Arrival
The galaxy was ending, and the Doctor didn’t love it as much as usual. Despite having watched the rise and fall of countless civilizations, even planets, the death of a galaxy was still, by far, his favorite. Through the TARDIS’ window, he watched as the final few stars were sucked into the black sphere at the center. As the Doctor watched, the black hole sucked up the last few clouds of nebula. It had a certain grace he had to admire – a certain chaotic elegance. The moon-sized orb contained thousands of planets, billions of civilizations, and billions of stars crunched together into the one, astronomically dense orb. But it wasn’t appealing anymore. Instead of exemplifying the grace of the universe, the fundamental magnificence of space, it was shoving a cold reality in his face. The universe is a dark, cold, empty place.
He watched as the last few bursts of cosmic radiation shot from the orb. Crimson arcs bursting from the sphere like bullets from a mini-gun. Columns of pure energy shooting off in every direction. But, as less and less was being absorbed, the fire rate was quickly decreasing to about one burst per minute.
Sighing, he slowly leaned forward, his head pressed against the glass. Something was missing. The Doctor hated to admit it, but it was true. The universe wasn’t nearly as fun without someone to share it with. He wanted a girl, a human, or anything with a face he could watch gape in amazement! He needed an assistant! However, the search wasn’t going well at all. His searching of every time period, every corner of space had left him with nothing to show other than a few bruises. Not one creature had piqued his interest in the slightest. It was…irritating! Extremely irritating! Why couldn’t someone pop out of nowhere like they usually did?
After letting out another lonely sigh, he turned his attention away from his thoughts and back to reality. Still pulsing with energy, the orb hadn’t moved a bit. But… something didn’t seem right. As the Doctor watched, something seemed…off. It was still completely stable, periodic bursts of energy blasting off the surface in a crimson lightshow.
That’s when he spotted it; in the center of the void-black sphere, a crimson dot was glowing faintly. It seemed completely harmless at first glance, but as he watched, the light grew brighter and brighter, the diameter becoming wider with each second. Right about then was when realization hit him: It was a bolt of superheated particles, and a heavy dose of radiation to boot, hurtling forward at close to the speed of light.
And it was coming straight at him.
Well this isn’t very good.
Rushing to the central terminal, the Doctor quickly became a flurry of switch switching, knob twirling, wibbly-wobbly wiggling, and faucet twisting. He silently cursed to himself, hands flying across the console with centuries of practice. The slow, quiet hum of the TARDIS could be heard, but not as quickly, or as loud as the Doctor wished. It wasn’t meant to make such sudden starts!
Thummm, Thumm, Thumm…
The entire inside of the ship glowed red, increasingly brighter as the deadly burst shot closer.
“Come on…you can do it…! Almost there…!” the Doctor mumbled to his ship, frantically doing anything in his power to speed up the takeoff process.
Thummm…! Thummm…! Thummm..!
The light’s dimming! We’re going to make it! We’re going to make it!
Outside the window, the universe began to fade, the TARDIS beginning its trip to somewhere, anywhere but here…
The bolt hit like a… well, like a burst of cosmic radiation, causing the TARDIS to shake violently as if caught in an earthquake. The Doctor was flung onto his side as sparks shot from the center console like a firecracker, flames jutting out from cracks in the ceiling. Reality twisted like a pretzel, the TARDIS caught between destinations when the cosmic burst hit. It absorbed most of the blast, for better or for worse, and continued with the constant thrumming of the takeoff process.
THUMTHUMTHUMTHUMTHUMTHUM
However, the TARDIS was going crazy, the glass orbs in the center beginning to piston faster than most eyes could keep track of. Everything was enveloped in a brilliant white light, blinding the Doctor in mere moments. Then everything faded.
…
Bloody Hell…
Every muscle in the Doctor’s body ached. A painful throbbing felt throughout his entire body. Even the smallest movement was met with a sharp stab of pain. The Doctor felt extremely aware of his body, and yet at the same time, completely numb. A soft groan escaped his lips, in too much pain to even open his eyes.
What in the world happened? The TARDIS should have become intangible by the time that cosmic burst had hit! Sure, Hawking Radiation was one of the more confusing, random energies out there. Even the Time Lords were a bit fuzzy on it. But was it really possible that some quantum interaction could have allowed the energy to hit?
