//------------------------------// // A Little Mental // Story: Hourglasses // by Spiritus Arcane //------------------------------// Chapter 2 A Little Mental Elsewhere He smiled, looking over the data reports, the readings, measurements, and figures all pointing to one logical meaning: "So...he's finally arrived..." A wave of his hand dismissed the hologram, another called his attendants. They glided in, quietly, quickly, and most importantly, obediently. "The plan must be accelerated. Until further notice, all weapons are to be set to incapacitate only. We cannot afford to waste potential...recruits," he ordered, and then with one last wave, dismissed them to enact his commands. When he was alone, he grinned, and chuckled to the empty darkness. "Round and round our little game has gone, Doctor...but everything must have its end. This time...this time there will be no place for either of us to run to. One way...or another, our game will finally have its victor..." You've gone off your rocker, Macintosh. "Eeyup..." Your rocker, Granny Smith's rocker, and even the rockers on Apple Bloom's crib. "I reckon so..." And yer talkin' to yourself too... Mac bit off any response to that. But still, it was the only answer that made sense right now. Either he was insane...or he really had put an ALIEN in the barn and was currently engaged in dragging said alien's...space ship? Escape pod? ...It didn't really look like much of either, at least according to the comic books he used to read. Anyhow, he wouldn't be pulling...IT into the barn too. Well...ok, if he was really honest, he probably would be pulling the thing into the barn no matter what, 'cause whatever else she thought of it, Mac knew that Granny Smith's first reaction to the thing would be to order him to haul it out of the orchards. So maybe he was only HALF crazy, but that still left him with an ALIEN in the barn. An alien that'd he'd put in the barn in the first place, once it had passed out after calling him a 'talking pony' (a description which, however else he felt about it, he had to admit was perfectly accurate). Not knowing what else to do, Mac had fallen back on what he'd been taught: Apple Family Hospitality. And Apple Family Hospitality (or AFH) said that you didn't leave a guest, no matter how unusual, lying in the orchards in the middle of the night. So he'd slung the fellow onto his back as best he could, (he was assuming that...whatever it was, was male, though he was working on the sound of its voice alone), and carry/dragged him up to the barn, lay him out on some hay bales, and got him a couple blankets; one for a pillow and one for just a blanket. That settled, for the time being at least, he'd grabbed the tow line, and gone back to hitch up the...box and began pulling it up to the barn, all the while trying to figure out whether he'd gone plum loco, or if this was really happening. This was Ponyville after all. The wildest things that happened around here either involved the Everfree Forest or little fillies stuck in a well. Blue boxes did not just drop out of the night sky and spit out alien visitors that- ...Was gone! Macintosh had reached the barn's door and could clearly see the spot where he had left the creature, and, except for the blankets, that spot was now empty! He rushed forward...and was yanked back abruptly as he was reminded that he was still hitched to the...box. UNhitching himself, he quickly galloped inside. It was gone! It was loose! It could be doing who knows what!? It could-! "Mmm, these are excellent, really!" ...It could be halfway through a basket of fresh apples and showing no signs of stopping. "Oh yes..." he muttered, halfway through a bright red apple, "I can't remember if I like apples or not...but these..." He sighed happily, "I take back anything bad I ever might have said about apples. Apples are brilliant!" "Uh...thank ya kindly," Macintosh said, his manners about the only thing he could recall at the moment. The alien looked up from its impromptu meal. "Oh, hey, its the talking pony! Ponies that talk, never come across that before I don't think. Lizard people, spider people, squid people, fish people, TREE people, but never pony people. ...It is pony, right?" Macintosh just nodded. "Oh good, was worried it was horse people for a moment there. Some races are really touchy about what kind of whatever people you call them." He paused a moment, glancing down at the half eaten apple it was holding. "Oh, right...apple trees, rather farmy setting. Probably your apples I'm eating then? Yes, sorry about that...just woke up absolutely famished and there they were. So I thought 'oh just one, couldn't hurt...' But of course I had the one and OH YES, just couldn't stop! What DO you use on these, uh...er...hmm, I don't believe I got your name..." "M-Macintosh," Mac answered, finding his voice. Of course, the heaping amount of praise for his family's produce had definitely helped things along. "And nothin', mister. We grow 'em all natural right here at Sweet Apple Acres, Eeyup!" "Macintosh...really?" the alien answered, leaning forward curiously. "Apple red pony with apple on its backside, has an apple name and lives on an apple farm... You seem to have an apple theme going here, Macintosh. I like that, it's interesting, and I like interesting things." He suddenly finished off the apple he'd been eating and looked over to the open door, as if seeing it for the first time. "And a helpful talking apple pony too!" Tossing the apple core with perfect aim into a nearby barrel, the alien stood up and practically bounded over to the box. "Brought the TARDIS up with you! Thanks very much, Macintosh!" Mac turned and followed him over. "Tardis...that what you call your...um...?" "Ship? Yes, space ship!" he answered, "Well...time ship, really...well, time AND space ship. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. T-A-R-D-I-S, TARDIS!" His face suddenly turned serious as he turned back to the ship. "And I'd better give you a once over to make sure nothing got banged up too bad, yes..." he told it, almost soothingly. Macintosh seemed to snap out of his haze. "Wait, so yer leavin'?" he asked, disappointment evident, "Just like that?" "Oh, not quite," he said with a shake of his head. "Like I said, got to make sure the old girl's ok. See...I was in kind of a fight before I got here...not sure with who really....though it was almost familiar..." He shook his head again, snapping from the quiet serious voice back to the happy, energetic one he'd been using earlier. "So no! Not leaving just yet. Besides, just got here! I'm the Doctor by the way," he said, introducing himself out of nowhere. "Doctor?" Mac repeated, cocking his head quizzically. "Doctor who?" "Love it when they do that..." the Doctor said to himself, then aloud to the colt, "Just, the Doctor!" He reached into an inner pocket of his jacket, taking out a small brass key which he used to unlock the door. "...Say, while I'm busy...you wouldn't want a quick peek?" he asked. Mac glanced at the TARDIS and back to the Doctor. "Er...won't it be sorta cramped?" The Doctor just grinned, pushing the door opening and motioning the colt to step inside. "Take a look..." Curiosity getting the better of him, the colt walked past the strange alien and was halfway inside when he stopped dead. Mac immediately backed out, did a full gallop around the TARDIS, then stuck his head back in. Now he KNEW he was crazy. "It's...bigger on the inside!" The Doctor, who had silently mouthed the words as Macintosh had said them, grinned like, well, a madman with a box. "Love it when they do that too." Nudging the colt the rest of the way inside, he started to follow, but stopped suddenly, grabbing the opposite door, leaning out and looking around with an inscrutable look on his face. "Something...else familiar here too..." He frowned. He knew this familiar feeling, which is why it was impossible that he could be feeling it. ...Or it was an impossible trap. Either way...he had stuff to do and someone to show off in front of, so he put it aside for the moment and went inside to where Macintosh was getting his first dose of the wonders of the TARDIS. What on Equestria was I THINKING, regenerating so young!? Colgate internally yelled at herself as she galloped down through the city from the Academy. She had arranged for a carriage to Ponyville, but first she had to get down to meet it. Oh, I know what I was thinking...we agreed to integrate, to blend in! And as former Lady President, I decided to set the example and start as close to scratch as I could manage. ...No, really, what in Omega's empty helmet was I thinking? She sighed. It had been a good gesture at the time, and she'd had no way of anticipating THIS situation. Still...filly legs were not conductive to traveling as quickly as she'd like right now. She would have just taken her own TARDIS...but not only was she not supposed to use it, but the last thing she wanted to do was spook HIM into doing something foolish...like running off. Oh yes, that would be a pleasant conversation with the Princess. 'Yes your highness, not only is there a rogue time-lord loose in your dimension, and he's possibly the singularly most dangerous, unpredictable member of us ever known, but oh don't worry, his actions usually turn out for the better...usually.' ...Oooh, I should have brought K-9 along to stun him... "Three-twenty H, three-twenty I..." Pipedream counted off as the lanky earth pony trotted through the tunnel. Most of the time...he loved his job. Heck, as a foal he used to run around these tunnels all the time, in between groundings. Then there were times like these: getting called in to be sent through the oldest, dankest, parts of the Canterlot sewer system because some stuck up nobles had low water pressure. And not only were the old tunnels the nastiest, but the pipes were worse. Odds were this was a blockage, a leak...or his favorite: a leak caused by a blockage. "Three-twenty K...here we go." He lifted a hoof, tapped the pipe, then felt it carefully. "Yep...dry..." he sighed. Reaching back into his saddlebags, he pulled out a folded up set of blueprints, jerked it open, and carefully lay it on a dry spot on the pipe. A quick check later and he was moving down the tunnel again, following 3-23 K back til he found the problem. His ears perked up as he heard the sounds of water in the pipes again, meaning he was close. "And here we...are..." No wonder there was low flow, it looked like someone had tapped the pipe and had run another line to... "What the clop?" The new pipe led to a hole in the tunnel wall...only the hole was perfectly cut, like someone had dug another tunnel, maybe using some fancy digging spell or something. Either way it wasn't on his plans. Who the heck had even dug this? No way was this legal, especially this close to the... His thoughts trailed off and his eyes widened as he mentally plotted his map of the tunnel systems with the city. If he was figuring it right...this freaky tunnel was pointed right towards the palace! Swallowing nervously, Pipedream considered his options. One the one hoof, he should probably go tell someone about this...on the other, he wasn't about to risk his job in case this turned out to be a case of one bureaucrat not talking to another. For all he knew, this was an extra line put in for the Princess' new swimming pool or something, and someone had lost paperwork somewhere... Cry manticore on that...at best he looks like a stupid foal, at worst he gets canned... Grumbling to himself, he adjusted his helmet and headed down the new tunnel. Except for the pipe running along the top, it was utterly featureless, but the further he went he could hear this weird sound. A steady bump-bump, almost like a heartbeat, but it sounded...metallic? All of a sudden the tunnel opened up into a crossway. There was a high pitched whir to his left and he quickly turned his gaze in that direction. Something gazed back. Pipedream screamed and turned to flee. There was a flash of green light, a loud wail of some kind, and his world went dark.