I’m on a sad story streak (Alliteration!)!!!! Let’s do this!
The gray pegasus looked from her bed out into the garden. How long had she been here, ignorant yet happy? There was no war, no Daleks. No Cyberponies. No monsters, no anger, no pain, only the sun on the leaves of the flowers outside her window.
A sound unlike any other, unmistakable to anypony who had travelled with him in the past, entered the symphony of nature. The mare closed her eyes and smiled as a blue box materialized in her year outside, the flowers carefully spared the weight of the TARDIS.
Minutes later, a brown stallion carefully knocked on the door.
“Come in!” Derpy called. Careful not to be too loud, the stallion opened it and came next to her bed.
“Hello, Ditzy.”
“Oh Doctor, you can call me Derpy. I don’t mind it at all when you say it. You don’t use it to hurt me.”
“Alright.” The Time Lord said with his accented voice. “How are you today, Derpy?”
“I’m good. Doctor, I called you here because I wanted to ask you a special favor.” She said, turning her wall-eyed look on him. She took careful notice of his chin, mane, his eyes, an ocean she wished she could be in all day long.
“Sure! What do you want? I can get anything for you.” His dark blue eyes flashed with a bit of concern.
He doesn’t look a day older than when we first met. Derpy thought to herself. He was a Time Lord. He didn’t change like normal ponies, that only happened if he regenerated.
“I want to go on an adventure. My last adventure.”
“Derpy, you don’t mean---”
“I don’t mean anything, you big silly!” She reached with her hoof to pull his to her chest. “I’m getting too old to do much of anything, Doctor. I can barely go into town anymore.”
“Then you are in no condition to go travelling!” The stallion tried to argue.
“Doctor, please. Won’t you grant a dying mare her last wish?”
“Don’t say that. Please, don’t say that.”
“I only want to go for a few minutes. Maybe half-an-hour. Do you remember the time we went to the planet with rolling hills and shining oceans?”
“Yes. One of our first adventures.” He smiled at the thought.
“And we sat underneath the tree, watching the waves below the ledge from the shade?”
“Yes.”
“Can we go there again?” She asked, her eyes shut as she basked in the memory of that adventure that had taken place all those years ago.
“Are you sure you’re up for it?”
“I trust you can get us there without blowing up the ship.” She said playfully. He smiled, and Derpy began to get up. She wobbled a bit as she set her hooves on the ground, but steadied herself with her wings. Finally, she was stable enough to walk out the door.
“Ladies first.” He said with a flare in his eyes and a grin on his face. The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors for Derpy to enter the time machine.
“You haven’t changed the desktop setting yet, have you?” She asked as she looked around the familiar control room.
“Nah, I thought that I would remember you easier this way.” He answered back as he set the TARDIS’ course. Flicking some blue switches, the humming of the ship started and ceased. Puzzled, Derpy looked at him.
“Stabilizers.” He said with a gentle voice.
The two ponies - or one pony and a Time Lord - exited the box that was oh-so-big on the inside. The cool wind tasted like salt to the grey pegasus mare.
“I brought us to the same place moments after we left the first time. To keep the same image.” The Doctor explained. Derpy looked at her surroundings. The sea was orange in the setting sun, and the gentle breeze gently shook the great oak tree.
“Sit with me, Doctor.” She gently patted the ground next to her. He did as she asked, and Derpy rested her head on his shoulder. The Doctor smiled in unison with his assistant.
“Why did you want to come here?”
“Because…” She struggled for words here. “I thought it was a beautiful place… to die.”
“Don’t say that!” Tears sprang into the stallion’s eyes, which surprised the mare.
“Wh-what?”
“Please, don’t go!” He cried. “I’ve lost so much in my life. My friends, my family, my entire planet, and I have had to watch so many people go!” He didn’t stop there.
“I had to destroy my entire planet for a stupid war! My best friends, they’ve all gone now. So many faces, dead, and for what?” He looked at Derpy, who also had tears in her eyes. He shook for a minute before controlling himself.
“I have lived for so much, and it was all taken from me. I don’t know why, and I don’t know who did it, but it has happened, and it made me the Time Lord I am now. And I can’t lose anything else.”
“Well,” She hugged him tightly, barely noticing his tears falling and splashing on her back. “I think that the Time Lord you are because of it all is meant to be. Without that loss, what you be like? How many planets wouldn’t be saved because you had no sense of regret for those who had died? When you see people, or ponies, in danger, you run into danger to save them, because you know what it’s like to lose someone.”
“I… see…”
“And another thing,” She looked him straight in the eyes, and he gasped when he saw both eyes were perfectly fine.
“If I die or not, you can’t stop that. Nopony can. When you mess with the course of time, you can destroy everything in an attempt to save something. You know that better than anypony.” He looked down, his brown mane flopping a bit in his face.
“I guess you’re right.”
“Of course, muffin. That’s what I’m here for.” She rested her head on his shoulder once more, and they sat in silence together. Finally, he spoke again.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t be bitter about it. It’s a good thing!” He stood up a bit. “I mean, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! Or what doesn’t make you regenerate! Or, well, I suppose there isn’t another. Bother that, but still! I saved countless worlds due to my loss, and I can save countless more! Oh, thank you, Derpy!”
The stallion looked with an excited look in his eyes at the mare. She had lain down and closed her eyes. A smile sat on her face.
“Oh, Derpy. The sunlight is quite nice for a nap, isn’t it? But we’d better get you in bed.” He gently nudged her to get her to wake up.
“Come on, Miss Hooves, we need to get back to Ponyville.” She didn’t get up. “Miss Hooves? It’s time to wake up.” He reached down to brush her face. It was deathly cold.
“D-Derpy?” He shook her a little, to no avail. Her eyes stayed shut. He picked her up, putting him on his back.
“You’re sick, that’s all! The TARDIS can heal you right up!”
The Time Lord carried his limp friend into the blue box. Faster than he had ever before, he fired up the TARDIS’ health program. It scanned for the sickness that must be ailing the pegasus. The results it came up with were not helping.
“Come on, Derpy! Please, wake up!” He shook her harder, but her body was limp and she didn’t open her eyes.
“No. Not again. Not today. Please, Derpy! DERPY!”
Author's Note
Another sad story.
