chapter 1 : adjusting
The city of Canterlot lay in hushed sleep snuggling in the velvet folds of the night. The sky was studded with pinpricks of silver light which emitted a soft glow all across the land, mirroring the sky the street lamps all through the town replied to their silvery sisters with a warm comforting ardor. The town was a little bubble of day still hanging on, alone in the deep purple sky; casting it's lustre onto the purple canvas of the firmament.
Streaking through the cinnamon sky a dark mass hurtled towards the city leaving a shadowy smoke slowly dissipating in it's wake. If anypony was awake and looked very closely they might just have been able to make out the silhouette of a pony dangling from the dark mass. Desperately flailing his hooves in an attempt to grapple onto something, anything. If only his screaming could be heard by those below, tucked away in their ignorant bliss.
"woooo hooooooo!!!!!! yeeaaaa!!!!"
At first the screams were not of fear, rather borne of exhilaration; especially at the close call with a tower which nearly resulted in a loss of manlyhood "seriously who puts a tower right where the TARDIS is going to be flying? and who said they all have to be so TALL?". But as the earth drew closer the tone changed. The smile had evacuated his eyes, the twinkle was now gone, pupils dilated in preparation for the immanent impact.
With a resounding crash the TARDIS carved a deep gorge through several gardens and came to a screeching halt just in front of someones shed, now slightly singed from the heat given off from the baking TARDIS. A young dappled grey filly rushed out of the house with wide eyes and an even wider jaw. She watched as the stranger clambered out of some weird sapphire box which was half buried in her garden.
"sorry about the shed, can i have an apple?"
"all i can think about is apples"
The gray filly just stared in disbelief, her eyes saying 'some crazy dude in a big box in mah garden!!!! help?'
"i love apples"
"apples are the best "
Still looking utterly perplexed the filly could not even move now. 'Maybe this is one of those cockatrice's Applebloom was tellin me about?'
"maybe i'm having a craving!!"
"ooooo that's new, never had cravings before"
A short hush followed where only rustles could be heard as the trees whispered amongst themselves, a couple of owls playing twit-twoo tennis far of somewhere in the distance.
"a-are you..... okay?" the filly finally managed to say something
"ahh yea, just had a bit of a fall"
"hey your a.... pony"
"and you can, talk"
"isn't that neat"
"ah well duh of course i'm a pony, do i look like a griffin to you?"
"wow you have griffins too? this place just gets cooler by the second"
"y'know your a pony too.... right?"
"aha don't be silly i'm a time lor...... wo ho ho ho i AM a pony. Well that's new, never been an equine before. hey that's another thing i'v never done before, this day is pretty exiting don't ya think"
"uuuum......... yea?"
"wow check out these baby's" the doctor said as he reared up displaying his front hooves, i could get used to this.
"and oh my mane, my beautiful mane. i don't know why i never thought of this before"
While the doctor was fascinating over his new body the grey filly could not help but laugh, even though she didn't know what was going on. He had an open hardback book balanced precariously on his head and was now chasing his tail round and round in circles like a little foal, she couldn't help but chortle.
"why do you have a book on your head?"
"huh? where?" tilting his head up in an attempt to see the top of his head and although he did not achieve the expected result of being able to see the top of his head the doctor managed to dislodge the book in question.
"oh that, i was thrown into the library"
"then how come your soaking wet?"
"oh i was in the swimming pool"
a raised eyebrow from the grey filly prompted him to elaborate;
"the swimming pool.... in the library"
"why are you lau waaght ghh waagght...."
The doctor was stopped mid-protest, his body had succumbed to muscular spasms and the before charismatic stallion was now reduced to a gibbering writhing wreck. The filly still keeping her distance just in case had panic written across her face had no idea how to react, how to help.
" are are you, whats going on? are you okay Mister"
after a short while the spasms subsided and he just lay there, on the muddy ground that his TARDIS had so kindly churned up. Exhaustion, that was what he felt, it had been so long since he had rested, he hadn't even eaten in...... years...... no decades.
"apples, i love apples. apples are the best"
"come on mister lets get you inside, we have apples"
"lovely, hello i'm the doctor"
the doctor sprung up and trotted after the filly towards her house, wandering slightly more toward his left than he wanted to. THUD, he had managed to trot headlong into a gert big tree. the grey filly spun around at the sound and asked if he was alright.
"y-yes i think so. early days, the steering's a bit off"
once inside the filly fetched an apple for her new, strange, friend. handing it over she said
"i never used to like apples so my friend Applebloom cuts smily faces into them, that makes me happy. so i don't mind eating them now"
taking a bite from the juicy red fruit, hearing the crunch, letting the warm juices trickle down his furry cheeks, letting them caress his newly furred face. The texture wasn't bad and the juices to be honest where pretty good too but as soon as the pulp made contact with his new raspy equine taste buds he grimaced at the taste. The horrific acidic mush was too much for his reflexes to handle and he just had to spit it out.
"egh. that. was disgusting. what do you call that abomination"
"u-uuuu that was an apple"
"apples are rubbish. I hate apples"
"you said you loved them"
"no, nope, yogurt! yogurt's my favorite. I love yogurt"
"give me yogurt"
rushing off to the kitchen the filly soon returned heaving alarge pot of yogurt.
"here you go, whats your name anyways"
"huh? oh i'm the doctor" he replied as he downed the whole pot
"eeeew yogurt's horrible, never liked it. it's just stuff with bits in it"
"But I thought you said you loved it?"
"new mouth; new rules. It's like eating after brushing your teeth, everything tastes wrong"
"my mommy taught me how to brush my teeth, you gotta make sure you get the back ones too. most ponies forget those but not me"
"BEANS!! i love beans, i need beans"
"you sure are weird Mister, what's your real name anyways, you keep just saying 'the doctor'"
"yes, that's my name. well at least in my world it is....."
"hey i havn't asked you your name yet"
"oh i'm Dinky, Dinky Hooves
And so the cooker gets turned on full, the hob fires up, the pan of baked beans goes on. Within minutes a large helping of steaming hot baked beans is fully ripe for consumption. Trying to lift a spoon is harder than it sounds especially with hooves, this the doctor found out the hard way. No matter how hard he tried the spoon just stayed there on the table, silently mocking him and his feeble attempts at dexterity.
"eerrrrrr how am i meant to pick stuff up, with hooves"
"oh that's easy, mommy showed me how ages ago"
"you just reach down to the thing you wanna pick up. and, pick it up"
"look like this, it's easy"
"ahh huh, nope, it's not happening"
Giving up with the spoon the doctor dived straight into the bowl of piping hot beans.
"uugh, beans are horrible too"
"are you trying to poison me"
"wait i know what you will like, my mommy's really good at making these"
Dinky cantered off to the living room and came back pushing a chair into the kitchen with her petite rump, once it was in position against the worktop she used it as a step to jump up onto the worktop, then walked along till she came to a large wall cupboard. Opening the cupboard revealed a variety of muffins from triple chocolate fudge, to candy apple (probably not a good choice) bubblegum, and the holy of holy's: the blueberry muffin. Tenderly picking out two blueberry muffins, one in each hoof the filly made her way back to the kitchen table.
"here eat this, you will love it. trust me"
the doctor took the muffin an had a bite
"wow this is good stuff"
"i like muffins"
"muffins are my favorite"