For Want of a Horseshoe Nail

by Sixes_And_Sevens

Convergence

The Monk rubbed his hooves with wicked glee upon seeing the pair of Apples entering the station. Right on time. Perfect. Now he simply had to ensure that they fell into his trap, and history would tilt off kilter! The world would be changed, and the unexpected would—

“Grandpa?”

The Monk’s train of thought was promptly derailed. He turned to see a young yellow mare staring at him with a mixture of love and concern. “Grandpa, oh thank Celestia!”

She flung her hooves around him with surprising abandon— particularly surprising given that the Time Lord had never met her in his life. He pushed back. “Get off of me! Off!”

The filly stumbled backward, an expression of hurt shock on her face. “Oh, Grandpa, don’cha remember me? They tol’ me you’d gotten bad, but Ah didn’t… Ah couldn’t…”

The Monk was utterly nonplussed. “Young lady, I am not your grandfather. Furthermore, I am not senile. My mind is as sharp as it ever was!”

“Now, Mr. Matinides, you know that isn’t true,” a gentle male voice chided. The Monk spun around to see a charcoal pegasus smiling down at him. “I think it’s about time we got you back home, don’t you?”

“What in the world—” the Monk sputtered. “Are you implying that I am some kind of invalid?”

“Of course not, Mr. Matinides,” the stallion soothed. “But Miss Bloom and the rest of your family are terribly worried about you. Wouldn’t it be nice to get back to them?”

The Monk frowned. What was happening? Who were these peop— ponies?

“Nurse Lyra? Dr. Raggedy? We’ve found him!” the charcoal stallion called. From the crowd, a minty green unicorn mare and a tropical blue pegasus stallion glanced around. The unicorn looked vaguely perplexed, but the pegasus grinned gappily.

“Well, well, well, how are we then?” the pegasus plummily, trotting over to the increasingly befuddled red stallion.

The charcoal pegasus’s smile slipped and he pulled the apparent doctor into a whispered conference. When the two pulled apart, the doctor’s smile was undimmed. “Oh, come on now, Mr. Matinides,” he wheedled. “It’s custard day back in the cafetorium. Or do I mean cafeteria? I’ll let you have fish fingers as well if you don’t make a fuss.”

By this point, the eyes of the entire station were upon them. Mortimus glanced around and swallowed nervously. “Oh… alright,” he said irritably. “But can’t we stay just a few moments more? I want to watch the train leave…”

“I don’t see any problem with that, do you, Nurse Thunderlane?”

“No, indeed, Doctor Raggedy, I don’t see any problem with that at all. Nurse Lyra, have you any objections?”

“I shouldn’t think so, Nurse Thunderlane. And you, Miss Bloom, have you any objections about letting your grandfather watch the train?”

“No ma’am, Nurse Lyra,” the young mare said with a shake of her head. A smirk slipped over her face. “In fact, mebbe he’d like a ride on it…”

The Monk went white. “No, no, no,” he said hastily. “That won’t be necessary.”

“I have some reservations to that, Miss Bloom. Don’t you have a few reservations, Dr. Raggedy?”

“Oh, most certainly, Nurse Lyra. Have you any reservations, Nurse Thunderlane?”

“Oh, definitely, Dr. Raggedy.”

The Monk fumed silently. Had his moment of glory really been interrupted by this crass recreation of Are You Being Served?

Well. At least those two earth ponies were on a direct course for his nail trap. The pair of pegasi were already arguing with the ticketmaster. He would get his amusement soon enough.

Yet, even as he watched, another pegasus, wheeling a large suitcase, moved to block the path that the Apples would have taken. “Oh, excuse me,” she said with a small smile.

Bright Mac smiled. “Quite alright, ma’am. ‘Scuse us—”

The Monk watched with barely contained horror as the duo sidestepped the rotten wood that he had carefully cultivated. In the next instant, a rock fell down on the trap instead, smashing through the wood. “Oops,” a grey earth pony said flatly.

“No,” the Monk breathed. “No… NO!”

He had been discovered. He didn’t know how, or why, but he knew it as surely as apples were apples, and as surely as he knew who was behind it. He turned around. “Doctor,” he snarled. “Back to thwart me once more? Even here, can I not escape you?”

The Doctor’s smile faded. “It’s over, Mortimus,” he said softly. “Come quietly, and it’ll go easy for you.”

