Arrival and Crystals - Part 1
So many had died in his name. Faced with a secret he never wanted to deal with again, he had taken Clara in his arms, and departed in the TARDIS, the living ship that could take him all throughout time and space. His past was catching up to him, and he didn't like to have to face his past, especially not the incarnation of him that had broken the promise to the name he'd taken. The figure claimed everything he'd done had been in the name of 'peace and sanity', but it didn't matter, because it had not been in the name of 'Doctor'.
And now he was running away, running away like he always did, and never stopping.
Levers were pulled and knobs were twisted, and his beloved TARDIS entered the Time Vortex. Clara began to stir, and the Doctor looked upon her with an excited grin.
"So, where to next Clara?" he asked, "Ooo, how about Razlafex? Oh you would love it there! The locals are very welcoming and love to throw parties every night, and they have great melon juice. Ooo, I could go for some melon juice right about now. What about you?"
In his million-mile an hour babbling however, the Doctor failed to notice the warning lights that the monitors on the central console were displaying. The TARDIS gave a sudden violent lurch, throwing the two of them to the floor. The Time Lord fought to get to his feet, pulling himself up to the console to try and discern the cause of his beloved ship's distress.
"That can't be right..." he said worriedly, pulling a fancy looking lever, "No no no, there shouldn't be a rip in here." The TARDIS lurched again, nearly throwing him away from the controls again. "Stabilizers… stabilizers..." he muttered to himself, eyes widening at what the console said "What do you mean the stabilizers are offline?!" he shouted.
There was a metallic groan before the warning bell began to go off, and flashing lights bathed the control room in an eerie red light.
"Alright, eh...let's try and close it now..." he muttered aloud to himself, twisting a knob and flipping several switches.
The alarms grew louder, and the TARDIS gave a violent heave, effectively throwing him away from the console and down some of the stairs to the lower level. The Doctor groaned in pain, fighting to get back up to the controls.
"No no no! Not now!" he shouted, seeing his hands starting to glow as he was trying to climb back up. He heard Clara screaming in pain, and his attention shot toward her. "Clara!" He tried to hold back his regeneration, to get to her. He'd promised to protect her; he couldn't go dying on her now! He couldn't lose her!
He was too late, though, after he crawled up to where he'd heard her scream; whatever was happening, her frail human body couldn't take it. Time and space were ripping her apart, and there was nothing he could do to stop it! All he could do was watch as she disintegrated into nothingness.
"Clara!" he shouted again, no longer able to hold back his regeneration cycle.
The TARDIS crashed in some unknown place, and as it did, the Doctor's head was thrown back by the internal force of the regeneration. He screamed in agony as the energy exploded off of him in great force like it did from his previous regeneration. The TARDIS's console room was destroyed, left as nothing but a burning wreckage as the Doctor regenerated into a brand new incarnation.
~~~
"I don't know what happened..." muttered the grey mare, her blonde mane fell over her face as she hung her head. "I was just trying to help." she continued, thinking back on the scene.
Having lost her job as a mailmare, But why? I mean, yes, I ended up inside a mailbox, but the mail was still delivered to the right pony!, not even two weeks after losing her job with the movers, Okay, yes, I dropped some stuff, but that purple pony was okay!, she'd gotten a job at the weather factory. After almost a solid month with no issues, she thought she'd secretly take home some of the super-spicy liquid rainbow to use as a seasoning, just to test it out. She'd had no idea that there was a leak in that jar. Or that the liquid rainbow would hit somepony in the face, causing an acid-rain panic! How could she?
So, feeling a deepening regret at another lost job, and the... DISTURBANCE her 'misconduct' had created, she slowly wandered out into the forest, mumbling and grumbling, venting in the hopes that she could return to town a bit cheerier, and begin another job search.
"What could I even do? Nopony trusts me with the tools needed to cook... They all think I'm going to burn the town down... I'm not good enough at drawing or math to be an architect pony, not that they'd be willing to live in anything I did manage to build if I was... Maybe Sweet Apple Acres needs some hired help to do... SOMEthing...", she continued on, muttering to herself and wondering what to do, as she suddenly tripped, WHUMP, and fell flat on her face. She just stayed like that, her mane covering her shame filled eyes, so that, even if somepony did happen to find her, they wouldn't see it, as the tears built up and began to fall as she silently cried.
~~~
Something was wrong. He couldn't feel his fingers or toes. Had he regenerated without them? It was a possibility; regeneration was a very dodgy process for a Time Lord...the Time Lord. Last of his kind...right...
