//------------------------------//
// Daleks in Equestria Part 1 
// Story: Vortexes are Magic 
// by JeckParadox 
//------------------------------//

	The Tardis was spiraling out of control, something had gone wrong. Whether it was some kind of temporal glitch, or a physical problem within the circuitry of the Tardis, or something had taken control of her functions, the Doctor’s precious box was travelling through time at an alarming rate.  It would take maybe six seconds for the Tardis to move a couple billion millennia, depending on the situation, but right now the Tardis was moving through time so fast not even with his great intellect could he keep up. He was currently doing the best he could to avoid the Beginning and the End, very narrowly, and was spiraling back and forth, farther than any other recorded Timelord in milliseconds. The Doctor tried everything he could to find out what was wrong. But nothing that the Doctor could decipher had been found. 
He was beginning to reach the skidding point, in two seconds the Tardis would turn around and go back toward the End to avoid the Beginning, but at this speed the Tardis would skid, veer off the metaphorical road so to say, and break out of this universe and be launched into the void. “This is not good…” The Doctor said in a spunky British accent. “Well, everyone, BRACE FOR IMPACT!” the Doctor looked around at the empty room. “Oh yeah…” and he was flung into the wall behind him, knocking him nearly unconscious. “Ugh… what the…” The Tardis had now entered the void, the area outside space and time, the dwelling place of infinite realities. 
The Doctor brushed himself off and ran back to the controls. “oh deary me…” the Tardis was running out of power, after all, he had just left the Time vortex, and the only thing carrying him was the momentum it had built up back in his own universe. The Doctor had to hope the Tardis crashed into another universe; it had to happen eventually after all, what with the infinite amount, but could they reach one before running out of the momentum needed for re-entry?
The Doctor looked at the slowly blinking out monitors. He had already lost hope of being able to turn the ship. There was no longer anything he could do, either the Tardis would crash into another universe, or he would float in the everlasting void of the void forever in a powerless Tardis, until the last of the oxygen ran out, and then until the last of the regeneration energy ran out. After that… he would die. Goodbye everything, it was a good run, 1100 years wasn’t bad.
But the last light to go out was the emergency reentry light. The Tardis had saved up the last of her energy for reentry. The last of her power going into protecting the Doctor. The Doctor jumped onto the console and hugged the great transparent tube that contained the ‘brakes’. They made a final, beautiful sound, one that can only be described by listening to it, and the Tardis went black and shook.
Then was the impact. The Doctor remained conscious long enough to smile at the noise, and at his own good fortune. Against all odds the girl had managed to save them, she landed herself on a planet after breaking through the universal membrane. The Doctor noted to himself, why do I suddenly want some apple grass? And faded into sleep. 


Sitting with her telescope on the roof of her tree house, she noted with wonder at the unscheduled shooting star. And it looked like it had fallen near town! Twilight smiled and shortened her telescope, placing it in a saddlebag with her new star charts. She would get her friends together and go look for it the next day. It might make for a good letter to Princess Celestia, and maybe Princess Luna would be interested in the seemingly unknown meteor.  
Twilight Sparkle got to her hooves, levitating the saddle bag onto her lavender back. “Maybe I’ll send a late letter if Spike is still awake.” She yawned and eyed a clock as she passed it. “Nah, it can wait till tomorrow, it won’t disrupt my schedule.” She walked over to her bed and magically turned off the lights. “Good night Spike.” She heard a mumbling from Spike’s bed and smiled. Getting into her bed and falling asleep quickly. 
And as Twilight dozed off another… pony woke up. “Damn! That hurt… I’m feeling all wobbly.” The Doctor struggled to his hooves and realized he had just struggled to his hooves. “What happened!?” He kicked his forelegs as he fell onto his back, struggling with his clothes.  “I have four legs! I have… I knew this would happen… Well, not this exactly… I need a mirror!” He got out of his pants and shirt, managing to move to the Tardis’s module. He found it was easier to walk if he didn’t think about it. He jumped up and moved his monitor lower and saw his reflection. “No… NO! NO!NONONONONO!” The Doctor looked in shock and horror at his new look. “I’M STILL NOT A GINGER!” he looked again with more care. “I am also… a horse? With bulbous eyes…” He had a brown mane, with a lighter shade of brown for his fur. His eyes were a very clear blue. “Did I regenerate? I didn’t think it would be this… drastic. I expected a second head, three at weirdest. But I mostly expected to still look human.”
