Chapter 10

The light was fading over the horizon, the moon was edging its way up the sky, and the lonely pony was walking along down the cobblestone path

The air was cold, and this particular pony hadn't noticed, the chills not penetrating her snow white coat, although she wasn't walking anywhere specific her eyes were clear and alert, despite the late hour

She hadn't had much to feed on lately, but ever since she met that pernicious Doctor she knew that he wouldn't approve of her doing anything to innocent ponies, so she took to feeding on wildlife, not much blood there

Her fellow vamponies had dwindled in numbers since they started feeding on pony blood, either by starvation or lack of influx

Equestria was reaching an age where things were powered by factories, the machines made quite a bit of pollution, however the technological increase continued unabated

There were stories of a pegasus pony with an hourglass cutie mark that had freed this town of the changelings, she had no doubt this was the Doctor

That was when she sensed it: a disturbance; her super-pony speed allowing her to arrive at the scene quickly

A blue box was materializing before her eyes, something she remembered quite well since her last adventure with the time traveler

The doors opened, a huge billowing cloud of smoke poured out of the console room and two coughing ponies stumbled out

"This is the source of the flux" the Doctor managed to get out

"Enough about the flux, what about the TARDIS?" Rainbowdash asked

"She'll be fine, although we should give her a couple of hours." The Doctor answered

"Hey you two" Vinyl revealed herself

(I felt I was going too long without saying her name, which you should have already guessed)

"Vinyl" the Doctor said, surprised, "How did you find us?"

"Your box created a disturbance, only the really cute can hear it."

"Don't you mean acute?" Rainbowdash asked

"Who said I did?" Vinyl countered

The Doctor looked around awkwardly

"So what brings you two around here? It's been a while since we last met." Vinyl questioned

"We're on a bit of a hunt" the Doctor answered, "It's a bit of a long story, I can tell you later."

"I think I know where we can talk" Vinyl suggested, "I was a DJ at one point and I have a house."

"Then let's hurry" Rainbowdash looked around furtively, "They could appear any minute now."

The Doctor nodded, "Show the way Vinyl."

[…]

The DJs home wasn't what anyone would expect in this day and age, as it was still the wood and thatched roofing of an old Ponyville house

"I'll get something for us to drink" Rainbowdash said, "The Doctor can start."

The Doctor sat down on one of the couches, rubbing his temples, "Okay, here's how it began."

[]

The TARDIS slammed to a halt in midflight, flinging the Doctor into the console and causing him to accidently hit the joystick, as the TARDIS spun out of control the Doctor worked like a maniac to regain control of the travelling box

Now the TARDIS was heading towards a wall of the universe at top speed, and the Doctor knew what would happen if they hit it, either they would splat like a bug or get flung into the Void with no chance of finding their way back

Rainbowdash had taken to hanging onto the railing, as to not get flung around the console as the Doctor was doing, instead she was attempting on figuring out how she would help

The TARDIS slammed to a jarring stop once again, slamming the rainbow maned pony into the console, almost breaking a rib on one of the levers

The TARDIS lunged the other direction, and the time machine had locked its controls in order to protect itself

The Doctor only had control over what direction they would crash, and he chose closer to the core of the universe that way they could hit one of the passing planets

As they flew the TARDIS like they never past their tests, the Doctor fired off controls for Rainbowdash to hit, and she would

It was in this sort of manner that they ended up crashing into a planet that the Doctor would have been very happy staying away from, or more accurately a moon

They had crash landed on the moon

[]

(Flashback Arrows)

"What's wrong with the moon?" Vinyl asked

"There's something on the moon, a place where Luna lived out her insanity that she suffered" the Doctor answered, "It was a sort of solitary confinement thing."

Rainbowdash came into the room with a plate of sandwiches, giving Vinyl an old blood bag

The Doctor didn't pick one up, instead favoring finishing the story

[]

The Doctor stepped outside and took a deep sniff of that old lunar air, they weren't too far off their last timeframe, only by about 900 years or so the Doctor estimated

"I remember the last time I was here" the Doctor said, "Actually I was here in the future."

Rainbowdash rolled her eyes at the fact he was still making jokes

"We should take a look around, sounds like a plan right?" the Doctor said, "We might as well."

[…]

The timelord and his pony companion had made it to the lunar village, the air was cool and they could see some crowd gathering in the distance

The Doctor and Rainbowdash approached the back, as Rainbowdash fluttered up to see what the commotion was about

The Doctor stretched his wings awkwardly, he still hadn't gotten the hang of them quite yet, but gave it a go anyway

They sat on a roof, as they could now see the lunar princess standing before something that looked to be a giant sapling of a tree

"Well isn't this fascinating…" the Doctor muttered, "She's building herself an ark."

Luna's head snapped up, likely recognizing the Doctor's voice

"It is finally time, Doctor." Luna didn't look angry, simply calm, "I shall leave this moon, my people, and go claim back my home planet."

The Doctor cocked his head to the side, "But why? You have everything you need here."

"There is a plague infecting those at my home" Luna answered, "I must go, even if my insanity takes me."

"But you can't do that!" Rainbowdash protested, "What about your people? They love and care for you, you deserve those that care for you."

"If my home dies because I cannot handle it, then I never deserved to rule my children here." Luna said, "I'm sorry."

Then a light began to flare, and Luna was enveloped before firing like a rocket back to the planet

"Rainbow" the Doctor looked around, seeing what he feared would be there

Several shadows of ponies were there, and they had the jaws that he remembered, the ones that had so mercilessly bitten into him so many times

But it wasn't his own safety that he was worried for, he didn't want Rainbowdash to put up with what he already had to

Rainbowdash looked around, seeing the same creatures, memories of the darkened console flashed back into her mind, the creature that hunted her through the bowels of the TARDIS

"We should run" the Doctor said

Rainbowdash nodded silently

The Doctor stretched his wings a bit, "Let's take these for a spin shall we?"

The two of them took off back for the TARDIS

[…]

The Doctor had just locked the door when the howls and raged cries came back from the outside

The Doctor sighed and took to looking at the console, the TARDIS had locked all higher functions

"Then why allow me to control the most basic operations hmm?" the Doctor pondered, "Unless…"

"PAH!" the Doctor slapped his hoof on his forehead, "The basic controls can only be accessed from here! Someone has been messing with the higher functions!"

"So we've got to go and find them?" Rainbowdash cracked her neck

"No, I've got a better idea." The Doctor said

[…]

The TARDIS console was dark, and the pony silhouette walked into the room, furtively looking for something specific, trying to access the console but being locked out

The lights suddenly snapped on, catching the pony in plain view

The Doctor felt one of his hearts slow down, "It can't be…"