• Published 17th Jan 2013
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The Adventures of Doctor Whooves: Series 1 - Time Pony Victorious



The Doctor, fresh off his regeneration, sets off in this strange world with ponies and mythical creatures with his TARDIS onwards and upwards to see the universe.

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Party Time

The Morning Light, The Lost City, Rainbow Island
32nd of Summer, 10:01 pm, 102 C.R.

To say Twilight was worried was around the same vein as saying the Doctor wasn't normal, so large an understatement it might be bigger than the TARDIS's interior.

She paced around the, admittedly lovely, accommodations the guardponies were kind enough to bring them to at gunpoint while everypony milled about normally as if jumping into the distant past on an impossible island was routine!

Well, perhaps for the Doctor.

Twilight spared a glance at the Time Pony who was happily recounting past adventures with Rainbow Dash while running his sonic screwdriver at everything that wasn't bolted down. The seemingly happy-go-lucky Time Pony went about his business unabated, pretending as if his previously gloomy mood was a distant dream.

The unicorn librarian was continually wary about the alien pony however charming and disarming he may appear to be. Staring intently at the earth pony, Twilight was still unable to get a proper read on him. Rarity once joked that if ponies were books Twilight would be able to tell everything about them from a single glance due to social awkwardness.

Ridiculous, thought Twilight. Book were far more straightforward than ponies could ever be, save Applejack.

The Doctor noticed Twilight's unyielding stare but thought she was looking at his alien device. "Impressed aren't you?" he beamed goofily. "Sonic screwdriver, a bit cooler than your unicorn horns and a bit more user friendly."

To prove his point, he pointed the screwdriver at Twilight's horn and a loud ringing noise pierced her ears as colors danced in her vision. Backing away from the Doctor, she shook her head to rid of the disorientation and glared frostily at the Doctor who sheepishly pocketed his device.

"No, not really. I was wondering what the plan is, Doctor. We could get to the TARDIS and leave, the longer we stay here the more danger we invite." Twilight reasoned to the Doctor's unimpressed expression and Rainbow's equally disapproving frown.

"Leave?" echoed the cyan pegasus. "Why would we do that?"

"One: to stay out of danger!"

"Counting is stupid," Rainbow interrupted.

"They don't believe your story, Doctor and I don't want to stick around to see what they do to invaders. It's best for us if we just leave."

"Probably." Shrugged the Time Lord. "But as I mentioned, there's something going on here and I intend to find out what. Twilight, if we leave now then whoever gave them this technology will be free to do whatever they want with it."

As much as the Doctor had a point, Twilight still couldn't shake the feeling that they were way in over their heads. Nightmare Moon, Timberwolves, the Crystal Empire, they all seemed like cupcakes compared to this.

"Is there an actual plan?" Twilight reiterated. "Because it feels like you're making all of this up as we go along."

"Oh, Twilight you know what I always say about plans."

"What's that?"

"Who needs them?"

"Doctor…"

"Ta-da!" Rarity stepped out of the closet with a flourish and Twilight realized she had been there for the good part of thirty minutes. Like a well-versed model (which Twilight supposed she was) Rarity struck a pose which showed off her beautiful dress.

Wrapping around her lithe form was the brilliantly done red dress sequined with glittering stones that, upon closer inspection, Twilight realized were diamonds. Matching red cuffs topped off her hooves and her mane was done in such an extravagant manner you'd think it was put together with power tools, which considering Rarity is probably close to the truth.

Blinking, Rarity looked at the three of them in disbelief. "Are you seriously going like that?"

The Doctor glanced down at his own outfit and frowned. "Yes."

"Yep," agreed Rainbow.

Rarity wrinkled her muzzle at the Doctor and was about to comment on his choice in accessories but decided against it, apparently.

"You're not seriously going to this party, are you Rarity?" Twilight asked.

Rarity turned to a vanity mirror and with a small brush began to correct microscopic mistakes on her face. "Of course I am, Twilight. We are important ponies after all, Equestria's Welcoming Committee."

"No, we aren't," insisted Twilight. "That's just a story the Doctor made up, they don't believe us, I'm two-hundred percent sure this is a trap. Right Doctor?"

Unfortunately, the Doctor was too preoccupied with Rarity's strange look to back Twilight up and stood beside the fashionista adjusting his bowtie.

