Ditzy looked at the ground, watching her hooves knead the turf below her. Why won't he say anything? She lost track of how long they had been standing there; he was looking at her, and she was looking at the ground. Neither of them had said anything yet.
Ditzy finally broke the silence, "How'd you do it? How'd you come back?" she asked, looking up at him.
He was standing in front of her, leaning his head against that big, blue box of his. He wore an expression of weary, and it broke Ditzy's heart. He looked so young on the outside, but whenever Ditzy looked into his eyes she was reminded of it. That he was much, much older than anything else, and that he had seen and done unbelievable things. Ditzy had once asked him what it was like to live forever, and she hadn't been expecting his answer.
It's a funny thing, Ditzy, he had said, when you spend your entire life running, at the end of it all, you don't feel satisfied, you don't feel joy, you don't feel disappointment. In the end, you just feel tired.
And when Ditzy looked up into his half-lidded gaze, eyes shining in the starlight, he looked tired. She could see the weight of all he had done pressing down on him, and it broke her heart.
"Emergency reverse temporal shift," he finally said, "I basically put it in reverse and slammed it against the timelock until it broke."
Ditzy almost smiled. That was just like him, too. Not many things made him angry, but not being able to control his circumstances was one of them. When he couldn't figure out a clever way to disable the timelock, he had just started hitting it over and over, in desperation.
Desperation.
"How long has it been?" he asked. He didn't sound curious. He sounded apprehensive.
Ditzy almost didn't want to tell him, or at least lie. But no, he would see right through that, and not just because he was psychic. "Six years," she said.
He closed his eyes, and lowered his head. Ditzy watched him intently. He had a bit of a problem with missing dates; how long had he been trying? After what seemed an eternity, he nodded and opened his eyes, "So how is she?"
Ditzy's heart skipped a beat, "W-who?"
The Doctor looked at her, head tilted against his TARDIS. He looked so tired, Ditzy just wanted to hold him and tell him everything would be okay, but she knew it would be more likely of him doing that to her. He didn't say anything, but she could see the gears grinding away in his mind. If he already knew, then he wouldn't force the issue if Ditzy refused to acknowledge it, and Ditzy knew it. Because if she said it, then he would stay. If she even said a single word about it, if she acknowledged Dinky in the slightest, then he would stay. He already couldn't bear losing Ditzy, but he would tear apart time and space in an instant to get to the both of them.
But as long as Ditzy stayed silent, he would leave. She couldn't make him stay, not like this.
"Mommy?" a small voice called from the front door.
Ditzy didn't turn around, because she was looking at him. She saw something in his eyes, something she had never seen there before-at least not in his eyes. She saw love.
"Go back to bed, muffin," Ditzy said firmly, but gently. Dinky didn't listen, and she didn't even need to turn around to see that. She soon felt her beloved daughter pressing herself behind her foreleg, hiding from the stranger and his blue box, who was looking down at her with wide eyes, as if he was just a colt and she was the biggest present under the tree.
"Who's that?" Dinky asked. Oh, Dinky, Ditzy though, It wasn't supposed to happen like this.
But, taking a deep breath through her nose, she went through with it. She pulled Dinky out from under her and bent down to her level, face to face, "Dinky, what have I ever told you about your father?"
Dinky was obviously surprised at the sudden question, her sleepy eyes blinked away as she processed the request, but she repeated what she had been told, "That, um, he was a great pony-the greatest-and that he had a bigger responsibility, to the whole universe!" by the end of her statement, she was riled up with pride in her father that she'd never met.
Ditzy looked up to see the Doctor's reaction. He was still staring with wide eyes, but he wasn't smiling. He hadn't smiled all night.
"That's right, muffin," she said, her eyes filling up with tears. She wiped them away and gently turned her around to face the brown stallion behind her, "So, say hello!"
Dinky's eyes widened as she realized the implication. Not taking her eyes off of the Doctor, she took slow, careful steps forward. The Doctor looked down at her, a wide grin slowly creeping across his face.
And then, unable to contain herself any longer, Dinky ran at him, tackling him in a warm embrace. The Doctor bent down and met her, wrapping his hooves around her.