The whole ordeal was a strange blur, like an abstract painting. The pieces were there, but the Doctor couldn’t make it into one coherent memory. But, he was alive. In addition, he was still himself. Well… his current self, anyways. No regeneration had occurred. His thought process was still exactly the same. He still despised pears. Things were looking good, and yet, something continued to feel off. A simple forgotten, and probably obvious, fact teasing at the edge of his brain. It was most certainly...unsettling.
The Doctor laid where he was for a few minutes, or what he guessed to be a few minutes (Ironically, he always had been bad with time), collecting his bearings and trying to put to order the chaos that was his mind. As the painful throbbing and the blur of post-unconsciousness continued to fade, he began to take note of his surroundings: the light, cool breeze sweeping through his hair, and the soft blanket of grass underneath him.
Two thoughts slammed their way into his mind, taking importance above all else.
Strange, I’m not in the Tardis anymore.
Why am I naked?
The Doctor’s eyes shot open. Foliage surrounded him in all directions. Unusually bright flowers and Ireland green leaves. It was colorful as a rainforest, but not nearly as wet. It faintly reminded him of prehistoric forests, but everything seemed too vivid for it to be. Everything just had this…crisp, fresh feeling to it, so full of life.
But the Doctor had more pressing matters on his mind than the surrounding greenery. He was just slightly more worried about the matter of a muzzle sticking out of his face and into his vision.
Oh my! Well, this is new!
Stunned, the Doctor began lifting his right hand to his face only to find a big, circular hoof now replaced it. He examined said hoof, which finished off a stump of an arm (his stump of an arm). Casting his gaze along the limb, he noticed short, bark-brown fur covered his stump. He checked his other arm and, to his lack of surprise, found another stump. Stumpy, stump stump.
As he examining further, the Doctor should have been frightened of what he discovered, but it was just so terribly fascinating! Somehow, it would seem his body had changed into that of a stallion! Oh, stumpy legs! He couldn’t help but flail his new limbs and let out a giddy giggle. A horse, of all things! How strange!
“Oh my. What do we have here? A new pony in town? How queer!”
“Eep! I mean, um… hello? Who goes there?” the Doctor meeped twisting his head in all directions to locate the source of this new voice, soon becoming distracted by his mane as it brushed over his back and neck and once, even, over his head and eyes. How delightfully odd!
To his left, the foliage shifted, rustling about as someone, or something, walked through it. The Doctor tensed his new muscles, ready to pounce or flee should either be necessary as, from the bush, came another equine, like himself. However, this one appeared female, from the thick eyeliner surrounding her eyes, to the large gold rings of her jewelry, and even her generally more curved figure than his own, but, with that Mohawk, it was slightly hard to tell. She was mainly a light, smoky grey, but with streaks of slate-grey across her fur, including her Mohawk and tail. Strangely enough, she also had a bizarre marking on her rump which resembled a golden sun.
A zebra?
“Why do you stare? Was it something I said?” she - yes, with that voice, the zebra was almost certainly female - asked, a slightly curious tone in her voice.
“Or could it be that blue bump atop your forehead?”
Her voice had a curious singsong quality to it, and the rhyme wasn’t lost on the Doctor. It was very reminiscent of a read-aloud storybook mixed with a hint of an African accent.
“You’re a zebra. A zebra! And you can talk! And I’m a horse! And I can still talk!” the Doctor exclaimed, flailing a hoof in the air with childish excitement.
The zebra let out a hearty giggle, smiling widely. “Oh, you silly, you are not a horse. Your species is an earth pony, of course!”
Earth? Does that mean I’m on earth? Or is it just a synonym for ground? I’m certainly not in London, that’s quite certain.
“An earth pony? Oh, yes, of course! Silly me.”
The Doctor gave another curious glance to his hooves. HOOVES! He had HOOVES! What, in the entire universe, had happened to him while he was out?
“My dear little pony! You don’t look well! Perhaps you should come to my hut, so I can check up on you for a spell?” This zebra seemed honestly concerned. A bit eccentric, yes, but probably harmless. She could probably answer some of his questions, too.
