Doctor Whooves - Memories and Nightmares

by BlueDanube

A Mare's Meal

It had been a clear night, perfect for the griffon soaring through the sky to make excellent time on her journey. With a little luck Gwendolyn would be in Canterlot early enough to be able to catch some much-needed sleep before her scheduled appointment with the Royal Princesses. It wouldn't do for a griffon ambassador to show up to their first meeting with both Princesses in attendance looking like something a manticore dragged in. First impressions were important and, while Celestia had been relatively informal behind closed doors and would no doubt forgive or politely ignore a few yawns, no one knew much about the younger sister Luna. Best to try and play it safe and try to avoid sparking an incident between the two races. No one wanted a repeat of her predecessor's antics during the Royal Wedding.

Gwendolyn made a mental note to stay as far away from any pink earth ponies as physically possible, giving a wry chuckle to herself as she remembered first hearing the news of that little fiasco. As far as home was concerned, word of Griselda's performance overshadowed even the brief changeling invasion.
"I'll have to ask if there were any pictures taken," the griffon laughed to herself, angling her course towards the mountains that housed Equestria's grandest city. With the wind at her back, she soared higher and higher, hoping to see the castle off on the horizon. Instead a series of bright flashes in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she slowed to a hover.

The griffon idly flapped her wings, looking out away from the gemstone mines towards the deep, dark Everfree Forest. There was a small town near its edge, Ponyville if her memory was correct, being lit up again and again by what appeared to be lightning. Gwendolyn blinked, narrowing her eyes as she looked harder, the skies were completely clear. But that definitely appeared to be lightning. She could even make out small wisps of black smoke from where-ever the lightning struck, and the tiny silhouettes of pegasi trying to keep the fires under control. They seemed to weave and hover unsteadily, fighting what could only be horrifically strong winds. While it seemed as though the town hadn't suffered any real damage, the weatherponies seemed to be struggling to make sure it stayed that way.
"That can't be good," she mused to the clear night air. Ponies were masters at weather manipulation, they made even the Griffon Kingdom seem like bumbling amateurs, anything they couldn't handle would send a shiver down even the bravest griffon's spine.

Still, no well meaning creature would just ignore a crisis. If things were anywhere close to as bad as they looked from a distance, then Gwendolyn's larger frame and more powerful wings would come in handy. It would make her late for her meeting, but the Princesses surely would approve of lending their subjects a helping talon. With only a moments hesitation, she turned away from Canterlot and towards the light-show above Ponyville, only to slam straight into what felt like a wall of air. Feathers ruffled and a small ungriffonlike squawk escape her as what had been a breeze behind her suddenly turned into a blinding gale in front.
"What the?!" She flapped madly, launching herself backwards, only to find the breeze at her back once more. Slowing to a hover, she glanced down at the ground below her, lit up by Luna's moon. While below her the ground appeared to be still, in front there was dust and stones being kicked up by a gale that seemed to just suddenly vanish before her eyes. She slowly floated over to the threshold, holding out a clawed forearm and pushing it through, feeling the wind pressing back while the rest of her body felt none of it, as through the storm just ceased to exist past its boundary. "Okay, now this is just creepy."

Having second thoughts about fighting through an obviously surreal storm, she tried to see if there was an easier way around, watching the disturbed stones to work out how large the storm would be and if there was a way to skirt around its edges and reach the trouble town that way. She nearly dropped out of the sky when she saw just how big it was. Or how tiny. It was barely ten meters across, a circle of disturbed dust clearly marking out what had to be the tiniest gale in existence. She floated around the outside, poking and prodding at the boundary, feeling the wind pushing back every time no matter what direction she tried. That ruled out a tornado, but only left more questions. Wind doesn't just disappear into thin air, a phrase Gwendolyn never thought she'd have to use, but there it was. The griffon couldn't even hear the gale until she stuck her head inside, yet another thing that should be impossible. Whatever this was, it went against everything she knew.

She floated back a few meters, sizing up the impossible storm with her forelegs crossed, glancing back towards Ponyville on occasion. There had to be a connection between the storm they were fighting and the tiny one she'd discovered. Two weird things happening at once, at the same time was very unlikely to be a coincidence. It was entirely possible that her storm was just a smaller version of whatever it was that was besieging the townsponies, she wouldn't know for certain until she got there.
"I think I'd have preferred the party pony," Gwendolyn sighed, turning away from the storm to head towards the town. She was sure somepony there would know more about whatever this was, and would probably want to know about her discovery.

She didn't expect the sky behind her to light up, brighter than the sun, before a massive boom nearly gave her a heart attack. She spun back to the strange gale, having to shield her eyes in a vain attempt to protect them from the flash of lightning that burnt itself in her vision. She flapped backwards blindly, away from the light and noise, heart beating double-time in her chest. That bolt had been close enough to touch, she was certain of it, and yet she hadn't even felt the heat or static. Once she felt far enough away, she dropped to the ground and shook her head, trying to clear her eyes of the vivid after image and her ears of the ringing.

She braced herself for more lightning, more thunder, but none came. Slowly, she looked up and towards the impossible gale, only for to stare open-mouthed as she found yet another impossible thing. The gale seemed to have faded, there was no more dust being kicked up by strange wind, but in its place the rocky ground had been charred black. The mark was perfectly circular, seeming to fill the entire space the gale had occupied. And right in its centre, lay a pony.
"...This is new." Storms appearing out thin air were one thing, but ponies? Gwendolyn dropped to the ground, stepping up to the edge of the black circle, sizing up the equine. It seemed larger than an ordinary pony, the kind that didn't materialise in a lightning strike, it appeared only a little smaller than Princess Celestia. Amazingly, despite the state of the ground underneath, its coat didn't seem scorched at all, magenta fur and a violet mane with purple highlights standing out even in the moonlight. The griffon could make out the pony's chest rising and falling with steady breaths.

