Chapter 1: Her First Birthday
"What's there to be nervous about? We've talked about this plenty of times before, Lyra. Today we're actually going to do it. How fantastic would that be?"
It took much thought, planning, and deliberation. The duo wouldn't get a newborn like they wanted for themselves as that wasn't biologically possible, sadly enough, even with the use of magic. Sure, if one knows the spell then they can cast a spell to give somepony of their choosing a faux phallic construct, but since it's not of genetic origin any subsequent relief spent won't yield any results. The doctors also mentioned a process where it was possible to create artificial sperm from the significant others bone marrow, but is largely a trial and error process. The end worry would also have been that because the sample is not genetically complete, that the end result would be, as the doctor put it, “abominable”.
Feeling down in the dumps, Bon Bon had the idea to take Lyra to the local orphanage to discuss their child problems. The orphanage said if they wanted to adopt, they'd need to first make their home child-friendly. That took much more effort than they had thought. Keeping things like knives out of reach, making sure other items on higher shelves wouldn't fall on top of the kid, and making sure they couldn't swallow, chew on, or get into things they otherwise shouldn't. That also included making a bedroom for the little filly or colt.
Confident the house currently met the high standards required, Bon Bon was currently trying to comfort a shocked or incredulous Lyra.
"I just... Can't believe the day is finally here, you know? It's not that I'm scared, it's just... Part of me wonders if I'm going to be a fitting parent."
"It'll be alright, you and me will be the best of parents to whoever we'll bring home."
"Yeah..." Lyra sighed, blissfully content. Her concerns weren't entirely unwarranted though, everyone has doubts as to whether they would be good parents or not.
"Besides, it wouldn't exactly be immediate. We're allowed to go back and forth to the orphanage to play with the kids and talk to the people running it about who grows on us and so on." Bon Bon playfully nudged Lyra. "So long as we don't wear out our welcome."
Lyra's demeanour brightened somewhat, following a giggle from them both. "Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I'm so worried about."
"That's the spirit!" Bon Bon exclaimed, adopting a more chipper attitude.
That said, they finished getting ready with a final, mutual hug. The duo stepped outside into the warm mid-morning sunlight. They had to keep their initial appointment for eleven o'clock, and it had just gone ten-thirty. Their little talk cut into their planned time it would take to get there, so they fastened their pace down the town's dirt roads towards the other end of town.
The orphanage itself was a rather large building. After all, it needed to accommodate a large amount of colts, fillies, and the odd foal occasionally.
The front of the building and the yard that stretched from one end to the other was fenced off a couple metres out from the building with a picket fence to dissuade the kids from wandering off. The front yard had an assortment of toys for the kids to play with, including a swing set that was currently occupied by a unicorn and his little filly friend—whom was wearing a cute little vest. There was also a slide, balls, a little red wagon, blocks, and other toys strewn about the yard.
Lyra noticed the unicorn was using his magic to push his friend as high as she could go, but his magic wasn’t quite strong enough to push somepony. Even though she wasn’t getting very high she had the utmost happiest look on her face.
Lyra stalled walking, simply observing the sight before Bon Bon realised she had walked ahead without Lyra.
“You looking at those two?”
Lyra nodded. “When I see those two all happy, something about it makes me glad we’re going to be able to give one of these little guys all kinds of happiness.” Bon Bon returned the sentiment with an affectionate nuzzle.
The yard only had half a dozen ponies playing in it, all paired up with a friend. Two fillies were playing with blocks and dolls just to the right of the main entrance on the grass while two pegasus colts were hitting each other with foam noodles, pretending to sword fight; sharing laughs when one or the other got hit. They stopped momentarily to glance over at the occupied swingset, then turned back to one another with an affirmative nod. The colts dropped the foam toys and and strode over to the swing.
“We want to have a go now!” they declared.
The unicorn colt spoke up. “I’m still pushing Sunny! You know she likes the swings because of her wing.”
Lyra and Bon Bon had been watching the scene unfold up until they got to the front gate, stopping to observe after the mentioning of a wing, wondering why singular was used instead of plural. The duo opened the gate and began to walk slowly to the front door while they kept an eye on the situation at hoof.
“You’ve been on it forever!” whined one of the pegasi.
The swinging stopped, and the one now identified as ‘Sunny’ suddenly became more sombre from not swinging. Her friend spoke up.
“Sunny likes swinging because she can’t fly like you two can, so you should be nicer to her,” the unicorn defended.
“That’s not fair! Why should we not be allowed a turn because she only has one wing?”
Lyra and Bon Bon ground to a halt, their curiosity piqued from the mention of the missing wing. Lyra looked at Sunny, seeing the sad look on her face from either the lack of swinging, or the lack of a wing being brought up, and decided to intervene.
“I have an idea!” Lyra spoke up over everypony. All five pairs of eyes in the yard looked to Lyra. “Why don’t you two,” she gestured to the two pegasi, “push Sunny really high so she can swing extra high? If you do that, she might let you have a turn!”
The two pegasi and unicorn all looked at Sunny while the two other fillies went back to their toys.
“Pretty please!?” she squeed. “I’ll let you on if you push me really high! I want to go high, but Orion’s magic can’t push me too high. I want to swing higher than I have before!”
The two colts shared a contemplative look. “OK, that’s fair.”
The pegasi unfurled their wings and headed towards their respective positions. One went behind Sunny, and the other grabbed the seat from in front and pulled while the other pushed. With a look of pure glee on her face, Sunny held on tight to the swing chains and she rose higher and higher, pushed as high as the colts could manage to flap their wings.
“Ready?”
“Ready!”
The colt holding the seat did so for a split second longer, giving his friend enough time to get out of the way.
“Hold on!” he hollered, letting go.
Sunny gave an overjoyed “WWWEEEEEEE!!!!!” as she flew through the air, back and forward aided by the magical push of Orin’s magic to try and keep her going high. Her mane and tail swayed listlessly back and forward, flicking her face and rear legs, almost as if she was actually flying through the air.
At the peak of one of the high swings, Sunny leapt off the seat and landed on all four hooves in a practiced manner.
