“I... I love you,” she choked through the tears in her eyes.
“Quite right too... And I suppose... if it's my last chance to say it... Rose Tyler…” and then everything went black.
“I found it over here, I thought you might know what to with it, since you know the most on the subject,” came a voice through the fog in his mind.
“First of all, I TOLD you they existed, I knew they were out there. But on a more serious note, I can't say any more than anypony else on this matter, the things I read are highly controversial on how humans interact,” wait, did that voice just say humans as if it wasn't, did the TARDIS crash on a planet or something, were there any planets studying humans nearby, also what was that about any ponies “some believe that they were a violent race,” Oh believe me they can be “in which case we should run and alert the royal guards,” please don't do that “but others postulate that they only react like that when threatened,” exactly “which means we should try and reason with him, and yes it's a him. So we need to decide what we are going to do before he wakes up,” said the voice rationally.
The Doctor hoping he was not wrong about these voices hesitantly spoke up eyes still closed, “I really do hope that you choose the second option, I really hate soldiers,” he said in a voice he hoped sounded calm and reasonable, despite not feeling calm himself, why couldn’t he tell her he loved her.
“It can talk!” one voice screamed and a thud told The Doctor that whoever has said that had jumped into something trying to get away.
“Well of course he can talk Rose, that’s a basic…” Wait.
“ROSE!” The Doctor cried and flung his eyes wide open and jumped to his feet, but as his eyes adjusted to the light all he could see was something with red hair cowering behind a tree and a green pony with a green and white mane that seemed to be looking at him with a curious and inquisitive gaze, wait, was that a horn on the pony, no, Doctor, focus on Rose, “Did someone say ‘Rose’?” he asked in a way he was pretty sure didn’t come off as calm and collected anymore.
“Y-yes, I w-was talking to my friend over there,” the green unicorn stammered with a nod towards the red-haired thing behind the tree.
The Doctor darted over to the tree prepared to tell her the truth about his feelings, “Rose, I…” but as he approached he saw a white pony with a red mane staring at him with fear in her eyes. “Wait, you’re not Rose Tyler.” he said dumbfounded.
“S-sorry,” the pony choked out while trying to back as far into the tree as possible.
“I’m Lyra Heartstrings, and that is my friend Roseluck, we call her Rose for short. Sorry for any confusion,” the green pony said cautiously. “Sorry for my friend, she didn’t believe humans existed until now, so she’s a bit scared” she continued.
“Well, technically I’m not human, I’m a Time Lord, humans just look like us,” The Doctor explained.
“Okay then, are you feeling okay then, uhhh, what’s your name?” Lyra asked
“I’m The Doctor,” he introduced himself.
“Okay, but, what‘s your name?” Lyra questioned.
“Just The Doctor,” he said unhelpfully.
“Okay then ‘The Doctor’ are you feeling okay?” Lyra asked skeptical of his “name”.
“I’m feeling fine, just a little blackout, by the way, have you seen a blue box nearby?” he asked.
“Actually now that you mention it, Rose found you while she was chasing a falling blue thing in the sky, she was trying to see where it landed when she found you, then she came and got me, we saw the blue box not far, and you were here,” she explained.
“Well then, lead then lead the way. Allons-y!” he exclaimed.
As they walked on, Lyra in front, The Doctor right behind, and Roseluck curiously following from a very safe distance, Lyra decided to make conversation, “So,who’s this Rose Tyler you thought I was talking to?” she asked innocently.
“I… I don’t think I can talk about it yet,” The Doctor said tears welling up in his eyes.
“Okay then, how about we talk about where you’re from?” Lyra tried something else.
“Well, I’m from a race called Time Lords from the planet Gallifrey,” The Doctor explained.
“Gallop-frey?” Lyra asked quizzically.
“What? NO, GalLIfrey,” The Doctor corrected.
“Oh, okay,” Lyra responded.
As they came up to the TARDIS, looking a little banged up, but otherwise unscathed, was standing there, “Come on in.” The Doctor invited as he opened the door.
“I don’t think we’ll fit,” Lyra pointed out.
“Trust me, we’ll fit,” The Doctor stated, mysteriously as he entered. Lyra decided to follow him and see what he meant. As she entered she stopped dead in her tracks, trotted back outside, ran around the box examining every square inch she could, as she returned she asked:
“Is this some sort of portal or something?”
“A… portal, no, it’s just bigger on the inside, but that is a new reaction,” he said enjoying the new experience.
“O-okay then…” she trailed off as she noticed a jar on the floor, “Wait, is that a HAND!?!” she excitedly exclaimed.
“Yes,” The Doctor said in a questioning tone.
“Can I have it?” she asked hopefully.
“Uhh… I can’t give it to you, it’s a memento, it reminds me of someone special,” he explained.
