Twilight's Really Bad Day

by Bigwig6666

In Which Twilight Sees A Doctor

Doctor Whooves sighed as he crouched behind an upturned table.

Thankfully he had the foresight to upturn the table before he made the phone call today, but still. Shards of glass lay scattered about his floor, and the rest of his lab was a mess, with machines still smoking and smashed screens everywhere--even the spiderwebs had been blown away by the flurry of carnage. The perpetrator and cause for his cover taking? A writhing mass of living, purple and green, swirling magic. His 'guest' had arrived quite unexpectedly, and turned his relatively simple life on it's head in a matter of hours.

"What are you?" he murmured as he peered at it from behind his table.

He had arrived in Ponyville several centuries ago, well before his latest escapade began, and quickly fell in love with the simplicity of Equestrian life. He even took a name more fitting with the culture and choosing to stay there among them, having finally found time to retire from adventuring.

But alas, like anywhere he goes, he quickly found himself caught in some disaster or another. Whether it was a bugbear attacking the sleepy village, or another end-of-the-world event requiring attention. Thankfully, ponies here, including the princess and her friends (the rare helpful authority), seemed to be capable of looking after themselves, so he tended to stay out of most things, quietly setting up a little shop of old knick-knacks and antiquities, and the odd science project on the side every now and then.

As the creature thrashed around his lab, he muttered to himself on it's origins. It had appeared quite unexpectedly, wreaking havoc on the small village and terrorizing the friendly inhabitants. The doctor had taken it upon himself to see to it, since nopony else would at the time. He lured it into his home, where he managed to prevent it from creating any more lethal 'accidents', where it took the lives of the simple ponies, including that of his dearest friend in this world, Derpy Hooves (no relation). He winced as he thought about the end to come, a blinding white light emanating from Canterlot that scorched everything in it's path. He vowed to prevent such a disaster from happening the first day it happened, and used his travelling time machine, to create a time loop from when the day first started, shortly after it escaped from his prison. Unfortunately, this sabotaged the TARDIS's time circuits, and his poor baby was grounded for the foreseeable future, needing a powerful jolt of energy to kick start her again.

Magic was not his strong suit, he confessed, instead preferring to use reason and logic to explain his findings, and yet... this creature, however, this entity of living magic, was unlike anything he had come across. Daleks were easy, Ice Warriors, Sontarans, anything else the universe threw at him he could deal with, but creatures made up of literal magic? That was harder. He ran a hoof through his mane and grimaced as he saw the thing smash it's 'face'(?) into the machinery that once contained it.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden bursting of his door, and the thing scattered, startled by the noise apparently. Whooves's eyes widened as he looked around and his mouth fell agape.

"Princess Twilight?!" he exclaimed, as he peered around from his cover. Could it be? Was it she? Or was this another cruel twist of fate? He felt excitement build up inside of him for the first time in ages. "So you got my message then?"

The Princess of Friendship, the sole ruler of Equestria, the First and Last Star herself stood in his laboratory, panting lightly. Her wings looked ragged almost, as if flown all the way from Canterlot itself, and she gave him what can only be described as a Look, with a capital L that would make even a Dalek pause for a moment.

Twilight looked at him strangely. He wore a simple white shirt collar with a teal blue bow tie, and his dark brown mane was neatly combed back into a mohawk of sorts. She noticed his cutie mark was an hourglass, the sands of time frozen on his flank, as if to illustrate how trapped she was in this loop. She gritted her teeth and fluttered her wings as she looked around at the mess.

"Do you have any idea" she grumbled, "of what I've been through?" Her voice was sharp, harsh. Her words were tinted with bitterness and her eyes were wild with anger, quite uncharacteristic for the princess, the doctor thought. "And who are you?!"

He winced and offered an apologetic smile as he placed his hooves on the upturned table. His eyes darted about as he heard crashing and shattering from somewhere else in his lab. "I can assure you I do, princess, and I will explain in due time, but right now I highly advise you seek cover--there it is!"

He pointed upwards as the living magic crashed back into the room and froze as it spotted Twilight. She gaped at it in horror, noting how it shifted and pulsed, the purples and greens in it's body swirling chaotically. Her wings sprung up in alarm as it coiled around itself and launched at her.

"AHHH!" she cried as it wrapped around her legs and reached out to her. "What is this thing?!"

Whooves sprung into action. This was new territory for him. How exciting! The princess had never gotten his message before. He dashed about in search of a bottle or a container of any sort.

"Hold it there princess!" he cried at her as she struggled with it. It wrapped itself around her neck and her horn, trying to choke the life out of her. Spells were slung blindly through the air as it latched onto her face.

