The Fantastic Adventures of Dr. Whooves: The Changeling Princess

by The-Pony-Librarian

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Adventure, Pinkie Pie, Crossover, Doctor Whooves, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 27199

Twilight and Pinkie are in for a big adventure when a certain Timelord crashes into Sugarcube corner

The left wall of Sugarcube corner had been nearly completely demolished by the box, and it was a testament to the skill of the earth-ponies who had constructed the building that it was still standing at all. She shook her head and went to examine the words at the top of the thing that had caused all the havoc.
"Police public call box" she murmured softly, eyes almost glowing with curiosity

Twilight Sparkle is planning on having a relaxing day, but that all changes when a blue police box crashes into Sugarcube corner. Now Twilight, Pinkie, and a strange stallion named the Doctor have to try to save Equestria from a threat disguised as their own beloved ruler.

Currently going through a chapter by chapter rewrite, so apologies for any disconnect between edited and unedited chapters
Chapters currently rewritten:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three

Published 2012-11-19 00:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-22 03:28:38 UTC

Chapter One

Chapter One

In which cold oxen are discussed and Mrs.Cake is left very, very confused

Twilight Sparkle gave a small sigh, walking downstairs at a leisurely pace. She scanned the bookshelf, a slow grin spreading across her face as her intelligent purple eyes spotted a book that she hadn't read in a while. She used her magic to pull it from the shelf. Just think, she could spend her whole day just relaxing and reading a book! It seemed like in Ponyville, there was always one adventure after another, and while she loved running off to stop some crisis with her friends as much as the next pony, she was looking forward to a day of just relaxing.

Applejack was off bucking apples, Rainbow dash had decided to commit the whole day to practicing her latest trick, Fluttershy was helping Zecora identify a mysterious new animal they had discovered, Rarity was getting some specialty fabrics from Canterlot (taking a smitten spike with her) and Pinkie was busy babysitting for the Cakes.Twilight had a whole day with absolutely nothing on her schedule.

No books to organize, no errands to do, no bad guys to defeat.... she smiled and opened the book. She could do whatever she wanted.

But of course that was never the case.

No sooner than she had read the first word, there came a frantic knocking on her door, a pause, then the sound of the door being flung haphazardly open and a certain pink pony barreling into the room.

"Twilight! Twilight! Twilight! A giant box crashed into the shop! I had gotten the twins to sleep when there was this huge BHOOMZOOMSHOOMWHOOOM and I looked out the window and there was a giant blue thingy falling from the sky and then it was like CRASHBABOOMCRUNCH and plowed straight into the side of the shop and I ran outside and there was this weird blue thingy stuck straight through the wall, and it had a bunch of funny looking word on it....what did they say again? Place public cold ox? Something like that, I didn't really get a great look, but anyways, there were some doors on it and I tried to open them, but I couldn't, which was weird...because who wold want to lock up a public cold ox? I mean, it has public right in the name! Unless cold oxen are dangerous of course....I've never met an ox, so I wouldn't know. Have you ever met an ox, Twi? I bet they wouldn't be dangerous. I bet ox are super nice! But I was standing there by the blue thing, and I thought 'well if there's one pony who would know what to do it's Twilight' so I ran straight over here and here I am" Pinkie spouted this all in one breath, gesturing violently with her hooves and more than once nearly whacking twilight in the head. She then looked up at the purple unicorn with bright, expectant eyes. A large crash sounded from behind.
"oh yeah!" she chirped brightly "Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake are here too, the crash woke them up!"

Twilight twisted her head to see the two little ponies wreaking havoc on her immaculate bookshelves, and with a heaved sigh, she said "Well, show me this box of yours Pinkie."

After Pinkie paused to set the Cake twins on her back, she bounced off in the direction of Sugarcube corner, with Twilight trailing cautiously behind like a purple shadow. She hoped this wasn't just something silly, Pinkie had the tendency to get a bit overexcited at times.....like the time that she had thought the attic of Sugarcube Corner was haunted, when in actually Gummy had just gotten stuck in box and was thumping around trying to get out. Twilight chuckled at the memory.

However, as they came up on the bakery, Twilight's eyes widened and she couldn't help but give a small squeak of surprise. Pinkie had indeed been true to her word, and dark blue box was crashed halfway through the left wall of the bakery, still smoking. She supposed that by now she should have learned not to be shocked at things like this anymore, maybe one day she would just look at things like this as normal occurrences. She was certainly a lot less surprised that she would have been two years ago....but of course, she had changed a lot.

A few ponies had gathered around, and looked curiously up at the pair as they approached.

"Don't worry everpony!" Pinkie burbled cheerily at them "Everything is oki doki loki!"

The ponies regarded this with varying degrees of skepticism. Pinkie Pie was a well known figure in Ponyville however, and, for the most part, trusted. The crowd began to disperse. Mares and stallions muttering theories of what was going on to their friends. Twilight was sure that in a couple of hours, rumors would be abound, and the whole town would know at least one of the many varying versions of what had happened that were certain to arise.

"Oki doki loki?" Twilight hissed softly to Pinkie as they walked inside the building, raising an eyebrow "A magical flying box plowed into Sugarcube corner and you say everything is......oh never mind." Twilight rolled her eyes at herself for asking silly questions while something much more important was going on.

The left wall of Sugarcube corner had been nearly completely demolished by the box, and it was a testament to the skill of the earth-ponies who had constructed the building that it was still standing at all. She shook her head and went to examine the words at the top of the thing that had caused all the havoc.

"Police public call box" she murmured softly, eyes almost glowing with curiosity

"Whats a Police, Twi?" Said a bright voice from next to her ear, Twilight squeaked and stumbled backwards, before realizing it was only Pinkie Pie, looking at her curiously, as Pumpkin and Pound squealed fussily on her back. "I bet there's a pony inside or something, or maybe an alien pony from outer space!"

Twilight shook her head, chuckling at Pinkie's insane theories "Why don't you put the little Cakes in their room" She said . She didn't know what was going on, but it could be dangerous, so she didn't want the Cake's children nearby.
Pinkie nodded, bouncing out of the room, and Twilight watched the pink pony go, the small frown on her face showing that she was thinking hard, then turned back to the box. What was that thing? And how had it fallen from the sky? It wasn't even scratched for Celestia's sake!

She climbed on top and tried to open the doors, they wouldn't budge. Then she tried to use magic to force them open, no dice. Snorting with frustration, she gave the box an annoyed kick, willing it to do something, anything.
With a loud creak, the box doors opened, and a brown hoof grasped onto the side pulling upwards. Another hooves emerged, followed by the face of a stallion. Climbing fully out of the box, followed closely by escaping tendrils of smoke, the stallion took stock, mumbling to himself "A bit smokey, but not too much damage..." his voice was slightly muffled by a strange object he held in his mouth, and that, coupled with the speed at which he was mumbling, made the rest of his words incomprehensible. He coughed, waving a hoof to clear the smoke escaping from the inside of the box.

As he did so, his other hoof slipped from under him, and he toppled head over hooves onto the floor, landing on his back and sliding nearly a foot before coming to a stop, head resting a few inches from Twilight's hooves. He looked up at her, rubble-strewn mane slayed messily about his head, front hooves tucked up to his chest, back legs sicking up haphazardly, and grinned.

"Hllluttthhh!" he began brightly, before pausing, brows furrowing briefly, and spitting out the object in his mouth "Pleh!- Hello!"

Twilight stared in utter bewilderment

"You can speak, can you?" the stallion waved a hoof at her.

This seemed to snap Twilight back into reality. She gave a surprised squeal, stumbling backwards into a pile of rubble
"You!" she squeaked, wincing at how shrill her voice was "You're the one who crashed that weird box here!"

"uhhhhh....." The Doctor looked around, still on his back "Yes." he coughed again "Terribly sorry about that. Shame really, it seems nicely decorated.... anyways, I'm the doc-"

"Stop right there" Twilight said, having regained her composure. she used her magic to clear some bits of rubble from her hair then continued "Give me one good reason I shouldn't take you straight to Celestia...I don't know what that flying box is, but..."

She trailed off as the strange stallion leaped to his hooves and ran up to her, examining her horn

"How fascinating!" He said enthusiastically, putting both hooves on her forehead and examining it from all sides "I've never soon anything like it before, channeling telekinetic energy like that" He scooped up the thing he had been holding earlier with his mouth once more and bit down on it, causing it to light up and emit a strange whirring noise. He pointed it at her head

"Would you stop that?!" Twilight shrilled uncomfortably, trying to back away.

The brown stallion continued to talk obliviously "Doesn't seem to be made of Keratin... hmmm...possibly Dentin? like a giant magical tooth! Oooh that would be interesting. Or maybe even bone....." He tapping on her horn with a hoof "My! Is it hollow?!"

"Get... the hay....away from me!" Twilight snapped , using her magic to fling the stallion backwards

"Ow! now what was that for!" the brown stallion said, pulling himself up from the ground and looking hurt.

"That was for crashing your crazy flying box into a bakery!" Twilight snapped "Do you have any idea how many ponies you could have hurt? Thank goodness nopony was in here at the time! And is that all? No, as if crashing into a building weren't rude enough, you go and start examining my horn with your freaky glow light! Does personal space mean anything to you?" Twilight broke off, fuming "Just who Celestia's name are you!"

"I'm the doctor" the stallion said pouting slightly, looking offended "....which I tried to tell you before, for your information, but you wouldn't let me....Who's the rude one now?"

Twilight made an exasperated little noise, temporarily taken aback by being accused of being the impolite one in the situation, before saying "Well then...Doctor....could you please explain what-"

"oh, no, no, no. It's just the Doctor"

Twilight raised an eyebrow "That's what I said."

The Doctor cocked his head "...you did?"

"....yes?" Twilight rolled her eyes. It wasn't that weird for somepony to have the first name of Doctor...it could be a title too of course, like with Doctor Stable, but there were also cases like Nurse Redheart, whose first name was actually Nurse. Of course, it was a little odd that he introduced himself as the Doctor....it wasn't like she went up to ponies telling them she was the Twilight.....but she had bigger things to worry about.

The Doctor cocked his head "Really?....huh...that doesn't happen often. Sorry about that, it's a bit of a force of habit, you see, usually-"

"Look, no offense, but I really don't care" Twilight said

"No, honest, this isn't something that happens every day...like, maybe once every one or two hundred years or so....last time was what...two hundred and twenty seven years?"

"Two hundred and twenty seve-" Twilight began incredulously, before stopping herself "You know what? Nevermind. Doesn't matter. Now tell me....Doctor.... what is that box? and how did it..." she looked at the massive hole in the wall "Do that"

"That's the TARDIS" The Doctor said brightly

"The Tardis" Twilight deadpanned

"It's an acronym, stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, but saying TARDIS is much easier" The doctor explained "I travel in it"

Twilight looked at the box critically"So plowing this thing into buildings is normal for you"

"No" The doctor said "Well...usually..."

"Usually?"

"Oi! Mistakes happen!"

He attempted to walk towards the TARDIS, but ended up tripping over his own hooves. Falling face first onto the ground.

Twilight raised an eyebrow "Having some difficulties?"

"Hey!" The Doctor said, sitting up and looking irritated "You try falling into a rift through time and space and being turned into a horse-thing....What is your species anyways?"

"I'm a pony" Twilight snapped "And you still haven't explained what you're doing he-"

"Tell, me, do I look like a pony to you?"

"What?!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes "It's a simple question, really, do I look like a pony to you? I mean, as far as I can tell, we both have hooves, and a tail, and ears and a muzzle..." He paused, putting a hoof to his face "Your muzzle looks a little shorter that mine feels, but that's probably just because you're female" The Doctor squinted at her "....you are female...right?"

Twilight curled her upper lip "Seriously?"

"....Just making sure!" he replied defensively "That is is fascinating though...you see, usually I don't look like this..."

Twilight's brows furrowed "What in the wide world of Equetria are you talking abou-"

"THERE WAS A PONY IN THE BOX! Whoopie!" Pinkie interrupted, bursting into the room like brightly colored missile. She bounced in circles around the Doctor, mouth running at nearly one thousand miles an hour "What's your name? Whats your favorite color? Do you like parties? How about hats? Do you like parties and hats? Do you like party hats? Do you like cake? Are you an alien? Will you be my friend?" apparently she had prepared a lot of questions for whatever emerged from the box, be it equine or extraterrestrial or even an ox, and wanted answers as fast as possible.
To Twilight's surprise, the Doctor began to answer with nary a pause.

"Ummmmm, The Doctor, Blue, yes, yes, yes, I don't see anything wrong with them, usually, yes, and sure!" The doctor replied in quick succession, apparently catching everything the pink pony had said "What's your name?"

"Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie chirped

"Nice to meet you Miss Pinkie! Do you have Fish Custard here?"

"Ahem!" Twilight said "Sorry to interrupt, but but could you please explain what's going on?"

"You really want to know?" The doctor said "Fine, fine, let me get the TARDIS upright."

He climbed over some rubble to it, and tried to push it into a vertical position. After a few attempts though, it was obvious that he was getting nowhere fast.

"You are hopeless" Twilight said, exasperated, "Here, let me help"

"Give me a break!" The doctor grumbled "Hooves are difficult"

Twilight rolled her eyes and easily lifted the box with her magic, causing he Doctor, who had been leaning against it, to go tumbling head over hooves down the pile of rubble, landing with a thump.

"Oooh! ooh!" Pinkie said brightly "That looks like fun!" She threw herself headlong down the broken peices of wall, tumbling downwards and thumping into the back of the TARDIS.

Twilight sighed....she would have to do this the hard way. Picking both of them up with her magic, she trotted outside to the front of the TARDIS "Come on!" she said briskly "Explanation, now." She set them down on on the ground and gave the doctor a shove towards the blue box with her magic.

The brown stallion shot her an indignant look " Sheeh! You could of just asked..... Miss..... hmmm...." He trailed off "I don't believe I know your name"

"Later!" Twilight said "Just do whatever you are going to do with your TARDIS thing and explain how it crashed into a bakery" She motioned with her head

After grumbling a bit, the Doctor finally unlocked the doors of the TARDIS, pushing them open with a creak.

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when a familiar voice asked slowly

"Twilight, Pinkie.....what happened to the bakery?"

Twilight whirled to see a blue pony with a swirly pink mane looking at her with wide eyes

"M-Mrs.Cake!" Twilight stammered "I can explain..."

"Well! Come along!" The Doctor's voice came out from....Inside the tiny box? "I thought you were the one who wanted us to hurry" A pair of hooves pulled Twilight into the box, leaving the purple unicorn only enough time to shout "I promise I'll fix it!" before she had been dragged inside and the doors had closed.

Twilight whirled on the Doctor, half-shouting "What the ha-" before the words died in her throat. Jaw slack, she looked around what had appeared to be a tiny box, any hopes of having a relaxing day evaporating like forgotten magic in the wind.

Author's Note

I would really appreciate any feedback on how you like the rewrite

Chapter Two

Chapter Two
In which some suspicious characters are introduced, and Twilight comes up with a plan

As the purple unicorn was pulled into the box, and the doors shut, a completely normal looking pony watched from nearby, eyes narrowing. Giving a snarl of frustration, it opened it's wings and beat them, flying north.....the mistress would not be happy about this.

Meanwhile, inside the box Twilight looked about with fascination, eyes scanning across the conlsole room curiously. It was certainly impressive. She had seen dimensional distortion spells before, there were quite a few in Canterlot Castle in fact....rooms that were just a little to long and wide to fit within their walls..... but she had never seen anything done to this scale

"What sort of spell was used to make this?" She asked, trotting around the button covered panels in the center of the room "This is some heavy duty dimensional distortion.....You'd need a team of unicorns, and well trained ones at that...."

"Not magic" The doctor replied "Technology......."

Twilight hummed musingly in response, looking around thoughtfully "How fascinating..."

The Doctor wrinkled his brows, looking at her with mild surprise "I say.... you seem to be handling this rather well"

Twilight raised an eyebrow "Frankly? I've seen a lot stranger than this..."

The purple unicorn might have not be yet incapable of being surprised, but she was certainly no tenderhoof when it came to the...unusual. She had gone toe to toe with a god of chaos after all.

The Doctor cocked his head quizzically "So you're telling me you aren't even a little stunned by this?"

Twilight shrugged "Not really"

"Even If I told you that it can into space? I mean, I know the TARDIS is a little burnt...and smokey..but still"

"So can Luna" Twilight said. Celestia had told her of how, in the earlier days of their reign, Luna would escape to the moon for solace....There were even some mares tales of the lunar alicorn having an enchanted lasso that she used to rope the orbiting rock and bring it so close to the planets surface that a pegasus could fly there and back....but Twilight was a lot more skeptical about that.

"And I fight evil beings that are bent on destroying the universe?" the Doctor continued.

"That's practicably a hobby for me"

"and it travels through time?" he had an air of confidence when he said that. Time Travel tends to impress.

"Sorry to burst your bubble" Twilight said "But I've done that too"

Maybe she was acting a little more unimpressed than she actually felt, but this stallion had just crashed into Sugarcube corner, so she wasn't about to go. Oohing and Ahhing over his fancy machine...no matter how advanced the dimensional distortion on it was....

The doctor whistled softly, raising a brow "My, my, I expect you have some stories to tell...... Miss....What is your name again?"

"Twilight" The purple unicorn said "Twilight Sparkle"

"Don't like it" The doctor said dismissively "much to long and unwieldy"

"What?"

