Time Out.
Prologue
It is about 52 P.L (after Her Royal Majesty Princess Luna's reappearance) in the
land of Equestria.
In the 23rd largest tower of the Palace Of Canterlot is the archmagician's place of
residence. A chamber filled with the most obscure trinkets, gadgets and other
magical items in existence, and quite a few that in fact do not. It is from here
that the current archmage ensures the balanced existance of the realm in accordance
with all other factors, a task only fit for the most select group of all ponies.
The archmage, Sorceror Supreme, Protectuus Ponii or whatever title he or she is
given is carefully selected by a council of wise ponies, both Princesses and certain
other parties, whose existence are known only to the archmages themselves.
CHAPTER 1
A bright yellow portal appeared on the open balcony of the quarters, and blue
streaks of unnatural smoke poured through it. Out walked the current Archmage, a
lavender figure clad in a long, mystical, red cloak with golden edges. She coughed
out more of the same smoke for some time.
At the sound of the coughing, her usual assistant opened the balcony windows to let
her in.
"Master? What has transpired? Do you require medical assistance?", said Arbohraco,
flying around the archmage.
Arbohraco is an odd creature, a spirit of a dragon caught in the body of a wooden
elemental. The Archmage had found him on a distant plane, abandoned by dragons and
woodfolk alike. Perhaps his physical appearance is best described as the peeling
from sharpening a pencil, but bright red with decorations and somewhat resembling a
serpentine Eastern Dragon.
"I am fine, Arbohraco. I will recover.", the mage said before expelling more blue
smoke from her lungs. "Would you be so kind as to take a message to Master Twilight
for me?"
In response, the dragon shifted his coils around to form the shape of a floating
letter, headed off by the dragon's head.
"Inform her that the code of conduct with the Slo-otrite tribe needs to be updated.
Their current leader is King Grundl the First, and mentioning his predecessor is a
capital offense, apparantly."
With unintended dramatic emphasis, the mage coughed out one final cloud of blue
smoke.
"At once, Master. Er.. may I add that your tail appears to be... smoldering?", said
the dragon before dashing off into a small tunnel high up in the wall.
Sigh.
It had been only six years since she took up her current position, but already the
Archmage felt so very, very old. She floated a bucket of water towards her rear end,
and stuck her tail in it, resulting in a very small fizzle and a tuft of steam. When
did her life go from studying and experimenting with magic for the good of all
ponykind, to maintaining the diplomatic house of cards between realms?
Bigger sigh.
"Now that takes me back.", said somepony from the bedroom portion of the floor.
The Archmage immediately sprung to her hooves, alerted by the unknown intruder.
"Whoever you are, show yourself! Who is foolish enough to assault the Equmagus in
her own..!"
A brown stallion casually stuck his head around the door from the room, holding a
small blue booklet on one hoof.
"Ah, it's you, good. Almost thought I was a few centuries too early. Hang on for
juuust one moment, will you?", he said with an uncanny sense of calmth to it, before
popping back in the room.
The mage was stunned. There were only very few who could enter her chambers on their
own accord, and of those he was neither.
The brown pony casually strolled out of the bedroom like nothing was wrong.
He adressed the wound-up mage as calmly as possible: "Hello, I am The Doctor and I
need you to help me fix a pretty big pony-shaped-hole in the fabric of time."
About a minute later, Arbohraco returned in a haste, calling out: "Master! I might
have forgotten to tell you about the...". He was confused by a strange whooping
sound from some indistinguishable angle, and flew into the bedroom where he just
managed to catch the last glimpse of a vanishing blue box. "..guest?"
CHAPTER 2
Outside of time and space.
"I recognize the Shadow Proclamation and the signet of the Guardian of Infinity.
Very well, Doctor. You shall have what assistance you require.", concluded the
archmage. She had hoped never to meet anyone else who knew the significance behind
those, but alas.
"Good, good, very well. And we are...", the Doctor said while running around the
very odd house-within-a-box he had brought with him, "Right about... there we are."
The various moving parts and pieces of the room slowly stopped moving with an odd
pinging sound resounding for a few seconds afterward.
"I'll just be a second, don't touch anything please.", The Doctor said before
running back out of the door.
The Archmage had different ideas about that, being left in some sort of magical room
by a bizarre pony who had just shown up out of nowhere with seemingly arcane
approval.
She approached the nearest device swiftly but cautiously. It looked kind of like a
Guardsponies' helmet with a red orb in place of the head. When she touched its front
with one hoof, it suddenly sprung to life!
