MLP: A Favor Returned

by WorldWalker128

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“So are you going to tell us what's on your mind, Doctor?” The Shield asked while they followed Ditzy to her to the room of the magazine's owner. She had not really had much opportunity to speak once they were 'introduced' to the two Humans. Shield was already pretty sure she had an idea as to why he had taken them all here from the questions he'd asked, but it seemed a bit far-fetched to her.

“Just a hunch, that's all.” He said nonchalantly. “Idle curiosity.”

Right, and I'm more fooled than that Human male was. Shield thought, with much more sarcasm in mind than Jacob had voiced.

“Give me some credit, Doctor. I'm younger than you, but I'm not stupid.”

“I never said that you were.”

“He really does just act on whims sometimes, miss Shield.” Ditzy explained. “I think old age has made him a little eccentric.”

“Hey! Old age?! I'm right here, you know!” Ditzy looked over her shoulder, still walking forward.

“Well, miss Shield is over two hundred, which is longer than Humans live and much longer than we Ponies live, and you're way older than she is.”

“But Celestia and Luna are far older than I am! By your own words from a month ago they're Ponies too!” Even if they're closer in size to horses and if my theory is right, not equine at all.

“But you're not really a Pony, Doctor, as you keep telling me.” She turned her head to face forward again and quickly stopped to avoid walking into a servant who was paying even less attention to where she was going than Ditzy had been.

Why is it every time I am in the company of more than one female, regardless of specie, they take conversational sides against me? After all this time of having traveled with multiple women from multiple times and worlds, you'd think that I'd at least have a bare-bones understanding of the female mind by now! The Doctor mentally complained to the ceiling as Ditzy came to a stop outside of the servants' quarters.

Ditzy knocked on the door and announced that the mail had arrived and read off the name on the sticky-label stuck to the back of the magazine. The muffled sound of a Pony galloping to the door came through it and shortly after a red and yellow mare opened the door and practically snatched it out of Ditzy's hoofs. She stared at the person on the front, her eyes becoming wide and a smile that all of them but Ditzy (who had become used to it by now) found disturbing spread across her face. She shook one of Ditzy's hoofs vigorously and thanked her and hoofed her a small envelope as well as gave her two large coins as a tip. Ditzy tried to give the bits back but the customer insisted and Ditzy stuffed them into a pocket and wished the customer good day before turning away. Ditsy read the front of the letter and then stuffed it into the mailbag she was using for letters that went back to Ponyville.

“Okay, I'm done here. If you want to see the princesses, Celestia should be in the throne room right now listening to petitioners and whiners.”

“Winers?” Shield asked. “Does Celestia often sample wine?”

“No, no, not that kind of 'wine'. Whiners as in complainers. From what the servants have told me the majority of the Ponies that come to see Celestia are there to complain about something and expect her to fix it rather than trying do it themselves even when it comes to something simple.”

“The more I hear about royalty, the more I think that being a member of them would just one big headache.”

The trio stopped outside of the throne room and waited to be noticed by the guards, who pretended not to notice them at all, even when The Doctor cleared his throat several times. Finally, he stepped directly in front of one and stated that they'd like to see the princess.

“No, really?” The guard asked, voice practically dripping with sarcasm. “And here I thought you were here to shine my hoofs.” He turned his head to his companion standing on the other side of the doors. “Hey Patchy! They're here to see Celestia! Can you believe it?!”

“Just let them in, Lemon Life. You don't need to take out your sour mood on civilians.”

“Ha ha ha. Very punny.” He turned to the doors and pushed one open with a leg. “She's got a bit of a line, so you'll need to wait for the others to finish first. If you'd prefer not to wait you can either leave and come back later, or you can try asking a Unicorn to try sending you into the future.” The Doctor looked into the throne room to observe the line of fifteen various Ponies waiting in line behind a sixteenth. He considered briefly taking the sarcastic guard's suggestion seriously, but decided against it and trotted inside, followed by Ditzy and The Shield.

Most of those in line were there, as Ditzy had said, to complain about something that they probably could have dealt with on their own. One of them even came to say that her pet cat had gone missing. That's a fully-grown woman er- mare! Why is she telling the princess her cat is missing?! The Doctor thought as he watched, not so much annoyed at the princess' time being wasted, but their own.

