//------------------------------//
// The Doctor Has Been Found 
// Story: Zero Room 
// by FiveyWhooves 
//------------------------------//

	Hoof slamming against the console of the TARDIS, the Master grit his teeth at defeat. The Doctor(10) had once again gotten away from him, running as fast as his hooves carried him into the strange forest in Equestria. The Master read it as the "Everfree" but names never mattered to him. All he knew was that the Doctor ran into a woodsy area that threw off and jumbled the TARDIS scanners. And there was no way the treacherous and unknown forest seemed worthwhile enough for trotting into.
"My own TARDIS would have been more sufficient than this," the Master muttered to himself. True, the Doctor's TARDIS was a gem, but it was a little uneasy. The Master always wondered how the Doctor could manage to fly such a wonky contraption, or why he kept it all these years. Not only was the Timepony dealing with the machine, but he had to figure out what in the world he was when he and the Doctor's TARDIS crashed into the strange universe. Luckily he was able to adapt, yet information on what he was or what capabilities he possessed still sat in the nonexistent part of his knowledge.
Then there was the matter of the event that had taken place just prior to the Master's struggles. The golden glow that had filled the TARDIS. . .what was it and why did it help the Doctor? Again the Master didn't give much care to the matter. As long as it left the TARDIS untouched and didn't come back.
The controls were scrambling from the signals the Everfree gave off. The Master used his hooves and tried to flick switches and press buttons. Sometimes he'd hit two on accident.
"Blast these useless appendages!" he cursed under his breath. Eventually he was able to straighten the navigation and signaling systems out, when a light started flashing on the control panel. It was a signal light showing that another TARDIS was nearby. The Master knew it had to be the Doctor's current TARDIS to his tenth incarnation. Maybe, he thought, he could possibly find a way to access that TARDIS as well since the Doctor had escaped. . .
That was until the Master took a closer look at the indication light and the information it was showing on a small screen below.
There were two TARDISes nearby!
Hastily, the Master ordered the TARDIS to specify what the two timecrafts were, and what he found was just perfect for his delight. One TARDIS that was being picked up was the tenth Doctor's. . .but the other was his current TARDIS. A grin slowly stretched over the Master's face.
"So the Doctor, my Doctor, and his flimsy little companions have found a way here?" he chuckled to himself. "Well, perhaps the course of my plan should take another turn." The Master flicked a switch.
"It may be best to exchange vessels, though," he grumbled to himself. "I'd prefer to fly a true machine than this dump."


* * *


Dinky bounced by her sister's side as the two of them entered Sugarcube Corner.
"Yaay! This looks like fun, Amy!" she squealed in excitement. "What do we wanna do first?"
"Whoa, 'we' is out of the question," Amythest said plainly. "I'm not sticking around."
"What?!" said Dinky sadly. "But you hafta!" She looked up at Amethyst. "What's more important, anyway? Don't you wanna spend time with me?"
"I've just got stuff, okay?" the older filly stated.
"What stuff? I'll tell Momma. . ."
"C'mon, don't be a tattletale. I'm-" Amethyst shifted for eyes. Then, out of the blue, she sighed and put on a serious face. "Look, I wanna go help Mom find the Doctor." Dinky's eyes widened.
"Really?!" she said, her eyes glowing. "Can I com-"
"No, it's too dangerous," Amethyst said. "I'm going to help, but it would be really easy for all of us if you just stay here, where it's safe, okay?" She knelt down and looked Dinky in the eye. The little sister nodded her head and sighed.
"Okay. . .if it helps. . ." she said. Her face regained a smile. "I'm so glad you're helping, sis!" Amethyst hugged Dinky quickly.
"Good, now stay here, I'll be back when the party's over," she said warmly. "Go and have fun." Dinky nodded cheerfully before turning and running into the crowd of the party. Amethyst waved and trotted out of the door. When she closed it, her hoof hit the ground and disappeared from her face.
Yeah, go have loads of fun, she said in her mind. While you do that, I'll go "look for the Doctor". . .at home, on my couch, where nopony can freaking bother me.


