raked his hoof through his mane thoughtfully, "Unless..." his eyes suddenly opened, and he gasped quietly, "Oh...oh? Oh! OH YES-"
"Shh!" Jack whisper-shouted.
The Doctor fell quiet, his hooves tapping on the floor excitedly, "Oh, yes," he whispered to nopony in particular," Oh, that's brilliant."
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" the Daleks chanted.
"Jack," the Doctor whispered, pulling out his sonic, "I've got a plan,"
"One step ahead of you, Doc," Jack said, snatching the sonic and pointing it at his vortex manipulator. "Now, how do you...?" the sonic buzzed for a moment until Jack's manipulator clicked, and he smiled. "Got it," he said, tossing the sonic back and getting to his hooves.
"What's he doing?" Ditzy asked the Doctor fearfully, clutching to his foreleg.
"Easy, easy," the Doctor comforted her, "Just watch, and, um, try not to panic."
Fearlessly, Jack walked casually up to the door and into the room. He held the manipulator up to his mouth and spoke, and his voice came out sounding like a Dalek's. "PERSONALLY I THINK THE DOCTOR IS AN OKAY FELLOOOOOW!" he screeched.
"INTRUDER!" one Dalek screeched, "ONE OF THE EXPERIMENTS HAS ESCAPED! EXTERMINATE HIM!" and several blasts of energy could be heard, echoing down the corridor, followed by a loud thump, as if something heavy had just hit the floor.
"Jack!" Ditzy yelled, but the Doctor held her down.
"Easy, easy!" he whispered, "He's not dead, it's okay!"
"H-he's not?" Ditzy asked, trembling in fright.
"No, he's still very much alive," the Doctor promised, "Look, it's complicated, but Jack can't die. He literally is unable to die, he just...sorta, comes back."
"TAKE HIS BODY TO THE EXPERIMENTATION ROOOOOM!" one of the Daleks ordered, and the sounds of another Dalek wheeling his way to Jack's body could be heard just after.
"And now, he's leading us right to your friends," the Doctor explained, "See? Brilliant, right?"
They crouched lower as a Dalek wheeled out of the room and down the corridor away from them, with Jack's unmoving body on top of the Dalek's dome.
Then, Jack opened his eyes, winked at Ditzy, and shut them again.
Ditzy took in a deep breath, relief flooding her body.
"Come on, then," the Doctor whispered, silently following the Dalek, "Let's go find your friends."
Chapter 9 - The Grand Experiment
Ditzy and the Doctor followed the Dalek in complete silence, being extremely careful not to alert it of their presence. The Dalek led them through various corridors and past several rooms until it reached one in particular, which it opened by placing its plunger appendage over a small slate next to the door. The door opened and the Dalek wheeled inside, going off to one side to deposit Jack's body somewhere.
The Doctor ducked in right behind the Dalek, pulling Ditzy in just as the door closed. But before Ditzy could perceive the contents of the room, the Doctor pulled her behind a pile of some technology and crates. There they sat, waiting until they heard the Dalek leave the room, and the door slid shut again.
Then the Doctor jumped up, looking around at the room. "Blimey," he whispered.
Ditzy looked too, and she gasped in shock.
Hundreds of ponies, too many to count, lay in medical cots, hooked up to strange machinery all around. Some of their beds were on the floor, but most were hanging from the ceiling, held up by a system of strings and cords.
"What is this, Doctor?" Ditzy asked.
The Doctor sighed, "The Grand Experiment," he replied.
Jack hopped off of the cot the Dalek had placed him on, pulling out various tubes and walking over to the other two. "Alright, we're here," he noted, "What's next?"
The Doctor looked around, surveying the sheer size of the experiment, "Well, we've gotta get these ponies back on the surface, somehow," he mused, blowing air through his lips, "Boy, the Cult of Skaro didn't skimp on the kidnappings."
"And that's another thing, who are the Cult of Skaro?" Jack asked, "You seem to know who these Daleks are, so what are they doing? Why did they kidnap these ponies?"
