Time Keeps Wibbling On: A Doctor Whooves Adventure

by Shotoman

Remembrances and Partings

Part 10
Remembrances and Partings

Somewhere, somewhen, in the deep, dark reaches of the universe...

Somewhere, far, far away from Equestria's magical lands, beyond even the stars visible from its surface, where Princess Luna's astrological power had no hope of ever reaching on its own, a pair of small blue barns floated, their doors open, and in each a pony was poking their heads out as if going out for the morning paper. A ludicrous sight indeed, though neither pony registered it as such.

"So this is where my future self, three times removed, was taken from?" the Fourth Doctor asked as he precariously balanced a hat-rack-turned-satellite-dish out his TARDIS's door. "Doesn't seem to be anywhere all that important, does it?"

"It isn't; not truly," Eight responded from his own TARDIS as he punched a few corrections into his own hoof-held scanning device. "At least, not as far as the universe is concerned. Just the ending point of one of our many mad adventures."

"Except...?" Four asked with a shrewd expression on his face.

Eight sighed. "Except the end of this particular adventure meant goodbye to one companion and hello to another. You do know how that goes."

"Yes, and I imagine that the next adventure you went on was one of the more notable ones in our career," Four said casually. At his successor's surprised look he laughed. "You of all beings should know better than to think me a fool," he said, a tone of something almost approaching menace in his voice. "I do realize I'm the young one here, the one who brings the greatest risk. Our future selves don't want either of us to learn too much about their past come our futures. Believe it or not, I do understand the wisdom in that. It's why I haven't pushed. Until now. For good or ill, whatever the Old Girl's reasoning may be, I'm here now, and I think we both know that your next runaround is likely to be important to our current objective. As rare as it is for me to say so, I need to know what we're getting ourselves in for."

From her position by the control center of Four's TARDIS, Romana blinked in surprise. It was rare to see the Doctor like this. Oh, she knew he was far more brilliant than he usually let on, that he tended to play the fool due to an odd combination of his legitimate idiosyncrasies, attempts at throwing potential enemies off guard, and simply for his own amusement. But this... this was different. Even when put under the worst of dangers, or when his brilliant traps had sprung, he almost never dropped the 'mad idiot' act. Even she had to forcibly remind herself that it was, indeed, an act as often as not. Then again, she'd only witnessed him converse with one of his past-or-future selves once before, and that adventure had practically reached its end by the time those five finally came together. She supposed it made a certain amount of sense that, of all beings, he'd be able to drop the act in front of himself.

"Of course you are correct," she heard the future Doctor say. "One we've set up the scanning devices I'll come over and explain, barring too many details of course, about what is about to happen. We'll have some time before all the data is collected in any event."

~DrW~

Ponyville, Equestria, the not-at-all-distant past...

"Huh," Ripple said, looking out at the town from the alleyway the TARDIS appeared in. "It looks exactly the same."

"Well, of course it does," Ten said absently, shaking one of his odd 'dings-when-there's-stuff' devices to get it to work. "It's only a difference of about ten years or so, and this is just a small, sleepy, little earth pony town."

Casting her gaze to the rather small, plain looking treehouse library some distance away, Ripple Pond smirked. "Not where I'm from it's not."

"Shhh!" Eleven shushed, suddenly at her side. "Spoilers," he whispered. "The whole Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship/Harmony/Whatever thing is something that happens naturally during the next couple of years of Derpy's lifetime. Ol' Browncoat over there's been trying really hard to keep it a surprise."

"'We can't change our own personal timelines' and all that rubbish?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"That and it's more fun that way," Eleven answered with a smile of his own.

"Oi!" Ten called. "You're supposed to be helping me track this super teleport stuff, not gossiping!"

"Oh, come off it," Eleven grumbled as he took his sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket and joined his predecessor. "Ponyville's nostalgic to me. It's been a couple of centuries since I've been back."

"Yes, well, we're not here to sight see."

"Oh, like you're one to talk."

"Sooo," Derpy said, joining up with Ripple and Blue Shield at the mouth of the alley. "Wanna let them do their thing and go get a bite at Sugarcube Corner or something?"

"You sure that's a good idea?" Blue Shield asked. "What if your past self sees you or something?"

Derpy just laughed. "I already had some time in the TARDIS, remember? It's why I went so loopy when the timey wimey stuff happened. I'd probably just think it's funny."

"You have to take into account the other ponies' reactions," Ten interrupted from the back of the alley, his eyes not leaving the readouts of his device. "How do you think Mrs. Cake would respond if a twenty-something Depry was to walk into her shop when she'd be expecting a teenager?"

"Aww, you're no fun," Derpy complained.

"So you say," Ten said with a smile as he and Eleven continued their work.

"So, what? We just sit here and wait for the two of you to finish up?" Blue Shield asked, almost hopefully, Derpy noticed.

"Some adventure this is turning out to be," Ripple grumbled.

"Enjoy the respite while it lasts," Eleven said darkly. "You know it's only a matter of time before the screaming starts."

~DrW~

In the TARDIS of the Fourth Doctor...

Four's face was set in a serious expression. Not one of his 'oh, am I supposed to be serious right now?' sort of expressions, either. What Eight had told him--vague and lacking in detail as it was--was still worrisome. "And so, because of your predecessor, the planet Skarro will be destroyed?"

"And with them the Daleks," Eight responded bitterly. "Poof! Gone! No more! They cease to be! At least, that was the plan. I made so many plans back then, and no one was safe from them. Enemy, friend, all were pawns on the board as far as I was concerned." Eight sighed, his anger giving way to a deep-rooted sadness. "Of course, it wasn't the end of those abominations. Like a nest of cockroaches they returned, rebuilt, attacked. Even made a whole new Skarro, somehow. In my time, they're engaged in a war. With Gallopfrey. And it's tearing the universe apart."

