He hardly remembers it anymore: the way he was before. It was so long ago now, and he never really enjoyed his life back then anyways. Why else would he have signed up to volunteer for experimental medical magic testing. Back then he thought of it as a small way to give back to the world around him. If he can help others, then why shouldn't he?
The company running the experiments specialized in creating new feats of magic. Time Turner took notice of a few other experiments they were running before he was led to the wing in which medical trials were being run. The mare leading him seemed to be the doctor in charge of the tests. She was a purple unicorn with long yellow mane and tail. She wore a stark white lab coat.
"Uh, hey doc?" Time asked the mare he was following. "What exactly do these tests entail?"
All he'd known prior to this was that he was helping test a medical process dealing with the heart.
"Well, Mr. Turner," the mare began in turn, "This experimental treatment you've signed up for is supposed to result in a seamless heart transplant using magic. If all goes as planned, we won't even have to open you up."
Time gulped. "If all goes as planned?"
Despite his worries, he stood strong. He was never one to back down from things, and he was wholeheartedly prepared to help test this process that could save hundreds, if not thousands, of ponies in the future.
"There's truly nothing to worry about," explained the doctor. "If anything goes wrong, we pull the plug and stop the process."
"Well, that's good to know."
The mare in the lab coat led him to a heavy metal door, which she slowly pushed open.
"I'm afraid this is where we part ways," she said.
"What? I thought you were in charge of this experiment."
"Well, I am," she continued, "but I'm not an expert at actually using magic, so my place during the procedure is the observation deck."
She waved a purple hoof towards a nearby door, which would apparently lead to the observation deck overlooking the testing area. Two ponies, a charcoal unicorn stallion and an amber-colored unicorn mare, approached from the other side of the large metal door, which still hung open.
"Ah," the doctor acknowledged them, "Mr. Turner, this is Grey Matter and Amber Flash. They're two of the doctors actually inside the room with you during the procedure."
"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Time said to the new arrivals.
"Likewise," replied Grey Matter, the stallion.
"Ditto!" Amber chimed in cheerfully.
"Well, I've got to get ready in observation," the purple mare said as she turned to leave.
"Hey wait," said Time, catching her attention. "I don't think I ever caught your name."
"Dr. Storm," she said nonchalantly before heading for the observation deck once more.
Turning back towards the other two doctors, he finally got a good look at the two of them. Grey was a deep charcoal color, and his eyes were a bizarre orange. He didn't have much in the way of a mane. Time could barely make out short black stubble on his scalp. He didn't seem to have that much in the way of personality, either. Amber, however, was jittering with excitement, causing her curly auburn locks to bounce up and down slightly. Her light pink eyes also betrayed her excitement. They were both wearing lab coats similar to Dr. Storm's.
Time let out a light chuckle at the display of enthusiasm before he was ushered into the testing room.
As Amber set up a heart in a jar nearby, Grey strapped electrodes to Time's head.
"Um, I thought this was a heart operation," Time began, gesturing loosely towards Amber's jarred heart to emphasize his point. "Why do you need to be hooked up to my brain?"
"It's a part of the procedure," Grey explained. "When we stimulate the brain using magic, it should be better able to adjust to having a new heart."
"I see..." Time said, lying.
"Just fair warning," Amber chimed into the conversation, "there are some side effects. Specifically, improved cognitive abilities."
"So... I'll be smarter?" he asked. When he received nods from Grey and Amber, he added, "Doesn't sound that bad to me."
There were at least twenty more doctors and nurses in the room with them. A few of them were keeping tabs on the machinery, others were tracking Time's vitals, and most were preparing to cast the intricate series of spells that was this treatment, and one stallion seemed to be sitting back with some kind of blue raspberry slushie.
"OK," said Amber. "I think we're good to go!"
"Ready, Mr. Turner?" asked Grey.
Time took one last look around the room, acknowledging whichever doctors happened to be looking his way with a nod, and took a deep breath.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
There were currently 12 unicorns casting spells on Time Turner. The electrodes around his head absorbing some of the magic. Grey and Amber were not participating in the actual spellcasting. Much like Dr. Storm, it seemed they were geniuses, but not too good with actual spellcasting.
As more magic poured into him, Time began to notice more things around the room. His perception of the area around him was improving. Perhaps this was part of the cognitive enhancements Grey and Amber were talking about?
