//------------------------------// // The Doctor's Daughter // Story: The Adventures of Doctor Whooves: Series 1 // by Time Pony Victorious //------------------------------// “Daughter?” Applejack asked for the 12th time. “Yes,” answered the Doctor, quickly losing his patience. Applejack nodding, taking that information in carefully and considering her next, no-doubt well thought out, question. “Really? Daughter?!” “YES!” “As in, the birds ‘n the bees?” The Doctor blushed slightly, turning away and subconsciously adjusting his bowtie. He glanced at Jenny, the impossible pony, with Pinkie Pie, laughing and talking. Jenny met his gaze and gave him a gentle smile, there was no doubt about it; it was her. She may have been a pony, but she was still a Time Lord, the Doctor is able to sense these things and as soon as she showed up her presence brushed up against his mind. Definitely her. So, why did he feel so much dread? “Well, no, not really,” the Doctor finally said. “It wasn’t like that.” “Then how was it?” Applejack asked coyly, leaning up against the Time Pony with grin. “Ya didn’t tell me you were a father, Doctor.” The Doctor sheepishly brushed a hoof through his mane. How could he explain that Jenny was born from an instantaneous progenation machine that took a sample of his DNA, splitting up his cells so many times until Jenny was born fully grown with military tactics burned into her mind for the purpose of fighting, and winning, wars. “It’s complicated,” he admitted. “And I was a father before. Well, before Jenny, a long time ago…” The faraway look in the Doctor’s eyes made Applejack a bit uncomfortable, as if she were stepping into foreign territory. “Well… she’s beautiful, Doctor, why do ya look at her like ya’ve seen a ghost?” Sighing, the Doctor took another look at the tan-colored mare, giggling as Pinkie made another joke (probably about pastries). It was too good to be true, way too good. But then again… Gallifrey… “She can’t be here,” he answered. “It’s impossible, I saw her…” His voice choked up as he recalled that terrible day, the terrible war that took her from him. He saw her dead, no regeneration, as an old friend put it, she wasn’t Time Lord enough. Applejack took his hoof, startling him out of his thoughts. Her eyes, perfect green emeralds that looked either sea-green or granny smith green (the apple, not the old pony). “She’s here, Doctor. That’s all that matters.” The Doctor sighed, grinning weakly at the farm pony. It was funny how often his companions claimed they depended on him when in reality he depended on them a lot more. “True. Although the how and why still interest me… Jenny,” he called, his daughter looking back at him with a grin. “How on earth did you get here? I only arrived after a violent regeneration and the TARDIS accidentally falling out of the universe.” Jenny looked uncomfortable, shuffling her hooves slightly. “I’m not really sure, to be honest… There were cracks in time, Father.” A grimace set in the Doctor’s face. “Cracks in the fabric of reality…” she continued. “After my… well I woke up after you left, I’m not really sure how, either. I didn’t regenerate, I don’t even know if I can, but I stole a ship and flew off, to see the universe, to find you.” She grinned, a grin the Doctor knew, the madcap smile that he saw every time he looked in a mirror. It was definitely her. “I had a little trouble, a run-in with the Judoon on Mars, meet up with an… interesting Time Agent, I stole his vortex manipulator but missed and landed in 1960’s London. A lovely lady found me and fixed my vortex manipulator, I tried to use it again but… I flew into the crack and fell through…” Jenny shrugged, frowning and gesturing to this place. “Then, I woke up here, and saw you. I instantly recognized you, Father, I think it’s a Time Lord thing.” The Doctor smiled, throwing a leg around Jenny, hugging her. “Of course!” Pinkie bounced in-between the two Time Lords, giggling and happy as always. “So, it’s true? She’s really a Time Lord like you?” Reaching into his coat, the Doctor pulled out a stethoscope and after getting Pinkie to sit still long enough, he placed it over her ears and pressed the chestpiece against Jenny on one side… then the other. “Binary cardiac system,” the Doctor said. “Two hearts, she’s a Time Lord, through and through.” “Yay!” Pinkie cheered, hugging the father-daughter duo. “That means we’ve got to throw a ‘Time Lord Welcoming Party’ and a ‘Welcome Jenny Party’!” Jenny giggled. “I would love that, Pinkie.” “First, we gotta