Chapter One: A Whole New World
Everything going exactly how I expected it to be going. The TARDIS meandering through space under my command alone, no one to guide me around or tell me “No stop! That might blow something up!”,
just me.
Alone.
God was it boring. So I did what came natural. I pressed buttons and expected something to happen; sure enough after a moment, something did. The monitor popped noisily on, glowing with random words I didn’t care about. What I wanted was the location it was bleeping about. I dialed one of the knobs till I got a fix on the point of interest. Once I found out where, I decided it was time to find out what. I flicked a few switches and pressed a button or two and sent the TARDIS even faster through the vast emptiness towards the anomaly.
I turned up at it soon enough to something both extremely interesting and surprisingly boring at the same time. A glowing and spinning flat disk of white. No noise, just a spinning white disk. Now being me of course I have to check it out. I slide the TARDIS close to it, careful not to touch it even in the slightest, and position the door to face it. I pop open the door and gaze at it, intrigued by the simplicity of it’s appearance, even though it may be something unbelievably complex. A vortex through dimensions, a rip in time and/or space, or a plate someone lost that happened to gain tons of speed. Regardless of it’s origin, I decided to Sonic it. I soon though realized that was doing quite literally nothing and resorted to the greatest last resort that anything has ever known.
I poked it.
And it was the most exciting thing I’ve ever poked. The moment my finger touched it, me and my box were sent careening through some kind of whirlpool of energy. The mere force threw me back into the TARDIS, the door slamming behind me. I looked out the window and I could see colors, or couldn’t, hard to tell when you’re being spun, flipped, inverted, and contorted in every way imaginable. Soon enough though the whirling and headache inducing ride was over, leaving me dizzy in the middle of a sideways TARDIS. I lied there for a few seconds before the door finally gave way and popped open, dropping me onto a hardwood floor. I lied for a few more moments groaning quietly before opening my eyes. Doing so was probably the most confusing thing I’ve done in my nine-hundred some odd years.
Standing before me were two things, a very confused and very purple horse with a horn. I think it’s called a unicorn? And a purple and green lizard holding a stack of books. I did what came to mind firsthand. I screamed. Not a womanly scream of fear, but a manly scream of downright confusion! here I am lying completely clueless as to where I am, and come to greet me are a confused horse and a librarian lizard! Of course I would scream! And of course they joined me, the lizard dropping all it’s books quite unprofessionally for a librarian. The horse screaming like a girl; I mean that literally, the horse had a womans voice. While the librarian lizard made a scream that I’m pretty sure would belong to a young teenage boy. When I finished screaming and they finally decided to stop as well, the books now in a heap on the floor in front of the lizard-thing. I decided to question them, now considering they can scream I figured they can speak.
“Where in space and time am I?!” I shouted, popping to my hands and feet. Not sure why I went to that position but it seemed more comfortable.
“You’re in my library! With a box! How?!” the purple horse asked, the confused look still on her face.
“Why am I in a library, how can a horse talk, and why is that lizard a librarian?” I met her questions with even more questions.
“I have no idea how or why you are in my library, I’m not a horse I’m a pony thank you, and that ‘lizard’ is my assistant Spike, and he isn’t the librarian; I am,” she explained slowly, confusion still tinting her voice. I looked between the two for a moment before dropping to stare at the floor and my hooves.
Wait.
HOOVES?!
Last I had checked I never had hooves. I swiveled my head around to look for any other changes in my shape and found a tail; a tail! A poofy, curly, brown tail. I rushed to a nearby window and looked into it, getting a light reflection of myself to see a head of curly hair, no, not normal head hair, it was a mane! I was a pony!
“Uh, hey, what are you doing?” the purple pony asked from behind me, I responded by spinning on my back hooves to be facing her with a massive grin.
“I’m a pony! A pony!” I jumped past her, excited and thrilled at this new discovery.
“Erm... yeah, you are, haven’t you always been a pony?” she inquired, confusion growing once more in her voice.
“No! No I haven’t! This is new and wonderful and... and... Magnificent!” I practically shouted, spinning once again on my back hooves. I was interrupted from my happiness by the massively loud smash of the TARDIS deciding to follow gravity.
