//------------------------------// // Waking up // Story: The new and the old // by gkst //------------------------------// “So you found him in the everfree forest fluttershy? What was he doing there?” The Doctor awoke to the sound of whispers coming from somewhere to his left which he promptly ignored to tend to more pressing matters. “Still alive huh?” The doctor said ponderously “OH!” He suddenly exclaimed resulting in 3 high pitched gasps from the whispering beings to his left. “I have an English northern accent again … I think. I can never be too sure without confirmation first. Hard to tell what you sound like with your own ears I’ll have to borrow someone else’s later. Hmmmm I seem to be lying down on something rather soft. A Bed? No not comfortable enough. A coach! Yep definitely a coach.” The doctor pulled himself into a standing position. “Huh four legs? And hooves! Well that’s a new one. Never had hooves before. Clearly not humanoid. That’s rare not very many non-humanoid intelligent species.” The doctor waggled his tail in delight “wait a minute! “The doctor felt his flank. “No! Nooooooo!” The doctor squealed in delight. “I have a tail! Imagine all the useful things you can do with a tail. Like … wait what do creatures with tails do with them? Chase them? Hmmm I suppose you shouldn’t knock it until you try it.” The doctor began to chase his tail but quickly stopped. “Well I get dizzy a lot faster than I used to” He said stumbling back into the coach. “Wait my tail was brown. Does that mean?” The doctor pulled down the front of his mane to confirm that it was brown. “But I’ve been brown loads of times! It gets boring. There are so many other hair colours out there. I could have been ginger. I’ve even got fur now! That’s two chances to be ginger but nope both bro- owwwwwwwn argh!” The doctor suddenly doubled over in pain before falling unconscious. “Who is this stallion?” Twilight exclaimed poke the unconscious pony before leaping back half expecting him to leap back to life. “Well I’m not sure a big blue box sort of threw him at me while I was visiting Merlin the manticore.” Fluttershy replied making sure to keep Twilight between her and the new pony in case he woke up again. “I’m sure I’ve seen him around somewhere before.” Spike said deep in thought. “I just can’t remember where.” “Is he ill? Why did he pass out? Why did he seem so surprised by what he looked and sounded like? Where’s he from? I have so many questions!” Twilight exclaimed. “Maybe we should take him to the hospital?” Fluttershy suggested timidly. “NO!” The doctor climbed back onto four hooves with a pained expression on his face. “I’m fine. I just used to much of my regeneration energy on things other than regenerating I should be fine after a little R&R after the last few days I most certainly need it.” The doctor looked at the ground tears in his eyes. The memories of his last few days starting to sink in. So many dead because of his stupid curiosity. Even his solution was mind bogglingly stupid now that he stopped to think about. Rip a hole in the fabric of reality. Sure why not? Not as if that’s nearly caused the destruction of the universe a thousand times over. “Stupid! Utterly and completely stupid.” At this Fluttershy darted out of the room and, following a prompt from twilight, spike went after her. “Are you ok mr…?” twilight prompted. “The doctor. Just the doctor and I am fine… I think.” The doctor suddenly felt his chest before suddenly slamming his hoof into it a few times. “Now I’m definitely fine both hearts working and everything.” The doctor tried for a cheerful smile. “Wait two hearts?” “Well you have a horn!” The doctor said brushing off the question. “Yes. All unicorns have horns.” Twilight stated matter of factly. “Well yeah obviously what kind of an idiot doesn’t know that? Of course you’re a unicorn and the beings that just darted out of this room the flying horse and small lizard thing are also completely normal. Huh. I’m sarcastic, evasive and really rather rude. I suppose that isn’t exactly unusual though.” “You are a very strange pony. Spike, the “small lizard thing” is a dragon and fluttershy is a Pegasus.” “Wait a minute am I?” The doctor’s hands suddenly shot to his fore head and then his back. “Of course not.” He said glumly. “What was that all about?” Twilight asked inquisitively. “I was checking if I had a horn or wings but I don’t.” “Wait let me get this straight.” Twilight looked at the stallion thoughtfully “You had no idea you were a pony until you woke up a few minutes ago?” The doctor nodded “ You didn’t know about unicorns , Pegasus and dragons until either you saw them when you woke up?” The doctor nodded again. “So you have amnesia?” The doctor let out a quick bark of laughter “I wish my dear …?” “Twilight. Twilight Sparkle” “Well Miss sparkle nothing would please me more than to forget all of the thought I have ever thought but they are kind of stuck in my head like the tune to a catchy song. They just replay themselves over and over. I would say they were slowly driving me insane but that would imply I has some semblance of sanity to begin with. To answer your question, miss sparkle, no I don’t have amnesia. I remember everything that has ever happened to me.” The ponies sat and stared at each other in silence for a while. Eventually they were interrupted by a loud gurgling sound coming from the doctor’s stomach. “Don’t suppose you have anything to eat around here I am starving!