Three days.
Three days had passed since the Canterlot Hall incident. There wasn't too much of a fallout for everyone involved. There was only a small panic when my fake explosion went off and no one was injured at all. In fact, the only thing that occurred was that someone had found Prince Bluebaby unconscious. Despite that, no one who knew me before that night was too happy about that last little stunt with maybe the exception of Spike and Pinkie Pie. Part of that would be because Spike blabbed about the mind magic I did to myself. Nobody was happy to hear that.
That would lead me to why I'm here now. It was one of the several things I had to do as punishment. The first was turning off what I had done to myself. The next part was issuing an apology to all the ponies present. The eyes. The horrible, staring, abyss of eyes. The only way I believe I was able to make it through was by bowing during my apology so I didn't have to look at anyone directly. The last part of my punishment was basically house arrest. That kind of thing wouldn't bother me too much if it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't mess with any of the entertainment devices that were around the place. That meant no Xbox, no DS, and no conjuring anything else that I could use like that. It was basically a white collar prison. No entertainment, but with comfortable living conditions.
The only time I was allowed out was to have training sessions with Discord on how to use my chaos magic 'properly'. I say it like that because I'm not entirely sure that he was using it the proper way either. I did get some interesting notes about how it works and I also figured out how to hover slightly. It kind of sucks though because I still couldn't stay stable. I thought it was like when I had my duel with Discord way back when, but I found out that I was actually brute-forcing myself to stay aloft. I showed him via magic television of the time Twilight did the same thing in the season three debut and just told me that it was the same thing only she had more finesse than I did with it.
Well, anyway, there was one more thing that I was actually angry about from these punishments. Celestia had told me that I couldn't create any Pepsi to drink. I think I was more upset about that than anything else. I took the rest of those probationary issue in stride, even the entertainment one, but when I heard that I couldn't have Pepsi I had to physically restrain myself from cursing at her in front of everyone. She knew just what to do to make sure I understood that I shouldn't have done something to cause a panic. Not being happy about that was an understatement. I told her I'd do it and then teleported myself back to the cabin. I then proceeded to throw a bit of a childish tantrum and crashed on the couch for the night instead of heading to my bedroom.
That's pretty much where I've been the whole three days other than on those excursions to the Everfree. I'd been in a less than stellar mood since then. The mind-cracking headache I had coming off of the caffeine was not fun either. All the while during that time I tried doing something new that I'd wanted to try out. I sat on the couch in a lotus position and tried meditating. Have you ever tried it before? Well, with someone who has a less than ideal attention span thanks to ADHD it's a bit of a tough go. Meditation requires clearing your mind of all thoughts and sitting still to let yourself be calm from what I remember. The part about my thoughts isn't as hard as I thought it would be, but every time I managed it my body would fidget in it's stead. It was nigh impossible when I had that headache for several hours, but afterwards it wasn't as much so.
"Still trying out that ridiculous little exercise of yours?" teased Discord.
I cracked open an eye to look at Discord relaxing on one of the chairs in the room. He was merely sitting there with the chair reclined and his tail hanging slightly over the edge of the foot rest with his eyes resting on me.
"Well, while we both know chaos can be fun-"
"Preach on my student!"
"-Even we could use a moment to relax and get our mind together for coming up with new things."
"And is there a reason that you have this orange color around your eyes and the pupils of a frog?"
"It's just an illusion for the fun of it. Have you not seen Naruto before?"
"I've heard of it of course. I tend to try and stay away from Japan. They're kind of weird there."
"...I think I'm going to file that one away for later."
Discord simply gave a small snort and just sat there watching me watch him. This was broken up not too long afterwards by the most interesting sound. It's hard to describe, but anyone who knows it they can only think one thing.
"Holy shit. Is that what I think it is?"
"I don't have any idea," Discord stated. "What is that? It's like a screeching sound on a dimensional plane."
"I give no fucks about whatever your saying right now," I said as I jumped to my feet. "Cool things are happening instead."
I jogged over from the couch to the front door and opened it up to see if I was merely hallucinating. I was not. Sitting out on the front yard was a blue police box. A very familiar blue police box. I immediately ran over to it and hugged a corner of it in glee.
