• Published 30th Dec 2013
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Time Keeps Wibbling On: A Doctor Whooves Adventure - Shotoman



Something's wrong with time. Again. Why else would there be more than one Doctor at once?

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Never Really Thought About It.

Part 11

Never Really Thought About It.

The silence that followed Ten's statement was awkward, but brief, as one of the screens hanging from the ceiling cackled to life, bringing with it the staticy image of Eight as he impatiently tapped the screen on his end. "Hello? Hello? This blasted thing never... oh, there you are," he said as the screen cleared.

"We always did have such wonderful timing," Eleven said under his breath before greeting the screen. "Hello! You got something important to report? Of course you got something important to report. You wouldn't be calling if you didn't have something important to report. Well, c'mon then, out with it."

Eight cast his future self a confused look for a moment before shaking his head and saying, "I do have something that is a bit of a concern, but before I go into all that, have the two of you found your destination?"

The two Doctors glanced at each other before Ten answered, "Yyyyyyeah. Just now."

"And this important event in our history, does it involve Daleks by any chance?"

This time the two Doctors visibly jumped. "Why do you ask?" Eleven said.

Eight sighed before explaining the hypothesis he and Four came up with.

"Hmmm, tricky, tricky," Ten said. "Like you said, it could be a coincidence. We fight the pepperpots all the time, it seems. Still... we can't ignore the pattern. What with Four..."

"And his thing with Davros," Eleven interrupted.

"And his thing with Davros. And Seven..."

"The whole 'blowing up Skarro thing.'"

"Just so, for all the good it did."

"And I hold no illusions on where my eventual future lies. For all my running the Time War still looms depressingly large," Eight said with a dark frown on his face.

"And Nine... best not to go into it. Myself, I've fought the Daleks plenty, though so far I don't think I've hit any of those catastrophic turning-point-in-our-careers moments yet."

"You will," Eleven said. "Trust me on that. You will. And I've already had at least one. Possibly two. Right now, the Daleks being behind all this somehow is as good a guess as any, all told. Doesn't change the fact that we gotta go, though."

"Oh, of course it doesn't," Ten agreed with a shake of his head. "'Course we gotta go. We wouldn't be us if we didn't."

"In multiple senses," Eleven said, smiling. "Anything else to report, Mr. Charmer?"

"I suppose that's it," Eight said, a slightly confused look on his face at his future selves' antics. "I suppose I should say something along the lines of 'good hunting' and be on my way."

As one of the faces of the Doctor disappeared from the screen, the other two turned to their companions. "Well, you heard him," Ten said. "We're very possibly walking right into battle with the single most dangerous race in the history of the entire universe. If you don't want to come along on this one, I think we'd both completely understand."

Ripple turned to Derpy. "Is he joking?"

"Probably not," Derpy said with a shrug, "but I'm coming anyway."

"Too right," Ripple agreed.

"You can't get rid of us, Doctor," Blue Shield added. "We've gone and become just as mad as you."

The Doctors just smiled.

~DrW~

UNIT headquarters, Canterlot Equestria, circa 974 C.R...

All was quiet in the Doctor's lab when he finally managed to sneak back into it. He didn't really see what the big deal was that he should be confined to a bed. Regeneration was a dodgy process, true, but a few hours of sleep and he was right as rain. Why couldn't the (heh) doctors just see it? Oh well. At least he managed to get away from them. It was difficult enough dealing with the new teeth and curls without them fussing about. And there she was. The TARDIS herself. Oh, what a beauty. And so neglected for so long. He hadn't gotten nearly enough chances to take her out even after the Council rescinded his banishment.

Just as he managed to dig the key out from one of his old socks and open the door, a familiar voice interrupted him. “And just where do you think you are going?”

The Doctor turned to see his good friend and companion Wordsmith glaring at him. The Doctor smiled a wide, wild smile. “Just out and about for a bit.”

“Doctor, you can't just up and leave.”

“Can't I?”

“Can't he?” another voice interrupted as Princess Celestia entered the lab, a smile on her face.

The Doctor brightened when he saw her. “Ah, Celestia. Celestia who gave me a place when I needed it, who I will apparently share many adventures with, and who is just as long lived as I. Care to join me on a trip?”

Celestia shook her head. “You have no idea how tempting the offer is, Doctor, but I have too many responsibilities. I just came to see you off.”

The Doctor just shrugged. “Pity. And you, Wordsmith? You traveled with the old me for quite some time. Care to give the new me a try?”

At Wordsmith's hesitance, Celestia gave her a nudge toward the blue barn. “Well, go on. It's not like you don't want to,” she teased.

Wordsmith gave an annoyed look at Celestia before remembering who exactly it was that was annoying her, then turned to the Doctor. “Of course I will,” she said. “Any plans on where to go first?”

The Doctor grinned as he let her in the TARDIS. “Oh, I don't know. I thought I'd just hit a few random buttons and let the old girl decide.”

"Are you serious?" Wordsmith said as the TARDIS doors closed behind them.

"Perhaps not entirely," the Doctor said, smiling that big, toothy smile he'd just gained. "But it has been far too long since we've had a good and proper trip, hasn't it, Old Girl?" He finished off his question by tapping a hoof on the TARDIS control console.

