Equestria and the Time Lord Episode 11: The Distortion Express

Episode 1: Part 1 of 3

=Gaia, Equestria, Canterlot, The Canterlot Royal Station, Platform 1, 1023 C.E. =

The TARDIS began to materialize in the middle of a bustling crowd of ponies, most of which were rich looking. And among them, The Doctor, Puzzlehunt, and Trixie all stepped out to join the crowd. Trixie was wearing her cape to cover up her cutie mark, which had recently been dissolved away on a quarantined space station, although not at the cost of her special talent. The Doctor seemed to be the only one who actually had a clue where they were at.

"Okay Doctor, you told us you were going to make up for us nearly getting killed, dropped us off in our houses, told us to start packing, and then left. You're obviously planning something. Where are we?" Puzzlehunt asked in a very irritated voice.

"Look around." The Doctor said.

And they did. They both looked around, comprehending where they were currently standing. They both sighed when they got it.

"Oh joy. You've brought us to a train station." Puzzlehunt said, not very impressed.

"Wonderful." Trixie said, also not very impressed at the scene.

"I have brought you to a train station, but I've brought you to a train station 20 years in the future." The Doctor said enthusiastically. "And you know what we're going to do here?"

"Ride a train?" Trixie asked in a dull voice.

The Doctor knew full well they were going to guess it (it was rather obvious) and so he wasn't shaken. "Obviously so. But this is a historically important train ride and it's quite enjoyable."

"How so?" Trixie asked, not expecting it to be fun like the Doctor had said.

"Well, this train ride is the very first on to transport ordinary ponies to Quaggai, the home country of the zebras. Before now, only a few explorers here and there have ever been there. This is really an important event for all of Equestria." The Doctor said.

"It's boring!" Trixie interjected. Puzzlehunt seemed rather interested, but still looked kind of bored by it.

"The cabin we're in is also a lavish cabin and we're living in luxury." The Doctor said, sighing.

"Okay, I'll go." Trixie said almost immediately.

The Doctor smiled. "Get all your stuff. Boarding is in about 15 minutes."

Trixie picked up all her bags and put on her distinctive star covered hat that you could see from miles and miles away.

Puzzlehunt smirked a bit, picked up all of his bags, and put on his cream colored much less noticeable hat.

The Doctor simple said, "I'll meet you on there." And stepped back into the TARDIS, which dematerialized, leaving them alone in the crowd of ponies that were waiting for a train to arrive to make them some of the first civilian ponies to step hoof in Quaggai. Nopony knew what to expect, but they all had big dreams and were all expecting big things. And everypony was excited.

Even Puzzlehunt and Trixie. Their excitement was steadily growing as they listened to the excited chatter that was emanating throughout the entire crowd. They decided to get closer to the train for when it arrived. They fought their way through the crowd that was amassing through the station. They figured that some of them were heading off on the train, while some were seeing them off. They could judge who was going by those who were carrying a camera to get proof of what they had seen. They fought their way to the front of the crowd for the whole of 13 minutes.

And the train arrived at just the right moment. It pulled up almost the second they got to the front of the crowd. And they found, to their delighted shock, that this train was not as sickeningly cute as the trains back in their home time period. It was a burgundy and black color, and it was huge. It was long enough to fit nearly everypony on this platform on the journey to Quaggai.

And the doors slid open. An elderly pony stepped out and yelled "All aboard!" (in true train movie fashion) and there was very nearly a stampede. Nearly a hundred ponies ran to get through the doors, completely crushing the train conductor beneath their hooves.

Puzzlehunt and Trixie were at the helm of this stampede, and they didn't stop to care about all the ponies they were running over. That is, until the stampede caught right up to them. And they became trampled along with the rest.

"Idiots! You very nearly killed us! Get out of my way!" Puzzlehunt yelled out the crowd as they attempted to get up but were knocked back down to more pain every time.

Trixie's horn glowed dangerously, and she looked like she was about to do something violent before the crowd dispelled around them and they were able to stand up. There were still ponies coming in, but not the magnanimous amount that was coming in earlier. They had the stability to look at their tickets (which the Doctor had slipped to them earlier) and found where they would be staying on the train. They handed in their tickets after they had memorized it and began walking to the cabin in question.

It was much closer to the front of the train than the rest of the cabins. An announcement that they vaguely heard announced that they would be taking off in about 15 minutes. That would be just enough time to get settled into the room. They would be in it for about a week and a half or so, so they had better get settled into it now.

And they walked into the room. They very nearly went into shock. It was more like a nice hotel room than what would be on a train. In fact, except for being adapted slightly to fit a moving train, it was exactly like a hotel room. They wheeled their bags through the room, looking around it. Neither of them would ever be able to afford anything like this in real life. The places the lived made them look homeless compared to the room they had gotten.

And they opened the closet to put all their stuff in, but drew back when they looked inside. "Very subtle, Doctor." Puzzlehunt said, sighing. And with that, The Doctor walked out of the TARDIS, which had been parked right in the middle of their closet.

"Well." The Doctor said. "What do you think?"

They both waited until they had placed their bags in the closet to answer. "Well…I think it's very nice indeed." Trixie said in a hesitant voice.

"You don't want to say you love it, do you?" The Doctor said.

"I like it." Puzzlehunt said doubtfully.

And they examined the room. And all of a sudden, the train started forward, knocking them against the wall.

They looked out to see ponies on the platform waving at them. They realized that they were well and truly on their way to Quaggai.

And they didn't notice the shadow that was only a black silhouette in the shape of a pony rushing towards the train. It did a bounding leap and landed on the back of the train as it sped away from the train station. It phased through the door and entered the train.