He didn't have time to ponder what he looked like however, as his beloved machine began to fill with smoke. The Doctor coughed violently as it quickly filled his airways, his eyes watering as the smoke stung them. He had to get out of there, out to fresh air before he suffocated. He didn't need to go through another regeneration when this cycle had barely even started and he needed a full day to recover.
So he began to crawl toward the door. His body felt awkward and hard to control, but his main concern was finding the door. After some effort, he managed to locate it, shoving the twin doors open to breathe that sweet fresh air. He crawled out of the TARDIS with smoke pouring out behind him, before the blue box's doors promptly shut tight behind him.
"Hey!" he protested, but was thrown into a rather loud coughing fit soon afterward.
~~~
She'd gotten up, startled, and wiped at the tears. There were strange noises, some she didn't understand, others had definitely been the sounds of crashing. She'd flown up into the trees, unsure if it was a beast after something to eat, or somepony in trouble.
She did her best to remain hidden as she'd moved from tree to tree, looking for the source, wondering why anypony else would be out here, and feeling more and more like heading toward the sound was a bad idea... Until she saw the smoke. She kept going, cautiously, looking for the source. When she found it, she sat in the tree and watched, unsure of the scene that played out before her eyes.
Somepony was coughing like mad near the source of the smoke, otherwise he looked okay... But... He WAS yelling at a BOX... She sat for some time, watching him, confused. Then, panic struck, and she flew straight at the box as hard as she could!
"Come on, Mister, help me push it!" she spout towards the shouting stallion. Obviously, this box must have landed on somepony, why else would anypony be angry at it!
"Come on, open up!" He banged on the doors, but they weren't responding. The TARDIS had effectively locked him out, likely so she could repair herself.
The Doctor nearly jumped in surprise though when something came flying out of nowhere and rammed into the box. Whoever is was was urging him to help push it, and he looked on in confusion, or tried to, as his body healed itself of the smoke inhalation faster than it normally would due to the fact he was still undergoing the regeneration process.
"What are you doing...?" he questioned, not realizing it wasn't even a humanoid before another round of coughing hit him. Oh how he hated regeneration, as useful as it was.
"What, mmph, do you MEAN what am I, HRMMMPPHHH, doing?! Aren't you angry, mmRRRPPPHHHH, at this box for landing, MMPHH, on somepony?! WE HAVE TO GET THEM OUT FROM UNDER IT OBVIOUSLY!"
She just kept pushing and pushing, hoping to be able to help, to prove she could be useful. The box took every ounce of strength she put out, and refused to even budge. It didn't even give her the courtesy of playing along and groaning or something. Every second that passed, she became increasingly alarmed that somepony was dying beneath this ridiculous box.
"Why aren't you DOING anything?! SOMEPONY IS DYING UNDER HERE!", her panic drove her to the point she was nearly shrieking the last words.
"Landing on some... What?" he questioned, trying to get his bearings. The Time Lord's vision was a little messed up at the moment still, so he shook his head, flinching when her shrieking hurt his ears. "There's no need to shout," he explained, "I'm just mad she locked me out. No one's dying. At least I don't think anyone is. They might be, not here anyway. Somewhere far away from here, but not at this particular spot at this particular moment in time."
"Thank Celestia." she muttered, somewhat disappointed that she hadn't gotten her chance to prove useful.
He rubbed his eyes, everything finally coming into focus. Blinking to get his eyes more used to the oddly bright sunlight, he was able to get a better look at the one talking. The Doctor had to do a double take just to be sure what he was seeing was in fact real.
"Hang on, are you...are you a Pegasus?" he asked, a mad grin starting to spread across his face, "Well, that's, that's impossible! Pegasi aren't real. Pegasi? Pegasuses? Anyway, you're impossible. This has to be some sort of trick; a computer simulation, a hologram, something." He began to look around for some sort of device, or door, or something that might clue him in. "Alright, who's doing this?" he called to no one, "What's the trick? Why am I here?"
"What the heck is a haul-oh-graham? And this comm-pewter? Is it some kind of dish? Is now really the time to be thinking about food, Mr. Stallion? And who are you anyway?" She flew closer and closer as she talked, becoming sure with every sentence he spoke that he was, contrary to what she'd previously though, not alright.
"Oh no no, it's not a dish of any kind. You know; a hologram...it's...it's a negative, a negative produced by exposing a high-resolution photographic plate, without camera or lens, near a subject illuminated by monochromatic, coherent radiation, as from a laser. When it's placed in a beam of coherent light a true three-dimensional image of the subject is formed." He grinned widely. "Basically it's just a 3-D moving image that looks real, but it's not, that's being projected from somewhere else." Oh he loved it when he got the chance to sound smart; God knows he was clever after all. "And a computer, well, it's a machine with lots of buttons on a keyboard that lets you go on the internet. Some food sounds good right about now though; not sure what I like, brand new face, new personality and all that. Can take weeks to find out what I like sometimes."