"How about I call you Sparky instead?" he suggested brightly "That has a nice ring to it"

"You are not calling me Sparky!" Twilight bristled

"Sparks?" he tried again.

"No!" Twilight said, with more force

"Sparkle?"

Twilight just shot him a withering look.

"Sparkler?"

Twilight relented with a heavy sigh

" You know what? Whatever." she grumbled "Call me what you like. But could you please tell me why you're here. Crashing.... Into buildings?"

"Oh, well that's simple enough" The Doctor said "The TARDIS brought me here"

"Because...?" Twilight prompted slowly. Getting a straight answer from this guy was like pulling teeth.

"Well, she fell through a dimensional rift, and then crash landed here"

"But why here?" Twilight said, "You said the TARDIS brought you here. Why did it bring you here specifically"

"She" the brown stallion corrected

".....She?"

"The TARDIS" the Doctor clarified, looking completely serious "is a 'she', not an 'it', that's really quite rude you know" the doctor then proceeded to give her the stern look a parent might give a naughty filly.

"Seriously." Twilight said, face expressionless.

"Well of course I'm serious!"

Twilight gritted her teeth "why did she bring you here then?" she asked, fighting to keep her voice even.

"Oh" the Doctor said "Probably because some sort of world-ending crisis will be going on soon"

"Oh" Twilight said sarcastically "I should have guessed"

If it weren't for the the TARDIS, she already would have dismissed this "Doctor" as a highly creative nutburger. In fact....she was pretty close to dismissing him a nutburger even with the technologically advanced blue box staring her in the face.

"Have you seen anything weird lately, strange ships in the sky? Scary cracks in your wall? Stars going out? Odd plants? Angel statues?" The Doctor asked, gesturing with a hoof to indicate the nearly infinite number of possibilities.

Twilight rubbed her face with a hoof, groaning. This guy was a loon. A complete, and total fruitcake... maybe he had stolen the ship from some experimental magic technology research facility... that would explain a lot actually, including his seeming inability to pilot it. She was about to reply when a sudden thought hit her.

"Where's Pinkie?" she asked, worry creeping into her voice.

"Oh yes Pinkie!" The Doctor said "Last I saw she was heading towards the swim-"

Something large and soaked with water flew into her ,shouting happily "DID SOMEONE SAY PINKIE PIE?"

Twilight flew into the doctor, propelled by a dripping wet and very enthusiastic Pinkie. All three landed in a heap of fur and hooves.

"-ing pool.." the doctor finished "But I guess that doesn't matter now because she's right here"

Twilight got to get feet, fur damp, and her mane in disarray. That settled it. She needed to get this madpony to Celestia.....Unfortunately, this would probably prove more difficult than it sounded. Being as obviously crazy as he was, the Doctor was probably impervious to simple commands.

The purple unicorn bit her lip thoughtfully, before a small smile came to her face as an idea crept into her mind. The Doctor said he was here to stop a crisis, right? Well...that could be arranged, or, at least, a fake crisis could.

It had to be good enough to fool Pinkie too though, since she wouldn't have an opportunity to explain it to her....Twilight began stitching together a plan. She felt a small twinge of guilt at lying, but quickly brushed it away. This pony had just crashed his....if he were to be believed....spaceship into a building, and was most likely insane....he had been saying that he hadn't always been a pony, after all. Celestia would want to see this, and if this was the way to get him to her....well...
Concentrating, she pictured one of the many scrolls she had around the library in her mind and lit up her horn making it appear in front of her with a small pop.

Feigning confusion, Twilight slowly reached out, and picked it up. Widening her eyes in false surprise "It's from Princess Luna..."

"Oooh!" Pinkie Pie enthused.

Twilight, still faking a bewildered expression, opened the scroll and began to read. As she pretended to scan her heliotrope eyes over the blank scroll, she let her expression fall from curiosity to concerned uncertainty.
For a final touch, she dropped the scroll softly to the ground from her magic. Looking at it with brows furrowed and mouth slightly open.

"Twilight?" Pinkie asked questioningly, tilting her head

"Everything alright Miss.Sparkle?" the Doctor asked amiably

"Princess Luna, said that I should come to Canterlot immediately" she replied softly, voice filled with disquiet "She said...that it was about Celestia"

She was met by a blank gaze from the brown earth pony, and after a moment of confusion, realization dawned on her
"You have no idea who I'm talking about, do you?" she deadpanned.

"Not the foggiest" The doctor replied.

Twilight blinked a few times. He didn't know who the princesses were. Of course. Well, if she wanted him to fall for her fake crisis, she would have to give some explanation on them...

"Well" she started uncertainty "There are two princesses who-"

"Wait!" Pinkie broke in loudly "Can I tell the story? Huh Twilight? Can I? Can I?"

"Yes Pinkie" Twilight sighed, using all her patience "You can tell the story"

"Yippie! Sooooooooooooo, once upon there were two Princesses who controlled the sun and the moon! They used the Elements of Harmony to defeat that meanie pants Discord and became rulers of Equestria. Then one day Luna, who controlled the moon was like" Here she took on a comically deep 'evil' voice that sounded nothing like Luna's, even when she had been Nightmare moon "'SISTER! I WISHETH MY NIGHT TO LAST LONGER' [/b]and Celesta was like 'no', so then Luna turned into BLACK SNOOTY and was like 'THE NIGHT WILL LAST FOREVER MUAHAHA' so then Celesta chucked her into space and she stayed on the moon until around a year or two ago when she came back down and everypony defeated her. ANNNNND THEEEEEEEN-"

Twilight clapped a hoof over Pinkie Pie's mouth, effectively cutting off Pinkie Pie Story Time.

"Basically, Celestia and Luna are the rulers of Equestria, they raise the sun and the moon, and I'm Celestia's student. Got that?" suddenly, she jerked her hoof away from Pinkie's mouth with a yelp of "Did you just lick me?!"

Pinkie nodded happily

Twilight stared at her for a good ten seconds before shaking her head and turning back to the Doctor, wiping her hoof on her flank "Did you catch all that?"

"Yes, yes I think so" The Doctor said, going over to the controls of the TARDIS and trying in vain to adjust them with hooves "You need to get to Canterlot...weird name, Canterlot......to see what's wrong with the Ruler of....what was it...Equestria? Yes yes, that's it! Who is also your Mentor. Where is Canterlot anyways?"

"It's just north of Ponyville and a bit to the east. Now I have to go and see whats going on" Twilight trotted purposefully towards the door counting down in her head 'three.....two.......one....'

"Oh no you don't! I was brought here because I was needed here, and it seems like something fishy is going with your princess Celestina"

"Celestia."

"Close enough" the Doctor brushed her off "Either way, I'm coming with you"

Twilight faked reluctance "I really think that Pinkie and I can handle it...."

"Too late" the Doctor continued to mess with the control panel, with minimal levels of success "I've made up my mind"

"Fine...." Twilight sighed "You can come along...but we have to go"

She began to trot towards the door.

"Wait, wait, wait!" The Doctor held up a hoof for her to stop "I've still got to get these controls...."

"I don't really think we have time for tha-"

The Doctor cut her off with a laugh "Don't have time for this? Even when it can take you straight to Canterlo- Here, Twilight would you hold that lever down for me?- No, not that lever....Well...not unless you want to destroy us all. Now Pinkie, if you would just push that button right over there..."

Holding down several controls, Twilight watched the Doctor scurry busily around the console with abject confusion "What exactly are we- EEEEEEEE!"

Twilight squealed in shock as inside of the TARDIS jolted violently, nearly throwing her onto the ground as a strange noise filled her ears. Then, just as suddenly it stopped. The Doctor grinned wildly at her "Open the door!"

Brows furrowed, Twilight trotted over to the blue doors and pushed them open, eyes widening as she looked outside

"Canterlot?" she hooted in surprise, confusion flashing across her face as she looked at the ivory and gold buildings around her

"Well, well" the Doctor chuckled, looking pleased with himself "Look who's finally impressed? Now along Sparky. Don't you have a princess to talk to?"

Twilight blinked "I....I....Let's go talk to the Princess"

They walked through the streets of Canterlot, passing all sorts of fancy Canterlot ponies. As they passed a mare walking her parasprite-sized dog, Pinkie suddenly jumped up and gasped.

Twilight gave a startled yelp, then asked "Pinkie! Whats wrong?"

Pinkie was bouncing up and down in a circle, obviously worked up about something. "You know that mare we just passed?" She asked

Twilight nodded, leaning in.

"She had a pet! and that reminded me of Gummy, and that reminded me that Gummy needs a bath, and that reminded me of meeting you because I was thinking about the same thing when you came to Ponyville and that reminded me of-"

Not willing to risk getting her hoof licked again, Twilight muzzled Pinkie with a stand of glowing magenta magic and said "Pinkie. Can you get to the point?"

"Mhhhhhhmphhh hmmmffff"

Twilight released her magical gag.

"I HAVEN'T THROWN THE DOCTOR A WELCOME TO PONYVILLE PARTY YET!" the pink pony said in a panic

"That's what you freaked out about?" Twilight asked "Can't you can do it when we get back to Ponyville?"

"NOOOO!" Pinkie grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and shook her, hyperventilating "Where's the nearest party supply store?" She leaped up and galloped down a side street.

"Is she always like that?" the Doctor asked

Twilight nodded "Pinkie is pretty serious about her parties..... " She but her lip indecisively, on one hoof, she didn't want her friend to get into any trouble, on the other, she needed to hear what Celestia had to say about the Doctor....she wasn't sure what to make of him anymore. Besides, Pinkie could handle herself on her own for an hour. Finally, she said "We'll find her after we hear what Luna wants"

The pair walked of towards the castle.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, a pink pony bounced down a crowded street of shops, unaware of one completely normal looking pony watching her from the other side of the street. It turned to the pony next to it, nudging it in the ribs "Look, over there. It's that pony, one of the ones that disappeared"

"How did she get over here?"

"How in the Hive's name should I know? Now go tell the mistress we found one of them....I'll take care of her"

"What about the other one? The mistress wanted her specifically"

"We'll deal with that later! Now go!"

As the second pony trotted off, the first put on a cheerful smile and walked up to the vibrant magenta pony, striking up a conversation. As she talked, grinning ear to ear, the pony slowly led her towards a side street, and soon they were lost from sight in the shadows.

Chapter Three

Chapter three
In which some awkward conversations ensue, a bowl of pears is destroyed, and several ponies are not quite as they appear

Twilight walked purposefully down the street, eyes on the castle. She had to get to Celestia, that was all she had to do, get to Celestia. The princess would know what to do.

She heard a whirring sound from behind her and whirled around, the Doctor still had that...What had he called it? Sonic screwdriver? In his mouth, and was using it to examine a magical amulet in a shop window.

"You still have that thing?!" she asked incredulously "You can't just go around carrying it around in your mouth all the time, it's weird"

"Well where am I supposed to put it?" the Doctor grumbled in reply

"Here" Twilight said in exasperation,calling on her magic. Her light blue saddlebag appeared with a pop and, unlatching the pink star clip holding the flap down, she used her magic to stuff the sonic screwdriver inside. Twilight then plunked the saddlebags onto her back, thanking the stars she didn't have to listen to that tool's noise anymore. The Doctor had been messing around with it nearly the entire walk, and it had been driving her up the wall.

She quickly realized however that the Doctor had a much more effective weapon of distraction. Deprived of his weird flashlight thing....he was chattering almost as much as Pinkie Pie.

"So, you were able to teleport those bags right then, can all unicorns do that?"

Twilight gave a noncommittal shrug, she didn't enjoy telling other ponies about her magical talent "Most unicorns can levitate objects, as well as do spells specific to their talents....I....know a little more magic than most"

The Doctor nodded "Alright, what about the other types of ponies...I know there's unicorns like you, and ponies like me and Pinkie Pie.....but then I've also seen a handful of winged ponies flying around! Although, while I'm on the topic. They really shouldn't be able to do that, with their wingspan to body ratio....do they have air-bladders or something? Hollowed bones would help too....but then there's the issue of how these big of variations can exist between members of a single species. I mean, I'm assuming by the fact you refer to all of these variations as ponies that they're the same species...of course, 'pony' could be just an overarching classification, like 'primate', and all of you could be completely different species! Can the different types of ponies reproduce with one another?"

"We're all the same species" Twilight said tiredly,slightly peeved at being pulled from trying to gather her thoughts....again. "The larger variations are influenced by magic. In pegasai, it's expressed as wings, and gives them the ability to fly and manipulate clouds. In unicorns it's expressed through a horn, which it can be channeled directly through, and in earth ponies it is expressed through physical strength that a pony of their size normally wouldn't have, as well as the ability to sense the latent magic within plants and animals, and form a special connection with it. This is how they grow things so well, or...to an extent....communicate with animals. Occasionally these talents can be expressed in different breeds, like a unicorn with some ability to manipulate clouds, or a pegasus that can connect with animals, but it is very rare."

"Are ponies the only creatures able to use this magic then?"

Twilight blinked in surprise at the continued questions, she usually didn't get the chance to talk this much about her feild of expertise "Actually, no. It varies a lot depending on the species. Some, like cows and sheep, only have latent magic. Others, such as Diamond Dogs and Griffons have active magic, that give them the ability to do things like fly, or tunnel through large amounts of soil and rock without tiring....." as Twilight continued to elaborate, she found the corners of her lips tugging upwards slightly "You know, I don't get many questions about magic. Many ponies just aren't very interested in it, even though it's such a rich subject"

"Well, you could say I have a natural curiosity" The Doctor flashed her a grin.

Twilight was about to smile back, but quickly stifled it. She had to remember that this pony had crashed into a building, with possibly stolen technology, and was quite probably insane. She turned to look back in the direction of the castle, saying curtly "We should try to hurry"

Of course, that only lasted around half a minute.

"Twilight Amber Sparkle!" A voice called from behind her

Twilight stiffened, slowly turned around, and was engulfed by a ginormous bear-hug

"Thinking of running of without saying hello to your older brother?" Shining Armour said in mock disappointment, shaking his head before grinning "I'm surprised in you, Twiley!"

"Shining!" Twilight beamed, grinning at her older brother and the pink alicorn at his side. It was always nice to see her brother and sister-in-law-

"Twiley?" broke in a new voice "You can't stand 'sparky' but you're fine with that?"

......Except when she had to explain the presence of the stallion accompanying her.

"Who is this?" Shining Armour asked curiously.The purple unicorn winced. Enter Shining Armour's protective-older-brother mode. He was usually pretty laid back, but if he suspected a colt had his eyes on his little sister......

"Oh I'm the Doc-"

"His name is um... Timeturner." Twilight interrupted quickly "We're friends....Pinkie... erm.... introduced him to me"

Okay, good. Technically not lying....except maybe about the friends part.

"He just...dropped....into Ponyville a little while ago"

Ouch. Maybe a bit overly accurate there.

Shining Armour nodded slowly, still looking a bit unconvinced. Twilight turned to the Doctor "Timeturner, this is Shining Armour and Princess Cadence" she said, narrowing her eyes pointedly at the brown stallion. If looks could kill, he would be regenerating.

"Oh um yes!" the Docter said hurriedly "Lovely to meet you"

Cadence smiled warmly "It's a pleasure to meet you too! Any friend of Twilight is a friend of ours"

Shining Armour looked the Doctor up and down for a few seconds, appraising him coolly, before finally saying "Likewise" and sticking a hoof out to shake.

Twilight Sparkle groaned inwardly. There was no way this was going to end well.

The Doctor looked uncomfortably at he hoof, unsure of the logistics of shaking hands with hooves. He furrowed his brows, stymied.

The Doctor stuck it hoof out holding it first above, then to the side, then to the other side of Shining Armour's, before finally giving up, placing his hoof back on the ground, and giving the Captain of the Royal Guard an awkward laugh and a smile instead.

Shining Armour cocked his head. There was a long pause.

"Sooooooo.....What's up with you Shining?" Twilight quickly said, stepping in between the brother and the Doctor while Cadence covered her mouth with a hoof to keep from laughing.

Her brother brightened "Me and Candence are about to leave on government business to Shanghoof. Celestia's orders"

"What for?" twilight asked curiously

"Not sure. We're supposed to be briefed when we get there. Speaking of which...we really should be headed out...Nice seeing you Twilight" He hugged his little sister, before turning to the Doctor with a look of confusion, mixed with what looked like slight concern for the stallion's mental health "And um....Nice meeting you too Timeturner......?"

Twilight resisted the urge to facehoof "Bye Shiny! Good luck in Shanghoof!"

As they walked away, the Doctor muttered "Well that was awkward..."

"You seriously don't even know how to shake hooves?" Twilight deadpanned.

"Hooves are difficult!"

They walked into the castle, past the guards, and Twilight swiftly made her way towards the thrown room. Then she stopped dead, pupils shrinking.

The servant pony who had been trotting busily in front of her suddenly kneeled, as, down the hall, a dark blue figure came in their direction.

"Princess Luna" the pony intoned respectfully. She saw the Doctor's eyes next to her light up with recognition at the name, and winced. This wasn't going to go well.

"Princess Luna?" the Doctor said excitedly "Isn't that the one who wanted to see us?"

Grinning, he waved a hoof at the dark alicorn "Princess Luna! Over here! Hello!"

Twilight tried not to facehoof.

Luna walked towards them, brows furrowed "...Do I know you?" She said slowly to the Doctor.

