The Timepony’s Journal

Twilight looked out the window as the train started making its way up Canterlot Mountain. The Doctor’s 900 year diary sat in her book bag alongside her presentation notes. Having been asked to do a presentation at her old school, she jumped at the chance. She was rather proud of the section on cutie mark magic too, having such a unique connection to it through her and her friends. That one event that indirectly changed her and her friend’s lives forever, eventually bringing them all together in the present. Reflecting back on her past adventures, Twilight wouldn’t trade a single moment in her life.

However there was still a bit of curiosity. She wanted to see the moment with her adult eyes, the original Sonic Rainboom. An immense explosion of vibrant hues caused by intense speed and strength of will. She’d seen Rainbow Dash do it again several times over, but does it look different to how she remembered it? It was at least a decade prior to when the first rainboom occurred and Rainbow Dash obtained her cutie mark. Maybe it was more vibrant in the past, something more breathtaking lost as time had passed. Even when with the Doctor, when she had an actual time machine at her disposal, she’d never been able to see it.

“Metebelis 3, the famous blue planet of the Acteon Galaxy. Last time I was there it wasn't strictly the best, but the site was still marvelous. Calm lavender skies, blue crystals the size of houses. If you catch them at the right moment, with the light and wind being just right, it’s as if you’re staring at a flowing ocean made of diamonds. The sound as well, the wind blowing through the peaks and valleys makes the most tranquil sound imaginable. It’s one of the 699, eh, 698 wonders of the known universe.”

The Doctor, the one Twilight first met, was busy moving over the controls like a concert pianist playing their best melody. She used to be a bit skeptical about time travel, let alone what the TARDIS was. Anything similar to it had normally ended in disaster. Wormholes, explosions, she’d even witnessed dinosaurs roaming the streets of Canterlot thanks to an ill-fated attempt. To think that the Doctor, renowned scientific advisor of SMILE he may be, could succeed where all geniuses of the past had failed was a tall order to swallow.

“Actually, I have a suggestion.”

“Oh? What did you have in mind?”

“The Sonic Rainboom. Only happened once in the last thousand years and I was in the middle of taking my entrance exam. Scared me half to death as well.”

She couldn’t really read his face. The Doctor was clearly thinking it over, though it looked more like if he were deciding if the answer tasted good or not.

“Well, that’s a bit of a complicated task.”

“You said that we could go anywhere in time and space.”

“Some places tend to be a bit more…complicated. It’s a bit hard to explain.”

“Don’t patronize me. We’re in a time machine, aren’t we? Therefore you have all the time in existence to explain why.”

The Doctor sighed, scratching the back of his head. It took him a moment as he struggled to find the right words.

“There is an inconceivably large amount of points in time threaded through sequences of events. Each thread is like a possible timeline. However, there are moments where multiple threads coalesce. So many threads depend on one probability that they become a more fixed probability. Think Luna’s banishment to the moon, or the instatement of the Royal Sister’s monarchy. The Rainboom is one of those points, making it a bit more…delicate. Even small drips can turn into tidal waves in the tides of time.”

“I think I understand. But to document and study such a phenomenon. The story the data could tell, the theories it could prove, just the opportunity to be there! Just to see it up close…”

“Please? We don’t even need to be anywhere near Canterlot. I just want to see it.” asked the Twilight of a more recent yesterday.

The Doctor picked up his hat off of the coat rack, placing it on his head and tightening his overtly long scarf.

“Well, traveling across one’s personal timestream to any capacity is a bit tricky regardless, Twilight. Even I don’t visit the same time and place twice…at least not intentionally.”

“You’re being facetious again.”

“Facetious, me? Me being facetious, really. What do you think, Patchy. Am I being facetious?”

Pumpkin Patch, whom the Doctor called Patchy to their mild annoyance, was a medic who worked for SMILE. He was mostly just in awe of the TARDIS’s vast interior until the Doctor snapped him out of his dazed state.

“Hmm? What was that?” Patch stuttered out.

“Twilight and I were discussing our next destination. As I was saying, the Griffish Isles are a lovely place. Plenty of historical value.”

“The last time you said that, we ended up five hundred years early and were almost put to the guillotine.” Twilight quipped.

“Weeeell, nopony’s perfect. Not my first time at the guillotine either. I really tried advising against them, you know. Everypony fanatical about whether Luna or Celestia was better. Both of them are lovely.”

“You’re avoiding the question. Equus, 992, Sonic Rainboom.”

The console beeped and the time rotor stopped shifting up and down. Twilight gave the Doctor a hard stare from across the console. The Doctor activated the scanner, Patch turning around and now looking dumbfounded at the outside world as well as the one inside the ship. It was a blank white room, big blue crates stacked haphazardly around the TARDIS. They were probably in the storage area of some futuristic civilization or space station.

“Don’t think I won’t stop asking.”

“Oh I know you won’t” the Doctor replied with a toothy grin.

“And you still didn’t stop asking.” the Doctor said before taking a sip of tea.

It had been a long day, Twilight had been patient, but enough was enough. The question marks spanning this Doctor’s vest were an indicator of his character. He always spoke in riddles, leaving more questions than answers. After two years for her and two centuries for him he wasn’t like the Doctor she knew at all. He looked tired, appearing on her doorstep alone. There was a smile on his face but no joy in those eyes. His face was a mask but she didn’t know what he was hiding. Here they were again, outside of a small cafe drinking tea like the old friends they were.

