The Music Box

by DaFunkySquirrel

The Origin Of Your Symmetry

Chapter 4

(No Subchapters)

Under the sheets, of a bed, in a bedroom, in a nondescript house, in a modest part of Canterlot, draped upon the Canterhorn, in the central section of the Equestrian Kingdom, under the twinkle of Luna’s ever-deepening night, sat a 14-year-old filly by the name of Octavia Melodyssey. Currently, she held in her hooves, a book. Now, this book was particularly special to little miss Octavia. Specifically, said book was a first edition, hoof-signed autobiography of a one mister Baton Swing. Mister Swing held a particularly special place in the aforementioned filly’s heart as the musical composer for several of her favorite theatrical works. Among them, Star Mares, Supermare, multiple Daring Do movie adaptations, and even Potted Power.

Strictly speaking, the little missus, ever the troublemaker, was up far later than her parents would have condoned, let alone allowed. But her utter enrapturement with the book, wiped any feeling of drowsiness away as she dove further into the story, detailing his escapades as a similarly aged young colt. While Baton was nigh on perfect as a composer to the excitable filly, his ability to craft a tale was hard to beat to her young mind.

Unfortunately for miss Octavia, the terrifying noise of a piano having copper keys dragged across its strings distracted her from her reading and prompted her to throw the covers off of her head, glancing around wildly as the noise reached a fever pitch. She stood, as she ascertained that the noise emanated from the outside, and darted quietly over to the window, careful to not disturb her parents sleeping sound and unaware, in the next room over.

What she saw when she looked outside was unexpected, to say the least.

On her back lawn, sat a blue shed-like structure, with the words “Police Box” lighted and officially lettered adorning the eaves of the two sides she could see. But stranger yet, a brownish earth stallion, wearing nothing but a simple necktie, appeared to be investigating the outside of said box with a small probe-like instrument, jamming it all around the box. She could see him speaking to himself and scratching his head in confoundment.

It was at this point that Octavia unwittingly made the choice that would change her future, for worse or better.

She turned, pulling off her night clothes and rushing over to her wardrobe to grab her own tie and collar. She hastily shoved the scant clothing over her head as she rushed down the stairs towards the back door.

Shoving it open, she observed two things immediately. The blue box was large. As in, four Octavias, stacked hoof to shoulder, or two average-sized, adult stallions, front hoof to rear hoof, would not be able to reach the roof, and it was the same number of stallions nose-to-tail across. It held a strange kind of commanding, authoritative atmosphere around itself, as if daring anyone foolish enough to attempt to enter its tall, imposing doors.

The second thing she observed was that the apparent occupant of said box was now leaning casually against the side of it, gently picking at a hoof with his teeth. He glanced up as he heard the apprentice cellist’s hoofsteps against grass. “Hello, miss Octavia!” He looked her slight form up and down. “Oh. It appears I may have gone a bit too far back...” He rubbed the back of his head with a hoof, glancing down abashedly. “I could, er, come back later if that would suit you better...?”

“Uh...” Octavia was at a complete loss. This mad/psychic stallion had just appeared out of thin air with what must have been a heavy box. Not much could be levied in her not-yet-completely-formed psyche to explain the situation. It wouldn’t be a prank, since she had very little in the way of friendships, outside of the school orchestra. It wouldn’t be a dream, since she was typically lucid enough to conjure things without the help a unicorn’s horn. Then again, this strange duo had appeared almost literally from nowhere, and Octavia silently wondered where she would have pulled such an image from. “No, no, um...I...You came at a perfect time. Who, um...who are you?”

The strange stallion stood up from his easy lean, bowing with a flourish. “Hello, miss. My name is the Doctor. You can call me the Doctor. This is my ship, the TARDIS. Call her the TARDIS. She may not look like much, but she can move flank if she needs to. I’m here because...” He hesitated, a hoof in the air as if poised to run. “...a close friend of yours said you might want to go and...see the sights, shall we say?” He finished with another bow.

Again, Octavia was at a loss for words. “What sights?” She said after a time.

“Well, wouldn’t you know, this old girl,” he said with a sly grin, knocking the back of one hoof against the side of the TARDIS. “She’s a time machine. And a space machine. Anywhere in time, anywhere in space you could ever go or want to go, she’ll get you there.”

