Doctor Whooves: Beyond the Nth Dimension

by Glimglam

Chapter 1: The Doctor is IN!

Chapter 1: The Doctor is IN!

“Oh, bugger! More of them!”

Another group of the strange black insects had swerved around the corner of the cave, giving chase to the fleeing stallion. One of them fired a blast of green energy from its horn, firing it towards the pony but missing by a mere yard and exploding. The blast made him stumble, but did little to slow him down. Still, these pests were getting more than a little annoying...

With an exasperated sigh the chestnut-brown pony retrieved a small, pen-like device from his vest pocket as her ran, and pointed it behind him towards the creatures. “Have some of this, then!” With a high-pitched whir and tone, the end of the device glowed bright blue, and the pursuing insects let out shrieks of pain and collapsed to the ground, twitching spastically.

The Doctor flashed a smug grin. “Ah-hah! Nothing like 27000 hertz of sonic energy to put you bugs in your place, eh?” he chided, stowing the sonic screwdriver back into his vest pocket. “That’s how the Doctor does things!”

Still smiling victoriously, the brown stallion turned and galloped away from the scene before more Drones would inevitably arrive. These Changelings, they were so bothersome! He’d heard about them before, and how they very nearly overtook the capital of Equestria. Being the self-declared protector of Earth and Equestria, the Doctor had taken it upon himself to neutralize the source of the threat. Of course, he’d never have anticipated that they were more than just pony-shaped bugs!

In fact, he wasn’t even in Equestria. Even more, he wasn’t even on the same planet Equestria was on. The Doctor, when he last checked the navigation data on the TARDIS, was on the planet Changeoid-9, located around two or so billion miles across the Foal Nebula. It was a mostly cold and dead planet, but the ruins atop and below the surface seemed to suggest a population once survived here. Now, it was just the native inhabitants—Changelings—living among the cavernous system of tunnels and passages hollowed out into the planet.

The Doctor had spent much time pondering his options. As the world was basically dead, these Changelings had attempted to invade Equestria for the purpose of mass species migration. (Unusually, the majority of their energy supply comes from emotional waves produced by sentient creatures like ponies or humans.) But as these species seemed to display no genuine sentience aside from an all-encompassing hive mind (led by a “Queen Chrysalis”, which he had no encounters with yet), then as far as the Doctor was concerned, the universe could very well do without them.

“Let’s see now, where did I leave my... oh! Well, there we are!”

It wasn’t hard to miss the same blue police box shape of the TARDIS. The Doctor was just so fond of it. Though, he couldn’t quite understand why the sign that normally read “Police Box” now insisted on saying “Pony Box”. Wasn’t the chameleon circuit supposed to be broken? Ah well, didn’t matter. It was probably just one of the strange idiosyncrasies of this pony-dominated dimension. The TARDIS, where it stood, was in the corner of the cavern's corridor, patiently waiting for its owner to return.

Earlier, the Doctor had located the remains of a massive power generator, deep within Changeoid-9’s core. Perhaps the civilization that existed here before this Changeling hive took over had dabbled in extensive geothermal production? ‘How fascinating!’ the Doctor had thought. ‘A shame that it makes the planet terribly unstable, though.’ Knowing that, the Time Lord had managed to reactivate the generator (thanks to the sonic screwdriver) and set it to overload in… oh, about twenty minutes. When it did, the entire planet would likely implode, destroying the Changeling hive.

Now that the Doctor had found the TARDIS, all that was left to do was leave this place before things got too bright and explode-y. But it was alright; he still had at least eight minutes left. “Right, well time to get go—” Another blast of green energy cut him off, striking the side of the police box and glancing off it. The Doctor cast an irritated glare at the three Drones that had just flown in from behind. “Hey, that wasn’t very polite!”

The changeling Drones only hissed in response, drawing themselves closer to the equine Time Lord. One of them started charging another blast of magic energy, while the other two got in a position that suggested they were ready to pounce, maul, and kill (not necessarily in that order). Though the Doctor knew of the Changelings’ ferocity, he nevertheless stood up to them.

“Alright, listen here you three!” he declared, taking a protective stance in front of the TARDIS’s door. The Drones stopped advancing briefly, but did not cease their aggressive posture. “Do you even know who you’re messing with? Do you? Do you know who I am? I’m the Doctor, that’s who I am. Do you even know what I did to this planet? I rigged it to explode, that’s what I did. In exactly seven minutes and twenty-three seconds, the rock you are standing on will cease to exist. Actually, you can also add yourselves to that equation as well.”