One after the other, the Ponies stated their business until there were only four left before it was their turn. Ditzy yawned loudly, making a cute little sound as she exhaled. The sound drew every other Pony's attention in the room, including Celestia's. When she saw The Doctor standing next to Ditzy her eyes widened in surprise and recognition and she announced that an important messenger had arrived and that the remaining petitioners were to leave their written suggestion, reports, or complaints in the care of the two guards by the door. The Shield, annoyed after having to wait for as long as they had (close to two hours) began to protest, but Celestia quickly interrupted her and said that the report could wait until after the others had left. Curious as to how the princess apparently knew them, she became silent and waited. Once the other Ponies had left, Celestia bid them to come closer.

“It has been long since I last saw you, Doctor.” Celestia stated formally. The patient smile she had worn like a mask when listening to the whiners and petitioners had been replaced with a more serious expression. “Nearly five hundred years, I think. Tell me, did you succeed in your search for the Sapphire Stars?” The Doctor was confused, and asked Celestia what she was talking about. Celestia face-hoofed and told him to forget about it. “I sometimes forget that though our paths have crossed many times and that you've had several different forms in the past, and perhaps even the future, that you have not yet as far as you know, been a part of it. Forgive me.”

“Oh, it's no problem, you highness, I've had encounters like that before. 'Spoilers' she always told me.” He muttered under his breath and seemed to be irritated for a moment, but quickly returned back to his Doctor-y self. “So, may I assume that you already know why I'm here?” Celestia shook her head.

“No. 'Spoilers' is often what you” she looked at Ditzy. “or she would tell me as well. But always when we needed your help and magic alone was not enough you were there, and I owe you more gratitude than I can ever hope to repay.”

“Perchance, did you ever see me as having a red mane and tail and a whitish hide?” Celestia shook her head. “Blast! Will I never be ginger?” Ditzy tilted her head.

“You want ginger? What for? Do you want use it for seasoning?”

“No, no, Ditzy, not for food. Ginger when referring to one's self is- oh never mind, it's not important.” Deciding to be direct, The Doctor asked if Celestia knew what Time Lords were. Celestia nodded, and for a moment he felt the joy of having one of his wild theories (once again) being right, but he was disappointed half a second later when she said that it had been him that had told her about them, and that he, and the young woman standing behind him, were Time Lords, and said nothing about herself or her sister.

“You also told me of several great deeds your peoples performed, and of their downfalls. Why do you ask?”

“Because Shield told me that there was another race of Time lords in your universe as well. A race of Time Lords that had a weapon that no other race could use, including her own.”

“I was not aware of this. None of you had mentioned that to me in my past. What sort of weapon, miss Shield?”

“I don't know. The Time War ended before I was born, and the race from your world, according to my parents, supposedly died out from a plague.”

“I believe, princess Celestia, that the weapon those Time Lords used was magic, and that you and your sister are descended from those Time Lords.” Celestia looked at the three of them a for a few moments each to see if they were serious, and then started laughing.

“An interesting theory, Doctor, but as you both have told me, every so often, when a Time Lord reaches a certain point or if they become fatally injured, they regenerate and their form changes. Neither myself, nor Luna have ever done this.”

“This is true. However, neither you nor Luna have ever gotten into the position that you've needed to regenerate, and more than that, you've got the use of magic and could probably heal any injury you gained. More than that, I've seen Unicorns shape-shift themselves with magic. If the Time Lords of this universe could also use magic, it would be a small thing with your abilities in magic to simply change their shape and hide out here from the Daleks.”

“Daleks? What are they?” Ditzy tried to answer that they were the things that would be destroying Earth in about two hundred or so years, but The Doctor covered her mouth with a hoof.

“If you don't know, then it seems my theory was wrong. Thank you for your time, you highness.” The Doctor bowed and left, the two girls doing the same, though Ditzy looked back a few times and waved before they reached the door.

“Doctor!” Celestia called to them. The trio stopped and looked back. “Contrary to what legends tell, my sister and I were not the first Alicorns on Mythica. If you really think that me and my sister could be Time Lords, you would need to ask our mother, father, or uncle to find out. Go backward in time. Go back more than eight hundred years, and you'll find them.”

The TARDIS' engine hummed to life as The Doctor put in the time frame for their next little trip. Before he went into the past to satisfy what he believed to be mere curiosity, he would find out when exactly the Daleks were to be attacking now that he'd scrambled their information systems. First, as he had done the first time, he checked the year two thousand, two hundred and eleven (or 2211, to be simple), but a few hours after their first trip so that they'd not see one another and cause a paradox. To his distress, as well as that of Ditzy, the Earth was still as lifeless as it had been the first time they'd seen it in this time period with a few differences such as a number of downed Dalek ships and destroyed soldiers that the TARDIS detected in the UK. Curious at this change, The Doctor took the TARDIS down to the planet's near-lifeless surface and stepped out once more onto the surface to investigate.

