Timeswirl

by Fedora

Shadows

Derpy looked at herself in the mirror, rubbing her horn tenderly with a hoof. Her Pegasus wings had vanished under Starswirl’s spell, only to be replaced by a grayish horn protruding from her forehead. She glanced over to see the Doctor’s smirking face glowing in the magic of Starswirl’s spell, as a blue horn sprouted up from his own skull.

“Not bad,” he remarked, “Considering Time Lords have neither horn nor wing.”

“Can I use this to perform... magic?” Derpy asked, poking at her horn. Starswirl shook his head, packing his spellbook away.

“No,” he said, “I’ve yet to finish any kind of true morphism spell. This is just for looks. In time, I want to make one that’ll work for real. An Omniomorphic spell, can’t you imagine?!”

“That sounds great,” the Doctor said. He threw open the doors of Starswirl’s study, opening them up to the corridors of the castle beyond.

“First things first, we need to find out where that snow storm is coming from,” he said, “I know we’d like to think it’s windigoes, but that’s not enough. We should poke around a bit, I say. The Princess already knows about Derpy and I being non-unicorn, so avoid her like the plague.”

“That’s not funny,” Starswirl scoffed.

****

The Doctor walked through the torchlit stone corridors at a brisk pace, leaving Starswirl and Derpy trotting behind him in his wake. He seemed to be taking the addition of a horn in stride, but to Derpy it was completely unnerving. She kept trying to move her wings to feel that they were there, but received no signal from her body. It was like losing a sense.

The two time travelers and the wizard wound up in a two-storied stone hall, where empty dishes and tablecloths flew left and right via telekinesis. Several long wooden tables stretched out the entire length of the great hall, and a musician played the harp in the background beneath a candlelit chandelier.

“Excuse me,” Derpy asked a passing mare. The pony held a water pot aloft in her magic grasp, but set it down as Derpy asked her a question.

“I’m a visitor, can you tell me who’s in charge of raising the moon at night after this dreadful storm is through?”

“I’ll find out,” the simple mare replied, “Miss.....”

“Derpy,” Derpy replied with a nod. The simple mare cocked her head, looking confused.

“Derpy the.....” her voice trailed off, as if she expected Derpy to fill in the blank.

“Derpy the... um.... Hooved,” replied the gray ex-pegasus. Bowing her head, the simple mare rushed off to find the answer for Derpy. The gray pony eyed Starswirl, imploring him for an explanation.

“The three tribes do things differently when it come to names,” Starswirl explained, “Unicorns use adjectives with the word ‘the’. Starswirl the Red. Derpy the Hooved.”

“Doctor the Fantastic?” suggested the Doctor, beaming. Derpy shook her head disapprovingly.

“The Pegasi use ranks or titles all the time in casual speech. You never would use just your given names, it’s always “Commander” this and “Corporal” that,” Starswirl explained, “And they use lineage in formal introductions. I’d be ‘Sir Starswirl of Unicornia’, the ‘sir’ indicating my position as one of the King’s trusted advisors. The Earth ponies use simpler given names, with the leaders using titles.”

The simple mare returned, speaking to Derpy.

“Miss Derpy the Hooved, the Lunar Guild are currently in session. I can direct you to their chamber, but do not enter until the door is opened from the inside.”

“Thank you,” Derpy said, following the mare.

The Doctor moved to intercept her, stopping Derpy from following the mare. He had a confused expression over his face, and Derpy looked up at him curiously.

“The moon? What’s the moon got to do with any of this?” he asked rhetorically, “What we really need to do is check with the pegasi, they’re in charge of the weather itself.”

Outside, the snow had begun to pile up. The howling wind intensified. Starswirl approached the clear glass panes of the window and peered out to see the soggy piles of sleet that covered bushes and trees outside the castle walls, growing larger as the gale continued.

From across the hall trotted a grayish stallion aged in his late teen years. He had a black mane that poofed up in the back, and wore a crimson cape with ragged edges. He had a very tattered quality about him. This stallion approached Starswirl directly, eyeing the Doctor and Derpy cautiously.

“Master, who are these strange ponies? I must admit, I’ve never laid eyes on either before now,” he said. Starswirl raised a hoof, allowing the two to introduce themselves to his pupil.

“I’m Doctor the Fantastic, this is Derpy the Hooved, my companion. You are...?”

“Somber Shadows the Pure.... you’re called ‘the Fantastic’, really?” he replied.

“I thought it was a good name!” the Doctor scoffed.

“Doctor, Derpy, allow me a moment to speak to my pupil,” Starswirl asked. Somber Shadows joined him near the wall, his head bent low as Starswirl explained the situation in a whisper. The stallion shot a glance back at the two, eyes widening and jaw agape.

“I’ve always wanted to meet somepony-”

“Someone,” the Doctor corrected.

“- someone who was a time traveller,” Somber Shadows remarked, “If you don’t mind me asking, Why here?”

“What?”