The three changelings flinched with shock, but still held their ground.

“And do you know why? Do you know why I doomed your miserable species to extinction? Do you? Because you’re a plague. A bacterium upon the universe. You changelings are a galactic virus, and I’m just the Doctor the cure it. SO.” The Doctor stomped a hoof on the cave floor to punctuate his sentence. “So. If you brainless drones care for your lives, at all, then you will do just one thing and one thing only: Run. Run away far, and run away fast.”

The Doctor leaned forward, glaring directly into the blue compound eyes of the closet changeling drone, and it took a fearful step backward. “I know you can navigate the expanse of space. How else could you have invaded Equestria, a place that I’ve come to love as much as another planet I know? So. Go ahead and run away, my little changelings. And tell your fellow ‘chaps’ the same thing. That is, unless you fancy getting a bit cooked.”

He stamped a hoof again, with more force this time. “And you better hope that your little ‘camouflage’ magic doesn’t fail should you ever be as dense as to go back to Equestria. Because. If. I. EVER. See any of you in or near that planet ever again… then I cannot be held responsible for what I will do to you. …Ask around. Every alien civilization that I’ve ever met will all tell you the same thing: it’s never a good idea to make a Time Lord mad. Are you three willing to even try?”

And that was all it took. Perhaps the added tremors of the rock around him helped sell the effect, but regardless, the Drones were broke. The three of them turned and scampered off, their prior looks and bearings of hostility now replaced with ones of abject terror. If anypony could cow a changeling into retreat with words and threats alone, it would be the Doctor.

Paying no more mind to the retreating insectoid aliens, the Doctor tapped his hoof thrice on the rock floor, causing the doors of the TARDIS to swing open. It had taken him a while to adapt the old ‘finger-snap’ opening technique to the more mundane ‘hoof-tap’ one, on the account that his twelfth form wasn’t humanoid and lacked fingers. But it was much more convenient this way, anyhow (though not quite as theatric).

Strolling to the center console, the Doctor heard something… odd. When he walked on the metal floor of the TARDIS, his hooves always made a dull ‘clang’ sound as they met the floor. So then, why did the normal ‘clang’ per hoofstep… sound more like a ‘cla-clang’ per hoofstep? The answer was obvious. At least, it was to the Doctor. He turned around towards the open doors, and frowned. “Hmmm…” He tapped his hoof thrice, and the doors shut. No more sounds. ‘Ah, well. Nothing, then.’

The Doctor entered the coordinates of the place he had arrived from (the outskirts of Ponyville) into the navigational system, and spent a moment adjusting many other settings. In two winks, he had thrown the Dematerialization master switch, and the TARDIS began to softly shake as the usual screeching and grinding sound filled the air. Noticing this, the Doctor glanced at the switch on the panel marked ‘Brakes’, and sheepishly grinned. ‘Oops, left the brakes on again. Oh well, it’s just such a brilliant noise.’

Before long, the TARDIS was on its way. According to the computer, it would take about five minutes to arrive back in Equestria. Usually it arrived within seconds, but as the power drive was getting progressively ‘emaciated’ lately… it wasn't quite as "speedy" anymore. He may need to find time to give it proper maintenance later. But where in the whole of the cosmos would he find the necessary energy…

He didn’t have long to think, however. Without warning, something tackled the Doctor from behind with great force, sending him to the floor. “Ack! What is this? Get off!” he shouted, and struggled to throw off his attacker. Whatever it was, it sure was mad about something. Finally, the Doctor stood, reared back, and managed to buck off his assailant. “Who are you, then?! What’s the big idea?!”

The Doctor was absolutely livid when he turned around, and just when he spotted the intruder a flash of green flooded his vision. When it passed a split-second later, he appeared to standing face-to-face with… himself? “What the…? Well, that’s interesting!" the Doctor exclaimed, eyeing his double with a look of bemused curiosity. "A perfect duplicate! I must say, that’s fairly impressive!” The 'duplicate' was a changeling, of course, but it had quickly taken the brown earth pony form of the Doctor himself.

