> Cutie Pox Dilemma > by Brightly-litt > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: That one question > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It had been over two months (or maybe two days, it was hard to tell in the TARDIS) since our last adventure, and, to be honest, I really wished there was some kind of dangerous alien invasion or some kind of other adventure-worthy thing to happen so I wouldn't be so bored. Luckily, though, I really didn't have to wait, because, everyday with the Doctor is an adventure, and, fortunately, we landed the in day of the very first Cutie Pox outbreak in Equestria. But, little did I know at the time, the Doctor had more to do with it than I had originally thought, and it all started with the words, "Well, where do you want to go next, Brightly?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Doctor's question struck me as odd. He has NEVER asked me where I wanted to go. It was usually HE who just took me wherever in time or space he wanted to go to, never asking about MY opinion, so I looked at him with a look that was a cross between concern and confusion, and said, "Wow, YOU are asking ME where I want to go? That's new. Are you okay? This isn't like you, going about, asking me where I want to go next, when it's YOU who is always in control of all this timey-wimey stuff." The Doctor just shrugged and said, "Well, I thought it would be very interesting to find out where you would like to go, I mean, I still do owe you from almost blundering up the whole 'Discord's tooth' mission, so I thought it would only be fair to let you pick our next destination." He smiled as he trotted over to the main TARDIS console. "So, where would you like to go? Remember, though, it has to be within REASON." I nodded, and told him the date of the most devastating, most exciting moment in Equestria's history, the one I've only ever read about, the year of the dreaded Cutie Pox breakout. As soon as I had told the Doctor the date and it's meaning to me, he just stopped in his tracks, looked at me, and shook his head slowly, like I just told him a terrible joke that was SO BAD, that it would make a Dalek laugh. At first, I thought he was just pulling my tail, but I soon realised that he wasn't lying. Something was very wrong with him, sort of like I told him that another Time War had started, only, this time, there was NO WAY of saving anypony. He was hiding something, something that I would know soon, but, at that time, had no idea of the seriousness of his attitude. He tried to convince me to change my destination, and to go with a much distant time, such as the founding of this fine Pony Nation, or the time when Celestia and Luna first came to rule. Each and every attempt could not change my original choice, so, the Doctor, who looked pale and sad as he typed in the coordinates in the console, flicked the switches to start the ship, and off we went! > Chapter 2: A sad Timepony > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the TARDIS landed in the year 500 A.D., the year of the first Cutie Pox outbreak, the Doctor stopped me before we left the Pony Box. "Here, take this before you go out there." He said as he handed me some sort of advanced tech-looking device and a small vial of blue liquid. "What are these?" I asked. "This here is a watch from my original world, a holographic one, so I can stay in touch with you out there," he said, "and this. . ." he pointed to the vial, " is the cure for the Cutie Pox, made 3 billion Equestrian years in the future, developed by the Unicorns. Lucky ponies." he remarked. "Sorry I won't be joining you. I don't believe I will respond well to this. . . Cutie Pox. I already caught Chicken Pox in my last regeneration, and I almost ripped the world apart, so imagine my concern if I caught the Cutie Pox. Also, I am very fond of my hourglass, and I want it to be the only one on my body, thank you very much." He said in a rush of subject-changes and silly remarks. "I will stay in my TARDIS while you experience history in the making, perhaps even get a cup of tea, chat with the TARDIS, and work on repairs. I'll contact you when I'm ready. Have fun!" And he pushed me out the doors as I was just finishing the vial, wondering why he was acting so weird. As I walked through the crowd of ponies on their way to pick up deliveries, heading to work, or even heading out for some brunch with close friends, I started to wonder why the Doctor was so strange. It concerned me, because the Doctor would never turn down an opportunity to go on an adventure, and, now, he was concerned over a little, practically harmless illness!!! But, the more I thought about his silly reasons, the more they started to sound more like. . .EXCUSES!!!! I couldn't believe my own conclusion! The Timepony was making excuses?! It was bad enough that he left me to my own in this time, but to make an stupid excuse such as "Afraid of catching the Cutie Pox." The nerve of some ponies!! I mean, the least it could do is add some extra, random marks all over a pony's body, giving them said cutie mark's talents, nothing too serious. And one couldn't catch the illness unless you come into contact with the one who has it, such as a friendly hoof-shake, hoof-five, or hoof-bump. As I was stomping through the crowds (my ranting thoughts were apparently causing some ponies to get scared), I finally decided to let it slide, and let my mind calm down, and waited for the pony with the first Cutie Pox symptom to come into view. That's when I heard the worst possible sound to hear in this time, the TARDIS' engine revving up. