“No! No! No! Buck’s sake this is hopeless!” Oodlz spat her favourite red pen across her work room like it was its fault she couldn't focus on her work. The orange earth pony sat at her desk, she shifted awkwardly in her chair, trying to get comfortable. Running a hoof through her green mane Oodlz stared forlornly at her half finished cartoon in front of her. She had been working on this particular section of the drawing since yesterday.
The first four panels were perfect, the last two however were not. That was when she had begun daydreaming. Her imagination was famous for running away from her, Oodlz just wished when it came back it would bring finished work. She looked at her work again, happy cartoon characters larking about, until the last two panels.
The blue box.
It was always the blue box.
Whenever Oodlz daydreamed she always doodled that blue box. That impossible, scary; terrifying; amazing; wonderful blue box. Her gateway to any time, anywhere in this universe and any other.
The last panel held a drawing of him.
The Doctor.
That wonderful stallion, the Doctor. Her Doctor. How could she not daydream of him? Like fire and ice all at once, young whilst being impossibly old. Hay, only the Royal Sisters were older than him, and they were goddesses, immortal alicorns.
Oodlz had been travelling with the Doctor in his blue box for over a year now. The wonders he had shown her, the worlds they had seen. Crystal waterfalls over four hundred feet high, one planet that was an actual living being. It had been an amazing experience, one that the earth pony felt privileged to have been a part of.
“Buck this!” Oodlz stomped a hoof in frustration as she knocked over her desk, spilling paper and her drawing tools over the floor. ‘Oh well, I wasn't getting anything done anyway’ she huffed as stalked away from her work room.
Coffee.
Her brain requested coffee and she hastened down the stairs to her kitchen to obey her craving. Oodlz flicked on the kettle with a forehoof as she bustled about her small kitchen, getting together the coffee powder, milk and her favourite blue mug. The orange mare sighed while she waited for the water to boil. Her editor was going to have her flank on a plate if this cartoon was late. Her previous two efforts had been over a week late, and she was on her very last warning. This was a problem.
Oodlz gave another deeper sigh as the kettle finally boiled. It had been three weeks since the Doctor and his blue box had brought her home from their last adventure. They had crossed dimensions to the year five million and watched a planet called Earth burn in the fires of it’s stars supernova. Somehow drawing cartoons and making coffee just didn't compare to that, even living in Ponyville where weird events were the norm.
Oodlz was just pouring the milk in her coffee when she heard it. A horrible wheezing, groaning noise from the depths of time itself obliterated the dull boredom of the afternoon. It had been three weeks since she had heard that horrible, ghastly…glorious noise. That noise meant fun, adventure and danger in equal measure. She loved it.
Her freshly made coffee went forgotten as the earth pony mare galloped from her modest home, she didn't even stop to lock her front door in her haste to locate the source of that wondrous sound. She didn't have to look very hard. The Doctor never landed too far away from her.
There it was, standing next to Sugarcube Corner. The innocuous blue box. Oodlz was always surprised the TARDIS never aroused any kind of suspicion or attention. After all nothing looking anything like it existed in Ponyville, or Equestria as a whole as far as she knew. The Doctor had explained it to her once when she had asked, and according to him the outside of the vessel was supposed to change to blend into its environment, but had gotten stuck while visiting an alternate dimension. And ponies lack of interest was due to it’s perception filter…whatever Oodlz had simply dismissed it as ‘timey whimey’.
Oodlz slowed to a walk as she neared the blue box, she didn't want to draw undue attention to herself. The Doctor was leant casually against the side of the TARDIS, his sandy brown coat barely visible beneath his blue pinstripe suit and flowing brown overcoat. His dark brown spiky mane stood out a mile though, she'd recognise that unruly mop anywhere.
This however wasn't the first thing she noticed about the Doctor. No, the first thing Oodlz noticed was the bouquet of two dozen red roses he held in his mouth. With a toss of his head and a smirk he threw them at the orange earth pony, who caught them in her hoof.
“Hello,” he greeted her in his Trottingham accent, “did you miss me?”
“No! Not one bit!” Oodlz answered slightly too fast, knowing she'd dropped herself in it she changed the subject to the roses. “What're these for, and how did you get them? You never carry money?”
“Ah right, happy Valentine’s Day Oodlz.” He announced, the proud smirk back on his muzzle.
The earth pony mare just looked at him uncertainly, “umm, what's Valentine’s Day?”
The Doctor facehooved. “Sorry! Wrong universe. I mean, happy Hearts and Hooves Day.”
“Hearts and Hooves? Y – you mean…I – I’m your somepony?” Oodlz stammered out, she had entirely forgotten about Hearts and Hooves.
“Nobo – nopony I'd rather have as my somepony,” the Doctor said with a grin and a bow to the excited mare in front of him.
“But…Hearts and Hooves…Roseluck’s been sold out of roses for weeks. How'd you get these?”
“Err, about that…” The confident smile vanished momentarily.
Oodlz recognised the look on the Doctor’s face, the look of somepony caught with his hoof in the cookie jar. “What? What did you do?”
“Nothing! Just, well, time machine.” He tapped the TARDIS’s door with a hoof, “went forward in time to next week when Roseluck had them on reduced sale, and as for the money…well, thanks for the loan of the bits.” He finished with what he thought was a winning smile.
“Sale…forward, time…loan…” Oodlz processed what she'd heard, “hey spacepony! You got me to buy my own flowers!”
“Weeell, I never carry money…”
Oodlz swatted him with the bouquet of roses, sending flower heads raining to the floor. “Huh, cheap date you are aren't you?”
The Doctor just smiled under the flowery attack and kicked open the TARDIS door with a hindhoof. “C’mon, I'm gonna take you somewhere special.”
"Am I secretly paying for this too?” The mare asked as she absently munched on a still intact rose.
“No no, this is something very special, you'll love this.” Oodlz quietly watched as the Timepony danced around the centre console, deftly manipulating the various controls and settings of the ancient machine. “Hold on, it may be a little bumpy.”
Oodlz did as instructed, seating herself in one of the chairs around the main control room and holding tight with her hooves.
Once he was sure she was secure the Doctor pushed up the biggest lever on the main console and with his cry of “Alons-y!” The TARDIS’s engines started up, that same wheezing groaning noise she had heard from the kitchen of her house.
Almost instantly the sounds of the time rotors subsided, leaving an almost unnatural quiet in their place. The Doctor checked a few instruments with a smile, “we're here!” He announced with a foal like glint of joy in his eyes. “Wanna come see?”
“Um, sure. Why not?” Came the hesitant reply as Oodlz got off her chair and walked to the door. Pulling open the door Oodlz felt her breath escape her as she let her mouth hang open in shock and awe. She didn't her rump hit the floor, the mare just sat there gawking at the view. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine she'd see anything like this.
The Doctor walked over to her and quietly sat beside her in the open doorway, the TARDIS’s shields protecting them from the exposure to the vacuum. “Not a bad view?”
“Wh – what, where…where are we?”
“Er…ten billion years in the past. That, there is Equiis.” The Doctor draped a hoof over Oodlz’s shoulder, pulling her into a tight hug.
“Ten…billion…that's Equiis?” Her brain was refusing to process what she was seeing, so incredible was the sight before her.
“Give or take an epoch or two, yeah. Welcome to the birth of your planet Oodlz. Happy Hearts and Hooves my special somepony.”
“There. Are. No. Words…none at all. It's, beautiful. Thankyou, so much.” Oodlz kissed the Doctor’s cheek before resting her head on his shoulder. “Doesn't make up for the cheap flowers though,” she added with a smile.
“Happy Hearts and Hooves Doctor.”