He remembered his situation. “Maybe… this is what the Timelords of this universe look like…” He looked at the door. “The Tardis… she got into the universe, and she managed to land on a planet. Where am I? What am I? I… I need my sonic screwdriver!” He got up and began looking through his discarded clothes. He picked up his green ‘screwdriver’ in his mouth. He tried using it, but it wasn’t mouth-operable. “Well, I think this could be a problem… Wait!” He spit it out and rushed down into the storage area. “I really do have way too much spare time.” He picked up a blue-tipped screwdriver. “I actually took the time to make a mouth-operable sonic. Oh well, that just goes to show that thinking ahead and programming while drunk is a good idea.” He managed to scan himself with his mouth-operated sonic.  “Okay… two hearts, I’ve lost quite a bit of body mass, I hope that doesn’t come back to bite me.” The Doctor looked at himself more carefully in the light of the Sonic Screwdriver, (the Tardis was out of power, no other lights). 
He had a tail, the same color as his mane, and on his rump was some kind of tattoo of an hourglass. “I… Don’t remember getting that…” He said, raising an eyebrow. 
He moved to the door and opened it. He let the cold air of night wash over him. It felt good in his fur and on his skin. He didn’t feel the movement of the world beneath him. That constant source of anxiety seemed to have been stripped away with the rest of his body mass. And if he did regenerate, why wasn’t he expelling time energy?

These questions would have to wait for later, because he had looked up at the gigantic moon. And his breath was taken away. He smiled to himself, this was why he traveled. All the beauty of the universe...s. All the mystery of the past and future. It was what he lived for. A new world for him to explore, in a new body too.
“Helllllooooo world!! Show me what you’ve got universe! I’m the Doctor, I can take anything!”
He let out his breath from the screams and wondered if someone had heard. He let himself lie on the grass, the sight of the Tardis, even without her shields, gave him a sense of security. And he fell back asleep.

Dear Princess Celestia, 
This isn’t so much as a report on the magic of friendship, but rather a casual report. I and my friends have doing great, and in a few minutes we’ll be going off to see where the meteorite from last night landed. It would be near the edge of Ponyville Park if my guess is correct.  Ask Princess Luna why she decided to give an extra surprise last night, maybe it’s a special occasion? I sure hope I haven’t missed anything.
Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.
Princess Celestia read the letter while sipping her morning coffee. It actually had served as her alarm that morning. She was planning on staying up late that night, it was late enough in the year that Celestia could be excused for having it stay dark longer. But a green light in her study had waked her up at the right time anyway. So the dark mornings of fall would have to wait until tomorrow. Perhaps she would watch the Running of the Leaves in Ponyville this year. 
She strolled over to Luna’s room in her own personal tower. “Luna, Twilight asked about you.”
The blue Alicorn lifted her head from her star-patterned quilt. And glared at Celestia. “We do not wake thee right after thou had fallen into slumber. We had a stressful night, allow Us sleep. We will talk to Twilight in the Evening.” Luna said in her too-loud Royal Canterlot Voice. 
“She’s asking about your ‘surprising’ meteor last night.” Celestia playfully tempted. 
“Meteor?” Luna’s drowsiness had apparently died down enough for her to not instinctively speak with the outdated Royal Voice. “What Meteor does thou speaketh of?”
“It landed near Ponyville, according to Twilight. Do you not know anything of it?”
“Ponyville?...hmm… oh yes! Ha… Ha… Yes, that was me, I er…We did it on a whim, thought that Twilight might be watching, It was earlier in the night, before We were stressed.” Luna said with a little too much enthusiasm. Celestia raised an eyebrow in suspicion. But she would not do anything to make her sister think she didn’t trust her. If Luna thought that she had to hide something Celestia would let her. 
That didn’t mean that Celestia wouldn’t go look into it. “I’m going to head off to Ponyville to see your special Meteor. You go ahead and get some sleep. Maybe if I arrive without warning Twilight won’t freak out so much.” Celestia prompted. 
“May We come along?” Luna said pleadingly. 
“Well of course, but didn’t you say you were tired?”
“N-No, well, yes. But not anymore. We would like to see Twilight Sparkle’s reaction.”
“Okay? Do you want breakfast?”
“No, I already ate, you should eat though. I’ll go ahead.” Luna didn’t leave time to argue as she rushed out of her door to the tower’s balcony. She shot into the air and flew toward Ponyville, down the mountain. 