“Yayyy!” she beamed. “Thank you so much Mickey, thank you too Harkness!”
Orion hopped down off the swing and stood at Sunny’s side while Mickey and Harkness went to sit on the swings, beating their wings to achieve awesome height with each pump of their legs.
Lyra and Bon Bon looked at the vest Sunny wore, noticing the slight bump on her right side where a wing was apparent, but not on the left side.
“Hey there Sunny, how did you like that?” Bon Bon asked.
“That was fun! I haven’t swung that high before. Usually Orion pushes me with his magic. If I had my wing then I could do what they’re doing right now,” she finished, looking back at the two pegasi.
“What happened to your wing?”
Sunny sheepishly looked down and pawed at the ground with a hoof. “Miss says I’m not allowed to talk about what happened with strange ponies…”
Lyra chuckled and smiled warmly. “I understand. We need to see ‘Miss’, so why don’t you two play with the noodles since Mickey and Harkness aren’t using them?”
Something about Lyra’s statement made the idea of using toys that others weren’t using more enticing, and Orion and Sunny ran over and picked them up to play with.
The two mares smiled, gaining confidence that they could parent a foal properly and with much joy. They watched the two play with the noodles for a little while longer before moving towards the front entrance. Lyra opened the door with her magic, holding it open for Bon Bon and closing it after she had entered.
They found themselves standing in a well lit foyer. The well-worn wood floor was cool to the touch and attributed to the comfortable temperature of the building. Lyra and Bon Bon finished admiring the room in time to hear the approaching hoofsteps of a pony. A somewhat heavy-set mare with a curly blonde mane as big as a mountain greeted them as she stepped into the foyer. Her coat was a sandy gold colour, and her mane was a darker shade of her coat. All her cutie mark consisted of was a blue question mark with an hourglass set over the top of it.
“Hello! You must be my mid-morning visitors,” she beamed. “I’m River and I’m in charge here.”
As if on queue, a white unicorn filly calmy, but shyly, strode into the room. Her coat was all white, as was her mane. The couple stole a precursory glance and noticed the off-grey cutie mark consisting of a painters palette and brush. Aside her reddish-pink eyes, there wasn’t any hint of colour about her.
She shyly nudged River, giving her a “you-know-why-I’m-here-but-I’m-too-shy-to-speak-because-of-company”, look.
“Yes, Prism, sweetie?”
“Uhmm…” was all the filly managed.
“Again?” River asked. Prism just nodded in response. “I just got you some last week, did you run out already?” The filly nodded some more and River just defeatedly sighed. “I’ll get some more tomorrow when I’m getting groceries.”
The unicorn smiled, content with River’s statement and cantered back the way she came.
Lyra and Bon Bon looked back to River.
“That was Prism,” she explained. “She likes painting and ran out of her enchanted white paints. Again.”
“Why does she need enchanted paints?”
“Why not normal colours?” the two mares comedically said at the same time, intrigued.
River smiled. “Her magic is rather… Unique. Instead of one colour like your marefriend there would have, hers is polychromatic.”
Lyras brow furrowed in thought. “Polychro…” Her eyes widened in shock. “Wait, what? You’re joking!”
“If only I was. Now, if you’ll follow me I can show you upstairs, and I’ll let you see what I mean with Prism’s magic.”
Lyra and Bon Bon followed River down the hallway from the foyer towards the stairs at the end.
“There’s only a couple bedrooms down here for the odd filly or foal that doesn’t like to be around others too much, and Prism is one such pony.” They walked past a few doors, one leading through to a kitchen, albeit having no door itself.
Everyone stopped outside a door at the end, next to the staircase. River inched open the door so the couple could could get a peek at the scene behind it. Prism sat on her haunches with half a dozen globules of paint on a palette, and an empty, rolled-up tube of “White Enchanted Paint” in the rubbish bin with scraps of paper and half a dozen more empty tubes. The easel off to her left had a sheet of paper taped to a board (because canvas would be too expensive to afford for an orphanage) that leaned against the frame by the top and bottom, and the shelf at the bottom had three different paint brushes of varying sizes.
Lyra and Bon Bon’s jaws hit the ground when Prism’s horn lit up. The spiral grooves of her horn flowed with glowing rivers of multi-coloured magic, coalescing at the tip of her horn to form an aura that danced with all the colours of the rainbow. Prism bent down to the paint globs on the palette, and one by one they turned; red, yellow, green, blue, orange, purple, and black.
“How…” Lyra barely managed to get out.
River quietly closed the door and started up the stairs with the duo in tow.
“Prism is an albino. Usually ponies have an aura based off of the colour of their coat or mane to a degree. Since Prism has no colour, the lack of pigment in her coat, mane, and cutie mark—and this is guesswork—means that what colour she does have is in her aura. Some view it as unnatural, others think it’s beautiful. The tricky part is placing her in a home after the fact of the former. Prism uses enchanted paint because she’s able to mix and match the colours in her magic and put them into the white paint to get whatever shade of colour she so desires.”
While River was explaining Prism’s magic, they had all gotten to the top floor. At the end of the hall, there looked to be a large common room. All that could be seen at the moment was a few cushions and a bookcase on the opposite wall.
“Up here,” River began, “is the bedrooms. Prism’s is one of two on the ground floor, it gives her the peace of mind she needs, and not the yelling and screaming like the other, more outspoken colts and fillies running all over the place on a daily basis.”
They went down the hall and past all the rooms, each with their doors wide open. Through each door, it could be noticed that rooms were in various stages of cleanliness or utter chaos.
“Don’t mind the messes, one of the caretakers will come along when they’re napping and use their magic to put all their toys back in their proper places.” Following that statement, Bon Bon cheekily nudged Lyra.
They got to the end of the hall and into what could be called the common room. At the end on the left in the right hand corner, a group of half a dozen colts and fillies were gathered around an older looking mare with a small little filly on her lap. She was reading to the group that sat on their haunches, on the floor, while the foal on her lap was staring at the pictures on the page. Every so often when she’d finish a page, she’d turn the book around to show the others the illustrations. Some “Oohhh”ed, and some were perturbingly indifferent.
