Author's Note

well, i was going to release chapter 22 of the princess and the foals, but i just wanted to write this chapter first.

if anypony doesn't know who tick tock is or are wondering what could have happened to him, watch whooves and assistant episode 8 part 2 and you'll understand a little. also, the doctor in this fic has the voice the doctor has close to the end of episode 8 and onwards

this is sort of cannon to whooves and assistant, though also not.

Chapter 1

Doctor Whooves & Assistant: A Family of a Time

Chapter 1

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It was a beautiful day in Equestria. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, there wasn't a cloud in the sky (Rainbow Dash had actually done her job when meant to today) and a fluffy white bunny was sitting by the road leading down into Ponyville, happily munching on a carrot he'd gotten in a bet from another bunny rabbit.

VROOMP! VROOMP!

The strange wheezing, groaning sound caused the bunny to look up and around. At first, it couldn't see anything. Then, the wind started picking up, but there were no pegasi around to be making it. At the same time, for a second, the bunny thought it saw something a couple of metres away, before it faded, only to reappear, then disappear again.

Each time the... whatever it was, faded away, when it reappeared it seemed more physical and there somehow. For several so neds the bunny watched, confused and awestruck as what looked like a blue box, about the height of two or three ponies seemed to appear out of nowhere, followed by a thumping sound, as if it had landed.

The door to the box opened and two ponies, a grey Pegasus mare with a blonde mane and tail, yellow eyes and a set of bubbles for a Cutie Mark and a brown Earth Pony stallion with a short brown mane and tail, blue eyes and an hourglass Cutie Mark stepped out, though how they'd both fitted the bunny couldn't figure out.

___________________________________________________________

"Well, that was absolutely amazing," The Doctor grinned as he closed the TARDIS doors. "I told you I'd find that muffin planet. Wonderful place, wasn't it?"

Derpy sighed, her eyes downcast.

"Derpy?" she turned to see The Doctor looking at her with concern. "Is something wrong? I thought you'd be happy we got to finally go to the muffin planet."

The grey mare sighed. "I... I did, Doctor. It was an amazing place, I loved it. It's just..." She sighed. "I just wish Tick Tock could've seen it too, you know?"

The Timelord sighed and nodded. "Yes, I... I do wish he could've seen it too. It would've been better than..." He sighed. "Come on, Ditzy."

"Is it okay to just leave the TARDIS out here all by herself?" she asked, a little concerned as they headed off into town.

"Aw, no, she'll be fine. I've lock the doors so nothing will get in," he waved away her worries. "Now, I was wondering where I could find your father. I'm rather interested in some of his jelly theories. They're quite fascinating..."

Derpy sighed. Great. As if hearing Dad talk about jelly so much isn't bad enough. But when he and The Doctor start off together I'll be lucky if they'll be done within five hours. She groaned inwardly.

Then she frowned. What was that castle doing in just outside of Ponyville? That wasn’t supposed to be there, was it? She didn’t remember any castle nearby aside from the Castle of the Two Pony Sisters. And what was that other large building right next to it?

___________________________________________________________

However, contrary to what The Doctor thought, for the first time in over nine hundred years, he'd forgotten to actually lock the TARDIS doors.

This proved problematic less then two minutes after he and Derpy had disappeared down the path, for a Pegasus mare with a yellow coat, long following pink mane and tail, light-blue eyes and three pink butterflies for a Cutie Mark happened upon the blue box.

Fluttershy paused in front of the strange blue box sitting by the road that she knew hadn't been there yesterday. She looked up at it, confusion and slight fear on her face.

"Police public call box?" she asked, reading the words at the top, her body easing a little. "Oh, I remember these. Twilight told me a bit about them. Um, she said they were around a lot back before her time... didn't she?" She frowned, trying to remember what her alicorn friend had said to her, back when she'd been a unicorn.

Come to think of it, she'd been seeing a few blue boxes like these around Ponyville lately. Though, they never seemed to stay in one place for very long. Maybe somepony was trying to see if they fitted in pony society again?

Suddenly she heard a noise, a small... She couldn't place the sound. She'd never heard anything like it. But one thing she knew was it had come from within the Police Box.