Octavia blinked disbelievingly. “Really? How does it w-”

She was cut off by the Doctor racing over, putting one hoof over her lips and shushing her. “Shhh. Don’t ask how it works. That would ruin the magic, the mystique.” He backed off, but his eyes held a jovial glint in them. He knew he was winning her over.

Octavia rolled her eyes. “Fine then. Show me the sky, or...whatever.”

The Doctor bounced on his hooftips, excitement bubbling. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun! Come on!” He hurried around the side of the TARDIS, disappearing behind the doors on the side facing her right.

She took a breath. Held it. Is this what I want to do? Release. You know what. Yes. Yes, it is. And with that, she made her way to the side of the imposing box and nosed her way in.

What awaited her was nothing short of mind-bending.

As she stepped through the threshold, what she thought would have been a cramped and dark shed, opened up to a magnificent copper-walled control room, stairways leading off in multiple, seemingly random directions. Its majesty rivaled even Canterlot Palace, and in some ways, surpassed it entirely. “Ah...wha...how?” She backpedaled outside, doing a full walkaround of the box to make sure she wasn’t going crazy. Nope, it was real. “But...it’s bigger on the inside?” Octavia contemplated the Doctor’s poor attempt to subtly hide his mocking and rolling of eyes as he toyed with the controls. “Ha...how? How does it...” She gave up, hanging her head, the lack of logic serving only to agitate her further. A few errant locks of hair dropped over her eyes as she pulled her head up.

“So!” The Doctor spoke at last, making her jump. “Anywhere and everywhere. Where, oh where could you possibly want to go?” He half-grinned at her. “Edge of the universe? Your own birth? Hot tea on the endless plains of Tal’a’kesh? Spa day at the floating resorts of Merthos VII? Dancing in the rain of Sp-”

“Take me to the beginning.”

He paused, again, one hoof raised, and slowly turned to her. “What?”

She nodded. “You heard me. Show me the beginning of everything.” She held up a hoof when he moved to interrupt her. “You want me to believe in your blue box, Doc? Show me the inception, the irrevocable starting point. Genesis. No tricks, no games, no falsehoods, then...maybe...maybe.”

He slowly walked towards her, down the stairs, before stopping. “It will be dangerous.” She nodded. “It will be uncomfortable.” Vigorously. “It would make lessers than me-”

“Oh my days, just get on with it already,” she huffed, shoving him with a shoulder.

He smiled. “Well, aren’t you a feisty one, eh? Alright, you ask, you shall receive.” He turned and sprinted for the controls, tearing at them like a starved griffon going for a meal. The door slammed shut behind Octavia’s rump, and the ship started to vibrate underhoof, making that hair-raising keening screech again, then it began to rock in earnest.

“Is this supposed to happen?” Octavia yelled over the cacophony, stumbling drunkenly as the ship tilted from side to side wildly.

“You wanted the beginning? I did say it would be dangerous!” A klaxon blared, and sparks jumped from the console, cutting off whatever the Doctor had been about to say. His manic dancing appeared to do little to defuse the situation to the grey earth pony.

The roiling of the TARDIS continued for about a minute, before it slowed and settled, a low-pitched alarm bell ringing 3 times off in the distance before falling ominously silent. As he finished with the landing and lockdown procedure, he turned to her. “We have arrived.” He made his way down the stairs from the console, a dumb grin plastered across his face. “First stop, the outse-”

The doors to the time machine banged open, causing the Doctor to stop, and Octavia to spin in terror. Outside the doors loomed a long, intricate hallway, furnished almost exclusively with golden artifacts from what must have been a quintillion different species from perhaps thousands of universes.

Octavia felt a sudden onrush of intense panic and paranoia. What in Tartarus had she signed up for?

The steps across the threshold were some of Octavia’s heaviest in her short life. She stared around at opulence far surpassing both the TARDIS’s interior, and all of Canterlot Castle. Awe kept her quiet, but the feeling of being watched kept her on her hoof tips.

Meanwhile, the Doctor simply cantered out of the box, sashaying his rump unashamedly. “Beginning of the universe? Ask and ye shall receive, lass.” He knelt before her, kissing one hoof. He straightened up, losing his composure quickly. “So...How is it?” He asked giddily. “Is it beyond your wildest dreams? Out of this world? Well, technically, we are literally out of your world anyway, so...”

“It’s...gaudy. Overblown. Unnecessary.”

