.:Just a Twinge of Cosmic Angst:.

The Doctor's TARDIS gleamed a shimmering white as the Doctor stood back to admire his trusty time/space machine. Its metal hexagonal console rose up from the floor like an exploding, cubic mushroom cloud. The various buttons, dials and switches that covered its surfaces bleeped, flickered and lit up randomly as the TARDIS hummed happily. Several screens showed strange images that no pony (and most aliens) could understand. But to the time lord, they meant that – for once – the TARDIS system were all clear and working normally.

Holding a yellow duster in his mouth the Doctor gave the console a gentle wipe over, removing the sweat (mostly his) and make-up (mostly Tegan's) that clung onto the console before and after the trio's various misadventures. Lost in thought and work, the Doctor stopped for a moment, only to rub off a persistent piece of mascara on one of the small screens. It held up for a moment longer, before disappearing and leaving the console a pure white again. Pleased with his work, he replaced the duster into his fawn coat and stared intently at a read out.

Just then Tegan walked in from her quarters and when the Doctor seemed not to acknowledge her arrival, she watched the impossible stallion and smiled. The Doctor in front of her was a young looking pony with a pale yellow coat and blond hair and tail. His hair was short, scruffy and had a boyish charm about it, as was his tail. On his rump was the image of an hourglass. About a fifth of the sand in it had fallen down to the bottom, in accordance to the Doctor's current regeneration. Tegan still found it impossible that she saw this stallion change from a smiling, curly haired, brown pony to this younger, pale yellow, cricket-loving one. The long brown coat become a cream fawn coat with red piping, a cricket sweater poked out underneath it and a stick of celery replaced that ridiculously long scarf.

"Finished?" Tegan asked and the Doctor finally looked up to see his current female companion. The earth pony stood in the doorway that led from the TARDIS's console room to the rest of his ship. Her dull gold hooves seemed brighter in the artificial light of the TARDIS and her dark cream coat looked let she'd just had a wash. Her reddish brown hair was sort of sticky uppy as usual and her short tail flickered up and down, drawing the Doctor's eyes to her cutie mark. It was a pair of wings – a fitting mark for the ex-flight attendant, with her constant desire to fly away. She wore a loud, colourful top of reds, oranges and yellows that hung off of her front legs and a pair of small dangling earrings from her ears.

"Yes." The Doctor answered as Tegan wandered over to him. "Looks rather splendid, doesn't it?" he asked. He'd worked very hard on his beloved machine, so he allowed himself the small moment of vanity.

"But will the TARDIS work properly?" she asked, a hint of irony crossing her voice. She knew from experience that the TARDIS was just as reliable as a broken clock – if not less so! When she'd first stepped aboard the TARDIS by accident, she'd desperately wanted to get back to her job at Heathrow Airport. However she lost count of the amount of attempts it took the Doctor before he eventually arrived at her destination. And even then, the destination was an accident after Adric's…death. She still hated having to say that to herself – even after all these months without him. And she was sure the Doctor hadn't or ever would get over Adric.

"Of course, once everything's run in." The Doctor replied, slightly shocked at the amount of trust Tegan had in the TARDIS and his abilities. Tegan had been travelling with the Doctor for long enough to know what he had really meant.

"Didn't you repair anything?" she asked, astonished. The TARDIS wasn't the best of machines, not by a long shot. It was constantly being battered about the Time Vortex like a doll in the washing machine and rarely ever landing when it was meant to be. Surely something needed fixing – Tegan could specifically remember something about some sort of lateral cones from before she became a voluntary companion.

"The TARDIS is more than a machine Tegan." He told her, going off to check the readings once again – just to make sure everything was working. "It's like a pony. It needs coaxing, persuading, encouraging." He argued.

"You mean it's just as unreliable." Tegan translated in a resigned voice. It was a good thing she didn't want to return home again anytime soon. She didn't want to go through that hullabaloo again.

"You have little faith Tegan." He told her with a pointing hoof. To prove his point, he went over to the door level, pulled it up and walked over to the open doors … I said to the open doors! The Doctor stopped as the TARDIS doors remained firmly closed – as if to mock him.

"Do you blame me?" Tegan asked and the Doctor sort of smiled at her hidden reference. Before then proceeding to thump the TARDIS console with his hoof. The TARDIS gave a pained hum, before opening the doors for the Doctor. Without a backwards glance to the now laughing Tegan, the Doctor strode outside.


Atop of a hill on the Eye of Orion, there stood a solitary male unicorn. He was not a native to the planet, but an alien from the planet Trotrion. His sky blue coat and dark blue hooves were the brightest colours on the planet, whose rolling hills and quiet scenery had a distinctly subdued feeling about them. His green eyes darted around, making him look slightly shifty (as always). Turlough always gave off a sense of unease wherever he was – that he was slightly more a unicorn in school uniform. That he wasn't to be totally trusted. His three stars glimmered on his rump and his horn glowed as it held his drawing pad beside him. Finally deciding on a good spot, Turlough sat down on a grassy rock and used his magic to start sketching.

