The universe was not born alone.
Instead it was created as just one sibling of a huge family of could have beens, should have beens and would have beens. Alternatives and parallels of all kinds popped into existence during the first tiny fraction of a second of the multiverse’s life. Some differed only by the position of a virtual particle, so small a variance that you could walk between them without even noticing, as often occured. Other’s, however, differed at a fundamental level, their physical laws so incompatible that if they were to interact they would mutually annihilate.
For a time it seemed that the whole of creation would be destroyed in a universal genocide as the different realities consumed each other. However, the great old ones, the life forms that had come into existence with and in some cases before the universe itself, the eternals, the chronovores, the guardians and other even stranger beings stepped in and acted to save the fledgling multiverse. Walls were thrown up between the universes preventing their contact. The barriers between the simple alternatives were thin and relatively permeable allowing limited travel to the lesser races but the barriers between the innately incompatible universes were, by necessity, thick and strong. However, nothing is indestructible, the right force applied in the right place at the right time could still shatter them and bring about a cataclysm, although the odds of such an event was so tiny as to be almost impossible.
Such a place that force could be applied is the time vortex and in a way it doesn’t really exist. If it did exist it would be at once no place and all places, a mathematical impossibility which links all time and space throughout the universe. As such it is impossible for a simple three-dimensional creature to even conceive its structure yet alone view its 27 dimensions (9 spacial, 12 temporal, 4 probabilistic and 2 even more indescribable) the vortex can only be described in metaphor, and poorly at that.
Imagine a road network, infinitely long, winding, full of twists and turns, bending back upon itself, the walls of the track are crystalline, some pristine, some more cracks and chips than actual wall. To continue the metaphor, if you were to watch one particular stretch of the vortex you would see four vehicles cruising down the track. These vehicles, space time capsules known as TARDIS’s, were created by the Time Lords, one of the few species capable of traversing the vortex. The leading craft, a classic, if poorly maintained model, was violently lurching from side to side constantly changing course as if trying to avoid the three pursuing craft, which are much more sleeker modern designs. Or it could just be that the pilot of the older craft doesn’t know how to drive.
The lead TARDIS suddenly made a sharp turn along a probability axis caused a trailing image, its most likely position, to fly off in one direction, eagerly followed by its pursuers, while the physicality of the object collided head on with one of the already damaged walls.
Crack.
For a second the wall held then the damage caused by the collision and the damage due to be caused in crisis’s both past and future caught up with it and it shattered. Shards of reality stuff flew in all directions revealing a glowing whirlpool of spiraling sickly green energy, which it had once contained, this energy burst forth into the Vortex in glowing tentacles. The craft which had caused the damage was quickly engulfed. The TARDIS seemed, for a second, to fight against the draw of this force but then it was struck from behind by a ricocheting fragment of the wall and both it and the fragment were drawn into the hole leaving behind a jagged tear in reality, which slowly began to spread.
Crack.
“This weekend is not turning out to be as much fun as I thought it would be.”, thought Cheerilee. “This was supposed to be a weekend to do what I wanted. Laze about the house, catch up on my reading, a long hot bath, go out to a dance, and then, if I found the right partner, who knew what? However, Ditzy had to go out of town on a delivery and she’d asked me to look after Dinky. I should have said no but Dinky did that thing with her eyes and who can say no to that? I should have just stayed in and played a board game with her or something, but I decided to make it educational, as if I don’t do enough of that five days a week, it had to take up my Saturday as well. Dinky seems to be enjoying looking after Fluttershy’s animals, I thought, so lets go on a nature ramble to Whitetail woods. Then she goes and tells her friends about it and before I know it Raindrops is asking if her brother can come as well and then Heavy Roller tells me Scootaloo’s been bugging him about going and do I put my hoof down, no, good old kind hearted Cheerilee says of course they can both come as well, so here I am, spending my saturday in the woods, with a bunch of foals.”
One of the aforementioned foals was just now telling Cheerilee how he had fallen into a pond. “I was just looking at the tadpoles,” explained Snails, the lanky orange colt was soaking wet and covered in pondweed “I wanted to get a nice close look, then something bumped into me and splash, I was all wet.”
Cheerilee passed an annoyed gaze over the rest of her party of foals which came to rest on Scootaloo, the Orange pegasus filly was trying to look so innocent Cheerilee could almost make out a halo above her head.
“Sneep,” sneezed Dinky. That had been the first disaster of the day, the cute light purple unicorn filly had made a necklace of flowers when they first entered the woods but quickly found she was allergic to then, now her snout was red and inflamed. Oddly enough even the unicorns sneezes were adorable.
“Can we go home yet?” moaned Scootaloo, the only unharmed foal so far. She had been complaining all day and Cheerilee suspected that she had expected the trip to be to the Everfree Forest rather than Whitetail Woods.
“Now class,” said Cheerilee trying to put on her best teaching voice “There are still plenty of interesting plants and animals to see before we have to go.” She scraped some of the sopping greenery off of Snails “What do you want to go and see next?”
“I ‘ont to see some bunnies ‘ike Miss ‘uttershy’s Ang’l,” sniffed Dinky.