On the right were bookcases, each half filled with various kinds of books. Some cushions and bean bags had been placed in this area for the kids to sit or lay on while they read, and there was one even taking a nap on a cushion, cutely drooling onto the pillow. The whole area was big enough for the various kinds of age groups to romp and play with their toys without getting in the way of others, and that was certainly the case here. Some of the younger foals had older ponies playing with them so they wouldn’t stick their hooves into places they shouldn’t. They ranged from older, like the mare reading, to just out of their teens. Either those ponies hadn’t been adopted out, or they were just trying to help out.
Why they were [somewhat] crowded into this room on a perfectly good day was beyond trying to figure out.
The moment the trio stepped into the room, a filly sporting an off-white coloured coat with a two tone brown and tan shaded tail and mane came up to Lyra and started looking her up and down with intent.
“Hi there, what’s your name?” Lyra asked while Bon Bon looked on in amusement.
“This is Jenny,” River said. “She has a tendency to be rather inquisitive.”
Assuming this tiny filly had someone looking after her, Lyra’s gaze travelled forward to see a colt that looked like he could be twenty-something looking back at them. They traded an understanding smirk, and Lyra’s focus went back to the filly. The filly began to weave through the legs of the trio standing in the entrance, as if she was on a mission to find something.
Lyra’s grin grew wider. “I see what you mean.”
“Forgive me,” Bon Bon said. “I haven’t exactly done my homework in regards to this. How does this adoption process work, exactly?”
The question seemed to catch River off guard, and she shuffled with a hint of unease.
“Well… That question doesn’t get asked too often, surprisingly enough. When ponies want to adopt, they just come and go as they please until they’ve made their choice. But to answer your question—and this is a questionable analogy, think of it like adopting a puppy.”
Lyra’s expression became slightly confused. “The last time we wanted to do that, the puppy we wanted got taken before we could return a couple days later after we made sure the house was ready.”
River’s expression said it all. She only stood there, the look on her face saying ‘that’s pretty much how it happens here, too’.
Lyra became taken aback by the expression. “So… It’s pretty much first come first served?”
“When you put it like that… Yeah. But we don’t say it like that, the parents or couples wanting to adopt usually play with the colt or filly that they best click with. Not entirely sure if that would be the one for them, they come visit again at a later time to see whether or not they still have that connection. It’s a bit harsh when you look at it like that, but when it becomes black and white the process itself in choosing is rather the same. The difference being is that the paperwork is more comprehensive.”
By now, Jenny had sat down in front of Lyra and Bon Bon, looking up at them with an expression of intrigue and expectancy, cocking her head whenever they spoke. Bon Bon sat down on all fours to be somewhat level with Jenny, and the filly let loose the biggest smile and glomped Bon Bon, playfully nuzzling her. The resulting smile that crept onto Lyra’s face was just heartwarming to see the two of them like that.
“Exactly how comprehensive is the paperwork?” Lyra asked.
“It’s not as simple as signing a piece of paper like what can happen with a pet. Because some of the foals have unique circumstances like already having their own birth certificates, while some of them have more rare attributes and backgrounds. As an example, Jenny here was left on the doorstep some seven months ago. I’d have to check some papers to confirm dates of that though, but she didn’t look to be more than five months old.
“When she was found, all that was on her was a key on a ball-chain and a note saying “Please, take care of Jenny.” We looked into her some more, and found that she was born to a Ditzy Doo and her husband.”
Bon Bon’s face shot up to meet River’s. “Ditzy Doo!? Didn’t she go missing with her husband? Wait, when did you say you found her?”
“Within the week that Ditzy went missing. We managed to get a copy of her birth certificate to try and place her back into the family the same week she arrived, but Ditzy’s parents passed away about five years ago. Her husband was also adopted, but he cut ties with his adoptive parents for some unknown reason,” River added. “So as far as paper work goes, there’s a copy of the birth certificate and the rest of the paperwork entails that you sign a piece of paper saying that she was adopted out from here. Normally, if colts and fillies don’t have one, that’s as close to a birth certificate as they get sadly.”
Bon Bon looked to Lyra with the most adorable face at having played with Jenny. The filly’s gaze followed Bon Bon’s, and she sat on her haunches and reached her front hooves up at Lyra with a smile. Knowing what she wanted, Lyra lifted Jenny up with her aura to put her on her back. Almost like a kitten making a bed, Jenny used her hooves to pad down Lyra’s mane to make a cozy spot in the middle of Lyra’s back and proceeded to lay down and snuggle her face into Lyra’s mane.
Lyra gave an audible “Awwww”, as Bon Bon stood back up.
“Looks like she likes you,” River said.
Lyra looked at the sleeping filly on her back, thinking of everypony’s favourite mailmare, then looked to Bon Bon with a heavy heart, thinking what could become of the foal otherwise.
“For Ditzy?” Lyra asked.
“For Ditzy,” Bon Bon confirmed.
After a pregnant pause to let the couple admire the foal, River said, “Ditzy was a wonderful mailmare. Whenever she brought the mail around, she’d try to bring a basket of muffins too, giving the colts and fillies a treat we couldn’t afford. More often than not everypony managed to have at least one. It broke their heart to know that she went missing. It’s good to know that you two would take care of Jenny in Ditzy’s name and honour. Come, shall we do the paperwork?”
With Jenny nestled on Lyra’s back, the trio made their way back down to the entrance and slightly in front of the front door was another door that they had seemed to gloss over. River opened it, letting in Lyra and Bon Bon first, then closing it behind her once everyone was in. A desk sat directly opposite the door with two cushions in front of it. The desk was flanked by two filing cabinets behind the desk on the left and right, the desk itself was dotted with the typical office paraphernalia.
Assuming the two cushions were for the guests to sit on, Lyra put one of them aside and levitated the now sleeping Jenny off her back and onto the cushion, sitting on the floor while Bon Bon took the other cushion.
River sat behind the desk and turned to the filing cabinet on her left and pulled out the middle drawer, rifling through it until she found the file she’d been looking for, placing it on the desk in a manner that it faced the couple.
