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The Eleventh Stable4,111 words
Starting from beyond the end.3,349 words
The Pears of Nerim3,320 words
Entering the "Normal" life3,390 words
The Shambling Plague4,695 words
New, Old friends5,172 words
Double sun3,762 words
A friend in need4,054 words
The Nanos3,996 words
Clay time4,816 words
Science...5,798 words

The Shambling Plague

Last time, on Doctor Whooves: I won't run any more...

Behind the gate of Tartarus, a shambling swarm of ichor stained creatures limp over the prone body of Cerberus, a smoldering burn in the shape of a star on each of its heads.
"S...sho... cold..." the lead one coughs out, clawing at the gate.
The gate beneath Ponyville.

Lyra gallops away and I sigh "So much for anonymity. Ah well, life goes on... now which way was Ditzy's...?"

Shrugging, I wander in a random direction, taking in the sights and smells of Ponyville "Thatched houses, cottages, stores... small town in a nutshell. I wonder what constitutes fun around here?"

The sound of classical music wafts from within a store, and I find myself within "Ah, the violin and double bass. Interesting contrast..."

A small filly taps my foreleg "Hm? Yes?"

The filly stares up at me with amber eyes and apple-red mane and tail "Are you Time Turner?"

"Yes, how can I help you?" I respond, a bit confused by the southern "Twang" to her voice.

She reaches into a bag I hadn't seen and pulls out a clock "Could'ya fix this please?"

I shrug "Probably. I just don't have any tools with me..."

She shrugs and pulls out a small pouch "Ten bits right?"

I nod dumbly, picking up the clock and the pouch and turn to leave "Bits"? I suppose that might be the currency here... odd, considering their horses- er... ponies and bits are what go in the mouth to stop... or is that a gag? Gah, I'll ask Ditzy later.

"Uh, where can ah pick it up?" the filly asks and I pause "Erm... Ditzy Doo's house most likely or I'll bring it to you-"

"No! Ah mean, ah know where that is, thanks Mr. Turner." she scrambles out of the shop in a hurry.

"Odd. Very odd. Ah well, I suppose I can fix a simple clock." I mutter to myself, walking in another direction.

"... Now I remember why I usually stay in the TARDIS, I have no sense of direction..." I mutter, having found the same fountain thirteen times, all from different angles "This is ridiculous! How am I supposed to-"

A small lizard passes me, a backpack full of what looks to be scrolls "Excuse me, young reptile?"

He turns "Uh... I'm a dragon."

I blink and scratch my head "Huh, a very small one, most dragons I've met, well, I suppose Silurians don't count and Draconioans don't exactly count either... but the others maybe. Except those half-human ones." I banish the thoughts from my head and clear my throat "Could you direct me to Ditzy Doo's house?"

He stares at me and then shrugs "Yeah, go down Maple drive and it's the third house to the left."

"Thank you."

"Uh, Maple's the other way."

I turn "Riiiight..."

He sighs and walks away, muttering to himself.

I knock on the door and Carrot opens it with a smile "Hello Time Turner, how's your day been?"

"Interesting. Very interesting..." I mutter under my breath.

"Come on in, Derpy's been up in her room doing some kind of star-triangulation thing."

Wonder what she's trying to locate... ah well, one problem at a time. "Sounds engaging, but I was wondering if I may borrow your table for a while, I'm going to fix this clock for a young filly I met. She seemed to know me..."

Carrot shrugs and motions to the large table "Help yourself, just don't get gears all over the place, I'm still finding bits of them after Derpy's attempt at 'Clockwork life'."

"Huh, she's tried that?"

She shivers "Yes, and it worked for a few seconds before something snapped and it exploded. She said something about a weak engine and put what was left in a box and took it somewhere."

I laugh "Yes, that tends to happen with science."

She rolls her eyes and walks towards the door "I have to go do some errands so keep an eye on the place, okay Time Turner?"

"Yes ma'am!" I say, saluting.

She chuckles and leaves, closing the door silently.

"Now then... onto fixing this clock. Should be fun."

"... The gears are rotted apple wood. Who on Earth makes gears out of wood? Tin, copper, even aluminum, but why wood?! Ugh, I might as well just get some glue and call it a day. Ugh, you use metal, not wood..."

"Well, unless they lack the metal and have an abundance of wood. Or for the resonance." Ditzy supplies, sitting next to me.

