It seemed like forever ago when the Doctor saved Derpy from the living Plastic, or fought the lone Dalek in the secret base underground. It seemed so long ago. Now, Derpy was passed out on the floor of the TARDIS, recovering from absoring the Time Vortex. The Doctor had removed it from her by kissing her, and expelled it back inside the TARDIS, but at a cost. This body was experiencing Cellular Destruction.
The Doctor was at the controls of the TARDIS, aiming the course for present day orbit around Earth, just above Equestria. It reminded him of the time he and Derpy fought Lady Clarissa, the last pure pony, during the End of Earth, and the Second Great Equestrian Empire. Again, it seemed so long ago, yet it had only happened a little over a month ago. Or, in present time, it would happen in about 400 billion years.
Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, the Doctor muses.
A sharp pain courses through his body. This body was a dark-lavender color, with a sharp red mane and tail. It wasn't his favorite body, but he likes the mane. Red is cool.
Derpy starts to wake up as another pain courses the The Doctor's body, causing him to straggle away from the controls, but manages to get back to them before Derpy is finally awake, and standing up. "... Doctor...?"
"Don't try to do anything too fast, Derpy. Your body is still recovering."
Derpy looks around to notice that they are back inside the TARDIS, safe and sound. "Where... The Daleks! What happened to them?! Are we safe?!"
"Yes we are, Derpy. The Daleks, well, to be blunt about it, you killed them. Every last one of them, POMPH! Up in flames! Vamoose! Gone!" The Doctor says with a huge grin on his face, but then, another pain courses through him, causing him to once again back away from the controls.
Derpy rushes towards him, but The Doctor backs away even more. "S-Stay back!" Derpy stops and backs away, and the Doctor starts to regain composure. "Ow... You know, it's sad really... There were so many places I wanted to take you, Derpy...
"The Shada Prison, The Ice Planets of the Gorgon Galaxy... All of these *Ack!* Fantastic places..."
"What do you mean?" Derpy asks the Doctor, not understanding the situation. What did he mean? Was he going away, dropping her off somewhere? Making her go back home? Was he... Dying?! All of these thoughts run through her mind as the Time Lord in front of her cringes his face in mortal pain.
"Doctor, what do you mean?"
The Doctor takes another breath and tries to regain his composure, but fails. "It... It means I'm not gonna see ya again... Not with this dafty old face..." The Doctor opens a weak smile, but it quickly goes away. The memories flood back to both The Doctor and Derpy.
The Daleks, the game shows, and the first time Derpy met the Doctor...
Derpy walks around the basement, looking for a light switch, or something to spread some light. She fails, though, and is forced to go in the Dark. She wanders about, looking for the mouse traps she was supposed to clean. A noise startles her. "Ah!"
She starts to run forward, away from the noise. She is suddenly cornered by... Envelopes for Mail? Whatever the cause for this, it scares her, so she cowers to the nearest wall. Suddenly, a Stallion is standing beside her, and taps her on the head.
"Run!"
So, that's what they did. They ran, evading Envelopes, and barrels, and other random things blocking the path. The Stallion leads Derpy to the front Door, where she promptly exits, but is stopped by the Stallion.
"I'm the Doctor, by the way. Who are you?"
"D-Derpy..."
The Doctor holds up a small bomb. "Good to meet ya, Derpy! Run for your Life!"
Then, Derpy barely knew the Doctor. She still barely knew him, but she loved him, so she kept trusting him with her life. Of course, Derpy knew that he probably didn't even know that she loved him, but she kept that one little spark of hope.
The Doctor was having the same memories. As another pain courses through his body, he remembers that he still needs to explain the process of Regeneration. "There's this... Process..."
"Doctor, what's wrong?!"
"This process means that..." The pain was getting unbearable now, but he fought through it, for he knew that if she didn't know what happened, she may go crazy. He tries to form the next words, but his body fails him. He tried yet again, and again, and finally manages to form words.
"It means that I'm gonna change..."
The Doctor looked to the TARDIS console, and back to Derpy. She was on the verge of tears. The stallion, or alien, she loved was about to die. She didn't want to come to terms with that, but it was blatantly obvious that he was in excruciating pain, but she fought to hold back the tears.
She failed.
The Doctor spoke yet again, using up more of his strength. "I'll still be here, but I won't be seeing you again with these eyes..."
"And before I go-"
Derpy interrupted him, crying her eyes out. "Don't say that!"
The Doctor cut her off. "And before I go... *Augh!* ... I just want you to know that you are Fantastic... Absolutely Fantastic!"
Derpy smiled for the first time since she woke up.
"And... do you know what?"
The Doctor smiled while he looked over her for the last time.
"So was I!"
The Doctor grins one of the biggest grins he ever had. He looks up into the ceiling of the TARDIS, and his face was covered in a gold aura. In fact, the same thing was happening to his whole body. His features morphed into another Stallion.
His coat was turning brown. In fact, his whole body was brown, including his mane and tail. Derpy was taken back by the gold light, and hid behind a pillar next to the entrance to the TARDIS. Soon, The Doctor was a completely different Stallion.