No horn or wings, so it was an earth pony. No magic or flight to explain how the equine ended up in the middle of Diamond Dog territory. Appeared to be a mare, Gwendolyn observed, running a careful eye up and down the pony in case of any injuries. There didn't appear to be anything, at all, which just seemed wrong considering her method of arrival. No burns, no bruises, nothing. Not even a single mark on her. The griffon nervously reached out a talon, prodding at the air around the blackened earth, the strange wind no longer fighting her back. With a final glance up in case of a second lightning bolt, she stepped over the boundary and towards the prone pony.
"Hello? Are you okay?" She asked, keeping a careful watch on the sky as she approached. "Can you hear me?"
"Doc...tor..." a surprisingly hoarse voice came from the mare, making her sound more like a stallion. Or at least in need of some cough drops. "Need doctor."
"There's a town nearby, I'm sure they'll have one who can help you." Gwendolyn crouched down in front of the pony, "are you feeling okay? No pain or anything?"

The strange mare opened her eyes finally, looking up at the concerned griffon who stared back, almost mesmerised. The pony's eyes seemed to shift between colours, seeming to flit between blue, green and brown as her head moved before finally settling on purple as they finally focused on Gwendolyn.
"Hi there." It wasn't easy putting on a friendly smile with a beak but the feathered diplomat had more than enough practice to pull it off. "I'm here to help. You hurting anywhere?"
The mare shook her head slowly, eyeing the griffon up and down in a way that sent a shiver down her back.
She fought it down, keeping her patented diplomatic smile in place, "I guess you've never seen a griffon before?" Another negative, which wasn't much of a surprise. There weren't many griffons in Equestria outside of Cloudsdale or Canterlot, so most ponies tended to have a similar reaction, although their gaze had seemed more cautious compared to the mare's almost predatory look.
Gwendolyn shrugged off the feeling, it was just the weird storm making her paranoid. Freak wind and lightning would make anyone's mind start imagining things, "I promise I won't hurt you, I just want to help. Can you stand at all?"

The mare stayed silent, looking down at the ground for a moment before shifting her weight and starting to rise on her hooves. Gwendolyn darted forwards to help the pony as she wobbled unsteadily, but the moment the griffon made contact it was her own body that seemed to lock rigid. She tried to move but every muscle and feather seemed completely frozen in place and a chill ran through her from where her claws met the mare's shoulder.
"W-what..." she managed to stammer out, fear lancing through her as the pony stood straight and tall, no sign of the weakness from before.
"Gwendolyn," the mare spoke, her voice suddenly sounded much softer, with a disturbing sing-song lilt to it.
"H-how are you doing this?" The griffon's beak and voicebox fought again every word but she managed to choke them out, despite feeling as though every scrap of strength and body heat was being pulled right out of her. "How do you know my name?"
"Learning," the strange mare's voice shifted further and further, until an almost perfect mimicry of Gwendolyn's own came out of her mouth, "want to be finished."

The mare stepped away, out of the paralysed griffon's reach. Gwendolyn didn't notice the way the mare's coat colouration seemed to shift, patches of magenta fur darkening to a brown that matched her own feathers. She found herself staring dead into those very, very predatory eyes of the pony that moved to stand in front of her. Not that this was a pony, no matter what she looked like. There was no way this was a pony of any kind.
"W-what are-" it was more and more of a chore to talk, to focus on anything other than the mare that slowly moved closer and closer again, until those mesmerising eyes were all she could see as the two almost touched. "What are you?"
"Don't know yet. Want to find out. Need Doctor."

Anything else that Gwendolyn could think off, any thing she could say to try and get out of this, whatever this was, in one piece died in her throat when the mare leaned forwards, eyes overtaken by a brilliant white glow as their foreheads touched.

The first thing Twilight noticed when she came to was how quiet it was. The silence blasting away her sleepiness far better than an alarm clock ever, eye darting open around glancing around Fluttershy's living room. Bright sunlight streamed in through the open windows, along with a warm breeze that was a far cry from the weather earlier. The clock on the wall still read 10.43, but she was able to tell it was around seven in the morning just from the strength of the sunlight. She'd been out cold for six hours, she thought with an annoyed sigh. Something her body was thankful for, sore at it was from sleeping in a strange position, even if her brain was screaming at her for wasting time during a crisis. Of all the times to take a power-nap. Twilight made a mental note to make sure Fluttershy had some coffee in case it ever happened again, looking around for any sign of her friend or the strange Doctor character, who she was determined to try and get some answers out of now she was slightly more alert. He'd been able to figure out the storm in moments, even with the amnesia, there was a good chance he was the key to finding out what caused it. That had to be what Future Twilight had sent her for.

She could hear nothing but complete silence, no animals running around, no sounds of movement from upstairs. After the constant barrage of noise from the night before, it was rather unnerving. Gingerly, groaning at the aches and stiffness in her back legs from where she'd been sleeping, the unicorn hopped off of the couch and took a look around the living room. Still no sign of either pony, nor the veritable army of critters that had been weathering out the storm.
"Fluttershy?" Twilight called, it seemed unusual for her friend to pull a disappearing act like this without leaving a note or animal messenger of some kind, "anyone home?"
"I'm in the kitchen!" The Doctor's voice came back, sounding almost amused, "we have breakfast if you're hungry."
Twilight may have not been entirely sure how to respond to that, but her stomach certainly did. Her coat turning almost beet red as she heard the stallion chuckling from the other room. He hadn't heard that from in there, had he? Well regardless, getting some food sure beat standing around talking to herself.

