Mulicious
Blackspine slowly backed out of Rarity’s Boutique, cracking his neck as he softly shut the door. The colt’s left front hoof cut open slightly in three spots, thanks to Opalescence trying to defend her master. It was all in vein though, Blackspine had known exactly what he was doing with that snob of a mare. Hay, Rainbow Dash put up more of a fight then either unicorn did, and with them out of the way all Blackspine had left was Honesty, Kindness, and Laughter. The colt laughed to himself as he headed to the inn for some well deserved rest, unaware of the pair of huge, amber eyes watching him. A pair of eyes that had seen him before, his first night in Ponyville.
***
“Are you sure you can help us Mister... What sis you say your name was again?” Mayor Mare asked, looking out her window in distress. The only ponies in town who knew about what had happened to Twilight Sparkle where these two and Applejack, all of whom she had summoned to her office that morning.
“The Doctor madame,” The time lord nodded, “and this is my assistant, Derpy Hooves.”
“Yes, yes” the mayor said, “I know who Derpy is, but you havn’t answered my question. Are you sure you can help us Doctor?” The brown colt nodded, his eyes now focused out the window and on the streets of Ponyville. He watched as the various mares and mules went on with their lives, clueless to what had happened the night before.
“Of course I can,” The Doctor smiled, “Trust me, I’m a doctor.”
“You havn’t told us what the hay kind of doctor you are though.” Applejack eyed the strange pony suspiciously. “All you’ve done is pull out that buzz contraption of yours...”
“Sonic Screwdriver.” The Doctor interrupted.
“...That buzzy contraption of yours, aimed it at Twilight, and said it was nothin’ to worry about.” the farm pony finished, ignoring the time lord’s interruption entirely. Her pain filled eyes going back to the mayor, wanting her to speak up against this colt as well.
“AJ,” Derpy said, breaking the uncomfortable silence, “you’ve known me for a while now... Almost my whole life, and I know you trust me right?” Applejack nodded, “Well, I’ve been with The Doctor for a day now, and I can tell you that I don’t understand him. He either explains something too much or doesn’t say a thing at all, but in last night when we saw what happened to Twilight... I saw a look in his eye that I’ve seen before. It was the same look Rainbow had when she flew to save Rarity during the Amature Fliers Contest, and it’s the same look that you told me Fluttershy had when she made that dragon move farther from Ponyville. Now, I may not know why The Doctor had that look in his eye, but I know what it means... So please, just give him that chance he wants.”
Applejack looked into Derpy’s eyes, and for the first time noticed that the pegasus as looking straight at her without getting cross eyed. AJ smiled softly and looked at The Doctor now, a nervous smile crossing the colt’s mouth.
“I’ll trust you Doctor,” she said, “but if you need help, come find me at the farm. Derpy know the way.” Applejack turned, a deeply determined look on her face, “Ah’m going to find Rainbow Dash and start looking into this too... Thank you.” With that, the farm pony left the office. The mayor turned to the two remaining ponies and nodded.
“Any resource that could help you, I’ll get it.” she said.
“Well,” The Doctor replied, “there is one thing.”
***
“Why?” Derpy asked, flying next to The Doctor as they headed back to his blue box in the woods, “Why, in all of Equestria, did you ask for that?” The time lord pushed his fez up on his head more, pulling the black tassle to the back.
“Because fezzes are cool,” he said calmly, “and she did say anything.”
“Mayor Mare has a direct line to Princess Celestia! You could’ve asked for an army, the best Canterlot detectives, weapons...”
“No,” The Doctor interrupted his companion, “no weapons. I don’t kill, that’s rule one.”
“There are rules now?” Derpy asked, annoyance filling her voice, “The pony with a blue box that’s bigger on the inside has rules?”
“Yes,” the time lord said matter of factly, “at least three. I don’t kill, and when I say run you should... Well, fly in your case.”
“What’s rule three?” the pegasus asked. The Doctor stopped completely, looking at Derpy and frowning as he thought of the speech she gave to that Applejack pony about trusting him.
“I’ll tell you when it comes up Derpy.” he trotted on, fearing that this time he couldn’t bring himself to tell his companion the most important rule about being a companion of the last time lord. “So, what’s the connection between Applejack and this Twilight girl... uh, I mean pony.”
“They’re friends... Best friends.” Derpy sighed, still wondering how this pony couldn’t grasp proper grammar, “They’re part of this whole group of friends that started around when Twilight came to live in Ponyville. It’s weird, before that a couple of the ponies in their group barely spoke to each other.”
“Ah, that mite explain the dragon being able to move still,” The Doctor thought out loud, “but then, why would the pony leave a possible witness. It just doesn’t make sense.” Derpy shook her head, the colt had been going on and on like that since seeing Twilight, saying things didn’t make sense and needing to go back to the TARDIS... Whatever that was. Finally, the two made it back to the box and once again entered the palace size room inside.
***
As the train to Canterlot left the Ponyville station, Applejack waved to Sike as she wished him a safe trip. The two of them agreed that it would be too dangerous in the town until the one who petrified Twilight was found, so AJ put the baby dragon on the first train back to Princess Celestia. It was a hard thing to do, mostly because Spike insisted on staying, but the farm pony knew it was right. After all, what kind of a friend would she be if she let Spike get hurt? As soon as the train left her sight, Applejack ran as fast as she could to Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie was the closest pony that could take the farm pony to Cloudsdale, plus the balloon would be faster and safer then Fluttershy going there by herself.