She tensed. Was it dangerous? Should she be running?

Tentatively, she took a step forward and slowly pushed the door open. She had her eyes closed, just in case something attack her, that way the last thing she saw wouldn’t be the creature about to devour her.

When nothing happened, she noticed that the door was moving further in than she’d expected and chanced a glance, peeking one eye open a little, before they both opened, her mouth hanging as she saw the interior. It was huge!

“It... It...” She ran back out and circled the blue box, before going back inside. “It’s... bigger on the inside.” She took a few more steps in, looking around in awe. “What is this place?”

A whirring beep pulled her attention to what looked like a control panel in the centre of the huge interior. She step towards it, reaching out a hoof.

At once a loud gonging sound rang out and, before Fluttershy could react, a panel in front of her opened. Inside was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen. Words couldn’t even begin to describe what she could see within. It was so... so...

She didn’t hear the doors close behind her.

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“How could you mistake over a year in the future as my current time?” Derpy asked indignantly as they walked back up the road, the TARDIS in sight.

“Hey, how was I supposed to know we’d gotten to the wrong time period?” The Doctor retorted, pouting. “Sometimes I don’t quite make it, but I was close.”

“Close?” Derpy asked as put a hoof on the TARDIS door. “We almost ran into another me, Doctor! I thought you said that was dangerous. You’re the one always saying how we can’t have a pair o’ boxes happening.”

“Well, yes, but— and it’s a paradox, by the way, not a pair of boxes!”

Derpy rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Doctor. And now I know that Twilight’s going to be a princess AND thata School of Friendship will be built right next to the castle! How am I meant to keep that a secret? Let’s just get back home before you cause any... more...”

The Doctor followed, wondering why Derpy trailed off. He stopped, his mouth hanging out as he saw what she saw. Sitting on the floor was a small Pegasus foal with a yellow coat, a pink mane and tail and light-blue eyes.

“What?”

The foal looked up at them and smiled, reaching out to them. “Mama. Dada.”

“WHAT?”

Derpy just stared, her normally mismatched eyes centring on the foal in front of them. “D-did she just call us...?”

“I... think she did,” The Doctor looked very pale. He could pass out at any moment.

The foal crawled up to them and started rubbing her head against Derpy’s foreleg. Derpy, unable to resist the cuteness of it, quickly picked up the foal and nuzzled her, to which the foal cooed in response.

The Doctor backed away. “Derpy, be careful!”

Derpy looked at The Doctor, an eyebrow raised. “What, of a foal? Doctor, surely you don’t think a cute widdle ting wike dis could be dangerous?” she said, speaking in a babying voice as she nuzzled the foal on the nose.

“You have no idea, Derpy,” he replied, shivering as memories passed through his mind. “Some children can be downright horrifying.”

Derpy frowned, walked up to The Doctor and held out the foal. “Does that look like a horrifying face to you?”

As if following a script, the foal gurgled and cooed, reaching out to the Earth Pony, who’s face wilted a little at the cute display in front of him.

“W-w-well...” he stuttered, not sure how to answer that question.

Derpy pulled the foal back and rubbed noses with her. “Oh, you’re so cute; I could just gobble you up.”

The foal gurgled and cooed back, blowing a spit bubble and then laughing as it popped.

The Doctor recovered and wore a firm expression. “Derpy, this is serious. Infants don’t just appear on the TARDIS. And whenever they do, it’s never a good thing.”

Derpy looked at him, cocking her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” The Doctor looked away, “the last time I dealt with a child, it turned into the Nightmare Child.”

Derpy’s eyes widened. “Like Nightmare Moon?”

The Doctor blinked, then shook his head violently. “What? No-no-no-no-no-no. No, nothing like that. Nightmare Moon was just Princess Luna warped by her jeliously and hate. The Nightmare Child.” He shivered. “Well, actually, the less you know about that the better, let me just say that. And we can’t just ignore the fact that this foal somehow found its way on the TARDIS!” he stomped a hoof. “For all we know she could have bled in her from another universe, been sent through time to eliminate me or—”

There was a beeping from the TARDIS console.

“Wait, what?” The Doctor turned to the console, frowning.

