If It Can Be Remembered...
A Doctor Who/Friendship is Magic short story by Shotoman
The little girl lay there, curled up on her overlarge suitcase. She was bundled up for a night in the cold, in a heavy coat, stocking cap, galoshes, everything needed to be out in a night like this. Of course, she hadn't intended on staying out here for the whole night, no. The Raggedy Doctor had told her he'd be back in five minutes, and then they'd be off to see the world, and beyond. The only problem was, despite all his assurances, all his talk about "Do I look like people to you?" when she said people always say they'll come back, despite all his bluster and confidence and kindness... he hadn't come back. And she was just a little girl of seven--even staying up until midnight was a difficult task. So, she had fallen asleep. Waiting for the Raggedy Doctor to come back.
She didn't hear the crunching of footsteps on her rather bare lawn as the tall, almost scrawny man in the mismatched blue pants, sandy colored shirt, tweed jacket, and red bow tie exited out the back door of her home to find her lying there. The man smiled a sad little smile at the sight. "The girl who waited," he muttered to himself. "C'mere you," he added as he leaned over and picked her up, taking her back inside where it was nice and warm and safe. The Raggedy Doctor had returned, if only to say goodbye.
Minutes later, and the girl had been returned to her bed, her coat and galoshes and scarf and hat carefully returned to her closet, and the Doctor sat down on the not-quite-big-enough chair next to her bed and looked down on her with that same smile on his face. Oh the things he and this carrot-topped little thing would do--had done. They saved the English space colonies of the future, befriended none other than Vincent Van Gogh, and saved the universe from imploding in upon itself. In his long life, the Doctor had traveled with fellow Time Lords, tin dogs, surprisingly adept school teachers, an irritatingly brilliant mathematician, a would be assassin, a near sociopath with a penchant for explosives, and the most brilliant temp in England. But none of them was quite what this little girl was. Amelia Pond. The Girl who Waited. The first face this face ever saw. She became more that just a companion, more than a friend. Somehow, she'd become family.
And now, he was leaving.
Not just leaving, but vanishing. None of the adventures they'd had would ever happen. She was going to grow up a perfectly normal little girl, in a perfectly ordinary British town, and marry an extraordinarily, amazingly ordinary bloke. "You know, it's funny," the Doctor whispered to the sleeping child. "I thought if you could hear me, then I could hang on, somehow." He shook his head in pained exasperation. "Silly me. Silly old Doctor." His smile suddenly lit up as he leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, "When you wake up, you'll have a mum and dad."
His smile darkened again as he added. "And you won't even remember me. Well, you'll remember me a little. I'll be a story in your head. But that's OK. We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Cos it was, you know. It was the best. A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well, I borrowed it. I was always going to take it back. Oh, that box, Amy. You'll dream about that box. It'll never leave you. Big and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient. And the bluest blue ever. And the times we had, eh? Woulda had..." A sigh escaped his lips. "Never had. In your dreams, they'll still be there. The Doctor and Amy Pond. And the days that never came."
The crack in the wall, the crack that started this whole adventure, the crack that had frightened a little girl who was completely unfazed by a blue box crashing in her garden and the madman it brought, began screeching as it sealed itself. "The cracks are closing. But they can't close properly until I'm on the other side." Tears began to well up in his eyes. "I don't belong here any more. I think I'll skip the rest of the rewind. I hate repeats." That way just lay pain in any event. "Live well. Love Rory." He kissed his Amelia on the forehead one last time. "Bye bye, Pond."
And then he was gone.
~DrW~
"Aw come on, Derpy, why not?" the chestnut colored stallion asked, the very beginnings of a rather childish whine entering into his playful Trottingham brogue.
His grey coated, wall-eyed companion turned and cast him an annoyed glare. "Because, Doctor, there's just too much to do. You know how busy the rounds get this close to Hearth's Warming Eve, and Dinky's class is putting on the pageant tonight. There's no way I'm gonna miss that."
The Doctor rolled his blue eyes heavenward, taking in Ponyville's annoyingly crisp, clear, cheerful, regulated sky. "And the TARDIS is a time machine," he pointed out, exasperated at once again explaining the obvious. "We can go out, have a spot of fun, and be back in time for tea." His face darkened slightly. "Oh, right. You don't take tea here. Just another reason I'm left wondering how I ever put up stakes in this surprisingly boring little historically important town to begin with."