"I think I look brilliant!" the Doctor said. "Well, now that I don't have that chin, blimey it's like you could land an airplane on it."

"I'm telling you, Doctor. There are quite a few ponies who can pull off a bowtie, and you—"

"Do it brilliantly?" the Doctor grinned, straightening his bowtie.

"Sure, whatever you say," smiled Rarity. "And… what's an airplane?"

"Am I the only sane pony in this room?!" yelled Twilight in utter disbelief at how calm everypony was behaving despite the danger that presented itself.

Everypony stared at Twilight as if she was the one who gone mad, except Rainbow who swallowed her apple and said, "Nope. I agree with you Twi, it probably is a trap."

"Thank you Rainbow, it's nice to know somepony here has the good sense to—"

"Which is why we gotta spring our trap first!" Rainbow hovered slightly in excitement, sharing the Doctor's mad grin.

Twilight face-hoofed.

"Well said Rainbow!" laughed the Doctor.

"As long as this dress isn't wrinkled," muttered Rarity, smoothing out unperceivable wrinkles on her dress.

"This… isn't going to end well…"

The Observation Tower, The Lost City, Rainbow Island

Same time

The Professor glanced at the energy-output data and adjusted his glasses. They had increased fifteen percent within the last hour, this could prove to be a problem. His hooves ran through the controls and he expertly rerouted the power to the auxiliary engines. A slight tremor ran through the room and, eventually, throughout the whole island as its elevation would be increased slightly to compensate for the energy spike.

Circuit then placed the remaining surplus energy into the atmospheric shell as the air would become thinner with the elevation increase. Good, readings read normal but the Professor still felt the tinge of doubt in the back of his mind. He couldn't keep increasing the elevation every time the energy levels spike, there was a limit to how high he could take the island.

There needed to be a long-term solution.

Professor Circuit shook his head. No, the energy spikes would level out eventually, there was nothing wrong with the system it was perfect, that's what she promised him.

"Worried?" a soothing voice wrapped in liquid nitrogen asked. The ambient temperature definitely lowered a few degrees as the Professor recognized her cold presence behind him.

"Of course not," he muttered, pretending to check the readings while he calmed his erratic heartbeat.

"You were always a terrible liar." He could practically hear her smile.

"The energy spikes are becoming more frequent," confided the Professor. "There's only so much I can do to adjust, and we aren't any closer to a solution as we are to the ground."

Her cold presence washed over him like a fog, intangible yet all around him. "I promised you that the system will not fail. Do you have doubts?"

"O-of course not, but—"

"Then worry not."

The nervous earth pony swallowed the lump in his throat and frowned at his readings, pretending to observe them closely. The Mistress always intimidated him, which was part ridiculous, part justifiable as she didn't have a corporeal form.

"Ah. I see. The energy spikes are the least of your concerns, you are worried about… him?" A purple mist blanketed the console in front of him and the Professor jumped back in surprised as the mist shifted and changed until it resembled an earth pony… with a distinctive hourglass cutie mark.

"You… know him, then?" the Professor asked shakily, still unnerved by this strange concept of "magic".

Her heavy presence appeared to his left and he shivered. Looking to his left, he saw nothing but felt some magnetic force, like all the iron in his blood became magnetically attracted to her.

"An old friend," she admitted with a sense of distaste yet with a respectful undertone. "The Doctor is a meddlesome pony, the old Time Lord was always sentimentall."

"Time Lord—"

"The Doctor is dangerous, incredibly so. He will likely interfere if he has seen this console" – the Mistress paused for a full second – "Ah, he already has. He will have plans to break in and observe the blackhole up close tonight. You will be able to catch him off-guard, you can dispose of him."

The Professor didn't say anything for a moment. Why was the Doctor such a major issue to the Mistress? She never regarded anypony with such… respect yet with a careful undertone, as if she feared him somehow? He quickly dismissed that thought, the Doctor didn't appear dangerous whatsoever, but why would the Mistress take such an interest in him?

Plus, she called him a Time Lord… as if he wasn't a pony.

"He will not be an issue," the Professor promised. "He is merely a simple pony."

