//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 - The Librarian and the Mailpony // Story: Professor Whooves: Episode 1 - First Contact // by Luigilewis889 //------------------------------// The Professor came to with a splitting headache. Groaning, she turned on her side and ran her hoof through her mane. Shaking her head to clear any confusion out of it, she started to open her eyes, before snapping them open with realisation. ’Hoof? Mane? What?’ Getting straight up onto her legs… or hooves, as it were, she immediately looked around for some sort of reflective surface. She was in what looked to be a bedroom, as she had been sleeping on the bed. A desk sat on one of the walls, with a mirror and window above it. Bookshelves lined the rest of the room. ’A mirror. Perfect-o.’ She peered into the mirror and was startled to see a brown pony peer back. Muttering a comment about how she still wasn’t ginger, she looked over what appeared to be her new form. With a light brown coat, dark brown mane, blue eyes, and what appeared to be a picture of an hourglass on her behind, she wasn’t exactly in her normal form. “Maybe I’ve regenerated again. Hold on… nope. Still me. Wait, it could be a form shift. That’s more likely. But what caused it? Transferring universes? I’ll have to look into that. Or maybe, since I was still early in the regeneration, I accidently shifted forms,” she started to babble to herself, “Wait, that voice sounds kind of funny, and quite young too. I swear all my regenerations are just getting younger every time. One of these days I’m going to wake up looking like a nine year old. Ooh, look, an hourglass. That’s... amazing! Why’s there an hourglass tattoo there? Not a normal place to put a tattoo, I imagine…” Her constant babbling was cut short by a knocking at the door and a slightly hesitant, but distinctly male voice calling out, “Good afternoon, miss. Are you awake?” “Yeah, I’m reasonably certain I’m awake,” she replied “…Reasonably certain?” “Well, I’ve been wrong before.” She turned around as the door opened to allow a purple, no, wait, purplish unicorn to walk in. “Well, there’s something you don’t get to see every day,” she muttered. “What was that?” The unicorn questioned. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Sooooooo, what’s your name?” she quickly answered. “Dusk Shine, librarian of the Books and Branches library of Ponyville. And you?” ’Ponyville? Dusk Shine? Odd names. Wonder what that’s about. Have to find out. Maybe a book or something. Good thing I’m apparently in a library. Hopefully the returns policy is rather lax,’ the Professor thought, before replying, “I’m the Professor.” Dusk looked at the strange mare. She was standing a little oddly, as if she’d never stood before. The main thing that he was puzzled about, among an increasing pile of the things, was the name. “Professor who? And of what?” he asked. “Just the Professor, thank you. And as of what, well, uhhh, everything? Except for archaeology. Definitely not archaeology,” was her reply. She looked vaguely hopeful, as if she was hoping that he would just accept the answer. However, he wasn’t going to leave it at that. “How can you be a professor at everything? That’s impossible.” “Well, Dusk Shine, when you regularly do impossible things like me, the impossible becomes, well, possible. It’s a simple matter, really.” “…Care to elaborate?” “Not really. Anyways, is there something you wanted?” “I was just checking to see if you were-“ Dusk was cut off by a loud, high pitched scream. The strange mare quickly swung here head towards the door. “Wait, hold on. Don’t think you can just-“ Dusk tried to say, before being cut off by the Professor darting past her and through the door, pausing for a second to ask, “Coming?” before continuing. Dusk stared at the empty doorframe for a few seconds longer, before racing after her. Dusk ran towards the scream he had heard. He had left Spines back at the library, and was hoping that he’d run into one of his friends. Turning a corner, he found himself at what was presumably the scene of the crime. Not that there was much of a scene left. Long marks in the ground, as if a pony had been dragged, were all that remained. Dusk was about to set off in the direction of the drag marks when the odd mare from earlier, the ‘Professor’, came barrelling round a corner and crashed into him. “Oooof! Hey! Watch it!” Dusk yelled. “Sorry, sorry, just need to grab my soniiiiii… Ah,” she answered, a look of realisation that something might have not gone according to plan coming across her face. “Your what?” Dusk asked, ever so slightly confused. You know, just slightly. “Doesn’t matter, no point wasting valuable time. Righty-o, come on. A solution’s not going to fall out of the sky,” the madmare announced, before receiving an express air-mail package straight to the head, knocking her out cold. The Professor bolted straight up, to find the purplish unicorn from earlier, Dusk Shine, joined by a grey stallion with wings, and a tattoo of several rising bubbles. The newcomers blond hai-mane was slightly unkempt, and his yellowish eyes were… well, his right eye was looking at the Professor. His left eye seemed to have found something very interesting in the sky. “Sorry miss, I just don’t know what went wrong,” the grey pony offered a hoof with a brown package, “I’m Derpy Doo, mailpony. Here’s your mail Miss Professor.” “Thanks, and it’s just the… Wait a minute. How do you,” at this, the Professor jabbed a hoof at the grey pony, “know what my name is? Did Dusk tell you? Have I met you before?” “Nope! It’s on your mail. Special delivery on orders from Prince Artemis! Here you go,” Derpy handed, err, hoofed over the package and letter to the Time Lord, and saluted at this, and Dusk did a double take at the name. “Prince Artemis! The Prince knows this pony? Sorry miss… Professor. I didn’t know. Please don’t make the Prince banish me,” Dusk started panicking, before the Professor interrupted him. “It’s alright, haven’t met the bloke yet. Wonder what adventures we’ll get up to.” Ignoring anything said by the evidently confused Dusk Shine, and the slightly out-of-touch Derpy, the Professor began to open her package to find a letter and… “A waistcoat! With pockets! That is AMAZING! Oooh, there’s stuff in the pockets.” Slipping on the waistcoat, she went through the pockets to find… “A screwdriver!” A grey distinctly-not-screwdriver stick with an orange crystal at the end, embedded. The chassis seemed to be made of some form of metal, but was smooth, save for a single button, “And slightly psychic paper!” A simple black wallet with a sheet of paper that held the words ‘Slightly Psychic Paper’ on them, “And a pack of jammy dodgers! Amazing! Let’s see what the letter says.” She picked up the letter and began to read aloud… Dear Professor, At this point in time, you will not know what is going on, and it is not our my place to tell you. However, We I can tell you this; the two ponies you currently find yourself in the presence of are trustworthy. Take the librarian and the mailpony with you as your companions. -Prince Artemis, Monarch of Equestria, Lunar God, Future friend The Professor looked up from the note at the two ponies, looking at her with wide eyes. “Hmm. Well, that cleared up a bit. Not much, but a bit. Anyways, screwdriver. Let’s figure something out, shall we?” the Professor asked, before immediately continuing, “Of course we shall.” Before either of the stallions could react, she pulled out the Sonic with a hoof and pushed on the button, muttering a comment on not questioning the physically impossible. A high-pitched buzz came from the device. “What are you doing? What’s that? Who ARE you?” Dusk asked, but had long since given up on expecting a straight answer. “Just giving a quick scan of the-“ the Sonic gave a loud beep, and the Professor glanced in the direction it was pointing. The direction of the tracks. “Well, that was a bit obvious. Righty-o! Come on!” The Time Lord dashed in the direction of the tracks, the mailpony and the librarian following her hoofsteps. Towards the Everfree Forest.