Doctor Whooves
Chapter 6
Chaos
Earth
Appleoosa
Six years after the South London incident
Piano keys played softly in the corner of the bar, adding to the quiet mumbles of customers. Unicorns played pool while earth ponies used both front hooves to throw darts. The dark wooden building was dimly lit, more electricity going in to the fans that kept everypony cooled off.
The Doctor sat on a stool at the bar counter, slowly drinking a hard apple cider that many ponies had suggested to him. The Doctor and Paige had been in this town for several days, patiently exploring and observing in hope of finding whatever came through from the Doctor's universe in to this town.
A handsome, mildly dark blue stallion with an even darker blue mane and tail entered the bar and approached the counter, deciding to sit next to the Doctor. The stranger was an earth pony, a bit taller than the Doctor and more masculine.
The Doctor paid no attention, and the stallion quietly ordered a beverage. Once his drink arrived, he began casually glancing over at the Doctor, returning his gaze elsewhere whenever the Doctor tried returning the glance.
After a few more moments, the stallion put on a smile and turned to the Doctor. "You look like you could use another one of those. How about I get you one on my tab?"
The Doctor didn't even look at the stallion who just spoke, he simply froze, his thoughts racing on what he just heard. Luckily his mug was only an inch off the counter when it fell out of his hooves.
That voice...
The Doctor fell out of his stool when he tried to get up, frantically getting to his hooves as he stared wide eyed at the stallion in front of him, in complete disbelief. "...Jack!"
Jack got off of his stool and stood in front of the Doctor, now cautious of the brown stallion in front of him. "How did you already know my name?"
"How is this even... Jack!"
"I'm not messing around, how do you know who I am?" Jack's tone was serious.
"I can't believe it... you're Jack Harkness!"
"Ok, I've had enough of this."
Jack threw a front hoof around the Doctor's neck and yanked him forward, kissing him. The Doctor's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, and he pawed at Jack's chest, trying to push him away. A few ponies in the bar looked over, but cared little about what was happening.
Jack held his ground a few seconds more, then pulled away, causing both ponies to nearly stumble over. "But that's... Doctor?" Jack said, panting for breath.
The Doctor nodded, regaining his balance. "It's me. And you're Jack Har... hold on." The Doctor paused, looking curiously at Jack. "Do you kiss people now to determine if you've met them?"
"I've kissed most of the people I've met."
The Doctor shrugged. "Fair point."
"Doctor!"
"Gah!"
The Doctor leapt in shock and knocked over a stool when he heard Paige at the bar entrance, standing with a scared look on her face. Now all ponies in the bar had stopped talking, the piano stopped playing, all eyes were on them.
"Paige! Hello!" The Doctor said as he struggled to recollect himself and stand the stool up again, his cheeks turning a deep red. "W-what are you doing here?"
Paige's look of fear turned in to confusion. "Are you alright, Doctor?" she asked. "Who's that colt?" Paige added, noticing that the blue pony next to the Doctor was staring at her as well.
"Him? Oh, he's just a friend, really, we're just friends, that's all," the Doctor replied, his voice rapid.
"Um... ok, I'm just going to leave that," Paige said. "I just thought I'd let you know there are some lizards outside. From space. Breathing fire."
Other ponies in the bar began whispering after that comment, and moved towards the windows, looking around then ducking beneath the windows in fear.
"Oh, really?" the Doctor said, his voice still rapid. "Well that's interesting."
Neither Paige or the Doctor moved. Paige became even more confused, and the Doctor kept his nervous smile.
"I was just thinking that you might want to... stop the fire breathing space lizards? Maybe?"
The Doctor blinked, then shook his head when he actually managed to process what Paige was saying. "Right! Um, yes, I would love to stop fire breathing space lizards, I just need a moment with my friend here," the Doctor said. "Run along and find a lot of water, I'll get to the TARDIS and figure something out."
Paige slowly began to back out of the door. "Ok then, I'll just leave you two..." she said, exiting the bar.
All other ponies in the bar had looked outside and seen the lizards and were now hiding by the windows or under tables. The only two ponies standing now were the Doctor and Jack Harkness, side by side, staring at the door.
A long moment of silence passed between the two before either spoke. Jack finally turned his head slightly.