He tripped when he attempted to walk, spitting out dirt after landing on his face. "Well the dirt certainly tastes like dirt," he said, making a disgusted face, "Never liked the taste of dirt much. Why is this new body so awkward?"
She had to stifle a chuckle. "A-are you, pff, are you alright, mister?" she asked, but without answering, he said something about dirt tasting like dirt? "Of course dirt tastes like dirt... what else would it taste like?" she asked, poking him in the head a few times with her hoof. "Are you sure you're okay, mister?"
"Oi, I don't go poking you in the forehead with my fingers!” he protested, "To answer some of your other questions, I'm the Doctor! Pleasure to meet you! But a stallion? How can I be a stallion? Last time I checked I was at least Homo Sapien in appearance. Shouldn't change just because of a new regeneration..."
"Homosaywhatnow?" First the stallion started talking in some weird language, and now he thought he was something besides a stallion?
"Homo Sapien; you know, hairless ape, bipedal..."
Confused, she looked him over and shook her head. "I don't know what a homo-sap-een is, mister, but you are most definitely a pony." she stated so matter-of-factly that she couldn't help but look pleased with herself, "And I'm still pretty sure you banged your head pretty hard. Let's get you to a doc-- wait, can you fix yourself since you're a doctor? No... Doctors aren't supposed to try to treat themselves, right? Come on, there's a doctor in town, and after that we can get something to eat, mister. Those 'cohearant radishes' you were talking about sound pretty tasty." As she finished talking, she reached down with a smile to help him up.
"No, no, I can't be a pony. I mean, I can talk to them; I know every language in existence, but I'm most definitely not one," he disagreed.
The pegasus began to talk about taking him to a doctor to get him checked out, but his focus was only half on her. Of course, being a Time Lord his brain had the capacity to easily focus on two different things at once, so while half of it was taking what the mare was saying, the other half was busy with the observation of his new body, due to the fact he'd raise his hand to show her he was humanoid only to find that he had no hand.
"Well now, that explains why I can't feel my fingers or toes. Can't have fingers and toes with hooves!" He giggled a bit childishly as he followed his new foreleg to the rest of his body. "Well would you look at that..." he muttered curiously, turning in a circle and nearly falling on his face again as a result. "Nice chestnut coat, oh the tail's a nice touch too. Blast, still not ginger. Twelve regenerations and I'm still not a ginger..." he complained. He then noticed the hourglass mark on his flank. "Look at that! Ha!" He looked to the winged mare with a grin. "There's an hourglass right here on my rump!" He pointed to it with one of his hooves, nearly losing his balance again.
"Fin...gers...? Do you... Do you think you're some sort of fish? Of course you have hooves, you're a pony..." she stopped, wondering what he could possibly be doing. Even vain ponies don't look at themselves this thoroughly. "What are you doi--" she started to wonder aloud, stopped by his flank suddenly in her face. "Y-yes. an hourglass cutie mark, right there are your flank, mister. We should really go show it to a doctor, right after we have him take a look at your head. Wouldn't want you yelling at anymore boxes..." Her previous worries mounted more and more with every word he spoke. You'd almost have believed he really wasn't a pony. SHE'D almost believed it. But he was obviously a pony, wasn't he? The question, just a small seed of doubt... Still, no time for wondering about that. "Come on, mister, please, we really need to get you checked out!"
"Fish...? Ha, that's a good one! Though I suppose being a fish could be fun, swimming around in deep water, not having to worry about drowning...though I suppose for a fish it's the other way around..." The pegasus then further elaborated on what the mark on his hindquarters was, and the Doctor couldn't help giggling at the concept. "Cutie mark, now that's one I haven't heard before, and mind you I've heard a lot in my time, a lot of a lot."
The mare seemed adamant to get him to a doctor though, and he couldn't help it as his grin spread wider. She really thought he had a head injury of some kind. "Nope, don't need a medical doctor, nope nope," he disagreed with another giggle, "I've always been a little bit crossed in the head, but then, there's so much going on in there it's hard to keep track of everything sometimes. Like I said before, I'm the Doctor, just the Doctor mind you, Miss Pegasus. I've studied medicine from all across the universe, so I haven't needed one of my own yet!"
