The Beginning
12 years in the past
Derpy Hooves hid underneath the blue blankets of her bed fighting against the tears that demanded to be free. She had just come back from school where she had spent the day being ridicule by her fellow students and all because of her eyes.
The young grey pegasus eyes had a strange habit of looking away from each other which as one classmate had put it made her look weird. It also didn’t help that when her eyes does this her depth perception gets mumble up making her bump into things or tripping over something. Because of these incidents the other ponies have been calling her names like “googly eyes” or “ditzy doo” not caring whether she was in earshot or not.
Suddenly there was a knock at her bedroom door. “Derpy, dear is everything alright?” asked her mother’s gentle voice.
Derpy pull the blanket tighter around herself. “G…go away. I… I just what to be alone.”
“Come now dear let me in.” her mother cooed her. “I got muffins.”
At that one word the grey pegasus lifted her head slightly, peeking at the door though the sheets. “Are they chocolate chip?”
“Of course.”
There was a moment of silence as Derpy took a moment to consider whether she was sad enough to say no to her favourite food.
She wasn’t.
“You can come in.” she said mournfully.
The bedroom door open, revealing an older grey pegasus with a long golden mane wearing a pink apron carrying a plate of muffins in her mouth. Putting the plate on the nightstand she took a seat next to the mass of blankets. “Now dear, do you what to tell me why you’re crying?” she asks.
The filly beneath the blankets didn’t answer her mother instead she quickly took one of the muffins from the plate and slowly nibbles on it.
“Did something happen at school today?”
Once again Derpy remain silent.
“Were they calling you names again?”
There was a sudden sniffle then a part of the blanket began to move up and down. “They called me googly eyes.”
“Oh, my poor baby.” Her mother said warping her arms around her blanket covered daughter. “It’s okay.”
“No it’s not!” Derpy cried as she presses her head against her mother’s neck. “Everyone make fun of me and call me a freak because of these stupid eyes of mine. I hate my eyes and I hate my life.”
“Now you listen here Derpy Sapling Hooves.” Her mother said in a stern voice, pulling her daughter away to look her in the eyes. “The world will not always be fair and you will meet ponies who are mean and selfish but I promise you, you will find ponies who will accept you for who you are. Because unlike the ones at school they see past your eyes and see the kind hearted and fun loving little girl that I know and love.”
Derpy looked into her mother’s eyes for a long moment. The tears had stopped flowing down her face and she was feeling lest sad then a moment ago.
“Really?” she asks.
“Really” with that the two embrace each other in a warm hug.
“Hey, Mum.”
“Yes dear.”
“Do you think a boy will see me that way too?”
At the mention of the word “boy” her mother’s eyes widen to the size of saucers. “Uh…maybe dear…umm…why do you ask?”
“I just wanted to know if I’ll have a husband when I grow up.” Derpy asks not realising that the conversation was making her mother somewhat uncomfortable.
“I’m sure you will honey, and I’m sure he will love you just as much as I do. But that will be many, many, many years in the future. Okay.”
“Okay, Mum”
“Good, now would you mind passing me a muffin?”
For the rest of the afternoon Derpy and her mother sat in her room eating chocolate chip muffins and talking about the friends she will one day meet.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
534 years in the future
“Dr Whooves you can’t do this!” Cronus protested to the brown stallion who was busy drugging a large piece of cable to what looks like a miniature blue barn. The brown horse ignores his fellow scientist as he plugged in the cable at the back of the barn.
“The TARDIE isn’t ready for this. If you try to activate the time vortex now it could explode or cause a planet wide blackout or…”
“Or it could do what we built her to do.” The Doctor said walking over to the other side of the lab to get another cable. “Honestly Cronus you need to relax.”
“Relax!” roared the blue stallion who was following behind the doctor. “You what me to relax!”
“Yes, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Cronus shook his head at his friend in disgust, why was it every time they work together Whooves has to do something completely dangerous. True his recklessness had made him a famous inventor at the price of being deemed a mad scientist. The Doctor actually found the idea funny and would often dress the part on Nightmare Night.
“You’re insane.” The blue stallion sighed realizing it was hopeless to try to talk him out of doing this.
The Doctor chuckle lightly as he connected the last of the cable to the TARDIE. “Well, you know what they say about geniuses being confuse with the insane.” He said.
With all the power cables connected to the blue barn the two scientists open its doors and stepped in. Now on the outside the barn looks as if it could only fit one or two ponies at a time on the inside however was a much different story. The inside of the TARDIE was as large as a ballroom with a large pillar standing in the centre.
Dr Whooves moved to one of the many panels that surrounded the pillar, causally mumbling to himself as he started to press buttons and pull levers. Cronus meanwhile stood by the door ready to run for it if there is the slightest chance of danger.