“How about some beatles?” suggested Snails pulling away from Cherelee and using his magic to lift a nearby rock to peer underneath.
“Who want’s to see boring beetles?” moaned Scootaloo, “Can’t we see something cool like a tiger or a manticore.”
“I don’t think that either of those creatures live in these woods,” began their teacher. “Now I’ve jinxed it,” she thought, quickly touching a nearby tree with one of her hooves.
“Beatles aren't boring,” interrupted Snails “There’s over 2500 species of beetle in these woods, the smallest is the Pashford pot beetle, Cryptocephalus exiguus and the largest is the Longhorn beetle, Batocera wallacei, they’re cool. My favourite are Bombardier's they shoot hot chemicals from their bottom!”
Dinky screwed her snout up in disgust, leading to another cute sneeze, but Scootaloo looked somewhat impressed by this nugget of knowledge. Cheerilee was shocked by the sudden flash of learning shown by one of her slower pupils. She opened her mouth to congratulate him when suddenly a strange groaning sound floated across the clearing making all of their ears prick up.
“‘ots dat?” asked Dinky.
Cheerilee was about to reply that she did not know when Snails started to gallop into the woods “That’s the call of the Catchian Barking toad,” he called back in excitement “They grow so big a pony can ride on their back, they’re cool.”
“A riding toad, that sounds awesome! Wait for me,” shouted Scootaloo as she set off after Snails.
“Wait!” called their teacher as she tried to run after the rapidly disappearing foals, however, her hoof slipped on the muddy side of the pond she had recently rescued Snails from and she flipped head over tail into the water. Gasping for breath she forced her head out of the slime, mane covered in weed and frogs spawn. “Ditzy so owes me for this,” she thought as she tried to clamber out of the muck.
Snails rushed into a clearing and was somewhat disappointed that it didn’t contain a giant slimy frog, it was infact empty, although the wheezing groaning sound continued to echo around the forest. Then slowly, before the surprised colt’s eyes, a shape faded into existence. For a second it seemed to flicker between a large blue box with a flashing light on top and a tree, as if whatever it was couldn’t decide what it should be, then, with a creaking sound, it’s form solidified into the box.
“Miss Trixie?” queried Snails looking around the area, “That was a real good trick, how’d you do it?” When he got no reply he walked over to the box and poked it with his hoof, it was gently vibrating.
There was a crashing sound behind him and Snails turned to see Scootaloo making her way into the clearing as well. “Did you find that frog thing?” she asked, “I want to try and ride it.”
Suddenly, a door opened in the side of the box and an old stallion stepped out. Unusually, for a pony outside of a formal environment, he was fully dressed wearing shirt, jacket and trousers which covered most of his coat and had an astrakhan hat jammed between his ears. His mane was white and his coat was grey, in fact all of him and his clothes were in an almost unnatural range of greys “Humm, watch what you are doing young..” he started angrily before blinking a few times, “foal?” he continued in surprise.
“What’s it like out there Grandfather?” came a feminine voice from within the box followed a few seconds later by a much younger unicorn. Like the stallion she was also coloured in a range of greys and likewise overdressed in a woolen dress and leggings.
“Grandfather!” she continued in shock looking at the old stallion “You’re a horse!” She looked down at herself, “I’m a horse to!” and then around the clearing, “They’re all little horses!”
Trying to hide his own surprise the older stallion examined his hooves “That is rather obvious don’t you think Susan, humm. This would appear to be a side effect of the conversion field I had to build to allow us to exist in this universe, yes, it apparently allows us to blend in with the locals, as it were.”
Susan bent her neck back to try and examine the rest of herself, “Why are we all grey?” she asked, “Is that another side effect, the rest of this place is so colourful.”
Her grandfather looked slightly abashed at this “Well, umm, I may have neglected to activate the colour saturation circuits in may haste to leave the ship, but I am sure I can fix that later.”
Realising that he had an audience the grey pony turned to the foals “I don’t suppose either of you fine, um, ponies, could tell me where we are, humm?”
“You’re weird,” said Scootaloo looking dubious.
“Yup,” agreed Snails, nodding his head.
“My granddaughter and I might appear somewhat outlandish to you but we are merely travellers from a very long way away and we appear to have gotten somewhat lost.”
“Well we’re from Ponyville, its about 5 miles that way,” said Scootaloo waving her hoof in the general direction of the town, “but this is Whitetail woods.”
“Ponyville,” said Susan, “I suppose the name makes sense. Is everyone on this world a pony then?”
Before anyone could answer there were further crashing sounds from the woods and a panting Cheerilee galloped into the clearing, mud covering much of her purple coat. Her pink mane was soaking wet, covered in pond weed and now had several twigs stuck into it. Following her Dinky looked much more subdued. “Children,” the teacher gasped, “What have I told you about running off?”
“Sorry, Miss Cheerilee,” chorused the errant foals looking abashed.
Turning to the other, oddly grayscale, occupants of the clearing she continued “Hi,” she said brightly, “I’m Cherelee, I hope that my students haven’t been causing you any trouble?”