Derpy rolled her eyes at the beginning signs of the Doctor's little tantrum. "Yeah, it's a time machine you can barely drive. How much did we miss our return date by last time, huh? Five days, a week? Even a couple of hours won't cut it. Not tonight." She cast the Doctor a smile as she added, "Look. Tomorrow's Sunday. I'll have the day off and just won't be so busy, okay? We can take a trip then, if you can promise to at least get us back before the night is over. And if you're really so antsy today, why not go do something by yourself?"
The Doctor stopped short. "Myself?"
"Sure, by yourself. You don't really need me along for everything do you?" Derpy pointed at the happily bouncing form of Pinkie Pie across the street, saddle bags filled to bursting with presents and party supplies. "Even those six don't spend all their time together. Even best friends need a break every now and then."
The Doctor sighed. "I suppose..."
Derpy began to trot off. "Look, either way, I'm not free until tomorrow. But we'll do something then, I promise."
"Sure, sure," The Doctor replied. "It's a date." He turned away and walked back to his clock repair shop, taking in the sights as he did. Ponyville was draped in white--all the better to celebrate the holidays after all--and several ponies were out and about, shopping laughing, going about their business. The train station was particularly busy, with the influx of ponies rushing off to the superior shops of Canterlot for their gifts. In short, it was an entirely, completely, utterly ordinary day. Staying here any longer was going to drive him stir crazy. Looked like a solo trip was in the cards.
But where to go?
That was the question, wasn't it? When left to his own devices, the Doctor simply didn't have much of a clue on where he actually wanted to go or what he wanted to see. He'd been traveling for so long that, frankly, he'd seen it all before. That was what the companions were for. The universe wasn't old hat for them. It was new and exciting and fresh, and the Doctor just loved seeing that reaction. It was a large part of the reason 'it's bigger on the inside' had long been his favorite sentence in the universe, because that always meant the beginning of something grand.
The Doctor cast a gaze up at the beautiful skyline of Canterlot up on the mountain not far away. Maybe some grand trip through the cosmos wasn't what was needed here. After all, he was going to get to that tomorrow. Perhaps just a quick trip to drop in on some other old friends? He hadn't taken his monthly tea with Little Celestia yet, and he knew the Brigadier was likely driving those around him batty with his inability to just sit still and be retired. So a quick little jaunt to modern day Canterlot it was, then.
Of course, a mundane destination was no excuse for mundane travel. The trains took too long in any event.
The Doctor smiled as he entered his shop, and made for the back room where she was waiting. The TARDIS, that magnificent little blue barn. And on the inside, the much larger than physically possible control room, with its myriad controls centered around the crystal spire. The surroundings had long become familiar to the Doctor--old hat, even--but it was that comforting sort of familiar. The familiar of home.
"You ready for a little excursion, Old Girl?" he asked the room as he slipped on his traveling overcoat. After a brief moment he chuckled. "No, no. Just a little one. Up to Canterlot and back to see some old friends. We'll do something big and fantastic and brilliant tomorrow, when Derpy can make it. Now don't be like that. If I can hold off for a day so can you." As he began to his mad dash around the console to start her up, the Doctor smiled. "Let's make sure we arrive in style, shall we?" After the familiar noises of TARDIS dematerialization hit his ears, the Doctor nodded. "Atta girl. Allons-y!"
However, just a moment later the whole of the TARDIS shook violently, and not in the same way it usually did under the Doctor's less-than-gentle driving. The Doctor was knocked to the ground, and before he could right himself, his head felt as though it had been split in two as a wave of temporal energy tore through him, knocking him unconscious.
~DrW~
He didn't know how long he was out for--though in the Time Vortex that was always wonky anyway--but eventually the Doctor felt consciousness return to him. Groaning, he brought a hoof to his head and slowly stumbled upright. When he opened his eyes, he started. It was his TARDIS, but not his TARDIS. It was as though the current desktop theme had been brutally combined with another, one he had yet to see. It was something he'd only seen once, when he forgot to put up the temporal dampening shields and... "Oh, not again," he muttered, then started. Another voice had said the exact same thing on the other side of the console. Slowly he turned to peek at the source of the other voice, only to look into the green eyes of a completely alien face doing the same.
Upon meeting each others' eyes, they leaped out to the open floor to get a better look at each other. The Doctor couldn't believe his eyes. He'd never encountered a creature like this before, all bipedal and tall and hairless, except for the almost black mop of it on his head. In his wanderings throughout the universe any intelligent life that wasn't some squid thing had primarily equine features. This was something completely unseen before.
It was the creature who spoke first. "A pony? How did a pony of all creatures get here of all places? And such a tiny pony, too."
