Previously on Doctor Whooves, the Doctor went into the regeneration cycle after curing an insane Time Lord trapped in a pony named Colgate's mind. With the new Doctor in a new TARDIS, Derpy was left with an emergency recording, telling the wall-eyed mare she is the new owner of his TARDIS. This same recording also said The Doctor was dead. With a heartbroken mare and a new Doctor each in possession of their own TARDIS, a new adventure will unfold as they both go their separate paths. What will happen in this story? Find out as you read "A Tale of Two TARDISES"!
Prologue
"Okay, what have you got for me? Come on, read my mind! Give this new TARDIS an old look!" The engine began to hum at the remark and caused the room to shake, changing it to look like The Doctor's old command center. When the process was done, The Doctor looked around and liked what he saw, smiling and laughing at what he witnessed. As soon as his joy was over, he ran to the console and asked "What have you got for me this time?" The engines started again, taking him into a new point in time and space for him to explore.
Meanwhile, Derpy was still in Twilight's Library, mourning the loss of The Doctor, whom she did not know could regenerate his body.
"So, The Doctor's dead? I can't believe that! I WON'T! IT'S NOT FAIR!" Derpy started crying and wailing. Fluttershy saw the sorrowful pony cry in Twilight's Library among her friends and tried to comfort her with her soothing voice. "There, there. I'm sure The Doctor was happy you were safe when it happened. He would want you to remain strong and tell the world what he has done for them. Shh, it's okay…" Derpy's sobbing slowed as the Element of Kindness soothed her with gentle words. As soon as she was done, the wall-eyed mare entered The Doctor's old TARDIS and started it's console. The other six ponies stared at her, hoping for some explanation until Rainbow Dash asked her "What are you going to do now?". "I'm going to tell the universe of the loss of our savior. Hopefully they will give me a proper funeral for a Time Lord." Derpy said. "I think he would like that, Derpy Hooves. Is there anything we can do to help?" Twilight said. She smiled at this question and just simply said "You can come meet his friends! Come inside the TARDIS and I'll show you."
The ponies were hesitant to answer at first, and then they nodded. Derpy motioned them to come inside and see the interior of the mysterious blue box. When they did, they all gasped as they saw how spacious the inside was. "I-It's bigger on the inside! This is amazing!" Twilight said. "I agree, but he needs somepony to redecorate in here! I'll be happy to lend a hand, Derpy if you want me to..." Rarity exclaimed. "TARDIS PARTY!" Pinkie pie shouted with excitement as she unfolded her collapsible party cannon (?). "Pinkie Pie, no!" All the ponies shouted. The pink mare understood and said sorry for the inappropriate party behavior. "Is everybody ready? Good, cause here we go!" Derpy pulled a lever and the TARDIS engine roared to life, taking them to their first destination, the Canterlot Gardens.
Meanwhile, in another TARDIS…
"Hmm, I have no idea where to go. What do you thing D-". The Doctor was alone, forgetting for a moment that Derpy was somewhere else. "You can read my mind, TARDIS. You know where to take Me." The TARDIS engines sprang to life and took the now lonely Doctor right where he needed to be, the Canterlot Gardens.
When The Doctor arrived, he was greeted by a patrol of guards with sharpened lances pointed at him and his TARDIS, which now looked like the big blue box his old one did, except with a fresher coat of paint and the words above the door read "Pony Public Call Box" now. "Halt! In the name of princesses Celestia and Luna! You will state who you are!" The Doctor just smiled and said "I'm The Doctor! I am the Castle Guard Inspector, here are my credentials," He pulled out his Slightly Psychic Paper and showed them. "I was doing a surprise inspection and you did excellent! Except, you were supposed to ask me who I was before everything else, but overall you did great!" The guards went along with the white lie as they have seen a future version of The Doctor before. "We are sorry, Doctor. We were not alerted to any surprise inspection. Would you like to follow us to give your evaluation to the princesses personally?" The Doctor nodded and followed the guards to the throne room.
