I felt a tap on my leg as Angel put his food bowl in my face. "Angel, not now. It's too early." I said, groggily. He tapped me again, impatient. I yawned and got out of bed. "I fed you last night. Why are you hungry so early?" I asked. He hopped over to his food container and turned it over. "Oh right. I only gave you a little since we were out." I'll go out now and get you some more." I said, patting his head. I looked to Rainbow who had sprawled herself across her bed. She looked like a starfish from one of my magazines. I giggled at her funny position and wrote her a note about where I was going in case she woke up while I was out. I grabbed an apple on my way out the door and headed for the market.
I wonder how Rainbow will do on her first day as Captain. I thought. Today was her first day on the job and she didn't seem too nervous. But knowing her she wasn't going to admit it. She had too much pride. I flew below the clouds, enjoying the breeze as it ran through my feathers. I really liked flying, even if I preferred walking. I just couldn't fly too high. My fear of heights made my wings tense up and close against my sides. It's a strange problem for a Pegasus to have, but I didn't let it get in my way. Besides, I liked flying below the clouds. It allowed me to see reference points as to where I was going.
I landed in the market at Ponyville and looked for the pet store. It was still early, so the place wasn't too crowded just yet. When I found it, I walked in and saw a familiar pony with a spikey mane at the counter. "Why hello there Fluttershy!" he said with a giant smile. "I heard you needed some food for Angel, so I went and bought you a bag. No need to thank me!" he said.
"Umm...Thank you kind sir." I said quietly. "Um, who are you?" I asked. "I feel like I've met you before."
"I'm the Doctor. We met a few years ago when your parents were being abusive. I was in the hospital with you when she came in and damaged your wings further." he explained. "But I don't expect you to remember me. Big traumatic event like that, repressing memories, anything associated with it really is hidden."
"Oh...right." I said, remembering the night my dad died and my life changed forever. I could still feel the beatings he gave me as they suddenly flowed through my mind.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah...just remembering everything at once." I said, shying away.
"With something like that I expect them to be a little painful. But, it's better to confront your fears than to hide from them." he said.
Yeah, but it's easier to hide from them. I thought. I put the bag down and pulled some bits out from my pack. "Here. I owe you for the food." I said.
"No you don't! I'm the Doctor, the only thing you owe me is some information." he said.
"What kind of information?" I asked confused.
"Have you been having any dreams about your mom or your dad?" he asked.
"No. At least, none that I can remember." I said. "The last dream I remember was back at the hospital."
"Good. Which means the defenses Jack put around the house prevent her dream integration technique from working." he said to himself.
"Um, a dream integration technique?" I asked. I recognized it, but I didn't know what it was.
"Not important." he said, jumping over the counter and walking to the door.
"Hey! Wait!" I exclaimed, grabbing Angel's food and running next to him. "Who are you?"
"I told you, I'm the Doctor."
"No, like who? What's your name?" I asked.
"No name. Just the Doctor." he said cheerfully. "Need a lift home? My ship is just by the fountain." he said.
"Your ship?" I asked confused. He led me to the fountain and I saw a big blue box. "I've seen this before. It's just a weird box." I said.
"It's a TARDIS." he said, leaning against it.
"A TARDIS?"
"Time And Relative Dimension In Space." he said. "She's a time machine. She can go anywhere in time and space. You could be millions of miles away for years, and be right back in your living room and only been gone for five minutes." he explained.
"A time machine? Aren't those things a part of science fiction?" I asked.
"Well, science fiction is only science fiction when you can't achieve it, however, my race was able to achieve it and it became science fact." he said.
"Your race?" I asked. "You're a pony though. We don't have time machines."
"Oh, I'm not a pony. I'm a Time Lord." he said.
"What's a Time Lord?" I asked confused.
"What do they teach you in school?" he asked. "Look, all this explaining is getting tiring and repetitive. It'll be easier to just show you." he said, walking inside the box. "Jack! We got an extra passenger." I looked around me, wondering about what I should do. "Well come on, Fluttershy!" he exclaimed as he poked his head out of the box.
I quickly walked in and gasped, dropping the food on the floor. "It's..." I stammered. I walked back outside and walked around the box again. "But..."
"Yes, yes, it's bigger on the inside now come on!" the Doctor shouted to me.
"How is that possible?" I asked.
"Time Lord technology. Bigger on the inside. My favorite." he said smiling. The TARDIS made a low groan. "Oh you know what I meant." he said, turning to the tall cylindrical tube in the center.
"So where are we going Doctor?" another pony said next to the console.
"Take her home. Prove that it's a ship" he said.
"Aye aye, Cap'n." Jack said.
"Don't call me that." the Doctor said cooly. They pulled on some levers and the TARDIS made a low buzzing sound and started rocking back and forth. "Hold on!" he shouted.
I grabbed ahold of the rail next to me and held on for dear life. I felt my stomach start to churn a little bit from the rocking. "If you're gonna hurl, wait until we get through traveling." Jack said. I gagged a little, but held it down.
We stopped lurching around and the only thing left was a simple, steady hum. I let go of the rail, which I had been gripping so tightly that my forelegs were burning, and walked up to where the others were. "What did you do?" I asked.
"We travelled." the Doctor said. He rushed to the door and turned back to me. "We are currently standing on the front porch of your house. Well, front cloud." I grabbed the food bag and walked to the door confused. "Go ahead." he said, motioning to the door.
I pushed it open and gasped at what I saw. "Oh my gosh." I said, astonished.
