Chapter 4: Explanations and Forgotton Foes
A nice fire crackled away in the fireplace, casting comfortable warmth throughout the room. The Doctor sat in one of the two armchairs that occupied the space, listening as his new friend muttered to herself in the kitchen as she attempted to make tea. The Doctor had no idea how a hooved creature would be able to manipulate the ingredients, but he had seen stranger feats throughout his travels, so he gave it little thought. Instead, he took the time to observe the room around him. He was seated in the den, with two dark red armchairs on either side of a small circular coffee table that was centered in the room. To his left was the fireplace, and to his right was the door to the kitchen. On the wall across from him, he could see a couple of bookshelves which held various knick knacks as opposed to books. He also saw a few framed photographs of Lyra and her roommate in various locations around the town. Behind him was the back door to the townhouse; it led out to a small garden that Bon-Bon kept for ingredients.
As he turned his head to look at the artwork hung on the rear wall, Lyra entered the room carrying two cups of tea with her magic. She set them down on the coffee table with a light clink, catching The Doctors attention and causing him to spin back around. Lyra positioned herself in the other chair, taking care not to upset any other furniture as she spun her hooves around to face outwards, again ignoring the regular pony seating style. The Doctor picked up his cup and took a sip, visibly relaxing as the familiar taste of green tea met his tongue.
“Ahhh, that’s more like it,” he sighed as he leaned back in his chair. “That’s what I needed, a nice cup o’ tea.”
“Oh good, you like tea. Some ponies don’t like tea, like Bonnie, and Carrot Top. I once even heard a rumor that the Princess actually doesn’t like tea, but I think they determined it was all just the work of Discord.”
“There’s another thing I learned. So you’re ruled by a princess?”
“Two actually. There’s Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, though Luna just got back from 1000 years banishment on the moon.”
Taking another sip, he nodded to indicate she should continue.
“I don’t really know much else about her banishment, all I know is that she returned as some evil Nightmare Moon creature last Summer Sun Celebration, then Twilight and her friends went and defeated her. Ever since then, she’s been a princess again.”
The Doctor arched an eyebrow in confusion, setting his cup down to let the tea cool a bit. “I’m confused now. What exactly are you talking about?”
“The Summer Sun Celebration is…”
“Actually, forget that topic. Let’s start at the beginning. Where exactly am I?” he interrupted.
“Oh, you’re in Equestria. Ponyville to be specific.”
“Equestria…that’s interesting. Never heard of Equestri…oh, oh wow.” Suddenly, he began to snort, and then full out laugh as he realized the pun in the name of the country. “Oh, that’s good. Equestria, and you’re all unicorns. I am just loving this place more and more every second.”
“Actually, we’re not all unicorns, just some of us. There’s also earth ponies and pegasi. Then the princesses are alicorns, which are sort of a mixture of all three,” she explained, just now picking up her tea and taking a drink. To her surprise, The Doctor followed the path of her cup quite intently as she set it back down on the table.
Without warning, the out of place Time Lord reached in to his coat and pulled out what appeared to be a toothbrush and pointed it at the teacup. Lyra jumped at the sudden movement and was about to ask what he was doing before her hearing was assaulted by a high pitched whine.
“Make it stop make it stop make it stop please!” she quickly shouted out, fumbling her forehooves around in a desperate attempt to cover her sensitive ears.
The noise stopped as The Doctor withdrew his dental hygiene tool and took a glance at the side of it, arching his brow again, now even more confused.
“It doesn’t appear to have any sort of life, nor is it connected to any sort of levitation system. How in the world did you just pick that up?”
“With magic of course. All unicorns can do magic.”
“But magic isn’t real,” he muttered, placing the utensil back in his pocket and then leaning on his elbow as he continued to stare at the cup.
“Yes it is, see.”
Again, the turquoise glow surrounded the cup and it slowly began to lift into the air, stopping about half a meter above the tabletop. The Doctor swiped his hand back and forth underneath the levitating teacup, confirming that there was indeed nothing supporting it from underneath. He repeated the process until he was satisfied that the cup was, without a doubt, magically suspended in the air.
