//------------------------------//
// Chapter Four 
// Story: The Fantastic Adventures of Doctor Whooves: Hourglass 
// by The-Pony-Librarian 
//------------------------------//


Chapter Four
In which a photograph is not found, an old friend is met, and bananas are discussed


As soon as Colgate stepped into the TARDIS, she had a plan. 
Trying to avoid looking at the console (Seeing past or future versions of herself always made her nauseous) she focused her magic and slipped through the time stream. She materialized again in the past, same location, just around forty minutes before hand, right after the Doctor and his friend had exited the TARDIS. She swayed slightly, disorientated, then forced herself to focus. She had a mission to accomplish. 
Pulling out the folded papers she had tucked behind her ear, Colgate quickly looked over both them, and the console, locating all the strange levers and dials and buttons she would need.
The papers were the printed out versions of the diagrams she had found in the Canterlot Security files, supplemented by copious amounts of her own hoof written notes, and the information she had found on the Equinet. She could already tell that she was going to be doing a whole lot of manic running about while flying the thing, the controls were scattered all around as if it were meant to be flied by multiple ponies. Along with that, some of the controls themselves were a little....unique, one even consisting of what appeared to be a duct taped coat hanger. Colgate didn't mind too awfully though, she was used to working with her own inventions after all, most of which were considerably more ramshackle.
After a frustratingly long search, she finally located the last switch in the sprawl of lights and buttons, and could start the next phase of preparation. Going again to the important controls, she began to set them to where she would need them for her later departure. Unfortunately, she couldn't actually depart yet, seeing as that would prevent her past self from ever entering the TARDIS and start a nasty time paradox, but she could be ready.
As she adjusted the final dial, Colgate noticed something and chuckled to herself. Apparently, the Doctor left the brakes on when he flew. Going over to the switch, she flipped it off. 
Colgate allowed herself a proud little grin. She was ready, and if her sense of time was accurate (which it almost always was) then her past self would arrive in......
Creeak 
Colgate's ears flicked as the sound of the TARDIS door opening met them, and she sneaked a glance behind her to make sure that it was her past self, and not the Doctor or his annoying unicorn pal. As she caught sight of the dual toned mane and hourglass Cutie Mark, her stomach gave a familiar flip.
Colgate looked away quickly, fighting back the urge to vomit. That was her alright. 
After giving herself a few seconds for the queasiness to wear off, Colgate ran quickly about the console, making the final preparations for flight. She only had a few minutes at most before the Doctor would come charging in after her.
Throwing the final lever, she grinned triumphantly.
A grin which quickly slipped off her face when the TARDIS gave a lurch into the air instead of traveling through time. Colgate's eyes widened. She must have made a mistake.Trying again, she was still only able to make the box rise further into the air.Colgate flipped through her papers frantically, then put an angry hoof to her face. What an idiot! In her hurry she had forgotten a switch!
Then, as if it couldn't get any worse, TARDIS door creaked open and that blasted purple unicorn pulled herself inside, the Doctor close behind. Panic ripped through Colgate's mind. She couldn't travel through time now! They might be carried through with her, and who knows what might happen then....No. She was going to have to shake them off.
With a grin, Colgate jerked upward on the lever as hard as she could, and the TARDIS roared skyward , blasting straight through the concrete ceiling of the laboratory.
An exhilarated whoop of joy escaped Colgate's lips, followed laughter. She was never going back to that Celestia forsaken place ever again.
Looking back at her unwanted passengers, Colgate saw that the Doctor was trying to close the doors so they wouldn't fall out. She smirked, then adjusted the controls, making the TARDIS jerk violently. That smirk was quickly replaced by a scowl as she saw that his friend had caught him at the last second. Colgate growled in annoyance, that pony was really getting on her nerves. 
With a snarl, she threw another lever, and the TARDIS began to tilt erratically. Colgate saw the panic on the unicorn's face as she began to slide towards empty air. 
Colgate gave her little smile as she fell, then chuckled. Good riddance! After a few seconds, she flicked the stabilizer switch, then trotted over and closed the doors.
With that taken care of, she turned her attention back to the TARDIS. It really was beautiful. The most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Trotting over, she quickly pressed the button she had missed, reset all the dials and switches to their proper place, and then threw the main lever, giggling with mad abandon as the ship flew threw time.