“Did they lose the hand saving you or something?” she questioned curiously.
“Not exactly, you see, this is my hand, I lost it helping someone very special to me,” he explained mournfully.
"But you still have both hands, wait, it was theorized that humans were descended from simians, but maybe they could be descended from lizards," she hypothesised.
"That would be an excellet theory if I were human, but as I said I am not a human, I am a Time Lord, humans just look like us," the Doctor explained, getting tired of explaining this.
"Oh... right, I keep forgetting that, sorry," Lyra apologized.
"That's fine," The Doctor said.
After a little exploring in the TARDIS Lyra remembered.
"It's okay Rose, he's not dangerous," Lyra said to Rose who was still hiding behind a tree outside.
"Are you sure?" Rose asked hesitantly entering the TARDIS.
"I'm sure," Lyra assured her.
"So, would you two like to accompany me on an adventure?" The Doctor asked casually
"Where exactly would we be going?" Lyra questionned.
"Well, I plan on trying to go back to my world, where there would be a whole bunch of humans..." The Doctor began.
"We're in!" Lyra interrupted, without consulting Roseluck.
"But I don't...."Roseluck began.
"Oh, come on Rose, it's not like we had anything else important to do here, and besides, weren't you the one who was hoping for more adventures? Wasn't that why you were about to enter the Everfree forest before you found him?" Lyra questionned gesturing a hoof towards the Doctor.
"Well, as long as these humans aren't too bad, then I'm up for it," Rose decided, sounding an awful lot braver than she felt, humans scared her, especially this one, who somehow recognized her name.
"Well then, Allons-y!" The Doctor cried as he pulled some levers, pushed some buttons, spun some valves, and looked at his monitor. As this was happenning the TARDIS started to shake and whir. Suddenly it all stopped.
"If my calculations are correct, then we should be back in my dimension," The Doctor said as he stepped out into the grey room filled with more ponies. As soon as he realized, he backed into the TARDIS.
"It seems my calculations were wrong," he stated, as he stepped into one of the side rooms in the TARDIS, grabbing the hand as he did. Lyra and Roseluck followed him into the room.
"Can I have some privacy? I'm about to... change," The Doctor asked mysteriously.
"Oh... uhh... okay," Lyra said as she and Roseluck backed out of the room into the main portion of the TARDIS, Suddenly there was a brilliant light coming out of the room.
"What was that!?!" they both shouted in unusion as they hesitantly walked towards the room.
"Who are you?" Rose asked as a brown earth pony walked towards them, "and where did that... Thing... go?"
"Well I am 'that thing' you talk about, I'm still The Doctor, but I've changed my appearance to fit in on this world." The Doctor explained.
"H-how in Equestria did you do that?" Lyra asked.
"Well remember that hand? My Species has an ability called regenerating, it allows us to cheat death, and change our appearance, that was how I was able to regrow it, but that hand still had regeneration energy, I used some of it to kickstart my regeneration, to change my appearance so as not to scare others like I did Rose here," The Doctor rambled as Lyra and Roseluck stared at him dumbfounded.
"Now time to greet our new hosts properly," The Doctor said as he stepped out of the TARDIS, forgetting he was a pony now, and falling out the door with the hand in his hoof.
Everything was normal in stable 69, the dancers, the drugs, etc. It had once been called 89, however someone renumbered it to accentuate the newer sexual nature of the establishment. When all of a sudden, there was a strange whirring noise, then on the stage a blue box appeared, then a fleshy looking thing in a trenchcoat and a suit walked out, immediately turned around and walked back in, everypony was staring in shock as a brilliant light emitted from the box, and just as suddenly as the first time a brown pony fell out of the box with a strange glowing jar in his hooves, as he fell, the jar fell out of his hooves, and somepony picked it up and ran off.
As soon as the stallion appeared Caprice ran from behind the bar, initially her intent was to determine if he would be a danger to her citizens/patrons, but as she approached she realized that he was falling. Once realizing this she reached out her hooves and caught him as he fell, too busy to even notice the oddly clean blue filly with a swirling vortex cutie mark that quickly grabbed the odd glass container, put it in a saddle bag and promptly left the establishment.
"Sorry, I'm not quite used to this body yet." The stallion explained apologetically.
"What do you..." She began to ask, but was cut off by the stallion who jumped to two hooves for some reason yelling: "Hey that's if you need a hand just ask, don't go around taking other people's hands!" And awkwardly trotted off on two hooves.
_________
After the Doctor fell out the door, Lyra turned to Rose, "We should go help him get used to this 'change'."
