//-------------------------------------------------------// Octavia and the strangest pony in the world -by achilles1371- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// 15 shades of grey...clouds //-------------------------------------------------------// 15 shades of grey...clouds Pinkie then proceeded to plough straight through the building party cannon first. Sebastian would have surely been killed had he not mysteriously disappeared; Half the table was obliterated and Octavia's daffodil sandwich was destroyed. Suddenly a plate fell from nowhere and on it was one of the two blueberry muffins from Sebastian's plate. Instantly every member of the Cake family galloped full tilt through the Pinkie Pie shaped hole in the wall after the still shouting premier party pony. As this happened everyone else in the building got up and walked out silently, save for a few whispers and giggles. After half an hour of wondering what to do, she went to a small courtyard, not far behind her house; Where music could be heard at all hours; Mostly techno and modern music from Vinyl Scratch being muffled by the windows. The courtyard was simple enough, 2 benches opposite either side of a tree with the ground being mostly cobblestone or stone brick save for the small patch of area around the tree. The weather was getting ugly, only midday and the sky had already turned grey with clouds. It would be only minutes before it started to rain. She sat down on one of the benches and after 30 seconds of an eerie awkward silence Sebastian sat down right next to her on the bench. “Enjoy the muffin?” he said with a radiant smile on his face and just after he did this he reached for one of her front hooves, raised it gently and kissed it in the true gentleman style. Octavia blushed silently, unable to hold back a smile. “The muffin was nice, but you turning up was even better, so; a brazen question as it is, would you go out with me sometime?” Sebastian hadn’t anticipated this question, he opened his mouth to speak but all that came out was a confused “ shug huh?” He collected his thoughts and managed a “yes”. Octavia almost let out a squeal of  delight but instead decided to instead to place her head on his shoulder. //-------------------------------------------------------// A bolt from the blue //-------------------------------------------------------// A bolt from the blue It happened in slow-motion, a throwing knife whizzed in between the gap between their heads, a gap of about half an inch and landed with a thunk in the tree in front of them. In the distance a scream could be heard belonging to Fluttershy. Sebastian instantly sprang to his feet and surveyed the area with the now angry piercing sapphire eyes, which had lost all kindness in them and made out three robed ponies. As they walked closer they removed their hoods revealing that were in fact, not ponies, but some kind of half pony monster/alien and one of them had a dart in its leg. They produced weapons, a dagger, a sword and a mace which was a intimidating orangey-red on one side; Indicating either blood or rust, Octavia hoped for rust. Sebastian held his ground, standing on all fours hunkering down slightly, ready to jump. The strange trio all leaped at once, Sebastian managed to get the one with the mace first with a double back hoof kick to the stomach the mace landed and the creature with the sword slashed, missing most of his head but still landing a thin scar on his left cheek. He quickly grabbed the sword holders wrist, twisted it making it drop the sword with its chest now exposed, which he then kicked with full force. The third creature merely stepped forward and stabbed, the blade piercing his chest , it removed the knife and simply dropped it on the ground. It then pulled its hood back on and spoke in a reptilian like female voice “Now we find the other one, he cannot stop us from killing her this time!” Octavia almost collapsed when she heard those words, but instead of attacking her, the creature merely placed a small device on her comrades and they disintegrated and the dust faded away on the gentle breeze. She then disappeared into thin air. //-------------------------------------------------------// A smoothie, at a time like this? //-------------------------------------------------------// A smoothie, at a time like this? The sapphire eyed Time Pony was now talking really loudly, to be heard over their running. “The last person I travelled with was someone who was always never in spotlight, who never or very rarely went outside and if you put time into the mix, who do you think it is?” She thought hard about who it could be. “I have it.” she said. He put a big smile on his face; “Lead the way!” They ran through the rain, across wet grass and slippery cobblestone with the occasional crack of thunder along the way. They arrived at Zecora’s place at the dead of night, yet the zebra herself was wide awake, prepping ingredients for various brews and concoctions. Octavia knocked on the door so fast that it almost sounded like one continuous sound. Eventually Zecora opened the door and asked puzzlingly. “Travellers at my door at this hour late, what brings you past the garden gate?” Octavia ignored her completely and just sat down inside on a wooden chair, resting. Sebastian simply shrugged and walked in, grabbing various items and ingredients and placing them in a cup after melting or chopping them.The rhyme speaking zebra was intrigued as to what he was doing with all those things. “may I ask as to what you are doing, or more importantly, what sort of recipe are you brewing?” Sebastian had a smile on his face, ready for the explanation. “Braxxian