Chapter 2: Twilight's Patient
Home of Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville, Equestria, Gaia, Spring, 1002 C.E.
The mysterious stallion had been lying, unconscious, in Twilight's guest bed for a whole day now. Twilight had been forced to take the following day off from work in order to take care of the mysterious pony. Luna had sent a note to Princess Celestia telling her that she'd be staying in Ponyville until the Summer Sun Celebration. Spike insisted once that they should take the stallion to a doctor but Luna refused because he was mysterious and she wanted answers from him. Twilight agreed with the Princess and was also dying of curiosity.
It was now the early evening of the day following the stallion's arrival in Ponyville. There was a knock on the door and Spike answered it. Luna was quick to enter the house and shut the door.
"Anything new?" she called upwards.
"No, Luna. Nothing!" replied Twilight from upstairs. Spike led Luna upstairs to the room where Twilight was keeping the stallion. He was still fast asleep and was showing no signs of waking up. "Every now and again that mysterious golden gas comes out of his mouth but, other than that, nothing else happens. He just sleeps."
"Have you tried to collect and study the gas?"
"Numerous times. It evaporates too quickly for me to contain it in something."
"What about the box? Have you tried opening it?"
"Yes!" Spike groaned. "We've used many different methods, both physical and magical, but that box just won't open. I assume there's an incredibly powerful curse on it."
"Enough with the curses, Spike!" Twilight snapped. Spike backed down and stepped back a couple feet.
"Oh...I'm sorry, Spike. I'm just really anxious. All of this couldn't have happened at a worse time! I mean there's only two days left until the Summer Sun Celebration and I'm stuck in my house playing nurse to a strange stallion who crashed a blue box into my bookcase!"
"I can understand your frustration," said Luna as she put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder.
"Thank you, Luna."
Luna looked over towards the stallion's bedside table and noticed a metallic, cylindrical device with a lightbulb-like tip.
"What is that?" she asked.
"No idea. We found it in one of his coat pockets," Spike replied.
"I wonder what it does."
Luna levitated the device with her horn and pointed it at a nearby chest. She noticed a button on the device and used her magic to click it. The device emanated a strange sound and the chest opened up.
"So...it unlocks stuff?" Spike asked.
"This is not like any type of magic that I've seen before," said Luna as she put the device down on the stallion's bedside table.
"I don't believe it's magical at all," said Twilight.
"What do you mean?"
"I believe it's a technological device, and a very advanced one at that."
"Maybe he knows something about your letter from the future!" Spike guessed.
"We'll find out shortly," said Twilight. Spike and Luna fell silent as Twilight proceeded to continue her examination of the stallion. Several minutes passed until she gave a long sigh and stepped back from the bed. "He's definitely not waking up anytime soon. Maybe you were right, Spike."
"Told you I was right! Wait...what was I right about?" he asked.
"I think you were right when you said we should have taken him to a doctor."
Just then, the stallion sat up and expelled a massive cloud of golden gas from his mouth which then proceeded to fly out a nearby open window.
"Did someone call me?" he asked as Twilight, Spike, and Luna jumped with surprise.
Carriage Road, Outskirts of Ponyville, Equestria, Gaia, Spring, 1002 C.E.
The air was calm and still as an earth pony named Oak Ridges walked down the deserted path. He could just make out the outlines of the buildings of Ponyville off in the distance. His orange coat and dark black hair made him stick out of the empty green scenery like a dragon in a chicken coop. He was busy tugging a wagon full of bottles of his special cow milk. He visited Ponyville once a month to restock the milk inventory of the town. He could tell that summer was definitely on the way for the sun cast its heat down on him without any type of mercy. He groaned as he stumped his front right hoof on the tip of a jagged rock.
"Ugh!" he complained. "Stupid path. Those Ponyville folk really need to make this a more comfortable road."
He shook he head and wiped the sweat from his forehead. After a long breath he continued his trek down the long path.
