Night of the Moon
Derpy stared out of the open doors of the TARDIS into space, a million questions floating in her mind, but she preferred the quietness of the void outside. The Doctor had opted to fly the TARDIS to the moon instead of going there the faster, warpy-er way, and Derpy was very pleased by this decision.
Unfortunately, that meant that it took them an extra 2 days to arrive, due to the TARDIS still recovering from the crash. Derpy didn't mind, the Doctor had a large assortment of beds, ranging from tiny to oddly large, and even had a bunk bed, which he repeatedly insisted was cool.
Another consequence of going the long way was that the Doctor's sonic screwdriver was dropped right after escaping Equestria's atmosphere. The Doctor found that the TARDIS gave him a new one, which was gold, and had claws the opened up at the top, and glowed green instead of blue when activated.
"Aw, it's not nearly as durable as the old one! I bet I could drop it and it would break right apart," the Doctor complained, his old sonic having been made of steel and other metals not even he could identify, and while there were still mysteries about this new one's chemical make-up, the outer casing felt like aluminum.
"That sounds a whole lot like what happened to the last one, actually!" Derpy teased.
The Doctor was not pleased.
"So," Derpy said after a few minutes of awkward silence, especially so since being around the Doctor in the first place is already rather awkward, "you said you're the last Time Pony. What happened to all the other ones?"
"It's a very long, confusing story, and I don't really like telling it," the Doctor said, with a sort of finality that said more about the subject than the statement itself.
"Please, Doctor, you won't even give me a name to call you by!"
"I told you, I'm the Doctor, the kids call me Doctor Whooves, and when the situation calls for it, I'm John Smith," the Doctor explained for what must've been the thousandth time, but he didn't mind, he knew it was all a part of coping with adventuring across the stars (and time) with a pony from beyond imagination. In a police box. Especially when ponies haven't even created the police box yet.
"I know, but who is named John Smith?"
"There's a place, a place I like a lot, where that's a very common name. Besides, its uncommonness helps make it more believable," the Doctor said, thinking of a world like Equestria, but with all of those technologies that he likes so much. Then, he remembered that it was like Equestria because it was Equestria. Or, rather, would be.
"Please tell me, at least a little bit about why," Derpy begged.
"Alright…So, a long time ago…Wait, no, actually, a long time in the future…Wait, still no…Okay, at various times across history and space, my race, the Time Ponies, and all of the great races of the universe went to war. The Time Ponies wished for the universe to be free, while the Daleks, the worst evil in all of existence, desired to rule all of it. Entire races, empires even, empires that extend beyond all of the stars you can see in the sky that ruled hundreds of galaxies, took sides, and they battled for centuries. There was a time where millions died every second," the Doctor explained, sadness in his voice, "I had a chance, you see, to end it, and prevent anyone and anything from changing anything about it. So I did. It ended the Daleks, but all the Time Ponies in the battle were also gone."
"Oh…I'm sorry, Doctor, I just wanted to know…"
"No, it's fine. I've had to tell other ponies, it's just…Well, look at that! We're on the moon! Let's hope we don't go bananas, we're the first to get here to not get banished by Celestia."
"How many ponies has she banished to the moon?"
"Oh, just one."
"Nobody got there other than Nightmare Moon? But we've sent shuttles!"
"It wasn't Nightmare Moon, it was put up a force field to prevent anybody from breaking her out. Of course, they still did, but the force field was designed to turn off after a thousand years. That's why we're getting through, right…Now!"
The TARDIS landed on the moon, a soft thud upon the lunar ground, a small amount of dirt rising above the surface. "The gravity here is incredible!" Derpy noticed, hopping around like a crazy, partying mess. The Doctor remembered a particular crazy, partying mess, and wondered when he would see her again. The last time he saw her…
The Doctor looked up just in time to see two things: one, the force field that once hung around the moon returned, and two, the TARDIS falling through the crater that they had landed upon.
"What?" the Doctor yelled.
Then Princess Luna headed right for them, faster than anything the Doctor had ever seen. The Doctor dropped the camera he needed to take pictures of Equestria with to the ground in disbelief.
"WHAT?" the Doctor yelled again, even more confused than a few moments before.