Twilight realised it was going to be a strange day, even by Ponyville standards, when she walked into Fluttershy's kitchen to find the Doctor sitting at the plain oak table having a conversation with a hedgehog.
"So there isn't a Mrs Prickles?" He asked the table's other occupant while trying to open a jar with his hooves, nearly knocking over the plates of toast in front of him. "I find that hard to believe."
Prickles the hedgehog looked up from his own meal of a fruit salad, pausing in midchew of a blackberry to scrunch his nose and snort at the chestnut earth pony who gave up on the jar after attempting to prop it up against the table edge and pry it open with his teeth. Although Twilight got the feeling he only stopped because she'd walked in, if the way he pushed it behind the hedgehog as if to hide it while affixing her with a sheepish grin was any indication.
"Hello." The Doctor waved as Twilight stared at him from the doorway, trying to smile like he hadn't been caught and nothing was wrong.
"Good morning." She nodded in return, deciding not to point out that his poker face was worse than Applejack's, as she trotted over and took a seat by the table.

The Doctor's jaw dropped when the jar that had been giving him so much trouble was lit up by a purple aura matching that coming from Twilight's horn, the lid popping off with no fuss at all as she levitated it over and started spreading the jam inside over a piece of toast with a wry smirk.
"Magic," she answered the unspoken question, taking a bite out of her toast before returning it to her plate and fixing the awestruck earth pony with a level stare. "How could you just forget about magic?"
"If I could remember how I'd forgotten everything, I'd have worked out how to reverse it already," he shrugged, which didn't really answer the question, "how do you do that?"
"It's a just basic levitation spell, it's the first spell any unicorn learns."
"Ah, so it's a unicorn only trick." He dabbed at his forehead with a hoof for a moment, looking annoyed before brushing it off and continuing like nothing ever happened, "I'm guessing the horn is a focus?"
"That's a simple way of putting it, yes." Twilight took another bite of her toast in order to prevent herself from launching into Unicorn Magic 101, there were much more important things to address before starting the lectures. "Where's Fluttershy?"
"Taking her animal friends back to their homes. Took the angry rabbit with her too, thankfully," the Doctor idly pushed his untouched bit of toast around his plate, sneaking the odd glance towards the jar of jam sitting to Twilight's left.

She pushed it towards him without a word. Part of her was tempted to grill the pony for more details, to double check every scrap of information to make sure he wasn't lying. But he didn't seem to be, he didn't really have anything to gain from it. And it was really, really difficult to picture him as up to no good while watching him fumble around with a butter knife like a newborn foal. Eye's narrowed in concentration as he tried to manipulate the utensil and only managed to send it nearly skittering off the edge of the table. The Doctor glared at the silver cutlery before making a second attempt that somehow ended with him nearly stabbing himself. With a knife with no blade.
"This shouldn't be hard!" He grumbled, pushing the butter knife away as though it had personally offended him, "this is just brilliant. No memories, can barely walk three paces before falling flat on my face and now I can't even have toast. You can't have toast plain, that ruins it!"

Maybe it due to a week of helping a decidedly stressed fashionista but Twilight found herself with the strange mental image of the stallion declaring his lack of breakfast to be the final straw before collapsing onto Fluttershy's fainting couch and weeping. She quickly waved the image away. While the Doctor certainly seemed eccentric, although she had a feeling insane was a better word, he didn't come across as the melodramatic type. Besides, the last thing she wanted to do was get caught smirking at his predicament. If she was, the chestnut stallion didn't seem to notice, laying his head on the table and pouting like a disappointed colt.
"This is rubbish. I'm a rubbish pony. Now I'm gonna starve because I can't even eat some stupid toast!"

Okay, maybe he was the melodramatic type. And if Rarity was anything to go by, Twilight had to snap him out of it if she was to have any chance of getting any answers out of him before she was Granny Smith's age. She sighed to herself, wondering yet again just how she kept managing to get into these weird situations even as she mulled over her options. She had three that came to mind, all named after her friends: The Rarity approach; the Rainbow approach; and Pinkie Pie style. The last was dismissed straight away, the unicorn strongly doubted that a song and dance routine was going to help somepony depressed over being clumsy.
'Plus, I am trying to come across as the sane one here.' It was much too early to even contemplate attempting to think like Pinkie. That was a late afternoon and fourteen gallons of coffee kind of mindset.

That left the Rarity approach, tactfully coaxing and trying to charm a positive response, or the Rainbow way; brute force it and bluntly argue some common sense into his skull. Both seemed daunting, she'd never witnessed her friends dealing with an amnesiac before so she found herself with no baseline to go on. Both could backfire horrifically if she overdid it and the last thing she wanted to do was make things worse. She did not want to have to explain to Fluttershy just why there was a stallion having an existential crisis over some toast when she came back. If she ever came back, Twilight was listening as hard as she could and there was no sign of her friend returning any time soon. No cavalry coming to the rescue.
'Okay, you're on your own. Think, Twilight. This is easy, figure out which method is riskier and pick the other one. Simple tactical decision.'