As she trotted out of the TARDIS and into it's new destination, she made to grab the small clipping of a newspaper picture she always kept with her, but found that it was missing. It was still imprinted firmly in her memory, so she just thought of the picture instead, a look of contempt passing over her face
Pushing open the blue doors, she murmured quietly "I'm coming for you.....and by Celestia, oh, by Celestia I'm going to make you pay for what you did"
Then she stepped into the past

As Twilight watched the TARDIS de-materialize above her, a small, bemused part of her mind wondered fuzzily  if the blue box wasn't making it's usual noise, or if she just couldn't hear it because the air was whipping past her face so fast.
The other parts of Twilight's mind were divided roughly equally between the tasks of screaming as loudly as she could, and desperately trying to formulate a plan.
Teleportation was ruled out immediately. She was unfamiliar with the landscape and couldn't get a clear view of any sort of destination spinning about in the air as she was. So were the mechanical wings that were stored in her saddlebags, she didn't know how to work them, and there was only one pair, not enough for both her and the Doctor. Plus she had no idea how she could get them from her bag while falling. So there was only one option left. Brace for impact.
Focusing her magic as well as she could under the circumstances, Twilight lit her horn to form a shield spell.
Leaves and wood whipped past her face. They had hit the canopy of the forest.
The magenta bubble fizzled in and out of existence, as Twilight tried to concentrate her magic, a feat made harder by the fact she was being pummeled by branches.
Then Twilight saw something, some thing that might just save their lives, a sparkling band of silver, twisting through the forest below them, a river.
With sheer force of will, she pumped all the magic she could into the shield spell, and waited for splashdown. It just might be 	enough.
As they plunged into the water, the weak shield splintered.
Twilight was immediately doused in icy river-water, and slammed into the muck at the bottom of the river a second later. The impact was jarring, but the deep water and shield had absorbed the brunt of the blow. She popped her head above the water, gasping her air, eyes flicking around. A second later, the Doctor lifted his head as well, sputtering. He had a hoof pressed to the side of his head, and was wincing.
"Are you all right?" Twilight shouted, over the rushing water. The current was fairly strong, and pulling them swiftly along down the river.
"I'm fine" the Doctor called back, eyes unfocused "Just took a bit of a knock to the head...."
He trailed off, head sinking back under the water, and Twilight cursed under her breath, stroking as quickly as she could over to him.
Reaching the brown stallion, she hoisted him above the water, and quickly cursed again. Unconscious. Brilliant, just brilliant. Towing him along beside her and trying to keep his head above water, Twilight attempted to paddle to the bank. It was useless, the current was too strong, and the edges of the river there looked dangerous, swirling menacingly. So did the river ahead, but there was nothing she could do, just let herself be pushed ever closer.
Twilight stretched out her hooves, trying to touch the bottom of the river, but that too was futile, it was still too deep.
She was reminded of the awful log ride her parents and brother had always forced her to go on at the Canterlot amusement park. How the log would climb up to the drop sickeningly slowly, before meandering around a curve even more sluggishly, and all the while Twilight could see the rushing drop in front of them. The awful lethargic pace of the ride drawing out the wait until she had nothing to do but obsess over how horrible the drop would feel, and the utter feeling of helplessness as they moved closer to it achingly slowly, until she just wanted to scream and jump out of the log and get away as as fast as she could, but she couldn't. She was trapped.
So Twilight watched as they approached the treacherous part of the river and were plunged headlong into the whitewater. She found herself being tossed about by the current, paddling frantically to avoid rapids and sharp rocks. Her head went under as they were tossed about by a particularly nasty stretch, and Twilight just managed to pull it back up, spluttering. She looked up, then quickly closed her eyes, wincing as she was hurtled by the current towards a group of large boulders.
Then she felt herself being lifted up into the air, picked up by the scruff of the neck like a kitten.
She opened an eye to see a large purple serpent looking curiously at her, orange mustache bobbing up and down quizzically. In the other hand it held the Doctor.
Twilight blinked at it, cocking her head like a confused puppy.
The serpent however was staring at her intently, deep in thought, then he shook his head, making an exasperated noise.
"Oh, I know that I've seen you before somewhere!" He huffed "I know, it's so awfully rude of me...but I can't seem to remember where!"