"Oi! Who're you calling a pony?" the Doctor asked indignantly, rather irritated at discovering he did only come up to the other's waistline Though, he did smirk inwardly as the other took a startled step backward. Apparently, it had not expected him to be able to speak for some reason.
The bipedal creature squatted down to look the Doctor in the eye, a wide, childlike smile appearing on his face. "Oh, that's cool. Really cool. A pony that can speak something other than horse! Now that is something I hadn't expected."
"Look here, you," the Doctor growled, getting rather irritated by this strangely energetic intruder to his home. "I'm not a pony, or a horse. I'm a Time Charger from Gallopfrey if you don't mind."
The other creature's eyebrows shot up in astonishment for a moment. "A Time..." The Doctor smirked smugly. Apparently his race's reputation had reached even this odd alien. That smugness evaporated instantly when the other began laughing.
"Oi! What's so funny?"
"A Time Charger from Gallopfrey!" the creature spluttered between hiccups.
"I don't see what's so funny about that. What're you supposed to be anyway?"
The other creature stood up straight and adjusted his bow tie. "I'm a Time Lord, of Gallifrey. Nice to meet you little pony Time Thing. I'm the Doctor."
The Time Charger blinked and shook his head in confusion. "No. No, that can't be right. You can't possibly be the Doctor. I'm the Doctor."
The other creature stopped for a moment, blinking with a blank expression on his face, then looked around, scrutinizing his surroundings. He pointed out a bit of the current console room that matched the Time Charger's TARDIS and looked inquisitively back at him. "Yours?" he asked.
"Oh, yes. Definitely mine." Cottoning on, the Time Charger pointed out one of the unfamiliar bits. "Yours?"
The Time Lord nodded enthusiastically. "Well, how about that! An alternate universe! One where the Time Lords--and as such I would assume most forms of intelligent life--evolved as equines. Wait..." his eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're not some 'evil me' out to steal my remaining regenerations in order to live longer are you?"
"What?" the Time Charger cried out indignantly. "No! I was just going on a little drive when you ran into me!"
A grin broke out on the taller being's face. "Yes, I suppose I did at that. Funny, not exactly how I was planning to spend oblivion. I guess I wasn't 'erased' from my universe so much as I was 'evicted.' I suppose I always was a crummy lodger." He chuckled at what was apparently a private joke.
The Time Charger kicked at the ground in irritation. "Yes, well, what are we going to do about you, eh? While our TARDISes are fused like this we're stopped dead."
"Oh will you calm down? We're stopped but we're stable. At least it isn't six minutes to Belgium. Again." The Time Lord seemed suddenly struck by a thought as he brought up his wrist to look at his watch. "Oh boy. I'm late. Very late. So entirely late. I can't go back out there looking like this." He then booked off for the deeper recesses of the TARDIS.
The Time Charger ran after him. "Wait, wait! Where are you going? What do you mean evicted from your universe? What are we going to do about this?"
"I'm going to get changed, I meant exactly what I said, and I propose we do nothing."
The Time Charger practically tripped over his hooves. "Nothing! We can't just do nothing! We're stuck here. Doctor! Doctor!" He ground his teeth in frustration as his otherworldly double vanished into the wardrobe. "Is this what it's really like, talking to me?" he muttered to himself. "If it is, it's a wonder I haven't been throttled by a companion years ago."
He reluctantly entered into the room after his bipedal counterpart, and was startled to see row after row after row of clothes racks, not of his size, but standing double his height. "Good job the wardrobe ended up being mine, eh?" a muffled voice sounded from within the maze of racks. "Go ahead and make yourself comfortable. We've still got a few minutes before the show starts."
The Doctor rolled his eyes as he contented himself with checking out his current surroundings. So very familiar they were, and yet so alien at the same time. Okay, he admitted to himself. I guess I haven't seen it all quite yet. He stopped short when he reached the back of the room. There, against the wall, just like in his own wardrobe was a group of mannequins, each wearing a distinct outfit: the first, an old black suit, the mannequin posed with a gnarled cane, the second, a much shorter mannequin wearing a similar suit but with a bow tie, a third, taller mannequin wearing a frilly red ensemble with an opera cape, the fourth and tallest of all in a shabby brown coat and a scarf that reached the floor despite being wrapped around the mannequin several times. At the fifth, the Doctor smiled. The Crickety Cricket stuff, sized and fitted for a biped, but still immediately recognizable, and still with that celery stalk at the lapel. The sixth wore a blindingly bad overcoat that drowned out the rest of the ensemble, and the seventh wore a comparatively tame tan outfit with a question mark motif. The eighth had gone back to frills, similar to the third and the ninth wore a subdued black leather jacket over a green jumper. And... now the Doctor's eyes widened and his pupils shrank into tiny little pinpricks.
