NOTE: A basic understanding of the British television series "Doctor Who" may be helpful from this chapter on.
Chapter 2: Dashes and Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Magic
“Think you can beat me, squirt?”
“I think you should watch out for that tree!”
“Wait, wha-?” That was the end of that conversation as the eldest of the two brothers, Sonic Boom (called Sonic) crashed straight into a tree. Astro, his younger brother, stuck out his tongue as he passed his brother.
“See ya at the finish line, loser!”
The cyan stallion sat on his haunches in a daze for a second, then shook his head.
“Why that little-”
“Yoo-hoo! Oh Sonic!” A high-pitched feminine voice called over.
“Oh, crap.” Sonic was hardly ever scared, but this was the exception. She was the exception.
Astro never saw his brother coming.
“Holy hell, what’s gotten into you?!”
“Can’ttalkRoseBellecominggoodluckkid!”
“What the actual heck are you talking abo- OOF!”
“Gotcha, my darling Sonic!” The pink Earth filly (though, like Astro and his good friend Noteworthy, she was nearing her adulthood) yelled as she tackled him.
The pale azure colt groaned. “Rose, for the fiftieth time, I. Am. Not. SONIC!”
“Wha-? Oh, crap, sorry, Astro!” Rose Belle quickly apologized, immediately getting off of him.
A few yards ahead, a huge burst of cheers filled the usual moderate silence of Ponyville.
“Oh, nonononononononononono!” Astro yelled as he dashed off towards the finish line, only to find a small crowd of ponies was already lifting his brother, once again the winner.
Just like he always was.
“Better luck next time, kid!” Sonic called as he got away from the crowd and joined his friends for celebratory cupcakes at Sugarcube Corner.
The pale azure colt’s ear’s dropped, lowering his head near the ground. “Today was supposed to be my day.”
Noteworthy and Royal walked over to their friend. The smaller of the two tapped Astro lightly with the bottom of his hoof. “C’mon, Astro, ya did great. Everypony already knows yer the best young racer fer miles ‘round. Ah mean, that’s what ya got yer Cutie Mark for, right?”
Said Cutie Mark was of a red and blue lightning bolt over a checkered flag waving in the wind. Astro was the only one of the self-named, “Trio of Ponyville Bros” to actually have his Cutie Mark.
Astro stood shrugged off his friend, standing up. “But that doesn’t matter if I’m not the fastest! I race because I want to be first-rate! Because of him, I’m only second-rate!”
“What does it matter if yer big brother’s a lil bit faster than ya? Ya got a hell of a lot better endurance than he does. Sooner or later, Sonic’s gonna run outta gas, and you’ll be able tah go the distance.” Royal commented.
“But I don’t want to wait! I want to beat that jerk face, and I want to do it now!”
The orange-red unicorn sighed. “Look, Astro, it’s like mah Mama always says, these things-”
“I know what your Mom says, idiot! But where’s waiting gotten you, huh? You’re still a Blank Flanks!”
Silence filled the air around them as the words hit. Noteworthy raised one hoof to his mouth, his eyes filled with incredulousness at what his friend had just said. The pain in Royal’s eyes was unimaginable, only matched by the guilt in Astro’s.
“Ah… Ah think Ah’m just gonna head home now.” Royal muttered, taking all the bags from Noteworthy, his head low as he stalked towards the farm.
“Royal, wait, I didn’t mean it like- OW!”
Noteworthy bit the other’s tail, pulling him back to the ground.
“Dude! What was that for?”
“Let ‘im go. He’s gonna need a lil while tah himself.”
Astro hesitated, glancing at the disappearing red stallion, then sighed, dropping to the ground. “Fine. I’ll just apologize later. Anyway, back to my problem. There’s gotta be a way for me to get faster in like, no time at all!”
The pale yellow Earth pony sighed, closing his eyes. “Ah don’t know what tah tell ya, man. Unless ya somehow develop magical abilities or something, yer just gonna have tah-“
Astro’s eyes lit up, the way they did whenever he got what he called, “The most awesomest idea EVER!” (Which usually backfired horribly and ended with somepony’s house becoming a large, useless pile of whatever the house was constructed from).
“THAT’S IT! MAGIC!” He shouted, pulled his friend into a hug.
“Uh, pardon?”
“Duh! We’ll just ask Twilight if she’s got a spell to make me faster than my stupid brother! Noteworthy, you’re a genius!”
The shy pony blushed at this, but then quickly snapped out of this. “Uh, isn’t this sorta thing more Miss Zecora’s jurisdiction?”
“I’ve got no clue what you just said, but I’m thinking that’s a really bad idea. Remember that story your Auntie Applebloom always tell us about that time she tried to use one of Zecora’s concoctions to get her Cutie Mark and ended up with like, a hundred Cutie Marks?”