"Shocking, huh?" Jack said behind me.
"How did we get here?" I asked.
"Like I said earlier, it's a ship. A ship that can travel through time." the Doctor said.
"But how?"
"It's really complicated to explain." he said.
The console started beeping. "Doctor, my team has located Clarrise in Saddle Arabia." Jack said.
"You're tracking my mom?" I asked.
"Yeah, gotta run. Don't want her to get too far ahead of us." he said, rushing to the console.
"Okay. Well, good luck." I said, stepping out of the TARDIS. I didn't want anything to do with my mom, so the sooner I was away from them, the better.
"Oh! Fluttershy! One more thing." he said. I turned to look at him. "Have fun at the dance. Rainbow likes you. I can tell by the way she looks at you sometimes that she cares for you. Don't be afraid okay?"
"Um, yeah. Okay. I won't be." I said with a smile.
"Good." he said returning my smile.
"Doctor!" Jack shouted at him.
"Right! Gotta run!" He closed the door. There was a loud humming as the blue box in front of me started to disappear. My mouth dropped as it vanished out of thin air. I walked to where it had been standing and gingerly waved my hoof in its general area. All I felt was warm air.
I shook my head. I turned and opened the door to the house. He is one strange pony. I thought to myself. I looked over to the couch and found Rainbow Dash sleeping there. "Rainbow Dash? Aren't you suppose to be at the Weather Center?" I asked, shaking her awake.
"What?" she asked me, confused. "Oh, yeah. Well, they let me go home early because the old Weather Captain was extremely upset that I took his job and gave me a visit there. He was drunk and almost hit me in the face, but I'm faster than him and knocked him on his butt." she gloated.
"They let you off for that?" I asked.
"Well he also dropped a little knife on the ground. Must've wanted to do me some harm." she said.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay? He didn't hurt you did he?" I asked, worried she may try to hid a cut he gave her.
"I'm fine Fluttershy. He didn't even get close to me with it. Besides, he was drunk. He could barely walk straight, let alone fight."
"Okay. I just don't want to see you hurt." I said, still worried.
"Fluttershy, relax. I'm good. No harm done." she said, yawning. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to sleep."
"Oh, okay. I'll talk to you later then." I said, turning and walking to the stairs. How could she be so cool after being attacked by somepony with a knife? I'd be a nervous wreck. I walked to our room and closed the door. Angel was lying on the ground with a flower in between his paws. Drama queen. I thought with a smile. I grabbed his bowl and started pouring some of his food into it.
At the sound of the food hitting the bowl, he jumped up quickly and rushed over to it, digging in. "Now eat slowly Angel or you'll choke." I warned. He didn't listen and continued to scarf down the food. "Maybe next week I'll stop getting you this food and start feeding you more lettucce and carrots." I said. I've been wanting to do that, but I don't hold much money. I don't have a job and my allowance doesn't pay for much unless I save it up over a month or so.
He suddenly stopped as if he remembered something and jumped over to Rainbow's bed. "What is it?" I asked. He opened up her drawer by her bed and pulled a book out. "Angel, you know it's not polite to snoop in other pony's things." He hopped over to me and handed it to me. I took it, intent on putting it back without looking through it. But something about it looked familiar. I slowly opened it up, curious as to how I recognized it without ever seeing it.
"Entry 1. Today my teacher gave me this journal to write down my thoughts since I don't talk a lot in school. Only thing is, I don't know what to write about. I'll find out soon." I read aloud. This isn't Rainbow's writing. I said, turning the page. "Entry 2. My teacher asked if I had written anything in the journal. When I didn't say anything she gave me some ideas, like my friends, family, pets, or anything that made me happy. I don't have a lot of friends, and my parents don't let me have pets. But my parents are always being mean and hitting me. Maybe I'll write about that."
My eyes grew wide. "This isn't Rainbow's. It's mine." I said, realizing why I recognized it. I thought it was still back at the cottage. I didn't go back for it because I didn't want to be reminded of what happened. Not like I ever forgot what happened, but I didn't want it to be a constant reminder. "Why did Rainbow have it?" I thought aloud. I shook my head. It didn't matter. Maybe she wanted to give it to me so I could continue to write in it. Or maybe it just stuck out in her mind and that's why she grabbed it. She probably already read everything in it, so there was no point in me going through all the pages and ripping them out. Besides, I think she had forgotten about it.
"I guess I could still use it for some good." I said quietly. I walked back to my desk, placing the journal down and grabbing a pencil. "Entry 83: I don't know if I should be happy or sad. I found my journal finally. Rainbow has it hidden in her drawer. I'm not going to tell her though. I think she forgot about it. But, Rainbow, if you're reading this, I love you. Very much. I may just be dreaming or thinking of false hopes, but I want to be with you. I hope you don't hate me for this." I made sure to skip a good number of pages in case she found tried to see if there was anything in it after the entry before this.
I closed the journal and placed it back in Rainbow's drawer. "Well, if she reads it, I won't have to hide it." I said to myself. I walked back to my desk and saw Angel holding a sketch of a dress. "Oh! That's right! I still need to make mine." I said. I hastily gathered some materials and pins and began working on it. My goal was to make an impression on Rainbow Dash. She was going to be with Long Horn at the dance, and I wanted her to avoid him. So the prettier I looked, the more likely she would be with me and not him. I thought back to the Doctor's words about Rainbow caring for me. It made me smile, as I worked on the project before me.