Chapters Will the Original Doctor Stand Up Please?
“And this, my dear Isabell, is most likely my last experiment in the nature of the universe!” Said the unruly Doctor, twisting and turning knobs all around the control console of the TARDIS. Isabell grinned. It was like watching a dancer, one that had just mastered a new piece, and was showing it off to their friend. Every move needed to be perfect, or that special, almost magical feel would be gone.
“And this one would be different from the last ten how exactly?”
“Nine.” Came the immediate response.
“What?”
“Nine. I’ve only performed nine so far. This one would be the tenth.”
“Fine. How would this one be different than the last nine?”
“Easy. The others have all been leading up to this! I needed a bit of one to prove a law, a little bit of this one to prove that the elements needed wouldn’t blow up when mixed and quite possible melted together by the extreme heat-”
“Blow up? You told me that every single one of those experiments was safe!”
“And it was, wasn’t it? Nothing blew up in any case. But moving on!” The Doctor said, waving his hand up in the air, the other putting in figures into the typewriter set into the console. “ As I was saying, the extreme heat generated by the breaking of the most fundamental law of thought!”
“Laws of thought? Never heard of those before.”
“That’s because humans are soo narrow minded. They have all these other laws and regulations for everything around them, but almost none apply to them specifically! Laws of thought basically says that things thought cannot make an impression in the physical world unless there is an action to represent the idea in said physical world! All that the fancy words mean is that an idea, the imagination of an entity cannot do anything in the real world if it is not expressed physically.”
“So, imagination is worthless without actions?”
“That’s dumbing it down a bit, but yes!”
“And breaking this law won’t make any holes in time or space?” Isabell said, giving the Doctor the “Don’t you dare lie to me” look.
The look was lost on the Doctor, who was still spinning dials and splicing wires from one side of the console to the other.
“Nope!’
“It won’t blow up?”
“Absolutely not!”
“And it won’t erase anyone or anything from the existing time-stream?”
“That was an accident, and it was fixed! Now can I please get on with the experiment?” The Doctor had finished doing… whatever it had been to the console. It looked more of a mess than the Doctor remembered it ever looking.
“One last question. What will this experiment do?”
The Doctor flipped one last switch.
“Oh, that is so terribly simple Isabell! I believe that this will discover-”
He threw his arms up in the air.
“-Magic.”
And as with everything that involves breaking the law of physics something else must break first. In this case it ended up in the center console springing a coolant leak.
“Magic? Are you pulling my leg?”
“I very rarely joke about breaking a natural law, Isabell. Ah! The results of mmyyyy-----our experiment!”
Indeed. The TARDIS had been surrounded by an eerie off-white glow that seemed to fluctuate and move on its own.
“And this isn’t bad?”
“Not at all! What we are seeing no other organism in this universe has ever seen before! We are seeing pure magic. Magic without a purpose, granted. That’s why it’s just sitting there, but with time we should be able to create a tool to control it. Perhaps we could make it look like the sonic screw driver.”
“Doctor.”
“Nah, that would get confusing. Thinking I’ve pulled out my sonic to unlock a door and instead pulling out a magical… wand, as it would be, would have devastating consequences!”
“Doctor…”
“It could be the matter of life and death. We would need another design to tell the two apart. May-haps it could look like a portal gun, but then we have the nasty copy-write infringements to worry about…”
“Doctor!”
“Whhhaaattt? I’m in the middle of a design crisis for something we haven’t even decided if it could be done!”
“Should that temperature meter be in the red?”
“What tempera-. Ah, no. Remember the elements that I said wouldn’t explode even under the extreme heat created as a by-product of the breaking of the law of thought?”
“Yes?”
“About that. That only applied when the coolant system worked and kept the materials under constant a constantly cooling… coolant. Without it, the system would overheat in a matter of minutes.”
“And the coolant system is broken I take it?”
“Yes. And that’s not good.”
“Well, we have a couple of minutes don’t we? Fix it before it explodes!”
“Uh, two things. The system broke three minutes ago. And it wouldn’t exactly explode, as it were. With the containing magical field, and the brief amount of time the TARDIS has had to study it, I’ve come to the conclusion that we would be blown to bits like a typical explosion. Everything in this explosion would be taken apart atom by atom, and moved somewhere else.”