“Ah don’t think Ah can forget the tale of The Cutie Pox. Guess we can’t try that.”
“Exactly, my fellow manly pony! Now c’mon, we’ve got a spell to get!”
“We’re manly ponies?”
Meanwhile, at the library
“Hm… Fascinating…” A grayish-amber unicorn filly mumbled as she looked through a book at least the size of her head. Her short, dark indigo mane with purple and pink streaks fell in her face, but she quickly pushed it away. “Spike!”
“Yea- OOF!” The young dragon yelped in pain as he tripped and tumbled down the wooden stairs of the library. No longer was the purple reptile a baby, he was well into dragon adolescence, and as such prone to stumbling over his own gangly legs.
“Quit goofing around, Spike, this is important!”
“I’m fine, thanks for asking.” The green-eyed dragon muttered as he stalked over to the filly. “What is it, Andy?”
Andromeda Pleiades, called Andy, pointed at the page. “Look at this photo here.”
The old photograph depicted a young stallion with a messy mane and a silly expression, standing next to a young Marey, Queen of Scoots, making a similar expression. An hourglass adorned the stallion’s flanks.
“… Why am I looking at a picture of an old Queen of Scootsland?”
“Not the Queen you wanker! The stallion!” Andy turned a few pages. “Look! Here he is again, with Queen Elizabooth I of Trottingham near the end of her reign! That’s decades apart, but he looks the exact same!”
“You realize it’s probably a different pony, right?”
The filly groaned, smacking a hoof to her forehead. “Spike, it can’t be a different pony! They look exactly the same! It’s just too convenient to be a simple coincidence!”
“Well what do you call it, then?”
But Andy wasn’t paying attention. Already she had pulled out a new book and was flipping through it.
“I know it’s in here somewhere- Ah-HA! Here it is!”
“What? What is it this time?”
Quickly the unicorn shoved the book in his face. “This! Since the nineteenth century, ponies from all over the world have claimed to have seen a weird pony who’s description fits the pictures and his blue Police Box that’s bigger on the inside! He travels through time, through space, one time he went outside the Universe! There’s only one explanation, Spike: The Doctor is real.”
The dragon stared at her for a second, then groaned. “Oh, Celestia, you’re still on about that guy? How many times do your mother and I have to tell you? The Doctor is just an old pony tale!”
“That’s what they said about Nightmare Moon, but look! She’s real! So why can’t the Doctor be real too?” Andy argued, taking the book (titled “The Doctor: Real or Pony Tale?”) away and placing it back on the shelf.
“Andy, listen. All this stuff about the Doctor just doesn’t add up. Think about it! If there really was such a stallion, why did Nightmare Moon even take over Princess Luna?”
Andy tried to find a reply, but words failed her.
“See? There’s just no way someone like that exists. It’s like Santa Hooves and the Easter Bunny.”
“It is not like those things! No fat old stallion could travel that fast and not experience heart failure! And if there was an Easter Bunny, the eggs wouldn’t go rotten in a week. The Doctor is real, Spike, and as Celestia is my witness, I’ll find him and prove to you and to Mum that he exists!”
Spike snorted. “Good luck with that.”
Just then, a pale blue blur blew open the door, immediately crashing into a nearby bookshelf, effectively knocking out several books.
“You’re later than usual, Astro.” Andy commented, not looking up from her book.
Currently, the deep-rose-eyed pony was upside down, hind hooves hanging in front of his face. “Heh-heh, sorry, Andy.”
Noteworthy ran inside. “Astro, please, wait for- Oh, hello, Andy and Spike, how are you?”
“Fine, except that Miss Magic Hourglass’s obsession is getting on my nerves.” Spike commented, referring to Andy’s Cutie Mark, a small silvery hourglass with pale blue sparkles arranged to be swirled around it like a ribbon.
The filly glared at the dragon. “Shove it, git. What can I help you with, boys?”
Astro got up. “Where’s your Mom? I need a spell to make me even faster than that stupid Sonic!”
“Mum’s still in Canterlot visiting the Princesses. She won’t be back til tonight at the least. And in any case, there aren’t any spells like that. At least, no permanent ones. Besides, Mum’s too much of a goody-good to help you cheat hard work. You’ll get no magic from her.”
Astro stamped his hooves in anger. “Dammit! Doesn’t anypony else want to show up that snobby jerk?!”
“Of course they do, but magic’s not the answer for your problems. You’ll have to work hard if you-” Midsentence, Andy stopped.
“What’s wrong-?”
“Shh!” She whispered, cutting him off.
“Oh, no, you did not just-”
Andy covered her friend’s mouth. “Shh! Do you hear that?”
