The Adventures of Doctor Whooves: Series 1

by Time Pony Victorious

The Lost Hive

Lunar Base One, the Moon

Time Unknown

Jenny stared at the bouncing, bounding pink mare beside her with interest. Despite being thrown into a desperate, dangerous situation, Pinkie Pie maintained her bubbly demeanor and happy-go-lucky smile. It was as if she had grown accustomed to such situations or that her enthusiasm was incorruptible; or, perhaps, both.

Pinkie giggled when she met the Time Lord’s eyes. “Whatcha looking at?”

Jenny blushed slightly, Pinkie’s smile was horribly contagious and she couldn’t resist that smile that bubbled underneath. “I’m just curious as to how Father came to meet you. You don’t seem the type to go gallivanting around the universe.”

“Oh, silly. I’m not gallivanting anywhere, I’m just a traveler!”

Jenny wanted to correct herself, but Pinkie continued. “But as to how we met, I accidentally launched him toward the Everfree Forest with my trebuchet!”

“Oh, of course.” Jenny tapped her chin. “Wait, what?”

“Don’t worry, once we get back to the TARDIS and to Ponyville, the girls will explain everything!” Pinkie beamed. “We’ll take you along for our rides and it’ll be super fun!”

Pinkie jumped on a piece of debris. “Seeing the universe! All of time and space, everything that ever was or will be, where to?”

Jenny smiled, sharing a laugh with the hyperactive mare. “That would be lovely, Pinkie.”

Pinkie tilted her head in a manner that reminded Jenny of a confused puppy. “’Would be’? You say that as if you aren’t coming along.”

She blanched slightly at the faux pas. Jenny shook her head, raising a hoof and trying to a smile but it came out weaker than expected. “No, no, of course. I meant to say it will be lovely. Sorry, jumping through cracks of time tends to wear on the mind a bit.”

Pinkie said nothing for a moment and Jenny’s hearts got caught in her throat. Finally, she grinned and leapt off her makeshift pedestal. “Oh, okay! Come on then, how much longer do you think we have?”

Jenny didn’t answer, she only dutifully followed Pinkie and considered that question. The corridors looked the same, it was difficult to determine where exactly they were. She looked over her shoulder and could only see an endless giant corridor, the intersection where they parted from the Doctor and Applejack was long gone.

How would they be able to find the ponies? Were they even going in the correct direction? It would be difficult, if not impossible to navigate through these corridors without getting lost. Jenny’s hooves were beginning to ache. These ponies are smart, they flew to the moon and built a base around it! There must be a way to travel a lot faster…

Jenny noticed the damaged remains of a vehicle. Hmm…

Approaching the vehicle, she lifted it up and grinned. It was big enough to carry the two of them, but it was severely damaged. “Ooh, is that a bike?” Pinkie asked, bouncing up to Jenny.

“Something like that,” she answered. Jenny ran a hoof through her many pockets and brandished a familiar device.

“You have a sonic screwdriver?!”

Jenny nodded. “Swiped it off this lady with crazy hair. Melody something.”

She ran her sonic screwdriver over the bike. “The bike is damaged but the antigravs and the engine are still functioning,” Jenny muttered, psychically reading the sonic’s diagnostics. “I just need to..”

With a roar, the bike came to life, floating a foot or so off the ground. Jenny grinned and patted the bike. “So! Wanna go for a ride?”

~==~

The Doctor tackled Applejack as the first changeling swoop down, threatening to chomp them up. Applejack blushed immediately by the close proximity and tried to push him off. “G-git off!”

But the Doctor didn’t budge, instead grimacing at the changelings overhead. For some reason, Applejack’s legendarily strength failed her, she could’ve easily shoved the Doctor off but something about him pinning her down felt…

The Time Pony looked down at Applejack, his expression determined and almost fierce. He leaned in closer and Applejack forgot how to breathe. “Applejack, these changelings don’t mean us any harm.”

Wait, what?

“W-wait, what?” Embarrassment and uncharacteristic shyness manifested as a fierce blush on her cheeks. “They’re clearly attacking!”

“Notice how they aren’t actually attacking us!” the Doctor argued, pointing at the changelings that glided above them, as if uncertain. “They’re just trying to scare us away.”

“Oh.” Her voice was as small as Fluttershy’s, but as soon as she remembered that the Doctor was still on her…

“UGH!” the Doctor flew off Applejack and landed like a sack of potatoes, rubbing his cheek where Applejack cleanly decked him.

“Of all th’ nerve…” Applejack muttered, standing up and cleaning off her Stetson. The Doctor muttered something about crazy mares and somepony named Jackie, but Applejack didn’t pay him any attention. She looked around, the changeling nest was awake but it was as the Doctor said, none of them were attacking.

The changelings fluttered nervously around them, chattering amongst themselves and staring at the duo warily, as if they were waiting for the two of them to pull out some weapons and start shooting. “We come in peace!” the Doctor announced, before shooting a glare at Applejack. “Well, relatively speaking.”

Applejack pulled her hat down to obscure her blush. “Ya’ll can git down now! We ain’t here t’ fight!”

But none of the changelings moved, they stayed up in the air, staring at them nervously. “Maybe they don’t speak Equish?”

“Maybe…” the Doctor agreed. “Or maybe they’re waiting for their leader—wait, Equish? That’s what the language is called?”

“Ya’ve been here for how long, Doctor?”

He shook his head, stifling a laugh about pony puns. “Anyways, what did ya mean about their leader?” she asked.

“Every military has a leader,” the Doctor reasoned. “Their general! These lot must have one.”

“Last changeling leader Ah met was a queen,” Applejack explained. “She was kinda like Princess Celestia but a whole lot angrier.”