“And where would those atoms go to be hopefully put back together?”
“No idea! But the blast should be contained by the magical field.”
Something on the control console beeped.
“And it looks like if it weren’t for that, there would’ve been a hole left in the space time continuum.”
The Doctor walked over to Isabell and hugged her. An unusual display of affection for the raggedy old man, but the situation called for it. He started to whisper in her ear.
“You’ve been absolutely brilliant Isabell. Thanks for coming along for the ride. Remember how we met?”
“You teleported me into your TARDIS while looking for a mythical creature?”
“I’m not a believer in fate, Isabell, but you’ve made me change my mind.”
The center console began to glow brightly.
Throwing his head back, the Doctor shouted one last word, Isabell clinging to him tightly, as only a person who absolutely believes they are going to do could.
“ALLONS-Y”
“Oh, well this is unexpected!”
“What is it Doctor?”
“If I’m reading this right, and I am, then about 15 of your friend’s… what was her name? The orange one with apple trees.”
“Apple Jack?”
“That’s the one! Anywhoof, about fifteen of her tree’s just… disappeared.”
“Okkaayy… that does constitute as weird, but do you know why those tree’s just disappeared?”
“Weelll, No. I don’t. But I’m guessing that there’s been a displacement of mass somewhere. Something that isn’t from this
universe is here, and in order to compensate for the mass, something from this universe had to go to the other universe.”
“Law of conservation of Energy?”
“Basically yes. Give me a second, And I’ll see if the TARDIS is picking up any unusual signatures.”
"Well, in addition to the missing tree's, there seems to be a rather sizable chunk missing out of the backside of the Canterlot mountian. It shouldn't be a stability problem unless there happens to be a considerable amount of rainfall, the like that haven't been seen since the Second year of Celestia's reign!"
"So it's not going to be a problem?"
"Shouldn't. But it probably will sooner or later. Remind me to fix it before it gets to out of hand."
"Of course Doctor."
The console beeped, bringing their attention back to the situation at hand.
It was all just lights and symbols to Twilight, but the Doctor stared at them and got that serious look on his face.
Silence for a few moments.
“This can’t be right. There is no way in hay that this reading could be right.”
“What is it now Doctor?”
The light brown pony with an hour-glass on the side gave Twilight a level stare.
“The TARDIS says that it’s picking up an automated distress signal from another TARDIS.”
Twilight was speechless. She had been one of few to ever learn of his secret. Of why he was the last remaining Time-Lord from Gallopfry. And how there could be no more time-ponies.
“Go.”
The TARDIS took off. ‘Taking off’ being a relative term, as it sort of just…. Faded from reality and into the space-time continuum.
The Doctor woke up, glancing over at Isabell. She was curled up in a ball, sleeping, but waking up by the looks of it.
“Wakey, wakey Bells.”
‘Has she always had the horn? And a tail? And that pocket watch tattoo in her side?’
“Not good. Not good at all.”
Rushing over to one of many shiny bits of the control console, the Doctor stared at his reflection.
“Isabell is soooo going to try kill me.”
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Will the Original Doctor Stand Up Please?
Inter-Dimensional Meetings are Always Strange...
Isabell had indeed woken up, and she was not happy about being a pony.
"Fix it."
"I just can't fix it. I'll need more time, and even then there's no way to tell what form we'll end up as. We could end up as any of the millions upon billions of creatures with the same bio-mass as us. How do you feel about the all-to-possible outcome of ending up as Ood?"
"Point taken. But still, why did we change in the first place? I thought the TARDIS protected us from outside forces."
"It should. I don't know why it didn't. Let me check a few things and I'll get back to you.
He then proceeded to look at the console, which was unusually shiny due to all the atoms being broken apart and put back together. That tends to get rid of pesky annoyances like dirt and dust. The only problem is now the altitude meter was now in the place that the oxygen meter was, and the altitude meter was nowhere to be found.
"First thing first, to find out where we are! That may help."
"Doctor?"
"Okay Isabell, I'm going to tell you two0 things, and I want you not to freak out on me."
