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// Monopony or Adventures? 
// Story: The Creation of Harmony 
// by Time Ponies are cool 
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Chapter II: Monopony or Adventures?
Two-thousand fifty-four years in the future...
Thunder boomed and rain poured down over the quaint little town of Ponyville as the town's fastest pegasus made her way towards Sweet Apple Acres, home of the Apple family. With all the nimbus clouds in proper thunderstorm position and all of Ponyville drenched in rain, Rainbow Dash could finally take her break and spend her free time with her friends in Applejack's barn.
Rainbow flew in through the window to the top level of the barn and immediately began shaking herself dry as she spoke, "Alright, I have a few hours on break before I have to go and clear the skies. Let's finish this game! Am I still in the corral?"
Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie sat in a circle on the hay-covered floor playing a game of Monopony, and Rainbow Dash shortly joined them, taking her seat at an empty spot between Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. The room on the top floor was just painted maroon two days before and still had the aroma of paint all over it. Twilight picked up the pair of dice on the Monopony board and shook them in her hooves. She tossed and the dice landed with a nine.
"Yes! Looks like another stable for me. And with nine-thousand bits, that places me in the lead!"
"Ah, horse-apples!" Applejack shouted, "I was doing so good too! Are you sure you ain't just doing one of them fancy mathematic tricks to get more money than you actually have, Twi?"
Twilight giggled. "No, Applejack. I'm playing fair and square."
Rainbow Dash, seeing that her game piece was still under confinement in the corral, laid on her back impatiently. "I'm still in the corral?! I'm itching to move my piece again!" she said after giving a frustrated sigh. The hay on the floor rustled as she put her weight on it.
Lightning flashed and thunder cracked. Fluttershy shrieked and hid in a pile of hay, shaking the hay above her as she shook with fear. The others laughed together after they recovered from their moment of fright from the lightning.
Rarity picked up the dice and shook them in her hooves as she said, "Come on. I need a four to buy that fabulous stable. Please, please, please, please!"
As Rarity took her time shaking the dice, Twilight heard a strange noise coming from outside the barn. It sounded foreign and exotic, yet at the same time very familiar, as if she'd heard it many times before all throughout Equestria and all throughout her life. She quickly decided to ignore the sound and brought her attention back to Rarity's move. "No!" Rarity despairingly yelled when she saw that the dice gave a seven, "Back in the corral again!"
Applejack interrupted the game as she looked out the window and through the pouring rain. "Say, what's that there blue box on the field?"
Twilight joined Applejack and looked out the window. "Blue box...? Hold on, I think I’ve seen that before. In a scroll I found in Canterlot a long time ago. But…" Twilight gasped. "It can’t be. It’s the Blue Box."
"Well, yeah. I can see it's a blue box. And I think it's crushing my corn!" Applejack said.
"No, no." Twilight replied, "It's the Blue Box!"
"So what?" Rainbow Dash joined the conversation. "I'm sure there are tons of other blue boxes all over Equestria. Derpy even has this blue box she says she goes in to have these crazy adventures."
Suddenly, Derpy stuck her rain-soaked head in through the window, surprising everypony and getting rainwater from her mane on them.
"Hi, Rainbow Dash!"
"Wha- Derpy! What are you doing here?"
"Derpy!" A voice from outside called, "Do you mind helping? I don't exactly have wings and these hooves won't help me scale this wall."
"Oops, sorry." Derpy flew back down and, a moment later, she tossed in the Doctor, who fell on top of the Monopony board, scattering all the pieces about.
"Ow..." the Doctor rubbed his head as he got back on his hooves.
"Derpy, what's going on?" Rainbow Dash called out the window, "Who's this?"
Twilight circled around the Doctor, observing his every feature. "Hourglass cutie mark. Brown mane. Light brown coat. I-i-i-it's him!"
"And he is?" Rarity asked.
"The Doctor!" Twilight answered.
Fluttershy popped her head out of the hay pile and asked, "Doctor who?"
The Doctor looked at the ruined Monopony board and said, "Oh, I am sorry. I am really... so, so sorry. But yes, hello! I'm the Doctor! Just 'the Doctor'."
Derpy quickly flew back in through the window, pointed at Rainbow Dash's flank and said "That's one of them, Doctor. One of the six things!"