After just a moment of hesitation, he agreed with a small nod of his head. “Alrighty then! But, um, Dear? Could you possibly help me up? I’m not used to this new form of walking at all!” He paused, smirking to himself. “I’m a quadruped! How utterly fascinating!”
The exotic mare gave another little chuckle, quickly trotting over to help the brown-furred Time Lord. With her help, the Doctor finally managed to get onto his fee- Er, no, not feet. Hooves. He managed to get onto his new hooves, knees trembling slightly.
The zebra giggled once more. “Are you sure you are not an overgrown foal? You look about as graceful as an ice-skating mole!”
“Oh be quiet, you!” the Doctor grumbled quietly as he began taking small, tentative steps beside her. Having four legs definitely improved balance, but he constantly found his hoofs out of sync, or even forgetting to move his front two legs entirely! It wasn’t bad - just foreign. Not too unlike regeneration, actually.
After a few minutes of awkward wobbling, he seemed to at least grasp the basics of walking well enough to remove at least some of his focus from his hooves, and ask one of the more important questions on his mind. “So, who exactly are you, anyway?”
“The zebra’s name before you is Zecora; Heading to her den, hidden in the Evergreen flora. I come from a land far, far away, having come to Ponyville for their excellent hay.”
The Doctor couldn’t help but burst into a fit of chuckles. Ponyville? Ponyville! It was like something out of a cheesy cartoon! “And let me-” he was interrupted by another chuckle. “- Guess. You used to live in - heh - FILLYdelphia? Or maybe MANEhatten?” If the Time Lord were still a bipedal, he would probably be rolling around in laughter.
“No, but a decent guess. Both of those town’s lie many leagues to the west.”
That shut the Doctor up pretty quickly, leaving an awkward silence in place of what a second ago was abundant laughter. His eyes didn’t sparkle with tears of laughter, but now with genuine interest and curiosity. After another moment, he finally asked, “Now let me get this straight. Not only this town, but this entire world is inhabited by sentient…” He paused a moment. “Equines?”
Zecora gave a simple, confirming nod, the look on her face a mix of motherly concern and curiosity. Did she have to teach this colt how the sun set at night? However, it was likely just minor amnesia from whatever he had gotten himself into – nothing a good potion wouldn’t fix.
The Doctor became quickly dissolved in the mass of thoughts swarming about his brain like a disturbed beehive. Even for intergalactic space-time travel, this was weird. Really weird. But so invigoratingly fascinating at the same time! In all his years, he had never stumbled upon anything like this.
“Oh dear! This marking upon your rear; its so elegant! You – strange colt – what is your special talent?”
Stumbling forward, the Doctor could only blink stupidly and blush softly. What was this girl doing staring at his rump! All he could manage was an embarrassed “E-e-excuse me?” as he stared at his new companion, eyes wide.
Zecora tilted her head, like a curious cat, prodding his side (flank?) gently with a hoof. Twisting his neck around and chasing his tail for a moment, he finally spotted his rear end.
“Oh! Oh my, look at that! It’s a little hourglass, right on my rump! How curious! You say this - no wait, there is another one on my other side! Fascinating! You say these markings show everybody - no, everypony’s special talent? Intriguing!” Tapping his hoofs eagerly together, he giggles at the thought of humans sharing these markings. That would just look plain silly! “But wait! What’s yours, then? It’s just some squiggly-wiggly lines!”
She smirked, trotted forward a few steps, before darting off into the foliage to her left. “You will soon know what I do,” she called out, tail disappearing into the forest. “But first, follow me. And perhaps tell me something I can call you.”
“Oh yes! Right! Names! Always forget that bit. I’m the Doctor.” He happily chirped, following through the dense forest after the exotic zebra.
“The Doctor? What field do you doctor in? Technology, architecture, or maybe medicine?” She broke ‘medicine’ into three syllables, her accent showing as she said ‘cine.’ But despite this, it sounded perfectly normal coming out of her mouth. Well, muzzle. Snout? No, muzzle. Pigs had snouts; ponies had muzzles.
“Well, not exactly any of those. I’ll explain it to you some other time, alright?”
Zecora gave a simple shrug (How in the world did ponies shrug?) pushing a large, stiff, leafy branch out of her way before leading the two into a crossroad of dirt paths, and to the side…a hut?