"The Doctor? That's a silly name. And... Misleading." she ended with a giggle, "I'm Ditzy Doo."
She kept a close eye on him as he rambled, still not entirely certain he was alright, and she was right to, because the painful after effects of the initial regeneration were already starting to kick in. He could feel the stabbing pain in his stomach, his hearts both kicking up a tempo or two in pulse. The pain forced him to have to sit down, using both of his front hooves to hold his stomach as he cringed, gritting his teeth against a barrage of screams that were trying to claw their way out.
"O-Oh dear, this is...ooo… this is an extra painful one..." he mused through his teeth, his eyes reduced to squinting, "Not a body… I'm, I'm used to..."
"I knew you weren't okay! You seem smart, is there something I can do to help?! Maybe I should try to carry you to town!" Panic set in again as she watched him writhing and clutching at his stomach.
"N-NO!" he shouted, likely startling her. The Time Lord held out an arm (leg?) to try and keep her away while the other continued to clutch his stomach. "N-No, please..." he amended, lowering his voice, "just...ngh… j-just give me a, a moment, please..."
She’d jumped back at his shout. "O-okay." she agreed nervously, watching him.
His breaths came in short gasps as his eyes were finally forced to squeeze shut. The Doctor was doubled over so much his nose was nearly touching the ground, and he looked like he might throw up as his breathing hitched in his throat. He seemed to stop breathing for a moment, before his mouth dropping open and he let out a long exhale. A golden stream of energy was released from his mouth, rising high into the air and disappearing as it did.
"Ahhh, that's so much better..." he sighed in relief, sitting up and raising his nose to the sky and inhaling deeply, "This regeneration's at least real otherwise it wouldn't have been that painful; ooo, I'm not looking forward to the next twenty-four hours..."
Derpy's jaw dropped open in surprise, and as soon as she'd regained control of her muzzle, she started rattling off, "Re-general-hooha? Why are you breathing gold? DID YOU EAT GOLD?! I didn't know gold was edible!"
"There's nothing wrong with my name; Doctor is the name I chose, it's sort of...like a promise, I guess you could say," he said, picking up from the point she'd introduced herself, smiling as if nothing had happened and acting as if he hadn't heard her questions regarding the gold energy, "And what sort of name is Ditzy Doo? Seems a strange name for a horse, and I've met many strange characters in my day."
"Well, mister 'I'm a fancy Doctor, blahblahblah', Doctor isn't a name at all, let alone a strange one." she spat in a huff, finding him rude to say such things.
I'd still really like to know how he made that gold gas though... she thought to herself, as she regarded the... UNIQUE pony before her with awe, and caution.
"It is so a name!" he huffed right back, though rather childishly for his age, "What did you expect my name to be?"
She thought for a minute before she responded, giving him a thorough looking over. "Frank. I expected you to be called Frank." she stated seriously.
"Frank?!" he sputtered, utterly offended, though perhaps he was being a touch overdramatic, "But that's such a boring name! Why would anyone want to be called Frank? Doctor is so much cooler!"
His mind went back to the questions she posed about the energy he'd exhaled, and he found himself grinning at them. "At any rate, that energy I expelled is excess regeneration energy, my dear. It's energy my body can create. It's not gold of any kind, and I certainly don't eat gold. I tried it once, I think. Good way for me to find out more about the composition of something. It tasted like rubbish, mind you." He chuckled at the very thought. "It's a bit of a complex concept to explain; basically, if my body is fatally wounded, I have the ability to undergo something called regeneration. It changes my physical appearance completely, along with a new personality and the fun of discovering new likes and dislikes!"
His stomach growled loudly then, and he found himself blushing slightly in embarrassment.
"Unfortunately, there's always side effects that vary for each one, which can range from excruciating pain, to a massive hunger, to forgetting important things, to, well… just about anything I suppose," he continued, "Speaking of which, can we find someplace to eat? I feel like I haven't eaten in a lifetime!" After all, it was effectively the truth, and he giggled at the joke, though he'd be the only one to get it.
She listened to him start to explain stuff, and... started daydreaming. She was sure he'd said something about that General again. She refocused on what he was saying since it seemed to be almost over. He seemed to slow down what he was saying just a tiny bit right before he would finally stop, she'd noticed. When his stomach grumbled, she couldn't help but giggle.
"Y-yeah, hehe, let's go to Ponyville." With that, she trotted away, slowly, looking back to make sure he was following. Wouldn't want him getting lost out here, she thought.
