I don't own My Little Pony or Doctor Who in any way, shape, or form.
Chapter 12 Ponies on a Space Station
"You sure this is the place?" Rainbow Dash asked, sticking her head out of the TARDIS.
"Positive," the Doctor replied stepping out past her, "I am absolutely, one hundred percent certain that this is the right place."
"Really? Cause you said that about the last two places, and those definitely weren't space stations."
"I think he's right this time Dashie," Pinkie said stepping out of the TARDIS, "This place totally looks like a space station."
"You said that about the other places too Pinkie."
"Well this time we're in the right place. I know it for certain this time," the Doctor said.
"Yeah? How are you so certain?"
"Just look over there," he said pointing past the TARDIS.
Exiting the box, the pegasus moved around it to where Pinkie was already standing, mouth agape, and was confronted with a sight unlike anything she had ever seen. Behind the TARDIS was a large window giving them a view of space. The empty blackness seemed to extend on forever in all directions, dotted with pinprick sized points of light. Most amazing of all was the blue-green sphere just below the window.
"Oh… My… Gosh…" she said after a moment, "This… This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"I know," Pinkie said, "It's like, wow."
"It is quite nice, isn't it?" the Doctor said stepping up next to them.
"Is that the Earth?" Dash asked pointing at blue-green sphere.
"Indeed. The Earth, roughly five hundred years in your future."
"Five hundred years?" Dash exclaimed in disbelief.
"Yes, I know. I'm surprised it took ponykind this long to have a functioning space station as well."
"I don't think that's what she's concerned about," Pinkie whispered to the brown colt.
"You're having a problem with the fact that we time traveled? Rainbow, we have done this multiple times now! How are you just now having a problem with it?" the Doctor asked, confused.
"Because all those time we went into the past," the blue mare replied, "This is the first time you've taken me to the future. It's a little overwhelming."
"How so?"
"Well, it's just, I can't help but think that somewhere down there, I'm dead and buried. Pinkie too. It's kind of a lot to take in."
"I see. I never thought of that before."
"Wow Dashie, that's… Wow…" was all Pinkie could manage.
"Sorry for being a such downer," Dash said after a moment of silence.
"It's no problem," the Doctor said, "There's plenty to see and do here to take you mind off of all that. Lets be on our way then."
"Why did you bring us here?" Pinkie asked as they began to walk away from the window.
"Well, this is the first space station capable of supporting life ever built by ponykind. It seemed like it would be a cool place to check out."
"Okay, seriously, how do you know this stuff? You aren't from this universe."
"I told you, I'm studying your history during our down time."
"Really? Cause this sure isn't in any history book I've ever seen."
"I'm not just looking at history books from your time. The TARDIS's computers can tap into databanks from any place and time I want them to. I've been doing most of my studying form future history books."
"Yeah? Well…"
"I think he's got ya beat Pinkie," Dash said with chuckle.
Pinkie responded with annoyed grunt.
"Now then," the Doctor said as they came to a stop in front of a door, "If I'm remembering those blueprints correctly, this leads to the common room where we will no doubt meet the entire crew of this station. Won't that be exciting?"
"Uh, hang on there Doctor," Dash said, "Won't they be kind freaked out by three ponies they've never seen before just showing up outta nowhere?"
"Hmm, yes. I had not thought of that. We're going to need a new plan."
"Hello there!" Pinkie shouted as she threw the door open and skipped into the room.
"Gah! Why does she always do that?" the Doctor angrily said through gritted teeth.
"That's just the way she is," Dash replied with a sigh, "Come on. We should get in there before she causes any damage."
The Doctor nodded and the two entered the room.
"So sorry about that!" the Doctor called out as they stepped in, "Didn't mean to… Uh… Well. This is unexpected."
"You can say that again," Dash said, "Where is everypony?"
The Doctor looked around the empty room before looking at his pocket watch.
"Given the time of day you would expect there to be at least one pony here."
"Maybe they're eating lunch," Pinkie suggested.
