Chapters The Legend Of The Blue Box
Derpy closed the TARDIS door and smiled to herself, imagining her friends reactions as the ship shifted through space. Her smile faded as she turned to look at the Doctor. He was going through his usual motions of dancing around the TARDIS controls, flipping switches, and hitting things with a hammer. Derpy wasn’t feeling so cheery, she had some serious things to discuss with her traveling companion.
The Doctor stopped working the controls as he saw Derpy walking over. He noticed her serious expression but tried to ignore it and lighten the mood. “Well then,” he said with a big grin on his face, “that was quite the experience wasn’t it? Bet your friends liked the disappearing act.”
He paused for a moment. Derpy’s expression remained steadfast as she approached.
“So,” the Doctor continued, “let’s head off to the next place shall we?”
“Doctor,” Derpy tried to interject as the Doctor started messing with the controls again.
“I remember back home there was this one planet; mountains as far as the eye could see,” the Doctor said ignoring his increasingly frustrated companion.
“Doctor,” Derpy said a little louder.
“Best part about it, they swayed in the wind! Imagine it. Mountains that move,” he said trying to avoid the coming conversation.
“Doctor!” she practically shouted.
The stallion’s face now reflected the seriousness of his friend’s as he walked in front of her. He remained silent. He suspected what she was about to say, what she was about to ask. Especially after today’s events, there was only one topic she could possibly want to talk about.
“Doctor,” she began softly, not sure where to start, “I... I thought I knew all about you. But, after today…” She paused for a moment before firing her questions. “What did you mean when you said you were the last Time Lord? Who was the other Time Lord? What was that Dalek? Why do you look like a pony? And what were you hiding from me this morning when we refueled?”
The doctor sighed lightly. He hated this part. His past wasn’t something he liked to dig up. Why? Why did he always have to pick the inquisitive companions? Just once maybe he should take a companion who wouldn’t ask questions. Then again, that wouldn’t be any fun would it?
“Alright,” the Doctor said as he tried to answer the easy questions first, “no more secrets. I wasn’t hiding anything this morning. The TARDIS draws its power from the universe and it needed more power. Except this is the wrong universe, she can’t refuel here.”
“Then what were we doing?”
“Refueling. It shouldn’t be possible but somehow the TARDIS was able to absorb the radiation. I don’t know why. As far as looking like a pony, I don’t know that either. I just woke up one day in Ponyville, like this, and that’s when I met you.” The Doctor smiled lightly. Derpy returned the grin.
“But what about the Time Lords? And the Dalek?” she asked again.
The Doctor took a breath. This was the part he dreaded, having to remember his tragic history. “My people were great once,” he began. “The Time Lords were people of justice; always watching over the universe, vowing never to interfere where we weren’t needed. Then the Daleks came. The Daleks are a race of creatures born to feel hatred. They think they are the most supreme beings in existence and want only to kill every other living thing. My people went to war with them, the last great time war.”
“What happened? Did… did the Daleks win?”
“There were no winners. Everybody lost.” The sadness in the Doctor’s voice was palpable. Derpy’s heart sank. “The war began to rage across space and time. It threatened to envelop the whole universe. I did what had to be done to stop the endless conflict. I sealed them all in a time lock. I saved the universe but committed my people to a fate worse than death. And now I’m the only one left.”
Derpy stood in disbelief. Not only was the Doctor the only Time Lord but he was also the reason for it. She couldn’t even imagine what kind of pain he must have felt, what pain he must be feeling.
“Still,” he said feigning joy, “that’s all in the past. None of it matters anymore. Best if we just—” The Doctor was cut short when a pair of forelegs wrapped around his neck as Derpy pulled him into a hug. The Doctor remained silent for a moment accepting the embrace.
The moment lasted a little longer than either was completely comfortable with. Derpy nervously broke her hold saying, “It’s kind of late. I should probably get some sleep.” She started to walk off to another part of the ship.
“Yes. Sleep. That… good,” the Doctor said anxiously nodding his head affirmatively. Derpy felt like he was still holding something back but didn’t want to press the issue at this point.
The Doctor sat alone in the control room. The conversation left him feeling slightly nostalgic, whether or not that was a good thing remained to be seen. He reached into the inner lining of his coat and pulled from a pocket a small silver necklace, too small for any adult pony to wear. He stared at it as if contemplating some past regret and searched through his mind, thinking back to his earliest memory of Equestria.
The Doctor lay unconscious on the ground in Ponyville. Slowly he began to stir, groaning as he awoke. His TARDIS stood tall behind him as the two went unnoticed by the town residents. He opened his eyes and noticed his strange surroundings for the first time.
“What?” he asked to himself, confused at the situation. He stumbled to his hooves and promptly fell over. “What?!” he repeated a little louder. He shouldn’t have hooves he should have hands and arms and feet. And for that matter, what happened to his clothes? He ran a hoof through his mane and touched his face all over.
The newly ponified Doctor stood and spun in circles examining himself and his environment like he was ticked off at everything he saw. His surroundings looked familiar, similar to Earth, but the only life forms he saw were colorful equines like him. “What?!” he said, yelling this time for emphasis. A few passing ponies glanced at him, startled by the sudden outburst.
Off in the distance he could hear a faint sound. He stopped and focused on the noise, it sounded like soft sobbing. “What?” he said softly under his breath as he slowly walked towards it, figuring out how his legs should move in the process.
The Doctor followed the sound to a nearby secluded back alley. He picked up speed as he got closer eventually tripping over his legs and crashing into a trashcan. A gray pegasus wearing a mail bag looked over at him, startled at the sudden commotion. She wiped her tears away, frantically fighting back her sobbing, and turned her head away.
“I’m okay,” the Doctor declared as he abruptly stood up. He glanced around noticing he wasn’t being watched and proceeded as if nothing happened. He sat down beside the mare with a concerned look on his face. “Hello, I’m the Doctor,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
“Go away. I don’t need a doctor,” she said choking back sobs.
“Oh, everybody needs a doctor now and then. What’s your name?”
Everybody . He must be foreign or something, she thought. His thick accent certainly gave that impression. Maybe it was his voice, or maybe the fact he said he was a doctor, or maybe she just needed an ear to hear her now, but for some reason she felt like she could open up to him.
“I’m… Ditzy Doo.”
The stallion looked almost surprised at the name but didn’t let his tone show it. “Nice to meet you Ditzy Doo. Now, tell me what’s wrong.”
Ditzy sniffled a couple of times and wondered for a moment if she should trust him before answering. “It’s, my job. I messed up today and...” She took a few sharp breaths getting worked up over the thought. “...and I think– I… might lose my job. I was supposed to deliver an important package by noon at the latest but… but I got nervous. My eyes don’t always work right when I’m nervous; I got all turned around and flew out of town. By the time I got back… it was already two hours too late.”
She gestured at a clock tower in town. The Doctor looked up noticing the time, just after two o’clock. “Well it can’t be that bad,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll forgive you for one mistake.”
“You don’t understand!” she said, almost yelling in frustration. “This isn’t the first time. They’ve given me warnings before. If I mess up again…”
The Doctor looked at her consolingly. “You can always find another job can’t you?”
“I can’t afford to be fired, even for a little while. I have a little sister at home. I’m the only family she has. If I lose my income now…” her own crying at the thought interrupted her. She tried to fight back the tears but that only made more well up in her eyes.
The Doctor could see the package that she should have delivered still in her mailbag and an idea formed in his head. “Come with me,” he said standing up.
Ditzy was reluctant to follow. She looked up at the Doctor’s friendly face and decided she had nothing to lose. She rose to her hooves and wondered why she was so unconditionally trusting of this pony to just tell him all about her troubles.
“Come on,” he said leading her away.
Ditzy was too anxious about her crying to notice where she was being led. She heard a small squeaking sound like a door with old hinges being opened but was too busy wiping her eyes to notice what it was. The first thing she saw when she finally opened her eyes and took in her surroundings took her breath away.
She stood in a large bronze colored room made, from the looks of it, from various types of metals. Behind her, she noticed, were two slim, out-of-place, wooden doors painted blue. There were no candles or windows but somehow still plenty of light filling the structure. The Doctor stood in the middle, leaning on a large column, smiling at her.
“So, what do you think?” he asked in a very chipper voice.
Ditzy was almost speechless but she managed something. “Wow. Is this your house?”
The Doctor considered the question for a moment. “Yeah, I suppose it is. I call her the TARDIS.”
“You named your house?”
The stallion just smiled. “It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Want to find out why?” he said while flipping switches.
Ditzy just gave him a confused look as she walked up to see what he was doing. “What do all those do?”
“This one keeps the lights on, that one lets me see outside. And this one,” he paused for dramatic effect, “makes the whole thing go…” The TARDIS’s violent shaking ended his sentence. The central console shifted up and down punctuating the sound of mechanical grinding. Ditzy’s eyes shot open as she desperately clung to whatever she could in a blind panic.
The ship stopped as soon as it started and the gray pegasus tried to relax a bit, but was still in shock. The Doctor chuckled to himself as he stood up.
“What was that?!” Ditzy demanded.
“Come and see,” the stallion said as he exited the ship.
Ditzy ran out of the TARDIS not wanting to see any other surprises it might have to offer. The first thing she noticed when she exited was her location; they were still in Ponyville but they had moved. She looked up and saw something even odder, the clock tower she saw only moments before was just in front of her but it had the wrong time. According to the tower it was eleven o’clock, not two. She stared at the Doctor. He only looked back with a goofy grin on his face.
“What? What?” she stammered out.
“We went back in time. Three hours. Now you won’t be late.”
She backed up a step thinking this was all too ridiculous. Maybe somepony was pranking her. That had to be it, it was all just a prank. Well she wasn’t going to be a part of it! She turned to leave and nearly forgot how to breath as she really saw for the first time the outside of the TARDIS. The massive room she had been in was contained in a relatively tiny blue box.
Okay , she thought, not a prank, a monster.
“It. It’s b…” she didn’t even bother finishing her sentence as she simply started to run away.
The Doctor gave chase. Good going, Doctor, he thought sarcastically, you don’t even know what planet this is or what you’re dealing with and you're already trying to recruit a companion.
He caught up to Ditzy who was only walking quickly now. “It’s not that bad,” he pleaded, “it’s just a time machine that’s bigger on the inside that’s all.”
“Oh, is that all it is?” she said sarcastically. She knew about unicorn magic but this was just ridiculous, and he wasn’t even a unicorn. Looking at the stallion, she saw for the first time the image emblazoned on his flank; an hourglass. She stopped and looked up at him seriously, letting everything sink in. “We really went back in time didn’t we?”
The Doctor nodded saying slyly, “Yeah, we did.”
The implications of their trip through time were immediately apparent. It was like he said, she wouldn’t be late delivering the package now. But another thought occurred to her and she had to ask. “Wait, I don’t remember seeing a second me. What if I run into myself from the past? Wouldn’t that change things?”
“I guess you’ll just have to not run into yourself then,” he answered.
The two ponies walked together and delivered the package with time to spare, which gave Ditzy plenty of time to get used to the idea of time travel. “Thanks for everything,” Ditzy said. “Not just the time travel, but for listening to me when I was down. I still can’t quite believe there’s a pony whose special talent is time.”
“Yeah,” the Doctor responded before noticing her strange wording. “What do you mean special talent?”
“Your cutie mark,” she said matter-of-factly as if that explained everything.
The Doctor shook his head. “What’s a cutie mark?”
Ditzy looked at him dumbfounded. Standing before her was a pony with advanced technology the likes of which her world had never seen and he didn’t understand cutie marks. She couldn’t tell from the way he asked if he was really ignorant or if he was just making fun of her.
“That,” she said gesturing to his back end. “The image that appears when you discover your special talent. How do you not know about this?”
“Oh, is that what that is. I was worried I was at some crazy party or something last night,” he said jokingly. “What’s yours stand for then? All those bubbles.”
“I… don’t actually know,” she said sheepishly. “I just woke up one morning and there it was. Hey, you never did tell me your name.”
Ignoring the blatant subject change, the Doctor’s face scrunched a bit as he tried to think back. “Course I did, I’m sure of it, two and a half hours from now.”
“No,” she corrected, “you just said you were a doctor.”
“Yep, that’s me. The Doctor.”
“Your name is ‘Doctor’? Are you actually a doctor?”
“Of course I’m a doctor, I’m a doctor of everything. Well, not really. Well... almost everything. They wouldn’t let me have a fine cuisine doctorate after my giant cheese tower fell on the school. Long story. Point is never try to cut slices of cheese from the bottom of a cheese tower.”
All Ditzy could do was smile and giggle lightly at her new friend’s nonsensical statement. ‘New friend.’ She had only just met the strangest pony in the world and was already thinking of him as a friend. It didn’t make much sense to her but somehow felt right. Almost like it was meant to be.
“What’s that noise?” the Doctor asked as he plopped his ear to the ground.
“I don’t hear any…”
“Shh.” The Doctor listened to the ground for a moment before continuing. “Something’s moving underground. Something big. It’s headed–” he picked his head up and gestured to the side “–that way.” He started running off. Ditzy, not sure what to do but not wanting to leave him quite yet, followed.
“Wait. Why are we going this way? I thought it was going the other way,” Ditzy called out to the Doctor as they ran.
“It is, but it doesn’t feel natural,” the Doctor answered. “If we’re going to track it we need a better way than listening to the ground. Besides, I have important business to take care of.” The two companions ran inside the blue box. Ditzy tossed her mailbag to the side and the Doctor immediately ran to the controls pulling a screen where he could see it. “Come on, come on where are you?”
“What business? What are you doing exactly?” Ditzy asked.
“Anything that massive shifting through the ground is bound to leave at least a small heat trail that I can track with the TARDIS,” he said. “Ha-ha, there you are.” Ditzy stood next to the Doctor, watching as he stood on his hind legs and messed with the controls. From outside the box could be seen lifting into the air before quickly flying off.
“Here take the controls,” the Doctor said in haste.
“What?!” Ditzy yelled over the shaking TARDIS, not sure if he was serious.
“It’s easy, just take this and follow where the red dot on the screen goes,” he said handing over control. “Like I said, I have business to take care of.” He turned to walk away before looking back and adding, “Just don’t touch the atom accelerator.” With that he ran off to another part of the ship.
“Wait, which one is that?” she cried out, but the Doctor was too far away to hear her. She did her best to learn how to fly the ship and chase the red dot but the shaking of the TARDIS and the unpredictable movement of the underground object made it not only difficult but also scary.
The blue box hit the ground, bounced back into the air, and scraped over trees as it flew erratically in its pursuit. Ditzy’s eyes shined with a mix of pure terror and excitement as sparks flew out of the controls as if it were breaking from the stress of flight. Whatever he’s doing it better be important, she thought.
Elsewhere in the TARDIS the Doctor opened a door revealing his wardrobe. He pushed his way in through dozens of outfits eventually finding a small box in the back labeled IN CASE OF SHORT REGENERATION . “Never thought I’d have to use these,” he remarked. He pulled the box out with his teeth.
The ship rumbled and the Doctor’s head shot up as he started thinking. He never let a companion pilot alone, especially not one he just met. He couldn’t put his finger on it, maybe because he didn’t have fingers anymore, but there was just something about her, somehow he just felt like he could believe in her unquestioningly. He shook off the thought and reached deep into the box, deeper than the outer dimensions should allow.
Ditzy grunted as she steered the ship left and right. The TARDIS didn’t exactly move in a straight line no matter how steady she held the controls. The ship spun and fought and sparked and acted like it was actually trying to crash, but somehow Ditzy kept it going. One of her eyes wandered to the side and she caught a glimpse of the Doctor next to her.
“Well, what do you think?” the Doctor asked, showing off a new look.
Ditzy turned her head, her face contorted with confusion. “That’s what was so important? Putting on a coat and tie?” she asked, practically scolding him as she nearly lost control of the ship.
“Of course. I need to look my best when I’m saving the world,” he said matter-of-factly as he walked up to help Ditzy with the controls. “What’s it doing now?”
“It started moving in a straight line a moment ago. If I’m looking at this... thing... right, it’s heading out of town. What are we chasing anyway?” she asked almost panicking.
“No idea,” he said, excited at the prospect. “It must have found where it’s going though. What’s out there?”
The Doctor switched channels and hit the monitor to see a clearer picture of their surroundings. The screen showed a large field of apple trees surrounding a large barnyard.
“That’s Sweet Apple Acres!” Ditzy said, an obvious sense of danger and worry in her tone.
Applejack, her little sister, Applebloom, and big brother, Big Macintosh were frantically kicking the apple trees trying to clear the apples as fast as they could. “Come on y’all we gotta save as much of our crop as we can,” Applejack called to her family trying to keep them motivated. Their grandmother, Granny Smith, was quickly inspecting the baskets of apples her grandchildren were carrying over.
Granny Smith picked up an apple. A small worm burrowed out of it. “Bad’n,” she declared tossing it into a large pile behind her. Apples all across the farm were infected with an infestation of worms. They devoured and destroyed most of the crop, leaving only about forty percent of the trees untouched so far.
Applejack was just about to send Applebloom to get help when she heard a strange noise in the distance, something she couldn’t quite identify. It sounded like some kind of machine slowly breaking down. She looked around and finally saw its origin, a blue object flying out of control headed straight for them. Her eyes widened as it got closer. “Run!” she yelled, getting her family to safety.
The blue box hit the ground hard, skidding to a stop just in front of the Apple family. Applejack was shaking slightly looking a little scared as she held her little sister. Applebloom looked in astonishment at the big box while trying to wriggle out of her sister’s grasp. Granny Smith was behind them still inspecting apples as if she hadn’t noticed or just didn’t care. Big Mac stood between the box and his family ready to fend off any danger it might present.
The doors flew open allowing a puff of smoke to lift into the air. The Doctor and Ditzy Doo ran out coughing. “She doesn’t exactly do a lot of flying for a ship,” the Doctor said as if he was continuing a conversation. “Best give her a few minutes.”
The Doctor put his ear to the ground, listened for a moment, and ran off completely ignoring the Apple Family. Ditzy followed, not wanting to lose sight of him.
“Hey, wait just a minute,” Applejack called as she and her siblings gave chase.
“Bad’n, bad’n,” Granny Smith said, staying focused on her task, “good’n! Bad’n, bad’n.”
The five ponies ran to a small clearing in the orchard and the Doctor stopped to listen to the ground again.
“What the hay is going on here?” Applejack demanded.
“Shh,” the Doctor commanded.
“I want answers,” she said.
“Just be quiet for a moment,” he ordered back.
Applejack turned to Ditzy and gave her a look as if to ask: ‘Is he always this rude?’ Ditzy replied with a worried look like she was just wanted Applejack to play along. Applejack obliged with a slight roll of her eyes and watched the Doctor like the others.
The Doctor kept his ear to the ground. His eyes darted back and forth as he picked up every tiny tremor. For a moment the world around them seemed to stand still; not a single bird chirped, the wind did not blow, even the ponies breaths were quiet and slow.
“It’s coming,” the Doctor said, dead serious. “I can hear it. It’s...” He picked up his head in surprise. “...Gone? I don’t understand, it was right underneath and it just disappeared.” The world around them seemed to sigh in relief. “Well, I guess we can just—”
Suddenly the ground erupted underneath the Doctor sending him flying into the sky. The other four stood frozen in shock watching as some massive thing came out of the hole. Their jaws all hit the ground as they witnessed a giant creature tower over them.
Ditzy heard a faint screaming sound above that snapped her out of her stupor. She took flight and managed to catch the Doctor just before he hit the ground. She set him down next to the others who still couldn’t figure out how to react to the monstrosity.
The Doctor started smiling and laughing like a child who just tasted his first piece of candy. “Oh you are beautiful,” he said to the monster before him. It looked like a giant, beady-eyed, worm with a small layer of hair lining the inside of its mouth.
“Say what!?” Applejack said.
“Hello, Jeff!” the Doctor yelled at the worm. He turned back to the other ponies, “Doesn’t he look like Jeff?”
Ditzy and the others just looked at him with a mixture of horror and confusion.
“Jeff,” he clarified, “Men In Black Two? The subway?”
They just continued to stare, more confused than ever.
“Right,” he mumbled, “wrong planet.”
The beast turned, opened its mouth – one large enough to swallow two ponies whole – and let loose a terrible roar.
“Oh, sorry. Jennifer then,” the Doctor responded.
The worm lifted its head into the air preparing an attack. The Doctor backed away slightly as ‘Jennifer’ took a dive straight for the ponies. “I think we better... Run!” he said quickly as they all fled. The worm bobbed in and out of the ground tearing up trees and earth as it hunted the ponies.
“Get to the barn,” Applejack yelled. They all scattered in different directions. The worm, not sure who to chase, dove into the ground biding its time.
The five ponies reconvened in the barn, hiding from the monster.
“Just who are you and why did you bring that thing here?” Applejack demanded of the Doctor. “And you’re Ditzy Doo ain’t ya? What are you doing in all this?”
“Calm down,” the Doctor said in a relaxed tone. “I don’t know what she is or where she’s from but I’m working on it.”
“That’s why we were following it,” Ditzy continued. “To find out what was going on.”
“And we can do just that if we can get her to calm down and talk. Something is wrong and we need her to tell us what if we have any chance of helping.”
Ditzy briefly flashed back to her introduction to the Doctor only a few hours before. Hello, I’m the Doctor. What’s wrong? She shook the thought out of her head and smiled.
“Help? What we need to do is hogtie that monster and kick it out of here,” Applejack argued.
The Doctor’s expression changed in the blink of an eye from one of a concerned parent to one of seriousness and pent up fury. “No,” he said sternly, a fire in his eyes, as he came face to face with Applejack. “No violence. Not while I’m around, I’m the Doctor, the oncoming storm. She is intelligent. We can reason with her and if there is even the smallest chance that she will listen then we must try. Do I make myself clear?”
Applejack, surprised at his outburst and backing off slightly, simply nodded her head.
“Good,” said the Doctor returning to his cheerful demeanor. “Now, all we need to do is figure out how to lure out and calm down a five hundred ton raging creature. Easy.”
The group heard a loud noise in the distance that sounded like the worm emerging from the ground again. Applebloom’s eyes widened as she realized something, Granny Smith was still out there. She ran out on her own but the others quickly followed.
“Now where’d those kids run off to?” Granny Smith asked herself, looking around as she walked through the orchard. “Don’t they know there’s work to be done? Kids these days.” The earth shook as the worm shot out of the ground. Granny Smith’s eyes opened wide at the sight, she looked back at the apples she was sorting, then back at the giant worm. “Oh…”
Applebloom and the others raced as quickly as they could after their grandmother hoping everything would be alright. When they arrived they were quite shocked at what they saw. Granny Smith sat next to the giant worm petting the side of its head as it let out a low purr.
Applejack looked in awe at the creature her grandmother was consoling. “Granny how did you...”
“Aw, she’s just a big sweetheart,” Granny Smith said. “The worms in the apples are her children. She was only trying to protect her family.”
“How did you figure that out?” the Doctor asked, clearly impressed.
“Oh, a mother knows,” she said winking at him.
The Doctor and Ditzy took some time to talk and answer the Apple family’s questions. After talking with Jennifer the worm, the Doctor learned that she was from a different planet and came to Equestria by accident and had no way home.
“So what do we do now?” Ditzy asked the Doctor.
“Simple, we give her a ride home,” he responded.
“You mean to another planet?” she asked, a little surprised at the idea.
“Of course. The TARDIS can go anywhere in space and time,” he said. “All I need to do is extend the exterior shielding to accommodate the extra mass we’ll be towing through space, since she can’t fit through the doors, and voila ,” he said.
The Doctor walked to the Apple family saying, “It was very nice to meet you all but we best be off, places to be, things to do.”
“Wait,” Applejack said, “you’re just gonna leave us with ‘Jennifer’ here?”
“No,” he said. “We’re giving her a lift home.”
“Uh, how do you plan on that?” she asked.
The Doctor smiled coyly. “I think you’ll like this,” he said teasingly.
The Doctor and Ditzy walked into the TARDIS and the worm family gathered around. The machine gave off its familiar grinding noise and vanished taking the alien worms with it. Each of the Apple family had the same reaction; their eyes opened wide and their jaws hung loose as they watched the blue box dematerialize.
“Uh, did that pony just make that worm disappear into thin air?” Applebloom asked nopony in particular.
“Uh, eeyup,” Big Mac responded.
“Well shoot. Now I’ve seen everything,” said Applejack.
“Heh heh,” Granny Smith chuckled. “You young-uns still got a lot to see. Why I remember this one time about eighty years ago… or was it twenty?” The siblings all rolled their eyes at the thought of listening to another of their grandmother’s stories they couldn’t even be sure was true. Although after this they might just believe anything.
“Wow,” was all Ditzy could say as she gazed at the alien landscape. It wasn’t too different from the Everfree Forest if a bit more peaceful. It was the middle of night but two large moons provided plenty of light and made the red-ish soil look almost glossy. She watched in amazement as Jennifer reunited with her family.
The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS, smiling as he watched yet another companion in awe of the majesty of the universe. Suddenly Ditzy’s smile dropped as she remembered something important and turned to the Doctor. “Oh no oh no oh no,” she said as she ran for the ship.
“What is it what’s wrong?” the Doctor asked frantically following her into the TARDIS.
“We need to get back to Ponyville now!” she demanded.
“Alright, alright. Return trips are easy,” he said as he messed with the controls in a half panic. “All I need to do is recall the most recent spatial coordinates, do a thing, flip some stuff and we are going… home.” The TARDIS shook as if to punctuate the end of his sentence.
The ship reappeared in Ponyville and Ditzy ran out frantically looking around. The Doctor walked next to her asking, “What is it? Why did we need to come back so soon?”