The gold light diminished into nothingness, and a brown stallion with blue eyes stands where the Dark Lavender on stood just seconds before. He looks around for a second and turns to Derpy. "Hello-" He suddenly cuts himself off as he rolls his tongue around his mouth. "...New teeth... That's weird..."
"Now where was I? Oh yes! The Third Great Equestrian Empire on one of Galoon's moons!"
Tenth to Eleventh *REMAKE*
Tenth to Eleventh *REMAKE*
The Doctor laid on the floor of the town hall in Ponyville, surrounded by glass and blood. The ceiling was shattered and ponies laid dead behind him. Magical particles swarmed the air, as he had just stopped what was possibly the Master’s final plan. The Time Lords, the Doctor’s people, were dead once again. So was the Master, and so many scientists.
He was alone again.
He brought his hooves to the ground near the sides of his head and pushed himself up, much to his agony. He was sure he had broken several ribs, cracked his skull, and sprained his legs... but it wouldn’t matter soon. He could already feel the energy building up in his chest. He was putting all of his weight on his front hooves, with his hind legs sticking out limply. He groaned, and fell again.
But yet, he managed a smile.
The Prophecy. He will knock four times... it was wrong. The Master hadn’t killed him.
Nopony was knocking.
He was alive.
With this newfound happiness, he pushed himself up on all fours, the pain in his legs already diminished into nothing more than dull aches. I’m alive... The Doctor thought to himself. He looked up to the busted roof, and laughed aloud.
“I’m alive!”
He jumped up into the air. He was not gonna die. No new stallion would walk away in his place today. He was still the Doctor. He was still-
Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock.
The Doctor’s smile faded.
“Can you help me?” Wilfred, grandfather of Donna Stable, an old friend of the Doctor’s, asked. “I... can’t really push this door open...”
Another four knocks followed Wilfred’s words. The Doctor turned slowly towards his voice, to find him behind a plexiglass door, with various monitors and buttons behind him. Wilfred waved at the Doctor, with a worried expression on his face.
“I’m coming, Wilfred... Hold on...”
The Doctor kicked some glass out of his way, and began making his way over to Wilfred. The Doctor’s brown mane, tail and coat glistening with sweat and blood. He had fallen from a flying carriage, through wood and glass, and landed face first onto an unforgiving concrete floor. All with a bow and arrow in his hooves. He had shot at Rassilon, the Lord President of Gallopfrey, the home of the Time Lords, allowing the Master to finish him off, along with himself, and the portal.
And now, it was the Doctor’s turn to die.
He stood in front of the glass barrier between his friend and himself. “Wilfred... Here soon, that room is going to fill up with very lethal amounts of radiation... more than enough to kill Celestia herself...”
A grim expression donned each of the stallions’ faces, but a mixture of sadness crept its way onto Wilfred’s. “J-just leave me then... I’m an old stallion, I’ve lived a good life...”
The Doctor nodded his head in disagreement.
“I am not leaving you... You’re my friend. You have a granddaughter, and a daughter to go back to. Meanwhile... I have no one. I am not leaving you.” The Doctor stomped his hoof in determination, but it suddenly gave way under him, adopting a golden glow.
No! Not yet...!
The Doctor’s face contorted, and the glow disappeared. He stood back up, and slowly walked towards the other door, which was the same room Wilfred was stuck in, only this one had all the radiation in it... once he stepped in there, and pressed the button that would save Wilfred’s life... it would be all over for the Doctor. The Tenth Doctor.
The Doctor... was dying.
He pushed the glass door open and closed it behind him.
He walked in front of a glowing red button, labeled “Release”. The Doctor sighed, and brought a hoof down onto the button, causing a buzzing sound to ring throughout the room, and Wilfred’s door burst open. The elderly pony immediately rushed out, slamming the door and rushing over to the Doctor’s side of the door.
Pain.
That was the only thing the Doctor felt as his body absorbed the radiation leftover from the black magic that created the portal. He fell to the ground, but he didn’t scream. He suffered through the pain, knowing that this was his end. A single tear escaped the Doctor’s blue eyes, but as soon as the pain had come, it left.
And the door popped open.
The Doctor struggled to his hooves, and tapped the glass door slightly, causing it to shatter into a million pieces. “Now it opens...” He groaned.
Stepping through the door, the Doctor looked at Wilfred with a blank expression. The cuts and bruises on his face began to fade as if they were never there.
“H-how did you-?” Wilfred stuttered, but the Doctor cut him off.
“It’s started...”
With those words, Wilfred burst out into tears, wrapping around the Doctor with his forelegs. “Don’t die, Doctor! You’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever met! Y-You can’t die!”
The Doctor returned the hug with less vigour, but a smile crossed his face. “No tears, old soldier. You have to get home.”
The TARDIS’s engines whooshed as it appeared on an empty street in Ponyville. The two stallions stepped out of the blue box, and looked to each other, saying one last silent goodbye. Wilfred walked to his house, not chancing another breakdown if he looked at the Doctor again, who had a familiar sensation growing in his body.
The regeneration.