With a sigh, he returned to his reclining position, where he closed his eyes and began to massage his temples. “At least that explains how you can manipulate objects. I still don’t believe it’s magic, but for now, I’ll stick with that explanation. Also, my head hurts, any idea what that means?”
“You’re getting a headache?” she guessed.
“A headache? I’ve never had a headache before. It feels weird. Is there anything you can do about it?”
“Yes, I can make some herbal soup. Give me a few minutes.”
Lyra pushed herself off of the chair and made her way into the kitchen, leaving The Doctor alone in the den. Picking up where he left off earlier, the Time Lord turned back around to investigate the rear wall. It was much like the wall that he had already examined, covered in pictures of Lyra and her flatmate. They were interesting photos, because instead of looking at the camera most of the time, Lyra tended to be looking towards Bon-Bon. ‘I’ll have to ask her about that,’ he thought while he let his eyes roam across the wall. As his gaze neared the far corner, a slight movement caught his eye, and he quickly whipped his head around to look at the source.
A pale, suited pony stood before him. It did not have eyes, only deep shadowed sockets. Its mouth was covered in skin, and its nose was flatter than any of the other ponies he had yet seen. ‘What? How did he, it, get in here? Definitely doesn’t look like anything like Lyra or her roommate. As a matter of fact, it reminds me a little bit of the…’
“No. You can’t be here. I don’t even know exactly where I am, how can you be here?”
The pony spoke without any movement, almost telepathically. It had a sinister voice, similar to how one would imagine a snake talking if snakes could talk. “We know how to follow a man Doctor, especially if it is no ordinary man that we are following. You have brought us here, and now this world shall be ours as well.”
“No, I won’t let you. I may not know these ponies, but so far they’ve been nice to me, and I refuse to let you bring harm to them.”
“It’s not like you have a choice.”
“Who are you talking to Doctor?” Lyra asked as she walked out of the kitchen. Distracted from his conversation, The Doctor turned to face his host, and thus lost the memory of the conversation that he had just had.
“I don’t know. Nobody I guess. Is that the soup?”
Lyra set the bowl down next to the cup on the table. Taking a deep breath through his nose, The Doctor took a quick note as to what was in the soup in case he ever got one of these headaches again.
“Okay Doctor, maybe you can tell me a little about yourself now,” the unicorn said as she pulled herself back into the chair, this time sitting as any other pony would with her legs tucked underneath her. “You don’t act at all like the humans in the research books were said to.”
“Well, I’m not even really a human, I just look like one. I’m a species called a Time Lord, and I’m from the planet Gallifrey.”
“So humans don’t exist?” Her face fell as she misinterpreted The Doctor’s statement.
“No, they do exist. I’m just not one of them. Anyway, I travel through time and space in my TARDIS, which is sort of like a space ship I guess you could say.”
“You can travel in space? That is so cool!” Lyra exclaimed, a huge grin overtaking her face as she leaned toward The Doctor.
“Time and space. Don’t forget the time part.”
“Oh, time travel isn’t fun. Twilight does that all the time.”
“She does? Who is this Twilight you keep mentioning? And how can she time travel?”
“Twilight is the librarian, and her special talent is magic. That’s how she time travels, but she can’t travel in space. I’ll go introduce you to her later.”
“Magic…right, forgot about that. So yeah, I ended up here because I need to go into hiding for a few years so that people start to forget about me. I was getting too involved with events back home.”
“Well you can’t hide if you look like that; you’ll stand out like a sore hoof.”
“I was just thinking that. I’ll need to regenerate, which means I need to almost die so that the process will start…now how to do that is the question.”
“You could just leave, that would be better than dying. Didn’t you say you had a ship?”