“Why here,” continued the stallion, “Here in this desolate land of warring tribes and tentative alliances to ward off starvation? If I were a time traveler, I’d go somewhere posh and splendorous, where the buildings are made of glittering crystal. You understand me, right?”

An uncomfortable smile crossed the Doctor’s face.

“Your master Starswirl has been dabbling in time manipulation, that interference brought me here from the far future.”

Somber Shadows blinked, shook his head, and blinked again. He stared at the Doctor blankly, and then exchanged glances with Starswirl.

“If this happens in your past, then why didn’t you know about the interference with time all along?” asked Somber Shadows. He sounded skeptic and possibly a bit irritated. From the look on his face Derpy could tell he wasn’t a big fan of the Doctor already.

“Time’s not a straight line, it’s bendable, twistable. Like clay,” the Doctor said, “Listen, are you gonna ask questions all day? C’mon, there’s important work to be done! We need to get up to the pegasus.”

Derpy brushed the Doctor’s jacket with a leg, bringing the time lord’s gaze to meet her face. She shook her head.

“Fly up there in the middle of a storm? Are you mad?” she said.

“Well,” mused the Doctor, “I guess I am a bit mad, but I was actually planning on using the TARDIS. Beardy, Rippy coat, you two should come with us.”

“What, now you’re ordering us around?” Somber Shadows blurted angrily. His eyes widened when he realized what he had said, for he quickly clapped a hoof to his mouth.

“Oh lighten up,” the Doctor replied, “It’s only an invitation.”

Starswirl nodded, walking towards the Doctor’s side and regarding his student briefly.

“You have to control that angst within you. Anger is fuel for chaos, the venom in the bloodstream of all that is orderly. You would do wise to practice self control.”

Somber Shadows grudgingly followed the Doctor, Derpy, and Starswirl. He didn’t like this odd stallion. He seemed bouncy and happy, but the pupil of Starswirl was perceptive enough to see past the Doctor’s exterior and glimpse the troubled and haunted soul within. Though he knew little about the circumstances that had damaged this being, he found himself distrusting the Doctor for it.

“If anyone knows about the weather it’s the Pegasi,” the Doctor said, “They can tell us whether the snowstorm is their accidental work or if they had no control over it.”

“What if they don’t?” Starswirl asked, following behind the timelord.

“Then there is something malevolent out there in the storm, something living.”

****

The time lord and ponies ran with struggle through the crashes of lightning and the driving sleet and ice. The sky was blackish violet and dark clouds convulsed and shifted. The ground beneath them had turned from dusty dirt to a runny mud puddle, one that each of them had to trudge through in order to get to the forest by the edge of the clearing. The Doctor was nearly up to his hips in the muddy water, coming out the other side and onto the cold ice-covered grass.

Derpy, who was back to her regular wings, tried to fly over the puddle without success. A bolt of lightning struck nearby, lighting the sky up and causing a deafening sound. The startled pegasus fell flat on her face in the mud, but the Doctor lent her a hoof to drag her out.

“The TARDIS should be just around this clump of trees!” yelled the Doctor over the howling winds, “We’re almost there!”

In the clearing sat a blue police box with glowing windows that stood out amongst the sleet. The box was still beaten-up looking, and some of the scuff marks and mud from the original crash still was visible on the corners and sides. The graffiti on the side that read ‘Bad Wolf’ was faintly visible in the dim light from the windows.

The Doctor was the first to reach the TARDIS, and after unlocking the door sprang inside with youthful enthusiasm that could not be met by any of the other drenched, beleaguered ponies. Starswirl and Somber Shadows were the last to enter, and their expressions of shock were subverted by their wet and filthy condition.

“A machine that’s bigger on the inside?” Starswirl breathed, sitting himself down on the floor of the TARDIS, “This is incredible! What form of magic is this? Minaturization?”

“No, it’s dimensionally transcendental. It’s like being in a separate dimension. I suppose it is being in a separate dimension,” answered the Doctor.

“The Earth Ponies have a machine that can travel in time, and is bigger on the inside,” Somber Shadows remarked in wonder, “How long have they had this?”

“That’s irrelevant if it can travel in time,” Starswirl said.

“Actually, I’m not an Earth Pony,” the Doctor said. He stood next to Derpy near the TARDIS console, the blue light shining onto his face.

“I’m a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Last of my race. Oh, we look like ponies on the outside, but so do many other alien species. Equinoids or Equine-like bodies are very common in alien species,” the Doctor said, “But I’m going on about unimportant stuff. Now, what’s really important is the pegasus tribe. If I’m not mistaken, a unicorn’s bones are too dense and too heavy for walking on clouds. So are the bones of a Time Lord.”

“There’s not a spell for making Unicorns able to walk on clouds,” Somber Shadows remarked. He leaned against one of the coral-like pillars, occasionally staring at the tall ceiling and the bronze walls that were lined with hexagonal roundels.

“Not yet,” corrected his teacher.