“Not at all, young lady,” began the stallion with a short bow, “Please allow me to introduce myself, I am the Doctor and this is my grand daughter, Susan. We are travellers from a long way from here and we were just passing through when we came across these delightful foals. They were just telling us about this area.”
“What odd names,”, thought Cherlee, she didn’t think she’d ever met someone called Susan before. “Please to meet you, Mr Doctor. What brings you here?”
“Well Miss Sherilee, has anything odd occurred in this area recently, strange lights, anything falling from the sky?” asked the grey stallion as if this was the most normal thing in Equestria.
Cheerilee blinked, somewhat taken aback, “Its Cheerilee. We’ll a few months ago Corona returned from the sun and tried to take over Equestria and only a few weeks ago a giant star bear crushed a good chunk of the town but appart from that, nothing recent” she said with a nervous laugh.
“There is no need to be sarcastic with me, young woman” said the Doctor testily “I was just asking a perfectly reasonable question!”
“Look at that,” said Snails, looking at something behind the doctor.
“I wasn’t being sarcastic,” exclaimed the purple mare, “Those things did happen, why do you think the sun didn’t set for over 24 hours? Princess Luna forgot to put it away for the night?”
“Grandfather,” muttered Susan following Snails gaze.
“Not now Susan,” snapped the Doctor, “As I explained my granddaughter and I are travellers I don’t know anything about these Corona or Luna people and I doubt any recent astrological oddities on this planet are of my concern. I asked a perfectly civil question and expect a civil answer.”
“Um, Miss Cheerilee I think you should look at this,” pipped up Scootaloo tugging on her teachers leg.
“‘ou ‘ally should,” added Dinky.
“What is it children!” snapped Cheerilee, following their pointing legs, “Oh,” she gasped, as she saw a wolf shaped creature constructed out of a mish mash of pieces of broken and rotting wood, at least twice her height, looming over the group.
Following Cheerilee’s gaze the doctor turned as well to see the beast, “What is that creature?” he whispered to the teacher.
“Its a Timberwolf, I didn’t think they left the Everfree,” she hissed back.
Slowly, step by step the Timberwolf began to stalk towards it prey putting itself between them and the safety of the TARDIS.
“All of you get behind me,” commanded the Doctor. The terrified foal’s mutely obeyed while Cheerilee stepped up beside him putting herself between the monster and the children.
The Timberwolf took a further step forward and opened its mouth, releasing a stench of rotting vegetation, before roaring loudly enough to shake the trees. Susan’s nerve broke and she let out an ear piercing scream before running into the forest behind them, followed by the rest of the group. The plant creature seemed to be momentarily stunned by the sound but quickly took off in pursuit of the fleeing ponies.
“Keep together,” called Cheerilee as she zigzagged between trees. Ahead of her Susan suddenly tripped and with a scream went flying into the undergrowth.
“Susan! Are you alright child?” shouted the doctor as he stopped to examine his granddaughter.
The younger pony struggled to stand before gasping in pain, “I think I sprained my ankle,” she whimpered in reply.
“The rest of you help her,” he commanded gesturing to the other ponies, “I’ll hold it off while you get help.”
Cheerilee shook her head, “I’ll stay with you,” she said, “Children, help Susan and get back to Ponyville as quickly as you can, tell them about the Timberwolf and get help.”
“I won’t leave you Grandfather,” cried Susan.
“Hush now child,” he replied nuzzling her “It will take more than a pile of sticks to stop your old Grandfather, I’ll be fine.”
“I want to help fight the Timberwolf!” announced Scootaloo turning to face the now approaching monster while Snails and Dinky helped Susan to her hooves.
“Scootaloo, I need you to be strong and guard your friends, there could be more Timberwolves out there,” countered her teacher, the young pegasus looked unsure. Hating herself, but not wanting to see her pupil hurt Cheerilee played her ace card, “It what you mother would wanted you to do.”
Scootaloo looked like she had been slapped, but slowly nodded. She rushed over to the group of foals and helped to support Susan. The four younger ponies started to stagger away from the Timberwolf as it drew close.
Cheerilee turned to face the beast which let out another roar and dived as her, she dropped and rolled to one side feeling the bulk of the wolf fly by only inches from her flank. She tried to buck at it as it flew past, but it was too fast. A reply blow from its rear leg flipped the teacher over and into a tree. She struggled to get to her hooves but fell back as black spots threatened to fill her vision. She blinked them away just in time to see the Timberwolves jaws filling the sky above her. “Don’t eat me,” she screamed, briefly thinking that they were terrible final words, but that at least her little ponies had gotten away.
“You there! Timberwolf, or whatever your name is, why don’t you pick on someone your own size, hum,” came the doctors voice from somewhere behind the beast. It spun around to face its new opponent.
The Doctor was standing somewhat awkwardly on his hind legs and wielding a tree branch like a spear. While the Timberwolf was distracted Cheerilee tried to drag herself away. With a growl the plant creature dived for the grey stallion. With surprising suppleness he bent to the side and the wolf flew past him impacting heavily with the tree behind him. He stabbed at the creature with the branch but to his surprise the weapon stuck fast in the woody mass. The stick was yanked out of his hoof by a sucking force and it merged into the body of the Timberwolf, leaving him unarmed.