She saw the clock tower and breathed a sigh of relief. “Three-ten, plenty of time.”
“Time for what?” he asked.
“Today is my sister’s birthday,” she explained. “I promised I’d pick her up from school at three-thirty and spend the day with her. If I hurry I can return my mailbag to the post office and grab the gift I got her before then.”
The Doctor smiled. This pegasus left behind the adventure of a lifetime to keep a promise with her family; he definitely liked this companion. Then something occurred to him, she wasn’t his companion yet, he still didn’t tell her that she was welcome to come with him, she probably thought this was the end of their time together and, if she wanted to come back to Ponyville so eagerly, it might be. Still he had to offer her the chance.
“Well,” he said sauntering back to the TARDIS, “I’d best be off then, don’t want to get in the way of family time. Unless of course... if you wanted to join me.”
Ditzy gave him a surprised look as if she wondered if that was even allowed.
“It doesn’t have to be now,” he clarified a bit nervously, “I could drop in tomorrow, if you like, time travel and all that.”
She paused, thinking for a moment before answering. “Thanks, but I can’t.”
“Okay,” the Doctor said trying to hide disappointment with a joyful tone.
“I mean I’d love to, but my sister needs me. I can’t just leave her,” she said, trying to ease her rejection.
“Yeah. No. Totally understandable,” he said scratching the back of his neck. A moment of silence passed between them before the Doctor broke the pause. “Well, I should be off then.” He opened the TARDIS’ doors and walked in.
“Wait. Will I ever see you again?” she asked.
The Doctor smiled and said, “If I’m lucky.” He went inside the box and closed the doors and Ditzy beheld for the first time what the disappearing act looked like from the outside. She sighed lightly before running off.
“Now, down to business,” the Doctor said to himself, fending off the loneliness in the TARDIS. “Why am I a pony? How did I get here? Last I remember I was in the middle of regenerating, and then I woke up here. So, what do I do to figure this out?”
He paused as if waiting for someone to answer before he sighed. Being impressive wasn’t as fun without anyone to impress. All he needed to do was retrace his steps and investigate but he wanted to have fun with it, to share it. A little depressed, he silently stepped up to the controls and entered the coordinates for Earth, 3.1415.92653.589793.23846.2, and the TARDIS shifted through space.
The Doctor stepped out of his ship expecting to see the familiar sights of London in the early twenty-first century. Instead he saw Ponyville. He landed next to a certain school and a certain gray pegasus waiting outside. “What?” he said.
“Doctor?” Ditzy asked, not sure if she was seeing things.
“What?” he said again completely confused. “What? How did I get here?” He spoke as if he was alone and only musing to himself. “I’m certain I entered the coordinates correctly.”
“Why are you back so soon?” Ditzy asked. “Did you forget something? Wait. It’s a time machine. I just saw you ten minutes ago. How long were you gone?”
“Ten minutes,” he answered still focusing on the mystery at hand. “But this isn’t right I definitely entered the coordinates for Earth.”
“So what’s the problem?” she said. “This is Earth.”
“What? No, this can’t be Earth, Earth is full of skyscrapers, cars, brilliant and stupid people, and Jelly Babies,” the Doctor said in a confused panic.
“Jelly babies?” Ditzy mouthed silently, trying to understand his rambling. She quickly shook off the thought and continued. “No. This is the town of Ponyville, in the country Equestria, on planet Earth. Any of this ringing a bell?” she said almost sarcastically.
“No this can’t be Earth, there is no way that this is Earth, it’s completely impossible… unless...” the Doctor said, cutting himself off. He ran into the TARDIS and Ditzy, not wanting to disappear just before her sister would get out of school, waited outside.
The Doctor returned after a moment completely calm as he walked over and sat next to the gray pegasus. He sat there next to her staring forward as the two looked at the school. “Wrong universe,” he said nonchalantly still staring forward.
“Excuse me?” Ditzy asked keeping her eyes on the building before them.
The school bell rang and a few fillies and colts ran out of the building.
“It shouldn’t be possible but I’m in the wrong universe,” the Doctor clarified entirely straight-faced, “and I can’t go back.”
Ditzy finally turned her head looking at the stallion with confusion. She was about to make some remark but was preemptively interrupted by a call.
“Derpy!” a voice called from in front of the ponies. It was a small unicorn filly running joyfully out of the school. She looked similar to Ditzy Doo with the same mane and eyes; although unlike Ditzy, this filly’s eyes were straight like any normal pony. Her coat was only slightly more violet than the pegasus’s. She ran up to Ditzy and nuzzled her in greeting.
“Hey squirt,” Ditzy responded lovingly.
The small unicorn’s smile faded to a serious expression as she looked up at the Doctor, getting a close look at him for the first time. She peered at him deeply as if she could sense something about him... something... off. “Are you going to fix our house?” she asked. Her voice was somber and worried. Ditzy let out a small sigh as if this happened frequently and she had had enough of it.
“No, Dinky,” Ditzy said sweetly trying gently to change the conversation. “This is my friend, the Doctor. Doctor, this is my sister Dinky.”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” he said kneeling down to meet her eyes. “What’s wrong with your house?”
“It’s nothing,” Ditzy interjected. “It’s just a small flaw in the construction, nopony seems able to fix it, but it’s not really a problem.”
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her words and taking particular note of the word ‘nopony .’
“But it... scares me,” Dinky said quietly.
“I hear today is your birthday,” the Doctor said. “Tell you what, why don’t I come have a look. If anybo... anypony can fix it I can.” The Doctor’s reassuring tone made Dinky smile.
“All right, but only after the party,” Ditzy said.
“Okay, I’ll just pop back in later then,” the Doctor said as he started towards his ship.
“Oh no you don’t,” Ditzy said, grabbing him before he could run away. “I won’t let you get away this time, besides I could use another chaperon.”
“But I…” the Doctor started. He wasn’t usually one to get involved in day-to-day social events.
Ditzy’s mismatched eyes somehow both pleaded and commanded that he stay.
“Oh, all right,” he said, defeated, before he locked the doors to the TARDIS.
Both Dinky and Ditzy smiled. The three ponies walked along with Dinky happily skipping in front. “So what time is this party, Derpy ?” the Doctor said with a smug grin.
Ditzy’s cheeks puffed up slightly as she tried to fight back a smile and feign anger at the unsolicited nickname. “Only my closest friends and family can call me that,” she said trying to scold him but sounding a little too happy.
“Yes, right, I understand,” he began completely serious before breaking into a large grin and finishing, “Derpy.”
“Whatever,” she said accepting defeat. “The party will be later, we were going to spend some time together and go out to eat before then. You’re welcome to come along; I don’t think Dinky will mind. In fact, I think she’s taken a liking to you.”
The group went out to a nice restaurant for the evening where the Doctor had to learn how to eat as a pony. Ditzy and Dinky both laughed about how child-like the Doctor could be. He also regaled them with some of the most amazing stories that they had ever heard, though he didn’t reveal much about himself during this.
Although they thought it normal and mundane, the sisters traded stories of their lives and of Equestria. The Doctor hanging on their every word like it was the most wonderful thing in his life.
They retired to Ditzy’s home for the party where, one by one, all of Dinky’s friends showed up to celebrate. Ditzy couldn’t afford to hire anypony to throw a huge party but she still managed to prepare something fun for all. Even the Doctor got into the fun, acting at times more like the entertainment than a guardian. Then it was finally time for cake and presents.
“Thanks for this,” Ditzy said to the Doctor as they watched Dinky unwrap her gifts and all the kids eat cake.
“I’m good with kids,” the Doctor responded almost dismissively. “Besides what’s the point of having two hearts if you can’t be nice now and then?”
“Two hearts?” Ditzy asked holding back a laugh. She couldn’t quite tell if he was making a joke.
“Hold on.” He put a hoof on one side of his chest, THUMP THUMP , then felt the other side, THUMP THUMP . “Yep, still got two hearts,” he said nonchalantly.
Still not sure if he was serious, given all the ludicrous things she had learned about this pony, Ditzy opened her mouth to say something but found that there were no words at this point. She was speechless as she looked at this impossible creature, a time and space traveling pony with two hearts that knows nothing about the planet he is on and is supposedly in the wrong universe. Surely there was no way that he could become more ridiculous than this.
The party came to an end and all Dinky’s friends went home leaving only Dinky, Ditzy and the Doctor. Ditzy approached her sister and proffered one last gift for the day. Dinky took it, as happy as can be, and tore up the wrapping. Inside the box was a small silver necklace with a locket on it; she opened the locket to see a small picture of her and her sister. The unicorn hugged her sister in thanks before putting it on. The Doctor stood watching, wishing on some level that he could have a life like theirs.
“Hey, can you look at the wall now?” Dinky asked the Doctor.
“Oh right, of course I can,” the Doctor said, finally remembering the reason he tagged along. “Where is it?”
“It’s upstairs,” Ditzy said with a sigh, leading the way.
The ponies entered one of the rooms on the second floor; it was clearly being used for storage space as it was filled mostly with boxes of old things. All of the boxes had been pushed to one side of the room away from one wall like they didn’t want to be near it. The Doctor walked to the barren wall with a look of concern and curiosity on his face, a look that didn’t pass by Ditzy.
“Doctor, what is it?” Ditzy asked, a little worried.
The Doctor put his head against the wall and ran a hoof along a large fracture as he said, “It’s a crack.”
“I know that,” Ditzy said, the tension leaving her. “Now could you please tell her there is nothing to worry about?”
The Doctor reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver to examine the crack in the wall. “I could say that, but I’d be lying,” he started to explain. “This isn’t just any crack. If you remove the wall the crack would stay in place because it’s not in the wall… it’s a crack in space.”
Dinky cowered behind her sister.
“Doctor stop it. You’re scaring her,” Ditzy said sounding a little frightened herself.
“Don’t worry I know what to do,” he said stepping away from the wall. “If we open the crack it should snap itself shut, all I need to do is…” He was interrupted by the crack in the wall as it started opening on its own. A bright light started to pour out from it as the Doctor stared in horror. “Not good, that’s very not good. Okay new plan; RUN!” The group ran out of the house as fast as they could. “Quickly, get to the TARDIS.”
“What was that? What’s going on?” Ditzy demanded as they entered the Doctor’s time machine. Dinky looked around speechless at the sight before her.
“It’s a crack in time and space,” the Doctor began as he paced around the TARDIS. “It’s some kind of complicated time-space event that shouldn’t even be possible; two parts of time and space that should never have touched. But why did it open?” He hit his head with a hoof a couple of times out of frustration as if to jump-start his brain. He stood in front Ditzy looking her straight in the eye. “It must have been the sonic screwdriver when I scanned it that must have opened it right?”
“Uh, right,” she guessed trying to follow along.
“No, no, no, no that can’t be right,” he said turning away and pacing again. “The crack is a complicated wibbly wobbly timey wimey spatial event, the only thing that could make it active is an equally complicated event…me.” The Doctor smacked his forehead in realization. “Of course, two anomalies in close proximity to one another would draw each other. Think of two negatively charged magnets forced to be near each other pushing apart only they can’t go anywhere so one of them rips apart to get out of the way, make sense?” Ditzy barely managed to follow his logic and nodded in understanding of his analogy. “Good, because it works nothing like that but think of it anyway.”
“But what are we supposed to do?” Ditzy asked.
“Simple, if we introduce a massive time-space anomaly and reverse the polarity of the neutron flow using my sonic to wrench open the crack that should cause it to slam shut permanently. There’s just one problem, I’m not a big enough event. Dinky, Derpy, I need your help. This is very important; you need to tell me if there are any time or space anomalies around here. It could be anything that seems out of place, something capable of distorting space itself.”
Ditzy understood and nodded for him to look around. The Doctor glanced around the inside of his time machine capable of warping space to be bigger on the inside.
“What?” he asked clueless of what she meant.
She gestured around again a little annoyed that he wasn’t getting it.
He looked around again and finally responded in understanding, “Oh.”
The TARDIS materialized in front of the crack in Ditzy’s house and the three ponies emerged. The Doctor noticed that the boxes had vanished from the other side of the room but didn’t have time to comment as the crack began opening again.
“Ready or not,” the Doctor said aiming his screwdriver. “Allons-y.” The crack opened, acting differently than the last time; instead of bleeding light it showed scenery of another world before crashing shut. The room was left empty as the Doctor, Dinky, Ditzy, the TARDIS and the crack all mysteriously vanished.
The Doctor awoke to find himself in a strange desolate landscape all alone. A thick layer of ash colored clouds darkened the sky and all around him were dunes of black sand. The air was dry and warm but breathable. His head darted around as he looked for his companions and the TARDIS but all he saw was the movement of sand in the wind. “Derpy, Dinky!” he called out, walking to the highest point he could find. He reasoned that they couldn’t be far; they were all together just a moment ago.
“Dinky,” a voice called from far away.
The Doctor heard this and called back, “Derpy, over here.”
“Doctor!” she yelled angrily as they reunited. “What have you done? Where is my sister?”
“Ditzy Doo you need to calm down,” he said.
“Why?” she yelled again. “Everything was fine until you came along, now my sister is missing and it’s all your fault. Why do you need to butt in where you’re not welcome?” She knew she didn’t really mean what she was saying. It wasn’t the Doctor’s fault that the crack existed and all he had ever tried to do was help, but she was in a panic and she needed an outlet.
“Listen to me,” he said looking her in the eye, “I promise we will find your sister and the TARDIS and get you both back safely. They can’t be far. On my life, I will make this right.”
“Where are we?” she asked, much calmer now.
“Another planet, we fell through the crack as it closed, I don’t know where,” he explained as they began to search around.
Dinky woke up next to the TARDIS to find that she was completely alone in a barren wasteland. She trembled where she stood. She couldn’t see very far and couldn’t get back inside the blue box. Her eyes welled up with tears.
She was about to cry out for help when she heard a sound; a low growl that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Suddenly a creature about the size of the TARDIS came out of the sand and started flying, circling overhead. It looked like some kind of half dead manta ray with four fins that allowed it to glide through the air. It flew around as if it was inspecting the box. Dinky shrunk down hoping it didn’t see her.
The Doctor and Ditzy heard a loud scream they knew could only be from a certain lost filly and ran as fast as they could. It wasn’t long before they came across the TARDIS but Dinky was nowhere to be found. Her necklace was lying in the sand looking like it was torn off and a trail of hoofprints led away from the blue box.
Ditzy looked horrified as she picked up the silver locket. Without any words she flew into the sky and followed the trail pumping her wings as hard as possible, pushing them through burning pain to find her sister. The Doctor followed after.
It wasn’t long before they heard a loud howl in the sky. They followed it until they saw some old stone ruins in the distance. Whatever had made the howling noise was gone as nothing but wind whistling through the old destroyed buildings could be heard. In front of one of the walls was Dinky lying on her side not moving. The Doctor and Ditzy were too far away to tell if she was hurt, or worse, but the worst part was what was on the wall behind her. A crack, just like the one in Ditzy’s house, had opened and light was bleeding forth, enveloping Dinky.
Ditzy flew as fast as she could, thinking of nothing other than saving her sister. But as she closed in she slowly realized that she wasn’t fast enough, by the time she hit ground her sister had vanished, taken by the light. She stood in front of the crack, her lip quivering, and her mind blank as she cried uncontrollably. Then she suddenly felt a pull. The crack was still active and the Doctor, whose yelling fell on deaf ears, dragged her away so that the same fate wouldn’t befall her. They made it back to the TARDIS safely out of danger but Ditzy could only continue to cry.
“You promised me!” she yelled through her tears.
“I’m sorry,” he desperately pleaded. “I’m so sorry.”
Then, as the two of them sat in the TARDIS, something happened, something the Doctor couldn’t possibly fathom; Ditzy stopped crying. It wasn’t a gradual decline of sobbing, it was a sudden stop. She smiled at him like nothing had ever been wrong. “So, when are we leaving?” she asked with a small, almost nervous, laugh. The Doctor stood there dumbfounded.
“What about your sister?” he asked.
“I don’t have a sister,” she said as if he should have known that already.
“What?” the Doctor asked, a tremble in his voice.
“I told you before, I don’t have any family. That’s part of what made me come with you,” she said a little sheepishly.
“No, no,” the Doctor said as he opened Dinky’s locket. “See you…”
He cut himself off as he looked at the picture. Where there were once two sisters there was now only Ditzy Doo. The Doctor put the necklace in his pocket realizing what happened; Dinky wasn’t just gone, she wasn’t dead, she had been erased from existence as if she were never born.
A small ray of hope shined in the back of his mind; he still remembered her. If some ridiculous miracle happened maybe someday he could keep his promise. Until then he didn’t want to panic his new companion, or perhaps some part of him just didn’t want her to leave him if she knew the truth. As the Doctor started at the TARDIS controls Derpy wiped her cheek quizzically, wondering why her face was wet.
{Back To The Present}
The Doctor lay in the TARDIS control room, sleeping, Dinky’s necklace sitting in front of him. Doctor , a loud eerie whisper said. The Doctor’s eyes shot open as he heard this.
“What is it? Who’s there?” he demanded, jolting his head around. There was no response, there was nothing there. The Doctor calmed down and rubbed his eyes, he knew that nothing could get inside the TARDIS without his knowledge. He must have heard it in his dream and woken up from it.
He picked up the necklace, putting it back into his coat as he turned to walk off. All of a sudden a bright light flashed behind him as a small wind blew about the room. He turned around and the light disappeared, replaced by somepony he knew. “What?” he asked in confusion.
“Doctor,” the unicorn said.
“What?” he said even more confused about how Twilight Sparkle found her way onto his ship.
“If my calculations are correct, this should be just after our first meeting,” Twilight said.
“You just, I…what ?” he asked again.
“There’s no time to explain! Time can be rewritten, I know it can,” she said, desperation clear in her voice as her eyes darted around the room. She lowered her head as her horn began to glow. “I’m taking you back with me,” she said as her magic enveloped and activated the TARDIS controls.
“No, stop, what are doing?” the Doctor yelled.
Twilight’s magic presented a barrier that blocked him from the controls. He ran up to Twilight to try and stop her directly. She suddenly looked up and stopped her magical control of the time machine and it started to tremble out of control. The Doctor stopped as the bright light returned around Twilight.
Tears welled up in her eyes as the light grew stronger and she said, “No, I can’t fail. I won’t let you d—" The light took her back wherever she came from. The Doctor didn’t have time to contemplate how she was going to finish that sentence or how or why she came here, he had an emergency on his hoofs as the TARDIS fell through time out of control.
The Legend Of The Blue Box
“FINAL EXTERMINATION IN THIRTY RELS,” echoed a deep, ominous voice.
Ditzy Doo opened her eyes slowly; cautious of what she feared she might see. As her eyes opened her face began to express more than simple agony or terror; such words fail to describe what caused her breath to stop. She was frozen from the sight before her, her mouth hung open as she gazed in disbelief. Before her was not just one Dalek, not a few Daleks, but an entire army of Daleks numbering in the tens of thousands at the least.
The soldiers flew around inside a massive spaceship tending to their respective duties. Oddly, none of the Daleks took notice of Ditzy, or perhaps they didn’t care that she was there for some reason. Ditzy stood right in the middle of a large central corridor. A giant hole before her reached through multiple levels of the ship, obviously designed for some purpose.
“DETONATION IN FIFTEEN RELS,” the voice announced, echoing through the ship with a supreme commanding tone. Ditzy could see the origin of the voice; a Dalek colored a little differently than all the others in a throne-like position, light illuminating it more than any other area.
Ditzy looked around furiously searching for the Doctor or the TARDIS or any ray of hope that whatever the Dalek army was scheming they would not succeed. Her search proved futile. She was alone, she felt small and powerless, she couldn’t even fly and she dared not move for fear of being discovered. All she could do was stand still, watching as multiple holographic screens projected around the ship. They displayed the spaceship orbiting a planet; a planet Ditzy knew all too well, Earth.
“DETONATION IN FIVE RELS,” said the Dalek as it began a countdown. “FOUR.” Ditzy fell to her haunches, panicking. “THREE.” She wrapped her forelegs over her head, still staring at the projected image of Earth. “TWO.” Strangely, all she could think about was why there was something attached to her head that shouldn’t have been there. “ONE.” Ditzy had lost all hope at this point as she gazed longingly and in fear at her home. “FIRING REALITY BOMB!”
An enormous amount of electricity shot through the hole in the ship. Outside, a colossal part of the ship transformed and unleashed the built up energy in the form of a bubble that emanated outward in all directions. It moved lightning fast and soon touched the surface of the Earth.
Ditzy watched, nauseated, as the bubble did something she couldn’t even imagine; it dissolved the Earth into dust. The wave didn’t end with Earth, it kept going passed the moon, enveloping the sun, and then one by one all the stars in the sky went dark. The whole universe was gone; the only ones left were Ditzy and the Daleks.
All the lights in the ship went out at once. The leader of the Daleks spoke to his army, “FINALLY, DALEKS ARE THE ONLY RACE. NOW WE CAN PURSUE OUR TRUE PASSION.”
The lights came back on; shining an out of place bright pink and slow classical music began to play from out of nowhere. All the Daleks started swaying, spinning and moving their mechanical arms to the music.
“I AM SO GLAD WE GOT RID OF EVERYPONY ELSE IN THE UNIVERSE,” one Dalek declared to another.
“I KNOW, THIS WOULD BE SO EMBARRASSING OTHERWISE,” the other replied.
Ditzy stared at them confused, not sure if she was seeing things. Then for the first time she somehow got a good look at herself; she wasn’t herself. She was a filly, not just any filly, she was a unicorn with a light purple coat; she was Dinky.
Derpy gasped as she shot up awake in her bed, it had all been a dream. She couldn’t remember what her dream was about but from the way her heart was trying to break through her chest with every beat it must have been horrifying.
She tried to steady her breathing and calm herself down. She reminded herself that she was safe inside the TARDIS, and there was nothing to worry about. She flopped her head back onto the pillow; there was no way she could get back to sleep now. Her thoughts raced around in her mind as she tried to recall her nightmare. She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something important that she should have remembered.
Without warning the TARDIS started to shake violently, more so than when it usually traveled. Derpy made her way to the edge of the bed and promptly fell over. She had no idea why the Doctor would be moving the ship when she was asleep unless it was an emergency. She didn’t hesitate to fly to the control room as fast as she could.
“Doctor,” Derpy called, “what’s going on? Why are we moving?”
“I don’t know,” the Doctor half lied as he messed with the controls. “She’s flying out of control and falling through the time vortex. If I don’t stop her we could end up anywhere.”
“What do you need me to do?” she asked.
“I’ve almost got it! Just... hold on to something,” he ordered.
Derpy held onto the TARDIS for dear life as the Doctor used three of his legs and a string in his mouth attached to the other side of the control panel to pilot the ship. The usual grinding noise sounded different, it was as if the ship were crying at the impromptu flight. Altogether the ship landed with a great thud sending the Doctor tumbling back. Derpy released her grip of the now still ship and helped her companion back on his hooves.
“We’ve landed,” he remarked looking at the ships computer screen.
“Where are we?” Derpy asked as she walked to the ship’s doors.
The Doctor hit the computer screen in frustration. “Ah, the computer’s not working. It’s still trying to work out what happened and calculate the trajectory. We could be anywhere. On any stray asteroid, any moon, any desolate wasteland.” His tone betrayed a sense of apprehension.
“Otherwise known as civilization,” Derpy said giving him a haughty look as she stood in front of the open door.
“Hmm?” he responded perking up and trotting out of the TARDIS with his companion.
“Where do you think we are?” she asked.
The Doctor looked up at the night sky as they walked into a silent town just before dawn. “Well, judging from the stars I’d say about five-hundred-fifty light-years away from Earth and, oh, three-hundred-twelve years in the past; relatively speaking. Give or take a bit,” he said with an almost arrogant smile.
Derpy rolled her eyes slightly at the Doctor’s latest attempt to be impressive. Although she sometimes hated to admit it, she couldn’t help but think that he really was the most remarkable pony alive.
The companions walked through the town, taking in the atmosphere. It had seemed like forever since they last visited a planet that didn’t need to be saved from some disaster and it was nice to soak in some tranquility for once. The town had cobblestone streets and wooden and brick buildings, none of which were more than a few stories tall. It almost made the Doctor feel like he was in late nineteenth century London again.
They sat and watched the sunrise over the town, gazing, as the star seemed to burn the sky an outstanding mixture of pink and orange. Derpy was reminded of the time they decided to marathon fifty different summer sun celebrations and watched Celestia raise the sun. Half of them they experienced in orbit around the Earth. She still thought it beautiful every time, both then and now. Although, she thought looking at the Doctor, there may have been more to her joy than just the sun.
“Oh look,” the Doctor said breaking the silence and gesturing to the side, “ponies.”
Derpy looked around him to see what he was talking about. A stallion stood in front of a large stone building, a ring of keys in his teeth. After fiddling with the lock for a moment he opened the doors and went inside.
“Hey I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Derpy said. “Why do most of the aliens we meet look at least vaguely pony-like?”
“Well,” the Doctor started as they walked toward the now open building, “every universe needs to have a theme right? Back in my universe a lot of species looked somewhat Time Lord, here it’s pony.”
She silently accepted the response not sure if it was a real answer or just him avoiding saying ‘I don’t know.’
“Oh, it’s a museum,” the Doctor said cheerfully. “Love a museum, tells you all about the history of a place, well, unless it gets political then it just gets all wrong and one-sided. Still, let’s go see.”
The two of them entered the building and walked into a large front lobby, large enough to hold a massive centerpiece.
“Good morning,” the Doctor said.
