The Wonderous Misadventures of Doctor Whooves

The Doctor spun around on his hooves immediately, searching for the source of the voice. There, in front of the large power column was a grey pegasus looking curiously at said engine, almost as if she was inspecting it for errors. She had a blond mane and tail with three bubbles as her butt tattoo. The mystery pony was also...cross-eyed? Well this meant that the equines were susceptible to mutations, another piece of information on them. But that was not important! What mattered was that a completely random pegasus had sneaked into his TARDIS! Not bad, clever girl.

"Um-um...who exactly are you...?" The Doctor asked her quizzically. He continued to stare at her with a blank expression on his face as she circled around the engine.

"Huh? Oh, my name is Derpy Hooves! I think you said you're The Doctor right? Nice to meet you," she exclaimed as if nothing was off in this situation at all. He continued to gaze wide-eyed at her in disbelief. How could she've possibly got in? I was the only one through the door, I saw it.

"How did you-I mean, how'd you even get in here?" once more The Doctor questioned her. He'd seen stranger things, but he wasn't sure of what to expect from this universe.

"The door silly! While everyone was all crowding and trying to get in, I saw a bunch of shiny things, so I just flew in and started looking around. Neat place you got here, but what exactly does it all do?" At that the Time Lord couldn't help but let a massive grin overtake his face. It couldn't have been healthy for him. But now was time for one of his favorite things, explaining advanced technology! Another gleeful thought besides the joys of lecturing roamed inside his head as well, This mare has potential to make a great companion. Things were going somewhat swimmingly in this dimension already. Somewhat.

The Doctor took a deep breath and began, "Welllll my dear, this thing here is the hyperaccelerated particle neutral..." his explanation of almost every gadget and room in the TARDIS, each not losing a single fraction of Derpy's attention, continued for about two-and-a-half hours. So long, in fact, that he pretty much forgot the engines were no longer dangerous and he could return at any time.

The crowd at the town meeting stood speechless at the sight they'd beheld over the past couple of minutes. Finally, Lyra spoke up and named their collective thoughts. "What the hay just happened?" Everypony silently agreed.

"I think I can piece together some information here," Twilight Sparkle said as she and the Elements of Harmony emerged from the road leading into town center. She was the princess' personal student and all, so it'd be probably was best for her to take over the situation. As the lavender unicorn stepped onto the stage, Mayor Mare let her have the podium and explain whatever she could. "Last night," she began, "that stallion was found in Sweet Apple Acres. We also found that very box close by, and that's when we took it here. He said his name was The Doctor, and we initially thought he was a robber or some type of criminal trying to do something to AJ's farm." the mare told the crowd while she nodded towards Applejack. "Somehow, he got out of the ropes using a capsule-like device which shot a burst of energy, and ran off towards Ponyville rambling about 'engines phasing'. Basically, we captured and scared off a potentially incredibly advanced pony." She finished her half-lecture, half-theory, the last sentence of which left most of those in attendance looking around or at the ground in nervousness or shame.

Rainbow Dash was, as per usual, the first to break the silence, "Say...has anypony seen Derpy?" The crowd snapped to attention at the chance to change the subject. All held unsure looks on their faces signifying their unawareness of the grey pegasus' location.

Rarity jumped to an assumption, albeit irrational, quickly, "That uncouth brute must have kidnapped poor Derpy while he escaped!" The white unicorn swooned once more, not fainting this time.

A look of rage spread over Applejack's face, and she practically erupted red-faced, "Consarnit! That dern Doctor was up tah no good, Ah told ya Twilight!" The earth pony directed her fury towards Twilight for no particular reason.

"Calm down, AJ! We don't even know if he did anything yet! If anything, we should be guilty, I'm sure we've practically scared him half to death with the town's antics!" the librarian shot back at the infuriated farmer.

Fluttershy let out a meek, "girls..." in a piss-poor attempt to calm her friends down.

"Good! Have you gone crazy, Twilight!? He's clearly to blame here! What else do ya think happened to Derpy!? It's just plain obvious!" Rainbow shouted at the bearer of the Element of Magic. She'd taken Applejack's side on the matter since it always sucked to be down a hoof on the Weather Team, even though she wasn't all that good at cloud-clearing. Or storm-brewing. Or most weather-related activities, for that matter. Thank Celestia she was the mailmare. In the background, their fighting had caused a chain reaction and a series of small debates broke out in the still-large crowd on the ground below. Even the mayor was getting into it with a couple of the supposed brainaics from earlier.

"For Celestia's sake Rainbow will you think more than once about something for once in your life! True, there's no evidence for him, but there's certainly no evidence against him!" Twilight retaliated once more at the pegasus and earth pony. Her patience was slowly decreasing with the stubborn pair against her, and she hoped that things wouldn't escalate too badly.

Her wish was shared by a quivering and crouching yellow pegasus, who pleaded for her mates' attention once more, this time ever so slightly louder, "...girls..." Obviously, nopony heard her in the massive commotion. Pinkie Pie was riding around on a unicycle wearing a Groucho Marx mask and top hat. Rarity'd fainted, again.  Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle were all arguing. The entire town seemed to be in one form of disharmony. Discord was probably rolling in his stone imprisonment at the sight.

AJ spout back at Twilight, "Nah evidence against 'im!? Please! He tried tah rob Sweet Apple Acres!"

"He already said he didn't!"

"Why should we believe him!?"

Fluttershy basically lost her shit. "Stop it!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. The noise and mayhem ceased at her voice ringing through the air. All gazes in the vicinity were turned towards her. Uh-oh the shy mare thought. She smiled nervously before shrinking down a bit. Thankfully, she needn't say anything else as Twilight spoke for her.