Rose just stood there, mouth agape, dumbfounded at what just happened as Lyra dragged her to the door, as they stepped out they saw a peach coated, earth pony mare with a mane and tail in various shades of light purple and light purple eyes holding the doctor, he tried to walk like he had prior to his change and awkwardly ran off yelling about his hand, Lyra tried to grab him with her magic to make him explain, but suddenly she had a splitting headache and a weird glow wrapped around her horn.
"What was that?" she asked.
"That was a magic disabling spell, normally it gets cast when someone enters and comes off when they leave, but your route here was a little... unorthodox, because of that the spell won't wear off right away, it will take about a day to wear off," a security guard explained, sounding like he'd explained these rules many times and was reverting to what he actually knew in this confusing situation.
"Oh... OK," Lyra awkwardly stammered trying to get her bearings, she had never seen a place like this before "Would someone be able to tell us where we are?" she asked.
"You sound as confused as I feel," The mare that had caught the Doctor noted.
"Yeah, it's kinda been a long and confusing day," Lyra explained.
"Well, wherever you're from your caps are still good. I am Caprice, the owner of this fine establishment, would you like to buy anything?" the mare asked.
"Hold up, did you say caps?" Lyra asked confusedly.
"Why yes, bottlecaps, it's what we use as currency here in the wasteland," the mare calmly explained as if it was a simple thing, even going so far as to hold one up for example. Lyra opened her mouth to ask more, but the Doctor came running back in, finally walking properly on four hooves, grabbed Lyra and Rose saying, "We have to go after that little kid, she took my hand."
"You mean that filly," Lyra corrected.
"I guess I do, now watch this," the Doctor said cryptically leaving Lyra and Rose at the inside part of the doorframe of the TARDIS, leaving the door open. He turned some cranks, pulled some levers, and did a bunch of other stuff to the machine, and it rose up, and flew towards the opened door of the stable. They flew out into a bleak looking world, flying towards a little filly with a dark coat driving a contraption that Lyra swore she once saw Pinkie riding in, a "Whirly-gig" she had called it. The little filly was getting away though.
"If I can just input into the computer the code for overdrive, we can catch her," the Doctor said, more to himself since the other two had no idea what he was saying. As he tried to type, his hooves hit a whole bunch of extra buttons and the TARDIS started whooshing again, the door closed over, "No! no! no! no!" The Doctor yelled as the doors closed, "Curse these hooves!"
"What's going on Doctor?" Lyra asked.
"Well, remember when I said my race was called Time Lords, well, the time part is because we have the technology to travel in time. When I tried to get back to my world, we ended up in your future, and when I tried to put the TARDIS in overdrive, these darn hooves got in the way and I accidentally set it to take us to another time," the Doctor explained.
"So, like, you're telling me that was the FUTURE!?!" Lyra asked incredulously.
"Well... basically... yes," the Doctor replied.
"Yeah and I'm the queen of Prance!" Lyra exclaimed sarcastically.
"Wait... Prance, it's actually called Prance in this world?" the Doctor asked suppressing a laugh.
"What's so funny about Prance?" Lyra asked confused.
"Nothing, nothing at all," the Doctor lied.
"Back on topic, when we land, I'll have to find a way to go back and get my hand," the Doctor explained.
"So, we're going 'Back to the Future'" Lyra joked.
"Yes," responded the Doctor blankly, "but first we need to figure out what time we've landed in." he finished as he opened the TARDIS door.
As the door opened, the streets of Caterlot became visible, Lyra noticed a newsstand selling papers, as she noticed the headline, she exclaimed, "'Wonderbolts called to stop rampaging dragon in ponyville,' I remember that, that was not long before we left, just to verify, you said that we are going back to that 'future' place again, right?" Lyra questionned.
"Yeah, we need to get my hand back," the Doctor answered.
"I'll be back here in an hour then," Lyra said as she ran off towards the business district.
"OK, that was odd," the Doctor said puzzled.
"She can be like that," Roseluck said, finally feeling comfortable enough to speak to the Doctor.
"So, since you're talking now and I need to set the TARDIS to take us back to that place in your future, how do you ponies make intricate motions with these hooves?" the doctor asked her.
"Well... um... us earth ponies use our mouths, but pegasi sometimes use their wings, and unicorns have their magic," Rose explained, still feeling nervous around this strange pony.
"That's it! We need a unicorn!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"But... Lyra just left," Rose pointed out.
"Then we'll need another unicorn," the Doctor calmly replied.
"But which one?"
"Wait a minute, that's the kid that took my hand!" The Doctor exclaimed and ran off.
"Why do I always end up with the ponies who run off like that?" Rose asked rhetorically as she chased after the Doctor.
__________
Destiny Fortune was walking to her magical studies class at Celestia's castle.
"...I mean what kind of name is 'Destiny' anyways? how am I supposed to be able to find out my talent with a name like 'Destiny'!?!" she was mumbling to no one in particular as she walked.
