Mare in the Moon and the Colt in his Box: Luna, banished to the moon, wonders if she must have gone mad being alone on this barren surface for so long because the strange colt with his blue box is surely a delusion. Well, at least if she's not alone anymore. Oneshot.

Disclaimer: if only, if only, the plot bunny sings.

Image: 'Mare in the Moon' by Paw07 (me).

…

Trapped I am by my sister's right hand.

I curse her, love her and pray for an end.

This tower though rises so high and steadfast,

Will not one hero rescue me at last?

…

Luna curled her tail around her body, staring at the rocks before her.

They were all the same… everything was always the same. She had almost come to hate the art of the night. She certainly had come to hate the stone of the moon. Briefly, she wondered if she should be sickened by the fact that she now seemed to detest the thing that had driven her to such vengeful passion.

She promptly ignored the thought. Why would anyone blame her for hating moon rocks? She had been banished to the moon for centuries.

Centuries.

She wasn't sure how many years it had been. Part of her heart was so deprived of color, sunlight and warmth that she was starting to wonder if that orb below, the world that her empty kingdom circled, ever existed. Perhaps she had always been on the moon, a lone sentinel guarding its barren and scarred landscape for an unknown purpose.

Maybe there had never ever been any other ponies.

Maybe she had never had a sister that had betrayed and banished her.

Maybe she had always been alone.

It was a desolate thought but at the same time, it was a comforting one because it meant that she wasn't missing anything. She was meant to be this way… She was meant to be alone so there was no point in being lonesome, right? There was no point in being angry or even vengeful at shadows that her mind had made to calm her raging heart.

She pushed at a moon rock and thought of perhaps playing a game of catch with the thing… the gravity was low enough to allow such a sport. It was something that she liked to fool herself with. It had lost its glamor long ago. She had even built a moon palace to try and strive away her boredom, but the quiet was too strong… too long.

The darkness inside of her had even started to pull itself apart from her, residing on the dark side of the moon at all times as it shunned the light. It had started to become its own being long ago, still popping in on her from time to time to try and stir some anger in her heart so it could get more powerful. Perhaps she could go and speak with it to strive off her loneliness… but perhaps it was a figment as well. Maybe her madness just was fooling her and that shadowy thing, Nightmare Moon, wasn't even real.

Oh, what did it matter?

She'd just do what she always did. Go into her palace made of nothing but moon rock, cold and dark without any comforts, and find the throne Nightmare Moon had demanded and rest… and rest… and rest. Perhaps one day the sun would stop shining or her magic would give way so she wouldn't be able to feed herself and then…

… and then she could go to this Equestria her dreams had longed for so kindly. Maybe there it would be forever twilight where her and her shadow-dreamed sister could paint the night and day together, intertwined like ancient trees.

Slowly standing up, she wondered if she would be able to even get any rest. Probably not, especially if that living shadow came to visit her, leaching off of her body's energy and making her hair turn into a blanket of stars. She had loved it when the spell she used to fight her sister had first done it, but now part of her hated it… it was just more blackness. No warmth at all.

If Equestria was real at all… she had promised to punish her sister for sending her to this torture, and then would she would make sure the nights were warm once she rose the eternal night again… which she was sure she would be doing. Nightmare Moon would demand it and there was no need to fight with her own head, right?

Slowly making herself to the only structure on the moon, there was suddenly a strange buzzing sound and a crash. The princess's ears immediately perked up and she turned her head, wondering what it could have been. Was it just another rock scarring her kingdom's surfaces, trying to match the moon's appearance to that of its guardian's soul?

She had investigated such a happening so many times before… but at least it was a distraction.

Turning her head from the palace which the shadow of the moon had encased, she did not notice the glare of a pair of eyes behind her nor how it followed, jumping into the shadows of each and every rock.

…

The Doctor staggered, having just pulled himself out of a closet.

Well, at least he hadn't fallen into the pool or the library of the Tardis or he might have drowned; yes, you can drown in a pile of books though it's more the squishing sense that kills you. Regardless, he pulled himself out of the closet, blowing a golden string off of his face. With a choking sound, he pulled himself up only to fall on his face.

What was with his legs?

Growling, he pulled himself out of the dark closet and managed to stumble forward. At least he was near a mirror being that he had just pulled himself out of the closet unless the Tardis had rearranged itself in such a way that it had decided to make a room of mirrors again, cannibalizing ever mirror there was into one room.

He hated that room. Too many hims.

Luckily for him, there seemed to be only one of him and he stumbled forward only to stagger backward with a yip.

"A fez! Ugh… well, it does match with the bowtie but I don't know if it's me," said the Time Lord as he reached up a hoof to readjust it. Slowly, it was then that he seemed to notice his furry body and hooves as well, "Ugh, not a ginger again! The pony thing I can kind of get… but why not a ginger!"

