Doctor Whooves (The Doctor in Equestria)

by OneCoolBrony

Great And Powerful Problems

The TARDIS was shaking crazily, having had it's destination randomized, and now traveled through space and time to an unknown where, at an unknown when. The Doctor sat inside, riding the chaotic ride, smiling and laughing all the way through. He could not resist the urge to start pressing buttons which he probably shouldn't have been pressing anyways. The beeps and boops of each press alerting that the arbitrary presses had consequences. The Doctor stumbled a bit as the TARDIS launched itself forward, indicating that it was nearing the end of it's journey.

A griffon walked out of the tavern he had just been performing in, his lute strapped to his back in order to prevent it's loss while in flight. He lifted up the small bag of coins he had just collected, and smiled humbly at the jingle that was the fruit of his labour. Bard was not a popular profession in the slums of Leodon, and he was working his hardest to survive on the meager salary that it provided him. He could easily migrate to another profession, one which payed far better, but the griffons that lived in this part of town needed the two minutes of joy that he could bring with a love ballad, or a tribute to some great warrior, long forgotten with time. He turned left to head towards his flat, having known the way to and from the tavern and his flat for at least four years now. Familiar as he was with the route, he knew all shortcuts along the way. Turning into an alley that no sane citizen of Leodon would turn down, he strutted down with confidence, long since having abolished any fear of ghosts or supernatural beings. Nearing mid point of the alleyway, he began to hear some sort of insane cackling, like some madgrif that had escaped the asylum. Turning to meet the owner of the wicked laugh, he fell into a world of black, knowing no feeling, no smell, no sensation of any kind, save for the foreboding presence of a dark and wicked force.

The tavern was alive as much as it usual was, the normal hustle and bustle of midday, it wasn't late enough for the drunkards to come about, so the air was lighthearted and fun. The only air of unease was the absence of the bard, who'd performed here rain or shine everyday for the last four years. Aside from that, everything was as happy as one could be living in the slums of an industrial Leodon. What did cause a moment of silence and a slight stir, was when a peculiar sound emanated from outside the tavern doors, though was eventually attributed to the machinery hard at work in the city that was so alive around them. What did stun the entire pub was the next visitor to walk in through those same doors, causing the entire place to cease all activity and draw attention to the one new visitor. A pony.

VWORP VWORP BDEEEeeew BDEEEeeew. The TARDIS became still as it landed at its next stop. The Doctor stumbled outside and coughed several times, the smile coming back to his face. "Now this is like a proper London! Hmm, smog is too heavy to be anything to modern, but not quite heavy enough to be Nineteen-Fifties. If I had to guess, maybe somewhere between the late Seventeen Hundreds to the early Eighteen Hundreds. Ah! We're in the industrial revolution!". The Doctor looked back at the TARDIS and sighed slightly. "I. I am in the industrial revolution. Right, time to get my bearings. I'm still a bit hungry though, might stop by a pub for a moment for a spot to eat. Hmm, where would I put a pub in an industrialized London?". The Doctor stepped out of the alleyway where the TARDIS had materialized. Checking the street up and down, he spotted a tavern not far off from where he had popped up. "Well, that's convenient. I think maybe I'll order cupcakes!"

The Doctor trotted up to the establishment, pushing the door open with his hoof and walking in expecting people to be either fighting, or having a grand time. The latter of which they were doing, right until his face was seen entering through the door. The whole pub went silent and everyone stared at him, almost as if they were in a movie fond of using played-out scenarios. He inhaled deeply and trotted up to the bar-counter, pretending not to be disturbed by the death glares he was getting on all sides. "A few things, my good sir," The Doctor spoke to the griffon at the other end of the counter "First of all, I'm awful hungry. I don't suppose you serve cupcakes here?". This was rewarded with a chorus of laughter from all those in attendance here. "Thought not. Secondly, you're griffons?!?!" The griffon next to him gave him a look that was one full of condescension, making The Doctor almost feel stupid. "You're trying to tell me," the lion eagle spoke "that you came to Leodon, and didn't expect to see griffons?". The bar rumbled with laughter as the irony of the situation sunk in. "I'm sorry," The Doctor apologized "I'm new to these parts, and I just didn't quite know what to expect." The griffon shook his head again at this. "New? You sound fresh out of Trottingham! Why, you my be a pony, but your obviously from somewhere in Great Grifland. So, why were you surprised to see griffons?". The Doctor shook his head, wanting to get away from the topic, knowing anything he said would just dig the hole deeper. "Anyway, you haven't got cupcakes. Got it. What do you have?". The griffon tending the counter rolled his eyes, and spoke to The Doctor seriously. "If you don't want a drink, you might as well get. So, what'll it be?"