“This is Jenny’s file. With each of the children here, we keep as good of a record of them as we can. Medical history such as allergies, genetic dispositions to things like heart attacks or neurological disorders; but overall things pertaining to the general health that the new parents would need for further trips to the doctors. Then there’s what documentation we’ve turned up depending on their circumstances or arrival."
Lyra picked up the file in her aura and opened it up to look at the contents.
“Also, just to stay on top of things, we keep a full set of adoption forms inside each file so the staff and myself aren’t trying to hunt down the forms or making more copies,” River said with a chuckle, no doubt knowing it’s happened before.
Lyra pulled out the papers in the folder, setting them down on the desk before her and Bon Bon. Sure enough there was her medical records, the copy of Jenny’s birth certificate, and the forms. However, when she took the last pieces of paper out of the folder, a clear pocket folder made itself known. Inside was the smaller note that River mentioned briefly before and the key and ball-chain.
“As I said before; that’s what she was left here with. We don’t know what the key unlocks, and we never managed to find out who wrote the note. You’re welcome to them for when Jenny grows up.”
Bon Bon took the key out of the folder to scrutinize it. “What’s Ya-lay? Yale? However you pronounce it.”
“I can tell you it’s not from around here. It’s an ordinary key but it doesn’t fit any conventional locks,” River replied.
“Maybe we’ll find out what it’s for, in time.”
“The paperwork requires both names and signatures, address, and so on. On another note, because of Jenny’s age, upon first adoption you’ll get a visit every two to three months for the first year. The following year is every six months, then after that the visits stop because as she gets older the visits don’t become as necessary.”
Bon Bon put the key back in with the written note and picked up the copy of Jenny’s birth certificate.
“Wait, this says it’s her birthday in two days!” She looked to Lyra and the two beamed smiles at each other.
“Best. Birthday present. EVER!” Lyra squeed. “New family and a new home!”
The couple finished signing the necessary paperwork while River made copies of it. She made duplicates of the originals and gave the a copy of everything plus a secondary copy to the duo. It was for security above anything; if one set of papers gets lost there’s always the other set.
River then took Lyra up to Jenny’s room to pack her stuff while Bon Bon watched the filly as she slept.
With everything taken care of, the happy family could finally depart and head home with the filly nestled on Lyra’s back once more.
“Did you want to stop at the market and get some extra food?” Bon Bon asked when they left the orphanage.
“I thought we had enou— Oh. Yeah sure, lets get another few days worth.” The duo snickered at Lyra’s lapse of thought in why they’d need extra food. “Softer food too, for the little one.”
Instead of taking the route they had come to go home, they took a detour in the direction of the market.
Not half way there, in the side streets leading to the market on the main road and through all the other ponies, they passed one stallion in particular walking towards them slowly with his head hung low, sticking out to Lyra. Something about him seemed… off. Lyra lightly nudged Bon Bon and gestured with a nod in his general direction.
“What?” Bon Bon asked.
“Does something seem off about him?”
They saw him stop, sit, and lean up against the side of a building. They figured he was tired from walking or something like that, but what caught them off guard was when he heaved a breath. A wisp of yellowish ethereal energy escaped from his mouth, floating away and dissipating into the air.
“Come on, let’s see if he’s ok.” The duo dutifully walked over to the tan stallion. “Excuse me sir, are you alright?” Lyra asked.
“Yes yes, quite alright. Just… tired is all. Had a bit of a rough patch with one of my friends and I’m just tying up a loose end on their behalf.” His gaze turned to the filly sleeping on Lyra’s back. “Oh isn’t that just adorable.”
Lyra and Bon Bon beamed, craning their necks to look at the slumbering filly. “Yeah, we just adopted her today. She was the foal of Ditzy Doo, resident mailmare whom went missing six months ago. It behooves us to take care of Jenny for Ditzy’s sake.”
The stallion stood up, sighing heavily and began to walk in the opposite direction. “Such a noble cause. Wish her a happy birthday from me in a couple days, will you?”
“Of course we will,” Bon Bon replied.
The couple resumed their walk towards the market before Bon Bon stopped dead in her tracks.
“What’s wrong?” Lyra asked.
“What just happened?” Bon Bon said with a look of abstract confusion on her face.
“Uhm, we stopped to check if a stallion was alright because he looked like he was hurting?”
“No, not that.”
“He wished Jenny a happy birthday?” Bon Bon stared at Lyra for what could be construed as an eternity. She blinked several times before the gears began to grind in her head. “WAIT, WHAT!?”
“There you go,” Bon Bon chuckled.
“How did he know it was Jenny’s Birthday?” The couple turned to look back down the street, trying to locate the stranger, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Who… was that?”
Author's Note
Prism belongs to Azu, used with permission. Go check out his story Colours of the Heart, which Prism is from.
Edited and proofread by Requiem17.
I thought it would be a good idea, I thought it would be a fun trip, showing her new family the wonders of the cosmos. It was supposed to have been a fitting wedding present; much to see and much to do with the endless expanses of space and beautiful, lush planets, and many other races to meet and greet. That wasn’t how it happened. What was supposed to be the one of the greatest gifts on the most important day in anyones life, turned into one of the greatest mistakes to ever happen.
Ditzy Doo, the mare I first met when I crashed in this land, the one who showed me kindness and indifference for who—or rather what, I am. As a token of my gratitude for helping me to cope in a word completely and utterly alien to me—and believe me that’s saying something—I offered to take Ditzy on a few trips. Of course, this universe was completely new to me at the time so it would give me a good chance to map it out to a certain degree and see what other life forms exist. I tried seeing if there were any planets, galaxies, or systems reminiscent to those back from the universe I used to travel, starting off with some of the more… infamous planets that have known to harbour the creatures I’d been known go up against.
Fortunately, I couldn’t find any trace of technology on the planets that would otherwise indicate the presence of something to worry about. I did, however, try to find a planet that would’ve closely matched Earth to any degree. Sadly, I couldn’t find any such planet. Then again, Equus could very well be this universe’s Earth, couldn’t it?
Ditzy had the time of her life travelling with me. Of course, I didn’t let her stray too far from my sight in this uncharted universe, so I just resorted to showing her stars, planets, and planetary systems throughout various stages of development. From lumps of rock billions of years in the past, to planets that had thriving cultures billions of years later. Like me, she was fascinated how things grew and expanded like that.