Shaking his mane at the humanity… pony-ity… of it all, he decided to see if he could get this walking with four legs thing down and where best to practice then outdoors. That way he can see where the Tardis had landed him up this time, and why it required him to be a pony-horse-creature for it.

Stepping up to the door, he had to stop because for a moment he forgot he had no hands but luckily discovered that his hoof was sufficient in opening it. Once seeing his hoof, the Doctor stalled and sighed with relief when he noticed that attached to his right leg was a leather band where his sonic screwdriver was comfortably placed.

He smiled at it as if greeting an old friend. Despite all of his companions, it seemed one of the few things that remained constant.

Pressing off the thought of companions and their mortality which caused him to greet and lose so many, he stepped out onto the rocking soil. He blinked for a moment in surprise. These rocks seemed so familiar… like he had been here before. For the briefest of moments, he could have been certain that this was the Earth's moon, especially with the green and blue orb that tried to mimic Earth in the distance but none of the continents seemed to be matching up… for any timeline.

He frowned at that … and because there was a thin layer of oxygen on the satellite. Last time he checked, Earth's moon didn't have oxygen.

Yep, he wasn't in Kansas anymore.

His sightseeing was quickly interrupted thought because there was suddenly a flicker of energy in the air and he couldn't help but walk forward, following it, his balance quickly realized as his ever familiar curiosity that strived drove him forward. Not that he minded, that curiosity always pressed off his bitter loneliness and once again his inner wonder was baring itself like a flower rising from the crack in a sidewalk. He slowly trotted farther and farther wondering what it could be… when unexpectedly he had to stall when he heard a voice behind him…

"Are you real? Or did I imagine you like … everything else?"

The Doctor stalled at the voice and for a moment he wondered he wondered the same thing, turning to see if the owner of the voice would disappear like some kind of phantom. Yet as he slowly turned around a surprised look overtook his face as he stared at nothing else but what could be described as a unicorn, no alicorn, standing before him looking as if she was about to weep at the mere sight of him.

Taking a step back more at the desperation in her voice and eyes than the fact that she was a alicorn, the Doctor replied back with, "I think I am, unless there is a cross in the alter dimensions and my form is bleeding through like a projection on a backboard, which I don't feel like my atoms are crossing …"

"Just tell me… are you a figment of my lonely imagination or are you some cruel prank by Nightmare Moon for wanting the sunlight and the warm figments of my mind?" she stated in a noble and demanding voice giving the Doctor a clue that she was a filly of some kind of high upbringing despite where she resided now.

Tilting his head, he asked, "Well, why wouldn't I be real? Is there supposed to be no one here? And who is Nightmare Moon? He doesn't sound like a very gracious fellow."

"She," stated the Princess, wondering why she was speaking at all to what could very well be a figment of her imagination but she had hundreds of years to be alone… so why not, "is my other half… the thing that got me banished to the moon by my very own sister. I have been here for so long, so alone, and she takes it upon herself to remind me of that as often as she can. Yet part of me wonders… if there is even anything to even be mad at."

The Doctor blinked and then, picking up his sonic screwdriver, the buzzing noise making Luna place her ears back as the strange colt as he stated, "Wow… that's some power you have there, but I can assure you that we both are real."

"What is that thing? It's buzzing is irritating," she stated, sniffing it and wondering for a moment if she should dare touch the pony just to make sure he was real because a figment could very well say he was real but why would it say they were both real?

Such a strange colt.

"Well, it's a sonic screwdriver. It buzzes and opens thing and occasionally saves the world. It's supposed to make that sound," stated the Doctor, wondering why the Nobel filly kept getting closer and closer and closer. It was a bit unsettling until she finally jabbed him with a hoof near his front shoulder blade making him yip and bring a hoof up to rub his hide as he asked, "What was that for?"

Suddenly looking meek yet instinctively happy, Luna stated, "J-just making sure. I've been alone for so long that I worry I have started to imagine things."

The Doctor frowned feeling a ping of loneliness himself. He knew that feeling far too well himself, a companion only pulling it from time to time yet at the same time they were always a painful reminder because companions were only mortal. Luckily, if he could tell anything from his scan of the alicorn it was that she probably knew those endless years as well as he.

The perfect companion…

No… no, he must not think like that. After how he had lost…

No, he must leave right now!

… After he figured out who this Nightmare Moon was.

Ugh, why did he even fight with his curiosity? It always won.

"But what of Nightmare Moon? What about her?" asked the time traveler, pulling out his screwdriver and placing his snout down to the dirt as he started forward, the tool making quite a racket surprisingly… and not very far from them, towards a crater.

Something had been listening to their whole conversation.

Putting the tool away, he whispered, "Never mind… I think I found her."