"WHAT?" the Doctor yelled a third time, for good measure.
Today simply wasn't his day.
"That was very clever, Luna, very clever to pretend you're Celestia to trick me into coming here!" the Doctor yelled, infuriated that he had fallen into such an obvious trap. He wasn't actually under the serious impression that this was a trap, but he needed to make sure.
"What are you talking about? YOU were the one who just flew in and landed when it went up! You probably did it! And, for your information, Celestia sent me, too!" Luna yelled, even more furious that someone would still accuse her of evil deeds, the time she's spent alone in this place, when they had put her back there.
"Um, maybe Celestia did it," Derpy suggested.
"You dare blame my sister?" Luna screamed, the rage within her boiling to the surface, and she floated off of the moon's surface, her eyes glowing with darkness, which the Doctor noted as: "Quite weird."
"It was just a suggestion," Derpy said, feeling about 2 inches tall.
"I've dealt with this sort of situation before," the Doctor said, remembering his other adventures on the moon, particularly the very fun one with the hospital, "and all we have to do is figure out where the force field is from." The Doctor took a breath, remembering his old adventures, and continued, "Celestia's is a light blue, barely visible, and it is, in fact, invisible on Equestria. This force field is a lot darker. Celestia definitely didn't do this, at least, not from her generator on Equestria."
"She has a force field generator?"
"Celestia has a great many things, some of which not even I understand. But she didn't do this."
"What about me? Do you still think I did this?" Luna asked, slightly depressed that ponies still believe she is evil.
"Of course not, I've just been having," the Doctor explained, and took a deep breath, regret from being a jerk to Luna flowing through him, "a bit of a terrible day. I'm sorry."
"It is fine," Luna said, happy that there was someone in the universe who still respected her. She wondered if, perhaps, her use of the royal Canterlot speaking voice had something to do with it. No, impossible! But she still spoke a lot more quietly than usual, because she thought this was private enough to not warrant such a powerful tone.
Derpy wondered if she could fly into the crater to get to the TARDIS, and asked.
"No, it's too far down, and, besides, I wouldn't have any way to tell you how to fly it back up to us," the Doctor told Derpy. "The only way is to find some way into the crater ourselves from somewhere on the surface."
"I could probably help, I mean, I've spent more time on the moon than, well, anybody," Luna said, happy to help.
"That would be great, Luna," the Doctor said.
Luna flew up a small height above the moon's surface, and flew so fast, the Doctor hadn't even considered that her speed must've been related to the gravity of the moon. Then he determined that she must've still been very, very fast without the weakened gravity, maybe even faster than the Pegasus who did a Sonic Rainboom. Actually, he thought, that Pegasus did two. Then she remembered another pony, one more gentle than the rainbow pegasus who did the Sonic Rainbooms, and questioned again if she might be a bit faster. No, couldn't be.
Luna flew across the moon, her old home welcoming her back from each and every crater, every bump and hill calling her back. A millennium makes you far too welcome, she realized. Unfortunately, she found none of the familiar entrances she had known only days earlier; even the holes she had dug herself were gone.
She went back to the Doctor and Derpy and told them, "Someone else is here, and covered up all the holes I'd made when I was here."
The Doctor was tempted to say "what?" overdramatically, but knew that it wouldn't come to a warm reception.
"What?" he said anyway.
A few unamused looks peered his way from his pony company. He shrugged.
"Then who put up the force field?" Derpy asked.
"Then who filled in the holes?" Luna asked.
"Then who was phone?" the Doctor asked, trying to make the situation a bit lighter.
Derpy and Luna glared at him so hard, he felt like he just might light on fire from the pure, unadulterated anger being shot at him. These glares were much more powerful than the previous ones.
"Your grammar…It is the worst I have ever heard in all my life, Doctor," Derpy informed him.
"It was a joke…from…" the Doctor began.
"Let me guess: another planet in the future?" Derpy asked.
The Doctor mumbled something that resembled "yes."
Luna and Derpy flew off for a bit to talk, leaving the Doctor to decide upon more current and more proximal jokes for their situation.
