//------------------------------// // You okay? // Story: Time Keeps Wibbling On: A Doctor Whooves Adventure // by Shotoman //------------------------------// Part 2 You Okay? "You holding on tight, Little Muffun?" Derpy asked of her little one as they neared the school. Dinky wrapped her forelegs around her mother's neck and grinned widely. "Yes, Mom." "Then here we go!" With a laugh, Ponyville's rather infamous grey bottle of pent-up energy dove for the ground, pulling up just in time to plant her feet in the dirt road, her momentum carrying her forward about ten extra hooves if the deep furrow she dug was any indication. She looked around, barely taking note of the ponies who'd scattered in panic at her entrance, until she found the grape colored pony she was looking for standing in front of the school house. "Morning, Cheers!" Derpy shouted happily. Cheerilee just rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Good morning, Derpy. How are you doing today?" "Same way I'm doing every day," Derpy replied with a laugh as she lowered her little daughter to the ground. "Ready to take over the world." This of course elicited another eye-roll from the school teacher. Derpy turned her attention to her daughter as she hoofed her a bag lunch. "You're gonna ace that math test, aren't you kiddo?" "Yup!" "And you're not gonna give Diamond Tiara another black eye, are you?" "Aw, but Mom! She deserved it!" At her mother's mismatched but stern glare, Dinky relented. "Fine." "Good girl," Derpy praised as she kissed her Little Muffin on her forehead, just under the base of her horn. "Now you go and be brilliant, okay?" "Okay!" Dinky replied as she trotted toward the school house. Derpy noticed that Cheerilee was watching them, a private sort of smile on her face. "What?" she asked. "Nothing," Cheerilee said quickly. "It's just... you two are adorable is all." Derpy and Dinky shared a glance, then both pretended to gag at the same time, earning giggles from each other and yet another eye-roll from Cheerilee. When the moment was over, Dinky's eyes caught something behind her mother, then widened slightly as she quickly motioned her down to her level. "Don't look now," she whispered into Derpy's ear. "But I think the Funny Doctor just blew himself up again." Derpy looked behind her and sighed at the column of smoke rising off in the distance, from just the right location. "I can't take my eyes off him for a minute," she grumbled with a small, exasperated smile. Taking to the air, Derpy waved one last farewell to her daughter and as well as her old friend. "You take care of her, Cheers." "I will," Cheerilee replied as she watched Derpy fly off to the center of town. ~DrW~ "What exactly is going on, Doctor?" Ripple Pond asked in irritation as her Raggedy Colt just stammered incoherently at the stallion before him. There didn't seem to be much to this ordinary looking clock maker, really. He was of average size, maybe a little scrawny, actually. Chestnut colored, brown mane and tail, not exactly sore on the eyes, in an unkempt sort of way, and... "Wait a second, he's got your cutie mark," she realized. "Hello!" the chestnut stallion said with a thoroughly amused smile as he offered his hoof to Ripple. "I'm the Doctor." "You are enjoying this far too much!" the Raggedy Colt accused, his green eyes glaring daggers. "And why shouldn't I?" the clock maker replied. "One of us should. And it doesn't look like it'll be nearly as amusing the second time around." "Hold a tic," Blue Shield said. "You're one of the Doctor's past selves?" The clock maker's blue eyes sparkled as he grinned. "Yes, brilliant! I really have to commend you on your selection of companions, Doctor. Looks like you landed some good ones." "Some of the best," the Raggedy Doctor admitted with no small amount of pride, before turning serious. "But this is bad. Really bad. So very, very bad. If I'm here, and you're here, and Ponyville hasn't been completely erased from the very fabric of time, then something big is happening somewhere somewhen and it probably concerns both of us." The Ponyville Doctor sighed, as his expression turned sour. "That much is certainly true," he admitted. "And I was having such a nice day." The Raggedy Doctor was about to reply, when he saw something up in the sky, off in the distance. His eyes widened briefly before he quickly turned to go back into the clock shop. "Yes well then we'd better pop off to the TARDIS then and get started on figuring this out every second counts you know when it comes to these things and we wouldn't want something bad to happen now would..." He was stopped in his tracks by Ripple stepping on his tail. "Doctor," she asked, a wry grin forming on her face, "who is that?" She pointed at the grey pegasus off in the distance obviously flying this way. "Oh, that's Derpy!" the Ponyville Doctor replied happily. "She's with me." "Really now?" Ripple asked, her grin getting wider. "Oh, don't you start," the Raggedy Doctor groused even as he admitted defeat and sat down to wait for the inevitable. Ripple didn't know what she was expecting, but the grey, wall-eyed thing that basically crash landed in their midst most certainly wasn't it. "What did you do this time, Doctor?" she asked as she picked herself up--completely unwinded from the crash landing. "Seriously, is it really that hard to take a little time off without trying to blow up Ponyville or something?" "Oi!" the Ponyville Doctor protested. "It wasn't me this time! It was them!" At the Doctor's gesturing, Derpy noticed the other three for the first time. "Oh, hi there!" she said, zipping over to the nearest one--Blue Shield in this case--and shaking his hoof vigorously. "My name's Derpy, what's yours?" "Blue Shield," he responded, not exactly sure what to make of the energetic mare in front of him. "Ooh, Blue Shield. You a doctor?" she asked, amusement in her mismatched eyes. "Nurse, actually," he responded warily. "Ooh, a nurse!" Derpy happily replied. "Don't see many stallion nurses. Good for you!" She slapped him on the back before turning her attention to Ripple. "Wow, you're pretty. Love the red mane. You ever do any modeling? I'm Derpy. What's your name?" "Ah, Ripple Pond." The mare in question cast a look at her Doctor. Seriously? she mouthed, to which the Doctor shushed her. Derpy turned her attention to the grey stallion in the odd clothes, ready to give him a greeting. She stopped short when she got a good look at him, her eyes narrowing cannily. Tilting her head to the side, she got a good look at his hourglass cutie mark. Straightening up she asked. "So, Doctor, are you from the future or the past?" Ignoring both the surprised gasp from his companion and the amused chuckle from his past self, the Doctor gave a small smile as he gave in to the temptation to run a hoof through her messy, almost coarse, yellow mane. "Ah, Derpy," he said softly. "Still just as brilliant as ever, aren't you?" He could almost hear his hearts breaking.