“You’re avoiding the question. I asked how you were and you started rambling on about old times.”

“Didn’t you say the same thing to me? Something about being facetious.”

“You need help, Doctor. You’re not listening to me at all. And I don’t mean help with saving the universe or an adventure, real help for yourself.”

“I’m not quite sure I understand.” the Doctor replied while taking another sip of his tea.

“You show up on my doorstep alone, no aliens, no robots, no catastrophes. You really expect me to believe that you were just ‘in town’ for no reason? Who’s travelling with you now?”

The Doctor leaned back in his seat, pushing his hat back up when it slipped over his eyes.

“Nopony at the moment. Ace and I…had a bit of a disagreement. I may have gone a little too far.”

Twilight leaned forwards and stared him in the eyes.

“What did you do?”

“I thought I did what had to be done. I need to make sacrifices for the greater good, to keep everypony safe.”

“It sounds to me like it wasn’t your choice to make.”

“I had to. Sticks and stones are better than broken bones. Or was it that words are better than that?”

“Doctor…please.”

The Doctor sighed as he sat up straight. His eyes begged her to just let it go, to just go off on another adventure. He was running away, something he rarely did. Normally the Doctor would run towards the people he cared about, those around him. Maybe that’s why he was here. Twilight wasn’t sure exactly what kind of pony this Doctor was, but she wasn’t sure if she liked him.

“Is visiting the Sonic Rainboom still on the table?”

The Doctor showed up on her doorstep one last time before vanishing completely. It was pouring rain outside that night, his purple fur absolutely drenched. She quickly brought him inside the Golden Oaks Library, fetching a towel to dry off his wavy mane. Bit by bit, he emptied his pockets out onto the table since Twilight offered to run his jacket through the dryer. His pockets must have been as spacious as the TARDIS with how big the randomly assorted pile of junk was getting. Twilight cracked a smile as he fumbled to turn off an electric toy or gizmo.

“Sorry, has a terrible habit of going off when you don’t want it to. Frostfall nearly had my head for disrespect at the dinner table. Really took those old Frost Fairs a bit too seriously.”

Somehow she knew that this was the Doctor, she always knew. No matter which face it was there was always something about him that gave it away. That veil of denial his predecessor had was gone now, it hurt to see him like this.

“Is everything alright? I know that we haven’t been…amicable, as of the last time we met. How uh, how have you been?”

“I’ve been doing my best. Trying to fix things isn’t easy. Looking back is never easy. It’s getting harder and harder for me to visit every day that passes for you.”

“Just because I have new friends and a new home doesn’t mean that you can’t stop by.”

“I wish I could explain, but I can’t. Not yet. I shouldn’t even be here at all, really. It’s not that I don’t want to, I promise. I want to tell you the answers to all of the questions I could never say, but I can’t.”

“Time Ponies again?”

“Not quite, at least I certainly hope not. I don’t know when we’ll meet up again, but I’m certain that we will.”

Twilight folded up the Doctor’s velvet coat, putting it in the dryer. She already had some tea brewing before she returned to the main library space. The Doctor held a small envelope out to her, struggling to look her in the eyes.

“Here, consider it a parting gift. I went through a lot of trouble to get the right time, place and location. Even the best angle was a bother. The Tardis was a bit fickle about doing it but I found a way.”

“You don’t mean-”

“Yes. Equus, 992, Cloudsdale. Now that you know that it connected you to your friends I can say that it would’ve negatively affected the Web of Time for you to be there. The things you’ve done, the ponies you’d helped, even the slightest change could have altered all of that. I know the good things that you’ve done, and I hope that you always remember that I’m proud of you.”

Twilight pulled him into a hug, holding back tears. He must have known that her life would lead her here for so long. Time wasn’t linear for him like it was for her. He knew that she’d reform Discord, stop Chrysalis from toppling Canterlot, save the Crystal Empire upon its return. Life used to seem so simple when she felt that she was unimportant in the grand scheme of things. She was just a normal bookworm in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. If he told her that she’d grow to be all this, to do so much she wouldn’t have believed him in the slightest. At least now in this moment, the Doctor could still be here like he always used to be.

The Doctor was right not to visit her anymore. She became a princess, fought Tirek and Starlight and so much more. Even though it was less than a year ago since the day he meant to say goodbye so much had changed. The envelope had remained unopened, one of the few things that survived the destruction of the Golden Oaks Library. Maybe he knew that the library would be destroyed and planned ahead accordingly. The last time they had met was an accident, just looking into something strange out of nostalgia.

She went back to the school she went to as a foal and discovered it was run by alien creatures. They were using the students like computers, fueling both their imagination and temporarily altered intelligence to decipher the code to the universe. The Doctor and her stopped it, just like old times. She slipped into that groove so easily, but it hurt. It was a taste of the life that she used to have and it made her understand why the Doctor didn’t look back.

Travelling with him was an addiction, a curse as well as a blessing. Their days were always going to be numbered one way or another. Oddly her experience with his adventures helped build her confidence enough to be able to face the monsters all on her own. Her past experiences gave her the strength to continue fighting for what was right, not on alien worlds but in her home. There was a reason she was chosen to save the Doctor, and maybe this was why.