The Doctor couldn't think of anything. He felt more alien and cast out than he had ever before in his entire life, a life so long he could barely begin to even wonder it has been so far.
He hoped his eccentric behavior wouldn't lead him to abandonment from his friends, but hoped even more that his desire to not be lonely anymore wouldn't cause him to befriend an enemy.
But something he knew, something he had hoped against for, at least, the past several hundred years of his life, lead him to two conclusions: 1. Luna was undeniably innocent, and 2. Only one organization in the universe has a force field of that color, which means that getting off of the moon alive was not going to be easy.
The Doctor was not looking forward to the next few hours, for he knew that when that particular organization was involved, even he couldn't call it "fun," and he loves fun. He'd call it "scary" at best, and "deadly" at worst.
"Doctor! Doctor! We found a path that goes underground, and it's going in the direction of where the TARDIS fell down," Derpy happily exclaimed, and the Doctor got prepared for a very, very unpleasant battle.
"Alright, let's go, then," the Doctor said.
Luna saw something out of the corner of her eye, but decided not to mention it.
Luna knew that there was only supposed to be the three of them on the moon, and she knew even better that she should've mentioned it, but by the point she'd even begun to consider it, she couldn't remember a thing.
The Doctor was looking in her direction when she saw it, and he was very worried by the look on her face afterwards.
His enemy was on the moon, they hypnotized Celestia into sending them there, and now they're having the Doctor and his friends go right into their lair.
The Doctor thought to himself, two words, two words that described his feelings perfectly, two words that needed to be said right there and then, for them all to hear.
"Challenge accepted," the Doctor said. Derpy and Luna hadn't complained because they couldn't remember.
If the Silent that was staring at the Doctor at that moment could smile, it would have, because it accepted his challenge, as well.
The Doctor could not remember the Silent, an alien creature whose presence you forget when you stop looking at it. Because Luna and Derpy saw it, too, they couldn't remember his warning. He couldn't remember even giving one.
"Hold on…Why are we in this tunnel?" the Doctor asked, confused, his meeting with the Silent erasing his memory of entering.
"I don't know," Luna said, also completely unaware.
"How did I get here?" the Doctor asked. Something in his mind said that this was probably a joke from a video, but he was too confused to mention it.
Derpy was very confused. These two knew nothing at all about the tunnel, or the TARDIS falling whatsoever, so she asked them about the TARDIS.
"Well, of course I remember that! What does that have to do with this?" the Doctor asked.
"We're in this tunnel, Doctor, because it's heading in the direction of the TARDIS," Derpy said slowly, pronouncing every syllable carefully, worrying that the Doctor had hit his head. She later decided against that conclusion, because Luna had experienced the same issue. Then, she noticed that she also couldn't remember a little bit after entering the tunnel. In fact, the Doctor was telling her something.
"Doctor, have you ever fought anything that makes you forget about it when you don't see it?" Derpy asked, fear in her voice, a fear she couldn't hide.
"Yes, I have, actually. Why do you ask?" the Doctor inquired. Somewhere in his subconscious mind, there were a group of thoughts brewing, but the Silent kept those out of his reach.
"Don't look at me, don't look at all. Look the other way, because I'm looking at a thing that looks like Slenderpony, and I really think I'm going to want to know once it runs away," Derpy said, hoping that the Doctor's mastery of the ponynet would lead him to understand the horror that stood in front of her.
"Don't look away, understand me? Don't move your head until it's gone, but, I suppose you'll do that anyway," the Doctor said, the gravity of the situation stronger than the moon's own.
Luna looked at the Silent, and remembered seeing this creature dozens of times before in her imprisonment on the moon. She stared at it in anger, knowing that it led her here, that nothing else could have made her sister purposefully put her in danger. But she knew there was nothing she could do. Even if there was, she wouldn't even remember her vengeance, her victory over the evil that trapped her on the moon again. She chose to look away and forget the anger, a rather well-thought decision.
The Silent stared, with invisible hatred, at the Doctor and his companions. It knew it could do nothing: there was no power on the moon other than the Doctor's TARDIS, but it has no idea where the TARDIS could be. Whether or not the Silent liked it, it had no choice but to wait for the Doctor to be close to escape before it could do a thing against him, unless it found the TARDIS first, but the odds of that were so staggeringly unrealistic that it just decided to follow the Doctor until it was close enough to kill him.