He began to complain about the path again when he noticed something strange. Something on the side of the road caught Oak Ridges's eye and he stopped to examine it. It was a patch of air that looked and acted like the surface of a pond. The air rippled and folded across itself as if it were alive. Oak put his hoof up to the patch of air and felt something that resembled that of liquid rubber. The rippling air then unzipped like a jacket and a hole full of blinding light appeared. Oak covered his eyes as a strange creature crawled out from the hole. Once the creature had fully squeezed its way through the hole, the air patch disappeared with the hole.
The creature that stood before Oak was something that he had never seen before. It was a strange metallic being with a dome-like top, an eye that extended like a telescope, several metallic circles on its body, and a suction cup and a strange rod, resembling a stretched egg beater, sticking out from its front chest.
"What in the name of Celestia?" breathed the surprised Oak. The creature turned towards Oak and approached him, moving along the ground as if it had wheels for feet.
"WHAT IS MY CURRENT DESTINATION?!" asked the creature with a loud, metallic voice. "EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"
"You're...you're...you're in Equestria."
"EQUESTRIA?! I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A PLANET!"
"Oh...it's not a planet. It's a country...though a very large country. Our planet is named Gaia."
"GAIA?! THERE IS NO SUCH PLANET!"
"But...but there is. You're...standing on it."
The creature turned around in a circle and pointed it's telescopic eye up to the sky. Oak felt incredibly uncomfortable around the creature and desperately wanted to walk past it and just complete his job.
"Well...if you don't mind, sir, I'm just going to head off on my way," he choked. The creature seemed to ignore Oak and Oak took it as a silent goodbye. He prepared to continue walking to Ponyville when a strange cloud of golden gas flew towards them. Oak noticed that it came from the direction of Ponyville and he wondered what it was. The creature caught sight of the dust and watched as it disappeared into thin air. Oak shrugged his shoulders and prepared to leave but the creature got in his way.
"WHAT?! WHAT?! THE DOCTOR?! THE DOCTOR IS HERE?!" it screamed.
"Well...there is a doctor in Ponyville," Oak choked.
"WHERE IS THIS PONYVILLE?!"
"It's that town just over there."
"THE DOCTOR IS THERE?!"
"Well there's a doctor. I think his name is Ginger Coat."
"NO! NO! THE DOCTOR'S HERE! YOU KNOW WHERE HE IS! TELL ME! TELL ME!"
"The only doctors I know are Ginger Coat and my own just a few miles back. She's named Amber Cross."
"NO! NO! NO! NO! THE DOCTOR! THE DOCTOR! GIVE ME THE DOCTOR!"
"I don't know anypony by the name of the Doctor."
"LIAR! LIAR! YOU WILL TELL ME! YOU WILL TELL ME!"
"I don't know who or what you're looking for and, if you don't mind, I'll just be on my way!"
Oak turned away from the creature and began to walk away when it aimed the metal rod on its chest at him. Before Oak could react, a beam of green light shot out of the rod and hit Oak. He screamed in agony and then dropped to the ground, dead. The creature turned way from Oak's body and looked at the outline of Ponyville in the distance.
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" cried the creature as it started rolling its way towards the unsuspecting town.
Home of Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville, Equestria, Gaia, Spring, 1002 C.E.
Twilight, Spike, and Luna couldn't take their eyes off the suddenly awakened stallion. He cocked his head a bit and chuckled.
"Strange. I seem to have ended up in a world home to anthropomorphic equines. Extraordinary!" the stallion exclaimed. He then proceeded to examine his body and began to laugh gleefully at the sight of it. "Oh my! I've regenerated into a horse myself! Incredible! Life's just full of surprises!" He then looked towards a nearby mirror and examined his mane. "Blast! Still not ginger! Who knew I'd become a horse before I became a ginger? Well dark brown seems to suit me just fine so I can live with that for now." He then examined Twilight, Spike, and Luna more closely and laughed in an even happier tone. "There are dragons in this world too? And these equines have horns and wings! Pegasi and unicorns! The humans were on to something after all! Marvelous! Truly marvelous!"
"You know, we can hear every word that you're saying," said a slightly annoyed Spike.
"What? Oh yes. I've forgotten my manners. Waking up after a good regeneration can do that to someone. I'm the Doctor."