"This. Is. So. AWESOME!!!"
"No," I heard a voice cut in, "what's going on is not awesome."
I let go of the box and one of the doors swung open. From inside of it came a caramel colored pony wearing a necktie. His cutie mark signaled to me who this was just as easily as anything else I saw could. He had an hourglass on his flank. He was the Doctor.
"Hey, what's up Doc?"
I heard a smack both in front of and behind me. I only saw the Doctor's hoof meet his face though. I'm pretty sure Discord did the same thing, but I don't know why.
"Americans," I heard him say.
"Oh like that is common thing for you to hear," I countered. "How many ponies would you know who would get that reference anyway?"
"Pinkie Pie," he stated flatly.
"Touche. Well, would you like to come in for a spell? I assume you're here to either tell me some horrible news or a visit to check up on an oddity you need to investigate. I hope for the latter."
"Yes, well, both I'm afraid. Am I still welcome?"
"Pfft. You've saved Earth enough times to be one of the few people I trust unconditionally. Come on in."
I watched as the Doctor walked inside. I was playing host to the Doctor! Squee!
"Don't I get a say in the matter?"
"Discord, this guy is a walking chaos magnet. His IQ is immeasurable. He's defeated guys with nothing but a tool that emits sound and his brain so I think that he has earned the right to have a spot of tea if he wants."
"Well when you put it that way..." Discord trailed off.
Discord vanished in a spark of light and I walked back into the house. The Doctor had taken a spot on the couch to let his legs lay out. Discord had taken his spot back on the chair where he was originally. I grabbed a seat on the remaining recliner and crossed my legs in anticipation.
"Well, uh, you said some things that were sounding like they wouldn't be too good for my future, but that's no reason not to be a courteous host. Care for something to eat or drink?"
"I suppose a spot of tea would be nice."
I was about to oblige him when Discord beat me to it. Of course, he took it literally as a sphere of tea appeared in the middle of the room before hitting the floor. I rolled my eyes, snapped my fingers, and watched the spot come off of the floor and turn into a proper cup of tea. I then hovered it over to the Doctor.
"Discord, could you just get the Element bearers here since there's no way that this would not involve them? And by get them, I mean actually go to get them and not just flash teleport them all here," I said dryly.
"Hmph! I'm not your errand boy! Go get them yourself," he stated and disappeared in a flash.
Also when he disappeared, a bucketful of water crashed down on myself and on the Doctor. I was not happy. Thankfully, chaos magic is very versatile. Not enough to instantly get the two of us dry, but enough to create some towels and a giant blow-dryer to get us dry quicker. I used the time to ask about what he was here about.
"I'm afraid I have some news that you won't like very much. It's about your venture in the countryside last year."
"Huh. I guess I should have figured that would be the reason. I'm not sure why I thought it might be something else."
"Yes, well, it really is only partially your fault."
"No shit, Sherlock."
He gave me quite the displeased look upon hearing that.
"...Sorry. That wasn't really called for."
"I suppose it's alright. Anyway-"
We were then suddenly interrupted by a quiet knock on the door.
"*sigh* Sorry, but could you give me a moment?"
"What? Oh! Right, yes, of course."
I got back up out of the chair and went to see who it was. The picture on the door let me know that it was Fluttershy waiting on me there. It was a bit of a surprise since she's been pretty much avoiding me since I came back, but this was a welcome surprise to me. I opened the door to greet her and- Oh my goodness she let out and absolutely adorable squeak! She quickly settled into her normal pattern of hiding behind her mane and looking away.
"Oh, um, hello Seth. Am I disturbing you?"
"Of course not. Friends come first and then possible world-ending emergencies."
"World-ending emergencies?" she yelped.
"Indeed!" the Doctor interrupted. "It's quite a bit of nasty business that he left unfinished when he was last here three months ago."
"Wait, three months?" I said while whirling on him.
"Um, who is this?"
I whirled back to look at Fluttershy.
"I think I've seen him around Ponyville before, but I don't know him that well."
"Fluttershy, vou've-"
"Not really been left a good impression by me if you don't know who I am. I'm the Doctor."