"MMMMMMM!" Her muffled scream came from beneath it. Her hooves flailed wildly about and scraped at it in an attempt to remove it, and she soon resorted to bashing her head against the floor and the wall in an attempt to free herself. "MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"

With a triumphant cry, Whooves grabbed a flask. Thankfully the creature had proven itself malleable enough, and able to change shape or size--and pass through solid matter apparently--but unable to pas through glass in a small space. Why? He had no idea. Such is the way with magical creatures of unknown origin. He ripped the cork out of it with his teeth and charged towards the princess. "In this, Twilight!"

The creature around Twilight's face recoiled as he thrust the bottle at it, and released the mare from it's grasp. She gasped for air and used her magic to push the creature into the flask, where Whooves then slammed the cork down and sealed it. He panted for air and grinned triumphantly. "Got you now!"

Twilight snorted and sneezed, pressing a hoof into her left nostril and clearing it, then doing the same for the other nostril. She rubbed her nose and flexed her wings in annoyance as the doctor turned to her with a smile.

"I suppose you're wondering what that was about, princess?"

"Oh gee ya think?" She stared at the creature in the flask as it writhed. "What is that... thing? And who are you anyway?"

Whooves gave a small bow and introduced himself. "My name is Doctor Whooves, princess. I don't recall if we've ever actually met before, but we were neighbours once upon a time." He smiled and gave the bottle a light shake, antagonizing the creature a touch and grinned. "And this little devil is-"

He paused and grimaced as she looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"Um... princess?"

Twilight's body heaved as the stress of her situation caught up with her and the adrenaline of finding possible salvation wore off. "I'm sorry, I-" she mumbled and rubbed her eyes. The doctor shifted uncomfortably and set the flask down, giving her a sad look as he extended a leg out to the crying mare.

"I got your message," she sniffed. "It's been so difficult... nopony knows what it's like living the same day over and over..."

"I do." Whooves spoke solemnly, gazing at the wall with a far away look before looking back at her. The memories of seeing friends passed by him, and his heart hardened. He had no idea Twilight would have been caught in the loop as well. The mystery of this creature deepened. Why her? What tied her to this thing?

They stared at one another in silence, sharing in each other's suffering for a moment. The creature, sensing their distraction, quietly writhed inside it's new prison, and tried with all it's magical tiny might to force the cork outwards, but to no avail.

"How long has it been?" Twilight croaked. Her throat felt dry, and her voice was coarse.

Whooves took a deep breath. "You might want to sit, princess. Oh, um, here..." He grabbed a chair and shoved it towards he, somewhat fearful of her reaction. She sat and rubbed her nose, her wings rustled uncomfortably. He took another deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Are you ready?"

She nodded.

"Two point seven billion years."

No amount of preparation could have prepared her for that revelation. If she wasn't already sitting, the princess would have fallen over. "Two point seven..." she murmured and stared out of the smashed window. The reality of how long she had been trapped living the same cursed day over and over sunk in, and her eyes shrunk to pinpricks as panic threatened to overwhelm her.

"Give or take a few. I had to construct a new time measurement device just to track the days." The doctor chuckled nervously and tugged at his bow tie.

Twilight felt her eye twitch and an intense anger build up inside her. "This isn't funny," she hissed as she slowly rose up. "Ponies are dying. I've died. Canterlot is going to explode if we don't-"

"I... am aware, Princess Twilight." The doctor replied quietly. His face fell as he gazed up at the devices lining his ceiling.

The princess followed his gaze, and looked around at where she was. She realised she had never seen the inside of Doctor Whooves's home before, or even spoken to him really, despite them both being the most scientific ponies in Ponyville.

Strange looking machines lay scattered about randomly, some connected by pipes to the walls and ceilings, and clocks of all shapes and sizes ticked away on the far wall, despite their broken status and smashed glass littering the floor. One machine printed off great sheets of paper filled with numbers and statistics, and books upon books lay stacked on top of one another. On another occasion, she would have happily discussed science with this strange pony, but that was for a different time and place, right now she had to focus on ending the repeat she was in. That they were both trapped in.

As she looked down at the creature in it's glass prison it reminded her of the Tantabus, with the way it shifted and twisted, but that was impossible. Surely this doctor couldn't have brought a living nightmare into reality? Although that would be ironic, since she was in a living nightmare. Discord's words suddenly flashed through her mind as she saw it's purple and green waves shift. "It has a tendency to wander off on it's own..." Was this...

"Discord's magic..." she whispered quietly. Who was this doctor? Why, and how, did he trap Discord's magic and possibly--probably--cause her suffering?

"I'm sorry, princess, what was that?" Whooves asked nervously as she approached him, and the glass he held.

Twilight continued to stare down at it. "Discord's magic has gone missing, doctor. I think... this is it..."