"Is she-"
"No, she's actually a pony," the Doctor replied, still staring at the door.
"Ok then," Jack said, nodding and returning his gaze to the door as well.
"How about we talk to each other about how we turned in to ponies later, and go stop the fire breathing space lizards?"
"Sounds like a plan, Doctor, Can't say I've ever fought aliens with hooves though."
()
After a plan that involved the sonic screwdriver, lots of water and a few more bananas, the town was safe from the lizards, and the lizards had fled back in to space. The Doctor, Paige and Jack walked in to the TARDIS, tired but alive and well.
"So who is this that helped us? And seems to have no problem with seeing fire breathing space lizards and your own alien ship," Paige said.
"This is what crossed from the other side, from my universe," the Doctor replied. "Our search is over. Paige, meet-"
"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack interrupted, smiling at Paige and holding out a hoof.
"Don't," the Doctor said, staring at Jack.
"Again, just saying hello," Jack said, turning his head towards the Doctor.
"What's the problem? I rather like him," Paige said, holding out a hoof to greet Jack in return. "I'm Paige Turner. You're quite good with fire breathing space lizards."
"I'm quite good at a lot more, too," Jack replied, chuckling.
"Ok, you can say hello, but stop now," the Doctor said, purposefully walking in between the other two.
Jack rolled his eyes, gave Paige one more smile and a wink, getting a blush out of her, then walked up to the TARDIS console with the Doctor. "So how long has it been? Around a hundred or so years since I last saw you."
"It's been longer than that for me, which means you've started to meet me in the wrong order," the Doctor replied.
"I figured that. I noticed a couple times that I had to keep my mouth shut, I've met you a couple times when you hadn't heard of things we'd done."
"Well I'm glad you prevented causing any massive universe breaking paradoxes, thank you."
"Wait a minute, a hundred years," Paige chimed in. "Are you like him? Do you regenerate?"
"Not exactly..." the Doctor said.
"He's a time lord, I'm what we call human," Jack began. "Now typically, humans are like you, they live, die, go about their days like normal, but I'm the odd one out. When the Doctor regenerates it's like dying for him, and it's possible for him to die. Not me."
Paige paused. "You... can't die?"
"I die, I come back, I heal," Jack explained. "Call it a blessing, call it a curse, to be honest I'm not sure which I call it yet, but now I'm a pony. That's something worth investigating, brand new."
"How long have you been here?" the Doctor asked."
"A couple months," Jack replied. "I've still got my vortex manipulator," he added, holding up his left front hoof to show it off. "But I didn't want to risk using it here, I'm not sure what it would do. From what I've heard we're in a parallel universe?"
"Exactly."
"And you've got a cutie mark."
"I regenerated, apparently regenerating does the trick."
"Oh, you don't have one," Paige noticed, looking at Jack's hips. "You definitely appear rather old to not have one, what do you tell people?"
"I tell them that my cutie mark would be too obscene to have, and that typically leads the conversation in a different direction," Jack said, grinning.
Paige gasped, her previous blush returning and turning several shades deeper.
"You know, I almost predicted exactly what you were going to say," the Doctor said.
"Oh come on, Doctor, you had to have fantasized about me at some point in all this time."
"I'm a married man, Jack, I tend not to fantasize about other people."
"You're married?" Paige looked at the Doctor, quite surprised to hear that.
The Doctor looked back at Paige, frozen. "I thought I told you."
"There's that one you've talked about quite a lot, but I never thought... I mean, I guess I just assumed..." Paige hadn't considered a single thought about deeper feelings for the Doctor than friendship, yet the news still came as a surprise to her.
"Time travel, things get complicated, but she's alright, just not with me at the moment," the Doctor said. "Anyways, Jack, how did you get to be here?"
Jack took a breath, sitting down. The Doctor and Paige sat down as well.
"It was the 50th century, our universe. I wanted to try new things, ended up getting hired on an archaeology team. When we were out in space, the ship detected a powerful temporal storm nearby. I went out in a shuttle on my own, given that I couldn't really take personal damage from the storm, and when I went in everything went crazy. Next thing I knew, the shuttle was crashed, and I had blue fur and hooves."
