Part 11
Just Being Friendly
"Doctor?" Romana asked even as the screen went black. "Doctor!" There was no answer of course, and Romana just couldn't help but berate herself for this undignified show. But emotional she was.
"He'll be okay, you know," the current Doctor said gently.
'How do you know?"
"Because I'm him and he's me."
"That doesn't mean anything," she countered. "The Laws of Time are in a current state of flux. The fact that you're still here even as he vanished doesn't mean anything. He could die out there and it could be possible that you wouldn't be affected for months."
"Yes, I'm aware of all that," the Doctor said as he began calmly pilot the TARDIS. "All that and more. I'm not basing my conjecture around any sort of temporal mechanical nonsense. It's just that... if you can't trust yourself who can you trust?"
Romana sighed. "You're right, of course. It's just... I worry is all." She pretended she didn't see the smile on his face. Romana turned her attention to the current state of the TARDIS control room. She needed a distraction, something to focus on intellectually, and the Doctor's Eighth incarnation certainly had different tastes compared to the others.
Whether it was Four's traditional sterile white with the odd bits of comfort--such as a couch and hat rack--or Ten's coral dome where everything from the couch to the control console itself looked to be barely functional, or even Eleven's oversized foal's playroom, the TARDIS control room was always just that. The control center, with the console itself always the centerpiece and focus of the room. This however...
The console was still in the middle of the room, with curved support pillars separating it from the rest of its surroundings, but it seemed small compared to the area around it... there was a sitting room, to one side of her, with high bookshelves loaded with books, and comfy chair, and a record player. On the other side was an old stone staircase with stained glass window and lit by candles. It was all very... eclectic.
"Trying for something new?" she asked.
"Going with an old favorite, actually," the Doctor responded. "I've been in this skin for quite some time. Seen a lot of things. And, honestly, it's kind of nice to have a reminder of simpler times, when my biggest concern was my oddly frequent bouts of memory loss." And there was that sad, old, smile again.
"It's really bad, isn't it?" Romana asked.
"Hm? What?"
"The war.. Even before you told us about it, there's been this unknown... honestly the best word I can use to describe it is dread... that hovers over you, despite your best attempts at hiding it. And I can tell, you'll be affected for centuries afterwards, given what I've seen of your future selves. They try even harder to hide the scars,,,"
"Which makes them that much more obvious," the Doctor finished. "Yes, the war is bad. Catastrophically so, and not in a fun I-just-need-to-save-the-universe-is-all sort of way, either. Even before this little get together, I knew... well, I'm heading towards a crossroads, and it's probably soon." A small smile appeared on his face. "If nothing else, though, I am glad to see that, whatever it is I do go through, I--and indeed the universe--do come out the other end. I could have done much worse for myself than Derpy and the Ponds."
Romana nodded, a small, sad sort of smile of her own on her face. "Yes, well, before all that, we have to solve our current crisis, don't we? It's not much, we only have to save the universe is all."
The Doctor's grin widened, and the expression in his eyes became notably warmer. "Indeed, Romana. Let's get right to it, then, eh?" He began to pilot in earnest, the smile becoming that thrill-seeker's grin that was roughly the same no matter the face he wore. "Destination, Foal Hill School and the Hoof of Omega."
"Excellent. Wait, what?"
~DrW~
Within the TARDIS, back at UNIT headquarters...
As suddenly as it began, the alarms went silent. After a brief moment to collect himself, the Doctor checked over their location and timeline. He managed not to let loose an obvious sigh of relief. They were still in his lab in Canterlot.
"What was that?" Wordsmith asked.
Putting on his newly acquired toothy smile, the Doctor turned back to his companion. "Oh, nothing at all, really. Just a mild hiccup due to being unused for so long."
The look that Wordsmith shot him very clearly said that she didn't fully believe him. "If you say so."
"But enough about that. The universe beckons and we should answer." The Doctor flipped a switch on the console, and when the comforting sound of dematerializion hit his ears, he almost forgot about the recent close call entirely, and the event would pass from his mind for some years to come.
~DrW~
A long, looooong, time ago...
The frigid cold of the Northern regions were barely felt by the two ponies that were now hiking the mountains, despite that it was colder now than it had ever been. No, much more unnerving was the sight of the once glorious Crystal Empire, with the continually swirling cloud of dark magic that covered the sky immediately above it, despite still being roughly a day's trek distant. The smaller, darker colored pony turned to her larger companion. "'Tis truly a saddening sight, is it not, sister?" she said.
"Aye, Luna. It truly is." Rose colored eyes filled with sorrow. "And to think, this was caused by a pony."
Luna sighed. "Oh, Celestia..."
Before Luna could say anything else, they were interrupted by a sudden and loud crash from behind them, which covered them both in snow and mud. Spinning around, their horns lit and ready for battle, the two princesses stopped short when they saw a sight from long ago. A small blue barn. The doors opened, and amidst the smoke that suddenly poured out of it stumbled the Doctor, his unruly hair even more messy than usual, his scarf wrapped up in tangles around him, and his blue eyes spinning madly. "I claim this land, in the name of Trottingham!" he said grandiosely before falling face first in the snow. The sudden cold shock seemed to bring him quite quickly back to his senses and he quickly sat up straight, shaking the snow off his face. His expression brightened immediately upon seeing who he two ponies that were looking on in concern. "Oh! Little Celestia! Luna, too! What an unexpected..." He seemed to get a rough bearing on his location then, and peered past the two at the darkened Empire off in the distance behind. "...Surprise."
~DrW~
In orbit around the world Equestria calls home, far in the future...
The view was the same as the last time she was here, Derpy noticed. The wonderful, bright view of her homeworld taking up the entirety of the view out the superenforced window in a space station that wouldn't be built for many generations past her own time. Moments like this, this was why she loved the insane travel. And she could see the same familiar-but-still-awe-inspiring sort of looks in both Ripple Pond's and Blue Shield's faces. Madponies, the lot of them.
"So, what did you say the name of this place was?" Ripple asked.
"Satellite 5, known later as the Game Station," Ten said, his usual giddy excitement gone. Derpy couldn't begrudge him that. There were some tough memories here. "Back before I had the face you see with me now, Derpy and I made two different trips here, both of 'em ended rather disastrously, and the last time..."
"He ended up regenerating into the skinny little thing before you," Eleven finished for him as he finally exited the TARDIS and locked her doors.
"Oi! You're just as skinny as me you know!"
Ignoring his indignant past self, Eleven continued on. "It was a rough time all around, and I made a sorta kinda maybe promise to myself not to ever come back here."
A sudden unfamiliar voice broke in on the conversation with, "Which does beg the question: why did you come back?" The group of time travelers turned to the only entrance to this relatively little room, to see a blue pegasus, tall, handsome, and wearing a long black coat that matched his well groomed hair. And with an amused and rather fetching smile on his face. "And two of you yet. It must be a big one."
With a small squeal of delight Derpy charged at the newcomer and gave him what could only have been called a bear hug. The pegasus for his part caught her and spun around with a laugh before meeting her forehead with his. "Aw, Derpy," he said with smile that was both happy and sad at the same time. "I can't tell you how good it is to see you again." Suddenly his attention was taken up by the Ponds. "Well, hello there."
"Stop that," Ten said under his breath.
"I'm being friendly!"
"I know. Stop it."
"Besides," Eleven added. "They're married."
"Really?" the pegasus said, his smile widening. Derpy had to hide a chuckle as Ripple turned beet red, while Blue Shield just looked confused.
"So, who's your, ah, charming friend?" Ripple asked.
"Oh, where are my manners?" the pegasus said with a small bow. "Name's Harness. Jack Harness."