“Run.”
I am.
“Run for your life!”
I am running. My legs hurt from all this running, but I know I have so much farther to go. So much farther to get to you.
No.
Away from you.
How can it be both?
“Run!”
I am. Can’t you see that? I will run forever with you. For you. Towards you. Away from you. Away from me.
Forever.
“Run!”
Forever.
“Rose, run!”
Forever.
“Rose!”
Forever…
“Rose...”
“Wake up, Rose.”
No. The dream is where he is.
“Rose.”
My eyes started to flutter open of their own accord, but I squeezed them shut tightly. Give me the dream. Give me him.
“How can this be happening, Doctor?”
Doctor? Something stirred in me. My eyes fluttered again. Doctor… why did that word carry so much weight in it? Why did it move my very soul?
“Come on, Rose.”
My head… it’s killing me.
“I don’t know how this is possible. Maybe it’s not.”
That voice. His voice. My eyes snapped open, completely out of my control. Bright sunlight hit my eyes, and I gasped.
And just like that the dream was gone.
“Rose!” The pony in front of me looked down with wide, frightened purple eyes.
I groaned in response. It’s all I could manage. I closed my eyes again. I had been having such a nice dream.
“Rose, don’t close your eyes again.” That voice… Obviously a man.
No, a stallion. A man? What was that?
My eyes opened again, slower this time. I saw the purple unicorn who had been watching me the first time. Where was the stallion?
In my head.
“We thought we lost you there!” The purple unicorn… Twilight… put her hoof on me comfortingly. As my eyes adjusted, I saw the ponies grouped around her. I recognized them. I knew them. Familiar faces.
But so unfamiliar.
“Rose?” a tentative voice from behind me asked. The stallion of my dreams. I struggled to turn around, but I couldn’t. My body wouldn’t move the way I wanted it to. I moaned again, still the only response I could muster. I hoped he would take the hint and move into my line of sight. I was met with only silence.
“Doctor, do you know Rose?” Twilight asked. No response. “She’s a pony from in town.”
A sigh of relief came from behind me, but not from the Doctor. From who? I stirred again, trying to see. This time I was relieved to hear soft hoofbeats move around me. My heart raced and my breathing almost stopped. Why?
Four brown hooves came into view, the legs covered by a pinstripe suit. My heart beat even faster when I saw the fabric. The stallion bent his head, meeting my eyes. My breath caught as I stared into them, their ancient depths. Something flashed in those depths of his blue eyes… Hope? Despair? Some combination of the two?
“Doctor.” I mumbled, the first word I could manage since… What? My head is killing me. I stretched a leg out to touch his hoof. His eyes glanced down at it and then back at me.
“Rose?” he whispered.
I smiled.
“Rose Tyler?” said a different, impatient voice from behind me.
I furrowed my brow in confusion. “Who is that?”
The Doctor smiled gently at me. “That’s River Song.”
With effort, I shook my head. “No, who’s Rose Tyler?”