Impressive as the disguise was, the Doctor’s brief intrigue was quickly replaced by anger. Someone had stowed aboard his TARDIS! While he wasn't even looking! And without permission, too! And now, the TARDIS was already in transit! This simply would not do! “Sorry about this, but I’m afraid you’ll have to go!” the Doctor asserted, and brandished his sonic screwdriver. A quick blast of green energy knocked it out of his hoof. “Hey! That was my best one, you cowardly doppelg—”

The Doctor was rudely interrupted as his 'evil clone' leapt forward and hoof-smacked his forehead, sending the Time Lord reeling back. “Ow! Hey! That hurt, you!" he exclaimed, holding the tender spot with a hoof. "Fight with dignity, or something!” Another slug to the face was the response. Negotiations obviously wouldn't work. “OW! Okay, that does it! No more Mr. Nice… er… Doctor!”

It would be quite odd to fight with yourself, wouldn’t it? It wasn’t necessarily the first time the Doctor had done it in his 1200-plus years of existence, but it didn’t make it any less strange. Although it would be the first time a clone of him had attempted to kill him. And the fact that this changeling could very well feast on his emotional energy (and for all he knew, maybe even his corpse) was also rather disturbing, though the Doctor tried not to let it bother him.

He wrestled the rogue Drone for a full minute, the two of them crashing into numerous objects and making a mess of the TARDIS's control room, before the Doctor finally got the upper hoof. The still-disguised changeling’s head now firmly pinned between the floor and his hoof, the Doctor flashed the imitator a dirty look. “You just don’t listen, do you? You just think you can stroll on into my TARDIS like it’s the bloody circus? You bugs really are starting to bug me. Heh…” He coughed. “Not the first time I’ve used that pun, and it won’t be the last. So sorry Drone, but I’ll have to remove you from my time machine.”

The Doctor stamped his other hoof on the floor three times, and the TARDIS’s main door flung wide open. Just beyond the doorway weren’t the caverns of Changeoid-9, or the fields of Equestria. It was a violent, swirling blue whirlpool of thunderclouds that twisted and looped towards infinity: The Time Vortex.

A klaxon-horn resounded and a red light flashed madly throughout the TARDIS as the door opened, signaling a major emergency, but he knew opening the door during transit was extensively risky. It would only be necessary for but a few moments. With a farewell shout of “Allons-y!” the Doctor swiftly kicked the still-disguised changeling towards the door, and the suction of the Vortex took care of the rest.

As the shrieking changeling was thrown into the swirling blue abyss, the Doctor tapped his hoof three times and the TARDIS door shut behind it. The horns finally stopped blaring, and the lights subsided. With a drawn-out sigh, the Doctor returned to the main control console and checked to make sure everything was working alright. His eyes widened with shock. One of the changeling’s prior energy blasts appeared to have damaged the console, and it was now on fire.

…Ah.

“Oh. Well, that can’t be good.”

The alarm started to blare again as an explosion ripped through the control room.

>~===DW===~<

Everything was rather quiet in Ponyville today. The local mailmare, Derpy Hooves, didn’t really mind though. Quiet days always were perfect to think about stuff.

As she flew, Derpy thought about what had happened in the last few weeks. After the Changelings were driven out of Canterlot, a concentrated effort had been made by the Royal Guard to weed out any remaining Drones or Infiltrators. However, for whatever reason, all changelings appeared to have simply… vanished. Nopony had seen any at all, actually. Not since the wedding.

The pegasus sighed thoughtfully, and continued on her flight. Her mailbag was as heavy as ever, silently reminding the pegasus of the countless deliveries she had yet to make. With an absentminded glance to the sky, Derpy pondered what kind of things waited in the days ahead. No more changelings, right? Surely things will get better.

Wheeeeeeen… wheeeeeeen… wheeeeeeen…

“Huh?” Derpy Hooves looked upwards again, and scrunched her muzzle in confusion. What was that odd sound? For some reason, she felt as it she'd heard it from somewhere before…

Wheeeeeeen… wheeeeeeeeeen… wheeeeeeeeeeeeen…

The screech-like resonance was slowly increasing in pitch. She had no idea where it was coming from, and despite how oddly familiar it sounded, she decided that it may be best to just ignore it and keep flying. And keep flying she did, not noticing the noise getting closer with each passing second. Moments later, she heard something explode.