The Doctor stepped over to a crate and sat on it, pausing for thought. Ditzy settled next to him, listening closely. "The Cult of Skaro...is dead," he started, "Well, dead from where I'm standing...in time. See, I've run into these Daleks before, I've seen them die. Each of them. But here they are, so, we can assume," he scratched his mane thoughtfully, "It hasn't happened to them yet... My past is their future."
"But what's the Grand Experiment?" Ditzy asked, "Is that why they need ponies?"
"It is," the Doctor nodded, "The Grand Experiment is the Dalek's last resort. The Cult of Skaro is looking for ways to improve the Dalek species. They want to become better, stronger. They need to adapt. And that's why they need these ponies," He gestured to the rest of the room, "because they're gonna turn them into Daleks. Pony, Dalek hybrid species."
"That's terrible!" Ditzy said, holding her hoof over her mouth in shock, "We have to stop them!"
"And we will," the Doctor promised, getting to his hooves. "Don't know how, but..." he made his way over to one of the medical tables, "Ah, I'm sure I'll think of something clever. I have a habit of doing that." He pulled the sheet off of the pony and looked them over, "Do you recognize this one, Ditzy?"
Ditzy got up to look, then gasped and dashed to the cot's side, "That's Lyra!" she exclaimed. And it was! The mint green pony lay on the medical cot, hooked up to various tubes, cords, and an oxygen mask.
"You mean the one that orange haired pony was wailing about?" Jack asked, looking over the unconscious Lyra and smiling oddly.
"Jack!" the Doctor scolded incredulously, "I'm psychic, you know!"
Jack started laughing, but he didn't stop smiling oddly.
The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Well, it'd take too long to get every pony out of here one by one...suppose we could fit them all in the TARDIS, if we absolutely have to, but...-"
"THE DOCTOR HAS BEEN LOCATED!" screeched a metallic voice.
The three ponies spun around to see a Dalek standing in the open doorway. "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" it shouted, a hum ringing out as it raised its weapon.
"No!" Jack shouted, jumping in front of the Doctor. The energy bullet struck him dead center, and for a moment his entire body was lit up, and Ditzy could see his skeleton. Then he fell to the floor and didn't move.
"Run, Ditzy!" the Doctor shouted, dashing right towards the Dalek! "Fly!"
And she did! She flew up into the higher part of the room, landing deftly on the edge of a suspended medical bed, watching anxiously as the scene below her unfolded.
The Doctor ran straight at the Dalek, miraculously dodging it's bullets as it continuously screamed, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
"You're not exterminating anything!" the Doctor yelled, leaping up on top of the Dalek. He wrapped his hind legs around the base, and his forelegs around the top, riding the Dalek like a madman.
"EXTERMINATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" the Dalek screamed, its voice rising higher and higher as it backpedaled around in circles, trying to reach the Doctor.
The Doctor fumbled around for his sonic, hanging onto the Dalek for dear life. He managed to get the sonic into his hooves and he held it right against the top of the Dalek's dome, switching it on. "That's enough of that," he grunted as the Dalek skidded to a halt, it's motors deactivated. Ditzy flew down from her perch and landed next to Jack, who reached out weakly to her. She helped him to his hooves, but he hung on her shoulder quite heavily, "Thank you," he grunted, "I hate getting shot by Daleks," he muttered.
The Doctor released it's grip on the Dalek, hanging atop it limply as he breathed heavily, "Right, then," he panted. "You...what's your name?"
The Dalek was silent for a moment, then responded loudly, "I AM DALEK CAAAAN"
"Oh, Dalek Caan," the Doctor said, wrapping his hooves around its dome almost as if he was giving it a hug, "I'm sorry, really, I'm so, so sorry. You're not gonna like what's in store for you."
Dalek Caan was silent, then he began speaking rapidly, "CULT OF SKARO, THE DOCTOR HAS INFILTRATED OUR SATELLITE!"
The Doctor hopped off of Dalek Caan, "He's telling the others!" he shouted, making a dash for the door, "Ditzy! Jack! Follow me! I've almost got a plan!"
"EXTERMINATE HIM AT - ALL - COOOOSTS!" Dalek Caan shouted as Ditzy and Jack ran out of the experimentation room, following the Doctor.
