Doctor Whooves: THE TIMELORD CHRONICLES - SERIES 1

DOCTOR WHOOVES: THE TIMELORD CHRONICLES

Chapter 1 Part 2:

An Unearthly Threat

“In the fight for survival, there are no rules.”

- The Traveler

***

It was a long haul from the crash site back to my house.

The stallion on my back was still asleep, and he only seemed to get heavier the longer we walked. Soon his hooves were scraping the ground, and my legs were bent in anguish!

“Why couldn’t he be a pegasus,” I said to myself. “Pegasi have lighter bones; so they weigh less. But he’s an earth pony; made for heavy work”.

I know what you’re thinking; you’re an earth pony too. And while that may be true, it didn’t mean I was strong enough to carry a heavy stallion! Heck, I was just strong enough to carry a box of flower pots!

But thankfully for my back, I saw the sight of my house coming up. The lights were on downstairs, so that probably meant that Daisy was home already.

“Great,” I thought. “She’ll probably be angry at me for being home so late, not to mention without any food. AND the unconscious stallion with the glowing cutie mark on my back!”

I reached the front door, and was about to reach for my bags to get my key. But then I remembered; I’d left my bags back at the shop! So, that would be another thing Daisy would yell at me about.

Sighing, I instead reached up and knocked three times on the door. Not too long after, I heard the sound of hooves approaching the door. There was a click and it flew open, with Daisy standing right behind it.

“There you are,” she screamed….but it wasn’t in an angry way.

In fact, she didn’t even look angry. Her face was scrunched up in worry, and a single tear ran down her face. She wiped it away before continuing.

“I was worried something happened to you; you’re never home this late!”

I tried to put on my best “oh, sorry” face, but I had a feeling it came out more like a confused face. “Oh, well….something happened that kept me”.

Now it was Daisy’s turn to look confused. She looked like she was about to ask some questions, but she was interrupted by the stallion on my back shuffling slightly. When he did, her eyes fell on him.

“Who’s that,” she asked quickly. “And what are you doing with him?”

“It’s a long story,” I said as I walked past her and into the house. “The main thing is he’s hurt; we’ve got to find him a place to rest”.

Daisy closed the door before walking in front of me. Now, she looked a little angry….of at least slightly annoyed. I’d seen her give me this face a few times….mostly when I overslept.

“If he’s hurt, then we should take him to the hospital. I doubt there’s anything we can do for him here”.

“We don’t know that,” I replied. “He might just need some rest, or at the very least some aspirin”.

Daisy still didn’t look convinced; it was usually hard to get her to change her mind. So, sighing, I decided to try again.

“Just let him stay for the night. If he’s not feeling better by tomorrow, then we’ll take him to the hospital. Okay?”

Daisy was silent; which I hoped meant she was thinking this over. She wasn’t a pony who liked letting strangers into the house, but I also knew she couldn’t turn her back on an injured pony. Evently, she breathed heavily and turned towards me.

“Fine. He can stay in the guest room for the night. We’ll check on him in the morning and make a decision then.”

“Thanks Daisy,” I said with a smile. “Now, could you help me carry him? He’s kinda heavy….and I think my back’s about to go out”.

Daisy moved to my side and shifted the….Doctor….over so we were both supporting him. As soon as he was on her back, her legs buckled slightly as well, and she let out a small grunt.

“You weren’t kidding; he looks a lot lighter than he actually is”.

I nodded in agreement as the two of us made our way to the guest room on the bottom floor.

***

The ponies of Ponyville didn’t seem to realize they had a visitor in town. Nopony left their houses when the blue box fell from the sky, and none seemed to see Rose carrying an unconscious stallion through the streets either.

In fact, the only pony that seemed to still be outside at this time was Lock Pick.

He was a light grey unicorn stallion that worked at the local lock shop in town. He’d just closed up for the night and was making his way across town to his cozy home. The streets were empty, and it seemed no sound was being made either. Only the clop clop sound of his hooves pieced the dark street and alleyways around him.

“Shoot,” he said under his breath. “Maybe I should have finished that last order tomorrow; it’s almost midnight. Fruity will be wondering where I am!”

He made his way out of the busy section of town and towards the outer section; where houses and smaller shops were situated. He could see some houses had lights on, but mostly they were dark; probably filled with sleeping ponies.

“Wonder what’ll be for dinner tonight,” he asked himself. “Maybe a nice fruit salad….or maybe pasta. Fruity does make good fruit salad and pasta”.

“Excuse me,” said a voice.

Lock Pick turned around, and found a blue earth pony mare standing behind him. She looked quite sad; she even had a few tears in her eyes. Her legs shaked slightly, and she sniffed slightly every few seconds.