“Oh, hello there! Forgot all about you!” I said in surprise before climbing up and into it, dropping into the central room swiftly. I navigated carefully to one side to push a switch, causing the TARDIS to right itself properly. I walked out with my smoothest possible walk and waited for the applause, of course I didn’t get any though, ponies don’t have hands to clap with. Though based on their facial expressions, I doubt they would’ve clapped anyways.
“Well, are we going to stand here all day, or are we going to go outside so I can see this world?” I asked after a few seconds of awkward staring. The purple pony nodded and turned towards the door, Spike attempted to explain his reasoning for going upstairs, but only managed a stuttering statement before running off. I smiled softly and followed the pony out into the world.
Outside was as interesting as the library, but with more ponies. Many were gathered around the library, probably to find out what caused the flaming hole in the side of the building. Which I then realized was in fact, a tree. The purple pony walked towards the crowd which parted smoothly ahead of her, I followed close. Worried slightly that I would be engulfed in a stampede of confused ponies. I heard a whoosh overhead and in the corner of my eye a flash of color zoomed ahead of me, a cyan pony with a rainbow mane and tail flying; yes flying with wings, ahead of my purple-shaded guide,
“Twilight, what the hay happened? There was a huge blast and then a hole in your house!” the Winged pony explained, looking a mixture of excited, confused, and worried. The flying pony leaned towards the pony I now know is named Twilight and whispered something, giving me a look that told me she was asking about me.
“This is er...” Twilight began, attempting to introduce me. I chuckled softly and finished her statement.
“I’m the Doctor, nice to meet you,” I instinctively held out a hand-er, hoof for the flying pony to shake. But before I could realize the mistake, the pegasi was shaking my hoof.
“I’m Rainbow Dash, best flyer in Equestria, and what are you a Doctor of, Time?” she asked looking towards my rear, I turned my head to see an hourglass mark on my flank, I glanced around and noticed that every pony seemed to have some kind of mark in the same area. Twilight having some sparkles while Rainbow Dash had what appeared to be a rainbow lightning bolt.
“Well, I guess I am, what is this?” I ask pointing to the mark on her flank. She followed my hooves direction and then cracked up laughing.
“You don’t know what a Cutie Mark is?! Where did you find this guy?!” she barely managed to say. She laughed for a few more seconds before standing up, a barely contained grin on her face.
“Anyways, where are we off to?” I asked Twilight, who had once again a confused look on her face. She placed a hoof to her chin before deciding.
“Are you hungry?” she asked simply, I nodded vaguely, just noticing my own growling stomach. She smiled and walked towards one of the most colorful and delicious looking buildings I’ve ever seen.
We walked into the cake-like building to see a blue pony walking past with a cupcake hat, a yellow pony standing behind the counter wearing the same kind of hat with a forced and exaggerated smile.
“Welcome to Sugarcube corner Twilight! And whose your friend?” the yellow pony asked,
“This is the Doctor, can we get some cupcakes? He’s new here and he is a bit hungry,” the pony behind the counter nodded and shouted behind him,
“Pinkie! Two cupcakes please! For Twilight and and a new colt!” A crash was audible from the back room as a pink blur rushed out, suddenly there was a very pink and happy face inches from mine.
“Hi! Who are you? Where are you from? What’s your favorite color? Mine is pink!” she asked, zooming through the sentence.
“I’m er... I’m the Doctor, I’m from somewhere very far away and it’d confuse you if I tried to explain, and my favorite color...” I started to think for a moment before I noticed she was already gone, her tail disappearing through a doorway.
“Who was that..?” I asked utterly confused, Twilight laughed softly and rolled her eyes, before she explained with a soft smile.
“That was Pinkie Pie, she is... She’s Pinkie Pie,” I looked back to the doorway after hearing a swift clopping coming towards it shortly before she burst through the two cupcakes balanced on a small plate atop her head.
“Two cupcakes! One for my best friend Twilight and one for my newest friend!” the two cupcakes levitated off the platter and floated over to us, one floating in front of Twilight and the other in front of me. She quickly began eating it while I was hesitant for obvious reasons. Considering it was a floating and slightly glowing purple cupcake starring quite menacingly at me, I stared back for a moment before declaring my victory by biting into its side. It was as delicious as the outside of the bakery looked.
“It’s delicious!” I exclaimed after finishing the bite, only to quickly delve in for one more, and then another, until the cupcake was gone. Pinkie smiled at me with possibly the biggest grin I have ever seen,
“Thanks! It’s a secret recipe of mine that everypony seems to love!” she explained, her cheeks turning slightly more pink than the rest of her.