The Mistress materialized across from the Professor, still partially shrouded in darkness so that only her impossibly bright purple eyes, fixated with a look of almost monstrous ferocity yet with a gleam of a true chessmaster. Her white teeth were fixed in a sadistic smile that matched the look in her eyes, as if the Doctor manifested the most basic of instincts of dominance in the Mistress.

"He is hardly a 'simple pony'. The Doctor is the perfect equivalent of a mighty army, easily capable of toppling your entire world, Professor," she explained with the calculative tone of a lecturer addressing her class. "If you let him go, if you underestimate him or try to anger him, he will return with a force you can't hope to combat; like throwing rocks at a storm."

A storm? The Professor thought, that didn't seem to be an apt description of the Doctor based on his first impression, but he didn't press the issue and merely nodded meekly. If the Mistress felt so strongly about the Doctor, it would be suicide to question her.

"Good," the Mistress said, as if reading his thoughts. "I expect you to have finish the Doctor post-haste, Professor. Do not fail me."

Her intangible body and spooky face disappeared, the chill left the room and the warmth tentatively returned. The Professor took a deep breath, not realizing he had been shivering the entire time and began his work on the calibration of the gravity matrix.

"The Storm, hm?"

Party District, The Lost City, Rainbow Island
33rd of Summer, Midnight, 103 C.R.

Pinkie Pie would've loved this place. Not simply because it was named the Party District but of how… Pinkie-like it was. Throughout the entire district the huge skyscrapers glittered in a multitude of colors, flashing seemingly without rhythm, massive banners and streamers were strewn about the block and party music (which, for some reason, eerily resembled the polka music Pinkie Pie was famous for) played so loud that Twilight couldn't hear herself think.

The ponies apparently were ready for the occasion as well. They wore a strange variety of bright clothing that barely matched (as noted with a huff by Rarity) but whose intended purpose was to stand out just as much as possible. It was so disorientating to look at the crowd before her, as all Twilight saw was a sea of bright colors, glowsticks, dancing ponies and strobelights.

"Lovely place," the Doctor remarked with a smile.

"What?!" yelled Rarity, covering her ears from the music that played.

"No, I don't see any snacks yet, Rarity!" shouted Rainbow.

The Doctor seemed to be the only one unaffected by the loud music, he smiled and bobbed his head in perfect rhythm to the discordant sounds. When the Time Lord asked their hostage-ta- er, sorry, escorts, if the Party District was this active as a result of their visit they scoffed and shook their heads.

"No, nopony other than us, really, knows about your presence. The Party District is like this all the time."

"Every day?"

"Well, except Sunday."

"Why is that?"

The guardpony stared at the Doctor as if he was mad. "Well, they've got to eat sometime, right?"

Wading through the crowd was harder than Twilight had expected. She figured that the presence of two armed ponies would demand some respect and command, but nopony seemed very interested in the guards or even the fact that strange ponies had visited their island. Some of them danced out of the way, others jokingly embraced the guardponies in some drunken haze, and others stayed firmly in place, refusing to move out of the way.

Rarity huffed as she dodged another stray mug of apple cider. "These ruffians better not get one stain on this dress."

"But no one is even paying attention to you, Rarity," remarked Rainbow as she hovered just above the group.

"Obviously, they are blind to true fashion," Rarity snapped as another drunken pony giggly slumped against their guardpony, he was quickly disentangled and left to giggle to himself.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," the Doctor smugly said. Twilight looked over her shoulder and noticed a bunch of the party ponies approaching the Time Lord, examining his bowtie with such revere and interest that it made Rarity red with frustration. The fashionista huffed, stuck her nose up and sped up slightly to match the guardponies pace.

They were led to the most centralized location of the Party District, a respectable looking building that appeared out of place in comparison to the more colorful and excitable-looking abodes nearby. It was tiny, square-shaped, and colored a plain-looking silver. It also looked the oldest building here, its foundation was slightly cracked, some of the paint looked chip, and there was evidence of remodeling.

The building must've led quite an impressive history as none of the party ponies got within twenty feet of it, it was untouched by party streamers and lights and other forms of vandalism.

"The Main Ball Room," the guard pony said.

"The Party District was built around it, but before the district was raised this was the place to be for all the parties, hm?" the Doctor said.

Everypony, save Rarity who was far more concerned with her dress, stared at him quizzically.

"Yes…" the guardpony hesitantly said. "How did you know that?"

