Chapter Thirty (Doctor`s Point of View)
"So, what`s up?" I asked the girls, out of options. They shrugged. "Alright, um... oh, how are Rarity`s dresses going?" I asked Sweetie Belle.
She looked at me. "You`re just bored, aren`t you," She laughed.
"Guilty," I said, raising a hoof.
"How are things going with you and Mom?" Dinky asked curiously.
"I don`t know how to answer that," I laughed.
"Well, what are your thoughts on her?" Sweetie Belle suggested I answer.
I smiled, a blush forming on my cheeks before I could fight it. "She`s the most beautiful mare in all of Equestria. She knows almost all of my secrets. We`ve gone to few places together but she is never mad about that. And I love her."
"You guys are so adorable," Sweetie Belle smiled back.
"Are you guys dating, too?" Dinky asked.
"Yes, of course we are," I grinned.
"SO does that mean you guys kiss and stuff?" Sweetie Belle asked slyly, causing Dinky`s eyes to widen. She obviously hadn`t thought of that before.
"I won`t even lie cause you girls would find out anyway, so your answer is yes." I could feel my blush deepen and Dinky`s face started regaining its` color.
Ditzy laughed triumphantly from the kitchen.
"Did you find `em?!" I asked loudly, causing the girls to break out in laughter.
"Yes!" She answered back, flying into the room and throwing the bag onto me before flying away to find something to hold them with.
The girls grabbed the bag before I could react and opened it, stuffing their faces with so many marshmallows their cheeks grew almost 10 times larger. I tried to hide my laugh but I couldn`t when they turned to me.
"Doctor, why are you laughing?" Ditzy asked, but then she looked at Sweetie Belle and Dinky and just shook her head, trying not to share the same reaction as me.
"Hand them sticks," I said between breaths. "And maybe a trash can, they won`t be able to swallow that many marshmallows."
Dinky giggled and fetched what I had asked for, coming back and watching them while sitting next to me.
"Don`t burn yourselves," she warned. She laid her head against my chest (almost like how we were in the police officer`s car, except now we are ponies again, obviously) and watched them with a large smile on her face. "Again, like I`ve said before, it`s so peaceful it`s scary," she whispered to me.
"Would you rather it be so busy you can`t stand it?" I asked her.
"Some days I think so," She admits, yawning and snuggling her head against me. She relaxed and rested her arms around my shoulder, almost like she fell asleep hugging me, so for her sake I moved my arm to circle her midsection, around her stomach so she wouldn`t be uncomfortable.
"Aw," Sweetie Belle smiled, looking over at us. "See, Dinky? It`s like you have a father now."
Dinky just smiled and looked down, trying not to look at me or Ditzy. "I guess so." Her words were sincere, like she believed it too.
Thank you, I thought silently, thank you.
(1 Hour Later)
"Goodnight, Doctor," Ditzy smiled, shutting my bedroom door and walking off. She had to help me reach my room, of course. The kids were already asleep, and I was pretty tired, too, so I turned out my lamp and went right to bed.
What if there was something you missed? Something you desperately needed, something you couldn`t live without? Something that was just within grasp, just brushing your fingertips, but you couldn`t grab onto it?
"Doctor, hold on, please!" Ditzy screamed. Her legs were beating against the pavement so hard it almost looked like she could race a jet and win by minutes. My grasp was slipping, my hearts beating so fast, adrenaline pumping through my veins. But oh, my hand ached...
What if the person you loved most was there, right in front of you, but you couldn`t hug them. You couldn`t even wave or say "hello". But you could read their expressions, and your loved one was... crying. Yes, she was crying. Tears— some dried, some new, some confused, some broken hearted.
"Hold on!" Ditzy`s screaming became closer.
"I can`t!" I yelled back. "Get them and leave!"
"I will NOT leave you behind!" I saw her hand flying directly overhead. I went to grab it, but I slipped. "DOCTOR, NO!"
Her voice was like an echo, ricocheting off of the rocky walls. It hit me in waves. Dinky was screaming, Ditzy yelling something. I was flipping forwards, slamming my head against a sharp rock sticking out from the walls next to me with a thud, gravity failing faster against me.