Upon scanning several of the downed ships (both The Shield and The Doctor used their tech) they determined that they had been brought down with a combination of blaster fire from tech that once again, Humanity would not have possessed in that time period, and with something else that The Doctor's tech could not identify. Shield's tech however, could.

“There's a faint residue of magic on this one, but only this one and the one we found half an hour ago. It looks like the others either had technical problems or were shot down by...my ship?” She looked at the Doctor. “Did you see an alien craft get involved the first time you watched this happen?” The Doctor shook his head, but Ditzy, who stood next to him, nodded. The Shield looked at Ditzy, and then frowned at the Doctor. The Doctor raised and eyebrow and then also glanced at Ditzy, who had begun rapidly shaking her head as if to make up for the 'nos' she should have been doing. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“Because we had not known it was yours when we saw it, and really, still do not know for certain that it was you piloting the ship. Ditzy and myself had not known at the time that there were other Time Lords alive still, and even if we had, we had not yet met you, and after we did, we did not know what your ship looked like. And really, until we find that ship here and a burned corpse in it, we won't be certain that it's really yours.”

“That's a thin reason, Doctor. In all the time I've spent searching for others like me or some other remnant of our civilization I've not found another intact ship like mine. Besides that I've gotten into several fights with several different races. I know the marks my weapons make on star ships.”

Ditzy, becoming bored, wandered away from The Doctor and The Shield and began inspecting something partially buried in a pile of rubble down (what was left of) the street from where they stood inspecting the crashed Dalek ship. It was old, but it still caught the light of the sun which is why she had noticed it in the first place. Ditzy dug most of it out of the rubble and then took hold of it with her teeth and pulled. No result. She pulled again, harder this time, and it came loose with a scraping noise and she plopped back on her rump with a long object that reminded her of a Human weapon that she'd seen a few years ago. Recalling how the Human had held it she tried to imitate, but her body was not the right shape for it and she had no fingers and only succeeded in dropping it. She frowned and tried again, and again, dropped it, but this time it landed on a bone that she'd also dug out, and the weapon discharged a yellow laser shot that ricochet off the hull of the crashed Dalek ship and hit the ground at the Doctor's front hoofs.

“What the- Ditzy! What are you doing?!” Ditzy danced back from the weapon and pointed a hoof at it.

“I didn't mean to! I just dropped it and-”

“Hold on a minute!” The Shield exclaimed, scanning the ground where the shot had hit. She then jogged to where the gun had dropped and picked it up, examining it and turning it over in her hands, and then scanned it as well. Her jaw dropped and she stared at the weapon in her hands. “That can't be right.” The Doctor joined the two girls in examining the weapon. To him it looked like a standard (if a bit computer-integrated) military-issued weapon that would have been used about ninety years ago.

“What is it?” He looked at the weapon in The Shield's one hand. “It doesn't look particularly special to me, if you ignore the casing and the little ammunition counter.”

“This isn't Human tech.” She replied. “I mean, it was made from materiel here on Earth, but the design of this comes from my people! This is a Human version of a Time Lord combat rifle! It even has a bio-key!”

“Then why did it go off? None of us are Human.” The Doctor asked.

“Well,” Dtisy pointed at the bone the weapon had fallen on. “when I dropped it the second time it landed on that bone. May it belonged to a Human?”

“Perhaps, but since when do Humans have Time Lord weaponry? I know that I've never given it to them!”

“Neither have I.” The Shield added. “I only have two weapons from my people, and I've kept both of them. The one is my emergency pistol, and the other does not work because the energy conversion chamber (it was what converted energy from the power cell into a weapon projectile form) was damaged a century ago and I don't know how to fix it. It's inside my ship on Mythica, hidden in a underground cave.”

“Really? I can help you with that, if you like.” The Doctor offered.

“Really?! I'd appreciate it!”

“I'll probably need a replacement part for it, though, so let's hold onto that, for now. We may be able to adapt the Human version to function with yours.” He pointed a hoof at the weapon in The Shield's hand and she nodded.

