Off in the distance beyond Ponyville thundered the massive monstrous being known as Tirek, calling out to Twilight Sparkle in the great plains on the outskirts of town. “PRINCESS TWILIGHT! SHOW YOURSELF! WHERE ARE YOU?”
Several ponies in Ponyville had hidden from the tyrant's unstoppable rampage for power. Doctor Whooves lifted up the trap door on the floor of his cottage and motioned for the other ponies to follow him out. Cheerilee, Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings ran to the door.
“Doctor, do you see him?” Cheerilee asked.
“No, darling. He’s somewhere on the outskirts of town.”
Lyra held on to Bon Bon as they looked out the door. Bon Bon spoke. “It’s okay, sweetheart. He isn’t here. But he will be soon if we don’t hurry.”
Lyra looked at the Doctor. “Do you know how we can get away from here? Tirek can sense our magic if we start moving around out there!”
The Doctor looked around. “We don’t have much time. Follow me!”
They rushed through town as Tirek roared in the distance. It was broad daylight and if he happened to focus his attention on Ponyville, he would see the four ponies making their way to Golden Oak Library.
“TWIILGHT!” The Doctor shouted as he slammed open the front door. “SPIKE!” He yelled. No response.
“Where is she?” Cheerilee asked. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Who?” a voice sounded from upstairs. An owl flew from the 2nd floor and landed on a bookcase.
“Owlowiscious!” Doctor shouted. “Where’s Twilight?”
“Who?” It hooted.
“Oh not this again,” Cheerilee said. “Doctor!”
“Who?” It hooted again.
Cheerilee continued. “We need to find a way out of the town!”
Lyra checked through Twilight’s books. “Tirek can chase us anywhere on the planet! We have to find some way to conceal ourselves. I know Twilight. She must have a book here somewhere with some information that can help us!”
When Lyra wasn’t looking, Bon Bon pulled out a watch, clicked some dials on it and put it away. “I doubt there’s anyone magically –skilled enough here who can use such a spell. Doctor, any ideas?”
“I’ve got at least five. But four involve Pinkie Pie and a power generator, so the fifth will have to do!”
The Doctor ran over to a horse head statue in the middle of the room and spun it around, then pressed both eyes. The head descended into a secret hole in the base as a platform began to lift up from the floor. All three of the remaining ponies stepped back and gazed in awe at the technological console rising from the floor.
“What is that?” Lyra asked.
“Our way out,” the Doctor said. He smiled as he tapped away at the mass of buttons, levers, switches and knobs. “Calibrate for reentry, set power for four, and turn this doo-hickey cause it makes a sound I really like and there you go! She’s starting up!”
The ground began to rumble as the tree home started to shake. The leaves on the outside however, were perfectly still, but none of the four ponies could see them. Or Twilight confronting Tirek in the great plains outside.
“What is this?” Cheerilee asked.
“It’s the Tree And Relative Dimension in Space. Or the T.A.R.D.I.S., as it likes to call itself," the Doctor said proudly.
Cheerilee looked at the various dials and circuit boards phasing into existence at various points throughout the room. “it’s a…it’s a…”
Bon Bon jumped for joy. “A SPACESHIP!”
“It always wondered why it looked bigger on the inside,” Lyra said.
The Doctor turned his attention to a monitor which appeared from the console in front of him. It showed the scene of Twilight trying to outrun Twilight and run straight into his legs. She teleported away and Tirek turned as a blaze of fire ignited between his monstrous horns.
A loud buzzing took place all around the room as an odd whooshing sound began to echo all around them.
“I know that sound,” the Doctor said. “We’re time-jumping!”
“WHAT?” Cheerilee yelled. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything! She’s doing it on her own!”
“SHE?”
“The T.A.R.D.I.S.!” The Doctor yelled. All four ponies stared at the screen as the fireball within Tirek’s horns appeared to fire in slow motion.
Lyra asked the question on everypony’s mind. “Where’s that shot heading?”
Bon Bon answered. “Here.”
“BRACE YOURSELVES!” The Doctor yelled. The fireball spun towards the entrance of the house. In a split second, there was a flash of light. All four ponies saw a familiar lavender princess standing between them holding Owlowiscious in her arms.
“Doctor?” she asked.
“TWILIGHT!” He yelled. They all saw the fireball light up the console screen as the light outside the front door erupted.
The rain fell on Golden Oak Library as blasts of thunder rocked the town. Five ponies lie facedown on the floor of the library. Twilight Sparkle moaned as she picked up her head. “Ughhhh,” she groaned. She looked around frantically. “Where’s Tirek!? Is the still outside? My friends!” She stood up, saw all the ponies lying down and gritted her teeth. “I can’t let Tirek run amok! I gotta find him! I’ll be back later guys!” She burst out the front door and into the rainstorm outside.
From upstairs, there was a shuffling of noise. A familiar lavender pony walked down the steps, gasped, and galloped over to the Doctor. She tapped him on the forehead. “Doctor! DOCTOR!”
Doctor Whooves opened his eyes and stared at Twilight. She was covering herself in a blanket. He gasped in astonishment. “You’re all right! We’re all right!” He hugged the purple mare.
“What happened?” Twilight asked.
“Must’ve been a protective mechanism on part of the T.A.R.D.I.S.. We’re gonna be okay!”
“The wha-“ Twilight started to see until she turned to see Bon Bon stand up.
“Oh my head,” Bon Bon said. “Hey Twilight. Doctor, how long were we out?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Twilight?”