The Doctor backed away as the creature stood up and started to pace towards him. His flank collided with a tree, looking around frantically he saw that he was trapped. Unwilling to risk its prey dodging again the wolf started to close on him slowly. Suddenly something tapped the Doctor on his shoulder, making him jump. Looking up he saw that Cheerilee had somehow scaled the tree and was reaching down for him from one of the lower branches. Interlinking their arms she heaved the monochrome pony into the tree and the two of them started to clamber higher up the trunk.
Enraged at its prey starting to escape the Timberwolf charged the tree causing it to sway alarmingly, almost dislodging the ponies. Then be beast leapt up attempting to swat them from the trees branches but found that they were just out of reach, safe for the moment, but trapped.
The quartet of fleeing ponies staggered through the trees in an attempt to escape the ravening monster they had just seen. Their speed was slowed by the injured Susan, Scootaloo and Snails had to put their effort into helping her move while Dinky lead the way.
“We’ve got to keep going,” urged the small purple foal, the panic seeming to have cleared her sinuses.
Snail’s looked back “No wolf,” he noted panting.
“I think we got away from it,” said Scootaloo coming to a halt and gently lowering Susan to the ground. “We didn’t have to run I could have taken it, I wasn’t scared,” she continued, her darting eyes indicating this wasn’t entirely true.
“We have to go back and help Grandfather,” wailed Susan rubbing her injured hoof, “I saw him climb a tree, but that beast could get him at any moment.”
“We should go back to Ponyville and get help. Momma, Raindrops or Miss Trixie could deal with that monster,” said Dinky sensibly.
“Which way is Ponyville anyway?” asked Scootaloo looking around.
“Dunno,” said Snails before wandering away from the group and peering at a nearby dead tree.
“It’s that way,” said Dinky, pointing back the way they came, “Or that way,” she pointed further left “or,” she bit her lip “I don’t know.”
“We’re lost! By the time we find help that monster could have eaten Grandfather and Cheerilee,” said Susan. She pointed at Scootaloo “You’ve got wings, can’t you fly above the trees and see where we are?”
Scowling Scootaloo drew her tiny wings into her sides. “You’ve got a horn, why don’t you teleport home!” she snapped.
Susan momentarily went cross eyed looking at her own horn, “Can I do that?” she questioned.
“Teleporting is difficult magic,” said Dinky “Not many unicorns can do it, Miss Trixie says that I’ll be able to teleport one day, if I practice my magic really hard.” A magic aura surrounded a nearby stick and levitated it in front of the purple fillies face, “I can only lift things at the moment.” A beetle crawling along the stick waved its feelers at her as she disturbed its home. Seeing this Dinky gave out a little squeak of revulsion and lost control of her power, the stick snapped in two catapulting the bug over the startled foal’s head.
Scootaloo giggled at her companions reaction “As long as you don’t mind breaking the things you lift. Your mom must get through a lot of plates.”
Behind them Snails gently caught the recently discarded bug with his aura and examined it closely.
“I’m getting better, I haven’t broken a plate in months,” said Dinky defensively, “Don’t ask about cups though,” she thought, “Handles are hard.”
“Where I come from no one does any magic,” said Susan.
“No magic! Where are you from?” asked Dinky.
“Oh, its a long way away from here.” She hobbled around the clearing, testing her injured leg. “The wilderness looks like this but the sky’s a sort of burnt orange colour and the leaves on the trees are silver, I went there when I could, its not as dangerous as most people think, but I spent most of my time in the citadel, its a sort of city inside a big bowl.”
“A bowl, like the one’s Miss Cheerilee keeps her fish in? Were there big fish where you lived,” questioned Scootaloo. Orange sky’s and silver leaves seemed fairly standard but living in a fishbowl, that was cool.
“No,” said Susan smiling “But there was this one tutor at the academy, I called him cardinal fish face, he had these bulging eyes and big lips,” she giggled making a face.
“Do you miss your friends at school?” said Dinky.
“I didn’t really have that many friends. I was a lot younger than most of the students there so I didn’t really fit In, I think they were going to expel me before Grandfather took me away.”
“That sucks,” interjected Scootaloo “I’d hate to go to a school without any friends, friends are the best part of school, maths is the worse.” She stuck out her tongue.
“I like maths,” piped up Dinky, “Miss Cheerilee makes it fun.” Scootaloo scowled at her and mouthed the word ‘Swat’.
“Grandfather keeps moving us around so I don’t get much time to make friends. Just for once I’d like to stay in one place for a few months so I could feel like I fit in, but I could never leave Grandfather, he needs me.” Susan slumped to the ground.
“That sucks,” repeated Scootaloo.
Susan tried to brighten up. “Well maybe if he does decide to stay in one place for a while I can go to school again, maybe I’ll have a teacher like Cheerilee.”
“There’s no other teachers as good as Miss Cheerilee,” said Dinky loyally.
