Allons-y!

by Sixes_And_Sevens

Oh My Giddy Aunt!

Her first husband’s journals were stacked neatly in a box, shoved up on the highest shelf of her closet. He had left very little else behind, apart from fond memories, a daughter, and a mangled watch. Exhaling slowly, she lifted one out. Her eyes flicked spasmodically over the pages of her dear Pocket Watch’s messy hoofwriting, over words like TARDIS, Time Lord, Gallifrey, over memories long buried by time and pain.

She didn’t realize how long she’d been staring at her old diaries until a voice from just behind her said “Ditzy?”

She gasped and spun around, only to see the Doctor, concern etched into his features. “Are you alright?”

Ditzy took a deep breath. “Doctor, my husband knew about Time Lords. He, he wrote about them. They were in his dreams, look…” She proffered a thick volume, open to a page describing great metal tanks of hatred.

The Doctor took the book and skimmed the pages. As he flipped through, his eyes went wider and wider. He set the book down heavily on the table, almost slamming it closed before stumbling backwards. He looked as though he’d been slapped. His face had gone slack and quite pale. “Doctor?” Ditzy asked worriedly, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. No need to worry, I’ll be fine,” he replied, a strained smile masking his true feelings. “What about you? Are you…”

He moved closer, a worried look on his face. “You okay?” he asked finally.

“I… yes. Yes. Like I said before, it’s been eight years. I’ve adjusted.” She smiled faintly. “Was there something you wanted?”

“I was…" He blinked, as though trying to remember why he had come to see her in the first place. "I was just going to ask if you wanted to come see my spaceship, the TARDIS.”

“Oh! Yes, please!” she said brightening. “I’ve never actually seen one before.”

The Doctor gave her a real smile this time. “Well then! Allons-y, Ditzy!”

He extended a hoof and helped her to her hooves. Once she was standing again, he lingered for a moment, his expression unreadable. When he became cognizant of her stare, he quickly dropped her hoof. "C'mon! The others will all be wondering what's keeping us!"

***

Outside, as the Doctor fumbled with the TARDIS key, Spike spoke up, “I still can’t believe that your people called themselves ‘Time Lords’. I mean, it’s kind of, y'know, overblown, isn’t it?”

The Doctor paused in his efforts and glanced up. “My people had a near-infinite capacity for pretention,” he replied, voice heavy.

“Ya don’t say.” Rainbow snarked.

Applejack gave her a forceful nudge. “Play nice,” she said flatly. “He’s already apologized for scarin’ Thunderlane.”

Rainbow softened almost immediately and nodded, glancing away from the farmer.

“Pardon me, Doctor,” Rarity asked, trotting in circuits around the dirt-covered box, frowning, “but how exactly do you intend for all of us to fit in there? It seems rather… cramped.”

The Doctor merely turned and waggled his eyebrows, gesturing the mares inside. Ditzy was the first to step forward. The door swung open as she stuck her head into the box and gasped. She glanced back at the outside. In. Out. In. Out. “It’s… it’s…” the Doctor grinned and whispered the words as she said them. “It's bigger on the inside!” Ditzy finished, a massive smile on her face.

The crowd filed in slowly, staring in awe at the impossible size of the ship. The Doctor frowned. “Huh. The crash must have damaged her more than I had thought. She’s redecorated.”

“I like it!” Pinkie chirped, bouncing over the catwalk onto the central platform.

The room had changed from it’s moodier coral style to a much more friendly and colorful design. Light reflected pleasantly across the floor, which was tiled in tessellating hexagons, violet, red, and golden. The walls had turned to a homey wooden brown, studded regularly with fisheye lanterns in wire cages, which lit the room admirably. Wooden stairs led down to the level below the raised dais where the central console stood, and metal walkways radiated out to sliding metal doors set into the walls.

At the center of it all sat the central console itself, which seemed to have been constructed from dark stained oak, with edges of hammered brass. The time rotor looked rather akin to a Tesla coil in a glass tube, and the monitors and instruments had become rounded and larger, so as to be more easily operated by hooves. “Color-coordinated panels,” the Doctor noted. “Nice touch.”

