Universes Apart

by Shotoman

Chapter 4

"So then, Sunset Shimmer joins in and starts singing too, right? And she changes too! And her color gets added to the rainbow, like, I dunno, a splash of sunlight or something. And the rainbow, it then turns into this... this unicorn with wings."

"Alicorn."

"Huh?"

"Unicorns with wings? They're called alicorns."

"Oh, so anyway..."

A few paces ahead, the Doctor chuckled, any lingering bad mood from Shimmer's co-opting this trip vanishing. Part of it was the actually rather fascinating story--he had been reasonably certain he knew all the big Twilight Sparkle stories, so hearing a new one was a pleasant surprise--but also, well, Derpy in stereo was surprisingly entertaining.

As the other Derpy was finishing up on the story of how the Sirens were defeated, the Doctor could just imagine the way his Derpy's eyes brightened. She loved a good Twilight Sparkle story, especially now that he let her in on the Princess Twilight Sparkle stories. Boy was that a difficult spoiler to keep quiet about. Worth it though, to see his Derpy genuinely surprised at something that happened in her lifetime in her back yard. "Wow," she said. "I guess that makes you a hero, Sunset."

Sunset's face flushed almost as red as her hair. The Doctor pretended not to notice. "Look, Derpy. I'm not a hero. Like, at all. Derpy... that is... Gha... She's not telling you everything. Not by a long shot."

The Derpys shared a glance before the Doctor's Derpy turned back to Sunset with a bit of a smirk. "Lemme guess? You used to be a big, mean, scary super villain, grrr, before Twilight Sparkle and her friends defeated you and made you their friend, and now you're a good girl just trying to make up for past mistakes."

Sunset Shimmer's jaw dropped. "How on Earth did you...?"

Derpy interrupted her with with a giggle. "Because that's just something that Twilight Sparkle does. The names, places, and plots are different, but the same story sorta kinda happens to her an average of one and a half times a year."

"For a timespan of decades," the Doctor interjected. "That filly was named Princess of Friendship for a reason."

Derpy was suddenly at Shimmer's side, an arm draped around her shoulder. "As somepony who personally knows quite a few of these past and future former baddies, lemme just say something, okay? What you used to be doesn't really matter. If you're a hero now, you're a hero, period."

Sunset sighed, but there was a small smile on her face. "If you say so."

Derpy sighed dramatically as she turned back to her counterpart. "Why are they always like that? Every hero I've ever met is always all like 'no I'm not a hero really I'm not,' blah, blah blah." At the Doctor's brief bark of a laugh, she turned to him in mock anger. "And you're the worst of the bunch!"

"Well, of course I am, and I have a legitimately, honestly, really very good reason." The Doctor's grin widened when Derpy said the next line right along with him. "I'm not a hero." The Doctor removed his hands from his pockets as he pointed a semi-accusing finger at his companion. "And what about you, eh? You're far more heroic than I could ever hope to be."

"Well, sure," Derpy agreed immediately. "But I'm more of a sidekick." She winked at Sunset, who couldn't help but laugh. "Twilight Sparkle's pretty bad, too. Every time you bring up one of the many, many times she's saved Equestria, she's bound to bring up that time the parasprites destroyed the town--which actually wasn't her fault, really--or the 'Want it Need it' thing--which, okay, yeah that one was kinda her fault, but you can't really blame her. She was, what, a week out from her first Discord battle. That kinda stuff does something to ya."

"'Discord?'" Sunset said, a brief look of confusion crossing her face. "As in, the concept of disharmony?"

"Heh. Something like that," Derpy laughed as she and Sunset exited out the double doors that would lead them to the soccer pitch, where the girls were apparently waiting for them.

The Doctor chuckled as he began to follow, but stopped when he noticed someone not joining him. "Well, come along, Other Derpy," he said to the hesitating teen.

The local Derpy's expression shifted from uncertain to a wonderfully familiar smirk of amusement. "Is that really what you're gonna call me?" She rolled her eyes as his grin got cheeky, then got uncertain again. "Do you really need me? I mean, you already got eep!" She started when the Doctor unexpectedly draped an arm over her shoulders.

"And she chose to let you get involved, despite the many, many lectures I've given her in the past about involving doubles in such things--not that I'm one to talk--and I trust her judgement."

"But we just sorta... ran into each other. By accident."

The Doctor loosed that one brief HA! that "Other" Derpy was beginning to notice he did rather often, before looking rather fondly at her. "My Derpy is really very smart, like I suspect you are. She could have found a way to get away from you or scare you off if she wanted. But she didn't. And I've learned the hard way--the remarkably, incredibly hard way--to trust her judgement. And what is this all of a sudden? You were quite gung-ho about this whole adventure a minute ago."

