The Fantastic Adventures of Dr. Whooves: The Changeling Princess

by The-Pony-Librarian

Chapter 7

"Ha!" Applejack punched Rainbow in the shoulder as there was a crackle of magenta light "They did make in back, and he's still wearing Twilight's saddlebags. Ya' owe me what, twenty bits now?"
"You bet that weren't going to make it back?!" Twilight sputtered, setting down the chest with the Elements, and trotting up to Dash indignantly. "Gee, thanks"
Rainbow grinned and scoffed brashly "Only because I knew I could win it back from AJ twice-over anytime I want"
"Bet you couldn't!"
There was a shrill scream from the corner of the room, Rarity had seen pinkie's coat.
"Y'all get down here this instant!"
Twilight's head whipped around, in the second it had taken her to look over at Rarity, Rainbow Dash had stolen Applejack's stetson. Now the cyan pegasus was flying around with it, blowing raspberries at it's enraged owner.
"Rainbow!" Twilight said sharply "We have more important things to worry about"
There was another, louder screech, Pinkie Pie had given Rarity a hug.
"Rarity. It's OK, just-"
"Hey, Hey, ouch, stop it, stop it!" now Applejack had caught Dash's wing in her mouth and was trying to pull her to the ground.
"EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!"
Twilight stood in the middle of the group, sides heaving. Her tone made it very clear she would not take no for an answer "Will you please pay attention?"
Five wide eyed faces nodded.
"We managed to retrieve the Elements of harmony" Twilight said "Unfortunately, I probably won't be able transport everypony for at least a day. In the meantime, you should rest. That means no roughhousing, Rainbow"
"Excuse me?" A small voice piped up, previously unnoticed in all the chaos. A butter yellow pegasus raised a weak hoof "but...um.....Rarity and I were looking around, and we found some hot springs......while we're waiting, maybe you um... want to clean up? I mean...if that's okay with you.... pleasedon'thateme!"
"That's a great idea Fluttershy" Twilight said soothingly. After all, Pinkie was covered in paint, she was spattered in quite a bit herself from bumping against the painted mare during the fight, and the doctor's vaguely camera-ish fake cute marks had smeared all over his flanks and quite a bit of the rest of him.
Her meek friend lead them into a large cavern, in which several steaming pools lay "We stumbled upon them when Rarity was looking for gems" Fluttershy said happily "Aren't they pretty?"
Twilight nodded appreciatively. The pools shimmered with crystals at their bottoms, reflecting the room in facets of spectral light, and the walls of the enormous cave sparkled with the delicate reflections of thousands of tiny crystals that decorated the walls. Minute broken pieces of crystalline stone, fine as sand, sprinkled the floor as well. They clung to her hooves like glittering grit, and danced like fairy dust in the light of her horn.
"It's amazing" she breathed. It was like someone had captured the twinkling, tenuous light of the stars, and trapped it in a cavern deep below the earth, like hidden treasure.
"Well..." Fluttershy said, "I should probably check on the others. You know how they can get" She giggled softly and exited the cave
"COWABUNGAAAAAAAAA!" Pinkie shouted, running and leaping towards the nearest pool as her cry echoed around the cavern.
Twilight gave a yip of surprise, and both her and the Doctor shied away from the wall of hot water they knew would be coming their way.
But it never came.
As she looked up she saw Pinkie's tail just entering the water, as if in slow motion, as they watched her flank entered, then her hooves, then the rest of her body, all extremely slowly and making not a single splash of water.
Twilight giggled at her magenta friend, used to her reality defying properties, and leapt in herself closing her as as the warm water caressed her.
"Well Doctor?" She asked. The brown stallion was standing at the edge of the pool, mouth open.
"Oh I give up!" He said loudly "How...how does she? I....Look, I didn't want to ask before. Emergency situation and all that, but the mane deflating and inflating like a balloon, and her pulling at least one hundred items out of it, and now this... How does she do that, it shouldn't be-"
"Possible?" Twilight finished "Yeah, tell me about it. But trust me, I've looked into it and the only thing I managed to do was get myself almost eaten by a Hydra"
The cobalt eyes turned to Pinkie, who just gigglesnorted and shrugged cheerily
"Fine" The Doctor sighed, relenting and stepping into the spring "But I'm investigating this later....."
"Watch out for falling objects" Twilight cautioned with a smirk
As if on cue, Pinkie stiffened, shouting "Twitcha Twitch! Twitcha twitch!"
The two mares ducked and covered their heads as a large chunk of crystal fell from the ceiling and splashed into a nearby pool.
"I...Wait what?" The Doctor spluttered
"Whenever you hear Pinkie shout Twitcha Twitch, just duck. No questions asked. I've learned to trust her on this sort of thing"
"Whot?" The Doctor said again
Twilight sighed "Alright, you wanna hear the story. I'll tell you..."
Soon three ponies were walking out into the main cavern, two laughing uncontrollably and one looking distinctly red in the face.
"Come on! It's not that funny!"
"Pinkieus Piecus?" The Doctor choked
"Stop it!"
"I'm trying!" Pinkie said "B-b-ut you're making t-that face!"
It was true. The purple unicorn's face was bright crimson, mouth tight as she made annoyed little huffs of air, like laughter, only peeved... a truly hilarious combination.