“I see you are surprised by my home – holds my bed, potions, and a shelf of very special tomes~!” She happily rhymed, opening up the wooden door for her visitor.
Wow. The zebra’s hut was eerily reminiscent of an African witch-doctor’s hut, and an actual witch's den. Glass vials of every color and shape covered every inch of every shelf, which were placed decoratively around the room. How could Zecora even reach those? Flowers of every species, and a few even the Doctor hadn’t seen, were scattered about, either hanging from the ceiling or in grinding bowls, midway crushed into multicolored powders.
“But… how? How could a person- er, pony- possibly carve out a tree? You can’t use tools seeing as you lack opposable digits, or any digits for that matter, and no acid glands. Well, hopefully no acid glands… And your technology seems, from what I’ve seen so far, middle ages at best! How could you possibly…”
He froze, eyes darting to a nearby table and locking there. Half buried under a few flowers and a decently sized leaf. A simple, leather bound book with a simple, unassuming graphic of a cauldron on the front.
His mind went into overdrive.
A book not only means they have these equines have the technological capabilities to create a book, but they have enough knowledge to fill one! Not only that, but a written language! Amazing! Utterly amazing!
The Doctor couldn’t help himself. Scurrying quickly over to the tome, he cleared the table with his muzzle, letting the flowers drop to the floor so he could examine the book. Out of routine, he quickly fished his reading glasses out of his tail, somehow knowing they were there, and popped them on his muzzle. Tail wagging with excitement.
‘Potions and Brews: Master Edition’.
This is amazing. Utterly amazing! How could these ponies make a book with hoofs? And writing! Do they use their mouths?
Barely able to contain his excitement, the Doctor flipped the front cover open, his eyes instantly widening in surprise. Right there, centered on the inside cover, a neat, purple stamp. ‘Property of the Ponyville Public Library’.
“You have a library!?” He squeaked in amazement, eyes darting to his zebra companion. “T-that’s amazing! That’s BLOODY BRILLANT! I have no idea how you could possibly make a book, let alone enough to fill an entire library, but still! Bloody brilliant!” Hopping up and down, giddy with excitement, the Doctor eagerly flipped page after page. Not reading, but admiring.
With surprising speed, Zecora rushed up to the brown colt and snatched the book away from him. “You are excited! That I can tell! But please, please, sit down until I can figure out what makes you unwell!”
“Unwell? Unwell!? This is the best I’ve felt in centuries!” Before she knew what he was doing, the Doctor was halfway out the door. “Point me to Ponyville and I’ll be out of your hair, you bloody brilliant zebra, you!”
With a hint of trepidation and the strange feeling you get when you know you’re making a huge mistake, Zecora pointed a hoof down the road. Not even stopping to close the door, the Doctor started galloping down the road, leaving a cloud of dust behind him.
“….I like him.” The zebra murmured under her breath, smiling ever so slightly. “Even if he seems a little…dim.”
Watching and documenting every movement from afar, a lone figure smirked to itself. Everything had worked perfectly. The legendary Doctor has arrived in Equestria.
...
The more The Doctor saw of this strange new world, the more he could notice eerie similarities between it and earth. Walking down the soft dirt path, he could see countless examples shared traits – Daisies looked, smelt, felt, and even tasted the same. Quite delicious, as always; Why didn’t humans eat daises, anyway?
On that note, what composed these equine’s diets? Judging by Zecora’s teeth, he doubted they are carnivores, but, it hardly seemed like creatures that intelligent would be content on just nibbling grass. Are there pony chefs? Hrmf. All this thinking about food was getting him hungry.
The Doctor moved his eyes from the flowers in front of his hooves to the surrounding area. He noticed the plant life was thinning just a squick, signaling his steady approach to the exit of the forest. The tree species also seemed to change a smidgen as well – From jagged, angled branches to gentle curves, from clay-sodden, mud brown to more painterly shades of brown and green. Small pinpricks of sunlight shifted into wide patches as they filtered though the magnificent green leaves, polka-dotting the path with splotches of light.
A flash of color caught his attention, his blue eyes shooting up towards the sky with inhuman speed. He was met with the most peculiar sight; a bright cyan smudge spearheading a rainbow, shooting just a few meters above his head. “Blimey! What in the blazes was --” the Doctor yelped in surprise as a strong gust of wind blew through the forest, knocking leaves from branches and the unprepared Doctor on his face. Muzzle. Whatever.