"A strong possibility," the Doctor agreed with a nod, "Next stop, the mess hall."
Heading through another door in the common room, the group went down a short hallway and found themselves at another door.
"Okay, this should be the mess hall," the Doctor said, "Should be plenty of ponies in here."
"Uh, Doctor?" Dash said, "Shouldn't we, uh, come up a plan or something?"
"Hmm? Oh, yes. Still facing the same problem as last time. Alright, give me minute here…"
"Hello!" Pinkie shouted skipping into room.
"Seriously! What is wrong with her?" the Doctor shouted.
Sighing, the other two ponies followed her in and found the mess hall just as empty as the common room was.
"Okay, now this is just getting creepy," the Doctor said sounding annoyed, "There should be ponies here somewhere."
"Where else could they be?" Pinkie asked.
"Crew quarters I suppose. It's the only place left."
"You can't go barging into those rooms Pinkie," Dash said.
"Quite right Rainbow," the brown colt agreed, "Not only is it terribly rude, it's a fairly big invasion of personal space."
"Right, got it," the pink mare said with a salute.
Just then, a door on the other side of the room opened and an orange pegasus walked in. Seeing the other three, he stopped and stepped back slightly, eyes growing wide in shock.
"W-who… How… What?" he stammered.
"Oh, uh, hello there!" the Doctor said waving at him, "How do you do? I'm the Doctor. This is Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash."
"W-where did you come from? How did you get here?"
"We traveled here via the TARDIS."
"The… what?"
"The TARDIS. It's a machine that can travel through space and time."
"I see," the pegasus said seeming to regain his composure and walking over to the group, "I suppose I should introduce myself now. I'm Afterburner. It's good to finally see some ponies again."
"Wait a second, are you saying you're alone here?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah. It's just me here," Afterburner said with a nod, "Been that way for a few years now."
"You've been up here alone for years?" Pinkie exclaimed, "That's awful!"
"It hasn't been that bad. I like being alone. But it does get lonely after a while."
"A feeling I know all to well," the Doctor said looking down.
"So why are you three here? You're not from the institute, I know that."
"The Canterlot Royal Institute of Scientific Research?"
"Yes. You've heard of it?"
"I ran into a couple of ponies form there. They said everyone there has heard of me, but you didn't react to hearing my name."
"The Doctor, right? Doesn't ring a bell. Who was it you met?"
"Gear Head and Bunsen Burner."
"Never heard of them."
"But they said that they traveled back from the institute to-"
"Wait, what do mean 'traveled back'?" the orange colt interrupted, "Like, back in time?"
"Yeah, they had this things on their legs," Dash said, "Vortex multipliers or whatever."
"Vortex manipulators," the Doctor corrected.
"Ah, well that's the problem then," Afterburner said, "The institute is currently working on time travel, but we don't have it yet. Those guys are from a future version of the institute where you're famous. Right now, not so much."
"I thought as such. Anyway, why are you here alone?"
"Well, I was supposed to go back to earth with the others, but I wanted to stay up here a little longer, so I stayed behind. When the next group of ponies comes up here, I'll be heading back home."
"When will that be?" Pinkie asked.
"In about a year I think."
"What exactly do you do here?" the Doctor asked.
"We research space."
"How do you do that?" Dash asked, sounding very confused.
"Observing everything, collecting samples of whatever we can for study, stuff like that. Anything else you want to know?"
The three thought about it for a few seconds then shook their heads.
"Good. Now that I've answered all of your questions, I think you should answer mine. Why are you here?"
"Hmm? Oh, yes, right, that," the Doctor replied, "We just came up here to see the place."
"Why?"
"Well, they're from the distant past, and I'm not from this universe. Seeing the first pony space station ever seemed like a nifty thing to do."
"So… You're like tourists then?"
"I prefer the term explorer, but yes, I suppose we are."
"I see. Well, it's been nice seeing some other ponies for a little bit, but I think it's time you all headed on home."
"What? But we just got here!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Yeah! We've barely seen anything!" Dash exclaimed as well.