“Oh, hello,” said Lock Pick. “Can I help you?”

“If you can,” said the mare. “My friend and I were walking through one of the alleyways when something hit him. His leg got hurt and now he can’t even stand! Could you please help me take him home; it’s not too far from here?”

Lock Pick was at a slight impasse. He knew he had to get home to his wife, but he also knew he couldn’t leave a mare who’s friend was in trouble. And besides, he’d been taught to always help a pony in need.

“Sure thing,” he said smiling. “Where is he?”

“Over here,” said the mare, walking towards a nearby alleyway. It was almost as dark as the street was, meaning it was hard to see anything.

Lock Pick followed the mare into the alleyway, keeping as close as he could so as not to hit anything. However, he couldn’t make out any shapes in the dark….or even where the end of the alley was. There was no light at the other end….which seemed strange.

“Why exactly were you and your friend down here,” he asked. But he didn’t get a response. The mare kept total quiet….in fact, Lock Pick couldn’t even hear her moving in front of him anymore.

“Hey, where’d you go,” he called. “And what’s going on here?”

“FOOLISH PONY!”

“Who said that,” asked Lock Pick. He looked around, but it was almost impossible to see anything in the alley.

Something flew past him, making him turn around towards it. But it then flew behind him again, making him turn around again. “This isn’t funny,” he called.

“It’s not supposed to be” said the voice. It sounded menacing; like what evil villains sound like in old horror movies. “It’s supposed to be appetizing!”

“What….what do you….”

Lock Pick couldn’t finish his sentence. Whatever was moving around him suddenly dived towards him.

There was a loud scream….and then all was silent.

***

There was no dreaming tonight.

After everything that had happened, I guess my mind wasn’t in the mood for adventures about dreams. And honestly,  I was in agreement. I was just ready to sleep in today and worry about the space stallion later.

Unfortunately, my roommate had other ideas.

“ROSE!”

My eyes shot open as the door to my room did. And a second later, Daisy ran into the room and right over to my bed. She then grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me violently.

“Rose, wake up!”

“I am,” I screamed. My voice was a little off thanks to the shaking, but I guess Daisy heard me. She stopped shaking me, giving me a second to let the dizziness leave my head.

“What was all that about,” I asked.

Daisy pointed at the door and said, “Downstairs….now!”

I had no idea what this mare was talking about….which made her like the space stallion in a way. But still, she seemed shocked. And if that was true, then I knew I should check it out.

So I threw my covers off, jumped out of bed, and ran out of my room. Daisy followed close behind as I went down the stairs and into the living room.

And it was a good thing I wasn’t going very fast, otherwise I would have smashed into a large blue box!

“What the….how’d that get here?”

The blue box from the the crater was now sitting in the living room. But given it’s size, I didn’t see how it could have been moved here! It was bigger than the doorframe!

Daisy walked up beside me, looking at the box with confusion. “You’ve seen this thing before?”

“Yeah. The stallion I brought home came out of it….actually, it was the thing I saw fall from the sky last night!”

“This thing,” asked Daisy as she started walking around it. “It looks like it’s made of wood! How could it not even have a scratch on it if it fell from the sky?”

“I’m not sure,” I said with uncertainty. That stallion had been inside that thing when I found it, so it seemed logical that he would know what this thing is and why it was now in our living room.

“Come on, let’s talk to the….Doctor….I’m sure he’ll know what this is all about”. I began to walk out of the room, but then I noticed something.

Everything in the room seemed a lot….cleaner. There were no stains on the carpet, all the glass sparkled, and even the wooden floors seemed to look like they did ten years ago!

“Did you clean last night when I went to bed?”

Daisy shook her head. “I was going to mention that too; I think that stallion cleaned the whole house after we went to bed. It hasn’t looked this good in years!”

But how could he clean the whole house; he was passed out when we left him! If he was able to clean the entire house when we weren’t around, he should be just fine!

“Come on,” I said as I passed the kitchen and towards the door to the guest room. The door was ajar; just like we’d left it last night.

I pushed it open and walked into the room. The ‘Doctor’ was lying on the guest bed, still in the same sleeping position we’d left him in. The covers weren’t ruffled, and he wasn’t snoring….it was probably the most calm I’d ever seen somepony sleeping.

Daisy walked in as I moved to the side of the bed. I placed a hoof on the Doctor’s head, feeling if he had a temperature. But everything felt normal, so then I placed a hoof on his neck to check his pulse. After a few seconds, I determined his pulse to be average.

Overall, he seemed to be in great shape.

“I can’t find anything  wrong with him,” I said to Daisy.