Booooom!

Derpy stopped mid-flight, and scanned the skies in a panic. The grinding and screeching sound was so familiar for some reason, but she couldn’t figure out why. Just where was it coming from?

She momentarily got her answer in the form of a large blue box, which zipped through the air near her at such close distance and at such high speed that the resulting air current made the pegasus spin wildly in place. Try to imagine a kid spinning a cola bottle on the floor, and you’d have a good idea of the motions involved.

“Whaaaaat’s gooooiiiiing oooooonnn?!” Derpy shrieked as she spun around uncontrollably. ‘Ooogh, I think I’m gonna be really sick! Urp!’

When the mailmare finally stopped her high-speed revolutions, she finally realized that the strange box appeared to be plummeting down to the ground—straight into the Ponyville market district! “Oh no!” she cried. “That thing’s gonna crash into Ponyville! Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!!”

Panicking, Derpy started to pursue the tumbling box as it fell, flapping her wings as fast as she could manage. She wasn’t exactly sure how she was planning on stopping this thing, seeing as how it was probably falling faster than Rainbow Dash could even fly… but perhaps Derpy could warn everypony to run away, before the box fell and squished somepony…

“HEEEEEEEEEEEY! LOOK OOOOOOUUUUT!! FALLING BOOOOOOOX!!”

>~===DW===~<

“Carrot Top, when are you going to stop moping about this?”

“…” The earth pony with the curly orange mane and pale yellow coat chose not to answer the question. Instead, she merely stared at the light-blue unicorn from across the stand, a look of blank apathy painted on her features.

The blue and white-maned unicorn, Colgate, stamped the ground with frustration. “Come on, can’t you get over it already?”

“…”

“So I accidentally knocked over some of your carrots on display, big deal! I told you that I’d clean them up!”

“…It’s not the carrots,” Carrot Top said at last, her green eyes looking down at the vegetables sprawled out over the ground around her carrot stand. “It’s just that… for my whole life, I’ve done nothing but grow carrots… My cutie mark is carrots, for Celestia’s sake! Carrots, carrots, carrots! And to what end? Carrots are healthy, sure, but how much more business has the Apple Family been having than me? Because carrots aren’t a moneymaker, that’s for sure!”

The mare gestured with a hoof towards the apple stand across the Market Square, and Colgate’s gaze followed it. The stand probably had at least twenty ponies lined up for some juicy apples, fresh from Sweet Apple Acres.

“Well… you can’t really blame them,” Colgate said, shrugging and levitating the fallen carrots back onto the stand in neat stacks. “They’ve been in business for an awful long time. And besides, everypony knows that ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’. Of course a lot of ponies take credence in apples first.” She paused, and added, “That, and they’re really tasty too…”

Carrot Top sighed miserably. “I know that. But come on, carrots have way more vitamins, and minerals! They help improve your eyesight!”

“And I know that too. I’m one of your only regular customers.”

“True…”

Both mares sighed. Carrot Top would be lucky to see more than four or five other ponies besides Colgate or one of her friends. Derpy Hooves, one of her good friends, also stops by to purchase carrots for her personal carrot muffin recipe once in a while. Today, nopony else had shown up yet. It was a pretty slow day though, and there wasn’t much that could be done about that.

“But hey, at least you’re not the only one going through a ‘cutie mark crisis’,” Colgate confided. “I’ve been bothered by my own for the longest while… I really, um, just don’t get it…”

Carrot Top leaned to the side to get a glimpse of the unicorn’s cutie mark: an hourglass. She herself had always questioned what it meant. “Hey, maybe your special talent is time,” Carrot suggested, and laughed. “But that makes no sense, because nopony can control time!”

“…” The blue unicorn awkwardly coughed and started to raise a hoof. “Um, well, actually—”

“HEEEEEEEEEEEY! LOOK OOOOOOUUUUT!! FALLING BOOOOOOOX!!”

Both Carrot Top and Colgate flinched at the sudden yell. Both of them turned to look skyward to where the shout came from, and gaped. “Derpy?! What’s going—!?”

Crrrraaaaaaaassssh!

Carrot Top’s inquiry was cut short by the loudest sound she had ever heard (at least, in a while). A plume of dirt, rock, and dust was thrown up into the air, scattering around the boulevard whilst the ground shook and heaved underhoof. Everypony in the market stared in shock at the new crater that had just formed in the middle of the street. Several of them started panicking, and ran off to who-knows-where, but others stayed to observe this strange object out of curiosity.