“Pinkie? You here?” AJ said as she pushed open the door, only to see a completely empty room. As she looked around, Applejack noticed that something was off. There where no baking smells that had always greeted her as she entered the bakery, no pony at the counter, no pony anywhere. But it wasn’t until Applejack heard a large thud from the second floor did she realize what was happening. Quick as lightning, the farm pony ran up the stairs to try and help her pink friend, but she was a moment too late. Applejack watched as a colt in a green cape put his hoof over Pinkie’s Element necklace, stuffing it into a bag as the pink pony began to lose her ballance and fall once more. As she hit the floor, Pinkie looked up and yelled at the balloons that where hitting the ceiling.
“Stop laughing at me!!! Please stop!” she covered her head just as her curly pink mane straightened and turned grey. The party pony’s pupils turned to pin pricks and her normally warm smiled turned wide and frightening, all the while the strange colt turned his gaze to Applejack.
“Well,well,well...” Blackspine chuckled as he adjusted his glasses, “look what he cat dragged in. Honest Applejack, just the pony I wanted to see, and you even saved me the trouble of tracking you down. Thank you so very much!” With a lunge the malicious colt knocked AJ’s hat off her head, revealing the Element of Honesty that she kept on her at all times after the run in with Discord. Blackspine put his hoof on the necklace and looked deep into Applejack’s eyes, “Just putting it in the sack wont work, will it AJ? You’re too honest, too truthful to cut your link to the Element that way... Arnt you? I need the spell.” The colt stared deep into Applejack’s eyes, the poor pony’s hooves glued to the spot as a dark, familiar voice filled her head. She closed her eyes and saw the draconequus her friends had turned to stone standing in front of her, alive and smiling insidiously.
“When all the truth does is make your heart ache,” Discord said, his lion’s paw planted on Applejack’s forehead, “sometimes a lie, is easier to take.”AJ felt her mind fill with lies and half-truths, frantically her eyes darted around the room for some sign of hope. Then, on the stairway she saw her little sister watching the horrible sight and the truth popped into Applejack’s head.
“Applebloom! Find a brown colt with an hourglass cutiemark!” Applejack shouted out as the color in her mane was fading to grey, “He’ll be with Derpy! Go! NOW!” As little Applebloom ran like a pony possessed, Applejack closed her eyes and let the world go. The room filled with thing she knew where fake, but AJ didn’t say a word. The farm pony knew that if she tried to say anything it would all be a lie, and she knew that if The Doctor and Derpy couldn’t figure out what was wrong... Equestria could end as they knew it.
***
“So, wait,” The Doctor looked up from the repairs he was making, shooting a confused look at Derpy, “your princess banishes people to the moon, and Twilight and her friends have magic jewelry that harnesses the ‘power of friendship’ to cause a huge blast of energy?!” Derpy nodded, sighing as the time lord confused her even more. How could a pony that can make repairs to a... thingy like this not know about the Elements of Harmony?
“So what does this thing do anyway?” the pegasus asked as she looked at all the colorful buttons.
“Oh a little of this, a little of that. Time travel, travel through space, normal pony stuff.” The Doctor replied, crossing a wire.
“Time travel?! You mean this is a time machine?!” Derpy suddenly felt better for resisting the urge to press the candy-like buttons now. “And space travel like... stars and stuff?”
“Yeah... and to different places. You know, like...” The Doctor rubbed his chin with a hoof as he tried to think of a good way to explain spacial travel to his muffin loving companion, “teleporting.”
“Oh, like magic!” Derpy smiled and looked down at her friend, “Right?”
“Well, yeah...”
“So, you can use magic and you’re not a unicorn? Amazing!” The pegasus exclaimed, making The Doctor smile as he got back to work. He knew the TARDIS couldn’t handle time travel, not without a huge burst of radiation to the main time cortex. Then it hit him.
“Derpy,” he asked, “do you think, after we fix up everything and help them, that Twilight and her friends could use their magic rings to help fix the TARDIS?”
“They arn’t rings, The Elements of Harmony are five necklaces and a tiara.” she answered, once again annoyed at the mad pony’s apparent lack of knowledge. “As for helping fix your time machine, I don’t know. You’ld have to ask them.” Just then a rough knock echoed through the huge room and The Doctor trotted to the door. He opened it and looked around, closing the door when he couldn’t find anypony. As he started walking back to the consul, another knock came and he pulled the door open hard this time looking down. There he saw a very tired, panting Applebloom, barely able to stand after running all around Ponyville trying to find the brown colt with an hourglass cutiemark.
“Applejack... Brown colt... Pinkie Pie... Help...” the filly finally passed out from pure exhaustion.
***
Moments later, Applebloom woke up on a large chair with wheels to the sound of banging metal. She got down and heard towards the sound, down a glass staircase only to see The Doctor hitting a kink out of the side of a large column.
“Applebloom,” Derpy said, landing next to the little pony, “you’re up and looking ok. What got you so worked up and how did you find this place?” Just as the pegasus finished her sentence, The Doctor stopped hammering the column and turned to see the two.
“Hello, you must be Applebloom,” he held out his hoof and the filly took it in a shake, “I’m The Doctor. Now tell me, what got you so worked up and how did you find my TARDIS?” Derpy rolled her eyes.
“Applejack was attacked by this colt in a green cape,” Applebloom began, “he took her Element necklace and said some rhyme and she told me to find Derpy and a colt with an hourglass cutiemark.” The Doctor stood there for a moment, and everything went quiet in the TARDIS. Then, he turned to Derpy.
“Which one of Twilight’s friend’s is the closest?” The time lord asked.
“Fluttershy,” Derpy replied, “she lives within running distance from here.”
“Good,” The Doctor ran to the door, but turned before he ran out. “stay in the TARDIS, both of you.”