The curator, a normal dark brown pony slightly taller than the Doctor and lacking any type of cutie mark, took notice. “Morning. You’re here early. Most folks wouldn’t be here at the crack of dawn, especially these days. At any rate feel free to look around, though tours don’t start for another few hours.” He busied himself with paperwork.
Derpy had already wandered off to look at the centerpiece in the entrance hall and the Doctor walked over to join her. She stared almost straight up at a huge skeleton that looked something like a cross between a horse and a Tyrannosaurus rex.
“Equinodon,” the Doctor said reading the plate in front of it. “Died out three-million six-thousand and twelve years ago? That’s an oddly specific number. Wonder how they got that.”
“Come on,” Derpy said pulling her companion, “let’s go see the rest.”
The curator looked at the pair as they walked off to a different corridor. He squinted like he was trying to get a better look at them, like he noticed something different about them. Like there was something wrong with at least one of them. He shook off the thought chalking it up to morning grogginess and went back to his work.
Several hours passed as the Doctor and Derpy perused through the many halls of the museum. Several employees and many, many guests began to flood through the building. From what he saw, the Doctor noted that none of this species had cutie marks and most wore some amount of clothing, a symbol of social status by the looks of it.
The museum itself was very large with many wings and stood two stories tall. It seemed this was a race that loved its history. The curator walked down the mythology section and happened to look up and notice the Doctor staring deeply at one of the paintings. The Doctor wore a pair of black-rimmed faux glasses just to make himself look smarter.
“You’re still here?” asked the curator.
“Yes,” the Doctor answered still studying the painting. “You’ve got quite the impressive collection here.”
“I see you’ve taken an interest in this particular legend,” said the curator.
The painting depicted a small fireball about to collide with the ground in the middle of the night. The title of the painting read ‘The Mactabilis War.’ Under the painting a small black book attached to a pedestal told the story of how, a few hundred years ago, an alien object crash-landed on their planet. Not long after this object was recovered the country erupted into civil war. Exactly what had fallen was lost to time but the ponies blamed the unrest on it. Somehow they had managed to overcome the instability and end the war. Whatever had fallen was never seen again.
“In my experience every myth holds at least some kernel of truth,” the Doctor said turning to the curator. “But what I find most fascinating is how you came up with such exact dates for some of your artifacts. No dating method can really be that precise can it?”
The curator smiled. “You’re a stallion who knows his stuff. Where are you from? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
The Doctor smiled basking for a moment in the praise. “Oh I travel a lot. I like to see history in action, if you know what I mean. I’m the Doctor by the way,” he said, instinctively holding out a hoof in greeting.
“Oh, are you a doctor of archaeology then?” the curator asked while shaking the Doctor’s hoof.
“Of sorts,” he replied.
“Wonderful, it’s always nice to have scientists join us Mister…” the curator said hoping the Doctor would fill in his name.
“Smith, John Smith,” the Doctor finished. Why not, he thought, it was a rare treat when the Doctor got to use his favorite pseudonym.
“Welcome Dr. Smith. My name is Mouseion. Would you and your companion like to meet our archaeology expert? He is considered something of a genius and is quite well respected in our city. Speaking of which, where is your companion?” Mouseion asked looking around for Derpy.
“Oh, I’m sure she’s around somewhere,” the Doctor said as he and the curator walked off. “Knowing her she’s probably off eating lunch somewhere.”
Derpy sat on a bench in the main lobby of the museum, a bag beside her with the museum logo on it. She sat watching the alien ponies walk about the museum as she happily ate a large muffin. She had been delightfully surprised to find that this place actually had a small cafeteria in it. Although she liked seeing history in a museum from time to time and knew that a lot of their travels didn’t involve life or death action, Derpy grew a little bored of this place. At this point she was mostly waiting for something to happen or for the Doctor to get bored as well.
“Hey are those real?” a small colt suddenly asked gesturing at Derpy’s wings.
“I’m so sorry,” the colt’s mother said catching up to her child. “He’s at that inquisitive age you know.”
Derpy didn’t quite understand what the big deal was; it seemed like an innocent enough question. She wanted to answer but found herself with a mouthful of muffin so she decided to just unfurl her wings in show.
The mother’s eyes went wide and she grabbed her son and backed away. She yelled for help at the sight of Derpy’s wings and soon the whole lobby took notice. All of the ponies looked angry, scared or a mixture of both. They started surrounding Derpy, backing her into a wall. Somepony threw a piece of food at her head and she flew above to escape the sudden mob. She took notice for the first time that none of these ponies were pegasi or unicorns, only regular ponies.
“Derpy!” the Doctor tried to yell over shouts of ‘Give them back,’ and ‘You’ll pay for your crimes,’ as he and the curator walked into the scene.
“Doctor,” she tried to yell back as she dodged all manner of objects being thrown at her.
“Enough!” a loud commanding voice echoed.
Silence resounded throughout the lobby as all eyes turned toward a stallion that just entered the building. He was a tall pony with a black mane, a rust colored coat and sky blue eyes that seemed to beam with experience and wisdom. He wore a brown leather brimmed hat and a dusty white lab coat and carried saddlebags on his sides. The entire room looked at him with respect and elation as he walked through the crowd and approached the pegasus. He smiled gently as if to say that everything was okay. Derpy tentatively floated down to meet him. He turned back to face the horde.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded like a parent scolding his children. “Are any one of you witness to any crime this mare has committed?” He paused as if awaiting response. Everypony only looked dejected and ashamed. “Well? What do you have to say for yourselves, accusing an innocent without any evidence? ”
“But her wings…” one of them said hesitantly.
“No,” he interrupted putting a hoof to his head in frustration. “I don’t want to hear about superstition, you're better than that. We are all better than that. Now leave this mare alone and go about your business.” He stomped his hoof down for emphasis.
All the ponies turned and began going back to what they were doing before. The stallion’s face shifted from stern and commanding to gentle and caring as he turned his attention back to the gray pegasus.
“Are you alright miss?” he asked showing his most debonair expression.
Derpy blushed slightly and giggled a bit nervously. “Um, yes I’m fine.”
“Derpy,” the Doctor called as he and Mouseion ran up to them. “Are you okay, what happened?”
“I’m fine, Doctor. Thanks to him,” she said, gesturing at her savior.
The Doctor and the stallion looked at one another. The stallion looked deep into the Doctor’s eyes for a moment as if he was trying to figure out what he was looking at. The Doctor stared back with similar interest.
“Dr. Arkhaios,” Mouseion said entering the conversation. “Good to see you again, this is Dr. John Smith and his friend…”
“Ditzy Doo,” she said introducing herself to the both of them.
“Good to formally meet you, I am Mouseion.” Turning his attention to the Doctor, Mouseion continued, “Dr. Smith, this is the pony I mentioned earlier, Dr. Arkhaios. This is Dr. John Smith, a visiting archaeologist.”
“Welcome,” Arkhaios said, a joy in his voice. “I always like to meet somepony devoted to history.”
“Yes, quite so,” the Doctor said. “And from what I’ve heard you’re quite the brilliant scientist yourself.”
“Well... I don’t like to brag but...” Arkhaios said acting a bit bashful. “Come, let us talk more in my office.”
Derpy, Arkhaios and the Doctor took their conversation to Arkhaios’s office and Mouseion went back to his work.
“So, I have to ask, what was all that about in the lobby?” the Doctor asked Arkhaios as the three ponies took their seats.
Arkhaios sighed as he began explaining. “Just an old superstition I assure you.”
“That was a lot more than superstition,” Derpy interjected. “Some of them looked like they wanted to kill me.”
“Indeed,” the Doctor concurred. “I’ve seen a lot in my life and there is no way that was fantasy driven rage.”
“Surely you’ve heard about what’s happening lately,” Arkhaios said.
“Well no actually. We travel a lot and just got here today,” Derpy said.
“How far away are you from? Nova Aurelia? Lutetia Parisiorum?” he asked.
“Bit farther then that,” the Doctor said.
“Well then, perhaps I should start at the beginning, John Smith,” Arkhaios said.
“Please, call me Doctor, Most do,” he responded.
“Very well, Doctor, Ditzy,” Arkhaios began. “Recently there have been disappearances late at night. Most of the ponies have simply vanished never to be seen again. Some were found though, dead. The worst part is the way they seem to have died. There were bite marks all over their bodies almost like somepony was trying to eat them.”
The Doctor and Derpy both looked horrified at this.
“But what does any of that have to do with Ditzy or her wings?” the Doctor asked.
“This isn’t the first case of this kind of disappearance,” Arkhaios continued. “It was three hundred and sixty years ago. Similar events caused one of the worst civil wars this land had ever seen. Everypony began to blame each other and conflicts escalated. At the same time it was said that an entity fell from the sky and eventually a consensus was reached that it was at fault. Supposedly the war came to a close when everypony started to fight against whatever this entity was.”
“The Mactabilis War,” the Doctor elucidated.
“So you’ve heard of it,” Arkhaios said.
“Read about it upstairs. And it was three hundred fifty years ago not three hundred sixty,” the Doctor explained nonchalantly.
Arkhaios’s eye twitched slightly at the correction before he forced a smile and continued. “Thank you, Doctor. But the point is this: exactly what, if anything at all, fell out of the sky was never identified. The most prevailing theory is a myth about a creature that looks like a pony but is in fact a monster. This monster was described as having a constant dark aura surrounding it and was supposedly seen by several eyewitnesses flying away from the victims.”
“So they all thought that I was the monster?” Derpy asked.
Arkhaios nodded. “But I assure you it is only a myth. There have been no sightings of any attack this time around. It is most likely some sick mind trying to imitate one of the most mysterious series of murders in history.”
“Do you suppose there’s any truth behind the myth?” the Doctor asked.
“Certainly not. Stories like these are fabricated all the time; ponies just need something to blame when things go horribly awry,” he answered.
“I wouldn’t be so quick to judge,” the Doctor said contemplatively. “Tell me, where are the bodies of the victims?”
“Most are buried but the most recent are still in the morgue,” Arkhaios answered unsure where the Doctor was going with this.
“Show me,” the Doctor said standing as if to assert authority.
The Doctor stood before two bodies in the city morgue examining them with his sonic screwdriver. Derpy and Arkhaios stood back and watched him work.
“I don’t know what you think you will find that me and others could not,” Arkhaios said sounding a little annoyed.
“Myself and others,” the Doctor corrected.
“What does it matter?” Arkhaios nearly shouted before regaining his composure. “Look, it’s obvious that they were assaulted and killed, the murderer left bite marks in their flesh for crying out loud.”
“Yes,” the Doctor said. “But that’s all. There are no bruises, no stab wounds, no sign of poisoning, no trauma, no organ failure, nothing that would actually kill any pony.”
Arkhaios raised an eyebrow instinctively while Derpy furrowed her own like she knew where this was going and didn’t like it.
“The only abnormality on the bodies is the bite marks and they didn’t even break through the skin, they couldn’t they weren’t even sharp. From what I can tell they were made from old worn out incisors and molars, it doesn’t make sense.”
“Doctor,” Derpy interjected. “Are you telling me that we’re dealing with vampire ponies… again?”
“Well, not quite like before,” he said as if to say ‘don’t worry this is something new.’ “There’s still blood in their veins and they aren’t turning into the living dead, it’s more like their souls were just stolen out of their bodies."
“Well can we pick up any trace the murderer might have left in the bite? Maybe we could follow it back like last time,” she suggested.
“No, last time the head vampire was controlling the victims and leaving a psychic trail. It would seem there is nothing to link the dead this time.”
Arkhaios just looked at the two companions like they were crazy. He didn’t want to admit it but the Doctor had inferred more in a few minutes than anypony had in weeks of trying. The only reason Arkhaios had even been asked to look at the case was because the townsfolk considered him a genius, especially when it came to divining past events. He was after all probably the most skilled archaeologist on the whole planet. Being shown up by another pony, especially one that just strolled into town, made him a bit angry although he forced it not to show.
“So what now?” Arkhaios asked almost sarcastically. “You know everything don’t you? If you’re so damned experienced with this then what’s our next move?”
“Oi,” the Doctor responded sternly. “There’s no need to be rude about it this isn’t a competition you know.”
“But really Doctor he does have a point,” Derpy said trying to defuse the growing tension. “What are we suppose to do now?”
The Doctor stared blankly for a moment at the bodies. He turned to leave, saying nothing, and walked down a hallway. The morgue was located in the back of a hospital. Derpy and Arkhaios followed. The Doctor passed by several nurses, doctors, and patients paying them no mind. He reached the lobby and headed for the front door.
“Doctor!” Derpy said, grabbing his attention and stopping him in his tracks. “What are we supposed to do?”
The Doctor slumped down in one of the chairs and sighed. “Nothing... We do nothing.”
Arkhaios smiled slightly letting out a quiet, smug, ‘humph.’
“What do you mean do nothing?” Derpy asked almost like she thought she wasn’t looking at the real Doctor.
“We have no leads, no way to find the killer, we don’t even know for sure how they died. For now all we can do is wait.”
Derpy gave an understanding look, even if she hated doing nothing they didn’t have much choice.
“Unless…” he continued, verbalizing his thoughts. “If these murders are more connected to the events three hundred years ago than they seem…”
Derpy smiled as she caught on to his thought process. Having spent so much time with the time traveler she knew exactly what he was about to suggest. “That’s brilliant,” she said.
“Of course it is.”
“If we just go see…”
“Then everything will make more sense.”
“And even if it’s not connected…”
“The more we know the better.”
“Excuse me,” Arkhaios interrupted. “What exactly are you two talking about?”
The pair looked at Arkhaios like they forgot he was there. “Uh, be right back,” Derpy told him as they walked out of the hospital leaving a very confused archaeologist behind.
“All right, let's head back to the TARDIS and find out what happened three hundred fifty years ago,” said the Doctor as he started walking off.
“Wait,” Derpy interrupted. “You go. I’ll stay here and see what else I can dig up.”
“Derpy, it might be dangerous. I can’t just leave you alone,” he said, concerned.
“Oh come on,” Derpy argued. “It would be dangerous either way and besides, remember what happened the last time with vampires?”
The Doctor shuddered slightly as he remembered how the head vampire had bitten Derpy and made her a slave but by some miracle she broke free. Then she took control of the hive mind shattering it and turned all the victims against the head vampire killing him in a horrible assault of fangs and blood.
“And this way Arkhaios and I can learn more while you find the original killer.”
“Oh I see,” the Doctor said shrewdly as he smiled. “You like him don’t you?”
“No,” Derpy shot back defensively. “I just think this is the best way to, you know… figure things out.”
“Okay, yeah sure,” the Doctor teased.
“Just go,” she said pushing the Doctor and pouting slightly.
The Doctor walked back to the TARDIS and Derpy went back to Arkhaios. The Doctor knew she would be fine, especially if the attacks were only at night. Unfortunately, the only way for the Doctor to ensure that he came back to the right time and place was to temporarily fuse the coordinates. If he did that it meant spending one hour in the past would mean coming back one hour after leaving, he would need to make this a fast trip.
The TARDIS materialized in the middle of the night and the Doctor strode out and looked around. He was on a mission and needed to make it quick so he could get back to his companion. Even if Derpy would be fine for a little while on her own the Doctor didn’t like leaving her for long; she had a tendency to get into… trouble. And who knew what kind of trouble she might get into with Arkhaios around.
The first order of business was to find any clue that might tell him if he did in fact come to the right time. He came back three hundred fifty years, back to when the war was said to have begun and just after the alien object crashed.
The Doctor wandered through the streets taking note of how the only apparent difference in architecture was that there only seemed to be one-story buildings. A curiosity, he thought; their civilization didn’t seem to have advanced much over three centuries.
“AAAAHHHHHHH!” a shriek came from some distance away.
The Doctor stopped walking and turned around looking for the source of the scream. He instinctively galloped after the noise rounding a corner just in time to see, at the far end of a street, two creatures. One was a pony lying in the street, probably dead, killed by the other. The killer was more of a blur; it seemed to surround itself with a black light that moved as sharply as lightning yet as fluid as fire. Its eyes shone with a bright light piercing through its dark shield. It narrowed its eyes menacingly as it noticed the approaching Doctor. A large pair of wings unfurled as it produced a small gust and flew away, hidden in the black of the night sky.
The Doctor stood over the dead pony as others wandered out to see the commotion. Failing to follow where the murderer had gone he turned his attention to the victim. He put his glasses on and discreetly used his screwdriver to give the body a quick examination. The results were as he feared; a simple bite mark and no other sign of damage, the body was just an empty husk. This pony died exactly the same way the others had.
The Doctor sighed; sometimes even he was impressed with his command of time and space. “Well, looks like this is the right time and place,” he said to nopony in particular.
“Murderer!” one of the ponies yelled at the Doctor.
“Oh, no,” the Doctor said looking up at a looming mob.
Derpy sauntered back into the hospital to talk to Arkhaios. Some part of her regretted not joining the Doctor on his quick trip into the past but she felt like she should be here. She had to remain here… for research… yeah that had to be why, they could find out more if they split up. There was no telling how long the Doctor would be gone but it wasn’t like there was somepony she didn’t want to leave behind.
“What was that about? Where’s the Doctor?” Arkhaios asked.
Derpy looked into his eyes almost mesmerized for a moment before shaking it off. “He had an idea about searching for the killer. He’ll be back later,” she said.
Arkhaios raised an eyebrow. “What, so, now he’s an archaeologist, a medical expert and a detective?” he asked sounding a little suspicious of the Doctor.
“He likes to say that he’s a doctor of everything,” the pegasus replied dismissively.
Arkhaios rolled his eyes. He was growing tired of this ‘doctor of everything’ acting all arrogant and meddling where he didn’t belong. Although his companion was a different story, she seemed more like some innocent bystander that was dragged along for the ride. He smiled lightly almost like he pitied her.
“So what do you propose we do now? Just sit here and wait for the Doctor to come back?” he asked.
“Well, no. I stayed behind so I… we could do some investigating and see if we can dig up any useful information,” she said.
Arkhaios smiled, he liked her initiative. “Yes,” he said as he walked out of the hospital. “Come on, I’ll show you where the victims were found.”
Derpy happily followed after as she thought to herself. It was rare for her to make new friends so quickly on her travels; she liked him, as a friend that is. It was totally nothing romantic or anything, but still it did seem a little strange to her that she was able to get along with him so easily.
“Now, wait. J-just hold on a moment,” the Doctor yelled to the angry mob as he took his psychic paper out from his coat. “I’m a federal investigations agent, codename the Doctor, I’m investigating a series of murders in this area. Rumors have spread about a monster shrouded in darkness. Has anypony been witness to any murder or strange events recently?”
The Doctor’s confidence and fast-talking completely turned the situation around; he was the accuser now instead of the accused. The crowd of a few dozen ponies backed off.
The Doctor looked around at the group expectantly as they quietly murmured to one another unintelligibly. It was obvious that all the ponies knew something but none of them wanted to speak up for whatever reason. If he heard some of the talking correctly it was because none of them quite believed the rumors.
“Aye,” a voice spoke up as its owner, a gray stallion who looked surprisingly spry for being so undoubtedly old, stepped forth. “It was I who saw the beast a fortnight ago.” He spoke like an old salty sea captain and appeared much like you would expect one to.
That was lucky, the Doctor thought. There actually are rumors going around.
“He’s lyin’ there ain’t no such thing,” one of the ponies yelled out.
“I ain’t lying,” he shot back. “I seen the thing with my own eyes.”
Some of the crowd began to disperse as two ponies in uniform – clearly the local authorities – came running, led by a civilian. The Doctor stood next to the old pony as the officers examined the body.
“Perhaps we should talk somewhere more private,” the Doctor suggested slipping out of the crowd before the police could take notice.
“Quite right,” the old pony agreed. “Come, I’ll take ya to my home.”
The pair retired to a house nearby. A quaint little home with a sizable dining room, a couple of bedrooms, and a living room with a fireplace. The Doctor noticed several candelabras around the walls and the fireplace as the only source of light. That was at least one way the society had changed. Sometime in the next few hundred years they would harness electricity and invent the usual first devices, light, heating, radio and the like. The old stallion walked in and sat near the lit fireplace.
“Please come in,” he said politely. “My name is Okeanos.”
“Call me the Doctor,” he said looking around the room. He took notice of three dinner plates left from an earlier meal. “Tell me, do you live with anyone?”
“Just my wife, she’ll be down the hall sleeping,” said Okeanos.
“Not anymore,” a female voice came from the hallway. A mare, about the same age as Okeanos, walked into the kitchen.
“I thought you were sleeping dear,” Okeanos said.
“Who could be with all that racket outside? Who is this anyway?” she asked coming into the living room with a glass of water.
“This is a detective working on the recent murders. He says his name is the Doctor,” Okeanos told her. “Doctor, this is my wife Koralli.”
“Nice to meet you,” the Doctor said.
Koralli gave the Doctor a crestfallen look as she nodded in greeting. Her attitude seemed to change completely to one of dread as she silently turned and went back into her bedroom. Okeanos sighed lightly as he heard the door close.
“What happened?” the Doctor asked.
“Have a seat, I’ll explain,” Okeanos said. “Like I told you before, I saw the dreadful beast two weeks ago. That was the night my son died.”
“Come on, it’s not far now,” Arkhaios called to Derpy as the two ran through the streets. The pegasus was now sporting a white lab coat like the one Arkhaios wore. They agreed that flying was out of the question; they didn’t want another scene like the one in the museum. The coat was a little big for her but that just meant it did a good job hiding her wings and, she thought, it did a rather good job making her look like an official archaeology assistant.
The pair came to a slow halt just outside of the city. Arkhaios took a large map and marker out of his coat pocket and marked where they were. The map already had five other marks on it of places they had already been.
“Well, this is the last one,” Arkhaios said catching his breath. “I still don’t understand why you wanted to see each place a body was found.”
“I told you,” Derpy responded, “in case there’s something important here.”
“Yes but there is nothing. The murders were too long ago; everything has been cleaned up, there won’t be any traces left.”
“It’s not just what the murderer left behind. Trust me, I’ve been in situations before where the location was more important than the event.”
Arkhaios cocked his head back slightly. He was genuinely surprised at who Derpy had turned out to be. His initial impression of her being some innocent bystander dragged along by the Doctor had been completely wrong. Clearly there was more to her than met the eye, she didn’t even seem tired from all the running they had done. He smiled to himself and gave a light chuckle; this was one mare he would not want to underestimate.
“Let’s head back to my office,” he offered. “We can go over everything we’ve found.”
Back in the museum things were much quieter than that morning. Most of the early crowd was gone and visitor numbers had decreased quite a bit. Arkhaios set a file down in front of his pegasus assistant and sat at his desk across from her. Derpy stared at the documents, squinting as she tried to focus on them. She shook her head as her eye kept trying to wander off.
“What am I looking at?” she asked.
“Witness reports,” he answered.
“But, I thought there were no witnesses.”
“Not this time, but there were witnesses three centuries ago. That file also contains reports from those who found the bodies this time around. I got the police to give me a copy of all documentation on this case,” Arkhaios told her as he rested his forelegs on the desk, waiting for her to read.
“Wow,” she said looking up at him. “You must really care about this to have looked into it this deeply already.”
He smirked, “Call it a hobby.”
Mouseion walked into the office. “Oh, you’re back.”
“For the moment,” Arkhaios said getting up to address his colleague. Derpy stayed at her seat looking over the papers.
“Well I’m only here to retrieve the file for the Liquentia exhibit,” said Mouseion.
“Let me get that for you,” Arkhaios said opening his cabinet. “I’ve done nothing with it today, the Doctor and Ditzy insist on looking into the murders.”
“Where is Dr. Smith?” asked Mouseion.
“He’ll be back soon,” Derpy said not looking away from her reading.
“You said that before but it’s been hours,” Arkhaios said. “Are you sure he’s not lost or something?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about him,” she said.
“It’s not him I worry about,” Arkhaios mumbled under his breath.
“Well, my work for the day will be done before long. Call me if you would like some more assistance, I’m always happy to help,” Mouseion said taking his leave.
“These reports don’t make any sense,” Derpy declared. The archaeologist remained silent, completely unsurprised. He simply sat back down and waited for her to elaborate. “I mean, I see the story about the flying monster but what the hay are all these others? Reports of regular ponies killing and then dying without reason, ghosts showing up wandering the streets sucking out the life of those around them. What is all this?”
“This,” he told her very seriously, “is the reason I put no stock in old myths.”
“Perhaps I ought to start at the beginning,” Okeanos said. “I ain’t the only one to witness something odd. I am the only one who saw that thing you described though. The killing has been going on for some time now but nopony knows who or what is responsible.”
“But you think it’s this flying pony?” the Doctor clarified.
“Aye,” he replied. “But there’s other accounts, at first there were sightings of a normal pony who done the deed. But when they caught him he just died there on the spot and the killing continued. He was later identified as a pony that had gone missing in another town some time ago. There’s also been sightings of the ghosts of ponies that were killed roaming the streets.”
The Doctor furrowed his brow in confusion. Okeanos cracked a sympathetic smile, “I know, it makes no sense right? Everypony is scared; most folks have started accusing each other. The hysteria has caused more than one outbreak of violence and it’s only getting worse.”
“Tell me about your son. What happened to him?” the Doctor asked.
“My son is… was a grown stallion,” Okeanos began. “He’d been living on his own for the last year and a half. Every week he would come home for dinner. My wife still puts out a plate for him.” He paused for a moment. “Two weeks ago he was later than usual, I went to make sure that everything was okay. Luckily it was only work keeping him late. We started walking back, that’s when it happened.”
“You were attacked?” the Doctor suggested.
“Yes,” he answered. “I still remember it so vividly, like it was only moments ago.” Okeanos stopped again as he grit his teeth. He settled himself and continued. “The night sky was clear, all the stars and the moons provided plenty of light. Then, without any warning, a rush of wind pushed a group of clouds over the sky blanketing the town in shadow. I didn’t think much of it at first and maybe it was only a coincidence but that was when it came.