* * *


The little filly had never seen so much food.
"Which flavor is the best?" Dinky asked the Cakes, two friendly ponies who ran the Corner, as she looked at the cupcakes and treats laid out in front of her. A pink dash of air blew in from the left.
"THAT'S EASY!" Pinkie Pie was suddenly behind the table of treats. "It's all of them!"
"But I can't eat that many!" Dinky laughed. "I'm only this big!" She pointed to herself.
"Then try this one!" encouraged Pinkie. She held out a blueberry muffin. "Just have your favorite!" Dinky smiled and licked her lips.
"Thanks!" she said cheerfully as Pinkie handed Dinky the muffin and dashed somewhere else in the room. The little filly picked up the treat in her feeble little magic cloud and munched on it happily. So far, the party was very good. Amethyst was probably helping, but she was missing out.
Dinky bumped into a dancing pony and almost dropped her muffin.
"Hey," the pony said.
"Oops, sorry," said the filly, regaining her grip on her treat. She bumped into another pony who was also dancing.
"Ack," said the pony.
"Sorry," repeated the filly. This wasn't working out. Dinky had to get out of the crowd of dancing ponies. Especially since in the background Pinkie was yelling to everypony that a conga line was starting up. The young mare dashed through the tangled hooves and out of the mass. There was a clearing in the corner of the room, where Dinky sat safely down to finish her pastry.
All the ponies in the party were dancing it seemed. All except. . .her. . .and one more pony sitting by her in the clearing of the room. That was good, at least. She couldn't dance until the muffin was finished, and as Pinkie always said, it was always good to make a new friend.
"Hello there," Dinky said with a full mouth to the pony, who was a grown stallion. She realized her mistake in etiquette and swallowed the muffin before continuing. "Why aren't you dancing?" The stallion was looking out to the crowd, but slowly at the end of his sentence to talk to her.
"Probably because I have two left hooves," he joked. Dinky laughed, but for a moment. When the pony turned, she instantly recognized his face. It was the same pony that had crash-landed in her kitchen! 
Ditzy dropped her muffin. The stallion scrunched his nose.
"You look familiar?" he stated. "We've met before now, haven't we?" Dinky just stared. The stallion kept searching the little filly's face until he found an answer.
"Aha! I remember now. . .you're the little pony who bopped me in the nose when we met," he said.
"Um. . .sorry?" Dinky said, trying to figure out what to say. The stallion just shook his head.
"No no it's quite all right, it's not like you remember," he replied. "It's not like you or the other ponies that were with you liked me all that much." He about turned away to leave Dinky to her business again, the small filly just staring at him. Dinky didn't know what exactly to say, only that she remembered that her mother stated that "he was right" about something.
Dinky blinked. He may have been a stranger and a bit of a weird pony, but he didn't seem all that scary. Who knows. . .he probably was the Doctor after all, like he had said. The little pony tapped the stallion.
"Excuse me," she said, minding her manners. The stallion turned his head.
"Yes?"
"Are you the Doctor?"
"It depends. . .do you think I'm the Doctor?"
"I think you're odd," said Dinky plainly. "But the Doctor I know is odd too."
"Well then, I am the Doctor. . .and I suppose an odd one," the Doctor grinned. "Why do you believe that now?"
"My Momma thinks you are now. She said so."
"And your 'Momma' she. . .she was the grey mare, wasn't she?"
"Yes."
"Where is she now?"
"Out looking for Doctor. . .not you Doctor, the other Doctor."
"I see," the Doctor nodded. "A little confusing, don't you think?"
"Uh huh," Dinky agreed. "Why are there two of you?" Now, as if no one or pony had known yet, the Doctor always had a little kid buried deep inside of him that always came out. . .constantly (unless it was important, of course). And since there was nothing he was doing, his companions out enjoying the party and he waiting for somepony to chat with, well, that kid came out. The Doctor knelt down to Dinky's level. The Doctor smiled.
"Have you ever heard of regeneration?" he said, as if it was some important and exciting secret. Dinky shook her head instantly.
"No," she almost whispered back.
"It goes like this," the Doctor continued. "What happens when you get a cut on your knee?"
"It heals."
"How?"
"The skin grows back."
"Exactly. But where is the old skin?"
"It's gone."
"That's right. When I get badly hurt, my whole body goes and a new one comes." The Doctor made a big motion with his hooves. "And usually the new body looks and sounds and acts different. Sometimes these different me's end up in the same place, like me and your Doctor, even though we're the same pony."
"That's confusing," said Dinky, her eyes swirling in her head. She paused for a moment. "Does it happen to everypony?"
"It happens to Timeponies."
"Wait," said Dinky. "You're a Timepony?"
"I am the Doctor. Didn't your Doctor tell you he was a Timepony too?"
"Yeah," said Dinky. "He also said he had two hearts."
"Out of all the things he could have told you, he told you that fact," the Doctor sighed to himself. "I wonder if that's all I will talk about in the future. . .two hearts. . ." Suddenly the Doctor was hugged by the little filly. He wasn't sure why it happened, or how to respond to it. He just looked down at Dinky's head.
"What are you doing?" he asked. 
"Sh," said Dinky as she hugged him tighter. "I'm making sure." The Doctor watched as she listened to his chest with one ear before she smiled and looked up at his face.
"You are the Doctor," she said happily.
"I thought you took my word for it before?" the Doctor asked.
"I was just double-checking," Dinky stated. "Don't you double-check stuff?"
"Not often enough. . ." the Timepony muttered with a chuckle. Dinky touched the sleeve of his coat.
"How did you get your clothes to fit you?" she asked as if she was looking for more questions to ask.
"A tailor in town fixed it up for me. . .Rarity was her name."
"Our Doctor got a tie from her when he came," Dinky said. "That's what Momma told me anyways."
"Did she?" said the Doctor, still unsure on what to do with the small pony in his lap. At least he reconfirmed the fact that Rarity did meet his other self.
"What's this?" said Dinky as she pulled a rolled up something out of the Doctor's inner pocket.
"My hat."
"It doesn't look like a hat." She somehow figured out that it was rolled up and the hat seemed to just pop out in her face. Dinky put it on her head. The hat slipped to her nose. The Doctor then had a thought strike his mind.
"Hold on, weren't there three of you?"
"Three of who?" asked Dinky, pushing the hat to her forehead.
"Well let's see. . .there was you, there was the grey mare, who is your mother, but there was another one. . ."
"Oh, that was my sister," said Dinky. "Her name is Amethyst."
"And where is she?"
"She's also looking for our Doctor," Dinky replied.