The orange pony sighed and shook his head.
"If I give you a short tour of the station, will you leave?" he asked.
"Seems fair," the Doctor said, "Lead on."
"Now this is probably my favorite room," Afterburner said opening a door and leading the group into a large empty room.
"Really?" Dash asked, "Cause there's like, nothing here."
"When you first step in, yes. But when you do this," he replied opening a small panel on the wall and pressing a few buttons.
The floor and walls glowed softly before changing into a large expansive forest.
"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Pinkie excitedly exclaimed, "Is this room magic? Are you magic?"
"It's a holodeck," the Doctor said, sounding impressed.
"A what now?" Dash asked.
"A holodeck. It's a room that uses holographic projectors to create any sort of environment, situation, or place you want."
"So none of this real?" Pinkie asked, looking around in amazement.
"Nope," Afterburner said shaking his head, "But with a few tweaks, you can make things feel solid."
"That can be dangerous though," the Doctor noted.
"How?" Dash asked confused.
"Well, lets say you set up a sword fight with pirates and they get the upper hand and strike you. If you have the solidity set to high, the sword could actually cut you."
"Wait a second, are you saying you could die in here?"
"It's rare, but possible," Afterburner said with a nod.
"Is it safe for us to be in here right now?"
"Of course. I've got solidity set at zero percent and this is just an empty forest. Nothing dangerous here."
"Oh, good."
"Geez Dashie, I didn't know you were so scared of everything like Fluttershy," Pinkie said chuckling.
"I'm not scared! We're just always encountering dangerous stuff, so I'm just being careful."
"It's alright Rainbow," the Doctor said placing a hoof on her shoulder, "It's okay to be scared."
"I'm not scared!"
A loud klaxon suddenly began accompanied by bright red flashing lights.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Dash exclaimed.
"Sounds like the proximity alarm," Afterburner said glancing up the lights, "There's an asteroid or something heading towards us."
"An asteroid?" Dash asked, sounding nervous, "Well, it's been great meeting you, but we should really be going now."
"Rainbow!" the Doctor snapped.
"What? I don't want to die in space in the future!"
"We're not going to die! We're going to stop the asteroid, and save this station."
"Actually," the orange pegasus said moving towards the door, "I'm going to go turn on the defensive force field."
"You're going to do… What?" the Doctor asked confused.
"We have things in place to deal with these sorts of situations. The force field will deflect the asteroid and the station will be left completely unharmed."
"Really? You have stuff like that?"
"Of course. This is an important research vessel. There's absolutely no way it would've been sent into space without protection."
"Yeah Doctor," Pinkie said sounding smug, "Even I knew that."
"Yeah, well you don't have to be so smug about it…" he grumbled, then turned to the orange colt, "Could you show us how you turn on this force field?"
"I suppose so. I mean, it's not very exciting. All I really have to do is push a button. But, if anypony could be excited by that, it would be you three."
"Hey! I resent that!" Dash exclaimed as they began to walk out of the room.
"Here we go. This is the main console room," Afterburner said opening the door.
The room they walked into was fairly large and had a large console against one wall. The orange pony moved up to it and pressed a few buttons, bringing up an image of a space station and an asteroid moving towards it.
"Just like I thought. An asteroid is on a direct collision course with us."
"And the force filed will protect us?" the Doctor asked.
"It always has in the past. No reason it wouldn't now. Just got to turn it on."
Afterburner pressed a red button causing a loud beeping sound.
"What was that?" Pinkie asked, "Is the force field up?"
"No, that was an error sound," Afterburner replied shaking his head.
"What's that mean?"
"It means that there's something wrong with the shield generator. It can't create a force field."
"Well, like I said before, this has been fun, but we should all be going now," Dash said turning to leave.
"Rainbow Dash! We are not leaving!" the Doctor snapped, "Not until we fix this."
"You can fix station class shield generator?'" Afterburner asked sounding impressed.
"Of course I can. I can fix almost anything."
"Well alright then. Lets head down to the engine core."