Or she could snap out of her thoughts in time to witness the hedgehog helping the Doctor with the knife, thereby allowing him the breakfast he wanted and cutting the entire crisis off at the trigger. That would work too.
'Huh. Didn't think of that.' Being outsmarted by a hedgehog, that was new. Twilight made a mental note to talk to Fluttershy more about her critters, there could very well be a friendship report or two in there. She also made a mental postscript to never, ever let Spike know. If he ever found out, it'd be like the Smarty Pants incident all over again, only Twilight couldn't use the Owloysius incident in return to keep him quiet this time. That was the problem with familial blackmail, it tended to only have one effective use.
"You okay there?" The Doctor's voice snapped her back to reality, "you were staring off into space for a while."
"Just thinki-" Twilight started to reply, only to stop when she noticed what he was up to. "What in Equestria are you doing?"

The brown earth pony had managed to give his pieces of toast a slightly excessive coating of jam and was pulling the butter over towards him, evidentially about to add that too.
"What?" He noticed the shocked expression on the unicorn's face, "what's wrong with butter? Nothing wrong with butter, is there? Because I don't see why Fluttershy would have left some if there was something wrong with it."
"You already have jam!" A phrase Twilight never thought she'd have to say. To somepony other than Pinkie Pie, anyway.
"Oh, right," he looked up from giving the butter a suspicious sniff as though checking for poison, "good point. I should use a clean knife. Wouldn't want to get jam in the butter."
"Then why are you going to put butter on the jam?" Twilight was starting to have doubts about assuming this pony was going to be any use at solving the mystery of the storm, he was really beginning to come across as just a little bit crazy, even by Ponyville standards.
"Because I couldn't decide between buttered toast and jam on toast. Can't remember which one I like more and didn't know which one to try so, hey, why not both? Have my toast and eat it too."
"It'll taste horrible."
"You don't know that," he pointed out, "I certainly don't. Look forward to finding out though."

He grinned that manic grin again as Prickles pushed over another butter knife, the stallion managing to pick it up on his own this time as he went to work while Twilight could only look on in a mixture of horror and rapt fascination. For a moment she wondered if it would have been more appropriate if the storm had still been going, illuminating this mad culinary science with lightning just like in those creepy fables in her books. Then she realised that she should probably stop letting her imagination run away with her before she started envisioning the pony laughing like a madpony and screaming "it lives, it lives!" Even if the look on his face did little to dissuade the possibility. Prickles didn't seem too worried though, the hedgehog going back to munching his salad as the Doctor finally finished, raised the toast abomination and took a bite.

The moment of truth. He paused, chewing thoughtfully before swallowing and fixing the unicorn with a wry smile. "Pretty good."
"Really?" She'd expected the exact opposite reaction, something similar to the infamous Baked Bads.
"Yup. Might want to put the butter on first next time though, be a little less messy." He hadn't entirely succeeded in his attempts to keep the jam out of the butter, or off of his face for that matter. "But, hey, jam and butter is a good combination."
"Who'd have thought." Twilight deadpanned.
"Wanna try?" He pushed the plate with the second slice of toast towards her.
"No thanks," he may have found it to his liking but she highly doubted she would be the same way, "I have my own."
"It's good!" The Doctor insisted.
"There is no way you are getting me to try that."

Barely a minute later she had the piece floating in front of her with her magic, eyeing it up while the mad chestnut pony sat across from her egging her on.
"How did you talk me into this?" She spoke up, anything to delay having to eat the buttered jam toast for a few more seconds.
"I have no idea. Apparently I'm pretty good at talking." The Doctor grinned, happy at actually having figured out something about himself, even if it was only a little thing. A little thing that could convince a pony to try an unholy breakfast concoction against their better judgement. 'Words, the greatest power in the universe.'
"Well, here goes nothing... I hope." Twilight glanced towards the sink, making sure she had a clear run for it in case anything happened and took one last listen for Fluttershy returning. With no sign of rescue coming, she sighed, closed her eyes and took a bite.

Dead silence reigned, the Doctor and Prickles the hedgehog watching as the unicorn thoughtfully chewed. Seconds passed, the Doctor's ear twitching in the place of a ticking clock before Twilight finally swallowed and announced her verdict.
"...It isn't bad." She was forced to admit. "Tastes a little like cake." She took a second, much less apprehensive bite. While her usual taste in food tended to be rather plain and analytical, Pinkie or Applejack's baking notwithstanding, she tended to eat simply to avoid starving, Twilight found herself thinking that she actually wouldn't mind eating this on occasion.
"See!" He beamed up at her, clearly pleased at the positive response, before his eyes flicked up over her shoulder, "thanks for the breakfast, Fluttershy."
"What."

Twilight's toast dropped to the plate, her magic hold on it vanishing as she spun around, practically falling out of her seat as she stared up at her friend who was standing in the kitchen doorway and looking back with confusion clear in her eyes. Twilight was suddenly very aware of the small bit of buttered jam that she'd gotten on her cheek from the Doctor's slight overzealousness with the butter knife, making it all but impossible to deny that she'd been caught red-hooved chowing some crazy culinary concoction.
"This isn't what it looks like!" She insisted, turning to point a hoof at the brown stallion sitting opposite her, "he made me do it."
"I did no such thing," the Doctor countered, giving a charming smile that was almost pure innocence. It would have done the CMC proud, but it didn't fool Twilight. There was no way he was passing the buck for this mess onto her.
"You're the one with a plate of-" she paused, looking down at his plate. At the perfectly normal jam on toast on it. The perfectly normal toast that she was fairly certain she'd been eating. She looked at her own plate, finding the second piece of buttered jam toast on it. "You switched the plates!"
"I did no such thing, honest." He repeated, slowly reaching up and holding a hoof out to Prickles, the hedgehog raising a paw and giving the offered limb a bump.