They say that if you are dreaming about falling...
I was helpless. Even if I do regenerate, how will I climb back up?
...and you don`t reach the ground before you wake up...
The ground inched closer, a light orange/red mix of what looked like dried clay.
...you die.
"Goodbye," I said breathlessly, the ground now a mere second a -
I opened my eyes and sat up straight. My hearts were hammering out of my chest and a blanket of sweat covered my body. My eyes darted from the left to the right frantically.
"Alright, eyes, there, nose, there, arms, there, hooves, there, legs, there... I`m alive... I`m safe..." I exhaled in relief and shut my eyes, slamming my head against the pillow again before tilting my head to the left.
10:09 AM
"Oh, God, I am SO sleeping in late!" I went to jump out of bed but then I realized I was in no condition to walk. I could either use the cane leaning against the wall, or call for – wait, a cane?
Taking my chances, I reached for the cane; my hooves making it tilt into my grasp. It was the perfect size for a pony, so it must not have been from the TARDIS closet. I slowly inched my way off of the bed and put all of my weight onto the cane. It didn`t hurt my hoof as much as I thought it would, so I closely made my way towards where the noises were coming from.
Someone was in the shower, obviously, because the water was running. Not wanting to knock and ask who, I followed the other voices which led me into the swimming pool area.
"Oh, hey, Doctor!" Dinky smiled, waving a hoof at me. "Are you okay?"
"Am I okay? I don`t know," I laughed nervously. "Who got me this pony-cane?"
"I think Ditzy did," Sweetie Belle answered. "And I`m with Dinky, did you have a nightmare? Your face is red and you`re covered in sweat."
"I did."
"Care to tell us what it is about?" Dinky asked impatiently.
I shut my eyes, trying to recall exactly what happened, when the shower turned off, exposing Ditzy`s singing throughout the TARDIS in soft hums. The door opened and she walked slowly into the room, her face flushing when she saw me smiling at her.
"Why didn`t you tell me you can sing?" I asked her.
She purposely moved her eyes lower to my cane. "I see you`ve found my gift," She giggled. "Does it work?"
"Well, I got out here, so for now it does. It probably won`t be a permanent solution, though," I frowned. "Where`d you find it, anyway?"
"The Princesses believe you about your alien...ness, they heard from me you were hurt, and then I got a cane for you." She shrugged. "Are you alright?"
"I know, right!" Dinky laughed.
"That`s what we were just asking!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
"Well, Doctor, what`s wrong?"
"Just a dream, that`s all. Now, it`s about 11, doesn`t Rarity need to come pick Sweetie Belle up?"
Ditzy sighed at my dodging her question, but began nodding at my reminder. "He`s right. Sweetie Belle, did you bring anything?"
"Uh... I don`t think so, but I can go check. Come on, Dinky!" She reached out her hoof to Dinky (whom took it) and they pulled each other to a starting point for a race to a finish line, probably Sweetie Belle`s bedroom door.
"So, are you going to tell me?" She asked.
"About what," I asked in return.
"What did you dream?"
I ran it over in my head, hardly any memories flooding back to me. "Falling," I answered bluntly.
"That`s it? It can`t..." She started, but I nodded. "Well... who was there?"
"Me, you, and Dinky," I shrugged.
"Where were we?"
"I don`t know, to be honest," I sighed with a frown. "There was... it was dry, almost like a desert. Uh... we were humans, YES; we were in our human forms! And then I was... I was falling. It looked like you were trying to catch me, but you were too late... I fell and all of a sudden my head slammed against a rock, and then I... fell." My frown deepened.
"Oh, Doctor, I`m sorry you had to dream like that..." She returned my expression, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.
"Nah, I`m alright," I smiled. "Remember? 900 or whatever year old Time Lord here, probably dreamed and done everything both good and bad..."
"You know, you never did tell me about the Great Time War." Her expression showed a weak smile and she was obviously intrigued.
"Ditzy, you know I don`t like talking about it," I shuddered.