Luna's ears fell back and slowly she headed forward, the two of them peering into the hole as if they both expecting to be shot by guns blazing; instead, they were both met by a pair of very heated looking eyes. The thing even hissed at him, making Luna jump back with an, "Oh, my."

Only to cringe again as she watched the Doctor take up some moon dust near the edge of the crater and taste it! Eww! What kind of eccentric pony did she get stuck with?

"Yep," he chirped. "Isn't she a beauty? She feeds off rage and negative emotions. Supporting the emotion until it is a physical manifestation. Poor thing must be lost… the relationship she had with you is perfectly natural on her home planet. Very violent environment. Not meant for social creatures."

Luna blinked, taking a step back as the thing started to whisper things of hate to her, to hurt the Doctor before he took her away. Luna's skin felt like crawling and all she could state, not even wondering where she had picked it up or gotten it, she yelled, "It's a parasite! T-that thing has been feeding off me!"

Her horn started to glow as if she wanted to strike out at it, the thing's natural defense working against it before the Doctor stepped in front of Luna and stated in a calming tone, "No, no, no… don't… don't be like that. It's just doing as its instincts tell it to. It will detach from you the moment you start being happy."

The princess looked insulted, tears in her eyes as she all but yelled, the thing purring with satisfaction as her rage fed it, "It made me attack my sister and had me banished for a thousand years because of it! How can I be happy when every day all I think of is how I attack my kingdom and family!"

The Time Lord took a step back in surprise as he watched her eyes started to glow and her mane started to blend perfectly with the night sky. He was going to have a problem if he didn't do something, now!

Swallowing, the Doctor came to a quick decision as he stated, "Then come with me."

Her eyes stopped glowing, "What?"

"Come with me. I have the Tardis. I-it's a spaceship that can travel through time and space… You can leave here," he stated, trying to calm her while watching the thing that had been feeding off the Princes' hiss at him… Its food was being deprived of it.

Luna frowned, a hoof scratching at the earth as she stated, "A-a real ship… where?"

Smiling, knowing that even a simple distraction like looking at the Tardis could throw the creature off, he motioned for her to follow and he noticed with each step that Luna's her hair started to fade back into its light, lovely blue that it had been moments ago. A small ghost of wonder reflecting in her eyes as she trotted after him and the Time Lord would admit he'd never forget her smile as he opened the door to the Tardis, the princess proclaiming what so many before her had, "It's bigger in the inside!"

Chuckling, noticing that the symbiote didn't dare flow into the light given off by the Tardis, he stated, "Yeah, you'd be surprised how often I hear that."

She nodded and then, turning to look at the Doctor directly, she asked, "So did you mean it? Can I come with you?"

Stopping himself in front of the door, which he had been leaving open, he gained a soft look. Well, it seemed he got another one, a companion.

Nodding his head as he shut the door and came up the walkway around the controls, he added, "Sure did… Miss?"

Suddenly feeling mortified, the mare turned her head and asked almost shyly, "Well, now I feel embarrassed. Here I'm going away on a space adventure with you yet there haven't been any introductions. I'm Princess Luna and what's your name?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"Oh, that's a nice occupation, but I need your name, not rank."

"The Doctor."

Seeming troubled, Luna added almost shortly, "Is there a name?"

"The Doctor," he said matter-of-factly as he headed for the controls, thankfully all poni-fied for easy hoof and mouth use.

"You're called the Doctor?" she asked, wondering if she should run for the door locked and she was alone with the crazy colt.

"Yes, I am," he added, pulling a lever which made the ship make a strange buzzing noise.

"That's not a name. That's a physiological condition, especially with that fez," she added in worry.

Maybe she was mad. Maybe she had always been mad? Maybe she wasn't a pony at all! Maybe she was in a mental institute right now, drooling on herself.

The colt laughed softly at that and pulled one lever that made the whole ship start to shake as he grabbed on for dear life to a nearby railing, "Well, you are one to talk. You thought I was a figment of your imagination a few minutes ago! And my hat is highly fashionable, I'll have you know!"

Grabbing onto the railing as well, noticing how close they were and how handsome this Doctor was, Luna couldn't help but agree, "Well, then we are both mad it seems. We should be great company for each other… despite the hat. So where to first!"

Smiling at her, he stated, "Well… we have all the time in the universe. Let's see how many places we can fit in for the next thousand years! Sound like a plan to you?"

Luna … merely laughed, Nightmare Moon seemed like a dream now and this … this strange little colt in his strange little ship felt like it was a wondrous dream. Yes, this was reality.

Just her and her Doctor.

… and that horrible hat.

XXX

Paw07: Finally, I got an MLP fic done. A crossover at that. I couldn't help it. I love Dr. Whooves… the Dr. Who version of our favorite Timelord. Hope you enjoyed it. I don't think there will be any other chapters unless it's one after the 1000 years. Later.

Also, I made some cover art for this at deviant art: gallery/#/d4f96n5