He'd gotten the hedgehog to switch the plates. They were teaming up on her! Twilight's eye twitched slightly.
"Um, Twilight. It's okay-" Fluttershy started, only for the unicorn to cut her off.
"No. I will not be beaten in a battle of wits by an amnesiac and a hedgehog." This was no amusing prank, not any more. Her reputation and pride as Ponyville's librarian and Princess Celestia's prized student was at stake.
"Oh?" The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "and how do you propose to win?"
"Simple." Twilight grinned, the kind of grin that looked more fitting on a dragon, "there's one thing you forgot to take into account."
"Really?"
"Yes. This buttered jam is rather messy, isn't it?" She dabbed at her cheek with a napkin, "you've got some jam on your snout."
"I have jam on my toast." It was her toast!
"Hold it! I'm not finished. You also have some butter on your hoof." She added, sitting back in her chair as the stallion raised the hoof he'd offered to Prickles only to find that, yes, his clumsiness with the butter knife had left him with a rather obvious dollop of butter on his foreleg. Twilight let that sink in for a moment before she went in for the kill, "thereby proving that you were the one with the butter, which clearly has some jam in. Conclusively proving that the pony who made the buttered jam toast was you!"
'I knew that 'How to Become a Lawyer in 24 Hours' book would come in handy someday!' She added to herself, waiting for the reaction from the stunned earth pony.

The Doctor paused for a moment, sitting back and hmming quietly to himself as his eyes flicked between Twilight, Prickles and the baffled Fluttershy still standing in the doorway with no idea what was going on. Smiling reassuringly up at the pegasus shifting from hoof to hoof, he turned his gaze back to his opponent. Without a word he slowly pushed her plate back across the table to her.
"Well, Miss Sparkle, you got me," he said, beaming all the while, "you're just as brilliant as your friend said you were, picking up on a little detail like that."
"You were testing me?" She could not believe this stallion. What kind of pony does that?! At least announce there was a test first.
"Yup. My condition makes no sense and there was a storm with the power of time itself, I have to know if you are ontop of your game if we're to have a chance at solving this one. And I was bored, I've been awake since last night-"
"You didn't sleep, at all?!" Fluttershy eeped, "that's terrible! Even I managed a little when the storm ended."
"Kind of hard to doze off when in a room with about a hundred animals all staring at you." With one bunny in particular looking ready to turf him back out into the storm should he so much as blink out of line. "Besides, I slept enough out in the storm. All the waiting gave me plenty of time to think, try and get some memories back."
"Any luck?" Twilight perked up, interested in hearing more about this strange pony's amnesia as it didn't match anything she'd ever read about before. As far she she knew, amnesia tended to affect short term memory, preventing a pony from remembering anything for long after the amnesia occurred, while leaving their previous memories intact. The Doctor's seemed to be the inverse.

"Nope," the Doctor sighed, "Just got bored. But before Fluttershy here'd been dragged off to get some sleep by some of her critters, she had told me a little about you and how smart you were."
"Oh, it was nothing really." Fluttershy sat down at the table with the two of them, reaching over to start tidying up the mess to try and hide the fact her cheeks were almost glowing red, "I just wanted to let you know you didn't need to worry about not getting any help you need."
"The fact I wasn't left in that storm was more than enough to let me know I was in good hooves," he paused for a moment, suddenly veering off topic, "I did phrase that right, right?"
"Yeah."
"Weird, didn't feel right. Why didn't that feel right? I can remember how to talk-"
'We noticed.' Twilight thought to herself, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.
"-just fine, it comes naturally, but I have to stop and think about the phrasing. I can remember the names of objects and things but had no idea about magic or those cutie mark whatsits. Fluttershy, you said this is Equestria, right?"
"Yes," the pegasus answered, while Twilight sat back and watched. She wasn't sure where he was going with that.
"Feels like I've never even heard of it."
"That's impossible!"

"Impossible," he chuckled at the word, "that's me all over. Appearing out of thin air in a freak storm, two hearts, no cutie mark, brown, memory on the fritz. Anything else I'm missing?"
"Being mentioned in a letter from the future," Twilight blurted out, before looking back up at the doctor, "brown?"
"You and Fluttershy have bright colours. I don't. Seems weird to me." He looked back at her, a strange gleam appearing in his eyes, "now what's this about a letter from the future? That sounds interesting."
"Yes," Fluttershy nodded, turning her attention to her friend as well, "I don't remember anything about a letter."
"I kinda forgot about it until now." Twilight gave a sheepish smile, "I got distracted with your breakfast abomination."
"Speaking of which, can I have that back? I'm starving here."

Twilight pushed his plate back across the table, the Doctor quietly chewing on his toast with a pensive expression as she narrated the story about the letter that had sent her to Fluttershy's in the first place. He only interrupted once or twice, asking about her previous encounter with her future self, preferring to listen with rapt fascination. He barely even noticed when Fluttershy went to get some of the jam off of his face with a napkin.
"And so I came straight here," Twilight finished, as the Doctor polished off the last of his buttered jam toast.
"Odd chestnut one? She called me the really odd chestnut one?"
"Her words, not mine." Twilight insisted, hoping he wouldn't notice that they were the technically same pony, just from different time periods. And that he was totally a really odd chestnut pony.
"No, I like it. Odd."
"Of course you do." It was certainly easy to see where Future Twilight had gotten the 'odd' from. He easily rated a twelve on the weirdo meter, which only went to ten, and Twilight had a feeling he wasn't even warmed up yet. "I can only guess she asked me to come here because of you."