After about a week of travelling, Ditzy asked me if we could return home. I happily dropped her back off a few minutes after we initially took off, and I left to go explore the universe on my own. I popped back every no often when I discovered a planet or system to show her to keep in touch, and we quickly became good friends. Almost like a companion.
Upon my return to Equestria one day for a seemingly normal visit one day, I was met with some spectacular news. Ditzy informed me that she was engaged to a handsome looking stallion, whom she loved to bits. Not only that, but she extended an open invitation for me to come to the upcoming wedding. I assured her that I wouldn’t miss it for the world, or any number of them for that matter. Unfortunately for me, in my excitement I somehow managed to overshoot the date, arriving six months past the actual date itself. I’d question if the date was in fact correct, but knowing the TARDIS’s track record, I assumed something somewhere had gone wrong. Fortunately though, she had kept a spare invitation for just this occasion. She figured that I may or may not make it on time, knowing how prone the TARDIS is at missing specific times and all. She simply laughed it off and chalked it down to; “The Doctor just being the Doctor.”
I had to manually input the date, time, and location off of the invitation into the console—as opposed to what usually would amount to me joyously flicking random switches and buttons to see where I would end up, and arrived on time. To the minute, surprisingly enough. It was a quaint ceremony; mainly meant for family and friends. Pony weddings intrigued me above anything else. Gallifreyans had their own way of performing weddings, they can range from quick and simple to long and extravagant. When you get down to it, they can be complicated. Humans on Earth used priests to conduct their weddings, but the venue usually varied. Past that, culture usually has a massive influence on weddings, no matter the planet or galaxy you’re from. Princess Celestia usually oversees the weddings, like that of Shining Armour and Princess Cadence, but outside of royalty, someone appointed by the Princess would normally be the one to carry out the ceremony. Apart from formalities and customs, weddings, buy-in-large, were almost identical in proceedings.
Everyone went their separate ways after the ceremony, and when everything had calmed down I took Ditzy aside and gave her a proposal of my own, one she could not refuse, a proposal that would bring back many wonderful memories of our previous travels. As my gift to her, I would take her and her husband on a trip across the stars to any planet they might liked, to do anything they might fancy. I even added that I would have them back before they even left.
Ditzy told me she would have to talk it over with her husband, seeing how he was rather ignorant to the whole travelling through space and time thing. She had a very valid point. That, and she couldn’t depart immediately because she had other things to take care of, such as moving into their new home, seeing family and friends off that travelled from out of town to the wedding, things of that nature.
I did point out that I would have them back before they left or anyone would notice, but she stuck to her guns. She told me it’d be rather rude and a tad selfish to just up and go traveling, even though they would be gone all of two seconds, more or less like going to the bathroom then coming back before anyone would know you’re gone.
I told her I would be back soon to see if she had made her mind up by that stage, so I went off on my own again, to visit some planets and make sure this universe was free from harm from creatures that had terrorized the universe I was from. That made me think. Since I crashed here, how well have my past companions been keeping? Have they managed to save the universe without me? That would make me so proud to know that they did just that.
After I had some time to visit what had become my normal destinations to travel to in this universe, I decided it would be time to go collect Ditzy. As usual, I got the dates wrong again. Something went awry when the TARDIS was traveling through the time vortex and I missed the exit. Much to my chagrin, I arrived two years after the wedding had taken place, as I intended to get there the week after the fact. Ditzy, as usual, was glad to see me regardless.
She explained that the husband took the mention of traveling through space and time with incredulity and a grain of salt, but she did say that he would take up the opportunity if presented, but he largely thought it a bunch of horseapples—no pun intended.
Hearing him say that sounded like sarcasm at the time.
But, when he got home and saw me waiting in the living room, I was taken by surprise at the bundle he was carrying in a basket. A six-month old foal. She was adorable; an off cream-white coat with a two toned brown and tan mane. She sported two tiny little wings that the feathers were beginning to grow out of.
I immediately wondered if this would be a good idea, given the circumstances, but I kept those concerns to myself for the time being. Ditzy introduced me to her husband and the foal they named Jenny Hooves, and mentioned that I was the one she was talking about. He begrudgingly accepted, but that was probably he wouldn’t believe me anyway, not that he intended on doing so. I turned my attention to the foal and assured them both that nothing bad would come of the child, and that the TARDIS even had a child-friendly room where she could play to her heart's content. That much finally persuaded the duo, and we set off. Ditzy kept assuring the stallion that, "The Doctor always knows what he's doing!", so that helped persuade him, but I hate it when people say that, everyone makes mistakes, and I’m no exception.
Ditzy’s husband seemed utterly confused as to how a blue box was smaller on the outside, so I explained it to him the best way I could. I held a small ball close to his face while pointing at a house. I asked him which was bigger, and he said the house. It wasn’t the wrong answer, but not the one I was looking for. I told him to look at it from a different perspective, and he said the ball, because it was closer. Following that, I told him the beings that built the TARDIS took the size of the ball, and put the house inside of it. He still didn’t understand, so he just chalked it down to just being a bigger on the inside magical box.
On the first leg of the journey, we hovered in orbit around the planet, Equus, and looked down on the continent that held the country, Equestria, while Ditzy and her husband held Jenny between them, showing her the planet below. The husband seemed in awe at the sight, not having known too much about the planet itself, much less what it looked like from the air. Oh, how Jenny's eyes would just sparkle under the stars as we all stared down at the planet beneath us. The husband wondered how we could go outside lest the vacuum of space suck him out of the TARDIS. I explained that I could extend the oxygen bubble around the TARDIS to a given extent, but if he went outside the door he would be free to float around so long as he didn’t pass through the bubble itself, then he’d be in trouble.