The Doctor grinned widely at the name. "Ponyville? Well that's a new one," he said to himself before turning to the box and touching the door with his hoof, "Now you just rest here alright? No one should bother you out here. I'll be back as soon as i can to see how you're doing."
The Doctor planted a loving kiss upon the door of the shape shop as the mare began to trot off, and the Doctor hurried to catch up with her. He was already getting the hang of walking on all fours. It wasn't that hard really; not much different than crawling.
"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this!" he mused happily, looking to the mare he was walking beside, "So tell me Miss Do, what's this Ponyville like? Frankly, I'm having a hard time picturing it."
"Why'd you kiss that box, Frank?" she asked as he began catching up. She really was curious, but couldn't resist throwing that name in there now.
"Oi, my name's not Frank, it's the Doctor!" he corrected, "And that box is much, much more than just a box. I couldn't even begin to describe the intricacies of the interior, much less what she's capable of. She's in a bit of a bad way though, and needs her rest in order to heal up."
"Ponyville is a pretty great place. Lots of ponies. There's Sugarcube corner, they have great treats. Of course, there's also a nice café, they have awesome sandwiches. OOH, we could go to The Hay Burger and get some great Hay Burgers!" She rambled off restaurants and the like as they walked, but spread into non-lunch themed information, after a short time, "There's also a hospital, and a joke shop, and a library, and a costume shop... And a day spa! Oh, and then there's also the bowling alley, and a quill shop. A school of course. A theater... And Mayor Mare is probably in the town hall! We should go introduce you to her, she's really nice."
Following alongside the winged mare, they soon exited the forest, coming upon the two that she had called Ponyville in only a matter of minutes. The Doctor's eyes went with in amazement and curiosity, and began darting every which way so he could try and take in everything at once which Ditzy explained about several of the different buildings.
"Well I'll be, a whole community of ponies! There's even unicorns! Ha!" he said giddily as he looked to the pegasus, "You know I met a unicorn once, but it was only in a land of make believe. He had a very bad temper if I remember correctly." His stomach grumbled again, and he was immediately distracted by it. "Meeting your mayor sounds great, but I think it would be best if I quelled this hunger a bit first. That restaurant you mentioned; the Hay Burger was it? I've never tried hay before though I always imagined it might taste a bit bland; sounds like a lovely place though. Lead the way Miss Doo!"
Arrival and Crystals - Part 2
Having completely ignored his grumbling about being called Frank, Derpy watched as he got all excited about the town.
"Why do you keep calling that box a she?" she asked, heading towards the street where they could find a bite to eat.
"Why? Because it's a she, that's why," he replied confidently, "My ship's always been a she.”
Without really thinking about it, she'd stopped walking and started flying alongside the Doctor as they went. "And what's wrong with Frank? If we tell everypony you're 'the Doctor', you're going to confuse somepony who wants medical advice..." She giggled at the end, thinking about him complaining about the name again. A little harmless fun for herself.
“I never really liked the name Frank. It just never sounded right. Besides, I tell everyone I'm the Doctor! I've been assumed to be a medical doctor plenty of times before, so it would hardly be the first time."
He was the one giggling now. In nearly 2000 years of life, he'd been mistaken for one quite a number of times, so it wouldn't bother him at all if any of these strangely colored ponies that he was observing passing by asked him. That is, assuming he could keep his attention on their questions. Everything was so new and so much brighter than he was used to, and he was growing more curious about those flank marks that Ditzy had called 'cutie marks'. He just had to ask, but forgot momentarily as he looked to the pegasus now flying beside him.
"How do you do that? With wings that small it should be impossible for an equine to fly at all!" the Doctor exclaimed.
"How do I...fly?" She fell to her hooves once she started trying to think about it. She shook her head to knock the thoughts out of it, and once she'd stopped thinking about it, she was flying next to him again. "Well, I just sort of...do. Flap flap and float float. I've never really thought about it any more than that. I mean, I know as well as the next pony that pegasus bodies are smaller than other ponies, and our bones are lighter, too. And then there's this."
She smirked and flew up, staring down at him as she landed on a cloud, waving excitedly down at him. The Doctor looked up in pure astonishment and had to rub his eyes just to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but sure enough, she was standing up on it still before she came flying back down to his side again.
"Wha...I...but that...that's impossible!" he stammered, "Clouds are made of water vapor! Gas! You should be passing right through it!" He was utterly confused, and the Doctor was rarely stumped by something. Now his curiosity was just fueled further. "You're defying known laws of physics! Oh, that is just brilliant!" He was beginning to like this place more and more, whatever planet he was stuck on at the moment.