Being assaulted by rainbows. That’s certainly a new one!
After somehow managing to get onto his hooves without anyone’s help, the brown colt turned his head to the sky. A rainbow- Wait. No. That isn’t a rainbow. It’s way to bright, way to vivid! That rainbow isn’t even translucent, almost like it’s a solid! And last time I checked, Rainbows weren’t straight either!
Tracing the length of the peculiar rainbow with his eyes, he quickly spotted that blur of cyan again. It was traveling quickly, there was certainly no doubt about that. But, then again, fast things were hardly rare in the universe. What was really interesting was the trail. Not unlike a comet’s trail, but instead of imitating the color of the body, a vibrant rainbow followed the blur wherever it went.
Could it be an emission of some sort? A smoke trail of sorts, but instead of smog, a cloud of photons? No, that’s not possible, photons would disperse. Mist clouds so thick it creates a spectrum that vivid? No, that isn’t right either; it would still cause a curve…
Well, whatever it was, it was long gone now, even if the Doctor wanted to investigate properly. And besides, it was heading in the same direction as himself; he knew, with his knack for stumbling upon the unusual, it was probably just a matter of time until he uncovered whatever that smudge of blue was. If that didn’t happen, he could always do a quick look-around after he checked out this library.
A library. Brilliant Equines! Oh, I wonder if they have discovered electricity yet? How exciting…
The Doctor smiled himself, instantly forgetting the strange sight as he got lost in all the fantastic possibilities of this new world.
...
The first house the Doctor stumbled upon was similar to Zecora’s, but a smidgen more quaint. It stood just on the boundary of the… what was it called? Whoops, he forgot to ask Zecora for the forest’s name. Anyway – the house and the surrounding area was a stark contrast to the dark gloominess of the almost claustrophobic forest. The image of a pack of wolves surrounding their prey sprung to mind.
More like a cottage then a house, and more like a pet shelter then a cottage, it seemed to be carved out of a tree, just like Zecora’s. But the tree itself was much less menacing; like an overgrown bonsai tree, but not quite. A single, small window and a simple, but somehow elegant wooden door were both guarded by a small garden on either side. But the house didn’t need much decoration, seeing it was, you know, a tree and all. Animals of all sorts scampered on and around it, a few holes drilled in the bark to allow small animals to enter and leave as they please.
Of course, now, out of the forest, the house wasn’t the only thing he spotted. The Doctor could see quite far without trees blocking his sight; and the sight ahead of him was one to behold, indeed. This land seemed to be in a valley of sorts, but much more wide. To put it a tad more accurate, it seemed…sprinkled with mountains. They didn’t seem to form any ranges – just a few to his left, one behind him, ominously towering above the forest, and one to his right-ish. The rightmost one seemed a little odd, a big overhang of rock just there, almost impossib- Wait. It was to far to get a proper look, but the overhang seemed almost man made, glints of gold flashing from the tip of it. Could that be Ponyville?
No, that doesn’t seem right. Instinct told him that, and it was a rare occasion that his instincts were ever off. Besides, the ‘-ville’ implied something much smaller then an… overhanging city of some sort, whatever that was. So where is Ponyville then? Certainly, this house couldn’t be the entirety of a town – that would just be plain silly.
Tracing the path he currently stood on, he followed it with his eyes until it branched off. One path lead over a small bridge – Brilliant! Bridges! – which lead to the cute little cottage from earlier. Resisting his urge to gallop over, bust down the door and have a poke around, the Doctor examined the other split. It seemed to crest over a hill, and what was beyond it, the Doctor couldn’t tell. But hey – If it just lead into another forest, he could always turn back and look over this little abode.
Halfway up the hill, the Doctor began to feel that familiar feeling. His tail twitched with excitement, his new hooves tingled, and he felt a smile creeping across his face. Oh, this was going to be good. Excitedly, he slowly trotted to the top of the hill staring down…
It was almost like a surprise birthday party for the Time Lord. You see, he had, at one point another, met, battled, and/or killed almost every single species in the entire universe. Ever. Sure, he constantly discovered new things about them…but now; he was suddenly dropped into a new world, a new place, full of a new species. A brilliant species, it was absolutely, amazingly, wonderful.
