//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two 
// Story: The Fantastic Adventures of Dr. Whooves: The Changeling Princess 
// by The-Pony-Librarian 
//------------------------------//

	
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.