Four's eyes widened in alarm. "I say!" he sputtered.

Romana was silent. The Daleks. She'd had experiences with them before, and, honestly, they were one of the few things in the universe to make her well and properly afraid. A race with no emotion but hate. No purpose but to kill. No society to speak of, with all the energies and devotion often spent in the arts and other methods of self improvement spent on finding better ways to keep killing. And advanced enough in their technologies that the universe often was in true danger because of them.

"Obviously, that's why our future selves are so tight lipped about their pasts. They come from after the war, I can tell. The very fact they exist at all tells me we somehow won, but the costs that victory must have come with... I can scarcely think on it." Eight turned a cool glare on his past self. "It could be considered your fault you know."

"My fault?" Four sputtered.

Eight nodded. "You had the chance, once, to stamp the Daleks out before they even existed. Yet you didn't. You didn't feel you had the right to play god in that way. And from there, escalation."

"Do you mean to tell me that if it were you, if you had the chance to do it all over again, if you had the proverbial switch in your hooves, that you would have done it?" Four asked.

Eight sighed again. "In all honesty, I don't know. In principle, I completely agree with your decision, even now. But I've had a great many centuries of hindsight." At that moment, he looked far older than his physical appearance implied.

A moment of silence passed before Four's eyes widened in alarm. "I've just had a most distressing thought. What if the Daleks are in fact the common link between us? Both those that have been taken and those in search of them."

Eight paused in consideration for a moment before he said, "That's a bit far fetched isn't it? I mean the Daleks are a constant in our life, all the way back to the First. The fact that that you, I, and the Seventh have all had major altercations with them doesn't really mean a whole lot when every incarnation I'm aware of has."

"Ah, but some of these 'altercations' are more important than others. As you say, I was there at their creation, which brought Davros into our lives. Seven dealt one of the biggest blows against them that could ever be dealt. And you..." he fell silent for a moment. "Then there's the timing to think about as well. Seven was taken just before he was to embark on his great plan."

"Which could be a coincidence," Eight countered, though he wasn't too sure of himself when he said it.

At that moment, a distinct ding sounded from the TARDIS console. "Well, then," Four said, his usual demeanor beginning to return. "It looks as though we are about to find out."

~DrW~

Ding!

"Ah Here we are!" Ten said happily. "Now all that's left is to plug 'er into the Old Girl's console and have her tell us where to go next!" He stopped in thought for a moment. "I can still do that with your new console, right?"

"Please," Eleven huffed as he tapped the sidewalk with a forehoof and the TARDIS doors opened. "You think she'd let herself be incompatible with anything you made? Or that we couldn't figure something out even if she did? Who d'you think we are?"

"Right, right. Sometimes forget how clever we are. Always good to have a reminder."

The three companions rolled their eyes and shared a smirk at that.

"Come along Ponds!" Eleven called as he disappeared into the TARDIS.

"You too, Derpy," Ten added. "The scary stuff is just ahead."

"Am I the only one here not looking forward to that?" Blue Shield asked, fully aware of the answer.

"Yes," Ripple and Derpy said immediately.

Derpy let the other two go in before her, and tuned to get one last glance at the Ponyville of her past, when a very familiar grey pegasus entered her line of sight. The other pony stopped suddenly and turned to look into the alleyway, one misaligned pair of eyes meeting a matching gaze. Derpy smiled and put a forehoof to her mouth in a shushing gesture. The other pony mirrored the gesture with an audible laugh. And then Derpy rejoined the others inside the little blue barn.

~DrW~

Eight sighed. "It can never be easy, can it?" He, Four, and Romana were huddled around the monitor that set into the wall of the TARDIS. The readings were very clear. The signal came from Trottingham, Equestria, in the general location of...

"Foal Hill School?" Four said to no one in particular. He then cast a wary look at Eight. "You didn't..."

"Well, what else would I have destroyed Skarro with?" Eight responded.

"Care to fill me in?" Romana asked.

"It would be best if I didn't," Four said in a dead serious tone. "Suffice it to say I left something of great importance there a very long time ago, which I will apparently go back for some time in the future."

Eight shook his head. "We're going to have to contact the others. You're little theory is starting to look more and more likely."

~DrW~

"Oh," Eleven said under his breath.

"Well, that is a kick in the head, isn't it?" Ten agreed.

Derpy looked at the monitor screen, filled with unreadable-to-her Gallopfreyan writing. "What is it? What's a kick in the head?"

Ten and Eleven shared a brief, concerned look at each other before Ten responded. "Looks like we're heading back to Satellite 5."

Derpy's eyes widened. "Oh," was the only response she had.

Ripple Pond and Blue Shield shared a glance. "I guess I'll be the one to ask," Ripple said. "What's Satellite 5?"

"Oh, not much in the grand scheme of things,' Eleven said offhoofedly. "Just a place Derpy and I went on for some of our earlier adventures. Back before I was him even. The thing is..."

"The thing is...what?"

"That's where I got this face,' Ten answered. "And these teeth. Short answer, it's one of the places I've died."

Comments

[DelphiDovahkiin]

Wasn't it called the Game Station when he died there?

[Shotoman]

4568086
Yeah, and I'll go into that in more detail as the Doctors explain it to the Ponds, but, at least to them, it's Satellite 5.

[Crossfiction]

....Moar.

[Seraphem]

Still have only the vaguest idea what might be going on. But just watching the Doctors interact with each other is more then enough fun to keep on reading just for that.

[Mr Jell-O]

I thought 9 regenerated into 10 fighting the mannequin things,
Am i right?

[IllusionedDrawer64]

Foal Hill School...I see what you did there