"A temporal storm... the same thing happened to me," the Doctor said. "Whatever is causing fractures in the fabric of space and time, it must be leaving behind a residual effect. These temporal storms act as one way gates. We're not the only things that have come in from our universe."
"The question is, Doctor, has the reverse effect happened?"
The Doctor looked away from Jack, letting out a sigh. "It came from the void, and now the ood are no more."
"What? Ood? I haven't seen them in a long time."
"Well now they're dead, all of them," the Doctor said, facing Jack again. "You wanted to know if something came from here to our universe, I still don't know, but there's something out there, sinister, causing the fractures, causing destruction."
Jack grew more serious, frowning slightly. "So what do we do? How do we stop whatever's out there?"
"I still don't know."
All three jumped when the TARDIS suddenly shook violently, causing Paige to stumble over while Jack and the Doctor barely held on to the console.
"What the hell was that?" Jack said.
The Doctor regained balance, then rushed to the TARDIS door, swinging it open. "What?"
"What happened? Did we move?" Paige asked.
"We didn't, the town did."
"What do you mean, the entire town?"
Paige and Jack joined the Doctor at the door, looking outside to see barren desert. "How is that possible?" Jack said.
"We haven't moved, but the entire town has either vaporized, which would be fearsomely quick power, or teleported somewhere else, which is almost just as scary."
"It seems like we're not finding any answers, just getting more and more problems," Jack replied.
"Yes, but there's a pony we can talk to. The princess."
The Doctor walked back inside, moving to the console and beginning to start the TARDIS's movement.
"The princess? I've heard about her, but how do you expect to just go into her castle and talk to her?" Jack asked, closing the TARDIS doors.
"Paige, you did tell me that alicorns live extremely long lives, correct?"
"Yes," Paige said. "Princess Celestia has been here as long as our written history."
"Then in that case Jack, I've already met the princess, and she seemed to already know me even before that," the Doctor explained, flipping one final lever to get the TARDIS in motion.
()
Celestia sat on her throne in Canterlot Castle, her eyes closed, her mind struggling with the force she just felt shake her land. Powerful magic was near, and she was unable to detect it in time and attempt to stop the deed that was already done. He was beginning to gain power.
Royal guards around the room became alert when a strange sound began to fill the room. A tall, blue box began fading into existence, only a short distance down the carpet leading to Celestia's throne.
"Princess, stay back, there's an intruder!" a unicorn guard shouted, raising a spear with his magic.
"No! Stand down! I know who this is!" Celestia shouted in reply, raising to her hooves. The guards looked confused, but did not disobey Celestia's orders.
After several seconds more, the blue box became reality, the doors facing Celestia's throne. As the double doors opened, Celestia smiled wide, seeing the familiar face she had finally met back in the griffon kingdom.
"Doctor," Celestia greeted, nodding as the tan pony entered the room. "I thought I might see you soon."
"Hello princess, it's been a while. Longer for you, by quite a bit, but still, great to see you again."
"You were right about me hearing of your presence in 300 years, thank you for saving South London," Celestia said. "Is Paige still with you?"
"Hello princess," Paige said, stepping out of the TARDIS, bowing down.
Celestia chuckled. "Please, no need to bow to me Paige," she told her. "You are just as important as the Doctor or myself."
"Wow, you are quite a beauty," Jack said, exiting the TARDIS. "Although I must say, I pictured you to be a lot shorter."
"Oh, and who's this flatterer?" Celestia asked.
"Captain Jack Harkness, pleased to meet you your highness," Jack replied.
"Well as glad as I am to see you all here, your arrival must mean that you already know about Appleoosa," Celestia said. Her tone grew more solemn, the discussion of more important matters taking precedence.
"We were there, actually, looking for something. Jack Harkness typically isn't a pony either, he came from my universe."
"The ponies of Appleoosa are safe, however their entire town is in a completely different region of Equestria," Celestia explained. "We felt the magic fluctuation immediately, and investigated."
"Hold on, I have to ask... we?" the Doctor said.
Another alicorn, shorter than Celestia but still far taller than the three ponies in front of the TARDIS, entered from a corner of the room. Her body was a dark blue, her mane and tail flowing and sparkling as if it was made out of the night sky.
