The Doctor took the pocket watch in his hooves and examined the strange symbols. 'That's....that's Gallifreyan...' He flipped the watch over to reveal what looked like a solar system. 'That's Gallifrey...how?'
"Are you okay, Mr. Turner?" asked a concerned Pinkie Pie. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
'Oh how right you are.' Thought the Doctor, looking up at Pinkie.
"How long have you had this watch?" The Doctor asked.
Pinkie put a hoof to her chin. "As long as I can remember, I think. It's just always been broken so I never bothered with it."
The Doctor looked back down at the watch. 'So it's true...'
"So...do you think you can take a look at it?" Pinkie asked breaking the long silence.
"Huh? Oh...of course. I'll see if I can fix it." The Doctor faked a smile. "How about you come back to Ditzy's house tomorrow morning and we can talk about your watch."
"Okie Dokie Lokie!" Pinkie said with a burst of energy. "Goodbye Mr. Turner!"
"Goodbye Pinkie Pie..." The Doctor said, seemingly lost in thought.
The Doctor shut the door and looked at the watch.
'I am not alone.' The Doctor thought. 'But why would you be hiding? There's no danger to be a Time Lord in this area. No Daleks about. So why on Earth would you want to forget it all and be just a normal pony? Maybe there's more differences between dimensions...Gallifrey...the Time War...did the Time War even happen? And if it did, how did it end without me in this dimension? Maybe she got trapped here like I did. Would it be right to wake her up and ask her? Would it?'
"Doctor!"
The Doctor snapped back to reality. How long had he been standing there?
Derpy had apparently been trying to get his attention. She was in a bathrobe with her mane wrapped up in a towel. She looked worried.
"Oh...Sorry Derpy...I was just thinking..." said the Doctor.
"What's wrong, Doctor?" said Derpy, catching what seemed like sadness in his voice.
"....Pinkie Pie."
***
After giving Derpy the opportunity to dry her mane the two sat at the dining room table. The Doctor had made some tea for the both of them and had a stick of butter on a plate in front of him. The latter was untouched.
Derpy sipped her tea concerned by the Doctor. Overall he seemed less like himself and more serious. He never passes up butter, it's the best way to cheer him up. Maybe it was because she had convinced Pinkie to not have a party for him.
"Doctor?" Derpy began "Did I do something wrong?"
"No Ditzy...you've been fantastic..."
Okay. Something is terribly, TERRIBLY wrong. Derpy knew the Doctor. She knew that he would never call her Ditzy unless he was angry at her. Normally he called her Derpy or Ms. Hooves. He didn't seem too angry, more sad.
Derpy's left eye drifted to the pocket watch he kept in his sight. It had the marks that she had seen in the TARDIS. Was it a language?
"Doctor, did that watch come from the TARDIS?"
"No, Ditzy. Though it was made by the same people, the Time Lords."
"Does it have some kind of powers? Like, well, time powers?"
The Doctor laughed slightly at Derpy's mention of 'time powers'.
"No, Ditzy, but it isn't an ordinary watch. It's what's called a Chameleon Arch. It disguises every cell of the host so they appear like another species. It also takes all of their memories and replaces it with a different set."
Derpy thought on this.
"So if you use it you'd be a normal pony...forever?"
"Correct, weeell kinda. I would be a normal pony until I opened the watch. Then I would turn back to a Time Lord. The problem being that the watch always appears broken to the host giving them no incentive to open it."
After a long pause, Derpy focused both eyes on the Doctor.
"Is it mine...and I just don't remember using it?"
"No, no." The Doctor replied "You're just a pony."
"Oh..." Derpy looked down at her now empty tea cup "...JUST a pony..."
The Doctor heard a touch of sadness in her voice. The Doctor hadn't meant any offense, but it had sounded like he said she was inferior. This was beyond the truth.
The Doctor got up from his chair and walked around the table to Derpy. He gently grabbed her chin and turned her face to him, looking directly into her eyes. Her left one drifting upward.
"Derpy," he began "Even if you are just a pony, you are the most important pony I have ever met. You are kind, smart, and strong. You are my companion. That key isn't just a way to open the TARDIS, it's a promise. A promise that you most important pony to me...even more important than myself."
The Doctor smiled. Not just the smile of somepony trying to cheer another up, but a genuine smile. Derpy couldn't help but return it.
"Oh Doctor..."
Derpy couldn't help tearing up when she hugged him.
***
After Derpy released him from the hug, the Doctor recounted how he had gotten the watch.
"So Pinkie Pie isn't a normal pony?" asked Derpy.
"It would seem not. She seems to be a Time Lord of this dimension. The Gallifreyan on her watch seems slightly different than mine. Much like Equestrian is slightly different than English."
"Isn't it good then? Pinkie being a Time Lord?"