He smiled, almost madly so. "Ha! You lot, just keep flinging one surprise after another at me! Speaking of which, tell me, Miss Doo, if you could, what are those so called 'cutie marks' for? Do they serve any sort of purpose? Why do some of the children have them but others don't? And why is every one I'm seeing so different? Are they like fingerprints where no two are quite the same?"
"Cutie marks are our talents. Didn't you ever learn that in school?" she asked in disbelief. "Most ponies can find work related to their cutie marks... You have to figure out what you're good at before you get your cutie mark. What are fingerprints? Is that more stuff about fish? Some ponies are similar, I suppose, there are just a lot of ponies." He was so curious, but she couldn't help thinking he was a bit crazy. How did he not know any of this already?
"So these cutie marks are something that's earned? That what you're telling me?" the Doctor asked, ignoring her jibe about learning it in school. He'd gone to school, just not any pony ones! "That makes makes sense; now I can see why my 'cutie mark' would be an hourglass. I suppose my talent IS time after all, though 'saving the universe' might've been a little more appropriate..." The concept was such a strange one to grasp, yet at the same time it made perfect sense.
She stopped and pointed her hoof, "Oh, that's the Hay Burger right over there."
"Oh! Brilliant!" he said, his ears perking up. His eyes looked up toward one of them, trying to see the ear but not quite able to. "Now THAT is a strange sensation; gonna have to get used to that." He giggled again. "Well, let's not waste any more time Miss Doo!" He approached the restaurant and went right inside without even waiting for her. That's just how he was like; impatient.
His initial reaction to her standing on a cloud was funny. He was just so excitable about everything, it seemed. "Yes, I suppose they are earned. Or learn-- HEY!" She flew after him as he trotted into the restaurant. "What do you mean 'saving the universe'? Are you really so grandiose, Doctor?" she asked.
Somehow she managed to pull him toward the counter with her hoof once she caught up to him in the restaurant and wrapped one around one of his forelimbs. What was with these ponies? They were defying logic! Oh, he was going to need to find a library after this.
"Why, yes actually. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff I've gone and done," he replied with a smirk to the mare's questions.
"You seem more like a storyteller than a doctor."
"Oh I've got a story or two to tell," he admitted with a wink.
She looked to the pony working the counter and ordered. "Two hay burger meals, with horseshoe fries, and a couple of drinks, a water and..." She looked to the Doctor, unsure what he would like to drink. "So, Doctor, let's wrap up ordering and you can tell me your story."
“If you say so Miss Doo, so long as we can eat outdoors. I do so love a sunny day." He looked over the menu, his eyes scanning over it at incredible speed. "I was fancying some melon juice early, but some...unfortunate circumstances have made me lose my appetite for it. I think I'll have some apple juice then. I'm craving some apple juice. I wonder if I'll like apples now. I thought they tasted like rubbish before, but maybe my taste buds changed enough to like them again."
She looked at the counterpony to make sure he got that, and waited for a moment for the tray of food to come up. "Here it is. Yeah, there's some nice weather out, let's go out to eat!" she responded with a grin.
The Doctor found himself grinning when she nudged him, watching as Ditzy carried the tray in her mouth all the way outside. He trotted along after her, ecstatic he was mastering walking so easily. He sat down across from the mare, impressed she'd carried the tray with everything on it so easily.
"Carrying things with your mouth; now that's another thing I've yet to see. Seems like today is full of new things for me to see. I've held stuff in my mouth in the past, but never to carry heavy things. You ponies are brilliant you are; building an entire town of all things! How do you lot even do that?" he asked.
Ditzy sipped at her drink and thought about it for a moment. "I don't really see what's brilliant about it, but okay!" she happily exclaimed.
She continued on, "I'm not exactly sure how to build a building myself, but I know that a long time ago, the Apple family settled here after generations of being nomadic. And after that, ponies just kept coming, and the town just kept growing. If you really want the details, I think the only pony old enough to have been there is person is Granny Smith... BUT-" she pointed at him, anticipating some spontaneous response, "-you are supposed to tell me a story, Doctor. And we can go from there." A smug little smirk crossed her muzzle as she started in on her fries.
"Oh come on, you can't tell a story like that to someone like me and expect me not to ask a bunch of questions!" he complained with a pout, though his grin returned a second later, "Alright, Miss Doo, you win. I am, if anything, usually a man of my word, or stallion now I suppose..." He chuckled at the thought. "Well, ask away then. I'll answer any questions you have if I can."
He watched her as she picked up one of the fry containers, his brow arched in curiosity. He looked to his hoof then, trying to figure out exactly how she'd done that while waiting for any questions she might have. It would seem like he wasn't listening, but he was.