“Out of the clouds some kind of black swirling ball descended slowly. It landed hard on the street before us; I could feel its touchdown. It was like it wanted its presence known. What stood before us was shrouded in darkness but from what I could make out it looked like a stallion with wings. The way its glowing eyes looked at me, it was like it didn’t even acknowledge my existence. But it did attack my son faster than I could even see. I had never been so scared in my whole life; there was nothing I could do. In an instant my son was on the ground, the beast bit his leg and his screaming just… stopped.”
For a moment the whole room was still and quiet, neither party wanting to continue the bad memory. The Doctor broke the profound moment of silence. “How did you escape?”
“I didn’t, not really,” Okeanos replied. “That monster walked away from my son’s body, I ran after it in a moment of rage. I was thrown aside before I could even get near it. It looked at me like it pitied me or was taunting me and flew away. It was like it just didn’t want me.” Tears formed in the old colt’s eyes. “I wish it had wanted me instead, Arkhaios didn’t deserve this.”
The Doctor’s eyes widened at the mention of this name. “Arkhaios?” he asked with some urgency.
“Yes, that was my son’s name,” Okeanos said. “He was always a good kid, ponies loved him. Sure, he got into his share of fights but I think he always meant well. He always wanted to be a doctor; he liked helping ponies. He didn’t deserve this.”
The name must have been a coincidence the Doctor thought. Certainly not all names were unique and after three hundred years it shouldn’t be a surprise to find the same name twice. Still he couldn’t help but to wonder if there could be some connection. He couldn’t dwell on it though; there was still one important question that needed an answer.
“Has anything strange fallen out of the sky recently?” the Doctor asked.
Okeanos raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”
“Something falling from space, a crash landing of unknown origin?”
Okeanos thought for a moment, “There was something like that, but that must have been, what, ten years ago now. The killing has only been going on for the past two months. You think there’s some sort of connection?”
“Maybe,” the Doctor said, his face scrunched as he tried to make sense of everything.
Ten years isn’t much when future generations look back at a compressed timeline of history. It was entirely possible that the two events were therefore falsely linked. At least he had confirmed that there actually was a crash. There was still every possibility that these were more than simple coincidence even with the time difference.
“Do you have any idea what was found?” the Doctor asked.
“Nothing,” he answered. “All they found was a small crater. Whatever made it was long gone. Wait, you don’t think it was this winged creature that crashed do you?”
The Doctor remained silent, he didn’t want to fill the pony’s head with ideas; he might risk changing the past. If he accidentally put the wrong thought in the wrong place it could end the war before it began. Whatever he did, there was no way to prevent war without causing a paradox. Just being here as an observer had its risks.
“I should go,” he said getting up to leave.
“What? Wait,” Okeanos began.
“Thank you sir you’ve been very helpful with this investigation but I really can’t stay any longer than I have to,” the Doctor said slipping out the door. “Oh and, do look after your wife.”
With that, the door closed and Okeanos was left alone. He put a hoof to his chin contemplatively. “Hmm,” he mumbled, “the crash eh?” As he considered the connection between the two events the Doctor’s last words rang through his head. He turned and went to his wife.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was running back to his time machine. He didn’t know everything but he knew a lot more now, namely that the legend was no myth. All he needed was to find out exactly what it was and how to stop it. He couldn’t very well hunt down the alien creature now for risk of stopping the war before it started. However there was one place he could look, the end of the war when the creature was supposedly exposed and overpowered. He hurried into the TARDIS and started to un-fuse the temporal coordinates.
“Sorry Derpy,” he said to himself. “I might be a little late.”
“Huh?” said Derpy looking up from the reports.
“What?” Arkhaios asked confused.
“I thought I heard… never mind,” she said. “So what do we do now? These reports are useless.”
“Nothing,” he responded almost sounding upset. “We have no leads, no method of investigation. Did you really think you would solve this in an afternoon when nopony has been able to in three hundred years?”
Derpy felt a little dejected, it was strange how his words seemed to have an unusually high impact on her state of mind. It was almost uncomfortable and she felt like she needed to break from that. “Look,” he said a bit more calm, “it’s almost dark out now and…”
“That’s it,” she interrupted. “The attacks happen at night, all we need to do is wait and catch them in the act.”
“What? No, it’s not that simple,” he corrected. “It’s completely random. There’s no way to know where or when it will happen.”
Derpy grew annoyed of his lack of drive. “Well I’m not just going to sit here and do nothing.” She stood and headed for the door.
“I’m telling you that’s just a waste of time.”
“Fine, stay here then. I’ll find somepony else to help me.”
Arkhaios sighed in annoyance. “Do whatever you want.”
Derpy walked out of Arkhaios’s office in a huff. She didn’t really know what to do from here; he was right that it wasn’t possible to predict if a murder would even take place. She considered, in her meandering around, if she should just go back and wait for the Doctor. Mouseion walked by and she remembered him saying he would help if they needed him. She perked up and went to talk to him.
“Hey, Mouseion,” Derpy called.
“Good evening,” the curator responded.
“Remember when you said you would help us? Well I have a plan. Well sort of a plan, see I want to try to catch the killer red hoofed and I thought if the two of us went we would have a better shot.”
“Uh,” he said sounding unsure. “I’m not exactly a detective you know, I really just meant help with research. I know Arkhaios likes to get involved with this type of thing but… I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Besides how would we know where to look?”
Derpy groaned. “You sound just like Arkhaios. We might not come up with anything but it couldn’t hurt to try. Please?” She gave him her sweetest puppy-dog eyes. One of her eyes wandered off to the side making the whole thing, somehow, that much cuter. Mouseion opened his mouth but no words came out. He wanted to refuse but found himself unable.
“Eh... all right,” he forced out. Derpy smiled chalking up a win for herself. “Where is Arkhaios?”
“He’s not coming. He says it’s just a waste of time.”
“That’s odd, he’s helped with this case for a while now. I’m surprised he wouldn’t jump at the idea,” Mouseion pondered.
“He said we have no leads. Maybe he’s just tired of searching?” Derpy suggested.
“Perhaps,” he responded thoughtfully. “At any rate if you and I are going to do this we should start soon; it’s already dark out.”
The pair walked out of the museum heading off in whatever direction their hooves took them. Neither of them knew quite what they were doing but at least Derpy was confident that things would work out. Things always worked out in the end didn’t they?
Moments after they left, Arkhaios walked out of the museum. He saw the path they were walking and purposely went the other way, fading off into the night.
Derpy and Mouseion walked through the streets, a somewhat uncomfortable air looming over them. They didn’t exactly become instant friends like she and Arkhaios did so they walked in silence through the stark town. Even though the sun had only just set moments ago it was clear that nopony wanted to be outside in the dark. The loneliness and stillness was almost suffocating until Mouseion broke it by speaking up.
“You know,” he said, “I don’t really believe the old myths but...” He paused as if looking for the right words. “...It is a little strange.”
“What is?” Derpy asked.
“Well,” he said squirming a bit. “It’s just that… I mean you do have wings.”
The pegasus gave him an odd look of confusion.
“I mean I don’t think you did the killing or anything,” he quickly clarified. “But at the same time, I’ve just never heard of an actual winged pony before.”
“It’s not really uncommon where I’m from. About a third of ponies there have wings.”
Mouseion stopped walking. “That many? Just where are you from? I mean sure there are still some parts of the globe we haven’t fully explored yet but…”
“I live really far away,” Derpy said. “It’s kind of secluded.”
“You don’t suppose that there could be truth to the myths then? Perhaps somepony from your country came here three hundred years ago,” he proposed.
“I doubt it. Besides, after reading the reports I’m starting to think there is no truth to the stories.”
“Yes, you’re probably right. I helped Arkhaios with much of the original research. At the time we both agreed that it must have been some criminal organization remarkably good at deceit and covering its tracks.”
The two ponies sat with their backs to a wall and continued to talk. They kept a watchful eye on the roads around them but nothing much was happening. Two small moons and many lights from inside the buildings were the only things allowing them to see in the dark. Minutes turned into hours as they waited for something, anything to happen. One by one the lights went out as ponies went to bed. Boredom set in and before long both Mouseion and Derpy fell fast asleep.
The Legend Of The Blue Box
Ep. 4 The War Horse pt. 2
Derpy opened her eyes and for a moment was confused by the darkness around her. She looked around and was surprised to find that her companion was missing. Strangely she couldn’t really picture who she was even expecting to be there; wasn’t she supposed to be alone? What was she even doing here in the first place? She got up and went for a walk, or more accurately an aimless wander.
Derpy let her mind run free as she blissfully went about minding her own business. She thought about her sister and remembered that it would be her birthday soon. “I should really get her a cake.” A loud noise rattled behind her breaking her train of thought. Her head darted to look but there was nothing there. Nothing other than stone: stone buildings, stone roads, and a creepy looking stone statue with wings that wasn’t there before. Altogether it was nothing unusual.
The pegasus turned her attention back to her meandering and tried to remember what she was thinking about. Another noise came from behind her, louder this time. She turned her head slowly and jumped at the sight before her. The statue from before was right in front of her and had one arm outstretched like it was trying to touch her. The figure was odd; it looked like a Time Lord with wings coming out of its back. It scared her.
Derpy stared at the statue, too frightened to take her eyes off it, and quickly backed away. She couldn’t help but blink and glance around, but with each time she did the statue would just get closer. It was chasing her! She scrambled to get away while still looking forward, tripping over her hooves in a panic. Suddenly her backwards momentum came to an end as she hit something metal. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she slowly looked back at what she ran into.
Her breathing stopped as she beheld a Dalek, its eyestalk staring at the statue keeping it still. She scrambled to get out of its way as it pushed forward toward the stone figure. Derpy watched from the side as the Dalek peered at the statue and declared, “DALEKS. DO. NOT. BLINK!” Then, as was natural for a Dalek, its suction cup turned into a Ping-Pong paddle and it threw a Ping-Pong ball at the statue’s face. The ball bounced directly off the statue and returned to the Dalek who then hit it back again and again and again.
Derpy stood on the sidelines not sure who to cheer for but completely terrified. She wasn’t sure what to be more scared of; the statue, the Dalek, or the Dalek’s amazing Ping-Pong skills. The Dalek’s eyestalk turned to her as it continued its assault on the statue’s face without even looking. “YOU MUST GO DEEPER DITZY!” it yelled at her.
“What?” she asked. Before she could get an answer the Dalek disappeared, vaporized perhaps by the touch of a second statue. Derpy cowered back as more statues appeared with every blink. She was surrounded; there was nowhere to go. Then, hope, she remembered she had wings and took to the sky. Before she could climb too high a statue appeared above her and fell on her. The ground was fast approaching, she screamed just before impact.
Derpy gasped as her eyes shot open for real this time. It was a nightmare. Another freaking nightmare. And again, she didn’t remember much. These nightmares began when she started traveling with the Doctor but it was becoming more frequent now. It seemed like she couldn’t get one hour of sleep without waking up in shock. She tried to remember her dream but all she could recall was a Dalek, something about going somewhere, and something about stone.
She looked over to find Mouseion sound asleep, his head innocently leaning against her. The pegasus looked around at the silent dark streets. What was she even doing here? There hadn’t been any activity and who knew how many hours they had been waiting. And what were they even waiting for, to be attacked and killed? She sighed and frowned, Arkhaios was right this was not a good idea.
Derpy nudged Mouseion trying to wake him up. “Huh, what?” he said as he darted his head around. “Did something happen?”
“No,” she responded sounding disappointed. “You fell asleep, we both did.”
“Oh,” he said realizing that he had been leaning against her. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s fine,” she said. “This was never a good idea was it?”
The museum curator could hear the dissatisfaction weighing heavily in her voice. It was almost enough to make him sorry that nothing had occurred. His silence was all he needed to answer her question. They put themselves in the middle of danger on the off chance that they might be attacked; of course it was a bad idea.
“It’s cold out,” Derpy remarked.
“Come on,” Mouseion said leading the way. “My house is close by.”
They started walking away when a noise stopped them dead in their tracks. It came from a fair distance behind them and they turned to look, fearing the worst. Mouseion nervously stepped in front of his companion trying to see what was there. All either of them could see was darkness as the noise drew closer. The sound was a patterned beat, the sound of hooves hitting pavement in a gallop. Derpy’s wings lifted her lab coat a little like she was ready to fly away at any moment.
The sound of heavy breathing accompanied the hoof beats as a pony came into view. The image was difficult to make out but it seemed to be somepony running away from something. He kept turning his head to look behind him. Mouseion suddenly knew who it was and tried to call out, “Arkhaios?” The archaeologist turned his head just in time to see his friend’s face before crashing into him.
Arkhaios stood rubbing his head and readjusted his hat. “What? You two are still out here?”
“Us?” Derpy asked. “What about you? Why are you running?”
“They’re after me,” he responded between breaths. “We need to go. Now!”
“They? Who’re they?” Derpy asked. A low growl came from behind Arkhaios.
“Catch up later,” Mouseion suggested in haste.
The three ponies ran down the streets and around a corner to Mouseion’s house. They managed to avoid whatever was lurking outside for the moment. Derpy and Mouseion were not going to keep quiet just to hide though; they had too many questions right now.
“What is going on?” Derpy demanded in a hushed voice.
“Yes, just who was chasing you?” Mouseion chimed in.
“Where were you?” Derpy continued.
“How did you find us?” Mouseion asked.
“All right all right,” Arkhaios interrupted. “I’ll tell you what happened.” He took a moment to breath and gather his thoughts. “What you said before Ditzy, about finding the killer at any cost, it got to me. After you both left I couldn’t help but think you were right. Nothing would ever change if we did nothing to change it. I started looking around, just trying to find anything I could. It seemed like hours passed but eventually I came across them.” He gestured outside.
“You just found the killers by wandering around?” Mouseion asked.
“Pretty bad luck huh?” he responded. “It was only one of them at first. I saw him kill somepony with one bite to the neck and then… I’m not sure how to say. The dead pony… got up.”
Derpy’s mouth hung open and her eyes squinted as she stared at Arkhaios. Mouseion’s expression was much the same except he looked like he wanted to laugh the whole thing off as a joke.
“You mean a zombie?” Derpy deadpanned.
“I don’t know for sure but... yes.”
“How many are there?”
“I don’t know I only saw two. But if I’m right there may be many more on the way.”
“Is there anything we can do?”
“Maybe, but we need to spread word first.”
“HA!” Mouseion let out into hysterics as he fell to his haunches. “You must be joking! You’re actually telling me it’s a zombie invasion? That’s impossible! It makes no sense. Why now? How could nopony notice something like that? How can you two be so calm right now?” The curator’s breathing was labored as he panicked.
Arkhaios leaned close and put a hoof to Mouseion’s shoulder and smiled compassionately. “It’ll be okay old friend.”
Mouseion began to calm down with the reassurance of his friend. He stood and composed himself.
“Stay with him,” Arkhaios said privately to Derpy, “he’ll be fine in a moment. If we are going to do anything we need to be able to inform the city. I’ll go check to see if everything is clear.” The archaeologist walked to the door and opened it cautiously.
Derpy stood next to a now much more normal Mouseion. “You all right?”
“Yes,” he answered. “I apologize, that was most unbecoming.”
“Well you certainly recovered quickly,” she remarked.
“I suppose. I have Arkhaios to thank for that.” Mouseion smiled as he chose the right words to explain. “It’s strange but ever since I’ve known him he has had this air about him. Like I can rely on him, trust him almost unconditionally. That probably sounds crazy.”
Derpy’s head was suddenly filled with thoughts of a certain, still absent, Time Lord. “Not at all.”
“The coast is clear,” Arkhaios called. The three ponies crept out of the building and started walking down the road keeping a watchful eye all around them.
“Where are we going anyway?” Derpy asked in a hushed tone. “It’s not like we can knock on every door can we?”
“We shouldn’t have to.” Arkhaios whispered. “Most ponies in the city wake up early and tune in to the nearby radio station. If we can just reach the radio tower about a kilometer from here then alerting everypony should be easy.”
The group made it about one block before running into trouble. They heard the sound of hoof steps coming from all around them. It sounded as if there were at least a dozen ponies scattered around. Derpy and the others fled into an alley and hid hoping they would not be found. It wasn’t long before a pony walked past them unaware that they were nearby. The three ponies stared at him as he went by.
It was obvious that something about him was just plain wrong. No matter how dark it was or how far away they were they could see it clearly; there was a large hole in this pony’s torso. The rest of his body looked like it was half rotten and it seemed to be missing an eye. And this pony wasn’t alone, several other similar looking creatures wandered by. There was no question about it; this was an invasion of the living dead. Though it seemed a bit odd for an invasion, the invaders didn’t seem interested in attacking homes or ponies. At the moment they were only roaming around.
“Miss Ditzy,” Mouseion called after the zombies had gone. “I have an idea.”
“What is it?” she asked keeping her voice low.
“We don’t know where these creatures are or how dangerous they may be. If we leave we risk encountering them in droves. But, if you’re willing, you could fly above and lead us in the right direction to avoid them.”
“Good idea,” Arkhaios chimed in. “But you’ll need to fly back down to direct us. It’s too dark to see you against the sky and we can’t risk you yelling where we are.”
“Got it,” she said as she stripped out of her lab coat and spread her wings.
The group made progress through the streets without being noticed. The closer they got to their destination the more close calls they ran into. It seemed like the zombie population had become denser the closer they were to the radio tower. They were only a block away when, without warning, Derpy could see from the sky that Mouseion and Arkhaios were surrounded. Her heart sank, there was no way to proceed but she had to warn them.
“Guys!” she yelled out. “They’re everywhere, just… run!”
The two stallions looked at each other briefly. They could hear noises from all around, growling and ominous moans. Before they knew it they were surrounded by animated rotting flesh. Derpy swooped down out of the sky as quickly as she could and tackled a few zombies at once creating a small opening for her friends. The three ran as fast as their legs would allow.
The undead horde gave chase. At first they seemed slow moving and unable to keep up but after a moment of stumbling over each other they began to run. Many of the zombies had large chunks missing from their bodies making them lighter and faster than most living ponies. Others were slow moving as the leg muscle was mostly decayed. The fastest caught up with the frantic ponies. As Derpy, Mouseion and Arkhaios ran, their path was determined by zombies heading them off and forcing them to weave through alleyways.
Finally the fastest of the undead had the three living equines cornered with no means of escape. It approached them slowly like it was savoring the moment. It was difficult to tell with the zombie being unable to make any real facial expression but it seemed like it didn’t really enjoy its hunt. In an odd way it seemed almost sorrowful.
“Ditzy,” Mouseion suddenly said. “Quickly, fly away.”
“What?” she asked sounding almost insulted.
“He’s right,” Arkhaios added. “We don’t have a chance but you can still live.”
“No,” she said defiantly. “I’m not just going to leave you behind.”
“Don’t you understand? If you stay with us you’re dead!” scolded Mouseion.
“Oh I wouldn’t say that,” a familiar voice said from behind their predator.
All the ponies, including the zombie, turned to look at who was there. Sure enough it was the Doctor sporting a rather odd looking hat. It looked like a black metal bowl with two wires running from front to back on one side and what appeared to be an eggbeater on the other. There was a pair of what seemed to be binoculars attached to the front hanging over his eyes. The eggbeater was spinning for no apparent reason and there was a small blue blinking light on top.
The undead creature faced the Doctor growling and baring its teeth. It ran up to, and leapt at, the Time Lord.
“Doctor look out!” Derpy yelled.
The Doctor sidestepped to dodge the attack. He countered by reaching into his pocket, pulling out a syringe, and stabbing the pony with it. The zombie shook off the needle and turned to face his opponent. The Doctor did not falter however and only stood confident as the drug took effect. The zombified pony took one step and collapsed into a vegetable-like state.
“Highly concentrated suxamethonium chloride,” the Doctor explained. “Your basic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist; induces muscular paralysis.” The zombie growled like it was annoyed at its immobilization. “Well, at least for a while.”
Derpy walked over to the Doctor grinning. “Doctor! Where have you been? We’ve been waiting—”
“Sh sh sh sh,” the Doctor shushed her. They could hear noises coming from around the corner. “Get behind me and stay very still.”
A small group of zombies walked past them like they didn’t know they were there. One of the zombies stopped and slowly looked around like it could sense something wrong. The living ponies, save for the Doctor, were all frozen with fear and confusion. Mouseion’s mouth hung open as he forgot how to breathe for a moment.
The zombie turned its head towards the group not quite looking directly at them. The tension in the air was so thick that none of the ponies could obey their instinct to run away. All any of them could do was wait to see what might happen. The zombie turned its attention back to its fellow undead and ran to catch up with them. The Doctor and his companions were alone now, just them and one paralyzed corpse. Mouseion finally remembered how his lungs worked and breathed a sigh of relief with the others.
“What was that all about?” Mouseion asked.
“That, was this,” the Doctor answered gesturing to his hat. He lifted the binoculars presumably to get a better view. “It’s an ectoplasmic spectroscope with a low-grade perception filter. Lets me follow the trail of the undead and hides me from their view. You can see through it but only if you know what you’re looking for.”
“Are you telling me that your hat stopped it from seeing us?” Mouseion asked. “That’s preposterous.”
“I think we passed preposterous when the zombies invaded,” Arkhaios pointed out.
“Fair point.”
Derpy playfully hit the Doctor’s shoulder. “Where were you? We were waiting forever.”
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t leave you behind. Besides…” the Doctor said pausing for a moment and smiled wide. “Zombie attack...”
Derpy smiled back, “I know, right?” The two of them giggled at the thought.
“Excuse me, is something funny?” Mouseion interrupted.
“No, no. Not at all,” the Doctor replied as he forced a serious expression.
“Well just what were you doing all this time?” Arkhaios demanded.
“Well while you lot were all running about, I was doing my homework,” he said.
“So you were prepared for zombies?” Mouseion asked.
“Oh I prepared for much more than that. See the thing about this is the zombies are not important,” the Doctor explained.
“Not important?” Mouseion aggressively argued back. “How can they not be important? They are walking corpses for Lord’s sake!”
“Yes, but that’s all they are,” the Doctor continued. “You see, on their own they aren’t much of a threat; they just wander around. The vital thing is not the ghoul itself, but what’s controlling it, or more accurately, who.”
“Are you saying somepony is pulling the strings and telling the zombies what to do?” Derpy asked.
“Like a puppeteer to a marionette,” he answered. “And I know exactly who it is.”
“Really?” Mouseion asked. “Who? Why haven’t you found this pony?”
“Oh but I have found him,” the Doctor replied. “Haven’t I… Arkhaios?” Both Derpy and Mouseion looked at Arkhaios with more than a little confusion.
“What? Why are you asking me?” Arkhaios asked.
“Don’t play coy with me.” The Doctor’s voice had an almost eerie feel to it like the calm before a storm. “You’ve ended so many innocent lives.”
“You’re insane!” Arkhaios countered. “If you ask me it was you who did all this, after all you seem to know how to take them down, you know how to hide from them.”
“Do not try to make me angry, not today! You are what fell from the sky three hundred and sixty years ago, you are the one who has been killing all this time, and you are the one who started a pointless war! You deserve to die.”
“Doctor please,” Derpy said trying to moderate the arguing. Derpy couldn’t help but hear pain in the Doctor’s voice. With what she learned about him just one day ago, about the time war and him being so alone for so long, she had to think that on some level he was yelling at himself.
“Doctor I’ve known him for so many years,” Mouseion tried to argue to no avail.
“I’m in this mess the same as any of you,” Arkhaios continued the dispute.
The Doctor reached into his pocket as the other three continued to talk over one another and pulled out his screwdriver. “Don’t you remember what I said just now?” He put his screwdriver in his mouth. “As long as you know what to look for, any perception filter can be seen through.” He aimed the device at Arkhaios and activated it.
With a powerful sonic whirr Arkhaios’ image began to flicker like he was a projection that couldn’t hold its picture. All at once his looks began to change. His rusty-red fur darkened to a deep crimson. His once neat mane became disheveled. With one blink his blue eyes turned ruby with pupils like that of a snake.
“Even a filter generated by magic,” the Doctor finished.
“Damn,” this new pony said. Mouseion was frozen with shock. Derpy’s eyes were darting about as she babbled trying to make sense of what just happened. “No sense hiding now.”
The pony formerly known as Arkhaios unfurled a large pair of bat-like wings, stretching them, as he removed his lab coat. He removed his hat revealing a unicorn horn on his head. Just like ponies from Earth, he had a cutie mark; the image of a horse’s skull engulfed in flame, an encircled letter ‘A’ on its forehead.
“What?!” Derpy yelled at the sight of him. “That’s impossible!”
“But… but…” Mouseion let out meekly. He slowly backed up to stand with Derpy and the Doctor.
“Arkhaios the archaeologist,” the Doctor said, “or is it Thanatos, personification of death? The spirit of the damned and reaper of souls? Or is it the angel of havoc and chaos, Havochaos for short? Because they don’t know what to call you.”
The dark alicorn chuckled. “Havochaos, I quite like that one.”
“Somepony has a flair for the dramatic,” the Doctor remarked.
“Oh please, like you’re any better, mister doctor of everything,” Havochaos retorted.
“Don’t even pretend that we are the same. You slaughtered the innocent and started pointless wars. You leave nothing but destruction in your wake. And for the last few centuries you hide, what for? Why do you do all this?”
“To conquer,” the alicorn answered simply. He chuckled again like he thought the Doctor was a foolish child. “You think far too deeply, I just want to rule supreme.” Altogether he developed a very serious air about him as if he were becoming his true self rather than a false persona. “It is my birthright,” he said stomping a hoof for emphasis.