Or, at least kill his companions. Messing with the Doctor was something of a specialty of its entire race.
The Silent ran into a corridor it knew didn't lead to the TARDIS, also knowing that it led to an intersection with the other path a short ways ahead, giving it another opportunity to strike fear into the Doctor and his friends.
"Woah, where are we now?" Derpy asked, the memory of the event completely wiped clean from her brain.
The Doctor explained what had just happened to Derpy, making sure to use Slenderpony as a visual reference, but adding that a Silent has a face, albeit a very disturbing and hardly pony looking face.
Derpy did not like the sound of an evil, electricity shooting alien pony with a grudge against the Doctor, which also had the ability to make her forget it was even there when it was gone. She liked the fact that she still couldn't remember it, even when she was aware of it, even less.
"Let's keep moving, I don't want to spend any more time here with a Silent than I need to," the Doctor said.
And so they kept going along the silent corridor, the quiet of the tunnel more disturbing than the notion of the Doctor's enemy lurking within it with them.
The underground hallway they walked through seemed natural, its walls looked ancient, appearing to be created through erosion and not hooves or tools. The appearance of it being natural was further strengthened from the varying height of the ceiling, and the way the ground made small hills. The Doctor could only hope that there wouldn't be any parts where they'd have to turn back around and go down a tunnel running directly beneath the current one, and that the tunnel they were in actually led to the TARDIS.
The tunnel's width was eventually so small that they had to walk single file along the path, hoping against hope that it never got any thinner, but having a suspicion it would, or maybe get just a bit too low, and force them to crawl. They were having that sort of day. The Doctor wondered how long a day is on the moon, but couldn't think of anything. He added another item to the list of things he'd have to look up once he got back to the TARDIS.
It also didn't help that the tunnel was getting darker and darker, and their only light source was the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, which, of course, would give away their position to the Silent, whose attack could be devastating in their current state.
Luckily, the tunnel eventually gave way to a larger cavern, filled with lights, and a much higher ceiling. The Doctor wondered if something had heard their pleas, and this was a simulation.
"It wouldn't be the first time," the Doctor whispered to himself, frustrated.
Derpy and Luna flew to the top of the cavern to look for anything suspicious. The Doctor had told them that every time they had a memory lapse, they should tell him immediately.
He had been told this several times after entering the cavern, and found himself repeatedly losing chunks of memory. The Silent was near, there was no doubt, but he couldn't find it without forgetting about its location.
Even worse was that every time he found himself missing time again, he was looking in a different direction than the previous, sometimes up, or the other side of a room. Either there was more than one Silent, or it was very crafty.
And then he noticed it.
There were mirrors all over the cavern, which certainly extended the scope of the Silent's ability to be seen, and therefore forgotten. There was no way of knowing its location now, their only hope would be to escape the cavern through the other exit, and hope it hadn't found the TARDIS first.
This would have been a great plan, had it not been that the Silent's location was obvious. The exit was on the opposite end of the cavern, directly in front of the Doctor and friends, but each time they saw it, they assumed it was somewhere else, and looked away, forgetting the exit's location.
The Silent's plan was going perfectly. Even better, soon, all the people Celestia would be sending to the moon, and there would be many, would build their ships, secretly bringing the Silence, one by one, to the moon, where they could create, in secret, a terrible device.
A device that could, and one day just might, destroy everything we know about the universe. By way of removing what it was that kept it safe, of course.
The Doctor realized this repeatedly as he saw the Silent and looked away numerous times.
What the Silent hadn't considered was that the Doctor was slowly counting the mirrors. Because he remembered all the other times he'd seen the Silent each new time he saw it, he began going, one by one, through each mirror, to determine its location, until he would get to where it was.
It was only a matter of time for the both of them.
The Doctor finished counting the mirrors, and stared at the Silent directly in its distorted face, and wondered for a moment what sort of twisted mind could craft such a disturbing creature. The Doctor doubted heavily that the Silence could be a completely organic race, their memory traits, or, rather, lack thereof, is an unlikely evolutionary trait. No more unlikely than turning into stone for defense, of course, but still a bit strange.