“Are you sure,” she asked. “He could have something that we don’t know about. I still think we should take him to a doctor”.

“You Called?”

Daisy and I jumped back in surprise. The stallion was sitting up in bed, looking at us with some confusion. “You both look frightened; is there something wrong?”

“No, no,” I said quickly. Now that he was finally up, I could get some answers. “We just didn’t think you’d wake up so easily”.

The stallion pushed off the covers and jumped out of bed, replacing his confusion with a joyful smile. “Well you did call me, so what seems to be the trouble?”

“When did we call your name,” asked Daisy.

“You said Doctor, so what can I do for you?”

“Wait,” said Daisy. “Your name is Doctor?”

The stallion rolled his eyes. “Technically I’m called ‘The Doctor’, but you can just call me Doctor. It does sound better than saying something like ‘hey the Doctor, watch out’ or something similar”.

It seemed this stall….I mean, the Doctor’s personality hadn’t changed much since last night. He kept talking nonsense, and seemed not to care about what was going on around him. Not to mention he was beginning to sound a little boastful.

“Okay than, Doctor. Is it okay if you answer some questions for us?”

“Of course,” he said with a smile. “I’m always happy to answer any question ponies have….unless it’s the same one over and over. I do hate repeating myself”.

“Uh, well you see, I wanted to know why the box from last night is now in our living room?”

The Doctor’s eyes widened, and he quickly ran out of the room. “Hey,” said Daisy. “Where does he think he’s going?”

The two of us ran out of the room and back to the living room. When we got there, we found the Doctor happily hugging the box like it was his best friend. He have it a small stroke with his hooves, and his grin only seemed to grow more.

“Oh you big beautiful girl. I knew you’d find me….But I didn’t expect it to be this soon”.

Daisy and Me looked at each other, then back at the Doctor. “Uh, Doctor, why are you talking to that box?”

“Because she’s so smart! Finding out where I am and moving here even after all that’s happened!” He gave the box another hug….and a slight stroke. “She truly is amazing isn’t she”.

Maybe this stallion did need to go to a hospital. He was talking to a box like it was alive, and stroking it like it was a long lost lover. Even I knew that wasn’t normal….but then again so was he.

“Alright then, let’s see how you look,” he said. He walked to the side of the box that had the key hole, placed a hoof on it, and gave it a push. But the wood didn’t budge; not even an inch.

The Doctor stepped back and frowned sadly. “Oh, still rebuilding hu?” He touched the box again, but didn’t stroke it. He just kept his hoof on it. “Don’t worry; you take all the time you need. I’ll be waiting while you do”.

The Doctor turned back towards us and put on his happy face again. “So, who want’s breakfast?”

He trotted past us and down the hallway before entering the kitchen. Daisy and Me were silent for a second before either of us spoke.

“What is with that stallion,” asked Daisy.

I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to just sit here and wait for him to talk to us. I walked swiftly out of the living room and towards the kitchen. Daisy sighed sadly before following behind me.

When the two of us walked into the kitchen, we found the Doctor standing at the stove. A large bowl of what looked like pancake batter was sitting next to it, and the Doctor was loading a freshly made pancake onto an already large stack of them.

“Wow,” I said as I walked in. “You do work fast”.

“Oh, why thank you,” he said with a smile. “I figured you two mares must be hungry, so I thought pancakes would be an appropriate choice for breakfast”.

He cut the stake into three piles, placed them on his back, and carried them over to the table. He then gave his back a slight flick, and the three plates flew off him and onto the table, all without the stacks falling off.

“Breakfast is served,” said the Doctor. He took a seat and began digging into his own stack of pancakes.

Daisy and Me looked at each other; not exactly sure what we should say. Thank You? How? Or maybe even the most important question; who are you?

But the rumble in both our stomachs won out, and we each took a seat at the table. Daisy went straight into her pancakes….but I held off on mine for a second. Instead, I turned to the Doctor; I was going to get some answers.

“So, Doctor, what exactly is that box in our living room? I saw you walk out of it last night, but before then I saw it fall from the sky”.

The Doctor swallowed a mouthful of pancakes before replying. “Oh, that’s the Tardis. It’s how I travel around”.

“You travel in a big blue box,” asked Daisy. “How can it even move; I don’t see any wheels or balloon mechanisms”.

“There are other ways to get something to move,” said the Doctor. “The Tardis just happens to do it in a way that many would consider….different.”

“But why did it fall out of the sky,” I asked. “And how is it there wasn’t a scratch on it after it reached the ground. Not to mention you; I didn’t seen even a cut or a bruise on you!”