The three ponies looked at him in disbelief, the Doctor especially. He hadn’t really expected Havochaos to start answering questions so readily. Perhaps it was just his personality, or maybe it was because they were alone, or maybe some form of pent up rage after hiding for three hundred years. Whatever the reason, he was talking, and that was a good thing. The Doctor had to keep this going.
“But what good does murder get you?”
“You’re not very smart are you Doctor? It’s simple; create civil unrest, raise an army and take over. Granted my methods may have been somewhat, unsubtle, but you can’t blame me. I was only sixty-three when I arrived, just a child really.”
“But you have an army of the undead now don’t you, so what are you waiting for? Why wait for three hundred years? And why allow yourself to become so well known? Unless... oh.” The Doctor smiled like he had his opponent all figured out. “You wanted them to know you. You wanted them to like you. And you wanted to play hero, is that it?” Havochaos’ silence was enough confirmation for the Doctor. “You were going to swoop in and save the day at the last minute and become a legend, and before anypony could notice you would be their leader.”
“Maybe you’re more clever than I thought, but it’s not like you could actually stop me. I’ve been planning this for too long.”
“Why are you even talking to us?” Derpy demanded, finally finding her voice, as she stomped up to Havochaos. She was quite angry and more than a little shaken. She felt betrayed and didn’t know how to react. “Why don’t you just kill us?”
“Because,” he replied, “if I kill you now, you’re all just more victims of the mysterious murders.” He paused as the sound of hoof steps could be heard close by. A dozen or so zombies blocked the exit of the ally they were in. It was only now that Derpy noticed that Havochaos’ horn was dimly glowing. “But if they kill you, then you’re the first victims of an invasion, and I will be the lone survivor.”
Havochaos took a moment and placed a hoof under Derpy’s chin. “Although, it would be such a shame to lose a beautiful mare like you.”
Derpy looked into his eyes almost hypnotized by his gaze. It was wrong, it was all wrong. The pony she knew just minutes before, gone, replaced with this. She smacked his hoof away and backed off.
“Come now, don’t be scared. I’m giving you a chance to join me, a chance to live.”
Derpy glared at Havochaos as she walked to the Doctor’s side.
“You’re mad,” the Doctor said.
Havochaos snickered. “Fine then. Perish like the rest who oppose me!”
“Right then, you have us beat,” the Doctor said. “But before we die there’s just one thing I don’t understand.” Havochaos raised an eyebrow, curious about the Doctor’s lack of fear. “Just... why archaeology? And how did you manage to get such exact dates for so many exhibits?”
“That’s it?” the alicorn asked. “You’re about to die and that is all you can think about?” The Doctor gave him a look as if to say ‘what else would I ask?’ “It was the easy choice. Half the job is just saying when something died; death is my business Doctor. Throw out a few exact dates and they start calling you a genius. You see this mark?” He turned to show the group his cutie mark. “It represents my purpose; chaos and death. Now if you would be so kind as to die.”
“Wait, wait, wait, before that...” the Doctor said stopping the attack.
Havochaos rolled his eyes. “What now?”
“Oh nothing really, I just thought you might like to know…”
{A home somewhere in the city}
“Have you stopped that thing yet?” a mare asked.
“Not yet,” a stallion responded. He sat in front of a large radio, inspecting it. “It doesn’t make any sense, I even unplugged it, why does it still work?”
“What now?” an annoyed voice asked through the radio.
“Oh nothing really, I just thought you might like to know that we aren’t the only ones who heard all this,” a second voice responded.
“What do you mean?” the first voice asked.
{A different home somewhere in the city}
“Do you think what the radio says is real dad?” a young colt asked as he sat next to his father.
“I don’t know son, but something is definitely wrong, this is on every station.”
“If there is one thing I am very good at, it’s sound,” the Doctor answered. “Right now our conversation is being transmitted through every radio in a ten kilometer radius. You’ve been exposed, everypony in this city knows exactly who you are now.”
“You’re bluffing,” Havochaos insisted. “You can’t broadcast to every radio, who would even be listening right now?”
{Another home somewhere in the city}
A single mare was wrapping herself in her best coat as she walked out the front door. A radio near her door continued the conversation.
“Maybe you’re right,” said the Doctor. “Then again, hacking into a broadcast signal and personally seeing to it that every radio is equipped to forcibly play that signal isn’t really that difficult.”
{Back in the alleyway}
It was only now that Havochaos saw that the lights were turned on in the buildings around them. And indeed, lights were on all over the city. Many ponies were wandering out of their homes and gathering together.
“I told you I came prepared,” said the Doctor. “You steal the souls of the living and use them to reanimate the bodies of the dead. But I have raised an army to stop you. This is how you lost all that time ago; this is what you fear, when ponies join together against you. You deserve to die for this, and I won’t stop until you do.”
Havochaos grit his teeth. “How? How could you possibly know that?!”
“You’re not the only one with a talent.” The Doctor turned to the side and lifted his coat to show his cutie mark. The alicorn’s eyes opened wide.
“The hourglass. I should have known.” The Doctor raised an eyebrow, not sure what he meant by this. “Fine. If I can’t rule the living then I’ll rule over the land of the dead!”
Havochaos closed his eyes, his horn began to glow red as he focused his magic. His eyes opened, shining white, and out from his horn came a wave of something black and ethereal. The black substance flew into the sky and surrounded the area. It splintered off into hundreds of blobs that flew in every direction.
“What have you done?” Demanded the Doctor.
“I’ve been preparing for three centuries. You don’t really think I wouldn’t have a ‘plan B’ do you?”
“Those were souls,” the Doctor realized. “How many have you killed?!” he shouted.
The alicorn looked somewhat tired now but still smiled smugly. His smile was short lived as a hoof smashed the side of his face sending him to the ground. Mouseion stood over him, his teeth grit, his breathing heavy, and his face wet with tears. “Why!?” he screamed as he punched his former friend again. “Why are you doing this?” Mouseion continued to pummel Havochaos. Each blow was weaker than the last and soon Mouseion was just lying on the ground sobbing.
The alicorn stood over him with a sneer on his face. All of Mouseion’s rage could only produce minimal bruising. The red pony leaned in close to his assailant and whispered to him, “You are nothing to me.” He sharply bit Mouseion’s neck. Mouseion took a sharp intake of breath as his eyes started to roll back into his head.
“No~o!” Derpy yelled. She tried to go after them but was held back by the Doctor.
“We’re too late,” the Time Lord explained.
A black ghostly essence began to seep out of Mouseion’s body. It swirled around Havochaos for a moment before entering his horn. Mouseion’s lifeless body fell to the ground.
“I’ll just let the zombies have the rest of you,” the alicorn said. He spread his wings and took to the sky. The zombies around the Doctor and Derpy became active again and slowly approached their targets.
Derpy quickly grabbed the Doctor and flew over the zombies. She wasn’t strong enough to go very far but she managed to get far enough that they could find an opening and run away. With some quick maneuvering and a little help from the Doctor’s hat, the duo soon lost their zombie followers.
“Don’t worry,” the Doctor said sounding angry, “he can’t have gone far.”
“Doctor,” Derpy called sheepishly.
“I swear I will find him,” he continued, ignoring his companion.
“Doctor,” she tried again a little louder.
“And when I do I’m going to…”
“Doctor!” the pegasus yelled. The Doctor, surprised at the sudden outburst, turned toward his friend. “What’s happening to you?” She spoke as if disappointed in him. He just stared back like he didn’t understand what she was asking. “Ever since that Dalek attacked you’ve been acting different. At first I thought it passed quickly but it feels like you’re just bottling it up. The first thing you said when you exposed Arkhaios was that you wanted him dead. You never kill, not even the worst pony.”
The two ponies stood in silence for a moment staring at one another. On Derpy’s face, a look of concern, on the Doctor’s a look of remorse. Screaming coming from nearby interrupted their staring contest. They both ran to see what the trouble was, although they knew what they would find.
A large crowd of ponies stood watching as a small army of the undead approached from all directions. Most of the ponies were in a panic but the bravest among them stood ready for battle. The Doctor and Derpy joined the crowd.
“You do have a plan right?” Derpy asked.
The Doctor looked around the buildings. Luckily everypony had gathered in the town square where there was a large speaker system in place. With a quick sonic and a flip of a switch on his hat the Doctor was once more addressing the city.
“Everypony listen to me,” he projected, catching every individual’s attention. They all immediately recognized him as the voice on the radio. “I know this looks dire but you have nothing to fear. These ponies are your neighbors, your friends, and your family. They may have passed but their souls have been taken and are being controlled. They don’t remember who they are anymore but you can remind them. This is what he fears, all of you coming together to stand and fight. Now make them remember, make them fight for control, and make Havochaos rue the day he ever set hoof on this planet!”
Everypony in the crowd started to feel empowered by his impromptu speech. They all looked out at the approaching army. There wasn’t a pony there that didn’t recognize at least one zombie. All of the undead had an expression of sorrow; this perversion of nature was enough to make many of the ponies sick to their stomachs. The Doctor was right, they could bring these tortured souls back to reality. They had to!
The army attacked all at once and fighting broke out. Most ponies did as the Doctor instructed and tried to talk while defending themselves but none could seem to get through. The fighting carried on and all the Doctor and Derpy could do was watch and hope.
“Can’t we do something?” Derpy asked.
“No,” the Doctor answered. “We’re outsiders, the undead wouldn’t listen to us. It has to come from them.” The Doctor watched, his muscles tense and his teeth grit. Derpy could tell that every bone in his body wanted to jump in and stop everything, but he was forcing himself back. “Come on,” he mumbled. “Just one, that’s all it takes, just one.”
There seemed to be no reasoning with the zombies. Even the best efforts could not affect the undead, they just continued to attack and inflict as much damage as they could. Then one of the zombies turned its attention to a mare. It approached her from the side; she didn’t even notice it until it was too late. It pounced at her. Suddenly a second zombie tackled the first one, defending the mare. It turned to her looking like it was struggling to move. She recognized him; it was the wrong body but she knew she was looking at her husband of so many years. Weakly, he called her name. She could only cry at the sight.
“Yes,” the Doctor said quietly as he witnessed the act. One by one all the zombies began to look as if they were in great pain. “Yes!” the Doctor yelled. He smiled at Derpy and she smiled back. “They’re starting to give in,” he announced to the crowd. “Don’t give up keep them remembering!” The fighting subsided as the zombies started to remember who they once were.
“There’s just one more thing now, we have an alicorn to find, and I know just where to look.”
Havochaos was in his office within the museum. He rummaged through everything there, tearing apart everything like he was looking for something. “Damn it, damn it, damn it,” he muttered. Finally he found what he was looking for, a small green gem. He used magic to attach it to his side and kept an aura around it like he was charging it. He perked up like he knew something was coming.
The alicorn ran up to the roof of the museum and walked to the edge. He looked out to see his army following a group of ponies led by the Doctor and Derpy. He sneered at the Doctor. This was exactly what happened three centuries ago. All his work ruined in an instant.
The Doctor ran into the museum alone. Havochaos could hear calling from below as he looked around the museum. The alicorn did not reveal his location but he didn’t have to, the Doctor soon found him on the roof.
“This is the end,” the Doctor said.
“Is it?” Havochaos asked keeping his back to the Time Lord.
“It doesn’t have to be this way, you don’t need to do this.”
“Don’t joke,” the alicorn demanded, turning to face the Doctor. “You know how this ends, one of us dies. That’s how this works, that’s how this will always work!” The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “I won’t lose, I can’t afford to!”
“Look around you!” the Doctor yelled. “You’ve already lost. Why do you still want to fight?”
Havochaos looked back at his army. Ignoring the Doctor’s plea for peace, he flew out of the Doctor’s reach and activated his magic trying to take back control of his army.
“What are you doing? Stop!”
The zombies fought for control but could sense themselves losing. Many of them shouted at the other ponies to get away before it was too late. Derpy took command of the crowd and separated the living from the undead.
“I will not lose!” Havochaos said struggling to maintain his spell as he divided it among the hundreds of zombies. The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and tried to interfere with the alicorn’s magic but found himself unable to affect it. Derpy tried to fly at and tackle him but only hit a force field. She flew back to the Doctor.
“What now?” she asked.
The Doctor looked around like he was trying to think of something. “There’s only one thing we can do. Keep those zombies in control.” The Doctor turned to go back down through the museum when behind him he heard a loud cracking noise. He stopped and ran back to look over the edge of the roof. A large fissure had opened in the street below. An otherworldly glow emanated from it as ponies started to scream and panic. “No, not here, not now!” the Doctor exclaimed.
Havochaos looked down, he was flying directly above the crack. Suddenly the light started to pull him and everything around in like a vacuum cleaner sucking up dirt. The alicorn couldn’t resist it and fell out of the sky. He managed to grab onto the roof of the museum and held on for dear life. The Doctor ran up to him and extended a hoof.
“Grab on,” he yelled. “I can save you!”
Havochaos looked insulted at this. “You haven’t seen the last of me Doctor!” the alicorn yelled. He let go of the roof and let himself fall. Just before reaching the light his horn began to glow and he vanished in a blaze of magical energy. The Doctor was stunned at this but didn’t have time to think about it; he had much bigger problems to worry about now.
Derpy stared in horror at the light. She recognized it from somewhere but couldn’t think of where. The Doctor started pacing and describing a plan to deal with it, something about plugging it with a temporal event. Derpy wasn’t listening; all she could do was resist the suction and cry at the sight before her.
Without the aid of Havochaos to keep them ‘alive’ all the zombies started to fall unconscious. Unable to resist the forces anymore they all started to get sucked into the crack. With each zombie that was taken, the suction weakened until the last zombie fell through and the crack closed. Everything had ended just like that, but it felt wrong. Somehow Derpy knew the way it ended was somehow just... wrong.
The Doctor and Derpy walked into the TARDIS and prepared to leave. There were so many thoughts racing through Derpy’s mind right now, questions she needed to ask. She wasn’t sure where to begin but she started anyway.
“How could Ark… Havochaos be an alicorn? There are only the three princesses.”
“Well,” the Doctor hypothesized, “it wouldn’t be the first time a malevolent alicorn was kicked off the planet and forgotten about would it?” Derpy pondered this for a moment, he had a point.
“Why doesn’t anypony remember anything?” Derpy asked.
“That crack,” the Doctor answered. “Anything that falls into it never existed. The only ones they remember are Arkhaios and Mouseion. As far as they know Mouseion is dead and Arkhaios is missing.”
“But... all those ponies. they were families, brothers... sisters. They’re all...”
“Gone,” the Doctor finished. “Taken out of time.”
“But... I still remember everything.”
The Doctor paused, unsure how best to explain. “The curse of a time traveler. We see what didn’t happen, what can never be, what must exist...”
Derpy could tell that the Doctor didn’t really want to play twenty questions right now so she dropped the subject. She was going to be quiet for a while and just let everything go but then a thought passed through her head. She remembered her dreams, at least some of them anyway.
“Doctor,” she said. “Lately I’ve been having these dreams. I can’t remember all of it but the last one had a Dalek in it... and something else. They looked like Time Lords but they were made of stone. It couldn’t move when I was looking at it but if it touched me I would disappear.”
“Don’t worry about it. They’re only dreams.”
“But it always feels like, I don’t know, like there’s something important about them.”
The Doctor walked up to Derpy and looked at her in the eye. “Listen, they’re only dreams. Besides, the Daleks don’t exist here, none of my old enemies do. I left them behind when I came to this universe. Even if they were here, I would never let them hurt you, okay?”
“Okay,” she said smiling. She walked off to get some much-needed rest.
The Doctor watched her walk away. There was only one thing he could think about now; what his companion described could only have been a Weeping Angel. He never told her about them and they never saw anything close to one in this universe. How could she possibly know what a Weeping Angel is?
The Legend Of The Blue Box
“Ahh,” Twilight Sparkle groaned. She was in her home, the Ponyville library, sitting at a desk; in front of her was an open book that she was visibly agonizing over. She used her magic to flip through the pages. “Nothing, nothing, nothing!” she said angrily. The unicorn let her head fall on the manuscript and stayed there for a moment. Behind her, all of the library’s bookshelves were completely bare; all the books scattered around the floor to the point that the floor was not even visible.
A small purple dragon was wading through the sea of tomes desperately trying to reorganize. He carried a stack of books so tall that he was unable to see where he was going and had to rely on feeling his way around. This attempt at moving proved futile as he tripped, dropping his stack of books in with the rest on the floor.
“Aw,” he grunted. He looked up to see a very depressed Twilight. “Don’t you think you should give it a rest already?”
Twilight looked up from her studying. “A rest? How can I give it a rest Spike? I’ve gone through every book in this place twice and found nothing! I’ve contacted the Manehattan Public Library, the Appleoosa History Center, the Fillydelphia Research Institute and still, nothing! I even contacted the International Bio-research Lab that supposedly has a record of every plant, animal, fungus or bacteria that has ever been discovered and still nothing! There is no record of any kind of two-hearted ape, no record of anything even close to a Dalek, no single mention of a ‘Time Lord’ whatever that is, and nothing about any disappearing blue box! How can I give it a rest?!”
Twilight stood over her assistant breathless, staring at him with bloodshot eyes. Her mane seemed to become more frazzled the more worked up she became. Just to make things worse, one of her eyes developed a slight twitch.
“But it’s been a week,” Spike pleaded. “You’ve barely eaten. And have you even slept?”
Twilight started pacing in circles. “Sleep? There’s no time for sleep now! What if the Dalek comes back? The Elements of Harmony were completely useless, only the Doctor knows how to defeat it and who knows where he is.”
Spike covered his mouth; he looked like he was about to be sick but then let out a loud burp. A small green flame came from his mouth and materialized into a scroll. Twilight’s mood improved at the sight of it, she smiled and started to unroll it with magic. “It must be from the Canterlot Archives. If anyplace has information it’s them, I just know it.”
“Dear Miss Sparkle,” Twilight began to read aloud. “At the request of her highness, Princess Celestia, we at the Royal Canterlot Archive have carefully combed through every piece of information we have with regards to your inquiry. Unfortunately we regret to inform you,” Twilight’s voice began to sadden with each word, “that although our team has double-checked every book we have, there is no information about an ape with two hearts, a traveling blue box that disappears without magic, or anything close to the metal creature you called ‘Dalek.’ We apologize for any inconvenience and…” Twilight stopped reading. There was nothing more to read, just an apology and a signature.
Spike rubbed his claws together nervously. He wasn’t really sure what he could say at this point; Twilight had always found the information she needed in the past but this time there was just nothing.
Twilight started to second-guess herself, there wasn’t just a lack of knowledge there was literally zero like it was never even real. Was she losing her mind? Was the whole experience some dream that she was taking too seriously? Spike could see the discomfort and doubt in her eyes; he needed to cheer her up.
“Hey,” he said trying to sound positive and jovial. “Here’s an idea, why don’t we go to Sugarcube Corner? I bet a good snack would help.” His words seemed to fall on deaf ears. He couldn’t give up; he had to try anything he could think of. “Okay, how about we go see Rainbow Dash? She always has some new trick to show. Or maybe we could help Fluttershy with her animals, or Applejack on the farm. Come on Twilight, I’m sure your friends miss you by now.”
“My friends?” She looked up with a strike of inspiration. “My friends?” she repeated more energetically. “My friends, that’s it!” She dashed over to her assistant and embraced him in a hug. “Spike you’re a genius. Why didn’t I think of it before?”
Twilight dropped the dragon and sped out the door. Spike was mostly happy; on the one hand Twilight had finally gone outside and appeared to be getting back to normal, on the other, he was left alone to clean up. He grumbled as he started dutifully picking up books.
“Apples! Come get yur fresh picked apples!” Applejack announced. She and her sister were in the town marketplace trying to attract customers to their stand.
“Apples just picked this mornin’ at Sweet Apple Acres,” Applebloom yelled out.
Twilight ran passed them, too focused on where she was going to notice her surroundings. “Hey, Twilight,” Applejack called, “wanna buy some apples?”
Twilight skidded to a halt and swerved to see where her friend was. She smiled and ran to the orange mare. “Applejack. Perfect, I was just on my way to see you.”
“You okay Twi? You look a little, uh... beat.”
“Never mind that, I need you to tell me everything you know about the Doctor, now!” Twilight demanded.
“Huh, what?” Applejack was a little confused at such an out of the blue request. “Why do you wanna know ‘bout the Doctor?”
“Oh, I know ‘bout the Doctor,” Applebloom said jumping up for attention. “It was awesome!”
“No it wasn’t,” Applejack corrected. “I haven’t seen that much crazy from one pony since Discord.”
“Is he really that dangerous?” Twilight asked.
“Well, not him specifically. More like what seems ta follow him. You were there last time; he just popped up outa nowhere when all heck broke loose. Seems like he can’t be found otherwise.”
“But he saved us,” Applebloom argued. “He’s a good pony and he got rid o’ the alien.”
“Alien?!” Twilight said.
“For the last time, it was not an alien,” Applejack said.
“But he said…”
“He also said he could talk ta it and understand what it was sayin'. He was just tellin' ya a story,” Applejack explained. Applebloom grunted, frustrated that she wasn’t being listened to.
Applejack sighed lightly and turned her attention back to Twilight. “Look, he’s not a bad pony. I told y’all before he doesn’t seem the type to leave anypony behind. There’s just something, I don’t know, off ‘bout him, I didn’t even realize till the metal thing came.”
“You mean the Dalek?”
“Yeah, that. I’ve seen him twice now and both times he was right in the middle o’ somethin’ weird and dangerous. I don’t know, he just seems suspicious ta me.”
“Tell me about the first time you met,” Twilight requested.
“Well it seemed like a normal day at first; me and Big Mac were up before the sun and started to work the field. It wasn’t until we all came back from lunch that somethin’ weird happened. There were all these little critters eatin’ all our crop. I thought at first it was just a big invasion o’ worms but then the Doctor showed up; him and his blue box fell right out o’ the sky.”
“Wait, you mean that thing can fly too?”
“Well, I don’t know ‘bout flyin', looked more like it was thrown at us. The Doctor and Ditzy Doo came out and ran off sayin’ they were following somethin’. Then outa nowhere this giant worm comes outa the ground. And I mean huge; that thing coulda swallowed me whole. Turns out this big worm was the mother of all the little ones eatin’ our apples. The Doctor did somethin’ and made him, his box, and the worms all disappear without a trace.”
Twilight was even more confused now. She didn’t have much more to go on and every word of Applejack’s story sounded too odd to be true. “Is that all you can tell me?” she asked.
“That’s all I know. You were there the next time he showed up.”
“But why didn’t you ever say anything before?”
“Never came up. Besides, I kinda wanted to forget it ever happened.”
“I still say it was an alien,” Applebloom chimed in.
“If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that whatever you saw, it was not an alien,” Twilight said as she went into teacher mode. “Even the closest planets that could support life would be hundreds of light-years away, the trip over that distance simply wouldn’t be feasible. And anything born on another planet would surely look vastly different from a pony. I’m sure everything has a logical, terrestrial, explanation. It’s like the great pony Occam Razor once said, ‘When confronted with two explanations equal in validity the one that makes less assumptions is more likely true.’”
“Uh, thanks for the science lesson Twi, but if that’s all, we are tryin’ ta sell apples here,” Applejack explained trying not to sound rude.
“Oh, right,” Twilight said blushing a bit from embarrassment. “I’ll just be on my way. By the way do you know where I can find Pinkie Pie?”
“Last I knew she was workin’ the counter at Sugarcube Corner.”
“Thanks, see ya later.”
A bell chimed as Twilight walked through the door of the confectionary shop known as Sugarcube Corner. She looked around but her friend was nowhere in sight, instead a light blue mare with a pink mane stood at the counter.
The mare smiled and waved to Twilight. “Good afternoon, Twilight. What can I do for you?”
“Mrs. Cake, have you seen Pinkie Pie? It’s urgent.”
“She’s taking a break upstairs with the foals.” Mrs. Cake gestured to the stairs giving Twilight permission to find her friend.
“Thanks,” Twilight said frantically running up to the second floor. She entered a room to find Pinkie Pie entertaining two foals by making silly faces. She held a sack of flour over her head and opened it coating herself white for a big finale. The foals rolled around laughing.
“Pinkie,” Twilight called, coughing from the airborne powder.
“Not anymore,” Pinkie responded referring to her now white coat. She shook off the flour returning to her usual pink self. Twilight covered her mouth and let the white dust settle. “Now I am!” Pinkie declared. The foals erupted into a new fit of giggles.
“Pinkie, I need to talk to you. I want to know everything you know about the Doctor.”
“Hmm,” Pinkie mused as she touched her chin trying to look contemplative.
Suddenly she ran around the room with amazing speed closing the door and shutting the curtains to darken the room. She placed a lit lantern in the middle of the room and corralled the group around it like it was a campfire. The foals stared at the small flame inside the lamp.
“The first time I ever saw the Doctor was a long time ago...” she started.
I was just a little filly back then, I didn’t even have my cutie mark yet. Things weren’t as super duper fun as they are now. Back then it was just me and my family on our rock farm. Everything was so dreary and as soon as I could walk I had to work, digging and moving rocks all day, it was so boring.
One day was different though; I was pushing a big rock all by myself but it just wouldn’t budge so I tried to use a shovel but that didn’t work either. I was far out in the fields away from my family so I had to try all by myself but no matter what I did it just would not move, it was totally being as stubborn as a... as a rock or something. I was going to go get help but when I turned around it started to move on its own. It wasn’t just one rock like I thought, it was a whole bunch of rocks and they all started to stack on top of each other and they turned into a monster.