"What about us?" Pinkie asked, "Should we come to?"
"No, you two stay here," the orange pony said, "There's an intercom system in this station, linking all the rooms together. When we finish fixing the generator, we'll call you. When we do, press the red button I pressed earlier and it'll turn the force field on."
"Got it!" Pinkie said with a salute.
"Alright then. Shall we go Doctor?"
"After you."
Dash sighed and sat down as the two left the room.
"Well, I guess we have to wait then," she said.
"Looks like it," Pinkie agreed sitting down next to her.
A door suddenly opened, drawing the to mares attention to it as a blue earth pony entered the room.
"Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash," he said seeing them, "Good. I have a message for you."
"Wait a second, who are you?" Dash demanded standing up.
"That's not important," he replied with a dismissive gesture, "I have information you need to give the Doctor right now."
"What is it?" Pinkie asked.
"Pinkie, hang on," Dash said, "We don't know if we can trust this guy."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for starters, he won't tell us who he is, and second, if this information is so important, why don't you just tell the Doctor yourself?"
"I can't go into to much detail," he replied, "Lets just say I shouldn't even be here. Now please, the Doctor needs this information."
"Okay, fine. What is it the Doctor needs to know?"
"The Doctor thinks he understands the technology of this world, but he doesn't. He's going to try something that's not going to work, and this station will be destroyed as a result. Give him this," the blue colt said handing Dash a folded up piece of paper, "This is all the information he needs to fix this problem."
"Okay, so we give him this. And where do we tell him it came from? He's not gonna believe we came up with this."
"No, he won't, will he… Hmm…. Alright. Tell him that this information comes from the most reliable source he knows."
"Can do!" Pinkie said, "Come on Dashie! We gotta catch up to them quick!"
Nodding, the pegasus ran out of the room, following close behind Pinkie.
The blue colt watched them go with a smile, then turned and left.
"Good luck Doctor."
"This is the engine core," Afterburner said as the two colts stopped in front door.
"The generators in there?" the Doctor asked, confused, "Odd. Most space stations I've seen put this kind of stuff in it separate areas."
"We didn't have enough budget to make to station larger, so we had to combine some things."
"I see. Lets get to it then. We need to fix this as quick as we can."
Just as they were about to open the door, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash came running up to them, the pink mare calling out to them to stop.
"Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash? What are you doing here?" the Doctor asked, "Why aren't you back at the console room?"
"We have information for you!" Dash said holding up the paper, "Information on how to fix this!"
"I already know how to fix this."
"No you don't," Pinkie said shaking her head, "You don't understand this worlds technology!"
"What? Of course I understand it! I wouldn't… I… I think I understand it."
The Doctor looked down for a moment, then took the paper and looked it over.
"Where did this come form anyway? There's no way you two came up with this and I highly doubt you just found this on the ground."
"It was the blue pony!" Pinkie said, "He said to give that to you and tell you it came from the most reliable source you knew."
The Doctors eyes widened slightly and he looked back down at the paper.
"You're sure that's what he said? The most reliable source I know?"
"Yeah, that's what he said," Pinkie replied with a nod.
"Well, alright then. Lets get to work Afterburner."
The four ponies sat around the common room about twenty minutes later, a little tense, but slowly relaxing.
"That was way to intense," Dash said, breaking the silence that had formed.
"It was definitely the most exciting thing to happen up here in a long while," Afterburner agreed.
"I wasn't to worried," Pinkie said, "I knew that Doctor would save us."
"Actually, I'd say it was you two that saved the day this time," the Doctor said with a smile, "If you two hadn't brought me that paper, I don't know what would've happened."
"Who was that guy anyway?" Dash asked.
"No idea."
"But he said he was the most reliable source you knew. You have to know who he was."
"Sorry, but I don't. I don't have any 'sources' in this universe. Whoever he was, he's an unknown player. I just hope he stays on our side."
Thanks for reading and be sure to leave a nice review! Also, if any of know for certain if radios have appeared in My Little Pony, please let me know in a review.