As he continued learning more about his surroundings, he noticed that something was going to happen. He didn't know what, but it was going to happen in
"27 seconds," he said.
The unicorns covering him with magic as the heart from the jar was fused into his chest paid his words no mind.
"11 seconds," Time said, wincing as he felt his body begin fusing with the foreign heart.
"Prepare for the extraction of the original heart," said Grey to the spellcasters.
"3 seconds," Time said.
"Begin extraction process," Grey said.
"Zero," Time said as one of the many ponies in the room knocked a blue raspberry slushie into the sensitive machinery.
Lightning filled the room. Electricity filled the electrodes on Time's head, and it didn't stop there. Before the next few seconds had passed, the magically-fueled electricity filled Time's body and arced out through the spellcaster's magic fields. Each of the spellcasters writhed in agony as the electricity connected with their horns. Sadly for them, the magic they'd been using was still meant to fuse the new heart to Time. This spell meant to fuse things together combined with the magical electricity, and all 12 of them vanished. The bolt of electricity retreated into Time once more.
Just when it seemed like enough damage had been done, another bolt came out of the electrode on one side of his head and struck another of the doctors. It arced from that doctor's head to the next, until all the doctors left in the room were connected by a chain of lightning. It then arced back to the electrode on the other side of Time's head. All the doctors convulsed, but at least they didn't disappear like the spellcasters. They simply passed out once the electricity had finally left them.
As soon as he could effectively move, he hurried to find the two doctors he'd befriended. The first he found was Grey, but he was out cold no matter how hard he shook him. After finally locating Amber, he gently shook her until he heard her let out a pained groan.
"Ugh," she groaned out, "I don't feel too good."
She slowly opened her eyes, and Time could see there was a glassiness to them that hadn't been there before.
"Are you the doctor?" she asked, perking an eyebrow up at Time Turner.
'What is she talking about?' he thought to himself. 'She's the doctor here. Not me.'
'Maybe she received brain damage during the incident?' asked his own voice within his thoughts.
'That may very well be, but...' his thought trailed off slightly as he caught a glance of a couple other doctors waking up with that same glassy look in their eyes. 'I don't think everypony would be affected the same way if that were the case.'
'Yeah. You're right. Wait, that equipment was meant to boost my cognitive abilities, right?'
'Correct, and brains transfer signals to the body through electrical pulses.'
'So if that magical electricity had a strong enough charge to carry signals from all of their brains, where did those signals end up?'
'Well, I suppose they must of gone through the chain of energy, which started with me and ended with... me.'
'If all their synaptic energy traveled to me, then that means I...'
A dreadful thought now occurred to him. He stole another glance at Amber, who was still looking at him awaiting an answer to her question. Only now, she'd begun smiling. Time began to tear up as his now enhanced mind reached its final conclusion on the subject.
'I stole their brains.'
He looked to Amber, wanting to apologize. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to get rid of that glassy look in her eye. However, even his newly found genius couldn't come up with a solution. He still didn't even know what'd happened to the spellcasters. He looked at Amber, with tears in his eyes, and realized he still hadn't answered her question.
"Yeah," he said, trying to comfort her as much as possible. "Yeah, I'm the doctor."
Even through the glassiness, Time saw her eyes light up slightly. She leapt from the ground and began running around him in circles giggling.
"Doctor, doctor, give me the news!" she cried out happily.
Time couldn't help but laugh at the antics of his acquaintance, but that stopped when Amber suddenly stopped in front of him and adopted a suspicious visage.
"Hey..." she said. "If you're the doctor, then where's your lab coat?"
"Oh, ummm..." Time stammered, not sure how to respond to this grown mare acting like a child.
"Oh, wait," she said, looking down at herself.
'Uh-oh,' Time thought. 'Did she notice something was wrong?'
His expression changed from worry to confusion as Amber began slipping out of her lab coat.
"Here it is, silly!" she said with a bright smile.
"Um, thanks," was all Time could muster as he put on the lab coat. Looking down at himself, he had to admit it didn't look bad with the necktie he usually wore.
"Wow," Amber said, circling around him. "That look suits you, doc!"
That's when the door burst open and several security guards came in. Taking check of everypony in the room, they focused in on Time. As they approached, Time's new brain wouldn't stop overanalyzing long enough to actually come up with a plan. For some reason, he was currently picturing the layout of the hallway near the other experiment chambers that he'd seen earlier. That didn't come in handy as the guards literally picked him up and started carrying him away.