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Twilight Sparkle stood at the entrance to Fluttershy’s kitchen with a look of horror on her face. She had just watched the strange long winded pony take a bite out of every vegetable known to pony kind (Fluttershy had a very well stocked kitchen in order to cater to any animals diet that showed up at her door). She had also watched him spit out every last one of them. He was currently devouring a mixture of baked beans, honey and caramel? “That hit the spot” the doctor said putting down the empty bowl that had contained the abomination that was his lunch “I’m not sure about all of these vegetables though. Never been a big fan of green things. Well with the exception of jelly babies some of those are green but then again I haven’t tried them yet. Wait! What if I don’t like jelly babies? What if I don’t like jammy dodgers? There are so many things that I don’t know yet!” “Are you having an identity crisis?” Twilight asked noticing the symptoms from a book. “Miss Sparkle my life is one big identity crisis. If I ever figure myself out it would amaze me.” “Okay?” “That reminds me. Manners! I should have them. I sometimes do. Well almost usually sometimes. Anyway that’s besides the point. I just came into your kitchen and ate your food without even bothering to ask if you were hungry. Want me to whip you something up? I think I like cooking it was far more fun eating a combination of three things than it was nibbling at the ingredients. Things on their own are rubbish they need companionship otherwise eating them is far less fun.” “Well this isn’t my kitchen so you aren’t being rude by not making me anything.” Twilight said attempting to avoid eating this crazy ponies cooking. “In that case I’ll make her something to eat for when she get back! The caramel was definitely the best part of that lunch maybe if I combine it with some of the green things it will make them taste better!” The doctor set to work creating another abomination of cooking this time leaving it in a small bowl on the kitchen counter. “There we go it looks delicious which means it will be delicious! Know it’s time to go exploring.” The stallion sprinted out of the door and into a brand new world but was quickly enveloped in a purple glow and pulled back into the door. “Wait. What was that?” Asked the doctor a look of awe on his face. “A very simple levitation spell one of the first pieces of magic a unicorn learns and you’re not going anywhere until you do a better job of explaining yourself!” “Huh so you’re a magic talking purple unicorn?” The other mare nodded uncertain as to why the stallion was stating the obvious. “Fair enough then I propose a simple game. I like games. Or at least I used to so this will be nice little experiment to see if I still like them. The rules are simple we each take turns asking each other a question and we each get three questions. This way you get to learn about me and I get to know more about this planet. I’ll even let you go first.” “Fine then. Who are you?” “I already told you that. I’m the doctor.” “But doctor who?” “Don’t you mean doctor hooves?” The doctor held up his hooves before bursting into laughter “it seems I like puns now especially incredibly witty ones like that. Now it’s my turn.” “That’s unfair you didn’t answer my question.” “You should’ve been more specific with your question. Don’t worry you have two more but now it is time for my question.” The doctor jumped up 3 times while glaring at the ground as if it had offended him. “Why isn’t the ground moving?” “What?” “The ground and, by extension, this whole planet is entirely stationary. I’ve been conscious for about an hour now and I haven’t felt it move an inch. Why? You clearly have a sun. I saw it when I ran outside. I judge the distance between this planet and that star up there to be roughly 150 million kilometres and this planet doesn’t feel too big. I’d say it’s a little smaller than the earth presuming the density of the dirt out there is roughly the average for the surface of the planet and it gets steadily denser as you approach the core this planet mass couldn’t possibly be larger than something that appears that big in the sky and yet seems to be about 150 million kilometres away. There should be gravity. We should be moving around it but we’re not. There isn’t even a small gravitational pull coming from it which means that nothing could possibly be there but something was clearly there because I saw it.” “Oh that’s an easy one. You learn about this in school. The sun is created by princess Celestia’s magic and also moved by it. Magic doesn’t have any mass so it doesn’t exert a gravitational pull on the planet so we don’t move. It’s the same for princess luna’s moon.” Twilight lectured. “Fascinating. So everything about that sun is artificial. The heat and the light are created by magic. Wow. These princesses of yours must be very powerful to maintain that amount of energy for any amount of time.” The doctor stated, awe struck. “They are very powerful. Now it’s my turn. What are you? I’ve never heard of a being with two hearts.” “I’m a time lord from the planet Gallifrey.” “What’s a time lord? An alien from this planet Gallifrey?” “I believe, miss sparkle, that that is your third and final question so the fourth one shall be ignored. A time lord is exactly what t sounds like. They were a race with the ability to travel through time and space whenever they wanted to instantaneously. They were proud and they were noble.” “Were?” “So inquisitive but I’m afraid you’re out of questions while I still have two left but I think I’ll save one for later. So my final question for now is …” the doctor attempted a drum roll in order to build suspense however he ended up losing his balance and falling flat on his face. Twilight couldn't help giggling. “Need to get used to using my legs for things other than walking. It’s so easy to lose your balance. Anyway my question do you know where I can get some clothes. I am entirely naked and, although this seems to be the norm for ponies and I don’t really mind too much, I miss pockets. They are infinitely useful things. What if I saw some incredibly useful thing and wanted to store it for later use? Well I couldn't due to my lack of pockets.” The doctor seemed really rather worked up over his pocket less situation. “Well I have a friend who owns a clothing store that isn’t far from here I’m sure she could find you something.” Twilight replied looking a little annoyed at the pony that had just answered three of her questions but had told her very little. was this strange pony really from another planet? “That sounds perfect. I wonder if my fashion sense has improved at all this time. Oh who am I kidding I've always been incredibly fashionable. Well lead the way miss sparkle.” The doctor said flashing her his most charismatic grin. Twilight resisted the urge to hit him.