figure out what’s going on here,” Applejack intervened. “I mean, where are we, Doctor?” The Doctor pulled his stethoscope off Pinkie and placed it on his ears, bounding toward the closest wall and pressed the chestpiece against it, listening. “Excellent question, Applejack! Now then, listen to that. Nice electrical flow, environmental controls, but that’s hard vacuum on the outside. It’s a base of sorts..” “Lunar Base One,” Jenny continued with a smile. “Pretty easy to tell, Father. Take a look at the tracks the Changelings left behind.” She pointed at the white covered hoofsteps. “Moon dust, we’re on a moon, not sure where though.” “Ah, finally landed on the moon and right in the middle of a war,” the Doctor muttered. “So, these Changelings can survive on the moon’s surface then, hm.” “Are ya’ll trying t’ say the Changelings are… Moonlings? Aliens?” Applejack asked, completely flabbergasted. “Their tough exoskeleton allows them to survive in vacuum,” the Doctor said. “No doubt their internal systems helps out with that as well.” “They are buggy,” Jenny chimed in. “But who knows if they really originate here?” “We’ve got Changelings on Equis,” Applejack explained. “We had a problem with ‘em a little while back, they tried t’ crash a weddin’.” “Yeah, they were mean!” Pinkie added. “The Queen tried to marry Twilight’s brother, she was a really good singer though.” The Doctor and Jenny tilted their heads in unison, apparently experienced in crashing weddings from alien monsters. “So, why the war?” the Doctor asked. “Maybe the pony colonials pushed into the indigenous Changeling population?” Jenny suggested. “And they’re just trying to reclaim their home?” “Excellent reasoning,” praised the Doctor. “But it’s a grievous mistake to theorize without having facts, Jenny.” “You do it all the time!” she countered. The Time Pony grinned widely. “True, I made a bit of a career out of that.” “Let’s get back to the TARDIS,” Applejack suggested. “Check this thing out from a bird’s eye view.” Shaking his head, the Doctor gestured to the giant wall that he dropped. “It’s going to be difficult, the TARDIS is right through there and it’s deadlock sealed.” “So!” Jenny continued, grinning madly. “We’ll have to do it the old fashioned way. With a whole lot of running and talking!” “It’s a bit of a shame the changeling from earlier ran away,” the Doctor muttered. “We could’ve gotten more insight on whatever’s going on here.” “What makes ya think the changeling would’ve talked?” Applejack asked. “I know changelings, they’re nasty, dangerous an’ don’t exactly listen t’ reason.” Jenny rolled her eyes. “We don’t know that for sure, Applejack. Not until we learn all the facts, they could just be defending their homes for all we know, we can’t make assumptions.” “Exactly!” the Doctor patted Jenny’s shoulder. “So, here’s the plan, find either the changeling leader or the pony leader, listen to their stories, stop the war and get home back in time for tea!” “An’ how exactly are we going t’ do that?” “We’ll do a thing!” Pinkie answered. “Don’t question the thing,” Jenny continued. “Brilliantly put!” the Doctor praised. “Let’s get going then, eh?” “Allons-y!” Jenny agreed. Team TARDIS headed down the corridors in the only direction they could go. The Doctor theorized that since the pony soldiers came from this direction, they would undoubtable head toward their base. Applejack secretly hoped that’s where they were headed, she wouldn’t mind running into a base filled with armed and dangerous ponies than to a Changeling hive. No matter what the Doctor and Jenny said, Applejack knew the Changelings were dangerous, the war must’ve had a good reason behind it. After all, the changeling that attacked them didn’t seem too keen on talking. She couldn’t tell them this, of course, out of fear of getting the Doctor’s disapproving eyes now doubled with Jenny around. At first it was a bit hard to believe Jenny could possibly be related to the Doctor but she was starting to see the resemblance. They looked nothing alike but they both had same fancy-pants accent, both talked excitingly with a bunch of technobabble, both had the same crazed look in their eyes that made AJ wonder if they were insane or geniuses. Still, the way Jenny described arriving here… it unnerved her, as much as it unnerved the Doctor, apparently. When she described the cracks in time, whatever that was, the Doctor looked like he was going to be sick. “What is it with you and wars?” the Doctor asked jokingly. “I could ask you the same thing, Father,” Jenny replied just as coyly. “I heard all about your exploits when I was on earth. Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Daleks, it’s usually you in the middle of a fight.” “Well, you know the life, eh? You’ve gotten yourself into quite a bit of trouble. Judoon? And that Time Agent? Sounds a lot like Cap’ Jack, to me.” “Oh, that was his name!” Jenny exclaimed. “He was a bit… flirty.” “Yeah, good thing you stayed away, eh?” “Well…” Jenny tilted her head, smiling and blushing. “No…” the Doctor stopped. “No! No, he didn’t!” Jenny laughed, gently pushing him. “Nah, he tried but that’s when I swiped his vortex manipulator.” The Doctor scoffed, letting out an inadvertent whinny that made Jenny giggle. It was odd, seeing the Doctor like this, a proper father worrying about her daughter getting into misadventures. Even the Time Lord can be doting parent it seems. It was odd to think that a war could reunite a family. They came to a crossroads with four different corridors leading to nowhere it seemed. The Doctor frowned, looking at each corridor with curiosity. “Hm, now where…” Before he could do anything, Jenny licked her hoof and held it up in the air, pointing at each corridor before finally settling on the corridor to the farthest right. “Over there, half a mile away there is a military encampment, lots of ponies with lots of guns,” she announced. “But I can’t sense the changelings…” Applejack was silently grateful but the Doctor seemed bothered by that. “Alright, I’ll head off this way”—he pointed to the corridor opposite to the one Jenny indicated— “Try to get a lock on the changelings, maybe talk to their leader.” “Father—“ “Ah can’t let ya do that, Doctor,” Applejack interrupted. “What if they ain’t as friendly as ya think?” “It’ll be fine,” he promised with a grin. “But Doctor!” “Then come with me!” he said. “Just come with me as… backup. Pinkie and Jenny can head toward the ponies, we’ll deal with the changelings.” Pinkie seemed absolutely ecstatic at the idea, warming up her singing voice and considering which peace-loving song she should sing. But Applejack and Jenny were the only ones bothered by it. “Father, but what if the ponies attack?” “Don’t let them,” he answered simply. “You lot are ponies. Well, mostly, they won’t attack.” “Then what about us?” Applejack asked. “They might not be as keen t’ see us.” “Momentai ,” he said. “I’ve got an idea.” Ten minutes into the walk, Applejack decided the Doctor was absolutely insane. “Yer kiddin’ me.” The Doctor shook his head, grinning broadly. “Oh, Applejack, you should know me by now, I never kid.” “We can’t just show up and expect ‘em not t’ attack us!” “Sure I can! I do it all the time, doesn’t work out as well every time… But we might get lucky!” Applejack sighed, only just now realizing that she’s literally walking with a madpony into a trap that’ll get them both killed but the odd thing was… she wanted to go anyways. She wanted to help as much as she could to save everypony because she knew that was what the Doctor did. They spent most of the walk in silence, often times the Doctor would point out something interesting in the corridor’s design and rattle off facts that would’ve been fascinating to Twilight but it all sounded like techno mumble-jumble to AJ. Not that she couldn’t appreciate it, mind you. The metallic walls were the color of pure silver and large enough to be able to hold her farm twice over. There weren’t any windows so Applejack couldn’t see if they were truly on the moon or not, but if the Doctor said it, they probably are. “If this is a moon base, what makes ya think them changelings will be ‘ere?” Applejack asked. “They could all be livin’ on the moon’s surface, fer all we know.” The Doctor stopped. The corridor opened up to a large room that looked older than the rest of the place, it was darker, the walls and floors were worn down and ragged and there was a thick smell of musk that reminded Applejack of bad eggs. “No…” the Doctor answered. “I don’t think so…” “Whaddya mean?” “Look.” Applejack couldn’t see where he was pointing until her eyes adjusted, he was looking straight up and when she followed his gaze her heart froze. Dozens upon hundreds of changelings clung to the ceiling in green sacs that Applejack recognized, it was what they used to keep Princess Celestia immobilized. “D-Doctor…” One of the changelings shifted in its cocoon, his horrible eyes opening up and staring at Applejack. Bursting out of the cocoon, he let out a horrible wail, waking up the rest of the clan.