I sigh "Yes, but if a piece breaks, you'd need to carve a new one and considering how wood expands and contracts, it was bound to warp and then rot. Gah, I'm going to have to give that filly her money back..."

Ditzy claps her hooves "How about you-"

"Time travel doesn't work that way." I say, already knowing her suggestion.

She furrows her brow at me "I was going to say you could tell her that and ask if she would want the gears and cogs replaced with metal. Why would you think I'd suggest time travel?"

"Well- I... most people I've known always jump to using time travel to solve things." I stutter out, blushing.

She shrugs "I don't think it would work here. So how did you get into this predicament anyway?"

"I was... actually, she just came up to me asked me if I was me, paid me, and left. It was peculiar seeing as how as far as I know, I'm new to Ponyville... unless she knew me from my future, her past. But she needed confirmation of my identity... hmm..."

"Hm, maybe you left a note of message to her in your future that told her where you were going to be and that's why. Or she maybe had no direct, personal contact with you and somepony else told her to take the clock to you."

"That's a very logical theory, but-"

Someone knocks on the door "Mr. Turner? Ah'm here!"

Ditzy walks over to the door "Apple Bloom? That's your clock?"

Apple Bloom Seriously, how do they come up with these names? It's getting ridiculous! walks into the house and gallops over to me "Sorry 'bout forgettin' to bring ya these."

She reaches into her saddlebags and pulls out a metal case "These were the pieces ya wanted right?"

I take the box and open it and inside were several brass gears and cogs "How did..."

"Well, ah wanted to catch 'ya early so ah left th' box at home." Apple Bloom replies, shuffling her hooves.

I swallow my next question and nod to her "Thank you Apple Bloom. I should be able to complete this soon."

She smiles and turns to leave, nodding to Ditzy on the way out.

Ditzy comes over and stares at the box "Uh... okay, I have no idea what the flaming hay is going on."

I nod and pick a rotten gear from the clock's innards "I'm not going to look a gift horse- uhhh..." I blush "Wh-what I meant was-"

Ditzy laughs "No offense taken Doctor. Though the appropriate equivalent is 'Gift monkey in the mouth'."

I roll my eyes "Monkey, yes, how clever..."

The sound of snapping wood splits the serene silence of nature in the outskirts of Ponyville, a multitude of slime-covered hooves and heads leak through a broken door that had materialized from nothing a moment before.

"Sun... Sunlight!!" one yells in its boggy groan, followed by a chorus of others.

Slowly, the mass of hooves, heads, and ichor leak from the remains of the door.

A door to Tartarus has been opened.

"Mate in one." Ditzy says and I scoff "Unlikely."

The repaired clock ticks in the background, and I move my knight to capture her last rook.

She grins "Mate." and moves her pawn forward, exchanging it for her rook.

"Whu- how did... Why do I keep losing? I've won every chess game before this for the past six hundred and twenty-three years!" I sputter out indignantly.

She shrugs "Again?"

"No... I need to sulk. I'm good at sulking."

The door slams open and both of us turn to see Lyra Heartstrings panting, her mane stained with black ooze. "Doctor... we have a problem!"

"I'll say! I've been trying to best Ditzy at chess and I keep losing!" I cock my head "Why on Earth is your mane covered in goo?"

She groans "Monsters. From Taratrus... come on!"

"So what happened?" I ask, galloping next to her.

"Apparently something from inside Tartarus broke one of the gates and whatever it is, it isn't stopping. I tried knocking them back with my magic but they just shrugged it off and one of them leapt and covered me with this tar-stuff. They're slow but I haven't the slightest clue as to what they might be."

I pull my sonic from my pocket and scan the tar "Well, it isn't entirely tar, it's a tar-like mucous of sorts, like the slime on slugs, except very thick and sticky."

Lyra rolls her eyes "So all I need to do is dump a ton of salt on them? Thanks a lot Turner."

"Hmm... We can't risk letting them run amok but we also don't know how to stop them or get them back through the gate. What do we know so far? They have a tar-mucous on their bodies, which makes them inherently slow and cold, so they must be endothermic in structure, right?"

I nod "A sound assumption."

"Tar, while sticky, is still a flammable, but the mucous-esque properties would make it very hard to ignite and even then, it would be a slow burning fire, as demonstrated by Lyra's magical blasts not working on them."

I nod "So what does that leave us with?"

