The Golden Oaks Library was as quiet and still as always. Books sat on shelves in such an organized order that even those unskilled in the totally awesome Ewey Decimal System could find books relatively easily. Although for the inpatient, confused, and Rainbow Dash, there was the Golden Oaks librarian. A mare whose job it was to find books for those doing research in many fields, or maybe a book that might grab the reader with its story and emotion...and, yes, to find that one Daring Doo book. Yes, yes, the one with that one bad guy and that totally awesome fight scene.
Twilight Sparkle, part-time Librarian part-time Princess of Friendship, sat at a table massaging her temples. She hadn't quite finished her morning tea when a prismatic pegasus tapped on her window. The multi-colored mare, known more commonly as Rainbow Dash, had spent the last 20 minutes describing a book she was looking for. Fortunately for Rainbow, Twilight had quickly figured out the book in question. Unfortunately for Twilight, Rainbow wouldn't let her get a word in and was now two chapters deep into a very thorough plot summary. Normally it would be way too early in the morning for a Rainbow-stopping outburst, but normally Twilight had gotten more sleep. Twilight finished her tea in a quick gulp, cringing slightly at the heat.
"RAINBOW JENNIFER DASH!" shouted Twilight into the heavens, "WILL YOU PLEASE BE QUIET!"
Rainbow was shocked at the volume of Twilight's yelling. All the windows shook slightly as well as the bookshelves. A single book fell.
"Ow!" exclaimed Spike as the book had a pleasant meeting with his head.
A moment passed before Twilight spoke.
"Good," said the alicorn, "One, the book you are referring to is 'Daring Doo and the Crystal Horn' which, two, you borrowed from the library three days ago."
"Oh," replied Rainbow.
"Now, is there anything else you need? I'm still a whole cup of tea away from actually opening the library."
"There is one thing," said Rainbow, "What the hay is a Jennifer?"
Twilight had just about lost her patience with Rainbow this morning. So instead of saying that she made it up out of the blue as a tactic to grab her attention, Twilight just picked Rainbow up with her magic and pushed her back out the window that she entered.
Twilight sighed and enjoyed the moment of silence the lack of Rainbow granted. Sure she felt bad about it and she would probably apologize to Rainbow later, but this morning Twilight wasn't quite in the mood to be a librarian. No. This morning Twilight was putting on her third hat, Scientist.
Figurative hat, of course, it would be silly if she had an actual scientist hat...........Heh heh..........Shut up. She's a Princess. If she wants to wear the Sciene Hat, she will. She could make everypony in Ponyville wear the Science Hat if she wanted to and they would like it........Ahem.
"Spike, could you brew me another cup? I really need it."
"Sure thing, Twilight." said Spike as he reshelved the book that had fallen.
The book in question being "The Hitchtrotter's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Apples for those that were curious.
Spike went into the kitchen to make more tea. Twilight began to review the fruits of her all-nighter. She had been translating a spell from the notes of Starswirl the Bearded. Starswirl spoke Equestrian, of course, but his notes were often written in haste and he'd sometimes get distracted. It wasn't unheard of for him to begin a sentence one month and finish it the next. Thus was the nature of this spell. It was written out over the course of three years and was only able to be put together recently. This was due in part to a scholar noticing two pages that had been stuck together. One short trip to Canterlot, abuse of Princess privileges, and sad puppy dog eyes later and Twilight had Starswirl's original notes in hoof. She stayed up all night translating Old Equestrian and compiling the spread out notes but she finally had it. Starswirl's lost spell, the Time Travel Spell. Similar to one she had used in the past but with slight changes in the casting and spell itself that made it more stable. If Twilight had read the runes correctly, this spell didn't temporarily let you visit another time but let you stay. As long as the caster kept the link between the two points open they could always return, but it was the caster's choice of how long they would stay not the spell.
Spike returned with the tea and a blueberry muffin and set it gently on the desk Twilight was working at. So gently that Twilight didn't notice it until her stomach growled. She looked up at the tea and treat and smiled. He knew her well.
Twilight enjoyed her light breakfast while she double-checked the triple-check of her translation. She couldn't be too sure. Happy with her work and caffeinated enough to face the day she called to Spike.