Suddenly out of nowhere a weird stallion jumped out in front of her, "Where is my hand?" he asked sounding quite irate.
"Doctor, wait!" Destiny heard from somewhere behind her, "You can't just run up and ask that, and didn't you say that the whole your hand getting stolen business happened in the future? if so how could she know what hasn't happened yet?"
"You do have a point there," The strange stallion said, "But she might have time traveled as well."
"Excuse me strange pony, are you trying to say I stole something?" Destiny asked incredulous, she had always been a good kid, she may have borrowed things from her parents without asking, but she always put it back in its place.
"You mean you don't recognize me?" He asked incredulous.
"No, I don't know you," Destiny affirmed.
"Oh!" He said as he looked off into space, seeming deep in thought. Destiny turned to walk around him to try to get to her class on time, but another pony came up.
"Are you okay? did he scare you? I'm so sorry for my friend's behavior," she was saying apologetically.
"I'm fine, but he seems to be broken now," Destiny joked.
"Doctor, can you hear me?" she probed.
__________
But if she doesn't know me, then why would she have stolen my hand? The doctor mused, realizing that this is most likely an ancestor of the child that took his hand. What a coincidence meeting a great, great, etc. grandmother of the one that stole my hand, anyway she is a unicorn, she might be able to help with getting back to that time that his hand was...
"Doctor, can you hear me?" Rose jogged him out of his thoughts.
"Yes, sorry about that, just started thinking. Hey you," the Doctor called to the filly he'd scared, "what's your name?" he asked.
"Destiny Fortune," she replied.
"That's an odd name," he pointed out.
"I know, but my parents say it's the perfect name for me, but how am I supposed to find my special talent with a name like Destiny Fortune?" she started ranting.
"Say, how would you like to help us out?" The Doctor asked.
"What sort of help do you need?" she asked getting excited to be able to help someone, and maybe get her cutie mark, that would be great.
"Well, unicorns can perform intricate tasks with your magic, correct?" he verified.
"Yes," Destiny answered glad she would be able to help as she was top of her class for magic.
"I just need you to do certain intricate tasks in this box back here," as he gestured to a blue box that was sitting by the road.
"What sort of tasks?" she asked curious about this box.
"it's hard to explain, if you come inside I can show you," he answered cryptically. Destiny was hesitant, but she figured it's a stationary box, so he can't kidnap her, and if he tried to attack her she had her magic to help her.
"OK, I can see what I can..." she trailed off as she entered the box, there was more space in here than there was of box out there.
"I-is this a portal of some sort?" she asked wondering where he would have gotten it, and why she didn't get the sensation that a pony would normally feel entering a portal.
"Why is it always portals with you guys?" The Doctor asked frustrated, "No, it's just bigger on the inside," he explained.
"So, what we need you to do is to press these buttons in this order," as he explained he gestured to the buttons that needed to be pressed.
"OK, I think I can do that, just give me a second," Destiny said. As she started concentrating her horn started to glow a light blue color, and each button was glowing as well as being pressed in the order he'd told her, but as she was going there was an odd yellow glowing dust-like substance coming towards her horn, as she was finishing the buttons it got to her horn and she screamed. Suddenly she quickly faded right in front of their eyes and was gone.
"What in the name of Celestia did you do? Is she dead? Did you just kill a foal? Even worse, did I help!?!" Rose panicked as she tried to understand what just happened.
"I'm not entirely sure, but it would appear that the TARDIS causes an interference with magic, I can guarantee she's alive, but I can't guarantee where or when she might be," The Doctor explained, trying to be soothing.
"Well, we need to find her," Rose said, "After all it's YOUR fault she's there."
"We can easily do that after I get my hand back and I can steer the TARDIS properly," The Doctor explained.
________
Lyra was using her magic to carry two large burlap sacs, as she approached the TARDIS she saw Rose and the Doctor talking next to the blue box, as she approached Rose saw her and yelled "Stop," which made Lyra jump as she rarely spoke louder than a whisper, let alone yelling, Lyra dropped the sacs as Rose explained, "Don't use your magic near this box, it's dangerous."
"Really?" Lyra asked skeptically.
"Yes, I just watched a little filly disappear right in front of my eyes because she tried using magic inside."
"Rose, if this is your attempt at a joke it isn't funny," Lyra cautioned.
"It's not a joke, it happened," Rose said worriedly.
"Well then, can you help me carry these inside then?" Lyra asked.
"What is in those bags?" Rose asked as she grabbed one with her mouth and dragged it inside the box.
Lyra dragged hers into the box and said, "Just a precaution."
"Well, now that we're all here, let's go get my hand and save that filly," The Doctor exclaimed, "Allons-y!" and he pulled a lever and with a whir they were off, going to get the Doctor's hand back.