smoothie,” he said still stirring the mix “although some of these ‘makeshift’ ingredients may cause it to be slightly sour.” Octavia had finally recovered enough to talk “Apparently you travelled with Sebastian here ages ago.” He laughed “Really? you think I travelled with Zecora? Think older, think secluded.” Once again, she thought long and hard about it and reached only one conclusion. “Princess Luna? Night Mare Moon?” sebastian stopped laughing “And the penny drops. Come on lets go.” //-------------------------------------------------------// A small, big blue box //-------------------------------------------------------// A small, big blue box Sebastian walked right up to the doors and took one of the keys out of his bag and put it in the lock. It turned with no problems and he opened the small pair of doors. “I’m afraid I haven't been quite honest with you,” Sebastian turned “my name is actually Syrrax, or Hermes (The messenger) which translates from modern Gallopfreyian to latin ‘He who acts without thinking’ but I find it inaccurate, especially after what happened to Luna, I think then act now, or people I care about get injured or worse.” The trio proceeded to enter the small blue box; The inside wasn’t very well lit, but had not a speck of dust on it. Octavia didn’t notice, she was still bewildered about how big on the inside it actually was. It was a white octagonal shape with pillars in the corners. In the middle of the room was a white octagon, covered with buttons and levers and a green pillar extruding to the ceiling from the centre. There were no seats inside, only a chair/couch hybrid and a door on the far side. Hermes immediately dashed  to the console and began flicking switches, pressing buttons and pulling levers. After a minute of this light flooded the room, slowly subsiding into a visible level.Something clicked, no-one other than Octavia could hear it though; Images flashed behind her eyes barely registering, moving too fast to be pinned down by a thought. Once able to see again she asked “What ARE you doing?”. Hermes looked only briefly to acknowledge that he heard her. “Well, this small yet large box, is capable of travel through space and time and basically in this dimension, we are easy targets for those alien assassins; thus, we need to leave this dimension for another. Well actually we need to go to another universe, that's where the problems are. This ship, T.A.R.D.I.S, which stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space and it draws its power from the universe. Trouble is, wrong universe. It would be like trying to use a fridge in the desert, it doesn't really work. However, during my travels, my Tardis collided with another tardis which was from another universe; They merged for about 5 seconds before they separated and because of that I can travel between two alternate universes easily. Luna, could you help? I need it ready for sustained vortex flight.” Luna nodded and began to do almost what Hermes was doing while he walked over to Octavia and looked her in the eyes. “Listen, there is no real way to put this, but we will be gone at least a week in a dimension you have no forehand knowledge about and there may be something you need to know abo-” Octavia put a hoof to his lips and said “Save it, there is something we need to do before that,” as she kissed him on the cheek “this can travel through time? we will need to, because there is a reason that that knife missed us earlier”. Hermes simply nodded and dashed up to the console where he activated a computer monitor and began rapidly typing and pressing small buttons. He then walked over, spun a metal wheel with a handle around twice then pushed down a lever. A shum-wheeze sound that made Hermes feel at home could be heard constantly as the small blue box spun through the time stream. //-------------------------------------------------------// It couldn't possibly be true //-------------------------------------------------------// It couldn't possibly be true Octavia woke with a start. She hadn't experienced anything like that before, it was like something had punched her brain, the knockout wasn't slow either, it had happened in a second and was extremely painful. She opened her eyes and front of her, was the pony she wanted to see; with gleaming sapphire eyes. As they snuggled together on the couch like object, Octavia thought with a somewhat rebellious attitude she didn't know she had; ‘An hours work for a weeks vacation? Totally worth it.’ The Cutie Mark Crusaders had finally fallen asleep and Twilight Sparkle gently closed the book as Doctor Whooves came in from the other room. Scootaloo sluggishly raised her head semi-consciously checking for cutie marks. Disappointed with the fact that none of them had received one, fell back to sleep. “Well, those 3 were a bit of a handful,” said Whooves “I can’t believe they think the story is real.” Twilight smiled, “well, as far i’m concerned nothing happened a week ago except that Octavia went on vacation, giving her a reason to write the story.”Her horn glowed bright purple and immediately the book did the same. It slowly floated its way to a bookshelf, occupied by only two other books. “Anyway,” continued Twilight “thanks for helping me foal sit this week Doc, these three can be trouble.” He bowed then winked as he left her treehouse and proceeded down the cobbled road. Twilight continued to sort books slowly as she thought out loud. “The story couldn't be real, could it?” As she spoke, papers in the opposite room were sent fluttering and a familiar sound echoed through the house; She knew what it was, she had heard it before; Mere moments before she had