From under an archway, the Doctor emerged and Turlough paused and glanced up to look at him admire the scene he was sketching. Noticing Turlough, the Doctor ambled over to his rock and watched him. Seeing the Doctor's unspoken request, Turlough lifted up the sketch pad and showed the Doctor his work. The Doctor scrutinised it and frowned slightly. It wasn't a terrible piece of work, but it was no masterpiece either. He looked up at Turlough's subject, compared it with his drawing and then smiled at Turlough. Turlough chuckled drily at the Doctor; he could see that the Doctor wasn't overly impressed, but was trying his best not to show it.

"It's marvellous here." Turlough commented as he heard Tegan's hoof beats as she followed the Doctor under the ivy strewn archway. "I feel so calm and relaxed."

"It's the high bombardment of positive ions." The Doctor informed, not that it meant that much to Tegan.

"It's like Equestria after a thunderstorm." She translated for herself.

"Same cause and reason." The Doctor told her.

"It's beautiful." The Doctor nodded in agreement.

"For some the Eye of Orion is the most tranquil place in the universe." There was a hint of agreement in his voice.

"Can't we stay here?" Tegan asked him. 'tranquil' and 'The Doctor' were two words that never went together. But she was still hoping. The Doctor looked over at the sketching Turlough; he'd never finish his picture if they left now – and he needed the practise. And now Tegan seemed to want to stay for a while longer. The Doctor smiled at Tegan.

"Why not?" The Doctor replied. "For a while. We could all do with a rest." Little did he and his companions know, that 'rest' wasn't going to last very long.

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Somewhere, some when, a strange pony was operating a mysterious, blacked out console. With a twist of its hoof, it operated a ball shaped device before tapping out a set of commands onto a small keyboard. One a screen in front of him was the image of a pony. A very important pony indeed. Now all he needed to do was to capture him…

The pony that had been sighted was also called the Doctor. However this pony is his first incarnation was wandering about the gardens of Roayrtse – and rather enjoying himself. The old, grey pony paused for a moment, his bright brown eyes drinking in the unique landscape. His hair and tail was a pale white and regally flowed over his head and down his neck. Pleased with his surroundings, the Doctor moved on, his wooden walking stick assisting the old time lord.

After a little wander down the winding steps, the Doctor stopped suddenly. There was a distinct chill in the air. Something was not right. Glancing over his shoulder, the time lord saw a strange black shape in the sky, not too dissimilar to a triangle. It spun about in the sky and the Doctor somehow knew it was after him. He turned his back on the thing and began to run back to the TARDIS. However he was never going to be quick enough and the shape swallowed the old stallion up.

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Almost exactly five minutes after the Doctor had agreed to stay; he felt a sudden, burning pain on his rump. "Aahh!" he cried out and Turlough trotted over to him.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly. He and Tegan were always alert whenever something happened to the Doctor; it usually meant a misadventure was just around the corner. As usual, they were right. The Doctor panted in shock. He could somehow feel age rapidly catching up with him, as if his life was being fast-forwarded a few hundred years. He could feel the ancient wood of a trusty walking stick in-between his jaws, he could feel long flowing hair down his neck and he could feel the age showing under his eyes. Something wasn't right, but he was determined not to worry his companions.

"Just a twinge of cosmic angst." He tried to assure them, but his voice and word choice utterly betrayed him.

"'Cosmic'?" repeated Tegan worriedly.

"As if I lost something." The Doctor elaborated, lost in his own thoughts and the rapidly disappearing thoughts of his first incarnation.

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At the heart of the pony's strange, shadowy room was what looked like a game board. It was a large pentagon divided into five equal sections and a small crystal obelisk was placed in the centre, as if it was the goal. The pony's screen changed from a wasteland into a black whiteness and from that whiteness appeared a pony figure – a grey pony with long white hair. Then the figure was covered in in magic and placed it onto the pentagon. The section began to glow as a hoof pushed the figure into just the right position, simultaneously showing the pony's cutie mark – an hourglass that had only just began to lose its sand…

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At UNIT's headquarters, a celebration was in order. Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge- Stewart had return for a reunion after finally hanging up his military hat in favour of a much more quiet job – teaching. He wanted to return for one final time to wish his successor good luck; because if it was anything like his run as UNIT's Brigadier, Colonel Crichton would certainly need it. Both ponies took a long sip of their pint of beer, before the now civilian ex-Brigadier spoke up.

"You know, I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to this reunion. A chance of re-meeting old friends." Alastair smiled wryly, he had wondered if the Doctor had gotten wind of what was happening and deciding to show himself – or at least one of himselves.

