Fall of the Doctor

by Sixes_And_Sevens

The Wild Blue Yonder

Flashes of light turned night into day as the Agamemnon spaceship burned through the night sky, another casualty in the great war. Commander Gunderson Roses, leader of the Gaean Armada, looked grimly at the wreckage of the enemy craft. He did not revel in death. It was a necessary evil, one which he had experienced far too much of.

Fourteen-year-old Button Mash, however, let out a whoop of joy. “HAH! Take that! And that! Eat hot plasma, space squid!” Letting his controller fall to one side, he stood up on his hind hooves, waving his forelegs in the air and wobbling around like a baby giraffe.

“Uh-huh. Go, Button. Woo-hoo,” his friend Rumble said flatly as he sprawled atop Button’s bedspread. “Fillies and gentlecolts, the hero of millions, savior of the planet, a teenage colt who still wears a propeller beanie.”

“Hey!” Button said, putting a hoof to his hat protectively. “It’s still fashionable.”

Rumble didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Button grumbled, “You’re just jealous ‘cause I crushed you at Uus Buckball.”

“Play me in the real world and see how well you do,” Rumble retorted. “You can’t just play video games forever, Button.”

"Well, duh," Button said, hopping on the bed next to his friend. "Of course I know that. But I'm good at video games, so I'll keep doing them alongside getting a job and all that stuff."

Rumble looked at him steadily. "If you put half as much effort into anything as you put into video games--"

He was cut off when a female voice came from down the hall. “Boys! Your friends are here!”

“Thanks, Mom!” Button yelled. “We’ll be right there!” He turned back to his friend. “Today’s the day! Aren’t you excited?”

"Oh, yeah," Rumble said.

Button stared as though his friend had somehow grown a second head. “We’re going flying! With the Doctor? Remember?”

"Of course I do."

"And you don't think that's even a little exciting?"

Rumble locked eyes with Button. Slowly, he extended his wings. "No. Not really."

Button facehooved. “Come on,” he sighed, hopping off the bed, Rumble close behind. “Let’s go and have a nice, quiet, picnic in the air.”

The pegasus and the earth pony trotted out the door. Button’s mother, Tender Care, smiled as they went. It was nice to see her little colt out playing with his friends. Their lives had been badly shaken some years ago before their move to Ponyville. It made her proud to know that Button was as cheerful and well-balanced as ever. Besides, it meant she had the house all to herself. She allowed herself a little grin as she walked into her son’s room, setting down the cheese sandwich and carrot sticks she had made herself down on the bed as she sat herself on the floor in front of Button’s gaming system.

“Here’s Commander Plumbus Dirigible, leader of the Gaean Armada, as she faces off against the despicable Agamemnoid Fleet…” she whispered.

***

Ponyville, Spring of 5 BAT: “Ready for takeoff?” the Doctor asked, grinning broadly at his passengers.

“This is going to be SO COOL,” Scootaloo enthused.

“Ah can’t wait t’ see what it’s like t’ fly,” Apple Bloom agreed.

“Ready when you are,” Dinky said.

The Doctor grinned a Cheshire cat smile, his eyes wide and cheerful, like Pinkie Pie on a sugar high. “Are you sure this is safe?” Sweetie Belle whispered to her friend.

“Probably,” Dinky whispered back.

Rumble raised a hoof. “Can we buzz the Weather Factory?” he asked, grinning.

The Doctor considered. “I don’t see why not,” he replied, a mischievous smirk on his own face.

Ditzy smacked him in the side with a wing. “Then again, perhaps that would be better for another day,” the Doctor corrected hastily. “Or not at all.”

“What about you, Button?” Ditzy asked, looking toward the last member of the Crusaders.

“...Huh?” the brown colt replied, glancing over from where he stood by the console.

“Are you ready to ride in the TARDIS?” the Doctor asked.

“Yep!” he responded, looking back at the console. "So how does this thing work?"