Applejack stared at the gathering of changelings and shuddered at the thought of Queen Chrysalis. She was a nasty thing, not even because of her plot to rule Equestria but the fact that she could so easily invade Shining Armor’s life by impersonating Princess Cadance. What kind of pony could just pretend to be somepony else without remorse?

That’s the major reason Applejack had such an issue with the changelings. During the wedding, while defending Canterlot from the changeling invasion, Applejack and the girls had to face off with some of the changelings who quickly morphed into them during the brawl. It was downright creepy watching some creature turn into her and viciously attack her friends.

But looking at these changelings… they were different.

Reluctant and nervous, to be honest, they reminded Applejack of Fluttershy the way they timidly flew just from their reach.

“We come in peace!” the Doctor announced in his best diplomatic voice. “I’m the Doctor, this here’s Applejack. We have no quarrel with you lot, we only wish to see your leader to try to calmly figure out what’s going on.”

As Applejack expected, however, none of the changelings responded. They hissed amongst themselves, sounds that Applejack considered hostile but they sounded panicked and confused. It reminded Applejack of Vampire Fruit Bats when you clang pots and pans near them, they fly around dazed and confused, no clue where they were.

These changelings… they’re looking at them as if this is the first time they had seen ponies in a very long time.

“Th’ Doctor’s right!” Applejack announced to the changelings.

“I am?” asked the bowtie wearing Time Pony.

Applejack nodded, barely concealing her embarrassment. “We ain’t here t’ pick a fight, we’re here t’ help!”

But they still refused to budge. Applejack bit her lip, there was something going down here and it was up to them to get to the bottom of it. It wouldn’t be easy if these changelings wouldn’t cooperate. Applejack removed her hat, showing her face and tried for a kind smile.

Fluttershy explained that animals sometimes get intimidated by the lack of expression, you have to show that you aren’t a predator by weakening the muscles in your face. She wasn’t really sure how similar these changelings were to the little critters Fluttershy took care of, but it was worth a shot.

“Ya’ll can trust us. We just want t’ talk.”

For a few seconds nothing happened, the changelings continued to stare at the duo and Applejack felt her hope crumble in her throat. Then they looked at each other and hissed in their strange language, she couldn’t understand them, weirdly enough, but they didn’t seem hostile. One by one the changelings descended from the ceiling and landed before them.

None of them dared to near the duo, however, they stayed at a respectable distance. Their posture was still wary: back arched, ears down, wings fluttering, but it was a start. Applejack took a tentative step forward.

“Take us t’ your leader, if ya’ll don’t mind.”

Nopony reacted for a moment until the group parted slightly and a slightly bigger changeling approached. He wasn’t like the others, he was bigger than them but still small enough for the lankly Doctor to tower over him. His tough shell-like body was a lot darker than the traditional gray, his buggy eyes were a deep cyan. He looked more like the changelings Applejack encountered in Canterlot.

He stuck out his tongue slightly, resembling a snake. Smelling them, maybe? Applejack wasn’t sure, it could’ve been a nervous tic for all she knew.

“Applejack... and, the Doctor?” he said in a raspy voice, as if he hadn’t had a drink of water in centuries.

“In the fur,” grinned the Doctor.

“… Come with me…”

Good, they were getting somewhere. Applejack hoped that Jenny and Pinkie had just as much luck as she had.

~==~

Jenny and Pinkie stared down the many rifles they were fixed on them. The two mares, far from intimidated, calmly held up their forelegs in surrender as the leader stepped forward and aimed her gun at Jenny.

“State your name, rank, and intention,” she asked the Time Lord.

“Pinkie Pie! Party Pony Planner and fun!”

Comments

[Capt TeK]

What you did there at the end..i see it.

[Time Pony Victorious]

3950764

Originally, Jenny was going to answer (I thought it would've been a better reference coming from her) but the idea of Pinkie answering was too appealing.

[DrWhooves007]

“Swiped it off this lady with crazy hair. Melody something.”

Melody Pond?

[Bold Promise]

This needs more work. Jenny didn't need the screwdriver, why was she here? You'd think that if she wanted to be on the Moon, she'd at least know where they'd need to go. First time you introduced her so painfully conveniently, I had assumed she was part of the pony side of the war.

The war in which Jenny should've died wasn't really an all-out war. And it certainly wasn't "that terrible war" either, it was a civil war at most.

Having her meet River Song AND Cpt Jack AND swiping both their most prized possessions is a bit convenient as well, don't you think? And even if she did somehow manage to pilfer them, though you'd think they were more than capable of fending for themselves, how the hell could the Doctor manage to save River into the Library's mainframe without her screwdriver afterwards?

You REALLY need to work this over. And after you do work it over, you need to work it over again, Cause this just won't do. It isn't even shoddy work. It's lazy as hell.

[Time Pony Victorious]

4272957

I know right, it is a bit convenient how Jenny managed to not only survive death without regeneration but end up in the same universe, nay, the same galaxy and time period as the Doctor.

Thanks for bringing up something I'm already aware of ;)

[Bold Promise]

4273289 You're right. It is all a bit convenient. I was only expecting you to have imagined a sort-of reasonable circumstance in which it might've happened. And you did... to a point.
But then again, it seems it's the only thing I've pointed out. To you, at least. I was asking how she got on the moon, not in the Ponyverse. And what she was doing there.

Whatever. Good to know you took my criticism seriously. Good to know where you're going with this.

[Time Pony Victorious]

4273503

All of the points you brought up, except maybe River's screwdriver, will be addressed later on in a way that'll hopefully change your mind. I already planned everything out, so if it seems shoddy, it's intentional