Written by Jeck Paradox, pre-read and edited by Slateblu1
The Doctor stretched as he got up off the grass and noted Luna asleep less than a foot away. He smiled at her and summoned his wings, going for a quick morning flight in the sunrise. He wondered how many other Pegasi did this every morning, wake up, throw themselves off a balcony, and simply dart around in the orange light of the early sun.
He came back less than two minutes later and gently shook Luna awake. "Up and at em' Lu."
She blinked away her drowsiness and looked into the sky. "Doctor, I had the most beautiful dream... and I remember it perfectly."
"Oh?"
"Doctor, let's go up into the tower, I want you to meet Discord and Celestia before anypony else. And together we might be able to hold back my father long enough for you to escape, that is, if he doesn't like you."
"Well, that's reassuring."
"He can be very violent if he thinks there's a reason for it."
"What about your mother?"
"Oh, she's always calm and collected, she’d try to capture you, not kill you."
"Alright then... let's go meet Celestia and Discord then." The Doctor put on a mischievous smile. "I hope she likes me more now than she will in the future."
Celestia was woken by a hoof on her nose, and she knew immediately it was Luna, and that it was early. Only Luna woke her up like that, and only when it was early enough that the two of them should still be sleeping. Celestia was fully immersed in her studies nowadays, and even though she hated the decision, she had gotten her own room. So nowadays Discord used Celestia's bed in the nursery.
"Luna, what is it?"
"I... have somepony I want you to meet..."
"At five AM?" Celestia found herself able to access an internal clock ever since she had discovered her Alicorn magic. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took in Luna and the handsome stallion next to her. "Who... what?" Her eyes shot all the way open and she jumped off the bed, her horn glowing as the Doctor was lifted into the air. "Who is he?!"
"I'm the Doctor, hello, we've already met, but this version of you hasn't been properly introduced to me yet."
"What are you doing in my room?" Celestia said in an angry hush.
"I've decided to introduce the Doctor to Mom and Dad, and to you and Discord... But I need your help to make sure that Dad doesn't try to kill him." Luna smiled nervously.
"So, you're the one who's been taking my sister off on escapades her entire life." Celestia brought the Doctor closer to her and narrowed her eyes, looking him over.
"Yep, would you set me down now?" The Doctor said with some mock cheerfulness.
"No, because I'm not sure I can trust you. From what I've heard about you, you're cocky, you have powers no one can account for, your existence is a danger to Equestria, and even though Luna says she doesn't believe you when you say that, I think I should take it at face value. Not to mention you clearly have the stupidest combination of luck I've ever heard of, getting into the worst situations and then getting out of them without a scratch on you or Luna, but plenty of scratches for everypony else. I don't trust you, I don't feel safe around you, and I don't want my sister near you." Celestia had donned her ethereal mane and her eyes were glowing yellow, an effect that made her tower over everything in the room, the source of gravity on attention.
"Celestia, put him down this instant!"
"No Luna, I want to see what happens. But, if I can say one thing. The choice you're about to make... Celly, you'll regret it." The Doctor said calmly.
Celestia's eyes cooled down, and began looking at the Doctor warily. But the Doctor could see the fear in her eyes. Luna looked from her sister to the Doctor, still floating in the air, and rushed out of the room. The Doctor watched her leave with a twinge of fear, he didn't believe Celestia would actually harm him, but he was trapped by a creature of immense strength, and he felt much safer with an Alicorn companion nearby. However, he didn't let this show to Celestia, and turned his too-calm gaze on her. "Well Celly, will you regret letting me live, or will you regret killing me?"
She was unnerved by his calmness, and almost backed up, before remembering her choices. "I will regret nothing, because I'm going to turn you over to my father." She turned her head away from the Doctor, hiding her concession of defeat. "He is justice in this land, and I'll abide by his choice. It's not my place to punish you." Luna burst back into the room and tried to grab Celestia with her magic, but Celestia countered it, making her body's aura become lodestone-like. Then the Doctor disappeared with a flash, and he was back outside the door, with a small Draconequus on his head. "Luna?!"
"I will not let you kill him! He's my closest friend, and he will be there with me during my moon-raising ceremony!"
"Don't worry Lulu, she wasn't going to kill me, just turn me over to your father."
Luna's eyes widened and looked back at Celestia. "You mean Mom, right?"
"Nope, Daddy." Celestia said with finality, floating Discord through the air to her side, and then picking up the Doctor again.