"Well..." she thought as she munched, "How exactly do you save the universe? What is that box? How can a box be a she? Is she a nice box? DOES YOUR BOX LIKE MUFFINS? Where are you from? What's the universe like? Are there other ponies with strange crashing boxes like you where you come from? Why are you staring at your hoof like that?" She pushed the tray towards him so he could reach his food, "Why don't you know anything about being a pony? Are you really a changeling? Did that gold re-general stuff taste good? Is that like a burp where you're from? What's so fascinating about everyday ponies? What's your weird fascination with fish?" She stopped and took a drank, then ate some of her hay burger and awaited a response.
Ponies around them were staring at the pair as they passed, but the Doctor seemed to take no notice of them as he stared with a blank face at Ditzy Do. He blinked a few times, before he burst out laughing.
"Ha! And I here thought I was the only one that asked a dozen questions or more in the span of ten seconds!" he said before he began to calm down, "Well to start, I'm from a place very far away from here, very far. I travel in that box; it's also my home." His mood seemed to go a little south when he came to the question about there being 'others with crashing boxes' even though he still smiled. "There were others that traveled like me, but...not so much anymore." He wasn't going to go into detail about what had happened to his people, so he kept moving with the questions, his bright mood returning again.
"To answer your next question; I was staring at my hoof because I'm trying to figure out how you even grab anything with it!" He chuckled as he looked to it again. "I mean, it's flat! I have no fingers anymore! How do you grab anything without hands if you don't use your mouth? Plus, what's a changeling? Sounds like a shapeshifter of some sort; met all sorts of shape-shifters in my time; not many of them are very pleasant."
"Changelings are these creepy... like... nega-ponies? I've only heard stories, but they're said to be black, insect-like ponies who can take on the shapes of other ponies. They're good stories, about what happens to bad ponies. Probably thought up to keep the foals in line," Ditzy replied.
"Ooo, an insectoid-based pony race then? Now that is something I'd like to see! I've met some insectoid-based species before, but never any shape-changing ones. I wonder how they do it..." Oh he definitely had to find a library!
He paused to consider her remaining questions after that. "As for the rest, no, the regeneration energy doesn't taste good. In fact I don't think it even has a taste, and it's like a burp I suppose, but it's not something I do constantly. I suspect you'll see it again soon enough though. My body's going to be in the cycle for the next twenty-four hours or so."
He stopped again so he could concentrate on trying to grab the fries. He couldn't get them to stick though, and had to resort to grabbing them between both hooves and nearly crushing them. That didn't stop the Doctor from sticking his nose in the fries and grabbing a bunch in his mouth.
"Mmm, these are delicious!" he said happily, swallowing them down and going for more. He didn't even realize just how starved he was before they were all gone. "Well how do you like that?" he said with a grin at the empty container before looking to Derpy, "Seems I'm a bit of a greedy thing this time around."
He put the empty container on the tray, before pulling it to him so he could pull his juice off the tray and try it. It was a little more sweet than he was used to, but not bad.
"To answer your last two questions, EVERYTHING fascinates me, especially if it's something I don't know about, and there's very little I don't know about in some shape or form. I've traveled all across the vast universe to places you couldn't even begin to imagine. Fish fascinate me as well, but it's not in any sort of weird way. Where did you get the idea about fish from anyway? Because I said fingers? Well, I suppose it's possible, seeing as the word 'fin' is in it, but I assure you, fingers have absolutely nothing to do with fish or their fins - dorsal, tail, pectoral, or anything."
Ditzy looked down nervously, to avoid the staring ponies. She was sure some of them were staring because of the way the Doctor and herself were carrying on, but she'd recognized some of the stares. She got them all the time. She pushed the rest of her fries to the Doctor, and started slowly on her burger.
"I'm starting to get the feeling fingers are a little like claws. Are they sharp too?" she asked.
"Oh, now THAT is a great comparison!" he said, gladly accepting the fries she pushed toward him, "Thank you Miss Doo, and yes, the nails on fingers can be sometimes sharp, especially on the women. Oh that hurts when they slap you and their nails scrape across the skin..." He was getting unpleasant memories just thinking about it. "I'm just lucky I have thick skin, otherwise I would've had a bloody cheek on more than one occasion."
She finished her burger and drink, and waited for the Doctor to do the same. "Wh-when you're done, we can go and see Mayor Mare, and then you can ask Granny Smith all about the founding of Ponyville. I'll answer anything I can in the meantime though!" she said with a bit of excitement as he ate.