“We can’t just sit around here talking about school and stuff,” said Scootaloo “We should be thinking of a way to stop Cheerilee and your grandfather being eaten by the Timberwolf.”
“Why does a creature made of wood want to eat anyone anyway?” questioned Susan.
“Maybe they just squish ponies up with their teeth and use them as fertiliser rather than eating them,” suggested Scootaloo making squishing motions with her hooves.
Dinky made a face, “Thats horrible I don’t want Miss Cheerilee to get squished.”
“Then we need to think of a way to fight off that Timberwolf.”
“Bugs,” said Snails making the fillies jump, he’d been so quiet that they had forgotten he was with them. They turned to see that a small river of glistening brown insects were streaming out of the dead tree and forming a pool at his feet. Both Dinky and Susan backed away shuddering in revulsion, even Scootaloo looked a little queasy. “Some bugs eat dead wood, like the Timberwolf,” he explained.
“Snails that’s brilliant,” exclaimed Dinky, she was so excited that she forgot her fear and stepped over the insects to give the lanky foal a hug.
“Aw, shucks,” mumbled the target of her affection looking down, pawing the ground and turning red “You’re much smarter ..... and pretty.”
“How’re we going to get all these creepy crawlies to the Timberwolf? they don’t move very fast,” said Scootaloo looking at the bugs, “Cheerilee will have starved to death by the time we get there.”
“We can carry them,” suggested Dinky, pulling some leaves from a nearby tree with her magic and holding them near the insects allowing them to clamber on. Snails did the same picking up fallen leaves and broken sticks from ground and covering them in bugs. “Come on Susan you can help too,” Dinky continued.
“I don’t know if I can,” she said, “I’ve never done this before.” Susan concentrated and suddenly a large chunk of the forest floor was covered in a gray aura and rose into the air throwing Scootaloo aside.
Dinky stared eyes wide “Wow,” she whispered, “You’re really good at this.”
Susan looked shocked at her own powers “I didn’t know I could do that” she formed the lump of earth in a ball covered by a layer of bugs and started to move it back the way they had come. “Come on,” she said with determination. “Lets go save Grandfather.”
“Are you alright my dear?” said the Doctor examining Cheerilee’s wounds, “You took quite a beating from that creature.” The two of them had climbed as high as they could on the tree and had wrapped their legs around a branch to remain stable. Below them the Timberwolf circled the trunk looking up at them.
“I’m fine. Earth Pony Stamina,” she explained with a shrug which turned into a wince, “We can take a licking and keep on ticking.” She looked down at the raging beast below them, “It looks like we might be stuck here for a while. I hope the foals are OK, and don’t try some harebrained scheme to rescue us.”
“Susan’s with them, she’s a very sensible and capable girl, I don't tell her that enough,” sighed the Doctor, “I do hope she’s alright.”
“Well as we’ve got time, we can have a nice long chat about who you are and where you come from?”
“As I have said I am a traveller from a long way off.”
“Mind telling me where,” replied Cherilee with a raised eyebrow, “I’ve been around the block a bit myself, Callaberia, Zaldia, Pferdreich, I’ve been to them all and you don’t sound like you’re from any of them.”
“Well madam, how do you think you would react if I told you I was from further than you could possibly imagine, humm, that I was not from this world, and in fact not even from this universe?”
Cheerilee blinked. “I don’t know, is it something you’re likely to say?” she smiled. The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “In the last year,” she continued, “I’ve faced down the goddess of the sun, seen the town almost be stomped flat by a giant star bear and almost eaten by a bunch of cute fluffy balls, I think I can deal with someone from another universe. So you're not really a pony then?”
“No,” said the doctor looking at his current physical form, “My natural form is rather more, graceful, that this one, bipedal, long legs, forward positioned eyes, hairless skin, opposable thumbs.”
“So, like a sort of hairless bear then?”
The Doctor blinked at this description. “No, not at all like a bear,” he snapped.
“So if your natural form is so great and not-bear like. Why have to changed it?”
“The rules of your universe and mine are rather different, if I had come here in my normal form there would have been all sorts of trouble, yes indeed, so I had to put a device together to convert my form to one more at home here, it’s not perfect, my true nature will eventually interact with this universe and cause a not insignificant explosion.”
“You’re going to explode!” exclaimed Cheerilee backing away as far as she could on the branch.
“Well yes, but not for several hours at least, maybe even several days.”
Cheerilee quickly changed the topic, “So what brings you to our universe Doctor? Come to steal our mares? You’re not invading are you, I think Princess Luna might have a few things to say about that.”
“No, I have no hostile intentions against you, or your people, Chereilay.”
“Cheerilee,” she corrected, sounding annoyed.
“My granddaughter and I are explorers.” His eyes took on a distant look, “There’s so much in the universe to see and do, people to meet, things to learn. My home, well its a very dull place, my people have great power but they only use it to watch from a distance, they never interfere, never do anything, I found it stifling.”
“You ran away, didn’t you?”
The doctor looked surprised, “How did you know that?”
