Chapter 2

"I simply can't make something that complicated in that short of time!" Rarity yelled to the heavens in her trademark melodrama.

"How long would it take you, do you think?" the Doctor asked, a small smirk growing across his face. Time travel defeats time limits in the battle against stagnation, he would always say.

"Well….If you simply must have the helmet for the costume, it could take as long as a week!"

"Tell you what, Rarity: take your time, maybe go on a trip to Canterlot. As a matter of fact, make that two weeks!" the Doctor said. I know I've done it again, he thought.

"But that's a whole 4 days after Nightmare Night! What do you want this costume for?"

"It's a special surprise. I'm sure you've heard about it."

"You act like it's already happened, Mr…Mr….What was your name again?"

"Doctor."

"Mr. Doctor."

"Just the Doctor will do, thank you, or Doctor Whooves, if you truly must extend my name."

Rarity gave the Doctor a confused look. Something in her mind, beneath the thoughts of planning for her next line of clothes, and where she might find more gems for said next line, told her that this pony looked familiar. She remembered that she had to act her very best around costumers, though, and quickly put on her best smile.

"You talk about…whatever you need this costume for…as though it's already happened, Doctor Whooves, sir."

"That's because it has for you."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. It'll all make sense soon enough. For me, anyway… So, I'll be back in 2 weeks. And since I've noticed a shortage in your shop," the Doctor said, remembering that he would need to set a reminder in the TARDIS that would activate upon his next regeneration about this, "I'll bring you some gems as well as the payment for your trouble."

Rarity was amazed. Either this pony was very rich, very stupid, or very much both. Still, she was the spirit of Generosity, and she could not take gifts like these.

"Oh, no, that's fine; really, I must insist that you don't do that. Usually I don't even take payments…."

"My treat, Miss Rarity, because I fear that I'm about to put you through a bit of trouble, and this is my way of saying, 'Sorry.'"

"How do you mean?"

The Doctor looked into Rarity's eyes, and for a brief second, he wanted to tell her everything. But he knew that he couldn't. The last time he did that, he almost had to leave Equestria forever.

"Just try to make the costume as realistic as when you saw Nightmare Moon, okay? Don't want to be causing any problems with time…"

Rarity had the sudden sensation that there was more here than meets the eye. Regardless, she had a job to finish.

The Doctor gave Rarity a smile, waved goodbye, and left her shop.

He decided that this wasn't enough of a test for her. She would need more proof than this that she was suitable to wield the Element of Generosity. Anypony can reject a gift; it takes a truly pure soul to give one with the expectation of nothing in return.

He went back into the TARDIS, walked up to the center console, and typed a message that would be displayed on all of the TARDIS monitors when he regenerated again. The message said the following:

"Dear 12,

In the event that you have some free time, me, I must request that you acquire a bucket or two of gems for Miss Rarity, and drop them off in front of her shop five years and two weeks after the date that Nightmare Moon returned. Try not to let me see you.

Best Wishes,

-11"

He added another 14 days to the date he had set in the TARDIS.

He pulled the lever.

He gave his future self a good 5 minutes or so.

He opened the door.

"Thanks me! I owe you one!"

He picked up the bucket of gems in his mouth, and had the coins in his pocket. Using his head, he knocked on Rarity's door.

"One moment, please!"

The Doctor waited for a few minutes. He ground his hooves into the ground a bit out of boredom, adjusted the bucket in his mouth, and eventually knocked again when his teeth began to hurt.

A bright, gleaming light radiated from the front door. In a silhouette of fabulousness and gleaming gems was Rarity, an inspired smile on her face, and a confident look in her eyes. The Doctor knew that look well; that look was the look of somepony currently engaged in the thing that they love to do most. There were enough mirrors in the TARDIS to tell him that.

"Oh, Doctor! I apologize for the wait. I was adjusting the size on a few designs I've been working on. Please, come in. The Nightmare Moon costume is ready."

"If I may say so myself, the dress is wonderful. You are quite the artist," the Doctor said as he placed the bucket on the ground, and took a few steps into Rarity's shop.

Rarity had a look on her face somewhere between embarrassment and confusion, as though she didn't think that her work was anything special. Clearly, this pony has never read reviews for her work on the Ponynet, the Doctor thought. Rarity realized that she had a customer in the room, and so put on an overconfident look. She thought back to the dresses she had made for her friends, all of those years ago, and remembered what was, in her mind, truly her greatest work.

