Dr Who 50th Anniversary

As today is the 50th anniversary of Dr Who I though I should put up a sneak preview for the next chapter of the Dr Who / lunaverse story. hopefully the rest of the story will be up early in December (although I'm rather behind schedule at the moment).

Ditzy awoke with a groan, bells ringing in her ears. With a herculean effort she dragged one eye open, her bedroom was still dark but she could just about make out her alarm clock in the gloom, it was the source of the racket. She quested about with one hoof and on her third attempt managed to strike the alarm knocking it to the ground and mercifully stop the ringing. For a moment she considered going back to sleep, what did she have to get up for anyway? Then she shook herself, she had to get to work, no work meant no pay and no pay meant no food for her and Dinky.

Ditzy staggered to her feet, she felt rotten today, maybe she was coming down with something? Muttering to herself she wandered into the bathroom and examined her reflection in the mirror, she looked ever worse than she felt. Her eyes were red rimmed and gunked up with sleep, her mane and coat were dishevelled, she even noticed some bald spots in her wings. Maybe she really was ill, she should make an appointment with a doctor after she finished her shift, she wouldn’t want her daughter to catch anything from her. She thrust her head under the shower and let the warm water make her feel somewhat equine again.

Once she had finished washing she decided on breakfast. To her surprise most of the cupboards were empty, she must have forgotten to go shopping. She quickly crunched her way through a bowl of dry and stale cereal. She checked the time again, she was late!

Quickly grabbing her hat and coat she rushed for the door leading down to the post office below. It was emptier than she would have expected but she didn’t have time to investigate. She grabbed a full bag from one of the tables, shouted a quick greeting to the few members of staff present, who looked up in surprise, and ran out onto the streets of Ponyville.

As she carried out her rounds a feeling of wrongness continued to gnaw away in the back of her head. Like the office the town itself seemed depopulated and the ponies she did see mostly trudged by eye’s down. The weather did not help, it appeared that the weather ponies had made a mix up, one part of town was buried under several inches of snow while another was suffering torrential rain. Ditzy looked up and saw Cloud Kicker yelling at a number of other pegasus she didn’t recognise but who seemed to be ignoring the deputy manager. Was Rainbow Dash AWOL again? It might explain the mistake if her assistant had been left in charge. Cloud Kicker was normally quite dependable but she didn’t deal with stress well.

She checked the address on the next letter and smiled to herself. It was the representative’s residence, maybe a chat with Trixie would make her feel better. She could ask Trixie where everypony was today, maybe she’d missed a really big Pinkie Party yesterday?

Putting on a sunny smile Ditzy pushed open the door and let herself into the residence. As expected Trixie was present but to the mailmare’s surprise she was sitting behind Pokey’s desk rather than her own.

“You’ve got mail,” announced Ditzy tossing a pile of letters onto her friend's desk.

“Oh, errr. Thank you Ms Doo,” said Trixie sounding subdued, “You’re looking well today.”

“Ms Doo? Why so formal?” asked Ditzy bemused, “Actually I’m feeling a little rough. Maybe Dinky picked something up from school and passed it on to me.” Then suddenly it hit her, “Dinky! I forgot about Dinky! I didn’t wake her up and get her ready for school this morning. How could I forget about her?!”

A look of pain and embarrassment flashed over Trixie’s face. “Ditzy, did you take your medication this morning? Did Par say you could work today?”

“Medication? What are you talking about? And what’s Par got to do with anything, he’s retired. Look I’ve got to get home, Dinky will be worrying about where I am.”

Trixie seemed to fight with herself for a moment before looking up at the worried mailmare "I know it's hard Ditzy," she said wheeling her chair over and putting a hesitant arm across the pegasus’s withers, "But you have to accept it, Dinky died with Cheerilee over a year ago now. You've got to move on."

Ditzy staggered back breaking out of the unicorns grip, “What are you talking about?” she cried, “Dinky’s not dead, I saw her last night she was talking about being in the Hearth’s Warming play this year.” Ditzy though back to last night and the conversation and then she remembered the funeral, the casket had been so small, she’d sat there too upset to even cry just waiting for somepony, anypony to just tell her that it was all a mistake that the thing in the ground wasn’t her daughter. Ditzy staggered back blinking, where had that come from? It couldn’t be true.

“Ditzy, you’re having one of your episodes, please try to calm down. I’ll get Redheart or Carrot Top or somepony.” Trixie pulled her chair closer. Ditzy’s gaze dropped to Trixie’s rear legs, they were both missing from just below the hip, she was strapped into a wheeled contraption which allowed her to remain mobile.

“Trixie,” gasped Ditzy in horror, “What happened to your legs?”

“You remember me telling you about the snake,” she said gently.

“No, I don’t. This is all wrong,” gasped Ditzy.

“Grand-père!” yelled Trixie.

“What is it child?” came a masculine voice from within the residence, “I’m not entirely deaf you know.” An aged blue stallion tottered into the room leaning heavily on a cane, his mane and beard a dirty white.

“Who are you?” asked Ditzy backing away from the new arrival.

“Ah, she’s having a bad day isn’t she?”

“I’ve never seen her this bad,” agreed Trixie pity written across her face, “She normally forgets the ‘incident’ but not much else.”

“Who are you?” Ditzy demanded again, the stallion seemed vaguely familiar.

“I am Quartermoon, Ms Doo. You remember me? The town's representative to the Night Court?”

“Quartermoon? But you’re dead, Trixie said,” muttered Ditzy backing away from the stallion towards the door.

“Evidently not Ms Doo. Why don’t you just sit down and we can get one of your friends to look after you.” He held out a hoof.

“Get away from me!” screamed Ditzy bolting for the door and leaping into the air. She had to get away, to get to Dinky, she could see Dinky and everything would be alright. This would all be a bad dream or a plan by Corona or Zecora or someone, Dinky would make everything better.

She flew as fast as her wings would carry her towards her home, she didn’t even stop to land before entering the building instead prising the window open and crawling into her daughters bedroom. It was just as she remembered, every book, toy and item of clothing was in place. The only thing missing was Dinky herself. The bed did not look like it had been slept in. Nothing looked touched, everything was perfect, like a shrine. A shiver ran down Ditzy’s spine. She remembered cleaning the room and putting everything neatly away, she had to keep it all perfect for when her muffin came back, from when the mistake was all sorted out, no matter how long it took. No that couldn’t be it, what was going on?

She collapsed to the floor sobbing memories flowing through her head. She remembered Dinky telling her of her adventures in the Everfree and begging her to let her keep the timber wolf foal. She remembered the look on Nurse Redhearts face when she told her what they had found in the forest that she had to identify the pieces left, the pieces of her daughter left. What was happening to her, was she going mad? Had she always been mad?

“Please help me!” Ditzy cried to the heavens, “Please somepony help me! I don’t know what’s going on, what’s real.”

Suddenly the room was filled with a wheezing groaning sound and a wind seemed to pick up from nowhere. To her astonishment a large blue box faded into existence taking up much of the bedroom. I suppose that confirms that, thought Ditzy, I have gone mad.

A door opened in the box and a short straw coloured earth pony stallion with a brown mane rushed from it. He was wearing a cream jacket and checked trousers. Under the jacket was a jumper covered in question marks and a tie. On his head was a panama hat and hooked on one leg was an umbrella.

“Don’t worry,” he said with confidence, “I’m the Doctor.”