The trio explored the general area for a time, but eventually returned to the TARDIS. The Doctor wanted to go back farther as he had before to find out exactly when the Daleks had attacked this time, but first, due to them previously having witnessed the entire thing from behind the moon the first time around they had to go to the other side of the planet and cloak the TARDIS' energy signature so that their earlier selves would not detect their presence. Unfortunately, though they briefly detected the 'other' TARDIS, (and according to the time readout the year was indeed 2121) they arrived to find that the planet was already decimated. Disturbed at finding this, The Doctor had the TARDIS travel back farther in increments of two weeks until 2120- one year before the original invasion date, and one year after the Doctor and Ditzy had tried to avert the attack.

The Daleks came sooner this time! But why? And how could they have found Earth so quickly? Wait...

The Doctor's mind flashed back through several memories. First, came something that The Shield had told him, albeit not in direct quote:

“My people and the Time Lords from the Mythica universe were allies and we fought the Daleks.” Then, it flashed to him and Ditzy flying the TARDIS down to the Dalek home world. They would have known exactly what the ship was and who had grown it even if they had not known which version had grown it. Then it flashed forward to him telling Ditzy to take out the lenses on the two Daleks trying to prevent his and Ditzy's escape from the planet. She flew forward in slow motion in his mind's eye, whirling and dodging shots, one of which he had thrown himself to the floor to avoid being hit by. Ditzy smashed the lenses, and then kicked them a second time on their domed heads. Kicked their domed heads.

This time his mind went back farther to when he was still traveling with Rose. She had once touched a damaged Dalek with a bare hand and it identified fresh DNA and used the DNA to reconstruct himself. Identified DNA from touch!

“No...” He whispered, his mind still putting more pieces together but knowing ultimately what had happened and why. His mind flashed back to two sentences in the linear future following the same result, but a different subject.

“I only have two weapons from my people, and I've kept both of them.” and also “It's inside my ship on Mythica, hidden in a underground cave.” His mind switched to the memory of the three of them looking down on the dead-again Earth. There had been several ships that had been shot down by her ship, according to her later claims.

“The first time it was just me and Ditzy and the Shield alone flew to defend Earth with the only weapons of their kind to ever visit Earth.” He continued whispering. “She had not met us, and so she had eventually returned to her star ship. But when we tried to change things we ran into her, and she came with us instead, leaving her ship unguarded.” All it would have taken was for one Pony or Human who'd seen enough sci-fi movies to identify it for what it was: an alien ship, and it would have been transported elsewhere for study as soon as word got back to the right people.

War ships were not safeguarded as much as true time-traveling ships were. Eventually, especially with the aid of magic, they would have forced a way in, and would have begun studying the tech inside. Which would explain the Time Lord-based weaponry we found in the future! The Doctor thought. Weapons are easier to replicate than a full star ship, which would explain why they had the guns but only her ship to fight with...

“Doctor?” The Shield asked. “Is something wrong?” he didn't answer them, but instead continued staring straight ahead while his gears turned and shifted back to the subject of discovery.

“They would not have had data on the Echo Dimension's Sol system and the galaxy it was contained within, but-” He cut himself off and looked at The Shield. “Could the Daleks of both worlds hop dimensions like you can?” She shrugged.

“Again, the Time War ended before I was born. But I suppose it's possible. Why?”

“Because if they could then it would explain how they knew where to find Earth and why they came so quickly. I caused their archive memory banks to become corrupted when it came to the Milky Way Galaxy (as the Humans call it) so that they would have to explore it all over again, but if they had access to their counterparts data archives in the Mythica dimension, then they could have restored the data in mere hours!”

“But all the Daleks of the Mythica dimension were wiped out. Even if they had backup data elsewhere, what would it matter?”

“Because they found your parents hiding out on that old space station. The Daleks weren't content just to end the war, it's not their way. They don't conquer, they exterminate!” Her eyes became wide.

“They were searching for us!” He nodded.

“Systematically. One galaxy after the other. During the Time War of my Reality Humans were little more than smart apes, no reason to pay them any mind, which means they would have no reason to return. But I wiped that data out and brought them proof that not all the Time Lords were dead and dealt with, which to them, would mean that I was trying to hide something from them, which, of course I was, but not for the reasons they probably think. If they thought for even a second that there were still some of your people left, they would use all available resources to find you, and if they could hop dimensions...”

“They would search out their own counterpart's bases-” The Doctor nodded while continuing the sentence she's started.

“Use their data to fill in the blank space in their own archive-

“And head here as fast as they could to find a last Time Lord hiding place!”

“And what they found were the Humans, who look exactly like you do, and detected weaponry similar to that of the Time Lords, and invaded without a second's hesitation and destroyed them all!”

Ditzy, The Doctor, and The Shield looked at one another.

“We killed the Human race!”