As soon as Wilfred was inside his house, the Doctor nodded his head goodbye, and stepped back into the TARDIS.
The Doctor stepped out of his blue box, and hastily looked around the area. This wasn’t a fixed point, but no matter what, it always came close to happening or did happen. The Doctor was looking for Lucky Smith, son of Sarah Mane Smith, his former friend. Aha! The Doctor saw Lucky walking down the middle of the street, with a carriage on it’s way...
The Doctor sprang into action, grabbing Lucky out of the vehicle’s way.
When Lucky recovered from his shock, the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.
Two ponies, a mare and a stallion, ran through the outskirts of Appleloosa, chasing after an insect-like creature. The Mare was Maretha Jones, and the stallion was her newlywed husband, Mickey Smith. They were both former friends of the Doctor.
They travelled with him at different times, but nevertheless, they were a match made in paradise.
The insect like creature, a Changeling, suddenly spit a green substance at the two ponies, who immediately ducked behind a nearby rock.
“Ah! You know, this is a really dangerous line of work!” Mickey said.
Maretha looked at him and smiled. “Shouldn’t have married a dangerous mare, then.”
Unbeknownst to the two, however, another Changeling was tailing them, ready to fire his acid that would end their lives, and allow the Changeling swarm to invade Appleloosa...
Just one quick shot...
But he never got the chance, as the Doctor snuck up behind him, and hit him over the head with a small rock, knocking out the creature, who fell with a grunt. Maretha and Mickey heard this, and looked in the Doctor’s direction.
Silence fell.
The couple stared in awe, but the Doctor moved on his way, and disappeared into his blue box.
“J-just... Just one more stop...” The Doctor stuttered, as he flipped a final switch, causing the TARDIS engines to roar.
RRR!!! RRRR!!!! RRRRRR!!!!!
The Doctor stepped out to a snowy Ponyville at night. He looked around, not seeing anypony. He walked forward, and heard hoofsteps behind him.
“Mom, why do you have to go to work during Hearth’s Warming Day?” A high pitched voice asked.
“Because, sweetie, mommy needs the money to buy your super special present!”
The Doctor scurried behind a building, to see two grey mares, one adult, one a filly, walk past him.
Derpy and Dinky.
“Now, go inside and get yourself to bed. Mommy will be back soon.” Derpy bent down and gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead. “Love you.”
“Love you too!” With that, Dinky walked into her house, and Derpy turned away towards the post office.
The Doctor tried to stay silent, but Regeneration energy started building up again, causing him to grunt in pain.
Derpy looked at him. “You okay, sir?”
“I... I’m fine...”
“Didja have a little too much cider? I did that last year. Head was pounding for a week.”
“Y-yeah... What year is it?”
Derpy looked puzzled. “Wow... you’re really hammered... It’s 2005, sir.”
“2005?... You’re gonna have a great year...”
At that, Derpy smiled and continued along her way.
The Doctor stepped over to the controls of the TARDIS, setting its destination to be high above Equestria’s surface. With his Sonic Screwdriver in his pocket, he took one last look through his blue box, and stepped to the side of the controls. The feeling, the aching, of energy building up inside of him was getting overwhelming now...
Sweat was beginning to pour off of the Doctor now. Despite all the time he had been through this, it still hurt. It always hurt. His vision flashed white and he collapsed to the floor, twitching with the torment that would save his life. Save his life. Well in a manner of speaking that was correct, but he would still be gone, nothing more than a memory of a life in another pony.
He pushed himself to his hooves, casting his gaze about the TARDIS, his TARDIS, for the final time. Tears began to moisten the corners of his eyes. He would never see them again… all his friends, his companions… not with these eyes. Before they could fall, his tears evaporated, rising in motes of golden light. With his final breath, he pleaded with Celestia, he prayed for one last miracle...
“I…I don’t want to go…”
His face was glowing ever so brighter now. The pain was getting to the point where he would rather run out of lives...
The energy tore free of the Doctor’s body, channeled through his face and fore-hooves. The energy, in the form of beams of light, erupted from him. A powerful scream tore from his throat. There was fire. Explosions. Something was wrong. Columns fell. The TARDIS shook as it exited the time vortex, falling through space, hurtling back towards the Equestrian surface.
The Doctor’s face morphed into a new stallion. His tan coat turned an almost grey, his eyes were golden, and his messy hair turned to curls. His screaming, his awful screaming, turned to a higher pitch.
And a new stallion stood where the Doctor had died.
He took a look around the burning machine, and then turned his attention to his body. “Ha! Hooves! Wonderful hooves!” He brought his hooves to his face, pinching at his eyes and nose. “Eyes, chin, ears, nose... I’ve had worse... hair...”
His eyes widened at the length. “I’m a mare!” He kept feeling his hair, pulling and tanking. “No! No, I’m not a mare...” A tiny explosion brought his attention to his box, and he ran towards the console, laughing his head off.
“Ha ha! Crashing!”
He took a look at the scanner to find it’s screen shattered.
“Oh well...”
He took a deep breath, and lifted his head.
“Geronimo!!!”