* * *


But Amethyst wasn't looking for the Doctor. She was heading for the selfish comfort of her own home, with only a sliver of guilt. Such a sliver didn't even phase her.
Finally, I can have some peace from all of this nonsense about the Doctor, she thought to herself. The thought only lasted a moment, for when Amethyst reentered her home, the silent blue TARDIS of the Doctor's was still sitting in the living room. She walked up to the object and punted it with her hoof.
What's the point of you? she said in her mind. True, Amethyst knew the TARDIS's purpose, but she didn't like it. It was the thing that brought the Doctor to her home in the first place. Why are you here? What's with your weird nonsense? What is a Police Public Call Box anyway? And why is there a weird word on your backside that says- A faint noise sounded from the kitchen. 
Amethyst felt her blood run cold. She perked her ears. Maybe it was a breeze?
Hoofsteps echoed from the other room. The young mare felt her breath stop short. The heat drained from her head and made her hooves sweaty.
There was somepony in the house.
Now, Ponyville wasn't known for crime, but that didn't mean it didn't happen. And it didn't sound like the Doctor. Amethyst knew he talked to himself. This pony, or ponies, as it could be, was silent, sneaky. . .and a stranger. Quietly, Amethyst picked up a vase from a nearby shelf in her magic and began to nervously tiptoe toward the kitchen.
Slowly, she made it to the door. Odd. . .there was nothing. . .the usual stuff, the weird pillar thing, and. . .
Was that the Doctor's TARDIS on the other side of the pillar?
Amethyst looked back. She saw the TARDIS in the living room. She looked forward. There was the TARDIS again, the blue box, in the kitchen, only it looked slightly different, a little older-looking. Was this some kind of trick?
A sound came from the pillar. Amethyst jumped back behind the doorway and watched, her heart lunging into her throat. The door to the thing opened, and out of it came yet another strange pony. This one was a dark-haired unicorn, a black cape over his back.
Amethyst didn't care who he was. He looked like trouble and he was in her house.
The young mare jumped out into the kitchen and towards the strange pony. Before he could turn around she brought the vase smack down on his head. The stallion crumpled to the floor as the vase shattered and bits of porcelain fell everywhere. Amethyst ran over to get a better look.
Looking at his face, the unicorn definitely gave off some kind of evil vibe to Amethyst. But there was something else. Apparently, the stallion had been carrying some kind of black wand thing in his mouth. It had fallen out when Amethyst hit him, but she didn't want to take any chances. She pushed the weird object away from the stranger and to the corner of the room.
I hope he's dead, the punk, she thought to herself. But Amethyst's timing couldn't have been worse. The stallion slowly regained consciousness and groaned painfully. Amethyst let her adrenaline think for herself, and looking for something to hit him with, she picked up a dirty frying pan from the kitchen sink and bashed the stallion on the head again, this time leaving a nasty bruise on his forehead.
That should keep him out, she thought to herself as she thought about running to the police. Amethyst picked up her hooves to run, but she stopped in the doorway of the kitchen.
There was something about this pony that she couldn't turn him into the officials. I mean, sure, they'd lock him up, but suddenly another blue box TARDIS appears and this pony is using the pillar? He obviously knew something. . .probably about the Doctor. Not that Amethyst wanted the Doctor back. . .but she was curious and ready to end the mess so her family would stop fussing about it. She changed her motives.
Where does mom keep the rope in this house? she asked herself.