Chapter 10 - The Satellite
The three ponies ran down the metallic corridors, led by the Doctor to an unknown location. As they passed by various rooms, the rest of the Cult of Skaro emptied out and gave chase, until all four Daleks were wheeling after the Doctor as quick as they could, continuously shouting, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
Blue energy bullets narrowly missing them on all sides, the Doctor finally ducked into one room, and Ditzy and Jack gladly followed. The room they were in now was stuffed to the brim with technology, and a huge display screen covered the back wall. "What is this room?" Ditzy asked.
"The flight center," the Doctor explained, dashing around and over technology until he was at the main controls, "This is how they keep the satellite up and in orbit." He spun around and pointed at Ditzy and Jack, "Now get down, both of you! I'm about to do something incredibly stupid, but absolutely brilliant."
Ditzy ducked next to a table of controls, slightly worried by the Doctor's choice of words. But then she looked over and saw Jack smile and mouth the words, "What'd I tell you?"
Before she could respond, the Cult of Skaro entered the room, and the lead Dalek, his voice deeper than the rest, observed, "THE DOCTOR HAS BEEN CORNERED"
"Not necessarily," the Doctor replied, pulling out his stale jammy dodger, "One step - wheel, thing - closer, and I activate this!"
"AND WHAT IS THAT" the lead Dalek inquired.
"Oh, this is a deadly weapon," the Doctor assured, "When I activate it, this whole satellite'll go up!"
Ditzy's eyes widened in fear, but she looked over to Jack, who shook his head reassuringly.
"THE DOCTOR WOULD SACRIFICE HIMSELF TO KILL FOUR DAAAAALEKS?" the leader concluded.
"You better believe it," the Doctor promised, hoof dancing across his jammy dodger.
"RULE NUMBER ONE" the Dalek reasoned, "THE DOCTOR LIEEEEES!"
"You willing to bet your life on that?" the Doctor asked, menacingly holding up the stale cookie.
But suddenly, another Dalek began speaking, "MY SENSORS INDICATE THE DOCTOR'S DEVICE IS A PASTRYYYY" he observed, "AND IT'S STAAAAAAALE!"
"...oh," the Doctor responded, "You can scan from this far away?"
The Daleks began firing.
The Doctor popped the cookie into his mouth and ducked under a table of controls while the Daleks shot wildly, all four of them filling the room with screeches of "EXTERMINATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"
When suddenly, one of the stray bullets hit the table of controls at the front of the room, obliterating it. When the smoke cleared, the controls were destroyed, sparking, and charred.
The Doctor cheered and hopped back up, "You lot just destroyed your gyroscopic maintenance controls!" he explained happily, "And do you know what that means?" he taunted, "It means the satellite is falling! And you lot can ride it to your deaths, haha!" he clapped his hooves. As if to punctuate his statement, a huge crash echoed through the satellite, and the whole thing tilted slightly to one side. The Doctor clutched to a table to steady himself, "oh, brilliant!" he cheered.
"THE DOCTOR SPEAKS THE TRUTH" said one Dalek.
"THE CULT OF SKARO MUST FLEEEE" the lead Dalek declared, "WE WILL LEAVE THE DOCTOR TO DIE HERE."
"You do that," the Doctor nodded.
"EMERGENCY TIMESHIFT ACTIVATED" the leader announced, "THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS WILL NOT STOP THE GRAND EXPERIMENT!"
The Doctor merely waved goodbye as the Daleks slowly disappeared, enveloped in envelopes of time energy. When the last Dalek had gone, he stopped waving and his expression became steely. "I already have," he muttered.
Jack hopped up, and Ditzy followed suit. The Doctor smiled at them and spread his hooves apart, "They're gone!" he announced.
Jack pumped his hoof in the air in celebration, while Ditzy was in no mood to celebrate. "Did you really try to bluff with four omnicidal aliens from the future, with a stale cookie?"
The Doctor shrugged, the smiled mischievously, "I've done worse."
Another huge crash echoed from the far side of the satellite, and the floor tilted heavily to one side, sending the three ponies stumbling. The Doctor caught himself and looked up at the satellite fearfully, "Oh yeah," he panted, "We're still falling."
