Despite her best efforts, Derpy couldn't sleep. Up for most of the night and day watching the entirety of the My Little Pony episodes, there was no chance she would ever be able to sleep now. Her mind was abuzz over it all. The very idea of her entire universe as being a show, a kids show, was a little surreal. It was amazing, though, that she was watching a complete and near chronicling of the entire saga of the Mane 6, seeing ponies she recognized, places she had been to. She even saw herself, Sparkler, Dizzy, Dinky in there along with the Doctor! It was at the end though, after every episode, that her spine froze and her nerves tingled in fear: The end credits.
Everything about their lives, from their words to their colors, came from the thought process of someone else. It was enough to drive her mad just thinking about it. Then she came to the feature film Jack had kept with him and started to play it. She didn't get past the first five minutes before she shut the lid on the laptop and sat back in shock. Some red haired human by the name of Lauren Faust was sitting there giving a personal thanks to all those who watched it. Derpy herself felt no ill will toward her, she just couldn't take it! She had basically created all of Equestria as it was. The idea of it was maddening, because technically, she was looking at this “Goddess” of sorts. The creator of all life in Equestria. Or at least that version after she read several comments about them being G4 Ponies. She didn't even want to know about the earlier Generations at that.
She laid on Jack's couch starring at the walls and empty ceiling of his apartment, tired from being up for so long, but too shocked to go to sleep. This whole world was crazy, populated by monkey-things, and somehow, she was one of them! What was worse, she didn't even have her wings. Why didn't she have her wings? What force drove her to lose her wings? That question now surfaced and beat out all other ones. Whooves would probably say the very force that transformed her into a human. It didn't bring much comfort to her.
Letting out a breath, she stood up and walked over to the window to get some fresh air. If she couldn't go outside, she would do the next best thing and go open the window. Opening it, she got her first real taste of Earth. The feel of the breeze, the smell of the trees, and the sound of the neighborhood in her ear drums. Looking down, she spied a younger human couple having a argument over something, which she really didn't want to hear about and did her best to tune them out, a trick she learned flight school after so many made fun of her eyes.
Looking around, the apartment she was in was across a large concrete road where several cars were going back and forth at high speeds. She kept observing the world through the window, seeing a few birds flying through the air, and some butterflies floating in the gentle breeze. The whole place really wasn't in a bad spot. Wasn't upper class obviously, but it wasn't run down either. Just a nice, safe little apartment block.
As she kept her eyes looking around, she spied a rather tall man in a brown hoodie with his hands in his pocket walking along, seemingly minding his own business. The hood itself was draped too far over his head to where only he was able to see out, but in this light no one would see in. Derpy watched him from afar, there was just something off about him for some odd reason. Something sinister that made Derpy shiver to the core. He walked through some bushes and across a street not taking his eyes off of anything but the path in front of him it seemed. Even when a vehicle honked its horn at him, the man heeded it no attention.
Derpy traced what she believed to be the mans future path, which was right between the arguing couple. Derpy watched him as he stepped closer and closer to them until suddenly, the strange hooded man was past them and with a jump of her heart, swore she heard a crash. This was quickly followed by a female scream. Derpy looked down in horror to where the sound was uttered. Below, a the man who just before had been arguing with his girlfriend was laid flat out on the floor with a large potted plant smashed over his head. He wasn't moving and the woman ran inside to call for help. She happened to glance up by chance, and saw the hooded man standing there under a tree. He seemed to be smiling, laughing almost. He raised his head up just a inch, and sitting there were a pair of blazing red eyes.
Derpy instantly shut the window and closed the blinds. She ran over a locked the door, not wanting anything to get in. She huddled on the couch frightened for her life when there came a knock at the door. Derpy froze her heart having skipped a beat at each knock. Had that man seen her? Did he know where she lived, and how did he get up here so fast? She didn't move, and just hoped whoever it was would go away. Sitting on the couch, her fear turned to horror as the door knob began to turn. In her haste to lock the door, she had forgotten that Jack had locked it when he left, and she had just unlocked it! The knob turned all the way, and the door opened. Derpy covered her eyes, hoping that if she did this the man wouldn't notice her, fearing the worst until she heard a familiar voice.
“Derpy, why is the door unlocked?”
Derpy peered through her fingers to see Jack entering the room and instantly grabbed hold of him. Her fears melted away, for now at least she felt safe. Jack didn't know what to make of this, and just awkwardly hugged her back.
“Uh, did I miss something?” he asked confused, “You didn't watch the Exorcist did you?”
“Exercise? What?” Derpy's thoughts were lost in the relief that Jack had brought to her, not wanting to think on the man she had just saw.
Jack stumbled briefly over his words, “N-Never mind, what's wrong?”