This was the wrong thing to say, as it immediately puts anyone on edge.
"What happened Doctor? Tell me, and no sugar coating it!"
"One, it appears that we're not in our universe anymore. Two-"
"Hold it. Not in our universe. Explain."
"The only explanation that I have is that this universe seems to have magic at it's very core. Everything in this universe seems to have a spark of magic in it, even if it's not alive! And it seems to me that sense we were messing with magic and loss control of it, whenever we 'disintegrated' as it were, we were then transported across the ever-thing membrane of our universe into the nether region in-between the universes. Or universi? I don't really know."
"Doctor, get back on track."
"Ah, yes, sorry about that. But as I was saying, when all of out itty-bitty bits were zooming around outside reality, they searched for the galaxy that was closest in likeness. Which would've been our universe except. -"
"Except you were messing with magic."
"So easy to put all the blame on me, isn't it? But yes. Since our atoms were mixed up in the magic they came here, to the most magical universe that they could find in a matter of nano-seconds."
"And does that explain why we're ponies?"
"Noooooo-welll yes, I suppose it does. If the magic mixed with the TARDIS's faulty chameleon circuit, then it would be possible that the magic expanded it's capabilities and changed us into this world's inhabitants to best blend in. And it seems that the excess magic manifested itself in your horn."
"Horn?" Isabell rushed over to the nearest reflective object in the TARDIS, and gasped. The Doctor just rolled his eyes.
"You've had a horn for fifteen minutes, and you hadn't noticed it?"
"I was sorta asleep of 10 of those 15 minutes, and I had other things on my mind!" Isabell said, her voice gaining several octaves.
"Calm down. It's probably not life threatening. Besides, it's probably normal for this world inhabitants.
"A world full of ponies.... And if it's normal, then why do you have wings?"
"I do?" The doctor went over and tried to get a look at his side in the small mirror.
"You've had wings for 15 minutes and you haven't noticed?" Isabell said, copying the Doctors voice.
"Touche. I can't seem to get a glance at them in this blasted tiny thing!"
"Well, if they truly are a part of you, then shouldn't you be able to control them and open them up?"
"Can I? Probably. But that would require that I know what muscles to move. It's just not a simple matter of gaining an entire set of new appendages. I'll have to train my body to know what to do."
"Doctor. You're doing it."
"Doing what Isabell?"
"Your wings, they're open."
"They are?" Glancing back as far as his neck would allow, that Doctor managed to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be two avian wings, which he assumed were his. He flapped them tentatively. He could feel the wind pass through, and he could also feel the movement. It came naturally, as if he had known his entire life how to do it, like an old dream of flying, only to be forgotten the moment you awake.
"It would seem so! This is certainly interesting!"
"Now that that is out of the way, what was the second thing that you were saying?"
"Ah, yes. That. It would seem that there is another Doctor in this particular universe, and he's coming this way."
"Oh, that's not good, is it?"
"Not at all. This shouldn't be happening. If the unofficial 'official' rules that were in place in our universe are in place here, then standard procedure is to detain the illegal aliens-"
Isabell glares at the Doctor's bad pun.
"- and then keep them detained in a high security area, and then pressure them into-"
"I get it. Now what are we going to do about it?"
"I don't know! I don't know what to do about this whole mess. We could try bluffing our way through, but that implies risks!"
"More riskier than being tortured!"
"Yes! We could completely screw up this universes Time-line! Ever here of the chaos theory? The one where a butterfly flaps it's wings in the jungle and there's a hurricane in the Gulf?"
"So we're screwed."
"That is the understatement of the century." A pause. And then came the inevitable.
"They're here."
//{0}\
Five Minutes Earlier in this Universe's TARDIS.
"Do you realize what this means? This means that someone else escape from Gallopfry before the timelock came into effect! This could mean that I'm not alone!" Doctor Whooves.
"Doctor, I don't want to say this, but what if it's not another time lord? What if it is, and it's just another Master? I don't want to see you get your hopes up only to lose them."
"Twilight, don't worry! It won't end up that way! All those in control of a TARDIS were strictly mentally checked before they even got to see the a TARDIS. Those people were so sane that it took the almost insane to see how sane they were."
