The Adventures of Ditzy and the Doctor Chapter I: Eclipse
The room was dark, lit only by a dim, flickering bulb. The reason for this was so that no one could see his face; his nasty, disfigured, cloaked face. All you could see under the cloak was the two eyes the color of fire that always seemed to glow. Ditzy Doo had always been rather afraid of him; but she was trying to get over it. He was her stepfather, after all. He had become her stepfather ever since she'd lost her memories - all her memories - in an accident. Her parents had died, and she had to start all over. Eclipse had come to save her, and had given her a new chance at life.
"You still can't remember?" He asked. He asked every night when she got home. She would never understand the question. She would never remember her life before the accident, the doctors at the hospital had told her that. She would never, ever remember whatever past life she had. And yet, every night, before even saying hello when she got home, he would ask. And every night, the answer would be be the same.
"No. I still don't get why you ask, I never will remember, the doctors said I wouldn't." Ditzy cocked here head to the side a little. She hadn't actually remembered the doctors telling her that, Eclipse just told her what they had said. He told her a lot of things, and what could she do but believe them? It was all she had to go on, all that kept her going, living. She didn't know anything else.
"Yes, but I only told you what the doctors said, you can't remember," Eclipse said. He voice was always so deep and mysterious. When it cracked, which was a lot, it made Ditzy think of someone trying to hide a secret for some reason. And for all she knew, Eclipse could be hiding secrets. But she couldn't know, could she? After all, she was just a klutzy, not-so-smart pony that nopony told anything important to.
"Yeah, so? I trust you," said Ditzy. Eclipse signed, almost as if saying, "Well you shouldn't," but only told the grey pegasus to go to bed. She obeyed and went off to her room, not thinking anything of it, because it was normal. Every day, she'd come home, and they'd have a similar conversation, and Ditzy would never really understand anything Eclipse had said to her. But it was her life, and she had grown used to it, and it wouldn't be the same if he stopped asking her the questions. But still, she couldn't help but wonder what her past life was like every night when she closed her eyes.
- -
Ditzy Doo woke up and scrambled out of bed, realizing the time. She had slept late again and was she was going to be late for work again. She was surprised she hadn't been fired yet. Lucky for her, she had a nice boss. And then she remembered why she slept late. She'd had dreams all night, she had them every night. And when she woke up all she could remember was a lot of pain and screaming. And then she made herself forget, only to wake up to the same thing next morning.
Grabbing her mail bag quickly and rushing out without even eating, figuring she'd get something at Sugarcube Corner, Ditzy clumsily flew her regular route, delivering mail along the way. She made sure Sugarcube Corner was her last stop, otherwise she'd get distracted and forget where she was going. So after her regular deliveries, she went to the bakery and Mrs. Cake greeted her while Mr. Cake attended to an unusual customer.
"Crumpets? Oh dear, you don't seem to have them. What about turnovers? Nothing with pears in them, that's for sure. What would you recommend?" The unusual pony said, turning his head to Ditzy, his spiky mane bouncing ever so slightly. His eyes had a lively spark in them, and you could tell he loved to live life to the fullest.
"I like the blueberry muffins," Ditzy said simply. The pony turned back to Mr. Cake.
"I'll have a blueberry muffin then, yes!" He said, rather enthusiastically for just buying a muffin. Ditzy bought a muffin as well, and she found herself wandering over to the same table he had sat down at. She always sat alone; no one wanted to sit with her. But this pony was strange, like her. Only he was stranger, in Ditzy's opinion.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor, what's you name?" The pony asked. Ditzy wasn't sure if she should respond or not because Eclipse had always told her not to talk to strangers because of the things she sometimes said without realizing it. They were things of her past life, he'd said. But she decided that if she didn't talk to any strangers, she'd never make any friends, so she responded.
"I'm Ditzy Doo. Your name is strange. Doctor Who?"
"No, no, just the Doctor," he said. Ditzy didn't question it, only began to gobble up her blueberry muffin.
"You're the one with the blue box," Ditzy burst out, her mouth full, so it sounded more like "You're da one wiff da bue boss."
"Yes but..." the Doctor paused. "How did you know that!?" He was shocked.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ditzy began, swallowing. "Sometimes I say random things that I have no idea what mean. I lost my memory when I was young and Eclipse says I'm saying things from my past life." That much she knew was true, but if she really was saying things from her past life, how did she know about this Doctor fellow's blue box? Had she known him?
"Past life?" The Doctor asked. Ditzy nodded. "But then...no, that's impossible. But then again...it can't be. It can be. Oh no."
"What? What's wrong?" Ditzy asked frantically.
"Nothing, nothing at all. I just...really have to leave now, maybe I'll see you around," he said. Then he rushed out, causing the bell above the door to jingle violently.