The Doctor sighed. "Fine, some ale'll do, if you got it.". The griffon gave him a sort of look, not expecting him to actually order a drink. After a short moment, the griffon sighed. "You're one strange stranger. You know that?". The Doctor tilted his head in a way that implied he understood. "You wouldn't even know the half of it, friend.". As he spoke another griffon walked into the establishment, giving The Doctor a curious look as he neared the bar, but dismissing it as unimportant. However, he did find one odd-thing-out important, and he voiced it to the tender "Oi, Stone Claw, where's the bard?". Stone Claw looked backed over his shoulder, answering the query "Never showed up. Strange, ain't it? Never thought I'd see the day that grif wouldn't show, he was nicer than most the blokes that came 'round here, too. Hope he's alright.". The Doctor overheard the conversation and decided to add in his own two-sense. "A bard? Those still exist in this time period?". Stone Claw chuckled a bit, "Yeah, a bard is an odd job these days, but he was the one that'd pull it off and there's not a single griffon that I know that'd raise a claw against him, friendly chap as he was."

The door slammed open before The Doctor could further any of his questions. Through the door came a griffin with a lute strapped to his back. "Did you miss me, whelps?". The customers shared a look of confusion before the new visitor took up his instrument and presented himself. "I am The Great and Talented Iron Wing!" The bartender leaned up to The Doctor and whispered so that only he could hear. "That's him, but something off. He's not the performer we all know and love, something is terribly wrong.".

What proceeded to be sung by the bard in question was the most boastful, conceded, and self-centered song that The Doctor had ever heard (And he'd heard the planetary anthem of Golonius 17!). According to the tales that The Doctor had heard about this well-loved musician, which were admittedly limited, this was all wrong. Fortunately for everygrif at the scene, The Doctor was all about wrong. Immediately following the piece, the crowd present booed, hissed, and displayed any and all form of displeasure that they could muster. The performer smiled and bowed, "Oh, you're all jealous of my talent. It's alright, I love you nonetheless!". This obviously was not a crowd-pleasing move, and the rumble of annoyance became more like a roar of anger. It was strange, though. The Doctor noticed that rather than be put down, the bard was enjoying it. That's odd. It's almost like he's... ah, I get it. What is up with this universe and it's villains having eating problems? . Blatantly ignoring the crowd, The Doctor walked right up to Iron Wing, and said possibly the most powerful thing of anyone there that evening.

"Bravo! I say, encore! Erm, jolly good show.". The thunderous anger of everygrif there immediately stopped, opting to be baffled at this already strange stranger, who just became a bit stranger. Uh... what other compliments do I know? . "Carry on! Oh lovely, absolutely grand! Jyrvaline!". The Doctor awkwardly smacked his hooves together, attempting to clap for the lute player. Iron Wing did something that looked like an almost gag, and gave The Doctor one of the nastiest looks you'd ever seen. But then the singer resumed to bask in the hate that all those present silently felt towards him.

The bartender, Stone Claw, made his way to The Doctor and asked him why he was acting in this manner, The Doctor said "Just trust me if you want to help your friend. You are right, something is wrong with him, and cheering him on is the only way through it, just support him.". Stone Claw nodded and joined The Doctor in the revelry. "Well done. Err, uh, very good job!" having earned some looks from those around, he addressed them, "Come on, it wasn't that bad, really.". Almost everygrif looked stupefied until one off to the side spoke up "I thought so, too. I quite liked it actually.". Eventually, the whole bar was thundering with applause for him, some having caught on, while others were going with the flow. Iron Wing stood for a moment, vomited, and then dropped harshly to the hardwood floor, unconscious.

A wisp of red smoke left the griffon's mouth and darted out the door. While the customers and Stone Claw attempted to tend to the collapsed entertainer, The Doctor followed the wisp as quickly as he could. Bursting from the door, he saw the smoke trail down the street a bit and turn left between some buildings. Wait! That was were the TARDIS was parked! Following after the red entity, The Doctor rounded the corner just in time to see a wormhole closing up. Did it just use excess radiation from the TARDIS to travel through time and space? I think... it did! Stone Claw appeared in the pass behind him. We need your help, you knew how to get whatever that was out of him, maybe now you can fix him up.

The Doctor stood over the body of a certain bard, examining him and scanning him with a curious piece he called his "sonic screwdriver". After around about a minute, he lifted his head and tucked away the screwdriver.
"He's alive,"
"Thank..."
"but he's going to die. That thing pushed his own conscious into his brain, honestly I'm fascinated that he's somehow still alive. He won't be, though, for much longer. I'm sorry. Truly, I am."
Stone Claw almost seemed to be angry with him. "Just fix him. Just do it, I don't know how, but do it.". The Doctor shook his head and apologized again, succeeding it with "I understand your pain, I do, but unless I get after whatever that was and stop it, more pe... err, griffons and ponies, are going to die. I need you to let me do my work.". The bartender was weary with the loss of the friend that had come very dear to him, but nodded his head to agree. "You stop that thing, don't let it murder any more like it did Iron Wing, here. You do it for whoever the next victims friends and families are. You do it for Iron Wing!". The whole bar was filled with a rumble of applause and "here here's". "I will," The Doctor promised "you have my word.". With that as a goodbye he exited the bar, and re-entered the rest of the world, making way to the TARDIS.

