//------------------------------// // The Night Before Hearths Warming // Story: Doctor Whooves - The Nightmare of Hearths Warming // by Time Pony Victorious //------------------------------// 24th of Winter, Hearths Warming Eve, 6:25pm, 120 C.R. Trottingham, Equestria Bluebell was forced to stay in bed rather than enjoy Hearths Warming Eve with the rest of her family. Begrudgingly, she dove underneath her covers and curled up into a ball with a moderate scowl. She hated being sick, but she hated being sick on a holiday even more. Poking her head out of her impressive pile of blankets, Bluebell looked toward the window longingly. Crawling deliberately toward it, Bluebell decimated her recently expanded pillow fort, Fort Fluffy, and made her way to the window. Staring out she saw the entire town perfectly covered by that beautiful snow, bringing a different sort of color to the normally dreary Trottingham. Black buildings now glowed a perfect white against the setting sun. In the nearby streets Bluebell was able to see dozens of fillies and colts playing in the snow, making snow angels, building snowponies, having snowball fights while she was stuck here with a stupid fever! Throwing her curtains down, the winter wonderland disappeared behind Hearths Warming Eve themed curtains. Bluebell threw herself to the bed with an impressive thump, and mumbled mean words to colds and bacteria everywhere. The sickness was annoying, it kept her inside where all her friends would be outside enjoying the break from classes. But the sickness was at least better than her nightmares. Papa doesn’t believe her but her recent nightmares have been progressively worsening. They’ve become more vivid, scarier and it might just be the weather but… her room has become colder and colder as her nightmares continue. Being sick was heaven compared to those nightmares, those twisted creatures made of shadows that haunted her… she’d prefer the sniffles over seeing them again. Problem was, being sick confined her into this room… where her nightmares can always get her. Bluebell exhaled and watched her frozen breath drift in and out of existence in an instant. It was always cold but whenever the nightmares came it got worse. Crackling noise brought her attention to the mirror, Bluebell whimpered as she watched the mirror freeze right before her eyes. “No, not again,” she cried. “Not tonight, please!” Bluebell hid under the covers, trying to think of happy thoughts. Bunnies, rainbows, sunshine, anything other than them. But it was too late. The thought already emerged in her mind. A shadowy monster, a horrible disfigured face, a presence that could freeze the sun. Coughs racked Bluebell’s body as her aches got worse and worse. She needed help, anypony, anything. A hero to defeat her nightmares, and a doctor for her sickness. Her covers were snatched from her hooves and Bluebell looked up at her nightmare made into reality. She couldn’t even scream as its horrible mouth opened up, threatening to gobble her whole. 24th of Winter, 7:00am, 1002 C.R. Fluttershy’s Cottage, Ponyville Fluttershy wasn’t exactly what you’d call a fan of the snow and the cold. Sure, it allowed for moments to snuggle up in a warm blanket, drink some tea, and sit by the fireplace with a nice book; but it was still a bit of a hindrance. The freezing snow, the uncomfortable wind, the ice, no, thank you. Give Fluttershy a lovely spring day and she’d be as right as rain. Looking out the window, Fluttershy watched the snow fall and she smiled with some contentment. Snow was beautiful to watch, sure, but trotting around in it was more than a little uncomfortable. Mind you, her pegasus body structure granted her a bit of leeway when it came to cold weather and uncomfortable conditions. The cold didn’t physically bother her, neither did the wind, it’s usually cold in Cloudsdale anyways. There was just something she didn’t enjoy about winter. The cold forced her animal friends to retreat to warmer climates or hibernate, so it left her alone. Her pony friends were there for her, but her animal friends were her 24/7 and depended on her. Fluttershy loved the girls, there was no questioning that, but she always felt more comfortable with animals. Taking another sip of her tea, Fluttershy frowned and mulled over that thought, guilt weighing on her shoulders. How could somepony say they prefer animal critters over their best friends? Angel prodded her side impatiently. Fluttershy took a look at the bunny to find him crossing his arms frowning. “What is