It stood on two legs, had two arms, and a long rock tail with a diamond shaped spike at the end. It didn’t even have a head but it did have a face right between its two arms. I was so, really scared, I didn’t know what to do but I remembered what my granny told me when I had trouble sleeping in the dark: giggle at the ghosties, just laugh to make them disappear. I looked up at it and said ‘ha’ but it didn’t go away. I tried again to laugh but I was too scared and could only squeak out a few more ha’s.
As I cowered down in front of this rock monster a voice called out “Ha-ha” as he leapt over my head at the monster. It swatted him to the ground and he landed in front of me with a thud. He looked at me, smiled, laughed, got up and told me, “Hello there, run for your life!” Before I knew it I was on his back and he was galloping away and the rock monster was chasing after us.
He yelled out, “Now!” and some flying pegasus that I couldn’t see very well threw something liquid at the monster. Everypony stopped and looked at the monster, waiting to see what would happen. Dust settled and the monster still stood there, it almost seemed surprised that nothing happened.
“I used the green, why is it not working?” she yelled to us.
“I said not green,” he yelled back.
“What? Who says not green?” she yelled.
The monster started chasing all three of us and the pegasus flew off somewhere else and the Doctor and I took shelter in a small cave. The monster must have been confused when we split up because it didn’t find us. He laughed after we were out of danger, I didn’t see what was so funny though I mean there was some rock thing out to get us and all he did was laugh like he was entertained or something. And then he said to himself, “A rock golem, a real live golem. Wonders never cease.”
He looked at me and introduced himself, “Hello, I’m the Doctor.”
“I’m, uh…” I started saying. I didn’t really know what I should have said; this was the most super weirdest thing that had ever happened to me, I mean really of all the places to find a rock monster, why there?
“Wait a moment,” he said to me. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” He looked deep into my eyes like he couldn’t remember my face and needed to look at my soul or something to know who I was. “That’s it, Pinkie Pie. I almost didn’t recognize you.” He ruffled my mane and acted like he was some old friend, I thought maybe he was a friend of my dad who knew me as a foal or something. But he called me ‘Pinkie,’ nopony had ever called me ‘Pinkie’ before.
“My name is Pinkamena,” I told him. I tried to straighten my mane back to what it always was.
“Nah,” he said, “Pinkie is much cuter, you lot are better off with cute names. I remember this one pony I met, you know what his name was? Cabbage Patch. He sold cabbages. Not exactly the most creative name but it was descriptive I’ll give you that. Funny thing is I kept running into him all over the world, quite literally in fact, I was always knocking over his cabbage cart one way or another. Completely by accident mind you. ‘My cabbages!’ he would always yell. I always wondered where he ever acquired his plants, I mean really, he travels all over the world, when does he have time to grow anything?”
I started to giggle, I don’t even know why, but for some reason listening to him ramble made me feel safe. I wanted to be able to ramble on and on and on and on like that, it seemed like fun.
“There you go,” he said, “smiling is always best.”
I was about to say something but then we heard a sound from outside the cave. The Doctor shushed me and we backed up against the wall. He held some weird device in his teeth and watched the cave entrance like he was waiting for the golem to show its face. I started to get worried again; here I was, away from my family with a stranger in a cave and a monster after us for some reason I didn’t know.
The rock monster took a step right in front of the cave and paused. I think we both were thinking the same thing: Don’t look into the cave, don’t find us. Unfortunately it leaned in and saw us, I could see the smugness in its glowing eyes like it was triumphant in finding us but then the Doctor bit the thing in his mouth and it made a strange noise. The golem was temporarily discombobulated and we ran past it and kept on running because it was chasing us again.
And then…
“Pinkie,” Mrs. Cake called.
Pinkie stopped talking. The two foals were leaning on one another sound asleep.
“Pinkie, your break is over and it’s time for the foals nap,” Mrs. Cake said opening the door.
Pinkie picked up the sleeping ponies and gently put them in their crib. “Just telling them a bedtime story Mrs. Cake.”
Twilight yawned and rubbed her eyes; she was having trouble staying awake as well and with the dark room and snoozing infants, staying awake was not proving easy. The three ponies went downstairs and left the young to nap.
“Twilight, you don’t look so good. Is there something I can do or get for you?” Mrs. Cake asked.
“Maybe just something to keep me awake,” Twilight answered. She smiled to show that everything was fine.
“Well alright, I can make you some coffee if you like but don’t push yourself too hard, foals aren’t the only ones who need sleep you know.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.”
Mrs. Cake went into the kitchen, leaving Pinkie to run the front counter for a while. Twilight stood by wanting to ask her friend to continue the story but Pinkie was preoccupied with customers and couldn’t talk.
Finally a lull in activity let Twilight speak. “Do you think you can continue that story Pinkie?”
“Sorry, Twilight but there’s a lot to do, I have to bake and package and deal with customers and take orders. But I’ll be done in a couple of hours if you want to wait.” Mrs. Cake brought a cup of coffee and Twilight decided to sit and wait.
A couple of hours passed and Twilight sat, sleeping in a chair with her head on a table. A half eaten sandwich and half empty cup of coffee lay in front of her.
“Finished!” Pinkie yelled bouncing out of the kitchen. Twilight awoke with a start. She looked around to get her bearings; she wasn’t sure where she was for a moment. “Oh, sorry, Twilight, I didn’t know you were sleeping.”
“It’s fine Pinkie, I need to hear the rest of that story anyway,” Twilight said rubbing her eyes.
“Well… okay then.” The pink pony took a seat across from her friend. “Now let’s see, where was I?”
“You were saying something about running out of a cave,” Twilight reminded her.
“Oh yeah. So after the Doctor used his sound-device-thingamajig to confuse the golem we ran out of the cave.”
I think it was fear that let me keep up with the Doctor, he’s a really good runner you know, I bet he could even give AJ or Dashie a run for their money. The golem wasn’t very fast but it was very big and each step it took made the ground go BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
The Doctor kept trying to zap it with his gadget but for some reason it wouldn’t do anything. “Ah,” he complained, “the magnetic wave reconstruction field permeating and animating the rocks should have been neutralized with the right sonic frequency. What am I doing wrong?” Or at least he said something like that; I didn’t really understand a word of it.
The Doctor stopped running and the golem was catching up to us fast. I panicked but the Doctor just kept messing with that gadget saying, “Come on, come on.” When the monster got close I looked at the Doctor and tried to make him see it running at us but he just wouldn’t pay attention so I closed my eyes and screamed as loud as I could. When I opened my eyes I saw the golem standing there looking like it was in pain.
The Doctor looked like he was struck with inspiration but what he did next still kind of confuses me. He took out a large quill and asked me, “Pinkie, are you ticklish?”
I just stared back at him; I didn’t have time to respond before he started tickling me. I tried to tell him to stop but it was too much fun and I couldn’t stop laughing, so I laughed and laughed. The golem made a desperate grab for us but it fell apart before it reached us and turned back into regular rocks.
The Doctor stopped tickling me finally and went to look at the remains. I calmed down and asked him what happened.
“A singular sonic wavelength wasn’t enough to compensate for the electromagnetic radiation’s tendency to change frequency in order to hold the molecular bond. We needed a high pitch variable pulsating wave that changed hertz as it went to, um...” he looked at me and must have realized I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. “Uh, your laughing broke it.”
“Is it... dead?” I asked.
“It was never really alive,” he answered.
“But, if you knew how to stop it then why didn’t you earlier?”
“Well I had hoped to capture it and trace the magnetic radiation back to its source,” he said as he picked up one of the smaller rocks and looked it over. “Maybe I still can.”
Some strange noise came from his jacket and he took out some weird new device and held it up to the side of his head. “Good timing,” he said into it. He waited for a moment like somepony else was talking to him. “No, it’s gone now. Had to destroy it before it destroyed us.” He paused again. “I don’t think we have to. The green one you used earlier had the opposite effect, it actually strengthened the molecular bond and now that I dismantled it a residual trace amount remains on the rock. Though probably not for long.” Another pause. “Right, I’ll be right over.”
“Okay then, nice to meet you Pinkie but I have a very important job to do, so run along home now, yes?” he said with a smile. He started to walk away.
“Wait,” I yelled. “Which way is home?” It wasn’t until now that I realized how far we had run; I couldn’t even recognize the landscape, it was all some valley with trees all around.
“Uh, well it was…” he said looking around. “Oh, very well, come with me. But don’t wander off.”
And so we ran some more, through the trees and up and down hills following that same talking device he was using before. Until finally we just stopped, right in the middle of nowhere, a big clearing in the middle of a bunch of trees. The Doctor put away his talky thing, raised a hoof out in front of him and knocked... on nothing. It was the strangest thing, I could hear knocking like he was hitting a door but there was nothing there, all I could see was him miming knocking on a door and somehow making the sound.
He put his hoof down and waited. Finally I heard a beep and the air in front of us opened like a door and I could see the inside of a building but there was no outside of it, just an inside through this one doorway in the air. The Doctor walked in and I stayed right next to him. I was kind of scared but mostly just excited and confused.
“Invisibility,” he said to me. “Helps to keep the unwanted out.”
We walked down a hallway and entered a huge room full of ponies in uniform and all kinds of weird stuff and gadgets and boxes. There were ponies dragging boxes and crates across the room and other ponies following them marking things down on paper. There were ponies that seemed to be unpacking the weirdest devices I’ve ever seen, things I can’t even describe; strange metal claws, a crystal that transformed and floated when touched, and lots of other stuff. There was also a tall blue box in the corner of the room that nopony seemed to pay attention to, it wasn’t until later that I found out it was the Doctor’s blue box.
A female pony wearing a green military uniform and hat walked up to us. She was yellow with a greenish mane that was tied back. “Doctor,” she greeted with a salute. She turned her head and looked at me with a glare. I shrunk back a bit; there were a lot of new things that day and I really didn’t understand any of it, I think I just wanted to go home right then. “She’s not your usual companion.”
“This is Pinkie Pie. Pinkie, this is major Cross Sword,” he introduced us.
“You do know this is a secret facility don’t you?” asked Cross Sword.
“Well I couldn’t just leave her on her own, she’d be lost. Besides she won’t cause trouble, will you Pinkie?”
I shook my head.
The mare sighed and asked, “Did you bring it?”
“Right here,” the Doctor said pulling one of the rocks out of his jacket. “We may only have a matter of minutes left.”
“Then we can’t waste anymore time. Follow me.”
We walked across the room and came to a set of double doors. I stopped and looked above them; there were big letters carved into the stone wall overhead. U.T.O.P.I.A. The Doctor called me, snapping me out of a trance and I followed him into the room.
This room was different, and I mean different. The last room was huge with a really high ceiling and all the walls were stone, but this one was smaller with a normal ceiling height. There was a window, which was nice, and a big map on one of the walls. There were all kinds of test tubes and microscopes and science-y stuff everywhere. Off in the corner was a small cage next to some big panel on the floor. I walked up to see what was inside and when I got close a scary growl made me jump; it was a baby timber wolf.
The Doctor put the rock under the microscope and an image of it appeared on a big screen next to it. The Doctor touched the screen and made it do and say all kinds of weird things. But there was something else that I was more interested in. “Doctor,” I asked, “what’s U.T.O.P.I.A?”
“Underground Terrestrial Observatory and Ponykind Intelligence Agency,” he answered without looking away from what he was doing. “An organization dedicated to…”
“Doctor!” Sword interrupted. “That information is classified.”
“Oh lighten up will you? Even if she tells somepony it’s not like they would understand,” he argued back.
“Even so I can’t have such information be spoken so freely. If it were my choice I never would have pulled you into the loop Doctor. After all, you are the biggest mystery of them all. I don’t know why the higher ups trust you so much.”
“You should consider yourself lucky that I’m helping you at all.”
Sword rolled her eyes and turned her attention to me. “Just stand to the side and don’t touch anything okay?”
“Humph,” I said. Then I stuck my tongue out at her and walked back to the timber wolf cage.
The Doctor chuckled. “You certainly have a way with kids don’t you?”
“Oh, shut up,” she responded.
“Hello... What are you?” the Doctor asked looking at the image of the rock.
“What is it?” Sword asked. “Have you found the source?”
They walked over to the big map and the Doctor started pointing around it and marking places with little red dots. He and Sword were talking about something but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was starting to get hungry and all I wanted was to go home. I walked over to the weird floor panel next to the cage and started poking it; I didn’t really have anything better to do at that moment. Then I heard a beep and the panel started to hum.
“Uh-oh,” I said quietly.
Suddenly I was lifted above the panel and started to float in mid air. I felt something almost prickly all over, it tickled and I started to laugh and laugh and laugh. The Doctor and Sword turned and ran up to me and just stared at me like something wasn’t right, I didn’t care much though it was fun.
“The containment field, why is she affected?” Sword asked.
“I don’t know, it doesn’t make sense,” the Doctor said, “unless… Oh! Of course.” He smacked his forehead. “Why didn’t I think of it before? The oscillating resonance frequency. If we calibrate the containment field generator to the correct frequency we can contain the outbreak and trap the creatures it creates in a cutoff area. We might not be able to get rid of it but at least we can permanently seal it off.”
The Doctor turned off the panel and the ticklish feeling wore off. I suddenly realized that I wasn’t being held up anymore and fell but the Doctor caught me. He told me I was brilliant for some reason and laughed triumphantly.
“Uh, Mr. Doctor,” I said, “can I go home now?”
The Doctor looked almost shocked like he had forgotten that he was supposed to be taking me home. “Oh, yes, of course,” he said. “My assistant knows the way, I’ll ask her to take you back. Just wait here a moment.”
He left the room leaving me with Cross Sword. The two of us just stood there awkwardly waiting.
The Doctor came back with a pegasus, probably the same one who was supposed to throw the ‘not green’ stuff. She, at least I think it was a she, wore a big overcoat that only exposed gray wings and a blue and yellow tail. Her mane was black but it looked more like a wig to me and she wore these big glasses that hid her eyes. Oh, and she had a mustache, I don’t know why.
Cross Sword looked at her in disbelief and asked, “Why are you wearing all that Di—”
“Shh,” interrupted the pegasus. “Ix-nay the aim-nay”
“What?” Sword asked.
“Never mind,” the pegasus said. She walked up to me and looked me in the eye. “You were so cute.”
“Huh?” I asked. This pony didn’t make any sense at all.
“Uh, I mean I hear you want to go home. How about I fly you there?”
“Okay,” I said. “My name is Pinkamena.”
“You can call me, uh, Blue...” she said looking around, “...Diamond.”
“Blue Diamond?” I asked. It really didn’t seem like a name I would expect.
“Yep. Blue Diamond,” she said. “Now come on, let’s get you home.”
She wrapped me in her forelegs and lifted us into the air. She flew through the doors, rooms and hallways until we got outside where she took to the skies. It was awesome being up high like that for the first time; I could see for forever; all the trees and hills we ran through and different buildings way off in the distance. Blue Diamond turned and raced off in one direction. The flight was even more amazing than the sights; all the wind blowing through my mane and the feeling of being off the ground, I stretched my legs out and pretended I was the one flying.
Blue Diamond was a pretty good flier too, although she did make a few random twists and turns sometimes. I couldn’t tell if she did it for fun or because she needed to figure out where she was going.
Finally we landed just a small distance from my house. She set me down and said, “See ya Pinkie,” before flying off. I stood there watching her become a small dot in the distance and thought to myself, she’s the second pony to call me by that name.
“Pinkamena!” I heard a voice call from behind me. It was my mother who ran up and hugged me. “Where have you been? We were worried sick.” She turned her head and called to the rest of my family. “She’s over here!”
Everypony else, my father and my sisters, all came running to us and started asking me the same things. ‘Where were you?’ ‘What happened?’
Suddenly there was a loud noise in the distance that scared away a huge flock of birds. The sound pulsed with a slow and steady ‘wub, wub, wub.’ My father ordered us all into the house and we all ran for cover.
“After that I tried to tell my family what happened but they didn’t believe me, they thought I was just making up an imaginary friend. Can you believe that?” asked Pinkie with a chuckle.
Twilight sat across from her friend, staring at Pinkie. Twilight’s mouth hung open a little; she wasn’t really sure how she should react to what she just heard. Rock monsters, secret organizations, timber wolves, random pegasus (clown?), the loud noise, it was all a bit too much to take in. “Is that all true?”
“Of course silly, I wouldn’t tell you if it wasn’t true,” Pinkie said.
Twilight sat back and tried to process the information. So far she was left with more questions than answers and if that was all Pinkie knew then she might have hit a dead end. She had to know if there was anything more to the story, anything her friend might have left out or overlooked.
Twilight leaned forward. “Is that all you know? Was there anything else? Did you ever see the Doctor again?”
“Well,” Pinkie said stroking her chin, “there was one other time, but it was only very brief.”
“Tell me,” Twilight pleaded.
“Well I got my cutie mark about a month after I first met him, you already know that story, and one of my sisters got her cutie mark a few months after me. I insisted on throwing her a big party of course, I mean you can’t earn a cutie mark and not celebrate right? So I went out to get streamers and balloons and cake ingredients and everything else I would need to throw my sister the best cutie mark celebration ever. And as I was coming back home, that’s when I saw him…”
I was walking home from the nearby market all by myself and up on one of the hills, standing tall, was his big blue box. The Doctor sat next to it, his back turned to me. Together they cast a long shadow across the ground. It was only a couple of hours before sunset and I think he was watching the sky slowly change color as he waited for something.
I wasn’t sure if it was really him at first but I ran up to him anyway. “Doctor?” I called. He turned his head and smiled at me, I knew it was him now. “Doctor it is you!” When I got closer I could see the expression on his face clearly; he smiled without showing his teeth like he was happy, but his eyes looked sad.
“Hello, Pinkamena,” he said.
“Where’s your pegasus friend?” I asked.
He turned his head back and stared across the landscape. “Your world is so beautiful, do you know that?” he asked me. “So little suffering, so little pain. Even with those rare moments.”
“What are you talking about?”
The Doctor stood up. “It was good to see you again but my time is running out, I’ll need to be off.” He walked into the box and said one last thing before closing the doors. “Don’t worry though, you’ll see me again someday.” Then I saw for the first time the Doctor’s magic box disappear before my eyes.
“And that was the last time I saw him,” Pinkie finished.
Twilight sat back thinking over the information or lack thereof. It seemed like now, if she wanted to find out about the Doctor, her only lead was a secret organization that might have existed a long time ago. The more she looked into the matter the less she really understood.
A cuckoo clock on the wall chimed announcing the hour of seven o’clock. “It’s getting Pretty late Twilight, don’t you need to go home and feed Spike?” Pinkie pointed out.
“I guess you’re right,” Twilight said finally realizing that she left her number one assistant alone all afternoon in pursuit of the most elusive of knowledge. She stood, thanked Pinkie for her help, said goodbye, and started the walk home. Along the way she couldn’t help but wonder if her search was completely futile. Maybe she should just give up on it.
Back in the library, Spike positioned the last book in its place, finally reorganizing the entire collection. “Finally done.” His stomach growled and he looked at the clock calculating just how long it had been since his last meal. “And not a moment too soon. Wonder what we have for food.”
The dragon started to walk towards the kitchen when a knock at the door interrupted him. He stood conflicted, should he answer the door or find food? A second set of three taps answered for him.
It must be Twilight, he thought. I bet she locked herself out or something. As he approached the door he talked loud enough for whoever it was to hear him. “Twilight? Did the door get locked or...” he opened the door to find nopony there, “...something?”
Spike looked around, he was completely alone, not a single creature walking away from the library, not a pegasus or bird flying away. He looked down and saw a package addressed to one Twilight Sparkle, no address, no signature, just her name written in bold on the brown wrapping.
He picked up the package in one claw and brought it inside closing the door behind him. He looked confused and scratched his head with a finger. Spike set the parcel on Twilight’s desk and quickly forgot about it; he had food to think about after all.
A few minutes later as Spike was fixing dinner in the kitchen, Twilight opened the door and walked inside. Spike walked out of the kitchen to greet her. “Twilight, welcome back. Is everything okay?” he asked noticing her frown, slow walk, and inattentive gaze.
Twilight sighed. “I couldn’t find out anything substantive about the Doctor.”
“Wait, I thought you went out to see your friends,” Spike said.
“I went to ask Pinkie and Applejack if they knew anything and now I’m left knowing even less than before if that’s possible.”
“Maybe it’s time you threw in the towel.”
Twilight sighed again. “Maybe you’re right.” The thought of giving up didn’t sit well in her stomach but at this point what else could she do? “I think I’m just going to go to bed.” As she walked to the staircase leading to her bedroom she noticed the package on her desk. “Spike what’s this?” she asked levitating it with magic.
Spike shrugged. “Somepony left it at the door.”
Twilight inspected the package all over. “Who brought it? It doesn’t say who it’s from.”
“Dunno.”
Twilight unwrapped the paper. Inside was a book, a small blue book with a picture of an hourglass on the cover. Twilight raised an eyebrow as she looked it over; there was no title or wording of any kind. Then, as if by some unseen magic, words began to appear under the hourglass.
“The Legend of The Blue Box,” she read aloud. Her eyes widened, if this was the same ‘blue box’ that the Doctor was known for traveling in she might finally have a lead.
Twilight held it with her hooves and tried to open it but the book remained shut.
“What the…” she remarked.
She struggled even harder trying to pry the book open but it easily resisted any attempt she could make. It didn’t even make any sense; there was no lock or latch keeping it closed, it was clearly a real book with pages and binding but for some reason it could not be opened.
“Oh come on!” she yelled.
“What’s the matter Twilight?” Spike asked.
“This stupid thing won’t open,” she said tossing the book on the floor.
“Wha…?” Spike said as he picked up the book and tried and failed to open it.
Twilight marched up the stairs in a huff. She’d had it with today; it seemed like some unseen force in the universe was out to taunt her with information that she wasn’t allowed to have. Screw the Doctor, screw the book, screw the whole thing. In fact, screw the whole universe. Right now she needed sleep.
After Twilight left the room Spike set the book someplace safe and went back to making his dinner. As he walked back to the kitchen he burped and a new scroll materialized in front of him. He picked it up and started to read mumbling his way through most of it.
“Dear miss Sparkle, hmm-mm, might be relevant, hmm-mm, centuries ago a pony was found dead, hmm-mm, autopsy, hmm-mm, the pony had two hearts?” He stopped skimming over the scroll and ran to the stairs. “Twilight!”
The moment he realized how this might send her into a new knowledge crazed spiral he stopped and hid the scroll behind his back.
“What is it Spike?” Twilight asked appearing at the top of the stairs.
“Uh,” he responded looking for some excuse. “Just, uh... have a good night.”
“Yeah, you too,” she said going back into her room.
Spike sighed in relief. There really wasn’t any reason she needed to know about this yet, sleep was definitely more important. He hid the scroll someplace Twilight would never find it, exactly where it should go on one of the bookshelves, and went back to preparing food.
The Legend Of The Blue Box
Ponyville, a peaceful town full of peaceful ponies. Rarely did the residents have major troubles to deal with in their day-to-day lives and, thus far, this day was no exception. The mid-afternoon light kept the town alive. Ponies wandered the streets, colts and fillies ran around and played.
One bright pink mare bounced through the center of town with a big smile and a basket of envelops tied to her head. She stopped when she spotted a purple unicorn approaching from the opposite direction.
“Twilight!” the pink pony exclaimed, “I was just coming to see you.”
“Hey, Pinkie Pie, what’s up?” Twilight replied.
“It’s been a whole week since our last party and I thought that’s a long time to go without a party so I’m throwing a ‘one week since our last party’ party later tonight. I’m inviting everypony. Here, have an invitation,” Pinkie said in a single breath.
Twilight giggled and said, “Sounds great.”
Twilight used her magic to levitate an envelope out of Pinkies hat. She dropped the invitation as her pink friend suddenly began twitching uncontrollably. “Twitchy, twitcha-twitcha twitch!” Pinkie exclaimed. “My tail is twitching, something’s gonna fall, something…big!”
“Uh-oh, what is it? I don’t see anything that could fall,” Twilight asked urgently looking around.
“I don’t know, it feels like the whole sky is gonna fall. Everypony run the sky is falling!” Pinkie yelled jumping into the air.
For a moment any of the ponies that heard the warning just stopped and stared curiously. A single panicked scream was all it took to break their stupor and send them all galloping for cover. Twilight and Pinkie galloped into the nearest building.
“Pinkie that doesn’t make any sense. The sky isn’t an object that can fall,” Twilight explained as the two ponies entered their target sanctuary.
“But this feels like one doozy of a fall,” Pinkie argued back.
Ponies all around watched with bated breath as the sky darkened. Clouds began spontaneously swirling around like a hurricane. Electricity began discharging from the middle of the chaotic storm. Any ponies still outside quickly found cover.
The lightning grew stronger as it ripped through the streets kicking up dust. A large crack, like something that would form on a lake of ice, appeared in the center of the clouds. The fracture grew and split as if Hades himself was tearing open a pathway to hell.
Three blurred objects flew out from the rift. The first flew up and out of town into the surrounding mountains. The second flew in the opposite direction, into the Everfree forest on the border of town. The third plummeted straight down slamming into the ground, kicking up a small dust cloud and creating a small crater.
The hole in the sky closed and the chaos subsided. As the dust began to clear around whatever hit the ground, the object gave off a strong golden light that lasted only a few seconds.
Several ponies, Twilight and Pinkie included, approached the fallen object with caution, stretching their necks to avoid being too close. Lying face down on the ground was an animal covered in tattered clothing.
“Is it… dead?” one of the ponies asked.
“Nothing could survive after that,” another pony replied.
“What is it?” Pinkie asked.
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Twilight said, leaning in to get a closer look. “I hear breathing, it’s alive! It needs medical attention!”