"Bit of an easy guess, come on then, let's head inside before Rarity has a panic attack." Without waiting, the Doctor was the first to approach the building.

Twilight wasn't really sure what she had expected from the Ball Room, given how old it looked on the outside she half-expected a decadent interior. But Rainbow had summed it up when they had entered. "Whoa."

The Ball Room looked bigger on the inside as an entirely different world seemingly opened up to them. A dome ceiling not apparent from the outside covered the room and beautiful imagery were delicately painted inside the dome that depicted angelic-looking ponies with fancy dresses in an eternal dance. The whole room glittered with silver and gold complemented by the red carpet and drapes and gilded columns. Dozens upon hundreds of ponies in dresses as fancy as Rarity milled about respectfully, talking, eating, enjoying the gentle orchestration of the small band playing on stage.

It wasn't just the pony elite, however, there were several party ponies about who still wore their crazy mismatching attire, but they were rambunctious as the party ponies outside. These party ponies mingled as the elite had, some of them were dancing off-beat to the music provided by the band but none of them apparently bothered the pony elite.

"Social status is irrelevant in a party," the Doctor told Twilight, answering her unspoken question. "As long as they enjoy the party, who cares how they look. Brilliant, wouldn't you say?"

Twilight nodded. She of course knew how judgmental the party ponies could be, plenty of ponies from Canterlot or Manehattan had a nasty habit of snubbing anypony that didn't meet their standards. It eventually led to a fiasco between Rarity and these elite who expressed their distaste toward the girls from Ponyville. There were exceptions, naturally, like Fancy Pants and, to a greater extent, the Princesses. But the majority were quick to dismiss anypony that hadn't met their standards.

"A lovely, quiet, soiree," remarked Rarity with a small smile, brushing a streamer from her shoulders.

Rainbow landed beside her with a wild grin. "A bit too quiet, in my opinion. I think it's time to liven this party up! It's what Pinkie would've wanted right?"

Before Rarity even had a chance to offer her opinion, the cyan pegasus took her by the foreleg and led her into the dance floor and made a beeline to the stage, no doubt to suggest music more excitable than what was playing. The guards ran off to follow the mares, leaving the Doctor and Twilight alone for a while.

"Notice anything strange, Twilight?" the Doctor suddenly asked.

Twilight looked around the Ball Room. The ponies were still mingling, still dancing, still eating, and not paying the excited Rainbow Dash or the huffy Rarity any sort of mind but other than that nothing out of the ordinary stood out.

"No, not really, everypony is acting, well, normal you know?" Twilight answered.

"Exactly," the Doctor grimaced, his ancient and experienced eyes scanning the room frequently. "The Professor was just visited by four strange ponies from the world below and he hadn't taken it upon himself to inform anypony about us? Giving us comfortable accommodations and even leading us out to the Party District."

"He's up to something," Twilight agreed. "He isn't even here to keep an eye on us, the two ponies he left to watch us didn't appear to mind leaving us to our devices."

"Which is exactly what I plan to use." The Doctor turned to leave but Twilight intercepted his path.

"Wait, Doctor. I should go with you, to help. You don't know what the Professor is planning."

"Which is what I'm intending to find out, Twilight."

Twilight shook her head fiercely. "Doctor, it's smart to take back-up, let me go with you."

"You need to stay here with Rainbow and Rarity, I'm don't have any doubts of Rainbow capabilities, but I'm not too sure about Rarity. You'll have to help them in case something may go wrong," the Time Pony insisted.

"But Doctor—"

"Rule three, Twilight," the Doctor said with a smile. "Trust me."

Twilight bit her lip and nodded. The Doctor radiated confidence, warmth, and leadership that it was sometimes difficult to go against his wishes, she knew the Doctor was more than capable of taking care of himself but still that niggling fear in the back of her mind made her wary. But Twilight stepped out of his way and he strode through.

"Don't get caught or anything, remember, you're our ride home, Doctor."

"Momentai, Twilight, and don't worry, I am as stealthy as a ninja." The Doctor took a step backward and bumped right into a vase knocking it on the floor so fast neither of them were quick enough to react. The vase sounded expensive as it shattered into a million or so pieces. The Time Pony grinned sheepishly. "That didn't reassure you, did it?"