“Luna, what are you hiding from me? I thought we were trying to rebuild each other’s trust.” Celestia said to herself. Then she shook her head, making her transparent rainbow mane quiver. “No, I trust her. She’s probably just trying to hide something she was working on.” She smiled. Luna was an artist, and a perfectionist. She spent years making the night sky, and spent every night trying to improve it. She probably just got angry and threw a piece of it to the ground and then forgot about it. 
But that was not what Luna was doing. She had not created, or discarded the ‘meteor’ the previous night.
Luna had a sneaking fear of what the object might be. As she shot past the Canterlot gardens she didn’t notice a smirk on one of the stranger-looking stone structures.
“Twilight, are you sure it was around here? We’ve been searching the area for half an hour, maybe you made a mistake in the chart?” Rarity said, looking over her friend’s shoulder at the levitating map with a small area outlined in red ink. 
“I’m sure Rarity, I already triple checked. Besides Rainbow Dash is looking from the sky, she’ll tell us where it is exactly.”
“Alright, but I need to open the boutique in an hour, and I don’t want to open late after I missed that customer last week.”
“I told you, how was I supposed to know you would shrink that small? I said I was sorry, and I got you back to normal again.”
“Please don’t fight.” Said a quiet voice from behind the duo. 
“Don’t worry Dear, we aren’t fighting, I’m just voicing some concerns to Twilight.” Rarity said sweetly to the cream-colored Pegasus behind her. 
“Yeah, don’t worry Fluttershy. Oh, Rainbow’s coming back. Dash! Did you see anything!?” Applejack said.
“Yeah! It’s so weird, you guys have to come see this!” She shot off in the other direction, leaving a rainbow-colored trail behind her. 
“Alright girls, let’s go see what hit the other night!”
“Maybe they’ll be friendly!” Pinkie said playfully from beneath her tinfoil hat. 
“Pinkie, aliens don’t exist, and it isn’t unidentified, I clearly said it was a meteor.” Twilight said to her bouncing companion.
“Noooo, you said you thought it was a meteor. Besides, when things are falling from the sky you can’t get a good look at them.”
“ugh… Dash could you please tell Pinkie that what fell was a meteor?”
“I dunno Twi… it didn’t look like a rock. More like a blue… box-like thing. With a thing sticking out of the top.” 
Twilight simply stared at Rainbow Dash with an expression of irritation.  Pinkie stared at Dash with growing eyes and a growing smile. “Really?” Pinkie got out. 
“Yeah, I swear in the name of Celestia and the Wonderbolts, I saw blue boxy thing in the field over there.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. Dash was serious. “Really?” Twilight repeated. 
“Yep. It’s pretty weird.”
“Well, I guess I don’t know what it is…” Twilight said. 
“Wait, you aren’t actually thinking it’s aliens?” Rarity said giving a shocked look to Twilight. 
“Well, no. I can’t see how they could possibly exist. Princess Luna and Celestia control all of space, they rotate it, heck, Luna made the stars, I just don’t see where they could come from. The moon? The sun? If they did Princess Celestia and Luna would tell us… I think…” She shook the doubts from her head. “I have no idea what it is though so…”
“It’s a UFO!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing ahead of everyone else. 
Applejack smirked and followed after her, Twilight gave a sigh as well and ran after the two of them. Rarity frowned. “I got up an hour ago, I don’t want to run in the mud just yet.”
“Oh… I was going to ask if you wanted to race too but…” Fluttershy said quietly as she lowered back to the ground.
“Fine, the first one to get there has to be my model for the rest of the day.”
“What about the loser?” Fluttershy asked with a little doubt. 
“The loser also has to be a model, but in a difficult pose.”
“Um… what would I get out of this?”
“You said you wanted to race.” Said Rarity playfully. “321Go!” And Rarity galloped off. 
“Rarity, wait! I don’t want to race anymore!” 
The Doctor woke up with the morning and looked to the sky, seeing the sun rise. “Hm. It’s a nice sunset, not the most impressive, but every planet has its own charm.” 
He got up and yawned, getting to his two hind legs and stretching as if he still had arms. He picked up his Sonic Screwdriver and eyed the Tardis. She had landed with quite a bit more impact than usual, a crater, but a small one. He looked at his precious Tardis; she was leaning more toward one end, not quite balanced, which explained how he ended up on the other side of the Tardis than the wall he had lost consciousness on. 