it, Angel?” she asked gently, preparing to get up in order to accommodate whatever he needed. But Angel shook his head and pointed at the mantle. Fluttershy spotted what he was pointed it. It was a framed picture of the girls and her enjoying a day watching the butterflies. Rarity was more or less concerned with the state of her hooves and making sure her outfit was properly color-coordinated with the forest (condemning nature for its chromatic irregularities). Applejack and Rainbow Dash were competing to catch the most butterflies, and the Earth pony berated the pegasus for taking advantage of her wings. Twilight was more concerned with studying the butterflies in the dozens of books she brought along and Pinkie Pie was… well, nopony was really sure. She showed up with a trombone and balloon animals, it wasn’t clear what she intended to do. However, once Spike pulled out his camera, the girls stopped whatever they were doing and gathered in for the picture. They huddled close as if they were sisters, not mere friends, whatever inhibitions they had about this event or whatever they were concerned with melted away for that one perfect moment. Fluttershy smiled staring at the picture longingly. This was before they met the Doctor, that impossible stallion. Mind you, the Doctor is a very caring pony (although Fluttershy noticed his slight impatience with her demure and docile personality) but everything… changed when he came around. It felt like the girls didn’t have any time for her and all they spoke about was the Doctor and their crazy adventures they embarked on. The Doctor did take Fluttershy to a few place and it was nice (even if a bit scary) but she knew he’d rather have somepony like Rainbow Dash or Twilight with him.  Finally, Fluttershy blinked, breaking out her convoluted train of thought and focused on Angel. “The girls are busy this time of year,” she explained gently. “They’re visiting their family.” Angel huffed, unimpressed by this answer and pointed at another picture. It was a picture of Fluttershy, age 10, standing in front of her Cloudsdale home. Fluttershy winced, not because of how homely she looked back then, but because she knew what Angel was asking and she didn’t want to answer. “I’ve already told you, I’m staying here with you. Besides it’s nice and warm here…” But Angel didn’t waver. “Come on, let’s just… go get something to eat, okay?” Fluttershy didn’t wait for the bunny, she got up and headed right for her kitchen. Angel sighed exasperated by Fluttershy’s avoidance but he followed suit as he always had. ~==~ ??, 10,000 R.T. (Relative Time) The Gigante, Mothership of the Silver Ponies The Doctor grimaced as the console came up negative again. Apparently triple-encryption wired to the ship’s core set to explode upon the first incorrect alpha-numeric coding sequence was a lot harder to crack than the Doctor first imagined. “Doctor, what’s the hold up?” Ditzy asked as she set the deadlock seals on the doors for the third time. Smiling, the Time Lord waved his sonic screwdriver casually. “Ah, just a bit of a problem with the encryption process.” Glancing at the console again as the image shifted to a counter set at sixty seconds and counting down. The Doctor looked over at his second set of displays and noticed the core temperature increasing at a 120% rate. Combining this with the nosedive it was presently taking toward Troton, the desolate ice-planet, Gigante wasn’t faring well. “Give me about thirty seconds to sort this all out,” he continued with a grin. Ditzy returned his grin with one of her own. Ditzy was promised a quiet trip to the distant future with the promise of being brought home five minutes after she left, she had to pick up Dinky from her friend’s house in time for Hearths Warming Eve. However, their plans were derailed when the two stumbled upon (literally) an entire battle fleet of 100,000 strong ships headed for a docile planet, presumably not for afternoon tea. Naturally, the pair hopped aboard the ship, worked their way to the bridge and kindly asked the captain to cease and desist their invasion plans. Ditzy gave them her patented puppy-dog eyes and the Doctor rattled off a lot of technobabble jargon to convince them. Glancing down at the now unconscious captain of the ship underneath Ditzy, the wall-eyed pegasus shrugged, he was less than cordial in response. More banging and obnoxious threats slammed against the door Ditzy was charged with guarding. Pressing her ear up against the door, Ditzy asked, “Who’s there?” “Release our captain