met Doctor Whooves. She went to see what the noise was, although even though she knew what to expect, she still couldn’t believe it; There, right in the middle of the room, was a 1963 police box, the words “POLICE BOX FREE CALL” glowed in the dark room above the doors.Suddenly the doors opened and light shone into the room from inside the box and out from it came three ponies, one with sapphire eyes. //-------------------------------------------------------// This could be interesting //-------------------------------------------------------// This could be interesting Octavia was bored. Not that she should be, she used to live happily with Vinyl Scratch, her old room-mate and the only DJ in Equestria. She had recently been accepted into the royal symphony again after a "mishap" at the Grand Galloping Gala, which she was somehow blamed for in some way. No, this was something else, she was without a doubt in her mind, lonely. So, begrudgingly the next morning, a Friday as it were. She slowly walked, from here new house in canterlot, to the newly constructed Canterlot theatre in the orchestra pit, when something caught her ears. It was music,(kind of obvious seeing she was in the orchestra pit), but unlike anything she had heard before. She followed the sound till she reached the end of the pit and, lo and behold, in the corner, was a Stallion playing the piano, no it wasn't a piano, a keyboard thought Octavia. Then she moved her eyes to the pony playing it. He was roughly 23 give or take some months , with a shiny chestnut coat and a blue and silver streaked mane.But what really took her breath away was when he looked up from his music sheets and their eyes connected for less than a second. They were Sapphire, "as beautiful and as lustrous as the jewel itself" she thought as the Mare herself almost fell over, which is harder than you think when you stand perfectly still on 4 legs. //-------------------------------------------------------// A daffodil sandwich //-------------------------------------------------------// A daffodil sandwich As she brought out her cello she continued to stare at him, as if in a daze and tripped, twice, on nothing before she had even gotten the cello out of its case. Forcing herself to concentrate she managed to stop thinking about him for maybe half an hour, but every time she finished a piece she had to concentrate even harder just to start the next piece. All the while, he hadn't even noticed, or even stopped playing for that matter. An hour later she had finished. And the next morning on the weekend as she did every week, stayed at her old house in ponyville, and ( now owned solely by Vinyl Scratch) decided to go to Sugarcube Corner for a bite to eat. She ordered a coffee and a daffodil sandwich (an unusual order for a venue of its type) and sat down at a table, waiting for her food and then, the impossible, well, nearly impossible, happened; The same pony she saw earlier sat down opposite her with 2 blueberry muffins and a hot chocolate. He took a book out of his bag, moving the bag as he did so. His Cutie mark was a C Major scale (for those who don't know, its a C to the next C up on the piano/Keyboard) on a diagonal so it stretched slightly onto the leg. And for the first time today, he spoke, "I couldn't help but notice, that in the hall you could barely take your eyes off me, may I ask why?" Octavia's cheeks suddenly turned a bright pink/crimson as she looked away she realised she was too embarrassed to speak. "Ah, I see, well, my name is Sebastian, Sebastian Lighthoof." he spoke in a slight London accent with a tinge of American. He produced a fob watch from his bag as if to check the time, he glanced at it, didn't even open it and then put it away. He then spoke again "So, be honest, what do you think of me? I mean, you WERE staring at me for so long that there has to be something about me to you." Octavia Looked him in the eyes, those beautiful sapphire eyes and said "You, are the most beautiful thing I have seen in my life, without a doubt." Octavia looked away for a split second and said "and you?". He would have answered, had Pinkie Pie not entered with her party cannon and shouted something about random parties and avoiding cancer. //-------------------------------------------------------// Some kind of strange //-------------------------------------------------------// Some kind of strange Octavia ran over to Sebastian who was now holding a book labelled “For near death or worse occasions” with a sentence down the bottom in brackets that read “Includes weddings”. He was about to open the book when he collapsed; The book fell open revealing that it was a hollow, meaning it was actually designed to hold something. That particular something was a note reading “open bag and empty contents” She did so noting all the things inside: A couple of books, a card (Eight of clubs), two keys, a solid platinum jellybaby, the fob watch and a human finger in a small preservation jar. The note continued “place finger by right hoof and open fob watch, oh and STAND BACK”. Octavia did this and after opening the watch a gold smoke like substance rose out of it and towards Sebastian. It entered his mouth and after two seconds his body bucked and jerked and suddenly his eyelids flew open and he bolted upright, the gold smoke now being produced from himself. his limbs suddenly flew toward the finger and the courtyard erupted in gold light as he began to yell. His cutie mark faded, replacing it with an hourglass. 