"Freezing them, they probably slow down or stop when the ambient temperature drops too low and the tar coagulates and hardens." Ditzy says, grinning in triumph "All we need are some snow clouds or some unicorns who can cast ice magic."

"... And are there any in town?" I ask, slowing down.

"Unfortunately, most unicorns don't advance their magic past the minimum here in Ponyville. I'm a musician so I can only really do sound and light magic, I was never too talented at elemental magiks outside wind or earth." Lyra mutters dejectedly.

"Hmm... and getting snow or hail clouds would be difficult considering it's the middle of summer..."

"Don't you have some kind of machine that would work?" Lyra asks desperately.

"Possibly, but not here" Ditzy and I answer in unison.

We pause and run in opposite directions, leaving Lyra behind "Hey! Where are you guys going?!"

I stumble into The TARDIS and gallop towards the back rooms "I know that I have that old thing here somewhere..."

I grin and pull from a dusty box a silver and blue sphere "Zero degree flash grenade, now... all I need is an apparatus to harness it..."

Looting through the collected souvenirs, I come across a large hourglass "Odd... very odd... aha!" I grab a small rifle-like object and place the sphere into the chamber, sonicing it in place "Right... this should make a very good if touchy freeze ray... just don't drop it..."

I gallop out of the TARDIS, paying the hourglass no mind.

I arrive at Ditzy's house to find her and Lyra are both wearing welding suits "I... what are you two doing?"

Lyra removes her helmet "Ditzy's going to use her miniature fusion reactor's cooling systems to freeze the air around them, what's that?"

"Freeze rifle, it's a rifle that might freeze things solid, so long as I don't drop it, then it'll explode and freeze a square mile. Perfectly harmless."

Lyra rolls her yes "'Harmless', yeah, sure."

Ditzy produces a small bazooka-like thing and places it on Lyra's back "Okay, this should work, just pull the release lever with your magic, but it needs to recharge after each shot."

I nod to them and Lyra leads us to the tar-things.

This is just what I needed! I think to myself, having fun chasing down danger.

"You weren't kidding... that's a whole bog of tar-things."

Lyra nods "And we have to hope that your machines work and don't end up killing us or freezing us solid instead... business as usual."

Ditzy nods and pulls out her stun-blaster "Let's go!"

I line up a shot and before I can manage to fire, a loud explosion knocks me several feet into an abandoned stall "What the-"

"Sorry Turner!!" Lyra yells, the muzzle of her cannon emanating vapor.

Well, I wonder if she hit- oh that is cool! A whole wall of ice filled with frozen tar-things blocks the progress of the flowing mass.

I line up another shot and fire, a spiky pillar of ice erupts for a brief instant and it freezes three more "Okay, not like a sniper rifle, but buckshot... amazing!" I grin and Ditzy lands next to me and grins "Is this something that happens a lot when you're around Doctor?"

"Oh of course, what fun is there in travelling if you can't have some mortal danger or peril?"

"FIRING!" Lyra yells and another deafening pulse of air slams into me "Urgh... this is getting painful..."

Ditzy takes off and fires a few electric bolts at the beings, but even I can see that they do nothing "Ditzy! Stop wasting your ammo! It isn't even touching them!"

She frowns and reaches into her pocket, pulling out what looks like a compact and presses a button and it whirs to life Stand back! I saw this happen at the Equestria Games!"

"The what?!" I yell over the whirring.

"Stand back!" she repeats and I notice that it's becoming very humid and Lyra's cannon had stopped glowing "Uh... I think I know what she's talking about and... oh buck she's going to do it!"

I throw up my hooves "DO what?! What is she going to do!"

"That!!" Lyra points, grabbing me in her telekinesis.

In front of Ditzy is a large grey raincloud "Where did she-"

"That thing she has is a magical amplifier! It stores magic and amplifies it, she's using the magical equivalent of several dozen pegasi and if she has a frost arrow..."

As if hearing Lyra, Ditzy reaches into her other pocket and pulls out a silver case the size of a pencil box. Clicking it open, she removes a single blue crystal arrow "How exactly is that dangerous?"

"Watch..." Lyra says, her horn glowing to throw up a golden barrier.

Ditzy flies a few feet back and throws the arrow towards the cloud like a javelin. It pierces the cloud and for a split instant, nothing happens.

Then the cloud freezes solid.

It falls to the ground and I notice that all of Lyra's shots had created a circular wall of ice, and the ice-cloud was right above it.