"There was one chap we tried to get hold of." The Crichton informed him. "What was his name? Used to be your scientific advisor." He continued as if he had read Alastair's mind.

"Oh, the Doctor." He clarified.

"Yes, that's right."

"Wonderful chap. All of them."  Alastair reflected and his replacement looked at him as if he were mad. He sincerely hoped UNIT wouldn't do the same to him over his (hopefully) long career there. Feeling the urge to understand Alastair's oxymoron dialogue, the new Brigadier questioned him further.

"'Them'?" he asked and Alastair would have answered, if the intercom hadn't buzzed for attention. Sighing in annoyance then even now he had to work, the Crichton answered the intercom. "Yes?" he asked.

"Excuse me sir, sorry to interrupt." The pony sergeant who was posted outside the room on guard duty answered. "Somepony's arrived."

"I'm not expecting anypony."

"Insists in seeing Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart." The sergeant continued, giving the strange mass of fur in front of him an odd look. Crichton stifled a sigh and carried on.

"How did he know he was here?" he asked and the stranger seemed to want to answer him directly, trotting off to open the door. The sergeant leapt to his hooves to stop him.

"I'm terribly sorry sir, but you can't go in there." He told the stallion sternly, grabbing his fur coat with his hoof. The stallion seemed surprised.

"Not allowed? Me? I'm allowed everywhere." The strange but short stallion replied matter-of-factly, before entering the room. The sergeant tried to pull the pony back, but only succeeded in removing the pony's overtly large and unnecessary fur coat. "Oh, thank you." He answered before turning to Alastair. "Brigadier." He greeted, giving the brown pony a warm hoofshake.

"Good heavens, is it you?" he asked. He could now see the hourglass cutie mark that denoted the pony as a version of the Doctor but that grey coat, short black hair and short stature reminded him of the first time the Doctor and Alastair met, rather than the action pony from his days at UNIT, or the pony that was all teeth and curls with Sarah Jane, or the latest one with a English eccentricity about him and a warming smile.

"Yes, yes." The Doctor answered, clearing away Alastair's doubts. "For once, I was able the steer the TARDIS and here I am." The Doctor sounded shocked at himself, bit Alastair paid no noticed to it. He was just glad to see an old friend. Crichton could see that this pony was a good friend of Alastair and dismissed the sergeant. "I'm not too late, am I?" the Doctor asked, his mind already set on the events ahead.

"What for?" asked Alastair, expecting an alien attack of some sorts. The Doctor seemed shocked as his poor memory.

"For your speech! As guest of honour." The Doctor elaborated and the Brigadier knew the Doctor had indeed got his timelines confused again. Time to find out how badly he got them crossed.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"I saw it in the 'Times'." The Doctor reasonably answered. Only Crichton knew otherwise.

"That's impossible." He informed the small stallion. "The reporter's still here." The Doctor looked at the military official as if he was the madman.

"Tomorrow's 'Times'." He informed him as if it was obvious. Taken aback be Crichton's presence, the Doctor cleared his throat and carried on. "And, ah, wh-who is this?" he asked Alastair.

"That's Colonel Crichton, my replacement." He told him and the Doctor gave an 'ahhhh' of understanding.


"Yes," The Doctor said, shaking the Colonel's hoof with ill contained energy. "mine was pretty unpromising too." He commented. Not wishing to open that particular can of worms (and to avoid explaining the Doctor's manner with Crichton), Alastair began ushering the Doctor away.

"Come along Doctor. We'll take a stroll round the grounds, shall we?" Alastair politely suggested, already getting his and the Doctor's coats. "Awfully sorry about this." he quickly apologised to Crichton. "Do excuse me for a moment." He said before heading for the door. The Doctor however wouldn't keep quiet.

"You've had this place redecorated, haven't you?" he asked the Colonel, before swiftly adding. "Hmm, didn't like it." Wanting to avoid a confrontation, Alastair hurried the Doctor along.

"Come on Doctor."

"After you." The Doctor offered when he got to the door.

"What?" asked Alastair as Crichton took a long, suffering sip of his beer.

"After you." The Doctor repeated and Alastair reminded himself that this Doctor was never the first stallion through a door – for good reason. Crichton watched the pair leave with a sigh, before collecting his and Alastair's glasses, shaking his head all the while.

"Everything alright sir?" asked the sergeant after seeing the Colonel deep in thought.

"What the blazes is going on?" he demanded. "Who was that strange little pony?"

"The Doctor." The sergeant replied, as if it answered everything.

"Who?" Crichton asked.


"Yes, Yeti, Cybermen, we've seen some times Doctor." The Brigadier commented to the Doctor once they were outside.

"And Omega, don't forget Omega." He reminded him.