The Doctor’s smile faded and was replaced by a sad frown. “Oh, well that was thanks to my Regeneration. After that occured, all the cuts and scratches on my disappeared….along with a few other things”.

I didn’t know what the Doctor was talking about, but I knew it must had been hard for him. Something he cared about clearly wasn’t around anymore, and he was trying to hide the sadness. I had a feeling that, on the inside, he was facing a lot of problems.

Unfortunately, things like that weren’t good for me, at least, so I decided to distract myself with the pancakes in front of me. But before I could dig into them, there was a knock at the door.

I sighed before jumping off my seat and heading out of the kitchen. “I’ll get it”.

“Thanks Rose,” said Daisy, who’s mouth was filled with pancakes.

I made my way to the front door, which was still being knocked on by whoever was outside. When I got there, I pulled it open to find the frightened face of Lily looking back at me.

“Lily,” I asked, “what are you doing here?”

The mare looked like she had just seen a ghost. Her mane was sticking out in places, and her eyes were sunken like she hadn’t gotten any sleep.

“Rose, you’re not going to believe this. They found Lock Pick in an alleyway this morning….and he was dead!”

What! Lock Pick was one of the nicest ponies in all of Ponyville. I didn’t know one pony that didn’t at least respect him. How could it be that a sweet pony like him could end up dead in an alleyway.

“Who’s at the door Rose,” called Daisy.

“It’s Lily,” I called back. Then I looked back at Lily, “do you want to come in? We’re just finishing up breakfast”.

“Thanks for the offer,” said Lily. “But I’m heading back to the crime scene; ponies want to know what happened to Lock Pick. I just stopped by to tell you what happened”.

I nodded. “Thank You; I’ll be sure to inform the others about what happened”.

Lily let out a small smile before turning around and walking away. I shut the door and returned to the kitchen, where the Doctor and Daisy had just finished their pancakes.

“So, what did Lily want,” asked Daisy.

I knew this was going to be hard to hear, but it was best to say it now rather than later. “Lock Pick is dead”.

You could almost feel the happiness drain from the room, especially from Daisy’s face. Her eyes grew in size as her mouth opened wide in shock. She stayed like that for a second before she said anything.

“Lock Pick is dead? But how; he wasn’t that old and everypony I knew liked him?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied. “All I know is that he was found in an alleyway this morning; so be must have died last night”.

I turned to the Doctor; he’d mostly been quiet since I’d told them what had happened. For some reason; I expected him to have a similar reaction to Daisy. He might not be from around here, but a death is still a death.

Instead, I found a look of contemplation plastered on the Doctor’s face.

“It couldn’t be….could it? Last time I saw them they were hurtling towards a collapsing star”.

“Uh, Doctor, are you okay?”

The Doctor’s contemplation look disappeared as he turned to look at me. Now, he was once again wearing a big smile. “Oh, yes I am.”

He jumped out of his seat and trotted over to the entrance to the kitchen. “I’m just going to pop on over to the crime scene; I shouldn’t be long”.

What? Was this stallion crazy, or just mentally insane! “Why would you want to go to the crime scene?”

“Oh, I have my reasons,” he said, still smiling. Now, he was actually starting to look and sound like somepony who would do something like killing another pony.

….Oh Celestia, what if he WAS the one that did it? And now, he was returning to the scene of the crime to make sure nothing of him was left behind!

I couldn’t let that happen; I had to make sure he didn’t do anything that would make himself look innocent! I didn’t know what would be the best option, but I came up with one fairly quickly.

“I’m coming with you!”

Daisy and the Doctor looked at me like I’d said something crazy….which was probably an accurate statement.

However, the Doctor soon gave me a warming smile. “If you so wish, be my guest. No, wait, I should say be my companion; I don’t seem to have one at the moment”.

I didn’t even bother trying to understand what the Doctor was talking about; it was a lot easier than trying to understand. But if he was okay with me going along with him, then so be it. It’ll just be that much easier to keep an eye on him.

“So Roseluck,” he said with a smile. “As they say in Prance: ALLONS-Y!”

The Doctor turned on his hooves and headed for the front door. I gave Daisy an uncertain smile before turning and following behind him.

But before he reached the front door, he turned back to look at me. “By the way; what happened to the leather jacket I was wearing when you found me?”

That old thing? I didn’t know why he was concerned about that old thing. In all honesty, it didn’t look as good on him as he probably thought it did.

“I put it over here,” I said as I stepped towards the closet near the stairs. “I thought you’d be more comfortable sleeping without it”.

I opened the closet, then reached up and took the jacket off a hook I’d put it on earlier. I moved away from the closet and handed it to the doctor, who gratefully accepted it.