"Me? Oh, no. Unless you do, in which case that probably hasn't happened to me yet....so try not to tell me to much" he gave her an affable smile "I'm the Doctor"

"And...What exactly do you want?"

"Oh! That! You sent for my friend Miss Sparkle!" the Doctor stepped aside to reveal Twilight, who had been doing her best to hide behind him "You sent for her!"

"Uhh...yes!" Twilight said, laughing nervously "You asked me to come see you...isn't that right?"

She placed extra emphasis on the last three words, pleading to the blue alicorn with her eyes.

"Um, yes!" Luna said, looking just as awkward as Twilight "Yes I did....Here...Come to my chambers where we can...talk...about my message"

Twilight nodded, releasing a little breath of relief. She was surprised Luna hadn't started talking in Old Canterlot like she usually did when she was startled or nervous. The princess was much better at talking in the current dialect now than she had been, but when under pressure, she still tended to revert back to referring to herself as We, adding in extraneous Thees and Thous, and shouting like she was trying to speak to a friend from across the room.

Luna walked down the hallway, fidgeting her wings uncomfortably the entire way. Twilight winced in sympathy, poor Luna was probably very confused by her sudden appearance, not to mention the Doctor's quirkiness.

The dark alicorn paused in the middle of the hall, eyes flickering about.

"Your chambers are that way" Twilight pointed out helpfully.

"Oh....Yes...Of course!" Luna chuckled.

Eventually, they made it to her navy-painted doors, and she opened them up, stepping aside so they could go in. It had a similar layout to most of the quarters in the castle, entering into a sitting room with a counter and a small kitchen to one side, although it was a bit more luxurious, Luna being a princess and all. They sat at the counter, the Doctor taking several tries before finally figuring out how to sit on the stool.

"Soo...." Both Luna and Twilight said simultaneously as wearing twin nervous smiles. There was a long silence

".....uhh.....HAVE SOME FRUIT." the lunar princess said quickly, her horn lighting up with a green aura as she forcefully levitated a bowl of pears towards them.

"YES. FRUIT. I WOULD LOVE SOME FRUIT!" Twilight replied, much too loudly in her. She quickly snatched up a pear with her magic.

The Doctor just looked at the bowl with distaste. Pears...disgusting. "No than-"

He was cut off by a ferocious glare from both Twilight and the Princess. The bowl, still incased in Luna's magic, was shoved towards him.

The Doctor sighed, gritting his teeth. "I mean, of course." he eyed the pile of pale green fruits uneasily. Well...maybe they tasted better in this world.

Picking one up, the Doctor took a hesitant bite, then immediately spit it out, gagging. "Blehh! Eck! Nope! NOPE NOPE NOPE! Still bad. Still, very, very bad. Ew, ew! I can still taste it!"

Luna lost her telekinetic grip on the container of pears, as she turned in startlement to look him, eyes wide. It fell to the counter, ceramic pieces shattering all over.

The Doctor held up a hoof "If...Blegh!...If you'd just excuse me for a minute" he jumped of the stool, nearly falling over in the process, before running to the kitchen sink and rinsing out his mouth.

"I....I'll go get somepony to clean this up" Luna said quickly, as Twilight looked at her apologetically. The princess scurried out of the door, looking relieved to escape the situation. Twilight didn't blame her. As the Doctor walked back to his stool, Twilight turned on him angrily

"What the hay was that for!" She whispered harshly.

"I don't like pears" The Doctor said simply

"Oh really?" Twilight said voice dripping with sarcasm "I couldn't tell"

She ran her hooves in a frazzled manner over her hair, taking a deep breath of air and slowly blowing it out through pursed lips, ears flicking.

"Sparkle?"

"What." Twilight said tiredly.

"Could I have my Sonic Screwdriver back? I like to keep it on hand...or is it hoof?"

Twilight didn't even bother arguing, simply levitating the device out of her bags and dropping in onto the counter with a clatter "You know what? Knock yourself out"

She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hooves. How in Celestia's name had she gotten involved with this crazy stallion?

Meanwhile, in a nearby room, there was a very heated conversation

"What do you mean you found her!?" a harsh voice snapped.

"I'm sorry, I don't know, she just came up to me. With some other strange pony. She said I sent for her" a second voice whimpered in reply "I didn't know what to do! You said my job was only to walk around the castle so nopony would be suspicious of the missing moon princess!"

"Well where is she now?" the first voice hissed silkily, dangerously.

"I left her and the other pony in my chambers..."

There was a harsh crack, the sound of a hoof striking a head.

"Idiot! Do you realize that they could have already waltzed out of there?"

There was a pained little whine "Sorry, mistress"

"Shut up" dripped the first voice contemptuously, before barking "Now go! Tell them to come to the throne room...Princess Celestia would like to speak to them"

Luna walked back into her chambers, eyes uneasy and rubbing a hoof on her forehead. She looked relieved to see Twilight and the Doctor there.

"A servant...a servant will come in a moment to tidy up the spill" she announced, a mite unsteadily

"I'm so sorry about that!" Twilight apologized swiftly "The Doctor...really doesn't like pears"

"No matter" Luna dismissed "Celestia would like to speak to you"

Twilight's eyes shrank down to pinpoints. Celestia wanted to see her...was she in trouble? Was it because the Doctor really was some escaped criminal, and now she was going to be charged for aiding him? A nervous laugh escaped the unicorn's lips "Of course!" she said, putting on an uncertain smile "Why don't we head out Doctor?"

So they went. Twilight wasn't surprised Luna wanted them out. As soon as the door shut, she walked up to the Doctor and hissed "We are going to see the Princess! It's one thing to act completely insane in front of Luna and my brother, but I swear that if you do anything like that in front of Celestia so help me I will turn you into a pear!" Her eyes narrowed as she pressed her face closer to his "Got that?"

Turning on her heel, Twilight walked down the hall and pushed open the doors to the throne room.

"Celestia?" She asked, taking a few hesitant steps in. "Hello?"

The purple unicorn tried to step further in, but was jerked violently back. Growling, she turned her head back and said "What now?" Expecting to see the Doctor behind her, pulling her back.

But he wasn't. The Doctor was behind her alright, but he was a few feet back and off to the left, with all four hooves stuck in a gross greenish substance. It was slowly spreading to cover everything but his head.

"Sparkle?" He asked "Is this normal in your culture?"

Twilight looked at her own hooves, which were similarly stuck to the marbled floor, and the green ooze that was climbing towards her face "No....no this isn't..." she said, shutting her eyes and focusing on her magic, it would be easy enough to blast away, after all. Her horn glowed and shot out beams of energy that hit the green gobbets....and did absolutely nothing.

Then Celestia's face emerged from the shadow, grinning "Gotcha!"

Twilight cocked her head "Celestia...I don't understand..."

Celestia laughed "You, you really haven't figured it out have you? That is too priceless!"

Lavender brows furrowed....Luna acting strangely, Celestia acting like...this, Pinkie not finding them by now, something was nagging at the back of Twilight's mind. The green slime! She had seen it before! The puzzle pieces clicked into place within her mind....

Not-Celestia smirked as she was engulfed in green flames, revealing the hard, black chitin underneath "Hello, faithful student"

She looked a great deal like Chrysalis, being a great deal taller than the regular changeling drones, but was not quite the same. The loose membranes running down her forehead and neck like a mane were a greener shade, hanging nearly to her hooves, her horn was shorter and straighter, and instead of the black crown worn by the queen, this changeling wore a small circlet, almost resembling the tiara worn by Luna and Celestia. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, put was cut off by the Doctor.

"Don't worry. I've got this" he said to her, before turning to the changeling and saying with authority "Name yourelf! Planet of origin, co-ordinades, and species designation according to the universal ratification of the Shadow Proclamation. I do not wish to exchange hostilities, but I need to know what you want with this planet"

The changeling cocked it's head, exchanging glances with Twilight "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?"

Twilight shook her head "Not a clue"

"You aren't Chrysalis. Who are you?"

"I, am Nympha...I see you've met my mother...but I already knew that, didn't I?" the Changeling's face contorted into a snarl "Considering you were the nosy little whelp who caused her to get flung out of Equestria by a wave of magic!"

Twilight gave a small gulp...well this was unfortunate.

"Fortunately for the changeling empire, mother left me as a backup plan. Me and the changelings designated under me were so deep undercover we were not affected by the wave.....However, because of your interference the changeling's who weren't thrown out into the Badlands are left starving in the tunnels of the hive, scrounging for what measly scraps of love they can get since the invasion of Canterlot to get essential provisions failed!" Nympha's angry shout turned soft, dangerous "So in case you were wondering, along with harvesting Canterlot of love for my changelings to feed on, my mission is also very much one of revenge."

"You aren't going to win" Twilight said firmly.

"Wait..." the Doctor said "So these changelings are native to your planet....fascinating!"

Nympha and Twilight ignored him "Do you know how many ponies live in Equestria?" Nympha spat confidently "Every. Single. One. of those ponies, worships and loves Celestia like some god. All their love, feeding me. Even if you had the elements of harmony, you couldn't stop me, and soon I will be powerful enough to kill Celestia myself, taking her power for my own"

"What have you done to her?!"

"Nothing....for now. I sent a minion disguised as you to have spike send her a letter, saying that you were in trouble. She rushed off to go help, not even bothering to bring her royal guards, and stumbled right into my trap. Luna was taken out of the way similarly. Then came the process of nabbing all your friends....oh don't look so horrified, it's more kind than anything you ponies have done to my kind"

"Celestia has tried every possible way to negotiate a treaty with your people, so you can live in harmony with Equestria and the other countries as well as keep your people from starving"

"And give up our autonomy to become part of Equestria's...pardon the irony...Hive Mind? Unlikely" She walked over to the throne and leaned against it, looking contemplatively at her forehoof "Anyhoof, I thought I might lock you up in the labyrinth with your friends....But then I thought, why risk it? So I decided to have a little fun. I might go there myself, take your form maybe, pretend I'm going to rescue them, and then kill them. That would be quite amusing don't you think? To see the looks of relief on your friend's faces turn to horror...to see them die thinking you killed them"

"You wouldn't!" the purple unicorn said, her voice becoming low and dangerous

The changeling grinned "Oh of course not, not without you watching of course, which one to kill first...maybe Pinkie. You would not believe how she talked my ears off when I brought her in, it was insufferable....it would be so amusing to see her reaction though. To see the look in her eyes as she realized what you...or rather, I was going to do to her, that betrayal...."

The room exploded in a burst of magenta magic, the brilliant center emanating from the glowing white eyes of a furious purple unicorn.

Slowly the supernova dissipated, and Nympha laughed "That was too priceless! Don't you know that the material is made to absorb any magic coming from it's captive! You really are dens.....what is he holding in his mouth?"

"Sparkle. Did I ever tell you what the sonic screwdriver can do?" The Doctor asked slowly

"No...." Twilight said slowly, shaky and confused

"Well it can do lot's of things" The Doctor said, activating it with a whir and liquefying their green prisons

"What" Nympha gasped "But..But how?"

"But it's really good at opening doors"

Every door in the throne room simultaneously exploded outward, creating a multitude of slams as they reached the extent they could open and smashed into their restraining walls.

"Run!" the Doctor said, grabbing Twilight's hoof. and pulling her towards the door. They raced out of the room, Twilight pulling together shield to repel any further attacks, as well as any changeling guards. She felt the twinge in her horn, telling her she had over exerted herself with the explosion in the throne room, but ignored it, pumping more power into the barrier. Nympha could have already pulled herself together and begun mounting an attack.

They surged into an empty corridor, throwing themselves into an empty doorway.

The royal library Twilight's mind weakly told her, but she ignored it.

"Twilight" the Doctor said, "What's the quickest way out of here"

"I...I.." Twilight stumbled over the words, head pounding from using too much magic "I don't..."

"Twilight I need you to focus" the brown stallion said, grabbing her by the shoulders, blue eyes drilling into hers "quickest way out of the castle"

Twilight shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts "We're...We're in the Library corridor" she said "Down this corridor, one right turn, through the first doorway on the left and out the other side, left turn, big doors straight ahead."

They took off running again, following Twilight's directions, pushing through the doors, and racing into a courtyard full of royal guards.

Eight pairs of hooves skidded to a halt. Twilight gritted her teeth, took down their shield, and immediately threw all that energy into a teleportation spell. A stab of pain shot through her horn and head.

Both her and the Doctor reappeared outside the palace gate, Twilight blinking away tears

"Come on we've got to go!" she said, bolting off down the street.

Wincing as they came to a thick crowd, Twilight squinted her eyes shut and focused her magic, with a blink and a flash of light, they teleported into a gap in the throng, another instant, and they were teleporting again, and then again. Zigzagging through the crowd in flashes of white and magenta light.

As they finally blinked out of the mass, Twilight stopped briefly, looking off balance, shook her head, then continued to gallop.

A flash of green magical energy came zapping after them, making the hairs on the back of Twilight's neck rise up. She hastily created another shield, head spinning. They were still too far from the TARDIS, she had to slow the guards down. Reaching out with her telekinesis, she toppled one of the roadside stands, fruit spilling everywhere as it crashed against the cobblestones.

Then, like a miracle, she saw the side alley. redoubling their speed, they skidded to a halt in front of the box as they leaped inside.