"As if I could!" Alastair exclaimed. Not only did he learn the secret of the Doctor's blue box that day, but also the apparent love-loss between this incarnation and the next.

"And the terrible Zodin…" sighed the Doctor.

"Who?" asked Alastair, not recognising the name.

"Oh, you weren't concerned with her, were you? No. She happened in the future." Alastair wasn't sure whose future the Doctor was referringto, but let it slip either way. "They were covered in hair and used to hop like kangaroos." The Doctor expanded for his benefit. Sighing heavily, the Doctor realised he will now have to go and turned to break the news to Alastair. "Brigadier. I really shouldn't be here at all." He told him and Alastair stopped to give the Doctor his full attention. "I'm not exactly breaking the laws of time, but I am bending them a little."

"You never did bother much about rules, as I remember." Alastair recalled, before noticing the faraway look on the Doctor's face. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"Brigadier, I think our past is catching up on us. Or maybe it's our future. Come on, run!" seeing the huge black shape running towards them with wanton intent, the pair rushed off to the safety of the trees. They ran on and on until Alastair couldn't run anymore – has wasn't as young as he once was.

"Doctor, I'm too old for his sort of thing." He told the panicking Doctor. The Doctor however had other, more pressing, concerns on his mind.

"Where's it gone? We must get back to the TARDIS before it's too late." He told Alastair, before spotting the black triangle heading towards them again. "Run!" he commanded and the two of them headed off again. However the strange black shape had gotten wiser this time and promptly swallowed up the two of them.

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Now the Doctor knew something was terribly wrong. He could swear he could hear music coming from somewhere – music coming from a recorder of all things. He thought he felt his stature diminish slightly and his hair became shorter and scruffier. The Doctor panted painfully as another burst of unexplained pain shot through his cutie mark. His second incarnation's memories were now starting to go – he could just about remember a brigadier and a Scotsman, but little else. Tegan could see something was wrong and decided to try and understand what was wrong with the Doctor. And what she could to do to help.

"Doctor, what is it?" she asked.

"It's fading. It's all fading." He answered cryptically.

"What's fading?" asked Turlough, hoping his magic could be of some use.

"Great chucks of my past, detaching themselves like melting icebergs." The Doctor answered just as another pain swept through him. By now, Tegan had seen and heard enough.

"Do something. Help him!" she commanded Turlough and the pair went over to help the fragile time lord. Still determined to prevent worrying his companions (and positively failing), the Doctor held his hoof out to stop them.

"Oh no! No, don't look so worried. I'll have it all worked out soon." He told them breathlessly. "Everything's alright." He lied. "Everything's quite alright." The Doctor managed to smile and put his arms around his companions, before collapsing into unconsciousness.

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In the white screen in the strange pony's lair, two more ponies had been reduced to figures. They were both placed in a section, beside the first Doctor's figure. One pony was pale brown with brown hair and a cutie mark with three pips and a crown. The other one was a shorter pony, with grey fur and hourglass cutie mark – only this time more sand had fallen. These two ponies were the second Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

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Once again, back in the Doctor's past, the Doctor's third incarnation – pale yellow coat, curly grey hair and a smoking jacket complete with frills – was driving down a simple country road on his way back to UNIT HQ. The Brigadier had offered to drive him there himself in a jeep, but the Doctor had decided to drive himself there via Bessie. His reliable yellow car had been patiently waiting for him after the day's latest turn of events, so it seemed amiss of the Doctor not to drive her home – rather than leave it to some soldier pony. However something seemed to be off. It was quiet – too quiet.  His hooves tightened on the steering wheel and he frown in confusion. Then he lifted his head and saw the threating black triangle in the sky.

"Great balls of fire!" he cried. Flooring Bessie's acceleration, the Doctor turned quick around and sped off down the nearest junction. He kept the acceleration firmly depressed until he could no longer see whatever it was that was chasing him. The Doctor smiled and gave Bessie a pat with his hoof. "Good old Bessie." He congratulated the car, before the black shape appeared behind him and removed them from time and space.

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Tegan and Turlough had caught the Doctor before he had managed to do himself any damage. They had sat him down on the grass near the archway. He had quickly come only after he felt his third self disappear from within him. He could feel the power in his limbs thanks to being effectively trained in venusian aikido, he could feel the buzz of his trusty sonic screwdriver in his jaws and he could feel his curly grey hair atop his head.

"I am being diminished. Whittled away, piece by piece." He – badly – explained to his companions. "A stallion…is the sum of his memories you know. A time lord even more so." He stuttered through. Turlough didn't know what he was going on about, but Tegan had a fairly good idea. After all, she had seen his most recent regeneration, along with Nyssa and…

"What can we do to help you?" she immediately asked, pushing the Alzarian colt out of her mind.

"Get me into the TARDIS." The Doctor answered, and so began the greatest and most dangerous adventure of the Doctor's lives so far!