He went back into the Tardis and opened the door to the heart of the Tardis. The place where the Time Vortex used to spin through. It surprisingly wasn’t empty; a miniscule amount of time energy was spinning along through the heart. “Well, what do we have here?” He pointed his screwdriver at the wisps of power. “Oh… oh you genius girl you!” The doctor closed the engine, smiling to himself. “Don’t worry old girl, I’ll be back, I’m a new man! Take some time for yourself, recharge, don’t mind me.” The Doctor walked outside and decided to have a stroll. 
He found a man-made path after a while and started moving along. “Oh dear! I wonder what the inhabitants are like… if the Tardis landed in the ‘human’ world of this universe, and I’m… this… does that mean everyone is like… this?  And if they are, am I naked?” The Doctor suddenly felt self-conscious and ran back to the Tardis in search of clothes that would fit without much trouble onto his new body. 
In the end he was wearing his smallest pair of pants, a vest, and a tie. Even he himself was unsure how he tied it around his neck. He comforted the Tardis again and walked outside. 
As he came out he saw five other creatures were running toward him… and one was flying. He looked up at the flying one, she had a light blue coat and a rainbow-died mane. Also wings. Very important those, wings. The others were just as colorful. A white one with a purple mane, an orange one with a blond mane, a purple one with various shades of purple in her mane, and a cream one with a long pink mane. Also one that was very very pink. 
“Uh… Hello, I’m the Doctor!” 
Twilight’s mouth was hanging open as she saw the strange object, imbedded in the earth within a small crater, and standing in the doorway a stallion. “Um… Hi?”
“Are you an alien?” Pinkie Pie said enthusiastically. 
“What?!” The ‘Doctor’ stammered.  “I-I… uh…”
“No, don’t worry silly, it’s obvious. Doctor have you met my friends yet?” Pinkie said, going up to the Tardis and pushing the Doctor from behind. 
“Uh… Have we met?” The Doctor asked nervously and a little hopefully. 
“Duh… you don’t remember my party?” Pinkie said a little sadly. 
“Er… can we speak in private for a few seconds?” The Doctor moved Pinkie into the Tardis and shut the door. 
The other ponies looked at each other and then back to the Tardis. They put their ears up to the door in fear that something bad was going to happen, curious at the situation. After a few minutes Rainbow Dash moved backwards in the air and prepared to launch at the Tardis. “Dash, what are you doing?” Applejack said suspiciously. 
“They’ve been in there too long, I don’t trust him.” She flew even higher and began turning in an arc. 
“So you’re going to explode them both!?” Applejack said, banging on the door. 
“She’s Pinkie, she’ll get out without scratch.” And with that Dash burst forward in a charge that would destroy the box. At that moment the doors swung open and Rainbow Dash shot into the Tardis, Pinkie and the Doctor ducking just in time. The Doctor turned around as there was a crash behind him. 
“No! My Tardis!” 
“His what?!” Applejack said.

“Er… Can we speak in private for a few seconds?” The Doctor moved Pinkie into the Tardis and shut the door. “Okay, what do you know!?”
“I know a lot of things, like what color the sky is, and what my name is, and what your name is an-”
“Yes, that! How do you know my name?”
“Silly, you told me when I gave you your Ponyville welcoming party last year.”
“How much do you know about me?”
“Um... You live in a box called the Tardis, which we are in at this moment, now that I think about it, it should have been pretty obvious based on Rainbow’s description. You like bananas, and hate pears, your favorite dish at Sugarcube Corner is apple grass with muffins, jam, and tea, you have that thing in your mouth that does just about anything, and… you didn’t want a party when you first arrived, but I didn’t care and gave you one anyway and you loved it, and…”
“I’m a time traveler. If I’ve met you before did I tell you that?”
“Nope.”
“But I did let you into the Tardis?”
“Yep, this is where we threw the party! It’s kind of dark right now though… is it to cover up the mess? I’ve heard of people who have never recovered from one of my patented Pinkie Pie Parties.” Pinkie bragged.
“Well Pinkie, I have never met you before, and, being a time traveler, you met me before I met you. Last year you said?” 
“Yep. If you’re a time traveler does that mean you can go into the future? And the past? Could you take me to see the Cave Ponies? Or the Future ponies?”
“Wait… we’re ponies?”
“Yeah, duh. Oh wait! You are an alien aren’t you!? I need to tell my friends!”
“No! I mean no… don’t do that, I don’t know how they’ll react, have any of them met me before?”
“Not that I know of… We do see you around a lot though, just walking by on the street, oh! And there was that one time I saw you sign up for the best flyer competition!”
