Bubbles and an Hourglass

by LightAndDark

Oh, She's More Than a Box!

"Doc? Wait!" Derpy screamed. The brown colt had dashed from the bedroom, scattering loose papers in his hurry. She looked around at the room once more, before following him down the stairs and out of the library. The Doctor was galloping down the road at his top speed, which wasn't very fast. Derpy lifted herself effortlessly off the ground, and easily caught up to him.

"Where are you going?" She demanded. He stopped running to catch his breath, and she dropped to the ground and turned to face him. It was several moments before the Doctor was ready to speak.

"If I'm right...and I usually am...That was TARDIS...that lightning bolt...and she needs me!" He gasped. He'd never run as a pony before! Derpy stared at him, and a flicker of fear passed in her eye.

“What about Nightmare Moon? What if that’s what that lightning bolt was?”

“It’s just a story in a children’s book, Derpy. Don’t worry.” If Derpy could properly see his face through the darkness, she would have noticed the way his eyes shifted downward as he reassured her. He didn’t believe a word of it. Derpy cast a glance at the direction the bolt had gone in.

"Doc, that's the Ever Free Forest! You can't just go running in there! It's dangerous. Who knows what lives in there!" Derpy reasoned, casting a worried glance to the dark mass of trees in the distance. She could imagine hostile eyes peering out from every bush and tree. The Doctor continued running, he had finally caught his breath.

“If the TARDIS is in there, I have to find her!”

Her?

“Nopony knows what’s in there!” She repeated, sprinting after him.

"Fantastic!" The Doctor grinned, mostly to himself.

/

They had long since stopped running after entering the forest, as the Doctor was having trouble navigating through the undergrowth with ‘these stupid, clumsy, uncreative hooves’. Derpy trailed a short distance behind the colt, nervously glancing at every darkened bush or swath of undergrowth the pair passed. She cast a glance towards the Doctor, who seemed unshaken by the likelihood of danger. His ears were perked forward, as if listening for some tell-tale noise only he could hear. As far as he was concerned, he by himself. He had not acknowledged her existence for the past hour.

"She's close!" He said excitedly. Derpy had a feeling the words were more for himself. He picked up his pace, nearly tripping over a root in his haste. An unfamiliar voice caused Derpy to nearly jump out of her skin.

"Doctor? My Doctor...please hurry..." It was distinctly female, and there was something very strange about the way she had heard it. It sounded as if it could have come from inside of her head.

I'm not crazy...It came from outside...

"Doc? Did you hear that?" Derpy asked cautiously, catching up to the stallion. The Doctor muttered distractedly, and Derpy rolled her eyes.

He’s not even listening... She thought. Was she going crazy, then? The Doctor nodded and muttered reassuringly, presumably to himself. Time passed sluggishly, and Derpy cast a worried look at the canopy above her head. It should be dawn by now... She thought quietly. She tried to convince herself that the trees were just to thick, focusing on the Doctor’s words. Just a fillies story...

"There you are, my dear!" The Doctor said suddenly. Ahead of them, a small clearing opened up. Derpy’s heart fell into her stomach as she noted the ice chips of starlight still dotting the sky. It should be dawn. The Doctor, seemingly unaffected by this detail, trotted forward. Derpy just barely made out a sizable crater. Without hesitance, the Doctor slid down the side of the crater, and his silhouette disappeared from sight.

"Doctor!" The strange voice called softly again. Derpy nearly fell over as a shiver ran down her spine. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the voice was not only in her mind, but pressing against it.

"Oh look at you! Where have you been?" The Doctor's voice drifted to her from inside the crater, shattering through her thoughts. Derpy fluttered cautiously to the edge of the hole, peering down curiously. A blue box lay inside the crater, and the Doctor was excitedly running around it. It had somehow managed to land upright, and Derpy guessed it was something to do with being a space ship. Speaking of which...

"Doctor, I thought you said the TARDIS was a spaceship, not just a...box." Derpy questioned. The Doctor looked up at the mare, the grin on his face just barely visible in the moonlight. He pushed open the doors on the front of the box, and gestured her inside.

“This is not just any box, Miss Hooves. Take a look.”