Twilight looked into the Doctor's light blue eyes and saw the desperation behind them. He needed his words to be true. He was on the brink.
"Doctor, those lights are flashing at a very alarming pace." Twilight said, worried that the Doctor might be putting them into a position to explode. It had happened before. In fact, it seemed to be a weekly thing with them.
"Those? Those are just the .... the lights that tell us when we're in danger of hitting something!"
"Hit the breaks!"
"There are none!"
"But River said!"
"River doesn't own the TARDIS!"
"FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE, IT'S THIS BUTTON!" And with words, Twilight slammed the button that the Doctor's very unusual friend had said were the emergency breaks, screaming.
And then it all came to a standstill on the outside. The TARDIS, had indeed been about to hit something, and as it was it
still bumped into the other TARDIS. Anypony looking up would've seen a very strange sight indeed. Two hovering police boxes in the sky, side by side and moving slowly towards Celestia's sunset.
But inside the TARDIS with Twilight in it, the two things not bolted in place were thrown against the railing. Even with the inertia dampeners, it was still a heck of a jolt, and there bodies were in pain.
"Oh, that hurt more than expected." Moaned the Doctor
"And of course only you would've expected this."
The Doctor pushed himself onto hooves and stumbled to the console.
"We need a visual on that TARDIS! I wonder what form it took. I mean, it's chameleon circuit can't be faulty too!"
Twilight was content to just stay on the ground and not moving. Her limbs had taken the brunt of the force, and they were all tingly. Definitely best to just say on the floor. for the time being.
"You'll have to tell me, as I'm not moving an inch until I can feel all of my legs."
"Twilight, you might want to reconsider that."
"And can I ask why?" Came the ever-so-subtle sarcastic response. Of course it was lost on the Doctor.
"Because I need you to tell me the odds of another chameleon board failing on a TARDIS."
"I wouldn't know, because I don't know the statistics of the failure rate of the board is. But with what you've told me, about a million to one."
"Then what about a failure of the chameleon board in a police box form."
"What!? I'm getting up!"
The Doctor chuckled despite the situation.
"I'm going to try to hail them."
//{0}\
Inside the other TARDIS (This is just getting confusing)
"Blast it all! They're hailing us!" The Doctor cried out in annoyance.
"Hailing? Who talks like that anymore?" Noticing the look the Doctor threw her way, Isabell backpedaled.
"Not helping, I know."
"We've got to answer them or they'll know that somethings up! I can't do this right now!"
"Oh, for the love of god. I'll do it." She gave the Doctor her best "you owe me big time' look and sighed. "Which button is it?"
"That one."
Pushing the button, they , sounding completely different from the Doctor having the nervous break-down.
"Hello? Is anyone reading me over there? This is TARDIS... well, to be honest I've forgotten the designation code. But still this is the original TARDIS to this universe! Can I talk to my alternant?" He then spoke to somebody(pony?) off screen. "Alternant! I just made that up on the spot! Oh, this is exciting!"
The Doctor in the TARDIS with Isabell promptly fainted. Isabell just sighed, and moved into the view of the camera.
"Oh, hello! Um, you're a mare! Am I really a girl in another universe? I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. It's an interesting concept."
"No, I'm not the Doctor, but I'm his companion. Does the Doctor get off topic in this universe as he did in mine?"
Off screen there came a "Yes!" followed by laughter.
"I do not! But back to the matter at hand. Is my double there, and may I speak to him?"
"Um, yes he's here, but he's also... occupied at the moment."
"Occupied? How so? He's just broken the Universe, and he's occupied?"
"By occupied I mean fainted. He's worried that we'll be taken into your judicial system for not belonging to your universe." The thought suddenly seemed silly to Isabell. But it was better safe than sorry
"That won't happen, will it?"
"Oh no, it won't this planet hasn't achieved space-travel yet, lest quantum physics yet. But they do have magic. And they will use it if you're not friendly. But you should be doubles of me and Twilight, so I don't think that it will be to much of a problem."
"Doubles? But with an alternate universe, there could be countless possibilities of alternate realities. How can you be so sure that we're like you?"