“Pinkie, how do you think your friends would react to being told that I’m a time-traveling alien with a box that’s bigger on the inside?”
“Hmm… that’d be a hard one…”
“I mean, would they go around telling everyone else? Would it start a panic? I do not want to be the center of a wide-spread panic.”
“Nah, I don’t think it would be a panic, I’ll get them to promise not to tell anypony else.” 
“Okay… thanks Pinkie… wait. ‘Anypony’?”
“Yeah. Anypony.”
“Ha! Alright then. Well at least the Tardis doesn’t have to translate for me if those are the only differences between this and English.” The Doctor attempted to snap his fingers to open the doors, but it didn’t work for obvious reasons. “Well, looks like we have to do things the old way. He swung open the doors with his forelegs in time to see a rainbow-colored projectile flying toward the Tardis. Pinkie somehow grabbed the Doctor’s mane and pulled him down while ducking herself, Rainbow Dash flying into the depths of the Tardis. 
“No! My Tardis!” The Doctor galloped back inside after Rainbow Dash. The others all looked suspiciously at Pinkie and then looked into the Tardis as Pinkie attempted unsuccessfully to block their views. 
“I’ll be… It’s bigger on the inside.” Applejack said staring into the grand chambers within the relatively small box. 
“No, that’d be ridiculous. It has to be some kind of portal, right Twilight?” Rarity nudged Twilight. 
“I… I don’t know… I’m not picking up anything.” She lowered her head and her horn glowed. She waved it around and tried to feel the power of magic within the Tardis. 
“Pinkie! Help me find the rainbow one! She shot right past the swimming pool and into the library!”
“Library!?” Twilight beamed and teleported to the source of the voice. “What library?” 
“Eek! Give me two heart attacks why don’t you!?” The Doctor was on his hind legs looking at the unicorn that had magically teleported to him.  
“She flew into my Tardis, thankfully missed the brakes, passed through the hall, over the swimming pool/wardrobe and into the library I have.”
“You have a library in your house?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“No of course not… well I do, but that’s beside the point, I can’t wait to begin reading!” 
“You might have to wait until I get the lights back on. Also, we should focus on getting your friend out of my ship.”
“This is a ship?!”
“Most people start with ‘It’s bigger on the inside.’”
“Ah already said that.” Applejack said, galloping after the two of them, she was followed by Pinkie wearing an apologetic smile. 
“Guys… I think that this isn’t just a box…” Rainbow Dash’s voice echoed through the halls of the library, Twilight looking back and forth over the walls in awe. 
“How big is this place?” Twilight asked, levitating a book toward her and then looking curiously at the pictures of humans in the book.
“I’m not sure, I haven’t explored all of it. Rainbow! Where are you!?” The Doctor turned a corner and looked around.
“Over here!” Twilight followed the sound of the voice and teleported over. “Whoah!” 
“Look at all these books!” Twilight lit her horn so that the others could find them in the darkness. 
“Yeah, it’s great, and I’m confused. Where exactly are we?”
“Inside that stallion’s library. I think he said that we were inside a ship, the Tardy or something.” 
“I passed a swimming pool.” Rainbow Dash said without emotion.
“Yes you did.” Twilight said, levitating a particularly thick book to her. 
“Oh good, you’re both alright.” Applejack sighed. “Now let’s get out of here.”
“Yes, let’s. All of you being here is stressing the Tardis, get out.”
“Stressing?” Twilight said, her attention being drawn from the book with the strange pictures. “What do you mean we’re stressing the ship? Is it too much extra weight, I figured that something this large could take on plenty. 
“No, as in you are stressing the Tardis, as in causing her stress, get out! The Tardis has too little energy, and now you’re all making her worry about seven creatures instead of one! Leave before she does something.”
The other ponies decided it would be best to follow the strange stallion out of the strange ‘ship’ inside the box. 
“Now then, I’ll take one question from all of you to start off, my first answer being no. You cannot all be my companions.” 
The others looked at the Doctor, then back at each other, shrugging. Rainbow Dash decided to go first. “Who are you?”
“I’m the Doctor, and I’m a Time Lord. Next.”
Applejack reached her hoof upward. “What’s up with your… ‘ship’? And where’s the rest of it?”
“She’s not just a ship, she’s a ship that can go through the all of time and space! As for the rest of it… that’s her. It’s like you said, it’s bigger on the inside.”