"Please, Doctor? Just once, I will never, ever, EVER, ask again!"
I looked up at her. "Promise you won`t run off?"
"Why would I?"
"Because I was like the big, bad wolf that blew down Arcadia..."
"Huh? You were a wolf? And what`s Arcadia?"
"No, silly, I wasn`t a wolf," I laughed slightly. "This was around the time I had regenerated into a different person in between my eighth and ninth forms. The Last Great Time War was the war where the Daleks arrived from their hometown, Skaro, wreaking havoc among us Gallifreyans.
"They began to issue a war so great we were at it for so, so long... many perished."
"But how did this end?" She asked breathlessly.
"It was... me." I admitted.
Ditzy gasped and I looked down at the ground, ashamed to have admitted it.
"I was killed in a crash and the Sisterhood of Karn told me I couldn`t just run away from the war anymore, which is what I was currently doing at that time. They gave me an elixir that would make me regeneration into someone more... fit to fight, a warrior. So I accepted, drank it, and then regenerated into a form... he wasn`t the Doctor.
"So I fought and... I remember it like it was yesterday. I stood there, and above me were Dalek ships, ten million of them to be exact. Arcadia had recently fallen. I had a dangerous device called 'the Moment'. I was going to... wipe out all of Gallifrey in an inferno. We weren`t going to make it anyway, and it would wipe out the Dalek fleets during the blast.
"But this weapon, this dreadful weapon, had a mind of its own. It found all of my past incarnations, bringing them to me. We all worked together as a team of 8. We froze the time there and removed it from the universe." A weak smile broke out at the end as my memories were regained of what Gallifrey was like.
"Doctor, why are you sad about that, you won!"
"But we could`ve saved many more lives, Ditzy..."
"Don`t dwell on the past, alright? And thanks for telling me."
"Wait, you aren`t, like, scared or anything?"
"Why would I be?"
"Because I technically committed genocide," I reminded her.
She thought about it for a while, pursing her lips before they broke out into a smile. "I don`t care about that, Doctor," she laughs, nudging my shoulder playfully. "I mean, you won`t do that ever again, right?"
"Well, no, but-"
"-then I am not worried, okay?" She cut me off. "And this man, this in between, you said he wasn`t the Doctor... why not?"
"He did very bad things, and he isn`t worthy of the title," I shrugged.
"But he was different and different is good, right, Doctor? You still were him, and I think no matter who you are or what you did, you`re always worthy of that title." Her smile hypnotized me and I looked away, grinning wildly.
"I guess you`re right-"
"Oh, Ditzy Doo, are you in here?" Rarity asked, knocking on the TARDIS` door.
I trotted over as fast as I could from the pool area, opened the door, and smiled. "Why, hello there, I`m the Doctor," I allowed her inside. "I`m presuming it you`re Rarity here to pick up Sweetie Belle, correct am I?"
"Uh... yeah, I remember you, you`re... what is this place?"
"Bigger on the inside," Ditzy asked her before I could.
"Okay, um, Sweetie Belle?" Rarity yelled. "Time to go,"
"Oh, Rarity, we had so much fun!" Sweetie Belle laughed, running to her. "Dinky and I played tag, Ditzy and the Doctor had us stay the night in the TARDIS, and we traveled!"
"Traveled... where, exactly?"
"Earth," I smiled.
"How is that even possible?" Her voice was taken, a faint whisper hardly even audible.
"What, traveling to Earth? Easy if you got a TARDIS, I`ll say that much," Ditzy answered.
When Rarity still didn`t understand she flashed a confused expression before shaking her head. "Anyways, uh, Ditzy, about that other night... we`re sorry we were rude."
Ditzy merely laughed and looked at me. "Nah, don`t be. If anything, that helped me..."
"No way, you two are...!" Rarity gasped when Sweetie Belle nodded. She then regained her posture and cleared her throat. "Anyways, Sweetie Belle, how about we go... back home?"
"Okay! Bye, Doctor, thanks for having me over, and thanks for letting me hang out with Dinky, Ditzy! Bye, Dinky!" Sweetie Belle called out before shutting the door behind her.