"Doctor? Doctor...who?" asked Twilight.
"Doctor nothing. I'm just the Doctor."
"Okay...well my name is Twilight Sparkle. This is my assistant and close friend, Spike, and this is the co-ruler of our land, Princess Luna."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Doctor," said Luna.
"The pleasure is mine also," said the Doctor. "So...do you co-rule this land of...what's the name of this land?"
"Equestria."
"Ah. Interesting name. Anyway, do you co-rule this land of Equestria with your mother, the Queen?"
"No. It's just my older sister, Princess Celestia, and I."
"So do you and your sister have a mother and/or father ruling this land from far away or-"
"Like I said, it's just Celestia and I."
"Then shouldn't that make you queens?"
"Excuse me?"
"Well it only makes sense for your proper names to be Queen Celestia and Queen Luna since there is nobody ruling over you."
"Nopony," Twilight corrected.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You said nobody. The correct term is nopony."
"Nopony?"
The Doctor then fell back on his pillow and gave out a hearty laugh.
"Nopony she says! That's what you've got to say around here?! That's brilliantly different! I'll have to get used to this!" he exclaimed joyfully. "So, what, do you say anypony and everypony also?"
"Actually yes," Twilight replied. The Doctor laughed again before sitting back up.
"I apologize for that sudden outburst. I'm sure I just offended you in some way. I tend to do that often."
"That doesn't surprise me," groaned Spike.
"Anyway, the correct titles for you and your sister should be Queen Celestia and Queen Luna."
"Excuse me, but we have been known as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna since the beginning of our reign and we will not change it just because a strange earth pony thinks that's not the correct title," snapped Luna.
"Okay. Whatever you say, Princess Luna."
"Cut the garbage, Doctor," said Twilight.
"Hmm?"
"I've been taking care of you for well over a day and I want some answers! Just who in Celestia's name are you?!"
"Oh so there's no belief of God in this world."
"What?"
"Oh nothing to worry your minds over."
"I'll ask you again. Who are you?"
"I told you who I am. I'm the Doctor."
"I'm pretty sure that's not your real name."
"Trust me, Tiffany. That's the name I've used for many many years. Well I've also used John Smith but that's another story."
"Tiffany? My name's Twilight. Twilight Sparkle."
"But you look so much like a Tiffany. Okay I won't call you that. What about Lavender?"
"No."
"Thalia?"
"No."
"Hermione?"
"No."
"What about Susan? You definitely look like a Susan."
"NO! My name's Twilight Sparkle and I will go by no name other than that!"
"Not even Twilight Flopple?" Spike teased. Twilight glared at the little dragon and he proceeded to back off nervously.
"Okay. Twilight it is. I'd still prefer Susan though," said the Doctor.
"We'll ask you again!" snapped Luna as she towered over the Doctor. "Who are you? What are your origins? Where are you from? What's that mysterious blue box downstairs?"
"Blue box? It's called the TARDIS."
"TARDIS?" Spike asked.
"Yes. TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It's my ship."
"Your...ship?"
"Yes."
"Can you show us the inside of your...uh...ship?" Twilight asked. The Doctor was about to respond when a low grumble emanated from his belly.
"I'm sorry but I'm terribly famished and in need of a warm muffin with butter. Maybe several," he chuckled. "Is there a place where I can get a good muffin?"
"Well there's Sugar Cube Corner," said Spike.
"Sugar Cube Corner? The mere name of that place gives me a cavity! Sounds good. Here's the deal. You take me to this Sugar Cube Corner for some muffins and I'll tell you everything about my origins and show you the inside of my TARDIS. Do we have a deal, Twilight Sparkle?"
Twilight rolled her eyes and groaned.
"Deal," she moaned.
"Excellent! Off to Sugar Cube Corner! I actually feel some of my masculinity slip away every time I say that name!"
The Doctor hopped out of bed and happily trotted out of the room and down the stairs.
"You know, I have to agree with him on this one. I could use a muffin myself," said Spike as he followed the Doctor downstairs. Twilight and Luna looked at each other and then followed the Doctor and the dragon out of the room, down the stairs, and out the door.