"Spike, do you think you can handle the library while I try out this spell?"
"This isn't like that one time when you traveled back in time and made yourself, like, really paranoid about the future, right?"
"Of course not. Nothing like that at all....this time I'm going to the future." Twilight insisted, flashing her most confident smile.
Spike wasn't really buying it, but it wasn't like he was going to change her mind anyway. A Twilight with a new spell is a Twilight that's dedicated to casting said spell. Likewise, a Twilight with a thousand-year-old spell crafted by the greatest mage of the time period, was a Twilight that was already in the basement preparing.
Spike walked over to the still open basement door.
"Rainbow Dash is looking for 'The Crystal Horn,'" Twilight called up.
Spike rolled his eyes as he closed the basement door. Just as he was about to get back to his morning crossword puzzle there was a knock on the window.
Meanwhile, in the basement, Twilight was indeed preparing the spell. This being an older and rather complex spell it required external aids.
Twilight stood in a spot and drew a chalk circle around herself.
"First, encircle the traveller in the center ring. Check. Now add another circle with about four hooves spacing."
She drew said circle and checked something off on a scroll.
"Check. Now for the runes."
Twilight begun to draw symbols inside the second circle. Upon completion she looked over them again and checked it off the checklist.
"I think that's everything. I'm so excited! This is going to be so totally cool, right Smarty Pants?"
The doll sat on a stool across the room wearing Twilight's Science Hat. It had no response. Suddenly the doll was enveloped in a raspberry-colored field, similar to the one on Twilight's horn, and begun to levitate. It rocked back and forth as it talked in a slightly deeper version of Twilight's voice.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" said 'Smarty Pants.'
"Of course," replied Twilight removing the hoof that was covering her mouth. "I followed Starswirl's directions perfectly. I see no way it could go wrong."
"But Starswirl never documented the results of testing this spell."
"Well, Starswirl was a busy colt. I'm sure it just....slipped his mind."
"You're have doubts now, don't you?"
"Maybe a few. This is extremely dangerous. One wrong rune and I could be scattered across the space-time continuum."
"Maybe you shouldn't do it then. You should go eat that slice of lemon cake in the fridge and take a nap."
"No. I can't. You can't very well have scientific advancement if you aren't willing to take a bit of a risk! What kind of world would we be in if Starswirl didn't risk his life and beard trying to craft spells? A pretty dull one is the answer, with only basic levitation!"
"Why is this one spell so important?"
"Well....um...Science! Science isn't about why's, it's about why not's!"
"I think you just have a secret crush on Starswirl the Bearded and finishing his work will make you feel closer to a unicorn that's been dead for OVER A THOUSAND YEARS!"
Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof when she realized how loud she was being. She really hoped they couldn't hear her up in the library.
"Twilight?" Spike called down from the library.
Horseapples.
"Are you okay?" called the dragon, "I heard yelling."
"I'm fine, Spike!" Twilight shouted up the stairs, "I just er...broke my chalk. Yeah! Broke my chalk."
There was pause. Twilight closed her eyes and hoped Spike bought that.
"...Okay, Twilight. If you need anything don't be afraid to call for me."
"Of course. Thank you, Spike."
The door creaked and closed. Twilight stood in silence a while, blushing deeply. Smartly Pants hovered in the air apathetically.
"I really need to stop talking to myself," Twilight said to herself.
"You really do," Smarty Pants agreed.
With her "pep talk" concluded and Smarty Pants returned to her stool, Twilight stood in the center of her circle.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed softly and each rune glowed the same color. The runes began to rotate very mechanically as if they were part of a giant clock. It started slow, each rune rotating one rune to the right every second, then it sped up to every millisecond. Finally it was so fast that the runes resembled a pulsing, glowing ring. The magic that enveloped Twilight's horn began to spark in front of her. What happened next occurred in the span of a few seconds. Twilight's horn shot out a final spark that opened a portal in the air in front of her. As if by an invisible force, she was pushed forward into the portal. The portal closed behind her and she was gone. The only thing left behind were twin trails of fire leading out from where Twilight's front hooves had been. The fire quickly extinguished itself.
"Twilight!" shouted Spike as he burst into the basement, "...Twilight?"
