“Woo hoooo!” the Doctor screeched as the TARDIS spun around violently in the vortex, throwing the two occupants every which way. His hands gripped the console tightly, giving him some balance as the ride tossed them about. Rainbow Dash, hovering above the console, rolled her eyes. A sudden dip in the flight pattern caused her to slam into the Time Column in the center of the room. She groaned and slid down a bit before her wings started back up again and she shook her head shakily.
“You okay, Dash? Didn’t get too much of a bump, did ya?” the Doctor teased, grinning wildly up at her. The pegasus grinned back and landed back on the floor, dipping down, knees bent to stop her from falling over immediately.
“I think the only thing we should worry about is you, Doctor!” Rainbow yelled over the swooshing and wheezing of the TARDIS in flight. “I mean, you’re the one flying this thing! Do you even have formal instruction?”
“Nah, never! Instructions are for chumps!” He looked up briefly at the Time Column and then gasped as he fell over. He was quickly on his feet again, blinking in surprise. There was a screeching, followed by a thump, then all was quiet.
“We landed?” Dash asked, aware of the sudden silence.
“Yeah, and since we’re here, might as well let the TARDIS refuel.” The Time Lord pressed a few buttons on the console, then threw his coat on and adjusted the collar as he walked over to the double doors.
“The TARDIS has to refuel? What does she need? Gas? Energy? What?”
“There’s a rift in space and time here, emitting radiation. It’s perfect for the TARDIS, and works a bit like gas, yeah. Just let her soak it up and we’re off.”
He finished speaking and extended a hand. Rainbow Dash took it and they exited the spacecraft. They were in the middle of what was obviously Cardiff. The fountain they always saw at the Rift sprayed water out at an ever constant rate. A few people milled about the square.
“I’ll be right back,” Dash said, scooting back into the spacecraft. The Doctor glanced back, confused, then decided to just lean against his box. A few minutes later, his companions reemerged from the TARDIS. Instead of her shorts, she was wearing a pair of ripped blue jeans and a deep blue hoodie, her new hat backwards on her head, making her rainbow hair jut out from under the front. Her footwear was also different; a pair of black boots. A red lightning bolt hung from the tiny silver chain wrapped around her neck.
“Well, I like this better. Much better. Don’t you?” Rainbow asked, grinning. She stuck her hands in her sweatshirt pockets.
“Much less colorful, so, agreeable,” the Doctor said, grinning back at her.
“Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“I know what I was thinking.” They started walking.
“I was probably thinking that in my head.” Rainbow grimaced. “Yikes.” She then bit her lip, smiling. “So, what’s the agenda for today, hmm?” She looked up at him.
“Considering it’s me, we’ll probably end up saving world from some sort of evil, but hey—never know,” the Time Lord responded. “You’d think I’d have learned that by now.”
The duo strolled along the streets, the Doctor all the while pointing out interesting spots and places. They mostly just toured, stopping for a bite to each whenever they got hungry. As it was nearing the end of the day, the two headed back to the TARDIS.
“Well, I’m pooped,” Rainbow sighed, yawning. She wearily stepped into the spacecraft, the Doctor right behind her. He threw his ever-present coat over one of the coral-like supports.
“Right then. You head on down to bed,” he replied, starting to fiddle with the console. The pegasus cast a quick glance back at him but continued on her way. As soon as she was gone and the lights dimmed in that section of the TARDIS, the Time Lord scurried on out of his ship.
Something was odd here. It felt like a bubble in time, expanding and fluctuating in an odd pattern. He hadn’t wanted to concern Dash, so he’d kept his findings secret. The Doctor held his sonic in both hands, aiming it in different directions so he’d get an idea of where the problem was. The alien put his feet down carefully. If there was a distortion in time, then he’d have to be extra careful not to do anything to upset the possibly thin balance between obliterating the world and not doing that. Hoping it was just the Rift acting up for some reason, though he’d closed it way back when. Way back in his Ninth regeneration. . .