The Doctor tapped a hoof against the table top as he thought it over. It seemed the logical conclusion. While concern for Fluttershy was likely a factor as well, it was unlikely that Future Twilight would have found a way to do something that apparently even magic shouldn't be able to do without another reason behind it. Especially considering she was sitting in Fluttershy's kitchen, well aware that no pony or critter had been hurt. Which brought to mind another detail that didn't quite make sense.
"She sent you here straight away, knowing you'd crash after meeting me."
"Yeah?"
"Why? Why not wait until this morning? You could have popped in now. You'd probably have slept better in an actual bed."
"That's a good point." She conceded.
"And wouldn't have had to put up with me at breakfast."
"A very good point."

"Um..." Fluttershy raised a hoof, "I might have an idea."
"This isn't a school, you don't have to do that." The Doctor piped up, switching from a thoughtful frown to a joking smile.
"Oh, I'm sorry." She lowered the hoof and sat in silence for a moment.
"The idea of yours?" He prompted, realising she'd taken him seriously.
"Oh, sorry. It's just, well, everypony in Ponyville looks up to Twilight..."

Fluttershy paused, nervously fidgeting with a napkin while the Doctor glanced across at Twilight who merely grinned sheepishly. She was about to insist that Fluttershy had been exaggerating, practically glowing crimson under her coat, when her friend promptly took a deep breath and continued on much louder and confident than before.
"After Nightmare Moon, the Ursa and helping organize Winter Wrap Up, the whole town turns to her when it's a crisis."
"No, no they don't."
"We got over our fear of Zecora because of you."
"That was Apple Bloom." This was not an argument Twilight had ever expected to be having, with Fluttershy of all ponies.
"The town wouldn't have listened to her. They listened to you."
"All of that went completely over my head," the Doctor piped up, deciding to ignore the barrage of unfamiliar names for the time being in favour of solving at least part of the puzzle, "but I'm getting the point."
'Fancy explaining it to me?' Twilight sighed to herself.

She found herself pleasantly surprised when he went on to do just that, "whole town views Twilight as some leader figure when things get weird, that's what you are implying, yes?"
"Yes." Fluttershy nodded, smiling proudly at the perplexed purple pony sitting across the table from her. Was that true, Twilight found herself wondering, although she hadn't the time to ponder over it when the Doctor turned to address her as well.
"Big freaky storm hits. Pretty much textbook weird thing there. And you said you were trying to figure it out when this letter showed up?"
"Yes."
"So they probably know you're on the case already. Plus you don't get a storm that size with out a little damage-" he pointed at Twilight, switching back to deadly serious mode as she started to climb back to her feet, "let me finish before you start panicking."
"But-"
"If the rest of town is even half as well built as this cottage then the wind won't have done any major damage to anypony's homes, other than blow a few tiles off or nick a mailbox. Your future self seemed to have a plan for dealing with any fires from the lightning. So I'll wager what memories I have left and this weird extra heart of mine that there wasn't any catastrophic damage, just wrecked gardens and stuff. Messy, sure, but not dangerous."

Twilight wanted to argue with that, that there was no way he could be so certain without going and looking for himself. But he had a strange, confident tone and look in his eye that made it easy to just believe him; it reminded her an awful lot of Princess Celestia during her first magic lessons. She slowly sat back down, taking a few deep breaths before looking back up at the stallion, who was beaming that stupid grin again.
"Brilliant. Love it when people listen," he and Prickles shared another hoofbump in celebration. "Now, to finish up. Little damage or no, there's still going to be a lot of mess to clean up and answers to seek."
"And I'd be the pony they want for the job."
"With good reason, from what I can see." He beamed wider, before frowning, "even if you are a tad prone to over-reacting."
"You had a breakdown over toast." Twilight deadpanned in reply, both ponies ignoring the baffled look from Fluttershy over that remark.
"Touché. But my point stands, you'd have been roped into that from the moment you woke up. And you don't seem the type to leave something half-finished, so I doubt you'd sneak over to come here until everything was hunky-dory."
"Meaning I wouldn't have met you until at least this afternoon!" She jumped up, pleased to have worked out a little of her future self's logic, "possibly longer, depending on how the research was going!"
"Bingo."

Twilight paused, the smile on her face fading when she realised that still left one big question unanswered, "...Why is that important?"
"I have no idea!" The Doctor was rather annoyingly cheerful about that, "this is certainly going to be a tricky one. Not something you can solve around the breakfast table."
"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help."
"Nonsense, Fluttershy," the stallion patted her on the shoulder, seemingly not noticing the way she flinched at the movement, "you got us one piece of the puzzle. It might not seem like much now but, well, could turn out important."
"Really?" She seemed to brighten at that,
"And if it doesn't, you still pulled a complete stranger out of a storm, let him stay overnight despite the fact he's nuttier than a fruitcake," he grinned, "and then made breakfast! All pretty important if you ask me, but maybe I'm a little biased there."

'Biased? Just a little? Understatement of the year.' Twilight sighed, switching off from the conversation and sitting back and mulling over what she knew about the situation so far, trying to see if she could work out any more of the meriad of mysteries that had materialised, or at very least come up with a hypothesis she could work from. There was little concrete information, really all they had was conjecture, so it looked about time to stop sitting around and do some legwork. Assuming the Doctor was right, then she'd have an ideal chance to search for clues while she was co-ordinating the clean up in Ponyville. Maybe the storm left some sign as to what caused it, or somepony had seen something she had missed during the night, or Princess Luna would have found something in the Canterlot Archives that'd give them a hint. Or the Doctor would actually prove useful, like the letter from Future Twilight seemed to imply, but she wasn't going to get her hopes up on that one.