“I just found you guys like this,” she said. “Couldn’t have been more than a few minutes though. I was just upstairs with Rarity and Applejack. We didn’t see you guys down here when we were here.”
“Applejack? Rarity? But aren’t they outside with Tir…” Doctor Whooves looked at Twilight shivering a little as she held the blanket around her. He held a hoof out to Bon Bon. He stood up and pulled the blanket away from Twilight’s shoulders.
Confused, Twilight blushed. “Um…what are you doing, Doctor?”
“No wings,” he said.
Twilight laughed. “Of course not! I’m a unicorn, not an alicorn. Only Princesses are alicorns.”
Bon Bon’s eyes widened as she stared at the Doctor. He quickly glanced at her knowingly and then cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Twilight,” he looked out the window at the rainstorm. “We got caught out in the rain. Decided to come in here for safety. Sorry we woke you. Hey…what were you, Applejack and Rarity up to?”
“Oh it was my first ever slumber party!” Twilight said enthusiastically, then lowered her voice a bit. “You should’ve seen them! I don’t know if those two have EVER been friends.”
“I think they’ll manage,” the Doctor said, then smiled. “Twilight, we don’t want to disturb your slumber party, so why don’t you go up there and we’ll show ourselves out, okay? Sorry for the trouble.”
“Well I’m awake now,” she said. “AJ and Rarity should be fine for a few hours. I can’t go to sleep once I wake up.”
The Doctor gritted his teeth. “Well,” he said, “would you mind helping me wake up my friends. It’s been a long night for us.”
Twilight, Bon Bon and the Doctor gently woke up Cheerilee and Lyra. Both Bon Bon and the Doctor made silent signals to the two ponies not to say anything to unicorn Twilight. Luckily they knew something was wrong and decided not to mention it.
Twilight looked out the window. “It’s still pretty bad out there. Why don’t you guys stay here for the night? We’ll have an EVEN BIGGER slumber party!”
The Doctor thought about his options, looked over at his three companions who were all visibly nervous and waited for his input. He turned back to Twilight with a smile. “I’ll tell you what: All four of us could really use the basement of the T.A.R…library right now. We don’t want to disturb your guests and we’d like a little privacy.”
Twilight nodded. “Of course! I’ll see about making us some popcorn…wait, privacy?”
“For ya know…a surprise party!” The Doctor said quickly.
“Oh I…I don’t like those that much. Had a bad experience with one a few weeks ago. Whole Nightmare Moon thing. But if you need my help, let me know!” She trotted back out the room.
The four ponies went into the basement and closed the door. The Doctor noted how much of the science equipment in the basement looked like re-purposed T.A.R.D.I.S. technology.
“Here’s what’s happening,” the Doctor said. “We’ve gone back in time about a year. Twilight is still a unicorn here and this is only a few weeks after she first moved to Ponyville. We have to be careful what we do or say, because every little thing will change the future.”
Bon Bon whispered. “But we already changed it! Twilight never mentioned anything about us four being at her slumber party!”
“I know,” the Doctor said. “Hopefully the change is negligible. But the thing is…I don’t know why the T.A.R.D.I.S. brought us back here. This moment seems rather ordinary and not at all related to Tirek. “
Cheerilee looked around the room at the science equipment. “Maybe there’s something here we can use to defeat Tirek? Something hidden that we cant see?”
The four glanced at the room as the Doctor shook his head. “That’s unlikely. All the power in Equestria, minus Twilight Sparkle, is inside Tirek right now in the future. I don’t know how one T.A.R.D.I.S. can fight that. “
Lyra raised her hoof. The Doctor nodded at her. “What if we went to go meet the other you here? Two Doctors are better than one, right?”
“That would be extraordinarily bad. You should never seek to meet yourself from the past or the future. It will cause ripples in time which could have catastrophic consequences.”
Bon Bon stepped forward. “But Twilight already HAS met herself from the future. She met herself one week ahead in the timeline once. She told us all about it.”
“I remember that,” the Doctor said. “And because of that, she locked her life into a causality loop, forcing her timeline to loop back on its itself so she’d be able to make the trip in the first place. We don’t want that. We’re here to make a difference, but it has to be a very specific difference. Problem is, the T.A.R.D.I.S. can’t tell us what she wants us to do. We have to deduce what our purpose is here in this time.”
Cheerilee nodded. “Also, I’m pretty certain that’s not the Twilight we came back with, since you’re worried about us running into our double, and I doubt time travel would remove Twilight's wings AND her memories. I mean, we still have our memories. We have to find Twilight! Er…Princess Twilight!”
Outside in the rain, Princess Twilight stood on the top of town hall with her wings folded over her head to shield herself from the rain. She stared out at the ponies she could see in their bedroom windows and felt a sigh of relief. They’re okay, she thought. Tirek…isn’t here. But I’ve had enough experience with magic to know that was a time travel spell. We’re in the past…
She stared off into the distance as the thunder and lightning grew in intensity. That means I could face Tirek right now, in Tartarus, and he wouldn’t be able to stop me…
Author's Note
Extra Story Details
Writing Time: Approx 1 hr 35 min
Draft Number: 1 Draft
Story Settings: Season 4 and Season 1 locations
Story Themes: Time Travel, Getting It Right
Note: This is an "B" story. It was written second in a marathon of story-writing today.
Story Background:
Ever since I first saw him, I loved the idea of Doctor Whooves in the MLP universe. Now, I get to tell my own time travel story with him and a set of companions you don't normally see fans write about...