Derpy started climbing down into the crater to stand along side the Doctor, but caught her hoof in a root instead, rolled, and sent herself and the Doctor tumbling inside the open doors of the TARDIS. She cringed internally at her own clumsiness.

"Why didn't you just fly down here?" The strange voice questioned. It was curious rather than mocking, and Derpy was grateful that if she was going crazy, at least the voices weren’t mean.

"I don't know..." Derpy admitted. The Doctor's head shot up from under Derpy's, causing her jaw to be slammed painfully shut as it connected with the top of his head.

"Did you say something?" He asked, ignoring the pain that echoed through his skull. Derpy stiffened, realizing she had answered the voice out loud.

"Nothing." She replied quickly, nearly getting a mouthful of the Doctor's mane. Hearing voices inside your head was probably abnormal in the Doctor's universe as well, she reasoned.

"Er, Miss Hooves? Could you please let me up now?" The Doctor asked.

"Oh, right! Sorry." As Derpy stood up, she nearly fell back down again. She was standing in a room that was most definitely bigger than the box she had just entered. She gaped at the sight before her.

In front of her, a circular panel stood, sleek and commanding, at the center of the room. It sloped gracefully inward, and connected to a clear glass cylinder at the top. The cylinder disappeared into a cone shaped thing, which reached all the way to the high arched ceiling. It had thick wires extending from it every direction and into the walls. The room may have been bigger, but the only light source was a faint blue glow that came from within the cylinder.

"Wow it's-"

"Bigger on the inside?" The Doctor interrupted, smirking. He had picked himself up from the floor, and his face was half in shadow in the darkness. Derpy watched as he stared, his eyes full of humor as he awaited her response.

"No...Yes! But... I was going to say...beautiful." Derpy finished breathlessly.

"Thank you..."The Doctor smiled, casting a slow look around the room.

"Weell, yeah. She is..." He grinned. Derpy frowned.

“Is it always this dark?” She asked.

“No...She must have shut down after passing through. At least emergency power is on. Now, lets see if we can find out where she’s been...”

He headed over to the circular panel and pressed a few buttons, muttering distractedly. Derpy smiled and followed him.

/

"What? But-- What?!" The Doctor screamed, slipping and sliding his way across the control room. He threw open the TARDIS doors, and the sun immediately streamed into the TARDIS doors. Derpy started awake from where she had been napping on the floor of the TARDIS. She had clocked out when the Doctor had begun to ramble on about the TARDIS needing to absorb energy. Or something.

"Hm?" She yawned, stretching her wings.

"The TARDIS just picked up a huge surge of energy from somewhere nearby. These readings... They indicate that there was enough energy to cause a star to implode...but...we're all still here." He said, kicking the door closed and rushing back up to the console. The screen flickered for a moment, before the entire room exploded with light. Derpy briefly too in the golden hugh and the coral pillars, before turning back to the Doctor.

"She must have absorbed it all..."

"Doc... is she gonna be okay?"

"Of course! But with that amount of energy coursing through her, she’ll have to shut everything down to process it properly. She'll be back to her old self soon enough." The Doctor smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

“Then why did she--” Derpy began. She was cut off by a gold bolt lightning, which streaked through the TARDIS from somewhere under the grate, gouging a long, black, streak in the ceiling. The two ponies rushed out of the door, just as another burst of lightning erupted inside and the lights went off again. The doors slammed shut of their own accord, and the TARDIS stood quietly in front of them. There was no evidence of the chaos happening inside.

"And that was our cue to leave I think..." The Doctor said, casting one more look at the TARDIS before climbing slowly out of the crater. Derpy flew up to meet him. She watched as the Doctor walked slowly through the trees, deep in thought--or worry--about the TARDIS.

“She’ll be ok, Doc.” Derpy said, though she knew there was no reason for him to believe her.

Comments

[GordonFreebrony]

ehhh....
Well, the writing is good, although there were a few grammatical and spelling mistakes... Hmmm...
The premise is a bit over used though...
All in All, good story, but I'm not gonna be fawning over it. A big Thumbs Neutral to you!

[Dragonis999]

All in all a good story but i'm curious how is derpy able to hear the tardis speak