“I did it to. I’d lived in Ponyville all my life and I just woke up one day and it seemed so small. I saw my Mum and thought, she was born here and she’ll probably die here without ever really doing anything, I don’t want to live like that. I suppose all teenagers think that, that their parents never did anything but it made sense at the time so I grabbed what I could, got the train to Canterlot and went to see what was out there. I found there was so much more to life. Of course eventually I returned home, became a teacher, became the element of laughter, and got stuck in a tree with someone from another universe while a plant monster tries to eat me. I guess everyone settles down eventually.”
The Doctor harrumphed “I have no intention of settling down, my dear. I’m only a few hundred years old, I’ve got my whole life ahead of me.”
Cheerilee giggled, “Well you look good for your age, I’ve always had a thing for older stallions.”
“Behave, Madam,” responded the Doctor with a smile.
There was a rumbling sound, like an empty stomach, which Cheerilee decided was her own, as the other option was the creature currently staring up at them from the ground which she was ignoring hoping that it would get bored and go away. She reached round carefully opening her saddlebags to retrieve the sandwiches she prepared earlier for herself and her students. They were a bit damp from her trip into the pond but seemed edible. “I hope you like dandelions,” she said offering one to the Doctor. The sandwich was encased in a grey aura and floated over to him
“I don’t think I’ve ever tried them before,” he replied, then blinked several times, “Madam. Why is this sandwich flying?”
“Well I guess you have a horn under that hat, so that’ll be due to you. Unless I’ve spontaneously become a Unicorn, or an Alicorn, that would solve our problems,” replied Cheerilee hopefully, as she crossed her eyes trying to see her forehead.
Carefully not taking his eye’s off the floating sandwich the Doctor shoved his hat aside with one of his hooves revealing a long graceful horn beneath it. He gently prodded the offending organ with one of his hooves, the sandwich dropped several feet before floating back up out of reach of the wolf, which leapt for it, snarling.
“Don’t do that,” chuckled Cheerilee, “You’ll go blind. I guess you don’t have have a horn in your natural form, you can’t normally do magic?”
“No the rules are somewhat different in my universe, this sort of thing is much harder there,” said the Doctor, gingery nibbling on the sandwich before talking a large bite and swallowing, “These are simply divine, my dear.”
Cheerilee started her own sandwich. “So how did you end up in our little universe Doctor, drawn here to sample our famous cuisine?”
“No, my craft suffered a slight navigational mishap and was pulled a little off course.”
“A little? You’re in a whole other universe.”
“Well the navigational system was a damaged by the crash.”
“Crash! What did you hit?”
The Doctor looked a little abashed, “Well your universe, if truth be told.”
“My universe!” Cheerilee shouted “What if you broke something? Gravity could suddenly stop working” she clutched the branch tighter “Or the colour ogway could just stop appearing” She glared at the Doctor who looked away abashed “You did break something! What did you break?”
“Well the barrier between our universe’s might have been somewhat injured by my craft’s passage.”
“You said that if our universe’s touched there would be an explosion, Boom!” said Cheerilee making a bursting gesture with her front hooves.
“Well the natural laws of our two realities are non-compatible, and yes if they were to interact they would mutually annihilate but the vortex will act as a barrier for a short period of time, long enough for me to fix the damage.”
“How are you going to fix the universe you broke?” said Cherrilee in the same tone she used when Scootaloo had broken her blackboard showing the rest of the class how good she was at climbing.
“Well it appears that the fragments of the barrier, the seal between the universes as it were, were drawn into your world and have landed quite near here, temporally and spatially speaking, so I just need to find the pieces and return them to their rightful place. Simplicity itself.”
“So you just need to search Equestria for a bunch of pieces of universe? What do pieces of universe look like anyway?”
The Doctor looked away again, “That’s rather a problem as well, they could look like anything. You see, when my craft, the TARDIS, broke the seal its Chameleon Circuit was damaged.”
“It’s what?”
“The Chameleon Circuit, its supposed to make my craft blend in so it won’t be noticed.”
“So with it broken it’s stuck looking like a blue box, which sticks out like a sore hoof?”
“Yes, unfortunately the chameleon circuit has interacted with the fragments of the seal and, well the fragments will now blend in, so if a chunk landed in a library, it would look like a book, in a forest, a tree, and so on.”
“So how are you going to find them?”
“I have built a device to track them.” With his aura the Doctor reached into a pocket in his trousers and brought out a short rod shaped device linked to a box on his waist. He pointed the wand downwards and suddenly it let out a loud beeping sound. “Interesting” he muttered looking down.
Suddenly Cheerilee noticed movement through the trees, balancing herself against the trunk she stood up to get a better view, ignoring the Doctor who was playing with the controls of his device. Not too far away the small herd of foals were making their way through the woods followed by a floating mass of leaves and dirt. “What are those idiots doing?” she asked herself, “Get away! Get Away!” She shouted gesticulating with her forelegs and almost over-balancing on her branch.
The Doctor steadied her “Susan, don’t be a fool, girl,” he called.
“Don’t worry Grandfather, we’ve got a plan, Snails came up with it!” she shouted back up at him.
Cheerilee blinked for a few seconds processing this information “Don’t throw away your lives!” she wailed. The Doctor looked at her hysterics with a raised eyebrow. “He’s a nice colt but critical thinking is not his forte,” she explained.