The gears in his head seemed to click into place as it all fell into place, and with a cry he slammed a hoof into his head and began to giggle uncontrollably. "Oh. OH! Discord, of course, why didn't I think of that?! Great whickering stallions--you are brilliant, Twilight!" His eyes dared back and forth wildly as a grin spread over his face. "It makes perfect sense!"

Twilight gaped and rubbed her muzzle in disbelief, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "You mean you didn't know you had Discord's magic keeping you in a time loop?" Her face scrunched up as he began to pace.

"I... realise that may sound silly now, but--let me explain!" The eccentric earth pony lunged to his left and grabbed a chalkboard and wheeled it over. He began to show her his equations and mathematical theories in an attempt to explain to her the science of time loops.

The princess watched and listened, as she did when she was in school. She interjected at some points, giving her own opinion on some of what he said, but for the most part remained baffled. Even by her standards this pony was into some complicated stuff.

"So I managed to trap it so it couldn't spread any more havoc besides this one particular day."

"And Discord's magic just happened to find it's way in and create these accidents across Equestria?"

"That's right."

"And you used your... TARDIS? To trap it?"

"Yep."

Twilight leant back in her chair and pressed her hooves together in an attempt to understand. her nose wrinkled as she tried to form comprehensive questions. The first and foremost came to her mind. "What in Equestria is a TARDIS?"

Whooves grinned at her and beckoned her over. "Come with me, I'll show you." He jumped up and rubbed his hooves together. "Come on."

Despite her reservations, Twilight found herself intrigued beyond belief. She grabbed the small glass container containing Discord's magic with her own pink aura and started after him through a large set of doors.

As they strode through together, they entered something that resembled a museum, containing loads of different items, all seemingly from different time periods. Some look really advanced, and some looked ancient, she spotted a spear from the Greco-Roman period of Equestria over a thousand years ago, and another thing which looked like a metal screw, beeping and rolling against it's case repeatedly. She passed through the 'museum' and looked around with wide eyed wonder. A couple items of interest caught her eye, namely what looked like an ordinary stick of celery in a glass case, and another stand with a small yellow packet of something called 'jelly babies', which Whooves swiped as he strode ahead and began to pick them out one by one and pop them into his mouth. Who the heck is this guy? The princess wondered as she looked at him.

He looked back and smiled at her, offering her the packet. "Would you like one?"

She shook her head dumbly, wary of this stranger and his strange house. Suddenly Discord's living magic being the cause of a repeating day for billions of years wasn't at the forefront of her mind. The further she went into his lab she saw he had even stranger things. Just how big was this place anyway? It didn't look that big on the outside.

Whooves paused at a door and pressed a hoof to the pad next to it. It slid open with a quiet click, revealing another large room. This particular room was empty, save for strange, large blue box. The doctor held the strange packet in his mouth and ruffled inside the ring of his collar for a moment before pulling out a small key and inserted into the lock on the box's door. He pushed the door to the box open and Twilight watched him disappear inside, still holding Discord's magic in the bottle. "Is this a joke?" she muttered as she slowly approached the box and read what was on it's front.

"Police Telephone
FREE
For use of public
Advice and assistance
Obtainable immediately
Officer and cars
Respond to all calls
PULL TO OPEN."

She tilted her head and tried to understand what it meant, and jumped back with a quiet yelp as the door suddenly back swung open and Whooves looked at her, giving her an ever so slightly exasperated look. "Well come on then."

Twilight scampered forwards with an embarrassed smile. She gasped as she saw how the box was enormous! She stepped outside and looked around the corner of the box. It couldn't have been more than a few wide, all the way around, and yet inside, it was the size of a house that looked just like his lab! With foal-like curiosity and her scientific side breaching the fog of her mind, she peered inside one again. Whimsical looing pipes and machinery dotted he walls, and a large console with a large glowing pillar lay in the centre, up some steps. It sort of resembled what a house would look like if some mad pony had cobbled together everything in their home into one thing. What looked like taps labelled hot and cold lay on one side, and the doctor grabbed a flimsy looking screen and spun it round, typing away on the keyboard in front of it. Whisks like the ones Pinkie used jutted up, Twilight was sure she spotted an egg beater just inexplicably there. The size of the room continued to baffle her as she stepped forwards and looked around.

"It's bigger on the inside..." she murmured.

Whooves laughed as he dashed about and adjusted his bow tie. "I've missed hearing that. Welcome to the TARDIS. Stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Mind the step."

Twilight clipped her hoof on the aforementioned step and grumbled to herself. "What is this place?" she asked as she looked up at him, seeing his head bob back and forth behind some of the console. "Why is it bigger on the inside? What kind of pony are you?"