“That window!” explained Derpy, “There, there was this...guy standing there, and his eyes were red and crazy!”
“What?” Jack walked over to the window and looked out and around. All that was down there was his neighbor who was rubbing his head from where a potted plant had been smashed on top of it.
“You mean Darrel? Was he arguing with his girlfriend again?” He looked back at Derpy and gave a sideways smile. “Those two always fight, don't worry about it.”
“No! By that tree!” Derpy yelled.
She walked over nervously and looked out, only to see that the man wasn't there anymore. “But, but, but! He was right there, starring and he had this evil grin and his eyes were red and-!”
Jack looked out again before giving a shrug. “Meh, drug addict, probably. There's a few around here.”
He spoke calmly, like it was a everyday experience, giving some ease to Derpy. She gave her own shrug and sigh of relief, whoever he was, he was nothing to worry about. There were a lot more things to panic about around here.
Jack looked over at the clock and then over to the now calmed pegasus-turned-human. “Right, now, there is a reason I came home early.”
Derpy looked to the clock to see it was 1:47, not the hour he'd said he would show up.
Jack gave his best heroic smile, “Come on! We're getting the TARDIS!”
Derpy's eyes shrunk in surprise, “What? How? I don't know how to operate it!”
“No, but I can tow that thing with a rope and my cruiser!” Jack ran off to his room, knowing he kept a length of rope somewhere hidden in his pile of junk that he kept in his closet.
“Tow? You mean you're going to drag it here? Do you know how heavy that thing is?” Derpy kept asking questions, unsure as to how smart it was to be pulling the mystical police box.
“Five thousand tonnes..... on one planet." Jack finally found the coil of rope and slid it onto his shoulder. "But hell, if Greeks can pull it with carts by horses, I can pull it with my cruiser!”
Derpy looked over the excited man and couldn't help but smile. He seemed to know what he was doing. Or at least acted like he knew what he was doing. Kind of like the Doctor. It was at that point she wondered what the Doctor was doing at that point and if he was trying to save her?
----
“Alright Twilight!” announced Whooves, “Are you ready!?”
"Kind of." Twilight looked down at her choice of clothing and started pondering, “Why am I dressed in my old school uniform?”
The Doctor gave a once over at Twilight before answering the obvious, “Because you chose to bring it.”
Twilight didn't know whether to facehoof, or punch him with her hoof. She played it off as the fact he was the Doctor and let it slide. He himself was standing there sharply dressed in a blue pinstripe suit with a red bow tie. He got a few looks from mares passing by but he had more important things to handle right now. Although he did like that fact they thought he looked good. Twilight, however, wasn't exactly liking the idea of being stuck in her old uniform, and wished she could take it off.
“Why did I have to put it on before we left anyway? Can't I just put it on when we get there?””
“If there is one thing I know about humans,” huffed the Doctor, “is that they take public nudity very, very seriously. In fact, it's illegal in most places!”
Twilight kept trying to reach an itch that seemed to just stay out of her reach on her back, “Why?”
“Don't know. I guess decency. You see, unlike ponies, they don't have any real fur to cover their bodies. So, if we were to arrive in a crowded place full of people it would certainly make things less..." He struggled to find an appropriate word before just giving up, "Weird.”
“Less weird?” Twilight gave The Doctor a rather unpleasant and confused stare.
Doctor Whooves leaned against the wannabe TARDIS and gave it a few taps to serve his point, “Humans aren't used to people magically appearing out of thin air.”
Twilight understood, it wasn't easy to explain to some ponies how a blue box would appear from nothing. “Right, Humans don't have magic.”
“Exactly! Now, there is one other thing I need you to do for me!”
“What is it it now?” Twilight asked as The Doctor made a final round the TARDIS, a bemused look on her face.
“Well, I thought that once I got the central console up and running it would emit a field that would protect us from traveling through the Dimensions." The Doctor peeked inside and gave a grimace, "Turns out that it's being rather stubborn about not wanting to make one, Would you mind terribly if I asked you to make some sort of bubble around it?”
Twilight began to worry about what this trip was going to entail, “You need a force field? What kind?”
“Oh, any old barrier will do. Those wooden walls wouldn't be enough if I knew that they are going to shred into a thousand pieces the moment we start to enter the Time stream." Stopping at a small spot, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pressed it against the doorway. "without something to keep the outside forces from ripping us apart, we could go through one way, and end out in another way completely!”
“A thousand pieces!” she yelled, alarmed at the prospect of her body being ripped apart.
“I know, that's a bad estimation." Thinking only for a moment, he stored his sonic screwdriver back in his front pocket. "More like a million!”