"Just… go before I change my mind."

It took twenty minutes to get to the Observation Tower from the Party District. The Doctor would've been faster hadn't the party ponies impeded his progress. By the time he got out of the sea of ponies, he was wearing a necklace of glowsticks and a fez. He discarded the necklace and broke out into a sprint toward the Tower.

Too many things hadn't added up about this island. The fact that it was capable of flight was probably the reason it was never found, but according to the stories he read the island had come crashing down in a massive wave of fire with a huge rainbow trailing it. That was what the Doctor called a "rubbish day".

There were too many inconsistencies, who was this Professor? Why was he so well-trained in this antigravity tech? Was he an alien in disguise? No, the Doctor would've caught on to that real quick. No disguise was apparent and he was unable to detect traces of a chameleon arch.

Which left the Doctor with a few options: some highly advanced alien dropped to the planet, capable of advanced antigravity, levitated this island and armed the ponies. But why? What purpose could be served in arming a few hapless ponies? Warfare? The Doctor initially thought so, but after seeing the Party District he wasn't sure. This island wasn't a police state, it was a fully functioning society, ignorant of the world below them and going about their lives.

Option 2: this island is merely the result of a few ponies hard work and dedication and there is nothing malignant about it whatsoever.

The Doctor scoffed, in all of his years, in all of his lives he has never encountered anything so naively easy.

He reached the Tower in good time, he was barely winded from the run either. It was partly due to his insane adept running ability and partly due to this new compact and high-performance equine body. Perfect for running, rubbish for anything involving hands or fingers. Still, he couldn't complain, at least he had a face and a functioning brain.

Approaching the door, the Doctor instinctively flicked his screwdriver to sonic the door to find it was unlocked. The Time Pony wondered who would be here in the middle of the night. His suspicions didn't comfort him.

The Doctor pocketed his screwdriver and entered casually.

He followed the path they took to the black hole console, as he had found with the door, everything was unlocked and unguarded. Either they had a sturdy security force where alarms were unnecessary or he was walking right into a trap. The elevators opened with a pleasant ding and the Doctor entered the console room.

The console stood as it had before, tall, imposing and completely alien. It was apparently active, rather than running on low-power as it should with no one around to maintain it, it was running on full power.

Someone was here recently.

The Doctor flicked his screwdriver and began his customary scan of the room, trying to detect any high electromagnetic signals or radioactive emissions. Nope, nothing. Nothing alien had been in this room recently.

"Well," the Doctor muttered, approaching the console. "Except me."

Beginning his work without hesitation, he began to run diagnostics again on everything. Ah, password protected. Flicking his sonic on the display screen the former security protocols disappeared in the sight of the screwdriver and he was granted access to everything.

The Doctor searched for ways to shut down the black-hole generator, there was nothing that wouldn't consequently endanger the island. He searched for a way to disable the gravity matrix, nothing, triple-redundancy ensured that it would restart upon shut down.

If he had disabled one aspect of the machine, there was a backup. There wasn't any way to properly turn everything off, save by force without regard to everyone on this island.

"Blast!" the Doctor kicked (or was it bucked?) the console in frustration.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he was unaware of the pony approaching him from behind, so silent and unseen that the Doctor jumped in fear when a hoof touched his shoulder. Turning about face with his forelegs held in an improvised Venusian aikido stance.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry for startling you, it's just… you aren't allowed to be here, um, if you don't mind leaving of course." Her timid voice and soft cadence reminded the Doctor of Fluttershy but this mare didn't resemble the shy pegasus whatsoever. First off: she was an earth pony, like him, with a cream colored coat and a long blonde mane and tail. Her eyes were ice-blue but were tinged with innocence and inhibition. She wore a simple brown vest which showed off her cutie mark of an old-fashioned bookmark.

The Doctor gathered his wits in an instant and smiled confidently, straightening his bowtie and blowing his mane out of his face.

"Sorry about that, you startled me. As to your insistence that I don't belong here, I beg to differ"—with a practiced flourish and casual indifference, the Doctor flicked his psychic paper at the mare which read his extensive credentials in particle physics. But he pocketed it before she could get a good look at it—"I'm just running diagnostics, you know, making sure everything is fine. I'm the Doctor, by the way."

