//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Doctor Whooves: Brave New World // by Gandalf158 //------------------------------//         The Doctor knew his time had finally come. He had saved Wilfred Mott by absorbing the radiation, but in doing so doomed himself. He took one last walk around the TARDIS’s hexagonal control panel, setting her in flight and running one of his now-glowing hands along one of its faces. He raised his hand, fear rising up in his chest. As the glowing increased, his head also began to glow the orangish-golden light that always accompanied a regeneration, but he knew that he would not be regenerating this time.         His breath increased, memories of his life flashing before his eyes, “I don’t want to go!” he said as the glow finally overtook him.        He burst into flames, an explosion following that tore the control room apart and sent anything not nailed down flying everywhere. Suddenly, he felt himself changing, and after what felt like an eternity for him, the glow subsided, and his new body was formed. He breathed a sigh of relief, oblivious to the bedlam going on around him.         He looked down at his new, fur-covered legs, “Legs! I’ve still got legs! A couple more than I’m used to, but…” he said, “Hooves instead of hands, I’ll miss fingers sometime, I just know it. Ah well. Ears?” he said, flexing his very equine feeling ears, “Yes. Eyes: two.” he raised a forehoof to his long, snout-y nose, “Eh, I’ve had worse. Chin… blimey! Hair,” he said, using both forehooves to pull out part of his mane, “I’m a girl! No, no, I’m not a girl! And still not ginger!” he said, taking in its dark brown color, “There’s something else,  I’m…. I’m,” the TARDIS gave a great lurch to the side, and he barely caught himself on the railing, “I’m crashing! Geronimo!!!” he shouted as the TARDIS rocked and swayed as the control panel exploded… Doctor Whooves: Brave New World By: Gandalf158 Prologue         The Doctor was hanging out of the TARDIS’s front door, the entire thing shaking like mad and spinning around. He held his sonic screwdriver in his mouth (it tasted awful, he thought) and was using it to flip a switch on what was left of the control console, to give his crash landing at least some degree of stability. Enough for him to crawl back into the TARDIS, narrowly missing some tower or another. He breathed another sigh of content, before one final jolt sent him flying through the air… and straight into the swimming pool…         The air was brisk in Canterlot that afternoon, and best friends Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody were walking back to the train station after the concert they had come to town to see was over. The Canterlot Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had played well that night, one of Tchrotkovsky’s finer works, Octavia had thought as she trotted merrily along, chatting with her white coated, bass-loving companion about the Orchestra’s new bassoon player and how she was shaping up to be a nice addition to the group. She herself was a member, but they had many contrabassists, so they switched out rather regularly.         Vinyl Scratch was about to comment on the shininess of the freshly-polished brass section when a loud, metallic groaning filled the cool, evening air followed by an even louder thumping crash from the gardens directly to their left. Vinyl was immediately running off to see what the commotion was, motioning behind her to her charcoal-colored friend to follow. She skidded to a stop in front of a tall blue box with the words “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX” scrawled across the top in large, boldface lettering lying on its side.         There was a coughing noise from inside the box as the door was pushed open and a light brown earth pony tumbeled out, releasing a wave of smoke from the box’s interior. The strange stallion was obviously hurt, as he was wretching and hacking. Vinyl took a step closer to help him to his hooves, but he suddenly sprang up and opened his mouth, letting out a golden mist that glowed orange as it floated away into the darkening sky.         “Sorry about the abrupt landing, kind of hard to fly an exploding TARDIS less than an hour after regenerating.” he said, dusting himself off.         The Doctor examined himself in one of the TARDIS’s exterior windows. He let out a little “hmm” as he saw his reflection.         “So it wasn’t a dream, I really did regenerate as a horse this time! And a talking one at that, I wonder if that’s ever happened to a Time Lord before.” he turned around and jumped, taking notice of his two observers as if for the first time.         “Oh hello! Can you two talk as well?” he said, then he noticed Vinyl’s horn and raised an eyebrow, “And are you a unicorn? Never met a unicorn before. Well, there was the one time with Agatha Christie, but I suppose she didn’t count. Look at me here, brand new voice and the first thing I use it on is to rant to a couple of horses.” he shook his head and sighed.         “Are you okay?” Octavia asked the curious earth pony, causing him to jump.         “So, you can talk. Are there more of you on this planet? Ooh, first planet of a new regeneration and it’s full of talking horses! How cool is that for a test run?” nothing the stallion had said had made any sort of sense, but Octavia wanted to learn more about him, so she introduced herself and her electric-blue maned friend.         “My name is Octavia Ann Melody, and this is my friend and roommate Vinyl Scratch. Who are you?”         “Oh, you can just call me the Doctor.”         “Doctor who?” Vinyl asked, much to the old Time Lord’s amusement.         “Oh, I love hearing that question. Even from a strange, talking horse-unicorn...thingy. Just the Doctor, if you please. Now, my turn to ask the questions. What are you, what planet are we on, and by any chance, do either of you happen to have any apples on you?”