“Okay that should do it.” said the Doctor as he finishes typing on the panel. “Now all we need to do is activate the time vortex, pump in enough power to bring the main computer online then open a controlled wormhole without causing a permanent rip in the space-time continuum. Simple.”
“You always say that.” Cronus muttered under his breath.
“Cronus, would you mind closing the door please.” Dr Whooves called back going to the other side of the pillar to type on another panel. “We wouldn’t want to be suck out when we enter the wormhole now would we.”
“Don’t you mean if, we enter a wormhole?”
The Doctor chuckle lightly. “I would think you would know by now that I never deal with “ifs”.”
“Of course how silly of me.” Cronus said closing the door and locking it. “I still think this is going to end with you killing us.”
“Oh really, then why are you still here?”
“Because if this thing does work and we actually manage to travel though time I’m not letting you take all the credit.” He said making the Doctor chuckled again.
Taking his place opposite from the Doctor the two stallions began to slowly bring their invention to life. Bringing the main computer online was the easy part however activating the Time Vortex was a different matter entirely. The device had to be carefully fed power, too much and their years of work along with their lives will go up in flames, too little and it will not activate.
“How’s everything looking at your end?” Dr Whooves asks while keeping an eye on the power readings on the screen before him.
“Good so far.” The blue stallion answered also keeping his eyes on his screen. “But the Time Vortex needs a lot more energy than I expected.”
“How much?”
“From the top of my head I would say…twenty-five percent.”
The Doctor lifted his head and looked at his friend in a questionable way. “I thought you said anything over twenty percent would be bad.”
“Well, that’s what the simulations say.” Cronus said looking back at the Doctor who to his surprise looked as if he was having second thoughts. “Don’t suppose you’ve change your mind?”
Dr Whooves looked up at the blue stallion who stared at him with questioning eyes. My doubt must be showing. He thought as he turns his attention back to the screen before him. Truth be told he had doubt about going through with this since he came to the lab and found Cronus going over the TARDIE’s blueprints.
His original plan was to try and activate the machine by himself that way if by the small chance it did explode his life would be the only one in danger. That plan has since flown out the window now that Cronus had decided to stay rather than leave like most would have done. I’m beginning to rub off on him. The image of the blue stallion wearing the Doctor’s red bowtie would have brought a smile to his face if he wasn’t trying to decide whether or not to go through with his potentially suicidal plan.
“Whooves?” called Cronus snapping the Doctor back from his mental escapade. “Well, are we going to do this or not?”
The brown stallion looks from his friend to the screen then back to Cronus. He had come too far now to just turn around and leave with his tail in between his leg, but if something did happen.
No. he thought giving his head a quick shake to clear his mind of doubt. I do not deal with “ifs” the machine is going to work perfectly just as I calculated.
With that the Doctor gave Cronus one of his cocky smiles. “Of course we are.” He said in his usual cheery voice.
Cronus gave a small sigh, he was hoping the Doctor would have second thoughts and stop the test but he should have known better. Once he set his mind on something nothing could change it, not even himself.
“Alright then.” The blue stallion muttered. “Let’s start with getting twenty precent then if we have the time, pray.”
The two scientists began the long and painfully agonizing process of feeding the Time Vortex power. Soon they heard a soft humming sound coming from the pillar which made both the ponies both excited and cautions. The device was slowly activating and they were only at seventeen percent.
“So far so good.” Cronus said sounding slightly more confident than before.
Dr Whooves on the other hand was feeling even more nervous as he watch the power level rise. For some strange reason there was a small voice in the back of his head demanding he stop the test, that it was too dangerous. But he ignore it, all of his calculation said that the chance of something going wrong was virtually zero.
The humming sound from the pillar grew even louder and a faint glow could be seen in its centre. Cronus was growing more and more excited in each passing second. I don’t believe this. He thought. It’s actually working. The Time Vortex is actually responding.
When they finally reached twenty percent the glow within the pillar were almost reaching the top and bottom, and the humming was almost deafening.
“It needs more power.” Cronus said impatiently like a child who wants to open his birthday present early.
The Doctor notice this with one of his eyebrow raised in a questioning manner. “You’ve change your tune.” He said. “What happen to the whole “I’m going to kill us all” stuff?”
“That was before I saw these read outs.” The blue stallion replied defensively. “The power levels are steady, the core is nowhere near the red zone and the Time Vortex is responding perfectly. Just a little more energy and we’re make history.” For a moment the Doctor shared his friend’s enthusiasm but then he saw something on the computer screen that made his stomach tired up in knots. It was a small energy surge from the Time Vortex, so small in fact that most scientists wouldn’t have saw it or payed it enough attention. Luckily Dr Whooves wasn’t like most scientists.