He approached the giant scorch mark on the floor. Extending out a claw and scooped up a bit of the ash.
"Definitely feels like ash from an arcane fire," Spike said to himself, putting said ash into his mouth, "Eeeyup."
He walked over to Twilight's notes and began to skim them.
"Oh, Twilight, what have you gotten yourself into now?" Spike asked the notes, a speck of fear in his tone, "Why can't we be a normal family?"
After a moment an odd noise seemed to fill the basement. Spike could only describe it as a combination of wheezing and groaning. Spike looked around confused.
"Oh no," Spike began to panic, "Is it Discord? The changlings? An army of changlings made of swiss cheese lead by Discord?!"
While Spike was listing more obsurd possibilities, a blue phone booth appeared out of thin air. The wheezing stopped with a deep thud. Spike was now more confused than panicked. Sure it was preferable to changlings, but he had been so sure it was a parasprite marching band.
"Huh? I wonder if this is Twilight's doing."
The box had the words "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX" written across the top. This seemed ridiculous to Spike. There was no police force in Ponyville. There was no need. The town was small enough that everypony knew everypony, and any disagreements were usually settled peacefully. Sure Ponyville now had a sort of militia, but that was only in response to all the terrible disasters that had come through Ponyville since Twilight moved in.
The doors opened and an earth pony trotted out. It was a stallion with a light brown coat and a darker brown mane. He wore a blue suit with a white shirt and tie underneath. His cutie mark was an hourglass.
"I'll fix it later!" the stallion called into the box.
He stopped walking a few steps out of the box and looked around. He completed ignored Spike and mumbled to himself.
"Hmmm, let's see," said the earth pony, "Stone walls and flooring, wooden ceiling with insulation, box of photo albums, purple garden gnome. Yep, it's a basement!"
Spike just watched the earth pony, still puzzled with the box and how it appeared with a stallion inside. It was just like that one magazine ad he had seen on Rarity's desk that made her blush a Big Macintosh shade of red. Rarity had given him a sapphire and told him not to tell anypony about the ad. He didn't understand, but it wasn't like he was going to say no to the two things he loved the most, gems and Rarity.
While Spike was stuck in that train of thought the stallion took out a pair of glasses and put them on. He now seemed 20% more clever. He leaned down and examined the dragon.
"More scales than I remember garden gnomes having," he mumbled, "But who am I to judge lawn ornaments?"
"Hey!" Spike exclaimed, "Who you calling a lawn ornament?"
The stallion jumped back in surprise.
"Oh, sorry," replied the stallion taking off his glasses, "I didn't realize you were alive. You were just standing perfectly still in a basement, so I assumed this is where unwanted lawn ornaments were stored."
Spike looked over his shoulder at the pile of plastic flamingos in the corner. Maybe the earth pony had a point. Spike also made a mental note to ask Twilight about the plastic flamingos later.
"Okay, I'll give you that one," Spike said looking back at the stallion, "But who are you and how did you get in here?"
"I'm the Doctor. I came out of there."
The Doctor gestured to the blue box. Spike looked annoyed for a few seconds.
"I meant how did you get that box in here? You're not a unicorn."
"Well the box travels through space and- hold on...Did you say unicorn?"
"Yes. You're obviously not a unicorn."
"Unicorn. As in a horse with a horn?"
"Um...yes? You're being very weird, Mr. Doctor. You're acting like you've never seen a unicorn before."
"It's just the Doctor, and I haven't. Unicorns were stuff of legend and aside from someone putting a party hat on a horse, no one had actually confirmed their existence. Next you're gonna tell me that pegasi are commonplace in this world too."
"Actually-"
Spike was cut off by a small spark of purple light. Then another.
"What's that?" asked Spike, obviously frightened.
There were a few more sparks and then a large portal of the same color opened and shot out the Princess of Friendship. She retained the momentum and crashed into something.
The Princess groaned and sat up.
"Maybe I shouldn't do that spell in a cramped basement next time," she said, rubbing her head.
"Twilight!" Spike said worried, "Are you okay?!"
Twilight looked at Spike and smiled slightly.
"I'm fine, Spike. Nothing an ice pack and a good book can't cure."