She went into a back room, and with a combination of magic and old fashioned pushing, wheeled out Nightmare Moon's outfit. The Doctor wasn't sure if she had needed to learn blacksmithing in order to make it, but he was certain that the gems was enough to pay her back for whatever training might have been necessary.

"You know, Doctor, I wrote down what time you set your order in my shop when you left. It's in my logs," Rarity said, as she used unicorn magic to grab a clipboard 15 feet away. After flipping through a few pages, she got to the sheet for 2 weeks prior. She placed the clipboard in front of the Doctor as she continued, "You arrived here within 20 seconds of when you left. Now, either you keep a very good watch on you, or there's something else going on."

"Are you second guessing my legitimacy?" the Doctor asked.

"I am merely making sure that nothing fishy is going on," Rarity said, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

"Okay, you've got me: I'm a time travelling Time Pony that's nine hundred years old. This is my eleventh incarnation, and those gems by your door, they were dropped off by my twelfth. That outfit you made isn't a recreation, either, because I'm giving it to Luna so that she can impersonate Nightmare Moon after I broke her out of her lunar prison. Also, I can open any door that isn't made of wood. Any more questions, Rarity? Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm from outer space."

Rarity stared blankly at the Doctor.

"Sorry. I'm in a bit of a hurry. See you later!" the Doctor shouted at the still-frozen Rarity, grabbing Nightmare Moon's clothes on his way out of the door.

Rarity couldn't tell if this was another of Pinkie Pie's practical jokes or what.

As a matter of fact, she was pretty sure that she saw this pony with Pinkie Pie before…

The Doctor added Rarity to a mental list of potential future companions. There were so few worthy candidates, and now there's one with a time limit. He checked his watch, and once he was in the TARDIS, opened another document, and quickly wrote down some details. He gave Rarity one hour from that exact moment until she told somepony.

The Doctor suspected that an hour for him is a lifetime for everypony else. In fact, he had nine hundred, give or take, years of experience to prove it.

5 years and 15 days earlier, Rarity was preparing decorations for the Summer Sun Celebration. She was not aware of Time Ponies, the Doctor, or even Nightmare Moon. The only thing she had on her mind was making sure that this event would look as incredible as she could make it, and she'd read her reviews on the Ponynet; she could make this event look quite incredible according to it.

Not too far away, a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail was clearing the clouds in ten seconds flat.

Not too far away, a shy pegasus was teaching some birds to sing for the Summer Sun Celebration. With her as their tutor, they'd be set to sing for anypony in the world.

Not too far away, an orange earth pony was bucking some apples to prepare for the best meal anypony at that festival would ever eat.

Not too far away, a pink earth pony was doing what she did best: party hard. Soon enough, she'd be helping quite a few more ponies do the same thing.

Visiting all of these ponies was a purple unicorn who was a student of Princess Celestia. Some said she was the best student of the Princess. Among them was the Princess herself. That purple unicorn was great at magic, sure, but she needed to learn quite a few lessons about friendship.

In the middle of all of this were the Doctor and Luna, one day later, doing their best to make sure that she learned those lessons, for the sake of Equestria.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. The sun was about to rise. He checked his watch. 30 minutes.

"LUNA!" the Doctor said in his best impression of the Royal Canterlot Speaking Voice.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Put this on. We've only got a few minutes left to kidnap your sister."

"I don't like the way that sounds."

"Neither do I, but that's what the history books say."

Luna emerged from the TARDIS 3 minutes later. She and the Doctor walked in through the back door of the building that the party was held in. Things were about to get serious.

"Okay, so, we'll grab your sister, quickly explain the situation, then you make a dramatic entrance, tell everypony there that you plan on bringing unending night to Equestria, head to Everfree Forest, and there we'll put together the rest of the plan. Once we explain everything to Celestia, I'm going to head to the TARDIS to set up something with my twelfth incarnation, while also coming up with a way to avoid a paradox. You ready?"

"As ready as I can get, Doctor," Luna said, thoroughly confused by the situation.

"Good. That's about as ready as anypony can be. Let's do this!"

They ran into the room where Celestia was getting ready for her grand entrance when things got just a tiny bit more complicated.