//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Welcome to Ponyville, Equestria // Story: Hidden in Plain Sight // by DJ Leftwing //------------------------------// The Doctor very slowly stood up from his sitting position on the ground, dusting himself off as he did so. Making one final adjustment to his bow-tie, he spun around to face the building that he had just been forcibly evicted from…by a purple horse. “Well, that’s the first time that’s ever happened,” he muttered as he looked up at the house, taking a mental note that it appeared to be a tree. Taking a few steps, he approached the door and was about to knock, when he heard the sound of shouting coming from a little farther down the street. While unable to distinguish the actual topic of the argument, The Doctor could easily tell that it was a female that was shouting, and she was probably shouting at someone else. Figuring that talking to the resident of the tree probably wouldn’t turn out that well anyway, he quickly decided that he was going to investigate the nature of this argument, and possibly try to help. Hopping back off the doorstep, he quickly walked down the dirt road in the direction of the voice. With every step, he was able to understand more and more of what was being said. Eventually, he was close enough to piece together the conversation, which turned out to be between two females, not just one. “…THEY DON’T EXIST!” “But they do Bonnie! There’s so much evidence of it! You have to admit it, you just have to.” “NO! I am NOT going to admit they exist. I put up with your nonsense most days, but when it starts interfering with MY sleep, it’s just gone too far.” “I’m so close to a breakthrough though! See, I can wiggle them now!” “Arrghhh! Get those things away from my face! Out! Get OUT!” The Doctor ducked behind a nearby barrel and watched as the door to a nearby house was opened and a strange equine shaped creature was shoved through it and out onto the street. The door was quickly slammed after that, and the creature lowered her head and stared at the ground. After about a minute of just sitting there, the mare started to fiddle with something that was attached to her fore-hoof, eventually removing it and tossing it into a trashcan sitting beside her porch. With a sigh, she turned away from her house and started to trot down the street, away from where The Doctor was crouching. Curiosity spiked, the Time Lord carefully tailed (pardon the pun) the mysterious creature as she wandered through the empty streets of the town, weaving between buildings and once even crossing over a small creek. Eventually, the two reached the outskirts of the settlement, and the mare found a bench to sit on and look over the field in front them. The Doctor watched as the creature positioned herself on the bench, finding it odd that she spent an extraordinary amount of time trying to sit with her back against the backrest and her hoofs hanging over the edge. ‘It’s almost as if she’s trying to sit like a human, even though it’s obvious that it’s difficult for her. I wonder why…possibly a medical condition, or maybe she just finds it comfortable.’ Continuing to observe from a distance, The Doctor failed to realize that the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, very gradually lighting up the scene and casting overly elongated shadows across the field. He only noticed this fact when he noticed the tip of the mare’s shadow slowly creeping towards the bench as the sun rose higher in the sky. Deciding that his curiosity was getting the better of him, and that the sun would render his current hiding spot (behind a tree) practically useless, he walked up behind the distressed mare. She had a light aquamarine coat and a similarly colored mane with a white streak running through it. The thing that shocked The Doctor the most though, was the fact that poking through that mane was what appeared to be a horn, a unicorn horn. ‘Land inhabited by unicorns, how interesting.’ “Excuse me, but why are you sitting like that?” he inquired from behind the bench, still out of sight to the strangely seated equine. “Oh, no reason that you would be interested in,” she replied, still looking out at the field, not really caring who it was talking to her. “Try me,” he shot back, crouching down so that he would be able to hear her better. “Well, okay. Please don’t laugh but I have this belief that these creatures called humans used to live in Equestria, but somehow went extinct. I’ve dedicated a lot of my life into researching them, and I’ve discovered that this is similar to how they sat. That’s why I sit like this.” “So, I guess that means that humans don’t exist here?” he queried, finally understanding why the librarian had freaked out so much when she had seen him. “No. Nopony ever believes my theories. They all say that I’m crazy and that I should spend my time doing something else.” “Did you just say nopony?” “Ummm, yes. That is the word. Of course, the humans said nobody, since they weren’t ponies.” The Doctor couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the terminology, somehow finding it funny that this race would create their own pronoun to describe themselves. As he was laughing, the mare, which he now knew was a pony and not a horse, started speaking again, this time with a slight sound of exasperation in her voice. “See, you too. You think it’s all just a bunch of applesauce; that Lyra is just being stupid again, believing in things that don’t exist. You’re just like everypony else, so quick to judge.” “No no, *snort* you’ve got it all wrong. I am definitely not like everybody else. I just find it funny that you said everypony. It’s just such a funny word to me,” he quickly clarified, trying to