The red earth pony sighed, dropping his head. Then, with a vicious strike forwards, he butted the Doctor in the chest and ran like the wind. “Catch him!” Thunderlane yelled.

Maple and Maud started after the elderly villain, but Bloom stayed stock still. Quietly, she watched her parents collect themselves once more.

Thunderlane struggled to get off the ground, but in these crowded conditions it was virtually impossible. “He’ll be trying for his TARDIS!” he yelled.

“Then why,” Lyra gasped, “Is he heading for ours?”

“I guess we parked closer to him than we supposed,” the Doctor said, eyes squinted tight.

Zecora, with Spike upon her back, glanced around for the most likely TARDIS in sight. “There!” Spike pointed. “The photo booth!”

The zebra and dragon leapt in front of the curtained booth, but the Monk neatly sidestepped them. “Hard luck,” he chuckled. “Try again next time…” He dove toward the rack of postcards. Just for a second, it opened out to form a doorway, and then the portal, much like the Monk himself, was gone. The rack faded gently in and out of existence before disappearing entirely.

The Elements stared. So did the rest of the station. Spike quickly glanced around and gave his most charming smile. “Thank you very much, ladies and gentlecolts, for attending this rehearsal of the Ponyville Players’ latest performance! Get your tickets now, before they’re sold out! We are accepting donations…”

Quickly, the rest of the station returned to going about its business. Spike smirked. Equine nature.

***

Hurriedly, Buttercup picked up her luggage. “Come on, Brightie. We’d best get gone.”

“Uh,” Bloom said. “‘Scuse me.”

Bright Mac glanced back. Bloom swallowed. “Sorry ‘bout th’ trouble. Jes’ wanted to wish you safe travels.”

The yellow stallion broke into a grin. “Why thank you kindly, young lady. Y’know something, you look just like my daughter. Ah hope she turns out jes’ as nice as you.”

Buttercup glanced back, and just for a moment, her eyes went wide. Then, her normal smile won out. “C’mon. Train’s fillin’ up,” she said. “You keep well, young lady. An’ congratulations.”

Bloom could hardly speak for the lump in her throat, but she nodded. “Yes’m. Ah will. Ah surely will.”

She didn’t move from her spot as she watched her parents board the train. She didn't move as the Elements gathered around her, then one by one, returned to the TARDIS. She didn’t move until long after the last puff of smoke off the train had disappeared into the air.

A figure sat down next to her. “Hey,” said Maple.

Bloom said nothing. Maple nodded. “Don’t wanna talk, huh? I get it. Do you want me to stop talking, too?”

Bloom hesitated, then shook her head. Maple nodded again. “I lost my parents when I was young, too,” she said. “It’s not something I really like to talk about.”

“Ah can imagine.”

Maple breathed out. “I don’t say that I can understand what you must be going through.”

“Mm?”

“But I wasn’t as young as you were. I had memories of when they were there, and when they were gone… It was like somepony had plunged a knife into my stomach.”

“An’ now Ah got a couple memories m’self.”

“Hurts, doesn’t it.”

“Like crazy.”

The cream pegasus nodded. “What I’m saying is… you can talk to me. At least, you can talk to me until your timestream reasserts itself, which is going to be in maybe ten minutes. So, if you need to talk…”

“That hoof-holdin’ thing still on th’ table?”

Maple smiled sadly and took the yellow filly’s hoof in hers. Together, they stared out at the setting sun over the tracks.

***

“Three minutes,” Maple said quietly. Bloom relinquished her hold on the pegasus’s hoof.

“Back ta th’ TARDIS?”

“Yeah, probably.”

They walked back past the photo booth and the place where the rack of postcards had been, entering the big blue doors of the time-travelling box. The others lounged around the console room, patiently waiting for the last pair of stragglers. Thunderlane looked up. “Cutting it close, aren’t you? We’ve only got…” he glanced at the Doctor.

“One minute, twenty-one seconds,” the Time Lord replied from his chair.

“Yeah, that,” the pegasus agreed. “So, when the universe restarts… Flitter and I will be back together?”

“Ya weren’t never apart, far as Ah know,” Bloom replied.

The dark horse smiled. “Well, that’s a weight off,” he said. Then, he peered a little closer at the mare. “Oh, hey, congrats.”

Bloom frowned. “What am Ah bein’ congratulated for? Ma said just the same thing afore…” she trailed off.