He must have gotten too close to Fluttershy because she then backed up a few steps and her face became almost completely behind her mane. It was cute and adorable but also a bit sad at the same time. It actually made my eyes water a little.
"I'm Fluttershy," she said squeakily.
"Um, what?"
"It's alright," I said and placed my hand on top of Fluttershy's head eliciting a small 'meep' from her. "I can help. Doctor, this is Fluttershy; the bearer of the Element of Kindness and the best zoologist I've ever known."
She gave a small smile and a blush at the praiseful introduction.
"Fluttershy, this is the Doctor; super-genius Time Lord and protector of Earth."
"Hello!" he stated with a friendly wave.
"Now then, can we get back to the three months' thing? I was gone a year. Celestia even said it had been a year. It couldn't have been three months."
Yeah, that whole didn't make any sense to me. Celestia said that it was about a year since they had last seen me. How could it be three months according to the Doctor, but a year for Celestia? Of course, there was also the other problem that was swimming around in my head that I hadn't thought about either. Since I was told that it had been a year, I had accepted it as such. However, when I was here last I had been in Equestria for a couple of weeks. When I went home, only five minutes had passed. By those numbers a whole generation of Equestria should have been born, lived long lives, grew old, and passed on before I returned here.
"I'm not sure what Celestia was thinking because it has only been three months."
"But, even so, what about-"
"You're probably going to say something along the lines of standard linear progression and how time moves forward at a set pace," he said cutting me off.
"Yeah. Although, I do know that some factors like gravity can distort time to some degree."
"That is correct. However, there are only two important factors that are highly relevant to the problem here. The first is that the sun and moon are controlled by the princesses here. Therefore, the gravitational forces that are exerted by the sun, the moon and this planet are in a constant state of flux. That day when the sun and the moon were moving all over the place certainly was not kind to the state of things."
"Yeah. Things must have been pretty wibbly wobbly at the time," I said with a smirk.
"What? That just sounds silly."
"Huh? Oh, right. You're next incarnation said that more often."
"Hmm, yes. I see. Well, the other, more important factor is that a dimensional bridge does not have a consistently fixed point between them. Both sides have progression along their respective time axises, but the amount of progression is not necessarily constant. Like I said before there are several factors that can change the amount of the progression of time. Gravity is merely the easiest one to observe as it is everywhere in the universe."
"What about the zero-G environment of space?"
"There is no true zero gravity environment. Microgravity exists in all of space at minimum."
I waited for him to explain a bit more, but it didn't come.
"Is the rest of that too complicated for me to understand?"
"You can be clever sometimes I see."
"A bit of a backhanded compliment, but I'll take it. Anyway," I said and turned back towards Fluttershy, "you asked-"
I stopped as I noticed Fluttershy wasn't at my doorstep anymore. Instead, she had partially hidden herself behind the nearby TARDIS. Heh. Her posture and position remind me of Dragonshy when she was at the mouth of the cave but didn't want to go in.
"Well, I doubt that you came by my place for some casual conversation. Even if I would like to know a bit more about you. Is there something you needed my help with?"
"Um, well, I was hoping that you could come with me to the Everfree Forest? Um, if you don't mind that is," she finished even more meekly than before.
"I... can."
"You can?" she asked hopefully.
"Well yeah. The place is getting less scary every time I go in there. Plus you wouldn't have asked me if someone else wasn't available already."
"Thank you so much!" she yelled quietly; which I didn't even know was a thing.
"Wait, what about the crisis out in the plains of Appleoosa?" the Doctor questioned to us.
"Is it time sensitive to now?"
"Well, no not yet."
"Then I can take the time to run a quick errand with Fluttershy into the Everfree Forest," I countered. "In the meantime, you could make sure that everyone is rounded up and ready to go when the two of us get back."
I was a little surprised when the Doctor walked by and started down the trail to town. I didn't really expect him to listen to me. I vaguely heard him mutter something about the last of the Time Lords and a trip to the moon for something, but I couldn't make anything else out.
"So what is it that you need me for Fluttershy?"
"Oh! I just needed somebody to escort me while I go to see Manny."
"Who's Manny?"
"The manticore of course!"
I'm pretty sure I facepalmed so hard that there was a sonic boom.