You tucked your watch away and shook your head. If I knew it was you, I would have never fixed the watch." The Doctor said expressing visible anger with his decision to help you.
"If I knew it was you I wouldn't have never allowed you!" You hissed. "I don't see any reason why you should be angry with me. I should be the one angry with you." You said pointing your hoof on his chest. You took a look at Derpy and shook your head. "Is that one of your new weapons?". You asked watching as The Doctor narrowed his eyes at you.
"She's not a weapon. She's my friend." He stated.
"Of course she is." You said sarcastically. "What is your name child? I'm sure your name isn't just Derpy. That's a horrible name."
"M-my name is Ditzy Whooves, but everyone just calls me Derpy. It's a nickname of sorts." She said backing away from your icy cold gaze.
"Well, then Ditzy. Allow me to give you some friendly advice. Stay away from The Doctor." You said sneering at The Doctor, who in turn let out a huff of anger.
"Why?"
"Because you'll live longer." You said with a tight-lipped smile. "He'll get you killed, child, and if he doesn't get you killed that means you'll seen him for what he really is. A monster."
"The Doctor is not a monster. He is a kindhearted, smart pony who helps out every pony he sees." She replied,defending The Doctors honor. He responded to her with a tender smile.
You snorted. "How long have you been his companion, Ditzy?" You questioned.
"Not long. Only for a few months, if not a year." She answered.
"You'll see it eventually. As I said, do not trust this pony. He is a fool of a Time Lord who should have never been born.
Ditzy shook his head. "I don't believe you. I won't believe you. The Doctor has always been good to me, and good to other ponies as well. Just because he's done some bad things int the past doesn't mean it should define him for who he is in the present. You are mistaken with who The Doctor is."
"I am never mistaken, maybe you're just a fool. Your eyes seem to show that." You said commenting on her crosseyedness.
You watched as her ears flattened in sadness. You realized that commenting on her eyes seemed to be her weak point. You made a mental note of that for some reason. The Doctor stepped forward now, his eyes filled with anger. "How dare you. You can talk about me, but don't you ever talk about my friends." The Doctor said furiously.
You snorted at his attempt to intimidate you. "I'm not afraid of you, Theta. I have a lot more experience in the universe than you do. I've come a cross far worse things than you." You stepping up to his challenge. "Remember whose older."
"You may be old, but you're not as old as you wish you were." The Doctor smirked. "You were 10,432, the last time we met."
"That I was and you were 800 at the time correct?" The Doctor nodded his head. "I thought so, how old are you now?"
The Doctor shrugged his little pony shoulders, "904 give or take... It's hard to keep track of your age when you're a time traveler." The Doctor smirked.
"Oh hush, I'm the one who told you that." You turning around and walking towards the front door.
"Where are you doing?" The Doctor asked.
"As much as I would like to sit here and talk to you, I have some place I need to be." You opened up the front door of the store, but was stopped by the sound of The Doctor calling out your name. "Wait, there are still questions I need to ask you."
"Then talk to me tomorrow then. I'm old, I get tired easily. I will be at the farm in the morning, so wait till then to ask me." You said now fully walking out of the door and towards the farm.
You arrived back at Sweet Apple Acres. The house you were just recently in smelt even more like apples than before. As soon as you stepped into the doorway, you were asked an expected question.
“Is it done?” Granny Smith asked while taking a good look at you. “It must be. Your eyes, they look different. I don’t recognize your eyes.”
You nodded your head. “Yes. It is done. Inkwell is no more. All that remains is me and me only.” You said with a small sigh. You began to feel extremely tired, just standing felt like it was too much work. Granny Smith took note of your sudden drowsiness and led you into the living room.
“Are you okay?” She asked helping you to lay down on the couch.
“Yeah, I’m just a little tired.” You nodded your head. “I’m sure one of your parents told you about what’s about to happen, right?”
“Only what you’ve told them. Yer supposed to be changing, correct?”
You nodded your head once more. “A more proper term would be regeneration. It’s a process in which my old cells, renew themselves into newer fresh ones. Causing a complete physical and often psychological change. It could happen because of severe illness, injury, or in my case old age.” You smiled.
“Yes, my father told me about this, when I was just a wee filly. I just never thought he was telling the truth. So what, you just disappear and some new pony just pops up with your name and memories?” She asked, which you confirmed with a simple smile. “I see, how much of you will change?”
You shrugged your shoulders. “Who knows. Some of ponies of my race can control their regeneration. I’m not one of those ponies. So it’ll be at random, but I think I can hold off until tomorrow,” You said nodding your head. “And when I’m done, I’ll be out of your hair by tomorrow.”
