Red warning lights flashed and a siren flared as the TARDIS hurtled through space. The Doctor darted around the central console as he frantically pushed the controls.
"Come on, stabilise!" urged the Doctor, almost hoping for the TARDIS to respond. She had been been running shakily for a while now and when he tried to get close to the Eye of Harmony to examine its stability, she completely lost control and the Doctor was unable to stop her flight.
He desperately stabbed at some more controls, trying anything to stop the TARDIS' rapid motion, but nothing was working.
"Maybe I shouldn't have thrown out the manual into a supernova," thought the Doctor, "wait, no, the section on spatial configuration had definitely been wrong. Besides, that manual assumed that there were six pilots, so unless he managed to acquire five extra pairs of arms (and considerably long ones at that) it would be useless. There was no way the Doctor could stop the TARDIS.
He had no other option than to try an emergency landing. He had no idea where he would end up , but he should be fine as long as the location of the landing wasn't somewhere dangerous. Of course, there was no guarantee that he would land somewhere safe. He shuddered to think what would happen if he ended up somewhere like Skaro or Sontar. He shook these thoughts out of his head before initiating the emergency land procedure. The floor started shaking violently as he braced himself for impact.
* * *
It was a bright, sunny day in Ponyville, and Rainbow Dash was taking a stroll on the outskirts of the town. Suddenly, a blue box appeared out of nowhere, right in front of her, causing her to jump with fright. When she recovered from the shock, she examined the box. It was a large cuboid, roughly twice the height of an average pony, and had eight small windows, two on each side. However, the windows were completely opaque, so Rainbow could not see what was inside, and they were also strangely high up. She wondered why anypony would put windows too high to see out of. There was also a door, put the box didn't look big enough to comfortably fit a pony inside. It had a light on the top, which was switched off, and the same words written above the windows on each side. The words were "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX".
She was about to open the door to see what was inside when the door opened and a strange creature stepped out. It stood on its two back legs, causing it to tower above her (which explained the shape of the box). It was dressed almost entirely in clothing, so that only its head and what should have been its front feet, but didn't look at all suited to use as feet. They like those things that monkeys had, whatever they were called. She didn't understand why it was wearing clothes, and especially why it was wearing so many. It completely lacked fur, but had a brown mane.
And it looked just as surprised as she was.
Rainbow reared up her front hooves for attack. She did not have any idea what this creature was but it looked like it could be dangerous.
"Whoa, whoa! Calm down!" the creature said, raising its... front feet. "I come in peace."
So it could talk.
"Oh really?" Rainbow asked. She was not convinced.
"Yes!" it answered, holding up a small piece of blank paper. "See? It says I am certified by your ruler to be here."
That's just a blank piece of paper."
"Oh" The creature looked confusedly at the paper. "Guess it doesn't work on horses," it muttered to itself.
"Look," Rainbow said. She was losing her patience. "What the hay are you?"
"Well... um..." the creature hesitated. It looked like it was trying to think of what to say. It finally just sighed and said: "I'm an alien."
"What?!" Rainbow exclaimed. That threw her off balance for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure. "I don't believe you. You're probably just something from outside Equestria."
"Equestria? Equus..." The creature looked up for a moment, before grinning. "And your a horse. Heh."
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing." The creature said with a slight grin.
"Anyway, you said you were an alien.
"Oh yes. I am, really."
"Next you'll be saying that that box is your spaceship."
"Well... it is."
"Whaaat?" She had not been expecting that. Then she smiled. "Let me see inside then."
"Er... that's probably not a good idea. It might be a shock."
But it was too late. Rainbow had already made her way to the door and pushed it open, revealing what was inside.
"Okay, what the buck?!"
It was bigger on the inside.
"See? Shocking isn't it?"
"You'd better tell me what's going on here, mister!" She was pretty sure by now that "it" was a "he".
"Right after you tell me where we are and where to find others such as yourself."
"Okay," she sighed. She now believed his story. "We're in Ponyville."
"Ponyville!"
"What about it?"
"You're a pony, living in Ponyville!"
"So?"
"That's funny!"
"I don't see anypony laughing."
"Wait, what did you just say?"
"I don't see anypony laughing."
"Oh..."
"What now"
"The fact that everything is named after horses here just got old."