There was a tenth.
It was a skinny mannequin, wearing a brown trench coat over a darker brown pinstriped suit. The Doctor absentmindedly ran a forehoof across his own coat sleeve. "What?"
Somehow, the other Doctor heard him and recognized the tone, because he suddenly appeared at his side, half dressed in black slacks, a white shirt, and a pair of suspenders that he hadn't pulled over his shoulders yet. "What? What's wrong? What is...?" He suddenly stopped as he saw what was going on. He looked at the mannequin. Then back at the Time Charger. Then smacked his forehead. He didn't notice the similarities at the time--how could he, really? The other him was a pony. But now that he made the connection, it was blindingly obvious. The short, messy mane, the brown overcoat, even his body language, just reeked of his former self.
For a few moments passed in silence--which was odd considering who the two beings were. Then the Time Charger looked up at his taller counterpart. "Well, this is, ah, interesting. How did this happen, exactly?"
The taller Doctor exhaled as he pulled his suspenders over his shoulders. "Now that is a question; a difficult question; quite possibly a dangerous question. I actually don't know the repercussions if I were to answer it, truth be told. I've already been proven wrong once today."
The equine Doctor held up a hoof to stop the other's ramblings. "No, no. Stupid question. One I should know better than to ask. Just took me by surprise is all."
The Time Lord nodded. "Well, I suppose I can tell you this much. I was alone when it happened. And it probably happened because I convinced myself I was better off that way. Worst mistake of my life really. My very long, mistake riddled life. If I were to give you some advice, which of course I never do, I'd say something maybe possibly along the lines of: don't let yourself be alone. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Keep it up with the companions. Love them, cherish them, all that sentimental rubbish we try to avoid talking about but feel so very strongly. And when that day comes, that day we always know will come so, so much sooner rather than later, when they leave..." his voice cracked a bit here. "Don't use that as an excuse to shut yourself off."
The equine Doctor studied his taller self with a shrewd expression on his face. "Yeeeah, no. Something tells me you're not quite the... er... being to give me that advice. Makes you sound like the biggest hypocrite in all of history."
The Time Lord threw his head back with with a short but hearty laugh. "Guilty as charged. Most definitely. Won't find anyone guiltier than me. Best not listen to any advice I give. I'm just you after all. Sort of." He cast his green eyes about, a thoughtful frown on his face. "I'm not too late here, am I? That'd be the story of my life wouldn't it? To come and help a version of me avoid my own mistakes only for it to be too late."
"No. No you aren't. I have a companion. And she's brilliant. So totally brilliant. You could even say she's fantastic," The Time Charger winked here. "She was just busy and I was just bored, is all."
"Ah," the taller Doctor conceded. "That I do understand."
"What about you?" the smaller one pressed. "Near as I can tell, you're just as alone as I am."
"Didn't I tell you? I'm pretty sure I told you. I mentioned it at least. Maybe. A little. There were these cracks in time you see. The sort that, when you fall into them, it doesn't just kill you, it erases you. Completely. Makes it so you never existed. Well, one thing led to another and... here I am."
The Time Charger was about to try and console his counterpart when said counterpart suddenly stopped and looked at his wristwatch. "Oh my. Just look at the time. Fun as this all is, I really have to get ready. You've really made me so very late you know." And with that, the bipedal Doctor disappeared back into the maze of clothes racks.
The other Doctor cast a look at where his other self vanished. "Late for what, exactly?"
"Did I not mention this, either? I've got a wedding to attend." The Doctor stepped out from the racks, clothed in black tails, a white bow tie, a top hat, and white untied dress scarf. "Well, how do I look?"
"Like a hairless ape."
"Hey! There's no call for that!"
"Well, you called me a pony." The Doctor had to chuckle. It was nice to come across a version of himself that he could at least get along with. "But I'm still just a teeny weenie slightly bit confused here. I know what you're talking about, in theory anyway, and you've made it so that you never existed in your world ever. It was by true blind, dumb luck you landed here at all. How are you late for... well, anything?"
"See, that's the thing. The most crucial, critical, important thing of all," the tall Doctor said enthusiastically. "It's not just any wedding, you see. It's my little Amelia's wedding. Nothing could keep me from it. And you're forgetting that ever so important loophole."