"But you didn't even finish your muffin!" Ditzy called. "Oh well."
Walking out of the store, Ditzy began walking for her house. Ditzy was about to take off when Pinkie Pie came out with a twitchy tail. And you all know what that means.
"Twitch-a-twitch! My tail's twitching! Something's gonna fall soon, and it's gonna be big!"
Ignoring Pinkie, Ditzy flew to her house. She landed clumsily by the front door, and was about to open it when distantly she head Pinkie scream "WATCH OUT, SOMETHING'S GONNA FALL RIGHT NOW!"
And then something did fall. A blue box crash-landed out of the sky and right on the street in front of her house. And the Doctor walked out. Ditzy couldn't believe it. Her mouth hung open in surprise.
"Hello again," he said, a slightly baffled and confused look crossing his features. He walked back in his box and checked something, then walked back out. "Well, now I know that can't be right."
"What?" Ditzy asked. "What can't be right? Why did your blue box land in front of my house?"
"The signal. I'm right next to the signal. Actually, it seems to be coming from..." he broke off for a second, walking towards Ditzy, then past her, right to the door. Her gaze followed him. "...it's coming from your house."
"What's coming from my house?" Ditzy asked.
"The signal. Massive power sources are coming from inside your house. Tell me, Ditzy Doo, do you live alone?"
"No, I live with my stepfather. I'm pretty sure he invents things, but he doesn't tell me much about his work because he says then I might remember something, and I have no idea what that means."
"An inventor...YES! An inventor! That's BRILLIANT! Ditzy, can you introduce me to your stepfather?" The Doctor asked. Ditzy frowned.
"I don't think so," she said. "He doesn't allow visitors for some reason. Me and him are the only ones allowed in or out, or that's what he said."
"Well, that's about to change. 'Cos, Ditzy, I'm the Doctor and this is what I do."
He pushed inside the house and was immediately thrown off by the lack of light, and the cloaked figure with glowing eyes the corner probably did it a bit, too. "Now who's that?" The Doctor asked, rather quietly. Ditzy wasn't scared one bit.
"That's my stepfather, Eclipse. And he won't be happy that I brought a stranger in here, I might get punished, you know," Ditzy's voice was serious, so strange and distant and unlike her normal happy, carefree bubbly chatter.
"Oh, is it now? And why's he hidden under that cloak? And why are all the lights turned off?" The Doctor asked too many questions, in Ditzy's opinion. She would get in trouble for this for sure.
"I don't know," she answered, her voice becoming a frightened, distant call for help. Her mind raced back to the last time she'd gotten in trouble and what the consequences had been. All she could really remember was a lot of screaming. Her mind had made her forget the rest.
"Why are you so scared, Ditzy?" The Doctor asked. He turned his head to the left to look at her, and saw her eyes, normally so bright, now full of fear. It was consuming her. The memories that didn't seem to exist trying to resurface. The screaming, the pain, everything. It plagued her nightmares, every sleeping hour she would see something she couldn't remember but knew happened. And somehow it was connected to him. She wasn't able to handle it. So she ran out of her house, beginning to cry.
The tears wouldn't stop flowing from her golden eyes as she leaned up against the side of the blue box. Her vision was blurry, but that didn't stop her from seeing the pony who ran up to her. And in the back of her mind, she was very, very glad he was there beside her.
"TARDIS. Your blue box is called the TARDIS," Ditzy said through her tears. She covered her mouth right after; she didn't know how she had known that.
"How did you know that?" The Doctor asked softly. Ditzy grew panicked and continued crying.
"I don't know. I don't know, and it scares me," she said.
"Do you know what it stands for?" The Doctor asked.
"Time and Relative Dimension in Space," she said, quickly bending over and covering her head with her hands. "You see? I have no idea how I knew that. It's like there's somepony else inside my head that knows it all."
"You said you lost your memory when you were young," the Doctor began, "and that the things you said were from your 'past life'. I wonder if...no, no it can't be. It just can't." The Doctor stood up. "Stay here," he said, running into Ditzy's house. She watched him go, bewildered and sad that he'd left.
"Who is Ditzy?!" The Doctor yelled at the cloaked figure, when he'd gotten back inside.
"She's just that. A klutzy pegasus pony that was bullied enforce we moved to Ponyville," Eclipse lied.
"No, no. You know what I mean. Who is she really? Who was she? Before she was Ditzy?"
"Herself!" Eclipse answered, too defensive and too quickly to be anything but a lie.
"And..." the Doctor said, "What about you?" The Doctor stared at Eclipse for a moment, and the two had an unspoken staring contest. Then the Doctor blinked, and ran forward twoards Eclipse, causing papers that had been placed carefully on a desk to fly around. When he passed Eclipse, he grabbed the black cloak he was wearing in his mouth and it flew off, floating down to the ground. Anypony else would have been surprised at what they saw, but the Doctor was unfazed.