and we will only destroy you a little bit, Doctor!” roared the lieutenant Nova Dust. “Doctor Who?” Ditzy asked. Swears and curses were bellowed back at her from the now dozens of armed ponies behind the door. Grimacing, Ditzy resisted the urge to clean their mouths out with soap. “Doctor!” she called. “They’re getting through again!” Calmly she pointed at the door controls which displayed bright red colors, indicative of intrusion cells produced by the lieutenant. The Doctor barely spared a glance at Ditzy, working hard at the console as the timer blinked 32 seconds, brandishing his sonic screwdriver he tossed it over at his companion. “Psychic interface, point and think,” explained the Doctor. Catching the sonic screwdriver clumsily in her hooves, she stared at it for a moment furrowing her eyebrows. Suddenly, the device whirred and vibrated in her hooves, activated by her stray thoughts. Fumbling, Ditzy dropped the screwdriver on the captain’s head. “Sorry,” she mumbled, picking up the screwdriver with her mouth and pointing it at the door. It whirred again and a loud noise, like tumblers shifting, clanged as the door relocked itself. “Doctor,” Ditzy said, sonic still in her mouth. “If this is a spaceship, why do the doors make a noise as if it’s locked by a key?” Standing up from the desk, the Doctor headed over to Ditzy, grabbing the screwdriver and pocketing it. “No idea,” he answered with a grin. “Now then, come along Ms Doo.” Gesturing toward the impassive TARDIS standing in the corner of the room, Ditzy smiled and took the Doctor’s outstretched foreleg and followed him inside the impossible box. Once inside, the Doctor ran straight for the console, patting it affectionately as he worked the controls. She gave a customary lurch once she took off and hummed contently dematerializing from the crashing ship and rematerializing a safe distance away from both the planet and ship. Ditzy joined the Doctor at the scanner. The image shifted from strange circular symbols to a perfect display of the Gigante as it fell toward Troton. Suddenly, the image lost color and fuzzy lines marked all over the screen. Cursing aloud, the Doctor slammed his hoof against the scanner and the image corrected itself. “So, what’s gonna happen to the ship?” Ditzy asked, watching the ship’s descent accelerate. “I tried to override the navigation and access fleetwide controls, but the encryption was protected with a failsafe,” the Doctor eloquently explained. “If a breech was detected, it would put the ship’s core into meltdown and explode, taking everyone—“ “Everypony,” Ditzy automatically corrected. “Everypony,” he amended with a sour expression. “Down with it. It was impossible to stop.” “Ah…” Ditzy trailed off. The Gigante continued to fall, now breeching the planet’s upper atmosphere. In mere moments the ship would explode, killing everypony on-board and probably taking down that entire planet with it. “So, how’d you do it?” she asked. The Doctor smiled his customary madcap grin and threw a lever. “Oh, you know me, always a way out, eh?” A bright blue light enveloped Troton and when it faded Gigante was gone. There wasn’t an explosion but the ship was no longer there, the planet was intact and calm as if nothing had ever happened. A moment later the entire fleet following Gigante were glowing just as brightly as it had and once the lights had faded the fleet was gone as well. “There wasn’t any way to stop the countdown,” the Doctor explained as he warmed up the helmic regulator. “But that didn’t mean I couldn’t reroute what the countdown was attempting to trigger.” “What’d you do?” she asked again unable to keep her smile off her face. “Rewired the failsafe to activate the ship’s warp-drive. It was a bit more advanced than I anticipated, well, it was still a bit primitive for this time period. When the countdown finished, the warp-drive activated and transported the ship back to their home planet, the Silver Republic. Their core would remain intact but the warp-drive would be burned out from the trip.” Ditzy’s grin only became wider because the Doctor was leaving out the most important detail, waiting for her to ask. Her curiosity was always the best thing about her. “What about the fleet? Why did it go as well?” “Hoof Cole protocol,” he answered. “What’s that?” “If the mothership initiates an emergency jump, any ship under its command, within a certain proximity, automatically follow suit. They were just playing follow the leader,” the Doctor laughed, pulling another lever. The TARDIS lurched