Inside the TARDIS, The Doctor went about saving the next innocent, his life never stopping or pausing. He set the TARDIS console to follow the last disturbance that was near to it, and launched the TARDIS into yet another fit of shaking and noise-making. As the TARDIS rattled and lurched through the time stream, The Doctor could feel the aura that the creature he pursued was emitting. Pure anger and hate. It was all he felt. Not his own emotions, no, it felt more like a large mass of people, all feeling unhappy with an individual. A single entity. One someone. "Wow, that thing really feeds off of hate. REAL hate. It's nasty habit of making all the inhabitants of this world unhappy aside, it's killing innocent creatures, and THAT has to stop. Ugh, right, umm. I'll just push this." A light flashed and then quickly disappeared, "Ah! There we go, all set.". The Doctor threw the switch and the TARDIS lurched forward, following it's target out of the vortex.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and was immediately reassured with the sight of kind, non-judgmental ponies. He did, surprisingly, recognize his location as well, though he wasn't sure if he'd heard it's name before. What played out before him frightened him somewhat, though. "Behold the GREAT and POWERFUL..." there was a pause for dramatic effect "...TRIXIE!". As she smiled with the presentation of her name, The Doctor caught a red gleam in her eye. The Doctor knew that he wasn't wrong in his assumptions now. Trixie's stand was laid out in the street in front of the castle, back to the castle, with fireworks and all manner of effects smashed on in a smorgasbord of razzle dazzle. Before Trixie could even draw in a crowd though, The Doctor was on her stage and warning her of the danger she was in. Unfortunately, the crowd saw a heckler stopping a performance before it could begin. And he was heavily booed and hissed, clearly unhappy that he was stopping somepony from making a living.

What the parasite saw was a lot of hate, heaps of it. Unfortunately, it couldn't consume a single morsel of it. All of it was directed towards that annoying pony that had stopped it from that previous buffet of hate. Now it knew what to do, it could take out two birds with one stone. It smiled inwardly as it leaped from one host to the next, transplanting itself into the earth pony and preparing to murder him. Teach him a lesson about interfering with it's feeding.

The crowd was aghast as they saw a trail of red tinted mist violently pull itself out of the blue mare, who in turn dropped to the stage unconscious, large purple hat gently floating down on top of her. The air-like entity then launched itself into the body of the heckler, who began twitching and convulsing. Everypony was immediately frightened and scared, what are they supposed to do? Somepony called the guard while the rest just watched in horror.

The Doctor felt the parasite enter, painfully aware of every inch of it insert itself into his nostrils. He felt it moving around in his brain, trying to find a kill spot. It began attacking, unsuccessfully for the most part, The Doctor's mind. For a moment, it seemed like The Doctor faltered in his concentration, which it saw as a sign of it's progress, and began exerting itself. The Doctor seemed to be constantly almost losing, but always rebounding right before the moment of his demise. The thing realized, this was no ordinary host .After several seconds, it questioned him (which was strange, as it felt like the voice was coming from inside his own head) "What are you?" The Doctor managed a smile through the uncontrollable jolting of his body and voiced aloud. "I'm The Doctor.". He mentally eviscerated the parasite, his mind being far greater than that of the parasite's. As soon as he did so, he felt extremely feint. He did all he could manage while in his light-headed state, first checking Trixie to make sure she would live (She would. The parasite, it seemed, had not been in long enough to do too much damage) and immediately stumbled into the blue box that had been his steed. Once inside, the grated floor immediately caught him, lulling him to sleep.

When Strong Spear arrived on scene of the incident, it was chaos. He had begun to question several ponies, but all told him of this insane story about a red something going from the street performer into some heckler, who began seizing but then said "I'm the doctor" and ran away. Also the performer had collapsed, but was still alive. The part that almost made him laugh was what this "doctor" stallion had run into; a big, blue box. That is, it almost made him laugh until he actually saw it. It was most definitely strange. After several questioning and a thorough examination of the outside of the box (they had been unsuccessful in attempts to get it open) Strong Spear brought his findings to his Commanding Officer, who nodded and appeared pretty interested throughout the entirety of his report. At the end, the Captain smiled and reassured the soldier, "The stallion you've described to me is of no importance, the princesses are highly aware of his presence and have no desire to see him in custody.". Strong Spear found it curious, but wisely did not question his superior.

Trixie had been revived and the crowd began to go in places to view her performance (all feeling pretty bad about whatever it was that just happened). She began her show, opening with the line of "Now, Canterlot, you can see the grace and might of THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!". However, her show was once again interrupted as the whole of the crowd (and even Trixie) turned their head to see whatever was making that horrible racket. They all saw the blue box fading in and out, fading in less and less, all while making a loud sound, like somepony ripping a pair of trousers, or dragging a key along a piano string. As it faded out, the entire block was distinctly aware of the TARDIS signature take-off sound. VWORP! VWORP! BDEEEeeew. BDEEEeeew. After a moment of staring where the box had used to be, the crowd turned to Trixie. Who took only one tardy second to realized that the attention had shifted to her. After a few milliseconds of thinking, she announced "Only the first of many wonderful tricks performed by the great Trixie!"

Comments

[Sava Warg]

Honestly, this is my favorite rendition.