Unfortunately, the Doctor was also discovering that, even when he could remember their presence, he knew nearly nothing about the Silence. He wondered what the significance behind their name was, and then, the real question in his mind came to the surface: how did he know their name?
Then, a horror dawned upon the Doctor: what if, beyond all explanation, someone had harnessed the power of a Silent, or was the one who gave it to them, and used their power of suggestion to tell him their name? And then, an even worse thought: what if the Silence wasn't just a species, but a society out to get him?
At around the same time, the Silent noticed that Derpy was still with the Doctor. Quickly, it remembered that not until Derpy was gone would the time of the Silence occur. If it interfered now, it realized, it would undo the most important event in the Silence's plan, an event that could not happen until Derpy no longer could travel alongside the Doctor. But, the Silent did not care. It knew that if it killed the Doctor, the Silence would ensure that the events set in motion by the Doctor's being allowed to live would still occur, and it would be welcomed back a hero. It forgot that the machine it needed to get rid of the Doctor still didn't exist, but this Silent wasn't very smart.
But it also knew that, regardless of its success in ensuring that the Silence was successful, that it was only a pawn in the massive scheme that they had been working, in secret, to create for thousands of years; it was only a cog in the clockwork planet of their plan. The Silent wondered why it had used such a strange analogy to describe its situation.
But its hatred toward the Doctor grew no less potent, its desire to watch the last Time Lord be no more was too pure, too hypnotizing to resist.
The Silent forgot, for a moment, that it was entirely unable to use electricity, the TARDIS still too far away for it to leech its energy in an effort to kill the Doctor. The small current it could muster was from its own nervous system, causing the impulses in its somewhat primitive brain to stop short in the middle of the action, killing it instantly. The Silent dropped to the floor, a bundle of disgusting flesh and bone, the suit covering up the vaguely pony-shaped body that it once held up, that once cast fear.
The Doctor had hoped it wouldn't have come to this, but somewhere in his still fairly recently regenerated brain, he understood there was no other way. He was grateful that he would forget of the event in a few moments, as he entered the corridor he knew led to the TARDIS.
Derpy and Luna followed him, still frightened by the sudden end to the battle against the Silent, realizing just before it was erased from their minds that the only action that had been taken, had been taken against the Silent itself.
If they had the capacity to remember the intense irony, an irony which proved the Doctor's reasoning behind everything he did right, they would respect him much more. They entered the corridor 3 confused ponies with a lingering but faint idea of the events that had just transpired.
Somewhere, deep within the caves and tunnels and halls behind them, lost in a maze of dirt and rock, was another creature, a creature that more closely resembled a pony. In fact, it looked so much like one that, unless you knew its true nature, you'd swear it is one. But it isn't. At least, not a normal pony. It's not even a Time Pony.
Well, not entirely. But, she was trapped within that maze until the Silence came, and they did, but it took them a very, very long time.
Until then, the only important activity on the moon was the Doctor and his companions, confused as they may be, looking for their time machine.
Despite the Silence's forgotten stand, the path did not lead directly to the TARDIS. There were many twists and turns and intersections and split paths that they spent more time after the Silent than before the Silent, although the path was far less treacherous.
The Doctor regretted not brining a torch with him from the TARDIS, although the time it would've taken to grab one would've likely ended with him in the TARDIS, with Derpy, at the bottom of this crater.
But the Doctor stopped caring for just a moment, but not apathetically, it was more like his emotions went into overdrive, and he could barely see and hear for a moment.
The TARDIS was there, gleaming in its blue beauty, the Doctor staring at it like a filly stares at the entrance to Sugarcube Corner. In a way, it was almost the same feeling.
"Hmm, it's never done that before," the Doctor said, confused and amazed at relatively the same time.
"Done what? Shine?" Luna asked, a bit confused at his statement.
"Indeed," the Doctor said.
Then, the TARDIS rang.
"WHAT?" the Doctor yelled.
He waited for a minute, and it was still ringing.
"WHAT?" the Doctor screamed, knowing no phone in the universe rang for that long.