But the voice came from two different sources. One of them was Isabell, and the other was ...
"Twilight, thank you for confirming my suspicion. That is why I am so sure that the reality that you come from is like this one. That, and you're ponies."
"But we weren't always ponies."
"Humans?"
Stunned silence.
"What? How do you know about humans?"
"Time lord, my friend. I have a few secrets that are mine to keep still."
"Fine then. But can we get out of the TARDIS's and meet face to face. I'm sure that you want to talk to the Doctor whenever he wakes up."
"Absolutely. In fact, I have just the place. Twilight, remember the waterfall in the caves below Manehattan?"
"The one with the bio-luminous algae?"
"That's the one! Now. Um, what did you say your name was?"
"I didn't say, but it's Isabell."
"Isabell? That's a funny name, but it will do. Alrighty then! Isabell, I need you to find a light green button on the control panel. Have you found it?"
"Yes."
"Good, don't touch that button. Ever. I don't know what it did in your universe, but it has devastating consequences if you press it. I want you to press the light blue button directly below it. This takes off the parking break and allows me to drag you to the cave. See you in about 5 minutes."
And with those parting words, he cut off the transmission.
In their TARDIS, Twilight asked the doctor something.
"Doesn't that button just make coffee?"
"Wellll, yes."
"That's not deadly at all!"
"Have you seen Pinkie with coffee?"
"Point taken. Good call."
Switching TARDIS's
Isabell glanced at the Doctor, trying to hold back tears.
"Will we ever get back home?"
//{0}\
Will the Original Doctor Stand Up Please?
My GPS Doesn't Do Other Planets
In the once human’s TARDIS Isabell was trying to wake up the Doctor. He had always been a heavy sleeper, and it seems that being turned into a pony, or pegasis didn’t change that fact.
It probably didn’t help that he wasn’t really asleep, he had fainted.
“Doctor, time to wake up. We’ve got an appointment to keep.” She said softely.
No reaction from the Doctor.
“Doctor, you need to get up!” She said, albeit louder.
Murmurings from the light brown pony.
“Doctor!” She nearly yelled right in his ear.
“I’m up! I’m up! What’s the matter?” He shouted, sitting upright so fast that he managed to knock Isabell down the stairs, and out of view.
“Nothing, besides a bruised leg.”
“Oohhh, sorry about that. Besides, where did you think of the brilliant idea of yelling in my ear?”
“I-”
“Doesn’t matter. Can I tell you something Isabell? I just had one heckova dream. I dreamed that we had broken the law of thought and ended up in a magical universe! Isn’t that something else?”
Isabell walked back up the stairs.
“I also dreamed that, you’ll never believe this, that we were turned... into.... ponies...
Oh.”
Oh indeed. Isabell had just walked into the Doctor’s field of view.
“Ya still think that it was a dream?” Isabell said, sarcasm dripping from her words.
“Noooo, not now I don’t.” The Doctor said, trying to absorb the information that his mind was receiving. “May I ask why we are moving?”
“Oh, the other Doctor’s taking us to an underground cave so we can meet face to face, instead of on that small screen. How designed this anyway?”
He skipped the question. “What do you mean taking us to an underground cave? He could be taking us to a governmental facility!” He said frantically.
“Calm down. While you were sleeping, I actually learned something about this planet. The native species are indeed ponies, and they have a pretty good structured government going on, but they haven’t achieved space travel yet. And that they haven’t made first contact with any alien species, but that’s only due to your alterant’s hard work.”
“Well, I suppose that’s good to hear. But are you sure that he’s taking us where he said he is?” Came the hesitant reply.
“Absolutely. If we’re doubles of each other, that means that I should trust him the same way that I trust you!”
“Isabell, I’m a time-lord, and that makes no sense. Please elaborate a little more.”
“Well, your double-”
Isabell went on about all the Doctor had missed while he was asleep, which was surprisingly a lot.
And the two traveller were completely unaware of the trouble that they were causing the other ponies in the other blue police box.
//{0}\
“Doctor!” Yelled Twilight.
“Yes, I know there’s a problem! Now just let me fix it!”