"Ohmygosh!" Twilight said, as recognition hit her "You're the serpent who's mustache Rarity fixed!"
That meant they must be in the Everfree. She knew where they were now! That was certainly a start.
"I remember that!" gushed the serpent "That was a while ago, wasn't it? My, you hardly look a day older!"
Twilight chuckled to herself at that. It had been a lot longer ago for him than for her. " Nice to see you again! I'm Twilight Sparkle
The serpent smiled widely, and placed her and the Doctor on the ground, giving a little bow "Steven Magnet"
"It's very nice to meet you Steven, and thank you for pulling us from the river" Twilight said warmly, before looking to the Doctor, brows furrowing.
"Oh, you're very welcome" Steven said, before stopping as he saw her worried expression "Is your friend okay?" 
"I don't know...." Twilight said with concern.
Steven Magnet drew himself to his full height "Well, allow me to see to him while you get yourself dried off. You must be freezing!"
It was then Twilight realized that she was still soaking wet, and shivering violently. She shook her head, and focused her magic in a warming spell. She usually used it for heating tea, but it would work just fine for drying her fur, dress and saddlebags too. No need for  case of ponymonia on top of everything else. After drying off the Doctor as well, she rummaged briefly through her saddlebags, making sure everything was alright and thanking Celestia that she had the presence of mind to put a waterproofing spell on them shortly after they were given to her.
When she looked back to Steven, the purple serpent had his ear-fin pressed against the Doctor, an expression of confusion on his face.
"Miss Twilight?" he said slowly "I think there's something wrong with his heartbeat"
Twilight held back a laugh "Don't worry" she said "That's normal for him" 
A chuckle escaped her as she remembered how freaked out she had been when she first discovered her friend had two hearts....The Doctor had decided to challenge her claim that nothing could surprise her anymore after over two years of being friends with Pinkie. Needless to say, he won.
"Are you sure?" Steven magnet continued, ear still pressed to the Doctor "You know...I'm no Doctor, but that seems pretty-"
"You called?" 
"AHHH!" Steven yelped in surprise, flailing away from the suddenly-conscious pony.
The Doctor looked up curiously, then spotted the giant purple serpent looming above him "AHHH!"
The two stared at each other for a few seconds.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" they both screamed again in unison.
Twilight facehoofed.
Slowly, she said "Doctor, this is Steven Magnet. Steven Magnet, this is the Doctor" She cut the serpant off as he opened his mouth "Just the Doctor"
She looked to both of them "You can stop screaming now" 
Twilight then paused "Wait...I could have woken you up just by saying your name?! That would have been nice to know while we were careening down the river!"
The Doctor however, was paying her no heed
"Steven Magnet?" he said said slowly, reaching into his saddlebags and pulling out his sonic screwdriver. He held it up and used it to scan the bright purple reptile.
"Yes" Steven replied "Nice to meet you and-ooh! That tickles!"
The Doctor looked at the screwdriver, a grin spreading on his face "So you're some kind of river serpent? Fantastic!" he paused, looking curious "What do you eat? If you don't mind mind me asking, that is"
"River rocks, usually" Steven said amiably "We River Serpents are similar to our cousins the Dragons in that aspect, eating a great deal of stones and minerals...unfortunately, being as rare in rivers as they are fabulous, we don't get to dine on gemstones very often"
"River rocks!" The Doctor chuckled "That's just brilliant! You really are quite amazing, aren't you"
"Oh, well that's quite flattering of you" Steven Magnet tittered.
"Oh, it's nothing" the Doctor said affably "It's been very nice chatting with-"
"You know...." Steven said, twirling his mustache "I am available any time"
The Doctor blinked "Wellll, as I was saying...It's been just lovely chatting with you. Pleasure meeting you and all that, but me and Twilight have to get going."
"Oh..." Steven Magnet looked slightly dejected "Well it was very nice taking to you"
"You as well" the Doctor replied
There was a long pause, before, with a resigned air, the purple serpant dipped it's head into the water and swam away along the river. 
After about a minute, the Doctor exclaimed to Twilight incredulously "That is the second bloody time I've been hit on by a River Serpant!"
Twilight blinked "You've been hit one before?"