Other Derpy gave a sort of half-hearted shrug, her face getting a little pink due to the continued contact. "Yeah, but then I saw her and Sunset. I mean, I'm not... I can't... I mean, I'm all cross eyed, clumsy and different, and she's..."

"Equally cross eyed, clumsy, and different." The Doctor finally, mercifully removed his arm from around Derpy, and chuckled. "Yes, she is really quite confident, isn't she? Thing is, she wasn't so much when I met her, and she still does better with ponies outside her town and time zone than she does with the locals. The only difference between her and you is a decade or so of timey wimey travel. Now, are you coming along or not? Not to press, but we've got a bit of a timetable."

Other Derpy gave a rueful smirk. "Well, then, lay on, Macduff."

The Doctor was laughing again as he led Other Derpy out the door. No matter the 'verse, no matter the species, she was most definitely still his bubbly, brilliant, deceptively well-read Derpy.

Moments later, the two caught up with Derpy and Sunset, who were now in the middle of the school soccer field with a new group of girls. "What kept you?" his Derpy whispered when they caught up.

"You did," he whispered back with a smirk.

"Omigosh, Sunny you were right, there are two of 'em!" the unmistakable Pinkie Pie squealed when she caught sight of Other Derpy, who gave a small grin at the attention. "So you're the Doctor, huh? So'zzat mean you travel around in a bigger-on-the inside blue box thingie forwards backwards and all around through time and the Derpy of your world is your ever faithful companion who gets kidnapped a lot but keeps you grounded and motivated to save the day and all that?"

The Doctor, who it bears reminding was normally very articulate and verbose, could only say, "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh." His Derpy punched him in the arm, and he instantly returned to his usual self. "Yes, Pinkie. That's me," The bubbly pink girl gave a little squee of joy at being proven right, and the Doctor gave the other girls a quick sweep.

Rarity was admiring him with that look girls sometimes gave him these days, though she was trying to be coy about it. Applejack seemed unimpressed, and Fluttershy seemed to be somehow trying to hide her face behind her pretty pink hair, all expected reactions. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash seemed to be staring at him, despite her best efforts not to. It was almost like what he knew of her early meetings with the Wonderbolts, or Daring Do (though to be fair, even the Doctor was pleasantly surprised to learn she wasn't fiction). There was definite recognition there, and though he was honestly not over surprised about Pinkie Pie knowing exactly who he was at first sight (not the first time, after all), this was a little strange.

"Y'mind tellin' us what this's all about?" Applejack asked. No nonsense like usual.

"Right, yes, certainly. 'This' is all about an inter-dimensional pest that we may have accidentally chased through Princess Twilight's portal thing. Long story short, bad things may happen if we don't find it and flush it out, though it's not itself malicious in nature. Think of it as an extra-dimensional rat. Now let's see here..." The Doctor suddenly sat down right in the middle of the grass, cross-legged, and began emptying out his pockets, to the surprised stare of seven of the eight girls surrounding him as the pile of miscellaneous junk and gadgets continued to grow. "Hmmm... looks like I have enough spare parts and tools here to make... three tracking devices to distribute out, and I should be able to add a little sonic to them to help herd the little thing if necessary. With my own sonic added to the mix," and here he withdrew said tool from his jacket and began getting to work, "that will allow us to split up into four groups. Perfect for casing a building the size of your school." He cast an enthusiastic smile at Sunset. "I suppose calling 'the girls' was the right play, after all."

"Told you."

"No comic downloaders this time," his Derpy reprimanded. "Or music players. And please try not to have it cook anything it's not supposed to this time..."

"Yes, mum," the Doctor muttered, his mind not exactly on his work. Rainbow Dash was not the first person to recognize him who shouldn't have. The Doctor was certain he saw some form of recognition in a couple of students at the class earlier. And come to think of it, cross-dimensional species change notwithstanding, was the Doctor wearing his current face last he saw Sunset? Something odd was going on here, and it had nothing to do with extra-dimensional pests, dimensional doubles, or suddenly solved unsolved mysteries.

He and Sunset Shimmer were due a little talk.

Comments

[ArtieStroke]

Things are starting to heat up- with all this background mystery I'm excited about the Doc and Sunset's future "chat"!

[Nightflight406]

Thank you Derpy! Always the same story. That's why I like Sombra. A villain who never will reform. Even if he does rebuild (reform) himself.