The Doctor picked up the phone, horrified and intrigued at the same time, wondering what it could possibly be.
Luna and Derpy stood awkwardly for a few moments, the Doctor saying nothing, but with a look of pure amazement and confusion on his face.
The Doctor hung up the phone he didn't know worked, bewildered by his conversation.
"Well, that was unexpected," he said.
"So, uh…who was phone?" Derpy asked, hoping that using the Doctor's joke would impress him enough to bring her an answer that may possibly lead her to, at least, a bit of knowledge about him, beyond the blatantly obvious, of course.
"You'll find out soon, Derpy. But, before I deal with that, I must take the lovely Princess Luna home," the Doctor said, his compliments purely sincere.
Then, he had an idea, but it would require a bit of audience participation from his companion's part.
"Luna, you are very nice, and I think I may be able to do you a favor that I think you'll like. The only problem is, I'll be changing the past, and your past self will have to agree to something that will seem a bit…out there."
Luna was unsure of whether or not to take the Doctor's proposition, but decided that she should, considering that the worst that could happen would be another strange adventure with this fascinating pony.
"Okay," she said apprehensively, wondering what his intentions might be.
"One thing, though. You may have a split memory, and you'll lose hundreds of years of time, so, it may be a bit disorienting for you at first."
"Are things ever simple with you, Doctor?" Luna asked.
"Where's the fun in simple?" the Doctor answered, as seriously as one could possibly express fun in complication.
"Oh, and, also, the box, it's bigger on the inside. I felt you should know," the Doctor said, opening the doors and walking inside.
"What is this fun you speak of?" Luna asked.
"…" the Doctor did not say.
"I'm just kidding, Doctor!"
"Good. We don't have time for a philosophy lesson."
Derpy excitedly skipped inside, knowing that a reaction like that from the Doctor meant adventure, although, hopefully, it ends with something a bit better than running away in fear, or being inside of the creepiest cave system in the solar system around Equestria.
She wondered, for a moment, if Equestria referred to the planet, or the entire universe, and if Luna was actually the princess of all of space.
For some reason, she couldn't remember the thought later.
Luna cautiously walked inside the TARDIS, doubting the Doctor's wild claim, knowing that even magic couldn't make something bigger on the inside.
And yet, there it was. It was bigger on the inside, no doubt about it. If the Doctor could do that, she wondered just what he meant earlier when he mentioned changing the past. She got very excited.
"So, Doctor, what exactly are we doing?" Luna asked with equal parts fear and excitement, two emotions that only mixed at extreme times of good or bad. If she truly hadn't known what fun was, she would have just found out the Doctor's definition.
"We're going to break you out of your lunar prison in the past, take you for an adventure, and convince your past self to still wreak angry vengeance on Equestria. Actually, it might be more fun if the adventure was the revenge. And after, we're going to go for some lunch," the Doctor said, confident that at no point in that plan could anything go wrong.
"Oh, okay," Luna said, looking forward to having never been left on the moon for a thousand years. Or, rather, looking backward to having never been left on the moon for a thousand years.
"If that isn't fun, I don't know what is," Derpy said, a crazy smile on her face, although it is hard for one to judge whether or not the smile would've been as crazy, if it wasn't for her eye problems.
"You don't even know the half of it!" the Doctor said, pulling a lever, causing the TARDIS to take off with a sound known across most of the universe. The other part of the universe that was unfamiliar with that sound is not at all much fun.
What the Doctor didn't know, what nopony knew at that time, was that there was somepony else in the moon, somepony who knew the Doctor, and was disappointed when she heard the TARDIS leaving without her. Maybe even a bit mad, but she didn't stay angry for long. Possibly a little scared, but she tended to laugh at scary things.
But the Doctor had bigger problems, worse than the unknown issue regarding somepony he's yet to have met. That phone wasn't connected to any phone line or wireless connection in the universe, and yet, somehow, he received a call, a call that issued a challenge. It could wait for Luna to be back on Equestria for him to deal with it, but not a moment longer.
After all, the Doctor was getting awfully tired already.