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I ran back to the spot where the Doctor parked, I was just in time to see the outline of the ship vanish. I couldn't believe my eyes, so I tried cleaning my glasses, but it still didn't help, the TARDIS was really and truly. . .gone. > Chapter 3: The Timepony's reason > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since this is a retelling of this adventure, I tried to get the Doctor to tell me why he left, but he insisted he write it himself (no, this is not breaking the fourth wall, it's just a retelling). So, here's the Doctor's side of the story. Well, I bet you ponies were wondering why I started the TARDIS and left Brightly. Well, to be completely honest with you, dear reader, I may have had something to do with the Cutie Pox. It all started when Twilight was my companion. Lovely mare she was, back then. This wasn't very long before she became a princess, but she was still a bit bossy to me when it came to what time I chose to travel to (that mare really DOESN'T like to be proven wrong when it comes to history). Anyways, we had just came back from exploring Raxicoricofillypatorious, trying to solve a dispute/war amongst families, when she decided to rant on about how she wished I would take off that "brake" on the TARDIS, whatever that meant. The TARDIS is a finely tuned machine, there is certainly nothing wrong with the brakes, but anyways, we got out and continued to debate about timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly. . .stuff, when she started uncontrollably sneezing. I, at the time, really wasn't concerned by it, because I parked the TARDIS near a patch of flowers, and the time on the TARDIS console told me we were back in Ponyville in springtime, which I thought was causing her to go into a sneezing fit. It wasn't until we had moved farther into town, that I noticed something shimmering on Twilight's flank, and I saw it. . .another cutie mark. Although, this one was a cutie mark of some kind of dirty, droopy cloth, which may have explained why she was sneezing alot (I didn't even know there was even a cutie mark for getting sick). She must have caught my gaze, because she hit me on my pony arm, and said, "Hey! My eyes are up here! Honestly, Doctor!" She said this, causing me to blush heavily. "Woah! Sor-ry!" I said defencively. "But that's not what I was looking at! You must have caught some kind of pony illness at Raxicoricofillypatorious, because you now have TWO cutie marks!!" I pointed at her flank, causing her to look also, and let out a loud and long gasp. "Oh no! Nononononononono! This can't happen to me! What will the princess think if I brought this new illness to Ponyville, maybe even Canterlot, then, all of Equestria!" She started to hyperventilate. As I took out a paper bag from my saddlebag for her to breathe into, and calmed her down. I looked around for help, and that's also when I noticed (after I put on my 3-D glasses) the town's newspaper, the Ponyville Express, and my eyes widened. I trotted over there to get a better look at it, and to make sure I didn't misread the date. Nope. That's what I thought. As I trotted back to Twilight, still breathing slowly into the bag, I said to her, "Uh, Twilight, I hate to worry you further, but it appears I may have misread the time on the TARDIS console." She momentarily stopped breathing into the bag to ask, "What, we ARE in Ponyville, aren't we, Doctor?" she asked, her eyes starting to go wild with every second out of fear. "Well, yes and no. We ARE indeed in Ponyville, just not in the right time period." I said to her. "It appears I have sent us a little TOO far back into Equestria's past, because we're now in the year 500 After Discord, and from the readings on the TARDIS' console, the annual Winter Wrap-Up has just finished." I spoke to her calmly as to not envoke the raging firehorse-part of Twilight. BIG MISTAKE. She jumped to her hooves, practically expelling steam from her nostrils, and, before she could ignite herself, she sneezed the biggest sneeze I've ever experienced. That sneeze caused us both to fall over, and literally blew a bunch of leaves into a pile. Anyways, I think the sneeze caused something to happen to Twilight, because she just sat down on the ground, looked around with a blank-ish stare, looked at me and smiled, and said, "Da da?" I looked at her with a look of utter concern, because, all of a sudden, she went from a raging mare-beast, to acting like a newborn foal. I was confused for a bit, until I came to the awful conclusion that. . .she may have acquired a new cutie