The Timberwolf turned away from the tree and faced the approaching foals. Scootaloo stepped forwards putting herself between her friends and the monster.
“Ready?”she asked trying to look back at her companions while still keeping her eyes on the monster approaching her. The three young unicorns nodded, Dinky was sweating, she was not used to carrying so much for so long. “Come and get me,” taunted the Pegasus as the mobile wood pile started to bound towards them. Behind it Cheerilee dropped out of the tree with a loud thud and started to race towards them as fast as her hooves would carry her, a terrified look on her face. The Doctor was making his way more steadily down the trunk.
“Fire!” The orange filly cried as the Timberwolf bounded forward, she threw herself aside and the monster passed over her head. A cloud of bugs and leaf litter filled her vision as the unicorns hurled their burdens at the creature. Many of the insects fell short and covered her. “Get ‘em off me, get ‘em off me,” she babbled, squirming in disgust.
Taken by surprise the Timberwolf stopped mid attack as it was engulfed by a cloud of beetles. For a moment it seemed surprised them turned back towards its prey with angry eyes, growling.
“It didn’t work,” gulped Susan.
“We’re gonna get squished up!” screamed Dinky.
“Wait,” said Snail’s calmly.
Suddenly the Timberwolf stopped advancing and its rear leg started to scratch at its side dislodging a small part of itself and a few of the horde of insects crawling all over it. Then it dropped to the ground in a squirming pile. It arched its back and crawled around in a circle rubbing itself against the ground. Its growls changed into a pained whines.
Cheerilee screeched to a stop, her gaze flicked between the immobilized Timberwolf on the ground and the now cheering foals. Susan and Dinky had their arms locked and were spinning each other around in a dance of triumph. Snails was staring at the writhing wood creature on the ground while Scootaloo was still shivering in disgust as she brushed the last of the beetles off of her. “We did it” crowed the pegasus.
“That was very brave, my little ponies,” said Cheerilee putting aside the visions of horribly mauled foals she had expected to see, “But also very stupid, if it hadn’t worked you could have been hurt, or worse.”
“Yes, that was very foolish of you, my dear,” agreed the Doctor striding over to the group.
“Oh, Grandfather,” cried Susan running over and the hugging the old stallion, “I was so worried.”
“There, there, child, you didn’t think a mobile compost heap could deal with your old Grandfather, did you. Now we need to do what we came here to do.”
“Oh, yes,” she replied, “I’d almost forgot, we have to find the pieces of the seal to save the universes, but they could be anywhere.”
“I think I’ve already found some of it, child,” said the Doctor raising the tracker, he pointed it at the Timberwolf and it made a loud crackling sound.
“The Timberwolf is the seal thing you're looking for?” asked Cheerilee.
“Humm, part of it I’d say, definitely part of It,” replied the Doctor, “I think a fragment may have taken on the shape of a branch or twig which was then absorbed into this creature. It might explain why the creature has left its normal habitat.”
“Now we know what it is, how do we use it to fix the hole between the universes?” said Susan.
“Krayton particles, my dear. The tracker runs on them and enough of them should be able to convert the shard back into its normal form, once converted we should be able to use it to patch the universal barrier, yes indeed.”
“But Krayton particles are only found in Time Lords, like us.”
“You’re a Lord?” said Cheerilee disbelievingly, “Yeah right, and I’m a Dame.”
“Humm, please to meet you your ladyship,” said the Doctor batting her away, “Now if you would all stand back.”
The native equestrians backed away as the Doctor played with the controls on the tracking device attached to his waist, when he seemed satisfied both he and Susan put a hoof on the tracker and the doctor carefully brought the wand closer to the twitching Timberwolf. As the two connected a stream of blue energy coiled from the two Time Lords and encased the plant creature, there was a flash of light.
Cheerilee blinked to clear her eyes, sitting where the Timberwolf once had was a irregularly shaped crystal about the size of a pony's head. Although she was sure it was not moving whenever she looked away the crystals shape appeared to change. “Is that all?” zhe asked, “I would have thought a chunk of the universe would be bigger.”
“Well, size isn’t everything, Madam,” said the Doctor.
“I’ve heard that often enough,” she replied with a smile.
Ignoring her the Doctor picked the crystal up in his magical aura and examined it, “I doubt this is the entirely of the seal but I believe it’s enough to block the hole, at least temporarily, while I try to find the rest of it. In the meantime we need to take this back to the TARDIS, I will need it to return the seal to its rightful place.”
“Awhhh,” Dinky suddenly exclaimed, “It’s so cute!”
The others turned to look at the purple filly, she was lifting some of the leaf litter used to transport the wood eating insects and beneath it was a small moving shape made of tiny green twigs, a Timberwolf pup. The diminutive creature, smaller by far than even Dinky, backed away trembling in fear.
“I won’t hurt you,” said Dinky slowly moving towards the creature, she gently picked it up with her telekinesis and nuzzled it, after a moments hesitation the plant creature let out a small yap and licked her face with its rough wooden tongue, causing her to giggle, its tail began to wag.
