Table Top Opens Up

A/N: As the title suggests, this is a side chapter. This explains what happened for the last moment of the last chapter. It also contains some of my personal thoughts on the Doctor in Equestria. Primarily, to answer one question: *Why?*

The inside of the Tardis shook three times, rather suddenly. But that was to be expected. The Tardis wasn’t always the smoothest form of travel. The ever-present whooshing it made as it traveled through time and space steadily decreased in volume. They had arrived at their destination.

The Doctor pranced around, happy with their latest victory. “Come Derpy, let’s away to Sugarcube Corner! I’m famished!” He trotted to the doors and opened them, taking a step out, then opened his eyes. ‘Huh,’ he thought to himself, ‘this isn’t Ponyville.’

Looking around, his stomach sank steadily. He was not in Ponyville at all. Instead, the Tardis had landed in the Royal Gardens.

He stuck his head back in and saw Derpy coming toward the door. “Um, Derpy,” he said, stopping her. “It looks like we have made a pit stop somewhere else for the moment. If you don’t mind, would you wait for me? I believe there is someone I must talk to.”

Derpy looked confused for a moment, but then, she smiled at him. “Of course, Doctor! Just don’t take long, I want a muffin soon.”

The Doctor nodded, then extracted himself from his beloved Tardis, closing the door. He turned around, then slowly walked toward a fountain that was visible just through an archway. The moon above was full, and lit his way as if just for him.

Passing under the archway, he looked around, then felt his hearts stop. Beside the fountain sat the Solar Regent, Princess Celestia, looking sadder than he had ever seen. Even slower, he made his way toward her, his hooves feeling heavier. Reaching her, he sat beside her. Being gentle, Celestia extended her wing and hugged him close with it.

“Hello, Doctor.” Celestia’s voice held more sadness than her posture had let be shown. “I’m sorry to have pulled you away from your return. But, there is something to discuss. A question you asked me, which I said I would answer in due time…” Her heart heavy, she looked him in the eyes, tears on the verge of spilling over. “Ask it again, good Doctor.”

He felt tears sting at his eyes, but he breathed slowly. “Why am I here, in Equestria?”

She smiled at him. “Good Doctor, it was because Equestria needed you. It was in danger that not I nor any of the Elements of Harmony could handle. But more importantly, I wanted to fulfill your wish.”

The Doctor cocked his head to the side, then asked, “What wish?”

“Do you not remember?” Celestia’s smile filled more with sadness as she closed her eyes. “You wished for your tenth life not to end just yet. You were afraid. That life had been kind and cruel to you, but you were not yet ready to part with it. Therefore, I did my best to grant it. However…” She wiped away tears now falling freely. “There was a condition, one I told you when we first met. Do you remember?”

Comprehension dawned on his face, but his ears drooped back from sadness. “As long as Equestria needed me, I’d be here…” He looked down at his hooves. “But, how can that be? I can’t have…”

Celestia nodded solemnly. “You have protected Equestria to the best of your abilities, made sure outside sources would not bother us until our time to join them has come, and have saved our world time and time again. But now… Now there are no threats remaining. I cannot hold you here any more. Already your next life is trying to come through.”

One of his ears perked up a little. “What do you mean?”

Celestia pointed a hoof at his neck, asking “Have you not realized the changes you have started showing? More than others, your choice of clothing has changed. You now favor a bow tie where before a straight neck tie was ever present upon you. Your next personality is trying to come through.”

Looking down at his attire, then back up, he didn’t know what to say, what to do. “But,” he started, then looked down. “But, what about Derpy?”

Celestias smile vanished as tears began to flow from her. She hugged him close, much as a mother would her youngest child. “You still have some time left, dear Doctor. But it is not much. The Tardis is locked to this time, you cannot go back, you cannot go forward. Until next I raise my sun, you will be allowed to stay, but come the first rays of dawn, you will be back on Earth, ready to regenerate into your new body, and have new adventures with new friends.” Celestia smiled again, closing her eyes, then resting her muzzle on the Doctor’s head. “We will miss you, all of Equestria, even those who know nothing of you. You are our hero and we all owe you more than we can possibly ever give.”

Unseen to him, her smile vanished and the tears came harder. It was all she could do to keep back from making sobbing sounds that would alert the Doctor to something being wrong. ‘We will miss you,’ she thought, ‘but you will not miss us…’

Composing herself and wiping her eyes free of tears, she used her soft wings to wipe his tears away. “Go now, Doctor, your friend waits for you to bring her home.”