“Everypony? Well that’s new,” I chuckled softly at the new find. Instead of everybody, it’s everypony; that’s surprisingly fun for a word. Twilight bowed her head softly and thanked Pinkie Pie,
“Thanks for the great snack Pinkie! I’ll come back later today when I’m done showing him around,” Pinkie got an odd sparkle in her eye, for a moment I thought Twilights Cutie Mark reflected off it until I saw the grin she seemed to always have get bigger.
“Ooh! Can I come? I’ll show him around if you want!” she exclaimed with a swift bounce, her pink form suddenly appearing near mine, but she was facing Twilight, so I ended up with a faceful of cotton candy tail. I attempted to breath through the wall of pink and I got a strong smell of... Cotton Candy? Her tail smelled like cotton candy. That’s a bit odd, maybe she is a candy-pony? Well considering this place seems odd enough already, a candy pony might not be too unrealistic. I zoned back in to realize the pink-faced grin inches from my face, startling me onto my rear-end.
“Let’s go! You’re going to meet Rarity now, another one of me and Twilights friends!” she said, her voice not as loud as I expected, but not as quiet as I had hoped. She took off out the door and, after getting an apologetic look from Twilight, I followed her.
Outside I saw her bouncing around, I suppose this is her version of pacing impatiently. I took a step out of the door and she bolted to attention ahead of me. She looked extremely serious for about half a second before breaking down to a light chuckle and walking, well more like bouncing, off towards a purple and white building that looked a lot like a carousel. I followed as close as I could without getting another faceful of tail or dust. I looked at the store windows and noticed it was some kind of apparel shop, a boutique maybe? We walked in, her bounce slowing to an actual walk, and the door rung a bell to inform the shop keeper. A soft but royal sounding voice called down,
“Just a moment, finishing up this backstitch!” I, knowing nothing about clothing, didn’t know what that meant nor really cared all that much. Seconds later a white pony, a unicorn, with a curled purple mane and tail. She looked at me and smiled,
“Ooh, a new colt in town huh? And who might this be, Pinkie?” she asked walking over, while she walked several mannequins tilting and straightened to be upright and perfect, each one enveloped in a light blue-purple glow as they did so.
“This is... Well I don’t know! He seems fun though!” she responded cheerily, not in the least bit upset she forgot to ask my name, though she would get the same answer I give everyone,
“I’m the Doctor, nice to meet you,” I introduce myself, “and whom might you be?”
“I’m Rarity, the local seamstress and fashion designer, anything you might want?” she responded with her own introduction, I think for a moment and what may have been my greatest idea of the day popped into my head.
“Do you have any scarves that might suit me?” I asked with a small grin, a spark flashed in her eye and she nods exuberantly before rushing off further into the store. We only had a second to wait before she appeared with a brown and light orange scarf floating by her.
“Oh I think this would look absolutely-” I interrupt her and nearly shout, “Magnificent!” A smile of satisfaction appears on her face as the scarf drapes around my neck, tying itself into a comfortable hold.
“It looks great on you! Don’t you agree, Pinkie?” she complemented, turning to look at Pinkie, who as usual, was grinning.
“Yeah! You look cool!” she said, giving me an approving smile.
“Wonderful! Thank you for the scarf, how much will it cost?” I ask, knowing though I have no money here that is likely to be worth anything.
“Ah don’t worry about a pricetag this time, first time here you get something free! And how could I rob someone of such an amazing look! It fits you perfectly!” she ecstatically
said. I was happy I didn’t have to pay, but more-so that I was wearing an amazing scarf.
“Well, we’re off to Fluttershy’s! She might want to meet the Doctor here!” Pinkie exclaimed, catching me by my new scarf and dragging me out the door.
We walked through the town with only short stops to explain a store here, a local pony there, or some random but funny story of hers. But eventually we got to a cottage on the edge of the village. It was half in a forest with a river cutting under a bridge which led to the door. Pinkie bounced quickly across and up to the door, knocking a bit too hard than what is necessary. The door opens a smidge and a yellow face appears in the crack, a timid voice so quiet that though I’m only a few feet away, I have to struggle to hear.
“He..Hello?” the pony I now know is female called out. The visible eye looks over at Pinkie and the door begins to open a bit more, but then it shoots to look at me and slams shut as quickly as it opened.