“Cronus we need to shut the TARDIE down, now!” He shouted in barely control panic.
The blue stallion looked at the Doctor, confuse as to the sudden urgency. “What!” he said. “Why?”
“There’s no time to explain just do it.”
“But we’ve come so far.” Cronus protested not wanting to lose his chance of becoming a renowned scientist like his friend. “I don’t see anything on my screen that would call for an immediate shutdown.”
“JUST DO IT!”
For a moment the blue stallion was stunned by the Doctor’s sudden outburst. It was extremely rare for the Doctor to raise his voice and even when he did it was only in the most serious of situation.
After regaining his senses Cronus reluctantly followed the Doctor’s orders to perform the shutdown. But the computer wouldn’t respond to the command, in fact it was continuing to feed power to the Time Vortex.
“What are you doing?” Dr Whooves demanded. “I said shut it down!”
“I’m trying but the computer isn’t responding.”
“Blast it.” the Doctor cursed slamming his hooves onto the panel. This was what he was afraid of, even though they had perform extensive research on the device there was still a great deal they do not know about it or what would happen if it was given to much power.
He looked at the screen to find the power levels had reach twenty-eight percent and rising. If he doesn’t think of something soon everything in a fifteen-mile radius will be reduce to a very large smoking hole in the ground. Cronus was also rattling his brain for a way to shut down the machine.
Suddenly the blue stallion thought of the cables the Doctor had plugged in at the start of all this madness. If we can’t shut it down on the inside then maybe we can shut it down on the outside. He thought. With that Cronus ran towards the entrance at top speed not even bothering in letting the Doctor in on his plan.
“Cronus wait!” the Doctor called out to him. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to pull the plug.” He called back.
Dr Whooves was confused for a moment but then his eyes widen in realization. Of cause why didn’t I think of that! He thought as he rushed to his friend’s side. However if he had stayed at his station he would have seen the words, Quantum Leap activated flash across his screen.
Cronus reached the doors first with the Doctor a couple of steps behind. The blue stallion quickly pulled the doors aside expecting to see the familiar lab where they had been working in for the past five years, what he found was beyond his comprehension.
Instead of the large white room with cables littering the floor the pony was staring at what he could only describe as a tunnel of light. He stayed where he was for a brief moment, his face the perfect image of shock and confusion before suddenly being pulled out of the TARDIE by some invisible force.
Cronus screamed in horror as his hooves left the safe contact of the time machine’s floor. He try to grabbed on to something but it happened too fast, there was nothing he could do to save himself from being pull into the tunnel. Just as he had lost hope he felt something grabbed onto one of his legs. Looking back at the entrance of the time machine he saw the Doctor hanging out of the TARDIE with one hoof holding his leg and the other securely holding onto the machine’s doorframe.
“PULL ME BACK IN, PULL ME BACK IN!” the blue stallion shouted at the top of his lungs.
“I’m trying!” the Doctor grunted as he try to pull his friend back to the safety of the time machine.
It was a losing battle as the Doctor could feel his grip on Cronus’s leg was slipping. The blue stallion felt this too and began to tryst and turn in the hope of getting a grip on the Doctor’s arm with his own fore-hoofs. This however only caused the chest-nut brown stallion’s grip to become even looser.
“Cronus! Stop moving around you’re making me lose my grip!” Dr Whooves called out though whether he heard him or not he could not say as the fellow scientist was begging him not to let go.
Pulling with all the strength he had the Doctor slowly pulled himself back into the TARDIE with his hoof still holding onto Cronus’s leg. As soon as his hind legs touched the machines floor he grabbed the blue stallions other leg with his free hoof making the job of pulling him back in easier. The Doctor smiled as he was seconds from bringing his friend back into the time machine.
“Don’t worry Cronus I’ve almost got you.” He said pulling with all of his might.
But just as he had half of the blue stallion’s body through the doorframe disaster struck. Out of nowhere a sudden bolt of energy crushed against the time machine with enough force to knock the Doctor off his hooves. For one brief moment he could see Cronus’s eyes widen in horror as the hooves that were keeping him from flying into the abyss were suddenly gone.
The last thing he saw of his friend was him reaching for the doorframes calling out his name as he was sucked out of the time machine. “CRONUS!” Cried the Doctor as he got back onto his feet.
He quickly ran back to the doors in the hope that he could still save him but deep down he knew there was nothing he could do. Cronus was gone, washed away in a portal through time in which he could have died upon being swept away or is now permanently stuck in a time limbo.
For a moment the Doctor stood by the door looking out into the tunnel trying to come up with a plan to save his friend from a fate that could very well be worst then dearth. But nothing came to him. Here was the great brilliant Dr Whooves, the pony who everyone called the smartest pony who ever lived and yet for the first time in his life he didn’t know what to do.