//------------------------------//
// Act 5 (POV Doctor) 
// Story: Affections Touching Across Time 
// by Alcatraz 
//------------------------------//

	I just left Derpy in the control room for a minute to go get a connector for the emotional inhibitor. Hopefully I could jury rig a connection into the TARDIS and use the software and hardware in the inhibitor to send out a signal to disable the rest of the inhibitors in the remaining cybermen.

When I came back, the device had latched onto Derpy's face and had started to erase her emotions and memories to get her ready for conversion. If I was gone longer, it may have certainly succeeded in doing so, remaining permenantly latched onto her, using her as its puppet until a suit of cyber armor could be obtained or built.

I dropped the coupling I was holding and ran over to Derpy, pulling out my sonic screwdriver and quickly disabling it before any permenant damage could occur. A quick scan of her with the screwdriver showed no lasting effects, at least none that she wouldn't recover from. She might be missing chunks of memory from here and there, but nothing too major.

My thoughts reeling back to the cybermen, I finished what I started by connecting the inhibitor to the console and sending out a pulse that disabled and fried the other emotional inhibitors in the rest of the cybermen. When that happens, their brains get flooded with remnants of their memories and who they used to be. Realising what they they have become creates an overload in the circuitry and they simply die. It's tragic really, humans dying twice.

This has been the chance I needed to take her home too.

Being an earth pony meant I couldn't levitate her into one of the bedrooms so she could sleep soundly for the journey, so I went and got a pillow and blanket from the room and bought them right to her.

"Time to take you home," I said.

What followed was just a simple groan, from what I can't tell. Going back over to the console I set the controls to take us to Equestria.



~~~***~~~


After Derpy and I returned to Equestria, I immediately took her to her house and set her in bed. It wasn't long after my arrival that I got a summons by Princess Celestia. I left the TARDIS in Ponyville and took the Friendship Express train all the way to Canterlot to see the princess in her throne room.

"You found her?"

"I did, Princess. She's at home resting. I'm not sure the extent of her memory loss, but I'll make sure everything will be ok."

The alabaster mare nodded, and I turned to take my leave.

"Doctor, one more thing."

I turned my head to look back at her.

"I can't thank you enough for your services. I only wish I could repay you. We are all in your debt for bringing Derpy back.

I shake my head with a thankful smile. "You need not think yourself indebted. I'm only doing what I normally do."

"If you say so, Doctor."

After a short trip on the train back to Ponyville, much to my surprise Derpy was already up and about. I can say this because she flew head on into me and spilled the basket of muffins she was carrying.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that Mister!" After picking up the muffins off the ground and putting them back in the basket, she extended a hoof forward with a muffin in it. "Here, take this as an apology!"

Trying to put on a smile, I took the muffin from her and happily ate it. "It's quite alright my dear. Tell me, how are you today?"

"I'm good, thank you!" she beamed.

"No headaches or anything like that? Do you remeber anything?" Not exactly subtle, but I had to ask.

"Well, I had a headache when I woke up this morning after I had the weirdest dream, but I can remember everything just fine. Hey, how did you know? Are you a doctor or something?" Derpy asked, scratching a hoof behind her head in confusion.

I gave another smile, a more hearty one than before. "Yeah, you could say that." It seems her memories from Earth were erased, but her memories from her time on Equestria before being sent to Earth had been restored.

"Well, sorry for bumping into you Mister. I'll see you later!" With that, she picked up the basket and took off down the street.

I looked back at her as she took off towards Cloudsdale, disappearing into a bank of clouds.

After the encounter I went to a local cafe for a spot of tea and to reminise about past events. After the incident with Discord, whom was apparently having a bad day and was in an equally foul mood, he lost the plot and started raging at Derpy for bumping into him. Witnesses say that, in a fit of rage, had screamed at her to  "Get lost you cross-eyed loser!" and that unintentionally activated his magic which made a lightning bolt strike her, and she vanished into thin air.

Celestia came to me for help. She knew about my TARDIS and what it could do. After I crashed into this universe, one of her guards was sent to investigate and bought me and the TARDIS back to the castle in secret for questioning. It took some time, but I managed to convince her.

I decided to prove it by going back in time ten minutes to Luna's bed chambers and take the slice of cake she had ordered from the kitchen previously. I returned to the same point in time just as Luna came storming into the throne room screaming in her Royal Canterlot Voice. Apparently her journey to the throne room takes that long.

"TIA, YOU DARE STEAL OUR CAKE!?"

Celestia only chuckled at the sight of Luna huffing her chest in and out, angry that her cake was stolen. Luna glimpsed in my direction to see the cake on the plate at my feet. She blinked between me and her sister in disbelief before I spoke up.

"I do apologise for the theft of your treat, Princess. Please, forgive me and go enjoy your desert." I'm not sure if it was just me, but she appeared to blush under her blue coat before levitating the cake and walking back to her room.

"Thank you for the laugh, Doctor. You proved your point."

From that point on she allowed me to keep the TARDIS in Ponyville, and she used some magic to disguse it as one of the houses on the street so I could inconspicuously pretend as if I was living in that house, since the Chameleon Circuit still wasn't working. Aside from that, I lived a normal life in the peaceful town fixing clocks and keeping the time on the clock in the main tower in town. I mainly worked out of, shall we say home, for the most part. When I was needed for a job fixing a pocket watch or any other related device I would take my screwdriver with me out to a call or thepony would bring their time piece right to me. I'd spend all of five seconds going over the device with the screwdriver. No one seemed to once question a buzzing probe.

Not too long after my initial arrival I ran into a bubbly, grey pegasus mare. We hit it off instantly, and I introduced myself as Time Turner, adding that I fixed clocks and watches. We spent a lot of time together after that, and she even introduced me to her daughter, Dinky. Dinky asked if we were coltfriend and marefriend because we spent so much time together, and I had to giggle at the cuteness but couldn't help but blush under my coat.

It was nice living a quiet life, one that didn't involve travelling everywhere around the universe. It got a little bit debilitating after a while and some of the friends I made had gotten lost by one means or another. I loved not having to worry about losing someone else I cared about, but I of all should know that things don't always go to plan.

After Celestia came to me and asked if I could track down Derpy, I went to Fluttershy and asked if she could take care of Dinky while I helped her mother with a few errands. She was more than greatful to help, and I said I'd be back to pick her up by the end of the day. When I got back to Equestria with Derpy, I made sure to arrive just before I left in the morning so I could still pick up Dinky later on as stipulated and take her back home to her mother.

In the following days, I avoided any further interaction with Derpy not knowing if spending too much time around me would reawaken those memories from back on Earth, and Julianne, least she remember what happened to her mother.

Soon enough other matters arose. Luna had gone missing, and Celestia had use for me again. Stepping back into the TARDIS for another journey, I look back on Derpy and Dinky walking down the dirt road towards Ponyville Elementary.

"Goodbye, Derpy. I will always remember you."