"I thought you said you were the only one left?"
"It's a long story, Doctor, unfortunately one we do not have time for," Celestia said. "This is my sister, princess Luna. She was gone for... quite some time, but she has returned, and we are ruling together again."
"It is an honor to meet you at last, Doctor. Celestia and I were told of your coming long ago," Luna said, moving to stand next to her sister.
"A pleasure to meet you as well, princess," the Doctor replied. "So it's just you two?"
"There are other alicorns, but none of natural birth," Celestia explained. "Some are chosen to be royalty, and undergo a magical process to become similar to my sister and I."
"That's something else before we go too far, I'd love to have magic explained," the Doctor said, taking a slight step forward.
Celestia nodded to her sister, and Luna walked towards one of the large windows in the room, looking outside as she began to explain.
"In every universe, there exists an energy field that permeates all of space and time. In some universes, such as ours, this field is more prominent, and some creatures evolve with capabilities of manipulating that field. For us, it is unicorns and alicorns that are capable of such a feat, and even as science improves, we still believe that magic is a fitting name. Some incredible miracles have happened thanks to this energy field."
The Doctor began to pace back and forth. "Ok... understanding, yet surprised that I never heard of this field before, perhaps it's undetectable in our universe. So Appleoosa, you said you felt the disturbance, those with magic can feel and detect manipulations of this energy field?"
"Not all, my sister and I have much stronger magic than most," Celestia replied. "However, our magic does not compare to the creature who caused this."
"And what creature is that?"
"A draconequus."
Paige gasped and turned to her left, looking at one of the stained glass windows. She stared at the depiction of one of Equestria's most dangerous enemies, and began to fear what was happening now much more.
"Did this creature come from the void?"
"The empty gap between universes, yes. His name is Chaos."
"Our planet has fallen to chaos," the captain told the Doctor.
"It came... it destroyed... we couldn't do anything. Chaos..."
The Doctor just had his suspicions confirmed. He blinked, unable to comprehend the power that this creature had.
"We have encountered a draconequus before, by the name of Discord," Celestia began. "That is when we learned that these creatures are born in the void. They live there, the void is the realm of their existence, until they break out and come to ours."
"A creature that lives in the void? I didn't think that was possible," the Doctor said.
"Neither did we."
"Discord was manageable," Luna continued, returning to her sister's side. "He began to devastate our world, but we stopped him, trapped him, and managed to stop him again when he escaped. Later on, we even befriended Discord. He began using his powers to help us, but now Discord is dead."
"Discord was merely a child by standards of his species," Celestia explained. "Chaos is far older, far more powerful. When he first arrived, Discord alerted us, then Chaos killed him."
"So, these creatures are born in the void, then come in to the known universe and begin to wreak havoc," the Doctor said, trying to piece things together in his mind.
"They are not bound by space and time, they travel through the void and into any universe they can."
"And when they travel between universes, they cause temporal storms, making one way gateways, that's how I got here..." the Doctor said, continuing to talk to himself.
"When they first break free of the void, it takes them a massive amount of energy. Then, every time they use their powers to create some sort of destruction, the energy they recharge afterwards gets larger and larger," Luna said.
"So they cause more and more chaos, they tear more and more holes in space and time, causing instability, and eventually that means..."
The Doctor's eyes widened, and he backed up against the TARDIS doors, sliding down them until he was sitting on the floor.
"Doctor, what does all this mean, what do they want?" Jack asked.
"It's not just this universe that's in danger," the Doctor said. "Or my universe. It's every universe."
"Unfortunately we reached the same conclusion," Celestia said.
All were silent for several moments, the weight of the situation bearing down on them.
"The creatures are born out of nothing, all they desire is for the universes to fall in to their realm, were only chaos and disharmony exists," Luna said. "If we can't stop Chaos, then all of reality will collapse from the tears in space and time."
"That is why we need you, Doctor," Celestia continued. "My usual defenses are useless against Chaos. We will help however we can, but you are our only hope of saving everything."
"In that case, there isn't hope for you."
All were startled and froze in place when a sinister voice echoed through the room.
"Chaos..." Celestia said, trying to find any trace of him.