He held a hoof up to his chin, scratching it in ponderment. “Yes, yes, well,” he spoke, doing a poor impression of an upper crust fellow from somewhere that might have been Trottingham or the city on the mountain. “It is a bit, shall we say...decadent.” The note of questioning and curiosity did not escape Octavia’s listener’s ear.

The pair made their way down the hallway, stopping occasionally when the Doctor saw a particular object that piqued his interest. Octavia made a note that the majority of the items were non-threatening in appearance, but she hesitated when she saw what looked unnervingly similar to a pony chestplate. And a serious one, at that. She shivered as she moved on.

After a time, they reached a T-junction. “I’m betting that either path would lead to the same place,” the Doctor said, feeling confident. “We should probably stay together anyway, seeing as this is your first...” He released a snorting chuckle. “Rodeo.”

Octavia rolled her eyes. “That was awful.”

He released a laugh, eyes bright, as they turned to the left. “That? After seeing what your planet has to offer, that was peanuts.”

She shook her head, but privately agreed with him.

They plodded on in relative silence, rounding two right-hand corners until they reached another junction, this one in a similar layout to the previous, with the exception of the single hallway being on their left. In addition, that hallway was closed behind two mountainous wooden doors, some of the only things made of non-aurum material in the place, whose individual faces were probably 6 bodies across, nose to tail, and whose tops reached far into the heavens, out of their view.

He pulled out his device from his tie again, toying with it until he managed to fit it over his hoof. He aimed it for a second, standing bipedally, before turning back to her. “Oh, uh...this...this is a sonic screwdriver. It does nothing a screwdriver does and then some.” He scratched his head with his free hoof. “I should probably find a new name for it.” He turned back to the door and pulled on the loop of the implement. The bulb on the end lit, and it made a buzzing noise that reminded her of a pet insect she had had, ages ago.

He swung it from the bottom of the door to the visible top, then inspected it. Seemingly satisfied, he pushed the screwdriver back under his tie. “No locks, the doors are actually wood, surprisingly, and there is a large source of sentient energy on the other side.” He smiled. “Besides the fact that we’ve had no issues getting here, and since it’s a technical impossibility to be here, I’m willing to bet whoever that is wanted us to be here.”

“How much?”

He blinked. Then he grinned. “Fifty bits.” He held out his hoof.

Octavia smirked. “Done.” They shook hooves, before turning towards the door, together. Once more unto the breach, she thought darkly. As much as she was enjoying this, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something would not go completely right today.

The Doctor reached out with a hoof, and Octavia reached out with hers, and they pushed the door open, shoulder to shoulder. It was surprisingly light, considering its size, opening silently with only the slightest hint of protest from its hinges.

As it opened, the pair both felt a wave of indescribable energy and power wash over them. Octavia shivered, suddenly feeling as though she had walked into a sauna. It reminded her of the time she had been in the audience when her parents had performed at Gala for the princess – elegance and poise, withholding a devastatingly powerful force.

They stared in awe, one more so than the other at the sight that they beheld. The outside looked like a full bin compared to the interior of the chamber. The very air seemed to have gold in it, and the rest of the chamber looked as though it had been hewn from a mountain of the stuff. But, unlike the outside, there were no artifacts anywhere. No, in here there was something much more impressive.

Upon a circular dais probably four times the size of the TARDIS control room, again cut from gold, sat the most unbelievably massive pony she’d ever laid eyes upon. She stood 6 stories, hovering slightly off the ground. She was thin but not unhealthily so. Her white fur and blonde mane held upon them both a horn and wings, in addition to an off-putting set of what looked like ram horns, spiralling inwards hundreds of times along their length. As they padded up cautiously, she smiled gently down at the pair of time travelers/home invaders.

“Hello, little ones.” The being’s voice echoed around the chamber, gentle but with an almost imperceptible edge to it, almost as if she knew something they didn’t. She probably does, she reflected, figuring that such an immense being in such an opulent palace before time had even started would know more than she would ever be able to know about herself.

The Doctor smiled and lifted a hoof, waving lazily. “Hello there. I am the Doctor, and this is my friend, Octavia.” He waved a hoof in her direction before bowing, and Octavia hastily followed suit.

“H-Hello,” she mumbled, nervous about her typically sharp tongue around what likely was a god in the most actual sense.

“And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” She asked, twisting a lock of mane around her hoof. I just won 50 bits, Octavia thought idly.