again, heading directly for the coordinates the Doctor inputted twice as fast than he expected, Ditzy shouldn’t be late to pick up her sister, after all. Laughing alongside the Time Lord, Ditzy approached him with a fierce hug. The feeling of accomplishment of saving an entire planet finally registered in her mind as that warm, bubbly feeling came up from her stomach and tickled her chest. The trip was supposed to be a calm retreat but it turned into yet another grand adventure, something she wouldn’t want to trade for anything. “So, the planet is safe?” Ditzy asked. “Well, safe is relative. There are a billion of other things out there ready to take that little planet”—Ditzy prodded the Doctor’s chest, pouting slightly. The Time Lord couldn’t resist but smile at her gentle reaction and nodded – “Yes, the planet is safe, thanks to you.” “You did most of the work,” Ditzy countered. “Yeah, you’re right.” Laughing, she pushed herself away from him with half an eye-roll. “Better watch out, Doctor, your humility is running away.” “Well, I did save an entire planet, I think that’s worth something, don’t you?” The TARDIS stopped and the Doctor took a look at the scanner, they were back in Ponyville, as promised, right across the street from Ditzy’s house. “Yes, you did, congratulations, Doctor.” Ditzy curtseyed, making her way to the door. “And to you, Ditzy Doo.” Returning her curtsey with a small bow of his own. Placing her hoof on the door, she paused for half a second, enough time for the observant Time Pony to notice. Walking around the console, he faced the door, furrowing his eyebrows. “What’s wrong?” he asked. Ditzy’s golden eyes met his old gray eyes. “Well… I was just wondering if you wanted to come in.” The Doctor raised his eyebrow. “I know the girls aren’t in town,” Ditzy explained. “And, well, nopony should spend Hearths Warming Eve alone. You could spend it with me, Dinky would be happy to see you.” Scratching his wild curly mane, the Doctor frowned and shook his head. “No, I can’t.” “But why?” “I’ve got quite a bit of maintenance work, the TARDIS needs a bit of a tune-up,” he explained dismissively. “The helmic regulator is still a bit wonky.” Ditzy shook her head. “This is a time machine, you can do it at any time, Doctor.” The Doctor approached Ditzy with a deliberate pace. He reached for her head… to open the TARDIS door for her. “Be with Dinky, and tell her hi from me.” But Ditzy wouldn’t be convinced this quickly. She stood there, her eyes focusing with a usually unseen determination. “You should say ‘hi’ yourself.” Smiling, the Doctor gently pushed Ditzy until she stepped out of the TARDIS of her own will. “I’ll drop by later, I promise.” “Pinkie promise?” Ditzy asked. “Cross my hearts and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” the Doctor recited, acting out Pinkie’s customary gestures that went along with the apparently unbreakable promise. Ditzy hesitated for a moment but nodded once satisfied, waved goodbye and walked off to her home as the TARDIS closed behind her and dematerialized leaving behind only that wonderful noise it made. ~==~ The Doctor stood there by the console, sullenly staring at the controls. The helmic regulators were perfectly fine, he had repaired them only a week ago, but it was the only convincing thing he could tell Ditzy without explaining the real reason he didn’t want to stay. Ditzy was a sweet enough mare and she didn’t deserve to be bogged down by an old pony’s problems and concerns. She deserved to get some rest and relaxation with Dinky, it was only fair. Psychic vibrations brushed against the Doctor’s mind, feelings of trepidation and consolation washed over him. But the Time Lord shook off those feelings, forcing a grin at the time rotor. “I’ll be fine, come on then Old Girl, let’s go see what’s going on in Ponyville, eh?” Before the Doctor could decide on anything, however, he felt another psychic vibration. Loud, scared, piercing the very TARDIS and burning into the Doctor’s mind. The heat from the psychic equivalent of a gunshot transferred from his mind to his coat. Wincing slightly, the Doctor pulled out his psychic paper and took a look at the message. A frown creased his features. Pocketing the psychic paper, the Doctor went to work instantly tracking down the source of the message. Inputting the coordinates, the Doctor threw the lever and the TARDIS lurched, disappearing from in front of Ditzy’s house… just in time for Dinky to run out and witness the police box dematerializing before she could say anything.