"Normally I would agree with you, but the fact that this one is hiding as a normal pony means there's something amiss. I mean I'm a Time Lord and there isn't anything attacking me for it."
"Maybe she just wanted to live a normal pony life."
"But why would she wipe out her memories then?"
"Maybe something bad happened that she wanted to forget."
The Doctor went silent. First in thought, then in immense sadness. Derpy saw his eyes. They were tired, full of loss and pain. There were simply not enough tears for him to shed. Derpy began to tear up again but quickly wiped her eyes.
"Doctor...what's wrong?"
The Doctor was silent for a few more moments before answering.
"Derpy...I fought in a great war. A TIME war. A war with my people against the Daleks." The Doctor paused again. "The war ended with the destruction of both sides. One Time Lord ended the war. Sacrificed all of Gallifrey to save the rest of the universe."
"Who?" asked Derpy
The Doctor looked up at her, meeting her gaze. He looked as if he could cry for a thousand years. Derpy got up and gave him a hug this time. He remained silent, unmoving. Derpy released him from the hug and sat back down. The Doctor continued.
"The problem is that I didn't exist in this dimension. So if there was indeed a Time War, then who ended it? And if there wasn't, what kind of traumatic event could have occurred to cause Pinkie to want to forget?"
The Doctor's sadness seemed to lift, leaving him just pondering.
"Are we sure it's Pinkie's?" Derpy said "She seems like she's always been the Pinkie we know and love and it seems so genuine."
The Doctor took out his Sonic Screwdriver. He set it to the scan setting and pointed it at the watch. A familiar whirring was heard. The Doctor looked at the blue tip of the screwdriver as information was displayed on it at such a speed that only he was able to see it.
"Well whoever used this, did so roughly 50 years ago." The Doctor said putting away his screwdriver.
"See! Then it can't be Pinkie! There's no way she's over fifty years old."
"Time Lords age slower than normal ponies. I could go off in the TARDIS for 50 years and come back completely unchanged."
"But she wouldn't be a Time Lord anymore if she used the watch."
"She wouldn't LOOK like a Time Lord anymore. The watch uses a type of Perception Filter to change what everyone-"
"Everypony."
The Doctor looked confused then began to laugh loud and long. Derpy still didn't get what was so funny about grammar correction, but she wasn't going to stop him. He needed to laugh.
When his laugh seemed to end, he cleared his throat and continued.
"It makes it so everyPONY *giggle* sees the user as a different species, but the user is the same species. She may look like and think she's a normal pony, but she still has two hearts like a Time Lord."
There was a bit of silence as Derpy put it all together.
"So...are you going to make her open it?"
The Doctor looked back down to the watch.
"I...don't know. What if you're right and she's just trying to forget. What right do I have to make her remember?"
"...Well, maybe you could talk to her after she opens the watch and if she still wants to forget she could just forget again."
The Doctor contemplated this. He took a bite of the butter that was beginning to melt at this point.
"Maybe."
***
The next morning seemed to move very slowly. Neither the Doctor nor Derpy talked. The Doctor seemed content just to wait as time ticked slowly. He barely moved. If it wasn't for his breathing, you'd swear he was a statue.
Derpy decided that she should cook breakfast. Maybe some tea and a few of those gross English Muffins would cheer him up.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
That seemed to wake the Doctor out of his trance. Derpy looked at him with wide eyes, but the Doctor seemed completely calm. The Doctor walked over to the door and opened it.
There stood the pink mare. Pinkie seemed absolutely ecstatic to see the Doctor. In her hoof was a half eaten oatmeal cookie. Her breakfast on the go.
"Hiya, Mr. Turner!" Pinkie yelled excitedly.
The Doctor forced a smile before replying.
"Hello Pinkie Pie. Here for your watch I'm guessing."
"Mmmhmm." She replied through a mouthful of cookie.
The Doctor took that watch out of his pocket and handed it to Pinkie Pie. She took it in her hoof and pressed the open button with the side of her occupied hoof.
The few seconds felt like an eternity wrapped in forever.
"Wow! Good work, Mr. Turner!"
Pinkie took another bite of the cookie as the Doctor sighed in relief. Maybe it wasn't her watch.
Then light poured out of the watch, much like water. It flowed towards Pinkie's face. She had stopped chewing and her pupils shrank.
Her cutie mark began to shift. The strings of the balloons met at a central point and straightened out. At that point grew a circle with numbers circling the perimeter. Her cutie mark was now a clock with balloons for the hands.
The glowing stopped. Pinkie looked disgusted. She threw the cookie and began to spit it out in the grass.
"Oatmeal? Are you crazy?"
'Well it couldn't be worse then waking up tasting pear.' The Doctor thought.
Pinkie looked at the Doctor. Her look went from disgust to anger.
"YOU!"