The Time Charger's blue eyes widened. "Memory. Anything that can be remembered is something that exists. If this 'Amelia' of yours can remember you..." He shook his head with a grin. "You do realize you're expecting the impossible."
"Would you expect any less from your brilliant little pony companion?"
Their conversation was cut short as a voice, a female voice with an accent not unlike one spoken in Scoltland, began to float through the room. "Sorry, everyone. But when I was a kid, I had an imaginary friend." The 'hairless ape' suddenly sported a smile that threatened to split his face at the sound of it. "The Raggedy Doctor. My Raggedy Doctor. But he wasn't imaginary. He was real."
"Oh, Amy Pond! You did it!" he whooped. "It was impossible but you did it! Just like I figured you would. Come along, Doctor! Back to the control room!" And with a mad laugh, he was off, a confused Doctor in his wake as the voice continued.
"I remember you! I remember! I brought the others back, I can bring you home, too. Raggedy man, I remember you, and you are late for my wedding!"
"Ah, right you are, Miss Amy Pond!" the Doctor whooped as he came to a stop in front of the control console. "And we can't have that, now can we." He turned to the Time Charger. "Very nice to meet you, Doctor. Sorry I can't stay. But as you can see, I've got a previous engagement. Adios, ciao, ghhhhhhhaahsssh, and all that."
The smaller Doctor watch with a bemused smile on his face as the biped and all the unfamiliar TARDIS bits vanished before him.
~DrW~
The myriad family and friends of the bride and groom turned in their seats as the fierce wind storm suddenly erupted without warning and indoors. The only ones not affected were the bride and groom themselves--the bride, a now grown up, now married Amelia Pond Williams, standing at her place of honor with a satisfied smile on her face, the groom, one Rory Williams, just sitting there watching, mildly confused as to why he wasn't panicking.
"I found you," Amy continued. "I found you in words, like you knew I would. That's why you told me the story...the brand new, ancient blue box. Oh, clever. Very clever.
Rory cast a glance up at his new wife, rather convinced she'd gone mad. "Amy? What is it?"
"Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue."
And with a sound unlike anything else in the universe, a pristine blue police box, the likes of which only a few of the gathered friends would have even remembered being in use, appeared from nowhere in the middle of the floor. Rory looked on in confusion as a rush of memories filled his head. "It's the Doctor. How did we forget the Doctor? I was plastic. He was the stripper at my stag." He cast a confused look at Amy who was looking on with an amused look on her face. "Long story."
Then Amy was off like a shot, practically leaping over the table to reach the blue box. "OK, Doctor. Did I surprise you this time?" she asked, knocking at the door.
The door swing inward and out peeked the Doctor, clearly dressed--possibly even overdressed--for the occasion. "Er, yeah. Completely astonished. Never expected that," he said, not event attempting to cover it with false sincerity. "How lucky I happened to be wearing this old thing." Stepping out of the box, a huge smile plastered on his face, the Doctor addressed the gathered assembly. "Hello, everyone! I'm Amy's imaginary friend." He vigorously shook the father of the bride's hand as he added, "But I came anyway."
~DrW~
Derpy was running late. How in Equestria could she possibly be running late? She blamed the Doctor. He had completely messed up her sense of time. Dinky had already gone on ahead with the Apple family, who had a little filly in the pageant themselves, and it wasn't like Derpy was one to preen herself for anything. So how was it possible she was still running late? She practically kicked the front door as she prepared to charge out it, only for it to suddenly stop partway with a loud bang and accompanying "Owwww..."
She peeked out of her house, a flurry of apologies ready to spill from her lips, when she saw who she slammed into. It was the Doctor, dressed in his favorite blue suit, rubbing his nose in irritation. "What was that for, Derpy? I know I was a bit of a bother this afternoon but that's no reason to assault me." He looked her in her left eye and winked with a grin.
"Doctor?" Derpy sputtered. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I thought to myself, I thought, 'you know, Derpy would probably like somebody to accompany her to the Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant tonight. Yeah. She'd probably like that a lot.' And since I really don't have anything better planned for tonight, I might as well be that somebody."
Derpy smiled and planted a quick kiss on the Doctor's cheek. "Thanks, Doctor. That's sweet. Now come along. We're late."
"Oi! How many times to I have to tell you? I'm the one who tells you to come along!"
Derpy laughed happily before a thought came to her. "You're not gonna spend the whole time complaining about the historical inaccuracies again, are you?"
The Doctor's eyes twinkled as he grinned. "I make no promises."
~THE END~