“Well, my friend here wanted to see the beginning of her universe, and my machine led us here.”

“Mhm, yes. Your...TARDIS, is it? The one that likes being called ‘Sexy’.”

He flushed. “N-No...uh...” He glanced towards Octavia. Help me, he mouthed.

She rolled her eyes, annoyed. “He means yes. He came to me in the night and asked me if I wanted to go with him. I told him that I would believe him if he showed me the beginning of the universe.” She glanced around at the gold chamber. “I’m not sure what this is, but it certainly doesn’t seem like that’s where we are.”

The being chuckled a low, hearty laugh. “It would seem, wouldn’t it? Introductions are in order. I am The Maker. Some beings will come to call me God, the Creator, the First Pythia, but you need only address me as Z. I will create your universe, and all its constituent parts. But, seeing as you have arrived before then, I will explain that this is one of a collection of ‘meta-labs’ overseen by the High Z. The purpose of the meta-labs is, as I’m sure you’ve surmised, to create universes. The gold outside is the material I use to craft my own style of universe. Others use different materials, such as...” Octavia blinked. Huh? “...to create their universes. Their properties are typically wildly different from your own, but their creation is almost always the same.”

She reached around her side, pulling a small globe of light towards them. The feeling of energy increased a thousand-fold as the glowing glob floated towards them. Octavia felt like she was going to be physically pushed back. “This,” Z said, pointing towards it with a hoof. “Is everything that ever will be to you two. In just a few short...” Why does she keep doing that? “...this will expand and become the newborn universe.”

They stared at it in wonderment as she released it from her hoof and it trailed slowly to rest a few hooves above the floor. If Z’s power was immense, the power contained in the small sphere was the amalgamation of all power anywhere.

The Doctor inspected it closely, eyes wide. His screwdriver had appeared in his hoof, but when he started to scan it, sparks blew off it immediately, causing him to jump and release his grip on it. With a huff, he picked it back up and inspected the readings. “Well, the story would seem to ring true. That is the universe before the Big Bang.” He looked back up at her. “But...how?”

“Do you want me to explain it in detail?”

He nodded vigorously.

“Ok, but this will take all of your brainpower...To start, some of the material from the future of the universe and...”

Octavia stopped paying attention to the two of them nerding out. The globe had her full attention. She circled it, trying to wrap her head around the fact that this was the entire universe, and it was the size of the frog of her bow. How? How could she be standing less than a pace from her future? Everything’s future? And past for that matter.

She gently reached out a hoof, before Z’s voice snapped her out of her trance. “Please be gentle if you intend to hold it.”

Octavia glanced up. “I swear it.” And she meant it.

She turned back to the globe, holding out her hoof underneath the object. A warmth began to flow through her, a sense of completeness she had not ever felt. It was intoxicating. It gently floated to her outstretched hoof, hovering just above it as she cradled it. I will do everything in my power to cherish this moment.

I sure hope so, the little sphere said back to her. She blinked. It had spoken to her. And I’ll be sure to remind you if you ever forget.

She smiled. The little thing seemed to search her, floating around her like a fly, but in a less obtrusive manner. She was overwhelmed, knowing that the total sum of the universe was looking her over. Half of her felt joy, half of her felt intense panic that threatened to shut her down right there on the spot.

You certainly are a strange one. A clean past, and a future of loss.

Octavia’s smile dropped as she shivered. The warmth suddenly seemed to invert, becoming icy pinpricks of doubt. “Doc...”

His head whipped around. “Yes?”

“Um...Can...can we go?” She tilted her head towards the sphere.

He moaned. “Aw, but she was just getting to the best part!” He padded over. “Let me see the little rabble rouser.” He held out his hoof. The sphere floated obediently over. “Now, what’s your problem, huh? Why are you c–”

He stiffened, going stock still, eyes widening. “No...” he breathed. Octavia made a note of Z’s perplexed and somewhat worried expression. “I did what I could...” His eyes flicked to meet Octavia’s before shutting tightly. “I will do everything I can to save her.”

The ice in her belly had become a glacial plain of worry. “That’s enough, Doctor,” she half-yelled, reaching out to grab the point of power back. Its power invaded her again, but this time, it did not feel quite as exhilarating.

He dropped to his knees, his posture looking almost reverent, but his expression pained, as if he had been tortured. His breathing was labored to say the least.