We... ran into some complications on the next planet. This planet–whose name I forget–is one dedicated to markets. Initially a barren planet with nothing of huge value to contribute—save for a couple of large oases, it was established as an interplanetary trading post. Over time, cities were built, it had an established infrastructure and everything a regular economy/planet would, but the income from the planet as a whole comes largely from the vast markets that pepper the outskirts of the cities and merchandise brought in from other planets by those seeking to barter or trade. Caravans travel from place to place to find a location that gets the better bang for their buck, trying to sell their wares in between. Its surface is mostly barren, save for a few large oases that can support a city, township and so on. Those that travel from city to city have enough supplies with them to get to their next destination, although they do need to watch out for raiders and the occasional sand storm, which have a tendency to be quite ferocious. Thankfully, the storms don't tend to last very long, only the smaller part of a day.
I took them to the aforementioned planet which I like to frequent from time to time, but going to different markets—which can sometimes be as big as cities—to show them what alien races buy, sell, trade in, and often eat and so on like that. As usual it was quite busy, so I suggested that Ditzy leave Jenny in the TARDIS while she had her nap so I could show the duo around the market for a little while.
We stopped at a stall selling what looked like jewellery and other gems. The merchant was cradle what looked like a baby growing out of its side, and when Ditzy commented on how cute it was. The creature didn’t look too happy.
The ‘baby’ spoke up. “I’m not a baby, I’m a tumour!”
We quickly left that particular stall after that incident to look for another stall whose owner doesn’t have a sentient carcinogenic growth coming from its side.
Can you blame me for thinking it was something else? Different races have different methods of giving birth, you know.
Ditzy expressed an interest in some other shiny things that caught her eye while we were walking through the section that sold more precious items like jewellery, technology that got phased out but was still useful if you knew how to work it, and other rarities. During that, a group of shifty looking aliens shoved past us. We brushed it off and went back to perusing subsequent stalls down the street, but a few minutes later we noticed something amiss.
“Have you seen my husband?” Ditzy asked me. I turned around to look up and down the street, but I couldn’t see him. She began asking the ‘people’ that walked by us, most of whom gave her a sideways glance, but kept their head forward to keep on their path. We quickly looked up and down the street a few times trying to locate him, glancing around looking for the other pony, but he was nowhere to be seen
"Where do you think he could’ve got to?" she asked. She began turning her head in either direction the road went, but in a crowd this large we couldn’t see him. "Doctor..." Ditzy asked, the apprehension growing in her voice. “...where is my husband?”
To nip it in the bud, I told her that panicking wouldn’t do any good, so we started to ask some of the other, rather colourful officials that policed the markets and streets if they had seen what could be described as an equine-like creature with a picture on its rump. A disambiguous way of saying who you’re looking for in comparison to Ditzy asking if they had seen her husband. Not surprisingly, none had. I tried keeping a brave face for Ditzy, I had to keep her calm. Being calm is a better way to approach things, it lets me think clearly, even though I was just as worried for his safety as Ditzy was, although not for the same reasons as she. I told Ditzy that I could use the TARDIS to scan for him, so she eagerly began pulling me back to the TARDIS, only she didn’t know what direction she was going, so she bashfully told me to lead the way. With Ditzy in tow, I began my way back to the TARDIS. I got half way there before I turned back to tell her to keep an eye out for him on our way there.
I should have been holding her hoof, I shouldn’t have trusted her to keep up with me in a place she’d never been to before. First her husband, then Ditzy went missing too. I lost sight of her while we were running back, and now this just became doubly serious; Ditzy and her husband have gone missing and their foal is alone. I thought in passing that they might have found their way back by themselves, but, alas, neither of them were there. I used the idea of doing a scan for the husband to find the two of them, and sure enough I found them not more than ten minutes away. The scan showed they weren't moving, so I thought they had found each other and stayed put. I didn't think it odd at the time, except that was the problem.
They weren't moving.
I followed the directions from memory as I weaved through the myriad of alien characters standing at stalls and walking through the streets, not at all surprised to see a pony running and weaving between them.
I got to what I assumed to be the door to where they were, set into the side of a building that you wouldn’t think twice if you walked by. Non-descript, nothing of immediate importance about it. I used my screwdriver to open the door. The lock was rather finnicky, weirdly enough. It took multiple attempts to unlock it which I found rather odd. It shouldn’t have been that difficult for a lock in a place like this.. The door gave way to the room, but the back of the door looked to be made of high grade metal, whereas the front looked to be made out of the regular wood.
The room itself was like a circular metal tube; cold, surgical, and two tables sat bolted to the floor with metal rivets and a single blast door stood behind the tables. Ditzy and the husband, I found, were strapped to tables, squirming as hard as they could to escape upon seeing me. My intentions were clear; get them out, get back to the TARDIS, and take them back home. I doubt the husband would've liked an extended stay after being kidnapped and tied to a table, not to mention it’d’ve completely soured his first time time travelling.
I managed to unbuckle Ditzy and her significant other half from the table using the sonic screwdriver, and she gladly threw her front hooves around me in a warm embrace, happy that I had saved her.
I was so glad to have Ditzy back safe and sound. I pulled back from the embrace to glance around the room, as it dawned on me this was a bit too easy. It really never is.
“Don’t you think this was a bit too easy?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Ditzy replied.
“You get kidnapped for reasons unknown, and I manage to find you easily enough in a room that wasn’t too hard to unlock, nor was it hard to get you out of the binds on the table. Doesn’t that strike you as… I don’t know, odd?”
Ditzy took a step back to look at me like I was crazy.
“Are you ok?” I asked. A moment later had my own question answered.
Twenty seconds after Ditzy took a step back to look at me, she turned a lumpy, mixed grey and white amorphous version of herself, as did her husband, and they melted into a pile of plastic goop on the spot.
Oh stupid, stupid me! I always rush into things! I should have seen this coming! It was like the incident regarding a Solar Tsunami event back on Earth, before I crashed in this universe. A crew of people were using disposable, plastic figurines of themselves to handle hazardous materials and were using a kind of harness to control them with. They would melt back into the plastic bath or into a puddle of plastic when the user disconnected themselves from the harness.
The figures that had been tied to the table? They were just doppelgangers. Distractions. By the time I had realized this, I knew I was already too late.