“What’s down all of these halls, Doctor?” Spike asked, peering down a corridor full of doors labeled with various icons.

“Oh, those should just old bedrooms," the Doctor replied, not looking up from the console. "The pictures symbolize their owners— rather like cutie marks, really.”

“Hey, look at this one!” Spike said in surprise. “It looks exactly like Ditzy’s mark.”

“What?”

The pegasus in question flapped over to where Spike was pointing. “Wow. That’s… kinda weird, actually.”

“What d’ya reckon is inside?” Applejack mused.

Ditzy reached out a hoof, as if in a trance. The door loomed up, huge and disconcerting. She touched the knob… and it rattled. “Aw, nuts,” she said, equal parts disappointed and relieved. “It’s locked.”

The Doctor blinked and started breathing again. He hadn’t even noticed that he’d stopped. “Miss Rarity,” he said hastily, “You’re a... fashion designer, you said? I think the wardrobe room might interest you—”

He was cut off by a gasp so powerful he swore it ruffled his mane. “An entire room? Just for clothes? Alien clothes?” Rarity’s eyes shone disturbingly.

“Er, yes. I’ve got clothes from all over space and time, and—”

"A whole room filled with inspiration!" Rarity cried. She grabbed the Doctor by the shoulders and pressed her face right up against his. "Where is it?"

“A-ah, um, downstairs, corridor to the right of the portrait of my granddaughter.”

The unicorn sprinted off, yelling something incoherent about her spring line.

The Doctor straightened his tie, rather embarrassed. “Er-hem. Would someone please go after her? Just to try and keep her from-- well, just to make sure that she doesn’t get into locker six.”

Spike sighed, nodded and hurried off after his marefriend. “Why? What’s so terrible about locker six?” Twilight asked.

The Doctor considered that for a long moment. “Discord’s returned by now, right? Been reformed and that?” Everypony nodded. “Right. Imagine if they designed clothes for a living, and you’ll have an idea of what locker six looks like.”

There was a moment of contemplation, and almost everypony shuddered. Fluttershy looked oddly contemplative, and Pinkie was grinning broadly. “Yeeeahhh… well, if anypony’s hungry, the kitchen is right upstairs—” he was cut off by a pink blur whizzing up the steps.

The Doctor turned to the rest of them. "Anything in particular any of you'd like to see?" he asked.

"Er..." Fluttershy murmured, tracing the floor with a hoof. "Maybe I'll just go look at clothes with Rarity. Um, would you mind if I were to borrow something for a friend of mine?"

"Oh, go right ahead," the Doctor replied, waving a hoof. "Menti Celesti know I've got enough clothes as it is."

"Oh, thank you!" Fluttershy said, fluttering downstairs. Applejack gave her a funny look as she went, but said no more.

Twilight hummed. "If you've got all those clothes from different worlds," she said, "what other big collections have you got?"

"Well, let's see. I used to have a garden. Been awhile since I looked in on it, so it might be a bit overgrown. There's probably enough trinkets and trash and relics to fill a number of museums. Oh yes, and the library is down th—”

Twilight didn't even wait for him to finish. She just took off at top speed. The Doctor was impressed. He considered himself something of an old pro at running, and that kind of start was very tricky to pull off. Rainbow watched her go, contemplative. “Got any Daring Do books?” she asked casually.

“Signed by the author.”

“SWEET!” A polychromatic blur raced after Twilight, leaving the Doctor alone with Ditzy and Applejack.

Comments

[link4]

so... doctor knows who ditzy is now. if the journals were anything to go by. how long till eithe rof them acknowledge this little tid bit?

[Sixes_And_Sevens]

9186983
Not until she realizes it.

[link4]

9187039
fair enough... but you know how oblivious ponies are with the obvious

[Sixes_And_Sevens]

9187057
The Doctor is pretty oblivious too, let's not forget. He just knows that Ditzy married a Time Lord. He doesn't know which one.

Yet.

[link4]

9187103
that, and we already know regenerations muddy the mind a little.