The fountain that previously existed there was now just plain crushed to pieces, and a large rectangular-shaped object colored a deep blue was resting at an odd 80 degree angle among the debris. Smoke billowed from the crater and from the object itself, which seemed to be on fire on the interior. Thankfully, this unknown thing didn’t injure anypony, though it did cause quite a stir (not to mention a lot of property damage as well!)

“The horror! THE HORROR!” a nearby earth pony with a rose-colored mane screamed, and the pink mare to her side fainted melodramatically while another just plain freaked out.

Both Colgate and Carrot Top were shocked at the sudden crash. “Wh-what the heck is that thing?!” the earth pony shouted, eyes wide and jaw hanging slack. “I-it came from the sky! M-maybe it’s a monster!”

“Don’t be ridiculous Carrot,” Colgate said reassuringly, though the unicorn didn’t sound sure of herself, “it’s just a big… box. That’s all it is.” That box… Why did it seem to be giving off such a powerful… 'pulling' force to her?

“Well…” Carrot Top stood back up, and slowly began to approach the crater. “It doesn’t look like a monster, I suppose… I guess the smoke made it look scarier than it was… But, now that I think about it, haven't we all seen this thing befor—?”

“Carrot Top!”

“Huh?” The earth pony looked skyward, and saw a familiar gray-coated wall-eyed pegasus waving to her. She remembered what had been shouted earlier just before the object crashed. “Oh! Derpy! What’s going on?”

“It wasn’t my fault! Honest!” the pegasus insisted, fidgeting with her hooves anxiously. "A big blue box was falling from the sky and making all these noises, and it almost hit me! A-and then it almost squished somepony!” Derpy cringed. “…N-nopony got squished, right?”

“Uhh…” Carrot Top looked over the scene of destruction one more time, and frowned with uncertainty. “I don’t think so…”

Derpy Hooves flew down to the earth pony’s side, tucking in her wings as she landed. “I was so scared! I thought somepony was gonna get hurt!” she exclaimed, one eye focused on Carrot Top while the other wandered over in the box’s direction. “It was such a quiet day, and I like quiet days, but then all of a sudden… Oh, hi Colgate!”

“Hey there Derpy,” Colgate said as she approached the two, and then focused on Carrot Top. “Uh, hey? Carrot? Don’t you notice anything… strange about that blue box?”

“Besides the fact that it wrecked the fountain?” the earth pony replied flatly. “Well, for one thing, it’s way too blue for my tastes." She looked up at Colgate and bit her lip nervously. "N-no offense, Colgate.”

“None taken… But, that’s not what I meant.” The unicorn cast a quick glance left and right, and lowered her voice. “Doesn’t there just seem to be… something about it that… calls out to you?”

Carrot Top gave her a bizarre stare. “Uh… no? It just looks like a really weird UFO or something. I don’t hear it saying anything, if that’s what you’re getting at…”

Colgate remained silent. ‘Is it really just me, then?’ she thought, throwing a nervous glance to the smoking blue box. ‘Am I the only one who can hear it…?’

Suddenly, the front end of the blue box swung wide open, and a cloud of thick white smoke spewed forth. Most ponies that had been attracted by curiosity leapt back, startled by the sudden breach. Carrot Top and Colgate, by contrast, were now paying extra close attention. Derpy hid behind her friend Carrot, only occasionally poking her head out to peek at the open box, and then retreating again.

Colgate was just thinking about asking out loud if somepony was inside the box, when her own question was answered before it could even be asked. A chestnut-brown earth pony with a dark brown mane slowly stepped out of the depths of the box. And he did it so casually, as if this was an everyday occurrence.

A few ponies were quick to comment on the rather dapper vest and tie the stallion wore. But the thing that snagged Colgate’s attention was the symbol on the pony’s flank. It was… an hourglass! Just like hers! Exactly like hers, even! What could that mean?

Meanwhile, the pony that had just stepped out of the box was dusting off his coat and vest, and muttering something under his breath. “That's the last time I leave the TARDIS door open in the middle of a bug hive. Me, the Doctor, leaving the door open—oh, the idiocy of it all! That’s rather abnormal of me. Ah, guess I’ve always been a bit absentminded. Even more so this time around! Oh well. Quite miraculous that I got off without a scratch. These cartoonized laws of physics are simply fascinating!”