"Discord, help me! We can't let Celestia get him to father!"
"Can you stop me?" Celestia said to Luna. She looked back to Discord, who looked up to his role model, and gave a sad smile. "Come on Discord, you know me, and you know Daddy, he'll do the right thing." Discord let out a sigh and snapped his claw, and with a flash Celestia was only half a foot tall. "Discord?" she said with more confusion than anger.
"Sorry Celestia, I promised Luna... and I don't think the Doctor's done anything wrong yet, and you know how Orbitus overreacts when it comes to the two of you." He picked her up gently with his claws and set her down on her bed.
"Discord! He's dangerous! He kidnaps Luna at least once a month!"
"Sorry Celestia, please don't be mad at me." And Discord promptly dropped a pillow on her.
The three of them ran out of the room as Celestia's pillow-muffled screams were silenced by Luna's spell and Discord closing the door. Luna looked down at the Draconequus and gave him a smile. "It's my fault if anything, she won't stay mad at you." She put Discord's face between her hooves and rubbed his cheeks. "I really don't think anypony could stay mad at you for long."
"Are you sure?"
Luna let go of his face and bent her head down about a foot to rest on his."I'm sure."
"So, now that we've angered the regent of the day, let's go see if we can convince the queen of the night to let me watch your ceremony." The Doctor said, before trotting toward the staircase that would lead them to Umbra’s chambers.
Umbra and Orbitus didn't share chambers any more. For one thing, Orbitus was only really awake during the day, and Umbra the night. And the second thing was that they agreed they wouldn't have children for a long time, at least not until both of the children they had now reached adulthood. They would not have children growing up in competition with one another, but if Luna and Celestia were both already adults, she and Orbitus could focus on the new child. So as Umbra prepared herself to sleep away the day she heard knocking on her chamber door. "State your business." She said quietly, but she knew by now that the guards would hear.
Her two door guards opened the door and bowed. "Count Discord wishes to speak with thee, your Highness."
"Allow him in." She gave a smile as Discord walked into the room, shutting the doors behind him, and putting a spell on them. "What was that for Discord?"
"I... I don't want anypony to overhear this." Discord walked up to her and hopped onto her gigantic bed, waving his short legs off the side. "And is the 'count' part really necessary?"
"You're the ruler of a county, so you're a Count."
"You gave me a few empty fields so that ponies would call me a Count." He raised his eyebrow at Luna's and Celestia's mother. "But that isn't what I'm here to talk to you about."
"What is?" Umbra laid down next to the little Draconequus. "You know you're one of the family, if not officially, then in heart. You can tell me anything."
"Do you know about an imaginary friend Luna had as a filly?"
Umbra searched her vast memory. "Yes... oh, yes, Celestia was worried about Luna, because she had one, but when I asked Luna about she seemed to get embarrassed and didn't tell me anything of it. Celestia didn't say anything about it so I assumed that either Luna stopped pretending about it, or that it stopped bothering Celestia after she told me."
"Well... she still has him."
"The imaginary friend? Really?" She put her own spell on the door, strengthening Discord's and masking any sounds even further. "I understand why that would trouble you but-"
"And then it turned out he wasn't imaginary." Umbra simply stared at him, but her eyes narrowed slightly and she let out a grunt of non-understanding. "When she was around four she played with a Pegasus stallion she met on her balcony, and from what she's told me he's been back several times a year and taken her on trips."
Umbra suddenly became very still, and Discord felt the room become colder. Umbra's magenta hair rose up in an ethereal evening sky color, then lit on fire with a roaring purple flame, her coat turning pure white, Discord shrunk back. He had never seen the queen enter a Unicorn rage. "What are you telling me Discord?"
"Please, just let me finish, don't judge him yet... this Pegasus is a time traveler, and when he comes and takes her on trips it's to far off countries where they have fun for a while. From what I've heard, they’re just enjoying the sights, getting caught up in local adventures, meeting people from places they haven't been before. And you know Luna as well or even better than I do... wouldn't Luna recognize danger when she saw it? Isn't she the most reasonable filly you've ever met? And she still goes with the time traveler. It's all just good fun, and she trusts him. I've met him too, and he seems trustworthy." And then Discord switched from his nervous expression to something a little more sad. "I've met ponies who aren't trustworthy, I can tell when a pony is not to be trusted... I don't get any of that from him. He's a good pony, and Luna's best friend." Discord closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then let it out. "He wants to meet you, and he wants to be there for Luna's moon-raising ceremony."