The Doctor growled in his throat. The feeling of time being disturbed bothered him to no end, but it wasn’t like he knew where to look. The Rift was but a scar and nothing else seemed off. Nonetheless, he continued to search for about a half-hour longer. Still finding nothing (though he really hadn’t expected to find anything), he headed back to the TARDIS. Time Lords almost never needed sleep, so he simply trotted down to the library, deciding to finish reading the entirety of the books. The library was huge—over 100 feet of books upon books.
There was a certain book he was looking for as of currently, though, so the Doctor fetched his ladder. He wheeled it along to the bookshelf he needed it at. Not wasting a moment, he started up the 100 foot ladder, determined to get to the one reading device he required. His Converse clad feet skipped every other rung, sending him nearly leaping up the tall ladder. The height and the speed of his travel was not frightening in the least, so the Doctor was making fairly good time.
Not that that would have ever been a problem, of course.
“Aha! Found you, devious thing,” the Time Lord chittered to himself (and partially the book). Swiftly flipping through the pages, just to skim about three-fifths of the book, he grinned and began making his way down, book under one arm. Never throw books. Not ever ever.
Groooan
The Doctor stopped, his heartbeats pounding in his ears. He looked around, trying to find the source of the noise. Upon seeing nothing, he decided it was time to take a quicker route down.
“Alright, hold on, book,” the Time Lord mumbled, stuffing it his bigger-on-the-inside pockets. He then hopped, letting his grip on the rungs go. His hands grabbed the sides of the ladder and his feet squeezed the wood in the same way. Not even a moment later, he was flying down the ladder, grinning wildly as the speed of his descent increased by 75%.
Grooooann
“Oh dear me,” the Doctor grumbled as he felt the TARDIS shift. At least he was almost at the bottom.
Crack
The TARDIS suddenly, and quite violently, rocked, tipping over. The floor was now a bookshelf as the spacecraft landed on its side. Books spilt out of the shelves and the ladder broke in half. It leaned over.
“Oh boy!”
The Doctor landed in a large pile of books, a few being thrown as his weight came down on top of them. Dozens more books rained down on top of his head, seemingly drowning the poor Time Lord in novels. As the downpour stopped, the Doctor poked his head out of the pile. He was bleeding a bit, but it was mostly from paper cuts. He hauled himself out of the books, groaning as he saw the huge mess.
“Ah man, it’s going to take forever to clean this all up!” he complained. He slumped his shoulders, kicking a book out of his way. “I can’t even be sorry for that right now.” He emerged from the destroyed library, fully expecting a furious Dash to be waiting for him. He saw no sign of her.
“Hmm, must be out in the console room. Which is now sideways. . .” The Doctor sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He began his walk along the sloped walls, keeping one hand on the used-to-be-floor for support.
The Time Lord peeked into the console room, but saw nothing. He glanced around a bit. No one. Furrowing his eyebrows, he made his way to Dash’s room . . . and more or less fell into it, slamming into the ceiling on the other side.
“Er—Dash? Rainbow Dash?” he called, rubbing his head. There was a muffled call and he looked over. A pile of blankets shifted and a multicolored head popped up, pushing a few pillows out of the way from where they sat on top.
“Gah! Hey, what—um, what happened?” Rainbow asked, kicking the blankets off her, feet somewhat tangled in the soft fabric. She wore a white T-shirt and orange pajama pants, the cloth speckled with a starry pattern. “I mean, I could’ve swore I was laying peacefully in bed when all of a sudden I was thrown out as the floor became the wall. But—ya know—could’ve just been me.” She glowered at him. “Maybe, I’m just overreacting!” She hurled a pillow at him, which he dodged. You could nearly see the smoke pouring out of her ears.
“We . . . may have a bit of a problem on our hands,” the Doctor responded, somewhat sheepishly.
“No, REALLY?!”
“Here, help me move this,” the Doctor grunted, struggling to lift a broken piece of coral out of the way so he could get to the console. They might have looked light, but they were actually quite heavy!
“’kay,” Dash responded, flying over to help him. She held one end of the coral and he held the other. With a mighty shove, they toppled it to the other side. The Time Lord exhaled loudly and wearily began messing with the controls. “Do you have any idea of what happened? I mean, shouldn’t we go outside to see?”