"Falling?" Ditzy exclaimed as she clutched to a set of controls.
"Out of the sky!" the Doctor clarified, running to the obliterated controls, "headed right towards the surface, where we'll crash, and all the ponies in here are gone." He flipped levers and pushed buttons, but to no avail - the satellite was still rocketing down out of the sky.
"What can we do, Doctor?" Jack asked, looking over the charred controls.
"I," the Doctor clarified, "am going to stay up here, fix these controls, and get the satellite into a stable orbit. You," he looked at Jack, "take Ditzy, use your vortex manipulator, and bring her home. Safely."
"I'm not leaving, you Doctor-!" Ditzy objected.
"That's an order!" the Doctor snapped, looking from Jack to Ditzy, "Nobody dies today. Not on my watch."
Jack tapped Ditzy's shoulder gently, "It's okay," he assured, "I trust the Doctor."
"You think he knows what he's doing?" Ditzy whispered.
Jack hesitated. "I trust the Doctor," he repeated. Then, abruptly, he swung his foreleg around Ditzy's body and held her close, activating his vortex manipulator with his other hoof. The two were engulfed in a ball of time energy, and within an instant, Ditzy found herself feeling grass and dirt under her hooves instead of metal.
Carrot Top was sent sprawling backwards out of shock of the two ponies appearing right in front of her out of nowhere. "Ditzy! What? Where did you come from?"
Ditzy didn't answer, looking up into the sky and straining to see the satellite. There, a tiny, shining speck in the sky, slowly getting bigger, and slowly getting closer.
"He's not going to stop it, is he?" Ditzy asked quietly.
Jack said nothing, looking up into the sky and watching the satellite too. Suddenly, his eyes snapped wide open, "No, but I know how we can help!" he shouted, "Ditzy, do you know where his TARDIS is?"
Chapter 11 - The TARDIS
"There it is," Ditzy said, leading Jack to the tree behind her house where the Doctor had crashed, "it's stuck in that tree."
Jack ran over and hopped up on his hind legs, peering into the TARDIS, "At least the doors are open," he noted. Leaping up, he latched his hooves onto the sides of the doors and pulled himself in. Then he reached his hoof down to help Ditzy up, "Come on," he instructed, waving his hoof.
Ditzy stepped closer, unsure of something, "Are you sure we'll both fit?" she asked. "This ship doesn't look all that big.."
But Jack laughed off her worries, "Come on up, this is the best part."
Ditzy shrugged and grabbed Jack's hoof, who pulled her up swiftly into the ship. Carrot Top, who was standing off to the side, awkwardly waved and said, "I'll just wait here, then."
"You do that," Jack nodded, and he leaned down and pulled the doors shut, "Alright, now," he said, turning around, "Let's see if we can get this thing right side up." He began struggling to climb up to the TARDIS's console.
Ditzy, however, was flying around the perpendicular ship, marveling, "It's...it's bigger on the inside!" she shouted, doing little spins in the air.
Jack grunted, clambering onto the console and laughing, "The Doctor loves that bit," he explained.
Ditzy landed deftly next to him, "Come on, why aren't you flying?" she asked, "You've got wings, haven't you?"
"They're just for show," Jack laughed, "All part of my pony disguise." He began experimentally flipping switches and pressing buttons, "Now...how do you fly this thing?"
"You don't know how to fly it?" Ditzy asked, "Then why did you ask me to bring you here?" she exclaimed.
Jack shrugged, "Thought I could figure it out, I've seen the Doctor do it a million times," he reasoned, absentmindedly poking and prodding the technology, "A little different trying it out, I guess," he chuckled.
Ditzy gave him a look, her worry about the Doctor still trapped in the crashing satellite slowly rising.
Jack noticed her change of face and gave her a playful push, "Well come on, then! Help me figure this thing out. Push some buttons or something," he instructed calmly. "You wanna help the Doctor, right?"
"Of course!" Ditzy agreed, flying around the console and looking for buttons to press.
"There you go!" Jack praised, pulling a lever and hearing a satisfying hum. "The TARDIS is a living thing, you know. Not just a machine."