Chapter Four

For a minute Twilight did nothing, just laying on the cold floor of the time machine in a heap and heaving deep, panting breaths. Finally, her vision stopped swimming, and the purple unicorn staggered to her feet and in the general direction of the door.
"Twilight! Twilight what are you doing?" a brown pony lunged after her, blocking her way.
"Saving my friends!" Twilight's violet eyes flashed as she tried to push past him.
"Twilight you aren't thinking clearly. There are probably hundreds of royal guards surrounding the TARDIS right now, you can't just charge out there. It would be suicide."
"Watch me." she spat "I have magic. I'll be fine. I need to save my friends!"
"We both very well know that if you had magic you would have used it to get past me by now" the Doctor said matter-of-factly "I'm no unicorn expert, but it seems to me that magic requires energy, and energy has to come from somewhere. I doubt you're in a fit state to do much of anything at the moment"
"Don't you get it?" Twilight, fell back to the ground and then staggered determinedly to her hooves once more "If she wanted to kill my friends before, she's a thousand times more likely to now that I've escaped! And if you think I'm going to sit back and rest when the ponies I love are in danger than you have another thing coming! Do you think I care about getting hurt? I don't give a flying feather about royal guards or any of that. My. Friends. Need me. and..and if you think I- I- How do you think I could live myself if I let them get hurt? How?!"
She sat down heavily, as if all the energy had been drained from her, blinking back tears.
"I..." Twilight said softly, answering her own question "I wouldn't be able to"
She was the element of magic after all, the element that couldn't exist without the others. Pinkie AJ, Dash, Shy, Rarity, Spike.....they meant the world to her. More than the world.
"Twilight" the Doctor said, looking straight into her eyes "I'm the Doctor, I've traveled through all of space and time, I've saved hundreds of worlds and countless more lives, and we will get your friends back. That I can promise"
"Pinkie Pie swear?" The words slipped out unbidden, a product of months of habit. Twilight looked down, feeling foalish.
"Whot?" the Doctor said, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side
Twilight shook her head, embarassed "Nothing. It's not a big deal"
"What! No, you can't just leave it at that! You've got to tell me now!" The doctor protested
Twilight shook her head a bit more, face reddening
"C'mon!" the Doctor prompted
"It's something Pinkie taught us, for promises" Twilight finally said "You know, cross your heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in your eye" She did the motions, chest cross, foreleg flap, close eye, then hoof "I guess it's just kind of second nature now..."
She trailed off, The doctor was talking
"Well Twilight, in that case, I Pinkie Pie swear that I will get your friends back. Cross my hearts, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye" Brown hooves copied her movements from earlier, chest cross, foreleg flap, close eye, then hoof.
A small smile formed on Twilight's face. She didn't know what to say.
Whatever frustrations she might have had with the Doctor, she knew right then that he was a good pony. Strange, confusing, infuriating, but undeniably and wholeheartedly good.
And she believed him.
Slowly, Twilight started to get to her hooves, pushing herself from the ground.
"Twilight I wouldn't do that If I were you-"
The world spin sickeningly, blackness overtook the purple mare's vision, and she slumped back to the floor, consciousness fleeing as.....wait....did he say hearts?!
Sense came back to Twilight slowly. She was on the ground. Why? She had fainted! Yes, yes that was it! What had happened? She couldn't remember yet....Probably one of her crazy adventures, that meant that her friends were probably there. She should get up, they would worried about her...Except Rainbow dash. Twilight could just picture her typical insensitive reaction of "Geez I thought you were dead" and then Rarity smacking her for being so impolite. The thought amused her, her friends could be such nuts sometimes. She really should be getting up now though.... she shifted her hooves experimentally. Ohh....maybe AJ had some apples! She could really go for some apples right no-
"Sparkle, are you awake?" a familiar voice interrupted
The surreal bubble of Twilight's half-conscious state popped.
"Please tell me I'm still dreaming" She mumbled, lifting her head slightly and blinking bleary eyes at the TARDIS interior and the brown pony in front of her.
"Oh! You are awake! I thought I heard you moving around a bit" The Doctor said brightly "Everything back in working order? I would ask you how many fingers I'm holding up...but, you know...hooves."
He turned around, and began to shuffle through an assortment of random items from a compartment in the floor,
"You know, Usually it's me who's passing out all over the place after a regeneration it's a bit weird having it the other way around. Not that I'm complaining....dying is usually such a pain with all the coughing up golden smoke and strange cravings and the like...." He shook his head "But, like I was saying, this time I've had none of that.Probably because the change to this pony body was so massive...used all that pesky extra regenerative energy right up!"
He smiled at Twilight, who just stared at him blankly "....What?"
The Doctor just laughed and continued on "In any case, you should probably eat something. Now I knew I had a package of biscuts around there somewhere"
He continued to rummage, casting aside an assortment of strange items in the process.
"Wait a second..." Twilight said "Why are you wearing my saddlebags?"
"Oh, Sorry" the Doctor said "Hope you don't mind that I borrow them for a bit. I should probably keep the Sonic on hand...or hoof... and, unfortunately, I seem to lack pockets. Also, I think it looks rather fetching, don't you?"
Twilight face hoofed "Sure, whatever"
After a few more minutes of digging the Doctor finally exclaimed triumphantly, holding out a package to the unicorn.
Twilights eyes widened, and she snatched up the box eagerly "Are those Jockey Dodgers?"
The jam filled biscuits had always been a favorite of Celestia's, and after being given one as a filly, Twilight had loved them ever since.
"Jockey what?...oh wait...I get it!" He chucked, shaking his head "Jockey, horses....Jockey dodgers! That is too funny!"
Twilight looked up, a confused look on her face and a Jammie Dodger in her mouth.
"They're called Jammie Dodgers where I come from" The doctor chuckled again "Honestly, these horse puns just crack me up.....are most things in the universe Ponyfied.... for a lack of a better word?"
Twilight looked even more confused than before "What in the world are you talking about?"
"Hmm..." The doctor hummed musingly, trying to figure out how to explain it before finally opting to give an example instead "Here...List the names of some cities for me"
Still unsure where this was going, Twilight said "Well, there's Canterlot, Manehattan, Los Pegasas, Neigh Orleans, Salt Lick City, Tampa Neigh" Having named a good amount of nearby cities, she went more forgein "then theres Manechester, Trottingham.... Mareis?"
She looked up questioningly, before giving an angry huff at the Doctor's bout of laughter "Really, I don't see what's so funny about this!"
"Sorry, sorry" The Doctor was still chuckling, but he held up his hooves in a placating gesture "You see, where I come from, all these places have different names, similar, but different. Too see all these names, replaced with things all having to do with horses" another snort of laughter "It's really quite amusing"
Twilights expression changed from annoyance to curiosity "What are the names of your cities then?"
"Well lets see.." The Doctor said, taking a second to remember all the cities she had listed "there's Manhattan, Los Vegas, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Tampa Bay, Manchester, Nottingham, Paris"
"That's amazing!" Twilight said, munching another biscuit "Where do you come from anyways?"
"Well, all these cities I just listed were from Earth, but I myself come from somewhere else" The Doctor paused "But...That's a different story"
"And ponies lived on Earth too?" Twilight asked, Lavender eyes brimming with inquisitiveness
"No, no" The Doctor said "The beings that lived on Earth were humans, apelike creatures, bipedal, no hair except on the top of their heads.... Quite similar to ponies in mannerisms though, as far as I've seen"
"So you...used to be a human being?" The unicorn tried to imagine what they would look like, but couldn't quite picture it.
"Naw, just looked like one" The doctor said "Or rather, they looked like me. Timelords came first"
"So you're a... Timelord" Twilight said slowly. Once again, getting a clear answer from the eccentric stallion was like pulling teeth.
"Or I guess it could be Timepony now..." The Doctor chuckled "Doesn't really have the same ring to it. But anyways, how are you feeling? Not everyday you pass out on the floor of a time machine and all, but I take it you're in working order? I've only been exposed to pony anatomy for five or so hours now, so I'm going to have to rely on you to self diagnose any injuries..."
"Better" Twilight replied, after her impromptu nap, and some biscuits, she was feeling a lot less light headed then she paused, eyes shrinking " Wait...five hours?! How long was I out?"
"Oh around three, maybe four hours" The Doctor said casually "Roughly of course, I'm not the best at keeping track of time"
"What!?" Twilight squawked "By now something already could have-"
"Oh hush!" The Doctor said, fiddling with the controls "I said she was a time machine didn't I?"
The interior of the TARDIS rumbled around a bit, and the doctor announced "Now we are outside the Canterlot Hedge maze at approximately the time we entered the TARDIS earlier, no time lost...and actually some gained now that I think of it"
"Canterlot Maze?"
"She mentioned it during her evil rant" the Docter said "Why do villains do that anyways?"
"Good catch" Twilight said, though she wasn't as detail oriented as Rarity, she usually noticed those things... considering how furious she had been at the time, a slip up wasn't out of the question.
The Doctor helped her to her hooves saying "Well, there's no time to lose....GERONI- no....no. That catchphrase getting old....Tally-ho? Maybe....Bonzai? Too tree-ish....Maybe Allons-y, I always liked Allons-y, but I really can't stand to reuse a catchphrase...."
"Allons-y?" Twilight asked, it sounded familiar.
"French for let's go" the Doctor said
Twilights eyebrows wrinkled before she remembered France was she same thing as Prance, or...to be more accurate...his version of Prance "Ohhh!....Although, if you really want a new catchphrase or whatever, you could go with C'est Parti" She said pronouncing the foreign words like Say-par-tee "It means let's go in French as well"
"C'est Parti? No, no, no" The Doctor shook his head, making a face "It's got to roll of the tongue, not just sit there in your mouth like a lump of bricks. Your catchphrase is bad, and you should feel bad"
Twilight just rolled her eyes, huffing "C'mon Doctor, you can criticize my catchphrase suggestion later. Let's go"
They pushed open the TARDIS doors and walked up to the maze.
"This is really the perfect place keep someone prisoner" Twilight noted "You can't teleport inside it, because it's is constantly changing, creating virtually no landmarks"
"So you're saying we'll have to do this the old fashioned way" The Doctor said
Twilight nodded "We'll have to be careful, the Maze will try to separate us, confuse us, and Celestia knows what else... it was designed to be as challenging as possible"
They both stepped into the entrance of the hedge labyrinth, and Twilight held her breath, waiting for the inevitable activation of the animation magic hidden within the leaves and stems of the foliage walls.... Nothing happened.
"Well." She said, starting to walk towards a branching pathway "that went better than expected. If we follow a methodical pattern then we should be able to-oh......oh ponyfeathers"
As if triggered by her optimism, a barrier had sprung up, closing off the pathway she had just stepped into.
"Sparkle?" Came a voice from the other side of the barrier "Wasn't this what you were talking about?"
"Yes." Twilight growled, silently cursing whoever had come up with the idea of a magical, malicious, moving maze. "Well....I guess we should try to continue forward. Try to get to the center as fast as we can."
"Can do!"
Hearing the doctor's hoofbeats moving away, Twilight galloped off as well. Remembering the surefire method to get through a maze, she stuck to the left wall, running alongside it at full speed.
She ran for quite a while before she saw the first guard. The maze had widened out into a slightly larger chamber with many branching pathways, and standing in the middle was a huge stallion in armour.
Twilight skidded to a halt at the end of a corridor directly behind the guard, frozen in uncertainty. Her body took that moment of pause to wreak retribution for the long run, sides and lungs burning furiously. She stood like a deer in the headlights, eyes wide, heart pounding. Suddenly, a hoof pulled her into a side corridor, dragging her back and well out of sight of the guard.
"Pinkie!" Twilight whispered ecstatically "How did you?"
But the pink mare simply put a hoof to his mouth in a shushing gesture and motioned for her to follow him. They made a few turns, then came out into another slightly wider (but thankfully empty) area.
"We should be a safe distance to talk now..." Pinkie said "I escaped Twilight! I need your help to free our friends!"
Twilight stopped trotting, slowing down. something wasn't right, something she couldn't put her hoof on. Pinkie walked up to her, looking at her curiously.
Walked. Didn't bounce, or skip...walked.
This situation, like fat free ice cream and those so called "Spill-proof" inkpots...was too good to be true.
Her eyes narrowed and, springing, she pinned the phony-Pinkie against the hedge wall.
"I know you're a fake, so you might as well show yourself" She growled, leveling her horn at it. "Or will we have to do this the hard way?" Her magic was most likely still weak, but she doubted the changeling would call her bluff.
The creature writhed, changing back into it's usual buglike form. It hissed at her evilly, then squirmed out of her grasp and away.
Twilight was a bright pony, so she could guess what had happened. They didn't know how powerful her magic was, and they didn't want to risk her overpowering the guards, so the changeling Doctor had been sent to lure her into a trap.
After the Doctor helped her escape last time, they were probably unsure of his abilities as well...
Which meant...
Which meant the Doctor was in trouble.
Flying feathers!" Twilight growled. She got the impression that the Doctor had been on quite a lot of adventures, but that didn't change the fact that he had never tangled with a changeling before.
They weren't on the attack either...they would be easier to deal with if they weren't trying to deceive.
She made a noise of frustration in her throat, but that didn't change the fact she felt obliged to keep the Doctor from being lured into a trap. He was trying to help her save her friends after all.
She needed to think. Think and pace, think and pace. Maybe her books had something...but they were all in her saddlebags......her saddlebags!
Unicorn's teleportation has very specific limitations, under usual circumstances, a unicorn has to be able to see the place it wants to teleport to, or at the very least be familiar with (this is why it is impossible to teleport into the labyrinth) and generally, the further the place, the more difficult the teleportation. Sometimes, under great stress, unicorns can teleport very long distances to unfamiliar places, but this is thought to be a defense mechanism triggered by adrenaline surges, and thus very unreliable. Similar limitations are also in place for teleporting objects or ponies, and it is highly difficult to teleport an object you cannot see unless you have some sort of magical link to it. In fact, if they weren't being shielded, and if she was more recovered Twilight could teleport her friends. They were linked as elements of harmony.
The spell Twilight put on her saddlebags served as a sort of magical "tag" or reference point, allowing her to sense them with her magic, and therefore teleport them from anywhere....
This magical connection also meant it could serve as a landmark in the ever changing maze.
Twilight concentrated, reaching out her magic to her saddlebags, and latched onto the magical marker. There was a pop of light, and she was gone.
The next instant, the purple unicorn was flung forcibly into a pony.
"Doctor!" She said, getting to her hooves "Changelings!"
She found herself staring into a pair of eyes, the same exact hue as hers, narrowed suspiciously. She balked in surprise before realizing that it was obvious the princess would send a clone of her. The Changeling wouldn't know if the Doctor knew any of Twilight's friends. Regardless, the carbon copy or herself caught the unicorn off guard, and she stumbled before regaining her words
"She's a fake!" They both cried at the same time, pointing to eachother with identical hooves. Two identical heads turned to the Doctor.
"No!" They both cried, looking to the Doctor, before looking back at each other, eyes wide "I'm not the fake, she is!"
Twilight blanched, this changeling was a better actor than the one who tried to fool her....the Princess had obviously taken special care to study her behavior. Even so, how did it copy her words so precisely?
She narrowed her eyes at her facsimile, which did the same.
"Dewey decimal system!" they both shouted simultaneously, the two clones then stomped their front left hoof in frustration at their trick not working. They looked at each other again, neither making a peep.
"Ponythagorian therom!" they cried suddenly, trying to surprise their double and once again failing
"Pinkie sense!"
"Starswirl the Bearded!"
"Grand...... Galloping......Apple Fritters!"
Both growled in irritation at the failure of what they surely thought was a fail-safe trick.
"Angel Bunny is kind of a brat!" Both shouted in a last ditch attempt at fooling the other.
Twilight reeled, how could the changeling be copying her so perfectly?
Unless... She closed her eyes, detecting magical auras around her required no energy, and sure enough, the Changeling was employing a passive mind probing spell. Nothing fancy, just enough to get a good impression of what someone was going to do, slightly before they did it.
Twilight made an angry noise in the back of her throat, annoyance increasing as her double did the same. She had already used enough magic teleportng over here, and she didn't think she would be able to manage even a simple spell. That meant employing a mental shield was out of the question.
Both she and her clone turned to the Doctor, violet eyes pleading.
He looked at both of them, then took the Sonic Screwdriver out of Twilight's saddlebags and pointed it directly at Twilight, eyes cold.
"I know you're the changeling" he said "So don't even bother trying to talk your way out of it"
Twilight backed up, tripping and falling onto her backside against a hedge.
"You see this?" the Doctor said to her, wiggling the instrument pointed at her "This is a Sonic Screwdriver. You try to escape and tell that little princess of yours and you will be dead in an instant"
Twilight's eyes widened, she had thought that thing just opened doors! Horn fizzled weakly as she attempted to and failed to create a shield
The Doctor spotted the attempt "I don't know what you just tried there" he said cooly "But I suggest you don't do it again" The tip of the screwdriver moved closer to her, nearly resting up against her forehead.
"I'll take that thank you very much!" a voice that sounded just like Twilight's said. With a greedy smirk the changeling plucked the Sonic Screwdriver out of the Doctor's grasp.
"That was too easy!" Pseudo-Twilght said "The Princess will be so pleased when she learns I killed you two myself"
There was a green glow, a whirring noise and....and laughter.
"The look on your face" The Doctor gasped, still chuckling in between words "Was too priceless...but I'll give you some advice. Never steal from the Doctor"
Plucking the Sonic Screwdriver from the false Twilight's hoof, the Doctor gave it a gentle push backwards through into the offshoot of the pathway beside them, the changeling stumbling backwards through the opening then looking up and giving an alien shriek of anger as the hedges closed off in front of it.
Twilight made a noise akin to Winona's squeaky toy, breaking out in a giant grin. Then she shook her head and got to her hooves. "How did you know it would do that?"
"Hunch" the Doctor said breezily "From what you said, and how it separated us in the beginning, it appeared that the hedge will attempt to divide any group of ponies that are together, so all I had to do was make it easy for it to do, ergo, pushing it into the gap"
"And you knew it wasn't me the whole time?"
"Also a hunch...you were a lot less prickly that per norm" He laughed as Twilight rolled her eyes, judiciously ignoring the comment "....but I figured the changeling clone couldn't resist getting it's hooves on a supposedly lethal weapon so I used that as a basis of a more sure-fire test"
"And the sonic screwdriver is completely harmless" she said
"Indeed. Unless you happen to be a machine which..." The Doctor poked her in the ribs, eliciting a squeak and a glare "I don't think you are. By the way, what brought you here anyways?"
"A clone of you came and attempted to fool me." Twilight said "I figured it out pretty quickly, but it slipped away. Then I came to try and warn you"
"So this changeling that tried to trick you..." The Doctor said "It escaped."
Twilight nodded "probably to warn the Princess that we are in the maaaa- We should probably run shouldn't we?"
"Good girl!" The Doctor said, and he and Twilight bolted off.

