Background Characters No More

by Joie Dragonne

Rating: everyone
Tags: Lyra, My Little Pony: The Movie, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Doctor Whooves, Octavia, Comedy, Bon-Bon, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Crossover
Length: 1620

Six ponies... some changelings... one time machine... what could go wrong?

Doctor Whooves, Lyra Heartstrings, Derpy Hooves, Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch, and Bon Bon are background ponies. They've been those ponies who sit in crowds, watching everything that the Mane Six do, singing along to their songs, and cheering for them when they win against an enemy. But they have lives, too.
Now rogue changelings are showing up in Ponyville, dimensional rifts are opening up, ponies are disappearing, and the Mane Six are nowhere to be seen. Can six background ponies stop all this madness, or is Equestria doomed without its main characters?

WARNING: Major shipping between the Background Six. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

EXTRA CHARACTER TAGS: Vinyl Scratch, Original Character

Published 2020-06-23 20:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2020-06-23 20:50:00 UTC

One

Author's Note

Please note that the Doctor in this story is a Time Pony from the planet Gallopfrey, and he was never in the humanoid universe.
Also, this chapter takes place before Twilight Sparkle comes to Ponyville. The next chapter will be some time afterwards.
Sorry to interrupt, just wanted to clarify.
Enjoy the story!

One

Six PM . . . Tuesday . . . October . . .”

The Doctor checked the display screen again, narrowing his eyes at the Gallopfreyan lettering.

“Why don’t you want to go there?” he asked, confused. “It’s just a planet. We’ve been to plenty of planets.”

The TARDIS made another angry humming sound, and the Doctor held onto the console for balance.

The TARDIS materialized, but outside wasn’t Barcelona . . .

In Ponyville, Derpy Hooves rushed to get to the right house.

“Delivery!” she called, knocking on the door. Bon Bon opened it.

“Oh, hey Derpy,” the earth pony smiled. The mailmare gave her a deep blue envelope. Bon Bon eyed it cautiously.

“Derpy, I don’t think that this is mine,” she said. “First of all, it has no return address. Second of all, it has Pinkie’s name on it.”

“Oops,” Derpy laughed, her right eye drooping slightly. “Sorry, this is yours.” She put away the blue envelope and took out a white one.

“Thanks,” Bon Bon smiled and closed the door to read the letter. It was from the bank. The earth pony sighed.

On the other side of town, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody were working on a new piece. It . . . wasn’t going all that well.

“I’m playing the main beat, and you’re playing the background music,” Octavia glowered at her roommate. Vinyl scratched on her record.

“No, no, not like that,” Octavia face-hoofed. “Make it flow with my music.” Vinyl scratched the record slowly. Octavia tried desperately not to roll her eyes.

Outside of Sugarcube Corner, the TARDIS slowly materialized. Pinkie Pie heard the sound, and, being Pinkie Pie, went outside to see a new pony in Ponyville!

“Hello! Are you knew? How come I didn’t see you come in? Do you like parties? I’m really good at parties, COME ON,” she grabbed the bemused Doctor before he could react.

“What sort of cake do you want? Chocolate, pumpkin, carrot, vanilla-”

“Custard,” the Doctor started.

“Custard! Why didn’t I think of that?” Pinkie started mixing the batter, then stopped short of cracking an egg. “Wait, we need decorations!! What’s your favorite color, Mister . . ?”

“The Doctor,” the brown pony said. “Just the Doctor.”

“Okay Mister ‘the Doctor’,” Pinkie laughed. “You seem very blue. So howsabout orange streamers? And pink balloons? OOH AND PURPLE TABLECLOTHS.”

“Listen, I was just going to-” but the Doctor didn’t finish as the doorbell rang.

“Delivery,” a grey pegasus held out a blue envelope.

“Ooh! Pretty,” Pinkie Pie took it. “I’ll open this later, I’m planning a Welcome to Ponyville party for the Doctor!” she motioned to the earth pony for a split second before saying, “Go around and make sure everypony’s coming here tonight. It’s gonna be great!”

Derpy nodded, knowing that Pinkie wouldn’t take no for an answer if a party was involved.

The door closed and Pinkie turned back to the Doctor. He gulped.

“Pinkie’s throwing a party tonight,” Lyra Heartstrings looked up from her book. “We should go.”

“We always go to Pinkie’s parties,” Bon Bon replied. “She practically has one every day. No, actually, she does have one every day.”

“This time it’s actually about something, Bon Bon,” Lyra said. “There’s somepony new in town. It’d be nice to see a new face - after all, nothing’s happened here in forever.”

Bon Bon shook her head.

“I don’t know, Lyra...”

“Please?” Lyra put down her book and looked up at her friend.

“Oh, fine. You know that I can’t say no to that face,” Bon Bon laughed.

Lyra smiled.

That night, Sugarcube corner was filled with nearly everyone in Ponyville. The Doctor sat uncomfortably against a wall in the corner, trying to avoid the prying eyes of the others.