“Check your flank,” Maud said.

Bloom blinked. No. Surely not. Slowly, she turned her head around to look at her flanks, now adorned with a hammer and nail on each side, Her jaw dropped. Tears began to well up in her eyes, and she clapped her mouth closed, her lip quivering. The TARDIS began to dissolve around her, and she wasn’t sure if it was just her eyes or if the timeline was finally fading out of existence. She closed her eyes and started to cry.

Once they had begun, the tears would not stop, choking and suffocating. Bloom’s whole body shook, wracked with sob after sob, as unstoppable as hiccups. Mucus ran down her face, turning her muzzle into a disgusting crusty mess. She fell onto her side, weeping, not sure if she should be happy or sad. She was utterly overcome with this flood of contradicting emotions.

A pair of hooves wrapped around her barrel, and a muzzle rubbed at her mane. “Shh,” Applejack consoled. “Shh, now, Bloomers… It’s gonna be alright.”

The orange mare was shocked with the speed at which her little sister’s hooves wrapped around her, and the tightness of her grip. Whatever happened must’ve been some kinda doozy, but questions could wait. Everything could wait for now. Yellow and orange— no, Apple— embraced as the storm outside finally abated.

Author's Note:

Hey, all.
I've mentioned this in a blog post already, but in case you haven't read it, I'm going to be taking a break for the next month or so in order to keep up with schoolwork and to work on NaNoWriMo. I plan to return with the next story around the start of December (preview below).
Best wishes,
-6&7

Next Time On Doctor Whooves

The anglerfish, Rarity’s father had told his daughters, was an ugly, misshapen fish that lived at the bottom of the ocean, where it was so dark, not even Celestia’s light could illuminate your hoof in front of your face.

Ditzy’s brief romp among the flowers was suddenly cut short by Rose’s scream of abject horror, as she collapsed into a heap. The postmare broke off from sniffing a particularly delightful daisy and hastened over to the mare. She had fainted dead away.

My dear sisters,
Due to a regrettable incident at one of my recent soirees, my house has been rendered temporarily uninhabitable. As such, Daddy, Civil &, I will be arriving tomorrow to stay at your hovel house abode for the next week...

And then, out of complete blindness, light. Welcoming. Comforting. Beckoning.

Then, the crab’s eyes, glowing bright red, shot open. “Aaaand hello to you, too, Murphy,” the pegasus sighed.

The commander, dazed from the backlash, stumbled backward. The sergeant pulled something shiny out of her saddlebag and prepared to throw it, but Fancy leapt up and bodychecked her to the floor. The object went flying and landed on the table. It sprung up on a dozen little scuttling legs and spun to face the Doctor.

Ditzy glanced up from the wiring. “What do you—” she paused. “Do you two smell something funny?”
Rarity sniffed the air. Her eyes went wide. She spun around to see the hallway illuminated by an onrushing wall of flames. There was a flash of light—
Silence.

Then, a motion caught Rarity’s eye, and she turned. A smile split her face as she saw who was hovering in the alleyway. “Rainbow Dash!” she called. “Thank Celestia! You have no idea how worried we’ve been, what’s going—”
She faltered as the pegasus turned to face her the blue mare’s face was devoid of emotion, her eyes as empty as the grave. “Rainbow?”
Dash opened her mouth, and a low note boomed out, unlike anything a pony ought to be able to produce. From every corner, every trash bin, every window pane, little silver figures emerged.

“Okay, time to go,” Ditzy said quickly, spinning quickly in the direction of the Stick and Carrot. She stopped when she saw the ponies blocking off the street ahead of them. The ponies blocking off the street behind them and to either side of them. Macintosh, Rarity, Carrot Top, and too many others to count. Each one had a blank expression and empty, empty eyes…

Curiosity killed the cat, they say. More often, it kills the fish. And the angler swims on…

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Not unrelated to her canon talent. This isn't just a mark for repair, it's a mark for setting things right, whether that means a table or a timeline. Brilliant final punch to the heart, and a most satisfactory close to the tale.

As for next time... Oh, that certainly looks intriguing. See you in December. Best of luck with both school and NaNoWriMo in the meantime.

[Sixes_And_Sevens]

9931137
Thank you! I'm making good progress on both.

[Prince Leviathan]

These cutie-marks are interesting.
Counting Blessings
Fixing What's Wrong

And nice moment at the end with AJ & Bloom