“That’s impossible,” Twilight said. “It disobeys the laws of physics.”
“And what’s your question?”
“Where are you from?”
“Another world, in another universe.”
Twilight gaped at the stallion. “What are you talking about?”
“Next,” He said, turning his gaze upon Rarity. 
“What in the world happened to your outfit!?”
“W-what?” The Doctor said, looking down at his own clothes. “What’s wrong with them?” He suddenly felt indignant. “And what would you know anyway? You’re naked!”
“I never- hmph. I’ll tell you what I know! I’ll show you what I know!” Her horn glowed and the Doctor was lifted off his hooves and hung upside down in the air.
“What’s going on?” The Doctor said, struggling against the telekinetic magic. 
“You have incurred the wrath of RARITY. My revenge shall be swift.”  She began tearing clothes from the Doctor as he winced at the sounds of ripping. 
“Those have sentimental value! They belonged to one of my Zocci friends!” 
“Hmm… I’ll leave the tie… and this doesn't need sleeves… and this shows off your cutie mark, I've seen a lot of people with that one, what’s your special talent?”
“Getting hunted down by aliens.”
“Really?”
“Running?”
“It’s an hourglass.”
“Bowties?”
“Time traveling!” Pinkie shouted from the side. 
“Hm. Alright, that’ll do for now. What do you think?” Rarity pulled a mirror from her saddle bag and showed it to the Doctor.
All that was left of his outfit was a tweed vest and his red-velvet tie. “I’ll admit it looks good, but you tore apart my clothes!”
“Hmf. They always find something wrong with it.” 
“Well, now that my personal space has been violated and my clothes torn apart, Pinkie, do you and the cream-colored one have any questions?”
“Her name is Fluttershy.” Pinkie said irritated, and then she shot back to her usual cheeriness. “Can you take me back in time and then into the future so I can introduce myself to myself and myself?”
“No. That would be… No. That’s a paradox toppled upon itself. If you were to make contact with yourself it would create errors in time and space, errors that could leave devastating effects on the world, the dimensional barriers would begin to crack and the demons of the void would infect your world, your universe, eventually lysing it.”
Applejack moved over to Twilight and asked quietly “what does ‘lysing’ mean?”
“It’s when a virus infects a cell, creates a bunch more viruses inside it, and then they all exit it, blowing up the cell, or at least killing it.”
“And if Pinkie time travels that could happen to Equestria?”
“Yes.” The Doctor said proudly. “Or at least it could. It’s happened before back in my universe.”
“Is that why you came here?”
“No, I fixed the paradox.”
“Then it’ll be fine. I want my own welcome to Ponyville party darnit!” Pinkie stomped back into the Tardis, and everyone else rushed in to pull her out. 
The Doctor sighed and turned to Fluttershy. “Do you have any questions?”
“Um… Is your… ship… sick?” She said.
“What?”
“I’m… I’m good with animals… and I had the feeling that your ship was sick for some reason.”
“Uh… yes actually, the Tardis is a living thing after all… She’s built to run off the Time Vortex. But since I’m in another universe, there’s a different time stream. She lost almost all her power, and she did something ingenious and brilliant and desperate to save herself. But she’s still only at the bare minimum.”
“Is there anything you can do?”
“I’m going to leave her to her own devices, she’ll seek out this world’s time stream and use it to power herself, then I’ll be able to travel again. Until then, I’m going to cause the least amount of stress for her as possible.”
“Where will you be staying until then?” Fluttershy asked, becoming more friendly in the hopes of caring for the strange ‘animal’ that was the Tardis. “If you need to, you can stay with me, I’m sure Angel won’t mind a new face.”
“Oh, that’s very kind of you Fluttershy, is this kind of hospitality typical in this world?” The Doctor smiled, looking at the Tardis. She had found the nicest planet available. 
“Well, that’s the element of kindness fer ya.” Applejack smiled. 
“I don’t know, I don’t trust him. He claims to be a time traveler, which is crazy, he says he’s an alien, which is impossible, and he just seems weird.” Rainbow Dash circled him in the air. “And now you want to let him into your house?”
“But he has nowhere to stay, and he’s right. The Tardis has to rest and be stress-free. I can feel it.”
“And he is too a time traveler.” Pinkie added to Fluttershy’s response. “He hasn’t met me before, but I met him last year.”
“So? He could be lying, or crazy. He’s just weird.”
“And you use too much hair dye.” The Doctor retorted. 