"Hey! Let him go you big meanies!" Amber cried out.
"Amber, you stay here. OK sweetie?" Time called back from the shoulders of the guards. "Doctor's orders."
"Aye-aye captain!" she said, giving a little salute with one hoof that seemed adorable despite her being a grown mare.
The guards continued carrying him down different corridors until they were almost at the one his mind had chosen to focus on earlier. Picturing it in his head, he could tell exactly what he'd been attempting to plan.
As they passed into the hallway, Time launched himself off their shoulders and bit down onto the steam pipe on the ceiling above. As expected, his body weight was too much for it to bear. The pipe broke and sprayed burning steam onto the guards as Time dropped back to his hooves.
He ran into one of the experiment bays, knowing they'd already have the main exits blocked. He had to hope there was some way out through here.
He heard the guards angrily running past the bay he'd slipped into. They obviously didn't think much of him in the ways of intelligence. He began looking around the room, taking in all of the prototypes they had there and what each of them was supposed to do. They had also marked whether it was a success or a failure. As he scanned a bench full of small prototypes, one really stood out to him. It didn't look like anything special, but he found himself drawn to its simple appearance. It seemed to be some kind of metal wand with a blue light at the tip. A rubber-like grip was covering part of the metal shaft in order to allow easier muzzle-holding.
He picked the thing up, and almost instantly decided he never wanted to put it down. He checked the information card for it before placing it in the pocket of Amber's lab coat, which he still wore. Apparently, the device was called a "Sonic Screwdriver," and now it was his.
Looking further into the room, he came upon something that seemed quite out of place here. There was an old police phone box in one corner of the room. Upon further investigation, it seemed as though it was one of the experiments. The information card taped to the door said it was a "Time And Relative Dimension In Space" vehicle. Somehow, Time could tell exactly what that meant.
"It's a time machine? In these lunatics hands? I don't think so."
He ran to a nearby computer console and tried to hack in. Even with his new intelligence, he couldn't manage it. That's when he got an interesting idea. He retrieved the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and began using it on the console.
Practically before he knew it, he'd unlocked the console and deleted all their files on Project TARDIS.
TARDIS, eh? He liked that name. Especially since it was the name of his escape route.
He went back to the TARDIS, finding the key haphazardly taped to the back of its info card, and placed the key in the lock.
"Doctor?"
Time turned to find himself face-to-face with Amber. She was teary-eyed.
"Are you leaving?" she asked.
"Yeah, I am."
"But I never even got my checkup," she said, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
This was it. Time never could stand to see a filly cry, even if it was just a grown mare behaving like a filly. He knew he had to relent in some fashion, but there was no way he could stay here much longer.
"How about this," he said. "I have to go right now, but if you keep our friendship a secret, I promise I'll find you someday."
"Then you'll give me a checkup?" she asked hopefully.
"I look forward to it."
He opened the door to the TARDIS and was about to step inside.
"Hey," Amber caught his attention once more. "What's your name?"
Time Turner let out a very light chuckle at that. He turned away from the TARDIS to face his friend once more.
"I told you already," he said, stepping backwards through the TARDIS door, "I'm the Doctor."
With that, he closed the door to the TARDIS and turned to face the inside. His jaw dropped.
"It's bigger on the inside," he stated whimsically, for the inside of the TARDIS took up enough space to fill at least 30 of those police boxes. He could even see that there were hallways stemming off from this main room he found himself in.
Eventually, he finally got the machine to work. With that, he and the TARDIS left Bad Timberwolf Industries behind them.
The first time he worked the TARDIS, Time Turner didn't know how to navigate it. Therefore, he found himself randomly in Griffonstone a few years before he'd escaped Bad Timberwolf's labs. He had fun. He helped a few griffons with a chimera problem.
That was what inspired him to use his new intelligence to help ponies, along with other sentient life, all over the world! From Equestria and beyond!
It's been several years now, and his only complaint is that he has yet to give Amber that checkup she asked for all those years ago. He's still worried about what Bad Timberwolf might do to her if they find out she let him escape. He'll find her someday, though.
To make sure he never forgets his promise, he still has her lab coat. It's hanging in the main room of the TARDIS, and in case it ever gets lost, he has another way to remember. Everywhere the TARDIS has taken him, everywhere he's helped somecreature, everywhere he's had an adventure; he's only ever introduced himself... as The Doctor.