Twilight then noticed the blue box.
"How did that get in here?" Twilight wondered aloud, "I only traveled ahead five minutes."
"It just kinda faded in out of nowhere. A weird stallion that called himself the Doctor claimed it traveled in space and...something else.Then he said something about unicorns being legends."
"Stallions coming out of boxes? It's like that weird magazine ad."
"You know about that too? I thought it was only Rarity that knew. I still don't get what it is, but Rarity blushed pretty hard when I asked about it."
Spike pondered what he said for a few seconds. He then had a realization and quickly covered his mouth.
"I wasn't supposed to tell you about that," Spike said through his claws.
Twilight made a mental note to talk to Rarity about what she was exposing Spike to.
***
Somewhere in Ponyville Rarity was enjoying the nice day. She suddenly felt the odd feeling that someone knew something embarrassing about her.
She sneezed.
Confident the feeling was just allergies she shrugged and continued to enjoy her day.
***
Back in the basement, Twilight asked Spike a question.
"So where is this Doctor?"
"You're sitting on him."
Twilight looked down to see that she was, indeed, sitting on him. She jumped off the earth pony and turned back to look at him.
It seemed that the soft thing she crashed into wasn't the pile of safety flamingos. It was a stallion. It also seemed the force of Twilight had pushed him right into the stone wall, knocking him out.
"Sir? Siiiiir?" Twilight said while attempting to shake him awake.
The Doctor groaned and opened his eyes that were derping ever so slightly. He blinked and looked right at Twilight.
"Oh...Hello Purple Alicorn," the Doctor said, sounding much like a Berry Punch on a Friday night.
"Good, you're alive," said Twilight with a sigh of relief, "Do you remember your name?"
"Sure, Alicorn, I'm the Doctor and I'm....I'm unconscious."
With that the Doctor was out once more. Twilight attempted to wake him again but he was out cold this time. Twilight signed in frustration.
"Spike, get my first aid kit."
***
Twilight levitated the Doctor gently into the guest bed. She pulled the covers up to his chest. Spike ran in holding a medical bag.
"I got the kit, Twilight," said Spike, placing the bag on the nightstand.
"Thank you, Spike."
Twilight dug in the bag blindly. After a moment she took out the shiny stethoscope and put the earpieces in the corresponding ears. As a test to make sure they still worked, Twilight picked up the listening bit and tapped lightly on it. She cringed. Yup, still worked. Twilight placed the listening bit on the Doctor's chest.
...Ba Bum Bum Ba...Ba Bum Bum Ba...
Twilight frowned. That couldn't be right. She took off the stethoscope and examined it. It seemed perfectly functional. Twilight put the stethoscope aside and leaned over the Doctor, putting her ear directly to his chest.
...Ba Bum Bum Ba...Ba Bum Bum Ba...
"Impossible," mumbled Twilight while she sat up.
"What is it?" asked Spike with a touch of worry.
"His heart beat is very irregular. It sounds like whenever a valve opens, a second valve immediately closes. Then when the first closes the other opens. It almost sounds like two separate heartbeats."
"Can you do that?" Spike asked, clearly panicked, "Can your heart beat twice?"
Twilight looked slightly annoyed at Spike.
"Yes, Spike, your heart can beat twice. Hearts typically beat more than once. That's how hearts work. To answer the question you were trying to ask, a pony shouldn't have two heartbeats. Ponies only have one heart, so they should only have a single heartbeat. This is...odd."
"Maybe it's like The Grinch that Stole Hearth's Warming."
"His heart grew three sizes, he didn't grow three hearts. Plus that's a fiction book, you know that."
Twilight put a hoof to her chin and pondered. Spike tapped his claws together in the awkward silence.
"It must be some kind of heart palpitation," Twilight concluded, "I'm going to have to shock it back to its correct beat. Stand back, Spike."
Spike took a step back. Twilight's horn began to crackle with purple electricity.
"Um...Twilight, shouldn't we go to somepony more experienced with this stuff? Like Nurse Red Heart?
"Nonsense! I've read enough medical textbooks to know what I'm doing."
"But Twili-"
"Clear!"