"Ah! Of course!" The Doctor shouted in delight, "Cutie marks! You saw cutie marks! Brilliant, Derpy!"
Derpy was excited by the Doctor's praise and said, "Ooh! Do I get a muffin now?"
"I'll give you a muffin when we get back to the TARDIS." The Doctor replied. He began walking around in circles around the Monopony board, being careful not to step on any game pieces, as he rambled his thoughts, "Now where will we find the rest of them? Let me think, we’re looking for stars, apples, diamonds, butterflies and balloons. Now that we know that they're cutie marks, that narrows down the field significantly. And we can more or less guess that all six will be found at around this time zone. Maybe even in this part of Earth. Do any you mares know where we can find ponies with those cutie marks?"
Pinkie Pie excitedly jumped in front of the Doctor and stuck her flank up for the Doctor to see, all the while asking, "Is it me? Is it me? Is it me? Is it me? Is it me?"
"Those are the balloons!" Derpy answered.
"Yaaaaay!" Pinkie shouted as she jumped for joy and giggled, "Ooh! How about Fluttershy?" Pinkie zipped to the haystack Fluttershy was hiding in, grabbed her by the flank, took her out and showed her cutie mark to the Doctor.
"Butterflies!" the Doctor said. He turned around in a circle and observed everypony's cutie marks. He put on his glasses as he inspected the details of each one, ensuring they were completely accurate to Derpy's vision. "Why, it’s you. It's all of you! Ah, brilliant! Molto bene! Well, that was a bit quick actually. I was hoping the search would be more… exciting. But no matter, at least that means we can be done with this sooner and we can move on to more exciting things! Never really liked all these end-of-the-world-scenarios I have to keep dealing with. Seriously, what does a pony have to give to have one peaceful visit to a world without the threat of imminent destruction?"
As the Doctor chattered, Twilight remembered all the stories about him from ancient books, poems and legends, and the disasters that followed in his wake, and began to worry. In any story about the Doctor that she encountered, there was always a horrible calamity and from one such story, she recalled one haunting line: "The Doctor has one constant companion: Death." She approached him and put her hoof on his shoulder, interrupting his rambling, "Wait! If you're here, that must mean something terrible is about to happen! Is there some kind of epic pony war in the near future?"
"Actually, I just came from the past. About two-thousand years actually, approximately," The Doctor replied, "And I need to take all of you back with me. Starswirl the Bearded needs you."
"Oh my gosh!" Twilight excitedly squealed upon hearing that historical name, easily forgetting all her worries about doom, destruction and death. "Starswirl the Bearded? He needs us?"
"Who's Starswirl the Bearded?" Rarity asked.
"Sorry, we don't have time to talk," the Doctor interrupted as he hastily began leading everypony towards the barn stairs, "we need to get going right now!"
"But you have a time-machine," Twilight retorted, "What's the rush?"
The Doctor suddenly stopped, having been caught off guard as he was far too lost in his keenness to move along, and struggled to find a quick and clever reply. "Well, we... the past... time... you see... umm... basically... look, do you want to stay here and play Monopony or go on adventures?"
The prospect of thrill and excitement grabbed Rainbow Dash's attention. "Adventure? I love adventures! They're cool. Let's do it!"
Pinkie too was eager to go on a little escapade. "Ooh! Adventure! I like adventures! How exciting! Isn't this exciting?"
"Well, it ain't much fun sticking around here with this kind of weather." Applejack said, gesturing at the pouring rain outside the window.
"Brilliant!" The Doctor said, satisfied at having convinced everypony to follow him. "Quick! Everypony come down and get in the TARDIS."
The Doctor, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack all hurried down the barn stairs while Rainbow Dash and Derpy flew out the window. Fluttershy, in the meantime, stayed in the barn, far from eager to go on an adventure and the danger that comes with such activities. Derpy then returned and pulled Fluttershy out the window by the tail, dragging her on the floor and then on the roof of the barn as Fluttershy struggled to keep a hold on the barn.
"Come on, Fluttershy. Don’t you want to go adventuring? We’ll be fighting dragons and mean old rhinoceroseseses and– oh, we’ll be getting muffins when we’re all done!"