Eclipse was essentially half pony, half human. His coat was dark brown and wrinkled; he had one human hand instead of a hoof, and one human eye. He was missing an ear, and his mane was long in some places, short in others, and in some spots, bald. Part of his coat was replaced with human skin in some areas, creating patches around his whole body. And his eyes - human and pony - looked like fire and seemed to stare right into your soul.
"You tried to turn human into pony, didn't you? And now, look what's happened to you. You're a genius but nopony can ever know because they'll lock you up. They'll shut you up away from everypony and you'll never be known, but the life you have now isn't much different, is it? The only difference is Ditzy. Who, I assume, never lost her memory. You just turned her into a pegasus pony and made up lies for her life. She's living in one, big, huge lie!" He finished angrily. "One more question: who was she?"
"I...I don't know!" Eclipse said, scared by the Doctor. "It was just a random girl. She screamed a lot, too. I almost felt bad doing it to her, because after a while she started crying and calling for someone called 'Doctor'. Of course, by the look in her eyes, I could tell she didn't think this 'Doctor' fellow was coming. And he didn't. And then, when it was over, she couldn't remember a thing. How she got there, her name, anything. She had practically forgotten how to walk and talk, too. So I named her Ditzy Doo and made up a story. We lived in Cloudsdale for a few years until bullying got too bad and we moved to Ponyville."
'But who was it?!' The Doctor wanted to shout out. But he knew he wouldn't get an answer. Of course, he knew it was someone he had previously known. It could have been anyone. Martha, Donna, Rose...only the last one had blonde hair. And when Ditzy smiled it was just as if Rose was smiling. But she was in another dimension...never mind that, so was he. And there was an energy spike coming from this house.
"There's an energy spike, coming from your house. And you ripped a hole through the void to another dimension," said the Doctor.
"I...I thought I'd closed it up," Eclipse said.
"Well, apparently you didn't. And now I have too."
- -
Ditzy sat curled up against the TARDIS. She was getting worried. He'd been inside for a long time, and she swore she could hear him shouting. She tried desperately not to think of what the consequences for this might be, but the images continued coming back, each more vivid than the last. She couldn't even remember what she did at this point. Just that she'd never, ever do it again.
Hearing the front door open, Ditzy shot up. Seeing it was the Doctor, she smiled with her tongue poking through her teeth, something that felt natural to her for some reason. He smiled as well and ran up to her, which she clumsily did as well, and he caught her in an embrace.
"You were in there for so long...I though he might have done something to you!" Ditzy exclaimed. She blinked and her eyes went out of focus for a second before returning when she blinked again.
"No...he just got arrested. The Royal Guards should be here any minute, actually. Oh, also, I closed a rip in the fabric of space-time," he said offhandedly. This caused Ditzy to laugh, and snort once or twice. "So...what are you going to do now?" He asked, a hopeful spark lighting up his blue eyes.
"I don't know. I still have my job at the post office, but that's all I have now," Ditzy answered, a bit sadly. Then she looked up at him, her expression aglow with curiosity. "The TARDIS travels in time and space, right?" She said, thankful for whatever was in her head.
"Yes, it does," the Doctor smiled.
"And you've had companions, right?" Ditzy asked, her smile growing.
"Yes..."
"So, if I came with you, you could get me back by tomorrow and I won't have missed a day of work."
"Yep that's right," the Doctor said, nodding and smiling. "So, you'd like to come then?" Ditzy nodded. The Doctor opened the TARDIS, followed by Ditzy, who seemed unfazed at the bigger inside. Because whatever was in her head knew enough about the TARDIS to know that it was bigger on the inside.
"So, Miss Ditzy, where would you like to go first?" The Doctor asked, enthusiastically. Ditzy made a comical thinking face as she tried to decide.
"I've always wanted to visit the Crystal Empire," she said. The Doctor stared blankly at her.
"You could visit any planet or time in the whole universe and you choose...oh, the Crystal Empire it is!"
And then they headed out.
- -
NEXT TIME: The Adventures of Ditzy and the Doctor Chapter II: Demon Eyes
"Ditzy! Ditzy!" The Doctor called frantically as he ran through the hallways of the Crystal Empire castle. He skidded to a halt in one of the circular rooms with a high ceiling when he saw both Ditzy and Midnight. "Ditzy! Don't look into his eyes!"
"But...I...can't...look...away..." Ditzy said, breathy and distant. And then the Doctor realized he had already lost her. She was staring right into his eyes and stepping on his shadow, she was lost. He couldn't do anything.
Ditzy began to scream as her soul was dragged out of her body and she fell to the floor, lifeless.