He paused for a moment and gave her a coy grin. "One of a kind, and I just said, it's my TARDIS. My time machine."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Time machine? You know there's a spell for that right?"

Whooves visibly sighed and grimaced at her. "Regrettably so, yes. But my TARDIS also moves locations, can your spells do that?"

Twilight said nothing. Instead she simply disappeared and reappeared next to him with a bright, loud, pink flash. He grumbled and turned his attention to the many dials and levers aligning the metal. "Show off."

He clapped his hooves together and made a 'gimme' motion to the creature's container. Twilight levitated it towards him and watched him intently. "What are you doing with it?"

"I'm going to try and use it's magic to power the TARDIS for one trip, to find out when exactly this guy was separated from Discord, unfortunately her circuits are fried so we only get one shot at this. She won't like that we're jumping back to our own timelines either, so we miiight get some resistance. Just got to hook him up to the circuitry... where was... ah! There!"

Whooves gritted his teeth as he grabbed a pair of goggles and a welder from seemingly nowhere. Not that that surprised her, Pinkie Pie was doing similar things all the time, so she soon learned to not question it.

Suddenly, Twilight was filled with thoughts of her friends here in Ponyville. So close, yet so far it seemed, and she turned towards the door with a sad look in her eyes.

"If we stop this, Twilight, we can go back to our free lives and forget this nightmare," Whooves said quietly as he watched her face, almost sensing her feelings, before disappearing with the creature's prison in hoof.

She heard the faint sound of welding coming form beneath her, and nodded and fluttered her wings lightly. She tended to do that when she was stressed, even after all this time and gave her tail a flick.

Whooves reappeared next to her and smiled as he rested on the console. The goggles had left a small black mark around his eyes, making him look like a regular mechanic for a moment. "Might want to hold onto something." He grinned mischievously.

"What do you mean--Ahhhh!"

She gasped and cried out as the doctor yanked a lever down and the glowing pillar of light began to make a horrid screeching sound, and the room began to shake violently, making both ponies wobble and clutch onto something for balance.

VWOOOOORP

VWOOOOORP

VWOOOOORP

The doctor grinned as he clung onto the console and began to laugh. "Oh I've missed you too!"

Twilight glared at him and clung onto the railing to balance herself and keep herself from falling over. The room shook and she felt like she was doing somersaults. "What's happening?" she cried out.

"Time travel, princess. Allons-y!"

Whooves threw his head back and laughed heartily, while poor Twilight still clung onto the railing, willing herself to wake up from the nightmare she was in.

A siren began to beep loudly, and things started to zap and explode. The doctor's face fell as he dashed about and began to furiously type on keyboards and spin gears. "No, no, no! Nooo!"

Twilight jumped forwards and rested her hooves on the console. "What's happening?"

"She really doesn't like this!" A flash of inspiration struck him. He turned to Twilight with a slightly unhinged look and licked his lips. "Twilight can you use a time travel spell on the mainframe? That should give us the boost we need. Not too much though, or you'll break all of time and space."

The princess gaped. "Oh sure, no pressure or anything," she grumbled as he led her down the stairs. The room continued to shake, and the infamous VWOOOOORPing continued. He pointed at some important looking circuits and wrenched a panel off. "Not like this day can get any worse than immanent death or whatever..."

"Right there, Twilight. When I say go, give it a jolt."

She nodded and readied herself.

"I hope this works..." Whooves mumbled with an apologetic smile.

"What do you mean you hope?" Twilight looked at him with a horrified expression

"Hush, now get ready!"

She waited. The thing in the flask writhed and twisted, desperate to escape, and made her feel extremely uneasy. "One chance... okay..." she mumbled as she lowered her horn and prepared the spell. Her lips moved wordlessly, and her brow furrowed in concentration. "Just like Starlight showed me..."

"Now Twilight!" came the doctor's voice.

A beam of magenta energy fired at the panel, and the circuits lit up with the sparkle and glow of the princess's magic. The glow increased exponentially, and Twilight had to shield her eyes. She heard a vague cry from Whooves up above, and she struggled to look up at him.

"Did it work?!" She felt her voice get lost as the sound of the TARDIS intensified, and threatened to make her ears burst. With a violent spin, the room was turned on it's head, and then everything...

Went black.

Author's Note:

Apparently VWORP is the sound the TARDIS makes according to subtitles. Go figure.

Comments

[SRY]

which looked like a metal screw, beeping and rolling against it's case repeatedly.

Iron giant I take it?

[psodude]

Nice twist. Didn't get the reference to now about the doctor.

[Thestral]

2.7 billion years in a single timeloop is my record now. Our universe is 13.8 billion years old, you know.

[Moosetasm]

2.7 billion years? Wow. Would she even remember anything other than that day?