Speaking of which, her ear flicked and she glanced towards the earth pony as she heard him mention her name.
"-So did Twilight, even if she won't admit it," he told Fluttershy, smiling that friendly grin again, "and you wanted to go help your animal friends. It's fine. Didn't really fancy a complicated breakfast anyway!"
'Please tell me he's still not going on about that toast.' She groaned, a hoof meeting her face. It was looking less and less likely that he was anything other than a madpony. A madpony with two hearts and a really weird taste in food.
"Okay. If you're sure." Fluttershy didn't seem as nervous around him as she did others outside of her friends. Whether it was due to spending a lot of time with him while Twilight had been sleeping off her exhaustion, or was simply due to the presence of Angel Bunny beside her was a matter to be considered later.
"Kind of had a problem with the jar," the Doctor admitted, blushing slightly, "and the butter knife. But I'm sure I'll remember how to use my hooves eventually!"
"I hope so." Fluttershy nodded, managing one of her tiny smiles, "you certainly seem to be doing better."
"Still haven't got walking down though, that could be annoying."
"Oh." She seemed disappointed, while Twilight looked up at him in alarm.

He'd been serious about that?! She'd assumed he was just being melodramatic.
"How can you forget how to walk? It's mostly muscle memory, amnesia shouldn't affect that."
"Dunno. Just can't get it to feel right when I try. I can manage two steps, easy, but this back leg here," he gestured to his right side, "doesn't want to play ball and trips me up. Surprised I didn't wake you, actually, was kinda falling all over the place until I got hungry and gave up."
"You fell?" Fluttershy practically shot to her feet, although her chair still only rocked slightly, hovering over the table and giving the Doctor a once over for any injuries. "Are you hurting anywhere?"
"I'm fine. Well, as fine as I can be considering," he rapped his head with a hoof and smiled. Fluttershy was having none of it, already grabbing her first aid kit from a counter-top.

Twilight found herself smiling, fighting back a giggle at the look of alarm on the earth pony's face as her friend insisted on checking and double checking he wasn't hurt. There was really no stopping the pegasus when she wanted to help. And if he couldn't walk, then he most certainly couldn't run for it either. No matter how much it looked like he wanted to.
"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital now it's safe outside?" Fluttershy spoke up as she dabbed at any bruises she could see with a damp piece of cotton.
"Yes. I've got two hearts, remember? Can you imagine the commotion that'd cause? No good can come of that."
"I suppose you're right." She didn't look happy about it though.
"Keeping that part of your condition quiet is probably for the best," Twilight agreed, "the last thing anypony needs is a commotion like that straight after a storm like this."

Ponyville was a little prone to panicking at the drop of a hat, after all. His lack of a cutie mark and memories were going to be difficult to explain, and downright impossible to hide, but it was less likely to cause a fuss than a second heart. If anything, the townsponies would be trying everything in their power to help him with his memories and the last thing Twilight needed was to give them a cause to be wary or suspicious of him. Especially if he was right and Future Twilight was implying he was important to solving the storm. Although it was hard to imagine him being important at anything when he was letting himself get pulled around by Fluttershy of all ponies, flailing and begging Prickles for help as she attacked him with cold presses. The hedgehog in question looked up, decided that it was safer to stay out of Fluttershy's way, and went back to his food.
"Traitor! Twilight, help!"
"I would, really, but I've still got my own toast here. Don't want it to get too cold." She probably shouldn't enjoy seeing him squirm, but his earlier stunt made it hard to resist.

So he shot to his hooves and made a run for it. True to his earlier words, the first two steps he managed with no difficulty as he shot around the table and past Twilight, but he lost his balance on the third, tripped over his hind legs and fell flat on his face before he could make the doorway. Or he would have done had he not been engulfed in a purple magic aura just before impact, face floating inches above the wooden floor. While Twilight had no qualms about embarrassing him a little, she drew the line at letting the excitable stallion hurt himself, lifting him with her magic and setting him back on his hooves
"Huh." He mused, "that felt really weird." He paused, managing to bring a hoof to his face when Fluttershy raced over to him and starting giving him another once over for injuries. Although this time she did refrain from trying to bandage him like a mummy, which was enough to stop him from trying to bolt again.
"You really shouldn't rush around like that yet," she admonished him, "what would you do if you really hurt yourself and we had to take you to a hospital?"
"Cry, panic and try running again," he said, clearly not enthused with the idea, "I really thought I had it that time too. Stupid leg."
"You'll get it eventually," Fluttershy promised.
"I hope so, I'm going to be rubbish if I can't run," the Doctor sighed, shooting a glare at his right hind leg, only to stop and look towards the doorway, ears twitching. "You have visitors."

Twilight, Fluttershy, Angel and Pickles all looked at the earth pony in confusion, none of them had heard anything. And then there was a quick rapping sound coming from Fluttershy's front door.
"Huh, who could that be this early?" Fluttershy wondered, before she stepped out of the kitchen with Twilight behind her. The unicorn took a moment to whisper for the Doctor to stay quiet for the time being.
"Right, I'll just stay here, out of trouble." He promised, the sudden twinkle in his eye doing little to persuade Twilight that he meant it. She doubted he even knew what staying out of trouble meant.