“I see,” Granny Smith said placing a blanket over you. “It’s alright. You can stay as long as you need too.” She said patting you gently on the chest. She reminded you of a mother taking care of her child and as a result, you yourself felt a little less ancient. “You know, you did my family a great service all those years ago.” She said looking at you as if she could almost see through you. Which you knew wasn’t the case. If she could see through you, see would have kicked you out as soon as your hoof stepped into the house.
In fact her eyes reminded you tremendously of her mother. In fact everything about her reminded you of her mother. Applejack also looked like Granny Smith. It was like the children of each generation was a splitting image of their parents, no matter how distant. “I may not have been there but on the behalf of my entire family. Allow me to say thank you.” She said closing her eyes as if she was almost honoring you.
You began to chuckle. ”Don’t worry about it. I should be the one who should say thank you.” You said giving her a weak smile.
She looked at you in confusion. “What for? For all you’ve done for my family, I only wish I could give you something more worthwhile.”
“Oh, believe me. Your thanks will suffice. Your family has done me a great service all these years and I have greatly appreciate it.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. My family owes you an even greater debt. Me and everypony here in Ponyville and everypony in Appaloosa owes you a tremendous debt to you as well. If you hadn’t helped my family all those years ago, Ponyville might have never been founded.”
You laid your head back on the couch and closed your eyes. You helped Granny Smith’s family out a long time ago. While you didn’t think you needed payment, they felt as though they were somehow obligated to help you in anyway possible, should you request their aid. Initially, you met their loyalty and kindness to you with skepticism, but over time you got used to it. Extremely loyal, the Apple family had pledged their allegiance to you, whenever you needed some help, no matter where you were, the family member was obligated to help you.
Granny Smith gave you a warm smile as she sense how tired you were becoming. “You rest up now and I’ll see you in the morning.”
You gave her a silent nod as you drifted off to sleep.
Though for a brief moment your mind was blank, you could smell the faint scent of flowers. Of course you recognize the scent of these plants, they were your favorite after all. The Schlenk Blossom.Though it smelt extremely nice when isolated, a normal pony would find the smell of these flowers when in large fields to be overpowering. You didn’t mind as you were used to the smell.
You opened your eyes to find yourself in the dream world once again. In fact, you knew this was a dream because these plants only exist in one place and that place was now gone. You were in the meadows of Trivida. Outside of the nearby city were the two ponies from your earlier dream. They both met you with a similar appearance as before.
“You’re back,” The Mare said showing visible sadness. “And so soon too...”
You chuckled sadly. “I suppose I am.” You smiled.
“Are you ready?” The Stallion asked.
You shook your head. “Can one truly be ready for something like this?” You chuckled once more. “I just wish I did something more productive with my time, but I guess we all have a purpose in life and mine was to be wasted.” You stood next to them and gave out one last great big sigh. “But I’m ready. I just hope I’m not a child in this one.” You said looking at the mare, who proceeded to smile.
“What’s wrong with being a kid?” The Mare asked.
“You’re all too unpredictable.” You huffed.
“There was a time where you were quite fond of this regeneration.” She joked.
You scoffed at the word regeneration. Sounds like death. “Yeah, but that was centuries ago. Times change.”
“Yes, times do change. You can only hope that this change won’t be so painful.” The stallion said.
“Yeah, I know...I know.”
The dream began to end as you let out a loud deafening scream. One of your hearts gave out. It felt like a thousand needles were repeatedly stabbing you in the chest. No matter how much you clenched your chest, the pain just magnified. You placed a hoof on the living room table but you didn’t have enough strength to support your weight so you just fell to the floor.
You couldn’t help but smile as you laid on the floor dying. For the first time you actually welcomed it. You welcomed the death of old age. Strange as you thought about it. This one was one of the most painful ones, yet.
Your breaths were becoming much more shallow and haggard, but death just wouldn’t come. It was as if it was taking its sweet, sweet time to embrace you. All you could do was just lay on the floor in pain as you watched as a bright golden dust began to emit itself from your hooves. “Come on, damn you. Just get it over with...” You whispered to no one in particular.
Applejack looked downstairs as a bright light illuminated the entire living room. She would have thought you turned on a lamp, but your constant screams put her on edge. She couldn’t call Big Mac to go check on you since he was over his marefriends house, and since Granny Smith was too old to call on for help and Apple Bloom was too young, it was her job to go check, even if she didn’t want too.
She quietly tip toed down the stairs. She watched as whatever lit up the living room died down along with your screams. She slowly turned on the living room light and noticed that an unfamiliar stallion was standing in the middle of the room. “Who are you?” She asked while keeping a distance away from the new “you”.
You shook your head and was about to answer but something stopped you. There was a small discomfort around your chest as you began to smile. “Sorry about that. New heart. It always kicks in last. You may call me, The Vanguard.”