The Doctor, who had been atempting to keep a straight expression, took one look at Twilight and burst out laughing again.
This only caused her to redden more, ears folding back and nearly pressing against her head, and mouth twisting even tighter as she shook with a strange mix of supressed laughter and indignation.
"What face?" Applejack trotted over curiously, before taking one look at Twilight and letting out a hoot of laughter "Ohhhh lordy. That face, yeeah I'm familiar with that 'n"
"Twilights making the face again?" A tomboyish voice sniggered "Priceless!"
"What's all the commotion about?" Rarity broke in "....oh. Oh Twilight, darling, I thought I told you to stopp doing that......" She threw a breif glance and the Doctor "Honestly, it'll put all the stallions right off!"
Even Fluttershy, too kind to say a hurtful word to anypony, giggled a little before covering her mouth with a hoof and looking deeply ashamed with herself.
"She was telling us the story of my Pinkie Sense!" Pinkie burbled
"That one?!" Rainbow Dash cackled, she did her best impression of Twilight while hovering in midair "This is all just a bunch of Mumbo Jumbo! I've never read about it in my books, so surely it's impossible!"
Twilight's lavender eyes filled with tears.
Applejack quickly went over to her, elbowing Rainbow, who was still cracking up at her own joke.
"Aw, Sugarcube, I know it's been a rough day"
The unicorn smiled a little at the understatement....They didn't even know about the time machine.
"We shouldn'ta needled you like that, and we're sorry"
Twilight smiled "No, no, it's fine. Like you said....it's been a tough day. You didn't mean any harm"
The farm-pony looked pointedly at Rainbow Dash, who relented "Sorry Twilight" She mumbled.
"It's fine Rainbow" Twilight said, a yawn pulling at her features "I am very tired though....."
"Twi's right" Applejack said "It's been a long day for all of us. We should rest"
The six mares all curled up on the cave floor, exhausted. Soon Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Dash, Fluttershy were all sound asleep, softly snoring.
Twilight made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat, trying to shift to a better position for the umpteenth time. Relenting to the fact that she wasn't going to fall asleep anytime soon, she got up and began to pace the floor. In near blackness, she stepped carefully around her friends, navigating her way to the cave of crystal pools.
Sighing, she sat down and dipped her hooves in the water, making gentle splashing sounds. She hoped Spike was alright.... maybe that was why she couldn't sleep. Ever since she had hatched Spike from his egg, she had never spent a night where he wasn't sleeping beside her bed.
A small shuffling sound made it's way to her ears, she honed in on it, ears flicking to locate the direction of the noise.
Slowly, she got up, making as little noise as possible. She moved slowly towards the sound, edging around the crystal pools so she wouldn't fall in.
She could tell she was close, very close
"AHA!"
She leaped forward, lighting her horn, then stumbled backwards as she saw another pony leaping towards her, brandishing a sonic screwdriver and shouting "AHA!" as well.
"Doctor?" She mumbled, rubbing her head where she had hit in on the floor "I thought you were a changeling!"
The brown pony helped her up "Couldn't sleep?" he asked amiably
Twilight shook her head "I suppose the same goes for you?"
The Doctor shook his head "No. I don't need very much sleep, hardly any in fact. Gets a bit tiresome when you are constantly interacting with humans....or now, ponies who need eight hours of it a day, but I make do."
Twilight shot him a slightly envious look, she couldn't even imagine the things she could accomplish if she didn't have to sleep.
"Lucky...." She mumbled "I would love having more hours in the day"
The Doctor smirked "Well from what I've heard you seem to have done more than most ponies already"
Twilight scoffed "The only real story of mine you've heard was the one where I was acting like a complete idiot"
"Nonsense!" The Doctor said "You took on a hydra to make sure your friends got away"
"and got by on the skin of my teeth..."
"Besides, we need people...or ponies... who ask questions" The Doctor said "Otherwise everyone would still go around believing the world is flat, and you need leeches to cure a cold....Are you always so pessimistic Miss.Sparkle?"
The unicorn shrugged "when it comes to myself....yeah, usually......"
The Doctor chuckled "You know it's really very weird meeting a magical talking horse, who is the student of the magical horse princess, and lives in a magical land where almost everybody is happy, with low self-confidence"
"Well when you put it that way, it really does sound rather silly" Twilight found herself chuckling
"Atta girl!" The Doctor said "Now you should rest. You've got a giant magical shape-shifting horse-bug to defeat tomorrow"
Twilight smiled and got up, trotting back to the main cavern and leaving the brown time pony alone with the crystals and his thoughts.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the shortness/general fluffiness of this chapter. The next one will be getting back into the action, and should be longer as well

Comments

[Platnium]

No, comments... THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good work by the way, every story needs a short chapter!

[prench derpy hooves]

2786584
I agree , 50.5% of the chapters in my story's are short any way