Yes indeed there was a problem. The TARDIS was shooting sparks out of center console, horribly loud noises were being made by the center.... thing that goes up and down, and a fire had somehow managed to break out on the sofa.
“What’s gone wrong now? What did you do this time!” Twilight shouted over the noise.
Now, to be fair, most of the time it was his fault, but Twilight had jumped the gun on this one.
“Why is everything always my fault? It’s not like you’ve never done anything wrong.” He yelled back, trying to find out what was wrong among the millions of buttons and screens on the console. A feat made even harder than usual with all the chaos going on.
“Then what’s the matter with the TARDIS!”
“I don’t know! Give me a minute! Oh, nevermind about the minute part. What I’m seeing is that.... what?”
“Doctor, tell me why we’re exploding all of the sudden!”
“The other TARDIS is pulling us off course! We can’t compete with the other engine! But I can do this!”
And with those words, he flipped a couple of switches, pushed several buttons, and, with a flourish, slammed a switch back into it’s cradle.
The exploding stopped.
Stopping to catch her breath, Twilight glared at the Doctor, breathing heavily. The Doctor actually noticed the glare, which is almost unheard of.
“Don’t give me that look, Miss. Twilight Sparkle. I was simply a victim of circumstances.” He said, acting shocked.
“Fine. I’ll give you that. But the part about the other TARDIS pulling us off course. I thought that they were exactly identical?”
“They are... Why?”
“Then why is it stronger than us?” Asked Twilight.
“Oh. That. You see, the time-space vortex is like a whirlpool. We can go with or against the current whenever we want because we have a very powerful engine. Butttt, whenever we get an equally powerfull engine pulling in the opposite direction-” He faded off, to give Twilight the opportunity to jump in.
“-Then the two go in the direction of the metaphorical current?”
“Exactly!” He said, happy that someone else got it.
“Can you tell where we’re headed?”
“Maybe.” He goes off to the main screen. All it currently showed was static. “Thats strange. It’s never done that before. Must be the other TARDIS messing with the Inter-Universal locator.”
“Hows that?” Came the question.
“Well, they’re both operating on the same wavelength, and we’re getting feedback from each other.” The Doctor explained.
A low tuned ‘thud’ resounded throughout the TARDIS.
“Not that it matters, we can just check outside! The atmospheric reader is still working, so that’s okay.” He broke off, humming something. “Ah! Yes, it appears that the gaseous mixture of gases is tolerable. It might smell a little like rotten eggs, but that’s about it.”
He turned and started to trot down to the doors, whistling that same song he had been humming earlier. Twilight was sure that she had heard it before, yet she was positive that it was unlike anything else.
Shrugging as only a pony could, she sighed, and started after the Doctor. Such were the things that happened when a time-lord was around.
And as soon as nopony was around to see it, the screen flickered, and settled on a planet. One so very far away from Equestria. One that was simply designated X3-42.
Others called it Infernum.
At least, those that managed to survive.
//{0}\
The doors opened, blasting Isabell and the Doctor with hot, gritty air that smelled of sulfur. Isabell glanced around and stated the obvious.
“This isn’t a cave.” she said, puzzlement creeping into her voice.
Her puzzlement was short lived, as her attention was captured by two ponies, looking remarkably like her and her Doctor, coming towards them, with a blue box behind them.
“ ‘Ello, there!”
Will the Original Doctor Stand Up Please?
River's Song and an Unusual Happenings
Celestia paced across her private quarters. Where was Luna? She had told the royal guards to fetch her at least, what, seven minutes ago!
The door opened and Luna stepped in, shutting the door behind her with her magic.
“What is it Tia? Why hast thou woken me up when thou knows that I need my sleep so that I coulds’t raise the moon when the dawn comes?”
“Luna, tell me, do you remember a pony, a brown pony that came and went in a blue box?” Celestia said, trying to keep the urgency out of her voice, and succeeding, for the most part.
“Yes, of course I do Tia. He came and visited me in my banishment every now and then. He always came and talked me down for the edges of insanity, whenever that danger threatened.” Luna said, confused. Why had Celestia called her down from her room, interrupting her sleep to reminisce?