Note to self, do not get Ditzy cross, she is scary.

With the sound of several glasses shattering, the ice-cloud turned the wall into a solid ice dome.

Lyra lowers the shield and trost over to Ditzy "Are you fried in the brain Derpy?! You could've frozen the whole town solid!!"

Ditzy flinches "But... I didn't, so it doesn't matter what might've happened, right?"

Lyra groans and rubs her forehead "That's... not the point. You could've... the end doesn't always justify the means..."

I shiver mostly from the cold and a little from fear "Well... I suppose that was an interesting plan... you froze the water particles within the cloud? That's... impressive."

Ditzy blushes "Anypony could've done it, I'm not that clever."

Lyra sighs "Now we have another problem, how are we supposed to get the tar-things back to Tartarus, the gates only open to the princesses or from the inside."

"Teleportation!" Ditzy suggests.

"No can do, Tartarus can't be teleported into or out of. Magical dead zone."

Ditzy grins wide "The TARDIS! It doesn't use magic and it can go anywhere in space!"

I look at the ice dome and then at Ditzy "I don't think that's possible. Even if The TARDIS's tractor beam worked for something like that, I don't know where this Tartarus place is."

Lyra smiles "But I do, just let me put in the coordinates and we should be gilded."

"'Golden'. We should be golden." I correct, sighing "Fine, Ditzy, you stay here... shouldn't take too long."

"LEFT! I said LEFT!!" Lyra yells, pressing buttons frantically "Why doesn't this dang thing work?!"

I sigh and nudge her out of the way "You need to be respectful. Observe." I press a number of buttons and The TARDIS screeches to a halt "Uh... I think I left the CAPS lock on... Go see how well the ropes are holding."

Lyra rolls her eyes and looks at the camera monitor "They're holding, and we're about two parsecs by expansion factor to the right of the gate, it'll widen to accept the ice and then we can just cut the ropes loose. Got that Doct- whoa!!" The TARDIS lurches to one side and I flip several switches "The old girl doesn't like that gate too much! Like it's an energy sink or something!"

The ice-block swings to one side and the ropes snap, dropping into the demolished gate "Nice work Doc!"

I swipe a bit of sweat from my brow "Yes... all according to plan..."

Ditzy flies up and into the TARDIS "I told Warden Mephisto what happened and he said that he had been busy fixing another gate that had been broken."

"What are the odds of two gates getting broken out of? Never heard of that before..." Lyra mutters to herself and I guide the TARDIS back to the warehouse, bone-tired.

I fall onto the couch, my body cold and sore "Urgh... how are you two not hurting?"

"I'm a Pegasus so I have a lot of stamina." Ditzy replies, folding her uniform.

"I do a lot of running and martial arts" Lyra says, levitating the two uniforms to a back room or something.

"That's fine and good, but I don't think my coat is working, I'm cold." I mutter, rubbing my hooves together.

"Me too... here." Ditzy pulls a fleece blanket from a chest next to the couch and throws it over herself and I, shifting to sit next to me.

"Thank- whoa!" I feel something feathery brush my back and Ditzy cocks her head "What? I'm just giving you a wing hug."

"Yes, well, I was surprised, I thought that some type of furry insect or something had hidden itself within the blanket."

She snorts "Nah, I'm just giving you a hug, and thanks for helping, you didn't need to."

I scoff "I like to help, helping is fun and that often leads to more adventures. Though how dexterous are your wings?"

Ditzy blushes "D-doctor! That's a very loaded question!"

I blush as well "I- I didn't mean it like that! I meant in terms of fine motor skills!"

Lyra walks past, a cup of what looks like soda in her hoof "... Don't mind me, I'm just passing through. Have fun~"

Both Ditzy and I sit in silence, too flustered to speak "S-so... Tartarus? I went to a planet called that a few centuries ago... I wonder if it's similar?"

Ditzy, happy to have the subject changed, shrugs "I don't know, I haven't been to either. Oh!" she jumps off the couch "Doctor! I was looking at my star maps for an anomaly I recorded a few weeks ago and I wanted your opinion on what it is!"

I shrug and drape the blanket over my back and follow her to her room, tuning out her excited chatter I haven't met someone so excited in space and mathematics since Adric... Adric... there's someone who I haven't thought about in a long time... what a brilliant mind and yet sought my approval the entire time we traveled... he was so brilliant! But Ditzy doesn't understand how intelligent she is, unlike how he was completely aware of his. Heh, I suppose you run into similar people if you travel enough. And Susan... why or how did I take her here?