Luna was amazed by how ungraceful the TARDIS was while it was in flight. For a time machine, it was certainly a very, very bumpy ride, although, it wasn't like she'd ridden in a time machine before. At least, she hadn't ridden in a time machine before so far. In a few confusing minutes this will have been her third trip.
The Doctor tried desperately to stabilize the TARDIS, but knew extremely well that there simply wasn't a way, at least, a way he knew about.
Derpy yawned, she was terribly tired.
"So, Doctor, have you got any beds that aren't bunk beds on your time machine?" she asked, completely serious.
"Only one, and I'm not inclined to make you sleep there," the Doctor said, embarrassment rising in his voice, hoping that Derpy would avoid the bedroom.
"Why? What's wrong with it? Would I have to share the bed with an alien?" Derpy questioned, adamant that she would avoid a bunk bed tonight, especially after she watched an old video that the Doctor owned about fire safety, and that the higher your elevation, the more likelihood of instant or very rapid death from heat and smoke. She was nearly certain that that video was, quite literally, the only video the Doctor had, and he had many, that had a thing to do with doctors or medicine. She was just glad that the only one he appeared to have was actually informative and, a rare feat, the just right amount of cheesy to make it entertaining, while still somewhat educational. It seemed almost intentionally bad.
"It, has a, uh…It's got…There's a nightlight in it," the Doctor said, a bit embarrassed.
"A nightlight?" Derpy asked, astounded.
"Yes, a nightlight, and it's shaped like a blue canary," the Doctor said, even more embarrassed, knowing that the amount of things he'd have to explain, ranging from multi-universal theory to copyright laws and how they work in other universes, would be far too great for him to be completely informative.
"Oh, okay. How do I get there?" Derpy asked, knowing that with the Doctor, it probably wouldn't be simple for everyone but the Doctor.
The Doctor was so surprised, it came out in his voice as he said, "Go through the middle corridor, take a left at the first opportunity, and press the button 42 times at the green door."
"Okay, thanks! Have fun changing Luna's past!" Derpy said happily, too tired to stay and watch.
The Doctor planned on having fun, even if it meant having to teach Luna what that means.
The TARDIS landed on the crater on the moon, the same as it did a thousand years prior, only this time, the tunnel system had yet to be created, thus allowing it to stay on the crater, without falling into the interior of the moon.
"You can't come outside, but you can watch, as long as you don't, err," the Doctor said, finding, for the first time in a long time, difficulty in explaining time travel. It had been a while since he'd travelled with someone, and he missed it dearly. The only problem was that he never had a chance to prepare an explanation of why they can't talk to themselves in the past, or why they can't stop wars or murders. "Some things are fixed, some are in flux," he'd always say, but they never listened. They always kept trying to change things that cannot or will not be changed, and they never quite forgive him for it.
At least this time, he didn't have any disappointment in when his long explanation didn't work.
"As long as I don't what, Doctor?" Luna asked, in a friendly way.
"As long as you don't let your past self see you. If old Luna and new Luna met, and were both aware of each other, the universe, and time itself, wouldn't be able to handle it," the Doctor said, hoping very deeply that she wouldn't try.
"While it would be a LOT of fun to see my old self," Luna said, in a way that made the Doctor worry that she was going to try to convince him that she could do it, or make him feel guilty enough to let her try, "I can understand why I can't do that. I mean, I'd remember meeting myself, right?"
"Not necessarily. Remember, I'm changing your past anyway."
"Then I don't understand it, although, I also don't understand how your ship is bigger on the inside, or how it could travel through time, but you've been right so far."
The Doctor respected Luna greatly for accepting this. It was always very hard to fix paradoxes of this nature once they're caused, and he wasn't awake enough to do it again. He let out a soft yawn.
"Thank you," the Doctor said, "Also, watch on the screen by the console, it should be showing what's happening outside. When I open the door, go into the hallway over to the left side of this room, and wait until I come and get you to come back here."
"Okay," Luna said, excited beyond reasonable measure.
The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS, and walked back onto the surface of the moon.
The past Luna was standing a small distance away from the door to the TARDIS, observing it carefully. When the Doctor walked out, she let out a small scream, and then looked at him angrily.