“Do you also recall the rhyme that we were told as children? The one about the Canterlot Mountain and looking at the sky?” Celestia’s outward calmness was cracking.
“Yes, Tia, I do. Now why, pray tell, have you called me down here when I should be sleeping, if only to talk about friends long gone and a filly’s rhyme.” Luna’s patience was wearing thin.
“Do you remember all of it? All of it Luna? This is very important, so bear with me for a moment, little sister.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Recite it.”
“What?” Luna exclaimed.
“Luna, please recite it for me.”
Luna stared at Tia. Had she finally lost it, ruling for several millennia? It seemed to her that it was best to indulge her for the time being, and to reserve judgement.
“When the backside of the Canterlot Mountain is gone,
Look out for the River’s song.
When the River’s song is here,
Watch out, for the end of him is near.
Look to the sky for the falling rain,
the tears of a pony, who is in pain.
Without that pony in a box,
the evil that feared him will walk.
Listen to the River’s song,
Or else all will be gone.”
Luna finished the rhyme, and contemplated the meaning of it for a moment.
“You know, I never realized why thou would think that it would makith a good children’s rhyme.” She said, looking at Celestia to see if the entire exercise had a point to it.
It did.
“You might not have noticed this yet Luna, but the backside of the Canterlot Mountain has indeed, as it would seem, disappeared. Upon hearing about this, I immediately thought of the rhyme. Tell me, is it all possible that it was meant as a warning, and time has changed its meaning into a children’s rhyme?” Celestia asked her sister, who remembered these sorts of things better the Celestia.
“Tia, could it just be a magical anomaly that the backside of the mountain is gone? I mean, sure it is possible, and would explain why the rhyme is so dark, but no, I don’t think that-”
Luna was interrupted by a commotion outside the Princess’s door.
“Let me through!” Came a mare’s voice, full of authority, and hiding a threatening voice beneath it.
“I’m sorry, but the Princess has instructed us to let no-one through until they’re done.”
“Trust me, sweetie, they’ll want to see me.”
“I can’t let you through, I’m sorry. How did you even get past the entrance guards, Mrs..?”
“Mrs. Riversong. I got past them because the simply weren’t there.”
The conservation continued, but Luna and Celestia weren’t listening to the ongoing argument between the royal guard and Riversong.
“Does thou think?” Luna whispered.
“Think that we’ve misheard the River’s song in the rhyme as when is should be Riversong? Yes, Luna, I do. This can’t be a coincidence. Guards!” Celestia said, raising her voice to be heard through the door on the last word.
“Sorry Princesses, I’ll be escorting Mrs. Riversong out of the Royal grounds, sorry to have disturbed you.” Came the response, the royal guard thinking that he was screwed and was going to lose his job. Eh, newbies can be so insecure.
“No, that won’t be necessary, bring her in please.” Celestia said, before the guard could actually act on his words.
“Princess?” Luna and Celestia waited for a moment, and the guard realized who he was talking to.
“Oh, of course, right away Princesses, of course.” He said, calling through the door.
Then, talking directly to Riversong. “Wait, I’m supposed to go through first!”
And then, talking to himself. “Oh, there goes my job.”
Riversong had gone through the door without the royal guard. In fact, the guard was still at his post turning around to look at Riversong.
Celestia gave him a raised eyebrow before grabbing hold of the door and closing it. The last thing Celestia and Luna saw of the guard was his worried face, and his partner's back shaking, as if laughing.
But matters were about to get much more serious for the two rulers of Equestria.
“Riversong, mind telling me what you’re here for, why you incapacitated the two entrance guards, and why there is a massive part of the mountain missing?” Celestia questioned the newcomer to Canterlot.
Riversong, a manilla colored unicorn smiled at them.
“Oh, sweety, the answer to all three of those questions is quite simple.”
She paused for a moment.
“I’m looking for my husband. Only doesn’t know he’s my husband, so don’t tell him.”
//{0}\
Whooves stepped out of the TARDIS, and glanced around the new planet. The inter-universal locator had wigged out, so they had little to no information on the planet. Which means it was time for the Doctor’s patented ten step, ten second information gathering information plan!