The Doctor's smile grew. "How 'bout I show you?" he asked, gently pushing the colt to one side. "This here is the altitude control." He waved at an orange slider. "Over there you have the manual steering control, here the flight controls, the booster switch, the door switch. And over there, we have what looks to be a chair with a panda on it."

He paused and scratched his chin. "I always wondered where that had got to," he mused. "Anyway. The old girl's just poetry in motion. So why don't we get her in gear, eh?"

He pulled a couple of levers, and they took off with a jolt, the whole ship lifting off the ground and half the passengers falling over themselves. Sweetie Belle picked herself up off the floor. “Probably safe, my hoof,” she grumbled.

The Doctor pulled up hard on a lever while frantically turning a wheel. “There,” he breathed. “That should hold it.”

He pushed a metal clasp over the wheel to keep it steady, and backed away from the console. “Shall we?” he asked, gesturing to the doors.

“...Is that safe?” Apple Bloom asked, mildly dubious.

“Of course.”

Sweetie Belle moved toward the far wall of the room.The Doctor flipped a switch and the main doors hummed open. Scootaloo dashed toward the open air, only to find her tail snagged in Rumble’s teeth. He gave her a flat look. “Let’s not have anyone falling to their death today, yeah?” he sassed.

“I’m not going to fall out,” she protested, but slowed to a walk, nevertheless.

Apple Bloom gasped in equal parts fear and wonder as she gazed over the edge of the TARDIS’s threshold. “Whoo, Nellie! So this is what bein’ a pegasus feels like!”

“It’s even better than that,” Ditzy said. “You don’t have to do much to get the TARDIS airborne, or to keep her there. It’s not like all the wing flapping you’d normally have to do to keep the wind from blowing you sideways.”

“Well, it’s certainly beautiful,” the Doctor said, smiling out at the fluffy clouds and distant horizon.

"So what does this wheel do?"

Everyone turned around. Button was still at the helm of the console, fascinated by the vast array of dials and switches.

The Doctor coughed delicately. “Well, that's the altitude lock, useful for when we want to stay still in the air. Like we are now. Button, would you like to come look outside with us?” he asked.

Button turned around. “Oh. Yeah, definitely.”

He hurried to the door. Everyone else shuffled aside to give him a little room. "Wow. From up here, Canterlot looks like some kind of little dollhouse!"

After letting them drink it all in for a few more minutes, the Doctor ushered them all back from the door. "Well, gang, where shall we go first? We're trying to stay on-planet and in the present today, but I don't think a quick hop to the moon would be out of the question for lunch."

"We can't eat lunch on the moon," Sweetie pointed out. "There's no restaurants."

"Or atmosphere," Dinky added.

"Mm. I guess it is a bit dull before the colonies got there in--" he caught himself. "Well, never mind that now. Alright, maybe Whindia? Saddle Arabia? Lawndon? Marecelona?"

An awkward silence filled the room. "Well," Apple Bloom said. "Thing is, Doc, we ain't really here t' go anywhere in particular."

"No?"

"We kinda jus' wanted to see how th' TARDIS worked, so we could maybe get cutie marks for flyin' it."

“Of course," the Doctor said. "That explains a good bit." He glanced at Button, who was trying to decipher the time scanner. "First of all, nopony here gets to fly the TARDIS but me. If you're very good, I'll let you pull some levers, but given what happened last time you were all loose in here, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon."

Murmurs of reluctant agreement were the sole reply he got, but the Doctor smiled nonetheless. "Well, if nopony has any particular destination in mind--"

"I didn't say that," Scootaloo interrupted.

***

The TARDIS was carefully piloted up to Rainbow Dash's napping cloud. The sleeping pegasus didn’t even roll over when the box bumped into her cloud. “She’s out cold,” the Doctor said.

“Well, it must be a big job, being the local head of weather,” Ditzy said charitably.

“So, what’re we doin’ Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked.

“You aren’t trying to steal her mane hairs again, are you?” Rumble said.

“No! I’m over that sort of thing,” Scootaloo replied, slightly annoyed that Rumble had guessed her plan so quickly.

“So, what’s the plan, then?” Button asked.