"You know," Dinky laughed after a pause, "I expected Rarity to just faint from the sight of the TARDIS. But anyways, what can we do now?"
"You`re so impatient," I sighed sarcastically. "But what do you want to do?"
Dinky shrugged, so Ditzy began to speak. "Hey, what if we ask the TARDIS? Or can we go anywhere BUT where she wants us to go?"
I stared at her for a moment before nodding and waving my hoof, gesturing for them to follow me into the control room. The TARDIS knew what I was doing and heaved us forward, launching into ignition.
We fell and Dinky started to laugh nervously. "Come on, is it supposed to do this?"
"Sometimes it does!" I yelled, standing up and attaching myself to the controls. "Just hold on!"
"Oh, sure, act like it`s easy!"
"I can`t injure my foot anymore, and so we all know, I`m actually losing my grip! Not easy!" I laughed back at her. Gravity remained in the room but disappeared for a split second before returning, causing us all to open our eyes widely in confusion. "That`s new, but I like new!"
Ditzy laughed nervously and Dinky gave her an "are you kidding me" look.
"Doctor, when will this end?!" Ditzy asked impatiently, making her way towards me.
I circled the controls as quickly as I could; somehow forgetting I was literally in the midst of changing into a human. I hit my foot as it changed, causing myself to fall out and sprawl out on the floor moaning.
"Oh, Doctor!" Ditzy gasped, coming over to me and helping me. "This should NOT be happening!"
"Don`t you think I have noticed that already?" I said nervously, starting to try to stand up. "You lot need to stop worrying about me, alright, protect yourselves! I gotta get the TARDIS under control!" I pulled the lever closest to me down as far as it would go, the TARDIS dipping down as a result. I pulled myself up farther and found the monitor, tapping it several times to get it to work again.
"?" It read.
"Blimey, this is confusing," I said to myself. I limped quickly over to the power system and looked over at the girls who watched me with intrigued expressions.
"What are you doing?" Dinky asked.
"Wherever we are, we need to drop down right now! I`m going to drop the power system, maybe that`ll stop our orbit!" I rested my hand on it and then smirked. "Hold on," I told them. The lever was pulled down.
We began to fall out of the sky. The monitors started picking up different times, places, planets, and it all went by in a mix of blurred Gallifreyan letters before the power shut off completely and it took off the monitor along with the lights and everything else, except for the "bigger on the inside", Time Lord technology which I programmed to run off of solar energy when the power would be shut off.
"Doctor, we better be alive afterwards!" Ditzy screamed.
"Don`t worry, we will! Hold on!" I screamed once more.
We heard a crash and were sent flying upwards. When they landed she chose a pillar (they actually looked like large tree branches made of cement) to hold onto, but I was already on the ground clutching onto the edges of the console. Ditzy held onto the branch with one arm, the other holding Dinky to her in means to protect her from getting hurt.
The TARDIS quickly stopped all movement whatsoever, so I ran back to the power systems and flicked it on once more. All of a sudden a tingling sensation erupted into my foot.
I tried to point out what was happening, and the engines roared in response to my thoughts. "Oh, no you didn`t!" I laughed to the TARDIS. "You healed me using your power, didn`t you?!"
The lights shone brightly upon us and Ditzy laughed at my remark. "Oh thank Celestia!"
"I know, right," I replied, my breathing heavy, my chest making it look like I was slowly hyperventilating. I peeked over at the monitors and saw the same question marks as before. "Hey, TARDIS, can you give us a picture of outside?"
But the picture wasn`t what I expected when it had shown on the monitor.
Cracked ground, no water, a large, rocky cliff, lines in the ground showing how deprived of hydration the land really is.
My hearts stopped for a few long seconds and I felt lightheaded.
"I will NOT leave you behind!" Ditzy screamed. Her hand went flying directly overhead, but I slipped. "DOCTOR, NO!"
Author`s Note:
Okay, let me get something straight. I do these "dreams-coming-true" coincidences because I want to. So, if you see a dream, expect it to happen, but in a more dramatic way.
- GothicPegasister