From his perch atop the hill, he could see the entire town. The architecture was surprisingly human; even going so far to say it had a British feel to it. The Doctor had just assumed until this point that all the houses were carved trees, but this just blew his expectations to the moon. If he didn’t know better, it could be human; however, everything was just so much more vibrant. It was like a rainbow just landed on a small town and made it into every child’s wonderland. There even appeared a gingerbread house, for Pete’s sake!
But those were just the passing facts he absorbed; all his focus was not on the town, but the inhabitants. Ponies peacefully trotted in the streets, their fur every known shade of the rainbow. Vibrant reds, neon oranges, simple tans, even a few flashes of pink colored coats were everywhere. More often then not, their mane was a completely different color then their coat, giving them a strangely artistic mix-and-match feel.
Fascinating! Is this their form of fashion? It makes sense, not having clothes and – wait! No, that fancy looking one is wearing a tie, and in that restaurant there are a few dresses…
Dresses on ponies. What a interesting thought!
Fluttering about the town, there was some strange sort of overgrown bird. Gracefully swooping about the town, various baskets or scrolls in their mouths, some even seemed to have some sort of bag slung over them. Domesticated birds, the Doctor guessed. Only after trotting forward a few more meters, Ponyville gave him his second surprise.
“Pegasi!”
After his squeal of delight, the Doctor just couldn’t resist any longer. He ran off in full gallop, towards the woefully unprepared town. And as most of his assistants knew, once a certain Time Lord gets excited, there is just about nothing that could possibly stop him.
...
A lone figure watched the brown colt from nearby tree, grinning to itself. "Oh my, this was going even better then expected!" Nibbling on some fresh popcorn, they could only chuckle in delight. The transition made the Doctor quite the handsome colt, even if his hide was a little bland.
...
Standing in the direct center of town, the Doctor did nothing but try to just take it all in. This was beyond amazing. A lost species, a lost planet – one that even rivaled humanity. Currency was changing hands, a full-blown economy of trade and services. Not only that, but pegasi that had the ability to actually fly – he made a mental note to examine the bone structure of the wings later. It wasn't long before he noticed some ponies with strange protrusions of a horn sprouting from their foreheads. Bloody unicorns! Not long ago, he had passed a market; a market that was thriving and bustling with ponies, each stand selling a different crop. Working agricultural system. By equines. Brilliant.
His train of thought was cut off by one of the most annoying traits of his body. Any body. Hunger. Stupid food! Concentrating again, his eyes landed on yet another strange building. The only tree-house in town, by the looks of it. Much larger then Zecora’s, or the cottage, standing at about four stories high. Heck, it was even one of the bigger buildings in the town. What could possibly be ins-
Errgrggguuurgle….
Frowning, the Doctor shot his stomach a mean look. “Fine then. We can get food. Just be bloody quiet, ‘ya stupid stomach,” he growled, turning back the way he had came. It was just a matter of finding that market again, finding an apple or something some unfortunate guy - err - pony dropped, and getting back to investigating the town.
Gently trotting, the Doctor changed his focus onto the individual buildings as he went along. The majority of them seemed to be shops, with a second floor with what he assumed would be living quarters. It was surprising what an average pony could apparently need, judging by the shops. Instead of words, the shops had simple images that worked just as well. A heart sign in front of what appeared to be a medical facility, a flower in front of a florist, so on. One seemed a tad strange though. Quills and furniture, sold in the same place? Who knew there was a joint market for that?
Errrrrgrrrulllle….
Right. Food. Focus.
Despite his best efforts, the location of the market seemed to elude him. Where had it gone? It was down this street, right? No? Great, now where in bloody hell was he….Okay, maybe down thi—no, that’s wrong too.
This town isn’t even that big! How come I can’t find that market?
The Doctor sighed in a mix of frustration and growing impatience. He wanted to be investigating, deep inside the library by now, not lost and looking for food. He ran a hoof through his mane. Seems like his second encounter with a pony would be asking for directions. Fun.
Spinning around slowly, the brown stallion took in his options. At first glance, a peculiar pink mare seemed like the best choice – She was blabbering away at two other ponies, which were either just trying to ignore her, or just pretending she wasn’t there. Anyone that talkative must know where everything in town happens, right?