Twilight used her magic to lift the creature off the ground and galloped off levitating the animal with her.
Elsewhere, about fifteen thousand years in the future, a certain blue box could be found floating in the vacuum of space. Two ponies were inside. One, a light brown stallion with a black mane who wore a tie and a long coat. The other, a light grey pegasus mare with a blond mane and a lazy eye.
“So why are we stopping in the middle of nowhere, Doctor?” asked the pegasus.
“Well Derpy,” responded the brown pony in a cheerful tone as he focused on his computer, “the TARDIS does not have an unlimited power supply. So, every now and then, she needs refueling and the TARDIS just happened to detect the perfect source of temporal energy right here.”
“Okay,” said Derpy trying to see out of one of the small windows on the door. “But what’s out there exactly?”
“A rift in time and space,” the Doctor began. “It’s perfectly harmless but it bleeds energy that’s perfect for the TARDIS.”
The Doctor looked at a computer screen on the central control panel. His cheerful smile began to fade to something more neutral. His eyes narrowed at the screen as he expressed some kind of concern.
“What’s wrong, Doctor?” Derpy asked looking worried.
“Hmm?” the Doctor responded, immediately perking up as he looked at his companion. “Ahh, it’s nothing to worry about. Anyway, the ship will finish refueling momentarily, so, the question is, where do we go next? The past, the future, anywhere across the universe, where do you want to go?”
“Well,” Derpy began slowly, “it’s been awhile since I saw everypony back home. How about a visit to Ponyville?”
“Aw, home already? But we only just started to explore,” the Doctor protested.
Derpy’s only response was an innocent toothy grin.
“Alright then back home it is,” The Doctor said with a smile as he trotted up to the control panel and began turning various dials and flicking switches. “When I say ‘now’ pull that wibbly lever and press that button.”
“Got it,” Derpy responded.
The TARDIS began shaking and moving.
“Now,” said the Doctor.
Derpy pulled the lever and pressed the button and the TARDIS disappeared.
Back in Ponyville, the morning after the animal crashed to the ground, many ponies were gathered around Ponyville General Hospital. A few pegasi were flying and pushing around stray clouds. The rest of town was largely barren. In a back alley the TARDIS faded into existence accompanied by the sound of mechanical grinding. Derpy and the Doctor exited the TARDIS and began walking into town.
“Well, here we are,” the Doctor said matter-of-factly, “back home just after we left.”
“How long were we gone?” Derpy questioned.
“Only about three hours, not even long enough for anypony to notice we left,” replied the Doctor.
“Wow, we did so much and only three hours go by here,” Derpy said to herself quietly. “Hey, where is everypony? The town should be busier than this.” Overhead, Derpy noticed a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail floating above them. “Hey, Rainbow Dash!”
“Derpy?” Rainbow questioned, turning her head. She floated down and landed in front of Derpy. “Where have you been? Nopony has seen you for the past three days. You just disappeared.”
“Three days?” Derpy said surprised. She shot an annoyed look at the Doctor, who only gave an awkward smile in response. “Sorry. I was, uh, traveling with him.”
“Hello, I’m the Doctor,” the stallion said as he extended a hoof.
Dash raised an eyebrow and took a moment before shaking his hoof and replying. “I’m Rainbow Dash.”
Dash turned her attention back to Derpy. “I wish you would have told somepony you were leaving. We looked everywhere for you. We needed every pegasus we could get.”
“Why, what happened?” Derpy asked, a hint of concern in her voice.
“The weather started going out of control after a hole opened in the sky yesterday
afternoon,” Dash said waving a hoof around for emphasis. “We have it under control now but—”
“Excuse me, did you say a hole in the sky?” the Doctor interrupted sounding surprised and skeptical at the same time. “What do you mean a hole?”
“Well I didn’t see it myself,” Dash explained, “but from what I heard a hole ripped open in the sky and some living thing fell out. It hit the ground and made a crater. Then the hole in the sky just kind of disappeared. The weather’s been acting on it’s own ever since.”
The Doctor and Derpy exchanged looks as if communicating telepathically. They each gave a small excited smile to one another.
“So tell me, what sort of creature landed here and where is it now?” the Doctor asked.
“I don’t know what it looks like, I never saw it. But it’s at Ponyville General Hospital right now,” Dash said.
“Well then, allons-y,” said the Doctor excitedly as he started walking off.
Derpy started to follow the Doctor then turned to Rainbow Dash. “You coming?”
“Nah, I got work to do keeping the skies clear,” Dash said taking flight, “see ya later.”
Derpy waved goodbye to Rainbow Dash before catching up to the Doctor. “Doctor. The hospital is this way,” she said pointing a hoof to her left.
“Right,” the Doctor responded turning to walk the correct way.
Walking towards the hospital, the pair noticed an increase in ponies. Some of the ponies seemed to be going about their day like there was nothing out of the ordinary, but many were gathering close to the hospital. There were several reporters with cameras and notepads asking questions to anypony who might know something.
As the Doctor and Derpy approached the front door of the hospital they were stopped by a guard. “Whoa there. State your business.”
“Hello, I’m the Doctor and this is—” the Doctor started to say before the guard cut him off.
“A doctor? I don’t recall a doctor like you at this hospital. Can I see your medical license?”
“Oh, right,” the Doctor said as he produced a blank piece of paper out of his coat pocket. “Here you are.”
“A doctor of the Royal Canterlot Hospital?” the guard said surprised, looking at the blank paper. “Wow, you got here fast. I didn’t expect anypony from Canterlot until tonight at the earliest. You too can go right inside.”
“Thank you,” said the Doctor as he and Derpy walked inside.
Inside the hospital it was business as usual. A few meek looking ponies were sitting in the waiting area. The nurse at the front counter was writing something on a clipboard.
“Why did he think you’re a doctor from Canterlot?” Derpy asked.
“Psychic paper,” he said showing off the paper before putting it back in his coat. “Ponies see whatever I want them to.”
“But it sounded like he was expecting you. That doesn’t make sense. Why would they be expecting a royal doctor?” Unless somepony requested the help. Which means whatever crashed must be completely unknown for them to ask the best in Equestria.”
The Doctor smiled at his companion’s deductions. “Oh, very good.”
Derpy bashfully turned her head away and smiled. One of her eyes wandered back towards the Doctor who walked forward. Derpy hurried to his side as they approached the front desk.
The Doctor flashed the psychic paper to the nurse and stated with authority, “I’m the Doctor from the Royal Canterlot Hospital and this is my acting assistant nurse, Derpy. We’re here to see the mystery creature that was admitted here.”
“Of course,” the nurse replied as she set her clipboard down, “sorry about the guard out front, we can’t have swarms of reporters and ponies disturbing all our patients. Let me call somepony to escort you.”
“I can take them nurse Redheart,” a voice said beside the Doctor. It was Twilight Sparkle who had entered the building just a moment ago and overheard the conversation.
“Oh, good morning miss Sparkle,” Redheart said, “did your research turn anything up?”
“Nothing. Has its condition changed?”
“No, still the same.”
“All right then.”
Twilight turned her attention to Derpy and the Doctor. “Follow me, I’ll take you to the room.” The three ponies began walking down the hallway. “Its odd, I wrote about this incident to Princess Celestia yesterday. I requested an expert in non-pony physiology but the timing seems a bit off. Canterlot isn’t that close, it should have taken you longer to get here.” There was a hint of suspicion in her voice.
“Yes, well,” the Doctor began, “I sort of, came of my own accord. I rushed off before the request was even made. I mean, a strange, never-before-seen creature just falling out of a hole in the sky, how could I resist?”
Any bit of suspicion faded from Twilight as she seemed to accept the explanation. “It’s currently in room 313.”
“So, what happened after this…thing showed up?” Derpy interjected.
“Well, after it hit the ground it started glowing.”
“Glowing?!” the Doctor questioned. “You mean like unicorn magic?”
“No, not exactly. It was more like it was on fire, but it only lasted for a brief moment.”
“Burned up in the atmosphere I suppose,” the Doctor suggested nonchalantly.
“There were no signs of burning though, not on the animal and not on its clothes.”
The Doctor and Derpy had quizzical looks on their faces. The three ponies approached the end of the hallway and turned to walk up the hospital stairwell. Twilight continued her story.
“After I realized it survived the crash I picked it up and ran for the veterinary center. The veterinarian didn’t recognize what kind of animal it was but examined it anyway. He and I concluded that it was some type of large, probably bipedal, ape although it doesn’t have much fur.”
The Doctors eyes widened, both in shock and curiosity at the description.
“Doctor,” Derpy whispered, “isn’t that what you looked like before you came here?” The Doctor turned his attention to Derpy and gave her a silent nod.
Turning back to Twilight the Doctor asked, “But what’s it doing here if you took it to a veterinarian?”
“He examined it as best as he could and said it was fine, not a scratch or bruise on it. It was just unconscious.”
“What?,” the Doctor blurted out stopping his walk down the hallway. “How does something cause a crater in the ground and walk away without a scratch?”
Derpy and Twilight stopped and turned to him. “I don’t know,” Twilight responded, “but the veterinary center didn’t have the equipment to examine something it’s size for any internal damage so we brought it here.”
“And what did you find? Tell me,” the Doctor said, a hint of haste in his voice.
“It didn’t show any internal damage whatsoever. However, there was one oddity,” Twilight said. The Doctor leaned in slightly paying close attention to what Twilight was about to say. “The inspection revealed that it has two hearts.”
The Doctors head shot up, his eyes as wide as dinner plates. The Doctor said nothing and simply ran up to the third floor and down the hallway. The two mares he left behind followed after him.
Room 313 of the hospital was just like any other room you would find in a care facility. Everything was clean and white. A curtain hung from the ceiling as an optional divider. A window overlooked a small part of Ponyville and everything had that noticeable sterile non-smell to it.
The only things making this room different were the two residents. One, the unknown creature, lay across two beds pushed together, being slightly too tall for one bed. It was covered up to its head in blankets and had two heart monitors examining either side of its chest. The second dweller, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, was curled up next to the creature on top of the sheets. Both were sleeping comfortably.
The Doctor burst through the door of room 313 blatantly disregarding any pony that might have been disturbed by the abrupt entrance. The pegasus awoke with a start, leaping up before falling to the floor. If the Doctor noticed her he didn’t show it, his gaze was focused on only one thing. The yellow mare began shrinking herself and backing away slightly from the Doctor.
“Y-you shouldn’t j-just barge in like that,” she said meekly, her voice trailing off into a whisper. The Doctor ignored her and pulled out a pair of white glasses with one red and one blue lens. Twilight and Derpy entered the room.
“You can’t just race through the halls like that doctor, there are other patients here,” Twilight remarked sternly. Derpy walked over to join the Doctor.
Twilight took notice of the pegasus off to the side and said, “Fluttershy? How long have you been here? I thought I would be the first to arrive this morning.”
“Oh, I’ve been here since yesterday,” Fluttershy responded without a hint of stutter, more comfortable talking with a friend then a stranger. “I didn’t want him to feel lonely if he woke up.”
Derpy addressed the Doctor and asked, “so what are we dealing with here? Is it really—”
“Yes. This close it’s obvious, I can sense it. He’s like me; he’s a Time Lord. But not one I recognize.” The Doctor spoke in a serious tone as if trying to piece together a mental jigsaw puzzle.
Derpy could hardly take him too seriously with those goofy looking glasses on his face. A small smile spread across her face as she began to imagine what this meant. Another Time Lord, just the Doctor was amazing enough. What if this new one came traveling with them? She was excited thinking about the possible adventures the three of them might have.
“This is bad,” the Doctor said putting his glasses back into his pocket.
Derpy shook her head snapping out of her daydream. “Huh? How can this be bad, he’s a Time Lord like you right?”
“That’s not the problem,” the Doctor said. “I told you before that I’m from another universe and that I’m alone. But I didn’t mean alone just here. I’m not just any Time Lord, I’m the last Time Lord. My people are all dead.”
An expression of shock, disbelief and sadness washed over Derpy’s face as if she was told her favorite pet just died. “But if he should be dead, how is he here?” she asked.
“Exactly,” the Doctor responded. “If he’s here it can only mean something bad.”
The Doctor walked over to Twilight and Fluttershy interrupting their conversation. “Excuse me, sorry.” He turned to Twilight. “Ah, what did you say your name was?”
“We’re doing introductions now?” Twilight asked, annoyed at the stallion’s boorish behavior.
“Yes, right, forgot that part. I’m the Doctor.”
“Yes, I know you’re a doctor but what’s your name?”
“No, that’s it. Doctor, just the Doctor.”
“Oh,” Twilight said feeling a little silly for not picking up on that.
“And this is my companion,” the Doctor continued, “Ditzy Doo. Although I prefer ‘Derpy.’ Much cuter.”
“Doctor,” the gray mare protested in embarrassment. She only let her best friends call her by her nickname.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is Fluttershy.”
“Nice to meet you,” Fluttershy squeaked out shyly.
“Likewise,” responded the Doctor, before turning his attention back to Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, I need you to show me exactly where the rift opened yesterday.”
“But it’s gone now, there’s nothing to see,” she informed.
“Oh, even if the three-dimensional hole is no longer visible a four-dimensional rift in space-time capable of bridging two universes and allowing travel without entropy is bound to leave a residual scar.”
Twilight was taken aback by this sudden babbling. She was about to make a remark when Derpy interjected, “Trust me, it’s best to just nod when he starts like this.” Twilight accepted the advice and led the Doctor and Derpy out of the room.
“I’ll just, stay here then,” Fluttershy said to herself as the others left the room. Alone now, Fluttershy walked over to see her patient. There wasn’t much to do with a patient in a coma, just wait for him to wake up. Fluttershy was good with animals, the best in fact; if anypony had a chance at dealing with this creature when it awoke it was her.
For a few minutes nothing happened but then the sleeping Time Lord made a low grunting noise as if he was beginning to regain consciousness. Fluttershy eagerly watched from beside the beds. The Time Lord’s eyes opened and he sat up holding his head with one hand like he had the worst headache of his life.
He looked around the room and said to himself, “Where the hell am I?” He touched his neck in slight shock, “New voice. Must have regenerated.” He started to inspect his face with his hands. “Nose, teeth. Not bad. Hair, ah, why is it so long? I hate that. Oh, I seem easily annoyed, that’s new and why am I naked?”
“Um,” Fluttershy finally spoke, “you’re in Equestria.”
The Time Lord took notice of the voice’s origin and raised an eyebrow. “What? Equestria? What kind of planet is ruled by talking ponies? Never mind, where are my clothes?” he demanded.
“T–they were all torn up s-so we gave them to my friend Rarity to—”
“Well then,” he interrupted standing up and grabbing the bed sheet. He wrapped the sheet around him like a toga. “Take me to Rarity.”
Outside, ponies and reporters began clearing away from the hospital and things were returning to business as usual. Twilight quickly led her two companions to the middle of town where the Time Lord crashed and left a small crater. The Doctor put his glasses back on and inspected the crater and the sky above it.
“Still open,” he muttered.
“What is it? I want to see,” Derpy said, excited. The Doctor gave her the glasses. “Whoa.” She marveled at the sight.
“What are you two talking about? There is nothing there,” Twilight said. Her curiosity was fading and being replaced with annoyance. She just wanted to end this charade and return to her real research.
“Have a look,” Derpy said handing over the glasses.
Twilight rolled her eyes but put the glasses on, if only to humor them. Her mouth fell open and her face expressed pure shock. Up in the sky she saw a glowing hole a few meters in diameter. Branching out from it were many cracks as if somepony bucked the sky and shattered it like a mirror. A myriad of green particles were bleeding out from the cracks and dissipating in the atmosphere.
Twilight dropped the glasses. “What, what…” she tried to say, too stunned to find the words.
“I told you, a four-dimensional hole bridging two universes. Pay attention,” the Doctor said playfully as if this whole thing were one big game to him.
“But what was all that green stuff?” Derpy asked.
“Void stuff,” he answered. “There are a nearly infinite number of parallel worlds all stacked on top of one another and the space between them is the void. Nothing exists there, no life, no matter, nothing.”
“And the void stuff is?” Derpy asked. “A background energy, it attaches itself to anything that travels through the void.”
Twilight couldn’t believe the conversation she was hearing. It was all she could do to keep her mind straight to blurt out, “Who. Are. You?”
“I told you, I’m the Doctor. Now come on we need to find a way to close that rift permanently or these minor atmospheric disturbances will be the least of our problems.”
Twilight decided that she didn’t have much of a choice but to just go along with all of this. She had no idea how to react to anything that was happening but this ‘Doctor’ seemed to be the only one with any answers.
The Doctor took back his glasses and knelt down at the crater trying to think of a plan.
Derpy noticed several ponies running, all heading to the same place. She strayed away from the Doctor and Twilight and stopped on of the ponies. “Hey where’s everypony going?”
“That animal woke up. It tried to sneak out of the hospital but somepony saw it go inside the Carousel Boutique,” said the pony before running off.
“Doctor,” Derpy called, “the other Time Lord woke up.”
The group urgently ran to Rarity’s house.
Fluttershy and the Time Lord managed to reach the Carousel Boutique without much notice. Although Fluttershy didn’t know why he insisted on not being seen. It seemed to her like he was afraid of what might be around every corner. Or perhaps afraid was the wrong word, cautious maybe.
When they entered the building they saw Rarity, a white unicorn with a purple mane, looking quizzically at a roughly made mannequin adorned with the Time Lord’s clothes. “Finally,” the man said walking up to the mannequin. He started undressing the dummy and took the clothes into a separate room to change.
“How rude,” Rarity declared, “you could at least say thank you.” Her words fell on deaf ears.
“Sorry Rarity,” Fluttershy apologized.
“Oh it isn’t your fault dear.”
“I hope repairing his clothing wasn’t too much trouble,” Fluttershy said pawing at the floor.
“Not at all darling. In fact, it’s the strangest thing, it took me some time to stitch together a dummy but when I went to adorn the cloth I could not find anything to re-stitch. It was as if it just fixed itself,” said Rarity.
“It’s made of a self-replicating nano-fiber,” the Time Lord said as he walked, fully clothed, back to the mares. “It repairs itself automatically.” His clothing was simple; brown shoes, black pants, a black shirt and a large blood red overcoat that nearly reached the ground.
“Self-replicating nano-fiber,” Rarity parroted. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Where did you acquire it?” The man ignored her as he adjusted his coat to a more comfortable position. “Excuse me,” Rarity snapped, “it is polite to answer a lady’s question, you… what did you say your name was?”
He placed one hand on the unicorn’s head and knelt down to look her in the eye, smiled and said, “none of your business.”
Rarity harrumphed. “Well I never.”
“I should have had something else with me. What did you do with it?” the Time Lord asked.
Fluttershy answered, “That was all you had with you, just your clothes. Sorry.”
He closed his eyes trying to think of what to do next. He sighed and mumbled, “It must be close by.”
Outside, Twilight and company managed to disperse what few ponies had gathered around before a mob could form. The three ponies walked into the Carousel Boutique. The Doctor went directly over to his fellow Time Lord.
“Who are you? How did you get here? Why are you here?” the Doctor demanded. Rarity was taken aback slightly by this unknown stallion. Twilight took it upon herself to fill Rarity in as best as she could.
“And what are you, their leader?” the Time Lord asked the Doctor.
“Don’t you know? Can’t you sense it?”
“Sense what?”
The Doctor was stunned in confusion, this close any Time Lord should be able to sense another Time Lord.
“I’m a Time Lord,” said the Doctor, “and so are you.”
“What? You’re no Time Lord. You’re just a stupid little pony,” the Time Lord said before he stormed out of the building and started walking away.
“Right then, we’re doing this the hard way,” the Doctor declared. He ran after the Time Lord galloping full speed and jumped. The two Time Lords butted heads and recoiled in pain.
The man turned around and said, “what did you do that f…” He was interrupted by a wave of memories of the Doctor’s life, memories of their home planet Gallifrey, of war and of his life as a pony in this new universe. “You are a Time Lord. You’re the Doctor,” he said angrily.
The other four ponies were gathered around watching. Among them only Derpy had any clue what was going on. The humanoid Time Lord was about to speak, his face showing nothing but absolute hatred. A loud explosion off in the distance superseded his voice before he could speak. Everyone looked towards the source and saw a small dust cloud near the mountains.
Horror washed over Twilight’s face. “That’s where Applejack and Pinkie are!”
{The previous night}
Twilight Sparkle was in her home, the Ponyville Library. A heavy rain poured down outside. Twilight was meeting with three other mares. Applejack, an orange earth pony with a blond mane wearing a Stetson, Lyra, a mint green unicorn with a striped mane and Pinkie Pie.
“Thanks for coming everypony,” Twilight began. “As you all know by now, a mysterious creature just fell out of the sky and now these freak storms are popping up. But as Pinkie somehow managed to see, there was something else that fell out and flew into the mountains. It’s probably another one of these creatures that I took to the hospital. I need you three to go and find it.”
“Uh, not for nothing, Twi,” Applejack said, “but where’s everypony else?”
“Rainbow is trying to deal with the weather, Fluttershy wanted to look after this unknown animal, Rarity is fixing its clothes and Nopony else would volunteer for a search mission,” said Twilight.
“So where exactly are we going?” Lyra asked.
“Pinkie’s the only one who saw exactly where it went so she’ll have to lead you,” Twilight said.
“Come on, come on lets go!” Pinkie exclaimed jumping up and down. “The sooner we find it the sooner we can throw them a welcome to Ponyville party!”
“All right already,” Twilight said levitating three saddlebags. “Here, you’ll need camping equipment since you’re going by hoof.”
She lowered the bags onto the backs of her friends and they started out the door. “Lyra,” Twilight said stopping the green unicorn, “thanks for volunteering, you didn’t have to.”
“It’s no problem,” she responded with a smile, “I wanted to go. Besides, any heavy lifting would be easier with a little unicorn magic around.” With that, she left to join the two earth ponies outside.
“Spike,” Twilight yelled, her voice echoing throughout the library.
A small purple dragon came down the stairs yawning. “Yeah?”
“Grab some books, we’ve got a long night of research ahead of us.”
“Aw,” Spike groaned as he walked over to a bookshelf.
Outside, the three mares were galloping as fast as they could through the rain, trying to get out of town as quickly as possible. The rain swiftly let up as they left Ponyville, the storm being a localized event over the town. Their path led them straight through an open valley making the trip much easier. They continued galloping full speed for a couple kilometers.
“Wait,” Lyra pleaded out of breath. “I…need to rest.”
The three stopped. “All right,” Applejack said catching her own breath. “How far is this thing anyway Pinkie?”
Pinkie gestured towards their destination and said, “It’s just at the base of the mountain over there.”
“All right, we put some good distance behind us. Let’s make camp for the night and get an early start in the morning.”
Morning came and the three ponies made their way to the mountains. The trip was not hard and only took a few hours by walking. Finally they reached a small wooded area at the foot of the mountain.
“So where did you see it land?” Applejack asked Pinkie.
“It should be around here somewhere,” said Pinkie.
The group spread out to search around but didn’t separate too far from each other.
“Maybe it got up and left,” Lyra suggested.
“I doubt that,” Applejack said. “If it’s even still livin’ it’s got to be unconscious.”
“Hey, I found something I found something!” Pinkie yelled. The others came rushing to her side.
“What…is it?” Lyra asked to nopony in particular.
“Looks like some kinda machine,” said Applejack.
“I wonder what it tastes like,” Pinkie said leaning in closer and sticking out her tongue.
Applejack quickly bit Pinkie’s tail and pulled her away before she could touch it. “We don’t even know what this thing is. I wouldn’t go touching it, let alone tasting it.”
“Aw,” Pinkie moaned.
“Come on y’all, let’s get this thing back to town,” Applejack said nodding towards Lyra.
The unicorn gave an understanding nod and closed her eyes focusing her magic. She wrapped the metal heap in a magical green aura and lifted it into the air. Lyra scrunched her face as she tried to keep it afloat. “It’s heavier than I thought. But I think I can manage.”
“Well let’s not waste any time,” Applejack said.
The group started walking away, the metal object hovering behind them. Suddenly, one of the machine’s extremities wrapped around Lyra’s head canceling her magic. She let out a muffled scream and tried to run but found herself growing weak. Applejack quickly bucked it as hard as she could, freeing Lyra but causing no damage to her target. Lyra fell to the ground not moving. Pinkie was frozen in shock. Applejack draped Lyra over her back.
“Come on Pinkie snap out of it, we have to run.”
The mechanized monster fired some sort of blast. It missed the ponies, hit the ground next to them, and caused an explosion. Terrified, Pinkie leapt into the air, her legs kicking as she tried to run. When she touched ground she ran directly into Applejack and Lyra, picked them up somehow and ran impossibly fast towards Ponyville. Their enemy fired twice more but the ponies were already too far away and it missed. The mechanical monstrosity gave chase but was only able to move very slowly.
Back in Ponyville the Doctor and company all stood silent as they saw the explosions in the distance.
“Applejack,” the Doctor said to himself recognizing the name. “What are they doing out there?”
“He wasn’t the only thing that fell through that…dimension bridge. I sent a small search team to find whatever landed in the mountains,” Twilight said.
No longer willing to play games, the Doctor turned to his fellow Time Lord who looked shocked at this turn of events. “What is it, what did you bring here? How did you get here? Tell me everything, now!”
The Time Lord opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a high-pitched scream growing closer. A green, orange and pink blur was heading straight for them. Pinkie stopped abruptly causing the three ponies to tumble into the center of the group.
“Ah-blua-sh-wha-naahhh,” Pinkie mumbled out through rivers of tears.
“Applejack,” the Doctor said, “good to see you again.”
“Doctor?” she responded picking herself up off the ground. “I shoulda known you’d show up, what with all this craziness.”