Chapter 5

"No wonder you're so skinny!" Twilight chuckled as they rounded a corner "I've only known you for a couple of hours and we've spent nearly a quarter of that time running!"
"Yeah it's kind of an occupationa- Hey! I'm not that skinny!"
"You have less body mass than Fluttershy" Twilight said "You are skinny. This is not a debatable point"
The Doctor huffed, and opened his mouth to reply, when the purple unicorn skidded to a halt.
"Wait." She said, holding out a hoof in front of him
"What did I do that this time?" the Doctor protested, but her hoof quickly clapped over his mouth, muffling the words.
"See that slight ripple in the air there? Right around the corner?" Twilight said in a hushed tone
A nod.
"That's a magical detection barrier" She continued "If any spell or pony breaches it, it will sound an alarm, alerting anypony nearby"
She crept forward slowly, pressing herself to the hedge. As Twilight peered cautiously around the corner, just shy of the barrier, her face broke into a giant grin.
"They're in there" Twilight whispered "They're trapped in a force-field, and I can see the Changeling who is casting it, and probably the detector too. He's just beyond the barrier."
She wrinkled her brows
"I can't break the barrier, otherwise the alarm will sound and we'll be surrounded. That rules out any physical or magical assault" she said, more to herself than anypony "Doctor, can your Sonic screwdriver do anything?"
"I don't think so" The Doctor said "It's a tool,not a weapon, and I have no idea how it affects magic as of yet"
Twilight sighed, then her ears perked up
"Wait." She said "These barriers work by detecting traces of magic, all ponies have inherent magic so they are detected, and most ponymade objects have been made with magic or had at least one spell cast on them, so they have traces as well...Doctor. Hand me your Sonic Screwdriver" She held out a hoof, and after a pointed just-do-what-I-say-OK? look, the tool was placed in it "Because this was made in your universe, which doesn't operate on magic, am I right? It won't have been made with magic...And since I haven't cast any spells on it" She grinned "It won't have any trace magic and will be able to pass through the barrier without a hitch"
"Alright then Sparkle." The Doctor said slowly "You know more about magic than I do...But how will it-"
"Shh!" Twilight silenced
"Alright. Shh-ing"
"Shhh!"
Twilight carefully passed the Sonic Screwdriver through the barrier, being careful not to brush it herself, as she glanced to her friends for a split second, she saw a pair of aquamarine eyes meet hers. A small smile crossed her face.
"Pressure points?" She mouthed to the butter pegasus, motioning the sonic screwdriver slightly, where it was inches away from the changeling's neck
Fluttershy narrowed her eyes, looking closely, then twitched her head ever so slightly to the right.
Twilight adjusted the Sonic.
A tiny nod
Twilight jabbed the screwdriver into the changeling guard's neck, and it slumped to the ground unconscious, spell fizzling out.
"Did you just?" the Doctor said
"Use your Sonic Screwdriver to pressure point a guard?" She finished " Anatomy was a large part of my last exam....Although Fluttershy knows a hair more than me.... " She handed to Sonic back to him.
Pinkie Pie engulfed both of then in a bear hug, squealing happily.
The group hug was quickly joined by all her other friends, as they babbled how they had been ponynapped, but how they were okay, and they were so thankful Twilight was alright as well.
As they broke apart, all wearing relieved smiles, Pinkie pie chirped "I told them that you would come to find us Twilight, I told them!"
"I never doubted you would come find us darling" Rarity said, using her magic to re-curl her bangs "Although the new friend is....unexpected. Would you mind introducing us?" Rarity's blue eyes asked all the questions she had refrain from phrasing out loud
"Why don't we get somewhere safe first" Twilight said.... she bit her lip, hopefully she had recovered enough to teleport them all....
She closed her eyes and focused her magic and and after a shaky start, seven ponies tumbled to the ground in cold, cave, shining with crystals.
"These are the old Canterlot Caverns" she said, panting slightly "After the changeling attack at the wedding they were completely sealed off, nopony should search for us here"
"So" Applejack said warmly "How 'bout y'all n'troduce us to y'er friend"
"This is Time Turner" Twilight said "I don't think any of you know him" she looked straight at Pinkie trying to silently convey the message. Her friend first gave her a look of confusion, before understanding dawned and she leaped into the air, gasping loudly
"He was visiting Ponyville from....Hoofdon." Twilight said slowly "We both...um.....saw Pinkie get kidnapped! and...."
"Wanted to help!" The Doctor interjected "Couldn't just let somepony be kidnapped without a fight now could I?"
"So we went to Canterlot to....Alert the princesses."
"But Celestia was actually a changer-"
"Changeling"
"Changeling princess. But we escaped, and came here"
Twilight nodded vigorously
"Well, it's certainly nice to meet you Mr.Turner" Fluttershy said softly
"Nice to meet you as well Miss...." the Doctor replied
"Mynameisfluttershythankyouforhelpingtwilightfindus" Fluttershy squeaked in a rush, voice barely raising above a whisper as she hid behind her mane.
"Fluttershy" the Doctor chuckled "suits you" before muttering under his breath "I am not that skinny"
"Howdy" Applejack said, stepping in and firmly shaking the Doctor's hand "Names Applejack. 'ts a pleasure t' meet y'a. Any friend a' Twilight's is a friend a' mine"
A cyan pegasus squeezed in between them "And I'm Rainbow Dash" Her magenta eyes squinted "So do you like Twilight or what?"
"Rainbow!" Rarity cut in, aghast "That was very rude!"
"It's not like you didn't want to know the same thing" Dash shot back at the white unicorn, who just huffed and said "My name is Rarity, charmed to make your acquaintance"
"And I'm Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie said "And I'm Superdeduperty happy to be your new friend!"
The Doctor smiled at each of them "Brilliant!" He said "It's great to finally meet you all, I can already see why Twilight is so fond of you"
The purple unicorn smiled, touched.
"But" The Doctor broke in, in a more serious tone "We still have to deal with the changeling impersonating Celestia. Now, Twilight, could you tell me about the Elements of Harmony?”
All of Twilight's friends looked at the mare in question, who was already launching into what was most assuredly going to be a detailed, long winded, and highly historical explanation of the Elements of Harmony.
Applejack gave the purple unicorn a nudge, "Maybe the c'ndensed version d'be best, sugarcube"
Twilight sighed, but relented "The Elements of Harmony are six supernatural artifacts which are arguably the most powerful force in Equestria. Each artifact represents an element of friendship and can only work if wielded by one who possesses the corresponding trait, and only if all are used together. As the bearers of the Elements, we each represent one of the traits, Magic, Kindness, Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, and Loyalty....Unfortunately, we can only wield the Elements if we have them with is.....which we don't."
"And where are these Elements?" the Doctor continued
"They're in Canterlot tower" Twilight said "Thankfully, after Discord stole them, Celestia cast a spell on them that protected them from being stolen or moved again by anypony but us. I have enough magic that I can probably teleport myself and one other pony over there, but that still doesn't eliminate the fact that, after our escape, it's probably being heavily guarded"
"I'll go" Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and the Doctor said simultaniously
"Actually, I was thinking of taking Spike" Twilight said "After all, Changelings are very averse to fire, and the won't be expecting a dra.....Where is Spike?"
The Elements of Harmony all looked around, first with confusion, then frantic concern.
"Rarity!" Twilight said, "you were the last one with him, right?"
"Yes, Darling" Rarity said "We were shopping in the Fashion District when we were accosted by those monsters, I assumed he was trapped along with us... but we were all so confused. We might have overlooked him"
Twilight paced back and forth "Oh dear Celestia....Did we leave him in the Maze? Or... or"
Suddenly the whole room reverberated, sound being amplified off of every crystalline surface.
"Elements of Harmony" Celestia's voice rang throughout the cavers, echoing eerily.
Twilight's blood ran cold. Princess Thornwing knew where they were!
The voice continued though. No Changelings stormed in to capture them, no maniacal laughter of victory filled their ears. The purple unicorn's pulse slowed, it was just the Canterlot Royal announcement system, like the Celestia impostor had used earlier. It probably reverberated all over the caverns. She listened closer.
"You are wanted for treason against the Royal Pony Sisters and the fair land of Equestria, if you come quietly, you will be spared. It brings me great sadness to have my own pupils betray me, but I have been given no choice. Please turn yourself in, and I will deal with you with mercy and dignity, if you choose to attempt to flee or fight instead, I will be forced to you my powers to dispose of you. For the good of Equestria" The voice became pained, and Twilight's lip curled in disgust as the monster disguised as her princess faked sorrowful emotion. Then there was a hushed but harsh whispering between two voices, probably inaudible to the public, but in the amplification of the crystal caverns, remarkably clear
"Do it!"
"B-but I don't want to say that!"
"Do it or I'll roast your scaly hide!"
Then a new voice rang out, a childish male one, that made Twilight's heart stop
"T-twilight. Twilight, please don't do this. C-celestia only wants to help you, j-just turn....just turn yourself in Twilight....Please, f-for your......for your number one assistant"
Fluttershy and Rarity both gasped, Rainbow Dash made a noise like an angry cat, Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing with a jolt, eyes going wide and sad, and Applejack laid a hoof on Twilight's shoulder saying softly "Twilight, ah....ah'm so sorry"
"That's it." Twilight said, seething "That's it. Come on Doc- I mean Turner....and on second thought you too Pinkie. I think I can manage it. We are getting the Elements of Harmony, and by Celestia when I get my hooves on that Daughter-Of-A-Diamond dog she is going to wish she had never slithered out of the dark pit's of Tartarus she came from..."
She turned to the others
"You guys, stay here. I don't think I can teleport more than three, and I want you to stay safe. Applejack, you're in charge, if they somehow do get it here, run to the deepest part of the caves you can find. They won't just capture you this time. When we get the Elements of Harmony, I'll teleport directly too you guys" Twilight but her lip "oohh...I hate splitting up. But I don't want to risk overexerting my magic again"
"That's fine" Fluttershy said softly "I understand"
"I'd rather be going with you guys" Dash grumbled "But I understand"
That didn't keep her from shooting the Doctor a dirty look however.
"That's perfectly alright darling" Rarity said "I'm not big on getting my hooves dirty"
"Good luck, sugarcube" Applejack said "And, Mr.Turner?"
"Yes?" The Doctor said
"Keep them safe"
"Wouldn't dream of doing otherwise"
Twilight lit up her horn, there was a flash of light, and the trio disappeared.

Chapter 6

Twilight, Pinkie, and the Doctor reappeared with a pop in a back alley of Canterlot.
"Whee!" The pink pony said happily, throwing her forelegs up.
Twilight made a shushing gesture, shaking her head to clear it.
"OH!....wheeee" Pinkie said, more softly this time.
"Pinkie" Twilight said "I know you always carry a large assortment of costume clothing and other random objects with you, would you mind if we use them?"
"Sure thing Twi!" pinkie chirped, she then began to pull an incredible number of strange items out of her hair. Soon a clown wig was being tossed into a pile with along with a Pogo stick, a chocolate bar, a fake mustache, a propeller beanie, a piece of cake, a set of hoof paints a stuffed princess Celestia toy, some giant t-shirt with the words "I heart Bronies" on it, and over twenty colorful balls of various shapes and sizes "In case of a ball emergency".
Twilight looked critically at the items, eyes squinting. She grabbed the clown wig and thrust it onto her own head, using her magic to briefly style it into a less spherical shape before pulling the overlarge T-shirt on as well so it would hide her cutie mark. She then put the propeller beanie onto the Doctors head, along with the fake mustache.
"Pinkie" She said, holding out the hoof paints "Cover yourself in one of these colors would you? And maybe deflate your mane as well"
The pink mare saluted solemnly as her hair flattened with a sound similar to a balloon leak, before using the other hoof to smear her pink face with blue.
Soon three ponies emerged from a Canterlot side street, one with a beanie, a mustache, and a blobbish cutie mark that roughly resembled a square, one with a limp pink mane, and a mottled coat that wasn't quite pink, purple or blue, and the last with a shirt that fit more like a dress, accompanied an unruly rainbow mane that contrasted starkly with her purple tail.
In between the gasps and gags of the Canterlot Elite, Twilight thought she heard someone mutter "How Avant-garde".
"Alright" Twilight said in a hushed whisper "Pinkie, your new name is Dapplehoof, got it? Doctor...your new cutie mark looks vaguely like a camera, so you'll be Snapshot. And I'll be...."
"SnoCone!" Pinkie said brightly "Because your mane looks like a SNOWCONE!!"
"Sure." Twilight said "Everypony got their new names? Yes? Yes? Good."
"Well, come along Sparky!" The Doctor said trotting forward "ALLONS-no....no, I just can't bring myself to reuse a catchphrase. I was wondering when the day would come when I would run out of them...."
"Well there's always-"
"No. That was a bad catchphrase and you know it"
Twilight shrugged "Suit yourself"
"Ooooh!" Pinkie said happily "My catchphrase is Superduperfantastarificsome!"
"Pinkie... A catchphrase is something you say often" Twilight said "I don't think I've ever heard anypony say that before....even you, Pinkie"
"So is your cat phrase 'grrr! I'm trying to study!' then?" Pinkie asked sweetly, not a hint of a smirk on her face. The Doctor snerked, trying not to laugh.
The unicorn glowered "No Pinkie. That is not my catchphrase"
They left the square in a hurry, leaving blue hoofprints and a herd of terrified snobs in their wake.
The more Twilight looked around, the more her confidence drained from her. Just from glancing around she could pick out a sea of green eyes, more than she could ever hope to fight. She no plan, almost zero magic, and she needed to stop a changeling army. A feeling of helplessness washed over her...if there was one thing Twilight hated, it was feeling helpless. Just like when she was in magic kindergarten, just like when everypony hated her for being the smart one, just like when she was late to class and got called "Tardy Sparkle" for months.
Every villain she had faced before had been flawed, Discord was clever but over-confident, Chrysalis hadn't hidden Cadence well enough, Nightmare Moon had underestimated her friends.
Thornwing had hit her right where it hurt, by taking everypony she loved. Even when she freed her friends, Thornwing was a step ahead.
Twilight felt every bit like the clown her wig suggested she was.
A hoof touched her shoulder, and the unicorn looked up, trying to hide the feeling of hopelessness that was probably written all over her face. The Doctor was looking back at her, expression unreadable.
"Twilight" he said, eyes deadly serious "My promise is still in effect. We will stop her. Do you understand me?"
Twilight nodded, thankful for the small bit of support.
They approached Canterlot tower.
"Well!" Pinkie enthused "Lets go in!" She carelessly bounced up to the door...
Then bounced back like a ball as she ran straight into an armored guard.
"What is your business here!" the guard said. Twilight squinted at him, even if he was a drone, he wouldn't stop them from entering in a public area if they played the "Canterlot Tourist" part right.The princess wouldn't want normal pony folk to think anything was going on
"We're taking the grand tour of Canterlot Towers!" Pinkie chirruped "we're all the way out from Appleoosa you see, we've never been to Canterlot before.... and, naturally, the first thing we wanted to see was the famous stained glass room. So we hired Snapshot here...I know right, a tour guide with the name of Snapshot, I mean....how perfect is that? But annyyyyhoof....We hired Snapshot here from the Canterlot tour company to give us a tour, isn't that right SnoCone, isn't that right?"
"Of course Dapplehoof!" Twilight gushed, recalling the improv and acting classes she had taken before she had become interested in magic "We wouldn't be here otherwise now would we? It's just loooooveeely here in Canterlot...The weather is GORGEOUS! I daresay I don't see a single could in the sky, not a single one!"
The guard looked noticeably awkward, unsure what to make of their giant speech.
"Do you have a visitor's pass?"
Twilight stiffened, she had never needed a visitor's pass to get into anyplace in Canterlot, so she didn't carry one on her. The unicorn fought down a wave of panic.
"Of course we do!" the Doctor said, interrupting. He held out a piece of paper, and the guard examined it, before handing it back and stepping aside for them.
"Have a nice daaaay!" Pinkie sang as she bounced past.
When they were inside, Twilight turned on the Doctor, sputtering "What... how?"
"Psychic paper!" the Doctor said proudly, holding it out for her to see.
"Oh my!" Twilight said in mock awe "This is a simply incredible, and very blank piece of paper..."
She quirked an eyebrow questioningly
"Hmm!" the Doctor said "I had a hunch you were an extremely bright mare....although you'll have to work on your attitude. I should start calling you Twilight Snarkle from now on"
The trio of ponies began ascending the stairs.
"I still don't get what this has to do with a blank note-card" Twilight said
"Here Pinkie, read what this says" the Doctor said, holding it out to her
"OOOOH!" Pinkie said "An invitation to the giant party convention!"
"You see Sparkle?" the Doctor said "When shown to a person....errr...pony, it can induce them to see whatever I or whomever is using it wishes them to see printed on it."
"And what about me?" Twilight said
"I would probably say because of the intense psychic focus your magic requires has made you more attuned to things of that nature" the Doctor speculated "I wonder...You know, it's possible you could send me a message through it"
"What?"
"Beings with sufficient psychic ability can send messages through the paper" the Doctor explained "I was curious if the increased psychic ability from your magic study would allow you to as well"
Twilight considered this, reaching her mind out like the did to detect magic, or set up a teleportation spell, and concentrated on the blank piece of paper.
Her concentration was shattered by a cheer from Pinkie Pie, her eyes snapped open.
"Good job, Sparkle!" the Doctor said "You were able to do it after all....I'm impresse-"
They had reached the top of the stairs.
There were over one hundred changeling in the stained glass room.
"ATTACK!" Pinkie cried, taking items out of her mane and throwing them in every direction. Twilight saw a Pogo stick fly through the air and hit one of the insect creatures in the head, accompanied soon after by an accordion.
Twilight couldn't risk using any more magic or they might no be able to teleport back, but she could still fight the old fashioned way. She galloped forward, kicking a changeling in the face.
They just had to get to the door.
She winced as she punched a copy of her brother in the head. Fighting changelings was always disconcerting. There was a giant popping whistling sound, and she ducked to avoid a deadly mass of streamers and confetti coming towards her.
The Doctor was a little ahead of him, surrounded by a group of five changelings, Twilight grabbed Pinkie's hoof and slid under a lunging drone, narrowly avoiding it's hooves. They ran to help, Pinkie blasting several with a party cannon, and Twilight knocking one of the others off it's hooves with a well placed kick.
She was glad her brother had made her take self defense lessons with him.
Seeing a gap through which the could reach the elements, she raced for it, touching a hoof to the door and murmuring an incantation under her breath.
It clicked open
"Pinkie! Doctor!" she called breathlessly.
The pink pony was beside her in a flash, jumping up and bouncing on the changeling's heads like she was playing hopscotch.
"Doctor?" she called "Doctor!"
"It's alright! Just get the elements, I'll be fine!"
She looked for the source of the voice, the Doctor was buried under a pile of snarling drones.
She sighed, then lunged back into the herd of changelings. Picking the Doctor up with her magic and shaking his attackers of roughly she ran towards the door again, sliding in and kicking it shut behind her.
"You would make an excellent cat" The Doctor remarked to Twilight "You know, never doing what you're told"
"You would make an excellent dog, Doctor" the unicorn rebuffed "You know, always chasing your own tail"
She opened the chest with the elements, and sighed with relief, they were all there.
"Will you be able to teleport us back?" Pinkie asked, looking nervously at the door.
"I'm almost certain" Twilight said "I made sure not to overexert myself, I'll be fine"
She picked up the container of the elements, hugging it to her chest, then she closed her eyes, and they popped out of the chamber.

Author's Note

Ps: If anyone draws the Doctor, Twilight, and Pinkie in their disguises, I will love them forever.