When he trotted up to her, however, things got very strange, very fast. The pink pony’s tail twitched softly, then her back knee buckled faintly… and after that, he couldn’t keep track. She just burst into a whirlwind of random movements and spastic flails, body becoming nothing more then a strange blur of movement. The two other pony’s eyes widened to identical, almost ludicrous sizes before darting away like bullets, behind the closest cover they could find.
Flailing faster and faster, the blur became an literal whirlwind of activity, a cloud of dust kicking up at the base of it. It grew bigger and bigger, faster and faster until, just as suddenly as it began, it stopped, just like that. The mare was frozen in the air, hovering for a moment, before falling and landing painfully on her rump. She didn’t seem to mind though, just blinking curiously. “Wowzers! I’ve never had that Pinkie Sense Super Spectacular C-C-C-Combo before! And I’ve had like, every combo ever in forever’s never-ending ever history of forever and ever!”
The Time Lord blinked, rubbing his eyes. Well, this was certainly new, even in this new world full of new news. “Everything alright?” he softly questioned, poking the pink pony’s flank. “You seemed too have some sort of…spasm.”
"Oh silly, don’t worry! It happens to me a lot!” She turned around, a goofy smile on her face – and then she paused, eyes narrowing, like a cat investigating a trapped mouse. The pink pony circled the Doctor, eyeing every detail. As the awkward silence stretched out, she finally stood muzzle to muzzle with him.
“….Your new.” She squeaked.
“LE GAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSP!” The pink pony did a quite dramatic and extremely loud gasp, before jumping in the air. And somehow hovering there. And then shooting off in the opposite direction without even touching the ground, a blur of pink marking her trail.
The Doctor blinked, utterly befuddled. “I hope others will have some less intense reactions.” He muttered hesitantly to himself, scratching the top of his head. What in the world was that? She looked like a slitheen after drinking a gallon of coffee! Time Lord tip of the day: Never give slitheen coffee.
“You learn to get used to her.” A soft, melodic voice came from behind him. Quickly turning around, the Doctor recognized the two mares that pink one was terrorizing from earlier. One was a unicorn, her coat a light shade of toothpaste green and had hair to match. Her rear marking appeared to be some sort of string instrument, a harp perhaps, maybe a lyre.
Wait a moment…that means these ponies have music! And instruments! This is getting more brilliant by the bloody moment!
The other mare, an earth pony, flashed him a warm smile. She had an almost tropical look to her, her dual-colored hair bouncing gently as she trotted up. Some sort of candy treat was her emblem. “Yeah, Lyra is right. Pinkie can be a bit overwhelming at times, but she means well, and she throws great parties, too. Great for my candy shop, with that diet of hers.”
“Anyway, who exactly are you? I’ve never seen you around Ponyville before; You from Canterlot or something?” The green mare, apparently ‘Lyra’, questioned, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly.
Ah! Now there is a familiar question. “I'm the Doctor. Just… dropping in, really.” Now here comes the inevitable response…
“Oh? Well I hope you enjoy your time, then. If you ever feeling a craving for sweets coming along, my shop is just around the corner.” The couple nodded, happily trotting away.
No question on my name? Peculiar.
EeeeErrrrrrrGgggGulleee!
“Wait! Before you two go,” he trotted up besides the duo, “Is there anyplace a person can get food around here? I’m bloody ravenous!”
Lyra froze mid trot. After a moment of silence, she spun around to face him eyes wide and an almost maniacal expression on her face. “Did you just say…person?“ She spun again, this time towards the other mare. “HE SAID PERSON!”
Her apparent friend frowned, bopping Lyra’s head with a hoof. “Not the time for this, Lyra. Don’t want to scare away the tourist.”
The candy pony gave an apologetic smile. “Now, Mr. Doctor, I’m sorry to say that the market closed for the day. And after last week’s parasprite accident, most of the restaurants are closed for the month as they restock.” She scratched her chin. “I would offer you some of ours, but frankly, we are a bit low, too. Oh! Try Rarity!”
“Rarity? What’s a Rarity?”
…
Now hiding atop a cloud, the figure grinned. This was certainly amusing.