The other foals including Susan closed in and began to pet the creature.
“Interesting,” mused the Doctor, “ I believe this might have been the creatures form before it encountered the shard of the seal which presumably resulted in premature maturity. Once the parts of the seal were purged by the tracker the creature returned to its original form.”
Cheerilee could see what was coming next and started to try and exert her authority before things got out of hand. “Now children,” she began, “That is a ..“
The foals turned to her and began to chant as one, “Can we keep it? Can we? Please Miss Cheerilee, Please,” Dinky held the creature out to her.
A small rational part of Cheerilee’s mind knew this creature would grow up into a pony eating monster but it was drowned out by the majority which announced that the sight of the young Unicorn and the creature together was utterly adorable. She shook her head and rallied to an old teachers standby, “Uh, You’ll have to ask your parents,” she replied weakly.
“Isn’t he sweet Grandfather, can we take him with us?” asked Susan “I think we should name it Canine.”
“No, child, I doubt that creature is TARDIS trained, anyway I think Canine is a rather silly name for a dog shaped creature,” replied the Doctor sternly, “Now come on back to the TARDIS.”
The party, and the Timberwolf pup, not called Canine, retraced their steps to the blue box that originally brought the Time Lords to Equestria. The Doctor sadly tapped its side, “With the seal having absorbed the chameleon circuits power, it might be some time before my machine gets to change shape again. Although,” he stepped back to admire it a bit, “I think I might get used to it, given time.” He quickly busied himself attaching the tracker to the TARDIS.
“You travel in that?” Cheerilee asked Susan, “It must be cramped.” Behind them the foals were playing with their new pet, holding a stick just out of reach making the small creature jump up and down desperately trying to reach it.
“Oh, its much bigger on the inside,” replied Susan impishly.
“Susan,” called the Doctor, “I’ll need to link us both up to my device to obtain enough Krayton particles to use this chunk of the seal to prevent the two universes interacting.”
“Coming Grandfather,” she replied and trotted over to the TARDIS, once again the two Time Lords place their hooves on the tracking device, now linked to both the time craft and the crystal by a collection of wires. As before blue energy started to leak from their bodies and encased the seal, however, this time the flow was much greater hiding the grey scale ponies from sight.
It seemed to Cheerilee that the crystal swelled with the power being pumped into it but as it did so it also became less substantial, when the effect stretched out far enough to reach her she expected a tingle but felt nothing. She turned to see the faint shape of the crystal, now filling the whole sky, for a second it seemed that it covered the whole world and then it was gone and the glow around the Doctor and Susan stopped.
“Good,” said the Doctor, “That should be enough to form a temporary seal and prevent the disaster, at least in the short term, but we should make sure we locate the rest of the seal as soon as possible.” He lifter the tracker once again “Oh, dear,” he said “This is not good, not good at all.”
“What is it Grandfather?”asked Susan.
“I appear to have miscalculated somewhat, forming the temporary seal has used up all of the Krayton Particles in the both of us.”
“What does that mean Doctor?” asked Cheerilee.
“We will be unable to track or recover any further sections of the seal until our supply of particles is renewed.”
“How long will that take?”
“I don’t know. There is only one process which renews a Time Lords Krayton Particles, I’m afraid, regeneration.”
“Regeneration? What's that?” asked the school teacher feeling that a lot of her time with the Doctor had been spent asking questions.
“We’ll my people have a process by which when their bodies are seriously damaged they can be renewed, we call it regeneration and it results in both physical and mental changes, we become significantly different people,” he explained.
“Should you be glowing?” commented Sails who had moved away from the fillies playing with the young timberwolf.
The Doctor looked down at himself and then at Susan, true enough they were beginning to glow with a yellowy light.
“Oh dear,” he said, “It appears that repairing the seal has speeded the decay of these forms, we will have to leave as soon as possible before there is a dangerous interaction between our two universes.”
“Boom?” said Cheerilee with a smile.
“Yes,” agreed the Doctor.
“But what about the rest of the seal?”
“One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. I will return once I have regenerated and I will find more of the seal. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. The temporary seal should hold for long enough.”
Touched Cheerilee felt her eyes start to sting a little, “So I’ll see you again then?”
“I don’t doubt it, although I will be a different, umm, Stallion then.”
“If you do ever decide to settle down, Equestria’s not such a bad place.”
“I’m sure its not, my dear, but I think I may be travelling for quite some time now.”
The foals came over from playing with their new pet. “You’ve got to go?” asked Scootaloo.
“I’m afraid so, I’ll miss you all," replied Susan.
“I’m sure you’ll make other friends soon, maybe you’ll even get to go to school,” said Dinky.
“I hope so,” said Susan with a wan smile, she hugged each of her friends resulting in further blushes from Snails before entering the TARDIS. The Doctor followed waving at the ponies he was leaving behind. The door shut behind him and for a moment there was silence then with a wheezing groaning sound, which Snails still thought sounded just like the call of the Catchian Barking Toad, the TARDIS faded from view.
“Wow,” thought Dinky, “I’ll have to get Miss Trixie to show me how to do that trick.”