Carrot Top stared at the newcomer pony with a brief bit of confusion, and then sighed. "Oh, never mind everpony, it's just the Doc…" It was that 'Doctor' that lurked around town from time to time. Carrot Top hadn't seen him in a long while, but she knew about his 'oddities'. "Oh, way to scare everypony in town again…”

“He’s such a silly-head, crashing his thing like that!” Derpy exclaimed with a giggle, coming out from her hiding place upon realizing there was no threat. Her expression then darkened slightly. “Wait’ll I give him a piece of my mind about nearly crashing into me…”

“Oh, do you have any of that to spare?” Carrot quipped, casting a mischievous look towards the mailmare. She often poked friendly jabs at her friend’s mental capacity, though the pegasus was smarter than she appeared.

“Sure I do!” Derpy replied, not quite catching on to the earth pony’s little joke. “My mind is like a batch of muffins; I bake some more every day!”

Carrot Top raised a perplexed eyebrow at the pegasus’s odd (and rather nonsensical) metaphor, but thought better of it and shrugged it off. Then again, Derpy wasn’t always the head of her class back in school, so…

The Doctor soon took notice of the crowd watching him, and tilted his head wonderingly. “What? Haven’t you ever seen a pony crash his time machine into a fountain before?” he inquired, and then caught himself. “Ah, actually, no, I suppose that they wouldn’t have… A natural curiosity to this sort of thing is always inevitable. Hm? I say…”

He caught sight of the blonde-maned pegasus beside Carrot Top, and brightened up. “Oh, hello! Good morning, Miss Hooves! Oh, and you too, Miss… Top!” The Doctor paused to contemplate. “…It is morning isn’t it?”

“Yep!” the pegasus responded with a silly grin. “Silly Doctor, always forgetting what time of day it is. Oh, and by the way, I'm absolutely furious with you for almost crashing into me!” Her perky tone didn't seem to support her words, but the Doctor knew well enough to trust them.

“…Ah, right, yes, of course. So sorry about that, Miss Hooves. Steering was havoc to get under control you see. It'll happen. Again, sincerest apologies. So, uh... Right then.” He cleared his throat, and adjusted his tie again. “Now then, back to business. Has anyone here seen Miss Twili—?”

“THERE YOU ARE!” a voice from beyond the crowd called out. A pair of stallions stepped aside, and a very irate purple unicorn mare stomped past them and straight up to the Doctor. She looked extremely irritated for some reason. “You’ve been gone for a whole week! Where have you gone!?”

The Doctor looked genuinely shocked. “A week?! Well, blast it. The date parameter coils on the TARDIS must have gone bad again; I’ll have to check those as soon as conveniently possible and fix—”

“I’M NOT DONE TALKING!” Twilight shouted, interrupting the Doctor’s train of thought. “You told me that you’d be leaving 'to get rid of the Changeling problem’, and then poof! You disappear for a whole week!”

“Well, I believe I told you that I would back within the hour but I suppose—”

“And then a week goes by! Do you have any idea how hard it was to explain to Princess Celestia that you, a crazy pony that treats time and space as a plaything, were gone and unsupervised for a week?!”

“I can imagine that it would be difficult, yes, but—”

“What ‘problem’ was there even to be had, anyway? All the changelings were gone already by the time you left!”

“Ah, I would agree to disagree—”

“The Royal Guards already did an investigatory sweep of the whole countryside, and they haven’t found one! You are seriously grasping at straws here!” Twilight turned to look at the crowd of ponies gathering around them. “AND WHY IS EVERYPONY ELSE STILL HERE?!”

Slowly, under the undue ferocity of the purple unicorn’s glare, the crowd began to disperse and go about their business. Carrot Top and Derpy Hooves surmised that it would be best to leave them be, but Colgate was still interested. How had she not seen that ‘Doctor’ before? She continued to eavesdrop on them from afar…

“Miss Twilight, as I was trying to say, those changelings weren’t found in Equestria simply because they are not from Equestria! They came from a planet just beyond the Foal Nebula: Changeoid-9!”

Twilight's mouth hung open in disbelief. “…Are you seriously suggesting… that the changelings are ALIENS?!”