Twilight turned her head down and the electricity arched from her horn to the Doctor's chest. The Doctor tensed up as the electricity passed through him. After a second or two he relaxed and Twilight placed an ear to his chest.
"Success!" Twilight exclaimed quite pleased, "His heartbeat is normal...but his heart rate seems to be rising."
The Doctor's eyes suddenly shot open. He began breathing deeply and quickly. Twilight sat up.
"Ahhh! One heart!" shouted the Doctor, his hooves on his chest.
"Calm down!" Twilight tried to say at a louder volume than the Doctor, "You had an irregular heartbeat, but I just corrected it. You're fine now."
"Corrected it? You stopped one of my bloody hearts! Arrrgh! Wow, that hurts."
"One of them?"
"I'll explain later! Quick, I need a shock!"
"Um..." thought Spike, "Oh! I'm pregnant!"
"Congratulations!" The Doctor shouted apathetically, "Argh. Can we remain focused on the important thing?"
Twilight panicked, and as one does when they panic, she did the first thing that came to mind instead of the logical thing. She kissed the Doctor. After breaking the kiss, the Doctor seemed to be calming down.
"Wow, that was shocking," he said to no one in particular, "...Two hearts! Got 'em back pumping again! Oh, I'll never understand how monocardiac beings do it."
The Doctor sighed and laid back, panting. Twilight turned to Spike.
"You're pregnant?" Twilight asked with a raise of an eyebrow.
"No. Rarity told me that the most shocking thing Sweetie Belle could tell her is that she's pregnant. I figured it would work here."
***
Rarity sneezed again. She really must get a hoof on these weird allergies.
***
A moment passed in silence. Well, as much silence as the panting Doctor would allow.
"You know, you could have just shocked him with your magic," said Spike.
"I know," said Twilight, pondering her actions, "I panicked and misunderstood what he meant by shocking. I thought he wanted something sudden and surprising to increase his heartrate instead of a literal shock."
"That was quite surprising," said the Doctor as he sat up, "And it worked. The increase in heart rate jumpstarted my other heart. Good job, Miss...?"
"Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle."
"Good job, Miss Sparkle. I'm the Doctor by way. Quick question, where are my clothes?"
"On the desk over there. If you wouldn't mind, I have a few questions of my own. First being, what do you mean by 'other heart?'"
"Well, I have two hearts."
"Impossible. Ponies only have one heart and even in the case they have two they often have a lot of terrible side effects. They don't survive more than a few months after birth. A few lucky foals can have emergency corrective surgery and live a full life, but they don't keep the second heart."
While Twilight was talking the Doctor was able to get completely dressed.
"Well, I'm not a pony," said the Doctor as he adjusted his tie.
Twilight raised an eyebrow in thought. Then she let out a sudden gasp and got into an attack position. Her horn lit up brightly. The Doctor looked surprised.
"You're a changling?!" Twilight shouted.
"A what-ling?" asked the Doctor.
"You can't fool me, say goodnight changeling!"
Twilight's horn began to glow brighter. The Doctor backed up and held up his hooves. This was surely the end of the chapter...Don't look at how much is left on the scroll bar.
"Stop!" shouted Spike.
This caused Twilight to lose concentration and stop her spell. The Doctor let out a sigh of relief.
He didn't understand what that spell was, but it looked awfully terrifying.
"He can't be a changeling, " said Spike, "If he was, he would have blown his cover when he got knocked out."
Twilight thought about that and she began to blush from embarrassment.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Doctor," said Twilight, "I thought you were a evil shapeshifter. I can't believe I almost made such an error, a fatal one at that."
"It's just the Doctor," said Spike.
"What?" Twilight asked him.
"I'm known solely as the Doctor, and no worries Twilight. I've also had my troubles with shapeshifters. Last time I got married to royalty because I mistook a shapeshifter with the original. Damn machine that went 'ding.'"
"So, Doctor, if you aren't a changeling or a pony then what are you?"
"Are you familiar with the idea of space aliens?"
Twilight nodded. She had read many a science fiction book since taking residence in the library. While Canterlot's astronomers not only deemed it possible but probable that alien life existed, no pony had ever really seen any. Well, some cows claimed to see aliens, but these same cows wore foil on their horns and claimed the world was ending. Twilight, curious to see where the Doctor was going with this, let him continue.