30 seconds later the yelling and light stopped, the finger had disintegrated from the heat and Sebastian looked around for Octavia; She was right beside him looking confused but happy. “What are you?” she asked. “I’d tell you,"puffed Sebastian "but would you believe me?” And then it began to rain. It was at least a minute before Sebastian talked again but during that minute they shared each others embrace as they kissed in the rain. He then spoke “I’m a Time lord, or Time Pony in this case, we are aliens capable of living for thousands to millions of years with the ability to regenerate 12 times during times of near death, changing form as we do so. What you saw was a partial regeneration, I channeled any excess energy into that finger to prevent changing form.” he paused to take a breath. “As for the things that attacked us, they were a breed of alien assassins from another universe, I tangled with them ages ago and they still have a grudge apparently.” Now Octavia was interested in a question or two. “Thousands to millions of years? Just how old are you?” Sebastian laughed “I myself am twenty-two, I rejuvenated myself and my previous companion when I came here to Equestria, to throw the assassins of the sce- my... previous... companion. We need to go, NOW!” he said, getting more and more serious with every word. //-------------------------------------------------------// Enter the princess of the night //-------------------------------------------------------// Enter the princess of the night Almost reaching dawn now, they arrived at the Canterlot Royal palace after many stops by guards and along many a corridor they arrived at a navy blue double door, covered in stars. Sebastian knocked on the door and after about a minute it opened. Princess Luna poked her head around the door and a look of pure panic spread across her face. “NO!” she exclaimed without the Traditional Royal Canterlot voice, punching him in the eye and she ran back into the room, leaving the door wide open. Sebastian stumbled in after her holding his eye. “Look, I’M SORRY, I DIDN’T KNOW, you could have asked to go back again but you didn’t.” He calmed himself as he hugged her tightly, “Their back, the ones who came after us, I need the box, I NEED THE BOX!” Luna was more or less still somewhat terrified looking out the window. Then she saw it, guards were being assaulted by 4 robed figures with a 5th heading up the rear walking impatiently behind them; It shot her a venomous glare saying ‘You're next’. Luna was now stern, with no more fear ”It was 2 years, 2 years! you said 10 seconds or less but it was 2 years; And do you know who knew that I was gone? No-one! Not even my sister! Still...”. She knew what to do. “Come with me.” they walked to a door in the back corner of the room, it lead into a child’s room,  navy blue walls covered in stars and on the ceiling in the center was a half moon in a black circle. Luna walked over to one of the walls and pressed on a star that stuck out a millimetre on the wall; It sank in, and next to it a section of the wall slid away. All three of them walked in cautiously; The room was made of grey stone, lined with pillars. Sebastian spoke softly “ Have all  of them moved out of here?” Luna spoke in the same tone. “All but one, it stays in the corner, looking at the wall.” They reached the centre of the room, well lit with torches in the absolute middle was a blue 1963 police box. //-------------------------------------------------------// Next stop everything //-------------------------------------------------------// Next stop everything The sky was no longer dawn, more of an afternoon, completely shrouded by grey. As a pony with the same colour coat sat down on a bench in a cobblestone courtyard. A gentle breeze came on and an almost silent shum-wheeze sound occurred nearby. In a small spot just big enough for a phone booth sat a 1963 police box, one of its doors wide open. If you looked closely, you would notice that it was bigger on the inside but that’s not really important. The grey coated mare was joined by another pony with a chestnut coat on the bench while 3 other robed ponies appeared behind them, one carrying a small knife. The knife was raised and was about to be thrown, the thrower's arm thrust forward and at the same moment a small dart landed in its leg. The knife sped forward and went straight between two ponies heads who were about to embrace. Not long after it arrived, the small blue box disappeared as fast as it had came, creating a small breeze to replace the natural one that had faded away. Back in the Tardis, the troublesome trio were absolutely frantic, well two were; Luna had gone to bed, which meant that Octavia would have to help pilot a machine she didn’t know anything about. She tentatively reached out to press a button and Hermes immediately shouted "NO! Not that one, if you pull this lever, flick that switch, THEN press that button its okay. But if you press that button right now it will create a black hole or a rip in space and time the size of Hoofer Dam." Soon she was told to stop and rest on the couch like seat that was next to the console. Hermes meanwhile was chaotically dashing about the console doing who knows what when he suddenly stopped to catch his breath and exclaimed “Hold on to something, we’re going for a ride!”  He hugged a small section of the console while Octavia clung to the couch-thing as a pure white light crept through the windows on the front doors accompanied by a deafening roar. “HERE IT COMES!” shouted the Time Pony, clearly audible over the noise. as the light slowly engulfed the rest of the room, the poor Cellist felt strangely calm. Hermes continued to shout “NEXT STOP EVERYTHING! HAHAHAHAHA!” Then the light completely covered the room, rendering everyone on board the time travelling vessel unconscious.