The throne room was a large hallway with two thrones at the end: one large and the other smaller, but still big enough to hold an adult alicorn. On either side of the wall were glass murals that showed the feats that Princesses Celestia and Luna accomplished. In some of the paintings, The Doctor could vaguely see him and Derpy standing next to his new TARDIS. These pictures were obviously future adventures that The Doctor will have with Derpy. The Doctor smiled at them, knowing that the wall-eyed mare will still be safe and will travel with him still. As soon as he was in front of the two thrones, the guards kneeled around The Doctor as the princesses Celestia and Luna came in and took a seat on their thrones. Celestia stood gracefully above The Doctor and the guards, her mane flowing to a fake breeze. She waved them away, indicating the guards' permission for dismissal. Princess Luna was sitting as this was taking place, observing The Doctor's every move. "Doctor, what are you doing here?! Has something come up? Are we under attack?" The Doctor was surprised that Celestia knew him extensively for a moment, and then realized she saw future versions of him.
"This is the first time we have met princess. I know it sounds crazy but-." Celestia dawned a look of confusion and said "But of course we have! You were there when I imprisoned my sister Luna in the moon!". "See, that's the thing with Time Lords, we normally don't arrive in an exact order. This is the first day I've met you in person, but for you it must've been at least the hundredth time you have met me." The Doctor said. Luna was done observing him and asked in the Royal Canterlot Voice "WE REMEMBER YOU, DOCTOR! IT WAS YOU WHO GAVE THE MEANS FOR OUR SISTER TO IMPRISON US IN THE MOON FOR A THOUSAND YEARS! HOW CAN YOU NOT REMEMBER THIS?" Celestia stopped the young alicorn and explained to her "Luna, The Doctor you see before us is very young and hasn't helped me with that matter yet. This is the first time he has been introduced to us. Now, try to use a quieter voice for him, he doesn't understand why you talk like that yet." The midnight blue princess nodded and apologized to The Doctor. "We are sorry we spoke too loud at you. We are… not yet used to the life here. If this is your first meeting with us, allow us to introduce ourselves. We- I'm Luna. I lower the sun to make way for the moon. This is Celestia, my older sister. She lowers the moon in order to raise the sun." Celestia smiled at her introduction, then realized something a future Doctor said about the first meeting. "Doctor, please step to the right. Your future version told me that Derpy should be arriving with the Element Bearers any second."
The Doctor did as told, and then his old TARDIS began materializing into existence. The door swung open and out came the 7 ponies mentioned. "DERPY! I'm so glad to see you! Oh, I forgot. You didn't know I could regenerate, did you? Agh, me and my stupid self! I'm The Doctor! You won't recognize me at first and that's okay. *chuckles*, none of them do!" Derpy was confused at this entirely and it nearly gave her a headache. "I-What?! You are The Doctor? You don't even have the same coat as him! Is this some kind of trick?". "No tricks, Derpy, and I can prove it! Hand me my sonic." Derpy was hesitant and asked "What are you going to do with it, 'Doctor'?" He chuckled at this and said "I am going to calibrate it to sound only around beings with strong time signatures, such as the Princesses or me. Now hand me the tool. No time to waste!" The wall-eyed mare handed him The Doctor's infamous tool and he began to calibrate it as he said he would. "There, that should do it! Go ahead, give it a try! Try it on the princesses first, then me. If you want, try it on oh I don't know, Rainbow Dash, perhaps?"
Derpy walked slowly to the princesses, activating the sonic and pointed it at Celestia. It began to work and hummed loudly. Next, she tried Princess Luna. The tool still hummed, but at a lower frequency than before. As a final effort to see if it was calibrated correctly, Derpy quickly waved it at Rainbow Dash and it was barely on. She then pointed it at The Doctor and it hummed louder than ever before, then sparks flew out of the Sonic Screwdriver and it turned itself off to prevent further damage. Derpy began to well up with tears as she said "Doctor, is it you? I mean, truly you? HOW COULD YOU MAKE ME THINK YOU WERE DEAD!?" The Doctor looked sad at this. "I tried to put that I could regenerate in the recording, but the TARDIS only had enough power to keep one recording, and was recording set for a specific time frame only. If I did, the TARDIS would malfunction because of all of the data being kept." She hugged The Doctor, and he hugged back. All the other ponies watching, including the princesses cried. "Now, where to f-." Before The Doctor could finish his sentence, Luna began screaming. "SHE'S BACK! I CAN FEEL HER PRESENCE! NIGHTMARES RETURNING! NIGHTMARES RETURNING! AAAAAAAH!"
Author's Note: Nightmares returning? Well, this could be bad! And what about the TARDIS in the gardens? I've been delayed on this story for quite a while now. Anywho, that was just a taste of what's to come!