“We will. Just wait. . .” he mumbled, trailing off while he fiddled with the console. There was a small buzz and an explosion of sparks that rained down from above. “. . And there!” The TARDIS began resetting itself, the whole room flipping around. It happened so fast that Rainbow barely had any idea what was going on. In a matter of seconds, they were standing regularly again, the floor beneath their feet.
“Alright, that’s good. No longer sideways; I like it. She always did look better with everything organized.” There was a hum after Dash said that, indicating the TARDIS had heard that—she agreed. “So do we go outside and check it out?”
“Yes, of course. But first, you might want to go get changed into day clothes again.” The Doctor nodded his head towards the pajamas she was still wearing.
“Be back in ten seconds flat.” She gave him a cocky grin and then shot out of the console room. In exactly ten seconds, by the Doctor’s count (and Time Lords were never wrong), she was turning her hat backwards, still hovering in midair. “Come on! I super-duperly want to know what just happened.” She landed and padded towards the set of blue double doors. The Time Lord trotted after, hands in his pockets.
Upon arriving outside (still nighttime), they found nothing out of the ordinary. Well, except for the fact that they fell out of the TARDIS considering she was laying on her side.
“How in Rassilon did that happen? How?” the Doctor exclaimed, looking at his beloved spaceship. The top light was blown, a few shards of glass around the area. He pouted, placing his hands on his hips. He walked around the TARDIS, examining her. She was slightly burnt, a few areas actually without paint. The Time Lord ran his pointer finger down a portion of warm, burnt wood, then stuck his finger in his mouth.
Rainbow grimaced. “What are you doing?”
“Well, I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this . . .”
“What? Doctor? What are you not telling me? What’s wrong?”
The Doctor sighed, blowing air out his nose. “I sensed it almost immediately after we landed. There was this feeling, as if time was disrupted. And I was right. There’s been an explosion of time.”
“Wait wait wait, wait a minute.” Rainbow stopped, closing her eyes and holding up a slim index finger—“An explosion of time? What the hay does that mean?”
“It means the Time Vortex has somewhat—imploded—and some leaked out in forms of radiation. There was such a strong blast that it rammed into the TARDIS with full force. It only affected her because she and I are the only ones who would be affected if caught in a direct wave. Completely harmless to humans though, but not some certain species.”
“And by ‘certain species’ you mean Time Lords, don’t you?”
“No! No, of course not. The Time Vortex is a wonderful place for my race. We’re lords of time, remember?” The Doctor cracked her a smirk. “No, some primitive species. I would doubt there’d be any on Earth, so there’s really no problem there.”
“Then why is it so bad?” Rainbow asked, shrugging.
“Why is it bad? Why is it bad?!” the Doctor screeched, gripping his dark hair tightly in his fists, “it’s a time explosion! It’s bad enough when there’s a regular explosion!”
“Well then, tell me what will happen!”
“When something like this occurs, things of all time periods can leak through. Anytime, anywhere, anyone. And some things are best left in the past.” He finished with an utter look of horror on his face.
“How do we fix it then?”
“We’d have to go into the Time Vortex and repair it from the inside—which is extremely dangerous. And as the Time Vortex is extremely tough, I can only assume someone deliberately attacked it.”
“Great.” If she still had her tail, she’d definitely be flicking it in annoyance. Instead, her wings twitched in irritation, so she gave them a single angry flap to steady herself out. “So I’m guessing we’ll have to be on the lookout for things from the past and future and stuff?”
“For sure,” the Doctor sighed.
A small child ran around a corner, giddy and carefree. He giggled as he heard his older sister catching up to him. He turned his head, blonde hair ruffled by the wind.
“You’ll never catch me, Elise!” he squealed.
“Robby, come back here! It’s nearly time for school!” Elise yelled, coming around the corner. Her little brother was always running off. She saw him vanish behind another wall, so she slowed down and peeked around the corner.
Instead of finding her little brother, happy and out of breath, she saw him staring, gazing upwards. She stopped too, in bewilderment.
There, in the dim light of early morning, sat the bluest of boxes, an eerie light shining from the words at the top.
Police Public Call Box