"Recognising User one-point-one. Welcome back, User. What is the nature of your
request?", the device said in an artificial, but strangely soothing female voice.
There was something familiar about it, but with time limited, the Archmage focused
on the factual information.
"Who is this... Doctor fellow?", she asked.
"Designation 'Doctor' fits profile of primary User. He is The Doctor.", the machine
replied.
"I know that's what he calls himself,", the mage said a little annoyed, "but what
does he do? What is his function? And on what authority?"
"He is The Doctor. For further information, please visit the..."
This thing wasn't going to be much help. Better find something else.
The Archmage's eye was drawn towards a room on the side of her current one. This
thing is quite a bit bigger than she had previously thought.
As she entered the room, she was slightly taken aback. Inside the room were hundreds
upon hundreds of glass cases with artifacts inside of them, and even more mystical
items scattered throughout the room haphazardly.
The mage felt both annoyed and impressed by the collection. On one hoof, there were
treasures and tomes here long lost to the ages, and on the other hoof it seemed like
they would stay that way without any form of system to this clutter.
But there was one thing in the room that drew her attention in particular, a display
case that stood out from all the rest, even if just by being dust-free.
Inside the case was a small, pink, flower which was completely spotless, despite
being sealed in the case for who knows how long.
Vague images of dusty old textbooks and lessons in Herbology shot through the
Archmage's brain as she tried to recall this particular flower, but she came up with
nothing.
"It's just a regular old flower."
The sudden reappearance of The Doctor behind the Archmage startled her, but not as
much as before.
"But I think it's at least the second most fascinating thing in here, don't you?",
he solemnly said. "Any other thing here is either just junk or an old, broken,
dangerous, toy. That's why I keep it."
Both were quiet for a moment.
"Come along now, please. I'll tell you what your part in all this will be."
CHAPTER 3
Ponyville General Hospital, some unknown date A.L.
The hospital was having a busy day, with ponies out to enjoy spring everywhere,
small injuries were run of the mill today. Therefore, nopony really noticed it when
a pony they'd never seen before made his way past the busy hallways. Neither did
they notice the blue box on the roof of the building.
The Doctor slowly walked through the masses of ponies inside the hospital,
occasionally dodging actual staff along the way. If necessary, he could talk them
off easily, but he was in no mood for distractions now. The goal of his mission was
painfully clear, and absolute. There could be no room for error now. As he reached
his target, an otherwise unremarkable one-pony recovery room, he thought the same
thing he had been deliberately repeating to himself for years.
"To stand with The Doctor is to fall alone."
He gently pushed open the door with his head, careful not to make too much noise.
CHAPTER 4
Inside the room was a sight so serene, it brought a temporary peace to the turmoil
in the hearts of the last son of Gallopfrey.
A young, blonde, gray pegasus pony laid sleeping on her side on the patient's bed,
facing a small crib stuffed with an extremely soft pillow. And inside the crib was
the centerpiece of the whole sight, if not the whole world: an absolutely tiny,
lavender-colored little unicorn foal.
The Doctor walked up to the two almost soundless. Struck wordless even if he had
wanted to talk, all he could do was stick his hoof very carefully up to the foal.
A blink of a moment before he'd make contact with the little tuft of yellow hair on
her head, the foal stirred a bit and woke up.
(ZZZZZZhu? Sleepy time go away now... Time for momma! Where momma? Momma not here!
Need momma here!)
And almost immediately started crying her little lungs out.
The crying woke up her mother almost instantly, who needed less than a second to
gently stroke her daughter with a hoof.
"Baby! Mommy's here, mommy's here! Mommy's right here, silly baby! Did you have a
bad dream? Are you hungry? Do you need to make a poopie?"
The baby calmed down a bit, and groveled a few times before calming down completely
and latching onto her mother's hoof with her mouth.
The mare giggled and carefully laid the foal down between the softness again.
Before long, the baby fell asleep again, peaceful as a white dove on it's nest.
(Momma! Love momma! Soft momma! Soft... momma... ZZZZZZ)
It was only now that the mother permitted herself to turn towards the other adult
pony in the room, standing next to her.
She expected doctor Moose, the grumpy moose doctor with a cane, to stand there.
When she saw who it actually was, she almost threw herself off the bed at him, had
she not been almost completely immobilized in there.
"Doctor! Oh Doctor, I knew you'd be back, I knew it! You came back for me, just like
I thought!", Ditzy said crying.