Of course, the only other Timelord to escape from the time war and your own granddaughter would be memorable in your chaotic mind."

I rub my eyes "H-what are you talking about? I'm the last! I made it so that nothing could leave! Including the Dalek armadas!"

She smiles icily at me "Oh? Then how am I standing here, talking to you? Did you know... that this is my 3rd regeneration? I was trying to stop you from sealing Gallifrey when Rassilon shot me in the back with one of those Earth guns. I barely remember what happened between the moment I hit the floor, Lindos flooding my system when I felt you grabbing me by the arm, wearing an abhorrent... bowtie I believe they're called and a stupid Stetson. You said that you we're going to die and wanted to do right by me. I couldn't have cared less, I hadn't seen you in two centuries, but I still took your hand."

Rassilon... oho... that's clever, that's how they were able to resurrect him, they used his remains and... oh by Orion's helm... they stole Susan's remaining regenerations... and then sent him to the end of time, and gave me the fob watch to carry to him, since his memories were sealed and he was turned human... I never would've looked at the end of time, and definitely not for a specific human... Rassilon is a clever, clever manipulator... I chuckle and weep, marveling at how stupid I had been I left my only relative on a planet full of people who hated me... stupid, idiotic Doctor...

I feel someone wrap their arms around me and the smell of lilies and rain fill my senses "It's okay Doctor, whatever's made you sad, I'm sure you can fix it..." Ditzy whispers into my ear.

No... there's nothing I can do to help her... she can't regenerate and now... now she never wants to see me again... I think to myself and Ditzy tightens her grip on me "It'll be okay, I promise it'll work out Doctor."

"If only it could... I've made innumerable mistakes in my life Ditzy. Half the universe hated me and the other half was afraid." I mutter, mostly for my own benefit, and she sighs "We all make mistakes Doctor, the real point is to learn from and make up for them. If you need a while to think, I can wait to show you the map."

I shake my head "No, I'm... thank you, something occurred to me and I... lost my composure, nothing to worry about."

She nods and we walk up the stairs to her room, and I focus on her words, because they make me feel at peace for some reason... odd.

"These little blips right here." she says, pointing to a streak of light "... Triad solar system GG Tau A and its circumstellar disk. Very rare for such a system to not collapse in on itself into a binary or single sun system, but the planet itself is actually swampy with a thick nitrogen, helium, and oxygen rich atmosphere, like Saturn except without the size, solid, and no moons. Inhabited by a species of amphibious herbivores that look like a mix of a fish and a very thin frog, breathe through their skin and are very intelligent because of the dual radiations from the two closest suns that eclipse constantly, no two sunrises or sunsets are completely the same." I pause "I wonder how you could've seen this with a regular telescope though, it's about four hundred and fifty odd light years away..."

She claps her hooves excitedly "Oh Princess Luna will be so excited to know! She's been confused about it ever since I showed her the map!"

"Princess? A princess has interests in stars and Astronomy?"

"Considering that she founded the Observatory at the top of Mount Canterlot during her first year before she was banished; yes, she has quite a bit of interest in stars and Astronomy."

I grin "Well, let's go tell her the good news! Where might her mansion or whatever it is be?"

"Canterlot castle? we'd need to take a train there... and it leaves in twenty minutes and there won't be another until tomorrow at six in the morning. Hmm... Ack! I have work tomorrow!"

I shrug "So we go after you finish work?"

She taps her chin and smiles "Sounds like a plan, what'll you do 'til then?"

I shrug "Go to tomorrow at noon and meet up with you there. I'm impatient like that, never wait for time to pass like it does for everyone else, just skip the boring stuff and come in when it's not boring. see you tomorrow!"

She smiles and starts writing something down on her map.

... And think about how I can make everything up with my granddaughter. Something will come to me or I'll trip on it.

Author's Note:

Hey, I had to change who Minnuette was because it made more sense for her to have been Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter. And it makes since after the second regeneration they make no mention of her (That I've seen at least)

Next time, on Doctor Whooves: I won't run anymore...

"I don't like her..." I mutter to Ditzy, watching Princess Celestia trot away.

"I prefer Luna's company but... Celestia is pretty nice when she needs to be... it's just that there's apparently been somepony annoying-"

"GANGWAY!!!"

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