Nodding, the Doctor turned, wiping his eyes and making himself ready for what he would have to do. He had hurt companions before, and he knew Derpy would hurt as much, if not more, than the others. He knew that she loved him, which means he had to make an excuse. She couldn’t know that he would be gone from her entire universe. That would hurt her more than anything…

He got back to the Tardis, and opened the door,  letting himself inside. He turned to the console and began working it, sending the Tardis to Ponyville.

As the Tardis faded, Celestia, still by the fountain, finally broke down. The Doctor was her oldest friend. When she brought him here a mere three years ago, he was already her friend for millennia. To her, it felt like saying goodbye to her own Sun. From then on, she resolved that no matter when the Doctor would show up in her future, she would make it so he would not encounter her. She could not bear to feel that pain through the eons ahead of the Equine Race.

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The Doctor was sad, Derpy could see that. Why that was, she had no idea. He had gone for a few minutes being alright, but when he came back, he looked almost like he would start crying. Concerned, she went up to him and nuzzled his neck, something that would normally fluster and embarrass him. This time, though, he kept his forlorn look. Finally, she looked him square in the eye, asking, “Doctor, what’s wrong?”

He looked at her, at a loss. Finally, he had something to say that would hopefully hurt her the least. “Something has been brought to my attention. Something more dangerous than we’ve ever faced. I’m afraid I will need to go and take care of it.”

Looking a little confused, Derpy thought about it, then smiled. “Well, it’s nothing we can’t handle! I’m sure whatever it is, we can get through it!” She hoped he would cheer up at her encouragement.

The Doctor, however, sighed at her words. “This time,” he said after a pause, “there will be no ‘we.’ I can’t put you in danger this time, the consequences would be too much for me to bear. I’m going to drop you off in Ponyville.”

Frowning, Derpy’s eyes went in different directions for a moment. “But, you’ll be back, right?”

The Doctor swallowed and looked down. He couldn’t look her in the eyes for this lie to work.

“I don’t know. From what I was told, it will take a long time, and the Tardis is locked to correspond with this time for this event. Essentially, if a year were to pass there, a year would pass in Ponyville. And if I’m stuck there for a hundred… I wouldn’t be able to come back ever…”

Derpy was silent. And her silence was deafening.

The Doctor chanced a look up at her. Her eyes were completely unfocused and two streams of tears flowed down her face. She hiccupped, then asked, “T-then, w-why can’t I c-come w-with you? I-I don’t want t-to s-s-stay in P-Ponyville without you.”

The Doctor knew her heart was breaking. So were his hearts. “I can’t chance losing you, not ever. Knowing that you’ll be safe will give me hope of what to come back to…”

The Doctor looked to his console. They were close to Ponyville now… He took the Tardis in to land where nopony was.

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The rhythmic whooshing sound wasn’t heard by anypony. With each whoosh, a big blue box with a light on top materialized more. When fully solid, the whooshing stopped, and a door opened up. Out stepped a grey pegasus mare, tears flowing down her face. Behind her, a brown stallion with a spikey mane stepped just outside.

“I’m sorry, Ditzy,” he all but whispered, just to where she could hear, “but it’s gotten too dangerous. I can’t take you with me anymore.” With that, he turned around and went back in his box. Seconds later, the whooshing came back, only this time fading in volume as the box vanished.

Getting up, Ditzy slowly made her way home.

When she reached home, she made her way to bed without turning on any lights. Vaguely, she was able to read the day on the clock beside her bed. ‘It’s Thursday… I guess tomorrow I go see Table Top.’

Just faintly, her heart gave a flutter.

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The Doctor maneuvered his Tardis to the top of the mountain Canterlot was built upon, then set it down on a small ledge able to hold it in place. He opened the doors, facing east so he could watch his last sunrise in this magical land. Memories, of his time, all the ponies he had met and befriended, all the adventures he and Ditzy went on, began to flood to the forefront of his mind. He didn’t want to leave. But he had been here long enough to know, magic was not always under the user’s control. When a deadline was met, the magic knew to stop.

He smiled, immensely sad at what he had had to do, and missing Ditzy already. He pulled his hind legs up in front of him, then leaned forward and wrapped his forehooves around them, and set his head on his forelegs. He began to cry harder than ever.

He knew, in seconds, that the sun would be up and he would be gone forever from this land. So just this once, he let himself feel what he had denied himself for so long. Yelling out in his sadness, he screamed, “DITZY, I LO-“

In a flash of light, the Doctor and his Tardis were forced through time, space, dimensions, and universes, until it came into being above London, England.