Wordsmith was about to respond when the TARDIS began shaking. "Doctor, what's happening?" She asked instead.

The Doctor quirked an eyebrow in confusion. "You know I'm really not sure. That's... that's a bit worrisome, actually."

~DrW~

The Fourth Doctor's TARDIS, in the Time Vortex,

The Doctor suddenly cried out, tripped over his own scarf, and nearly collapsed atop the TARDIS control console. "Doctor!" Romana cried as she ran to his side.

He merely waved her off. "I trust you felt that?" he said, looking away from Romana and up at one of the TARDIS's communications screens.

"Of course," his four-times-removed future self said over the screen. "The others likely did as well, but we've already broken contact."

"What is it?" Romana said, looking between the two Doctors in concern.

"They're after me now," her Doctor said, sweat pouring down his face. "Not now of course. In my past. My first trip in this regeneration, in fact." His face suddenly hardened. "I say, we can't have that, can we?" There was an ice to the Doctor's tone that made Romana flinch.

"What are you going to do?" She asked.

The Doctor cast a hard look at his future self's image, then turned to Romana. "A pair of very foolish things." He then charged immediately to the front doors and threw them open.

"Have you gone mad?" Romana exclaimed as she galloped up to him.

"Mad?" the Doctor said, affronted. "Mad? Of course I've not gone mad!" Outside the open TARDIS door the other TARDIS swept into view, its door also open, the other Doctor almost leaning out of it. Arcs of energy were visible as the force fields of the two time capsules merged together. Four looked at her with a very serious expression. "This is what is called a calculated risk."

Romana realized just a split second too late what it was that the Doctor had in mind. "Oh, no you doOOoon't!" she cried as the Doctor roughly wrapped his forelegs around her torso and actually threw her out the door. After a brief moment of blind panic, she collided roughly with his future counterpart, safely in his TARDIS.

"Don't you ever do that again!" she shouted as she got back up to her hooves.

The Doctor--the future Doctor--grinned a charming grin. "Don't tell me you're still sore, Romana. That throw happened centuries a...go." His banter trailed off at the steel in Romana's glare.

"You don't get to be clever," she said. "Not after that." Then she turned her back to him in a huff, mentally berating herself for acting like a little foal, no matter how deserving of it she felt.

The Doctor sighed. "You're right of course. Of course you're right. You were always... right." Something in his tone caused her to turn back and look at him. The smile was still there, a bit thinner than before, but his eyes made her gasp. As a Time Mare, Romana had no difficulty seeing this Doctor as the same pony as hers. And of course she knew that this incarnation was centuries separated from the one she traveled with. But that look in his eyes. He looked so, impossibly old all of a sudden. And old was the one thing he always promised he'd never be.

"What...?" Romona stopped herself before she could say what happened to you? "What is he doing? Over in the other TARDIS."

The Doctor shook his head with a humorless chuckle. "I think you know already, don't you?"

Romana's eyes widened. "No. No. There's no way to tell what will happen."

The Doctor laughed again, this time with genuine warmth. "There never is with us, is there? I'd have thought you would have been used to it by now."

~DrW~

"All right, then," Four said mostly to himself as he withdrew his sonic screwdriver from within his hat and dashed to the console of his TARDIS. "It seems the two of us are alone at last, doesn't it, Old Girl? I feel I owe you an apology in advance for this. You won't enjoy it. Nor will I, come to that."

He pointed his screwdriver at a panel beneath the controls and all the bolts holding it in place flew out as if shot from a gun. "Sorry, again. No time for delicacy," he said as he put the screwdriver in his mouth, ripped the panel out and dove into the opening. The next few seconds consisted of the Doctor frantically pulling wires out of place and reattaching them in new configurations, all while muttering calculations under his breath and around his screwdriver.

Once he was finished here, the Doctor withdrew himself from beneath the console and began a hurried set of adjustments on the console. He didn't even look up as his communicator screen lit up once more, or at the irritated female voice that asked, "What do you think you're doing, Doctor?"

"Concentrating for the moment, Romana," he said, shushing her loudly when she tried to say something else. "And you know exactly what I'm concentrating on."

Romana sighed in exasperation. "Yes, of course I know the theory and mechanics of what you are attempting to do, Doctor. A power surge, sent back in time from your current TARDIS to the TARDIS of your past should, theoretically, short out whatever it is that is attempting to remove you from the past. But, Doctor, the dangers..."

"Dangers?" the Doctor scoffed. "What dangers? Yes, the TARDIS will be without power for a day or two, and the safety protocols will shunt me out of the Time Vortex rather on the abrupt side of things, but no matter where I land, it will only be a matter of time before I catch back up with you. You're never truly lost so long as you have a TARDIS, after all."

"If it's as harmless as you say, why did you shunt me off to the safety of another TARDIS, then?" Romana asked pointedly.

The Doctor didn't answer.

After a few more adjustments were made, he spoke one last time. "Doctor?" His future self--so much older than he was, yet seeming so much younger--appeared on the screen. "Watch after her, won't you? I will be coming back to pick her up soon."

The Eighth Doctor nodded. "I will. Have no fear of that."

The Doctor cast that toothy, disarming, mad grin of his up at Romana before throwing the final switch. And then everything went black.