subdue his amusement as he did. Finally, he got his laughter under control and was about to speak when the mare beat him to it. “You mean that you believe me? Nopony has ever believed me before.” Oddly enough, during the entire conversation, the mare had not once turned around on her seat to look at her addresser, most likely because of the position that she was sitting in. Despite the reason, The Doctor decided that he ought to reveal himself to this pony creature, since she probably wouldn’t throw him out of her house on sight, especially since they weren’t in a house currently. “Well miss, Lyra was it? I do believe you, and would you like to know why?” He saw her nod her head, “Well maybe if you turned around and looked at me, then you would see why.” Slowly, Lyra pushed herself off the bench and onto the grass underneath, having a slight bit of trouble with the landing but eventually regaining her balance. After shaking her mane, she turned around to face The Doctor, and what happened next probably should have been expected, but obviously wasn’t. The greenish unicorn screamed so loudly that The Doctor almost had to cover his ears, finding it difficult to believe that one creature could even make that much noise. Next, she stared saying “Oh my gosh!” again and again very rapidly until she had to stop for breath. And then she did it again. “Shhhhhh!” The Doctor hissed, placing his index finger over his mouth as he did so. Luckily, this got Lyra to stop her constant noise, but only for the reason that she was now busy examining the extended digit. “Is that a finger? I’ve always wondered exactly what they looked like. Spike has something that I thought looked like fingers, but Twilight always said they were claws,” she said in a much calmer voice as she got uncomfortably close to the somewhat annoyed Time Lord. “And I was right; you do have five on each hand. This big one is a thumb, right?” The Doctor yelped in pain as the green unicorn bit the tip of his thumb as she tried to maneuver it into a different position. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t realize that they were so sensitive. I guess that makes sense though, since you don’t use them to walk around. Can you pick something up for me? I really want to see you…” “Do you ever shut up?” he interrupted, taking a step away from the hand obsessed mare. “Yes, sometimes I do, but it’s usually when…oh, I get it.” “Thank you. Well, if I remember correctly, you said your name was Lyra, right?” She nodded, not wanting to annoy her newly acquired human any further. “Okay, well I’m The Doctor, and as you probably know, I don’t really know that much about this world. If you wouldn’t mind…” “Mister Doctor? Could I just ask you a quick question? Don’t humans usually shake hands when they greet each other?” “Yes, why?” “Can I shake your hand?” Nervously, The Doctor extended his hand to the outstretched hoof of Lyra, and quickly shook it, much to the delight of the green pony. “Okay then, as I was saying, I would really appreciate it if you could tell me more about this planet, because oddly enough, I’ve never heard of a planet inhabited by ponies before.” “Oh I’d love to! But it might be better if we went back to my house to do that, since this field is used for picnics during the day a lot. You’d probably cause a huge fuss if anypony saw you.” With an agreeing nod, The Doctor began to follow the giddy unicorn back through the streets of the town, following the same route he had taken previously. Along the way, he answered a few of the questions that Lyra posed to him, some of which included: “How many other humans are there?” “Do you also have fingers on your feet?” “Why is your name The Doctor, I thought humans had more individual names?” And, “Why are you all dressed up?” Eventually, the two arrived back at the home of Lyra, and were about to enter when said unicorn got a brilliant idea. ********** Bon-Bon was just finishing removing some of her baked goods from the oven when she heard a knock from the front door. Carefully, she put the cookie sheet down on the counter before trotting into the living room and to the primary entrance to the abode. She was quite certain that it was Lyra, returning to apologize for waking herself up with the stupid obsession with humans. Opening the door, she found that she was right, as a weeping aquamarine unicorn came stumbling though. “I’m so so so so so sorry Bonnie, I didn’t mean to wake you up, and I promise that I’ll stop messing around with trying to make fingers and other things,” she sobbed, placing her forehooves around Bon-Bon as she did. Carefully shoving the sad mare off of her, Bob-Bon smiled, “That’s good to know, what suddenly brought you to your senses?” Much to the confectioner’s surprise, Lyra instantly switched from being sad, to grinning with the biggest grin that the cream mare had ever seen. “I found a better way to study! Doctor, if you wouldn’t mind!” She shouted the last sentence back over her shoulder towards the door, which slowly creaked open, and a two legged shadow stepped through. Once the door was closed once again, Bon-Bon could see that this creature was not a pony, or any other creature that she had ever seen or read about. As a matter of fact, the only place that she had ever seen anything like this creature before was in…Lyra’s notebooks. ********** “Do you think we should take her to the hospital?” “Naw, she’s only fainted, she’ll be fine.” “Oh that’s good, do I smell cookies?” “Probably, she said she was going to do some baking this morning.” “You think she’d mind if we had a few?” “I don’t think so, as long as I get to see you pick something up.” “Fine, then you can tell me about this world.” Chapter Written by Twilight Sparkle