% % % % %

“At least, we did that time around. As to the first time we may never know what brought that along. Perhaps The Shield had been detected by them during a re-scouting mission and then they found Humanity. Or perhaps the magic being used on Earth gave off an energy signature that was more detectable than the noise that little world was making with their primitive (in comparison to their own) communication devices.”

“Not that it matters now, Doc.” Jacob set down the book he'd been writing in and flexed his fingers, which had become stiff from the constant writing and wished he'd had a laptop instead. “We beat them.”

“Yes.” He sighed. “For now. But they will come back again. They always come back. It might not be for a few years, decades, or even centuries, but they'll be back, and next time you Humans and Ponies might not be so fortunate because we won't be able to use the same tactic. It will be up to that generation to beat them on their own.”

“Tactic?” Twilight asked. “What tactic?”

“I hate spoilers, so let me just say this: sometimes studying the past can help change the future.” The Doctor said, looking pleased with himself.

“Okay, Doc, you've held the spotlight for long enough and you still have not explained why Jacob went missing.” It was Trixie that spoke this time. “Let him have a turn. I remember that encounter we had with one another, and also I recall Jacob had been acting strange during the afternoon of the following day, but he never told me why and it's been bothering me all this time.” Jacob hesitated.

“I had my reasons.” He answered evasively. He didn't want to reveal the reasons behind it to everypony here, but he did feel that he owed her an explanation. The two of them had been close (good friends, nothing romantic) at one time, and for him it still felt almost like last week since he'd seen her, though it had been closer to two years for him, a little over twelve for her. “Trixie, if you really do want to know, then I'll tell you, but only you.” Trixie raised her eyebrows and looked at the other girls and then back at him. “It's not something I'm supposed to explain to everyone, but I'll explain it to you. I learned some things.” Jacob glanced at The Doctor, who was pouring himself another cup of tea and was pretending to not be listening. Jacob knew better. “Some things that have nothing to do with The Doctor's story.”

Trixie rose to a standing position from her seat on the floor and nodded. Jacob crossed the room and the pair went outside.

The two of them kept walking until they reached the TARDIS, which Jacob opened and stepped into, motioning for Trixie to follow.

When Trixie stepped into the blue box she gasped and gazed at the large room contained inside the deceptively small box. She touched a bench, ran her hands over them to make sure they were real, and then sat onto it a few seconds, then stood again and walked to the control console. She traced the outline of several buttons, knobs, and levers, and then looked at me a few seconds before she crossed the room and stopped at the stairs and looked down.

“The Doctor claims that none of this is magic?! How could this possibly be a wonder of technology?!” Jacob smiled and joined her.

“Human technology is primitive compared to Time Lord tech, but so is every other race except for a small handful of exceptions, and will be for many millenia to come. But we Humans can do something that only two other races in this entire universe can.”

“Magic?” Jacob smiled and nodded. “Granted, we are the only ones that need to be in contact with another object first, but we can still do it.”

“Speaking of magic, did you ever find out why we need to be touching a horn in order to use it?” Jacob nodded. “OBAMAR would love to know that! They've been pestering me on and off for the last decade since you disappeared to join them in search for that answer!”

“They wouldn't believe me if I told them. Trix, do you recall the day that you first tried to turn into a Human?” She nodded.

“How could I forget?” She asked as she walked back across the room to stand in front of Jacob, who had closed the door behind him. She caught him in a hug. “It was the day we met!” He hugged her back. As they held one another, tears trickled down her face. “I missed you, Jacob!” She squeezed him tighter. “I heard what you said to Spike back in the cave about leaving again. We all did.” She looked up into his face, though they were near the same height now, and she did not have to look far. “Please stay this time.”

“I will stay for a time, but you heard what the Doctor said, Trixie. The Daleks will come back again. I'm going to ask the Doctor to take me with him so that if we do run into them again in the future I can fight them. They are terrible, Trixie. You can't even begin to imagine them and the damage they can do, and I'm glad that you won't be able to naturally live long enough to see them. You and the others.” He wiped her tears away with a hand, loosened his hold on her, and took a step back. “Come, I want to show you something.”

He led her back across the room to the steps and then down them two floors until they stopped in the area that would have been where the pilots would have slept had there been any besides The Doctor (and Ditzy and eventually Jacob, who didn't know nearly enough to be of much help in that regard). He stopped before an orange door and placed his hands on it. The door slid open silently and he led her in.