"Who are you? Are you here to kill me? Did my sister send you?" Past Luna asked. The Royal Canterlot Speaking Voice was involved.
"I'm the Doctor, and, don't worry, I'm not here to kill you. And your sister did send me. Well…" the Doctor said, unsure of what to say to explain what had happened, "She will send me, in your future. I'm a time traveller, you see. This blue box behind me is the TARDIS."
"Why are you here?"
"I don't think you deserve what happened to you, being banished here, so, I came here to take you on an adventure! What do you think, should I drop you off right after the point that you left, or, say, 999 years, 11 months, and 29 days from now?"
Past Luna decided that any company was better than the loneliness she'd faced on the moon, even if she'd only spent a day there. Besides, she'd give anything to get out of almost all of the time she'd have to spend there.
"What's the catch?"
"Ah, smart princess! The only catch is that after I drop you off, you have to get revenge on your sister. Or, actually, how about we take care of that right now?"
Past Luna was amazed.
"But didn't she send you?"
"She didn't send me here. Well, she didn't send me here right now."
Past Luna couldn't think of any reason not to go and many, many reasons why she should.
"Alright, I'll come with you."
"Oh, one more thing, when you wreak your revenge, make sure to hire a dragon to guard the castle. Oh, wait, I'll be with you, so I can help with that.
The Doctor and Past Luna went on an adventure together, an adventure that shouldn't have happened for far too many reasons to list. But it did happen, and Luna was glad.
When the Doctor dropped her off right before her sentence was over, he gave Luna a ride back to Equestria. She waved goodbye sadly, but was happy that he did something so nice for her.
Before he went back into the TARDIS, she had one question for him.
"So, if that whole thousand years of my life never happened, why can I remember it, and still remember my new past?"
"It did happen. Some things are so powerful, so important to ourselves, that nothing can make us forget them, not forever, at least. The memories will fade in and out, but they'll always be there. And you'll be a better pony for it."
"What could I ever do to repay you?" Luna asked, having never considered the idea before.
The Doctor thought for a moment, and decided it best to say, "Don't make the same mistake twice, Luna. What happened to you wasn't because of Celestia, but because of you. You made the choice to be evil, if only for a little while, and now you have to be better. The ponies of Equestria, all of them, will love you like they love Celestia if you can be better than you were. That's all I want."
Luna felt a powerful urge to run past the Doctor and take another adventure with him. Nopony had ever been so kind, so wonderful, to change your life a dozen times for the better, and only ask you to make it even greater in return. But she knew that she couldn't do that, not right now. The only thing she could do was hope that she might have that chance again.
Then Luna remembered. She remembered that she was never Nightmare Moon. She remembered her adventure with the Doctor, setting up the meeting of the Elements of Harmony. But she remembered something older. A thousand years older, in fact. An imposter. The Silence. Celestia sent her away, but she hadn't done anything. But then Luna forgot again.
"Okay, Doctor, I'll do that for you."
The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS, getting ready to wake up Derpy and head off to another adventure, after taking a short nap.
"But!" Luna yelled, startling the Doctor, filling him with worry that their adventure, and his immense favor wasn't enough to ensure Luna would be as great as she possibly could.
Luna smiled, and finished, "If you ever need help, for anything, I'll be here for you."
The Doctor was surprised at the offer, having gotten too used to giving ponies help, or receiving it because there was no option to do anything else. He'd never been offered help, not even hypothetical help.
"If such a day were to come, I'll be glad that I could be helped by someone like you," the Doctor said, then walked into the TARDIS and headed for a safe spot in null space so he could sleep for a bit.
Luna flew away from the moon, and headed to Canterlot. Her first night back on the job of being in charge of night was almost there, and she wanted to be on time.
The Doctor almost never slept, he was too busy saving the world time and time again to sleep. But now he was too tired to keep walking, too tired to even keep his head up. He collapsed in a pile of himself, and drifted off into unconsciousness.
The TARDIS's phone rang again, but instead of the usual bell, it was an evil laughter.
Whether or not the Doctor was prepared, the Dream Lord was there.
Tune in Saturday for the next exciting adventure, The Doctor Sleeps!
But, first, tune in Friday for the lost adventure, Mare of the Moon!