Umbra simply waited for him, a calm and patient expression on her face despite the rage form contradicting it. "Are you finished?"
"W-with all I can tell you."
"How long have you known about all of this, Discord?"
"Not long... I only met him tonight, Luna woke me up and filled me in, then I teleported to Celestia's room where-"
"He went into Celestia's room?" Umbra's voice oozed with hatred.
"L-Luna took him there to in-introduce him to Celestia in private."
"...I'll meet him," She disabled her spell on the door, "Guards, tell my Husband that I need to speak to him urgently. And by urgent I mean two minutes ago!”
Nothing happened, no clatter of hooves, or 'Yes Ma'am!'s. She turned to Discord. "Is your spell still active?"
"Yes... if Orbitus heard all this then... well, we decided to talk to you first because you'd give him a chance and listen to everything they have to say." Discord said solemnly.
Umbra considered him for a few seconds and began to visibly calm down, her mane returning to it's ethereal, then it’s normal form. "I'm going to lose so much sleep over this..."
"Luna, you have a lot of explaining to do..." Umbra said with a growl. "you've been keeping this big of a secret since you were four? Four?!" She glared at the Doctor, who by now had shown his fear, his mask of confidence falling when talking to an Alicorn who wasn't a teenage girl. "He's an intruder! A kidnapper! And he's somehow evaded our guards daily for years!" Then Umbra let a little bit of betrayal show in her eyes . "You didn't ever think to tell us before now?"
"That's my fault, I told her it was dangerous to... if you knew it might change the future, and that may or may not damage the universe." The Doctor said, but he quickly backed away and lowered his head as Umbra's glare hit him again, her indigo eyes paralyzing him.
"Mother, I swear, he never did anything bad to me. I wasn't harmed, every time he took me away he asked me beforehand, and he risked his life to keep me from being harmed by the little danger we did meet up with." Luna defended, stepping between him and her mother's gaze. The Doctor could actually feel the paralysis disappear. "He's been my best friend for almost as long as I can remember. He never got in the way of my daily life, I did my studies, I kept safe, I met with you whenever you asked, he just put a little more spice in my life. He took me on adventures, and when he first came to me as a filly I needed an adventure, and I needed a friend."
Umbra simply stared at her for a while, and sighed. "Luna... I can tell you trust him, and I trust your judgement as much as I trust my own or Celestia's, and more so than my Husband." She let a little smile appear for a second on her lips, then went back to her mask of perfect calm. "But what the Doctor has done is illegal, and you all admit he did put you in danger."
"And got me out! And it wasn't as if we were looking for trouble."
"Trouble always manages to find me though." The Doctor admitted.
"So he's a jinx too..." Umbra commented, and the Doctor flinched as her gaze passed over him. He was beginning to think she enjoyed seeing him in fear. "Hmmm.... Luna, this is my judgement. I don't like him, and I don't want to see him secretly stealing you away to danger any more." Luna was about to interrupt again, but a look from the queen silenced her. "But I can appreciate what he's been doing for you, maybe you did need a friend and a little danger, I know I did when I was a little filly... but this kind of thing will have to stop. As for the Doctor's fate, I'm sure you and Discord have a plan to allow him to escape the moment I try to imprison or kill him, so I won't. I hereby declare the Doctor pardoned of his crimes of trespassing, kidnapping, and threatening the Princess. And oh yes, you better tell me what other crimes he's done right now so I can pardon him of those too, because this is the only time I'm feeling generous."
"Well..." Luna began.
"We broke into a temple of fire, made of actual solidified fire, and the evil phoenix coagulation declared war on us, but they haven't done anything since we sealed their cavern." The Doctor began.
"And we stole a jewel from Ahuizotl, but he was going to use it to conquer the world... so I think that pardons itself..." Luna added.
"Oh yeah, and how many times have we crossed Equestria's borders without a passport?" The Doctor said with a smile.
"And we fought an army of bandits without a proper bounty-hunting license!"
"And found the fountain of age, but we kind of destroyed it by tipping it over and letting it rot it's own foundations." The Doctor gave a shy smile. "Property damage of all sorts really."
"And we made clones of ourselves and then made them disappear." Luna said. The Doctor didn't mention he still kept one or two in cryosleep deep in the Tardis. "I'm not sure of the legality of cloning."