Dinky rolled her eyes. “Really, Scoots? What, did you just want to watch her sleep?”

“...That actually sounds really creepy when you put it like that,” Scootaloo said.

Sweetie Belle leaned in conspiratorially. “I have an idea.”

“What’s that?” Apple Bloom asked.

The unicorn’s face lit up. “Why don’t we wake her up and surprise her?” she whispered.

She was met with several blank stares. “Actually,” said Scootaloo, “that's not a bad idea…”

***

“Hey, Dash!”

“Grrnnxx. Go ‘way.”

“Aw, come on, Dash! Wake up!”

“Ugh.” Rainbow cracked open one eye. “You’re lucky you’re awesome, kid. What’s up?”

Scootaloo beamed. “ME!” she crowed.

“Wha-” Dash glanced around. They were both still on her napping cloud. She broke into a grin. “You-- you can fly? Scoots, that’s amazing! I’m so proud! I mean, really-- Hey, what’s so funny?”

“Gotcha,” the young mare giggled.

“Huh?”

Scootaloo pointed directly behind her idol. Rainbow turned to see a hovering blue box, with all the Crusaders inside, giggling and waving. Her face went slack with shock. Then it contorted through confusion, recognition, and sorrow before finally settling on pride. “Huh. Okay, that’s pretty neat,” she laughed. “Alright, you guys got me.”

She yawned. “Now, much as I love a good prank, lemme go back to sleep, please. I really need some shuteye. The weather’s been acting up all morning, and I’m beat.”

Ditzy frowned. “What do you mean, ‘acting up’?”

Dash shrugged. “The clouds have been harder to corral than usual. Not really a big deal, I guess. I still got it all cleared, but they were a lot colder and icier than they usually are this time of year.”

“Huh. Well, I hope the rest of your day goes nicely,” Ditzy replied, an infectious smile on her face.

“Yeah, I’ll try. Thanks, Ditz,” Dash said. “Oh, lemme give you a wing up, Squirt,” she added, helping Scootaloo scramble back into the TARDIS, a task which was hindered by the fact that the filly was using her left wing to hide a bagful of hairs she had stealthily clipped from her idol’s tail.

“See you later, Rainbow,” the Doctor said with a nod.

“Back ‘atcha, Doc,” the pegasus replied, before yawning and settling down to go back to sleep.

***

“Well, that was fun,” the Doctor said. “Where shall we go-”

"Should this light be blinking?"

The Doctor whipped around. Button stood at the console, reaching for a little flashing red light. Right in the path of his hoof, a switch sat, just begging to be knocked over. The noise that came out of the Doctor's mouth was an indescribable, jumbled-up scream, lecture, and calculation rolled into a single moment. He lunged for the console and plucked Button away.

"Right," he said, setting the colt down and glancing about the room. "New rule. Nopony touches any of the equipment without my express permission. None of it. The TARDIS is a clever old thing, but she's also a bit sensitive. It took me thirty years of school to learn how to fly her--"

"And you're still a little bumpy."

"Yes, thank you Ditzy." The Doctor looked at Button again and his voice softened. "I understand your curiosity, Button. I admire it. But as fun as it is to learn new things, doing that fifty feet off the ground isn't exactly the best plan."

"Yessir. Sorry," Button said, looking at his hooves.

"None of that, now," the Doctor admonished. "Come over sometime this weekend if you like, and I'll show you all the tricks of the trade." He smiled encouragingly.

Button smiled back until the Doctor turned away.

The light on the console was no longer flashing.

Comments

[Coyote de La Mancha]

I love how the TARDIS herself is acknowledged as a character in this, however quietly... and not just by the Doctor.

[SunflowerSwirl]

Rumble didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Button grumbled, “You’re just jealous ‘cause I crushed you at Uus Buckball.”

Would 'I crushed you in UUS Buckball.' work better? What is it based on, by the way?

[Sixes_And_Sevens]

9652725
It's meant to be a pun on Wii.
(We -> Wii, us -> Uus)