mark. And, sure enough, I looked and saw THREE marks on her flank: her original starburst one, the dirty tissue, and the newest one, a baby diaper, a pacifier, and a rattle. Well, I thought, this is going to be harder than I thought. As I tried to get baby Twilight back to the TARDIS (I couldn't carry her, so, instead, I used some of her books to lead her back into the ship), I thought of all the things that could have caused it, so I started thinking of all the illnesses of Raxicoricofillypatorious, when it hit me, multiple marks on a pony's body, PLUS them obtaining said mark's talents, AND being very contagious to other equine species, I had known only ONE illness that could do such things, and I brought it to Equestria, the Raxicoricofillypatorian disease, the Cutie Pox. I have got to run some tests, so I can figure out how to reverse this illness, I thought to myself. As soon as we entered the ship, I built Twily (don't tell her I called her that) a bookfort, standard with pillows for a floor and a blanket draped over the top of it, which she must have loved a lot, because her baby-like eyes lit up like Hearth's Warming morning, and she screamed, "YAYY!! BOO' FORT, BOO' FORT!!" and she dove into it. I smiled at her, thinking that I liked her better this way, she was SOOO precious and cute!! *Eh-herm* I mean, *humph* I just gave her a juicebox and let her play, I-I mean. . .(hmm, how do you say this without making me seem like bad pony). Oh, what the hay! I loved the way she acted! Soooo cute! But, anyways, I began to run the tests by getting a sample of her DNA, so, without getting a needle involved, I just got some of the saliva off of one of the books she was nomming on (I like that word, nomming, such a fun word to say, besides chewing or nibbling), which was waaay worse than a needle and taking blood, let me tell you!! (If I hadn't had my Sonic with me at all times, she probably would have ruined it with her baby-like slobber) Wow, I'm getting waaaay off topic, sorry. I'll just skip a few, unimportant things, and just continue on with how I accidentally caused the Cutie Pox to arrive in Equestria. > Chapter 4: The Doctor's Rambling > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, sorry to keep you fine ponies waiting. It’s been hectic with Miss Hooves failing to provide accurate information to Mr. and Mrs. Donkey’s wedding. But anywayyyyyyy… After I made sure Twilight was fast asleep, I took her saliva and placed it on the TARDIS console for analysis of the underlying elements of the dreaded disease. The results I got back were astonishing! Forty-two different illnesses all compacted into a single speck of the Cutie Pox! At the time, I calculated that it would take at least 400 or so more years before they even came close to finding a suitable cure! I scanned over the data when I heard some pony knocking on my TARDIS door. “Now, who could that be? I thought I set the TARDIS to stay incognito.” As I peeked out the door, I noticed one tiny filly, looked to be about Apple Bloom’s age, eating a lollipop and looking up at me through doe eyes. “Mither, why are you hiding in a box?” She asked, full of curiosity. “Well, uhhhhh… You see, my dear. I’m just playing a nice game of hide-and-seek with a friend, and this here box was the closest thing I could find.” I cooed politely. “Oh! That’s thhho cool!” She lisped. “Can I join?” I gulped, not knowing what to say. “I’m so sorry, little one, but, if you were to start right in the middle of the game, I’m afraid it would be all the more hard. You might hide soooo well, and I might not find you.” I came up with that last one with sincerity. “Awwww man! Which one of my fwiendth told you I wath a good hide-and-Theeker?!” And she galloped off, most likely to scold her friends. “Phew! That was close. I really need to calibrate the TARDIS’ cloaking mechanism.” I turned around, talking to myself. “Uugh… D-Doctor? May I ask why I’m in a bookfort?” Twilight finally came through (unfortunately for me). “Uh, you know what, never mind. I don’t wanna know.” Facehooves her muzzle and climbs out awkwardly. “Wwwwwelllll, yes, about that… You kinda got a new cutie mark that made you act like a foal, and I had no other way of keeping you happy!” I said in a rush as the TARDIS was coming up with the cure. Twilight just sighed. “Well, okay then. As long as I wasn’t too much for you to handle.” She honestly sounded embarrassed. “Nonsense! It was all fine.” I said, flicking a few switches and bopping a few knobs here and there. “The TARDIS should come up with a suitable cure by sundown, but until then, I recommend you stay INSIDE the TARDIS. For your’s and every pony’s sake. Understand? She looked hurt and mad. “Of course! This isn’t my first time dealing with a near impossible task!” And we both laughed whilst the cure was being made. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And so, the TARDIS delivered the cure to me, and I gave it to Twilight, who, before it got any worse, took it and all the unnecessary cutie marks disappeared, and the day was once again saved! At least… that’s what I thought.