"Really?" Ditzy asked, digging through bits and bobs to uncover a strange plate of metal.
"Oh yeah," Jack said, "They're built on Gallifrey, the Doctor's home world. He actually stole this one," he laughed.
"No way," Ditzy dismissed, uncovering the plate to reveal a brightly shining blue core.
Jack leaned over the console and laughed, "It's true!" But his jollity ceased when he saw what Ditzy was looking at. "Ditzy.."
Ditzy didn't answer him, staring deeper into the light emanating from the heart of the TARDIS.
"Ditzy, Ditzy no! Don't look at that!" Jack shouted, helpessly reaching for her.
Ditzy's eyes began glowing, and she absorbed the light and energy from the core, as a metallic shhhing! filled the air. And, just like that, it was over. Ditzy's eyes stopped glowing, and the plate covering the core swung shut.
Jack hesitated. "Ditzy?" he asked carefully.
Ditzy blinked and looked at Jack. "Yeah?" she asked.
Jack's eyes went from Ditzy to the TARDIS and back, "...are you okay?" he asked.
"Of course!" Ditzy assured. She suddenly swung herself up around the console and began pushing buttons, flipping levers, and flippity-tooing the yickety-ta's, and looking very much like she knew what she was doing.
Jack watched in amazement, and the TARDIS responded. The iconic vworp vworp filled the air, and the TARDIS suddenly righted itself, sending Jack sprawling on the floor. He hopped to his hooves and watched Ditzy work the controls. She was all over the console, using all four of her hooves to fly. Her eyes darted back and forth from the controls to the small display screen above them.
She suddenly looked at Jack and gestured for him to come over, "Well, come on!" she instructed, "Push those buttons; red, red, blue, red, green," she rattled off, "then pump that lever up and down to the rhythm of Stayin' Alive."
Jack hopped over and did as he was told, "How are you doing this?" he laughed.
Ditzy paused, looking off into space for a moment, then came back, shrugged, and continued flying.
The Doctor was all over the controls of the satellite, trying and failing to get control of it. The whole room swung violently from side to side, and as the satellite built up speed, it began heating up through friction with the atmosphere. The machinery sparked and shook, and the Doctor clutched to the controls and hung on for dear life, trying to keep a stable orbit, but to no avail.
The Doctor shook his head, grinding his teeth angrily, "Come on!" he shouted, banging on the table with his hoof, "What's wrong, why isn't it responding?"
He dove down and began taking apart the control panel, looking at the wires and circuits underneath. Showers of sparks rained down, and the Doctor patted out budding fires in his mane, yanking out useless wires and circuits.
And then he saw the problem. There, at the very back, was a huge, charred blast hole through the mother board of the controls. The Dalek's blast had reduced the very control board to ashes.
The Doctor banged his hoof against the table again, "Blast!" he shouted. He couldn't fix the controls because there was nothing left to fix!.
He climbed out of the controls and got to his hooves, "I can't fix it," he said under his breath, "All those ponies...-"
Vwooooorp.
The Doctor spun on his hooves, shielding his face from the shower of sparks. "What?" he breathed.
Vwooooooorp.
The TARDIS materialized inside the control room of the satellite, right in front of the Doctor. The doors opened, and Ditzy and Jack hopped out. "Doctor!" Ditzy cheered.
The Doctor let out a whoop of laughter, "Oh, brilliant!" he cheered, and dashed over to his ship, stumbling with the rocking of the satellite.
Chapter 12 - The End
The Doctor ran into his TARDIS, clapping his hooves. "Right, then!" he cheered. "Now we're getting somewhere!" He ran over to the controls and clambered over them, flipping switches and pushing buttons.
Ditzy and Jack followed the Doctor over, "What now, Doctor?" Ditzy asked.
"Now," the Doctor grunted in between controlling controls, "I'm gonna save this satellite. All I need is a stabilizing, energized ion net to catch it in, and then I'll tow it out of it's crash course and land it safely!"
Jack let out a laugh, "You're gonna tow the crashing satellite to the surface?"