"And we took dragon jewels across the border without paying any kind of import tax, but truthfully they were gifts." He considered it. "We didn't go through the customs there at all actually."
"You know what? Stop... just... just stop." Umbra threw her hooves up in the air and then brought them back down. "You're... pardoned. You are pardoned of all of... that."
Discord, who had been magically writing down everything that the Doctor and Luna were going to be pardoned for, stopped and raised an eyebrow at the queen. "'All of that?"
"I just... I raised a criminal!" Umbra finally let out. She turned to Discord again. "Write 'being a negative influence on children' down on there too... I don't care if it's not against the law, I just want it written down on there."
"Your Highness..." Discord began.
"Please Discord, call me Umbra, and Doctor, I'll allow you to be there at the ceremony, and afterwards I'll explain all of... this..." she gestured at the list of crimes. "-to my husband, and in private." She considered her words for another second. "Inside a both-ways force field."
Orbitus and Starswirl stood next to each other, watching proudly as Luna and Umbra walked onto the pedestal of the moon. Luna's teachers and some of the servants she had become closer with were standing together off to the side, and closest to the steps were Discord and Celestia. But Luna's eyes kept being drawn to the crowd of friends and teachers, because near the back, she saw an Earth Pony stallion whom none of the other staff would have recognized. "Now then Luna, we must get the timing perfect, the sun and moon serve as the clocks for all the races of the world, and any delay will drown us in letters of complaints, war, and demands for explanation... which is why you're going to get this right the first time." Umbra said proudly.
"Yes Mother." Luna smiled and gave a nod to her mother. She then stood in the center circle of the great pedestal, inside the circle was the shape of a crescent moon.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes." Luna reached out with her magic, finding the webs of lunar magic that emanated from the gigantic object, and she took hold. No unicorn could possibly move an object that large, but since before recorded history Unicorns had been finding the lunar and solar winds, taking hold, and giving just enough of a pull that it would set the cycle for another day. "Mother... I have them." Luna tugged and pulled at the chords of the moon, but her unicorn strength was not enough. She channeled more and more of her Earth and Pegasi magic into her horn, but it was still not enough. "Mom! I can't do it! I'm not strong enough yet... this is all I have!" Luna grunted out, her teeth clenched, her horn sparking.
"Luna, don't use your Unicorn magic, just find it and take hold. You're clawing at it, trying to pin it down and yank it... you're supposed to hold on to it... and then push, not pull. It knows where it wants to go... you can't force it to go your way, even if they happen to be the same direction. Luna, let go of the moon." Luna looked at her mother, unsure, and then let go, letting her magic rush back through her to their proper places. "Now simply find the magic and take hold. Don't be too hasty Luna."
She reached out again, and when she reached the lunar winds, she let them fill her, interacting with the magic deep within herself.
She let out a gasp as she entered the Unicorn rage mode, but the blue fire evaporated into sparks, no not evaporated, exploded. Her mane was a mess of pure white fireworks, and the white coat that came with the rage mode returned back to Luna's normal shade of blue, but underneath, her skin darkened, making her blue darker as well. The sparks began shrinking, not in number, but in size, and to fill the space between them appeared an ethereal blue mist. She looked at her new mane in wonder as it floated past her eyes, pulled by the lunar winds.
Instead of feeling the rage that came with the mode she became more sure of everything around her. Her doubts didn't disappear, for only the most stupid of people don't doubt anything. But her judgement wasn't clouded by them, she became more understanding and confident.
But one doubt still continued to worry her, but as she turned her head and saw the Doctor's face it grew to gigantic proportions, so much for sureness. The Doctor was crying. How could he hate-
Luna's Alicorn-influenced mind overcame her doubt and made her look closer at the Doctor. He was crying, and yes, it was because of the change in her look. But he wasn't looking at her. He was looking at her mane. At the millions of white sparks forever protectively encased in the almost-darkness. She looked at it again herself. These are stars.
Luna came down from the pedestal, her mother at her side, proudly nuzzling her neck. When her father came forward and congratulated her over and over, very excitedly. He turned to Umbra and started laughing. "We knew it, from the moment Tia was born we knew it!" Luna raised an eyebrow.