Silence. Then, barely audible, a whirring sound, like gears in a machine, echoed around the library.
“What is that?”
“Bloody ‘ell should I know? Hey, it’s getting loud-”
That was the last thing she said before Noteworthy screamed and Spike tackled all three out of the way of the strange object came crashing in through the window, landing exactly where the three had been standing.
“Is… is everypony okay?”
A few coughs, but the three replied that they were fine.
The smoke from impact cleared, and the object became visible. A large blue box, door side up, whirred softly, getting quieter and quieter until it stopped completely.
Andy gasped. “OH MY LUNA!”
“What?! What is it?! Is it bad?!”
“Are you daft?! Do you know what this is?! It’s the-”
Just as she was about to explain, the door of the odd box swung open, emitting even more smoke. A pair of grayish-amber hooves latched onto the sides, hoisting up its owner, who immediately began a coughing fit.
“Blimey! Well, that’s the last time I try offering to teach Cloptroians how to dance the tango!”
The grayish amber stallion’s eyes were a pale shade of a light grayish-azure color, and his dark amber mane was a mess. When he got out of the box, his Cutie Mark was revealed to be an hour glass.
“Now then, where and when exactly am I…? Ah, good, natives! You there, Pegasus boy! What year, month, day, hour and minute is it?”
Still a bit shocked, Astro answered the strange stallion’s questions.
“Ah, I see! A wonderful year this is. Except for August. Stay indoors. And where am I?”
“Uh… Ponyville, Equestria.”
The weird stallion stopped. “Ponyville, huh… I haven’t been here since…”
Andy found her voice. “OH MY CELESTIA! It’s you! It’s really, truly you! I can’t believe this!”
The stallion turned to the excited filly, looking confused. “Do I know you?”
“No, but I know you! Oh, this is fantastic!” Andy grinned smugly at Spike. “I told you so! I told you he was real!”
Spike was still too shocked to answer. Or react, to be honest.
“Okay, who the heck is this guy?!”
“Ah, glad you asked. I’m the-”
“He’s the Doctor!” Andy squealed excitedly.
“The Doctor? Doctor who?” Noteworthy inquired.
“Just the Doctor, my dear filly.” The Doctor replied.
“Um… I’m a colt, actually.”
“Really? Are you quite sure about that?”
“Pretty sure, yeah. Um… what’s that box you’ve got there?”
The Doctor and Andy wore matching grins as they both turned to the blue box.
“This, young ones, is the TARDIS. It stands for-”
“Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Its function is to take its occupants wherever- or whenever- they want to go. It’s a lot bigger on the inside, right?”
The Doctor blinked. “Erm, yes. How… how exactly did you know that?”
“Oh, I know a lot about you! There are all sorts of stories about your adventures!” Andy went on to babble about everything she knew about the Doctor, which included a long list of every companion he’d had, beginning at his first incarnation down to his latest.
“Impressive. And a bit creepy to be honest.”
“Well, I can’t help but try to learn all I can about you. I mean, travelling through time and space? Brilliant! I can’t imagine what’s it’s like to- Oh my Celestia, please let me look in the TARDIS! Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!”
“Knock yourself out.”
Squealing excitedly, the filly jumped into the open Police Box. “Dear Luna, it totally looks like I imagined! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!”
“Is she quite alright?” The Doctor asked.
“She’s fine. Andy’s just naturally kind of crazy. We’re pretty sure she gets it from her Mom.”
“And… Who is her Mum?”
Just then, the door opened. “Andy, I’m back from Canter- WHAT IN THE NAME OF CELESTIA?!”
Andy poked her head out of the blue box. “Mum! Mum! He’s real! He’s really truly real! And the TARDIS really is bigger on the inside! Can you believe it?”
Twilight stared at the Doctor. “… D… Doctor?”
“T-Twilight?! T-Twilight Sparkle?! Wait, you’re this filly’s Mum?!”
Twilight looked away. “… Y-Yes. Andy is my daughter.”
The time-traveler’s eyes widened, a shocked expression dawning on his features. “B-But… That would mean… Unless you’ve…”
“Not since then, no. There’s nopony else I’ve been with but you.”
“Then… I’m… Oh, dear…” And with that, the Doctor fell to the floor.
“MUM! What in the name of Celestia did you do to him?!”
“I… I just told him the truth!”
“And what, pray tell, is this truth?!” The filly yelled, stalking over to her mother.
Twilight sighed. “Honey, there’s something… something I need to tell you. When I was younger, I… I was one of the Doctor’s companions. We… we were very close. Very close.”
Andy blinked. “Ignoring… Ignoring the fact that you’ve been lying to me all my life about the Doctor’s existence, where are you going with this?”
“Um… well, you see, the Doctor… is kinda your sire.”
And with that, Andy passed out.