“Yes, but I disabled it right after I landed so that I wouldn’t be tempted to leave if I didn’t like where I landed. It’ll be three years before I can leave unless I can activate the emergency override, which isn’t going to happen. I’ll have to regenerate. It’s either that or hide in a house for three years.”
“That would be boring! You should do the regeneration thingy, whatever that actually is. I’ve never read about humans doing anything like that before.”
“Remember, I’m not human. Time Lords do this thing when they die where every cell in their body is replaced, so they get a whole new body, and escape death at the same time.”
Lyra’s face contorted into a confused scowl, trying to understand what The Doctor had just told her (remember, the ponies had not yet discovered the individual cell). Sighing, he shook his head, placing his hand on his forehead as he did so.
“Oh my gosh, is it another headache? Do you need more soup?” Lyra queried, suddenly concerned.
“No, just a little exasperated this time. Let’s just say, I’ll get a new body. I still have to figure out a way to trigger the reaction though. You wouldn’t mind stabbing me, would you?”
“What! No! I only just met you, and you’re the only human I’ve ever seen in real life. There is NO WAY that I am going to stab you. I’d much rather make soup.”
“Okay then, I’ll still have to find some way though.”
“Maybe Pinkie Pie can help. She always seems to be able to come up with solutions to unanswerable problems. Nopony is sure how, but she tends to be able to.”
“Okay then, let’s go visit this Pinkie Pie character.”
“I was thinking it would be better to get her to come here, since you don’t want anypony seeing you in that form. Right?”
“Good call, you can go and get her. I will wait here.”
With that, Lyra hopped off her chair again and after a quick farewell, exited through the back garden door. The Doctor leaned back and closed his eyes, deciding that a quick nap could never hurt.
----------
The Doctor awoke to find a pair of blue eyes staring at him from the opposite chair. Quickly rubbing his eyes to clear them, he discerned that the eyes belonged to a cream colored mare, the same one in the photographs, the same one that he had helped to prank earlier, resulting in her being put to bed in an unconscious state. It appeared that she had now woken back up.
“Hello,” The Doctor said as he began to extend his hand before realizing the mistake, “I’m The Doctor.”
The mare didn’t say anything, but instead simply continued to glare at him, unblinking, unmoving. All she did was sit there with a scowl on her face, scrutinizing the strange alien creature that was sitting in one of the armchairs in her den. Said alien creature did not know what to do in a situation such as this, so he stared back at her, hoping that eventually one of them would think of something to say. Eventually, The Doctor decided it would probably be best to apologize for scaring her earlier, but as he opened his mouth to do so, he was interrupted by the mare.
“You realize that being scared into passing out is absolutely no fun, right?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry for that. I was only going along with Lyra’s plan, I had no idea you would be that scared.”
The mare’s frown slowly began to wane as she realized that she had made an inaccurate assumption.
“So it was Lyra’s plan, not yours?”
“Yes, I was just following her here when she suggested that we surprise you. She never said that you would be scared.”
“Okay, that’s fine I guess. I’m going to have to yell at Lyra now though, which is never fun.”
“Well, now that that’s cleared up, introductions! I’m The Doctor.” This time he remembered that a handshake was not in order, so he refrained from reaching his arm out.
“And I’m Bon-Bon, Lyra’s roommate,” She said as she extended her forehoof towards The Doctor. She noticed the confused look on her guest’s face at the action. “I’ve spent enough time listening to Lyra’s ramblings about humans to know that they do something called a handshake when they meet somepony new, and I noticed you almost doing so earlier, so I thought, may as well.”
The Doctor shook her hoof, even though the hoof/handshake was from side to side instead of up and down.
“There. So you’re an actual human? I can honestly say that I’m surprised. I always thought Lyra was a bit crazy for thinking that you existed, but now I see she was right. She’s still a bit crazy, but she was right.”
With a sigh, The Doctor explained for the second time that day that he was not a human, but a Time Lord, and that he only looked like a human. The cream mare nodded at his explanation, only interrupting once or twice to ask a simple question, and once he had finally finished with his tale, Bon-Bon actually applauded, or did so as well as a seated pony could.
