It's Bigger on the Inside

It’s Bigger on the Inside

Chapter 7: Origins

Celestia’s beautiful sun rose from the horizon as The Doctor looked out over his room’s balcony. The shades of yellow and orange filled the sky, almost mimicking the skies of Gallifrey. He felt a sudden pang of nostalgia, which caused him to return indoors. His coat slipped easily on as he cantered out of his room to find his six new traveling buddies.

Four distinct raps on the door of Twilight’s room woke her up from her peaceful slumber, her dreams of the night fading away along with any memory of them. She slowly rose to a sitting position, her bed-mane still present. She slowly climbed out of her bed and made her way to her dresser. Picking up a brush, turning towards the door and shouting “Just a minute!” She then returned to the task of straightening her bed mane, which she accomplished easily enough with the assistance of her magic. Now feeling presentable, she advanced towards the door and opened it with her purple aura of telekinesis. Before her stood a brown earth colt wearing a brown tweed suit and a red bowtie. “Good morning Doctor.”

“Morning to you too Twilight. Is everyone ready to leave? Early bird catches the worm as they say. Do they say that on this planet?”

Twilight chuckled a bit at The Doctor’s minimal knowledge of Equestria. “Yes. Yes they do. Now come on, I’m sure everypony’s waiting.” The two ponies traveled around the castle, finding everypony’s room somewhat near each other. They awoke the five other mares from their sleep and requested that they ready their bags. After everypony was awoken they headed down for breakfast with the Princesses. Everypony conversed around the table except for The Doctor. Eventually, the talking was reduced to a low murmur as everypony set about to actually consuming their food.

After breakfast the seven departing travelers, joined by the Princesses, made their way to Ponyville and up the hill that the TARDIS crashed into that fateful night. The native Equestrians waved goodbye to Princess Celestia and Luna, and they waved back as they stepped inside the TARDIS. Everypony except for Twilight was awe struck at the sight of the inside of the TARDIS.

“Its bi-” Applejack started to say, when The Doctor interrupted her.

“Bigger on the inside, yes, everyone says that.”

The distinctive whirring of the TARDIS could be heard inside and out as it dematerialized from the hill on which it first landed. This sound was music to The Doctor’s newly found pony ears. With six new companions aboard his stolen Time-Space Vessel he set off for the most logical destination for their first trip; Earth. The TARDIS lurched and thrashed about as it spiraled through the red, yellow, blue and black auras of the time vortex, its light fading in and out as it went. Inside the big blue box seven ponies stumbled around as the TARDIS shook during flight. Suddenly the wavering TARDIS stabilized. It had landed in the year one of the Equestrian calendar, just a mile or so away from the first settlement in Equestria. All seven of the ponies, save for The Doctor collected themselves after such an abrupt and hard landing. The Doctor trotted over to the doors of the TARDIS and opened them with an air of presentation.

Flakes of snow blew violently around as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t very far mind you. The blizzard clouded any field of view. Everypony stepped out of the TARDIS, wrapped tightly in clothes which Twilight enchanted to generate heat using their movement.

“Where are we? More importantly why are we here?” Applejack asked as the trudged through the deep layers of snow.

“I was busy plotting a course for a planet called Earth when I received a distress signal from this point in time and space. I can see why they would be in distress. This is a nasty blizzard.”

“Well can we get on with it? Even in these magical coats I’m freezing my wings off over here.” Rainbow Dash added.

“As soon as I find the ship transmitting the distress signal.”

The seven ponies mulled on through the snow as their moods began to sour. It didn’t seem like a very good first trip to them. The cold was beginning to get to them.

“It’s beginning to get a bit too chilly.” Rarity complained. The Doctor stopped and spun around on his hooves. Using the newly found ability of effectively using hooves to wield a sonic screwdriver, he amplified the heat output of all their outfits. The heat radiated through their bodies as they continued along.

“Doctor? Aren’t you cold at all?” Twilight asked as The Doctor trotted along, using his sonic screwdriver to lock onto the source of the distress signal.

“Not at all. I’ve got this coat and two hearts pumping warm blood through my veins. It would take about 30 degrees less for it to get chilly for me.”

“Two hearts? You’re kidding us right?” Fluttershy asked, still trying to comprehend a pony with two hearts.

“Not kidding one bit. Listen for yourself if you want.” The Doctor said, stopping and turning towards Fluttershy who meekly approached him and pressed her ear to his chest to listen for a heart. She heard the obvious thud, thud, thud of a heart, but could hear another set of thuds nearby.

“Wow! You’re telling the truth! Two hearts, amazing.” Fluttershy said, stepping back in amazement. They continued on for quite a while, until coming upon what seemed like a large steel capsule lying in a crater, a white, cold mist emanating from the upturned end. The Doctor began to run his sonic screwdriver all over the capsule, scanning to find out what type of ship it was.