“The two of you know each other?” Rarity asked.
“It’s a long story,” Applejack responded.
Pinkie’s sobbing began to slow down and she looked up to see the brown stallion in front of her. Her eyes widened. She gasped, raced over, and wrapped her forelegs around him in a hug. “Doctor!” she exclaimed.
“What?” the Doctor said confused, clearly not knowing who this pony was.
“Doctor, it’s Lyra,” Pinkie blurted out gesturing towards the unicorn, “she’s hurt you have to help her.”
“I think she’s just unconscious,” Twilight said.
“I’ll take her to the hospital,” Derpy said as she picked Lyra up and flew off.
“Everything will be okay now right Doctor?” Pinkie asked, much calmer now than she was.
“Ah, sorry, who are you?” he asked.
“Don’t you remember? It’s me, Pinkie Pie. I haven’t seen you since I was a little filly. I grew up since then. You haven’t changed at all though.”
“Yes, right. Course I remember. When you were little, with the running,” the Doctor said, clearly bluffing, although Pinkie was too excited to notice. “What happened out there? What were those explosions?”
“We were attacked,” Applejack said, “by some sorta metal thing.”
“Yeah. It was all dead-like at first, then Lyra picked it up with magic and it was all ‘blrawr’ then AJ kicked it and I was all ‘aaaahhhhhh’ and I ran everypony back here,” Pinkie said trying to act out the events.
“But what was it? What did this thing look like?” asked the Doctor.
“It was brownish,” Applejack answered. “Shaped kinda like a cylinder. It had two stubby little arm-like things in front and one at the top that made me think of an eye.”
The Doctor stood silent as a wave of realization and horror washed over his face as if the final piece was placed in his mental jigsaw puzzle and he could now see the picture for what it was.
“A Dalek,” the Doctor said. The Doctor’s expression turned grim as he faced his fellow Time Lord who was sitting on the edge of a fountain holding his head in his hands. “Now I know where you’re from. You broke your way out of the time war.” The Doctors tone became increasingly angry as he began yelling. “And you brought a Dalek with you. This planet is peaceful. They have nothing to defend themselves with, no weapons! They could all be dead soon and it’s all your fault!”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this should have happened!” the Time Lord argued.
There was a moment of silence when none dared to speak. Derpy came flying back, landing next to the other ponies. She looked at them quizzically as they watched the two Time Lords.
“Then what should have happened?” asked the Doctor, his voice much more calm. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking, Doctor, that war is hell. Can you even imagine what it was like? The war didn’t end just because you sealed us off and ran away, it got worse. The linear progression of time no longer applied. The whole war happened all at once and not at all. Nothing made sense anymore.”
The Doctor stood awkwardly. “It had to be done,” he said.
“Bullshit!” the Time Lord snapped. “I’ve heard of you Doctor, everyone has. Always breaking the laws of time, always interfering with lower species, you just took the opportunity to get rid of the Time Lords interfering with you.”
“No!” screamed the Doctor, “do you even know what the council was planning?”
“I don’t care. None of that matters anymore,” the Time Lord said with a smirk. “A miracle happened and now I’m free.”
“What miracle?” the Doctor asked. “What were you trying to do?”
“Kill the Daleks. We were going to rip a hole into the void and suck them all in and I would be right in the middle, dying with them.”
The Doctor took a moment to let the entire situation sink in. “Then you must have something we can use to stop the Dalek, or close the rift.”
The Time Lord looked at the Doctor for a moment before answering, “No.”
“But they’re defenseless, they have nothing.”
“Not my problem.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘nothing’ Doctor,” said Twilight clearly annoyed from being left out of the conversation. “We do have The Elements of Harmony.”
“The Elements of what?” the Doctor asked.
“But ain’t the elements in Canterlot?” asked Applejack.
“No,” Twilight answered. “The princess sent them this morning thinking we might need them. Fluttershy, I need you to go find Rainbow, everypony else get ready and meet me at the Library.” They all nodded and went off in their own directions.
“No, wait, don’t go running off,” the Doctor tried to say, but it was too late. The Doctor sighed. “Why do they always go off on their own?”
“Don’t worry Doctor, I’m sure The Elements of Harmony can handle it,” Derpy said.
“But what are they? What are The Elements of Harmony?” he asked.
“I don’t know much about them, but I know that they’re these ancient magical artifacts. It takes six ponies to use them and it makes magic a lot stronger.”
“There, problem solved,” the humanoid Time Lord said. “The rift would be closed by now at the other end and their harmony elements can take care of the Dalek.”
“Maybe,” the Doctor said contemplatively. “But it feels like something’s wrong. There’s something I’m missing.” The Doctor started pacing back and forth trying to think. “Nothing can survive in the void for long, it’s a miracle that you or the Dalek came through at all. And the Dalek can’t have been at full power or else it would have attacked immediately, so what made it attack now?”
The Doctor thought back to how Pinkie described her encounter. ‘It was all dead-like at first, then Lyra picked it up with magic and it was all ‘blrawr’ then AJ kicked it…’ His thoughts shifted to what Derpy just said about the elements. ‘…these ancient magical artifacts…it makes magic a lot stronger.’
The Doctor’s eyes went wide. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” He yelled as he ran off in the direction of the Dalek.
Derpy flew after him leaving the humanoid Time Lord behind. “Doctor what is it?”
“The Dalek should have been weak after falling through the void, it wouldn’t even be able to move. That is, until Lyra picked it up.”
“What do you mean?” Derpy asked.
“Her magic. The Dalek must have been able to absorb her magic and use it as a power source. If I’m right, your friends are about the do the worst possible thing.”
The two ponies reached the edge of town and saw six ponies in the distance floating in front of the Dalek.
The Doctor yelled, “No, stop,” but he was too far away to be heard. The six ponies unleashed a rainbow wave of magical energy that hit the Dalek directly. The Doctor and Derpy finally caught up to the scene just in time to see things go from bad to worse. The magic stopped after a moment and the six ponies landed next to the Doctor and Derpy.
The Dalek yelled, “I AM RESTORED! DALEKS ARE SUPREME!”
The Doctor looked horrified and said softly, “We’re all dead.”
The Dalek yelled out once more, “EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” and fired a powerful blast directly at the group.
The Time Lord sat at the fountain, his head in his hands. He breathed heavily but tried to keep himself calm. Loud noises in the distance made him look up. He couldn’t see what was happening but he could certainly hear it.
“No. Not my problem. They can handle it,” he said. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anything. With one deep breath he returned to his usual composed self and decided to sit and wait.
“Ahh!” Twilight yelped before instinctively constructing a large bubble-shield around her and her friends. The Dalek’s blast connected with the magical aura and absorbed into the purple substance. The Dalek paused for a moment as if to contemplate the situation.
“What the hay was that!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, frustration in her tone.
The Doctor stepped forward ignoring the ponies beside him and taking the lull in activity as a chance to speak. “Dalek! Hear me! I am the Doctor and I’m giving you one chance. End this conquest or I swear with every fiber of my being that I will stop you!”
The Dalek looked at the pony before it as if scanning the Doctor with its elongated eyestalk. “NEGATIVE! YOU ARE NOT THE DOCTOR! ALL HAIL THE DALEKS!”
The Dalek charged another attack, this time blasting a constant stream of energy directly towards the center of the shield. “Don’t worry, the shield will hold,” Twilight said, a lack of confidence evident in her voice.
The Doctor stood aghast, panicking at his lack of options. Normally one Dalek would be easy, in the past he managed to destroy entire fleets without breaking a sweat. But not here, here he had no access to technology, no allies to call on and none who knew how to fight. On top of it all he had a rogue Time Lord on the loose and a rift in space that, if left unchecked, could suck the whole planet into the void.
A loud crack was heard as the shield began to break under the stress of the attack. “Scatter,” Twilight yelled to the group. The shield broke and all the ponies leapt away as the discharge connected with the ground and started a fire. The ponies quickly regrouped and Twilight raised another shield, this time reinforcing it with a stream of magic. Undeterred, the Dalek let loose another stream of energy.
The Doctor stood still in shock. Derpy had never seen him this panicked before. She stood before him and tried to snap him out of his stupor. “Doctor. Doctor!” The Doctor finally looked at her. “Snap out of it. We need you, now more than ever.”
The Doctor responded, “Yes. Right. Plan, we need a plan.” He closed his eyes for a moment as if snapping himself back into consciousness before continuing. “Twilight, I need you six to hold it here as long as possible, if that thing gets into town then everyone is dead. Do you understand me?” The six ponies in question nodded in agreement.
“Ditzy,” the Doctor continued turning to the gray pegasus, “I need you to evacuate the town, get as many as you can, as far as you can, away from here.”
Derpy’s face was serious and showed more than a little fear as she gave a quick nod. She thought she understood the Doctor pretty well by now but this was a new side of him. Saying ‘everyone,’ calling her ‘Ditzy,’ it was obvious to her, if the Doctor was letting his wording slip then the fun and games were over. The situation was dire.
“But what will you do Doctor?” Pinkie interjected.
“I’ve got a Time Lord to find,” he declared as he and Derpy turned and ran into town.
“Well this ain’t hard, long as we keep the shield up,” Applejack remarked.
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, “there’s no way it’s getting past us. I mean its not like it could fl…”
“ELEVATE!” the Dalek interrupted stopping its attack and rising into the air.
Twilight stopped reinforcing the shield as all six ponies watched in astonishment as this wingless creature with no visible propulsion mechanism just decided to defy gravity. The Dalek swiftly shot over in front of the shield and placed its right, suction-cup like arm upon it. The shield disappeared, absorbed into the Dalek as it unleashed a fury of laser blasts at the ponies who dispersed in fear.
The Dalek surveyed the area observing cowering ponies in the midst of a burning field. The Dalek, clearly thinking itself victorious, started floating towards Ponyville. Suddenly Rainbow Dash, screaming with rage, tackled her enemy with full force pushing it away from town and straight into the ground. She stood over the Dalek catching her breath and waiting to see what her effort had accomplished.
The Dalek rose from the ground declaring almost mockingly, “I AM UNHARMED!”
“Oh come on,” Rainbow yelled in frustration.
A beam fired at Rainbow and her eyes widened as she realized there was no time to move out of the way. A small purple bubble appeared around Dash just in time to keep her safe. The beam connected with the shield and sent Dash tumbling back towards her friends.
“How the hay are we supposed to beat this thing?” Rainbow demanded.
“I don’t think we can,” Twilight responded, a hint of despair in her voice.
Twilight summoned a personal bubble around herself and each of her friends, this being a much more maneuverable tactic than one big shield. “Don’t worry,” Pinkie said confidently, “the Doctor will save us, he always has a plan.”
“I reckon she’s right,” Applejack agreed, “he’s not the type to leave us to our deaths.”
“Well I’m glad somepony trusts him,” Twilight said, doubt evident in her voice. The six ponies lifted into the sky and surrounded the now airborne Dalek. “Attack!” Twilight yelled.
Boom!
Derpy, hovering over the edge of town, looked back at the fight. Her heart beat with unimaginable intensity. Her breathing was labored. She was terrified. She looked back to the town, she couldn’t let herself be distracted, she had a job to do. She knew her eyesight sometimes failed her when she was too worked up. She needed to focus.
This job wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Ponyville was a large town and it’s not like it had a ‘the Daleks are attacking’ alarm. Derpy closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down and think of a plan. Surely ponies would notice the commotion, she just needed a way to tell them all to evacuate. Then it hit her, pegasi, if she could enlist the other pegasi to help her they could spread the message much faster by flight. She flew up into the clouds where she knew some pegasi were still dealing with the weather and desperately grabbed their attention.
It wasn’t hard to elicit help, the pegasi could see what was happening below. They set up a border of rain clouds to quell the field fire and hopefully stop it spreading into the town. Then they set out to evacuate the town. Ponies all over town were confused and in a bit of a panic as word slowly spread. Some ponies made the job harder by refusing to leave, believing that the Elements of Harmony could not possibly lose.
Boom!
The fight was clearly escalating. Derpy was glad she didn’t have to do all the work herself, she may never have been able to convince anypony to leave on her own. She paused for a moment looking at the battle outside of town wondering how much longer her friends could hold out. She said to herself, “Whatever you're doing Doctor, hurry.”
The Doctor ran back to where he last saw his fellow Time Lord thinking it his only lead as to his current whereabouts. Much to his surprise the Doctor didn’t have to look very far, the Time Lord sat leisurely holding an apple in hand right where the Doctor had left him. The Doctor approached tentatively not sure what he was seeing in the midst of a panicking town and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Eating an apple and watching the fireworks. What does it look like?” The Time Lord responded.
“The world is coming to an end and your eating an apple.”
“Hey, this is my first chance at relaxation in I can’t remember how long. I damn well am going to take it,” the Time Lord said taking a bite of his fruit.
The Doctor stared at the Time Lord in disbelief for a moment before responding. “Look, you have to help me stop all this, these people are innocent, and they could all die if we don’t help.” The Time Lord said nothing, eyeing the Doctor as if he wasn’t sure what he was looking at. “We may not have any weapons but you found a way to open the void once, if we could…”
“No,” the Time Lord interrupted surprisingly calmly, “Whoever opens the void would have to be sucked in with the Dalek and I’m not about to let myself die now.”
“You mentioned that before,” the Doctor said. “Why would you die? Surely if you found a way to open the void you could do so from a safe distance.”
“We didn’t find a way,” the Time Lord said a little annoyed. “We stumbled upon it. Ripping open the fabric of reality is risky business even in the best of times.”
“How? It shouldn’t even be possible.”
“Why do you even care? Aren’t you just going to run from your problems like always?”
The Doctor took a defiant step forward in no mood for debate. “Tell me,” he said.
“Fine,” the Time Lord said throwing his apple core behind him. “It started during a fight. I was piloting a TARDIS against a Dalek fleet. Somehow the Daleks snuck on board and took us by surprise. My crewmates died in front of me, my ship was being destroyed from the inside out.” He paused as the Doctor gave a silent consoling look. “I would have died then, staring those monsters in the face had a miracle not happened. The TARDIS’ soul was exposed and I absorbed it into my head.”
The Doctor looked shocked. “But that would have killed you.”
“Yes, it did,” the Time Lord said continuing his story. “I killed the invading enemy but that power burned my mind. The ship was falling apart, dead. The soul of a TARDIS can’t be contained outside the ship itself but somehow I managed to force the soul back into the wreckage. Next thing I know I woke up on Gallifrey, regenerated, and holding a metal piece of shrapnel that contained the soul of my ship.”
“So you cannibalized the heart of a TARDIS and used it as a weapon,” the Doctor interrupted, sounding disgusted at idea.
“We formed it into one, yes. We wanted the war to end and were willing to do anything to bring that end closer. A TARDIS exists across all of space and time, we knew if we detonated it the right way it would open a hole into the void and suck everything in but it had to be set off by hand.”
“And they made you do it.”
“I volunteered.”
The Doctor was a little surprised to hear that this Time Lord had volunteered for a suicide mission. Perhaps, he thought, this man was a little nobler than he gave him credit for.
“But if you and the Dalek both came through then maybe the weapon survived…”
“It did,” the Time Lord interrupted. “I can sense it, it’s over that way.” He pointed a finger behind him. The Doctor’s face brightened a bit as he realized a plan was finally coming together.
“What are we doing here then, come on come on,” the Doctor said walking off.
“Weren’t you listening?” the Time Lord asked as he got up and followed. “Whoever uses it dies, and I’m not about to…”
“Then I’ll do it,” the Doctor suddenly declared, conviction in his voice. “Besides, two Time Lords, one as clever as me, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. Just you watch.”
The Time Lord was a little stunned at the Doctor’s reaction. Willingly risking his life to protect some primitive species in another universe, this pony was nothing like the coward who ran from trouble he thought he knew.
The Time Lords ran directly into the Everfree Forest. The humanoid Time Lord led the way through the trees seemingly knowing exactly where to go. They didn’t go very far before they reached a small clearing and stopped.
“There it is,” the Time Lord said. Stuck in the ground in front of them was a sword entirely made of a strange brown tinted metal.
“A sword,” the Doctor deadpanned, “you turned it into a sword.”
“Oi, have some respect for classic weaponry. Besides what better way to cut open the fabric of reality.”
“Something’s wrong here,” the Doctor said looking around. “This is one the most dangerous places in Equestria. Where are all the monsters?”
“It’s the sword,” the Time Lord pointed out. “That kind of raw power emanating such a foreboding feeling, no sane creature would go anywhere near it.”
“What are you insinuating?” asked the Doctor playfully as he walked up to grab the sword.
“You know if you use that you risk sucking half the planet into the void.”
“Don’t worry, I have a plan. We just need to lure the Dalek to the right place.” The Doctor gripped the hilt in his mouth stumbling a bit as he drew the sword. “Come on, no time to lose.”
The fight between the Elements of Harmony and the Dalek was not going well. Three of the ponies, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack lay scattered on the ground unmoving. The other three floated in the air above them. Fluttershy sobbing lightly trying to hold back tears. Rainbow Dash looked angrily at her enemy, her teeth clenched tightly. Twilight floated next to them breathing heavily, clearly exhausted from the constant use of magic.
“Fluttershy, pull it together. There’s nothing we can do, they’re already…gone,” Twilight said choking out the last word. The Dalek hovered before them watching as if amused by their pain and anguish.
“We can’t win like this,” Rainbow said, “there’s only one more thing we can try. If I hit it with a sonic rainboom—”
“No,” Twilight interrupted, “I can’t make shields anymore and if you impact at that speed—”
“It’s worth a try,” Dash interjected before flying up as fast as she could.
The Dalek watched almost in amusement as the pegasus took flight. She climbed higher and higher until she was almost out of sight before she turned around and dropped at full speed.
“CALCULATING DECENT,” the Dalek exclaimed.
Dash picked up speed flying faster and faster at the Dalek. She closed her eyes as she approached the sound barrier. The Dalek fired a laser. She opened her eyes just in time to see the beam draw near but was moving too fast to avoid it.
“Rainbow!” Twilight yelled as her friend’s body quickly fell near the Dalek.
Fluttershy was speechless and nearly hyperventilating at this point. Twilight struggled to use her magic to soften Rainbow’s landing even if she knew there was no way to save her. The Dalek saw this as an opening and took a shot hitting the unicorn directly. Twilight’s body fell leaving Fluttershy alone with no way to fight. The yellow pegasus screamed in a sudden fit of rage, crying as she flew as fast as she could at the Dalek. The Dalek took aim. Fluttershy felt a large sting of pain before she started falling and the world faded to blackness.
“I AM VICTORIOUS!” the Dalek reveled in it’s triumph. It flew straight for Ponyville. Upon arrival the Dalek scanned for any form of life. Most of the town had been evacuated by now; only stragglers and those who refused to leave remained. The metal monster descended to the ground and began finding and killing any ponies it could.
“So what’s this plan of yours?” the Time Lord asked the Doctor.
The two Time Lords were running into the town heading for where they thought the Dalek was. The Doctor had fastened the sword to his back for ease of transport.
“Simple,” the Doctor replied. “All we need to do is get the Dalek into town, then we use this. The rift you opened the first time is still there functioning as a one-way path out of the void. If we open another rift as a one-way path into the void the two will naturally attract and cancel each other out closing the void once and for all.”
“You really think that will work?” the Time Lord asked skeptically.
“Of course. My plans always work,” the Doctor replied.
The Time Lords stopped suddenly as the Doctor saw the Dalek slowly appear a few houses away. “Hide!” the Doctor said as the two ducked behind a building.
The Dalek seemed not to notice them. “Looks like those ponies failed,” the humanoid Time Lord said, a small hint of concern in his voice. The Doctor was worried, he feared the worst but had to hope they were still alive. He set the sword on the ground and pulled his trusty sonic screwdriver from his coat.
“Come on come on,” the Doctor mumbled, scanning the weapon.
The Doctor crossed his eyes examining the device in his teeth. His eyebrows furrowed as he grunted in frustration. He was becoming more irate with every second, thinking about all the ponies that the Dalek must have killed. He tossed his screwdriver back in his pocket and slammed one hoof on the blade. “Work,” he commanded although it did not respond. The Time Lord only watched the Doctor’s futile attempts as if lost in thought.
They heard a loud scream from where the Dalek was. A small unicorn filly frozen in fear stood a short distance from the metal monster. “Hold on,” a voice shouted from above. Derpy, as if called by the unicorn’s scream, flew straight down in an attempt to take her out of danger. The Dalek took aim at the little unicorn and the Doctor gasped, horrified as he foresaw the inevitable.
Time seemed to slow down. The Dalek fired a shot at the filly. Derpy swooped down just fast enough to wrap her forelegs around the filly getting between her and the laser but not fast enough to fly away. The beam connected. Derpy was hit. She screamed and fell motionless on the ground.
“Ditzy~y!” the Doctor screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking as his eyes welled up with tears. The Dalek noticed the shriek and turned its attention to the Time Lords. The Doctor picked up the blade with his teeth, the sharp metal cutting the sides of his mouth. He shook the weapon violently shouting in a muffled voice, “WORK DAMN YOU.”
The humanoid Time Lord couldn’t watch any longer. He grabbed the hilt and ripped the sword out of the Doctor’s mouth saying, “I absorbed the soul, it only responds to me.” He walked out from around the building to face the Dalek and with a flick of his wrist activated the sword.
the Dalek took one look at his opponent and yelled, “EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY. TIME LORD DETECTED.” The Time Lord’s weapon gave off an otherworldly glow that seemed to infect his body as if the two were merging together. His eyes turned a glowing white.
The Dalek fired a laser directly at this creature standing before it, but to no avail. As if following a curved path through space the laser twisted and absorbed harmlessly into the sword. “Goodbye Doctor. Once activated it’s only a matter of time,” he said, not looking back at the Doctor.
The Dalek quickly lifted into the air flying above the town attempting to flee. The Time Lord would have none of that. With an impossible series of jumps across the building he made his way in a second, leaping directly in front of the airborne Dalek.
With one swing of the sword he cut through his enemy. Although with the way the sword seemed to warp space it looked more like he cut reality itself. The power resulted in an explosion that quickly turned into an implosion opening the void. Just as the Doctor predicted the two rifts attracted each other as wind violently ripped throughout the town quelling any fires in an instant and knocking over weaker structures. The two fissures became one and crumbled out of existence.
A heavy rain started falling. The Doctor walked silently over to his companion. The only thing he could think about was how he promised himself he would protect her and how he failed. All the events of the day sped through his mind as he tried to figure out where he went wrong. He fell to his haunches and took Derpy in his forelegs hugging her and letting silent tears fall down his face and mix with the rain. He looked around seeing other ponies scattered around unmoving.
He heard a soft groan. “Doctor.” He held Derpy’s head out in front of him, staring, stunned in silence as she looked back at him. “Wha-what happened?”
“You-you're alive!” the Doctor exclaimed as he started laughing jovially. Derpy failed to see what was so funny. The Doctor looked around seeing the other ponies starting to rise to their hooves. The rain started to let up as the clouds began to dissipate.
“Doctor,” a familiar voice called. The six ponies bearing the Elements of Harmony came running up to Derpy and the Doctor.
“Twilight,” the Doctor said, “you’re okay, you’re all okay.”
“We came running when we saw that explosion,” Rainbow Dash said.
“What happened, where’s the Dalek?” Twilight asked frantically.
“And what happened to the Time Lord?” Derpy added.
“Gone,” the Doctor answered. “Both gone. It’s all over now.” The ponies all breathed a sigh of relief.
“One more question,” Applejack said. “Not that I’m complainin’ or nothin’, but why are we alive? I thought for sure it got us.”
The Doctor thought to himself for a moment before asking, “Those Elements of Harmony, why do you call them that?”
Twilight was a bit bewildered at the question. “Well, because that’s what they are. Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and Magic.”
A large grin formed on the Doctor’s face as he began to chuckle.
“What? Why are you laughing?” Twilight asked.
“Don’t you see?” he responded. “The Dalek used the elements as a power source. It turned personified harmony into a weapon, the one weapon that can’t kill.” He laughed again. “That’s my kind of weapon.”
Later, after the town residents came back and cleaned up the damages, Derpy finally got a chance to visit with her friends. She told them about how she was traveling and about some of the things she saw. She left out some details about traveling through space and time. She thought that might just confuse the issue. Before long it was time to leave and the Elements of Harmony came to see the Doctor and Derpy off.
“So where will you two be going now?” Twilight asked Derpy as she and her friends walked Derpy over to the Doctor’s blue box.
“I think we’ll know when we get there,” she responded stopping in front of the TARDIS. Pinkie’s eyes sparkled at her old memory and Applejack smirked as if she knew what was coming.
“What on earth is that thing?” Rarity asked gesturing at the blue object.
“Transport,” the Doctor answered as he emerged from within the TARDIS.
“You mean you two travel in that?” Twilight asked not quite believing them.
“Yep,” Derpy answered with a smile.
“We best be off,” the Doctor said. “Places to go, things to see.”
“Bye everypony,” Derpy said as she and the Doctor started into the TARDIS. “I promise I’ll visit again soon and have even more stories to tell.” Derpy was bouncing at the idea.
The six ponies waved goodbye as they watched the two travelers enter the box.
“So, uh, what now?” Dash asked.
“Hang on a second. Y’all will like this part,” said Applejack, a knowing smile on her face.
The light on top of the box started pulsing on and off accompanied by the sound of mechanical grinding. Slowly the blue box faded out of existence leaving behind four stunned ponies, one who looked amused at her friends, and one bouncing around them excitedly.
Twilight made a mental note to herself; new research project, subject: the Doctor.
Some distance away a figure in the shadows smiled before turning and walking away from the scene.