"Quite correct, Celestia," the voice echoed in reply. "How have you been since I killed that traitor?"
"Discord was kind, you did not have to kill him," Luna shouted, helping her sister try and discover any source for the voice.
"Oh, it was quite necessary, and all of you will be next," the voice replied.
"We can help you, Chaos," the Doctor said. "Even if your existence comes from the void, that's still nothing but emptiness. No creature can handle the effects for long.
"Oh, but I thrive in nothingness, even a time lord is far too primitive to understand where I reside," Chaos said, his voice still echoing throughout the room. "And soon, so will every other living thing in all of space and time. First, however, I'll need you dead. You have far too much universe energy coursing through your body, keeping you in your current state, but I'll find a more indirect way."
"You'd have to go through me before you even try getting the Doctor," Jack shouted, angrily turning this way and that, looking for who was speaking.
"Now you, you are rather interesting," Chaos said. "Jack Harkness, very interesting indeed. You appear to have unfinished business, I won't bother trying to kill you."
"Show yourself, Chaos!" Celestia yelled, her horn beginning to glow a bright yellow.
"Oh, but this is too fun!" Chaos replied.
"So far you've only damaged the unsuspecting and innocent," the Doctor said, taking a few steps forward. "I think you'll be surprised when you encounter me."
"Oh Doctor, I have so much to do first, so much energy to build up," Chaos said. "I could manipulate a species of healers into despising pony kind, leaving many pony children and adults helpless, then I could make a planet fall into chaos and torment, I could freeze a whole world in minutes, and then I might just go to your universe and find a species you've taken a liking to."
The Doctor bowed his head, every thought in Chaos's mind familiar. The Doctor knew he couldn't stop Chaos without interfering with his own time stream. The alien ponies, the tembars, the frozen planet, the ood, all of it was caused by Chaos. And the Doctor had already seen it happen.
"And besides, Doctor, how do you plan to encounter me if you aren't even here?"
SNAP!
()
The Doctor's Universe
Earth
London
2013
The Doctor leapt up, suddenly awake from having been knocked out by something incredibly powerful. He was on grass, in a small park, and the sounds of cars and people could be heard all around him.
Cars.
People.
"This is Earth!" the Doctor shouted to himself, frantically turning around again and again. "This is proper Earth! Chaos did more than just figure out which universe I was from, he sent me there. The TARDIS couldn't even find my universe… that is beyond powerful. But the TARDIS is still in the other universe... I'm stuck."
The Doctor saw a few people sitting at a picnic table not too far away, and walked up to them.
"Hello!" the Doctor said, smiling. "Would you mind helping me, I'm not sure exactly where I am."
When the three people at the picnic table saw the Doctor, they screamed and ran away. Several others nearby were frozen in fear, their eyes staring in disbelief.
The Doctor was confused until he looked down, seeing a pair of light brown hooves where his feet should be.
"I'm still a pony!" the Doctor shouted, turning his head to see his backside and tail still as they were in the other universe. "Well there's my first theory about this transformation out the window."
The Doctor quieted and began to notice the stares and frightened people around him, and his ears flattened.
"Right. Humans aren't really accustomed to talking ponies..."
The Doctor gasped when he felt a stinging feeling on the side of his neck, but before he could figure out what it was, he fell to the ground, unconscious again.
()
UNIT Headquarters
2 hours later
"Thank you for coming on such short notice, today's events were rather different," Colonel Hutchinson said, walking through the busy halls of UNIT HQ.
"Is the alien stable?"
"Yes, still unconscious," the colonel replied. "We detected a massive energy spike 10 miles south of here. When we located the source, we found him. We don't know what species he is, despite the striking resemblance to a horse, and we don't know his intentions. But that energy spike is what scares us, we need to know what else he is capable of."
The two continued through the halls, Hutchinson leading the way to where the alien was being held. When they arrived at the holding cell, the colonel stopped, turning to the one with him.
"I know this isn't your typical field, but we called you since you have the most experience in meeting and negotiating with alien life," Hutchinson said. "We don't want to harm him, but we need to know how he got here, and why he's here in the first place. Think you're up to it, Dr. Jones?"
Martha smiled. "Don't worry sir, I was taught by the best."