Chapter 7

"Ha!" Applejack punched Rainbow in the shoulder as there was a crackle of magenta light "They did make in back, and he's still wearing Twilight's saddlebags. Ya' owe me what, twenty bits now?"
"You bet that weren't going to make it back?!" Twilight sputtered, setting down the chest with the Elements, and trotting up to Dash indignantly. "Gee, thanks"
Rainbow grinned and scoffed brashly "Only because I knew I could win it back from AJ twice-over anytime I want"
"Bet you couldn't!"
There was a shrill scream from the corner of the room, Rarity had seen pinkie's coat.
"Y'all get down here this instant!"
Twilight's head whipped around, in the second it had taken her to look over at Rarity, Rainbow Dash had stolen Applejack's stetson. Now the cyan pegasus was flying around with it, blowing raspberries at it's enraged owner.
"Rainbow!" Twilight said sharply "We have more important things to worry about"
There was another, louder screech, Pinkie Pie had given Rarity a hug.
"Rarity. It's OK, just-"
"Hey, Hey, ouch, stop it, stop it!" now Applejack had caught Dash's wing in her mouth and was trying to pull her to the ground.
"EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!"
Twilight stood in the middle of the group, sides heaving. Her tone made it very clear she would not take no for an answer "Will you please pay attention?"
Five wide eyed faces nodded.
"We managed to retrieve the Elements of harmony" Twilight said "Unfortunately, I probably won't be able transport everypony for at least a day. In the meantime, you should rest. That means no roughhousing, Rainbow"
"Excuse me?" A small voice piped up, previously unnoticed in all the chaos. A butter yellow pegasus raised a weak hoof "but...um.....Rarity and I were looking around, and we found some hot springs......while we're waiting, maybe you um... want to clean up? I mean...if that's okay with you.... pleasedon'thateme!"
"That's a great idea Fluttershy" Twilight said soothingly. After all, Pinkie was covered in paint, she was spattered in quite a bit herself from bumping against the painted mare during the fight, and the doctor's vaguely camera-ish fake cute marks had smeared all over his flanks and quite a bit of the rest of him.
Her meek friend lead them into a large cavern, in which several steaming pools lay "We stumbled upon them when Rarity was looking for gems" Fluttershy said happily "Aren't they pretty?"
Twilight nodded appreciatively. The pools shimmered with crystals at their bottoms, reflecting the room in facets of spectral light, and the walls of the enormous cave sparkled with the delicate reflections of thousands of tiny crystals that decorated the walls. Minute broken pieces of crystalline stone, fine as sand, sprinkled the floor as well. They clung to her hooves like glittering grit, and danced like fairy dust in the light of her horn.
"It's amazing" she breathed. It was like someone had captured the twinkling, tenuous light of the stars, and trapped it in a cavern deep below the earth, like hidden treasure.
"Well..." Fluttershy said, "I should probably check on the others. You know how they can get" She giggled softly and exited the cave
"COWABUNGAAAAAAAAA!" Pinkie shouted, running and leaping towards the nearest pool as her cry echoed around the cavern.
Twilight gave a yip of surprise, and both her and the Doctor shied away from the wall of hot water they knew would be coming their way.
But it never came.
As she looked up she saw Pinkie's tail just entering the water, as if in slow motion, as they watched her flank entered, then her hooves, then the rest of her body, all extremely slowly and making not a single splash of water.
Twilight giggled at her magenta friend, used to her reality defying properties, and leapt in herself closing her as as the warm water caressed her.
"Well Doctor?" She asked. The brown stallion was standing at the edge of the pool, mouth open.
"Oh I give up!" He said loudly "How...how does she? I....Look, I didn't want to ask before. Emergency situation and all that, but the mane deflating and inflating like a balloon, and her pulling at least one hundred items out of it, and now this... How does she do that, it shouldn't be-"
"Possible?" Twilight finished "Yeah, tell me about it. But trust me, I've looked into it and the only thing I managed to do was get myself almost eaten by a Hydra"
The cobalt eyes turned to Pinkie, who just gigglesnorted and shrugged cheerily
"Fine" The Doctor sighed, relenting and stepping into the spring "But I'm investigating this later....."
"Watch out for falling objects" Twilight cautioned with a smirk
As if on cue, Pinkie stiffened, shouting "Twitcha Twitch! Twitcha twitch!"
The two mares ducked and covered their heads as a large chunk of crystal fell from the ceiling and splashed into a nearby pool.
"I...Wait what?" The Doctor spluttered
"Whenever you hear Pinkie shout Twitcha Twitch, just duck. No questions asked. I've learned to trust her on this sort of thing"
"Whot?" The Doctor said again
Twilight sighed "Alright, you wanna hear the story. I'll tell you..."
Soon three ponies were walking out into the main cavern, two laughing uncontrollably and one looking distinctly red in the face.
"Come on! It's not that funny!"
"Pinkieus Piecus?" The Doctor choked
"Stop it!"
"I'm trying!" Pinkie said "B-b-ut you're making t-that face!"
It was true. The purple unicorn's face was bright crimson, mouth tight as she made annoyed little huffs of air, like laughter, only peeved... a truly hilarious combination.
The Doctor, who had been atempting to keep a straight expression, took one look at Twilight and burst out laughing again.
This only caused her to redden more, ears folding back and nearly pressing against her head, and mouth twisting even tighter as she shook with a strange mix of supressed laughter and indignation.
"What face?" Applejack trotted over curiously, before taking one look at Twilight and letting out a hoot of laughter "Ohhhh lordy. That face, yeeah I'm familiar with that 'n"
"Twilights making the face again?" A tomboyish voice sniggered "Priceless!"
"What's all the commotion about?" Rarity broke in "....oh. Oh Twilight, darling, I thought I told you to stopp doing that......" She threw a breif glance and the Doctor "Honestly, it'll put all the stallions right off!"
Even Fluttershy, too kind to say a hurtful word to anypony, giggled a little before covering her mouth with a hoof and looking deeply ashamed with herself.
"She was telling us the story of my Pinkie Sense!" Pinkie burbled
"That one?!" Rainbow Dash cackled, she did her best impression of Twilight while hovering in midair "This is all just a bunch of Mumbo Jumbo! I've never read about it in my books, so surely it's impossible!"
Twilight's lavender eyes filled with tears.
Applejack quickly went over to her, elbowing Rainbow, who was still cracking up at her own joke.
"Aw, Sugarcube, I know it's been a rough day"
The unicorn smiled a little at the understatement....They didn't even know about the time machine.
"We shouldn'ta needled you like that, and we're sorry"
Twilight smiled "No, no, it's fine. Like you said....it's been a tough day. You didn't mean any harm"
The farm-pony looked pointedly at Rainbow Dash, who relented "Sorry Twilight" She mumbled.
"It's fine Rainbow" Twilight said, a yawn pulling at her features "I am very tired though....."
"Twi's right" Applejack said "It's been a long day for all of us. We should rest"
The six mares all curled up on the cave floor, exhausted. Soon Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Dash, Fluttershy were all sound asleep, softly snoring.
Twilight made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat, trying to shift to a better position for the umpteenth time. Relenting to the fact that she wasn't going to fall asleep anytime soon, she got up and began to pace the floor. In near blackness, she stepped carefully around her friends, navigating her way to the cave of crystal pools.
Sighing, she sat down and dipped her hooves in the water, making gentle splashing sounds. She hoped Spike was alright.... maybe that was why she couldn't sleep. Ever since she had hatched Spike from his egg, she had never spent a night where he wasn't sleeping beside her bed.
A small shuffling sound made it's way to her ears, she honed in on it, ears flicking to locate the direction of the noise.
Slowly, she got up, making as little noise as possible. She moved slowly towards the sound, edging around the crystal pools so she wouldn't fall in.
She could tell she was close, very close
"AHA!"
She leaped forward, lighting her horn, then stumbled backwards as she saw another pony leaping towards her, brandishing a sonic screwdriver and shouting "AHA!" as well.
"Doctor?" She mumbled, rubbing her head where she had hit in on the floor "I thought you were a changeling!"
The brown pony helped her up "Couldn't sleep?" he asked amiably
Twilight shook her head "I suppose the same goes for you?"
The Doctor shook his head "No. I don't need very much sleep, hardly any in fact. Gets a bit tiresome when you are constantly interacting with humans....or now, ponies who need eight hours of it a day, but I make do."
Twilight shot him a slightly envious look, she couldn't even imagine the things she could accomplish if she didn't have to sleep.
"Lucky...." She mumbled "I would love having more hours in the day"
The Doctor smirked "Well from what I've heard you seem to have done more than most ponies already"
Twilight scoffed "The only real story of mine you've heard was the one where I was acting like a complete idiot"
"Nonsense!" The Doctor said "You took on a hydra to make sure your friends got away"
"and got by on the skin of my teeth..."
"Besides, we need people...or ponies... who ask questions" The Doctor said "Otherwise everyone would still go around believing the world is flat, and you need leeches to cure a cold....Are you always so pessimistic Miss.Sparkle?"
The unicorn shrugged "when it comes to myself....yeah, usually......"
The Doctor chuckled "You know it's really very weird meeting a magical talking horse, who is the student of the magical horse princess, and lives in a magical land where almost everybody is happy, with low self-confidence"
"Well when you put it that way, it really does sound rather silly" Twilight found herself chuckling
"Atta girl!" The Doctor said "Now you should rest. You've got a giant magical shape-shifting horse-bug to defeat tomorrow"
Twilight smiled and got up, trotting back to the main cavern and leaving the brown time pony alone with the crystals and his thoughts.

Author's Note

Sorry for the shortness/general fluffiness of this chapter. The next one will be getting back into the action, and should be longer as well

Chapter 8

"TWILIGHT! TWILIGHT! TWILIGHTWILIGHTWILIGHT!"
Twilight Sparkle bolted to her hooves, jolting from sleep to awareness in an instant. Her eyes flicked around everywhere as her mind ran through a thousand different scenarios of what could be wrong. Did a changling find them? Was there a cave-in? Had somepony dissapeared?
"That was fast!" a jubilant voice chirped in her ear.
The purple unicorn shot a foot into the air, letting out a squeal of surprise.She landed with a surprisingly delicate click, hooves all bunched together, back arched, teetering at the very edge of balance. Pinkie Pie watched this all with curiosity, letting out a giggle "Oh, Twilight." She bubbled "You're so silly!"
"Pinkie!" Twilight said "What in Celestia's mane was that for?"
"The others asked me to wake you up!" the party pony chirped in reply "so I did!"
Twilight sighed as Pinkie bounced off. She would never understand that mare.
She trotted over to the others, who looked up at her arrival.
"Twilight, darling!" Rarity cooed, styling her mane with her magic "I trust Pinkie woke you up?"
Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Alright mares!" Twilight said, before remembering the doctor was with them ".....and Stallion... Sorry... Here's our game plan: We leave exactly one hour from now, I will teleport us directly into the throne room, and from there we will use the elements on the changeling princess disguised as Celestia. Then we can find Spike, and hopefully from there, the real Princesses. Everypony got that?"
Twilight trotted towards the Doctor, taking her saddlebags and laying them on the ground.
"Oi!" he protested "I was using tho-"
He was silenced with a quick look from Twilight.
The purple unicorn rummaged around in the bags from a minute, then laid out some bags of trial mix, granola bars, and the like. She quickly doled the food out so her friends, and said "We should probably eat before we go...keep up our strength"
"Oh..." Fluttershy said softly "Thank you so much Twilight..."
"That's quite alri-"
"Brilliant!" the Doctor interrupted happily "Such an exciting day really makes you hungry, does it not? I for one, could eat a horse...."
Twilight whipped her head towards the Doctor, the perfect what-the-hay!? expression one her face.
"ssssseradish" the Doctor finished lamely.
Twilight's friends all shared glances.... Horseradish?
"Doctor" Twilight sang through gritted teeth "May I speak to you a moment?"
She all but dragged the Doctor to an adjacent cave, before turning on him and whispering harshly "Cannibalism? Really?"
"Sorry!" The Doctor said, holding his hooves up in a placating gesture "It's an common phrase where I come from, it slipped out!"
Twilight blanched "So you mean...you've eaten....humans...eat..."
"Ohhh, no , no no no! It was a hyperbole!" the Doctor chuckled "I've never eaten a horse. Humans didn't eat horses"
Relief flooding the purple unicorn's features....
"....well....except for the Dutch....."
Before being replaced with an expression of revulsion.
"But anyways Mrs.Sparkle" The Doctor continued cheerily "are you going to eat that granola bar? Like I said, very hungry..."
"You can have it" Twilight said flatly, her face tinged with a delicate shade of green "I've lost my appetite"
"You alright Twilight?" Applejack asked as the unicorn sat back down "Ya' look as pale as Celestia"
"Just nervous" Twilight lied, seeing as she couldn't exactly tell them the actual reason she was looking so green. The unicorn gave a little shudder, whoever the dutch were, she didn't want to meet them.
Then Rarity spoke up "Turner, I noticed that Twilight called you Doctor, is that your profession?"
Twilight cursed her slip up, of course Rarity would notice, she was as quick as a whip when it came to details.
"Yes" Twilight piped up, trying to correct her mistake "he's Doctor-"
"Hooves!" Pinkie chirped cheerfully, glad she could help with this fun name making game.
Twilight gritted her teeth, of course Pinkie had to drop a name on the spot that made absolutely no sense.
"So he's Doctor Time Turner Hooves?" Rainbow Dash said "What kind of name is that?"
"Weeeellll" The Doctor interrupted "My true name is actually Time Hooves, my middle name is Turner, not my last. However, most ponies, both in my childhood and present know me only as Time Turner because honestly Time Hooves sounds a bit silly don't you think? But on cases of legal documentation, my last name is legally Hooves. Therefore, I am Doctor Hooves....Doctor Whooves"
The Doctor giggled his own pun, knowing full well that no one else would understand it.
"Oh how interesting" Rarity cooed "I guess I should call you Doctor now, shouldn't I?"
"Oh no, Turner will do just fine" the doctor smiled, before nudging Twilight, who was still a little shell shocked from how badly the Doctor's on the spot lying outclassed her's.
The purple unicorn recovered with due aplomb, interjecting smoothly "The name name threw me for a loop as well, not often you meet a pony who's title is completely different than the name they first give you" she gave a small smile. At least now she wouldn't have to keep calling the Doctor Time Turner.
"Oh!" Fluttershy said softly "I met someone like that once...of course, he was an alligator, but it was a similar situation"
"Wait a second" Applejack said "Yer' tellin me that these critters have titles!"
"Oh of course they do" Fluttershy replied pleasantly "Take Angel bunny for example....."
Twilight's mind began to wander, and her thoughts drifted to Spike... She was so worried about him. But why wouldn't she be, he was like her little brother... Poor Spike, she hoped he wasn't scared...
"Helloooo! Equestria to Twilight!"
"Oh!" Twilight yelped "Oh, hey Dash?"
"You alright there, egghead?"
"Yeah, just a bit worried"
Rainbow grinned "Come on Twi! You stress too much! We're the Elements of Harmony remember?"
Twilight gave a smile, but only to reassure her friends...though Dash had intended to alleviate her nerves with the brash statement, it had brought some concerns into her mind once more.
Thornwing had been feeding on the immense amount of love that everypony had for Celestia.... She didn't even want to think about what would happen if that power proved stronger than the elements.
"here" Twilight said, opening the chest of the elements and handing them out to her friends, she then got up and began making sure everything was in order, double and triple checking the contents of her saddlebags, even though she could easily memorize the contents of her saddlebags (as well as every item's placement in the bags) with a cursory glance.
It was not for the sake of obsessiveness that Twilight checked preparations over and over again however, but the sake of doing something. Ever since she was a little filly Twilight had always felt a need to keep herself occupied. She could perform tasks that kept her mind spinning with incredible focus and diligence, but as soon as something was rote her focus would slip away and flitter about a million other thoughts and ideas, leaving her staring at a wall, pondering why ponies cry, with nothing done.
But Twilight, being Twilight, had learned to cope. Through years of practice, she had learned to direct all her thoughts to the most boring, uninteresting task with complete focus and concentration, drowning out any possible distractions.
This utter focus to a pointless job was often used as a defense mechanism for Twilight. When Twilight was faced with a concern, or tough decision, her mind would worry on the problem like a dog with a bone, running loops of endless worst case scenarios and possible wrong choices that would lead to disaster. Twilight combated this by focusing her every thought on endless busywork, leaving to room for errant worries, it was a way she could relax without her mind using the break to analyse every single thing that, good or bad, that had ever happened to her. It was one of the reasons she constantly re-shelved the library, re-shelving meant an afternoon of rote, repetitive, peace. The resultant neatness of the library was not the goal, as many thought, but just a byproduct.
Twilight looked up, Rarity had finally finished applying her fake eyelashes, they ready to leave.
The purple unicorn shouldered her saddlebag, and placed the element on her head. She gave one last reassuring smile to her friends, then lit up her horn. The seven ponies blinked out of the cavern with a crack.
They appeared in the throne room with a snap and the faint odor of sulfur and Twilight raised her head. Before her, maybe a foot away, was Spike, bound and muzzled. His eyes were wide and frightened.
Twilight took a step forward, but stopped when she saw the little dragon shake his head vehemently. Green eyes met her's for an instant, before flicking upwards.
There was a surreal moment, where all seven ponies slowly followed his gaze......
"Elements!" Twilight cried, backing up "Now!"
Hanging from the ceiling above them was Thornwing, a cruel leer across her face displaying teeth that were white, slender, and numbered in the hundreds. The fact that the was still in Celestia's from made the vision deeply disturbing.
Twilight could feel the crown on her head heating up, she began to rise into the air, carried by a power that was not her own. Her vision went white.
A spectral steam of magic shot from the Elements, engulfing the changeling.
That was when everything went horribly wrong.
The first thing Twilight heard was the laughing, harsh and cruel.
Not-Celestia walked up to Twilight trailing a hoof along her cheek in a sick mockery of her teacher's motherly tenderness.
There were six thuds as the unicorn and her friends fell to the ground. Instead of feeling strong and refreshed, like she usually felt after using the Elements, Twilight felt empty, drained.
Rainbow Dash was the first to get up, and she stormed up to the changeling princess, with shoulder's bristling and wings flared.
"How?!" She spat angrily, cyan face inches from the not-Celestia's white one.
"Isn't it simple?" the changeling replied "I'm stronger, then your silly friendship magic! Do you have any idea how much love Equestria has for their princess? Or didn't dear Twilight tell you?"
She made a mock face of sympathy, pouting dramatically
"It seems like the poor Elements have bitten off more than they can chew... Isn't that right dear Spikey Wikey"
A white hoof stroked Spike's cheek, and the changeling looked up with a sneer. In response, there was a noise like an angry cat and a purple hoof struck the her straight across the face.
"Don't you dare touch him you monster!"
The little unicorn was instantly batted away with a strike of green magic, flying against a wall, and Thornwing snarled. "You impudent foal!" The changeling hissed, eyes blazing "You dare strike me?"
Then her voice softened, became silky and poisonous, and the princess's face loomed above Twilight's swimming vision.
"Although, I suppose I have to thank you for your gall. it brought you and your friends here didn't it? Funny, how you caused me so much trouble, only to, in your own stupidity, turn yourself in again"
She displayed a mouthful of fangs in a predatory smile that looked oh-so-wrong on Celestia's face.
"Tell me, little Twilight, how does it feel to know your friends are going to be killed because of you? You knew that this was a gamble, that I might be too strong, but you came anyways. Why not try to flee the country? You might have been safe then...But you were to heroic for that, too drunk with the power of harmony. That's what power does to ponies, it makes them arrogant, it makes them fools. That's what happened to you, to Celestia, to Luna, even to my dear stupid mother, they became fools. And now, little Twilight, you are going to die for it"
Then a shape stepped in between Twilight and the princess, blurry, but recognizable
"No." The Doctor said, voice ice cold "You will not hurt Twilight, or her friends"
He looked to the bearers of the elements.
"Help Twilight up and get your elements ready....I have a plan."