"It's a long story" 
"Oookay then" Twilight said "Back to the issue at hoof. Colgate. TARDIS-snatching. I assume you have a plan?"
"Ehhhh....no."
Twilight blinked "An idea?"
"Not at the moment"
"Emergency backup Mini-TARDIS?"
"Why the bloody hell would I have one of those? No, sorry, I left the Mini-TARDIS at home. My mistake"
Twilight paused for a very long time, and the Doctor braced himself for the panic fallout. Three...Two...one.....
"The one time...the one. feathering. time. you don't have some half-baked plan, it's when we're stuck in the wrong time!" 	Twilight stopped the, blinking, as if the full extent of the situation hadn't quite hit her yet "Sweet Celestia we're stuck in the wrong time. WearetrappedinanotherbuckingtimewithouttheTARDIS." She began to hyperventilate "and we have no idea how to get out. Wonderful. Fan-bucking-tastic! Celestia....I don't want to be stuck here. We are going to be stuck here forever and I am never going to see my friends again. This is bad. This is bad, bad, bad, bad-"
The Doctor meanwhile, was looking through Twilight's saddlebags for snacks. He had learned that there was absolutely no point attempting to reason with her in this state. He just had to wait it out.
"Ooh!" he exclaimed happily, grabbing an oblong yellow fruit from the bag "You have a banana in here!" he looked at it curiously "How did it not get bruised?...must be one of the spells you put on the bags, waterproof too! Clever!"
Twilight continued to freak out.
"-Keep it together, Twilight. Keepittogether. We just need a plan. We're stuck in the wrong time in the Everfree forest and we need a plan. Need a plan-"
"You know" the Doctor said, peeling the tropical fruit "I'm really quite fond of bananas. They're so darn versatile. They make good ice cream, they're darn tasty fried, and they are the perfect addition to a chocolate milkshake...not to mention cereal"
"What to do...What to do....."
"You should really convince Applejack to grow bananas..." The Doctor mused, taking a bite  "or does she already? I'm not sure. Either way, this banana is fantastic. Why are you pony's so darn good at growing fruits?"
Twilight splashed water on her face "Think, Twilight! Think, think, think, think-"
"Wait....Is this a Gros Michel banana?" the Doctor said excitedly "On earth, they were wiped out....or at least commercially......by Panama disease in the Sixties, but you ponies still have them! That's brilliant! Did you know that Panama disease was actually engineered by aliens who thought that Banana's were earth's dominant sentient life form? Not topo bright those aliens, vicious maybe, but very, very dense."
Twilight whipped around "For the love of Luna would you shut up about that Celestia damned fruit!"
The Doctor looked up and and blinked at her, before singing "I think somebody needs a banana" and pulling another one out of the saddlebags, holding it out to her.
"I do not need a banana." Twilight hissed.
"Oh come off it, they're good for stress. Look at that eye twitch, heaven knows you could use it"
Twilight said nothing, just continuing to give him a glare that would make the sun-goddess herself waver.
Reaching out with the yellow fruit, the Doctor used it to poke Twilight in the nose "Boop!"
Twilight's expression contorted as she gritted her teeth, ears pressed flat against her forehead, before she simply flopped to the the ground in utter defeat "I give up." she said "I don't get it. It's your TARDIS that got stolen, but you're just sitting here chattering on about bananas! Do you even care at all?"
At that, the Doctor began to laugh "Of course I care." he chuckled  Do you think I want that filly mucking about my TARDIS? Bloody hell no. I just have to keep calm about it. Can you imagine if you and I panicked at the same time? Total mess."
"Doesn't change the fact that we're stuck here" Twilight muttered
"Oh ye of little faith!" the Doctor scoffed "I know exactly what to do"
"I thought you said you didn't have a plan" 
"Thought of one while you were freaking out" the Doctor said "That's when I come up with most of my plans actually....your ranting makes surprisingly good background noise for thinking." 
"Gee thanks" Twilight grumbled.
"Don't feel bad" the Doctor chuckled "It's pretty funny actually. You get along just fine when you're in some kind of emergency situation like...oh I don't know, falling from hundreds of feet in the air, or being chased by aliens; but sitting on a riverbank thinking of possible future emergency situations? Complete panic!" he grinned "Better than the other way around 	though. If you had done that when we were falling out of the TARDIS it definitely wouldn't have been a pretty situation"
Twilight gave a little laugh "I guess you're right about that" she conceded "But what's this plan of yours anyways?"