First two seconds- Basic overview. Simple enough in this case. Lots and lots of sand, sorta looks like the those deserts with those big rolling dunes, except these were majorly red, with definitive streaks of green and yellow sand, which suggested that they had formed that way, and that there was little to no wind activity on the surface.
Next two seconds were composed of the smelling and whipping out the sonic screwdriver. Smelling was a bad idea though. When he had told Twilight that he had expected the planet’s surface to smell like sulfur, he hadn’t expected this! It smelled like sulfur all right, but that was in the background. For the most part, it smelled like it had just finished raining, which was impossible since the sand had those definitive streaks in it. Maybe there was a stream nearby, or something to that effect.
And then the next six seconds were purely devoted to sonicing the surroundings to check for anything extremely out of the ordinary. And there indeed was, except that Whooves already knew about this abnormality.
Grabbing Twilight, he steered her towards the other pair of ponies. One brown one, check. One purple pony, check.
“Come on Twilight, time to meet the neighbors, shall we?” The Doctor said to Twilight. Raising his voice, he shouted across the hundred meter gap between the two pairs.
“‘Ello there!”
“Doctor!” Twilight admonished the brown pony.
“What now Twilight?”
“You heard that he fainted, maybe it would be best for us to go slower, to give him a chance to get used to the idea of two of him?” She asked.
“What do you mean, him a chance?”
“Well, my alterant seemed to be handling this better on the screen then your alterant did. He wasn't even on the screen!”
The two continued to bicker at each other like a married couple until they reached the middle ground between the two TARDIS’s. It was now a waiting game to see how long the other party would take to get their nerve up to meet them.
//{0}\
“Doctor. Just stop worrying about it and go and meet them. Or are you going to make me go meet the neighbors all by myself?” Isabell asked, baiting the Doctor.
“Of course not! We are getting back into the TARDIS and leaving. We’ll find somewhere to hide out while I find a way to fix this and get back to our universe!” he exclaimed, slowly backing into the still open TARDIS.
“Well, I’m not, and I’m going to go meet them. They seemed nice on the com.” She said, already heading out towards Twilight and Whooves.
“Isabell you get back here right now! I mean it! I will leave without you!” He shouted after her
//{0}\
“What do you suppose he’s yelling at Doctor?”
“I have no clue Twilight, but I don’t want to get involved in this one.”
//{0}\
Isabell kept right on going, ignoring the Doctor’s yells, and eventually reached the other pair of Doctor and companion.
“Hello there! I’m the Doctor, but for sake of keeping us all sane throughout the course of this, call me Whooves. This is, of course, is Twilight Sparkle. Say hello Twilight.” Whooves said.
“Hello, as the Doctor said, I’m Twilight. It’s a pleasure to meet you, you must be Isabell.”
“I am, and it’s a pleasure to meet you both also. I’m glad we got to meet, but it’s sorta deadened by the means.”
“Ah, yes, about that. You coming in to our universe is sure to create all sorts of problems, but as with all things, the universe will find a way to set things right! And by that, I mean that it will simply get used to having two of two ponies in it.” Whooves said. “Anyhoo, what is your Doctor doing?”
Isabell looked back at her Doctor. It looked like he had gone inside the TARDIS, but was now running towards them at full gallop. He came into audible range.
“EVERYONE MOVE! IT’S A PIT TRAP!” He yelled at them.
The three ponies at the center of the clearing shared a glance. Pit trap? What?
And then all hell broke loose.
In between all the ponies holes had started to open up. This meant that all the sand was starting to pour into said holes and drag down any organism that was unlucky enough to be caught in the current.
“Doctor!”
“Isabell!”
“Twilight?”
“Doctor!”
“Everyone to the sides, quickly!” Shouted the once human Doctor. He had already reached an edge, safe from the sand and was pacing, worrying about the others.
“Doctor, take flight!” Shouted Twilight, how had managed to teleport to the edge right next to the Doctor.
And take flight he did. But instead of flying to safety, he went after Isabell, who was quickly approaching a hole in which the sand was still falling.
He got there.
He grabbed hold of Isabell.
He was pulling.
And then they were gone, underground and in the hole, lost to the world, the world that the two ponies on the surface at least.