"Well, I'm an alien."
"You're an alien?" asked Twilight, her words dripping with skepticism.
"Time Lord to be exact, from the planet Gallifrey. That blue box in basement is my spaceship and time machine. It's called the TARDIS and-"
Twilight held up her hoof to stop the Doctor.
"You're an alien that looks exactly like an earth pony?"
"Assuming earth pony is the alicorn term for non-alicorn pony, then yes."
"Not saying I don't believe you, Doctor....but I don't believe you."
"It's like you said, Twilight, it's impossible for a pony to have two hearts. Do you need to listen again?"
Twilight looked at the Doctor, trying to see any indication that he was joking or lying. There was none. His smile was confident and his eyes sparkled like somepony that was being clever.
Twilight put the stethoscope back in her ears. The Doctor grabbed the listening bit and placed it on the center of his chest. Twilight heard the two heartbeats again.
...Ba Bum Bum Ba...Ba Bum Bum Ba...
The Doctor moved the listening bit to the right. One of the heartbeats grew louder and the other grew soft enough to be drown out.
...Ba...Bum.........Ba...Bum...
Center.
...Ba Bum Bum Ba...Ba Bum Bum Ba...
Left.
...Bum...Ba.........Bum...Ba...
Twilight took the stethoscope out of her ears and looked up at the Doctor. Her eyes opened wide and sparkled more than her cutie mark.
"Oh. My. PRINCESSES!" Twilight shouted, she began to talk at Pinkie Pie speed, "A real life space alien! I have so many questions! How's space travel possible? Are there more lifeforms out there than us? Are the numbers 1.21 or 88 relevant to time travel? Is 42 the-"
The Doctor put a hoof on Twilight's muzzle to shush her.
"I can't answer most of those questions because I don't want to affect your species' knowledge of space and time travel. However I have a compromise. I'll answer some of your more reasonable questions if you teach me about your planet."
"Hmm...Throw in the basics of time travel theory and you've got a deal."
"Oh, fine," the Doctor sighed, rolling his eyes, "Not like you have the technology to preform a successful time jump anyway."
The discussion lasted for hours and included such things as: a meal that used an awful lot of shouting...
"What do you mean daffodil sandwich?! Why in the world would I eat daffodils? I can understand the bread and even the hay-based spread on it, but daffodils?! There's no way in- Mmph!.....Actually...this is quite pleasant. Thank you for shoving it into my blabbering gob."
...a difficult explanation of appendages...
"Let's go through this again. So your hoof-"
"Arm."
"-had little hooves-"
"Fingers."
"-coming out of it that were all independently controlled and were used to pick up things?"
"Exactly."
"...but how can you hold things without the gland in the base of the hoof?"
"Oh, come on! How is this so hard to understand? You live with a dragon that has two hands and you've just ignored that?!"
...confusion over government...
"Okay let me get this straight, you're country is Equestria and you're under a Diarchy, formerly Monarchy, ruled by two immoral alicorns that appoint a council to control different aspects of their country?"
"Correct."
"Neither of them are the queen but they rule as if they were."
"They prefer the term Princess."
"You are also a Princess but don't rule over anything, you just represent an abstract concept."
"Don't remind me."
"There's also another Princess that represents another abstract concept that rules an entire colony of these 'crystal ponies'."
"With my brother, yes."
"But no one votes for any of this, right?"
"Right. We only vote for our local government."
"Who, for this town, is Mayor Mare?"
"Yup."
"..."
"..."
"...is her name really Mayor Mare?"
...and a surprisingly easy discussion of temporal physics...
"So, you take the incoming stream of artron energy and-"
"You use it to overload the temporal mainframe to cause a time jump, essentially making the TARDIS run on the time stream itself. Except for an occasional pit stop, of course."
"No, you use it to overload the temporal...Actually, you got it. Good job, Miss Sparkle."
Eventually the clock finally struck twelve, surprising Twilight and the Doctor. Twilight cleared her throat and finished her statement.
"And that's how Equestria was made."
"Fascinating," said the Doctor, a hoof to his chin, "Was the hat really full of pudding?"