Chapter 9

The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out of his bag, closing his eyes for a moment and doing some math in his head.
He looked back to Twilight and her friends, who had gotten the purple spell-caster propped up between Applejack and Rainbow dash.
"Good, you're on your feet...er...hooves again" He said to Twilight, before wincing "That looked like it hurt by the way. You really can't catch a break today can you?"
A smile twitched on Twilight's lips. Leave it to the doctor to make casual conversation in emergencies.
"Alright!" The Doctor said, turning back to face Thornwing, who was looking at the group with a mixture of disgust and amusement "Let's try this one more time."
The changeling laughed "Are you serious? Really?"
"But we already used the elements!" Rainbow Dash protested " I mean we could use them again..but it doesn't change the results. They didn't work"
"You've just got to trust me on this one" The Doctor said, not taking his gaze off the fake Celestia "This will work. I promise"
Five colorful heads turned to Twilight, who nodded.
"Now!" The doctor shouted.
The beam of rainbow light rose up from the six mares once again. Then it was joined by a green light and a distinctive whirring sound.
Magic was energy, and it was carried in waves, just like sound. Also like sound, with a little manipulation from something like.... say, a sonic screwdriver, it could be amplified.

Somewhere in Shanghoof, a very confused Shining Armour and Cadence sat in a seedy hotel. They had been dropped off about three hours ago after an overnight carriage flight, only to find that the ponies they were supposed to be meeting didn't exist, and neither did their sleeping arrangements. Thankfully Cadence was a princess, so they had been able to get a hotel room even though neither of them had any bits....but apparently princess hospitality didn't extend towards classier abodes...and a pegasus flight to pick them up wouldn't be arriving until tomorrow.
Cadence's ear flicked.
"Sweetie, did you hear that?" She asked Shining Armour.
"Hear what?"
"Oh...I guess it was nothing. I don't know.... I just felt, a... a disturbance"

Meanwhile in the throne room, there was an explosion of rainbow light. The form of Celestia was eaten away from the changeling, stripping her to her original form. The rainbow light ate it aw It poured out the windows and doors and wrapped around the ponies like a living thing. Twilight could feel her forming bruises heal, and a rejuvination spread through her bones. The supernova slowly diminished, fading to a glow, and then to a twinkle.
Six sets of hooves clicked delicately onto the polished stone floor.
The sadistic changeling princess was nowhere to be seen.
A cheer, weak but defiantly joyful, rose from the seven ponies and one dragon. They had won.
Twilight's friends squeezed together in a massive group hug, all smiling as releived laughs escaped from their mouths.
The Doctor looked on from the side, a small smile crossing his features.
"Well?" Twilight said, meeting his eyes
"Whot?"
"Get over here!" she laughed, grabbing him and pulling him into the huddle. All the other mares laughed and smiled, and there was a moment of pure relieved happiness.
"Guys? Still tied up over here?"
Twilight's eyes widened and she rushed over to Spike, throwing his bonds off with he magic and pulling him into a hug.
"I'm so glad you're safe" She said, before narrowing her eyes and giving him a rap on the head "Don't you ever put your life in mortal danger like that again!"
"It's not like I was trying to get myself dragon-napped" Spike muttered in reply "Sheesh."
The purple unicorn sighed grudgingly"You're forgiven" she smirked "I couldn't stay mad at my number one assistant now could I?"
She picked him up with her telekinesis, and placed him gently on her back "Now we just need to find the princesses!"
Twilight drooped as the realization of her statement hit her "We still need to find the princesses" she said hollowly..."We still. Need to find. The Celestia-forsaken princesses!"
She flopped onto the ground like a rag doll, succumbing to exhaustion. Spike gave a little yelp, clinging to her mane for dear life.
"Silly Twilight!" Pinkie chirped "the princesses can't be Celestia-forsaken! One of them is Celestia!" The cheery pony giggled.
"I- ....... Just- ....I mean- .....Oh never mind!" The purple unicorn sputtered in response, she got up and started pacing "How are we going to find them? They could be anywhere in Equestria!"
"umm....Twilight?" Fluttershy said
"I mean it's not like one of us has some magical connection to the princess and her exact location!"
"Twilight...."
"And there's also the fact that we are still wanted criminals-"
"TWILIGHT!"
Twilight Sparkle jumped a foot into the air, squeaking.
"Couldn't you use Spike?" Fluttershy whispered "I mean, if that will work....I'm not one hundred percent sure...it's really a bad idea anyways-"
"You're a genius!" Twilight interrupted "Spike has a direct magical connection to Celestia, I can trace it to it's source!"
She lifted Spike off her back with her magical aura, who grumbled in annoyance.
"Oh hush" Twilight chided "do you want to be thrown in jail the moment we step outside? This will give me an exact location to teleport to"
She closed her eyes, concentrating for a second before her brows furrowed in annoyance. She broke the connection, growling
"I can't get an exact location" she said slowly "But I could sense a general area,
they're in the Everfree somewhere. I think I can teleport to my Library, and we can go from there"
The group gave a general sigh of relief, as there was a certain aspect of appeal to not running around Canterlot like fugitives. After a nod was given from everypony, Twilight focused her magic and the group of ponies (and dragon) disappeared.
Next thing she knew, Twilight and her friends had appeared straight in the middle of three large stacks of books. They exploded outward as the mass of seven ponies suddenly appeared were previously there had only been air. A dictionary smacked Twilight in the face.
"So much for re-shelving those today..." The purple unicorn muttered.
"Yeehaw!" Applejack whooped "So'r we rescuin' some princesses or what?"
"You guys can go ahead, I'll catch up" Twilight said "I need to put Spike to bed"
Sure enough, the baby dragon was sound asleep on her back, snoring gently. Twilight trotted softly up the stairs and tucked him into his little bed. Her poor number one assistant had been through a lot that day.
Tip-hoofing softly down the stairs, Twilight saw the Doctor sitting at one of the Library tables patiently "So that's Spike?" He said
"Yeah" Twilight said softly "I hatched him, and raised him since I was just a little filly, for a while he was my only friend....he's like a little brother to me"
"And he's a dragon?"
Twilight nodded, closing the library door as they walked out
The Doctor whistled "You know, this has been a strange day... And if you'd been on any of my adventures, you'd know that if I think a day has been strange, then that's saying somthing"
Twilight laughed, rolling her eyes "When the time traveling alien thinks something is strange, it's time to give up"
She spotted her friends' signature color pallets and trotted faster to catch up.
"Oh there you are, Darling!" Rarity said "I trust little Spikey-Wikey is all well"
Twilight nodded.
"WHOOPEEEEEE!" Pinkie cheered, bouncing along in her usual style, and stopping before the line of trees "We're here!"
Fluttershy began to back up slowly "Maybe I should stay at the library with spi-EEP!"
Her words were cut off as she was dragged along by an over-eager Rainbow Dash
"Lets go kick some changeling flank!" She said brashly, as Fluttershy whimpered.
"Actually...all the changeling within a five or six mile radius were repelled. All we'll have to do is break whatever spell is keeping them confined" Twilight said
"Cough! Egghead Cough!Cough!"
"Rainbow!"
"What?" Rainbow said innocently "Just coughing, Sheesh!"
Twilight rolled her eyes "C'mon girls!"
They set off into the forest, Twilight leading the way, and talking about the forest.
"I've mapped almost all of the Everfree in my different travels through it!" Twilight said, pulling a map from her saddlebags (Which the Doctor was now wearing again) "Over here is dragon territory, so they probably wouldn't be there....too risky They probably wouldn't be by the poison joke fields or Zecora's hut either, as that is the area most regularly ventured into by ponies, and she wouldn't want them to be discovered....And then to the west...."
"She's monologuing again" Dash whispered to AJ
"I heard that!" Twilight shot them a glare "But to sum it up....the most likely area for them to be trapped is the abandoned castle"
She spread her hoof to show that they had arrived at the rope bridge. It had deteriorated since their last visit, its ropes frayed by the elements, and planks cracked in many places. They had been able to cross it easily enough before, but now it looked a bit more difficult.
"It's rickety, so you two should probably fly over" She pointed a hoof at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, then squinted "It's a little too misty for me to be able to confidently teleport over there, so the rest of us will have to cross. Single file, try to walk as lightly as possible!"
Rainbow Dash took off to the other side, with Fluttershy following weakly in tow. Finally, the butter pegasus alighted on the other side with a squeak, then proceeded to scoot as far away from the edge as possible.
"You first AJ" Twilight said, motioning to the cow-pony
Applejack stepped onto the bridge, wobbling slightly as it swayed under her weight
"Wooah" She said, as it wobbled about one final time as she stepped onto solid ground again "Y'all better be careful, it's wobblier than Granny Smith after a cider drinkin' contest"
The Doctor chuckled softly saying "Wibbly wobbly timey whimey"
Pinkie giggled, and Rarity gave a confused look to Twilight, who just shrugged
"Alright, Rarity, you next"
The white unicorn stepped daintily onto the bridge, giving little shrieks every time it moved. It was needless to say that everypony was very thankful when she got to the other side
"Now you Pinki-WAIT!" Twilight yelled as she saw Pinkie preparing to spring "No bouncing...just walking"
The pink party-pony looked dejected, but nonetheless walked across the bridge with impressive speed and confidence, and as soon as she made it to land began happily bouncing once more.
Now it was Twilight's turn. Though usually a bit klutzy, the purple unicorn traversed the obstacle with considerable aplomb, only slipping up once with a squeak.
When she got to the end, she turned and called out to the Doctor "Your turn now!"
The brown stallion trotted comfortably onto the bridge, causing it to rock to and fro.
"Careful!" Twilight called
"Oh come off it! It's not that rickety" The Doctor said, purposefully shifting his weight back and forth and causing the bridge to sway precariously "See?"
He bounced up and down for good measure, causing all the others to wince.
"Doctor!" Twilight snapped.
"Fine" the Doctor responded, walking more gingerly and muttering "Honestly, I've been in ricketier spaceshi-"
The board beneath his hooves broke, and his grousing was cut off as he was barely saved from a tumble into the gorge by a burst of magenta magic.
"Oh." he said slowly, looking down into the abyss through the aura of pink energy keeping him afloat "Well isn't that nifty"
The Timepony was deposited on the ground with a thud.
Twilight caught his gaze, eyebrows raised and mouth pursed in an expression that could only be translated as I-told-you-so.
"Yeah, yeah" He griped "I get it."
"You're welcome" The purple unicorn replied, trotting purposefully off towards the castle.
As they entered the main room, Twilight's eyes widened. In the middle of the floor, both Celestia and Luna lay, seemingly asleep.
"Well I'll be" Applejack said slowly she trotted up to Celestia, attempting to prod her shoulder "Well that's odd..." she said, hoof pressing into the air about an inch above the princess "....it's like there's a sheet of solid air all around 'em-Woah!"
Her hoof slipped through the invisible barrier, and she fell onto the ground beside the Princesses. She lifted her head for a moment, pressing her hoof into the reformed shield, then her eyes rolled back in her head and she sank slowly back down, fast asleep, breathing gentle.
Twilight winced "That was probably how they trapped Luna" She mused "We'll have to break it somehow"
"Okie Doki Loki!!!" Pinkie said, and then, apparently taking Twilight's statement as a command, charged at the three sleeping ponies at breakneck speed, screaming at the top of her lungs
"DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"
"Pinkie no!"
"Oof!" Pinkie collided with the invisible barrier, and slid down slightly, making an awful squeaking sound. Then she slipped through the barrier, chirping "Oops...Nighty night!" and fell fast asleep like the others.
"Well, shoot...." Twilight muttered
"Eep!" There was the sound of tripping hooves, and Fluttershy flew through the air, landing in the trap as well.
Rainbow Dash facehoofed.
"Yeesh" she said slowly, walking over by the trap.
"Careful!" Twilight said
"Yeah yeah, I know, what did you think I'm going to do?" the bold pegasus lazily leaned on the nearest thing, and....
"Oh buck" Rainbow said, before she fell into the trap.
Twilight lay her head in her hooves, shaking it softly. Then she looked up sharply as something occured to her.
"Rarity....Don't you dare faint and fall into the trap. Don't. Even. Think. About. It" She hissed
Rarity wisely took a couple of steps back, and so did the Doctor, hastily backpedaling away from the unicorn.
"I think I can break this" Twilight said "But the more ponies trapped the harder it will be so please refrain from tripping, falling, leaning on, throwing your self into, or otherwise touching anywhere near the sleeping ponies. Is that clear?" She gave a pointed look at the Doctor.
Vigorous head nods from both ponies.
"Good." Twilight said smoothly. She closed her eyes, and a small stream of magic left her horn and circled the spell, probing for weaknesses. The puff of magic suddenly expanded into a cloud and darted down at the sleeping ponies from a thousand different points.
Rarity gave a small shriek.
Slowly, the magic seeped through the shield, causing the cracks in the invisible spell to be outlined in brilliant magenta light. There was a sound like shattering glass at a much, much higher frequency, almost too high to hear, causing all three ponies to wince.
Twilight opened her eyes and stood up triumphantly, and the six sleeping ponies began to stir, slowly sitting up.
Celestia was the first to recover, standing up and saying slowly "Twilight, may I ask what just happened?"
"Oh, you were lured into a trap by Chrysalis's daughter, who then proceeded to impersonate you and feed on all of Equestria's love, before she kidnapped my friends and held Spike hostage...Don't worry, we handled it"
The princess chuckled, a light, motherly sound "It appears you have saved the day once again my little ponies" she briefly glanced at the Doctor, eyes widening a fraction, before she regained composure "And who is this?"
"Oh..well I'm...I'm Time Turner, Ms.Celestia...Princess..." he trailed off, giving an awkward little bow as Twilight facehoofed in the background.
Celestia,however, seemed unfazed "It's wonderful to meet you Time Turner" she said, before looking to the other ponies "Allow me to take you all back to Canterlot where I can heat the whole story"
There was a flash of golden light, and soon they were all seated in Celestia's office, the two princesses listening as the adventure was accounted mostly by Twilight, with brief interjections by the others and dramatic hoof gestures by Pinkie.
"Well, my little ponies" Celestia said finally "It seems you have had quite the adventure...But, there is a party in the Garden tonight if you all would like to enjoy Canterlot whithout being chased by Changelings...of course, you all are probably already exhausted from-"
"A PARTY!" Pinkie Pie shouted, racing out of the room in a blur.
"I stand corrected" Celestia said slowly, then smiled "You all enjoy"
"Thank you so much, Princess" Fluttershy whispered "That sounds delightful"
"Yes, indeed" Rarity interjected "Thank you"
"Guess I'm up for a party" Applejack said "Mighty gracious of ya', Princess"
A Rainbow colored blur raced out of the room "Awww yeah!..and uh...thanks and stuff"
"Rainbow! Mind yer' manners!" the orange cow pony raced after Rainbow Dash, with Rarity and Fluttershy trotting placidly behind.
Now it was only Twilight and her mentor "Thank you Princess" the purple unicorn said, giving a small curtsy.
"You're very welcome my dearest student" Celestia "...and just a heads up, your friend Time Turner is more than meets the eye"
Twilight gave a small laugh "Trust me, Princess" She said, departing down the stairs "I already know"
As she walked down the high stairs to the lower castle levels, she spotted a tan and brown pony trotting towards the shop district of Canterlot in the distance. The Doctor must have slipped away at some point while her friends and Celestia were talking. She teleported directly in front of him, causing the earth pony to startle and fall over backwards
"Whatcha doin?" she said innocently
The Doctor brushed himself off, getting up "Oh, I had figured I would be heading off...Garden parties....not really my thing"
"Oh no!" Twilight said "You are not going to fall into a bakery, show me some freaky time machine, save me and my friend's lives, and then just walk away without an explanation. I want answers!"
"So you tracked me down to some Canterlot backstreet just to ask me some questions?"
"Also you have my saddlebags" Twilight said
"Ohh....right." The Doctor said "Awfully handy, these things are"
Twilight cleared her throat.
"Yes, yes, answers" the Doctor said "Here, how about we go to this fancy garden party, and I will explain it afterwards...wouldn't want your friends to think you've gone missing"
"Deal." Twilight said, walking back to the Castle "Are equines really the non-sentient creatures in your universe?"
"Ah ah ah!" the Doctor said, shaking a hoof "Later"
As they arrived at the party, they were greeted by the sight of the gang laughing and talking with a group of the less snobbish Canterlot ponies. The garden was decked out with a dance floor, a punch bowl, and a particularly inviting deserts table, which Twilight eyes eagerly.....that was before Pinkie grabbed most of the sweets on it and shoved them in her mouth.
"Twilippthh!" the pink party-pony exclaimed "Tpthhere pthuu pthrrrre!"
A nearby gold unicorn backed away slowly.
"Pppthhooray!" Pinkie whooped, spraying cake everywhere.
Twilight rolled her eyes...that was Pinkie Pie for you, absently, she wandered by the dance floor, swishing her tail slightly to the music.
"May I have this dance?" the Doctor inquired, smirking slightly.
Twilight's pupils contracted to pinpoints, and a nervous laugh escaped her throat "Ohhhh no, no no... I don't dance"
Ever since the incident at her birthday party when she, along with her friends, had crashed a nearby soiree and mortified Rarity in front of her business contacts, Twilight had decided that it was a good idea for her never to dance in public ever, ever, ever again. She gave a little shudder.
"Oh nonsense!" the Doctor said brightly oblivious to that fact "What's the worst that could happen?"

