"But Doctor," Derpy said, trying to remain calm, "You used to live with these humans. How bad could they be?"
The Doctor quickly glanced at the scanner before answering her. "Well not all of them are bad. Many of them are brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. But humanity has a dark side, as do many species. Unfortunately, humanity tends to let it out more often than others."
Suddenly something on the console dinged. The Doctor looked at the noise and suddenly brightened up. "Oh how about that? The medical bay is done patching up our bi-pedal visitor! He'll be waking up in a minute or two."
Derpy blinked in confusion. "Bi what?"
"Bi-pedal. They walk on two legs."
"Oh."
The Doctor quickly left the room and headed down to the medical area with Derpy quickly following behind. They soon arrived at the room, but the Doctor stopped outside the door and wouldn't let Derpy in. The human inside was beginning to stir. The Doctor walked over to the panel next to the door and pressed a few buttons. A small ding sounded and a microphone extended in front of them. The Doctor then began to speak into it.
"Just relax. You're fine. We found you passed out and carried you in here."
"Doctor, aren't you in there talking to him," Derpy asked.
The Doctor covered the microphone. "Humans are a bit unpredictable, and they don't particularly like situations where they don't know what's going on. He might react violently. I'm doing this to try to keep him calm before we tell him what's going on."
The human inside looked around, blinked, and then rubbed his eyes. He looked around the room again, his eyes going wider the more he observed. Suddenly he was up on his feet, his chest heaving as he began to panic.
"What the hell?!" he yelled. "Where the hell am I?!"
The Doctor spoke again. "Just relax. You're fine. My assistant and I found you outside our ship, and we took you in to patch you up."
"Just who the hell are you?! Why can't I see you?!"
"I'm the Doctor, and before you ask, it's just The Doctor."
"How can I be sure you aren't going to hurt me?"
Derpy decided to speak this time. "Oh don't be silly. Why would we want to hurt you?"
The human paused for a second. "I don't know. But if you really don't want to hurt me, then show yourselves."
The Doctor moved Derpy away from the mic. "We will, but you need to understand something first. You are a long way from home. I can explain, but you have to promise you won't freak out and you'll listen to everything I tell you calmly."
"I'm in a room I've never seen before and I'm pretty sure the door is locked so I have no way of getting out. I really don't think I have much choice but to be calm."
The Doctor smiled. "Great! We'll be on our way in then! Oh but before we go in, I have to ask you. What's your name?"
"Josh."
"Nice to meet you Josh."
"Well I can't say the same. You've told me your name Doctor, what about your assistant? The one with the cute voice."
Derpy blushed a bit before answering, "My name is Derpy."
Josh looked puzzled. "...Derpy."
"We can save introductions for a proper greeting. Time for us to meet face to face," The Doctor said.
The Doctor turned off the microphone. Derpy stopped the Doctor before he began to walk towards the door. "Wait, don't you think we should explain what's happened first Doctor?"
"Oh we'll be fine. From my experience humans deal better with news when there is a face behind the voice telling them the news."
"If you say so."
"I do. Now let's go. No need to keep Josh waiting."
The Doctor walked over to the door and opened it. He and Derpy walked inside, and Josh stared at them with a confused expression. Finally he said, "Haha. Very funny Doctor. Now where are you really? Am I supposed to walk out the door?"
"No. I'm right here," the Doctor replied.
Joshs jaw dropped and he sat down on the bed. "Wh-... Di-Did that horse just talk?!"
"Hey!" Derpy said. "That's offensive! I'm a pony!"
"Oh yeah, cause that's totally different!" Josh snapped back. "What the hell is going on here?! Where am I, and why are there talking ponies!"
The Doctor walked up to him and placed a hoof on Josh's leg. "Just relax. I'll explain everything. Now listen carefully, cause I'm only going to explain this once. Understand?"
Josh nodded, and the Doctor walked back next to Derpy. "Derpy," he said to her. "You know where the kitchen is. Can you go make some muffins while I explain things here?"
Derpy smiled at the prospect of muffins. "Sure thing Doctor! What kind should I make?"
"Surprise me."
Derpy nodded happily and flew out of the room. The Doctor turned back to Josh and cleared his throat before launching into his explanation.
"First thing you need to know is that the universe you come from isn't the only one out there. There are an infinite number of universes covering all the different possibilities the world could have taken. Yours is just a drop in the ocean."
Josh had to stop him here. "Wait. So you're saying I'm in a different universe? One with talking ponies?"
"Yes."
Josh started to rub his temples. "Agh. Either that or I'm currently sleeping. Or drunk...or both."
The Doctor smiled a bit before continuing. "Anyways. The next thing you need to know is that I'm a time traveler. Not just any time traveler. The time traveler."
Josh stopped rubbing his temples and looked up. "Ok now I know this is a drunken dream. Time travel? Seriously? That's impossible. Next you'll be telling me you aren't actually a pony."
"Well if you want to get technical, I'm not."
"What?"
"I only look like a pony. I'm what's known as a time lord."
"Ok seriously? Even if I buy the fact that I'm in another universe, which I don't, now I'm supposed to believe you're a time lord? That sounds like something I'd see in a comic book."
"Whether or not you believe me is entirely up to you. As I said, I'm only going to explain this once, so I'll be moving on now."
Josh resumed rubbing his temples. "Go on."
"Thank you. Now the ship we are in now is called the TARDIS. It's my time machine, space ship and home. TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space."
"Get to the part where you explain how I got here."
The Doctor frowned for a bit. He hated being interrupted. "Fine. Derpy and I were traveling through the time vortex where a problem occurred. We strayed a bit to close to a rift, which is a crack in time and space. The TARDIS is a very powerful machine and accidentally fell through. The rift leads to other worlds and can only be crossed by extremely powerful machinery."
The Doctor decided to omit the part where this was Derpy's fault. It would make things easier in the long run.
Josh looked up at the Doctor and asked, "What does that have to do with me?"
"Well, I was able to quickly get us back through. Normally a quick cross like that shouldn't have any sort of consequence. Unfortunately, the TARDIS had already partially landed, and it took a bit more power than normal to come back through. Unfortunately that caused the rift to open a bit wider than normal and it began to suck whatever was close by. That just happened to be you."
Josh seems to be taking all this very well, the Doctor thought. Then again you never know with humans. He might be trying to convince himself he's drunk.
Josh was actually accepting all this with unnatural complacency. He was never one to get too worked up over things, and had long since decided that this wasn't a dream or a drunken illusion. "So," he finally said, "Can you take me back?"
The Doctor began to look uncomfortable. "Unfortunately not yet," he said. "It takes an enormous amount of power to get through and once we do, I would need to be able to get back. That would require having an extremely powerful anchor, and I don't have one available. I am working on it however, but for now you're going to have to stay in the TARDIS."
Josh looked puzzled again, "What?" he said, "Why can't I stay with any other humans?"
"The thing is..."
"Humans don't exist here do they?"
"No they don't. You are in the land of Equestria, where ponies of all shapes, sizes and colors live. They have earth ponies, which is what I resemble, pegasi, which is what Derpy is, and unicorns, which can do magic. Bit of an unfair advantage if you ask me."
"Well then I guess I have no choice but to stay here then."
"Exactly! You know, for a human, you are very sharp."
Josh decided not to comment until he figured out whether or not that was a compliment.
"So," The Doctor said, "If you'll follow me, I'll take you to the kitchen where we can have those muffins."
With that, the Doctor then left the room. Josh stood up and followed suit. After everything he had heard he only had one thought on his mind. This was going to be a very weird time.