"Knew what?" Orbitus simply gave her a warm smile and hugged her. Then he winked at Umbra and began laughing again. Luna decided to leave him to his happiness and trotted over to Discord and Celestia, who her father had bypassed in order to hug her first. Celestia and Discord tried to hug her at the same time, and it somehow worked. They both said their congratulations, and Luna was relieved to note that Discord didn't seem to treat her any differently in her Alicorn form. She had become worried when Discord seemed to worship Celestia the few days after she first transformed, and he still didn't act naturally around her when her mane was a rainbow.
But after the hug broke away Celestia moved in closer, adding "I'll save all my anger for tomorrow." And gave a playful wink. Luna let a shiver run down her back at Celestia's well-hidden rage. But Discord didn't seem to show any fear around her sister, so perhaps Celestia was only joking. The doubt was evaluated by her new Alicorn magicked mind. And she found that there was still plenty of reason to be scared.
She had a chat with Starswirl, who admired her mane and made a joke about her new set of studies, the same kind that Celestia had for the past year. But Luna merely smiled at the joke. She had already made a decision about her studies. She went to her various teachers and servants and thanked them for their praise and questions (after all, it had been a little less than twenty years since any unicorn besides Umbra moved the moon, and they couldn't go up and ask her). And she answered each kindly, and then after she had satisfied all of them she moved up to the Doctor and put her hoof up to his. "Doctor."
"Princess."
"So, how do you like it?" Luna turned in a circle, showing off her sparkling tail and mane.
"Yes... It's... you're beautiful Luna."
Luna smiled, and then returned back to normal, and the Doctor's expression hadn't changed. Luna looked at the Doctor and leaned forward, kissing him.
The Doctor's eyes widened, and he looked at her curiously, as if he didn't really understand. Then he shook his head and a little bit of a smile appeared. "Luna..."
"Run." Luna said simply. Blushing a little, but not looking embarrassed.
The Doctor's smile grew full and wide as the outside world reappeared and all it's sounds as well, the staff gasping, Celestia falling over, Discord giggling, and the deafening voice of pure rage of the white and blue flaming Alicorn charging toward him. He summoned his wings, shot into the air, dodging the blue-hot rage of the frenzied Alicorn, and shot forward, spinning around a castle tower, getting low enough to run on the sun pedestal for a few steps before taking back into the air seamlessly, and pulling out his Sonic. It glowed blue for a second, and the Doctor flew as fast as he could toward the horizon, and his wings burned with effort, but he didn't feel tired. He sent a glimpse behind him and saw that Orbitus was still chasing him. But he heard the sound of whooshing, and smiled as open doors appeared instantaneously in front of him. He flew in without stopping, and only turned his head to see the confused and enraged face of the king before the Tardis disappeared. He crashed into the swimming pool and surfaced twenty seconds later, shivering. He dispelled his wings and shook himself dry.
He trotted over to the Tardis's controls and smiled. He wouldn't be seeing Luna in a while, just as she wouldn't see him for a while. Fair's fair. Luna loved him. He knew that he'd eventually get involved with her, but... He didn't think it would happen like this. Not that he had any objections. Luna loved him. The Doctor sighed, and began sobbing next to the Tardis's controls.
Oh Riversong, oh Rose... and so many others, in past lives, in histories he could only see as an observer. Riversong had told him of her last moments when they first met... but he spent more than a hundred years with her, and they were happy. They never had a child, (but not for lack of trying), but they were married, two time travelers, moving in opposite directions, she died when he first met her, and he had already spent their last day together. He was whatever the male form of a widow is. And Rose already had someone to love, even if it was a human clone of himself. In another universe another version of him spent his life with her. He was widowed twice... heck, more times over the millennia. He wasn't betraying anyone if he now chose to love Luna.
And he found he did love her. He would come back in maybe ten years, when she's an adult, if not in body, then at least in spirit and in law. And he would wait for her in body. They were two immortals, one with the greatest patience, and the other with the tools to cross great distances of time in seconds. It was a match made in heaven. He would come back someday, when her father's rage had cooled, and when she was ready for it. For them, together. Somewhere, everywhere.
He wrote a psychic note and sent it to the piece of paper that he had given Luna when she was ten. She said she kept it in her dresser drawer. Luna wouldn't think he abandoned her, just that now, instead of her waiting for his next visit, he was waiting for hers, when she felt it was the right time for her to come to him. And then they would go off together, or maybe just stay there in Unicornia. Screw paradoxes in history, the Doctor was in love.
Nothing could possibly go wrong.