//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Doctor Hooves: To Whom Gods Pray // by M1ghtypen //------------------------------// The TARDIS touched down in Ponyville. The Doctor had decided to give the quaint little town a final farewell after it had safely hidden the two of them for over two years. Ditzy decided to dress up a bit since, as far as she could tell, this was their first date. The Doctor fiddled with his computer while he waited for her, electing to wear his usual tie and not bother with anything else. His mind wandered while he worked until, completely by accident, he came upon a very startling truth: Discord had planned the last few days years in advance. He had been guiding Screwball from the very beginning. The fob watches had been mixed up on his orders. It had caused the Doctor to hear drums, but the Master had been influenced as well. He had been distracted by his temporary victories and hadn’t actually gotten around to hurting anypony apart from a few very unlucky guards. It was exactly the sort of misguided attempt at minimizing casualties that a psychopath might make. Meanwhile, the Doctor had introduced Celestia to the Cyberpony’s technology. She now had what she needed to protect Equestria from Discord without imprisoning him. “Clever old mule,” he muttered. His train of thought derailed as he noticed something odd on the TARDIS’s display. The Doctor tapped the screen with his hoof. A flare of static obscured Ditzy’s entry in the passenger directory, then disappeared. Now her species was correctly recorded as “PNY-3J, Class 2”. “What’s the matter?” Ditzy asked. The Doctor had been so distracted that she’d snuck up on him. “Something’s wrong with the sensor array,” he sighed. “I’m going to have to fix it soon. That’s going to be a real pain…in the…um.” Ditzy hadn’t been able to do much with her hair in such a short amount of time, but the dress she’d picked out was stunning. The TARDIS blue fabric flowed down her back and over her legs like a waterfall, trimmed with lace and a few small, navy blue bows. She’d picked out a similarly colored top hat to complete the outfit. “It’s a bit silly isn’t it?” she asked, her face turning a deeper shade of red with every passing second. “I thought blue would be fitting, but it doesn’t match my coat.” “You look beautiful,” the Doctor assured her. He planted a gentle kiss next to her mouth. “Shall we?” They were able to make it through town without any serious interruptions. Many of the residents of Ponyville noticed that “Horatio Hooves” and his friend were paying each other an unusual amount of attention, but they politely refrained from commenting. The Doctor’s new wings were difficult to notice under his saddlebags, and Ditzy’s dress added an extra distraction so that nopony noticed the change. Just as they were settling on a good place to eat, the Doctor froze in his tracks. “What’s the matter?” Ditzy asked. “It’s nothing.” The Doctor straightened his tie and tried unsuccessfully to smooth his mane back. “I’m just imagining things.” “No you aren’t!” Ditzy insisted. “I know that look: something’s bothering you. What is it, Doctor?” The Doctor held a hoof to his lips. “It’s coming from the hospital. Follow me and try not to make a scene; there’s no need to upset anypony if they aren’t in danger.” ***** Ponyville Hospital was built on a little hill overlooking the town. Ditzy had always wondered why the hospital was slightly isolated from the rest of Ponyville, not to mention why the security guards always seemed so jumpy. The Doctor pulled out a small faux-leather wallet out of his saddlebags. The psychic paper inside was a Time Lord invention that could show anypony whatever the Doctor needed them to see. “Inspector Hooves,” he told the nurse at the front desk. “This is my assistant. What happened here?” The earth pony squinted at the slip of paper in the Doctor’s wallet and ushered them inside. “We aren’t really sure,” she sighed. “One of the patients snapped last night. She broke out of her restraints, hurt one of the guards, and disappeared. We’re searching the grounds for her, but so far we haven’t turned up anything.” “Show me her room.” The nurse obediently led them upstairs and into the hospital’s psych ward. “We’ve never had any trouble from this patient in the past,” she explained as they walked. “She’s always been very friendly and cooperative. She's even become something of a mascot around here. I think we may have gotten too comfortable with her. After seeing what she did to that guard….” The nurse shivered. “Poor Vigilance.” At the end of a long, foreboding hallway was an equally foreboding safety door. “That’s her room. I’m downstairs if you need anything.” The nurse disappeared, eager to be far away from the scene of what must have been a very brutal attack. “Can you smell that?” the Doctor asked. He gave the door a lick as he pulled it open. “The whole room is saturated with chaos magic.” Ditzy sniffed curiously as the door. “It smells sweet,” she said. “Like when we freed Discord.” “That’s what caused it, I imagine.” The doctor stared as a row of claw marks that marred the inside of the door. “Hang on, do you mean to tell me that you can smell chaos magic now?” “I guess so. Am I not supposed to?” The Doctor pulled the door open all the way. “I don't know, but let's not get distracted. We’ve got other things to worry about right now.” The little room was a disaster zone. The protective padding on the walls had been torn apart and painted with a mixture of black ink and a suspicious brownish-red substance. That’s definitely not blood, Ditzy thought. Nope. Not blood. Not thinking about blood. It's cranberry juice or something. The writing was nearly as disturbing as the ink. The words ‘BAD DOG’ were scrawled above the bed. “Barking mad,” Ditzy read aloud, looking some of the smaller writing. “Howling at the moon, darkness comes…Doctor, look at this one!” The Doctor stood on the bed and rose up on his hind legs. “Help me doctor,” he read. “That’s a rather interesting coincidence.” He tried to reach the writing with his hoof and came up nearly a foot short. “Whoever did this had to be very tall.” “What should we do?” Ditzy asked. “We don’t need to do anything,” he answered. “This has nothing to do with us, and I promised you dinner.” “I suppose you did,” she sighed. “Besides, I don’t think I could run in this dress.” The pair surveyed the room in silence, tension mounting by the moment. “Rain check?” Ditzy asked tentatively. The Doctor took off down the hallway, galloped all the way to the front desk, and demanded to know where the injured security guard had been taken. Ditzy followed with a blissful smile. This is the way things are meant to be, she reflected. He deserves to be happy. Even if we have to part ways eventually, the time leading up to it is going to be wonderful. I'll make sure of it. He's been through too many bad times in his life. A pang of sadness made her pause and she pressed a hoof to her midsection. Maybe he isn't the only one. ***** Aaaand that's it! What do you think? I've got plans for a continuing series of "Dr. Whooves" stories, ending with the event foreshadowed here. The next one is "Dr. Whooves: The Old and the Bold", followed by my OTP. I'm actually really happy with the latest episode of the show, by the way. We got to see Screw Loose again, and her condition appears to have improved. That's surprisingly heartwarming for a three second cameo appearance. I also like it because...well, I think we all know who was in that padded room. I'm also working on a comedy story or two, just to shake things up a bit. Look for that one soonish. Maybe it will be good enough to be on EQD! That would be pretty neat. So that's all for now. Thank you all very much for taking the time to read this. Look for the next little piece by me to be up in a week or two. Later, fellow true believers!