"I thought you said the TARDIS was safe!" Derpy yelled over the chaotic noise around her. The room she was in was rattling and shaking violently, smoke poured from the control console in the center, and pieces of the ceiling were falling down all around her.
"It usually is!" her companion, The Doctor, replied, hopping wildly around the control panel, frantically pressing at levers and buttons. A plume of smoke blew into his face, sending him into a coughing fit. "But there's only a certain level of safety I can promise you on a time machine!"
"Now you tell me!" The pegasus replied as the room tilted forty-five degrees, throwing her against a guard rail. She grabbed onto it before the room suddenly turned the other way, threatening to drop her twenty feet into the other side of the room.
"Just hold on, I've almost got it," he said, trying to calm her while he manipulated more controls. "This was easier when I was a unicorn!"
"I bet it was!"
"Oh, what if I was a unicorn ginger? That would be fantastic!"
With that, the TARDIS bobbed up and down as it returned to a proper upright stance. It was still shaking something fierce.
The Doctor looked flustered. "I'm going to take her in for an emergency landing, she's not gonna make it all the way back home."
"Where are we gonna land?" Derpy asked.
"Ponyville."
"What's the problem then?"
"I have no idea when we're landing."
"Oh, how exciting!"
BOOM. The TARDIS slammed down onto the first solid surface it could find. The control panel ruptured, spitting out a ball of fire, and any lights that were still attached to the ceiling went out.
"Well... Could be worse." The Doctor said.
"Will the TARDIS be okay?" Derpy asked, her mane frazzled by the trip.
"Oh, sure. She just needs a little TLC. And some new parts."
"Oh, so we just need to find some time-machine parts in Ponyville?"
"You say that like it's hard, Derpy."
"So you know somebody who can help us?"
"Yes, of course, Princess Celestia owes me a favor," The Doctor declared, passing through the doors of the TARDIS.
"I don't think that's happened yet..." Derpy replied, glancing around. They had actually managed to land fairly close to her own time, only a few years in the past. They were just outside of SugarCube Corner, and at precisely that moment, Mrs. Cake was removing a "help wanted" sign from the window.
"Huh... I think you're right. Celestia knows I'm always good on my word, though, I can just tell her that she will owe me a favor later, and that this will be me getting that favor early."
"Don't you think that's a little confusing?"
"Well she didn't mention this in her future, which must mean I told her not to, since I didn't hear about it then. Time-loops, what can you do?"
Suddenly, the pair became aware of two bright blue eyes ogling them. They started to worry as they became aware of the fact that the owner of those eyes had just heard a considerable chunk of a conversation about time-travel.
Pinkie let out a remarkable gasp.
"No, wait, let me explain, it's not what—"
"NEW PONY?!"
"Wait, what? Oh no!"
"I've never met you before — oh man what's your favorite kind of cookie? Mine's chocolate chip but it's your party so you should get whatever you want and—"
The Doctor tried to interrupt her, but even he couldn't stand up against the unstoppable force that was Pinkie Pie. "No, I'm not a new pony, you already met me! We already had a party for me! Stop!"
"—I'm thinking BLUE steamers 'cause that would go with your eyes and your house and... Oh man I gotta go get streamers!" With that, she sped off into the distance.
"Come on, Derps, let's get out of here before she gets back. Run."
Derpy giggled as she chased after him. "It's just Pinkie!"
Thirty minutes later, Pinkie returned to the scene where she had met the two time-traveling ponies, saddlebag piled high with party supplies. She walked around the TARDIS, which appeared to be a police box. "So this is their house, huh... It's so tiny. I guess we'll just have to have the party in the yard."
She came around to the side with the door, which was slightly ajar. Curiosity got the better of her, and she peeked in.
"Oooooohhhhhh..." She exclaimed, her voice echoing back out of the box, "It's bigger on the inside! That is like, the coolest thing ever! HELLO!"
"Hello-hello-ello-ello-lo-lo" her own echo replied.
She glanced around the inside of the TARDIS. "But it's such a mess in here... Looks like they just got done with a pretty crazy party. I bet they'd love it if I cleaned up a little for them!"
The pink party pony put on the most serious face she could manage, and cleaned up the TARDIS, montage-style. Before long, the entire place was nearly spotless, and thoroughly decorated for a party. Well, except for the back of the library, where she had thrown most of the rubble from the control room, but she rationalized that libraries aren't good places for parties anyway.
She was giving the place its last look over before she'd start rounding up guests, when she noticed a crack in the control panel, with a beautiful golden light spilling from it.
"Oh..." She muttered, entranced by the light-beam. Slowly, she brought her face towards it. She was going to look directly into it. She had to. It was calling for her.
"Pinkie, no!" The Doctor shouted, charging for her. Pinkie managed to look into the beam for almost half a second before he tackled her away from it.
"Hey, what'd you do that for?!" She asked, squirming under his hooves, "Let me go!"
"How long did you look into the light?"
"Just for a second! I saw it and it was all 'I am the time vortex' so I went like—" Pinkie interrupted herself to give a tremendous gasp like the one she had given The Doctor earlier that day. "— 'I've never met you before, wanna be friends?'
and it was all 'sure!' so now we're best friends!"
"I think she might be delusional..."
She got onto her feet as The Doctor released her. "I cleaned up your house and got it all ready for a party and then you attacked me and called me crazy! Rude."
"Sorry, but that light is really dangerous. You could've died!"
"Really? That sounds like a really crazy thing to have in your house, mister, what other dangerous stuff do you just keep out in the open like that?"
"Well, I don't usually have ponies just walking around in here, how did you even get in?"
"You left the door open, silly!"
The Doctor flushed as he looked back to Derpy, who only nodded in agreement. "Whoops..."
"Are you sure she's gonna be okay?" Derpy asked, nervously eyeing the pink pony.
"She seems fine... But I guess I could check her out really quick. Do you mind?"
"Uhhhhh... No?" Pinkie answered, not really sure about whether or not she minded.
"Alright, just hold still..." The Doctor withdrew his sonic screwdriver from his bow-tie collar, and shined its light into Pinkie's eye. She winced, and then started giggling.
"No— haha— stop— heh— That tickles!"
"Yeah, there's definitely a bit of time vortex stuck in there. Let me just try to..." He angled the screwdriver around her head, blinking it on and off. "Alright, I think that should do it."
"But wait, my tail is twitching!"
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know... It's never done that before..."
"It could be a symptom... Maybe a neurono-temporal resonance resulting in stroke-like motor function aberration? Or an oscillatory manifestation of huon particles? Let me jus—"
CRASH. A light fixture had just fallen directly on the Doctor's head. Derpy's voice rang out from above. "Sorry Doctor! My bad!"
"You know what?" The Doctor groaned.
"What?" Pinkie asked.
"I think you're gonna be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. I'm a doctor. Now, please, get out of my house."
"When can I come back for your PARTY?!"
The Doctor thought about it for a moment. "About five years. You'll know when it's time."
"Alright, five years, Pinkie promise?"
"Yeah, Pinkie promise. Okay. Great. Bye." The Doctor shoved her out the TARDIS doors and locked them quickly behind her.
"... Pinkie Pie..."
"What? I think she's funny."
"That's the problem... She's too funny. Six years from now in her timeline, she actually gets inside the TARDIS while it's in mid flight. There was no explanation except that it was funny. I mean, there is almost nothing in the Universe that can break into this ship, and there she was, popping out of my wardrobe! Scared the hay outa' me!"
"Well... Let's get this old girl patched up... I miss Dinky."
"Alright... You know, I kinda like the streamers, though. They're a nice touch."
"Yeah, not bad at all..."