Author's Note

Only one more chapter left to go and possibly an epilogue!
Hopefully I'll be getting them done by the end of this month so stay tuned

Chapter 10

Exactly forty seven minutes later, they were sitting on a bench in the Royal Guard's station, an inebriated Pinkie Pie snoring on the ground at their hooves. They had attempted to lift her onto a seat, but had given up after she flailed so wildly she gave Twilight a bloody nose.
"I can't believe they kicked us out!" the Doctor huffed.
"Doctor!" Twilight exclaimed "Pinkie almost set the building on fire! We're lucky they didn't arrest us...If we weren't personally connected to Celestia they probably would have!"
She wondered absently when the others would get back with Celestia so they could take Pinkie out of the station, they had all been kicked out (save for Rarity, who pretended she didn't know them) but the guards were keeping a close eye on Pinkie in particular, and didn't want her to leave without a voucher from the princess.
"Well they didn't have to be so rude about it!"
Twilight rolled here eyes "You made three mistakes" she said, matter of fact-ly "First, you made me dance. Second, you thought my dancing was how normal ponies dance, and started dancing like me. Third, you asked Pinkie to hold your...ahem...my saddle bags, containing the Sonic Screwdriver, while you were ,quote un-quote, dancing, forgot to ask for them back, and left her unsupervised, near alcohol while in possession of both said dangerous tool, and her party cannon"
"Party cannon?"
"Party cannon."
"So that's what those explosions were"
Twilight took a look at the police report "from there perspective, they were just removing their pyromaniac and her friends, two of which were.....this is actually written down....'reported to be having seizure-like spasms on the dance floor'....seizure. like .spasms."
"You know when most people say that they can't dance, they don't really mean it...." The Doctor said slowly.
"Yes. I am aware of that" Twilight deadpanned, an ear flicking in annoyance "But sadly, that does not apply to me"
The Doctor began chuckling, shaking his head "Apparently not....I must say, that was probably the most interesting party I have ever attended"
"PARTY?" Pinkie suddenly jumped to her feet "WHERE?" the pink mare stumbled forward unsteadily, eyes crazed, then collapsed back to the floor muttering something that sounded like "What happened to the oatmeal?"
Twilight broke, putting her head in her hooves and shaking with laughter. Soon tears were running down her face "I can't breathe" she gasped between chuckles "Celestia I can't breathe"
By the time Twilight had finally wiped her eyes and stopped giggling, her friends had arrived.The Princess was following in tow, looking less than surprised.
"I think that was a new record" she said as a way of greeting "next best was fifty three, if I remember correctly"
"Fifty three minutes and twenty nine seconds" Twilight confirmed, she suspected there was a running bet pool between some of the more laid back guards on how long it would take Pinkie Pie to show up at the guard's station after the start of a party. She knew she had seen her brother's friends exchanging bits on a similar occasion.
The princess smiled warmly "Why don't you wake Pinkie Pie up while I go talk to them, you are free to go"
Her student nodded, gently using her magical aura to prod Pinkie to her hooves
"Huh? What?" Pinkie said, eyes flicking around "I didn't eat the doughnuts! I promise!"
She throw her forelegs over her head, shaking.
"Pinkie, it's okay, Sugercube. We're just heading home" Applejack said soothingly
"Yeah Pinkie!" Rainbow said "I think you need it too...you look pretty-"
"Carry me?"
Without waiting for an answer the pink pony climbed onto her chromatic friend's back, curling up and making to go back to sleep.
"Are you sure you don't want me to carry you with my magic?" Twilight offered, seeing Rainbow Dash's distinctly awkward expression.
In reply, Pinkie mumbled something indecipherable and then buried her face in Dash's mane
"Guess not...."
"What just happened?" Rainbow Dash said, looking uncomfortable.
"You're carrying Pinkie Pie" AJ replied, patting her on the shoulder
"But-"
"Don't. Never deny drunk Pinkie Pie of being carried. She will get violent" A haunted expression crossed Applejack's face "You should be glad you weren't there"
Twilight shuddered, the image of her fuchsia companion with a enraged expression screaming "UPSIES NOW!" flashing through her mind. That had not been a good time.
Fluttershy squeaked and covered her face with her hooves.
"A-alright...." The cerulean pegasus looked slightly scared, eyes flicking to Pinkie on her back "I'll take your word for it"
There was a strange moment where everyone was completely silent, eyes all flicking to one another's, then the Doctor broke it.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaat????"
Applejack, Fluttershy and Twilight all said simultaneously "You don't want to know"
There was a tinkle from the door, and a snow-white unicorn stepped inside, smiling.
"Oh hello!" Rarity sang "I figured I would find you all here! I got us a carriage to Ponyville that should be waiting in horseshoe square, so I suggest we all pack off!"
There were a few grumbles, but eventually all the ponies were herded out the door and onto the street, and began the short walk to the square.
"Are you coming Twilight?" Rarity asked
"Oh no, I have to talk to Time Turner really quickly, I'll catch up with you all"
Rarity gave her a pointed look, and Twilight rolled her eyes. That designer was awful quick to start playing matchmaker....
She trotted over to her time traveling friend "you do remember where outside the maze you landed it, right?"
"ummm......"
It took a few minutes of searching around all the maze entrances, but eventually they found the recognizable blue police box, and both stepped inside. Soon they were sitting down with two cups of tea, and a box of Jammy Dodgers resting between them.
Stirring the last of the sugar on the bottom of her teacup, Twilight looked up "Alright, I want the story"
The Doctor looked up from his tea as well, leaning back "Where to start..." he mused slowly "I'm a Timelord, I come from the planet Gallifrey. I am a thousand years old. I travel around in this time machine...well...it's more than that really, the TARDIS. She takes me where I'm needed, all over the Universe, and in all different time periods. Once there, I try to help. My travels have lead me to meet many great people, and many great friends... I've had several people travel with me, most of them human beings. Humans were the sentient creatures on a planet very similar to yours, they were ape descendants, very ingenuitive, much like you ponies. Most were not quite as kind as I've seen you ponies to be, but those whom I traveled with were all stellar examples of their kind, brave and clever and good as any I've met. I lost all of them eventually...but needless to say they all hold a special place in my hearts. But that's, for the most part, what I do. I was fighting some nasty planet devouring parasites when I fell through a space-time rift...and here I am....all equine"
For a while Twilight said nothing, just sipping her tea with a slightly awe-struck expression....What she wouldn't give to see the universe like that...
"Wow...that's incredible" she said finally smiling with a slight melancholy tint "Thank you....for sharing that, I mean. It's just unbelievable" Her eyes were wide and held a similar expression to that when she had first seen Celestia raise the sun, then she shook her head slightly and stood up.
"So I guess you'll be off now...exploring the universe"
"All of time and space, and every star...and they're all new now, not everyday you land somewhere completely new" A slow smile spread across the Doctor's face "Would you like to come with me?"
"What?"
"You know, come travel with me. As you have so graciously pointed out, I...well...am not exactly acquainted with equine culture. Could use a clever unicorn to show me around..."
"I...I..." Twilight began, before the Doctor cut her off
"Wait, don't answer that yet!" The Doctor said, going over to the controls and fiddling with a few knobs before throwing a lever "open the door"
Twilight looked deeply confused, but went over and pushed the door open, saying "I don't see why...oh...oh my goodness"
Before her hooves lay the silvery surface of the moon, and beyond that, the blue green pearl of her planet hanging on a scattered backdrop of stars and night.
Slowly, she stepped onto the powdery ground "This...This is amazing!" she spun around in a circle giddily, nearly tripping over her own hooves "It's just fantastic! I- I dont even....wow...."
"Sooooooo?" The Doctor said trotting up beside her and tilting his head inquisitively "I mean, I'm not sure if time travel is really your cup of tea....but the offer is op-"
A lavender blur cut him off.
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Of course! How could I say no?" the purple unicorn had thrown her forelegs around his neck in a sudden hug, babbilng like a school filly.
"seeing other planets! and the future...the past! I...I... I can't.....I can't even begin to imagine...Thank you. I...I just...Thank you so much"
"My....I really thought you would be much more reluctant to travel with a mad-pony in a box" the Doctor said, having recovered from the shock. He chuckled slightly, giving a customary half smile and eyebrow raise.
Twilight released the hug, looking embarrassed "So did I..." she said, then smirked wryly "I guess you had me at time travel"
The Doctor looked confused "But I thought you said you had traveled in time?"
Twilight gave a sudden bark of laughter, lowering her forehead to a hoof and shaking it slowly "Doctor...me 'traveling in time' was my future self going about a week in the past trying to warn myself not to be so paranoid, failing to complete the message, and sending me into a spiral of worry that caused me to get injured in turn by a scroll, my dragon, the sun, and several falling objects, as well as earning me a Celestia-awful haircut before I finally realized that nothing was going to happen, traveled into the past to warn my past self not to be so paranoid, failed to complete the message and started the whole thing all over again"
"....wow."
Twilight nodded "I know right?" then she paused, something occurring to her "would knowing about you...about the fact that you're not a normal pony, put my friends in danger?"
"How do you mean"
"Well..." Twilight started "Doing what you do, it stands to reason you will have made your fair share of enemies. If one of those enemies happened to come here, would knowing the truth put my friends in more danger than they would be otherwise?"
The Doctor winced "I can't say for sure that it wouldn't"
The purple unicorn sighed "That's what I thought" she said "I couldn't tell them then...It's not worth it....I couldn't put them in danger"
"And what about you?" the Doctor asked "I couldn't tell you in clean conscience that traveling with me will be safe. I will try to keep you from harm of course, but that doesn't remove the fact that there are risks. I don't want you to jump into this without knowing that it is going to be dangerous"
"I know" Twilight said "But...I think if I didn't say yes, if I just went back to normal life, I would always be wondering what might have happened. How I could have let an opportunity like that slip through my hooves...I've always wanted to see the world, but I've never gotten a chance through except through books. I wasted most of my life holed up in my own little world, never meeting new ponies or seeing new things. My friends opened up my eyes, and I'm not going to let another chance to see what's out there, outside of the library, pass me by"
The brown earth pony's eyes softened slightly, and a small smile appeared on his face "You know, sometimes you remind me a lot of..." he trailed off "oh, never mind"
Twilight shook her head "You are such a hermit sometimes" she chuckled
"Oi! I get out plenty!" He paused "You know...if you count fighting aliens as getting out....but still!"
Twilight made a placating gesture with her hooves "Sorry, I forget the things I say usually don't make much sense outside of my head... I don't mean like in the physical sense, but more like you're a hermit inside your head. It's like, there's so much going on in there, but you keep it shut up inside with the doors locked and the windows boarded. I should know, I'm a bit of a head hermit myself"
The Doctor looked amused, laughing lightly "I suppose we both are a bit head hermit-ish...I'll have to invite you to the next meeting of Hermits United"
He snickered at his own joke.
"Hermits United?"
"Oh, it nothing, just an old-I'm doing it again aren't I?"
"You don't say?" Twilight quipped snarkily, eyebrow raised.
In retaliation, the Doctor gave her a small push, sending her bouncing lightly across the moon's dusty surface
"Watch your step!" he sang cheekily
Twilight picked herself up, now covered in grey dust, and lit up her horn "Alright smart-flank, back to the TARDIS"
"Ow! Ow! Ear, ear ear! I use that to hear you know! Oi!" the Doctor pouted as he was pulled through the time machine doors by Twilight's telekinesis "I liked you better when you were all magic deprived..."
He walked over to the control panel, adjusting levers and turning switches "I suppose I should take you back to the library. You've had quite the day......" He trailed off as he saw that during the small lapse in conversation his newest companion had fallen fast asleep on the metal floor, curled up in a ball with her hooves as a pillow.
The Doctor chuckled and shook his head slightly, a small smile on his face "Let's get you home, Sparky"

Author's Note

Epilogue will be out soon, then it's on to the next adventure!

Epilouge

The Doctor closed the large cloth-bound book and set it on the table. Nowadays when he wasn't in the TARDIS, he was spending most of his time catching up on the thousands of years of pony history he had missed. He had been intrigued to learn that not only ponies, but all the hooved mammals were sentient, and had even spent a day talking to Applejack's cows to learn about their culture and relationship with the ponies.
Getting up, he walked through the book shelf laden main room of the library over to the kitchen, eager to share his discovery.
"Sparkle!" he called as he nudged open the door "There was something in the Paleopony Period I wanted to check out, something about a giant shark that I'm not sure is entirely from your planet in origin. Are you in?"
He cut off suddenly with a yelp as he was almost brained by a large pan that was whizzing through the air. As he looked up, he saw that it, along with several other kitchen implements, were racing around the room at breakneck speed with magical auras around them. The purple unicorn in the middle of it all looked up, and all the utensils and cookware froze in midair.
The Doctor eyed the large cutting knife inches from his head, and took several smart steps in the other direction "What in the world are you doing?"
"Dish-washing" Twilight replied, as if that were obvious, as she talked, she shelved the clean dishes with her magic, scrubbing of the last with a dish towel (also floating in midair) before sending it into the cabinet as well. Simultaneously, the dirty dishes stacked themselves neatly and returned to the sink for a later time.
".... Dish-washing." The Doctor shrugged "Just when I think I'm done being surprised."
"I don't think you're allowed to judge Mister time traveler....." his purple friend said, rolling her eyes falling into step beside him as they headed out into the main room of the library " But anyhoof, you were saying something about shark aliens?"
They pushed open the back door and walked up to the TARDIS, which had been residing in the back alley behind Twilight's library since she had started traveling with the Doctor.
"Oh!" the Doctor said "That reminds me... here!" from out of her saddlebags (which he was still wearing) the Doctor drew a small object on the end of a chain, tossing it to Twilight.
The purple unicorn caught it in her magic, looking at it curiously "A key?"
"A key to the TARDIS!" the Doctor said brightly "Figured in might come in useful"
Twilight smiled, one corner on her mouth curling upward in her usual half-grin, then levitated the key into the lock with her magic, saying "Well...in that case" the door swung open "After you"
The pair stepped into the time machine, laughing, and as the closing doors, a brief conversation could be heard.
"You know , Sparky...I always wondered exactly how unicorn magic work-"
"Sparky?"
"...oh no."
"We made an agreement Doctor."
"Sparkle......Please don't say the catchphrase...it's such an awful catchphras-"
"C'EST PARTI !"
"NO. Stop it. Stop it right now!"
"C'est parti! C'est parti! C'est parti-"
Then the blue doors swing closed, there was a strange sound, and the blue box faded away, leaving no signs it had ever been there.

Author's Note

Omigosh.
I seriously cannot believe this is finished.
When I started this, finishing the first story (Much less getting all my ideas into writing) seemed a little unreal. But now I've successfully completed the first installment of The Fantastic Adventures of Doctor Whooves (Can you tell I stink at naming things?) and I'm almost halfway through the first chapter of the upcoming second adventure.
I know it might seem like I'm getting all excited over not too much (especially considering all the other amazing stories that are on here) but I think for the person who has never really gotten past a story beginning, I think a finished work is pretty darn cool.
So allons-y everybody! (or c'est parti if you want to annoy the Doctor)
The next adventure is on its way!
Thank you all for reading, and thank you for the support.