“I’m not just suggesting it; it’s a fact! One of them even stowed aboard the TARDIS and nearly had its way with me! Just look what that insect did to my vest! But never fear, it’s all taken care of. I blew up their home planet.”

Twilight was more than a little taken aback. “You… blew up… an entire planet?!”

“Yes, it’s rather quite interesting! There was a geothermal power plant built into the core, by an ancient and long-since-forgotten civilization I presume, so all I had to do was—”

“I-I don’t want to know how you did it!" the unicorn interrupted, sputtering her words with utter disbelief. "That’s just… crazy! Even for you, Doctor!”

“What can I say? I am the Doctor, after all.”

“You use that excuse for everything! Just what reason could you possibly have to destroy an entire celestial body?!" Twlight groaned, and facehoofed. "Ugh, there's going to hay to pay when I break this to the princess...!”

The Doctor's expression darkened. “Excuse me, but I think you’re failing to realize something, Miss Sparkle. The changelings left, yes, but who’s to say that they wouldn’t come back? They might… or they might not. But I never take chances. Ever. So, I went up there and made absolute sure that they wouldn’t come back—not as long as the Doctor is protecting this planet. You see, leaving is good. Never coming back? That’s better.”

”…” Twilight released a drawn-out sigh. “Fine. Whatever. I’m just so exhausted right now, and I’m a bit cranky, okay? I haven't slept in days. As long as you came back, and nothing else is wrong… then fine. I'll just tell Celestia later that you were getting an ice cream on Canis-12 or something…” She looked around the crater that the TARDIS rested in. “And could you please move your machine somewhere before somepony else does? Sheesh…”

“Ah, see, well…” The Doctor nervously tugged at the collar of his vest. “That will be a slight problem. A lot of the control consoles are broken because of the Drone that infiltrated the TARDIS, so several of her systems are down right now. I barely managed to navigate her through the Vortex because of it.”

Twilight facehoofed, once again. “Ugh, if it’s broken, just… fix it! It’s your time machine; you should know how to fix it!”

“Time machine…?” Colgate repeated to herself, awed by the sight of such a thing. That big blue box was a time machine? As in, could go into the future, and past, and stuff? But… how was that possible? She'd only thought such things were the realm of myths and legends… She was aware of spells that could manipulate time, but only to limited degrees…

“But it will take time! A bit ironic, I know, since it’s a time machine and all, but that TARDIS isn’t going anywhere without proper maintenance! I won’t let her!”

The unicorn huffed. “Well, then at least move it somewhere so it’s not in the middle of the market square—wait… ‘her’?”

“The TARDIS, of course! She is capable of semi-sentience you know.” As if to bring home the point, the Doctor stroked a hoof across the side of the box in a gentle, tender fashion. "There there girl, you're a good TARDIS, yes you are…"

“Your machine is a…” Twilight paused, a dumbfounded expression plastered on her features, and shook her head vigorously to banish the thought. “Never mind. If you won't move it until it's fixed, then I’ll just have to fix it myself, then.”

“Ah… er… Miss Twilight, I don’t think that will be necessary—”

The Doctor was rudely ignored as Twilight pushed him aside, and she walked straight into the still-smoking void that led inside the box. Still stammering minor objections, the Time Lord followed the purple unicorn inside as well, and vanished behind the curtain of smoke.

Colgate was shocked, amazed, and completely bewildered all at the same time. Did those two just walk into a blue box that had just crash-landed here not even three minutes ago? Wasn’t that… well… not so safe? And how could those two possibly fit in there?! It’s barely wide enough for a single pony, let alone two!

“Hey! Colgate! What are you doing over there still?” the voice of Carrot Top called out from behind her. “The Doc and Twilight can handle whatever it is. Come on, me and Derpy are gonna go get some lunch! Wanna come with?”

“…Uh, yeah, coming!” Colgate called out in reply, though she didn’t avert her eyes from the blue box and the mysterious vanishing ponies. ‘Time machine… Can it really be possible? That Doctor… So, there are other ponies that can control time…?’

The blue unicorn shook her head, and turned away to follow Carrot Top and Derpy. But still, there was that nagging feeling that was tugging at the corner of her mind…

Comments

[Rain_Summers]

Seems legit, gonna fav this. Also, good story.S