There were another few beeps.

“Hang on, I forgot to lock the doors?”

A few more beeps.

“She was a full grown mare that just walked in here and you turned her into a foal? How did you do that?”

Another couple beeps.

The Doctor glared. “You— you exposed her to the Time Vortex?! Don’t you remember what happened to Rose?”

“You’ve met Roseluck?” Derpy asked, cocking her again.

“Different Rose,” he replied, followed by several beeps. “No, we talked about this. You don’t just open your console and expose anyone to the Time Vortex. We only did that to the Slitheen to stop her from destroying the planet and to give her a new start in life. You don’t just turn ponies into foals because you’re scared they’re going to attack or steal you. You have specific protocols for that and you know it.”

A whirring sound.

“Oi, don’t take that tone of hum with me. You know what you did was wrong, now change her back, right now.”

Another whir.

“What? What do you mean her turning into a foal was a fixed point? That has to be one of the most ridiculous sounding fixed points I’ve ever heard in my life and you know I’ve heard of plenty!”

Derpy looked at The Doctor in confusion. “Are you talking to the TARDIS?”

“Yes,” he said, rubbing his temple. “And she’s being very stubborn.” Whir. “Hey, what did I say about that tone of hum?” He sighed. “Well, may as well see who ended up a foal.” He took his sonic screwdriver out of his left pocket and pointed it at the foal for several second before looking at it, his eyes widening.

“What?” Derpy asked, growing worried. “Who is she?”

“Well, according to the sonic that foal is Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness.”

Derpy’s eyes widened and she held the foal at leg’s length and stared. The foal only smiled and cooed. “F-F-F-Fluttershy? This is Fluttershy?”

“It would appear so,” The Doctor replied, frowning at the sonic. “It seems she’s been regressed to a five month old filly and, if what she said was any indication, she sees us as her parents, since we were the first ponies she saw.”

Derpy’s face paled. “I’m a mom! I can’t be a mom! I haven’t even—” she blushed and stopped.

“Haven’t what?” The Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Um, nothing!” she said quickly, trying to calm down. “How can I be a mom?!”

“Well, we can’t change it,” The Doctor sighed. “It was a fixed point. If we tried to change it we could destroy the whole universe.” He pocketed his screwdriver, a sad look coming over his face.

“Doctor, what’s wrong?” Derpy asked, pulling Fluttershy back to herself, the foal responding by curling up to her barrel and closing her eyes. “You seem so sad.”

The Doctor sighed. “Derpy... I’ve... I’ve been a father before.”

Derpy’s eyes widened. “You have? When?”

The Doctor kicked the floor. “A grandfather, too. A long time ago, Derpy. A long time ago.”

Derpy looked away, then back, asking hesitantly, “What happened?”

The Doctor didn’t meet her gaze. “They’re gone, Derpy. They’re all gone. I’ll never see them again. Even... even my last daughter, she...” He face seemed to break.

Derpy looked down at the sleeping foal, then back at The Doctor. “And, why are you bringing this up now? Why not before?”

He sighed. “Because I never thought I’d be one again, not after Jenny... Knowing brings back memories. Some of them good... others... not so good.”

Derpy looked down to Fluttershy, then back at The Doctor. She walked over and nuzzled him.

He stood stiff, frozen in place, his eyes wide. “Wha-wha-what?”

“Thing’s might have gone badly before,” she gave a small smile, “but that doesn’t mean they will this time. You watch, Doctor. One day, Fluttershy will proudly call you her daddy.”

The Doctor gave a small smile. “Maybe.” He shook his head and looked to Derpy. “First thing’s first, though.” He moved towards the doors.

“Um, Doctor?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “We’re we going?”

“To see Princess Twilight,” he called as he left, Derpy following soon after, flapping to keep herself a little airborne so she could hold Fluttershy in her forehooves. “Since this Fluttershy is from this time, we have to let her know about this. though, seeing as the other princesses already know about me I wouldn’t be surprised if she does too.”

Extra Author's note

hope you liked this, please comment, feel free to correct any of my mistakes if you wish, i won't hold it against you, just don't rag on me about it.

well, til next time, goodnight everypony