“Well then, she doesn’t like guests does she?” I state with a hint of sarcasm, Pinkie chuckles softly and raps on the door again.
“Fluttershy! Come on! He’s new here and I’m showing him around!” she called at the door, almost like the door itself would talk, not the pony behind it. After a few dull seconds the door creaked open enough to enter, and a yellow pegasi with pink hair slipped out and stuck herself to the door.
“H-Hi...” she whispered, her head lowered to a practical bow.
“I’m the Doctor, nice to meet you... Fluttershy, is it?” I introduce myself, careful not to say too much or little, out of fear of scaring her back into her hut of a house.
“Y-Yeah... I... I gotta go!” she said swiftly, rushing back inside. It seemed my attempts to not rush her away where pointless.
“Ah that’s just Fluttershy for you, she’s real nice though!” Pinkie explained while bouncing down the hill, I caught up to her quickly as she reached the bridge.
“So, that was a short introduction, where are we off to now?” I asked, wondering if there is anypony else of note in this small town. She bounced ahead of me, close enough to speak to but far enough to not whack me with her tail. We re-entered the town square just as a familiar flash of color blurs by, stirring up a few pieces of paper. Can ponies write? Maybe unicorns can with their magic, but what about normal ponies? My train of thought was interrupted unknowingly by a shouting Pinkie Pie. She shouted towards the racing blur that moved near every cloud in the sky, moments later the nearest cloud to the blur would poof into nothingness.
“Rainbow Dash! Come meet the new guy!” the blur slowed down for a split second as it changed directions. A familiar pegasi planting herself in front of us.
“Oh hey! It’s the Cutie Mark guy!” Rainbow notes, giving me a less than respectable nickname.
“I’m the Doctor, thank you, and sorry for not knowing something I’ve never seen before, are they based on your talents and skills? That’d be intere-” I begin to go on an intellectual rant before Pinkie interrupts my train of thought once more.
“He’s from some place weird and confusing that he wouldn’t explain to me, but he’s my newest friend so I’m giving him a tour!” Rainbow Dash raises her eyebrow slightly,
“Well he’s already met me, maybe you should take him to Rarity’s,” she suggests, Pinkie shakes her head firmly, though her smile went nowhere.
“Nah, we’ve already been there, that’s how he got this scarf!” she explained, somehow grabbing my scarf once again and yanking me into her with it accompanied by a yelp of surprise.
“Ah! The scarf! Watch the scarf!” I exclaim while teetering towards her, nearing closer to accidentally making a pony pile. Fortunately though, she releases and I regain my balance and straighten the scarf.
“Why a scarf?” Rainbow asks with a small grin, I can tell she is on the verge of laughter.
“Well why not? Scarves are cool!” I exclaim with a short bounce. That sends her over the edge; she bursts into an uncontrollable fit of laughter and I can’t help but chuckle lightly with her.
“I’ll be honest new guy, you’re the first I’ve ever heard say that scarves, of all things, are cool!” she said when she regained control of her lungs. “Anyways, I should get back to work, big storm trying to roll in and it might ruin the crops, speaking of crops have you gone to AJ’s yet?” Pinkie beams once again and, with a swift movement, grabs my scarf and drags me on a bouncy ride to somewhere else.
I got my balance back shortly after we left the main town, though my neck didn’t feel as comfortable as it did before the rollercoaster ride that was Pinkie dragging me. I rolled my neck around to get the feeling back to normal as we approached a white gate, beyond the gate I can see a brightly painted house and barn. Further still a massive expanse of apple trees, I see a red pony with a stetson and an orange mane and tail dragging a cart behind it full of apples, off in the acres I see an orange pony with a yellow mane and tail, accompanied by a smaller yellow pony with a red mane and tail. I figure they are related considering they all have the approximate same color scheme.
“So, which one is AJ?” I asked the air, considering Pinkie ran off towards the orange pony. I took a guess and jogged after her. When I caught up she was engaged in a one-sided conversation with the orange pony. The cowgirl pony only nodding with slight Uh-huh’s every now and then. I decided to spare the pony of anymore and interrupt.
“Er.. You must be AJ,” I began, the pony looks up at my greeting and nodded softly, she removed her hat with one hoof and curtseys lightly,
“Yep, mah friends call me AJ, but mah name’s Applejack, Nice to meet ya. And you are?”