“You're not helping make this choice any easier!” she spoke, annoyed as ever
“I'm doing my best!” came Whooves, “I'm not even telling you half of what can go wrong! We might not even land on Earth! I programmed this semi-TARDIS to lock onto the energy signature of my TARDIS. That being said, if it finds a stronger signature elsewhere, oh, lets say ME since I'm all over in that Universe, then we could land on any planet anywhere in the Galaxy!”
“Oh.” she said no more worried than annoyed, “How are you calm then?”
Doctor Hooves bit his lower lip, he wasn't necessarily calm, if anything he was more upset. “Because Derpy's predicament is my fault. I was so excited to go home, I didn't even ask her if she wanted to come. I just assumed she would and the risks would be nothing. This time, it was.”
“It wasn't your fault.” comforted Twilight, “You couldn't have predicted this.”
Whooves just stood there, hanging his head a little in shame for his actions. His eyes were closed as if trying to hold back tears for what he did. While he had years to react on it, it never got any easier. He opened his eyes, more determined than ever to get his dear friend back, a single tear dropping down the side of his face. Twilight saw this and smiled, knowing the Doctor was ready now more than ever.
“So, force field?” Twilight proudly spoke,
“Yep! Ladies first!” Whooves opened the door and let Twilight into the little control room, and followed her in and closed the door. When it slammed shut, the door fell backwards and off the makeshift-TARDIS completely. Whooves looked on surprised at the happening while Twilight sighed and just sealed back up the door with her magic.
“Okay! Thirty Thousand years in the future here we come!" Raising up, he held his hooves up in a conductors pose and pointed at Twilight. "Force field!”
Twilight charged up her horn and released a force field that engulfed the machine as it started to power up. The makeshift-TARDIS dematerialized form from the yard in Ponyville and soon was flying through time.
“100 years! 200! ooh, we just jumped a few thousand right there!" His hooves still dancing out as he conducted and moved around the console. A slight shudder started to rumble through the machine, "Keep it together Twilight!”
Twilight could feel the effects of the the Vortex battling against her force field, and it was taking all her concentration to keep it at bay. The Doctors own coaching was breaking some of her concentration. The makeshift-TARDIS shook and rocked violently, nearly throwing them off balance. Whooves threw levers and pushed buttons, but that didn't seem to help at all.
“Where's that rake!?” he yelled in frustration, “Aha! Here it is!”
He grabbed it off the floor and shoved it into the center console. The gardening tool glowed a brilliant blue, and it seemed to stabilize the machine to a degree.
“13 thousand! 15 thousand! Halfway there!”
She wanted to tell him to be quiet so she could concentrate, but with all that was going on around her, she could hardly stand up. Whooves looked to his friend with some concern until he heard the sound of wood starting to crack. He looked around and saw one of the walls breaking. Even withing Twilight's shield, it was feeling the strain. A single line appeared in the wall behind him, and slowly, began to expand along with the Doctor's horror. It chipped up all around the semi-TARDIS, branching every which way, until he heard a hissing sound. Looking to the rake, he cheered in victory as smoke began to protrude from the points of the end of it. The gas given off floated up and began to illuminate the cracks, sealing them up the moment they started to break. This bought them a few more minutes, but he knew that this wouldn't last forever. He looked at the console and saw that they were speeding up, approaching thirty thousand years!
“Here we go!”
His sudden burst of hope was soon dashed when the cracking sound returned. He looked to the rake to see it cracking as well, the light aura around it fading fast.
“No, no, not now!” he yelled in fear.
He ran to the console, but by then he was too late. The rake shattered into a million pieces, taking with it the walls of the makeshift-TARDIS. Whooves looked around, seeing the Time Vortex swirling around him. It would take the less dense objects first, then it would go for him and Twilight next. However, there was one advantage to this: He could see the hole he needed to fly through. Grabbing the control console, he saw they were at the correct time line, and looking up, he saw it. A dark, misshapen hole that was the bridge between the dimensions. Throwing two levers and slamming his hoof on a button, the machine he and Twilight were on were flying right towards it at high speed.
“Hold on Twilight! Here we go!”
Twilight opened her eyes for a split second to see the large hole they were flying towards just as they entered it. The moment the edge of her shield touched it, the pressure on her was too much. “I can't hold on!”
“You don't need to! We're through!” he cheered
Twilight thanked Celestia they were done with it, until a horrible tearing sound ran through her ears.
“What was that?”
“The TARDIS-thing is breaking up! Hold on Twilight this could get-”
He never finished his sentence. The makeshift-TARDIS exploded in midair in a brilliant golden glow, albeit a terrifying one at that. The pieces of the machine, now nothing more than farm equipment and sheet metal fell towards the ground, right over a patch of trees. Twilight turned to look for the Doctor for help, but all she found was some strange monkey thing falling in his suit.
Furthermore, since when did she have fingers? Before she could get a better look, she struck a tree and was knocked out.