"Daddy," Dinky whispered, burying her face in his shoulder.
And then, something happened that Ditzy had never seen before.
The Doctor cried.
"My...daughter," he choked, tears spilling out of the corners of his eyes.
Dinky settled back into her bed, wiggling her way into the thick covers, giggling as her father tucked her in. He wrapped the covers tightly around her, patted her shoulders, and stood back up. Dinky suddenly grabbed his elbow as he did so, saying, "You'll still be here when I wake up...won't you?"
"Of course he is," Ditzy said instantly, wrapping a hoof around the Doctor's leg.
The Doctor looked at her as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Ditzy gave him a warm smile; he wouldn't be leaving, not now, and Ditzy was okay with that. As long as he was here, they'd be alright. He returned her smile, turned to Dinky, and nodded, "Of course," he agreed.
Dinky smiled, but was interrupted by a big yawn, "That's good," she said, her eyes fluttering shut, "that's good..." within minutes, she was snoring away softly.
Ditzy and the Doctor tiptoed out of the room; he shut the door slowly behind him, then turned towards Ditzy and said, "She's..."
Ditzy nodded, "She's yours," she assured. She had gotten the news not months after she had activated the timelock from her nurse, Redheart. Everypony had been thrilled for her, and had questioned her endlessly about the father. Equestrian time, she had been gone just a month. Her time, she wasn't exactly sure. Rumors of her running off with a handsome stranger spiraled around town for months afterward, but every time the conversation turned towards that, she would simply smile and shrug. Now, she supposed, everypony would be meeting the Doctor. What would she say?
No, she didn't have to worry about that. Not now. As long as the Doctor was here, everything would be fine.
"But that means.." the Doctor said cautiously, "She's...she's half pony, and..."
Ditzy nodded, "She's half timelord, Doctor," she explained, "I guess that's where she got her horn from."
The Doctor wasn't actually a pony, though you wouldn't know if you met him on the road. He was a timelord-an alien. Not just that-Ditzy didn't know how, the Doctor had never told her-but he was the last of the timelords. The only reason the Doctor looked like a pony was because of his TARDIS-it had something called...a chameleon circuit, Ditzy remembered, it was what made his ship look like just a blue police box, but that wasn't the limit of it's capabilities. The Doctor had used it to disguise himself. I biologically engrained the Chameleon Circuit in my DNA-it literally reconstructed my body to be that of an Equine-and I put the controls in my Sonic, the Doctor had explained it once.
He nodded, looking off into space, "Timelords have psychic capabilities-ponies do too, but their capabilities are untapped-perhaps that part of my biology manifested as the horn, which does show similar abilities to..." he looked back at Ditzy, "Sorry, I'm rambling," he said with a smile.
"I like it when you ramble," Ditzy replied lovingly. taking his hoof in her own, she said, "Come on, it's been a while. We should catch up," and lead him away, towards her own room.
Unbeknownst to them, some distance away, a select few individuals had been watching the tearful reunion with malicious intent.
"So that's why he wanted our engines," said the first, "He couldn't break through a Dalek timelock with a TT capsule alone."
"For a self proclaimed protector of Earth," observed the second, "He seems surprisingly willing to remain an Equine. Perhaps he will stay here."
"He won't be leaving this planet, that's for sure," said a third, the leader of the small group, "Because we'll kill him before he gets a chance."
"And how will we do that?" asked the first sarcastically, "You may be the greatest timelord hunter, but even you cannot stop the Doctor. He has a huge, horrible history."
"He will stop at nothing to protect himself and his home," concurred the second, "I do not think we can overpower him."
"We won't need to," said the leader menacingly, eyes focused on the filly in the Doctor's embrace, "He will hand himself over to us willingly, if it was to save his daughter."
His cohorts began laughing as they realized his plan, smiling maliciously.
"His love for all creatures will be his greatest weakness," the second agreed.
"We will go down in history as the slayers of the last timelord," the first dreamed.
"I don't care about that," the leader dismissed, "I care about seeing the Doctor-the predator, the oncoming storm, the destroyer of worlds-groveling. I want him to beg for mercy."