“Actually, it’s natural.” The Doctor looked at Rarity questioningly and the white unicorn gave a confirming nod.
“Huh.” A shadow passed over the group and the Doctor shot a look upward. “What was that?”
“Doctor!” the group looked up and gaped at the sight of a dark blue Alicorn with an ethereal night-blue mane. “Doctor it has been so long! Well, perhaps not for you…” 
The six mares bowed down their heads to the regal Pony as she landed. “Princess Luna, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked, confused. 
“We have business with the Doctor, PRIVATE business.” 
“Of course, come on girls.” Twilight got to her feet and galloped away, the others following with suspicion. 
“Uh… Hello, er… Your Majesty.”
“Doctor… do you truly not know Us?”
"Um… I get this a lot, but, I’m a time traveler, we probably met each other at different times.”
“So you do not know Us?”
“No… sorry.”
Luna rushed forward and kissed the Doctor. She lifted her head again and lay down. “I have not seen you in two decades!” 
The Doctor looked into the sky and muttered “I thought I wasn’t going to mess with royals anymore.” To himself.
“Doctor, my good friend, this may be the first time you’ve met me, but believe me, I… I mean Us, when We say that We know you, and that you will definitely get to know Us.” She looked to the sky and frowned. “It will only be a matter of time until Our sister realizes that you’re back… or that you have arrived I suppose.”
“Wait, who are you?”
“I am Princess Luna; my sister is Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, and you Doctor, are my oldest friend. However, we need to move, as my sister, when she realizes you are here, will undoubtedly try to kill you.”
“I’m used to people I don’t know yet trying to kill me. Now, first rule; no spoilers, don’t say anything about your past life with me, it could hurt the time stream, second rule; be prepared to run at any time.”
“Alright Doctor. I have a hideout in the Everfree forest, will the Tardis be okay by itself?”
“Hmm… Will Celestia try to destroy it? It’s defenses are un-operational right now…”
“Then we should take it with. Go inside the Tardis and I’ll carry it.”
“You can lift it?”
Luna smiled at the Doctor as she lifted herself into the sky. “I’ve done it before, when I was much weaker than I am now.”
“Alright then…” The Doctor got into the Tardis and put a hoof on the module, “Okay old friend, this’ll only be for a minute.” The Tardis shook as it was lifted out of the ground and carried at insane speeds toward the nearby forest. After about five minutes of flying the Tardis was placed down on the ground again, level with the ground this time, nothing was sliding about. 
“We are here Doctor, someplace you might find familiar someday. I’m sad that this is the first time you’ll be seeing it.”
The Doctor stepped out of the Tardis and gaped at the cavern. The ceiling was covered in stars, a perfect replication of the night sky built in diamond and polished obsidian.
“Amazing…”
“Heh, this place holds so many memories for me… I… I haven’t been here since I was, oh… sorry no spoilers.” She walked from one end of the hall to the other, removing spider webs and blowing away dust. She levitated fallen objects and tried to put crumbling pieces of rock back in their right places.
“Princess, why does your sister want to kill me?”
“I thought I wasn’t to tell you about my past with you.”
“Try and be vague, not so that it won’t happen, but rather so I know what I’m facing right now.”
“You, well… threatened her authority I suppose. There was a… rebellion of sorts. She hates you for personal reasons as well.”
“I started a rebellion?”
“I won’t say anything more.”
“O-okay. Wow… What can she do to me, theoretically, if we have to fight?”
“She can fire a concentrated beam of magic, fire, and sunlight that could incinerate you instantly, actually, she can make and do almost anything with magic, fire and sunlight. She’s a calculating genius with enough telekinetic power to move the sun and moon like they were nothing, she also has control of the entirety of Equestria.”
“Alright, I’ve fought worse. But… magic?”
“Yes?”
“I wonder of my Sonic can-”
“It doesn’t.”
“Figures. Well, Princess Luna, was it? What do you have planned?”
“Keep you alive, keep Celestia occupied and unaware of your presence as much as I can, and convince Twilight and her friends to not speak to anyone about this.”
“And what am I supposed to do?”
“I know you get bored easily, so why don’t you go around the castle? It might come in handy later.”
“Oh, will it now?” Luna laughed and kissed him again. 
“Yes, it will, now I have to go back to my sister before she gets suspicious. Try not to do anything stupid. Or brilliant in a bad way. And try not ending the world while you’re here.”
Luna pulled back her wings and launched herself into the air, shooting down the halls of the castle and disappearing from the Doctor’s sight. 