"I'm glad you asked!" the Doctor said "You'd say that you're good at magic right?"
Twilight nodded slowly.
"Good. Because to follow her, we're going to need to use a time spell"
"Doctor, I only know one time spell, and all it does is take me a week into the past for thirty seconds-" Twilight began to protest, but was cut off.
"I know that, but we're more than three hundred years in the future, there are almost definitely more floating around by now"
"....and we're in the Everfree forest" Twilight continued, eyes lighting up
"that means Ponyville is at the most a couple of miles away so-"
"To the library!" Twilight interjected gleefully ".....well, actually....to the future library!"
The Doctor laughed, shaking his head "Yes, Sparky. To the future library"
Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, reviewing her mental map of the parts of the Everfree she had been to, then, biting her lip in concentration, she swiveled about twenty degrees to the right and started off into the forest, calling back "If I remember correctly, Ponyville should be about an hour's trot this way"
"Alrighty then" the Doctor said "but first we need to get you a disguise. We're fairly far into the future, but not far enough for people not to recognize you if you happen to become a prominent historical figure later in your life"
Twilight's eyes lit up "I've got it!" she chirped, and pulled the pair of electric wings out of her bag. As soon as she put them against her fur, they molded themselves to look just like real ones, even adopting her color. Twilight felt a tingle shoot from them all the way down to her spine, and she stretched what felt like brand new muscles experimentally before folding the wings at her sides "Tada! No one would recognize someone from a completely different pony breed"
"Except when they're an alicorn" the Doctor pointed out.
"Oh yeah....Twilight said slowly "That." She moved to take the wings off, before the Doctor held up a hoof for her to stop, digging through his saddlebags.
He pulled out a large red hat and plonked it on her head so it completely covered her horn, smiling triumphantly.
Twilight glanced at her reflection in the river, before saying "A fez? Why in the world would you have a fez in your saddlebags?"
"They're cool"
Still looking at her reflection, Twilight burst out laughing. The Doctor gave her a confused look, which only prompted to laugh harder, collapsing onto the grass by the riverbank in a fit of giggles.
"What?" the Doctor finally said "I don't get it, what's so funny?"
"Oh, it's nothing" Twilight said, still chuckling "It's just....I didn't realize how much I missed hearing that kind of crazy stuff over the months"
"Well, you still had Pinkie" the Doctor said, grinning.
"True" Twilight conceded "but it just wasn't the same"
With that done, they struck out for Ponyville, and Twilight took the opportunity to lecture the Doctor on Everfree safety "Make sure not to step into any blue flowers, those are poison joke, and Celestia knows we have enough on our plate already without you getting punked by a magic plant. Also, if you hear any chicken noises, for Luna's sake don't look at the source! That's how I ended up as a statue for four hours....stupid Cockatrice......If you asked me, Fluttershy should have- Oof!"
She cut off quickly as she walked face-first into the Doctor, who had stopped dead in his tracks.
"Oh, that's brilliant" He gushed, gaze fixed on something ahead of him.
"Just fantastic." Twilight said sarcastically back, voice slightly muffled due to the fact that her face was still smushed against the Doctor's shoulder "but why don't you warn me next time before you sto....ha.........Holy Celestia...."
Lifting her head up, Twilight gazed out at the view in front of her, making a bevy of incoherent little noises.
Sprawled out in front of them, was a city. Buildings rose into the air, most of them a unique mottled green color. Some were plain, others were so whimsically designed that they resembled giant pieces of art, and no two were the same. In front of them was a road, and on it... things...hummed along swiftly and quietly, coming in a variety of shapes and designs. 
"But-" Twilight said "but the edge of the Everfree isn't for miles! What happened to the rest of it?"
The Doctor grinned "Just look."
Taking a closer inspection, Twilight saw that the city itself had been built into the forest, and all between the buildings and the roads, the forest continued. Squinting at the green buildings, on them was not decoration as she previously thought, but plants, growing on the sides of them like a living wall. It took her breath away.
"It's.... beautiful" she breathed, a smile forming on her face.
"Isn't it?" the Doctor replied, laughing happily, then he said "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"