I expected him to put it on, but instead he started rummaging around the pockets. After a few seconds, his hoof retracted and he pulled out two objects from the jacket. One looked like a leather wallet, but the other one was a little harder to pin down. It looked like a cylinder with a blue marble at one end and a black cap at the other.

“Ah, good. Can’t go anywhere without these two,” he said as he placed them in his own pocket. “Right then, on we go”.

I didn’t know what those two objects were, but I decided to wait until later before asking. So the two of us once again headed for the door...and the crime scene that laded beyond.

***

The crime scene wasn’t too far away from the house. It only took us a few minutes to find it….mostly thanks to the mob of ponies that flocked around it. Some were trying their best to push their way through, while others were casually observing.

A few local police ponies stood at the front of the alleyway, making sure nopony got past. The Doctor and Me stopped towards the back, and arched our necks to try and get a better view.

“Well, I don’t think we’re going to get much farther than this,” I said.

The Doctor gave an uncertain face, and began to walk around the group of ponies. “Come along Rose; I have a way to get us past those guards”.

“What,” I said as I walked behind him. “How? Nopony’s going to let a random stallion just walk into the first major crime scene Ponyville’s seen in over 50 years!”

“Ah, but you forget my faire mare,” he said with a confident grin. “I am not a random stallion”.

He stopped at the part of the crowd nearest to the police officers; just within ear shot. “Excuse me,” he said to the officer.

The pony looked at the Doctor; not amused by the stallion calling him out. “What” he asked.

The Doctor pulled out the leather wallet from before and held it up to the guard. The stallion looked it over, and soon he looked at the Doctor differently. Now, he almost looked afraid of him.

“Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you sir.” He stepped aside, giving enough space for a pony to walk past him. “Go right ahead; we’ll be here if you need any assistance”.

“Thank you my good stallion,” he said confidently. “But I’ve already got an assistant”. He turned to me and called, “come Rose, we have a body to examine”.

WHAT? How did this stallion convince the police officer to let him pass? Not only that, but he was now dragging her to see Lock Pick’s body?

I was almost ready to walk away right then and there. But then I remembered that I had promised myself; to keep an eye on this stallion. So, if he wanted me to follow him, so be it.

I pushed my way past the other ponies and followed the Doctor down the alleyway. There weren’t any trash cans or pieces of junk like most alleys you see in town; it was mostly empty.

That is, except for the mass of meat and bones that was at the end of it!

I thought I was going to be sick….and I was right. I emptied my almost empty stomach away from the mass of meat, trying not to contaminate it. I knew that eventually somepony official was going to have to look at it.

After I was done, I turned back to find the Doctor looking over the body. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the strange device he taken from his jacket.

“What is that?”

The Doctor smiled. “This is my Sonic Screwdriver. It allows me to do all kinds of things; like right now I’m scanning this body to see what I can figure out about his death”.

“How can it do that,” I asked as I walked up to the two masses. It took a good amount of resistance not to barf again.

“Like this,” said the Doctor. He pressed a button on the device, and instantly is started producing a loud whirring noise. The blue ‘marble’ at the end started to glow, and the Doctor started moving the device over the meat and bones.

Soon, the stopped pressing the button and instead slid a piece of it upward. The top of the device rose up, revealing a clear tube below it. The Doctor stared at it for a second….and soon his face formed into one of worry again.

“Oh no,” he said, clicking the slider back into place. “It’s just as I feared; they’re here”.

“What are you talking about,” I asked. “Who’s here? What did your device say?”

The Doctor straightened up, keeping his eyes on the body. “The sonic found trace amounts of Krillitane oil along the body”. He turned to look at me, “that means the Krillitane did this, so they’re here in Ponyville”.

“What do you mean; what are Krillitane?”

“Krillitane are aliens that can give the illusion that they are regular ponies. But underneath that, they’re really just monsters. They take the best bits of every race they conquer and add it to themselves; therefore making themselves more powerful”.

I swallowed; that sounded like a horrible way to improve yourself. And doing that to a race of creatures was just wrong!

“Have you encountered them before,” I asked.

The Doctor sighed. “Yes, just before I came here. I was battling one of the last remnants of their species, but soon things got out of hoof.” He scratched his neck embarrassedly. “To make a long story short, I ended up crashing my Tardis here, and I guess they followed me”.

“But why,” I asked. “Why would they follow you, and why would they kill Lock Pick? This doesn’t make any sense!”

“Not yet it doesn’t,” said the Doctor. “But I do know this; if the Krillitanes are here, then all of Ponyville is in danger.”

“So what can we do?”

The Doctor sighed, then let out a confident smile.

“Same thing I always do: Save the Day!”