“I told you Doctor, I told you. No getting ‘involved’ with royals!” he said to himself. “I was just kissed by a horse… oh well, I’ve done worse with worse… and I have nothing on Jack… I wonder what ever happened to him…” The Doctor thought it might be right, or at least morally okay. He was a pony now, after all. 
The Doctor wandered the halls of the castle of the night, there were statues of ponies, and there were thousands of depictions of the moon and the night. He eventually came to a room filled with stuffed animals, actually, considering the circumstances they might be just dolls, and paintings of the night sky, of meteors, of shades and stars, of constellations. Then he found something strange, one of the framed paintings had a depiction of the Tardis, a blue filly, and him, among the stars. 
“Well, it would appear I’m more involved than I thought…”

“Twilight, thank you so much… We owe you and your friends a great favor. The Doctor is a close friend of Ours, but he has some history in Canterlot, We do not want spread panic.” 
“I understand Princess. Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to tell the other immediately. Despite their appearances Rarity and Pinkie don’t spread gossip, even if it’s important. Rainbow and Applejack are unlikely to spread anything either, but I’ll talk to them, don’t worry.”
“Good. Then we make Our goodbye, we must speak more often Twilight Sparkle.”
“I think so too Princess.”
Princess Luna took to the sky once more to head to Canterlot, to convince Celestia that it was an err on her part, and take suspicion off of the Doctor’s return. Then it was off to bed. She didn’t want to wake up late for the night.
Twilight immediately galloped off in search of her friends. She found Rainbow Dash and Applejack easily, the two of them were caught up in another contest, and they both agreed not to speak of it without much persuasion. Then she ran to Rarity’s Boutique and convinced Rarity not to speak about the Doctor with a little bit more effort. Rarity was worried about credit for the outfit. Finally she found Fluttershy, who seemed more worried about the Tardis than the Doctor.
After looking for hours she still hadn’t found Pinkie though. She would have to hope that Pinkie didn’t tell anyone about the Doctor. 

Inside the Wardrobe/swimming pool area of the Tardis a rather large pink snow-suit quivered. A fluffy bit of hot pink hair popped out from inside it, followed by Pinkie’s head. “That was scary… the whole thing just started shaking all of a sudden. Maybe I’ll wait out a little longer." 

Celestia watched the sky, it was almost noon and Luna had not returned. The sun was moving on its preset course in the sky, and Celestia put down the papers she had been looking at. She picked up her own special glass of ink and her feather quill. 
Dear Twilight, have you seen Luna? She went toward Ponyville this morning, for what reason I know not. Please respond as soon as you can, I’m beginning to get worried about her.
Your Loving teacher, Princess Celestia.
She was about to send it when Luna returned. “Hello Luna, did you clean up whatever fell in Ponyville?”
“Yes, I did. I was toying with extending one of the constellations, but after three different combinations didn’t work I scrapped it and simply moved one of the stars a few meters to the right. I guess when I was angry I could have dropped a cluster of mushed up stars. But I took care of what fell in Ponyville.”
“Good, do you want to go around the kingdom? It’s been awhile since we surveyed together.”
“No… I spent too long awake already, if I am to work again tonight and raise the night on time I should get to sleep now.”
“That seems like an excuse, we haven’t enjoyed the day-life together in a month!” 
“That’s because you bet you could out drink the Duke of Manehatten and then spent the rest of the day hitting on random stallions in the street, and the entire day after with a headache, snapping at everyone around you.”
“I promise to have less fun.” Celestia put her hoof over her heart. 
Luna sighed and smiled at her sister. “Good Day Celestia, I’m waking at the regular time.”
“Fine then, be like that.” Celestia got up and marched to the other side of the study, crumbling the paper in her hooves and casually burning it. “Good Day Luna, see you tonight.”
About three hours later Celestia was disturbed from her work by a screaming voice coming over all the microphones in the city. 
>CREATURES OF THIS WORLD! SURRENDER! SURRENDER! SURRENDER TO THE DALEKS! SURRENDER OR FACE EXTERMINATION!!<
Celestia’s face contorted with rage. “DOOOCCCCTTTTOOOORRRRRR!!!” Her mane burst into flame and she adorned herself with golden armor. She marched to her balcony and looked at the gigantic saucer-shaped ship floating near the city. She readied her wings and was about to take off when a realization stopped her. The armor disappeared and the flame died out. She turned back into the tower and shouted “LUNA!”