"Fluttershy's got the right idea here. Let's just cross the bridge when we come to it; if whoever he is comes back, we deal with it, if he doesn't, problem solved. We'll send out an investigation for Derpy, but until then, let's all settle down." the unicorn said as calmly as she could. The tension in the air seemed to fade away as the mob muttered and held private and soft conversations while splitting up.

Applejack turned towards both of the other ponies and said, "Ah'm sorry, Twilight. I let mah temper get tha best of me, Ah suppose. Just a little stressed is all." The look in her eyes showed she was truly apologetic.

"I'm sorry too," the lavender mare replied, "we all got a little heated, huh?" she finished with a forced chuckle.

"Heh, ya got that right," Rainbow said. "I'm...sorry too I guess..." Whatever. Any sort of apology from Rainbow was better than usual. The six trotted off together (after reviving Rarity), determined to figure out what happened to Derpy Hooves. But a thought rested at the back of Twilight's mind. What if I'm wrong? she pondered. What if Derpy really was kidnapped, and that stallion really was a robber?

What if I've put everypony in danger?

The Doctor had just finished the best technological lecture of his long life. Derpy had to admit, he rivaled Twilight when it came to the stuff. He had it down to an art really, you get good at it when you have so many companions to go over it with. With her new knowledge, Derpy merrily made her way outside to take a look at the pure blackness. There was a slight chance she would have done that even without knowing there was an automatically-generated oxygen field outside of the TARDIS. After assing around in "space" for quite a bit, The Doctor promptly decided it'd be best to head back to the place full of mad ponies and try to at least start over. Hopefully, they all weren't in such a raving frenzy as before.

As the TARDIS accelerated towards the planet's surface, the Time Lord posed a question to the grey pegasus derping about the control room. "Say Derpy Hooves, mind if I ask you a question?" She stopped flying and came down to the ground.

"Sure! Go 'head," she beamed at him inquisitively. Her head was cocked slightly at an angle, as if to demonstrate her intrigue.

Smiling at her lightly, he asked, "How'd you like to be able to go wherever you want, whenever you want?" She was obviously confused by his statement.

"Whaddya mean by that, Doctor?" She said as her head tilted even further to the side.

"You know this is a time machine, right?"

"Yeah, so-oh. Oh. Ohhhh! You mean...!?" Derpy held a smile that would've made the pink pony from earlier proud and the happiness pretty much radiated off her. So much in fact, that The Doctor couldn't help but let his smile grow a little larger, as well.

"Yes. Yes I do." Suddenly, he was brought to the ground rather violently as he was tackle-hugged by his passenger.

"Of course, of course, of course! Oh man! This is so cool! I really get to go around in a time machine and-" she was cut off as during one of her celebratory loops of joy in the air she managed to hit one of the upper walkways and tumbled to the ground.

"Oh my, are you alright there?" The Doctor feared for her well-being but at the same time struggled to stifle his giggles. It was a pretty funny sight to watch, actually.

Returning to her hooves, Derpy waved one in the air and shrugged, "It's fine. I've taken worse." She maintained a cheerful expression from the previous revelations despite hitting a solid metal beam not fifteen seconds ago. Impressive,  the Time Lord thought.

"Looks like our destination is in sight," the stallion said while looking at one of the modules. The landing spot was controlled and non-disastrous this time as nothing went terribly wrong in the process. Hey, sheds don't really count as buildings, right? Right? Whatever.

They all saw the light from the telescope in the library. It was a bright streak that stood out well against the bright blue sky and it came to a rest, this time not as dramatically and in the fields near Fluttershy's house and the Everfree Forest. Before anypony could say a word, Twilight's horn lit up and they were at the scene immediately. "What's that over there?" Pinkie asked as she pointed in the general direction of a small blue spot on the horizon.

"Our destination," Twilight said. "Let's go!" They teleported once again, now almost directly in front of the figure with "POLICE - PUBLIC USE - BOX" on it. The Mane 6 stared at the supposed time machine until two ponies stepped out. The Doctor and...Derpy Hooves!

"What'd you do with her, freak!?" Rainbow flew right up to him and booped him roughly in his nose. His demeanor was...amused? That didn't make sense.

"Hehehe, well she happened to sneak into my TARDIS here, I explained it and gave her the grand tour, and now we're time-travelling buddies!" He nudged her in the shoulder as she smiled. In this context, it's probably not the best idea to say companion he wisely thought to himself.

The cyan pegasus didn't but it, and she made that clear, "Yeah, right! You kidnapped her, we all know-hey!" She felt herself being yanked back by her tail and was soon on the ground next to Applejack, who was giving her a disapproving glare from above.

Twilight turned to her friend on the ground and half-whispered sharply, "Rainbow! We went over this!" before returning her gaze to the duo that just stepped out of the "TARDIS." "Hehe...sorry about that. Listen, I suppose things got off on the wrong hoof between you and...everypony really...so let's try to start over, shall we?" She stuck her hoof out.

"Off on the wrong hoo-oh right, no hands here. Oh, um, yes I suppose that'd be wonderful," he smiled and shook the outstretched hoof of the violet mare across from him.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you some questions," Twilight asked him. The Doctor saw silent but frantic shaking of heads in disagreement and "No!"'s being mouthed which he met with a singular raised eyebrow.

"Uh...sure that'd be fine, I guess," the Time Lord said primarily focusing his attention on the group of ponies behind the apparent leader now groaning and facehoofing. Oh no, what have I gotten myself into...

A smile spread on her face as if she was a child who'd won all sweets in a candy shop. "That's great! Let's get started right away," she said to him as she dragged him off with her telekinesis. He could make out a "Good luck." mouthed from the hyperactive pink pony.

I IMMEDIATELY REGRET THIS DECISION.