//------------------------------// // Monster in the Storeroom, Box in the Attic // Story: Doctor Whooves: Birth of the Doctor // by LightOfTriumph //------------------------------// Time. Time is the very thing that makes up our universe. Never shifting. Marching forward, ever onward. Forever steady. Turner knew this because he dealt in time. Every watch he made was adorned on the wall, showing time as it happened. Another step forward. Another tick. Another minute, hour, day, month, year passing by. Turner realized that all time was limited. He knew his time was being wasted, ever since he moved he moved here from Trottingham. But he knew one solid truth. Once a moment was lost, there was no way to regain it, such is the nature of time. Time was rigid. Time was linear. Time was immovable Turner knew this for a fact. Turner couldn't have been more wrong. ******************************************************************************************* "Rarity's gonna kill us!" Sweetie Belle moaned. "It's cool!" Scootaloo said, panicked herself. "We just have to wait for Applejack to get back with the money and-" "I'm right here!" came a muffled southern drawl. Applejack ran up with a sack of bits in her mouth. She dropped it on the ground and seemed out or breath. "It's about a hundred bits. Don't ask me where I got it. Let's just say snails owed me a favor. You girls think it'll be enough?" Sweetie Belle held up the broken watch. "We can only hope..." "Let's go talk to him," Scootaloo said. "If it costs too much we can always turn on the tears." They walked into Time Turner's watch shop. Turner was sitting at his worktable, quietly tinkering away at his latest creation. Looking at every piece with meticulous care, he crafted another clock to add to the thousands on the wall. Every clock on the wall was in sync, meaning every second there would be a choir of ticks. Every clock showed the correct time. Every clock was perfectly wound. Besides the ticking. Everything was silent. Sweetie Belle was rather nervous to talk to him, but stepped up anyway. "Uh," Sweetie started. "Are you the watchmaker?" Time Turner looked at the fillies, looked around at the thousands of watches and clocks around him, then he looked back to Sweetie Belle. "No." he said frankly. The joke seemed to diffuse the tension in the room. Scootaloo couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah," Sweetie said, calming down. "Kind of a stupid question." "No worries," Turner said kindly. "Yes, I am the watchmaker, the name is Time Turner. What do the three of you need?" Sweetie Belle put the broken watch on the table. "It's my sister's watch. We kinda broke it..." Turner peered at the Time Piece. "So you did." He took it from Sweetie Belle. "Not too badly though. Bit of jiggery-pokery should get it ticking again." "You can fix it?" Apple Bloom said excitedly. "Dear girl," Turner said to Apple Bloom. "I may not be anything special, but the one thing I know how to do is mend a watch." "We brought money!" said a muffled Scootaloo, waving the sack of bits back and forth. "No charge." Turner smiled. "Wouldn't be worth it anyway. This shouldn't take me a moment.' Scootaloo slung the money over her back. "Whew. Thank you!" "Not a problem." Turner said, already absorbed in his work. The three girls convened. "Now we can focus on gettin' our cutie marks!" Apple Bloom squeaked. "Don't rush to that, trust me." Turner called from the worktable. Scootaloo turned. "That's easy for you to say, you already have yours!" "Yeah," Time Turner looked at the hourglass on his flank. "But remember, once you get it, you can't change it, and sometimes I wish I could." "You don't like being a watchmaker?" Sweetie Belle asked. "It's not that." Turner sighed. "I like my work, but it is a bit dull isn't it? Just for once I'd like to see the world. Do a bit of traveling." "So take a vacation!" said Scootaloo. "Cant," Turner said. "Too many deadlines. Too many responsibilities. Too much work, not enough-" Time Turner was interrupted by several sounds all happening in quick sequence. First came a massive crash from the back storeroom, then a low grinding noise coming from the attic. "What was that?" Sweetie asked over the grinding. "I think that my plumbing may be on the blink," Turner said thoughtfully. "I'll go see what fell over in the storeroom..." "You keep working. I'll check it out." Sweetie Belle walked over to the storeroom door. She opened it to find an odd sight. The silhouette of what appeared to be a five foot tall novelty salt shaker with a plunger and an egg whisk glued to the front of it. The filly was going to laugh at the strange figure....., But then the figure began to talk. "LIFE FORMS DETECTED! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINA-" Sweetie Belle quickly shut the door and put her back to it. "Time Turner?" Sweetie asked nervously. "When was the last time you went back in the storeroom?" "This morning." Turner seemed not to have noticed the monster in his storeroom. "Why?" There was a loud thud and Sweetie Belle was thrown away from the opening door. The monster slid through., "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" "What?!" said Turner. "What is that thing?!" said Apple Bloom. "Get behind me, now." Turner put his body between himself and the three fillies. They hadn't noticed the grinding had stopped. There was a series of thuds as somepony, something raced down the attic stairs. Sweetie Belle recognized this shape as "human," from a story that Twilight had told her. Tall, bipedal, he wore a brown suit with pinstripes on it that didn't seem to match his white... Sweetie went with hooves. His mane was spiked up at the front. "Stop it right there Dalek! No one is getting Exterminated while I have some questions!" "You are the Doctor" The creature the man had identified as "Dalek" responded. "You shall come with me!" "Not. Yet," said the man identified as The Doctor. "First your going to answer three questions for me. If I like the answers maybe I'll come with you." "I do not obey your orders!" screamed the Dalek. "You do if you want me alive." said the Doctor. "Three questions, that's all. Or all you'll be taking back is dead bodies." The Dalek paused. "I obey...for now." "Brilliant!" The Doctor burst out in a grin. "Number one. What are you doing in this universe?" "We search for a place in this world that shall bring about the rebirth of the Daleks." the Dalek responded. "Alright," the Doctor thought carefully about the next question. "Number two. If I come with you, what happens to them?" The Doctor tilted his head toward Time Turner and the three fillies. "They are inconsequential. They shall be exterminated. " the Dalek said coldly. "Wrong answer!" the Doctor yelled. "As of right now these people are under my protection." He looked over at the ponies cowering in the corner. "These... horses.... are under- Alright, I'm going to have some questions for the four of you later..." "Proceed with your final question!!" the Dalek demanded. "Very well," the Doctor said slyly. "Why do you want me alive?" The Dalek remained silent. "Oho." The Doctor seemed like he could barely keep from laughing. "He's here too, isn't he? He made it out? Oh, brilliant!" The Doctor paced around the room. "Well rest assured, I want to speak to him as much he wants to speak to me, but..." he pulled out a small metal stick from his pocket. "I'll do it on my own terms, thanks." He pointed his stick to the ceiling, there was a loud whirring noise, and suddenly the Dalek was trapped underneath bits of the ceiling. "Run!" The Doctor ran up the attic stairs. Turner and the fillies followed. "I'm confused!" said Scootaloo. "But at least we got away from it! No way is that thing getting up the-" "ELEVATE!" screamed the Dalek from down the stairs. "Never mind," Scootaloo said miserably. "What's that!" they all looked at what Apple Bloom was pointing to. The structure was about seven feet tall, four feet wide. It was royal blue with writing across the top of it. POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX "Alright." said the Doctor. "All of you, in the box, now." "Are you crazy!" Sweetie Belle screamed. "There's no way we all fit in there." "I could explain to you why you're wrong," The Doctor shut the attic door and waved the metal stick over the lock. "But I'll just say that it's either the box, or the Dalek." "I'm for the box." said Turner. "Second!" said the three fillies. They all piled into the box and were stunned at what they found inside. Time Turners jaw dropped at the sight of the enormous room. "Okay," The Doctor ran to the big octagonal console in the middle of the room and began to pull switches. "I'm sure you've got a thousand questions for me. Trust me I have more for you and mine are far more important. So here's the what you get. You each get one question that consists of one sentence, in return you get a one sentence honest answer." He flipped one more switch and the grinding noise started up again. The Doctor turned to the four ponies. "And.... go."