The Doctor quickly held her back from falling off, but could hold himself in either
anymore. He cried.
"And we are gonna be a family! A-And we can tell Mister Carryall that you are my
coltfriend and we're gonna get married and... and...", Ditzy continued, still
weeping fiercely.
"Ditzy...", The Doctor said, backed by the pent-up grief of a millenium.
"And we'll name her 'Nurse', because a nurse is a baby Doctor, and she'll get her
own TARDIS, and she'll take us to the stars for our vacation and...", Ditzy
continued, knowing full well that whatever The Doctor wanted to say would smash all
her desperate hopes and dreams into bits.
"Ditzy... Ditzy please... Don't make me do this... Don't make it so much worse...",
The Doctor barely managed to speak.
Ditzy dropped both her eyes and ears downwards in defeat. She couldn't do it. She
couldn't keep pretending this was going to work, ever.
The Doctor held her head against his neck softly, his tears falling down into her
mane and getting stuck like fresh dew-water.
"Please...", she said, "tell me why you need to do this. Tell me like only you can."
With a lump in his throat, he forced himself to tell it: "Because of all the things
we've done, all the places we've seen and most of all; the enemies we've made or
will make."
The Doctor swallowed, then continued: "Everywhere and everywhen, The Doctor has
enemies. Even in all our times together, you've only seen a sample of everything the
universe seems to throw at me. And... it's been too close, too many times. I cannot
drag you, or her, into all of that anymore."
Ditzy was sobbing since the beginning of the hold already. She didn't want this. She
wanted to have grand adventures with The Doctor, and their daughter together. See
the stars and everything beneath them...
The Doctor steeled himself for the next part.
INTERLUDE
On board the TARDIS, outside of time and space.
"Three days of work enchanting that thing and this 'Doctor' runs off with it first
chance he gets? Very well", thought the left-behind passenger, "I guess that just
leaves me with more time to snoop around."
The Archmage left the alchemic laboratory room where she'd been working diligently,
and headed straight for the room labeled "Archives". When she had been sleeping,
she'd sent out magical images of herself to get a better view of the whole place.
Though she hadn't come close to mapping the entirety of it, one scout had seemingly
hit the jackpot.
She dared not teleport inside the strange place, which radiated odd, arcane, magic
she had never encountered before, so after about a kilometer of jogging, she found
the room.
The inside of the chamber yielded results quite dissimiliar to the Grand Canterlot
Archives she frequently visited. There were no cavernous halls housing vast
bookcases, with ladders that strected a dozen metres in the air, nor countless rooms
full of scrolls and scriptures. There was just a small, crystal ball-like sphere in
the center of the room, disturbingly pure white in color. Oddly, all it reflected
were the mage's bright yellow eyes, and nothing else.
Curious to find a way to interact with the object, which radiated a friendly,
calming aura somehow, the Archmage gently tapped it with one hoof.
Speaking directly into her mind, the orb spoke: "Welcome back, User One-Point-One.
What information do you require?"
The Archmage grinned slightly.
"Let's start with everything."
CHAPTER 5
Ponyville General Hospital, some unknown date A.L.
Ditzy had stopped crying already, but still she held onto The Doctor's chest as long
as possible. In the back of her head, some voice told her that if she held onto him
long enough, he'd stay with her forever.
Awoken by all the ruckus, the newborn foal next to the two chirped in need of her
mother.
Before said mother had turned around though, her father was there already, extending
a leg beside her.
"Hey there, little baby.", he said. "What are you so worked up about then?"
The foal was oddly reassured by the strange new voice in front of her, stopped
crying and wiggled her legs in some vague attempt to get the new thing closer to
her.
The Doctor moved to position his hoof within grabbing and/or holding range
carefully, but a split second before they made contact a small jolt of electricity
crackled between his hoof and her tiny, stubby horn.
For an adult Time Pony, it barely registered as anything but a small temporal
crackle.
For a baby of less than a day old, the concept of "pain" just entered her little
world.
One minute later, Ditzy had managed to calm her offspring down again.
She held her between her head and chest and said: "I... I guess that's a sign
too..."
Derpy took a breath large enough to almost make the baby fall onto the sheets, then
put her back in the crib with a pacifier. Seven seconds later, the foal fell asleep.
"So, what are w... you going to do, Doctor?", she asked.
The Doctor had been preparing for this for years (relative, time machine and
everything), scraping together ingredients and agents needed and even enlisting help
from magicians througout the ages.
He took hold of Ditzy's hoof gently. She wished he'd never say whatever he was going
to say.