He said all of this in one breath without hesitation or uncertainty, something about his calm smile, bright eyes and commanding posture led her to trust him entirely. She nodded almost apologetically for interrupting his work. "I'm Echo, sorry for interrupting you…"

"It's quite alright, Echo," the Doctor promised with a smile, patting her on the shoulder. "Everyon-, er, everyponymakes mistakes. I'll be sure not to mention this in the report or to your superiors."

Echo nodded vigorously, grateful for the Doctor's kindness. "Oh, thank you. I wouldn't want to be fired, I've only had this job for a month."

"What job might that be?"

"Oh, I'm in charge for keeping the gravity matrix level and the black hole compressor stable." She pointed at the controls which accomplished those tasks. "That's what I was here for, I just went off for a little break, oh, please don't tell the Professor I left the console. He won't forgive me."

The Doctor smiled and shook his head. "I think we can keep this a secret from the Professor, don't you?"

Echo nodded and the Doctor clapped his hoof on her shoulder, leading her toward the other side of the console.

"Now then, the black hole power levels over here, what can you notice about it?"

She took only a moment to glance at the readings before frowning with uncertainty. "The spikes are increasing in both frequency and volume. But that's impossible, our energy cap should be keeping the energy levels stable."

The Doctor searched the system again for the energy cap, ah, there it was. It's designed to keep the energy levels from raising to critical levels but it bypassed the cap ages ago and it is still rising.

"Echo, how long have these spikes been going on?" the Doctor asked as the two of them worked to adjust the energy cap.

"It's been gradually growing for about three years, but before that the system was absolutely perfect, no flaws or anything. But the spikes just… came out of nowhere, the compression matrix began to fail and we had to implement a dozen backups for it."

The Time Pony ran a hoof through his curly mane. He rummaged through his coat briefly and put on his brainy-specs to scrutinize the data better (and to look smarter). "All right, Echo, I'll need you to head into the library and fetch me the schematics of the console, I need to take a look under it."

"But—"

"Please." He looked up, his eyes were so serious and so impossibly old that Echo felt compelled to both continue staring and to look away, it was like staring at the sun. She nodded meekly and went off to the library.

The Doctor frowned as he flicked a switch and the lights came to life. Surrounding the room were a dozen or so armed ponies and the Professor leading them.

"Don't blame Echo for letting me stay," the Doctor ordered them with a grim expression. "It's not her fault."

"I think I'll be the judge of that, later," the Professor said with a wry smile.

"What she said was true, though, your system is growing out of control until eventually you won't be able to contain it." The Doctor stepped in front of the console casually, facing the Professor with arrogance. "Well, you already can't contain it, can you? You're scrambling for a solution because you know what's coming next."

"Who are you, Doctor, really?"

"This entire island will go down and it will be your fault. Work with me, let me help you. Or, I'll just do it by force."

The Professor smiled but it resembled a wild animal baring its fangs. "Such arrogance, Doctor."

"It isn't arrogance if it's true," the Doctor countered with a grin.

"She warned me about you…"

"She?" the Doctor took a step forward but the soldiers raised their weapons, fixed on the Time Pony. The Professor, however, approached the Doctor without fear.

"She compared you to a storm, the storm no one is able to see coming. Who are you, Doctor? You are not a simple pony, it seems, but… A Time Lord." The Doctor blanched and fixed the Professor with his icy-cold glare that would freeze the very sun.

"How did you know that?"

"But I don't fear you, Doctor. After all, even if you are a storm you are still surrounded."

The Doctor felt a blunt force against the back of his head and darkness enveloped his vision.

The Professor watched with disinterest as the Doctor fell, slumped to the ground after his guard bludgeoned the back of his head, a clean knock-out. "Dump his body in the river, we will let the Wild have him."

The guards nodded, picked up the Doctor and dragged him out of the room. The remaining guards stood at attention when the Professor looked at them. "And the girls… take care of them. We will not have any interruptions."

With a crisp salute, the remaining guard ponies made a beeline to the Party District, weapons armed.

Author's Note:

I am very grateful for the attention, favorites, and watches I've received as a result of this chapter. I am glad this still piques my readers' interests but the lack of comments are... uninspiring. Drop me a comment if you like the story, if you hate the story, if you hate my face! Comments keep me going, please don't be afraid, I won't bite!