The Doctor rested his hoof on one final lever, looking up at his companions, "You better believe it," he said, and he flipped the lever.
Within moments, the TARDIS was level, and the rocking stopped. The Doctor took a step away from the controls and gestured grandly, laughing triumphantly, "You see! And look!" he cheered, running to the doors and pushing them open, "There's the-!" he took a step back "Satellite..."
"What?" Ditzy and Jack stepped over and looked out at the satellite. It was shaped like a giant Dalek.
The Doctor gulped, "That's unsettling.." he remarked.
The Doctor towed the satellite gently down to the surface, landing it just outside of Ponyville, so no one would freak out from the sight of a giant Dalek. When they landed, the sun had set, and the moon was making it's slow rise into the sky.
Slowly, they began the task of waking up the hundred ponies kidnapped by the Cult of Skaro. Dazed and confused, they were lead by the Doctor, Jack, and Ditzy out of the satellite and back into town.
"I had the strangest dream," Lyra remarked to Ditzy, "I had a dream I was kidnapped by aliens...and they were going to turn me into one! ..how did I get outside?"
"It's alright, it's okay," Ditzy comforted, "This way."
When the ponies were conscious enough to get home by themselves, the Doctor and Jack stood off to one side, supervising.
"I didn't know you could fly the TARDIS," the Doctor remarked to Jack, "Top notch."
Jack smiled and laughed, "As I'd love to accept your praise, Doc, I can't," he confessed, "Ditzy flew us up there."
The Doctor looked at him, confusedly, "How so?"
Jack looked back at him, a flash of worry in his eyes, "She looked into the heart of the TARDIS, Doctor."
The Doctor's eyes widened, and his mouth opened, but he didn't say anything.
"What's gonna happen to her, Doctor?" Jack asked, "I mean, her eyes were glowing, it was the whole thing! Will it be like the same thing with Rose?"
The Doctor looked over at Ditzy, who was leading her friends back home, dazed and confused. "I don't know," he commented. "Maybe...maybe the TARDIS gave her the knowledge of how to fly it? I..." he shook his head, "She seems fine now, I...I don't know."
Jack nodded, "Well, keep an eye on her."
The Doctor nodded, chuckling, "I don't know if i'll have the time." he confessed. "...I'm dying, Jack."
"Dying?" Jack repeated.
"My song is ending," the Doctor quoted. "I received a prophecy...'He will knock four times'...he will knock four times, and then I die."
Jack smiled knowingly, "Well, I mean I know this face was your favorite," the Doctor smiled at that, looking down bashfully, "But...you're not dying, Doctor." he promised. "I've got a confession too."
The Doctor looked at him curiously, "Go on," he said.
Jack smiled, "This face...it's not the same face you know. I've gotten older," he chuckled, "I've got a few centuries under my belt, now!"
"No," the Doctor said, surprised.
"Oh yes!" Jack said, pointing to his mane, "See? I've got a single gray hair."
The Doctor saw it, "Oh, look at that." he observed.
Jack nodded, "And I've seen your next face," he said next, "So, you may not be - what is it now - Ten? But, the Doctor will live on."
The Doctor looked off into space, musing on that, "Well that's good to know, but...I don't wanna go."
Jack smiled, "None of us do," he laughed.
Ditzy walked over to them, having finished leading all her friends back home. She stood next to the Doctor, smiling at him and Jack.
Jack smiled back, "and that's my cue to go," he said, stepping to one side. He turned around and saluted the Doctor. "Doctor," he said goodbye.
The Doctor saluted back to him.
Jack winked at Ditzy, "Ditzy."
Ditzy giggled and waved goodbye.
Jack finished saluting, reached down, and activated his vortex manipulator.
"Jack," the Doctor called, "You die. In the end."
Jack looked up, eyes wide with hope.
"I was there - I'll be there," the Doctor promised, then smiled and shook his head, "But not for a long time."
A smile spread across Jack's face, and he was still beaming as he dematerialized, teleporting elsewhere.
The Doctor smiled, and then looked down at Ditzy, who looked back up at him and asked, "What now?"
