My Little Doctor Whooves
Discord
Dear Princess Celestia,
Twilight winced as she saw the quality of her hoofwriting; it was still legible, but far from the quality at which she normally wrote. She probably just wasn’t used to the way the pen moved across the paper compared to a quill. She breathed and continued.
My apologies if this letter is not my best work, but due to the lack of quills on the TARDIS, the Doctor has given me a new kind of writing utensil. Hopefully, this will not affect what I’m trying to say.
As I’ve just stated, right now, I am with the Doctor, as well as Rainbow Dash and Applejack, on the TARDIS.
The Doctor continued to pull various levers on the TARDIS’ control panel even after the ship started moving. Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack just looked at his almost erratic movements with amazement; Twilight was surprised he even knew what he was doing. Finally, he stopped and took a breath.
“There. The TARDIS should be in stable flight just long enough for me to explain the ground rules,” he said. “Rule one: Do everything I say. I’ve been at this longer than anyone else in the universe, so I know what I’m doing, and I expect you to listen to my expert advice. Rule two: No personal histories or futures. Never ends well. Even I try to avoid it when I can. Rule three: Don’t bring anything back that will compromise your timelines. Rule four…” He paused, almost like he forgot what he was going to say. “No pears. Absolutely hate them. Last time, I had a bad taste I my mouth for weeks.”
Rainbow started talking, “Is that really a—?!”
Twilight, not wanting to talk about the Doctor’s almost random nature, interrupted her. “So where are we going, anyway?”
“That, my dear, is up to you,” the Doctor answered. “You give me the parameters of what you want to experience, no matter how vague or specific, and I’ll set course for the trip of your dreams. So, who’s first?”
“First?” Applejack repeated.
“I figured I’d let you all take turns in deciding where we go, what we do, the works. Never done it like that before, so it should be fun.”
The three mares thought about what he said. It wasn’t too long, however, before Twilight spoke up. “Well, one thing I’ve always wanted to know about was the history of the princesses.”
“Really?” the Doctor replied. “The princess’ own personal student never bothered to ask about her teacher’s past?”
“And I think we’d know plenty about what happened,” Rainbow added. “I mean, we’ve only faced just about every threat that they have.”
“It just didn’t seem right asking Princess Celestia about something so personal,” Twilight defended. “Besides, there’s a difference between knowing what happened through word-of-mouth, and actually experiencing those moments for yourself.”
“Truer words were never spoken, Miss Sparkle,” the Doctor agreed. “And I may have just the event. An event that is so important to Equus’ history, that should it have gone any different, the future, your present, your very lives would be very much unlike what you know.”
He went back to the console and started pressing buttons, pulling levers, and doing whatever else it was he did. Not for the first time, Twilight wanted to question if what he was doing was actually standard piloting methods; she quickly suppressed this thought because, if their past experiences with the TARDIS were any indication, the Doctor knew what he was doing.
“Hold on to your horseshoes, girls!” he shouted. The TARDIS started to make its trademark whirring noise, indicating it was in motion (or however it traveled; Twilight recalled Spike saying it had just faded out when he saw it). The entire room started shaking almost violently. Unlike moving between Canterlot and Ponyville, the motion was more jarring and lasted a lot longer.
“Sorry if this isn’t what you’re used to,” the Doctor yelled over the noise and banging. “We’re traveling through the time vortex to more than a thousand years in your past. Just hang on and don’t lose your breakfast.”
“D-don’t worry!” Rainbow replied. “This-This is nothing! I do tighter loops and zigzags during flight practice!” Something in her voice, however, indicated she may not have been as fine as she wanted the others to believe.
Eventually, everything just stopped. The shaking had turned to stillness and the entire room was silent. Twilight warily looked up at the console and the Doctor, not letting go of the railing she was holding onto.
“And we’re there,” he said at last. “So, ladies, how are you all holding up?”
“A little worse for wear,” Applejack admitted, “but not too bad, all things considered.”
“Glad to hear it,” the Doctor said. “Because that was actually one of my better landings.” Three ponies sighed and slumped their heads in exhaustion.
Rainbow got back up and said, “So where are we, anyway?”
“And when are we?” Twilight added.
“Personally, I’ve always found that the best way to answer that question is to find out for yourself.” He pointed a hoof at the wooden doors. “Ladies first.”
Twilight walked to the doors and tentatively put a hoof on the doorknob. She took a deep breath and pulled.
The view beyond the doors was incredibly strange: rolling hills of blue-and-pink checkered squares; trees that looked more like seaweed, with actual fish swimming through the air around them; clouds of pink raining something that looked like chocolate milk; flowers that were made of fireworks; a line of buffalo dancing ballet. In short, the entire world was not in any way normal.
And yet Twilight, and Applejack and Rainbow when they saw it, knew they had been through this before.
“Welcome, ladies,” the Doctor announced, “to the year 667 A.E. The height of the Reign of Discord.”