There was little time to argue with him over it though, her first instinct to follow her friend as Fluttershy paced towards her front door. The pegasus looked back at Twilight for a moment, wincing as the firm but polite rapping on her door continued, before finally opening it. Of all the ponies Twilight expected to see standing outside Fluttershy's cottage at seven in the morning the day after a terrible storm, Derpy Hooves was pretty low on the list. And yet there the mailmare stood, smiling her familiar bubbly smile, her rather worn blue mail carrier jacket and hat in place.
"Hello!"
"Um, hello Derpy." Fluttershy squeaked, "what are you doing here today?"
"I got some letters for you!" She held out a small bundle of envelopes, Fluttershy taking them and dropping them on a side table by the doorway
"Oh, um, not that I'm complaining or anything," the shy pegasus piped up, "but you normally just leave them in the mailbox."
"Yeah, about that," the smile faded from Derpy's face as the mailmare turned and looked over her shoulder.

Twilight stepped up beside Fluttershy, the two of them looking out into the garden where Derpy was looking. Or what had been a garden the day before, the plants and fence having been scattered to the four winds, branches and leaves laying everywhere making it seem as though autumn was early. And, most importantly, no mailbox.
"It was missing when I got here, it wasn't me this time, I swear!" Derpy turned back, almost pleading.
"Oh, the storm took my mailbox and I didn't notice and you had to come all this way, I'm so sorry!" And Fluttershy started apologising right back.

Twilight almost started worrying they were going to start a chain of apologising until the sun set, but one of Derpy's eyes locked onto the unicorn and the mailmare switched back to the bubbly smile like nothing had ever happened.
"Hey Twilight." She waved with a wing, Twilight simply nodding in response.
"Derpy. Did you get home okay last night?"
"Crashed into Carrot's garden. But I do that all the time, it's no biggie." She giggled, "I aim for the softer bits now. Don't want to get a carrot up my nose again."
"No." Fluttershy agreed, "that sounds, um, unpleasant."
"Yeah, Carrot Top gets kinda mad with me when I do that. It's okay though, a couple of muffins and we're best friends again."
"That's nice."

'Nice to know that, even with some freaky time storm wrecking the place, everypony in this town still finds the time to be crazy.' Twilight marvelled, before Derpy returned her attention to her.
"You aren't at the library."
'Her powers of observation are unparalleled.'
"No, I came here after you'd gone." She paused, not sure if she should share any more details about the letter, before deciding to keep quiet about it for now just to try and stop the rumour mill before it could start, especially when Derpy was involved, "I wanted to check up on Fluttershy."
"Oh, okay!" Derpy nodded, seemingly accepting that answer before bouncing up and down on her hooves, "oh, that reminds me, you had a letter too. A normal one this time! I left it with Spike."
"Thank you." She found it hard to believe that Spike knew how to get up this early, but so many impossible things had happened in the last twelve hours, what was one more?
"And Princess Luna was looking for you at the library. I said I'd tell you if I found you, and I found you!"

Twilight almost knocked Fluttershy's letters off of the side table when she froze up. Princess Luna was in Ponyville, looking for her?! This was completely unexpected. And she was supposed to be in the library and instead of that the royal princess was having to search for her and-
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" A booming voice echoed from above, startling the unicorn out of her shock, while making Fluttershy jump nearly out of her coat.
"Hi Princess!" Derpy looked up and waved as the princess of the night sky flew down and landed on what was left of the path in Fluttershy's garden, "I found Twilight for you!"
"You have indeed, Derpy Hooves, you have my deepest gratitude. I would have words with her on a matter of great importance!"

Twilight blinked, looking at the unamused expression on Luna's face. The Princess was supposed to still be in Canterlot, looking for clues! Twilight hadn't been able to find anything out yet, she didn't have anything to report. And she still hadn't brushed her mane, she couldn't face her mentor's sister with bedmane! This was horrible! The worst possible thing after being banished or failing a test!
"Eheheh, hello Princess, good to see you again..." Twilight managed to remember her manners long enough to bow, Fluttershy mimicking the motion beside her, "can you excuse us just a moment?"

She didn't wait for an answer, stepping back and slamming the door shut with her magic. Derpy merely blinked, looking between the wooden barrier suddenly inches from her snout and back at the Princess.
"Sorry, she can be a little weird." The grey pegasus said, frowning slightly at the sounds of what seemed suspiciously like a panicking unicorn scrambling for a brush. It was best not to ask just how Derpy knew exactly what that scenario sounded like.
"So it would seem." Luna agreed, stepping up beside Derpy and tapping a hoof impatiently.
"I'm sure she means well by it."
"As am I."

The two ponies stood in awkward silence for a moment, listening to the chaos that seemed to be breaking out inside.
"So, you are a mailmare? A fine profession."
"Yup! Delivering packages and letters quickly and safely all over Ponyville and the surrounding area." She needed a bit more work on the 'safely' part, but she decided not to mention that, "is it true you raise the moon?"
"My duty when not serving my subjects is to fill the night sky with all of its wonders, yes."
"Neato. I like the stars, they're pretty."
"THA-" Luna caught herself and coughed, dropping back into a more casual volume of speech. "Thank you, Derpy Hooves, it is not often I hear such a thing. Your kind words will be forever appreciated."
"Okie dokie. Do you mind if I ask how you get your mane all sparkly like that?"

The look on Twilight's face when she finally got her mane in a presentable state and opened the door to find the Lunar Princess and Derpy Hooves sitting on the grass, grinning and chatting like old friends was, unfortunately, not able to be caught on camera. It was, however, amusing enough that even Fluttershy managed a giggle.