“Cryogenic Engine. More specifically, and erupted cryogenic engine. This must be where the sudden blizzard came from. Oooh… what species uses a Cryogenic Engine?” The Doctor racked his brain, trying to delve into the fast reserves of alien knowledge he kept stored within. He rapped himself on the head a few times to emphasize his thinking. He looked over the capsule, one more time, studying it intensely as the six ponies stood by, wondering what in the hay he was talking about.

“That’s it! Coryzatiles!”

“Whatcha-tiles?” Pinkie Pie asked, attempting to understand the unfamiliar term used by The Doctor.

“Coryzatiles. There a race of equine-wraith creatures who live on an Ice Planet, which explains the cryogenic engines.”

“Equine-wraiths? You mean like Windigos?” Twilight clarified.

“So Equestrians have encountered them before? I fear we may be at a temporal turning point in Equestria’s history. Quick, Twilight, you’re the most Equestrian history savvy, what point in time could we be at?”

Twilight looked at the five other ponies she had invited to come with her.  She knew every one of them had gathered when and where they were, it was Hearth’s Warming Day; the founding of Equestria.

********

After a brief explanation of the celebration and story of Hearth’s Warming Eve, The Doctor fully understood. The Coryzatiles were harnessing the released cold energy to attempt to repair their cryogenic engine and continue their journey. It had failed mid-flight and they had to crash land in Equestria. Causing the blizzard that caused controversy for the three pony species. Sadly, the Coryzatile’s method of repair would fail. The Doctor had to help them repair their ship. They couldn’t stay in Equestria forever, the blizzard would destroy everything. According to Twilight the Coryzatiles left when the three pony races settled their differences, giving them no anger to feed on. However The Doctor had figured it out. They didn’t leave because they had nothing to feed off of, they left because their ship was repaired, by him. The Doctor explained the situation to the six ponies that had only recently joined him in his travels. He began babbling incoherently, his mode of choice for formulating a plan. After babbling for a minute or two he finally gave a direct instruction.

“Rainbow Dash, fly around a bit and try to find the Coryzatiles, they’re most likely close to their ship trying to harvest the residual cryogenic energy. Once you find them, tell them to return to their ship, they're an extremely peaceful race, and just tell them it’s being repaired by a capable traveler and to return as soon as possible.”

“I’m on it!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, before rocketing off to find the aliens.

“Everypony else your with me, I’m gonna need your help fixing this ship.”

So the ponies scrambled about the crash site, assisting The Doctor in rewiring the Coryzatile ship in order to reverse the output of the cryogenic engine and feed it into the fuel tank, effectively harnessing all the residual energy, which The Doctor said would be enough to get them back to their home planet. Wires were spliced, split and soldered to the right places using the trusty sonic screwdriver. Eventually, The Doctor deemed it sufficiently rewired and now they awaited Rainbow Dashes return. She showed up not long from completion time with the Coryzatiles, who oddly enough, looked extremely hostile. Upon approach one of them gasped in a raspy, windy voice.

“It’s The Doctor! Seize him!”

Three of the Coryzatiles rushed at The Doctor as panic spread across his face. He had to think of a solution quickly. He drew his sonic screwdriver, pointed it at the engine and shouted “Wait!” Everyone froze. Excuse the pun. “One more move and I reverse everything I’ve just done, causing the engine to absorb all residual energy from the cryogenic fallout and overload the engine causing this planet to be frozen solid.”

“Do it then Doctor. You’d be doing us a favor. Our home was destroyed in your Time War. We sought refuge across the galaxy, only to happen across this planet. Only just beginning and perfect for cryogenic terraformation.”

“But look at this place! It’s only just beginning but I have seen what they have accomplished. They’re going places. You can’t just destroy their planet like that.”

“Well then where do you suggest we go, Time Lord?” The leader of the Coryzatiles stated, hate in his voice as he said Time Lord. “Our world was destroyed, and now we’ve crash landed here. With no hope of leaving, we can only rebuild.”

“Well then rebuild somewhere else. I’ve fixed your engine.”

“That’s impossible! We’ve been working on that forsaken thing for months now!”

“Well Time Lords are far more advanced than the Coryzatiles. Now go on, there’s a nice uninhabited Ice Planet not too far from here.”

“Maybe you Time Lords are not as bad as us Coryzatiles had thought. Thank you Doctor.”

The Doctor activated his sonic screwdriver, the green light casting over the open engine casing, causing it to begin to move and absorb the nearest part of the storm. In an instant the entire storm was cleared, sucked into the cryogenic engine of the Coryzatile ship and starting their systems. The equine apparitions boarded their ship and launched into the atmosphere, leaving the budding planet behind. The Doctor and his companions returned to the TARDIS in the now clear and sunny day, taking in the sights of Equestria before its time, and so the TARDIS let out its cliché whirring sound, signaling dematerialization, as the Equestrians actually left their homeplanet’s gravity well for the first time ever. One small step for mare, one giant leap for ponykind.