"Studies show that it was, indeed, full of pudding."
The Doctor sat and thought on all that he had learned. Twilight yawned loudly. Had she really spent the whole day teaching a space alien about Equestria?
"Doctor, I hope you don't mind if I head off to bed. It is pretty late and I have a lot to sleep on."
"Please, go on to sleep. Don't let me keep you up."
"You're welcome to use the guest room."
"That's quite kind, but I was thinking I might look into some the books you keep around. You don't mind, do you?"
"No, of course not. You are in a library after all, so feel free."
"Thank you, Twilight. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Doctor."
***
The next morning Twilight woke to the delightful smell of hay bacon. She smiled as she sat up, looking to see Spike's bed empty.
"I really should pay that dragon," she said aloud as she stretched.
Twilight reflected on the dream she had. She met an alien who said he was from another universe entirely and traveled in both time and space. He just appeared out of nowhere and had a nice chat with her. She also learned,what her dream told her was, the basics of time travel.
"I should write a book. This is good stuff. But what was the alien's name? Doctor? Doctor...?"
"Who?"
"Doctor Who? No, that wasn't it."
"Who!"
Twilight looked up to the direction of the voice. There stood a rather annoyed-looking owl on a perch. It was obviously way past his bedtime.
"Oh, sorry Owlowiscious."
"Who," replied the owl as he went back to sleep.
Twilight got out of bed and brushed her mane back into its normal, non-crazy state. She then followed the wonderful scent of hay bacon.
Instead of walking down the stairs, she decided to use her newly learned gliding abilities. She opened her wings and jump forward off the first step. Her wings caught air underneath them and she slowly began to float at an angle downwards. She tilted the front of her wings downwards and she gained velocity. She banked right as she left the stairs and followed the walls of the room. She tucked her hooves underneath herself to avoiding hitting the bookshelves. After two revolutions, she evened out with the kitchen door in front of her. She tilted the front of her wings up to cancel her horizontal movement and slowly floated to the floor beneath her.
Spike, who was sweeping, began clapping. Twilight crossed one of her hooves in front of the other and held her head up high. A pose similar to Applejack when she did something amazing. Since finishing a book or writing a report didn't make anypony applaud, she had to borrow victory poses from her friends.
"That was great, Twilight," Spike said, leaning his broom against the wall.
"Thanks Spike, all that early morning training with Rainbow Dash really paid off. Unfortunately, next week starts the lessons on actually taking off and flying. My wings ache already."
Twilight sighed, remembering all the wing-ups she had to do during gliding training. Upon inhaling she caught the beautiful scent and deeply inhaled.
"Mmmmm...Smells like you did a good job on breakfast, Spike."
"Oh, I didn't make breakfast. I just woke up to my stomach growling an hour ago and came down here to eat. Since I was up anyway, I figured I would get started on my chores."
Spike went back to sweeping. Twilight turned towards the kitchen.
"If Spike didn't make breakfast, then who did?"
Twilight walked into the kitchen and saw no one. A pan of hay bacon was sizzling on the stove. On the table there was a spread of breakfast goodies: toast, biscuits, hash browns, wild flower sausage, blueberry muffins, and a large plate of hay bacon. Twilight stood there with her mouth wide open, unable to move due to the glory before her. Her stomach growled loudly.
"Hungry?" said a voice immediately to her left.
Twilight screamed and fell back. A brown earth pony stepped into view.
"Sorry 'bout that," he said, "Didn't mean to sneak up on you."
Twilight blinked and recognized the pony as the Doctor. He was wearing an apron over his suit.
"Doctor?" said Twilight, "So that wasn't a dream then..."
"If you're talking about our chat yesterday then no it wasn't a dream. Now come on, let's get some food into you."
The Doctor extended a hoof to the alicorn. She took it and got back on her hooves.
Upon re-entering the kitchen, Twilight jumped into a chair and began eating. She couldn't take being apart from the hay bacon any longer. After swallowing her first mouthful, she looked to the Doctor. He had a rather pleased grin on his face at a meal well cooked.
"How did you learn to cook all this?" asked Twilight, "I didn't teach you anything about Equestrian foods."