She knelt next to him as the seconds stretched on. “I know it must hurt. But you need to get me home, Doctor. You need to make good on that promise.” She nuzzled his withers. “Come on, let’s go. You’ve shown me enough to make me believe in you.”

He slowly sat up, leaning on her all the way. He stared up at Z, eyes sharp. “I don’t think your child likes me, vortex.”

Octavia glanced at him as Z laughed. Vortex?

“No, of the few visitors who’ve come through, you’re some of the few he hasn’t physically hurt or attempted to kill.” Octavia cringed, but the Doctor did not visibly react.

“Well, he certainly tried.”

Z shrugged her massive shoulders. “I cannot speak for a sentient being.”

Octavia extended her hoof, allowing the fetal universe to return to its mother. “I think it’s time we took our leave, miss Z.” She hoisted the still winded earth stallion’s leg over her withers. Turning, she waved a free hoof. “Thank you for the little show.”

“One last thing,” the Doctor said, turning his head. “How are we here? My TARDIS can’t possibly travel before the time stream started.”

“Well, as you said to your companion, it’s a time and space machine, correct? Easy. All I needed to do was coax it towards me in both of those, and viola, here you are.” She waved a hoof and smiled motherly. “Now go on, get up to some scrapes. The fruits of my labor should not be wasted here.”

They both nodded, pushing the door aside. “Homeward bound,” Octavia murmured.

They padded in silence back to the TARDIS. As they entered, the low pitched bells she had heard before entering this strange palace rung out again. Once they climbed the stairs to the control panel, they both flopped on the floor, exhausted.

“Nothing like that again, Doctor. Please.” Octavia coughed. “Let’s get out of here.”

The Doctor pulled himself to his hooves, nonverbally accepting her statement. As he began to pilot the controls, he gained some more energy, seeming less drained than when they had entered.

“By the way...” Octavia started. “You called her ‘vortex’ at one point...Why?”

The Doctor looked down at her sprawled on the floor. “You didn’t see the time vortex?”

She hesitantly shook her head. “No...I saw a massive pony. She reminded me of the princess in a lot of ways.”

One of his eyebrows flicked up a hair. “Ah. That’s why she was speaking Old High Gallifreyan. It was a perception filter. It allows whatever it is used on to be viewed as whatever’s appropriate in the situation. It’s why the TARDIS is a police box. Seeing as you could understand both of us, it must have been unbelievable advanced.” He coughed into a hoof. “It displayed itself to me as a manifestation of the time vortex.”

She merely nodded, comprehending but not fully understanding. “And that’s remarkable...why?” Her head rolled lazily around to focus on him.

He smiled serenely, turning back to his piloting of the mobile construct. “Old High Gallifreyan is interesting in that, inbuilt into both the spoken and written language, it is fundamentally untranslatable. What you witnessed may have been a universal first.”

She merely laughed. “We just witnessed the proto-universe, Doctor. It’s hard to be more of a first than that.” And she began to laugh hysterically, rolling around on the floor of the TARDIS. “Th-That still hasn’t set in...Ah HAH! We just met the universe!”

He simply smiled, carefully stepping over her when the giggling fool went under his hoof. “So we did.” He looked wistfully towards the doors of his time machine. “Hello, big world,” he murmured, being careful to keep the words below Octavia’s range of hearing.

Octavia slowly regained her functions from her bout of mad laughter. “Where next then, Doc?” She asked as she made her way back to her feet.

When he did not immediately answer, she looked over to where she thought he had been. What she saw frightened her to no end.

The Doctor was on the floor, clutching his head and moaning, slowly rising in pitch and volume to become a keening cry of pain.

“Doctor!” She raced to his side, kneeling quickly, trying to think of something to do to help. “What’s wrong?” You’re a bleedin’ genius, Octy. She shook him, trying to help him focus. “Tell me what’s wrong, dammit!”

But when his body slumped, going unconscious in her grasp, her blood turned to ice. “No...No, no, no, no, no, no...” The realization hit her like a cargo chariot hitting her at full clip.

I am alone, stranded with an unconscious stranger, in a mobile time machine, with no way to operate it.

“DOCTOR! PLEASE WAKE UP!”

Author's Note:

Whoa. This chapter ended up far longer than I anticipated. (Also it wasn't even in my list of chapters to write...)

As always, feel free to point out any mistakes.

Next Time: What happens when the Doctor needs a doctor?