The room, contrary to most of the rest of the ship, was rather small. It was only about half the size of their bedroom in the Canterlot palace, and was almost bare of decoration save for a small strange tree with a smooth trunk and white flowers with golden centers and silver leaves that seemed to give off their own light. It was a tree that she recognized, though she had seen it only once many years ago.

“That's one of the trees from Earth's version of Everfree forest before it was destroyed by your ancestor and Thanatos!” Jacob nodded. “But that tree is extinct!” Jacob smiled.

“Not anymore. Actually, I have a favor to ask you regarding that tree. That tree won't be able to germinate for another three years of linear time and I need someone to take care of it after I'm gone and ensure that it multiplies. Would you be willing to do that for me?” Trixie looked at the tree for a time, then at Jacob.

“What's so special about it?” Jacob shrugged.

“It's a beautiful extinct tree that we can revive here in this era. Does it need to be more special than that?”

“I guess not. So was this tree what you wanted to show me?” Jacob shook his head and walked over to his bed and sat down on the edge of it and put a hand down his shirt at the collar. Trixie hear the sound of something jingling and a moment later he pulled out a single object that Humans in the military called 'dog tags'. Instead of a name indented in the metal there was a small picture of six dice that all had sixes facing up on one side. He turned the tag around so the back showed and she saw his family's symbol.

“Do you remember that bag that I tossed to you the day we went to the beach and then later met The Doctor?” She nodded. In truth she had forgotten about it until Jacob and The Doctor had begun telling their story, but now she recalled it almost clearly once more.

“It was empty until you held it.”

“When I tossed the dice, they all faced up sixes, the same as on this tag.”

“So?”

“I don't think that I've ever told you about this, or anyone besides my parents, but on the day that Melinda left I was present.”

Jacob explained to her why Melinda had disappeared and what had happened after that. Trixie was just as puzzled as his parents had been. Then he explained the riddle out. The thing he'd trusted to the most throughout his adventure had been luck. When things looked hopeless or close to it he ignored the odds and ran headlong into it and hoped for the best, and he had always gotten extremely lucky.

“While you were out that morning running an errand for Luna while she slept I flattened the scroll out and placed the solid dice on the drawn dice on the picture I'd received...”

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Trixie had gone out of the palace on a personal errand that Luna had sent her on, leaving me to my own devices until later tonight. This was going to be the best time to test my theory regarding the note and the dice provided no servants walked in, and I'd already locked the door to prevent such an intrusion.

The note was on the writing desk where I'd left it yesterday along with the dice bag and a candle, quill, and ink well. The quill I often treated as a decoration rather than an actual writing tool because the last one I'd tried to use I'd broken several times until it was too short to be used. From then on I'd stuck with click-pens or pencils.

Putting the candle, ink well, and quill pen to one side I unrolled, spread out, and weighted the paper (not parchment) down so that it would not re-roll itself up again. I then picked up and opened the pouch and dumped the dice into my hand and placed them one after the other onto the dice on the picture in the order that they'd stopped on when I'd tossed them to the floor and waited. Nothing happened. I waited longer, pulling the bench it had come with out from under the desk and sat on it for ten minutes, silently watching. Still nothing. Feeling foolish I collected the dice again and poured all but one back into the bag. That one slipped over the edge of my fingers rather than my palm where the others had fallen and bounced on the paper beneath it. When it stopped I reached for it, then saw it had stopped on one of the six points I'd just cleared. Huh? I plucked another die out from th ebag and dropped it as well. It bounced backward and spun several times which tossed it to one side, and then also stopped on a drawn die space. I turned the pouch over in my hands and once more read the two words on it. Fortuna's Gamble...Fortuna...Fortune! Luck! That's why nothing happened when I placed the dice on the spots! I'm supposed to trust to random luck and toss the dice! I poured the remaining four dice into my hand again and tossed them lightly onto the paper below. As they had with the floor the dice tumbled, bounced, and rolled, and just as they had when tossed on the stones of the floor, they all stopped on the six points!

I smiled to myself, feeling oddly proud of what I'd accomplished, though other than dropping a few plastic objects on paper I'd not really done anything. This feeling faded into annoyance as, once again, nothing happened.

“What do you want me to do,” I yelled at the paper. “Sign my name in blood or something?!”

“Nothing quite so dramatic, still-young Jacob Lighthand!” A familiar voice said from behind me, followed by a chuckle. My door had been shut, and locked. No one could have gotten in without either using magic or without breaking the door down (unless they flew in through a window, but none of my windows were broken). I looked behind me and saw that my entire bedroom had been filled with white fog just as Melinda's home had been those years ago. With the exception of the desk that I sat at, none of the other objects in my room were visible except and outline or two. “I just needed to fill your room with fog first.”