“That’s quite a wonderful story, though sort of sad, you being the only one left.”
“It’s not so bad, don’t have to play by their rules anymore. Travel does get a little lonely at times, but that’s why I usually have my companions!”
“There are more of you? Why hasn’t Lyra brought them home too? Or is that where she is now?” the host asked, looking slightly worried at the prospect of more guests.
“No, they aren’t here with me. I came here to try to hide. You see, I was starting to interfere too much with events, so I faked my own death to go into hiding. Lyra went out to find some pony named Pinkie Pie, because apparently she might be able to help me regenerate. She said something about her being good at impossible stuff.”
“Pinkie is definitely good at stuff like that, but I probably would have suggested Zecora.”
“Who is that?”
“She’s a zebra that lives in the Everfree forest. She’s really good with potions and herbal remedies and such. I get a lot of my herbs from her. Pinkie…well, she’s more of a ‘I’m completely out of other ideas’ kind of solution,” Bon-Bon explained as she got out of the chair and started heading towards the kitchen.
“So which way is the Everfree Forest?” inquired the Time Lord, also rising from the armchair and stretching his arms. “I think Zecora sounds like a more likely solution than Pinkie Pie.”
“It’s to the South. Just head out the front door and turn left, then keep going,” the mare called from the kitchen. “I’ll tell Lyra where you went when she gets back. Also, be careful, the Everfree can be really dangerous.” The last warning went unheard by The Doctor unfortunately, for by that point, he was out the door and heading in the direction indicated by the mare.
‘Let’s get this regeneration over with so that I’ll actually be able to get something accomplished here.’
**********
The bell above the door to Sugarcube Corner dinged as Twilight and Spike entered the shop. After a short wait, the two were joined by their confectionary friend, who popped up from behind the counter, even though there was no possible way that she could have been hiding there.
“Hey Twilight! Hey Spike! Did the party-dozer work? Because if it didn’t, I can lend you my party crane, since the party crane is soooo much more powerfuller than the party-dozer, but there’s no way the party-dozer didn’t work, right?” Pinkie spouted off in one breath, all the while bouncing up and down in the typical Pinkie Pie fashion.
Once she had processed the information, Twilight offered up her well thought out response. “You have a party crane? You know what? I’m not even going to ask; and to answer your question, no, the party-dozer did not work.”
“So you need the party crane now, right? I’ll go get it!”
As the pink mare turned around, she found her tail caught in a purple glow as Twilight held her back.
“No Pinkie, I moved the box in a different way, I’m just bringing the party-dozer back.”
Suddenly, the door burst open to reveal the smiling face of an all-to-familiar teal unicorn. The intruder rushed over to the counter, paying absolutely no heed to the pony and dragon that were already there.
“Pinkie Pie! I need your help! My new friend needs help finding some way to re-cognate or something, and I told him that you might be able to help, so hurry!” Lyra said as she attempted to grab hold of the baker with her magic, only to find the effort blocked by Twilight’s magic already having control over Pinkie.
“Lyra! Calm down. What do you mean by re-cognate? That doesn’t make any sense; it just means to think again,” the scholarly mare asked.
“It might not have been re-cognate, but it was re-something. You might actually be able to help too Twilight, you’re really smart, and he was interested in you being able to time travel anyways.”
“Fine, but just because I’m curious as to what he was actually talking about that got you so psyched to come and get Pinkie. There isn’t much that gets you this excited.”
“Oh, it’s not the request that got me excited, it’s just the fact that I was right this whole time!” Lyra exclaimed, grinning even wider than before as she said it.
“Okay, I know I’m going to regret this, but right about what?” Twilight deadpanned.
“Humans exist!”
“…WHAT!”
Chapter written by DJ Leftwing
Stats
Page generated in 0.013 seconds
Total duration
746 users online
918,928 hits today, 2,818,023 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
THE SILENCE?