He nodded his head side to side thoughtfully, "Same old life, I suppose," he said, "Back to the TARDIS, exploring the universe. Fighting Daleks, all that good stuff."
Ditzy smiled and laughed, but fell quiet.
The Doctor rocked on his hooves, tongue in his cheek, "Would you come with me?" he asked finally.
Ditzy looked up with glee, "Really?"
"Sure," the Doctor laughed, "Never had a pony for a companion before.
Ditzy smiled, then looked back at Ponyville, "But I can't just leave,"
"I'm a time traveler!" the Doctor reasoned, "I could take you to the end of the universe, the beginning of the universe, anywhere in between! And you'd still be back in time for dinner."
Ditzy laughed, pretended to think for a moment, then nodded, "Okay," she said with a smile.
The Doctor smiled back, "Brilliant," he remarked.
The two looked up at the night sky just in time to see a shooting star streak across the sky. "What was that?" the Doctor asked.
Ditzy gasped, "The meteor shower is starting!" she said with glee, "Oh, I was going to set up my telescope and watch it!"
"Bah," the Doctor dismissed, waving his hoof, "Who needs a telescope?" he turned towards Ditzy and winked, "How'd you like to see it up close?"
"Really?" Ditzy asked, already on her hooves.
The Doctor hopped to his hooves, "Come on! Before it's over!" he said, running off in the direction of his TARDIS, "Allons-y!"
Epilogue
Ditzy screamed in delight, stretching her hooves out further and further. The Doctor stood beneath her, his hoof wrapped around her leg to keep her tethered to the TARDIS, as they floated in the middle of the meteor shower. Ditzy cheered with each passing meteor, marveling at the view of the glowing red-hot streaks of color. They shot past through the inky blackness, growing smaller and smaller until they became indistinguishable with the thousands and thousands of stars painted on the background of space behind them.
The Doctor then pulled Ditzy back into the TARDIS, but he left the doors open, so they could lay down and kick their hooves out in the vacuum of space. Ditzy gladly settled down next to the Doctor and sighed, "It's so beautiful," she said, marveling at the universe in front of her.
"It really is," the Doctor nodded, "And hey! Look!" he took out his sonic and pointed it back at the TARDIS console, and the ship spun around 180 degrees. And there, hanging below them, more massive than anything else, was a turquoise planet. "That's your world," the Doctor said, "This is what it looks like."
Ditzy looked down on her planet quietly, in a reverent awe, "Am I the first pony to ever see this?" she asked.
The Doctor pursed his lips thoughtfully, "Probably," he said, nudging Ditzy, "That's exciting, isn't it?"
Ditzy nodded, imagining ponies on the surface looking up. She would be looking down on them right now. It was such a foreign feeling, and it was exhilarating.
The Doctor hopped to his hooves, "Right then!" he said, swinging around his console, "Where do you want to go next?" Ditzy got to her hooves, but was reluctant to leave the doors, still drinking in the view of Equestria below her. "The lost moons of Poosh? The forest moon of Endor? Or, or, I know this nice little planet called Raxacoricofallapatorious. No? We could go to Raxacoricofallapatorious's twin planet, Klum. Or New New New New New New Earth?" the Doctor suggested.
"Doctor, I don't think we can go just yet," Ditzy giggled.
The Doctor looked up at her, "No? Why not?"
Ditzy pointed down at Equestria, "We left a giant Dalek shaped Dalek satellite right outside of town!"
The Doctor started laughing, and he waved his hoof airily, "Two words; perception filter," he explained, "it's a psychological barrier that will make anyone who sees it think that it's normal. The TARDIS has one too, and it's why nobody questions the presence of a big, blue box in the middle of town."
Ditzy laughed at that, "Really? Are you sure?"
"Of course," the Doctor said dismissively, "Besides," he knocked on his TARDIS console, "time machine. We can be back before anybody even notices."
Ditzy laughed again and walked over, "Okay, okay. So...what were those planets you named?"
"The lost moons of Poosh, The fourth moon of Endor, Raxacoricofallapatorious, Klum, New New New New New New Earth-" the Doctor listed, counting on his hooves.
Ditzy suddenly gasped as she thought of something, "Can we go to your world?"