“Why?” The same woman that I'd seen earlier at the beach, now dressed in a red dress like you'd expect from a stereotypical blond from a casino-related movie to wear walked out of it and stopped in front of me. Her hair color, which I had forgotten before, was also, according to the stereotype, blond.

“Why, dramatic effect, of course! Have you figured out who I am yet?” I considered her question and took a shot in the dark based off several things: one, the dress she was wearing, two, the pouch of dice she'd given me, and how up until the siege on Canterlot there hadd been many instances where I'd been unusually lucky (and from how few people would gamble against me when games of chance were involved) and that Melinda had said that she'd sensed an 'interference aura' about me that belonged to the woman standing before me.

“Are you...Lady Luck?” Her face lit up and she walked forward and gave me a hug and patted me on the back. After a moment she released me and stepped back.

“Well done! I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever figure it out! Now that you have, we can get down to business! I'm here offer you a job.”

“Melinda's old job?” My neck had started to hurt, so I turned around on the bench. She shook her head.

“No, no. Her part in this Reality is done, and other than her first failure, which was only a minor setback in the grander scheme, she succeeded quite well.”

“If you don't mind my asking, what was her new job? All she said was that you'd given her a second chance and then she gave me my staff.” She wagged a finger at me.

“Sorry, dear mortal, employer-employee confidentiality. Besides, if I told you it would ruin the job I have in mind for you, if you're willing.”

A job, huh? I thought, being careful to keep my expression neutral. When Melinda messed up, rather than getting fired she was stuck in this world for hundreds of years in a body that was not her own. Clearly, this woman has no problem letting others know when she's not happy.

“What's the job?”

“You didn't ask what the pay was first. You're smarter than the last mortal that worked for me.” She seemed please by this. “The job is very simple. I want you to travel with a certain brown Earth Pony that visited you earlier today, and to continue traveling with him until you meet someone you've killed. That's all.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Huh? Just traveling? That's it?” She nodded.

“That's it. Just travel with him. You don't need to do anything else.”

“Wait a second, how can I meet someone that I've killed? That doesn’t make any sense!” She didn't answer that question, and only waited. “And really, why would I want to meet someone that I've killed? The only beings that I've killed were ones that meant me harm. I don't want to encounter any of them again!”

“So are you turning me down? I won't be angry if you do.”

In the end it was curiosity that won me over. I wasn't sure if I believed that she was truly a Deity, but in a weird world like ours I supposed it was possible, and this was indeed the same person from before in Melinda's home.

When I said yes she gave me a thumbs-up and told me that I'd not regret it and told me to place an open hand on my family's symbol to seal our contract. I did so and the black lines of ink shone like you'd expect to see in a TV show back home. After a few seconds the light went out and the design and the dice all vanished, leaving my palm touching the now-empty desk. When I looked up from the desk the fog was gone, as was the form of Lady Luck. She had not left entirely, however, and her disembodied voice warned me that I would only have a brief window of opportunity to include myself into the company of the traveler.

“He will come again briefly tomorrow in the Zebra lands. He'll never take you along if you just ask, so you'll need to find a way to board his ship on your own. Once you're inside he'll be too baffled as to how you got in if you shut the doors behind you to want to throw you out.” She gave me a description of what to look for in terms of his traveling craft.

“But the Zebrican lands are huge!” I objected. “How am I supposed to find something so small even if its colors make it stand out like an Eagles fan sitting alone in a Ravens stadium?!” But she did not answer, and I sighed.

Lady Luck had warned me that telling the wrong people about her could cause trouble, but refused to go into much detail on the subject, saying that she was telling me 'all that she safely could' whatever that meant. I now understood why Melinda didn't seem to like her. I felt more confused than a fish caught in a water spout (an ocean tornado). He would come tomorrow, which meant that I'd have very little time to come up with an excuse to just up-and-leave, and it would have to be a good one, otherwise Celestia would likely send somepony looking for me. People who traveled for a 'living' often didn't stay in one place for very long, and I had no way of knowing when (or even how, for that matter) that I'd be meeting someone I'd killed. It sounded more like a riddle than anything else, but then, she seemed to like throwing out odd statements for me to puzzle through. Hopefully this one won't take me years to decipher like the first one did!

% % % % %

“And from there I have no problem telling the rest of the story to the other girls. I won't tell them why I was searching their group out like I've told you, but you'll know, and I'll add it to my journal later. Celestia can decide whether or not to let them know.”