"Well, after the first few cookbooks, I learned that Equestrian cooking was much the same as the cooking I'm used to. Except that I have hooves and all meats are replaced with plant-based substitutes. Once I got that down, I figured I would take care of breakfast as a sort of thank you."
"Mmmm...Well you are so welcome."
Twilight ate her fill as the Doctor began to clean dishes. After 15 minutes Twilight groaned. She was stuffed yet satisfied. Then something occurred to her.
"You spent all night reading cookbooks?" Twilight asked.
"Mmhm," replied the Doctor who was still scrubbing dishes, "Cookbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, math, science, history. Basically your entire reference section."
"M-my entire reference section?"
The Doctor finished with the dishes and dried his hooves. He sat across from Twilight.
"That can't be true!" Twilight said slightly louder than necessary, "My reference section has 2,000 books!"
"More like 2,072 by my count."
"But still, you would need a LOT more than a few hours to read all that."
"Eh, I was averaging about 12 seconds per book. Less for the smaller volumes."
"That is physically impossible. A normal pony takes more than 12 seconds to read a PAGE let alone an entire book."
"Ah but that's just it," said the Doctor, leaning forward to boop Twilight on the nose with his hoof, "I'm not a normal pony."
"But surely you can't process information that fast. That's impossible."
"'No one thing is impossible. As long as Princess Luna, can lift the massive moon into the heavens, anything is possible. 'Tis just a matter of trying.' Interesting quote. I found it in the autobiography of-"
"Starswirl the Bearded. He said it in a speech to the ponies of Canterlot when they argued that he couldn't make a spell to change the temperature of an object without making it explode. It was the first spell of his career."
"Exactly. Though the quote really didn't work during the last thousand years. I wonder if that means nothing was possible during that time."
There was a moment of silence, during which the Doctor pondered his last thought and Twilight pondered the Doctor.
"Fine," Twilight sighed, "I'll believe that you read every book in my reference section."
"Good. This Starswirl the Bearded was a magnificent pony. Crafter of spells, researcher of the sciences, direct advisor to the Princesses themselves. I can really see why you're obsessed with him."
"I'm not obsessed with him!"
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Twilight. Twilight blushed slightly.
"Well, when I was looking for an apron I did stumble upon a 90% accurate recreation of Starswirl's mage outfit."
Twilight mumbled something, choosing not to look at the Doctor.
"What was that?"
Twilight mumbled again.
"Please speak up, Miss Sparkle."
"IT'S 93% ACCURATE!" Twilight shouted.
The Doctor smiled smugly. Twilight turned a deeper shade of red.
"Do you want to meet him?"
Twilight went from red to a light lavender as she went pale.
"W-wha...?" was all Twilight could reply with.
"Starswirl the Bearded. Do you want to meet him? I am a time traveller after all."
Twilight's eyes grew wide as she smiled wider than she ever had before. She began to bounce around the room replying with:
"Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. YES!"
With the last 'Yes' she hugged the Doctor hard.
"Um...Twilight," the Doctor tried to say straining, "Air...."
Twilight noticed how tightly she was hugging the Doctor and released him. She continued beaming.
"How soon can we leave?"
"Whenever you're ready, I suppose."
"Then let's go now!"
"Alright. To the TARDIS! Allons-y!"
The pair galloped out of the kitchen and into the main room of the library. The Doctor galloped down into the basement.
"Spike," called Twilight, "I'll be back later. Remember, no wild parties."
Spike rolled his eyes and waved. Twilight ran down into the basement. The TARDIS stood like a big blue monolith. One of the doors was opened inwards. Twilight couldn't help but notice the words 'PULL TO OPEN' on the front. She ignored it and entered the TARDIS. The room was huge. Way bigger than the blue box. This was surely impossi- rather unlikely. In the center stood a large tower that was glowing red. Around the base was a console of buttons, screens, and switches. The Doctor stood at one of the screens reading something. Twilight could see his face. The determined face from earlier was now covered with what looked like panic.
"What's wrong, Doctor?" asked Twilight.
The Doctor looked at Twilight. His expression turning to one of extreme sadness. His eyes seemed to shed invisible tears. He walked over to Twilight and put a hoof around her. He pulled her close and whispered in her ear.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."