"I need you to forget. Forget everything we've ever done together.", he said, just
barely holding back.
"What? Forget? Why?", Ditzy stumbled back.
"Oh, Ditzy, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. But I have enemies, horrible enemies, who'd
gladly scour the minds of everypony even slightly related to 'The Doctor'. Not even
if you'd manage to live your whole life without so much as a mum, they'd still hunt
you down and... and..."
"Doctor...", she said, crying again.
"And not just you! No, everypony you know, and everypony who knows, knew or shall
know me is a target to them. 'To stand with The Doctor is to fall alone...'"
He fell quiet again, staring into endless space.
"But I think I've found a way.", he said with slight hope behind the sadness, "A way
to make you forget it all. A way for you... two... to live in peace. Far away from
me."
He gathered himself one last time, and continued: "With great effort, I've been able
to make this."
The Doctor pulled out a small, plastic red box.
"This, Ditzy, is... my lunchbox."
Ditzy froze dumbfounded for a second, then burst out laughing.
The Doctor smiled again. He needed that.
"Focus, Ditzy!", he said, recalling the hundreds of previous times the phrase was
necessary.
She did too, and was struck silent with sadness again.
He removed from the box a small, donut-shaped, blue fruit.
"Your favourite."
Ditzy took the thing on top of one hoof, carefully studying it to find what made
this circlefruit so special.
Meanwhile, The Doctor took position behind the headend of the bed, fronthooves
beside the head of Ditzy.
"Take a bite when you think you're ready. I'll do the rest.", he said.
Ditzy pondered with the thing in hoof.
"And what happens?", she said.
"I'll fade from your head, like I was never there, like we never traveled together,
like we never..."
Both pony and Time Pony looked at the sleeping foal in the crib beside them,
silently.
"How... are the two of us going to be then?", Ditzy asked The Doctor after a moments pause.
"You'll probably not remember anything between when we first met, and when you left
again. Nor any of this. I've had the best of the best help me make it.", he said.
"And her? What about our foal? I can't raise her all on my own! What if she'll turn
out as dumb and stupid as me?!", Ditzy said bitterly.
"For one, you are none of those things! You're my favourite assistant for a reason,
Ditzy! Nopony else could have saved me, and the universe, those countless times like
you did! You're delightfully silly, Ditzy... but never stupid. I am honored to have
spent the last few years with you."
He continued: "And I'm jealous at the foal for having a mommy like you, and a family
like the mailponies who are eagerly waiting downstairs. You're going to do great."
Ditzy was quiet, looking at the foal with one eye, and forward into infinity with
the other.
"Should we at least give her a name?", she finally said.
"You'd forget that too. And from what I know, aren't parents supposed to get some
bolt of inspiration sometime after birth?", The Doctor answered, slowly moving
Ditzy's head from side to side with his hooves.
"Yes... But I've got nothing yet...", she said sadly, "Am I a bad mother already?"
"Don't be like that, please. You'll come upon the right thing for the little dink, I
know you will.", The Doctor said, reassuring Ditzy.
"Little Dink..?", echoed through the back reaches of her mind, in some untouchable
place.
"But Ditzy, I think it's time."
"O-okay. G-goodbye, mister-Doctor. I-I'll miss you..."
"No you won't, Ditzy. I've made it so you won't need to. Goodbye, miss-mailpony."
Through tears, Ditzy bit into the thorougly enchanted fruit, while The Doctor held
his head against hers and focused.
Chapter 6
Outside time and space.
The Doctor was home again. In reality, while born on Gallopfrey centuries ago, he
had always only felt truly comfortable within the softly humming walls of the
TARDIS.
Alone. Again.
For about a minute, he just sat there next to the maneuvering consoles, silent.
Then he heard hoofsteps coming from one side passage of the control room.
Their creator, the middle-aged lightly purple colored unicorn Archmage, walked in
and sat down next to The Doctor.
There was an age difference of hundreds of years between father and daughter, though
you wouldn't tell from their appearances.
You could, however, tell from their faces.
They just sat there for some time. Staring at the door to outside.
"It.. is done?", Archmage Dinky Hooves asked.
"Yeah... yes it is.", The Doctor responded.
"I understand... Dad."
A glimmer of hope flashed beneath The Doctor's eyes, proudly.
Almost apolegetic in tone, she continued:
"She never remembered everything. It was only flashes, small details that she knew,
but never knew where they came from. She always suspected it had something to do
with whoever you were."