“Can I...come with you?” Trixie asked. Jacob broke eye contact, sighed, and shook his head.

“Trixie, you're a part of this time line that we cannot afford to change. I'd explain why, but it could ruin something very important that needs to happen. I'm sorry.” Trixie began to look sad again, so he rose from the bed and hugged her again. “Don't think that I won't be coming back to visit you and the others again in your future. It'll just be awhile, that's all.” Trixie looked up at him again.

“I'll find a way to make it happen sooner than you think.” She declared, no longer looking sad. Jacob knew what she was thinking, because he'd already read about it in the future's history books. By telling her that he'd see her in the future when she wanted to go now, and her having listened to the story told by him and the Doctor, it would be her that would 'discover' The Shield's Timux star ship, which in turn would make the future that the Doc, Ditzy, and The Shield saw come to pass, which would then drive them to go back and try again.

This was the reason that The Doctor said to never get involved in big historical events (or historical events at all other than to observe). Even though linear time would be altered by their interference, there were more layers to time-flow than that. Linear time was only what those living in it saw. Those not bound to live in linear time would also be able to see and appreciate what had brought it about, down to the smallest alteration, which could ripple out and cause a much different 'ending'. Or, to put it as The Doctor often 'explained', “Wibbly wobbly timey-wimely...stuff.”

Jacob and Trixie (Trixie carrying the plant along) left the TARDIS and returned to the cave where Pinkie had somehow acquired a cake and several bowls of pretzels, chips, and a few two liter bottles of soda which she had dumped all together in one punch bowl.

“What?! You brought out the cake without us?!” Trixie yelled at Pinkie Pie, who was scarfing junk food from the pretzel bowl (and occasionally squirting mustard in her mouth) about as fast as Garfield did in the newspaper comic strips.

“Well you were taking a long time, and we figured that since you two hadn't seen one another in awhile that you might want even more time to yourselves,” Pinkie Pie winked at the pair and Jacob got the distinct feeling that Pinkie had jumped to the wrong conclusion about the time they'd spent in the TARDIS. Trixie had the same feeling. “so we broke out the snack food that we'd hidden in Spike's pantry and threw a party!” Pinkie threw up her hooves and from nowhere a pink and yellow cloud of confetti blasted behind her and drifted down to the floor. She picked one strip of it out of the pretzel bowl and continued inhaling.

“Pinkie! Rainbow Dash scolded, placing a hoof in the space between the food and Pinkie's mouth. Her leg went down Pinkie's throat and stopped at the shoulder. Pinkie blinked in surprise and pulled RBD's leg (now coated in saliva) back out again. “Stop eating all the pretzels! They haven't had any yet, and you've already eaten most of the cake!”

“But I'm hungry!” Pinkie objected. “We didn't have time to pack any real food on such short notice, and then we were listening to the story instead of eating!”

“Eating a bunch of junk isn't healthy for you, Pinkie.” Twilight futilely pointed out, not for the first time since they'd started being friends. As far back as she could remember Pinky Pie ate enough sugar on a daily basis to knock out a horse, and yet it never seemed to affect her in the slightest. Other than her teeth, that was. At least once every four months Pinkie Pie had to pay a visit to the dentist, and she almost always walked away with a large bill in hoof and infinitely shinier teeth than they had been before.

Both Jacob and Trixie helped themselves to the snacks that had been brought, and once they each had a disposable plate with some snacks and a paper cup full of drink the group of ponies turned to Jacob and awaited his 'turn'. When he noticed they were watching him he stopped in mid-chew and then rapid-chewed and swallowed.

“Alright, I guess I'm up, then!” Jacob drank from his cup, and then began his next part just before he had gone to dinner.
______

Well, well, well! It seems that Derpy is now the official name. Having come as far with this as I have calling Derpy Ditzy, however, I don't think I'll be changing it. besides, my version of Derpy isn't as clumsy as official Derpy is.

Comments

[Nathan Traveler]

rollin' with the dice takes on an entirely new meaning now.

[Meta Knight]

♫♥I look forward to reading what happens next in your story♥♪

[WorldWalker128]

161061
The next chapter is a bit bizarre (or maybe far-fetched would be a better word), gotta warn ya.

[uTTerAbsurdity]

Well, you've certainly got the confusing part of Doctor Who nailed down. And making it all coherent makes it even more impressive!

[Fawkes]

332447
i find it perfectly coherent all the time