Before I could give the situation any more thought, a hum came from above my head as two concentric rings started to rotate in opposite directions. Next thing I knew, I found myself on their ship as the Cyberpony versions of the couple I sought stared back at me with cold, dead eyes; as if taunting me of their fate, surrounded by several more Cybermen.
The pair was in their hands now.
The Cybermen. They must have had a contingent of the mechanical beings here waiting for me to show up with a companion so they could convert them into Cybermen—or Cyberponies as this case may be—to lead them back to the convert’s planet of origin. Namely, Equuis.
The process was... quite gruesome, to put it gently. The Cybermen saved the better parts of the victims’ organic bodies—namely the brain, to be transferred into armoured robotic suit versions of themselves. They'd be far more complacent to their needs after the fact they no longer had a will of their own. It was a terrible fate to befall any being unfortunate enough to fall into their hands.
A fate I may have just let happen to my friends.
The horror of the situation washed over me in an instant.
I had made a grave mistake.
But what of Jenny now? And Equestria? I can’t just let the Cybermen stage an assault on an innocent planet. Again.
I knew that I had to stop the Cybermen before they could progress their plan any further, but that meant... Ugh… destroying what remained of my best friend and her husband. I tried convincing myself they were already dead, that the cyborg ponies in front of me where just empty shells, but that didn't help the cause. I still had to live with the guilt of my carelessness preventing me from making it in time to save them.
Aside from the pair in front of me, it was only a small ship housing maybe a few dozen Cybermen or so. The room I had found the gangers in was their teleporter relay, where they teleported whomever they wanted to convert, to their ship, and into the conversion chambers. The craft itself hovered in orbit around the city, not too far above the planet's atmosphere.
At that stage, the Cybermen had got what they wanted: a means to get back to Equestria in the form of my friends. My plan was simple at the time. I had to buy just enough time talking to the Cybermen in circles using logic loops. The idea was to keep them distracted while I fiddled with the ship’s controls.
It worked last time with The Family. The Family were the last of their kind, belonging to a race of aliens that fed off of time energy, and they were hunting me down for the energy I possessed. I managed to make it onto their ship to bargain with them, and, playing dumb, I stumbled around their ship while acting as though I was ignorant about it, turning knobs and flicking switches. It worked. They were too occupied with getting what they wanted that they failed to see everything go into the red, and I overloaded the ship to the point where it exploded. We all got out in time, and I figured if it bought enough time, it may work here too.
I was able to keep talking them in circles as I kept asking redundant questions while nonchalantly walked around the room talking, discreetly fiddling with various buttons and switches, putting dials and gauges in the red while the chatting kept them distracted. It kept them preoccupied for a good while, trying to figure out the answers to all my riddles and whatnot. Depending on the complexity of the statement, they would need to devote more processing power from each of the Cyberman’s individual processors as well as the ship’s to trying to solve the riddles, thus, keeping them occupied for long enough as I tried to better understand their plan and poke holes in it where I could. It didn’t make for much resistance fortunately, they kept their unmoving, stoic stances while I moved around and fiddled.
After some clever conversation, I managed to weasel out of them that they were after the planet’s power source. “What power source?” I asked, confused. “For that matter, how did you get here? I crashed through a rip between realities, did you follow me?”
Their leader replied in their signature cold, monotoned voice. “THE PLANET DUBBED 'EQUUS' HAS AN ABUNDANT OF ETHEREAL ENERGY RADIATING FROM SOMEWHERE ON THE PLANET. CYBERMEN EXIST IN DIFFERENT REALITIES FROM WHAT YOU WOULD CALL THE MULTI-VERSE, BUT WE CAME FROM A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE THAN YOURS, STUCK HERE UNTIL WE WAITED FOR YOU..”
“How could you possibly know about the planets power or whatever you called it? Although the latter does make sense, it’s happened before.” I flicked more switches as the conversation took place.
“SCANS SHOW A POWERFUL ENERGY SIGNATURE EMANATING FROM SOMEWHERE BELOW THE PLANET’S SURFACE.”
“I think they just call that magic,” I cheekily replied.
“ERROR. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAGIC. ANY SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM WHAT YOU CALL, 'MAGIC'. WE WILL HARNESS THAT SEEMINGLY ENDLESS SOURCE AND USE IT AS THE POWER SOURCE FOR MORE CONVERSIONS TO REBUILD THE CYBERMEN.”
They seemed to think their plan was foolproof, going on their preconceived notion that having any sort of emotion makes you automatically inferior. They argued that emotion inhibits proper function of an individual in combat, and in making calculated decisions. I argued that, even if that were the case, it’s completely subjective and depends entirely on the person. It depends on the heat of the moment, the instances surrounding the scenario as a whole.
Heck, even having feeling for others saves lives. I’ll show them why, too…
After all, cowards live. “Those who foolishly charge out into battle, like you do, are often amongst the first to die,” I told them.
The Cybermen got tired of my incessant babbling about what they called trivial matters and pointless questions. “Is it good if a vacuum really sucks? Why is bra singular but panties plural? If I ate myself would I become twice as big or disappear completely?”
After all, that was the entire point.
Eventually, they caught onto my stalling, wondering why I was talking for far too long after they had deemed the answers to my questions as sufficient, and thus had no reason to keep talking. They didn’t catch onto why I was walking around the control room, buzzing my sonic screwdriver as we kept our back and forth going.
I went about setting the electronics to overload, pulling on all switches and turning all knobs I could get my hooves on, to high. The resulting EMP was a bit too powerful. It fried the emotional inhibitors of everything within the ship—like I intended, but sadly, at the cost of my sonic screwdriver too. The core reactor, situated underneath the main control room for accessibility, exploded from the sheer amount raw power running through it. The explosion threw me across the room as the ship proceeded to crash onto the planet below, into the middle of one of the marketplace of all places.
I don't know how long it was before I woke up, but I immediately knew something was wrong as a searing jolt of pain washed through me as one of my hooves let out a familiar, unwelcome, ethereal energy. Thoughts began racing through my head. ”No no no, not here, not now. I don’t even know what’s going to happen, I haven’t regenerated in this body or in this universe before!”