"My enrollment present was the small blue book you were snooping around in earlier,
filled with everything she ever managed to recollect. In retrospect, I can see where
she got the color from."
He cracked a smile, and she continued:
"I searched everything the palace had on record, and dozens of other libraries and
recordships in my spare time. I found scraps of information about a travelling brown
stallion and a gray pegasus mare that were assosiated with all kinds of disasters.
But I only pieced the whole puzzle together when you let me loose in here."
She used a minor spell of sorts, and a bunch of small, fog-like, blue-ish images
appeared before the two of them.
There was one of a crowd of pegasi gathered around a hospital bed.
There was one of a scared filly crawled into bed, safely with her mother.
There were three ponies playing hoofball together on a grassy field.
There was a crying pegasus, supported by an Earth Pony, both waving goodbye to
somepony unseen.
There was an older unicorn, passing a cloak to a younger one.
There was an unicorn mare carrying a sleeping piece of wood on her back.
There were an elderly pegasus pony and a slightly younger unicorn pony playing
hoofball together.
The images animated themselves for a good ten seconds, before vanishing again.
Archmage Dinky spoke: "And I know none of it would ever have been if not for you.
That's what good parents do, right? Keep their children safe so they can enjoy life
on their own?"
After a moment's pause, she said: "You're an awesome father, Doctor."
The Doctor stumbled over his words, and didn't make it halfway through "I'm so
sorry" before holding his daughter as tight as he could.
She smiled and allowed him to unload everything. He deserved it.
Epilogue A
About 52 P.L
The Archmage twirled the booklet on the end of a hoof for a few seconds before
continuing: "... I'd love to come over for Mailpony Day, Mom. I'll see you next
week. Sincerely, Dinky. The end."
She put the booklet back on the nightstand and stepped down from the bed's edge.
"You know where to send it, Arbohraco. Feel free to take the rest of the day off
when you're done."
Arbohraco took a bow, then speeded off with the letter in tow.
Dinky looked back on the book, having read through it almost fifteen times in the
last two weeks. She sighed aloud, thinking all sorts of things.
Then there was a knock on the door.
Odd. Not many who need the Equumagus actually need to use the door...
Another knock made her speed up towards it, opening it to find a delivery pony with
a very small, pink bouquet. Dinky thanked the young stallion and took the flowers
inside. Attached was a small, blue, card: "For all the missed birthdays. Don't eat
them. Love, Dad."
Dinky took an odd look at the arrangement, then took a quick whiff of the scent. She
was filled with nostalgic feelings for times long past, and others not yet happened.
The beauty of creation smiled upon her, and she felt younger than ever before.
Epilogue B
Ponyville Mail Company, some unknown time A.L.
Ditz... no. No that's not her name anymore. Derpy carefully pushed the foalcarrier
into the door of the building, with help from Windshear on the other side of it.
"Look, Dinky! It's your new home! Isn't it cool?", the young mother tried to uplift
her daughter's spirits, which had depressed considerably on the long walk uphill.
This resulted in a curious foal trying to climb out of the carrier. When she
realized that the blanket held her in place tightly enough to prevent this, it also
resulted in a crying mood that lasted until feeding time that afternoon.
While Windshear tried to calm her down, he signaled to his coworker and friend to go
get a glass of water or something for herself. 100% of mommy-baby time wasn't a good
plan for either of the two.
In the kitchen however, Derpy found a pleasant surprise. Somepony had left a pretty,
pink bouquet for her! It didn't say from who, but this nice, random gesture made her
whole day again! What a way to start life as a new pony, and a mother!
She took a big whiff from the closest flower, was unknowingly
reminded of times gone by, then took one back to let little Dinky smell it too.
Weeks later, unfortunately, one absentminded pegasus threw out the flowers because he thought they
were due to go bad anytime.
Epilogue C
Outside of time and space.
The Doctor put the last of the salvaged flowers in a capsule, then put it into the
chronal vault, time lock set for years back into his own timeline. Tricky thing,
time loops. But if Ditzy didn't find it in the relative past, he never would've
grown a full bouquet from it.
He tried not to think about it too hard, but shifted his mind to the time they had
together anyway. Wouldn't it be so much easier to just make himself forget too? And
perhaps the sight of Gallopfrey burning through the ages as well? And how about his
last, horrifying encounter with the Weeping Alicorns?
"No.", he thought, "That would be the worst thing I could ever do to them. What I'm
going to do is remember. Remember forever, even if nopony else will. I'll always
have an assistant in that way..."