“I’m the Doctor, big farm you have here,” I said, throwing in what I think is a complement. She bows a light thank you,
“Yeah, it’s mah family’s pride and joy, been here since Ponyville got built, what are you the Doctor of?” I chuckled softly and move my scarf a bit,
“Well, I’m the Doctor of everything really, I fix things! And according to this thing, this Cutie Mark, I’m a Doctor of time!” she raised a brow softly,
“Wait, so yer the Doctor of... Everything? That sounds pretty tough, and whatdya mean a Doctor of time? That doesn’t make much sense,”
“Well, neither does Pinkie, or really talking ponies, though neither do I!” I finish, leaving Applejack quite confused from the short conversation. I assume she realized she wasn’t getting much else from me and returned to her work attacking trees. I look around for Pinkie and see her trotting off again, making me rush to catch up with her.
“You really should wait for me, you know,” I call to her. She giggled and responded plainly,
“Or maybe you should just go faster, Doctor!” I grinned and playfully growl a response,
“You haven’t seen fast, I’ve spent a lot of time running,” she stopped and grinned at me, a spark in her eye I’ve come to notice as her thinking something fun is going to happen.
“Is that a challenge, Doctor?” I nodded at her and she swiftly got in a running pose.
“Three two one GO!” she shouted quickly, taking off. I run full sprint to catch up and get past her. She caught up with me and held steady next to me, laughing between heavy breaths. We ran for several minutes before we began to tire and stopped by the fountain in the town square. I sat down and rested one of my front legs on the side of the fountain, Pinkie sat in front of me and mirrored my movement.
“That was... Magnificent! You sure can run!” I pointed out, grinning madly. She laughed impossibly, considering how out of breath she appeared.
“It was really fun! We should do that again sometime,” she said on a single breath. I laughed and decided to do something absolutely unpredicted, I turned towards the fountain and shoved my face into the water. I heard a dull splash as I notice Pinkie had done the same, I looked over to her and she mouthed something, ‘how long can you hold your breath?’ I mouthed back my answer, ‘I have no idea,’ she smiled and mouthed in response, ‘lets find out,’ and puffed out her cheeks. I did the same and there we sat, I lost track of the seconds as they passed until eventually she slammed a hoof on the edge of the fountain and blasted up for air, I pulled up and out of the water and catch my breath, she sat ahead of me her mane flat to her, still panting heavily, obviously exasperated from holding her breath for so long.
“You are really fun, Pinkie,” I complimented her, she giggled and shook her head, the water all managing to leave her mane at once, it poofed out once more. I thought for a moment and got an idea,
“Actually, you’ve given me a tour of where you live, now it’s my turn!” she looked at me quizzically and asked,
“But I thought you were from somewhere confusing?” I beamed and asked swifty,
“Want to see it?” she nodded ecstatically and I jumped to my hooves and ran to the tree in the town center, Twilight's library and I assumed her house. Pinkie followed close to my side.
We walked in to Twilight looking frustrated, her horn glowed and sparkled with purple light that I saw also glowed strongly around the blue box in the middle of the room. She noticed us enter and immediately shouted towards me.
“You! You got it in here, now can you move it out?! It doesn’t fit in well in the middle of a library!” I chuckle and nod, walking towards the door of the Police Box.
“Coming, Pinkie?” she gave me another odd look and walked up to me,
“Where are we going? It’s just a... box...” I opened the door in the middle of her sentence and she walked in slowly, gazing around in amazement.
“Go on, say it, everyone does!” I requested, smiling softly. She turned around and ran out to look at the outside, then ran back into it.
“It’s... it’s...” she stuttered, I chuckle and urge her on,
“Go on, I love hearing it,”
“It’s bigger on the inside!” she exclaimed, Twilight poked her head in the door curiously and looks around for a moment.
“Huh, that’s completely illogical,” She managed to say before fainting.
“This... This is just amazing!” Pinkie exclaimed as she ran around the inside of the impossibly large box.
“It gets better, anywhere you’d like to go?” I said as I walked to the control center. She stopped behind me and gave me an excited look,
“Don’t tell me it can move too!” she exclaimed, I grinned and slammed a switch, the familiar whooshing noise marked the start of a new adventure. The air within the TARDIS filled with the excited shouts that echoed from both of us.
END CHAPTER 1