I got up to my hooves, shrugging, and pushing off debris that had fallen on me, trying in vain to find my friends. My eyes narrowed to two certain piles of machinery. One was long since ‘decommissioned’, but I noticed a blinking from one of the lights of another suit. I went over to the suit of Ditzy, whom lay sprawled on the floor, the mechanical components to her suit broken off the main body, and the neck portion only holding on by a few wires. The rest of her had been utterly crushed by debris.
A single eye of the damaged robotic mare whirred as it turned it’s cold gaze toward me. “d-d-docCToRR..." Her mechanical voice sputtered unempathically as a torrent of sparks erupted from its other eye socket. “Jen-J-Jennn... Jennnnnnyyyyyy...”
Immediately following her message, the heartbreaking sound of her suit powering down for good resonated through my mind. The strength in my legs gave out and I fell to the floor, leaving me to stare weakly at the pile of metal that was once my best friend.
Quite some time had passed as I sat stock still in shame and sadness. By the time my awareness of the world had come back to me, the people—for lack of a better word—had already started pulling the spaceship around me apart for scrap and tech it might hold, disregarding any other materials, that, shall I say, weren’t exactly part of the robotic assembly. I very weakly stood up, slowly making my way back to way back to the TARDIS on shaky hooves. Disbelief and shock still ran through my mind as I had difficulty accepting what had just transpired.
Now here I am, back inside the TARDIS control room with a sleeping Jenny in her basket, unaware of the tragedy that had befallen her parents. I took glance around the room, coal-like supports holding the roof up and, the light orbs dotting the walls illuminating the room, shining over Jenny’s basket.
Reality was cruel, and that's what broke my hearts the most: I knew couldn’t take care of her, despite Ditzy wanting me too, and I would have to give the foal away to somepony more capable of taking care of her than me. However, I found myself lacking ideas in the wake of recent events.
Who could take care of her, and keep her safe?
I sat in deep thought for several minutes before my eyes widened in realization. Yes! Yes that’s it! That would be just perfect! I needn't worry about something happening to her, and I know she would be well looked after.
I staggered around the console, reminiscing about the happier moments when Ditzy and I would gleefully hop around the console, pushing buttons and flicking switches to set random dates and times. After that, we would put a hoof each on the big lever and throw it, holding onto whatever we could as the TARDIS would shake endlessly as it traveled through the time vortex.
I set the TARDIS to take us back to Equestria. More specifically, the steps outside the Ponyville Orphanage. I forgot who it was specifically, but I remembered a chipper little orange filly that got adopted out from there.
At the last moment before I was about to throw the switch, I remember something River told me. "It only makes that noise because you leave the parking brake on!" I smirked at the memory. I don't know why, but I always left the thing on. Maybe it was just comfort? I do like the sound it makes, however.
After all, the sound is known throughout the galaxy to many. It gives them hope in the most hopeless of times. It brings them joy to know The Doctor is coming to save the day. This isn't a space ship—well, it is, but that's besides the point. It's a police box. People know to go to a police box to call for help, and that's what I'm there for. I don’t have a gun or any other fancy weapon that kills or destroys like heroes would, I have a screwdriver that fixes things.
For now however, that time is at an end. It took me quite a while to look for it since I basically paid it zero attention, but when I did, I flicked the switch for the parking brake, turning it off. Pulling the big lever on the console, the TARDIS hummed to life. Even with the brake off the ride wasn’t as bumpy and loud as it normally is, but that's what happens when you steal a faulty time machine designed to be piloted by six and expect a smooth ride.
Jenny woke up from the noise. Maybe turning off the parking brake really did ease up on the convulsions it had? Regardless, the foal began crying from the moderately bumpy ride, and I assumed she wanted her mother to hold her tight. I could have told her what happened, but Jenny wouldn't understand in the slightest, which would only have made me sadder trying to explain it.
I went up to the foal, put my hoof inside the basket, and pulled the blanket down to check her. "Hey, hey sweetie, don't cry, The Doctor's here to make sure you're going to be alright. I will always be, I'll make sure you'll be safe throughout your whole life. I owe your mother that much at the very least."
She quietened down, but the streams of salty residue still remained. I tenderly stroked her cheek to keep her calm as I looked at her, tears forming tears in the corner my own eyes. I blinked them away as Jenny lept up and cheerfully glomped my forehoof, hugging it tightly.
That did it. My hearts had officially broken in two halves with that undeserved act of affection. Keeping a brave face, I withdrew my hoof from the basket and picked it up in my maw as I exited the TARDIS upon reaching our destination.
"Here we are, little one; The Ponyville Orphanage! Don't worry, these nice ponies will take good care of you!" I tried encouraging her to the best of my ability. However, I knew that I was only really trying to reassure myself.
We had arrived at some point in the night. She cooed oh-so adorably, pawing at the key and my tie that hung from my neck as I set the basket on the front of the orphanage door under the awning that acted as shelter over the stairs.
I paused at a sudden realization and looked to the piece of metal around my neck. That’s right, the key! Of course, I can use the key! If I gave Jenny the key, she would have a piece of the TARDIS with her, and that meant I could have a more refined method to pinpoint her location in her time stream to seek her out!
I hastily removed the key from around my neck, placing it and the over-sized chain around Jenny's neck in return. She cooed, giggling at the funny noise the metal chain made.
"I'm not going to say goodbye, because goodbyes are forever. I'll see you around, Jenny. I'll be sure to visit." With that, I pushed the doorbell, banged my hoof on the door, and quickly made my way back into the TARDIS.
Now that that is taken care of... where to begin? What about her first birthday? That’s always a good milestone. That's only six months from now, and I could test my theory with the key.
Approaching the TARDIS’s control console, I flipped switches and twisted more dials, quietly whispering "Allons-y" to myself as I threw the lever as the TARDIS made its signature noise.
Author's Note
Editing and pre-reading done by Azu, the Puppet Master of 'Feels', and Joshwolf999.
Also, please don't argue with me about things concerning The Doctor in regards to this story, it is its own universe entirely. I have this whole thing planned out until the very end. If you will be patient enough, all will be revealed then.
Also, I'm debating whether or not I should continue with this. I want to see how well received it gets before I publish subsequent chapters.