“Whatcha doing?” Pinkie bounded up to him. He internally groaned.

“Watching. Observing,” he replied.

“Why?” she asked. “Don’t you want to join in?” He looked even more uncomfortable for a moment.

“. . . No. Listen, Pinkie. It was really nice of you to throw this party for me, but . . .” he trailed off, not sure how to end his sentence.

“But you don’t actually mean that,” she finished, sighing. “No, no, I get it. But look at how much fun everypony else is having! I throw these parties so that new ponies in town can make some friends,” she smiled brightly at him. “Besides, friendship is very, very important!” With that, she pushed him into the crowd. The Doctor yelped in surprise as he knocked into a grey pegasus with crossed eyes. It was the same mailmare from earlier.

“Oh! So sorry,” he apologized, feeling silly.

“I should be apologizing,” she replied, looking at the floor. “I was in the way.”

“What?” the Doctor yelped. “That isn’t your fault at all! If anything, it might be Pinkie’s,” he whispered, motioning to the pink earth pony.

The pegasus laughed.

“Goofy Doctor.”

The Doctor was about to ask how she knew his name, then looked up and saw the giant orange banner that read, ‘WELCOME TO PONYVILLE DOCTOR WHOOVES’

“Doctor Whooves,” he said thoughtfully. “That has a ring to it.”

Derpy cocked her head at him.

“Equestria to Doctor, Equestria to Doctor,” the grey mare waved a hoof in front of his face. He shook his head.

“Oh! Sorry. I didn’t quite catch your name,” he said.

“Derpy Doo,” she laughed. “Some ponies call me Ditzy, but I’m not sure why. You’re quite a strange pony, Doctor. I was talking to Pinkie about you earlier. She said that you didn’t give her your last name, so she just made one up. She also said that you came out of a blue box-”

“The TARDIS!” the Doctor exclaimed, eyes wide. “Oh no! I completely forgot about it! Derpy, I - I have to go,” he disappeared out the door in a hurry. Derpy lowered her eyes to the floor again. Alone once more.

Outside, the Doctor checked to make sure the TARDIS was still in the same place. He let go of a breath he didn’t know he was holding when he saw it was still there. Steadying himself, he tapped the door.

It was locked.

Well, that wasn’t good. Was he trapped here?

“What is that?” The Doctor spun around to see a mint-colored unicorn eyeing him suspiciously. The Doctor froze.

“It wasn’t there yesterday,” she said.

“It’s . . .” the Doctor trailed off, then gasped. “What is that?”

Lyra whipped around, confused. There was nothing there. When she turned her eyes back to the Doctor, he was gone.

“Can’t believe I fell for that,” she hissed.

Later on, the cake was passed out, and a DJ arrived. The Doctor was surprised that so many ponies showed up to the party. He was also pretty sure that Equestria didn’t have bigger-on-the-inside technology, and it was a wonder as to how everyone fit inside the normally small, quiet shop.

He made his way back to Derpy. Her eyes lit up when she saw him approach.

“You came back!” she exclaimed.

“Yes, shush, keep your voice down,” he put a hoof over her mouth. “I’m being followed.”

“By who?” Derpy asked.

“Long story,” he replied.

Luckily, there was no sign of Lyra in the crowd, and eventually, the Doctor began to relax. This party was actually pretty fun. And the DJ was amazing. Before he knew it, the moon was already at its highest point in the sky.

“I should get going now,” Derpy said, looking apologetic.

“Oh! Derpy, I was wondering,” the Doctor came up to her. “I don’t have a place to stay tonight. Do you think I could come to your place?” His eyes wandered around the shop. “I feel like Pinkie’s accommodations might . . .”

“Be more like beds made of sweets?” Derpy finished. “Of course you can stay at my place. That is, until you find a place of your own.”

The Doctor thanked her and they left.

“Where do you live?” he asked. “All these houses look nearly the same.”

“Mine’s a bit different,” Derpy admitted. “Here we are.”

The house was built into the side of a tree, almost like a treehouse, but not as high up.

“Nice place,” he commented as they went inside. There was some furniture, though nothing too out of the ordinary. He noticed a large purple sofa, which made him stifle a laugh, and a hammock hanging down from the ceiling, most likely designed for flying up to. The Doctor suddenly wished he had wings.

Some stairs were leading up to a completely bare attic. The perfect place to put the TARDIS, if the Doctor could figure out how to get it up there.

The TARDIS.

Why had it brought him to Equestria? He’d been to this planet plenty of times, swooping in and out, occasionally tampering with history or watching it take place, and the TARDIS had never locked him out before.

It’s just malfunctioning, he told himself. I’ll get it back in working order and get out of this place before anypony even realizes I was here in the first place. It’ll be fine. I’ll get back to the TARDIS tomorrow, and fix it then.

Silly Doctor. Didn’t he know?

He was going to stay in Ponyville far longer than he realized.