First were the other things he had to get done on his mental checklist: finish eating, meet this Mayor Mare (a very bad pun by the way), meet Granny Smith and ask her more about Ponyville, visit the library if there was one... Oh the list just kept on getting bigger and bigger with so many new things to learn flying at him at once! He was getting giddy just thinking about it!
But first was the matter of figuring out how to hold things with hooves, specifically this burger. He eyed it, trying to determine how best to approach the task. He tried holding it on the sides, but it slipped between his hooves; he tried holding it by the top and bottom, but he couldn't seem to get it to roll on its side.
"Ah ha! I have it!" he said triumphantly.
He pulled the burger to the very edge of the table where it sat precariously perched halfway off. He held a hoof down over it as lightly as he could, bent down, and took a huge bite out of the burger - nearly half of it - which left his cheeks quite distended. With a little help of his juice, he got the lump down before smacking his lips.
"Now that is an interesting taste...Can't say I've ever had hay before, or ever liked it. Or did I? I can never remember. Must be the new taste buds with this equine body,” he mused aloud, though mostly to himself after Derpy was finished talking.
He managed to finish the rest of the sandwich using the method he had for the first time, either not noticing or not caring about all the weird stares he was getting. After that, he finished his apple juice, licking his lips in satisfaction.
"Now that hit the spot!" he said happily, "Thank you Miss Doo." He stood up. "Let's get this cleaned up; I'm looking forward to meeting this mayor of yours."
She had to hold back her laughter as he tried to eat his burger, and it became even harder when he finally found a way to eat it. "You're weird, Doctor, and you're welcome." she said with a smile, grabbing the tray and dumping its empty contents into a bin. She put it on the little shelf over the bin and hurried over to him.
"Thank you Miss Doo, I am quite strange aren't I?" he responded cheerfully. People, no matter what species they were, could call him weird all they wanted, because that's exactly what he was. "I'm far more than just weird, mind you. Some might even call me a...madman. Or a madpony I suppose. Now that would be a new one." He giggled like a child at the very thought.
"Come along, Doc," she said and hooked her front leg around one of his and pulled him in the direction of the town hall, a bit of a skip in her step.
Ready to follow her to the town hall, he didn't quite expect was for her to hook her front leg around one of his and start pulling him along. He nearly fell on his face trying to walk on three legs, especially with her pulling him along!
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, "This is another strange sensation, walking on three legs... Bit like crawling I suppose, with one arm lifted? Weight distribution's much different though; when I crawled around I had more surface area to work with than just what the contact points my new hooves provide." Even through everything that smile of his never fell.
She giggled at his stumbling as she pulled him along, "Well, you want to get there fast, say your hellos, and be on the way to Sweet Apple Acres as quick as you can, right? I don't really get the feeling you're the type to sit patiently, Doctor!"
"That's a very good observation Miss Doo," he said, "You're right, I generally can't sit still for more than a few minutes. Seems this new me can sit still longer than that though as long as I'm doing something like talking or whatnot."
She pointed out various things along the way, mostly stalls and the like, since this route goes through the market. "Why do they call you mad, Doctor?” she suddenly aked, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, “Are you angry a lot? You seem pretty happy... most of the time."
His focus split again as she pointed out the various stalls while taking him through the marketplace, splitting between her talking and his eyes absorbing every bit of visual stimuli into his complicated brain. Of course, that focus could be hard to keep up if one got, for want of a better term, distracted easily, so as soon as Ditzy asked why he'd said he'd been called mad, his focus went back to the pegasus.
"Well, I suppose I get angry sometimes. I don't know if I'll get as overly emotional as I did in my last life, or I might get emotional more easily. Who knows! That's the fun of discovering my new personality though!" he replied, "But when I said mad, I meant mad as in crazy, a nutter, off my rocker, touched in the head... That sort of thing." His eyes looked around more. "This is a lovely little marketplace by the way. Lots of stalls selling all sorts of things, even things I'd never expect! Ha, clever ponies you lot are!
"Yeah, but don't trust the cherry stand guy, he's a jerk. I heard he made a pony cry."
"Now that's a mean thing to do," the Doctor said.
She stopped him suddenly, and poked him in the head with her hoof. "Now you're REALLY touched in the head, and there's the town hall!"
Then Derpy went and poked him in the head and said now he really was touched in the head. "Very clever Miss Doo, very clever."
She released his leg and trotted ahead, motioning for the Doctor to come along as she disappeared through the door. "Mayor Mare? Are you here? I brought somepony new to town! And he's really smart and has questions about the town!"
